Great DirecTV Receiver with TiVo Service
Written: May 10 '03
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Pros: Great TiVo PVR software, dual tuners, Dolby Digital audio and DirecTV service.
Cons: Only records DirecTV and requires $5/month subscription for most users.
The Bottom Line: The DSR6000 is the only black DirecTV Receiver with TiVo Service and TiVo is the best PVR for use with DirecTV.
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| Chris_Gerhard's Full Review: Philips DSR6000R DIRECTV Receiver with TiVo Servic... |
I purchased my first DSR6000 in October 2000 based on a recommendation from a friend. In 30 years of buying home audio/video equipment, this is my all-time favorite purchase and the best value of any product I have ever purchased. This DirecTV receiver/TiVo is essentially identical to the Hughes GXCEBOT and Sony SAT-T60 except for cosmetic differences and the Sony has a different remote and the Sony can control some Sony VCRs while saving a program to tape. The Philips DSR7000 replaced the DSR6000. The DSR7000 adds 2 USB 2.0 ports which currently aren't utilized but may be in a future software upgrades.
The DSR6000 comes standard with recording capacity advertised as up to 35 hours. Many early production DSR6000 models came with one 30GB and one 15GB Quantum Fireball hard drive. Later production models came with a single 40GB Quantum Fireball. Actual recording capacity for me is usually about 27 hours give or take a couple with a standard DSR6000. The reason for the variance is it records the variable bitrate DirecTV data. Higher picture quality programming such as PPV or premium channels like HBO will take more disk space. Adding a second hard drive is very simple and instructions can be found at www.tivocommunity.com. I added a 120GB hard drive to my 40GB model for up to 149 hours which in actual use for me results in about 120 hours. You don't need to know Linux to do the upgrade and software can be downloaded to format a drive for installation in the DSR6000.
If you are familiar with TiVo, you know what this wonderful device can do. If you aren't, it is difficult to describe in a few sentences. TiVo is much more than just a video recorder with a hard disk drive rather than video tape, but you can start with that analogy. If you subscribe to DirecTV you receive a large number of channels and programming you may want to watch comes on anytime day or night. Time shifting with a VCR is cumbersome, you must have a tape inserted and set the timer and continually do so each time. Mistakes will be made and programs missed or you may be one of many that just don't mess with programming your VCR. TiVo is a computer that can be easily set to find and record programs you want to watch and you can watch them at your convenience. With the DSR6000, 2 programs can be recorded simultaneously with the two tuners. In addition you can watch a previously recorded third program while two programs are being recorded. There is no additional DirecTV fee for the second tuner. TiVo features like Season Pass, which records all episodes of a specific program, are all very stable and work reliably. The TiVo software that runs this thing is very sophisticated and easy to use. DirecTV currently charges a monthly TiVo fee of up to $4.99 for all DirecTV Receivers with TiVo service on any one account. If you subscribe to Total Choice Premier, the $4.99 TiVo fee is waived. The separate additional receiver fee of $4.99 applies for all DirecTV/TiVo receivers over the first one as with any DirecTV receiver. If you are adding this receiver to your single receiver DirecTV system, you will need to pay the additional receiver fee of $4.99 plus the TiVo fee of $4.99 if you don't subscribe to Total Choice Premier or above. You will also need two satellite feeds to utilize both tuners in a DSR6000 which means a multiswitch is needed to use the DSR6000 with another DirecTV receiver.
Since the DSR6000 records the DirecTV bitstream to the hard drive without compression, the picture quality is virtually indistinquishable from the source. Dolby Digital audio can be recorded and played back when available. The other models of the DirecTV Receiver with TiVo service are all silver and the DSR6000 is black so if you want a black component to go with other black components in your system, the DSR6000 is the only choice thus far. This little computer can run warm, I recommend keeping it in the open to get good air flow and elevate it a little as the air inflow and outflow vents are on the bottom. Before I elevated mine, I often saw temperatures between 50 and 55C and after mostly around 45C.
If you are interested in this or one of the other DirecTV TiVo receivers go to the TiVo Community and read.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 200
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Epinions.com ID:
Chris_Gerhard
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Reviews written: 15
Trusted by: 0 members
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