# Hughes Direct Tivo 2 SLOW guide



## gator2 (Jun 7, 2003)

I just received my new Hughes Direct Tivo Series II. I love the tivo functions but why is the programming guide SO SLOW? The box the receiver comes in says it has a 32 bit processor for faster guide speed. If this is faster I would hate to see what they consider slow. I have only had my receiver for a day.....does anyone know if it speeds up over time or after it completely downloads all the program info......Please let me know, this is a little disappointing and aggravating to do something simple like channel surf. Thanks for replies...


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## dishrich (Apr 23, 2002)

gator2 said:


> I have only had my receiver for a day.....does anyone know if it speeds up over time or after it completely downloads all the program info


Just have some patience & after a couple days, it'll speed up - yes, it does take a day or two to completely download & index the guide.


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## Nodnarb (May 21, 2003)

dishrich said:


> Just have some patience & after a couple days, it'll speed up - yes, it does take a day or two to completely download & index the guide.


Ditto... Mine works just fine once it's fully downloaded.

Do you have a modified/upgraded receiver? When I added the second hard drive to my HDVR2, it slowed down a little as the first drive fills up and it starts writing to the second one.


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## Mark (Jan 14, 2003)

Just have some patience???

What is that!


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## pez2002 (Dec 13, 2002)

i really want one but i heard if you get one you have to sign another years contract Is that true


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## Jtater (Jun 24, 2003)

Yeah any time you add a new receiver you get a new one year contract. Don't worry though once you get the Tivo you will be around for more than a year. Tivo revolutionizes you service, take the plunge you won't regret it.


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## LarryS (Apr 22, 2002)

Be sure to try the guide style Tivo Live rather than the DirecTV grid. The Tivo style is much quicker although not as artistic. Also once the Tivo gets recordings going you'll be doing much less channel surfing. While in the guide press the info button for these options.


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## Jtater (Jun 24, 2003)

Yeah the Tivo live guide is faster but I'm not sure I like it. Ive been back and forth between the two.


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## cnsf (Jun 6, 2002)

You'll find the Tivo tends to be much slower than the Dish PVRs. But they're still so much better. Delays come in the reprioritising of shows, some deletions, selecting different shows and the Guide. Finally, "Save Until I Delete" takes a while.


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## arw4f (Mar 14, 2004)

> Just have some patience & after a couple days, it'll speed up - yes, it does take a day or two to completely download & index the guide.


 Well, I've had mine for a couple weeks and the DirecTV Grid option is still rediculously slow! Until I memorize some of the channel numbers, I will need to scroll through the guide to find what I want. Or if I just want to browse - the guide is just too slow. The Tive Live Guide is a little better, but you can't see future shows on all channels at once...just on the one that is selected.

Does anyone know any tricks to speed this up?!


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## bonscott87 (Jan 21, 2003)

No. As mentioned the DirecTV style guide is dog slow. There is nothing you can do about it. Tivo's were not build with "surfing" in mind. Season pass everything and you won't surf much anymore. Tivo style guide rocks once you get used to it. It gives you a quick showing of the next 8+ hours per channel. Makes it very nice to see what is coming up and record it. Very nice, especially for movies. If I don't feel like doing the search I'll just scan through all the movie channels and can quickly find a few movies to record. It really annoys me to go to a standard DirecTV box and have to use that guide vs. the Tivo style guide. But then I never watch live TV other then sports (and even that is delayed to avoid commercials).


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## ddobson (Nov 25, 2003)

Jtater said:


> Yeah the Tivo live guide is faster but I'm not sure I like it. Ive been back and forth between the two.


I bought the Hughes TIVO last month and agree, the DirecTV grid guide is pathetically slow compared to just moving through the guide on my RCA 486. It was explained to me by Hughes Techs that this is because the guide data is actually stored on the hard drive on the TIVO as compared to memory on the other receivers. The reason for this makes a lot of sense after they explained it but I don't feel like typing that much here.

Anyway I have noticed the guide is a little faster when nothing is being recorded. I've heard that when the "c" software loads that the guide might actually be a little faster but not like other receivers.

After using the TIVO guide for a couple of weeks I've gotten where I like it better but the rest of the family still uses the grid.

GOOD NEWS: After having TIVO a couple of weeks and setting up the programs you want to watch on season passes, you'll find yourself using the guide much less because you don't watch all that much live television!

This bothered me for a little while but not that much anymore. Having a TIVO also changed my declining opinion of DirecTV. Doesn't bother me as much now that they don't have some channels I want. There's always something good to watch when I have the time.


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## skaeight (Jan 15, 2004)

I have a SA Series 2 Tivo, and the grid guide on that is slow as well. I've found the Tivo guide to be better though, you can look up 6 hours into the future with the tivo guide.


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## Mark Holtz (Mar 23, 2002)

It could be the way the data is stored on the drive. Remember, the TiVo is either recording or bufferring two channels at once. Dish's DVR guide on the hard drive was *much* faster.

It could be how the systems were implemented. From my impressions of both Dish's 501 and my HDVR2 receiver, it appears that the 501 is a standard receiver with DVR functionality bolted on. The DirecTiVo, on the other hand, is like a standalone TiVo, only with the DirecTV receiver functionality bolted on.

IMHO: The DirecTiVo is a terrible standalone receiver. My mother's receivers, a HBH-SA, is much better. But, as a DVR, the DirecTiVo is great. Now, if DirecTV and TiVo would cooperate better in rolling out improvements.


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## fareal (Feb 16, 2004)

I leave my guide on the DirecTV grid but instead of clicking up and down one channel at a time, I page up and down with the channel up and down buttons. This makes the guide seem faster because you're reading a page at a time versus waiting for each and every single channel.

I use the TiVo guide style when I'm searching one particular channel.


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## jdspencer (Nov 8, 2003)

I use the TiVo style guide. With the focus on the left side you can scroll up and down the channel list and see a whole lot more of what's coming up than the DirecTV grid style shows. If you use the Ch+/- buttons you can scroll a page at a time. If you use the FF and Rew buttons while in the left pane it changes the time and if in the right pane it changes the highlighted channel.


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## fx72 (Dec 31, 2003)

Does anyone have any experience or information about this addon?

http://www.9thtee.com/tivocachecard.htm

It looks like a good option to speed up your system and have network access to your Tivo.


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## cnsf (Jun 6, 2002)

If you have an HDVR2 (Series 2 DTivo), I don't believe this can work. I think it's only for Series 1.


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## Neutron (Oct 2, 2003)

From what I've seen there aren't too many upgrades besides a hard drive upgrade for the series 2. They took out the expansion port that was in the series 1's, making them not as upgradeable.


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## Guest (Apr 11, 2004)

Neutron said:


> From what I've seen there aren't too many upgrades besides a hard drive upgrade for the series 2. They took out the expansion port that was in the series 1's, making them not as upgradeable.


TRUE, but we have USB ports, I would love someone to be able to edit the code and allow for say a 128 meg USB or 256 etc drive to be plugged in, and have that used for the menu etc.

Right now with 2 drives in my HDVR2, the system is pathetically slow... I can hit the back arrow button on the tivo while a recorded movie is playing and sometimes it takes 5-10 seconds before it takes me out and asks if I want to resume playing... oh and if I delete something... that's 10 secs.. I rarely use the Guide, because I watched recorded programs, I have a HD Receiver I use for live stuff.... it's JUST SLOW! plain and simple, and it doesn't get any better... the TIVO guide might help if you are using the guide, but my problems are with the TIVO system itself.


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## dswallow (Mar 31, 2003)

nughaud said:


> TRUE, but we have USB ports, I would love someone to be able to edit the code and allow for say a 128 meg USB or 256 etc drive to be plugged in, and have that used for the menu etc.
> 
> Right now with 2 drives in my HDVR2, the system is pathetically slow... I can hit the back arrow button on the tivo while a recorded movie is playing and sometimes it takes 5-10 seconds before it takes me out and asks if I want to resume playing... oh and if I delete something... that's 10 secs.. I rarely use the Guide, because I watched recorded programs, I have a HD Receiver I use for live stuff.... it's JUST SLOW! plain and simple, and it doesn't get any better... the TIVO guide might help if you are using the guide, but my problems are with the TIVO system itself.


The slowdown becomes significant when you have somewhere around 170-190 programs recorded. Have you counted how many you've got on your unit? If more than 170, try deleting a bumch of things to get down to 170 programs or less and see how the behavior is then.

I've got 240GB of space on my Series 1 DirecTV DVR. But I can use the CacheCard in it since it's got the axpansion port. Ignoring my ongoing troubles getting the CacheCard to work right , when it did, it was like a breath of fresh air for how much snappier everything got; but without it, I have to keep the Now Playing List pruned beyond where it tends to get in order to avoid lengthy delays on some things like the initial display of it, or paging through it sometimes.


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## BobJ2004 (Feb 7, 2004)

Any one know if the new HD Tivo is any faster?

I would think if it is going to do HD and large amounts of HD data it would have to be.

I wish the Reg Guide was like the RCA box. That guide is the best and fastest I have seen on any brand Dish or Direct. I love it.


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