I got my DirecTV HD-DVR in October, about 2 weeks after it came out. I live near Seattle so get local HD over satellite. Everything was pretty hunky-dory for a couple of weeks, and then I began having problems with the local HD programs. One recorded only 18 minutes. Many recorded fine. Some said they recorded but I only got the Black Screen of Death. Some didn’t record at all. Lots of them truncated either at the betinning or the end. If you set a program to start or end 1 min. earlier/later, it won’t record if you have 2 set to record that overlap that one minute (it should wait for the overlap to be over and then record the 3rd program). Last night, after THREE local HD programs didn’t record, I called them. I’ve gotten a lot of conflicting BS from them, but one thing made sense: a lot of local HD stations broadcast using MPEG-4 and THE SET CAN ONLY DECODE MPEG-2. I was told that to solve this problem I should REFORMAT the damned box. I was also told the problem was bad sectors. I used to be a system admin & still remember enough jargon to throw a BS-er off but got nowhere. I’m going to have to switch my recording to my pre-HD-DVR downstairs and spend HOURS watching what I’ve already recorded, or delete it, then hard reformat the drive, then record a local HD program. If it records, I’m told, then I’ve fixed the problem. Oh yeah? As it stands now, I do sometimes get an HD program. So maybe the one I’ll record after reformatting will be one of those. And maybe that night I won’t get my HD programs. They say if I do the reformatting and test and it doesn’t work, they’ll send me another box — but it’ll be a refurbished one. Even though I have their Protection Plan. I’ve even considered switching to Comcast but the thought kind of makes me sick. I’m thinking about telling them that I reformatted it and it didn’t work and then, after receiving the new one, waving a big magnet over the old one.

Another problem I’ve had is that it sometimes just doesn’t record what I’ve told it to, like the last episode of The Lost Room (which was not from a local HD station, BTW), which isn’t downloadable from iTunes or anywhere else that I can find. I’m heartsick that I missed the last 3rd.

I think DirecTV’s programmers (a) don’t watch TV themselves, and (b) are offshore, and the managers own real TiVo machines. I think we should gather together and let the rest of the world know what a nag the DirecTV HD20 is.