Review of Direct TV Genie system

[TLS Guy]

My original Direct TV HD 20 died this last Spring.

Direct TV sent the current replacement that was awful because it had an internal ground loop the like of which I had never encountered before.

I made vigorous protest to Direct TV. Finally I asked to speak to a senior engineer. He confirmed that those units were just awful. He recommended the Genie system to me.

So I went back to sales. They said that they would only replace my unit with an equivalent one under my contract. I said that they were in breach of contract as their service was useless to me, and that I would not send them anymore money. That got me to a supervisor who reluctantly agreed to set me up with the Genie system and send out an installer to set it up.

He duly came and said the above story was because Direct TV have over 2 million of the awful units and are palming them off on current users as their equipment fails.

Now this Genie system is much smaller. There is one DVR unit, and the other locations have slave controllers and the system will support up to 8 wired units. It can also be used with wireless units after purchase and installation of a Direct TV wireless bridge.

As you can see in this picture the DVR is much smaller than the previous unit. There is also room in the slot for my Sony universal BD player.

The unit is of plastic construction and does not inspire a lot of confidence. I think a unit like this should be of metal construction for screening reasons.

These units only require one RGB cable to the roof switch at the dish, and not two like the old units. Only one cable is required to each slave controller at remote locations. The system supports up to eight units but you can only watch in four rooms at once. You can record up to 5 shows at once. 200 hours of recording time is available.

This is the small slave unit in our lower great room.

Now after installation there was a ground loop. For some reason the installer put in a new grounding block. When I scraped the paint off the grounding screws this solved most of the problem.

I had to use a fairly expensive HDMI cable with a stout shield and bond the unit to the studio star cluster ground to get absolute silence. Since the unit is plastic this was easier said than done.

The units operate well and are much faster in action that the old ones.

So this system is a significant improvement over the old system.

However cable and satellite gear has a build quality not of the standard required in excellent systems. These units are nowhere near the standard of the Channel Master DVR+ I have just reviewed.

 

[Pogre]

I'm using this same system too. It is a huge improvement over the HD 20. They upgraded me when I called to cut the cord. The upgrade and my wife's stare of death are what convinced me to stay. That and a few months of free movie channels.

 

[smithgallery]

We are very disappointed with Direct TV. I ordered 5 receivers for our vacation home. Was never told during the 45 minute ordering process anything about only being able to watch 3 tvs at a time. I pay for 5 receivers but can't use but 3. We were told by the installation guy that we could watch 4 at a time. Come to find out you can only watch the main box and 3 minis ant a time, so when everyone goes to bed at night, (4 bedrooms) one can't get service. This should have been explained. We will be switching over our home account and vacation home providers tomorrow. And the customer service, unless you are ordering new services is awful.

 

[TLS Guy]

We are very disappointed with Direct TV. I ordered 5 receivers for our vacation home. Was never told during the 45 minute ordering process anything about only being able to watch 3 tvs at a time. I pay for 5 receivers but can't use but 3. We were told by the installation guy that we could watch 4 at a time. Come to find out you can only watch the main box and 3 minis ant a time, so when everyone goes to bed at night, (4 bedrooms) one can't get service. This should have been explained. We will be switching over our home account and vacation home providers tomorrow. And the customer service, unless you are ordering new services is awful.

You linked an independent retailer. The Genie system allows recording five different programs at once, and you can watch up to four TVs at once.

In all systems now the number of screens you can have is limited. Even cable only allows two splits, because of bandwidth issues.

You did not say whether you have satellite or cable service. Since it is a vacation home I assume you have satellite service.