Fine for Digital Recording, Won't Record OTA Channels
Written: Jan 20 '05
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Pros: Easy hookup. Setup easy but long. Menus intuitive, remote easy to use.
Cons: Can't record non-digital OTA content.
Technical support fair to poor.
The Bottom Line: It's all that's available AFAIK. The others aren't marketed well enough to compete. I would probably wait another year to see if the prices drop and the software gets better.
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| billinredmond's Full Review: Hughes HR10-250 (250 GB) 200-Hours Video Recorder |
I've had a HDTV and deadly serious Sony receiver for over a year and found I had to switch to the Hughes to record the HDTV content--the $200 Tivo box would not work. I get 90% of my HD conent from Over the Air (OTA) sources here in the Seattle area so I have never needed the Satellite to provide local channels. The Sony reciever did not mind--it integrated the OTA "normal", OTA digital and satellite-provided content without problems. The DirectTV HR10-250 on the other hand ignores all OTA non-digital channels. For example, if I browse to Channel 5, I get a message saying I need to sign up for the DirectTV-supplied channel before it's active. You can see 5.1 (5-1) just fine (sourced from my UHF antenna in the attic). What a PIA. I've had a HDTV and deadly serious Sony receiver for over a year and found I had to switch to the Hughes to record the HDTV content--the $200 Tivo box would not work. I get 90% of my HD content from Over the Air (OTA) sources here in the Seattle area so I have never needed the Satellite to provide local channels. The Sony receiver did not mind--it integrated the OTA "normal", OTA digital and satellite-provided content without problems. The DirecTV HR10-250 on the other hand ignores all OTA non-digital channels. For example, if I browse to Channel 5, I get a message saying I need to sign up for the DirecTV-supplied channel before it's active. You can see 5.1 (5-1) just fine (sourced from my UHF antenna in the attic). What a PIA. Their "technical" support thought it should work too--they were generally clueless (even after having spoken to a "supervisor" who was just another poorly trained tech in the pool). (At least they spoke English). This means I can't record any content from "normal" (non-digital stations). Sure, most stations have (better) digital content than their normal broadcast signals, but recording HD content takes a lot more space. I'm also having problems finding some pretty popular content on the lists of shows to record (like "Lost"--which I assume is just lost somewhere). I also discovered that the Tivo software switched off a channel I was watching to a movie I wanted to record (in the background). I think it should just quietly record the content and leave my current selection alone. It would be nice to be able to interface to the recorder/receiver via the USB port and my computer. Entering everything via a tiny remote is tough. I don’t see any of the Tivo Series 2 features here either.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 1000
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Epinions.com ID:
billinredmond
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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