# HR21-700: 0x1FE Issues / Discussion



## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

HR21-700: 0x1FE
Staggered rollout began 2/12/08

Release notes: 
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=119543

Please keep discussion confined to issues only with this receiver.

Please don't post "Got it" or "Didn't Get it" posts, they will be deleted.


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## jpenneck (Oct 19, 2007)

There seem to be quite a few items related to fixing performance issues in this release so perhaps we will hear less of the "my box is SO slow" type of threads, and the usually worthless reponse of "my box is fine, yours must be broken"...  

* Slow navigation in the To Do list
* Fixed: sluggishness due to multiple instances of slow scheduler updates
* Improved system startup time
* Performance improvements - sounds a bit too generic...
* Guide performance improvements

Were there more I didn't notice ?


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## daveshouse (Feb 6, 2008)

This may be a dumb question, but I am rather new to DirecTV. How or when will I know that I have received the update, or any update for that matter? I assume it is just a simple search for the firmware version, but I just want to ask and make sure. Thanks!


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## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

Dave,

You will only know if you check the version information usually. On some releases an announcement appears when you navigate through the menus. However, most releases will just happen.

You could always check here and we'll let you know .


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## bakers12 (May 29, 2007)

The only way to be sure is to look it up. Hold the Info button about three seconds and it will bring up a list of setup information. Not far from the top, the most recent software download will show.


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## daveshouse (Feb 6, 2008)

Thanks for the responses


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## srt (Aug 29, 2007)

daveshouse said:


> How or when will I know that I have received the update, or any update for that matter?


I run our hr21 with the blue ring of lights "turned off" (by pressing both the left and right buttons that are either side of the circle). After a reset, or software update those lights will be "back on". It's a good indication that something has been changed with the software that leads me to investigate. On this update there was new messages and upon changing the channel first thing this morning the info screen hijacked my display.
So far I like what I'm seeing.


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## Fly Navy (Oct 31, 2007)

I may have missed it, but is remote booking now enabled on the HR21-700 with the new release? My understanding was that although the units were showing up on the remote booking site, the missing piece was the software version for the HR-21-700s.


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## GAM (Jun 3, 2007)

Fly Navy said:


> I may have missed it, but is remote booking now enabled on the HR21-700 with the new release? My understanding was that although the units were showing up on the remote booking site, the missing piece was the software version for the HR-21-700s.


I was running 0x1FE under the CE program and Remote Booking was working. So, unless they took it out for some reason in the national release it should still work.
Keep in mind, something might need to be activated on the DirecTv side before it shows up on the web for you.


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## dtrell (Dec 28, 2007)

GAM said:


> I was running 0x1FE under the CE program and Remote Booking was working. So, unless they took it out for some reason in the national release it should still work.
> Keep in mind, something might need to be activated on the DirecTv side before it shows up on the web for you.


the 0x1fe CE should be exactly the same as the 0x1fe NR since they are the exact same version number.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

dtrell said:


> the 0x1fe CE should be exactly the same as the 0x1fe NR since they are the exact same version number.


They are exactly the same, it is the exact same binaries that were part of the CE... that are now the NR


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## Newshawk (Sep 3, 2004)

Fly Navy said:


> I may have missed it, but is remote booking now enabled on the HR21-700 with the new release? My understanding was that although the units were showing up on the remote booking site, the missing piece was the software version for the HR-21-700s.


Remote booking is now enabled for the HR21-700, but not through the software release. The HR21-700 had the capability to do remote scheduling, DirecTV added support for it on their end last week.


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## jhoward (Dec 12, 2007)

Only fiddled with it for a few minutes this morning. Why did they move the to-do list? It's no longer conveniently accessible via the yellow button in the playlist. Now it's buried in the menu. Used to be 2 button presses to get to it, and now it's 6. I hope they change this back.


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## joed32 (Jul 27, 2006)

Fly Navy said:


> I may have missed it, but is remote booking now enabled on the HR21-700 with the new release? My understanding was that although the units were showing up on the remote booking site, the missing piece was the software version for the HR-21-700s.


Just started working on mine a little while ago.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

jhoward said:


> Only fiddled with it for a few minutes this morning. Why did they move the to-do list? It's no longer conveniently accessible via the yellow button in the playlist. Now it's buried in the menu. Used to be 2 button presses to get to it, and now it's 6. I hope they change this back.


They have no plans to change it back.

This has been discussed for the last two months.

Do a quick search on To-Do to find some of the largest threads on the discussion.

"buried" is a relative term.

You hit MENU->Manage Recordings->Select


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## jhoward (Dec 12, 2007)

Apologies, Earl. This update is the first time I've encountered it. I've spent a lot of time here perusing threads for the past few months (since shifting over from HR10-250 to HR21), and it's all been spent trying to research other problems. I wasn't aware of this change until it affected me.

I'll just add my voice to the chorus that says that list->yellow was a lot easier than menu->down->down->down->manage recordings->to-do.

(Oddly, when I searched for "to-do" here just now, it came up with nothing! But searching for "to-do list" showed all the threads.)


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## gnahc79 (Jan 12, 2008)

With this new NR I'm trying out the pure native passthrough (native on and original format display option). The slowdown in channel changes isn't bad at all. I'm still evaluating the change in PQ, if any, with this setting. Input from other people is greatly appreciated!


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## pjo1966 (Nov 20, 2005)

The software downloaded at 2:37am. I turned on the TV a few minutes ago to find that it was down. I did a RBR and it came back. Unfortunately, I missed two recordings that are not airing again.


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## pjo1966 (Nov 20, 2005)

My Playlist still doesn't retain the Sort A-Z. I'll resort it, exit out, and go right back in to find it in random order.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

pjo1966 said:


> My Playlist still doesn't retain the Sort A-Z. I'll resort it, exit out, and go right back in to find it in random order.


It isn't "random", it is ordered by recording date of the last record show in the group.

To keep it sorted A-Z you need to enable that sort via the backdoor menu.

Do a serach on: IAMANEDGECUTTER to find the instructions on how to enable, and access the Misc Settings menu.


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

pjo1966 said:


> My Playlist still doesn't retain the Sort A-Z. I'll resort it, exit out, and go right back in to find it in random order.


You need to do a keyword search for "IAMANEDGECUTTER"-->Continue-->All-->When it finds nothing press and hold the menu and info button on the front of the unit together for two seconds and let go. A hidden menu will pop up. Turn sort by on and then it will save for you.


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## pjo1966 (Nov 20, 2005)

Earl Bonovich said:


> It isn't "random", it is ordered by recording date of the last record show in the group.
> 
> To keep it sorted A-Z you need to enable that sort via the backdoor menu.
> 
> Do a serach on: IAMANEDGECUTTER to find the instructions on how to enable, and access the Misc Settings menu.


Thanks. I'm not quite sure why that needs to be done by a back door menu, but it worked.


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## bigjilm (Dec 22, 2007)

So a "Staggered Release" huh. So how long does it mean i have to wait for it then since i had to revert back to 0193 the other day due to the system being unresponsive about loading the Guide.


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

bigjilm said:


> So a "Staggered Release" huh. So how long does it mean i have to wait for it then since i had to revert back to 0193 the other day due to the system being unresponsive about loading the Guide.


Not long... but no determined period of time


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## SheepNutz (Feb 13, 2008)

I'm completely sorry for the noobie post (just started with D* yesterday with a HR21-700). Is this a national release or a CE release? I don't think the installer searched for an update when he installed the system, so a few hours ago, I did the 0 2 4 6 8 trick to update, and it downloaded 0193. If this is a national release, will I just see it in the next day or so? I really want 30 second skip.


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## Michael D'Angelo (Oct 21, 2006)

SheepNutz said:


> I'm completely sorry for the noobie post (just started with D* yesterday with a HR21-700). Is this a national release or a CE release? I don't think the installer searched for an update when he installed the system, so a few hours ago, I did the 0 2 4 6 8 trick to update, and it downloaded 0193. If this is a national release, will I just see it in the next day or so? I really want 30 second skip.


Welcome to DBSTalk

This is a staggered national release. It starts on the west coast and moves east. It could take a few days or a few weeks to receive.


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## syphix (Jun 23, 2004)

After posting continued problems with the software on my HR21-700, I'm surprised -- nay, appalled -- that this version of software got pushed as a national release. My box is STILL incredibly buggy and no less stable than the previous NR.

1) Some channels don't get recognized as 720p/1080i, instead displaying as 480i/480p...this is an issue with "Native", as if Native is turned off, such channels can be FORCED to display at 720p/1080i.

2) MANY times (usually when the box is busy recording two shows) the menus are VERY sluggish. Case in point: while still recording "American Idol" on 1 tuner, and "The Universe" on another, I went in to begin "American Idol" from the beginning. The box seemed to FREEZE for (no kidding) 3-4 MINUTES. I refused to reboot since I still recording the shows, so I waited for the requested show to begin. It did, then failed to allow me to pause, rewind, fast-forward, etc. for the first five minutes of playback. This is INCREDIBLY frustrating and happens so often I'm (almost) suspecting hardware issues, not software. If it DOES pause, I have an unacceptable wait period for it to UNpause (ranges from 30 seconds to TWO minutes).

3) The guide is slow to respond; the box locks up almost daily; many times upon turning on there is no audio or video...requiring a reboot...etc. etc.

I'm simply surprised that it was allowed to release nationally....and I've been with the CE program for quite a while now, and this the first time I've disagreed so strongly with an NR.


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## somekevinguy (Jan 7, 2008)

What types of video are supposed to work with media share with WMP 11? I have a bunch of wmv, avi, mov and all of them have an X next to them except for like one or two that have a camera next to them and even those give me an error when I try to play them.


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## ameetn (Nov 9, 2007)

Is there a way to repeat the "What's new" information screen that shows up once after a new software image is loaded?


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## ELMEL (Nov 26, 2007)

• Add cell coloring for unsubscribed channels in the guide

Why do the HR21-200s get this and the HR21-700s don't? 

If I understand this correctly, it means that on an HR21-200 you can visually distinguish between channels you receive and channels you don't. Currently, with 0X1FE, when I run a search, there's no way to tell whether I receive the channels for which results are returned. Am I missing something?


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## dtrell (Dec 28, 2007)

syphix said:


> 1) Some channels don't get recognized as 720p/1080i, instead displaying as 480i/480p...this is an issue with "Native", as if Native is turned off, such channels can be FORCED to display at 720p/1080i.


syphix, 1080i channels are ALWAYS recognized by my HR21 as 1080i. the problem is the 720p channels. i think if you really check, youll see all 1080i's come in correctly. again, this was also the case on the last NR 0193, so its not a function of the current CE, and indeed may have nothing to do with the software at all, it may be a hardware issue with the HR21's. i dont think it affects HR20s.


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## syphix (Jun 23, 2004)

dtrell said:


> syphix, 1080i channels are ALWAYS recognized by my HR21 as 1080i. the problem is the 720p channels. i think if you really check, youll see all 1080i's come in correctly. again, this was also the case on the last NR 0193, so its not a function of the current CE, and indeed may have nothing to do with the software at all, it may be a hardware issue with the HR21's. i dont think it affects HR20s.


I don't see how it can be a hardware issue, as it displays other 720p channels just fine with Native On...ESPN, ABC, Fox, Fuel-HD, etc...

Only channels I have issues with are FX-HD, Speed-HD & NGC-HD. (there's probably others)


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## srt (Aug 29, 2007)

I too am experiencing fustration with the correct display of 720 vs 1080 broadcasts. Heres my setup hr21-700 > hdmi Onkyo605 > hdmi sony bravia.
I control the power up and off with a harmony remote. That I added a power up activity setting to the dvr of "format" and a power down activity setting to the dvr of "format, format". This was to cycle through the available screen display formats so it resets properly each time on power up.
Now, I have two separate condidtions: 1) my HR21 was just installed in the living room and the hr20 that was there went to the guest bedroom and 2) this new software. Therefore I do not know which occurance triggered the change. My gut feeling is I noticed a little quirkiness with the hardware swap that I delt with by updating the harmony and setting the HR21 to native and pillar box (hd broadcasts overide and use the full display screen).
The frustrating part to me is that now, with the new software, sometimes after power down and then power up the display format "takes" and both 720 and 1080 display correctly. However, other times 720 will be stretched. 1080 always displays correctly. To me it is an inconvenience as I programmed the harmony screen to include a format and aspect button and I can quickly correct the issue. BUT, the wife, she does not like having to fumble through settings and just leaves it as is stretched across the display.


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## jimed1 (Jan 12, 2008)

Until the issues of not displaying the correct resolution gets fixed, why don't you guys do what I do and set the DVR to output only 720p and 1080i, but leave it set to "Native" also. This works for me because I can't tell a difference between what my DVR upconverts from 480i and what my TV does. I have a 720p TV and a 1080p TV and I do this on both of my sets. I never stretch anything and just watch everything in the aspect ratio that it is broadcast..


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## p4594spa (Jul 20, 2006)

So I got the new software release and, in general, I like the new menus. Many things much easier to get to. It has also fixed a number of bugs that I had encountered.


However, I couldn't find the Slide vs Skip dialog. If I want to do 30 second skip,
what do I go to do that?


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## scottman (Jan 2, 2008)

search for 30skip


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## srt (Aug 29, 2007)

I'll try that jimed1. I too watch everything as broadcast, what is happening on our unit now is that pillar box broadcasts are being stretched, even though native on and pillar box is selected. THis is confusing and it's behaviour is not consistent on handling switching between the formats.


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## cosmos503 (Feb 5, 2008)

My HR21-700 updated to the new NR software yesterday. I noticed a couple minor issues last night. Mostly, though, I think the new version is fantastic and seemed very responsive in the guide for me. My wife noticed immediately, because the menus & channel banner are different.

(1) Recorded American Idol on 2/12 and it was a 2hr program. Went into List and played program. On the time/nav bar at the bottom, the first hour was in orange (depicting a recording) and the second hour was green (depicting live buffer). However the entire 2 hrs WERE recorded as scheduled and played fine - just the time bar at the bottom showed two different colors. I did not have the live buffer on the same channel - it was recording another program at the same time throughout the 2 hrs.

(2) With Native ON and Screen Format set to ORIGINAL FORMAT things are fine until viewing a SD program. Suddenly the guide, and all menus are squished into 4:3. To correct I have to select PILLAR BOX and then reset the ratio setting on my tv. Could be my TV, which can auto-sense formats. (LG 42LB5D)

Having the To Do list buried in the menu is definitely a huge drag! Otherwise everything is going great on the new software.


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## calphin (Feb 12, 2008)

Anyone on east coast / Florida got the HR21-700: 0x1FE update yet?


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## gnahc79 (Jan 12, 2008)

cosmos503 said:


> (2) With Native ON and Screen Format set to ORIGINAL FORMAT things are fine until viewing a SD program. Suddenly the guide, and all menus are squished into 4:3. To correct I have to select PILLAR BOX and then reset the ratio setting on my tv. Could be my TV, which can auto-sense formats. (LG 42LB5D)


It is possible it could be your TV, I have Native ON and ORIGINAL FORMAT selected right now as well. There's no aspect/formatting issues with SD programs for me. I'm still figuring out if the PQ is better.


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## JohnDG (Aug 16, 2006)

Auto-Record Keyword Searches are not populating in the guide out more than a day.

Note: it has been 36 hours since the new software was installed.

jdg


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## Ed Campbell (Feb 17, 2006)

daveshouse said:


> This may be a dumb question, but I am rather new to DirecTV. How or when will I know that I have received the update, or any update for that matter? I assume it is just a simple search for the firmware version, but I just want to ask and make sure. Thanks!


And welcome aboard.


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## cosmos503 (Feb 5, 2008)

Expressofool said:


> Our download which occurred on our HR20/700 caused our entire programing to be wiped clean!


This thread is for the HR21-700. I suggest you move your post to the HR20-700 thread...


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## buggs1a (Oct 27, 2007)

When in the hell are they goping to fix the ****ing freezing problems? I'm fed up and want them to fix the damn problems with the HR21-700 freezing constantly. No buttons work on DVR or remote yet picture and sound work. I'm sick of this.

I had the CE build from Feb 1 and no problems, why then was I downgraded!


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## Xyloch (Feb 12, 2008)

This is not a problem new to this update, but it still exists in this firmware version. If this doesn't belong here feel free to move it.

When I am watching a delayed program and want to catch up to the live broadcast I press and hold the 30skip/slip button. The program goes to the live broadcast, but then it drops the audio out a second or two at a time and skips unless I pause it for a second and delay the program again.

This happens in both the 30skip and 30slip modes. Does anyone else have this problem? Any suggestions?


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## macguitar (Jan 23, 2008)

I have an issue on some programs where I hear an audio "stutter" (for lack of a better word) -- at random times, the audio will sort of freeze on a sound and repeat a bunch of times, and then the problem goes away as quickly as it came.

Anyone else have this, and I wonder if there's someway to fix this?

I should also mention that I'm using an HDMI cable, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I figured I'd mention it. I'm running the national release of 0x1FE.


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## SheepNutz (Feb 13, 2008)

calphin said:


> Anyone on east coast / Florida got the HR21-700: 0x1FE update yet?


Updating now here in KY. I'd say if you don't have it now in Florida, you will soon.


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## ???? (Jan 16, 2008)

dumb question time.

I know you have to be connected to the internet for DOD. Do I need to be connected to get this software update. I would think if someone in KY is getting it I should be too.

I just checked and got nothing. I have to run a Cat5 across the floor from the office until I rewire. 

I was not connected to the internet at the time I checked. Does this matter?


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## rojozi (Feb 14, 2008)

Will have to check it out when i get back home tonight.


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## fusion04 (Dec 10, 2007)

calphin said:


> Anyone on east coast / Florida got the HR21-700: 0x1FE update yet?


So this doesn't become an "I got it" post... let me say that I like the new, wider, main menu on my HR21-700 here in North Carolina. Guide seems a little faster, also. Sure wish they would make this DVR know what channels I get. How hard can that be?


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## mduz (Mar 25, 2006)

Received ox1fe here in CT this morning


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## dtrell (Dec 28, 2007)

jimed1 said:


> Until the issues of not displaying the correct resolution gets fixed, why don't you guys do what I do and set the DVR to output only 720p and 1080i, but leave it set to "Native" also. This works for me because I can't tell a difference between what my DVR upconverts from 480i and what my TV does. I have a 720p TV and a 1080p TV and I do this on both of my sets. I never stretch anything and just watch everything in the aspect ratio that it is broadcast..


because i would rather have my pioneer TV do the deinterlacing and scaling on a 480i channel than have the HR21 do it. the box just needs to work the way its supposed to, which is to recognize the format of the channel properly, and output it to my TV that way.


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## daveshouse (Feb 6, 2008)

This is not an "I got it" post, but I did get the update this morning in Louisville, KY. Is anyone else noticing the jagged looking screen over the channel listings while paging through the guide? I didn't get much time to play with the update before work this morning, but this is one thing that I did immediately notice.


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## delfuego (Nov 19, 2006)

I got a new HR21-700 this week to pair with our new Samsung LN-T2354H LCD TV in our bedroom, and out-of-the-box, we were really, _really_ frustrated -- we have the HR21 connected to the TV via HDMI, and turning the whole setup on using the DTV remote led to the TV not seeing the HR21 due to what I can only imagine was an HDMI handshaking issue with one or the other box not being ready at the same time. It was super frustrating.

That being said, I knew that straight out of the box, the HR21 inevitably would have an old version of the software, so I forced a download and got 0x1FE -- and it fixes the problem! So whether the true source of the issue was the TV (Samsungs are apparently notorious for having HDMI handshaking issues) or the HR21, it appears that 0x1FE either fixes or works around the issue, which makes us very happy here in the nation's capital.

Otherwise, I don't see a hell of a lot of difference between this HR21 and our HR20 downstairs... time to trawl around and find a list of differences, just so me and the wife aren't surprised when we hit one of 'em.


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## mracing (Dec 31, 2007)

What a nice surprise to wake up to the new download this morning. DirecTV really came through with some great improvements. My channel guide is significantly faster, the menus seem more logical, & the shortcut to the CC is great! The on demand feature worked good also.

Thanks DirecTV!


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## MOPWS (Oct 23, 2006)

macguitar said:


> I have an issue on some programs where I hear an audio "stutter" (for lack of a better word) -- at random times, the audio will sort of freeze on a sound and repeat a bunch of times, and then the problem goes away as quickly as it came.
> 
> Anyone else have this, and I wonder if there's someway to fix this?
> 
> I should also mention that I'm using an HDMI cable, but I'm not sure if that has anything to do with it, but I figured I'd mention it. I'm running the national release of 0x1FE.


I have had the HR20-700 DVR since Nov 06. I recently got the HR21-700 and have had the same freezing problems for over a year. I finally had them come out and replace my LNB Mast and the problems completely dissapeared. I would recommend to anyone having the issues demand a new LNB mast. They were reluctant in the past but after demanding a supervisor come out it was done. I am now a very happy camper.


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## seemenewd (Dec 19, 2007)

fusion04 said:


> So this doesn't become an "I got it" post... let me say that I like the new, wider, main menu on my HR21-700 here in North Carolina. Guide seems a little faster, also. Sure wish they would make this DVR know what channels I get. How hard can that be?


Channels that I don't have subscriptions to are greyed out on my HR21-700 (left on the channel name).

[edited: I mean in the guide, if that wasn't obvious.  ]


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## seemenewd (Dec 19, 2007)

delfuego said:


> Otherwise, I don't see a hell of a lot of difference between this HR21 and our HR20 downstairs... time to trawl around and find a list of differences, just so me and the wife aren't surprised when we hit one of 'em.


Your HR20 downstairs should now have the very same software version!

So other than for the OTA difference, I suspect differences are small indeed.


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## macguitar (Jan 23, 2008)

MOPWS said:


> I have had the HR20-700 DVR since Nov 06. I recently got the HR21-700 and have had the same freezing problems for over a year. I finally had them come out and replace my LNB Mast and the problems completely dissapeared. I would recommend to anyone having the issues demand a new LNB mast. They were reluctant in the past but after demanding a supervisor come out it was done. I am now a very happy camper.


MOPWS -- how were your signal levels with the system test? I really appreciate your reply and input, but I'd be surprised if it was the LNB mast with the super solid levels I have (everything is over 90)


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## ELMEL (Nov 26, 2007)

seemenewd said:


> Channels that I don't have subscriptions to are greyed out on my HR21-700 (left on the channel name).
> 
> [edited: I mean in the guide, if that wasn't obvious.  ]


I don't understand why this is all that helpful. Wouldn't it be much more helpful if channels we don't receive are also greyed out in the Favorites lists but even more importantly in the search results? As far as I can tell, after running a search, the DVR will let you record a show on a channel you don't receive, without any sort of warning.


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## skimmilk (Jan 12, 2008)

So I'm away from home right now but I saw the blue ring this morning... I presume this update finally fixes the DLB workaround issues? I'd rather have real DLB but I guess this will have to do.


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## EXTREMUM (Jan 18, 2008)

calphin said:


> Anyone on east coast / Florida got the HR21-700: 0x1FE update yet?


Yes, it erased my To-Do listings, and reset the program guide.


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## buggs1a (Oct 27, 2007)

UI is still extremely slow here.


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## bigjilm (Dec 22, 2007)

recieved 0x1fe in TN this morning.... although my guide says acquiring guide data still... and it downloaded at 8:43 am CST ....


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## EXTREMUM (Jan 18, 2008)

bigjilm said:


> recieved 0x1fe in TN this morning.... although my guide says acquiring guide data still... and it downloaded at 8:43 am CST ....


You should reset your receiver. Mine froze on the update summary page.


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## Yog-Sothoth (Apr 8, 2006)

I got my HR21-700 on Tuesday (to replace an HR10-250), and I got this software update today...pretty good timing.  The interface on this isn't as bad as I thought it would be, and VoD is a nice bonus. Now to get the AM21....


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## CrestronPro (Nov 25, 2007)

Issue: Live buffer not handeled correct on single channel for one of my two HR21-700 receivers.

Description: I am having a lot of trouble with the live buffer on only a single channel. This is channel 5 (WMAQ in Chicago). For all other channels, everything works fine. I did download this under CE last weekend, but obviously that shouldn't matter.

I am watching channel 5 live, and there is about 5 minutes of buffer for this channel. If I press pause, the video and audio freeze, and the playback indicator shows it at the START of the buffer, 5 minutes before live TV. Pressing play, pause, replay, rew, or ffwd do not start the video playing, or change the buffer position. It does cause the blue ring to spin once, as is typical with pressing these buttons under normal operation. A single press of advance, immediately returns the playback to real time (skipping ahead 5 minutes). Not holding advance, just a quick press.

If I am again watching live tv on channel 5, and press replay once, the exact same sequence of events happens as I just described when hitting pause.

All other functions on the unit appear to be working properly, and playback and buffering on all other channels appears to be working fine. This is only a problem on one of my two units. Putting the unit into and out of standby did not affect the issue. The receiver has been doing it for about two days now.

I did a reset on the receiver, and this did fix the problem. Very wierd.


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## bigjilm (Dec 22, 2007)

thanks that seemed to have worked


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## Rickrd (Feb 7, 2008)

Anyone notice a delay in the channel banner when changing channels? My HR21-700 has been doing it and it's annoying. I skip channels when CH upping and I lose where I am. Is this because it's BETA?


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

Rickrd said:


> Anyone notice a delay in the channel banner when changing channels? My HR21-700 has been doing it and it's annoying. I skip channels when CH upping and I lose where I am. Is this because it's BETA?


What is in BETA? DoD is...

But the Software version 0x1FE is not in BETA.


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## dtrell (Dec 28, 2007)

seemenewd said:


> Channels that I don't have subscriptions to are greyed out on my HR21-700 (left on the channel name).
> 
> [edited: I mean in the guide, if that wasn't obvious.  ]


its still not done right. "channels i get" should be just that. i should only have channels show up that i PAY FOR. therefore, all the PPV channels, all the foreign channels, all the useless RSNs, etc should ALL not show up in my "channels i get"


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## scottman (Jan 2, 2008)

My channel formatting really got screwed up after turning on FXHD. I know the discussion about fixing the appearance of FX, but what about after that? I'd switch to a local hd station, and it was full screen, then NatGeo and it was even full screen. Then FXHD did that stretcho skinny format. Is it a problem with the receivers or the broadcasters?


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## sngalla (Jan 18, 2008)

Rickrd said:


> Anyone notice a delay in the channel banner when changing channels? My HR21-700 has been doing it and it's annoying. I skip channels when CH upping and I lose where I am. Is this because it's BETA?


Re: Channel Banner Delay
Yes, I noticed it. I had it before the software update but now it seems more pronounced.


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## mduz (Mar 25, 2006)

Anyone else notice fuzzy PQ after update?


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## chuck5395 (Nov 7, 2007)

Prior to, and now after, this release, I have had a problem with the HR-21 freezing on playback of HD recordings. Most times the playback starts by displaying a black screen. If I use FF or Slip, I see the video but as soon as the unit returns to play mode, the image freezes on the screen. Once this issue appears, it is constant on all HD playback attempts. The only way to get these recordings to play is to power cycle the HR-21.

There was one day that I noted that this symptom was carried across to live broadcasts as well (this was on the previous NR). I have not tested this again with the current NR but will the next time the unit freezes (which should be within the next day or two if the current trend holds true).

-Chuck


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## ghurlman (Feb 11, 2008)

chuck5395 said:


> Prior to, and now after, this release, I have had a problem with the HR-21 freezing on playback of HD recordings. Most times the playback starts by displaying a black screen. If I use FF or Slip, I see the video but as soon as the unit returns to play mode, the image freezes on the screen. Once this issue appears, it is constant on all HD playback attempts. The only way to get these recordings to play is to power cycle the HR-21.


Well, I've had DirecTV with the HR21-700 for all of three days now - first 2 with the old version, and yesterday with the new version. UI changes notwithstanding (really hadn't used it long enough to develop any old habits), everything about the box seems much slower now. 

In addition, I saw the exact same issues as Chuck last night - nothing recorded would play back, and the blue light on the front just faded on/off - I let it sit for a few minutes... nothing. I didn't try to power-cycle it, I guess I'll try that when I get home tonight.


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## looter (Oct 1, 2007)

HR21-700 Becomes slow to respond to commands (by remote or front panel) or stops responding entirely. The HR21-700 with this update seems to have difficulty when recording 2 programs (1 SD, 1 HD) at the same time while playing back a third.

I was watching a show live as it was being recorded. I was about 10-20 minutes behind, watching from the list. When I got to the end of the recording the HR21-700 stopped responding. Once it began responding again there was considerable latency. I was eventually able to reset/restart from the menu. All in all it took me about 15-20 minutes to get up and running again. 8-10 minutes to get the HR21 to respond, then about 8 minutes from reboot to being able to view content. Seems to be functioning reasonably well since then.

Media Share - Still getting 'Unable to Access Media' even though I can view contents within folders. After a reset/restart I can play music then it will eventually get 'Unable to Access Media'.

The HR21 STILL isn't RELIABLE.

On a positive VOD works well, even if the PQ of SD content is not very good.


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## trainman (Jan 9, 2008)

Well, this has certainly been an eventful 10 days, after switching from an SD DirecTiVo to an HR21-700!

Has anyone else noticed that the autocorrection after fast-forwarding seems to have been changed from 0x193 to 0x1FE? It doesn't seem to jump back as far, and I usually end up having to press "replay" once to get to the exact point I wanted.


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## dantodd (Jan 24, 2008)

I reported HD video freeze in the CE thread for this release. I experienced the video freeze again. I was able to confirm that when the freeze (audio continues) happens I CAN change to an SD signal and it will play as expected. Changing back to an HD channel will leave the video frozen and audio does not return. I can also go into list and play recorded programming, both HD and SD, with no problem. I am able to restart the receiver through the menu.


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## Numnut (Feb 1, 2008)

Hello everyone, this is my first post. 

Wish I had something good to say about my hr21-700.
Here's my story, I'll try to keep it as short as possible.

A week after receiving my hr21-700 from an online retailer and activating it, the unit started to freeze up quite a bit (several times a day).

I contacted the retailer, and they told me that once the dvr is activated, DTV would cover the warranty and that the item I 
purchased from them is a "leased box" through DTV and that it is now DTV's responsibility for warranty. (BS)

I contacted DTV and spoke with a gentleman in tech support who had me force an update (0193).
I forced the update while he waited on the line with me. After the update the system rebooted only to get hung up at the step 
1 of 2 screen.

I pressed the red button (per his instructions) and the system booted fine. While finishing my discussion with him, the dvr locked up again and rebooted.

After checking cables, power cord and the multi-switch, he determined that the hard drive had failed and I should get a replacement dvr.

He told me that the computer system at his office was down for some maintenance and that he could not access my info to start the replacement process, he said please call back later today when the computers are up and going.

Needless to say, I didn't call back for a week and a half (I'm very busy with work)

I called DTV, this time spoke with a lady in tech support (who seemed clueless to the hr21-700) and she ran me through the same troubleshooting tests that the first guy ran me through, all to the same results.

I told her that I had already had an ok to receive a new dvr, she put me on hold for about 8 minute (i timed it)
only to have her come back and tell me that I would NOT get a replacement because she could not find a similar complaint in 
her system to match my complaints (problems) that I was having.

WAIT!!!!!

SAY WHAT???

Did I just hear you correctly?

She again repeated to me the statement above.

I then asked to speaker with her supervisor, she then became very, very rude(i must have hurt her feelings)
After being on hold for 10 minutes, I hung up. (multi billion dollar company and I have to wait on hold for 18 minutes)

Later that day I tried the dvr again, this time I noticed another update (01fe) and I thought maybe this would fix my issues-
nope, system still locks up and reboots after a couple of minutes.

I read on some post's here about an external esata hard drive working, so I went out and purchased a mx-1 and a seagate 500 gig hard drive. unplugged the dvr for 30 minutes, plugged in the external enclosure to the sata port and turned on, rebooted, and still found the dvr freezing and rebooting every 2 - 3 minutes.
I'M DONE, back to the trusted hr10-250


Summary:

I can't believe the crappy treatment from DTV, since 2002 I've been a loyal auto pay customer, even convincing my family to switch over from cable to DTV, and this is the thanks I get.
So now I'm stuck with a dvr that no longer works, DTV will not replace the unit, online company that I purchased it from won't help me at all.
Does anyone know anyone that can repair this unit?
I believe I have tried everything, if anyone has any suggestions (or a sledge hammer) I would be most gracious. 
Sorry if I ran on and on.


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## itguy05 (Oct 24, 2007)

Count me in on the slowness. What used to be a very responsive DVR is now very slow when doing basic things like navigating the playlist, deleting shows, and general things. 

Any way to report this to DTV to get it fixed ASAP?


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## Green23 (Oct 19, 2006)

Numnut said:


> I'M DONE, back to the trusted hr10-250
> 
> Summary:
> 
> ...


Call back to D* and describe the problem, hopefully you can talk to customer retention and get a new unit sent out. The HR21 is a great unit and the HR10 will soon be obsolete.


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## enutune (Feb 1, 2008)

Downloaded this as a CE a couple weeks ago, have started noticing these issues:

1. Multiple Incidents: Different shows, different channels, single recordings, and and in HD/SD - have showed only recording small chunks on the timeline. 5 min, 3 min, etc, though if allowed to play through, will have recorded the entire thing.

2. Single incident: Boston Legal, LA HD Feed - showed that it recorded, and with the correct timestamp originally. When playing it, however, the reciever gets stuck in a loop of "play, pause, FF to end, pause, REW to Beginning" While in the loop, the program length showed at 17h12min. Changed back to LiveTV, and it still was stuck in the loop for about ten minutes. Tried to navigate into setup menu to initiate a soft reset. Menus were extremely unresponsive. As opposed to a RBR, I let it play its course. Seems to work fine as long as I dont try to play the program again.

First post, sorry if I was too wordy, or if it doesnt belong here.


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## scottman (Jan 2, 2008)

To Numnut :lol: HR 21 is an awesome receiver. While there are a few minor bugs, many got resolved with the last NR. There are no issues like you say other than a faulty receiver. YOu DO need to call them and insist that your receiver is bad. You will get a new receiver, it is a leased reciever and property of Directv (an advantage of leasing - lifetime warranty!) In fact if you note all the calls and people you've talked to (like you did here) you'd probably get some compensation (monthly discount, etc).


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## nickff (Dec 8, 2007)

Remote Scheduling Question:

Can we still not remote schedule subchannels (Food HD for example)?


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## DonHac (Nov 22, 2007)

With the new software release out I thought I'd try once again to get parental controls to work. I blocked "adult channels", and I blocked TV-MA rated shows. When I bring up the menu I can see the closed lock icon (showing that parental controls are on), and when I bring up the guide I can see that certain shows are marked as "Blocked Title", indicating a TV-MA show.

However, if I select a channel with a Blocked Title show, the HR-21 happily switches to that channel and plays the show live. Pressing Info brings up the display that I'm watching a mystery show with a blocked title, but the show continues to play.

Is DirecTV's idea of parental control that kids can watch whatever they want, but that we just shouldn't tell them what they're seeing?

Don

P.S. As a separate, but lesser, complaint, I have to say that I don't like they way they've handled blocked titles in search results or the VOD list, which is to leave the shows in the list, in alphabetical order by the original title, replacing the title with "Blocked Title". If the show is supposed to be hidden, then take it out of the dang list. It's not rocket science.


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## Shawn Parr (Feb 4, 2008)

I'm having parental control issues also. I set the PC basically so that no content would be blocked, but to put a $0 spending limit for PPV/VOD content.

It seems that some, but not all, TV-MA content appears in the guide as 'Blocked Title.'

I have enabled, and double checked, that all TV settings (MA, etc. etc.) as well as movie settings (PG, PG13, X, etc.) yet I'm getting random 'Blocked Title' listings. I can also select them in the guide and the TV displays them without issue, which of course makes this a two sided issue:

1. Incorrectly labeling broadcasts as blocked
2. Allowing blocked broadcasts to be viewed.

EDIT: I should add that I have an HR21-700 that was installed last Wednesday. It is using 0x1FE via the NR.


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## SheepNutz (Feb 13, 2008)

Quick question, is there any way to make the scrubber bar (showing the buffer) show up when you skip forward or backward? I would really like this.


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## BK EH (Oct 3, 2005)

SheepNutz said:


> Quick question, is there any way to make the scrubber bar (showing the buffer) show up when you skip forward or backward? I would really like this.


Nope... that's the way it works on the HR20 and HR21.


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## gnahc79 (Jan 12, 2008)

On almost a weekly basis the buttons on both the remote and DVR become unresponsive. First with 0x193 for a week and still with the 0x1fe. There's no pattern really, it usually occurs when I turn on the TV, the DVR is on 24/7.


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## BK EH (Oct 3, 2005)

Received the update at noon today, a hour after our new HR21 was installed. The major thing that pops up, and I have no idea if this is because of the s/w update, or is an unresolved bug, is that scrolling is *LOUSY* *slow* compared to our HR20-100.

When viewing a channel guide, and the top row is where the highlight is, a 'page down' first causes the highlight to jump to the bottom row, then the rows scroll down a page, so sloooooooooowly that you can watch the rows scroll down -- almost a 3 second count from the start of the button press to full completion of the 'page down.'

On the HR20, it is practically instantaneous. Page down and "bam" a new page of channel rows is painted.

I cannot believe that such a thing exists in production on a new unit like this -- it's inexcusable! :nono2:


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## skimmilk (Jan 12, 2008)

I don't need to add excess noise to the problem, but my HR21-700 is so slow. At first I was very excited to get the new release and its fixes, but finding stuff to watch or entering the menu is excruciatingly slow. Even my HR10 was faster on its pre-fix pace.


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## itguy05 (Oct 24, 2007)

Good God, how did this version make it out into the wild?

My R21 went from a great responsive machine to a PITA to use. Guide is so slow at scrolling it's almost unusable. Pressing List and scrolling is an exercise in patience. This was never like this.

Rebooted and after the 10 minute wait (they speed up NOTHING) it was a tiny bit better but now it's back to an exercise in patience.

Who do we call or write to complain??????? I'll gladly give up On Demand and the other ehnacements to have my speed back.


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## brock29609 (Feb 13, 2008)

Question. I replaced my HR21-700 because my first one had a loud hard drive. It had the 01FE software with the true 30 second skip.

I installed my replacment HR21-700 today, did the 02468 update to get the 01FE software. It updated, but I no longer have the 30-sec skip. It now fast forwards 30 seconds. Why did that happen? Is there a way I can toggle on the 30-sec skip? Why would one machine with 01FE have it and not another?


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## SheepNutz (Feb 13, 2008)

brock29609 said:


> Question. I replaced my HR21-700 because my first one had a loud hard drive. It had the 01FE software with the true 30 second skip.
> 
> I installed my replacment HR21-700 today, did the 02468 update to get the 01FE software. It updated, but I no longer have the 30-sec skip. It now fast forwards 30 seconds. Why did that happen? Is there a way I can toggle on the 30-sec skip? Why would one machine with 01FE have it and not another?


You just have to enable the 30 second skip. Go to search and do a keyword search for 30skip. Then it should be enabled.


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## brock29609 (Feb 13, 2008)

SheepNutz said:


> You just have to enable the 30 second skip. Go to search and do a keyword search for 30skip. Then it should be enabled.


I don't think you can enable or disable this. Good news, though. After about a half hour the upgrades "kicked in" I guess. The skip ahead just started working. It wouldn't immediately after the upgrade. Took about 30 minutes before it started to work.


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## Shawn Parr (Feb 4, 2008)

BK EH said:


> When viewing a channel guide, and the top row is where the highlight is, a 'page down' first causes the highlight to jump to the bottom row, then the rows scroll down a page, so sloooooooooowly that you can watch the rows scroll down -- almost a 3 second count from the start of the button press to full completion of the 'page down.'


I had this issue also, where the graphic display of scrolling was very slow. I went into the setup (under Display IIR) and turned off scroll. Now when I hit page up or down it just redraws the guide with the new channels instead of doing the painful stuttering scroll effect. I prefer it this way, but YMMV.



brock29609 said:


> I don't think you can enable or disable this.


Mine only did the slip (fast forward) thing until I went to the trouble of doing the 30skip tweak. My box seems to act as though this is a function you can toggle.


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## dtrell (Dec 28, 2007)

to all the people complaining about scrolling speed, do you have the "visual effects" turned off in your display menu. this will stop it from actually scrolling and will make it jump a page at a time. this speeds it up significantly.


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## captainjrl (Jun 26, 2007)

Playback from Playlist results in a black screen with recordings paused. I can exit out of them and watch live TV, but no recordings playback. Was downloading a VOD show and recording from live an HD program. Tried to playback several VODs as well as a couple of regular recordings and all did the same paused problem. A setup menu reboot solved the problem.

I vaguely remember this happening before and I think it may have been right around the time I got the last update download. This time it was several days (5 or 6) after the update, not sure about before.


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## Joe Schmuck (Nov 6, 2007)

Green23 said:


> The HR21 is a great unit ...


Not really. I really great HD DVR with MPEG 4 does not exist for DirecTv. Compare these DirecTv DVRs to DirecTv TiVo DVRs and you will find the TiVo units are far superior with high reliablility and they just work and honestly, we all want our recordings there when we sit down to watch them, not a stuttering or blank screen. I have an HR21 and had my fair shares of wanting to use a hammer on the DVR and DirecTv. Yea, it's off topic but this unit is far from great. It's not even good because it rarely works without any problems. I prey TiVo is allowed to create a new HD DVR because I'll buy that in a heart beat!

Numnut, Call DirecTv back and be persistent, they need to replace your unit. And make sure they provide return postage.

-Joe


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## keenan (Feb 8, 2005)

chuck5395 said:


> Prior to, and now after, this release, I have had a problem with the HR-21 freezing on playback of HD recordings. Most times the playback starts by displaying a black screen. If I use FF or Slip, I see the video but as soon as the unit returns to play mode, the image freezes on the screen. Once this issue appears, it is constant on all HD playback attempts. The only way to get these recordings to play is to power cycle the HR-21.
> 
> There was one day that I noted that this symptom was carried across to live broadcasts as well (this was on the previous NR). I have not tested this again with the current NR but will the next time the unit freezes (which should be within the next day or two if the current trend holds true).
> 
> -Chuck


I was wondering if anyone else was having this issue.

I've had this behavior twice on my HR21, had to power cycle it each time and it seems to fix it. But, the fact that I've had to do it twice makes me think the problem isn't resolved and I don't have much confidence that it won't do it again.

This is directly related to this last release as it never did this before.


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## BK EH (Oct 3, 2005)

dtrell said:


> to all the people complaining about scrolling speed, do you have the "visual effects" turned off in your display menu. this will stop it from actually scrolling and will make it jump a page at a time. this speeds it up significantly.


*Thank you for this!* Since this was not "on" by default in my HR20, I had no idea that's what it did. It fixed the jump-highlight and slow scrolling guide. 

But, there is still a very noticable pause on the HR21 (compared to our HR20) after the 'page down' is pressed and before the new guide list repaints. I count a wee bit more than 1 second.


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## seern (Jan 13, 2007)

I just moved from an H20-100 to an HR21-700 and have noticed that every time I select a station from the guide it flashes briefly to a green screen before the selected channel comes up. I did turn off visual effects and that increased scrolling speed considerably.


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## SheepNutz (Feb 13, 2008)

One question about this DVR, in the guide, how the heck do you tell if a show is new or is a rerun?


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## bengalsfan (Jan 26, 2007)

SheepNutz said:


> I'm completely sorry for the noobie post (just started with D* yesterday with a HR21-700). Is this a national release or a CE release? I don't think the installer searched for an update when he installed the system, so a few hours ago, I did the 0 2 4 6 8 trick to update, and it downloaded 0193. If this is a national release, will I just see it in the next day or so? I really want 30 second skip.


What is and how do you do the 0 2 4 6 8?


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## srt (Aug 29, 2007)

I will be calling d* tomorrow after all I have been going through since last tuesday's update. Prior to the update the thing was much better.
Annoyances include not responding to guide page up or page down, often until the second press of the bitton, then it will suddenly go up/down two pages.
A total freeze up (black screen) after picking a channel to view from guide, had to reboot.
Today watching daytona, I wanted to rewind to watch the last couple laps right after the checkered flag fell. I could not watch it. TO salvage what I wanted to see I had to press record (to capture the buffer) then when attempting to play, it would not play rather the frame seen in the ffwd would be frozen on the screen. Quick thinking , I saved recording, turned off unit, red button reset and then finally was able to watch the couple last laps and post race interviews. What a rayal pain this exercise is becoming.
I do not watch a lot of tv, but this past week has not been good.


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## SheepNutz (Feb 13, 2008)

bengalsfan said:


> What is and how do you do the 0 2 4 6 8?


To force your DVR to check for an update, reset it using the red button under the little door, then when the first screen pops up (it says hello) hit 02468 on your remote and it will check for the newest update and start downloading one if it's newer than your current version.


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## harlee (Mar 29, 2007)

Having problems recording two shows at once. Pictures on both tuners look fine. Recorded two shows at once and later when I tried to watch them, only one played back fine. The other was was just a black screen and none of the controls (FF, Rewind, etc). Noticed when I deleted the bad recording, no space was freed up on the hard drive. Today watching the race, I was recording one show and watching the race on a different channel. When I tried to pause the race, the screen froze and the control bar (buffer) can up and the Current Time Maker jumped back to the beginning of the buffer. Only way to get the tuner unstuck is to change channels. But as some as I try of the trick plays, the same thing happens again.

Come to think of it, I tried to record a VOD and it didn't record either (have recorded other VOD programs), but can't remember if anything else was being record at the same time or not, but think that there was.


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## itguy05 (Oct 24, 2007)

Joe Schmuck said:


> Not really. I really great HD DVR with MPEG 4 does not exist for DirecTv. Compare these DirecTv DVRs to DirecTv TiVo DVRs and you will find the TiVo units are far superior with high reliablility and they just work and honestly, we all want our recordings there when we sit down to watch them, not a stuttering or blank screen.


I've had Tivo (original DirecTivo unit) and it was not the be all and end all of DVR's. Certainly not the Zenworthy thing people make it out to be. It was a decent DVR - easy to program and worked most of the time. However, the UI was slow, browsing the guide was horrible and the thumbs up/down would pick some weird things.

That being said, until this update, the experience with the HR21 has been mostly positive for us. It has recorded what we ask when we ask, and had decent performance.

With this update, DTV really screwed the pooch. I'm hoping and praying for an update that restores the performance back as this one is unacceptable.


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## itguy05 (Oct 24, 2007)

dtrell said:


> to all the people complaining about scrolling speed, do you have the "visual effects" turned off in your display menu. this will stop it from actually scrolling and will make it jump a page at a time. this speeds it up significantly.


Shouldn't need to - if it was working fine before it should work fine after. You shouldn't need to muck with settings after a forced upgrade.


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## keenan (Feb 8, 2005)

SheepNutz said:


> One question about this DVR, in the guide, how the heck do you tell if a show is new or is a rerun?


You don't. DirecTV's guide info sucks when compared to other providers. Apparently you're to rely on DirecTV's DVR system to know whether a show is new or a re-run, but in reality, it's far from infallible.


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## gully_foyle (Jan 18, 2007)

Numnut said:


> Summary:
> 
> I can't believe the crappy treatment from DTV, since 2002 I've been a loyal auto pay customer, even convincing my family to switch over from cable to DTV, and this is the thanks I get.
> So now I'm stuck with a dvr that no longer works, DTV will not replace the unit, online company that I purchased it from won't help me at all.
> ...


Call them back up and try it again with another CSR. Tell them the unit keeps locking up and is unable to record much of the time. You want them to honor their warranty. Don't yell -- counterproductive. Be calm and direct. If that doesn't work, FOLLOW THROUGH. Get their name and write it down, then ask for a supervisor. If that doesn't work get their name and write it down and ask for "retention." It really shouldn't be this hard.


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## wollmuth (Jan 20, 2008)

keenan said:


> I was wondering if anyone else was having this issue.
> 
> I've had this behavior twice on my HR21, had to power cycle it each time and it seems to fix it. But, the fact that I've had to do it twice makes me think the problem isn't resolved and I don't have much confidence that it won't do it again.
> 
> This is directly related to this last release as it never did this before.


Ditto here. I had this happen again last night. The first time, it happened during the 0x1f8 CE release. A reboot did the trick.

Last night's was a little bit different. I was watching a movie that I had previous recorded and paused. I then hit the "List" button and the whole unit froze. It eventually rebooted itself, but "Big Brother" was taping for the wife during that time. The first 10 minutes of the show were the empty black screen, but it was fine after the reboot.

I hope this is fixed in the next release. I had a hard enough time convincing my wife to move away from the DirecTivo (which we had for 6 years) and this is not helping matters at all.


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## gnahc79 (Jan 12, 2008)

For the past 3 days I've had to reset our HR21 first thing each morning because the remote buttons and the buttons on the DVR would not respond. Is there some crazy HR21 gremlin messing with our DVR overnight or something?


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## captainjrl (Jun 26, 2007)

keenan said:


> You don't. DirecTV's guide info sucks when compared to other providers. Apparently you're to rely on DirecTV's DVR system to know whether a show is new or a re-run, but in reality, it's far from infallible.


Who provides the guide info? I remember my DTivos had very good guide/show info. The HR21's guide/show info is barely usable.


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## keenan (Feb 8, 2005)

captainjrl said:


> Who provides the guide info? I remember my DTivos had very good guide/show info. The HR21's guide/show info is barely usable.


Pretty sure they use Tribune Media Services, it's the one most all providers use, but apparently they are not using the "premium" package as other providers using the service have far more info in their guide/program descriptions.

Either that, or they haven't figured out how to display it yet, which seems like a longshot as others have done it for years and years now.

Out of all the services I've used, DirecTV(current guide info), Dish, Star Choice, Comcast(via Series 3 TiVo) and SageTV, DirecTV's guide info is by far the least informative, almost being being flat generic in many cases, just listing the overall premise of the show(60 Minutes - news show) and that's it.


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## trainman (Jan 9, 2008)

keenan said:


> Pretty sure they use Tribune Media Services, it's the one most all providers use, but apparently they are not using the "premium" package as other providers using the service have far more info in their guide/program descriptions.
> 
> Either that, or they haven't figured out how to display it yet, which seems like a longshot as others have done it for years and years now.


All that data is clearly there in the DirecTV stream, because my SD DirecTiVo could display the original air date and other "extended data" -- looks like the HR21 just isn't programmed to be able to display it.


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## bizarrox (Dec 25, 2007)

Until the 0x1FE NR my HR21-700 was rock steady, but now it's doing the "freeze after periods of inactivity" thing that this NR was supposed to fix, but which had _never_ before happened to me!

I called DirecTV to make it official and they walked me through the 02468 thing, which someone else said had fixed it for them, but no luck. Now I'm pissed off because I came home tonight and found that the first 45 minutes of the Sara Conner Chronicles got dropped because it was locked up, and that show has no re-runs or VOD available. 

One thing I have to wonder about is when people say they've done an RBR for these freezes - is that a euphemism for "pulled the plug"? Since my box won't even respond to the physical power button that's the only thing I can do!

Oh yeah, does anyone know where I can get my hands on this week's episode of Sara Conner, and the first couple episodes of Torchwood season 2? Yes, the HDNet bug got me just like it got all the other Torchwood fans.  And as it turns out, we here in the states are once again getting shafted by our stupid copyright laws - torchwood.co.uk isn't visible to people in the US "due to rights issues".


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## chuck5395 (Nov 7, 2007)

keenan said:


> I was wondering if anyone else was having this issue.
> 
> I've had this behavior twice on my HR21, had to power cycle it each time and it seems to fix it. But, the fact that I've had to do it twice makes me think the problem isn't resolved and I don't have much confidence that it won't do it again.
> 
> This is directly related to this last release as it never did this before.


It happend again tonight. Went to play the recording of LOST and it froze on the opening shot. Used the 30second slip and it froze again. Exit out to live TV. FOX was playing Prision Break and that froze. The big three were all on SD so could not test with them. ESPNHD worked OK.

Could it be that some formats lock up while others don't?


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## jpenneck (Oct 19, 2007)

Has anyone else noticed that it now takes longer to delete a recording ? It's not like it takes forever but I would say that instead of a second or two, it now takes 3-4 seconds ? I tried this on both of my HR21-700s and it definitely takes longer, but my guestimates of the time involved is hardly accurate.


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## JavaJohnNV (Dec 12, 2007)

Since 0x1FE showed up, the option to delete items in the Showcases tab has disappeared. What am I missing? Hit the List button and go to the Showcases tab. I see no delete menu options, no red button, not even the double Dash works.


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## gully_foyle (Jan 18, 2007)

For the record: I recently got an HR21-700 as a second DVR and it had been rebooting itself about once or twice a week. I turn the blue ring off and it only comes back on after a reboot. 

This behavior seems to have stopped with 0x1fe.


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## captainjrl (Jun 26, 2007)

Unresponsive to remote command for 2-3 minutes. I was watching live TV, recording and HD program and downloading a VOD. First tried to change channels by inputting channel numbers, no luck. Then tried several other commands, no luck. Was able to power cycle my TV and AVR with remote, so eliminated remote as issue. After a few minutes it worked normally again.


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## gnahc79 (Jan 12, 2008)

bizarrox said:


> Until the 0x1FE NR my HR21-700 was rock steady, but now it's doing the "freeze after periods of inactivity" thing that this NR was supposed to fix, but which had _never_ before happened to me!
> 
> I called DirecTV to make it official and they walked me through the 02468 thing, which someone else said had fixed it for them, but no luck. Now I'm pissed off because I came home tonight and found that the first 45 minutes of the Sara Conner Chronicles got dropped because it was locked up, and that show has no re-runs or VOD available.
> 
> ...


I tried the following yesterday and this morning there was no lockup. It's worth a try, hopefully our hr21 won't freeze anytime soon, *crossing fingers*.

- Power off
- Unplug power cord
- Hold power button for 30 sec
- Plug in power cord, power on

The 30 sec thing is from laptops to remove any charge left in the capacitors. I have no idea if the HR2x is similar, but it couldn't hurt.


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## JavaJohnNV (Dec 12, 2007)

bizarrox said:


> One thing I have to wonder about is when people say they've done an RBR for these freezes - is that a euphemism for "pulled the plug"? Since my box won't even respond to the physical power button that's the only thing I can do!
> 
> 
> > RBR is for Red Button Reset. It is located behind the access door on the lower right front, below the Access Card.


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## srt (Aug 29, 2007)

They are aware of the freezing problem and are working on a software patch :grin:
My signal strengths of mid 40's to mid 60's on sat 103 have resulted in a re-aim service call


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## bizarrox (Dec 25, 2007)

gnahc79 said:


> I tried the following yesterday and this morning there was no lockup. It's worth a try, hopefully our hr21 won't freeze anytime soon, *crossing fingers*.
> 
> - Power off
> - Unplug power cord
> ...


This morning I unplugged it before I took a shower and shaved, and then did 02468 when I plugged it back in. Came home tonight to find out that it was locked up *again* and I had missed two shows, one of which was an episode of Torchwood that I had set manually trying to play catch-up. But I'll try it again with the power button held down - I'm getting desperate because several of my favorite series have either already started new seasons, or will be soon!


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## bizarrox (Dec 25, 2007)

srt said:


> They are aware of the freezing problem and are working on a software patch :grin:
> My signal strengths of mid 40's to mid 60's on sat 103 have resulted in a re-aim service call


Excellent news! I suppose an ETA would be too much to ask...? 

Well, excellent news about the pending fix for lock-ups, but I'm sorry to hear about your aiming troubles.


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## bizarrox (Dec 25, 2007)

JavaJohnNV said:


> RBR is for Red Button Reset. It is located behind the access door on the lower right front, below the Access Card.


Huh. I didn't know that itty bitty button was in there, but then the only time I've ever opened the door was to put the access card in when the box was delivered. Come to think of it, the installer probably did that... Thanks for the info; I can't say I felt _entirely_ comfortable unplugging it repeatedly.


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## srt (Aug 29, 2007)

bizarrox said:


> Excellent news! I suppose an ETA would be too much to ask...?


I should have included that part....he told me that they were working fevorisly and then offered the obligatory "soon"


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## loungeofmusic (Nov 26, 2007)

New issue:-
CallerID has spontaneously failed. Ran sys test. Tel line was functioning. Checked other caller ID in the house. All functioning fine.
Rebooted. 02468. CallerID still not working.
Also loosing Media Share. Returns after reboot.
Decreased advertising time on router, helped a little.


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## ozonedan (Dec 27, 2005)

Every time the phone rings the HR21 will come up with a message that says "A phone call is coming through. You need to call your phone company and sign up for caller ID."..............I have caller ID. We have an R-15 in the bedroom that works fine with caller ID. And the HR21-700 replaced an R-15 that was working fine also. The phone line is split to a phone and the DVR. I have switched phone lines and there is no difference.

Now my wife works from home every other day and switches the phone so she receives her calls from her office. When she does this, it works fine Any ideas?

_If it won't fit force it.
If it breaks, it needed replacing anyway_


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## Supervolcano (Jan 23, 2007)

ozonedan said:


> Every time the phone rings the HR21 will come up with a message that says "A phone call is coming through. You need to call your phone company and sign up for caller ID."..............I have caller ID. We have an R-15 in the bedroom that works fine with caller ID. And the HR21-700 replaced an R-15 that was working fine also. The phone line is split to a phone and the DVR. I have switched phone lines and there is no difference.
> 
> Now my wife works from home every other day and switches the phone so she receives her calls from her office. When she does this, it works fine Any ideas?


ozonedan,

You forgot to mention a very important piece of info that you gave in the other thread.



ozonedan said:


> The odd think about it is that if I look in the Caller ID Messages they are all there.


----------



## gnahc79 (Jan 12, 2008)

bizarrox said:


> This morning I unplugged it before I took a shower and shaved, and then did 02468 when I plugged it back in. Came home tonight to find out that it was locked up *again* and I had missed two shows, one of which was an episode of Torchwood that I had set manually trying to play catch-up. But I'll try it again with the power button held down - I'm getting desperate because several of my favorite series have either already started new seasons, or will be soon!


It didn't work for me after all . It seems like my morning routine will be: wake up, pee, get the baby, change his diaper, reset the HR21 because it froze overnight. Splendid. Btw, the temp of my hr21 is fairly normal, ~114F.


----------



## MOPWS (Oct 23, 2006)

macguitar said:


> MOPWS -- how were your signal levels with the system test? I really appreciate your reply and input, but I'd be surprised if it was the LNB mast with the super solid levels I have (everything is over 90)


My signal levels were good except for 103b. The second number was around 60 which DTV Tech Support said was not good. The service tech that came to my house said that meant nothing and just connected a ground wire which seemed good at the time but got worse within a week. He came back and replaced the mast and the signal for 103b, 2nd number went to 93. All has been great since. Demand a new mast.


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## 1995hoo (May 14, 2004)

dtrell said:


> its still not done right. "channels i get" should be just that. i should only have channels show up that i PAY FOR. therefore, all the PPV channels, all the foreign channels, all the useless RSNs, etc should ALL not show up in my "channels i get"


They'll never do this, at least not as to the PPV channels. The idea is that you'll see something you want to watch and you'll order (and pay for) it.

I wish there were some way for the guide to indicate when a game is blacked out in your area. (This is not an issue unique to the HR21, as my HR10-250 and my old Philips SD TiVo didn't do it either.) Given that you have to enter your ZIP code when you set up the box, it seems like this shouldn't be overly difficult from a technical standpoint.



> Has anyone else noticed that it now takes longer to delete a recording ? It's not like it takes forever but I would say that instead of a second or two, it now takes 3-4 seconds ? I tried this on both of my HR21-700s and it definitely takes longer, but my guestimates of the time involved is hardly accurate.


Yes, I have definitely noticed that deleting is slower. The time seems to vary a bit by program, which makes me think it might be related to the length of the show (the Pro Bowl took longer to delete than _Star Trek: Insurrection_ did).


----------



## JavaJohnNV (Dec 12, 2007)

JavaJohnNV said:


> Since 0x1FE showed up, the option to delete items in the Showcases tab has disappeared. What am I missing? Hit the List button and go to the Showcases tab. I see no delete menu options, no red button, not even the double Dash works.


I take it from the underwhelming response that no one else is having a problem deleting items from the Showcases tab?


----------



## ELMEL (Nov 26, 2007)

Showcases?


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## JavaJohnNV (Dec 12, 2007)

ELMEL said:


> Showcases?


I think it's named that because "crap we put on your hard drive" would not fit on the tab!


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## Supervolcano (Jan 23, 2007)

JavaJohnNV said:


> I take it from the underwhelming response that no one else is having a problem deleting items from the Showcases tab?


Don't know about the HR21-700...

But for it's sister, the HR20-700 which is now 18 months old, it has NEVER EVER had the ability to allow a user to delete a showcase.

This is a fact.
Showcases are placed on directv's partition, not the user's partition.
We have no control over the directv partition.
They know how much space is being used by their showcases.
They delete the stuff when they "need to make more room".

If there WAS actually a time you could delete a showcase on HR21, I suspect THAT was the flaw.


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## jimed1 (Jan 12, 2008)

I just did a little experiment because my HR21 still starts recording a little late. So tonight I set my old Tivo HR10-250 and my HR21-700 to record a the same show (they are both connected to the same TV and in the same room). I set them to record Criminal Minds on CBS. The HR10-250 started recording about 10 seconds before the HR21-700. So on the HR10-250 I got to see part of a news cast promo and a David Letterman promo and then then the opening of Criminal Minds. The HR21-700 came in late as usual and missed the opening of Criminal Minds.

OK. If Tivo can do it, why can't DirecTV. Maybe the Tivo software is set to come on at T-minus 10 seconds or something and then also stop a little early too so that it will have time to change channels to record another program if scheduled. I know a few shows run over a little, but that is really the exception and I have never missed the end of a show on my TIVO. 

On another note:
Both my HR21-700 and HR20-100 still have audio dropout problems when catching up to live TV..

Please DirecTV keep working on both of these issues. Tivo had this down so we know it can be done......


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## gundyrat (Sep 3, 2006)

My 2 cents worth HR21-700 issues
I'm running a 3G access point wireless network since the recent patch I get more frequent lock ups like others are getting the Menu system via the Rf remote is so slow or just plain non responsive.
this have anything to do with the type of network I have or is it just a buggy update?
any consolation my wifes H-21 works like a champ after the update


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## Ualdayan (Feb 5, 2008)

I have several recordings that will show up under My Playlist, but show nothing but a grey screen when you try to view them. If I reboot the receiver they all vanish from the My Playlist as if they were deleted or never there. Yesterday all the shows it recorded during the day came up as grey screens and vanished upon a restart.

Under history it says for each show that does it:

<Show name> <Show time> Recorded
<Show name> <same exact show time> Cancelled

If I click on the entry that says recorded it says this program is over.
If I click on the entry that says cancelled it says:
"This episode was not recorded because the program was no longer available. (13)"


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## scubadivergirl (Feb 7, 2008)

Ualdayan said:


> I have several recordings that will show up under My Playlist, but show nothing but a grey screen when you try to view them. If I reboot the receiver they all vanish from the My Playlist as if they were deleted or never there. Yesterday all the shows it recorded during the day came up as grey screens and vanished upon a restart.


I've had the same thing happen. I think it may be caused by a problem I sometimes see with live tv. Sometimes when I change channel I get a notice about a reception problem. Yet if I then change channels up and then back down it is received fine. I need to try to reproduce the error so I can write down the actual error text but I'm wondering if this problem is causing some recordings to be missed.


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## looter (Oct 1, 2007)

I went to watch Law & Order HD from local channel (KNBC) and it was ALL BLACK. Nothing recorded. When it tried to play it skipped ahead. I could FF and RW through the hour of blackness.

The previous 2 weeks the HR21-700 froze then rebooted while recording that show.

Also, tried to turn on the HR21-700 on Tuesday and it was frozen. All the front panel light were off and I had to red-button-reboot.

I seriously wonder when this thing will JUST WORK.


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## kymikes (Jan 16, 2008)

Hey Looter,
I am missing something in your statement. If you have the HR21, how are you connected to try to record on a local. The HR21 doesn't have the OTA tuners so you can't get them into the recording path, can you??

Am I missing your point?


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## looter (Oct 1, 2007)

kymikes said:


> Hey Looter,
> I am missing something in your statement. If you have the HR21, how are you connected to try to record on a local. The HR21 doesn't have the OTA tuners so you can't get them into the recording path, can you??
> 
> Am I missing your point?


Not OTA just local via DIRECTV.


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## trainman (Jan 9, 2008)

I had my first "black screen" recording Friday night: "Jeopardy!" on local ABC (KABC). Bad timing, since it was the final game of a 2-week tournament. Fortunately, I'd also recorded it via OTA on my computer.


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## gundyrat (Sep 3, 2006)

Update 
Originally the installer set mydisplay Native to off and said I would have menu issues if I turned it on and he was correct it was like molasses.
I turned it back on the other day and after the update the condition is now just the opposite menu system runs normal speed when display native turned on and sluggish when it is turned off.
Unit still locks up or is unresponsive from time to time.


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## vikecowboy (Jul 30, 2007)

Got more garbage (pixilation) while watching Scott Biao is 46 and preg last night. Show was recorded yesterday on VH1 with perfect weather all day in NM. I have had the same with a recorded American Idol show and others.

Don't see the problem while watching live TV only recorded shows and again started with the new software update


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## bbbanks (Feb 27, 2008)

Not sure if this is hardware or software. Randomly when I switch to an HD station, the entire screen gets a pink hue. If I then switch to an SD station and then back to HD, it looks perfectly fine. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.


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## ulbonado (Nov 29, 2007)

Ualdayan said:


> I have several recordings that will show up under My Playlist, but show nothing but a grey screen when you try to view them. If I reboot the receiver they all vanish from the My Playlist as if they were deleted or never there.


I just had this happen for the first time the other day, on a recording of Robot Chicken on TOONHD.

That show frequently starts recording 5 _minutes_ late, as well, which is kind of a downer considering that that's 1/3 of the entire show.


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## JerryAndGail (Oct 18, 2006)

I'm having trouble using the tick marks. If I want to back up and the display is currently showing 11:00am to 12:00pm it will backup to 11:00 OK. But if I want to go back further it displays the 10:00am to 11:00am progress bar but then jumps to live TV. The only way to get further back than 11:00 is to rewind into the 10:00 to 11:00 area and then the skip to ticks works again.

A RBR didn't help. Hope this makes sense.


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## JohnnyK (Nov 8, 2007)

I've got the On-Demand all hooked up. I downloaded a couple of titles that had Dolby Digital sound. A Ray Charles special. The info shows DD. However, it wouldn't play in that mode. Shows that come down via the dish have DD. But no DD on VOD. 

I am using a Denon AVR-3806

If I go to TV Options it shows that I have English DD selected.

Am I missing a setting someplace?


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## ntsammy5 (Feb 8, 2008)

I've had most of the problems listed here, but after a RBR yesterday, everything works fine. If they did a software fix would that necessarily show on the SW version & date? Also, I turned off scrolling affects and the menu(s) performance increased dramatically. Also switched to native, not sure which one did it but I'm not changing back.


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## itzme (Jan 17, 2008)

loungeofmusic said:


> New issue:-
> CallerID has spontaneously failed. Ran sys test. Tel line was functioning. Checked other caller ID in the house. All functioning fine.
> Rebooted. 02468. CallerID still not working.
> Also loosing Media Share. Returns after reboot.
> Decreased advertising time on router, helped a little.


My CID only works if I'm watching Live. It won't display if I'm watching buffered or a recording. Those who've reported CID losses in this national release, try it while live.


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## trainman (Jan 9, 2008)

Just noticed this a couple days ago and did some testing to confirm...

When I get up in the morning, I turn on one of the XM channels. Since I record both Conan O'Brien and Craig Ferguson, when I turn on my TV, I'll either be seeing CBS or NBC. If I press "Info," the banner will come on and correctly display what's on the channel at that moment, e.g. "CBS 2 News at 6:00"...

...but if I just start pressing the number keys, the banner will display a show title from a few hours ago (usually, what it lists is either "Last Call with Carson Daly" or "Poker After Dark" if it's on NBC, and a 2:07 A.M. "Frasier" rerun if it's on CBS).


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## cyberdude_pete (Feb 28, 2008)

Hi folks. First time poster. Have a Hr21-700. Seems to work just fine. However, I notice that when I am watching an HD channel, and a commercial that is 4x3 comes on, it has a (seemingly) single pixel thick, vertical BLUE line on the left edge of the PICTURE (meaning, the edge of the visible image, not the far left edge of the screen).

It is not on every narrow commercial, I would venture it's on about 25%.

It's not the same channel, and it's not the same content.

Anyone else see this?


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## inkahauts (Nov 13, 2006)

had a BSOD recording from last friday, KTLA HD Mpeg-4 last friday night....


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## WashDCHR20 (Apr 11, 2007)

I know this is somewhat late, but I returned home after being away the entire month of February - to find my HR21-700 unresponsive. Apparently the 0x1FE update came and hung up the box. As a result, no recordings occurred after the attempted update.

When I was able to recover the box (red button reset didn't do anything, so had to unplug it and wait and plug it back in) - it offered the chance to upgrade. The upgrade froze at 90% so had to red button reset it. Again, it offered the chance to upgrade, and again it froze at 90%. 

Finally got disgusted and went to sleep and put the box into standby mode, and somehow the upgrade was successful overnight. 

It shouldn't be that hard to do a software upgrade, and I'm particularly miffed that the box of course didn't record a bunch of stuff, including Lost episodes, while I was away. 

Fortunately my HR20-700 did, but that's besides the point. 

Up until now for the month or so I had this box before going away, it was performing flawlessly. But not thrilled that it does not seem to gracefully download software upgrades, and then hang up - when I'm away from home.


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## dyker (Feb 27, 2008)

"Unsupported Audio Signal" Popup on my TV with this version. Pops up at least once a day while doing a 30skip hooked via HDMI to Sony TV KDF-50E2000. Once the popup happens, I need to RBR the hr21-700.

Just wanting to update this thread with the issue that was clearly outlined for the hr21-200 by someone else Here.

The problem exists for me also on my HR21-700 hooked to a Sony KDF-50e2000 TV which I outlined in detail Here.

I'm cross posting here not to overpost but to try to post in the appropriate place so it ends up on someone's bug list somewhere.


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## pjo1966 (Nov 20, 2005)

I had another black screen recording. American Idol. I decided to try something different and stopped the recording and went back to live TV. I figured I would try changing the channels to see if it would bring back the recording (not likely). As I was pushing the channel button, the video on Fox came back up. I didn't stop myself in time and changed the channel, losing the buffer. I wonder if I hadn't changed the channel, if I could have gone back through the buffer to the beginning of the episode. It's something to try the next time I catch a black screen while the show is still recording.


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## BigLars (Dec 8, 2007)

harlee said:


> Having problems recording two shows at once. Pictures on both tuners look fine. Recorded two shows at once and later when I tried to watch them, only one played back fine. The other was was just a black screen and none of the controls (FF, Rewind, etc). Noticed when I deleted the bad recording, no space was freed up on the hard drive. Today watching the race, I was recording one show and watching the race on a different channel. When I tried to pause the race, the screen froze and the control bar (buffer) can up and the Current Time Maker jumped back to the beginning of the buffer. Only way to get the tuner unstuck is to change channels. But as some as I try of the trick plays, the same thing happens again.
> 
> Come to think of it, I tried to record a VOD and it didn't record either (have recorded other VOD programs), but can't remember if anything else was being record at the same time or not, but think that there was.


This exact thing just happened to me! I didn't see any responses to harlee and was curious if this had happened to anyone else.

I have a new HR21-700 (a recent replacement as the previous new HR21-700 locked continually if you tried to pause/ff/rewind) and wanted to record the Mavs/Spurs on TNTHD (76) and Badgers/Spartans on ESPN2HD (209). I started to watch the Mavs game at about halftime and noticed it had seemed to record fine but whenever I tried playing from the beginning via My List or rewinding, it caused the cursor to immediately jump to the beginning and the picture would lock. The only way to unlock would be to use the "Previous" button. I stopped recording on 76 and started recording on 245 - same thing. As long as I watched in real time, everything was fine.

The Badger game on the other tuner played/ff/rewound perfectly. After deleting the phantom Mavs/Spurs recordings, I tried watching other channels and every one exhibited the same behavior - pausing locked the picture and the only way to unlock was to use "Previous". Clearly something is up with one of the tuners, but what...???

FWIW, my HR20-100S has worked flawlessly from the beginning.

Lars


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## srt (Aug 29, 2007)

I originally posted this in the 20-700 thread accidently.

Something's happened that has improved the behavior of our 1-700.
The lag in using the guide disappears within 20 to 30 seconds of firing the unit up and a direct push of a numerical combination to change channels takes only 30 seconds to function properly. It seems like a boot up sequence delay or perhaps it takes some time to load the guide and channel data for this area (far nor-cal but LA feed networks due to no ota here). My previous rewind playback problem has not reappeared and finally, I was able to get rid of my harmony customization of power-up procedure of "format, format" to get pillar box turned on and power off procedure of "format"' to cycle it back.
One of two things happened, late last week on over the weekend upon power-up I caught a 0.25 second blip of a d* light blue screen with a message on it, but it quickly disappered before I could read it. Perhaps the promised "patch"? Also on monday this week d* service guy reaimed the dish that was suffering from 40's to 60's on the 103c.
I don't know what caused this improvement, but behivour and viewing tv is much improved than just after roll-out.
sr


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## richlife (Dec 4, 2006)

My wife has a season pass for Lost via our local HD ABC channel. For the past two weeks, what was recorded was only 1 hour and 2 minutes of black. (Yes, she's pissed!) When deleted, the recording frees up 2% of disk. She is also recording Survivor at the same time with no trouble. We're going to try the new CE to see what happens.


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## WashDCHR20 (Apr 11, 2007)

richlife said:


> My wife has a season pass for Lost via our local HD ABC channel. For the past two weeks, what was recorded was only 1 hour and 2 minutes of black. (Yes, she's pissed!) When deleted, the recording frees up 2% of disk. She is also recording Survivor at the same time with no trouble. We're going to try the new CE to see what happens.


This week's recording of Lost on my HR21-700 started off black and would not play, but then I found if I fast forwarded it a bit it did play successfully - pretty much at the end of last week's recaps. So fortunately it ended up OK, but this is the first I've experienced a playback glitch like this on any recording on this box. At first I was worried I had an all blank recording but it was only for the first 30 seconds or so. I tried replaying again from the beginning after viewing and again leaving it in Play it remained stuck on the first frame from all appearances, until fast forwarding to get to a point 30 seconds or so in that it was playable.

Not sure if this is tied to the 0x1FE or not, but then again this is the same software release that locked up my box completely for 2 weeks while I was away, and I had to try 3 times to download before successfully downloading upon my return. My HR21-700 was completely reliable before 0x1FE, now I'm beginning to be not so sure about it.


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## richlife (Dec 4, 2006)

WashDCHR20 said:


> This week's recording of Lost on my HR21-700 started off black and would not play, but then I found if I fast forwarded it a bit it did play successfully - pretty much at the end of last week's recaps. ...


FF didn't help with ours -- both weeks were black all the way through. The first time we did a restart, but it had no effect.


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## chuck5395 (Nov 7, 2007)

bbbanks said:


> Not sure if this is hardware or software. Randomly when I switch to an HD station, the entire screen gets a pink hue. If I then switch to an SD station and then back to HD, it looks perfectly fine. Any insight would be greatly appreciated.


bbbanks, 
You are not alone. I had this exact same thing happen to me last night.


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## FarNorth (Nov 27, 2003)

I had a recording set for Smithsonian HD - instead I got an hour of blank screen with a yellow popup "searching for authorized content."


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## trainman (Jan 9, 2008)

FarNorth said:


> I had a recording set for Smithsonian HD - instead I got an hour of blank screen with a yellow popup "searching for authorized content."


That can be the result of trying to record something on a channel you're not subscribed to...are you subscribed to the HD Extra channel package?


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## jacksonm30354 (Mar 29, 2007)

WashDCHR20 said:


> I know this is somewhat late, but I returned home after being away the entire month of February - to find my HR21-700 unresponsive. Apparently the 0x1FE update came and hung up the box. As a result, no recordings occurred after the attempted update.
> 
> When I was able to recover the box (red button reset didn't do anything, so had to unplug it and wait and plug it back in) - it offered the chance to upgrade. The upgrade froze at 90% so had to red button reset it. Again, it offered the chance to upgrade, and again it froze at 90%.
> 
> ...


How long did you wait at 90%? Progress bars are not reliable (that goes for any software - on the Directv boxes or on your computer). the Directv Software downloads frequently hang at 90 or 97% for 10-15 minutes. This is normal. You just might not have waited long enough.


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## FarNorth (Nov 27, 2003)

trainman said:


> That can be the result of trying to record something on a channel you're not subscribed to...are you subscribed to the HD Extra channel package?


Beats me. I upgraded from MPEG2 to MPEG4 and then was told I was subscribed to a package that was no longer offered. I was changed to the Premier package but apparently some of the channels I used to get were dropped.


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## decker12 (Jan 10, 2008)

My HR20-700 was set to record American Idol and Biggest Loser last night (both shows are on at the same time). Loser came on, and I paused it. Came back after 15 minutes from putting the kid to bed, and the box wouldn't come off of pause. I could get the guide, the List, but no amount of fiddling would allow me to switch channels or play the first 15 minutes of either show that it was recording. It was just locked up on the spot that I paused it. 

When I tried to play (or Resume or Restart) either show from the List, it would just sit on Pause on a gray screen.

Eventually had to pull the power cord (IMO the reset button is useless, my HR20 never comes back up after pushing it, so I always just pull the power).

After it all rebooted, it started recording both shows again from where it left off. Of course my wife missed 7 minutes worth of American Idol, which of course was the exact part where her favorite singer was performing. 

Since I was physically holding the remote when it all happened, I caught the flack instead of DirecTV, and the skimpy negligee I bought for the wife over the weekend went unworn and unused for another night.


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## WashDCHR20 (Apr 11, 2007)

jacksonm30354 said:


> How long did you wait at 90%? Progress bars are not reliable (that goes for any software - on the Directv boxes or on your computer). the Directv Software downloads frequently hang at 90 or 97% for 10-15 minutes. This is normal. You just might not have waited long enough.


First of all, the box hung while I was away downloading this update, and then because of that missed 2 weeks worth of scheduled recordings. Second, it sat at 90% for a good 30 minutes each time. I would think that's long enough. Anyway, the proof is that it spent 2 weeks obviously sitting at 90% while I was on vacation, and as a result did not record 2 episodes of Lost, as well as other shows scheduled during that period.


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## captainjrl (Jun 26, 2007)

Monday 3/3's recording in HD of Medium on NBC was pixelated severely during the last 10 minutes of the show.


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## chuck5395 (Nov 7, 2007)

captainjrl said:


> Monday 3/3's recording in HD of Medium on NBC was pixelated severely during the last 10 minutes of the show.


I didn't get to see any of it. My HR21-700 recorded a black screen for an hour instead.


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## bmerrow (Jul 26, 2007)

My Medium recording this week started a minute or two late (annoying!) but otherwise was OK.


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## DonHac (Nov 22, 2007)

Last night night at ~8:45 my wife complained that the HR21 wouldn't come out of standby. The red record light was on and I could hear the disk seeking, but the unit was unresponsive. I waited until 9pm in the hope of not ruining the 8-9pm recording that should have been underway and then did a red button reset.

What I found after it came back up was bizarre. The box was scheduled to record two shows from 5-6pm, and then two more shows at 8pm (one 8-9, the other 8-8:30). One of the 5-6pm shows was there just fine. The other was there, but was 4 hours long, even though the guide clearly listed the show as one hour. It had just kept recording all the way until I rebooted the machine.

Neither of the 8pm shows had recorded at all and, of course, neither was mentioned in the apparently expurgated history list.

Has anyone else seen something like this? It's the first time the HR21 has failed by recording *more* than I asked it to. That's an interesting change, at least.

Don


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## captainjrl (Jun 26, 2007)

Had my first black recording. Law & Order: CI from 3/5/08 local NBC HD. Luckily it was an episode I had seen before, but still disheartening.


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## KELLYAGGIE (Mar 8, 2008)

I received my first HR21 in early Feb. 08. My first problem was pixelation during clear blue skies. I reset the recorder and the problem went away. Then when recording 2 shows, I would get a blank black screen when I would go to watch one of the programs from the list menu. I could watch the program live and the dvr appeared to be recording the program, but if I went to watch the show after it broadcasted, I only had the blank black screen. 
I called Direct TV and complained, they had me reset it and see if that worked and to call back if it didn't. Later in the week, the blank screen happened again. I called Direct TV back, they wanted me to go through the same steps before they sent me a replacement, I REFUSED to go through the same steps that I had done a week before and asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor listened to my complaint and said he had heard of this problem before and DID NOT make me go through the reset process. I DEMANDED a new receiver and he agreed to overnight me a new one to replace my defective dvr. The new HR21 I received was made by a different maker than my first HR21. so I had my hopes up that I wouldn't have the same problem. My dreams were smashed that same night when I got the same blank black screen on one of the two shows I was recording at the same time. 
I just found this forumn today and see that others are having the same problem. I URGE everyone to call Direct TV and ask for a replacement. The only way they are going to fix it is to hear about it and have it cost them money when you DEMAND a new receiver to replace your DEFECTIVE one. It is ridiculous that they have put out a product that is knowingly defective and we are paying for it!


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## gnahc79 (Jan 12, 2008)

Ever since I removed all ARSLs (keyword searches, e.g. AALL) my HR21 has been running just fine for over a week. For the heck of it I added an ARSL, AALL SAVING GRACE HOLLY, this morning. Within a few hours the HR21 was locked up recording AMA Superbike on SPEED and making a strange noise. Not a HDD crashing noise, but some sort of grinding noise. After a RBR I promptly removed the ARSL. sigh


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## ktabel01 (Aug 19, 2006)

Continue to struggle with OTA on this release. In chicago, HR 20-700. Cannnot get CBS channel 2 at all. SIgnal strength 60-80 but spiking up and down alot, no signal on tuner 2. COmes in perfect on samsung plasma tuner. Able to pull in multiple other locals like NBC, FOX, ABC, but with considerable effort with my indoor antenna. Was just putting up with it, but seems to be worse on this release than prior releases. Just doesn't make sense that the HR 20 tuner could be so much worse than the TV.


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## Ken Beck (Jan 3, 2008)

Ualdayan said:


> I have several recordings that will show up under My Playlist, but show nothing but a grey screen when you try to view them. If I reboot the receiver they all vanish from the My Playlist as if they were deleted or never there. Yesterday all the shows it recorded during the day came up as grey screens and vanished upon a restart.
> 
> Under history it says for each show that does it:
> 
> ...


Ok, I think I've figured out what causes this problem, which just happened to me a few hours ago. Apparently, after a (13) error, both live and recorded shows on that channel (and possibly other channels) will be blank (grey or black) until a reset is done.

Had Dexter, CBS 2 News at 11:00 and Cold Case set to record all episodes. These were all on channel 2 KCBS (this is the HD channel 2) here in the Los Angeles area. At about 12:15am this morning looked at Dexter from the playlist - everything looked fine except the entire program was black. Fast forward, etc., info banner all looks normal. Checked the next show, CBS 2 News at 11:00, same thing. Then went to the guide and tried watching 2 KCBS live - black screen. Changed channels up to 4 KNBC - looks fine, back to 2 still black, still recording Cold Case. Stop the recording, still black when selected from guide - changing channels doesn't help. So now have these three black shows in the playlist. Reset, now I can see 2 KCBS live, but the three shows in the playlist have disappeared. Check the history and there they are:

Cold Case Yesterday 11:45p Partial
CBS 2 News at 11:00 Yesterday 11:00p Recorded
Dexter Yesterday 10:00p Recorded
Dexter Yesterday 9:57p Canceled

Details says for the canceled Dexter says "This episode was not recorded because the program was no longer available. (13)" So seems like something was wrong since 9:57p is a strange time and canceled probably makes sense.

Hopefully this is a problem with the software and they'll fix it soon. If it's something else other than the receiver looks like I'm out of luck since according to DirecTV, there are no service appointments available in the L.A. area at this time. This is not the first time I've had this (13) error and with this level of unreliability it looks like I'll have to use my HR10-250 to record OTA if I don't want to miss any HD local shows.


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## trainman (Jan 9, 2008)

Has anyone else noticed their recording start times (and stop times) gradually slipping later and later? As far as I could tell, they were right on time right after 0x1FE was first downloaded...but now recordings are starting and stopping about 40 seconds late.


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## bmerrow (Jul 26, 2007)

Sadly, several people have reported start time drift for this build. Note that start time problems existed before and the symptom changed but I also see drift over time - rebooting daily is NOT acceptable to my wife who expects technology to JUST WORK.
It is my fervent hope that DirecTV is monitoring this problems log as start time errors have been reported for a long time.


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## Roquefort (Mar 19, 2008)

Greetings!

I am new to this forum. Please forgive me if I am posting at the wrong place...

I think I have discovered a bug with 0x1FE. Here's the scenario:

1) I have a show scheduled to be recorded (for instance) at 6pm on my "To Do" list.
2) At 5:45pm, I put in my VOD queue a movie/show ; the download begins immediately.
3) At 6:02pm, I click the "List" button on my remote to watch the show that started being recorded at 6pm
4) All I get is a black screen. 

Nothing else: I cannot fast forward, I cannot pause, I cannot do a 30 seconds skip. When I push "play", nothing happens. Similarly, I am able to reproduce the same result when I put in my VOD queue a movie/show *after* the recording of a show in my "To Do" list started.

Here is my information (not sure if it matters...):
Model - Manufacturer: HR21-700 
Receiver ID: 0288-8173-6475 
Software Version: 0x1FE 
Serial Number: 202 842 69 89

Has anyone else experienced this??


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## DavidFritz (Mar 30, 2008)

Fellers....been thinking of getting an HR21 receiver finally but decided to do some checking....glad I did! I wanted to share some insight with you that may be of service or may be complete hogwash.....

I live in Colorado Springs and have an HR10-250 upraded to 500. Just the past couple of two or three weeks, I started having my receiver (way more frequently than ever) lock up, not record, etc....seemed as if it may have been a hard drive going bad from what I'd read....but here comes the interesting part.

I told D* I lived in Los Angeles about 2 years ago even though I didn't just so I could receive the LA feeds for the high def network stuff -- my stations here were quite a bit slow to get going with all that, so that's why I did it. They for the most part got their act together recently and coupled with the fact that I would have to "move" back to get a new HR21, I went ahead and "moved" back last week. 

Since then, not one - again, not ONE single misrecording, lockup, etc...has happened for over a week now. In the very recent past, I used to EASILY get some variation of a screw up every few days, if not a lockup of the recevier requiring a hard restart EVERY DAY.

I noticed (without looking at all of the posts) that many of you are LA or NY network residents and are most likely getting this feed. Could be something?? And if that's not it, the other variable is that I turned off HD package since with the HR10-250 I am only getting a few channels anyway. That too, may have had something to do with it.....

Just my $.02 ... good luck!

Fritzie


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## belloc (May 23, 2007)

DavidFritz said:


> I noticed (without looking at all of the posts) that many of you are LA or NY network residents and are most likely getting this feed. Could be something??


I live in LA and do not have any trouble with my HR-21. I had one dud box back in October, but they quickly replaced it with a brand new one, and it has no trouble.

With this latest NR, I do notice that about 10% of the time after FF a recorded show, the audio takes about 2 seconds to come back, but that's nothing compared to what others are describing.


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