I have a series 2 DirecTV DVR that's a bit less than 2 years old. Several days ago, it began "stuttering" in displaying playback, formatting graphics in the menus, even producing such stuttering while watching live TV (I assume the latter is because the incoming signal must fill a buffer on the hard drive before sending the bitstream to the monitor, but that's a wild guess).
In any event, after a few phone calls to DirecTV and more than 24 hours of waiting for my hard drive to fail reformatting, I'm about to receive a refurbished DVR from DirecTV. They say they cannot promise it will be a TiVo DVR, but likely WILL be, because their own brand of DVR is in short supply (I think I'm lucky there). I asked about upgrading to an HD DVR, and they told me they could do that, but the TiVo HD DVR they'd send me would not be capable of receiving local channels (San Francisco) via the new 5-LNB dish. They told me that their own branded HD-DVR will be available in a few months, and that there's other unannounced content that I'll miss if I opt now for the DirecTV with TiVo HD-DVR they could sell me now (for $399 after rebate). My questions: 1. Any idea what the "additional content" might be? 2. I'm in Santa Rosa, 50 miles (by road, probably 40 miles line-of-site) from San Francisco. My understanding is that I'm too far away to get the local channels' HD content by off-air broadcast (the current DirecTV with TiVo HD-DVR is capable of receiving off-air content, but I guess I'd need to put up some kind of rooftop antenna, and I'm sure that my homeowner's association will frown on that even if I COULD get adequate antenna reception, but again, I'm guessing wildly). 3. What will I lose by going from TiVo to DirecTV DVR? 4. Local retailers who sell DirecTV include BestBuy and Circuit City. Are they likely to be able to answer these questions for me? Thanks so much, Jim Robertson ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Know an art & music fan? Make a donation in their honor this holiday season! http://us.click.yahoo.com/.6dcNC/.VHMAA/Zx0JAA/eCTplB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tivocentral/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
