Poor Quality At A High Price
Written: Nov 08 '05
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Pros: Same great functions you get on the cheaper non-HD models.
Cons: Poor quality at a great expense; slow, ugly, defects abound. Buyer beware.
The Bottom Line: Buyer beware. Read my opinion and at least be informed on what your getting into.
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| jrperi's Full Review: Hughes HR10-250 (250 GB) 200-Hours Video Recorder |
Poor Quality At A High Price
I know a lot of people are raving about this product and don’t get me wrong I really enjoy this product but, overall for the price, it is disappointing.
Here’s the good:
1. Pretty much every type of output connector: DVI, HDMI, RGB …yada yada.
2. Records in HD. Yipee!
3. It has a nice program guide.
4. Easy to search for shows you like.
5. Season pass recording option.
6. Picture is great but that is not only a function of this product: I have a high-end DLP TV and I pay DirecTV for HD broadcast. So, whatever.
Overall, I love the menus, the ability to control my TV watching and skip commercials. Really it is not any better than any other Tivo-type product except that it records in HD. That being said…
Here’s the Bad:
1. The Program Guide is so slow. Every time I move up or down a page it has to reload. Dude, we are in the 21st century…. What up with that?
2. If you think that’s slow, just wait till you make any changes to the Season Pass List. I have literally waited 10 minutes…that’s right 10 minutes for it to update when I have added a show, or changed the order list or any other detail. Get the rock tablet and chisel, why don’t you. This is really just ridiculous! I think my Sony Playstation 2 is way more powerful…come to think of it so, is my Casio wrist watch calculator. Pathetic and frustrating.
3. The connector for my HDMI output was defective….twice! The picture reduces to minimal color and gets psychedelic…which might be a fun option, but come on! Talk about poor quality control.
4. It looks sort of lame. It seems like they asked the designer to make it look like the DirecTV logo. It really doesn’t match well with most other higher end components. This is a high-end product, right?
5. The Season Pass does not have an option for folders, where you can keep all the episodes of a particular show in one place. The cheapy non-HD Tivos do have this. What a hassle sifting through several pages to find what I want.
6. Why do I have to manually check off the channels I get so I don’t have to wade through 900 channels of checking and unchecking. We are connected through our “hi- tech” phone line, why can’t they download that info for us?
7. There is no removable Hard Drive or a way to keep all your system settings including, your programming for Season Pass and saved programs, if something should fail. The DirecTV tech department said I could not even have the data transferred. I had to exchange my Tivo 3 times…yes 3 times; that’s 3 times I had to go to the store, wait in line, explain the problems, schlep back and forth with the product, wait on hold with DirecTV to re-establish my account connection, channel set up, set up my system settings, set up my remotes and re-connecting all the Borg-like cables etc. Not to mention, weeks of figuring out which shows I had on my Season Pass...which I mentioned is slow as molasses. @#$%! First time I had to exchange this product, it just had no signal out put, probably the HDMI connector/card; the second time, was definitely the HDMI because of the psychedelic output and; the third time, the rubber stopper were uneven on the bottom; the component box was shaky and unlevel. I went to Best Buy and they opened 4 boxes to find the same problem with each one. I had no choice but to take it but thank the techno gods, I have a replacement plan with Best Buy. Of course anyone can have a bad batch but again, poor workmanship and substandard quality. As for an idea for the geniuses at DirecTV on saving settings, hmmmm, how about, a removable hard drive, satellite or phone-line upload, a back up option or even an option to transfer. Remember this is $1,000.00 system. Now it is actually about $700.00 but still a “high-end” product.
8. Yes, you need to connect it to a phone line…dude it’s satellite!! What gives? Even a wireless internet connection...something! (By the way, this is a side note, when I signed up for DirecTV several years ago, nowhere in their literature to consumers does it say you are required to have a phone line connected. I found out the hard way when they charged me an extra fee. Long story short, they knew they were wrong, couldn’t care less, and I ended up having to purchase an $80 wireless phone jack. I am a capitalist through and through but these large corporations are A-holes).
Well, that’s my story. So, why did I still end up getting it and keeping it?
1. I had no idea before I bought it that for a $1000.00 I would get shoddy workmanship.
2. There is no other choice as far as I now. They have a monopoly. This is the only DirecTV HD Tivo available. This is what’s happens when there is no competition.
Overall, do I recommend it? If you insist on having HD DirecTV…you have no choice. You still get a great picture, sound is OK and if you get lucky and there are no problems and you don’t mess with the Season Pass recording option too much, Tivo, regardless of HD, is great. . If there were a choice, I guess that depends on the alternative. But, something tells me if there were a competitor, there would be better product all around. Good thing they don’t make pace-makers.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 750.00
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jrperi
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Reviews written: 2
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