Customer Reviews:
  Not as good as a Samsung DirectTV DVR receiver May 17, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had a Samsung DVR for a little over 3 years and had to replace it. The only thing at Best Buy was this DirectTV DVR. It has been two months now and I still am not used to the remote control. I don't like the user interface with this unit at all. I believe with my Samsung, I had TIVO and now I have DirectTV DVR service.
On the Samsung unit, you could click on info and see the year, actors, brief synopsis and more for shows. It is hit and miss on the DirectTV unit - almost no information shows. I have had trouble setting up season passes and doing searches for several channels - SCI-FI and USA to be specific. I used to have a nice long keyword list for searches. That no longer exists.
I have a Dual LNB dish and I used to be able to push the live TV button to get to what was showing on the other tuner. This isn't on the new unit. I was able to program the remote in my bedroom to work the TV but no matter what I did, I could not get the remote to control the volume in my living room. Over all, I really hate this receiver.
There are some pros that I will list though. One is when your phone rings, it pops the caller ID info on the TV screen. You can also subscribe to the game channels on direct tv. Extra remotes can be purchased from DirectTV and are not very expensive.
I will probably try to replace this DirectTV receiver for something different at my soonest opportunity. I just find it frustrating to use after having a Samsung.
 decent June 10, 2007
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
My parents have had satellite (DirectTV) service for many years. I have had DishNetwork for several years. We live in KY, which does not have the rainfall the Seattle reviewer has, but it is by no means arid. Particularly heavy rain does interfere with service, but this occurs in our area no more than once/month, and for no more than an hour. The installer did a good job of putting the satellite so there are no tree problems (the one in my parents' yard is post mounted, while mine is mounted on an old antenna pole at my roofline); we have trees in the yard, but also some clear areas. It would seem after reading the review from the Seattle person that you should talk to an installer a bit if you have many trees in the vicinity or live in an area known for lots of rainfall.
A friend of mine did have to switch to DirectTV when he switched from standard to HD service as he has a large hill behind his house and it cut the reception from the DishNetwork HD satellite. You might want to check the satellite direction if you plan to upgrade to HD later.
I give the products four stars instead of five due to what I view as deceptive advertising in many venues--the "special offer" prices are for shorter times than the contract period. For example, the special offer price may be $[...]/month for 10 months but your contract may be for 18 months. Also note that the free DVR upgrade may have a monthly fee in addition to the base fee; while it is about half the fee for TiVo service, you do not own the equipment and if you discontinue your service, you have to return the DVR. DirectTV package prices include local service, there is an extra fee for DishNetwork local stations.
 Don't waste your time or money.... January 31, 2007
3 out of 10 found this review helpful
We used Direct TV for over a year. The pros included (eastern standard time) programming, nice menu format, and programming information. However, unless you live in area free of wind, rain, or snow I would highly suggest you don't get satellite tv. I can't count the times we lost receptiong during a rainy afternoon, and don't get me going about having to trudge through the snow with a broom to slap the snow off the dish...for 5 days. Weather is a HUGE factor when it comes to sattellite tv...even the customer rep said, sorry, we can't control the weather. Needless to say, they would not suspend or alter my account for lost viewing time. I came to dread rainstorms...and living in seattle, you can only begin to imagine the frustration...I don't know why they even bother setting up systems here if its going to be that big of a problem. Then to boot, our neighbors tree also grew about a foot in that year, and when the wind got to gusting above 10mph, the tree would sway in the path of our dish, again, causing black screen, no signal, etc. I went back to cable, and can say I have not had but one outage, and that was the result of the huge windstorm that came raging through here in December 06. I like the cable, I like the HD, I like customer service, and not for one second do I miss the dish.
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