On-Screen Graphics

The two systems have obvious philosophical differences in how they handle on-screen graphics. Tivo's approach is more modal: that is, there's a "Tivo mode" where you're not watching TV and you're solely operating the Tivo. Thus most of Tivo's screens take over the entire display. At any time you can press the "Live TV" button to return to live television, but to do almost all functions -- view programming schedules, search for programs, look through recorded shows, etc. -- you must be in TV mode. The only exception for this is the Guide which is displayed as a translucent overlay on top of the playing video.

The DirecTV DVR takes a more interactive approach: most of the time menus display as overlays on top of video and in some modes the video is shrunk to a smaller screen in the upper right corner so you can continue to see the video while searching the guide or scheduling recordings.

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