The HR20-700 was released by DirecTV last August as a replacement for the HR10-250. These two machines are pretty different, and each has its own advantage. The benefit of the HR10-250 is that it’s a TiVo – running the TiVo OS. The benefit of the HR20-700 is that it can get the MPEG4 HD channels that DirecTV is adding. These channels are largely local HD stations in areas outside New York and LA, but they are hinting that they’ll have 150 new nationwide HD channels by the end of the year, many starting in September.
Since the HR20-700 was released, people have come to us looking for upgrades. And now we’re ready to upgrade the HR20-700 units! We are now selling two upgraded HR20-700s: a 100 hour HD unit, and a 145 hour HD unit.
We’re still TiVo fanatics at heart, but since the TiVo HR10-250 is out of production and DirecTV’s new channels can only come through this new DVR, we’re upgrading it also.
Finally, if you already have an HR20, and you want to send it to us for an upgrade, we’re doing that too. Just find the HR20-700 upgrade that you want, and once you checkout, we’ll email shipping information. Send us your unit, and we’ll turn it around within two business days (most often the same day, in fact). Due to various complexities, we are not offering self-install kits.