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| Philips R15300 / R15 / R15 Direct TV 80HR Digital Video Recorder | 
 enlarge | Brand: Philips
Category: CE
List Price: $99.92
Buy New: $69.00
You Save: $30.92 (31%)
New (2) Used (1) from $69.00
Avg. Customer Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 8880
Shipping Weight (lbs): 4
MPN: R15
UPC: 037849956526
EAN: 0037849956526
ASIN: B000E49TJK
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
Total loss June 2, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This is the absolute worst piece of lemon hardware I have ever purchased, the forums here and elsewhere are filled with similar complaints, and DirecTV will do nothing more than ship out another copy of the broken-by-design box.
My specific issues:
* Routinely crashes
* Show starts at 9:01 according to program guide; pause just before start (9:00); do something else until after show has ended (10:00); return to find the ONLY THING AVAILABLE IS THE ONE MINUTE FROM 9:00-9:01!!! Yes, that's right. The show you (obviously) wanted to watch is gone, completely, even if it just finished and, had you not already paused it, would be well within the ~60 minute buffer.
* Press record. No response from DVR. Press record again. No response from DVR. Two minutes later, two "R" circles appear, and now I have a season pass for the show I wanted to record just once.
* Byzantine interface for managing season passes
* Often, the "pause" button just stops working. The "play bar" comes up and shows no green whatsoever, as though I'd just changed to this channel. Only fix is unplugging and restarting the unit (obviously, can't rewind or watch what happened while rebooting).
* NO WAY TO JUMP TO START OF PROGRAM. You have to "pause" at the start of any program you want to watch/record. If you just let it come on (while you're fixing dinner, for instance), when you get back you must rewind through the entire show, watching it in reverse. Yes, even if you record it and go to the program guide, you still automatically start at the "live" location and have to rewind. Totally destroys any "surprises" in a show. And, of course, you have to watch it while it rewinds, or it is liable to rewind past the start of this show (and, for double bonus points, if you rewind past the start of this show and had not told it specifically to record it permanently, you lose the show due to the second bug above).
* If you are "behind" in a show and it has to change the tuner, you lose your show. You get a warning, and have to press the "record" button, but still it will change channels when it feels it must. At that point, if you had recorded you can go into the list and find it, but then you will have to start playing again from the very start of the program, not where you were (usually at about 5 minutes left) when it forced you to stop.
* This is UNSUPPORTED by Hughes / DirecTV. DirecTV will happily replace your box, but ONLY with another junk R15. They will not allow you to get a different box (the R16 box reportedly fixes ALL of these issues!)
Overall, after having used DirecTV for 8 of the past nine years, I am considering dropping them entirely over this crap hardware. I paid good money for this ($99 off the shelf). I have never had such substandard support for such expensive hardware in my life. DirecTV is no longer a reliable company which even attempts to stand by their product.
In short: DO NOT BUY THIS PRODUCT.
Worst DVR I have ever used. December 24, 2007
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I normally don't write reviews for products, but this DVR is one of the worst pieces of junk I have ever owned. I got it unknowingly as part of upgrading my DirecTV service so that I could have another tuner.
The response time is way too slow from the remote, the user interface is not intuitive, the Pay-Per-View menus are unecessarily clumsy, and it doesn't appear to continuously record TWO channels at the same time.
In comparison the first DVR I received when we got the Tivo service is a Samsung SIR-S4040R and this unit is awesome. There is nothing fancy, but it is very intuitive to use and has more than adequate functionality. I especially like the Live TV button where you can instantaneously switch between the two satellite inputs that are continuously being recorded.
When upgrading your service or getting a new DVR from DirecTV make sure you ask which unit you are getting and stay away from the R15-300 or anything like it.
Awful piece of buggy, clunky equipment. December 29, 2006
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
This product was released too early, there are far too many glitches to be on the market. This is the worst piece of electronics Ive ever owned. I purchased through directv, because of the contracts involved there is no way to return it either, avoid this at all costs.
The bugs are too numerous to list, and new ones seem to appear each month. It does not record series as programmed, dual tuner ability (useful to record a show and watch another) seems to dropout occasionally for no apparent reason, scheduled records get dropped with no warning, etc.
There are a number of problems with the interface that anyone with prior DVR experience will notice. Generally speaking it is clunky (extra buttons to press, even to view program guide), non-intuitive (deleting a manually recorded series is near impossible) and sometimes invasive (a non-removable bulletin appears 5 minutes before the DVR must change channels, ruining the last bit of whatever you are currently watching). These however are minor compared to the glitches that prevent the product from performing its basic functions as advertised.
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