# R15: Issues (104B/10D3) Freezing/Crash/Recordings



## Earl Bonovich

Okay...

Only 1 thread to cover the following:
-) Freezing (unit locks up)
-) Crahses (the unit simply crashes)
-) Missed Recordings (Series Link, Individuals, ect....)

This thread is only for
R15-300 - 104B
R15-500 - 10D3


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## UoPSlave

I did not see anywhere else that I could post this, but I wanted to bring up what I noticed on 10D3.
The CID is almost fixed. If I clear the CID log in the menu, the first two calls I receive show up on screen as it should. Each subsequent calls give me the 'call your local phone company message.' This will happen until I clear the call log again, then the same process.
Other than this, I have no issues with the R15 & the current software. Thank you.


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## Bobman

I dont have this update yet but does anyone who does feel that its OK now to increase the SL's to 40+ or even max them out to 50 ? I know some keep them under 30 to avoid slowdowns and/or other problems.

With the new TV season starting I need to increase both my R-15's SL's.

Also any word on when the limits will be removed or increased ?


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## troop72

Got 10D3 on 8/2/06.

DVR functions have been mostly inoperative since then. Menu's have been really sluggish.
Trick play quits working. Programs set to records do not record. Programs recorded months ago do not play.

Have red-button reset many times and even done reset all from menus and formatted the harddrive from the front panel. Features then work for a while (exact time undertermined) then they go back to Gumbyland.

Called D* today and they said I am due for another s/w release on 8/30/06.
Since I am going on vac I will wait for the upgrade to see what happens next...

Will let you know...


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## carl6

10D3 lockup - My wife turned on the TV and DVR and switched to a movie channel we do not subscribe to. At that point, we could not change channels at all. I could bring up the guide, but could not change to any channel.

Did a red button reset, and all appears to be okay.

This DVR had the 10D3 forced a few days ago, and I just got it automatically on my other R15 overnight last night, so this one may also have been updated again overnight. Don't know for sure.

Carl


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## Earl Bonovich

troop72 said:


> Got 10D3 on 8/2/06.
> 
> DVR functions have been mostly inoperative since then. Menu's have been really sluggish.
> Trick play quits working. Programs set to records do not record. Programs recorded months ago do not play.
> 
> Have red-button reset many times and even done reset all from menus and formatted the harddrive from the front panel. Features then work for a while (exact time undertermined) then they go back to Gumbyland.
> 
> Called D* today and they said I am due for another s/w release on 8/30/06.
> Since I am going on vac I will wait for the upgrade to see what happens next...
> 
> Will let you know...


If you are on 10D3... there is no other software update in the hopper... especially one next week on the 30th...

If a format hasn't cleared it up, you may have a system that is having a hardware failure.


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## Ric

On the latest software - just got my R15. So far:

Skipped Series recording for 4400 (at least in To Do list) - I manually added it
last night went to watch BB and or Eureka about 9:30 - R15 had a black screen but audio played. Nothing was recorded but status showed that it was recording programs (I guess just the sound since I hit the power button). Hit Reset and things came back.
Since I missed Eureka - I set a manual record for midnight - it did record. When playback today, it stopped playing on its own and went to live TV. I was able to go back to and restart from the beginning of the recorded show.

So about a week and that's my experience so far - only about 5 shows set as autorecord or series recordings...

(Haven't sold my UTV just yet!!)


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## rbpeirce

Ric said:


> On the latest software - just got my R15. So far:
> 
> Skipped Series recording for 4400 (at least in To Do list) - I manually added it
> last night went to watch BB and or Eureka about 9:30 - R15 had a black screen but audio played. Nothing was recorded but status showed that it was recording programs (I guess just the sound since I hit the power button). Hit Reset and things came back.
> Since I missed Eureka - I set a manual record for midnight - it did record. When playback today, it stopped playing on its own and went to live TV. I was able to go back to and restart from the beginning of the recorded show.
> 
> So about a week and that's my experience so far - only about 5 shows set as autorecord or series recordings...
> 
> (Haven't sold my UTV just yet!!)


Jeez. This sounds just like my experience with 1047 on the R15-300, especially the part about only recording for a few minutes. I had hoped 104B would solve the problem. This isn't looking good!


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## Bobman

Ric said:


> On the latest software


Are you sure you have 10d3 ? From what I have seen it has not hit your area yet.


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## carl6

R15-500, 10D3 software. DVR would not turn on. Appeared totally dead, but fan was running (hardwired on) so I knew it had power and power supply was working.

Did a red button reset. Nothing. Dead.
Did a power cycle - unplug, wait 30 sec, plug. Nothing. Dead.
Repeated both of the above a couple of times. Nothing. Dead.

So, I hit the red button, waited about 5 seconds then pushed and held down arrow and record (clear and delete reset). Unit did boot back up and came back to life. Furthermore, it did not clear and delete - myVOD was still there.

Carl


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## Earl Bonovich

carl6 said:


> R15-500, 10D3 software. DVR would not turn on. Appeared totally dead, but fan was running (hardwired on) so I knew it had power and power supply was working.
> 
> Did a red button reset. Nothing. Dead.
> Did a power cycle - unplug, wait 30 sec, plug. Nothing. Dead.
> Repeated both of the above a couple of times. Nothing. Dead.
> 
> So, I hit the red button, waited about 5 seconds then pushed and held down arrow and record (clear and delete reset). Unit did boot back up and came back to life. Furthermore, it did not clear and delete - myVOD was still there.
> 
> Carl


Carl,

Have you run your hard drive through a disk scan?
Given the over heating, and now this crash.... is it possible that you may have some bad sectors on that thing?


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## Tgrim1

I was having slow/sluggish behavior issues so I forced the update and it appeared to take. Since then I have had to reset several times a day because it appears dead. Also It has failed to record several shows that were scheduled in the todo list. One of them last night I was watching live and recording. The record light was lit during the show and went off when it was done, but "PRESTO!!!" doesnt show up on my list later that night or this morning.
Its getting hard to explain bugs in new technology to the wife!!
(I gotta find me an R10)

EDIT:well the solution that works for me is.....I deleted a bunch of recorded programs.... now it seems to work like a champ....kinda defeats the purpose of a DVR tho


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## Tgrim1

This is BS. I'm paying for a product that I'm not even getting a fraction of what I paid for......


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## Tgrim1

If SG-1 and Atlantis arent on there tomorrow, they are gonna be dealing with me ALL DAY.


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## carl6

Earl Bonovich said:


> Carl,
> 
> Have you run your hard drive through a disk scan?
> Given the over heating, and now this crash.... is it possible that you may have some bad sectors on that thing?


No, I have not. However it has run perfectly since I managed to get it restarted, and never gave any symptoms of drive problem before. I've had it fairly loaded, but mostly it stays below 50% fill.

I did notice that same evening that I had a LOT of wierd things - like a brief moment during NBC network news where I was watching ABC - and other equally strange issues. Have never seen anything like that before, or since.

I'm not sure that D* wasn't doing something with the data stream, as well as fiddling with their dynamic bandwidth allocation, etc. It is possible that something in the data stream messed up the unit. It is possible that had nothing to do with it also. Don't know.

I've done very little as far as looking at or working with the hard drive outside of the unit. Also, this unit is not the one that had the original heat problem. I did the fan mod on both my units, and since they tend to stay in the mid to high 30's C. I've never seen them hit 40C since the mod, so they are staying nice and cool.

Carl


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## redford_48239

R15-300 / 0x1047
First occurance of this or any problem:
Had TNT 245 set to record NASCAR approx. 7P followed by Torque movie @ 11P in case things went long.

Came home shortly before 11P and saw the record light so things were good.
Wrong! Turned on TV and R15 and was greeted with black screen. Info button showed channel banner but no picture or sound. Entered another channel and banner changed, but no picture or sound.

Went to menu to check signal strength and had all zeroes. It then froze on the screen and no buttons on remote or unit would respond. After several minutes resorted to red reset and after data aquisition found that nothing recorded. No entry in history. The movie at 11P wasn't recording and no history there either!

Is this SOP for a freeze/black screen? Unit was approx. 58% avail.
Temp showed 46C. Is this on the high side?
Many thanks for any assist.


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## JLF1233

troop72 said:


> Got 10D3 on 8/2/06.
> 
> DVR functions have been mostly inoperative since then. Menu's have been really sluggish.
> Trick play quits working. Programs set to records do not record. Programs recorded months ago do not play.
> 
> Have red-button reset many times and even done reset all from menus and formatted the harddrive from the front panel. Features then work for a while (exact time undertermined) then they go back to Gumbyland.
> 
> Called D* today and they said I am due for another s/w release on 8/30/06.
> Since I am going on vac I will wait for the upgrade to see what happens next...
> 
> Will let you know...


I also got 10D3 on 8/2/06 and my unit is past the point of being sluggish. The entire unit is almost at the point of not working at all. The only thing it does as it did before 10D3 is turn on and off. All functions past that are down the tubes.


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## SilverLakesVin

Ric said:


> On the latest software - just got my R15. So far:
> 
> Skipped Series recording for 4400 (at least in To Do list) - I manually added it
> last night went to watch BB and or Eureka about 9:30 - R15 had a black screen but audio played. Nothing was recorded but status showed that it was recording programs (I guess just the sound since I hit the power button). Hit Reset and things came back.
> Since I missed Eureka - I set a manual record for midnight - it did record. When playback today, it stopped playing on its own and went to live TV. I was able to go back to and restart from the beginning of the recorded show.
> 
> So about a week and that's my experience so far - only about 5 shows set as autorecord or series recordings...
> 
> (Haven't sold my UTV just yet!!)


My R15 started doing the same things, AFTER the software download on Aug 23 of 104B. What now?


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## Earl Bonovich

SilverLakesVin said:


> My R15 started doing the same things, AFTER the software download on Aug 23 of 104B. What now?


Reboot the unit (pull the power plug and wait about 1 minute).

If that still doesn't fix it...

Then you need to consider deleting any old recordings.

If that still doesn't improve things

Then you need to consider RESET ALL (aka format)


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## SilverLakesVin

I have done many resets, with the menus and the red button. I have done several power recycles also. I am reluctant to do a Reset All because I do have older recordings I would prefer not to lose. We are trying to view them asap and then do the Reset All.

Somewhere above, someone mentioned doing a forced software download. How is that done? Does it also erase old recordings? Does one have a choice as to the version that is downloaded? At this point, I would love to get the version I had prior to 104B.


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## Wolffpack

As soon as the first blue screen comes up after a reset press 02468 on the remote. Nothing else. You will get the latest version approved for your unit.


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## Bobman

The problem is THE SOFTWARE not any of the units. Resetting only fixes things for a little while then the same issues come back.

The SOFTWARE is what needs to be fixed.


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## carl6

Bobman said:


> The problem is THE SOFTWARE not any of the units. Resetting only fixes things for a little while then the same issues come back.
> 
> The SOFTWARE is what needs to be fixed.


Yes.

And according to various posts on the HR20 forum, the R15 uses NDS middleware, while the HR20 does not - it was totally developed within D*. As a result, the HR20 does not seem to exhibit any of the chronic problems that the R15 does.

So, the obvious moral to this story is: D* START OVER WITH THE R15. DUMP THE NDS MIDDLEWARE AND MAKE THIS THING WORK PROPERLY!

Carl


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## Clint Lamor

I doubt they would scratch the whole thing and start new. I think they will just have to work to fix many of these issues as they have been doing.


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## uslimey

I had the DVR set for 3 a.m. for a thirty minute recording and at 7 a.m. it was still going. Unfortunately I pressed the wrong button and deleted it. What would make the 10D3 do this?

Sue


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## cabanaboy1977

Sue was it tuned to the same channel that you where recording? It could have be a bug where it thinks it's still recording but it's not. I wonder if you had changed the channel if you would have ended up with a 30 min or a 4 hr recording. Either way that shouldn't happen. How did you do the setup the recording?


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## rshanley

I have been having similar problems with the R15 300. Deleting a few shows seems to free the DVR up a bit so I can record again, but it does not last very long. I can seldom record more than an 30 minutes of any show. It usually locks up, leaving the record light on. I need to reset the device by pressing the red reset button to be able to view anything. Often, whatever I attempted to record does not show.

I have seen people referring to scanning the disk and defragging it. I cannot figure out how to do that without actually removing the drive. Am I missing something? How would I scan the disk for errors? I do wonder if the device has not hit some OS-level limit (e.g., exceeding max file descriptors). Any thoughts on this?

Thanks,
Ray



cabanaboy1977 said:


> Sue was it tuned to the same channel that you where recording? It could have be a bug where it thinks it's still recording but it's not. I wonder if you had changed the channel if you would have ended up with a 30 min or a 4 hr recording. Either way that shouldn't happen. How did you do the setup the recording?


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## cabanaboy1977

rshanley said:


> I have been having similar problems with the R15 300. Deleting a few shows seems to free the DVR up a bit so I can record again, but it does not last very long. I can seldom record more than an 30 minutes of any show. It usually locks up, leaving the record light on. I need to reset the device by pressing the red reset button to be able to view anything. Often, whatever I attempted to record does not show.
> 
> I have seen people referring to scanning the disk and defragging it. I cannot figure out how to do that without actually removing the drive. Am I missing something? How would I scan the disk for errors? I do wonder if the device has not hit some OS-level limit (e.g., exceeding max file descriptors). Any thoughts on this?
> 
> Thanks,
> Ray


How are you recording things? SL, manual records, padding the recordings? I know padding can do weird things but I don't think I've seen anyone post that padding locked up the system. Also heat could be an issue too. Make sure if it's in a cabinet that it has good airflow.


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## uslimey

[Sue was it tuned to the same channel that you where recording? It was not tuned to the same channel recording. On investigating it was a DTV channel (115) and the show was a behind the scenes of Nip/Tuck. I recorded it again last night and it did the same thing. On watching it was repeating over and over again - like every 5 minutes. Guess it was not a slip up for the DVR just weird programming. Thanks! Sue:blush:


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## rshanley

cabanaboy1977 said:


> How are you recording things? SL, manual records, padding the recordings? I know padding can do weird things but I don't think I've seen anyone post that padding locked up the system. Also heat could be an issue too. Make sure if it's in a cabinet that it has good airflow.


I have not been padding recordings. The drive is about 75% full. The problem happens with both manual and scheduled recordings. Once it happens, the reset makes it possible for me to surf channels again, but I will not be able to record anything until I delete something else off of the DVR. The auto-record feature that records the show you're currently watching does not even work. Once I delete an old show, the auto record works, and I may be able to record 20 min of a show (scheduled or manual).

That's why I wonder if there's not a problem with the file system (either something physical on the surface of the drive, or perhaps a corrupt File Allocation Table). If there's a chkdsk or fsck utility, I'd love to be able to run it.

Thank you for replying so quickly.

-Ray


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## Wolffpack

rshanley said:


> I have seen people referring to scanning the disk and defragging it. I cannot figure out how to do that without actually removing the drive. Am I missing something? How would I scan the disk for errors? I do wonder if the device has not hit some OS-level limit (e.g., exceeding max file descriptors). Any thoughts on this?


There's no procedure/utility for customers to perform any maintenance via the R15. About the only think you can do would be to pull the drive, install it in a PC and run the manufacturer's diags (probably Seagate). That will at least let you know if there are problem areas on the drive.


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## cabanaboy1977

rshanley said:


> I have not been padding recordings. The drive is about 75% full. The problem happens with both manual and scheduled recordings. Once it happens, the reset makes it possible for me to surf channels again, but I will not be able to record anything until I delete something else off of the DVR. The auto-record feature that records the show you're currently watching does not even work. Once I delete an old show, the auto record works, and I may be able to record 20 min of a show (scheduled or manual).
> 
> That's why I wonder if there's not a problem with the file system (either something physical on the surface of the drive, or perhaps a corrupt File Allocation Table). If there's a chkdsk or fsck utility, I'd love to be able to run it.
> 
> Thank you for replying so quickly.
> 
> -Ray


I'm leaning more toward's a HD issue like Wolffpack. If you don't want to or can do the HD scan you may just want to do the Down Arrow/Record or ask to get a new R15. Either way you'll lose your Recordings.


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## Bobman

So far so good with this update. Looks like it fixed the playback controls and most other things the last update broke. I have not noticed much new except a few little UI tweaks.

Still hit or miss on the SL dups and I see as many as before. I also notice the 6 second rewind is still buggy.


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## pjo1966

Had another issue just now. I went to watch a previously recorded program (the only one in My VOD). It started in black. I tried FFing to see if there was any video. Despite the indicator stating that it was at FFx4, the timeline was not moving. I was still on the same channel and within the buffer, so I exited out of the recording and went back to Live TV. I rewound through the buffer and saw the program I had recorded. Once it got to the beginning I had the same problem. I did a reboot. After the reboot the recording was gone from My VOD. Luckily this program is running again in a few minutes so I can record it again. It's just damned irritating. For the record, this is my second R-15.


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## JLF1233

JLF1233 said:


> I also got 10D3 on 8/2/06 and my unit is past the point of being sluggish. The entire unit is almost at the point of not working at all. The only thing it does as it did before 10D3 is turn on and off. All functions past that are down the tubes.


Hey Guys,
I have noticed that my unit has been much more responsive today than at any time since the download of 10D3 on 8/2/06. So, I checked and found that I received another download of 10D3 at 4:30am today 8/30/06. What do you think? Has anybody else seen an improvement in the responsiveness of their unit? If so, did you also get a new download?


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## Wolffpack

pjo1966 said:


> Had another issue just now. I went to watch a previously recorded program (the only one in My VOD). It started in black. I tried FFing to see if there was any video. Despite the indicator stating that it was at FFx4, the timeline was not moving. I was still on the same channel and within the buffer, so I exited out of the recording and went back to Live TV. I rewound through the buffer and saw the program I had recorded. Once it got to the beginning I had the same problem. I did a reboot. After the reboot the recording was gone from My VOD. Luckily this program is running again in a few minutes so I can record it again. It's just damned irritating. For the record, this is my second R-15.


Are you sure you're running 10D3?


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## pjo1966

Wolffpack said:


> Are you sure you're running 10D3?


I just checked... It's 104B. I'm forcing another upgrade to see if that does it. I thought I had gotten all the updates available. I guess when I got the second R-15 it didn't get the latest.


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## pjo1966

Apparently it crashed either while loading the update or during the reboot. I had to unplug it. It still says 104B.


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## paulman182

I thought 104B was the latest for the R15-300?


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## pjo1966

paulman182 said:


> I thought 104B was the latest for the R15-300?


Apparently it is. I do have the most current software and am still having major issues. I would really love to chuck this thing through a window.


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## MercurialIN

I too have received the latest software upgrade for the model 300 R15 and I am still experiencing some of the same issues as before. Such as the time bar not moving during playback of recordings, hitting the six second rewind sometimes brings up the old dreaded do you want to delete this program. Also sometimes when I try to set up a manual recording it schedules it for the proper time, that I entered but for the day "after" what I set it up for. It's done that for a couple of months though. Say I set a program on soapnet channel 262 for Thu. Aug 31 at 10 PM for one hour, it will show up on the TDL as manual recording channel 262 Friday Sept 1 10PM for one hour, or whatever. Resetting the unit and setting the recording up again doesn't help. Also the Caller ID feature is still stone cold dead, it doesn't log any calls, period, nor does it show on screen notices. It had worked perfectly, logging 25 calls, on screen notices until a reset in late June or early July and it was dead from then on. Red button resets, unplugging the unit nothing fixes it, nor did the last two software upgrades.

And just for additional information this is the model 300, temp runs about 40C, and it has the latest software upgrade as of Aug 29 3:03AM. I have run system test numerous times over the past few months, the phone line tests ok, each and every time. I have replaced the phone line to the R 15 just in case and it didn't help. Also a separate Caller ID box that has always shared that same phone line continues to work just fine. So it's something with the R 15. 

I still have to put the R 15 in standby whenever I'm not watching something or it continues to lock up and have to be reset. I'm on box number four since April and I don't care to try another box, if I can't get this one working properly in the near future, and I'm still giving it more time, I will be forced to go back to my R 10, at least until I read here that the R 15 has finally been debugged once and for all. Sorry this is so long. It just gets frustrating at times. I especially miss the Caller ID feature, it's one reason I wanted the R 15.


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## Wolffpack

pjo1966 said:


> Apparently it is. I do have the most current software and am still having major issues. I would really love to chuck this thing through a window.


Given what you've said....you either need to get a new unit from DTV or try the reformat using the DOWN ARROW/REC method (DA/R). The 10D3/104B software is working great for many. If it's not working for you try the reformat (you will loose all your recordings and SLs). If that doesn't work get a new unit from DTV (which will also cause you to loose all your recordings and SLs). Try DA/R and see if that helps.

There are many other threads I've posted to that explain my "theory" on why a DA/R helps solve problems. No hard science or knowledge, just theory.


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## lghoffman

Had problems with my R15-300 with 1047 and received the upgrade to 104B on 8/29. Problems still exist. 

Called DTV and they are sending a new unit. We'll see how this goes...

From everything that I have been reading, it sounds like this unit and the sw is just a piece of...

They better figure this out because this level of quality is not acceptable!


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## Slyster

From our experience with two brand new (5 day old) R15's with the latest update.. the largest issue is the unit NOT knowing how to record new episodes ONLY in a series (First run). Set it for one show.. which has 30 re-runs and 1 brand new episode.. and it set up to record 17 shows!!


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## lmcdowell

Received the update 10D4 to the r15 yesterday and my tv life since has been a nightmare. 5 resets, 1 cold start. 3 series records that either didn't work or recorded with blank screen (this had never happen before the update), freezes up when I pause live tv and what really frosts me is 2 of the missed shows were season premires of favorite shows. I would give most anything to get my old TIVO receiver back.


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## Wolffpack

Are you sure it's 10D4 and not 10D3? 10D3 is the official released software. If you have 10D4 that could be a beta version and could indeed have problems. If you did get 10D3 have you performed a RED BUTTON RESET on it since the update? You should.


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## IGoDwnTwn

JLF1233 said:


> Hey Guys,
> I have noticed that my unit has been much more responsive today than at any time since the download of 10D3 on 8/2/06. So, I checked and found that I received another download of 10D3 at 4:30am today 8/30/06. What do you think? Has anybody else seen an improvement in the responsiveness of their unit? If so, did you also get a new download?


Greetings Peeps,

I'm new here. Received my 2 r-15s( payed for and free upgrade) last week and yesterday. Both have the 10D3 upgrade software as og 4:30am this morning. No problems yet to report

IGo


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## Wolffpack

:welcome_s If you haven't already seen it there's a FAQ at the top of this forum. Lots of good info there.


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## ruffneckc

Update: After reading the FAQ 1.0 I realize the guide data needs two days to refill after a reset.

I've been having the same issues lately since I recieved the 104B version update. My R15 (300) doesn't finish recording shows I've set to record anymore. The system has locked up maybe 6 times for the past couple of days, which causes all these partial recordings. I've been resetting like crazy.

Also, my guide data has become all screwy with guide info disappearing for certain channels.

Note: I've called DirecTV and the CSR told me that they are aware of these issues and have put out another update that will be rolled out between Aug 30th - Sept. 9th.


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## carl6

I have experienced lock ups on both of my R15's since 10D3. They appear to be less stable than under most any previous software version. No change in usage patterns. No change in recordings, SL's, etc.

Carl


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## Bobman

carl6 said:


> I have experienced lock ups on both of my R15's since 10D3.


Did you do a manual reset after getting the update ? 10D3 is working just great on both my R-15's and fixed many of the problems the last update broke.

I am also wondering if your hacking it has caused any of your problems as you seem to be be experiencing far more problems than anyone else.


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## cobaltblue

I have had the 10D3 update for a few days now. Since this update, I am having a problem with playing back a recorded movie. If we only watch say an hour of a two hour movie, the R-15 is jumping back about ten to fifteen minutes. It is not picking up where we left off, like before the 10D3 update. This has happened three times. Any ideas ??? I will be trying a reset later today.


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## dawgfan63

Series Links are broken
constant black screen when watching previously recorded programs
I have reset with remote and red button

How do I format this thing and start fresh?


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## Earl Bonovich

dawgfan63 said:


> Series Links are broken
> constant black screen when watching previously recorded programs
> I have reset with remote and red button
> 
> How do I format this thing and start fresh?


Menu->Setup->Reset-Reset Everything


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## carl6

Bobman said:


> Did you do a manual reset after getting the update ? 10D3 is working just great on both my R-15's and fixed many of the problems the last update broke.


Yes, both have had resets, and problems after the reset. One even had a clear and delete reset.



> I am also wondering if your hacking it has caused any of your problems


The only "hacking" I have done is to wire the fans to run continuously. I did copy one of the hard drives, tested the copy, then put the original back in. It has not been touched since.



> as you seem to be be experiencing far more problems than anyone else.


Until I received 10D3 I believe I have generally had fewer problems than most others. If you check back through various threads I was typically the person saying I've not had problems, and that the R15's have worked quite well for me. They were stable and reliable after the fan mod, and only began to exhibit problems after 10D3.

Carl


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## h2dg2m

I wish they would rollback two upgrades when things were realitively stable. And in the future they need to beta test the upgrades before releasing them. It only took a few hours of normal use to know there were problems....It's like they don't test them at all before sending them out. This has been going on for almost a year now and the system is more unstable now than ever. I fear they will release a new model to replace the R15 soon and then we will be stuck with the problems when they stop the upgrades. I'm almost ready to return my hardware to get out of the 2 year agreement.

Bill


----------



## Wolffpack

h2dg2m said:


> I wish they would rollback two upgrades when things were realitively stable. And in the future they need to beta test the upgrades before releasing them. It only took a few hours of normal use to know there were problems....It's like they don't test them at all before sending them out. This has been going on for almost a year now and the system is more unstable now than ever. I fear they will release a new model to replace the R15 soon and then we will be stuck with the problems when they stop the upgrades. I'm almost ready to return my hardware to get out of the 2 year agreement.
> 
> Bill


I've seen dramatic improvements with both 10C8 and 10D3 over previous versions. I would not like to be moved off either of these versions which work fine for me. Have you performed a "Reset Everything" or a Down Arrow/REC reformat?


----------



## qwerty

Wolffpack said:


> I've seen dramatic improvements with both 10C8 and 10D3 over previous versions. I would not like to be moved off either of these versions which work fine for me. Have you performed a "Reset Everything" or a Down Arrow/REC reformat?


Even with the playback issues, I find it more stable and wouldn't go back if given the option.


----------



## walters

Put me down for the black screen bug. My wife found it, so I showed her the reset button.


----------



## Slyster

Hitting STOP while watching a show your currently recording.. it gives you options.. like "STOP and DELETE"... doesn't work right.. keeps on playing!


----------



## Bobman

Wolffpack said:


> I've seen dramatic improvements with both 10C8 and 10D3 over previous versions.


I totally agree !!!:icon_hroc

I was one of the people with problem after problem and even stopped using the R-15 for a couple months. The 10C8 for me really improved the stability a great deal (it no longer locksup all the places it used to like the Prioritzer, etc... It did cause a few playback problems though). The 10D3 seemed to fix those problems and improve some UI items.

I want to give it another week or two before I say "this is how the R-15 should have been when it was released 10 months ago" as sometimes the problems take a few weeks to appear.


----------



## Bobman

walters said:


> Put me down for the black screen bug. My wife found it, so I showed her the reset button.


Just press stop and then press the previous channel button and it brings you back to where you were. You dont need always need to reset for that.


----------



## walters

Bobman said:


> Just press stop and then press the previous channel button and it brings you back to where you were. You dont need always need to reset for that.


No, I did everything I could think of before doing the reset. Every recording and even live TV was black--only audio.


----------



## qwerty

I think there may be more than one version of the "black screen" occuring.


----------



## Wolffpack

Slyster said:


> Hitting STOP while watching a show your currently recording.. it gives you options.. like "STOP and DELETE"... doesn't work right.. keeps on playing!


It works for me. Once you press STOP and answer the KEEP or DELETE question you drop back to live TV. I just tried a STOP and Keep and it stopped recording, kept what it had recorded and continued playing live TV.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

qwerty said:


> I think there may be more than one version of the "black screen" occuring.


I think you might be right. I've noticed two. One where the screen goes black after a jumpback that another jumpback or pause will fix. And another where you playing and the screen just goes to a back screen and is locked and won't pass that point and you have to skip to the end and rewind or try to FF over the blank spot (kind of like when you have a power outage and have the blank space but there is really no lost video or space)


----------



## walters

And yet another where everything is black. All recordings, live TV. Menus came up (else I couldn't have selected other recordings), but all MPEG video was black.


----------



## Bobman

I am now disappointed again as I have had almost all the old issues come back.

Black screens, 6 second rewind not working right, progress bar sticking, not being able to delete at the end of a recording it just hangs, etc....

I wonder if there is something that DirecTV does in the background that doesnt require an update and that is the cause. Mine worked almost perfectly until yesterday morning.


----------



## rbpeirce

Bobman said:


> I wonder if there is something that DirecTV does in the background that doesnt require an update and that is the cause. Mine worked almost perfectly until yesterday morning.


I have wondered that myself. Does anybody know?

When I was last home I had 1047. Setup said it was installed on 8/9, I think. I had no problems until late August when everything went to hell.

I was hoping 104B might solve the problem. It remains to be seen.

I have also heard that a complete wipe (is that down arrow + record, or something like that?) will also correct problems, but you lose anything you were saving. That hasn't seemed like a good alternative .


----------



## paulman182

The caller ID quit working in my R15-300 yesterday. A red button reset restored it.


----------



## Wolffpack

Bobman said:


> I wonder if there is something that DirecTV does in the background that doesnt require an update and that is the cause. Mine worked almost perfectly until yesterday morning.


Well we know they changed the channel format from xxxx to xxx-x and back again without an update.


----------



## h2dg2m

It's strange how everybody has different problems. I have never had the 'black screen' to happen to me. I've noticed several new UI things that drive me crazy.....after I play a program from the VOD it used to go back to the list, but now it doesn't. If I stop watching a program in the VOD and go back it does not start back where I left off...it starts back at the beginning. I also noticed when I watch a program from VOD and then go back to live TV sometimes the channel goes back to channel 201...not where I left it. I've tried all the resets several tiimes with no change. HOpefully they will have a new software version soon.

Bill


----------



## paulman182

None of this is happening either on my R15-300 or 500.

The "going back to the start when resuming a program" would be a HUGE problem for me.


----------



## ApK

Here's one that's new to me.
The groups in MyVOD are wrong...mixed up...
I found a group called "Degrassi: The Next Generation", which was strange enough since I've never recorded that show. In that group there was one episode of Degrassi (How it got there I have no idea), one of 'Franklin' and one of 'Little Bear' both of which I do have SLs for and both of which also had groups of other episodes on the list.
I erased the Degrassi episode, and the title of the group changed to 'Little Bear', so now there are two groups with that name in the list.

Earl, who wrote the R15 code? I ask, because we're hiring developers at work soon and I want to know which resume's to throw out.


----------



## Lantian

paulman182 said:


> None of this is happening either on my R15-300 or 500.
> 
> The "going back to the start when resuming a program" would be a HUGE problem for me.


that was happening to me with x10c8 update. 10c3 fixed that and some others for me at least


----------



## Wolffpack

ApK said:


> Here's one that's new to me.
> The groups in MyVOD are wrong...mixed up...
> I found a group called "Degrassi: The Next Generation", which was strange enough since I've never recorded that show. In that group there was one episode of Degrassi (How it got there I have no idea), one of 'Franklin' and one of 'Little Bear' both of which I do have SLs for and both of which also had groups of other episodes on the list.
> I erased the Degrassi episode, and the title of the group changed to 'Little Bear', so now there are two groups with that name in the list.
> 
> Earl, who wrote the R15 code? I ask, because we're hiring developers at work soon and I want to know which resume's to throw out.


There is most definitely a problem with the groupings that I first saw in 10D3. Some shows are grouped correctly and others not. In fact I've had a group with 4 shows under it but one show not in it. It's probably something to do with the fact that "Open/Close All" doesn't handle your entire MYVOD.

I will admit, this is some weak coding and weaker testing and I'm getting tired of the lack of progress on the R15 and at times, negative progress between updates.


----------



## Bobman

What is funny/sad is mine was working "almost" perfectly until the other morning. I was even going to say <<gasp>> that many of my SL's have stopped recording dupes as I have been monitoring them !!!!

DirecTv MUST do things in the background. I think one of their major mistakes was releasing two different models as now they need to tweak two different versions.


----------



## Clint Lamor

Is the Bong sound still there for everyone? Mine is gone all of the sudden. Not sure exactly when it went away as I wasn't home very much all weekend.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

Wolffpack said:


> There is most definitely a problem with the groupings that I first saw in 10D3. Some shows are grouped correctly and others not. In fact I've had a group with 4 shows under it but one show not in it. It's probably something to do with the fact that "Open/Close All" doesn't handle your entire MYVOD.
> 
> I will admit, this is some weak coding and weaker testing and I'm getting tired of the lack of progress on the R15 and at times, negative progress between updates.


I've never had that happen but I've had programs that will have two groups or have one that didn't group with the others (when it should have). Althought one of those times was when I went and hit R) on one the SL didn't pick up yet, but every other time I've done this it has grouped it with the others.


----------



## feeth

As of about 1 week ago, I can no longer record 2 shows at one or record one show and watch another. I did the following test and it showed both tuners are working:



> 26. Do I need to hook up 2 satellite cables to the R15?
> 
> To have full functionality you will need both cables connected. With only one cable you lose the ability to record two shows at the same time or record one show and watch another. You will only be able to record a show and watch that show or record a show and watch something else from MYVOD. If you do only have one cable be sure to hook it to "SATELLITE IN 1" input on the back of the reciever or the unit will not work. "SATELLITE IN 1" is the main tuner and is also where it downloads the updates from. If you do hookup a second satellite cable in the future, you will need to run a system test to get the receiver to detect the second satellite cable. To do a system test hit the Menu button, select Settings, then Setup, then tab over to System test and run the system test.


Since the problem started, I recently had the R-15 disconnected to relocate it. So I guess it has been reset. I did the system test today again and both tuners are still working.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

feeth said:


> Since the problem started, I recently had the R-15 disconnected to relocate it. So I guess it has been reset. I did the system test today again and both tuners are still working.


Where you moved the R15 too do you use a splitter? You can't use a splitter.


----------



## feeth

cabanaboy1977 said:


> Where you moved the R15 too do you use a splitter? You can't use a splitter.


No sir. Two seperate cables as before.

Maybe I better check that both cables still have a good source/signal. Then again they should as the test method above shows both are good. :grin:


----------



## cabanaboy1977

feeth said:


> No sir. Two seperate cables as before.
> 
> Maybe I better check that both cables still have a good source/signal. Then again they should as the test method above shows both are good. :grin:


You might want to flip the cables between the tuners and see what happens. Also, even thought the tuners said they are ok you might want to do a signal test and test each sat on each tuner.


----------



## feeth

cabanaboy1977 said:


> You might want to flip the cables between the tuners and see what happens. Also, even thought the tuners said they are ok you might want to do a signal test and test each sat on each tuner.


Will give that a try, Thanks!


----------



## tong

Hard 10D3 crash!

Unit wouldnt power on, needed to red button reset it, then as it is it booting (black screen after 'almost ready') it reboots after maybe 30seconds or so.. over and over

Reloaded 10D3 (got the upgrade fine on 8/30), no dice, had to full reset (down+rec), luckily that worked. ah well..

Last release 10C8 (? the 30sec slip one) stability wise worked pretty well for me unlike the one before that.


----------



## feeth

cabanaboy1977 said:


> You might want to flip the cables between the tuners and see what happens. Also, even thought the tuners said they are ok you might want to do a signal test and test each sat on each tuner.


Flipped the cables and everything is the same. Test as before says both tuners are ok, but still will only record one channel at a time.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

feeth said:


> Flipped the cables and everything is the same. Test as before says both tuners are ok, but still will only record one channel at a time.


Does it act like it's going to record or does it give you and error message? What did the sat test show, not the one that just says ok the one where you can check each sat and transpoder? It sounds like your second tuner might have gone out.


----------



## Wolffpack

Also check the meter strength for each SAT.


----------



## feeth

DUH!!! I called tech support, they said to do a reset with the red button on the front under the card door. Works fine now. Sorry to bother you guys before I tried out the basic stuff first.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

Glad to hear it's working again.


----------



## walters

feeth said:


> DUH!!! I called tech support, they said to do a reset with the red button on the front under the card door.


They really should just add that to the on-hold recording 

Even better: the only way to get through to support is to "take a number" (like at the deli). And the only way to do that is to write down a random number grabbed from the satellite on bootup. Man, that's almost good enough to patent.


----------



## lmcdowell

OK. I've been waiting for the better part of two weeks for an update to fix the many problems I'm encountering with the r-15 but to no avail. How is it that some people have the problems while others do not? My r-15 is only a month or so old and has never worked right.

Do I need to do a full reset? If so how? and is there anyway to keep the items in the priority list (series recording)?


----------



## martiney

I had set both of my R-15's to record the season premiere of nip/tuck last night at 10pm.

When I tried to watch them 1 day later... the recordings showed that it had been recorded at 10pm... but they were only 11 minutes long.

I had set both DVRs to record starting on time and ending 15 minutes after the stop time.

Prior to this... I had told the livingroom one to record the FSU/Miami game... starting on time and ending 30 minutes after the stop time. I started to watch the game about 1 hour behind... and at some point in the middle of watching... it kicked me to live TV, stopped recording, and deleted the portion I was watching. 

On both of these occasions... there were no other scheduled recordings for that time slot... 

I have yet to have a problem when I schedule a recording to start on time and finish on time (no extra time at the end).


----------



## cabanaboy1977

martiney said:


> I had set both DVRs to record starting on time and ending 15 minutes after the stop time.


I think this might have been due to the padding. The padding on the r15 doesn't seem to work right at all. Sometimes it's ok but others times it does weird stuff. If you want to pad something the best thing to do is to record the show before or after it. I know that wastes space but untill the padding works better it is the better choice.

Just wondering here but was the 11 mins the first 11 or the last?


----------



## martiney

cabanaboy1977 said:


> Just wondering here but was the 11 mins the first 11 or the last?


It was the first 11 minutes on both DVRs... which is more odd than the LAST 11 minutes.

I suspected that the whole padding thing is sketchy. It is something that I was planning on using for football games (overtime).

Recording the show after the game is not so bad.

I went ahead and did a full reset on both DVRs last night (where it reformats by holding Record and Down). Decided to at least do that once before there is stuff in there I really don't want to lose.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

martiney said:


> It was the first 11 minutes on both DVRs... which is more odd than the LAST 11 minutes.


True, that's why I asked. If it was the last 11 mins I would be thinking it was a power issue.


----------



## martiney

cabanaboy1977 said:


> True, that's why I asked. If it was the last 11 mins I would be thinking it was a power issue.


What is really funny is that I would have never known what I was missing... if it wasn't for a friend of mine who has an R10 with his Directv.

I'll be happy if it just records what I tell it to record. I have no real need for SL's, extermely complicated priorities, or "suggested" shows...

Just record the one show I tell it to record... that's all I ask.

In comparing with the R10... I think a lot of issues stem from the guide. It seems like the R10 guide has more information about the date and time of shows. The R15 just says "Series" for many shows that have new showings and repeats.

But, in the end... I guess this is only expected...
a company whose sole business is DVR (Tivo) is bound to be better at it than a satellite company that provides DVR on the side...


----------



## paulman182

"I'll be happy if it just records what I tell it to record. I have no real need for SL's, extermely complicated priorities, or "suggested" shows... 
Just record the one show I tell it to record... that's all I ask."

I'm not sure what you mean by this. I have recorded about 40 movies on my two R15s and they have all recorded and stayed there.

I had a caller ID issue and a :30 slip issue, both were fixed by red button resets.

My method of programming a recording is to find the movie in the guide and press "R." No problems with that yet. I am still using the recroding defaults.


----------



## martiney

paulman182 said:


> "I'll be happy if it just records what I tell it to record. I have no real need for SL's, extermely complicated priorities, or "suggested" shows...
> Just record the one show I tell it to record... that's all I ask."
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by this. I have recorded about 40 movies on my two R15s and they have all recorded and stayed there.
> 
> I had a caller ID issue and a :30 slip issue, both were fixed by red button resets.
> 
> My method of programming a recording is to find the movie in the guide and press "R." No problems with that yet. I am still using the recroding defaults.


I was referring to my previous post of how the DVR decided to only record 11 minutes of the show.

I have had my DVRs for 3 weeks now. And I agree with you... I have yet to have a problem recording when I select a show from the guide and just hit "R". However, I have had problems if I try to record shows where I change the stop time (add an extra 30 minutes of record time, etc).

It seems to me that if a feature doesn't work right (padding the record time).. it should just not be an option at all.. until it is fixed.

(ie, if I HADN'T had the option of padding the show, I would have probably recorded the next show to "pad it" myself.. and it would have been ok (maybe.. hehe)).


----------



## paulman182

Ok, I see what you mean.
I guess if we use the R15 in its most basic form--hit "R" to record, don't search much, don't do SLs, don"t change defaults--we have better luck with them. Mine is used as an easy-to-program tapeless VCR with better PQ.

But you're right, features that do not function correctly, or cause other problems, are better left off!


----------



## Clint Lamor

I do all of the things you have mentioned and don't have many issues at all. I don't use padding though and actually never did on my Tivo's either. I have quite a few SL's I have Autorecords (yup I still have 2 of them recording stuff every day) I do searches for things. The bad thing has been not all of us have all the same issues all the time, which probably makes some of these things harder to debug. Hopefully they will continue the trend we have been seeing where things are getting better with each release.



paulman182 said:


> Ok, I see what you mean.
> I guess if we use the R15 in its most basic form--hit "R" to record, don't search much, don't do SLs, don"t change defaults--we have better luck with them. Mine is used as an easy-to-program tapeless VCR with better PQ.
> 
> But you're right, features that do not function correctly, or cause other problems, are better left off!


----------



## sports828

I received the update on 8/29 and have noticed that the time bar seems to be working fine. I have not had any problems with it not recording my serial links (two each weekday). I did notice last night that I had only watch half of one show the night before and then exited out. When I tried to resume watching the last half last night it went to a black screen at the point I stopped. I tried to ff, skip back and couldn't get the picture to come back. I tried to ff to the end and it kept getting stuck at 59. I had to go in and out about three times to get it to the end and give me the delete screen. Once I went back in, I could ff to the place I had stopped and watch the rest. Has anyone else seen this?


----------



## cabanaboy1977

sports828 said:


> Has anyone else seen this?


Yes. Won't be fixed untill the next release.


----------



## walters

cabanaboy1977 said:


> Yes. Won't be fixed untill the next release.


Well, of course nothing will be fixed until the next release  But are we sure it's in the next release? We need a thread that just catalogs the things Earl repeats from his contact.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Earl just need a bigger mental filing cabinet.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

walters said:


> Well, of course nothing will be fixed until the next release  But are we sure it's in the next release? We need a thread that just catalogs the things Earl repeats from his contact.


:lol: We could call it "Earl's Quatrains".


----------



## rbpeirce

I got home after two weeks and had 104B on my R15-300, but I still had all the old problems. Biting the bullet I did a total wipe and reset. As far as I can tell it is now working okay. Unfortunatley, all the shows I was saving are now gone. The message, I guess, is don't save anything!!


----------



## pjo1966

Two nights in a row I had the same weird problem. I noticed as I was getting ready for bed that the record light was on. Knowing that I had nothing scheduled to record I turned on the TV to see what was up. The screensaver was on and I hit play to clear it. The record light immediately went off. There was nothing in the buffer, as if I had just changed the channel. Anyone else see this? Is this normal behavior?


----------



## MercurialIN

My model 300 had the record light on most of the night Sat. night. I too wondered what was going on since I knew I had nothing scheduled to record so I changed the channel to see what would happen the record light went off. I later realized that it had been recording more of those showcases. I wish it would stop recording that CD USA show however. Not of interest to me at all. But perhaps others enjoy it. I'd rather see the showcases offer free product samples like the HR 10 250 does, with a click of the remote your free sample of deodorant is on its way. Although there's nothing exciting about deodorant it was cool to order a free sample with nothing but a remote. It would be an interesting way to try new products.


----------



## pjo1966

Last night this happened again. I hit the previous channel button and it took me to channel 1010, which I had no idea existed. It was some video game challenge, or something like that. Nothing was listed in the VOD list. This morning the screen saver was on again, but without the record light. This time the previous channel button took me to channel 8027, which had a slate stating that CD USA was coming up. Once again, nothing was listed in the VOD.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

Speaking of the previous button. I swear that I use to be able to use the previous button to jumpback to a MYVOD that I was watching if I accidentally hit channel up or hit a number on the kepad and it jumped to another station. Last night this happened and the previous button took me back to another station instead of the MYVOD recording that I was watching.


----------



## ApK

ApK said:


> Here's one that's new to me.
> The groups in MyVOD are wrong...mixed up...
> I found a group called "Degrassi: The Next Generation", which was strange enough since I've never recorded that show. In that group there was one episode of Degrassi (How it got there I have no idea), one of 'Franklin' and one of 'Little Bear' both of which I do have SLs for and both of which also had groups of other episodes on the list.
> I erased the Degrassi episode, and the title of the group changed to 'Little Bear', so now there are two groups with that name in the list.
> 
> Earl, who wrote the R15 code? I ask, because we're hiring developers at work soon and I want to know which resume's to throw out.


My wife just reported a related problem this morning:

She went to the guide to record episodes of 'Franklin' and the guide would not accept a (R)ecord press.
So she tried going to the episode list and all the episode listed were episodes of 'Degrassi', not 'Franklin.' Whassup?

What's the retention phone number again? I want to call and see if they'll give me a Tivo based unit instead. I give up. I have enough hobbies, I don't need R-15 wrestling as another.


----------



## cj3234

since this last update. on some programs when i am watching the program about 1 minute or so into program itwill go black if rewind a little will run to same spot and go black.so i turn off program and come back again some times it will go another munute and do the same thing and some time its fine, some programs do this so much i just give up on them because its really starts to piss me off. this is really upsetting because my r15 to me just starting to do good. and by good ,by no means, do i mean perfect. far from it, but i was getting used to it and was not having to reset as much. but as i can see, this stuff will never end. im almost back to the point were i hate the thing again.


----------



## mailiang

I had the last up grade on 8/29, however once in awhile the picture will freeze and pix elate for a couple of seconds. I also noticed on one recording it froze suddenly,then came a blank screen and then it went back to the recorded program with out a problem. Anyone else reporting these issues?

Ian


----------



## pjo1966

Now my R-15 has taken to going to channel 1010 in the morning as well. The record light was on once again. This time when I hit play to clear the screensaver I actually saw it change channels from 1010, which is still some kind of video game challenge. This is really annoying. I like to have the buffer record when the TV is off. That way if I turn on the TV and the channel is sitting on something I might want to watch, I can just back it up and catch it from the beginning. It seems like every time I turn on the TV I get the screensaver.


----------



## gononsky

Tonight during part 1 of the finale of RockStar: Supernova, I got a blank screen. I was able to watch it during the episode and RR and FF as needed but when my wife came from the gym and wanted to watch it, nothing recorded. My wife is now just as fustrated as I am. She is on the verge of having my re-connect my old DSR7000. At least that box did not miss a recording. Other than than the increased storage, I am not 100% sure why I've kept this box as long as I have.


----------



## anopro

Yikes!

I have had DVR’s since 2001 and DTV since 1997 and I must say the R-15 is the worst DTV unit I have ever had. Though I’d try it out after having an R-10 for about a year my wife been complaining about the R-10 since our UTV unit died after 4.5 years of flawless service the tuners started dying. I liked the R-15 features it looks a lot like the Ultimate TV unit interface so I though I’d give it a try but so far after 6 days of service nothing but problems.

Drops recordings set up a SL and nothing records when it should happened 3 times so far and this is after 3 days to fill the guide.

Cuts off recordings 22 minuets of a 30 minuet show 42 minuets of an hour show happened 4 times so far big problem!

Picture freezes or go’s black during FF/REWIND have to go live then go back to recording hit play to resume play back.

Time bar is almost never correct or doesn’t move at all.

The fast forward pause and rewind controls are so coarse you almost never end up where you want. Constantly having to correct by rewinding after a fast forward very annoying.

Have to do constant house cleaning so we can schedule more recordings hit the to do list limit. Like I said we have had DVR a long time and use it extensively pretty much never watch live TV so this limit is a big problem!

Have done numerous resets and forced a software download but It’s already on 10D3

Well I did get this for free so I guess you get what you pay for. But hey the R-10 Was free and at least it worked and will again once I call Direct TV to reactivate it.

Comcast is looking better lately and I hate the cable company!


----------



## srdoebling

I am very disappointed with the R15, too. I have (2) ReplayTV's attached to DirecTv - they are much better boxes. No software issues with the Replay - just issues when DirecTv changes software on their boxes!


----------



## anopro

You would think that this far along recording issues would not be a problem. I understand no everyone will like the user interface or the search features ECT 

But recording a program from 8:00 to 8:30 should be a no brainier I just do not understand why so inaccurate in Series Link and shorted recordings.


----------



## ApK

anopro said:


> Yikes!
> Comcast is looking better lately and I hate the cable company!


That feeling will pass.
You probaly just don't remember how bad Comcast is, or perhaps you don't know how much worse they've gotten!

So far with all the R-15's problems and other assorted DTV glitches (like more rain fade than I expected) I still have regreted leaving Comcast for second.

I'm am curious, having used only my beloved SA Tivo for comparision, what does your wife not like about the R-10? I'm _this_ close to replacing my R-15 with an R-10.

ApK


----------



## anopro

ApK said:


> I'm am curious, having used only my beloved SA Tivo for comparision, what does your wife not like about the R-10? I'm _this_ close to replacing my R-15 with an R-10.
> 
> ApK


No after looking at the Comcast web site I'll stick with Driect TV. But not this R-15 yuck!

We liked the picture in guide/ 1 press 2 press recording also showing whats going to record in the guide, no wondering if she set this or that up it showed on the guide/ faster menus/ better UI/caller ID/Space indicator. none of this is on R-10 Tivo but at least it never missed a record.


----------



## irmolars

The R-15 is getting worse instead of better.


----------



## pjo1966

irmolars said:


> The R-15 is getting worse instead of better.


agreed


----------



## waughoo

The latest version of the R-15 software is a joke. I started to notice freeze ups with the previous version (about once a week), but now it happens about every 2 hours. While watching a football game on Saturday it froze at least 4 times. This is ridiculous. I've moved the R-15 to the bedroom and put the old R-10 back in the living room. The wife and kids couldn't be happier, they hated the R-15 from day 1, but I thought I'd give it a chance. I hope the people at DirecTV are listening and make some changes quick.


----------



## ApK

I haven't had a single lockup yet on the newest software. I had a bunch on the last one. Have you tried reformatting?


----------



## Wolffpack

ApK said:


> I haven't had a single lockup yet on the newest software. I had a bunch on the last one. Have you tried reformatting?


I've also not had problems with lockups and 10D3.


----------



## carl6

One of my (two) R15's locked up again sometime over the past 5 days. I had not used it during that time - it was in standby for about a week. Went to turn it on today and it would not turn on (remote or front panel button). Did a red button reset and it came back to life. Checked myVOD and the last thing recorded was sometime Saturday. When it came back to life, it immediately started recording a show that was on at that time and supposed to be recorded - and it only recorded from the time of the reset forward.

Carl


----------



## Wolffpack

carl6 said:


> One of my (two) R15's locked up again sometime over the past 5 days. I had not used it during that time - it was in standby for about a week. Went to turn it on today and it would not turn on (remote or front panel button). Did a red button reset and it came back to life. Checked myVOD and the last thing recorded was sometime Saturday. When it came back to life, it immediately started recording a show that was on at that time and supposed to be recorded - and it only recorded from the time of the reset forward.
> 
> Carl


It would really be nice if DTV could figure out this "hang while in standby" problem that has been around since the beginning.


----------



## mrb

Wolffpack said:


> It would really be nice if DTV could figure out this "hang while in standby" problem that has been around since the beginning.


I just found this wonderful forum after six months as a DTV/R-15 customer. Since day one this piece-of-crap box has given me problems. My SECOND replacement R-15 is on its way to me right now. Unreal. My 40hr TiVo gave me zero problems of any kind for nearly four years. But that dual tuner lured me away...
I've read much here on the forums, but do have a couple questions for you veterans:
1) What is standby mode and how do I put the unit it that mode? Mine is on 24/7 as far as I know...should I be turning it off? Won't it miss recordings!!?
2) My most recent software download was 8/30 (10D3)...seems like that is indeed the most recent from what I've read.
3) Is the R-10 an older box...if so, many of you seem to think it works better. Can I call DTV and request one. This thing really is a worthless machine. But what fun it's been to read everyone has the same problems. 
THANK YOU for any help, and sorry if I've posted on the wrong board/location...bear with me.
--mrb


----------



## cabanaboy1977

Wolffpack said:



> It would really be nice if DTV could figure out this "hang while in standby" problem that has been around since the beginning.


I really thought it was a heat issue. I was thinking that the R15 would heat up and just get stuck. But since Carl has the fan modes I don't think that is it.


----------



## Bobman

mrb said:


> My SECOND replacement R-15 is on its way


The problem is not the units, its the software. Unless your unit would not power up or something major like that swapping it out will do nothing to fix the problems.

The R-10 was the last DirecTiVo released by DirecTV. It's really the same as all the other DirecTiVos just a larger HD and a little faster processor.


----------



## mrb

Bobman said:


> The problem is not the units, its the software. Unless your unit would not power up or something major like that swapping it out will do nothing to fix the problems.
> 
> The R-10 was the last DirecTiVo released by DirecTV. It's really the same as all the other DirecTiVos just a larger HD and a little faster processor.


That's not the answer I wanted to hear, but thanks. The first one I returned would not turn on. This second one has started to exhibit the exact same symptoms that the previous one did so I requested a replacement before it fully craps out.

Re: R-10...in anyone's experience would DTV willingly give me one of them instead of the R-15? I mean, if after one YEAR there are still all these bugs what real hope is there?

What about the "standby" mode...what is that? Am I harming the machine leaving it on 24/7?

Finally...any way to transfer shows from the DVR to my VCR?

Thanks all.


----------



## Bobman

mrb said:


> What about the "standby" mode...what is that? Am I harming the machine leaving it on 24/7?
> 
> Finally...any way to transfer shows from the DVR to my VCR?


Turning it off puts it in standby. It does no harm to not do it but "supposedly" when in standby the R-15 does its cleaning up and housekeeping sooner. Also some do a reset weekly to help eliminate problems.

Just connect the red/white/yellow cables or coax from the output of the R-15 to the input of the VCR to copy shows.


----------



## mrb

Bobman said:


> Turning it off puts it in standby. It does no harm to not do it but "supposedly" when in standby the R-15 does its cleaning up and housekeeping sooner. Also some do a reset weekly to help eliminate problems.
> 
> Just connect the red/white/yellow cables or coax from the output of the R-15 to the input of the VCR to copy shows.


Final question (at least for today):
Can it still record shows when it's off (i.e. plugged in, but no lights illuminated)? If so, I'll turn it off all the time, saves some energy anyway. I know I sound like an idiot, but since I've never ever tuned it off (TiVo was on all the time)...when turning it back on it's just going to come up to live tv, right...not the starting up screen? 
Yeah, I do the reset weekly, but I'm forced to do it since the box craps out so often. 
Thanks bobman.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

mrb said:


> Final question (at least for today):
> Can it still record shows when it's off (i.e. plugged in, but no lights illuminated)?


Yes, I will still record while in standby.


----------



## JacenSolo

i have 2 dvrs on 104B, one is fine, the other is repeatedly freezing, stopping recording in the middle of programs (10 minutes after a red button reset)......is there anyway to roll back to a previous patch? This one has made me miss Justice, Ever After, and several of my wife's shows........help????


----------



## martiney

I have been with DTV for about 1 month now. I found this forum about 1 week after getting DTV (due to record issues on both of my new R-15-300's).

Once the 0x104B update happened... I did a hard reset on both DVRs (holding record and down arrow on the unit after black screen on reset). This cleared out my VOD contents completely.

Ever since then I have had no problems with my DVRs. Both DVRs are always powered down while not being used (overnight mainly).

I am only using 1 SeriesLink for the show 'House' on one DVR (and thus far it has worked)... and I have 30-35 items (all added by hitting 'R' in the guide to record the shows) in the ToDo lists for both DVRs (one has kid shows and the other has TV for my wife and I). 

I am no longer telling the DVR to record "30 extra minutes" after football games... instead, I tell it to record the show immediately following the football game. If it goes longer I just watch the show following the game with no issues.

I immediately delete shows from the DVRs after watching them (have yet to record something I want to keep)... so my pct free on the DVRs has not gone below 70 pct yet.

My record light has been on overnight with no scheduled shows... it was recording Showcase content.

We'll see how it goes...


----------



## rbpeirce

rbpeirce said:


> I got home after two weeks and had 104B on my R15-300, but I still had all the old problems. Biting the bullet I did a total wipe and reset. As far as I can tell it is now working okay. Unfortunatley, all the shows I was saving are now gone. The message, I guess, is don't save anything!!


Well, that was last Friday. This morning I tried to do a search for a show and it froze. I did a simple reset. That restored search functionality. It remains to be seen if it broke something else. This is really too bad; I thought the C&DE had actually solved the problem. Way to go DTV!


----------



## cabanaboy1977

JacenSolo said:


> i have 2 dvrs on 104B, one is fine, the other is repeatedly freezing, stopping recording in the middle of programs (10 minutes after a red button reset)......is there anyway to roll back to a previous patch? This one has made me miss Justice, Ever After, and several of my wife's shows........help????


No there is no way to rollback.


----------



## JacenSolo

cabanaboy1977 said:


> No there is no way to rollback.


crap, so are they actually creating a new patch? or do they evern care that they've screwed this up so bad?


----------



## anopro

Those following this thread might remember my post a few day’s ago, well I though I’d update. I decided to give the R-15 another go so I forced a software update “just reinstalled 10D3” and let it sit to acquire the guide data then I loaded it up with a lot of SL and manual records. 

Now don’t get me wrong its still has a lot of the same bugs I stated in my previous post, but the unit seems to be handling the records with out a problem so far. No shorted recordings or missed SL but only a 2 days so far. Playback is jumpy with FF/REW controls and we have had the black screen rewind then hit play to resume playback. 

But this UI is so much more streamlined than the R-10 that I can’t give it up. We’ll live with the inaccurate time bar and the glitchy playback so long as it doesn’t miss records that’s a deal breaker after all that’s what this thing is for right. 

We just hope they keep working on the bug’s cause this box could be great!


----------



## JacenSolo

i've forced 104B to redownload twice on mine, to no avail.....


----------



## Wolffpack

JacenSolo said:


> i've forced 104B to redownload twice on mine, to no avail.....


Have you tried a reformat of your HD on that unit? DOWN AROW/REC. This will cause a loss of all recordings and SLs.


----------



## JacenSolo

Wolffpack said:


> Have you tried a reformat of your HD on that unit? DOWN AROW/REC. This will cause a loss of all recordings and SLs.


No, not done that, have several shows on there right now, that i need to watch.


----------



## Wolffpack

JacenSolo said:


> No, not done that, have several shows on there right now, that i need to watch.


Once your frustration level tops your desire to watch the shows, give the reformat a try. My guess is that will fix the problem.


----------



## wolfonthehill

Question: I did the reformat thing last night (and I'm getting 1/2-month of credit on my bill because I had to do it to resolve freeze-up problems). Is that a temporary fix? Will I have to do it again in 3 more months? Or could it possibly fix the problem going forward?

Thanks...


----------



## Wolffpack

wolfonthehill said:


> Question: I did the reformat thing last night (and I'm getting 1/2-month of credit on my bill because I had to do it to resolve freeze-up problems). Is that a temporary fix? Will I have to do it again in 3 more months? Or could it possibly fix the problem going forward?
> 
> Thanks...


I don't think so. I believe the problems some are seeing are due to bad files/pointers/clusters on the HD that have accumulated over time when running the very buggy previous software versions. The reformat clears everything and recreates a clean filesystem and files giving the unit a fresh start running much more stable software. There are many here that see these problems and many that do not. While it could be the 10D3 software I'm guessing it's more of a problem that developed while running previous versions.


----------



## troop72

Earl Bonovich said:


> If you are on 10D3... there is no other software update in the hopper... especially one next week on the 30th...
> 
> If a format hasn't cleared it up, you may have a system that is having a hardware failure.


So, apparently 10D4 was coming out . But of course I don't have it yet and my problems persist -- but based on the total number of posts it does not seem as if I am alone so I am not ready to call it hardware problems just yet.

As an aside - Has anyone ever tried to replace the HardDrive on an R15 with a new one? If I really have a bad drive I can(a) try to fix it myself, (b) buy a new unit, or (c) commit to D* for two years to get a 'free' replacement.


----------



## Wolffpack

troop72 said:


> So, apparently 10D4 was coming out . But of course I don't have it yet and my problems persist -- but based on the total number of posts it does not seem as if I am alone so I am not ready to call it hardware problems just yet.
> 
> As an aside - Has anyone ever tried to replace the HardDrive on an R15 with a new one? If I really have a bad drive I can(a) try to fix it myself, (b) buy a new unit, or (c) commit to D* for two years to get a 'free' replacement.


Have you done a reformat yet? No need in trying a new drive until you at least try a reformat.

But yes, throw a new drive in it (between 160GB and 250GB) and do a reformat.


----------



## pentium101

Wolffpack said:


> Once your frustration level tops your desire to watch the shows, give the reformat a try. My guess is that will fix the problem.


Wolffpack, are you currently working for Microsoft? :lol:

I'm just messing with you. But that seems to be the same solution that Microsoft recommends to the fixing of many Windows problems.


----------



## walters

Well, after the look my wife gave me last night, I knew I had to try a reformat. We'll see if it fixes the problem (good thing I don't depend on this box as my primary, or else the cure would have been worse than the disease--I'm *never* fully caught up in the living room).


----------



## Wolffpack

pentium101 said:


> Wolffpack, are you currently working for Microsoft? :lol:
> 
> I'm just messing with you. But that seems to be the same solution that Microsoft recommends to the fixing of many Windows problems.


:icon_lol:

Yeah, at times you need to take the path of least resistance. I reload my primary laptop about every 8-10 months just so it runs as it should for a couple of months.


----------



## babzog

Jut got mine hooked up Sun, downloaded the new firmware almost immediately, and then on Mon night, began having problems. Model is a 300 and has the latest firmware now.

Set it to record Prison Break and Vanished, both on Fox, one after the other, both set to record the season link. Prison Break got about 17min through, then the picture froze on a frame but it still had the audio. Vanished, right after, recorded just fine.

Tried the troubleshooting tips in the manual, tried red button, tried restart, tried to redownload firmware... all to no avail.

Tried recording two nack to back shows tonight without series link and they recorded fine.

There are other issues: 

1. Sluggishness (awful!) Just seems to go off into la-la land from time to time.

2. Weird inconsistencies - I was viewing a recorded show, fast forwarding actually, when I got to the end, then I just started viewing the live buffer! The buffer, I later found out, was subsequently erased to the point where I started viewing it. I never got the prompt to delete. Another time, fast forwarding through the same ep, I got the delete prompt at the end, then I got it again when I popped back into the myvod list. Weird!

3. Menuing needs work: a) Would be nice if the guide first went to the guide, then with the second press, to the filter list, rather than the way it currently is. b) I'd LOVE a way to kill off that blasted screensaver - never had it before on a DTV receiver, don't know why I'd want it forced on me now. c) Would be nice to have a simpler way to edit out unwanted channels - it's klunky as hell right now. d) Would be nice if the "Channels I Get" list actually worked to filter out the channels I don't get (msg 721 channels).


----------



## DavidC

My confession: I had been using an r-15 for several months with no problems at all. With all the bad stuff I kept reading, I wondered if fortune had simply shined on me.

Apparently not.

My unit, since the 104B update, first got buggy, and now is crapping out BIG TIME.

1) Sunday night, set to record Celebrity Fit Club (no padding, except on the celebrities, no SL). Didn't record at all. History list says "Not recorded."

2) On Monday night, attempted to record Mystery! (a 90 minute program) on PBS three different times. No padding, and one was even a manual timer record. 1st attempt: 26 minutes; 2nd attempt: 30 minutes; 3rd attempt (manual timer): 1 freaking minute, black screen. At the same time as the 2nd attempt, I recorded a full program on BBC America with no problems.

3) Today, the box froze several times (stopped recognizing the remote, or went black screen). The red reset button wouldn't cut it; had to do a hard reset by unplugging the box and waiting 30 seconds, etc.

4) Tonight, I had it set to record House (SL, padding), Eureka (SL, padding), and the Contender (no SL, no padding). DIDN'T RECORD ANY OF THEM!!! When I go to the History list, it lists House and Eureka and says "Not recorded." (No duh)Doesn't even list Contender. Does anyone know what the "Not recorded" message signifies, I mean, beyond the obvious?

FYI, I have about 65% free space on the HD, though it's been as low as 30% free space in the past.

I am loath to do a HD wipe/reset, as I have quite a bit of programming to move off the drive, but I am willing to give it a try if this is my only option. However, from what I'm reading, I'm not sure it will actually help.

Looks like I'm going to be stuck back with the VCR, with the added problem that you can't even force a channel change on schedule like my old, single tuner non-dvr unit, so you have to actually be there to record shows on different channels on the same night. And I paid extra for this?

Any opinions?


----------



## blade

I just also started having these problems with my R15

1) I have the 104B which it says was updated on 8/23/06 at 2:04am

2) I have tried the 02468 update after resetting, but how do I know if it worked? I immediately hit those numbers right when it says hello on the blue screen

3)I only had the black screen/freeze and audio will come out on a recording a couple times in the past few weeks. Thought it was an isolated incident. Now in the past few days the R15 is going crazy. Only recording like 17 minutes of a show. Or it shows the recording light is on when it is supposed to be only it is not recording. I try to manually record another show at this time and it just shows the bar at the bottom. I then can watch that channel but if I try to change it doesn't respond, I have RED button reset I don't know how many times the past couple days.

Also having problems where all the sudden the screen is just black from turning it back on from standby, I have had troubles with random reccordings (some padded, some not) but they are not new SL's and there weren't any problems before. Even did the unplug for like 5 minutes and reset. But to no avail things still happening. I don't want to do the reformat (down arrow/rec button) because I have like 50% full on the box (a lot of movies that I keep until I am ready to watch or nothing is on). I thought it was just my box failing as previous cable dvrs had before but now I have found this forum. 

Any suggestions? It says next update scheduled is nothing.


----------



## Bobman

DavidC said:


> With all the bad stuff I kept reading, I wondered if fortune had simply shined on me.


Welcome to the R-15 club . Thats the way the R-15 is, it will work great for weeks then just flake out. I have two R-15's and only one ever has any problems, the other is fine.


----------



## cabanaboy1977

DavidC said:


> Any opinions?


Have you tried a red button reset. BTW do you only have one line hooked up the R15?


----------



## DavidC

cabanaboy1977 said:


> Have you tried a red button reset. BTW do you only have one line hooked up the R15?


Since Monday, I am having to red button reset several times a day, just to use basic functions, like, say, change the channel, get out of standby mode, or get MY VOD to play anything. Sometimes the rbreset doesn't even do anything (or rather, it gets part way through a reset, and then powers down), and I have to unplug and replug from wall power.

I have two lines coming in, all the way from the LNB. Both tuners show function on the test screen.

I am moving all my recordings to dvd and will soon try a drive reformat, probably by this weekend. I have high suspicions that this will do nothing, and I am getting ready to buy an r10 and tell DTV to stick this r15 where the sun don't shine, with my compliments.


----------



## walters

DavidC said:


> I am moving all my recordings to dvd and will soon try a drive reformat, probably by this weekend. I have high suspicions that this will do nothing


I suspect it will fix it like it did mine (same symptoms as you). But for how long? That remains to be seen.


----------



## blade

Well I did the re-force download of 104B on the R15. Next time a scheduled recording was going to happen, started recording for about 4 minutes and then the light went off. So I decided to take the plunge and reset everything.

I had to go thru the setup again, but now it shows that 104B is the original version of the software when you look at the specs (not 1047 as it did before). The box seems to run faster but I have to try and go do my SLs again to see if it is working correctly. I lost all faith in the box and there are too many new premieres happening to keep chancing it.

Even though I know what DirecTV will say should I still call/e-mail to complain about this, it is VERY annoying, yet I know what the answer will be but I think the more people complain the better/faster maybe this will be. 

What should I do?


----------



## cabanaboy1977

DavidC said:


> Since Monday, I am having to red button reset several times a day, just to use basic functions, like, say, change the channel, get out of standby mode, or get MY VOD to play anything. Sometimes the rbreset doesn't even do anything (or rather, it gets part way through a reset, and then powers down), and I have to unplug and replug from wall power.
> 
> I have two lines coming in, all the way from the LNB. Both tuners show function on the test screen.
> 
> I am moving all my recordings to dvd and will soon try a drive reformat, probably by this weekend. I have high suspicions that this will do nothing, and I am getting ready to buy an r10 and tell DTV to stick this r15 where the sun don't shine, with my compliments.


I was just checking. I figured you did but had to ask. I have to say it's one of two things 1) needs a HD format or 2) heating issues. I check the Temp of the unit and if the format doesn't do I'd have D* send you a new one.

Sorry that your having these issues.


----------



## DavidC

cabanaboy1977 said:


> I was just checking. I figured you did but had to ask. I have to say it's one of two things 1) needs a HD format or 2) heating issues. I check the Temp of the unit and if the format doesn't do I'd have D* send you a new one.
> 
> Sorry that your having these issues.


Mine seems to run at 48C. Is this high? What _is _a normal temperature range for these units?


----------



## cabanaboy1977

DavidC said:


> Mine seems to run at 48C. Is this high? What _is _a normal temperature range for these units?


That's not bad. 50 to 55 was about the average on our poll. So I don't think heat is your issue (unless you check it later and it's jumped up over 55). If the format doesn't work for you (in the long run) I'd have D* ship you out a new one.


----------



## anopro

Well we are starting to like the R-15 a lot better since we forced a download but have gotten a weird thing twice now. Go to watch VOD "recorded shows" Select a show select play and it go's to channel 5 live, ok switch to different channel and try again to play off VOD but back to live channel 5. Can't get anything to play off VOD keeps going live to channel 5, well a reset worked so far but weird! 


But I have to say it has not missed a recording since software force and menu navigation is still very fast.


----------



## blade

I had to suck it up and do the Reset everything reformat. Now it lists the 104B as the original (instead of 1047 as before) when you look at the settings. Also it hasn't acted up at all since (knock on wood). Apparently everytime they sent out a patch we will have to reformat? Terrible if that is the case. I had my DVR with Time Warner for almost 3 years and I never had to do anything with that box. Directv needs to use Scientific Atlanta to make their boxes, those are rock solid and their software does not crash.


----------



## ApK

I've used a Scientific Atlanta box for all of two minutes and it was brand new, so I don't know anything about it's reliability, but I can say I wasn't impressed by the UI or basic feature operations. I didn't even like it as much as the R15, and I like the R15 not very much compared to Tivo.

Now, if DTV could get Tivo software designers to build them a new DVR on the SciAtl hardware...maybe we're on to something!


----------



## tony4d

carl6 said:


> One of my (two) R15's locked up again sometime over the past 5 days. I had not used it during that time - it was in standby for about a week. Went to turn it on today and it would not turn on (remote or front panel button). Did a red button reset and it came back to life. Checked myVOD and the last thing recorded was sometime Saturday. When it came back to life, it immediately started recording a show that was on at that time and supposed to be recorded - and it only recorded from the time of the reset forward.
> 
> Carl





Wolffpack said:


> It would really be nice if DTV could figure out this "hang while in standby" problem that has been around since the beginning.


Well, I just switched to directv, I've had it for about 24 hours now and I've already encountered this. I guess I have the r15-300, cause I have software version 104B.

Not sure if this helps anyone (like maybe directv debugging this) but I was able to repeat this bug twice.

*The short summary*

When the dvr is off it will not record programs that I've scheduled (record light doesn't come on either), but, if I turn it on while something is supposed to be recording the record light will come on, it will start recording, and will record fine for the rest of the program, with the unit on or off. Note, anything before I turned it on did/does not record though.

*Long Explanation Below*

Last night I was up pretty late working, and I had two programs set to record, I had just chosen to record them from the guide by highlighting them and pressing the record button once, simple. One was set to record from 1:00 am - 2:00 am, the other from 4:00 am - 5:00 am.

Well, I looked over at the dvr at like 1:45 am and noticed the record light wasn't on, I thought, hrm, maybe it doesn't come on when the unit is off (Brand new dvr so I wasn't sure), so I turn it on to check if it was recording. As soon as I turned it on the record light came on. I went ahead and shut it off and the record light stayed on. So, at about 2:15 am I decided to see if it recorded the whole program from 1:00 am - 2:00 am, of course, it did NOT, grrrr. It simply recorded the last 14 minutes of the program, exactly from when I turned it on, till the end of the program (the last 14 minutes).

I figured the next recording scheduled to start at 4:00 am wasn't going to work either. So by 4:01 am (with the dvr off) I noticed the record light hadn't come on yet, so, I turned it on, the record light came on, and then I shut it off, and the record light stayed on. I went to bed, checked it this morning, and this one recorded the last 58 minutes of the hour program, so, exactly from the point I turned it on till the program was over. Exact same behavior, twice in a row.

I would think this would be fairly trivial to debug, it's like it has problems doing scheduled recording while in standby (unit off). We recorded a couple things while we were watching other live tv and it worked perfect.


----------



## cj3234

I Wish They Would Fix This Searching For Signal When StORMING.i'm Not Even Watching Live T.v,i'm WatchING A Taped Show And I Get The Warning.it Should Tell You And Then When You Aknowledge It, It Should Go Away Very Annoying.


----------



## martiney

I was trying to search for the new "Heroes" show...

I typed... H.. E.. R... and it is now frozen.

I can't turn it off or exit... a red button reset is about the only thing I can do...

But I am going to give it the benefit of doubt... and let it sit overnight to see if it's just taking a while to search...

We'll see..


----------



## walters

martiney said:


> I was trying to search for the new "Heroes" show...
> 
> I typed... H.. E.. R... and it is now frozen.
> 
> I can't turn it off or exit... a red button reset is about the only thing I can do...
> 
> But I am going to give it the benefit of doubt... and let it sit overnight to see if it's just taking a while to search...
> 
> We'll see..


It used to do that with "SE" (like if you were searching for Seinfeld). Several of us reproduced it. Strange thing is I managed a sucessful search for Seinfeld after doing my reformat.


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## qwerty

walters said:


> Strange thing is I managed a sucessful search for Seinfeld after doing my reformat.


Had your guide data fully repopulated when you had a successful search?


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## walters

Maybe not completely, but it is now, and I just tried both searches--no problem.


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## martiney

walters said:


> Maybe not completely, but it is now, and I just tried both searches--no problem.


Well... I was only able to wait for 1 hour on the DVR... there was a show scheduled to record at night and didn't want to miss it.

I tried the same "heroes" title search on the DVR in the bedroom and it also froze.

I turned both dvrs off last night... and re-did the search this morning and it worked on both (R15-300's).

I guess it may be due to a fully populated guide (it worked on the partial one)?


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## blade

I would have to disagree, though there are some better features with the R15 (searching and whatnot) that the Scientific Atlanta box I had with Time Warner was a functionally better machine. It had two tuners and gave me PIP and also the remote had a better functionality. It would only record the first run episodes, the Guide was MUCH better and much faster and easier to use. The software in general was a lot better and easier to navigate. I rarely (Maybe 4 times in 3 years) had to reset. The only problem was it was a 40 hour max on the drive.


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## carl6

carl6 said:


> One of my (two) R15's locked up again sometime over the past 5 days ... Went to turn it on today and it would not turn on (remote or front panel button). Carl


And the same unit died once again. This time it was again off (in standby), but only for less than 24 hours. Would not turn on by either remote or pushing the front panel power button. Red button reset again brought it back to life, but went one step farther this time and did the clear-and-delete reset. We'll see how it behaves over the next week or so.

By the way, the clear-and-delete also wipes out anything in the Showcases tab. I would have expected it to, but I have now verified that.

Carl


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## samfrus

How do u do the clear-and-delete reset. Mine right now only comes up w/the blue welcome screend for about 15 sec. and then cycles thru blank screen and back to blue welcome screen. The only ohter thing I have been able to get it to do is a forced download. Since this thing crashed the blue halo has not come on only the pwr and record buttons have illuminated. Any ideas?


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## paulman182

I have not seen this issue before. One of my R15s locks up after it loses signal during a rainstorm. Last night I could change channels and get audio for a while, but the picture remained frozen where I lost it until i hit the red reset button.

My other unit, which was in standby at the time, worked fine when I tried it.

Not a real big issue, except that you cannot tell when signal comes back on my main R15, because it will be locked up when it returns. Anyone else see this?


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## samfrus

I did this. Hit the red RESET button and when the unit goes from the blue screens to black press and hold the DOWN ARROW & REC buttons on the front panel for about 5-7 seconds or until the REC button light goes on. And it finally came back to life. Luckily I only had a few recordings saved.


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## carl6

samfrus said:


> I did this. Hit the red RESET button and when the unit goes from the blue screens to black press and hold the DOWN ARROW & REC buttons on the front panel for about 5-7 seconds or until the REC button light goes on. And it finally came back to life. Luckily I only had a few recordings saved.


That is the "clear and delete" reset. You should be good to go now, that really tends to clean up the R15.

Carl


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## mphare

I was FF'd the other day with my R-15 (sw ver 10D3) and it locked up so hard I had to un-plug the unit from power to get it to reset.

This has happened to me a few times, but this was the first time I had to do a power cycle to relieve the problem.


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## tony4d

Well, I've had my R15 for 4 days and I had my first lockup today. Simply paused football game, came back 15 minutes later and it wouldn't play. Finally got the unit to turn off and back on, but once it was back on it wouldn't respond to anything, even though it was showing that football game. Red button reset and it's ok now.

Geez, I'm really encouraged, after 4 days I've already experienced the same problems that everyone is complaining about.


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## wistex

Perfect timing with the new fall season upon us. 

My living room R15 (two tuners used) froze during prime time 4 times Thursday night. It was really terrible because I had friends over for Earl, Office, and Grey's premiers. I power cycled it and it worked for a little while. Then froze up again. And again. And again. The recording prior to the reset would be lost. As soon as the data had been acquired from the satellites, it would start recording again. Front panel and remote were inoperable during the freeze.

Last night, same thing with Amazing Race/Housewives. Froze. Twice. This time, I did a red button reset. We'll see if it's ok for the rest of the week now.

Second problem as documented numerous times here. My bedroom R15 (single tuner in use) didn't start recording until I turned the box on. Obviously, it should be recording in standby mode.

I can't remember when I received the latest software, but I think it was around 9/14. I've had the boxes since about 5/15 this year and these are the first problems I've had. The R15 needs to have only ONE working function: Record the shows I want without freezing and losing them. That's it. EVERYTHING ELSE is gravy. Recording w/o repeats? Gravy. Dual live buffers? Gravy. Skip back after show has completed but before you are "caught up" without asking to delete? Gravy. Going directly to guide with a single press? Gravy. Loss of atellite signal notification during recorded programs going away? Gravy.

Just record the shows I want.


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## troop72

Wolffpack said:


> Have you done a reformat yet? No need in trying a new drive until you at least try a reformat.
> 
> But yes, throw a new drive in it (between 160GB and 250GB) and do a reformat.


Wolfpack - Thanks for the post.

Reformatting numerous times did not help...
FWIW - took a new in box 250GB WD hard drive and connected it up (cable select jumper like the existing drive) R15-500 would not recognize the drive at all so DA/R was ineffective in triggering a reformat.

Update on my situation - A few days back I noticed my internal temp display had gone to 0C and had stayed here. I do not know when that actually happened but I recall seeing a temp of 51C at one time and the skin of the box directly above the hard drive was noticably way too hot.

Now that I have been fiddling around inside with the cover off the temp is working again and showing 35C. I am going to leave the cover off for 24 hours and set some overnight recordings to see what happens. If the drive performs then it is probably a heat issue. If heat seems to be my problem I am going to hotwire the fan to run continously like carl6 has done.

I just wonder  if the latest 10D3 software has some variable speed fan code in it that is buggy, so the unit overheats, and all these other symptoms we have seen start to kick in...


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## qwerty

troop72 said:


> I just wonder  if the latest 10D3 software has some variable speed fan code in it that is buggy, so the unit overheats, and all these other symptoms we have seen start to kick in...


Word is the fan is triggered to turn on at 54C. To high IMO.


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## Wolffpack

troop72 said:


> Wolfpack - Thanks for the post.
> 
> Reformatting numerous times did not help...
> FWIW - took a new in box 250GB WD hard drive and connected it up (cable select jumper like the existing drive) R15-500 would not recognize the drive at all so DA/R was ineffective in triggering a reformat.
> 
> Update on my situation - A few days back I noticed my internal temp display had gone to 0C and had stayed here. I do not know when that actually happened but I recall seeing a temp of 51C at one time and the skin of the box directly above the hard drive was noticably way too hot.
> 
> Now that I have been fiddling around inside with the cover off the temp is working again and showing 35C. I am going to leave the cover off for 24 hours and set some overnight recordings to see what happens. If the drive performs then it is probably a heat issue. If heat seems to be my problem I am going to hotwire the fan to run continously like carl6 has done.
> 
> I just wonder  if the latest 10D3 software has some variable speed fan code in it that is buggy, so the unit overheats, and all these other symptoms we have seen start to kick in...


Be VERY careful with the cover off and power applied. The powersupply is not covered. If you touch any part on the power supply you will get a hellof a shock and will fry the PS.


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## troop72

Wolffpack said:


> Be VERY careful with the cover off and power applied. The powersupply is not covered. If you touch any part on the power supply you will get a hell of a shock and will fry the PS.


Thanks for the reminder - ac power cord is ALWAYS disconnected before touching anything and I know all about capacitors too (10th grade electrical shop - watched teacher blow himself off his feet touching a live capacitor:grin: )

Anyway, the overheating seems to have already taken its toll on the HD. R15 _thinks_ it recorded 2 of the 5 I selected. Black screen when trying to play those. Can hear disk clicking away sounds like multiple retries...

Any ideas on replacing this drive after failure of my first attempt?
Unit acted the same way it does when there is no drive present.


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## White_Horse

ok, here's some other problems I've discovered with this latest version of the software (on the 300 model)

You record a show. You're still on the same channel as the show you recorded and it's less than 90 minutes after the show (so the show is still in the live buffer too). Went to do a search and the box froze. ok...fine, reset the system. After resetting, the recorded show is gone. Looked in the history, it says not recorded, pull up the details on that entry, it says recorded. Prior to reset, the show was listed in MyVOD like it had saved to the drive.

I think this is somehow tied into if I try to watch a recording from MyVOD while it is still in the live buffer, it will jump to the current point in the live buffer. I've got to change channels to clear the show from the buffer and then I can watch it fine from MyVOD.


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## brykc14

Well I got up this morning to a strange problem I hadnt seen before. I have the 10D3. I first notice it wasnt recording The View for the wife. First time it had missed this SL since the new version was installed on 8/29. But that wasnt the strange part. The buffer wasnt recording either. I switched channels still no buffer recording. I reset and it started back up. I just hadnt ever seen or heard of this oroblem before. Was able to change all channels but the HD seemed to be dead.


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## Wolffpack

troop72 said:


> Thanks for the reminder - ac power cord is ALWAYS disconnected before touching anything and I know all about capacitors too (10th grade electrical shop - watched teacher blow himself off his feet touching a live capacitor:grin: )
> 
> Anyway, the overheating seems to have already taken its toll on the HD. R15 _thinks_ it recorded 2 of the 5 I selected. Black screen when trying to play those. Can hear disk clicking away sounds like multiple retries...
> 
> Any ideas on replacing this drive after failure of my first attempt?
> Unit acted the same way it does when there is no drive present.


If you install a new drive you will need to format it using DOWN ARROW/REC. When booting up as the screen changes from blue to black press and hold DOWN ARROW & REC on the front panel for 5-7 seconds or until the REC light comes on. It should boot fine after that.


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## troop72

Wolffpack said:


> If you install a new drive you will need to format it using DOWN ARROW/REC. When booting up as the screen changes from blue to black press and hold DOWN ARROW & REC on the front panel for 5-7 seconds or until the REC light comes on. It should boot fine after that.


Hi Wolfpack.

The drive was apparently never recognized (250GB Western Digital EIDE) - I have since installed it in an Intel machine to check it and it seems to work fine so it was not a problem with the drive.

Holding *down arrow/rec* did nothing-- rec light never came on - drive eventually spun down and the fan went off... (FYI - You get the same results if you try to boot without _any_ drive installed.)

This drive was literally new out of the box...
Do I need to set the drive jumpers any special way?
Do I need to partition the drive first?
Do I need to do anything else first?

Your previous posts would seem to indicate that "no" is the answer to all of the above questions but I thought I should ask in the interest of clarity.

Thanks for your time...


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## Clint Lamor

troop72 said:


> Hi Wolfpack.
> 
> The drive was apparently never recognized (250GB Western Digital EIDE) - I have since installed it in an Intel machine to check it and it seems to work fine so it was not a problem with the drive.
> 
> Holding *down arrow/rec* did nothing-- rec light never came on - drive eventually spun down and the fan went off... (FYI - You get the same results if you try to boot without _any_ drive installed.)
> 
> This drive was literally new out of the box...
> Do I need to set the drive jumpers any special way?
> Do I need to partition the drive first?
> Do I need to do anything else first?
> 
> Your previous posts would seem to indicate that "no" is the answer to all of the above questions but I thought I should ask in the interest of clarity.
> 
> Thanks for your time...


I would make sure the drive is jumpered to Master and not CSelect, also you can try it with no jumpers some machines BIOS don't want jumpers if it's an only drive. As for the other two no you don't need to partition it and there should be nothing else you need to do.


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## Wolffpack

What Clint says. Make sure it's set to Master. Since you don't get the REC light turned on that's probably your problem.


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## octopusm

I have a R15 500 that's being working good since I got it on July 2006. Aside from the usual black screens on playbacks, I've been happy with my unit. That is until Saturday 9/23. I was going to watch some previously recorde programs and the DVR functions didn't work.

Reset the box several times and things went from bad to worse. I calll D* tech supoort and they transfer me to 3rd level support, I suspected at this time that they did something. Sure thing, the tech person confirmed that a firmware upgrade was pushed on 9/22 and the've being experiencing a tremondous amount of calls. She had me reformat the HD (down arrow, rec at the same time after the reset) and things started working again, but I lost everything I had recorded.

But on Tuesday I started seeing the same odd behaviour. Well D* is sending me a new box for free. They royally screw my R15 with the latest firmware. Once I get the box and test I will post my observation....... Stay tuned......


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## Wolffpack

octopusm said:


> I have a R15 500 that's being working good since I got it on July 2006. Aside from the usual black screens on playbacks, I've been happy with my unit. That is until Saturday 9/23. I was going to watch some previously recorde programs and the DVR functions didn't work.
> 
> Reset the box several times and things went from bad to worse. I calll D* tech supoort and they transfer me to 3rd level support, I suspected at this time that they did something. Sure thing, the tech person confirmed that a firmware upgrade was pushed on 9/22 and the've being experiencing a tremondous amount of calls. She had me reformat the HD (down arrow, rec at the same time after the reset) and things started working again, but I lost everything I had recorded.
> 
> But on Tuesday I started seeing the same odd behaviour. Well D* is sending me a new box for free. They royally screw my R15 with the latest firmware. Once I get the box and test I will post my observation....... Stay tuned......


I'm not sure what the CSR was talking about but the last firmware update for the R15 was the beginning of August. Nothing new rolled out in September.


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## Lantian

just a quick question, is it normal that the response time is slower than say the non dvr receiver?


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## paulman182

Yes, that is normal. My non-DVR receiver is much faster.


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## troop72

troop72 said:


> Hi Wolfpack.
> 
> The drive was apparently never recognized (250GB Western Digital EIDE) - I have since installed it in an Intel machine to check it and it seems to work fine so it was not a problem with the drive.
> 
> Holding *down arrow/rec* did nothing-- rec light never came on - drive eventually spun down and the fan went off... (FYI - You get the same results if you try to boot without _any_ drive installed.)
> 
> This drive was literally new out of the box...
> Do I need to set the drive jumpers any special way?
> Do I need to partition the drive first?
> Do I need to do anything else first?
> 
> Your previous posts would seem to indicate that "no" is the answer to all of the above questions but I thought I should ask in the interest of clarity.
> 
> Thanks for your time...





Clint Lamor said:


> I would make sure the drive is jumpered to Master and not CSelect, also you can try it with no jumpers some machines BIOS don't want jumpers if it's an only drive. As for the other two no you don't need to partition it and there should be nothing else you need to do.





Wolffpack said:


> What Clint says. Make sure it's set to Master. Since you don't get the REC light turned on that's probably your problem.


Hi guys.

I never got the WD drive to work but I did get my original drive fixed.

I posted the procedure I used as a new thread - feel free to critique/correct. 
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=65731

Thanks again to you and everyone who tried to help.


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## Wolffpack

I'm not sure why the WD 250GB drive wouldn't work. I've used and formatted one of those many times in my R15. But note, a 300GB drive will not reformat. Just continues the reboot loop.

Also see my comments in your other thread.


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## gusmahler

I have two units with 104B (installed on 8/23). One of them is working perfectly. The other one, I'm not so lucky. This week, the ability to pause live TV stopped working. I hit the red reset button, and it solved the problem. But the same problem has re-occurred 2 times. One of the times, it lost several recordings I'd already made--although oddly enough, two of the lost recordings were in the To Do list (for future showings of the show).

What's worse is what happened today--a sort of freezing of the system. The unit was on in some menu mode, with the picture in the small window in the top right. But we couldn't change the channel or remove the menu at all. A red reset solved that. But the pause live TV problem resurfaced. A red reset solved that also.

What really sucks for me is that my Mom will be housesitting next week. I went all over how to use the system (she only has basic cable in her house). So she is the one that encountered the freezing. 

As of now, I red reset the system about 20 minutes ago, and the To Do list was all messed up, listing the same show over a dozen times. I just checked right now, and it seems to be better (though not perfect, although I believe some of that is due to the fact that the guide isn't all downloaded yet.)


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## Bobman

gusmahler said:


> I have two units with 104B (installed on 8/23). One of them is working perfectly. The other one, I'm not so lucky.


That is exactly my situation too. My older R-15 is working great except the SL repeat issue, no problems at all. The R-15 is a really nice until when it's working like this.

My second and newer R-15 has a few problems, not as many as you have had though. This past week even this R-15 has been working well.

The To Do List always looks messed up after a reset. Sometimes everything has the same date and time, sometimes shows are missing, etc.... After a couple hours to a day, it looks normal again.

Make sure to show your mom how to reset it and she should be fine.


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## DavidC

For anyone following my saga from page 7 of this thread, I finally did a Reset All and _so far_, all problems are fixed. 104B now shows as the original software, etc.

It will be interesting to see if the problems recur as the DVR fills. Haven't tried any SL recording yet, just one-offs, but SL was never my main problem, beyond the "normal" malfunctioning.


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## rgap

I too am seeing symptoms similar to those many of you have mentioned - but I'm noticing an additional variable.

About a week ago I noticed that some shows were not recording and were showing up in the history log as "Not Recorded".

Then the box started to lock up. By lock up I mean refuse to accept commands (although the little blue light on the receiver would flicker when I pushed a button on the remote). The TV signal would continue to broadcast. If the freeze happened while the info bar was up I could continue to watch the show but the bar would have a frozen time.

Finally, about 13 minutes into Smallville the box stopped recording. I called DirecTV and worked up through the phone help chain to level 3 (in one hour and twenty-five minutes!). They wanted me to reformat the box, but since we haven't watched a lot of the shows I said I would call back when I was ready to do that.

Anyway, so we started watching our backlog of shows and deleting them. I've noticed that the receiver is recording nominally again. *The problem seems to occur when the space available drops below 70 percent.* If I delete a bunch of shows it works fine and then starts screwing up again at around 70 percent.

Has anyone else noticed this? Does this sound like some sort of memory issue (I have a lot of series links set up and my record list is always hovering around the maximum 100). Or does it sound like a file allocation issue? If so, does anyone think a reformat will fix it or just hide the problem until I use up 30 percent of the space again - potentially outside my 3 month warrantee...


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## carl6

Some people have run tests where they did not have problems with a full or nearly full hard disk.

However, if you have lots of SL's, and your record list is that close to max, I suspect strongly that is contributing to your problems. Add to that either doing a lot of re-prioritizing, or doing a lot of searches, and you are almost guaranteed to have problems.

Carl


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## Wolffpack

I've currently got 19 SLs and MYVOD has been running at 1% available for 2 weeks now. I'm not have any problems other than a REAL slow MYVID display and the other "normal" R15 problems. IE - no resets or freezes.


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## Bobman

I never tested anything but I try to never let my available disk space get much below 50% available. I have 45 SL's on one R-15 and 41 SL's on the other.


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## cdworkin

White_Horse said:


> You record a show. You're still on the same channel as the show you recorded and it's less than 90 minutes after the show (so the show is still in the live buffer too). Went to do a search and the box froze. ok...fine, reset the system. After resetting, the recorded show is gone. Looked in the history, it says not recorded, pull up the details on that entry, it says recorded. Prior to reset, the show was listed in MyVOD like it had saved to the drive.


I'm having similar issues. If I try to watch something that it finished recording earlier in the evening, like an 8:00 show and I try to watch it at 9:15 it will show me whatever it is recording at 9. I have to then reset the box and the 8:00 show is gone. This has happened twice and every time ends up freezing the box or playing a blank screen.

I am beyond tired of this nonsense. I could care less about any of the bells and whistles on the friggin R15. I just want a box that will record my shows. Should I ask them to send me an older version box? If so which one? At one point they were going to send me the Tivo box, but instead I got another R15... I am on my THIRD box.

My husband is ready to rip the damn dish off the roof top.

CDM


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## cdworkin

martiney said:


> I was trying to search for the new "Heroes" show...
> 
> I typed... H.. E.. R... and it is now frozen.
> 
> I can't turn it off or exit... a red button reset is about the only thing I can do...


I had this problem when searching for ER.

CDM


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## waughoo

DavidC said:


> For anyone following my saga from page 7 of this thread, I finally did a Reset All and _so far_, all problems are fixed. 104B now shows as the original software, etc.
> 
> It will be interesting to see if the problems recur as the DVR fills. Haven't tried any SL recording yet, just one-offs, but SL was never my main problem, beyond the "normal" malfunctioning.


After struggling with the receiver freezing, missed recordings, etc. with 104B I also reluctantly did a reset all two weeks ago. Since then I haven't had any of the lockup or recording issues. However, I'm still furious about losing all of my recorded content as well as 1/2 a dozen programs that didn't record. I've been with DirecTV for over 10 years and am still confused as to why they would subject their loyal customers to this. :nono2:


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## troop72

Has anyone experienced nocturnal freezes/hangups and had to red-button-reset in the morning?

I have to do some more testing but there may be a correlation between this and scheduling a nocturnal recording or receiving a showcase... Both happened last night and I needed to reset this morning.

I wonder if if there is some conflict between these activities and the nightly housekeeping routines? Sure would be great if this thing had a syslog...


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## paulman182

Many of my recordings are made in the middle of the night because my viewing is 99% movies. 
I have had four resets between two machines in a month of use, and the last one was about a week ago. 
I don't think the time of the recording has any bearing on problems with my units, because I record a lot late at night and have not had many problems.


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## cdworkin

What is the point of having a digital video RECORDER if it doesn't RECORD what you ask it to record and then to 'fix' it you have to delete everything off of it? I might as well just watch regular TV.

CDM


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## Fourdogs

I have had a little over a month to find problems in the 10D3 update that came on 8/29. So far, these are the *new* problems;

1. Frequent lock-ups when searching by title.

2. I often get a black screen.

3. No sound after a rewind. Whether I rewind ten seconds or one hour, it does not matter. Usually a second rewind will bring the sound back.

4. One time, it would not power on until I unplugged it and plugged it back. Other reset options didn't work. This is the only time that it has done this, in almost a year.

5. Rewind and FF are jerky and much slower than before.

6. If I try to watch a program from my VOD, while it is still recording, it starts at the point where the program is in real time. I have to rewind to the beginning to start it there, or wait until it is over. Before the update, it started at the beginning like I wanted.

It never did any of these things before the 10D3 update.


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