So you’re the kind of person who likes to keep a lot of stuff on your DVR.. You pride yourself on keeping whole seasons of TV on hand for those slow times. Bingewatching is second nature to you. Props to you on that. So many people rely on streaming services to be their libraries. That’s great, of course, until the show you love disappears from your streaming service.
With DIRECTV satellite TV, you get a DVR that’s big enough to store whole seasons of your favorite shows. The only problem is… your playlist gets so long that you lose track of what you have.
DIRECTV has thought of you, oh heaviest of the heavy users, with a simple feature that sorts your programs and shows you the stuff you want to see. It’s been there all along, but it’s changed a bit since the new Genie menus came out in 2018.
Here’s a tutorial that will show you how to sort by category, whether you have the older-style DVR or a Genie as most people have.
Non-Genie DVRs
With the HR24 and older DVR, you have to go into a semi-hidden menu to sort your programs. It sounds hard but it isn’t.
Start by pressing the DASH}button to the left of the zero, when you’re in the playlist. A popup menu appears:
See, it’s right there: “Sort Programs by Category.” Press SELECT and you’ll see a whole lot of different ways to sort:
What you see above is just part of the list. It keeps going. Not every one of these categories is going to show up on your DVR. This particular capture comes from an older Genie. HR24s will show something different, but basically similar to what you see above.
Genie DVRs
The Genie DVR gives a much simpler and more powerful way to look at your playlist. It’s right there at the left side. Press LIST and you’ll see this menu in the bottom left corner:
You can see some of the same categories like Movies and Sports, but you also get some really practical choices. Continue Watching shows you only those shows you started earlier. Last Chance gives you the opportunity to get those pay-per-view and on-demand programs that you might miss out on if you wait. Purchases shows you all the movies you’ve bought through DIRECTV. If you’ve linked your DIRECTV account through Movies Anywhere, it also shows you the movies you got through most other services.
A better way of looking at things
Overall I think this is a better way of looking at things and it’s also easier for the average person to find. It’s more practical too, since AT&T started keeping records of your purchased programs a few years ago. It used to be that if you lost your DVR you lost everything. Yes today you will still lose recordings if your DVR goes down. But if you’ve spent money on movies or other programs through AT&T, they’re kept in a “digital locker” and they’ll still be there if you change devices.
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