DIRECTV R15 Receiver/Digital Video Recorder--Up to 100 Hours- may require 2 YEAR extension of contract,monthly fees will apply by DirectTV, may also require to be activated as a "Leased Receiver" as per DirecTV policy change"
Tremendous Step Down from Tivo
I have never written a review before but my utter disappointment in this product and DirecTV's refusal to do anything to make it right inspired me to reprint my response to their refusal to take the product back for a refund so I could replace it with an older Tivo unit: <br /> <br />I am very disappointed to hear that [you will not refund my purchase] since I have had the DirecTV Plus receiver for such a short time and it has not met my expectations.  I also don't understand why you make people pay so much money up front for a receiver that they don't own.  Cable companies also lease their receivers, but at least they give them to the customer for free, including HDTV DVRs, whereas I had to pay a total of $600 for my HDTV and Plus DVRs and I don't even own them--that doesn't seem fair at all--in fact, it seems like a rip-off in comparison.  At the very least, I trust that (like with the cable companies) I am entitled to free repairs or replacements if my receivers should fail since they are only \\"leased.\\" <br />  <br />I am obviously stuck with this DVR if I don't want to eat a lot of money, but I hope you will take the following issues and use them to improve the quality of the DirecTV Plus DVRs with new hardware or a software update. <br />  <br />1. Unlike Tivo, the DirecTV Plus DVR is very unintelligent when it comes to knowing the difference between a first-run episode and a repeat.  This leads to dozens and dozens of unwanted programs being taped over and over again.  I shouldn't have to keep deleting episodes of shows that have already ended for the season and I shouldn't have to delete season passes to those shows just to get them to stop recording--that would negate the whole point of having a DVR.  This is a feature in drastic need of improvement.   <br />  <br />2. Unlike Tivo, the DirecTV Plus DVR is not smart enough to refrain from recording first-run duplicates.  This is extremely annoying when you wind up with 5 recordings of the same episode of theSopranos and other HBO shows, as well as shows from the UPN and WB that repeat themselves on weekends. <br />  <br />3. Unlike Tivo, the DirecTV Plus DVR does not allow you to switch live between the two tuners. <br />  <br />4. The menu system for the DirecTV Plus DVR is unintuitive and extremely slow, especially when trying to adjust the order of shows in the prioritizer or changing recording options. <br />  <br />I sincerely hope that when the new MPEG4 HDTV DVR comes out in August that it will not be as disappointing as the DirecTV Plus DVR has been.  I have always thought that DirecTV had better customer service than Comcast, but in the case of DVRs, Comcast comes out on top and this may lead me to reconsider my options when my two year commitment is up. <br />