# One tuner, two tuner, three tuner, more



## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

My R15 setup has only one sat feed. I returned a unit about two weeks ago because it became convinced it had two sat feeds and insisted on using tuner 2 to record my favorite programs--not. Now, the replacement unit has exhibited the same symptom. I had suspected it was doing so, but couldn't reliably recall what _should_ have been recorded. This morning, I caught the miscreant unit red handed.

I had programmed the R15 to record _Ray_, which began at 6:30 a.m. and was to run until 9 a.m., as I recall. At about 8:45, I noticed that _Ray_ wasn't visible in List View. I went into the Scheduler and found it in the TDL. I checked live TV and found that I was tuned to a channel other than the one broadcasting _Ray_, but Guide View showed that Ray was being recorded.

I changed to the channel broadcasting _Ray_ and the R15 immediately began recording. List View showed the recording as in progress with a only few minutes actually recorded.

I went into Setup and ran a System Test, which failed on the second tuner, as it should. Shortly thereafter, the R15 correctly began recording the program set to record at 9 a.m.

Since this behavior has been exhibited on two units, I conclude with high probability that it's due to a software defect.

This particular R15 is prone to inserting audio--and occasionally video--artifacts into recorded programs. However, DTV won't replace it without a service call since it's my second replacement unit. At some point, I will do a full reset, wait for the audio problem to recur, and then call them out. But, in the month and a half that I've had an R15, I haven't been able to use it much owing to the need to reset the box every few days and the slow rate at which the R15 reloads guide data lost during reset. So, I plan to count my blessings for a bit.

I do think that DTV should be ashamed of themselves for releasing an unreliable unit, for being reluctant to forthrightly admit its problems, for being slow to fix the problems, and for generally trying to subsist off customers' goodwill rather than quality of product and service. I'm confident that, in the long run, their business will suffer for the ineptitude and dishonesty that underlie such actions.


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## FLWingNut (Nov 19, 2005)

Maybe you've answered this in another thread, but why can't you run the second line and use both tuners? Granted, the unit should work with only one line, but is there some way you can use both tuners?


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

Several:

(1) The remaining three feeds from the dual-LNB dish are in use elsewhere. 
(2) The TV location has a flush-mount setup that provides only a single coax cable.
(3) The TV location isn't located near an external wall so passing a new cable would be difficult, unsightly, or costly.

I could solve the problem with a new dish and stacker. But, the bottom line is that I shouldn't be expected to incur extra cost and inconvenience to use two tuners when the R15 was--and is--being sold as requiring only one. I'd be somewhat mollified if DTV would have the simple courtesy to acknowledge the problem.


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## Clint Lamor (Nov 15, 2005)

wbmccarty said:


> Several:
> 
> (1) The remaining three feeds from the dual-LNB dish are in use elsewhere.
> (2) The TV location has a flush-mount setup that provides only a single coax cable.
> ...


My R15 had 2 tuners for it's first two months in use now since mid feb it has had only one tuner in use (just received stacker but not hooked up yet) because of inability to run second line. It's worked fine with two and works equally well with just one.


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

Clint Lamor said:


> My R15 had 2 tuners for it's first two months in use now since mid feb it has had only one tuner in use (just received stacker but not hooked up yet) because of inability to run second line. It's worked fine with two and works equally well with just one.


So, you're not aware of having experienced the problem so far. Good for you.

But, (at least) two of three R15 units I've used had problems working with only one tuner. Given our joint experience, the problem appears to be intermittent or to affect only some units. But, that doesn't mean that DTV should blow off the problem, as they've done.

I write "at least" because some folks--myself included--may miss this problem when it occurs in the way it most recently did for me. After the fact, the only symptom would have been the absence in MyVOD of a program that had been selected for recording. Fortunately, I caught the problem in real time and was able to discern additional symptoms.

FWIW, I'm quite certain that my current R15 has never had anything connected to its second sat jack during the time it's been in my possession. I suspect that the same is true of my original unit, which was set up by my son. What else might account for tuner confusion?


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## carl6 (Nov 16, 2005)

I don't know if this will make any difference or not, but it is worth a try.

Unhook your single feed from the R15. Do a reset (red button or power cycle) and let it come up to the point it is searching for satellite. Hit the Exit button on the remote, then turn the R15 off.

Re-connect the single feed (and make sure it is connected to satellite input #1). Then again reset or power cycle the R15 and let it come all the way up.

If you do try this, please let us know if it helped.

Carl


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

Thanks, I'll give the procedure a try next time I see the symptom. But, it's taken a week or two since setup for me to spot the problem with this R15. And, my original R15 ran for a similar period of time before deciding to use its second tuner. So, it'll be hard to be sure that any fix has indeed helped.

There's a difference between this instance of the problem and the one that occured with my original R15. I had a hard time restoring normal operation of my original R15. Five or six resets were required. Today, a System Test did the trick.

Due to another problem (audio artifacts), I also owe myself a full reset. But, for now, I'm tired for resetting the box. For better or worse, I prefer to use it for a while. At least, I'm able to view _something_.


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## Clint Lamor (Nov 15, 2005)

I'm not sure what the difference would be. On the not of the post right above yours I didn't have any feeds hooked to my R15 for about a week while I was waiting for DirecTV to come and install my new dish after my move. I sort of expected some problems when I went from two tuners down to one but I didn't see them. It records everything it's supposed to record when it's supposed to though I did have a show only get 5 minutes last night.


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## cabanaboy1977 (Nov 16, 2005)

wbmccarty, do you leave the unit "on" all the time or do you put it in "standby" when not in use? If your not putting it into stand by it might be cause it issues (it shouldn't but it might).


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## ad301 (Mar 30, 2004)

Clint Lamor said:


> ...It records everything it's supposed to record when it's supposed to though I did have a show only get 5 minutes last night.


Uh oh. Could it have had anything to do with the Pistons' game, which you mentioned you had set up an auto-record to find?


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## Clint Lamor (Nov 15, 2005)

ad301 said:


> Uh oh. Could it have had anything to do with the Pistons' game, which you mentioned you had set up an auto-record to find?


No the Pistons game was a 3:30 game. It was supposed to record Family Guy but ony got 5 of the supposedly 90 minute show. The only other things I saw it recording was Overhaulin (other recorded shows where complete and over with) which hs a lower position then Family Guy. IF the history was actually useful I would tell you what happened. :lol:


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## cabanaboy1977 (Nov 16, 2005)

Clint Lamor said:


> No the Pistons game was a 3:30 game. It was supposed to record Family Guy but ony got 5 of the supposedly 90 minute show. The only other things I saw it recording was Overhaulin (other recorded shows where complete and over with) which hs a lower position then Family Guy. IF the history was actually useful I would tell you what happened. :lol:


Wierd that you said something about Family Guy. Last night I went up stairs to go to bed and we went to go watch Family Guy, but it wasn't there, it just said canceled. I haven't checked the other unit yet but the upstairs R15 seems to not like Family Guy.


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## Clint Lamor (Nov 15, 2005)

cabanaboy1977 said:


> Wierd that you said something about Family Guy. Last night I went up stairs to go to bed and we went to go watch Family Guy, but it wasn't there, it just said canceled. I haven't checked the other unit yet but the upstairs R15 seems to not like Family Guy.


It annoyed me, we went o watch it and I didn't look at the screen at first then it ended after a few minutes I thought I hit a button or something so I started it over and the misses says hey it only says it's 5 minuts long. needless to say my next words weren't very nice.


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

Clint Lamor said:


> I thought I hit a button or something so I started it over and the misses says hey it only says it's 5 minuts long.


I fairly often get recordings that are only 5 minutes long. I've never been able to figure out why they're not 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or some other duration. There is wisdom here somewhere.


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## urnote96 (Jun 22, 2004)

for now, put a dual power passing splitter on the thing and it will split the cable yeah you will get a searching for sat on one line once in a while, but it will do the trick when both are on the same 13v or 18v


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

cabanaboy1977 said:


> wbmccarty, do you leave the unit "on" all the time or do you put it in "standby" when not in use? If your not putting it into stand by it might be cause it issues (it shouldn't but it might).


Like me, the unit is in "standby" only rarely. Why do you associate this with the problem?


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

urnote96 said:


> for now, put a dual power passing splitter on the thing and it will split the cable yeah you will get a searching for sat on one line once in a while, but it will do the trick when both are on the same 13v or 18v


Wouldn't that cause interesting results if each tuner wants to acess a different transponder?


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

urnote96 said:


> for now, put a dual power passing splitter on the thing and it will split the cable yeah you will get a searching for sat on one line once in a while, but it will do the trick when both are on the same 13v or 18v


That is HIGHLY not recommended to do.
You will run into nothing but problems, and could in turn damage your unit.

If you can't get a straight run from the dish or multiswitch to the unit. Then only hook up one line.


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## Halo (Jan 13, 2006)

There have been some stackers(used) on ebay selling for $39 recently. Search us575. 
With the internal destacker on the R15 that makes for a pretty cheap solution if running a second cable is not possible.


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

Halo said:


> There have been some stackers(used) on ebay selling for $39 recently. Search us575.
> With the internal destacker on the R15 that makes for a pretty cheap solution if running a second cable is not possible.


That's a good price and I may buy in at some point. Two-tuner access would be sweet. But, to get there, I'll either have to deprive my daughter (the least frequent TV user) of DTV or put up a second dish. Neither prospect is attractive in my current personal situation.


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## cabanaboy1977 (Nov 16, 2005)

Clint Lamor said:


> It annoyed me, we went o watch it and I didn't look at the screen at first then it ended after a few minutes I thought I hit a button or something so I started it over and the misses says hey it only says it's 5 minuts long. needless to say my next words weren't very nice.


I know the feeling at too well.



wbmccarty said:


> I fairly often get recordings that are only 5 minutes long. I've never been able to figure out why they're not 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or some other duration. There is wisdom here somewhere.


I think it has something to do with the switching tuners in 5 mins logic and SL that mess up. It's almost like it starts to record the program you want then it changes it mind and gives the 5 min warning to the system and then switches to the next SL down the list on the Prioritizer. The times it has happened to me there are more than 2 shows that could record and it starts recording the two it should and then 5 mins later it stops recording one of them and starts recording another that is a lower priority.


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## cabanaboy1977 (Nov 16, 2005)

wbmccarty said:


> Like me, the unit is in "standby" only rarely. Why do you associate this with the problem?


The reason being that the system wants to put you on the channel that you last watched. If you leave it on it may think that your still there and somehow think think your still watching that channel and not change. If you put it into standby the system won't think your watching it and should record ok. That way it can tune tuner one to the program you want. It's just more bad logic and for some reason only one tuner is making the logic worse. But I think you'll see better results that way.


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

cabanaboy1977 said:


> I think it has something to do with the switching tuners in 5 mins logic and SL that mess up.


Good hypothesis! I'd forgotten about the 5-minute warning (if you can imagine that!).


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

cabanaboy1977 said:


> The reason being that the system wants to put you on the channel that you last watched.


Another good point! Duh! Why didn't I think of that? I wouldn't be surprised if this is enough to avoid the problem entirely. Thanks!

P.S. The reason I didn't think of your hypothesis is that I pretty much never watch live TV. But, the R15 could well have trouble realizing that's the case.


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## cabanaboy1977 (Nov 16, 2005)

wbmccarty said:


> Another good point! Duh! Why didn't I think of that? I wouldn't be surprised if this is enough to avoid the problem entirely. Thanks!
> 
> P.S. The reason I didn't think of your hypothesis is that I pretty much never watch live TV. But, the R15 could well have trouble realizing that's the case.


Yeah, I've had more issues with the R15's on than off. Althought the 5 min of program has happened usally when it is off, but the good thing is it hasn't happened in a long while. Hope Standby works better for you and if you can get a second line run to it don't forget to do a reset so it detects the other tuner.


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## syphix (Jun 23, 2004)

I, too, have had a problem with only having one cable being fed to my R15. I was hoping it would have an option in the setup like TiVo's do, to just de-activate the second tuner (and bring up conflict resolution when trying to record two shows at once, etc. etc.)....but it doesn't. Ugh. Now I have to figure a way to get another feed to it...


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## wbmccarty (Apr 28, 2006)

After an acute illness phase, reported in this thread, my R15 has settled in. I continue to have a variety of problems. But, they haven't been as serious as those reported earlier in this thread and may not be linked to my single-tuner configuration. So, having the second feed would be nice. But, it doesn't appear to be essential.

Best of luck,


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