Directv HD DVR DWO2-10020 Satellite TV Receiver
Great DirecTV/Tivo combo, but not without glitches
On a good HDTV monitor with an HDMI connection, the video from this receiver is just stunning.<br /><br />There are several things you should know:<br /><br />1 - '30 hour' refers to HDTV recording capacity. For normal, non-HDTV programming, you'll get much, much more than 30 hours.<br /><br />2 - For some reason, DirecTV has not upgraded the software to Tivo Series 2. That means no folders grouping together saved programs, no support for the USB ports (no broadband connection, you MUST use a modem), no Home Media Option or video sharing.<br /><br />3 - There's a bug in the digital audio output which causes digital audio to fail with some amplifiers. Fortunately, my amp was firmware-upgradeable to be more forgiving about the audio format. From what I've read, the receiver fails to send proper headers on the audio and sometimes (when you're changing channels, going forward or backward) this causes audio to cut out completely. I found that I needed to restart my amp to get audio back. DirecTV does not acknowledge this problem.<br /><br />4 - Over time we've seen more little audio and video glitches than I've ever seen with any other model Tivo or DirecTV receiver. Nothing serious, but kind of annoying.<br /><br />5 - There is very little HDTV programming available on DirecTV at the moment. Unless you live in LA or NY or you're rural enough to qualify to receive distant stations, you're unlikely to be allowed to get the LA or NY HDTV feeds of local channels. This is a government restriction, not DirecTV's fault. There's one PPV channel in HD format, and there are HD feeds of HBO and Showtime plus a few other things. Definitely check with DirecTV to see what you'll be able to receive before jumping on this.<br /><br />6 - DirecTV is working on bringing out lot more HDTV programming, including local network stations, but the rumor is that in order to do this they're going to switch to a new compression format that this receiver won't support. It's too early to say whether they'll provide a graceful upgrade path or will stick you with a thousand dollar receiver/recorder that can't receive the bulk of their programming, but consider yourself warned.to say whether they'll provide a graceful upgrade path or will stick you with a thousand dollar receiver/recorder that can't receive the bulk of their programming, but consider yourself warned.