Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Audio / Video
  3. News

DirecTV Genie HD DVR records up to five shows at once

By
directv genie
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Detailed on DirecTV today, the company announced the addition of the DirecTV Genie HD DVR as a competitor to Dish Network’s Hopper DVR system. The DirecTV Genie set-top box offers the consumer the ability to record up to five different shows in high definition at the same time. According to DirecTV management, the Genie should be able to store up to 200 hours of high definition content on the one terabyte drive within the device. In addition, the Genie can play up to four different live or recorded shows on other televisions within the home.

directv genie tvIn order to connect to the other televisions in the home, the DirecTV subscriber must have a RVU-enabled television or connect a small receiver called the Genie Mini to the television set. Currently, only a handful of Samsung LED televisions are RVU certified.

Recommended Videos

For those unfamiliar with RVU, it’s a communications protocol that facilitates access to high-definition programming, media and other applications between two devices. Besides DirecTV and Samsung, other members of the RVU alliance include Verizon, Cisco and Broadcom. It’s possible that more television manufacturers will roll out RVU-enabled televisions during CES 2013.

Related

In addition to allowing subscribers to record a large amount of content, the Genie also has a recommendations engine similar to a TiVo. Called “Genie Recommends” within the user interface, the software will suggest television shows and movies based on your viewing habits. However, this is an opt-in feature that has to be turned on and will authorize DirecTV to analyze the type of shows that are being watched on the Genie.

directv genie menuThe user interface allows the subscriber to record shows up to two weeks in advance in addition to catching up on shows that are no more than five weeks old. The Genie also comes with standard applications within the user interface such as Facebook, Twitter, ScoreGuide and Pandora. 

According to DirecTV’s site, the Genie has a MSRP of $299 and the Genie Mini clients are priced at $99. However, new customers will be able to acquire the Genie and up to three Genie Mini’s for free assuming they sign up for an extended service contract. Two additional Genie Mini clients can be purchased at a discounted price of $49 each. In addition to the new hardware, the subscriber will have to pay an additional $20 monthly fee for “Advanced Receiver Service.” However, that fee can be cut in half  by signing up for automatic bill pay.

Different from Dish Network’s Hopper system, the DirecTV Genie set-top box does not allow the user to automatically skip past annoying commercials. Identical to other DVR systems, the user has to fast forward to get past the commercials during a typical television show. However, the Hopper has three tuners compared to DirecTV’s Genie. When it comes to tuners, TiVo also lags behind the Genie with the recently released TiVo Premiere 4 DVR. The standard TiVo Premiere 4 utilizes four tuners and can record up to 75 hours of high definition programming. However, the TiVo Premiere XL4 can record up to 300 hours of high definition programming compared to the Genie’s 200 hour limit.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics
Mike Flacy
Mike Flacy
Contributing Editor
By day, I'm the content and social media manager for High-Def Digest, Steve's Digicams and The CheckOut on Ben's Bargains…
How to use Apple Music Sing
Apple Music Sing on an iPhone.

If you're someone who likes to sing along to your music a lot, then you might be interested to know that Apple Music has had a feature called Apple Music Sing that basically turns your iOS device or Apple TV into a karaoke machine.

Arriving late in 2022, the little-known feature enhances the lyrics feature of the Apple Music app that lets you read along with the words of your tunes. There's also a new volume control slider that lets you fade the vocal track out, so you can sing it yourself. Available only for Apple Music subscribers, it's a feature that's sure to be a holiday sing-along hit.

Read more
Dish lets you watch cable, Netflix, YouTube, and more in one place
Man watching NFL on Dish.

There are a million streaming services to try these days, with everything from Netflix to Disney having something to offer. Keeping track of all of the bills can be a headache, however, especially for the budget conscious. If you try a ton of services, you might even end up with one that you continue to use but forget to cancel. It would be nice, then, to bundle them all together, from one platform, where you can watch everything side by side. Dish lets you do that with a ton of services, including Netflix, with no special fees. All you need to do is choose add-ons at checkout when you build your bundle. The monthly additional charges for each are clearly displayed and the packages are easy to find, so go ahead and tap the button below to start building your bundle yourself. Or, continue reading for more information and answers to your big questions about switching to Dish.

Why you should try a Dish add-on
Dish add-ons are an optional part of signing up for Dish that makes customizing your package both simple and engaging. No matter what programming you want, you can likely get it from Dish. The premiere add-on has to be Netflix, which gives you the opportunity to pay your Netflix Premium or Netflix Standard bill directly through Dish. Should you like Netflix and want to keep it after you quit Dish, you can, but you'll have to pay then-current rates for Netflix via their own billing program.

Read more
The 4 best long range TV antennas in 2024
The Antennas Direct ClearStream 2Max mounted outdoors.

You don’t need to pay a cable provider for access to your local stations. As long as you have an HD TV antenna, you’ll be able to pick up broadcasts from whatever towers are in-proximity. But what if the nearest monolith isn’t beaming PBS into your living room? It sounds like you may want to invest in a long range TV antenna.

Where traditional antennas are designed for indoor use, long range models typically do their best work when mounted outdoors, high up on a structure. You’ll also want to make sure it’s aimed toward the towers you’d like to grab stations from.

Read more