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Brand: DIRECTV
Category: CE
This item is no longer available
Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 37001
Media: Electronics
Size: Hughes HD-DVR250 DIRECTV HD Digital Video Recorder
Shipping Weight (lbs): 15
Dimensions (in): 22 x 7 x 16
MPN: DWO2-10020
Model: DWO2-10020
UPC: 708986932802
EAN: 0708986932802
ASIN: B00067TQ4S
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| Customer Reviews:
 Beware of this product..... June 15, 2006
12 out of 19 found this review helpful
I never had a problem in the past with directv, but clearly this product is treated differently internally by the company. I ordered it from a customer service one night, assured that it would work. A few days later an installer came to our house, tried to install it and was unable to get it to work. When I got home, this new receiver didn't work, our other receiver no longer worked and two long cables were suspended on the outside of the house whereas all cabling ran though the walls, hidden from sight.
We called directv and they tried to troubleshoot the loss of service. During this time, they evidently activated the new receiver. When they couldn't get it to work, they scheduled a subsequent installer to come back to our house. The new installer refused to repair the work of the first installer because he said that the first installer "botched" the original installation. Evidently, the second installer was only authorized to clean up the installation but because it wasn't actually installed correctly, he wasn't going to work on it until the first installer returned with their mutual supervisor.
We considered this to be a waste of time and asked them to remove everything and return it back to where we started. After the second installer spoke with his supervisor and a directv supervisor, they removed all the equipment, restored our previous systems and left.
Directv called a few days later and said that they were sending a fedex pickup for the receiver. We told them that the receiver was taken by the installer. The installers returned a few days later with the box and apologized for everything that occurred. Directv sent a fedex label which we used to return the receiver.
We never received the 600 credit for the receiver even though multiple customer service representatives tell us that our record shows that the box was returned and that we are due the credit.
Evidently, no one is authorized to credit anything over $[...]. We've been told by some supervisors that once an order is activated, there's no one that can issue a credit over $[...]. We are out $[...] and we have been actively abused by some directv personnel who insist that since the box was activated, we can not receive a credit even though it was authorized, returned and permitted.
I've never been able to get a true understanding on this issue other than it's clear that directv is very sensitive to this particular box. I think it might be either a known defective product, a difficult installation or both but I can assure you that if they can't get it to work, they have no means by which to credit you.
I've initiated a charge back with the credit card company and intend to switch to comcast when we move in two months. For what its worth, we were a $[...] a month customer with directv in the past with perfect credit and payment history.
 Read the fine print. June 7, 2006
5 out of 10 found this review helpful
I had to send my receiver into DirectV for service after only 3 months. The first refirbished one they sent back also failed. The second worked but they charged me $1000 because they thought I didn't return one of the receivers. It took an hour on the phone to clear that one up. DirecTV is putting up new HD satellites that are not compatible with this receiver making it possibly useless in the future. I canceled my service because I wasn't getting good satellite reception and when I tried to sell the HD recorder, I found out it wasn't worth half what I paid for it and the access card is not transferable. Any new owner must buy a new card for $89. For 9 months of DirecTV I am out $800. I am done with the dish!!
I am only giving it 2 stars because the TiVo software is so good. Be advised that future DirecTV PVRs will not be TiVo.
 This was the best DirecTV HD receiver that I found. January 15, 2006
9 out of 11 found this review helpful
Equipment I Have
DirecTV HR10-250 Receiver
2 DirecTV R10 Receivers
Terk 3-LNB HD Satellite Dish
Sony KD-34XBR960N 34" Widescreen HDTV (HR10-250 connected)
Sony RDR HX715 DVD Recorder
Sony 27" Standard Definition TV
Sony 13" Standard Definition TV
Info
DirecTV HR10-250 is a high-definition receiver for DirecTV customers only. It also has a DVR with TiVo. With DirecTV, the DVR/TiVo service is only $4.99 per month. If you have up to four other DVR receivers in your home, you only have to pay the $4.99 one time per month.
250GB Hard Drive
Approx. 33 hours of high-definition recording space, 225 hours of standard-definition recording space.
Praise
I tried many different receivers for DirecTV at Circuit City and Best Buy. This was the best HD receiver that I found. Best features, better picture and sound.
The menu speed has been improved in the Series 2 Tivo. I runs pretty smoothly for me.
Nice Features
Dual Tuners
Record one program while watching another program with dual tuners (twin incoming cables). Or you can record from two channels at the same time, while you watch something that you previously recorded. You would need three VCRs to do this with VHS.
Wishlist
A great feature. Save Wishlists for your favorite films, actors, or directors. Examples in my Wishlist: Stanley Kubrick, The Godfather, Stephen King, Gone with the Wind, Roots. You can have programs in your Wishlist automatically recorded.
Jump-Back Feature
An exclusive feature of the TiVo system (as far as I know). Since the fast forward and fast backward speeds are so fast, you may go slightly beyond the desired point in the program. The jump-back feature compensates for this by jumping either forward or back slightly. When you skip through commercials, you can usually hit the exact spot right before the program returns.
Recording a Program
When you press the Record button, the DVR does not start the recording from when you pressed the record button. It takes the entire program from the latest saved half-hour block of programming. If you change to a certain channel, then press Record before the end of a half hour, the DVR will save the entire half hour of programming to your hard drive.
Criticisms
When I set up an alternate `Favorite Channels' list in `Channels You Receive', the receiver seems to automatically include a few channels all by itself, channels that I do not want. I hope DirecTV can fix this bug sometime. It seems to include a new channel every 4 or 5 days. I find myself deselecting these channels every weekend. These channel inclusions do not occur immediately following the receiver's call-out to upload more guide data. They just seem to occur every 4-5 days or so.
In the Spring or Summer of 2006, DirecTV will introduce the MPEG4 encoding. This means that every receiver will have to be MPEG4 compatible to receive all the local channels. The new upcoming DirecTV H20-250 receiver (also set for the Spring or Summer of 2006) will have a DVR, will be MPEG4 and HD compatible, but it will NOT have the TiVo system (heartbreak). It will be more along the lines of the R15 receiver, which makes me wonder what features I'll have to give up besides TiVo. Time will tell. Perhaps other manufactures can come to the rescue (please) and come out with a great HD MPEG4 receiver just in the nick of time.
Auto-Tune
On other DirecTV receivers, you could use the guide and have the tuner change to a certain channel at a certain time. The H10 has no auto-tune. In order to go to a certain program at a certain time, you need to set it up to record the program. Then if you don't really want to record the program you need to stop the recording.
Picture-in-Guide and Picture-in-Picture
Even the basic DirecTV receivers have a small picture of the current channel when you're in the guide. And with dual tuners, a picture-in-picture of both channels makes sense. The H10 has neither of these features.
Suggestions
A stop button on the remote would be nice.
A delete button on the remote would also be nice, since all deletions are verified before they're executed.
A 10-second advance button would be good. Sometimes it would be nice to skip ahead by 8 or 10 seconds without having to use the forward button. An advance button that skips ahead 30 seconds would not be needed. I wouldn't use it to skip through commercials, unless there was only one commercial. I use the forward button on the 3rd speed to skip commercials.
Back and Forward
Skipping back or forward through a program that is being temporarily recorded is pretty fast. When you are watching something that you previously recorded, or watching something that you are currently recording, you can use the forward and back buttons with the advance button and instantly go to the tick marks (the small white lines) in the status bar. You cannot do this while temporarily recording though. An even faster way to go back and forth would be great.
Mix Channels
The `Mix Channels' feature is about the only feature on the DirecTV R15 that is really worthwhile, and would have been great on the H10. I would like to see an expanded version of this feature. Imagine having a mix channel feature to view all of your `Channels You Receive' and/or your `Favorite Channels'. Hopefully other manufacturers will take a cue and include a feature like this in their future receivers for DirecTV.
Tivo Suggestions
Get rid of the Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down buttons. There is really no such thing as a "similar type of program" for most programs. In most cases a Tivo suggestion for a certain program is really nothing like the program that was given a Thumbs Up. For example, what similar program can you compare The West Wing to?
Hints
Skip Through Commercials
For those who did not realize this after using the DVR on the first day: Instead of watching a live TV program from the very beginning, start watching it 10 or 15 minutes after it begins. Make sure you're set to the correct channel for the program that you want to temporarily save. Since the DVR is temporarily recording the program for you, just use the back button in the 3rd speed to scan back to the beginning of the program. Then when the commercials come along, you can use the forward button to skip through them. Eventually you may catch up to the live broadcast (depending on the length of the program), but usually you may be able to see the entire program without any commercials.
TiVo Menu Sound
I was a little tired of the TiVo sound effects after the first few hours of using the receiver. It wasn't until the next day when I found the volume setting for the sound effects.
DirecTV Button -- Messages & Setup -- Settings -- Audio -- Sound Effects Volume. You can select Off, Low, Medium, or Loud.
Watch Two Channels with a Single Tuner
Even with a single tuner, you can stay on the current channel while the DVR records from another channel. When the message comes up asking you if you want to change channels to record from another channel, just say yes, or don't select anything. While you're still on the original channel, use the back button to go back a few minutes. The DVR will start recording from the other channel on time, but it will not change channels. It will also continue to temporarily record on the current channel. If you want to change channels to the new channel that is being recorded, press the List button and select the program from the list.
Season Pass
If you don't want to use the guide and set up the DVR to record the same program every day or every week, use the Season Pass feature. Set a Season Pass for a program and the DVR will record it every time it's on for up to 28 days. You can even specify the DVR to record First Run episodes and Repeats, or only First Runs.
Worth waiting for January 10, 2006
12 out of 15 found this review helpful
I have been waiting for a high-definition integrated DirecTV TiVo box for a long, long time. I held back on buying a separate TiVo box, held back on buying a third-party product. Well, I can definitely say this was worth the wait and lived up to my expectations so far.
The menus are very intuitive, as they are with all TiVo products. Mine was up and running within minutes after unpacking and activating it. I immediately began surfing through the current TV listings, giving movies and shows thumbs-up, double-thumbs-down, triple-thumbs-up, etceteras, ordering season passes, and setting recording schedules for a few movies.
Since then, I have never had one problem whatsoever with the system. It has recorded probably 300 shows, some of them high-def, some standard, and all that I have watched have been flawless in terms of picture quality and simplicity of operation. I have only felt the need to watch live TV a few times since then, mostly for current news.
I have it hooked up to an OTA antenna for local high-definition programming. It has recorded fine from there at 1080i, and integrated the local channels into my listings seamlessly.
If I had to identify some flaws, what would I say? One thing is that when you are selecting a program for recording, or a season pass, the system will tell you if there is a scheduling conflict, which is good, and you can at that point select "Find other Showings." However, you cannot see which of the other showings does NOT have a scheduling conflict without selecting one, and waiting for the system to compute this. It would really be helpful to have a feature where, once it knows the show you want to record, it would automatically find showings that have no schedule conflicts, or if it cannot find any, shows you what conflicts exist for each showing so you can pick the most convenient one without the trial and error. It's a small complaint overall.
The system is slow at first, while it builds your database of suggestions and of showtimes. However, once everything is loaded, response time was perfectly acceptable. This can take a couple of weeks.
Also, this system has a dual tuner, so you need two connections coming in from your satellite, plus one from your antenna if you have one. This is a lot of wiring. Luckily not an issue for me, but this bears noting for those looking to buy one. All TiVos are the same from this standpoint, otherwise you would not be able to watch live TV while recording another channel. HOWEVER, you CAN watch ANY already-recorded programming on your TiVo while it records another show on another channel, even if you only have one cable running to the TiVo. This means, once your system has a bunch of stuff recorded, you may find you don't need to watch live TV very often, and thus the inconvenience of using just the one tuner would not be the worst thing in the world.
I don't see how you could go wrong with this machine. I guess a terabyte of storage would be better than just the 250 gigabytes, but I have not run out of storage yet, and you can always send it away for more capacity through one of the third party companies that soup these things up. One other criticism I have with the system is that they could if they wanted make it possible to hook your TiVo to an external hard drive. I did not see any instructions on doing that, but that would be such an easy fix to the storage problem.
A final complaint: You can record in standard definition from the unit onto a VHS or a recordable DVD. But there is no capability to output in high definition yet. Hopefully we will find a way to get around this at some point, but we are waiting for Blu-Ray or HD DVD to become available and hopefully to standardize before the recording part is enabled, and then for Hughes to allow outputting to such a recorder. Also, the recording is done realtime, there is no way to record (dub) at double or quadruple speed, or even faster. Bummer.
A final compliment: I love the TiVo suggestions section. I have found more movies and shows that I like by scanning through the TiVo suggestions and getting it to record at least some of them. Of course, there are also those suggestions that you wonder "what was it thinking?" but at least for me that's part of the fun of owning a TiVo generally. If you have not taken the TiVo plunge, this is the machine to do it with if you are a DirecTV customer. If you are not, I suggest you become one.
Excellent when it is working properly September 19, 2005
10 out of 11 found this review helpful
If you are looking for HD, tivo and surrond sound, this is it. It is excellent when it is working propoerly, but ther are issues:
1. No series 2 software, so no networking, or nice folders to organize your programs.
2. Poor quality. I'm on my 4th unit, BUY the extended warranty, well worth any price. The HDMI port failed 3 times!
3. Processor is VERY slow at times, compared with TIVO series 2 stand alone unit. Long pauses at time when changing season passes and making taped show switch to "never delete" mode.
4. No direct HD local channels, only via antenna.
5. Few HD channels available, plus pay [...] extra per month
Good points:
1. Surround sound.
2. HD taping
3. 30 hours HD and 200 hours regular programming.
4. You can hook up a HD antenna to get local HD broadcast and tape them with TIVO!
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