# Philips DSR708 acting up, need a little help



## Rob55 (Sep 14, 2006)

Just need some feedback on what might be wrong with my DSR708 DirecTiVo. I recently purchased an HR-20 which was installed in place of the DSR708 (I didn't de-activate my DSR708). After living with the HR-20 for 3 weeks and my wife fed up with it's problems, I moved it to my theater and set the DSR708 back up in my living room. Basically, when I tried firing it up, it got stuck on the "almost there, just a few more minutes" screen. I left it like that for about an hour figuring it had something to do with it being unplugged for 3 weeks and it needed to get updates or something. After the hour was over, I unplugged and tried to boot again but had no luck. On the 3rd try, it actually booted up and started working again but I now have a problem where the picture pauses avery 10-20 minutes or so(or more often, but it varies). The audio keeps going, but the picture pauses momentarily. Sometimes the picture will not start back up and I have to change the channel to get it going again. This happens on live as well as recorded TV. Initially, the problem was happening more often, but now only happens every 10-20 minutes or so. Since the unit is only 2 years old, is this the beginnings of a bad hard drive or something with the circuitry of the unit? I really don't want to get an R15 as I would rather get another HR-20 (but not before they work out more of the bugs). I can get a pre-formatted drive from Weaknees for $119 but I don't want to go that route if my problem is not with the drive. Thanks for any feedback. 

Rob


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

Sounds like your hard drive has gone bad in the unit.


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## Rob55 (Sep 14, 2006)

Earl Bonovich said:


> Sounds like your hard drive has gone bad in the unit.


Even though it ran fine for 2 years and then was unplugged for 3 weeks? Would the audio continue running with a frozen picture, even for a minute or two if it were the drive? Also, the picture breaks up sometimes when it un-freezes. Should I try totally re-setting the unit (wiping out season passes, etc.)?


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

Rob55 said:


> Even though it ran fine for 2 years and then was unplugged for 3 weeks? Would the audio continue running with a frozen picture, even for a minute or two if it were the drive? Also, the picture breaks up sometimes when it un-freezes. Should I try totally re-setting the unit (wiping out season passes, etc.)?


The most taxing part on a hard drive is the startup routine.

It is very possible that something has gone wrong on an early part of the drive... and the drive can not initilize itself probably.

Audio is a lot more forgiving then video data.

A clear and delete may help, but I doubt it.
The symptoms you have listed most definently sound like a hard drive issue.


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## Rob55 (Sep 14, 2006)

Earl Bonovich said:


> A clear and delete may help, but I doubt it.
> The symptoms you have listed most definently sound like a hard drive issue.


I figured as much, but I wanted to make sure before I spent the money on a replacement drive. I'd rather get a 2nd HR20, but my wife has a chip on her shoulder about them now and I understand they're in short supply. BTW, would you repair the unit or get the R15? If you say R15, how stable are they compared to the unit I'd be replacing?


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## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

Rob55 said:


> I figured as much, but I wanted to make sure before I spent the money on a replacement drive. I'd rather get a 2nd HR20, but my wife has a chip on her shoulder about them now and I understand they're in short supply. BTW, would you repair the unit or get the R15? If you say R15, how stable are they compared to the unit I'd be replacing?


If you can wait a little while longer, until the next software update for the R15... things may change drastically for the better for the R15.

You can get any hard drive (you don't have to get the weakness one). If you are good with computers, then you can do the software install yourself.

see www.tivocommunity.com for more details.


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## Rob55 (Sep 14, 2006)

Earl Bonovich said:


> If you can wait a little while longer, until the next software update for the R15... things may change drastically for the better for the R15.
> 
> You can get any hard drive (you don't have to get the weakness one). If you are good with computers, then you can do the software install yourself.
> 
> see www.tivocommunity.com for more details.


When is "a little while longer" with respect to the R15? As for upgrades, I did one on my SAT-T60 which then failed 6 months later. So yes, I could do it, but it'll just be easier for me to get a pre-formatted drive from Weaknees. I know $119 is alot for an 80gb drive, but I'd rather spend it on a new drive than on $99 for leasing an R15. Besides, I do eventually want to get another HR20. Thanks for the input, Earl. 
P.S. - Congratulations in advance on your 7000th post!


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## Clint Lamor (Nov 15, 2005)

Rob55 said:


> When is "a little while longer" with respect to the R15? As for upgrades, I did one on my SAT-T60 which then failed 6 months later. So yes, I could do it, but it'll just be easier for me to get a pre-formatted drive from Weaknees. I know $119 is alot for an 80gb drive, but I'd rather spend it on a new drive than on $99 for leasing an R15. Besides, I do eventually want to get another HR20. Thanks for the input, Earl.
> P.S. - Congratulations in advance on your 7000th post!


You can probably get the R15 free. I ould say $119 for an 80gb is quite high. Did you see if the drive you put in is still under warranty?


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## Rob55 (Sep 14, 2006)

Clint Lamor said:


> You can probably get the R15 free. I ould say $119 for an 80gb is quite high. Did you see if the drive you put in is still under warranty?


If you're referring to the WD drive I put in my SAT-T60, that was over 2 years ago and I think it was because I put a 7200RPM drive where a 5400RPM Maxtor used to be. After the upgrade, I noticed that the temp had gone up. Anyway, I figured I might be able to get an R15 for free, but I'd incur another $4.99 lease fee. Since I own the DSR708 and it's my primary receiver, I don't pay an extra receiver fee on it and only pay the $4.99 on my HR20. Oddly enough, if the HR20 was my primary and the DSR708 was my secondary, I'd have to pay a $4.99 lease on the HR20 and an extra receiver fee for my DSR708.


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## Clint Lamor (Nov 15, 2005)

Rob55 said:


> If you're referring to the WD drive I put in my SAT-T60, that was over 2 years ago and I think it was because I put a 7200RPM drive where a 5400RPM Maxtor used to be. After the upgrade, I noticed that the temp had gone up. Anyway, I figured I might be able to get an R15 for free, but I'd incur another $4.99 lease fee. Since I own the DSR708 and it's my primary receiver, I don't pay an extra receiver fee on it and only pay the $4.99 on my HR20. Oddly enough, if the HR20 was my primary and the DSR708 was my secondary, I'd have to pay a $4.99 lease on the HR20 and an extra receiver fee for my DSR708.


Might not hurt to check the WD website some of their drives had 3-5 year warranties. I always check drives I get in just to see if I can get it replaced. 

Ya the extra fee's add up and can be a pain at times.


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## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

Rob55 said:


> Oddly enough, if the HR20 was my primary and the DSR708 was my secondary, I'd have to pay a $4.99 lease on the HR20 and an extra receiver fee for my DSR708.


Are you sure about that? Or did a D* CSR tell you that? D*s fee structure is that there is a $4.99 a month charge for each additional receiver after the first one. Whether the HR20 or the DSR7087 is listed as primary shouldn't matter. The only difference would be in the way the fee is listed on your bill. If a leased receiver is the "additional" receiver, it shows as a "Leased Receiver" fee. If the additional receiver is an "owned" receiver, I believe it just lists the fee just as "Addtional Receiver".

If you have two receivers (DVRs, whatever) on your account, there should only be one $4.99 additional fee, not two.


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## Rob55 (Sep 14, 2006)

JLucPicard said:


> Are you sure about that? Or did a D* CSR tell you that? D*s fee structure is that there is a $4.99 a month charge for each additional receiver after the first one. Whether the HR20 or the DSR7087 is listed as primary shouldn't matter. The only difference would be in the way the fee is listed on your bill. If a leased receiver is the "additional" receiver, it shows as a "Leased Receiver" fee. If the additional receiver is an "owned" receiver, I believe it just lists the fee just as "Addtional Receiver".
> 
> If you have two receivers (DVRs, whatever) on your account, there should only be one $4.99 additional fee, not two.


To be honest, I was only assuming that would be the case. Basically, I'm paying a lease fee of $4.99 on the HR20. I was only assuming that if the HR20 became the primary, I'd still have to pay a lease fee on it as well as an extra reciever fee for the DSR708 which would become the secondary. I doubt they would waive the lease fee on the HR20 simply because it became the primary receiver on my account. Then again, stranger things have happened.


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## JLucPicard (Apr 27, 2004)

What they call a "lease fee" is really the same thing that used to be called a "mirroring fee" in the past for any additional units on the account. It is a fee for providing the same programming content on each box as the primary unit on the account.

If the only receiver/DVR you had was the HR20, you would not see any $4.99 "lease fee". That fee is not charged on the first (primary) unit on the account.


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## Rob55 (Sep 14, 2006)

JLucPicard said:


> If the only receiver/DVR you had was the HR20, you would not see any $4.99 "lease fee". That fee is not charged on the first (primary) unit on the account.


Thanks for the feedback. Sounds like I should dump the DSR708 (hey it lasted 2 years and cost me only $99 which comes out to .14/day) and get another HR20.


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## Abeicle (Nov 28, 2006)

I am having the EXACT same problem. Plese advise!
Thanks,
-Abe



Rob55 said:


> Just need some feedback on what might be wrong with my DSR708 DirecTiVo. I recently purchased an HR-20 which was installed in place of the DSR708 (I didn't de-activate my DSR708). After living with the HR-20 for 3 weeks and my wife fed up with it's problems, I moved it to my theater and set the DSR708 back up in my living room. Basically, when I tried firing it up, it got stuck on the "almost there, just a few more minutes" screen. I left it like that for about an hour figuring it had something to do with it being unplugged for 3 weeks and it needed to get updates or something. After the hour was over, I unplugged and tried to boot again but had no luck. On the 3rd try, it actually booted up and started working again but I now have a problem where the picture pauses avery 10-20 minutes or so(or more often, but it varies). The audio keeps going, but the picture pauses momentarily. Sometimes the picture will not start back up and I have to change the channel to get it going again. This happens on live as well as recorded TV. Initially, the problem was happening more often, but now only happens every 10-20 minutes or so. Since the unit is only 2 years old, is this the beginnings of a bad hard drive or something with the circuitry of the unit? I really don't want to get an R15 as I would rather get another HR-20 (but not before they work out more of the bugs). I can get a pre-formatted drive from Weaknees for $119 but I don't want to go that route if my problem is not with the drive. Thanks for any feedback.
> 
> Rob


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