# Should I get an R15?



## johnp37 (Sep 14, 2006)

I am considering replacing one of my dinosaur D10s with an R15. I hesitate due to the negative posts. Has it's reliability/functionality improved to any substantial degree? Should I go for it? Help me out on this. Thanks.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

"substantial degree"... I guess it would depend on your base point.

I have now used an R15 for over two years... and frankly...
It does it's job. It records, it plays back...


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## mhayes70 (Mar 21, 2006)

I have 3 of them and no problems. They have been recording and playing with no issues. I would suggest getting one.


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

If you are in no particular hurry, you might hold back for awhile and see whether or not the rumored R16 materializes. But I agree with Earl, my R15 is working fine and I've had it almost as long as Earl, over 2 years.

Carl


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## Upstream (Jul 4, 2006)

People who are in love with Tivo seem to hate the R15 because it isn't Tivo. 

But people who haven't had a Tivo (or had a Tivo, but are willing to accept that there are other DVRs out there), are mostly satisfied with the R15.

When the R15 first came out, it was very buggy and unreliable, but it is mostly stable and reliable now. But you should be aware that it still has some bugs. 

Some features don't work, or work so poorly that they are essentially worthless (like search and autorecord). 

But for basic functions (schedule and record, series record, playback, pause, rewind, fast forward), it is reasonably reliable.

I divide my recordings into two groups: (a) shows I record, but don't really care about, and (b) shows I care that they record properly. I don't know the reliability of group a (since I don't really care about those shows). For group b, the R15 records those shows reliably about 85% of the time. The other 15% of the time I may get a missed or partial recording, or some other glitch.


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## davring (Jan 13, 2007)

A hiccup or two the first month or so, but been very reliable for the past two years. It records what is scheduled and plays it back as intended.


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## Radio Enginerd (Oct 5, 2006)

johnp37 said:


> I am considering replacing one of my dinosaur D10s with an R15. I hesitate due to the negative posts. Has it's reliability/functionality improved to any substantial degree? Should I go for it? Help me out on this. Thanks.


The R15 is a good box.
My wife uses our R15-300 and doesn't have any issues.

If I was upgrading, I'd look at what your upgrade offer is and decide based on that. If they're going to upgrade you for free then you really have nothing to loose.


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## Button Pusher (Jan 19, 2007)

I still have my R15 and it does its job like Earl said "It records and it plays back."


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## sdicomp (Sep 12, 2006)

Button Pusher said:


> I still have my R15 and it does its job like Earl said "It records and it plays back."


+1


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## cawall (Sep 30, 2006)

I have a TiVo and always liked it but now I like my R15 much better. It has better features and now that some of the bugs have been worked out, it's great.


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## jfeco (Nov 7, 2007)

I would look into the HD DVR because it seems Direct supports it better. It gets the new features and they wait on the R15.


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## sdicomp (Sep 12, 2006)

johnp37 said:


> I am considering replacing one of my dinosaur D10s with an R15. I hesitate due to the negative posts. Has it's reliability/functionality improved to any substantial degree? Should I go for it? Help me out on this. Thanks.


A year or so ago I would have said NO! DO NOT get an R15! But D* has done LOADS of work to this DVR, and it is a nice stable box now!

GO FOR IT!!!


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## buggs1a (Oct 27, 2007)

This is *your* *opinion* only. I'm sure there's a lot of people who hate the R15 for what it is, not because it's not Tivo. Tivo is better in some ways and not in some ways. I'm sure there are some who love the R15 and hate Tivo after using Tivo first. This is your opinion only.

The people who use Tivo first and use others yet still prefer Tivo is maybe because Tivo is better for them. If there was something better they'd maybe like it better.

There's a few things I prefer from Tivo and a few things I prefer from the R15. However in my opinion I much prefer Tivo UI for much nicer colors and buttons etc.

For the R15 to mess up in recording is utterly pathetic because that's its job. My Tivo in over 4 years have not had one single problem with recording or anything period.



Upstream said:


> People who are in love with Tivo seem to hate the R15 because it isn't Tivo.
> 
> But people who haven't had a Tivo (or had a Tivo, but are willing to accept that there are other DVRs out there), are mostly satisfied with the R15.
> 
> ...


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## Upstream (Jul 4, 2006)

Actually it is an observation, not an opinion. People who seem to love Tivo don't like the R15 and their complaints seem to focus on the feature and interface differences, not reliability.

Obviously other people don't like the R15 because of its reliability problems. As I noted, the R15 is only about 85% reliable in recording shows I care about. My opinion is that is reasonably reliable. But others may have the opinion that is unreasonable. I can understand people being very upset with a DVR that screws up 3 out of 20 recordings.


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## jfeco (Nov 7, 2007)

Upstream said:


> As I noted, the R15 is only about 85% reliable in recording shows I care about. My opinion is that is reasonably reliable. But others may have the opinion that is unreasonable. I can understand people being very upset with a DVR that screws up 3 out of 20 recordings.


Exactly! I wouldn't buy a TV that worked only part of the time. So why would you buy a receiver for that TV that worked only *85%* of the time?


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## bonseye (Jan 16, 2008)

johnp37 said:


> I am considering replacing one of my dinosaur D10s with an R15. I hesitate due to the negative posts. Has it's reliability/functionality improved to any substantial degree? Should I go for it? Help me out on this. Thanks.


:nono2: when i first got D* they sent mee the r15 & i liked it alot, although it is a bit slow. then just as my 2 yr contract was about to expire the hard drive crashed after one of the updates. it was very annoying. i called crs and they told me to reset; i already had - then they said to reformat; when i di this it at first seemed to fix but the first time i started watching a movie about 10 min in it crashed again. i called csr back and they said they would replace it. i was to return old one in supplied box and it wouldnt cost me anything. well it went smooth as far as recieving / returning reciever, but when i tried to end my service after my original contract ended i was told that i couldnt because a new contract began when they replaced the defective reciever. this doesnt seem right to me since they didnt tell me this when i first called and also it appears to be a common problem with this model. its not that i dont ever want the service again i just needed to stop service and wasnt sure if i was gonna resubscribe @ the time. so my advice is do some more checking as far as if this issue has been addressed or if u can work something out as far as contract. PS i have never even seen TIVO (sad i know) so this is not a factor.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

bonseye said:


> :nono2: when i first got D* they sent mee the r15 & i liked it alot, although it is a bit slow. then just as my 2 yr contract was about to expire the hard drive crashed after one of the updates. it was very annoying. i called crs and they told me to reset; i already had - then they said to reformat; when i di this it at first seemed to fix but the first time i started watching a movie about 10 min in it crashed again. i called csr back and they said they would replace it. i was to return old one in supplied box and it wouldnt cost me anything. well it went smooth as far as recieving / returning reciever, but when i tried to end my service after my original contract ended i was told that i couldnt because a new contract began when they replaced the defective reciever. this doesnt seem right to me since they didnt tell me this when i first called and also it appears to be a common problem with this model. its not that i dont ever want the service again i just needed to stop service and wasnt sure if i was gonna resubscribe @ the time. so my advice is do some more checking as far as if this issue has been addressed or if u can work something out as far as contract. PS i have never even seen TIVO (sad i know) so this is not a factor.


I've never seen a Tivo either so don't feel too bad,but I have read up on one at the weaknees site and since I was raised on a picture in the guide don't think I would like it cause it doesn't have it.

You need to get the protection plan to avoid new commitments.

My R15 works for me no problems,but I don't use the series record feature or the prioritizer either I just set it to record by pressing the R button and it records no problems in 10 months.


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## Mark20 (Dec 25, 2006)

What Earl said!

Have mine been problem free, no. But since I got them a year ago, the software updates have improved things. 

Right now I have the latest software and have had a few hiccups because the older software (0c1092 for R15-100) is still on the disk. The right way to fix this is to force a disk format but that means losing shows already recorded. So I need to either watch them or drag a VCR to the TV with shows I want to save and record from the R15.

Am I and and the family happy with them, HECK YES! I have only one missed recording I can't explain. All of the others were either repeats which were not supposed to be recorded or not aired when I expected them to be.

As the tech was installing one of the R15's he asked how I wanted the VCR wired in. I told him to take the VCR out since it was dying and I'd worry about that when I got a new one. Over a year and I haven't bothered putting a new one there.


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## LI-SVT (May 18, 2006)

I have an R15-300 for a year and a half. As of right now it is a great DVR. I recommend it for general recording and playback of the D* service.


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## qwerty (Feb 19, 2006)

Mark20 said:


> Right now I have the latest software and have had a few hiccups because the older software (0c1092 for R15-100) is still on the disk.


How do you know that? If the old software isn't running how would it cause hiccups?


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## Mark20 (Dec 25, 2006)

From what I have read here, what I know about embedded software systems, real-time operating sytems and having helped develop several DIRECTV receivers plus a few educated guesses I suspect the disk's file system and initialization information really needs a clean start with a new version. 

The software also exists in a reprogrammable read only memory (FLASH). The reformat - I think - forces the FLASH to be reprogrammed with the latest version. So the new S/W may get some bum links to old code in FLASH and do strange things. If your info screen says two versions then you still have the old one.

Trying to do a software swap on an embedded system while preserving customer data in it is difficult. With all the stuff the R15 can remember (its got at least a 160 Gbyte hard drive) going through a process that makes it look like it just came off the factory line is probably the easiest way to go.

I would love to sit down with the R15's code plus get a run-down of the architecture with the engineers. 

The reformat instructions are in a thread in this forum. Not hard, you just have to understand the steps ahead of time so you enter them at the right time.


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## qwerty (Feb 19, 2006)

Excellent explanation. Makes sense. Thanks


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## GP245 (Aug 17, 2006)

I have an R15-100.

Run away from it as fast as your feet will move.

Problem after problem - updates only solve one problem but bring on others.


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## ThomasM (Jul 20, 2007)

johnp37 said:


> I am considering replacing one of my dinosaur D10s with an R15. I hesitate due to the negative posts. Has it's reliability/functionality improved to any substantial degree? Should I go for it? Help me out on this. Thanks.


It needs a little babying and checking on it's "TO DO" list to be sure your favorite shows are going to be recorded, but with the most current release of software it does record and playback fairly reliably. It has a lot of nice so-called "trickplay" features which allow you to jump around, pause, and slow motion play your favorite shows. Many of the latest features are not mentioned in the manual or on the DirecTV web site, but they can be found here on this system by checking out the latest software features at the beginning of this section or searching/reading the various postings.

I would recommend giving it a try with an open mind. Don't listen to the TiVo posters or the others who fly through the ceiling if one episode of their favorite show doesn't get recorded for some reason!!


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## Mark20 (Dec 25, 2006)

OT: I may be in the minority here but if an episode doesn't record, I'll find a way to survive. Heck I had to eat bugs in survival training.

Take a look at this POLL I started a while back. I think the value of a DVR is pretty clear.


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## sadmaker (Sep 16, 2006)

cawall said:


> I have a TiVo and always liked it but now I like my R15 much better. It has better features and now that some of the bugs have been worked out, it's great.


agreed, i also prefer the %15's userface to TIVO's. I've had an R15 in the living room for a couple of years, and minus a few early issues, all is well. Liked it so much that that i replaced the TIVO in the bedroom with one. At this point, the only thing that TIVO has on the R15, imo, is 30 second skip.


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