DIRECTV H21-100 HD SATELLITE RECEIVER DIRECT TV NIB!!!!

I was hesitent to buy the HR21 due to the negative reviews I've seen all over the net regarding the HR20, but after I brought a number of these issues to Directv customer service they said they were aware of these issues and they had been corrected through system updates. I choose the HR21 regardless of the negative reviews because Directv has the HD content I wanted and cable and DISH didn't. At this point I would say the HR21 is 99% reliable. Most of the bugs and there's not many, seem to reside with Directv's service. By the admission of one of their customer service people, the technology is still new and there's still problems to be worked out. A lot of people have complained that Directv's DVRs aren't as good as the DVRs that use the TiVo system, But it's just like anything else that's new, you have to get used to it.

Pros: Great selection of HD programming.
Great picture quality on my 42 inch plasma TV.

Cons: Not quite as relible as the TiVo DVRs. I've had to reset the
HR21 twice. You don't loose any of your settings or programing
during reset.

For some reason if there's more then one new episode of the same
program on the same day I have to set the HR21 to record it
manually unless I set it to record First Runs and Reruns

The earlier model HR20 has an Over the Air tuner, but the HR21 does not.

This may not seem important since you probably get your local channels from DirecTV. But it might be important if you are in one of the numerous cities DirecTV does not carry the local HD channels.

To me, an HD DVR is pretty useless without the ability to record the big network shows in HD.

Meanwhile, this unit does not have dual live buffering like TIVO models. of course, the DirecTivo units don't have the capability to pick up the new HD channels on DirecTV; so everything is a trade-off.

I have had this unit for about a year...Initially it had overheating problems which DIRECTV finally got resolved about 6 months ago.

The best part of this is it works with upnp sharing tools like twonkymedia. This allows the receiver to play music, photos and VIDEOs from your media player or Windows MCE.

It plays MPEG2 and vob files. Generally speaking VLC does a great job of converting and Twonkymedia for serving.

I have been playing movies for months on my HR21 - a great mix of a product.


If you want to read more about Directv you can read my full review at: http://www.bellumgessi.com/content/Geek.htm

Pros: You really do get more HD content than anywhere else - for now at least. Continue to watch TV while viewing the Guide or List

Cons: Delayed sound on playback, sometimes no sound at all till a reset, channels you receive randomly do not record, you have to pay for the right to lease the receiver, On Demand requires you have a FAST internet connection - and the content is not worth watching, only a 90 day warranty (on equipment you don't even own!), so you pay to fix 'their' receiver, slow motion takes forever to kick in, advance 15 minute feature is clunky

Okay, I have owned DVR since the Replay/TIVO battle, and was quite happy with TIVO for the past 7 odd years. Then, last November, my Sony receiver just up and died. Rather than replace the hard rive on the older unit, I went for the new whiz bang sales pitch from the local dealer and bought 2 HR21 units.

The professional install took a heck of a long time, but I fugured, hey, it's new tech, and probably more complicated. I have since learned the guy had no clue what he was doing, and I have had to have DirecTV come back out to fix a dish about to fall. They were nice enough to not even charge me since it was within the 90 day warranty period. Huh? You screw up and I might have to pay? 1 strike right there.

Next, the units themselves are glitchy. Sometimes you turn on the unit, and it comes on just fine. Other times, you turn it on and have picture, but no sound. Occasionally, the only fix is to reset the recorder.

Another fave complaint is when we set the unit to record a channel we are supposed to receive, only to later find a black screen instead of the episode in question. There is no pattern I can find for this. It just decides to not be able to receive the channel that one time.

Some features do work, though not very well. Slow motion is started by holding down the Play button, but it takes so long to kick in that you often have to rewind and try over and over to see what you want. Not fun. Also, DirecTV announced that you can now move forward uisng preset 15 minute 'tick' marks. Again, not easy to use, and nowhere near as user friendly as the same function TIVO has had for years.

Finally, a feature that helped me decide to choose the new DirecTv recievers: On Demand. It does work - not as easily or as fast as Comcast's version - but it does work. You just have to have a high speed internet connection so that you can download the chosen show onto the DVR. I have a fast connection, and so a 30 minute show takes about 3-5 minutes before I can start watching. My gripe here is reruns from Bravo and HGTV are not what I had in mind for On Demand.

Complaints to direcTv referred me to constant updates the company is releasing. So far, none of them have made the unit noticeably more reliable.

I called DirecTV and will get whacked with a heavy 'fine' fro breaking my contract early, but at least when I go back to TIVO I will be using tech I know I can rely on. I never thought I would ever say this, but I wouldn't use DirecTv products again, and I strongly recommend against getting this unit.

I suppose I might be the lucky one or it's just the very unlucky ones who are reviewing this unit. I get all my local channels without an OTA tuner and my unit has never locked up on me. It took me a while to decide, but once they dropped the price to $200 I pulled the trigger. I'm very happy I decided to purchase this unit and extremely happy I switched from the local cable company (time warner).