WeaKnees Offers up to $25,000 for DIRECTV DVR Plus (R15) Upgrade Solution

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WeaKnees Offers up to $25,000 for DIRECTV DVR Plus (R15) Upgrade Solution

Holy crap. I've seen DVR-related contests before, but never one like this. The new DirecTV DVR (their first without TiVo software running) seems to be locked down, and Weaknees, the company known for TiVo upgrades is willing to pay up to $25,000 for a hard drive upgrade solution [via BoingBoing].

There are a slew of DVR upgrade companies out there, but I never really sat and thought about how much sales a company like that could garner. With $25k up for grabs for an enterprising hacker, I suspect potential sales of upgrade drives for the device must be 10x that.

by Matt Haughey December 13, 2005 in News

Comments

Big whoop. All they've done is made it clear that they have nothing. Besides, the R15 is really a mere shadow of what a comparable TiVo DVR is; DirecTV needs something cheap to compete with the cable companies and it looks the R15 is just the ticket. Who would settle for less than what they can already get from the DVR systems that do have TiVo in it?

Posted by: PTV fan at Dec 17, 2005 4:39:57 PM

Spoken like someone who hasn't laid their hands on an R15. I picked one up yesterday and this thing is much better than TiVo. The only thing TiVo has that the R15 doesn't is "TiVo Suggestions" whoopie! The R15 has many features that neither my standard DirecTiVo nor my High Def DirecTiVo have that I wish they did, especially now after trying out the R15.

Posted by: Yazhol at Dec 20, 2005 6:45:27 AM

Yazhol is obviously full of crap. Having used an R15, and a R10 and a HR10-250 (HiDef DirecTivo) and read all the other comments on the message boards at TivoCommunity and the DBSTalk forums, the R15 is a step sideways and backwards from the R10 or previous DirecTivo models. You can't flip back and forth between the tuners, for crissakes. The only thing the R15 is better about is speed of the interface, and even that's not as responsive as I would like.

All of the DirecTivo models are missing the more advanced Tivo features (HMO, MRV, TivoToGo, etc.)

I'm waiting until someone comes out with a model that actually has enough processing power to handle the combination of multiple HD streams + displaying the interface/UI.

Posted by: jcricket at Dec 20, 2005 11:00:14 AM

I think the R15 is a pig faced bag of rat guts. I think who ever wrote the good post about it either works for directv and is slinging the same crap they are, or really hates having convenient features. It's not just suggestions, it's wish lists too. Not to mention the fast forward and rewind don't account for reaction time. Then the mother of all turn offs is when you google hack R15 and all you get is info about how it can't be done. All I want is a simple interface and be able to watch programs on any dvr or my computer. Is that so much to ask? Directv should have done a little research before they unleashed R15. And they need to stop telling customers that it's tivo

Posted by: tivo fan at Dec 21, 2005 9:43:53 PM

I just recommended two new DirecTV customers with DVRs. I asked if they would get a TiVo. "Yes!" The second time I told them to mark the order that it had to be an R10. They got R15s. They are my close relatives. We're sending the first one back for an R10. The second will go next.

The UI on the R15 is so bad they must have designed in "How to take revenge on your customer." I tried to show them how to record a series and it took me reading a web site overnight and 4 tries from the beginning to get one series set up. Then it doesn't actually record every episode.

One example: The remote has THREE power buttons. TV Power, Off under it, and Power. Guess which one turns off the TV? NONE, unless the TV is a new Sony. The remote doesn't have codes for the 3 of 6 TVs I just had hooked up.

In the meantime the CEO of DirecTV is telling customers that they they're imagining any problems. I guess they should tell the customer they report to the CEO, rather than the other way around.

When the DirecTivos stop working we'll all be off to another provider. Maybe Rupert can have another 25 million customer celebration when he passes it on the upside again in 2032.

Posted by: Mike Easter at Dec 23, 2005 6:53:58 PM

The R15 is a hunk of junk. I work for DirecTV as an Installer. I had my first experience today with one and that was for my mother... These things are junk. The GUI sucks, its hard to navigate, you cant find your season passes easily, and editing them is a whole new horror. DirecTV still makes you pay for the DVR service, yet no longer has that contract with TIVO. So you get a substandard product with the same bill as before. Oh did I mention that the Instruction manual is nothing like the R10 or previous models. As for the Remote that piece of junk is the "new and improved" universal remote. Yeah it works wonderfully .... yeah right. Oh the new R15 also comes with a wonderful 2yr contract too. What a load of crap this has turned out to be, it makes me sorry to work for the company and thats sad.

Posted by: Woody at Dec 24, 2005 7:13:39 PM

I've been using my DirecTiVo for several years. When I bought it I paid $600.00. I have recently replaced the HD with a 250 Gig using weaknees software and instructions. I've never had any problems with it. However, that being said, I purchased the new R15 DirecTV Plus DVR that DirecTV now sells. I picked mine up for $100.00 at weaknees and am going to use the $100.00 mail in rebait - heck it's free why not. I'll run them together in separate rooms with the same "Season Pass" settings and see what happens. Let's not forget that this is only the first generation and just like Tivo, I'm sure several software upgrades will be pushed over time.

Posted by: Jason at Dec 27, 2005 11:47:26 AM

i have owned an R10 for three weeks. it does take awhile to get used to the commands. it is very easy to get to completely & I have toreset by pulling the plug it looses all of the active channel data like what cities I entered for weather, zip code for lottery info etc. ALSO NOTE: directv will lock the buyer into a two contract even though you install it yourself

Posted by: bob at Dec 28, 2005 1:02:33 PM

I have the R-15. Don't know if it's good or bad since it's the only DVR I've used. I'm looking for a Universal Remote that will replace the so-called universal remote that came with the R-15. Any help?

Posted by: Richard Hebard at Jan 2, 2006 6:50:52 PM

yeah on the remote control issue, I NEED a universal that willk replace the DTV piece of junk that came with the R15. It sucks. any advice?

Posted by: Chris at Jan 6, 2006 2:15:46 PM

oh and according to the lady who signed me up for the R15, as long as I send it back at any point, the two year contract is over. So if you want to cancel, just send the thing back.

Posted by: chris at Jan 6, 2006 2:16:54 PM

For remote controls try the OneForAll URC-1820B00. It controls up to 10 devices, has about 50 buttons and most of those buttons are programmable by learning- that is, hit a button combo, point your dvr remote at this one, and it will learn the code. Sweet.

Oh, and these things cost like $15.

Posted by: Shoey at Jan 14, 2006 2:43:33 PM

I have had DirecTV Tivo for several years (on a Samsung box we bought from DirectTV) and we loved it. The interface was so easy and intuitive. We decided to buy an R-15 for our den (we wanted the new features like the larger hard drive and caller ID) and we wanted to move the Samsung up to our boys room as they were always watching their recorded shows anyway.

We've had the R-15 for four days and HATE IT. The response is slower and sluggish than the Tivo unit, you can't swtich between tuners, the interface in not intuitive at all.

I called DirecTV today and told them that I was going to return the unit to WalMart where I bought it. They told me that I would be charged over $300 if I did that because I was locked in for a two year agreement. Mind you, I was not canceling DirecTV. I just don't want this piece of crap interface. I'll go try to find another Tivo unit. No dice according to DirecTV. They kept trying to tell me why their box was superior.

They have really screwed up on this. I knew that there would be some differences in the interface, but it is awful.

And one rep at DirecTV told me that there was a 7 day window in which I could cancel (without being charged the two-year agreement). I was transferred to someone to assist me with this and the 7-day guarantee is only for NEW CUSTOMERS.

So they will treat a brand-new customer better than someone who has subscribed to DirecTV for 8 years.

I am very disappointed in this piece of crap and that I have little option except to continue using it, or disable it and continue to pay for it.

Posted by: rjamerson at Jan 16, 2006 10:17:16 AM

The only good thing is the PIX quality.

THATS IT!

Posted by: J at Jan 17, 2006 2:22:37 PM

rjamerson,
I was an existing customer like you and got locked into the 2 year agreement. But you can still return the receiver to Walmart and go get an R10 if you can find it. I did the same thing - the $300 only applies if you cancel directv. You can always deactivate a receiver from your account if you want to and return it. When you activate your new R10 you will just get a new year contract which will only extend your current 2 year contract by a few days.

Posted by: Greg at Jan 20, 2006 7:55:20 AM

My Ultimate TV just gave up. I loved that thing. It had caller ID, 30 sec skip foward, 7 sec skip back and PIP for years! Before any one had even heard of Tivo. Directtv doesn't have any Tech help any more so I bought an R15, its ok, I guess its what your used to.

Posted by: Drew at Jan 21, 2006 7:08:40 PM

I am so glad to find this post. I thought I was going crazy. Everyone I talked to (Directv CS, Best Buy etc.) has acted like I was a nut. "Had I been the only one who watched two games at once, on my Dual tuner r10?" What a scam. I complained to Directv, and they kept telling me the R15 is superior. It BLOWS. What is with the delay on reaction time? And where is the begining/end button? And who would want a Tivo with out DUAL TUNERS. It is a fancy VCR, but not a Tivo. Rise up and protest this R15 empire.

Posted by: Steve at Jan 23, 2006 8:47:22 AM

I just got a R15 after having Dish Networks DVR for years. (Left because of Lifetime) I have had this thing for 5 hours and have spent 3 of those talking to customer service. Now I am told I need a new remote because when I hit the jump forward button it takes me to the end of the recorded show. Funny both of the R15's do that. The tech guy told me I need to just use my fast forward button. Heck, I might as well be using a VCR. This STINKS!!!!

Posted by: Dotti at Jan 26, 2006 8:14:22 PM

None of you have addressed my real problem, when you install on a houseboat, you cannot use TIVO because there is no telephone connection available. I have to use the other style. My old standard Direct DWD490RE died, now I am stuck with the R15, just got a replacement, what is this about not being able to switch betwween tuners? And is the old jump forward 30 seconds gone? I haven't been able to hook up yet, so am I screwed or what?

Posted by: Bill Norgren at Jan 31, 2006 7:04:13 AM

I have to agree with the everyone here who say it blows. I got an R10 when I signed up for DirecTV and I absolutely love it. When I saw the rebate I figured "Why not? It's free." Of course, at the time I didn't know that the rebate was for a new R15. I also didn't know that the R15 was not a real TiVo.

When I got it connected, I called DirecTV to activate it. There are two steps for activation for these-- first the card and then the DVR functions. Apparently the DirecTV person didn't know this. So, it started receiving and I said goodbye and hung up. This was after being on hold for 20 minutes. Well, when I tried to record the box said that it had not been activated. I then had to call back and wait again. When I finally got someone, they had to pass me to another group to figure out that the DVR functions needed to be activated. Once they activated it I was able to record.

However, I immediately noticed a huge difference in the software. It was amazingly difficult to use, and especially to find things. I don't know if I could intentionally design software that is harder to use. The "season pass" equivalent is very difficult to find and use. Just setting up a normal recording is very difficult as well, especially setting the options. And when you hit a button at the wrong time, it just makes the "boing" sound which is very frustrating.

The manual is no help. It's very sparse and poorly written. The worst part is that the menus in the manual don't match the software. I finally had to call tech support. This was another major frustration. When you call in, you first get the automated system. It forces you to hit touch tones each time to answer the same prompts about problems and it then tells you that most problems are resolved by rebooting. It then tells you to reboot and makes you wait. After a while, you have the option of pressing a number to say that the problem is not resolved. You then get placed on hold for the tier one support. These people then pass you to tier two if you have more than the most basic question. Of course this usually means more time on hold.

Once I got to the second tier support, the person tried to walk me through the menus to change record options, set up a season pass, etc. Unfortunately, the actual menus didn't match what she was reading from either. She had to put me on hold several times to go ask someone else about it.

One last thing that really ticked me off--

This new R15 TiVo was installed in the master bedroom. A few weeks after I got it, a group of people came over to my house to watch a show that I had recorded. Since this show had only been recorded on the R15 and not the genuine TiVO downstairs, I brought the R15 down and connected it. I discovered that it seems to have a much harder time picking up a signal than the older TiVo unit. The signal strength was showing around 93% so it wasn't a dish or wiring issue. It took almost a half hour of powering it down and then restarting it before it acquired the signal.

Why does this matter for what I was trying to do you ask? Well, this piece of crap won't boot without a good satellite signal. It just gets to the screen saying "acquiring signal" or something like that and sits there forever. So this miserable thing cannot even be used to play back a show if it can't see the satellite. I had thought that it was a perfectly reasonable thing to be able to record a show and watch it somewhere else.

If DirecTV ever forces everyone to stop using the real TiVo I will dump them in a second. These R15's are the worst. All the software people should be fired.

Posted by: Bill at Feb 9, 2006 9:10:34 AM

My wife is about to toss this piece of R-15 in the trash. If you start to watch a show that has already started recording it drops everything from the beginning of the show to that point unless you go to list first and press the play option. Don't select the show being recorded from the guide menu unless you really didn't want to see it anyway. Tivo's season pass? This one only records shows when it feels like it. Todays selected show? hell no but next weeks selection ok. Use the manual record and it will work for you ok? So much for Replay or Tivo features.

Please lord send a version upgrade or hack.

Posted by: Larry in San Diego at Feb 10, 2006 12:06:17 AM

I just wanted to ad that I am so happy I looked here before deciding on leaving TIVO. Although the Dishplayer on Dishnetwork was a sad attempt at DVR, DISHNETWORKS own attempt made me so angry that I moved to DIRECTV and TIVO after 6 years as a customer. It sounds as if DirecTV has made all those same mistakes yet continues to charge customers for a substandard product. I would think that a stand alone TIVO should be able to control the satellite box, so if you love TIVO like me maybe that is the way to go. TIVO should make sure their box talks to everything and then DIRECTV and DISH can keep their respective JUNK.

Posted by: Matt at Feb 12, 2006 7:08:30 PM

I have to say I agree with all I have read from you fine folk's.I have been a Drectv customer for the past 12 years amost as long as they have been around but I can say the new reciever I got with a new 2 year contract really really SUCKS WIND so I think for me if directv drops TIVO all together I will drop directv all together I still have 1 TIVO unit that is in my master bedroom but I am going to move it back to my living room and shelf this piece of junk R15 I may go and buy another stand alone TIVO unit and go to cable just because of direct's inability to ask their customers what they want it looks as though direct has gotten a little too big for their pants.

Posted by: Bill at Feb 15, 2006 7:19:43 AM

I feel all of your pain. I got my R15 three weeks ago and have been extremely disappointed after two years of TIVO. I spoke to customer service last night seeking help and was told the software upgrade is coming Tuesday February 21 (probably in the evening, at least for me). I was told many of the software issues will be corrected. As for watching both tuners, I'm not holding my breath.

Posted by: limaboy at Feb 16, 2006 8:24:01 AM

I have the r15 and it functions just fine. I have made some mods to it allowing me to run it without directv hooked up. I can use this on any tv system. Sometimes the basic models are the best to get what you want

Posted by: joe at Feb 16, 2006 8:35:30 AM

I had the TIVO box and switched to the DVR15. What a piece of crap. No match for the TIVO box. I got my TIVO box back, but they refused to take the DVR15 back, and locked me into a 2 year contract. I am hearing that Comcast has a deal with TIVO. If that's true - I will dump DTV and go with Comcast. I have been a DTV customer for 8 years, but they blew it with this one. They used to be easy to work with. Not any more.

Posted by: Rich at Mar 2, 2006 3:03:36 PM

hey limaboy what sourta mods did you do. if possible can you share with me. my email. knight787@gmail.com. Thnaks in advance.

Posted by: knight at Mar 4, 2006 10:05:25 PM

Im sorry for the typo I meant JOE. sorry guys

Posted by: knight at Mar 4, 2006 10:06:31 PM

what were the upgrades if feb supposed to do?
i got my r15 fri, mar 3. i hate it, really hate it!

Posted by: lydia senter at Mar 6, 2006 7:50:43 AM

to update the software press the red reset button. when the reciever says "hello your direct tv reciever is starting up" press in this order on your white remote 0,2,4,6,8
wait and if done correctly it will say "new software found" and begin the download. it takes about 10 minutes and should fix alot of problems including that pesky recording when it wants to problem

Posted by: noah at Mar 8, 2006 12:04:57 PM

has anyone heard about how long directv will still use tivo? I know the contract is up in a year but is there any kind of definite time frame for dropping tivo completely?

Posted by: dan at Mar 10, 2006 3:41:05 AM

Has anyone found a way to swtich between tuners? Also, is it just me or does this unit not save programs while you are watching a recorded program? Thanks.

Posted by: David at Mar 12, 2006 8:57:14 AM

The r15 is junk. I gave up after a week and found one of the last TIVO equipped DirecTV DVRs in town.

Posted by: Tom at Mar 12, 2006 10:48:39 PM

I've been a DirecTV customer for over eight years now and I'm an Electrical Engineer. The R15 has its problems, but it has the potential to be far superior to the previous R10! First and far most it has much more processing power and an upgradeable Rom. The system does have its glitches but in due time the system will work to near perfection with a series of update over the next six months. The guide is much better and processes the requests much quicker than the R10. You no longer have to wait 30 seconds or more to recalculate the season manager. The R15 come with RF remote capabilities, DirecTV to go is coming with the USB port in front and many more feature that will integrate with window new OS coming soon! But you should see new features and updates coming as soon as the HD DVR Plus HR20 comes 2nd quarter 2006! Don’t give up on the R15 so soon Tivo had many years to refined system to what is today. Tivo was ok but outdated and just wasn’t what DirecTV was looking for with their Kaku systems with over 150 HD channel coming soon! How would you like a DVR with Picture-in-picture in HD with 90 min. buffers on each turner and two video outputs (one for both and the other with the second turner for a second display ) .

Posted by: Kentrell at Mar 15, 2006 10:51:51 AM

I don't know what all the complaining is about. I love the R-15. I had a 35 hour DTV/Tivo the hard drive died after 3 years of use. I'd say the Tivo was simple to navigate the menus compared to the R-15 and it had the ability to skip 30 seconds. What were my options for a new DVR with DTV? They sent me an R-15 it works fine. There is a learning curve to it but I figured it out in a matter of minutes so it can't be too difficult to operate. I miss the 30 second skip but the FFW button has more than one speed, the more you press FFW the fater it goes, Click FFW twice and it moves about the same speed as 30 second skip did.

I love 100 hours of storage. I can record a whole season of 24 and Every Detroit Lions game before I get around to watching them if I wanted to.

I like the ability to "Prioritize" my "season passes" with the R-15. I don't recall the tivo having this feature. Say I had 24, CSI and Lost on my season pass list and all 3 were on at the same time. I Prioritize the DVR to record 24 & CSI over Lost. Nice!

Oh and the Interactive features I love, especially with NFL Sunday Ticket with SuperFan. I can get all the stats and scores I need with the click of the button. My other reciever had the interactive feature but it wasn't a DVR.

If given a chance to have my old 35 hour DTV/Tivo or the R-15, I'd take the R-15 for the 100 hours and the Interactive Features.

Posted by: lakerace at Mar 18, 2006 9:37:25 PM

Danger. directv will do and say anything to lock you into there 2 year contract for there service and the R15. Was told that my service would be 43.48 a month for 2 years, once there crap was installed and programed the price went up to 55.99. Never used the R15 and never will. Have 30 days to cancel and its going monday. Has this happend to you? If so contact the B.B.B. Class action lawsuit may be coming to there neighbor hood soon!!

Posted by: Bart at Mar 18, 2006 11:04:24 PM

as long as Directv has exclusive rights to NFL Sunday Ticket I'll be a subscriber, it's the only reason I have DTV service. I'd be a Dish Network subscriber otherwise for the fact that it offers multiple rooms without charging additional for each additional reciever. I'd have a DTV reciever in the basement but I can't justify the cost for what little use it would get.

The 2 year contract seemed odd but it was minimal damage to me because I assume I'd be a DTV subscriber for at least that long because of Sunday Ticket.

Posted by: lakerace at Mar 19, 2006 6:57:04 AM

I am a DTV tech, i install about 10 R-15s a week. three major things you must remember when installing a R-15: 1-it was designed by DTV for their furture programming upgrades, so no its not a tivo nor is a dishnet or a digital cable dvr. 2-when installing one make sure everythnig is hooked up before powering up, tuners, rf-av outputs, phoneline(not required with r-15) and digital audio(optional). 3- dont not skip a download or power the machine on and off more than it has to be. IMHO the r-15 is great, my advice is to order from DTV directly not bestbuy or walmart and try to DIY.

Posted by: din_blix at Mar 19, 2006 10:39:30 AM

to All the Kentrell's
we all know you are dtv! "Don’t give up on the R15 so soon Tivo had many years to refined system to what is today" suuuurrrreee! oookkaayyy! that shows your electrical engineering experience, instead you should of said dtv does not know how to take tivo technology and refine it because their just starting out and their electrical engineers need time to learn what tivo has now made common knowledge. i know bmw is still fresh at making suv's, but look at their 1st suv! sure was not a model t ford, but you could always use the excuse like their new or i got a bad grade on a test because i'm new on the subject, more like you should of STUDIED! what was that microsoft, intel and others are not ready to release new product yet because their refining. same goes to dtv, now consumers pay for their platitudinous. dtv stop using aliases on posts. if you dont like my post i'm sorry, i'm new at this!

Posted by: helter-skelter at Mar 20, 2006 1:46:15 PM

I have the R15 DirecTV unit and i'm not at all impressed. So far i've discovered that it responds SLOOOWWWW!!! And not to top it all off. when ever I am playing a recorded program. It skips.. then goes to a black screen. Only way to fix it is to reset the unit. which will give me a few more minutes.
I bought this unit when my Tivo died. I'm now going to replace the HD in my Tivo unit and start using it again. At least it worked.

Posted by: Dale at Mar 21, 2006 5:14:08 PM

ok you got me I do work for DirecTV. The only reason we dropped the tivo platform was because they were inflexible with there UI. if they would have changed to the standard UI like that of the D10 series then there would be no problem. do you honestly think that we would get rid of something that everyone loves, is a proven technology and works? The answer is no. but because tivo inc. didn’t want to change we had to drop them. So now they will probably go bankrupt and just fade away and become a memory like Microsoft’s ultimate tv. So complain and cry all you want about I cant see what’s on the other tuner (hint just press the prev button on the white remote) I can only see six shows at once (just scroll down twice with the arrows or pres channel down) it will never bring the tivo back to DirecTV in fact tivo will now only be available as a standalone model which wasn’t any better then a vcr anyway

Posted by: Noah at Mar 22, 2006 8:59:28 AM

Well, I did NOT agree to a 2 yr contract when they offered a r15..in fact, the only reason they offered me a r15 is because I have had 2 tivos fail in just 3 months... I am more pissed off about the r15 than I ever was about my new tivos dying. So, if they try to hook me with 2 yrs, I will just let my attorney (probably the meanest and most vindictive *sshole you could meet) handle them and anything they attempt to post on my credit report.
I personally am tired of DTV's crap. The R15 is horrible from start to finish.

Posted by: JJ at Mar 24, 2006 7:57:27 PM

I have the R15 and the only issue that I have is I cannot get the shows onto my PC. There is a USB port on the front but no way to transfer the data. Has anyone had any success in doing this function? I would like to watch my shows while I travel.

Thank you

Posted by: Bryan at Mar 25, 2006 7:57:18 AM

I just got my R15 installed yesterday and sure, there are some things I miss about the R10 BUT, I'm already getting used to the R15, not sure I like the guide too much though! Features I like are the smaller picture when in any of the settings/menu screens, the intro of the optical audio output, the remote (yes, the remote) and a few other things. There is a learning curve but, there is with every new thing that comes out! I'm hoping that Directv will turn this product into something the home entertainment market will look at and go "wow", they've finally got it right! I know a lot of you are not too impressed with it but, give it a bit of time and I reckon it will be great!!

Posted by: Colin at Mar 25, 2006 2:55:34 PM

Dale, Your a homer? How low can you go? Pimping something that is obviously a piece of crap.

Direct TV used to be a real value, now its becoming a pain in the arse.

Posted by: Will at Mar 27, 2006 11:53:11 AM

How do I get the RF remote to work on the r15.IR only works and no option in remote setup

Posted by: Peter at Mar 28, 2006 5:25:38 PM

the RF is for future use it is not activated yet but will be soon by Q4 thats years end if you dont know

Posted by: Noah at Mar 29, 2006 11:57:03 AM

Hmmmm, I dont know what you all are complaining about. I just bought an r-15 from costco and just had DirecTV setup. I really like it alot. The r-15 works great. I do have my 40hr TiVO box and am considering keeping it still considering that when I called TiVO to cancel they offered to drop the monthly service fee down to $6.95. So I can move that to the other room and now I will have a dvr to record all the wifes junk.

I really like the features of the r-15 and don't find anything about it confusing. I mean, you always have to learn what buttons to press to get what you want done. That's what manuals are for, which I was able to read and figure out everything I needed to get going.

One complaint tho, its like spinning a roulette wheel when you call their customer service, but I would just hang up and call right back and get another person and they were able to help me. Atleast there are no long wait times for the times that I called them, and there are some really cool people working there.

Posted by: DirecTV Convert at Apr 11, 2006 12:31:09 AM

Not to be evil but before you got your R15 did u by chance have a Tivo or and Ultimate TV....Well I did and this R15 things sucks a$$ it is slow not very intuitive and it does not do three quarters things the tivo did. The only thing i particularlly like about that thing is the Pic-in-Pic that the Tivo lacked. The thing routinely freezes up for 30 minutes at a time...you set it up to record something and it doesn't do it. The caller ID feature quit working. And no i did not just get a bad unit we have two and other members in my family who have them have experienced the same thing.

Posted by: Eliot at Apr 12, 2006 12:24:26 PM

Wow - I didn't realize what a mistake I made when I purchased this piece of crap! I've only had the R15 for about a month and have experienced ALL the frustrations described above (and probably some more)! Just tonight, it locked up in the "history" window and wouldn't budge until I hit the "reset"! Of course, I lost a program that was suppose to record! I've NEVER experienced a commercial product with so many software problems to say nothing about the GUI that just stinks.
To anyone considering buying this thing, DON'T!!!

Posted by: Art Hamilton at Apr 21, 2006 9:09:30 PM

HOLLY Smackerals batman!!

i have been with D* for ages over 10 years, and a few months back my Series 2 Hughes took a dump over a year out of warrenty.

"2 year contract?" i almost yelled that in polite manner "so your telling me that me a customer for so long is your going to...." i interupted....... "thats just not right, almost feel like a hooker on the street now" i replied

did i say my series 2 died and was out of warranty?

did i mention i recieved unfortunatly a reconditioned R-15? hope it lasts longer than the 1 year i had my hughes.

did I mention i got R-15 without ANY CONTRACT? not even a 1 day contract.

did I mention that my cost was less than $30 (guess that means i cant bitch about the reconditioned sticker on it :(

*****************************************

THE WORST PART OF THIS

was the fact i was on phone for WAY over a hour.... if not close to 3 hours being esculated and esculated

not to bore you... my first job years ago was Wendy's Hamburgers..... rule #1 ... CUSTOMER IS KING.

if you piss off a customer.... then word of mouth spreads and you loose customers as a business. *** this is more important today then 20 years ago before the power of the internet and sites like this ***

again...... LONG CALL .... and i am NOT bragging about the deal.

the R15 is slower as responce time compaired to a tivo, and yes the layout takes time to adjust. its taken me about a month and i am still learning new features.

but i cant complain.... the series2 died and out of warrenty.. so here i am exchanging it for D* discretion. and UNDER MINE, the customers Rules that we both agreed on ;)

******************************

to sum this up

******************************

D* is not a bad company, however i had a telemarketing job for 4 years then became a manager of that telmarketing office for 2 years...... that was ages ago.

and it was not for D* ;) --- i was selling coupon books over phone ;)

********* ALSO REALIZE

that you might not get same deal if new customer.... i am only posting this info on my experiance because i have been customer way , way, way over 5 years ;)

*******************************************
FINAL NOTE
*******************************************

mom's are neat, and my mother god bless her soul told me as the parralegal she was "if what your hearing hits your gut hard and seems wrong" then she continued "chances are you can take them to court"

just get ready to put your gloves on before threating them with the word "court" she added.

*******************************************
I never used the word "COURT" in my talkings. and again you dont need it.

but the 2 year contract added on made my gut seemed wrong. (realizing what momma told me) i went into fighting mode.

it took me almost 3 hours on phone...... and i used to telemarket...... i was hung up once.... thank god cause that was the final excuse needed for the deal i got over a month ago.

*************************

Rules when calling D**

1) go in with boxing gloves ... but only if you truely feel abused and sexually harrassed wallet wise.

2) prepare to ask for supervisor after supervisor. this was no means a easy 1,2,3 over phone :(

3) REMEMBER rule #1 earlier ... customer is KING!!!

4) speak politely when talking or esculating call to supervisor... if not they will log a "RUDE" on there call logs

5) relize step #4 again...... yes i said call logs --- these people go to work just like i and you,........ they have to log there work..... your calls are typed

6) final note..... it helps if they first answer you ask their name again, right it down.......... john got done transfering me to andy..... then andy x-fered me to amy..... and amy was so rude...... that type thing ;)

thats it.

im done......

i dont like the R-15 as much as tivo..... but getting used to it....... maybe some phone updates will happen to make this a more "friendlier" unit

thanks and sorry for such long post.... but hopes it helps somebody... if not with D* then with another company.

AGAIN........ CUSTOMER IS KING!!! :)

thanks again

Fred

Posted by: CrAzYodaz at Apr 24, 2006 8:52:49 AM

My first dvr. What a POS. Worked fine for the first two months. Since I never had a TIVO, I can't complain about missing any feature. Past two weeks though, have been unberable. It freezes constantly(even when trying to change channels), and then all of a sudden, it stopped recording(and NO my disk isn't full). I just reset it, and now it won't start back up. I am in a continual reboot loop and it will not start back up. Even tried to force a update on it and that didn't work. DO YOURSELF A FAVOR AND BUY ANYTHING BUT AN R-15.

Posted by: db at Apr 24, 2006 9:28:53 PM

30 second commercial skip was finally added to my R15. Don't know for how long, got used to just ignoring the skip button since it used to just take me to the end or the beginning of the program. Now it skips 30 seconds, but not instantaneously. It still makes you watch the fast-forward video for a second or two while it does it. Former Dish customer here and its pvr skipped forward seamlessly.

One thing that really bugs me about my R15. The program guide updates randomly and when it does it seems to wipe out all old programming from the menus, (lots of blank boxes), then takes hours and hours to fill them all back in. That makes it nearly impossible to find a program during this progress and I have to go away and come back later to use the find feature.

Posted by: JDVough at Apr 26, 2006 4:02:28 AM

I can't say i'm a huge fan of dtv, but for me it's been a free service for many years. I recently purchased 4 of the R15's and have absolutly no problems. 1 of the units froze 1 time, but my kids were playing with the remote. a simple reboot brought it back to life again. 3 of the units are used by my kids 24/7 and continute to work without skipping a beat for 4 months now. i find it hard to believe that if there are that many problems with these units that i'm flying under the radar... just my 2 cents..

i would like to see some posts about different attemps to transfer the recorded material for recording purposes. I have seen a few posts about how the hard drive can be removed and read in linux. I would have to imagine that there could be some way through linux that the usb interface can read the drive and possible prevent you from voiding the warranty by opening the unit.

Moral of the story.. you bought the unit already and we have already established that most of you aren't happy about it. the problem is that your stuck with it.. So lets stop bitching about it and work together on how to hack this thing. I'm sure there are a lot of smart minds that know linux better than me and could just post a few simple tests on what they see when trying to enter the drive via the usb.. lets keep working on a fix so we can enjoy it even more..

Posted by: Tom at Apr 29, 2006 9:06:27 AM

I'm going to agree with Tom on this thread. Where is the helpful info?

When I purchased the R15 I read the forums, checked out it's features and knew it's limitations. No 30 sec skip, can't switch between tuners, etc. To complain about this "lack" of functionality after the fact is like buying lemons and complaining that they are too sour.

My experience has been good, with about 20 minutes of DIY setup on the R15 and another 5 minutes on the phone to get it activated I was up and using my PVR functionality. I've had to reset it once in the 4 months I've had it but even that was pretty painless, a few minutes of finding signal and such then I was going again. Then again as a Windows user maybe I've been conditioned to reboots. :)

Anyway, I was searching for tip's and tricks for the R15, but time and again I find these anti-DTV and pro TiVo threads. Thanks to Noah for the info on updating software.

Posted by: M-Ker at Apr 29, 2006 2:23:55 PM

I work for Directv, as a customer service representative, and I'll let you all in on a couple of secrets.

1. You have a three month warranty on any receiver you buy from directv or an authorized dealer. If it goes bad, CALL WHEN IT IS HAPPENING. I don't know how many customers call in about receivers and tell me, "I've been a customer for (between 4 and 6 months) and I've been having this problem since a week/month/2 months after I bought it." Of course, the receiver is now out of warranty, and I can't do the many things i want to do to replace your receiver. Also, any time a technician comes to your house, either to install or fix a problem, you have a three month warranty on that. Use it. Otherwise it will be $70 if you don't have the protection plan (though if you're nice, chances are someone like me will let you "work us down" to either free or close to free if you bargain for it).

2. R15's are a pain. For us to. We're the ones who have to talk to customer's who are completely clueless about how to use a remote.
Take this example of a regular customer call.
"I need you to press the select button sir."

"I don't have a select button! You need to send a guy out to my house to show me how to use this Tivo! I shouldn't have to been an engineer to use my tv! "

"Okay sir, but I need you to push the select button so we can try troubleshooting this problem"

"I don't have a select button!"

"It's the large orange button in the center sir."

"Oh. Okay. Now what do I do?"

and on, and on, and on for hour long calls. So you can imagine, we're not to happy with the problems you're having with these receivers any more than we are. Problems that can't be fixed suck. But the tivo had a LOT of customer issues when we launched that with DTV too. And it still does. I have almost as many complaints from customer's who can't figure out their R10's as I do the R15's. Or at least i did until DTV has pretty much exclusively installed R15's.

Moral of that story. Be patient, we'll try to be the same. And if you get someone that sucks. Hang up on them. We don't care. That means you set us free. You'll never hurt our feelings by bring our average call time down. And I work with some of these people. I know how dumb they can be. But there are at least as many people who honestly are good at what they do and have IQ's exceeding 60.

3. You on this page are more up to date than anyone you will talk to at DTV customer service, pretty much. I learned five times more from reading this thread than I did from the training they gave us, the whole hour of it. You might get lucky and get a rep who has the R15 himself and can tell you from personal experience, and obviously we do know some tricks for fixing problems, but when it comes to hardware issues, if you've got a broken R15, you can only get a new one. So take advantage of that. And the protection plan is your friend. It's a great way to get your stuff taken care of for free, for only a dollar more than having an extra receiver in the house a month. Directv wants to help you have a good, working receiver. We that you talk to want it to work. Your feedback is appreciated, too. I know I always pass my customer comments on to the brass.

4. Good stuff is coming, and the R15 isn't going anywhere. The Directv to Go and other new features are supossed to rock. Let's hope so. And DTV isn't going to get rid of the R15 or the Directv Plus format anytime soon, so lets get the most out of it. Have you used DVR's by the likes of Comcast and Dish? I owned one and my parents owned another, and this R15 is leagues ahead, at least. Maybe it's not an R10, but it will go beyond the Tivo format. And I am a big Tivo fan. I own Tivo stock, but I know a good product potential when I see one.

Your humble servant.

Posted by: DTV Wage Slave at Apr 29, 2006 6:03:42 PM

Just a quick note to M-Ker. First off, thanks for coming online and offering yourself up as a sacrifical lamb to say how nice the people are at DirecTV, and how if we are nice to them they'll be nice to us.

Honestly though, that is of NO HELP WHATSOEVER!

The real issue here is that DirecTV should be listening to its customers, and not telling its customers what they should buy, how long they have to keep a bad product, how much they have to pay for said product, and how they should behave on the phone if they want help.

Clearly the vast majority of customers are not happy, and feel as though they have been duped into buying an inferior product and felt pressured, sometimes lied to, and then abandoned or left on hold with your customer no-service department when they needed some help.

I have been a Directv customer since month number 1, and have had the Directv Tivo service since the first day it was available. I have 2 Directv Tivo receivers and have never, ever had a problem.

I have been debating whether to upgrade and based on what I have read here, i will definitely not be buying a new DVR.

It is disheartening to hear all these horror stories, and makes me question my loyalty as a customer to this company.

In fact, M-Ker, you were so kind to put yourself in the line of fire, that I would like to offer you some tips that could just help your company win back some angry customers.

1) Email Mr. Murdoch personally and tell him that noone here in TV Land is very happy with this dumb product.

2) Copy all these posts and let him see what his customers are saying.

3) Ask him if he uses Tivo or the new inferior product.

4) Be Polite.

Posted by: mattyboy at May 1, 2006 2:51:44 PM

I have to agree with the majority, the R15 is AWFUL. We had to replace a Directv Tivo receiver that had died and bought an extra one. I was excited when I got the R15s because I thought a newer model would be even better. WRONG!

My first reaction was, geez, this remote is way different... (For ex. I really like the big yellow pause button on the old remote...it's so easy to find even in the dark). But I was still optimistic because I knew I could get used to a new remote but it went downhill from there. With my old unit I didn't even crack the manual. The installer showed me a few things and I took it from there exploring my way around and figured out how to do most everything. With the new unit, I read the manual and still couldn't figure out half of what I used to be able to do.

Also, when you pause and then unpause, it's sluggish, the video starts but the audio lags... very annoying. And you can't pause and flip between two shows the way you used to. When you pause one show and then flip back to it, it's back to live tv instead of the place you paused it. And the season pass is so much harder to find and is somewhat of a pain to set up. I don't mind learning how to use an upgraded piece of equipment but this feels like a downgrade. My husband (who is very keen on new technology) and I both ABSOLUTELY HATE it.

Luckily, after scouring our local stores, we found two old R10s and sent the R15s back. The R10s don't seem to work as well as the Hughes receiver we had (they are slower and hang up sometimes) but they're MUCH better than the new R15s for sure.

We've been with Directv for over 10 years but have decided we will be canceling when our R10 units finally die and will go with cable with regular Tivo. (Unless Directv gets this problem fixed in the meantime.)

By the way, my Mom is 83 and is not at all tech savvy and is a whiz at using the R10. The interface is so well designed. Directv needs to really figure out how to fix this problem or I think they are going to lose some of their older customers.

Posted by: Fran at May 2, 2006 8:35:04 AM

I have absolutely loved my DTV-Tivo for the past few years, up until it started spontaneously rebooting last week.

DTV sent me their R15, which would not progress beyond the 0% download for new software. After 2+ hours w/ DTV tech support, they said they'd send me another one. BTW, they also screwed up reactivating the bad DTV-Tivo to tide me over, thus another phone call.

Now I've got the re-replacement R15, and even after being extremely clear w/ the DTV person in regards to activating the DVR function of the R15, I found after I hung up it wasn't active. Thus another call. All-in-all, it was about 4-5 calls to get this r15 working.

Granted, after being a very early adopter of the Tivo (having the first stand-alone unit), I have to give the r15 a good chance, but if I can't toggle between tuners as others have posted, I'll be pissed. So far, I find setting up a "season pass" very unintuative (if that's a word).

Also, always have to see the filter choice before entering the channel guide is lame. I'm hoping to find a shortcut beside pressing guide twice.

Good luck to all w/ this unit.

Posted by: curtis-r at May 5, 2006 6:46:28 PM

I just Got my r15 today and the UI (user interface) is just no good. Its too difficult to record a show / series and it does not seem to have been designed for ease of use... I am calling DirectTv right now and see if I can get a TIVO based unit instead.. I read on cnet that they extended their contract to 2010 so thats plenty of time for me.

and yea the two year contract... IS WACK!

Posted by: Robert Albrecht at May 6, 2006 8:45:53 PM

"Its too difficult to record a show / series and it does not seem to have been designed for ease of use..."

"My first reaction was, geez, this remote is way different... (For ex. I really like the big yellow pause button on the old remote...it's so easy to find even in the dark)."

Wah, wah, wah...

Hit the record button twice in your guide and you have set a season pass...whew that one was difficult, I mean consecutive pushing of the same button can prove challenging.

Find the big yellow button on the new remote (still visible in the dark if you still desire) and push the one in the southwest or 8 o'clock position. Whew that one was almost as difficult.

Why are people so resistant to change. You like what you like becuase you know it and it comforts you, not always because it is good or the best thing since sliced bread. Oh, and I can bet some people probably preferred their bread in loaves and voiced their opinion about it in whatever forum they had back then.

Soldiers are dying in Iraq, gas is over $3 a gallon, we have exposed borders in the US and you are all vehemently complaining that a dual tuner DVR doesn't allow you to switch back and forth like it used to...

Posted by: Joe Johnson at May 8, 2006 2:25:47 PM

For those of you having a hard time contacting DirecTV customer service, and having long hold times, here's the key: Do NOT PRESS ANY BUTTONS ON YOUR PHONE, EVER, AT ALL!!!!

If you just sit still and wait, they assume you're on a rotary phone and all the recordings will stop after about a minute and you get a real person. Works every time for me. A few years ago, I got pissed off about a 45 minute hold time and decided that pressing buttons was their job, not mine, and refused to touch the phone after dialing the initial phone number, and I haven't been on hold more than about 2 minutes since then.

Also, I just got an R-15 from Best Buy after my TiVo lost it's Sat in 2, and had it activated. Seems OK, but I'm definitely more used to TiVo. We'll see how it goes, though. They didn't say anything about a 2 year committment (I'd have laughed and hung up...I've been with DTV for 7 years), and I gave them fair warning that if I didn't like it, I'd return it and make them warranty the TiVo unit. They said ok, so I don't expect any problems. Hopefully, someone will figure out how to break into the R-15 and turn on the USB stuff so shows can be downloaded onto a PC without having to wait while the entire thing plays.

Posted by: bert at May 8, 2006 3:57:26 PM

ok, i agree with everyone here, i miss my Ultimate TV (we opted for that back when it and TiVo existed together.) We bought the R15 because we wanted the TiVo ability in another room and it had a $100 rebate. So it was Free. Hmmmm.... if it sounds to good to be true.....

Anyway... one of the most important things i've missed is the 30 second forward button! Well, i come home from a trip only to find that if you push the little forward loopy button (the one that takes you to the end really fast)that it actaully goes 30 seconds forward!, press it 3 times, it goes 90 seconds... doesnt' skip, just fast forwards, but it's an improvement. Not sure what happened, it didn't used to do this. perhaps the long awaited Software update? anyone find anything else?

and how do you cancel an auto record of a series???

Posted by: P-Kiddy at May 9, 2006 6:58:46 PM

yes

it's a software upgrade that went to the R15-500 models

the 300 models still haven't gotten the upgrade

but will soon

you can tell what model yours is by looking in the right side panel

will say R15

and 300 or 500

Posted by: Nye at May 13, 2006 9:04:16 PM

BTW

if you're interested in almost never having to wait too long in line for tech support and for better techs

subscribe to the protection plan

Posted by: Nye at May 13, 2006 9:05:35 PM

I have had two r15s for three months and just recently purchased a refurbished r10 for my kids room. True the r15s have gliches but going from an r15 to an unfamiliare to me r10 was a pain and I'm sure this is most of what the problem is here only vice versa. I do have one complaint abuot not having picture in picture with dual tuners on board. My old rca ultimateTV had this ability. Please tell me these new DVRs will offer this feature in an upgrade.

Posted by: dejaun at May 13, 2006 10:46:22 PM

I have had a stand-alone TiVo since 1999 (at $100 a year) hooked up to DTV since 2002, and had a dual-tuner dtivo since 2003, which began a continuous-reset cycle on startup recently, probably a bad power supply.

So I replaced both with r15s recently, and so far, yes, there have been far more times that it has sucked than has been a joy - TiVo was love at first sight; this is, um... a different emotion. OK, its not tivo - ANYTHING is going to suck in comparison at first, so I try to be objective, it does have its improvements after all. My first tivo only had 20 hours of recording time on basic quality, which was unwatchable, so you only got about 10 hours of watchable tv. Fortunately disk upgrades became possible if you were willing to use linux and read and follow some specific instructions that do complex and possibly dangerous things to your precious tivo, so you could change that 20 hours into whatever you wanted, and same with the dtivo, so both of mine could record about 144 hours, for less money than the cost of a new dtivo. 100 hours is not an upgrade for me. But I did suffer through the 20 hour limit for almost a year before the warranty was up, the hacks were proven, and hard drives were inexpensive enough to make the upgrade affordable, 80 hours is all I got after my first upgrade using 2 drives.

Regular tivos are expensive, and so's their service charge. Bet that's why they want a 2 year agreement, you know these things cost more than $100 to make and sell, so they have to make it up in time, but if they made the product top quality from day one, who would want to ever leave it? Subscription fees would be guaranteed, and if this system becomes hackable, it may prove even better than tivo. The uncertainty and the waiting are really what sucks.

So, who's working on it? A few people have said they've hacked something, but none said what really was done, how they did it, or posted any links to anyone with more info so what good was that? I see there's a prize, so maybe people just want to keep their secrets for now?

C'mon, share.

Posted by: Richard at May 24, 2006 9:51:55 PM

I have a been messing with TIVO, Adelphia and now the R15 (with DirecTV). I've figured out season pass (hit record 2x) and 30 sec fast forward (->|). Have 3 things on my wish list, 1) weaknees upgrades 2) USB or ethernet connection 3) A guide list that showed the next programs on a channel in a vertical list (ie 5 or 6 lines worth (like Tivo and Adelphia do)). Any suggestions, please let me know. thnx Bob

Posted by: bob_in_CA at May 27, 2006 3:55:16 PM

We've had an R15 for about 3 months and have been consistently frustrated by its failure to perform. We tried to be patient, understanding that there is a learning curve on new stuff. But we are a house full of computer nerds and remote junkies and it shouldn't be that hard to learn this.

Of course, it is hard, because the thing sucks! So tonight we decided to communicate our frustrations to the customer support people. After all, they tell us we are one of their best customers. Maybe they can fix this.

After my daughter explained the problems, they were in complete denial, so she turned them over to my wife who demanded to talk to a supervisor. After some discussion and threats of calling the Attorney General, they agreed to send a return kit for the R15, and it seemed like we could get a Tivo unit to replace it. So everyone seemed happy. But after we hung up the phone . . .

We discovered the bastards had cut us off!

Apparently they are using the R15 for their customer service as well.

(Yes, they restored service after another call.)

Posted by: earwicker23 at Jun 1, 2006 11:14:26 PM

WOW, I have never seen anything this bad. I am an Industrial Designer and have worked on many GUIs. The R15 is off the charts. DirecTV was very deceptive I made a clear request to upgrade my TIVO and they delivered a R15 the installer wasn’t out the door before I sent it back.
There is no excuse for putting people though the R15 interface. If someone is defending the R15 they are working for DirecTV or just so far out of touch with consumer expectations as to be irrelevant. No one deserves disrespect like this. If a food label were written with the incoherence of the R15 interface, they would be in court tomorrow.

Posted by: Paul at Jun 5, 2006 9:11:59 AM

since the comparisons here are the tivos with the direc tv satellite recievers built in and the r-15 dvr (dtv none tivo version) tivo never had a 30 second skip ahead. vendors should be selling these at a w/ or without contract price.. I run a hughes 100 hour tivo combo and the r-15 I have had a tivo stand alone, ultimate tv, 2=35 hour tivo combos a dish network dish player and a dp 501 and the tivo combo (100 hr model) wins hands down for hard drive capacity and ease of operation would replace rhe r-15 w/another one if I could find one. note my ultimate tv unit is setting on the shelf it still function if anyone wants it come & get it.

Posted by: bob at Jun 5, 2006 1:56:20 PM

I didn't read the whole blog, but most of it, so if I repeat what's already been mentioned, sorry...

I usually suspend my DTV service in the summer b/c I'm not around much to watch it, and when I am home I have a lot of house work to do anyways. So I was happy to hear, from a DTV CSR, that I can still view content already recorded to the R-15 DVR if my monthly subscription is suspended. I've had it since December 2005, and being the first DVR I've had, it's fine with me. Yes there are problems, but the problem below really irks me...

Turns out, I can't view content already recorded to my DVR if I suspend my monthly subscrition for awhile. I've spoken with DTV twice today, once to a CSR, once to a technician, and was obviously told wrong by the first CSR I spoke with last week.

DTV says when service is suspended, the DVR receiver is suspended too and therefore the ability to watch recorded content is also suspended. However, the shows aren't deleted from the hard drive, they're just not accesible.

Sounds ridiculous to me. Anybody know a way to watch stuff on the R-15 if service is suspended? I got 20 movies from the free viewing weekend that I was planning on watching this summer. Looks like that won't be happening, unless someone knows a way around it....

Thanks-

PS- I'll complain daily to them via the handy directv.com 'contact us.' It may not help, but I'll feel better. This should be an easy update for DTV to figure out, in my mind...

Posted by: DS at Jun 6, 2006 6:47:16 PM

The r-15 is a nightmare. AVOID AT ALL COST!!!I have had problem after problem including locking up, series pass sucks and does not work half the time, settings are difficult if not impossible, now I can't even record ppv movies(some phone line error) After HOURS on the phone with tech support who seem to know nothing (none of the people I've spoken with even have the product themselves - wonder why) They read from a stupid troubleshooting guide and then pass me on to another "tier" of support or tell me I need to wait for a software fix that is supposedly in the works(same excuse for months now). I finally got fed up on my last hour long attempt with their clueless tech travesty. He told me they would replace it with a new one. What good will this do?? NO! Then I was transferred to a "specialist" whose job is obviously to attempt to pacify irate customers and try to keep their biz. He tried to deny any problems and act surprised - he denied any software fix at all - right. I insisted that they come pickup this junk and cancel my service. He then started offering things like discounts on service, ECT. I told him I wasn't interested in a replacement of the same crap model as it would just suck also. He then directed me to Ebay and offered a 100 dollar credit toward another model if I buy it there. I've had it with DTV. They have driven me back to cable. How awful is that - the lesser of two evils. My Ultimate TV box rocked. This thing BLOWS. After years with DTV I'm out. Bottom line STAY AWAY FROM THIS PIECE OF SHIT R15!!!

Posted by: Jon at Jun 8, 2006 8:06:11 PM

My Directivo recently died and DTV replaced it with an R15. I was told by several CSRs that this new R15 is so much better than the old Tivo unit. Needless to say I feel duped and have spent several hours trying to repair my old directivo to no avail. So I am assuming there is no way at this time to add an additional hardrive to these units? I added an extra 80 gig to my old tivo unit very easily and would like to transfer this drive to the new R15 if possible. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Posted by: elainaandmike at Jun 10, 2006 11:29:49 PM

damn.. people like slamming the r15 eh... well ya know what.. it works & It dont take 10 miniutes to load like a damn r10 does so it wins in this installers book...

Posted by: Bastard at Jun 15, 2006 9:17:23 PM

I too got locked into a 2 year agreement when I was sent by DTV to Best Buy to replace a bad TiVo unit. I am now on my second R15 and it crashes and does not record.

Here's my question: why are we all not part of a class action lawsuit? Obviously this is a coordinated attempt by DTV to lock customers into a service without disclosing terms at the time of purchase. In addition, they are selling merchandise they know to be faulty.

So, come on lawyers... help us out.

Posted by: BurnedbyDTV at Jun 18, 2006 7:14:49 PM

I posted the following on PVRblog.com on 27 May 06:

Now I post the following, which I also posted in weakness Blog(www.wkblog.com/2005/12/
the_weaknees_r10_r15_compariso.html)

13 July 06 - I'm ready to chuck my R15 in the trash. I bought a TIVO series 2 that I'm running in parallel, but the R15 is crashing so much, that I can't even use it as a tuner! I'm loosing it !!

I really identify with TheTooleMan, article dated June 29, 2006 12:22 PM (in www.wkblog.com, same as above). I've listed (in some of his words) highlights that ring true to me. I need to check out DBSTalk.com (as he did).

I wanted to share my misery with you...(very good TooleMan!)

The R15 has problems which are now making the system progressively more unusable. Pulling the plug (or hitting reset on the top right corner) cured these problems for a while, but these working intervals became shorter and shorter. It finally locked up so I couldn't change channels or play back recordings, and would also stop recording in the middle of a program.

From TooleMan's comments, I'm afraid that DirecTV's help desk will be useless. So, I tried to get DirecTV to answer my questions in writing. They only want me to call. So much for that...

TooleMan wrote "While waiting (for a replacement R15), he tried the dreaded "Reset All." That cured most of the problems, but also wiped my hard drive clean of all recordings and destroyed all my settings and series links. When the new unit arrived, I refused it."

TooleMan, what is your status now? I'm not ready to loose everything I've recorded ... and don't have the storage or patience to transfer it all to TIVO ... what am I going to do !!

Anyway, my R15 locks up all the time, as I said above, it's so bad that I can't even use it as a tuner. I reboot it two or three times a day.

Why am I sticking with DirecTV? I've recorded a bunch of stuff I want to watch. Frankly, I wish I could say, if the R15 isn't fixed by the time my trial subscription expires on 23 July (and the rates go up) I'm out of here. But, my alternative seems to be, pay $12/month, so that TIVO can take care of me or go to cable. I've not seen that I can upgrade the Cable DVR machines, I really want 100 plus hours.

TooleMan ... what are you going to do ?? Did the reset all make you happy enough or are you out of here !?!?!

Hopeless - Bob_in_MB_CA

Posted by: Bob_in_ca at Jul 13, 2006 10:39:11 PM

Just finished my 3 month trial and my box (R15) went to crap just like Bob_in_MB_CA. Completely locked up after a few day. Searching wildly for alternatives.

Tier II support was going to 'walk me through' a disk format, but I refused and just noted the steps need (last resort). I did get them to tell me how to upgrade the firmware/software last night. Hopefully it may help.

My guess is severe file fragmentation. I'm about to remove the drive and attempt a defrag from a PC...

Posted by: Sam at Jul 27, 2006 11:22:01 AM

I have had the similar problems with R15. My first unit crashed within the 3-month warranty period.The 2nd unit they sent is a refurb R15. It is having similar issues after the disk start to fill up.

On calling them repeatedly, they claim that they have not heard problems from other customers about the DVR.

They are not willing to give customers alternative DVR and locking them into multi-year contracts.

Has someone reported this to Better Business Bureau yet?

Posted by: RK at Aug 1, 2006 11:58:25 AM

ARE YOU ALL BLIND??? sorry to have to get your attention this way, but isn't the most obvious thing the lack of picture quality???

i just moved and when i called directv they said they would 'upgrade' my 2 year old tivo series 2 dvr. oh great i thought. so they installed a dvr-15. what a piece of shit!!! hte picture is so compressed, it looks like bad web video compared to my old tivo. not to mention no more suggestions, etc.

this feels like someone 'upgrading' your bmw to a chevy. it's bullshit. and from what i hear about directv cancelling their contract with tivo, they probably won't let me switch back either, in which case the afforementioned 'class action law suit' is starting to sound pretty good.

anyone else feel the same way about the compression?

Posted by: The Boris at Aug 1, 2006 11:17:35 PM

Well, obviously enough's been said, but I'm venting anyway. The R15 is HORRIBLE. My R10 has much better speed and interface and doesn't crash EVER! unlike the R15 that I have to reset every 2 days. DirecTV said they "Cannot" replace my R15 with an R10, but that I could go buy one myself, which is exactly what I will do. It's going to be a sad day when the onlyl DVR's available for DirecTV are of the R15's quality. Hopefully, I can get all my shows off the Net by then...

Posted by: Ken in Peoria at Aug 16, 2006 11:56:17 AM

The user interface of the r15 has caused me to loose faith in the intelligence of mankind. It will take me some time to accept the fact that the people who wrote the software for this unit are in the same species as the people who created Tivo. What a sad day it is.

Posted by: david B at Aug 19, 2006 8:46:52 PM

Wow - I thought I was the only one who felt like he was going crazy with this f-ing thing. I can not believe a company would unleash a disaster like this on paying and supposedly valued customers. Of all the many problems, I find the worst to be the live buffer problem. I can not rewind live TV no matter how long I have been watching it until I try to pause, rewind etc. Then the buffer seems to "kick in" and I am allowed to rewind, but only to the point that I first hit a button to pause or rewind etc. I can not believe how bad it is. The 30 second skip doesn't work and the regular ff and rewind buttons have no rhyme nor reason to their madness and you almost always skip WAY through commercials and into the show - then you have to rewind and you end up in the middle of the commercials! how the heck to they get away with it??

Posted by: frustrationcity at Aug 21, 2006 8:39:12 PM

Echo... echo... echo...

My TIVO unit started getting flakey and, after trying for a couple of hours to get through to the CS reps at DTV I just scrapped it... It was clearly a drive going bad.

So I was in CostCo and there's a NEW DirecTV unit for $80+ staring me in the face. The answer to my prayers! TV again...

This machine is a major turd. I agree with the post above regarding the species of the software designers. As a software designer myself for many years, I found the SeriesLink (tm) process to be outrageous. Someone above posted that you could hit the R(ecord) button twice and that does it... easy. Well, SHOULDN'T THAT BE MENTIONED SOMEWHERE IN THE MANUAL OR ON THE SCREEN!?!?!?

Why when I hit FF (speed 1), then FF (speed 2), then Play (speed 3... huh?), I say Play (speed 4... whoah!) Play... whoops, the show's over! Ever hit rewind to find it increases the forward speed? How about hitting the 30-sec forward to find it just keeps going? Or, better yet, how about the buttons just stop working... This all happens ALL THE TIME... It's not a BUG, it's a FEATURE!!!

How long will it take to fix some of these major problems?

Customer service no longer exists in America. Call DirectTV, Dish, Sprint, Verizon, or any other big company and you'll talk with Sheniqua with a 2nd grade education and the patience of a 2nd grader. "We're escalating your call!" Escalate this MF'r!

DTV- IF YOU'RE OUT THERE READING THIS... YOUR DVR "R15" SUCKS. PERIOD. IT IS A DRY ROTTING TURD OF A DEVICE AND SHOULD BE COMPLETED OVERHAULED.

But, you've got me by the 2-year committment balls so, really, why would you care?

Right.

Cheers.

Posted by: Jeff D at Aug 23, 2006 11:30:36 AM

well ive had my r15 for about 2 or 3 months when i first got it it was my first dvr and i loved it them i started to run into the software not rcording crashing freezing the whole nine yards so then i started getting really aggrivated so i called dtv and they said sometime between august 23 and august 30 they would be sending out a sofware update that would fix all these problems now im not sure if my reciever has gotten this download yet but im keeping my fingers crossed that it will in deed fix them and i also heard from another dtv rep and he said there was a big software update coming out end of this year that would really ramp up the machine and put into use those 3 usb ports so well see

Posted by: sean p at Aug 23, 2006 3:41:26 PM

I am so grateful I found this blog. I thought I was the only one going insane with this piece of junk from DTV. Thank goodness I still have my first DVR (the R10). I count on it now to get the shows I don't want to miss. I cannot count on the R15 for anything. It won't record every day of my soaps even though I have the SeriesLink. I think this is because it locks up so much. I bet I have to hit the reset button on the thing at least 3 times a day, sometimes more. I find it interesting that my other (smaller) DVR that was first offered through DTV (the one with the TIVO emblem) does not even have a reset button!!! That's because it is soooooo good; it never has to be reset. I never had any problem with the older one. Why did they even want to put this R15 out there? I noticed there is no TIVO emblem or any mention of TIVO on this one; I guess they're trying to make their own and not partner with TIVO. BAD, BAD, BAD idea at least at this point. The DVR Plus thing is just junk. I do hope software updates are coming and will correct these problems. In the meantime, I'm recording all my must-see TV on my good old reliable R10 which works great every time. Anyway, enough of all this. As I said, I'm glad I'm not the only one going crazy over all this.

Posted by: Amy at Aug 24, 2006 7:48:54 PM

So I have to share this story:

Around Fourth of July, we had a bad lightning storm and my R10 was knocked offline. Called D* and they instructed me to connect my box to phone line for software upgrade (I haven't had it plugged in for over a year). Left that to run overnight and the next day, my R10 was skipping every 10 seconds (software failure, I assumed). Called D, and they instructed me to do a format. OK, left this running overnight. It was supposed take an hour, but the box was frozen. Called D* a third time and they told me the box was gone (HD Failure). R15 is all they shipped and if I want one, it's on it's way. I told them to hold off while I decide what I'm going to do, all the while I'm thinking, "Shit, I'm getting an R15".

I started looking everywhere online for a solution. Found this thread and read Art H's post. I love D*, and I would have taken the R15 if I had to. But now my thinking changed to "How can work a discount on a HR10-250?"

So, I called Customer Service a fourth time, I insisted on an R10 or anything "Tivo". Rep told me that they MIGHT send an R10, it depends on what is in stock (a lie, I knew I was getting an R15). I asked about the HR10-250. 425.00. Hung-up

Call to Customer Service #5 - This time insisting that I get an R10, as your support broke my box (a logical conclusion, I followed their instructions twice and each time my box got worse). In the course of this call, I discovered
a-The new box is a lease, not mine like the R10.
b-I would be extended 2 years with this new devices.

I found it an outrage that their support caused my problem and i was going to suffer, I wanted an R10 or Tivo box. Told I can have the HR10-250 for 425.00. Hung-Up.

Call number 6, Cust Rep, informs me the R15 is Tivo (DUMMY), that I obviously had softwar updated regularly because I have movie orders (DUMMY), and that TIME had broken my R10 (I believe he said something like, Time breaks everything, it's part of life). Well, only I knew this was ruse, but this guy really pissed me off.
"Mister, everything you've just said is false or insulting, send me to someone who can cancel my subscription".

Transfer is where I struck gold. I informed this new guy about the bad support and the awful Customer Service, made my complaints about the R15 (my son and father-in-law each have one, so I know what it's like). Then I casually slid in, "I'd take a HR10-250, but can work out a decent discount?"

End-Game:
HR10-250 FREE
4 Months HD Broadcasting FREE
6 Months Movie Package FREE
No Contract extension
$25 Credit to cover HD Dish Install
Free upgrade to HR20 (D's HD-DVR) when it comes out. HR10-250 doesn't show broadcast channels in HD.

-D* will show you love, you just have to make them

Posted by: Nad at Aug 25, 2006 1:04:20 PM

well has anyone gotten the new software update that was supposed to be released between the 23 and the 30th b/c either i havent gotten it yet or it made my box worse b/c now my box wont store show data so i can pause or rewind midshow and it wont record more than 5 mins of show and it says i got 19% of disk space left so wtf so if anyone got this miracle update dtv is supposed to be sending out please let me know if it fixed any problems b/c im one step from calling dtv and demanding some kinda restitution for all this aggrivation but im at least i never had to pay fo this pos simply b/c i called dtv and told them i wanted a dvr for free b/c ive been a loyal customer for over 5 years and they gave it to me free didnt even have to pay then get the rebate they just sent it free no paying no rebate no hassle but anyone who got this mystery update and it worked please write about it

Posted by: sean p at Aug 27, 2006 12:32:43 PM

Well I too have had the R15 for about 3 months, and as it filled up with shows, began to crash more and more regularly, and record less and less frequently.

Could someone PLEASE post some of the workarounds to do a RESET ALL on the machine (Not just the red button reset). Also, the 2,4,6,8,0 trick didn't seem to work on my machine.

I just want to get it back to square one -- seems to me this is clearly a buggy software problem, and not a hardware problem, as everyone seems to be having it.

Posted by: KidCroesus at Sep 5, 2006 6:55:02 PM

Ignore my previous comment, I found what I was looking for here:

For everyone who hasn't found it, here is a great FAQ that has a lot of tips and tricks to the R15.

http://www.dbstalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=5773&d=1149701423

Posted by: Kid Croesus at Sep 5, 2006 7:13:23 PM

The R15 is the worst consumer electonics box I've ever bought. Some Law Firm should be gearing up to sue the bezeezers for the load of crap the R15 is. And the DirecTV exec who "fired" Tivo should get the axe.

Posted by: Robert at Sep 8, 2006 3:21:43 AM

HAPPY AT LAST. I'm the one asking if you were all blind because the picture on the R15 is so horribly compressed (like bad web video) and nobody mentioned it. Anyway, the R15 did me a huge favor yesterday and DIED (it lived for a whole 5 weeks). So i called DTV, told them I've had it with this piece of crap and I want the to turn my series 2 Tivo back on and I don't want the give me any lip about it. They did. Of course they fucked that up too and I had to call 3 more times cause they kept shutting it back off, but long story short: It works now and WHAT A DIFFERENCE to the piece of garbage R15. Picture looks 10 times better and the thing actuallt WORKS. I feel like I've been on a bad trip for the past 5 weeks and am now back home.

Funny side-note: When I asked them what to do with the R15 and whether they want it back, they said "no, you keep it". I said "well, i'm gonna throw it away". They said "fine". So maybe I'll do a ritual destruction with my neighbor's monster truck and a can of gasoline and take pictures. Don't worry, i'll recycle the rest :)

Posted by: TheBoris at Sep 10, 2006 11:06:37 AM

well good news is i got my boxed fixed and got the latest software update the new update is decent speeds the box up more and i dont gotta reset nearly as often as i used you to so that good and as for the master reset the one guy asked about go to settings settings and something and their should be reset on the bottom of the list then you should also reformat the hard drive by pressing the lil red bottom after the screen goes blank after it sayin hello ur box is starting or w/e when it goes black hold down the left and right arrow keys ON THE BOX till the record light comes on then itll be reformating the hard drive thatll fix alot of problems

Posted by: sean p at Sep 10, 2006 4:26:55 PM

I too have fallen into the DVR trap of this piece of crap. Initially when we had DTV installed, we elected not to pay for the Protection Plan because it seemed like a waste. Who knew getting one of these receivers would be such a pain? Anyway, it's OFTEN missing most of the things I set to record, not allowing me to pause/rewind from live tv, and flat out locking up. What I want to know is, do you think I we can add the Protection Plan to our account and then call and talk to someone else and get someone to come out here for "free"? It would be like paying 6 bucks instead of 70. Also, any tips on getting freebies as a consolation for dealing with a piece of s--- unpolished product like this? Do you just have to act really annoyed/angry at DTV?

Posted by: Peter at Sep 14, 2006 6:40:12 PM

I am glad I found this forum! I have a Philips DVR Tivo receiver that just recently stopped being able to dial up and receive updates from Directv. I called customer service and after being hung up on two times, the third time I told the CSR, for the third time, what was happening and after being put on hold a couple of times, I was told that they would send me a "new" DVR, that it would not be the same as my Philips and that I would receive it in a couple of days. It arrived today and it looks cheap compared to my current receiver so I wanted to check it out online before I opened everything and switched it out with my Philips. I'm glad I did!

Not only does the "new" receiver and remote look like junk but the bottom of the receiver has a "RECONDITIONED" sticker on it and it came with a cheesy newsprint style manual. It is a Directv Plus 300 model. After I read this forum, I called customer service to let them know that I am returning the "new" DVR.

One good thing happened while I was on the phone with customer service (which is rare). I asked the representative about Directv's contract with Tivo and whether they had renewed it or not. She did not know the answer and offered to transfer me to their "specials" department which turned out to be their Advanced Technical Support line where I was able to talk to someone who actually knew what they were talking about. I was then able to resolve the issue I was having with my Philips DVR with the troubleshooting tips the rep gave me. She was very helpful and I was shocked that I was able to communicate exactly the problem with her and she understood everything. What a relief!

I also asked her about the Tivo contract and she said Directv cannot force a customer to change away from the Tivo service, however, they no longer have any Tivo replacement receivers in stock and only offer the Directv Plus ones. I asked if when, heaven forbid, mine dies if I can buy a new Tivo receiver on my own and hook it up and she said Yes, that is possible.

Sooo...my advice is to stick with whatever equipment you currently have if possible or shop for one on your own.

Posted by: Kelli M at Sep 15, 2006 8:32:36 PM

I have an HR-20

One week, only one problem. When I fast forward (sometimes) the sound gets out of sync on a recording. Hard to believe?

The features of this machine are far beyond my expectations. Record 3 programs at once! HD is better than ever. WOW.

Posted by: Bill at Sep 17, 2006 10:44:34 AM

I also have the R-15 and what a crap. Can't rewind, forward, record nothing. I am going to try to do the software upgrade and see if it corrects this damn issue. Keeping my fingers crossed...

Posted by: Hector at Sep 21, 2006 11:55:43 AM

I just received my R-15 DVR unit last Saturday with high expectations of recording COllege Football. Specifically Michigan St.& Notre Dame on my local channel then also NC State and Boston College of of ESPN. Not having any experience previously with this unit, to me it diod not seem that difficult to set up the programs to record. While I was attending the MSU/Notre Dame event, I was happily dreaming of coming home to review the highlights. DID NOT HAPPEN. At 8 pm when the events went off to record, I was informed by my wife that the State game on our local channels went BLACK and a "searching for satellite code 771" came up. After much dinking around, I deduced that there wass an issue everytime a recording event began and I would lose my local channels. ALL system requirements and signals were 85-90+. There was nothing that I could see coming into the receiver that should be causing the problem yet I cannot record with out losing my local channels. As oon as the recording is over, all is fine. After spending 2 1/2 hours either waiting to get some one or waiting to be transferred to someone, they insisted on sending out a service tech and I would have to wait 2 weeks (appt 10-10-06)for him to tell what I already know - the problem is with the reciever - DUHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Has anyone else experienced loss of satellite signal while trying to record?

Posted by: George N. at Sep 28, 2006 1:31:43 PM

My Directv Tivo box died and I was forced to switch to an R15. Wow what a piece of crap. The software is a major step backwards from Tivo... ugly and awkward. Sort of like being forced to use Windows after you've been on a Mac.

It's the little things that really get to you... like the lack of a 30 second skip.

Posted by: raul at Oct 3, 2006 8:37:28 PM

I've barely had my DirecTV with DVR Plus receiver for 2 months and it's being replaced by a newer model this week. This thing is a real piece of work. First off it starts freeze in the screensaver mode. When I try to set it up to record a program longer than (let's say) than an hour it only records the first 20 - 30 minutes before it automatically stops recording. Some of the shows that it did record come back as blank screens on the playback causing the DVR to freeze. At times, it doesn't even change the channel! I mean I can be watching TBS and then select the digits for HBO2 and while it will show the banner information for that channel (like I'm watching it) it still displays the channel I was previous watching. Sometimes the damn thing will freeze up after recording a program forcing me to reset the receiver and losing whatever it was suppose to record. The kicker for me was a DirecTV representative telling me in the past that the receiver is acting awkward because of the lack of space available on the hard drive. So to get this straight, it's a 100 hour hard drive but only the first 60 hours can be used for recording...what kind of crap is that? My friend has a Dish Network DVR and she has 100 hours for each tuner for a total of 200 hours...unless I'm mistaking (and gets to use all 100 hours on each tuner), whereas I can only use the first 60% before it starts to behave awkwardly!?!?! hell at this time I have 51% of the hard drive free and it's still screwing up. The replacement they are sending by the end of this week had better work or they will here from me again and this time I won't be as polite and understanding as I was the first time!!

Posted by: James at Oct 12, 2006 4:46:11 AM

The R-15 is the most technologically advanced piece of junk that directv has to offer. EVERY SINGLE DAY I have to reset it because it locks up and I don't want to send it back because I have several movies on it that I haven's seen yet. I feel stuck. R-15 has a mind of it's own. It will record, pause, ffwd, rewind, and play whenever it feels like it and not when the piece of junk remote that came with it tells it to. Sometimes you ffwd and the advanced time is still showing zeros. When searching for a title with the word "THE" in it it either takes forever to find shows and movies with the word "THE" in it or it just completely locks up. Series Link records whatever episodes and at whatever times it feels like(example: Friends is 30 minutes long but I only get 15 minutes of it along with 15 minutes of the sitcom that follows after). Also I have a 40 hour Samsung S4040R (TIVO logo) that my kids use and it works perfectly great. The Samsung has never given me a problem in the 2 years that I've owned it. As for the R-15 calling it a piece of junk is an understatement because it is worse than a piece of junk.

Posted by: Jorge D at Oct 13, 2006 8:35:22 PM

I have just spent 2 hours of my Saturday reading this entire thread. This was my first DVR of any kind, so had nothing with which to compare it. I am on my second R-15 and still experiencing ALL of the above-stated problems. At least now I know I am by far NOT the only one being screwed and mis-lead by Direct TV. The worst part of it ALL is the fact that DTV's reps are instructed to act like "you" are the first to encounter any of these issues. When someone files that class-action suit, count me IN!

Posted by: Kim Noller at Oct 14, 2006 10:55:45 AM

Well this was a great site to find today. I spend the last couple of days deciding on wether to buy the R15 for the bedroom or get a used R10 on eBay. I already have an R10 for the living room and love it. I've never had a problem with it and it is the sole reason that I recently had Time Warner Cable for only 36 hours. I had been interested in HBO On Demand so I thought I'd give Time Warner a try, after being a happy DTV customer for over 4 years, this was a big step for me. So on the day that the TW installer came out I told him to leave all the DTV stuff in place and work around the dish install. He did just that. So over the next 24 hours I crashed the TW DVR three times and had to completely replace the the regular TW receiver in the bedroom because no matter how much time I spent on the phone with TW CS and the supervisor at TW, my local channels would not work. So the next morning I packed both receivers up and took them in to cancel the service.

Now that I know that I'm going to be sticking with DTV I decided to look into getting a second DVR. So off to Best Buy I went to check out the R15. The kid that worked there was completely clueless and the model was not functional. So I pondered.... Then I called DTV and asked about deals for current customers. They offered the R10 for $49 + 12/shipping and free install of the second tuner line. I decided to pass on the deal and went to eBay to look for R10's. This morning I won and auction for what looks to be a slightly used R10 from a rather nice guy that says he just upgraded to DTV HD DVR's. It should be on it's way to my house tomorrow and hooked up as my second R10 by the end of the week. So, after reading this site, I'm very happy with my decision. As long as DTV will let me keep my R10's I will say a customer. I've tried TW and Dish, with some bad results. If DTV every stops the DirecTivos from working I will be taking another look around to see what my options are at that time. Lets hope they keep the service going.

Jason

Posted by: Jasonh at Oct 22, 2006 7:57:09 PM

In the year of 2004 my senior year wow school will be over in 2005. my favorite teacher told me this " do u watch tv and do u miss your shows and do u want them to record for u everytime it comes on i said yeah she said tivo the best" so it was dec 2004 i went to best buy and search for tivo and i talk to best buy crew and i found the low price the 40 hr. tivo and i took home and it hook a long time to set it up because they use the phone and when they use it the connecting will not go threw so the only way tell them dont use it the phone they do it at 12am then i did. tivo is the best record your shows every day every time every sec. then in year of summer 2006 in july . i call tivo i got my 2nd tivo for free the 80 hr. wow more space and i bought the wireless thing wow. yesterday oct 25 i went and chat with best buy i said i got big program now this year two or three shows are on the same time how can watch both of them i check out the new tivo record two shows and i said how and how it works i use the ir wire then say to me buy directv dvr and is the best and i read things online about it and then today during my 35 mins of my break i went and bought and then came home after work and i hook it nothing i call them to make it work and it did and it best but now the program is i got to my dish and hook 2nd cable to make the 2nd record work but now the my question is

does directv dvr has the same as tivo or different

i mean does have
season pass
wish list
keep them as long i want
showcased
tivo seg. that record shows when it off or when i am sleeping it record things when they come on

thumps up and down

keep shows in one floder

upcoming programs

what can it do please

Posted by: noor at Oct 26, 2006 10:34:56 PM

does directv dvr has the same as tivo or different

i mean does have
season pass
wish list
keep them as long i want
showcased
tivo seg. that record shows when it off or when i am sleeping it record things when they come on

thumps up and down

keep shows in one floder

upcoming programs

what can it do please

Posted by: noor at Oct 26, 2006 10:34:58 PM

R15 sucks almost as much as DirecTV. I was going to type more but this product and company deserve to be sue'd and shut down. Honestly this company only survives IMO as a preventive measure to keep cable companies from having a monopoly. I figure enevidably all we will have to choose from is time warner (with the pay us or else attitude) or directv (pay us somthing or go to the other guy attitude).
I had a direct tv cust service rep tonight tell me he gets paid the same no matter what and he does not really care, wow like i didnt know all their employees were like this. But he was a cool dude atleast he was honest. I had another direct tv employee (tech support) tell me they had both dtv and local cable and prefer their local cable i guess employees of DTV get free service.
P.S. Dont read further if your looking for a hack solution. Im only going to give reference to the crappy R15.

I have been thru 6 R15 units in less than 1 year. I told directv in feb of 2006 they had a firmware problem. This unit appears to be plagued with problems actually. Here is a list of them.
Hard drive instability either it over heats or Data on hard drive fragments. What fool made the searching for satalite always show on the screen even when playing a recording. When I am pissed how much my service sucks and want to watch a recorded show (if i can get lucky enough to have a r15 that works well enough to play recordings back.) would I want to have the picture covered with a message letting me know their is a signal problem. Whats with the annoying your batteries are low message you can not get rid of. What if I have no batteries or my rechargables are not done charging. Why would I want this message constantly poping up.(HOW BOUT A FIRM WARE WHERE YOU CAN DISABLE IN SETTINGS ON SCREEN MESSAGES LIKE THESE)

Im writing the B.B.B.

Wheres the class action law suit.
This unit was a cheap way to lock people into a 2 year contract. I was told I can not even send my unit back to cancle.

PS ASK FOR A REFUND OF YOUR 5.99 fee for the DVR service when you get these problems. If they can not provide a working service why are we paying for it.
ASK FOR FREE MOVIE STATIONS BECAUSE YOU LOOSE YOUR RECORDINGS.

GOOD LUCK FOLKS IF YOU JUST GOT YOUR FIRST R15...
Give it a few months you will see lock ups sluggish performance, lost recordings, recording with wrong programs at times listed, beginning and end of recordings cut off even using the extended recording timers, and not to mention a company that dont care about customer perception, customer satisfaction,and has the moto sorry we cant do that.

Oh yeah dont beleive their lies that the last software patch was bad on some units, some units would mean the bad units should be tracable after one year where are the recalls. Or the big our last patch might not have downloaded correctly. They know of this problem, listen to the people in the background of their call center if your on the phone with them as much as I have been you will hear the same problems and complaints and the same tech support answer, reset reset reset reset.

DTV YOU SUCK

Posted by: 1pisseddtvcustomer at Oct 27, 2006 9:05:32 PM

I posted earlier in this thread, but I just want to update and say that as of this coming week, I will be on my third DirecTV Plus DVR Receiver. I will give credit to DirecTV, they sent me a replacement receiver pretty damn fast...as a matter of fact I got it within 2 days of my phone call to them. So why isn't everything peachy-king? Well the replacement unit they sent me was an older version of the R15 (R15 - 100) which is slightly bigger and 1,000 times louder than the unit I previous had (R15 - 300). This is no joke or exxageration, it really sounds like a mini tornado in my bedroom, where the unit is housed and produces alot of heat. Here's a comparsion for you guys... I have a Panasonic DMR-E80H DVD-Recorder with built in hard drive (80GB I believe). It's pretty much the same dimensions as the DirecTV DVR Plus and is oh so quite. My desktop computer which I dare say is two and a half times the size of the replacement DVR is way more quiet.

I tried to be patient and understanding with this unit hoping that after a couple of days the system would work itself out and the loud fan noise would go away...it hasn't happened yet. So I called DirecTV Friday afternoon and explain the problem to them, with the fan, the loud whirling noise and my concern. Their first comment was "Is the receiver working correctly sir," to which I replied "yes" because really it was at the time. Their response to my "yes" was that if the system is working correctly, there's nothing they can do about a noisy cooling fan. I retorted by saying that when I called them earlier in the month they promised to ship me a new (as in brand new receiver) that should be free of the problems I had in the previously receiver...to which they started backtracking on the "new" comment. After this I told the lady customer service representative, that I didn't have a problem with a model that's refurbished, however, what I did want was a model of the equal ability as the first I had that can actually perform and not be as loud as the current one. To which she replied that DirecTV is not responsible for a noisy fan as long as the unit is working as it's intended.

I started to get pissed but kept my cool...even when they started playing phone tag with me and hanging up on me a couple of times which forced me to wait forever for a customer service representative when I called back. No one it seems wanted to help and seemed to be dodging my question which was can I get a DVR unit that functional and not as noisy as the replacement I got now. I had one in the past, I'm sure I can get one again. Finally I got somebody in tech support who said he would get my third DVR (2nd replacement) ship to me this week. I was never more pissed off in my life talking with those people and I have been a loyal customer since 1999, even longer if you count the PrimeStar take over.

I would have switched to cable a long time ago if it was offered in my area, but since I live in a land where people prefer satellites (C-Band, DirecTV, Dish Network) the cable company (Time Warner) won't come out here until they are sure there's a market for their cable services.

DirecTV is showing poor customer service, to go along with their poor equipment quality. I have started to have problems with this receiver although they aren't as great as the ones I had on my original unit. At times I am very tempted to just switch to Dish Network (if I could convince my roommate since the bill is in his name) and just drop down to the lowest, cheapest programming package I can choose while incurring the 5.99 access fee.

Anything would be better than having to go through this.

Posted by: James at Oct 29, 2006 1:38:16 PM

Stage 1:
I have the r15-300. It slowly stopped working. I had it 75% full when it started to lock up. At first I could delete a recorded program and seemed to work again until I hit 75%. I had several hours of wsop and wpt (poker shows) I wanted to save. So I lived with the small amount of recording time I had. Then the dvr started to lock up more often and I had to pull the plug on the dvr to be able to change channels. I could not longer record anything even though I tried off and on, the machine kept locking up. So I stopped scheduling items. Still it locked up and I had figured it was the scheduler and I deleted all to do's.
Stage 2:
I using the dvr and started searching online for information. I saw sights for replacing the hardrive, sites for getting older dvr's(tivo's). Information about getting a new machine for $78 or free if it's under warranty. I also noticed I was reading posts 1 or 2 or 3 years ago.
Stage 3:
I called Direct TV. Spoke with a tech person. I explained to the first employee I had problems with my dvr, she asked a few questions and she gave me some things to do but it did not fixed the problem. The tech person explained that the software is the problem. No need to replace the hard drive or machine. There is an update out but it was released to 1 area ( I think Central or Mountain or Pacific) and it will be released to region 2. Region 2 will get the update on Oct 18th. Since I'm in the East Coast region the update maybe released later in October. The tech explained how I can verify if I'm scheduled for an update. Menu\settings\setup\Info & Test; Info & Test window will list the Past Up Grade: (mine) 0X104B 8/29/2006 3:05am; Future Upgrade: Not Scheduled. The tech told me if I connected a phone line to my dvr I may get the download date. He had asked me first if it was connected by phone line before giving me that info. I've not connected a line yet, I will when I bay a 15 foot phone line. He assured me that the East coast is the next and last region to get the update. He did not know if it would be in October but is next. I asked questions if the upgrade corrected problems in the other regions and he said yes. He offered to turn off the dvr fee for October. So now I have dvr that doesn't work and I don't pay for the dvr service. I check once a week to see if there is a new download. If I don't see an update. I'll move the bedroom receiver to the family room because I can schedule programs to watch and the DVR will just sit.

Direct TV is still better then my local cable company Comcast. The dvr service by Direct Tv is worthless. It's not worth fighting for a $5.99 (lunch) over 3-4 months.

Posted by: Delaware D at Oct 30, 2006 9:06:51 PM

Can anyone tell me how far out the R15 can search for shows? Direct TV was here today to fix another problem, and I was told that you can only search for shows in the next 12 hour period. I am having trouble searching for regular scheduled shows period. The manual only states that it will search as ahead as many days your receiver is capable of. They have sent me a replacement R15, but I don't want the hassle of changing this out if it will not improve. Thanks, Connie

Posted by: Connie at Nov 5, 2006 2:14:41 PM

the dvr can search up to 2 weeks into the future how ever the tv networks may nit have their schedule planned out that far ahead in which case itll display something along the lines of regular programming or something and ever since i got my late august update of the r15 ive been in heaven have not had one single problem at all none so dtv customer service is okay (thoughg i prefer tmobile as their reps are awesome) and dtvs tech reps are good so in the long run i think ppl are just to short with dtv but believe be i know where your coming from b/c i to have been in dtv r15 HELL

Posted by: sean p at Nov 6, 2006 1:05:21 AM

The R15 is the ultimate piece of shit. Apart from the slow and counterintuituve interface, the thing freezes more and more frequently, refusing to respond to any input from the remote or the panel buttons: up to 4 times in a single hour, recording any programs or not. The only thing that worked was to unplug the damn thing. Now, it turns itself off after the "Just a few more seconds please" screen. I'cve only had the service for 5 months. It's crap.

Posted by: Dracos at Nov 7, 2006 1:45:09 PM

I have been a DirecTV customer for 5 years. Loved the basic system. Extremely loved my TiVO. Then I got the R-15. IT IS A PIECE OF ****! The first box I recieved locked up completely in the 2nd week. My new box is now acting up - locking up repeatedly. The fact that it is sooo inferior to Tivo, at this point is moot. I, at the very least, expect it to function properly. IT DOESN'T!! I am so unhappy at this point, I don't know what to do. I still have one year and ten months on my *****y contract. Any ideas, anyone?

Posted by: Brian Wojtach at Nov 9, 2006 6:16:04 PM

I've had two R-15s fail in four days. Does anyone know if the basic DTV receivers make it easy to record to a DVD recorder? I used to have Dish and the basic units have an infrared blaster to turn on a separate DVD recorder or VCR.

Posted by: Ron Schaming Jr. at Nov 12, 2006 4:04:10 PM

Hey, DTV Tier 2 Rep here, just wanted some customer feedback, if nobody minds.

I have 2 R15-300's at my house, and the only problem that I had was right after the 104B upgrade on the one in my room, which a reset everything fixed.

As far as people calling in about having issues with the R15's, either the 100's, 300's, or 500's, I've noticed a drastic decrease in the numebr of the receivers having software related issues (the primary calls I get for them are new installations having dual tuner issues, either because the tech didn't run both lines to the receiver (they're supposed to), or the reciever was plugged in before the Sat-in 2 cable was screwed on.
The other thing that I've noticed is that some of the R15-300's that didn't initially have a problem with the 104B upgrade are now showing symptoms of some of the issues it was supposed to fix (reset everything seems to resolve permanently) which I escalated to Engineering. As far as Tivo DVRs. The most common reason people call are they slow down, ot they start pixelating or skipping. (especially r10, and hr10-250 models)

Software-wise, I learned the R15 first, so I personally find the user interface easy to navigate, but that could just be that I'm weird.

In summation, any feedback that you could give me on how the receivers are behaving will help me help get the recievers to at least stop having recurring bugs.

Thanks in advance

Posted by: DTV_Tier II at Nov 14, 2006 1:15:32 AM

My DirectTivo just took a dump and I was actually pretty excited when I called and they said "We're going to send you a newer, better DirecTV DVR as a replacement."

Then I found this page and I'm really apprehensive about what sort of piece of poop I'm getting. Hopefully it's the R10, though they both seem pretty bad.

Then again, I had not one, not two, but THREE Tivo DVRs die on me. So how can it get much worse? I know, I shouldn't ask.

Too bad you can't get NFL with any other service but DirecTV...or I'd be gone in a flash.

Posted by: Steve at Nov 14, 2006 2:53:39 PM

Ron Schaming Jr from Directv... We have been having MANY problems with our R15 - getting worse recently. It was installed when we moved into a new house in August. I just tried the Reset Everything move to see if that works (is this considered a "hard boot"? - that's what one of the phone technical support guys told me might help)... We are seriously considering replacing the R15 with our pervious Hughes DVR if we continue to have issues. This is getting ridiculous! Hope the "Reset Everything" works. Thanks!

Posted by: Lisa at Nov 18, 2006 3:07:35 PM

Sorry - I read the names wrong - the above post should be addressed to DTV_Tier II... Sorry for any confusion!! Sorry, Ron - I didn't mean to write to you. :)

Posted by: Lisa at Nov 18, 2006 3:09:35 PM

For Hector on 9/21 - was that game subject to blackout? I was warned that can happen with local sports games.

I had cable and a Toshiba XS-32 DVD/DVR recorder (80GB). Switched to Directv and was naive to think the XS-32 would still work. Can't get it to control the Directv channels (if I preset a program to record at 8pm, and at 8pm I'm watching another show, it will switch the channel to the one I set for recording. It only records what I am currently watching). So looks like I have to get a R15. I'd appreciate any answers. Thanks in advance!
1. Can a DVD recorder be hooked up to the R15 so a show on the R15 hard drive can be recorded to a DVD?
2. Sounds like I need to avoid the series-link feature. My XS-32 was REALLY basic for presetting shows - no TVGuide deal. Can I just preset to record on every Monday from 8-9 pm? Not selecting a particular show title, just setting a specific channel and time to start and stop recording?
3. Can I record one show and watch another at the same time?
4. Does the monthly fee go up after the $5.99 honeymoon period?
5. Do the R10 owners pay the monthly fee? Are there any other DVRs that work with it (meaning a preset recording will record while I watch another channel) that don't require a monthly fee? With cable and a DVR there was no monthly fee.
6. I have stand alone DSL, meaning it's hooked up to a phone jack but I don't have a home phone so it doesn't have a dial tone. Directv works fine, will the DVR work

Posted by: Julie L at Nov 29, 2006 10:27:30 PM

When I first found this page, I must admit that I thought you were a bunch of whiny geeks, sort of like the losers who complained when Star Trek was taking off the air.

Well, now it's 2 weeks after I received my R15 and as just as miserable as the rest of you. Yes, I'm now a geek and here's my simple post:

For those of you reading this message, DO NOT, DO NOT, DO NOT put the R15 in your house. I won't go into all the issues I've had because they're all listed on this page, but suffice it to say that I've had nothing but trouble since day one. This thing is the Yugo of DVRs. If, after reading this, you still go out and get an R15, you are retarded.

Yes, I know, I did the same thing -- but that's why I'm making amends by posting right now. Probably the first post I've ever made to a message board. The R15 will drive you so mad that you'll do the same.

Horrible. Just horrible.

Posted by: Steve T at Nov 29, 2006 10:36:48 PM

Have any of you considered a classaction lawsuit to get DTV's attention, money and greed is the only way this company responds.

Posted by: Joe at Dec 5, 2006 11:46:32 PM

We have had the R15 since June as a brand new install. We were told that it was dual tuner system. We found out later that Direct TV had only run one cable to the back of the receiver. We didn't discover it until after the warranty expired 90 days later. In that period, my finace' and I traveled a lot during the summer and didn't use it enough to recognize the fact we don't have dual tuner functionality. Finally, around September, we started using it a lot. We started recording our favorite shows and watching them when we could. During playback, the interface would sometimes lock up. Other times, it would just shut off. Our first (of several) call to Direct Tv resulted in us having to do a master reset (re-image of the drive) which meant we would lose all of our recordings. These were things that we couldn't get back like news stories, etc. The re-image fixed our problems somewhat until about 2 weeks later when we had to re-image again at the suggestion of DTV customer support. After that, we would experience so-so lockups. The annoying thing that we saw the most (and still do) is the progress bar on playback would be empty or locked in at some timestamp. We sometimes just don't know how far into a recorded show we are. During this stretch, Steve Irwin was tragically killed. We were fans of his and had recorded some shows dedicated to him. One in particular was a 20/20 interview of his widow Terri that we recorded. We couldn't watch it live because we were travelling (again). When we got back, the receiver would not turn on. So, again, we called DTV customer service. By this time, we had had it. We are not getting the service we need from the DVR. It's totally useless. So, we told them to come and get this piece of junk and send us a normal receiver (with the intention of getting Tivo). They offered instead to send up another DVR free of charge. So, after a debate with my fiance, we agreed. We get the new box, and hook it up. So far, we have yet to lose any programs. However, all of a sudden, we are getting these "searching for satellites" signals and have no ability to watch live TV. It happened recently on a Sunday, so we called DTV customer service (again). They offered to send out a tech (after troubleshooting it over the phone.. which involved me unscrewing undisturbed cable inputs and re-attaching them). The best they could do was get someone out in 3 days. What choice did we have? So, i agreed. Mind you, they give you a 4-6 hour window, which means I have to leave my job so DTV can come solve their problem. By Tuesday, it started working on it's own again. So, I called and cancelled. This happened just before Thanksgiving. How is my service now? Well, I got home last night and the first thing I saw was "Searching for a signal". It was that way this morning too. So, I don't know what to do. FYI: The dish is not occluded by any trees or structure. It has a clear shot of the sky. I am really frustrated with Directtv. Our local cable co. (Adelphia) sucks and we aren't guaranteed that a move to Dish Network would be any better. We are just plain stuck, it looks like. I'm thinking, worse case, that we will end back up in cable land with new Tivo units. At least there is the possibility that Comcast will upgrade Adelphia.

Posted by: Kepper at Dec 7, 2006 7:23:45 AM

I would like to begin by stating that I am a dtv advanced tech support representative.

That being said, there are a few things that many people forget when writing about the r15 in comparison to the tivo receivers. It is what is known as copyrights... Tivo owns the copyrights to the software that does all of these things that make tivo "great."

In addition, if you would like to state that some Dish Network dvrs that came out at one time were better, that is fine, that is personal opinion, however the state of colorado upheld that thier dvr software was "copyright infringement" which is why they had to replace all of thier customers dvrs. also, you must remember that dtv (like tivo at one point) is in the "learning" stages on a dvr. This was thier first model. There was a panel of people who were randomnly selected to evaluate tivo and ultimate tv - what they liked, didn't like, and so forth. The r15 is (without copyright infringement) a culmination of both of those things and in addition, go back to the first stages of tivo, have you used one lately? Every company has endevours, every company has challenges. Just because something is diffrent does not always mean it is bad.

Posted by: runnerdude1985 at Dec 27, 2006 10:48:27 PM

Well Runnerdude, the R15 I've had only since August is now locking up on a daily basis...of course