Philips DSR6000R DIRECTV Receiver with TiVo Service
Easily the coolest gadget I've bought this year
Integrating the DirecTV and TiVo units provides extra power and functionality. It's a match made in heaven. The digital signal is spooled directly from the satellite dish to the TiVo hard disk for recordings that are always as good as a live broadcast, and no worries about quality settings either. Both DirecTV-style and TiVo-style program listings are available, and TiVo's Record button works on either type to set up recordings for the future (as do the Thumbs Up and Down buttons). That said, there are a few missing features even with the powerful TiVo 2.0 software. For example, the Season Pass function still records repeats of shows that are aired multiple times a day (e.g., a Season Pass to &quot;The Daily Show with Jon Stewart&quot; will get you three copies a day of the same episode) - even when you tell it just to record first runs. This is especially annoying on cable stations that tend to repeat the same program several times in a day or week. (The workaround is the same as for TiVo 1.x: manually make a repeating schedule by time/channel. Blargh.) There's still no way to set default options for recording programs; I'd like to have it always pad the start and end times by a minute, for instance, without having to specify that for every program I record. As another reviewer has pointed out, the second tuner in the box is basically good for nothing at this point, although when it's enabled it should allow you to record two programs at once, or watch one channel while recording another. And, inexplicably, the only way to turn the unit &quot;off&quot; (it's never really turned off, it will record programs for you in what it calls &quot;standby&quot; mode - turning it off just tells the receiver you're not there anymore, so it should feel free to switch the tuner to whatever channel is necessary to make recordings without warning you first) involves EIGHT button presses! That's just dumb. There are other oddities too, such as separate mailboxes for messages from DirecTV and TiVo services. No reason an integrated unit shouldn't have have all the messages in one place. Even with these foibles, though, this device is a miracle and will change how you watch television. Especially if you live in an area where DirecTV carries your local channels. Best of all, the issues I've noted are all software and can be addressed by updates, which are downloaded automatically.recTV and TiVo services. No reason an integrated unit shouldn't have have all the messages in one place. Even with these foibles, though, this device is a miracle and will change how you watch television. Especially if you live in an area where DirecTV carries your local channels. Best of all, the issues I've noted are all software and can be addressed by updates, which are downloaded automatically.