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Despite issues I have had with Directv over the years, I have stuck with them. I love their HD lineup and I really like the 2 DVRs that we have in the house. I don’t get a ton of time to watch TV with all these websites and a day job, but there are some programs that I have to watch each week. I have most of them on season pass already, but what about shows I forget about? There’s an App for that.

It’s a free app too. If you are a Directv customer, you can take advantage of their app that allows you to set your DVR to record from anywhere using the iPhone.

FEATURES

• Search for any television show up to 14 days in advance
• Browse programs by channel or date & time
• Get program information instantly, including description, length and rating
• Record a single episode or an entire series
• Program Pay Per View movies to be recorded and ready to watch anytime
• Record to any DIRECTV DVR in your home

REQUIREMENTS

• iPhone software v2.2.1 or higher
• Browsing capability is available to everyone, but programming functionality is available to DIRECTV customers only
• DIRECTV customers must have a residential home account registered on directv.com to access recording functionality
• Requires a Wi-Fi, Edge or 3G network connection to run. Remote connections may vary
• In rare instances, scheduled recording(s) may not be recognized
• Requires DIRECTV Plus^® DVR (models R15, R16, R22), DIRECTV Plus^® HD DVR (models HR20, HR21, HR22, HR23) or TiVo^® Series 2 receivers with 6.4a software

The Directv app is pretty simple on the gui side and strait to the point. You have 3 options really. You can search for shows, browse channels, and browse by date and time. To search, you simply type your search term in the seach field at the top of the main screen. There are some options for your searching too, click the “>” up top to get to those options.

You can browse channels two ways, alphabetical or by channel number.

The 3rd way is to search by date and time. I brought this up chose 9pm. If you look at the middle screenshot above, you will see that the app is retrieving the 9pm listings. After a couple seconds, they are pulled up. They are in numerical order. I scrolled down and found a replay of a World Series of Poker episode and chose to record it.

When you click on the episode, it gives you details of the show and the option to record that episode or the series. I chose the single episode. Next it wants to know where to record it, what priority to give the recording,
and how long to keep it. Since I have 2 kids that love to record everything the TV has to offer, I have to choose definitely record and over rule those greedy little kids eating my hard drive up. You then click the green button and you should get a vibration confirming the command as well as a confirmation screen like you have above right. These next 3 screenshots show the options for the DVR settings.

I took a photo of my to do list before and after the demo I did for the screenshots for this review. The program shows up nearly instant.

Wrap Up

The Directv app is a heaven sent for when you are on the road or at work and you forgot that you didn’t record your daily Richard Simmons workout today at 9am. It’s 8:30am now, better hurry. It’s simple, to the point, and does what it says it does. No complaints whatsoever here. The fact that it’s free is even better. I am not sure other media companies have similar apps, but if they don’t, someone needs to ride them to make them produce one.

I have read that some want the program to allow for a +/- 5 minute record or to be able to extend recordings, but I can’t see that ever happening since some receivers are not setup to use this function.

Pros:

• Innovative
• Free

• Very useful

Cons:

• None