I have had DirectTV for several years with no problems until this year, when my tree grew a bit large and blocked the signal. They came out and moved the dish to a more unobstructed place and solved the problem - for a service fee of $78.00. But that is what they charge - total - for just coming out to "see" what the problem might be.
I use the DVR all the time. It holds about 100 hours of shows, I can record two shows at once, but must watch something else recorded previously on DVR because we can not record TWO shows and watch a third, unrecorded show, at the same time. You can, however, record ONE show and watch something else on TV. Or, have two TV's attached to the satellite and watch something on the second TV.
You can pre-program up to fifty separate shows for the DVR to record, and if you want to record the whole series of a show, it will do that regardless if the network moves the show around. However, if the show runs over, or begins late, which happens often, you could miss part of the show because it does not recognize the time change.
We are pretty much spoiled by DirectTV now. The sports channels are extensive, the alternate channels are good and plentiful, and we love the music stations. They provide stations for every, single, type of music, from every era, and seem to play only the good stuff from that era. We did not get into that aspect of the system until this year and are kicking ourselves for not using <actually..heh..heh..
FINDING!> those stations before.
