# My impressions of the R15



## skaeight (Jan 15, 2004)

I got the free R15 installed Saturday, through the YES Interactive offer. Overall I like what I see. It downloaded and installed 10D3 while the installer was still here. It's a 500 unit, and the temperature has been right around 50 degrees.

The guide is actually very nice (and I actually do like the tivo guide), and overall there are a lot of little touches that are included that I was kind of surprised about, just because of how many negative reviews I've seen. These just include prompts, the way you re prioritize the prioritizer, etc.

I am coming from a tivo background, so I have a lot experience with them. However, coming in, I knew it wasn't a tivo, so I changed my expectations. The UI isn't bad, it's just different from tivo. It takes a little getting used to.

The "trick play features" are ok. The 30 second slip definitely does take longer than the 30 second skip, but it is usable. I also experimented a little with the FF then skip back trick that Earl has talked about. That seems to be a good work around. The only bad thing I've seen is that twice the skip back button has stopped working while watching a recording. I'm pretty sure both were after I paused it for a little while. If I went out of the recording to live tv, and then back into the recording it started working again.

The search functionality seems to work fine. Was this something that was recently fixed? Also I'm puzzled as to why people say it doesn't have wishlists, because you can autorecord by keyword, seems that's almost the same thing. It even lets you pick categories, etc. Maybe I don't use wishlists enough to know why that doesn't match TiVo's implementation?

Now the bad.... I'm seeing first hand now that the first run logic just plain doesn't work. The only show I thought I was able to get to work (and I've only tried about 6) was Real Time w/ Bill Mahr. But then I realized that for some reason it decided it didn't want to actually record the first run episode on Friday but, rather it was going to wait until Sunday to record that episode. Does anyone know why this would happen?

Every other show that I set up pretty much is going to record every showing (however it doesn't appear that it will record the same episode twice). This just isn't acceptable. I hope they fix this soon, maybe move some of the HR20 logic over to this machine. Luckily this is a 3rd receiver that I have in my office so it won't be used or relied upon much. I really just wanted to give it a try and be able to watch as it progresses.

However, if they fix the first run / SL logic, remove the limits, and implement Directv2go, this will be great a machine. It's already not bad, but you just can't use it in the same way I currently use my tivo, (set and forget). However, I haven't seen it miss any recording yet, which is good. I suppose that I've missed the majority of the bad issues because of the fact I'm starting at 10D3.

I'm going to do some more experimenting with SL when I get some time, and I'll post the results here. I just don't quite understand how when the description says "repeat" the R15 still records it even if the SL is set to First Run. R15 developers, this should definitely be first priority.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

skaeight said:


> The search functionality seems to work fine. Was this something that was recently fixed? Also I'm puzzled as to why people say it doesn't have wishlists, because you can autorecord by keyword, seems that's almost the same thing. It even lets you pick categories, etc. Maybe I don't use wishlists enough to know why that doesn't match TiVo's implementation?


One problem with autorecord is that you are limited to 25 recent searches versus an unlimited number of wishlists on Tivos. Title searches have to be an exact match and you must include words such as "A" and "THE". You can perform title keyword searches/wishlists on Tivo units but cannot on the R15. A keyword search on the R15 also includes the title and description, no way to split those out. Searching on Person on the R15 will not return the same hits as the Tivo will as the R15 only stores the first 3 actors listed on any show/movie. The Tivo may have 6 actors listed but the R15 only has the first three. If you do create an autorecord remember that the results you have are for every channel on DTV, not just the ones you receive. Finally, if you set a wishlist on a Tivo you will get all hits recorded the first time they air if a tuner is available. On the R15 you don't. It may wait a week down the road to record a movie that was on 8 times before that. Perhaps part of the next problem you list.



skaeight said:


> Now the bad.... I'm seeing first hand now that the first run logic just plain doesn't work. The only show I thought I was able to get to work (and I've only tried about 6) was Real Time w/ Bill Mahr. But then I realized that for some reason it decided it didn't want to actually record the first run episode on Friday but, rather it was going to wait until Sunday to record that episode. Does anyone know why this would happen?


This is a know issue but we have not heard from Earl if this is a bug or a feature. To me it's a big problem as when I know this weeks new episode airs Friday night I want to be able to watch it Friday or Saturday. Not wait until Sunday or Tuesday's airing.



skaeight said:


> However, if they fix the first run / SL logic, remove the limits, and implement Directv2go, this will be great a machine.


Keep in mind the FR/Repeat logic and limit problems have been there since the beginning. 10 months now. We're all hoping for a fix on these soon.


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## skaeight (Jan 15, 2004)

Wolffpack said:


> One problem with autorecord is that you are limited to 25 recent searches versus an unlimited number of wishlists on Tivos. Title searches have to be an exact match and you must include words such as "A" and "THE". You can perform title keyword searches/wishlists on Tivo units but cannot on the R15. A keyword search on the R15 also includes the title and description, no way to split those out. Searching on Person on the R15 will not return the same hits as the Tivo will as the R15 only stores the first 3 actors listed on any show/movie. The Tivo may have 6 actors listed but the R15 only has the first three. If you do create an autorecord remember that the results you have are for every channel on DTV, not just the ones you receive. Finally, if you set a wishlist on a Tivo you will get all hits recorded the first time they air if a tuner is available. On the R15 you don't. It may wait a week down the road to record a movie that was on 8 times before that. Perhaps part of the next problem you list.


I don't use wishlists that exenstively for that to be an issue for me. I knew that you needed to use "the" and "a", etc for searching w/ title, and to be honest it's not that big of a deal. It's just a difference in design.



> This is a know issue but we have not heard from Earl if this is a bug or a feature. To me it's a big problem as when I know this weeks new episode airs Friday night I want to be able to watch it Friday or Saturday. Not wait until Sunday or Tuesday's airing.


I don't have any idea why it would be a feature for the unit to randomly pick an episode to record. It should record the SL the first time it's on, bottom line. Are saying you see this regularly with lots of programs, or are you talking specifically about Real Time?



> Keep in mind the FR/Repeat logic and limit problems have been there since the beginning. 10 months now. We're all hoping for a fix on these soon.


Yeah I wasn't trying to say something new w/ the FR/repeat logic. I've been following this forum since the R15 was released, and I was just kind of throwing my hat into the ring saying I finally saw this behavior first hand.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

skaeight said:


> I don't have any idea why it would be a feature for the unit to randomly pick an episode to record. It should record the SL the first time it's on, bottom line. Are saying you see this regularly with lots of programs, or are you talking specifically about Real Time?


Other shows too. I ran a side by side test of a Tivo to the R15 with the same SPs/SLs and there were 4 shows in the period of a week that this happened to. One was the Season Premier of Weeds on Showtime (originally aired Monday and the R15 didn't record it until Friday). Another was Feasting on Asphalt on Food Network that originally aired Saturday and the R15 didn't record it until Wednesday. Other shows that had this problem were The Daily Show on Comedy Central and The 4400 on SciFi which recorded the same day but a later time. There were no conflicts for the first airing and my Tivo recorded those but the R15 waited until the second airing.


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## skaeight (Jan 15, 2004)

Wolffpack said:


> Other shows too. I ran a side by side test of a Tivo to the R15 with the same SPs/SLs and there were 4 shows in the period of a week that this happened to. One was the Season Premier of Weeds on Showtime (originally aired Monday and the R15 didn't record it until Friday). Another was Feasting on Asphalt on Food Network that originally aired Saturday and the R15 didn't record it until Wednesday. Other shows that had this problem were The Daily Show on Comedy Central and The 4400 on SciFi which recorded the same day but a later time. There were no conflicts for the first airing and my Tivo recorded those but the R15 waited until the second airing.


It's a very odd problem. Hopefully they can get it fixed soon. I won't be ditching my tivos anytime soon though.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

skaeight said:


> It's a very odd problem. Hopefully they can get it fixed soon. I won't be ditching my tivos anytime soon though.


As I noted above. I don't know if DTV sees this as a problem. The show is eventually recorded. I would like to have Earl pass this by his folks at DTV and see what they say. Was it designed this way or is it a bug they are working on? Can you imagine explaining this to a CSR? :eek2: :eek2: :eek2: :nono2: :eek2:


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## cbeckner80 (Apr 19, 2006)

skaeight said:


> I don't have any idea why it would be a feature for the unit to randomly pick an episode to record. It should record the SL the first time it's on, bottom line. Are saying you see this regularly with lots of programs, or are you talking specifically about Real Time?
> 
> .


I had it do the same thing with Stargate and Stargate Atlantis. It would record the "first run" three hours after the original first run. :nono2:


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## hmss007 (Aug 12, 2006)

I had an R15 installed last week and I purchased an R15 a few days earlier; so I had two R15 units installed to replace existing TiVo based units.

Today, I deactivated both of them and re-activated my TiVo based receivers. Although the R15 is OK, it has way too many problems to make it a viable replacement to the TIVO units.

* limit of 100 items in the ToDo List; this was a deal breaker for us. the R15 is not smart enough to allow you to add items if your todo list has 100 items in it

* caller ID in both units didn't work; on one, it worked for a couple days and then after that, it wouldn't list anything; the other unit would make receive about 20 calls per day with 12/23 as the date and 10:48pm as the time

* the repeat/first run option didn't work; it would record ALL episodes of any setup series link regardless of the settings

between the 100 item limit in the todo list and the not being able to distinguish between repeats and first run shows; the receivers became virtually useless.

thank goodness I didn't get rid of my R10 & HDVR2 units and I was able to re-activate them.

Eric in Mill Creek, WA


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

hmss007 said:


> * limit of 100 items in the ToDo List; this was a deal breaker for us. the R15 is not smart enough to allow you to add items if your todo list has 100 items in it


This is a huge problem for me also. The R15 is set to load the TDL with 99 items which allows you to add one. But then you need to start deleting TDL items which the system automatically loads back into the TDL. What's with that? 

At least limit the system to loading 85 or 90 TDL items so the user can still add manual records or other SLs without deleting TDL items.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

Wolffpack said:


> But then you need to start deleting TDL items which the system automatically loads back into the TDL.


I never considered this much of a problem as its easy to remedy. You just go in first and delete some dups  then start adding things. If you do it this way you never lose any good shows, just the dupes, and you dont have to rush to add a show before the R-15 adds something itself.


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## cabanaboy1977 (Nov 16, 2005)

skaeight said:


> The only bad thing I've seen is that twice the skip back button has stopped working while watching a recording. I'm pretty sure both were after I paused it for a little while. If I went out of the recording to live tv, and then back into the recording it started working again.


This is a know issue. This only happens when watching a recording that is still record and the show stops recording. It use to be that the skip back would kick you out of the recording, but they put a band-aid on it so it now disables the jumpback after the show stops recording. Hopefully D* will fix this at somepoint but for now your not kicked out of your recording. The only fix for this is to do what you did and exit the program or just to deal with no skipback and watch the rest of the program.

D* have you fixed this yet? I would hope since you disabled the skipback (so you must know what the issue is) and have had an update or two to think about that you could fix it in the next release?


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Bobman said:


> I never considered this much of a problem as its easy to remedy. You just go in first and delete some dups  then start adding things. If you do it this way you never lose any good shows, just the dupes, and you dont have to rush to add a show before the R-15 adds something itself.


If I go in and delete 4 shows (was at 99) I can then go and add 1 or 2 new TDL items before it tells me it's full again. As I delete them it's adding new ones right away.


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## ApK (Mar 6, 2006)

skaeight said:


> I don't use wishlists that exenstively for that to be an issue for me. I knew that you needed to use "the" and "a", etc for searching w/ title, and to be honest it's not that big of a deal. It's just a difference in design.


That's far too kind. It's a total waste of time and a disregard for common sense and accepted practices. Where else EVER in ANY MEDIUM --books, libraries, etc.-- have you seen a list of titles of any kind indexed with the "the"?

Calling it a 'just' a difference in design is like the first little pig calling the difference between his straw house his brother's brick house 'just a difference in construction.'

And just like the straw house, it blows.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

ApK said:


> have you seen a list of titles of any kind indexed with the "the"?


Depends upon how you look at it.

What is correct ?

King of Queens OR The King of Queens ?

If you look at the CBS website it is "The king of queens". I am not home to test this but I bet if you searched for this show, it would use the full title and use THE.

That is the programs actual title "THE king of queens" not "king of queens".


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## Clint Lamor (Nov 15, 2005)

I just did a search and The King of Queens only comes up if you use The first.


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## ApK (Mar 6, 2006)

Not requiring the "The" when looking up a title is correct as a standard practice of library science. We're not dictating what the show is called, we're looking it up.
Go to your local library and notice how the card catalog is organized.

Or read the title search tips on the Library of Congress website

http://catalog.loc.gov/help/title.htm

Here's a quote:
"Search Tips:
Always omit initial articles (a, an, the, das, el, la, etc.) in any language."

This is an established and proven practice, and the short-sighted folks on the R-15 design team had no good reason to think their way was better or that they were any wiser then all those who came before.

But , as usual, to know which is correct we only need ask WWTD?


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

ApK said:


> We're not dictating what the show is called, we're looking it up.


When I look for a show, I usually go by what the "full title" is as thats what I know it by.

I DO see your point. However, if they changed it to your way then I would be complaining  instead of you about how the R-15 handles it as I search by the shows "actual title".

Just search for the shows actual title and if its startes with A or The just use it as its the correct title and your doing a title search.


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## Clint Lamor (Nov 15, 2005)

Honestly it should have the ability to search for any title that contains the words you have given it and not so much exclusively in that order.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

Clint Lamor said:


> Honestly it should have the ability to search for any title that contains the words you have given it and not so much exclusively in that order.


I wonder how do the DirecTiVos handle this ? Do you need the "the" for King of Queens ? I will check when I get home.


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## ApK (Mar 6, 2006)

Man you are really infuriating.

Attention EVERYONE: Is there ANYONE else here who likes that they have to waste time entering irrelevent articles to find show title, in contrast to the way that EVERTYTHNG ELSE in western culture does the same task?

ANYONE? Hello? 'Cuz if there is, I'd be curious to hear about the merits of the R-15's 'design choice'.

If there's not, then I'll give Bobman's sole opinion all the additional discussion time it merits. None.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

Wolffpack said:


> As I delete them it's adding new ones right away.


I know, that is a pain. A few updates back you had plenty of time to make additions.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

ApK said:


> Man you are really infuriating.


Its great to be loved.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

ApK said:


> have to waste time entering irrelevent articles to find show title,


Sorry, just dont think its a waste of time to do a "title search" and use the "actual shows title".


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## jpl (Jul 9, 2006)

ApK said:


> Man you are really infuriating.
> 
> Attention EVERYONE: Is there ANYONE else here who likes that they have to waste time entering irrelevent articles to find show title, in contrast to the way that EVERTYTHNG ELSE in western culture does the same task?
> 
> ...


Is it a stupid design? Yes, I think it is. Is it that big of a deal? Not really - at least it isn't to me. Yeah, it takes a couple extra button pushes, and given the fact that it finds as it goes, it takes longer, but again, not a big one for me. The only reason why it would become one is if there are ALOT of shows that start with that article. For example, there probably are a number of shows that start with 'the', but it doesn't, so far, seem to be a big problem.


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## cabanaboy1977 (Nov 16, 2005)

Bobman said:


> Sorry, just dont think its a waste of time to do a "title search" and use the "actual shows title".


The only issue that I've had with it is that I've been searching for something and didn't know that it had a THE, A, AN, etc. That is annoying if you don't/didn't know it was there. It doesn't bother me to have to put it in there but it bothers me if I didn't know it was there in the first place.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

ApK said:


> Man you are really infuriating.
> 
> Attention EVERYONE: Is there ANYONE else here who likes that they have to waste time entering irrelevent articles to find show title, in contrast to the way that EVERTYTHNG ELSE in western culture does the same task?
> 
> ...


I agree 100%. DTV has taken their own license with what is commonly accepted elsewhere. Plus, other than Bobman I'm not sure who would type in the complete title of a show to do a search.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Bobman said:


> I wonder how do the DirecTiVos handle this ? Do you need the "the" for King of Queens ? I will check when I get home.


You cannot search on "THE" on TITLE searches on the DTivo units. For King of Queens you would search for "KING" and it would return "KING OF QUEENS, THE".


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Bobman said:


> Sorry, just dont think its a waste of time to do a "title search" and use the "actual shows title".


There we go. Let's just ignore commonly accepted principals of indexing because the R15 doesn't work that way.


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## ApK (Mar 6, 2006)

Wolffpack said:


> I agree 100%. DTV has taken their own license with what is commonly accepted elsewhere. Plus, other than Bobman I'm not sure who would type in the complete title of a show to do a search.


Somwhere around 3rd grade, our class went to the library and we were taught how to look stuff up. We were taught to lookup the first RELEVENT word in what we were looking for, not an initial "the" or "a." Since this has worked in every search system I have encountered in the past 30 years until the R-15, I assume most other American public schools taught the same thing.

I can only conclude that bobman and the R-15 developers were sick that day.

:hurah: Ha! I crack me up.


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## psweig (Feb 4, 2006)

ApK said:


> Man you are really infuriating.
> 
> Attention EVERYONE: Is there ANYONE else here who likes that they have to waste time entering irrelevent articles to find show title, in contrast to the way that EVERTYTHNG ELSE in western culture does the same task?
> 
> ...


I know it's not funny, :lol: But I can't help thinking of the time I worked on a computer for National Merit Scholarship corp., and was blown away that 50% of colleges with "university" in their name were listed as "University of xxx". The other 50% were listed as "The University of xxx". Talk about futility:nono:


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## Slyster (May 17, 2005)

DISH (my ex) does it SMART. You can search of "dern ma" and you will get Modern Marvels etc. ANY portion. "n ma" will even fint the show (along with a few possible extras).. I used "fic am" to find all "Scientific Americans" and "be tr" for globe trekker.. and "extreme" for MANY "extreme xxxxx" shows


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## irmolars (Mar 12, 2006)

My impression of the R-15.
Piece of junk always will be!


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

irmolars said:


> My impression of the R-15.
> Piece of junk always will be!


I thing the R15 has potential. It just needs to realize all it's potential. It does need work, but junk? I would disagree.


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## irmolars (Mar 12, 2006)

Wolffpack said:


> I thing the R15 has potential. It just needs to realize all it's potential. It does need work, but junk? I would disagree.


After Five years with Ultimate TV. Yes the R-15 is junk.
Doesn't even compare.
Maybe you have been one of the very few lucky ones.
I have been through three R-15s now. None of them any good.
After ten months on the market this thing should run like a top.


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## skaeight (Jan 15, 2004)

Wow, this thread has taken on a life of its own. I'm just going to say I stand by what I said in my original post. It was design decision to have to use "the", "a", etc. However, I didn't say it was a good design decision. But I'm not going to sit here and dwell on it, I'll live with if I have to. It's not really that big of a deal.

I'm much more concerned about whether or not it can pick up first runs of SL. That's what I want them to spend their time on now, not fixing the article search problem. Down the road once the machine is recording everything as it should, sure go ahead and fix that issue.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

Wolffpack said:


> other than Bobman I'm not sure who would type in the complete title of a show to do a search.


You mean its not correct to you to use a shows "complete and actual title" in doing a "title search" ? Seems rather logical to me to try to use a shows full and actual title to do a title search.


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## paulman182 (Aug 4, 2006)

One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the fact that the R15 records the DTV data stream, and it remains in its original digital state at all times.

Since I've never seen any other DVR, what does everyone think? Does the R15 give better PQ than others?


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## cabanaboy1977 (Nov 16, 2005)

paulman182 said:


> Since I've never seen any other DVR, what does everyone think? Does the R15 give better PQ than others?


To me the PQ seems better than the UTV's but I never did a side by side but the R15's replaced 2 UTV's on two TV's and the PQ seems better.


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## skaeight (Jan 15, 2004)

paulman182 said:


> One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the fact that the R15 records the DTV data stream, and it remains in its original digital state at all times.
> 
> Since I've never seen any other DVR, what does everyone think? Does the R15 give better PQ than others?


DirecTiVos and Ultimate TV units both store the data stream in it's original state. Other components may be giving the R15 a better picture quality than other units. To be honest though I haven't noticed much of a difference between the R15 and my 2 DirecTiVos picture wise.


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## walters (Nov 18, 2005)

skaeight said:


> Wow, this thread has taken on a life of its own. I'm just going to say I stand by what I said in my original post. It was design decision to have to use "the", "a", etc. However, I didn't say it was a good design decision. But I'm not going to sit here and dwell on it, I'll live with if I have to. It's not really that big of a deal.


No, it was lack of design (which we see throughout the product). They didn't decide to include the articles in the search. They forgot to omit them. If there was any actual decision it was that they were too lazy to do it right.


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## jpl (Jul 9, 2006)

paulman182 said:


> One thing I haven't seen mentioned is the fact that the R15 records the DTV data stream, and it remains in its original digital state at all times.
> 
> Since I've never seen any other DVR, what does everyone think? Does the R15 give better PQ than others?


Yes, I think it does. I really liked the PQ on my tivo, so I was disappointed that it died, partly for that reason. Then when I got my R15 I was pleasantly surprised that the PQ went up a notch. Not only on playback, but on live tv as well.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Bobman said:


> You mean its not correct to you to use a shows "complete and actual title" in doing a "title search" ? Seems rather logical to me to try to use a shows full and actual title to do a title search.


I type in enough letters of the title to get me in the area and then go select the one I'm looking for.


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## jpl (Jul 9, 2006)

Wolffpack said:


> I type in enough letters of the title to get me in the area and then go select the one I'm looking for.


I have to agree... I don't think I've ever put in the entire title on a Search.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

You guys cant tell I am just playing ?

It's way to quiet in here, this place used to be really jumping. Now you come here and there are only a handful of posts.

I am actually worried about the R-15 and its being placed on the back burner by DirecTV like I said many weeks ago. Its going to be released approx. a year before the next update, which isnt even out yet, gets to the East Coast.

If that doesnt fix the SL issues, increase the limits, add skip to tick and other things already available on the just released HR20, the R-15 is in BIG trouble.

I would not be surprised thats why we are seeing all these free R-15 promotions. They need to get rid of them before the R-20 (?????) is released sometime next year. (my thoughts). It will turn out that something is wrong internally with the R-15 and that is a problem to figure out with coding. The R-15 may never be equal to the DirecTiVos. ((just a few thoughts I have had, ALL the above is just a total guess))


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## walters (Nov 18, 2005)

Bobman said:


> You guys cant tell I am just playing ?


Can never be too sure how you're going to spin a negative. You seem to really enjoy the quality time you get to spend with your R15 a few minutes a day removing duplicate recordings.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

walters said:


> spend with your R15 a few minutes a day removing duplicate recordings.


Its either do that or complain that its recording dupes.


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Bobman said:


> Its either do that or complain that its recording dupes.


Hey Bobman,

When you say that are you actually deleting dups, are they duplicate recordings or repeat episodes? I haven't my R15 record duplicates. By duplicates I'm referring to the same episode aired multiple times during a week by some networks.


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## DishSatUser (Aug 28, 2006)

skaeight said:


> DirecTiVos and Ultimate TV units both store the data stream in it's original state. Other components may be giving the R15 a better picture quality than other units. To be honest though I haven't noticed much of a difference between the R15 and my 2 DirecTiVos picture wise.


Actually I also notice an improved picture on the R15. Note, this is not because the signal to the R15 receiver is any different than the DirecTivo's or Ultimate TV's, but simply that they have newer digital analog converters (DAC's) on the output that do a slightly better job.

You'll notice this over products in time as DAC manufacturers develop better products and Philips and whoever use those in newer products.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

Wolffpack said:


> are they duplicate recordings or repeat episodes?


Repeats of the same episode.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

DishSatUser said:


> Actually I also notice an improved picture on the R15.


I now have my R-10 and R-15 hooked up to the same TV and same stereo and use the same cables (all my other TV inputs are used) and the R-15 picture is a tiny bit better but the sound is way worse.


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## BattleScott (Aug 29, 2006)

I can't offer much help on the first run logic, but this might help as far as missing 'Bill Mahr' recordings. 

1) If a consrervative/republican figure said it, he disagreed with it.
2) If a liberal/democrat, or better yet a socialist said it, he couldn't agree more.

Come to think of it, the more I learn about it, the better I like the R-15  ...


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## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

Bobman said:


> Repeats of the same episode.


Guess I didn't put that right. So you mean repeats as in Rescue Me that originally aired on Tuesday and the same episode aired on Friday and Sunday? I've never had that problem.


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## Bobman (Jan 3, 2006)

Wolffpack said:


> I've never had that problem.


Mostly its old shows being recorded when the SL is set for first run. I have seen where it records the same episode multiple times over again but this has gotten better in the last releases. Not sure when I noticed this last.


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## skaeight (Jan 15, 2004)

I just wanted to give a little bit more feedback on my experiences with R15. It's been about a month since I received the machine. During that time, it's more or less been in "test mode" / live tv watching mode when I'm in that room. I hadn't really relied on it to record anything, but had set up a couple of SLs just to see how well it worked. About a week ago, I set up some SLs for programs only I watch, just to have it as backup.

Last night I watched TV in my office, so it was pretty much the first time I really "used" the R15. I watched 2.5 shows on it, which is a lot more than I had previously. I must say, I was fairly impressed. 

Using the trick play was great. The combination of the 30-sec SLIP and the jump back when coming out of FF work just fine. I've also gotten to know the remote, and the UI so I'm much more comfortable navigating around the box. I actually really like how all the menus are laid out. One thing I'm not used to yet (still in tivo mindset) is the 1 / 2 button recording. I was setting up some new SLs last night and going through all the menus like I would on my tivos, and it occurred to me, I didn't need to do that, which is really nice. The whole experience made me feel a lot better about eventually losing tivo (because I know at some point my directivos will stop functioning and I will eventually be getting an HDTV).

The other thing I really like about the R15 is the picture is actually a lot better than my directivos. I had a directivo hooked up to the same monitor as I have my R15, and the picture is noticeably better.

Here is my prioritized list of things that need fixed.

1. First Run / Repeat Logic
2. KAM / KUID logic (see season pass capablity thread for details)
3. SL / Todo list limits
4. Dual buffers(this one isn't actually all that important to me, but it would be nice)

That's pretty much it for me, at least so far. I (knock on wood) haven't seen the black screens or freezing that other people have seen. Granted, I don't use the box a whole lot and probably only have about 15 SLs set up on it. I really like the machine as a whole though. I really really really want to get an HR20 at some point, but I just need to be able to get a good deal on it, and I'd like to wait and see how the VOD/ dual tuners pan out. I just hope they address the above issues, and then I'll be very happy with the R15.


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## ApK (Mar 6, 2006)

It has dual tuners. Do you mean dual live buffers?

I'm curious what you like about the menus. I still find them quite confusing, especially stuff like adjusting SL settings and getting into the Prioritizer.


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## skaeight (Jan 15, 2004)

ApK said:


> It has dual tuners. Do you mean dual live buffers?
> 
> I'm curious what you like about the menus. I still find them quite confusing, especially stuff like adjusting SL settings and getting into the Prioritizer.


Sorry, will fix. I think I've made this mistake before.

I don't know what to tell you about the menus. I've gotten used to them and know where stuff is. Since you brought up the prioritizer, that is 100x better on the R15 than tivo. It's pretty much instant.


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## ApK (Mar 6, 2006)

Yes, the Prioritizer (once you find it, and now that using it no longer hangs the box) is faster than Tivo, that's for sure.


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## walters (Nov 18, 2005)

skaeight said:


> Since you brought up the prioritizer, that is 100x better on the R15 than tivo. It's pretty much instant.


Depends on how many SLs you have.

TiVo lets you arrange your season passes and then does all the work when you exit the season pass manager. I'll admit that takes a *very* long time, but whenever I need to do it I just make sure it's the last thing I do before turning the TV off.

R15, on the other hand, appears to be calculating the changes as you move shows up and down. This is a terrible waste, since you're probably still moving it. Worse, though, is that it's completely unusable once you get more than about 30 series links. Moving a show up or down one position will take about five seconds, and there's no shortcut for moving a show more than one position (e.g. a page).


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## skaeight (Jan 15, 2004)

walters said:


> Depends on how many SLs you have.
> 
> TiVo lets you arrange your season passes and then does all the work when you exit the season pass manager. I'll admit that takes a *very* long time, but whenever I need to do it I just make sure it's the last thing I do before turning the TV off.
> 
> R15, on the other hand, appears to be calculating the changes as you move shows up and down. This is a terrible waste, since you're probably still moving it. Worse, though, is that it's completely unusable once you get more than about 30 series links. Moving a show up or down one position will take about five seconds, and there's no shortcut for moving a show more than one position (e.g. a page).


That is true, the page up/page down (and even more useful and recently discovered, if you press the 30 sec skip button it will move it all the way up or down the list on tivos, very very handy). Anyways, I guess I probably don't have enough SLs to have this happen yet. That is kind of an issue.

The reason for my post wasn't to bash tivo or profess my love for the R15, but rather just to say it's not as bad as it's been made out to be. It just take a little getting used to.


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