# "Replay" fails, buffering, over 300 mbps connection--really?



## Dick W (Aug 19, 2008)

My environment:
Aris SB6183 modem
ASUS RT-AC68U router
Netgear GS105V2 5 port GigE switch
DirecTV HR44/500 Genie DVR
DVR directly connected to Netgear switch port via GigE, and the Netgear connected to one of the router switch ports also via GigE; used the DECA as originally installed, but it was mostly using power and a few extra feet of coax but otherwise used the exact same Cat5E drop, so seemed to buy me nothing but power consumption and more stuff to fail. So I removed it. (I could move the DECA closer to the router, but that would only add about five feet of coax and remove one switch and six or eight feet of Cat5E.)

My service:
Oceanic Time Warner "Extreme Internet" plus "Ultimate 300" (Kapaa, Kauai, HI)
(their speed test just reported 344.24 down, 23.67 up, 1 ms latency, and 9 ms jitter; speedtest.net reports similar performance for a server located in Honolulu. But to a server in San Jose it reports 86 ms pings, 34 down, and 21 up. And to a Time Warner Cable server in LA it reports 63 ms pings, 53 down, and 22 up. pingtest.net to San Francisco reports 78 ms ping and 7 ms jitter.)

Problem:
DirecTV "Restart" DVR feature never works, complaining of buffering and "slow connection" after streaming a minute or so. Buffering several times will get it a lttle further but eventually these attempts always fail. DirecTV On Demand stuff works fine. DirecTV TV Apps work fine. DirecTV receiver Internet connection tests all pass. Other devices/network services work fine for me on this network connection, but don't really use any other service for video streaming so can't say as I know this to be a problem unique to DirecTV. TV, BD player, and AVR on same switch work fine--but, again, have not really used these devices for video streaming.

Any suggestions where to go with this?

Is this a Hawaii thing? A "Restart" feature thing? A DirecTV thing? An ASUS router thing? A Time Warner thing? A "naughty you, you didn't use the DECA" thing?

edit: called it "Replay" in title in error; they call the feature "Restart"


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## Christopher Gould (Jan 14, 2007)

I think it's a directv thing, it's been awhile since I tried it but with a 100 down in Illinois I got slow connection buffering and yet I can uhd Netflix and Amazon prime without issue


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## martincom (Mar 5, 2016)

It appears to be an issue with DirecTv. We have exactly the same issue at our home in Buffalo Lake, MN and a similar issue at our other home in Brainerd, MN. At the Brainerd home, it will begin to start with the green bar at the bottom of the screen, on top of the star burst pattern screen, but then will fail and display the message: "There was a problem connecting to DirecTv. Please try again later." Pandora and the on-demand programming function correctly. We have a mix of HD DVR models and the problem and symptoms are identical on them all.

We had initiated a trouble report with DirecTv for the Brainerd home. After answering the usual "brainless people" questions and doing the all the resets (which I had done before I phoned), I received the response I needed to contact my ISP provider for further assistance. To which I replied, "NO, I'm an IT professional. The internet service is fine. If you believe it is a firewall issue, I can address that." To which they responded, I needed to call my ISP provider and have them check for port blocking. I responded, "NO, if there is a port blocking issue, I can address that in the firewall, but you need to tell me which port(s) DirecTv Replay utilizes. There are literally tens of thousands of ports."

At that point, I asked to speak to a supervisor. She was a bit sharper, but even after her conferring with her colleagues, could not resolve the issue. She responded they would dispatch a technician and they would waive the service call fee. That was a probably a good thing, as I surely wasn't to pay for a service call when the issue wasn't in my customer owned components nor their receivers. I responded that I didn't believe it was a premise issue, but if they wanted to dispatch a technician at their expense, I would arrange to be at the residence.

The technician arrived the next day, 03/03/16. I immediately told him I didn't believe there was much he was going to accomplish with this issue. After reviewing the topology of my system, he did the usual receiver reset and then, as normal immediately after a reset, the Replay feature did not come up on the guide. We moved to another receiver. He phoned in to tech support and they had him confirm the internet connection by depressing the dash as well as the info screen in settings and re-run the system test, which returned no errors or faults. They then had him perform a double reset, which flushes the cache. After an hour plus, they said there was nothing further they could do and would escalate the issue to engineering. As this was all on speaker phone, they stated I would likely not receive a follow up call.

Later the next day, 03/04/16, the "Replay" feature began to function on all receivers. However, this morning, 03/05/16, it is again non-functional. I'm starting to wonder if this isn't a capacity issue at DirecTv's server farm where the amount of traffic is creating a bottleneck that is, in turn, producing these issues. The "on-demand" function with any of the networks always functions, so it is not a premise internet issue or lack of bandwidth. The fact the problem comes and goes tends to eliminate a firewall or ISP issue.


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## Christopher Gould (Jan 14, 2007)

Tried 3 different channels last night. All told me me connection it to slow. I actually port forward the ports listed under system info. Stb service and audio service. Now I look at system info screen and the ports are gone. Have the N/A (205). But I don't think it matters because I tried replay again and it started the buffering out thing saying connection to slow


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