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Disappointing DIRECTV HD DVR

I posted last month about the upcoming arrival of our DIRECTV HD DVR. After a month of using this very heavily (between my wife and I, we watch/record about 20 total shows on a weekly basis), we have finally determined that this falls well short of our expectations and we are very disappointed in the product. Let's review:

We're previous Tivo customers
Our main DIRECTV receiver was a DIRECTV/TIVO combo receiver which allowed recording of 2 live programs simultaneously and the ability to watch a 3rd program that was already recorded. We also have a single, standard receiver for a guest bedroom. We've been DIRECTV customers for nearly 5 years now, having moved service with us from MN to NC as well.

DIRECTV HD DVR: The Good

1. Unlike the old Tivo Series 1 DIRECTV/TIVO DVR, the DIRECTV HD DVR is very fast at setting up recorded shows via the guide. Tivo Series 1 would force you through a couple of menus before you would have successfully set up a show for recording.
2. Setting up a season pass is just as easy: click record twice. You're done. Tivo was a longer, more drawn out process, and I really like the DIRECTV HD DVR'S way of simplifying and making some assumptions for you (i.e. keep 5 most recent, delete as needed, etc.). You can always override the settings, but from our standpoint, we typically watch the recorded show within a week of it airing, so the defaults are good. Rarely do we record something and have it fall off the list without having viewed it.

DIRECTV HD DVR: The Bad

1. The system is too slow for the fast-forwarding speeds. On this system, there are 4 fast-forward speeds: 1, 2, 3, and 4. Unlike Tivo, the DIRECTV HD DVR does not have a skip button for jumping ahead in 15-minute increments.
• So, they have a speed of "4" for fast-forwarding. This speed is too fast for any human to be able to react quickly to the choppy on-screen playback when fast-forwarding between commercials, so you're guaranteed to overshoot the commercial break and end up several minutes into your program. So, we reserve speed 4 for jump far ahead in a recorded show.
• Speed 3 is typically where we fast forward. The problem again is that the play back is so choppy that we frequently overshoot the commercial break by several seconds. The timeline bar at the bottom doesn't even update in real-time with the fast forward...it too is very choppy. It's really difficult to easily fast forward on this system.
• Speed 2 is too slow for fast forward, but not fast enough...it's what we use if we undershoot the commercial break.
• Speed 1 is very slow, but again, the screen is choppy enough to still overshoot your desired start point in the recorded show.
2. There is no obvious way to toggle between both live signals. On our previous Tivo Series 1 DIRECTV receiver, we could hit "Live TV" and toggle back and forth between live signals. Not with the DIRECTV HD DVR. This is a bummer for us football fans who have SuperFan on one channel and our favorite NFL Sunday Ticket game on another channel.
3. After finishing watching a recorded show, the DVR will drop you off right in the middle of any actively recorded show. This was a huge oversight. We watch several shows that are back-to-back. We'll start watching one show about a half hour into it, finish it up, and then as soon as you hit the "stop" button, the user interface of the DVR shows you a live feed of what's being recorded. This is frustrating when you don't want to see any spoilers in the show you're recording. This happens on a daily basis and seems to be a design oversight. Some real-life usability testing should have flushed this oversight out, but apparently not.
4. Out-of-sync video and audio playback. This has happened occasionally on our system, usually for a minute or two and then it "fixes itself." Tonight, however, my wife swore the world was going to end because Grey's Anatomy was entirely out of sync the entire show. We're not talking a 1/2-second sync error, we're talking the video appeared to be playing at a much faster rate than the audio. The audio track wasn't even close to being in sync with the video. After several stops, starts, fast-forwards, rewinds, we gave up. We'll watch this episode on iTunes, thankyouverymuch.
5. Lack of integrated features like Internet scheduling. Tivo Series 2 was headed in the right direction with the ability to schedule shows to record online, the ability to access Internet applications, etc.
6. Once a show is deleted, it's gone. The concept of the trash can or recycle bin from a computer should be available on all systems where media is constantly viewed and removed. Occasionally, we accidentally delete shows on our DVR and want to retrieve them. Tivo Series 2 added this functionality in mid-2006, and we loved it.

There are several oversights with this product...it's getting so frustrating (we still have our old Tivo Series 1 and it's much nicer in terms of its intuitive menus and fast forwarding) that I'd seriously consider dropping DIRECTV in favor of HD Cable with a Tivo Series 3. I really wish DIRECTV had stuck with Tivo on this HD DVR. The Tivo experience is much more pleasant...the DIRECTV experience feels like a cheap knock-off. Certainly not as bad as Time Warner's DVR, but also not in the same league as a Tivo...which is unfortunate.

A good lesson in product development and delivering a product consumers want. I feel this one has really missed the mark...it's one thing to have an HD DVR, but I've invested a lot of money in our HD system, the last thing I wanted was a sub-standard DVR because it's something we use every day. We'll switch to HD cable by the end of 2007 if the DIRECTV HD DVR isn't improved based on our complaints listed above.