# HR34 Genie and client setup question



## betterdan (May 23, 2007)

Directv came out and installed the HR34 and two C31-700 clients for us last Monday. The tech hooked up a Deca to the HR34 and everything works on the HR34 and the two clients but I thought I read that you don't need the Deca with the HR34. 
Here is how it is set up right now...









If I get rid of the Deca and hook the Ethernet straight into the HR34 like this









Will the HR34 and the two clients still have internet connection and everything will work properly? It works now but if I can get rid of cables and connections I don't need that would be more efficient and eliminate anything if something goes wrong.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Yes the 34 can act as the bridge to your router, "BUT" if the PI is too close to the HR34, you might have problems with the clients, because of the coax networking.
The current splitter adds some loss that resolves this.
The other option is to use have a long coax between the HR34 and the PI.


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## betterdan (May 23, 2007)

I think it has about 10 feet of cable between the PI and the HR34. Is that good?
Also if I hooked it up like in my second pic and then added an H25 or HR24 later I would just hook the coax up and they would be internet connected automatically right?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

betterdan said:


> I think it has about 10 feet of cable between the PI and the HR34. Is that good?
> Also if I hooked it up like in my second pic and then added an H25 or HR24 later I would just hook the coax up and they would be internet connected automatically right?


I'm not sure 10' is enough, "but" it's worth a try and if you have problems, you'll know why.
Yes the other receivers will have internet.


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## betterdan (May 23, 2007)

The whole reason I started looking into this is because even though things are working ok, I am getting an error when I run the system test on the HR34 saying that there may be problems because of dropped connections. I wonder now if it says that because the PI is so close to the HR34 like you said.


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## The Merg (Jun 24, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> Yes the 34 can act as the bridge to your router, "BUT" if the PI is too close to the HR34, you might have problems with the clients, because of the coax networking.
> The current splitter adds some loss that resolves this.
> The other option is to use have a long coax between the HR34 and the PI.


Couldn't he keep the splitter there with the one unused port terminated or will the fact that there is no coax running off the one side of the splitter negate the loss?

- Merg


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

betterdan said:


> The whole reason I started looking into this is because even though things are working ok, I am getting an error when I run the system test on the HR34 saying that there may be problems because of dropped connections. I wonder now if it says that because the PI is so close to the HR34 like you said.


There's a bug in the HR34 software that generates a "dropped connection" error when you have deliberately switched the C31 client off so the error message does not necessarily indicate a problem.


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## betterdan (May 23, 2007)

texasbrit said:


> There's a bug in the HR34 software that generates a "dropped connection" error when you have deliberately switched the C31 client off so the error message does not necessarily indicate a problem.


aha! Thanks for that info.

Edit: Just made sure both clients were on and I reran the system test and still get the error saying dropped connections which may cause problems with play back. I asked my wife if the bedroom client was having any problems and she said no. My mother in law has been staying with us the past week in the other bedroom with the client and she said it hasn't had any problems either.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

betterdan said:


> aha! Thanks for that info.
> 
> Edit: Just made sure both clients were on and I reran the system test and still get the error saying dropped connections which may cause problems with play back. I asked my wife if the bedroom client was having any problems and she said no. My mother in law has been staying with us the past week in the other bedroom with the client and she said it hasn't had any problems either.


that error message will stay there until DirecTV releases a patch to the HR34 to NOT count when a client goes off as a drop connection. This is nothing to worry about


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## betterdan (May 23, 2007)

peds48 said:


> that error message will stay there until DirecTV releases a patch to the HR34 to NOT count when a client goes off as a drop connection. This is nothing to worry about


But like I said, both clients were turned on.


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## dishinitout (Jan 4, 2013)

betterdan;3207579 said:


> But like I said, both clients were turned on.


It's not that they "dropped" the second you ran the test. Things like that register in the system memory and stay stored so even if you turn clients on then run test 5 times it'll still be stored that they "dropped" earlier in the day.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

Right, I think the system keep a "log" of all drop connections for 5 days I believe. So unless you leave your clients all for a week, this message will be forever be there, or at least until there is a patch that can tell the difference between a "real" network drop and a client go off the network by turning the unit off


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## betterdan (May 23, 2007)

Ok that makes sense. I just figured it was showing results for the test at that moment, not reading a log.
Watched some recorded tv on one of the client last night and no problems.
The client is a little slow but still on par with the HR20 we had before.


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