john, you mean the new directv hd dvr? i think the h21? it sucks?
At first I got the replacement standard def receiver, and it was terrible, sent it back, ripped the dead DirectTivo appart, bought the OS for it, and put 2 new HD's in it. Works great!
When I recently moved, I got the new HD box, and it is the same interface and is really bad as well. What I have noted from it so far:
1) If the power flickers, it takes about 20 minutes before you can use it again (While displaying on the screen almost done... just a few more seconds! LOL)
2) When fast forwarding, it has no "reverse buffer" so when you see the show, have to stop and rewind
3) It is constantly screwing up many shows I record in HD from my local channels, Will record a black screen saying searching for signal (Box reports an average of 98% signal strength on the 6 Satellites)
4) The interface is slow, cumbersone, and has a poor layout. To get to recorded shows:
a.) DirectTivo >Press DTV button, Press select
b.) New DTV HD box Press Menu, Select, Select and down. When opening a show that has more than one it does it in tree view, and is a pain to skip that and move to the next show in the list. A majority of the screen is info and navigation, so you can only see about 4 shows at a time.
5) The search feature hahhah
a.) DirectTivo: DirectTV button, search, type show letters on the OSK, select on the right, press done
b.) DTV HD Box: press Menu, down 4 times, search, select title, select the letters (Cursor is painfully slow moving between letters on the OSK), shows in the right show names. Press right arrow, select the show, (does another search) shows channels its on, select one, pick options, cursor right to select save.
6) When scrolling through recorded shows in the list, press the down button every second or so SLOWLY!, DO NOT HOLD it, or go any faster, as when it gets to something you are interested in, the "buffer" will scroll about 10 lines below where you wanted it to stop! It's like working with an old 286 computer!
7) To record a season pass for the show you are watching:
a.) Tivo Press green thumbs up, and select record season pass.
b.) HD box Press info, then scroll to more info and select it, scroll down to record, scroll to season pass and more options, select record season pass, select OK to record, press exit, and exit again
If someone never had a standard Tivo, they may not notice how cumbersome it is, but once having a standard Tivo, there is absolutely no comparison!
And the remote?!?!?! What were they thinking?!?!?!
The Pause button at "7 O'clock, and that small? Also, this may not bother some, but the remote is very top heavy. Making it even harder to hold the very bottom of the remote far enough down that you can use your thumb for the channel and vol buttons.
Also the Vol and CH buttons are almost impossible to use when holding the remote with one hand as if you hold the remote in your hand as low as you can, your thumb is to high to reach them easily.
Now this is simplicity & functionality at it's finest!
In my perfect little world, I could upgrade my old Tivo to work with High Def TV
