Dish & Direct's commercials are selling Snake Oil. They have to compete against TiVo & Uverse which allows 4 programs to be recorded at once. As for Dish & Direct, if you read through their TOS regarding their new technology, you will find a lot of restrictions.

As for space, largest DVR is 500gb, and there really is not too many people that use up that much space. We usually keep shows on our DVR for about 30-45 days before deleteing. One reason is majority are going to be repeated again, others you can rent on Blu-Ray, or watch online through various sites.

Snake Oil or not, the Hopper feature is amazing and I am going to hope that AT&T comes up with something similar as well.

Yes, Dish and DirectTV are making great strides in regard to the THDVR and I hope that AT&T will soon come up with a major update that will improve upon what they have now.  When I first got service in my new home (3rd UVerse installation) I had 7 streams 3HD and 4 SD, but a subsequent update brought it back down to 3/1. With family member who don't care whether they watch HD or SD with was nice when recording multiple shows as we had no conflicts.  I was later told by a tech that had to come replace the line from the box to the outside of the house after the builder cut my cable in my next door neighbors yard that higher profiles should be rolled out by then end of 2013.  I hope he's correct.

I'm sitting in this same boat now with actual dates to have DirecTV installed on 1/30 and Cox Ultimate Internet (55Mpbs+ download) to be installed on the same day.

 

Selling snake oil is not what I'd call it. DirecTV has the Genie with 5 shows at once, what is deceiving about that?

Every service has its pros and cons, but I don't think they are selling snake oil at all. Please explain what is snake oil?

Chris, wasn't the discussion over at avsforum enough? I know that you are switching, so lets leave it at that you were not satisfied with the service and move on to other things.

Here's the one thing that Direct won't tell most people

"Limit three remote viewings per Genie HD DVR (model HR34 Advanced Whole-Home DVR) at a time. Remote viewing requires a model C31Client, H25 HD Receiver(s) or RVU-enabled TV/device in each additional room, a SWiM network and Advanced Receiver Service ($20/mo.) To access HD programming, HD television equipment also required. "

 

That's a lot of money per month to have the Genie to be able to record an additional 2 shows at a time.

 

Here's what most people don't see regarding Dish's Hopper:

"Record up to 6 Channels at Once with PrimeTime Anytime™.

Record up to six live channels at once during primetime, including your 4 local networks and 2 channels of your choosing, and stream four recorded programs to different TVs simultaneously. That means you can watch more and miss less of your favorite programs.

Commercial-free TV feature only available for playback of certain primetime shows on ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC with PrimeTime Anytime feature. Functions must be enabled by customer and are subject to availability."

Even with it being only primetime major networks, I give the advantage to Dish as their new boxes are going to be incorporating Slingbox technology.

There are a lot of additional features in your DVR you'll get with Directv no matter what the number of shows you can record at once - it will be an upgrade. 

The hopper is mearly a prime-time event and works only on shows that agree to do it! Not a reason to switch.

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happyharry wrote:

 

There are a lot of additional features in your DVR you'll get with Directv no matter what the number of shows you can record at once - it will be an upgrade. 

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Unhappyharry, I have no idea why you are still a U-verse customer.

Probably a phone and Internet only consumer.

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gregzoll_1 wrote:

Probably a phone and Internet only consumer.

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No, he is a U-verse TV customer.  He has a long history of these types of messages:

 

http://forums.att.com/t5/forums/recentpostspage/post-type/message/user-id/2460125

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antman_2 wrote:

The hopper is mearly a prime-time event and works only on shows that agree to do it! Not a reason to switch.

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I typically on record shows during prime time on the major networks.  I'd never go back to a satellite company again, but if I did, it would be dish.  The Slingbox feature alone would be worth it.

I usually ignore them, due to you cannot argue against those who see the galss only as half full. I though see the glass as always full, regardless.

oufanindallas, you can add a Sling box to UVerse, Comcast, etc, so it becomes an irrelevant subject at this point.

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gregzoll_1 wrote:
oufanindallas, you can add a Sling box to UVerse, Comcast, etc, so it becomes an irrelevant subject at this point.

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I realize that as I have a slingbox connected to my system.  The point is Dish is incorporating into their DVR so you don't have to purchase it.  AT&T hasn't had a major upgrade in a while and Dish and Direct are both making huge and inovative strides.  If AT&T doesn't keep up they will find themselves becoming irrelevant.  There is nothing wrong about a customer making comparisons and wishing AT&T would upgrade.

The thing about Direct & Dish, is those strides were held up, due to the ongoing TiVo lawsuit that had been happening for quite a few years. Also for a lot of the features, you have to have a decent Internet connection for things like Slingbox, etc., and most that live in the back woods, or no man's land, where they are lucky to just have dial up, it goes back to being a gimmick.

My in-laws tried the whole house with Direct, and ended up disconnecting it, due to their Internet connection was not sufficient for the features that it offered.

I'm a Uverse customer because I live in a UVerse "community" where the service is included in monthly charges already and I don't have much choice.

 

Which has nothing to do with the fact that the UVERSE DVR is years behind the functions available on other DVR's.  Refusing to accept the facts has nothing to do with the facts.  I'm certainly not the only one on these boards who have had other services such as DirecTV and who have talked about how feature poor the UVERSE product is and doesn't seem to be getting better with any speed. 

All products don't work exactly as advertising would like you to believe - they all have unspoken requirements, etc.

 

Sorry if you folks don't like the truth but the UVERSE DVR is missing a lot of features that other vendor's dvr have.

 

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happyharry wrote:

 

I'm a Uverse customer because I live in a UVerse "community" where the service is included in monthly charges already and I don't have much choice. 

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The way your messages express your feelings about U-verse, you definitely have choices:  1) You can still have DirecTV installed at your current residence, or 2) You can move to a location where you can get DirecTV.  Based on your messages, you will be much happier when you take either of those actions.  You will then be able to hangout on the DirecTV forums where all the customers are ecstatically happy with their service, and it will reduce the number of DirecTV commericals being posted on the U-verse forum.

 

By the way, I have had DirecTV, Dish Network, cable and I have 2 Tivo DVR's.

Dish does rock as most of the features att has derived from them and some from tivo. Remember the law suits between dish and att? I'm loyal att as they always take care of any issue I may have and knock down the pricing every other year to boot. Plus I have no line of site for a sat. dish anyway.

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gregzoll_1 wrote:
The thing about Direct & Dish, is those strides were held up, due to the ongoing TiVo lawsuit that had been happening for quite a few years. Also for a lot of the features, you have to have a decent Internet connection for things like Slingbox, etc., and most that live in the back woods, or no man's land, where they are lucky to just have dial up, it goes back to being a gimmick.

My in-laws tried the whole house with Direct, and ended up disconnecting it, due to their Internet connection was not sufficient for the features that it offered.

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Be that as it may, what may have been years in the making for them have surpassed what was on an exclusive with AT&T.  I'm happy with my service and I have had both Dish and DIrect and they would have to pay me to ever go back to satellite, but that doesn't mean that if AT&T doesn't at least stay up with the competition I won't leave.  Grande and TWC also service my neighborhood and Grande basic package is included as part of my HOA. 

Coming from DirecTV I can say for a fact the DVR is lacking in a couple features. Our U-verse went out Wednesday night and we weren't able to watch any recorded shows, which I find odd because they are on a hard drive. The option to play a series and have it conitinue to the next program when the other one ended is a big miss. When FF'ing and I want to slow it down a tick, when I press REW it should slow the FF down, not start the RW feature. I don't know why I have to re-confirm that I want to erase a program when I have FF to the end of it.

 

These are just a few things that I think could be feature enhancements to make the DVR better.

The Uverse DVRs are a work in progress.  They do considerably more than they used to.  I understand how you feel about the features in these DVRs though.  When I signed up for Uverse after leaving DTV it was a very big difference between the functions of the two DVRs.  Hopefully more features will be added in the not too distant future.

I agree. For the most part att seems willing to keep up with the tech. I think patent infringement plays a big role. Their r and d needs to beat dish more often otherwise patents will need to expire.[Edited to comply with Guidelines]