[0 of 2 customers found this review helpful]

DIRECTV R22 Dvr Satellite Receiver [r22] Review

DirecTV is a ripoff

"I switched from cable to DTV with DVR (not HD, though). At first it wasn't too bad. Nothing great, but nothing awful. The signal would go out during big rains, big snows, or big winds. Then you have to go through setting up your satellite configuration and waiting while it re-downloads all the information (assuming you can remember what all the settings are supposed to be set to).



We also noticed that when items sat in the recorder for a couple months they begin to degrade. When you watch them they are glitchy and skip forward. Eventually we had a new box put in. That one got worse than the first. Now items that had been in the recorder for just a week or two are already degrading.



The fast-forward and rewind freeze up. You have to hit FF or RW again to speed up, then it leaps forward (or backward) past where you want to go. And the pop-up bar that shows your progress has stopped working along with the FF/RW. It says you're at the beginning of a show even as you're FF'ding, right up until the end of the show when it leaps ahead.



The absolute worst is that shows we've set to record inexplicably stop recording even though they display the (R) icon meaning "set to record." One day you realize you missed last night's episode of Lost or something because the box stopped recording it even though it's telling you it's still set to record. Then you have to go into the menu and un-record then re-record each show to get them recording again -- and you have to do this every few weeks for every show or series you have set to record.



But here's the real kicker. My girlfriend finally got fed up enough to call customer service and ask for a new box, and the guy said (actually SAID), "Yeah, we know about all of these problems. Everyone has these same issues. Our engineers are working on it, but we don't have an ETA for when it's going to be resolved." His resolution was first to offer a month of free Showtime, then to offer $5 off our bill for three months. Wow. Here's an idea: how about you stop putting fliers in every Sunday newspaper on the planet and use the money you save to create a product that does what you say it will do.



It has become obvious why DTV locks you into a 2-year contract -- who would stay with a service like this? A coworker managed to get out of his 2-year contract, but he had to spend hours and hours on the phone with DTV working his way up the chain of command, and had to document EVERYTHING that was going wrong. (Not sure how you do that unless you have an exec come out to your house and watch TV with you.) My contract is up in less than a year and I hate dealing with customer service, so I'll stick it out till then. But I am definitely switching back to cable with DVR or TiVo. I wouldn't even trust another satellite company after dealing with DTV.



I would STRONGLY recommend that you look elsewhere for other satellite or cable options. I can't recommend any aspect of DTV. To be fair, our main issues have revolved around the DVR (though resetting the box after every thunderstorm or big wind IS a pain, especially in the Midwest). And the man who installed it was very nice. But even so, I feel DTV is misleading in its claims and should in no way be allowed to hold you to a 2-year contract when the service they provide does not live up to the agreement."