# Software Update: HR20 - 0xEB Discussion Thread



## Earl Bonovich

New Software 11/07/2006
Manufacture 700 - 0xEB

---------------
Release Notes:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=69545

*PLEASE DON"T POST... DIDN'T GET IT, or GOT IT tracking posts in this thread, they will be deleted
*

Note: This is going to be a STAGGERED rollout starting in the Pacific Timezone. It may take a few days for everyone to receive the update.

Note #2: This time; In this thread... Please list your HDMI issues. To help identify them, put *HDMI ISSUE* as the first line of your post. Then list your Make/Model of your TV.. and then describe your issue. As I see them, I will roll them up to the 3rd post in this thread.

Note #3: Please, when listing a problem.... try to get as specific as possible... Saying "It Froze" and that it is, does no good in helping finding the cause. Saying: "It frozen, when I was recording MPEG-4 NBC Chicago, and I was re-organizing my Series Links"... helps in finding a combination that can recreate an issue. As I see an issue, I will roll it up to the 2nd post in this thread.

*Previous Version Thread:*
Version 0xE3 (10/19/2006): *Discussion Thread*
Version 0xDC (10/11/2006): *Discussion Thread*
Version 0xD8 (10/04/2006): *Discussion Thread*
Version 0xD1 (9/26/2006): *Discussion Thread*
Version 0xCC (9/16/2006): *Discussion Thread Issue Thread*
Version 0xBE (9/1/2006): *Discussion Thread Issue Thread*

*The Original HR20 Review Thread*
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=61862

*Tips and Tricks Threads*
Official Tips and Tricks
Unoffical Tips and Tricks

*Unoffical Feature Request Survey*
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=68183

*Unoffical eSATA Feature Discussion*
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=66201


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## Earl Bonovich

Identified Bugs/Issues -

Last Updated 11/11/2006 - 07:30 CST Current as of Post #391

Pink Fast Forward Icon
Optical output still appears to be on when unit in Standby *Post* _1 Report_
Dolby Digital setting. May need to turn off then on, (or do it multiple times) to get DD to enable after new software *Post* _Multiple Reports_
System Locked Up; When attempting to delete a completed program *Post* _2 Reports/I]
[*]System Locked Up; No action done, returned to system and was frozen *Post* 2 Reports
[*]Pixelizing playback; After 3 reboots; Playback is no longer pixelizing *Post*http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=716215&postcount=123 1 Report
[*]Lost Trick Play inside full BUFFER *Post* 1 Report
[*]Random reboot while watching from Buffer *Post* 1 Report
[*]Manual Re-Occuring Records, not appearing in ToDo List *Post* 1 Report
[*]Remote Control improperly responded to commands *Post* 1 Report
[*]Issues with the 11/8/2006 Jerico recordings *Post* 2 reports
[*]Issues with this weeks LOST recordings Mutliple reports
[*]When set to NATIVE resolution mode, screen goes BLACK during 30s SLIP. Note additional details and posts, point to the unit moving between resolutions when in any type of TrickPlay speed *Post*http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=716702&postcount=177 *More Detail Post*http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=716761&postcount=182 Multiple reports
[*]Trick Play Motion (FF for example), is not a constant stream forward. Some points if goes backwards Video Include as example *Post* Multiple Reports
[*]A single record, appears multiple times in MyPlaylist. *Post* 2 Reports
[*]Partial Records for the Daily Show and Countdown *Post* 1 Report
[*]Unit stops responding to remote *Post*
[*]Failed to record schedule program that ends up in the "live" buffer, do to two recordings at once *Post* 1 Report
[*]Recordings failed to STOP recording at scheduled time *Post* 1 Report
[*]Signal Lost message appearing during playback *Post* 1 Report
[*]Unable to playback recording, upon restart the recording was no longer in MyPlaylist *Post* 2 reports
[*]Loss of audio after pause *Post* 1 Report
_


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## Earl Bonovich

HDMI Combinations -

Current as of 11/9/2006 09:30PM CST Post #244


 Sharp LCD Panel, not negotiating HDMI status properly. (Different effects depending on the order things are turned on) *Post*
Samsung 4095 - Incorrect Color's when HR20 is rebooted Post[/B]


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## rrwantr

Antenna setup is grayed out in setup...ffw seems to be working better.....I have to go to bed...so no more testing for me right now. Hopefully my stable HR20 does not become unstable with this new sw...lol


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## Guitar Hero

Wow, I just noticed a big chunk of my hard drive space is missing. I had 36% just four hours ago and now I'm down to 17%. I did record some shows, but all of it in SD. I better get rid of some stuff. 

Anybody else notice some missing HDD space?


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## hasan

Guitar Hero said:


> Wow, I just noticed a big chunk of my hard drive space is missing. I had 36% just four hours ago and now I'm down to 17%. I did record some shows, but all of it in SD. I better get rid of some stuff.
> 
> Anybody else notice some missing HDD space?


From the release notes:

* Improved accuracy of hard drive usage indicator

My guess is that previously it was artifiially high and now it is more accurate. Mine is at 71% free now, I'll report back after I get the update (hopefully overnight tonight)


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## dervari

No resolution to the BSOD or "Partial" recording problems, huh? I wish they would make that their top priority instead of these relatively minor bug fixes. While it *could* be addressed in the "other fixes" section, I believe it would be front page news with it's own banner if it had indeed been fixed.


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## tfederov

Program deleting from the MyVod before user action or delete criteria reached (space, SL settings, etc).

Not sure I understand this one. Does this mean it will wait for me to say yes before deleting when the drive is just about full?


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## gr8reb8

Improvements:

* * 'Searching for satellite' message no longer appears while viewing a recorded program.*

:allthumbs


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## Chris Blount

All A/V Outputs are disabled when the unit is put in standby mode

I kind of like this one myself. I have issues with my projector with the outputs turned on all the time.


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## Frodtab

"Additional Miscellaneous fixes (no specifics provided)"

Did they do anything concerning all of the issues that have with sports subscriptions?


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## f300v10

tfederov said:


> Program deleting from the MyVod before user action or delete criteria reached (space, SL settings, etc).
> 
> Not sure I understand this one. Does this mean it will wait for me to say yes before deleting when the drive is just about full?


I think this was a bug where a recorded show was deleted without the user asking to, and when the box still had free space available. i.e. it was deleted when it should not have been.

When the box is full it will still delete the older recordings as needed to make room unless they are marked as 'keep until I delete'.


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## Carbon

By just reading the release notes this one is by far the best-

* 'Searching for satellite' message no longer appears while viewing a recorded program.


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## qlanus

Rise & shine, Left-Coasters!

The rest of anxiously await your reports. Start testing!


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## UncD2000

Carbon said:


> By just reading the release notes this one is by far the best-
> 
> * 'Searching for satellite' message no longer appears while viewing a recorded program.


I haven't seen this message at all since removing both BBC units (coincidence?), but it was appearing when both tuners were receiving their tuned channels just fine, and signal readings were good on all sats. My previous D* receivers never displayed the "searching" message when a picture was being received, so it was quite an annoyance to see it for no apparent reason on the HR20, and have to try various tricks to get rid of it.

At present my biggest gripe is recorded shows that (at least initially) show a blank screen, and even occasionally lock up the unit. I had this happen twice last night while trying to view the same show. After two resets I just selected something else to watch.


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## FilmMixer

Noticed that it seems a lot more responsive and the screen redraws are snappier... 

Also My VOD is now called My Playlist.


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## mtnagel

FilmMixer said:


> Noticed that it seems a lot more responsive and the screen redraws are snappier...
> 
> Also My VOD is now called My Playlist.


I like My Playlist much better than MyVOD. Never cared for that.


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## Radio Enginerd

mtnagel said:


> I like My Playlist much better than MyVOD. Never cared for that.


Left coaster checking in&#8230;

My wife said the same thing this morning... She never understood what my VOD meant. I told her this morning that VOD stands for Video On Demand. 

Then she followed with, "My Playlist makes much more sense... I hit the *List *button to get into *My Playlist*" I happen to agree, the change makes sense since the remote doesn't say My VOD anywhere. 

Used the unit for about 20 minutes this morning... Erased 1 item from the My Playlist and noticed the item remained in the list until I left the list and then returned to it. A very small glitch IMO but thought I would mention it in case an attempt to fix it was done in this last update...


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## evans5150

I haven't had any problems with my box prior to this update and don't really notice any changes as of now. The one major thing I notice is the "true space left" fix. I went from 58% last night to 40% this morning with nothing being recorded overnight. I suggest everyone check that immediately in case you are getting close to being full. Other than that....I LOVE MY HR20 and my SONY SXRD!!!


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## avatar230

OxEB & I didn't get off to the best start. Woke up this morning to see the blue ring of lights was on, so my unit had rebooted overnight; I got excited assuming it was a software update. Turned on the TV -- the HR20 was throughputting video and audio on TNT-HD (the last station I had parked on last night) but the sound was wildly out of sync and the unit was unresponsive to any and all remote control commands. 

Did a red-button restart and it seems to be working better now. No further problems as of yet (just fifteen minutes into testing). I did notice the drive-usage drop from around 20% down to 7% free.


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## Howie

I noticed a 12% drive usage drop also, with nothing new recorded.


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## biggorilla

The Dolby Digital activation is still backwards. Off is On. Minor problem, only issue on reset or software update. Takes a few off and on to get it to work right.


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## Capmeister

Can someone who has the update test closed captioning and let us know if it's better?


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## bagleyb

I wonder if the space reserved for showcases is being shown as "used" now, and that's why the % of available space has dropped?


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## Rugged

I know there is a logic to the Update version code--but did anyone else think that it was funny that this update uses Earls inititials --- EB ?


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## Howie

I noticed that pause live TV worked on my unit this morning for the first time in a few weeks. Was watching mpeg4 local news SF channel 2 when I had to step out to go see a man about a dog. I hit pause, and when I came back 5 minutes later I was pleasantly surprised that when I hit pause again the news resumed from the same spot. I like it!


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## Chris Blount

Rugged said:


> I know there is a logic to the Update version code--but did anyone else think that it was funny that this update uses Earls inititials --- EB ?


I noticed that too. I guess Earl deserves a honorable mention.


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## Stuart Sweet

Rugged said:


> I know there is a logic to the Update version code--but did anyone else think that it was funny that this update uses Earls inititials --- EB ?


It's probably just a coincidence. It seems pretty likely that the last part of the version is its build number in hexadecimal, in this case 235. I think A9 was the first one released to the public (correct me if I'm wrong), which is 169 in decimal. If that's true, the programmers are doing a new build almost every day.

The next update will probably start with F if it's due in the next couple of weeks [in keeping with the forum post that says OTA will be available by 12/1], unless the programmers choose to make that release 1x00 to specifically denote OTA being activated.

(Above is all just a guess.)


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## Kapeman

bagleyb said:


> I wonder if the space reserved for showcases is being shown as "used" now, and that's why the % of available space has dropped?


Does anyone have showcases?

Mine is always blank.


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## litzdog911

Kapeman said:


> Does anyone have showcases?
> 
> Mine is always blank.


Not enabled yet.


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## bagleyb

It's blank, but the space is still "reserved" for showcases, and thus unusable to use for MyVOD. I don't think showcases are active yet, but they may be using that "reserved" space in their amount of free space calculation now.


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## SockMonkey

Kapeman said:


> Does anyone have showcases?
> 
> Mine is always blank.


Nope, they're not enabled yet on the HR20.

EDIT: Doh... too slow. Sorry


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## dervari

lamontcranston said:


> unless the programmers choose to make that release 1x00 to specifically denote OTA being activated.
> 
> (Above is all just a guess.)


The 0x is not part of the version. It is simply a prefix to let you know that the number following it is in hex.

0x15 and 15 are two wildly different numbers (21 and 15). Hence the need for the 0x. It will not change, regardless of the software version.


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## Stuart Sweet

dervari said:


> The 0x is not part of the version. It is simply a prefix to let you know that the number following it is in hex.
> 
> 0x15 and 15 are two wildly different numbers (21 and 15). Hence the need for the 0x. It will not change, regardless of the software version.


R15's are on version 10F1. While I agree with you completely, it would seem that D* is not using the same logic as you.

EDIT: I looked up the version history on the R15 and it looks like earlier versions started with x. It's possible dervari is right.


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## ChromaTick

I think FF is just as bad as it was before. 

That being said, it's my only complaint with this box after two weeks of use.


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## 325xia

ChromaTick said:


> I think FF is just as bad as it was before.
> 
> That being said, it's my only complaint with this box after two weeks of use.


Could you describe what, "just as bad as before"? I'm not experiencing any problems with FF, RW, etc.

Thx


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## hasan

FilmMixer said:


> Noticed that it seems a lot more responsive and the screen redraws are snappier...
> 
> Also My VOD is now called My Playlist.


It will be interesting to see if this is due to the update, or is a side-effect of the reboot done as part of the update. Notice how many computers are more "responsive" after every reboot, and gradually lose "power" over time, until the next reboot. I'm not saying it is, I'm just saying it is something to keep an eye on.


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## ChromaTick

325xia said:


> Could you describe what, "just as bad as before"? I'm not experiencing any problems with FF, RW, etc.
> 
> Thx


Sure. I don't mean that it's broken or doesn't work. I just mean that it's pretty much the same speed as before (slow), and when you hit Play to come out of FF there is about a 2 second stutter where you don't get any audio. I could learn to live with the jump back button, but when I hit Play I want the video/audio to immediately start.

This is seriously the only feature on this box that I don't like. lol


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## Italfra1

Howie said:


> I noticed that pause live TV worked on my unit this morning for the first time in a few weeks. Was watching mpeg4 local news SF channel 2 when I had to step out to go see a man about a dog. I hit pause, and when I came back 5 minutes later I was pleasantly surprised that when I hit pause again the news resumed from the same spot. I like it!


That's funny you should mention that. My pause seems to be screwed up now. I hit a few times this morning watching the news and everything starting pixilating and the screen kept flickering. Very strange, but what isn't about this box. My biggest issue has been the lockups. How about you?


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## h0ckeysk8er

Two things I've noticed so far:

- Not all A/V outputs are disabled on standby. It looks like the HDMI and component are but I still see output on the optical digital audio. On a station that is transmitting DD, if I turn off the HR20, I still see DD on my receiver and a single channel (left) indicated. If I am on a station that is Digital/PCM and turn off the HR20, I still see PCM signal indicated on my receiver but no specific channels indicated.

- HDMI sync up issue. Turning off the A/V output does indeed seem to turn off the signals but if I power up the HR20 before the Sharp LCD panel, it fails to negotiate properly on the HDMI port and I get no picture. If I power up the panel first and then the HR20, it works correctly and I get a picture. And once both are powered up and I have no picture, I can cycle the HR20 power (leaving the panel on) and it will renegotiate and I get a picture. I'll be able to update my programmable remote to workaround the issue, but there is something wrong with the state of the HDMI port on the HR20 when it is powered up initially and/or if HDMI device on the other end of the cable is not powered on.


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## jessealan

325xia said:


> Could you describe what, "just as bad as before"? I'm not experiencing any problems with FF, RW, etc.
> 
> Thx


I also used dish networks DVR and the fast foward would move you along much faster. But with this new upgrade it looks like my fastward will be more effective.


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## 325xia

ChromaTick said:


> Sure. I don't mean that it's broken or doesn't work. I just mean that it's pretty much the same speed as before (slow), and when you hit Play to come out of FF there is about a 2 second stutter where you don't get any audio. I could learn to live with the jump back button, but when I hit Play I want the video/audio to immediately start.
> 
> This is seriously the only feature on this box that I don't like. lol


I know what you mean about the delayed audio/video from FF to Play. I assumed in my situation it had to do with HDMI and or DD, (which I have set-up to my SS). I have not tried with Component and TV System audio. Thanks for the response.


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## dthoman

Radio Enginerd said:


> Left coaster checking in&#8230;
> 
> Erased 1 item from the My Playlist and noticed the item remained in the list until I left the list and then returned to it. A very small glitch IMO but thought I would mention it in case an attempt to fix it was done in this last update...


This particular "bug" has been happening since the last update. This is not new to this update!


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## Doug Brott

Here's a screen shot of the the new "My Playlist" page.


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## btmoore

I recieved the update ~2:45 last night, I had problems with some trick plays this morning. I was trying to watch the last night recording of NCIS, it would play but ff and slip would not work, about 2 min in it stopped and asked if I wanted to delete it, like it was at the end of the show. I said no, went back in to it, and did the jump to end trick play, that worked and I was able to rewind back to the start of the show ~ 4 min in. This might be a new bug or it might be something related to a recording made on the prior software being played on the newer software (which would be a bug too). It is going to take a few days to see if this version is functionally stable or not. 

The release notes concern me, they don't seem to address any of the major bugs like partial or unwatchable recordings, I hope that is fixed.


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## Radio Enginerd

dthoman said:


> This particular "bug" has been happening since the last update. This is not new to this update!


I'm aware of that as I reported it in the last issue thread... I don't expect anyone to remember that as the previous thread was 950+ posts. 

Wasn't sure if that fix was supposed to be launched in this update or not.


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## hasan

btmoore said:


> I recieved the update ~2:45 last night, I had problems with some trick plays this morning. I was trying to watch the last night recording of NCIS, it would play but ff and slip would not work, about 2 min in it stopped and asked if I wanted to delete it, like it was at the end of the show. I said no, went back in to it, and did the jump to end trick play, that worked and I was able to rewind back to the start of the show ~ 4 min in. This might be a new bug or it might be something related to a recording made on the prior software being played on the newer software (which would be a bug too). It is going to take a few days to see if this version is functionally stable or not.
> 
> The release notes concern me, they don't seem to address any of the major bugs like partial or unwatchable recordings, I hope that is fixed.


Unless you recorded the programs you reference with the new update, I wouldn't put much stock in whether or not a fix worked, as it could be a record fix (not just playback), and prior recordings could not be fixed. They would still play back funky.


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## btmoore

brott said:


> Here's a screen shot of the the new "My Playlist" page.


This is a good sign, maybe they have someone with some human factors experience. Hum, My Playlist or myVOD, which one would make sense to the person walking down the street.


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## hasan

Excellent point!


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## forum junkie

h0ckeysk8er said:


> Two things I've noticed so far:
> 
> - Not all A/V outputs are disabled on standby. It looks like the HDMI and component are but I still see output on the optical digital audio. On a station that is transmitting DD, if I turn off the HR20, I still see DD on my receiver and a single channel (left) indicated. If I am on a station that is Digital/PCM and turn off the HR20, I still see PCM signal indicated on my receiver but no specific channels indicated.
> 
> - HDMI sync up issue. Turning off the A/V output does indeed seem to turn off the signals but if I power up the HR20 before the Sharp LCD panel, it fails to negotiate properly on the HDMI port and I get no picture. If I power up the panel first and then the HR20, it works correctly and I get a picture. And once both are powered up and I have no picture, I can cycle the HR20 power (leaving the panel on) and it will renegotiate and I get a picture. I'll be able to update my programmable remote to workaround the issue, but there is something wrong with the state of the HDMI port on the HR20 when it is powered up initially and/or if HDMI device on the other end of the cable is not powered on.


The cause of this may be the TV. I have the opposite with my Sony TV. Mine is an older set and so I use component but must power up the signal first or I get no picture on my tv. This was also true of the HR-250 I used for the last 3 years. Powering up the Sony first always produced an blank screen.


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## Stuart Sweet

btmoore said:


> This is a good sign, maybe they have someone with some human factors experience. Hum, My Playlist or myVOD, which one would make sense to the person walking down the street.


Got to agree with you there, btmoore. This little change will surely up the WAF on this unit. Sometimes it would be great if the huge issues got fixed, but sometimes the little ones count too. Now the same engineer who decreed that change needs to get on fixing the infamous "Pushing GUIDE doesn't bring up the guide" issue.


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## ChromaTick

325xia said:


> I know what you mean about the delayed audio/video from FF to Play. I assumed in my situation it had to do with HDMI and or DD, (which I have set-up to my SS). I have not tried with Component and TV System audio. Thanks for the response.


I'm using component video and I've had the issue with both TV system audio and DD.


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## cookpr

litzdog911 said:


> Not enabled yet.


I always thought that was pretty crappy...that we are missing somewhere between 5-20% of our hard drive space for showcases I am sure we are all dying to view...:nono2: :nono2: :nono2:


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## btmoore

hasan said:


> Unless you recorded the programs you reference with the new update, I wouldn't put much stock in whether or not a fix worked, as it could be a record fix (not just playback), and prior recordings could not be fixed. They would still play back funky.


Right now I making an assumption that there is some incompatibility between the recording from the prior version of the OS and the new OS. Best case that is the problem and it is either a corner case (just so happened that it was the first recording I tried to play on the new version) or it will dissipate as older recording are deleted, but I could be a new bug, time will tell. It still points to the need too improve how the system responds to data exception problems. Software should handle error conditions gracefully, if they are changing the data stream when recording it they should deal with those execption in playback to support backward compatibility in the data, it would be a reasonable expectation that prior recordings are still valid when they upgrade the OS.


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## cookpr

The My VOD guy must have left and took his my VOD patent with him 

How does that crap (My VOD) get final approval?? Glad to see it had a life of 10 weeks.

Maybe it was D* attempt to have Video on Demand, being they will never be able to offer what cable can in this area...they can go to investor presentations and say, _*"We dont just have Video on Demand at D*, we have MY VOD, a whole new realm of personilization in the area of on demand video, truly personalized content. The consumer has, on demand, the exact programs they intend to watch. Its really groundbreaking technology."*_


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## cookpr

btmoore said:


> Right now I making an assumption that there is some incompatibility between the recording from the prior version of the OS and the new OS. Best case that is the problem and it is either a corner case (just so happened that it was the first recording I tried to play on the new version) or it will dissipate as older recording are deleted, but I could be a new bug, time will tell. It still points to the need too improve how the system responds to data exception problems. Software should handle error conditions gracefully, if they are changing the data stream when recording it they should deal with those execption in playback to support backward compatibility in the data, it would be a reasonable expectation that prior recordings are still valid when they upgrade the OS.


Your problem is the problem most of us have faced sooner or later...the unwachable and then deleted, recording....

Not sure I like to hear its still hanging around after this update


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## hasan

btmoore said:


> ..., it would be a reasonable expectation that prior recordings are still valid when they upgrade the OS.


Yep, but if they were "flawed", I mean with a major recording issue, then the error trapping would have to be pretty robust. I'm not talking about compatibility with a new format, I'm talking about a significant error in recording that causes the OS to "burp". This "should" be handled by HR20...I'm not confident it, as well as a whole host of other potential errors in the data stream, are being properly trapped.

Time will tell, and I have every reason to expect that things will continue to improve. It sure is nice to see another update headed "our/midwest" way. I would think we could expect it overnight, tonight.


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## Spongeweed

How does one 'force an update' ?


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## HaiChinGow

avatar230 said:


> OxEB & I didn't get off to the best start. Woke up this morning to see the blue ring of lights was on, so my unit had rebooted overnight; I got excited assuming it was a software update. Turned on the TV -- the HR20 was throughputting video and audio on TNT-HD (the last station I had parked on last night) but the sound was wildly out of sync and the unit was unresponsive to any and all remote control commands.
> 
> Did a red-button restart and it seems to be working better now. No further problems as of yet (just fifteen minutes into testing). I did notice the drive-usage drop from around 20% down to 7% free.


One of my 2 HR20's with 0xEB was unresponsive, but I have had problems with the remote not working at times. One finger salute fixed it.


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## HaiChinGow

Rugged said:


> I know there is a logic to the Update version code--but did anyone else think that it was funny that this update uses Earls inititials --- EB ?


Not me. I thought it stood for E* Bites.


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## larcar

Just wondering if anyone who has the new update and had caller id problems if it is fixed or not? I have had this issue since day one and the last 3 updates did not fix it. I am in Ohio and I will check tomorrow if I got the latest update to see if it took care of the caller id problem on my unit.


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## avatar230

Spongeweed said:


> How does one 'force an update' ?


Do a red-button reset. As soon as the unit starts booting, press 0, 2, 4, 6, 8 on your HR20 remote. It should then go to a screen to verify and download the software, but as this is a staggered rollout if you're not on the West Coast, you might still be hosed.


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## ajwillys

evans5150 said:


> I haven't had any problems with my box prior to this update and don't really notice any changes as of now. The one major thing I notice is the "true space left" fix. I went from 58% last night to 40% this morning with nothing being recorded overnight. I suggest everyone check that immediately in case you are getting close to being full. Other than that....I LOVE MY HR20 and my SONY SXRD!!!


Nice, I have the same setup and it is beautiful! (although OTA to SXRD is way better)


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## Cyrus

evans5150 said:


> The one major thing I notice is the "true space left" fix. I went from 58% last night to 40% this morning with nothing being recorded overnight. I suggest everyone check that immediately in case you are getting close to being full.


Yeah, people with HDs almost full should probably do some cleanup before getting the update, specially if you have everything set to KUID (if something has to go, you might as well choose which one).


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## ajwillys

lamontcranston said:


> R15's are on version 10F1. While I agree with you completely, it would seem that D* is not using the same logic as you.
> 
> EDIT: I looked up the version history on the R15 and it looks like earlier versions started with x. It's possible dervari is right.


OK, I think its time to put the whole version numbering scheme to rest. The '0x' is a prefix to a hexadecimal number. This type of prefix is what is used in common programming languages (C, C++, Java, etc..) to specify a hex digit. The '0' at the beginning is used to tell the parser that what is following is a number not a word (or string as they're called). The 'x' then designates that the following is to be interpreted in hex (as opposed to binary, decimal, octal). After that comes the number. In most cases, leading zeros are eliminated thus the confusion between the 2 and 4 digit version numbers.

Most likely, each version relates to a given build which could happen nightly, weekly, every hour, or whenever. Hex numbers go from 0-9, A-F with A being 10 and F being 15. With that being said, the R15 version '10F1' is most likely build #4,337. The formula for deriving this is (1*16^3) + (0*16^2) + (15*16^1) + (1*16^0). Of course, the easy way is to use a hex calculator 

The important thing to remember here is that '0x' is not important and the rest can only be deciphered by understanding hex notation whose digits are 0, 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, and F.

Whew, now I'm tired.


----------



## Jeremy W

ajwillys said:


> With that being said, the R15 version '10F1' is most likely build #4,337.


Maybe, if they started the build numbers at 4,000.


----------



## h0ckeysk8er

forum junkie said:


> The cause of this may be the TV. I have the opposite with my Sony TV. Mine is an older set and so I use component but must power up the signal first or I get no picture on my tv. This was also true of the HR-250 I used for the last 3 years. Powering up the Sony first always produced an blank screen.


Component is vastly different from HDMI since one is analog and one is digital. Add to that the HDCP negotiation that must take place between the two devices and it is vastly more complex. A quick look at a simplified HDCP protocol definition shows how easy it is to assume that the other end is non-compliant and leave the device in a state where a compliant device is not acknowledged. A read of the complete HDCP 1.2 spec including the state machines for the receiver, transmitter, and repeater shows the complexity of the protocol and the many places programming errors could easily occur.

I'd like to say it's the TV, however, the thing that has changed is the HR20. Didn't have this issue with the H10 or the H20 receiver. Suspect they've spent more time worrying about the recording aspects of the HR20 and less on HDMI than they did on the H10/H20 since HDMI was a major feature of those receivers.


----------



## btmoore

h0ckeysk8er said:


> Component is vastly different from HDMI since one is analog and one is digital. Add to that the HDCP negotiation that must take place between the two devices and it is vastly more complex. A quick look at a simplified HDCP protocol definition shows how easy it is to assume that the other end is non-compliant and leave the device in a state where a compliant device is not acknowledged. A read of the complete HDCP 1.2 spec including the state machines for the receiver, transmitter, and repeater shows the complexity of the protocol and the many places programming errors could easily occur.
> 
> I'd like to say it's the TV, however, the thing that has changed is the HR20. Didn't have this issue with the H10 or the H20 receiver. Suspect they've spent more time worrying about the recording aspects of the HR20 and less on HDMI than they did on the H10/H20 since HDMI was a major feature of those receivers.


Yes, HDMI is way too complex because of the HDCP requirements. I hope it dies, digital interfaces good, HDCP interfaces for digital displays evil.


----------



## ajwillys

Jeremy W said:


> Maybe, if they started the build numbers at 4,000.


Over 4,000 does seem high so maybe that's not the build number. Perhaps they add a 1 to leading digit to signify it's a public build as opposed to a development build. If that's the case, then '10F1' would be build 241. Either way, they're still numerical builds represented in hex.

Perhaps that's the reason all the buggy HR20 builds begin with 0 as opposed to a 1.


----------



## bbroach

I went to bed last night with ~20% capacity showing on HR20 #1 (the one with eSATA) - it has 80% capacity showing this morning, so it looks like the system is recognizing the full size of my external RAID. This is extremely cool; it will be even cooler when the internal drive is also used. :icon_cool 

Not much time to play with the new release yet; it does appear that trick play functions are smoother. I'm hoping the "dead buffer on MP4" (have to change channels to get trick play functions back once the buffer is filled on an MP4 channel) is fixed. I'm tired of finding an unusable buffer when I come back to my system after several hours.


billb....


----------



## mrshermanoaks

Well, my To Do List works now... Last week it was crashing the box whenever I tried to access it.


----------



## cookpr

bbroach said:


> I went to bed last night with ~20% capacity showing on HR20 #1 (the one with eSATA) - it has 80% capacity showing this morning, so it looks like the system is recognizing the full size of my external RAID. This is extremely cool; it will be even cooler when the internal drive is also used. :icon_cool
> 
> Not much time to play with the new release yet; it does appear that trick play functions are smoother. I'm hoping the "dead buffer on MP4" (have to change channels to get trick play functions back once the buffer is filled on an MP4 channel) is fixed. I'm tired of finding an unusable buffer when I come back to my system after several hours.
> 
> billb....


How is your external RAID hooked to the HR20?


----------



## tiger2005

btmoore said:


> I recieved the update ~2:45 last night, I had problems with some trick plays this morning. I was trying to watch the last night recording of NCIS, it would play but ff and slip would not work, about 2 min in it stopped and asked if I wanted to delete it, like it was at the end of the show. I said no, went back in to it, and did the jump to end trick play, that worked and I was able to rewind back to the start of the show ~ 4 min in. This might be a new bug or it might be something related to a recording made on the prior software being played on the newer software (which would be a bug too). It is going to take a few days to see if this version is functionally stable or not.
> 
> The release notes concern me, they don't seem to address any of the major bugs like partial or unwatchable recordings, I hope that is fixed.


My HR20 froze while recording at the exact time last night, 8:04 pm EST, on the exact same show (NCIS) that you experienced issues with your recording. I don't know what the problem could be, but it seems really funny to me that we had similar issues at pretty much the same time.


----------



## btmoore

tiger2005 said:


> My HR20 froze while recording at the exact time last night, 8:04 pm EST, on the exact same show (NCIS) that you experienced issues with your recording. I don't know what the problem could be, but it seems really funny to me that we had similar issues at pretty much the same time.


Even funnier, you are in PA and I am in CA and I was recording my local. I am guessing it is just a coincidence or there was some other data coming down that zapped both of us and maybe more at the same time. Who knows.


----------



## rp2955

Hi all...new poster here on the forums but thankfully I found you guys. I was racking my brain with my football games just deleting themselves for no apparent reason on the HR20

I called D*TV today to complain about that issue (the tech support did actually tell me about the new software patch. I am in the Midwest and he told me it was rolling out for Eastern Time Zone early next week. I tried forcing it to no avail). I will be interested to hear from those who got the new software if the deleted recordings issue is actually fixed. I also had to get them to send me a new H20 HD receiver..as all of a sudden mine is randomly rebooting sometimes multiple times in a day. Sending free of charge through FedEx.


----------



## islesfan44

Guitar Hero said:


> Wow, I just noticed a big chunk of my hard drive space is missing. I had 36% just four hours ago and now I'm down to 17%. I did record some shows, but all of it in SD. I better get rid of some stuff.
> 
> Anybody else notice some missing HDD space?


Wow, me too, I just noticed this morning that I had gone from roughly 78% down to 22%. And here I was thinking "I have to delete some of those Smallville episodes..."


----------



## Scrapper

tiger2005 said:


> My HR20 froze while recording at the exact time last night, 8:04 pm EST, on the exact same show (NCIS) that you experienced issues with your recording. I don't know what the problem could be, but it seems really funny to me that we had similar issues at pretty much the same time.


I can not confirm this since I have not watched NCIS yet, but a buddy of mine watched it live last night through an E* receiver. He noticed a significant audio to video difference (at least 3 seconds) and the video was in SD at startup. He was watching it from a local OTA feed in OKC. He believes at about 4 minutes into the show it went from SD to HD and the audio lag was no longer there. I recorded NCIS on my HR10-250 and plan on watching it tonight to see if I see the same thing. I will post what I saw, unfortunately I have not setup a Series Link on the HR20 as of yet so I will not be able to compare.

I am thinking that if the national feed began in SD and then went HD approximately 4 minutes into the show maybe this caused problems with the HR20. If this is so I know the viewers in OKC will have lots of messed up recordings because the local channels often change from SD to HD based on hardware issues and or weather.

That is my 2 cents, will post results from HR10-250 later. :lol: :grin:

HR10-250 didnt record it, reason "No longer in guide". I hate it when that happens, NCIS is my favorite show.


----------



## bbroach

cookpr said:


> How is your external RAID hooked to the HR20?


eSATA cable


----------



## kenmoo

When I went to bed last night I had 19% left on the hard drive. Nothing new recorded after that. This morning I only had 6% left and a Discovery HD program, "The Man Who Skied Mt Everest" 1.5 hrs, had been auto deleted? It doesn't make sense to me that there is just a more accurate reporting of hard drive usage. If nothing changed and all the programs were as they were yesterday, why would an old unwatched program get deleted due to lack of hard drive space? It had the space yesterday before the new update. It was the oldest program in my Listings so it would be the first to be deleted if I did run out of space. Could it have been deleted due to upcoming scheduled recordings for later tonight? Was the hard drive actually reconfigured? It seems like way too much loss of hard drive space just based on a more accurate reporting of usage?


----------



## fpd917

has anyone in the east coast (central time) received the update, or should I do a forced update?


----------



## Doug Brott

kenmoo said:


> It seems like way too much loss of hard drive space just based on a more accurate reporting of usage?


Unless of course the accuracy of the previous number was based on an incorrect calculation (e.g. they didn't do the math right the first time and have now fixed the bug).


----------



## hasan

fpd917 said:


> has anyone in the east coast (central time) received the update, or should I do a forced update?


Doing a forced update is NOT going to work. D* is rolling it out West to East. If you don't wait your turn, all you get is the old firmware all over again...a complete waste of time. If you really just gotta have it as soon as possible, monitor these forums and when someone says they see it in your area, THEN force it. Until then it won't work.

D* has the ability to inhibit your HR20 from getting the new code UNTIL THEY WANT YOU TO HAVE IT, period.

Only in the first few releases, did they send it out to all of CONUS at the same time. Now they are rolling it, so just hang on...it's coming. We don't have it here in Iowa yet either.


----------



## fpd917

hasan said:


> Doing a forced update is NOT going to work. D* is rolling it out West to East. If you don't wait your turn, all you get is the old firmware all over again...a complete waste of time. If you really just gotta have it as soon as possible, monitor these forums and when someone says they see it in your area, THEN force it. Until then it won't work.
> 
> D* has the ability to inhibit your HR20 from getting the new code UNTIL THEY WANT YOU TO HAVE IT, period.
> 
> Only in the first few releases, did they send it out to all of CONUS at the same time. Now they are rolling it, so just hang on...it's coming. We don't have it here in Iowa yet either.


Thank you for your response!


----------



## CharlesSchwab

rp2955 said:


> I also had to get them to send me a new H20 HD receiver..as all of a sudden mine is randomly rebooting sometimes multiple times in a day. Sending free of charge through FedEx.


Welcome to the forum and welcome to the replacement group. I am on my 3rd unit in 2 weeks. Get ready. You will receive a "re-furbished" unit and not a new one. If it boots up, you will notice the previous owner's, or more accurately, lessor's programs and even their schedule line up. It is pretty bad when you call up FedEx to have them schedule a pickup for your bad unit and when they ask you where the package is going, you tell them DirecTV, and then the FedEx rep says "Oh, so you are returning a receiver."


----------



## jkc120

CharlesSchwab said:


> It is pretty bad when you call up FedEx to have them schedule a pickup for your bad unit and when they ask you where the package is going, you tell them DirecTV, and then the FedEx rep says "Oh, so you are returning a receiver."


:lol: :lol: :lol:


----------



## EMoMoney

biggorilla said:


> The Dolby Digital activation is still backwards. Off is On. Minor problem, only issue on reset or software update. Takes a few off and on to get it to work right.


The weird thing with mine is when it was first installed, the setting were correct. DD was on and that's what I got. It did'nt get reversed until I started playing with the settings. Now DD off means on and vice versa.


----------



## harsh

Scrapper said:


> He believes at about 4 minutes into the show it went from SD to HD and the audio lag was no longer there. I recorded NCIS on my HR10-250 and plan on watching it tonight to see if I see the same thing.


Any programming on network television last night (Election Day) should be ignored. Affiliates were upping and downing all night so that they could insert election results and live reports.

If the same thing happens tonight and there isn't a reason to interfere with regular programming, then it will be worthy of note.


----------



## mstecker

So I just walked in from work and turned on my TV.... searching for signal. This is the first time I've seen the message since I had my box replaced but when I hit menu I noticed I had no other options available other than to see the signal strength. I then saw that everything was reporting 0's.

Ok... so I come on here and see there's been a software update, figured that had something to do with it. Now I'm trying a reset and when it boots up it's still telling me searching for signal...

what gives?

edit: I have just unplugged power and sat cables, re-seated everything, booted up and am trying a force re-download of the software but it's showing 0% for a long time... any ideas? I don't want to miss my show tonight!


----------



## hasan

mstecker said:


> So I just walked in from work and turned on my TV.... searching for signal. This is the first time I've seen the message since I had my box replaced but when I hit menu I noticed I had no other options available other than to see the signal strength. I then saw that everything was reporting 0's.
> 
> Ok... so I come on here and see there's been a software update, figured that had something to do with it. Now I'm trying a reset and when it boots up it's still telling me searching for signal...
> 
> what gives?


If multiple tries at a red button reset don't work, unplug it for a few minutes then plug it back in. (and be patient)


----------



## bagleyb

brott said:


> Unless of course the accuracy of the previous number was based on an incorrect calculation (e.g. they didn't do the math right the first time and have now fixed the bug).


I still think it has to do with the space allocated for showcases. I think they're preparing to fully support eSATA. Prior to the update, it didn't matter what size drive you put in, it still showed the percentage free based on the original drive, even if you doubled the size.

Once they fully implement eSATA, they have to calculate available space based on actual size, not the original size shipped with the unit. From what I've read on the forums, the amount of space allocated to showcases changes based on size of drive. My guess is they either weren't restricting that space prior to last nights update, or if it wasn't used, they were still including it in their % free calculations, even though it couldn't be used for personal recordings. I think they fixed that in this updated. We know it's calculating space available on eSATA drives now from other posters.

Obviously this is just my theory, but it's the only thing that makes since as to why we're losing a % of recording space free, when we haven't added any recordings.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Howdy campers... Just got back in from my nice long drive...1,000 miles in two days.

To quickly answer some of those above questions..

-) Partial Records
-) Sunday Ticket

Both of those where suppose to be part of the release, and I think they are lumped into the Misc fixes... 

The Delete when not instructed to... this covers cases where a program would be in MyVod at one point, and just be gone the next time you go in there. Or it records, and it is not in MyVod, but history shows it deleted.

The space indicator is an update to the hard drive drivers/logic.
Previously it simply wasn't calculating free space correctly.


----------



## Doug Brott

Earl Bonovich said:


> ... this covers cases where a program would be in *MyVod *at one point, and just be gone the next time you go in there. Or it records, and it is not in *MyVod *...


Earl, it's "My Playlist" now.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

brott said:


> Earl, it's "My Playlist" now.


 Oops

MyPL


----------



## badhutx

Earl Bonovich said:


> Howdy campers... Just got back in from my nice long drive...1,000 miles in two days.
> 
> To quickly answer some of those above questions..
> 
> -) Partial Records
> -) Sunday Ticket
> 
> Both of those where suppose to be part of the release, and I think they are lumped into the Misc fixes...
> 
> The Delete when not instructed to... this covers cases where a program would be in MyVod at one point, and just be gone the next time you go in there. Or it records, and it is not in MyVod, but history shows it deleted.
> 
> The space indicator is an update to the hard drive drivers/logic.
> Previously it simply wasn't calculating free space correctly.


Do you happen to know if they worked on the MPEG4 audio drop out issue?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

badhutx said:


> Do you happen to know if they worked on the MPEG4 audio drop out issue?


Not "specifically", but they continued to work on the MPEG-4 decoding (and encoding) with each release


----------



## PoitNarf

Earl, I may as well ask since someone else is bound to. What's the likelyhood of the next release activating OTA?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

PoitNarf said:


> Earl, I may as well ask since someone else is bound to. What's the likelyhood of the next release activating OTA?


Depends how the next 5-7 days go.... If there are no major issues with 0xEB... then it is pretty good that we may see OTA in the next release.


----------



## forum junkie

I have had very few problems with the HR20 and so can't complain to much. There is 1 minor issue I have been waiting to see go away but after 3 or 4 updates it is still there and so I'm wondering if anyone else has it.

When watching MPEG4 channels in letterbox - whenever the picture goes to 4X3 I have a series of white dotted lines across the top. This did not happen with the HR10-250 when watching OTA but began with MPEG4. Going to stretch mode takes it away but I would prefer watching in letterbox.


----------



## rsonnens

I had an interesting experince last night before the new software upgrade. I was watching an mpeg 4 local station and it had two english audio tracks. I thought it was interesting so I selceted the second english audio track and immediatly the picture started to breakup/pixelate and sound was bonkers. I was sure it was going to crash. 

I was able to set the audio back to the original setting (I was trying to do this quickly becuase I was sure I was hosed) and after changing the channel and then back again it fixed itself up. I kinda don't want to retest this with the new update becuase I really don't like to risk reboots but I am mentioning this incase anyone else sees the same behavior.


----------



## npm

I still have the pink ffwd icon. I got it during a newly (today) recorded program.

Not a big deal, but interesting.


----------



## kenmoo

Earl Bonovich said:


> The space indicator is an update to the hard drive drivers/logic. Previously it simply wasn't calculating free space correctly.


 I'm still confused by the loss of space on the hard drive. If all the programs listed in My VOD yesterday were on the hard drive yesterday then why did some of them get deleted this morning and are no longer in My Playlist? If they were there yesterday and I didn't record anymore it would seem logically that they would still fit on the hard drive today unless I recorded more (I did not) or the size of those recordings were somehow increased after the update this morning. The size of the hard drive didn't change. The only explanation I can come up with is that the HR20 has to have a certain % of recordable space left at all times and when the update changed this from 19% last night to close to 4-5% this morning it auto deleted a few programs to make room. Does that make sense? A 15% correction of hard drive usage is a pretty big error in the first place.


----------



## jkc120

The only issue I've noticed so far is dolby digital audio delay. Not to be confused with a desync, it simply takes 3-4 seconds for sound to start when first playing a recording. This seemd to only happen on MPEG4 feeds with Dolby surround (not dolby digital 5.1). For example, wheel of fortune. Haven't narrowed it fully down yet.

So far, no lockups (knock on wood).


----------



## farjo08

Earl Bonovich said:


> -) Partial Records
> -) Sunday Ticket
> 
> Both of those where suppose to be part of the release, and I think they are lumped into the Misc fixes...
> 
> The Delete when not instructed to... this covers cases where a program would be in MyVod at one point, and just be gone the next time you go in there. Or it records, and it is not in MyVod, but history shows it deleted.


I really hope these are fixed. I will test with CI once I get the update. Do you know if the fix also addresses the problem of the program not recording at all (which appears to happen if it tries to start the recording before they start the broadcast) or just the automatic deletion when the broadcast stops? I'll do some tests and post my results.

I am also getting hit with the program recording but never showing in MyVOD - so I hope that is fixed as well.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

npm said:


> I still have the pink ffwd icon. I got it during a newly (today) recorded program.
> 
> Not a big deal, but interesting.


Me too... Got the pink FF icon/box on a newly recorded SD program this evening. Not a big deal, just a heads up.


----------



## jkc120

Radio Enginerd said:


> Me too... Got the pink FF icon/box on a newly recorded SD program this evening. Not a big deal, just a heads up.


I've had that since the beginning. It's not always there, it is sort of random.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

forum junkie said:


> When watching MPEG4 channels in letterbox - whenever the picture goes to 4X3 I have a series of white dotted lines across the top. This did not happen with the HR10-250 when watching OTA but began with MPEG4. Going to stretch mode takes it away but I would prefer watching in letterbox.


What model/make TV; and how do you have it connected? HDMI or Component

Note: I am trying to keep the "I didn't get it, got it" posts to a minimum. So I deleted a few of those posts.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

kenmoo said:


> I'm still confused by the loss of space on the hard drive. If all the programs listed in My VOD yesterday were on the hard drive yesterday then why did some of them get deleted this morning and are no longer in My Playlist? If they were there yesterday and I didn't record anymore it would seem logically that they would still fit on the hard drive today unless I recorded more (I did not) or the size of those recordings were somehow increased after the update this morning. The size of the hard drive didn't change. The only explanation I can come up with is that the HR20 has to have a certain % of recordable space left at all times and when the update changed this from 19% last night to close to 4-5% this morning it auto deleted a few programs to make room. Does that make sense? A 15% correction of hard drive usage is a pretty big error in the first place.


I am not sure what the algorithm changed... all I know is that it is to more accurately reflect disk usage.

The HR20 has it required "freespace" already reserved, that didn't change in the release.

The shows that deleted, could have been cleared out in preperation of new scheduled recordings. Since most of the MPEG-4 and MPEG-2 HD content is VBR (aka... One 1 HOUR show may take up a different amount of space as another 1 HOUR show). So the unit needs to make sure that there is enough space.


----------



## jbstix

Earl - quick question...

What version of software do you currently have on your 2 HR20's ?

wink, wink 

just curious...


----------



## Davenlr

forum junkie said:


> When watching MPEG4 channels in letterbox - whenever the picture goes to 4X3 I have a series of white dotted lines across the top. .


This is because your monitor is displaying the "unsafe area" of the video picture and those are the closed captioning data and other video stuff. Your monitor must be like mine, somewhat larger than 1280x720. Its the scaler in the monitor doing this. Switching to component vs HDMI solves it on mine, however, since mine only does this on 4:3 content, I leave it on DVI (HDMI) as my monitor shows the entire HD picture ok. YMMV, but I dont think this is a bug in the HR20, as my HTPC does this as well when playing back video captured from tv, but not with DVD's.


----------



## tonyoci

Hopefully not a big deal but I have the same problem I had after the last update. Terrible distortion/pixelation on all live TV and recorded shows (previous and new). Last time two reboots cured the problem, here's hoping the same thing works this time.


----------



## avatar230

As I wrote earlier today, when I woke up this morning to find the software update, my unit was through-putting video and audio, but was completely locked up and unresponsive to any remote control commands. A red-button reset seemed to fix the problem and everything worked fine for the hour before I left for work.

Just got home fifteen minutes ago to find the HR20 in the same state -- displaying video and audio but totally locked up in every other way. I have never experienced this problem prior to OxEB, and it's definitely different than the Black/Gray-Screen-of-Death problems I've seen before. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?


----------



## kevincmccallum

Earl Bonovich said:


> H
> -) Partial Records
> -) Sunday Ticket
> 
> The Delete when not instructed to... this covers cases where a program would be in MyVod at one point, and just be gone the next time you go in there. Or it records, and it is not in MyVod, but history shows it deleted.
> 
> The space indicator is an update to the hard drive drivers/logic.
> Previously it simply wasn't calculating free space correctly.


It appears the correction to the free hard-drive space logic was an *incredibly* significant change!! My available percentage changed from 39% down to 8% overnight with no new programs recorded! That's one-third of what I thought was my entire capacity suddenly gone in a blink!

So not to point out the obvious or anything...........but isn't it entirely likely that this fix to the free space logic is also what was really causing a large number of the random 'Deletes' too?!? I mean if this newly corrected number is really a more accurate reflection of the physical capacity of the internal drive, then it seems probable that many people (including myself) were having recorded programs deleted simply because they ran out of actual available space (because the "percentage available" number was previously telling people they had more space left when they really didn't!).

So prior to 0xEB, was the HR20 deleting programs when free space got down to what was being "reported" at the time as say maybe 15% or so available, but in reality was actually more like only 1% or 2% left.....?!?

=Kevin.


----------



## skierbri10

Mine went from 54% down to 9% and took a few movies with it.


----------



## jkc120

Had my first lockup tonight on 0xEB. Was watching lost (about 20 minutes delayed) and it was fine through the entire recording. When it got to the end, it asked me if I wanted to delete it, and I said yes. It then took me to an all blue screen with a live preview in the upper right. Unit does not respond to any remote commands.

Looks like D* is getting a call again tomorrow. I'm considering asking for a full refund as well at this point. My wife has had it.


----------



## Ed Campbell

jkc120 said:


> The only issue I've noticed so far is dolby digital audio delay. Not to be confused with a desync, it simply takes 3-4 seconds for sound to start when first playing a recording. .


Uh, I've always figured it was supposed to be there. Here in NM, I've had that symptom for years -- through 3 HR10's and the HR20.

Must be the altitude.


----------



## forum junkie

Earl Bonovich said:


> What model/make TV; and how do you have it connected? HDMI or Component
> 
> Note: I am trying to keep the "I didn't get it, got it" posts to a minimum. So I deleted a few of those posts.


Sony 53HS10 using component RGBHV


----------



## Doug Brott

It looks like pressing play to exit a paused screen saver and then pressing play to start a program works correctly now. Previously, it would jump to Live TV, but now it starts off where it was paused. Kudos.


----------



## rsonnens

rsonnens said:


> I had an interesting experince last night before the new software upgrade. I was watching an mpeg 4 local station and it had two english audio tracks. I thought it was interesting so I selceted the second english audio track and immediatly the picture started to breakup/pixelate and sound was bonkers. I was sure it was going to crash.
> 
> I was able to set the audio back to the original setting (I was trying to do this quickly becuase I was sure I was hosed) and after changing the channel and then back again it fixed itself up. I kinda don't want to retest this with the new update becuase I really don't like to risk reboots but I am mentioning this incase anyone else sees the same behavior.


I could not help myself and I retried this tonight with the new software; now when I select the second english audio option I hear nothing but the picture is fine.


----------



## rsonnens

I was using the 30 second skip button with no problems this eve. However it stopped working when watching Monday night's recording of Studio 60 on NBC (mpeg 4). Everything else seems to be working fine with the other fast forward button and the pause and play button.


----------



## rsonnens

When playing with the Dolby Digital settings tonight somehow the settings got reversed and even though it says it is OFF in is outputting DD, and when it is on it is only outputting normal stereo. So it looks like this bug was not fixed.


----------



## rsonnens

npm said:


> I still have the pink ffwd icon. I got it during a newly (today) recorded program.
> 
> Not a big deal, but interesting.


I saw this tonight as well but cannot get it to happen again.


----------



## avatar230

avatar230 said:


> As I wrote earlier today, when I woke up this morning to find the software update, my unit was through-putting video and audio, but was completely locked up and unresponsive to any remote control commands. A red-button reset seemed to fix the problem and everything worked fine for the hour before I left for work.
> 
> Just got home fifteen minutes ago to find the HR20 in the same state -- displaying video and audio but totally locked up in every other way. I have never experienced this problem prior to OxEB, and it's definitely different than the Black/Gray-Screen-of-Death problems I've seen before. Is anyone else experiencing this issue?


Sorry to quote myself, but as addendum to this post -- the locked-up unit did not record any material while I was away at work today. I'm very frustrated with the software update at this point.


----------



## tonyoci

tonyoci said:


> Hopefully not a big deal but I have the same problem I had after the last update. Terrible distortion/pixelation on all live TV and recorded shows (previous and new). Last time two reboots cured the problem, here's hoping the same thing works this time.


Confirmed. 2 restarts required to fix the pixelation and unwatchable picture. The first one had no effect, the second one solved the problem.


----------



## npm

After the update, two previously erased episodes came back.

I lost 2 episodes of CSI: from 10/12 and 10/19, that were erased either because the hard drive was full or some other bug, as has been discussed. I did not watch or delete the episodes. The episodes showed up today in MyPlaylist. Wierd!

Everything else seems to be normal.


----------



## Cyrus

kevincmccallum said:


> So not to point out the obvious or anything...........but isn't it entirely likely that this fix to the free space logic is also what was really causing a large number of the random 'Deletes' too?!? I mean if this newly corrected number is really a more accurate reflection of the physical capacity of the internal drive, then it seems probable that many people (including myself) were having recorded programs deleted simply because they ran out of actual available space (because the "percentage available" number was previously telling people they had more space left when they really didn't!).
> 
> So prior to 0xEB, was the HR20 deleting programs when free space got down to what was being "reported" at the time as say maybe 15% or so available, but in reality was actually more like only 1% or 2% left.....?!?


While I personally have not encountered random deletes, you might have something here. The new values do seem accurate. I have 28 hours of mpeg2 HD recordings plus another 17 hours of SD recordings and it shows 4% available. I think the spec was around 30 hours of mpeg2, so it does seem that the new number is accurate.


----------



## TonySCV

Anyone else noticing a problem when fast forwarding x3 (FF3) HD content? It's not actually going forward all the time. It skips backward from time to time, causing for VERY jumpy and inaccurate frame grabs. You really have no idea where it will stop when you press play.

I'll make an MPEG video of it tonight of a sports program with a clock so you can visually see what I'm referring to.

- T

EDIT: Here's the video:

http://www.tonyscv.com/oddff.wmv


----------



## TonySCV

BTW - what's the difference between a red button reset, and a hard reset that clears and deletes everything? I'm thinking of doing one or the other but I'm not sure how to do either.


----------



## Cyrus

TonySCV said:


> BTW - what's the difference between a red button reset, and a hard reset that clears and deletes everything? I'm thinking of doing one or the other but I'm not sure how to do either.


There are different options. The red button does a reboot of hr20, it can be done via pushing the red button next to the access card on the bottom right corner of the box (behind the panel). This is a hard reboot and is useful if the box is frozen and you don't have access to the menu.

A reset of hard drive can be done during reboot by holding down the REC and "down arrow" buttons simultaneously (until you see the REC button turn red). This will reformat the hard drive so all the recordings will be lost.

You can also do resets via the menu button, selecting "Help & Settings", then "Setup", then "Reset". It gives you several reset options. "Restart Recorder" is a soft reboot of the system similar to the red button. "Reset Everything" resets everything back to the factory defaults: it reboots the system, reformats the hard drive and forces the system to go thru guided setup.


----------



## MasMic

I'm on the east coast and haven't gotten the "EB" update yet, but am getting concerned about the fact that the latest update, according to the release notes, does not specifically mention the problems with "partial" recordings. I recently returned from a visit with my mom to find both episodes of SNL on Saturday night, 11:30 and 3:00 am, (NBC / WRC from Washngton DC) were both "partially recorded", 1 minute instead of the whole show.

Also, over 2 weeks passed between updates and the "30 second slip" hasn't improved significantly?!? (according to those that have received the update). Whoever decides to fix what over at D* really should think about what would make the users of this box happy. Fix the slip to a skip before renaming MyVOD. Granted I'm sure the rename is a lot easier to "fix" but, the "Trickplay" of this unit is terrible. While visiting my mom, I had the pleasure of using her Dish box and it's 30 second skip worked flawlessly and the 300X FF was great. This isn't a HD unit, but after using it and coming home to the HR20's "Trickplay", well it's tough.

So, although I know so many people want OTA, me included, dual buffers, and I personally would love to have the ability to play my mp3's through the unit. I hope the D* team concentrates on the recording stability and fixing the horrible "Trickplay" of this unit before implimenting anything else.

Does anyone (Earl?) know if they intend to make the slip a skip?

I still love the HD quality and appreciate the HR20 when it works, but I'm having doubts...


----------



## tstarn

Based on this thread so far, how do I avoid the new update? Now that my HR20 is finally working at 98 percent, sounds like this download is going to set it back to previous pain points on some level.


----------



## hasan

tstarn said:


> Based on this thread so far, how do I avoid the new update? Now that my HR20 is finally working at 98 percent, sounds like this download is going to set it back to previous pain points on some level.


Seems a little early to arrive at that judgement based on a very few anecdotal reports....but being realistic, no, there is no (practical) way to avoid the updates.

I didn't get it overnight...seems like last time it was two days after the west coast before I did...then again, my memory is mush these days anyway.


----------



## mtnagel

tstarn said:


> Based on this thread so far, how do I avoid the new update? Now that my HR20 is finally working at 98 percent, sounds like this download is going to set it back to previous pain points on some level.


I don't think you can. When mine was first installed, there was a new update and it asked like every 10 minutes if I wanted to download it and if you weren't there, it would do it automatically. So unless you want to stay up 24 hours a day to keep hitting No, then you're screwed.


----------



## tstarn

hasan said:


> Seems a little early to arrive at that judgement based on a very few anecdotal reports....but being realistic, no, there is no (practical) way to avoid the updates.
> 
> I didn't get it overnight...seems like last time it was two days after the west coast before I did...then again, my memory is mush these days anyway.


Understand, but you can appreciate my concern. It's happened to others (box working fine, then downloand, and now not so fine) who have posted. It's early, sure. But the freeze-up/lockup thing is the one that scares me. I haven't had any missed or partial recordings, just freeze-related issues so far.


----------



## hasan

tstarn said:


> Understand, but you can appreciate my concern. It's happened to others (box working fine, then downloand, and now not so fine) who have posted. It's early, sure. But the freeze-up/lockup thing is the one that scares me. I haven't had any missed or partial recordings, just freeze-related issues so far.


You can take heart from this:

Most people who are having good luck with the box continue to have good luck with it after updates. The frequency of "broken" box updates is very low. You have been having good luck for some time now (I've been following your posts carefully), so you have every reason to be optimistic. It's not that I haven't had a similar thought (update breaks my really good box), but so far so good. I really am much more concerned that when MPEG-4/HD-Locals come on line here, my good fortunes could take a turn for the worse. I still regard MPEG-4 as a virus for this box. (obviously, it needs to work, because that's where we are headed...it just has too strong a correllation with reported problems to be "random").

I've seen nothing on the scheduled roll out other than the normal W > E pattern. I had hoped that I would get it last night (2nd night), but that didn't happen, so maybe tonight. Good luck!


----------



## Doug Brott

tstarn said:


> Based on this thread so far, how do I avoid the new update? Now that my HR20 is finally working at 98 percent, sounds like this download is going to set it back to previous pain points on some level.


Tom, my answer is going to be a bit anecdotal as well, but in my experience with the new SW release, I think that it just "feels" better. It seems like Jump-back is at least closer to what we expect (6-seconds per click). The ability for me to get it right using the remote @ 3x FF has improved. Sure, my disk usage has gone up as everyone else, but I was in the 50-60% available range. Now I am in the 70's for the most part. I just get the feeling that things are better in the world.

A couple of things that I have noted that are definitely better:

- When Live TV is paused for a long time, the screen saver comes on. Previously if you hit Play twice, the screen saver would first disengage, and then the program would play, but at the current Live TV spot, not at the intended pause point. NOW, the second play starts back at the intended pause point exactly as one would expect.

- jump back appears to work almost as expected. I still feel that it could improve slightly, but now I'm NOT going to think "what is wrong with this?"

- I've noticed much less red dots bouncing about the screen when I play MPEG4. This may or may not have anything to do with the decoding algorithms in the HR20, but it's better now than it was last week.

- 3x FF is smoother than it was. Still needs work, but it's better.

There's something else, but @ 6am, I'm having trouble remembering what it was. I personally think that you have more reason to be optimistic than pessimistic this time around.


----------



## Doug Brott

Ah, just remembered the other thing that was fixed.

I'm still having minor HDMI issues with the HR20 syncing properly with my Sharp Aquos LC-GD45U LCD panel. The issue is basically when the Sharp is turned on last, the picture fluctuates from on-to-off-to-on with each on cycle lasting about 2 seconds and each off cycle lasting about 1 second (very annoying).

Previously, I had to unplug the HDMI and plug it back in for the picture to negotiate properly and start working. Now, I simply power off (put in standby) the HR20 and the power it back on. This is still a work around, but now I can do it with the remote rather than reaching behind the HR20 and removing/re-inserting a cable. It was never a problem for me, but the WAF has improved dramatically.


----------



## rrbhokies

I've got the latest release and just had my first "partial recording" problem last night with LOST. Literally, LOST was lost!!!! There was nothing showing in myVOD and when I went to the history, it just had the status of "partial". Very frustrated. Not only did the latest release not address the "partial recording" problem, but I fear that maybe it increases the occurrence of the problem. Thank goodness for the internet, but it'll now cost me $1.99 to watch it through iTunes. Thanks DirecTV!!!!


----------



## Doug Brott

rrbhokies said:


> I've got the latest release and just had my first "partial recording" problem last night with LOST. Literally, LOST was lost!!!! There was nothing showing in myVOD and when I went to the history, it just had the status of "partial". Very frustrated. Not only did the latest release not address the "partial recording" problem, but I fear that maybe it increases the occurrence of the problem. Thank goodness for the internet, but it'll now cost me $1.99 to watch it through iTunes. Thanks DirecTV!!!!


Are you certain you have the latest release? Your location shows Virginia. I thought the East Coast did not have it yet.


----------



## qubit

rrbhokies said:


> I've got the latest release and just had my first "partial recording" problem last night with LOST. Literally, LOST was lost!!!! There was nothing showing in myVOD and when I went to the history, it just had the status of "partial". Very frustrated. Not only did the latest release not address the "partial recording" problem, but I fear that maybe it increases the occurrence of the problem. Thank goodness for the internet, but it'll now cost me $1.99 to watch it through iTunes. Thanks DirecTV!!!!


If you had the latest release wouldn't there be nothing showing in "myPlaylist" as opposed to "myVOD"?

Just to add 2 cents to the whole 0xEB hex thing, they don't have to increment the "version" for every build. I do build where I work and our numbers are taken from the decimal revision number within SVN. As anyone checks in anything the decimal revision number is incremented so I can have one build at 0x2AF while my next build is 0x2C1. It doesn't seem like D* is doing it this way I'm just saying we can't assume they increment the revision number per build as there can be other ways to do it.


----------



## Stuart Sweet

I came home last night and the receiver had been updated to 0xEB. It actually happened the night before, but since I have the unit "off" when not in use I didn't notice.

All seemed well except for two issues I hadn't seen in a while:

-I lost trick play functionality when the buffer was full. This hadn't happened in about a month.

-Random reboot at approximately 8:50PM Pacific time, while watching a program which was currently recording, about 5 minutes behind. [Luckily, old trusty R10 was backup recording.]

[Note: Both times I was watching an MPEG4 local and not recording anything else other than what I was watching.]

After the reboot, just for yucks I did the quick system test in the "Info and Test" screen. It initially showed that the LNB Output test failed. I don't know what an LNB output test does [someone feel free to enlighten me] but as the unit was operating properly, I doubted that was accurate. Also the test's progress indicator jumped from 90% to 15%.

I reran the test and it showed OK but still jumped from 90 to 15. So I did a software reset, as my instincts told me that it's probably marginally more healthy than a red-button reset. The tests all showed correctly after that and the progress indicator showed DONE. [Thanks to all who posted that a second reboot might be the trick.]

I wasn't able to stay up late enough after all that to test trick play with a full buffer, and was running late this morning. I'm sure I'll hear about any issues when I get home.


----------



## mtnagel

rrbhokies said:


> I've got the latest release and just had my first "partial recording" problem last night with LOST. Literally, LOST was lost!!!! There was nothing showing in myVOD and when I went to the history, it just had the status of "partial". Very frustrated. Not only did the latest release not address the "partial recording" problem, but I fear that maybe it increases the occurrence of the problem. Thank goodness for the internet, but it'll now cost me $1.99 to watch it through iTunes. Thanks DirecTV!!!!


Why pay for it when it's free here - http://dynamic.abc.go.com/streaming/landing


----------



## Argee

We here in the east can force a download and it does d/l but it does not install. Unless the above person somehow got around this I do think he is still on the previous version.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jbstix said:


> Earl - quick question...
> 
> What version of software do you currently have on your 2 HR20's ?
> 
> wink, wink
> 
> just curious...


On one I have 0xEB the other is 0xE3


----------



## eengert

Argee said:


> We here in the east can force a download and it does d/l but it does not install. Unless the above person somehow got around this I do think he is still on the previous version.


I think more accurately when you force a download and your box isn't authorized to receive the update, you're actually re-downloading and installing the previous version (the same version you already have).


----------



## Stuart Sweet

Earl Bonovich said:


> On one I have 0xEB the other is 0xE3


This would seem to imply that it's possible to avoid downloading an update.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

MasMic said:


> I'm on the east coast and haven't gotten the "EB" update yet, but am getting concerned about the fact that the latest update, according to the release notes, does not specifically mention the problems with "partial" recordings. I recently returned from a visit with my mom to find both episodes of SNL on Saturday night, 11:30 and 3:00 am, (NBC / WRC from Washngton DC) were both "partially recorded", 1 minute instead of the whole show.
> 
> Also, over 2 weeks passed between updates and the "30 second slip" hasn't improved significantly?!? (according to those that have received the update). Whoever decides to fix what over at D* really should think about what would make the users of this box happy. Fix the slip to a skip before renaming MyVOD. Granted I'm sure the rename is a lot easier to "fix" but, the "Trickplay" of this unit is terrible. While visiting my mom, I had the pleasure of using her Dish box and it's 30 second skip worked flawlessly and the 300X FF was great. This isn't a HD unit, but after using it and coming home to the HR20's "Trickplay", well it's tough.
> 
> So, although I know so many people want OTA, me included, dual buffers, and I personally would love to have the ability to play my mp3's through the unit. I hope the D* team concentrates on the recording stability and fixing the horrible "Trickplay" of this unit before implimenting anything else.
> 
> Does anyone (Earl?) know if they intend to make the slip a skip?
> 
> I still love the HD quality and appreciate the HR20 when it works, but I'm having doubts...


There are no plans to turn the SLIP into a SKIP
"Partial" records where supposidly addressed in this release. I don't know what the root error was for the partial records, but they where supposidly fixed.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

rrbhokies said:


> I've got the latest release and just had my first "partial recording" problem last night with LOST. Literally, LOST was lost!!!! There was nothing showing in myVOD and when I went to the history, it just had the status of "partial". Very frustrated. Not only did the latest release not address the "partial recording" problem, but I fear that maybe it increases the occurrence of the problem. Thank goodness for the internet, but it'll now cost me $1.99 to watch it through iTunes. Thanks DirecTV!!!!





brott said:


> Are you certain you have the latest release? Your location shows Virginia. I thought the East Coast did not have it yet.


rrbhokies; Please confirm if your system is running 0xEB or if it is still 0xE3
As brott said; as far as I am aware, this has only rolled out to Pacific Timezone (and a few other specific units else where...  )


----------



## Earl Bonovich

lamontcranston said:


> This would seem to imply that it's possible to avoid downloading an update.


No.. One of my HR20's is on a "hot list". That unit get's included in the initial rollout of the software version. The other is not in the hot list.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

TonySCV said:


> Anyone else noticing a problem when fast forwarding x3 (FF3) HD content? It's not actually going forward all the time. It skips backward from time to time, causing for VERY jumpy and inaccurate frame grabs. You really have no idea where it will stop when you press play.
> 
> I'll make an MPEG video of it tonight of a sports program with a clock so you can visually see what I'm referring to.
> 
> - T
> 
> EDIT: Here's the video:
> 
> http://www.tonyscv.com/oddff.wmv


Tony,

Very cool example with the video... I saw this the other night while FF the CMA's (MPEG-4/HD Local - looked great). That was prior to the update so I shut my lip. For the sake of trouble shooting, I assume that game is recorded in MPEG-4 and that it was recorded AFTER the update?


----------



## f300v10

Earl Bonovich said:


> rrbhokies; Please confirm if your system is running 0xEB or if it is still 0xE3
> As brott said; as far as I am aware, this has only rolled out to Pacific Timezone (and a few other specific units else where...  )


So Earl, is this roll-out being done at a much slower pace than 0xE3? Any idea how long until everyone gets it?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

f300v10 said:


> So Earl, is this roll-out being done at a much slower pace than 0xE3? Any idea how long until everyone gets it?


Yes, it is being done at a slower pace. 
I am not sure if it is going to spread to the nation before the weekend.


----------



## UncD2000

skierbri10 said:


> Mine went from 54% down to 9% and took a few movies with it.


I am currently at 70% (no update yet), but I think I will try to watch some stuff today to be on the safe side. I don't have any recorded programs that I would care to lose right now.


----------



## Stuart Sweet

UncD2000 said:


> I am currently at 70% (no update yet), but I think I will try to watch some stuff today to be on the safe side. I don't have any recorded programs that I would care to lose right now.


After a couple days of binge watching I was down to 84% free, after the update and 3 hours recorded I was down to 70%. Obviously the problem in the logic affected some with more severity than others.


----------



## btalbott

jbstix said:


> Earl - quick question...
> 
> What version of software do you currently have on your 2 HR20's ?
> 
> wink, wink
> 
> just curious...


I think it's a pretty safe bet that Earl is an unofficial beta tester for these releases.


----------



## MasMic

Earl Bonovich said:


> There are no plans to turn the SLIP into a SKIP
> "Partial" records where supposidly addressed in this release. I don't know what the root error was for the partial records, but they where supposidly fixed.


Earl,

I think it's a dissapointment that there are no plans to turn the SLIP into a SKIP. Is there really a reason for not doing this? Appease advertisers, patent on the process, etc. I know that on my TIVO it was a hidden feature and that on DISH it's just there. It's one of my favorite things about a DVR. If they never impliment a SKIP, I hope the SLIP improves. Or maybe we can get it as a hidden feature, a la TIVO.

Hopefully the partial problem is fixed. Do you know why the rollout is being done at a slower pace? Us east coasters are an impatient bunch. I should speak for myself though, right?


----------



## Hutchinshouse

cookpr said:


> The My VOD guy must have left and took his my VOD patent with him
> 
> How does that crap (My VOD) get final approval?? Glad to see it had a life of 10 weeks.
> 
> Maybe it was D* attempt to have Video on Demand, being they will never be able to offer what cable can in this area...they can go to investor presentations and say, _*"We dont just have Video on Demand at D*, we have MY VOD, a whole new realm of personilization in the area of on demand video, truly personalized content. The consumer has, on demand, the exact programs they intend to watch. Its really groundbreaking technology."*_


Around the first of the year I read rumors that Directv would offer "broadband-based video-on-demand downloads". Perhaps this is where the VOD originated. Regardless of the acronym's conception does this name change mean Directv dropped the "broadband-based video-on-demand downloads" program?

Here's the actual article I read (dated March 2, 2006):

"DirecTV will begin offering a broadband-based video-on-demand service later this year that will allow users to download movies to their DirecTV DVR, the company said last week.

DirecTV said 2,000 movies will be available initially through DirecTV Broadband Video.

DirecTV subscribers will be able to order movies either through their TV or a Web site but will have to wait until the films download to watch them.

Movies will then be downloaded to their DVR for viewing later in the day or the next day. Credit: Video Business Online"

Thanks Brothers,
Hutchinshouse
(Directv&#8230;...More HD please&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;&#8230;.):grin:


----------



## Earl Bonovich

MasMic said:


> Earl,
> 
> I think it's a dissapointment that there are no plans to turn the SLIP into a SKIP. Is there really a reason for not doing this? Appease advertisers, patent on the process, etc. I know that on my TIVO it was a hidden feature and that on DISH it's just there. It's one of my favorite things about a DVR. If they never impliment a SKIP, I hope the SLIP improves. Or maybe we can get it as a hidden feature, a la TIVO.
> 
> Hopefully the partial problem is fixed. Do you know why the rollout is being done at a slower pace? Us east coasters are an impatient bunch. I should speak for myself though, right?


There are multiple reasons behind Slip vs Skip. And yes, some of which you listed. As the trick play improves, Slip will improve. Slip on the R15 works pretty good.

As for the rollout, yes it is being done a slower more cautious pace.
This release is very important foundation release for some future features.


----------



## tstarn

brott said:


> Ah, just remembered the other thing that was fixed.
> 
> I'm still having minor HDMI issues with the HR20 syncing properly with my Sharp Aquos LC-GD45U LCD panel. The issue is basically when the Sharp is turned on last, the picture fluctuates from on-to-off-to-on with each on cycle lasting about 2 seconds and each off cycle lasting about 1 second (very annoying).
> 
> Previously, I had to unplug the HDMI and plug it back in for the picture to negotiate properly and start working. Now, I simply power off (put in standby) the HR20 and the power it back on. This is still a work around, but now I can do it with the remote rather than reaching behind the HR20 and removing/re-inserting a cable. It was never a problem for me, but the WAF has improved dramatically.


Thanks Doug, for all the info. Keeping fingers crossed, of course. Just want to move beyond the hassle potential.

On one of your points, when I pause, the screen saver comes on in two minutes, and if I hit play twice, it starts up from where it left off. Always has. Is that the idea?

As for HDMI, I backed off using mine with my Hitachi plasma, but I may try it again once the download completes and the box resets. It's really easy for me to move from component to HDMI, since in all the shuffling, I just have both cables plugged into the HR20, but only one into the panel. Only takes a few secs to make the change.


----------



## tstarn

hasan said:


> You can take heart from this:
> 
> Most people who are having good luck with the box continue to have good luck with it after updates. The frequency of "broken" box updates is very low. You have been having good luck for some time now (I've been following your posts carefully), so you have every reason to be optimistic. It's not that I haven't had a similar thought (update breaks my really good box), but so far so good. I really am much more concerned that when MPEG-4/HD-Locals come on line here, my good fortunes could take a turn for the worse. I still regard MPEG-4 as a virus for this box. (obviously, it needs to work, because that's where we are headed...it just has too strong a correllation with reported problems to be "random").
> 
> I've seen nothing on the scheduled roll out other than the normal W > E pattern. I had hoped that I would get it last night (2nd night), but that didn't happen, so maybe tonight. Good luck!


Still not here, as you know. To paraphrase, "We don't need no stinkin' broken box updates."

I will be curious to see if your luck holds up once MPEG4 rolls into Iowa.


----------



## bovac97

TonySCV said:


> Anyone else noticing a problem when fast forwarding x3 (FF3) HD content? It's not actually going forward all the time. It skips backward from time to time, causing for VERY jumpy and inaccurate frame grabs. You really have no idea where it will stop when you press play.


I noticed this too. Noticed this last Sunday while watching football, then again when fast forwarding through the NASCAR race.


----------



## HaiChinGow

btalbott said:


> I think it's a pretty safe bet that Earl is an unofficial beta tester for these releases.


We are all unofficial beta testers for these releases.

I haven't had a chance to test out 0XEB yet as I have been away. I saw that both of my units were upgraded before I left and one was locked up. The one finger salute brought it back from the dead. I did get a report from my better half. I will leave out the colorful descriptors:

"I recorded Jericho and was trying to watch it. The sound was dropping out every few seconds and then coming back. I tried to rewind then play and then the voices looked like one of those old Japanese movies where nothing matched. After pausing and playing a few times the sound finally synced up. Then, about half way through, the picture started to screw up. I hate this thing! The upper right quadrant of the screen got stuck on one image then would be ok, then would get stuck again. Also, every time I try to fast forward through commercials, it takes forever! Can't we go back to Tivo?"

<sigh>


----------



## Earl Bonovich

HaiChinGow said:


> "I recorded Jericho and was trying to watch it. The sound was dropping out every few seconds and then coming back. I tried to rewind then play and then the voices looked like one of those old Japanese movies where nothing matched. After pausing and playing a few times the sound finally synced up. Then, about half way through, the picture started to screw up. I hate this thing! The upper right quadrant of the screen got stuck on one image then would be ok, then would get stuck again. Also, every time I try to fast forward through commercials, it takes forever! Can't we go back to Tivo?"


Which one of the two units did that occur on? The one that had to be restarted?

Have you ever seen the frozen "upper right" quadrant of the screen issue before? As that to me would be more of a broadcast issue, then the HR20.

The LipSync issue is nothing new to the HR20 (or other units)...


----------



## TonySCV

Radio Enginerd said:


> Tony,
> 
> Very cool example with the video... I saw this the other night while FF the CMA's (MPEG-4/HD Local - looked great). That was prior to the update so I shut my lip. For the sake of trouble shooting, I assume that game is recorded in MPEG-4 and that it was recorded AFTER the update?


Good question. It turns out it's not unique to this update. I had the game recorded on a different HR20 that hadn't received the update yet and it has the same problem. It appears to have existed for quite some time.

Although it's not tied to this update specifically, it is something that needs to get fixed.

- T


----------



## grate88

Jericho is one of those constant problem shows on LA mpeg 4 for me. Always a frozen, partial ar delete. If I do get it going the trick play is always awful.

Last night I was able to get through the show, but the trick play was still sub par.
I don't have these issues mpeg2.


----------



## HaiChinGow

Earl Bonovich said:


> Which one of the two units did that occur on? The one that had to be restarted?
> 
> Have you ever seen the frozen "upper right" quadrant of the screen issue before? As that to me would be more of a broadcast issue, then the HR20.
> 
> The LipSync issue is nothing new to the HR20 (or other units)...


I restarted both boxes before I left to try to reduce the number of problems that may have occured while I was away.

I have seen the upper right quadrant freeze before on a recording. After restarting the HR20 and re-watching the recording, it did not show again. This was on an earlier update. At that time it wasn't a broadcast issue, this time I haven't been able to verify it.

I knew the lipsync issue wasn't new to the HR20, I have seen it many times before. I have noticed the out-of-sync audio/video mostly on MPEG4 in previous releases. Apparently there is still an issue. I'll check it out tomorrow.


----------



## Lightman

I too am disappointed in the 30 second slip function. The Tivo skip does just that - skip immediately 30 seconds ahead. The HR20 slips or "plays" 3 seconds to go 30 seconds. That adds up. I know it's not a long time in the grand scheme of things but after you get used to skipping commercials with Tivo in about 2 seconds you sort of expect that or you'll be disappointed.



Earl Bonovich said:


> There are multiple reasons behind Slip vs Skip. And yes, some of which you listed. As the trick play improves, Slip will improve. Slip on the R15 works pretty good.
> 
> As for the rollout, yes it is being done a slower more cautious pace.
> This release is very important foundation release for some future features.


----------



## pdvale

Trying to delete a SL in the prioritizer doesn't work when there are no scheduled recordings. The box seems to receive the input from the remote, but it does nothing. If you choose a SL with scheduled recordings, it works as normal.

The "- -" delete does get rid of the SL though...

Paul.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

pdvale said:


> Trying to delete a SL in the prioritizer doesn't work when there are no scheduled recordings. The box seems to receive the input from the remote, but it does nothing. If you choose a SL with scheduled recordings, it works as normal.
> 
> The "- -" delete does get rid of the SL though...
> 
> Paul.


That is the normal function of the unit.
When there are no programs in the guide for that SL.. you can not bring up the show from the Prioritizer.

As you said, the "-""-" does do the trick to delete it.


----------



## Dusty

I am most curious of the supposed fix of more accurate free space calculation. My went from 36% free to 14% overnight. I quickly watched Blazers beating Lakers and got the freespace back up to 22%. Because I had to test a replacement HR10 I received under warranty, I powered off the HR20 and moved the cables to the refurbished HR10. When I moved the cables back, My HR20 wouldn't turn on. The blue power LED went on for a while with a lot of exciting noises from the HDD. Then all LED went out after about a minute. There was nothing on the screen. I cycled the power and tried red button reset a few times and decided that my HR20 probably was toasted. After letting it sit aside for about 15 minutes, I went to push the power LED on the panel. This time, it decided to come back to life. After a seemingly normal power up routine, I went into the Playlist and the free space mysteriously went back to 14%. I watched the European PGA games on the golf channel and tried a few recorded programs. It seemed to work normally otherwise.

I can see two possible explanation. One is the machine ran into a few bad sectors on the HDD and recovered from it by marking off the bad sectors from future access. However, going from 22% to 14% seems to be a significant loss of sectors. The other is the freespace calculator has an algorithm that is beyond my comprehension. Either it is confused or I am.

Who believes the HR20 has the ability to repair bad sectors?


----------



## litzdog911

grate88 said:


> Jericho is one of those constant problem shows on LA mpeg 4 for me. Always a frozen, partial ar delete. If I do get it going the trick play is always awful.
> 
> Last night I was able to get through the show, but the trick play was still sub par.
> I don't have these issues mpeg2.


Interesting. I have never had "partial recording" problems with my HR20 in the past two months, until last night's recording of "Jerico". For some reason my HR20 only recorded the first 48-minutes. The details said that the recording was "stopped", but I don't think I did anything to make it stop recording. In fact, I was watching my HR10-250 while Jerico recorded. Perhaps it was just a glitch with the local CBS MPEG4 broadcast?


----------



## Tinmen

We've had our HR20 for several weeks now with absolutely no trouble (except for the reversed DD setting). Last night we recorded Jericho and Lost and found them unplayable when we wanted to watch them. In both cases review would start, play a few minutes then hang, repeat a short sequence over and over then move forward either with no sound or high-pixelated images. We attempted to restart the playback several times with the same thing happening.

I reviewed the log and found we had been "upgraded" to the latest firmware release. We then reset the system and attempted to replay the recorded shows and the same problems re-occurred.

Then, the remote control started to work incorrectly. Up became down, left turned off the unit, etc., etc., and it got worse.

Finally, I reset the unit again, this time selecting "Reset Everything". The HR20 came back after a few minutes. This time the DD setting worked first time and DD is actually set to "On" and DD output works. Everything else appeared to work as well including the remote control. Of course, everything on the disks was gone so tonight we'll re-try recording some shows to see what happens upon playback.



litzdog911 said:


> Interesting. I have never had "partial recording" problems with my HR20 in the past two months, until last night's recording of "Jerico". For some reason my HR20 only recorded the first 48-minutes. The details said that the recording was "stopped", but I don't think I did anything to make it stop recording. In fact, I was watching my HR10-250 while Jerico recorded. Perhaps it was just a glitch with the local CBS MPEG4 broadcast?


----------



## Doug Brott

tstarn said:


> On one of your points, when I pause, the screen saver comes on in two minutes, and if I hit play twice, it starts up from where it left off. Always has. Is that the idea?


I've always had a problem with this Live TV, until now. However, if I disengaged the screen saver with any button other than PLAY, then pressing PLAY to start the program worked correctly. This was never a problem with a recorded program, ONLY with Live TV. Now it works correctly in all cases from what I can tell.


----------



## gobucks100

jkc120 said:


> Had my first lockup tonight on 0xEB. Was watching lost (about 20 minutes delayed) and it was fine through the entire recording. When it got to the end, it asked me if I wanted to delete it, and I said yes. It then took me to an all blue screen with a live preview in the upper right. Unit does not respond to any remote commands.
> 
> Looks like D* is getting a call again tomorrow. I'm considering asking for a full refund as well at this point. My wife has had it.


I had this happen once on an earlier software version. Only difference was that I choose not to delete on the blue screen with small live tv window. All buttons on remote were non responsive. Could only do the red buntton reset .


----------



## kevincmccallum

===>> "So prior to 0xEB, was the HR20 deleting programs when free space got down to what was being "reported" at the time as say maybe 15% or more available, but in reality was actually more like only 1% or 2% left.....?!?"

Was curious if we could get Earl's thoughts or opinion on this theory from Post #112??

What are the chances that the calculation of remaining free space was so bad prior to the 0xEB update, that users may have frequently been running out of available space even though the box was "telling" them they weren't....??


----------



## taw123

Just got 'EB' last night and it may be a step forward in MANY areas but is a HUGE step backward for me.

Problem:
When I 'slip 30' a couple times (or even sometimes just a single press, I lose ALL picture on the screen (you might think this isn't bad as I must be skiping, oops SLIPing a commercial), but withought any video feedback I don't know when to stop the slip.

Regression:
Before 'EB' release I was able to SEE and most times didn't lose picture when using the slip (99 percent of the time). This is a MAJOR regression. I won't get started on how this could be fixed by providing a TRUE skip, let's just fix the features we have (at least not introduce new bugs)

Configuration:
Software release: EB
Native mode: ON (I don't want any video manipulation done on the box)
HDMI output to Octvia HDMI/Optical switch
DD Optical: On
Switch connects to Pioneer PDP-5060

Again this worked FINE before the software update so it is CLEARLY a regression. Feel free to contact me directly if you need further info ([email protected]). Thanks for any help you can provide. Any idea of where to OFFICIALLY file bugs? I have a number of bugs, feature suggestions, and UI enhancements for DTV. I have had TiVos since the product came out and think this product could get A LOT better (w/o infringing or licenceing TiVo's patents). Thanks again. Tom


----------



## Earl Bonovich

kevincmccallum said:


> ===>> "So prior to 0xEB, was the HR20 deleting programs when free space got down to what was being "reported" at the time as say maybe 15% or more available, but in reality was actually more like only 1% or 2% left.....?!?"
> 
> Was curious if we could get Earl's thoughts or opinion on this theory from Post #112??
> 
> What are the chances that the calculation of remaining free space was so bad prior to the 0xEB update, that users may have frequently been running out of available space even though the box was "telling" them they weren't....??


It is possible.... and a good theory. 
I don't know if the fix for the "un-initiated deletes" where caused by space or not.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

taw123 said:


> Just got 'EB' last night and it may be a step forward in MANY areas but is a HUGE step backward for me.
> 
> Problem:
> When I 'slip 30' a couple times (or even sometimes just a single press, I lose ALL picture on the screen (you might think this isn't bad as I must be skiping, oops SLIPing a commercial), but withought any video feedback I don't know when to stop the slip.
> 
> Regression:
> Before 'EB' release I was able to SEE and most times didn't lose picture when using the slip (99 percent of the time). This is a MAJOR regression. I won't get started on how this could be fixed by providing a TRUE skip, let's just fix the features we have (at least not introduce new bugs)
> 
> Configuration:
> Software release: EB
> Native mode: ON (I don't want any video manipulation done on the box)
> HDMI output to Octvia HDMI/Optical switch
> DD Optical: On
> Switch connects to Pioneer PDP-5060
> 
> Again this worked FINE before the software update so it is CLEARLY a regression. Feel free to contact me directly if you need further info ([email protected]). Thanks for any help you can provide. Any idea of where to OFFICIALLY file bugs? I have a number of bugs, feature suggestions, and UI enhancements for DTV. I have had TiVos since the product came out and think this product could get A LOT better (w/o infringing or licenceing TiVo's patents). Thanks again. Tom


On all programs?
Only on MPEG4? MPEG-2 HD? MPEG-2 SD?
What resolution is that program at when this happens?
What happens if you turn off native, and lock the resolution... even if it is the same resolution generated when on Native mode?

Where these programs recorded before or after the 0xEB release?
What happens if you FF at 1x, 2x, or 3x?

As for "official" filing bugs... you can send an email to DirecTV through their email mechanism... but posting here, does get seen by the DirecTV Team.


----------



## Babula

Have noted with this upgrade and for the first time, that with my HR20 in Native mode, and FF or REW, the Video is switching between 720 and what I think is 
480. 

It appears the HD is stretching vertically and then when the FF stops, it goes back to normal.

Just an item for consideration.

Bill


----------



## pdvale

Earl Bonovich said:


> That is the normal function of the unit.
> When there are no programs in the guide for that SL.. you can not bring up the show from the Prioritizer.
> 
> As you said, the "-""-" does do the trick to delete it.


In a previous version, a screen would come up and ask you if you wanted to delete the SL.. a much nice way to delete something. I don't like the - - method as sometimes in the past, the unit had not responded to an input and you then - - to delete, it ends up deleting the wrong thing..


----------



## btmoore

Babula said:
 

> Have noted with this upgrade and for the first time, that with my HR20 in Native mode, and FF or REW, the Video is switching between 720 and what I think is
> 480.
> 
> It appears the HD is stretching vertically and then when the FF stops, it goes back to normal.
> 
> Just an item for consideration.
> 
> Bill


Yes I have seen this too on 0xEB on a MPEG2 HD recording, when FFing the HR20 goes through a sync issue at random points in the recording. I have watched about 5 programs on the new version of the software I have only experienced this the one recording. This problem presented on a recording of Hogan's Heroes made yesterday around 5:30 on HDnet, so it was recorded under the new software. I have not seen this problem on the other recordings I have watched but they have all been either MPEG4 or SD content. I would bet if I turned native off the resyncing would not occur, but for my purposes I need to have native on. I need more time to tell if this is a more systemic issue.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

pdvale said:


> In a previous version, a screen would come up and ask you if you wanted to delete the SL.. a much nice way to delete something. I don't like the - - method as sometimes in the past, the unit had not responded to an input and you then - - to delete, it ends up deleting the wrong thing..


I have seen that screen on the R15, but I haven't seen it on the HR20.
But then again, I really have deleted any of my SL's on the HR20 after the first couple weeks


----------



## taw123

Sorry for not being clearer..... Updates below

_Only on MPEG4? _
*No*

_MPEG-2 HD? _
*Yes*

_MPEG-2 SD?_
No

_Additional Details:_
Ok here is what happens. The slip starts out ok. When the slip on an MPEG 2 HD stream comes out of slip the screen blanks out when native is set on (not with resolution locked), so it seems that the DVR is not holding a resolution lock as it comes out (must be reseting to make sure it has a valid resolution lock). Smart thing might be to check that the resolution coming out of skip matackes the CURRENT resolution and if it is don't reset. Of course you also need to check audio (not sure if the DD vs PCM check is done in the same reset routine as vido, but I can HOPE not)....

_What resolution is that program at when this happens?_
I will have to do more testing at different source resolutions to see if that makes a diff when set to Native more.

_What happens if you turn off native, and lock the resolution... even if it is the same resolution generated when on Native mode?_

*No problem as expected.*

_Where these programs recorded before or after the 0xEB release?
_

*Yes, all content pre 0xEB*

_What happens if you FF at 1x, 2x, or 3x?_
*These are all fine.*


----------



## DeanS

I too had problems last night with the 30-second slip function with the screen resolution switching back-and-forth between 1081i and 480i during the slip AND in fast-forward mode. This would occur occasionally prior to the latest software release, but since then, it is much more frequent and irritating. BTW, I prefer to leave "native" switched on. That way I don't have to press the format button each time my display receives a different kind of signal. 

I noticed this on both "House" and "Jericho" - both recorded as MPEG 2 HD streams. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't take my monitor a second or two to switch between resolutions - but to have it happen 3 or 4 times during a 2-minute slip function is not right!! 

Will this be fixed?


----------



## 69RoadRunner

I hope the following problem is fixed in this update. Last night, I had 2 programs set to record at 8 and another at 9 via series link.

For some unknown reason, my wife wants The OC to record, we also have Jericho set up. The OC isn't normally on Wednesday nights. Criminal Minds is set at 9.

Jericho is set up to start 2 minutes early and end 2 minutes late. I'm pretty sure The OC adds a few minutes at the end, too. That creates a problem since between 9:00 and 9:02 there are 3 programs set to record.

The prioritizer should have dumped The OC since it was at the bottom. Instead, it recorded 2 minutes of Jericho and 0 minutes of The OC. Criminal Minds recorded.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

taw123 said:


> Sorry for not being clearer..... Updates below
> 
> _Only on MPEG4? _
> *No*
> 
> _MPEG-2 HD? _
> *Yes*
> 
> _MPEG-2 SD?_
> No
> 
> _Additional Details:_
> Ok here is what happens. The slip starts out ok. When the slip on an MPEG 2 HD stream comes out of slip the screen blanks out when native is set on (not with resolution locked), so it seems that the DVR is not holding a resolution lock as it comes out (must be reseting to make sure it has a valid resolution lock). Smart thing might be to check that the resolution coming out of skip matackes the CURRENT resolution and if it is don't reset. Of course you also need to check audio (not sure if the DD vs PCM check is done in the same reset routine as vido, but I can HOPE not)....
> 
> _What resolution is that program at when this happens?_
> I will have to do more testing at different source resolutions to see if that makes a diff when set to Native more.
> 
> _What happens if you turn off native, and lock the resolution... even if it is the same resolution generated when on Native mode?_
> 
> *No problem as expected.*
> 
> _Where these programs recorded before or after the 0xEB release?
> _
> 
> *Yes, all content pre 0xEB*
> 
> _What happens if you FF at 1x, 2x, or 3x?_
> *These are all fine.*


Thank you....
This is great example of the details that are really beneficial when reporting a bug.


----------



## islesfan44

Last night, after the update, my HR20 recorded Reno Family Magizine on the Reno CBS HD affiliate (SD show, but I think this is still MP4, correct?). Anyway, it recorded the show 5 times according to my Playlist. All 5 recordings are from last night at 7:30. I know this is impossible with only 2 tuners, but I tried playing each one, and even though it was the same show, they all worked. Then I started deleting each one, and as I did, the available space bar and percentage increased. I think that means that the machine made 5 copies on the drive, or took up the space of 5 copies (maybe just in the FAT?).

I was wondering if anyone else had had this problem, and does anyone have any ideas about the cause?


----------



## eengert

DeanS said:


> I too had problems last night with the 30-second slip function with the screen resolution switching back-and-forth between 1081i and 480i during the slip AND in fast-forward mode. This would occur occasionally prior to the latest software release, but since then, it is much more frequent and irritating. BTW, I prefer to leave "native" switched on. That way I don't have to press the format button each time my display receives a different kind of signal.
> 
> I noticed this on both "House" and "Jericho" - both recorded as MPEG 2 HD streams. It wouldn't be so bad if it didn't take my monitor a second or two to switch between resolutions - but to have it happen 3 or 4 times during a 2-minute slip function is not right!!
> 
> Will this be fixed?


Just a theory, but I wonder if what you're ffwding past is actually in different resolutions? There are more and more HD commercials, so I wonder if while you're ffwding/slipping past a mix of SD and HD commercials if the native res is trying to keep up? It would make sense if setting to a fixed res causes the problem to cease.

Side note: Personally, I don't see much value in native res. I'm very picky about A/V quality, and I see no difference when I send, say, native 720p or fixed 1080i to my 50" SXRD. I don't even see a difference between sending native 480i vs. letting the HR20 up-res to 1080i. So I always leave it on 1080i fixed and it looks great and I don't have to deal with the HR20 toggling through it's different output resolutions trying to find that native res. Just my opinion/experience.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

islesfan44 said:


> Last night, after the update, my HR20 recorded Reno Family Magizine on the Reno CBS HD affiliate (SD show, but I think this is still MP4, correct?). Anyway, it recorded the show 5 times according to my Playlist. All 5 recordings are from last night at 7:30. I know this is impossible with only 2 tuners, but I tried playing each one, and even though it was the same show, they all worked. Then I started deleting each one, and as I did, the available space bar and percentage increased. I think that means that the machine made 5 copies on the drive, or took up the space of 5 copies (maybe just in the FAT?).
> 
> I was wondering if anyone else had had this problem, and does anyone have any ideas about the cause?


Do you have the EB releae?


----------



## hasan

eengert said:


> Side note: Personally, I don't see much value in native res. I'm very picky about A/V quality, and I see no difference when I send, say, native 720p or fixed 1080i to my 50" SXRD. I don't even see a difference between sending native 480i vs. letting the HR20 up-res to 1080i. So I always leave it on 1080i fixed and it looks great and I don't have to deal with the HR20 toggling through it's different output resolutions trying to find that native res. Just my opinion/experience.


That is my experience as well, and it eliminates yet another set of conditions that may cause problems.


----------



## shendley

Just thought I'd chime in to say that I've had the problem with the 30 second slip described above as well all along with this machine (I don't have the latest update yet). It appears to only be associated with HD recordings (either MPEG 2 or 4). The machine just appears to lose a lock on the resolution. I also keep my native turned on because I notice a difference between SD broadcasts going out in 1080 vs. 480 (i or p). In 1080 there are always slight but noticable distortions at the top of the screen. By the way, I have a Panasonic 42 inch enhanced def set and realize it may be more my tv than anything happening with the HR 20. But, given what I've got, that's why I like native on. I hope they fix this problem. It's not what I'd call major as it doesn't happen even most of the time. But it is annoying.


----------



## sp44

TonySCV said:


> Anyone else noticing a problem when fast forwarding x3 (FF3) HD content? It's not actually going forward all the time. It skips backward from time to time, causing for VERY jumpy and inaccurate frame grabs. You really have no idea where it will stop when you press play.
> ]


I get this too. Very annoying.


----------



## Doug Brott

eengert said:


> Side note: Personally, I don't see much value in native res. I'm very picky about A/V quality, and I see no difference when I send, say, native 720p or fixed 1080i to my 50" SXRD. I don't even see a difference between sending native 480i vs. letting the HR20 up-res to 1080i. So I always leave it on 1080i fixed and it looks great and I don't have to deal with the HR20 toggling through it's different output resolutions trying to find that native res. Just my opinion/experience.


Agreed, except sometimes on 1080i there are a bunch of moving dots at the top of the screen. I should probably just set it to 1080i and use the dot-by-dot from my TV to get rid of it, though.


----------



## Deevan

LOST Issue - WFTV - 9 - Orlando

I got the patch by doing the reboot + 02468 combination.

I am also experiencing this, however it seems to be on MP4 playback only, not live broadcasts. It seems to be only from this station and WOFL FOX - 35. (Both are in Orlando.) WFTV is FAR worse. Their HD newscast is just as bad as high movement/more demanding decode content like LOST.


----------



## TonySCV

Hi Gang:

I'm seeing a new problem on one of the 2 HR20 boxes I have - both have the EB software on them. This box in particular just went through a format, so it's as "out of the box" as it can get. 

I'm receiving a "Searching for Satellite" message when tuning to MPEG4 local channels. When I initially change to the channel, there is no picture for 3-4 seconds, and the message is displayed during that time. After 4-5 seconds, the picture appears, but the message does not go away. Changing to the MPEG2 local channel makes the message disappear. This is NOT a message that's appearing while watching a recorded show - this is when watching Live TV. 

This is not happening on the other HR20 box I have with the EB update (that box has not been reformatted). 

I DO have the filters installed on the SAT IN coax cables coming in to the box. Should I remove those? Should I reformat again and try one more time? It's quite annoying. 

- T


----------



## Dusty

kevincmccallum said:


> ===>> "So prior to 0xEB, was the HR20 deleting programs when free space got down to what was being "reported" at the time as say maybe 15% or more available, but in reality was actually more like only 1% or 2% left.....?!?"
> 
> Was curious if we could get Earl's thoughts or opinion on this theory from Post #112??
> 
> What are the chances that the calculation of remaining free space was so bad prior to the 0xEB update, that users may have frequently been running out of available space even though the box was "telling" them they weren't....??


I don't think so. Just last Sunday, I got down to 2% and HR20 didn't delete anything for me.


----------



## jbstix

Deevan said:


> LOST Issue - WFTV - 9 - Orlando
> 
> I got the patch by doing the reboot + 02468 combination.
> 
> I am also experiencing this, however it seems to be on MP4 playback only, not live broadcasts. It seems to be only from this station and WOFL FOX - 35. (Both are in Orlando.) WFTV is FAR worse. Their HD newscast is just as bad as high movement/more demanding decode content like LOST.


You're in FLA and have the new EB software??? I didn't think it was "approved' for the east coast yet? Might want to double check your info tab...


----------



## eengert

brott said:


> Agreed, except sometimes on 1080i there are a bunch of moving dots at the top of the screen. I should probably just set it to 1080i and use the dot-by-dot from my TV to get rid of it, though.


It must be your TV because I never see that. Every TV has a different overscan setting. You're seeing the edge of the "unsafe area". If the advanced menu in your TV allows you to change the v-align, you might try that.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

TonySCV said:


> Hi Gang:
> 
> I'm seeing a new problem on one of the 2 HR20 boxes I have - both have the EB software on them. This box in particular just went through a format, so it's as "out of the box" as it can get.
> 
> I'm receiving a "Searching for Satellite" message when tuning to MPEG4 local channels. When I initially change to the channel, there is no picture for 3-4 seconds, and the message is displayed during that time. After 4-5 seconds, the picture appears, but the message does not go away. Changing to the MPEG2 local channel makes the message disappear. This is NOT a message that's appearing while watching a recorded show - this is when watching Live TV.
> 
> This is not happening on the other HR20 box I have with the EB update (that box has not been reformatted).
> 
> I DO have the filters installed on the SAT IN coax cables coming in to the box. Should I remove those? Should I reformat again and try one more time? It's quite annoying.
> 
> - T


What kind of signal strength readings are you getting on 103/99?
And do you have the B-Band converters connected?


----------



## rwhitacre

ChromaTick said:


> Sure. I don't mean that it's broken or doesn't work. I just mean that it's pretty much the same speed as before (slow), and when you hit Play to come out of FF there is about a 2 second stutter where you don't get any audio. I could learn to live with the jump back button, but when I hit Play I want the video/audio to immediately start.
> 
> This is seriously the only feature on this box that I don't like. lol


One of the best things TiVO ever did was to include an automatic "jump back" when transitioning from FF to Play. It is like they calculated the human response time and factored it in. Once I see a frame of the show I am watching return after commercials, I would hit play. On my old TiVO, the TiVO would land almost exactly where I wanted it (and the audio would be there from the get-go).

On the HR20, there is no compensation, so I have to back it up myself. Not nearly as polished of an interface in my opinion

Rick


----------



## paulman182

eengert said:


> Just a theory, but I wonder if what you're ffwding past is actually in different resolutions? There are more and more HD commercials, so I wonder if while you're ffwding/slipping past a mix of SD and HD commercials if the native res is trying to keep up? It would make sense if setting to a fixed res causes the problem to cease.


This really, really makes a lot of sense.

I hope it didn't slip by everyone.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

rwhitacre said:


> One of the best things TiVO ever did was to include an automatic "jump back" when transitioning from FF to Play. It is like they calculated the human response time and factored it in. Once I see a frame of the show I am watching return after commercials, I would hit play. On my old TiVO, the TiVO would land almost exactly where I wanted it (and the audio would be there from the get-go).
> 
> On the HR20, there is no compensation, so I have to back it up myself. Not nearly as polished of an interface in my opinion
> 
> Rick


The feature you are referring to, is Auto Compensation.
And is patented by TiVo. Hence why it is not in the HR20 (or the R15, or other DVRs)

You can come close, by using the Jump Back button to exit the playback...

But even with TiVo's auto compensation, you kinda had to "learn" when to hit, just right to get it work "just right".


----------



## DeanS

I let the HR20 do the resolution switching for me with "Native" on since I prefer 480i programming to fill my 4x3 HD monitor rather than be "boxed" by just leaving the resolution format for all signals at 1080i. My monitor is an older Sony XBR that diplays HD as an anamorphic or squeezed image in the center of the screen. The monitor itself will natively display 480i, 480p, and 1080i. 

I will experiment with various settings this evening (with "Native" turned off) to find away around the constant resolution switching that is occuring on the slip function. I thought, too, that perhaps the SD commercials themselves (inserted into the HD program) were causing the flips in resolution, but I don't think so. All I can say is that this annoyance is much more pronounced now than before the latest software update......


----------



## Earl Bonovich

paulman182 said:


> This really, really makes a lot of sense.
> 
> I hope it didn't slip by everyone.


Sorry the resolution on my monitor was changing while I was reading it... 

Seriously though, it does make sense...


----------



## islesfan44

Earl Bonovich said:


> Do you have the EB releae?


Yes


----------



## avatar230

rwhitacre said:


> One of the best things TiVO ever did was to include an automatic "jump back" when transitioning from FF to Play. It is like they calculated the human response time and factored it in. Once I see a frame of the show I am watching return after commercials, I would hit play. On my old TiVO, the TiVO would land almost exactly where I wanted it (and the audio would be there from the get-go).
> 
> On the HR20, there is no compensation, so I have to back it up myself. Not nearly as polished of an interface in my opinion
> 
> Rick


The automatic fast-forward compensation is protected by a TiVo-owned patent. The only way we'll ever see that on the HR20 is if D* ponies up and pays to license the feature from TiVo. As it's currently #4 on the unofficial HR20 Wishlist Survey I think it's safe to say this is one feature that a lot of users -- myself included -- wish D* would eat the cost on and make available to all its customers who have "grown up" on DirecTiVos.



Earl Bonovich said:


> You can come close, by using the Jump Back button to exit the playback...


In my experience, this does come pretty close in SD material, but on HD, especially MPEG-4 HD, as a result of the herky-jerky fastforward, by the time I see the show using 3x FF, I have to hit skipback close to ten times to get it in the right place -- which definitely introduces a sizeable delay coming back from commercial. And then, of course, there are also the times when instead of skipping back 6-seconds, it goes back about 30-seconds (this seems to happen frequently on MPEG-4 recordings off KNBC in Los Angeles.)


----------



## upnorth

Originally Posted by eengert

Side note: Personally, I don't see much value in native res. I'm very picky about A/V quality, and I see no difference when I send, say, native 720p or fixed 1080i to my 50" SXRD. I don't even see a difference between sending native 480i vs. letting the HR20 up-res to 1080i. So I always leave it on 1080i fixed and it looks great and I don't have to deal with the HR20 toggling through it's different output resolutions trying to find that native res. Just my opinion/experience



hasan said:


> That is my experience as well, and it eliminates yet another set of conditions that may cause problems.


Yes same here 1080i works the best.


----------



## islesfan44

forum junkie said:


> The cause of this may be the TV. I have the opposite with my Sony TV. Mine is an older set and so I use component but must power up the signal first or I get no picture on my tv. This was also true of the HR-250 I used for the last 3 years. Powering up the Sony first always produced an blank screen.


Sorry to post a potentially stupid question, but I am using an HDMI to DVI cable on my TV (so the sound is carried seperately), but I have none of these problems. Turn on the HR20, then the TV, turn on the TV first, whatever, it all works.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

avatar230 said:


> The automatic fast-forward compensation is protected by a TiVo-owned patent. The only way we'll ever see that on the HR20 is if D* ponies up and pays to license the feature from TiVo. As it's currently #4 on the unofficial HR20 Wishlist Survey I think it's safe to say this is one feature that a lot of users -- myself included -- wish D* would eat the cost on and make available to all its customers who have "grown up" on DirecTiVos.


That would only be an option if TiVo, Inc. is *willing* to license that technology individually.


----------



## jbstix

Deevan said:


> LOST Issue - WFTV - 9 - Orlando
> 
> I got the patch by doing the reboot + 02468 combination.
> 
> I am also experiencing this, however it seems to be on MP4 playback only, not live broadcasts. It seems to be only from this station and WOFL FOX - 35. (Both are in Orlando.) WFTV is FAR worse. Their HD newscast is just as bad as high movement/more demanding decode content like LOST.


Is EB available on the East coast yet??? Just wondering if I should attempt a force download, or not waste my time...

thanks


----------



## litzdog911

jbstix said:


> Is EB available on the East coast yet??? Just wondering if I should attempt a force download, or not waste my time...
> 
> thanks


No. Not yet.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jbstix said:


> Is EB available on the East coast yet??? Just wondering if I should attempt a force download, or not waste my time...
> 
> thanks


Don't waste your time. It is only available in the Pacific Time Zone.
Your HR20 will automatically download when the update is available.

Once authorized, it will try to download once an hour.


----------



## jbstix

Earl Bonovich said:


> Don't waste your time. It is only available in the Pacific Time Zone.
> Your HR20 will automatically download when the update is available.
> 
> Once authorized, it will try to download once an hour.


So Deevan is mistaken then??? I just PMed him and he says he has EB...
EB and E3 do look similar  
My only guess is he reDownloaded E3? 
He says he has EB though??? 
Weird
Deevan can you confirm please?


----------



## avatar230

Earl Bonovich said:


> That would only be an option if TiVo, Inc. is *willing* to license that technology individually.


Well, one can hope that D* might at least make an offer that would make it worth TiVo's while, especially since TiVo has essentially locked themselves out of the satellite TV market... As it stands, the only way for TiVo to re-gain folks such as myself as a customer would be to convince me to switch to back to cable and pay for a Series 3. It's unfortunate that a company that's repositioning itself as a speciality DVR manufacturer for more discerning consumers is really only making its services available to cable subscribers, who -- in my experience -- aren't so discerning at all.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jbstix said:


> So Deevan is mistaken then??? I just PMed him and he says he has EB...
> EB and E3 do look similar
> My only guess is he reDownloaded E3?
> He says he has EB though???
> Weird
> Deevan can you confirm please?


There are always exceptions...... As I have it, and I am not in the Pacific either..


----------



## Deevan

jbstix said:


> So Deevan is mistaken then??? I just PMed him and he says he has EB...
> EB and E3 do look similar
> My only guess is he reDownloaded E3?
> He says he has EB though???
> Weird
> Deevan can you confirm please?


It's 0XEB

I will screenshot when I get home. 

But I only have a crappy camera phone, so don't expect it in 1080i,


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Deevan said:


> It's 0XEB
> 
> I will screenshot when I get home.
> 
> But I only have a crappy camera phone, so don't expect it in 1080i,


That is okay... if you say it is 0xEB then it is 0xEB
As of right now, you are more of the exception then the rule when it comes to the pattern of the rollout

(aka.. don't count on getting 0xEB by forcing a download if you are outside the Pacific TimeZone)


----------



## jbstix

Deevan said:


> It's 0XEB
> 
> I will screenshot when I get home.
> 
> But I only have a crappy camera phone, so don't expect it in 1080i,


Thanks Deevan for the update. Don't worry I believe you 
Just wanted to make sure


----------



## Peapod

Earl Bonovich said:


> But even with TiVo's auto compensation, you kinda had to "learn" when to hit, just right to get it work "just right".


The difference that I see is that on a TiVo I can pretty easily hit play when I see the first frame of the show even at triple speed and for sure get somewhere into the commercials. The art was learning just how long into the program was the sweet spot to get right to the program restart.

With the HR20 when I am in triple speed on either MPEG2 or MPEG 4 shows any attempt I seem to make to hit the jump back button as soon as I see any frame of the show still requires between 5 and 8 additional back button presses to get to program restart. I am able to jump back far enough using 30 second slip, but I find that to be a much slower way of getting through program breaks.

I have had some success recently with hitting the back button when I think the commercials are about to end. That often gets me just the last 2-3 seconds of commercial break before the program comes back on. However, often I end up hitting back in the middle of the commercial break, and just seeing more commercials.

I definitely spend much more time and effort managing my way through the recording with the HR20. Am I the only one?


----------



## larcar

I live in Ohio so I have not received the latest update yet, so I know that is not the reason. My box has been fine for the last 4 weeks (except for caller id) but when I turned it on today to a mpeg4 local, after about 3 minutes the picture froze. I tried other locals and all I get is a black screen. I tuned in mpeg2 channels and they all show fine. Back to locals and all I get is a black screen on every channel. I have never had to do a red button reset, only what updates do on their own. I will not do one today but I will wait for the latest update and then see what happens.


----------



## mtnagel

Earl Bonovich said:


> The feature you are referring to, is Auto Compensation.
> And is patented by TiVo. Hence why it is not in the HR20 (or the R15, or other DVRs)


Correction. It is on the Time Warner DVR's (according to a co-worker). Somehow they either get around the patent or they don't care.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

mtnagel said:


> Correction. It is on the Time Warner DVR's (according to a co-worker). Somehow they either get around the patent or they don't care.


Probably more the later (they don't care)... or their lawyers tell them it wouldn't stand up in court.... regardless... we can have this discussion in another thread, as it is not related to the release.


----------



## avatar230

Peapod said:


> The difference that I see is that on a TiVo I can pretty easily hit play when I see the first frame of the show even at triple speed and for sure get somewhere into the commercials. The art was learning just how long into the program was the sweet spot to get right to the program restart.
> 
> With the HR20 when I am in triple speed on either MPEG2 or MPEG 4 shows any attempt I seem to make to hit the jump back button as soon as I see any frame of the show still requires between 5 and 8 additional back button presses to get to program restart. I am able to jump back far enough using 30 second slip, but I find that to be a much slower way of getting through program breaks.
> 
> I have had some success recently with hitting the back button when I think the commercials are about to end. That often gets me just the last 2-3 seconds of commercial break before the program comes back on. However, often I end up hitting back in the middle of the commercial break, and just seeing more commercials.
> 
> I definitely spend much more time and effort managing my way through the recording with the HR20. Am I the only one?


I actually feel the exact same way and have tried all the same things as you. I agree re: 30-second slip being too slow and having to hit the back button way too many times when I see programs starting. I've also tried guessing when commercials will end (if I see a network promo or local news bumper, for instance).

Even disregarding the auto-compensation aspect of the problem, having to hit the back button sometimes as many as ten times when returning from a program break is a clumsy way to go about it. If the patent/licensing issue can't be resolved, so be it, but I think it's clear we need smoother and more fluid fast-forward and skip-back functions, as this gets to the heart of what a DVR is meant to do.

Presuming the patent can not or will not be purchased from TiVo, shouldn't the ideal solution be that for an average user, pressing "skip back" just once the instant they see program material would cue to the appropriate place? As it stands, there's too much variation in where the "skip back" lands and the amount of lag time the unit takes before it's able to start playing the recording again.


----------



## Rambler

upnorth said:


> Originally Posted by eengert
> 
> Side note: Personally, I don't see much value in native res. I'm very picky about A/V quality, and I see no difference when I send, say, native 720p or fixed 1080i to my 50" SXRD. I don't even see a difference between sending native 480i vs. letting the HR20 up-res to 1080i. So I always leave it on 1080i fixed and it looks great and I don't have to deal with the HR20 toggling through it's different output resolutions trying to find that native res. Just my opinion/experience


Thanks for the tip!  I'll have to try this out when I get home tonight and see how it looks.


----------



## Deevan

mtnagel said:


> Correction. It is on the Time Warner DVR's (according to a co-worker). Somehow they either get around the patent or they don't care.


It does function great on the SA 8300HD. (Too bad everything else doesn't.) However once I see a frame of the show I jsut hit the skip back button 2 or 3 times and it works like a charm.


----------



## shendley

I don't think this is the problem with the 30 second slip. I think I have occasionally seen the problem (screen going blank while it cycles through resolutions) when using it just to get through a bit of a show I've recorded (when I'm unsure where I fell asleep on a show from the night before I'll fast forward till I think I'm close and then 30 slip until I definitely see something I don't remember).

Also, whenver I've watched HD broadcasts live (and so couldn't skip the commercials) I've never seen the machine change resolution for any commercial, even those that were clearly not of HD quality (and so come with the side bars).



Earl Bonovich said:


> Sorry the resolution on my monitor was changing while I was reading it...
> 
> Seriously though, it does make sense...


----------



## Howie

Peapod said:


> I definitely spend much more time and effort managing my way through the recording with the HR20. Am I the only one?


You are not alone. But the EB release seems to act a little better. FF is not quite so herky jerky and I found that I didn't have to hit jump back as many times, even with mpeg4 material. Jump back seems like it's more consistantly closer to the 6 seconds each time you hit it than it was before EB.


----------



## avatar230

Howie said:


> You are not alone. But the EB release seems to act a little better. FF is not quite so herky jerky and I found that I didn't have to hit jump back as many times, even with mpeg4 material. Jump back seems like it's more consistantly closer to the 6 seconds each time you hit it than it was before EB.


Has this been your experience on material recorded before AND after the 0xEB release?

I ask because thanks to EB freezing my HR20 for the entire day yesterday, I've yet to have a chance to play with FF on newly recorded shows, but playing back some MPEG-4 stuff last night that was recorded Monday, FF still looked clunky and I was still hitting skip-back around 8 or 9 times coming back from commercial. I'm hoping the unit is behaving whilst home alone today and I can try out some trick play functions on material actually recorded _using_ 0xEB.


----------



## Howie

avatar230 said:


> Has this been your experience on material recorded before AND after the 0xEB release?


I only had last night to play with it, and I believe that I watched recordings from both before and after the update. I might be FOS, but it sure seemed smoother to me.


----------



## ChromaTick

Peapod said:


> The difference that I see is that on a TiVo I can pretty easily hit play when I see the first frame of the show even at triple speed and for sure get somewhere into the commercials. The art was learning just how long into the program was the sweet spot to get right to the program restart.
> 
> With the HR20 when I am in triple speed on either MPEG2 or MPEG 4 shows any attempt I seem to make to hit the jump back button as soon as I see any frame of the show still requires between 5 and 8 additional back button presses to get to program restart. I am able to jump back far enough using 30 second slip, but I find that to be a much slower way of getting through program breaks.
> 
> I have had some success recently with hitting the back button when I think the commercials are about to end. That often gets me just the last 2-3 seconds of commercial break before the program comes back on. However, often I end up hitting back in the middle of the commercial break, and just seeing more commercials.
> 
> I definitely spend much more time and effort managing my way through the recording with the HR20. Am I the only one?


You definintely aren't the only one. This is the only feature that I hate on the new box. If D*TV can fix FF/Jump Back all will be right in my world. 

The other thing I don't like is that even if you do manage to hit Jump Back or Play right at the spot you want, the video will play for about 1-2 seconds before the audio kicks in, which then causes you to have to hit jump back again.


----------



## btmccain

I still have not received the update. Should I be concerned?


----------



## hasan

No...we don't have it in the midwest yet either...it could be late in the weekend before it hits the east coast/south east.


----------



## gonzlobo

Ok, I'll ask: How does one know if a show is recorded in MPEG2 or 4?


----------



## FilmMixer

I have been quietly living with the quirks and performance bugs over the last couple of months.. but today I've had it... And not to mention, almost all of my HD MPEG4 feeds, live or recorded, still have 2-5 second drops outs in picture and sound 

New problem.. I have a serier link that records an MPEG4 feed.. 2 episodes daily, 3 and 3:30.

When I go to look at it today, it says there are 3 new episodes (in this case the only 3 since I had watched all the old ones...)

Show 1 starts at 3:00pm
Show 2 starts at 3:30pm
Show 3 starts at 3:37pm

Out of curiosity, I play show 2... get the timer bar at the bottom, but the video is a still frame from the live feed on KNBC.. go to fast forward.. no video (still frame) and the time jumps forward very quickly... I get the "Would you like to erase?" So I do..

Go to watch Show 3. .the starting at 3:37 one... plays fine... erasse after watching... indeed show is only 23 minutes long, missing the first 7 mins. As a side note, I noticed that this short episode didn't have a 15 minute tick marker on it.

Go to watch Show 1... No video/still frame... 30 minute timer bar on bottom... go to FF X3.. show jumps forward 3-5 minutes at a time.. I can also hear the drive chattering the whole time.. reach end.. "would you like to erase?"

I have to say I am very disappointed. How much of a tolerance factor does Directv expect us to have.. It's a DVR, not a DVEraser... It's basic functionality is fatally flawed... Still.. after how many (5?) software updates? There are no more excuses.. One more software release I will wait for.. if they can't get proper recording down by then, it's all going back and D* can deal with it (and me )

And I can only imagne what the not so electronics savvy public thinks about this thing.. 

For all of the D* haters out there... they are working very hard to prove you right...


----------



## rsonnens

gonzlobo said:


> Ok, I'll ask: How does one know if a show is recorded in MPEG2 or 4?


Locals are only MPEG4. Most other HD channels are MPEG2 and I am not sure about showtimeHD and HBOHD since I get each on two different channels.


----------



## Tom Robertson

gonzlobo said:


> Ok, I'll ask: How does one know if a show is recorded in MPEG2 or 4?


I'm soooooo tempted....Ok, I'll say what we're all thinking anyway: If it was recorded HD, then it had to be MPEG2 recorded on an HR10-250.... :lol:

Sorry, I just couldn't pass it up...

At this point, the only channels sent via MPEG4 are your local HD channels via sat.

Cheers,
Fred, Tom's mischievous twin


----------



## Earl Bonovich

FilmMixer said:


> I have been quietly living with the quirks and performance bugs over the last couple of months.. but today I've had it... And not to mention, almost all of my HD MPEG4 feeds, live or recorded, still have 2-5 second drops outs in picture and sound
> 
> New problem.. I have a serier link that records an MPEG4 feed.. 2 episodes daily, 3 and 3:30.
> 
> When I go to look at it today, it says there are 3 new episodes (in this case the only 3 since I had watched all the old ones...)
> 
> Show 1 starts at 3:00pm
> Show 2 starts at 3:30pm
> Show 3 starts at 3:37pm
> 
> Out of curiosity, I play show 2... get the timer bar at the bottom, but the video is a still frame from the live feed on KNBC.. go to fast forward.. no video (still frame) and the time jumps forward very quickly... I get the "Would you like to erase?" So I do..
> 
> Go to watch Show 3. .the starting at 3:37 one... plays fine... erasse after watching... indeed show is only 23 minutes long, missing the first 7 mins. As a side note, I noticed that this short episode didn't have a 15 minute tick marker on it.
> 
> Go to watch Show 1... No video/still frame... 30 minute timer bar on bottom... go to FF X3.. show jumps forward 3-5 minutes at a time.. I can also hear the drive chattering the whole time.. reach end.. "would you like to erase?"
> 
> I have to say I am very disappointed. How much of a tolerance factor does Directv expect us to have.. It's a DVR, not a DVEraser... It's basic functionality is fatally flawed... Still.. after how many (5?) software updates? There are no more excuses.. One more software release I will wait for.. if they can't get proper recording down by then, it's all going back and D* can deal with it (and me )
> 
> And I can only imagne what the not so electronics savvy public thinks about this thing..
> 
> For all of the D* haters out there... they are working very hard to prove you right...


3PM Pacific Time?
If so... that corrolates to the same time we had the national MPEG-4 outage, that lasted for about an hour (little bit before 5pm CST, and was corrected aroudn 5:40pm)


----------



## Doug Brott

FilmMixer said:


> New problem.. I have a serier link that records an MPEG4 feed.. 2 episodes daily, 3 and 3:30.
> 
> When I go to look at it today, it says there are 3 new episodes (in this case the only 3 since I had watched all the old ones...)
> 
> Show 1 starts at 3:00pm
> Show 2 starts at 3:30pm
> Show 3 starts at 3:37pm
> 
> Out of curiosity, I play show 2... get the timer bar at the bottom, but the video is a still frame from the live feed on KNBC.. go to fast forward.. no video (still frame) and the time jumps forward very quickly... I get the "Would you like to erase?" So I do..
> 
> Go to watch Show 3. .the starting at 3:37 one... plays fine... erasse after watching... indeed show is only 23 minutes long, missing the first 7 mins. As a side note, I noticed that this short episode didn't have a 15 minute tick marker on it.
> 
> Go to watch Show 1... No video/still frame... 30 minute timer bar on bottom... go to FF X3.. show jumps forward 3-5 minutes at a time.. I can also hear the drive chattering the whole time.. reach end.. "would you like to erase?"


I'm pretty sure that this was when the MPEG4 channels were down today. Check out this thread


----------



## The_Geyser

cookpr said:


> The My VOD guy must have left and took his my VOD patent with him
> 
> How does that crap (My VOD) get final approval?? Glad to see it had a life of 10 weeks.
> 
> Maybe it was D* attempt to have Video on Demand, being they will never be able to offer what cable can in this area...they can go to investor presentations and say, _*"We dont just have Video on Demand at D*, we have MY VOD, a whole new realm of personilization in the area of on demand video, truly personalized content. The consumer has, on demand, the exact programs they intend to watch. Its really groundbreaking technology."*_


I've been to meetings like that!


----------



## mrshermanoaks

I'm still getting 3-5 second audio dropouts, both MPEG 2 and 4, on shows recorded and played back with 0xEB.


----------



## cvreeken

I am on the west coast and received the new software. MyVod is gone and MyPlaylist is in its place. I had 3 partial recordings today - The Daily Show at 5 AM, a second try of The Daily Show at 11AM, and Countdown with Keith Oberman at 5PM. I attempted to start watching Countdown at about 5:45 PM and the yellow record light was on. I went to MyPlalist and Countdown is not present in the list. I go to live TV and press the record button. The record icon appears in the Favorites list (it had not been there before despite the record light being on on the unit itself). I now go to MyPlaylist and Countdown appears. I select it and press play. A black screen appears with no audio. I fast forward and it stays at zero. The unit is not locked up as when I hit escape it goes back to live TV. I stop recording, but don't delete, and Countdown is no longer in MyPlaylist. 

The same scenario happened Monday night (prior to the new software download) with Prison break. None of these shoes are in HD, but usually a partial happens with the local HD broadcasts. It also seems to happen with two shows recording at the same time, but the first two Daily Shows were the only ones to record at that time. Any ideas?


----------



## tstarn

mrshermanoaks said:


> I'm still getting 3-5 second audio dropouts, both MPEG 2 and 4, on shows recorded and played back with 0xEB.


Apart from all the other glitches/issues posted on these threads, this is one that D* has got to fix no matter what. What's the point of trying to watch a show and miss dialogue/picture in annoying snippets. This is the deal breaker for my wife on the HR20, so I use it for sports mainly right now. Even if the thing works, you still have to deal with those HD issues, MPEG2 or MPEG4.


----------



## Pakratt

After to new update my remote control would no longer work. I pressed the red reset button and as it when thru the process of rebooting the background screen was green instead of blue. When the picture finally returned the colors were all off kilter (mostly all purple). I turned my Samsung 4095 off and back on and the correct colors returned and my remote now worked. All of my previous reboots never created the color problem..just wondering what that was all about.
I am still getting static, cutoff of sound for about 7 seconds on local channels. I use an HDMI connection.


----------



## avatar230

Pakratt said:


> After to new update my remote control would no longer work. I pressed the red reset button and as it when thru the process of rebooting the background screen was green instead of blue. When the picture finally returned the colors were all off kilter (mostly all purple). I turned my Samsung 4095 off and back on and the correct colors returned and my remote now worked. All of my previous reboots never created the color problem..just wondering what that was all about.
> I am still getting static, cutoff of sound for about 7 seconds on local channels. I use an HDMI connection.


Minus the color problem, this is basically what happened after I updated. Problem being, this bug has already re-occurred once. I'll be interested to hear if you experience smooth-sailing now or if the "remote not working" (which I think is the unit having frozen as mine was not recording programs in the To Do List either) returns.


----------



## Pakratt

avatar230 said:


> Minus the color problem, this is basically what happened after I updated. Problem being, this bug has already re-occurred once. I'll be interested to hear if you experience smooth-sailing now or if the "remote not working" (which I think is the unit having frozen as mine was not recording programs in the To Do List either) returns.


My remote has frozen before but another poster said to try waiting for a few minutes and try again and it did start to work. Not last night though. I had to reboot. Haven't tried recording yet since the update. I will tonite. I was really hoping the update would fix the sound dropout but obviously it did not. It does it on both live and recorded. Sometimes along with the sound dropout, the screen turns blue too.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

mrshermanoaks said:


> I'm still getting 3-5 second audio dropouts, both MPEG 2 and 4, on shows recorded and played back with 0xEB.


How is your audio connected? HDMI to the TV? or Optical to an amp?


----------



## Radio Enginerd

shendley said:


> Just thought I'd chime in to say that I've had the problem with the 30 second slip described above as well all along with this machine (I don't have the latest update yet). It appears to only be associated with HD recordings (either MPEG 2 or 4). The machine just appears to lose a lock on the resolution. I also keep my native turned on because I notice a difference between SD broadcasts going out in 1080 vs. 480 (i or p). In 1080 there are always slight but noticable distortions at the top of the screen. By the way, I have a Panasonic 42 inch enhanced def set and realize it may be more my tv than anything happening with the HR 20. But, given what I've got, that's why I like native on. I hope they fix this problem. It's not what I'd call major as it doesn't happen even most of the time. But it is annoying.


Ahhhh yes, over and under scan. Most wide screen TV's have an over scan adjustment (also called a picture position adjustment). You can probably adjust the position of the image and alleviate that. Just a thought, hope that helps&#8230;


----------



## mrshermanoaks

Earl Bonovich said:


> How is your audio connected? HDMI to the TV? or Optical to an amp?


HDMI to TV


----------



## Cyrus

jbstix said:


> So Deevan is mistaken then??? I just PMed him and he says he has EB...
> EB and E3 do look similar


For this particular release there is no need to check the version#. If they see "MY Playlist" instead of "My VOD" then it's EB, not E3


----------



## PoitNarf

Cyrus said:


> For this particular release there is no need to check the version#. If they see "MY Playlist" instead of "My VOD" then it's EB, not E3


Good point.


----------



## jbstix

Cyrus said:


> For this particular release there is no need to check the version#. If they see "MY Playlist" instead of "My VOD" then it's EB, not E3


Already confirmed that he has it...



Deevan said:


> It's 0XEB
> 
> I will screenshot when I get home.
> 
> But I only have a crappy camera phone, so don't expect it in 1080i,


----------



## Twosted

I have 0xEB. I had two missed recordings tonight. This is what I have noticed. My box has had very few problems. I lost 2 recordings last Thursday and 2 this Thursday. Both times I was not in front of the TV. What happened is that I was tuned to a different channel (one that I wasn't scheduled to record). I had 2 other channels set to record at 8:00pm. The message gets displayed that the channel needs to be changed. Since I am not in front of the TV I don't select anything. When it is time the channel automatically changes (as it should). One of the channels records fine. The other gets screwed up. Every time the bad recording is on the channel that the box tunes to live. One time I came back inside and just had a grey screen but the other tuner was recording just fine. I think this has to be the reason why I have had few problems while others have had many. I am usually always watching the TV when it records. The few times I haven't I get missed recordings.


----------



## Gbsnplr

My first post but I have been reading this thread for some time now. I have had my HR20 for about 6 weeks now. I get at least 2 times a week the unit lock up after I delete a program. There has been no difference with any of the updates. Also it seems mostly NBC I get 2 to up to 10 second disruptions in picture and sound. Screen goes green or becomes pixelated.

Is there anything I can do to fix these issues? I live in Southern Cal and I am hooked up with HDMI to my Mits DLP with optical connection to my receiver.


----------



## Twosted

Gbsnplr said:


> Is there anything I can do to fix these issues? I live in Southern Cal and I am hooked up with HDMI to my Mits DLP with optical connection to my receiver.


Try switching to component. That has helped some people.


----------



## jaywdetroit

Earl Bonovich said:


> 3PM Pacific Time?
> If so... that corrolates to the same time we had the national MPEG-4 outage, that lasted for about an hour (little bit before 5pm CST, and was corrected aroudn 5:40pm)


For the record I've had this same thing happen to me days ago. I regret I cannot remember the show or channel at 3 am (I'm up with my sleepless kid). But after the show recorded it was listed 4 times. 3 times in the same time slot, then once again like 20 minutes into the show. I'll try and remember what the show was tomorrow morning.

Okay here it is:
On Saturday, 11/4, my machine was caching Channel 79 when i turned on my television. It was about 5 minutes into "Mind Meld: Secrets..." I requested that it record the show. I know I was trying to watch the show on a time shift at some point, and that I had been pausing it frequently to do things around the house. When it was done recording I ended up with 4 recordings. (3 of which still show on my machine, which I was sure I deleted. -Will try again in a second.) 3 of the recordings list the show as starting at 3:20. The 4th which is no longer there showed the normal show, starting at 3. It is possible I hit the record button while it was already recording. I remember having some kind of issue with it, but I just can't remember what at this point.

I just went to check one of the recordings. It was 10 minutes long and when I tried to play it, my screen went black and my machine locked up.

Just to add to my frustrations as a side note. I tried to watch the office last night and it was impossible to watch it on a time shift, OR off the recording. It simply would not play. So I deleted it. It was an MPEG4 recording. My frustration is building, and I am now starting to wonder about the Series 3 Tivo.


----------



## TheNukeMan

Earl Bonovich said:


> 3PM Pacific Time?
> If so... that corrolates to the same time we had the national MPEG-4 outage, that lasted for about an hour (little bit before 5pm CST, and was corrected aroudn 5:40pm)


I have to agree, my toleration level with D* is getting short. I have several DVRs in my house from my first oneI every purchased, a Sony SAT-W60 that I still use for my Ultimate TV. I use this box daily in my office and I only wish the HR20 could do what it does. I think in the 4-5 years I've had it it's locked up 3-4 times. Total. It's fast and accurate. When I first bought it it WORKED. I wasn't used as a G-Pig like I (we) are being used now. Can you believe I'm doing all this so I can have locak HD channels. I am about fed up with the 160 dollar a month D* bills to have such poor products and service. Anyway, now that that's off my chest. Allow me to comment on this new EB software upload that apperently happened yesterday. I got home tonight after work and thought to sit down and watch HD. The HR20 was locked. Hung, non-operational. I finally hit the reset button. The unit restarted, botted, and hung as soon as it got to the picture after the 10minutes of booting. I pulled the power this time and it came up. I have a feeling it will be hung again in the morning.

This is not my first bad experience with this box. I have a Vizio 50inch Plasma that when connnected via the HDMI it lock the HR20 everytime.

I work for a large computer Storage company as the Sr. Manager of System Test. I can tell you, we wouldn't have shipped this product in this state. Yes, you can have bugs, but seems the testers we sleeping on this one.

D* , please fix the HR20, or hire us as your testers.

NukeMan


----------



## hfhlt004

Earl Bonovich said:


> How is your audio connected? HDMI to the TV? or Optical to an amp?


I've been using HDMI since my installation. I tried Component and did not see any difference. I have the optical audio out going to my amplifier for the speakers. I am set to dolby. I seem to get many of the same glitches that everyone else has, but getting used to the HR20. I do have the new version and have noticed no changes except VOD, but have not watched programs recorded since the new version.

(A strange thing happened which I reported elsewhere. Suddenly a week ago, my remote stopped controlling the HR20. I used a different remote--same thing. Nothing CS and I could do to correct this. So they sent me another HR20 which I have not unpacked yet. Playing around, I notice that eveything works normally when I set the remote on AV1, but not DVR. I do show it set to IR, and have tried everything. Tomorrow I'll try the new box.)

Another comment. Perhaps my memory is at fault, but I can't remember missing any shows that I have programmed. I have a lot of series recordings, but I don't get around to watching shows until a few days after I record them.


----------



## EMoMoney

kevincmccallum said:


> It appears the correction to the free hard-drive space logic was an *incredibly* significant change!! My available percentage changed from 39% down to 8% overnight with no new programs recorded! That's one-third of what I thought was my entire capacity suddenly gone in a blink!
> 
> So not to point out the obvious or anything...........but isn't it entirely likely that this fix to the free space logic is also what was really causing a large number of the random 'Deletes' too?!? I mean if this newly corrected number is really a more accurate reflection of the physical capacity of the internal drive, then it seems probable that many people (including myself) were having recorded programs deleted simply because they ran out of actual available space (because the "percentage available" number was previously telling people they had more space left when they really didn't!).
> 
> So prior to 0xEB, was the HR20 deleting programs when free space got down to what was being "reported" at the time as say maybe 15% or so available, but in reality was actually more like only 1% or 2% left.....?!?
> 
> =Kevin.


Not im my case. I don't save anything long term. My wife and I record our shows and watch them within a few days. I've only had 1 thing in My VOD and have had recordings deleted.


----------



## Milominderbinder2

It would appear that you Left Coasters are the only ones with software version
0xEarlB. You and the two in Tinley Park, IL!

So would you tell us a little more of what you are finding?

You have reported four improvements:
+ Better stabillity (for some)
+ The hard drive usage indicator shows more accurately what space is remaining.
+ 'Searching for satellite' message is gone during playback.
+ The eSATA thread is testing that improvement

But you noted one huge change that is not documented in the Release Notes:

*MyVOD is now My Playlist*
There are 15 places in the current manual posted on their website that still say MyVOD. Thousands of printed manuals in the supply chain will tell users MyVOD instead of My Playlist. Creating 15 errors in the manual is a big deal. Having to change countless entries in the scripts and literature is a big deal.

Have you seen any differences in Manual Recording Scheduling and reliability?

Have you found any other changes that were not listed?

Signed: Your inquisitive pals in the heartland.


----------



## tstarn

Earl Bonovich said:


> How is your audio connected? HDMI to the TV? or Optical to an amp?


I get them both with R&W RCA cables hooked directly from the HR20 to the set, and with DD 5.1 to my receiver via Toslink. And I got the sound dropouts with HDMI (when I used that for both video and sound directly into the TV). So sound connectivity seems irrelevant.


----------



## Ed Campbell

Twosted said:


> I have 0xEB. I had two missed recordings tonight. This is what I have noticed. My box has had very few problems. I lost 2 recordings last Thursday and 2 this Thursday. Both times I was not in front of the TV. What happened is that I was tuned to a different channel (one that I wasn't scheduled to record). I had 2 other channels set to record at 8:00pm. The message gets displayed that the channel needs to be changed. Since I am not in front of the TV I don't select anything. When it is time the channel automatically changes (as it should). One of the channels records fine. The other gets screwed up. Every time the bad recording is on the channel that the box tunes to live. One time I came back inside and just had a grey screen but the other tuner was recording just fine. I think this has to be the reason why I have had few problems while others have had many. I am usually always watching the TV when it records. The few times I haven't I get missed recordings.


Exactly my experience with the only bugs I've bumped into since the previous update. Hopefully, we'll be sorted out before Saturday morning. I have about 6 [proper] football matches scheduled to record on Fox Soccer Channel and Setanta Sports, Saturday morning -- some of which will happen whilst we're grocery shopping in town.

It would be just my luck to have a match my honey prefers to watch -- be the one that gets nuttin'.
--------
Happened exactly as listed above, exactly as predicted. There would have been an overlap between 2 matches since 1 got a late start and the telecaster in the UK/rebroadcaster in the US both extended the match time > which overlapped the following time frame which already had 2 events scheduled.

I wasn't home when it happened; so, I don't know if the critter asked for a choice from me or not. What I found was MyVOD telling me there were 2 matches being recorded; but, the 2 following onto the extended match was BSOD and intractable -- 40 minutes into the match even though the overlap had to have been about 15 minutes.

"Stopped and deleted" the non-recording recording. Started a fresh recording 40 minutes in > went and watched the other match from the beginning before I went back to skim the other partial.

There's some missing logic in the software, D*.


----------



## BubblePuppy

Ok, now I'm confused. Is the latest update OxE3 or OxEB? My HR20 shows OxE3 with no scheduled updates.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

0xEB is the latest release... but right now, it has only been rolled out to the Pacific Time Zone.

In Florida, the current version is 0xE3

You will "rarely" see something in the scheduled updates.
The only time I have seen it populated (between the R15 and HR20's), is when I say YES to the Update Requested Dialog (it scheduled it to be downloaded in the next 10 minutes)


----------



## BubblePuppy

Earl Bonovich said:


> 0xEB is the latest release... but right now, it has only been rolled out to the Pacific Time Zone.
> 
> In Florida, the current version is 0xE3
> 
> You will "rarely" see something in the scheduled updates.
> The only time I have seen it populated (between the R15 and HR20's), is when I say YES to the Update Requested Dialog (it scheduled it to be downloaded in the next 10 minutes)


Gotcha...thanks.


----------



## avatar230

I woke up this morning to find my HR20 totally unresponsive to any remote control commands though still through-putting video and audio. The orange light was on and the video was parked on Discovery HD. The only way to recover was to do a red-button reset.

*This is the third time in as many days I have experienced this type of lockup since the 0xEB release.* 0xEB downloaded to my machine Wednesday morning at 2:45am. When I woke up Wednesday morning at 6:30am, the machine was in the above state. When I came home from work Wednesday evening, the machine had returned to this state for a second time. It worked through the day on Thursday, and was working when I went to bed at 11:30 last night. As of 6:30 this morning, the third lockup had occurred.

Prior to this release, I had been a rather fortunate HR20 owner -- handful of missed recordings, a couple of black-screen-of-death moments -- but I was attempting very hard to be patient and wait things out. *With this latest software release, my machine has become more unstable than any other time I've owned it (since early October).* Because of these lockups, I've literally missed close to twenty recordings at this point. I am, in short, furious.

This morning I forced a clean download of 0xEB to see if that might in anyway help, though I think it's a pipe-dream. Are other people out there experiencing this problem? Does anyone (Earl!) have any advice on how to deal with this and/or DirecTV in general?

With my unit literally becoming frozen for hours at a time and missing so many shows, I don't have a DVR anymore -- I have a glorified receiver that can't even be counted on to be operational when I want to, say, change the channel. A switch to Dish or cable is starting to look more and more like an option here.


----------



## Hutchinshouse

rsonnens said:


> When playing with the Dolby Digital settings tonight somehow the settings got reversed and even though it says it is OFF in is outputting DD, and when it is on it is only outputting normal stereo. So it looks like this bug was not fixed.


I too have them very same problem. Why wouldn't this elementary bug be caught internally?:nono2:


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Hutchinshouse said:


> I too have them very same problem. Why wouldn't this elementary bug be caught internally?:nono2:


I don't know why it is appearing like that, as for why it was not caught internally.... It is possible it didn't "happen" internally... as my 0xEB unit doesn't have it inverted, nor has a few others that have reported it.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

avatar230 said:


> I woke up this morning to find my HR20 totally unresponsive to any remote control commands though still through-putting video and audio. The orange light was on and the video was parked on Discovery HD. The only way to recover was to do a red-button reset.
> 
> *This is the third time in as many days I have experienced this type of lockup since the 0xEB release.* 0xEB downloaded to my machine Wednesday morning at 2:45am. When I woke up Wednesday morning at 6:30am, the machine was in the above state. When I came home from work Wednesday evening, the machine had returned to this state for a second time. It worked through the day on Thursday, and was working when I went to bed at 11:30 last night. As of 6:30 this morning, the third lockup had occurred.
> 
> Prior to this release, I had been a rather fortunate HR20 owner -- handful of missed recordings, a couple of black-screen-of-death moments -- but I was attempting very hard to be patient and wait things out. *With this latest software release, my machine has become more unstable than any other time I've owned it (since early October).* Because of these lockups, I've literally missed close to twenty recordings at this point. I am, in short, furious.
> 
> This morning I forced a clean download of 0xEB to see if that might in anyway help, though I think it's a pipe-dream. Are other people out there experiencing this problem? Does anyone (Earl!) have any advice on how to deal with this and/or DirecTV in general?
> 
> With my unit literally becoming frozen for hours at a time and missing so many shows, I don't have a DVR anymore -- I have a glorified receiver that can't even be counted on to be operational when I want to, say, change the channel. A switch to Dish or cable is starting to look more and more like an option here.


I have already forwarded your threads (from your first one), to the guys at DirecTV.... I don't have any answers for you on "why" it is happening. 
"Clean Download" as in 02468 is an option (which you have tried).... but short of that, the only other option is to do the full system reset.


----------



## hasan

My DD5.1 is not inverted...completely normal.

Onkyo Integra 7.1 Amp, Optical connection


----------



## avatar230

Earl Bonovich said:


> I have already forwarded your threads (from your first one), to the guys at DirecTV.... I don't have any answers for you on "why" it is happening.
> "Clean Download" as in 02468 is an option (which you have tried).... but short of that, the only other option is to do the full system reset.


Thanks a million, Earl. You don't know how much it means knowing that at least the D* guys are seeing this. The other thing I've decided to try, as I've not had the unit lockup while using it, is to leave it in standby when I'm away (previously I'd just been leaving it on all the time). I'd prefer not to do the full system reset if at all possible, as I do have several workable recordings I haven't watched, so we'll see if the clean download/standby option gives me any traction.

I'm sure you'll be hearing from me soon. Thanks again!


----------



## gcisko

Earl Bonovich said:


> 0xEB is the latest release... but right now, it has only been rolled out to the Pacific Time Zone.
> 
> In Florida, the current version is 0xE3
> 
> You will "rarely" see something in the scheduled updates.
> The only time I have seen it populated (between the R15 and HR20's), is when I say YES to the Update Requested Dialog (it scheduled it to be downloaded in the next 10 minutes)


Well to be perfectly honest with you, I would prefer to not see that version update at all. I am hoping it will just go to the pacific time zone, until they actually fix it.

Another question I have, is do they test the software at all before it is downloaded? It actually appears not and we are the actual beta testers here.


----------



## Hutchinshouse

hasan said:


> My DD5.1 is not inverted...completely normal.
> 
> Onkyo Integra 7.1 Amp, Optical connection


Mine was not inverted on the last software spin.

Here's the scenario if it helps:

Optically connected to SonyES STR-V333ES
HDMI connected to my Mitsubishi WD-52725

I leave my HR20 turned on 24/7. Prior to the EB upgrade I had Dolby Digital set to "ON". Since the EB upgrade I have yet to power off or reset my HR20.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

gcisko said:


> Another question I have, is do they test the software at all before it is downloaded? It actually appears not and we are the actual beta testers here.


I don't want to drag this thead into a debate about their "testing" methods. But to answer your question, yes... they most certainly do test the software versions.

There have only been 7 public released software versions for this unit. Between 0xE3 and 0xEB there where at least 4 that where given to the larger testing teams (outside the lab), that where denied approval to be released to the general user base.


----------



## shaneman

*NHL Center Ice records!*

This release finally records my NHL Center Ice in the 700s. Joy!


----------



## Baron Ken

Earl Bonovich said:


> 0xEB is the latest release... but right now, it has only been rolled out to the Pacific Time Zone.
> 
> In Florida, the current version is 0xE3
> 
> You will "rarely" see something in the scheduled updates.
> The only time I have seen it populated (between the R15 and HR20's), is when I say YES to the Update Requested Dialog (it scheduled it to be downloaded in the next 10 minutes)


I had my HR20 installed Wed. 11/8 and it updated to 0xe3. Yesterday (Thurs. 11/9) it shows in info version 0xeb (not capital letters like I see everywhere here on the forums). It still shows MyVOD for me, *NOT* MyPlaylist. I restarted the HR20 last night and still no MyPlaylist.

Does this mean it downloaded the new software but hasn't installed it yet (not authorized for Kansas yet I suspect)? Why would it show 0xeb if it didn't have it?

Thanks.


----------



## LameLefty

Regarding the DD "inversion" bug - I did not have it either until I fiddled with settings trying get audio from a recording (MPEG2 HD) from an episode of The X-Files on TNT HD with audio glitches and dropouts. In retrospect, FF and RW confirmed that the audio was dropping out at the same time and returning at the same time - I think the issue was TNT's feed just had NO audio for portions. But in any event, during the silent periods I was fiddling around changing settings on the HR20 trying to get ANY sound. When I finally got sound back on the recording, I had DD set to Off and was getting 5.1 audio again anyway. It's as if changing the audio options on the HR20 doesn't "stick" if there's no audio stream actually playing. And the PCM/DD setting seems to be a mere toggle between two states, not a discrete "PCM or "DD" state, if that makes sense. 

But anyway, now my audio settings are reversed. This is on 0xE3 - don't have the newest software yet.


----------



## HaiChinGow

Earl Bonovich said:


> I don't know why it is appearing like that, as for why it was not caught internally.... It is possible it didn't "happen" internally... as my 0xEB unit doesn't have it inverted, nor has a few others that have reported it.


On my HR20's with 0xEB I can consisently recreate the issue by toggling DD on/off/on. After toggling, the function is reversed.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

HaiChinGow said:


> On my HR20's with 0xEB I can consisently recreate the issue by toggling DD on/off/on. After toggling, the function is reversed.


I have forwarded the issue on..

As a side note: Be sure to look at post #2 of this thread, to keep track of the issues that have been reported.


----------



## btmoore

Old Bug: Partial -- Well our friend the "partial" bug is still alive and well. I had my first missed recording with a partial history yesterday, luckily there was a second showing and the HR20 picked up on the next time around.

New Bug: Resolution Re-syncs in Trick Plays of HD MPEG2 recordings -- The new one has to do with FF, RR and Slip trick plays with MPEG2 HD recordings when using the native mode. During FF or Slip the HR20 will at random times re-sync the resolution, this makes it difficult to impossible to accurately come out of a trick play where you want to be. I would assume turning native off would be a work around, but for my uses I require the native mode so SD scales correctly on my displays.


----------



## Intex

With the new update, I am beginning to have a new problem:
Last nite Greys Anatomy was scheduled to record, and when I checked at 8:30, 1/2 hour before it started, the program listing was highlited with the "to record" marking.
At 11:00 checked, and no recording!!!


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Baron Ken said:


> I had my HR20 installed Wed. 11/8 and it updated to 0xe3. Yesterday (Thurs. 11/9) it shows in info version 0xeb (not capital letters like I see everywhere here on the forums). It still shows MyVOD for me, *NOT* MyPlaylist. I restarted the HR20 last night and still no MyPlaylist.
> 
> Does this mean it downloaded the new software but hasn't installed it yet (not authorized for Kansas yet I suspect)? Why would it show 0xeb if it didn't have it?
> 
> Thanks.


What does it say in your System Information page?
It would be in lower cases....

If it is MyVod... you are most definently not running 0xeb... but the system info flag may have toggled for some reason to say you are on 0xe3

If you do a reboot, and on the first screen hit 02468 it will force download the current software version authorized for your system.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Intex said:


> With the new update, I am beginning to have a new problem:
> Last nite Greys Anatomy was scheduled to record, and when I checked at 8:30, 1/2 hour before it started, the program listing was highlited with the "to record" marking.
> At 11:00 checked, and no recording!!!


Did it say anything in your History on why it didn't record?


----------



## btmoore

Intex said:


> With the new update, I am beginning to have a new problem:
> Last nite Greys Anatomy was scheduled to record, and when I checked at 8:30, 1/2 hour before it started, the program listing was highlited with the "to record" marking.
> At 11:00 checked, and no recording!!!


Check your history for the time of the recording, I bet you will see Partial for that recording.

It lives.


----------



## w6fxj

I have two HR20's both updated to EB. On one I have had a similar problem to that reported by avatar230 for the last two days. When I turn on the receiver with the PWR button on the remote the power light comes on but there is no video or audio output. When I try the remote contral nothing happens and even the front panel buttons do NOT work. After a red button reset things start working again. Both HR20's are programmed with the same recordings. Something happens to the second HR20 that causes the freeze-up when it is turned on the next morning.


----------



## gcisko

Earl Bonovich said:


> I don't want to drag this thead into a debate about their "testing" methods. But to answer your question, yes... they most certainly do test the software versions.
> 
> There have only been 7 public released software versions for this unit. Between 0xE3 and 0xEC there where at least 4 that where given to the larger testing teams (outside the lab), that where denied approval to be released to the general user base.


OK thanks that is somewhat reassuring. And for the record, your efforts here are greatly appreciated. I was furious with D* until I Learned about this site. Now it is obvious what it going on with the unit. Namely software...

I can see with all the TV's and sound systems available that there can be compatibility issues. Does that really play a huge part in getting the trick play stuff to work, partial recordings, deleted recordings , the new DD problem sorted out? I would think alot of this is the basic functionality of the unit.


----------



## jfolliard

OK - mine just updated last night - but as a newbie - what fixes/enhancements is this update suppose to bring us?

Thanks.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

gcisko said:


> I can see with all the TV's and sound systems available that there can be compatibility issues. Does that really play a huge part in getting the trick play stuff to work, partial recordings, deleted recordings , the new DD problem sorted out? I would think alot of this is the basic functionality of the unit.


You are right, the sound system or TV should not play a part in those things... but weird things have happened...

FYI.. in my original post, I said version 0xEC I ment 0xEB


----------



## Earl Bonovich

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=69543

The first post will contain a link to the release notes.


----------



## jfolliard

Earl Bonovich said:


> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=69543
> 
> The first post will contain a link to the release notes.


Thanks Earl for the quick reply!

Jack


----------



## tiger2005

Earl Bonovich said:


> FYI.. in my original post, I said version 0xEC I ment 0xEB


Do you know something and you aren't letting us in on it???

:eek2::eek2:


----------



## avatar230

w6fxj said:


> I have two HR20's both updated to EB. On one I have had a similar problem to that reported by avatar230 for the last two days. When I turn on the receiver with the PWR button on the remote the power light comes on but there is no video or audio output. When I try the remote contral nothing happens and even the front panel buttons do NOT work. After a red button reset things start working again. Both HR20's are programmed with the same recordings. Something happens to the second HR20 that causes the freeze-up when it is turned on the next morning.


Just this morning I decided to try putting my HR20 in standby when not in use to see if that would alleviate the problem. If you're correct and you and I are experiencing the same bug, obviously it won't. It's troubling that with two supposedly identical units with identical To Do Lists, you're only experiencing the problem on one of them. Is there that much hardware variation box to box that performance within one software version should vary so widely? How else to explain it?

Anyhow, I'll let you know if my box locks up in the way you're describing above. We shouldn't have to wait more than 24 hours.


----------



## Malibu13

tiger2005 said:


> Do you know something and you aren't letting us in on it???
> 
> :eek2::eek2:


Yeah  ..................................

That he can create a typo, just as anyone. :lol:


----------



## btmoore

avatar230 said:


> software version should vary so widely? How else to explain it?


There are lots of ways to explain it in software, in my gut I don't they they handle error conditions properly or even check status conditions. Based on some of the strange inconsistent behaviors observed, I think that the developers make a lot of assumptions about the success of their state data updates and function calls. The DD off to be on bug is a great example of this, with out seeing the code, one can hypothesize that they are toggling a state while not checking the condition of that state. Lets make the assumption that the same coding style exists throughout the software architecture, I can think of many opportunities when a function may fail due to a time out or other invalid assumption, but if you do not check to make sure you were successful and just assume success from a coding perspective, there is a good chance that you can see inconsistencies in 2 identical systems because of other variables in the subsystems.


----------



## jfolliard

Howie said:


> I noticed a 12% drive usage drop also, with nothing new recorded.


forgive me as a newbie - but how do I locate the drive usage report on my HR20?

Thanks.


----------



## Malibu13

jfolliard said:


> forgive me as a newbie - but how do I locate the drive usage report on my HR20?
> 
> Thanks.


Select the "List" button on your remote.


----------



## jfolliard

Donnie Byrd said:


> Select the "List" button on your remote.


Thanks - like an idiot I hadn't even noticed that bar before!:lol:


----------



## Slip Jigs

HaiChinGow said:


> On my HR20's with 0xEB I can consisently recreate the issue by toggling DD on/off/on. After toggling, the function is reversed.


So are you starting from On of Off when you do the toggle, and does a repeat re-fix the issue?


----------



## HDNut

I noticed last night, Thursday evening actually, that the local HD channels were missing. A reset from the menu did NOT restore them, but a red-button reset brought the local HD channels back.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

HDNut said:


> I noticed last night, Thursday evening actually, that the local HD channels were missing. A reset from the menu did NOT restore them, but a red-button reset brought the local HD channels back.


There was a nation wide loss of locals last night. So it is your system, never got them back after they came back online.


----------



## btmoore

HaiChinGow said:


> On my HR20's with 0xEB I can consisently recreate the issue by toggling DD on/off/on. After toggling, the function is reversed.


Can you post the steps (script).?

So if I understand correctly you can consistently cause the reversal and put it back to normal? e.g. use script and now DD off is on, then use script again and DD on is on.


----------



## w6fxj

btmoore said:


> There are lots of ways to explain it in software, in my gut I don't they they handle error conditions properly or even check status conditions. Based on some of the strange inconsistent behaviors observed, I think that the developers make a lot of assumptions about the success of their state data updates and function calls. The DD off to be on bug is a great example of this, with out seeing the code, one can hypothesize that they are toggling a state while not checking the condition of that state. Lets make the assumption that the same coding style exists throughout the software architecture, I can think of many opportunities when a function may fail due to a time out or other invalid assumption, but if you do not check to make sure you were successful and just assume success from a coding perspective, there is a good chance that you can see inconsistencies in 2 identical systems because of other variables in the subsystems.


I think you have hit the nail on the head! There are slight diferences in speed of execution in the hardware and the software does NOT do enough to ensure the hardware did what it was asked to do. The software must be able to work with hardware variations from unit to unit. It must never assume that a state exists. Wherever possible the software must check the state before acting on it. There must also be watch-dog timers to get out of endless loops.


----------



## triley51

QUESTION - I believe I read that the internal tuners were disabled on the HR20. Is this still the case? How are all the OTA posts getting their picture, direct to the TV's tuner?


----------



## LameLefty

> There must also be watch-dog timers to get out of endless loops.


Yes you're right! Nonetheless, I have this mental image:

Cue a pair of Agents in dark suits and sunglasses. "Mr. Anderson . . . we've been . . . EXPECTING you." :lol:


----------



## Earl Bonovich

The ability to enable the OTA in the unit is still greyed out.

The OTA posts, are primarily from people with an HR10-250; H20; Built In OTA Tuner, or one of the other HD OTA Receivers.


----------



## Pragmatic Lemur

I don't have the time to scroll through the posts. Has the OTA been enabled yet? Any news on it if it has not?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Pragmatic Lemur said:


> I don't have the time to scroll through the posts. Has the OTA been enabled yet? Any news on it if it has not?


To see what is new in the release (And future releases), check out the release notes. A link will always be included in the first post of the main discussion thread

To answer you question... no. 
I can guarantee that once OTA is enabled you will see a dedicated thread about it in the main forum.


----------



## btmoore

I have just had a second recording under 0xEB missed due to the "Partial" Bug.


----------



## Pragmatic Lemur

Earl Bonovich said:


> To see what is new in the release (And future releases), check out the release notes. A link will always be included in the first post of the main discussion thread
> 
> To answer you question... no.
> I can guarantee that once OTA is enabled you will see a dedicated thread about it in the main forum.


Cool, thanks man. Yeah I checked the release notes and didnt see it, but I didnt know if it might have been part of an earlier one that I missed or what. I really appreciate it Earl. Thanks.


----------



## gcisko

triley51 said:


> QUESTION - I believe I read that the internal tuners were disabled on the HR20. Is this still the case? How are all the OTA posts getting their picture, direct to the TV's tuner?


That is how I do it, when I do it. The HR20 is not even involved.


----------



## Road Rage

Possible stupid question here but I gotta ask.

Are software updates for D* hardware packaged like Windows Service packs? i.e. Service Pack 2 contains everything SP1 had in addition to the new stuff.

or, do you have to have update 1 then update 2 then update 3.....an so on?

I'm holding off on getting an HR20 until user comments get better and I'm wondering if I wait say 2 more months that when I hook one up for the first time will it only have to get the latest update or will I have to endure 2 or 3 "iffy" updates to get up to date.


----------



## Malibu13

Road Rage said:


> Possible stupid question here but I gotta ask.
> 
> Are software updates for D* hardware packaged like Windows Service packs? i.e. Service Pack 2 contains everything SP1 had in addition to the new stuff.
> 
> or, do you have to have update 1 then update 2 then update 3.....an so on?
> 
> I'm holding off on getting an HR20 until user comments get better and I'm wondering if I wait say 2 more months that when I hook one up for the first time will it only have to get the latest update or will I have to endure 2 or 3 "iffy" updates to get up to date.


It will download the most current update.


----------



## Vinny

Road Rage said:


> Possible stupid question here but I gotta ask.
> 
> Are software updates for D* hardware packaged like Windows Service packs? i.e. Service Pack 2 contains everything SP1 had in addition to the new stuff.
> 
> or, do you have to have update 1 then update 2 then update 3.....an so on?
> 
> I'm holding off on getting an HR20 until user comments get better and I'm wondering if I wait say 2 more months that when I hook one up for the first time will it only have to get the latest update or will I have to endure 2 or 3 "iffy" updates to get up to date.


The updates are cumulative.


----------



## Deevan

Road Rage said:


> Possible stupid question here but I gotta ask.
> 
> Are software updates for D* hardware packaged like Windows Service packs? i.e. Service Pack 2 contains everything SP1 had in addition to the new stuff.
> 
> or, do you have to have update 1 then update 2 then update 3.....an so on?
> 
> I'm holding off on getting an HR20 until user comments get better and I'm wondering if I wait say 2 more months that when I hook one up for the first time will it only have to get the latest update or will I have to endure 2 or 3 "iffy" updates to get up to date.


Think "firmware" type update, not like a Windows security patch where you have to get all of them.


----------



## elvisizer

they show up in the history as partials. one was the rebroadcast of Rutgers v Louisville on ESPNHD. can't remember the other right now, sorry.
this is the first missed recording i've had since the update.


----------



## btmoore

elvisizer said:


> they show up in the history as partials. one was the rebroadcast of Rutgers v Louisville on ESPNHD. can't remember the other right now, sorry.
> this is the first missed recording i've had since the update.


Yep that is the partial bug. Until they fix this, the HR20 is not reliable as a DVR. This has been in every version of the software to date. Does anyone know if this exist on the HR15, which I think this units shares code with?

I can't believe that they can't kill this bug.


----------



## btmoore

btmoore said:


> Does anyone know if this exist on the HR15, which I think this units shares code with?
> 
> I can't believe that they can't kill this bug.


I guess I should of just searched the R15 forum.

The answer, yes ... CRAP!

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=68763&highlight=partial

Sounds very similar, except the HR20 deletes the partial recording vs leaving it.

Here is a bunch more, looks like this may be a long term problem.

http://www.dbstalk.com/search.php?searchid=1361058

Wonder if we will ever have a HR20 that can be trusted record what you tell it to.


----------



## Monty23

btmoore said:


> I guess I should of just searched the R15 forum.
> 
> The answer, yes ... CRAP!
> 
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=68763&highlight=partial
> 
> Sounds very similar, except the HR20 deletes the partial recording vs leaving it.
> 
> Here is a bunch more, looks like this may be a long term problem.
> 
> http://www.dbstalk.com/search.php?searchid=1361058
> 
> Wonder if we will ever have a HR20 that can be trusted record what you tell it to.


Unless the partial recording bug and the missed recording bugs are fixed the HR20 is useless as a DVR. All the "features" are fine, BUT, if it can't reliably record AND play back a recording every time (90% is not good enough), it is useless.


----------



## btmoore

Monty23 said:


> Unless the partial recording bug and the missed recording bugs are fixed the HR20 is useless as a DVR. All the "features" are fine, BUT, if it can't reliably record AND play back a recording every time (90% is not good enough), it is useless.


We are in 100% agreement!!!


----------



## TomF

Software version: 0xEB

The last two mornings I've turned on the TV and it looks like the HR20 had been paused. It turned out it hung sometime in the middle of the night during "ABC World News Now" which plays on the local ABC affiliate from 2:40 am to 4:30 am PST. Each time the only way to get out of it is to change the channel. There was no recording scheduled during this time.


----------



## Twosted

I had a Partial recording last night. I had the Tonight Show scheduled to record. Nothing showed up in "My Playlist". My history shows the Tonight Show as a partial record. It also shows "Upcomming: The Tonight Show" for Sat 11/11 at 9:31pm that was cancelled. I never scheduled anything for this date. If I highlight and select it to see the info, it is a whole different show. It is "To Catch A Predator".


----------



## elvisizer

'nother problem to report this afternoon. i set up a manual recording for the NBA season ticket broadcast of the Bucks v Wizards. That's channel 753. When I got home from work, the yellow light was on, and the game was listed in my playlist. tried to play it, and got a black screen. No delete prompt, nothing. Just black. So i figure the recording's hosed- i tell it to stop recording and delete what it tried to record. then, i switch to the guide, and tune to channel 753 to watch the rest of the game live. Instead of the game, I get "whose line is it anyway" on bbc america. um, what? change to 754, and there's the nba. change back to 753, and it's bbc-a. Checked my playlist to see if the other tuner is recording bbc-a, but the other tuner is idle. After switching channels randomly for a few more minutes, 753 magically went back to showing the nba game. hit the record button, waited a few minutes, and was able to start watching the recording from My Playlist. :grin: 
WEIRD!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Hutchinshouse

rsonnens said:


> When playing with the Dolby Digital settings tonight somehow the settings got reversed and even though it says it is OFF in is outputting DD, and when it is on it is only outputting normal stereo. So it looks like this bug was not fixed.


OK, I believe I corrected the problem. I selected dolby digital "on", then restarted the recorder. When the dvr rebooted the dolby digital switch was no longer reversed.


----------



## JLove336

I know you don't want us posting "I got it" posts, but should I have the update already here in Kentucky? Do you think I will be able to force the download? Thanks


----------



## Earl Bonovich

JLove336 said:


> I know you don't want us posting "I got it" posts, but should I have the update already here in Kentucky? Do you think I will be able to force the download? Thanks


No... as of my last communication, the decision hasn't been made to go national with the release yet.


----------



## Tom Robertson

Earl Bonovich said:


> No... as of my last communication, the decision hasn't been made to go national with the release yet.


I talked to a CSR in the tech group today who said that the national rollout was scheduled for Nov. 15. I'm presuming he meant: 1) if the early guinea pigs work well enough, and 2) that it would really be a staggered rollout starting on the 15th.

With these presumptions, I think this is consistent with Earl's information, just puts a planned timeline to the "if it works" caveats that he has warned us about.

And we all know how reliable info from CSRs is... Experience has shown how much more reliable Earl is. (Thank you, kind sir!)

Cheers,
Tom


----------



## kilobravo

As is mentioned frequently, it's nearly impossible for the average guy to keep up with the volume of posts in this thread alone, let alone others. And, while I did a cursory search on the subject, I didn't get hits on the search although I'm sure there are others experiencing the same problem. To wit, from the release notes:

"Upon initial playback, content doesn't play and displays "DELETE" On-Screen Dialog"

Is listed as a "fix" but we're still having that exact problem as of today, 10NOV, and the box does show the 0xE3 update.

Up to this point, my wife and I have not had hardly any of the problems mentioned by others but this single problem makes the box unreliable for its intended purpose. No one wants a smoke detector that only works some of the time, right?

So, anyone else still having this problem and if so, does anyone know if a cold boot deleting everything will fix it? I don't want to take that step if I don't have to but we're already back to the two Tivo boxes for reliability so I will if I know it will fix the problem.

Finally, my personal thanks to you, Earl, for your dedication and generous consumption of your personal time keeping things on an even keel here and for your comms with D*.


----------



## pappys

This is really sad news for the makers of the boxes they are putting out. Not to mention, I feel they have failed on these boxes. D* needs a different manufacturer if they can't put out a good box.

Don't get me wrong, I like this box in whole. But when recordings are missed, partials are deleted, etc, it isn't a DVR any longer. It's kind of hoping the old rabbit ears will be clear enough so we can watch The Honeymooners. Oh wait, that was 50 years ago. :lol:



btmoore said:


> I guess I should of just searched the R15 forum.
> 
> The answer, yes ... CRAP!
> 
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=68763&highlight=partial
> 
> Sounds very similar, except the HR20 deletes the partial recording vs leaving it.
> 
> Here is a bunch more, looks like this may be a long term problem.
> 
> http://www.dbstalk.com/search.php?searchid=1361058
> 
> Wonder if we will ever have a HR20 that can be trusted record what you tell it to.


----------



## Jeremy W

pappys said:


> D* needs a different manufacturer if they can't put out a good box.


Most of the problems with the HR20 are caused by the software, and that falls on DirecTV, not Pace.


----------



## Ed Campbell

kilobravo said:


> "Upon initial playback, content doesn't play and displays "DELETE" On-Screen Dialog"
> 
> Is listed as a "fix" but we're still having that exact problem as of today, 10NOV, and the box does show the 9C update.


OxEB is the update we're still waiting on. OxE3 was the previous -- and OxDC was prior to that.

Do you know how to force an update? Reboot and the instant the 1st screen comes up, punch 02468 into your remote -- and have a beer.


----------



## Richly917

gr8reb8 said:


> Improvements:
> 
> * * 'Searching for satellite' message no longer appears while viewing a recorded program.*
> 
> :allthumbs


I had the searching for sat. while watching a recorded program. And the screen saver kept coming on so that is not fixed yet.


----------



## Jeremy W

Richly917 said:


> I had the searching for sat. while watching a recorded program. And the screen saver kept coming on so that is not fixed yet.


You don't have 0xEB yet.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Richly917 said:


> I had the searching for sat. while watching a recorded program. And the screen saver kept coming on so that is not fixed yet.


Was there any reason why you would have been losing a signal? (Rain Storm or anything like that)

As it is possible that there are TWO problems.... 1 is fixed (a legit Signal Loss message is being blocked during recording), the 2nd is not. A Signal Loss message appearing when there really isn't one...


----------



## kilobravo

Ed Campbell said:


> OxEB is the update we're still waiting on. OxE3 was the previous -- and OxDC was prior to that.
> 
> Do you know how to force an update? Reboot and the instant the 1st screen comes up, punch 02468 into your remote -- and have a beer.


Yep, I misspoke Ed, meant to say it has 0xE3 (and I have since edited the post.) Yes, I know how to do the cold boot and I'm assuming your cold boot suggestion was only because it looked like I still had the original firmware, not that a cold boot on a 0xE3 box would fix the problem I mentioned, correct? TIA...


----------



## rrwantr

Tonight I had the 710 searching for signal msg with the picture and sound on in the background. This happened when switching from a HDNet to Wheel of Fortune in HD. Would switch back to HDnet and the msg would go away but come back when going back to WOF. This is the first time i've had this. Reset it and alls good. Signal was not lost...clear weather etc. This with OxEB


----------



## pavlov

I too got yet another partial with 0xeb. My DVR missed Las Vegas tonight ;( It also partialed The OC (and has every single time it has aired) with the latest software (got the update Weds at 2:44am).

I know that my dvr was on NBC tonight for Las Vegas because it went to it after i finished watching the previously-recorded Lost.

I'd sure like to see this fixed.

fwiw, all these are on mpeg4 locals


edit: I noticed that it partialed BSG again. Not mpeg4 local.. sigh.


----------



## TomF

TomF said:


> Software version: 0xEB
> 
> The last two mornings I've turned on the TV and it looks like the HR20 had been paused. It turned out it hung sometime in the middle of the night during "ABC World News Now" which plays on the local ABC affiliate from 2:40 am to 4:30 am PST. Each time the only way to get out of it is to change the channel. There was no recording scheduled during this time.


Forgot to mention: each time there were six or seven instances of "ABC WNN" in My Playlist. Didn't have time to research it further, so I just deleted them without seeing how long they were, whether they would play, etc. Later later in the day I reset the HR20. I'm curious as to whether it will do this again tomorrow morning or not until next Monday morning.


----------



## litzdog911

Had hoped this problem was fixed in 0xEB, but I guess not ....

After tonight's "Law & Order" and "Numbers" was finished recording, I switched from my HR10-250 HD DVR to the HR20 and found frozen Live video with no audio on my local CBS MPEG4 station. Was able to bring up "My Playlist" and selected yesterday's "CSI" to watch (also recorded from local MPEG4 CBS station). The DVR brought up a black video screen and then hung. The menu was still displayed, but the on screen clock froze and the DVR did not respond to any remote commands. Waited about 5 minutes and pressed Reset button. All is well again and it appears no recordings were lost.

Other than this problem every several days, this DVR has been well-behaved since 0xE3. I guess 0xEB did not fix this particular problem.


----------



## RMSko

litzdog911 said:


> Had hoped this problem was fixed in 0xEB, but I guess not ....
> 
> After tonight's "Law & Order" and "Numbers" was finished recording, I switched from my HR10-250 HD DVR to the HR20 and found frozen Live video with no audio on my local CBS MPEG4 station. Was able to bring up "My Playlist" and selected yesterday's "CSI" to watch (also recorded from local MPEG4 CBS station). The DVR brought up a black video screen and then hung. The menu was still displayed, but the on screen clock froze and the DVR did not respond to any remote commands. Waited about 5 minutes and pressed Reset button. All is well again and it appears no recordings were lost.
> 
> Other than this problem every several days, this DVR has been well-behaved since 0xE3. I guess 0xEB did not fix this particular problem.


I don't have the new software yet, but I had the exact same problem. It was the first time I've had an issue (I've had the unit for a couple of months). However, there was *something I did that seemed to cause the issue *and I'm posting it so D* can take it into account. I was going to watch The Office and I went into my playlist and started the show and all was fine. However, I thought I may have missed a few seconds of the beginning so I hit the replay button to make sure I was at the beginning of the show. Right after I did that, the unit froze. I did a red button reset and everything was fine - until I tried to watch The Office again. As soon as I did that I got a BSD and the unit froze. I did this a couple of more times and the unit worked fine (both live and with the VOD shows) - until I tried to watch The Office. Each time I did that it froze. Obviously The Office became corrupted. I don't know how, but somehow it was related to my hitting the replay button at the beginning of the recorded episode.


----------



## marlen

btmoore said:


> Yep that is the partial bug. Until they fix this, the HR20 is not reliable as a DVR. This has been in every version of the software to date. Does anyone know if this exist on the HR15, which I think this units shares code with?
> 
> I can't believe that they can't kill this bug.


UGH! Lost another Hockey game last night from NHLCI. Sabres/Panthers - recorded only part of the first period. History shows "Deleted", but that could be because I did delete it after watching the partial recording.

I agree that until this get's fixed - "reliability" to function as a DVR is a major question mark (especially for those of us where "time shifting" has become a way of life).

If it wasn't for these forums, I would have returned the equipment, but knowing that progress is being made and being able to keep updated helps.

By the way - does anyone know why my HR20 when executing a search will not recognize more than 1 or two games on NHLCI (760-76--something)? It will locate the games on the regional sports channels, but doesn't seem to assign an NHLCI channel - making it impossible to record more than 2-3 days out. My tivo2 will list the NHLCI channel assignments well in advance.

Marlen
______________________________
HR20 - running HDMI
Optoma HD72 / 106" widescreen
Tivo Series2


----------



## gcisko

marlen said:


> UGH! Lost another Hockey game last night from NHLCI. Sabres/Panthers - recorded only part of the first period. History shows "Deleted", but that could be because I did delete it after watching the partial recording.
> 
> I agree that until this get's fixed - "reliability" to function as a DVR is a major question mark (especially for those of us where "time shifting" has become a way of life).


I am sorry but I do not understand. You just said you deleted the partial recording yourself. So what is it you are expecting to get fixed? The bug happens when the box deletes the recording, not when you do... Did I misread that?


----------



## Janice805

Since the update a few days ago, when I FF a recorded program the screen goes BLACK then finally comes back (while FF'ing) then when I hit PLAY it goes BLACK again. Then I find my FF went too far so I rewind. You guessed it. Goes BLACK (again). This is VERY aggravating and is directly related (I think) to the software update. I'm having other problems also but this is the worst. Don't have time to read 14 pages of this thread (at this moment). Is this a known problem and anyone else experienciing this?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Janice805 said:


> Since the update a few days ago, when I FF a recorded program the screen goes BLACK then finally comes back (while FF'ing) then when I hit PLAY it goes BLACK again. Then I find my FF went too far so I rewind. You guessed it. Goes BLACK (again). This is VERY aggravating and is directly related (I think) to the software update. I'm having other problems also but this is the worst. Don't have time to read 14 pages of this thread (at this moment). Is this a known problem and anyone else experienciing this?


Do you have Native Resolution turned on?
If so, then yes... this has been reported by a few people.
The only work around is to turn off Native resolution and lock the resolution


----------



## Doug Brott

After a few more days of use, I have noticed something with 0xEB that was not happening in 0xE3. I occasionally get screen freezes. This is usually most noticeable when turning the TV on for the first time. Trick play functions do not work (FF, RW, PLAY). The good thing, though is that by changing the channel or starting something from My Playlist makes the problem go away. No Red Button Reset or power-cycling the box. It's like the buffer has simply become broken.

I have NOT narrowed down what the problem is, but I suspect that this has occurred when I pause a Live Recording and forget about it. I have two HR-20s, so very often I will pause the HR-20 that I'm not watching without even realizing it (human error on where the AV switch is positioned). In the past, the program would remain paused forever. I was able to get the buffer to run up over 10 hours one time and I could FF (not RW) or PLAY through the entire 10 hours of content (much greater than the 90-minutes advertised). 

Since my HDD is more full now, and the software may be a little bit better, I have my suspicion that I am again many hours back in the buffer, but now NONE of the trick play buttons are allowed to work. The system should auto-play when it reaches the 90-minute buffer limit so that it is never outside of the expected buffer.


----------



## bonscott87

marlen said:


> UGH! Lost another Hockey game last night from NHLCI. Sabres/Panthers - recorded only part of the first period. History shows "Deleted", but that could be because I did delete it after watching the partial recording.


Being that you're in Texas (if your location is correct) you don't have the new update yet. Thus you're still on the older version which definitely had this problem. If you have gotten the update to EB I apologize.

*To Everyone: Only post problems in this thread if you *actually have the update* to EB.*


----------



## marlen

gcisko said:


> I am sorry but I do not understand. You just said you deleted the partial recording yourself. So what is it you are expecting to get fixed? The bug happens when the box deletes the recording, not when you do... Did I misread that?


No - you didn't misread. The program just stopped recording like it was the end of the broadcast - but it was only a partial portion of the game.

It was still in my "List", but would only play what was recorded. I then went into "List" and deleted what was partially recorded

P.S. I only have 6 hours of HD/SD programs in "List", so I don't think it was a space issue...


----------



## marlen

bonscott87 said:


> Being that you're in Texas (if your location is correct) you don't have the new update yet. Thus you're still on the older version which definitely had this problem. If you have gotten the update to EB I apologize.
> 
> *To Everyone: Only post problems in this thread if you *actually have the update* to EB.*


Sorry about that...I do not have the EB update as of yet.

If I reboot and force the "02468" deal, will I get the update or should I wait for it to come "naturally"?


----------



## bonscott87

marlen said:


> Sorry about that...I do not have the EB update as of yet.
> 
> If I reboot and force the "02468" deal, will I get the update or should I wait for it to come "naturally"?


As has been posted (sorry if you missed it) the new update is only for those in the Pacific Time Zone. It hasn't been released to the rest of the country yet, probably will early next week assuming there aren't major problems with it this weekend. All updates from now on will be a slower rollout, not all at once.

So no, forcing an update will only redownload and install the current version. Believe me, you'll see posts all over this forum once it rolls out nationwide.


----------



## sb999

elvisizer said:


> 'nother problem to report this afternoon. i set up a manual recording for the NBA season ticket broadcast of the Bucks v Wizards. That's channel 753. When I got home from work, the yellow light was on, and the game was listed in my playlist. tried to play it, and got a black screen. No delete prompt, nothing. Just black. So i figure the recording's hosed- i tell it to stop recording and delete what it tried to record. then, i switch to the guide, and tune to channel 753 to watch the rest of the game live. Instead of the game, I get "whose line is it anyway" on bbc america. um, what? change to 754, and there's the nba. change back to 753, and it's bbc-a. Checked my playlist to see if the other tuner is recording bbc-a, but the other tuner is idle. After switching channels randomly for a few more minutes, 753 magically went back to showing the nba game. hit the record button, waited a few minutes, and was able to start watching the recording from My Playlist. :grin:
> WEIRD!!!!!!!!!!


I had exactly the same issue a couple of times trying to do a manual record of an NBA League Pass game. However, I am still on release E3. It only happens when I try to manually record and always displays BBCA on that channel and always provides a blank recording. Stop recording and delete the blank recording and BBCA goes away and the game comes back. Yeah. Really weird.


----------



## elvisizer

sb999 said:


> I had exactly the same issue a couple of times trying to do a manual record of an NBA League Pass game. However, I am still on release E3. It only happens when I try to manually record and always displays BBCA on that channel and always provide a blank recording. Stop recording and delete the blank recording and BBCA goes away and the game comes back. Yeah. Really weird.


ALWAYS bbc-a??? :eek2: i really don't know what to say. that's unbelievably strange.


----------



## DishDog

Ever since we rec'd the EB update this week, CC does not display. Prior to the update CC was working on HD and SD.


----------



## Malibu13

This issue has been reported in other threads and IIRC, a "reset" fixed the problem for some. The "CC" issue is most important for allot of users. My wife for example, wears a hearing aid in one ear and is 90% deaf in the other, so CC is important to us.

BTW, Welcome to DBSTalk.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

DishDog said:


> Ever since we rec'd the EB update this week, CC does not display. Prior to the update CC was working on HD and SD.


Did you double check to make sure that it was disabled during the upgrade process? Try toggling it on and off.

Any chance that you have a recording that you KNOW worked before the update?


----------



## elvisizer

checked history this morning, and 4 out of 5 scheduled recordings from last night are listed as partial and do not appear in my playlist. should i list which shows they were? 
one of the tuners was still sitting on my friend- channel 753 from the freaking bucks/wizards game last night. did a red button reset on general principals at that point. 
<sigh>
also, after checking the history, i noticed that the wisconsin/iowa game on ESPNHD was not listed in my playlist, though it was scheduled, and the hr20 thought it was recording it.
<double sigh>
after rebooting, the espn game started recording without any input from me, and the recording showed up in my playlist. yay.


----------



## illini

Still no update...just checked. Earl, your close to me, did your's update.

Weird becuase I use to go them right when they were announced. Then with the last update, had to force it because it had been a week.

As of today, no 0XEB update.


----------



## avatar230

Anyone that's been following this thread knows my HR20 & I have been waging war since I first spotted the 0xEB update Wednesday morning. As of Friday AM, the unit had locked-up three times in as many days, each time displaying video & audio from one live channel, but not responding to any commands from the remote or front panel. During the time it was locked up (usually eight to twelve hours at a clip while I was at work or asleep) it recorded nothing.

Yesterday morning after the third lock-up, I decided to try two things:

1. Redownload 0xEB to see if a "clean" copy would help.
2. Leave my unit in standby when not in use (it had been on all the time)

The standby option turned into a huge mistake. Last night when I got home, the unit appeared to be off -- not throughputting and audio or video, no lights on -- *but had again locked up entirely*. The HR20 was completely unresponsive to both the remote and front-panel power buttons.

I tried a red-button reset. Nothing happened. Tried again. The hard drive made a lot of noise and the blue power light came on and then everything went dark again. Tried again. And again. And again. Finally, the unit actually started booting but then hung-up on the first screen and shut off again. I waited a few minutes and had to try about three more resets (probably over a dozen in total) before I got it to boot up.

When I did, I decided there was no other recourse than to "RESET EVERYTHING," erasing all my settings and recordings. This was about midnight last night. As of 10:00am this morning, the unit is still working, but who knows how long that will last.

Thanks to these lockups, my HR20 basically recorded nothing for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. After last night's meltdown, I lost all my unwatched recordings from prior to Wednesday as well. Doesn't the "R" in "DVR" stand for "recorder"? Or am I missing something?

If the unit locks up again today, I don't even know what I'm going to do.


----------



## Malibu13

illini said:


> Still no update...just checked. Earl, your close to me, did your's update.
> 
> Weird becuase I use to go them right when they were announced. Then with the last update, had to force it because it had been a week.
> 
> As of today, no 0XEB update.


This is a "staggered rollout", beginning with the Pacific Timezone. At this point, an attempt to force the update, will have no effect if it has not been released to the remainder of the country. As of this morning, it does not appear that the switch has been flipped for the rest of us.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

illini said:


> Still no update...just checked. Earl, your close to me, did your's update.
> 
> Weird becuase I use to go them right when they were announced. Then with the last update, had to force it because it had been a week.
> 
> As of today, no 0XEB update.


Yes and No.

I have one box that is usually included in the first wave of updates.
My other, isn't... on that one I have not received the update.

As of my last PM communication, the update may go national on Monday.


----------



## LameLefty

brott said:


> After a few more days of use, I have noticed something with 0xEB that was not happening in 0xE3. I occasionally get screen freezes. This is usually most noticeable when turning the TV on for the first time. Trick play functions do not work (FF, RW, PLAY). The good thing, though is that by changing the channel or starting something from My Playlist makes the problem go away. No Red Button Reset or power-cycling the box. It's like the buffer has simply become broken.


That has happened to me one time with 0XE3 (don't have the update yet in the Nashville area of course). And I can rule out a full buffer or a long pause as the reason, but I do think that the buffer is "broken" - e.g., there's corrupted or otherwise-unexpected data in there that the HR20 can't process properly for trick plays. Changing the channel flushes out the buffered data and thus corrects the problem.


----------



## litzdog911

avatar230 said:


> Anyone that's been following this thread knows my HR20 & I have been waging war since I first spotted the 0xEB update Wednesday morning. As of Friday AM, the unit had locked-up three times in as many days, each time displaying video & audio from one live channel, but not responding to any commands from the remote or front panel. During the time it was locked up (usually eight to twelve hours at a clip while I was at work or asleep) it recorded nothing.
> 
> Yesterday morning after the third lock-up, I decided to try two things:
> 
> 1. Redownload 0xEB to see if a "clean" copy would help.
> 2. Leave my unit in standby when not in use (it had been on all the time)
> 
> The standby option turned into a huge mistake. Last night when I got home, the unit appeared to be off -- not throughputting and audio or video, no lights on -- *but had again locked up entirely*. The HR20 was completely unresponsive to both the remote and front-panel power buttons.
> 
> I tried a red-button reset. Nothing happened. Tried again. The hard drive made a lot of noise and the blue power light came on and then everything went dark again. Tried again. And again. And again. Finally, the unit actually started booting but then hung-up on the first screen and shut off again. I waited a few minutes and had to try about three more resets (probably over a dozen in total) before I got it to boot up.
> 
> When I did, I decided there was no other recourse than to "RESET EVERYTHING," erasing all my settings and recordings. This was about midnight last night. As of 10:00am this morning, the unit is still working, but who knows how long that will last.
> 
> Thanks to these lockups, my HR20 basically recorded nothing for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. After last night's meltdown, I lost all my unwatched recordings from prior to Wednesday as well. Doesn't the "R" in "DVR" stand for "recorder"? Or am I missing something?
> 
> If the unit locks up again today, I don't even know what I'm going to do.


Sure sounds like a hardware problem. Might be time to reformat the hard drive (instructions are here somewhere). Or request a replacement from DirecTV.


----------



## jbart610

ajwillys said:


> OK, I think its time to put the whole version numbering scheme to rest. The '0x' is a prefix to a hexadecimal number. This type of prefix is what is used in common programming languages (C, C++, Java, etc..) to specify a hex digit. The '0' at the beginning is used to tell the parser that what is following is a number not a word (or string as they're called). The 'x' then designates that the following is to be interpreted in hex (as opposed to binary, decimal, octal). After that comes the number. In most cases, leading zeros are eliminated thus the confusion between the 2 and 4 digit version numbers.
> 
> Most likely, each version relates to a given build which could happen nightly, weekly, every hour, or whenever. Hex numbers go from 0-9, A-F with A being 10 and F being 15. With that being said, the R15 version '10F1' is most likely build #4,337. The formula for deriving this is (1*16^3) + (0*16^2) + (15*16^1) + (1*16^0). Of course, the easy way is to use a hex calculator
> 
> The important thing to remember here is that '0x' is not important and the rest can only be deciphered by understanding hex notation whose digits are 0, 1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, A, B, C, D, E, and F.
> 
> Whew, now I'm tired.


I come from an embedded background, so while what you say is 100% true, I would not be suprised if they were using a 16-bit revision number in the format major.minor or major.minor.fix. A simple scheme, the upper 8-bits might be major and the lower 8-bits might be minor, so a x100 rev could be version 1.00. Then again... it could be just a straight up build number.

For the common folk who are not engineers and don't want to know the math to convert hex to decimal, open calculator and set it to scientific, then click the button that says hex, enter the number (omitting the 0x), and then click the decimal button. Instant conversion (assume the number is not signed)


----------



## bobojay

avatar230 said:


> Anyone that's been following this thread knows my HR20 & I have been waging war since I first spotted the 0xEB update Wednesday morning. As of Friday AM, the unit had locked-up three times in as many days, each time displaying video & audio from one live channel, but not responding to any commands from the remote or front panel. During the time it was locked up (usually eight to twelve hours at a clip while I was at work or asleep) it recorded nothing.
> 
> Yesterday morning after the third lock-up, I decided to try two things:
> 
> 1. Redownload 0xEB to see if a "clean" copy would help.
> 2. Leave my unit in standby when not in use (it had been on all the time)
> 
> The standby option turned into a huge mistake. Last night when I got home, the unit appeared to be off -- not throughputting and audio or video, no lights on -- *but had again locked up entirely*. The HR20 was completely unresponsive to both the remote and front-panel power buttons.
> 
> I tried a red-button reset. Nothing happened. Tried again. The hard drive made a lot of noise and the blue power light came on and then everything went dark again. Tried again. And again. And again. Finally, the unit actually started booting but then hung-up on the first screen and shut off again. I waited a few minutes and had to try about three more resets (probably over a dozen in total) before I got it to boot up.
> 
> When I did, I decided there was no other recourse than to "RESET EVERYTHING," erasing all my settings and recordings. This was about midnight last night. As of 10:00am this morning, the unit is still working, but who knows how long that will last.
> 
> Thanks to these lockups, my HR20 basically recorded nothing for Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. After last night's meltdown, I lost all my unwatched recordings from prior to Wednesday as well. Doesn't the "R" in "DVR" stand for "recorder"? Or am I missing something?
> 
> If the unit locks up again today, I don't even know what I'm going to do.


This sounds like the second HR20 that I had. They replaced it, and all has been well since. Your problem is looking to me like a hard drive problem......I'd call D* for replacement.


----------



## mrshermanoaks

Milominderbinder2 said:


> You have reported four improvements:
> + Better stabillity (for some)
> + The hard drive usage indicator shows more accurately what space is remaining.
> + 'Searching for satellite' message is gone during playback.
> + The eSATA thread is testing that improvement
> 
> Have you seen any differences in Manual Recording Scheduling and reliability?
> 
> Have you found any other changes that were not listed?


So far my experience has been this release has very few improvements over the last. I'm seeing fewer dropouts of the whole picture and video, but still getting 3-5 second audio dropout on both my HD locals (MPEG4) and other stations. I'm still seeing programs that I've deleted listed in MyPlaylist. I still have problems with recurring manual recordings not recording or showing up in the To Do List. I still have situations watching shows where the unit becomes unresponsive to any pause/rw/ff commands. I never had the "Searching for Satellite" issue, and don't have an external drive plugged in (what's the point of adding storage if there's a 50 show limit in the Prioritizer?).

In summary, you're not missing much.


----------



## avatar230

litzdog911 said:


> Sure sounds like a hardware problem. Might be time to reformat the hard drive (instructions are here somewhere). Or request a replacement from DirecTV.


Forgive me, but searching the forums the only thing I could find that seemed like it came close to a reformat was the "RESET EVERYTHING" option, which is what I did. It does erase all settings, favorites, series links, recordings, et cetera. I think it does a "quick format" on the drive. If anyone knows way to do a true "all zeroes" format, I'd be interested to hear how.



bobojay said:


> This sounds like the second HR20 that I had. They replaced it, and all has been well since. Your problem is looking to me like a hard drive problem......I'd call D* for replacement.


There's two things that are keeping me from pulling the trigger on demanding a new unit:

1. I never experienced this problem until literally the morning that 0xEB downloaded. It updated at 2:45 AM, and I woke up at 6:30AM to find the unit frozen. Prior to this, my unit had been one of the better-behaved HR20s I'd heard about. I find it too much of a coincidence that the first time this happened was less than four hours after this update, as I've had the unit since the beginning of October.

2. There have been at least two other users in this thread that seem to have experienced this problem for the first time after the 0xEB download.

I'm going to give it a couple days to see if the quick format I did helps. Obviously, if it does lockup again, I will be on the phone to D*.

Interesting addendum I forgot to mention this morning. Prior to this "reset everything" my Dolby Digital switch had never demonstrated the "reversed" problem. After this reset, it _is_ now reversed. Off is on and on is off. Not the most rock solid software in the world.


----------



## forum junkie

Had a frozen recording ( Law and Order ) with this new update - no play, FF, or anything but as in the past when this occasionaly happens, I hit the 30 sec skip ahead and all works fine from that point on. I seem to always be able to start my frozen recordings this way.


----------



## btmoore

forum junkie said:


> Had a frozen recording ( Law and Order ) with this new update - no play, FF, or anything but as in the past when this occasionaly happens, I hit the 30 sec skip ahead and all works fine from that point on. I seem to always be able to start my frozen recordings this way.


Did the time bar show up with 0 or a negative number? I have not seen the unwatchable bug in this version yet, I was/am hopeful that it was finally killed.


----------



## 325xia

Earl Bonovich said:


> Do you have Native Resolution turned on?
> If so, then yes... this has been reported by a few people.
> The only work around is to turn off Native resolution and lock the resolution


How do you "Lock" the resolution when Native is Off? When I turn Native Off, the front panel on HR-20 the 480p light is on when viewing 1080i and 720p. I tried going into the TV Type in the Set-Up menu and changing the TV Resolutions that way. Nothing changes on the front panel of the HR-20. Can't figure out how to set the resolution. I believe my Samsung LN-S4695D is 1080i Native. Not sure though. It's a 1080p LCD TV.


----------



## induna

325xia said:


> How do you "Lock" the resolution when Native is Off? When I turn Native Off, the front panel on HR-20 the 480p light is on when viewing 1080i and 720p. I tried going into the TV Type in the Set-Up menu and changing the TV Resolutions that way. Nothing changes on the front panel of the HR-20. Can't figure out how to set the resolution. I believe my Samsung LN-S4695D is 1080i Native. Not sure though. It's a 1080p LCD TV.


Use the "Res" button on the front of the unit to toggle through the resolutions.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

325xia said:


> How do you "Lock" the resolution when Native is Off? When I turn Native Off, the front panel on HR-20 the 480p light is on when viewing 1080i and 720p. I tried going into the TV Type in the Set-Up menu and changing the TV Resolutions that way. Nothing changes on the front panel of the HR-20. Can't figure out how to set the resolution. I believe my Samsung LN-S4695D is 1080i Native. Not sure though. It's a 1080p LCD TV.


Turn Native Mode Off (in the Display Menu).

Then, use the Format button (either on the remote or the front pannel), to set the unit to 1080i or 720p.

Also be sure that in your Display Menu settings, you didn't de-select any of the compatible formats.


----------



## h0ckeysk8er

325xia said:


> How do you "Lock" the resolution when Native is Off? When I turn Native Off, the front panel on HR-20 the 480p light is on when viewing 1080i and 720p. I tried going into the TV Type in the Set-Up menu and changing the TV Resolutions that way. Nothing changes on the front panel of the HR-20. Can't figure out how to set the resolution. I believe my Samsung LN-S4695D is 1080i Native. Not sure though. It's a 1080p LCD TV.


I looked up the specs for your TV and it is native 1920x1080. There a three different things you have to consider when setting resolution:

- Do I want the HR20 to automatically pass the source to the panel in its native resolution (native on)?

- Do I want the HR20 to not pass the source in native mode automatically (native off) BUT I want the ability to cycle through the various resolutions and formats (using the format button) depending on my preferences, the resolutions supported by my panel, and the resolution of the source?

- Do I want to set a single fixed resolution and format and let the HR20 scale everything to the native resolution of the panel (so you would select only a single resolution in the TV Type settings)?

Now you will get varying opinions on which is best and for what reasons. I will tell you that I have mine set to 1080 as my panel is 1080 and I can't see a difference in the scaling that the panel does vs the HR20. Oh, and regardless of the resolution, you can still select a default format for 480i/p sources when scaled to 1080 and use the format button to switch between them (I happen to use pillar box by default). You will probably have to play around with which combination of HR20 format and your panel's formats give you the best viewing experience and depending on the program source, you may end up changing one or the other for a specific show (think an HD movie shown in letterbox format from the source).


----------



## 325xia

Earl Bonovich said:


> Turn Native Mode Off (in the Display Menu).
> 
> Then, use the Format button (either on the remote or the front pannel), to set the unit to 1080i or 720p.
> 
> Also be sure that in your Display Menu settings, you didn't de-select any of the compatible formats.


Thanks!


----------



## 325xia

h0ckeysk8er said:


> I looked up the specs for your TV and it is native 1920x1080. There a three different things you have to consider when setting resolution:
> 
> - Do I want the HR20 to automatically pass the source to the panel in its native resolution (native on)?
> 
> - Do I want the HR20 to not pass the source in native mode automatically (native off) BUT I want the ability to cycle through the various resolutions and formats (using the format button) depending on my preferences, the resolutions supported by my panel, and the resolution of the source?
> 
> - Do I want to set a single fixed resolution and format and let the HR20 scale everything to the native resolution of the panel (so you would select only a single resolution in the TV Type settings)?
> 
> Now you will get varying opinions on which is best and for what reasons. I will tell you that I have mine set to 1080 as my panel is 1080 and I can't see a difference in the scaling that the panel does vs the HR20. Oh, and regardless of the resolution, you can still select a default format for 480i/p sources when scaled to 1080 and use the format button to switch between them (I happen to use pillar box by default). You will probably have to play around with which combination of HR20 format and your panel's formats give you the best viewing experience and depending on the program source, you may end up changing one or the other for a specific show (think an HD movie shown in letterbox format from the source).


This is great information and I appreciate your help. I'm just now trying to experiment with the different formats. Thanks again!

I have found that the Native "On" seems to look better to me. I might be just psychological. Who knows. t just looked better. I guess that's all that matters.


----------



## Twosted

Had a lock up early this morning. Turned on the TV and HR20 at about 5am. All I got was a grey screen. Did a reset and everything came back. It did rain here while the unit was off. I am begining to think the problem is more with the tuners and tuner switching on this box.


----------



## FYRPLG

Lockup with OXeb

This morning leaving tuner on local CH8 HD MPEG4 all night the unit was frozen with channel working ok but no response from remote or front panel. Did a red button reset. When video and sound came on message at bottom (searching for satellite channel 2 711)with the bar block like when searching and [info] in orange pushed info got message push reset,check ant. etc. , after waiting for about 4 minutes nothing changed. So changed channel then back to same channel and message was gone.. Seems every thing fine now.

HR20-700 AT-9 Dish
Panasonic ct30wx15
Video:HDMI and Component
Soundigital fiber optics to ampl.


----------



## vlj9r

Well, this is the biggest TURD ever put out by DTV and the best part is we get to pay to beta test this thing. As you can tell, my patience is gone.

I called DTV to complain about the random green macro pixellation on my HD locals. DTV said, it must be your dish, lnb or cable lines. So they sent a third tech to check it out. Today the tech verifies the lnbs, dish and signals. Even tested the wires for any shorts. Calls DTV to request a new box for me and level 2 tells him it's not the box but the software in it. What gives? DTV did not know this before they sent a tech and waisted my time. This company is a JOKE!.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

vlj9r said:


> Well, this is the biggest TURD ever put out by DTV and the best part is we get to pay to beta test this thing. As you can tell, my patience is gone.
> 
> I called DTV to complain about the random green macro pixellation on my HD locals. DTV said, it must be your dish, lnb or cable lines. So they sent a third tech to check it out. Today the tech verifies the lnbs, dish and signals. Even tested the wires for any shorts. Calls DTV to request a new box for me and level 2 tells him it's not the box but the software in it. What gives? DTV did not know this before they sent a tech and waisted my time. This company is a JOKE!.


My apologies, but where is Clearwater? 
Do you have the 0xEB release, or are you still on the 0xE3

As for the green macro pixellation, that could very likely be the MPEG-4 compression of your locals... Not so much the HR20's issue, but one that DirecTV and your local affiliate need to work out....

Which channels are you seeing it on, and if you rewind... is it in the same spot?


----------



## jkc120

I've just noticed another bug in 0xEB. Specifically, when I pause live TV and resume, the audio is gone. It seems to happen only if it's paused for a while. Fortunately, the skip to live when resuming is fixed  But the audio drop out is there. A quick 1x FFWD and play fixes it.


----------



## forum junkie

btmoore said:


> Did the time bar show up with 0 or a negative number? I have not seen the unwatchable bug in this version yet, I was/am hopeful that it was finally killed.


Yes the time bar was there but I didn't pay attention as to wether it said 0 or a neg. number. The bar showed it to be at the beginning and I've gotten used to just hitting the jump ahead to get it to work.


----------



## Stuart Sweet

Using the "crop" mode sometimes results in an image that is 2x taller than it should be but fills the screen horizontally. Specifically I have seen this while watching Battlestar Galactica on SciFi (recorded not live) with the resolution set to 1080 and output through HDMI to a Philips 37" LCD panel (Model 37PF9431D/37)

This is an issue I have had since version 0xDC and has not been resolved with this release. 

The best workaround in this case is to set Native mode on, which allows me to use the format controls on the TV. 

This issue has been reported by others previously, please search the forum for other examples.


----------



## jsnable

I have seen the same problem as lamontcranston, though with a 720p output via HDMI to a Sony Bravia 32" LCD. It has not occurred since the 0xEB update but I have only watched one recorded letterboxed show (BSG) since then.

Jay


----------



## NFLnut

Don't dare press the Replay button, or REW in live TV, because it will either lock up or you will lose audio. No matter what you do after that, it wil not receover. The only thing you can do is change channels and then come back to the channel you WERE watching.


----------



## Rambler

NFLnut said:


> Don't dare press the Replay button, or REW in live TV, because it will either lock up or you will lose audio. No matter what you do after that, it wil not receover. The only thing you can do is change channels and then come back to the channel you WERE watching.


I've had my HR20 for just over a week now. No issues with rewinding live TV for me.


----------



## Ed Campbell

kilobravo said:


> Yep, I misspoke Ed, meant to say it has 0xE3 (and I have since edited the post.) Yes, I know how to do the cold boot and I'm assuming your cold boot suggestion was only because it looked like I still had the original firmware, not that a cold boot on a 0xE3 box would fix the problem I mentioned, correct? TIA...


1. Correct
2. Nice dog
3. Though your signature freaked me a little -- since one of the folks I work with on a blog is "KB" -- though he's in Atlanta.
4. Not certain if the beer is required; but, it passes the time.


----------



## TechCoach

Am I the only one mounting it on its end? 

I had my HR10-250 mounted vertically for a year or more. No problem.

I mounted the new HR20-700 vertically end of September. No power issues, except the plethora of bugs discussed herein. 

But the day after 0xEB update.. it quit. The box did not come up after the download. No video signal, and it appeared as if there was no power. No lights. Reset did nothing. Unplug and replug in and the power light (only) came on half dim for 2 minutes, then it, as well as the other blue LED lights, went dead. Repete un-plug with big pauses between steps, same response. I can hear the hard drive come on and off in synch with the power plug, but no lights, no video. (Using HDMI) 

Maybe because I had moved the unit around a bunch to get to the back of it, and after a couple hours when I was away, it came back on. But then it failed the same way the next day. 

D* sent a new HR20, which did seem to power up in vertical mount. Had a blue screen with Logo for first 3 minutes, then no video or audio, just all the lights which just flashed for 4 hours, before I pulled it out. 

Then I put my original box back on but left it horizontal. It rebooted in 7 minutes and is working fine now.

Is there a horizontal only disk drive in it? Or is this a OxEB thing?


----------



## Ed Campbell

avatar230 said:


> I tried a red-button reset. Nothing happened. Tried again. The hard drive made a lot of noise and the blue power light came on and then everything went dark again. Tried again. And again. And again. Finally, the unit actually started booting but then hung-up on the first screen and shut off again. I waited a few minutes and had to try about three more resets (probably over a dozen in total) before I got it to boot up.


If you were hooked up via HDMI, this sounds like one of those times I'd suggest a "component reboot". I didn't originate it > got it from a Tier 2 tech > some of these boxes can't even hook up for the 1st time via HDMI. They don't include an HDMI cable and I think there may be an initial dependence on component.

This may have changed.

But, I know my installer tried a couple boxes before we went back to the 1st and installed with component > then, plugged in HDMI. For a component rebot, I unplug HDMI and reboot with the component cables only. I leave them in place even though I don't normally use the component hookup. After the reboot completes > plug HDMI back and notify my TV that's what I'm using.


----------



## avatar230

Ed Campbell said:


> If you were hooked up via HDMI, this sounds like one of those times I'd suggest a "component reboot". I didn't originate it > got it from a Tier 2 tech > some of these boxes can't even hook up for the 1st time via HDMI. They don't include an HDMI cable and I think there may be an initial dependence on component.
> 
> This may have changed.
> 
> But, I know my installer tried a couple boxes before we went back to the 1st and installed with component > then, plugged in HDMI. For a component rebot, I unplug HDMI and reboot with the component cables only. I leave them in place even though I don't normally use the component hookup. After the reboot completes > plug HDMI back and notify my TV that's what I'm using.


Thanks for the tip, Ed. I hadn't heard this one before and it might totally explain the difficulty booting from a "cold" state I had last night, as I am connected HDMI only.

I also noticed this post:



FYRPLG said:


> Lockup with OXeb
> 
> This morning leaving tuner on local CH8 HD MPEG4 all night the unit was frozen with channel working ok but no response from remote or front panel. Did a red button reset. When video and sound came on message at bottom (searching for satellite channel 2 711)with the bar block like when searching and [info] in orange pushed info got message push reset,check ant. etc. , after waiting for about 4 minutes nothing changed. So changed channel then back to same channel and message was gone.. Seems every thing fine now.


Seems like the "stuck on one channel" lockup I experienced may be becoming a more prevelant problem on 0xEB. Am I correct in saying people haven't seen this type of lockup prior to the EB release? Earl, do you know if D* is still planning on taking the EB release national?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

NFLnut said:


> Don't dare press the Replay button, or REW in live TV, because it will either lock up or you will lose audio. No matter what you do after that, it wil not receover. The only thing you can do is change channels and then come back to the channel you WERE watching.


Do you have the 0xEB or the 0xE3 release ?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

avatar230 said:


> Earl, do you know if D* is still planning on taking the EB release national?


Won't know until Monday... and it is all based on the feedback.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

TechCoach said:


> Is there a horizontal only disk drive in it? Or is this a OxEB thing?


I can't see how a software update, would make a difference to the orientation of the hardware... but none the less, I have sent your post onto the DirecTV guys.


----------



## btmoore

Earl Bonovich said:


> Won't know until Monday... and it is all based on the feedback.


Feedback from here or do we need to call in and talk to CSRs?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

btmoore said:


> Feedback from here or do we need to call in and talk to CSRs?


Here is just as good as calling the CSRs...


----------



## btmoore

Earl Bonovich said:


> Here is just as good as calling the CSRs...


That is good to know!

Although, talking to my wall is just as good as talking to a CSR most of the time, so I am not sure that makes me feel any better.


----------



## avatar230

Earl Bonovich said:


> Won't know until Monday... and it is all based on the feedback.


Well, for what it's worth, my gut feeling is that I don't think my problems have been caused by my unit's hardware suddenly going south. I hope that D* holds this release and does not go national with it -- it's just added too many quirks for very little benefit (even if the semantics of "My Playlist" are much nicer than "My VOD").


----------



## Tom Robertson

TechCoach said:


> Am I the only one mounting it on its end?
> ...
> Is there a horizontal only disk drive in it? Or is this a OxEB thing?


TechCoach,

My guess is heat build up. Some systems that are designed very close to the edge of the component temperature tolerances can be very sensitive to orientation, cuz it changes the intended heat flow. Disk drives generally aren't orientation sensitive (anymore, that is), but rely heavily on airflow.

My first Hdvr2 cooked disk drives when I used a non-standard, plastic disk mount that should have allowed me to mount two drives. Went back to the standard metal mount, been fine for 4 years now.

So, you might try mounting on the other end, increase the airflow across the unit, boost the internal fan, or install it in a refrigerator.  (But not the freezer...) 

Cheers,
Tom


----------



## NFLnut

Rambler said:


> I've had my HR20 for just over a week now. No issues with rewinding live TV for me.


Well, I've had my HR20 for about two months now. It's almost impossible to watch anything on this box without some sort of problem, inoperability, or glitch!


----------



## NFLnut

Earl Bonovich said:


> Do you have the 0xEB or the 0xE3 release ?


Oxe3

You know, I checked SysInfo earlier today, and I could have sworn that I had the OxEB release.


----------



## cazual

Rugged said:


> I know there is a logic to the Update version code--but did anyone else think that it was funny that this update uses Earls inititials --- EB ?


I just picked up my HR-20 toady and as I was reading the various forums and trying to understand the software issues and updates, I actually thought Earl the most recent software update. Kinda funny.

Not to go to far off topic, but I just want to say thanks to everyone that submits to this forum, you all were a great help.

Dec.


----------



## ODiN91

I've had the HR20 for about 3 weeks now and didn't have any major problems or need to reset the unit until this 0xEB release. I never had any partial recordings (or recording problems in genral) until now. 2 issues I've seen this week:


==Missed recording (CH 95 - USC/Oregon game tonight)
- No Record symbol in MyPlaylist
- Info button reports "0 mins"
- Unable to pause/RR/etc on either buffer now
- Program appears in ToDoList, but shows the $ symbol... but no R
- Record light on HR20 is on
- HR20 stops responding to the remote if I try to press too many commands (as if it's slow to process the inputs), but responds again after a few seconds.
- "Program not available in your area (727)" message keeps popping up every 15 seconds or so for about 2 seconds. Switching channels seemed to get rid of it.
- I set the recording to pad with 1.5 hours (no problems with padding 3 other sports shows, including this channel before)

==Lock-ups
#1) Was recording Heroes (NBC MPEG4) and an SD channel (MyNetworkTV) and went to update a Series Link (I can't remember which option). The HR20 stopped responding to the remote and the video of Heroes in the PIP eventually stopped after a few minutes. Surprisingly, the recordings completed successfully when the shows were over (I reset after I knew they'd be over).

#2) Went to play back a MPEG2 Showtime HD recording and the unit stopped responding. Had to hit the red button.

#3) Playback of another MPEG2 (Discovery HD). Locked after I hit Play after selecting it in MyPlaylist. Red button.


++ Positives
- Resuming playback doesn't jump ahead to live buffer does appear to work properly now
*EDIT: No sound after unpausing after a few minutes on CBS today. I had to FF a second to get the sound to play again.


Earl, thanks for the communicatons on this forum. Let me know if I can provide any more specifics for helping troubleshoot. I have the HR20 set to Native off and am using component cables.


----------



## forum junkie

forum junkie said:


> Had a frozen recording ( Law and Order ) with this new update - no play, FF, or anything but as in the past when this occasionaly happens, I hit the 30 sec skip ahead and all works fine from that point on. I seem to always be able to start my frozen recordings this way.


Since mentioning this earlier I sat down tonight to catch up on some recordings that were piling up and had my first black screen. Looked as if it didn't record. It was a recording made before the last update - blank screen and no time bar - no FF or Play but what the heck --- hit the 30 sec skip and sure enough it started playing. So for me anyway it seems as if this is the one button that makes these things work.


----------



## Lightman

I think dyslexia has hit you (and me too). I believe you saw 0xBE, instead of 0xEB.



NFLnut said:


> Oxe3
> 
> You know, I checked SysInfo earlier today, and I could have sworn that I had the OxEB release.


----------



## skierbri10

Series link doesnt work anymore. I used to press the record button twice and would set the show up for series link but now I am watching the show and want to set it up for series link I hit record and record again and it pops up and asks me if I want to keep the recording, delete it or continue.


----------



## badlydrawnboy

had my first lock up just now.

Was watching SNL Live last night while it was recording, paused it and went to bed, get up and try to do stuff, nothing happens, red button reset takes 10 mins or so to come back and I'm now working again.


----------



## skierbri10

Also, The Office has failed to record for the past 4 weeks. All I get is a black screen and something like -1:10 in the time bar. The shows before and after record with no problems.


----------



## JLucPicard

skierbri10 said:


> Series link doesnt work anymore. I used to press the record button twice and would set the show up for series link but now I am watching the show and want to set it up for series link I hit record and record again and it pops up and asks me if I want to keep the recording, delete it or continue.


I could be wrong as I haven't played a lot yet with my HR20, but I thought the double-record Series Link was something that worked in the guide only. Hitting R while watching a show will record it, but I thought that hitting R while a show is recording will cancel that current recording. If that's the case, hitting R twice on a live show would record/cancel, correct? I guess I never did the double R thing on a live program - just in the guide.


----------



## avatar230

The show NO OPPORTUNITY WASTED was scheduled to record off Discovery HD at 1:00am last night. It's not in "My Playlist" this morning. History just lists it as "partial." Looks like that bug is not so much fixed.


----------



## Wally_Gator

I going to post this as there are already soo many posts it is hard to read.

I am having a problem with FFW and other trickplay functions.
Newly recorded MPEG 2 shows.. Channel 72, 75 and 70 will black the screen, change format and generally foul up when trying to slip, ffw or rewind. It makes it almost impossable to slip past commercials and extremely annoying. 
This is using Component cables a Sony KDF-E55a20 TV and the latest Software on my H20..


----------



## Twosted

I got the "Searching for satellite signal" message today when I tuned to my local MPEG4 HD channel. Switched to the SD feed then back and the message cleared. 0xEB introduced this problem.


----------



## btmoore

Twosted said:


> I got the "Searching for satellite signal" message today when I tuned to my local MPEG4 HD channel. Switched to the SD feed then back and the message cleared. 0xEB introduced this problem.


I have seen this problem in the last and this version of the software.

I have been able to develop this script that allows me to create a 771 error message with about 80% consistancy.

I have tested this with the following stations: HBOHD, SHOHD and MSNBC, each one will typically, but not all the time, come back with a 771 error message on HBO and SHO this will alternate between a 771 and every so often a 721 message will pop up. This may work with other stations but I have not tested it.

1. Start a recording on any station but the one you want to test. On my last test of this I was recording G4

2. change to station 70, 71 or 346

3. Hit the (active) button

4. select weather

5. soon as your weather pops up use your down arrows and select done

6. hit the exit button

On my system I am guessing ~80% of the time I will get a 1...771 error message maybe some green macro blocking with some left over data from the interactive screen and if it is tuned to HBOHD or SHOHD no macro blocking and I may get a quick flash of 721 channel not purchased eventually it ending with a 721 message or eventuality tuning in to the programming. Once this happens I may have change the station and change back 1 or more times and then it will tune back in and I will no longer have problems.

FYI there have been a few times when this the that script worked as expected but I would say less than 20%.

This script was developed and tested on 0xeb, I don't know if I would of seen the same thing under prior versions.


----------



## skierbri10

JLucPicard said:



> I could be wrong as I haven't played a lot yet with my HR20, but I thought the double-record Series Link was something that worked in the guide only. Hitting R while watching a show will record it, but I thought that hitting R while a show is recording will cancel that current recording. If that's the case, hitting R twice on a live show would record/cancel, correct? I guess I never did the double R thing on a live program - just in the guide.


I was in guide like usual an the show had started I hit R and it started recording, then i hit R again and wouldn't let me set it up for series link. Just kept asking me if I wanted to keep the recording or not.


----------



## Twosted

Here's a new one. I have never seen this before. I have ST and SF. When I bring up the scores (L wrap) and then I choose a different game to watch, it seems to change channels but all I get is a black screen. The message on the bottom pops up (Red for scores, Yellow to clear) but there is no picture. The only way to fix it is to actually change channels via the guide or channel up or down. I have never seen this problem before. 0xEB has introduced this problem.

EDIT: I am also losing trickplay functions. Switching channels restores them.


----------



## vlj9r

Earl Bonovich said:


> My apologies, but where is Clearwater?
> Do you have the 0xEB release, or are you still on the 0xE3
> 
> As for the green macro pixellation, that could very likely be the MPEG-4 compression of your locals... Not so much the HR20's issue, but one that DirecTV and your local affiliate need to work out....
> 
> Which channels are you seeing it on, and if you rewind... is it in the same spot?


Clearwater is west of Tampa in FL. We are still at 0xE3. I see the green macro pixellation on my HD locals. ABC 28, NBC 8, CBS 10 & Fox 13. It's happening during the Eagles game on Fox13.
Level 2 support told my DTV repair technician that there is a software fix for this later this year but they do not know when.

I truly admire your efforts and dedication to get these issues resolved by providing feedback to DTV. I hope you are on their payroll. I have a family and 4 kids so I don't have much time to troubleshoot this box. When I get to sit down in front of the TV, I want to relax and enjoy the picture on my Sony KDSR60XBR1. I don't want to look at a bad picture or a blue screen.

I can tell you that under 0xE3 I've had 2 partial recordings. Dog Whisperer and American Choppers. Also,it's recording repeats even though it's set to first runs only.

Could this be a great device one day? Sure! However, right now it has problems performing some of the basic functions of a DVR. That is record a program in it's entirety.


----------



## DishDog

Earl Bonovich said:


> Did you double check to make sure that it was disabled during the upgrade process? Try toggling it on and off.
> 
> Any chance that you have a recording that you KNOW worked before the update?


Thanks Earl. Appreciate the feedback!

New question. Before we rec'd the OxEB update I noticed pixilation and intermittent audio on numerous channels, CNN, Showtime, and several others.

CCR sent me to a level two tech and he decided we need a service call. Ironwood tech said we need new HR-20 and called DirecTV to order one.

After he left I thought there is one thing we have not tried so I removed the two BBC SUP-2400 modules and the reception returned to normal.

I hooked the BBC SUP-2400 modules back up and the reception problem returned. (After OxEB download, same results.)

Have you seen this behavior before?


----------



## dvrblogger

vlj9r said:


> Clearwater is west of Tampa in FL. We are still at 0xE3. I see the green macro pixellation on my HD locals. ABC 28, NBC 8, CBS 10 & Fox 13. It's happening during the Eagles game on Fox13.
> Level 2 support told my DTV repair technician that there is a software fix for this later this year but they do not know when.
> 
> I truly admire your efforts and dedication to get these issues resolved by providing feedback to DTV. I hope you are on their payroll. I have a family and 4 kids so I don't have much time to troubleshoot this box. When I get to sit down in front of the TV, I want to relax and enjoy the picture on my Sony KDSR60XBR1. I don't want to look at a bad picture or a blue screen.
> 
> I can tell you that under 0xE3 I've had 2 partial recordings. Dog Whisperer and American Choppers. Also,it's recording repeats even though it's set to first runs only.
> 
> Could this be a great device one day? Sure! However, right now it has problems performing some of the basic functions of a DVR. That is record a program in it's entirety.


These appear to be encoding problems at the satellite uplink and happen on H20 recievers as well.


----------



## LameLefty

HaiChinGow said:


> On my HR20's with 0xEB I can consisently recreate the issue by toggling DD on/off/on. After toggling, the function is reversed.


Just got back in after a weekend out of town - this process worked for me to get DD back "in synch" - I did had it toggled "Off" in order to get DD actually turned on. I used this process and quickly turned DD back "On" on the HR20, then "Off" and back "On" again. Now what the HR20 says its outputting is the same as what it's actually putting out. 

Also, my HR20 successfully recorded my HD NFLST Superfan game (Bills at Colts) without deleting it. I got home in time to start watching it during the recording process and almost caught up by the end - I was about 10 minutes behind "real time" by the time the game ended. But I was very glad the channel didn't go "dark" and result in a recording being deleted while I was trying to watch the 4th quarter.

FYI - I'm still on 0XE3 until the national rollout.


----------



## tstarn

DishDog said:


> Thanks Earl. Appreciate the feedback!
> 
> New question. Before we rec'd the OxEB update I noticed pixilation and intermittent audio on numerous channels, CNN, Showtime, and several others.
> 
> CCR sent me to a level two tech and he decided we need a service call. Ironwood tech said we need new HR-20 and called DirecTV to order one.
> 
> After he left I thought there is one thing we have not tried so I removed the two BBC SUP-2400 modules and the reception returned to normal.
> 
> I hooked the BBC SUP-2400 modules back up and the reception problem returned. (After OxEB download, same results.)
> 
> Have you seen this behavior before?


I removed the BBCs three weeks ago following some freezes, and I also switched to component. Still have the 10/21 software. Haven't had a single problem since, but I still worry the my run of luck will dissipate. And what about next year, when I need to hook the BBCs up again?


----------



## FredMig

Sony 60" SXRD: $3,500
NFL Super Fan: $99
HR20 - 700: $399
Expecting to watch the Broncos in HD: WORTHLESS!

Once again the local Denver CBS feed iof the Broncos is not HD. I feel totally ripped off.


----------



## FredMig

FredMig said:


> Sony 60" SXRD: $3,500
> NFL Super Fan: $99
> HR20 - 700: $399
> Expecting to watch the Broncos in HD: WORTHLESS!
> 
> Once again the local Denver CBS feed iof the Broncos is not HD. I feel totally ripped off.


I tried to flip over to Steelers/Saints recording in progress to see what HD NFL looks like and the unit froze solid. Now I'm waiting the reset to finish. This really s**ks!


----------



## sigma1914

FredMig said:


> Sony 60" SXRD: $3,500
> NFL Super Fan: $99
> HR20 - 700: $399
> Expecting to watch the Broncos in HD: WORTHLESS!
> 
> Once again the local Denver CBS feed iof the Broncos is not HD. I feel totally ripped off.


You can thank CBS as a national company. They carry 3 per week...this week:

San Diego Chargers vs. Cincinnati Bengals 
Buffalo Bills vs. Indianapolis Colts 
N.Y. Jets vs. New England Patriots


----------



## FredMig

sigma1914 said:


> You can thank CBS as a national company. They carry 3 per week...this week:
> 
> San Diego Chargers vs. Cincinnati Bengals
> Buffalo Bills vs. Indianapolis Colts
> N.Y. Jets vs. New England Patriots


Did CBS also freeze my box when I tried to switch games?? I think that one is on D*.


----------



## jheda

sigma1914 said:


> You can thank CBS as a national company. They carry 3 per week...this week:
> 
> San Diego Chargers vs. Cincinnati Bengals
> Buffalo Bills vs. Indianapolis Colts
> N.Y. Jets vs. New England Patriots


dolphin game not in HD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

so why are there so many games this week not in hd?


----------



## mndwalsh

FredMig said:


> Sony 60" SXRD: $3,500
> NFL Super Fan: $99
> HR20 - 700: $399
> Expecting to watch the Broncos in HD: WORTHLESS!
> 
> Once again the local Denver CBS feed iof the Broncos is not HD. I feel totally ripped off.


yep

raider fan here, it is the natl game in mpls area and no HD

Blame CBS! All are raider haters only hd raider games have been ESPN


----------



## sigma1914

jheda said:


> dolphin game not in HD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
> 
> so why are there so many games this week not in hd?


It's the same every week on CBS...3 HD games. I believe all Fox games are HD.


----------



## avatar230

Another stellar afternoon of recording from the HR20 and 0xEB.

(I recently did a re-format, so my hard-drive is approx. 95% empty.)

1. ICONOCLASTS @ 2:00PM on Sundance -- Listed as partial record in History, not in My Playlist
2. ICONOCLASTS @ 2:45PM on Sundance -- Recorded, was in My Playlist until...
3. SUNRISE EARTH @ 4:00PM on Discovery HD. Orange light was on, never appeared in My Playlist. Going to the live feed, it looked OK but no trick play worked. Reset the unit. Upon reboot, the 2:45PM ICONOCLASTS had also disappeared. I never even tried playing that episode, so I can't speak to whether it was a working recording or not, but it's gone now.

In my opinion, having only had it for five days, 0xEB is by far the worst release I've had to this point on my HR20. I'd prefer the days of early October when trick play on MPEG-4 recordings was completely inoperative to this. *At least things were recording then*. This software update has been a complete and utter joke, and if D* takes it national, they're going to have a world of pain on their hands.


----------



## FredMig

mndwalsh said:


> yep
> 
> raider fan here, it is the natl game in mpls area and no HD
> 
> Blame CBS! All are raider haters only hd raider games have been ESPN


Broncos and Raiders fans unite! Wait a minute, did I just type that???

Hopefully next season, all games will be HD and D* DVRs will *actually work*!

In other words, wait 'till next year!:goodjob:


----------



## Slip Jigs

FredMig said:


> In other words, wait 'till next year!:goodjob:


That's what they keep telling us here in Detroit about the Lions...


----------



## 325xia

FredMig said:


> Sony 60" SXRD: $3,500
> NFL Super Fan: $99
> HR20 - 700: $399
> Expecting to watch the Broncos in HD: WORTHLESS!
> 
> Once again the local Denver CBS feed iof the Broncos is not HD. I feel totally ripped off.


Hmm, why do you feel ripped-off? Last I checked, OTA is Free.


----------



## FredMig

325xia said:


> Hmm, why do you feel ripped-off? Last I checked, OTA is Free.


O.K. Now I just feel stupid!

BTW.........I just realized that the HR20 did not continue recording the Steelers/Saints after I had to reset from the freeze-up an hour into the game. Did anything interesting happen after the Steelers led 14-7?

I hope this gets fixed sooner rather than later. I'm tired of being a PTH (Prime Ticket Hostage)!


----------



## FredMig

FredMig said:


> O.K. Now I just feel stupid!
> 
> BTW.........I just realized that the HR20 did not continue recording the Steelers/Saints after I had to reset from the freeze-up an hour into the game. Did anything interesting happen after the Steelers led 14-7?
> 
> I hope this gets fixed sooner rather than later. I'm tired of being a PTH (Prime Ticket Hostage)!


Oops - I meant Sunday Ticket Hostage..............It's the one and only reason I'm still a D* customer.


----------



## Christi

With the Oxeb software version, I've encountered these issues:

1) Set Chargers/Bengals game to record on local HD channel at 10am PST. At 10:15, the game was not listed on MyVOD. When I attempted to hit R from the Guide to record it, it said it was already recording. I found the recording in History, but when I selected "Watch Now", it took me to live TV. When in Live TV, the pause, rewind, etc. did not work. I rebooted the unit and was able to begin recording the game. I paused the game and when I tried to play it again, it had no audio.

2) Several instances of pixelation and strobe-light effects on HD channels. SD channels always are fine.

:nono2:


----------



## Twosted

I lost Desperate Housewives today. Wasn't watching TV, box was off and I noticed the orange light was not on. Turned on the box and the orange light came on too. Checked and it wasn't in my playlist. When I tuned to the channel it shows a full orange bar and seems to keep recording. None of the trickplay buttons work. I don't know what to do. I have never had this sort of problem with 0xE3. With 0xE3 I only had minor glitches. Now with 0xEB I am missing recordings and losing functionality. PLEASE RESCIND 0xEB!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Twosted

Tried a little troubleshooting. It seems to be a tuner problem. Not sure if my missed recording tonight was caused by the rain on Saturday morning. So what I did was unplug the box, then unplug both Sat. feeds. Then I plugged everything back in and restarted. Won't know if this fixes it until tomorrow when I have multiple recordings scheduled. We'll see but I doubt it. I lost a few recordings last Thursday and there wasn't any rain.


----------



## btmoore

Well, it took until today, but the HR20 unwatchable bug is alive and well in 0xeb.

I have 4 recording that all show the negative time stamp and no trick play will work. 

All I am missing is an interface lockup requiring a reboot and this version will be just like the last version of the software.

I am not sure what to call a DVR that dosen't record correctly, a DVwant-a-beR.


----------



## Jeremy W

btmoore said:


> I am not sure what to call a DVR that dosen't record correctly


An HR20! :lol:


----------



## inkahauts

I can't seem to access all the options of the autorecord feature when I am setting the HR20 up to record a search. It will not allow me to change the start or stop times. I do not have this problem when I select a program from the guide. Has anyone else had this problem?


----------



## AirShark

Count me in on the unwatchable bug in 0xEB.

Few few/minor problems until 0xEB. Tonight, Breaking Bonaduce shows up with the negative time stamp. The episode will not play.

Also, the "Native" resolution switching, which I do actually like failed to switch to the correct resolutions of a few shows. For example...Bears game, played in 1080i, ...I pause, go to another show and return to the Bears game....this time only 780p is selected.

Also, several shows pixellated and cut out audio for a few moments. Great weather, and great (low/mid 90's signal readings).

For reference:

HR20
0xEB
AT-9 Dish (60-foot run)
HDMI to a Vizio Gallevia 46' LCD.
No/few problems other than minor GUI stuff until today....about one month of use.


----------



## mrshermanoaks

Crashing crashing crashing tonight. 

Locked up about 3/4 of the way through Desperate Housewives (MPEG4) and while it was recording Without A Trace (also MPEG4), and rebooted itself. When it came back up, we were able to watch the rest of the show. A few minutes later it locked up again when the show had ended - it wouldn't delete from the prompt, hit List, and that was it. Had to force reboot that time.


----------



## Kapeman

Please tell me they are pulling the plug on this version and not releasing it.

Of course,it shouldn't bother me as my TV is on the fritz!

:nono2:


----------



## cookpr

Where are all the "check you cables" posters now??

Sounds like D* served up a doosey with this one. Please dont release this garbage nationwide. Mine isnt "that" bad with the prior update.

How D* not only cant fix this box, but continually "regresses" is beyond me...

I am not a programmer, but god, as a lenthy thread said before, we would ALL BE FIRED FOR THIS NON STOP CRAPFEST.


----------



## paulman182

I thought it was supposed to go nationwide this morning.

The fact that we don't have it, might say something.


----------



## Howie

I've had no problems at all with this latest update. It fixed the pause live TV issue. FF/Jump Back still sucks big time compared to the other HD recorder, but other than that, my box has worked great. And I expect mine is not the only one. I feel lucky getting one that works. I'm usually the guy that gets stuck in the slowest toll booth lane.


----------



## cookpr

FredMig said:


> Oops - I meant Sunday Ticket Hostage..............It's the one and only reason I'm still a D* customer.


Thats a good one...I am using that from now on, as that is what I am too...

A Sunday Ticket Hostage...:nono2: :nono2:


----------



## Earl Bonovich

paulman182 said:


> I thought it was supposed to go nationwide this morning.
> 
> The fact that we don't have it, might say something.


Never said it *WAS* going nation wide this morning. I said the decision would be made today. There are a lot of things going on right now.


----------



## rp2955

I have seen some discussion on the board around workarounds to the sunday ticket record bug...has anyone figured out something that definitely works? That is the only "bug" thus far with my current box...getting worried about this new upgrade with all the postings going on (althought it is supposed to solve the only bug I have?)

I had the browns and bengals game both recording yesterday...went to check it late last night and it was in the "deleted" bucket.


----------



## NoGoSlo

With the update, I am having far fewer problems. I still get audio dropout on MPEG4 occasionally. 

I am also having a problem with Series Link. I check the "to do" list daily to be sure, and often a show is missing. This morning I checked and one of my Series Link shows wasn't listed tonight. It is still on the list for next week. I went to Search and found it and Series Link says all episodes of this show are scheduled to recored, but it still isn't scheduled tonight. I had to add it manually.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

NoGoSlo said:


> With the update, I am having far fewer problems. I still get audio dropout on MPEG4 occasionally.
> 
> I am also having a problem with Series Link. I check the "to do" list daily to be sure, and often a show is missing. This morning I checked and one of my Series Link shows wasn't listed tonight. It is still on the list for next week. I went to Search and found it and Series Link says all episodes of this show are scheduled to recored, but it still isn't scheduled tonight. I had to add it manually.


What show? What Channel?

As for the audio drop outs, playing back recorded programs? or the live buffer?


----------



## Scrapper

Hey Earl,

Maybe we ought to come up with a simple template worksheet with all the desired info on it to make your job easier. I have noticed that you have had to replay many times for "extra" info that was not supplied when the user complained about something. I am not sure how you could work in into the forum format, maybe you have an idea with your experience, however I feel that it would help you in the long run. At least as far as database collection is concerned. If I get a chance I will whip something up and send it to you.


----------



## w84mike

Without a Trace (mpeg2 channel 81) was lost to a "partial" recording last night. I have this set up as a series link and this is the first time I've had a problem with it.

I deleted about 4 movies from MyPlaylist on Sat afternoon, then pressed Exit and the unit locked up - I had to red button reset. I hadn't had to do one of those for several weeks.

The oddest thing, though, was when I tried to watch my recording of Saturday Night Live (mpeg2 channel 83). I began watching this about a half hour after the show began. About 10 minutes in, the picture froze but the audio continued going. I FF'd a bit until I saw the picture start to change, then continued watching but a minute later the exact same thing happened. When I rewound it a bit I could see some of the picture that I had not seen before, but within 2 minutes the picture froze again while the audio continued to play. Since I had the TV set to that channel anyway, I exited the recording and went to Live TV and then rewound back to where I had begun having problems and watched the show without problem - no freezing and the trick play buttons all worked fine. After the show was over, I went back to MyPlaylist and tried watching the recording again and this time it played without problems, no picture freezing in the same spots it had frozen before. Very weird.

Things were working very well for me before this update. Something went wrong.


----------



## paulman182

Earl Bonovich said:


> Never said it *WAS* going nation wide this morning. I said the decision would be made today. There are a lot of things going on right now.


Ok, sorry about the misunderstanding.

I'm just apprehensive because mine is working so well as-is. Not one reset since the last update (and weekly lockups are the only problems I've ever had.)


----------



## Doug Brott

My wife called a bit ago and informed me that the audio simply dropped out and wouldn't come back without changing to another channel and then returning to the original channel. While I've liked the improved responsiveness of the FF, RW in 0xEB over 0xE3, my wife has clearly complained more about the newer release.


----------



## NoGoSlo

The show is Studio 60, KNTV local HD tonight.

Tghe audi dropouts are usually MPEG4 recorded shows.


----------



## DishDog

Thanks Earl, toggling worked!

I toggled CC on and off half a dozen times and it began displaying again.

It went out about the same time OxEb was downloaded and I just got it back last night.


----------



## scottrof

Christi said:


> With the Oxeb software version, I've encountered these issues:
> 
> 1) Set Chargers/Bengals game to record on local HD channel at 10am PST. At 10:15, the game was not listed on MyVOD. When I attempted to hit R from the Guide to record it, it said it was already recording. I found the recording in History, but when I selected "Watch Now", it took me to live TV. When in Live TV, the pause, rewind, etc. did not work. I rebooted the unit and was able to begin recording the game. I paused the game and when I tried to play it again, it had no audio.
> 
> 2) Several instances of pixelation and strobe-light effects on HD channels. SD channels always are fine.
> 
> :nono2:


This same thing happens to me, I had manually set the raiders/broncos game to record. Got home and it wasn't on the playlist, i could go to live tv and it'd show the game but none of the play control keys worked. I finally figured out that I could hit the 'active' button to show what was going on and cancel the recording. In the past there would have been a blank copy of the show on the play list however now there was nothing, though it was still in the Todo list.

Also, with the new software the instances of the sound cutting out has increased. It is now cutting out about 5 times per hour of tv watched.


----------



## scottrof

Since the update I can no longer hold down the ff or the 30 sec slip to get to the end of the show, nor can I hold it down to jump to the next hash/book mark.

This update seems to be a downgrade in many ways.


----------



## rlrbjr

I have been lurking here since the end of September when I ordered my HR20-700 (and an H20) and AT9 dish. Prior to the upgrade I was running the 3LNB dish (into an HR10-250 and a Samsung TS360). I replaced the HR10-250 in my main living area with the HR20-700, moved the HR10-250 to another location, and replaced the TS360 with the H20 (and turned off the TS360).

The installation was on October 20th (the day they rolled out 0xE3) since I am on the west coast my HR20-700 upgraded (almost immediately) after the installation. Since I was well aware of the issues with the HR20, I was expecting the worst and was making sure that all of our most important shows were being recorded on a backup DVR.

For the most part my experience with 0xE3 was very pleasant. I did not miss any recordings, no partial recordings, and no unwatchable recordings. I did have one time when I started the HR20 and it locked up and required a red button reboot. 

I have my HR20 connected via HDMI to a Yamaha RX-V2600 receiver and from the receiver via HDMI to a Sony SXRD televison. My HDMI experience has been good except at initial installation. The TV did not initially handshake with the HR20 so the technician connected via component until the new software was downloaded and setup. 

I decided that I liked the notion of "telling" the HR20 that it was free to do some housekeeping and wanted to turn it off (put in standby). After my initial lockup and after some reading here I was a little concerned about turning off (going into standby) the HR20. I use and MX850 remote (with an RF extender) to control my entire system. So I changed my startup macro to start the HR20 last (after a 1 second delay) which seems to have solved any issues. I now turn off my entire system when we are not viewing TV. The recording system has been working flawlessly. The only other issues have been with trick play of live TV and my experience there has been consistent with those reported here (i.e. pause then play invariably would resume live tv and not where I paused it, etc.).

I received the 0xEB update last week. Although I have not had any missed, partial or unwatchable recordings (that I know of - we still have several recordings from the end of last week that we have not tried to view yet). I have had two new issues that I did not have before this release:

1. When channel surfing I was getting the "Searching for Satellite on Tuner 2" message. When I went into Sat & Ant to view the signal strength, both tuners report pretty much the same (good) signal strength . Normally after I returned from that check the error message would go away - but not always. Saturday night I did a red button reboot and have not seen the error since (but we have not done much channel surfing since).

2. The other problem is more of an issue with the way the user interface is setup. On Friday night I was watching a recorded show and recording two shows. When I finished watching the show the HR20 offered to keep or delete (press the OK button to confirm) then you normally go into a screen that offers to stop recording (one of your shows is highlighted) - press OK to stop or press exit to view one of the active channels. Well I pressed OK to delete the show I was watching, but apparently pressed it twice so I stopped recording one of my shows. I realized what had happened and manually started recording the show again (missed about a minute). But it seems really dumb to have the default OK in this case to stop recording. Seems like a better default would just take me back to MyPlaylist.

Just a bit more information. I am in the San Francisco DMA and the main reason for my upgrade was to get the locals in HD (with the mountains here I cannot get the SF locals via OTA). About 95% of my recording has been MPEG4 locals. Although I have the same issues with MPEG4 encoding/decoding being a bit spotty, I don't see any particular correlation with MPEG4 and overall problems.

I also see most of the other minor issues reported with the GUI (pink icons, etc). Sometimes deleting a program from MyVOD/MyPlaylist did not remove it from the list.

In conclusion, my current assesment is that 0xEB is not significantly improved over 0xE3. In fact, it seems to be a little less stable that the previous version. Although I hold great hope for the HR20 (and have overall had a pretty good experience), I still don't entirely trust it and will continue to double record many shows.

Rich


----------



## avatar230

scottrof said:


> Since the update I can no longer hold down the ff or the 30 sec slip to get to the end of the show, nor can I hold it down to jump to the next hash/book mark.
> 
> This update seems to be a downgrade in many ways.


I have also seen this, but it seems to be at random. Some shows still work properly, some don't. The ones I've seen that don't have been a mixture of MPEG-2 SD & HD and MPEG-4 HD. (Sorry I don't have a more detailed list.) On other recordings, all the "skip to" features still work fine. As far as I can tell, this bug just started with 0xEB as well.


----------



## Frodtab

scottrof said:


> Since the update I can no longer hold down the ff or the 30 sec slip to get to the end of the show, nor can I hold it down to jump to the next hash/book mark.
> 
> This update seems to be a downgrade in many ways.


This now works differently, I believe. To jump to the next tick mark, you have to hold down the FF button for three seconds and then hit FF again to actually jump. I used this on the latest version last night and it works most of the time. Just holding down FF for three seconds without the second button push does not work for me.


----------



## avatar230

Frodtab said:


> This now works differently, I believe. To jump to the next tick mark, you have to hold down the FF button for three seconds and then hit FF again to actually jump. I used this on the latest version last night and it works most of the time. Just holding down FF for three seconds without the second button push does not work for me.


Are you using the DirecTV remote or a Harmony remote? The method you describe is always how it's been on the Harmony's, but not on the D* remotes. Regardless, I can confirm that since 0xEB, there have been some recordings in which the "skip to" functions do not work as expected, with no rhyme or reason whether you're doing a hold or a hold-and-tap.


----------



## purpledave

A sincere compliment to Milominderbinder2 for his excellent complilation !! That adds a lot of help after having the HR20 installed a few days ago.

I tried adding the URL where these Tips & Tricks can be found, but could not submit my post with that in it..... so here is my 2nd attempt to post.

Even after reading more than 450 posts regarding the 0xEB D* update & continuing problems with the HR20, can you believe I still had the HR20 installed?

I must be a man of Faith... and Hope. I have to admit that.... I do have my H10-250 Tivo hooked up yet on another TV.

Earl .... D* and all DBSTalk posters owe you a debt of gratitude.

Dave


----------



## Timco

Christi said:


> With the Oxeb software version, I've encountered these issues:
> 
> 1) Set Chargers/Bengals game to record on local HD channel at 10am PST. At 10:15, the game was not listed on MyVOD. When I attempted to hit R from the Guide to record it, it said it was already recording. I found the recording in History, but when I selected "Watch Now", it took me to live TV. When in Live TV, the pause, rewind, etc. did not work. I rebooted the unit and was able to begin recording the game. I paused the game and when I tried to play it again, it had no audio.
> 
> 2) Several instances of pixelation and strobe-light effects on HD channels. SD channels always are fine.
> 
> :nono2:


I have had the exact same problems you had. I tried recording the Chargers/Bengals gave and ran into the same problems.


----------



## Doug Brott

Timco said:


> I have had the exact same problems you had. I tried recording the Chargers/Bengals gave and ran into the same problems.


Hmm. I didn't have any trouble with this program. I did, pretty much watch it live until the second Chargers Series. Then I had to leave for the day and did not watch it until after it had finished recording.


----------



## jasonp5

I have the previous version, not this one, but wanted to throw out a quirk/bug that I saw last night. Not a big deal at all, but bugs are bugs...

I was recording Amazing Race at 7:00 along with 7th Heaven. I stopped the 7th Heaven recording to turn on the BEARS game. I then extended Amazing Race 1 hour because with football it seems to get bumped quite a bit...

I started watching the Bears while Amazing Race was recording (now set to record until 9:00). At 8:00 Bears game was turned off and Desperate Housewives started recording (which it was supposed), so now 2 things were recording.

Problem was this, I was never prompted that the channel was about to be changed (continue, cancel...). I normally do get this when scheduled recordings are about to happen and I am watching a different channel, so I dont know if maybe (even though it was recording it) the machine didnt recognize the extra hour for Amazing Race and therefore didn't prompt because it thought it was only recording o.ne channel at 8:00, but i found it annoying...not really sure what the deal was

I know, minor in comparison to what some of you are dealing with, but thought id throw it out there.


----------



## german72

On the Bengals/Charger game recorded.

I feel that it was a video transmission problem.

I recorded the game on both our hr-20s and had No problems.


----------



## islesfan44

No Response yesterday morning. Has anyone else had this? I watched fine on Sat. night (I have the latest update). Then I turned it off (standby). In the morning, I hit power on the remote, and the tv came on, but not the HR20. I could hear the drive working, but no response even to the power button on the front. Red reset button did nothing. I had to pull the plug and re-boot. This is the first time this has happened. I didn't have any recordings scheduled, so I don't know if it would have worked or not. It has been fins since. There were no power interruptions overnight. 

I will be happy enough if it never happens again, but any ideas why it happened?


----------



## avatar230

islesfan44 said:


> No Response yesterday morning. Has anyone else had this? I watched fine on Sat. night (I have the latest update). Then I turned it off (standby). In the morning, I hit power on the remote, and the tv came on, but not the HR20. I could hear the drive working, but no response even to the power button on the front. Red reset button did nothing. I had to pull the plug and re-boot. This is the first time this has happened. I didn't have any recordings scheduled, so I don't know if it would have worked or not. It has been fins since. There were no power interruptions overnight.
> 
> I will be happy enough if it never happens again, but any ideas why it happened?


I have had this problem with 0xEB. Unforutnately, once is started happening, it wouldn't go away. Search for my posts in this thread, and you'll see a detailed description of what I experienced with the unit both already powered on and then later in a standby state.

It got so bad on my unit that I gave up and reformatted the hard drive via "RESET EVERYTHING." So far since then (Friday evening) I have not had the HR20 lockup on one channel or refuse to power up. Partial recordings, malfunctioning trickplay, corrupted recordings and the like continue to be an issue however.


----------



## GBFAN

I am new to the forum and have had my HR20 for about 3 weeks. 

So far I have had the following problems. Recorded Criminal Minds on Nov 1st CBS Chicago. When we attempted to watch it the system locked up and no longer responded to the remote control. Had to do a push button reset. We cannot watch the recording.

I have also had other recordings that just don't play. 
The remote control for the system is overly sensitive. When you push a button, you generally get 2 of what you pushed i.e. you select channel 2 you get 22. When you try to access MyVOD you push list and it will go in and out of list without doing anything.

When we order a movie and set it to record, the system will start the screen saver at random times while viewing the movie.

The optical output of the system gets distorted at times. I have the HR20 connected to my Panasonic Plasma via HDMI and use the optical output to my surround sound. Tried using the surround sound while watching football and it sounds like the announcers are in an empty room with echo. The sound from the TV itself is fine. I have been able to correct this by doing a reset but obviously it isn't a good solution.

The fast forward and rewind of this system is very sporadic at best. I also get the pink fast forward. Using the 30 second skip is frustrating because it sometimes does 30 seconds or 60 seconds or 90 seconds, it seems to have a mind of its own.

The system appears to work ok for a receiver but the DVR functionality is junk compared to the standard DVR receiver that I had until we upgraded to HD.


----------



## davidord

larcar said:


> Just wondering if anyone who has the new update and had caller id problems if it is fixed or not? I have had this issue since day one and the last 3 updates did not fix it. I am in Ohio and I will check tomorrow if I got the latest update to see if it took care of the caller id problem on my unit.


My caller ID was working on the E3 update. But, it rarely works with EB. I get the message to call your telephone company...


----------



## scottrof

Frodtab said:


> This now works differently, I believe. To jump to the next tick mark, you have to hold down the FF button for three seconds and then hit FF again to actually jump. I used this on the latest version last night and it works most of the time. Just holding down FF for three seconds without the second button push does not work for me.


I think part of the problem might be that i'm using an MX-500 remote, I have the skip and FF programmed in via the learn, however it looks like when you train it there's a different command being sent originating in the remote when it's held down vs just pressed quickly. (Just a guess) So holding down the slip or FF on the mx-500 doesn't send the same command as the regular control.


----------



## Zamps

davidord said:


> My caller ID was working on the E3 update. But, it rarely works with EB. I get the message to call your telephone company...


Caller ID works for me but it doesn't show up until the second ring. So I end up running to the phone before voice mail picks it up.

Has anyone in the Midwest received the update yet? I'm still waiting (WI).


----------



## grate88

My trick play is non-existant with this update. That is the only major bug for me right now. I knew I wanted to opt out of this one - Always one good/one bad with the updates for me. Last one was great for me.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

I posted this as it's own thread but I wanted to put it here as well since I've never seen this before...

Days Of Our Lives was set to record (SD local - Sacramento, CA) as part of a series link... Only 18 minutes recorded, FF all the way through, it just stops at the end of 18 minutes of playback and asks me if I want to delete. History marks it as partial. 

HR-20 has since missed The Elen Degeneres show at 3pm...

I returned from my weekend trip just in time for tonight’s shows EXCEPT... I have "What About Brian" (first run and part of an SL) set to record tonight on ABC (HD - MPEG4). It's only 5:48pm on the left coast so the show hasn’t aired yet but my HR-20 is showing an "X*" (that's a solid circle with an X through it).

When I look at the History it tells me that it won’t record. Won’t record, huh?

Has anyone else seen this error? What the heck does it mean? It is a first run tonight, my wife verified that...

Wow, I just found another issue. My HR-20 now acts as though it only has 1 tuner working… Like someone disconnect the coax led into the HR-20…

- Details about my install (since I know there will be questions).

- 4 coax leads come from the Dish into a junction box INSIDE the house. No multiswitch needed or connected, just barrel connectors between the leads from the Dish to the actual rooms.

- Barrel connectors are in a secure location and have NOT been tampered with.

- R-15 in room 2 is showing over 90% on each tuner… HR-20 in room 1 is showing over 90% on tuner 1 and nothing on tuner 2.

Any thoughts??? Went into the junction box and checked wiring, everything looks fine and is completely tightened.


----------



## avatar230

Radio Enginerd said:


> I posted this as it's own thread but I wanted to put it here as well since I've never seen this before...
> 
> Days Of Our Lives was set to record (SD local - Sacramento, CA) as part of a series link... Only 18 minutes recorded, FF all the way through, it just stops at the end of 18 minutes of playback and asks me if I want to delete. History marks it as partial.
> 
> HR-20 has since missed The Elen Degeneres show at 3pm...
> 
> I returned from my weekend trip just in time for tonight's shows EXCEPT... I have "What About Brian" (first run and part of an SL) set to record tonight on ABC (HD - MPEG4). It's only 5:48pm on the left coast so the show hasn't aired yet but my HR-20 is showing an "X*" (that's a solid circle with an X through it).
> 
> When I look at the History it tells me that it won't record. Won't record, huh?
> 
> Has anyone else seen this error? What the heck does it mean? It is a first run tonight, my wife verified that...
> 
> Wow, I just found another issue. My HR-20 now acts as though it only has 1 tuner working&#8230; Like someone disconnect the coax led into the HR-20&#8230;
> 
> - Details about my install (since I know there will be questions).
> 
> - 4 coax leads come from the Dish into a junction box INSIDE the house. No multiswitch needed or connected, just barrel connectors between the leads from the Dish to the actual rooms.
> 
> - Barrel connectors are in a secure location and have NOT been tampered with.
> 
> - R-15 in room 2 is showing over 90% on each tuner&#8230; HR-20 in room 1 is showing over 90% on tuner 1 and nothing on tuner 2.
> 
> Any thoughts??? Went into the junction box and checked wiring, everything looks fine and is completely tightened.


The circle-with-the-X means it has a conflict with a higher priority show. Now, if you only have one working tuner, maybe it will only take one show with a higher priority than WHAT ABOUT BRIAN to cancel that record. Why you got a partial record of DAYS is very interesting... Usually the partial records are due to a software bug, but they end up deleting themselves... And I'm guessing you didn't have a higher priority show starting 18 minutes into DAYS OF OUR LIVES?

If it were me, I would plug the run that's going into the "bad" tuner into the one that's working. Then, if you get no signal anywhere, you know it's a bad line. If you do get a signal, then you know one of the HR20 tuners crapped out.


----------



## Crash Pilot

Zamps said:


> Caller ID works for me but it doesn't show up until the second ring. So I end up running to the phone before voice mail picks it up.
> 
> Has anyone in the Midwest received the update yet? I'm still waiting (WI).


I am still waiting. The West Coast must be the official beta testers now. :lol: 
I don't mind so much because unless someone can tell me different, I don't see much with this release. I am soooo ready for the OTA antenna! :grin:


----------



## hobbes

0xE3, but an interesting one...

Watching MPEG4 recording of 11/13 Heroes. Went Black Screen of Death at around 45 minutes in when attempting to come out of FF3. (I think I may have 6-second rewinded out, but I don't specifically recall.)

Anyway, box was locked up in the BSOD, so in a last ditch attempt to get control back (without leaving the couch ), I hit the power button on the remote.... the box responded by running a red-button reset on its own.

Called up myVOD and watched the rest of Heroes no issue... went to delete Heroes in MyVOD after and found 3 programs that were deleted previously back in the list (one from 11/6, 2 from 11/9, all SD).

The one from 11/6 was a full recording of 10 Years Younger from TLC (the wife likes it)... It appeared in the list as previously watched (grayer type) played back with no problem.

One of the 11/9's was What Not To Wear from TLC(wife again)... that was a 1 minute partial that appeared as never watched.

The last was CSI on CBS local, also a 1 minute partial that appeared as never watched. Actually, now that I think about it, I do remember stopping this recording about a minute in to watch Rutgers-Louisville. (Was recording something else and knew I had CSI backed up on my "old" 40G DirecTivo.)


----------



## Twosted

Crash Pilot said:


> I am still waiting. The West Coast must be the official beta testers now. :lol:
> I don't mind so much because unless someone can tell me different, I don't see much with this release. I am soooo ready for the OTA antenna! :grin:


You don't want it. Trust me, this has caused me nothing but problems.


----------



## cyberchino

I have the latest update and my observations are summarized below:
1. Had an instance where I set the Bears game last night to record and when I returned home the game was still in the to do list and didn't record. History did not have any indication of a recording attempt.
2. Raiders game recorded and the mpeg4 recording has a strange bug where the rewind/FF features are jerky. In fact, when I rewind the recording it automatically jumps to 2x speed. We've never had a clean recording on our local CBS recordings.
3. We've had to red button reset a total of 4 times over the weekend so I'd say general stability issues for sure in this release. 
4. NFLST Game Mix functionality didn't work. I lost the ability to highlight different games.


----------



## Twosted

Well all is just and good in the land of 0xEB tonight. Recorded everything I asked it to and they all played back fine. Never lost trickplay functions. I had audio dropout while watching Heros live. But if I backed up the buffer and watched it from there it was fine. All in all it was a good night. Maybe the hard reset put it back on track.


----------



## avatar230

Twosted said:


> Well all is just and good in the land of 0xEB tonight. Recorded everything I asked it to and they all played back fine. Never lost trickplay functions. I had audio dropout while watching Heros live. But if I backed up the buffer and watched it from there it was fine. All in all it was a good night. Maybe the hard reset put it back on track.


By some miracle, I went 10-for-10 on 0xEB recordings today. No partials, nothing funky that I could find. Also, since the "RESET EVERYTHING" reformat I did on Friday night, I have not experienced the lockups I had every day for the first 3-and-a-half days of EB-based use. Somehow or another, running EB from a "clean" state has been a lot more stable than running it over existing installs of previous versions.


----------



## UncD2000

Someone over at AVS Forum has posted that a D* tech advised him that 0xEB has been reformatted and will be sent out to Central and Eastern time zones early Wednesday AM. We'll see in 24 hours or so.


----------



## btmoore

avatar230 said:


> By some miracle, I went 10-for-10 on 0xEB recordings today.


Now your are cursed. !danger:


----------



## Earl Bonovich

UncD2000 said:


> Someone over at AVS Forum has posted that a D* tech advised him that 0xEB has been reformatted and will be sent out to Central and Eastern time zones early Wednesday AM. We'll see in 24 hours or so.


Can you post a link to that.

Reformatted? If they do release 0xEB today... (which based on conversations last night, is a possibility, but has not been decided)

They have the "next" version, completing it's testing cycle which may also go out later this week.


----------



## machavez00

what about mountain time? last update Az was on PDT and I did not see it until 10/21. They must be sending them out based on zip or DMA


----------



## NoGoSlo

I do have the software download from last week. I got up this morning and no HD Locals. Blank black screen. Did a red button reset and didn't change. I do have the other HD channels (70's), and non-HD locals.

I think I measured the signal strength okay. What satellite and transponders should I see the HD locals?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

NoGoSlo said:


> I do have the software download from last week. I got up this morning and no HD Locals. Blank black screen. Did a red button reset and didn't change. I do have the other HD channels (70's), and non-HD locals.
> 
> I think I measured the signal strength okay. What satellite and transponders should I see the HD locals?


There is something else going on...
Others in your area have reported similar issues, but not necessarily tied to the 0xEB


----------



## rlockshin

I recorded on ABC local here in Cleveland and yellow light lit,program was in my VOD ,yet it would not play. All programs showed up in my VOD. 
It happened 3 times on the same channel over a 24 hour period.
I did a red button reset and problem went away. After reset all 3 programs disappeared from my VOD. Very strange!!!!
Thoughts?
Also I spke to DTV and new software will be released to rest of country at 1:30 am PST on 11/15


----------



## btmoore

rlockshin said:


> I recorded on ABC local here in Cleveland and yellow light lit,program was in my VOD ,yet it would not play. All programs showed up in my VOD.
> It happened 3 times on the same channel over a 24 hour period.
> I did a red button reset and problem went away. After reset all 3 programs disappeared from my VOD. Very strange!!!!
> Thoughts?
> Also I spke to DTV and new software will be released to rest of country at 1:30 am PST on 11/15


That is the unwatchable bug.

See 
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=69951
and
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=70034


----------



## Radio Enginerd

avatar230 said:


> The circle-with-the-X means it has a conflict with a higher priority show. Now, if you only have one working tuner, maybe it will only take one show with a higher priority than WHAT ABOUT BRIAN to cancel that record. Why you got a partial record of DAYS is very interesting... Usually the partial records are due to a software bug, but they end up deleting themselves... And I'm guessing you didn't have a higher priority show starting 18 minutes into DAYS OF OUR LIVES?
> 
> If it were me, I would plug the run that's going into the "bad" tuner into the one that's working. Then, if you get no signal anywhere, you know it's a bad line. If you do get a signal, then you know one of the HR20 tuners crapped out.


 Thanks for the tip... I did 2 red button resets and the tuner issue seems to have cleared itself, I didn't touch the wiring at all...

I'm coming to the conclusion that Tuner 2 had an issue either before or during Days of our Lives (nothing else was set to record - 1pm PST so no conflict) that caused a chain reaction that then caused Elen Degeneres (set to record via SL @ 3pm on tuner 1??? ). Odd that this issue would cause a missed recording for Elen at 3pm (nothing conflicted at that time) and tuner 1 appeared to be working when I arrived home at 5pm PST.

I'd definitely like to chalk this up as a BUG!


----------



## NoGoSlo

Thanks Earl. It is fixed now. Since this wasn't a 0xEB issue, where should I have posted it?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

NoGoSlo said:


> Thanks Earl. It is fixed now. Since this wasn't a 0xEB issue, where should I have posted it?


Here was fine, as you had know way of knowing.

On occasion, you will find someone else has started a thread specifically for that reason.


----------



## UncD2000

Earl Bonovich said:


> Can you post a link to that.


The last sentence in Post #482 in this thread has the same info and gives the exact time (which the AVS post did not).


----------



## avatar230

Yesterday, btmoore had an excellent post about the partial bug in progress.

This morning, I noticed a very similar set of circumstances. I had the following recordings scheduled:

1. DOG WHISPERER on National Geographic @ 7:00
2. NEW YORK STORIES on HDNet Movies @ 7:15
3. DOG WHISPERER on National Geographic @ 7:30

I noticed at about 7:25 that only the first DOG WHISPERER had appeared in the Playlist. NEW YORK STORIES was missing, although tuning to HDNet Movies showed an orange progress bar. By the time I grabbed my camera to document the problem, it was after 7:30 and we were into the second DOG WHISPERER.

Here are some screen caps. First, the PLAYLIST. You can see DOG WHISPERER is listed but NEW YORK STORIES is not:










Next, the TO DO LIST. You can see both DOG WHISPERER and NEW YORK STORIES were set to record. Only DOG WHISPERER actually as the RECORD icon lit next to it:










Finally, tuning to HDNet Movies, you see that the orange bar is active on the NEW YORK STORIES screen, but the record icon is still not next to the title. Trick play was completely inoperative. Pressing RECORD or STOP did nothing to change states:










I couldn't wait around for the movie to end, but I'm sure when I get home tonight, I'll find this recording listed as "PARTIAL" in my Playlist.

One observation: btmoore & myself were both trying to record two shows at once, in both cases an SD broadcast and an HD broadcast. In both cases, it was the HD broadcast that went sour. I don't know if that's just a coincidence or not. Last night, I did successfully record both THE TONIGHT SHOW and LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN off my MPEG-4 locals, and both played back fine this morning, so it's not something that happens every time two recordings are scheduled.

Thoughts? Earl, any word on whether this is something D* thinks they've got a handle on for the post-EB release?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

avatar230 said:


> Thoughts? Earl, any word on whether this is something D* thinks they've got a handle on for the post-EB release?


I have not heard it specifically mentioned for the version that is currently in testing.


----------



## btmoore

avatar230 said:


> Yesterday, btmoore had an excellent post about the partial bug in progress.
> 
> This morning, I noticed a very similar set of circumstances. I had the following recordings scheduled:
> 
> ...
> 
> I couldn't wait around for the movie to end, but I'm sure when I get home tonight, I'll find this recording listed as "PARTIAL" in my Playlist.
> 
> One observation: btmoore & myself were both trying to record two shows at once, in both cases an SD broadcast and an HD broadcast. In both cases, it was the HD broadcast that went sour. I don't know if that's just a coincidence or not. Last night, I did successfully record both THE TONIGHT SHOW and LATE NIGHT WITH DAVID LETTERMAN off my MPEG-4 locals, and both played back fine this morning, so it's not something that happens every time two recordings are scheduled.
> 
> Thoughts? Earl, any word on whether this is something D* thinks they've got a handle on for the post-EB release?


It is nice to see the independent conformation. Thanks for posting this and taking pictures. This looks exactly like the Partial bug in process. FYI the unwatchable bug acts very similar, the only exception is it looks like it is recording normally from the list, todo and history, but none of your trick plays will work during the live recording. I think they may share the same root cause, something goes wrong at the creation of the recording of the stream and then you are toast.


----------



## btmoore

Earl Bonovich said:


> I have not heard it specifically mentioned for the version that is currently in testing.


Do they acknowledge this bug?


----------



## avatar230

Earl Bonovich said:


> I have not heard it specifically mentioned for the version that is currently in testing.


Follow-up question for you. I've looked over the "Power the Dish" thread from yesterday with great interest. In your opinion, do you think the power issues described in that thread could in anyway be contributing to the partial/unwatchable bugs in the HR20 or are these merely software-driven issues?

Personally speaking, all my runs are less than 100 feet, and I've never seen the 771 error. I also only have my HR20 and and R10 and no other receivers, so power-wise, I had never worried...


----------



## jkc120

avatar230 said:


> Thoughts? Earl, any word on whether this is something D* thinks they've got a handle on for the post-EB release?


This is exactly what happened with Heroes for me yesterday! Although in this case, it was the only show set to record.

a) it didn't show up in the guide as being recorded, BUT
b) the unit DID tune to that channel
c) the todo list showed it
d) the record light wasn't on until I exited the other show I was watching and it went to the NBC channel heroes was on

I think btmoore is right, I was seeing the partial bug in progress! And note that I was not recording anything else, this was the only thing being recorded. I had set the Monday Night Football showing to record, but it was set to stop at 9.


----------



## btmoore

I have noticed if you get hit with the partial bug and there is a second showing the HR20 might record that second showing if it is set up as a pass. Regardless the original partial will be listed in the history. I think the HR20 knows it did not record successfully that program and it will try to reschedule. Of course this does not help for shows that are not series or are only shown once.


----------



## avatar230

jkc120 said:


> This is exactly what happened with Heroes for me yesterday! Although in this case, it was the only show set to record.
> 
> a) it didn't show up in the guide as being recorded, BUT
> b) the unit DID tune to that channel
> c) the todo list showed it
> d) the record light wasn't on until I exited the other show I was watching and it went to the NBC channel heroes was on
> 
> I think btmoore is right, I was seeing the partial bug in progress! And note that I was not recording anything else, this was the only thing being recorded. I had set the Monday Night Football showing to record, but it was set to stop at 9.


I'm assuming from your location you get Sacramento locals? And I assume btmoore receives San Francisco locals. Maybe this bug is program-driven. Did anyone in either San Francisco or Sacramento *successfully* record HEROES last night using an HR20???


----------



## jkc120

btmoore said:


> I have noticed if you get hit with the partial bug and there is a second showing the HR20 might record that second showing if it is set up as a pass. Regardless the original partial will be listed in the history. I think the HR20 knows it did not record successfully that program and it will try to reschedule. Of course this does not help for shows that are not series or are only shown once.


Another note on the partial thing. After a red button reset, the unit WILL start recording the show properly. So, if you happen to be in front of the unit when it's supposed to be recording something and you notice this behavior, a reboot may salvage the last N-7 minutes of the show  Although if you have two things set to record, it's questionable whether you'd rather lose the first 7 minutes of both shows, or the entire second show.


----------



## avatar230

btmoore said:


> I have noticed if you get hit with the partial bug and there is a second showing the HR20 might record that second showing if it is set up as a pass. Regardless the original partial will be listed in the history. I think the HR20 knows it did not record successfully that program and it will try to reschedule. Of course this does not help for shows that are not series or are only shown once.


I assume with the "unwatchable" bug, the unit wouldn't schedule a re-record as, with the recording in the Playlist, it assumes it behaved admirably.


----------



## btmoore

jkc120 said:


> This is exactly what happened with Heroes for me yesterday! Although in this case, it was the only show set to record.
> 
> a) it didn't show up in the guide as being recorded, BUT
> b) the unit DID tune to that channel
> c) the todo list showed it
> d) the record light wasn't on until I exited the other show I was watching and it went to the NBC channel heroes was on
> 
> I think btmoore is right, I was seeing the partial bug in progress! And note that I was not recording anything else, this was the only thing being recorded. I had set the Monday Night Football showing to record, but it was set to stop at 9.


I have seen the partial and unwatchable bug when only one program was being recorded. I think it is a coincidence or perhaps it might increase the odds (assuming it is a IO or CPU constraint issue) that you will get a partial or unwatchable bug when you are recording 2 things at the same time. I think something goes wrong in the initialization process for setting up the stream to record, if something goes wrong in that process, that recording will have the unwatchable or partial bug.


----------



## jkc120

avatar230 said:


> I'm assuming from your location you get Sacramento locals? And I assume btmoore receives San Francisco locals. Maybe this bug is program-driven. Did anyone in either San Francisco or Sacramento *successfully* record HEROES last night using an HR20???


There is a whole thread/poll about that, and yes there are folks on the same locals that recorded it ok  My friend at work has the HR20 and is on the same locals, and his HR20 recorded it fine.

I still think most of these problems are related to signal fluxuations or feed problems, which trip up the HR20, which is not written to properly handle boundary or error situations well.


----------



## btmoore

avatar230 said:


> I assume with the "unwatchable" bug, the unit wouldn't schedule a re-record as, with the recording in the Playlist, it assumes it behaved admirably.


Correct, the scheduler thinks everything is OK so there is no need to reschedule.


----------



## jkc120

btmoore said:


> I have seen the partial and unwatchable bug when only one program was being recorded. I think it is a coincidence or perhaps it might increase the odds (assuming it is a IO or CPU constraint issue) that you will get a partial or unwatchable bug when you are recording 2 things at the same time. I think something goes wrong in the initialization process for setting up the stream to record, if something goes wrong in that process, that recording will have the unwatchable or partial bug.


That makes sense. I was watching an MPEG4 recording as Heroes was supposed to start, so perhaps the live buffer on the 2nd tuner was on an MPEG4 channel. So:

tuner 1: on NBC HD (Heroes)
tuner 2: on ??? (another HD channel)
playback: MPEG4 HD recording

Even if the unit is not recording a show, it's still "recording" a 90-minute live buffer. So I wonder if you're not right and it has something to do with 3 HD feeds being processed at the same time.


----------



## avatar230

jkc120 said:


> Another note on the partial thing. After a red button reset, the unit WILL start recording the show properly. So, if you happen to be in front of the unit when it's supposed to be recording something and you notice this behavior, a reboot may salvage the last N-7 minutes of the show  Although if you have two things set to record, it's questionable whether you'd rather lose the first 7 minutes of both shows, or the entire second show.


Very interesting! From this, we can gather that whatever is causing the bug occurs at the head of the program, and if it's going to happen, you're essential doomed from the start. I've noticed that even with "native" off, tuning to a new channel sometimes takes a couple of seconds for the feed to lock in correctly. Perhaps the partial/unwatchable bugs are caused by the recorder attempting to start before it has a "healthy" feed?

Can anyone report an instance of the partial/unwatchable bug on a show when the tuner used in that recording had been parked on the channel in question from before the time the show started? i.e. Maybe HEROES would've recorded correctly for you guys last night if that tuner had been parked on DEAL OR NO DEAL before HEROES started airing?


----------



## Howie

avatar230 said:


> I'm assuming from your location you get Sacramento locals? And I assume btmoore receives San Francisco locals. Maybe this bug is program-driven. Did anyone in either San Francisco or Sacramento *successfully* record HEROES last night using an HR20???


I have it in my Playlist, but I haven't had a chance to see if it recorded successfully. I may run home at my lunch hour and check it out. I'll let you know.


----------



## btmoore

jkc120 said:


> Another note on the partial thing. After a red button reset, the unit WILL start recording the show properly. So, if you happen to be in front of the unit when it's supposed to be recording something and you notice this behavior, a reboot may salvage the last N-7 minutes of the show  Although if you have two things set to record, it's questionable whether you'd rather lose the first 7 minutes of both shows, or the entire second show.


I have tried this with in process unwatchable bugs, If you are able to disengage the tuner by making sure the other tuner is occupied and change the channel thus canceling the recording, you will be able to go back and manually start recording that program again. This is faster than rebooting and you won't loose your guide data.


----------



## btmoore

jkc120 said:


> There is a whole thread/poll about that, and yes there are folks on the same locals that recorded it ok  My friend at work has the HR20 and is on the same locals, and his HR20 recorded it fine.
> 
> I still think most of these problems are related to signal fluxuations or feed problems, which trip up the HR20, which is not written to properly handle boundary or error situations well.


I don't think they are signal issues, I think something goes wrong in the initialization process to start recording a stream. Once this goes wrong, your done, I say this because all the trick plays will fail in the live stream, under both the unwatchable and partial bug scenarios. What ever kind of preamble activity happens, something goes wrong and the HR20 no longer knows how to deal with that stream even if you are watching it live.


----------



## avatar230

btmoore said:


> I don't think they are signal issues, I think something goes wrong in the initialization process to start recording a stream. Once this goes wrong, your done, I say this because all the trick plays will fail in the live stream, under both the unwatchable and partial bug scenarios. What ever kind of preamble activity happens, something goes wrong and the HR20 no longer knows how to deal with that stream even if you are watching it live.


So in your opinion, for a user who always seems to be receiving healthy signals from the sats and doesn't see 771 errors, you would discount the "POWER THE DISH" thread from yesterday (insert powered multiswitches in the line to remove burden from the receivers/DVRs) as a potential solution for partial/unwatchable recordings?


----------



## btmoore

avatar230 said:


> Very interesting! From this, we can gather that whatever is causing the bug occurs at the head of the program, and if it's going to happen, you're essential doomed from the start. I've noticed that even with "native" off, tuning to a new channel sometimes takes a couple of seconds for the feed to lock in correctly. Perhaps the partial/unwatchable bugs are caused by the recorder attempting to start before it has a "healthy" feed?
> 
> Can anyone report an instance of the partial/unwatchable bug on a show when the tuner used in that recording had been parked on the channel in question from before the time the show started? i.e. Maybe HEROES would've recorded correctly for you guys last night if that tuner had been parked on DEAL OR NO DEAL before HEROES started airing?


I can tell you, if you have a set of programs on the same channel that are scheduled back to back and the first one in that set has the unwatchable bug, the following will also suffer the same fate.

See http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=69951 these were all schedule to record back to back and they all have the unwatchable bug.

I have also seen a Partial followed by a Unwatchable see http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=67998&highlight=unwatchable
Here I was recording Meet the Press (Partial) followed by Chris Mathews (Unwatchable) both from my local MPEG4.


----------



## LameLefty

> I don't think they are signal issues, I think something goes wrong in the initialization process to start recording a stream.


I think you're onto something generally, but I don't believe you should totally discount a transient signal issue (whether caused by the local feed, the multiswitch in the dish or externally, the wiring, or even bird poo on your dish. I agree that something going wrong when initializing the recording is quite possibly the root cause, but that "something" could just as well be an improperly-formatted data frame mishandled by the HR20. After all, it's very clear that some of these bugs are caused by faulty assumptions about conditions and/or improper state-checking (such as the DD bug); why isn't it possible that a data stream glitch might be the "unchecked state" that throws the HR20 for a loop here?


----------



## mrshermanoaks

Earl,

I'm seeing fairly consistent audio dropout in the first few seconds of a recorded program in 0xEB from my HD local recordings (which I assume are MPEG4 in LA). Doesn't affect anything else, really. But consistent and a little annoying.


----------



## avatar230

btmoore said:


> I can tell you, if you have a set of programs on the same channel that are scheduled back to back and the first one in that set has the unwatchable bug, the following will also suffer the same fate.
> 
> See http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=69951 these were all schedule to record back to back and they all have the unwatchable bug.
> 
> I have also seen a Partial followed by a Unwatchable see http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=67998&highlight=unwatchable
> Here I was recording Meet the Press (Partial) followed by Chris Mathews (Unwatchable) both from my local MPEG4.


Thanks for the links. Just to confirm, what you haven't seen is a functional-followed-by-unwatchable bug for a series of one-channel-based recordings? Has anyone seen this occur? i.e. You set DEAL OR NO DEAL, HEROES and STUDIO 60 to all record back-to-back. Has anyone seen the partial/unwatchable bug occur only on one of the last two shows?


----------



## btmoore

avatar230 said:


> So in your opinion, for a user who always seems to be receiving healthy signals from the sats and doesn't see 771 errors, you would discount the "POWER THE DISH" thread from yesterday (insert powered multiswitches in the line to remove burden from the receivers/DVRs) as a potential solution for partial/unwatchable recordings?


I can't discount 100% but I think it is more likely the HR20 may be trying to execute critical preamble activities asynchronously and may be failing and/or there is a sequencing or construction error in what ever headers they are making and thus some critical setup data is becoming malformed and the HR20 no longer knows how to deal with that recording or even the active stream correctly.

I do know my signal strengths are very good for all transponders on both tuners across all birds, at most I see a 2 point difference on any one transponder across both tuners. My cable is all copper core RG/6 and is ~ 80 feet with compression fitting.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

avatar230 said:


> Thanks for the links. Just to confirm, what you haven't seen is a functional-followed-by-unwatchable bug for a series of one-channel-based recordings? Has anyone seen this occur? i.e. You set DEAL OR NO DEAL, HEROES and STUDIO 60 to all record back-to-back. Has anyone seen the partial/unwatchable bug occur only on one of the last two shows?


I have had that exact combination setup on one of my HR20's

Deal Or No Deal of my MPEG-2 SD feed (save the space on the drive)
Heroes then Studio 60 on the MPEG-4 feeds

I also have How I Met your Mother, and for a while I had CSI:MIAMI

No partials on any of them.


----------



## crockett

I had the "beginnings" of the partial bug this weekend. I finally caught one live. The program wasn't really recording, even though the HR20 sort of thought it was and all the buttons like FWD, REV, etc. would not work.

I want to confirm that a red button reset did work and the unit recovored gracefully and immediately started recording the program and all the trick play buttons worked and at the end it saved properly. I lost about 1/2 of the game. I should add that I'm still on the old firmware but it appears this bug is identical in both so I thought I'd mention it here.

An interesting note for any programmers who may be reviewing this thread. I watched the reset the entire way through and thought it was odd that the yellow record button remained lit through the entire reset. It never went out until the football game was over about 2 1/2 hours later.

This also makes me question another thing. Are progammers actually reading these threads? The reason I ask is because I believe it was confirmed that firmware OxE3 introduced the dolby ON/OFF bug and it has now been confirmed that OxEB didn't correct it.

I'm a programmer and if a firmware release introduces a new bug we are all over that bug because obviously we coded something new that introduced an unforseen bug and it could have just as easily introduced more unforseen bugs. We'll definately zero in on that "newly introduced" bug and it get corrected. And even more importantly a lot of times correcting these newly introduced bugs will be "keys" or let us "see" things in a light we haven't previously thought about. They can sometimes open up HUGE doors for us. It really concerns me that the Dolby bug wasn't corrected.

The only explanation I can think of (besides them not monitoring these threads) is that they discovered that firmware OxE3 didn't introduce that bug and it was always there, it just got noticed during this release and hence they decided it was a low priority issue and they would save fixing it for a later date.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

crockett said:


> This also makes me question another thing. Are progammers actually reading these threads? The reason I ask is because I believe it was confirmed that firmware OxE3 introduced the dolby ON/OFF bug and it has now been confirmed that OxEB didn't correct it.


There are times that the "next" version, goes into testing soon after "a" version goes to the public. Some sometimes a problem found in one version, isn't fixed in the next one, based on the timing.

As for this bug... it is on the list of items corrected, in the version that is currently in testing.


----------



## avatar230

Earl Bonovich said:


> I have had that exact combination setup on one of my HR20's
> 
> Deal Or No Deal of my MPEG-2 SD feed (save the space on the drive)
> Heroes then Studio 60 on the MPEG-4 feeds
> 
> I also have How I Met your Mother, and for a while I had CSI:MIAMI
> 
> No partials on any of them.


This would seem to support the theory that the partial/unwatchable bug is caused by something going wrong in the first few moments of the tune-to-a-new-station/start recording sequence...


----------



## btmoore

LameLefty said:


> I think you're onto something generally, but I don't believe you should totally discount a transient signal issue (whether caused by the local feed, the multiswitch in the dish or externally, the wiring, or even bird poo on your dish. I agree that something going wrong when initializing the recording is quite possibly the root cause, but that "something" could just as well be an improperly-formatted data frame mishandled by the HR20. After all, it's very clear that some of these bugs are caused by faulty assumptions about conditions and/or improper state-checking (such as the DD bug); why isn't it possible that a data stream glitch might be the "unchecked state" that throws the HR20 for a loop here?


If the issues was more isolated to me and I had transponder strength issues, I would lean more towards a cable or dish potential. The behavior looks to be tightly coupled with the data set initialization process, while it is possible that their might be some abnormality in the incoming data stream, the amount of error correction in the sat data protocols and my strong transponder strengths, lead me to think that the problem is more likely a data set construction issue.


----------



## Doug Brott

avatar230 said:


> I'm assuming from your location you get Sacramento locals? And I assume btmoore receives San Francisco locals. Maybe this bug is program-driven. Did anyone in either San Francisco or Sacramento *successfully* record HEROES last night using an HR20???


I recorded Heroes without incident on two different HR20s with SF MPEG4. The one I normally record it on is not connected to my SlingBox and a friend of my from Australia wanted to watch it live since he was home from work (sick). I actually queued the program up at 9:45pm from the List and it played exactly as expected.


----------



## forklifter

I still havent got the upgrade am I the only one or are there others yet Im just curious


----------



## avatar230

forklifter said:


> I still havent got the upgrade am I the only one or are there others yet Im just curious


It has never been released past the Pacific time zone.


----------



## btmoore

brott said:


> I recorded Heroes without incident on two different HR20s with SF MPEG4. The one I normally record it on is not connected to my SlingBox and a friend of my from Australia wanted to watch it live since he was home from work (sick). I actually queued the program up at 9:45pm from the List and it played exactly as expected.


Avatar230 is out of LA, I am SF and I know there was someone else in Folsom, each of us have different locals. LA ~ 8 hour drive, Folsom ~ 3 hour drive from SF.

I think is a flip of the coin if you get his with this, the bugs happen on SD, HD nationals and HD locals, SD, mpeg2 and mpeg4.


----------



## MasMic

Earl,

For some reason I think you mentioned that Wednesday is the day that decisions are usually made as far as releasing updates. Is that correct? I'm just hoping for an update soon as us non-West coasters haven't gotten anything in 3 1/2 weeks.

I would imagine there are others out there that feel like I do when an update is issued. It's like getting a present that you hope you'll like. I'm positive there's no 30 second skip, pretty certain that OTA won't be there yet, but maybe someting cool. I hope I haven't broken a rule by asking about this.



Earl Bonovich said:


> There are times that the "next" version, goes into testing soon after "a" version goes to the public. Some sometimes a problem found in one version, isn't fixed in the next one, based on the timing.
> 
> As for this bug... it is on the list of items corrected, in the version that is currently in testing.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

You haven't broken any rules.

There is no "set day" of the week that they make the decision.
They try to avoid the ends of the week, hence why Wednesday is a popular day for the releases.

As of right now, I haven't seen a thumbs or thumbs down on if EB is going to go national or not, let alone if it is going to tonight.

Doesn't mean it won't happen, I just haven't gotten an update since last night.


----------



## btmoore

Earl Bonovich said:


> There are times that the "next" version, goes into testing soon after "a" version goes to the public. Some sometimes a problem found in one version, isn't fixed in the next one, based on the timing.
> 
> As for this bug... it is on the list of items corrected, in the version that is currently in testing.


Earl you state that the Dolby Bug is listed in the next version of the code. Is there anything about the unwatchable or partial bug?

If not can you please check with your D* contacts to confirm that they have at least acknowledged this as a bug. Ideally let us know if this is identified as a fix in the next release.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

btmoore said:


> Earl you state that the Dolby Bug is listed in the next version of the code. Is there anything about the unwatchable or partial bug?
> 
> If not can you please check with your D* contacts to confirm that they have at least acknowledged this as a bug. Ideally let us know if this is identified as a fix in the next release.


I can tell you for certain, they know the bug exists. 0xEB does contain a fix for one of the causes they identified for it. But obviously there must more causes for the same issue. I have not seen any indication that the next version will contain any "silver bullet" fix for the partial issue...


----------



## islesfan44

avatar230 said:


> I have had this problem with 0xEB. Unforutnately, once is started happening, it wouldn't go away. Search for my posts in this thread, and you'll see a detailed description of what I experienced with the unit both already powered on and then later in a standby state.
> 
> It got so bad on my unit that I gave up and reformatted the hard drive via "RESET EVERYTHING." So far since then (Friday evening) I have not had the HR20 lockup on one channel or refuse to power up. Partial recordings, malfunctioning trickplay, corrupted recordings and the like continue to be an issue however.


ARRRGH, it happened again this morning!


----------



## jlancaster

forklifter said:


> I still havent got the upgrade am I the only one or are there others yet Im just curious


I was told by a level 2 tech that 1:30 am tomorrow all time zones will get the EB update. I was calling on an unrelated problem with my hr10 and he gave me the retention # with a pin number good for 5 days. I didn't end up needing to use it. Should I post it or no?


----------



## avatar230

islesfan44 said:


> ARRRGH, it happened again this morning!


The bad news is that it's happening to you. The good news is that doing a "RESET EVERYTHING" has kept the HR20 from doing this again in my case. (The other bad news being that "RESET EVERYTHING" is going to erase your entire hard drive, all your series links, et cetera.) Since it had been happening every 12 to 24 hours since the download on Wednesday, and I've been clean since a reset on Friday, I think it's safe to say the reformat is a "fix."

Earl: hate to put so much of the burden on communication with D* on your shoulders, but I just want to make sure if they're still considering a national EB release, they're aware there's some percentage of machines wherein EB installed _over_ E3 seems to send the units into a state of perpetual lockups. The good news being that at least in my instance, the re-format shows that EB can run as stably as E3, but doesn't perform well when it's dealing with remnants of the old version.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

avatar230 said:


> Earl: hate to put so much of the burden on communication with D* on your shoulders, but I just want to make sure if they're still considering a national EB release, they're aware there's some percentage of machines wherein EB installed _over_ E3 seems to send the units into a state of perpetual lockups. The good news being that at least in my instance, the re-format shows that EB can run as stably as E3, but doesn't perform well when it's dealing with remnants of the old version.


As of last night, yes they are still considering it.


----------



## spolaski

Has anyone else had any problems with the screen format changing by itself? While watching a recording of "Dogfights" from 269 HIST while fast forwarding the screen would change formats to pillar box from crop and vice versa. 

At one point it changed to some sort of hybrid of pillar box and crop with the screen image being zoomed in and the image scrunched horizontally. (this looks like when a 16:9 format movie is shown on a 4:3 screen without letterboxing with all the people looking like Manute Bol. The format button would work erratically; I was able to get the image normal again by FF and RW back and forth several times.

I don't know if this is an 0xEB issue or not, but I never saw it with previous software versions.

Just for reference:

HR20
Panasonic 52" rear projection lcd
Video mode 1080i (all other resolutions disabled)


----------



## avatar230

Earl Bonovich said:


> As of last night, yes they are still considering it.


Well, best of luck to everyone in the rest of the country if they do it. If I were a betting man, I would say with 99% certainty that they're going to see a lot more of these unexplained lockups such as islesfan44 and myself among other have been reporting. Having experienced four days of this problem before finally reformatting, I can say it is by far the most head-ache-inducing nightmare I've seen with the HR20 yet.

When the unit goes sour, you don't just wind up with one or two or four partial or unwatchable recordings, you miss whole days (unless you're home to babysit and do tons of hard resets). I'm confident the root cause of my meltdown was the upgrade of EB dealing unsuccesfully with data created by E3 and other previous versions.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Do you have Native Mode enabled?

If so, it is probably related to the same issues they have seen while FF


----------



## Jolliec

I kinda figured that this might be the issue with one of my units. I was having so many issues I cannot even begin to list them all. 

I finally re-formatted it and it has been flawless ever since. I tried the "reset everything" menu option (more than once), this only seemed to temporarily fixed "some" of the issues. 

I really hope that this update does not make me re-format my box(es) again. Quite a drag losing all of my stuff.

Commence holding breath...


----------



## Tom Robertson

btmoore said:


> I don't think they are signal issues, I think something goes wrong in the initialization process to start recording a stream. Once this goes wrong, your done, I say this because all the trick plays will fail in the live stream, under both the unwatchable and partial bug scenarios. What ever kind of preamble activity happens, something goes wrong and the HR20 no longer knows how to deal with that stream even if you are watching it live.


And this sounds consistent with some of the analysis of the DD indicator reversals; ie where the code sets a flag but doesn't verify or wait for the confirmation (or a timing issue allows the code to think it had done something that actually hadn't completed.) If this is a common programming technique used in the code-base, it would cause lots of intermittent, hard to reproduce defects.

Cheers,
Tom


----------



## avatar230

Jolliec said:


> I kinda figured that this might be the issue with one of my units. I was having so many issues I cannot even begin to list them all.
> 
> I finally re-formatted it and it has been flawless ever since. I tried the "reset everything" menu option (more than once), this only seemed to temporarily fixed "some" of the issues.
> 
> I really hope that this update does not make me re-format my box(es) again. Quite a drag losing all of my stuff.
> 
> Commence holding breath...


Just to confirm, you used a reformat method different from "RESET EVERYTHING"? What was the procedure you did use?


----------



## spolaski

Earl Bonovich said:


> Do you have Native Mode enabled?
> 
> If so, it is probably related to the same issues they have seen while FF


Native mode is off - i'll search for the other thread - obviously I'm not the only one seeing this.

Steve


----------



## Earl Bonovich

spolaski said:


> Native mode is off - i'll search for the other thread - obviously I'm not the only one seeing this.
> 
> Steve


Can you post some of the links to that, as I don't recall seeing that bug listed before... (I do try to read them all... but I just can't any more)

My guess is that it is still related to the same sub-function in the code.


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## spolaski

I misunderstood you. From your earlier reply I thought that this was a previously reported bug and I was off looking for the post on it.

As far as I know I'm the only one to report it. I think I still have the recording on my HR20 - I'll see if I can recreate when I get home and provide more detail.

Oops - editing this post because there is a thread that seems to be on point.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=69821&highlight=zoom


----------



## Howie

avatar230 said:


> Well, best of luck to everyone in the rest of the country if they do it. If I were a betting man, I would say with 99% certainty that they're going to see a lot more of these unexplained lockups such as islesfan44 and myself among other have been reporting. Having experienced four days of this problem before finally reformatting, I can say it is by far the most head-ache-inducing nightmare I've seen with the HR20 yet.
> 
> When the unit goes sour, you don't just wind up with one or two or four partial or unwatchable recordings, you miss whole days (unless you're home to babysit and do tons of hard resets). I'm confident the root cause of my meltdown was the upgrade of EB dealing unsuccesfully with data created by E3 and other previous versions.


I hope you're not a betting man, because I have had no problems whatsoever with EB, and I don't think I'm the only 1 out of 100 without problems. Why? I don't know. One thing that has crossed my mind is that I have very short cable runs from the dish to the box - less than 30 feet, including the WB68 multiswitch. That might not have anything to do with my good luck at all, but it is the only thing that I can see that might be different in my setup than in some of the other people that are having all the problems. I have never had the partial recording bug in any of the software iterations. There was one release over a month ago, I forget which, where I had 4 or 5 BSOD's during the week, but that is the only release that has given me any problems to speak of. And I use HDMI and the BBC's are still attached. Go figure.


----------



## avatar230

Howie said:


> I hope you're not a betting man, because I have had no problems whatsoever with EB, and I don't think I'm the only 1 out of 100 without problems. Why? I don't know. One thing that has crossed my mind is that I have very short cable runs from the dish to the box - less than 30 feet, including the WB68 multiswitch. That might not have anything to do with my good luck at all, but it is the only thing that I can see that might be different in my setup than in some of the other people that are having all the problems. I have never had the partial recording bug in any of the software iterations. There was one release over a month ago, I forget which, where I had 4 or 5 BSOD's during the week, but that is the only release that has given me any problems to speak of. And I use HDMI and the BBC's are still attached. Go figure.


Glad to hear your system is working so well, and it's interesting and perhaps noteworthy how short your cable runs are. To clarify, I said -- and I stand by my statement -- that I'm 99% certain we'll see *more* of these lockups, *not* that 99 out of 100 people will have them. It's clear from this forum that I was in the minority of users there, but I wasn't the only one and the release has only gone to a third of the country.


----------



## btmoore

Howie said:


> I hope you're not a betting man, because I have had no problems whatsoever with EB, and I don't think I'm the only 1 out of 100 without problems. Why? I don't know. One thing that has crossed my mind is that I have very short cable runs from the dish to the box - less than 30 feet, including the WB68 multiswitch. That might not have anything to do with my good luck at all, but it is the only thing that I can see that might be different in my setup than in some of the other people that are having all the problems. I have never had the partial recording bug in any of the software iterations. There was one release over a month ago, I forget which, where I had 4 or 5 BSOD's during the week, but that is the only release that has given me any problems to speak of. And I use HDMI and the BBC's are still attached. Go figure.


you are screwed now, you are destined to have a rash of unwatchables and partial recordings.


----------



## davidord

Howie said:


> I hope you're not a betting man, because I have had no problems whatsoever with EB, and I don't think I'm the only 1 out of 100 without problems. Why? I don't know. One thing that has crossed my mind is that I have very short cable runs from the dish to the box - less than 30 feet, including the WB68 multiswitch. That might not have anything to do with my good luck at all, but it is the only thing that I can see that might be different in my setup than in some of the other people that are having all the problems. I have never had the partial recording bug in any of the software iterations. There was one release over a month ago, I forget which, where I had 4 or 5 BSOD's during the week, but that is the only release that has given me any problems to speak of. And I use HDMI and the BBC's are still attached. Go figure.


I haven't had any major recording problems or crashes yet with this release either. However, caller ID is not working properly, but that is minor.


----------



## Howie

btmoore said:


> you are screwed now, you are destined to have a rash of unwatchables and partial recordings.


Yeah, I was wishing I had that post back just as soon as I hit enter.:grin:


----------



## Howie

avatar230 said:


> Glad to hear your system is working so well, and it's interesting and perhaps noteworthy how short your cable runs are. To clarify, I said -- and I stand by my statement -- that I'm 99% certain we'll see *more* of these lockups, *not* that 99 out of 100 people will have them. It's clear from this forum that I was in the minority of users there, but I wasn't the only one and the release has only gone to a third of the country.


Ah, I did take your post to mean that 99% of the people that get the release will experience problems. To quote Gilda Radner from the original SNL, "Well, that's very different. Never mind."


----------



## rsblaski

MasMic said:


> Earl,
> 
> For some reason I think you mentioned that Wednesday is the day that decisions are usually made as far as releasing updates. Is that correct? I'm just hoping for an update soon as us non-West coasters haven't gotten anything in 3 1/2 weeks.


Be careful what you wish for--you just might get it!


----------



## btmoore

Howie said:


> Ah, I did take your post to mean that 99% of the people that get the release will experience problems. To quote Gilda Radner from the original SNL, "Well, that's very different. Never mind."


Howie, I think the big bugs like unwatchable and partial are a bit random in their occurrence, I went a few days with no unwatchables, and for a while I thought maybe they fixed the problem, on Sunday, wham, I was hit with 5 unwatchables in a row. I think it is sort of a game of Russian roulette, the more you play the higher the odds are you are going to get shot in the head.

I would bet the bug is on your system, but you and others have been lucky not to get shot. I wish you continued luck avoiding the bullet.


----------



## avatar230

btmoore said:


> Howie, I think the big bugs like unwatchable and partial are a bit random in their occurrence, I went a few days with no unwatchables, and for a while I thought maybe they fixed the problem, on Sunday, wham, I was hit with 5 unwatchables in a row. I think it is sort of a game of Russian roulette, the more you play the higher the odds are you are going to get shot in the head.
> 
> I would bet the bug is on your system, but you and others have been lucky not to get shot. I wish you continued luck avoiding the bullet.


Especially with the partials, it's easy to overlook them even when they do happen if you're not regularly checking your recording history. I notice if an episode of a once-a-week network show (STUDIO 60, for instance) doesn't record, but if it skips a DOG WHISPERER or SUNRISE EARTH or another cable show that's on several times a day, I'm not liable to notice unless I'm actually poking around the History page.


----------



## btmoore

avatar230 said:


> Especially with the partials, it's easy to overlook them even when they do happen if you're not regularly checking your recording history. I notice if an episode of a once-a-week network show (STUDIO 60, for instance) doesn't record, but if it skips a DOG WHISPERER or SUNRISE EARTH or another cable show that's on several times a day, I'm not liable to notice unless I'm actually poking around the History page.


That was my experience at first too, I thought I was loosing my mind because I was sure I set the program up to record. It started to drive me nuts and so I started digging into what was going on.


----------



## Jolliec

avatar230 said:


> Just to confirm, you used a reformat method different from "RESET EVERYTHING"? What was the procedure you did use?


Yes, I followed the steps in this thread.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=69185

A reset everything does not reformat the drive, it apears to just reset box requiring the setup process to be run again. SL's and shows will be intact.

If you check out the thread you will see I posted that it did not work when in fact it did erase my Shows/SL's. I was expecting the guided setup to begin, so I kept trying this over and over thinking it was not working.

I think the key to knowing when you can release the down arrow + record is when the record light illuminates RED for `2-3 seconds.

I have made notes below.

*****************************************************************
Instructions for doing a FULL FORMAT (you lose all settings and recordings). This will attempt to clean and prepare your hard drive:

1. Press the red reset button

2. You wll see the "Hello Welcome to DIRECTV" screen.

3. Then you will see the "Almost There" screen.

4. When you see the "Almost There" screen, on the HR20 front panel, PRESS and HOLD DOWN (at the same time) the RECORD button and THE DOWN ARROW button, until you see the "Hello Welcome to DIRECTV" screen (Note: the box will reboot during this time, this is normal).

Note: When the record light illuminates RED for `2-3 seconds, release the buttons.

5. DO NOT unplug/reset or interrupt power at this time! The estimated wait time until you see the "Hello Welcome" screen after pressing and holdingdown the Record & Down Arrow buttons could take UP TO TWO MINUTES. Average time is 1 minute.

6. At this point the box has rebooted and the drive has been reformatted.

7. Then you should see the 1st guided setup scree, the language selection screen, in about 5 to 6 minutes.

Note: When I followed these steps, my HR20 did not go thru the guided setup process. Just MyVOD and SL's were empty. HR20 restarts after this step. No guided setup begins.

Note: Done

8. Continue installing as normal

Hope this helps.


----------



## avatar230

Jolliec said:


> Yes, I followed the steps in this thread.
> 
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=69185
> 
> A reset everything does not reformat the drive, it apears to just reset box requiring the setup process to be run again. SL's and shows will be intact.


First off, thanks for the detailed instructions. This is great info to have.

That said, my experience did differ from yours a bit. When I did a "RESET EVERYTHING" Friday night from 0xEB, it *did* erase everything on the HD including all recorded shows, series links, favorites, et al. Were you doing the reset from EB, E3 or another version?


----------



## Jolliec

Not 100% sure. But thought was from E3. I do not have EB yet. I am East Coast. It never made sense why they would call it "Reset Everything" to me when it did not  Guess they finally fixed that bug too.


----------



## avatar230

Jolliec said:


> Not 100% sure. But thought was from EB.


Are you located in Maryland? (Forgive me if I'm getting state abbreviations wrong.) If so, I think you're probably on a previous version of the release, most likely E3. And if that's the case, it's good to know that D* has changed the function of "RESET EVERYTHING" in EB so that it really does reset everything, including the hard drive.


----------



## cjordan6

I am in Los Angeles, and I received the update. I had to reboot the other night as the record light was on, but the unit would not power up. THe reboot fixed the problem (although it missed two recordings that night). I am still having PPV issues. I have bought movies via the website, I am able to watch them, but when I check the recording the next day, the movie is listed, but a black screen only plays -- not the movie. Is this planned to be fixed? Does this have anything to do with my machine is not hooked into a phone line?


----------



## avatar230

cjordan6 said:


> I am in Los Angeles, and I received the update. I had to reboot the other night as the record light was on, but the unit would not power up. THe reboot fixed the problem (although it missed two recordings that night). I am still having PPV issues. I have bought movies via the website, I am able to watch them, but when I check the recording the next day, the movie is listed, but a black screen only plays -- not the movie. Is this planned to be fixed? Does this have anything to do with my machine is not hooked into a phone line?


I believe this might be an example of the lockup-while-in-standby or lockup/frozen-on-one-station bug that myself and a number of users in this forum have reported. (See posts by w6fxj, islesfan and me among others.) I presume you're on EB and this is the first time you've seen the problem? The only solution I found was to "RESET EVERYTHING," clearing my hard drive, as the lockup kept reoccuring. Since then, 0xEB has worked reasonably well. (Still have had a few partial recordings.)

As for the PPV issues, I'm not sure, though this sounds a lot like the good old "unwatchable" bug that's been persistent for a while now.


----------



## Doug Brott

avatar230 said:


> Especially with the partials, it's easy to overlook them even when they do happen if you're not regularly checking your recording history. I notice if an episode of a once-a-week network show (STUDIO 60, for instance) doesn't record, but if it skips a DOG WHISPERER or SUNRISE EARTH or another cable show that's on several times a day, I'm not liable to notice unless I'm actually poking around the History page.


After reading this message, I decided to go and check both of my HR20s to see if there were any partials in the history. I had 63 history items on one HR20 and 60 on the other. I did find 2 partials, and there may or may not be some relation to the problem you guys are experiencing, but in my case it was human error that contributed to an indeterminate situation. I had 1st set a series link on an MPEG4 channel and then removed the channel from my custom list. The program recorded, then was not on the list, but was listed as partial. This actually happened to two different programs with Series links set up on that channel.

Other than those two partials, everything else was cancelled, Deleted or Recorded just as I would expect. This is just another data pont, because clearly there are problems with partials.


----------



## AirShark

Well, new bug(s), at least for me with OxEB:

Unit will not power on VIA the remote or front panel button. Reset fixed this.

While using the "skip back" and "fast forward" buttons, the aspect ratio is fluttering between 4:3 and 16:9 if the program source is in 16:9.


----------



## Intex

A NEW PROBLEM!
Now starting last nite the H20 was set to record CSI and Studio 60. It showed that it was recording it, and today when I checked in my playlist, they were both there. When I went to play each one, it showed 60 minutes recorded, but after 3 minutes of playing, the "DO YOU WANT TO DELETE" message came up. Any ideas on this problem?


----------



## btmoore

brott said:


> After reading this message, I decided to go and check both of my HR20s to see if there were any partials in the history. I had 63 history items on one HR20 and 60 on the other. I did find 2 partials, and there may or may not be some relation to the problem you guys are experiencing, but in my case it was human error that contributed to an indeterminate situation. I had 1st set a series link on an MPEG4 channel and then removed the channel from my custom list. The program recorded, then was not on the list, but was listed as partial. This actually happened to two different programs with Series links set up on that channel.
> 
> Other than those two partials, everything else was cancelled, Deleted or Recorded just as I would expect. This is just another data pont, because clearly there are problems with partials.


In my mind, you shouldn't see a partial in your history unless you have created partial recording on your hard drive, either you created a partial recording manually (starting and stopping a recording manually), stopped a recording in process or something like a power loss caused a recording to stop mid recording.


----------



## btmoore

Intex said:


> A NEW PROBLEM!
> Now starting last nite the H20 was set to record CSI and Studio 60. It showed that it was recording it, and today when I checked in my playlist, they were both there. When I went to play each one, it showed 60 minutes recorded, but after 3 minutes of playing, the "DO YOU WANT TO DELETE" message came up. Any ideas on this problem?


Nice, that is a new one I have not seen. Have you tried to jump over it by either holding down the FF or 30 sec slip?

I tried watching a recording made under 0xe3 on 0xeb which hung up about 3 min in, I was only able to get past it by using the advance to end and then rewinding back to right before the 3 min mark.


----------



## Doug Brott

btmoore said:


> In my mind, you shouldn't see a partial in your history unless you have created partial recording on your hard drive, either you created a partial recording manually (starting and stopping a recording manually), stopped a recording in process or something like a power loss caused a recording to stop mid recording.


Agreed to the point that a power loss or other failure of that sort would cause a "partial." Likely partial is a catch-all message which is why it shows up as such. A partial should still be on the List, though. In my case an indeterminate situation existed (I've chosen a series link recording on a channel I chose not to receive). What does the machine decide? The right answer really should be ALWAYS keep content that is recorded and force the user to delete it if the machine cannot make a technically correct answer. In this case, i think the programmers overlooked this situation and the code is willy-nilly making the decision (read: uninitialized variable).


----------



## Intex

I tried to fast forward beyond the 3 min mark, but it just stops at the mark. I will see if I can advance to the end, then back-track, have to find what button does that.


----------



## Intex

Nope, Didn't work! Just 3 minutes are viewable!


----------



## ODiN91

mrshermanoaks said:


> Earl,
> 
> I'm seeing fairly consistent audio dropout in the first few seconds of a recorded program in 0xEB from my HD local recordings (which I assume are MPEG4 in LA). Doesn't affect anything else, really. But consistent and a little annoying.


I see this too... I'm also in LA.


----------



## scottrof

I had a new thing happen tonight.

I'm in the SF market. Tonight at 8 I had two programs recording on the SF local HD stations. Standoff on fox and Friday Night Lights on NBC 11.

I got home at about 8:40 and decided to check and see if the shows were actually recording. So I went to the list and saw that it showed both recording. 

I selected Standoff and was able to start watching from the start. I was also able to FF, RW, etc... So far so good.

So I go to Friday Night Lights. It plays and it seemed to not have recorded from the beginning. I also was not able to FF or use any of those controls. And on the bottom left of the play button where it usually displays how far in to the program you are it had 10am and then to the right of that it had "-3:-24". As i watched it got down as far as "-3:-20".

Then I figure maybe I could exit out to the live feed and perhaps be able to rewind in the buffer. So I went out to the live feed and as soon as I hit rewind the Info on the current show changed on the info bar and the play bar to show the info for the local news which had been on at 6pm. it showed starting at 6pm and ending at 7pm and the time bar was blank except for a little green at the far right end. But despite the blank timeline i could rewind all the way to the beginning of the show that was supposed to be taping (friday night lights). 

I kept rewinding to the beginning of the show which turned out to be about 45 minutes worth, I was confused at first because I didn't realize the part of the show I watched in the Playlist was actually 45 minutes in to the show, basically what had been on live when I pressed play on the List.

Then when 9 rolled around and the two tuners changed their channels to get what they were scheduled to record at 9 the buffer was pulled out from under me and I lost the entire show. The playlist thinks it's only a few seconds long and if I go in and try to watch it I am asked if I want to delete it because there is nothing there.

This is different from the blank screen recordings of which i've had many.

Jeers to DirecTV for cutting ties with tivo. I had a DTV/Tivo for 5 years and probably only missed 2 or 3 shows due to this kind of stuff and in 3 weeks I've had 7 shows flat out not record or record the black screen.

Cheers to DirecTV. One of the shows that did not record was Desperate Housewives, that show is so bad but my wife insists on watching it. Perhaps not having this week's show will get her to give it up.

This system is a joke.


----------



## banthes

I have had the 3 minute blank recordings and most of the other bugs everyone else has had. I am in the CST, so I havent received the new update. Today was the first time my trick buttons went dead on me. Strange this would appear now. What I have noticed is all my blank recordings have been on the local channels. I cant remember when a non-local channel didnt record and play correctly. 
I was time recording Desperate Housewives and decided to see if it was actually recording, and it seemed to be so I pressed play (it was about 15 minutes into the recording) and got the black screen recording. After about 10 seconds the pictured suddenly appeared and I watched it through to the end. When my wife decided to watch it, the black screen recording wouldnt go away. I tried everything I could to make it appear to no avail. I believe the bad recordings are recording most of the time, we just cant activate them. I called tech the other day and he tried to get me to force an update (02468). After a few minutes he realized it wasnt released for the CST yet. He then asked me to check and see if I could play the bad recordings after I reinstalled the old upgrade. Worth a try I guess. Didnt work. He then informed me that when i get the update around the 15th, if the bad ones dont play, call tech back and they will walk me through reformatting the hard drive. Has anyone done this with the new version and did it work?
I'm glad I kept my Direct Tivo on my other TV.


----------



## avatar230

brott said:


> Agreed to the point that a power loss or other failure of that sort would cause a "partial." Likely partial is a catch-all message which is why it shows up as such. A partial should still be on the List, though. In my case an indeterminate situation existed (I've chosen a series link recording on a channel I chose not to receive). What does the machine decide? The right answer really should be ALWAYS keep content that is recorded and force the user to delete it if the machine cannot make a technically correct answer. In this case, i think the programmers overlooked this situation and the code is willy-nilly making the decision (read: uninitialized variable).


I could be wrong about this, but my understanding is that the custom channel lists have no actual bearing on whether or not the HR20 will consider a given channel "safe" to record on. (This is NOT the way the "Channels I Receive" lists functioned on DirecTiVos, which controlled both channel surfing through the guide and what channels were kosher for recording.) As an example, in my custom list, I have all the NBC feeds turned off except my MPEG-4 local. That said, I am still able to type in "83" on the remote control and tune to the old MPEG-2 NBC-HD West Coast feed (I'm in Los Angeles.) As a second test, I also just set up a series link for STUDIO 60 off this MPEG-2 channel 83 that acts fully independently of the existing series link I have on my MPEG-4 local.

This is a very long way of saying that I don't think whether you added or removed a channel from a custom list has any bearing on what should or should not record. The shows you have in your history listed as "partial" should've showed up in the playlist. You say they never did, and the recording history just notes, again, "partial." This is, by definition, the "partial bug."


----------



## avatar230

AirShark said:


> Well, new bug(s), at least for me with OxEB:
> 
> Unit will not power on VIA the remote or front panel button. Reset fixed this.
> 
> While using the "skip back" and "fast forward" buttons, the aspect ratio is fluttering between 4:3 and 16:9 if the program source is in 16:9.


If you search through this thread, you'll see the "unit not powering on" problem is becoming reported more and more frequently. I think this is tied in with a similar bug where a unit, left on, locks on one channel and stops responding to remote commands. Either way, if this unit behaves the way a few others have, the problem may keep re-occurring. If it does, the only fix that seems to have worked is to "RESET EVERYTHING" -- reformatting the HD, erasing series links, et cetera. I had this problem occur to me last week, and have been fine since I performed a reformat last Friday night.


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## avatar230

Got home tonight and checked the HR20 History for any suspicious looking activity. Confirmed that NEW YORK STORIES, which had appeared problematic this morning when I was leaving for work at 7:30, was indeed listed as "partial." At first, I was encouraged because no other partials had occurred today, and I figured 1 bad egg out of 8 recordings wasn't *so* bad.

Then I noticed that DAN RATHER REPORTS -- which I had setup as a one-time recording off of HDNet just to check out the premiere -- was listed as *cancelled*. The show aired at 5pm today. Nothing else was recording or was scheduled to record at 5pm. Neither I nor my girlfriend cancelled this episode by hand. So why was it cancelled? Again, this recording was not setup as a Series Link. I had just selected to record this one particular episode directly out of the guide. Anyone seen this before?


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## Doug Brott

avatar230 said:


> This is a very long way of saying that I don't think whether you added or removed a channel from a custom list has any bearing on what should or should not record. The shows you have in your history listed as "partial" should've showed up in the playlist. You say they never did, and the recording history just notes, again, "partial." This is, by definition, the "partial bug."


These recordings were with 0xE3, not 0xEB. I agree with you that they should be on the list (common sense rule). However, I'm not shocked by the fact that it happened in my case. All of my other recordings have worked flawlessly. I have since added my MPEG4 channel back into the custom list and my program (House) recorded as expected. Again, I'm not saying partial is right, I'm just saying that in my case it is clear as day what is causing it to happen with 0xE3.

I have not tried to duplicate this with 0xEB, so my experience may have already been corrected with the most recent release. The partial bug that you guys are seeing appears to have a different origin.


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## avatar230

brott said:


> These recordings were with 0xE3, not 0xEB. I agree with you that they should be on the list (common sense rule). However, I'm not shocked by the fact that it happened in my case. All of my other recordings have worked flawlessly. I have since added my MPEG4 channel back into the custom list and my program (House) recorded as expected. Again, I'm not saying partial is right, I'm just saying that in my case it is clear as day what is causing it to happen with 0xE3.
> 
> I have not tried to duplicate this with 0xEB, so my experience may have already been corrected with the most recent release. The partial bug that you guys are seeing appears to have a different origin.


Again, I could be wrong, but I really respectfully disagree that the partial bug btmoore & I are harping on and what you're describing have different origins. I think your modification of a custom channel list is more of a coincidence than anything else, but to paraphrase a great thinker, "That's just, like, my opinion, man."

At any rate, your post is a good indication that a lot more of these "partials" may be floating around than anyone -- D* included -- is aware of. Unlike the unwatchables, I think the partials are often sort of out-of-sight/out-of-mind, but in the end no less troubling.


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## avatar230

I urge users of every version of the software to do a quick read and click through to the post about "intelligent padding."

An interesting correlation can perhaps be drawn out of this with regards to the partial/unwatchable bugs a lot of people are reporting. btmoore noted in this forum earlier today that if you have a series of shows recording off of one channel back-to-back and the first show in that series is hit by either the partial or unwatchable bug, all subsequent shows on the same channel will also suffer the bug...

The "intelligent padding" would seem to me to indicate the HR20 can record long continuous pieces of raw media and then make multiple "subclips" of said media (essentially just data fields, in and out points referring to the actual media file) and break one file up into several shows in the Playlist. (Anyone who'se used Final Cut Pro or Avid should understand the concept.)

The reason I bring this up is that if my theory about one media stream existing for a series of sequential recordings on the same channel is correct, it supports btmoore's theory that the partials/unwatchables are caused by some kind of failure at said stream's initialization.

For example: you record HEROES and STUDIO 60 back-to-back. You're dismayed to see HEROES listed as a partial recording. You're more dismayed to see that immediately following it, STUDIO 60 is listed as a partial recording. My theory goes that this is because HEROES & STUDIO 60 was recorded as one media stream in the HR20 and that said stream corrupted at the start of HEROES, rendering the entire clip unusable.

Perhaps not the most concrete piece of conjucture in the world, but it is more anecdotal evidence that whatever is causing the partial/unwatchable bugs to occcur is happening *at recording initialization.*


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## AirShark

avatar230 said:


> ...the only fix that seems to have worked is to "RESET EVERYTHING" -- reformatting the HD, erasing series links, et cetera.


I hope it doesn't come to that. I think that would hurt my electronic soul to have to do that. Seriously....even in the most "alpha" software release from TiVo....not that I would have any knowledge of that ;-)....have I had any problems like these in six+ years of TiVo-loving.


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## skierbri10

Cannot series link on any local channels, Mpeg4 SD. 

Had a slight pixelation due to rain and now I cannot get rid of the damn screensaver. (I will continue to trump on this) and searching for satellite eventhough now there is adequate sat strength and I am watching live tv.

This is getting tiring.


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## AirShark

Ummmmm..>SURPRISE!

Heading off to bed, but noticed my HR20 was downloading new software. (Already had 0xEB)

"New Software Found (00EF)" "78/000C/00EB/02/0110"

Earl....What's up???


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## Vinny

I woke up at 5:30 AM in NY; turned TV on, and had Black Screen. I did a red button reset and everything came back; but still running 0xe3. 

What's up with that?


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## AirShark

Vinny said:


> I woke up at 5:30 AM in NY; turned TV on, and had Black Screen. I did a red button reset and everything came back; but still running 0xe3.
> 
> What's up with that?


I'm about as west coast as you can get.....seems that they roll the updates out there first if history is any indicator.


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## DVRaholic

AirShark said:


> I'm about as west coast as you can get.....seems that they roll the updates out there first if history is any indicator.


Wish they would start with East coast once in a while!
Its been Over 3 weeks since our update. (10/20)

Hopefully we will get it soon, My 500GB hard drive is running out of space, 
at least the HR20 thinks it is


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## rlockshin

I waas told by Level 2 tech support that update would go out this morning.
It did not,what gives?
Earl?
Thanks


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## hasan

rlockshin said:


> I waas told by Level 2 tech support that update would go out this morning.
> It did not,what gives?
> Earl?
> Thanks


It did, to the west coast...and it is a newer one yet...0xEF! So they guy was right, just had the wrong portion of the country! Nothing in Iowa as of this morning, and we get it before the east coast, so it may be a while.


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## Coffey77

Sitting here in Chicago with nothing better to do than complain. No updates as of this post.


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## hasan

From what I've been reading, I'm not so sure D* didn't do us a favor and not get EB to us. Let's see if EF looks any better (if it gets here). 

As the old saying goes, "Be careful what you ask for, you just might get it."


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## mak

I'm still at oxac here in the med west.


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## sigma1914

I'll gladly wait for updates. EB didn't seem too good, as evident with today's EF release.


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## irie4ja

sigma1914 said:


> I'll gladly wait for updates. EB didn't seem too good, as evident with today's EF release.


 As was told by support that all updates where to be avail is between the 9th an 14th of November. She also stated there are 2 more updates coming in January 2007. I still have not gotten the latest release here in Chicago?? was going on??
lots of FREEZE UP in the VOD list last night. HAD TO RESET TWICE


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## Earl Bonovich

0xEB national is being skipped.

0xEF is now rolling out to the Pacific timezone.
If all is fine, you can expect 0xEF to go national possible with in 48 hours.

Since everyone with 0xEB is now receiving 0xEF..
This thread is closed


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