You'll enjoy the text to speech.  When I took over my mom's account I told 
them I was visually handicapped and was upgraded to the wally free.  I 
don't know what receiver you are getting.  If you get the hopper, I don't 
know how well that works as far as recording.  If you get the wallie, you 
can plug a usb hard drive into the back and it will record.  Unlike the 
hopper, you can only record one thing at a time, but you can play back 
while it is recording.

The dvs doesn't work like it should on mine.  You have to go in and turn 
it off and back on.  It should be automatic, but is not.  Another bug they 
have, at least in the wallie, is when you've finished watching a recorded 
show, you are put in a list, but not on the one you've just watched.  I 
would wind up deleting the wrong show.  I hit cancel to get totally out of 
the dvr and then go back in where I can select the show I want to delete.

If your remote is like mine, it is bluetooth so you don't have to point at 
the receiver.  If you have an amazon echo, it can be set up so you can 
tell the echo to go to a particular channel.  You'll need the receiver on 
internet for this, and my installer put a wireless thing on my wallie so 
it was on line.

Have someone tell you all the buttons on the remote.  If it is like mine, 
right above the number keys is a group of six keys in two rows of three. 
Top left is back ten seconds, you can keep pushing this one, middle on top 
row selects dvr.  The right one is forward 30 seconds.  When I get to a 
commercial, I tap this one about 5 or six times and just skip them.
The bottom row is stop, record, and play, left to right.  The record is 
right above the two. If you want to record a show you are watching, just 
press the record button.  If you bring up the guide and want to record 
what you have selected, hit the select button twice.  This is the round 
button in the middle of your four way group.

Hope all that makes sense.  The text to speech is fun as you can tell what 
is on, how much time is left and so forth.

I have not figured out how to create favorites or any of that yet.  If you 
are getting the hopper, some of this may be different, but if they are 
charging you extra for the hopper, tell them you want the wallie as a free 
upgrade as you need the text to speech.  I got two wallies at no cost to 
me.  Jus plug in a 1 or 2 tb hard drive in the back and you can then 
record and play back.
he drive will have to be formatted by your reciever, but it works and is a 
lot of fun.  I almost never watch anything live any more, I'm use to 
skipping the commercials.

Hope this helps a little.

  On Tue, 8 May 2018, mark torgerson wrote:

> Hi
>
> My wife is so sweet, she is getting the upgraded equipment for our direct tv=
> . The good stuff that talks. My question is what do i need to ask the tech t=
> o get descriptive video turned on?
>
> Peace be with you,
> Mark Torgerson=20
> Sent from my iPhone=
>
>