Anyone who’s been forced in the last year or so to move to DirecTV’s craptastic DVRs from the smooth, intuitive, FUNCTIONING TiVo knows the frustration of using this stupid box. The fast-forward, reverse, pause, channel selection, etc. all are barely functional. To skip past the commercials (and let’s be honest – that’s the best feature of a DVR) on the DirecTV version, you have to deal with the blurry fast-forward images. On a TiVo, a couple of button presses, and you just skip 30 seconds at a time, without the motion blur. Not to mention that the TiVo is actually pretty smart – the software makes suggestions – mostly, I’d just ignore them, but from time to time, it’d actually find something worth watching.

I’ve gritted my teeth this last year, enduring the ugly, clunky DVR — and don’t even get me started about how DirecTV lied to me about “leasing” the equipment and then charged me $500 ON TOP OF the $150 already paid when said DVR was stolen.

Well, now comes the news that TiVo and DirecTV have kissed and made up, and that they are once again going to make compatible DVRs. Hallelujah!

I’d have thought that DirecTV wouldn’t ever again deal with TiVo, preferring to stick its customers with all the lovely hidden, deceptive and borderline illegal charges that Rupert Murdoch’s empire so loves to inflict on the unsuspecting public. Guess the class action suits and the screaming on the bulletin boards are having an effect

Mark J. Tamblyn, a partner in Wexler
Toriseva Wallace’s Sacramento office, said “consumers should be fully
advised that their purchases of DIRECTV receivers come with strings.
They should not have to discover after paying hundreds of dollars for a
receiver that their purchase is more like a rental, requiring
continuous payments.”




The lawsuit seeks recovery of all lease fees paid, and a judgment declaring that DIRECTV lease is invalid.




The case, filed in Los Angeles, is Case No. CV08-00906 ABC (PJWx).


That totally useless hunk o’ junk stuffed into my living room cabinet will be back in the shipping box the minute the TiVo box is available.