I haven’t posted anything related to Direct TV in awhile, mainly because nothing amazing has happened other than getting a new Tennis HD channel which I apparently am not subscribed to.
But that’s all changed. Direct TV just came out with a big upgrade that is slowly going out to all of those with HR20-700 HD DVRs. It started on January 9th, but just got to my DVR yesterday. If you have this particular DVR, go check to see if yours is upgraded yet.
Two ways to find out:
1. Probably if it’s upgraded, the next time you access it you’ll see a popup telling you that some things have been enhanced.
2. If you didn’t see that, go to your Menu > Setup > Info area and look for your software version. It should be: 0×1EA.
(you can see all the features and stuff they added here)
This upgrade did a few things, one of which I don’t like, but another of which I know will make my friend Tyler completely overjoyed. In fact, he asked me about it last night and I told him we’d probably never see it.
Yeah, foot in mouth time.
Menu System
The first thing is that they changed the menu system a bit and also altered the way the Yellow Button works in places. It now has “options” for that particular area you are located. Where I noticed the big change was the List Screen.
When you were in the List Screen in the past, hitting the Yellow Button showed your To-Do list. We used that thing constantly as it tells you what is coming up so you can easily check to make sure stuff is recording and maybe stuff needs to be canceled.
Now it’s gone. Instead, the Yellow Button launches a mini-menu with other options. One of them is the ability to check-mark multiple records to delete them all at once, instead of the old method of “one at a time.”
Yet I really miss my To-Do button. In fact, in a poll I found on DBSTalk.com, 65% of users accessed that To-Do button at least everyday. Pretty big mistake to take it out I think. I hope they fix it. Some have suggested that hitting List twice should bring it up, sort of like hitting Guide twice takes you to a category sorting tool.
30 Second Skip
I told Tyler this wouldn’t happen because they wanted to be sure you saw the commercials in the old “30 second slip” method of jumping through advertisements, but I guess they caved.
You can now activate the 30 Second SKIP feature and get rid of the the 30 Second SLIP.
If you don’t know what that means:
SLIP means you see a 30-second window in about 2 seconds of a fast-forward, seeing everything.
SKIP means it just jumps 30-second in a blink.
How do you activate this new feature?
- Make sure you have the upgrade of course
- Go to Menu > Search for Shows > Keyword
- Enter in “30SKIP” in the search area and hit “Continue”
- That’s it. Now go to a recording, and hit play and try the old SLIP button out.
- If you want to go back, do the same thing as above but put “30SLIP” instead.
Now, let me warn you. We switched to SKIP and man, it’s tough to get used to again. The old TIVO had it and we really missed it when we switched to DTV’s DVR. But we adjusted and moved on.
The benefit of SLIP is seeing if you pass the end of the commercials and need to bounce back. With SKIP, it’s a bit harder.
Direct TV Scheduler
Perhaps the coolest new feature that your DVR will have in the next few weeks is the new Direct TV Scheduler. This feature will be available for all DirecTV Plus and Plus HD DVRs.
This is basically known as Remote Booking, or the ability to set shows to record on you DVR from a web browser. That’s right, you go on vacation and forget to record a show, so now you’ll be able to go to any browser, login on Directv.com and record the show.
This upgrade is set to be released starting on January 17th and then slowly go out to homes all over, with a formal announcement in February.
My friend Chris has been using this for a month or two already because he got in on a special Beta Test and he loves it. I signed up for the Beta Test but never got approved, so I’ve been DYING for this to come out.
You can check out the brochure for the DTV Scheduler below. Just click on it to expand.
Hopefully this information has been useful to you all and gotten some of you excited. Direct TV has been adding all kinds of HD channels and really solidified themselves as the leader in high definition programming, but now they are really adding other features that will make this stuff even better.
Heck, there is also some feature called Mediashare Video Support, which allows you to access videos from your PC. No clue how it works yet, but man am I going to figure it out!
Let me know if you have any questions on this stuff, I’ll try to help you out or point you in the right direction.
We’ve had the old Hughes HR10-250 for several years now, but know we’re going to have to replace it at some point in the next year or so. The problem we’ve got is that we’ve had TiVos of one type or another for a decade. Leaving that interface for someone else’s scares the hell out of us. It doesn’t help that for the first month we lived in PHX, while we were waiting for our DirecTV TiVo to arrive, we had Cox and their *very* poor DVR.
We’ve been holding off as long as possible, hoping DirecTV and TiVo would renegotiate, or the satellite companies would be forced to accept CableCARDs. That’s not going to happen, so we’re trying to figure out whether to go with Cox + CableCARD + HD TiVo, or go with the new HD DirecTV offerings.
It’s painful either way. We’re big fans of both DirecTV (and need it for college basketball) and TiVo.
So what I’m rambling on and on about is…how is the proprietary DVR interface on DirecTV? Does it compare favorably to TiVo? Is it quick, intuitive, and responsive?
R.A. Porter’s last blog post..Netflix drops streaming restrictions
R.A. – We had TIVO forever and we were pretty bummed to go away from it for sure, and I think Jina still misses it from time to time.
But if you are looking for speed and ease of use, it’s really pretty awesome. The menus are much faster and recording things takes maybe half a second? You just find a show, click the record button and basically it’s just a “flag” marker to record it and you’re done. If you want a season pass, just hit the record button twice, and that’s it.
IT doesn’t have the cool Tivo style guide that Tivo has, with the channels on the left, and highlight a channel shows that stations shows on the right pane. But it’s still okay. And fast. You can jump ahead with the +12 hour button and quickly get to a week down the road.
The DVR is just getting better and better for the most part. It used to not save where you were in a show you were playing back and left, but now it does.
Now, it doesn’t have that “dual tuner” ability, but you can get around that by just taping two shows and flipping between each.
It has a 90 minute buffer too, which was a lot nicer than the 30 minute Tivo had.
And the big thing is…if you like HD, then DTV is the best way to go right now. I wouldn’t get COX’s DVR at all, and their HD channels are still planned for later this year.
Overall, it’s a faster unit, maybe not as pretty and without a few features, but it gets the job done and we’re pretty happy with it.
Yeah… let me try and support another directTv process…NOT! (long story for all the readers out there)
but the CAPN already has the HR-21 HDDVR….
I would probably avoid the HR21 maybe since this update is for the HR20, and the HR21 doesn’t have an OTA connection.
Had no choice, all my recievers are 21’s…. its what they brought (cough the 5th time out cough). I can do all these things you mention here except the web remote stuff….
30 second skip too?
I love this!!!! Thanks for pointing it out. The 30 second skip is the one thing that I really hated not having after having it with Dish.
Oh, it’s true – sometimes I close my eyes and still see the happy Tivo cartoon guy. Ah, the good ole days.
But honestly, the switch hasn’t been as hard as I thought in the first few days after we go the new HD DVR. And there are definitely some things I like more – like the ease of setting up “Season Passes” – hit the record button once and then twice and done. Stuff like that makes this girl happy.
YES – sounds like some nice, newer features – gonna definitely love setting shows via the web.
Thanks for the info Mike.
Yes, my new HR-21 comes with the 30 sec skip alrady, I’ve had this feature for a while now. However, there is not an OTA connection on the back, so you better get all of your local HD channels through direct TV already otherwise you are screwed (like I am with the CW network). Additionally, you cant buy this box, you MUST lease it, which isnt necessairly a bad thing (like if you break it, you get a new one), but they do that to prevent you from enabling software (that you could download) that would enable you to see all the channels you arent subscribed to, and they can prevent it this way.
I’ve had Dish Network for about two years–I hate how they charge more for a DVR reciever, and they don’t have any user-friendly options like the 30 Second SKIP feature. I think I might switch, thanks to this blog.
Dara’s last blog post..why was my question locked ?
I’d like to know what people use Dish, because from what I heard they don’t have as much stuff as DTV, no NFL Ticket and their DVR isn’t as great…
I hope you do switch Dara, might be a great decision!