Dan from Wichita writes:

I would like to know the differences between DISH’s DVR’s and DIRECT’s DVR’s. Are there different versions/lengths of time they can record both within each site and against each other? I’ve seen somewhere that they can 100 minutes. That doesn’t sound very long to me. Are there other DVR’s/TIVO that can record longer times?

Dan,

From what I have heard, most people prefer Dish Networks DVR. I’ve used both and I tend to agree, although, back when DIRECTV was using TiVo (before they tried to build their own) I preferred the TiVo DVR. I’ve heard that they may be going back to TiVo.

As far as recording times, the bigger the hard drive the more you can record. HD content is much larger so less can be recorded in HD, but if you don’t have HD and get an HD DVR, you can record a lot more.

On Dish Network’s site, it describes how you can expand your storage with certain DVRs:

DISH Network customers with a DuoDVR™ ViP® 722 or 622 or Solo DVR ViP® 612 HD satellite receiver can now enjoy near limitless DVR storage with the addition of an external hard drive.

I do think it is kind of ridiculous that they charge a one time fee of $39.99 to activate your external storage option. That is just plain robbery!

I couldn’t find specifics on DIRECTV’s site about upgrading the storage on their DVRs, but I did find this blog where a DIRECTV customer was able to successfully expand his storage capacity on his DIRECTV DVR. It sounds as if there is NO fee for “activating” external storage for DIRECTV.

Hope this helps,
Dustin

Jennifer from Minneapolis writes:

Hi,
Thank you for doing this, it’s exactly what I was looking for and what I was trying to do on my own!! I just canceled my DirecTV yesterday after getting frustrated w/ the whole, “we can’t turn your service on b/c you bundled w/ Qwest” & I had already PAID Qwest. Also, we lost a DTV receiver (just a std one) in an electrical storm last summer & I was told that in order to get a new one, we’d have to re-up for 2 more yrs (which I didn’t mind b/c it’s a lot better than our cable options), but it NEVER came! We were paying the extra $5/mo for a service we weren’t even GETTING! Which now is about an extra $65 we paid out that we received nothing for & they weren’t even willing to give us a credit even though we’ve been customers for close to 7 yrs. So I canceled & told them I was going w/ dish Network, & they didn’t even care (at least the reps I spoke w/). Thx again for all of your legwork, I (& I’m sure many others) really appreciate this! Jennifer

Mark in San Diego writes:

Thank’s Dustin……this info from the Dish Network Tech was very informative……this info will go along way to helping me make this decision. Thank you for giving consumers a place to find info that cuts through the advertising smoke and mirrors.