DTV Genie Review

What is DIRECTV Genie?

The Genie is one of the finest DVRs TV and on-demand lovers can buy. Simply put, it delivers in all of the right ways with huge amounts of anytime and on-demand content, a slick and easy to use interface and impressive 200-hour HD recording and 800-hour SD recording capacity. If you are looking for a premium satellite TV service, the Genie will do you proud.

Review: Look, feel and remote

The DIRECTV Genie measures (HWD) 3.25 x 15.75 x 11.85 inches. To put that into perspective, the Sony PlayStation 4 measures (HWD) 2.2 x 10.8 x 12 inches while the Xbox One measures (HWD) 3 x 12.9 x 11.7 inches. So the Genie is closer in size to the Xbox One than the PlayStation 4, which means it’s rather large – and as such it may look somewhat out of place alongside your other home theater equipment.

Having said that, it looks nice enough. The case of the Genie is plastic while the underside is metal. The plastics feel like they’re of a high quality which gives you reassurance that this isn’t a cheap piece of kit that’ll break from a slight knock. The front panel is where all of the magic happens – a glossy black plastic fascia houses all essential controls (GUIDE, MENU, REC, SELECT and RES) and blue LED lights, which function as a guide. The blue LED lights also look fantastic and can be dimmed or disabled depending on your preference.

Push either side of the top-front of the Genie and a hidden door will open; the right reveals the access card while the left reveals a USB port. The back of the Genie reveals a number of connections including a two-prong power connector, HDMI, S-Video, satellite port, USB, RJ11/Phone, IR, Ethernet and component/composite video port. Some may miss the lack of a Toslink for optical audio, but overall DIRECTV has covered what’s important in a DVR.

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