I love DirecTV, I wish I could say the same about the HR20. I love the HR20 when it’s working well and it works well more often than not but it does have it share of bugs. When it’s working it does great things though. It gets great reception giving me a beautiful picture, I can record two HD channels at the same time while watching a third, the user interface is easy to navigate and understand.
I have been a DirecTV subscriber for years and I upgraded to this package shortly after it came available. I am presently on my third box, the first two I got being defective. So far my third box has been working great and exhibiting few of the bugs the first two did. I did suffer for awhile with the first few boxes though. the HR20 would crash on me from time to time, it wouldn’t record some of the things I had set it to record and the video and audio would often drop out.
I don’t know if I have just been lucky with my newest box or if they have finally ironed out the bugs but my latest box has been trouble free for the most part. I have dropped audio and video occassionaly but that could just be the weather affecting the satellite. I have yet to miss a recording with my newest box (thank god).
There are a few things that I wish the box did have. It lacks picture in picture which would be nice. It’s also just a tad louder than I wished it was, not really a big deal but a little annoying during quiet moments. My biggest complaint though is the lack of aspect ratio control, this is one feature I hope they add in an upcoming firmware upgrade.
Overall I guess I am happy with the HR20, it’s far from perfect but it does what I want it to do for the most part. Just beware that you may have to go through a few units before you get a good one.
Compete Product Specifications:
Model Number H20
Width 14.5″
Height 2.75″
Depth 12″
Tuners:
Satellite 1, ATSC 1
BACK PANEL/JACK PANEL
Off-Air ATSC Input
1 Female F-Connector (split Internally to 2 ATSC tuners)
1 HDMI
1 Component HD Video Out (YPrPB)
2 Composite Video Out (RCA)
1 S-Video
2 Audio/Video Out
1 Digital Optical
2 Telephone Jacks
1 33.6 Kbps Modem
2 USB Port (Future Use)
120VAC / 60 Hz / 98W
REMOTE CONTROL
Signal Type IR
Device Support TV, AV Stereo Receiver
Mode Indicators Yes
36 Number of Keys
AA (2)Batteries Included