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"
Avoid unit at all costs
My r10 (the Tivo based DirecTv DVR) crapped out last week. I bought the r15 as a replacement. I knew I was giving up Tivo, but I figured it couldn't be as bad as everyone was saying it was. I figured all the negative press about the R15 was from Tivo worshipers who would poo-poo any non Tivo device no matter what it was like.    After a couple of weeks of agony with the r15, allow me to say it officially sucks.    The r15 should be should be studied in user interface design classes as an example of what not to do. I'm utterly in shock, because I'm forced to accept the fact the designers of the UI for the r15 are members of the same species as the designers of Tivo. The r15 has caused me to loose faith in the intelligence of the human race.    I've only been using the unit for a week or so, and here are the highlights:    1) The manual doesn't match the user interface in my unit. So, fell free to chuck it out the window, it won't help you.    2) The R15 has something like season passes, but it took me hours to figure it out, not nearly as easy as it was with Tivo. It also has the ability to prioritize your season passes, but it was quite difficult to find that bit of functionality as well.    3) The r15 does have a 30-second 'skip' feature built in. However in the r15, you are forced to still watch commercials, because the 'skip' is really an intelligent fast forward that zooms you through 30 seconds of video in about 3 to 4 seconds. Not a big deal, but the 30 second skip on Tivo was way better.    4) There is no way to tell what each tuner is recording. So, if you are recording two programs and you change the channel, I still haven't been able to figure out what happens. The unit offers to stop recording a show to allow you to watch live TV, but I can't figure out how it chooses which show to stop recording. Several times I've had to go manually stop a recording in order to watch live TV, in order to make sure it stopped recording the show I wanted. How stinking hard is it to ask the user what to do?     5) The navigation started out ok, but now it is horrible. Simple actions such as fast forward and rewind respond intermittently. It's like the receiver is schizophrenic, it just ignores you. At times it's almost unusable, and the instant replay functionality is so poor I actually find myself not using it.    6) The unit will miss recordings at random. Important recordings with the highest priority levels.    Bottom line:  Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. This unit totaly SUCKS. If I had the time and money, I would seriously consider alternatives, but I'm stuck. The r15 is still better than a VCR or DVD recorder but it's a very far cry from the Tivo. This unit was obviously shipped out without proper testing. I bet DirecTV just shipped it figuring they could fix the problems later.     Update  After nearly 6 months of use of this product, things have not gotten better. Here are the new highlights:    1) Several times the unit has decided to stop recording a large number of my shows. I have to delete and cancel them in order for the unit to pick them back up.    2) The unit crashes once every couple of weeks. The unit crashed during the first quarter of the superbowl, and we missed most of the 1st quarter.    3) The response time to remote control button presses is horrible. Sometimes you'll wait 5+ seconds to see your show list come up after you press the button. And you know the unit receives the command, because a light on the front panel blinks every time you press a button on the remote. Fast forwarding and rewinding are painful, you over/undershoot your target because the unit response time is so poor.    4) Unit will delete a pre-recorded show while you are watching them.     5) R15 often gets confused if you watch programs that are still taping. Sometimes if you select a program to watch that is still taping, it will start you off watching the program live. Very annoying for sporting events, I can't count the number of times I've started a football game 30 minutes late, only to have it ruined by the fact the R15 started playing the game live. ARGH! Once you see the score, why bother?    I hear Comcast and Tivo are going to become partners later this year. I can't wait, once they do I'm dumping my dish and I'm not going to look back.