DirecTV vs FIOS Whole Home DVRs

[gshumaker]

We currently have TIVO boxes on 3 TVs with DirecTV and have been a loyal customer with them for 8+ years.

Been looking at possibly switching to FIOS or sticking with DirecTV but upgrading to HD DVRs or possibly their whole home DVR system. We have been holding out for the new HD Tivos boxes with DTV but the intial reports are not that great and they are being offered in very limited areas right now.

We have 3 TVs all with their own DVRs so we can presently record 6 seperate shows on all 3 units. One for the parents and the other 2 are used by our 2 boys.

Anyone have any experience good or bad with either system?

What are the trade offs of going to the whole house dvrs? Can't you only record 2 shows then? I know DTV has a DVR with 5 tuners but how can you make sure that you get that one and not just one that has 2?

What about costs?

Any help would be greatfully appreaciated.

With DTV, anyone have any great Customer Retention tricks for getting some of this stuff for free as a loyal customer?

Thanks!

 

[DaisyLynn]

We currently have TIVO boxes on 3 TVs with DirecTV and have been a loyal customer with them for 8+ years.

Been looking at possibly switching to FIOS or sticking with DirecTV but upgrading to HD DVRs or possibly their whole home DVR system. We have been holding out for the new HD Tivos boxes with DTV but the intial reports are not that great and they are being offered in very limited areas right now.

We have 3 TVs all with their own DVRs so we can presently record 6 seperate shows on all 3 units. One for the parents and the other 2 are used by our 2 boys.

Anyone have any experience good or bad with either system?

What are the trade offs of going to the whole house dvrs? Can't you only record 2 shows then? I know DTV has a DVR with 5 tuners but how can you make sure that you get that one and not just one that has 2?

What about costs?

Any help would be greatfully appreaciated.

With DTV, anyone have any great Customer Retention tricks for getting some of this stuff for free as a loyal customer?

Thanks!

Ugh.... I just had typed a long reply and my Safari app crashed.

We have always had DirecTV (DH has been a customer for 13 years or so) and are happy with the service. The whole-home DVR works well, though we don't get much use out of it (two of us, 3 HD DVRs). But DH likes his gadgety things!

We've not asked for anything free or threatened disconnecting for a better deal simply because we've been pleased with the service. I do believe when we upgraded our last two DVRs to HD they did waive the setup fee of one of them. (Ok, I just looked at the statement from when we upgraded last year. For two new receivers and the multi-room equipment upgrade the price would have been $400 total, but they credited us $200, therefore costing us $200 total.) They also waive the fee for one of our leased receivers each month (not sure why).

To me it sounds like you would get more use of the whole-home DVR than we do, and obviously DTV has waived some of the fees in the past. My suggestion is if you're happy with them, give them a shot.

 

[Calliaz]

I was in your exact situation in October when one of our old Dtivo units died. I had been holding out for the new dtivo units. I am so glad things happened the way that they did. When it died, I went with the DirecTV HR24 with whole home. I ended up buying 2 HR24s (living room and master bedroom) so that we can record 4 shows at one time. If you have just 1 DVR and the rest regular receivers, you can only record 2 channels at one time. However, there is a newer unit (HR34) that can record 5. We have another receiver that does not have a DVR. However, with whole home, all of the receivers show all the recorded shows. You can even record from the non-dvr unit. It's very nice.

The new dvr does not have suggestions (I haven't missed them) and the buffer doesn't always run (it isn't going when you turn off the unit). However, it has a 90 min buffer. Double play allows you to switch back and forth between the two tuners. It's a bit different, but hasn't bothered me. My only problem has been that they have a maximum of 50 season passes on each dvr. I watch way too much tv. I like that I can now get On Demand and pausing in one room and starting back in another is nice. Overall, I am very happy. I did spend about $300 to get the new install (one DVR and the new regular receiver were discounted but I paid for the second DVR). I've seen ads for free whole home now, though.

The downsides I see to the new tivo are that you cannot get whole home or pay-per-view. Plus, there is an additional $5 Tivo charge.

I did learn that you cannot request a specific dvr model through DirecTV. So, if you only want 1 dvr and, therefore, want the HR34 to record more channels at once, I would consider buying from a third-party seller and then ordering the install and other receivers separately. If you go through DirecTV, you might get an HR24 instead of an HR34.