Despite some good news and announcements coming out of DirecTV CES camp this week including 100 new HD channels, the possibility of cheaper PVRs due to improved satellite receiver chips, and an interesting but confusing OnDemand service that could be a Slingbox idea or some pseudo IPTV VoD service, DirecTV is still getting a sharp stick in the belly over the issues with its PVRs and HD service.Faulty HR20 HD PVRs
There's the ongoing issue of the faulty HR20 DirecTV Plus HD PVR which is reportedly plagued with problems. While not everyone is getting the problems a huge chunk of people are and DirecTV seem to be nothing about it.
Tom Starner of HDTV Magazine goes into detail about these HR20 issues (nice work Tom!) and the conclusion is "there's little doubt a significant number of subscribers will hit the boiling point (of course, some already have) if the HR20 isn't fixed real soon."
DirecTiVo users
Since DirecTV decided to use NDS to make its PVRs and dropped TiVo, many DirecTV subscribers really began to miss the more reliable and functional DirecTiVo.
TiVo was dropped because NewsCorp's Rupert Murdoch, who owned a substantial chunk of DirecTV, also had a stake in NDS so decided to let NDS manufacturer the DirecTV PVRs from then on. Now NewsCorp has traded its share of DirecTV to Liberty Media to regain 16.3% of its own shares.
But even DirecTV users are not left out of the DirecTV's bullets of bad customer service. A post over on TiVo Lovers explains how DirecTV has "deliberately crippled" the feature set on DirecTiVo units.
DirecTV has disabled features such as Music, Photos, HME, and online scheduling which normally work on regular TiVos and can be re-enabled on DirecTiVos through hacks.
HR20 Home Networking Issues
It doesn't stop there. The HR20 has a network port allowing you to connect it to your home network. However DirecTV has only recently enabled home networking for just Intel Viiv PCs, announcing it at this weeks CES. Unfortunately they are leaving everyone other PC owner out of the loop.
This is partly to do with the benefits of the Intel technology making DirecTV PVRs the first digital set-top box with integrated digital media adapter (DMA) functionality verified to work with Intel Viivtechnology. But I'm not sure why DirecTV felt it necessary to leave out every other PC user.
Inferior HD Quality - "HD Lite"
While DirecTV promises to increase its lineup of channels it is still receiving plenty of complaints about an inferior HD service which has been nicknamed HD Lite.
Ben Drawbaugh of our sister site EngadgetHD questioned Rômulo Pontual, the Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of DirecTV, about the whole HD Lite issue (nice work Ben).
To sum up Rômulo Pontual denied that the DirecTV HD service was reduced and that when you compare screens side by side and look at the quality DirecTV HD is the same and denied that the lower bitrate and lower resolution of DirecTV HD was an issue.
This doesn't change the fact that many DirecTV HD subscribers feel that it is not true HD quality and that they can visually tell the difference, or the fact that DirecTV still has a pending court case from an unhappy subscriber over the issue.
To Sum Up
With all these issues I'm surprised DirecTV is continuing to increase its subscriber base. Maybe the company should focus a little less on advertising for new customers and make the ones it has now a lot happier. After all research shows it's a lot more expensive to gain a new customer, than keep an old one.
1. That is extremely unfair, to say they are not doing anything.
Regards to the HR20: They just put out a "release candidate" in an effort to fix some of the problems being seen. Just this week. And please define "hugh chunk" and what statistics you used to come up with that vague term.
Regards to the TiVo: DirecTV is aware of the issue, and is working with the company that created the software... aka, TiVo, Inc... to indetify the cause of the issue, so it can be resolved. And DirecTV has never "enabled" those features... so they can't disable something, that has never been "enabled"... so unless you have some good solid provable facts, on why they where never enabled.... as there are plenty of "theories" out there.
HR20 Intel ViiV... Where are the issues? People that have the Intel ViiV system and the Media server are working with the software... which actually "official" is classified as a Beta right now @ forums.directv.com And at www.dbstalk.com , there have been no less then 6 alternative Media Server solutions that thoses without ViiV can use to obtain the similar features. Including some options for a Mac (that at this time are hit and miss on audio, but do work for Images).. But again... the feature is officially classified as a public Beta.
HD Lite: I'm sorry... unless you have some other version of the engadget article... Romulo Pontual, did not deny they they where reducing the bitrate. He did state that Bit Rate was not a good measure... and gave an explanation on why he said that.
The Court case has to do with what he was "sold" and what he is "receiving", and the symantecs of it.
As for HD Lite... And the resolution stuff... Understand the issue... to Understand the Solution.
Right now... If you want the 9 channels they have available in HD... they have to do something to the signal... There just simply isn't enough bandwith in the current SAT fleet to have them all at full resolution.... Just isn't. If you want them back to full... You have to lose HD channels, or an average of 6 SD channels, per HD.
So IS the HD version of the channel better then the SD version? Even if it is HD Lite ? Is it the best it can be? No... But it is heck of lot better then not having it at all.... and with the MPEG-4 pipeline hopefully opening in 6-9 months.... The HD-Lite camp will have to find something else to harp on.
Posted at 3:10PM on Jan 12th 2007 by Earl Bonovich