If that’s a leased unit (and unless something unusual is going on, it should be), they are supposed to repair or replace it if it’s going screwy. I had a few bad units in a row, and customer service finally went out of their way to send me a specific model known for being more reliable — the drawback to leased replacements is that they tend to come from refurbs, so you could run into multiple bad units in a row.
That said, I’m done with ‘em. When my contract expires next year, I’m dropping the whole thing, going with OTA, BD/DVD, iTunes, and Netflix (or similar) only.
We last talked to Directv on Sunday night, when I was so mad that I called them up and read them the riot act. The guy on the other end kept assuring me that they’re all about customer service (eyeroll), and since the problem seems unfixable, they will replace it. But the online research I’ve done confirms what you say. There are countless tales of people receiving DVR replacements that are just as screwed up as the originals.
It’s all very tiresome at this point.....and even with their channel lineup, we rarely find anything we really want to watch. You might have something there with the streaming idea.
Give this site a try mostly free right now. I have been a paying member for a few years now and it is worth the small fee. I stream everything no use for SAT or Cable if you have at least a 200k internet connection
http://www.giddyupnetwork.com/main.php?id=home