DirecTV HR22-100 HD DVR Initial Impressions

I’ve been a DirecTV customer for over 5 years now.  I’ve been a happy user of the DirecTV Tivo units for that whole time.  Anyone who has ever used  a Tivo knows what a joy they are to use.  Well, a few weeks ago the Tivo unit in my living room started showing signs of failing.  Many shows it recorded ended up garbled, and one show would reboot the system when you reached a certain point into it.  So, I decided to call in my 5 years of being a customer without receiving any free upgrades to see what I could get.  I knew I wanted to go HD since I’ve had a HD TV for a few years now and haven’t had any programming to make use of it.  I managed to get a 5 LNB dish for free and their HR22-100 HD DVR for $69 (they normally ask $199 for it).

This past Saturday the installer came out.  Unlike my previous two installers, this guy knew what he was doing.  He did have an accident and step through my ceiling, but other than that no complaints.

So, about the HR22-100… the HD is nice.  It’s a big difference in picture quality (my wife doubted she’d be able to tell a difference, but she can).  The interface is just okay.  It’s probably due to my being spoiled by the Tivo, but I do have some issues.  First up, the 30 second skip.  On the Tivo, this instantly moves you forward 30 seconds.  On this unit, it’s like a super fast forward for 30 secs.  Maybe it’s a concession to the advertisers so you still get some sort of ad impression, but i don’t like it.  Push the 30 sec. skip 4 times and it takes a good 6 to 8 seconds to get to where you wanted to be.  Hitting the 30 sec skip button twice is supposed to take you to the end of the program, but that’s only worked once for me.  Also, the unit feels a bit sluggish.  The Tivo seemed to respond instantly, whereas I can detect about a half second delay when trying to do something with this unit.  So far it handles basic DVR functionality just fine, it pauses, fast forwards, records, but I don’t like it as much as the Tivo.  Finally, the remote.  The Tivo’s peanut was a masterpiece of functional design for me.  Everything was easily reachable by my thumb and getting anything done with it was quick and simple.  The remote for the HR22-100 seems too busy to me.  It seems they could have condensed some of the buttons functionality so the remote wouldn’t be so busy.

Overall I think it was a win for me as the quality of the HD image overcomes the shortcomings of the unit as a whole, but I just wish the recently announced new DirecTV HD Tivo unit was already available.