# How can I speed up my HR-24 Receiver?



## mitchflorida (May 18, 2009)

The biggest delay is when I try to access my recordings list or the current programming list. Takes about six seconds between pressing the remote button and having the DVR respond. I called up the DTV CSR and he said that is normal because my DVR is using 90 percent of its recording capacity.

Is there any way to speed up the response time of the HR-24? It seems slower than molasses.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

If you're using the DirecTV remote that came with it try this:

Put remote in TV mode 
Press and hold Mute and Select until the green light flashes twice.
Enter 9-6-3 on numeric key pad. 
The green light on remote should flash twice.
Press the Channel Down key. 
The green light on remote should flash twice again.

Then clear NVRAM by doing this:

Tune to channel 1 and give everything time to load, about 30 seconds should be more than enough. Then press the red, red, blue, blue, yellow, green buttons in that order. You should then see a "nvram/flash is cleared" message on screen.


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## John Strk (Oct 16, 2009)

Also try deleting some recordings to free up available space. 

My HR20-100 was slow for a long time since I always had less than 15% available HD recording space but I now always have it around 25-30% or more available and I've noticed it responds much quicker. That combined with the HD GUI and latest firmware updates it's a better box


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## mitchflorida (May 18, 2009)

i tried your suggestion and it did seem to work very well. I had called up the "Technical Support" expert at DTV and he had no such fix. He just said I needed to empty out my DVR recordings! Kind of sad, really.

In terms of your instructions, should the remote be in TV mode the entire time? I never saw the "nvram/flash is cleared" message, but it must have cleared it anyway.

Can you tune it to Channel 1 at the beginning, or do you have to wait, as per your instructions? 

Thanks, will use this again if it ever gets sluggish.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

mitchflorida said:


> i tried your suggestion and it did seem to work very well. I had called up the "Technical Support" expert at DTV and he had no such fix. He just said I needed to empty out my DVR recordings! Kind of sad, really.
> 
> In terms of your instructions, should the remote be in TV mode the entire time? I never saw the "nvram/flash is cleared" message, but it must have cleared it anyway.
> 
> ...


The remote should only be in TV mode for the first set of instructions. The two suggestions I provided are separate and have nothing to do with each other.

Clearing NVRAM should be done with the remote controlling your DVR. You should see the cleared message in white text in the lower left area. Depending upon the size of your TV it may or may not be in an area with a white background making it harder to see.

With the remote controlling your HR24 tune to channel 1 and wait a few seconds, probably no more than 15 then enter the colored key sequence provided above.


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## bt-rtp (Dec 30, 2005)

One more thing I find that helps is to go to a sports channel such as ESPN on channel 206 and then press the exit key a couple times. For some reason that kills something running in the background (score center ?) and speeds up channel changing and menu interaction.


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

"bt-rtp" said:


> One more thing I find that helps is to go to a sports channel such as ESPN on channel 206 and then press the exit key a couple times. For some reason that kills something running in the background (score center ?) and speeds up channel changing and menu interaction.


Hitting Exit on an Active Channel disables the active features. In the case of ESPN, it disables ScoreCenter.

- Merg


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## JerryMeeker (Sep 20, 2007)

"mitchflorida" said:


> I called up the DTV CSR and he said that is normal because my DVR is using 90 percent of its recording capacity.


FWIW, I recently upgraded both of my (owned) HR24's to 2TB drives, so both are currently less than 10% utilized. Response is very snappy. Over the course of the years I have used DTV DVR's, when utilization goes over 50%, I consider it a sign that a capacity increase is needed. If you wait too long, there is the risk of losing all that recorded content.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

mitchflorida said:


> i tried your suggestion and it did seem to work very well. I had called up the "Technical Support" expert at DTV and he had no such fix. He just said I needed to empty out my DVR recordings! Kind of sad, really.


Not really sad, more like well informed. The HRs do slow down as the HDD approaches full. So do computers.



> In terms of your instructions, should the remote be in TV mode the entire time? I never saw the "nvram/flash is cleared" message, but it must have cleared it anyway.
> 
> Can you tune it to Channel 1 at the beginning, or do you have to wait, as per your instructions?
> 
> Thanks, will use this again if it ever gets sluggish.


Every time one of my HRs gets sluggish, which is rare, I flush the Guide Data and that seems to cure the sluggishness. Not having normally slow HRs, I've never seen any difference after using the NVRAM clearing method, but I have always gotten the "cleared" message.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

JerryMeeker said:


> FWIW, I recently upgraded both of my (owned) HR24's to 2TB drives, so both are currently less than 10% utilized. Response is very snappy. Over the course of the years I have used DTV DVR's, when utilization goes over 50%, I consider it a sign that a capacity increase is needed. If you wait too long, there is the risk of losing all that recorded content.


I've been running a 24-500, our main viewing HR, all year long with less than 20% Available on the meter. It has a 2TB internal drive in it and it has gone as low as 15% Available and has shown no sluggishness at all. I kinda think D* fixed this problem without telling us about it. The rest of my HRs are at about 50% Available. Three years ago, I would have definitely said that when your external/internal drive reaches 30% Available, watch out for the the HR to start bogging down. Now I don't know quite what to think.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

I realize posts 9 & 10 are contradictory, but I can only tell you what I've seen and the 24s don't seem to have this problem, as far as I can tell.

Rich


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

Overall my 3 HR24-500s are running better than they ever have. But I have to clear NVRAM weekly to keep it that way. Since that is so dead simple, I don't consider it an issue. And note, I don't worry about how much is on my hard drive, I've not found that to be an issue even when I get down to about 20% or so, which is very rare.

Since the hard drive, external or internal, is married to the receiver and not the account, I don't use them much for things I want to archive. 

Now to get unified recording management...


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Time to clear up a myth that I've been spreading.

Clearing NVRAM was never needed.

What was happening was being on channel 1 for 30 sec.

Going through the whole colored button pressing, merely caused us to stay on channel 1 for 30 sec.

"Live and learn"


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## mitchflorida (May 18, 2009)

Rich said:


> Not really sad, more like well informed. The HRs do slow down as the HDD approaches full. So do computers.
> 
> Every time one of my HRs gets sluggish, which is rare, I flush the Guide Data and that seems to cure the sluggishness. Not having normally slow HRs, I've never seen any difference after using the NVRAM clearing method, but I have always gotten the "cleared" message.
> 
> Rich


All I can say is what the DirecTV CSR told me didn't help me at all. And a full dvr would have no effect on a slow guide response. The NVRAM clearing made a noticeable difference for me. A competent CSR would know of that technique. I shouldn't have to go to a private message board like this to get the right answer.

What does pushing 9-6-3 on the remote control do?


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

mitchflorida said:


> All I can say is what the DirecTV CSR told me didn't help me at all. And a full dvr would have no effect on a slow guide response. The NVRAM clearing made a noticeable difference for me. A competent CSR would know of that technique. I shouldn't have to go to a private message board like this to get the right answer.


But, did he suggest flushing the Guide Data? I never said that a full HDD would have an affect on using the Guide, it will affect the performance of the HR.

Rich


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

mitchflorida said:


> What does pushing 9-6-3 on the remote control do?


It keeps the "Mode ID" signal from being sent with every remote keypress. Less data being sent gives you faster remote/UI response.


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## mitchflorida (May 18, 2009)

Rich said:


> But, did he suggest flushing the Guide Data? I never said that a full HDD would have an affect on using the Guide, it will affect the performance of the HR.
> 
> Rich


No, he didn't. How do you flush the Guide Data?


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

mitchflorida said:


> No, he didn't. How do you flush the Guide Data?


Reset the dvr, then when it comes back up to live TV, reboot it again.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Davenlr said:


> Reset the dvr, then when it comes back up to live TV, reboot it again.


Right, but it's got to be done within 30 minutes. To clarify, the HR has to rebooted twice within 30 minutes.

Rich


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

Rich said:


> Right, but it's got to be done within 30 minutes. To clarify, the HR has to rebooted twice within 30 minutes.
> 
> Rich


If you're rebooting it, waiting for it to get to live tv, then rebooting it again that's definitely inside 30 minutes.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"RunnerFL" said:


> If you're rebooting it, waiting for it to get to live tv, then rebooting it again that's definitely inside 30 minutes.


Reboot, while waiting for it to get back to live go to do something else and get distracted, forgetting about it for over 30 minutes.


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

"veryoldschool" said:


> Time to clear up a myth that I've been spreading.
> 
> Clearing NVRAM was never needed.
> 
> ...


Ok, I'll bite. What does staying on channel 1 do to speed things up? Or at least in some cases?


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

dpeters11 said:


> Reboot, while waiting for it to get back to live go to do something else and get distracted, forgetting about it for over 30 minutes.


Not the point, but... If you're that dead set on doing it then you won't be distracted.


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## TomCat (Aug 31, 2002)

You could also click your heels together three times and whisper "there's no place like home".

That would probably be just as effective.

And, wait a minute, isn't the HR24 supposed to be powered with a CPU at least twice as fast as earlier DVR models? Kinda seems to support the theory of the DVR just being too busy doing too many things (things not asked of it before all of the crap features that have been added) and that it is thrashing because of that. True, that is also just theory, but much more well-supported than some of the ridiculous things we see on these forums.

If something (that fixes sluggishness) works, it works, and that's valuable information. What is not valuable is a ton of superstitious behavior surrounding this subject that just confuses the issue. There is also a lot of "faith" in procedures we do not understand, and faith is no substitute for understanding. If you understand the process you can understand why a particular change in user behavior may or may not make a difference to that process. If you don't understand, you are left with superstition and faith, and neither of those have proven to be all that reliable.

*A "full" HDD is just one example.* I wonder how a file on a HDD, _*a file that I am not accessing*_ makes accessing other files on the HDD slower? It can't, since it is technically removed from and physically outside of the current, ongoing HDD R/W process, by definition, to begin with.

Were this file or all of these files that filled my user partition also on the partition where the OS and everything else is, it might have some bearing. But it isn't, so it doesn't. Really. How could it possibly?

On top of that is the empirical proof that I have that filled HDDs and proven that it has no bearing at all on speed. I have done it numbers of times on HD DVRs and it has had ZERO effect, each time. On a PC, well that's different. Files fragment on a NTFS PC; they don't on a Linux-based DVR. Virtual memory paging files expand dynamically on a PC (unless you have the sense to fix the size so that they don't) and that can be hampered by a full HDD when the data is being written to the same partition. That does not happen on a DVR, which keeps media on a separate partition. What slows a PC HDD by being full just does not apply to a DVR HDD.

OK then, *how about the fact that a full HDD has a large database while an empty HDD has a tiny database? *The answer there is that the database under practical use never has much more than a thousand entries. If a 2 TB HDD can hold less than 500 hours of programs, the DB can't really be all that large, can it?

Plus, a DB is indexed which speeds read access to the DB. And even a low-level pro database like SQL Express can search a thousand entries in less than a second, which, yes, might take a couple more seconds on a DVR with a slower processor than your garden-variety professional media server. Is that significant? Is that why the DVR is sluggish regardless whether the DB is being accessed or not? Hardly.

That will not account for the remote taking 6 seconds to respond, especially if you have highlighted one program in the guide or program list and pressed the down arrow to highlight the visible line below it. If you want to know how long it takes to search the database of recorded programs, just resort your program list (and if you want to know how long it takes to search the guide data DB, try Smart Search). Even on a full 2 TB HDD resorting the program list will take only a few seconds. That's normal. But 6 seconds to navigate from one item to the next one in the list? There has to be another explanation for the sluggishness, because the DB is not being accessed for that particular task.

And simply scrolling the page down also does not search the entire database; in fact that happens at the moment you press the list button, whereupon the first few entries display pretty quickly, and the other entries first churn in the background and then are ready waiting for you to scroll down (or back up).

*OK, here's another "useful" tip: flush that nasty guide data.* At least that will make you feel better

Really? Might just as well try a little Immodium. The guide data is only accessed by low-level indexing processes in the background, and when tiny portions of it are read into the GUI on command (when you display the guide). Low-level processes are supposed to be pre-empted by high-level processes such as "respond to that button press" or "Record CH 249 now". The high-level processes should never be sluggish because ofissues with lower-level processes. A design strategy that didn't do that would have no reliability at all.

Flushing the guide data is really only useful if the guide data is corrupted and it is hanging your DVR needing it to be reset, or making it act erratically. That's why its not in the manual and is kept in the back pocket of technical support (until the internet outed it, that is).

And what is the first thing that happens when you flush the guide data? All of that meticulous, intensive background indexing that your DVR has been doing for the last nine days is thrown right out the window, and it has to start over from scratch. You just added a new significant task load to your already-sluggish DVR that it will have to do all over again, and those processes are now again in competition with whatever the real churning process logjam might have been. Good for you.

And that's just two or three.

*Here's another: Flush that stinkin' NVRAM.*

If flushing the NVRAM was helpful, why would that not be a routine that the DVR does on its own at startup or shutdown? Or when the screen saver kicks in, or at any other low-use time? Why are only the smartest guys in the room allowed to know that trick? If you really _are _one of the smartest guy in the room, I don't need to elaborate and provide the answer (hint: there is no good reason for any customer to know this). But it makes you feel like you've done something; it alleviates that horrible feeling of not being in control, at least for about as long as the few seconds it takes to either realize that it really didn't work, or for most of us, to imagine and pretend that it might have.

Knowing that your DVR is slower than it once was is one thing, but wildly jumping to a premature conclusion that this is because of something it can't possibly be is just ludicrous.

Bottom line, take the advice on this forum with a giant grain of salt and understand that much of it comes from really wonderfully-earnest and good folks who, while their hearts are in the right place, just might not have the first clue regarding what they are talking about.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

dpeters11 said:


> Ok, I'll bite. What does staying on channel 1 do to speed things up? Or at least in some cases?


I've had "a little birdie" nagging in my ear over this, of a while, and it keeps telling me it is just the act of being on channel one for 30 sec that has made any change.
Can't say why channel one, but since we need to change to it to follow the colored buttons, to disprove "this birdie", one would need to have the slowness, tune to channel one for 30+ sec, find no change, and the come back to channel one and press the colored buttons, and find a change.

Anybody game?

I haven't had enough slowness to try.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

TomCat said:


> Bottom line, take the advice on this forum with a giant grain of salt and understand that much of it comes from really wonderfully-earnest and good folks who, while their hearts are in the right place, just might not have the first clue regarding what they are talking about.


While I do see your points, since you're posting here too, salt needs to be taken in large amounts.


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## mitchflorida (May 18, 2009)

"Here's another: Flush that stinkin' NVRAM.

If flushing the NVRAM was helpful, why would that not be a routine that the DVR does on its own at startup or shutdown? Or when the screen saver kicks in, or at any other low-use time? Why are only the smartest guys in the room allowed to know that trick? If you really are one of the smartest guy in the room, I don't need to elaborate and provide the answer (hint: there is no good reason for any customer to know this). But it makes you feel like you've done something; it alleviates that horrible feeling of not being in control, at least for about as long as the few seconds it takes to either realize that it really didn't work, or for most of us, to imagine and pretend that it might have."
==============

You were going pretty well until you got there. Clearing the NVRAM did fix my problem . It most likely gets corrupt data in there over time and it is time to flush it out. It would be comparable to cleaning out the corrupted data in an Internet Browser cache. The PC doesn't do it itself, you have to do it manually, and it only necessary if there was something along the way that corrupted the data.

You can sneer all you like, but it did work for me.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

mitchflorida said:


> Clearing the NVRAM did fix my problem.


Next time see if just being on channel one for 30 sec does the same thing.


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## mitchflorida (May 18, 2009)

What is so magical about being on Channel 1 for 30 seconds? What happens during that time?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

mitchflorida said:


> What is so magical about being on Channel 1 for 30 seconds? What happens during that time?


While I do get some "inside scoop", I don't know.

I've been chasing this same thing for a long time. Recently I've been told it wasn't the colored buttons, but the time spent on channel one.
The only way to find out is to try it and see.


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## mitchflorida (May 18, 2009)

veryoldschool said:


> While I do get some "inside scoop", I don't know.
> 
> I've been chasing this same thing for a long time. Recently I've been told it wasn't the colored buttons, but the time spent on channel one.
> The only way to find out is to try it and see.


Just tune it to Channel One and then say the word "Abracadabra" three times within 10 seconds.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

mitchflorida said:


> Just tune it to Channel One and then say the word "Abracadabra" three times within 10 seconds.


I guess what you're failing to grasp is channel one is the only channel that you can clear the NVRAM, so it's unique in that it has access to the receiver that no other other channel does.


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## palmgrower (Jul 18, 2011)

After replacing both Hard Drives, with 2TB Seagate 7200 rpm Hard Drives, in the HR24-500's the response time for recordings is improved. Never having owned older receivers I cannot give commentary as to speed differential. I'm quite happy with the performance.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> While I do get some "inside scoop", I don't know.
> 
> I've been chasing this same thing for a long time. Recently I've been told it wasn't the colored buttons, but the time spent on channel one.
> The only way to find out is to try it and see.


You're speaking in code here and I can't seem to find my decoder ring... 

Are you saying that if you just sit on channel 1 for 30 seconds NVRAM is cleared for you?

If not can you please clarify your statements regarding sitting on channel 1 for 30 seconds?


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

RunnerFL said:


> If you're rebooting it, waiting for it to get to live tv, then rebooting it again that's definitely inside 30 minutes.


Yeah, that works for me sometimes. Most of the time I turn the sound up really high so I won't forget about it. I get distracted easily.... :lol:

Rich


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

RunnerFL said:


> You're speaking in code here and I can't seem to find my decoder ring...
> 
> Are you saying that if you just sit on channel 1 for 30 seconds NVRAM is cleared for you?
> 
> If not can you please clarify your statements regarding sitting on channel 1 for 30 seconds?


I've been *****ing behind the scene about the NVRAM clearing for a long time.
It seems someone looked into my *****ing. :lol:
At first I was told clearing NVRAM had nothing to do with it, but [being me] I pushed back with examples. The follow on was that it isn't the clearing of NVRAM, but the steps needed to get to where you can. "Hence" the being on channel 1 for 30 sec.

I can only speculate that when you tune to channel one, the receiver goes into a different state. 
In this state, some processes stop, get purged, or some other case. Spending 30 sec in this state has flushed out things that have slowed the receiver down.

Clearing NVRAM doesn't always speed up the receiver, so even if one thinks that is what helps, there are many things going on that can slow a receiver down.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

mitchflorida said:


> "Here's another: Flush that stinkin' NVRAM.
> 
> If flushing the NVRAM was helpful, why would that not be a routine that the DVR does on its own at startup or shutdown? Or when the screen saver kicks in, or at any other low-use time? Why are only the smartest guys in the room allowed to know that trick? If you really are one of the smartest guy in the room, I don't need to elaborate and provide the answer (hint: there is no good reason for any customer to know this). But it makes you feel like you've done something; it alleviates that horrible feeling of not being in control, at least for about as long as the few seconds it takes to either realize that it really didn't work, or for most of us, to imagine and pretend that it might have."
> ==============
> ...


You actually read that? Don't take it to heart, he attacks every now and then.

Rich


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## mitchflorida (May 18, 2009)

The CSR also said something about changing the "native resolution" display setting to off. Is that good advice? What effect does it have on the picture?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

mitchflorida said:


> The CSR also said something about changing the "native resolution" display setting to off. Is that good advice? What effect does it have on the picture?


Going with a "fixed" resolution can shorten the tune time changing channels.
It also can mean more scaling will be done, since there are three resolutions: 480, 720, & 1080.
On my TV is shortens it by about 1 sec, but I use native as the sec is less important than the PQ to me.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

mitchflorida said:


> The CSR also said something about changing the "native resolution" display setting to off. Is that good advice? What effect does it have on the picture?


There seems to be no end to what a CSR will say to pacify folks. This is where the "good advice" is. Were I you, I'd follow *VOS's* advice.

Rich


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## linuspbmo (Oct 2, 2009)

I'm getting a new HR24 tomorrow and I was curious, do all the HR24's experience the lag or just some? Also is it just DVR functions that lag or do all remote commands slow down. I'm a channel flipper so 5 seconds between channels would drive me crazy.

Thanks


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## bobcamp1 (Nov 8, 2007)

linuspbmo said:


> I'm getting a new HR24 tomorrow and I was curious, do all the HR24's experience the lag or just some? Also is it just DVR functions that lag or do all remote commands slow down. I'm a channel flipper so 5 seconds between channels would drive me crazy.
> 
> Thanks


Just some of them do, and for no apparent reason. Sometimes the work-arounds in this thread help, sometimes they have no effect.

Personally, I had the "first button press after an hour of just sitting there takes 10 seconds" bug. After using the remote for 10 seconds, the response time would gradually improve to the point where it was almost as fast as the old SD GUI. Then it stayed that way for the rest of the time I was watching TV, except once in a while a random button press would take 4 seconds. I had this delay on all the buttons, but especially the list and guide buttons.

You want an HR24, because it's clearly the fastest DVR D* has. But, and this is the most frustrating part of D* DVRs, YMMV.


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## shuye (Oct 20, 2008)

veryoldschool said:


> I've been *****ing behind the scene about the NVRAM clearing for a long time.
> It seems someone looked into my *****ing. :lol:
> At first I was told clearing NVRAM had nothing to do with it, but [being me] I pushed back with examples. The follow on was that it isn't the clearing of NVRAM, but the steps needed to get to where you can. "Hence" the being on channel 1 for 30 sec.
> 
> ...


Ok - I tried this out last night. I have a HR20-700 that had become very slow to respond to channel changes, pulling up the guide, pulling up the recorded list, etc. The HR20 is on the latest national release and has 58% free space remaining on an external HD that I have had for over a year.

Per VOS's suggestion, I tuned to Channel 1 and left it for 45 seconds to a minute, I didn't time it. I did not go through the button pushing excercise to get the "NVRAM cleared" message.

After waiting about 45 seconds, the DVR was immediately more responsive to all the slow issues I was having before. Not lightning fast, but faster that it was and more of a normal speed for the HR20.

Thanks,

Steve


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

shuye said:


> Ok - I tried this out last night. I have a HR20-700 that had become very slow to respond to channel changes, pulling up the guide, pulling up the recorded list, etc. The HR20 is on the latest national release and has 58% free space remaining on an external HD that I have had for over a year.
> 
> Per VOS's suggestion, I tuned to Channel 1 and left it for 45 seconds to a minute, I didn't time it. I did not go through the button pushing excercise to get the "NVRAM cleared" message.
> 
> ...


Very interesting, and cool.

Did you get the on screen message or just noticed improved performance after a minute?


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## JB3 (Oct 2, 2006)

I've been trying to get my HR24 to speed up as well. Have done a restart from the menu as well as clearing NVRAM on Ch 1. 

The issue for me isn't recordings or channel changes. It's the guide when there's banner ads in the guide. If I start the guide at channel 100 and then hit channel down, things are fine until I scroll into multiple banner ads in the guide. The HR24 stops responding to the remote at that point and it will take minutes for it to eventually respond to what appears to be buffered. Once I get out of the banner ads, it's again it's same speedy HR24. It doesn't matter what I press on the remote when it's hung. I've tried exit and back buttons as well as additional channel down or arrow presses. All seem to be have no effect until 2 minutes later they magically pop out of the buffer and are acted upon.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

I was away when this thread was quite active, but this is a subject near and dear to my heart. 

So, what does work to speed up DVRs and why?

EDIT- Ping shouldda been to TomCat, though anyone saying why anything works is welcomed, too.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> I was away when this thread was quite active, but this is a subject near and dear to my heart.
> 
> So, what does work to speed up DVRs and why?
> 
> EDIT- Ping shouldda been to TomCat, though anyone saying why anything works is welcomed, too.


The times I've seen 24-500s get slow I've flushed the Guide data and that cured the slowness. Why, I dunno and don't really care. Normally, all my HRs are quick, only have 20-700s and 24s. Use the 20-700s as servers and the 24-500s as clients.

I've never seen any difference after using the RAM clearing or putting the HR on channel 1, but I don't usually have slowness problems.

Don't mean to sound callous about not caring "why" something works. Learned a long time ago the "why" doesn't matter nearly as much as knowing "what" works.

Rich


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

No problemo! Some want to know why—or why not—something works; others care about the result only. 

I am wondering if some "fixes" seem to have a result that's favorable, due solely to the box being rebooted. Certainly there are precedents in the computer world where a fix— a panacea in some eyes— relied on the reboot, not the involved steps prior.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

TomCat said:


> And, wait a minute, isn't the HR24 supposed to be powered with a CPU at least twice as fast as earlier DVR models?


Depending on the manufacturer, the CPUs are entirely different so it isn't an apples-to-apples comparison. RISC processors run lots of really simple instructions and what is done in one cycle on one processor may take multiple instructions and/or cycles on another.


> Plus, a DB is indexed which speeds read access to the DB. And even a low-level pro database like SQL Express can search a thousand entries in less than a second, which, yes, might take a couple more seconds on a DVR with a slower processor than your garden-variety professional media server. Is that significant? Is that why the DVR is sluggish regardless whether the DB is being accessed or not? Hardly.


I think you ascribe way too much power to the DB engine employed. It has always been a pig and even after someone claimed that DIRECTV went with a new and improved DB, the performance didn't support the claim.

It is folly to assume that all databases are indexed. Some are sorted into a table while others are accessed sequentially without sorting (spreadsheets).


> If flushing the NVRAM was helpful, why would that not be a routine that the DVR does on its own at startup or shutdown?


This only works for those who are willing to suffer the unimaginable hardship of turning the DVR on and off. Far too much to ask.


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## JB3 (Oct 2, 2006)

I saw in another thread someone suggesting that IP based control such as by using the iPad App would help, but that gives me the same results. My HR24 simply doesn't like to display the in guide banner ads.

Guess I'm going to start reading release notes over on the cutting edge to see if there's any future fixes in the pipeline. Of course if I get hooked by "various UI improvements" I could wind up trying every new release.:nono2:


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> No problemo! Some want to know why-or why not-something works; others care about the result only.
> 
> I am wondering if some "fixes" seem to have a result that's favorable, due solely to the box being rebooted. Certainly there are precedents in the computer world where a fix- a panacea in some eyes- relied on the reboot, not the involved steps prior.


True, but reboots don't help at all in some instances. For instance, the 24-500s occasionally "bog down" for no apparent reason. Rebooting doesn't help that at all. Flushing the Guide data does. Again, I have no idea why.

*P Smith* and I have argued for a long time about troubleshooting. He's of a mind to tear apart everything to find out "why" and I can't disagree with that in the right setting. Someone's gotta do that. My troubleshooting technique is just to fix the problem and go on to the next problem. Our backgrounds are different and that's why our methods differ so much.

Rich


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## JB3 (Oct 2, 2006)

Forced a download of 62C yesterday and now my guide will respond again. In the last couple of weeks it had become all but useless.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

Its never a bad idea to do a periodic menu restart as well.....I restart all my HR's literally every Saturday or Sunday night before I go to sleep as long as I have no pending programs.


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## tomski35 (Sep 7, 2007)

JB3 said:


> Forced a download of 62C yesterday and now my guide will respond again. In the last couple of weeks it had become all but useless.


How do I force a download. My boxes are on a code from June.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

tomski35 said:


> How do I force a download. My boxes are on a code from June.


Usually new NR is a phased rollout,it happens when it happens. To force a reboot, perform a menu restart receiver, and when the blue lights first come back on, type 0-2-4-6-8


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

tomski35 said:


> How do I force a download. My boxes are on a code from June.


Surprisingly, I got the update on my four 20-700s a couple days ago. None of my 24s were upgraded.

Rich


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