# R15 partial recordings



## zortapa (Nov 16, 2005)

While I was out of town for 2 days, my R15 was programmed to record 12 shows per day. There was no overlap in these recordings. When I got back last night I checked the history for the 2 days that I was gone and found that 3 of the 24 recordings were listed as "partial". 

I then went back though the entire history listing and found 7 "partial" recordings in the last 50.

Statistically, it looks like somewhere between 10% and 15% of my recording are not being fully recorded, and for the last 2 days this could not be attributed to conflicts.

I have seen some others mention "partial" recordings, and now I would like to hear more details about how often it happens and if it tends to happen repeatedly on a specific show or if it seems to be random.


(And for the record, no recordings were missed while I was out of town.)


----------



## sheepishlion (Dec 4, 2005)

This happens when you are recording two shows from say 6-7, then at 7 on one/two other channels you are recording some other show/s. For some reason it does not record the first part of the new show, or the last part of the old show while it switches tuner. This is expected to be corrected in a future update.


----------



## Marcia_Brady (Nov 25, 2005)

sheepishlion said:


> This is expected to be corrected in a future update.


How do you know this....have they specifically referred to this as a "known bug" that they are taking care of?


----------



## ad301 (Mar 30, 2004)

In addition to the situation which sheepishlion described, partial recordings happened on my r15 in other situations as well, to the point where I can't really say that there was any one particular cause. I can say, however, that any use of auto-recording finds seemed to me to greatly increase the incidence of partial recordings.

Example:


----------



## sheepishlion (Dec 4, 2005)

CSR's have a list of the known bugs for the R15, and this is listed as one of them, and it says that there is going to be a software update to fix this problem, and many of the other problems that have been noticed.


----------



## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

sheepishlion said:


> CSR's have a list of the known bugs for the R15, and this is listed as one of them, and it says that there is going to be a software update to fix this problem, and many of the other problems that have been noticed.


Care to share the rest of the "list"


----------



## zortapa (Nov 16, 2005)

Thanks Sheepishlion for that info, but my situation does not necessarily involve the consecutive recordings case that you suggested since 4 of the 6 partial recordings that I got during the last 48 hours occurred when I was _NOT_ recording something else just before it. In fact, the TV was off, so the second tuner was not being used.

I finally got a chance to review my history and found the following:

*On 12/1, 2 of 9 recordings were "partial", and both partial recording were on my local PBS channel:*

1. the first partial recording was a 6am show that started recording at 6:14am. Nothing else was recording before this show.

2. the second partial recording was a 9am show that started recording at 9:11am. There was another show recording from 8:30am to 9am.

*On 12/2, 4 of 11 recordings were "partial", and 3 of the 4 partial recordings were on my local PBS channel:*

1. the first partial recording was a 6am show that started recording at 6:16am. Nothing else was recording before this show. (NOTE: this is the same 6am show that started recording late the previous day!)

2. the second partial recording was a 9am show that started recording at 9:04am. There was another show recording from 8:30am to 9am. (NOTE: this is the same 9am show that started recording late the previous day!)

3. the third partial recording was a 11am show that started at 11:01. A second show that also started at 11am started recording on time.

4. the fourth partial recording was a 4:30pm show that started at 4:37. Nothing else was being recorded before or simultaneously. Also, this was the only partial recording that was not on my local PBS channel. And finally, I did not try to record this show on 12/1, so I do not know if it reflects an isolated or repeated problem.

_Given the above, this seems to be a systematic problem since the partial recordings tended to occur on the same channel and happened on the exact same show on two consecutive days. I hope DTV has identified the cause of this problem and gets it fixed in the next update._


----------



## ad301 (Mar 30, 2004)

zortapa, how many items are in your prioritizer, and how many of them are auto-records? As I noted above, auto-records seemed to me to make partial recordings more likely, and I'm wondering if this is possibly contributing in your case, or not.


----------



## zortapa (Nov 16, 2005)

Ad310: I have 20 items in my prioritizer, only 1 of which is an auto-record. The other 19 are series links. Five of the programs that were partially recorded were series links and the 6th program was a one time recording that I selected from the guide.


----------



## ad301 (Mar 30, 2004)

zortapa said:


> Ad310: I have 20 items in my prioritizer, only 1 of which is an auto-record. The other 19 are series links. Five of the programs that were partially recorded were series links and the 6th program was a one time recording that I selected from the guide.


Wow, even a manually set program...OK, thanks for the info.

BTW, I have contacted DirecTV via both voice and email, informing them of my experiences. Hopefully they are tracking down and solving these issues. You might want to try the same thing, if you haven't already. Any additional info they get may help the cause.


----------



## Wolffpack (Jul 29, 2003)

zortapa, I hear Rupert Murdoch doesn't like PBS. That could be your problem. :lol:


----------



## sheepishlion (Dec 4, 2005)

Here's a list of what D* has listed as known issues:

-NFL Sunday Ticket DVR functions not working during live viewing.

-Showcases for the NFL Sunday Ticket are not being displayed.

-Cannot record two cahnnels when set to one of the interactive channels.

-The recorder only caches on one tuner.

-Back to back recordings giving you partial recordings.

-Prioritizer is not displaying everything that's scheduled. You can set up to 64 series links, and it currently will only display 50.

D* is working on getting these resolved, and they should be fixed in future software updates. If you are having problems with these, there are some temporary fixes for a couple of them, so if you can't find a fix here, you can call D* up, and they can tell you the fix. I will try to remember to find them and post them here. If you have a problem that's not listed above, or suggestion to improve the R15, call D* and let them know.  They can forward that to someone in charge of fixing/improving the R15.


----------



## Capmeister (Sep 16, 2003)

sheepishlion said:


> Here's a list of what D* has listed as known issues:
> 
> -NFL Sunday Ticket DVR functions not working during live viewing.
> 
> ...


Do you work for DirecTV?


----------



## techNoodle (Nov 15, 2005)

Wow, Capmeister, you're probably correct about sheepishlion.

I heard that DirecTV uses a call center in Utah, and the information posted is very specific, giving details on bugs not discussed in any of these forums, as far as I can tell.

So, will sheepishlion give us more info on bugs and fixes? ;-)


----------



## ISWIZ (Nov 18, 2005)

He may unofficially. Corporate would not want their name tied to an "unofficial" site. Three cheers for lawyers!


----------



## eengert (Nov 16, 2005)

sheepishlion said:


> Here's a list of what D* has listed as known issues:
> 
> -NFL Sunday Ticket DVR functions not working during live viewing.
> 
> ...


sheepishlion, There is a much longer list of bug fixes/enhancements needed that has been compiled in the first post of this thread: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=48180

I have attempted to email this list to Dtv, but if you have the means, we would appreciate it if you could follow up and make sure that list gets to the development folks to be worked on. The list you posted is a bit of a start, but is probably only about 15% of the known bugs and basic missing features. Thanks for the info you've been providing.


----------



## sheepishlion (Dec 4, 2005)

Sorry it took so long to reply, I just have friends that work there.


----------



## ISWIZ (Nov 18, 2005)

:lol: "I stayed at a holiday Inn where they were once".


Sorry, I couldn't pass it up. 

It's good that you can share this info with us and them sheepslion, thanks for trying to help.


----------



## zortapa (Nov 16, 2005)

***FOLLOW-UP***

While I discovered that a large percentage (>15%) of my recordings were only partially recorded between 11/28 and 12/3, _I have had NO partial recordings since 12/4._

What changed? Nothing that I can detect. Perhaps the problem was not with the R15. Could it have been the guide data? Or, possibly, might DTV have corrected some problems at their end? I wonder.....


----------



## Malibu13 (Sep 12, 2004)

zortapa said:


> ***FOLLOW-UP***
> 
> While I discovered that a large percentage (>15%) of my recordings were only partially recorded between 11/28 and 12/3, _I have had NO partial recordings since 12/4._
> 
> What changed? Nothing that I can detect. Perhaps the problem was not with the R15. Could it have been the guide data? Or, possibly, might DTV have corrected some problems at their end? I wonder.....


zortapa, although i have had no partial recordings, i have noticed that in the last few days, there seems to be more "guide info" displayed on certain programs i record using SL .......some programs that have not listed "repeat" or "first run" in the program info previously, are now showing this info:scratchin


----------



## dgib (Nov 16, 2005)

And about time that the guide has good info init. I'm sick of going through the todo list and removing repeats which are always shown without the word repeat in them. The R15 is recording them properly because the guide data is wrong. If this is fixed, my biggest complaint will be gone. 
Well, it was my biggest complaint until last night when it started stuttering badly. I really think I have a bad disk and everytime I record onto that section, it screws up during playback.


----------

