# My R15, is he really this bad?



## immax45 (Oct 2, 2006)

I recently added an R15 on a tv I use infrequently. (read: when the Red Sox game is only in SD and whatever my wife and daughter want to watch is in HD) I've come to accept that his FFW, 30-sec skip and RWD don't work so well. FFW at 4x speed and he often enters into an infintite loop (he replays 10 seconds of a program over and over without advancing), or after several seconds he will return me to where I started or perhaps even early in the program (it's up to him). I know that occasionally when I stop a recorded program that I'm watching to check out live TV, upon returning he will force me to start watching from the beginning again (that's when his FFW infinite loop thing gets really old). 

Last night I recorded the Red Sox-Tigers game (7:00-10:00) and the 2 post game shows from NESN(10:00-10:30) and (10:30-11:00). I started watching the recorded game late, so at 10:45 I was about 1 hour into it. Bam! His picture goes out, and he restarts. No problem I think since I was watching a previously recorded program, I'll only lose what was being recorded during the restart. When he powers back up, the game (7:00-10:00) was gone, plus the first post game show (10:00-10:30).

Dealing with his unfriendly features is one thing, but deleting a recorded program while I'm watching it, plus a second program I had hoped to watch, that's just cruel. that's just cruel. that's just cruel. that's just cruel. that's just cruel. that's just cruel. that's just cruel. that's just cruel. (oops he is wearing off on me).

immax45


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## Kevin Dupuy (Nov 29, 2006)

Well,I'm sorry for your issues. A very many are reporting the same problems. Mine works, um, OK, kinda. One with that many issues may need replacing, but replacing a DVR means possibly getting a refurbished one.


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## gnwes (Oct 9, 2006)

that really sucks man... i feel your pain though on missing red sox games due to the inconsistancies of the r-15, for example the dh they played agains detroit, neither would record, but more importantly the one played at 1235p wouldnt record while i was at work so i missed it completely. 

anyways getting a refurbished unit is not neccessarily a bad thing. if it ends up working better than your new unit then there is nothing lost, but the problems.


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## JasonintheOC (May 22, 2006)

I've experienced this as well as other problems. I'm on my 3rd box. It's a hassle and takes time but I will continue to complain up the chain until I get a box as good as my old Tivo.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

The rule on this is:Reformat your receiver!.If you still have problems after that contact Directv for an exchange.Good Luck!.


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## qwerty (Feb 19, 2006)

JasonintheOC said:


> ...I will continue to complain up the chain until I get a box as good as my old Tivo.


Good luck with that! The soft/firmware updates have drizzled to > 6 months, and judging from the lack of positive comments on the latest CE release, it'll be a long, long time before this thing gets fixed (if ever).


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

I for one am glad the R15 is not a Tivo.Because if it was you wouldn't have picture
in the guide/hard drive space remaining meter/90 minute buffer ect.I have never used a R10 but my daughter has both and she prefers the R15,and I do too.


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## shal (May 7, 2007)

Hard to believe Jhon69. Oh well, to each his own. If you lived with an R10 (or other DirecTiVo model) for a couple months to give it a fair trial, as I did with the R15, I'd be amazed if you still felt that way.

On balance, I'd readily give up the PIP to have a longer list on most screens (an on/off choice would be better yet). Although the lack of a drive space indicator is initially disconcerting, in fact it isn't needed once you recognize the "!" indicator. And dual live buffers, even if they are only 30 minutes each, are addicting.

There _are_ some things I like better about the R15, but on balance... No. It isn't ready for prime time -- too many things that just don't work right.


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## jal (Mar 3, 2005)

When I got my R15, right away I didn't like it very much. "Living with it" did help very much. So, I replaced it with the TIVO R10, which I liked right away. Like most everything else, if you don't like it right away, "living together" won't help.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

shal said:


> Hard to believe Jhon69. Oh well, to each his own. If you lived with an R10 (or other DirecTiVo model) for a couple months to give it a fair trial, as I did with the R15, I'd be amazed if you still felt that way.
> 
> On balance, I'd readily give up the PIP to have a longer list on most screens (an on/off choice would be better yet). Although the lack of a drive space indicator is initially disconcerting, in fact it isn't needed once you recognize the "!" indicator. And dual live buffers, even if they are only 30 minutes each, are addicting.
> 
> There _are_ some things I like better about the R15, but on balance... No. It isn't ready for prime time -- too many things that just don't work right.


Nah it's not hard to believe.I mean if your use to the R10,you like the R10.Hey maybe Tivo will be able to renew it's relationship with Directv thru Liberty.Then come out with the features I like on the R15 with a new Tivo box.The difference also is if subscribers want a R10 they have to buy one.Where as now you can get
a R15 for Free!.Not really a hard choice in my book,plus with the R15 getting upgrades it should only get better.


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## shal (May 7, 2007)

Jhon69 said:


> I mean if your use to the R10,you like the R10.


Yes, one tends to be biased towards what you learn first; that's why I gave the R15 a good long go -- I didn't want to derate it simply because it was different from the DirecTiVos. It _does_ take some time to learn how to use something well, including learning about its quirks and hidden features.

The idea that the R15 is improving is appealing, but given how far it has to go and how slowly it seems to be evolving... Well, my next planned upgrade will be to HD anyway, so it will be the features and reliability of the HR20 (or successor) that will be of interest to me (knock on wood).


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## TigersFanJJ (Feb 17, 2006)

shal said:


> Hard to believe Jhon69. Oh well, to each his own. If you lived with an R10 (or other DirecTiVo model) for a couple months to give it a fair trial, as I did with the R15, I'd be amazed if you still felt that way.
> 
> On balance, I'd readily give up the PIP to have a longer list on most screens (an on/off choice would be better yet). Although the lack of a drive space indicator is initially disconcerting, in fact it isn't needed once you recognize the "!" indicator. And dual live buffers, even if they are only 30 minutes each, are addicting.
> 
> There _are_ some things I like better about the R15, but on balance... No. It isn't ready for prime time -- too many things that just don't work right.


As someone who has lived with both for a long time now, I feel that the R15 is head and shoulders above the R10. I've now got three R15s and wouldn't trade any of them for another R10. As you said though, to each his own.


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## shal (May 7, 2007)

TigersFanJJ said:


> As someone who has lived with both for a long time now, I feel that the R15 is head and shoulders above the R10.


I appreciate some of the good points of the R15, but "head and shoulders"? I'm curious how you come to that conclusion, so here's a few of the things I noticed during my evaluation of an R15:

I like how easy it is supposed to be to set up a recording or series link on the R15 from the grid guide, but it drove me nuts that pushing the button has no visible or audible effect for up to several seconds before the red disk(s) appear.

I hate that the R15 won't let me series link the current episodes playing on channel X, and also the previous season playing on channel Y. It frustrated me that its way of telling me "no" was to quietly make the disks appear and disappear on the guide -- no other indication of what happened, no explanation of why.

I like how the R15 handles series-link conflict resolution, letting you chose to put the new link above, below or between the conflicting links. It frustrated me that it won't let me modify a series link that has no upcoming episodes, except to delete it.

I like that the R15's grid guide shows the scheduled recordings. It frustrated me that it won't let me go back in time and check what was on today or yesterday. Why would I want to know? In order to set a series link on a program someone told me about too late.

I like that the R15 has a 90 minute live buffer. It drove me nuts that the buffer isn't used if you belatedly decide to record the program you're watching. That is, watch part of a program, decide your significant other would like it, press record. The R15 records the rest of the program. The DirecTiVo grabs the first part out of the buffer so that you and your SO get to watch the whole program from the Playlist. Or, watching the news and see something stupendous. With the R15 you're out of luck: even though it is in the buffer now, it will soon be gone.

It frustrated me that the R15's history is useless: it never says why a recording is missing from the Playlist. Did two higher priority programs supercede it? Did someone cancel the todo item before it was recorded? Did someone delete it? Was it removed to make space for a new recording? The DirecTiVo will tell you.

I like that the grid guide gives you a description of the channel itself if you step to the extreme left. But I really missed the extended guide data that powers DirecTiVo's wishlists.

That's off the top of my head, I did write down some notes somewhere...


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

You can buy R10's at www.weaknees.com .


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## shal (May 7, 2007)

TigersFanJJ said:


> As someone who has lived with both for a long time now, I feel that the R15 is head and shoulders above the R10.


Another one I just remembered:

If you have a power blink, or for another reason the unit resets itself, during a recording, the R15 loses the part before the reset (or maybe both parts, I forget). A DirecTiVo gives you two partial recordings (before and after reboot).


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## Upstream (Jul 4, 2006)

shal said:


> I like that the R15 has a 90 minute live buffer. It drove me nuts that the buffer isn't used if you belatedly decide to record the program you're watching. That is, watch part of a program, decide your significant other would like it, press record. The R15 records the rest of the program. The DirecTiVo grabs the first part out of the buffer so that you and your SO get to watch the whole program from the Playlist. Or, watching the news and see something stupendous. With the R15 you're out of luck: even though it is in the buffer now, it will soon be gone.


The R15 will allow you to save a recording from the buffer. If you are watching a show, and press the (R) button, it will save the entire show from the buffer. In fact, you can even rewind the buffer to a show which has already ended, press (R) and save the show from the buffer.

All in all, I like the user interface of the R15 better than the R10. If the bugs in the R15 were fixed and the machine were reliable, it would be a better machine. But even fixed, the R15 would be far from perfect, and would be better incorporating some Tivo features (like dual buffers or improved search/autorecord). Ideally, I would want a machine which includes the best features of both systems plus some features neither have (like autotune and continuous buffers).


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## shal (May 7, 2007)

Upstream said:


> The R15 will allow you to save a recording from the buffer.


Oops. My apologies if I got that one wrong, I could have sworn I tried it and got only a partial.


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