Years ago when I first tried a non-Tivo DVR I was horrified at the clunky interface. Not only were the menus awkward, confusing, and cluttered, but even the most basic functionality of the device -- playing video -- sucked. The engineers at Tivo really thought a lot about video playback and it's still the best, though the DirecTV DVR isn't bad.

Both systems feature play and pause, rewind and fast forward at multiple speeds, slow motion, and frame advance/reverse. But the implementation and how it feels is totally different.

Tivo's is smooth and natural. High-speed fast forward or reverse is not jerky, like a series of still images thrust at you. I actually watch shows on fast forward. For instance, there might be a soccer match I don't care about and don't want to devote two hours of time to, but I'm curious to see the results and don't mind watching it on high-speed for five minutes and seeing if anything exciting happened.

With DirecTV, the fast forward is so jerky and awkward it literally makes me queasy, even at the slowest setting. It's not unbearable, but borderline. It's possible I'll get used to it, but my initial reaction is it's not anything close to Tivo.

Another disadvantage is that closed captions don't appear on the DirecTV DVR during fast forward. With Tivo, these show when you're on the slowest speed, which can be nice if you're in a hurry and want to speed through a show but still keep up with the plot a bit and read the dialogue.

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