Hell freezes over, new DirecTV HD TiVo on the way

We had to pinch ourselves and check to see if it was April 1st, because after three years of hearing TiVo fans complain that DirecTV killed off the HD DirecTV TiVo on its move to MPEG4, the satellite company has finally listened. TiVo and DirecTV announced today that sometime during the second half of 2009, a new HD DirecTV TiVo will be available and will include "the latest TiVo and DirecTV features and services" -- there is however no word if this will include favorites such as TiVoToGo or Multi-Room veiwing. Like the previous TiVo models made specifically to work with DirecTV, it will be sold and marketed through DirecTV -- at a yet to be announced price -- and as we've seen in other recent TiVo deals, DirecTV will continue to market and support its own DVR as a "primary offering" which is just fine with us, just so long as we have a choice in the matter, we're cool.

[Thanks, Brad]

[auswimmer @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:10AM]

It's about fricking time!!!!!

[Le Big Mac @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:41AM]

Holy vaporware announcements, Batman.

2d half 2009? That's at least a year away, and likely means "just before Christmas".

[Anthony @ Sep 3rd 2008 1:30PM]

Totally agree w/ Mr French Hamburger.

Our family's long lamented the sh*tty tivo ripoff that is DirecTV's DVR. But waiting another year is a real shame.

16 steps to turn on/off captions is just one of the many stupid design "features" of HD DVR through DirecTV.

[Aaron @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:56PM]

In the latest software, captions go on and off just by hitting the yellow button on the remote. It's still crappy for other reasons, but at least this part is way easier now.

[Cassini @ Sep 3rd 2008 5:25PM]

The second half of *2009*?!????

Good grief! Just take your time, DirectTV. Don't want to rush or anything.

Why do companies announce things a whole year in advance like that? 2009? Who cares? Wake me up when it gets here.

[FearlessFreep @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:11AM]

Yes ! I will gladly jettison the DTV models in favor of Tivo.

[yaksplat @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:15AM]

Thank God......

[kal326 @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:20AM]

Multi-room viewing is an important feature, its why I went with Dish Network back around the first of the year. They were the only provider available at the time that had it. UVerse is now available where I am, but I have heard really good and really bad things about their reliability and picture quality. On Dish even the SD stations look 100x better then they ever did on Time Warner, damn compression, so I'm sure UVerse with their compression would probably be sub par as well.

[chickenator @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:21AM]

yeah, i'm "veiwing" this page now...

[Billy Gun @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:23AM]

Ok, ok, Tivo is a very nice device, but I'm waiting for a DirectTV HD PC card compatible for Windows Media Center.

[kempcross @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:25AM]

second that.

[masteroffm @ Sep 10th 2008 5:57PM]

most likely you will be waiting until 2010 for windows 7.

this is sort of good news for me though, because im not waiting until 2010 for HD content if the HDPC-20 doesnt make it to Vista. An HD DirecTivo is a much more desirable solution to me than DirecTVs current DVR offerings.

[Mr. Snuggle Bunny @ Sep 3rd 2008 7:37PM]

Third! Then I would actually have a reason to use Media Center.

[Treq @ Sep 29th 2008 6:50PM]

So, let me get this right. You are waiting for a DVR card made by a company that makes Sh*tty DVRs (DirecTv)to put into a computer that uses a Sh*tty OS(windows). I didn't think there was a way to make DTV DVR service worse but I think you just found a way.

[Mako @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:32AM]

Awesome news. TiVo has been struggling for years even though they have a great product. Hopefully this will help shore up their business.

[Lancelot @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:42AM]

Is anyone else wondering if they'll disable the "fast forward" button.?? I bet they do..

[ericthebikeman @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:41AM]

I never thought I'd see the day TiVo came back to DTV. Rupert had to have it his way and make, from all accounts I've heard, a sub-par device. Now that Rupert is mostly out of the picture we get some sanity back.

Hopefuly they won't be selling this at some outrageous price like the last ones. It is pretty easy to say "no one wanted it" when you price it right out of your customer's hands.

[cmil1212 @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:42AM]

Tivo was extremely slow on direct tv before so hopefully its faster. As someone who is on the fence in choosing between the two, this is great news though. Direct has the NFL and more HD and my locals in HD. Dish doesn't. However, Dish has the best receiver between the two by far. Having tivo as a choice in the future would make my choice of going with direct tv a lot easier now.

Still, as i said, the tivo was just slow before. I couldn't take the lag between screens, lack of a skip button, etc. But i'm hearing good things since then especially the remote scheduling stuff.

[JohnTitor @ Sep 3rd 2008 9:50AM]

hell seems to be freezing over a lot these days

[RCook @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:01AM]

Son of a Bi***...

I *just* bought a DTV PVR to replace my DTivo, this really really pisses me off! DTV's PVR is awful and the excuses they give for it are just as bad. One example of the crap they foisted on us, season passes as they are know in Tivo-land, on the DTV PVR you can set one up, you can choose how many episodes to record and you can even tell it to record first run shows or all shows -- for all intents it's just like it was on a DTivo. Wrong. The DTV PVR can't figure out what a first run show is, and upon calling support they will tell you that the technology to determine a first run show is not yet available and that it doesn't work. WHAT?!? WTF do you have it as an option if it doesn't work? WTF did you waste the time programming the interface if it doesn't work? How the hell did a DirecTivo manage to pull off this amazing feat for the last FIVE YEARS if the technology doesn't exist?!?

I'm not bitter, nope not at all. The new DTivo can't come soon enough.

[SaltyGary @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:21AM]

What are you talking about. I've had the DTV HD 20 and it can tell between first run and repeats very well. It's one of the primary options when you are recording a series. You can also tell it to record so many episodes or all episodes. Next time before you sound like an ass, why dont you read the instruction manual.

[Jason @ Sep 3rd 2008 11:08AM]

Ditto on SaltyGary's post. We've got the same DTV HD DVR unit and it tells the difference btwn first runs and reruns no problem. My biggest complaint about how DTV's DVRs do their "season pass" setup is that the default is to only keep 5 episodes, despite the fact that all their product info states that it keeps shows until you delete them or it needs to clear up room for recording. Nowhere in the user manual or their online help, that I could find anyway, does it mention the 5-ep default setting. I always set up my "season pass" by simply pushing the record button twice, and since my prior DTivo simply kept all shows, recording first runs vs reruns was never an issue, so I'd never needed to go into the settings for the series recording and it never occurred to me that the DTV DVR wouldn't keep all episodes... until I lost a bunch while on vacation.

My other major complaint about the DTV DVRs vs Tivos is the lack of dual buffers, even though it's got dual tuners. That was probably my biggest complaint going from our HD DTivo to the DTV HD DVR.

And as cheesy as it sounds, I miss the little noises that the DTivos made when you did something.

[Jay @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:21PM]

Jason

Just so you know, you can change your defaults
Menu->Manage Recordings->Rec. Defaults

You can set your default to any options available in the record menus.

[RCook @ Sep 3rd 2008 12:41PM]

SaltyGary,

Next time before sounding like an ass why don't you do a google search. I'm hardly the only person having this issue and DTV support backs me up on the problem as my complaint is not new.

[Izzy @ Sep 3rd 2008 2:58PM]

The H20 does know the difference, but only in a half assed way. It determines a "first run" show by the YEAR that it aired from my experience. It records all of my episodes of Weeds that first aired in 2008 every single time as new shows. The only thing it does to filter those recordings is that it won't record two copies of the same episode.

[FrankO @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:10AM]

This is great news. Finally a light at the end of the tunnel for when I can ditch Comcast. Although the tunnel is a bit long and dark.

[TVGenius @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:22AM]

Had to call my grandma and let her know... she's thrilled. Warned her she has to keep her old DirecTiVo alive another year though.

[r @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:28AM]

Yeah!!! TiVo is (was) great with DirecTV. I still am clinging to my hacked HR10-250 until they pry it from my hands.

[yagorob @ Sep 3rd 2008 12:04PM]

yah, me too! except that i just got 2 tivo HDs and plan on switching to comcast before they shut down the mpeg2 HD streams...

[Mark @ Sep 3rd 2008 10:41AM]

Does this mean that I can pull my HR10-250 HD Tivo will work again? Damn them for killen it off...

[Frank @ Sep 3rd 2008 11:30AM]

How much will this DirecTV Tivo cost? I wanted to upgrade to a Directv DVR a few months ago and they said I would have to pay $200 for the box. So I would have to pay $200 plus a monthly fee? So not worth it....

[dukeman @ Sep 3rd 2008 11:41AM]

I have a DTV HD DVR (say that three times fast) and it's taken awhile but I would not jump back to Tivo now. DTV has steadily updated the firmware on the boxes and added new features. While Tivo was perfect for getting into DVR for my family I think DTV's current box is not bad and it doesn't beg for Tivo. They may be finding that outsourcing to Tivo actually costs them less than keeping their own box up to par. And because Tivo really needs a carrier like DTV to push their product it may be a much better relationship now.

[Bill @ Sep 3rd 2008 11:45AM]

Well, it looks like I will finally be coming back to DirecTV once this is available! It's about time you listened to your customers and potential customers!

[alex @ Sep 3rd 2008 12:12PM]

Ha! Comcast has T-minus 15 months left with me as a paying subscriber!

[James Rainey @ Sep 3rd 2008 12:30PM]

YES! YES! YES! YES!

We have suffered through DirecTV's version of TIVO long enough! Sure it has a couple of cute features, but this is the announcement that will keep me from flipping to uVerse!

[Elux Troxl @ Sep 3rd 2008 12:46PM]

The real question is: will this be a single wire box or dual wire?

[A @ Oct 18th 2008 5:23AM]

More then likely dual. Need two satellite feeds in order to record 1 show while watching another show, or recording 2 shows a the same time.

[Henry @ Sep 3rd 2008 1:28PM]

Hallelujah! At long last, rational thinking has prevailed and consumers given a choice. I have been seriously considering switching to (ugh) cable and now I don't have to worry about it. Too bad the lead time is so long. I hope it doesn't take forever like the HR10-250, although that delay may have been more for internal political reasons than technical ones. Perhaps DirecTV or TiVo will have a prototype at CES in January. I hope it has an OTA ATSC tuner. The good news is that no NTSC tuner will be required.

[AP @ Sep 3rd 2008 1:39PM]

I'm going home to weep. I just got Dish network earlier this year because our DTivo lost one of its tuners and we bought an HDTV. My wife and I both _HATE_ our Dish DVR. "Better the Tivo" - not unless they're both off and even then it's barely a tie.

[John @ Sep 3rd 2008 1:40PM]

Lovin that

[Frankenstein Black @ Sep 3rd 2008 1:50PM]

OH HAPPY DAYS!! Hey DirecTV you can stop spamming me now begging me to come back! My HR 10-250 HD has been gathering dust ever since updates/support was nil and it became incompatible with the new HD offers. Once you have this "bad boy" for sale, SIGN ME UP, again, (ya basteds ;^)...

[Frankenstein Black @ Sep 3rd 2008 1:57PM]

Oh, and don't GIMP it either. It should have all the bells and whistles of the current Tivo HD and then some. Just sayin...

[SaltyGary @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:09PM]

I gave DTV a whole bunch of greif, mentioned the word Comcast and they replaced my dish and gave me a HD 20 DVR for $100. They wouldn't cave one the price of the tuner but did offer the new hd tuner without dvr for free. I did this within 8 months of getting the old hd dish that was not compatible with the new offerings.

Give them some grief, maybe they'll do something. There generally pretty good to talk to.

[andycc @ Sep 4th 2008 2:53AM]

happy happy joy joy!!!!

[Jay @ Sep 3rd 2008 3:27PM]

Regarding the first runs:

The HR2* now has the first run date, in it's description: if it is available to the unit.
IE: The content provider has provided it in the guide data.

The HR2* used the First Air Date, in conjunction with the REPEAT flag, to determin if it is a first run or not.

While there are cases of it not working, typically they are trackable to specific programs or networks.
I have about 20 series links setup, for first run only. For shows that only aired repeats during the summer... they all didn't record anything, but now that the seasons are starting up... they are showing up in the todo list.

So lets not go painting the picture that the unit can not determin first run or not.
What it does, is if it isn't clear, based on the guide data if it is a first run or not: It records it. Easy enough for the user to delete if it was a repeat, impossible for the user to record if the broadcast is over.

Oh and the TiVo platform, has the similar issue with some shows (there are support forums that support that as well)

[aaronlintz @ Sep 3rd 2008 4:43PM]

Been using the DTV Tivo for too many years and although the menu delays are slow it was designed great for its time. Tivo does need Direct TV and Vise Versa. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

[tekhead73 @ Sep 3rd 2008 5:26PM]

I have had the same experience as Jay with my HR20.
I have no major complaints with my DVR or HD service it is great.
When I was on cable I had two Series2 TiVos and loved them but the HD DVR that Comcast offered maid by Motorola was junk.
If they offer the TiVo service as a software upgrade to my HR20 I am in, but I am not ready to sink more money into a whole new box.

[JIM @ Sep 3rd 2008 8:19PM]

made..... ???maid??? that is edumaction for ya...lol

[Mark @ Sep 3rd 2008 6:13PM]

thank you Jebus for a new DirecTV Tivo!

[jasonjmp @ Sep 3rd 2008 7:13PM]

UGH!!!! I just switched to Fios last week, too late now.. cya Directv! (i might be back though...)