# Recording Problems



## bstock23 (Aug 31, 2008)

I created a series link on my DVR (Model R15-500, Software 0x121C) on Friday, August 29, to record 5 episodes of I Love Lucy (TV Land). I turned on the DVR on Saturday at about 7:05 p.m. None of the episodes from earlier in the day had recorded. The episode that was supposed to record at 7:00 p.m. had also not recorded. However, at 7:08 it suddenly started to record.

The episodes that had not recorded were in the Recording History, but
the reason given for why they had not recorded was stupid, something
like the time for this recording is now past.

I called DirecTV, and they said it was a "known issue" as of August
27, their engineers were working on it, and it would be fixed at some
unknown time by a software download.

Strangely enough, though, I don't see any posts about this problem. If it's a "known issue," I would have expected to see someone else complaining. I am NEW to this forum, so maybe I missed it.

Has anyone else had this problem?

Thanks.

P.S. A couple of other weird points. First, sometime during the
Olympics, I set a Manual Record for 2 hours, and the machine only
recorded 58 minutes of it, don't know why. Second, last night when I
was talking to DirecTV, I was unable to change channels on the
machine. At DirecTV's direction, I reset the machine, and I could
change channels again.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

bstock23 said:


> I created a series link on my DVR (Model R15-500, Software 0x121C) on Friday, August 29, to record 5 episodes of I Love Lucy (TV Land). I turned on the DVR on Saturday at about 7:05 p.m. None of the episodes from earlier in the day had recorded. The episode that was supposed to record at 7:00 p.m. had also not recorded. However, at 7:08 it suddenly started to record.
> 
> The episodes that had not recorded were in the Recording History, but
> the reason given for why they had not recorded was stupid, something
> ...


Think you will find similar issues here.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1699183#post1699183

:welcome_s :hi:


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## bstock23 (Aug 31, 2008)

Jhon69 said:


> Think you will find similar issues here.


Thanks very much. I THINK I looked at that thread but didn't read the whole thing. The message you pointed me to is the last message on the thread, and that's from about two months ago. It is almost exactly like what happened to me. I've posted a reply in that thread because I don't know what happened to people since that time.

Also, I'm still not sure what to expect from DTV as a fix. I don't know why the CSR said it was a known issue as of August 27. Did it really take them that long to acknowledge it and start working on it? When I had the TiVo problem, the same thing happened - DTV refused to even acknowledge the problem, and when they finally did, they blamed it on hard drives.

I never get a good sense of how many people are experiencing the same problem in this strange world of DTV hardware/software bugs. There are so many different machines, models, software versions, etc. It makes me dizzy. And, unfortunately, I generally don't believe what DTV tells me.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

bstock23 said:


> Thanks very much. I THINK I looked at that thread but didn't read the whole thing. The message you pointed me to is the last message on the thread, and that's from about two months ago. It is almost exactly like what happened to me. I've posted a reply in that thread because I don't know what happened to people since that time.
> 
> Also, I'm still not sure what to expect from DTV as a fix. I don't know why the CSR said it was a known issue as of August 27. Did it really take them that long to acknowledge it and start working on it? When I had the TiVo problem, the same thing happened - DTV refused to even acknowledge the problem, and when they finally did, they blamed it on hard drives.
> 
> I never get a good sense of how many people are experiencing the same problem in this strange world of DTV hardware/software bugs. There are so many different machines, models, software versions, etc. It makes me dizzy. And, unfortunately, I generally don't believe what DTV tells me.


Your welcome.

The way I stay away from problems is I stay away from recording with series links unless when I read on a national software release"fix for series links".I normally record by highlighting the program in the guide and pressing the R button.I know it's a pain but with the R15 it's a solution for me.

P.S. DirecTV's new R22s do alot better with this issue.Because the R22 has the same guide as the HRs that has First Air Date,more information concerning actors,directors,writers.Plus the R22 records up to 200 hours have VOD access MediaShare access plus a internal RF antenna.


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## bstock23 (Aug 31, 2008)

Jhon69 said:


> Your welcome.
> 
> The way I stay away from problems is I stay away from recording with series links unless when I read on a national software release"fix for series links".I normally record by highlighting the program in the guide and pressing the R button.I know it's a pain but with the R15 it's a solution for me.
> 
> P.S. DirecTV's new R22s do alot better with this issue.Because the R22 has the same guide as the HRs that has First Air Date,more information concerning actors,directors,writers.Plus the R22 records up to 200 hours have VOD access MediaShare access plus a internal RF antenna.


I understand your position, but for me series links are one of the most important features on a DVR. The fact that DTV can't get them right is just one more reason why TiVo is SO much better.

I'm not sure what would be involved in swapping the R15 for an R22, and I'm reluctant to talk to DTV about it just because I don't like calling them if I can possibly avoid it.

Thanks again.


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## kikkenit2 (Oct 26, 2006)

bstock23 said:


> I understand your position, but for me series links are one of the most important features on a DVR. The fact that DTV can't get them right is just one more reason why TiVo is SO much better.
> 
> I'm not sure what would be involved in swapping the R15 for an R22, and I'm reluctant to talk to DTV about it just because I don't like calling them if I can possibly avoid it.
> 
> Thanks again.


The R15 has been the worst dvr directv has put out since they left tivo. The newer models are more stable but they all can be a little flaky when it comes to series links. Just like Jhon69 I only record from the guide now. I had 1 R15 and it recently died so I threw it away. All it takes to upgrade is more money. I only have hd dvr's now and they work fine unless they get too hot. Not familiar with the R22.


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## Jhon69 (Mar 28, 2006)

bstock23 said:


> I understand your position, but for me series links are one of the most important features on a DVR. The fact that DTV can't get them right is just one more reason why TiVo is SO much better.
> 
> I'm not sure what would be involved in swapping the R15 for an R22, and I'm reluctant to talk to DTV about it just because I don't like calling them if I can possibly avoid it.
> 
> Thanks again.


Well DirecTV still supports the DirecTivos so your options would be find a good used DirecTivo on Ebay or www.weaknees.com sells them but they are not cheap.:eek2:

It wasn't too long ago that the only way for DirecTV to supply you with an R22 was that your locals had to be MPEG4.Now you can get them at Best Buy for a $99. upgrade lease fee + 24 month commitment.Think Costco might have them(not sure) and some subscribers have posted they were able to get one through DirecTV.


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## jhart05 (Aug 14, 2008)

The R22 works great.

I've had it for about two weeks now, have several programs set up to record the entire series. No problems at all.


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## Upstream (Jul 4, 2006)

Bstock -- I ran into a similar issue as yours a few months ago: my R15 didn't come out of standby to record a program, but started recording a partial as soon as I turned it on. I don't remember the specifics (like which version of software I was on).

I accept missed recordings as a fact of life with the R15. A lot of stuff I have set to record on my R15 is stuff I don't really pay too close attention to, so I wouldn't notice if a recording was missed. But of the stuff that I do pay attention to, my R15 messes up about 3 times out of every 20 recordings. For the stuff I really want to see, if it available OTA, I usually set my DVD recorder as a backup.


I don't post about most of my recording issues; I'd be posting the same thing several times a month. I also no longer call DirecTV to report software bugs on the R15. It isn't worth the aggrevation of dealing with their tech support.


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## bstock23 (Aug 31, 2008)

Upstream said:


> Bstock -- I ran into a similar issue as yours a few months ago: my R15 didn't come out of standby to record a program, but started recording a partial as soon as I turned it on. I don't remember the specifics (like which version of software I was on).
> 
> I accept missed recordings as a fact of life with the R15. A lot of stuff I have set to record on my R15 is stuff I don't really pay too close attention to, so I wouldn't notice if a recording was missed. But of the stuff that I do pay attention to, my R15 messes up about 3 times out of every 20 recordings. For the stuff I really want to see, if it available OTA, I usually set my DVD recorder as a backup.
> 
> I don't post about most of my recording issues; I'd be posting the same thing several times a month. I also no longer call DirecTV to report software bugs on the R15. It isn't worth the aggrevation of dealing with their tech support.


Thanks for your post. It's some small comfort to know I'm not alone in my frustration. I don't see why I should have to pay DTV more money to upgrade when the problems I have with my machine are their fault.


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## Upstream (Jul 4, 2006)

My R15 just missed another recording tonight. I'm not sure why?

I noticed the record light wasn't on, but the show had an (R))) in the guide. It wasn't listed on the To Do list or History. The only way I could get it to record was to delete the series link, and then recreate the series link. 

The History now shows a partial. After the show ended, the yellow record light stayed on, even though nothing was recording.


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## dodge boy (Mar 31, 2006)

kikkenit2 said:


> The R15 has been the worst dvr directv has put out since they left tivo. The newer models are more stable but they all can be a little flaky when it comes to series links. Just like Jhon69 I only record from the guide now. I had 1 R15 and it recently died so I threw it away. All it takes to upgrade is more money. I only have hd dvr's now and they work fine unless they get too hot. Not familiar with the R22.


I have had the Tivos (HDDVR2 SD unit) R10s and DirectTv's R15s and an R22. The R22 is awesome, I have not had this series link problems on any of my R15-300s. I like The DirecTv branded ones best (non R10) because of their interactive capability. The media share and DOD on the R22 is a nice touch making it more "complete" than the R15/16.


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## jhart05 (Aug 14, 2008)

dodge boy said:


> I have had the Tivos (HDDVR2 SD unit) R10s and DirectTv's R15s and an R22. The R22 is awesome, I have not had this series link problems on any of my R15-300s. I like The DirecTv branded ones best (non R10) because of their interactive capability. The media share and DOD on the R22 is a nice touch making it more "complete" than the R15/16.


The only thing I haven't tried yet on the R22, is recording two shows back to back, but adding one minute to the beginning and the end. (On one of my R22's I'm only able to hook up one tuner.)

With the R10 - TiVo unit, it would still record both shows, but it would cut either the end of the previous show or the beginning of the new show, I forget which.

Need to see how it handles that soon.


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## Noresults (Aug 25, 2007)

[Just got direct tv in the last 30days. All is fine till I try to record a series. It will indicate that the show is recorded and you select which episode or day you want to play and it gives you the option to delete or keep but no option to play the show. 

I am not sure the slogan should not be friends don't let friends switch to Direct TV


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## rudeney (May 28, 2007)

Noresults said:


> [Just got direct tv in the last 30days. All is fine till I try to record a series. It will indicate that the show is recorded and you select which episode or day you want to play and it gives you the option to delete or keep but no option to play the show.
> 
> I am not sure the slogan should not be friends don't let friends switch to Direct TV


Is this happening on *every* series link you setup but on none of the single episode recordings? How many have you tried? I've had this issue before, but only a few times in two years and four HR20's. Also, you might want to do a full-blown reset of the receiver by leaving it unplugged for 15 minutes.


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