Find the best movies easily with your DIRECTV remote

The best entertainment is just a few button pushes away with DIRECTV’s latest high-definition receivers and DVRs. The latest movies are here, long before you’ll see them on Netflix or other streaming services and unlike Google Play, AppleTV or other streaming services, your 24-hour rental gives you the ability to watch a movie over and over without redownloading it. This can be a real benefit to people with data caps and kids who like to watch stuff over and over.

What you’ll need

You’ll need a Genie system or HR24 DVR. If the room you’re in just has a receiver but you have a DVR in another room, you can do this procedure in the other room and then watch the recording on your receiver as long as they are properly networked.

How to do it

If your DVR is internet-connected, it’s so easy to get to the latest movies, you’ll think it’s magic. A lot of the latest content is already on your DVR waiting to be unlocked… no downloading necessary! Thousands more titles are available on demand in full high definition.

Using a Genie System

Starting with your remote, pressMENU and scroll down to “Discover.” Make sure “Movies” is highlighted and press SELECT.

From there you’ll be taken to the movies portal where you can browse through what’s available. If you know what you’re looking for, press the DASH button to the left of the zero and you can search by name.

Using a non-Genie system


Starting with your remote, press MENU and scroll down to “Search and Browse.” There you’ll see an icon for movies. It’s your portal to the latest and greatest entertainment and all you need to do is press SELECT. When you do, you’ll enter DIRECTV’s Movies page.

This is DIRECTV’s movies portal where you can look at movies by category and you get nice large posters to help you choose. Press SELECT while on a movie and if a trailer is available, you’ll be able to watch it. If you want to search by name, press the red button on your remote.

If you don’t have an internet connection

You can still watch pay-per-view movies by looking through the guide on channel 100 and selecting something to watch. At some point, though, you will need to connect to the internet or to a phone line. If not, this method will stop working until all the movies you’ve watched are billed to you.

Start now!

DIRECTV Cinema is similar in price to other services and the charges appear on your DIRECTV bill. A lot of times, you’ll find the movies on DIRECTV are actually less expensive than they are on other services.

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.