Direct TV DVR Has Several Advantages : A Report
On a whim, I bought a TiVo last week, and I have yet to unbox it. I have Direct TV, and I'm not sure how this box and my satellite receiver will work together. I see — after the fact — that Direct TV sells its own DVR. Did I make a mistake buying the cheap TiVo? A: There are a lot of considerations in answering this question. You can use the stand-alone TiVo box with your Direct TV receiver, but it may not be the best choice. When you have a TiVo, you use the TiVo's remote and the TiVo box controls your satellite receiver, which includes changing the channels. The way the TiVo changes the channels is through an infrared "blaster" that relays the commands from the TiVo remote to the Direct TV receiver. These blasters work pretty well, but they occasionally miss a channel change, especially on a three-digit channel number. So, for instance, you want to change to Channel 501, and the receiver changes to Channel 51. It doesn't happen often, but it happened enough to me when I had a stand-alone TiVo that I changed to Direct TV just to have one box instead of two. Because Direct TV does have a satellite receiver with a built-in TiVo recorder, I would recommend it. So I'd run back to the store to return that TiVo. I've seen the Direct TV box at retailers for under USD.100. One other monetary consideration is the monthly fee you will pay for TiVo guide service. A stand-alone TiVo box has two options for service, paying USD.12.95 per month or a one-time charge of USD.299 for lifetime service on the box. The charge for guide data from Direct TV is USD.4.99 per month. There is no lifetime service for Direct TV DVR boxes. It just makes financial sense to use Direct TV's DVR in my opinion. Another advantage to the Direct TV DVR is the ability to record two shows at once. Stand-alone boxes can record only one show at a time. You will need two feeds from your dish to use the dual tuners, but most dishes have that capability. Ease of use, cheaper program guide fees and dual tuner capability make the Direct TV the obvious choice. Either return the stand-alone TiVo or give it to someone who has cable TV
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