Directv Plus HD Dvr Review….
Introduction:
So you’re in the market for a new satellite receiver and you want to find the finest one that has all the premium features as well as the most hard drive space to store all your recorded content. In that case you might want to consider the Directv Plus HD DVR. It offers a large capacity of space to accumulate all of your content. Let’s start from the design and move our way down.
Design:
The Directv plus HD DVR blends into any room or stereo cabinet nicely. It has a neutral light Grey color which flows with other electronics and items in the room. From the left to the right you will see a power button, which illuminates blue when the unit is on. Following the power button is the remote sensor then the guide button, Menu Button and record button which lights up orange when the unit is recording programming. In the center is a round blue light ring with arrow buttons and a select button in the center. To the right of the ring is an Active button, which gives you access information such as weather, horoscopes, lottery information and more. Finally there is the info button and the resolution button which lets you select from 480i, 480p, 720p and 1080i resolutions. At the bottom of the receiver there are two small cover doors that house on the right the reset button and access card and on the left a USB port that is useless, however it does charge your iPod or iPhone which is nice. One the back (see picture) is a power cord port, telephone port, SATA port, HDMI Port, RF remote antenna port, optical port, digital audio out port, and three component video out ports (one red Blue and green connectors and two standard yellow, white and red ports. The DVR also has one USB port on the back, two Ethernet ports and two satellite in ports. Note you must have two lines in. This might be a problem I know in my house we had to run another wire through the walls. The remote is designed well but I wish they spaced the record, rewind, pause and fast forward buttons better. It would also be great if Directv or Hughes would add a slow motion key because you have to hold the play button, which is a pain. Overall the design is great and every button seems to be in the right spot.
The Front of the Receiver
The Rear of the DVR
Features:
I would say that the Directv Plus HD DVR has a lot of features, but not as many as the TiVo but still a large number of features. My favorite feature that the DVR has is that it can record HD programming and standard program with just one touch of a button. You can also record two programs at a time and be playing back programming simultaneously. It’s great that the DVR has two TV tuners so you can use those functions. The DVR also lets you schedule recordings so when you go out your favorite show is being recorded then come back home and crash on the couch to your favorite program. Say that you know that your favorite program comes on at 11:00 A.M you can have the receiver record the series or all the episodes, this is a little different than scheduling programs because all you have to do is press the record button a few times and just walk away knowing that your program will be waiting for you when you return. When your watching your recorded programming and it’s time for a commercial break simply just hit the fast forward button a few times and you will go right through the commercials and continue back to the program. Along with all the recording features the unit also lets you rewind live television then play it from there. You can also pause and continue where you left off which is nice to have especially if you have a busy lifestyle. As you know the receiver has access to the hundreds of channels of Directv programming so you’ll always have something to watch especially with the two hundred hours of content you can record. In addition the receiver also has access to Directv active as I mentioned in the design paragraph. Directv active (see picture) is an interactive portal page which gives you instant access to your local weather, Horoscopes, Lottery Results, Paper View Movies and Events, Directv promotions and more all in a convenient interface at the touch of a button. Some of the downsides of the receiver are: If it crashes it takes a while to restart. It also lacks Picture and Picture, No internet browser even through it can connect to the internet via Ethernet and it can be somewhat noisy when it runs but it’s not going to keep you up all night.
Directv Active
Menus And Interface:
Directv does a great job in keeping all the features that the user uses in a one simple layout. For example if you go into any menu the same color scheme is applied unlike TiVo which uses multiple colors. All the features that you use are all in one place, like when you need to get to your recorded content you just simply press list and all your programs are shown in organized folders. When you want to watch the programming you just select the folder press select and then play. It’s great how directv does their menus because you only need to go through a few menus to get your tasks done. Directv also has a great menu design with the light blue color, which looks a lot better then the dark blue menu as seen on other Directv receivers. At Launch the Directv Plus DVR was shipped with the original dark blue menu but later on Direvtv sent out a firmware update which changed the menus to the better light blue Menu. In the new menu there are a few updates but my favorite is the light blue color also when you are on a XM Satellite Radio channel a yellow XM logo that says your listing to XM radio. This is better because before the screen would just be black but this is a lot better.
The Guide
What’s In the Box?
When you get the reviver it comes with a lot of cables even an HDMI cable this is excellent because you don’t need to run to the store for anything even batteries are included. In the box you will receive: A/V cable (the Yellow, Red, and White connectors) an S-Video cable, Phone cord, Access card, Power Cord, The Directv Plus HD DVR, IR remote, (No RF Remote) Batteries, User Guides, The component video cables (YPbPr) and two B-Band converters. I’m glad to see that they included everything nessary for use out of the box. Take a look at all the ports! (Great Job Directv!!) I feel that you get a lot for your money.
Summary:
In conclusion the Directv Plus HD DVR is a great buy, you get excellent picture quality, lots of storage and a bunch of features. I would say that it’s worth $300 if you were to purchase it but I wouldn’t for that I would get the new TiVo series 3. If you call Directv you can get it for free like I did. The unit does have a few issues as with anything but it’s a great unit that does everything and is defiantly worth the money if you decide to purchase it.
(Photo Credit Cnet)
August 16, 2007 at 10:28
[...] So your favorite program comes on at 12:00 P.M and you’re never at your dorm to watch it. Now you can record it with a DVR then play it back when you have time to watch it. This is another great way to relax after a hard day and is worth the money. There are a few selections of DVR’s that you can get. You can check with the cable company and they can provide you with one, you can buy a TiVo (They are Pricey) or you can call DIRECTV or Dish Network and they can provide you with one. I happen to have the DIRECTV HD plus DVR and love it. I can record lots of videos and programming, even HD when I’m not home. For Further information you can read my Review. [...]
August 21, 2007 at 1:59
[...] receiver was overheating and got extremely hot. I called DIRECTV and I had them to ship me a $300 HD plus DVR (see review) at no cost but when I opened the box it was another HD receiver with no DVR. I called DIRECTV and [...]
September 27, 2007 at 3:43
I have absolutely had it with the ACTIVE button. It is so close to the pause button that I had occasionally hit it by accident. When this happens, the contents of the DVR buffer is dumped and there is no graceful way to get back to what you were doing.
An EXACTO KNIFE to the rescue! I sliced the top of that damn button off to surface level of the remote, never to be hit by accident again. I certainly will not miss the TRIPE that is associated with the Active button.