# Software Update: HR20 - 0xDC



## Earl Bonovich

New Software 10/11/2006 -0xDC
Manufacture 700 - 0xDC

---------------
Release Notes:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=66857

*PLEASE DON"T POST... DIDN'T GET IT, or GOT IT tracking posts in this thread, they will be deleted
*

*Previous Version Thread:*
Version 0xD8 (10/04/2006): *Discussion Thread*
Version 0xD1 (9/26/2006): *Discussion Thread*
Version 0xCC (9/16/2006): *Discussion Thread Issue Thread*
Version 0xBE (9/1/2006): *Discussion Thread Issue Thread*


----------



## PoitNarf

Ooooh, look at all the fixes!


----------



## gr8reb8

I just hope it is better than D8.


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## tstarn

PoitNarf said:


> Ooooh, look at all the fixes!


Is this the big one? Will the BSOD go away? It's like "As the D* Turns." Judging by the fix list, this one will turn the box into a winner. But let's see.


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## jamieh1

Come on Directv give us OTA!!!! The box has been out for about 8 weeks


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## mikhu

I can confirm the caller-id works, I tested that. Haven't verified the other stuff yet.


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## Earl Bonovich

jamielee said:


> Come on Directv give us OTA!!!! The box has been out for about 8 weeks


8 Weeks tomorrow actually... OTA is comming...


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## mlobitz

OTA... anyone, anyone...Bueller, Bueller...

I'd say the same for dual buffers, but please...


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## jamieh1

Earl, I know you have got to have some sort of date for the ota, please pass it along, or atleast tell us what the problems are with it.


Also why is the sound effects option shaded and unavailable?


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## hadji

This will be my first update with series recordings in place. Will I lose anything as far as programs in my TO DO list due to the auto reset after download? I am not home right now and won't be until tomorrow some time.


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## pgfitzgerald

Mike Huss said:


> I can confirm the caller-id works, I tested that. Haven't verified the other stuff yet.


Just got the update and Caller-ID still does not work for me.

Paul


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## tstarn

hadji said:


> This will be my first update with series recordings in place. Will I lose anything as far as programs in my TO DO list due to the auto reset after download? I am not home right now and won't be until tomorrow some time.


Doesn't affect To Do, I don't think.


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## Earl Bonovich

hadji said:


> This will be my first update with series recordings in place. Will I lose anything as far as programs in my TO DO list due to the auto reset after download? I am not home right now and won't be until tomorrow some time.


Yes, you will lose everything... and it will be like the HR20 is just comming out of the box for the first time.......

Nah just kidding... you will be fine. Your ToDo List will rebuild over the next 24 hours (rolling, closest to latest)...


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## Earl Bonovich

pgfitzgerald said:


> Just got the update and Caller-ID still does not work for me.
> 
> Paul


What error message are you getting.
And do try a different phone cord. The reason I said that is that I previously was getting that message, and I changed the phone cord and I no longer received that message. Went back to the old cord, got the message...


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## hasan

Earl,

I just saw the update was available, normally I let the box sit overnight on and it gets updated in the early a.m.

I just turned it off, since I'm going to watch OTA on the Sammy for the next hour or so. Any chance it will update without me forcing it? Otherwise, I'll turn it back on at 11:30 p.m. and let it do its thing in the a.m. 

I don't want to force an update.


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## hadji

Thanks. So far I am 12 for 12 with recordings with no glitches whatsoever. I know it may not last, but so far so good.


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## Earl Bonovich

hasan said:


> Earl,
> 
> I just saw the update was available, normally I let the box sit overnight on and it gets updated in the early a.m.
> 
> I just turned it off, since I'm going to watch OTA on the Sammy for the next hour or so. Any chance it will update without me forcing it? Otherwise, I'll turn it back on at 11:30 p.m. and let it do its thing in the a.m.
> 
> I don't want to force an update.


I don't think so... normally they don't start "pushing" the update till later in the night.


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## hasan

Earl Bonovich said:


> I don't think so... normally they don't start "pushing" the update till later in the night.


Thanks, I'll turn it back on and do my normal viewing then. Good luck everyone!!!


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## SParker

Phone line needed for update?


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## Earl Bonovich

SParker said:


> Phone line needed for update?


Phone lines are not necessary for any of the software updates on the HR20/R15


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## bonscott87

FYI that all my updates have happened automatically around 5am EST. No need for your intervention and no phone line is needed.


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## pgfitzgerald

Earl Bonovich said:


> What error message are you getting.
> And do try a different phone cord. The reason I said that is that I previously was getting that message, and I changed the phone cord and I no longer received that message. Went back to the old cord, got the message...


The message is:
*Incoming call: Contact your local phone company to sign up for caller ID.*​
I've tried 5 cords of varying length. One was the new cord that came with the HR-20, and one was brand new. The other three were in my box o' cables. The cords that reached were also tested using the kitchen extension.

All the telephone wire in the house was replaced when I moved in almost two years ago. It's all Berk-Tek Cat-5e+ and goes through a Leviton Structured Media Center. I have one telephone line on the inner pair. The extensions are all terminated using Leviton 6 Conductor Voice QuickPort Modules.

I've never had any trouble with the line, the telephones, or the phones' ability to interpret caller-id. Caller-id _*has*_ worked on the HR-20 in the past, but it has always been flaky.

Hope this helps.

Paul


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## SParker

Earl, Do I have to wait or can I force it?


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## Earl Bonovich

pgfitzgerald said:


> The message is:
> *Incoming call: Contact your local phone company to sign up for caller ID.*​
> I've tried 5 cords of varying length. One was the new cord that came with the HR-20, and one was brand new. The other three were in my box o' cables. The cords that reached were also tested using the kitchen extension.
> 
> All the telephone wire in the house was replaced when I moved in almost two years ago. It's all Berk-Tek Cat-5e+ and goes through a Leviton Structured Media Center. I have one telephone line on the inner pair. The extensions are all terminated using Leviton 6 Conductor Voice QuickPort Modules.
> 
> I've never had any trouble with the line, the telephones, or the phones' ability to interpret caller-id. Caller-id _*has*_ worked on the HR-20 in the past, but it has always been flaky.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Paul


Thanks for the extra details...


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## jamieh1

Earl can you pass this along.
Have Directv take off the large ch id letters, 
Example: When a channel has no logo the ch ID letters appears where the logo normally is. Okay for the normal 4 letter id. But on the ota stations with out logos its going to only show 2 letters, like WC.. should be WCTIDT
Just like on the H20.
Just leave the ID/logo area blank like on the R15


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## PoitNarf

Any idea if any of these fixes listed may have resolved the missing tick marks several of us have noticed in the previous version?


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## Earl Bonovich

SParker said:


> Earl, Do I have to wait or can I force it?


You can foce if you want, no guarantee that it will come down though (but it should)... Reboot, at the first screen "Welcome" 02468 one time.

Good night y'all


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## Earl Bonovich

PoitNarf said:


> Any idea if any of these fixes listed may have resolved the missing tick marks several of us have noticed in the last version?


I don't think so... the release was already into the testing cycle before those initial posts.


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## pgfitzgerald

Earl Bonovich said:


> Thanks for the extra details...


No problem. Hopefully they'll get it all straightened out soon.

Paul


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## jamieh1

also can they fix the channels list, If a list is set on a favorites list and a new channel is added by Directv, so the channel will be added to the fav list and not just the All list.

Just like the older recievers, RCA, Tivo for example, 

I like to keep the favorites channel list, but when a new channel is added such as REEL 225 last week, the channel was not added, if I didnt keep up with the forums, I wouldnt know it was there.


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## PoitNarf

Recording the same show, on channels with the same channel number, would result in a corrupted recording.

Why would anyone even try to do this? Oh well, at least I can do it now if I wanted!


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## bonscott87

PoitNarf said:


> Recording the same show, on channels with the same channel number, would result in a corrupted recording.
> 
> Why would anyone even try to do this? Oh well, at least I can do it now if I wanted!


Probably one of those "we never thought someone would do this" bug that really wasn't tested before and leave developers shaking their head. I find it odd as well.


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## PoitNarf

bonscott87 said:


> Probably one of those "we never thought someone would do this" bug that really wasn't tested before and leave developers shaking their head. I find it odd as well.


Sounds like the kind of potential bug scenario I think of when I code :lol:


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## SParker

Earl Bonovich said:


> You can foce if you want, no guarantee that it will come down though (but it should)... Reboot, at the first screen "Welcome" 02468 one time.
> 
> Good night y'all


Thanks Earl that worked great!


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## jamieh1

Had 2 playbacks since update, the picture will freeze about 2 minutes before the end and the audio will last a few more seconds and then a keep or delete box comes up, you cant skip to the end .


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## jamieh1

Just tried some more and they seem to work fine.


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## Wolffpack

I guess it's safe to say the HR20 development staff must have alot more resources to draw upon than the R15 development staff. But I guess that's not really a surprise.


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## jlancaster

just check recordings since update


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## runopenloop

PoitNarf said:


> Recording the same show, on channels with the same channel number, would result in a corrupted recording.
> 
> Why would anyone even try to do this? Oh well, at least I can do it now if I wanted!


When the MPEG4 recordings were resulting in the black screen and unable to playback at all, I actually planned on recording the same show in HD and SD on the same channel. Ultimately decided to do the SD recording on my DirecTivo instead. Guess it's a good thing I did.


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## runopenloop

Having a problem with trick play FF and REW on the active buffered program (not recording). Watching Leno on my HD local. Sometimes it goes to 1, 2, or 3 << or >> but does not actually move in the buffer. Sometimes the display jitters between a couple of frames sometimes just stays on one frame.

The pixelization is kinda ugly. Glad to hear that will be corrected later.


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## FilmMixer

pgfitzgerald said:


> The message is:
> *Incoming call: Contact your local phone company to sign up for caller ID.*​
> I've tried 5 cords of varying length. One was the new cord that came with the HR-20, and one was brand new. The other three were in my box o' cables. The cords that reached were also tested using the kitchen extension.
> 
> All the telephone wire in the house was replaced when I moved in almost two years ago. It's all Berk-Tek Cat-5e+ and goes through a Leviton Structured Media Center. I have one telephone line on the inner pair. The extensions are all terminated using Leviton 6 Conductor Voice QuickPort Modules.
> 
> I've never had any trouble with the line, the telephones, or the phones' ability to interpret caller-id. Caller-id _*has*_ worked on the HR-20 in the past, but it has always been flaky.
> 
> Hope this helps.
> 
> Paul


DSL? Filters?


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## skierbri10

Earl Bonovich said:


> You can foce if you want, no guarantee that it will come down though (but it should)... Reboot, at the first screen "Welcome" 02468 one time.
> 
> Good night y'all


ahh haaaa.....see I thought I read something where I was suppossed to push that code until something happened. This time I pushed it once an voila it is downloading...... :bowdown: :bowdown: :engel10: :engel10:


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## FilmMixer

I know this is a new software thread.. but I have been seeing an issue when turning on the DVR at night, lets say, that the status bar says the wrong time and the shows title from the morning... weird.. we'll see if fixed..


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## Jeremy W

I forced the 0xDC download. After quick testing, I was still able to get some older recordings to rewind into negative numbers. I understand that the software updates can't fix this, since the problem lies with the recording and not the playback. Maybe this time, there will be some progress.


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## skierbri10

My honolulu locals still dont work....in case any of the programmers are reading this.....please get them to work.....please, I dont want to resort to getting a H20 to see my locals...


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## skierbri10

BTW one of my HD programs started right up and didn't freeze....hope that continues


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## kokishin

Earl Bonovich said:


> 8 Weeks tomorrow actually... OTA is comming...


Hi Earl,

I want to add an OTA but running the OTA cabling inside my home is not feasible. I currently have two RG-6 cables going to my HR20 from the W68. As I understand it, if I connect the FTM, then I can use just one cable from the W68 to the DVR. Then the other cable could be freed up to use for connecting from an OTA to the OTA input on the HR20. Assuming this makes sense, can you find out from your contacts when I can get the FTM?

Thanks for all your excellent work.


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## kokishin

pgfitzgerald said:


> Just got the update and Caller-ID still does not work for me.
> 
> Paul


Has Called ID ever worked for you?

If not, have you checked to make sure TIP & RING are connected correctly? Not sure if it would affect Caller ID if they were reversed.


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## dconfer

My caller Id still does not work on both units.


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## hdtvfan0001

My caller ID works perfectly.


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## Fyr guy

Got mine at 2:30 am PDT just happened to be up. Let's keep our fingers crossed that most if not all has been fixed.


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## hadji

hdtvfan0001 said:


> My caller ID works perfectly.


is this a change from before the latest updates?


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## hdtvfan0001

hadji said:


> is this a change from before the latest updates?


Just turned it on to test the new update this morning...works perfectly. Then turned it off again...on again...retested...still works...I usually don't like it on, so finally turned off after 2 tests and 6 calls to check it.


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## hadji

hdtvfan0001 said:


> Just turned it on to test the new update this morning...works perfectly. Then turned it off again...on again...retested...still works...I usually don't like it on, so finally turned off after 2 tests and 6 calls to check it.


sorry, i meant did yours NOT work before this latest update but now does?


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## DVRaholic

FAST FORWARD DOES NOT WORK MPEG-4 RECORDINGS !!!!

Ok First bug for me, I just tried FF last nighs Conan Obrein and a few seconds into FF the video freezes and wont FF anymore. If I hit play and let it play a few Seconds then Hit FF again it goes a few more seconds then freezes again, I have tried it with other recordings from last night with the same problem 

Going to do a system reset to see if it corrects the problem


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## 69RoadRunner

bonscott87 said:


> Probably one of those "we never thought someone would do this" bug that really wasn't tested before and leave developers shaking their head. I find it odd as well.


I've wanted to shoot end users who do stupid things like that. I feel like I need to get a labotomy when I test my code to figure out all the rediculous things users try.


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## DVRaholic

Reset did Not fix the FF freezing problem, 
and I just verified same problem on my 2nd HR20-700


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## DVRaholic

Anyone else having this problem ?? Let the FF run about 6 seconds thats when it will freeze


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## DVRaholic

Wake up Earl, its 6:30 am CST, time to get up for work 
MAJOR BUG Here 

NOTE This on BOTH my HR20-700's, 
1 with Internal Drive & 1 with eSATA


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## Capmeister

talbain said:


> come on directv give us DUAL BUFFERS!!!!


Implimenting something new (dual buffers) is probably a more difficult task than fixing something they intended from the start (caller ID, OTA), so that may take longer. They know we want it, they're working on it, so let them give us the things they've promised (like a fully operational closed captioning) and then we'll see things, perhaps, from our wishlist.


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## LarryFlowers

FIrst thing I have noticed is that the fast forward freezes. It also pixelates, but that isn't near the problem that not being able to scan is.


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## wakajawaka

PoitNarf said:


> Recording the same show, on channels with the same channel number, would result in a corrupted recording.
> 
> Why would anyone even try to do this? Oh well, at least I can do it now if I wanted!


I did this just last night, the ABC HD Feed was not working (an affiliate problem not a DTV problem), so I started a recording on the SD Feed and let HD Feed continue to record in case it came back.


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## patsrule316

69RoadRunner said:


> I've wanted to shoot end users who do stupid things like that. I feel like I need to get a labotomy when I test my code to figure out all the rediculous things users try.


Its not stupid...if your local hd channels are unstable, but you want to try to record one and hope it works allright, but record the SD version as backup incase the HD channel goes out so you know you have the show...that makes sense to me.


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## Andrew_J_M

I'm getting freezing on FFWD and RWD with MPEG4 programs from both before and after the update. In all cases the ring of lights flash as normal.

My recording of The Unit from yesterday gave the BSoD and negative positioning before the update. It was purged during the restart.


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## Andrew_J_M

patsrule316 said:


> Its not stupid...if your local hd channels are unstable, but you want to try to record one and hope it works allright, but record the SD version as backup incase the HD channel goes out so you know you have the show...that makes sense to me.


Agreed - I hope that other guy isn't really a programmer or analyst! I come across it all the time "I didn't think the user would try and do that". You just didn't think matey.


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## pgfitzgerald

FilmMixer said:


> DSL? Filters?


Good call. No, I do not have DSL, but there is a whole house DSL filter next to the NID on the exterior of the house.

Paul


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## spidey

Callerid not working on either of my machines and I have verified the software load from this AM is active/ Trying a reset of unit will let ya know if that works


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## Ed Campbell

DVRaholic said:


> Anyone else having this problem ?? Let the FF run about 6 seconds thats when it will freeze


Mine is running fine. HR20 started recording the Asia Cup match between Chinese Taipei and Iran at 4 AM -- and FF through the recorded bit [watching for goals] until I got to real time -- watched most of the 2nd half in real time while having first coffee.


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## pgfitzgerald

kokishin said:


> Has Called ID ever worked for you?
> 
> If not, have you checked to make sure TIP & RING are connected correctly? Not sure if it would affect Caller ID if they were reversed.


Caller-ID *has* worked on the HR-20. It *has not* worked consistently. My phones, however, have never failed.

Another good call.  The polarity of the wiring is correct. It was tested with an Ideal Smart6 Modular Tester.

Paul


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## patsrule316

Ed Campbell said:


> Mine is running fine. HR20 started recording the Asia Cup match between Chinese Taipei and Iran at 4 AM -- and FF through the recorded bit [watching for goals] until I got to real time -- watched most of the 2nd half in real time while having first coffee.




Was this an MPEG4 HD recording? As far as I have read so far, the bug only affects the MPEG4 shows, not all shows.


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## Calebrot

hasan said:


> Thanks, I'll turn it back on and do my normal viewing then. Good luck everyone!!!


By turning the box off, you are only putting it in sleep mode, the update will occur in sleep mode, it doesn't have to be on to get the update.


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## lpctv

pgfitzgerald said:


> Good call. No, I do not have DSL, but there is a whole house DSL filter next to the NID on the exterior of the house.
> 
> Paul


If it's even feasable for you given the extra distance, have you tried to plug in directly to the jack in the NID?


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## hasan

Calebrot said:


> By turning the box off, you are only putting it in sleep mode, the update will occur in sleep mode, it doesn't have to be on to get the update.


I turned it on so I could watch it, once I realized it wouldn't cause the update to happen earlier. I don't turn my HR20 off at all.


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## pgfitzgerald

lpctv said:


> If it's even feasable for you given the extra distance, have you tried to plug in directly to the jack in the NID?


I have not tried that. Doing so would require an extremely long phone cord, which I do not have. 

Paul


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## Andrew_J_M

pgfitzgerald said:


> I have not tried that. Doing so would require an extremely long phone cord, which I do not have.
> 
> Paul


Wouldn't that bypass your DSL filter as well?


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## Earl Bonovich

DVRaholic said:


> FAST FORWARD DOES NOT WORK MPEG-4 RECORDINGS !!!!
> 
> Ok First bug for me, I just tried FF last nighs Conan Obrein and a few seconds into FF the video freezes and wont FF anymore. If I hit play and let it play a few Seconds then Hit FF again it goes a few more seconds then freezes again, I have tried it with other recordings from last night with the same problem
> 
> Going to do a system reset to see if it corrects the problem


Okay...

I got an update, to the update...
This was an issue seen by one tester, however... it was thought to have been due to the broadcast as a hour or so later... the broadcast when to SD, and then to HD.

The work around was to stop FF,use 30s SLIP, or standard playback to get past the looping point. I am going to add it to the Release Notes as a known issue now.


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## lpctv

pgfitzgerald said:


> I have not tried that. Doing so would require an extremely long phone cord, which I do not have.
> 
> Paul


Yeah, kind of guessed that might be an issue  
If you could, it might (obviously) help you in taking out any "in-between" variables like the dsl house filter.
If you really want to take it to an extreme, you might also try bringing the box to a friends house that also has the same service level and that has CID working. That should help you determine if you've got a faulty unit.  
(disclaimer: obviously, this is something highly frowned upon by the content provider)


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## Andrew_J_M

This release is a big step backward for me. Maybe it has fixed the RECORDING issues but PLAYBACK is much worse. I can't FFWD in any MPEG4 shows and am getting more pixelation at normal speed, though that could be local.
How long to the next release?


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## lpctv

Andrew_J_M said:


> Wouldn't that bypass your DSL filter as well?


I think he said that he had the filter but not the service....


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## Earl Bonovich

Andrew_J_M said:


> This release is a big step backward for me. Maybe it has fixed the RECORDING issues but PLAYBACK is much worse. I can't FFWD in any MPEG4 shows and am getting more pixelation at normal speed, though that could be local.
> How long to the next release?


The Pixelizing during FF/RW is a known issue (noted in the release notes).
However, there shouldn't be any difference in normal playback mode... it is possible that it is just the local broadcast at that time.


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## neotide

This may be a bit off topic although have the local HD MPEG4 channels been fixed to get rid of the 8mm HD look? I haven't had a chance to verify and won't until I get home this evening.


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## pgfitzgerald

Andrew_J_M said:


> Wouldn't that bypass your DSL filter as well?


Yes, it would.

There is no DSL on the line, so interference from DSL shouldn't be a problem.

But it would rule out the filter (Siecor SPS-H70-SR1).

I'll see if I can come up with a way to test this.

Paul


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## hadji

No caller id here as well. I had my H20 hooked up to the same phone line and it worked flawlessly. Not a huge deal, but it did make it convenient to not have to strain my neck and eyes to see who was calling on my phone. Looks like they need to go back to that issue with the next update.


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## Milominderbinder2

bonscott87 said:


> Probably one of those "we never thought someone would do this" bug that really wasn't tested before and leave developers shaking their head. I find it odd as well.


Why would anyone record local SD and HD at the same time?

Simple answer: The local HD may cause a BSOD. If you also record the SD local, at least you could still watch your show. Little did people know that this guaranteed both would be corrupted.


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## Doug Brott

Pixelating during FF is fine with me. However, FF now doesn't work. It seems to break when the green bar moves forward. The good news is that you can kinda get out of it, but the bad news is that FF through commercials is gonna stink until it is fixed next Wednesday. I kinda hope that there is a hot fix for this one.

Stabilizing the code is great and should continue, but I hope that once we reach that point that weekly code updates become a thing of the past. TiVo's every other year updates are too far apart, but DirecTV's every-week updates are too close. I'd like to see once every 3-6 months (after this thing is stable, of course).


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## PoitNarf

neotide said:


> This may be a bit off topic although have the local HD MPEG4 channels been fixed to get rid of the 8mm HD look? I haven't had a chance to verify and won't until I get home this evening.


Depends if the encoding equipment for your area has been updated yet.


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## Earl Bonovich

brott said:


> ... However, FF now doesn't work. It seems to break when the green bar moves forward.
> 
> ...
> 
> Stabilizing the code is great and should continue, but I hope that once we reach that point that weekly code updates become a thing of the past. TiVo's every other year updates are too far apart, but DirecTV's every-week updates are too close. I'd like to see once every 3-6 months (after this thing is stable, of course).


Can you explain that issue a little bit more...
Is it when you are FF into the end of the program?

As for the weekly updates... DirecTV agrees... they really don't want to continue this pattern much longer, but they need to get these fixes out and as fast as possible.

You should start to see more of a seperation between updates.


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## mirwin101

From Release Notes: Pixelization During FF/RW functions. Noticeable primarily in 1080i/720p MPEG4 recordings, while FF/RW the video play pixelizes. This is due to updates with the MPEG4 code (which was changed to address other issues), the pixelizing will be corrected in a future release.

I started getting pixelization on MPEG4 locals after the 0xD8 update, but not just during FF/RW. It was all the time! Can't wait to get home and see if the latest changes to the MPEG4 code corrected this problem. I can handle some pixelization during FF/RW, but not all the time!


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## Earl Bonovich

mirwin101 said:


> I started getting pixelization on MPEG4 locals after the 0xD8 update, but not just during FF/RW. It was all the time! Can't wait to get home and see if the latest changes to the MPEG4 code corrected this problem. I can handle some pixelization during FF/RW, but not all the time!


All the time could be a local broadcast thing.
Is it happening on all your MPEG-4 Locals?


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## raggededge

Earl Bonovich said:


> All the time could be a local broadcast thing.
> Is it happening on all your MPEG-4 Locals?


Earl, I'm in the same market (NASHVILLE), and it is happening on one channel for me, WKRN. Everything was fine until the last update a week ago, then bam, that channel was all kinds of pixellated all of the time. Asking other Nashvillians about WKRN and everything seems fine for OTA and Cable users. So either it is a HR20 problem or a satellite problem. Who do I talk to at D* for a fix?


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## Earl Bonovich

raggededge said:


> So either it is a HR20 problem or a satellite problem. Who do I talk to at D* for a fix?


There is the MPEG-4 Encoding process that takes place (outside the HR20 or "satellite" problem)... And that is probably where it is occuring.

You could post at forums.directv.com (in addition to here).
But I know they are going through EVERY encoding center and updating all the hardware/software


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## gr8reb8

neotide said:


> This may be a bit off topic although have the local HD MPEG4 channels been fixed to get rid of the 8mm HD look? I haven't had a chance to verify and won't until I get home this evening.


This only occurred on 1080i and 480i channels right? If so, it is a interlaced "field order" issue.

In this digital age, why we are still running old interlaced tv is strange indeed. I guess some would prefer to watch quality slide shows at 1080i instead of quality moving pictures at 720p or 1080p.


----------



## Capmeister

Milominderbinder2 said:


> Why would anyone record local SD and HD at the same time?
> 
> Simple answer: The local HD may cause a BSOD. If you also record the SD local, at least you could still watch your show. Little did people know that this guaranteed both would be corrupted.


I sometimes record the SD of a show off sat and the HD of a show off OTA on my HR10 for two reasons:

1. if there is rain fade on one or the other, it is unlikely to occur at the same time.

2. if one loses closed captioning (this happens sometimes on reality shows with live captioning) the other station might have it.


----------



## raggededge

Earl Bonovich said:


> There is the MPEG-4 Encoding process that takes place (outside the HR20 or "satellite" problem)... And that is probably where it is occuring.
> 
> You could post at forums.directv.com (in addition to here).
> But I know they are going through EVERY encoding center and updating all the hardware/software


Yeah, but it was working fine before the 0xD8 update. I think Nashville already has the encoding center updated. Anyway, this channel is 720p which shouldn't have the encoding problem anyway. Thanks,


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Another Update, to the Update... (It is great when people get into the office, and see what I put up at 10pm at night..)



"Release Notes" said:


> *Notes*
> 
> The black screen recordings should now be corrected. However, programs recorded on previous versions of the software will still have the problem.


I have been told that in some of the cases of "Initial Black Screen" on playback, they "may" now be able to be played. There were two different problems. There was a recording one, and a playback one. (both should be fixed now). But those that were suffereing only a playback issue, should now work. Those that had a recording issue, won't.

Unfourtently there is no way to know the difference, unless you try.


----------



## mirwin101

Earl Bonovich said:


> All the time could be a local broadcast thing.
> Is it happening on all your MPEG-4 Locals?


I know it's happening on ABC, NBC, and CBS. I guess "all the time" is a poor description by me. It mainly happens whenever there is a lot of motion on the screen or when there is an ubrupt change in the scene.

I agree with the other poster that is it worst on ABC (WKRN).


----------



## PoitNarf

gr8reb8 said:


> This only occurred on 1080i and 480i channels right?


1080i MPEG4 only


----------



## mirwin101

Earl Bonovich said:


> There is the MPEG-4 Encoding process that takes place (outside the HR20 or "satellite" problem)... And that is probably where it is occuring.
> 
> You could post at forums.directv.com (in addition to here).
> But I know they are going through EVERY encoding center and updating all the hardware/software


Hmm... I wonder if they happened to have "updated" the Nashville encoding center last week...


----------



## Rob55

At the risk of jinxing myself, my HR-20 has been pretty stable since 0xD8. It'll be hard to tell if this latest update has any effect on my unit. Unless, of course, it makes things worse like the predecessor to 0xD8 did.


----------



## jbodine

Since installing my HR20 last week I was getting no sound when using HDMI connection to my Samsung HLP4663 TV. With this update, HDMI connection works ok only on HD channels (even though the particular broadcast is not in HD). When switching to a non HD channel, the message on the TV states "not supported" and I have to switch to Component video to watch. Hopefully, next update will fix.

Also, caller ID works fine. I am using a DualJack wireless modem through SunRocket VOIP. As promised, the HR20 box works great with VOIP, saves me the cost of a landline.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jbodine said:


> Since installing my HR20 last week I was getting no sound when using HDMI connection to my Samsung HLP4663 TV. With this update, HDMI connection works ok only on HD channels (even though the particular broadcast is not in HD). When switching to a non HD channel, the message on the TV states "not supported" and I have to switch to Component video to watch. Hopefully, next update will fix.
> 
> Also, caller ID works fine. I am using a DualJack wireless modem through SunRocket VOIP. As promised, the HR20 box works great with VOIP, saves me the cost of a landline.


Do you have the unit set to NATIVE resolution.
If so it could be going down to 480i which is not supported by a LOT of TV's on DVI/HDMI connections.

Besure to DESELECT 480i as a video resolution your TV can support and see if the problem continues. Or turn off NATIVE and leave it at 720p or 1080i


----------



## ckyee

Got the update last night. The only difference I see so far is that my trick play seems to be a little slower in response. 6 seconds back, wait a couple of seconds with sound but no video then ok. 30 second forward butten allows me to press it up to 10 times when it was 4 before.


----------



## SParker

Funny I was able to get (20) 30 second forwards..


----------



## Doug Brott

Earl Bonovich said:


> Can you explain that issue a little bit more...
> Is it when you are FF into the end of the program?
> 
> As for the weekly updates... DirecTV agrees... they really don't want to continue this pattern much longer, but they need to get these fixes out and as fast as possible.
> 
> You should start to see more of a seperation between updates.


Sorry, it was early here on the West Coast. I just got into work.

I spent a total of about 10 minutes on this, and here's what happened:

I turned on the TV and the news was on. I was caught up to Live TV at the time as expected. There was a story playing that I wanted to hear, so I rewound a few minutes so that I could see it. All seemed well at this point. I started listening to the story and noticed that it was taking a long time to get back to the story I wanted to hear and I thought that seemed odd, but really didn't worry about it. I tried to FF (1X) to move quicker and all it did at that point was flash between two separate frames. It wasn't clear whether or not the frames where adjacent in the stream or not, but the FF was definitely stuck. A press of the play button and it would unstick. Sometimes the 30 second Slip would experience similar results. There was at least one time during this episode in which I was using 30 second slip (working) and the Live TV bar (the green bar) moved extended it's length by one minute. This, I believe, is normal behavior. However, at exactly this same moment, the video stopped FF and went into Frame Flicker mode again.

Again, all of this happened in a 10 minute time period. I was eventually able to get it back to Live TV with the 30 second slip, but it was a chore. There was also at least one point in which I was using the 30 second slip, clearly shown on the screen as in-use in which the video stream was playing as if it were in PLAY mode, not 30SS mode.

Hope this helps. I have not tried to use FF in a recording yet and this may not be a factor there. If not, I can live for another week until it's fixed. If not, it will be painful.


----------



## Doug Brott

SParker said:


> Funny I was able to get (20) 30 second forwards..


I haven't tried on this release, but last night on the older release, I was able to get to 20 30 second slips as well.


----------



## jheda

DVRaholic said:


> Wake up Earl, its 6:30 am CST, time to get up for work
> MAJOR BUG Here
> 
> NOTE This on BOTH my HR20-700's,
> 1 with Internal Drive & 1 with eSATA


Didnt even realize there was an update, and struggled through the Today show.....wouldnt get passed 0:00 until i 30 second advanced, and then constantly froze if i ff or rewind..........whats the deal? should i red button reset? help!!!!


----------



## bidger

Interesting.

I posted in the 0xD8 thread how my recording of the Ravens-Bronocs MNF recording was FUBAR'd. I rec'd the update @ 5:18AM and when I went into the List for the first time the MNF pregame show was there. 

It was what was listed and it played...well, I think it would have played fine, but I FFd through it. But, now I wonder...where's the recording the was made for four and a half hours when the record indicator light was on Mon. PM? Maybe it'll show up on the next software upgrade. 

Other than that, all recordings I scheduled since then have completed and are viewable and everything seems fine.


----------



## cbearnm

This fix solved my duplicate entries in ToDo list, as well as old (past) ToDo items.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=66416


----------



## gcisko

I have seen much talk about trick play. But nothing in any FAQ's to explain it. Is it simply the 30slip forward and 7 sec back? I do know about the 15 minute jump by
doing a bunch of FF;s and holding the button for 3 secs. But I was curious if there is more to trick play.


----------



## Jeremy W

gcisko said:


> I have seen much talk about trick play. But nothing in any FAQ's to explain it.


Trick plays are pretty much anything you do. Pause, fast forward, rewind, replay, slip.


----------



## drm0414

Earl, The release notes for OxDC indicate that the Caller ID issue "should" be resolved. I received 0xD8 on 10/4/06. I am still getting the "Call your phone CO" message. My conclusion is that the issue was not address in 0xD8. Does this "New Software 10/11/2006 -0xDC" mean it is being released today?


----------



## jbodine

Earl Bonovich said:


> Do you have the unit set to NATIVE resolution.
> If so it could be going down to 480i which is not supported by a LOT of TV's on DVI/HDMI connections.
> 
> Besure to DESELECT 480i as a video resolution your TV can support and see if the problem continues. Or turn off NATIVE and leave it at 720p or 1080i


Yes, I have it set to native. I'll check tonight if 480i is selected and try your suggestion, thanks


----------



## litzdog911

drm0414 said:


> ... Does this "New Software 10/11/2006 -0xDC" mean it is being released today?


Yes, your HR20 should have updated to this newest release last night.


----------



## rsc92

Earl Bonovich said:


> 8 Weeks tomorrow actually... OTA is comming...


Please excuse my ignorance, but are dual buffers different from dual tuners? Another question. I am scheduled for install on Friday. Should I hold off and keep the HD Tivo until the kinks are worked out? Is it worth waiting for the Slimline dish or do you all think the AT9 is fine?

Thanks


----------



## litzdog911

rsc92 said:


> Please excuse my ignorance, but are dual buffers different from dual tuners? Another question. I am scheduled for install on Friday. Should I hold off and keep the HD Tivo until the kinks are worked out? Is it worth waiting for the Slimline dish or do you all think the AT9 is fine?
> 
> Thanks


Dual tuners = two independent satellite tuners so that you can record two different programs at the same time.

Dual buffers = two "memory streams" so that you can view back in time on the two different tuners.

The HR20 has dual tuners, but not dual buffers. The Tivo-based DVRs have both.


----------



## drm0414

litzdog911 said:


> Yes, your HR20 should have updated to this newest release last night.


Thanks. Hopefully I'll get 0xDC tonight.


----------



## deebeeeff

Earl Bonovich said:


> No...
> 
> Does anyone read the Release Notes?


Yup! I did! What do I win? Come on! Gimme something good! Like an audio and video that sync up. LOL


----------



## gcisko

rsc92 said:


> Please excuse my ignorance, but are dual buffers different from dual tuners? Another question. I am scheduled for install on Friday. Should I hold off and keep the HD Tivo until the kinks are worked out? Is it worth waiting for the Slimline dish or do you all think the AT9 is fine?
> 
> Thanks


The HR20 will have a slim line dish??? Anyway, as was stated earlier, this box has been out for about 8 weeks. So just keep in mind we are all essentially beta testers. It is very dissapointing that when you call their customer support they give you a total run around, when all it is is really software updates like the one this morning. Also expect them at about 4am every wednesday morning. At least it has happened the past 3 weeks.


----------



## gsand

Where does one find the Release Notes?

thanks all,

g


----------



## jheda

drm0414 said:


> Earl, The release notes for OxDC indicate that the Caller ID issue "should" be resolved. I received 0xD8 on 10/4/06. I am still getting the "Call your phone CO" message. My conclusion is that the issue was not address in 0xD8. Does this "New Software 10/11/2006 -0xDC" mean it is being released today?


excuse my early alzheimers moment, but i shut off the caller id when i got the hr20 and will try it agian tonight, how do i acess that on the menu?

Hr20
Sonykds60A2000
yamaha reciever


----------



## spolaski

gsand said:


> Where does one find the Release Notes?
> 
> thanks all,
> 
> g


It's always in the first post of the thread from the Mighty Earl Bonovich


----------



## rsc92

gcisko said:


> The HR20 will have a slim line dish??? Anyway, as was stated earlier, this box has been out for about 8 weeks. So just keep in mind we are all essentially beta testers. It is very dissapointing that when you call their customer support they give you a total run around, when all it is is really software updates like the one this morning. Also expect them at about 4am every wednesday morning. At least it has happened the past 3 weeks.


I read in another post that the slimline dish is starting to roll out. Knowing my luck, the installer will show up with the AT9. Just don't know which is the better way to go in the northeast. Right now I get awesome signal strength on all 3 lnbs (which I installed myself). I would hate to take a step backward.

The HR10-250 I have now works fine (except for the HDMI) which is why i was upgrading, but if the HDMI is not working right with the new receiver, I am not sure it makes sense just yet to take the plunge.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

gsand said:


> Where does one find the Release Notes?
> 
> thanks all,
> 
> g


Link in the very first post, and there is a entire read-only forum for release notes.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

gcisko said:


> The HR20 will have a slim line dish??? Anyway, as was stated earlier, this box has been out for about 8 weeks. So just keep in mind we are all essentially beta testers. It is very dissapointing that when you call their customer support they give you a total run around, when all it is is really software updates like the one this morning. Also expect them at about 4am every wednesday morning. At least it has happened the past 3 weeks.


The dish is independent of the receiver.
The Slimline and AT9 will see the same SATs, and the HR20 and H20 are the two receivers that benefit from the additional two SATS.

It has happened the past 3 weeks... but I would not "expect" them to continue at that pace.


----------



## rsc92

Earl Bonovich said:


> Link in the very first post, and there is a entire read-only forum for release notes.


Earl,

Do you know if the latest software fix will allow for proper operation of HDMI output to a Pioneer PDP-5070 plasma? That is the sole reason for me to ditch the HD Tivo. Thanks


----------



## Earl Bonovich

rsc92 said:


> Earl,
> 
> Do you know if the latest software fix will allow for proper operation of HDMI output to a Pioneer PDP-5070 plasma? That is the sole reason for me to ditch the HD Tivo. Thanks


Well it works fine on my PIO 503, but I am using an Aurora Video card though.

The HR10 has issues with the PHYSICAL HDMI daughter board to main board. The HR20 is having compatibility/communication issues with some TV's.

I haven't seen any posts with PIO's having issues though.... 
You "shouldn't" have any issues, as I am sure Pioneer and their HDMI is compliant to the HDMI standards... but... sadly at this point of the game... you may be the first to try it.


----------



## Vinny

I haven't been home all day; so I didn't see the new release yet. However, from reading the posts; it seems to be a pretty big issue if you can't properly FF/RW MPEG4 recordings. 90% of what I record is MPEG4. 

Is everyone experiencing this or just a few?


----------



## jbodine

jbodine said:


> Yes, I have it set to native. I'll check tonight if 480i is selected and try your suggestion, thanks


Checked on the specs online for my TV, says it supports 480i, but I'll try tonight and update you
Thanks again


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Vinny said:


> I haven't been home all day; so I didn't see the new release yet. However, from reading the posts; it seems to be a pretty big issue if you can't properly FF/RW MPEG4 recordings. 90% of what I record is MPEG4.
> 
> Is everyone experiencing this or just a few?


You can FF/RW, it will just pixelize.
There is a possibility though, it will loop through on a frame. If that happens just hit PLAY, get past that frame, and FF again.

DirecTV does know about the issue, and will get it fixed... 
But they felt correcting the "Blank Recording" and total freezes on playback was worth getting out there now.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jbodine said:


> Checked on the specs online for my TV, says it supports 480i, but I'll try tonight and update you
> Thanks again


My Pioneer Plasma for example, supports 480i... but only on the composite/component inputs. It does not support it on the DVI


----------



## rsc92

Earl Bonovich said:


> My Pioneer Plasma for example, supports 480i... but only on the composite/component inputs. It does not support it on the DVI


Earl - on another note. Is there a performance difference between the slimline and AT9 dish? Will one lock in better and provide stronger signals? Thanks


----------



## Vinny

Earl Bonovich said:


> You can FF/RW, it will just pixelize.
> DirecTV does know about the issue, and will get it fixed...
> But they felt correcting the "Blank Recording" and total freezes on playback was worth getting out there now.


Thanks Earl!

I'm all for progress; pixilation during FF I can live with (for a week.... )........but constantly freezing during playback could be annoying.


----------



## Rebelde

Earl, 
I'm still having problems with my HDMI connection to my Vizio plasma, I'm forced to use component because HDMI freezes both my HR20s when I turn the TV off. I haven't gone home so I don't know if the new release fixed the problem do you know if HDMI problems have been fixed?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

rsc92 said:


> Earl - on another note. Is there a performance difference between the slimline and AT9 dish? Will one lock in better and provide stronger signals? Thanks


The Slimeline may provide marginal improvement in signal strength, simply because it is a newer design and has a single LNB assembly (less chance of signal loss in the connectors).... but overall... nothing significant.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Rebelde said:


> Earl,
> I'm still having problems with my HDMI connection to my Vizio plasma, I'm forced to use component because HDMI freezes both my HR20s when I turn the TV off. I haven't gone home so I don't know if the new release fixed the problem do you know if HDMI problems have been fixed?


I did not get a list of "fixed" TV's for HDMI connections.
If your problems still continue, please do post in the HDMI thread.


----------



## genap

Since Oxdc I can no longer FF. It freezes or flickers between two frames. I can use the 30 sec skip to get thru the parts I don't want to see. This happens on both live TV and the soaps i recorded yesterday. It also deleted a movie I recorded last night on one of the Encore channels. The RW kinda works. It pixelates and freezes some of the time, but if you hit RW then play then RW it will slowly RW with some freezing. Tried a red button restart, but didn't fix anything.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

genap said:


> Since Oxdc I can no longer FF. It freezes or flickers between two frames. I can use the 30 sec skip to get thru the parts I don't want to see. This happens on both live TV and the soaps i recorded yesterday. It also deleted a movie I recorded last night on one of the Encore channels. The RW kinda works. It pixelates and freezes some of the time, but if you hit RW then play then RW it will slowly RW with some freezing. Tried a red button restart, but didn't fix anything.


Your FF pixelizing and looping on a frame are known issue (added to the release notes this morning, and discussed a few times in this thread)

30s Skip and normal playback are teh two work arounds.

When did the Encore Movie Record? Before or after the update... as prior to 0xDC corrupted recordings would get deleted. 0xDC hopefully has eliminated the corrupted recordings.

Red Button Restart will not correct the looping frame, or the pixelizing during trickplay


----------



## lguvenoz

I have to say that superficially the new release appears to be a lot better than the previous one. The pixelation problem is pretty minor compared to the number of recordings that were freezing during playback. The response to the remote is still light years ahead of my R15.

So far I have not encountered the freeze problem, but my wife will be the true test when she goes to watch some shows later today.

As a side note, I have used HDMI from day one with my TV and never had any issues. Been stable with no impact from any releases.


----------



## genap

THe movie was recorded at 10:15 PM last night and I got the software update at 5:21 Am. I have never had a corrupted recording and no issues until d8 and dc.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

DVRaholic said:


> Reset did Not fix the FF freezing problem,
> and I just verified same problem on my 2nd HR20-700


Did you already have the update installed prior to the recording of Conan? Just curious if this bug is in the recording process or the playback process.


----------



## Dr.unken

rsc92 said:


> Earl,
> 
> Do you know if the latest software fix will allow for proper operation of HDMI output to a Pioneer PDP-5070 plasma? That is the sole reason for me to ditch the HD Tivo. Thanks


RSC,

I have the PDP-5071, essentially the same TV and HDMI has worked flawlessly for me the month I have had the HR20.


----------



## Jeremy W

genap said:


> THe movie was recorded at 10:15 PM last night and I got the software update at 5:21 Am. I have never had a corrupted recording and no issues until d8 and dc.


Since the movie was recorded on 0xD8, all bets are off.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

cookpr said:


> Well, I will chime in with some positives...
> 
> I think the stability of this box has increased 4 fold since I got it 4 weeks ago...I had two unplayable recordings the first week and have had none since. I am now very confident that I will not have to watch my backup recordings from the SD TIVO.
> 
> However, there are still issues as many have reported, never been a fan of the very choppy fast forwarding or no auto correct, but...D* seems to be releasing and update every 7-10 days, so many props....
> 
> Its as simple as this....you got the HR20 in Aug/Sept with a few bugs or you could have it in Dec/Jan with less bugs....personally, I think D* did the correct thing - by far....


I agree with you on this... I consider myself fortunate to be able to "beta test" this box. I think it has loads of potential! For anyone wanting to DVR MPEG-4 locals (without the ability to have OTA) the box is a must.

Earl, all joking aside, how do we become a beta tester for DTV?


----------



## Jeremy W

Radio Enginerd said:


> Earl, all joking aside, how do we become a beta tester for DTV?


DirecTV doesn't (yet) have a beta program, but Earl has said that they're thinking about starting one.


----------



## spidey

Earl, Callerid issues definetly NOT FIXED in latest download. Reset the boxes as well. I have DSL but all lines to the HR20 go out the telephone portion of DSL filter, Also seems like the message of no callerid service pops up between 2 - 3 ring cycle. All my phones are properly showing the caller id. Oh well not a feature that I feel is a must for a DVR I would rather have OTA and also capability to move recorded shows from one HR20 to another in my house


----------



## Dusty

rsc92 said:


> Please excuse my ignorance, but are dual buffers different from dual tuners? Another question. I am scheduled for install on Friday. Should I hold off and keep the HD Tivo until the kinks are worked out? Is it worth waiting for the Slimline dish or do you all think the AT9 is fine?
> 
> Thanks


If you don't mind an extra $4.99 fee, install the HR20 and keep the HD Tivo. I'll deactivate HD Tivo after OTA is enabled, but for now, I'll using both.


----------



## PoitNarf

Earl Bonovich said:


> Some inconsistancies with 30s SLIP not going the same length ect.


I had always thought this was intentional?


----------



## Radio Enginerd

Earl Bonovich said:


> And I would like to point out... that even though the FF/RW "worked"
> It wasn't really.... there was times where you would see grey streaks over half the screen while FFing, and it simply wasn't that smooth.
> 
> Some inconsistancies with 30s SLIP not going the same length ect.


This is more of a enhancement/wish list question... Any chance the 30 second slip will turn into a 30 second skip? Just curious&#8230;


----------



## Earl Bonovich

PoitNarf said:


> I had always thought this was intentional?


No, it wasn't intentional... as on MPEG-2 recordings, it is pretty consistant.

Now you got me wondering if they are using VBR (Variable Bit Rate) compression on the MPEG4s....
Instead of CBR (Constant Bit Rate) compression....



Radio Enginerd said:


> This is more of a enhancement/wish list question... Any chance the 30 second slip will turn into a 30 second skip? Just curious&#8230;


No... well, I will never say never... but that is about as close as you can get to never without it being never.


----------



## HDNut

Please, guys, help me find the place where we can check the software version. I can't find it! Thanks.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

HDNut said:


> Please, guys, help me find the place where we can check the software version. I can't find it! Thanks.


Menu->Setup->Settings->Info (Hit Select) Right side of the screen down towards the bottom


----------



## Jeremy W

Earl Bonovich said:


> Now you got me wondering if they are using VBR (Variable Bit Rate) compression on the MPEG4s....
> Instead of CBR (Constant Bit Rate) compression....


All of the channels use VBR since DirecTV stat-muxes everything.


----------



## jamieh1

Still no called ID here either. I dont have DSL so its not that, my R15 caller ID works.


----------



## SLeppert

I'm also still having trouble with caller ID. I get the message that I to sign up with the phone company. I have tried two different phone cables and still get the same message.

I also have DSL and am using a filter like another person previously mentioned.

I haven't tested any of the other fixes yet.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

WANDERER said:


> I'm curious, as it has not been stated clearly yet - is the whole ff/rw/pixelation issue ubiquitous?


The FF/RW Pixelation is ubiuitous... it effects everyone, but it content dependent on to what degree it effects them.

The Loop Frame, is sparatic.

Note: If I had to look it up, others might has well.
Ubiquitous: http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/ubiquitous


----------



## billt1111

WANDERER said:


> I'm curious, as it has not been stated clearly yet - is the whole ff/rw/pixelation issue ubiquitous?


Meaning, "does everybody experience this problem"? No, I do not have this problem on either of my HR20s.


----------



## Howie

Earl Bonovich said:


> So you are saying... even though this fix should eliminate Blank Recordings, Corrupted Recordings, and Missed Scheduled Recordings... they should sit on it for 2-3 more weeks, while they fix the FF Pixel and Loop Frame..


I didn't have any of those problems prior to last night's "fix." Now I can't fast forward. To me, the 2 most important functions of a DVR are to reliably record what you ask it to and to be able to quickly skip ads in recorded programs. Last week I could do both of those things, but now I can't.


----------



## thart

I am just wondering why some have issues that others don't. Why are we not all expericing the same issues.

If I get nothing but black screen recordings before the last update; then why did we not all have that issue. 

Heck! 10 days ago, I had no issues!


----------



## Earl Bonovich

NFLnut said:


> I haven't noteiced any problems to date, aside from occasional unresponsiveness, but now I am really experiencing freezing, unresponsiveness, and lockups -- BAD!!


Since the update this morning...

Other then the note frame loop, which is not a freeze.

Where are you getting the freezing and lockups, as you are the first one to report it since 0xDC release.

And then consider your self lucky you had no issues with your 6 TiVos, because there are plenty of people out there that have had issues.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Howie said:


> I meant no affront to you, Earl. I just want the powers to be to see me chime in on my problem. No FF sux.


I know you didn't. But the FF loop frame doesn't happen all the time.


----------



## Scrapper

I am going to ask a stupid question since I just got my HR20 2 days ago. People have mentioned the "red button reset" to reboot/restart the HR20. How does one perform this task, I keep looking for the ctrl-alt-delete keys or the Stop-A keys but my unit didn't come with a keyboard (please do not fire off on may pathetic attempt at humor here). Thanks in advance.


----------



## Howie

Earl Bonovich said:


> I know you didn't. But the FF loop frame doesn't happen all the time.


It's happened every time I've tried it (albeit I've only tried it on one recording - Studio 60, mpeg 4 feed from San Francisco).


----------



## spolaski

thart said:


> I am just wondering why some have issues that others don't. Why are we not all expericing the same issues.
> 
> If I get nothing but black screen recordings before the last update; then why did we not all have that issue.
> 
> Heck! 10 days ago, I had no issues!


I don't have the technical knSow-how to be sure, but there's a couple of reasons I can think of why some issues are ubiquitous, and others are experiencing them intermittently (or not at all)

1) not everyone has the same equipment (e. g. TV's connected via HDMI have issues that those connected via component cables don't seem to

2) Everyone isn't getting the same signal - some locals (particularly in HD MPEG4) have problems. Encoding is different from different satelites, etc.

3) There are bound to be some "lemon" boxes out there. Components in the hard drives, chips in the chipset and god knows what else may just be bad in a particular unit. Even if a part or unit passes QA at manufacturing, damage during shipping, installation, power surge, or any other random thing may make some boxes unreliable.

4) Software: there was a good post in an earlier thread a few weeks ago where a C++ programmer talked about memory overruns and other types of software bugs that can be difficult to suss out because they may not occur in a predictable, repeatable way.

Just my $0.02


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Scrapper said:


> I am going to ask a stupid question since I just got my HR20 2 days ago. People have mentioned the "red button reset" to reboot/restart the HR20. How does one perform this task, I keep looking for the ctrl-alt-delete keys or the Stop-A keys but my unit didn't come with a keyboard (please do not fire off on may pathetic attempt at humor here). Thanks in advance.


Front panel, lower right... behind the door.


----------



## Scrapper

Earl Bonovich said:


> Front panel, lower right... behind the door.


Thanks you I will try this tonight for kicks.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Scrapper said:


> Thanks you I will try this tonight for kicks.


Unless you are having an issue...... there is no need to try it.
As your system would have restarted when the software update came down.


----------



## NFLnut

Earl Bonovich said:


> Since the update this morning...
> 
> Other then the note frame loop, which is not a freeze.
> 
> Where are you getting the freezing and lockups, as you are the first one to report it since 0xDC release.


I merely rewound back into the live buffer. Since then, nothing BUT freezing and lockups!



> And then consider your self lucky you had no issues with your 6 TiVos, because there are plenty of people out there that have had issues.


Never had a problem with my TiVos. At least TiVo seems to have a very good Beta progam before they release software to the masses. DirecTV appears to be Beta testing on ALL of their customers!


----------



## Azeke

I rebooted (reset door) twice, once for kicks, as was previously posted, and once due to freeze, the HR-20 seems a bit more stable now. I still receive the searching for Satellite signal, but with much less frequency. I requested a new LNB pack from Directv, to see if this solves that particular problem. I have a work around, but I wish to eliminate this issue completely. I also received pixelation on HBO HD channels today, but not on Showtime HD.

My caller ID still works well. I actually have a PBX, and I have a bypass run (before it reaches the PBX box)., just for the HR-20, to ensure proper functionality.

I am still contemplating switching to Verizon TV, but I will try to exhibit a little patience.

Peace and blessings,

Azeke


----------



## Earl Bonovich

lakerholic said:


> Earl, not to derail this topic but I don't understand why D* is not addressing the dual buffer issue. To me, it has nothing to do with sports... it has to do with trying to watch two programs, live, at the same time.. and right now, try as I might, I can't do it (without recording two shows unnecessarily) and it's frustrating as all get out...


They are addressing it... However, it is not something you just crank out with a late night session of coding.

As of my last conversation (Last night), they are still where they where a few weeks ago... As they are focused on getting the system more stable and working with the features that are there now... instead of introducing more variables to the puzzle.


----------



## NFLnut

lakerholic said:


> Earl, not to derail this topic but I don't understand why D* is not addressing the dual buffer issue. To me, it has nothing to do with sports... it has to do with trying to watch two programs, live, at the same time.. and right now, try as I might, I can't do it (without recording two shows unnecessarily) and it's frustrating as all get out...


You know what else really steams me about the lack of dual live buffers that can be paused as you switch between them is that even with the single buffer now, if you, say, go to the List and then go back to Live TV, it doesn't even retain the single live buffer. It starts from the point that you go back (essentially dumping the buffer!) :mad2:

EDIT: Let me correct that.. I went to "Active" by accident. It dumped the live buffer. That's just moronic!


----------



## Earl Bonovich

NFLnut said:


> You know what else really steams me about the lack of dual live buffers that can be paused as you switch between them is that even with the singe buffer now, if you, say, go to the List and then go back to Live TV, it doesn't even retain the single live buffer. It starts fronthe point that you go back (essentially dumping the buffer!) :mad2:


The buffer doesn't dump... but the pause point does.


----------



## jbellanca

rsc92 said:


> Please excuse my ignorance, but are dual buffers different from dual tuners? Another question. I am scheduled for install on Friday. Should I hold off and keep the HD Tivo until the kinks are worked out? Is it worth waiting for the Slimline dish or do you all think the AT9 is fine?
> 
> Thanks


Personally, I think the AT9 dish is fine - it's on my roof and I don't even see it. And I'd DEFINITELY get the HR20 - don't hold off. I think it's a great machine and I haven't really had any issues other than one or two minor annoyances.


----------



## lakerholic

Earl Bonovich said:


> They are addressing it... However, it is not something you just crank out with a late night session of coding.
> 
> As of my last conversation (Last night), they are still where they where a few weeks ago... As they are focused on getting the system more stable and working with the features that are there now... instead of introducing more variables to the puzzle.


Got it, thank you. At least they're looking into it!


----------



## rhweimer

I still have problems with caller ID. Works sometimes, sometimes does not work.
Get the message I need to call for caller ID service, as others have reported. Do have DC software.


----------



## iceburg02

No dice on the caller ID for me either - hasn't worked with any software version on the HR20 including last night's upgrade. No problems with the 2 H20's that I have (no DSL in the house either).

Other than that, smooth as silk. I don't mind waiting out the caller ID issue.


----------



## NFLnut

Earl Bonovich said:


> The buffer doesn't dump... but the pause point does.


Well then, I don't know how else to explain that the 50 minutes of live buffer that I HAD on the channel it was on were dumped! I merely pressed the Active button (by accident, instead of the List button) and when I exited out of the Active menu, I had lost ALL of that buffer!

BTW -- the "Active" feature seems pretty useless!


----------



## Strejcek

Anybody lose Dolby Digital after this update?


----------



## Wolffpack

NFLnut said:


> Well then, I don't know how else to explain that the 50 minutes of live buffer that I HAD on the channel it was on were dumped! I merely pressed the Active button (by accident, instead of the List button) and when I exited out of the Active menu, I had lost ALL of that buffer!
> 
> BTW -- the "Active" feature seems pretty useless!


Isn't ACTIVE just like a channel change? Dumps the live buffer?

I always though the ACTIVE channel button was poorly placed. Right between LIST and GUIDE. DUH.


----------



## Doug Brott

iceburg02 said:


> No dice on the caller ID for me either - hasn't worked with any software version on the HR20 including last night's upgrade. No problems with the 2 H20's that I have (no DSL in the house either).
> 
> Other than that, smooth as silk. I don't mind waiting out the caller ID issue.


Still no Caller ID for me. I have a DSL whole-house filter, but all of my other Caller ID devices work just fine, including the SAT-60 that used to be connected with the same phone line.


----------



## NFLnut

Earl Bonovich said:


> Active is different the playing a previous recording.
> If you have something recording on the 2nd tuner... Active will use your primary "buffered" tunner, as Active is just a specialized channel in the system... so it is actually "changing" the channel when you go to the Active.
> 
> I also not 100% sure if it always go to the background tuner for Active...


I didn't have anything recording at the time, so apparently it uses the Primary tuner regardless, which is a design flaw .. at least in my opinion. It's bad enough not having dual buffers, but having "Active" (since it is fairly easy to accidentally press that button instead of the guide or list buttons) use the one and only buffer that we can access is a design flaw!

Besides .. as I said in an earlier post, who REALLY needs to check their horoscope or the Lotto numbers on their DVRs??!! I think there's a way to do that a whole lot easier .. it's called "the Internet!" :sure:


----------



## munangst

Hey Earl, I don't know if this is a known/expected issue or not, but I figured I'd mention it...it looks like the pixelation on FF/REW with MPEG4 recordings, and the "lockups" while FF'ing, are only present on recordings done with 0xDC. My wife was having tons of problems with FF lockups on her soaps, recorded this afternoon (after last night's update) off the MPEG4 CBS affiliate. However, on DANCING WITH THE STARS from last night (recorded with 0xD8) the problems don't show up -- either pixelation *or* FF lockups. Just a data point.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

munangst said:


> Hey Earl, I don't know if this is a known/expected issue or not, but I figured I'd mention it...it looks like the pixelation on FF/REW with MPEG4 recordings, and the "lockups" while FF'ing, are only present on recordings done with 0xDC. My wife was having tons of problems with FF lockups on her soaps, recorded this afternoon (after last night's update) off the MPEG4 CBS affiliate. However, on DANCING WITH THE STARS from last night (recorded with 0xD8) the problems don't show up -- either pixelation *or* FF lockups. Just a data point.


Thank you for the datapoint... (as that is part of the intention of this particular thread)


----------



## wakajawaka

munangst said:


> Hey Earl, I don't know if this is a known/expected issue or not, but I figured I'd mention it...it looks like the pixelation on FF/REW with MPEG4 recordings, and the "lockups" while FF'ing, are only present on recordings done with 0xDC. My wife was having tons of problems with FF lockups on her soaps, recorded this afternoon (after last night's update) off the MPEG4 CBS affiliate. However, on DANCING WITH THE STARS from last night (recorded with 0xD8) the problems don't show up -- either pixelation *or* FF lockups. Just a data point.


Not true for me. Studio 60 has the loop lockup/pixelization problem recorded on Monday.

FWIW I can use 30 sec slip and Replay to pseudo FF and REW with no lockups. Of course hitting play will clear up the lock up.


----------



## pgfitzgerald

pgfitzgerald said:


> Yes, it would.
> 
> There is no DSL on the line, so interference from DSL shouldn't be a problem.
> 
> But it would rule out the filter (Siecor SPS-H70-SR1).
> 
> I'll see if I can come up with a way to test this.
> 
> Paul


I tested the HR-20 connected directly to the NID, which bypassed all of the in-house wiring and the whole-house DSL filter. Still doesn't work.

Not sure there's anything else I can do to help identify the problem.

Paul


----------



## munangst

wakajawaka said:


> Not true for me. Studio 60 has the loop lockup/pixelization problem recorded on Monday.
> 
> FWIW I can use 30 sec slip and Replay to pseudo FF and REW with no lockups. Of course hitting play will clear up the lock up.


Hmm, maybe it's a 720p vs. 1080i issue? The wife's soaps are on CBS (1080i) and Studio 60 is on NBC (also 1080i), but DANCING is on ABC (720p).

This also makes me wonder if the FF/REW is implemented using the same data stream as the live show, or if the DVR simultaneously records both the full stream and (one or more) auxiliary streams that it uses for FF/REW. This could cause issues during recording to show up later when you play the stream.


----------



## awursta

wakajawaka said:


> Not true for me. Studio 60 has the loop lockup/pixelization problem recorded on Monday.
> 
> FWIW I can use 30 sec slip and Replay to pseudo FF and REW with no lockups. Of course hitting play will clear up the lock up.


I just finished watching Studio 60 and experienced the same lockup/pixelization. I hope they fix this one soon. My wife just looked at me and asked why I got this piece of %^&$! The freezes always seem to happen on her shows. Always worked great for me.


----------



## ktabel01

After this new update, half my HD channels (ESPN, HBO, Showtime) are not showing up despite all my signal strengths being >90%. No problems with my muliplexer either. What gives, every update is worse worse worse!!!!


----------



## wakajawaka

munangst said:


> Hmm, maybe it's a 720p vs. 1080i issue? The wife's soaps are on CBS (1080i) and Studio 60 is on NBC (also 1080i), but DANCING is on ABC (720p).
> 
> This also makes me wonder if the FF/REW is implemented using the same data stream as the live show, or if the DVR simultaneously records both the full stream and (one or more) auxiliary streams that it uses for FF/REW. This could cause issues during recording to show up later when you play the stream.


You might be on to something, just checked, we have 6 Degrees on ABC recorded from a few nights ago pre update and it FF/REW just fine. All NBC/CBS shows Heroes/New Christine/Studio 60 had the lockup issue.


----------



## hasan

ktabel01 said:


> After this new update, half my HD channels (ESPN, HBO, Showtime) are not showing up despite all my signal strengths being >90%. No problems with my muliplexer either. What gives, every update is worse worse worse!!!!


Try a red button reset (behind the door where the access card is)


----------



## ktabel01

hasan said:


> Try a red button reset (behind the door where the access card is)


Yeah, did this. Before the reset got an error message when I tried tuning these channels saying the receiver was searching for a signal. After the reset, the channels aren't even listed in the guide.


----------



## matto

ktabel01 said:


> Yeah, did this. Before the reset got an error message when I tried tuning these channels saying the receiver was searching for a signal. After the reset, the channels aren't even listed in the guide.


You seriously dont expect to have ALL your channels, the ability to WATCH RECORDINGS, and a working FAST FORWARD all the time, do you?

Come on, software engineering is all about TRADEOFFS, and you need to get a BIG DOSE OF REALITY. We can't have EVERYTHING we want, ALL THE TIME!


----------



## hasan

ktabel01 said:


> Yeah, did this. Before the reset got an error message when I tried tuning these channels saying the receiver was searching for a signal. After the reset, the channels aren't even listed in the guide.


If you have checked the signal levels (to make sure you don't have a cabling/lnb probelm), try the red button reset again.


----------



## ktabel01

hasan said:


> If you have checked the signal levels (to make sure you don't have a cabling/lnb probelm), try the red button reset again.


Gotta run, will give it a try and check back later with an update. thanks for the replies.


----------



## RunnerFL

Radio Enginerd said:


> I'm starting to think it would be in DTV's best interest to STOP distributing the HR-20 for the time being. Perhaps treat the current customers (anyone that has an HR-20) as a beta group...


Considering that they are pretty much out of HR10's what would you suggest they send to customers who want HD DVR's then if you are suggesting they stop sending out the HR20?


----------



## Davenlr

Strejcek said:


> Anybody lose Dolby Digital after this update?


Mine is still working ok. I have noticed when starting to play recorded shows, sometimes there is no audio. I hit pause, then play, and the audio kicks in.


----------



## vlj9r

Mike Huss said:


> I can confirm the caller-id works, I tested that. Haven't verified the other stuff yet.


My caller ID info is not displayed on the TV screen when the phone rings but I can find the call's info under the caller id & message menu.

All other receivers have no problem displaying the caller's ID. Only the HR20-700. The H20 was connected to the same line and it worked fine.

Go figure!


----------



## munangst

Earl,

Not sure if this has been reported elsewhere, but I don't think I've seen it. I am having a ton of trouble trying to record two MPEG4 HD programs at the same time + play back one of the programs from a different point. (i.e., let two HD programs start recording, wait 5 minutes, then go to the MyVOD list and start one of the two playing from the beginning.) It also happens if you try to pause/rewind the live buffer of one of the shows. The video gets very jumpy and the audio drops out a lot. To my eye it almost looks like the HR20's hard drive is too slow to keep up with the I/O requirements of recording two HD streams and playing one of them back. I've also noticed that other tasks (i.e., scrolling the guide) seem to slow down when the box is recording two MPEG4 HD channels simultaneously.

I'm also seeing what I think are I/O error retries from the disk. Sometimes while playing back a recorded show, the video/audio will freeze and there will be the characteristic "click...click...click" coming from the unit (audible across the room). While this is happening, the unit locks up completely (doesn't respond to any remote commands, doesn't even blink the POWER light to show it's receiving them). Sometimes it will recover on its own, sometimes you will have to FF or 30-sec skip out of the bad spot in the recording. Rewinding to before the bad spot & replaying it usually hits the same problem. Once you skip past the bad spot the show plays back fine.

Is there a way to retrieve the SMART attributes from the internal hard drive? I'm wondering if the HDD is going bad (and I need a new box) or if these are just software bugs related to I/O scheduling or media error handling.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

munangst said:


> Earl,
> 
> Not sure if this has been reported elsewhere, but I don't think I've seen it. I am having a ton of trouble trying to record two MPEG4 HD programs at the same time + play back one of the programs from a different point. (i.e., let two HD programs start recording, wait 5 minutes, then go to the MyVOD list and start one of the two playing from the beginning.) It also happens if you try to pause/rewind the live buffer of one of the shows. The video gets very jumpy and the audio drops out a lot. To my eye it almost looks like the HR20's hard drive is too slow to keep up with the I/O requirements of recording two HD streams and playing one of them back. I've also noticed that other tasks (i.e., scrolling the guide) seem to slow down when the box is recording two MPEG4 HD channels simultaneously.
> 
> I'm also seeing what I think are I/O error retries from the disk. Sometimes while playing back a recorded show, the video/audio will freeze and there will be the characteristic "click...click...click" coming from the unit (audible across the room). While this is happening, the unit locks up completely (doesn't respond to any remote commands, doesn't even blink the POWER light to show it's receiving them). Sometimes it will recover on its own, sometimes you will have to FF or 30-sec skip out of the bad spot in the recording. Rewinding to before the bad spot & replaying it usually hits the same problem. Once you skip past the bad spot the show plays back fine.
> 
> Is there a way to retrieve the SMART attributes from the internal hard drive? I'm wondering if the HDD is going bad (and I need a new box) or if these are just software bugs related to I/O scheduling or media error handling.


I have regularly recorded two MPEG-4s and watched one... so I know the system can do it. I am thinking as you are as well... that your hard drive has gone bad. Especially the click...click...click...

As far as I know, no there is no way to retrieve the SMART attributes.

I really do think you are having a hard drive issue there.


----------



## wg8170

Earl, a couple of questions regarding the new FF problem in the latest update. Was this something that they "couldn't" avoid as side-effect of the other fixes or was it unexpected. If it is the former, then they obviously have some work to do to resolve, however if it was the latter, I imagine its just a matter of tracing back through the new code to find the conflict. Is it possible, since this is a widespread problem that can be directly attributed to the update, that they would issue a "hot-fix" instead of waiting the the historical 7-10 days? 
I do quite a bit of "final-beta" testing for some of our vendors and this is common practice when a new bug is introduced as a direct result of new code.

-wg


----------



## Earl Bonovich

wg8170 said:


> Earl, a couple of questions regarding the new FF problem in the latest update. Was this something that they "couldn't" avoid as side-effect of the other fixes or was it unexpected. If it is the former, then they obviously have some work to do to resolve, however if it was the latter, I imagine its just a matter of tracing back through the new code to find the conflict. Is it possible, since this is a widespread problem that can be directly attributed to the update, that they would issue a "hot-fix" instead of waiting the the historical 7-10 days?
> I do quite a bit of "final-beta" testing for some of our vendors and this is common practice when a new bug is introduced as a direct result of new code.
> 
> -wg


At this point, it was something they "couldn't" avoid. 
They need to fix the reasons for the bad recordings, and improper playback. In doing so, they needed to update some other segments of the code... Which resulted in what we are seeing with the pixelizing (and the occasional loop frame).

They made the decision to go ahead with the update, to at least get a recording that can be played back... then hold it, till they had the TrickPlay pixelizing corrected as well.


----------



## billt1111

Earl, I got the update this morning as well. I noticed that my guide still has 14 days of data in it. I have not had to reset in weeks and have very few problems with my box so that it is plausible that it is there. Why doesn't the reset after the download clear the guide? I thought that reset was the same as a red button push.


----------



## roguebjp

Earl:

Don't know if it's been reported yet since I didn't have time to read all 11 pages of messages for this thread, but....

Up until yesterday my digital audio was working perfectly on the HR20....I have a tuner/amplifier that is connected to the HR20 via an optical cable and it was working perfectly until this new software update. Now, it takes up to 30 seconds to be able to hear the audio when tuning to a channel brodcasting in Dolby Digital (whether recorded or live). This has nothing to do with HD since it happens on non HD channels that broadcast using Dolby Digital (HBO channel 501, for example).

This really sucks since it makes fast-forwarding, rewinding or pausing a program EXTREMELY bothersome (practically impossible since you have to wait several seconds for the audio to return).

Whatever they did with the digital audio in this software update....tell them to PLEASE UNDO IT!!

Bernardo in Miami


----------



## Earl Bonovich

billt1111 said:


> Earl, I got the update this morning as well. I noticed that my guide still has 14 days of data in it. I have not had to reset in weeks and have very few problems with my box so that it is plausible that it is there. Why doesn't the reset after the download clear the guide? I thought that reset was the same as a red button push.


It does reset the guide data... but if it happend this morning, and the unit was in standby all day... it is very concievable that the channels you are looking at have already loaded their 14 days worth of data.


----------



## jkc120

Earl Bonovich said:


> Scratch that...
> 
> What I am going to do... is go through this thread... and take out all the non-release banter... and move it to it's own thread.
> 
> Bare with me while I do this.


Should I wait to post some feedback on the release then? Or just do it here?


----------



## billt1111

After 5 weeks of no caller ID it started working now with 0xDC, at least for the first 10 test calls. I have Verizon Fios as my provider. That was the only real issue I have had with my 2 HR20s. I know it is HIGHLY unpopular with many of the members here to say anything positive about the D* engineering group working on this project but "Thanks guys" for your hard work.


----------



## deltadave

Glad caller ID is finally working, but as someone else said: My wife is about to throw this box out the window with this FF/RW issue while she's watching a show right now. 

Thanks though to Earl and DBStalk.com - I told her I'd come here to see what was up and found the answser in about 10 seconds!!!


----------



## neotide

Earl Bonovich said:


> Scratch that...
> 
> What I am going to do... is go through this thread... and take out all the non-release banter... and move it to it's own thread.
> 
> Bare with me while I do this.


Thank you for getting this thread back on topic.

Also my pink issues over HDMI have gone away this latest release. Also it seems to take a little less time to tune in HD over HDMI. I actually disconnected my component cables and so far all is well.

Any news on getting the Austin local HD MPEG4 fixed as that's still not right after this release?


----------



## csdan

ktabel01 said:


> Yeah, did this. Before the reset got an error message when I tried tuning these channels saying the receiver was searching for a signal. After the reset, the channels aren't even listed in the guide.


I had this problem of not getting my HD channels too, I eventually went out to the Satellite and unplugged and replugged the two wires coming off the LNB that is off by itself. Since then I've had no problems.

I too am having lockups with FFW and RWD, but using the 30sec skip still seems to work to get me through commercials.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Okay... I created the HR20 - 0xDC Banter Thread:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=66954

If you are looking for your post... I probably moved it there.
No threads where deleted.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jkc120 said:


> Should I wait to post some feedback on the release then? Or just do it here?


Go ahead and leave yoru feedback.


----------



## PoitNarf

Wow, look at all the crap that was in that thread. Let's try to keep the stickied one to topic if possible.

Edit: I see you moved my post in the opposite direction Earl


----------



## hasan

Earl Bonovich said:


> Okay... I created the HR20 - 0xDC Banter Thread:
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=66954
> 
> If you are looking for your post... I probably moved it there.
> No threads where deleted.


Thanks, as a contributor to both. This one needs to be kept on topic!


----------



## JohnMav

For me Caller Id still does not work (worked fine with my H20 and the same phone line; DSL with Filter)

Optical sound is working fine and HDMI switching seems to get better every release (did not work at all with H20-- Pio 5070)


----------



## awursta

munangst said:


> Earl,
> 
> Not sure if this has been reported elsewhere, but I don't think I've seen it. I am having a ton of trouble trying to record two MPEG4 HD programs at the same time + play back one of the programs from a different point. (i.e., let two HD programs start recording, wait 5 minutes, then go to the MyVOD list and start one of the two playing from the beginning.) It also happens if you try to pause/rewind the live buffer of one of the shows. The video gets very jumpy and the audio drops out a lot. To my eye it almost looks like the HR20's hard drive is too slow to keep up with the I/O requirements of recording two HD streams and playing one of them back. I've also noticed that other tasks (i.e., scrolling the guide) seem to slow down when the box is recording two MPEG4 HD channels simultaneously.
> 
> I'm also seeing what I think are I/O error retries from the disk. Sometimes while playing back a recorded show, the video/audio will freeze and there will be the characteristic "click...click...click" coming from the unit (audible across the room). While this is happening, the unit locks up completely (doesn't respond to any remote commands, doesn't even blink the POWER light to show it's receiving them). Sometimes it will recover on its own, sometimes you will have to FF or 30-sec skip out of the bad spot in the recording. Rewinding to before the bad spot & replaying it usually hits the same problem. Once you skip past the bad spot the show plays back fine.
> 
> Is there a way to retrieve the SMART attributes from the internal hard drive? I'm wondering if the HDD is going bad (and I need a new box) or if these are just software bugs related to I/O scheduling or media error handling.


I just experienced something similar to the problem with the audio dropping out. I was recording Jericho and 30 Rock, both in HD. After about 5 mins I went and started to watch Jericho but the audio started to drop out about every 5 secs or so. I stopped the recording of Jericho and went to the SD channel watched for a min and then tuned back to the HD channel. The audio then played fine. I was no longer recording 2 shows though.... Don't know...


----------



## jkc120

Earl Bonovich said:


> Go ahead and leave yoru feedback.


Thanks.

Two things I've noticed:

1) the ffw pixelation thing, which was obviously a known issue. However, I'm not sure if it's just me but it seems like after a 3x FFW, hitting play still skips a few seconds ahead of where it looks like it should stop (and where it would have stopped with 0xD8). Not a big deal, but it's an extra review button push to get back an extra few seconds.

2) dolby digital - seems louder (which is a good thing). I'm not sure why, but with prior software versions, the DD channels were much quieter, so I had to increase the volume a lot. But at least so far, it seems like the DD output is much closer if not the same as the non-DD channels.

3) still no verdict on whether the lockups I was having are fixed (where playing back a recording that was "broken" resulted in a total freeze of the unit). I'm hoping this is fixed, as I would much rather live with pixelation of the ffw stuff than a locked up box I have to reset what seems like daily.


----------



## Twosted

awursta said:


> I just experienced something similar to the problem with the audio dropping out. I was recording Jericho and 30 Rock, both in HD. After about 5 mins I went and started to watch Jericho but the audio started to drop out about every 5 secs or so. I stopped the recording of Jericho and went to the SD channel watched for a min and then tuned back to the HD channel. The audio then played fine. I was no longer recording 2 shows though.... Don't know...


I had that problem last night before the new update.


----------



## jbstix

Interesting MPEG4 tonight...
Doing some testing tonight, recorded the MPEG4 HD showing of Lost and not one pixelation, and not one freeze on FF/RW.
But, recorded MPEG4 HD of Jericho, and had both problems - very badly.
So, is this some how an issue with certain local HD feeds/stations?
Very weird indeed - the recording of list played back flawlessly, w/o one glitch...
So, at least here in Atlanta, ABC MP4 HD was perfect (i'm recording The Nine as well to test) but, CBS MP4 HD has all the new bugs.
Anyone seeing different actions when recording from different HD local feeds?

thanks


----------



## RMSko

I've had my HR20 for about 3 weeks with no problems - until the new update. Now FF 3xs is not working well. On many shows it just stops progressing. Also, I had a macro set into my Pronto remote that entered 6 replay codes right after another. I would use it after using the FF in order to address the "overshoot" issue when fast forwarding. The macro worked flawlessly before this update, however, now it does rewind but only about 1/10th of the amount it did before the update.


----------



## mwhip

I noticed FF is different it the image does not seem to keep up with the speed. When I was FF'ing through commercials during Lost and noticed I had hit the program I was well 2 or 3 minutes into the program.


----------



## hobbes

munangst said:


> Hey Earl, I don't know if this is a known/expected issue or not, but I figured I'd mention it...it looks like the pixelation on FF/REW with MPEG4 recordings, and the "lockups" while FF'ing, are only present on recordings done with 0xDC. My wife was having tons of problems with FF lockups on her soaps, recorded this afternoon (after last night's update) off the MPEG4 CBS affiliate. However, on DANCING WITH THE STARS from last night (recorded with 0xD8) the problems don't show up -- either pixelation *or* FF lockups. Just a data point.


Sorry to say I had both pixelation and frame freeze when playing back MPEG4 recordings from last night: Law and Order CI and Law and Order SVU.

Definitely not a big deal though... just hit slip 7 times and kept reading threads until it came back.

However, I had NO pixelization and NO frozen frame when fast forwarding or slipping an SD recording of CSI NY being recorded about 10 minutes ahead of viewing.

Yea data points!


----------



## Vinny

jbstix said:


> Interesting MPEG4 tonight...
> Doing some testing tonight, recorded the MPEG4 HD showing of Lost and not one pixelation, and not one freeze on FF/RW.
> 
> thanks


I recorded Lost as well and while FF I didn't see any pixilation either. There was pixilation on 30 Rock tho. Both were MPEG4 recordings.

Strange.


----------



## dervari

Strange...I experienced no pixelization or looping problems with ABC MPEG4 tonight.


----------



## 408SJC

The screensaver now comes on while watching a recorded program. Only a little annoying just press a button on remote and will playback normally. So far only seen it on recorded programs not live tv. Will post if it starts while watching live tv


----------



## jbstix

dervari said:


> Strange...I experienced no pixelization or looping problems with ABC MPEG4 tonight.


So the question is:

What, if anything, is different about the ABC MP4 HD feed in relation to D*???

I have definitely seen these new issues on every CBS MP4 HD show since the update.

I tried this with Native resolution turned on and off, just to see if that made any difference.


----------



## Vinny

jbstix said:


> So the question is:
> 
> What, if anything, is different about the ABC MP4 HD feed in relation to D*???
> 
> I have definitely seen these new issues on every CBS MP4 HD show since the update.
> 
> I tried this with Native resolution turned on and off, just to see if that made any difference.


OK...I just RW and FF the baseball game on FOX...no pixilation there either.


----------



## wakajawaka

jbstix said:


> Interesting MPEG4 tonight...
> Doing some testing tonight, recorded the MPEG4 HD showing of Lost and not one pixelation, and not one freeze on FF/RW.
> But, recorded MPEG4 HD of Jericho, and had both problems - very badly.
> So, is this some how an issue with certain local HD feeds/stations?
> Very weird indeed - the recording of list played back flawlessly, w/o one glitch...
> So, at least here in Atlanta, ABC MP4 HD was perfect (i'm recording The Nine as well to test) but, CBS MP4 HD has all the new bugs.
> Anyone seeing different actions when recording from different HD local feeds?
> 
> thanks


No. All CBS/NBC feeds have the PROBLEM (Heroes, New Christine) (1080i I believe)

My ABC Lost, Dancing w/the Stars (720p I believe) does not have the PROBLEM

I haven't checked FOX. (Are they 720p or 1080i?)

It could be 1080i vs 720p we're looking at here. Hope this helps the programmers. I'm off to bed.


----------



## Bloomers

I'm new to this site, but Earl - you definetly seem to be the "source". I started with UTV, then got an HR10 when I needed HD. The HR10 was solid but the menu structure and speed pretty much sucked. Soooo I got an HR20. I can deal with the bugs of a new unit, but am having a real hard time without OTA. It seems nuts to put out a box without this, when it was previously available - What were they thinking????


----------



## PoitNarf

Bloomers said:


> I'm new to this site, but Earl - you definetly seem to be the "source". I started with UTV, then got an HR10 when I needed HD. The HR10 was solid but the menu structure and speed pretty much sucked. Soooo I got an HR20. I can deal with the bugs of a new unit, but am having a real hard time without OTA. It seems nuts to put out a box without this, when it was previously available - What were they thinking????


OTA is coming soon, hang in there, and welcome to the forum


----------



## Davenlr

Vinny said:


> I recorded Lost as well and while FF I didn't see any pixilation either. There was pixilation on 30 Rock tho. Both were MPEG4 recordings.
> 
> Strange.


Not so strange maybe... ABC is 720p, the others are 1080i. Maybe it only fails on 1080i recordings...


----------



## jbstix

wakajawaka said:


> No. All CBS/NBC feeds have the PROBLEM (Heroes, New Christine) (1080i I believe)
> 
> My ABC Lost, Dancing w/the Stars (720p I believe) does not have the PROBLEM
> 
> I haven't checked FOX. (Are they 720p or 1080i?)
> 
> It could be 1080i vs 720p we're looking at here. Hope this helps the programmers. I'm off to bed.


You are right on the money wakajawaka.

With Native resolution turned on, Lost was in 720p (no problems).
But, like you said, watching CBS CSI:NY 1080i the pixelation and looping problem.

This is from Earl's updated Release notes:
Known Issues with release
Pixelization During FF/RW functions. Noticeable primariy in 1080i/720p MPEG4 recordings, while FF/RW the video play pixelizes. This is due to updates with the MPEG4 code (which was changed to address other issues), the pixelizing will be corrected in a future release.
During FF/RW motions, you may experience a LOOPING frame. The work around is to exit the FF/RW motion and use 30s SLIP, Reverse Jump, or normal playback to get past the point. This is expected to occur only with MPEG4 recordings only.

Is anyone seeing these issues with 720p recordings? This is easily tested with Native resolution turned on.
Maybe we're getting somewhere, maybe not???

good luck


----------



## Bighead

mwhip said:


> I noticed FF is different it the image does not seem to keep up with the speed. When I was FF'ing through commercials during Lost and noticed I had hit the program I was well 2 or 3 minutes into the program.


I experienced the exact same problem this evening. I also noticed pixelation during FF (I can live with that for now), but this seems to be something different.

Edit: FWIW, the FF problems occurred on two shows - one on ABC and one on NBC, but both MPEG4 HD broadcasts).


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jbstix said:


> UICK EDIT HERE: recorded Weeds on SHOWHD, 1080i resolution, but no FF/RW pixelation or looping issues at all. Don't know if that helps anything but seems very interesting to me, since that (I believe) is broadcast differently than our local HD feeds.


Show-HD is MPEG-2 not MPEG4


----------



## jbstix

Earl Bonovich said:


> Show-HD is MPEG-2 not MPEG4


My bad Earl, I forgot about that...  
I removed that part of my post - you can delete this post if you need.


----------



## wakajawaka

munangst is to be credited if it is 1080i vs 720p


----------



## jbstix

Earl,

What are your thoughts on the 1080i/720p issue?
If it is proven that it is only 1080i recordings, do you think it will be resolved pretty quickly?

thanks for your input


----------



## Monty23

Well here is my 2 cents with the new update. Things seem to be MUCH better tonight. I have the FF problem with Mpeg4 as expected. The only problem tonight was lots of audio dropouts with Mpeg4 programming. But... we are making progress.


----------



## jbstix

Monty23 said:


> Well here is my 2 cents with the new update. Things seem to be MUCH better tonight. I have the FF problem with Mpeg4 as expected. The only problem tonight was lots of audio dropouts with Mpeg4 programming. But... we are making progress.


Did you have FF/RW problems on both 1080i and 720p recordings, or just 1080i?
Weird, I didn't have any audio issues here in Atlanta tonight.

good luck


----------



## Monty23

jbstix said:


> Did you have FF/RW problems on both 1080i and 720p recordings, or just 1080i?
> Weird, I didn't have any audio issues here in Atlanta tonight.
> 
> good luck


I have it fixed at 1080i output only. I was recording LOST and another Mpeg4 program at the same time but was also watching LOST live. Had lots of audio dropouts with LOST. I am using just the analog audio output. No DD. This was the only problem other than the FF that I had tonight.


----------



## dougthonus

Recorded "Lost" tonight, and the video and audio did not sync at all. It was an mpeg4 recording.


----------



## Christi

jkc120 said:


> Thanks.
> 
> However, I'm not sure if it's just me but it seems like after a 3x FFW, hitting play still skips a few seconds ahead of where it looks like it should stop (and where it would have stopped with 0xD8). Not a big deal, but it's an extra review button push to get back an extra few seconds.
> .


I just wanted to echo the comment brought up above where the timing seems off on the FFW (1x, 2x and 3x). In each of these, it appears to skip ahead of where you hit stop. This was especially noticeable on the A's-Tigers game tonight. After a 3x FFW through a commercial, I pressed stop at the end of the commercial and it started playing with 2 outs instead of the beginning of the inning. While the FFW timing has never been as good on the HR20 as on my TiVo, it seems to have gotten worse with this update.


----------



## thart

I had no problem with my HD recording of Lost! No pixelation during FF, but I did notice that the program paused on it own one time during the show. 

I checked to make sure that I didn't accidentally hit the remote, but it was not within reach.

Anyone else experienced this issue?


----------



## dougthonus

Besides having no audio sync with my lost recording the program seems to go slow mo than fastforward at random and paused once in the middle. This never seems to sync the audio any better, but clearly did not work well.

I recorded Jerichon in mpg4 tonight as well, and it worked fine. Also have 2 non HD shows, but haven't watched them yet.


----------



## jkc120

Christi said:


> I just wanted to echo the comment brought up above where the timing seems off on the FFW (1x, 2x and 3x). In each of these, it appears to skip ahead of where you hit stop. This was especially noticeable on the A's-Tigers game tonight. After a 3x FFW through a commercial, I pressed stop at the end of the commercial and it started playing with 2 outs instead of the beginning of the inning. While the FFW timing has never been as good on the HR20 as on my TiVo, it seems to have gotten worse with this update.


For SD stuff, it's a few seconds forward, but it's terrible for MPEG4 stuff. Watching Lost tonight, when I hit stop it's sometimes 3-4 minutes into the show! Unacceptable...they need to fix the FFWD problems ASAP I think.


----------



## npm

I am having a slightly different ff/rw problem that is driving me crazy. When I ff or rw and press play, the recording will skip forward or backwards (respectively) several minutes. One time it went 4 minutes ahead. 1x, 2x or 3x does not matter. I am only watching mp4 locals on this machine. The recordings I have watched, so far, were recorded prior to this update.

It is next to impossible to get where I want after commercial breaks. It takes several tries with 1x ff/rw.

Component to a Sony KDF-42A10.


----------



## PR Buick

I've had pretty much the same issues as other posters re the ff problem-- unfortunately, I discovered it while my wife and I were watching a show. She's pretty much hated the new box since day one, so this just adds more fuel for the fire (i.e. more complaining). Prior to this, the only problems I'd run into was a screwed up recording of Enterprise (that only recorded about 5 seconds of the show) and fairly constant dropouts from our local fox HD channel.

Hopefully, they'll fix this ff issue quickly-- as of right now, the function has been rendered completely useless. (And I haven't noticed any improvement--not that I'd thought it was that bad to begin with-- of mpeg4 material, so it's all the more frustraiting...)


----------



## somguy

runopenloop said:


> Having a problem with trick play FF and REW on the active buffered program (not recording). Watching Leno on my HD local. Sometimes it goes to 1, 2, or 3 << or >> but does not actually move in the buffer. Sometimes the display jitters between a couple of frames sometimes just stays on one frame.
> 
> The pixelization is kinda ugly. Glad to hear that will be corrected later.


I had the same problem before the 0xdc download from playback of recorded program of Heroes from Monday night 10/09/06. However, I did play it back just after the 0xdc update but I believe the problem was in the actual recording. When trying to fast forward the commercials, in any speed, it would freeze on an image and rock back and forth and no longer fast forward. I basically was forced to watch the commercials in order to watch my program. I spoke to D* to advise them of the situation.

Also Friday Night Lights from 10/10/06 was in MY VOD, receiver updated to 0xdc, after system resetted the program is no longer in MY VOD however, it shows under History as Recorded, not Deleted, but I never got to watch the show. Luckily I caught it on NBC.com. I also advised D* of the situation.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

somguy said:


> ...
> When trying to fast forward the commercials, in any speed, it would freeze on an image and rock back and forth and no longer fast forward. I basically was forced to watch the commercials in order to watch my program.
> ...
> Also Friday Night Lights from 10/10/06 was in MY VOD, receiver updated to 0xdc, after system resetted the program is no longer in MY VOD however, it shows under History as Recorded, not Deleted, but I never got to watch the show. Luckily I caught it on NBC.com. I also advised D* of the situation.


The "rock" image is the Frame Looping we have been talking about in this thread. It is known issue. You can use the 30s to get past that point.

As for Friday Night Lights, it is possible since it was recorded on 0xD8, that it was a corrupted recording which is why it erased on the restart. One of the things 0xDC hopfully has eliminated.


----------



## vlj9r

Any thoughts on why the caller ID seems to work fine for some but not for others? My receiver is able to capture the caller's info and it can be seen under the calls & msg menu but it does not display it on the tv screen. That is just a very strange behavior.


----------



## Gotchaa

npm said:


> I am having a slightly different ff/rw problem that is driving me crazy. When I ff or rw and press play, the recording will skip forward or backwards (respectively) several minutes. One time it went 4 minutes ahead. 1x, 2x or 3x does not matter. I am only watching mp4 locals on this machine. The recordings I have watched, so far, were recorded prior to this update.
> 
> It is next to impossible to get where I want after commercial breaks. It takes several tries with 1x ff/rw.
> 
> Component to a Sony KDF-42A10.


I am having a major issue with the fast foward and rewind of programs. Spent 5 hours watching to catch up with some shows, and it is CRAP. Just as I was getting use to the timing of 3x and replay, they have TOTALLY changed the timing and it now skips like crazy randomly minutes ahead and backwards.

Unusable for me.


----------



## gr8reb8

Gotchaa said:


> I am having a major issue with the fast foward and rewind of programs. Spent 5 hours watching to catch up with some shows, and it is CRAP. Just as I was getting use to the timing of 3x and replay, they have TOTALLY changed the timing and it now skips like crazy randomly minutes ahead and backwards.
> 
> Unusable for me.


Does it affect anything other than 1080i Mpeg4 channels? (local mpeg4 channels like CBS and NBC)


----------



## patsrule316

Recorded Lost and Jericho on MPEG4 last night.

Jericho would lockup after a short while on fast forward, and pixelate during fast forward or 30 second advance.

Lost would not lockup during fast forward, but would pixelate as well. It also did have problems with advancing when cominging out of fast forward, but it would only be about 30 seconds, not minutes like others reported. Also, and this seems to be our local ABC broadcaster, but 3 times during Lost, the screen would be green and pixelated (but not the same way as the fast-forward pixelating) for about 30 seconds each time. Every ABC recording I have made since getting the box a couple weeks ago has done this. No other stations do this.

I didn't have any serious audio problems or synch problems in either broadcast, but I do have them from time to time. Heroes on Monday was pretty bad.


----------



## JohnMav

Wondering if many of the MPEG4 1080i problems aren't HR20 related but picture quality related. Many of us have had problems with the MPEG4 1080i stuff in general (especially with any sports)...


----------



## fdeitz

deltadave said:


> Glad caller ID is finally working, but as someone else said: My wife is about to throw this box out the window with this FF/RW issue while she's watching a show right now.
> 
> Thanks though to Earl and DBStalk.com - I told her I'd come here to see what was up and found the answser in about 10 seconds!!!


CallerID still doesn't work for me. Have DSL and am using the output from the DSL filter. If I plug a phone into the cable that I have connected to the HR20 caller ID works fine on that phone. I have a feeling they need to look into the issue of callerID on a DSL line since it seems like a lot of people still are having problems, and at least some of those have DSL. Anyway, obviously the callerID issue is fixed for some people but not all.


----------



## larcar

fdeitz said:


> CallerID still doesn't work for me. Have DSL and am using the output from the DSL filter. If I plug a phone into the cable that I have connected to the HR20 caller ID works fine on that phone. I have a feeling they need to look into the issue of callerID on a DSL line since it seems like a lot of people still are having problems, and at least some of those have DSL. Anyway, obviously the callerID issue is fixed for some people but not all.


Same here, never worked and still doesn't. Using dsl filter also. Works with H20 but not HR20.


----------



## Chris Blount

When I record The Tonight Show from my local MPEG 4, it displays the ff/rw problem. They really need to fix this problem ASAP!


----------



## hasan

At about 9 p.m. last night as I was switching back and forth between OTA on my Sammy (ball game) and the HR20, I all of a sudden got a "not subscribed" message on the satellite SD version of the game. I thought...hmmm...someone must have screwed up at D*...my local (non-HD) channel via sat should never say that. Then I switched to CNN, got the same message. It would appear after a few seconds on all channels. It didn't blank the screen...just appeared as a "box" message in the lower right hand corner. It did this on all channels. I let it sit for an hour while I watched Leno in HD on the Sammy. Checked back: same symptom. Basically I was being told that all channels were not subscribed (kinda), and then it would disappear, reappear, hitting "exit" caused it to go away too.

Red button reset solved the problem and it has not come back as of this morning. This has not happened prior to 0xDC, and it may not happen again. I'll keep an eye on it. Anyone else have this happen?


----------



## bakerfall

Chris Blount said:


> When I record The Tonight Show from my local MPEG 4, it displays the ff/rw problem. They really need to fix this problem ASAP!


I have to say that it is dumbfounding to me that they would release a software update that causes a bigger problem then any existing one. Not being able to FF/RW with a DVR is absolutely absurd. Yes I know you can use the 30 sec slip, but it is ridiculous how difficult it is to try and get to a specific point doing this.

FWIW, I have only seen this on 1080i MPEG4 recordings that were recorded before and after the update. I didn't try any 720p MPEG4 recordings (because I didn't have any), but 1080i MPEG2 recordings work fine.


----------



## joej

Hello, new HR20 user here (it was installed two days ago).

After reading all 11 pages it appears that the messed up recording are gone which is good news I would say. 

I had a problem last night that hasn't been reported yet from what I can tell.

I came home and turned on the DVR and lucky for me it was on NBC (the MPEG-4 channel) and about 15 minutes into "30 Rock" already, since I wanted to watch this show but forgot to record it I rewound in the live buffer back to the beginning of the show. I over shot the start by a few minutes, I then could not FF, RW, 30second slip or anything else I tried. It would not play, after maybe a minute of me messing with it and hitting buttons trying to get out of the lock, the machine rebooted by itself.

My HR10 used to re-boot all the time for no reason so I guess I'm kind of used to it.

Thanks
Joe


----------



## RunnerFL

bakerfall said:


> I have to say that it is dumbfounding to me that they would release a software update that causes a bigger problem then any existing one. Not being able to FF/RW with a DVR is absolutely absurd. Yes I know you can use the 30 sec slip, but it is ridiculous how difficult it is to try and get to a specific point doing this.


This update doesn't cause a bigger problem, it fixes the bigger problem. You're saying some pixelation when in FF is worse than black screen recordings or recordings that won't play? Hardly...

Do you really need a pristine picture while in FF? Afterall you are FF'ing, that must mean you don't want to watch what you are FF'ing...


----------



## bakerfall

RunnerFL said:


> This update doesn't cause a bigger problem, it fixes the bigger problem. You're saying some pixelation when in FF is worse than black screen recordings or recordings that won't play? Hardly...
> 
> Do you really need a pristine picture while in FF? Afterall you are FF'ing, that must mean you don't want to watch what you are FF'ing...


I don't think you are aware of the problem I am talking about. The issue isn't pixelation, the issue is that the FF STOPS and skips back and forth between two frames causing you to hit play and either watch or 30 sec slip past this point, then start the whole process over again. I could care less about the pixelation, but prior to this update I could use FF and RW without issue, now I can't. They don't work.


----------



## spolaski

hasan said:


> At about 9 p.m. last night as I was switching back and forth between OTA on my Sammy (ball game) and the HR20, I all of a sudden got a "not subscribed" message on the satellite SD version of the game. I thought...hmmm...someone must have screwed up at D*...my local (non-HD) channel via sat should never say that. Then I switched to CNN, got the same message. It would appear after a few seconds on all channels. It didn't blank the screen...just appeared as a "box" message in the lower right hand corner. It did this on all channels. I let it sit for an hour while I watched Leno in HD on the Sammy. Checked back: same symptom. Basically I was being told that all channels were not subscribed (kinda), and then it would disappear, reappear, hitting "exit" caused it to go away too.
> 
> Red button reset solved the problem and it has not come back as of this morning. This has not happened prior to 0xDC, and it may not happen again. I'll keep an eye on it. Anyone else have this happen?


I had it a few times when the system was new, but it was due to having an incompatible multiswitch installed -- so I don't think that applies to you. Not too helpful, I know, but at least it's a data point.

Steve


----------



## Howie

In my opinion, I think they need to come up with a fix for this FF/RW/Replay issue before next Wednesday. This is just not acceptable. Jeez, the time it takes to try to skip commercials and get to the correct spot where the program starts again you're better off just watching the stupid commercials. I dropped a few F-bombs trying to watch Lost last night. But on the bright side, didn't everyone think last night's Lost episode was particulary good? Man, what the heck is going on there? I can't wait for next week's show.


----------



## rdowdy95

patsrule316 said:


> Recorded Lost and Jericho on MPEG4 last night.
> 
> Jericho would lockup after a short while on fast forward, and pixelate during fast forward or 30 second advance.
> 
> Lost would not lockup during fast forward, but would pixelate as well. It also did have problems with advancing when cominging out of fast forward, but it would only be about 30 seconds, not minutes like others reported. Also, and this seems to be our local ABC broadcaster, but 3 times during Lost, the screen would be green and pixelated (but not the same way as the fast-forward pixelating) for about 30 seconds each time. Every ABC recording I have made since getting the box a couple weeks ago has done this. No other stations do this.
> 
> I didn't have any serious audio problems or synch problems in either broadcast, but I do have them from time to time. Heroes on Monday was pretty bad.


My box said it updated yesterday, and I recorded Lost and the Nine they also pixelated like crazy on FF and it makes it hard to stop when you want if you can't see with the pixel strife!


----------



## skakusha

I am having the same issue with FFW. It juts loops, and goes back and forth bewteen two frames with no progress. I used 30 second slip to get out of it.

In addition, when selecting a recorded show, the screen is black and sets there unless I hit play twice. No recordings lost thus far.


----------



## grate88

First time box lock-up for me this morning - black screen - all frozen - needed to reboot. FF never a problem now is useless on mpeg4. pq seems a bit worse (not sure what is causing this - I'm sure not the software) And finally taking 3-5 seconds to change channels now (no - native is not enabled - just a very sluggish machine) I have 99% free space on the HD so that is not slowing it down) Overall - I was one of the happy ones until this last update. I am also using an esata 500mb drive mainly because it eliminates the loud internal hard drive chirp but this may be the source of some of my problems as well.


----------



## gcisko

bakerfall said:


> I have to say that it is dumbfounding to me that they would release a software update that causes a bigger problem then any existing one. Not being able to FF/RW with a DVR is absolutely absurd. Yes I know you can use the 30 sec slip, but it is ridiculous how difficult it is to try and get to a specific point doing this.
> 
> FWIW, I have only seen this on 1080i MPEG4 recordings that were recorded before and after the update. I didn't try any 720p MPEG4 recordings (because I didn't have any), but 1080i MPEG2 recordings work fine.


I Agree. Yesterday Earl told me not to keep expecting weekly software updates.

I thought everything was cool and it seemed to be. Then I find that I cannot FF or Rw but I can do 30 sec slip and 7 sec back. I hit the red reset and same thing. Also programs recorded on non local channels exhibit the aspect ratio change during 30 sec slip. One minute the aspect it correct then it gets tall and thin. It does not matter if I use HDMI or componant. If I start watching with the correct aspect after 30 sec slip or 7 sec back it will stay that way until the next trick play remote function/manouver. I am using 0xDC as I need to update my sig...


----------



## mstenbrg

My box was working fine before this upate. Now, when watching a recorded program I cannot fast forward, it just stops after a few seconds. I can use the 30s slip to get through commercials. Looks like this update made things worse.


----------



## patsrule316

Howie said:


> In my opinion, I think they need to come up with a fix for this FF/RW/Replay issue before next Wednesday. This is just not acceptable. Jeez, the time it takes to try to skip commercials and get to the correct spot where the program starts again you're better off just watching the stupid commercials. I dropped a few F-bombs trying to watch Lost last night. But on the bright side, didn't everyone think last night's Lost episode was particulary good? Man, what the heck is going on there? I can't wait for next week's show.


Did you try the 30 second skip and 6 second jump back? I don't think those are having the issues of the ff/rew.

I don't mean to take this subject off course
Lost is awesome, my favorite show ever. Loved the part where they showed the Red Sox winning the world series...besides the fact I am a Sox fan, remember that Jack's dad taught him about human nature with the motto that the Sox will never win the world series because it isn't in their makeup. It rocked Jack's world.


----------



## bonscott87

bakerfall said:


> I don't think you are aware of the problem I am talking about. The issue isn't pixelation, the issue is that the FF STOPS and skips back and forth between two frames causing you to hit play and either watch or 30 sec slip past this point, then start the whole process over again. I could care less about the pixelation, but prior to this update I could use FF and RW without issue, now I can't. They don't work.


So you now have an annoying issue while many people with a much more critical issue of *losing whole recordings* is now fixed. Seems like a good short term trade for me.


----------



## mstenbrg

bonscott87 said:


> So you now have an annoying issue while many people with a much more critical issue of *losing whole recordings* is now fixed. Seems like a good short term trade for me.


If this definately did fix the recording problems, then I can live with teh ff problem for a while. I would rather have to deal with no ff than have a recording not work. Just not sure why they have to break one thing to fix something else.


----------



## jheda

RunnerFL said:


> This update doesn't cause a bigger problem, it fixes the bigger problem. You're saying some pixelation when in FF is worse than black screen recordings or recordings that won't play? Hardly...
> 
> Do you really need a pristine picture while in FF? Afterall you are FF'ing, that must mean you don't want to watch what you are FF'ing...


The issue is not being able to ff, and that is a big problem, i can be patient till next wed's weekly update, but would be VERY dissaponted if an attempt to repair this isnt made.

The other issue I and alot of others still have is the occasional "Deleted"recording that one didnt delete. That must be addressed ASAP.

Although I have a right to take the position that i paid for a machine that is supposed to be right , i find myself being patient through the process partly because of this site which has been wonderful handholding.


----------



## jheda

And my kingdom for dual buffers!!!!!


----------



## munangst

Earl Bonovich said:


> I have regularly recorded two MPEG-4s and watched one... so I know the system can do it. I am thinking as you are as well... that your hard drive has gone bad. Especially the click...click...click...
> 
> As far as I know, no there is no way to retrieve the SMART attributes.
> 
> I really do think you are having a hard drive issue there.


Followup...I called D* this morning and talked to someone in the "advanced tech support" group. I described the problems and the CSR said that it was a known issue, first reported on Oct. 3, and they were working on it. She filled out a problem report and said she would send it over to engineering. I tried to be clear that I wasn't talking about the FF/REW freeze, or a corrupt recording, but I'm not sure if it got through. She also suggested doing a reset & swapping the SAT1/SAT2 inputs, but acknowledged that it probably wouldn't help. So now I get to wait and see if the next update fixes this...I guess if I really wanted to I could try connecting an eSATA drive and seeing if that fixes the issue, but I don't have any "spare" drives sitting around.

Sorta disappointing, since the DVR is pretty much unusable for watching anything other than live TV while it's recording something now. I also tried just recording one thing and playing another, but that has problems as well (although not as bad as when it's recording two things at once).


----------



## gcisko

jheda said:


> Although I have a right to take the position that i paid for a machine that is supposed to be right , i find myself being patient through the process partly because of this site which has been wonderful handholding.


What the customer support can help you with, is when you call and point out you are a beta tester. You should not have to pay for service that does not work. Especially after paying $199 up front for the HR20-700 and dish. This very much reminds me of computer software games. They released the broken product knowing it is broken but to generate revenue from unsuspecting customers. Then they use that revenue to fix the product to what it should have been in the first place. I am still upset that customer support does not simply direct you here and admit the problem is with the software being downloaded/upgraded to the unit.


----------



## Vinny

After reading this thread for the past 24 hours; it seems to me that the nagging problems are FF and RW of 1080i MPEG4 programming and the CallerID problems.

So it looks like a lot of the major stability issues have either been solved or are now being tolerated. I for one can live with the pixelation in FF for a little while, if I know for sure that everything I am recording will be recorded and watchable. 

Thankfully D* is listening to Earl and the rest of the forum and hopefully, we can all look forward to the current problems being fixed next week so we can move on to the enabling of new features.


----------



## NFLnut

NOW I'm getting lockups on non-MPEG4 channels! This thing is going from bad to worse!!

I had no major problems prior to yesterday other than an occasional unresponsive remote.


----------



## dervari

Howie said:


> I dropped a few F-bombs trying to watch Lost last night.


We had absolutely NO problems with FF during Dancing or Lost last night. No pixelization, no looping, at any FF speed. Did have the problem with Jericho (CBS) though.


----------



## NFLnut

bakerfall said:


> Not being able to FF/RW with a DVR is absolutely absurd. Yes I know you can use the 30 sec slip, but it is ridiculous how difficult it is to try and get to a specific point doing this.


I'm with ya..

Last night, it took me 7 minutes of FF/REW, 30s slip, ... just to get to watch one small :45s segment at the 14m point in the recording! That's just ridiculous!!


----------



## gb33

Definately the worst and most annoying software for me so far. I can tolerate the pixelating in FF/Rev but locking up while doing so repeatedly is way too annoying. The box seems to be getting more and more frustrating and unuseable to me. At least for what i want to use it for which is record and watch television. 
But for a nice looking box with a fun blue light to watch go in circles while the pictures stays still, this thing is great!


----------



## NFLnut

RunnerFL said:


> This update doesn't cause a bigger problem, it fixes the bigger problem. You're saying some pixelation when in FF is worse than black screen recordings or recordings that won't play? Hardly...
> 
> Do you really need a pristine picture while in FF? Afterall you are FF'ing, that must mean you don't want to watch what you are FF'ing...


That's NOT the problem! :sure:

The PROBLEM is that once you have REW/FF'd, when you try to WATCH the recorded show, it pixelates from there on. It's not a problem just when FF'ing/REW'ing. It's when you have done either of those two things, the show pixelates and freezes during PLAYBACK, and THAT'S a MAJOR problem!! It kind of defeats the purpose of a DVR when all of your recordings can't be viewed without freezing, pixelation, and audio dropouts!!


----------



## fdeitz

Vinny said:


> After reading this thread for the past 24 hours; it seems to me that the nagging problems are FF and RW of 1080i MPEG4 programming and the CallerID problems.


Add to that closed captioning. The closed captioning on this box is terrible (frequently garbled to the point of not being able to figure out what the words actually are) and should be considered a major problem. It makes the box unusable for my wife who depends on it.


----------



## Wolffpack

fdeitz said:


> Add to that closed captioning. The closed captioning on this box is terrible (frequently garbled to the point of not being able to figure out what the words actually are) and should be considered a major problem. It makes the box unusable for my wife who depends on it.


That seems to be an ongoing problem. Have you thought about filing a complain with the FCC. Receivers such as this have been required to provide CC services since at least 2002. Something that should already have been on the "major problem" list.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

I think the intention of this thread topic is to report issues/bugs associated with the recent software release so I'll attempt to bring it back to the thread topic.

Earl and/or DTV software programmers,

Watched Lost on ABC last night... Started the program late and soon caught up with real time.

--

*Bug:* When catching up to real time, bug still exists that causes the audio to drop out.

*Work Around:* Pausing or going back 6 seconds puts you far enough in the buffer to stop the drops.

--

*Bug:* I don't have details about my local ABC affiliate (whether they're encoding/broadcasting at 720p or 1080i | KXTV, News 10, Sacramento) but I had my HR-20 set to output 1080i and the pixelization issue while FF/RW MPEG-4 programming was alive and well but I didn't find it as annoying as others on this board.

--

*Bug:* While in the MyVOD mini menu (prior to selecting a program to watch) I accidentally pressed the yellow button (wanting to get into my scheduler) and I lost audio on the program I was watching.

*Work Around:* Close the mini menu and RW program a minute or so and the audio appeared to come back.

--

Hope this helps...


----------



## mikeny

Wolffpack said:


> That seems to be an ongoing problem. Have you thought about filing a complain with the FCC. Receivers such as this have been required to provide CC services since at least 2002. Something that should already have been on the "major problem" list.


So how does one go about making a complaint to the FCC?


----------



## tstarn

When I just turned on my HR20, it stays gray for 1-2 minutes until the picture finally comes on the screen. Never happened before this latest update. This is getting to be almost funny, if it weren't for the hassle-factor. So no more BSOD (we think), but now we get new unexpected stuff (beyond the FF/REV pixelation woes, which include the freeze feature). Wow. Okay all you D*fenders, flame away.


----------



## Jeremy W

Radio Enginerd said:


> *Bug:* While in the MyVOD mini menu (prior to selecting a program to watch) I accidentally pressed the yellow button (wanting to get into my scheduler) and I lost audio on the program I was watching.


This isn't a bug. The yellow button is used to switch audio tracks. All you have to do is press the yellow button again to get back to the regular track.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

Jeremy W said:


> This isn't a bug. The yellow button is used to switch audio tracks. All you have to do is press the yellow button again to get back to the regular track.


Ahhhhh ok... Thanks for the info. I guess I should read the manual. That really took me by suprise.


----------



## billt1111

mikeny said:


> So how does one go about making a complaint to the FCC?


Here you go. There is a form you have to download. Knock yourself out.

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html


----------



## mikeny

billt1111 said:


> Here you go. There is a form you have to download. Knock yourself out.
> 
> http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html


Thanks. I don't know if I'm actually going to file one or if there is an actual infraction for that matter. For example are they required to show CC on the networks for the HD feed? If they provide it for the SD feed, is that all that's required?

My wife can not watch anything recorded in HD from ABC with the HR20 because there are no captions at all. At least with the HR10 we can record OTA HD and get the CC.

FWIW, it appears that there is an electronic submission option at the FCC complaint site.


----------



## fdeitz

billt1111 said:


> Here you go. There is a form you have to download. Knock yourself out.
> 
> http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complaints.html


I'm rather hoping that by posting the problem in this forum that it is going to get solved eventually, and would rather not have to go the FCC route. Although my wife who needs this is rapidly losing her patience with "the expensive new HD box that she can't watch"! I'm going to be patient awhile longer and hope it gets fixed in one of the next few software releases. If not, I may reconsider going the FCC route.


----------



## genap

I don't know if these are related but, two days after d8 got the no signal on tuner 2. Did red button resset and it went away. Last night after switching channels from SD show back to local HD show; got the no signal on tuner 2. ( OxDC ) It was late so I just turned everything off. This morning instead of reset I just looked at the signal meters and it said both were at 97%. Went back to normal viewing and it was gone again. At the time I was not recording anything, just channel surfing.


----------



## deddleman

Add me to the list for having severe problems with FF/RR. I had a couple of loop-back problems, but much more annoying to me was that when coming out of FF, I would be several minutes ahead of where I should be, had to do maybe 8 or 9 jump backs to get to where I wanted to be. I was debating to just let the commerials play, much less aggravating.

This was starting to get on my wifes nerves as well, she wants to stick to our SD Tivo until it works correctly.

I am just glad I have been keeping up with the software updates on this forum, if I was just the average consumer I would be really upsest right now. Thanks to Earl and this forum, I was pretty much expecting some of these problems when I sat down last night to watch TV so it wasn't too bad. I am also glad that I know this will most likely be a temporary problem, I just hope it's not like this for more than a week. I imaging DirecTV is getting a lot of calls on this right now, they should just send everyone to this forum, you get more info here than you ever will from the phone support  

I can live without dual buffers and OTA, but the FF/RW functionality must be improved for it to be a functional machine.

Doug


----------



## Wolffpack

mikeny said:


> Thanks. I don't know if I'm actually going to file one or if there is an actual infraction for that matter. For example are they required to show CC on the networks for the HD feed? If they provide it for the SD feed, is that all that's required?
> 
> My wife can not watch anything recorded in HD from ABC with the HR20 because there are no captions at all. At least with the HR10 we can record OTA HD and get the CC.
> 
> FWIW, it appears that there is an electronic submission option at the FCC complaint site.


From the FFC site: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/closedcaption.html


> Closed captioning allows persons with hearing disabilities to have access to television programming by displaying the audio portion of a television program as text on the television screen. Beginning in July 1993, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) required all analog television receivers with screens 13 inches or larger sold or manufactured in the United States to contain built-in decoder circuitry to display closed captioning. Beginning July 1, 2002, the FCC also required that digital television (DTV) receivers include closed captioning display capability.
> 
> In 1996, Congress required video program distributors (cable operators, broadcasters, satellite distributors, and other multi-channel video programming distributors) to close caption their television programs. In 1997, the FCC set a transition schedule requiring distributors to provide an increasing amount of captioned programming, as summarized below.


Now I'd guess the term "closed captioning display capability" means it also must work. I doubt the HR20 would pass a FCC review due to the fact it has the capability but isn't working.

It's just that since this is a FCC regulation I would have thought the HR20 development staff would have had this issue put to bed before the release.


----------



## jbstix

jbstix said:


> Earl,
> 
> What are your thoughts on the 1080i/720p issue?
> If it is proven that it is only 1080i recordings, do you think it will be resolved pretty quickly?
> 
> thanks for your input


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Here is my recommendation...

Take it or leave it.
I watched about 5 hours of content last night, all from MPEG-4.
I just used the 30s SLIP... I know it is slower, I know it is not HOW you want to do it, but I do know that not once out of all the shows I watched...

Did I get the Freeze Frame, nor had the FF run long.

So for now... that is my recommendation, to deal with the the current issue in the system.


----------



## Jeremy W

Wolffpack said:


> Now I'd guess the term "closed captioning display capability" means it also must work. I doubt the HR20 would pass a FCC review due to the fact it has the capability but isn't working.


The snippet you posted doesn't say anything about a satellite TV receiver. It says that a digital TV receiver must have CC capability, but at this time the HR20 is not a digital TV receiver.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jbstix said:


>


I'm sorry... So many threads, so many times..
Please except my apologizes for not answering sooner...

As for my take...
I think the the 1080i has "that" more/differnt data, and requires just enough different decoding by the chipset is why you seeing more of the issues with those recordings.

Where the 720p may not be going down the same path in the software/chipset... (and same for 480p, 480i)... hence why you are seeing varying degrees of the problem dependent on the network and the broadcast.

Also, part of the equation is the encoding centers. Not all centers are up to the same revisions and hardware/software as the next.... So where the problem may exist a lot in City A, City B may not have the same problem on the same broadcast, by the same network.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Wolffpack said:


> From the FFC site: http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/closedcaption.html
> 
> Now I'd guess the term "closed captioning display capability" means it also must work. I doubt the HR20 would pass a FCC review due to the fact it has the capability but isn't working.
> 
> It's just that since this is a FCC regulation I would have thought the HR20 development staff would have had this issue put to bed before the release.


Please... can we take the FCC/Close Caption out side of this thread...

As there are a lot of pieces to the Close Caption puzzle... and most of them don't have to do with the release.


----------



## rdowdy95

Stop and keep on a partial recording still never works. It doesn't show on the MYvod list untill you reboot the unit. So that is bootleg. PLEASE FIX THIS OR LET THEM KNOW ABOUT IT!!!!!!   

Pink on the FF or RW arrows also is still there! STRIFE


----------



## cawgijoe

genap said:


> I don't know if these are related but, two days after d8 got the no signal on tuner 2. Did red button resset and it went away. Last night after switching channels from SD show back to local HD show; got the no signal on tuner 2. ( OxDC ) It was late so I just turned everything off. This morning instead of reset I just looked at the signal meters and it said both were at 97%. Went back to normal viewing and it was gone again. At the time I was not recording anything, just channel surfing.


I've only had my box since Tuesday of this week and I also noticed this happen for the first time last night. I was in the middle of watching CSI NY and did not want to reboot, so I went to another channel during commercial and then switched back and the message was gone.

Annoying and strange, but I didn't have to re-boot.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

rdowdy95 said:


> Stop and keep on a partial recording still never works. It doesn't show on the MYvod list untill you reboot the unit. So that is bootleg. PLEASE FIX THIS OR LET THEM KNOW ABOUT IT!!!!!!
> 
> Pink on the FF or RW arrows also is still there! STRIFE


They KNOW ABOUT BOTH !!!!!!!!!


----------



## Earl Bonovich

genap said:


> I don't know if these are related but, two days after d8 got the no signal on tuner 2. Did red button resset and it went away. Last night after switching channels from SD show back to local HD show; got the no signal on tuner 2. ( OxDC ) It was late so I just turned everything off. This morning instead of reset I just looked at the signal meters and it said both were at 97%. Went back to normal viewing and it was gone again. At the time I was not recording anything, just channel surfing.


They are aware of this issue as well.

If changing the channel doesn't work... going into Signal Test, and checking both tuners, will also reset the issue.

If you are recording on both tuners, the recordings will complete (at least they have in most cases).


----------



## jheda

Earl, am i the only one remaining on this thread who has a todo program not recorded from occasion to occasion and history shows it to be "deleted"? The last time this occured was Monday prior to this last download. No the few programs since wed AM have recorded correctly.....


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jheda said:


> Earl, am i the only one remaining on this thread who has a todo program not recorded from occasion to occasion and history shows it to be "deleted"? The last time this occured was Monday prior to this last download. No the few programs since wed AM have recorded correctly.....


I have not seen any one report any missed recordings in the last 36 hours or so since the 0xDC release started to rollout.


----------



## WANDERER

jheda said:


> Earl, am i the only one remaining on this thread who has a todo program not recorded from occasion to occasion and history shows it to be "deleted"? The last time this occured was Monday prior to this last download. No the few programs since wed AM have recorded correctly.....


Jihad - I'm glad you asked this question, Earl - how can we find out "WHY" something did not record - Tivo used to explain (reason) if something was cancelled due to conflict etc?!


----------



## Vinny

Earl Bonovich said:


> Here is my recommendation...
> 
> Take it or leave it.
> I watched about 5 hours of content last night, all from MPEG-4.
> I just used the 30s SLIP... I know it is slower, I know it is not HOW you want to do it, but I do know that not once out of all the shows I watched...
> 
> Did I get the Freeze Frame, nor had the FF run long.
> 
> So for now... that is my recommendation, to deal with the the current issue in the system.


That is what I normally do anyway. I hit it 7 or 8 times and it brings me fairly close to the end of commercials.


----------



## lbostons

Hey Earl, does the constant questions ever get old? I mean you are doing a fantastic job but you are not getting paid for this are you? Anyway, thanks for all of your efforts!


----------



## matto

Earl Bonovich said:


> Here is my recommendation...
> 
> Take it or leave it.
> I watched about 5 hours of content last night, all from MPEG-4.
> I just used the 30s SLIP... I know it is slower, I know it is not HOW you want to do it, but I do know that not once out of all the shows I watched...
> 
> Did I get the Freeze Frame, nor had the FF run long.
> 
> So for now... that is my recommendation, to deal with the the current issue in the system.


So, you're saying that to avoid the FF bug, we just shouldn't use FF?

I see where this is going..

I guess to avoid scheduling bugs, we shouldn't schedule recordings?
In order to avoid HDMI bugs, just use component connections?
To avoid DD problems, just use analog 2 channel audio?
A workaround for the MPEG decoding bugs is to not watch recordings?

What a joke.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

lbostons said:


> Hey Earl, does the constant questions ever get old? I mean you are doing a fantastic job but you are not getting paid for this are you? Anyway, thanks for all of your efforts!


Yes, but it helps when you can type over 120 or so words a minute...
And there is a growing user base here that also answers the "common" and not so "common" qustions.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

matto said:


> So, you're saying that to avoid the FF bug, we just shouldn't use FF?
> 
> I see where this is going..
> 
> I guess to avoid scheduling bugs, we shouldn't schedule recordings?
> In order to avoid HDMI bugs, just use component connections?
> To avoid DD problems, just use analog 2 channel audio?
> A workaround for the MPEG decoding bugs is to not watch recordings?
> 
> What a joke.


WHAT THE FRAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!

What I am saying... as a FRAKING!!! USER!!!! if you want to work with the system as it is, in the state that it is.... then here is a logical, functional, practical work around.

Do you say the same thing to GoodYear when there is a defect in your tire? Oh.. you mean I have to use that spare, while you fix the tire? What next... I'll have to use CornFuel to power my car instead of gas?

Did I say this was the solution for ever? No... I did not.
Did I say this was a "solution", no... I said it was a work around, *WHILE THEY FIX THE ISSUE*

So instead of being frustrated to the hilt, and not watching any TV at all.... I proposed a way that you can still enjoy TV, even though you would be forced to SLIP through the horrid, end of the word, evil commercials for a few more seconds then usual.

Sure beats ending up a minute into the program, or being frustrated when FF hits a loop frame.


----------



## billt1111

matto said:


> So, you're saying that to avoid the FF bug, we just shouldn't use FF?
> 
> I see where this is going..
> 
> I guess to avoid scheduling bugs, we shouldn't schedule recordings?
> In order to avoid HDMI bugs, just use component connections?
> To avoid DD problems, just use analog 2 channel audio?
> A workaround for the MPEG decoding bugs is to not watch recordings?
> 
> What a joke.


Geez. Give it a rest dude.


----------



## matto

Earl Bonovich said:


> WHAT THE FRAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!


Earl, I am sorry that I did not take the time to make sure that my reply didn't seem like a personal attack at you. It was not intended, and I apologize that it appeared that way.

Please know that all of my angst is directed squarely at DirecTV on this issue.

Peace!


----------



## matto

billt1111 said:


> Geez. Give it a rest dude.


You're right Bill, I should give D* a break.
They never promised me a working product.
I am sure they are doing the best they can!

There is no way they could have anticipated users demanding ADVANCED FUNCTIONALITY from their dvr, like KEEP THIS RECORDING, PLAY, or FAST FORWARD.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

rdowdy95 said:


> My box said it updated yesterday, and I recorded Lost and the Nine they also pixelated like crazy on FF and it makes it hard to stop when you want if you can't see with the pixel strife!


I just look for the change in the aspect ratio... When I see the programing jump back to 16:9, I press play and then jump back a few times.

I'll be here all week, please tip your waitress...


----------



## NFLnut

Earl Bonovich said:


> WHAT THE FRAK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!
> 
> What I am saying... as a FRAKING!!! USER!!!! if you want to work with the system as it is, in the state that it is.... then here is a logical, functional, practical work around.
> 
> Do you say the same thing to GoodYear when there is a defect in your tire? Oh.. you mean I have to use that spare, while you fix the tire? What next... I'll have to use CornFuel to power my car instead of gas?
> 
> Did I say this was the solution for ever? No... I did not.
> Did I say this was a "solution", no... I said it was a work around, *WHILE THEY FIX THE ISSUE*
> 
> So instead of being frustrated to the hilt, and not watching any TV at all.... I proposed a way that you can still enjoy TV, even though you would be forced to SLIP through the horrid, end of the word, evil commercials for a few more seconds then usual.
> 
> Sure beats ending up a minute into the program, or being frustrated when FF hits a loop frame.


hey Earl ..

I hope you know that (at least I think I speak for most) that for most of us here who are expressing frustration, even anger towards the problems that we are experiencing, that we aren't directing those comments directly at YOU! I think most if not all of us here, regardless of the tone of our posts, appreciate YOUR work here on the forum! I've also appreciated your help over at "the other forum" over the years.

Now .. regarding our feelings towards D*, especially with this latest release .. don't get me started!! :nono2:


----------



## matto

Radio Enginerd said:


> I just look for the change in the aspect ratio... When I see the programing jump back to 16:9, I press play and then jump back a few times.
> 
> I'll be here all week, please tip your waitress...


You can skip hitting play, and just use 'review' or 'jump back' or whatever its called. 'review' will switch to play when its done.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

matto said:


> Earl, I am sorry that I did not take the time to make sure that my reply didn't seem like a personal attack at you. It was not intended, and I apologize that it appeared that way.
> 
> Please know that all of my angst is directed squarely at DirecTV on this issue.
> 
> Peace!





NFLnut said:


> hey Earl ..
> 
> I hope you know that (at least I think I speak for most) that for most of us here who are expressing frustration, even anger towards the problems that we are experiencing, that we aren't directing those comments directly at YOU! I think most if not all of us here, regardless of the tone of our posts, appreciate YOUR work here on the forum! I've also appreciated your help over at "the other forum" over the years.
> 
> Now .. regarding our feelings towards D*, especially with this latest release .. don't get me started!! :nono2:


I do understand that... and I appriciate that.

I blew up in that other post, as the quoted suggestion was from me the user... not me the person who gets information from DirecTV.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

Earl Bonovich said:


> I do understand that... and I appriciate that.
> 
> I blew up in that other post, as the quoted suggestion was from me the user... not me the person who gets information from DirecTV.


I think we're lucky to have a conduit to DTV... They're obviously working hard to resolve the issue(s).

We live in a free society so I would suggest to anyone to contact a CSR and tell them you want to disconnect. I'm sure they'll find something that will help entice you and keep you part of the happy DTV family.

Having spent $199 for my HR-20, I'm starting to wonder why I paid for this box. I consider myself a test subject at this point. I don't mind testing it but I certainly empathize with folks that post on this board given that I too thought I was going to get a fully working piece of hardware. I'd be lying if the thought hadn't crossed my mind to contact a CSR at DTV and ask for my money back in payment of being a tester&#8230;


----------



## gcisko

Radio Enginerd said:


> I think we're lucky to have a conduit to DTV... They're obviously working hard to resolve the issue(s).
> 
> We live in a free society so I would suggest to anyone to contact a CSR and tell them you want to disconnect. I'm sure they'll find something that will help entice you and keep you part of the happy DTV family.
> 
> Having spent $199 for my HR-20, I'm starting to wonder why I paid for this box. I consider myself a test subject at this point. I don't mind testing it but I certainly empathize with folks that post on this board given that I too thought I was going to get a fully working piece of hardware. I'd be lying if the thought hadn't crossed my mind to contact a CSR at DTV and ask for my money back in payment of being a tester&#8230;


Um... Hi There  Did you read my other post suggesting you call them to comment on the beta tester part. That is what I did and they gave me suitable compensation. I did have to ask for a supervisor though.

I also wanted to thank Earl. My frustration should in no way be taken in any way as some kind of attack at him. I waited many moons for a box that would record local HD in my area. So I am not happy to fine that I spent $199 for something that needs constant software updates. I am sure they will get it within 3 months though :lol:


----------



## Vinny

rdowdy95 said:


> PLEASE FIX THIS OR LET THEM KNOW ABOUT IT!!!!!!
> 
> Pink on the FF or RW arrows also is still there! STRIFE


.....and exactly WHO should be doing the fixing and letting them know about it?......ummmm....maybe YOU

OMG....pink arrows...what strife!!!


----------



## rrbhokies

> Pixelization During FF/RW functions. Noticeable primariy in 1080i/720p MPEG4 recordings, while FF/RW the video play pixelizes. This is due to updates with the MPEG4 code (which was changed to address other issues), the pixelizing will be corrected in a future release.


I don't know about pixelization, but the FF function and the 30sec slip is not nearly as fluid as before. It looks like it pauses for a few seconds and then jumps ahead. Essentially, it's very choppy, making it hard to determine when to stop. Is this the same thing as pixelization?



> During FF/RW motions, you may experience a LOOPING frame. The work around is to exit the FF/RW motion and use 30s SLIP, Reverse Jump, or normal playback to get past the point. This is expected to occur only with MPEG4 recordings only


Last night while watching my recording of Lost, I was in FF, and it froze on me. I was able to use the 30s slip to jump ahead and break out of the freeze. Is this the same thing as the LOOPING frame?


----------



## NFLnut

Radio Enginerd said:


> I think we're lucky to have a conduit to DTV... They're obviously working hard to resolve the issue(s).
> 
> We live in a free society so I would suggest to anyone to contact a CSR and tell them you want to disconnect. I'm sure they'll find something that will help entice you and keep you part of the happy DTV family.
> 
> Having spent $199 for my HR-20, I'm starting to wonder why I paid for this box. I consider myself a test subject at this point. I don't mind testing it but I certainly empathize with folks that post on this board given that I too thought I was going to get a fully working piece of hardware. I'd be lying if the thought hadn't crossed my mind to contact a CSR at DTV and ask for my money back in payment of being a tester&#8230;


.. especially when I ASKED FOR an HR10, and NOT an HR20! I was told they were "out" of the HR10's.

Sorry .. I know that I have hijacked the thread with this post, but I just couldn't resist a reply. I'll stop now ..


----------



## WANDERER

WANDERER said:


> Jihad - I'm glad you asked this question, Earl - how can we find out "WHY" something did not record - Tivo used to explain (reason) if something was cancelled due to conflict etc?!


EARL! ANSWER ME!


----------



## wakajawaka

rrbhokies said:


> Last night while watching my recording of Lost, I was in FF, and it froze on me. I was able to use the 30s slip to jump ahead and break out of the freeze. Is this the same thing as the LOOPING frame?


I believe so. FF and then it gets stuck on one frame that loops.


----------



## Crash Pilot

Radio Enginerd said:


> I think the intention of this thread topic is to report issues/bugs associated with the recent software release so I'll attempt to bring it back to the thread topic.
> 
> Earl and/or DTV software programmers,
> 
> Watched Lost on ABC last night... Started the program late and soon caught up with real time.
> 
> --
> 
> *Bug:* When catching up to real time, bug still exists that causes the audio to drop out.
> 
> *Work Around:* Pausing or going back 6 seconds puts you far enough in the buffer to stop the drops.
> 
> --
> 
> *Bug:* I don't have details about my local ABC affiliate (whether they're encoding/broadcasting at 720p or 1080i | KXTV, News 10, Sacramento) but I had my HR-20 set to output 1080i and the pixelization issue while FF/RW MPEG-4 programming was alive and well but I didn't find it as annoying as others on this board.
> 
> --
> 
> *Bug:* While in the MyVOD mini menu (prior to selecting a program to watch) I accidentally pressed the yellow button (wanting to get into my scheduler) and I lost audio on the program I was watching.
> 
> *Work Around:* Close the mini menu and RW program a minute or so and the audio appeared to come back.
> 
> --
> 
> Hope this helps...


Radio Enginerd, I too have found the "bug" with the yellow button dropping audio but I had this in other code revs as well. I did not think it was a bug because when you simply push the yellow button again, you get your audio back. I concidered it another mute button.


----------



## bonscott87

WANDERER said:


> EARL! ANSWER ME!


I believe you just look in the history and it will tell you, just like Tivo. I've never looked to see if there were details for each listing but it lists everything as recorded, cancelled, deleted, etc.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

Crash Pilot said:


> Radio Enginerd, I too have found the "bug" with the yellow button dropping audio but I had this in other code revs as well. I did not think it was a bug because when you simply push the yellow button again, you get your audio back. I concidered it another mute button.


Yeah, come to find out it's not a bug! 

Not sure it's a good shortcut to have on that menu given that when in the "List View" it does a different function. I won't bag on it though, makes sense. I'll add it to the "Wish List" thread... Is there a Wish List thread yet?


----------



## bonscott87

By the way, heavily used the HR20 last night. Had several recordings going on and was watching a hockey game about an hour behind live. I was expecting this FFW bug and told my wife about it (she didn't care so long as the recording was there) but it never appeared. We watched a couple recordings from last week, one from the previous day, the hockey game behind live and one other from yesterday.

Now none were MPEG4 channels (of which I don't have any available to me) but I just wanted to report my findings.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

bonscott87 said:


> By the way, heavily used the HR20 last night. Had several recordings going on and was watching a hockey game about an hour behind live. I was expecting this FFW bug and told my wife about it (she didn't care so long as the recording was there) but it never appeared. We watched a couple recordings from last week, one from the previous day, the hockey game behind live and one other from yesterday.
> 
> Now none were MPEG4 channels (of which I don't have any available to me) but I just wanted to report my findings.


I too had a very positive night last night watching and recording SD and MPEG-2 programming...


----------



## Crash Pilot

For those that have purchased these boxes and or having major issues let me suggest you contact Customer Retetion. I was calling to cancel D* and was sent out a H20HR a regular DVR and two plain Jane receivers. They sent out a tech that rewired my house, installed the new dish and switch, gave me HBO for 2 bucks a month plus free showtime for 6 months and gave me credit for DVR and HD service. My wife really wanted me to go to cable but I could not pass up this offer!
Then came the hours of reading this forum after having problems with the HR20. Good stuff to be sure, you guys rock! I called Customer Retention again and they sent me out a new HR20 and was told it had new firmware and was more stable.

Now I'm not sure if this was bs or not but I can say that since I have had the new box, I have not had any (other than the non-intrusive issues) problems with the box. I am on day three and with the latest code but have not had a lock up and have not had to reboot yet. I was having to reset the box at least once a day with the old box.

Now that I have cursed myself, at least you know that if you can get the right person on the phone, you should get some sort of resolution. My HR20 was built the first week of this month as it was on backorder for about 3 days. 

I am waiting for the OTA and the networking feature. I would love to be able to pull files off the box onto my laptop for veiwing when I travel. Any word on this feature? Why else is there a ethernet port?


----------



## RAD

I hit pause on a live show and go away for 15 minutes or so, come back and the screen saver is on, so far so god. I hit the play button and I'm in real time on the show, not where I paused it at, didn't do that on prior releases.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Crash Pilot said:


> I am waiting for the OTA and the networking feature. I would love to be able to pull files off the box onto my laptop for veiwing when I travel. Any word on this feature? Why else is there a ethernet port?


DirecTV2Go is a feature that is planned... they may possible give you the option to pull the video to another device. However, there is no eta on when it will be available, and what exact features it will have.

The announced usage for the ethernet connections:
1) Picture and Audio file sharing (See the threads referring to ViiV)
2) Video-On-Demand (VOD) via Broadband

Another reason "why", it is "cheaper" to include it now... then to have users add it later (Via USB), or replace the box with an updated model that does include it.


----------



## matto

Last night, the DVR was supposed to record '30 Rock' and 'Top Model'.
Both are listed in the recording history as "Partial", and neither is in the MyVOD list.

No idea why they'd be "partial", the weather was clear last night, and I have no reception issues. The box has not crashed/rebooted in the last day to the best of my knowledge.

I called D* to give them the daily update on what the HR20 has screwed up.


----------



## Wolffpack

bonscott87 said:


> I believe you just look in the history and it will tell you, just like Tivo. I've never looked to see if there were details for each listing but it lists everything as recorded, cancelled, deleted, etc.


R15/HR20 History <> Tivo History.

If a show you're looking for appears in history (they don't always) it will say RECORDED or CANCELLED. That's it.


----------



## matto

Wolffpack said:


> R15/HR20 History <> Tivo History.
> 
> If a show you're looking for appears in history (they don't always) it will say RECORDED or CANCELLED. That's it.


I got the mysterious "PARTIAL" for recordings that never appeared in MyVOD also.

Also, the sorting they use in the recording history is beyond retarded.
Would sorting by date have been so incredibly hard!?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

matto said:


> Also, the sorting they use in the recording history is beyond retarded.
> Would sorting by date have been so incredibly hard!?


Another one of those that "either" way, is a functional way (to someone).
Sort By Title: helps you find what happend to "Insert Title Here" 
Sort By Date: helps you find what happend to last nights "Insert Title Here"


----------



## matto

Earl Bonovich said:


> Another one of those that "either" way, is a functional way (to someone).
> Sort By Title: helps you find what happend to "Insert Title Here"
> Sort By Date: helps you find what happend to last nights "Insert Title Here"


OK, what about programs in the future appearing in the "History" list?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

matto said:


> OK, what about programs in the future appearing in the "History" list?


Actually, those are there when a reboot occurs... as when the guide data reloads and the todo list validates against the guide data, it doesn't find it in the guide... Thus they are "canceled".

They are later added (if they where part of a Series Link), when the background prioritizer runs. Programs that are not part of a series link, are manged similarly... but different, as they will stay in the todo list (just not be listed) until the matching guide data is downloaded


----------



## matto

I guess we know which development team Rube Goldberg's grandson is managing.


----------



## Howie

They need some way to cache the guide data. If you have something scheduled to record soon after a reset, I guess you're screwed.


----------



## bonscott87

RAD said:


> I hit pause on a live show and go away for 15 minutes or so, come back and the screen saver is on, so far so god. I hit the play button and I'm in real time on the show, not where I paused it at, didn't do that on prior releases.


I noticed this too actually. I though I just hit a wrong button and didn't think anything of it.
Paused the program.
About 10 minutes later came back to see the screen saver.
Hit play and it didn't restart from the pause point but went to the end of the currently recording game.

One other time we paused and again it was on screen saver. This time I just hit the down arrow button which cleared the screen saver. Hit play and all was well.

So there everyone, perhaps I encountered my first real bug. 

EDIT: And that is what this thread is supposed to be, reporting bugs. Not a ***** session. Please take the complaining to a separate thread and leave this one alone to bugs and experience on the release only.


----------



## Howie

bonscott87 said:


> EDIT: And that is what this thread is supposed to be, reporting bugs. Not a ***** session. Please take the complaining to a separate thread and leave this one alone to bugs and experience on the release only.


I believe the majority of the complaining is ABOUT the bugs and experiences with this release. Where better to post?


----------



## cuibap

Howie said:


> They need some way to cache the guide data. If you have something scheduled to record soon after a reset, I guess you're screwed.


Agreed


----------



## hasan

Howie said:


> They need some way to cache the guide data. If you have something scheduled to record soon after a reset, I guess you're screwed.


With all the HD space available, it would seem a good use of a tiny portion of it to cache backups of:

Configuration (with the option to use it or not use it...in case it was the cause of a bug) (I mean all the user settings backed up, so they don't have to be changed). Problem with this is as they change the code, the file format could change, making it useless if not destructive. This could be real tricky and a source of future problems.

Guide Data (with a file expiration date/time stamp, so you wouldn't get old guide data when expecting/needing fairly recent)

Good suggestion on the Guide.


----------



## RunnerFL

bakerfall said:


> I don't think you are aware of the problem I am talking about. The issue isn't pixelation, the issue is that the FF STOPS and skips back and forth between two frames causing you to hit play and either watch or 30 sec slip past this point, then start the whole process over again. I could care less about the pixelation, but prior to this update I could use FF and RW without issue, now I can't. They don't work.


30 sec slip works fine so it's not like there isn't a workaround for the FF issue. There was no workaround for the black screen / Blank recordings.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Howie said:


> They need some way to cache the guide data. If you have something scheduled to record soon after a reset, I guess you're screwed.





cuibap said:


> Agreed





hasan said:


> With all the HD space available, it would seem a good use of a tiny portion of it to cache backups of:
> 
> Configuration (with the option to use it or not use it...in case it was the cause of a bug) (I mean all the user settings backed up, so they don't have to be changed). Problem with this is as they change the code, the file format could change, making it useless if not destructive. This could be real tricky and a source of future problems.
> 
> Guide Data (with a file expiration date/time stamp, so you wouldn't get old guide data when expecting/needing fairly recent)
> 
> Good suggestion on the Guide.


The next few hours in the guide data, load nearly instantly... usually even before the GUI is available for user usage. So if the unit reboots, for what ever reason... and you have a recording set with in the next couple hours... the HR20 has already gotten that data...

And has it in the ToDo list. Next you try a reboot (if you do it on purpose), check it out. Set a recording that will start with in the next hour. Do the reboot. When the unit gives you access back to the GUI, check the todo list... you will see that recording there.

The Guide data is a gradual load by TIME.
That is how DirecTV pushes their guide data down.
The next few hours is CONSTANTLY in the data stream, where then then rotate the next 14 days worth over a 24 hour period.


----------



## RunnerFL

bonscott87 said:


> So you now have an annoying issue while many people with a much more critical issue of *losing whole recordings* is now fixed. Seems like a good short term trade for me.


Exactly.


----------



## Calebrot

Howie said:


> They need some way to cache the guide data. If you have something scheduled to record soon after a reset, I guess you're screwed.


No you're not, when you do a reset, you notice right at the end of the very long wait, it says something about obtaining information from the satellite, and a progress bar. Well that is the guide data for the next few hours.

I did a reset today during while it was recording Y&R. I got a lockup that occurred because I was playing in the History list and I was getting the Please Wait and couldn't back out of it so I had to press the Reset button. As soon as the unit was finished rebooting it automatically started recording Y&R again.

One thing that I did notice is that resets are taking much longer with this new version of the software. Previous software was between 5 and 6 minutes, but today it was between 8 and 9 minutes. Thanks God I still have my R15 recording the same shows as the HR20, so I went into the bedroom and watched the R15 until the reset was finished.


----------



## Tideman

Is the 00DC update the same as this?


----------



## thekochs

Earl Bonovich said:


> You can foce if you want, no guarantee that it will come down though (but it should)... Reboot, at the first screen "Welcome" 02468 one time.


Does this work for on all update forces or just this revision ?


----------



## RunnerFL

mikeny said:


> Thanks. I don't know if I'm actually going to file one or if there is an actual infraction for that matter. For example are they required to show CC on the networks for the HD feed? If they provide it for the SD feed, is that all that's required?
> 
> My wife can not watch anything recorded in HD from ABC with the HR20 because there are no captions at all. At least with the HR10 we can record OTA HD and get the CC.
> 
> FWIW, it appears that there is an electronic submission option at the FCC complaint site.


My original reply removed...

Nevermind... Doing as Earl suggested and stopping the CC talk.


----------



## RunnerFL

Howie said:


> They need some way to cache the guide data. If you have something scheduled to record soon after a reset, I guess you're screwed.


The guide data is cached, that's why it disappears on a reboot. The cache is flushed on a reboot. If it were stored then it would be there when the unit rebooted.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Tideman said:


> Is the 00DC update the same as this?


00DC = 0xDC


----------



## Earl Bonovich

thekochs said:


> Does this work for on all update forces or just this revision ?


02468 tells the unit to check for any authorized update for your unit.
So it will work on any update that you are allowed to received.


----------



## Wolffpack

Howie said:


> They need some way to cache the guide data. If you have something scheduled to record soon after a reset, I guess you're screwed.


They've been told that since the R15 first appeared. Keeping the guide data in memory, just like limits on SL, TDL and History, are all a carry over from the NDS XTV SKY+ DVRs. Even though DTV started coding the HR20 from scratch (as we're told), they still started with an old (2001) and flawed design premise. It doesn't matter if you rewrite code if the design you're using doesn't meet current DVR standards.


----------



## Wolffpack

RunnerFL said:


> The guide data is cached, that's why it disappears on a reboot. The cache is flushed on a reboot. If it were stored then it would be there when the unit rebooted.


I disagree. When something is cached it's brought into memory from disk. Guide data only resides in memory. That's a resident table with no disk copy stored.

Earl, sorry about this OT stuff, it's tough to reply to a post by starting a new thread.


----------



## drm0414

Earl, I received OxDC yesterday morning. Still getting the call the phone company message. Caller ID worked on this receiver until the 9/16/06 software download. I've two R15s that caller id works just dandy. Tested by moving the cord from the HR20 to a caller id phone. Caller ID worked on the phone, not the HR20. Also, saw more than usual FF pixalization last night, on programming recorded pre-OxDC.


----------



## matsfan

awursta said:


> I just finished watching Studio 60 and experienced the same lockup/pixelization. I hope they fix this one soon. My wife just looked at me and asked why I got this piece of %^&$! The freezes always seem to happen on her shows. Always worked great for me.


I recorded Studio 60 MPEG4 in Indianapolis and everything recorded and played back fine, not that it is much help to you at this point. Maybe a local feed issue?

UPDATE: Studio 60 was recorded before I received this update. I just watched Earl and The Office on the same NBC MPEG4 channel and was unable to FF most of the time. When I could, it would pixelate and then loop through the same few frames. Basically, I have the same problem others have been talking about. These were the only shows I have recorded since the update in MPEG4. Smallville on HDNet today seems fine though.


----------



## andrens

brott said:


> Pixelating during FF is fine with me. However, FF now doesn't work. It seems to break when the green bar moves forward. The good news is that you can kinda get out of it, but the bad news is that FF through commercials is gonna stink until it is fixed next Wednesday. I kinda hope that there is a hot fix for this one.
> 
> Stabilizing the code is great and should continue, but I hope that once we reach that point that weekly code updates become a thing of the past. TiVo's every other year updates are too far apart, but DirecTV's every-week updates are too close. I'd like to see once every 3-6 months (after this thing is stable, of course).


I spoke with Directv 2nd level tech moments ago He was not aware of the FF problem, but has sent info to software guys. He says an update to add OTA is coming in December, but he would expect they'll get a fix for FF issue before then.


----------



## PoitNarf

andrens said:


> I spoke with Directv 2nd level tech moments ago He was not aware of the FF problem, but has sent info to software guys. He says an update to add OTA is coming in December, but he would expect they'll get a fix for FF issue before then.


This forum is more likely to be a better place to report problems as the HR20 development team reads this forum, and more specifically this thread. Not surprising that a CSR is not aware of the biggest issue with the latest release


----------



## Jolliec

Since this update, when I attempt to play a recorded show, it jumps right to "Do you want to delete this show?"

I reboot, shows play fine. After some time, not exactly sure when, it starts doing this again. It appears to be after anything new records. Also has been frozen a when I cam home yesterday and today . Missed Lost as well. 

I have restarted this thing about 7 times in 2 days. Wife is about to kill me over this thing.

I have 2 units and one does not seem to be having any issues. However, I do not record much on it either. Could I possibly have a bad unit? Or, are others seeing this issue? Seems I have read about this issue before (Jumping to Delete when playing)...


----------



## matsfan

I have always had problems with Dolby Digital audio connected to my B&K Ref 30 after each HR20 software update. I can usually play with the DD off/on and change channels and ultimately get it back. So far, no go on this one though. I can hear audio on all channels with DD set to 'on' as long as it is a SD channel. If it is an HD channel, MPEG 2 or 4, it immediately goes silent when set to 'on.' Anyone have any other ideas?

Sigh.

UPDTAE: I got it back and this may have always been my trick but I am going to write it down so I don't forget next time. ;-) With DD set to 'on', shows that were already recorded also lost audio. While playing one of them back, I switched 'on' to 'off' and back 'on' and the audio stays for the recorded show and all other channels and shows, at least until the next software upgrade. You know, just like you would expect. 

Does anyone else ever have to deal with this?


----------



## matsfan

Jolliec said:


> Since this update, when I attempt to play a recorded show, it jumps right to "Do you want to delete this show?"
> 
> I reboot, shows play fine. After some time, not exactly sure when, it starts doing this again. It appears to be after anything new records. Also has been frozen a when I cam home yesterday and today . Missed Lost as well.
> 
> I have restarted this thing about 7 times in 2 days. Wife is about to kill me over this thing.
> 
> I have 2 units and one does not seem to be having any issues. However, I do not record much on it either. Could I possibly have a bad unit? Or, are others seeing this issue? Seems I have read about this issue before (Jumping to Delete when playing)...


That happened to my wife when trying to watch Weeds on Showtime HD. I wrote it off as a fluke but must not have been. We did not reboot to see if it came back and she just deleted it and watched it on the SD TiVo we still use as a backup. Obviously, not in HD though.


----------



## uteotw

matsfan said:


> UPDATE: Studio 60 was recorded before I received this update. I just watched Earl and The Office on the same NBC MPEG4 channel and was unable to FF most of the time. When I could, it would pixelate and then loop through the same few frames. Basically, I have the same problem others have been talking about. These were the only shows I have recorded since the update in MPEG4. Smallville on HDNet today seems fine though.


Same problem here w/the exact same shows. This needs to be fixed...


----------



## Calebrot

PoitNarf said:


> This forum is more likely to be a better place to report problems as the HR20 development team reads this forum, and more specifically this thread. Not surprising that a CSR is not aware of the biggest issue with the latest release


It's not surprising at all. They act clueless when you call, like this unit is the best thing since sliced bread. I don't even bother calling them anymore, just report the problems here, because calling them just frustrates me and raises my blood pressure higher than it normally is. I had my fill when I got the R15 and it had all it's problems and their solution for everything is hit the reset button, tell them you've done that, then next they tell you to do a reset everything which wipes out any recordings you have and haven't watched, so that would end the call because they would not go any further with help unless you do what they tell you to which would be completely clear the machine. The other thing they are famous for is telling you that you don't know how to use the unit and that before they will help you any further they need to set and appointment for you with a service tech and the service tech would teach you how to use the unit. Well all fine a good but every service tech I have had in my home didn't speak English, so I would tell them that and again they would proceed no further unless you schedule the appointment. They would never admit that it could be a programming error and also act like we as the real users of their equipment just don't know how to use it correctly, when in fact they are the ones that don't use it and know absolutely nothing about it's operation other than what they have been trained and it's just a job to them anyway. They treat you the same way as a software CSR does, basically like an absolute idiot. I just got sick and tired of being belittled by them so I don't call them any longer. It's sad, because I pay them $7.95/month for the equipment protection plan which should give me better technical service but it's the same no matter what number you call.:nono:


----------



## Calebrot

Tonight I was watching Survivor, time to take the dog for a walk, paused, came back and hit play and it picked up were it was in realtime, not where paused. PITA


----------



## TomF

Especially with the current FF problem!


----------



## jkc120

Well, add another bug to the ever growing list of issues with 0xDC. My HR20 decided not to record Smallville tonight. It shows as "Partial".

Sigh.


----------



## kokishin

Calebrot said:


> It's sad, because I pay them $7.95/month for the equipment protection plan which should give me better technical service but it's the same no matter what number you call.:nono:


They lowered it to $5.00/month. Told me it was for new customers. I told them I am old customer so change it, and they did.


----------



## h0ckeysk8er

I got the FF loop and pixelation issue during "Deal or No Deal" tonight when rewinding in the live buffer and then FF. Using FF caused both pixelation and frame looping. Skip still resulted in a bit of pixelation, but fixed the frame looping. HR20 is in fixed 1080i mode and receiving HD local 7 (KGO) in SF Bay Area.

No problems when FF through the Sharks game recorded tonight off of FSBA which is not MPEG4.


----------



## jgwatsonjg

Had a weird one last night. Went to watch the penguins on HDnet and it told me it was blacked out but I got sound? Error 727.

Called CSR and they told me it was blacked out to get me to go to the game, it was an away game in New York, so I wasn't going to go to the game.

Could it have been the HDMI hookup? But as soon as the game was over HDnet Came back on and starting showing star trek.

JW


----------



## pyrettablaze

same here FF freezes for me now.


----------



## texasbrit

Problems with audio dropouts through optical; "Lost" on Thursday via MPEG-4 locals (DFW) was almost unwatchable due to 5.1 dropouts, switched to stereo and still some dropouts. Neighbor with HR20 had no dropouts at all. 
I have not had this problem with previous releases.


----------



## bgartz

jgwatsonjg said:


> Had a weird one last night. Went to watch the penguins on HDnet and it told me it was blacked out but I got sound? Error 727.
> 
> Called CSR and they told me it was blacked out to get me to go to the game, it was an away game in New York, so I wasn't going to go to the game.
> 
> Could it have been the HDMI hookup? But as soon as the game was over HDnet Came back on and starting showing star trek.
> 
> JW


The games should have been blacked out to you since the game was on FSP locally. It seams that the Dolby Digital audio does not always get stopped on a blacked out program with the HR20.


----------



## RunnerFL

Wolffpack said:


> I disagree. When something is cached it's brought into memory from disk. Guide data only resides in memory. That's a resident table with no disk copy stored.


My point was that by the definition of the word "cache" or "cached" it is being cached already so asking for it to be cached would be wrong. What we should be asking them to do is to store the guide data.


----------



## jgwatsonjg

bgartz said:


> The games should have been blacked out to you since the game was on FSP locally. It seams that the Dolby Digital audio does not always get stopped on a blacked out program with the HR20.


Ok, That makes sense to me, but I couldn't find the Fox Sports Channel with the game on?

I even searched for it.

JW


----------



## Stuart Sweet

Last night my wife had about all she could take on the FF/RW issue, specifically where you come out of FF/RW after a commercial break and are about 2 minutes ahead of where you thought you should be. It looks like it's been fairly documented on this thread and others, so you all know what I'm talking about. 

Here's what I was able to deduce:

-Problem is nearly nonexistent on SD recordings
-I couldn't get the problem to occur with Live TV
-Problem definitely exists with MPEG4 recordings done before and after 0xDC
-Intermittently, pushing Jump Back after FF 3X actually jumps the unit forward 4 minutes

Once I got to 2nd level tech support, the person I spoke to was helpful and knowledgeable. (Let's not talk about any of the people I spoke to before that point.) 

Of course he told me this is a known issue, very high on the list, but of course impossible to pin down a fix date. This is normal and I did expect it. It's worth remembering, though, that complaining to Tech Support is how they learn what's really important to us out here. 

For my trouble, the tech credited me the DVR fee for the month (fair, since the DVR functions are the problem) and threw me a few free months of Starz. 

So, to all you haters out there, this may be a good place to keep venting your frustrations but don't forget to let Tech Support know what's important to you!


----------



## uvamack

Last night I noticed while using FF, I would try and hit play and it wouldn't respond right away. It would continue fast forwarding for a bit then finally it would play. The 30slip button worked fine.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

Anyone else wake up to a frozen HR20 this morning? Just wondering if I'm alone or did something get pushed last night. I just spent 10 minutes talking my wife through a "red button" reset.


----------



## qubit

jkc120 said:


> Well, add another bug to the ever growing list of issues with 0xDC. My HR20 decided not to record Smallville tonight. It shows as "Partial".
> 
> Sigh.


I have the same issue with "The Office". history shows partial recording and not in myvod list anywhere.


----------



## qubit

oh I also had an issue last night where ff, rw, pause, etc would not work at all in the buffer. but i went to watch a recorded show and it worked, then when I left the recorded show I could rw, pause, etc the buffer.


----------



## thekochs

texasbrit said:


> Problems with audio dropouts through optical; "Lost" on Thursday via MPEG-4 locals (DFW) was almost unwatchable due to 5.1 dropouts, switched to stereo and still some dropouts. Neighbor with HR20 had no dropouts at all. I have not had this problem with previous releases.


There are not only long standing audio dropout issues but also audio noise/crackling/static. This appears to happen mostly/only on local HDs, especially ABC. Here is a dedicated thread. I sure hope D* engineers are looking at this...it is really bad/annoying. 

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=681888&posted=1#post681888


----------



## pgfitzgerald

jkc120 said:


> Well, add another bug to the ever growing list of issues with 0xDC. My HR20 decided not to record Smallville tonight. It shows as "Partial".
> 
> Sigh.


This has been happening to me for quite some time. It's not a new bug associated only with 0xDC.

Paul


----------



## uncrph90

Ok--I haven't had problems since I went on a rant about missing recordings due to loss of signal during storm (that knocked my poorly installed pole mount dish out of alignment.) I got realigned and added concrete to the hole (lazy installer!!) and have had no issues since--until Wednesday night. Recording Jericho at 8 on CBS, Lost at 9 and The Nine at 10 both ABC. I'm using NY distant MPEG2 locals FWIW. 

While watching a recorded program at around 9:40 I get a missing signal error. I understand this is a known issue, but I hope DirecTV can fix it soon--why an error message you can't make go away? I knew I would have some missing time on my Lost recording--but I hoped it would record all it could. Well the storm got worse and we had a brief 1 to 2 second power blink at around 9:50 or so. I knew I was screwed then. 

On my "main" HR20 (which has a UPS battery backup) I had Jericho and The Nine. Lost was "canceled." I start playing The Nine and it seemed to be starting several minutes in, so I pressed rewind. Well it rewound to -53 minutes--the first -13 minutes were the beginning of The 9, but then I had about 40 minutes of Lost. Better than nothing I guess. I check my other HR20's. Both have Lost in my VOD. I haven't watched both of them yet (I did catch the first 10 minutes or so that wasn't on the "main" HR20) to see how much was missing because of signal loss. While I am grateful that most of a missing recording was saved in a buffer, what's up with that? Why would the one HR20 with a battery backup be the one that dropped the entire recording except the screwy buffer instead of the two non UPS ones? 

Other software notes--I don't have MPEG4 locals yet, so I can't comment on those, but I have now FF issues with MPEG2. I almost always use the 30sec slip however. I do frequently notice wrong program info when the unit is off for 12 hours or so--eg. when I turn on in the AM if often lists a program title from the night before with wrong times on the time bar when trying to rewind. I've seen other mention this as well, I assume it is a known issue of fairly low importance, just weird. (As a side note--I really, really like the feature where it goes back to the last user tuned channel after recordings are over--with the DirecTivos it was always random what channel you are on. Now I can make sure I'll be on the right channel for local news/weather in the AM--Thanks HR20!!)


----------



## lguvenoz

Jolliec said:


> I have 2 units and one does not seem to be having any issues. However, I do not record much on it either. Could I possibly have a bad unit? Or, are others seeing this issue? Seems I have read about this issue before (Jumping to Delete when playing)...


As a point of interest, can you check the manufacture date on your two boxes?? Might be they had a bad batch. This date is on a sticker on the bottom of the box.


----------



## packfan909

The one issue that I have experienced that is not documented has to do with guide data. For an example, when I review the guide data for channel 95 during the current time I see "Title Not Available." But if I advance twelve hours, that event populates. Last night, this happened with the NBA HD broadcast of the Kings. I had no clue it was on unless I went ahead in time.

Anyone else having similar issues. It would be nice to know when my local teams are on ahead of time. Is channel 795 the definitive answer for what is shown on those channels in HD?


----------



## ski_dawg

My HR20 had only demonstrated a few minor issues up until the last two updates, and now this box is rapidly turning into a POS. Since the 0xDC update, EVERY local MPEG4 recording has problems. Every one of them freezes up around the 4-5 minute mark, and the only way to get around it is to do the 30 second slip. In every case, if I hit replay then try to fast forward past the problem spot, it will just hang up at the same spot while the FF bar is still displayed. Also, in EVERY local HD recording I will have at least 1-2 instances where the unit refuses to FF past certain spots while I am zipping through commercials or programs. I have to resume play and watch at normal speed until it gets past the problem area.

Also last night I had a major freeze-up that required a reset. While ER was recording we watched that evening's episode of The Office from MyVOD. At the end of the episode it asked to delete or keep the episode and we chose delete. The box completely froze up at that point. Knowing that if I had hit reset at that point I would lose ER (there was 10 minutes left) I waited until a few minutes after 10:00 before punching the magic red button. The odd thing was that even at 10:03 it was still recording as I pressed reset, even though it's supposed to stop at 10:01. After booting back up I found that it had kept ER and had continued reocrding into our local news right up until I pressed reset. 

We've lost faith in this box. I was at first pleasantly surprised at the stability of the unit up until the past two updates. Every update since then just makes the box much worse. My wife has already started monitoring eBay for HR10-250's since we know we can't trust the HR20.


----------



## redbirdruss

FF/RR Problem on both of my HR20's.


----------



## bruno3496

Okay I had a HR10 250 that started flaking out - It was replaced by the service tech with this new HR20 box. Right away it updated the software to the latest version - Everything seems to work except the following.

Upon inital startup everything work for about 1 hour - after an hour all the HD local channels lock up - Non HD locals and all non locals do not lock up... When it hangs - nothing will work for 2-3 minutes. After 2-3 minute the screen stays black but now you can change the channel and it will work as long as you are not on a HD local channel. Only way the navigate through the local is to use the guide and pick all non hd local channels. If I reset the box, everything works again for about an hour and then it is back to the same problem. 

Anything that can be done? 

Also should I have double channels showing for locals? an HD FOX (9) and a non HS FOX (9). Same for CBS(4), ABC(5) and NBC(11). All are duplicate - 1 HD & 1 SD.

When the above issue happens (after about an hour) - the SD channel still works so all navigation must use the guide. 

If this is a defect of the HR20??

Any imput would be great.


----------



## Twosted

Watched my first recorded program since the new update. Same problems as everyone else. FF loop, 30sec slip gets past it. Pixelation during FF or 30sec slip. None of this was present before this update. This update has actually caused problems. I have had a trouble free unit up until this point.


----------



## pyrettablaze

lamontcranston said:


> Last night my wife had about all she could take on the FF/RW issue, specifically where you come out of FF/RW after a commercial break and are about 2 minutes ahead of where you thought you should be. It looks like it's been fairly documented on this thread and others, so you all know what I'm talking about.
> 
> Here's what I was able to deduce:
> 
> -Problem is nearly nonexistent on SD recordings
> -I couldn't get the problem to occur with Live TV
> -Problem definitely exists with MPEG4 recordings done before and after 0xDC
> -Intermittently, pushing Jump Back after FF 3X actually jumps the unit forward 4 minutes
> 
> Once I got to 2nd level tech support, the person I spoke to was helpful and knowledgeable. (Let's not talk about any of the people I spoke to before that point.)
> 
> Of course he told me this is a known issue, very high on the list, but of course impossible to pin down a fix date. This is normal and I did expect it. It's worth remembering, though, that complaining to Tech Support is how they learn what's really important to us out here.
> 
> For my trouble, the tech credited me the DVR fee for the month (fair, since the DVR functions are the problem) and threw me a few free months of Starz.
> 
> So, to all you haters out there, this may be a good place to keep venting your frustrations but don't forget to let Tech Support know what's important to you!


I have already been credited so many times because of this HR20 that they no longer have anything they can offer me except 100 dollars off the NFL ticket. I just can't seem to parlay this thing into the SDT with SF gratis though.


----------



## rcpilot82

Earl,

Any idea when the "Ch's I Get" list will start working? Since it lists the same as the total number of channels it is very frustrating when performing searches.

Thanks.


----------



## Nukeranger

My wife is also extremely upset about FF/RW functions. The Latest update seems to have fixed the recording problems we previously experienced (i.e. missing - partial). I did experience a remote control problem last night. The up and down buttons started working like select and would not maneuver through the menu up and down. We had to use the Recorder front buttons. She was extremely pissed to have to do this in the guide. I did a red button reset this am and the remote works again. Resetting the remote with code 981 did not work so I guess the HR20 had some problem.


----------



## net17

When I got home last night I got the BSOD. When I reset I saw that PTI was not recorded (about 4 hours before I got home). Luckly it was the only thing that missed. Argh, I hate it when I miss recordings.


----------



## Stuart Sweet

pyrettablaze said:


> I have already been credited so many times because of this HR20 that they no longer have anything they can offer me except 100 dollars off the NFL ticket. I just can't seem to parlay this thing into the SDT with SF gratis though.


Dang, I felt sheepish just asking for the DVR fee to be waived. I thought the Starz thing was a nice touch, although their movie selection isn't terribly interesting.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

rcpilot82 said:


> Earl,
> 
> Any idea when the "Ch's I Get" list will start working? Since it lists the same as the total number of channels it is very frustrating when performing searches.
> 
> Thanks.


Sorry, no... don't have an eta on when it is going to be re-enabled.


----------



## Twosted

Add another problem. Just turned on my box and it was unresponsive. Did a Red Button Reset and it seems to be working.


----------



## william8004

Earl,

Can you add a sticky thread where only you can post for FAQs? I keep seeing the same questions over and over.

Is the OTA active?
Which eSATA drive can I use?
etc...

There's so much in all the posts that those questions and answers make it difficult to read everything. It would give newbies a place to look at first before posting. Thanks.


Will


----------



## jheda

THOUGHT: I was a tivo addict and am finally not only used to the interface, i actually (and i cant believe i am saying this) think it is superior to the TIVO, in regards to features, ie recording by highlighting in guide, picture visual while in list, minimenu etc....not to be misconstrued with all of our instability issues....

Speaking of instabilty, last night i extended the time of the penguin game on HDnet (btw hockey in HD is amazing) yet it did not conitnue to record..........perhaps it was user error but has anyone else encountered this?


----------



## jheda

naive q of the day.........when you guys say you are awaiting ota is that outddoor antenna use? and isnt the idea of the hr20 that we dont need that?

shameless begging...............dual buffers please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Camaro305

Calebrot said:


> Tonight I was watching Survivor, time to take the dog for a walk, paused, came back and hit play and it picked up were it was in realtime, not where paused. PITA


I had the same thing. Next time try to hit PAUSE again. That will unpause it and it should continue playing (not go to realtime).


----------



## kram

Everything seemed to be working fine until I received the 0xDC update. Now, my video is jerky and audio transitions from program to commercial and back again are weird (some crackling). Anyone else having this problem? I am using Native mode, but previously experienced no problems.


----------



## bgartz

jgwatsonjg said:


> Ok, That makes sense to me, but I couldn't find the Fox Sports Channel with the game on?
> 
> I even searched for it.
> 
> JW


If are in the Pittsburgh TV market it would have been on 628. Since I live in NJ I got it on MSG out of NYC. I was also blacket out for the game on HDnet.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jheda said:


> naive q of the day.........when you guys say you are awaiting ota is that outddoor antenna use? and isnt the idea of the hr20 that we dont need that?
> 
> shameless begging...............dual buffers please!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


:newbie:

OTA is the "outdoor" antenna... aka Over the Air.

DirecTV is not broadcasting all the digitial networks that are possible in a city. Also DirecTV is compressing the HD networks with MPEG-4, which some cases produced a great picture.. in others.... well... some people would rather record it OTA then via the SAT stream.


----------



## jkc120

Earl,

Is D* working on these missed recordings showing up as "Partial"? Is this a known and documented bug? People are saying it's been around prior to 0xDC, so if that's the case, I'd hope D* is aware and fixing the problem.

Or could we at least find out WHY it did it? If it's because the local HD feed for that channel died or was unavailable, at least then I know not to blame the HR20...

Thanks!


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jkc120 said:


> Earl,
> 
> Is D* working on these missed recordings showing up as "Partial"? Is this a known and documented bug? People are saying it's been around prior to 0xDC, so if that's the case, I'd hope D* is aware and fixing the problem.
> 
> Or could we at least find out WHY it did it? If it's because the local HD feed for that channel died or was unavailable, at least then I know not to blame the HR20...
> 
> Thanks!


Yes, they are working on it... but as you said, there are so many possible reasons for the partial record... it may take some time. But they are definently working on make sure programs record.


----------



## jkc120

Earl Bonovich said:


> Yes, they are working on it... but as you said, there are so many possible reasons for the partial record... it may take some time. But they are definently working on make sure programs record.


Just to clarify, the fixes they put in place in 0xDC were to address unplayable recordings and not "Partial" recordings right?

Do you know under what circumstances it does a "partial" recording? And why it doesn't show up as a watchable clip in MyVOD if it's partial? I've seen folks complain about shows marked as "Deleted" when they didn't watch it, but this is different I guess. Perhaps it'd be nice if the unit left a message in the calls&msgs area with a message WHY it didn't record something.


----------



## gcisko

RAD said:


> I hit pause on a live show and go away for 15 minutes or so, come back and the screen saver is on, so far so god. I hit the play button and I'm in real time on the show, not where I paused it at, didn't do that on prior releases.


I Paused a recording that was done prior to 0xDC. After about 15 minutes I unpaused it and my wife and I continued watching. Only problem is it went back to the beginning of the recording. My wife asked again how long I plan to put up with this. We had zero problems with my old RCA ultimate TV. I tried explaining that I was one of the beta testers on this new unit. I think it worked :hurah:


----------



## jgwatsonjg

bgartz said:


> If are in the Pittsburgh TV market it would have been on 628. Since I live in NJ I got it on MSG out of NYC. I was also blacket out for the game on HDnet.


Ahh Thank You!

But wouldn't it be better to watch it in HD!!!

That was my goal!

JW


----------



## Doug Brott

Earl, I'm expecting that the plan is for DirecTV to fix the FF/REW problem in the next release. Should I adjust my expectations?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jkc120 said:


> Just to clarify, the fixes they put in place in 0xDC were to address unplayable recordings and not "Partial" recordings right?
> 
> Do you know under what circumstances it does a "partial" recording? And why it doesn't show up as a watchable clip in MyVOD if it's partial? I've seen folks complain about shows marked as "Deleted" when they didn't watch it, but this is different I guess. Perhaps it'd be nice if the unit left a message in the calls&msgs area with a message WHY it didn't record something.


I know "some" of the circumstances, but they are your typical ones...Loss of signal, power failure, reboot, crash...

I do know they are aware of the partial records not showing up in myVod


----------



## Earl Bonovich

brott said:


> Earl, I'm expecting that the plan is for DirecTV to fix the FF/REW problem in the next release. Should I adjust my expectations?


You do not have to adjust your expectations...


----------



## tstarn

Latest report on OxDC here. I had that locked up box thing yesterday, so I reset it. Then, I read someone unhooked their BBCs and that seemed to be positive, so I did that last night at 10. Today, not a hiccup yet. Recorded 8 shows so far (as a test) and they are all there, no BSODs, no issues. Also, I never initially got the FF/REW pixel problem on local HD channels, so that's not an issue (I thought everyone had it?).

Not ready to write the positive review yet on the HR20 in terms of reliability ... this specific testing period way too short, the uncertainty just too obvious. So no, I haven't changed my tune yet, especially since the issues are so varied across so many owners with issues/problems.

Seems like it's more a matter of stars aligning than anything else (in other words, dumb luck). If the situation remains the same for a week (after the next download in particular), I will be the first to say so. Meantime, back to the torture test.


----------



## hdtvfan0001

tstarn said:


> Latest report on OxDC here. I had that locked up box thing yesterday, so I reset it. Then, I read someone unhooked their BBCs and that seemed to be positive, so I did that last night at 10. Today, not a hiccup yet. Recorded 8 shows so far (as a test) and they are all there, no BSODs, no issues. Also, I never initially got the FF/REW pixel problem on local HD channels, so that's not an issue (I thought everyone had it?).


That's an interesting discovery that I'm sure Earl will want to share back with D*...

I have both BBC's connected, and don't have any problems (as you know), but that may be dumb luck too...


----------



## Wally_Gator

New one here. 
Last night recording Grey's Anatomy... (MPEG4 Broadcast)
We select MY Vod about 15 minutes into the recording (when we got home)
Selected play and started to watch about 15 min in we select 30 sec slip to go through commercials. at 16 min (live recording at 22 minutes) the screen went black.
None of the Quick Play keys worked. The unit then reset itself...

Earlier scheduled shows failed to record. One as a partial, two others just did not record at all or recorded with negative times.. 
Yesterday.. 0 for 7 on scheduled recordings. Something wron with every single attempt.. Before this we have had almost no issues with missed recordings.


----------



## tstarn

Wally_Gator said:


> New one here.
> Last night recording Grey's Anatomy... (MPEG4 Broadcast)
> We select MY Vod about 15 minutes into the recording (when we got home)
> Selected play and started to watch about 15 min in we select 30 sec slip to go through commercials. at 16 min (live recording at 22 minutes) the screen went black.
> None of the Quick Play keys worked. The unit then reset itself...
> 
> Earlier scheduled shows failed to record. One as a partial, two others just did not record at all or recorded with negative times..
> Yesterday.. 0 for 7 on scheduled recordings. Something wron with every single attempt.. Before this we have had almost no issues with missed recordings.


See what I mean. It all seems to come down to dumb luck whether these things work or not. And that's not good, no matter how small a percentage of users are experiencing issues, within reason.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

hdtvfan0001 said:


> That's an interesting discovery that I'm sure Earl will want to share back with D*...
> 
> I have both BBC's connected, and don't have any problems (as you know), but that may be dumb luck too...


They know that some of the BBC's cause issues, hence why it is one of the normal trouble shooting techniques.


----------



## h0ckeysk8er

One problem that still hasn't been fixed with this software version is the HDMI sync issue I'm experiencing with my Sharp LC-45GD6U. Regardless of the "power-on"/"power-off" state of the HR20, if I power off my Sharp and power it on with the input set to HDMI, I get an "incompatible video signal" message on the Sharp and no picture. If I then change to component and back to HDMI, picture is fine. If I power on the Sharp with input set to component and then change to HDMI, then no problem either. This was never a problem with the H20 receiver I had attached to the Sharp just prior to getting the HR20.

In thinking about the issue I realized a major difference between the H10/H20 that I had before that worked and the HR20 is that the HR20 never completely powers off. So, in some quick troubleshooting, I confirmed that if I power up the panel without a cable connected, it gives no indication of receiving a signal of any kind. However, even with the HR20 in the "power off" mode and powering on the panel with the HDMI cable attached, the panel indicates that it is receiving some form of signal on the HDMI port. If that is the case, then there is an issue with why there is signal being output on the HDMI port when the HR20 is supposedly "powered off" and what is that signal.

So after a little more troubleshooting I confirmed that when the HR20 is "powered off" there is still signal coming out on the HDMI port as well as the digital optical. I verified that if I pulled the power cord on the HR20 and powered up my LCD panel, it did not complain about an incompatible signal. I had a similar result if I unplugged the HDMI cable from the HR20 side and powered up the panel. Further, when the HR20 is "powered off", the Denon receiver shows digital input on the front left channel.

Spoke to D* support 2nd level and he said they don't have any way to check out my problem because they don't have HDMI capability in their support center. Offered to send me a new box when they were back in stock to see if it was specific to my unit or a systemic issue.

Can anyone else confirm that they see some form of signal being output to their TV/LCD/Plasma/etc and/or their A/V receiver with the HR20 "powered off"? In my case, the Sharp tells me that it has a 1080i signal (but there is no picture) on the HDMI port (once I switch from component back to HDMI) even with the HR20 "powered off" and the Denon shows digial audio input.

Thanks!


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Yes... they know that the HDMI connection still communicates while the unit is in "standby".

Please add your TV to the the HDMI thread...


----------



## h0ckeysk8er

Earl Bonovich said:


> Yes... they know that the HDMI connection still communicates while the unit is in "standby".
> 
> Please add your TV to the the HDMI thread...


Ah, at least it's confirmed. Do you have a pointer to the HDMI thread?

Thanks!!!


----------



## Earl Bonovich

h0ckeysk8er said:


> Ah, at least it's confirmed. Do you have a pointer to the HDMI thread?
> 
> Thanks!!!


Just below this on in the list.
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=66867


----------



## bonscott87

h0ckeysk8er said:


> Ah, at least it's confirmed. Do you have a pointer to the HDMI thread?
> 
> Thanks!!!


It's right below this one.


----------



## jheda

Earl Bonovich said:


> :newbie:
> 
> OTA is the "outdoor" antenna... aka Over the Air.
> 
> DirecTV is not broadcasting all the digitial networks that are possible in a city. Also DirecTV is compressing the HD networks with MPEG-4, which some cases produced a great picture.. in others.... well... some people would rather record it OTA then via the SAT stream.


thanks as always Earl for your immediate response!


----------



## antnyp73

I'm not sure if this has already been discussed, but I have a slight gripe about the HR20.

Is there a way to opt out of seeing the "Searching for satellite signal in 1/2" message? It was continually flashing on the screen on Wed. nite while I was watching a recorded show. With TiVo, that message only flashed when I was watching Live TV.

If there isn't a way to opt out, does anyone know if D* is putting this in as a fix?

Thanks!


----------



## Calebrot

This POS is quickly becoming a PITA. Today I'm sitting watching Y&R and the sound goes out. I switched to SD and continued watching. Once my soaps were over I started playing around, now all of my HD locals are gone, they are in the guide but you can't tune to them. If you tune to them you get into the infinite searching for satellite loop. I checked my signal strengths for Satellite 99 and they are all 0 (zero). Other HD channels are fine. The dish didn't move, there is not a cloud in the sky, I've reset twice, but nothing works. The actual stations are working because if I switch to my OTA input they are all fine. AHHHHHHHHH!


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Calebrot said:


> This POS is quickly becoming a PITA. Today I'm sitting watching Y&R and the sound goes out. I switched to SD and continued watching. Once my soaps were over I started playing around, now all of my HD locals are gone, they are in the guide but you can't tune to them. If you tune to them you get into the infinite searching for satellite loop. I checked my signal strengths for Satellite 99 and they are all 0 (zero). Other HD channels are fine. The dish didn't move, there is not a cloud in the sky, I've reset twice, but nothing works. The actual stations are working because if I switch to my OTA input they are all fine. AHHHHHHHHH!


I take it that you don't have another box to test?
Did a restart correct it?

Have you bypassed a multiswitch, or the B-Band converts that may have gone bad?


----------



## lguvenoz

Earl Bonovich said:


> I take it that you don't have another box to test?
> Did a restart correct it?
> 
> Have you bypassed a multiswitch, or the B-Band converts that may have gone bad?


Given the consistent anomalies with the B-Band Converters that a lot of folks are running into do you think D* will ever just stop shipping them? The HR20 technically already provides this capability with the FTM capabilities of the satellite tuner, but it's just not enabled (I still think it might be in some cases based upon my experiences).

As an FYI, my searching for satellite messages completely disappeared with both my original and replacement receivers by simply removing the converters.


----------



## Calebrot

Earl Bonovich said:


> I take it that you don't have another box to test?
> Did a restart correct it?
> 
> Have you bypassed a multiswitch, or the B-Band converts that may have gone bad?


No I have reset now three times, I am presently on hold with DTV and of course their response is to do a reset, so I'm sitting waiting.

From what I have been told by DTV the B-Band converters are also needed by the Hi-Def channels like ESPN and ESPN2 and they work fine, it's just Sat 99 that is giving me problems.


----------



## bonscott87

Hmmmm, perhaps we have a culprit for many of these problems that I haven't seen brought up much before....the B-band converters.


----------



## Calebrot

lguvenoz said:
 

> Given the consistent anomalies with the B-Band Converters that a lot of folks are running into do you think D* will ever just stop shipping them? The HR20 technically already provides this capability with the FTM capabilities of the satellite tuner, but it's just not enabled (I still think it might be in some cases based upon my experiences).
> 
> As an FYI, my searching for satellite messages completely disappeared with both my original and replacement receivers by simply removing the converters.


I took the b-band off and tried it that way and still no go on local HD channels. Other HD channels are fine without the b-band. DTV s sending someone out between 8-12 on Monday, she said it sounds like one of my LNB's went bad.


----------



## tstarn

bonscott87 said:


> Hmmmm, perhaps we have a culprit for many of these problems that I haven't seen brought up much before....the B-band converters.


Well, and you know the trouble I've seen with the HR20, I just went down and turned on my Hitachi, checked another 4 shows I recorded, and moved around the dial, and no issues. And this is after I removed the BBCs last night, as noted, after a lockup/reset. I just don't know. I did get a scare with The Tao of Steve (great flick) from IFC, as the play button brought up a black screen, but I hit FF and the picture came on.

I just don't know. I think I need about 4-5 straight days of no-issue HR20 action to be convinced. It's all so unpredictable.


----------



## Calebrot

Calebrot said:


> I took the b-band off and tried it that way and still no go on local HD channels. Other HD channels are fine without the b-band. DTV s sending someone out between 8-12 on Monday, she said it sounds like one of my LNB's went bad.


It is just very frustrating that tech support doesn't know their sheet! She told me the B-Band are required for all HD programming, which is obviously false because when I took them off I still didn't get my HD locals, but I did get the other HD cable channels. So it's either that my B-Bands both went bad at the same time, which I find very unlikely, or the LNB that gets the satellite 99 feed went bad.


----------



## redbirdruss

Got to love the Audio Dropouts on recorded MPEG 4 Channels. I am running Audio through Digital Optical Output


----------



## Calebrot

tstarn said:


> Well, and you know the trouble I've seen with the HR20, I just went down and turned on my Hitachi, checked another 4 shows I recorded, and moved around the dial, and no issues. And this is after I removed the BBCs last night, as noted, after a lockup/reset. I just don't know. I did get a scare with The Tao of Steve (great flick) from IFC, as the play button brought up a black screen, but I hit FF and the picture came on.
> 
> I just don't know. I think I need about 4-5 straight days of no-issue HR20 action to be convinced. It's all so unpredictable.


Were these 4 shows you recorded without the B-Band local broadcasts or cable broadcasts?


----------



## tstarn

Calebrot said:


> It is just very frustrating that tech support doesn't know their sheet! She told me the B-Band are required for all HD programming, which is obviously false because when I took them off I still didn't get my HD locals, but I did get the other HD cable channels. So it's either that my B-Bands both went bad at the same time, which I find very unlikely, or the LNB that gets the satellite 99 feed went bad.


The B Bands are not required, right Earl? I'd say it's your LNB, not anything in the box. That's an extreme issue, it seems.


----------



## tstarn

Calebrot said:


> Were these 4 shows you recorded without the B-Band local broadcasts or cable broadcasts?


Both (actually five). A couple of local MPEG-4 channels, and a couple of regular SD channels, and one MPEG-2 channel (HBO HD).


----------



## Earl Bonovich

tstarn said:


> The B Bands are not required, right Earl? I'd say it's your LNB, not anything in the box. That's an extreme issue, it seems.


Right now, they are not required.


----------



## texasbrit

OK, another report on the Fast Forward issues.
First, I have these problems with FF on programs recorded both before and after the last update. 
I have the pixel problem everyone else has reported.
When I stop FF the playback jumps forward several seconds. If I rewind and stop the playback jumps back several seconds. So it is just about impossible to stop the playback at any one particular point. Also I have noted that when this happens the timeline at the bottom of the screen is inconsistent. What I mean is, suppose that a particular frame is at 10 minutes when I play it. If I FF and then rewind and then play again, when I eventually get to the same place in the program it is at a different point on the timeline, say 9 minutes. No consistency in the time difference by the way. 
As someone who has spent much of his life testing software, my first guess would be that the sync betwen the timeline and the displayed program is being lost. When I rewind, the software rewinds 1.5 minutes of program (let's say) but thinks it has rewound two minutes, so it starts playing again from the minus 2 minute mark which is half a minute too early.


----------



## Jeremy W

lguvenoz said:


> Given the consistent anomalies with the B-Band Converters that a lot of folks are running into do you think D* will ever just stop shipping them? The HR20 technically already provides this capability with the FTM capabilities of the satellite tuner, but it's just not enabled


When the HR20's FTM is enabled and it's used with an FTM multiswitch, you are correct in that it will not require a BBC module. But even when FTM is enabled, it will still require BBCs in "legacy" two-cable setups.


----------



## thekochs

Earl Bonovich said:


> They know that some of the BBC's cause issues, hence why it is one of the normal trouble shooting techniques.


What is a BBC ? Is it the filter item that they put inline from the dish to the setop ? I have one on each of the lines coming itno my HR20 and one for the line into my H20. I asked the installer what these filters did and he had no idea. I call them "filters" but have no idea what they are.....little grey rectangular box.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

BBC : B-Band Converter

Yes, those are the filters/converters


----------



## Monty23

Having an intermittant problem setting up a series link. You press the record button once and you get the little orange R. You press the record button again for a series link and the orange R goes out. The other way it sometimes works is you press the record button once and get the orange R. You press it again and nothing happens. You press it a third time and the orange R goes out. Either way, it won't set up a series link.


----------



## thekochs

Earl Bonovich said:


> BBC : B-Band Converter
> 
> Yes, those are the filters/converters


So, are they needed or should I remove ? I have on both my HR20-700 DVR HD box and H20 HD only box.

What are they supposed to do ?


----------



## Monty23

When you pause a program, on the bottom of the screen you get a status bar and other information across the bottom in a blue box. If you want to move forward frame by frame, this box, which uses up about 10% of your screen, does not disappear like a TiVo, effectively blocking the lower portion of the screen. This is very annoying and I feel it would be better to remove this box with the first button push like the TiVo.


----------



## Jeremy W

thekochs said:


> So, are they needed or should I remove ? I have on both my HR20-700 DVR HD box and H20 HD only box.
> 
> What are they supposed to do ?


They will be needed in the future to allow the receiver to tune in the signals from the new satellites that haven't been launched yet. There is no reason to remove them unless they're causing a problem. And if they are causing a problem, you need to call DirecTV and get them replaced.


----------



## rhweimer

thekochs said:


> So, are they needed or should I remove ? I have on both my HR20-700 DVR HD box and H20 HD only box.
> 
> What are they supposed to do ?


Do Google search on "B-Band Converter"


----------



## RunnerFL

Calebrot said:


> No I have reset now three times, I am presently on hold with DTV and of course their response is to do a reset, so I'm sitting waiting.
> 
> From what I have been told by DTV the B-Band converters are also needed by the Hi-Def channels like ESPN and ESPN2 and they work fine, it's just Sat 99 that is giving me problems.


You shouldn't receive a signal from 99, your locals are not on 99. It's the same here in Lake Worth.

http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/directvusa99.html


----------



## Davenlr

jgwatsonjg said:


> Had a weird one last night. Went to watch the penguins on HDnet and it told me it was blacked out but I got sound? Error 727.


For some reason, on this receiver, you can still get audio for channels you dont subscribe to, but still get the error message saying its not available to you. Dont know if its all channels, or just the HD ones. I dont normally try to tune stations I dont subscribe to, but tried to get ABC West one night, and got the audio, but no video.


----------



## PoitNarf

Davenlr said:


> For some reason, on this receiver, you can still get audio for channels you dont subscribe to, but still get the error message saying its not available to you. Dont know if its all channels, or just the HD ones. I dont normally try to tune stations I dont subscribe to, but tried to get ABC West one night, and got the audio, but no video.


This occurs only with channels with DD audio.


----------



## thekochs

rhweimer said:


> Do Google search on "B-Band Converter"


Thanks....for others wondering here is good AVS Forum explanation link:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=630511


----------



## bkkress

I am new to this unit and experience all the same issues on audio and ff/rr that everyone else does. I come from TIVO and had the ability to fast forward but also do a super forward to the tick marks (usually 4 of them) Can this unit do it and I don't know how or it's not working? Thanks.


----------



## lguvenoz

bkkress said:


> I am new to this unit and experience all the same issues on audio and ff/rr that everyone else does. I come from TIVO and had the ability to fast forward but also do a super forward to the tick marks (usually 4 of them) Can this unit do it and I don't know how or it's not working? Thanks.


Hold down the FF button for 3 secs to skip to the tick marks. Same with RW.


----------



## jheda

Is anyone watching the panthers tampa hockey game. im watching recorded from behind. It looks like im watching a old super 8 movie....is that the hr20, the fox feed or my eyes


----------



## jheda

on channel 96 fyi


----------



## Wolffpack

BBCs. What's the deal. Is each release being tested with BBCs or without. I'm just sitting on the sides and see there' a huge butt-load of problems in DTVs testing process which seems to be creating even more problems.

This ain't rocket science. It's common sense.


----------



## rhweimer

thekochs said:


> Thanks....for others wondering here is good AVS Forum explanation link:
> 
> Thanks for posting URL. I tried but you need 5 post to post a URL. I believe you will not need BBC until ka sat is launched. Directv 9S was launched today. It is ka band sat.


----------



## Capmeister

Since the update Wednesday, I'm suddenly getting drops to black when watching live TV--about one every 15 mins.


----------



## tstarn

This is nuts. I removed my B-Band Converters last night at 10 EDT, and now, nary a problem. Running smooth. It's only been 24 hours, but very weird. No lock-ups, screw-ups or drop-outs. Again, not enough time for a reliable testing period, but this happened after last night, when my screen froze and someone else mentioned the same thing happening and they removed the B-Band converters and the problem went away. My installer told me the same thing, if you have odd HR20 problems, remove them and see what happens. Never thought to do it. I still have one on my bedroom H20, without a problem on that box so far.

I just don't know. Seems way too easy, and what's going to happen when I need them later? I will call D* tomorrow and request a couple of new ones. I just can't believe this is the issue, but all I can say is the box is working for now, not even the FF/REW pixel issue that resulted from the latest update/download. Go figure.


----------



## hasan

tstarn said:


> This is nuts. I removed my B-Band Converters last night at 10 EDT, and now, nary a problem. Running smooth. It's only been 24 hours, but very weird. No lock-ups, screw-ups or drop-outs. Again, not enough time for a reliable testing period, but this happened after last night, when my screen froze and someone else mentioned the same thing happening and they removed the B-Band converters and the problem went away. My installer told me the same thing, if you have odd HR20 problems, remove them and see what happens. Never thought to do it. I still have one on my bedroom H20, without a problem on that box so far.
> 
> I just don't know. Seems to easy, and what's going to happen when I need them later? I will call D* tomorrow and request a couple of new ones. I just can't believe this is the issue, but all I can say is the box is working for now, not even the FF/REW pixel issue that resulted from the latest update/download. Go figure.


Isn't this a supreme challenge! Lots of blind alleys filled with wishful thinking and the occasional nugget that really gets at a problem. Hope ya found one! (I have BB's on mine, and as you know, have no significant problems (no MPEG-4/HD Locals here to screw things up either)


----------



## tstarn

hasan said:


> Isn't this a supreme challenge! Lots of blind alleys filled with wishful thinking and the occasional nugget that really gets at a problem. Hope ya found one! (I have BB's on mine, and as you know, have no significant problems (no MPEG-4/HD Locals here to screw things up either)


I really have to wonder if we did a poll on non-local HD users vs. local HD users, how the "problem" issues would stack up. Any sense of that so far, Hasan? I know you mention it alot, so you must believe there is a correlation between local HD feeds/AL9 dishes and non/AL9 dishes. Did you upgrade your dish yet? Or is it just a matter of local HD channels?


----------



## Jeremy W

tstarn said:


> I really have to wonder if we did a poll on non-local HD users vs. local HD users, how the "problem" issues would stack up.


Most of the problems focus on the MPEG4 channels. But even for those people who have MPEG4 channels, the problems on those channels do not correlate with problems on the MPEG2 channels.


----------



## Calebrot

RunnerFL said:


> You shouldn't receive a signal from 99, your locals are not on 99. It's the same here in Lake Worth.
> 
> http://www.lyngsat.com/packages/directvusa99.html


What HD locals do you get, West Palm or Miami? I get Miami. If you look at that list and then change the URL to end with 103, 110, or 119, instead of the 99, neither Miami nor West Palm is on either list and I definitely had HD locals before today. Every time I call support they are the ones that tell me that my HD locals are coming from satellite 99. When I was having problems with the reception of my HD locals a few weeks ago I tweaked the satellite and the signal strength went way up for 99 and the problems went away. Today when I was talking she asked me if I knew which satellite I got my HD locals from and I said 999 and she looked it up and said that I was correct. So the point is Miami isn't on any of the four HD lists on the site you reference and I definitely had them, s the list is not complete.


----------



## rhweimer

Calebrot said:


> What HD locals do you get, West Palm or Miami? I get Miami. If you look at that list and then change the URL to end with 103, 110, or 119, instead of the 99, neither Miami nor West Palm is on either list and I definitely had HD locals before today. Every time I call support they are the ones that tell me that my HD locals are coming from satellite 99. When I was having problems with the reception of my HD locals a few weeks ago I tweaked the satellite and the signal strength went way up for 99 and the problems went away. Today when I was talking she asked me if I knew which satellite I got my HD locals from and I said 999 and she looked it up and said that I was correct. So the point is Miami isn't on any of the four HD lists on the site you reference and I definitely had them, s the list is not complete.


http://www.dbstalk.com/hr20/html/DTV_LIL_DMA.html


----------



## houskamp

Well been a couple of days since last update.. every recording has played back fine WooHoo! Only problem yet is it locks up my reciever (optical hookup) when it sits overnight (everything off). 
Feature request: when there is a conflict with program I'm watching(ok to change chanell message) let me pick which to cancel..


----------



## Peapod

I've been running 0xdc for a few days now and thought at least that the corrupted recordings problem was done. I was previously seeing corruption on about 25% of recordings, usually on MPEG-4 channels, but for example, Weeds on Showtime 71 was corrupt Monday night.

Well, tonight it appears that The Tonight Show which just finished is not viewable. In addition, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, which just started recording, is also exhibiting the same problems.

I have noticed that an easy way to tell I am going to have problems with a recording show is that I cannot use trickplay on it while watching live. Since I just caught the problem on Conan, I stopped and deleted the recording, switched to a different channel, switched back and started record again. I can now watch the recording from MyVOD. However, this only works if you happen to be home to check everything your DVR records as it starts.

More importantly, it appears they have not entirely solved the unviewable recordings issue, although it is MUCH less frequent (2 out of 20 so far).


----------



## induna

I hereby nominate Earl for "Saint of the Airwaves". If I were him, I would be swearing left and right, or having a conniption fit.

This forum has to be the king of hyperbole. If I were to take the tone of many of these posts seriousely, I would believe that a world tradgedy is occurring. Take a deep breath and repeat;

"It's only TV. It's only TV. It's only TV."

If your marriage is on the rocks over bugs in the HR20, GET A DIVORCE NOW! Life is too short. 

Early twenty first century America has to be one of the pickiest and whiniest societies in Human History -- too much time on our hands, I guess.


----------



## hobbes

Another data point for our friends at D*:

Ran a one-touch record on an MPEG4 program after about 20 minutes into the buffer (was switching to my OTA directly connected into my Samsung to watch the NLCS).

On playback from the beginning, had many freezes, pixelizations, and, although no "black screen of death," did get several "blue screens of not feeling too well."

For reference, I am not connected through a BBC and saw no signal hiccups when watching the same channel live later.


----------



## pappys

induna said:


> I hereby nominate Earl for "Saint of the Airwaves". If I were him, I would be swearing left and right, or having a conniption fit.
> 
> This forum has to be the king of hyperbole. If I were to take the tone of many of these posts seriousely, I would believe that a world tradgedy is occurring. Take a deep breath and repeat;
> 
> "It's only TV. It's only TV. It's only TV."
> 
> If your marriage is on the rocks over bugs in the HR20, GET A DIVORCE NOW! Life is too short.
> 
> Early twenty first century America has to be one of the pickiest and whiniest societies in Human History -- too much time on our hands, I guess.


Whiney yes. However, its not too much time on our hands, but rather, many different and EASY ways to communicate our messages. Just like this forum, blogs, email, voice recorders, talk radio etc. It used to be just news paper opinion columns and a handful of radio stations, and the barber shop. Now where are we...


----------



## litzdog911

Had an unusual problem this evening ....

Was watching something on my HR10-250 and switched over to my HR20 shortly after 11pm after it finished recording "Numbers" and "Law & Order". But there was nothing displayed on ANY channels. The tuner info bar showed my local NBC HD channels, but no video or audio. Changing channels was VERY SLOW, taking a minute or two, yet all channels were black with no audio (both MPEG4 and SD channels). MyVOD List displayed fine, and I could view recordings just fine, but LiveTV was essentially dead. After a RESET everything worked fine again.


----------



## tstarn

induna said:


> I hereby nominate Earl for "Saint of the Airwaves". If I were him, I would be swearing left and right, or having a conniption fit.
> 
> This forum has to be the king of hyperbole. If I were to take the tone of many of these posts seriousely, I would believe that a world tradgedy is occurring. Take a deep breath and repeat;
> 
> "It's only TV. It's only TV. It's only TV."
> 
> If your marriage is on the rocks over bugs in the HR20, GET A DIVORCE NOW! Life is too short.
> 
> Early twenty first century America has to be one of the pickiest and whiniest societies in Human History -- too much time on our hands, I guess.


Enough with the dimestore philosophy/psychology, Dr. Phil. Everyone knows it's only TV. But thanks for your (hyperbolic?) contribution. Next time, try a sociology forum.


----------



## neotide

I had major issues with the HR20 last night which is the first time I've had issues with the latest update. I was watching MPEG4 local FOX to see the pixelating issue everyone is having but it was not there. Instead I got the audio drop out. Of course CBS and ABC in Austin on the MPEG4 locals still looks like crap yet FOX is fine. I just don't understand that. Anywho, while I was checking to see if the crappy picture finally went away on ABC and CBS the whole picture pixelated and froze the machine. So I go ahead and do the red button reboot. 10 minutes go by and all I get is the aquiring program data message interchanging with searching for satellite message. I red button reboot again. Same problem. The second time I let it sit there and it did this for over 30 minutes. I've already had them swap out the filters so I know that's not the issue (or wouldn't assume it to be). Getting frustrated I just went to bed and this morning I don't have it searching for the signal anymore. BAH!


----------



## pappys

I have had issues with both of the updates that have come down the pipe the last 2 weeks.

Usually about thursday late afternoon (updates on wednesday) some of my channels (mpeg4 locals) do not come in. usually just 1 or 2, then it starts with some other non hd local channels, like PBS or channel 23, 26. Then, later the unit becomes unresponsive to remote button presses, it just freezes. I may be watching a live program fine, but I cant change channels, menu or anything. 

After a reset, everything is ok, I just dont like what these last 2 updates have done to my box.

Because of these issues, I have missed some recordings, or have at least shown the recordings, but after the reset, they are not there. not good for the WAF.


----------



## jheda

This AM's status report:

recorded today show and had no center speaker audio when national;

local fox news showed major hiccups and pixelation live- cant wait for Wed. and hpefully improvements!!

This is not whining induna 20/20 showed yesterday sites like this and others have given consumers revolutionary voice - see ipod battery issue - thank Earl for that- would have returned HR20 weeks ago without this forum!!!! good for consumer, good for D*


----------



## bonscott87

tstarn said:


> I really have to wonder if we did a poll on non-local HD users vs. local HD users, how the "problem" issues would stack up. Any sense of that so far, Hasan? I know you mention it alot, so you must believe there is a correlation between local HD feeds/AL9 dishes and non/AL9 dishes. Did you upgrade your dish yet? Or is it just a matter of local HD channels?


I think the vast majority of the problems fall into these easy to define buckets:

1) MPEG4 HD locals. This is most of it I'd say. I do see posts of problems on other channels from time to time but almost all of them are local MPEG4 issues. I think some of it is being cleaned up by the new encoders DirecTV is installing for each market. The HR20 is probably having issues with the old encoders and just not handling MPEG4 errors very well, thus the lock ups and such. So once those new encoders get installed everywhere that may actually help out a lot with stability and then the HR20 just has to be made more stable when MPEG4 errors occur.

2) HDMI. There are just so many different versions of HDMI on so many TV's and receivers that it makes it difficult to make 100% compatible. You'll see this on any product that uses HDMI. But as we can see now these problems are becoming much less as DirecTV continues to tweak HDMI to work better with more varied equipment. This will always be an issue but I think we are near the end of a lot of HDMI issues, at least it's trending that way.

3) B-Band converters. Looks like this might be causing more issues then originally thought.

I'll bet that covers 80% of the problems if not more. The rest are more isolated and I'd say are just general bugs that happen for certain reasons.


----------



## lguvenoz

tstarn said:


> This is nuts. I removed my B-Band Converters last night at 10 EDT, and now, nary a problem. Running smooth. It's only been 24 hours, but very weird. No lock-ups, screw-ups or drop-outs. Again, not enough time for a reliable testing period, but this happened after last night, when my screen froze and someone else mentioned the same thing happening and they removed the B-Band converters and the problem went away. My installer told me the same thing, if you have odd HR20 problems, remove them and see what happens. Never thought to do it. I still have one on my bedroom H20, without a problem on that box so far.


To chime in on this oddity I have the following thoughts. With my original HR20 I had tons of the "Searching for satellite" messages. Removal of the BBCs eliminated them with that unit. My original unit from day one had occasional bad recordings with BSOD that progressively got worse. They got so bad that I recently ordered a replacement unit.

My replacement unit arrived Wednesday. Despite the old unit behaving "better" since the last update I still went ahead and swapped them out Wednesday evening, and installed my new BBCs with the replacement unit. Thursday the whole "Searching for satellite" messages were back with a vengeance, and still saw some slowness and odd behaviors. I discovered that Tuner 1 consistently was not showing any signal from the 99 or 103 sats. I swapped my BBCs between the two tuners, and still Tuner 1 showed no signal from 99 or 103 sats. I removed the BBC from Tuner 1 and all is happy again. My new unit is pretty stable thus far with the exceptions of the known FF issues.


----------



## HDNut

I unerstand that these BBC units are for frequency conversion for signals that are not being used at the present time. Does anybody know when they are going to be needed?


----------



## Doug Brott

Hey, Hey, I thought my 220 minute buffer in the last version was cool, but this even better. I had a 10 hour buffer. I changed the channel last night to a game that I was going to be watching this morning (so I could use the trick plays). This was a Gameplan game (ESPN) so there is a period of time before the game that DirecTV uses to ramp-up the bandwidth. This shows up as "upcoming ..." in the guide. No problem so far.

When I turned on the TV this morning, I noticed that it was odd that pretty much the ENTIRE bar was green (or buffered). This is from 11pm until 9am this morning (PDT). At 9am, the show changed from the upcoming version to the actual game. LiveTV worked fine and I didn't notice anything odd. After about 10 minutes, I needed to pause the game to see my family off and it wouldn't pause. Here's the deal. The remote no longer works for trick play. I will likely try to change channels and/or use the front panel to get something to happen, but at this point, LiveTV is continuing with NO problems, but none of the trick play functions work. The ONLY thing that it can do is PLAY. Nothing major because I'm sitting here.

The cool thing is that when I hit the PLAY button, it shows the green bar from the PREVIOUS "upcoming" program with the huge buffer. I've attached a photo, the bar can be seen at arrow 'A' and notice the time (which is working correctly) at arrow 'B'. The Actual time is AFTER the information in the bar.

Hope this helps.










Update:
I finally decided to see if I could switch the channel @ 11:40am. I checked and the actual visual was the same as above except the time showed 11:40am. I changed the channel and then changed back successfully. It dumped the buffer and then the program information was correct. The trick play functions started working properly as well.


----------



## digibob

I was actually enjoying this new box until Thursday's bomb fell. It didn't record any of my Thursday night shows. Earl, The Office, Ugly Betty. BAD BOX!!!! Then last night I watch some other shows and the FF didn't work. :nono2: Drove my wife crazy having to watch commercials. What is up with these latest developments. I am a daily reader here but have missed the last 3 days. I see this seems to be a Upgrade issue? I want my old HR20 back!!!:nono:


----------



## Gotchaa

digibob said:


> I was actually enjoying this new box until Thursday's bomb fell. It didn't record any of my Thursday night shows. Earl, The Office, Ugly Betty. BAD BOX!!!! Then last night I watch some other shows and the FF didn't work. :nono2: Drove my wife crazy having to watch commercials. What is up with these latest developments. I am a daily reader here but have missed the last 3 days. I see this seems to be a Upgrade issue? I want my old HR20 back!!!:nono:


The biggest issue with the last update is definitely the FF screw up. It is very frustrating. Trying to 3x FF through programming, the time bar slowly shows minute increments, but picture frame is not displaying the actual point in the program until it's too late. Then if you try and rewind, the same thing happens...over-shoot. I don't know which dev team let this update slip out, but it was clearly a rush job at best trying to fix other issues everyone is complaining about.

I hope this doesn't prevent them from releasing updates as regularly as they have, rather I hope they understand basic usability features of a DVR should be a priority to any enhancements or bug fixes that do not interfere significantly with the majority of the HR20 users basic operations.

I can deal with the occasional audio drop outs, pauses, and quirks of the menu, but can not accept basic time shifting search issues. Back to the HR10 for me until this is fixed (soon I hope).


----------



## tstarn

Gotchaa said:


> The biggest issue with the last update is definitely the FF screw up. It is very frustrating. Trying to 3x FF through programming, time slowly shows minute increments, but picture frame is not displaying the actual point in the program until it's too late. The you try and rewind, and the same thing overshoot. I don't know which dev team let this update slip out, but it was clearly a rush job at best trying to fix other issues everyone is complaining about.
> 
> I hope this doesn't prevent them from releasing updates as regularly as they have, rather I hope they understand basic usability features of a DVR should be a priority to any enhancements or bug fixes that do not interfere significantly with the majority of the HR20 users basic operations.
> 
> I can deal with the occasional audio drop outs, pauses, and quirks of the menu, but can not accept basic time shifting search issues. Back to the HR10 for me until this is fixed (soon I hope).


Seems like more and more people posting on this forum are heading in that direction. What else can they do?


----------



## Calebrot

digibob said:


> I was actually enjoying this new box until Thursday's bomb fell. It didn't record any of my Thursday night shows. Earl, The Office, Ugly Betty. BAD BOX!!!! Then last night I watch some other shows and the FF didn't work. :nono2: Drove my wife crazy having to watch commercials. What is up with these latest developments. I am a daily reader here but have missed the last 3 days. I see this seems to be a Upgrade issue? I want my old HR20 back!!!:nono:


Hey digibob, instead of using FF or RW, use the 30 sec slip button to advance and the 6 sec rewind button for overshoots and you won't have to watch commercials, they are the two button on either side of the stop button.


----------



## Doug Brott

Calebrot said:


> Hey digibob, instead of using FF or RW, use the 30 sec slip button to advance and the 6 sec rewind button for overshoots and you won't have to watch commercials, they are the two button on either side of the stop button.


Those definitely work better than the regular FF/REW.


----------



## RunnerFL

Calebrot said:


> What HD locals do you get, West Palm or Miami? I get Miami. If you look at that list and then change the URL to end with 103, 110, or 119, instead of the 99, neither Miami nor West Palm is on either list and I definitely had HD locals before today. Every time I call support they are the ones that tell me that my HD locals are coming from satellite 99. When I was having problems with the reception of my HD locals a few weeks ago I tweaked the satellite and the signal strength went way up for 99 and the problems went away. Today when I was talking she asked me if I knew which satellite I got my HD locals from and I said 999 and she looked it up and said that I was correct. So the point is Miami isn't on any of the four HD lists on the site you reference and I definitely had them, s the list is not complete.


I get the WPB locals.

I stand corrected however, both WPB and Miami are on 99 and not 103. I got them backwards. My apologies.


----------



## FilmMixer

Gotchaa said:


> The biggest issue with the last update is definitely the FF screw up. It is very frustrating. Trying to 3x FF through programming, the time bar slowly shows minute increments, but picture frame is not displaying the actual point in the program until it's too late. Then if you try and rewind, the same thing happens...over-shoot. I don't know which dev team let this update slip out, but it was clearly a rush job at best trying to fix other issues everyone is complaining about.
> 
> I hope this doesn't prevent them from releasing updates as regularly as they have, rather I hope they understand basic usability features of a DVR should be a priority to any enhancements or bug fixes that do not interfere significantly with the majority of the HR20 users basic operations.
> 
> I can deal with the occasional audio drop outs, pauses, and quirks of the menu, but can not accept basic time shifting search issues. Back to the HR10 for me until this is fixed (soon I hope).


I just noticed something, and I hope I am not repeating something that is earlier in the thread.. I didn't see if these ballistics issues were relegated to MPEG4 or not..

I started watching "Wedding Crashers" from HD-HBO 70 which I recorded weeks ago... smooth FF and REW like before the update.. all my new shows are cursed


----------



## jbstix

FilmMixer said:


> I just noticed something, and I hope I am not repeating something that is earlier in the thread.. I didn't see if these ballistics issues were relegated to MPEG4 or not..
> 
> I started watching "Wedding Crashers" from HD-HBO 70 which I recorded weeks ago... smooth FF and REW like before the update.. all my new shows are cursed


It's been covered... it is b/c those channels are MPEG2 not MPEG4.
I asked the same question about something I recorded on SHOw HD.
MPEG2 is not affected by this bug.


----------



## tstarn

FilmMixer said:


> I just noticed something, and I hope I am not repeating something that is earlier in the thread.. I didn't see if these ballistics issues were relegated to MPEG4 or not..
> 
> I started watching "Wedding Crashers" from HD-HBO 70 which I recorded weeks ago... smooth FF and REW like before the update.. all my new shows are cursed


Just more to add to the apparent confusion over what the new download has done. There doesn't seem to be consensus on how it has really affected users, except it has caused FF/REW issues. How's this for weird, I don't even had that specific problem, but Earl had said it was affecting everyone. At least I think that's what he said.

Know what my apparent solution of the week is right now? I removed the B Band converters (and didn't even reset the box). For others, it makes no difference, BBCs on or off. This is getting much too complicated and confusing.


----------



## Gotchaa

FilmMixer said:


> I just noticed something, and I hope I am not repeating something that is earlier in the thread.. I didn't see if these ballistics issues were relegated to MPEG4 or not..
> 
> I started watching "Wedding Crashers" from HD-HBO 70 which I recorded weeks ago... smooth FF and REW like before the update.. all my new shows are cursed


I saw some news about that don't know if it was this thread. But I will try viewing mpeg2 stuff recorded before and after the update.

I thought I got smart by switching the series links for network hd from national mpeg2 to local mpeg4, very painful if I have to revert back..luckily HR10 should have all the season passes, so if that's the case oh well...

One other note, I hope that people are calling in to report the issue, while I am sure there are D* folks reading, and Earl is likely relaying info back, it doesn't hurt to call retention and let them know so it gets logged.

I usually call in when I have a list of items. This time just one major flaw IMHO, was enough to justify a complaint.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

It is the MPEG-4 items that are primarily effected by the bug.


----------



## tstarn

Gotchaa said:


> I saw some news about that don't know if it was this thread. But I will try viewing mpeg2 stuff recorded before and after the update.
> 
> I thought I got smart by switching the series links for network hd from national mpeg2 to local mpeg4, very painful if I have to revert back..luckily HR10 should have all the season passes, so if that's the case oh well...
> 
> One other note, I hope that people are calling in to report the issue, while I am sure there are D* folks reading, and Earl is likely relaying info back, it doesn't hurt to call retention and let them know so it gets logged.
> 
> I usually call in when I have a list of items. This time just one major flaw IMHO, was enough to justify a complaint.


Are you getting both the national network MPEG2 HD feeds AND the local HD network feeds on the HR20?


----------



## sigma1914

houskamp said:


> Well been a couple of days since last update.. every recording has played back fine WooHoo! Only problem yet is it locks up my reciever (optical hookup) when it sits overnight (everything off).
> Feature request: when there is a conflict with program I'm watching(ok to change chanell message) let me pick which to cancel..


I had a lockup this morning when turning on after being off all night. It powered on, but no pic or sound & non responsive to remote. I'm connected via component and optical audio.

In 12 days I've had 2 lockups (one, I was screwing with stuff...my bad), 1 partial recording that poofed (SD channel), 0 BSOD recordings, about 30 successful MPEG-4 recording....all this with BBC's Not bad. My other unit kept getting the "Searching for Signal" message, ordered replacement and used new BBCs...same issue, but less frequent; the tech's coming Tuesday.


----------



## jbstix

jbstix said:


> It's been covered... it is b/c those channels are MPEG2 not MPEG4.
> I asked the same question about something I recorded on SHOw HD.
> MPEG2 is not affected by this bug.


----------



## Deevan

I'm still receiving stutters on MP4 playback to the point where they are completely unwatchable, but curiously, only from one station. WFTV in Orlando. (ABC affiliate)

Someone on the D* forums directed me to call the WFTV engineering department, but shouldn't D* be doing this, not I?

I'm on my third replacement HR-20 from customer service... They won't admit that there's a problem. Is this widespread for 720p MP4 recordings? (Live is just fine.)


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Deevan said:


> I'm still receiving stutters on MP4 playback to the point where they are completely unwatchable, but curiously, only from one station. WFTV in Orlando. (ABC affiliate)
> 
> Someone on the D* forums directed me to call the WFTV engineering department, but shouldn't D* be doing this, not I?
> 
> I'm on my third replacement HR-20 from customer service... They won't admit that there's a problem. Is this widespread for 720p MP4 recordings? (Live is just fine.)


If it is just one network, then it could be the affiliate and the not the unit.
As for calling the affiliate, can't hurt.. .and i am sure DirecTV probably would eventually call them. But the affiilate hearing from "the customer" can't hurt.

I wouldn't say wide spread... there are people tha thave issues, but I record from all of the 4 MPEG-4s that I get here in Chicago, and get very little (if any) pixelizing during playback.


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## pgfitzgerald

*Beware:* Long post ahead. 

This post is a summary of my problems, likes, dislikes, and overall opinion of my HR-20. I'm sure there are some things I'm missing, but there's plenty here. Some of these problems have already been reported, but maybe I can provide a little more detail for the developers.

*My current problems:*

 Caller-ID not working. I've already posted my experience in this thread. Has been occuring since the original software release.
 Stuttering video. It occurs on MPEG2 SD and HD as well as MPEG4 HD. It's like the hard drive can't keep up and drops frames. Is this what people are calling the 8mm effect? Has been occurring since the original software release. I think it might be getting better as D* releases new updates.
 Delete asks twice. Steps to reproduce: Hit back button while watching a show and choose delete from the menu. The screen will go away, but come back and ask again. It doesn't always happen. I'm not sure when it began, but it seems to be getting a little worse lately.
 Delete doesn't delete. Steps to reproduce: a) Follow #3, but the show still shows up in MyVOD (greyed out like you've already watched it). b) Hit dash-dash, but the show still shows up in MyVOD (greyed out like you've already watched it). I'm not sure when it began, but it seems to be getting a little worse lately.
 RF remote is much less reliable than IR. The unit "sees" the keypresses (the light on the unit flashes), but nothing occurs. It's not just delayed... the action never occurs. I do not have this problem at all when using IR. Has been occuring since the original software release, and doesn't seem to be getting any better.
 Pink background on play, 30 second slip, etc. Has been occuring since the original software release, and is not getting any better.
 Partial recordings showing up in History. No conflicts existed, no reboot occurred, no power outage occurred, to cause a partial recording. No reason is given as to why the partial recording occurred. This has been occurring since the original software release, and seems to be getting a little better lately.
 Canceled recordings showing up in History. No conflicts existed, no reboot occurred, no power outage occurred, no rescheduled showing, to cause canceled recording. No reason is given as to why the canceled recording occurred. This has been occurring since the original software release, and seems to be getting a little better lately.
 A series link I deleted several weeks ago still shows up in the History. It is causing non-existent conflicts that result in missed recordings of a real series link. Recreating the real series link has no effect. In my case, the deleted series link is for In a Fix on channel 286 on Sundays at 8pm. It causes a conflict with Desperate Housewives on ABC on Sundays at 8pm. Cold Case on CBS on Sundays at 8pm records fine, while both In a Fix and Desperate Housewives are cancelled.
*NOTE:* I haven't seen a BSOD since I switched from HDMI to Component. I'm not sure if that's a coincidence or not. I made the switch a couple of weeks ago.

*Things I like:*

 The video in the guide.
 The short description in the guide.
 Being able to easily record one showing or setup a series link in the guide with one or two key presses.
 Having Caller-ID (even though it's not working for me)
 The mini-guide. I don't really use it much because I keep forgetting it's there.
 Access to MyVOD from the quick menu
 Folders in MyVOD
 MyVOD showing previously viewed shows as grey instead of white.
 MyVOD's Disk space indicator
*Things I dislike:*

 Having to hit guide twice to get to the guide
 The guide get's cut off on my TV. Saying it's my TV's fault is not a valid argument because D* uses part of the screen outside of Action Safe.
 I really wish there was a confirmation when deleting using dash-dash.
 Things in the future showing up in History. Seems like the To-Do list would be a better place since To-Do is future and History is past.
 Being sent back to the top of MyVOD when going back to MyVOD after watching a show that is in a folder. It should come back to the expanded folder so I can watch the next show in the folder.
 The word "playlist" on the MyVOD screen, the word "info" on the Info screen, etc. look like crap. They don't look clean like the rest of the interface elements.
 When going from Guide to Info, the video picture changes size. That's extremely annoying.
 The picture in guide for SD shows stretches the picture even though I have it set to pillar box.
 Not having an explanation of why a recording was partial, canceled, deleted, etc. in the History.
 Some things, like recording defaults, took me forever to find. I couldn't find it in the manual, or the on-screen help. I ended up having to spend 10 minutes searching this forum to find out how to setup series link recording defaults. It should not be that frickin' hard to find something like that.
*Things I look forward to:*

 OTA because CBS-HD in MPEG4 isn't available in Memphis yet, and PBS and CW probably won't be available in MPEG4 for a while... if at all.
 eSATA *extending* storage capacity
 Sound effects. Audio confirmation may help with things like the missing delete confirmation with using dash-dash.
Overall, I'm very happy with my HR-20, but become VERY frustrated when I miss my favorite shows because it screwed something up. No biggie. I have my SA8300HD AND my SAT-T60 recording the same things just in case.

Paul


----------



## Deevan

Earl Bonovich said:


> If it is just one network, then it could be the affiliate and the not the unit.
> As for calling the affiliate, can't hurt.. .and i am sure DirecTV probably would eventually call them. But the affiilate hearing from "the customer" can't hurt.
> 
> I wouldn't say wide spread... there are people tha thave issues, but I record from all of the 4 MPEG-4s that I get here in Chicago, and get very little (if any) pixelizing during playback.


Well it's not only pixelizing, the video will literally tear and stop for seconds at a time. What I don't understand is the fact that it's *not *happening during live tv from the same station, but if I watch it from the buffer or from the VOD it occurs. honestly, it's a D* deal breaker right now. If I can't watch lost.... I'll have to result to the :computer: to watch things...

This is now the third box I've tried, same result...  Doesn't even seem to make a difference to hd shows recorded before/after the latest update. (10/11)

And for reference I'm using D4 (component.)


----------



## Jolliec

Jolliec said:


> Since this update, when I attempt to play a recorded show, it jumps right to "Do you want to delete this show?"
> 
> I reboot, shows play fine. After some time, not exactly sure when, it starts doing this again. It appears to be after anything new records. Also has been frozen a when I cam home yesterday and today . Missed Lost as well.
> 
> I have restarted this thing about 7 times in 2 days. Wife is about to kill me over this thing.
> 
> I have 2 units and one does not seem to be having any issues. However, I do not record much on it either. Could I possibly have a bad unit? Or, are others seeing this issue? Seems I have read about this issue before (Jumping to Delete when playing)...


Update...

This kept happening, got to where we could not play any shows successfully. Wife got pissed. I figured I probably had a bad box and decided that I would do a complete reset for the heck of it. So, I did a "Reset Everything". I did right this before going to bed. When I woke up, I went thru the setup process just like a new unit, then went off to work.

Came home last night late, went to MyVOD, and all of my previously recorded shows were there?? I then checked my Prioritizer and all of my SL's were there.
Isn't this suppose to delete everything?

What's even stranger than that is now I have had not one lockup and all shows play fine.


----------



## Deevan

Earl Bonovich said:


> If it is just one network, then it could be the affiliate and the not the unit.
> As for calling the affiliate, can't hurt.. .and i am sure DirecTV probably would eventually call them. But the affiilate hearing from "the customer" can't hurt.
> 
> I wouldn't say wide spread... there are people tha thave issues, but I record from all of the 4 MPEG-4s that I get here in Chicago, and get very little (if any) pixelizing during playback.


Just a thought - I haven't tried this with the BBC's on or off (though taking them off hasn't affected any channels.)

Think that would make a difference?


----------



## neotide

My patience with the HR20 has come to an end today. I dropped DirecTV and am getting connected with a local cable provider. It worked out as I will have a properly functioning DVR along with more HD channels than DirecTV currently offers and all for less money. Thanks for all the help with this thing over the past few weeks and good luck to everyone out there deciding to keep this. 

Cheers....


----------



## Deevan

neotide said:


> My patience with the HR20 has come to an end today. I dropped DirecTV and am getting connected with a local cable provider. It worked out as I will have a properly functioning DVR along with more HD channels than DirecTV currently offers and all for less money. Thanks for all the help with this thing over the past few weeks and good luck to everyone out there deciding to keep this.
> 
> Cheers....


It's sad that I am very close to doing this as well.. . If only OTA was enabled... :nono2:


----------



## tstarn

neotide said:


> My patience with the HR20 has come to an end today. I dropped DirecTV and am getting connected with a local cable provider. It worked out as I will have a properly functioning DVR along with more HD channels than DirecTV currently offers and all for less money. Thanks for all the help with this thing over the past few weeks and good luck to everyone out there deciding to keep this.
> 
> Cheers....


Wow, is everything working okay? What's the storage capacity on your HD DVR? Just curious. And what kind of deal did your cable provider offer? Second, weren't you locked up in a two-year commirment, and if you were, did D* give you any fuss/grief?

Now that I reread, you haven't gotten cable yet? Just curious as to what deal they offered.


----------



## PoitNarf

Jolliec said:


> Update...
> 
> This kept happening, got to where we could not play any shows successfully. Wife got pissed. I figured I probably had a bad box and decided that I would do a complete reset for the heck of it. So, I did a "Reset Everything". I did right this before going to bed. When I woke up, I went thru the setup process just like a new unit, then went off to work.
> 
> Came home last night late, went to MyVOD, and all of my previously recorded shows were there?? I then checked my Prioritizer and all of my SL's were there.
> Isn't this suppose to delete everything?
> 
> What's even stranger than that is now I have had not one lockup and all shows play fine.


What you did just reset the box, pretty much like pulling the power cord. A red button reset will do about the same thing but will keep many customized settings intact. Your HR20 will only be completely wiped out if you do a complete reset/format; reset from the on screen menus or the red button will not clear out any recordings or series links.


----------



## sigma1914

neotide said:


> My patience with the HR20 has come to an end today. I dropped DirecTV and am getting connected with a local cable provider. It worked out as I will have a properly functioning DVR along with more HD channels than DirecTV currently offers and all for less money. Thanks for all the help with this thing over the past few weeks and good luck to everyone out there deciding to keep this.
> 
> Cheers....


Well...good luck...if you think the HR20 had issues, the Moto HD-DVR & SA boxes are just as _"fun."_ Hope you get a good box. Cable box is a hit or miss and you depend a lot on your neighborhood being wired right.


----------



## Jeremy W

Alright, I was finally able to witness a sporadic bug that my family has been reporting to me with the MPEG4 locals. The picture will pixelate and freeze up, then a few seconds later it will go black and the "Searching for signal" message will appear. I checked the signal level immediately as it was happening, and it was 98%. Switch up to the MPEG2 version of the channel, and there are no problems.

The weird thing is that this is sporadic, but when it decides to do it, it does it constantly. If it does it and I switch away to another channel to clear it up and switch back, it will do it again. Nothing is recording on either tuner.

*Edit:* Now this is weird. My H20 is doing the exact same thing. Signal strength is perfect, but the picture pixelates and then goes to a searching for signal message. So nevermind this post, there is a problem somewhere else.


----------



## Calebrot

PoitNarf said:


> Quote:
> Originally Posted by Jolliec
> Update...
> 
> This kept happening, got to where we could not play any shows successfully. Wife got pissed. I figured I probably had a bad box and decided that I would do a complete reset for the heck of it. So, I did a "*Reset Everything*". I did right this before going to bed. When I woke up, I went thru the setup process just like a new unit, then went off to work.
> 
> Came home last night late, went to MyVOD, and all of my previously recorded shows were there?? I then checked my Prioritizer and all of my SL's were there.
> Isn't this suppose to delete everything?
> 
> What's even stranger than that is now I have had not one lockup and all shows play fine.
> 
> What you did just reset the box, pretty much like pulling the power cord. A red button reset will do about the same thing but will keep many customized settings intact. Your HR20 will only be completely wiped out if you do a complete reset/format; reset from the on screen menus or the red button will not clear out any recordings or series links.


But he was correct in expecting the programs to be gone with doing a Reset Everything, because everytime I have been told by DTV to do a Reset Everything they tell you it will wipe out everything including recorded programs. So it isn't doing what it is supposed to do. I'm not going to test it because I still have things to watch so just in case it isn't an every machine problem, I don't want to lose everything.


----------



## Vinny

Calebrot said:


> Hey digibob, instead of using FF or RW, use the 30 sec slip button to advance and the 6 sec rewind button for overshoots and you won't have to watch commercials, they are the two button on either side of the stop button.


Agreed!!! I don't see what the big deal is; just hit the 30sec button 6 or 7 times than the 6sec RR. I mean; it's just TV!

I too wish that everything worked perfectly; but it's not like watching a recorded program is impossible. I'm sure, by the next upgrade the FF will be fixed. I'll take this bug anytime over missed recordings or the black screen of death.


----------



## PoitNarf

Calebrot said:


> But he was correct in expecting the programs to be gone with doing a Reset Everything, because everytime I have been told by DTV to do a Reset Everything they tell you it will wipe out everything including recorded programs. So it isn't doing what it is supposed to do. I'm not going to test it because I still have things to watch so just in case it isn't an every machine problem, I don't want to lose everything.


In cases where the problem appears to be severe and the normal reset options (which he tried) do not remedy the situation, D* will tell you to format the HR20 which does completely wipe it out.


----------



## neotide

tstarn said:


> Wow, is everything working okay? What's the storage capacity on your HD DVR? Just curious. And what kind of deal did your cable provider offer? Second, weren't you locked up in a two-year commirment, and if you were, did D* give you any fuss/grief?
> 
> Now that I reread, you haven't gotten cable yet? Just curious as to what deal they offered.


The storage capacity is 160GB with an eSATA add on this is enabled for extra storage. I got the DVR, HD Package (which they have CinemaxHD, StarzHD, among others) for $90 and that pretty much includes every channel they offer. The install is happening Monday.

I was in the two year agreement which I'll get credited for once (if) they charge me. I've been on the phone complaining about this non-stop. I understand people on here say it's a work in progress but my money that goes to them is cashed just the same.

No bad feelings towards them. Just moving on. After all watching TV is supposed to be fun, not work.


----------



## neotide

sigma1914 said:


> Well...good luck...if you think the HR20 had issues, the Moto HD-DVR & SA boxes are just as _"fun."_ Hope you get a good box. Cable box is a hit or miss and you depend a lot on your neighborhood being wired right.


I actually signed up for DirecTV two months ago in the hopes of having this be a cool experience as I've heard nothing but good about their product and customer service. I was sorely disappointed to say the least on both ends of that spectrum. I've had the SA box before and since I live in a new neighborhood that same cable provider has fiber run all over here as they run the community intranet. 6mbps cable modem for $14.99 a month. I'll take my chances with shotty software on the SA boxes that I know at least work.


----------



## jbstix

Deevan said:


> It's sad that I am very close to doing this as well.. . If only OTA was enabled... :nono2:


Who knows what problems we will (more that likely) encounter with OTA.  
I wouldn't get too excited about OTA, if we're having all these issues already.

Anyone know if we should expect a Wednesday software update?


----------



## jcrandall

Jeremy W said:


> Alright, I was finally able to witness a sporadic bug that my family has been reporting to me with the MPEG4 locals. The picture will pixelate and freeze up, then a few seconds later it will go black and the "Searching for signal" message will appear. I checked the signal level immediately as it was happening, and it was 98%. Switch up to the MPEG2 version of the channel, and there are no problems.
> 
> The weird thing is that this is sporadic, but when it decides to do it, it does it constantly. If it does it and I switch away to another channel to clear it up and switch back, it will do it again. Nothing is recording on either tuner.
> 
> *Edit:* Now this is weird. My H20 is doing the exact same thing. Signal strength is perfect, but the picture pixelates and then goes to a searching for signal message. So nevermind this post, there is a problem somewhere else.


I'm having the EXACT SAME problem - pixilization on MPEG4 then search for signal. The signal levels for these channels (103 sat Ttransponder 4/6 Detroit HD) are 95 & 99. It is not an aiming problem and was not a problem before this software.

I have NOT had the problem on my other HR20 or my H20, just one of the HR20. Any suggestions or feedback?


----------



## jheda

WE sure better get a Wed. update, im only being patient in anticipation of it................


----------



## Deevan

jbstix said:


> Who knows what problems we will (more that likely) encounter with OTA.
> I wouldn't get too excited about OTA, if we're having all these issues already.
> 
> Anyone know if we should expect a Wednesday software update?


Well if the problem is with the mp4 encode before it's pushed over the fibre to D*, the OTA will fix the issue I'm having, presumably. I sure hope it does.


----------



## jbstix

Deevan said:


> Well if the problem is with the mp4 encode before it's pushed over the fibre to D*, the OTA will fix the issue I'm having, presumably. I sure hope it does.


I hope you're right Deevan, but who knows...
I watched some of the D* 9S satellite launch yesterday - very impressed! I just don't understand how something that impressive and professional comes from the same company that released their flagship HD DVR and it has been such a pain. Maybe the head of the satellite program needs to have a talk with the gentleman over the programmers...


----------



## Jolliec

PoitNarf said:


> In cases where the problem appears to be severe and the normal reset options (which he tried) do not remedy the situation, D* will tell you to format the HR20 which does completely wipe it out.[/QUOTE
> 
> Well, then how do you actually wipe/re-format this thing?


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Jolliec said:


> Well, then how do you actually wipe/re-format this thing?


Menu->Setup->Reset->Reset Everything


----------



## jcrandall

Earl Bonovich said:


> Menu->Setup->Reset->Reset Everything


Earl, do you think that would help with my and Jeremy's problem above (post 510)?


----------



## Jeremy W

masterdeals said:


> Earl, do you think that would help with my and Jeremy's problem above (post 510)?


No, like I said in my post, when my HR20 screws up so does my H20. Since you're receiving Detroit locals as well, this points to a bigger problem that is under DirecTV's control. I'm reluctant to call DirecTV, because they'll just want to replace my LNB and multiswitch.

When you start to see this problem, check on your other receivers. I guarantee you will see the problem on them as well. It's so sporadic that I didn't even notice it on my H20 until today, even though it's been there for a few weeks. I just chalked it up to an HR20 problem, but now I realize it's bigger than that.


----------



## jcrandall

Jeremy W said:


> No, like I said in my post, when my HR20 screws up so does my H20. Since you're receiving Detroit locals as well, this points to a bigger problem that is under DirecTV's control. I'm reluctant to call DirecTV, because they'll just want to replace my LNB and multiswitch.
> 
> When you start to see this problem, check on your other receivers. I guarantee you will see the problem on them as well. It's so sporadic that I didn't even notice it on my H20 until today, even though it's been there for a few weeks. I just chalked it up to an HR20 problem, but now I realize it's bigger than that.


I wish it was more sporadic - I have had it one one HR20 8-10 times in the time since the new software update.

My other HR20 has been fine - the H20 doesn't get used much. I'll check both next time it happens. Do you think it is something specific to Detroit? Has anyone else seen the pixilizatoin than signal loss on both tuners for 103 sat requiring reboot? It is definately exclusive to the MPEG4.


----------



## Jeremy W

masterdeals said:


> Do you think it is something specific to Detroit?


I do, but it's just a hunch. We could both have a bad LNB or multiswitch for all I know, or it could be something else entirely and our problems are unrelated. It's extremely hard to tell.


----------



## jcrandall

Jeremy W said:


> I do, but it's just a hunch. We could both have a bad LNB or multiswitch for all I know, or it could be something else entirely and our problems are unrelated. It's extremely hard to tell.


I'm pretty sure it is software related. I'm trying my receiver on a different TV. It's still HDMI connected, but maybe it's a compatibility problem. My TV that I was using did not work with the HDMI until this software update, previously it was just nothing. If this don't change anything I"ll try just component.

How are you hooked up Jeremy?


----------



## Jeremy W

masterdeals said:


> I'm pretty sure it is software related.


Your problem might be, but mine surely isn't. My HR20 is connected via HDMI, but my H20 is connected via component. They both experience the problem at exactly the same time, and it's on all local channels on both transponders.


----------



## bluesjam

So, that's where all the whinners are!  Sorry, coulnd't resist, I'm one of them too! I guess I should've posted here instead of the other threads.

I'm new here and to the HR20. Installed Thursday, horrible experience the first 2 nights, today, after a reformat it seems to be working great! Just an FYI, mine crashed on MPEG4 and 2, while watching a recorded show and live show, HDnet, Discovery HD, local HD... I would think this is all related to the new update?

No crash so far after the reformat, tested recording a show, no scheduling yet, even got the guide working on my 880! :biggthump 

Perhaps a reformat is needed after each update? That would really suck! It was easy for me this time, since I had nothing setup on it, except for fav. channels, and a couple of shows scheduled, but I wouldn't want to do that once I have all my season pass in there and a bunch of recorded shows! Any idea what the reformat did to fix almost all my issues? FF on MPEG4 is still messed up. It's still early, but things DO look much better so far.


----------



## bluesjam

Earl Bonovich said:


> Menu->Setup->Reset->Reset Everything


Is that the same thing as holding the record and left button on the panel during reboot? That's what I was told to do by the D* tech over the phone.


----------



## PoitNarf

bluesjam said:


> Is that the same thing as holding the record and left button on the panel during reboot? That's what I was told to do by the D* tech over the phone.


No, it is not. Reset everything from the menus does not format the hard drive, unless that's changed Earl?

Holding down the record and left button on the front of the HR20 is the only way to wipe it completely clean. The other reset methods do not format the hard drive.


----------



## bluesjam

PoitNarf said:


> No, it is not. Reset everything from the menus does not format the hard drive, unless that's changed Earl?
> 
> Holding down the record and left button on the front of the HR20 is the only way to wipe it completely clean. The other reset methods do not format the hard drive.


Well, for most of the day I thought that did the job, it is back to being stuck and not responding to anything! Audio and video still working... Does D* do something different at 10 PM??? Any suggestions before I do another reboot?


----------



## PoitNarf

bluesjam said:


> Well, for most of the day I thought that did the job, it is back to being stuck and not responding to anything! Audio and video still working... Does D* do something different at 10 PM??? Any suggestions before I do another reboot?


Does it respond when you press any of the buttons on the HR20 itself? It not, hit the red reset button.


----------



## jheda

HICKEY on HD :

Can anyone tell me why Fox sports HD hockey game looks so poor like 8mm while HD NET is so PERFECT?


----------



## PoitNarf

jheda said:


> HICKEY on HD :
> 
> Can anyone tell me why Fox sports HD hockey game looks so poor like 8mm while HD NET is so PERFECT?


It is an encoding bug on the transmission end. D* is actively upgrading their equipment to fix it. Several cities that had those same 8mm motion issues have been fixed in the past couple weeks.


----------



## bluesjam

PoitNarf said:


> Does it respond when you press any of the buttons on the HR20 itself? It not, hit the red reset button.


Nope! Reset again... here we go again!!!


----------



## billnbell

The FF really is not good. I am getting looping on MPEG4 all the time. Everyone complains about it.

Also, the 30 seconds skip is not reall 30 seconds on MPEG4 - it is usually like 10 seconds.

The FF needs a 4 bar to go faster. Tivo HD is much smoother when fast forwarding and faster.

Bill


----------



## billnbell

Here are my recommendations:

Dislikes

1. After bring up the menu you should be able to scroll to older times (not just a whole day). I just want to scroll like 2 hrs, and seaon pass (link) the recording that I missed, so I don't miss it next time. The left arrow should be working.

2. When playing a recording, the left side should have season pass as an option. When viewing the recording or to do list also have the season pass very visible.

3. You should be able to go faster and smoother with FF. Tivo goes like 100% faster. Add a 4 or 5 speed for FF.

4. Fix the MPEG4 looping problem when using FF - looping.

5. The hard drive is loud. FInd a way to make it softer especially when FF. DMA issue?

New ideas

1. Enable OTA

2. Allow easy way to switch between recordings and live. Like click select:

- Pick Record 1: Justice - Ch 7
- Pick Record 2: Simpsons - Ch 5
- Pick Current Channel - (ch ...) Not available


3. Upload prefs to Directv and allow everyone to modify record settings via the web

4. Allow copy recording to ONE additional receiver in your house HR20. This would solve the issue of having it recording in the living room when you want to watch it in the Theater room. Enable network DHCP via USB port.

5. Let us know when a coftware update is coming so that we can check it, and not lose next days recordings

6. Faster search by name.

7. A lot of shows like BBC News copy the same recording multiple times a day. No easy way to just record the 1st version per day.

8. Auto record season premiers.

9. Make it easier to record sports games XX vs YY. I tell it to record all keywork "Nuggets" and I get too much junk. I just want the games.

Thanks!


----------



## billnbell

On the new Hr20-700 most of the local Denver shows that say they work for Digital 5.1 are not working. When I use the CBS-LA HD channel I get the 5.1...

If there a problem with Dolby Digital on MPEG4 broadcasts? It seems to work fine on MPEG2 ones.

Thanks!

Bill


----------



## paulman182

I can't see any technical reason for the BBC converters to cause glitchy operation of the HR20. They could cause signal problems, but I think anything else is coincidental.

Except for 3 lockups, I have had only one problem--Saturday morning at 4:30 I turned the HR20 on and flipped thru some channels while it was in the middle of a programmed record, and the "Record" LED was lit. When I turned the power off, the "Record" LED went off, too. I turned it back on to the channel and pressed the "Record" button, and a message came up, saying it was currently recording, and did I want to stop or continue recording. I told it to continue.

In actuality, it started a new recording from the point when I told it to continue. My movie was recorded in two parts. Never had this happen before.

It was a SD movie and I have no MPEG4 here.


----------



## Xram

Just a thought, can the BBC converters be installed right after the multi-switch instead of attached to the hr20? and if it is possible, why not design a multi-switch with the converters built in?


----------



## PoitNarf

Xram said:


> Just a thought, can the BBC converters be installed right after the multi-switch instead of attached to the hr20? and if it is possible, why not design a multi-switch with the converters built in?


Yes, I believe they can be installed right after the multiswitch. So far from what we've seen, the BBC converters seem to have a fairly high failure rate, at least when compared to multiswitches. They are most likely a separate component so that it is easier to swap out equipment when one of them goes bad.


----------



## kram

billnbell said:


> On the new Hr20-700 most of the local Denver shows that say they work for Digital 5.1 are not working. When I use the CBS-LA HD channel I get the 5.1...
> 
> If there a problem with Dolby Digital on MPEG4 broadcasts? It seems to work fine on MPEG2 ones.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Bill


It seems to be "hit or miss." KUSA (NBC) only broadcasts two progams in DD -- "Today" and football games. They say it's because of "time-zone issues," but I think that's a load of ----. They don't even bother to broadcast their news shows ("the only local news broadcast in HD") in DD! Both the CBS and ABC local affiliates broadcast many programs in DD. But I have noticed that only selected shows are broadcast in HD/MPEG4. I don't quite understand why, given that the technology is there for the taking....


----------



## somguy

*Issues I Have Had since The 0xdc Download*

1. Friday Night Lights - recorded on 10/10/06 was in My VOD - after the download the show disappeared from My VOD - now shows under History as recorded!!

2. Looping issue - I cannot fast forward the commercials - it freezes when you hit the FFWD button and picture rocks back and forth. I am forced to use 30 sec skip which resolves the issue. Of course it is only a work around, not a fix!!

3. Intermitent system freezes where you are forced to hit the red reset button.

4. While playing back 30 Rock Premiere...first 10 min. of show had scrambled video but audio was fine...the rest played back okay. Luckily some shows are on the web so we can watch them there just in case!!

5. While attempting to playback the Premiere of Twenty Good Years...after hitting play...first frame froze...I hit stop...progress bar on bottom but black screen...system froze...I hit red reset button...I went back into the show...black screen...system froze...I hit red reset button...went back into My VOD and of course I deleted the bad recording and watched the show on nbc's website.
Black Screen recordings are back ( BSOD ) !!

6. Consistent Lip Syncing issues on all of my local MPEG-4 stations. 
The video is usually ahead of the audio anywhere between 2-5 seconds.

I contacted D* to advise them of the issues.

I hope my input here helps!!


----------



## HDNut

I hopw someone at D* reads the posts at this forum as feedback from us, and that that someone takes some action in an attempt to correct the various problems. If that is the case, I think we should provide two pieces of information that might help D* in that respect: one is an indication of whether the problems we observe ocur only with MPEG4 local HD channels; the second is the indication of the HD-local-channels area we receive with the HR20. I get the San Francisco local channels in HD, and my problems have been minor. I wonder how my area neighbors are doing?


----------



## RunnerFL

masterdeals said:


> My other HR20 has been fine - the H20 doesn't get used much. I'll check both next time it happens. Do you think it is something specific to Detroit? Has anyone else seen the pixilizatoin than signal loss on both tuners for 103 sat requiring reboot? It is definately exclusive to the MPEG4.


If one HR20 is good and one is having the problem why not swap them to see if the problem follows the unit or the problem stays in that location. That way you can eliminate the unit as being the problem or not. Could be a wiring issue.


----------



## RunnerFL

bluesjam said:


> Is that the same thing as holding the record and left button on the panel during reboot? That's what I was told to do by the D* tech over the phone.


No, it's not the same. I've done both before.

Record + left button on boot only wipes out recordings. It keeps your setup.

Using the "reset everything" actually resets everything and when you boot back up it's like a new machine and you have to go thru the guided setup.


----------



## RunnerFL

PoitNarf said:


> No, it is not. Reset everything from the menus does not format the hard drive, unless that's changed Earl?
> 
> Holding down the record and left button on the front of the HR20 is the only way to wipe it completely clean. The other reset methods do not format the hard drive.


Reset everything does re-format. At least it does/did on mine.

record + left button does not.


----------



## hasan

HDNut said:


> I hopw someone at D* reads the posts at this forum as feedback from us, and that that someone takes some action in an attempt to correct the various problems. If that is the case, I think we should provide two pieces of information that might help D* in that respect: one is an indication of whether the problems we observe ocur only with MPEG4 local HD channels; the second is the indication of the HD-local-channels area we receive with the HR20. I get the San Francisco local channels in HD, and my problems have been minor. I wonder how my area neighbors are doing?


It would be nice (and no doubt, helpful) if we (or D*) developed a standard reporting form that included a little checklist with the most important/common variables. Something like:

Software Revision
How Long Has Unit Been in Operation
Dish Type
Approximate Cable Run to Dish
TV/Display
HDMI or Component Connection Used
BBC installed
MPEG-4 Locals Present (do you have HD Locals in your area yet)
How Often does the problem show up
Can certain activities reproduce the problem reliably
Viewing/Recording MPEG-4 at Onset of Problem
Problem Present When Live Viewing and Playback
Can you work around the problem with anything less than a Red Button Reset?

I'm sure there are more...but you get my drift.

I see these questions asked all the time when a problem comes up on the forums. After two or three exchanges, the important variables get communicated.


----------



## HDNut

You just about created the form, Hasan. All we have to do is to quote your post and add the answers to the right of each line. Thanks for seconding my suggestion.


----------



## NFLnut

Another "mysteriously" cancelled scheduled recording!! No reason why!

Folks, this DVR had better not be your only option!! I have returned to watching standard def S-Video on the TiVo, because this thing is NOT reliable and the FF/REW and looping makes it absolutely wrenching to just sit down and watch a show (that is, if the recording isn't mysteriously cancelled!)

I didn't sign up to be a D* beta tester!


----------



## NFLnut

Oh .. and the audio/video synch is still way off!


----------



## bluesjam

RunnerFL said:


> No, it's not the same. I've done both before.
> 
> Record + left button on boot only wipes out recordings. It keeps your setup.
> 
> Using the "reset everything" actually resets everything and when you boot back up it's like a new machine and you have to go thru the guided setup.


Well, on my HR20 it got rid of everything, Custom channels, a few shows scheduled and recorded... I never did the "reset everything" option from the setup menu.

I think D* was nice enough to make each HR20 unique in its own way so that we can all claim that "my HR20 is better than your HR20!"


----------



## Xram

PoitNarf said:


> Yes, I believe they can be installed right after the multiswitch. So far from what we've seen, the BBC converters seem to have a fairly high failure rate, at least when compared to multiswitches. They are most likely a separate component so that it is easier to swap out equipment when one of them goes bad.


Good point, I wonder why there is such a high failure rate. On a side note: where in North Jersey are you located?


----------



## AceGopher

I don't know if this has been reported (I haven't gone through all 13+ pages of replies), if so, add my data point:

At certain points when watching an HD broadcast, sound stops via the optical digital out. I can restore sound only by turning off and on the Marantz SR5300 receiver it's connected to, or switching to a non-HD broadcast. I am using Component out video.

By "certain points", I mean:

1. When starting an HD program recorded previously.
2. When fast-forwarding an HD recording (and then watching).
3. When pausing an HD recording (and then restarting).
4. When switching from one HD live broadcast to another.
5. When switching from an SD to HD live broadcast (sometimes).

This JUST started after the 0xDC update Wednesday. Previously, it worked just fine.

Regards,
Ace


----------



## bluesjam

Sorry, if this was mentioned before... I had the HR20 paused while watching Perter Frampton on HDNet, screensaver came on, pushed play again and it went back to being live instead of playing from the paused location! I noticed it yesterday but ignored it. Is this also related to this new update? Is there a fix?


----------



## thekochs

Has anyone experienced audio crackling/noise/static for local HD channels, escpecially ABC ? I have mine setup DD and SP/DIF Toslink to Receiver. About every 15-30 minutes I get 1-15 seconds of crackling/static noise. It about covers the audio range but you can still hear some of the channel audio.

Here is dedicated link to that problem but I've been reading this thread and don't see others posting this very annoying problem. Is it a box, sound card, MPEG-4 audio sync artifact, local affiliate or D* local encoder issue ? Is it known ?
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=66536


----------



## rlockshin

Whatever you do ,not listen to tech support level 2;they are clueless to this new software. I too have the ff problem. I rep said to do a rest;another said to reconfigure the hard drive. Obviously, neither worked. I lost all recorded and scheduled programs for no reason. Has anyone heard how soon the ff problem will be fixed


----------



## Wolffpack

bluesjam said:


> Well, on my HR20 it got rid of everything, Custom channels, a few shows scheduled and recorded... I never did the "reset everything" option from the setup menu.
> 
> I think D* was nice enough to make each HR20 unique in its own way so that we can all claim that "my HR20 is better than your HR20!"


On the R15 the Down Arrow/REC does a reformat. You loose the TDL, SLs, MYVOD. It doesn't go through the guided setup again.


----------



## chuck1231

jbstix said:


> I hope you're right Deevan, but who knows...
> I watched some of the D* 9S satellite launch yesterday - very impressed! I just don't understand how something that impressive and professional comes from the same company that released their flagship HD DVR and it has been such a pain. Maybe the head of the satellite program needs to have a talk with the gentleman over the programmers...


Where did you happen to find that bit of launch coverage? I've heard HDNet covers such events. If that's where you found it where did you learn about it in advance? Thanks.

Although I'm seeing a lot of resolution issues on SD ( picture looks slightly blurred) I've seen a tremendous improvement on local coverage- presumably MPEG 4. Ravens vrs Carolina game on channel 45.1 looks excellent. Have tried format step-thrus and resets with no improvement


----------



## jbstix

chuck1231 said:


> Where did you happen to find that bit of launch coverage? I've heard HDNet covers such events. If that's where you found it where did you learn about it in advance? Thanks.
> 
> Although I'm seeing a lot of resolution issues on SD ( picture looks slightly blurred) I've seen a tremendous improvement on local coverage- presumably MPEG 4. Ravens vrs Carolina game on channel 45.1 looks excellent. Have tried format step-thrus and resets with no improvement


I watched it live actually, on a D* channel. I can't remember the exact channel, somewhere in the 500's I think. There was a post Frday about the launch, that's were I found the info.


----------



## RunnerFL

bluesjam said:


> Well, on my HR20 it got rid of everything, Custom channels, a few shows scheduled and recorded... I never did the "reset everything" option from the setup menu.
> 
> I think D* was nice enough to make each HR20 unique in its own way so that we can all claim that "my HR20 is better than your HR20!"


That's very interesting... Wonder why they would differ like that.

When I did the record + down arrow [Not left like I said before] I only lost recordings and it booted up right into TV, etc.

When I did reset everything I had to re-run guided setup, setup SL's, etc...


----------



## Wolffpack

jbstix said:


> I watched some of the D* 9S satellite launch yesterday - very impressed! I just don't understand how something that impressive and professional comes from the same company that released their flagship HD DVR and it has been such a pain. Maybe the head of the satellite program needs to have a talk with the gentleman over the programmers...


That's because they contract out the building and launch of the SATs and don't try to do it themselves. Can you imagine them doing it themselves? Where would they put the Red Button?


----------



## Wolffpack

RunnerFL said:


> When I did the record + down arrow [Not left like I said before] I only lost recordings and it booted up right into TV, etc.


You didn't loose your SLs and TDL?


----------



## bluesjam

Wolffpack said:


> Can you imagine them doing it themselves? Where would they put the Red Button?


!rolling


----------



## jbstix

Not sure if this has been reported by anyone or not, if so, I haven't seen it.

Just noticed this little odd "bug".
On the Mpeg4 Fox channel, watching the Falcons game, 720p I believe.
I rewound to the beginning of the 90 minute buffer, then FF thru about 15 mins. or so. (I hope I can explain this clearly)
The buffer was half way 45 mins. on the playbar, and the last 45 you would have to FF thru to see it, make sense?
Anyway, press and hold the 30secSlip to advance to end of buffer, and it freaks out and goes to the beginning of the buffer.
Then if I press and hold FF to go to the next tick mark, it just kindof of goes where ever it feels like. 
So there seems to be a problem with these functions if the buffer is carried half and half . Hopefully you guys know what I'm trying to describe.
Anyone else experience this ?


----------



## Sickler

jbstix said:


> Not sure if this has been reported by anyone or not, if so, I haven't seen it.
> 
> Just noticed this little odd "bug".
> On the Mpeg4 Fox channel, watching the Falcons game, 720p I believe.
> I rewound to the beginning of the 90 minute buffer, then FF thru about 15 mins. or so. (I hope I can explain this clearly)
> The buffer was half way 45 mins. on the playbar, and the last 45 you would have to FF thru to see it, make sense?
> Anyway, press and hold the 30secSlip to advance to end of buffer, and it freaks out and goes to the beginning of the buffer.
> Then if I press and hold FF to go to the next tick mark, it just kindof of goes where ever it feels like.
> So there seems to be a problem with these functions if the buffer is carried half and half . Hopefully you guys know what I'm trying to describe.
> Anyone else experience this ?


I had the same thing with a recorded program (even those recorded from an earlier firmware). I never had a problem with the looped frames, but when I do a 30 Slip, and then hit the last 7 second rewind, it till go forward about 10 minutes. It only happens during the middle/end of a recorded program. It has only happened on MPEG4 but that's the only stuff I had in my VOD...


----------



## 911medic

neotide said:


> I actually signed up for DirecTV two months ago in the hopes of having this be a cool experience as I've heard nothing but good about their...*customer service*.


Wow. Were you ever misinformed on that point!

I'd put that source of info on the "do not trust" list from now on, if I were you. LOL


----------



## jheda

herE IS A FIRST FOR ME - MY RECORDING LIGHT IS ON AND NOTHING IS RECORDING!!!!!!!!! NO R ON THE GUIDE AND NOTHING ON THE LIST!

EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE WITHOU R HR20?


----------



## hasan

jheda said:


> herE IS A FIRST FOR ME - MY RECORDING LIGHT IS ON AND NOTHING IS RECORDING!!!!!!!!! NO R ON THE GUIDE AND NOTHING ON THE LIST!
> 
> EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE WITHOU R HR20?


Some people have the record light come on RED randomly when nothing is happening, but not the Yellow which is an actual recording. It is a known bug and has nothing to do with recording. This could be what you are seeing. If it's yellow, I don't have a clue.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jheda said:


> herE IS A FIRST FOR ME - MY RECORDING LIGHT IS ON AND NOTHING IS RECORDING!!!!!!!!! NO R ON THE GUIDE AND NOTHING ON THE LIST!
> 
> EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE WITHOU R HR20?


Yes, I have seen posts about it happening.
Basically the unit errored when ending a recording.

If it doesn't end on it's own... reboot.


----------



## Wolffpack

jheda said:


> herE IS A FIRST FOR ME - MY RECORDING LIGHT IS ON AND NOTHING IS RECORDING!!!!!!!!! NO R ON THE GUIDE AND NOTHING ON THE LIST!
> 
> EVER HAPPEN TO ANYONE ELSE WITHOU R HR20?


Are they starting to push out Showcases yet to the HR20. We've been getting those "oh so valuable" entertainment snippets now for over a month now on the R15. Same indicator, REC light is one but nothing appears to be recording.

I just can't wait to get the next episode of Project MyWorld. I guess I could just watch it today on channel 101 (HD), 334, 580 or 800 at 6:30pm. Or today on those same 4 channels at 9:30pm or on those same four at 11:00pm. But I think the best episodes are when I watch it as a showcase.  I just can't wait to see what happens next with that trio! :grin:


----------



## Jeremy W

Wolffpack said:


> We've been getting those "oh so valuable" entertainment snippets now for over a month now on the R15.


At least they're not just blatant advertisements like you get on Tivo.


----------



## Wolffpack

Jeremy W said:


> At least they're not just blatant advertisements like you get on Tivo.


Give it time.


----------



## Jeremy W

Wolffpack said:


> Give it time.


If they go down that path, I'll just ignore them like I do on the Tivo. I don't see it as a big deal either way.


----------



## jbstix

Ok, here we go again. Just noticed this while watching a recorded show.

When you press and hold the FF to advance to the next "tick" mark. It does not advance to the tick completely, it's actually about 30 to 60 seconds back.
Ex: advance to first tick mark, it stops at the 14:00 minute mark, or advance to the 29:00 minute mark
So, then if you press and hold the FF again to advance to the next tick mark, it doesn't move, it goes right back where you are.
Bug or just another annoying issue us beta testers have to deal with?
Not that this is a big deal, but the devil is in the details.


----------



## Wolffpack

Jeremy W said:


> If they go down that path, I'll just ignore them like I do on the Tivo. I don't see it as a big deal either way.


In an attempt to keep this thread OT, discussion continued here.


----------



## pcates

Saw an interesting thing tonight. I was listening to one of the XM Music channels. I then went to watch a recording in 4:3 pillar mode - it was still in progress. The graphic from the XM channels is in the pillar space on the sides. It will stay as long as the other tuner is on the XM channel.


----------



## jheda

Earl Bonovich said:


> Yes, I have seen posts about it happening.
> Basically the unit errored when ending a recording.
> 
> If it doesn't end on it's own... reboot.


OK IT ENDED ON ITS OWN, THX EARL.


----------



## bluesjam

More issues to report... just in case D* is listening!

Show (local HD) being recorded, watching a show on TNTHD, system starts acting up, locking up slowly finally screen froze, GF wants to finish the movie, so I switch to the HR10, finish movie, go back to HR20, light is still on so I'm assuming it's still recording, same screen still frozen. I can bring up menu, guide, info, even list, but nothing can be selected!

Any idea, before my 4th or 5th reboot today??? I'll find out if it even recorded the other show.


----------



## qubit

Deleted a show as it was recording. went into list to watch another previously recorded show and had no audio. Went to live tv. no audio. shut off hr20 just with pwr button, waited a minute and turned back on. Audio back.


----------



## jovac

I had my HR20 installed yesterday and thanks to these this forum and others, was prepared for many of the issues it is experiencing. I am however having an issue which I haven't seen here, at least not exactly.

I am a ST and and SF subscriber so today tried to watch some games. The early game was fine, great picture on the local HD and ST channels and nice DD sound coming though the optical cable. My problem started occuring during the afternoon game. I suddenly started getting audio dropouts. I thought at first they may be just from the local MPEG 4 channels but after some channle flipping, discovered that they occur on all channels. HD MPEG 4 & 2 plus all SD. I tried some of the suggestions in the forum, switching between DD on and off, turning the receiver power on and off and doing a reset and reset everything on the HR20. Nothing stopped this. I also tried switching inputs and cables(Optical) between my HR 20 and the receiver, still no joy.

The only other thing I could think of was to use a set of RCA cables and use analog. On the analog I get no dropouts but if I switch back to Optical they persist. So, my question is, does this sound like a software problem which may resolve itself, or is this more likely a HW problem with the HR20 itself?

Thanks for any replies.


----------



## Wildcat_1

All

My HR20 got pushed the 0XDC on 10/11 and now also have the FF/RR pixelation then freeze problem. Any idea on a definate date for the next upgrade ? Earl herad you mention should be this week, just wondered if that was a certain or not. 

I'm also still seeing the cannot playback recording (blank record) issue. Recorded a show on HBO HD last night was watching it while I recorded it went into menu and nothing. Pressed play on the show and it just sat there. Frustrating but on a positive note great to watch the Broncos/Raiders game tonight in HD on local even with more pixelation than it was last week

WC


----------



## Jeremy W

Wildcat_1 said:


> Any idea on a definate date for the next upgrade ?


You'll never get a definite date, but early Wednesday morning would be a pretty good bet.


----------



## billnbell

I am having a strange problem. I play a recording, and when I select it again, it asks me: Do you want to keep or delete. I answer keep and it goes back to VOD. How do I get it to replay something I already watched?

Bill


----------



## mdmcvay

I recorderd NCIS on 10/3 and 10/10. I decided to delete since I watched them on my HR10 in HD. The HR20 recordings were in SD and were my backup since I don't get my local CBS in HD. I have deleted them but they are still in my VOD list. The titles will not go away. They play nothing but a blank screen, well they don't really play, it's just a blank screen. Any suggestions?


----------



## loubolb

This released has caused more problems for me then any of the others. I never had blank recordings or freezes until this release and I've had 3 this week.


----------



## DLite

Since the firmware update, it seems to take a lot longer to access my to-do list. It used to be a few seconds, but now it takes about 25 seconds, longer if something is being recorded. Has anybody else noticed that?

I have had about 160-180 items on the to-do list. I don't know if that is higher than average or not. But since the update, I have noticed a significant increase in the time it takes to access the list, even though the number of items did not change.


----------



## jkc120

Found another bug with the 0xDC software. Recordings are showing a total duration of less than an hour (e.g. Desperate Housewives on ABC HD shows 0:55 yet plays back past 0:55). It doesn't seem to affect the playback, but it's definitel weird.


----------



## Davenlr

jovac said:


> I tried some of the suggestions in the forum, switching between DD on and off, turning the receiver power on and off and doing a reset and reset everything on the HR20. Nothing stopped this. I also tried switching inputs and cables(Optical) between my HR 20 and the receiver, still no joy.
> 
> The only other thing I could think of was to use a set of RCA cables and use analog. On the analog I get no dropouts but if I switch back to Optical they persist. So, my question is, does this sound like a software problem which may resolve itself, or is this more likely a HW problem with the HR20 itself?
> 
> Thanks for any replies.


I do have occasional dropouts with mine, but they are repeatable by backing up the program playing, and it will drop out again at the same exact spot. Doesnt happen that often, however, but when it does, its mainly on the network feeds or locals (I dont have any Mpeg4 yet). I am using a Pioneer receiver. I have heard of a couple incompatabilites with receivers. See if you can back up the program when you get a drop out and repeat the dropout at the same spot, over and over. This will prove its not the receiver, and its the recording. Now, assuming this box saves the bitstream directly from the satellite and decodes it later, that would prove to me its either the source program, the encoder on D*s end, or the decoder on our end. I havent really been annoyed enough to test this side by side with my old receiver, as it would be rather difficult to hook up, but you should be able to tell a little more this way. If it doesnt drop out at the same point when you rewind the recording, I would say its either your decoder, the cable (which you say you replaced) or the receiver, or an incompatability between them. If it does repeat at the same point, and people with other receivers watching the game arent having the problem, then I would say the HR20 decoder software is at fault, and will probably be fixed with an upgrade later. The possibility of defective hardware is also a possibility, if other HR20s are not having the same problem with the same recordings. Would be good to get someone else on the forum here that gets the same programming to compare with. Write down the time where the dropouts are and compare with someone else who is using the HR20 and the same kind of receiver you are.


----------



## Wolffpack

Jeremy W said:


> You'll never get a definite date, but early Wednesday morning would be a pretty good bet.


That's it. Rush another fix in before it's ready. After Wednesday everyone can see what it fixes and what it breaks. All everyone can do is hope for more fixes than breaks. :sure:

Or...maybe just roll back to 0xD8.


----------



## Doug Brott

jkc120 said:


> Found another bug with the 0xDC software. Recordings are showing a total duration of less than an hour (e.g. Desperate Housewives on ABC HD shows 0:55 yet plays back past 0:55). It doesn't seem to affect the playback, but it's definitel weird.


I'll second this one. I've noticed, though that it only appears with shows that I start delayed. If the program is still playing, but I start from the beginning, it doesn't alway show the right end time. I'm not certain if it shows the time from when I first pressed play (that popped up the time bar) or not. The weird thing was when you were @ minute 57 of a 55 minute program.


----------



## kokishin

Wolffpack said:


> That's it. Rush another fix in before it's ready. After Wednesday everyone can see what it fixes and what it breaks. All everyone can do is hope for more fixes than breaks. :sure:
> 
> Or...maybe just roll back to 0xD8.


Wolffpack,

Normally I find your sardonic comments to be right on and humerous. I am still LOL about the red button on the SATs. :rolling: However, I disgree with your thinking on 0xD8. Seems like HoRror 20 was better with 0xCC.


----------



## litzdog911

My Caller ID now works! Hadn't worked since the first day I setup my HR20 six weeks ago. 

But I had my first major "hang" since 2 or 3 weeks ago .....
Was watching a live TV channel. Went to play a recorded show from this morning (standard definition). Live TV channel in upper right of screen goes black and the DVR is totally hung. Will not respond to remote commands. Waited several minutes just to make sure. Reset DVR and all was fine, including the recording that I was trying to watch.


----------



## RunnerFL

Wolffpack said:


> You didn't loose your SLs and TDL?


No, I didn't. I only lost recordings.


----------



## paulman182

'I am having a strange problem. I play a recording, and when I select it again, it asks me: Do you want to keep or delete. I answer keep and it goes back to VOD. How do I get it to replay something I already watched?"

The DVR is still at the end of the recording. I think if you go back to the beginning it will play.


----------



## Calebrot

brott said:


> I'll second this one. I've noticed, though that it only appears with shows that I start delayed. If the program is still playing, but I start from the beginning, it doesn't alway show the right end time. I'm not certain if it shows the time from when I first pressed play (that popped up the time bar) or not. The weird thing was when you were @ minute 57 of a 55 minute program.


I have both the R15 SD Plus DVR receiver and the HR20 HD Plus DVR receiver and their is a difference in them with the time bar. On the HR20 if you are looking at live TV being recorded or not it will show you the complete time for the show ie 8:00-9:00, but if you go into MYVOD (show being recorded) and look at the same show and bring up the time bar it will only show the amount of time that actually has been recorded up to that point, so maybe you were looking at the MYVOD timebar when there was only 55 minutes recorded at that time, I bet if you didn't delete the episode and looked at it now it would show the full hour.


----------



## Doug Brott

Calebrot said:


> I have both the R15 SD Plus DVR receiver and the HR20 HD Plus DVR receiver and their is a difference in them with the time bar. On the HR20 if you are looking at live TV being recorded or not it will show you the complete time for the show ie 8:00-9:00, but if you go into MYVOD (show being recorded) and look at the same show and bring up the time bar it will only show the amount of time that actually has been recorded up to that point, so maybe you were looking at the MYVOD timebar when there was only 55 minutes recorded at that time, I bet if you didn't delete the episode and looked at it now it would show the full hour.


Yes, this is what I would expect to happen. However, I'm talking about actually being at the 57th minute of the program (it will show 0:57 on the time bar) and the length of the show at the top has 0:00 on the left and 0:55 on the right. I haven't seen this when watching the "live" tuner, only when watching a recorded program. I've also ONLY noticed it happen when I've started a program before it has finished recording. I don't typically do that, so I cannot say if it always happens or occasionally happens.

My biggest problems have been with the record buffer extending beyond that 90-minute limit. Functionality gets problematic because the trick-play functions don't work right. I hope that DirecTV makes sure that the 90-minute limit is enforced properly on the display.

My biggest pain is the FF/REW problem, but I've grown accustomed to the 30-second slip/instant replay buttons as effective fixes.


----------



## scheckeNYK

having the same DVR problems as everyone else. FFD looks like it's set to 3x but the video doesn't move. Also had a complete freeze up yesterday during the Chiefs Steelers game. I paused the start of the game and when I wanted to resume play it just completely froze up. This was using the buffer of a live viewing, maybe 15 minutes in, if that.

hte recording was saved and upon playing it back i see that the freeze occurred at 22 minutes into the 28 minutes of what was recorded. In other words, the last 6 minutes are of 1 frozen frame. DVR functions seem to work ok this morning on this game, so maybe it is just the MPEG4 locals as some have suggested. 

WEIRD. Just trying the first partial recording again and the audio is playing back continuously after the freeze, but the video is stuck.


----------



## dervari

I don't know if it's been mentioned, but if you go to record a show from a search, you hit record once and you get the single R. Hit record again and nothing changes, but if you back out and come back in you'll see that you have the multi-R icon. It's almost like you need to back our and come back in for the screen to be refreshed.


----------



## dMan

What is strange is that I had pixelation on fast foward after the update, but on Sunday the pixalation went away. I still have a host of other problems. Pause not holding, choppy fast foward and choppy sound (unless I pause for a brief second adn then play) just to name a few.


----------



## Doug Brott

paulman182 said:


> 'I am having a strange problem. I play a recording, and when I select it again, it asks me: Do you want to keep or delete. I answer keep and it goes back to VOD. How do I get it to replay something I already watched?"
> 
> The DVR is still at the end of the recording. I think if you go back to the beginning it will play.


A Red Button Reset should fix this. I had exactly the same problem yesterday. The symptom that started it was a Frozen video frame while the audio stream was working properly (Trick-play, etc. worked, but only the for the audio. The Video stayed on one single frame). I tried to play something from the list and the keep or delete question popped up.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

billnbell said:


> On the new Hr20-700 most of the local Denver shows that say they work for Digital 5.1 are not working. When I use the CBS-LA HD channel I get the 5.1...
> 
> If there a problem with Dolby Digital on MPEG4 broadcasts? It seems to work fine on MPEG2 ones.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Bill


How are you getting west coast (LA) MPEG-2 HD feeds? I was told that can not "legally" be done...

I've read several posts that make mention of that...


----------



## tjboyd

Outta the blue my Caller ID" worked for one phone call yesterday:hurah: Looked at the Caller ID log and there was a call posted! Read some where that you delete the call from the log and it should start working...  Back to no workee.. oh well...


----------



## Deevan

Any word on the terrible playback on MP4's since this update? Tell me there's a decent workaround for this.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Deevan said:


> Any word on the terrible playback on MP4's since this update? Tell me there's a decent workaround for this.


Do you mean standard playback?
Or when you are in FF motion.

Right now, there is no workaround if it is standard playback.


----------



## Deevan

Earl Bonovich said:


> Do you mean standard playback?
> Or when you are in FF motion.
> 
> Right now, there is no workaround if it is standard playback.


Standard playback, it seems to be getting progressively worse since the last update. I've ruled out the initial encode as a problem since it only happens on playback. It was only one channel now it's all MP4 locals. I've went through 3 HR20-700's trying to fix it. (1 new, 2 refurbs.)

It's like the box can't handle a 720p or higher mp4 decode.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Deevan said:


> Standard playback, it seems to be getting progressively worse since the last update. I've ruled out the initial encode as a problem since it only happens on playback. It was only one channel now it's all MP4 locals. I've went through 3 HR20-700's trying to fix it. (1 new, 2 refurbs.)
> 
> It's like the box can't handle a 720p or higher mp4 decode.


I wouldn't change the unit anymore.... try to hold on till the next software update, and see if that improves anything.

Have you rebooted the box recently?


----------



## Deevan

Earl Bonovich said:


> I wouldn't change the unit anymore.... try to hold on till the next software update, and see if that improves anything.
> 
> Have you rebooted the box recently?


Yeah, I wasn't convinced after the first box swap out, but then again I didn't check the forums before then.

I've tried the many different flavors of reboots and tests. (Red button, reformat w/left+record, unplug, "reset everything") and so on and so forth.

I have a nice test sample of a recording from each update period, and the performance does differ, but it's getting progressively worse instead of better.

Live tv is fantastic, as long as I don't pause. :lol:

edit: I *HAD* a nice test sample, I just reformatted, so I only have a few MP4's from yesterday.


----------



## jheda

tODAYS REPORT}

Fox hiccuping/ Also lst time ive had an incident where i paused and when resumed it jumped to live.......would have sucked if it was a sporting event....


----------



## matto

my wife announced to me that the box said it was recording her "Desperate Housewives" when in fact it was doing nothing of the sort.

she's asked me why we switched, and I really have no answer at this point.


----------



## jheda

matto said:


> my wife announced to me that the box said it was recording her "Desperate Housewives" when in fact it was doing nothing of the sort.
> 
> she's asked me why we switched, and I really have no answer at this point.


my answer here in so florida is anything beats cable, and at least here we have each others hand to hold .....


----------



## matto

jheda said:


> my answer here in so florida is anything beats cable, and at least here we have each others hand to hold .....


in my case, she wants the HR10 back from downstairs in my office.
I can't think of a good reason not to swap them besides it wasting even more of my time.


----------



## Jeremy W

matto said:


> I can't think of a good reason not to swap them


Then do it. Throw the HR20 in the garbage while you're at it like Wanderer did.


----------



## matto

Jeremy W said:


> Then do it. Throw the HR20 in the garbage while you're at it like Wanderer did.


I'm not trolling, I'm seriously wondering aloud why I replaced the HR10 with a box that doesn't reliably record or play.


----------



## Jeremy W

matto said:


> I'm not trolling, I'm seriously wondering aloud why I replaced the HR10 with a box that doesn't reliably record or play.


I didn't say you were trolling. My suggestion was completely serious as well.


----------



## bluesjam

jheda said:


> tODAYS REPORT}
> 
> Fox hiccuping/ Also lst time ive had an incident where i paused and when resumed it jumped to live.......would have sucked if it was a sporting event....


I've had this happen 2 or 3 times this weekend! Very annoying! Did the screensaver come on before you pressed play? I was wondering if that had anything to do with it.


----------



## bluesjam

matto said:


> my wife announced to me that the box said it was recording her "Desperate Housewives" when in fact it was doing nothing of the sort.
> 
> she's asked me why we switched, and I really have no answer at this point.


Me and the GF got to watch 15 mins of DH before the recording stopped, which I'm assuming is when the HR20 froze up again! Lucky for us the HR10 is still doing its job as a dvr!


----------



## jheda

bluesjam said:


> I've had this happen 2 or 3 times this weekend! Very annoying! Did the screensaver come on before you pressed play? I was wondering if that had anything to do with it.


i dont believe so, btw it has not happenned in 3 or 4 test pauses over last hour......if i was watching football i would have been pissed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## bluesjam

jheda said:


> i dont believe so, btw it has not happenned in 3 or 4 test pauses over last hour......if i was watching football i would have been pissed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Weird! Maybe it was a weekend thing!  This thing is full of surprises!


----------



## jheda

bluesjam said:


> Weird! Maybe it was a weekend thing!  This thing is full of surprises!


now im watching how i met your mother and i *cant *pause !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


----------



## bluesjam

Funny, I'm tuned to the same station (CBS HD) to test pause/FF/lockups... pause works for me and it didn't jump back to live tv, FF still sucks but no lockups yet!


----------



## mtnagel

I watched the recorded Desperate Housewives in HD from the local MPEG4 local and FF worked fine today when it wasn't working yesterday. Weird.


----------



## jheda

i did a red button reset and im ok again......strange night for me; my ff and rewind are fine.......


----------



## 911medic

Jeremy W said:


> Throw the HR20 in the garbage while you're at it like Wanderer did.


Apparently he dug it back out and is back on the bandwagon again.


----------



## billnbell

Radio Enginerd said:


> How are you getting west coast (LA) MPEG-2 HD feeds? I was told that can not "legally" be done...
> 
> I've read several posts that make mention of that...


It works if you got them before Denver got the Mpeg4 launched. I am a carry over. I applied for a waiver and it worked.

Bill


----------



## Wildcat_1

All, had a weird issue tonight. Recorded an HBO HD program and when I went to play it back from the start the time said -1:47. First time I saw a minus number, anyone else seen that


----------



## Vader14

had to pause the bears game tonight at 10 to 17. when i came back and hit puase it went to live tv and it was 24 to 23. Had to rewind to see what happened. 

Bears are now 6-0!


----------



## Doug Brott

jheda said:


> now im watching how i met your mother and i *cant *pause !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I bet you more than 90 minutes behind in your record buffer. I've had this happen numerous times. If you were to "catch up" to be within the 90-minute buffer, the trick play functions should start working again.


----------



## bluesjam

brott said:


> I bet you more than 90 minutes behind in your record buffer. I've had this happen numerous times. If you were to "catch up" to be within the 90-minute buffer, the trick play functions should start working again.


Not possible, the time he posted was when the show was on (8:13 PM), so it couldn't've been 90 mins, at most 13.


----------



## Jeremy W

bluesjam said:


> Not possible, the time he posted was when the show was on (8:13 PM), so it couldn't've been 90 mins, at most 13.


The HR20 receives Future HD™ locals three hours before they're even broadcast.


----------



## bluesjam

Jeremy W said:


> The HR20 receives Future HD™ locals three hours before they're even broadcast.


I knew there was something special about this box!


----------



## Vader14

when i paused the game it was not paiused for more than bout 20 min. 

When i came back to watch the paused show i started the show by hitting the play button and it went right to live tv. i wonder if it makes a difference if i hit play to resume or hit pause to resume. I'll have to try a few times and see.


----------



## Doug Brott

bluesjam said:


> Not possible, the time he posted was when the show was on (8:13 PM), so it couldn't've been 90 mins, at most 13.


Ok, so I'm expected to pay attention?  I don't watch that much live (or even near live) TV, so I don't have a clue when some shows come on. I thought Heroes was on Tuesday, but apparently it comes on Mondays because my HR20 shows it as being recorded now.

I've had numerous trick-play issues while outside of the legal buffer and this sounded like the same thing I was experiencing. The biggest buffer I've established was last Saturday when I had a 10-hour buffer going. It's supposed to max out at 90 minutes.


----------



## mocciat

When you are in the prioritizer and there is a show with "none scheduled" next to it you can't get to the next screen and delete the series. For example the Network cancelled "Smith" which was set up on a series link now I can't delete it out of the prioritizer. Earl is D* working on this bug. They tell me to move it to the bottom of the prioritizer which is ok until I reach the max of 50 series link.


----------



## litzdog911

mocciat said:


> When you are in the prioritizer and there is a show with "none scheduled" next to it you can't get to the next screen and delete the series. For example the Network cancelled "Smith" which was set up on a series link now I can't delete it out of the prioritizer. Earl is D* working on this bug. They tell me to move it to the bottom of the prioritizer which is ok until I reach the max of 50 series link.


Just press the "Dash" key twice to delete those programs from your Prioritizer.


----------



## mocciat

Thanks Dog...Amazing how I can get the answer in 1 minute here but d* could not give me the answer in 4 phone calls.


----------



## litzdog911

mocciat said:


> Thanks Dog...Amazing how I can get the answer in 1 minute here but d* could not give me the answer in 4 phone calls.


Well, actually it took FOUR minutes, but who's counting 
Glad it helped. That "double dash" shortcut is handy in your MyVOD List, too. But be careful, because there's no warning, and no way to undo an accidental deletion.


----------



## rrbhokies

litzdog911 said:


> Well, actually it took FOUR minutes, but who's counting
> Glad it helped. That "double dash" shortcut is handy in your MyVOD List, too. But be careful, because there's no warning, and no way to undo an accidental deletion.


Tell me about it. Last night, I was watching "The Class" as a recording. Right before it was over, instead of fast forwarding to the end, I went back to the list and stupid me just hit the "double dash" thinking that when it brought back up the myVOD that it would have been on "The Class" (TIVO returns you to the show you were watching).

Instead, whenever you go into the myVOD, it automatically brings you back to the top of the list. Therefore, in this case, it proceeded to delete "Heroes" which was at the top of my list. And since there is no warning, it's gone forever. Thankfully, I believe I can watch it online at NBC.COM It's just one of those things where my fingers were moving faster than my brain.

It is a word to the wise that "With Great Power, Come Great Responsibility"!! That "Double Dash" is truly a double edged sword.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

rrbhokies said:


> It is a word to the wise that "With Great Power, Come Great Responsibility"!! That "Double Dash" is truly a double edged sword.


I've been bitten as well! It would be nice if there was an option in Setup called "Confirm on Delete". I guess that's one for the wish list.


----------



## hdtvfan0001

Radio Enginerd said:


> It would be nice if there was an option in Setup called "Confirm on Delete". I guess that's one for the wish list.


Agreed. I've managed to avoid this, but it really should be a standard "feature" to validate any delete function with a prompt. It's one place you don't mind having "speed keys" slowed down.


----------



## mtnagel

Radio Enginerd said:


> I've been bitten as well! It would be nice if there was an option in Setup called "Confirm on Delete". I guess that's one for the wish list.


I like not having the confirmation, but then again I haven't deleted anything on acident. Maybe if they made the two buttons different, like dash - select or something that would make it a little harder to do without thinking.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

mtnagel said:


> I like not having the confirmation, but then again I haven't deleted anything on acident. Maybe if they made the two buttons different, like dash - select or something that would make it a little harder to do without thinking.


If the HR20 had a "confirm on delete" option in setup you would have the option to enable or disable the confirm feature. Seems like a pretty easy add but something tells me the HR20 dev team has their hands full.

I won't ***** about it... yet


----------



## axiom

Last night, I started recording Monday Night Football on ESPNHD, right as it started by pressing record in the guide. Then I went to extend the record time. After I pressed Update, the box froze with the small progress bar on the screen and I had to restart the HR20.

Also later while watching a recorded show, I pressed pause and when I came back the show was still paused, but the time index arrow was moving ahead about 1 minute every 2 seconds. Pressing play resumed the show from the proper place.


----------



## jheda

bluesjam said:


> Not possible, the time he posted was when the show was on (8:13 PM), so it couldn't've been 90 mins, at most 13.


I was about 10 minutes behind guys....i did a red reboot to get everything going.

TODAYS AWKWARD MOMENT: This morning my today show recording which is season passed stopped and deleted while recording as i was flipping channels... NOT EVEN THERE IN HISTORY.....

I dont even bother calling D* anymore i get better info here!!!!!
I hope we get a good present tommorow AM!!!!


----------



## davidord

axiom said:


> Last night, I started recording Monday Night Football on ESPNHD, right as it started by pressing record in the guide. Then I went to extend the record time. After I pressed Update, the box froze with the small progress bar on the screen and I had to restart the HR20.
> 
> Also later while watching a recorded show, I pressed pause and when I came back the show was still paused, but the time index arrow was moving ahead about 1 minute every 2 seconds. Pressing play resumed the show from the proper place.


My HR20 must have had a problem. I was watching Monday Night Football and the Cardinals were up by 20 points well into the second half and when I looked at the final score of the game, the HR20 had the Bears winning by 1 point.


----------



## hdtvfan0001

davidord said:


> My HR20 must have had a problem. I was watching Monday Night Football and the Cardinals were up by 20 points well into the second half and when I looked at the final score of the game, the HR20 had the Bears winning by 1 point.


!rolling :rolling:


----------



## jkc120

davidord said:


> My HR20 must have had a problem. I was watching Monday Night Football and the Cardinals were up by 20 points well into the second half and when I looked at the final score of the game, the HR20 had the Bears winning by 1 point.


LOL!! :lol:

The bears are damn lucky, I'll say that. Well, that and Arizona is blowing leads like the Eagles.


----------



## Jeremy W

davidord said:


> My HR20 must have had a problem. I was watching Monday Night Football and the Cardinals were up by 20 points well into the second half and when I looked at the final score of the game, the HR20 had the Bears winning by 1 point.


I don't think the HR20 could possibly choke as bad as the Cardinals (minus Leinart) did last night.


----------



## alexcohen

Obi Wan, are we getting an update tonight?


----------



## Jeremy W

alexcohen said:


> Obi Wan, are we getting an update tonight?


Earl said it looks like we're not getting an update this week, but anything's possible.


----------



## Radio Enginerd

Jeremy W said:


> Earl said it looks like we're not getting an update this week, but anything's possible.


If there is truly no update tonight = very disappointing.


----------



## jheda

Jeremy W said:


> Earl said it looks like we're not getting an update this week, but anything's possible.


very dissapointing if we dont, im desperate for more stability in this unit....


----------



## 911medic

I believe he posted earlier that the chances were about 25% that we'd get one.

"So you're telling me there's a chance!"


----------



## Radio Enginerd

911medic said:


> I believe he posted earlier that the chances were about 25% that we'd get one.
> 
> "So you're telling me there's a chance!"


hahahhahahaha. THAT IS GREAT!

You are one pathetic loser!


----------



## Deevan

911medic said:


> I believe he posted earlier that the chances were about 25% that we'd get one.
> 
> "So you're telling me there's a chance!"


:werd: I'm about to throw the HR20 out the window and run back to my explorer 8300HD...

I can't decide which is worse...


----------



## gcisko

hasan said:


> Some people have the record light come on RED randomly when nothing is happening, but not the Yellow which is an actual recording. It is a known bug and has nothing to do with recording. This could be what you are seeing. If it's yellow, I don't have a clue.


I have seen the red light come one. That was 2 versions of the software ago. It recorded House on Fox HD then immediately deleted it (red light on during the delete). This was confirmed by the activity log.


----------



## 911medic

Radio Enginerd said:


> hahahhahahaha. THAT IS GREAT!
> 
> You are one pathetic loser!


One of the few movies I've ever watched where I nearly spewed Coke out of my nose while watching.

"Pretty bird, such a pretty bird..."

"Wanna hear the most annoying sound in the world?"

ROFLMAO!!


----------



## munangst

Came home tonight a little after 8pm and saw that the HR20's REC light was not on, which was weird because it was supposed to tape both FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS and DANCING WITH THE STARS at 8pm. Turned on the TV and the HR20 was tuned to ABC and showing DANCING, but the flip bar said "Oprah Winfrey 4pm-5pm". Both FRIDAY and DANCING showed up in the "To Do" list but were not in the MyVOD list and were not being recorded. They were also both listed in the guide with the R))) icon next to them. I tried selecting one in the guide and pressing (R) to make it start recording, but that had no effect.

I did a red-button reset and when it came back up it started taping both shows. Fortunately we had both set up to tape on the "backup" T60, but this is getting old...


----------



## Monty23

I checked my VOD list when I got home tonight to watch two shows I thought were recorded. One was a manual recording last night at 5:00 AM and the other was a series link episode of Mythbusters. Neither recording showed up on the VOD list so I looked under history and there it said both recordings were "cancelled". No one was even watching TV when the supposed cancellation happened. My HR10 recorded both programs just fine. I'm only using the HR20 as a test bed because of stuff like this.


----------



## jheda

lets hope 5am brings us joy!


----------



## Doug Brott

jheda said:


> lets hope 5am brings us joy!


I'm wishing as well, but I'm not hopeful ... looks like it's not coming tonight.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

brott said:


> I'm wishing as well, but I'm not hopeful ... looks like it's not coming tonight.


I will get to go to bed tonight 
I can confirm that there will be no HR20 update tonight.


----------



## jlancaster

Earl Bonovich said:


> I will get to go to bed tonight
> I can confirm that there will be no HR20 update tonight.


Had my 2nd bsod tonight...things had been working really well for me in the past couple of weeks. However several red button resets later I am not doing well. Granted it was only sponge bob but dam it. Had to call sunday to get back ppv money back because the last 20 min. of rv wouldn't record. This is coming from a guy who doesn't even have mp4s. 
This is getting crazy. When I recorded fox and friends first this morning it showed that it was recording but wasn't recording anywhere...couldn't even pause rewind anything. 
Then there is the matter of ff during a recording recording. Past few days has been jumping back (while FF) to the previous segment 8 min. earlier.
Been a HUGE supporter of DTV and this unit from the day I got it but I need an update now and again to help my wife understand this is getting better and that they(dtv) cares.
I have been telling my wife as this unit becomes more and more unstable: wait till wed. all will be better. But she saw this screen of death tonight and is getting pissed and so am I. 
I still believe that once the code is finally figured out that it will outshine tivo in almost every way. But really I don't know how many 4 year old fits or wife fits I can put up with!!!


----------



## Doug Brott

jlancaster said:


> I have been telling my wife as this unit becomes more and more unstable: wait till wed. all will be better. But she saw this screen of death tonight and is getting pissed and so am I.


It may be a good thing that there isn't a "fix" this week.


----------



## jlancaster

brott said:


> It may be a good thing that there isn't a "fix" this week.


How could a fix of the bsod even with other problems not be welcomed? This puts doubt into every show recorded!


----------



## Wolffpack

jlancaster said:


> How could a fix of the bsod even with other problems not be welcomed? This puts doubt into every show recorded!


I thought BSOD was fixed in 0xDC? Have I read this wrong?


----------



## jlancaster

Wolffpack said:


> I thought BSOD was fixed in 0xDC? Have I read this wrong?


Yes you have as did I till today...granted it was only sponge bob but still had to do a red button reset(2nd time today first after it said it was recording fox and friends first but couldn't rewind or see it in the myvod) after the remote(rf) stopped responding at the same time.


----------



## Davenlr

When I had this type problem with the R15 in about the same stage of development, I reformatted the drive and set things up from scratch. It would run good for about three weeks, then another reformat. Seemed to help til they got the software working better.

Havent had to do anything to my HR20 yet, that God, its been working pretty flawlessly since the last update.


----------



## tstarn

I always leave my HR20 powered down overnight, but sometime in the wee hours it turned on because when I woke up, it was on. I checked and no new download, and I had nothing set to record (and that shouldn't matter). Earl, any ideas as to why it started up? Don't know if it rebooted or not. Readers here know I have been critical of the HR20, and I still say it's ready for prime time based on all the continuing issues people are having. Mine is currently behaving on the recording/FF/REW front (none of the major problems), and it all began when I removed the B-Band converters. Of course, that could be sheer coincidence. But is it possible D* sent something to the box overnight? Why else would it power up on its own? Does it need to have power for guide updates?


----------



## hasan

I don't think it needs to be "ON" for anything but actually viewing the programs.

No update last night, and yes, I'm betting the Guide updates just fine when turned off.


----------



## tstarn

hasan said:


> I don't think it needs to be "ON" for anything but actually viewing the programs.
> 
> No update last night, and yes, I'm betting the Guide updates just fine when turned off.


I know it doesn't need to be on for anything but viewing, but when I went to bed it was off, this morning it was on. Just asking why it would power up for no apparent reason.


----------



## hasan

tstarn said:


> I know it doesn't need to be on for anything but viewing, but when I went to bed it was off, this morning it was on. Just asking why it would power up for no apparent reason.


You're not the first to report it, but it is rare. Do you have cats?

It may be just like the RED/YELLOW recording light but, but even more rare.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

No idea why it would have powered up for no reason..

As for the BSOD being eliminated...

Over the last week, the volume of BSOD and Blank Recordings, Unplayable recordings has SIGNIFICANTLY dropped.... To actualy a very very low number of reports.

Are there still going to be issues with some recordings... sure there will be.. but the primary reasons for the large number of missed ones have been corrected. But there are "other" things that could go wrong.

Are they going to be eliminated on 100% of the units 100% of the time..
No and probably never...


----------



## Ed Campbell

Earl Bonovich said:


> As for the BSOD being eliminated...
> 
> Are they going to be eliminated on 100% of the units 100% of the time..
> No and probably never...


Why? Is this critter running Windows? :lol:


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Ed Campbell said:


> Why? Is this critter running Windows? :lol:


You still have cases where hardware could fail... even if it is for a moment.
Access card flips out and thinks you don't have the channel...

Rain Fade, or some other signal level drop...and the unit aborts the recording.
A bad encoding that causes something to go haywire...
Or simply ... gremlins in the box... Anyone that has been around technology knows just about everything has at least 1 gremlin in there...

Even the benchmark products (TiVo, UTV, Replay, ect...) are not 100% on 100% of the units....

And Yes... I did see the


----------



## RAD

Earl Bonovich said:


> Over the last week, the volume of BSOD and Blank Recordings, Unplayable recordings has SIGNIFICANTLY dropped.... To actualy a very very low number of reports.


Or people are just getting tired of posting reports is another possible reason for the drop in reports.


----------



## LameLefty

Ed Campbell said:


> Why? Is this critter running Windows? :lol:


MPEG4 is a MUCH less mature "standard" than MPEG2 and for that matter, there are so many options and variables allowed by this "standard" that it really isn't much of a true standard at all. I'm rather amazed that D* has it working as well as they have already. I strongly suspect that when D* launched MPEG4 HD national channels, a lot of these problems won't appear at all. Why? Because D* will have a much easier time ensuring consistency in MPEG4 implementation at their own encoding/uplink sites than they do at the thousands of local stations.

Oh, and running Windows would only make things worse. :lol:


----------



## Earl Bonovich

RAD said:


> Or people are just getting tired of posting reports is another possible reason for the drop in reports.


I don't think that is the case... as with the previous releases, people had no problem postings..... "It still is not fixed   "

And I also have been told the call volume for that problem has plumeted as well from the CSR level.


----------



## LameLefty

RAD said:


> Or people are just getting tired of posting reports is another possible reason for the drop in reports.


That's not likely. There are new users registering here all the time and thousands of new installs for D* every week. Reports ARE going down with the current software release. In fact, people who were formerly complaining of routine BSODs have reported that these have decreased or stopped entirely for them in the last 8 days. It makes me rather optimistic (assuming I ever get my own unit installed around here  )


----------



## Radio Enginerd

LameLefty said:


> That's not likely. There are new users registering here all the time and thousands of new installs for D* every week. Reports ARE going down with the current software release. In fact, people who were formerly complaining of routine BSODs have reported that these have decreased or stopped entirely for them in the last 8 days. It makes me rather optimistic (assuming I ever get my own unit installed around here  )


If DTV could resolve the "FF/RW jump bug" I'd be rather satisfied!

I'm disappointed we didn't get an update last night but I guess its better they make sure to QA the hell out of the next update to ensure nothing else breaks.

Earl, I have a wish list question for you. Any talk among the development team to allow for a faster RW/FF then just 3? Maybe 6? It only becomes an issue when you have a 1 or 2 hour show and you need/want to get to the middle of the program. It's more of an annoyance than anything.

I believe this question has been posted before but I can't remember if you ever provided feedback.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Radio Enginerd said:


> If DTV could resolve the "FF/RW jump bug" I'd be rather satisfied!
> 
> I'm disappointed we didn't get an update last night but I guess its better they make sure to QA the hell out of the next update to ensure nothing else breaks.
> 
> Earl, I have a wish list question for you. Any talk among the development to allows for a faster RW/FF then just 3? Maybe 6? It only becomes an issue when you have a 1 or 2 hour show and you need/want to get to the middle of the program. It's more of an annoyance than anything.
> 
> I believe this question has been posted before but I can't remember if you ever provided feedback.


The 1x, 2x, 3x are just Icons for the speed... they are not a direct reflection of FF speed vs Playback.

They are going to introduce a 4x speed eventually, not sure when though.

As for getting to the middle of a 2 hour show.
Use the Skip To Tick feature.

Hold down the FF button for 3 seconds and it will jump to the pre-placed Tick Marks in the program (usually ever 15 or 30 minutes)... (you can do the reverse to Skip To Tick Backwards, hold the RW button)


----------



## Capmeister

Earl, I noticed it's not skip to tick, but a 15 minute jump. I started one a little before tick and it skipped me to just before the next one. Does that sound right?


----------



## Radio Enginerd

Earl Bonovich said:


> The 1x, 2x, 3x are just Icons for the speed... they are not a direct reflection of FF speed vs Playback.
> 
> They are going to introduce a 4x speed eventually, not sure when though.
> 
> As for getting to the middle of a 2 hour show.
> Use the Skip To Tick feature.
> 
> Hold down the FF button for 3 seconds and it will jump to the pre-placed Tick Marks in the program (usually ever 15 or 30 minutes)... (you can do the reverse to Skip To Tick Backwards, hold the RW button)


Thanks for the tick tip...


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Capmeister said:


> Earl, I noticed it's not skip to tick, but a 15 minute jump. I started one a little before tick and it skipped me to just before the next one. Does that sound right?


It is possible that the software detected that you where with in a minute or so of the tick, and just jumped to the next one.

It is definently not a 15 minute jump, as you can start it about 5 minutes into a program, and go to the 15 mark.


----------



## Doug Brott

Earl Bonovich said:


> Hold down the FF button for 3 seconds and it will jump to the pre-placed Tick Marks in the program (usually ever 15 or 30 minutes)... (you can do the reverse to Skip To Tick Backwards, hold the RW button)


I tried this over the weekend, and something weird happened. (1) it didn't work and (2) when I pressed the FF button after that, the program started go backwards rather than forward. I thought it was odd and maybe I did something wrong, but my wife was able to make it do that again last night.

I think in both instances we were coming out of a pause situation. I cannot remember the exact sequence, but since we used to have a TiVo there, I'm quite certain that each of used some sort of TiVo related sequence.


----------



## jheda

Earl Bonovich said:


> No idea why it would have powered up for no reason..
> 
> As for the BSOD being eliminated...
> 
> Over the last week, the volume of BSOD and Blank Recordings, Unplayable recordings has SIGNIFICANTLY dropped.... To actualy a very very low number of reports.
> 
> Are there still going to be issues with some recordings... sure there will be.. but the primary reasons for the large number of missed ones have been corrected. But there are "other" things that could go wrong.
> 
> Are they going to be eliminated on 100% of the units 100% of the time..
> No and probably never...


Earl:

Again this morning my seasons passed today show did not record and history says deleted. This s thesecond time in 2 days this has happened and third missed recording this week (2 and half men). Any suggestions? Are your posts telling me updates wont address this and it s a hardware problem or should i continue to be patient and updates will address ame?

thanks!!!


----------



## jheda

and what does the acronym BSOD stand for please?


----------



## Soundteck

I have another wish item. I would like to see them make the sort function stick. When I change the sort to by name it disappears the next time I go into myvod...


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jheda said:


> and what does the acronym BSOD stand for please?


Windows World: Blue Screen Of Death
HR20 World: Black Screen of Death referring to the "black" or "Blank" recordings that people have had in the past.


----------



## jheda

Earl Bonovich said:


> Windows World: Blue Screen Of Death
> HR20 World: Black Screen of Death referring to the "black" or "Blank" recordings that people have had in the past.


Ive never had that. I just get programmed recordings not occuring and history saying deleted......continue to be patient, or unit specific??


----------



## houskamp

Just a note: If it determines it is a 'repeat' it will show up as 'deleted'. It for some reason saves that in history.


----------



## dconfer

I had the BSOD the other night when I was trying to watch How I met your mother. Then yesterday went home from work and tryied to watch a show and it was in the history as deleted. These are the first time for me to have these problems. The show that was deleted for me was a soap opera (As the world turns) so I dont think it was a repeat.


----------



## Vinny

houskamp said:


> Just a note: If it determines it is a 'repeat' it will show up as 'deleted'. It for some reason saves that in history.


That's very true. If you selected first run only; then the program will show as "cancelled" in history. This is true for the Tivo (HR10-250) as well. Difference being; Tivo told you why it was cancelled or not recorded.


----------



## Rugged

Earl Bonovich said:


> I don't think that is the case... as with the previous releases, people had no problem postings..... "It still is not fixed   "
> 
> And I also have been told the call volume for that problem has plumeted as well from the CSR level.


Actually, I haven't posted or called on any of my problems. Mainly because none of my problems are new or unique. I didn't think that we need another "me too" posting.

But, knowing that complaint volume is an indicator I will throw my hat into the ring.
here are my problems...all experienced in the last 48 hours.

1) manually recurring recording doesn't work-(ie, can't setup a recording of MNF on ESPH--since the team name/title changes weekly)
2) FF freezing problem
3) closed captioning just plain sucks on my local HD channels
4) pressing record on a show that is already tuned in with a buffer established -- I get the recording light, shows up in the ToDo list as recording but it never makes it into MyVOD.


----------



## CSHORT

I was out of town from Thursday until Monday. Came home to bsod and had to reset All nine recordings set to record during that time came up as partial recording and were gone. Had both mpeg2 and 4 set.


----------



## Peapod

Last night I noticed at about 10:55 that Boston Legal had not begun recording, although in the todo list it was still listed as a todo. Since it was the end of the show anyway, I let it be, and took a look in the morning. It's listed in History as Partial, however, I do not have a partial recording in MyVOD at all.

After a week of recordings, I'm now running at about 2% BSOD down from the previous 25-30% before this update. That's a big improvement. However, I am running about 10% total on recordings either missed or unwatchable due to BSOD. Hopefully the next update will improve.


----------



## rdowdy95

WHERE THE HECK IT THE UPDATE? I though they would update last night to fix the FF screwups!


----------



## cookpr

Had a real strange one last night...

Had dvr'd Cold Case on 9/24...went to play it back tonight only to find a bizarre audio problem.

Basically, all the audio is there (background music, effects) except for the acutal speech....its like its on mute +1....you can hear it ever so faintly....kicker is the commericals are fine, as was the opening Cold Case title screen.

No matter what I do, I cant figure it out....never had this problem on any other show.

Any solutions or is this recording shot??


----------



## jlchasejr

Is there a known problem FF during playback of a recorded show with the HR20? I attempt to use the 3xFFW and it freezes up after a few seconds of FF. The only way I am able to FF is to use the 30 sec FF button. I have done the hard reset a couple of times but am still having the same problem.


----------



## litzdog911

cookpr said:


> Had a real strange one last night...
> 
> Had dvr'd Cold Case on 9/24...went to play it back tonight only to find a bizarre audio problem.
> 
> Basically, all the audio is there (background music, effects) except for the acutal speech....its like its on mute +1....you can hear it ever so faintly....kicker is the commericals are fine, as was the opening Cold Case title screen.
> 
> No matter what I do, I cant figure it out....never had this problem on any other show.
> 
> Any solutions or is this recording shot??


These sorts of problems are almost certainly a problem with that local station's broadcast or the network feed. Sad that these DD5.1 audio problems still happen as often as they do.

As a workaround, you could turn on Closed Captions and watch the recording that way.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

rdowdy95 said:


> WHERE THE HECK IT THE UPDATE? I though they would update last night to fix the FF screwups!


As I stated multiple times during the day yesterday, and again today.
The update has not been authorized to be released to customers.

AKA... the update is not ready.

Updates are not going to be "every" Wednesday... nor any other specific pattern.


----------



## litzdog911

jlchasejr said:


> Is there a known problem FF during playback of a recorded show with the HR20? I attempt to use the 3xFFW and it freezes up after a few seconds of FF. The only way I am able to FF is to use the 30 sec FF button. I have done the hard reset a couple of times but am still having the same problem.


Yes. Check out the Release Notes Forum here.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

jlchasejr said:


> Is there a known problem FF during playback of a recorded show with the HR20? I attempt to use the 3xFFW and it freezes up after a few seconds of FF. The only way I am able to FF is to use the 30 sec FF button. I have done the hard reset a couple of times but am still having the same problem.


That is the known issues with the FF right now.
No number of resets is going to change it.

30s slip is the only work around right now (short of standard playback)


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Rugged said:


> Actually, I haven't posted or called on any of my problems. Mainly because none of my problems are new or unique. I didn't think that we need another "me too" posting.
> 
> But, knowing that complaint volume is an indicator I will throw my hat into the ring.
> here are my problems...all experienced in the last 48 hours.
> 
> 1) manually recurring recording doesn't work-(ie, can't setup a recording of MNF on ESPH--since the team name/title changes weekly)
> 2) FF freezing problem
> 3) closed captioning just plain sucks on my local HD channels
> 4) pressing record on a show that is already tuned in with a buffer established -- I get the recording light, shows up in the ToDo list as recording but it never makes it into MyVOD.


1) Manual recording in the sense of: Channel 72 from 7pm till 11pm? Or setting it up as a single record? Series Link won't work, as ESPN has not classified Monday Night football as a Series
2) Yes, known bug with this release
3) Yes, known issue, but not necessarily with the HR20... the networks are not sending the HD CC information cleanly or at all in some cases
4) Known issue, it should appear in your MyVod after a restart.


----------



## Rugged

Earl Bonovich said:


> 1) Manual recording in the sense of: Channel 72 from 7pm till 11pm? Or setting it up as a single record? Series Link won't work, as ESPN has not classified Monday Night football as a Series
> 2) Yes, known bug with this release
> 3) Yes, known issue, but not necessarily with the HR20... the networks are not sending the HD CC information cleanly or at all in some cases
> 4) Known issue, it should appear in your MyVod after a restart.


1) I had setup a Series Link for Monday nights on channel 72 for 8-12pm; so that explains it. Is there a way around this or do I need to set a unique recording for each Monday night.
2) -thanks, I thought so
3) - thanks
4) thanks, I didn't know i could do a restart to get it to show up.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

For the Series Link on Monday Football... that should be the case, as reported by others... I personally haven't tried it.

In general the sporting events need to be set one by one.

For the program showing up in MyVod... it is not a guarantee, but it does seem to work in most cases.

Another option is go into your History and start playback from there (if it is listed)


----------



## Andrew_J_M

Earl Bonovich said:


> Another option is go into your History and start playback from there (if it is listed)


I didn't know about that one - thanks.


----------



## dMan

Still having pause not holding issues while watching live tv. It happen last night while watching CSI.

Still having problems with pixelation. Thought it was gone but it is back. I noticed no pixelation during Desperate Housewives but saw it last night during CSI. 

Have audio problems. I notice the problems if I pause live tv for a second or two then hit play. Only workaround that I have found is to pause longer or jump to end.


----------



## matto

Earl Bonovich said:


> You still have cases where hardware could fail... even if it is for a moment.
> Access card flips out and thinks you don't have the channel...
> 
> Rain Fade, or some other signal level drop...and the unit aborts the recording.
> A bad encoding that causes something to go haywire...
> Or simply ... gremlins in the box... Anyone that has been around technology knows just about everything has at least 1 gremlin in there...


Never had a case where any of these problems caused my HR10 to miss a recording, in the two years I've used it. In the last two weeks, I've missed at least 6 recordings on the HR20.

Not having an update pushed out addressing the existing bugs as well as new ones introduced in 0xDC is dissapointing.


----------



## thekochs

Rugged said:


> 1) I had setup a Series Link for Monday nights on channel 72 for 8-12pm; so that explains it. Is there a way around this or do I need to set a unique recording for each Monday night.
> 2) -thanks, I thought so
> 3) - thanks
> 4) thanks, I didn't know i could do a restart to get it to show up.


Earl, it is not posted but is intermitant audio noise/crackling (mostly thru digital link) a known issue or artifact of known issue (eg. audio lip sync) ? I'm just trying to eliminate if I need to return my HR20 because of a bad sound card/chip.

Thread On Subject:
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=681888&posted=1#post681888


----------



## Calebrot

tstarn said:


> I know it doesn't need to be on for anything but viewing, but when I went to bed it was off, this morning it was on. Just asking why it would power up for no apparent reason.


Mine also, I always use the Off button because it now works with my new TV. Everything was off when I went to bed, but the unit was on this morning.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

thekochs said:


> Earl, it is not posted but is intermitant audio noise/crackling (mostly thru digital link) a known issue or artifact of known issue (eg. audio lip sync) ? I'm just trying to eliminate if I need to return my HR20 because of a bad sound card/chip.
> 
> Thread On Subject:
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=681888&posted=1#post681888


One of the work arounds is to watch items delayed about 2 seconds.

Audio Sync is a known issue, but it is not 100% identified if it is an HR20 decoding or something with the encoding... or a combination of stereo/tv components.

Noise and Crackling... do try a different optical cable. I had that with my XBOX360 and it was the cable... and they do go bad, even if you are not back there touching them.

But yes, there are people that have reported it.

If it is happening on EVERY program (including SD), then there might be somethign wrong


----------



## scoooterr

Can a software release get worse over time?

The last update has been a big step backward for me. But it seams to be getting worse. Have had multiple surprise resets in the last few days along with loss of picture from HDMI (a first ever for me) Hope the hardware is not getting worse.

Looking forward to 0xXX, soon we hope.


----------



## mtnagel

I had the pink box around the FF symbol today.

Also woke up to BSOD this morning. Only one other lockup.

No missed recordings or anything else in 5 days now.


----------



## thekochs

Earl Bonovich said:


> One of the work arounds is to watch items delayed about 2 seconds.
> 
> Audio Sync is a known issue, but it is not 100% identified if it is an HR20 decoding or something with the encoding... or a combination of stereo/tv components.
> 
> Noise and Crackling... do try a different optical cable. I had that with my XBOX360 and it was the cable... and they do go bad, even if you are not back there touching them.
> 
> But yes, there are people that have reported it.
> 
> If it is happening on EVERY program (including SD), then there might be somethign wrong


Only HD locals...mostly ABC...SD is fine......I've also changed out the cables....still get it internitant. I also do not hear it on RCA analog.


----------



## kevincmccallum

Earl Bonovich said:


> I don't think that is the case... as with the previous releases, people had no problem postings..... "It still is not fixed   "
> 
> And I also have been told the call volume for that problem has plumeted as well from the CSR level.


Well then I'm going to go ahead and post this:

MINE IS STILL NOT FIXED! I AM MAD!!   

I don't have any of the BSOD problems......but do have MULTIPLE recording problems!! That have all gotten really bad since 0xDC last week!

1. Recordings automatically deleted for no rhyme or reason. Shows up in "ToDo" list just fine, starts recording just fine with light on front and 'R' in guide, but again never makes it to "MyVOD" and instead goes straight to "History" and says 'Deleted' (even though no live person did so). This has happened at least 9 times now in past 10 days, usually for sporting events. And has happened to 'Series Link' events, individual guide-selected event boxes, and manually set start/stop times. WHY DOES IT AUTO-DELETE SOMETHING IT WENT TO THE TROUBLE OF RECORDING?!!? WHY WOULDN'T IT LEAVE IT IN THE "MYVOD" AND LET USER DELETE!!?!!

2. Pressing 'R' record button on an already-tuned to event that is in buffer. The 'R' show up in the guide.....but never makes it to "MyVOD", and you cannot even pause or rewind the event any longer either. Box no longer responds to any playback commands from remote for that event. Tuning off channel and back on loses buffer too.

3. Widely known "Freezing when FF" problem. Happens every single time for any/all recorded HD shows.

I can understand #3. I know bugs happen, and that's a bug. But being able to provide the ability to reliably record an event for future playback, is the single MAIN function of a DVR. If it can't do that function, then you can't even call it a "bug"............because that mean the product simply doesn't work. It's broken (not buggy)!

CR's on the phone have told me to try resetting my HR-20 back to original factory settings......which involves wiping out all the recorded events (the ones it did manage to record OK prior to 0xDC) that are currently still on the hard-drive. That seems like a desperate last-ditch "only thing we know to do" approach. And my wife won't allow that until she views a few saved things on there.....so I'll try it after the weekend hopefully.

This needs to be fixed. Now. And to read from Earl that D*TV believes this release is "a lot better" and their complaint calls are "way down", makes me want to strangle something. Maybe they fixed/improved the BSOD issue.....but they made recording reliability MUCH, MUCH worse. I see posts all over this website in dozens of different threads about missing/lost recordings. They can't all be explained away by rain....


----------



## kevincmccallum

mtnagel said:


> I had the pink box around the FF symbol today.
> 
> 
> 
> Oh, I must've missed any previous posts about this. So what does the FF box turning pink mean? I've seen that a number of times on my box too. Is that just another indicator of the "Freezing FF" problem....??
Click to expand...


----------



## Wolffpack

kevincmccallum said:


> Well then I'm going to go ahead and post this:
> 
> MINE IS STILL NOT FIXED! I AM MAD!!
> 
> I don't have any of the BSOD problems......but do have MULTIPLE recording problems!! That have all gotten really bad since 0xDC last week!
> 
> 1. Recordings automatically deleted for no rhyme or reason. Shows up in "ToDo" list just fine, starts recording just fine with light on front and 'R' in guide, but again never makes it to "MyVOD" and instead goes straight to "History" and says 'Deleted' (even though no live person did so). This has happened at least 9 times now in past 10 days, usually for sporting events. And has happened to 'Series Link' events, individual guide-selected event boxes, and manually set start/stop times. WHY DOES IT AUTO-DELETE SOMETHING IT WENT TO THE TROUBLE OF RECORDING?!!? WHY WOULDN'T IT LEAVE IT IN THE "MYVOD" AND LET USER DELETE!!?!!
> 
> 2. Pressing 'R' record button on an already-tuned to event that is in buffer. The 'R' show up in the guide.....but never makes it to "MyVOD", and you cannot even pause or rewind the event any longer either. Box no longer responds to any playback commands from remote for that event. Tuning off channel and back on loses buffer too.
> 
> 3. Widely known "Freezing when FF" problem. Happens every single time for any/all recorded HD shows.
> 
> I can understand #3. I know bugs happen, and that's a bug. But being able to provide the ability to reliably record an event for future playback, is the single MAIN function of a DVR. If it can't do that function, then you can't even call it a "bug"............because that mean the product simply doesn't work. It's broken (not buggy)!
> 
> CR's on the phone have told me to try resetting my HR-20 back to original factory settings......which involves wiping out all the recorded events (the ones it did manage to record OK prior to 0xDC) that are currently still on the hard-drive. That seems like a desperate last-ditch "only thing we know to do" approach. And my wife won't allow that until she views a few saved things on there.....so I'll try it after the weekend hopefully.
> 
> This needs to be fixed. Now. And to read from Earl that D*TV believes this release is "a lot better" and their complaint calls are "way down", makes me want to strangle something. Maybe they fixed/improved the BSOD issue.....but they made recording reliability MUCH, MUCH worse. I see posts all over this website in dozens of different threads about missing/lost recordings. They can't all be explained away by rain....


IMO (and I know the D*Fenders don't care about my opinion  ) the HR20 is still a box not ready for Prime Time or customer distribution. That is if DTV cares about their customers.

I know, there are those that will say DVRs from cable company A or B or C, or from E* don't do any better. But my answer to that is that the HD DVR DTV had prior to the HR20 did "do this better". So at least I hope that DTV is happy taking themselves from the "leader of the pack" and landing themselves in mediocrity. Good job guys. :up:


----------



## mtnagel

kevincmccallum said:


> mtnagel said:
> 
> 
> 
> I had the pink box around the FF symbol today.
> 
> 
> 
> Oh, I must've missed any previous posts about this. So what does the FF box turning pink mean? I've seen that a number of times on my box too. Is that just another indicator of the "Freezing FF" problem....??
Click to expand...

I had thought it was mentioned in this thread, but maybe not. But there is a whole thread about it - http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=67564


----------



## jheda

kevincmccallum said:


> Well then I'm going to go ahead and post this:
> 
> MINE IS STILL NOT FIXED! I AM MAD!!
> 
> I don't have any of the BSOD problems......but do have MULTIPLE recording problems!! That have all gotten really bad since 0xDC last week!
> 
> 1. Recordings automatically deleted for no rhyme or reason. Shows up in "ToDo" list just fine, starts recording just fine with light on front and 'R' in guide, but again never makes it to "MyVOD" and instead goes straight to "History" and says 'Deleted' (even though no live person did so). This has happened at least 9 times now in past 10 days, usually for sporting events. And has happened to 'Series Link' events, individual guide-selected event boxes, and manually set start/stop times. WHY DOES IT AUTO-DELETE SOMETHING IT WENT TO THE TROUBLE OF RECORDING?!!? WHY WOULDN'T IT LEAVE IT IN THE "MYVOD" AND LET USER DELETE!!?!!
> 
> 2. Pressing 'R' record button on an already-tuned to event that is in buffer. The 'R' show up in the guide.....but never makes it to "MyVOD", and you cannot even pause or rewind the event any longer either. Box no longer responds to any playback commands from remote for that event. Tuning off channel and back on loses buffer too.
> 
> 3. Widely known "Freezing when FF" problem. Happens every single time for any/all recorded HD shows.
> 
> I can understand #3. I know bugs happen, and that's a bug. But being able to provide the ability to reliably record an event for future playback, is the single MAIN function of a DVR. If it can't do that function, then you can't even call it a "bug"............because that mean the product simply doesn't work. It's broken (not buggy)!
> 
> CR's on the phone have told me to try resetting my HR-20 back to original factory settings......which involves wiping out all the recorded events (the ones it did manage to record OK prior to 0xDC) that are currently still on the hard-drive. That seems like a desperate last-ditch "only thing we know to do" approach. And my wife won't allow that until she views a few saved things on there.....so I'll try it after the weekend hopefully.
> 
> This needs to be fixed. Now. And to read from Earl that D*TV believes this release is "a lot better" and their complaint calls are "way down", makes me want to strangle something. Maybe they fixed/improved the BSOD issue.....but they made recording reliability MUCH, MUCH worse. I see posts all over this website in dozens of different threads about missing/lost recordings. They can't all be explained away by rain....


I agree with the above and supported by my postings on this thread....the reliability is getting worse over the last 5 days for me and i dont get it...pls dont let D* things are close to perfect.....


----------



## thekochs

ALL.......I'm *not* the voice of reason but spend alot of time developing code and calling on the cable settop vendor engineering departments. I'm as frustrated as all of you in that I willing gave up a HR10-250 for HR20 upgrades only to find out it isn't ready for prime time. However, I've only been on this Forum for less than a month and I'm 100% sure the D* engineers are very aware of the problems. It appears Earl is extremely responsive and based on his knowledge has a good link into that development team. The issue (from experience) is fixing one thing may most definitely effect another. I equate it to pushing a giant balloon of water up a hill......it's never round as you compensate one place there is another. Seriously, the issue (time sync) is the engineers not *fixing* the problem but regressive testing all the things that* fix *could break/effect. Honestly, I'm surprised there is actually code/firmware updates every week or so....in my world it is every several months. Obviously, D* is trying to save/keep new customers on a product they should have held release on for awhile longer.

Anyway, my two cents.....you can thrash me if you want....my wife is already on the HR20 like others so I think she's got anyone beat on what could be said.


----------



## hdtvfan0001

I'm just praying the next update (next week?) fixes the few bugs reported and repeated over and over here, so these whiners will finally shut the h--- up and get a life. :nono: 

Maybe then Earl can get some sleep too.


----------



## jheda

thekochs said:


> ALL.......I'm *not* the voice of reason but spend alot of time developing code and calling on the cable settop vendor engineering departments. I'm as frustrated as all of you in that I willing gave up a HR10-250 for HR20 upgrades only to find out it isn't ready for prime time. However, I've only been on this Forum for less than a month and I'm 100% sure the D* engineers are very aware of the problems. It appears Earl is extremely responsive and based on his knowledge has a good link into that development team. The issue (from experience) is fixing one thing may most definitely effect another. I equate it to pushing a giant balloon of water up a hill......it's never round as you compensate one place there is another. Seriously, the issue (time sync) is the engineers not *fixing* the problem but regressive testing all the things that* fix *could break/effect. Honestly, I'm surprised there is actually code/firmware updates every week or so....in my world it is every several months. Obviously, D* is trying to save/keep new customers on a product they should have held release on for awhile longer.
> 
> Anyway, my two cents.....you can thrash me if you want....my wife is already on the HR20 like others so I think she's got anyone beat on what could be said.


Im not angry and am very patient.....mostly due to this board...a but i need to know that D* is working on the instabilities of the recordings, and as long as i dont think becuse the posting hasnt been flooded lately all is well; i also havent posted every error confident that becasue of Earl and the postings D* is on it....


----------



## bluesjam

I did a force software update earlier today, and scheduled a couple of shows to record from local HD. Came home and found 2 shows, both played fine, NBC wouldn't FF but ABC would!  We're getting somewhere at least! This is the first successful recording scheduled and watched without any lockups!

Do I finally have a working dvr??? Lost is scheduled to record tonight, fingers crossed! Not sure if it was the forcing of the download or having the installer ground the dish and the 2 new wires they ran for me last week that possibly fixed the problem. Hopefully it will last for a long time!

For those of you with lockup issues, if you haven't done a force download since the last update I suggest you do it ASAP! Please report back the results.


----------



## Wolffpack

At times I've viewed as a naysayer. I'm viewed as being negative. I'm viewed as being a trouble maker. The label I liked the most was when Earl referred to me as the Devil's Advocate. I don't have any problem with those classifications.

That said, and keeping with my image, for those of you new to this forum and new to the HR20, be aware that the R15 (the SD version of the HR20) is almost one year old and we that have a R15 are still experiencing many of the problems mentioned here.

I know the tendency to "give DTV the benefit of the doubt". Hey, let the updates happen and all will be fixed. In some areas DTV has fixed problems on the HR20 that we still complain about on the R15. Limits on certain items have been increased on the HR20 while the Basturd child R15 is neglected.

Without going into further details, check out the R15 threads and see if there are not similarities. After almost a year the R15 still isn't working. The HR20 has been out for about a month. In 11 months will these problems be fixed? Can these problems be fixed?


----------



## thekochs

bluesjam said:


> I did a force software update earlier today,.........
> 
> For those of you with lockup issues, if you haven't done a force download since the last update I suggest you do it ASAP! Please report back the results.


Are you saying there is a newer version than this thread HR20 - 0xDC or you upgraded to it ?


----------



## Jeremy W

thekochs said:


> Are you saying there is a newer version than this thread HR20 - 0xDC or you upgraded to it ?


No his unit simply re-downloaded 0xDC. The fact that he had to reset his receiver to do so probably had much more to do with the outcome than the software download did.


----------



## bluesjam

Correction, I didn't do any resets today. It was still locking up after the resets yesterday, all I did today was a force a download, and whatever work the installer did outside. So, it's possible that it was a cabling issue, even though he didn't do any cable work, just grounded the dish and cables and mounted the switch properly, or it was the download.

Something happened tonight that the dvr likes! I left it on Discovery HD for a while and no lockups yet! Before the download it would lockup after a few minutes of watching Discovery.


----------



## Jeremy W

bluesjam said:


> Correction, I didn't do any resets today. It was still locking up after the resets yesterday, all I did today was a force a download


You have to reset the receiver to force a software download. There is no way around that.


----------



## mtnagel

Wolffpack said:


> At times I've viewed as a naysayer. I'm viewed as being negative. I'm viewed as being a trouble maker. The label I liked the most was when Earl referred to me as the Devil's Advocate. I don't have any problem with those classifications.
> 
> That said, and keeping with my image, for those of you new to this forum and new to the HR20, be aware that the R15 (the SD version of the HR20) is almost one year old and we that have a R15 are still experiencing many of the problems mentioned here.
> 
> I know the tendency to "give DTV the benefit of the doubt". Hey, let the updates happen and all will be fixed. In some areas DTV has fixed problems on the HR20 that we still complain about on the R15. Limits on certain items have been increased on the HR20 while the Basturd child R15 is neglected.
> 
> Without going into further details, check out the R15 threads and see if there are not similarities. After almost a year the R15 still isn't working. The HR20 has been out for about a month. In 11 months will these problems be fixed? Can these problems be fixed?


:eek2: Now I'm scared.


----------



## Jeremy W

mtnagel said:


> :eek2: Now I'm scared.


If you're scared, just ask yourself this question: is DirecTV going to leave their *flagship receiver* in this state? If you think the answer is yes, then you should leave DirecTV immediately. But I'll tell you right now that the answer is no, and I predict that the HR20 will be fully stable before the end of the year.


----------



## bluesjam

Jeremy W said:


> You have to reset the receiver to force a software download. There is no way around that.


Does entering the codes during reboot also include a reset? When it came up after downloding the software it didn't walk me through the setup guide.


----------



## matto

Jeremy W said:


> If you're scared, just ask yourself this question: is DirecTV going to leave their *flagship receiver* in this state? If you think the answer is yes, then you should leave DirecTV immediately. But I'll tell you right now that the answer is no, and I predict that the HR20 will be fully stable before the end of the year.


you don't own an R15, do you?


----------



## Jeremy W

bluesjam said:


> Does entering the codes during reboot also include a reset? When it came up after downloding the software it didn't walk me through the setup guide.


OK, I see what the problem is. You're using the word "reboot" in place of the word "reset." The red button is labeled RESET, so that's what I call it. Resetting the receiver doesn't make you go through guided setup.


----------



## Jeremy W

matto said:


> you don't own an R15, do you?


I don't, but the R15 isn't their flagship receiver and has absolutely nothing to do with my point.


----------



## matto

Jeremy W said:


> I don't, but the R15 isn't their flagship receiver and has absolutely nothing to do with my point.


you keep telling yourself they'll treat the hr20 differently, if it makes you feel better.


----------



## Jeremy W

matto said:


> you keep telling yourself they'll treat the hr20 differently, if it makes you feel better.


And you keep telling yourself that it will always be unstable if that makes you feel better.


----------



## litzdog911

Jeremy W said:


> And you keep telling yourself that it will always be unstable if that makes you feel better.


I agree with Jeremy .... 
I think DirecTV has a LOT riding on the success of the HR20 HD DVR, much more than they did (do?) with the R15 SD DVR. It may take several more weeks, but I predict that they'll work down the bugs.


----------



## bluesjam

Jeremy W said:


> OK, I see what the problem is. You're using the word "reboot" in place of the word "reset." The red button is labeled RESET, so that's what I call it. Resetting the receiver doesn't make you go through guided setup.


Correct, in order to force a download you have to reboot first to be able to enter the codes, but no reset is involved.


----------



## Jeremy W

bluesjam said:


> Correct, in order to force a download you have to reboot first to be able to enter the codes, but no reset is involved.


No, what you're doing is technically called a reset, not a reboot. A reset *does not* mean that you're clearing the settings. Please get this straight, I'm not going to say it again.


----------



## bluesjam

ok, fine, reboot or reset, call it whatever you want, don't really matter to me! So, what do you call a reset from the setup menu then? And what would a reboot be if it exists?


----------



## Jeremy W

bluesjam said:


> ok, fine, reboot or reset, call it whatever you want, don't really matter to me!


I'm just trying to help you out, because you will see the term "reset" used very frequently here to indicate what you refer to as a "reboot."


bluesjam said:


> So, what do you call a reset from the setup menu then?


Whatever it's called in the menu. I'm not in front of my HR20 right now, but I know that the option to clear the settings is not just called "Reset."


bluesjam said:


> And what would a reboot be if it exists?


A "reboot" is called a "reset" in HR20 terminology. It's fine to call it a reboot, but you can't say "I rebooted my receiver, I didn't reset it" because that is incorrect.


----------



## bluesjam

Jeremy W said:


> I'm just trying to help you out, because you will see the term "reset" used very frequently here to indicate what you refer to as a "reboot."


It's still a reboot to me! 



> Whatever it's called in the menu. I'm not in front of my HR20 right now, but I know that the option to clear the settings is not just called "Reset."


It's called Reset believe it or not, then you select what kind of reset you want to do.



> A "reboot" is called a "reset" in HR20 terminology. It's fine to call it a reboot, but you can't say "I rebooted my receiver, I didn't reset it" because that is incorrect.


btw, the techs at D* support called the reset a reset, that includes doing it from the menu and while holding the rec and left buttons on the front panel.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

It is a computer after all... so a "reset" ... "reboots" the computer.

You say Tomato... I say... Tomato (kinda loses something when typed)


----------



## goose61282

kevincmccallum said:


> Well then I'm going to go ahead and post this:
> 
> MINE IS STILL NOT FIXED! I AM MAD!!
> 
> I don't have any of the BSOD problems......but do have MULTIPLE recording problems!! That have all gotten really bad since 0xDC last week!
> 
> 1. Recordings automatically deleted for no rhyme or reason. Shows up in "ToDo" list just fine, starts recording just fine with light on front and 'R' in guide, but again never makes it to "MyVOD" and instead goes straight to "History" and says 'Deleted' (even though no live person did so). This has happened at least 9 times now in past 10 days, usually for sporting events. And has happened to 'Series Link' events, individual guide-selected event boxes, and manually set start/stop times. WHY DOES IT AUTO-DELETE SOMETHING IT WENT TO THE TROUBLE OF RECORDING?!!? WHY WOULDN'T IT LEAVE IT IN THE "MYVOD" AND LET USER DELETE!!?!!
> 
> 2. Pressing 'R' record button on an already-tuned to event that is in buffer. The 'R' show up in the guide.....but never makes it to "MyVOD", and you cannot even pause or rewind the event any longer either. Box no longer responds to any playback commands from remote for that event. Tuning off channel and back on loses buffer too.
> 
> 3. Widely known "Freezing when FF" problem. Happens every single time for any/all recorded HD shows.
> 
> I can understand #3. I know bugs happen, and that's a bug. But being able to provide the ability to reliably record an event for future playback, is the single MAIN function of a DVR. If it can't do that function, then you can't even call it a "bug"............because that mean the product simply doesn't work. It's broken (not buggy)!
> 
> CR's on the phone have told me to try resetting my HR-20 back to original factory settings......which involves wiping out all the recorded events (the ones it did manage to record OK prior to 0xDC) that are currently still on the hard-drive. That seems like a desperate last-ditch "only thing we know to do" approach. And my wife won't allow that until she views a few saved things on there.....so I'll try it after the weekend hopefully.
> 
> This needs to be fixed. Now. And to read from Earl that D*TV believes this release is "a lot better" and their complaint calls are "way down", makes me want to strangle something. Maybe they fixed/improved the BSOD issue.....but they made recording reliability MUCH, MUCH worse. I see posts all over this website in dozens of different threads about missing/lost recordings. They can't all be explained away by rain....


I've had the exact same problem as #1, but haven't seen any reply as to if it is a known software issue. Is this something that will be resolved or should I try to get it traded in.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Software...

Pretty much 99% of the issues seen are software related.
There will be some issues related to hardware, usually hard drive related.. but right now... I would have to say nearly all issues are software related.

#1 is definenlty a software issue...


----------



## Argee

Wierd, tonight I recorded LOST and Jericho and 30 ROCK and was able to fast forward and rewind them at all speeds with no loops or pixelizations.
The HR20 worked perfectly this evening. (MPEG 4 locals)


----------



## dtvphil

Earl,

Any news on the next software release? I have 2 hr20s and so far so good.. ya, i have the problems mentioned above... but, knowing that dtv is working them is good enough for me for the time being.. i still have the hr250, so that is my backup  just curious, how many open software defects does the hr 20 have against it ????


----------



## loubolb

Another black recording, Mythbusters in SD mpeg2. I actually came home to it with the recording light on, I went to the VOD list and it didnt show anything recording. Then I went to the todo list and it showed mythbusters without a r next to it while all the others had the r or multiple r's. I entered the channel number to get to discovery channel and it took me to the recording which showed it recorded all the way to the last 10 min and the record sign was on(i came in at the end of it). I couldnt ff, rr or pause so I new it was a goner, but I let it go anyway and sure enough it showed in my vod and didnt work.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

dtvphil said:


> Earl,
> 
> Any news on the next software release? I have 2 hr20s and so far so good.. ya, i have the problems mentioned above... but, knowing that dtv is working them is good enough for me for the time being.. i still have the hr250, so that is my backup  just curious, how many open software defects does the hr 20 have against it ????


Yes, there is some news... but none that I can share 

As for a "list" of open software defects... I don't know of a count or the exact contents of that list.


----------



## jamieh1

Earl Bonovich said:


> Yes, there is some news... but none that I can share
> 
> As for a "list" of open software defects... I don't know of a count or the exact contents of that list.


Can we expect a update this week? Also ota, is it coming soon or a month or 2 away?


----------



## Vinny

Earl Bonovich said:


> Yes, there is some news... but none that I can share


Earl, is it a "To Do" or will it appear on the History List as a future cancellation.

Sorry, I had to say that after reading the other debate on what is the future and past.


----------



## bluesjam

I actually recorded a couple of shows (scheduled) and was able to watch them, almost error-free! :joy: NBC (1080i) had some issues, FF still doesn't work properly, ABC (720p?) was kinda acting up a little during playback but FF worked fine. Lost was great, no issues, well maybe the start a little, but no issues after that whatsoever!

So Earl, what do you think did it?

I must say I'm quite pleased with the PQ coming from the HR20, even Lost looked better when compared to the OTA HR10, kinda weird, when NBC is the other way around for me.  SD is much better fuh sho!

And I haven't needed to reboot/reset yet!!! :icon_da: Should I attempt HDMI or stick to Components for now... maybe wait for the next update!


----------



## Earl Bonovich

Vinny said:


> Earl, is it a "To Do" or will it appear on the History List as a future cancellation.
> 
> Sorry, I had to say that after reading the other debate on what is the future and past.


Cute...  I'll give you some bonus points for that.


----------



## Earl Bonovich

bluesjam said:


> So Earl, what do you think did it?


A little prayer? nah... could be any number of things.
Glad it worked for you.


----------



## bluesjam

Earl Bonovich said:


> A little prayer? nah... could be any number of things.
> Glad it worked for you.


Thanks for your help! I think the new Pioneer plasma had something to do with it!


----------



## h0ckeysk8er

Earl Bonovich said:


> Software...
> 
> Pretty much 99% of the issues seen are software related.
> There will be some issues related to hardware, usually hard drive related.. but right now... I would have to say nearly all issues are software related.
> 
> #1 is definenlty a software issue...


While I tend to agree with you, I'm also curious if folks are seeing some heat induced peculiarities? I know that the H20-600 ran really hot and I saw a LOT of audio/video sync issues, pixelation, and system hangs (particularly after it ran for a while). Once they sent me the -100, which ran much cooler, a lot of those issues either cleared up or were reduced drastically. It would be interesting to hear from folks who are having recurring problems the environment that the HR20 is installed in (closed cabinet, open cabinet, limited area about the box, etc) and their typical internal HR20 temperature (which is obtainable from the box).

Mine typically runs around 125 to 130F and I have not had a system hang, missed a recording, received a partial recording for no reason, or got a BSOD. I have the FF problem, but that is clearly a software bug. I occasionally get audio/video sync problems on HDL ABC but I saw (and continue to see) those on my H20 as well. I attribute that to the local affiliate and/or the uplink/downlink process.


----------



## NFLnut

h0ckeysk8er said:


> Mine typically runs around 125 to 130F and I have not had a system hang, missed a recording, received a partial recording for no reason, or got a BSOD.


Mine never runs higher than 127-degrees and I've had all of the above!


----------



## mtnagel

Don't know if this is a bug or just a feature that isn't there, but last night I paused Jericho right when it started at 8. I was waiting for my wife to come home and I did some things. Around 8:30, I started watching it and when it was 8:57 (still not caught up to live obviously), it asked about changing the channel because I had two things scheduled at 9. I said okay, change the channel since I didn't want to miss either obviously. Well, at 9, it left my Jericho recording and started playing one of the things at 9. I had to go into MyVOD and start Jericho, and it started me at the beginning, so I had to FF to where I was. Kind of annoying.

With my R10, you would be able to just keep watching what you were watching and it would start recording the other two channels in the background. It all happened seamlessly. 

So is this a bug or a feature that isn't there? And with it ever be fixed/implemented?


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## RMSko

mtnagel said:


> Don't know if this is a bug or just a feature that isn't there, but last night I paused Jericho right when it started at 8. I was waiting for my wife to come home and I did some things. Around 8:30, I started watching it and when it was 8:57 (still not caught up to live obviously), it asked about changing the channel because I had two things scheduled at 9. I said okay, change the channel since I didn't want to miss either obviously. Well, at 9, it left my Jericho recording and started playing one of the things at 9. I had to go into MyVOD and start Jericho, and it started me at the beginning, so I had to FF to where I was. Kind of annoying.
> 
> With my R10, you would be able to just keep watching what you were watching and it would start recording the other two channels in the background. It all happened seamlessly.
> 
> So is this a bug or a feature that isn't there? And with it ever be fixed/implemented?


It happened b/c you were watching live TV at the time, i.e., although you were recording the show, you were not likely watching the recorded version. I'm not sure that the HR10 handles it differently. I also have an HR10 and it behaves the exact same way so that unless I first start watching the recorded version from my playlist.


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## hasan

h0ckeysk8er said:


> While I tend to agree with you, I'm also curious if folks are seeing some heat induced peculiarities? I know that the H20-600 ran really hot and I saw a LOT of audio/video sync issues, pixelation, and system hangs (particularly after it ran for a while). Once they sent me the -100, which ran much cooler, a lot of those issues either cleared up or were reduced drastically. It would be interesting to hear from folks who are having recurring problems the environment that the HR20 is installed in (closed cabinet, open cabinet, limited area about the box, etc) and their typical internal HR20 temperature (which is obtainable from the box).
> 
> Mine typically runs around 125 to 130F and I have not had a system hang, missed a recording, received a partial recording for no reason, or got a BSOD. I have the FF problem, but that is clearly a software bug. I occasionally get audio/video sync problems on HDL ABC but I saw (and continue to see) those on my H20 as well. I attribute that to the local affiliate and/or the uplink/downlink process.


I don't think there is any demonstrable pattern of heat related problems. I've followed (and started) the several of the "temperature" threads, and there just isn't anything there. A few of us who are temperature "retentive" like our boxes to run cooler, so we put "coolpads" (notebook cooling fans) on the HR20 to pull heat OUT the top. I did that on mine, and the temp dropped from 127 to 105 +/- 2 degrees. I had no prior heat problems, I did it for long term reliability.

I think we are seeing software problems that are being worked out, some which appear to have a significant correlation to MPEG-4/HD Locals. I don't have them and have had very few problems in my 3 weeks with the HR20. It's been VERY good. No lock-ups, no BSOD, only 1 failed recording early on (and that was caused by trying to resolve a recording conflict). Updates have gone smoothly, DD 5.1 works fine, HDMI is fine. I have been quite fortunate compared to some on these forums.

I await OTA, and hope it is months and months before we get MPEG-4/HD Locals. (as I'm willing to bet there will be considerable startup problems here when that happens, even though a lot of the heavy lifting/bug fixes will have been done by others who have had MPEG-4 first.

Anywho, unless the heat is running well above the 127 that so many experience, I wouldn't be looking at temp as the cause for any of the short term bugs that have surfaced. I'm still a big fan of fans. Check out your favorite computer store or on line supplier if you are interested. Be sure if you use a fan that it is EXTRACTING heat OUT the TOP, not blowing into the unit.


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## hdtvfan0001

hasan said:


> I don't think there is any demonstrable pattern of heat related problems.
> 
> I think we are seeing software problems that are being worked out, some which appear to have a significant correlation to MPEG-4/HD Locals.
> 
> I await OTA.


Concise excellent points - agreed.


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## rexerito23

I'm getting two issues after only owning my HR20 for 2 weeks.

1. "Freezing when FF" on all HD content
2. Went to watch "Lost" last night and it only recorded 1 min. WTH??

This also happend on CSI MIAMI, only this time it recorded only 48 min of the show. I'm not a happy camper.


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## hasan

rexerito23 said:


> I'm getting two issues after only owning my HR20 for 2 weeks.
> 
> 1. "Freezing when FF" on all HD content
> 2. Went to watch "Lost" last night and it only recorded 1 min. WTH??
> 
> This also happend on CSI MIAMI, only this time it recorded only 48 min of the show. I'm not a happy camper.


Do you have HD Locals? If so, some of these are known issues that are being worked on.

I don't have them and have never had your #2 above. I don't have #1 above, because I don't have MPEG-4/HD Locals.

If you don't have HD-Locals, then a red button reset is in order.


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## paulman182

"you don't own an R15, do you?"

Well, I have two, and another is being installed next Wednesday.

No problems to speak of. No missed or unplayable recordings at all.


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## rexerito23

hasan said:


> Do you have HD Locals? If so, some of these are known issues that are being worked on.
> 
> I don't have them and have never had your #2 above. I don't have #1 above, because I don't have MPEG-4/HD Locals.
> 
> If you don't have HD-Locals, then a red button reset is in order.


Yes these are my locals.


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## dan8379

Vader14 said:


> when i paused the game it was not paiused for more than bout 20 min.
> 
> When i came back to watch the paused show i started the show by hitting the play button and it went right to live tv. i wonder if it makes a difference if i hit play to resume or hit pause to resume. I'll have to try a few times and see.


This is now happening to me almost every time I pause live TV. This is really the first major issue that I've had but in my opinion it's the worst, especially if it happens during a game. Being able to pause live tv is the most basic function of a DVR. If it's having problems with that it makes me very nervous. What makes this worse is that if rewind isn't working you have to jump back in 6 second increments--it can take forever.


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## Ed Campbell

My HR20 been pretty solid w/no recording problems till this morning. I have to presume the only thing I did that was different, this morning, is what caused me to have to reset:

Watching news on one channel while recording started up at 8:30 [Go Blackburn Rovers!]. Hit the Active button -- which I rarely use -- to check temp outdoors before heading out for a walk with the dogs. Entered zip per usual then decided [for the 1st time] that I'd save the zip as the first entry in My Cities.

Did so and exited.

From then on, I could access the channel I had been watching; but, could not change channels -- entering number, up, down, whatever, nada.

List would bring up VOD incl. the football match I was recording; but, I could do nothing with any of the entries and couldn't go to ToDo List, etc..

Exit would bring me back to the channels I'd been watching; but, that was it. Couldn't play the recording in progress.

So -- did component reboot. Everything appears OK right now -- and all I missed was pre-match chatter. Recording back and functioning -- only missed first 18 seconds!


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## loubolb

Ed Campbell said:


> My HR20 been pretty solid w/no recording problems till this morning. I have to presume the only thing I did that was different, this morning, is what caused me to have to reset:
> 
> Watching news on one channel while recording started up at 8:30 [Go Blackburn Rovers!]. Hit the Active button -- which I rarely use -- to check temp outdoors before heading out for a walk with the dogs. Entered zip per usual then decided [for the 1st time] that I'd save the zip as the first entry in My Cities.
> 
> Did so and exited.
> 
> From then on, I could access the channel I had been watching; but, could not change channels -- entering number, up, down, whatever, nada.
> 
> List would bring up VOD incl. the football match I was recording; but, I could do nothing with any of the entries and couldn't go to ToDo List, etc..
> 
> Exit would bring me back to the channels I'd been watching; but, that was it. Couldn't play the recording in progress.
> 
> So -- did component reboot. Everything appears OK right now -- and all I missed was pre-match chatter. Recording back and functioning -- only missed first 18 seconds!


I've entered my zip as my first city many times and it doesnt remember it.


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## bonscott87

Jeremy W said:


> And you keep telling yourself that it will always be unstable if that makes you feel better.


For me, mine has been stable so far. But if it becomes unstable and DirecTV doesn't fix it and ignores the HR20 6 months from now then I have a great choice: I get to leave and go somewhere else. As does everyone else. DirecTV doesn't own me and I'm not beholden to them if they won't fix bugs that effect me. So should it be for everyone else.


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## mOOn

The only issues since the 0xDC update:

1) Caller ID has worked every single time for some 60 calls. Not that this is a high end desire of mine, but thought it would be a positive to share.

2) Local HD channels almost always fuzzy, pastels, pixelated, large blotches which have gotten worse over the last two to three days. Watching the HR10-250 for the same shows in HD OTA, no issues, always a nicer more clear/crisp picture.

3) While watching NCIS on a HD Local channel, the show was completely pixelated all the way through, unwatchable human blobs, sound problems. It appeared that I had a weak signal issue. At the same moment on my HR10-250, the same channel, same show OTA HD, not a blemish. Other Local HD shows were normal and watchable during this time on the HR20-700.

4) While watching a show in realtime that was recording, I called up the VOD list and highlighted the same show (while watching in the corner), when I hit the double-minus the HR20-700 locked up and required a red button reset.

5) Sometimes in FF/REW the picture is pixelated more or less severely, sometimes not pixelated at all.

6) When REWing, seems to loop back or something. Hard to figure out.

You probably already experienced these issues. Just another vote that these are problems. My setup is in my signature.

mOOn


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## pattcap

mtnagel said:


> Don't know if this is a bug or just a feature that isn't there, but last night I paused Jericho right when it started at 8. I was waiting for my wife to come home and I did some things. Around 8:30, I started watching it and when it was 8:57 (still not caught up to live obviously), it asked about changing the channel because I had two things scheduled at 9. I said okay, change the channel since I didn't want to miss either obviously. Well, at 9, it left my Jericho recording and started playing one of the things at 9. I had to go into MyVOD and start Jericho, and it started me at the beginning, so I had to FF to where I was. Kind of annoying.
> 
> With my R10, you would be able to just keep watching what you were watching and it would start recording the other two channels in the background. It all happened seamlessly.
> 
> So is this a bug or a feature that isn't there? And with it ever be fixed/implemented?


How many Software engineers does it take to screw in a light bulb? 
None, that is a hardware problem.

Missing Feature or Bug, to be or not to be complicated. 
Some call it a bug. 
Some might call it a missing feature.
I call it a bunch of top notch software engineers that have never watched TV, much less used a DVR, or even thought much about how a person might use a DVR, writing the software.

If I had been in charge of the project, while in development, long before a line of code was ever written, I would have made the software guys use a TIVO for a long time to get familiar with how "THE BEST" works, and then start writing the code.

Oh yea, this is one of those things little quirks about the HR20 that really irks me, in case you didn't notice....

As far as the HR20 is concerned:
It seems there is a difference between watching live TV, Live TV from the buffer (meaning in the middle of the green line), Live TV that is being recorded (orange line) when you did not start from MyVOD, Watching a recorded show from MyVOD, Watching a show from MyDOV that is still recording, and then there is the matter of what is going on with the other tuner, is it recording, or is it doing nothing. If it is doing nothing it will continue to do nothing, even if it means abandoning your current viewing selection as it seems the programmers would prefer to keep as much of the machine idle at all times as frustratingly possible.

If you hit pause in any of the above circumstances with the intention of doing anything other than pressing play next, most likely the machine will want to resume play of the program at a point other than the point at which you intentionally paused the thing. Yes, that seems to be about right. I mean, why on earth would you pause a show, leave, and then upon return / resumption, want to pick up at the point at which you intentionally paused.

Upon further reasoning, it can only be concluded that this is not a missing feature and it is not a bug. It is very clear that the programmers designed and programed it to operate this way. And, since we know they programed it this way then it can only be assumed that there is no missing feature and or bug like defect. The shear fact that you have stumbled upon this issue and have concluded that something may in fact be amiss indicates that you clearly have no idea what you are talking about as a TV / DVR user. For if you knew as much about TV viewing and or the use of a DVR, then you would clearly understand that pressing the pause button and then leaving a program is a clear indication that you have every desire to resume watching that program not from the point at which you paused, but most assuredly from the actual beginning of the recording, as that was the obvious conclusion of the programmers when they considered the ramifications and future intentions of a user willfully pressing the pause button. 
I know that when I hit the pause button I personally, as the programmers correctly concluded, have no intention and or desire what so ever of resuming the program from that point at which I paused. The very beginning or the very end is is a much more logical point to resume watching after hitting the pause button. Then again, perhaps I am odd when it comes to matters of this nature....no that can't be because the programmers correctly programed it in the best most functional manner they could conceive.....

Oh great....That means I think like a software engineer.... guess I will have to tell the wife, most of that stuff on the Honey do list...Yea...Hardware problems. Hit play so we can skip right to the end of the game, or watch the first quarter again.


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## matto

pattcap said:


> If I had been in charge of the project, while in development, long before a line of code was ever written, I would have made the software guys use a TIVO for a long time to get familiar with how "THE BEST" works, and then start writing the code.


Unfortunately, they were probably specifically _prohibited_ from doing this by the legal department, for fear of patent violation lawsuits from TiVo. It's called 'clean room' development, and is one of the great things that an antiquated set of IP law has foisted on the general philosophy of incremental improvements in software and UI design.



> I know that when I hit the pause button I am often stunned that upon the resumption of the program that it has not suddenly jumped back to the beginning of the program. Then again, perhaps I am odd when it comes to matters of this nature.


WORRRD!!!


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## Rob55

I don't know if this one has been mentioned before (I think it has) but my HR20 had a problem last night that I've not had before. I was recording Jericho in HD (MPEG-2 NY feed) and something in SD off of Discovery channel. While this is going on, I decide to watch last weeks Lost (SD version because I had rain fade on the HD ABC). I notice that the Discovery channel program isn't recording (at least it wasn't showing up in the list). I go back to Discovery and the info says that it's recording. No amount of hitting the record button will elicit a response. The "R" logo wouldn't show up in the info or in the guide. I postpone watching Lost and continue watching the Discovery channel figuring that the program will be gone once it ends. Sure enough, once it was over, there were no signs of the program having been recorded. As a side note, while I was trying to get the program to record, I couldn't even get into the list the normal way, I had to go to menu and then MyVOD to get there. All other programming scheduled for the evening recorded fine.


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## LameLefty

It seems like an awful lot of folks have issues recording Lost. Is it something peculiar about that already-peculiar show, or just that so many internet-addicted geeks like this crew here watch it? Hmmm . . .


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## matto

LameLefty said:


> It seems like an awful lot of folks have issues recording Lost. Is it something peculiar about that already-peculiar show, or just that so many internet-addicted geeks like this crew here watch it? Hmmm . . .


it is one of the most popular shows on TV. logically, it should be mentioned by name here more often than other less popular shows. Nothing special about it, its just statistics.


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## Jeremy W

LameLefty said:


> so many internet-addicted geeks like this crew here watch it?


I'd be willing to bet that's what it is.


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## litzdog911

Rob55 said:


> I don't know if this one has been mentioned before (I think it has) but my HR20 had a problem last night that I've not had before. I was recording Jericho in HD (MPEG-2 NY feed) and something in SD off of Discovery channel. While this is going on, I decide to watch last weeks Lost (SD version because I had rain fade on the HD ABC). I notice that the Discovery channel program isn't recording (at least it wasn't showing up in the list). I go back to Discovery and the info says that it's recording. No amount of hitting the record button will elicit a response. The "R" logo wouldn't show up in the info or in the guide. I postpone watching Lost and continue watching the Discovery channel figuring that the program will be gone once it ends. Sure enough, once it was over, there were no signs of the program having been recorded. As a side note, while I was trying to get the program to record, I couldn't even get into the list the normal way, I had to go to menu and then MyVOD to get there. All other programming scheduled for the evening recorded fine.


What does it say in your "History" about that Discovery Channel recording?


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## bonscott87

pattcap said:


> I know that when I hit the pause button I personally, as the programmers correctly concluded, have no intention and or desire what so ever of resuming the program from that point at which I paused. The very beginning or the very end is is a much more logical point to resume watching after hitting the pause button. Then again, perhaps I am odd when it comes to matters of this nature....no that can't be because the programmers correctly programed it in the best most functional manner they could conceive.....


Yea, bug. If the screen saver kicks in and you hit play it goes to the end of the recording/buffer. So I just hit the down button which clears the screen saver and then you can hit play with no trouble resuming from where you paused.


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## Rob55

litzdog911 said:


> What does it say in your "History" about that Discovery Channel recording?


You know, I forgot about that. I'll check there when I get home later.


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## mjb523

I've been following the problems in this forum for a while (since it was linked here from the provider's website). I just called for the second time and talked to "advanced" support. They said that software was being tested but they weren't sure when it was going to get pushed. 

I was prompted to call when last night's 30 Rock was garbled worse than any show I have ever tried to watch before. Out of synch audio/video, video freezes, video distortion, couldn't FF, 30 skip was jacked up, etc... Today I tried to record a show not in HD and the timer starts at :-2 :-59 instead of 0:00. 

I have to say that for a device that I had to agree to a contract for I am disgusted. I had to fight to get it from them (long story) and when I did the software broke it. I have seen a lot of apologists on here and I understand their viewpoint but I'm a customer. As someone who has to agree to a contract to get this service and who has to pay for it I am not pleased.


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## Jeremy W

mjb523 said:


> As someone who has to agree to a contract to get this service and who has to pay for it I am not pleased.


You can return the HR20 to break the contract without paying an ETF. You don't *have* to pay for anything if you're not pleased.


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## giden

The last software ugrade listed in my HR20 was from 10/11 and it is 0xAC. Do I have to reset to get the lastest upgrade, or is the one I have the latest? Soooooooo confused )


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## Earl Bonovich

giden said:


> The last software ugrade listed in my HR20 was from 10/11 and it is 0xAC. Do I have to reset to get the lastest upgrade, or is the one I have the latest? Soooooooo confused )


10/11 would be the 0xDC release, not 0xAC

Can you double check ... as 0xAC I think was the initial release version.


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## giden

Earl Bonovich said:


> 10/11 would be the 0xDC release, not 0xAC
> 
> Can you double check ... as 0xAC I think was the initial release version.


My bad. Checked again, you're right. It is 0xDC, last upgraded on 10/11. None scheduled after that. Thanks for the quick response. I'm an idiot 

Still, after all that, do I have to reboot to get the 0xDC features/fixes?


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## Earl Bonovich

giden said:


> My bad. Checked again, you're right. It is 0xDC, last upgraded on 10/11. None scheduled after that. Thanks for the quick response. I'm an idiot
> 
> Still, after all that, do I have to reboot to get the 0xDC features/fixes?


No, the unit will self-reboot when there is a new software version available.
So if says you have 0xDC then you have the features/fixes of the release.


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## matto

giden said:


> Still, after all that, do I have to reboot to get the 0xDC features/fixes?


Your DVR rebooted itself soon after downloading the update. It's one of the last steps in the magic self-updating process.


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## bluesjam

So, I get home today, HR20 seems fine, tune to Discovery HD, let it play for a while... it's passed 9 PM, I look, no record light on! I scheduled Grey's Anatomy for the GF last night. Press info, nothing, press guide, nada. Here we go again! Locked up yet the audio and video still playing. Is this related to the new ver. or is it just this crappy box I have??? This is gettnig old! :nono2:


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## AllAroundPsycho

Checked the box midway through the show and it wasn't recording "Smallville" as scheduled. But because it was on the right channel and had the episode in buffer, I hit record to get it anyway. It recorded it and added it to the MyVOD list. Went to watch the show and got a black screen. Did a reset (via menu) and the show was gone. It was "Smallville", so it might have been doing me a favor. 

Is this still a known issue? I thought most of these were taken care of with this release?

Thanks,
AAP


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## lguvenoz

Here are some updates on the stability we are seeing with our HR20. We do a fairly large amount of recording (about 29 items in prioritizer plus lots of one offs). This includes watching recorded shows every single day.

Since receiving a replacement unit last week we have not had the unit miss a single recording. Every recording has played back fine. Every MPEG4 recording has had the known FF glitch but been fine with 30sec slip. Every MPEG2 HD recording has been fine. Every SD recording has been fine.

We have had a couple of anomalies though:
1. On two MPEG4 recordings we've had 2-3 seconds of pixelation and lost audio while watching the recording. This seems almost like a hiccup in the data stream coming of the HDD and only occurred once in each recording.
2. We had one instance of the "search for satellite" message that required a reset to clear (had this all the time until removing the BBCs)
3. We had one spontaneous restart in the middle of playback of an MPEG4 recording. When the system came back the recording was still there and resumed playback from where the reboot occurred.

For me the HR20 has come a long way, and if they can get some more of these other kinks out we will be pretty happy in our house.


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## bluesjam

This is so much fun! After the reboot everything was working, started the recording again, left it on Discovery HD, screen locks up, audio ok, change channel, no audio and no video! But get this, now everything else works!

So, first issue tonight, audio/video ok but system locked up, second issue tonight, no audio/video but everything else works! Figure that one out D*! So much for me thinking it was fixed last night!


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## giden

lguvenoz said:


> Here are some updates on the stability we are seeing with our HR20. We do a fairly large amount of recording (about 29 items in prioritizer plus lots of one offs). This includes watching recorded shows every single day.
> 
> Since receiving a replacement unit last week we have not had the unit miss a single recording. Every recording has played back fine. Every MPEG4 recording has had the known FF glitch but been fine with 30sec slip. Every MPEG2 HD recording has been fine. Every SD recording has been fine.
> 
> We have had a couple of anomalies though:
> 1. On two MPEG4 recordings we've had 2-3 seconds of pixelation and lost audio while watching the recording. This seems almost like a hiccup in the data stream coming of the HDD and only occurred once in each recording.
> 2. We had one instance of the "search for satellite" message that required a reset to clear (had this all the time until removing the BBCs)
> 3. We had one spontaneous restart in the middle of playback of an MPEG4 recording. When the system came back the recording was still there and resumed playback from where the reboot occurred.
> 
> For me the HR20 has come a long way, and if they can get some more of these other kinks out we will be pretty happy in our house.


I have the same #1 issue. Wife wonders WHY we (I) upgraded? #2 only occasionally, no #3 at all, but I'm waiting  Life with *D is exciting, isn't it?


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## lguvenoz

giden said:


> I have the same #1 issue. Wife wonders WHY we (I) upgraded? #2 only occasionally, no #3 at all, but I'm waiting  Life with *D is exciting, isn't it?


I have some thoughts on #1 and other issues. I created a separate thread to see if anyone else has thought about it. Here's the link to the thread:

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=67789

I really would love to get other people's thoughts.


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