Two of the three major players have suffered software problems that have caused their users problems and raised questions about how ready digital video recorders are for consumers' living rooms. The news comes after months of delay in releasing UltimateTV, and reports that consumer acceptance of Digital Video Recorders is slower than expected.

WebTV took another hit for a bug in Microsoft's UltimateTV service. The bug effectively keeps reduces the recording capacity of the device by leaving the shows on the hard drive, but removing them from the onscreen listing. This reduced the number of hours from about 35 to as little as 10. Microsoft WebTV Networks was quick to emphasize that the problem was not a hardware or manufacturing problem and that a software fix is on its way soon.

Last week, Microsoft admitted that a software flaw in their Ultimate TV, a satellite receiver for DirecTV with two tuners, up to 35 hours of digital video recording capacity, and WebTV service, has caused some users to experienced shorter available recording times.

Microsoft's WebTV Networks says the problem affected only a few people with a particular pattern of usage. UltimateTV and TiVo record satellite signals to a hard drive and list the recorded programs in an onscreen menu. Some users discovered that if they pause a recorded show and then erased it that the show is removed from the onscreen list, but it remains on the hard drive, consuming space, and making it unavailable for other programs. This has the effect over time of shrinking the recordable hard drive space.

WebTV advises that users can avoid the problem by pressing the Stop button on the remote control prior to deleting the show. Customers who are having this problem should turn off the unit and then turn it back on. The unit will then reclaim the space occupied by the deleted shows when it restarts.

Microsoft UltimateTV and DirecTV have tested a previously planned, automatic software upgrade that will be delivered in the near future via satellite to existing UltimateTV boxes which will eliminate the possibility of this condition.

"We apologize for any inconvenience," said a spokesperson for Microsoft WebTV Networks.

TiVo admitted this week that a software flaw in its DirecTV offering also has a flaw. TiVo's problem causes the box to restart every 20 minutes, making taping shows, or watching them difficult, if not impossible.

TiVo's problem, which causes the satellite boxes to restart repeatedly, is linked to its WishList feature, according to a spokesperson. Apparently, when the error is triggered in relation to actors with single names, such as Cher, or Madonna. TiVo's WishList feature records shows with descriptions that match titles, words, and names of people. TiVo says it has already begun to upgrade the software in its boxes through a free update.

TiVo's and UltimateTV's problems are unrelated, except that they both affect DirecTV subscribers. DirecTV's parent company, Hughes, is an investor in TiVo.

Incidentally, ReplayTV isn't immune to trouble either. Two Net4TV staffers have ReplayTV and have reported shows that are set to record don't, channels don't always tune properly, stuttered playback, sudden restarts, and duplicated recording of the same episode of a show.

The Yankee Group, a research firm, is projecting that by 2005, there will be 20 million digital video recorders. The group anticipates 800,000 will be installed by the end of 2001. This includes stand-alone unts, and those built into cable boxes, satellite receivers, and TVs. A total of 350,000 digital video recording units have sold in the last 18 months. This contrasts with the 1.75 million digital satellite receivers sold in that product category's first 18 months.