Black Boxes: Philips DSR6000 TiVo/DirecTV satellite receiver/hard disk recorder

by Rick T. Bowler
Fall 2001

Philips Consumer Electronics
(877) FOR-TIVO
[www.philips.com]
$399; TiVo Service - $9.95 per month or $199 up-front for the life of the product; DirecTV Service - $21.99 to $82.99 per month, depending upon the number of channels.

Philips´ DSR6000 joins a DirecTV receiver with TiVo's PVR technology into one neat package. Its most intriguing feature is that it makes life simpler. This product serves two functions: satellite TV reception and personal video recording. These two functions are not brand-new, but combining them into one unit is novel. Personal video recording started with the VCR, which is typically frustrating to program, in terms of setting its timer for TV recording. Digital personal video recorders (PVRs), such as TiVo, ReplayTV and UltimateTV, use hard drives instead of videotapes and have greatly simplified the TV recording process. A tiny embedded microprocessor and an operating system "live" within the PVR. With extremely user-friendly on-screen menus, it is easy to accomplish selecting programs to record. In the short time PVRs have been on the market, many people have come to appreciate these virtues. The DSR6000 is one of a new breed of consumer electronics gear that greatly simplifies personal video recording functionality in the living room.
For some people, cabinet space is an issue. They do not have enough room for another consumer electronics device. Also, there is no simple method of cabling a PVR with a VCR, DVD player and satellite tuner. A freestanding PVR must communicate with a freestanding satellite TV receiver with a wired infrared "flasher."
But the greatest value of the DSR6000 is the ability to fast-forward through commercials. It makes watching TV much more rewarding.

Installation
We chose a professional installer to erect the rooftop satellite dish antenna, but folks who consider themselves handy can accomplish the task on their own. Once the dish was in place, setting up the DSR6000 receiver was easy. All the necessary cables were included in the box. The most time-consuming step of our installation was pondering exactly how to route our DVD player and VCR in conjunction with the unit.
A DirecTV representative had to authorize the unit so we could receive our package of pre-arranged channels. The representative validated our package instantly via satellite, but the confirmation occurred only after several calls to DirecTV.

Navigating Through a Sea of Channels
Let's face it, satellite TV is almost too much of a good thing. Channel surfing is almost impractical. The DSR6000 enables quick navigation for filtering your preferred programs. The on-screen guides are good and easy to read. The electronic program guide displays eight lines of scheduling information text in 90-minute increments; skimming text replaces channel surfing.
A WishLists feature allows you to search for one or more words and phrases within the program guide. By entering the words "lumber" and "tools," for example, you can search the program titles and descriptions for all channels for the next 14 days, to find programs about carpentry.

There are Limitations
Most PVRs have a built-in MPEG-2 encoder, which converts standard analog TV signals into compressed digital video. Since DirecTV delivers an MPEG-2 compressed signal via satellite to your rooftop dish, there is no need for an internal MPEG-2 encoder. As a result, however, there are a few things that you cannot accomplish.
You cannot watch one channel while recording another, and there is no picture-in-picture feature available while channel searching. In addition, you cannot record programs off your cable or antenna with the DSR6000. In order to watch cable or antenna-delivered programs you must turn off the DSR6000 and select the channel via your TV's or VCR's tuner. If you don't have an antenna, Terk and others, make nifty little VHF/UHF antennas that fit neatly onto the back of the dish. However, if you live in one of the 50 largest TV markets, the DSR6000, via satellite, will deliver many local broadcast channels, and you can record that programming.
A second tuner within the DSR6000 will address some of these inconveniences. DirecTV TiVo receivers are equipped with two digital satellite tuners. TiVo is expected to provide an automatic update to the service that will enable the second tuner. The update to the TiVo service will allow customers to watch one live program while recording another and record two live programs at the same time. Expect these features this summer.
At times, the electronic program guide menus were slow to load onto the screen; and occasionally, they did not load at all until we exited and reselected. There is no provision to connect a keyboard, without which the meticulous process of planning your week's worth of TV viewing becomes even more challenging.

Other Features
The DSR6000 can store up to 35 hours of audio and video on its 40GB hard drive. It automatically makes a free daily call to TiVo on your behalf for programming updates, which won't interrupt your phone calls or interfere with Internet connection.
The DSR6000 has Dolby Digital Surround Sound, which you can connect to your home theater system. This is a nice feature. especially when viewing certain Dolby-enhanced pay-per-view programming.
The parental controls are the most extensive we've seen. You can lock out individual channels and set a spending limit to control children's access to pay-per-view. You can also allow children to watch movies that are Motion Picture Association of America-rated to your liking, or TV shows approved by the Federal Communications Commission V-Chip Task Force. You can even allow "fantasy violence" but lock out other "violence.
The DSR6000 is suitable for anyone that watches television and is comfortable subscribing to paid-TV programming services. We were impressed with the product. It is a great value for the money and the image and sound quality are excellent. The DSR6000 is truly a smart TVdevice.

SMART SPECS