RCA DWD490RE DIRECTV/UltimateTV ReceiverSee Restrictions)
Amazing Toy for DirecTV lovers!
After reading all reviews on TIVO for Direct TV and Ultimate TV, I learned that there is not a whole lot of difference between the two. The major difference at this point is that Ultimate TV works ONLY with DirectTV and some models of Tivo work off of any source. The Tivo that works off any source - will only record one show at a time, the TIVO for DirectTV will also record 2 shows at once. <BR>The other majore difference is that UltimateTV can still be found, while there are no TIVO's currently around that double as DirecTV receivers. <BR>After getting the cables run from my dish and turning it on, the fun begins almost immediately. You call DirectTV to get service, then the Box comes on and works like any other DirectTV receiver, except that this one is on steroids, a lot of features are packed in here. You can scroll through the guide (up to 2 weeks in advance)to find a show you like and hit record on the remote and you can rest assured that the show will get recorded. You can even record 2 shows at the same time. Once your get back to where you want to watch the shows, they are cataloged on screen, just highlight the show you want and press play and your show comes on. I was a little wary of the recording as sometimes when I set my VCR for 7PM to 8PM, the show would lose either the 1st minute or 2 or the last few minutes - not so on the Ultimate TV, it pads the time to give you a buffer. Not only does it do that, but say you want to record the afternoon NFL game, you can tell it to over-run the scheduled time by up to 1.5 hours so you do not miss the overtime. Another great thing that beats the old VCR, the programmers figured for the old fast-forward &quot;overshoot&quot;. Say you are fast forwarding through the commercials and all of a sudden you see your show on - you hit play and it BACKS UP the show about 5 seconds so you are automatically right at the beginning of the shows return instead of being 5 seconds into it... A lot of the reviews you may read pre-April 2002 say the device is slow in a lot of aspects. If you buy this product now, it will download the latest upgrade within 48 hours of setting the box up. This upgrade makes a lot of improvements, including major speed improvements. One other really cool thing is the ability to come into a program you want to record at any time. Say you want to watch ER and you do not get home until 9:15. On the old VCR, you'd have to wait until your show was finished taping to start the show, not so on the Ultimate TV, just go to the &quot;My Shows&quot; menu and you can start watching - from the beginning - ER - and it will keep recording in front of you. This way you can just watch until 10:15, instead of having to start it at 10....