# HR34 disk space issue. Unable to record anything! Help!



## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

I had 2% disk space left when I went to bed, woke up, no new shows recorded, yet it's down to 0%. I have since deleted 8+ hours of HD programming and it still remains at 0% and no new shows are recording because of the "not enough disk space" issue.

I restarted the HR34, but that didn't change anything.

I am guessing this is because of the latest software update, but this is a real problem for me, because no new shows are able to record, no matter how much space I am making for them to do so. 

Help?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> I had 2% disk space left when I went to bed, woke up, no new shows recorded, yet it's down to 0%. I have since deleted 8+ hours of HD programming and it still remains at 0% and no new shows are recording because of the "not enough disk space" issue.
> 
> I restarted the HR34, but that didn't change anything.
> 
> ...


I'm sure you're not going to like this but....

You started with close to 200 hours of recordings when you were at 2%, which would have started to give you problems.

You may need to remove another 10-20 hours of recordings to get enough free space.


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## usnret (Jan 16, 2009)

VOS, is rhere an approx. % of disc space left that one should try and stay above (i.e. 20%, 15% etc)?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

usnret said:


> VOS, is rhere an approx. % of disc space left that one should try and stay above (i.e. 20%, 15% etc)?


This will vary by model and hard drive size, but "I would tend to stay" around 20% free space. [I'm the worst to ask as I can barely get to 20% "used"]
A friend with a HR24 started having live buffer problems with less than 10% free space, and deleting shows resolved this.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> I'm sure you're not going to like this but....
> 
> You started with close to 200 hours of recordings when you were at 2%, which would have started to give you problems.
> 
> You may need to remove another 10-20 hours of recordings to get enough free space.


Thanks for the reply, but that's not the issue at all. I've had my HR34 in the 5% range and under for many months now. I knew how much it took to delete so that new shows would get recorded without any issues. I basically had this down to a science.

All this changed after the software update the other day. Like I said, after the update, all the sudden, my HR34 had less disk space available, even though no new shows are added. And now I can't even record a 30 minute SD show after getting rid of 8+ hours of HD shows on my HR34. I should be able to record a 30 minute SD show easily if I just get rid of ONE HD hour of recording. Something is really messed up here. I read that someone else also had less disk space remaining after the software update even though no new recordings were made.

I wish I could reverse this software update. Is there a way to do that?


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## lparsons21 (Mar 4, 2006)

Is it possible that with this latest update which added Genie, that more space was allocated to Direct and less to the user?


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

lparsons21 said:


> Is it possible that with this latest update which added Genie, that more space was allocated to Direct and less to the user?


Maybe, but if you open the Genie thing, it says your playlist space is not effected by genie.

But even if it did affect it, after I deleted all those hours of HD programming, I should be able to record at least a 30 minute SD program. Thats the thing that is really puzzling. It's like I can't delete enough to make recordings work again!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> Thanks for the reply, but that's not the issue at all. I've had my HR34 in the 5% range and under for many months now. I knew how much it took to delete so that new shows would get recorded without any issues. I basically had this down to a science.
> 
> All this changed after the software update the other day. Like I said, after the update, all the sudden, my HR34 had less disk space available, even though no new shows are added. And now I can't even record a 30 minute SD show after getting rid of 8+ hours of HD shows on my HR34. I should be able to record a 30 minute SD show easily if I just get rid of ONE HD hour of recording. Something is really messed up here. I read that someone else also had less disk space remaining after the software update even though no new recordings were made.
> 
> I wish I could reverse this software update. Is there a way to do that?





lparsons21 said:


> Is it possible that with this latest update which added Genie, that more space was allocated to Direct and less to the user?


"Nail on head"


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

lparsons21 said:


> Is it possible that with this latest update which added Genie, that more space was allocated to Direct and less to the user?


Bingo!



xtc said:


> Maybe, but if you open the Genie thing, it says your playlist space is not effected by genie.


They got around that by taking more space for themselves. Technically they are correct because your Genie recordings don't show up in your playlist.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

This really doesn't make sense. I understand initially, the genie can take up some of the free disk space I had left on my HR34. Like how I had 2% before, then 0% after it was introduced to my HR34. BUT, but now that it's implemented, why can't I increase the disk space from 0% to 1% even though I deleted 8+ hours of HD programming? Before, I just had to delete like 2 hours of HD programming and it would go up by 1%, now 8 hours doesn't even do it? 

Are you saying anytime I would like my disk space available to go up a point, I would have to delete over 10 hours of HD shows? That is insane. It's only a 1TB drive, I shouldn't have to delete so much programming just to make room for 1 recording. Before, if you needed to record a 1 hour HD show, you just had to delete a 1 hour HD show from your playlist. Now I can't do that. This can't be right...


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> This really doesn't make sense...This can't be right...


You lost around 6-8%, so do the math and you'll see you need to delete more than you have.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> This will vary by model and hard drive size, but "I would tend to stay" around 20% free space. [I'm the worst to ask as I can barely get to 20% "used"]
> A friend with a HR24 started having live buffer problems with less than 10% free space, and deleting shows resolved this.


I don't have a 34, but the capacity was always an issue with the 20s and 21s, especially if you're using an external HDD. The 24s don't seem to have this issue. On the 20s and 21s, approaching 30% Available would usually result in a slowing down of the HRs. This occurs on both internal and external drives, but is less noticeable on owned HRs with large internal drives.

That 1TB drive is too small for the amount of tuners it has, I think. Way too small. Better to go the external route.

Rich


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Rich said:


> I don't have a 34, but the capacity was always an issue with the 20s and 21s, especially if you're using an external HDD. The 24s don't seem to have this issue. On the 20s and 21s, approaching 30% Available would usually result in a slowing down of the HRs. This occurs on both internal and external drives, but is less noticeable on owned HRs with large internal drives.
> 
> That 1TB drive is too small for the amount of tuners it has, I think. Way too small. Better to go the external route.
> 
> Rich


Everyone has different viewing habits. 
I watch & delete so much that space just never has been a problem.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> You lost around 6-8%, so do the math and you'll see you need to delete more than you have.


But how did I lose 6-8% if no shows were deleted from my playlist. Only the % went down.

Are you saying once I free up 6-8%, things will be back to normal, exactly how it was before with the disk space or have things changed for good with this update in terms of disk space needed to record shows?


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> Everyone has different viewing habits.
> I watch & delete so much that space just never has been a problem.


I've only got four 20-700s left and use them as servers. Doesn't seem to matter what the capacity is on a server.

I've not had a problem with capacity since we figured out that loading an HDD up to nearly full would bog down its HR.

I've been running a 24-500 with ~ 20% Available on its 2TB internal for several months and it shows no sign of bogging down and it's been as low as 15% Available. I don't really know if that problem has been addressed on the 20s or 21s. Kinda doubt it.

Rich


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> But how did I lose 6-8% if no shows were deleted from my playlist. Only the % went down.
> 
> Are you saying once I free up 6-8%, things will be back to normal, exactly how it was before with the disk space or have things changed for good with this update in terms of disk space needed to record shows?


as I said in my first reply: I'm sure you're not going to like this but....

You've deleted 8+ hours, right? 
Isn't that about 4%?
You may only need to delete a few more.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> as I said in my first reply: I'm sure you're not going to like this but....
> 
> You've deleted 8+ hours, right?
> Isn't that about 4%?
> You may only need to delete a few more.


Ok, I understand, but lets say I do that, will it be back to normal afterwards? Once I delete those shows and get it back up to 1%, from then on, will I only need to delete a 1hr HD show in order to make space for a new 1 hour HD recording? cause that certainly isn't happening now.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> Ok, I understand, but lets say I do that, will it be back to normal afterwards? Once I delete those shows and get it back up to 1%, from then on, will I only need to delete a 1hr HD show in order to make space for a new 1 hour HD recording? cause that certainly isn't happening now.


"It should".
What's happened is some of the drive has been marked as "in use", so the free space changed.
Since I have ~90% free, I haven't seen a change, but I know some who had ~ 50% have seen a change.
Since you were so close to "full" to start with, you'll need to find where/how many hours/percentage you need to get back.


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

xtc said:


> Ok, I understand, but lets say I do that, will it be back to normal afterwards?


What you've done hasn't worked, so you need to do more. A precise number probably isn't known and given the variable rate programs, the whole percentage thing is a WAG. If it worked with 5%, go back to that.

Only you can decide whether packing every square micron of the the drive with content is more important that getting the content you want.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

Time to add a 2TB external.....its obvious from your recording habits that 1TB isnt enough. I try to maintain 10% free space on all my units...if nothing more than to avoid that low disk space warning everytime the playlist is accessed. The rule of thumb I have always used for HDD's in any of my devices is maintain 10% free space at all times.


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## billsharpe (Jan 25, 2007)

Anyone who is pushing 1 or 2% free on their DVR's hard drive is asking for problems.

I never went below 40% free on my puny HR20-700 and had no such problems, although I finally gave up and switched to FiOS when the DVR reacted so slowly to my remote inputs.


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

xtc said:


> Ok, I understand, but lets say I do that, will it be back to normal afterwards? Once I delete those shows and get it back up to 1%, from then on, will I only need to delete a 1hr HD show in order to make space for a new 1 hour HD recording? cause that certainly isn't happening now.


Look at it this way....

I'm not saying these are the actual numbers, this is just an illustration:

Let's say that before the update you had, out of the 1TB drive, 750GB and DirecTV reserved 250GB. Now, after the update, you have 700GB and DirecTV reserves 300GB. However, you already had 735GB of recordings. So, you'd have to delete 35GB just to get to zero. You wouldn't see 5% free until you delete 42GB.

Again, these numbers are only for illustration purposes. I have no idea what the reserved space actually is on a HR34. But I can tell you from experience that running a DirecTV DVR with less than 20% free space is not a pleasant experience, from an overall performance point of view.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

xtc said:


> But how did I lose 6-8% if no shows were deleted from my playlist. Only the % went down.


Your % available went down. You lost free space, not recordings.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

CCarncross said:


> Time to add a 2TB external.....


Or more.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

In the mean time, see what happens when you go back to 5% free, way too little for me, for my preferences, but do keep track of how much you delete, please. It - your experience and reporting- may help others.


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

xtc said:


> I had 2% disk space left when I went to bed, woke up, no new shows recorded, yet it's down to 0%. . . . .


You got the _Genie_ upgrade.

Still, 2% is way too low. Try to keep it at 10%.

Oh, the Genie edition allows huge external drives. You should think about it.


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

I guess I just don't get it, especially with DirecTV.

Load up the hard drive to archive programs, as if the DVR or it's drives have never died. I can't remember the last time, if ever, that I had to delete things to have space for future recordings.

I regard a DVR as temporary storage Until I can watch the show. Then Blammo it is gone.

I have had my one hard drive that I capture HD video to fill up in my computer, Then I break out a spindle of BluRay blanks and move titles to them. Free space once again when I'm done. Or I pull out a 2Tb USB3 drive and move videos there. When I'm done it goes back in it's protective box and onto the shelf. 

Once they have the start and end trimmed and if any, the commercials cut out They are ready to use. My Media player plays the raw recordings fine.


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## Tom_S (Apr 9, 2002)

Not for nothing, but a DVR is not an archive device. Watch the shows!


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## harsh (Jun 15, 2003)

Tom_S said:


> Not for nothing, but a DVR is not an archive device.


Why shouldn't a DVR (in the general sense of the term) be usable for archiving?


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

This has happened to me as well. Late Tuesday night, Directv sent the software update with the "Genie" and a possible fix to the OnDemand skipping problem to my HR 34. I had about 10% space, now I have zero. I deleted about 30 hours of HD programming and still have zero. I looked at the "To Do" list and it is showing every future show (for ex. next Monday at 10P) as recording now. So, there are approx 30 items in the to do list and all 30 are showing as currently "recording" as far as the system knows, even though it is impossible because they are in the future. My thinking is the DVR thinks all these shows are recording, thus no space is available. 

Something is obviously really screwed up with this software update. I contacted Directv and they knew nothing about it. After an hour on the phone with tech support, they have had to open a ticket with the software diagnostic people. Have had three conversations today and there have been no answers. Have been told it could take three hours to five weeks to fix the software update. In the meantime, I'm without a DVR that can record. I'll update when I found out more.


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## bnwrx (Dec 29, 2007)

TBoneit said:


> I guess I just don't get it, especially with DirecTV.
> 
> Load up the hard drive to archive programs, as if the DVR or it's drives have never died. I can't remember the last time, if ever, that I had to delete things to have space for future recordings.
> 
> ...


Didn't know you could do this from an HR34? How?


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Did you try a simple reboot?


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

bnwrx said:


> Didn't know you could do this from an HR34? How?


You can't, he said "I have had my one hard drive that I capture HD video to fill up in my computer".


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

seabreak said:


> This has happened to me as well. Late Tuesday night, Directv sent the software update with the "Genie" and a possible fix to the OnDemand skipping problem to my HR 34. I had about 10% space, now I have zero. I deleted about 30 hours of HD programming and still have zero. I looked at the "To Do" list and it is showing every future show (for ex. next Monday at 10P) as recording now. So, there are approx 30 items in the to do list and all 30 are showing as currently "recording" as far as the system knows, even though it is impossible because they are in the future. My thinking is the DVR thinks all these shows are recording, thus no space is available.
> 
> Something is obviously really screwed up with this software update. I contacted Directv and they knew nothing about it. After an hour on the phone with tech support, they have had to open a ticket with the software diagnostic people. Have had three conversations today and there have been no answers. Have been told it could take three hours to five weeks to fix the software update. In the meantime, I'm without a DVR that can record. I'll update when I found out more.


EXACTLY!!! Finally, someone knows exactly what I've been going throuhh. This software is Really Really screwed up, its not a simple fix of deleting a few shows as others have been saying. I've been going through the same issues and The DVR thinks it's in the middle of recording shows from the To DO list, even though they broadcast in the near future. I almost collapsed when I read you got rid of 30 hours and it's still at 0% and can't record new shows. I was pissed that I got rid of 8 and still couldnt get past 0%! 30 is mindboggling and inexcusable on DirecTV's part!!!

I wish I never got this stupid software update, it messed up everything for me. I'm gonna call DirecTV as well, and I encourage everyone else that experienced this problem to contact them as well, so they can make this issue more urgent.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Dont know if it will help, but reboot the dvr from the menu reset option. Then when it comes back to live TV, restart it again. This will delete all the guide data. It will download the next 24 hours of guide data right away, but if it doesnt have guide data for the "near future" it cant record something it doesnt know about. Hopefully that will fix your issue.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

After you delete enough shows it will work, as Titan (and others pointed out).

Look at it this way, after the upgrade you were actually at (numbers made up) -10%, but the DVR doesn't display that show it just shows at 0%. You deleted 8 hours of shows and it still shows 0%, but maybe now you're at -7%. Unfortunately, you have to keep deleting until the DVR shows something other than 0%. When I first received Genie, I lost 12% - 18% of my recording space. So, if you were at 2% available, you're now at around -10% to -16%.


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

Davenlr said:


> Dont know if it will help, but reboot the dvr from the menu reset option. Then when it comes back to live TV, restart it again. This will delete all the guide data. It will download the next 24 hours of guide data right away, but if it doesnt have guide data for the "near future" it cant record something it doesnt know about. Hopefully that will fix your issue.


Won't help as that's not the issue.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

spartanstew said:


> After you delete enough shows it will work, as Titan (and others pointed out).
> 
> Look at it this way, after the upgrade you were actually at (numbers made up) -10%, but the DVR doesn't display that show it just shows at 0%. You deleted 8 hours of shows and it still shows 0%, but maybe now you're at -7%. Unfortunately, you have to keep deleting until the DVR shows something other than 0%. When I first received Genie, I lost 12% - 18% of my recording space. So, if you were at 2% available, you're now at around -10% to -16%.


How can DirecTV just roll out something like this without warning? How can they not realize that they are deleting valuable disk space that subscribers depended on for recordings? That's just irresponsible and totally asinine on their part.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

I don't know what DIRECTV® officially recommends as to amount of free space one should keep, or if there is such a recommendation at all, but few here recommend less than 15-20% as a good target. 

This update doesn't delete shows, but does take HD space, noticeable for those with little room to spare (as well as those who take note of details!)

Can you not get down to it showing 5% or more "free"?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

seabreak said:


> This has happened to me as well. Late Tuesday night, Directv sent the software update with the "Genie" and a possible fix to the OnDemand skipping problem to my HR 34. I had about 10% space, now I have zero. I deleted about 30 hours of HD programming and still have zero. I looked at the "To Do" list and it is showing every future show (for ex. next Monday at 10P) as recording now. So, there are approx 30 items in the to do list and all 30 are showing as currently "recording" as far as the system knows, even though it is impossible because they are in the future. My thinking is the DVR thinks all these shows are recording, thus no space is available.
> 
> Something is obviously really screwed up with this software update. I contacted Directv and they knew nothing about it. After an hour on the phone with tech support, they have had to open a ticket with the software diagnostic people. Have had three conversations today and there have been no answers. Have been told it could take three hours to five weeks to fix the software update. In the meantime, I'm without a DVR that can record. I'll update when I found out more.





xtc said:


> EXACTLY!!! Finally, someone knows exactly what I've been going throuhh. This software is Really Really screwed up, its not a simple fix of deleting a few shows as others have been saying. I've been going through the same issues and The DVR thinks it's in the middle of recording shows from the To DO list, even though they broadcast in the near future. I almost collapsed when I read you got rid of 30 hours and it's still at 0% and can't record new shows. I was pissed that I got rid of 8 and still couldnt get past 0%! 30 is mindboggling and inexcusable on DirecTV's part!!!
> 
> I wish I never got this stupid software update, it messed up everything for me. I'm gonna call DirecTV as well, and I encourage everyone else that experienced this problem to contact them as well, so they can make this issue more urgent.





xtc said:


> How can DirecTV just roll out something like this without warning? How can they not realize that they are deleting valuable disk space that subscribers depended on for recordings? That's just irresponsible and totally asinine on their part.


It seems nobody has lost any recordings, and not being able to record more shows is only happening to those with close to 200 hours of recordings.
I won't try to guess as to how many customers this will be affecting, but it just can't be that many.

Watch and delete some of your recordings and you'll be back to "normal" use.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> It seems nobody has lost any recordings, and not being able to record more shows is only happening to those with close to 200 hours of recordings.
> I won't try to guess as to how many customers this will be affecting, but it just can't be that many.
> 
> Watch and delete some of your recordings and you'll be back to "normal" use.


Even if you do that, u will never be able to use as much disk space as before. 1 of the main reasons I paid to get the HR34 was for its amount of disk space for recordings, now they slashed it after they got my money. That is NOT ok with me and shouldn't be with anyone. That is false advertising! at the very least they could have warned us about this loss of space so we could prepare for it or let us have the option to opt-out of the software update


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> Even if you do that, u will never able to use as much disk space as before. 1 of the main reasons I paid to get the HR34 was for its amount of disk space for recordings, now they slashed it after they got my money. That is NOT ok with me and shouldn't be with anyone. That is false advertising! at the very least they could have warned us about this loss of so we could prepare for it or let us have the option to opt-out of the software update


So how many hours of recordings DO YOU HAVE?

They say "up to 200 Hrs".

Put some "real numbers" in here and you may have a valid point.


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## trh (Nov 3, 2007)

Having lost three DVRs in the past year, my recording habits have been modified. I now watch and delete and don't rely the DVR to archive shows for an extended period of time.


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## BuffaloDenny (Mar 19, 2007)

seabreak said:


> This has happened to me as well. Late Tuesday night, Directv sent the software update with the "Genie" and a possible fix to the OnDemand skipping problem to my HR 34. I had about 10% space, now I have zero. I deleted about 30 hours of HD programming and still have zero. I looked at the "To Do" list and it is showing every future show (for ex. next Monday at 10P) as recording now. So, there are approx 30 items in the to do list and all 30 are showing as currently "recording" as far as the system knows, even though it is impossible because they are in the future. My thinking is the DVR thinks all these shows are recording, thus no space is available.
> 
> Something is obviously really screwed up with this software update. I contacted Directv and they knew nothing about it. After an hour on the phone with tech support, they have had to open a ticket with the software diagnostic people. Have had three conversations today and there have been no answers. Have been told it could take three hours to five weeks to fix the software update. In the meantime, I'm without a DVR that can record. I'll update when I found out more.





xtc said:


> EXACTLY!!! Finally, someone knows exactly what I've been going throuhh. This software is Really Really screwed up, its not a simple fix of deleting a few shows as others have been saying. I've been going through the same issues and The DVR thinks it's in the middle of recording shows from the To DO list, even though they broadcast in the near future. I almost collapsed when I read you got rid of 30 hours and it's still at 0% and can't record new shows. I was pissed that I got rid of 8 and still couldnt get past 0%! 30 is mindboggling and inexcusable on DirecTV's part!!!
> 
> I wish I never got this stupid software update, it messed up everything for me. I'm gonna call DirecTV as well, and I encourage everyone else that experienced this problem to contact them as well, so they can make this issue more urgent.


I agree, this is really sloppy and unacceptable. This may be the worst update I have ever received, and there have been some doozies. Asking me if I want to delete a recording supposedly in progress a week from now is priceless:nono2:


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## spartanstew (Nov 16, 2005)

veryoldschool said:


> So how many hours of recordings DO YOU HAVE?
> 
> They say "up to 200 Hrs".
> 
> Put some "real numbers" in here and you may have a valid point.


I have 98 hours on my HR34 currently and I'm showing 43% free.

Quick math would say I can currently hold about 171 hours.

Technically, that's "up to 200 hours", but significantly down from the "close to 200 hours" I was able to record before.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

While trying to set some (sports) recordings from my H25 to the '34, I got several "Can't record as it's already set to record" [parphrased]. Yet it doesn't show up in the To Do list....


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

spartanstew said:


> I have 98 hours on my HR34 currently and I'm showing 43% free.
> 
> Quick math would say I can currently hold about 171 hours.
> 
> Technically, that's "up to 200 hours", but significantly down from the "close to 200 hours" I was able to record before.


Those kind of numbers have meaning.
If I was at 200 hours before and could only get to less than 180 hrs, I'd be upset too.
It's the same with my internet speed, and U-Who doesn't care either.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Laxguy said:


> While trying to set some (sports) recordings from my H25 to the '34, I got several "Can't record as it's already set to record" [parphrased]. Yet it doesn't show up in the To Do list....


Sounds like Genie is doing that for you.


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Does it stop and revert to normal behavior if you turn Genie off?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Davenlr said:


> Does it stop and revert to normal behavior if you turn Genie off?


What do you mean by "normal"?


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## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> What do you mean by "normal"?


Normal, as in things work the same as they did before the download.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Davenlr said:


> Does it stop and revert to normal behavior if you turn Genie off?


No it doesnt.

I had the genie feature turned off, yet it did all this damage anyway. DirecTV really screwed us over this time.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Davenlr said:


> Normal, as in things work the same as they did before the download.


As for the size of free space, I don't think so.
As for setting up recordings, yes.

I've had Genie off for a while and things are "normal".


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> No it doesnt.
> 
> I had the genie feature turned off, yet it did all this damage anyway. DirecTV really screwed us over this time.


I do get that you're upset, but "damage"?
Did you lose any recording with the update?

Have you bothered to count how many hours of recordings you have?


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## BuffaloDenny (Mar 19, 2007)

I received a message saying that I needed to turn double play off on my 2nd tuner if I wanted to record a 2nd show. Hmmmmm, 5 tuners shouldn't necessitate that type of message when only 2 shows are recording. I subsequently tested recording 5 shows at once, and it did, but the messages with this release are annoying and confusing.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

BuffaloDenny said:


> I received a message saying that I needed to turn double play off on my 2nd tuner if I wanted to record a 2nd show. Hmmmmm, 5 tuners shouldn't necessitate that type of message when only 2 shows are recording. I subsequently tested recording 5 shows at once, and it did, but the messages with this release are annoying and confusing.


Yep, it still needs some refinements.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> I do get that you're upset, but "damage"?
> Did you lose any recording with the update?
> 
> Have you bothered to count how many hours of recordings you have?


 Yes damage. I am no longer able to record shows unless I delete shows I haven't even watched yet. So, in essence i will lose plenty of recordings due to this update.

No i havent counted the hours, i am too busy trying to rearrange recordings on other dvrs that i have to try to save at least some of my scheduled recordings, since my hr34 is no longer a dvr thanks to this update.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

Oh please.....understand the frustration, but the drama is a bit much.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

CCarncross said:


> Oh please.....understand the frustration, but the drama is a bit much.


Thanks for the incredibly useful post. Troll along, now.


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## Scott Kocourek (Jun 13, 2009)

Guys let's keep on topic. It's a good one and we should keep it friendly.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

CCarncross said:


> Oh please.....understand the frustration, but the drama is a bit much.


I think most of us understand the frustration, but maybe not that it's been twelve hours since what was needed to be done was posted and nothing has been.

I guess this isn't a "help me" thread but just a complaining thread and I can't fix that.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Veryoldschool, u must be delusionsal. I guess u are one of those guys that thinks it's okay to bend over for DirecTV after they have your money. Sorry, but its not ok what they are doing and i shouldnt have to delete my recordings so they can shove this stupid genie thing down my throat. I paid for the hr34 because of the disk space and now that they have my money, they are taking it away from me. You may think thats ok, but i sure as hell don't!


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Well that certainly clarifies things.

Thank goodness for the Ignore feature at DBSTalk.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

xtc said:


> Veryoldschool, u must be delusionsal. I guess u are one of those guys that thinks it's okay to bend over for DirecTV after they have your money. Sorry, but its not ok what they are doing and i shouldnt have to delete my recordings so they can shove this stupid genie thing down my throat. I paid for the hr34 because of the disk space and now that they have my money, they are taking it away from me. You may think thats ok, but i sure as hell don't!


xtc - I can understand your frustration and anger. If I had to delete over 30+ hours of programs from the playlist just to get the DVR to start recording again, I think I would feel the same way. Sorry you have to go through this. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any other remedy...


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

The way it should work is that with genie disabled (still by default), it doesn't take the space or start recording things just in case you enable it.

If you do enable, then it would take the space and start recording things. Ten it off, you get the space back.

If there was more support for external, I might actually put on a 3TB drive or so.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Thanks drew2k, maybe there is some hope for humanity afterall.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> Veryoldschool, u must be delusionsal.


I don't feel I am as I don't expect the world to stop turning or to turn back to some earlier time and place that suits me better.

My first reply was I didn't think you'd like the solution.

I guess I nailed that one!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> If I had to delete over 30+ hours of programs from the playlist just to get the DVR to start recording again, I think I would feel the same way. Sorry you have to go through this. Unfortunately, I don't think there's any other remedy...


Seems a bit more than what would be needed. Sure 10-20 hours is a lot of programing, but to store so much that you couldn't watch it all if you sat down for over a week straight and never slept, might suggest they're too many to ever be watched.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> I don't feel I am as I don't expect the world to stop turning or to turn back to some earlier time and place that suits me better.
> 
> My first reply was I didn't think you'd like the solution.
> 
> I guess I nailed that one!


Wow. So you're ok with shelling out money for a product that's not delivering as promised? ok. You and I are polar opposites then. I don't let companies walk all over me. Maybe you're ok with that, then good luck to you. You are making it sound as if this is some free service that I'm complaining about? Um, no. If it was, then you would have a point. I paid money for something and I'm not getting what I should. I wasn't told or asked about this big change, it was just forced upon me.

The bottom line is if the only solution is to delete shows that I have saved or haven't watched yet, then it's simply not good enough. I shouldn't have to delete 30+ hours of recordings because of DirecTV's irresponsible actions. All of this could have been avoided if they just told us ahead of time and given us the option to opt-out. If they couldn't figure out a way to implement this stupid genie thing without raping people's hard drive space, then they shouldn't have done it to begin with.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> Seems a bit more than what would be needed. Sure 10-20 hours is a lot of programing, but to store so much that you couldn't watch it all if you sat down for over a week straight and never slept, might suggest they're too many to ever be watched.


That's just your opinion though. Bottom line is we were given a certain amount of hard drive space, and we could do what we want with it, even if its the opposite of what you would do. The issue is not that, the issue is DirecTV taking it away from us without warning, without an opt-out option. And that's just wrong in my opinion. If they were able to give us this feature that I'd never use without affecting my hard drive space, than you wouldn't hear a peep from me, but they didn't. They screwed up.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> Wow. So you're ok with shelling out money for a product that's not delivering as promised? ok. You and I are polar opposites then. I don't let companies walk all over me. Maybe you're ok with that, then good luck to you. You are making it sound as if this is some free service that I'm complaining about? Um, no. If it was, then you would have a point. I paid money for something and I'm not getting what I should. I wasn't told or asked about this big change, it was just forced upon me.
> 
> The bottom line is if the only solution is to delete shows that I have saved or haven't watched yet, then it's simply not good enough. I shouldn't have to delete 30+ hours of recordings because of DirecTV's irresponsible actions. All of this could have been avoided if they just told us ahead of time and given us the option to opt-out. If they couldn't figure out a way to implement this stupid genie thing without raping people's hard drive space, then they shouldn't have done it to begin with.


We only differ on our use of the DVR.
You should move up to a 2, 3, or 4 TB eSATA for your type of use.

I don't remember DirecTV telling me I could store 8 days of continuous recordings.
"I'd bet" you don't need to delete too many more hours before you get back to your "usual" full drive and can record again.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> That's just your opinion though. Bottom line is we were given a certain amount of hard drive space, and we could do what we want with it, even if its the opposite of what you would do. The issue is not that, the issue is DirecTV taking it away from us without warning, without an opt-out option. And that's just wrong in my opinion. If they were able to give us this feature that I'd never use without affecting my hard drive space, than you wouldn't hear a peep from me, but they didn't. They screwed up.


You lease "their DVR", sorry they made a change to it you don't like.
I didn't have anything to do with what they did.
I simply tried to help you out with what you first posted.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> We only differ on our use of the DVR.
> You should move up to a 2, 3, or 4 TB eSATA for your type of use.
> 
> I don't remember DirecTV telling me I could store 8 days of continuous recordings.
> "I'd bet" you don't need to delete too many more hours before you get back to your "usual" full drive and can record again.


I shouldn't have to do anything. I was fine the way things were. If I decide to get an external drive, that's just a bonus, I shouldn't however have to do it because DirecTV foreced this crap on me. That's the difference.

you say you bet, but I've already deleted plenty and it's still at zero. And another guy deleted 30 hours and he's still at zero.


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

dpeters11 said:


> *The way it should work is that with genie disabled (still by default), it doesn't take the space or start recording things just in case you enable it.*
> 
> If you do enable, then it would take the space and start recording things. Ten it off, you get the space back.
> 
> If there was more support for external, I might actually put on a 3TB drive or so.


For that, _Genie_ would need to be a preset instead of an on-the-fly option.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> You lease "their DVR", sorry they made a change to it you don't like.
> I didn't have anything to do with what they did.
> I simply tried to help you out with what you first posted.


i PAY for it, thats what matters. I pay for something I thought I would be getting and I'm now longer getting it, after they already have my money in their pockets. it had EVERYTHING to do with what they did.

If all you tried to do was help me with my post, and left it at that, than I thank you very much. I appreciate it. However, along with your attempted help, you kept throwing out all kinds of statements and opinions about how I should or shouldn't use the DVR or what DirecTV does or does not owe me, that has nothing to do with the issue at hand which is trying to get my HR34 functioning as a DVR again.


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## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

harsh said:


> Why shouldn't a DVR (in the general sense of the term) be usable for archiving?


Because HDD's fail, and without special effort, backing it up really isnt what many people do mostly because of the difficulty in doing so. Its not as easy as a pc or other device with potentially large and valued storage. Anyone using a production HDD without redundancy to archive anything important is just fooling themselves that their material is safe.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> If all you tried to do was help me with my post, and left it at that, than I thank you very much. I appreciate it.


I'll leave it at this, and ignore some of your other replies directed at me.

Checking with someone else who did a before and after, their 11% changed to 1%, so the change looks to be 20 hours of recordings.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Many would agree that this implementation hurt some people, and was clumsy for those whose HDs were already bumping capacity. But to raise such _stürm und drang_ over this isn't productive unless venting actually does the venter some good.....


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

spartanstew said:


> After you delete enough shows it will work, as Titan (and others pointed out).
> 
> Look at it this way, after the upgrade you were actually at (numbers made up) -10%, but the DVR doesn't display that show it just shows at 0%. You deleted 8 hours of shows and it still shows 0%, but maybe now you're at -7%. Unfortunately, you have to keep deleting until the DVR shows something other than 0%. When I first received Genie, I lost 12% - 18% of my recording space. So, if you were at 2% available, you're now at around -10% to -16%.


Hi. See my earlier post. I was the second one on here with the problem. I've deleted approx 40% of the space and I'm still at 0% available. No reboot, reset, or any amount of deleting is changing anything. If you delete all of the future programs, the moment you add another one, it thinks it is recording it and the space is still at 0%. There is an obvious software problem that is affecting some of the HR 34 DVRs. I spoke with Directv tonight and they said their diagnostic team is still working on it. I'll give them until tomorrow, then I want a new receiver. There has been nothing but problems with my HR 34 since I bought it. The OnDemand hasn't worked and this software update was suppossed to have fixed that problem. Unfortunately, I don't know if it did because I have no space. Glad yours is ok , but there is no excuse for Directv to take this much space, if that is indeed the case. This is not what was advertised in the beginning and not what I bought.


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

veryoldschool said:


> We only differ on our use of the DVR.
> You should move up to a 2, 3, or 4 TB eSATA for your type of use.
> 
> I don't remember DirecTV telling me I could store 8 days of continuous recordings.
> "I'd bet" you don't need to delete too many more hours before you get back to your "usual" full drive and can record again.


The problem is not solved by deleting because the DVR thinks it is recording every program that is in the "to do" list for the next two weeks. The orange R is next to every show. Of course, it is not recording anything, but it thinks it is, so the software is not working. If you delete the to do list, them add something new, say for next week, it thinks it is recording it. Doesn't make any sense.


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

xtc said:


> EXACTLY!!! Finally, someone knows exactly what I've been going throuhh. This software is Really Really screwed up, its not a simple fix of deleting a few shows as others have been saying. I've been going through the same issues and The DVR thinks it's in the middle of recording shows from the To DO list, even though they broadcast in the near future. I almost collapsed when I read you got rid of 30 hours and it's still at 0% and can't record new shows. I was pissed that I got rid of 8 and still couldnt get past 0%! 30 is mindboggling and inexcusable on DirecTV's part!!!
> 
> I wish I never got this stupid software update, it messed up everything for me. I'm gonna call DirecTV as well, and I encourage everyone else that experienced this problem to contact them as well, so they can make this issue more urgent.


Any luck contacting them? I've had five calls with no resolution. They, as a last resort, want to reformat it, which will wipe out everything. That is not an option and I will demand a new receiver, while keeping the existing one, so I can watch everything I have recorded. Totally agree with you on everything. Seems as if everyone else on this thread is not having the issues that we are having. Keep me updated.


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

Laxguy said:


> Many would agree that this implementation hurt some people, and was clumsy for those whose HDs were already bumping capacity. But to raise such _stürm und drang_ over this isn't productive unless venting actually does the venter some good.....


I'm venting, but also looking for solutions. It seems this is only a problem for a few of us, but my guess is it will be more widespread and DT will realize they have a problem with the software. Hopefully, for them and me, they get it solved and soon.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

seabreak said:


> I'm venting, but also looking for solutions. It seems this is only a problem for a few of us, but my guess is it will be more widespread and DT will realize they have a problem with the software. Hopefully, for them and me, they get it solved and soon.


It's not broken this was done by design. If you're a person who uses the DVR to archive shows forever and do an extreme situation where you have to delete something to record something it's just not going to be a pleasant change for you. The majority of customers are not like this and this change will benefit them.

The solution is to either get a larger external HD or start watching and deleting programs.


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## armophob (Nov 13, 2006)

CCarncross said:


> Oh please.....understand the frustration, but the drama is a bit much.





xtc said:


> Thanks for the incredibly useful post. Troll along, now.


No, we all feel your frustration. But we are irritated with your personal attacks on those who wish to explain.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

seabreak said:


> Any luck contacting them? I've had five calls with no resolution. They, as a last resort, want to reformat it, which will wipe out everything. That is not an option and I will demand a new receiver, while keeping the existing one, so I can watch everything I have recorded. Totally agree with you on everything. Seems as if everyone else on this thread is not having the issues that we are having. Keep me updated.


Absolutely, some of the others here just don't get it. I called DirecTV and they said the same as with you, they forwarded my info/notes to their Software engineer team and to some dept that deals specifically with HR34s. They suggested I follow up soon, and of course I will.

As much as I think you're 100% right that they should give you a new one, while you should be able to keep the old one and keep it deactivated so that there is no charge (and still be able to view shows), knowing DirecTV, there's not a chance in hell they'll go for it.

I still cannot believe how much you've gotten rid of on your playlist and it is still at 0%. Insanity. At this point, I'm just trying to set recordings only to my other DVRs in the home, but they don't have much space left either, so it sucks! They better fix this soon, or they owe us big time credits.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

armophob said:


> No, we all feel your frustration. But we are irritated with your personal attacks on those who wish to explain.


Pesonal attacks? :hurah: that's a good one. In what world do you live in where this is a personal attack. wow, i feel sorry for you. :nono2:


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

xtc said:


> ...i am too busy trying to rearrange recordings on other dvrs that i have to try to save at least some of my scheduled recordings, since my hr34 is no longer a dvr thanks to this update.


You should've been busy watching what's recorded.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Reading through this entire thread...it's an amazing read.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

sigma1914 said:


> You should've been busy watching what's recorded.


I don't know what we would do without your expert advice.


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

xtc said:


> I don't know what we would do without your expert advice.


We'd all have 200 hours of stuff on our DVRs and complaining about this issue. You're welcome.


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## pearkel (Feb 1, 2007)

Sorry the HR34 isn't working for you the way you want. Good luck moving forward, however you best see fit.

After reading threads like this, makes me glad i am not a customer service rep having to deal with phone calls like this. 
(I love my HR34!)


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

seabreak said:


> The problem is not solved by deleting because the DVR thinks it is recording every program that is in the "to do" list for the next two weeks. The orange R is next to every show. Of course, it is not recording anything, but it thinks it is, so the software is not working. If you delete the to do list, them add something new, say for next week, it thinks it is recording it. Doesn't make any sense.


Yes, there is a bug with deleting future programs, where it thinks it is a current recording, and even asks you if you want to keep it.
I don't see any signs that this is taking up any space [these future recordings].


> I've deleted approx 40% of the space and I'm still at 0% available.


This is very strange. If you still have 0%, how do you know you've deleted 40%?
The 20 hours I posted earlier were HD hours, so deleting SD recordings would require a lot more to equal the same space.


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

xtc said:


> ...As much as I think you're 100% right that they should give you a new one, while you should be able to keep the old one and keep it deactivated so that there is no charge (and still be able to view shows), knowing DirecTV, there's not a chance in hell they'll go for it...


A simpler solution would be for DirecTV to give you a credit for, or provide you with, an external drive on which you can start fresh, recording your programs. Meanwhile, your old recordings will be there on the internal drive, and available for viewing with a system reboot.

They could, theoretically, renumber the old software to a higher number and send a directed update to those customers that have the problem, but I'm not confident that will solve your problem. It is possible that since you had so little disk space, something went wrong during the upgrade and the scheduler database is corrupted in some way.

My advice is to work with DirecTV and post the content of those conversations. We all understand that you are frustrated and upset, but venting here will accomplish little other than generating more frustration. DirecTV is generally pretty good about doing the right thing for customers. I'd bet that they are trying to reproduce your problem right now...let's see what they can do.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

sigma1914 said:


> We'd all have 200 hours of stuff on our DVRs and complaining about this issue. You're welcome.


Yeah, lets all buy a DVR and not have anything on our playlist. You're a genius! :nono2:


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

pearkel said:


> Sorry the HR34 isn't working for you the way you want. Good luck moving forward, however you best see fit.
> 
> After reading threads like this, makes me glad i am not a customer service rep having to deal with phone calls like this.
> (I love my HR34!)


Maybe if DirecTV didn't do incredibly asinine and irresponsible things like this and properly tested their software before releasing it, you would be glad to be a rep.


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## Sixto (Nov 18, 2005)

It's clear that the NR HR34 firmware, which adds Genie Recommends, appears to reduce the storage available for user recordings. It's not clear if that is intentional or not, or whether it will remain that way or not. 

It certainly doesn't seem productive to debate whether the change is important or not. If a user is concerned about storage, and typically bumps up against the 1TB limit (minus DirecTV reserved space), clearly they might be concerned.

It comes down to whether the benefits of Genie Recommends out-weigh the needs for storage, and that would be on a home-by-home basis.

Some may decide to go the eSATA route, some may not be affected at all, and some may get upset and express their frustration to DirecTV.

All fair responses, and we move on ... it is what it is.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Titan25 said:


> Look at it this way....
> 
> I'm not saying these are the actual numbers, this is just an illustration:
> 
> ...


True, so true.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

harsh said:


> Why shouldn't a DVR (in the general sense of the term) be usable for archiving?


If D* would just let us use any HDD recorded on any HR within an account, archiving would be feasible. Without that, it's not.

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

xtc said:


> How can DirecTV just roll out something like this without warning? How can they not realize that they are deleting valuable disk space that subscribers depended on for recordings? That's just irresponsible and totally asinine on their part.


Weren't you around for the 2006-early 2007 HR20-700 fiasco? They'll get it fixed.

Rich


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Rich said:


> Weren't you around for the 2006-early 2007 HR20-700 fiasco? They'll get it fixed.
> 
> Rich


I got an HR20 later, so I'm not sure I know the issue you're talking about. Was it about disk space being taken away from customers and recordings were not possible? How long did it take them to fix it?


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

xtc said:


> Even if you do that, u will never be able to use as much disk space as before. 1 of the main reasons I paid to get the HR34 was for its amount of disk space for recordings, now they slashed it after they got my money. That is NOT ok with me and shouldn't be with anyone. That is false advertising! at the very least they could have warned us about this loss of space so we could prepare for it or let us have the option to opt-out of the software update


For the life of me, I can't see why a person who does a lot of recording on a 34 doesn't use an external HDD. My first thought when the 34 was released was the stock internal HDD was too small for five tuners. I'd have at least a 2TB on that, if I were you. Had you done that when you got the 34, you wouldn't be having the problems you're having now.

Rich


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

xtc said:


> Maybe if DirecTV didn't do incredibly asinine and irresponsible things like this and properly tested their software before releasing it, you would be glad to be a rep.





xtc said:


> Yeah, lets all buy a DVR and not have anything on our playlist. You're a genius! :nono2:


Directv actually does more field testing than most organizations. In addition to alpha and beta testing, they participate in the Cutting Edge program that puts new releases out in the wild on hundreds of users' receivers prior to release.

I don't know for sure what is the root cause of your issues. It may simply be a disk space issue. If so, there is not much that can be done other than watch and delete some recordings. DirecTV does not guarantee that the total available recording space on your DVR will not change (in fact, they do the opposite, they advise that any "hours" statistic is an estimate and that your results may be different). Maybe it is a bug that only shows up with very full drives. We just don't know yet.

Ad hominem attacks on other users do very little to advance your cause. We all appreciate your frustration, but you really need to take a deep breath and realize that no one here can fix your problem.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> What do you mean by "normal"?


Cracked me up!.... :lol:

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> Yep, it still needs some refinements.


Lovin' this... :lol:

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

CCarncross said:


> Oh please.....understand the frustration, but the drama is a bit much.


Can't stop laughing... :lol:

Rich


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Scott Kocourek said:


> Guys let's keep on topic. It's a good one and we should keep it friendly.


I haven't laughed this much at a thread in years... :lol:

It's a "good one" is an understatement.

Rich


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## pearkel (Feb 1, 2007)

xtc said:


> Maybe if DirecTV didn't do incredibly asinine and irresponsible things like this and properly tested their software before releasing it, you would be glad to be a rep.


Again, sorry it isn't working the way it was before the update. Mine continues to record shows and allow me to watch after the update so I wouldn't say it was not properly tested.

You have options, none are what you want, but maybe if you move forward on one, you can put this "asinine release" behind you and enjoy your programming.

I can honestly say, DirecTv has always been fair to me and i reward them with my money. If you don't feel they are being fair, perhaps another provider can satisfy you.
Good luck!


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Rich said:


> For the life of me, I can't see why a person who does a lot of recording on a 34 doesn't use an external HDD. My first thought when the 34 was released was the stock internal HDD was too small for five tuners. I'd have at least a 2TB on that, if I were you. Had you done that when you got the 34, you wouldn't be having the problems you're having now.
> 
> Rich


I understand what you are saying. I have external hard drives on other DVRs, but regardless, that is irrelevant here. Whether I have or do not have an external hard drive, DirecTV taking away a big chunk of hard drive space and therefore making it not nearly as attractive of a device is unethical especially when one of the main reasons someone paid money for the thing in the first place was the amount of hard drive space it came with. Imagine buying a hard drive and then all the sudden the company you bought it from has the power to take away a chunk of it randomly without warning. How would you like it if someone told you you should have gotten an additional hard drive?


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> Well that certainly clarifies things.
> 
> Thank goodness for the Ignore feature at DBSTalk.


This is almost too good to be true...you can't possibly be missing the humorous aspects. I've been sitting here laughing thru the whole thing. And I still can't stop.... :lol:

Rich


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

xtc said:


> I understand what you are saying. I have external hard drives on other DVRs, but regardless, that is irrelevant here. Whether I have or do not have an external hard drive, DirecTV taking away a big chunk of hard drive space and therefore making it not nearly as attractive of a device is unethical especially when one of the main reasons someone paid money for the thing in the first place was the amount of hard drive space it came with...


Perhaps disk space is why YOU chose the HR34, but I'd be amazed if most people didn't choose it because it had 5 tuners. I know that is what I find attractive.



xtc said:


> ...Imagine buying a hard drive and then all the sudden the company you bought it from has the power to take away a chunk of it randomly without warning. How would you like it if someone told you you should have gotten an additional hard drive?


The "system space" on computing devices only goes one way...up. Have you ever upgraded a version Windows and found that the new version took less disk space? There is no warranty, express or implied, that the available disk space on a DVR will remain constant over time.


----------



## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Titan25 said:


> Directv actually does more field testing than most organizations. In addition to alpha and beta testing, they participate in the Cutting Edge program that puts new releases out in the wild on hundreds of users' receivers prior to release.
> 
> I don't know for sure what is the root cause of your issues. It may simply be a disk space issue. If so, there is not much that can be done other than watch and delete some recordings.


I don't care that they do more field research than their competition. Their competition is cable companies which are a joke. Who cares if they do more research if the released product still malfunctions? Bottom line is they should not have released this until it was bug free. They also should not have released this without warning us that we would lose hard drive space and turn our HR34s into a non-functioning DVR. And finally, none of it should be forced on us. It says in the genie itself that it won't effect our hard drive space, but obviously it does big time.

Do you not realize that even if I do watch and delete the recordings, my HR34 will never have the amount of space it was advertised as having and is what we thought we were getting when we paid for it? How is that ok?


----------



## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

:beatdeadhorse:


----------



## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

Sorry, had to cut down your run on sentence to quote parts...



xtc said:


> DirecTV taking away a big chunk of hard drive space


That "big chunk" is a whole 10%. No matter what size drive you use DirecTV is now taking 10% for their use. They've always taken a percentage. They've now had to increase their percentage to accomodate Genie Recommends.



xtc said:


> when one of the main reasons someone paid money for the thing in the first place was the amount of hard drive space it came with.


The hard drive in your HR34 still has exactly the same space it came with. It has however now been allocated differently. Also, I didn't get an HR34 for the drive space. In fact I've never even used the internal drive on mine. I got mine for the 5 tuners and PIP.



xtc said:


> How would you like it if someone told you you should have gotten an additional hard drive?


I would realize they had a valid point, thanked them for it and moved on. I wouldn't attack them, that's for sure.


----------



## pearkel (Feb 1, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> :beatdeadhorse:


+1


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Titan25 said:


> A simpler solution would be for DirecTV to give you a credit for, or provide you with, an external drive on which you can start fresh, recording your programs. Meanwhile, your old recordings will be there on the internal drive, and available for viewing with a system reboot.
> 
> They could, theoretically, renumber the old software to a higher number and send a directed update to those customers that have the problem, but I'm not confident that will solve your problem. *It is possible that since you had so little disk space, something went wrong during the upgrade and the scheduler database is corrupted in some way.*
> 
> My advice is to work with DirecTV and post the content of those conversations. We all understand that you are frustrated and upset, but venting here will accomplish little other than generating more frustration. DirecTV is generally pretty good about doing the right thing for customers. I'd bet that they are trying to reproduce your problem right now...let's see what they can do.


Yup, that's my thought too. Who runs anything with a full HDD? I've done it for testing purposes and it's really difficult to deal with an HR with a full HDD.

Rich


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

xtc said:


> I got an HR20 later, so I'm not sure I know the issue you're talking about. Was it about disk space being taken away from customers and recordings were not possible? How long did it take them to fix it?


It was a multitude of problems. They released the 20-700s on us without fully testing them and there was...chaos. Then stabilization. They'll get this fixed, not in the time frame you're hoping for, but it will be fixed.

Rich


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Titan25 said:


> Directv actually does more field testing than most organizations. In addition to alpha and beta testing, they participate in the Cutting Edge program that puts new releases out in the wild on hundreds of users' receivers prior to release.
> 
> I don't know for sure what is the root cause of your issues. It may simply be a disk space issue. If so, there is not much that can be done other than watch and delete some recordings. DirecTV does not guarantee that the total available recording space on your DVR will not change (in fact, they do the opposite, they advise that any "hours" statistic is an estimate and that your results may be different). Maybe it is a bug that only shows up with very full drives. We just don't know yet.
> 
> *Ad hominem attacks on other users do very little to advance your cause.* We all appreciate your frustration, but you really need to take a deep breath and realize that no one here can fix your problem.


Especially when the attacks are directed at folks who are the most helpful members of the forum.

Rich


----------



## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

xtc said:


> I don't care that they do more field research than their competition. Their competition is cable companies which are a joke. Who cares if they do more research if the released product still malfunctions? Bottom line is they should not have released this until it was bug free. They also should not have released this without warning us that we would lose hard drive space and turn our HR34s into a non-functioning DVR. And finally, none of it should be forced on us. It says in the genie itself that it won't effect our hard drive space, but obviously it does big time.
> 
> Do you not realize that even if I do watch and delete the recordings, my HR34 will never have the amount of space it was advertised as having and is what we thought we were getting when we paid for it? How is that ok?


Here is what it says about the HR34 on DirecTV's website:

_Introducing the revolutionary Home Media Center HD DVR. If you've ever wanted to put an end to recording conflicts and deleting your favorite shows to make room for new ones, here's the receiver you've been waiting for. The Home Media Center HD DVR lets you record five shows at once, store up to 1600 shows* in SD - and watch them in any room of your house. You won't find anything like it with cable or DISH Network. It's available only with DIRECTV. _

and....

_The Home Media Center HD DVR gives you up to 800 hours of storage space in SD, 200 hours in HD, so you don't have to delete shows you want to keep to make room for new ones._

and finally...

_*Storage space refers to 30 minute programs recorded in SD. Actual recording capacity varies based on type of programming being recorded._

Where do they advertise a specific amount of space? It is always stated as "up to" or "varies".


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

xtc said:


> I understand what you are saying. I have external hard drives on other DVRs, but regardless, that is irrelevant here. Whether I have or do not have an external hard drive, DirecTV taking away a big chunk of hard drive space and therefore making it not nearly as attractive of a device is unethical especially when one of the main reasons someone paid money for the thing in the first place was the amount of hard drive space it came with. Imagine buying a hard drive and then all the sudden the company you bought it from has the power to take away a chunk of it randomly without warning. How would you like it if someone told you you should have gotten an additional hard drive?


What I meant in that post was you (and others) should have been immediately aware of how quickly a 1TB drive would get filled when it is deluged with recordings from five tuners.

As for them taking away a portion of the HDD, they've always done that. If you stick a 2TB drive on or in any HR, you won't get a full 2TBs out of it.

Nobody had to tell me I needed to buy additional HDDs, I saw that I would need them from the get-go. All but one of my 12 HRs has a 2TB drive on or in it.

Rich


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

xtc said:


> I don't care that they do more field research than their competition. Their competition is cable companies which are a joke...


I didn't say their competition...I said most organizations - of any type. Software has bugs. If a prgram contains more than one line of code, there is a potential for errors to escape detection. I've been in the software business for almost 30 years and I've yet to encounter a product that didn't have bugs. It is your misfortune to get caught by this particular one. I'm sorry that it happened to you, and I'd be perturbed if it happened to me. I lost about 100 hours of recordings recently when a drive failed. That's life.

In the end, it is just TV.


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Titan25 said:


> Here is what it says about the HR34 on DirecTV's website:
> 
> _Introducing the revolutionary Home Media Center HD DVR. If you've ever wanted to put an end to recording conflicts and deleting your favorite shows to make room for new ones, here's the receiver you've been waiting for. The Home Media Center HD DVR lets you record five shows at once, store up to 1600 shows* in SD - and watch them in any room of your house. You won't find anything like it with cable or DISH Network. It's available only with DIRECTV. _
> 
> ...


Add to all that, we've never been able to determine a rock solid answer to the question of how many hours of recordings any HDD will take. It seems to depend on the content more than the time it takes to record it.

When I first got my 20-700s working, I filled up a stock 300GB internal drive with almost 50 hours of HD MPEG-2 recordings. I think they were advertising 20 hours of HD recordings at the time. It's all about the content.

Rich


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Rich said:


> Add to all that, we've never been able to determine a rock solid answer to the question of how many hours of recordings any HDD will take. It seems to depend on the content more than the time it takes to record it.
> 
> When I first got my 20-700s working, I filled up a stock 300GB internal drive with almost 50 hours of HD MPEG-2 recordings. I think they were advertising 20 hours of HD recordings at the time. It's all about the content.
> 
> Rich


MPEG-2 was 30 hours, and MPEG-4 50 hours.
The amount a file takes has everything to do with the bit-rates.
9 Mb/s is fairly common for MPEG-4 HD, but I've also seem it be 6 Mb/s.


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## MrLatte (Aug 19, 2007)

Has anybody received version 0x05C2 of the firmware that gives us Genie Recommends in the last couple of days since this imbroglio started? I'm still running 0x0583 and I check every morning now.

I got my HR34 a week ago and attached an external 2TB drive and have been watching my available space drop down slightly as I record - it's now about 95%. If DirecTV IS taking a bigger portion of the hard drive can't they just reset the available space meter to show us the percentage of space for the user only? That way the number wouldn't go down even if the space really is less?


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

MrLatte said:


> If DirecTV IS taking a bigger portion of the hard drive can't they just reset the available space meter to show us the percentage of space for the user only? That way the number wouldn't go down even if the space really is less?


If you think about this for a min, you'll see this doesn't make sense.
The free space was adjusted, which is where the problem comes from.

With only 10% being used, you don't see it.
With 90% being used, you do see it.


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> MPEG-2 was 30 hours, and MPEG-4 50 hours.
> The amount a file takes has everything to do with the bit-rates.
> 9 Mb/s is fairly common for MPEG-4 HD, but I've also seem it be 6 Mb/s.


Those are still approximations, I think. I really did have almost 50 hours of HD MPEG-2 on that one 20-700.

Rich


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Rich said:


> Those are still approximations, I think. I really did have almost 50 hours of HD MPEG-2 on that one 20-700.
> 
> Rich


"well yeah"
Not all programing is equal, and I simply posted what the hours were listed as "back then".


----------



## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

MrLatte said:


> Has anybody received version 0x05C2 of the firmware that gives us Genie Recommends in the last couple of days since this imbroglio started? I'm still running 0x0583 and I check every morning now.


0x05C2 hasn't been in the stream since the 24th.


----------



## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

Titan25 said:


> I didn't say their competition...I said most organizations - of any type. Software has bugs. If a prgram contains more than one line of code, there is a potential for errors to escape detection. I've been in the software business for almost 30 years and I've yet to encounter a product that didn't have bugs. It is your misfortune to get caught by this particular one. I'm sorry that it happened to you, and I'd be perturbed if it happened to me. I lost about 100 hours of recordings recently when a drive failed. That's life.
> 
> In the end, it is just TV.


Very true. Even in examples of what is generally as perfect as possible, there have been bugs, including several found due to the rescheduling of the first shuttle flight. And with that system, lives were at stake.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

RunnerFL said:


> 0x05C2 hasn't been in the stream since the 24th.


Do we really know what is in the stream with the monitoring site being down?


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> Do we really know what is in the stream with the monitoring site being down?


The monitoring site is current.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

RunnerFL said:


> The monitoring site is current.


It's grayed out for me.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> It's grayed out for me.


I'm showing checks from less than 20 mins ago on http://redh.com/dtv/index.php?r=HR.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

RunnerFL said:


> I'm showing checks from less than 20 mins ago on http://redh.com/dtv/index.php?r=HR.


Look here and at the bottom you'll see it's inactive:

http://www.redh.com/dtv/index.php


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> Look here and at the bottom you'll see it's inactive:
> 
> http://www.redh.com/dtv/index.php


Ahh, I don't use that screen. Just the HR34 is "inactive" though, not the whole site.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

RunnerFL said:


> Ahh, I don't use that screen. Just the HR34 is "inactive" though, not the whole site.


You're right. When they're gray, the monitoring is off line for that model, so we never know what is in the stream.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> You're right. When they're gray, the monitoring is off line for that model, so we never know what is in the stream.


Gotcha. I just always go straight to the page I posted the URL for because it gives more details. Gray on that screen just means there's been nothing for a while. I'll have to remember to check the other screen to see if a unit is active or not in the future.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

And thats why Runner I disagree with everything that comes out of your posts.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Rich said:


> Especially when the attacks are directed at folks who are the most helpful members of the forum.
> 
> Rich


Do they only help after being jackasses to you? is that how it works. They should be proud then.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

xtc said:


> And thats why Runner I disagree with everything that comes out of your posts.


Yay!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

:nono:


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## TBoneit (Jul 27, 2006)

Good Move DirecTV, Use too small a hard drive for 5 tuners and then take user space and not DirecTV Reserved space for a new feature. Way to treat customers.


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

Folks, let's focus on the topic at hand and not on each other. There has already been one warning posted in this thread... the next time I will have no choice but to close it.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Have you checked your Series Manager? (I recall reading you've deleted stuff from the To Do list.) 

You have turned off Genie, yes? 

Have you double re-booted within 30 minutes to flush out the Guide?


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## Mike Bertelson (Jan 24, 2007)

sigma1914 said:


> You should've been busy watching what's recorded.


That's not really the point is it. The amount of storage space available to the customer has changed without notice. The OP was within the limits that have worked since he got the DVR and now the limits have moved.

If the customer had been given notice that'd be one thing, but even in that scenario saying he should just watch his recordings isn't really very constructive.

I'm not exactly sure how Genie is configured to use disk space but it certainly has the unintended consequence of interfering with the normal use of those that have mostly full hard drives.

I have no idea how Genie works but it seems to want a certain amount of space and will take it as it frees up. The number of subs affected has to be pretty small but it's got to be frustrating when you don't know it's coming and didn't have a chance to prepare for it.

Mike


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

Mike Bertelson said:


> ...
> If the customer had been given notice that'd be one thing, but even in that scenario saying he should just watch his recordings isn't really very constructive.
> 
> ...


It's very constructive. When your HDD is full now with this update, you only have a few choices - Start watching recordings you're hoarding, delete them, or suffer with no new recordings.

When you keep a full HDD, there's risks you take.


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## bnwrx (Dec 29, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> Look here and at the bottom you'll see it's inactive:
> 
> http://www.redh.com/dtv/index.php


What happens if someone is getting a new install of an HR34 today(or whenever) and the software stream is inactive? Is there a way to get the 34 up and running?


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## Sixto (Nov 18, 2005)

I've seen all these references to not being able to record anything new ... what exactly are you guys referring to?

Do you have every recording set as "keep until I delete"?

I've used that option for a few recordings over the years, but typically the DVR just deletes the oldest to record new stuff.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

bnwrx said:


> What happens if someone is getting a new install of an HR34 today(or whenever) and the software stream is inactive? Is there a way to get the 34 up and running?


When the monitoring site is off line, it only means we can't tell what is in the stream. It doesn't mean there is nothing in the stream.
You'd only know by trying to force a download.
With new installs ongoing, I'd be somewhat surprised if there was nothing in the stream.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Mike Bertelson said:


> That's not really the point is it. The amount of storage space available to the customer has changed without notice. The OP was within the limits that have worked since he got the DVR and now the limits have moved.
> 
> If the customer had been given notice that'd be one thing, but even in that scenario saying he should just watch his recordings isn't really very constructive.
> 
> ...


THANK YOU!!! interesting how this thread is divided into people who totally get it and others who don't. They just say watch it or delete it or buy a new hard drive or let DirecTV do anything they want to you now that they have your money. Unbelievable. At least a few get what's going on here.


----------



## David Ortiz (Aug 21, 2006)

Sixto said:


> Do you have every recording set as "keep until I delete"?


I watch a lot of primetime series on the broadcast networks and I don't like to miss an episode. I always use "keep until I delete" so that I don't discover that I am missing recordings.

When I noticed after this update that my free space was at 0%, I was able to delete a lot of episodes that were also on another DVR. If that were not the case, I would have had to watch those recordings to gain back free space for new episodes.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> THANK YOU!!! interesting how this thread is divided into people who totally get it and others who don't. They just say watch it or delete it or buy a new hard drive or let DirecTV do anything they want to you now that they have your money. Unbelievable. At least a few get what's going on here.


I think most "got it".
What has been the ongoing problem is "what to do about it".
You asked for help, and got some, but don't/haven't wanted to do anything.
DirecTV most likely won't change their software, so it's either adapt to it or not.


----------



## CCarncross (Jul 19, 2005)

veryoldschool said:


> I think most "got it".
> What has been the ongoing problem is "what to do about it".
> You asked for help, and got some, but don't/haven't wanted to do anything.
> DirecTV most likely won't change their software, so it's either adapt to it or not.


[email protected]

Direct DVR's have always exhibited interesting behavior to say the least when HDD's were run at or near capacity. You have a few choices about what you can do, choose one and move on.....ranting and raving is not going to fix anything, and guaranteed it will just further alienate you on this forum.


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## MrLatte (Aug 19, 2007)

It seems like having a full hard drive is one thing but is that connected to showing all the To-Do programs as currently recording? BTW, I'm not having this problem.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

MrLatte said:


> It seems like having a full hard drive is one thing but is that connected to showing all the To-Do programs as currently recording? BTW, I'm not having this problem.


It's only "connected" by being in the software. The To-Do programs still work the same as before, but now have the "nag" messages, which have nothing to do with the space issue.


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

xtc said:


> Do they only help after being jackasses to you? is that how it works. They should be proud then.


OK, that's enough. Most of us are here to help, not hinder. Nobody has done anything but try to explain what's going on, just because you're frustrated doesn't give you the right to demean anyone.

Rich


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Rich said:


> OK, that's enough. Most of us are here to help, not hinder. Nobody has done anything but try to explain what's going on, just because you're frustrated doesn't give you the right to demean anyone.
> 
> Rich


You obviously haven't been paying attention in this thread then. A few helped and I thanked them, others were exactly as I described.


----------



## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

Rich said:


> OK, that's enough. Most of us are here to help, not hinder. Nobody has done anything but try to explain what's going on, just because you're frustrated doesn't give you the right to demean anyone.


Clearly there were some pre-conceived notions on who's posts to even bother with and that's too bad. He was given some great advice but chose to ignore it, or even slam it, based on who posted it.

Did they take space from us? yes
Will we get it back? VERY doubtful
Does it suck? Sure
Were viable alternatives given to the OP? Yes
Should we move on? Absolutely


----------



## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

RunnerFL said:


> Clearly there were some pre-conceived notions on who's posts to even bother with and that's too bad. He was given some great advice but chose to ignore it, or even slam it, based on who posted it.
> 
> Did they take space from us? yes
> Will we get it back? VERY doubtful
> ...


I'm done.

Rich


----------



## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

xtc said:


> Do they only help after being jackasses to you? is that how it works. They should be proud then.





xtc said:


> You obviously haven't been paying attention in this thread then. A few helped and I thanked them, others were exactly as I described.


I assume that since I didn't join the urination contest I fall into the latter group.



Stuart Sweet said:


> Folks, let's focus on the topic at hand and not on each other. There has already been one warning posted in this thread... the next time I will have no choice but to close it.


Stuart, I think the time has come.


----------



## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

I'm saddened it's come to this.

People need to respect each other more.

:nono2:


----------



## Davenlr (Sep 16, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> I'm saddened it's come to this.
> 
> People need to respect each other more.
> 
> :nono2:


Brother, This should be the subject of an entire thread....Not only on these forums, but on the highway, in stores, and in general....


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

veryoldschool said:


> Yes, there is a bug with deleting future programs, where it thinks it is a current recording, and even asks you if you want to keep it.
> I don't see any signs that this is taking up any space [these future recordings].
> This is very strange. If you still have 0%, how do you know you've deleted 40%?
> The 20 hours I posted earlier were HD hours, so deleting SD recordings would require a lot more to equal the same space.


Simple. I counted. I deleted approx. 40 hours of HD programming. If DT is now using 60% for their new software, it is a problem.


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## raott (Nov 23, 2005)

One thing is for sure, that update had no business going out the door when it did.


----------



## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

xtc said:


> THANK YOU!!! interesting how this thread is divided into people who totally get it and others who don't. They just say watch it or delete it or buy a new hard drive or let DirecTV do anything they want to you now that they have your money. Unbelievable. At least a few get what's going on here.


You are correct. Many are not getting it. I'll repeat. NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU DELETE, THERE IS NO AVAILABLE SPACE!!! HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DELETING OR USING ALL 200 HOURS, ETC. I should have 60% available. I highly doubt DT is using 60% of space for the "Genie". There is a problem with the software that is causing the DVR to think there is no space available. Why, I don't think anyone knows at this point. If someone knows how to fix it, I'd love the answer, as that is why I posted in the first place.

I don't get the controversy about deleting programs. If I was out of town a lot in the past few months and recording a lot, so what? This receiver is advertised as 200 hours of HD, minus a few percent for DT's use. So, if I filled it to 95%, it should work as if I filled it to 60%. I agree these receivers are not for archiving as this is the 2nd time in a year I've had a problem. I purchased the HR 34 in Feb due to another year and a half old DVR's hard drive failing. So, I certainly don't trust it to keep something that I really want to save. I'm still waiting (3 days now) for a result from DT, with no answers. When I get one, I'll post it.


----------



## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

seabreak said:


> Simple. I counted. I deleted approx. 40 hours of HD programming. If DT is now using 60% for their new software, it is a problem.


If you've deleted 40 hours of HD programing, you've got other problems going on.
This may be unique your your DVR, as it hasn't been seen on others.
The 10% loss/change of free space doesn't account for what you're seeing.

BTW your math seems a bit off too. 40 hrs would only equal 20%.


----------



## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

seabreak said:


> You are correct. Many are not getting it. I'll repeat. NO MATTER HOW MUCH YOU DELETE, THERE IS NO AVAILABLE SPACE!!! HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH DELETING OR USING ALL 200 HOURS, ETC. I should have 60% available. << Snipped bits out >>
> 
> I'm still waiting (3 days now) for a result from DT, with no answers. When I get one, I'll post it.


You have a ping earlier in the thread.


----------



## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

veryoldschool said:


> If you've deleted 40 hours of HD programing, you've got other problems going on.
> This may be unique your your DVR, as it hasn't been seen on others.
> The 10% loss/change of free space doesn't account for what you're seeing.
> 
> BTW your math seems a bit off too. 40 hrs would only equal 20%.


It could be a lot less, too, as there's large variation in MB's required for an hour long program.

I do wish he'd answer my questions. I see a number of folks are trying to help, too.


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## JACKIEGAGA (Dec 11, 2006)

seabreak said:


> Simple. I counted. I deleted approx. 40 hours of HD programming. If DT is now using 60% for their new software, it is a problem.


So if I delete all my recordings I wouldn't be at 100%?


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## Carl Spock (Sep 3, 2004)

JACKIEGAGA, you are always at 100%


----------



## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

veryoldschool said:


> If you've deleted 40 hours of HD programing, you've got other problems going on.
> This may be unique your your DVR, as it hasn't been seen on others.
> The 10% loss/change of free space doesn't account for what you're seeing.
> 
> BTW your math seems a bit off too. 40 hrs would only equal 20%.


Sorry, meant 40%


----------



## JACKIEGAGA (Dec 11, 2006)

Carl Spock said:


> JACKIEGAGA, you are always at 100%


:lol:


----------



## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Carl Spock said:


> JACKIEGAGA, you are always at 100%





JACKIEGAGA said:


> :lol:


:rolling:

Then again, I normally don't get below 80% here either, because I delete stuff as I view it most of the time.


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## JACKIEGAGA (Dec 11, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> :rolling:
> 
> Then again, I normally don't get below 80% here either, because I delete stuff as I view it most of the time.


The same here.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

seabreak said:


> I highly doubt DT is using 60% of space for the "Genie".


Their partition, which includes PPV and Genie recordings plus other "stuff" I'm sure, is based on total drive space.

I know this from trying different drive sizes:

2TB drive, they get 17.86G
3TB drive, they get 27.94G
6TB array, they get 55.89G
9TB array, they get 83.83G
12TB array, they get 95.68G

They get less than 1%. (Yeah, I said 10% previously, I was wrong)


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> :rolling:
> 
> Then again, I normally don't get below 80% here either, because I delete stuff as I view it most of the time.


I haven't gone below 97% with 3 weeks worth of heavy usage yet. :lol:

I haven't counted how many hours lately...


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## bobcamp1 (Nov 8, 2007)

Mike Bertelson said:


> That's not really the point is it. The amount of storage space available to the customer has changed without notice. The OP was within the limits that have worked since he got the DVR and now the limits have moved.
> 
> If the customer had been given notice that'd be one thing, but even in that scenario saying he should just watch his recordings isn't really very constructive.
> 
> ...


+1

Most other DVRs can run full with only minor slowdowns. The DVR is designed to automatically delete old shows to make room for new ones, so in theory you should never have to delete any shows. I ran my Tivo like that for a long time.

The HR34 is also designed so that an entire household of 5, 6, or 7 people can record all of their individual shows onto one DVR. I bet that kind of usage would fill it up fast.

I think what's happened here is that these people's hard drive's file systems are now corrupted. The Genie didn't make space for itself gracefully. I would suggest the OP clear and delete everything and start over from scratch. I would also call D* and complain loudly. He'll hopefully get a credit or free service of some kind.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

bobcamp1 said:


> +1
> 
> I think what's happened here is that these people's hard drive's file systems are now corrupted. The Genie didn't make space for itself gracefully. I would suggest the OP clear and delete everything and start over from scratch. I would also call D* and complain loudly. He'll hopefully get a credit or free service of some kind.


What!?!!

There's no evidence of wide spread "corruption", and deleting everything is not indicated, at least as a general rule for this problem and others.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

seabreak said:


> Sorry, meant 40%


Well then we're back to how do you know you deleted 40%, if the free space still reads zero?


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## bobcamp1 (Nov 8, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> Well then we're back to how do you know you deleted 40%, if the free space still reads zero?


Because he delete almost half of his recorded shows. So if he had 200 hours of recorded shows, and he deleted 80 hours of them, what percentage of shows did he delete?

Others have said that the Genie takes up around 10%. In theory, he should only have to delete at least 20 hours of shows to get to 10%. He could delete a few more to be on the safe side. But then his free space indicator should start to go up.

The fact that the free space indicator isn't budging isn't a good sign.

I would recommend the Tivo's "clear to do list and season pass" option, as it has gotten a few Tivo users out of a similar jam. But the HR2xs don't have that option. Maybe he could do it manually -- remove all series links and reboot twice. But if that doesn't work, and it still refuses to record anything, what's the next step? Erase everything and start fresh.

All it takes is a few bad bytes in just the wrong place in the file system or partition table to wreak havoc.


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## JACKIEGAGA (Dec 11, 2006)

Let me ask this again

So if I delete all my recordings I wouldn't be at 100%?


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

JACKIEGAGA said:


> Let me ask this again
> 
> So if I delete all my recordings I wouldn't be at 100%?


If you delete all the recordings in your playlist you should be at 100% as far as what you see in the lower right corner of the playlist.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

bobcamp1 said:


> Because he delete almost half of his recorded shows. So if he had 200 hours of recorded shows, and he deleted 80 hours of them, what percentage of shows did he delete?
> 
> Others have said that the Genie takes up around 10%. In theory, he should only have to delete at least 20 hours of shows to get to 10%. He could delete a few more to be on the safe side. But then his free space indicator should start to go up.
> 
> ...


I'm not a mind reader, so I need to count on what is posted, "and" have it make some sense.

If the file system were significantly corrupted, it would be cleared during a reboot when the DVR runs the self test.
Bad recordings disappear at this time.

There could be some guide data issues and maybe problems with the series links, but neither of these would stop a manual recording.

More accurate data/posts are needed to offer help as to what is going on and steps to take to try to resolve and/or find what the problem is.


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## JACKIEGAGA (Dec 11, 2006)

RunnerFL said:


> If you delete all the recordings in your playlist you should be at 100% as far as what you see in the lower right corner of the playlist.


Thanks


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

JACKIEGAGA said:


> Let me ask this again
> 
> So if I delete all my recordings I wouldn't be at 100%?


Sorry, I thought you were joking earlier.
An "empty drive" will show 100%, though I haven't emptied mine, but have had so few recordings as to be @ 98%.


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

JACKIEGAGA said:


> Let me ask this again
> 
> So if I delete all my recordings I wouldn't be at 100%?


The percentage show is your percentage of the HDD.

Another member ran test as he swap drives of different sizes in and out and determine the Genie NR took 10% of the HDD space, no matter the size of the drive.


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## JACKIEGAGA (Dec 11, 2006)

Drucifer said:


> The percentage show is your percentage of the HDD.
> 
> Another member ran test as he swap drives of different sizes in and out and determine the Genie NR took 10% of the HDD space, no matter the size of the drive.


Ok got it


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

Stupid question....

For those wih the problem, what happens if you just press the record button while watching live TV?


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## bobcamp1 (Nov 8, 2007)

veryoldschool said:


> I'm not a mind reader, so I need to count on what is posted, "and" have it make some sense.
> 
> If the file system were significantly corrupted, it would be cleared during a reboot when the DVR runs the self test.
> Bad recordings disappear at this time.
> ...


The OP (and others) are looking for suggestions to try. You're not going to get more information unless you ask for it.

Problems don't have to make sense. And usually problems don't make sense when there's not enough information.

The manual recording suggestion is brilliant, but that could have been suggested a hundred posts back.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

bobcamp1 said:


> The OP (and others) are looking for suggestions to try. You're not going to get more information unless you ask for it.
> 
> Problems don't have to make sense. And usually problems don't make sense when there's not enough information.
> 
> The manual recording suggestion is brilliant, but that could have been suggested a hundred posts back.


post #2 had something to try for the OP.

The second poster who said he/she had done this and it didn't help, was where more information was needed.
I asked and got one answer, but then it was flipped back to the first question.
To troubleshoot, there needs to be consistence responses.
If the poster is going in loops, so does the troubleshooting. :nono:


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

Titan25 said:


> Stupid question....
> 
> For those wih the problem, what happens if you just press the record button while watching live TV?


Neither users reporting the issue have told us if it is actually not recording or if it is. That's part of the info VOS has been asking and not getting answers to.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Just to try to get everyone on the same page:
[and I may not have all of this so feel free to add]

There is the TS who lost all free space, and has only deleted 8 HD shows. This wasn't/isn't enough to account for the 10% change. Until something more is done, there isn't much to do with this case.

There is a second poster [new to the forum] who has deleted "some recordings", and it seems like these were enough to have the free space return.
"Seems like" has yet to be explained constantly enough to know.
This DVR may have other problems.

I'm simply trying to verify "exactly" what has and hasn't been done, to get an idea of what to look/try next.


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## alias4603 (Sep 29, 2012)

I'll post this in hopes that maybe it will provide hope to those who are below zero on space.

My HR-34 was at 11% just before the software update. The next morning I noted that I now had 1% of available space. Never turned Genie on but still had problem. Wiped out a couple hours but that evening as it attempted to record the last of the 6-7 programs it was scheduled to record I received a message that it could not continue recording and I had to delete something. I decided I could live without Colbert signing off so I told it to stop recording. Since then, I've been able to stay ahead of the curve but am looking forward to watching a lot of TV (used up some time for that reading the 8 pages of this thread) and looking forward to wiping out a bunch more before the Sunday news shows use up another 4-5 hours. For those mathmeticians in the group - I record everything in HD. It appears that the update reserved 10% of the available space for it's own purposes but didn't erase anything to make that room, just won't let you record anything new in that space. This seems to indicate that it's not the software itself taking up that room since it would have to make that room for itself if it actually needed it for the operating system. Also, means that if and when they decide to fix the problem they created they should be able to do so. Not holding my breath. 

Below is totally irrelevant stuff.

As an aside, I think where some of the comments got a little heated was when it appears XTC and a few others didn't appreciate being told that they had been doing something wrong in recording so many programs and using up all that space. At least, when I read all 8 pages at once that was my take. Frankly, I had the same reaction. I realize others aren't necessarily intending it that way (I actually came to this site to figure out how to hook up an external HD). That being said, if I want to use all of my storage space then that's my business. I travel a bit and so sometimes a lot of stuff gets recorded. I like the news so don't always get back to programs I've recorded for a while since they're seldom "current" like the news. Recently, recorded the whole of Breaking Bad that AMC was kind enough to broadcast saving me buying the series on DVD. That's 50 hours by itself. I realize that I'm at risk and might be a bit crazy but it's my (albeit leased) DVR and should get to use it the way I want. Having had a few days to cool off from my original "disappointment" in DT doing something without warning (they seem quite capable of sending me their promos) I no longer feel the need to rant. At least I hope this doesn't seem like a rant. But I can appreciate others with an actual problem being a little less circumspect. Had I been out of town and come back to find that nothing recorded for a few days I'm sure I'd give the others a run for their money.

Hopefully, this didn't offend anyone ... it surely wasn't meant to.


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

Titan25 said:


> Stupid question....
> 
> For those wih the problem, what happens if you just press the record button while watching live TV?


Hi. Nothing it just gives the no space available message. Now another strange thing has happened. Once it tries to record something in the "to do" list, it shows that it has recorded three times in the playlist. All the same channel, all the same time, with zero minutes recorded. It is so screwed up! Like the available space, there have been zero answers from DT. Going into the 4th day of this and counting.


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

RunnerFL said:


> Neither users reporting the issue have told us if it is actually not recording or if it is. That's part of the info VOS has been asking and not getting answers to.


Hi. It will not record, as it thinks there is zero space, even though there should be plenty.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

alias4603 said:


> I'll post this in hopes that maybe it will provide hope to those who are below zero on space.
> 
> Below is totally irrelevant stuff.
> 
> Hopefully, this didn't offend anyone ... it surely wasn't meant to.


:welcome_s to the forum.

Good post.

I'm not sure if my posts were taken as "doing something wrong", as they were meant to be "time to change" how you do it, to work with this.

It's going to take a couple/few days, but I'm trying to fill up my drive and count how many hours it holds.
It won't hold as many as before, but some say they've gotten 212 hours before and a loss of 10% may or may not be too drastic.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

veryoldschool said:


> :welcome_s to the forum.
> 
> Good post.
> 
> ...


Good grief man....you're up early doing research this morning!


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## bobcamp1 (Nov 8, 2007)

seabreak said:


> Hi. See my earlier post. I was the second one on here with the problem. I've deleted approx 40% of the space and I'm still at 0% available. No reboot, reset, or any amount of deleting is changing anything. If you delete all of the future programs, the moment you add another one, it thinks it is recording it and the space is still at 0%. There is an obvious software problem that is affecting some of the HR 34 DVRs. I spoke with Directv tonight and they said their diagnostic team is still working on it.





seabreak said:


> The problem is not solved by deleting because the DVR thinks it is recording every program that is in the "to do" list for the next two weeks. The orange R is next to every show. Of course, it is not recording anything, but it thinks it is, so the software is not working. If you delete the to do list, them add something new, say for next week, it thinks it is recording it. Doesn't make any sense.





seabreak said:


> Hi. [Pressing record while watching live TV does] nothing it just gives the no space available message. Now another strange thing has happened. Once it tries to record something in the "to do" list, it shows that it has recorded three times in the playlist. All the same channel, all the same time, with zero minutes recorded. It is so screwed up! Like the available space, there have been zero answers from DT. Going into the 4th day of this and counting.


That is such odd behavior! I don't think I've ever heard of that type of behavior in the 12 years I've been using DVRs. I hope D* can send you out a software patch that'll let you at least record something again. But I'd start watching or transferring as much as I could. Unfortunately, I think a hard drive wipe or a DVR exchange is in your near future.

The only other thing I would suggest is to delete all of your scheduled recordings -- all the series links, future individual shows, etc. The to do list should be totally empty. Then reboot, wait 15 minutes, then reboot again. That should flush the guide data and hopefully restore normal behavior. Wait an hour or two, then delete a single recording and see if the free space indicator moves off of 0%. If so, pick a single program an hour to two in the future to record and cross your fingers. (VOS has a good suggestion of having this recording be a manual recording, to exclude guide data corruption as the source of the problem.) Good luck!


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> It's going to take a couple/few days, but I'm trying to fill up my drive and count how many hours it holds.


For anyone counting hours, don't forget to include the automatic pre- and post-padding DIRECTV adds. You won't see it in the progress bar or program description, but unless a program is manually padded, DIRECTV records 30 seconds earlier than the start time and 2 minutes after the end time.

Thus for every 24 hours of shows you record and don't manually pad, there's an extra hour of space used for the pre- and post-padding.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Drew2k said:


> For anyone counting hours, don't forget to include the automatic pre- and post-padding DIRECTV adds. You won't see it in the progress bar or program description, but unless a program is manually padded, DIRECTV records 30 seconds earlier than the start time and 2 minutes after the end time.
> 
> Thus for every 24 hours of shows you record and don't manually pad, there's an extra hour of space used for the pre- and post-padding.


Good point! And, I'd point out again that MBs required for an hour long show can vary pretty wildly, so whatever tests are made will be ball park... unless you get real specific and record the same content over and over.... Someone, perhaps Runner, some time ago, posted some ranges by taking an external, hooking to his computer, and noting file sizes.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> For anyone counting hours, don't forget to include the automatic pre- and post-padding DIRECTV adds. You won't see it in the progress bar or program description, but unless a program is manually padded, DIRECTV records 30 seconds earlier than the start time and 2 minutes after the end time.
> 
> Thus for every 24 hours of shows you record and don't manually pad, there's an extra hour of space used for the pre- and post-padding.


"You know", I hadn't even thought of that.
It could end up being as much as 8 hours!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

seabreak said:


> Hi. It will not record, as it thinks there is zero space, even though there should be plenty.


I'm not sure if you're interested in trying to get some help here, or just want to wait for DirecTV's response.

If you are interested, maybe you can count the hours of recordings you have now. It may be a pain, but if you lists the hours & types [HD/SD/OTA] it would help for us to know where things are.

If you're not, then no problem.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> "You know", I hadn't even thought of that.
> It could end up being as much as 8 hours!


Yup, I think the automatic pre- and post-padding is one of the best features DIRECTV introduced, and being invisible and "just working" it's often overlooked and forgotten when looking at storage space...

So record 24 hours, use 25...

100 hours recorded = 104 used (plus a few minutes)

200 hours = 208 hours (plus minutes), which is close to the 212 hours that someone posted earlier they used to see as a max.

(Again, only for shows you don't add your own manual padding to.)


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## alias4603 (Sep 29, 2012)

By my quick count of shows on my box I have 238 hours of HD programs recorded. Virtually all with my default 1 minute before, 3 minutes after setting. I'll let someone else estimate the slop but I'm at 2% available. So I'm ball-parking if I was unfortunate enough to have been at zero % on the day of the software "enhancement" I would be looking at watching/deleting 25-30 hours of programs before I would be able to record something again. Obviously, much, much more if I had shows in SD. 

I don't know how the 40% number for deletions and still can't record was reached by Seabreak. In fact, if your available is showing zero percent I don't know how it's possible to be done. But I wouldn't reformat or replace your drive until you've watched or deleted enough that your available is above zero. I've already bumped up against it and you will not be able to record a program either manually or scheduled until you're out of the hole. Then my box went back to operating just like before when at the limits. If I watch something and free up an hour then I can record an hour.


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## David Ortiz (Aug 21, 2006)

alias4603 said:


> By my quick count of shows on my box I have 238 hours of HD programs recorded. Virtually all with my default 1 minute before, 3 minutes after setting. I'll let someone else estimate the slop but I'm at 2% available. So I'm ball-parking if I was unfortunate enough to have been at zero % on the day of the software "enhancement" I would be looking at watching/deleting 25-30 hours of programs before I would be able to record something again. Obviously, much, much more if I had shows in SD.
> 
> I don't know how the 40% number for deletions and still can't record was reached by Seabreak. In fact, if your available is showing zero percent I don't know how it's possible to be done. But I wouldn't reformat or replace your drive until you've watched or deleted enough that your available is above zero. I've already bumped up against it and you will not be able to record a program either manually or scheduled until you're out of the hole. Then my box went back to operating just like before when at the limits. If I watch something and free up an hour then I can record an hour.


Do you have Dolby Digital on or off?


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## alias4603 (Sep 29, 2012)

David Ortiz said:


> Do you have Dolby Digital on or off?


On.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

David Ortiz said:


> Do you have Dolby Digital on or off?


Why would this make any difference?  The SAT feed doesn't know or care.

I'm getting the feeling that my exercise will become [or is] completely pointless.
The variations in bit-rates between shows looks to have more effect on the hours than anything else.
I've only got to 72% so far and have 66 hrs of HD.

Extrapolating this would mean 235 hours @ 0% and not even accounting for the soft padding.


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## David Ortiz (Aug 21, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> Why would this make any difference?  The SAT feed doesn't know or care.
> 
> I'm getting the feeling that my exercise will become [or is] completely pointless.
> The variations in bit-rates between shows looks to have more effect on the hours than anything else.
> ...


I was thinking for some reason that recordings would be larger if DD is turned on, but that is not the case. Sorry.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

FWIW, first check after Genie was installed, with *1%* free, I counted 195 hours MPEG-4 HD and 10 hours SD on my playlist.


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## alias4603 (Sep 29, 2012)

veryoldschool said:


> I'm getting the feeling that my exercise will become [or is] completely pointless.
> The variations in bit-rates between shows looks to have more effect on the hours than anything else.
> I've only got to 72% so far and have 66 hrs of HD.
> 
> Extrapolating this would mean 235 hours @ 0% and not even accounting for the soft padding.


For what it's worth, I think you can save yourself the effort. Since we all would end up with different max hours recorded to get to zero you would only be another datapoint. At least, in my case it appears I could record somewhere near 260-270 hours of my mix of programs preGenie. Now around 240. If you finish your experiment you will only know what zero works like not what being at "below" zero works like. I've already experienced what you're heading for and it's no different than before Genie.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

alias4603 said:


> For what it's worth, I think you can save yourself the effort. Since we all would end up with different max hours recorded to get to zero you would only be another datapoint. At least, in my case it appears I could record somewhere near 260-270 hours of my mix of programs preGenie. Now around 240. If you finish your experiment you will only know what zero works like not what being at "below" zero works like. I've already experienced what you're heading for and it's no different than before Genie.


Yeah, I got the idea last night and started before reading your first post.
I may let it go to 50%, just to get some idea, as early in this thread, 180 hours was looking like what the limit was.

"We know" we won't have as many hours as before, but it does look like DirecTV could still be fair saying "up to 200 hours", and most would get the 200 hours.

For those living on the edge and exceeding the 200 hours before, this may not be much help.


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## RunnerFL (Jan 5, 2006)

David Ortiz said:


> I was thinking for some reason that recordings would be larger if DD is turned on, but that is not the case. Sorry.


DD is recorded whether or not you have it on in the UI. That allows you to turn it on at a later time if so desired.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

OK, for those people suffering with this issue, here's the information you'll be interested in, and pretty much ignore the previous advice given in this thread by the so-called experts.

I got through to the department that handles the HR34s. They said this has become a known issue and they are in the middle of working on it. They say a new update will probably be sent anywhere between a few days to a week, but they are not sure. They also said deleting programs from your playlist will NOT fix the issue. He said people have cleared their entire playlist and were still at 0%! So no one should follow the advice given here by the so-called experts unless you wanna lose all your recordings without watching them first and still have nothing to show for it. And they said the Genie feature should not have taken up any additional hard drive space originally allocated to the user. 

So again, don't delete recordings like mentioned here, don't buy new hard drives just because of this issue if you weren't planning on it beforehand, and never bend over for a company like some of the posters here enjoy doing. If you are paying for a service, make sure you get what you pay for!


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

xtc said:


> OK, for those people suffering with this issue, here's the information you'll be interested in, and pretty much ignore the previous advice given in this thread by the so-called experts.


I'm glad you are satisfied with the answers you were given by DIRECTV, but I'm sorry xtc, but you are not doing yourself any favors by maligning the folks here you did want to help you.


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

xtc said:


> OK, for those people suffering with this issue, here's the information you'll be interested in, and pretty much ignore the previous advice given in this thread by the so-called experts.
> 
> I got through to the department that handles the HR34s. *They said this has become a known issue* and they are in the middle of working on it. They say a new update will probably be sent anywhere between a few days to a week, but they are not sure. They also said deleting programs from your playlist will NOT fix the issue. He said people have cleared their entire playlist and were still at 0%! So no one should follow the advice given here by the so-called experts unless you wanna lose all your recordings without watching them first and still have nothing to show for it. And they said the Genie feature should not have taken up any additional hard drive space originally allocated to the user.
> 
> So again, don't delete recordings like mentioned here, don't buy new hard drives just because of this issue if you weren't planning on it beforehand, and never bend over for a company like some of the posters here enjoy doing. If you are paying for a service, make sure you get what you pay for!


If known, why was it release would be my next question to the person you spoke to.


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

This release was tested by 77 users of this board before release, and no one reported the issue. Sometimes, you need a perfect storm of circumstances for a bug to appear. Apparently a very small number of users, all of whom were running with really full drives, provided such a set of circumstances. Software has bugs...all of it, from every source. That's life in the digital age.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Drew2k said:


> I'm glad you are satisfied with the answers you were given by DIRECTV, but I'm sorry xtc, but you are not doing yourself any favors by maligning the folks here you did want to help you.


Don't group everyone in the same category. There were those that tried to help, and others who didn't have that intention at all. The difference is obvious.


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## xtc (Jun 26, 2004)

Titan25 said:


> This release was tested by 77 users of this board before release, and no one reported the issue. Sometimes, you need a perfect storm of circumstances for a bug to appear. Apparently a very small number of users, all of whom were running with really full drives, provided such a set of circumstances. Software has bugs...all of it, from every source. That's life in the digital age.


No. First of all, it's not a very small number of users. They said they got a huge amount of feedback on this. And it had nothing to do with drives being close to full.


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## Scott Kocourek (Jun 13, 2009)

Please remember to keep comments from becoming personal. We're glad to hear you found an acceptable answer.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

xtc said:


> No. First of all, it's not a very small number of users. They said they got a huge amount of feedback on this. And it had nothing to do with drives being close to full.


I would like to disagree, but I don't have access to the numbers they do.
I do have access to users who've been using this software for a few weeks.
The lost or change in free space has been fairly consistent with what's been posted in this thread, though I don't think anyone went to 0%, but a few were at 1%.
In your case, you might find watching and deleting about four more hours will bring you back to having free space.
"I'd imagine" this could be done a lot sooner than another software update will come.


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

Interesting to believe one tech's explanation is it, the whole enchilada, whereas several people with much experience are maligned for their posts. 

Interesting that, IIRC, only one person initially recommended re-setting the entire drive. 

Interesting that many direct questions were left unanswered.


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

xtc said:


> No. First of all, it's not a very small number of users. They said they got a huge amount of feedback on this. And it had nothing to do with drives being close to full.


The evidence available is that something around 10 users have had an "unable to record anything" issue. There may certainly be more, but we don't have any evidence one way or another.

I will be the first to say that even 10 users losing the functionality of their DVRs is 10 too many. All involved users have every right to be upset with DirecTV and the latest software update.

However, no hardware failure justifies name calling directed at other users of this board. Many users tried to offer suggestions, all offered in good faith, to try and help the effected users regain normal functionality. Unfortunately, it appears the only solution that some would accept was immediately restoration of functionality with no action on their part at all. Since no one here can change the software on another user's DVR, that was not going to happen.

I am constantly amazed at the amount of time and effort people like VOS spend trying to help others. I have seen them persevere with incomplete and often conflicting responses. To see them be the focus of someone's anger and name calling while trying to help is very distressing.

I hope that everyone's problems are resolved quickly and to their satisfaction. I also hope that those that offered suggestions based upon their experience are not dissuaded from offering help to others in the future. This thread has proven to me once again the truth of the adage "No good deed goes unpunished."


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

I'm just hoping to keep this thread on the positive.

We've all heard the stories from the CSRs, that it will be fixed with a software update. Sometimes they're right and a few here know about it, while other times it's all the CSR can come up with to try to make the customer feel better, but there isn't a software fix in the works.

"It would be a shame", to have a DVR not function just because there were 4 to 6 hours of recordings too many, and then wait endlessly for a software update to come that doesn't fix it.


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

bobcamp1 said:


> That is such odd behavior! I don't think I've ever heard of that type of behavior in the 12 years I've been using DVRs. I hope D* can send you out a software patch that'll let you at least record something again. But I'd start watching or transferring as much as I could. Unfortunately, I think a hard drive wipe or a DVR exchange is in your near future.
> 
> The only other thing I would suggest is to delete all of your scheduled recordings -- all the series links, future individual shows, etc. The to do list should be totally empty. Then reboot, wait 15 minutes, then reboot again. That should flush the guide data and hopefully restore normal behavior. Wait an hour or two, then delete a single recording and see if the free space indicator moves off of 0%. If so, pick a single program an hour to two in the future to record and cross your fingers. (VOS has a good suggestion of having this recording be a manual recording, to exclude guide data corruption as the source of the problem.) Good luck!


Thank you! I'll try it after I speak with DT tomorrow if nothing else works. I have a feeling a new receiver is in my future.


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## seabreak (Sep 27, 2012)

veryoldschool said:


> I'm not sure if you're interested in trying to get some help here, or just want to wait for DirecTV's response.
> 
> If you are interested, maybe you can count the hours of recordings you have now. It may be a pain, but if you lists the hours & types [HD/SD/OTA] it would help for us to know where things are.
> 
> If you're not, then no problem.


Hi. I would love some help and appreciate everyone trying. I've been working with DT since Wed. and nothing has been solved. I'm trying every bit of advice that I get. I'm trying to avoid having to reformat, however, I have a feeling it is headed that way. This seems to be such an unusual problem, that I'm not sure anyone will figure it out. Although, I'm thankful for the attempt to help. If you have any ideas, let me know. Thanks!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

seabreak said:


> Hi. I would love some help and appreciate everyone trying. I've been working with DT since Wed. and nothing has been solved. I'm trying every bit of advice that I get. I'm trying to avoid having to reformat, however, I have a feeling it is headed that way. This seems to be such an unusual problem, that I'm not sure anyone will figure it out. Although, I'm thankful for the attempt to help. If you have any ideas, let me know. Thanks!


"Yeah" I don't think anyone wants a reformat.

I've just reached 50%, but I want [for my test] to go a bit farther.

Could you count the hours of recordings you have?
How many HD [mostly]
How many SD
And if any are from the AM21

If you can give the hours & type of recording you have, by tomorrow morning, I'll be able to make some comparisons with "my numbers".

From this I hope to get a better idea of the state yours is in.

The odd case [maybe wildcard] is that you'd gone into a negative state, and I'm not sure what that may have caused.

Going down to 1% is one thing, but maybe everything goes to hell when the DVR has gone into the negative region.
This might end up being a scary reformat case, but let's see what the numbers/hours show first.


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## David Ortiz (Aug 21, 2006)

The reduction in user HDD space is probably related to the increase in HD channels per transponder. If we can now record six hours in the same space that five hours previously took up, then we haven't really lost any capacity as long as we keep deleting and recording shows.


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## Shades228 (Mar 18, 2008)

I would do a menu reset now that you've deleted things. If that doesn't work I would force a download of the software again and if that doesn't work I would run a surface test.


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## bobcamp1 (Nov 8, 2007)

seabreak said:


> Hi. I would love some help and appreciate everyone trying. I've been working with DT since Wed. and nothing has been solved. I'm trying every bit of advice that I get. I'm trying to avoid having to reformat, however, I have a feeling it is headed that way. This seems to be such an unusual problem, that I'm not sure anyone will figure it out. Although, I'm thankful for the attempt to help. If you have any ideas, let me know. Thanks!


You can try waiting for the fix. Only you can decide if you can live without your DVR doing the 'R' for a week or so or if you want to watch your recordings instead.

I only recommended the reformat because not everyone has this issue, and I assumed D* tested this release on a factory default box. So if you put your box back to its factory-released state it should hopefully start working again. They obviously didn't thoroughly test this release on a full box.

EDIT: You can attach a blank eSATA drive. Then reboot. Hopefully you'll be able to record on it. The old recordings will not be shown, and every time you want to watch the old recordings you'll have to reboot with the eSATA drive detached. While your watching the old recordings, you won't be able to record anything new, but at least you can limp along like this until D* figures out what to do.

I'd still watch or transfer as many shows as possible. Once in a while a D* emergency software release will wipe out some or all recordings for a few unfortunate people. There's also a chance a reformat may end up being the 'fix', or maybe the fix is to prevent it from happening in the future but the damage done on existing units is irreparable.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

David Ortiz said:


> The reduction in user HDD space is probably related to the increase in HD channels per transponder. If we can now record six hours in the same space that five hours previously took up, then we haven't really lost any capacity as long as we keep deleting and recording shows.





Shades228 said:


> I would do a menu reset now that you've deleted things. If that doesn't work I would force a download of the software again and if that doesn't work I would run a surface test.


David, the use of improved encoders may help keep "the hours" the same with less hard drive space. This of course won't help those that started with a full drive.

Shades, once we can get an idea of how many hours are stored on the drive, we should be able to get an idea of what the percentage "really is".
If this doesn't match the reading, then I too would suggest a reboot. If nothing has changed, then another reboot and at the screen showing "running receiver self test" I'd press select on the front panel and run the guided tests.
There are long and short tests under the drive menu, and I'd start with the short ones, as the long ones will take a very long time.
After it finished, I'd let it boot again and see if anything has changed.
If not, then I'd reboot and go back into the test menu and run the long tests. This will take a very long time.

Here are my numbers this morning:
Pressed list, then the yellow button, then selected filter playlist and local playlist. Now I'm only seeing what is on this drive and not my MRV recording.
42% free, or 58% used, took 142.3 hours of HD. These were all MPEG-4 and a random mix of 720p & 1080i.
0% or 100% full, would take 245 hours.
One percent looks to average 2.45 hours.
As I deleted shows one hour at a time, sometimes deleting 2 hours didn't change the indicated free space, but the next hour did, so the 2.45 looks close.

If you have an AM-21 and record OTA, these recording are much larger so one hour could be close to 1%.
I'd watch and delete these first to get the most free space.

If all of your recordings are MPEG-4/SAT channels, then about 220 hours of HD, should show 10% free space.
If you don't see any free space, then I'd do the rebooting and diagnostic testing.
Re-downloading the software very rarely changes anything. 
I checked the version just now and it's the same 05C2, so you can't "go back" to the earlier version.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

bobcamp1 said:


> I only recommended the reformat because not everyone has this issue, and I assumed D* tested this release on a factory default box. So if you put your box back to its factory-released state it should hopefully start working again. They obviously didn't thoroughly test this release on a full box.


I don't know of anyone seeing 0% in testing. 
Several saw 1%.
I hope the steps posted above will help.
If they don't, I too fear "the fix" may so deep in the drive that it ends up blank. 
Sometimes this happens with a PC's hard drive when you run the manufacture's utilities to repair a drive.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> Here are my numbers this morning:
> Pressed list, then the yellow button, then selected filter playlist and local playlist. Now I'm only seeing what is on this drive and not my MRV recording.
> 42% free, or 58% used, took 142.3 hours of HD. These were all MPEG-4 and a random mix of 720p & 1080i.
> 0% or 100% full, would take 245 hours.
> ...


The sentence I bolded is a key one, because it definitely depends on the length of the recording and which channel it was from (due to differences in encoding compression) how much of a percentage change there will be in the free space bar. I've had situations where I deleted four one hour HD programs before the free space changed by 1%, so I had a different "average".

Thus there's a plus and minus with each count in this thread: those 142.3 hours could be a flat 58% of free space used, where it would take an additional 4 hours to move to 59%, so 145.3 hours could also have used 58%. Just pointing out that everything is "ballpark" ... so many variables to take into account.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

Drew2k said:


> The sentence I bolded is a key one, because it definitely depends on the length of the recording and which channel it was from (due to differences in encoding compression) how much of a percentage change there will be in the free space bar. I've had situations where I deleted four one hour HD programs before the free space changed by 1%, so I had a different "average".
> 
> Thus there's a plus and minus with each count in this thread: those 142.3 hours could be a flat 58% of free space used, where it would take an additional 4 hours to move to 59%, so 145.3 hours could also have used 58%. Just pointing out that everything is "ballpark" ... so many variables to take into account.


"yep" this isn't an exact science and the percentage is a fairly gross measurement.
I went back into my playlist after I'd deleted enough to "just get to" 50%, and it now shows 49%.
I "would hope" using a large number of recordings would help to give a more nominal result, as to hours/percentage.

I feel fairly confident that 220 hours of MPEG-4 should show "some" free space.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Laxguy said:


> Interesting to believe one tech's explanation is it, the whole enchilada, whereas several people with much experience are maligned for their posts.
> 
> Interesting that, IIRC, only one person initially recommended re-setting the entire drive.
> 
> Interesting that many direct questions were left unanswered.


The only people I believe at D* are the ACT and the Case Management folks. Gotta wonder who this "tech" was. I haven't run into many "techs" while calling D*. I have run into many "pacifiers", tho.

Rich


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## Laxguy (Dec 2, 2010)

seabreak said:


> Thank you! I'll try it after I speak with DT tomorrow if nothing else works. I have a feeling a new receiver is in my future.


What other things have you tried?


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

Hello all,
In the hope this adds something constructive to the conversation:

I have just gotten my HR-34 and have but a few recordings on it. However, I got the Genie Recommends update and I believe I am experiencing difficulties related to what the OP describes.

Deleting future recordings (say a couple of days ahead) from my To-Do list results in a message that the show is currently recording. Additionally, my free hard-drive space has taken a hit (down to 84% free: down from something in the 90s with only about 20 hours of HD programming recorded) after I added several series recordings/recurring manual recordings.

I am willing to be a guinea pig here and do a full-blown reset to see if that helps the problem. The only thing I ask in return is for someone to help me if I get stuck during Guided Setup after the reformat.


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## Scott Kocourek (Jun 13, 2009)

statsman said:


> Hello all,
> In the hope this adds something constructive to the conversation:
> 
> I have just gotten my HR-34 and have but a few recordings on it. However, I got the Genie Recommends update and I believe I am experiencing difficulties related to what the OP describes.
> ...


I would recommend you don't do that, there is nothing to be gained at this point.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

I just thought I was in a unique position to help...

But if there is nothing to be gained, then so be it.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

statsman said:


> I just thought I was in a unique position to help...
> 
> But if there is nothing to be gained, then so be it.


Your recording "load" is so light, I'm not sure there is anything to be gained.
"You can always" do a receiver restart from the setup menu.

What might be of some interest [to me at least] is how many recording "hours" you have and are these from the SAT feed or do you have the AM-21 for OTA?


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

veryoldschool said:


> Your recording "load" is so light, I'm not sure there is anything to be gained.
> "You can always" do a receiver restart from the setup menu.
> 
> What might be of some interest [to me at least] is how many recording "hours" you have and are these from the SAT feed or do you have the AM-21 for OTA?


Did the receiver restart.
Cleared the to do list and the series manager and did a restart.
No Joy. Problem persists.

*Curiosity got the better of me and I did the full reset-No dice. problem persists *

I am pretty sure that I remember what was on the drive and from that a quick calculation yields 33.5 hours (give or take a half an hour). More than I thought.
Receiver read 84% capacity.
Doing the math: 209 hours total capacity.
All from the SAT feed.
30 of the hours in HD and 16 of them sports programming.

Very Funny Thing Though: It now seems that Whole-Home DVR service is authorized while it wasn't before taking the reset plunge!


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

statsman said:


> Did the receiver restart.
> Cleared the to do list and the series manager and did a restart.
> No Joy. Problem persists.
> 
> ...


There is some variable with the type of programing, so I'd do as I did and load it up until you get to around 50%. Then do a count of the hours.
Small sample sizes allow for more extrapolation error.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

veryoldschool said:


> Small sample sizes allow for more extrapolation error.


Yes quite true....
I'll be happy to load up and give you another count in a day or so.

The Whole Home DVR is "not authorized" anymore- got hit with a pop-up that said the trial service was ending. Whaddayou gonna do? I thought I worked myself some good karma for trying to help but it wasn't to be it seems.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

statsman said:


> Yes quite true....
> I'll be happy to load up and give you another count in a day or so.


I'd guess it might take a couple of days. :lol:
Sports shows have a lot of movement so they don't compress as well with MPEG-4 as other programs with less movement.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

Even if it takes a couple of days...

I am a big soccer fan and the European competitions are on this week so I plan to have the HR-34 firing on all cylinders.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

xtc said:


> OK, for those people suffering with this issue, here's the information you'll be interested in, and pretty much ignore the previous advice given in this thread by the so-called experts.
> 
> I got through to the department that handles the HR34s. They said this has become a known issue and they are in the middle of working on it. They say a new update will probably be sent anywhere between a few days to a week, but they are not sure. They also said deleting programs from your playlist will NOT fix the issue. He said people have cleared their entire playlist and were still at 0%! So no one should follow the advice given here by the so-called experts unless you wanna lose all your recordings without watching them first and still have nothing to show for it. And they said the Genie feature should not have taken up any additional hard drive space originally allocated to the user.
> 
> So again, don't delete recordings like mentioned here, don't buy new hard drives just because of this issue if you weren't planning on it beforehand, and never bend over for a company like some of the posters here enjoy doing. If you are paying for a service, make sure you get what you pay for!


I have a suggestion for you to try. It requires you deleting nothing, but should tell you if you did erase stuff if it would ever make an impact on the available %...

Go to your playlist, open up the options (yellow or dash buttons) and choose mark to delete. Then start selecting shows, and keep selecting them down your playlist. See if at any point the available % bar starts to show cross hatched on it. If it does, then if you where to actually delete that many shows, the cross hatched stuff should become available space. If you get to the point that you have everything in your playlist selected for deletion and you saw no cross hatching then deleting recordings will likely have zero affect..

Obviously, do not choose continue and confirm delete, unless you really want to erase what you have selected. You can just exit out leaving your playlist untouched. I don't know if you have ever used that function, but the cross hatch represents the amount that is selected to be erased, but the % number does not change unless you actually erase what you have selected.

I am simply suggesting this as a way to possibly verify what you where told by the csr you spoke to. If you see no cross hatching after selecting everything, then I'd say the csr is right on, if not, then I have to question their statements, because it would APPEAR erasing some programs would actually free up your hard drive. Just a thought....


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

inkahauts said:


> I have a suggestion for you to try. It requires you deleting nothing, but should tell you if you did erase stuff if it would ever make an impact on the available %...
> Just a thought....


*The is excellent!!!!!*

I've never used mark for delete, since space hasn't been a problem.

I just tried your steps with my 89% free space indicated and the blue indicator did exactly what you said.
After watching & marking all of my recordings, I pressed exit and was out with nothing deleted.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

inkahauts said:


> I have a suggestion for you to try. It requires you deleting nothing, but should tell you if you did erase stuff if it would ever make an impact on the available %...
> 
> Go to your playlist, open up the options (yellow or dash buttons) and choose mark to delete.





veryoldschool said:


> *The is excellent!!!!!*
> 
> I've never used mark for delete, since space hasn't been a problem.
> 
> ...


Agreed! Excellent suggestion inkahauts!

DIRECTV should actually add this to their own CSR troubleshooting scripts for this specific issue, as they could walk the user through this and determine how many deletions would make difference, if any..


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## bobcamp1 (Nov 8, 2007)

statsman said:


> Did the receiver restart.
> Cleared the to do list and the series manager and did a restart.
> No Joy. Problem persists.
> 
> ...


So a Clear and Delete Everything from the menu didn't work? At this point, you're just going to have to wait for D* to fix it or get an HR24. You could exchange the HR34 for a new one, but I have the nagging feeling it might be related to either your account or your setup. Or maybe some latent defect for a certain lot of units.

It doesn't appear to be related to how full your hard drive is. You're the first one who's said their hard drive wasn't full.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

bobcamp1 said:


> So a Clear and Delete Everything from the menu didn't work? At this point, you're just going to have to wait for D* to fix it or get an HR24. You could exchange the HR34 for a new one, but I have the nagging feeling it might be related to either your account or your setup.
> 
> It doesn't appear to be related to how full your hard drive is. You're the first one who's said their hard drive wasn't full.


I don't think a reset everything was done.

Maybe only reset defaults was.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

veryoldschool said:


> I don't think a reset everything was done.
> 
> Maybe only reset defaults was.


No, I reset everything (got the storage space reformatted and everything) and when it was over the receiver still "thought" it was currently recording shows scheduled hours and days in the future. :shrug:

I didn't activate "Genie Recommends" when given the option but that made no difference.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

statsman said:


> No, I reset everything (got the storage space reformatted and everything) and when it was over the receiver still "thought" it was currently recording shows scheduled hours and days in the future. :shrug:
> 
> I didn't activate "Genie Recommends" when given the option but that made no difference.


Did you lose recordings?
The receiver "thinking" it's recording upcoming programs is a bug in the software, so that isn't going to change without an update.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

yeah I lost recordings but I had watched about half of them (sports programming) and the rest were sit-coms and a handful of movies. My R22 was still recording my series so my loss was negligible.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

statsman said:


> yeah I lost recordings but I had watched about half of them (sports programming) and the rest were sit-coms and a handful of movies. My R22 was still recording my series so my loss was negligible.


OK, then it did what you'd asked.
Series links & recordings are gone, because they're stored on the drive.

Resetting defaults clears user settings, but doesn't wipe the drive.

"restarting receiver" is the best way to "simply reboot" the DVR.

since your "sports programing" looks to take up the most space, it might be good to only record those for a while so we can get a "worst case" for the number of hours.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

veryoldschool said:


> since your "sports programing" looks to take up the most space, it might be good to only record those for a while so we can get a "worst case" for the number of hours.


I won't be able to accommodate this request: other members of the household only use the living room TV (where the HR-34 currently resides) and they have weekday series that need to be recorded.

On the plus side, I personally record a lot of sports and as I said this week will be especially sports-centric with UEFA soccer competitions on this week. So we won't get a worse case scenario but it might be more valuable to have a sample that better approximates the recording load of a sports fan.


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## bobcamp1 (Nov 8, 2007)

statsman said:


> yeah I lost recordings but I had watched about half of them (sports programming) and the rest were sit-coms and a handful of movies. My R22 was still recording my series so my loss was negligible.


Is it actually recording the new shows correctly now that you've formatted the disk? Can you play the recordings back? Others have said that their free space indicator is stuck at 0% and it looks like it's recording everything, even though it isn't actually recording anything.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

bobcamp1 said:


> Is it actually recording the new shows correctly now that you've formatted the disk? Can you play the recordings back? Others have said that their free space indicator is stuck at 0% and it looks like it's recording everything, even though it isn't actually recording anything.


It's recording the new shows correctly.
I can play the recordings back.
My free space indicator is at 84%.

Problem is, it still looks to the machine like all future To-Do recordings are currently recording.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

statsman said:


> Problem is, it still looks to the machine like all future To-Do recordings are currently recording.


Again, this is a bug in the software, but nothing more and doesn't effect anything, other than being a nuisance to the user.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

bobcamp1 said:


> Others have said that their free space indicator is stuck at 0% and it looks like it's recording everything, even though it isn't actually recording anything.


These "others" should look at the mark for delete option and then report what it shows.
In this thread, one doesn't want to delete, and the other hasn't given the number of hours in their playlist.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

***Again, this is a bug in the software, but nothing more and doesn't effect anything, other than being a nuisance to the user.***

Did I say otherwise?
It certainly seems to be an issue for those whose HDD were almost full...but for customers with lots of hard drive space, like me, it is just a nuisance.


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

statsman said:


> ***Again, this is a bug in the software, but nothing more and doesn't effect anything, other than being a nuisance to the user.***
> 
> Did I say otherwise?
> It certainly seems to be an issue for those whose HDD were almost full...but for customers with lots of hard drive space, like me, it is just a nuisance.


I'm just trying to separate the true problems with hard drive space and a bug that has nothing to do with it, though they both came in the same software.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

veryoldschool said:


> I'm just trying to separate the true problems with hard drive space and a bug that has nothing to do with it, though they both came in the same software.


Okay, I just didn't understand that these were 2 separate issues. I was under the mistaken impression that the 34 thinking it was currently recording all future items in the To-Do list was part and parcel of the problem of the OP.

Mea culpa.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Drew2k said:


> Agreed! Excellent suggestion inkahauts!
> 
> DIRECTV should actually add this to their own CSR troubleshooting scripts for this specific issue, as they could walk the user through this and determine how many deletions would make difference, if any..


Probably just confuse the CSRs. Even the Protection Plan CSRs are kinda useless anymore. The other day I called the PP about a problem I was having with an HR20-700. She didn't know what that was and that was a PP CSR!

Rich


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

veryoldschool said:


> *The is excellent!!!!!*
> 
> I've never used mark for delete, since space hasn't been a problem.
> 
> ...


Hey, every once in a while I get a good idea! Guess this was my once for the year! !rolling

I always set up my dvrs to just record all movies during free weekend previews of the premium channels, then use mark to delete to erase all the ones I know I wont watch after the weekend is over. I love the feature


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

Rich said:


> Probably just confuse the CSRs. Even the Protection Plan CSRs are kinda useless anymore. The other day I called the PP about a problem I was having with an HR20-700. She didn't know what that was and that was a PP CSR!
> 
> Rich


I agree. The only person who might think of this is a tech rep that has actual experience with the units. Asking a front line csr to do this would be a waste, because they really wouldn't understand what they are actually proving or disproving by doing this.


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## Drew2k (Aug 16, 2006)

inkahauts said:


> I agree. The only person who might think of this is a tech rep that has actual experience with the units. Asking a front line csr to do this would be a waste, because they really wouldn't understand what they are actually proving or disproving by doing this.


I never said front line CSR.


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## Rich (Feb 22, 2007)

Drew2k said:


> I never said front line CSR.


I rarely talk to front line CSRs, usually go right to PP CSRs. Unfortunately, the Case Management Group has taken most of the knowledgeable PP CSRs and made them Case Management Agents (they actually call themselves that and I think it's well deserved). So, even calling the PP these days is an act of futility. I usually get transferred to Retention and then they have the CMG give me a call and I get my answers from them. Usually correct answers. I don't do this often, it takes quite a while on the phone to get what I want answered.

Rich


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

veryoldschool said:


> What might be of some interest [to me at least] is how many recording "hours" you have and are these from the SAT feed or do you have the AM-21 for OTA?


*This is for VOS*
On the off chance that you might be still interested:
Here is what I got for the number of recorded hours of programming held by my HR34 at 50% capacity:

Total hours:101
HD hours: 91
Sports HD hours: 53.5


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

statsman said:


> *This is for VOS*
> On the off chance that you might be still interested:
> Here is what I got for the number of recorded hours of programming held by my HR34 at 50% capacity:
> 
> ...


Huh? That doesn't make any sense. Or are you saying that you have 10 hours of sd recordings, 53.5 hd sports, and 37.5 hd non sports.


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

I wish XTC would come back and try what I suggested and let us know what it shows...


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

inkahauts said:


> 10 hours of sd recordings, 53.5 hd sports, and 37.5 hd non sports.


This, I think, with 53.5 hours being "unpadded".


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## veryoldschool (Dec 10, 2006)

statsman said:


> *This is for VOS*
> On the off chance that you might be still interested:
> Here is what I got for the number of recorded hours of programming held by my HR34 at 50% capacity:
> 
> ...





inkahauts said:


> Huh? That doesn't make any sense.


The idea here was to see how many hours fast action sports programing verses non sports HD.
"Generally" it looks like:


If you only recorded sports programing, you could record 180+ hours.
If you only recorded non sports programing, you could record 240+ hours.
"Up to 200 hrs" of HD programing is what DirecTV claims.

For those that used to be able to record 260 hours, and now can only record 240 hrs, it may not be that significant.

For those [rare cases] that used to be able to record 200 hrs, but now can only record 182 hrs, it may be more significant.


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

inkahauts said:


> Huh? That doesn't make any sense. Or are you saying that you have 10 hours of sd recordings, 53.5 hd sports, and 37.5 hd non sports.


Sorry if I wasn't clear... the latter= 
10 hours of sd
53.5 hd sports (all sports programming in hd)
37.5 hd movies and series and news


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## statsman (Mar 27, 2011)

Steve said:


> This, I think, with 53.5 hours being "unpadded".


I don't think I know enough to say as I am only a newbie around here: My figures come from combing through the List of recorded shows and summing the length of each recording. I then tallied the figures for each type of programming: SD , HD, Sports.

If D* pads each recording by some amount, my figures are likely skewed.


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