# HR2x Lockup Discussion



## DFWHD

We had to do a red button reset on all 3 of our DVRs over the past hour to get them to come on. The affected items were a HR20-700, an HR21-200 and an HR21-100. No power surges detected and all three are on Panamax power centers. Has anybody had an issue with their DVRs this morning? Rather strange...



Stuart Sweet said:


> Mod Edit: As this is post #1 in this thread, here's an update for those who came in late:
> 
> Some sort of issue caused lockups for close to 90% of DVR users on Monday. This was not due to a network connection or any particular setup. It was an issue on the DIRECTV end.
> 
> DIRECTV acted as quickly as possible to solve the problem and that included, for some people, forced reboots initiated from a satellite command.
> 
> Some people have found that they had to pull the plug for 15 minutes to get full function back, but that's rare. For most people a red-button-reset was all it took.
> 
> DIRECTV knows what caused the issue and has addressed it. There is very little chance that you'll need to address it further.
> 
> An e-mail was sent out as a courtesy. We all agree that it could have been sent sooner but it wasn't. It was sent as soon as the issue was completely under control.
> 
> Bottom line, what happened Monday, is Monday's news. Today is Wednesday.


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## Steve Robertson

Yup I had to reset 2 of mine what a pain in the ass


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## davring

One of my HR20-700's was dead this morning, would not power on, had to pull the plug to get it to reboot. It came up fine, all seems to be well except all of my favorite lists were wiped clean. It is on a UPS, there was no software update indicated. This is the first hard reset I have had to do in well over a year.


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## DanER40

I posted about this in another thread. Guess I better check all my units.


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## lordfam

Both my HR20-100 units were dead this morning. I had to do red-button restarts to get them going. I didn't have time to check recordings, to-do list, etc. I can only hope they are OK.


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## fx72

Also had 2 units dead this morning.... HR21-700 and HR21-100.


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## or270

I remember something like this happened last year, if I remember right it was bad guide data.


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## sigma1914

Two HR20s, both had the record light on, both unresponsive, and RBR fixed them.


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## JAYPB

All 3 HR21's (1 with an AM21) and Both of my HR20-XXX's were SNAFU'D this AM. 

POS.....I'm starting to get AWFULLY tired of this crap....albeit different crap week in and week out.

Crap is crap.....


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## David MacLeod

or270 said:


> I remember something like this happened last year, if I remember right it was bad guide data.


I wonder if this is whats happening today since its happening to nr and ce users. that would make sense.


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## sigma1914

JAYPB said:


> All 3 HR21's (1 with an AM21) and Both of my HR20-XXX's were SNAFU'D this AM.
> 
> POS.....I'm starting to get AWFULLY tired of this crap....albeit different crap week in and week out.
> 
> Crap is crap.....


Considering how wide-spread this seems to be, I wouldn't go on a little "POS" tirade about the unit...This seems like a Directv issue. I've been extremely happy with 2 HR20s for 2 years now.


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## MechMan1

Same thing here on all three of my receivers (two HR21s and one HR20). Red button reset and everything running again.


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## sticketfan

both my 100 and 700 had to be reset by pulling the plugs on both, even the red button reboot didnt work. both machines were locked up..


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## funhouse69

sticketfan said:


> both my 100 and 700 had to be reset by pulling the plugs on both, even the red button reboot didnt work. both machines were locked up..


Same thing here... I also have an HR20-100 and an HR20-700!!!

I came home this AM and they were both on and had video but were unresponsive to both remote and front panel commands.

I did an RBR on both of them and they both locked up at 97% and I waited a LONG time.

Thankfully pulling the plug seemed to do the job...

But seriously What the heck is going on???


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## funhouse69

Seriously the stability of the HR20-xxx has been a joke since the last national update. If this was an attempt to push out new version they certainly botched this for sure!!!


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## sigma1914

funhouse69 said:


> *Seriously the stability of the HR20-xxx has been a joke since the last national update.* If this was an attempt to push out new version they certainly botched this for sure!!!


Not for everyone.


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## poppo

All 3 of my units needed to be reset.


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## ljnskywalker

I had to reset my hr-20 this morning


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## David MacLeod

oddly enough my hr20-100 wasn't affected, only hy hr21-100. the hr20 was beibg watched until 1230 last night, wonder if this only affected units that were in standby at midnight.


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## captdusty

Ditto, HR20 and HR21. My HR20 was on and seemingly working. An attempt to rewind live TV caused it to go haywire and stop responding. RBR fixed both units.


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## Ken S

Four for four receivers locked this morning. Three HR20-700s and an HR21-200. If they were in standby wouldn't come out...if they were fully on...they would only show the channel they were on with no controls working.
All required RBR.


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## donjuan2007

"bad guide data" this the problem, I got the message after i reset the box



poppo said:


> All 3 of my units needed to be reset.


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## JAYPB

sigma1914 said:


> Considering how wide-spread this seems to be, I wouldn't go on a little "POS" tirade about the unit...This seems like a Directv issue. I've been extremely happy with 2 HR20s for 2 years now.


What I've experienced on different units over the last....oh 6 months:

-Missed recordings (The LOVELY "13" message in the history)
-Instantaneous "Would you like to delete this recording" pop up after hitting the play button on a recording
-Gray/black screen recordings
-The MOST LOVELY 771 message on Tuner 2 on my HR20's
-SLOW, SLOW AND SLOWER remote control responsiveness on my HR21's
-Reboots, reboots and more reboots.

But I won't make this into a "My HR2X'S are POS's"....b!tchfest.....:grin:


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## mx6bfast

Count me as one of the ones who woke up with HR20's that wouldn't turn on. I thought our 100 was completely dead, had to unplug for 10 minutes for it to turn on, RBR didn't work. RBR worked for the 700.


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## raott

Same here, HR20-700 was dead when I woke up. 

Pushing "Power" did nothing. Took pushing the red button to get it to wake up.


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## Jish

ditto ditto - but mine eliminated several of my local channels only when it came back on - I tried to add Channel 6 and pressed select the unit froze again then shut itself off and restarted. Checked the info screen and there is no current date for any software that was downloaded.


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## David MacLeod

JAYPB said:


> What I've experienced on different units over the last....oh 6 months:
> 
> -Missed recordings (The LOVELY "13" message in the history)
> -Instantaneous "Would you like to delete this recording" pop up after hitting the play button on a recording
> -Gray/black screen recordings
> -The MOST LOVELY 771 message on Tuner 2 on my HR20's
> -SLOW, SLOW AND SLOWER remote control responsiveness on my HR21's
> -Reboots, reboots and more reboots.
> 
> But I won't make this into a "My HR2X'S are POS's"....b!tchfest.....:grin:


guess I'm very lucky. no 771 issues since replacing a broken hr20 and an intermittent lnb.
never had a missed recording or blank/grey one, but this might depend on my usage and schedulings. never had keep/delete bug, but this might be due to weekly reboots for ce cycles.

however the slowness of hr21 with the am21 is a huge issue to me, but enabling 30skip instead of 30slip did help this a lot. however I should not have to disable a feature I like to make a basic function work correctly.


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## poppo

David MacLeod said:


> ... wonder if this only affected units that were in standby at midnight.


No, since I never put mine in standby.


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## jimb726

Both of my units, a HR20-700 and a HR20-100 were both totally unresponsive this morning. My -700 had to actually be unplugged to reboot, it wouldnt respond to the red button. The -100 responded to the RBR no problem. I know I went to bed around 1:30 and the -100 was responding fing so whatever happened occurred between 1:30 and 6:00 am, EST.


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## David MacLeod

poppo said:


> No, since I never put mine in standby.


lol, scratch that one then. I was accessing guide after midnight on the hr20, wonder if that affected anything.


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## bootsy

Both HR20-100's were dead when i woke up also. I unplugged one and it seemed to be working fine. I did a red button on the second and it has been stuttering ever since. Didn't get a chance to see what's up with my HR21 in the bedroom. I'll check that one out when i get home from work...


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## Indiana627

Both mine dead too. Had to do 3 RBR on the -100 to get it to come on. Then my recordings, series links and favorites setups were gone! I then did another menu reset on the hopes that the eSata drive didn't register when it booted up via the RBR. My 2 year old is now watching something via the TV OTA tuner so I haven't had a chance to check and see if my recordings and series links are back - I hope they are.


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## Weez_1000

This happened to 2 of my HR20-700's not sure about the one downstairs but the one in my main bedroom started acting strangely yesterday. I was recording the Dallas/Cincinatti game and anytime i tried rewinding or fast forwarding the OSD would come on and show the X1 X2 etc etc but the recording wouldnt move i could exit out of the OSD but the recording was then stuck. The only option i could find was to change the channel then go back to the game which would pick up in real time and never allowed me to go back and view any of the recorded information. I didnt really think about it at the time and deleted the recording chalking it up to some sort of anomoly. Woke up this morning to a few non responsive units so i wonder if it was related to the strange behavior yesterday or if it was just coincidental.

BTW: Neither of the units that were locked up were in standby mode at all last night.


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## DeWolfe

All 3 of mine had to be rebooted


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## chrisexv6

Same here, my HR21 wouldnt come out of standby.

And my HR20's were showing video but when wife went to access List the list came up and the PIG was still working, but the HR20s stopped responding. RBR-ing right now, waiting to hear if it fixes it.


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## mridan

Had to reboot one of my hr20-700's this morning,it was unresponsive.


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## priester68

My HR 20 was dead also. Had to unplug it. Seems to be booting up fine now. I hope.:nono:


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## Brian Hanasky

Same with me. My HR20-100 and HR21 both had to have the plug pulled to start back up. Didn't have much time to mess with them this morning but the HR20 didn't have complete guide data when it came back to life. For a few minutes channels were missing from the guide (204 and 360). After a few minutes it seemed to be back to normal.


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## JACKIEGAGA

HR21-100 dead 2 RBR did nothing had to unplug it working fine now
HR20-700 dead RBR fixed it


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## Villager

HR21 with AM21: Unit woudn't turn on. Pulled the plug; waited, reconnected and after reboot all is OK. No loss of recorded material or "to do" list.

Running CE; 0286


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## Rob77

Mine did the same, but stayed at 97 for almost 10 minutes...something strange was going on....


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## funhouse69

Well both of mine just became unresponsive again. I would love to know what is going on. I have stuff that is set to record today and can't sit and babysit my RECORDERS hoping that they are going to do what they are designed to do.

Hopefully D* will 1 - Admit that something is going on and 2 - Resolve it ASAP!!!


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## chachster

Had to RBR both my HR200-100 and HR20-700 this AM. Hopefully whatever the issue was has been resolved.


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## ccr1958

all 3 of my HR20-100's were dead....no response using remote...
RBR would not work...had to unplug all for a couple minutes then
push the power on button....


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## mightythor88

count me in, hr21 w.am21 and hr20700 both unresponsive. had to do red button reboots (had to push the red button a few times and finally held it in for a count of 5) on both and now seem to be working fine (but i havent really done anything to put them thru the paces).


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## ChrisMinCT

DFWHD said:


> We had to do a red button reset on all 3 of our DVRs over the past hour to get them to come on. The affected items were a HR20-700, an HR21-200 and an HR21-100. No power surges detected and all three are on Panamax power centers. Has anybody had an issue with their DVRs this morning? Rather strange...


:nono: 2 dead 700s this morning. RBR didn't work. Had to yank the power cords. Was on the 0x254 NR on both. Everything seems to be intact after reboot.

The 12midnight theory doesn't work - I was watching the BoSox until 1:30am.


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## tigwlowe

One HR20 was off and wouldn't power on. It returned to normal operation after removing/replacing power. The other HR20 was left on and it wouldn't change channels but you could enter a channel number with the remote ok. Removing/replacing power did not fix the problem. Both are on 0x254.


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## compnurd

same here hr21-100


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## Fatboy72

Ditto with my HR20-700 had to RBR it.


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## Talos4

Well, at least I'm part of the majority for a change.

Same thing on my HR-21/AM-21. I don't have the lastest software version # available to me. I'm on whatever the last CE gave me. I haven't noted the # yet.


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## drewmotz

Must have been a wide spread problem. Two -700's here, both unresponsive this morning, both recovered with RBR....
.....when is does new HD-Tivo unit start shipping??


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## Carl Spock

I'm glad to know it isn't just me. I should have checked here first. I've downloaded the software again, refreshed the piece multiple times, done two RBR and two pull-the-plug resets and none have worked right for more than a few minutes. Some not even that long. I've lost my locals off my antenna with two of the re-boots even though the guide data is there.

Something is seriously wrong with DirecTV's system right now.

Any of you who want to blame your HR-2x right now, go right ahead. You're wrong. The problem is upstream. It's like blaming your Ford truck for the problems of Ford Motor Co.


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## tscheifler

6 RBRs (HR22 & HR21) this morning.


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## Stewpidity

Had to reset my hr20-100, but NOT my hr21-200

I did not think twice about doing it, until I checked out DBS this morning...


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## thestaton

both of my HR-21's had to be reset.


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## Sixto

3 of 4 HR2x's dead this morning. All rebooting now (RBR).


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## MattWarner

Same thing here. One HR-20 non-responsive to the remote. Had to RBR.


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## fwlogue

Same here I woke up to three HR-20's that were dead. Had to remove power to one to get it back the other two RBR worked.


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## kaszeta

So it wasn't just me...


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## z28lt1

Just adding mine to the list. one HR21 was on last night and was showing video this morning, but wouldn't respond to anything. The other HR21 was in standbye, and wouldn't turn on. A few stabs at the RB, and it came up. Both were at 97% for a while.

I haven't checked the HR20 yet.


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## JMII

Same here, both HR20-700s required a RBR. Took them a long time to come back up and now all the guide data is missing. Bringing up the guide only shows the current channel.

I hadn't needed a reboot in MONTHS so this is very odd.


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## Lee L

me too me too.

I had 2 machines dowstairs lockup and I reset them. I forgot to do the one upstairs.

Also, I always pull the access card before I RBR since that is what DirecTV has said to so through Earl. This time is the first time I ever remember pulling the card to do anything visible to me. The screen went grey on both units and then when I put the card back in, it came back to what was on before, but had no discernable effect on the box working. 

Also, on one of my boxes, an HR21-200 hooked up via component the light for 480p was on and it is usually left on 1080i. After a reboot it went back to 1080i just fine.


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## phillig

My two were dead too.

RBR fixed them.


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## TheRatPatrol

My HR20-700 locked up here, would not turn on, took about 5 pushes of the red button for it to finally reboot. NR here.


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## NotNterLaced

Ditto here. 2 frozen units. Been seeing instability this week also. Saturday night live was a blank recording for me. The Amazing Race stopped short of my "Stop one hour later" option so I lost the end of that one too as well as "American Dad" refusing to play with a "delete now?" option right after starting up. Hope the power problem was related to a fix of some kind for that.


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## ShinerDraft

Wife found our HR20 and HR21 dead & called me for help. I looked here, found this thread and told her to RBR both of them. They're whirring away..


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## EricRobins

One HR20-100 became (after watching a recorded SD program and pressing LIST) unresponsive, one HR20-100 (so far) fine.

One Hr21-700 stuck on "Parental Controls" screen (via Slingbox - it could be that the IR transmitter got knocked out of place, but shouldn't the screen saver go on after a while?).


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## pfahle

davring said:


> One of my HR20-700's was dead this morning, would not power on, had to pull the plug to get it to reboot. It came up fine, all seems to be well except all of my favorite lists were wiped clean. It is on a UPS, there was no software update indicated. This is the first hard reset I have had to do in well over a year.


Both of mine required this,1st problems in 14 months.


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## apk8

And me too! two HR21 and my HR 20-100. I just unplugged the power and rebooted.


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## nerbe

I had to unplug mine, after which things are back to 'normal', and only had one blank recording last week. Has D* commented on today's problem?


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## podra

I also had to to reset my HR-700. I tried a RBR but that didn't work, unplugging it fixed the issue. When it came back up I didn't have audio until I disabled Dolby Digital.


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## OptimusPrime

nerbe said:


> I had to unplug mine, after which things are back to 'normal', and only had one blank recording last week. Has D* commented on today's problem?


I too, was affected by this problem. I would be interested to hear from somebody who has not been affected - my TIVO (r-10) was fine this morning, though my HR21-700 required the same red button restart as the others who have posted in this thread. Has anyone called DIRECTV? What has the response been from customer service?

-- OP


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## AmityvilleMd

Is anybody else missing a bunch of channels from the guide?


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## MIKE0616

funhouse69 said:


> Well both of mine just became unresponsive again. I would love to know what is going on. I have stuff that is set to record today and can't sit and babysit my RECORDERS hoping that they are going to do what they are designed to do.
> 
> Hopefully D* will 1 - Admit that something is going on and 2 - Resolve it ASAP!!!


The 1st time this AM that the HR20-700s locked up, a simple reboot seemed to clear things up.

After the 2nd time, rebooting the system brought it back to life, but:
1) Custom Channel guides are still there, but now are EMPTY!
2) ALL SLs are now toast.

I wonder if D* has a clue that this is going on and what they did to cause it? At 1st, I thought my UPS's must have failed and now I see that others are having the same or similar problems, so its not just at my locale.


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## Bob Coxner

HR20-700 was dead this morning. Took 2 RBRs to get it going. It doesn't look like I lost anything.

I also had a black recording of Family Guy last night. This is seemingly becoming a weekly event. Instead of CSR roulette, I get to play Black Recording roulette. It's only about once a week but it's totally random as to when and where it happens. I'm not a real happy camper about it.


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## DrummerBoy523

rebooted our HR20-100 this am.


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## raott

Carl Spock said:


> Any of you who want to blame your HR-2x right now, go right ahead. You're wrong. The problem is upstream. It's like blaming your Ford truck for the problems of Ford Motor Co.


Regardless of where the problem lies, it is manifested in the HR2X. To any user who doesn't care about the feelings of the HR2X or its programmers, it is irrelevant to what is causing the problem, it is relevant the HR2X is the one being affected and it is the HR2x that was dead this morning but my R15 and Tivo both went unaffected.

So no, it is completely unlike blaming your Ford Truck for the problems of Ford Motor Company


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## mickcris

hr21 and hr22 both needed reboot this morning.


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## creesh

3 of my receivers came back with either a RBR or a power reset, 1 unit is stuck on Searching for Satellite wven after a hard power reset.

I am running off of SWM8, does this have something to do with the problem.


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## djfrankie

My HR20-700 was also unresponsive. Nothing work and to pull the plug and it restarted fine.

Looks fine now.

First problem in about a year.


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## spunkyvision

All 3 Hr20-700s and and one Hr21-700 were locked up. 
I guess I got lucky, I am leaving for 2 weeks in about 10 mins when I noticed it.


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## davring

AmityvilleMd said:


> Is anybody else missing a bunch of channels from the guide?


My favorites were wiped clean.


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## dewey

Same here. HR20-100 came back after unplugging. Everything came back fine except my favorites setups were gone.


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## oldschoolecw

I also had to do a Red button reset but there is no new software up date on my unit. The last update was on 7/22/08


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## GBFAN

ShinerDraft said:


> Wife found our HR20 and HR21 dead & called me for help. I looked here, found this thread and told her to RBR both of them. They're whirring away..


I'm on the line with my wife now. The HR21 had record light on and would not respond to RBR. Had to pull the plug and it is back online. I will have to do the HR20 when I get home. I do not have any ethernet connections.


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## Ken S

Carl Spock said:


> I'm glad to know it isn't just me. I should have checked here first. I've downloaded the software again, refreshed the piece multiple times, done two RBR and two pull-the-plug resets and none have worked right for more than a few minutes. Some not even that long. I've lost my locals off my antenna with two of the re-boots even though the guide data is there.
> 
> Something is seriously wrong with DirecTV's system right now.
> 
> Any of you who want to blame your HR-2x right now, go right ahead. You're wrong. The problem is upstream. It's like blaming your Ford truck for the problems of Ford Motor Co.


CS,

But error recovery is an important part of any hardware/software application. So, while there are obviously problems "upstream" the HR2x series wasn't programmed in a way to recover from those errors.

So, yes...you're correct the device itself isn't at fault...those that built, designed, programmed and quality checked it may be though.

This isn't the first time something like this has happened.


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## JMII

AmityvilleMd said:


> Is anybody else missing a bunch of channels from the guide?


This is the problem I'm still having... if I switch the guide to ALL channels then everything is fine. My customized favorite channel list is completely EMPTY!


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## JS29

Both my HR21 and HR22 were dead this morning. RBR solved the issue. I'd be curious what the problem was.


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## L2BENGTREK

Had to RBR my HR20-100 in the LR. Didn't think about the HR20-700 in Man's Land....hope it's OK....I have Season passes golore on it! Do want to point out that the regular D10 we have in the kitchen rebooted while I was fixing my lunch for work. This was 7-7:30. Bengals continue to make me proud...:nono2:


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## skylox

Same here....have 2 HR22-100 both of them locked up....one i had to pull the plug in the back to get it to turn back on..they work fine now though


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## gmrubin

Called DTV, a message says "there is a problem on their end effecting all HR20 and 21 receivers, and it will be fixed shortly..."


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## bills

my hr22-would not power up!!!!


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## bradlej

Both HR20-100 and HR2-700 had to have plug pulled to get running this morning


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## FireMedic8039

Same here in Fl. Couldnt even manually changed channels. Lost half of Favs. Not showing on the guide. And resolution was stuck at 420i. And remote was dead. Glad this post came up. I thought it was only me.


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## MIKE0616

davring said:


> My favorites were wiped clean.


Got my favorite channel set-ups as well.  Now, to cut those lists of 8-900 back to 50 and 20, sheesh!

Are we playing "software roulette" in addition to "csr roulette" now with D*?


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## jfm

AmityvilleMd said:


> Is anybody else missing a bunch of channels from the guide?


After RBR, my Guide only displays the top line (which ever channel I'm on). Also my To Do List only has 4 items (I have 49 SLs, so it usually has many items).

Update - My Favorites List was erased, that is why no other channels but one being watched is displayed.


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## SteveHas

My 2 year old HR20 needed to be unplugged for 30 seconds
the 1 year old HR20 was ok with a RBR
both are fine now

I remember this happening last year too. I'm that like last year, this will repaired in short order

I do wish favorites were easier to set up though as I'm sure I'll have do do that again (like last year)


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## RAD

Well I'm assuming that at least one of mine is locked up, HR20-700. I'm out of town and tried to use my Slingbox to access it and it won't respond to any commands.


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## mobandit

HR20-700 & HR21-700 both dead this morning. Had to pull the power plugs on both to get them to start. Nice to see I wasn't alone today in issues with technology.


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## Steve615

Both HR20-700's were unresponsive to anything this morning.Pulled the power cord on both of them to reset.
This occured approx. 1 hour ago.Upon restart of both receivers,Network Services had to be restarted too.
Everything appears to be functioning normally at this time.


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## Car1181

HR20 back up after unplugging and restarting but HR21 stuck on "Step 1 0f 2 checking satellite settings..." for about 45 minutes.


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## mpaquette

My HR21 + AM21 was locked up this morning, wouldn't power on. I pulled the plug, waiting about 5 minutes and it came back up, but like others have reported, it stopped at 97% for a loooong time.

What is a "red button reset?"


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## MIAMI1683

Count me as 1 also. The plugs had to be puilled


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## dettxw

Made the following post in the Issues thread, but looks like this was a common problem with a known reason.

Family members also had to reset the Living Room HR20-700. 


dettxw said:


> Bedroom HR20-700 locked up this morning while recording _10_ on HDNetMovies.
> The rain must have started during the recording and been a contributing factor.
> The recording appeared in the Playlist but not the History. Didn't have time to try and play the recording but I would expect it to partially be there on the HD.
> Had to RBR.
> Didn't get a Report, didn't think it would do much good following a RBR.


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## sundude90

I haven't tried to see if my R22-100 has done the same thing. 

I am wondering if they all did a Software Update or something like that. Does anybody know if that might be the case or what caused this???


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## bsboggs

Add me to the list. My HR20-100 was locked up this morning. A RBR brought it back.


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## dogbreath

HR20-700's rebooted with RBR, but the HR21-100 had to be unplugged. Still do not have miscellaneous menu.


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## Lee L

TO whoever posted a large section of channels missing. I have not checked, but that certainly lends some credence to bad guide data baing the issue.



Ken S said:


> CS,
> 
> But error recovery is an important part of any hardware/software application. So, while there are obviously problems "upstream" the HR2x series wasn't programmed in a way to recover from those errors.
> 
> So, yes...you're correct the device itself isn't at fault...those that built, designed, programmed and quality checked it may be though.
> 
> This isn't the first time something like this has happened.


I probably posted this before, but I think you have really hit the nail on the head as far as most of the issues we have with this thing. It comes down to poorly crafted error handling in the software. Instead of recovering gracefully, either one subroutine or the entire box just takes a dump and somethign stops working.



RAD said:


> Well I'm assuming that at least one of mine is locked up, HR20-700. I'm out of town and tried to use my Slingbox to access it and it won't respond to any commands.


Maybe SLingbox neds to include a little linear actualtor you can hook to teh front of you box to do a RBR remotely. Actually, it is probably just closing a contact so it might no be hard to do this if you were willing to run some jumpers from that switch to a relay. Can you add additional commands to teh built in slingbox set?


----------



## fluffybear

The only problems so far this morning is the remote control issue which DirecTV seems to already know about


----------



## AmityvilleMd

Yeah I am missing at least 50 channels including all my locals.


----------



## johnson1995

mpaquette said:


> My HR21 + AM21 was locked up this morning, wouldn't power on. I pulled the plug, waiting about 5 minutes and it came back up, but like others have reported, it stopped at 97% for a loooong time.
> 
> What is a "red button reset?"


Little red button inside compartment where access card goes.


----------



## Thaedron

Wasn't a poll option that fit my exact situation, so I improvised (one requried restart - power plug pull)

Our HR20-100 was locked up hard this morning. RBR did nothing, pulling power for ~15 seconds did nothing, had to leave it unplugged for several minutes to get it to power up successfully.

HR21-100 was fine.


----------



## DarinC

The one in the kitchen wouldn't turn on this morning. A RBR didn't seem to do anythign at first, then it suddenly turned on. Won't vote until I get home and check the one in the den.


----------



## 69hokie

Had to RBR two HR20-700's and one HR21-100. My HR21-700 came on fine this AM.


----------



## FHSPSU67

Both of my HR21-200's and my HR20-700 required RBR's this morning.


----------



## tvjay

JAYPB said:


> -SLOW, SLOW AND SLOWER remote control responsiveness on my HR21's
> -Reboots, reboots and more reboots.


I have had these problems since I got it installed!


----------



## RoyGBiv

Both of my HR20-700's were showing the channel they were tuned to but were completely unresponsive and required RBR as others have stated. I also noticed both took what seemed a very long time to get past 97% on the acquiring data section. 

SMK


----------



## Stuart Sweet

I've changed the title of the thread because I've received word that there was no software update attempt today.


----------



## dodge boy

Mine was an R22-100 not an HR2* and I unplugged it and it sat on step 1 of 2 for over 20 minutes, I left it there and am work. I will check when I get home....


----------



## tvjay

You know last night when I was going to bed (around two AM) I noticed that there were some gaps in the guide data for MSNBC and I think some other channels that I never watch. Have we heard from DirecTV on this issue?


----------



## donm

My HR21 (not sure if it is a 100 or 700 I forgot how to check) was dead this morning. I had to do a RBR and it download 255 software and then step 1 & 2 software. Everything seems to be working fine now.


----------



## jcdUCLA

My HR-20 was dead. had to unplug and all is well.... I think


----------



## AmityvilleMd

A quick off topic question, I have a hr20, if I buy a hr21 on ebay, can I just take my access card and put it in the new receiver or does directv have to come out?


----------



## MLBurks

My HR21-200 also locked up this morning. RBR did not work. I had to unplug the unit for about 15 seconds. It rebooted fine in about 5 minutes and thankfully all recordings and favorites are in tact (whew!).


----------



## grafixfreak

I had to unplug the cord from the back of the receiver (HR20-100) and plug it back in. This was the only way the receiver would respond.


----------



## steve053

HR20-100 here with the same problem.

An RBR got it going again at 6:32 a.m. CST.

Have a SL for 6:30 a.m. that correctly started recording at 6:32 a.m. CST.

Haven't checked anything else as had to get going to work.


----------



## irish316

AmityvilleMd said:


> A quick off topic question, I have a hr20, if I buy a hr21 on ebay, can I just take my access card and put it in the new receiver or does directv have to come out?


Every time you get a new receiver you have to have a new card for it.


----------



## ktk0117

Both HR20's (-100 & -700) dead this morning. Also seems like it took forever to reboot both.

Funny, my R15 & R10 were fine.


----------



## marlen

bsboggs said:


> Add me to the list. My HR20-100 was locked up this morning. A RBR brought it back.


HR20-100 - was locked up here as well
HR20-700 - was fine

Don't know if this made a difference, but I powered the 100 "off" last nite before going to bed. I left the 700 powered on. It was on a NFL ST station, so no video signal was present, but the screensaver logo was going crazy. It was zipping around the screen at 4-5x the normal speed. I switched it over to another channel and let it buffer for a while and then tried to rewind. All went well. I did a RBR just to "cleanse" the system.

Funny thing on the 100 - I did not have to RBR or pull the plug to get it to reset. I held down the power button for about 5 seconds and then released. there was a short wait and then the lights cam on and the system reboot. like someone else reported, the system did hang for about ten minuted on 97% before completing the reboot.


----------



## Karen

I had to unplug my HR20-700. I didn't lose anything tho. It was on standby after 11pm.


----------



## finaldiet

One of my HR 20's needed a restart yesterday. The blue circle lights were out, but receiver on and 1080 light was lit. This happened twice on same DVR. After first restart, my favorites were gone. Re-loaded them and after second restart, they were still there. First problem I have ever had with either.


----------



## bt-rtp

After reboot, HR2x lost remote setting for TV so I had to reset and program the TV and codes into the HR2x remote control. This was needed on two of my three HR2x's.


----------



## kjnorman

Yep, found both the HR20 and HR21 dead this morning. First first that the HR20 had died, and we kinda freaked out. Then found the HR21 dead as well so I figured that they had locked up from some update.

Pressed the red reset button and both sprang back to life.

What caused it? A software update?


----------



## bases1616

grafixfreak said:


> I had to unplug the cord from the back of the receiver (HR20-100) and plug it back in. This was the only way the receiver would respond.


Same here with my HR20-700. All my favorites are still there.


----------



## Jhon69

Had to do a Hard Reset(pull the plug for 5 minutes).Favorites list on my R22-100 is OK.

My HR10-250 turned on OK no problems.


----------



## EricRobins

Should we be entitled to a credit for this fiasco? Essentially, we are paying for a DVR that assumes "boat-anchor mode" due to their screw-up. Even if the credit is $0.10, its the principal.


----------



## BigEd

Both HR20-700's locked up. Unpluged to restart.


----------



## Impala1ss

Had to do a red button reboot on my HR20-700 this morning.


----------



## dpcv8

what caused this? bad software update?


----------



## teriden

HR20-700 -- Same most everyone but I had to do the ol' unplug and that took several tries before it booted. The one upstairs (same model) just took red button.


----------



## ruthiesea

I have one HR20-700. This morning it was DRT (Dead Right There) with no power. I unplugged it from the back of the unit and plugged back in after a few seconds. Power came on momentarily then died. Went to get a flashlight to check the rat's nest that I call my wiring system, but it was back on. Went through boot up, hanging at 97%, and now seems to be ok. Guide and playback list are fine.


----------



## mdyonke

Both my HR20-100s were "off" overnight and unresponsive this morning; had to pull plugs to reboot them.

Except for some minor voice "stuttering" I haven't seen all the problems reported with this release. Had considered myself lucky. Oh well.


----------



## Mrmiami

Yep, had to reboot both of my 20-700's somewhere between 1:00am and 3:00am eastern time they both went unresponsive.


----------



## johnd55

HR20-700. I had to do a RBR as well. Everything came back fine(favorites, to do list, etc.).


----------



## edlex

Hr21-100 had no response to power on this morning. RBR had no response either so I had to pull plug. Everything restarted fine and all was fine with recordings and to do/prioritizer lists.


----------



## dddeeds

I had to pull the plug on 1 HR-21 w/AM21, the other was still working fine. Both of our HR20 DVRs had to be reset also, one RBR the other had the plug pulled. Weird the one HR21 was fine but 3/4 were locked up. 
Come to think of it, I had reset the one HR21 that was fine today prior to the college football games on Saturday AM as the guide and some channels were distorted - lacking a color, kinda like a colored component cable was pulled out, but is fed HDMI so I knew something was up. The thing eventually locked up when I finished a recorded program and that's when I reset it.
I hope they get this fixed. Not cool on the best tv night.


----------



## keith_benedict

My HR20-700 had to be restarted today. Wouldn't respond to either the remote or the power button on the front of th unit.

If this really is bad guide data, as some have suggested, it's truly frightening to think that bad data could completely lock up a device.


----------



## HIGHWAY

hr20-700 had to pull plug. remote not working all the time


----------



## RussFor

Same problem - DOA this AM. Needed to unplug to reboot.

However now there is no picture on my TV set.

I think it is an HDMI issue. How do I get the 2 machines talking again? Unplug and restart at same time?


----------



## mweldridge

Same problem here. 2 HR2x on ce and 1 on nr. All 3 had to be reset. Ted button alone did not do it. On all 3 HR2x had to do red button followed by power button.


----------



## JoeTheDragon

EricRobins said:


> Should we be entitled to a credit for this fiasco? Essentially, we are paying for a DVR that assumes "boat-anchor mode" due to their screw-up. Even if the credit is $0.10, its the principal.


how about free HBO or SHOWTIME?


----------



## webby_s

Voted, Had to RBR the receiver and everything is working fine. Nothing effected other then my frustration. Oh well, took an extra 7 minutes. I can live with it. But just don't want to see it happen again.


----------



## scuba_tim

I also had to pull the plug on my HR20-700, as RBR did nothing. Came back with everything in tact though (or so it seems on the few recordings I checked).


----------



## venisenvy

Is anyone missing any channels,after i had to rbr I tried putting on Fox News and it says channel not available, i look on the guide and it is not there.... is that only me?


----------



## Clemsole

Both of our units, HR20-700 & HR21-700, had to be rebooted by pulling the plug.


----------



## mrpbjnance

Yes and I am at work with my wife yapping at me ...Had 3 to reboot..waiting to hear if that worked.


----------



## mortimer

HR20-700 and HR21-700 both needed RBRs.


----------



## freshone

I lost EVERYTHING...recordings AND favorites!!! Not sure how or why..just rebooted and that was it.....


----------



## GP_23

DFWHD said:


> We had to do a red button reset on all 3 of our DVRs over the past hour to get them to come on. The affected items were a HR20-700, an HR21-200 and an HR21-100. No power surges detected and all three are on Panamax power centers. Has anybody had an issue with their DVRs this morning? Rather strange...


Had to do the same thing, thought it was weird, was working just fine at 10:30 when I went to bed last night!


----------



## DBSNewbie

(3) HR20-100s and
(2) HR20-700s required to have the power cord pulled then re-inserted to have it start back up.

(1) HR20-100 and (1) HR20-700 were not affected.


----------



## Alebob911

Had to RBR my HR20-700 completely unresponsive but my HR22-100 turned on without any issues.


----------



## kki000

my hr20 100 and 700 both needed restarts, unplug + rbr.

the worst part is the 700 which has a esata hardrive is completely reset, list is empty nothing on its prioritizer.

oh joy. 

the 100 with the internal drive seems fine.

anyone else with an esata connection have problems like this? Ive done several restarts, powering down the hard drive as well. HD is a seagate free agent 750gig.


----------



## brockley

HR21-200 locked on ESPN, unresponsive, RBR solved. Stalled at 97% for about 3 or so minutes but finally finished and is working fine now.


----------



## NYURDRMS

Wow, two of my three had to be rebooted with the red button and were fine, but my third, in the theater room with a 1 TB HD hooked up, lost everything. I am talking about at least 20 movies and and many, many saved shows, that will not be available for recovery. I am extremely upset and I am tempted to call, but nothing is going to get back my shows now. This is extremely frustrating.


----------



## NYURDRMS

kki000 said:


> my hr20 100 and 700 both needed restarts, unplug + rbr.
> 
> the worst part is the 700 which has a esata hardrive is completely reset, list is empty nothing on its prioritizer.
> 
> oh joy.
> 
> the 100 with the internal drive seems fine.
> 
> anyone else with an esata connection have problems like this? Ive done several restarts, powering down the hard drive as well. HD is a seagate free agent 750gig.


I had one with a 500 G free agent drive that was fine, but my big one with a 1 TB drive was dead and completly wiped clean.


----------



## cdavis0720

I had to RBR both the HR20-700 and the HR20-100. The 100 is in our bedroom and we fell asleep with it on last night. When we woke up the channel we had on was still on but the remote and front panel controls were totally unresponsive. Did a RBR on that box but it stuck at 97% for over 20 minutes then only had two channels available HBOHD and Showtime HD neither of which I subscribe to, any other channel gave me the channel not available message. A second RBR fixed everything on that box. The 700 only required one RBR and everything is okay with that box now as well. I am currently running 0X281 as I did not dl this past weekend's CE. 


Carl


----------



## Doug Brott

NYURDRMS said:


> Wow, two of my three had to be rebooted with the red button and were fine, but my third, in the theater room with a 1 TB HD hooked up, lost everything. I am talking about at least 20 movies and and many, many saved shows, that will not be available for recovery. I am extremely upset and I am tempted to call, but nothing is going to get back my shows now. This is extremely frustrating.


power off both the receiver and the external drive, then power on the external drive and then the receiver. Hopefully everything is still really there.


----------



## Scorch

Yep both my receivers had to be reset..........but after one hour of use, they both have locked up again and both needed to be reset again.....

Hopefully they fix this soon


----------



## joannel

I have an HR-20 100. I tried rebooting with the red button..nothing. I unplugged. Still nothing. I had to keep messing around with the power button and red reboot button. It finally rebooted. All was fine at 12:30 A.M. this morning. So it must have happened between 12:30 A.M. and 5:30 A.M. Eastern Time. All the stuff I recorded in the morning at 5:30, 7 and 8 A.M. were not recorded. Not happy about that.


----------



## arxaw

Both HR20-700s were dead this morning. 
RBR fixed one, but the other one appears to be a brick.

NO CEs on either of these boxes.


----------



## mx6bfast

I didn't get to check to see if my recordings were lost. If so I will be very upset. Since I have movies that were recorded during free previews I wonder if D* will give me those channels for free so I can try to record them again.


----------



## kenmoo

Maybe DirecTV was finally trying to turn on all the new National HD channels on D11 and there were so many it overwhelmed the HR DVR's and froze them up. Both of mine were dead this morning but all came back well with nothing lost.


----------



## Carl Spock

kenmoo said:


> Maybe DirecTV was finally trying to turn on all the new National HD channels on D11 and there were so many it overwhelmed the HR DVR's and froze them up.


Dreamer. 



 Scorch said:


> Yep both my receivers had to be reset..........but after one hour of use, they both have locked up again and both needed to be reset again.....
> 
> Hopefully they fix this soon


Mine was also bad multiple times.

The TV system is unplugged and away from the wall as the lath and plaster behind it is being removed today. The system is also covered by sheets. Maybe getting hit by a chunk of plaster might help the situation. 

Otherwise, I'm hopeful the problem will be resolved when I plug things back in tonight.


----------



## herkulease

I thought mine was dead too or atleast was overheating. Happened before. anyhow I lost all my custom channels. had to redo them all.


----------



## pilotboy72

My HR21-700 was dead this morning also. Had to do two RBR's before I got anywhere. Interestingly I didn't see the initial "Hello, your DirecTV DVR is powering up" screens. The first screen I saw was the flashy DirecTV screen at Step 1. The process seemed normal but there was a long delay at 97 percent complete (although I've seen this before -- could be normal).

Has there been any word for DirecTV on the root cause of this?


----------



## Doug Brott

joannel said:


> I have an HR-20 100. I tried rebooting with the red button..nothing. I unplugged. Still nothing. I had to keep messing around with the power button and red reboot button. It finally rebooted. All was fine at 12:30 A.M. this morning. So it must have happened between 12:30 A.M. and 5:30 A.M. Eastern Time. All the stuff I recorded in the morning at 5:30, 7 and 8 A.M. were not recorded. Not happy about that.


All was fine @ my house @ 12:15am (Pacific Time) .. First messages started coming in to DBSTalk.com around 4:00am PT. So certainly whatever the issue, it happened during that time period.


----------



## RunnerFL

I also had to reboot all [4] of my HR2X's.


----------



## ethos

I dont know if my recordings are gone (forgot to check that one before i left home this morning), however my power light wouldnt come back on even after i unplugged and it restarted. Channels came up but not light on front power button.


----------



## TANK

HR 20-700 had to be restarted ,rbr didn't work.


----------



## jrodfoo

maybe a solar flare or something.. I know... I'm reaching here


----------



## Mike Bertelson

kki000 said:


> my hr20 100 and 700 both needed restarts, unplug + rbr.
> 
> the worst part is the 700 which has a esata hardrive is completely reset, list is empty nothing on its prioritizer.
> 
> oh joy.
> 
> the 100 with the internal drive seems fine.
> 
> anyone else with an esata connection have problems like this? Ive done several restarts, powering down the hard drive as well. HD is a seagate free agent 750gig.


You might want to power down the receiver with the eSATA drive, power cycle the drive and bring everything back up.

This will make sure that you are actually on the external drive and not the internal.

Mike


----------



## sbromagem

My HR21-100 needed a reboot also.


----------



## paulman182

My HR20-100 needed an RBR, but the HR20-700 turned on with the remote and is working, my wife reports.

My R22-200 was working fine from about 4 to 4:30 AM as I was getting ready for work, also.


----------



## Sirshagg

Well this explains why I didn't see the recoring light on one of my units for the manaul recording at 7am. I figured it was just the usual "13" error. Another one played fine this morning but I only turned on the TV/receiver and never did anything with the HR20 as it was already on the channel i wanted to watch. Seeing all these posts I'm sure all mine are locked up but I can't check for sure till I get home tonight.


----------



## jefirdjr

Both of my HR20-700's were unresponsive to the remote this am.
Both units were showing the last channel they were tuned to with good picture and sound. However, neither would respond to the remote, or turn off via the front panel. One unit seemed to be stuck in record.
Had to RBR both units to get control back. Both stayed at 97% for quite a while during guide data download. Both units came up ok, with nothing missing.
The unit that was hung in record had 2 programs to record last night. One from 1:30 am until 2:00 am, and the next one from 2:00 am until 3:30 am.
The problem must have occurred during the second recording, as it shows that it started at 2:00 am and went for 7 hr 48 min (RBR stopped it).
Both recordings were fine, except that the second one ACTUALLY recorded for 7 hr 48 min ! Sure did use up a bunch of disk space.:eek2:


----------



## ilovehd

All three of my HR20-700's needed an RBR..


----------



## NYURDRMS

Doug Brott said:


> power off both the receiver and the external drive, then power on the external drive and then the receiver. Hopefully everything is still really there.


Wow, I really wish that would have worked for me. I have tried the above, then even tried powering on the reciever with the external drive unpluged, which it did kick to the internal drive with all the programing I have saved on there before I went to the exteranal, then pluged the external back in, and still nothing.

Thanks for the thought though, looks like I am screwed.


----------



## andunn27

HR21-100 was also dead. I could turn my tv on and it was playing whatever channel I had it on last night, but the remote would not work and I could not do anything. I had to reboot my machine. Everything is working now!


----------



## NYURDRMS

NYURDRMS said:


> Wow, I really wish that would have worked for me. I have tried the above, then even tried powering on the reciever with the external drive unpluged, which it did kick to the internal drive with all the programing I have saved on there before I went to the exteranal, then pluged the external back in, and still nothing.
> 
> Thanks for the thought though, looks like I am screwed.


I will say that the one that got wiped out, it seemed to take a long time to reboot (just to get to the % screen) compared to the other two that were fine, so I am guessing it must have been redoing the HD at that time.


----------



## gbubar

Add me to the list...all 4 HR20's had to be rebooted.


----------



## steevew6

My HR20-700 needed an RBR......everything came back just fine except "Prioritizer"....I think I'll wait a couple of hours and check back too see if that group is updated!


----------



## Brian Hanasky

AmityvilleMd said:


> Is anybody else missing a bunch of channels from the guide?


I was missing channels after I reset my HR20-100. It took several minutes but the guide filled in without me doing anything. Whole thing was very odd.


----------



## Ken984

Both of my hr20-700's were locked up this morning as well.


----------



## Aztec Pilot

Both HR-20-100's needed RBR. Reboot seemed to take longer than normal. First time I had to do this in quite a long time. Even the CE's have been pretty stable. I forigive you D*.


----------



## tonyd79

2 of 3 units needed reboot.

The one that did not, I had played a recording late Sunday night. The others had no interaction.


----------



## Wukillabeez78

All three of my HR21-100's had to be reset this morning.


----------



## Inches

Rob77 said:


> Mine did the same, but stayed at 97 for almost 10 minutes...something strange was going on....


My HR20-700 was locked up as well but was at 97% for 3 minutes and 18 seconds (decided to actually time it). Am on CE 0286.

Tried to send in a diagnostic report, 20081006-32CB, but wound up canceling it out after 20 minutes. It sat there with the busy blue pips scrolling.


----------



## donut53

Both hr20 and hr21 had to be unplugged for reboot.... Strange thing happening now is the remote for the hr20 becomes unresponsive after reboot... The remote will work after reboot on all functions but after 30 minutes you can not use the remote for anything... Again a reboot brings back the remote but after a short period the remote becomes unresponsive... any ideas... batteries are new and remote works with all other components...


----------



## RAD

I wonder if P.Smith or Sixto have noticed any major changes to the D10/D11 transponder/channel mappings that happened at the same time?


----------



## Hansen

Woke up and found all 3 HR20-700s dead/unresponsive. Had to reboot all 3 of them. Thought, wow, that is so wierd...2 of 3 were runnning different software than the other 1 and all were not on NR software. I was perplexed as to what was going on but now see it was a widespread issue.


----------



## byron

both of my HR20-700 units were locked up solid. had to pull the power cord on both to get them back up and running. 

* both units are running 0x0281
* one of the units is using eSATA
* no lost recordings, prefs or favorites lost on either


----------



## Packersrule

The HR20-700 I had to pull the plug. The HR20-100 had no issues. 

Strange.


----------



## Mike770

Add me to this thread. My HR20-700 locked up this morning. It needed to be unplugged and re-inserted to bring it back to life.


----------



## jazzyjez

Needed to power off/on all three receivers (all running standard release s/w, no CE stuff).

HR20-700 and HR21-100 - no problem after restarting

HR20-100 - after restart, lost all custom guide settings, and some channels missing from guide. Could only get audio on HD channels, but fine on SD channels. Since at the time there was nothing on DirecTV's website - still isn't - decided to do a complete reset. All OK now except: 1) the clock is off by 1 hour - showing Central instead of Eastern time (yes I did recheck the settings); 2) I've now got to reset all my custom links, etc. - what a pain. Luckily I didn't have too much recorded on that receiver.


----------



## sswheeler

Same thing with mine with the HR21 with the AM-21. Had to pull the plug and then it sat at 97% for sometime. Came back up and lost nothing.


----------



## bobnielsen

It looks like I am not alone (I was afraid for a while that I had a brick). My HR20-700 wouldn't come on and did not respond to a RBR. After removing power for 10 seconds, the power LED came on for a few seconds but went out again. I removed power for 15 minutes and it has recovered.

I haven't checked my HR21-700 yet, but will do so later.


----------



## TahoeTeal

RBR required on both HR's


----------



## SD493

raott said:


> Same here, HR20-700 was dead when I woke up.
> 
> Pushing "Power" did nothing. Took pushing the red button to get it to wake up.


Had to unplug mine to get it on. However, this is something that had been happening to me about once every 4 weeks for the past 6 months or so. Although, it is usually in the afternoons after I come home from work. This is the first time that it has happened in the morning.


----------



## JACKIEGAGA

HR21-100 dead 2 RBR did nothing had to unplug it working fine now
HR20-700 dead RBR fixed it
HR21-100 is locked up again just pulled plug


----------



## elbyj

Totally agree with everyone --- tried everything and finally ended with a red-button reboot to get it to restore. Very wierd that so many units had the same issue.


----------



## abqdeemagoo

Same thing here . Door nail.
Every morning. since Friday. needs a reset.
Lost recordings and settings.


----------



## curbside

My HR21-700 didn't come on this morning. I never checked the HR20-100. Didn't have time to do an RBR. Used my old OTA TV to watch the morning news.


----------



## Bob Coxner

jrodfoo said:


> maybe a solar flare or something.. I know... I'm reaching here


Actually, the sun is amazingly quiet. Too quiet! 

"Sunspots Are Fewest Since 1954, but Significance Is Unclear"

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/03/science/space/03sun.html?ref=science


----------



## markrubi

UPDATE.. My DVR has been on since rebooting this AM. Now it is recording a SL and pressing Guide only shows the channel I am tuned to. Also the DVR will is not respond to channel up / down.


----------



## rgraetz

My HR20-700 was dead this morning too. I pulled the power to reboot it.


----------



## cnmurray8

2 of my HR21-200 needed a red button re-boot.
My D10-100 did not.


----------



## t_h

Both of mine got sick, one with the NR and one with the current CE. Neither one recorded anything from ~2am until the reboots, showing 'canceled by user'.

One gave no response to the remote and needed a RBR. The other one responded to a couple of remote commands slowly and allowed me to delete a show, then also stopped responding to the remote. Both were playing live tv just fine.


----------



## pannetron

Same story this AM with our one HR20 and one HR21. About every 45 min. they are locking uo AGAIN. Left the HR21 on and it was still outputting good video from the previously tuned channel but would not respond to remote nor front panel buttons. RBR and reboot and they again are OK but for how long???


----------



## sdicomp

HR20-100 & HR20-700 both unresponsive-had to unplug to reset
HR21 not affected


----------



## wojo23323

grafixfreak said:


> I had to unplug the cord from the back of the receiver (HR20-100) and plug it back in. This was the only way the receiver would respond.


Same here.


----------



## Chunkdog

I unplugged my HR21 & everything is working fine.

As of now, My HR20-700 is not responding to a RBR or restart.  
Any suggestions?


----------



## twaller

Had to RBR both of my HR20-700s this am. One running the latest CE and the other running the NR. Does not seem to make a difference.
My best guess is corrupted guide data.


----------



## dcowboy7

yes my hr21-700 needed reboot....ok now.


----------



## erict

*A post from another board.*

I just called 1800directv to see what was up & there is a recorded message saying that they are aware of reciever models HR20, HR21, & there was two more I didn't here clearly I think one was HR22. But it says they are aware that the recievers are not responding to remote control or front panel actions & they are working diligently to fix the problem.

So there was obviously no upgrade, it just sounds like a glitch in the system last night.


----------



## Ferrd

I had to RBR both my HR20-700 and HR20-100 this morning.


----------



## sb999

Had to RBR my HR-20 this morning as well. /nod


----------



## Chaos

HR20-700, HR21-700, R22-200 all needed to be rebooted. HR20-100 did not.


----------



## JACKIEGAGA

Chunkdog said:


> I unplugged my HR21 & everything is working fine.
> 
> As of now, My HR20-700 is not responding to a RBR or restart.
> Any suggestions?


I am having the same problem unplug it for 10 min


----------



## tivoboy

Yep, this happened to all my H21-700 AND it appears to have done something to my OLDER HDVR3 TIVOS, none of them could get sat info last night, still the same this morning.


----------



## PhilS

I had to unplug both HR20-700s


----------



## rbean

two HR20-700's, both locked up this morning, had to unplug both to get them back on, red button reset didn't work, rbr both got to 97% and stopped.


----------



## BubblePuppy

I don't put my HR20-700 in standby so this morning I turned on the tv and tried to rewind the buffer to see the local weather ( the HR was set to a local channel overnight). The time bar did not show and the unit would not come out of rewind. Had to RBR. Sent issue report #20081006-2E3F.
I have this weeks CE.


----------



## Indiana627

NYURDRMS said:


> with a 1 TB HD hooked up, lost everything. I am talking about at least 20 movies and and many, many saved shows, that will not be available for recovery. I am extremely upset and I am tempted to call, but nothing is going to get back my shows now. This is extremely frustrating.





Doug Brott said:


> power off both the receiver and the external drive, then power on the external drive and then the receiver. Hopefully everything is still really there.


Same here. I've tried everything including Doug's suggestion to get my eSata recordings back but they are gone and I'm extremely PO'd. It's as if I just brought home the eSata and hooked it up - no recordings, no series links, no to do list, no favorite channels. Even the guide scrolling effects are on which I normally have turned off.

This is the first time in my 5.5 years with D* that I'm EXTREMELY PO'd at them!

And I just tried checking my signal strength on my HR21-200 and the 101 and 103c came in fine, but then when I went to the 99c none of the TPs loaded. Same with the 119 and 110. And then when I tried to exit out of the signal strength screen, it froze and I had to do another RBR on it. What the frak is going on with D* today?


----------



## axl

I had to reboot mine. I tried the RBR and that didn't work. We tried to unplug it and wait and that didn't work. It comes all the way but is stuck on one channel and there is no sound coming out at all. If you try to view the guide it only shows the one channel it is on. Wife trying to call support now to see what we can find out. Anyone else had this problem?


----------



## joshjr

I have a HR20-100 that had to be unplugged and plugged back in to get it to power back on. A RBR did not work. Should I expect anything like this with the upcoming time change to?


----------



## matsfan

sticketfan said:


> both my 100 and 700 had to be reset by pulling the plugs on both, even the red button reboot didnt work. both machines were locked up..


Same here although a third unit was OK.


----------



## MikeW

3 out of 4 here.


----------



## missparker10

Both of my HR 20-700's had to be reset. And my HR 20-100. I was sort of glad to see this topic. At first I thought it was just the one I hooked up the esata to. And I thought I broke it.


----------



## SlimyPizza

I've only got one HR20 but I noticed this morning the unit became unresponsive to the remote. Assuming it was the remote, I replaced the batteries and still had the same problem so I rebooted the HR20. When it came back the unit was responsive to the remote but I'd lost my favorite channels list. Later when I went to re-edit the favorite channels list, the unit locked up again and I was forced to have to reboot another time. Not good.


----------



## dcowboy7

mine just locked again....needed another reboot.


----------



## m4p

My HR20-700 was also dead. Needed to do red button reset. I was not happy because I had something set to record from 5 AM to 6 AM, and it did not record.

Also, last week I lost my favorites list.


----------



## ChrisMinCT

ChrisMinCT said:


> :nono: 2 dead 700s this morning. RBR didn't work. Had to yank the power cords. Was on the 0x254 NR on both. Everything seems to be intact after reboot.
> 
> The 12midnight theory doesn't work - I was watching the BoSox until 1:30am.


An hour or two after booting, my wife was watching a recording and let it run through to the delete Y/N question. The 700 locked up completely. Would not respond to RBR. Had to power it off/on.

Just tried this on our other 700. Same result. As soon as Delete Y/N comes up, the system locks up.

Reforcing the last NR now on one unit to see if this clears up the problem.


----------



## Score023

For those of you that your channel up/down is not working all you have to do is re program your favorite channels or switch your channels to "channels I get".


----------



## IneedCCs

I haven't read all of the posts, so I apologize if this has been covered.

I woke up to two frozen HR20s, a 700 and a 100. Both were on and tuned to a channel, but no closed captions were displayed, and neither unit responded to commands from the remote. I did a RBR on both. When they came back up, the 700 was fine. The 100 wouldn't tune to certain channels, but after about 15 times it tuned to all channels. About ten minutes later, it was frozen again, no captions, no responses to the remote. I did another RBR, same exact thing happened. This has repeated four times now.

The 700 just froze up, too. Am now rebooting both now.

I hope DTV is aware of this problem and working hurredly to fix it right away. It's obviously a system-wide problem.


----------



## byron

Indiana627 said:


> Same here. I've tried everything including Doug's suggestion to get my eSata recordings back but they are gone and I'm extremely PO'd. It's as if I just brought home the eSata and hooked it up - no recordings, no series links, no to do list, no favorite channels. Even the guide scrolling effects are on which I normally have turned off.
> 
> This is the first time in my 5.5 years with D* that I'm EXTREMELY PO'd at them!
> 
> And I just tried checking my signal strength on my HR21-200 and the 101 and 103c came in fine, but then when I went to the 99c none of the TPs loaded. Same with the 119 and 110. And then when I tried to exit out of the signal strength screen, it froze and I had to do another RBR on it. What the frak is going on with D* today?


i know how you feel Indiana.... when i read that people were reporting lost recordings i left the office, walked home (it's just a few avenues) and checked both of my DVRs (one of which uses eSATA and is 60% full of movies from the premium channels.)


----------



## Ken S

Well, just got home and all four receivers were locked up again. I think we're getting a much better idea about what Chase Carey meant when he said reliability had to be improved.


----------



## mika911

I keep rebooting mine, works a while, and then goes bad again. Can we assume the'yll fix this????


----------



## joshjr

Your poll needs a new choice. For me I had to unplug it to get it back up. I had to mark on the poll that a RBR did not work and I had to call D* but I did not have to call them.


----------



## fornold

hr21-200 that needed to be rebooted. Had an eSATA that wasn't recognized when the hr21 first came back up. Did a menu reset and it was recognized, so I feel fortunate based on some of these reports.

hr20-100 that was not affected.


----------



## renen

Hi, I also had to restart my 2 HR20's and 2 HR21's this moning, but just now, while watching the news and about 20 minutes after changing the channel, I place one of my HR21 in pause to answer the phone and now it will not come out of pause.

I will RBR or power off if that does not work.

BTW, this unit does not have CE


----------



## xmguy

*My R22-200* is locked up this morning. REC light is on. But system is off. So unit will not power on. RRB* DID *work. System is reseting now.


----------



## Lothar

Had to pull the plug on all 4 of my mine this morning 3 HR-20, 1 HR-21. I was watching when they locked up it was around 2:30AM MST.


----------



## techm8n

Two of my HR21-700 also required an RBR.


----------



## tvjay

markrubi said:


> Also the DVR will not respond to channel up / down.


My DVR will not do anything either. I just watched a show and now I can not change the channel, show the list or show the guide. I can't even power down the box via the remote. Buttons on front of box do not work either. *What is happening DIRECTV?*


----------



## smiddy

Yes, both DVRs needed the obligatory RBR. I noticed my network logs were empty too which since the download they were phoning home between 02:00 and 04:00 every morning.


----------



## andunn27

I know people have said this was probably due to bad guide data, but does Directv ever release statements explaining what happened especially since this seems to be a widespread issue?


----------



## tvjay

andunn27 said:


> I know people have said this was probably due to bad guide data, but does Directv ever release statements explaining what happened especially since this seems to be a widespread issue?


LOL, I don't think so! I think they should, but I don't think they do.


----------



## xmguy

Has anyone lost recordings and/or todo list / prioritizor with INTERNAL Hard Drive ?


----------



## Argee

I had the lock up this morning on both HR20. Just now the one I was watching a recorded program on locked up and the second one will not turn on again.
Second power plug pull of the day.
WTF is going on??


----------



## twaller

I don't fault D* for having a technical glitch. I do fault them for not communicating with their customers. Tell us what is going on, and when it will be fixed.


----------



## joshjr

xmguy said:


> Has anyone lost recordings and/or todo list / prioritizor with INTERNAL Hard Drive ?


I did not lose my recordings.


----------



## DarkAudit

Had to reset my HR21 twice since 9am today.


----------



## jrodfoo

when I did a RBR, things came back quickly. I watched about 10 minutes of ESPN2HD, and then turned it off and came to work. Hopefully things are stable tonight.


----------



## online2much

Both of my HR21's were frozen this morning. Rebooted both, and they were working fine. Now both are locked up again, and I am going for my 2nd reboot of the day.... grrrrrr


----------



## JACKIEGAGA

xmguy said:


> Has anyone lost recordings and/or todo list / prioritizor with INTERNAL Hard Drive ?


Check this thread
http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141652


----------



## CliffV

All 3 of my HR2x's required RBR this morning. So far, they're still working.


----------



## mikejos

Same issue here with my HR20. Maybe it's Y2K8.287.


----------



## xmguy

joshjr said:


> I did not lose my recordings.


Mine just came back. All settings and prefs are ok and recordings are all there. RRB Did the trick.


----------



## Frank5575

davring said:


> One of my HR20-700's was dead this morning, would not power on, had to pull the plug to get it to reboot. It came up fine, all seems to be well except all of my favorite lists were wiped clean. It is on a UPS, there was no software update indicated. This is the first hard reset I have had to do in well over a year.


Same here, had to pull power. Took forever to come up. Was up ok but just now would not power off, change channels etc had to rbr again...


----------



## edlex

edlex said:


> Hr21-100 had no response to power on this morning. RBR had no response either so I had to pull plug. Everything restarted fine and all was fine with recordings and to do/prioritizer lists.


Just had to perform a RBR due to the HR21-100 locking up while watching a program no loss of recordings or todo/prioritizer lists.


----------



## jrodfoo

edlex said:


> Just had to perform a RBR due to the HR21-100 locking up while watching a program no loss of recordings or todo/prioritizer lists.


just happen now? crazy things going on this morning in Directv land.


----------



## sticketfan

2nd reboots for the day on both the 100 and 700, not good...something major must be going wrong....directv is going to have tons of angry owners on their hands....


----------



## Argee

Yes, a number of us locked up again at about 1245 EDST. Something is coming down from the birds and locking the DVR's it seems. Wonder WTF is going on.


----------



## Aztec Pilot

Both HR 20 100's just did it again. Shut them off, came back an hour later, and they would not turn on. RBR again.


----------



## davring

12:45 PM second lock up of the day.


----------



## spartanstew

My wife told me this morning that neither unit would respond to the remote. Of course, I assumed she was doing something wrong. What are the odds both receivers in the living room would not accept remote commands? Performed RBR on both and they seem to be fine for now. No lost recordings on the unit with the internal or the unit with the external.

Haven't had a chance to check the unit in the home theater, but I'm sure it'll need a RBR too.


It seems some peoples boxes are continuing to lock up. Should I remove my external (that has a ton of stuff) for the time being?


----------



## brh056

12:50, locked up again. RBR


----------



## njblackberry

Has anyone heard anything from DirecTV as to the cause?


----------



## jrodfoo

mass chaos..


----------



## dcowboy7

maybe we hit a ppvhd channel quota.


----------



## pilotboy72

I wonder if this is what is driving the need for the TiVo owners to get up to a current software release? I've heard rumors that the format of the guide data from the provider changed. Could it be a buffer overflow or null pointer exception in the receiver?

Oh, the humanity!!!

My receiver at home and my in-law's receivers both needed the RBR for the second time today.


----------



## tvjay

njblackberry said:


> Has anyone heard anything from DirecTV as to the cause?


Seriously....anything from the modulators?


----------



## t_h

I guess directv felt bad that some of you havent gotten to experience any problems with your HR's, so they made sure to give us all a problem at the same time.

There's nothing on the directv web site, and nothing in their tech support forums. Both of mine have been okay since I rebooted them. If either one loses its recordings both of them are going into a box and heading back to directv.


----------



## Steve Robertson

Went home at lunch and both boxes locked up again RBR all over again I hope they fix this soon what a pain in the ass


----------



## Michael_D

Second lockup of the day. Now stuck at 97%, again. HR20-700.


----------



## z28lt1

Second lock up of the day here for mine too. About 12:50 Eastern


----------



## joshjr

The VP of Customer Service's office does not know whats going on either. They said that they are aware of the issue and have people working on it but do not know what the cause is as of yet. She did mention that they have reports of it no the HR20,HR21, HR22 and a SD DVR but I forget which one.


----------



## Ken S

tvjay said:


> Seriously....anything from the modulators?


I don't think the moderators (if that's who you mean) no much more than we do. I'm sure they're trying to find out what is happening.


----------



## Jeones

Same here HR21-700. Would not turn on this morning either by remote or front pannel. Had to unplug it. Now I just realized it was stuck on fox news and could not change the channel nor was it recording. I hit the red button and it is working for now. When booting back up it sits at 97% for a long long time.


----------



## t_h

Mine hasnt locked up a second time (yet), but every show it records is showing up in the history as "canceled by the user" but once the recording is done the history changes from canceled to recorded and the show is there.


----------



## dshu82

Both HR20 and HR21 locked up this morning. Fiance is RBR the HR21 in LR as we speak for second time.


----------



## jrodfoo

since I am at work, it doesn't really bother me, but when i get home, It will if it's not straightened out


----------



## creesh

2 HR21's are dead.

2 HR20's can't change channels.

The stock market is crashing, all I want to do is watch my F****'n DirecTV.

Somebody official report something!!


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

tvjay said:


> Seriously....anything from the modulators?


Amplitude or frequency?


----------



## kki000

to recap, esata drive is gone, power cycled both the drive and unplugged unit, definitely running on the external as I pulled the plug on the drive and unit stopped recording. everything is wiped from the drive.

the living room unit with the esata has locked up 3x now, unresponsive to remote and the front panel buttons.

im thinking it might be time to switch to cable..


----------



## snafup

12:10p EDT locked up for the second time today.


----------



## tvjay

Ken S said:


> I don't think the moderators (if that's who you mean) no much more than we do. I'm sure they're trying to find out what is happening.


Yeah, sorry I was thinking about a project I am working on.

I was just wondering because they appear to have contacts at DirecTV and was just wondering what they were saying.



AirRocker said:


> Amplitude or frequency?


Again, sorry....


----------



## dcowboy7

creesh said:


> The stock market is crashing !!


doesnt it do this like everyday now.


----------



## cdavis0720

No second round of lock-ups for me. On either the 20-700 that I have been watching or the 20-100 that was off.


Carl


----------



## billsharpe

Red Button Reset didn't do the job. I had to pull the plug. Unit took much longer than usual to finish rebooting -- hung up at 97% on Step 2 for several minutes. But guide was still full, recordings are still listed, and To Do list is still populated.

Absolutely amazing to see 355 active users now viewing this thread!


----------



## Maniacal1

I just checked my HR-20 and HR-21 via Slingbox and they're not responding to the remote again, just like this morning, when I did an RBR on both of them.


----------



## The_Geyser

RBR this morning at 7am, and just now at 1pm. The HR20-700 was in standby and would not come on.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

tvjay said:


> Yeah, sorry I was thinking about a project I am working on.
> 
> I was just wondering because they appear to have contacts at DirecTV and was just wondering what they were saying.
> 
> Again, sorry....


No worries... Just kiddin with ya


----------



## ticmxman

HR20-700, 2nd Lock up at 12:55pm, RBR seems to have worked.


----------



## mcb1

Got a call from the wife, said the dish doesn't work so looks like I'm in the same boat.


----------



## Ice Runner

All I had to do is unplug it and plug it back in and it worked.

What's maddening is that I called DirecTV and heard the recording that said they knew about the problem and were working on it. If not for this message board, I probably would have just waited and waited for it to suddenly start working because the message said nothing about unplugging the unit.


----------



## Dad61

My HR 22 was locked up this morning also. RBR Everything is ok for now


----------



## edlex

jrodfoo said:


> just happen now? crazy things going on this morning in Directv land.


Yes approximately 6 hours after I had to pull the plug from this mornings lock up.


----------



## mx6bfast

creesh said:


> The stock market is crashing





dcowboy7 said:


> doesnt it do this like everyday now.


Instead of a "sell at ## price" the D* DVR's are set to crash when the Dow gets below 10k.


----------



## daveshouse

I haven't been home yet to enjoy the madness


----------



## macmikey

I have had to reset my HR21-700 4-6 times A DAY since I got it a few months back.
Also, when fast forwarding or skip forwarding, the unit will slow down and go frame by frame for up to a minute.

i called DTV today and all they could say was this is a problem the techs are working on, and they could offer me 6 months free HD. Big whoop. I want 6 months of the damn thing working correctly. Does no good to have free service if the POS box does not work.

Mike



JAYPB said:


> What I've experienced on different units over the last....oh 6 months:
> 
> -Missed recordings (The LOVELY "13" message in the history)
> -Instantaneous "Would you like to delete this recording" pop up after hitting the play button on a recording
> -Gray/black screen recordings
> -The MOST LOVELY 771 message on Tuner 2 on my HR20's
> -SLOW, SLOW AND SLOWER remote control responsiveness on my HR21's
> -Reboots, reboots and more reboots.
> 
> But I won't make this into a "My HR2X'S are POS's"....b!tchfest.....:grin:


----------



## HIGHWAY

directv is working on it right know. called waited for half hour spoke to rep said they will fix it soon.


----------



## DBSooner

One of mine locked up while watching a recording early this morning. I had to unplug it. Went to sleep and after I awoke it wouldn't come on so I had to hit reset.


----------



## joshjr

HIGHWAY said:


> directv is working on it right know. called waited for half hour spoke to rep said they will fix it soon.


LOL I called and it took 10 seconds. I did not call a CSR though. They never know anything.


----------



## DarinC

IneedCCs said:


> It's obviously a system-wide problem.


I just don't understand what could happen in "the system" to cause 90%+ of these things to lock up. Proper error trapping is a basic requirement of _any_ properly written software. I could see a system-wide issue that would prevent them from receiving programming, or not showing guide data, or something like that. I could see something getting screwed up and resulting in an error on the screen. But having all these units lock up is a HUGE blunder.

Did someone accidently flip the backdoor "lock up all units" switch which is supposed to be reserved for times when they want customers to upgrade to a newer box?


----------



## PCampbell

RBR worked for me


----------



## etoh

My HR20-100 was totally unresponsive this morning and wouldn't "power on", had to pull power as RBR was non reponsive.

When it came back up I had no Locals, so did an RBR, came up ok. Recordings were ok, Locals were back, Favorites were back, didn't check prioritizer.

Wife just called, it won't respond again.

This sucks. I just hope I don't lose anything (wife would NOT be happy).


----------



## RoyGBiv

Mine were all locked this morning, and all required a RBR. Reading now that people were reporting that they had locked up again, I just called my wife from work. The two DVRs in our family room, an HR22, and an HR20-700 were both locked again. I had her do a RBR, and I'll see if they are working when I get home. The problem is there are two things I hope will record before I'm home at 9. I sure hope this gets straightened out.

SMK


----------



## henryld

DarinC said:


> I just don't understand what could happen in "the system" to cause 90%+ of these things to lock up. Proper error trapping is a basic requirement of _any_ properly written software. I could see a system-wide issue that would prevent them from receiving programming, or not showing guide data, or something like that. I could see something getting screwed up and resulting in an error on the screen. But having all these units lock up is a HUGE blunder.
> 
> Did someone accidently flip the backdoor "lock up all units" switch which is supposed to be reserved for times when they want customers to upgrade to a newer box?


Virus???


----------



## creesh

mx6bfast said:


> Instead of a "sell at ## price" the D* DVR's are set to crash when the Dow gets below 10k.


To make things worse, my frozen HR20 is stuck on CNBC. Can't change the channel.

I am looking for my Dow 10,000 t-shirt from 1999.


----------



## Steve Robertson

HIGHWAY said:


> directv is working on it right know. called waited for half hour spoke to rep said they will fix it soon.


There is that word SOON again


----------



## daveshouse

Welcome, etoh, during the time of chaos!


----------



## DBSooner

If your unit locks up while recording something, it will continue to record that channel until you do a reset.


----------



## Christopher Gould

hr21-100, hr21-200 both locked this morning and both again this afternoon.


----------



## DarinC

Just got word that our other HR2x was also locked up. We apparently left it on last night, so it was stuck on a channel, as opposed to not being able to be turned on. This box has an external drive, and fortunately we didn't lose it.


----------



## creesh

Think of all the money they are losing from the 100 HD PPV channels today.


----------



## Sirshagg

HIGHWAY said:


> directv is working on it right know. called waited for half hour spoke to rep said they will fix it soon.


----------



## Athlon646464

DarinC said:


> I just don't understand what could happen in "the system" to cause 90%+ of these things to lock up. Proper error trapping is a basic requirement of _any_ properly written software. I could see a system-wide issue that would prevent them from receiving programming, or not showing guide data, or something like that. I could see something getting screwed up and resulting in an error on the screen. But having all these units lock up is a HUGE blunder.


I'm thinking (unless there was a NR of new software), that the problem arrived with the guide data. It's the only thing everybody got last night. I know that was the issue for many the last time we went through this.

Worst case scenario - it was intentional. Someone knows what the exploit is and used it.

Best case - random, and hard to find. There is a series of characters in the data that our DVR's don't like......

Hopefully they can find it, but until they do, remove it, and give us new guide data tonight, this will not go away.

Hope I'm wrong........


----------



## etoh

daveshouse said:


> Welcome, etoh, during the time of chaos!


Been around long before my register date (9/2007), just don't post


----------



## ktabel01

Dead HR20-700 this am. required unplugging first time. Just RBR'd a couple minutes ago after it froze again.


----------



## ATARI

DarinC said:


> I just don't understand what could happen in "the system" to cause 90%+ of these things to lock up. Proper error trapping is a basic requirement of _any_ properly written software. I could see a system-wide issue that would prevent them from receiving programming, or not showing guide data, or something like that. I could see something getting screwed up and resulting in an error on the screen. But having all these units lock up is a HUGE blunder.
> 
> Did someone accidently flip the backdoor "lock up all units" switch which is supposed to be reserved for times when they want customers to upgrade to a newer box?


LOL!! :lol:


----------



## dcowboy7

creesh said:
 

> Think of all the money they are losing from the 100 HD PPV channels today.


theyll have to add 10 more thursday to make up for it then.


----------



## Kansas Zephyr

The HR21, a "brief" power down brought it back.

The HR20s took multiple, longer than 5 minutes, power cycles.


----------



## cadet502

HR20-700 Locked up, RBR fixed. Watched 1 hour show from 11:45 to 1:15pm with long pauses in between. Delete ok, list, guide, change channel, no problem.

HR20-100 Loced up, RBR fixed. List, Exit, Guide... locked up and guide never appeared. RBR in progress. This box has been in a reboot loop 75% of the time the last week, tech. scheduled for Friday for all the good that will do.


.


----------



## Stewpidity

add me too the list of having to reset again...


----------



## ATARI

RoyGBiv said:


> Mine were all locked this morning, and all required a RBR. Reading now that people were reporting that they had locked up again, I just called my wife from work. The two DVRs in our family room, an HR22, and an HR20-700 were both locked again. I had her do a RBR, and I'll see if they are working when I get home. The problem is there are two things I hope will record before I'm home at 9. I sure hope this gets straightened out.
> 
> SMK


Sounds like the 'fix' D* is working on didn't work too well.

Back to drawing board, boys.

As long as it is fixed by prime time tonight, I won't have to sack anybody.


----------



## oldschoolecw

I just had to do another RBR 
3rd time today:nono2:


----------



## Radar103

Just found unit locked up again when I tried to change off of current channel.

Same as before.


----------



## VHS or Beta

HR20-100. Had to reboot this morning, and just had to do so again. What's up?


----------



## Steve Robertson

I really hope this is corrected by the time I get home I have a few things to record and also have to watch BB tonight


----------



## Sirshagg

I sure hope this is fixed by prime time!


----------



## Starz26

Question I have is: If the units are locked up, how are they going to get an update to fix themselves? Will it be upon startup.

If it comes with the guide data, and your unit is locked up, do you wait another 24 hrs.....

this is going to be a big headache.


----------



## Villanman

WOW.... went to bed last night, noticed my Bedroom HR21 was dead, Reset it and it came back, so I didn't think much about it, until today.
I go upstairs and find the My HR21 to have the same problem as the one last night.
Come here and find out it's wide spread... somewhat relieved until I find that it is happening to people twice. So I run back down stairs after reading this and find my HR21 hasn't really died this time, but is locked up. It's on, and showing a channel, but thats it. Can't change the channel, pull up any menus or even turn it off... It is now resetting as I type.


----------



## ki4cgs

I just had to RBR both of mine. One which didn't lock up this morning.


----------



## DarinC

So nearly 3% weren't affected. What could possibly be different for only 3% of the customers? :scratch: 


> I'm thinking (unless there was a NR of new software), that the problem arrived with the guide data. It's the only thing everybody got last night. I know that was the issue for many the last time we went through this.


If it's guide data related, could that reflect the number of people with 110/119 capable dishes who don't actually have line of sight to 119 AND who happened to have their tuners tuned to a 103/110/119 channel? No guide data = no reception of bad data.

So this has happened before? Is it really that hard to trap for guide data errors and just dump it, and make the unit act like it has no guide data until valid data has been received? If that was the cause before, and it's the cause again, then that's DOUBLY bad. The first occurance should have spawned some careful combing through that particular code.


----------



## junianby

I'm on my 5th rbr. And the wife is pissed. Her soaps didn't record!!!!


----------



## joshjr

DarinC said:


> So nearly 3% weren't affected. What could possibly be different for only 3% of the customers? :scratch:
> 
> If it's guide data related, could that reflect the number of people with 110/119 capable dishes who don't actually have line of sight to 119 AND who happened to have their tuners tuned to a 103/110/119 channel?
> 
> So this has happened before? Is it really that hard to trap for guide data errors and just dump it, and make the unit act like it has no guide data until valid data has been received? If that was the cause before, and it's the cause again, then that's DOUBLY bad. The first occurance should have spawned some careful combing through that particular code.


From what I was told it was only people with DVR's. If it was a guide data problem why would all recievers not be affected?


----------



## sigma1914

macmikey said:


> *I have had to reset my HR21-700 4-6 times A DAY since I got it a few months back.
> Also, when fast forwarding or skip forwarding, the unit will slow down and go frame by frame for up to a minute.*
> 
> i called DTV today and all they could say was this is a problem the techs are working on, and they could offer me 6 months free HD. Big whoop. I want 6 months of the damn thing working correctly. Does no good to have free service if the POS box does not work.
> 
> Mike


Have you considered getting a new box? Resetting daily isn't normal.


----------



## markrubin

multiple lockups on 7 HR21 Pro's:

to think I gave up Comcast for this :nono:


----------



## i49mobile

I am on my second reboot of two HR20-700s


----------



## philherz

Found my HR21-100 DOA this AM so I did a hard reboot. (power off for 10+ seconds...like with my cable box.)

Fixed, but snafu again when I got home.

I assume the RBR is pressing the reset button and waiting!?

thnx


----------



## DrummerBoy523

rebooting again here also! HR20-100


----------



## dreamyip

Is this problem cause by the aliens? Let me call me space ship to track it down


----------



## VHS or Beta

By the way the internal cooling fan on ny HR20-100 was running at full blast when I found it locked up this morning.

I also found it stuck on the "771 searching for signal screen", as the NYC stations were no doubt off the air yet again last night (it's now a nightly ritual).

My first impression was that the machine locked up trying to find the signal, and/or it was a heat issue. Until I found this thread, that is.


----------



## jes

*HR20-100s* running {CE:15:11} 0x286. 2/2 required RBR this morning...


----------



## dshu82

markrubin said:


> multiple lockups on 7 HR21 Pro's:


Very nice!


----------



## StephenT

joshjr said:


> From what I was told it was only people with DVR's. If it was a guide data problem why would all recievers not be affected?


Because the DVR's have to parse the guide data to do searches for series recordings and keywords etc. Non-dvr's just have to display it. If it's guide data that's the problem I'd guess things go bad when it searches the data to add recordings to the to do list and hits the bad characters in the data or whatever or maybe when it indexes the data.


----------



## redrocker

i had to RBR mine also, now it will not turn off with remote or power button on unit. HR20-700


----------



## jungleland

I called them requesting info and a credit for this...They told me to call back when the issue is resolved for credit..

So annoying.. I should make two phone calls and wait on hold twice because of their issues?


----------



## dcowboy7

12,000+ views in 7 hours....hottest thread ever ?


----------



## katesguy

My HR20-700 was locked up. After RBR I tried to go to info screen to see if a new download had happed. Locked up and would not display any info, just kept saying to wait. After 10 min I RBR'd again. When I tried to return to the movie we were watching and told it to resume, it started over instead.


----------



## fhedrick

Found my 2 HR-20s and one HR21 dead this morning. Eventually came up. Now they are all frozen. Anyone having the repeat freezes?


----------



## dpeters11

I did a reset and most everything came up, but I did not have anything under channel 70 (HBO). After calling DirecTV and yelling at the automated system, I got them back.


----------



## jeffstra

I've been reading recently that people have been having to reboot almost daily. I have never had that problem until last week when I had to reboot every other day including yesterday. Yesterday I not only lost one receiver until I rebooted but the remote began to get very balky. I wonder if the current problem is related to the more on-going problem.


----------



## Richard L Bray

fhedrick said:


> Found my 2 HR-20s and one HR21 dead this morning. Eventually came up. Now they are all frozen. Anyone having the repeat freezes?


YES!!


----------



## DarinC

joshjr said:


> From what I was told it was only people with DVR's. If it was a guide data problem why would all recievers not be affected?


I have no idea if it's guide data related or not. But if it is, the answer is simple: just because something in the guide data can trigger it, doesn't mean all receivers are susceptible. Nothing in the guide data *should* cause _any_ receiver to lock up. But it's certainly possible for certain ones to have poorly written code that might lock up by an error in the data, or even just a specific (valid) string or combination of characters within the data.


----------



## venisenvy

had to restart both of my HDdvrs for the second time today, coming back from the gym my HR20 would not even respond to being turned on or doing rbr , i had to unplug it and wait about 2 minutes and plug it back in for it to come back.


----------



## SParker

Mine were locked up around 2AM this morning and I red rebooted when I went to bed. I turned on TV this afternoon and they were still unresponsive. Red rebooted again and it seems to be working again for now. Whats going on?!?! 2 HR20-700's and 1 HR21-700 w/AM21.


----------



## DarinC

So where is that TiVo anticipation thread again?


----------



## Steve Robertson

When is the new TIVO going to be out?


----------



## bmachia

Both HR20-700's needed Reset. 1 on CE 0x286, the other on NR


----------



## Michael D'Angelo

3 HR20-700s, HR21-200, and R22-200 were all unresponsive this morning. That is the only time they locked up today.


----------



## spandrew

Second time to push RBR on both my DVR's today. This sucks. Directv (which got me through in 5 minutes top) said it's nothing that they can handle on a per user bases. Technical department is looking into it. :icon_cry:


----------



## Bob Coxner

Add one more to the list of those locking up for a second time. It was working fine 10 minutes ago, now totally frozen. 12:50pm CDT


----------



## fwlogue

Just got back home from going out for a bit and all of mine are unresponsive again.


----------



## phox_mulder

2 HR21-700's.
One networked not connected to phone line, one only connected to phone line.
Neither has external storage.

Both locked up.

Didn't know they were locked up till I got online and saw this post.
Glad I did as Monday is a busy, busy night for recording.

Unplugged one, RBR'd the other, both now powering up and aquiring data.


phox


----------



## redrocker

redrocker said:


> i had to RBR mine also, now it will not turn off with remote or power button on unit. HR20-700


STILL CAN'T TURN THE DAM THING OFF


----------



## pcates

My HR20-700 was locked up this morning. Did RBR and it stayed on the blue screen and then reset itself after a minute or so. It would continue to go through this cycle. Pulled power plug for 30 seconds and re-powered with the same results. Unplugged my external drive and it came up ok. Pulled plug and reconnected external drive and it would not come up. I now have it up without the external drive connected. I will try with the external drive again tonight.


----------



## missparker10

I just had to unplug my HR 20-700 because it froze while watching a recorded program. When it came back on, the guide was gone. There is no data. it only says regular schedule for programs.

Anyone else?


----------



## syphix

Had to RBR, too. Actually, had to RBR both my HR20-700 and HR21-700 _twice_.


----------



## DarinC

redrocker said:


> STILL CAN'T TURN THE DAM THING OFF


Hmmm. Did anyone see "Pulse"?

:girlscrea


----------



## Volman

Both of my HR20 units(100 and a 700) were dead this AM.Plugged plug got them working.Came home this afternoon to them being dead again.This stinks!


----------



## Sugarlander

+1 HR21-700. PITA. 2 reboots to correct.


----------



## thxultra

Mine was locked up this morning also so I guess I can add myself to the list. I tried a rbr but no luck ended up fliping the breaker because it is too hard to get to the plug in my setup hahaha. She came back ok after that.


----------



## Jarda

Guess I'll join this all 4 where locked....also lost a few channels fox news ,ifc few others,256

Monday morning  

Jarad


----------



## lwilli201

All 4 of my HR2x locked up this AM. Three started with RBR, but I had to pull the plug on the fourth. I noticed that the quide data download stuck on 97% for a very long time. Longer than usual.


----------



## redrocker

DarinC said:


> Hmmm. Did anyone see "Pulse"?
> 
> :girlscrea


I think this dam thing is taking over my home automation system


----------



## Sirshagg

dcowboy7 said:


> 12,000+ views in 7 hours....hottest thread ever ?


Pretty soon we'll see it mentioned at:
http://www.tvpredictions.com/


----------



## wmschultz

We have three. All needed to be RBR this morning. Now if we turn them off we have to RBR them to get them to come back on.


----------



## mdmcvay

Both of mine were locked up when i woke up. Then they both locked up again around Noon CDT. Hope it doesn't do it again


----------



## Med 28

had to pull pwr again locked up at 1255 central


----------



## rajeshh

My wife called and said both our HR20-100s are not turning on as well. They are both on APC UPS.

I will wait till I get home in the evening before I try any reset, or pull the power plug etc...


----------



## mnbulldog

2 out of 3 dead. Had to pull power to reboot. No losses that I can tell. Favorites are still there. Both on CE 0286.


----------



## miketorse

Mine has been perfectly fine. Keep in mind I don't have LOS to 119, and didn't have my manual recordings set last night to two SD stations (I don't do that during weekends).

Probably doesn't mean anything, just thought I should share.


----------



## Sirshagg

Well, this should take care of those few "I've NEVER had a problem with my HRxx" people.


----------



## Lee L

Well, I will say that this screwup is big enough to get the attention of the right people as it will seriously cost DirecTV money due to huge call volume they most likely are and will continue to be experiencing. 

My wife works in a role that deals with announcements of changes to policies that sometimes will drive calls to a call center or a companies website. The amount of planning she and her co workers put into keeping the call center management chain and web services people appraised of changes that are coming weeks and even months down the line is pretty staggering. Large announcements that are direct from Chief level people in the company are often moved based on call center predicted volumes and making sure they can staff up. If something ever happens and the call center people feel they were not fully made aware (and 99% of the time they were made aware over and over, but failed to grasp the issue), it is a massive crapfest. I assume that DirecTV is no different and several high level execs are hearing it from lots of different angles.


----------



## SParker

Sirshagg said:


> Well, this should take care of those few "I've NEVER had a problem with my HRxx" people.


I'm on board now.


----------



## DarinC

miketorse said:


> Mine has been perfectly fine. Keep in mind I don't have LOS to 119, and didn't have my manual recordings set last night to two SD stations (I don't do that during weekends).
> 
> Probably doesn't mean anything, just thought I should share.


I was just to post asking if there's anyone who DIDN'T have a problem who DOESN'T have 119 LOS issues.

Anyone?


----------



## js615

...getting tired of this from D*TV...called and got a $10/month for 6 months for my troubles...


----------



## mhaines1

My wife called in a panic this morning because our HR21-700 was not working. I had her do a red button reset and nothing happened. Finally I had her pull the plug and it seemed to be OK. It is a good thing because my kids would have flipped out with no Disney channel this morning!!!


----------



## rlbfsb

I had to RBR our HR20-700 this morning. Unplugging it for a minute did nothing. Try unplugging it again and still nothing. After hitting the red button by the card 3 times and waiting for a few minutes it finally started.

Just wanted to add my two cents.


----------



## stblake10

My hr21-200 had to be RBR this am. All is well now.


----------



## vernonator

sticketfan said:


> both my 100 and 700 had to be reset by pulling the plugs on both, even the red button reboot didnt work. both machines were locked up..


My HR20-100 needed this also = rbr did nothing


----------



## diggumsmax

According to this thread D has identified the problem. I really hope they have this resolved before tonight. If my HR20 freezes on me during Hereos I will be very unhappy.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667



> DIRECTV has identified an issue with the transmission and is in the process of correcting it.
> 
> I'll let you know if I hear more.


----------



## Terry740

Had to restart because of both my dvr's locking up for the second damn time today!


----------



## jgcox00

Mine locked up again... RBR would not work. Pulled the plug... took over two minutes to start booting up.


----------



## GenTso

Yep, another here. First happened when I got home from work last night. Seemed to work fine up until around midnight Central. Started watching a movie, tried to change the channel and ... nothing. After a few minutes I pulled the plug and repowered it and everything worked fine.

Woke up this morning and everything was working fine at first. Then started watching Bourne Ultimatum and the unit froze again. Tried RBR this time and it's working (for now).

Since I have Mondays and Tuesdays off and will generally be around the house cleaning up and watching TV, I'll update this post if there are anymore issues. No edits or other posts in this thread that can be seen by clicking my profile will be a good sign.


----------



## Steve Robertson

Nice to know they found the probem just hope it is fixed befor I start recording this afternoon


----------



## hookemfins

I have an HR 20-700 with the latest CE had the same problem as everyone else.

My HR 20-100 was fine this morning but had the same problem and needed an RBR last Thursday evening with software 281.


----------



## Crypter

I could not RBR either of my HR21's I had to unplug the power on both to get them to reset....


----------



## MLBurks

js615 said:


> ...getting tired of this from D*TV...called and got a $10/month for 6 months for my troubles...


I was just about to ask if anybody called and gave hell to DirecTV (especially those who had their hard drives (internal or external) wiped clean) and received any credits.


----------



## RVD26

I called my wife about the problem and she confirmed that our HR-21 would not start up.
Looks like a RBR has fixed it for now.
This was really bad timing because I am scheduled for repair by Samsung today because of a busted speaker.
It's a good thing my wife at least knows where the red reset button is :lol:


----------



## ADHD

Found my DOA this morning. 
First unplugged it... it restarted but not all the programming worked
Pushed the RBR, it restarted and programming works


----------



## redrocker

3rd time to pull the plug today. Now I noticed that 0-2-4-6-8 doen't work


----------



## celticpride

WOW! 1 customer said this was the first problem hes had in 14 months!,I'm lucky if i go 14 days without a problem, and yes both of my dvrs needed resets today also.


----------



## fhedrick

fhedrick said:


> Found my 2 HR-20s and one HR21 dead this morning. Eventually came up. Now they are all frozen. Anyone having the repeat freezes?


A red reboot solved it, at least for now.


----------



## diggumsmax

^^^ I didn't even know peoples hard drives were being wiped clean. Didn't even check mine. If it was I'm calling and raising hell. A lock up is one thing but if it wiped my drive I will be pissed. I have several shows recorded that I haven't watched yet and if they are gone then my mind is made up and I will be switching out all my HR20XX models for the Tivo model when it comes out in 2009. I was actually pretty happy with my HR20 up until this morning.


----------



## Crypter

I havn't had ANY issues with my Hr21's in over a year. BTW... one of my HR21's lost all the FAV's. One did not... the one that lost the FAV's was an HR21-100 the one that did not was an HR21-700


----------



## fwlogue

celticpride said:


> WOW! 1 customer said this was the first problem hes had in 14 months!,I'm lucky if i go 14 days without a problem, and yes both of my dvrs needed resets today also.


Other than today I can not remember when the last time was that I had a lockup or had to reboot for any reason. All three have mine have been very reliable. The latest one is about 14 months old now I think.


----------



## MLBurks

Thankfully mine has not locked up again for a second time around noon as others have reported.


----------



## socal404

My HR20-100 didn't come on this morning, either. I did 3 RBR. It's working now, but the resolution won't stay at 1080i, even with the Native mode turned off. I tried calling Directv, and got a recorded message that they know they are having DVR problems. Hope they fix it soon.


----------



## paulman182

MLBurks said:


> I was just about to ask if anybody called and gave hell to DirecTV (especially those who had their hard drives (internal or external) wiped clean) and received any credits.


This is obviously an unexpected problem that they are striving to correct.

If I were a CSR, I'd probably invite you to switch to whatever totally problem-free service you have found.


----------



## McCoyRJ

rlbfsb said:


> I had to RBR our HR20-700 this morning. Unplugging it for a minute did nothing. Try unplugging it again and still nothing. After hitting the red button by the card 3 times and waiting for a few minutes it finally started...


 Identical to what I did. Turned it off once, and when I turned it back on I had to do the same thing all over again. Haven't lost any programming however, and all my favorite lists seem fine.


----------



## dreadlk

Luckily this did not happen during Game time 
First my Network problem now this, why oh why does Directv keep on messing with the system. We all have become members of a never ending Beta Program.


----------



## DarinC

paulman182 said:


> If I were a CSR, I'd probably invite you to switch to whatever totally problem-free service you have found.


Fortunately for you, your seeming lack of empathy will protect you from such a career. :lol:


----------



## ziggy29

Mine locked up and it seems to have trashed my ability to get some OTA (in particular, channels 14-1 and 36-1 in the Austin area. The signal strength shows a strong signal but tuning to both gives the 771 message.


----------



## Rock&Roll

Same here. HR21-100. Had to restart it twice today.


----------



## DBSooner

I just hope my recordings don't get screwed up after I go to work here in a few.


----------



## poppo

As mentioned in a different thread. all 3 of my HR20s needed to be rebooted. RBR worked on all, but they were not in standby. Then around noon today, all 3 again became non-responsive. RBR worked again.


----------



## m4p

For those who had to pull the plug rather than a RBR, did yours lock up again, or only the one time? I'm just trying to figure out if pulling the plug is a better option than the red button reset.


----------



## kenmoo

Anyone have Earl's "Direct" phone number?


----------



## redrocker

m4p said:


> For those who had to pull the plug rather than a RBR, did yours lock up again, or only the one time? I'm just trying to figure out if pulling the plug is a better option than the red button reset.


Mine locked up 3 times and was forced to pull the plug everytime


----------



## DBSooner

m4p said:


> For those who had to pull the plug rather than a RBR, did yours lock up again, or only the one time? I'm just trying to figure out if pulling the plug is a better option than the red button reset.


I unplugged it and later on it was locked up again. Don't think it matters.


----------



## Doug Brott

kenmoo said:


> Anyone have Earl's "Direct" phone number?


 .. actually, I'm taking care of Earl's "responsibilities" since he moved on .. The right people are working on the problem now .. I'll keep the following thread updated as I get more news (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667).


----------



## Volman

Just talked to a Direct rep and he said "they are close to having it fixed".I've done 3 RBRs/unplugs today.Rep was basically clueless(really-a clueless Directv rep?)......It was basically:"push the red button".

AARRRRRGGGGGG!!!!!!!


----------



## redrocker

Doug Brott said:


> .. actually, I'm taking care of Earl's "responsibilities" since he moved on .. The right people are working on the problem now .. I'll keep the following thread updated as I get more news (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667).


where'd Earl move on to and why?


----------



## m4p

redrocker said:


> Mine locked up 3 times and was forced to pull the plug everytime


Ok, thanks Redrocker and DBSooner. I was hoping pulling the plug might be better but I guess it doesn't matter.


----------



## NtegrA

My HR-20(700) is locked

My HR-21(100) is also locked with record light lit.

I sure am glad (not) that I'm not the only one experiencing this.

RBR on both flashed the power light

unplugged the HR-20 came back on to a "Diagnostic Self-test" and then straight to Step 1 of 2.

RBR on HR21 actually worked after all. took about 5 mins at least to turn on. surprised the heck out of me.

I haven't done anything with the HR21 yet. I want to make sure the hr20 comes back fully.

Misery loves company


----------



## Alexandrepsf

I had to reboot both my boxes (by unplugging the boxes), so far they working fine after the reboot.


----------



## marksman

All 3 of my Hr-20 700s locked up at the same time last night, and now again this morning/afternoon.


----------



## kjnorman

My wife reported that they locked up and had to unplug them at around lunch time.

So that is 4 for 4 now.


----------



## jdmac29

Wife called said hr21 was not responding this morning, nothing on screen at all. I had her unplug it then plug it back in. Works fine now. Got to get home early tonight and check my hr20 it is set to record heroe's and terminator.


----------



## John Walsh III

Yep, had to restart both HR 20-.


----------



## paulman182

DarinC said:


> Fortunately for you, your seeming lack of empathy will protect you from such a career. :lol:


Sorry, I've been there when a totally unexpected technical problem occurs and people start firing questions at you that no one can yet answer and making demands that are not always warranted, when what you really need to be doing is to get a handle on the problem.

My empathy is focused toward the other end of the phone line right now.


----------



## Chunkdog

I have tried everything & this has been going on since 9 am CST. I have an HR20-700. I have pushed the RBR so many freaking times I can't count. I have unplugged the damn thing & plugged it back in back in 15 minutes later at least 5 times. But it has not powered up. Does anyone have a suggestion before I call these people?


----------



## dcowboy7

redrocker said:


> where'd Earl move on to and why?


tv show on nbc ?


----------



## phox_mulder

I giving up on the RBR's till I hear that DirecTV has solved the problem.

Hopefully it is in the next hour because I have to leave and have a lot of recordings tonight.



phox


----------



## marcucci

After my second reboot of HR20-700 x271, it's working fine for almost an hour (took only a power-down and 10 minutes off to lock up after the first RBR). Fingers crossed.


----------



## Doug Brott

redrocker said:


> where'd Earl move on to and why?


Earl works for DIRECTV now and is no longer a moderator @ DBSTalk.com. This happened many months ago.


----------



## Stewpidity

I need to change my Vote..

this morning my hr20 had to be rebooted, but not my HR21....The wife just said now they both need it....


----------



## Doug Brott

Stewpidity said:


> I need to change my Vote..
> 
> this morning my hr20 had to be rebooted, but not my HR21....The wife just said now they both need it....


Probably not a necessity at this point ..


----------



## kenmoo

Doug Brott said:


> .. actually, I'm taking care of Earl's "responsibilities" since he moved on .. The right people are working on the problem now .. I'll keep the following thread updated as I get more news (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667).


Thanks Doug. I knew you were on top of it. Just trying to introduce a little humor into the discussion. :hurah:


----------



## poppo

m4p said:


> For those who had to pull the plug rather than a RBR, did yours lock up again, or only the one time? I'm just trying to figure out if pulling the plug is a better option than the red button reset.


FWIW, on one unit after the RBR on all three, I was missing at least one channel. So I pulled the plug on that one. All three have since locked up again, so I don't think it makes any difference.


----------



## BubblePuppy

I did have to reboot my hr20 twice this morning for different reasons, once because it would not go out of rewind and the second was after stopping a VOD the screen went grey and the box locked up but I could hear the audio.
RBR fixed both situations.
My HR20 is never in standby.


----------



## ATARI

There had better be some credit on the way to everybody.

And we shouldn't have to call and beg for it either.

D* should see this as a cost of doing business, and give everyone a $5 credit (assuming this is fixed in one day).


----------



## Colonel Badger

DFWHD said:


> We had to do a red button reset on all 3 of our DVRs over the past hour to get them to come on. The affected items were a HR20-700, an HR21-200 and an HR21-100. No power surges detected and all three are on Panamax power centers. Has anybody had an issue with their DVRs this morning? Rather strange...


Yup mine was dead too. Strange thing is i hit the reset button and it looked dead; Blue light came on power button then went out and no sign of life, so I did a power reset. Same thing. Was just explaining to my daughter why she couldn't watch her TV when suddenly it came to life and powered up.


----------



## joshjr

davring said:


> 12:45 PM second lock up of the day.


Mine did not lock up but my remote did. It became unresponsive. I did a RBR and everything is back up again.


----------



## boulder_gp

mdmcvay said:


> Both of mine were locked up when i woke up. Then they both locked up again around Noon CDT. Hope it doesn't do it again


All three of mine were locked up this AM
1) HR20-700, on CE 0x27, on UPS
2) HR20-700, on NR, on UPS
3) HR20-100 on NR, on UPS

Checked this thread just after 1:00 Central as my HR20-700 CE locked up right as I got done watching a recorded show. Checked the other two boxes and both needed a RBR. Lost Favorites on just the HR20-700 on CE, other two appear fine. Not sure if I lost the Favorites on the CE 700 after the first or second RBR.


----------



## DarinC

Doug Brott said:


> Probably not a necessity at this point ..


Are you saying you think they will "unlock", or you think it's pointless because they will just lock up again?


----------



## doo4usc

joshjr said:


> Mine did not lock up but my remote did. It became unresponsive. I did a RBR and everything is back up again.


Same here. I had a momentary power outage last night and blamed that.


----------



## Stewpidity

Doug Brott said:


> Probably not a necessity at this point ..


Changing my vote or rebooting ?


----------



## stewp97

RBR Both units. Lost everything on the HR21-700, about 600 gigs of recordings.

peter


----------



## poppo

joshjr said:


> Mine did not lock up but my remote did. It became unresponsive.


Well, I think being unresponsive to the remote pretty much equates to the a lock up.


----------



## jgriffin7

Both my HR20 and HR21 were locked. My HR10-250 is humming right along, and will reliably record my shows tonight!


----------



## whalerfan

Count me in for the reboot. Both HR21's locked.


----------



## Jarda

DarinC said:


> Are you saying you think they will "unlock", or you think it's pointless because they will just lock up again?


I have to go with the pointless at this point . Now just reset again after 3 rd. lock up in 1 hr. Who knows

Jarad


----------



## VegasDen

ATARI said:


> There had better be some credit on the way to everybody.
> 
> And we shouldn't have to call and beg for it either.
> 
> D* should see this as a cost of doing business, and give everyone a $5 credit (assuming this is fixed in one day).


I'm sorry but I just can't buy into the "give me a credit" anytime something goes wrong. I unplugged the box, plugged it back in and now all is well. So what's the big deal?


----------



## spryde

joshjr said:


> Mine did not lock up but my remote did. It became unresponsive. I did a RBR and everything is back up again.


This morning it was locked totally. This afternoon, neither the remote or front panel worked. Yet the channel played on...

SP


----------



## Stanley Kritzik

sticketfan said:


> both my 100 and 700 had to be reset by pulling the plugs on both, even the red button reboot didnt work. both machines were locked up..


My HR21-Pro with an AM21attached was dead, dead. It took a power plug pull to wake it up, and then, it happened a second time.

Nothing like testing software upgrades!

Stan


----------



## 50+

Similar problems here. HR22-100 with AM21 in the LR unresponsive to remote, RBR fixed this. HR21-700 in my office would not respond, RBR would not respond, unpluged the unit power came on for maybe 1min. then went back off, tried this again same thing, by accident pushed select button on front of recr. and thin power it rebooted and it seems to be ok. Checked to see if I lost any recordings, prioritizors, or history, everything fine. Then I checked favorites It seems to have added some channels to my favs. Not a bigge but something I will have to fix. I think I will wait until they say the prob is fixed. The bedroom HR21-700 AM21 semed to be unaffected. Will be watching Doug Brotts othe thread to see when it is fixed and what the problem was.


----------



## eileen22

Colonel Badger said:


> Yup mine was dead too. Strange thing is i hit the reset button and it looked dead; Blue light came on power button then went out and no sign of life, so I did a power reset. Same thing. Was just explaining to my daughter why she couldn't watch her TV when suddenly it came to life and powered up.


Exact same thing happened to me this morning, with the blue light coming on and then going out - multiple times (I'm a little slow on the uptake in the early morning  ). I did a power reset. I have been away for several hours, and I just came back and the same thing happened again, except this time I didn't have to pull the power cord. I tried to power on, it wouldn't go, I pushed the red button, tried the power again (on the remote), and the unit started a reboot. It is now back up, hopefully to stay. I hope they get this fixed before this evening!!!


----------



## sigma1914

To those wanting credit...Seriously??? For having to reset a box twice? My computer locked up last week, I better get a credit!  My internet booted me today during a game, I better get a credit!  My PS3 froze, I better get a credit!  I had cable out for 4 days & got nothing..._stuff_ happens, move on.

Come on, it's unreal what people want for free in today's society.


----------



## too hip

What about the people that are unable to be home a do a manual reboot? They would miss all of the recordings for tonight. What if you left for a week vacation yesterday and will be gone all week. I wouldn't be very happy returning home to find out nothing for the week was recorded. Do you think DirecTV is able to send a command down to force a reboot after they get this fixed?


----------



## rudeney

bt-rtp said:


> After reboot, HR2x lost remote setting for TV so I had to reset and program the TV and codes into the HR2x remote control. This was needed on two of my three HR2x's.


That must just be and odd coincidence. The remote's programming is contained in the remote only. The HR2x has not way to "control" the remote. Its ability to send the proper signal to the TV would be totally independent of anything goin on with the HR2x.


----------



## jimb726

Stanley Kritzik said:


> My HR21-Pro with an AM21attached was dead, dead. It took a power plug pull to wake it up, and then, it happened a second time.
> 
> Nothing like testing software upgrades!
> 
> Stan


How do you know this is a software upgrade? If anything it seems to be contrary to that since every model is on a different version of software yet they all experienced issues that caused problems.


----------



## eviakhan

HR21-100 was lockup up this morning when we first turned it on 6:00AM EST. Routine RBR fixed it. Turned it on again around 1:00PM EST and it was locked up again. RBR fixed it again. I also had a long wait at 97% message.

This machine locks up pretty often. I have had it for about 2 months and I would guess it has locked up requiring a unplug or RBR about 5 - 8 times.

It also records nothing but empty gray space instead of programs about 2 - 5% of its recordings. Which does not sound bad until your wife is trying to rip your head off because YOU are responsible for missing the season premier of Grey's Anatomy, not this defective machine.

I was about to call DirectTV about it being defective to see if I could get a replacement. Then until I checked the internet this morning to see if others have similar problems =) Glad I didn't waste my time listening to DTV crappy on hold messages for 2 hours.

I hate this machine, this crappy HR21-100 unit. I hate it. I miss my old reliable fast DirectTivo unit. I guess it's my fault for wanting to upgrade to HD and having hope that this new product would work even though I read it would not. Choice less, I bought it anyway. Oh woe is me, now I am filled with dread and sorrow.

I am very angry and have great swelling, deepening hate...


----------



## ziggy29

Something VERY odd is happening to my OTA on the HR20-700. The setup page still says I'm on 0x0254.

BUT -- I noticed the OTA signal strengths as reported on MOST channels are much higher... except that two stations (14-1 and 36-1, both of my NBC options) have NO signal strength at all. These stations usually come in as well as all the others that are in the 90s for signal strength.

Either something weird happened on these stations, or since they are both owned by LIN, maybe they are pulling them off-air until OTA users pay, too...


----------



## The Proton

Not sure if this happened to more than a few people, but...

I woke up last night around 3:00am after dreaming of smelling burning plastic. Could not find the source and it went away so I went back to sleep.

In the morning the hr20 in the bedroom is dead (as is the one downstairs), and I hit the red button, no response. I tried unplug/30 sec/plug back in, no response. I noticed at this point the unit was very hot, so I took the DVD player off of it and let it sit w/o power for 20 minutes, still nothing. After 2 hours I powered it back up and it came up normally. The other hr20 responded to a quick power down/up.

So I'm wondering if the software crash could have disabled the cooling fan, allowing it to overheat? As I understand it it is switched on/speed up as needed. I noticed a few other people in this (long) thread have had similar issues were the unit needed to be powered off for a long period of time before it would restart.

And yes, nothing will be placed on top of it anymore.

Any theories? Permanent Damage possible?

Thanks,

The Proton


----------



## jimb726

too hip said:


> What about the people that are unable to be home a do a manual reboot? They would miss all of the recordings for tonight. What if you left for a week vacation yesterday and will be gone all week. I wouldn't be very happy returning home to find out nothing for the week was recorded. Do you think DirecTV is able to send a command down to force a reboot after they get this fixed?


Why wouldnt they be able to send down a command to reboot? Also I think a lot of people are equating a non-responsive remote with a locked up box. It would be interesting to see if the box would function normally even in the non-responsive state.


----------



## flexoffset

Yep. HR20-100 was dead this morning. RBR got it back up. Tried pushing power button on the box and nothing worked. Frozen solid. 
Oh ... and I'm running last week's CE. I didn't download the latest one Friday night because of the delay and whatnot.


----------



## gmrubin

Chunkdog said:


> I have tried everything & this has been going on since 9 am CST. I have an HR20-700. I have pushed the RBR so many freaking times I can't count. I have unplugged the damn thing & plugged it back in back in 15 minutes later at least 5 times. But it has not powered up. Does anyone have a suggestion before I call these people?


after pushing the RBR, I held down both the "power" button on the receiver and the "select" button simultaneously, all blue lights came on and it started its reset thing..


----------



## DarkAudit

rudeney said:


> That must just be and odd coincidence. The remote's programming is contained in the remote only. The HR2x has not way to "control" the remote. Its ability to send the proper signal to the TV would be totally independent of anything goin on with the HR2x.


I thought there was a problem with the remote here, too. Difference is, I came into the living room this AM to find a big hairball hwarfed onto the remote. :eek2:


----------



## mikeandaiden

jimb726 said:


> Why wouldnt they be able to send down a command to reboot? Also I think a lot of people are equating a non-responsive remote with a locked up box. It would be interesting to see if the box would function normally even in the non-responsive state.


You suggestion that the remote may be the only non-responsive component was something I thought of right away...and such was not the case. None of the buttons on the front of the unit were operational (requiring a hard reboot / power cycle). I suspect that most of us would press a few buttons on the front of the unit before just rebooting, but that is just a supposition on my part.


----------



## Doug Brott

DarinC said:


> Are you saying you think they will "unlock", or you think it's pointless because they will just lock up again?


Just saying changing one vote in this poll is pointless .. the evidence is already overwhelming, is is not?


----------



## Doug Brott

Stewpidity said:


> Changing my vote or rebooting ?


If you need to reboot .. go for it ..


----------



## ruthiesea

If anybody actually read my last post on this subject in another thread, I apologize. I shouldn't write stuff when I'm frustrated. 

A big thank you to Doug Brott, a real SUPER moderator, for posting the information on the status of the problem.


----------



## mikeandaiden

By the way....sorry to be ignorant here, but what is CE?


----------



## rudeney

Ken S said:


> I don't think the moderators (if that's who you mean) no much more than we do.


Actually, the moderator's do "no" a lot - they tell us "no" political discussion, "no" CE discussion in the main forums, "no" calling each other names&#8230; :lol:  (Sorry, Ken, I couldn't resist it!)


----------



## DarinC

jimb726 said:


> I think a lot of people are equating a non-responsive remote with a locked up box.


Yes, perhaps it's not locked up. It's just not responding to the remote. Or the front panel buttons. And it's not changing channels and capturing shows it's set up to record. Perhaps it's happy on the inside, it just can't communicate that to us. When a DVR is in a coma, does it still hear our requests?


----------



## spartanstew

joshjr said:


> Mine did not lock up but my remote did. It became unresponsive.


That's the same thing.



jimb726 said:


> Also I think a lot of people are equating a non-responsive remote with a locked up box.


They are the same thing.

If your unit was in standby, it will be locked up and won't display anything. If it wasn't in standby, it will show a picture from the current channel, but it's still locked up.


----------



## eaddict

The HD DVR locked up. Would not do a reset so I had to power cycle it. When it finally came back ALL recorded programs are gone. ALL programs we had set up to record are gone. The guide is WAY off. After spending an hour on the phone with DirectTV we get $5 off for the next three months for our troubles.

June 2009 our contract is up. And we are leaving.


----------



## DarinC

Doug Brott said:


> Just saying changing one vote in this poll is pointless


Ah, I was applying your response to the wrong portion of his post.


----------



## Doug Brott

Stanley Kritzik said:


> My HR21-Pro with an AM21attached was dead, dead. It took a power plug pull to wake it up, and then, it happened a second time.
> 
> Nothing like testing software upgrades!
> 
> Stan


This was not a software upgrade test ..


----------



## Chunkdog

gmrubin said:


> after pushing the RBR, I held down both the "power" button on the receiver and the "select" button simultaneously, all blue lights came on and it started its reset thing..


I appreciate the info, but that did not work for me either. I am on hold now with Tech Support.


----------



## David MacLeod

mikeandaiden said:


> By the way....sorry to be ignorant here, but what is CE?


cutting edge release. look at the cutting edge forums for more info, pretty enjoyable program. we get to break our stuff first  actually, been pretty good to me.


----------



## Steveknj

I also had to rbr my HR21-100. Interestingly, I flipped to my list and two shows I recorded over night both recorded way beyond their schedule. One recorded more than 9 hrs and one recorded more than 7. Luckily i was home and watched them or tonight I would have been in trouble and ran out of space.


----------



## ziggy29

Doug Brott said:


> This was not a software upgrade test ..


Hopefully we'll find out what it is -- as a post-mortem after it's fixed. Fix it first, THEN find out what went wrong and explain it.


----------



## tknopf

I have 2 HR20-100 receivers and 1 HR21-200 receiver. All 3 didn't respond to a red button reset this AM around 6:30 CST. I unplugged the all three from the wall outlet to do a hard reset. The HR21-200 responded immediately, but the 2 HR20-100 units required me to unplug and plug in 3 times before a reboot would occur. I did wait more than 5 minutes between each attempt. All 3 were working after about 15 minutes. THEN....the same thing happened again around 12:15 CST. All 3 locked up and needed hard reboots. Just 1 of my HR20-100 required a second unplug before rebooting. All is well now...I think. I got off the phone with customer service. I have the Protection Plan(for what it is worth) and was transferred to tech support. I had 2 different automated messages stating D* was aware of problems with all of the HD DVR's. When talking with a tech support person, they wanted to schedule a service call...WHY????? The problem is on their end, that is VERY obvious. She had me check all of my connections and my multiswitch. I finally told her that I had to get back to work. I still have a service call scheduled, but will cancel it. She said I should be getting a call back from their Tech Team to ask me if my service is working properly sometime tonight or tomorrow. We shall see......


----------



## blucas95

Hope this is cleared up by 8:00 tonight. BIG TV night in my house. If it locks us between 8:00 and 11:00, the wife will NOT be happy...


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

Chunkdog said:


> I appreciate the info, but that did not work for me either. I am on hold now with Tech Support.


Have you tried unplugging the unit for 15-20 minutes??


----------



## MartyS

blucas95 said:


> Hope this is cleared up by 8:00 tonight. BIG TV night in my house. If it locks us between 8:00 and 11:00, the wife will NOT be happy...


I re-booted all my machines at 6:30 this morning. I;'ve had no problems since, and all my SL's are set... all my recordings are there... and my ToDo list is populated properly.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

MartyS said:


> I re-booted all my machines at 6:30 this morning. I;'ve had no problems since, and all my SL's are set... all my recordings are there... and my ToDo list is populated properly.


We don't believe you...

:lol:


----------



## Steve Robertson

MartyS said:


> I re-booted all my machines at 6:30 this morning. I;'ve had no problems since, and all my SL's are set... all my recordings are there... and my ToDo list is populated properly.


Sounds like you are one of the lucky ones


----------



## DarinC

VegasDen said:


> So what's the big deal?





sigma1914 said:


> ..._stuff_ happens, move on.


Clearly neither of you had this coincide with any hormonal issues in your household.

It's all in the timing.


----------



## Doug Brott

ziggy29 said:


> Hopefully we'll find out what it is -- as a post-mortem after it's fixed. Fix it first, THEN find out what went wrong and explain it.


Doubtful, but if possible, I will share the reason. Most likely I will simply get an "all clear."


----------



## JMII

Second lock up of the day occurred just after 1:30PM EST for me. Got finished watching a recorded program (60 Minutes/Amazing Race from last night), hit stop and the screen just went black. My main HR20-700 would not respond to ANY input so I had to do another RBR.

Man DirecTV has some serious issues today... after not having a single problem in well over 8 months I've have to reboot TWICE in one day. :eek2: :nono:

The only thing I lost was my "Favorites" so it took about 30 minutes to rebuild my list then my guide was back to the way it was before. Hey at least this happened on a Monday and not Sunday during football!


----------



## HalfMoon

2x HR20-700 dead. needed a couple RBRs to get them going.

I'm thinking I'm ready for 2009 and the new TiVO boxes.


----------



## CopyCat

Had to reset all 3 this AM, so far so good this afternoon. No lost recordings or anything else that we can see.


----------



## davidord

I have two HR20's. Both seemed dead. I unplugged the power cords on both units and they came back to life. I lost my recordings and my series links on one DVR, the other one was okay.


----------



## Jon J

Just experienced third freeze...HR20 and HR21.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

halfmoon said:


> I'm thinking I'm ready for 2009 and the new TiVO boxes.


Yes, because they are going to be flawless!


----------



## Captchaos42

Yes both of my hr's were locked up. Then I noticed the clock is 1 hr early. Won't reset to correct time.


----------



## junianby

6th rbr.


----------



## ED C

My Hr20-100 Had To Reset Three Times Already. Thank God For This Site


----------



## ziggy29

AirRocker said:


> Yes, because they are going to be flawless!


Not flawless, but I still have a DSR704 DirecTiVo in the bedroom that never seems to have these glitches.


----------



## bigcementpond

Same most others here, all of my HR-2x receivers needed RBR.


----------



## Chunkdog

AirRocker said:


> Have you tried unplugging the unit for 15-20 minutes??


I have also tried that. Last night, I put my receiver on standby. When I got up this morning, it was extremely hot & I do not have anything on top of it. I wonder if this mess may have fried my receiver.


----------



## dcowboy7

halfmoon said:


> I'm thinking I'm ready for 2009 and the new TiVO boxes.





AirRocker said:


> Yes, because they are going to be flawless!


good 1. :lol:


----------



## ziggy29

By the way, I would be very interested to know if any HR20 users with OTA lost some OTA after they reboot. I want to know if I'm special...

[update: Did a complete OTA reset and went through the initial setup again. 36-1 is back, but 14-1 is still dead, and I think that's actually an issue with the tower. Doesn't matter for me since these channels have identical programming.]


----------



## jimb726

spartanstew said:


> That's the same thing.
> 
> They are the same thing.
> 
> If your unit was in standby, it will be locked up and won't display anything. If it wasn't in standby, it will show a picture from the current channel, but it's still locked up.


Sorry I respectfully disagree. The second time mine froze it locked up, the screen froze, no sound, no nothing. The first time i watched it for an hour and a half before i realized there was a problem because I woke up with the unit on ESPN and I was watching sportscenter. It want till I went to change channels that I realized that no response from the remote. Doesnt make it any less a problem, but a different problem nonetheless.


----------



## sundude90

The Following is from Doug Brott posted on a different thread: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667

HR2x receiver lockups today (10/6/2008)
As many of you already no doubt know, many (if not all) HR2x receivers locked up sometime in the early morning hours of October 6, 2008. At this time, I do not have any information as to the cause. I've asked and I may or may not get an answer.

For the most part, a simple red button reset (RBR) or power cycling the receiver by pulling the power cord out of the wall has resulted in the receiver working properly again. Unfortunately, we are also seeing folks that are needing to repeat this process again as the day progresses.

At this point, if you find that your receiver is locked up or unresponsive, the only solution is to reset it. I'll let you know as I get more information.

DIRECTV has identified an issue with the transmission and is in the process of correcting it.

I'll let you know if I hear more.

Visit this link later to find out more info on what caused all these problems. http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667


----------



## jdspencer

All 1 of my units needed to be reset.  Via RBR. 

Twice so far. 

OTA is fine. After redoing the Favorites. They were empty.


----------



## billsharpe

Doug Brott said
DIRECTV has identified an issue with the transmission and is in the process of correcting it.

Hmmm... I had a "transmission issue" with my old car a few years ago. Took a week to get it fixed. Hope DirecTV does better than that.


----------



## the new guy

Reset both HR21-100's shortly after 5 am, then again at 1:25 pm. Hopefully all will be well now. My wife was a little steamed this morning, but felt better when I told her it looked like pretty much everyone had the same problem.

RBR worked the first time; the second time required me to unplug them. Both responded to ping requests a few minutes before I unplugged them, though.


----------



## poppo

ziggy29 said:


> By the way, I would be very interested to know if any HR20 users with OTA lost some OTA after they reboot. I want to know if I'm special...


I seem to have lost one station's sub channel (5-2 San Antonio) on both of my HR20s with OTA, but i can't say for certain if they are broadacting right now.


----------



## billsharpe

m4p said:


> For those who had to pull the plug rather than a RBR, did yours lock up again, or only the one time? I'm just trying to figure out if pulling the plug is a better option than the red button reset.


I had to pull the plug.  So far, no second reset required.


----------



## jaxfan

I need $700 Billion dollars, no questions, no accountabilty..... or this problem may get worse.


----------



## 1kyardstare

Not sure if the post will add value but I rebooted this AM too at about 5AM. To Do list seems to be all set. However prioritizer listed show as "No episodes" or whatever it says. Essentially the prioritizer indicating that there were several season passes with no upcoming episiodes. However the To Do list seemed up to date.

I will check again when I get home tonight - and hopefully avoid any hormonal issues.


----------



## Doug Brott

1kyardstare said:


> Not sure if the post will add value but I rebooted this AM too at about 5AM. To Do list seems to be all set. However prioritizer listed show as "No episodes" or whatever it says. Essentially the prioritizer indicating that there were several season passes with no upcoming episiodes. However the To Do list seemed up to date.
> 
> I will check again when I get home tonight - and hopefully avoid any hormonal issues.


The TODO list may simply be empty because the GUIDE had not yet updated. You'll probably be all set when you get home.


----------



## joshjr

1kyardstare said:


> Not sure if the post will add value but I rebooted this AM too at about 5AM. To Do list seems to be all set. However prioritizer listed show as "No episodes" or whatever it says. Essentially the prioritizer indicating that there were several season passes with no upcoming episiodes. However the To Do list seemed up to date.
> 
> I will check again when I get home tonight - and hopefully avoid any hormonal issues.


It takes it a little bit to repopulate. I bet it will be fine when you get home. I have seen this before and within and hour or two it is fine.


----------



## GiantFan

I have an R22-100 (similar to an HR21-100 - but SD only). It also was locked up this morning - and would not reset even with a RBR. I had to unplug and replug before it would power up. Seems to be working fine now, did not appear to lose anything in terms of recordings or SL's.


----------



## Ed-Williams

All my receivers were dead this morning.
After performing a RBR they are all working just fine now.

Ed.


----------



## billsharpe

VegasDen said:


> I'm sorry but I just can't buy into the "give me a credit" anytime something goes wrong. I unplugged the box, plugged it back in and now all is well. So what's the big deal?


The "big deal" is that not everyone is as lucky as you apparently are. When the problem keeps repeating it's time for DirecTV to take some responsibility.


----------



## Chunkdog

UPDATE

As I mentioned earlier, I have an HR21 which was reset rather quickly & I have not had any problems since. I did not lose anything & everything is working fine.

Well I have an HR20-700. When I went to bed last night, I put it on standby. This morning, before I knew of this crisis, I noticed it was very hot. Well I tried a RBR and then I unplugged it for several minutes. When I plugged it back it, it still did not work. After viewing this tread, I tried countless RBR's and left it unplugged for 15 minutes at least 5 times. After that, it still never powered up.

So I decided to call Direct. I first spoke to a CSR with almost no wait. Very nice lady, but totally clueless. She eventually sent me to Tech Support. After being on hold for 30 minutes, I finally spoke to someone. She puts me through a battery of tests, resets, etc. Finally she said she will send me a receiver, which is should receive within 3 business days. Thank goodness for the protection plan.

To everyone who offered me advice & help, it was very much appreciated. Hopefully everyone will be back up & running soon.


----------



## spidey

Looks like both of my HR20's with 281 will need RBR since the person staying at our house is reporting neither is responding to power button. Hope she doesnt have to do an unplug since the plugs are hard to get to.


----------



## martzta

My HR21-700 would not turn on this morning @ 0500. A reset did nothing and as I was about to pull the plug it rebooted. Came up fine but paused at 97 percent for a long time. Wife used during the day and when I returned @ 1500 had the same thing. Pulled the plug this time and again came up after a long pause at 97.


----------



## SteveHas

billsharpe said:


> The "big deal" is that not everyone is as lucky as you apparently are. When the problem keeps repeating it's time for DirecTV to take some responsibility.


So are you reporting that some boxes have been destroyed by this event
such that a rbr, or power cycle do not fix them?

I was unaware of this development.


----------



## David MacLeod

> So are you reporting that some boxes have been destroyed by this event


some boxes were wiped by this.
I did not lose mine, did not lose any on the 3 neighbors (5 dvr's) I assisted. 
got 10 a month credit for 6 months for the tiem I spent even though I did not lose anything on any of them.


----------



## coolyman

I had to RBR mine twice today. Both after a long period of being "off", meaning, I couldn't turn the damn thing ON! I had to RBR to turn it on.


----------



## babzog

HR22-100. No problems found today. Box was humming along as it should on the latest CE software release.


----------



## Chunkdog

SteveHas said:


> So are you reporting that some boxes have been destroyed by this event
> such that a rbr, or power cycle do not fix them?
> 
> I was unaware of this development.


I am not sure if you saw my post above, but it appears that my HR20-700 was a casualty. It has never powered back on.


----------



## paco1986

Woke up this morning and the HR20-700 would not turn on. The power on button on the remote and on the unit were not working at all. Had to press the red button a couple of times and finally it was able to reboot. Everything is back to normal (for now, that is).


----------



## billsharpe

SteveHas said:


> So are you reporting that some boxes have been destroyed by this event
> such that a rbr, or power cycle do not fix them?
> 
> I was unaware of this development.


No, no, no:nono2:

I'm just saying that DirecTV should offer some compensation to all affected subscribers without each person having to contact DirecTV first. I'm not the first one to suggest this...


----------



## marty1966

Same problem here in Boston, 20 and a 21. Played in golf tourney today, came home round 3pm EST, both receivers were locked up again, had to unplug to reboot.

LAME!

Someone F'd this one up.


----------



## jdmaxell

Add me to the list of restarting!
I cannot figure out who is more incompetent: Directv or the Govt?


----------



## joshjr

martzta said:


> My HR21-700 would not turn on this morning @ 0500. A reset did nothing and as I was about to pull the plug it rebooted. Came up fine but paused at 97 percent for a long time. Wife used during the day and when I returned @ 1500 had the same thing. Pulled the plug this time and again came up after a long pause at 97.


My HR20-100 stays at 97% for awhile to probably a good minute to 2 minutes and then loads up fine.


----------



## JACKIEGAGA

I guess the HR2X is tied into the Stock Market!

Give DIRECTV some of the govt bailout money


----------



## billsharpe

jdmaxell said:


> Add me to the list of restarting!
> I cannot figure out who is more incompetent: Directv or the Govt?


We could start a whole new thread on that topic :uglyhamme


----------



## hengnv

I don't know if this has anything to do with the current problem that we have right now, but yesterday there was an issue with the sound from my HR20. It was about have the speed of normal, and very low in register. I had to reboot the box yesterday and everything worked fine....


----------



## Ed Campbell

Locked up 2 more times after RBR. Discovered after the first RBR that my Favorites List - both of the 2 I use - were wiped.

Hitting the Yellow button to check on them, the names were there with the addition of the word "setup", e.g. HDTV Setup, Sports Setup. No channels listed in either.

Had to redo them from scratch.


----------



## Rabushka

Like the rest of you all my HR2X receivers were dead this morning. Had to pull the plug on all of them to restore service. 

When if ever will we get to know what happened? D* must be swamped with calls today.


----------



## djfrankie

Wife, just called and had to restart our box again (2nd time since this morning). Also, someone mentioned earlier about a burning smell, she smelled it also.


----------



## SteveHas

David MacLeod said:


> some boxes were wiped by this.
> I did not lose mine, did not lose any on the 3 neighbors (5 dvr's) I assisted.
> got 10 a month credit for 6 months for the tiem I spent even though I did not lose anything on any of them.


wiped as in useless or 
wiped as in recordings lost?
if someone just lost recordings the device is not destroyed


----------



## Fab55

hengnv said:


> I don't know if this has anything to do with the current problem that we have right now, but yesterday there was an issue with the sound from my HR20. It was about have the speed of normal, and very low in register. I had to reboot the box yesterday and everything worked fine....


I noticed the same thing with my sound yesterday as well. Only on my HR20-700, all other boxes are fine. Had to do a second reboot this afternoon around 2pm cst. Box was on HBO, but it was like the remote was failing. It wasn't since it worked on the TV & Audio receiver. Everything is fine after 2nd RBR.


----------



## SteveHas

billsharpe said:


> No, no, no:nono2:
> 
> I'm just saying that DirecTV should offer some compensation to all affected subscribers without each person having to contact DirecTV first. I'm not the first one to suggest this...


gotcha


----------



## David MacLeod

SteveHas said:


> wiped as in useless or recordings lost?
> if someone just lost recordings the device is not destroyed


recordings lost is what I see in this post mostly, but there were some saying (rightabove here) http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=1823824&postcount=541 
that they could never get theirs to turn back on.
if I lost all my recordings I'd be pretty mad.


----------



## NorfolkBruh

Yeah... HR-20-700, and both HR20-100 locked tighter then a vir... uh... locked! BUT... surprise surprise!! My HR10-250 is still running strong!

Norfolk


----------



## ChrisWyso

I RBR'd at 08:30-cst and also had the _long_ 97% pause, but I just let it sit & it came up. Worked fine until I left for work. Hopefully it's still ok when we get home, but it seemd to be doing everything right after the reboot.

ToDo was a little short, but that's expected, and all previous recording were showing up fine.

-C


----------



## David MacLeod

Rabushka said:


> Like the rest of you all my HR2X receivers were dead this morning. Had to pull the plug on all of them to restore service.
> 
> When if ever will we get to know what happened? D* must be swamped with calls today.


csr I spoke to 30 minutes ago had 1500 calls on her queue alone.


----------



## sswheeler

I had to reboot mine again about 130. Hopefully D* will get the issue fixed soon.


----------



## mickcris

both of mine (hr21 and hr22) were locked up again.


----------



## kbxm

NorfolkBruh said:


> Yeah... HR-20-700, and both HR20-100 locked tighter then a vir... uh... locked! BUT... surprise surprise!! My HR10-250 is still running strong!
> 
> Norfolk


Ditto, all of my HR2X boxes were locked and required RBR or pulled power to restart. No lost data though...this time.

My old TiVo SDDVR-40 was still chugging along fine.


----------



## hdthebest

Something weird is happening at D* maybe they should provide us Free Tivo HD Boxes after this spectacle


----------



## Ronv

Add me to the list. RBR wouldn't bring unit out of standby, this morning. It took 2 power cycles to get the thing going.


----------



## poppo

Something may be going on again right now. A bunch of channels went dead for a minute and now 242 (that I was watching) has a color bar test pattern.


----------



## Doug Brott

Chunkdog said:


> I am not sure if you saw my post above, but it appears that my HR20-700 was a casualty. It has never powered back on.


Not to belittle your experience, but your situation truly may have been coincidental and not connected to the lockups.


----------



## NorfolkBruh

*Ok... Here's a beauty for ya...

The dogs haven't been sleeping in their room so I physically unplugged the HR21-100 in that room. It's been unplugged for about 2 weeks now. TA DA!!!

It's locked up too! I was looking at the front panel when I plugged it back in and NO LIGHTS at all! I would have expected it to TRY to power up, get a surge down the transmission signal or something but noooooooooooooo!

Any ideas how the heck something like this scenario happened??

Norfolk*


----------



## McCoyRJ

I wonder how many auto manufacturers would stay in business if their top selling model was as unreliable as D*'s HD DVRs?


----------



## poppo

McCoyRJ said:


> I wonder how many auto manufacturers would stay in business if their top selling model was as unreliable as D*'s HD DVRs?


 I guess you never heard of a recall.


----------



## hdthebest

D* better do something positive after this, this is ridiculous get the ball rolling and fix the issue already.


----------



## Ken S

McCoyRJ said:


> I wonder how many auto manufacturers would stay in business if their top selling model was as unreliable as D*'s HD DVRs?


AMC lasted a number of years and Fiat is still around.


----------



## yatsco

Turned TV on at 12PM EDT, within the next hour had to unplug all DIRECTV receivers (HR20-100, HR20-700 & HR21-200) twice before leaving. At present time, 4PM, I went to your website and found out that I was not the only one having problems today. Currently all receivers power on. There is considerable comfort in having access to this website to report and problem solve a multitude of questions. Thanks to all who reported this problem earlier in the day and to all who continue to answer questions.


----------



## David MacLeod

McCoyRJ said:


> I wonder how many auto manufacturers would stay in business if their top selling model was as unreliable as D*'s HD DVRs?


lol, the Pinto of DVR's.......


----------



## 50+

Checked to see what D* website had to say about what was going on. Went to the tech forum page and found this.

We are currently experiencing an issue with receiver models HR20, HR21, HR22 and R22. If your receiver is not responding to remote control or front panel commands you can most likely resolve this issue quickly by flipping down the door on the front of your set top box and pressing the red button. 
If your picture does not come back, please call us at 1-800-531-5000 when you are in front of your TV and a representative will be able to help you with further troubleshooting.


----------



## bwaldron

mickcris said:


> both of mine (hr21 and hr22) were locked up again.


I had two locked up this morning, one was OK.

As of this afternoon, the one which was OK had locked up and needed a RBR. One of the two that got a RBR this morning had locked up again, one was still OK.

Favorites lists were lost on two of the units.


----------



## grogargh

I noticed that if I turn the units off (HR21-700) and then later turn them ON again, it won't - locked up as everyone is experiencing. Red-button reset accompanied by pulling the power plug is the only way back. And sometimes I gotta do it twice. What a pain.

In light of the fact that there are too many shows I watch on Mondays (Dancing w/ Stars, MNF, Heroes, and Sarah Connor Chronicles) I have left it on all day - no more hiccups.


----------



## OlderNDirt

Both HR20-700's needed reboots by unplugging this morning and rbr's a few hours later. Now channel 390 has tech difficulties banner (although sd channel 380 is fine) and usahd channel 242 is and has been frozen on the same frame for some time now. No if related, but am going to check multiple channels.


----------



## braven

Yep. Had to unplug mine today, twice. RBR did nothing.


----------



## Stanley Kritzik

McCoyRJ said:


> I wonder how many auto manufacturers would stay in business if their top selling model was as unreliable as D*'s HD DVRs?


Poor Ford, GM and Chrysler -- their models, over the years, have been very unreliable, and they are all teetering on the brink.

Stan


----------



## frogg

This is downright poor on D*s part. My HR2xs keep on locking up. Are they trying to convert us to Dish Network?


----------



## hdthebest

So let me get this straight if I can not reset by reciever then I can not see the Chicago Tamap Bay game I had set to record. I am at work and cant go home to check it out. This is not acceptable.


----------



## tthunder38

Two rbr's and two unplugs on seperate HR20-700's. RBR would work on one unit but not the second.....had to unplug. Got hit twice today.


----------



## homebase

This feels more like a Microsoft patch Tuesday to me...a forced reboot to install patches! 

We have two HD DVR's: HR20 & HR22-100 both had to be reset. The HR 22 had to be re-reset during the day. No double reset on the HR 20.


----------



## cajunrc

When I left this morning my HR20 was playing on channel 306 and the only thing I noticed was I couldn't change channels from a second room, didn't have the main tv on. When I got home I realized it needed the RBR and I did that. I did not lose any recordings or to-do's just one that was to record at noon. I do notice that USAHD ch. 242 is locked up and frozen but everything else seems to be okay.


----------



## dnelms

Wife called this morning wanting to know why it would not come on. I knew what she needed to do, but she would not have time to confirm if it worked. So I'll try the RBR or unplug when I get home. I realize many have not had problems with their units, but this HR20-700 has been a PIA since July when we had storm problems. Just glad this was a widespread thing and not another sign of a bad unit.


----------



## puffnstuff

This is crap 3 resets today . Is this box ever actually going to work properly ? I was just starting to think we had finally turned a corner , but nope same crap and all they can ever say is we are working on it . So what am I supposed to do tonight , go out and hope to god Directv gets on the ball or do I have to sit home and watch the shows live ? Stop with the crap Directv and fix these boxes !


----------



## bwaldron

grogargh said:


> In light of the fact that there are too many shows I watch on Mondays (Dancing w/ Stars, MNF, Heroes, and Sarah Connor Chronicles) I have left it on all day - no more hiccups.


Leaving it on won't stop the problem -- mine are always on and a couple have become unresponsive (again) during the day today. They were putting out audio and video the whole time, but scheduled recordings didn't happen and the units wouldn't respond to commands from the remote or front panel.


----------



## jimb726

frogg said:


> This is downright poor on D*s part. My HR2xs keep on locking up. Are they trying to convert us to Dish Network?


Right, someone at DirecTv decided to lock up thousands of recievers because they are growing to quickly. They are having some type of problem there is no doubt about it, but this is like the folks who claim that every time their TiVo locks up that there is some mysterious person at DirecTv who wants there reciever out of the system. It just doesnt make sense.


----------



## KitchMD

I had to unplug the unit PLUS the network connection to get them to reboot...all 3 of them.


----------



## Jon J

There's a mechanical sounding voice at DirecTV advising callers to do an RBR.


----------



## Ravens96

David MacLeod said:


> recordings lost is what I see in this post mostly, but there were some saying (rightabove here) http://www.dbstalk.com/showpost.php?p=1823824&postcount=541
> that they could never get theirs to turn back on.
> if I lost all my recordings I'd be pretty mad.


I have an HR20-700 that will not boot past the Step 1 of 2 ... Checking Satellite Settings.

I have done numerous RBR's, I've pulled the power and let the unit sit for several hours before re-applying power, but it still never gets past the Step 1 of 2 ... Checking Satellite Settings.


----------



## grogargh

hdthebest said:


> So let me get this straight if I can not reset by reciever then I can not see the Chicago Tamap Bay game I had set to record. I am at work and cant go home to check it out. This is not acceptable.


You got two paths:

1) Hope and PRAY that the thing is still alive and hasn't locked up and will record your game.

2) Find SOMEONE to go over and red-button/reset + pull power cord on the thing to make it come up. Even if you manage this, beware that some people are having their "To Do" list wiped. You will need to have the person re-schedule it for you.

Either way, start praying.


----------



## NorfolkBruh

jimb726 said:


> Right, someone at DirecTv decided to lock up thousands of recievers because they are growing to quickly. They are having some type of problem there is no doubt about it, but this is like the folks who claim that every time their TiVo locks up that there is some mysterious person at DirecTv who wants there reciever out of the system. It just doesnt make sense.


Oh Jim... calm down! For the record... MY TIVO units DID NOT lock up but this is not a TIVO vs HR2xx issue. So I think the "mysterious person" is my friend today!

:hurah: lolololol :hurah:

Norfolk


----------



## hdthebest

What gets me upset is that the CSR's are clueless. Dont they have any clue what is going on, dont they have D* service themselves? makes you wonder on what first grade level training the provide there.


----------



## MattDing

Jon J said:


> There's a mechanical sounding voice at DirecTV advising callers to do an RBR.


Just wait an hour or so until all of us east coasters get home from work and the ones that don't visit here find everything locked up solid.

I doubt you'll even get through far enough to get the mechanical voice.


----------



## finaldiet

Had 1 lockup yesterday on 1 of my HR 20's. Lost favorites. Same receiver was locked up today but did not lose favorites after reboot. No problem with other receiver, HR 20-700 also.


----------



## Sirshagg

MattDing said:


> Just wait an hour or so until all of us east coasters get home from work and the ones that don't visit here find everything locked up solid.
> 
> I doubt you'll even get through far enough to get the mechanical voice.


"we're sorry, all circuits are busy."


----------



## Grydlok

All three HRXX locked up.


----------



## LarryFlowers

Like everyone, my HRX units were locked up this morning, But both have been on since approx 10AM and have had no further difficulties.


----------



## mhayes70

frogg said:


> This is downright poor on D*s part. My HR2xs keep on locking up. Are they trying to convert us to Dish Network?


Hmmm....... If I remember correctly I don't think I have ever seen a post about Dish or any cable company ever having any problems. Come on now. There was a problem and they have figured out what caused it. At least a RBR fixed it and you wasn't out of service for the entire day.


----------



## Steve Robertson

mhayes70 said:


> Hmmm....... If I remember correctly I don't think I have ever seen a post about Dish or any cable company ever having any problems. Come on now. There was a problem and they have figured out what caused it. At least a RBR fixed it and you wasn't out of service for the entire day.


Are you saying it is fixed now?


----------



## David MacLeod

USAHD still frozen on my end on 2 receivers. all other channels check ok.


----------



## hengnv

mhayes70 said:


> Hmmm....... If I remember correctly I don't think I have ever seen a post about Dish or any cable company ever having any problems. Come on now. There was a problem and they have figured out what caused it. At least a RBR fixed it and you wasn't out of service for the entire day.


I used to be with Charter and there were days when I didn't have any signals (cable or internet). I have been with D* for a while now, this is the first time I have had any issues with the services....we should be lucky with the reliability that we do get.


----------



## mhayes70

Steve Robertson said:


> Are you saying it is fixed now?


No. Doug posted around noon that they have figured out what was causing the problem.

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667


----------



## Steve Robertson

mhayes70 said:


> No. Doug posted around noon that they have figured out what was causing the problem.
> 
> http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667


I did see that but nothing was said that the issue had been taken care of.


----------



## mhayes70

hengnv said:


> I used to be with Charter and there were days when I didn't have any signals (cable or internet). I have been with D* for a while now, this is the first time I have had any issues with the services....we should be lucky with the reliability that we do get.


That is so true. I use to have cable way back and it would be out for hours and sometimes all day. I have never had that kind of problems with Directv. If there is a problem it comes back fairly quickly.


----------



## jazzyd971fm

Had to RBR this morning (4:30 A.M.), now going thru unplug & restart now, hoping I don't lose anything


----------



## phat78boy

Wow, this was big if news sites are starting to link to our thread....

http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/06/botched-directv-software-update-causing-hr2x-stbs-to-need-reboot/


----------



## mhayes70

Steve Robertson said:


> I did see that but nothing was said that the issue had been taken care of.


At least they know what is causing it and now they are working on getting to corrected. That is good news in my book.


----------



## Santi360HD

I am a non DVR person...I have the HD BOX *(non DVR) * slimline 5LNB and late last night around 12midnight 1am ish NY time while panning through the guide for some other showtimes for my program..The Box booted. So per say I wasnt locked but i did find myself going through a boot. Found it odd being that i always scan forward to see whats on later a few days & such. By doing so this time zapped me into reboot.. Once again non DVR person here but my box did call for reboot..MY SD in the other room remain unaffected

my HD box is H21-100...(NON DVR) this got zapped with reboot late last night while panning through the guide..preparing my autotunes for the week..Yeah Im old school had so many issues with Time Warner's DVR that when i got Direct TV in 2006 I chose the standard box and not to repeat or relive any headaches i used to have. Time Warner's box would die or phantom record after a year, since with satellite you have to buy the equip..SCREW THAT standard HD box please..Works for me..

and my SD box is D11-500 unaffected


----------



## Steve Robertson

mhayes70 said:


> At least they know what is causing it and now they are working on getting to corrected. That is good news in my book.


I agree as long as it is working when I get home I will be happy


----------



## ziggy29

phat78boy said:


> Wow, this was big if news sites are starting to link to our thread....
> 
> http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/06/botched-directv-software-update-causing-hr2x-stbs-to-need-reboot/


Their claim of a botched software update was refuted by Doug here in no uncertain terms.


----------



## hengnv

David MacLeod said:


> USAHD still frozen on my end on 2 receivers. all other channels check ok.


Do we know if USAHD is locked up on the H20/H21 (non-DVRs)?


----------



## Doug Brott

Jon J said:


> There's a mechanical sounding voice at DirecTV advising callers to do an RBR.


Correct, I believe that there is a message when you call in now that gives you this information .. Something to the effect of:



DIRECTV said:


> We are currently experiencing an issue with receiver models HR20, HR21, HR22 and R22. If you are calling because your receiver is not responding to remote control or front panel commands you can probably resolve this issue quickly without having to wait to speak to us. Just flip the door down on the front of your set top box and press the red button. If your picture does not come back, our representative will be able to help you with further troubleshooting.


----------



## andrews240

Count me in. I have had the chronic reset problem in the past. As long as I didn't connect the network cable and set up sharing, the problem went away. I had finally gotten used to not having to push the red button. Oh well. I feel like such a guinea pig to DirecTV.


----------



## puffnstuff

mhayes70 said:


> Hmmm....... If I remember correctly I don't think I have ever seen a post about Dish or any cable company ever having any problems. Come on now. There was a problem and they have figured out what caused it. At least a RBR fixed it and you wasn't out of service for the entire day.


I wish a RBR would fix it mine 3 HR's have locked up 3 times today and I'm just waiting for a fourth , so yea I would say it's been a entire day .


----------



## barryb

I had voted _No, all of my HR2x were operating properly._

Sometime after 6am PST three of my DVRs locked up.


----------



## StevoDevo

I'm actually glad to hear this is happening! I just moved into my new house and had the DirecTV guy come out to do the installation of the dish yesterday. My DVR had been in storage for 3 months and when he got it all hooked up I was sitting around watching the game and suddenly (this would have been around 4pm PDT) the DVR decided it was going to do a software upgrade. I watched the download take place (instead of the game since it took over the display) and then after the reboot the game was on but I didn't have any guide data. I just figured it was because it was downloading it.

Channel changes took quite a while last night and after I turned it off to go feed the kids etc and had it all setup to record The Amazing Race at 7pm and as I walked past the DVR I saw the little red light wasn't on... so I tried to turn it on and nothing!! I pulled the power and after the 'few more seconds' the DVR was back and TV was on again. 

I turned the DVR off last night when I went to bed and this morning it wouldn't come on again!! Another reboot (pulling the plug) got it back up again. 

Can't wait to get home tonight to see what state the bloody thing is in!! 

Anyway - that's my story... glad it's not just my receiver... but hope we can get a real solution from DirecTV ASAP!!


----------



## Doug Brott

ziggy29 said:


> Their claim of a botched software update was refuted by Doug here in no uncertain terms.


Done so there as well ..


----------



## StevoDevo

puffnstuff said:


> I wish a RBR would fix it mine


Newbie question... what's a RBR?!!


----------



## diggumsmax

Red Button Reset. Open the front panel where the card is and there is a red button. Press it to reset your receiver.


----------



## Hutchinshouse

Two for me. Both HR20's did not respond to remote or front controls this morning. All lights off. I use standby every night. The only option was to RBR both units.


----------



## freerein100

My HR20-700 had to be reset TWICE yesterday and once again when I got in at 3:30 PM today.


----------



## barryb

Red Button Reset:

Look inside the right hand corner drop-down cover on your DVR. See that little red button?


----------



## puffnstuff

StevoDevo said:


> Newbie question... what's a RBR?!!


Red Button Reset .


----------



## looter

StevoDevo said:


> Newbie question... what's a RBR?!!


RBR=Red Button Reboot. Open the door on the (right?) front of your DVR and press the little red button to restart it.

I believe there is a guide to terminology commonly used in this forum. I'll see if I can find the link.


----------



## Lee L

Wow, I sure hope they get this fixed by 8:00 Eastern. 

At least we have an antenna and a tuner on the TV so we can watch some stuff if it comes to that, but I can only imagine the massive call queue they will have at that time.


----------



## Doug Brott

StevoDevo said:


> Newbie question... what's a RBR?!!





diggumsmax said:


> Red Button Reset. Open the front panel where the card is and there is a red button. Press it to reset your receiver.


If it's any consolation, I had this exact same question once ..  Thank you guys for answering so quickly.


----------



## bonscott87

HR20-700 and HR21-200 both locked up and required pulling the plug.

H21 was also locked up and had to be rebooted so it doesn't just effect the DVRs.


----------



## talkdj

Just the continuing saga of the typical lock ups, etc. If I don't get a 771 error on tuner 2 message screwing up my recordings at least 4-6 times a week, I'm rebooting for some other reason. Today's "lock up" was just another HR21 screw up in my book. I unplugged, rebooted, and then called Directv to see if I finally could get a new receiver. Then the recording told me that it was an actual Directv mistake this time. 

What does it take to get some care here for all of this. I do not want to go back to cable. Enough already!

Sorry for the rant


----------



## fornold

I went home at lunch to check after reading about it here. One was nonresponsive the other was okay. 

My wife just called me and both have locked up since then. Hoping things are straightened out by prime time, the wife gets testy when she misses here Dancing with the Stars.


----------



## mikeandaiden

Since we are asking about TLAs....what is OTA?


----------



## 7thton

mikeandaiden said:


> Since we are asking about TLAs....what is OTA?


over the air


----------



## 1948GG

Two HR20-100's needed RBR, HR20-700 (first gen) sailed right through no probs.

ch. 242 (USA-HD) still frozen on all, scene from 'Law & Order', don't know exactly when that happened. Wonder if it all was at the same 'time'.


----------



## Michael D'Angelo

StevoDevo said:


> Newbie question... what's a RBR?!!


:welcome_s to DBSTalk!

I know there have been a few members that have already answered your question but this may help....http://www.dbstalk.com/acronyms.htm


----------



## zaraspook

National release HR20-700 required RBR this AM. Locked up again at noon when I went home for lunch. Can't wait to get home for the next round.

Unit getting slower and slower over last week when changing channels. The remote numeric "0" button requires 4-5 presses before it takes, but then is OK for a while. Anyone else getting the "0" button issue?

Old DVR DirecTV TIVO unit not experiencing any issues!


----------



## bwaldron

Lee L said:


> At least we have an antenna and a tuner on the TV so we can watch some stuff if it comes to that.


Well...you can watch stuff -- but only on the channel you were on when the lockup happens.


----------



## David MacLeod

1948GG said:


> Two HR20-100's needed RBR, HR20-700 (first gen) sailed right through no probs.
> 
> ch. 242 (USA-HD) still frozen on all, scene from 'Law & Order', don't know exactly when that happened. Wonder if it all was at the same 'time'.


no, I was watching USA after my reboot for awhile. this was at 0650 est.


----------



## bonscott87

talkdj said:


> Just the continuing saga of the typical lock ups, etc. If I don't get a 771 error on tuner 2 message screwing up my recordings at least 4-6 times a week, I'm rebooting for some other reason. Today's "lock up" was just another HR21 screw up in my book. I unplugged, rebooted, and then called Directv to see if I finally could get a new receiver. Then the recording told me that it was an actual Directv mistake this time.
> 
> What does it take to get some care here for all of this. I do not want to go back to cable. Enough already!
> 
> Sorry for the rant


You are aware that this is indeed different right? There is something wrong in the data stream that is causing more then just the HR2x receivers to lock up. Has nothing to do with any other problems you have had. I know it doesn't matter to you but let's keep the facts straight.


----------



## bwaldron

David MacLeod said:


> no, I was watching USA after my reboot for awhile. this was at 0650 est.


Yeah, the USA freeze was a separate problem.


----------



## David MacLeod

Doug Brott said:


> If it's any consolation, I had this exact same question once ..  Thank you guys for answering so quickly.


come on Doug, admit it. you also forgot what it means and people answering so quickly ACTUALLY answered you too


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

Doug Brott said:


> If it's any consolation, I had this exact same question once ..  Thank you guys for answering so quickly.


And it was last week at that!


----------



## ozark

Same here, except after unplug and reset this morning to get them ( one-HR20-700, one HR21-100) working - turned off to go play golf. Just returned and here we go again. Both back working after doing same. However, was unable to get #360 Fox News- watch most of the day (must be an Obama thing) have to watch O'Reilly than Hannity. Another point: have had Hughes for internet for 12 years just switched to Charter....works great and cost a lot less. If it wasn't for the Sunday Football package would consider Charter.


----------



## Chris Blount

Ken S said:


> Engadget picked it up...little free pub for dbstalk.com and some agita for the DirecTV marketing team.
> 
> http://www.engadget.com/2008/10/06/botched-directv-software-update-causing-hr2x-stbs-to-need-reboot/


 Just a quick hello to our Engadget visitors.


----------



## Draconis

Yep, both the HR20-700 and the R22-200 locked up. Rebooting brought them back.

Hope they tell us what happened, I'm quite curious as to what happened.


----------



## RACJ2

Both of my HR22's required pulling the plug to reboot. I actually woke about around 5AM to the sound of clicking noises coming from either the HR22 or my UPS. Then when I woke up later and tried to turn it on, it was DOA.


----------



## loudo

My two HR20s were working OK today, but I noticed my blue ring was bright blue, on one unit, and I had set it to dim. I think it rebooted itself sometime during the night.


----------



## smimi10

My HR20-700 locked up. Tried pulling the power plug twice, no luck. Power light dimly comes on and then goes back off. I suspect brickage.

On to the hell of Directv customer support.


----------



## dandabald

Had to do a "pull the plug" reset yesterday (Sunday) afternoon after the Cowboy game (~6 PM CDT ? ) because the unit was unresponsive to either the remote OR the front panel of the HD-DVR.

Had to do the same just an hour ago - thankfully it appears that the "To Do" list and recorded shows are unharmed.

TiVo in the bedroom (non-HD) is fine, no problems noted.

Hope they get it fixed soon......... :hurah:


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

smimi10 said:


> My HR20-700 locked up. Tried pulling the power plug twice, no luck. Power light dimly comes on and then goes back off. I suspect brickage.
> 
> On to the hell of Directv customer support.


Try leaving it unplugged ~30 minutes...


----------



## JACKIEGAGA

I can't believe there is no update yet on what is going on!


----------



## Colonel Badger

smimi10 said:


> My HR20-700 locked up. Tried pulling the power plug twice, no luck. Power light dimly comes on and then goes back off. I suspect brickage.
> 
> On to the hell of Directv customer support.


Just wait a bit. Mine did the same and after approx 3-5min suddenly came to life.


----------



## DCSholtis

Mine happened about 4:30am, I was deleting something off my list after I had finished watching it, selecting delete now locked it up tight. Front power button did not work so I did an RBR. Too tired to do a report ticket, so once the RBR was done I was able to shut it off and all is well again.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

JACKIEGAGA said:


> I can't believe there is no update yet on what is going on!


I honestly wouldn't really expect one.

1. Most companies don't publicize "mishaps".

2. Even if they did, most people probably wouldn't understand it.


----------



## studdad

HR20 DOA here as well. Took an rbr. Then after the picture showed up, took another 20+ minutes to get my Fox News and Local stations in the guide.


----------



## poppo

1948GG said:


> ch. 242 (USA-HD) still frozen on all, scene from 'Law & Order', don't know exactly when that happened. Wonder if it all was at the same 'time'.


I posted a few pages back at about 3:15PM CT that I was watching 242 at the time when it started wigging out. I checked a few other channels and they also went black, then 242 came back with a color bar test pattern for a bit and then later got the freeze frame. Whatever happed seemed to affect several other channels too for about a minute.


----------



## inkahauts

smimi10 said:


> My HR20-700 locked up. Tried pulling the power plug twice, no luck. Power light dimly comes on and then goes back off. I suspect brickage.
> 
> On to the hell of Directv customer support.


after u see the dim blue light ur good. just leave it alone for 20 to 30 mins.. its rebooting while being power off. hit power later on and u should be fine.


----------



## smimi10

Colonel Badger said:


> Just wait a bit. Mine did the same and after approx 3-5min suddenly came to life.


Thanks. It did come back after a period of time. I guess patience is a virtue.


----------



## m4p

Just got home from work and everything seemed fine with my HR20-700. I checked my list for something that was supposed to record today at 1 P.M. and that did not record. I checked my To Do list and it said 39 items, which I thought was a good sign that they were still there. I clicked to load my To Do list and then it froze, and now I'm doing a RBR. I am NOT happy.


----------



## Xagoth

Mine was locked up when I got up this morning.

And now just locked up again.

RBR fixed it both times, but unfortunately this time I somehow lost access to all my local channels. They don't even exist on the guide.


----------



## kenn157

After all this was a "high risk" right? So far just one power cycle for each unit (2) worked for me.


----------



## RACJ2

JACKIEGAGA said:


> I can't believe there is no update yet on what is going on!


It was probably D* adding all the new national HD channels we've been waiting for!


----------



## funhouse69

Well I had to RBR / Pull the Plug on both my HR20-100 and HR20-700 3 times today. The wost thing is that nothing that was scheduled to record actually recorded. Try and explain that to the girlfriend that isn't going to understand that there was a problem with the data-stream or anything else that anyone says :eek2:


----------



## bwaldron

kenn157 said:


> After all this was a "high risk" right?


This has nothing to do with CE software.


----------



## mightymouse

Wife just got home. H20-700 unresponsive and "on fire." I told her to turn of the entire surge protector for about 10 min, then we'll see. Hope it's not fried!!


----------



## beavis

This "ZOMG ONOZ TEH SKY IS FALLING LOL!!" attitude is what really cracks me up. Nothing is flawless, s*** happens, it's fixed, and life goes on.


----------



## joe221

I had two dead HR-20s. One I rebooted in the morning and it was fine thereafter. The second one took 3 resets and finally took. I hadn't checked online first, I called the 800# the digital voice said they were having trouble with the DVRs and warned of high call waits. That's when I started looking here.


----------



## kenn157

kenn157 said:


> After all this was a "high risk" right? So far just one power cycle for each unit (2) worked for me.


"so far" I got home a little while ago. I may get more.


----------



## kocuba

Just got home and mine were locked. Did a RBR on both and they are rebooting right now. Did notice when I did logmein to my home PC from work that DirecTV2PC was able to see both HRs and switch between. I did not attempt to play anything but was able to view my playlists. 

Just a FYI


----------



## hengnv

beavis said:


> This "ZOMG ONOZ TEH SKY IS FALLING LOL!!" attitude is what really cracks me up. Nothing is flawless, s*** happens, it's fixed, and life goes on.


+1


----------



## ziggy29

JACKIEGAGA said:


> I can't believe there is no update yet on what is going on!


Personally, I'd rather they spend 100% of their time and effort on fixing the problem and restoring everything back to normal before taking bandwidth over having the engineering team constantly distracted by status updates.

If they want to give a "post-mortem" AFTER the issue is fixed, that's up to them. But I don't want to see them using a lot of resources on spin control that might be better used to help fix it.


----------



## beestea

My HR20-700 locked stopped responding to all remote control input around 2am EST. The picture and audio on the channel I had been watching continued to work. A RBR worked with no long delay and corrected the issue (haven't checked to see if its locked back up since).

Next I took a look at my HR21-200, it was locked up and wouldn't come out of standby. RBR did not work. Pulling the plug on did the trick but took several minutes more than usual to even show on screen that it was booting up.

Anyone think something malicious is/was going on? DirecTV wouldn't be pushing code on a week day would they? Maybe some mal-formed data in the nightly guide updates?


----------



## dandabald

to determine the cause of the problem.

Direct quote from attempting to send an e-mail via the link on directv.com - it was the first "known resolution" that came up when I attempted to send the e-mail (they must have software that parses the text and AI to get potential scenarios).
I sent the e-mail anyway - let's see if we can overwhelm their exchange servers with bug reports.

It is what it is.......


----------



## darkster

My HR20-100 would not power up this morning, RBR did nothing the first time so I unplugged and did my happy 10 count then plugged back in. I saw the dim blue light for a second then heard the platters spinning, finally after a couple minutes it started booting up, but once finished, I had the "searching for signal on tuner #2 message and could only get once channel to view, no recordings and no locals. Another RBR and the system seemed to be working again normally. Then at 11am PST I noticed that a program in my scheduler did not start to record (my wife's soap opera of all things!!!) I checked the to-do list and all my items are still listed including the Y&R.... Manual recording started fine, but I'm going to keep an eye on the scheduler to make sure it doesn't miss anyhting else.

Argh!!


----------



## bwaldron

ziggy29 said:


> If they want to give a "post-mortem" AFTER the issue is fixed, that's up to them.


I wouldn't really expect that, either. Just not DirecTV's way (and no, I'm not bashing them for it).


----------



## bwaldron

dandabald said:


> I sent the e-mail anyway - let's see if we can overwhelm their exchange servers with bug reports.


And that would help...how?


----------



## SubSlr08

My HR21-100 was dead with no panel lights this AM. I tried the RBR to no avail. Pulled the plug for about 20 seconds . . . nothing. I thought the UPS unit had gone out - drug out the DVM and checked it - 123.3 volts AC. Plugged it back in - got a flicker on the power button light - held in the power button and up it came. All recordings on the eSATA drive were intact and it looks like all the guide data is OK, too, along with the Prioritizer listing. Hope it's nothing indicative, this unit has finally been pretty stable since the last update on 7/16.


----------



## groove93

Just got home to a dead DVR, in the process of rebooting it now.

I have alot of stuff set to record tonight.

Don't fail me again.


----------



## dcowboy7

beavis said:


> This "ZOMG ONOZ TEH SKY"


are u a romulan ? no cloaking device....weve been thru that before.


----------



## Amerikes

Yeah, second time mine has locked up today.


----------



## dcowboy7

just got an email response from directv:

"when we correct the "channels i get" issue we will move onto this reboot issue.

thank u".


:lol:


----------



## Webini

HR21-700 dead here too. I RBR and then hit the power button at 8am this morning. Came back up. Put it back into standby and then came home tonight to exactly the same problem. Another RBR and power button and the units are back up, but there is no excuse.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Programmers at D* need to be held accountable and fired. This is a TOTALLY CLOSED SYSTEM. No excuse for these type of bugs.


----------



## phox_mulder

Doug just posted an update in the topmost sticky.

"There is a possibility that your HR2x (or R22) receiver will be automatically restarted this afternoon ".

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1824110#post1824110

Time to figure out what is most important and replicate some of tonights recordings on the other two HD DVR's.
Or get ready to get the programs "by other methods".

Counted up what I record tonight, 10 programs.

phox


----------



## David MacLeod

poppo said:


> I posted a few pages back at about 3:15PM CT that I was watching 242 at the time when it started wigging out. I checked a few other channels and they also went black, then 242 came back with a color bar test pattern for a bit and then later got the freeze frame. Whatever happed seemed to affect several other channels too for about a minute.


242 up and running as of 1730 today.


----------



## Capmeister

Interestingly, my two HR20-700s needed the RBRs this AM, but my HR21-200 w/AM21 was fine. When I got home, the HR21 needed it too. It's coming up now.


----------



## redrocker

My theory is that D* is trying to upload DLB's to our DVR's. Now we can put that wishlist to rest! lol


----------



## Xagoth

The Proton said:


> Not sure if this happened to more than a few people, but...
> 
> I woke up last night around 3:00am after dreaming of smelling burning plastic. Could not find the source and it went away so I went back to sleep.
> 
> In the morning the hr20 in the bedroom is dead (as is the one downstairs), and I hit the red button, no response. I tried unplug/30 sec/plug back in, no response. I noticed at this point the unit was very hot, so I took the DVD player off of it and let it sit w/o power for 20 minutes, still nothing. After 2 hours I powered it back up and it came up normally. The other hr20 responded to a quick power down/up.
> 
> So I'm wondering if the software crash could have disabled the cooling fan, allowing it to overheat? As I understand it it is switched on/speed up as needed. I noticed a few other people in this (long) thread have had similar issues were the unit needed to be powered off for a long period of time before it would restart.
> 
> And yes, nothing will be placed on top of it anymore.
> 
> Any theories? Permanent Damage possible?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> The Proton


Interesting.

Mine has frozen up twice today.

Both times I noticed it seemed a bit warmer than normal.

Just checked the internal temp through system info, which is normally around 102-103 and its sitting at 108 about 5 minutes after an RBR.

So there is an unexplained 5 degree rise in temperature.

Living room is always about 70-72 which is currently is 72.

I can hear the fan running it.

No clue why the temp is up.


----------



## Capmeister

phox_mulder said:


> Doug just posted an update in the topmost sticky.
> 
> "DVR may be rebooted by DirecTV this afternoon/early evening".
> 
> Time to prioritize my Monday recordings and move some to the other two HD DVR's.
> Or get ready to get the programs "by other methods".
> 
> Counted up what I record tonight, 10 programs.
> 
> phox


If they mess up my Heroes recording, there shall be blood. :/


----------



## phox_mulder

Capmeister said:


> If they mess up my Heroes recording, there shall be blood. :/


Dang, quoted before the ninja edit.

phox


----------



## loudo

loudo said:


> My two HR20s were working OK today, but I noticed my blue ring was bright blue, on one unit, and I had set it to dim. I think it rebooted itself sometime during the night.


I stand corrected. My wife told me when she got up this morning one of our units (NR) would not turn on and she couldn't do anything with it. She did a RBR and it was OK, So the above statement only applies to one of my HR20s (CE).


----------



## Doug Brott

beestea said:


> Anyone think something malicious is/was going on? DirecTV wouldn't be pushing code on a week day would they? Maybe some mal-formed data in the nightly guide updates?


As I stated earlier, there was no software update .. so a software update was not the cause. But yes, software updates have typically come during the week vs. the weekend.

As for GUIDE updates - the guide is constantly updated. There are no nightly guide update .. it's always updating.


----------



## B. Shoe

I came home for lunch to find my HR-21 unresponsive to the remote control or front panel buttons. I did a system restart and everything was fine. No problems with favorites or recordings, or with my D12 standard receiver in the downstairs area. This is only the second restart I've had to do since subscribing to DirecTV in early July.


----------



## beavis

I'd think that D*'s engineers would want to be as thorough as possible in determining the issue, instead of rushing to judgment.


----------



## mx6bfast

Capmeister said:


> If they mess up my Heroes recording, there shall be blood. :/


No kidding. We are getting into prime time, need to get it fixed within the next 2 hours.

Quote a guy at work: "If mine doesn't record Heroes tonight, it will be ejected out into the street and run over"


----------



## Stewpidity

Just got home hr20 was Sound only no picture on the HD channels, i tried several, HBOHD/TBSHD/Local HD...Seems like all of the SD are ok..

oops RBR fixed the above..this morning unplugging solved the issues

HR21 seems to be working fine..


----------



## seern

Just to chime in, RBR at 0600 then again just now at 1745. This is so frustrating. All times eastern.


----------



## Jon J

One good thing to come out of all these reboots:

The clock will be right again.


----------



## mightymouse

mightymouse said:


> Wife just got home. H20-700 unresponsive and "on fire." I told her to turn of the entire surge protector for about 10 min, then we'll see. Hope it's not fried!!


Power cycle worked, I'm back up and running. One thing to note though, I asked my wife to go to the "info and test" section to check the temp, 115* ! This was AFTER a 10 minute power down. I just wonder what it was at before that.


----------



## DarinC

Xagoth said:


> So there is an unexplained 5 degree rise in temperature. ... No clue why the temp is up.


That's not uncommon when computers lock up. Sometimes they lock because they get stuck processing something in a loop. The CPU load stays pegged @ 100% while it's trying to process the endless workload, and temperatures rise.


----------



## EVAC41

davring said:


> One of my HR20-700's was dead this morning, would not power on, had to pull the plug to get it to reboot. It came up fine, all seems to be well except all of my favorite lists were wiped clean. It is on a UPS, there was no software update indicated. This is the first hard reset I have had to do in well over a year.


Mine did not come on either. Had to the power cord out of the back of the unit. It looks right now that it is booting up fine..

Anybody have an update?


----------



## Matman

Just got home, HR21-100 DOA. Tried the RBR, no avail. Unplugged and counted to 30, no luck Unplugged again and counted to 60, no luck. Unplugged, threatened the box with being replaced by a Crapcast DVR, and the unit restarted (seriously). DVR hung at satellite info 97%, did a RBR and unit is finally up and running, recordings still there, and fav's set to "channels I get" and working fine.......


----------



## joshjr

According to the VP of CS they still do not know what the issue is and said that the problems with the DVR's will continue to happen but that they are working on it.


----------



## stroh

Two HR21-100, both had to be RBR, one was broadcasting programming but had no response to remote or front panel buttons. The other was dead, no lights, no response. When it restarted it was wiped clean, no favorites, no recordings, no ToDo, No prioritizer list.


----------



## Regw3

I am a directv dealer, my phones rang off the wall this morning. Customers told me of wait times of up to 30 mins to an hour. i bet i took at least 40 calls this morning. What a pain.


----------



## Amerikes

Can you imagine the Phone calls DirecTV is getting over this. Mine DVR was off this morning, and I thought the DVR had gone out, and then after it came up, I thought, that something within the power was getting flaky. Then I checked here at the board like I do nearly daily, and discovered the problem was not unique.

What about the many people that do not know of forums like these. They are probably calling like crazy.


----------



## Jables

Huh, I'm in the tiny minority that had no problems at all.


----------



## Amerikes

DirecTV has approx. 16 million subscribers, and I would imagine that many have DVR's.

Ring, Ring.........


----------



## Doug Brott

joshjr said:


> According to the VP of CS they still do not know what the issue is and said that the problems with the DVR's will continue to happen but that they are working on it.


You have old information DIRECTV identified the issue some time ago as noted here. DIRECTV is continuing to work on the problem at this time, and progress is being made.


----------



## Amerikes

Jables said:


> Huh, I'm in the tiny minority that had no problems at all.


I wonder, if it is a particular model?


----------



## boelters

I had this problems start with an HR21 last week. I pulled the plug and restarted it. It happened again yesterday with the HR21 and again this morning with both the HR21 and HR22. When I got both receivers back up, I downloaded the NR. I thought maybe the CE release was the problem. I did not have the problem with an HR20.


----------



## joshjr

Doug Brott said:


> You have old information DIRECTV identified the issue some time ago as noted here. DIRECTV is continuing to work on the problem at this time, and progress is being made.


I assume so to. They read the latest email they had at the time which was less then 30 minutes ago so not sure but maybe they are not being kept up to date either.


----------



## Griff

Both HR21-700s were out of standby this morning, but locked up. The HR20-100 was the same. The HR20-700 had no panel lights and was too hot to touch. All four units responded to RBR and are so far back to normal.


----------



## spoonman

Do we need to still report this issue...All three of my HR2x where locked up today.


----------



## Sugarlander

Yup, it did it again. The receiver was off 3 hours and I had to reset again. This is this worst issue that I have faced with this DVR.


----------



## m4p

After rebooting, my To Do list only goes through this Wednesday. All other items are missing. In the meantime while all this is getting sorted out, I decided to use my regular "old faithful" RCA receiver in the bedroom and my DVD recorder to record tonight's shows.


----------



## DanER40

Both of my boxes were dead in the morning and both were dead again when I got home just now. RBR did the trick both times.


----------



## MHElliott

Yep same thing on HR20-700. Had to pull plug twice to get active. ???? Also noted the excessive heat issue.


----------



## IwantmyTHX

too hip said:


> What about the people that are unable to be home a do a manual reboot? They would miss all of the recordings for tonight. What if you left for a week vacation yesterday and will be gone all week. I wouldn't be very happy returning home to find out nothing for the week was recorded. Do you think DirecTV is able to send a command down to force a reboot after they get this fixed?


It's only TV.:grin: If it is important enough to warrant that much unhappiness maybe live TV is the way to go. That is what I say to myself everytime I lose a recording or forget to program a season pass etc.


----------



## Xagoth

DarinC said:


> That's not uncommon when computers lock up. Sometimes they lock because they get stuck processing something in a loop. The CPU load stays pegged @ 100% while it's trying to process the endless workload, and temperatures rise.


Sure enough, just tested and its back to its normal 103.

So whatever is causing the freezups is also causing massive heating inside the box.

Not good...


----------



## boelters

It is a shame that D* does not post something about this on their website! How much do you think this will cost them for credits to unhappy customers? I will be asking for a credit.


----------



## David MacLeod

might be a good idea to update the thread title for newcomers. something mentioning lockedup/no start/etc.


----------



## Pinion413

My HR21-100 was not responsive. Just did a RBR (twice, actually, as the first time it didn't seem to work). Everything seems to be booting normally now.


----------



## henryld

Xagoth said:


> Sure enough, just tested and its back to its normal 103.
> 
> So whatever is causing the freezups is also causing massive heating inside the box.
> 
> Not good...


My unit was at 125 following a RBR about 45 minutes ago. Not good at all.:nono:


----------



## prospero63

boelters said:


> It is a shame that D* does not post something about this on their website! How much do you think this will cost them for credits to unhappy customers? I will be asking for a credit.


I'm sure they don't care. Depending on who you talk to today, they either don't know what the problem is, they know what the problem is and are working on it, or "it's a proprietary thing and we don't discuss it with customers" as 3 different people told me today.

That's assuming you navigate their totally idiotic automated system now (oh for the days of pressing "0" and actually getting someone to talk to, as opposed to punching random numbers till the system finally gives up and let's me through anyway).

I've had more problems in the past 11 months with my DTV DVR's than I did for 7+ years with my TIVO's. I am sooooooo looking forward to next year...


----------



## Jables

Amerikes said:


> I wonder, if it is a particular model?


Came back to add - I was incorrect. I had both TVs on this morning, and they were tuned to the channels I wanted them on already. So I assumed all was well.

After perusing the thread, I went back and noticed that on both HR-20 700s the video was still fine but the remote and the front panel were unresponsive (stuck on those channels). A reboot seems to have fixed the issue.

I actually had something like this happen to by bedroom HR-20 on Saturday; except the video was frozen and the sound still worked. RBR fixed it.


----------



## techman

My Hr20-700 and Hr22-100 both were locked up. The 700 was able to be rebooted with the RBR, but the 100 had to be unplugged to get it to reboot.


----------



## Restless2002

Yes i had to reset mine twice today


----------



## miles

So many systems experiencing the same symptom at around the same time period.
Since there was no software update that is mentioned on this topic it could be a time triggered bug or Trojan horse. Maybe it’s a malicious attack from the internet. Are all these systems having problems connected to the internet?


----------



## GP245

Well, this morning, my HR-21-100 with an AM-21 connected was totally dead!

The remote couldn't turn them on and neither could the power switch on the
HR-21-100. Finally reverted to removing the A.C. cord from the AM-21 -
waited a bit and then was able to turn things and wait and wait until all the 
rebooting stuff went on.

This evening, got home same problem. Same method used to get things working.

My H-21-100 in my bedroom - no problem.

Called Direct, the recording mentioned long wait to reach someone, and fortunately, there was a recording mentioning the problem.

Then I went to this thread, and although frustrated, there is some small bit of
consolation, I'm not alone!


----------



## njblackberry

miles said:


> Are all these systems having problems connected to the internet?


No.


----------



## Doug Brott

miles said:


> So many systems experiencing the same symptom at around the same time period.
> Since there was no software update that is mentioned on this topic it could be a time triggered bug or Trojan horse. Maybe it's a malicious attack from the internet. Are all these systems having problems connected to the internet?


No, this is not a problem related to the Internet .. It is affecting most receivers including those not connected to the network at all.


----------



## oldschoolecw

miles said:


> So many systems experiencing the same symptom at around the same time period.
> Since there was no software update that is mentioned on this topic it could be a time triggered bug or Trojan horse. Maybe it's a malicious attack from the internet. Are all these systems having problems connected to the internet?


I have been thinking that all day


----------



## henryld

miles said:


> So many systems experiencing the same symptom at around the same time period.
> Since there was no software update that is mentioned on this topic it could be a time triggered bug or Trojan horse. Maybe it's a malicious attack from the internet. Are all these systems having problems connected to the internet?


I asked a similar question earlier today and received no response.


----------



## dparisoe

My HR21-700 also required a RBR this morning, currently running the previous ce.


----------



## LarryFlowers

henryld said:


> I asked a similar question earlier today and received no response.


The suspect should be the guide update....


----------



## Xagoth

Mine is not and never has been connected to the internet, so can rule that out.


----------



## redrocker

My DVR temp is at 129*, it has been around that for many months


----------



## Milkman

LarryFlowers said:


> The suspect should be the guide update....


I concur


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

Just came back to my laptop where I checked this thread this morning... and there were only 15 posts... :lol:


----------



## dreadlk

I was up till 3am and all was fine at that point. That narrows the window a bit



jimb726 said:


> Both of my units, a HR20-700 and a HR20-100 were both totally unresponsive this morning. My -700 had to actually be unplugged to reboot, it wouldnt respond to the red button. The -100 responded to the RBR no problem. I know I went to bed around 1:30 and the -100 was responding fing so whatever happened occurred between 1:30 and 6:00 am, EST.


----------



## DaveBrz

Had both of my HR20-100 froze this morning and did the RBR then again mid-afternoon had to do a 2nd RBR.


----------



## jpitlick

My HR20-700 was on and showing USA when I got home from work just now. However, the remote was completely unresponsive. RBRing now.


----------



## erict

Xagoth said:


> Interesting.
> 
> Mine has frozen up twice today.
> 
> Both times I noticed it seemed a bit warmer than normal.
> 
> Just checked the internal temp through system info, which is normally around 102-103 and its sitting at 108 about 5 minutes after an RBR.
> 
> So there is an unexplained 5 degree rise in temperature.
> 
> Living room is always about 70-72 which is currently is 72.
> 
> I can hear the fan running it.
> 
> No clue why the temp is up.


How can you check the internal temp?


----------



## msmith198025

Should be fixed now, may require one more reset

http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv...ctv-hr2x-mass-lockups-overnight-10-6-a-5.html
Post #100


----------



## redbirdruss

I have bugun considering AT&T Uverse or Charter Cable. I am strting to get fed up with DirecTV. 
1. I get bad Rain Fade every time it rains, 
2. I was having major issues with MLB Extra Innings and after 3 onsite calls it was fixed with a new dish.
3. All the issues when the HD DVR was first released.
It all kind of builds up after 10+ years


----------



## Xagoth

erict said:


> How can you check the internal temp?


Menu-setup-system setup-info&test, scroll down. It will tell you.


----------



## njblackberry

I wonder if this thread http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=140509 on new guide data is related..


----------



## alnielsen

I've alternated between the RBR and power-down restarts 2wice now. I can only watch History Int.
HR20-700


----------



## hdthebest

I think D* should add more HD nationals this week just because of the inconvinence this has caused I was going to watch the White Sox game when I got home from work but now I cant and have to watch the highlights only.


----------



## erict

Xagoth said:


> Menu-setup-system setup-info&test, scroll down. It will tell you.


Thanks


----------



## erict

I have my fingers crossed. I just got home and had to do another reset. Hope issue is resolved.


----------



## cmylxgo

Both my HR20-700s were hosed this morning. Unit with eSATA drive lost all recordings and TO-Do items. This is the 3rd time in a row on NR that killed my eSata recordings. I'm about fed up with this crap!


----------



## bgullicksen

Yep, just turned my on for the first time today....or tried to. HR20 was not responsive to remote of front button. Had to RBR.

Bill


----------



## msmith198025

erict said:


> I have my fingers crossed. I just got home and had to do another reset. Hope issue is resolved.


Should be.
This is the official D* statement per satguys.

"There was a broadcast anomaly that was causing this problem and a fix was put in place at about 2:35 PM ET. We are sending out a re-set this afternoon to boxes starting on the East Coast that should resolve the issue.

Any boxes that were manually reset after 2:35 PM ET should already be working normally."

You may need to reboot once more to be safe

Edit: I see Doug posted it too. Sorry man


----------



## Doug Brott

FYI .. as I posted in the News thread ..

In the post [post=1824334]1824334[/post]:


Doug Brott said:


> OK .. Just got the final confirmation ..
> 
> If your receiver was restarted after 2:35pm ET, then you are all set. What this means is that whatever was causing it to be locked up has been corrected. If you are unsure and want to be sure, then you can safely restart your receiver again now, but you do not necessarily have to do this.


----------



## David MacLeod

I'm rebooting mine now so they don't go during a recording tonight.


----------



## msmith198025

Doug Brott said:


> FYI .. as I posted in the News thread ..
> 
> In the post [post=1824334]1824334[/post]:


Sorry Doug, I didnt see it here, got lost in all of the posts! lol

Good job


----------



## Sixto

Three (3) HR20-700's, one (1) HR21-200. Total of 4.

This morning: Two of the HR20-700's and the HR21-200 were non-responsive. One of the HR20-700's was fine. A RBR fixed the problem. Also did a software reset on the fourth box that didn't have a problem just to have all four boxes freshly booted. Also, one of the three boxes that failed had lost it's favorites completely.

Posted to this thread, left for the day and thought all was fine ...

Just arrived home and things were not well with the family. Two of the four HR20's were dead. Both non-CE boxes, the family production boxes. Both did eventually reboot, but it was weird. A simple RBR did nothing at first. But after a few minutes they both eventually rebooted.

Thought all was now well ... until my wife just realized that this afternoon's soap operas were not recorded ... all is not exactly well ... 

At least this didn't happen tonight when there's 7 shows set to record ... fingers crossed ...


----------



## Griff

As I reported earlier, we found our bedroom HR20-700 locked up and nearly too hot to touch. I would hate to be out of town and have that thing sitting there cooking!


----------



## edcrbnsoul

Rebooting mine as I type, hope it works!


----------



## hdthebest

Sorry if this has been mentioned but what was the reason for this malfunction?


----------



## msmith198025

hdthebest said:


> Sorry if this has been mentioned but what was the reason for this malfunction?


They are saying "broadcast anomaly" your guess is as good as anyone elses


----------



## Reggie3

My single HR20-700 is fine and the software is the same as the one that I downloaded last Saturday night


----------



## keithtd

Actually this is the 2nd time in 3 weeks I've had to reset/reboot but only by pulling the power cord.

Sent Report 1A6E


----------



## hdthebest

msmith198025 said:


> They are saying "broadcast anomaly" your guess is as good as anyone elses[/QUOT"
> 
> "Broadcast anomaly"=Technical screw up in my dictionary


----------



## tuff bob

Yup, just had to recycle my HR20-700 for the second time today. I can't wait for the other HD DVR vendor to have their DirecTV product ready.


----------



## arxaw

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1824334#post1824334​


----------



## armophob

Both of mine are bricked. Waiting 15 minutes with no power.


----------



## JACKIEGAGA

Just restarted my HR20-700 and HR21-100 lets see what happens


----------



## MX727

Got home, both HR-22s dead. 1 on CE, 1 on NR. Cycled the battery backups and they both booted with everything apparently intact.


----------



## Starchy77

Doug Brott said:


> FYI .. as I posted in the News thread ..
> 
> In the post [post=1824334]1824334[/post]:


May have to check this... I got home about an hour and a half ago and had to reset my HR21-100 (w/am 21 & 1TB HD). My other HR21-100 was OK, so was my HR-22. After watching TV for an hour, I had a second lockup and needed to do a RBR. The first time, I needed to pull the AC from the unit to get it to respond.


----------



## loudo

redbirdruss said:


> I have bugun considering AT&T Uverse or Charter Cable. I am strting to get fed up with DirecTV.
> 1. I get bad Rain Fade every time it rains,
> 2. I was having major issues with MLB Extra Innings and after 3 onsite calls it was fixed with a new dish.
> 3. All the issues when the HD DVR was first released.
> It all kind of builds up after 10+ years


Before you do, check the threads of your local cable company. Many I read are having problems with their DVRs that are a lot worse than the minor issues we have with HR2X units.


----------



## David MacLeod

not sure if anyone else notices this, but after rebooting just now I had to disable and re-enable all 720 and 1080 resolutions in hd menu to get some sd channels to pillar box.


----------



## Doug Brott

Starchy77 said:


> May have to check this... I got home about an hour and a half ago and had to reset my HR21-100 (w/am 21 & 1TB HD). My other HR21-100 was OK, so was my HR-22. After watching TV for an hour, I had a second lockup and needed to do a RBR. The first time, I needed to pull the AC from the unit to get it to respond.


Was the second lockup on the same receiver that you restarted the first time or on one of the other two receivers?


----------



## Reggie3

Reggie3 said:


> My single HR20-700 is fine and the software is the same as the one that I downloaded last Saturday night


Opps - Spoke too soon. It just rebooted as I went in to watch the news


----------



## anleva

Thanks DirecTV for resetting my receiver in the middle of the baseball game. grrrrrr


----------



## dave71

mine just locked up and booted again now (7.06pm ET) and it was also locked up this am

HR21-700 with 1tb external eSata


----------



## RobertE

"Official" Transcript of what happened with the DVRs today:



> In A.D. 2101
> War was beginning.
> Captain: What happen ?
> Mechanic: Somebody set up us the bomb.
> Operator: We get signal.
> Captain: What !
> Operator: Main screen turn on.
> Captain: It's you !!
> CATS: How are you gentlemen !!
> CATS: All your base are belong to us.
> CATS: You are on the way to destruction.
> Captain: What you say !!
> CATS: You have no chance to survive make your time.
> CATS: Ha ha ha ha ....
> Operator: Captain !! *
> Captain: Take off every 'ZIG'!!
> Captain: You know what you doing.
> Captain: Move 'ZIG'.
> Captain: For great justice.


:lol: :lol: :lol:


----------



## Starchy77

Doug Brott said:


> Was the second lockup on the same receiver that you restarted the first time or on one of the other two receivers?


Same one.


----------



## gizzorge

My HR-100 was dead this morning AND this afternoon. Had to do a red button reset. Then, some of my channels didn't appear for like 15 minutes!


----------



## Doug Brott

Reggie3 said:


> Opps - Spoke too soon. It just rebooted as I went in to watch the news


Yes, as I noted earlier, this was a possibility. It should take about 10 minutes to restart.


----------



## BattleScott

I object to the term 'properly', it is however operating 'normally'.


----------



## Gimpy McFarlan

Both of my HR21s locked up overnight. I had to power them off (unplug) to recover them. I did this at 7am ET this morning but they froze up again during the day. I had to go through the unplug/plug in procedure again when I got home at 6:30pm.


----------



## nevea2be

I read through a lot of these pages and see a few people have lost their favorite channels like we did. But we also lost all the programs on the DVR, is there any way to get the saved programs back? The disk was 85% full with all the first few shows of this season unwatched


----------



## phxphotog

I had to restart this morning...no problem. After noon, bricked...had to unplug and restart. This worked for about 10 minutes and said something about guide data. I red button restarted and it came back up. Then it just went black and started an auto reboot. i hope this is the last time. This is starting to be ridiculous.


----------



## Starchy77

Starchy77 said:


> Same one.


Just as I hit enter on the post above, though, my wife called from the bedroom and the HR22 needed to have the plug pulled to reset it - the RBR would not work.


----------



## Athlon646464

RBR'd both units for first time @ 5pm eastern (they were locked when I got home).

So far so good 2 hrs later.

Interesting - when we hit the red button on each unit, nothing appeared to happen, then about 5 to 10 minutes later they came on, on their own. 

I did not pull the plug. (We got a phone call before I went to do that.)


----------



## pman_jim

Gotta love the surprise reboot on 2 different boxes. Thanks to Doug Brott for giving us the heads up that it might happen.

Thanks D* for trying to fix the issue.

There is no good time for a surprise reboot, so I'm just happy that they are on the issue and hopefully have fixed it!!


----------



## EMoMoney

Hrm, I only had one TV on today and it was working fine until I went into the menu and selected On Demand. Then the unit locked and needed a RBR. I better call my wife and ask her to check the downstairs DVR before everything starts recording at 8:00.


----------



## Starchy77

Starchy77 said:


> Just as I hit enter on the post above, though, my wife called from the bedroom and the HR22 needed to have the plug pulled to reset it - the RBR would not work.


One thing I noticed, though, the HR22-100 and the HR21-100 that did not lock up are always on. The HR21 in the living room that did lock up was shut off when it happened and would not come back up even with RBR (needed to pull AC). I checked the HR22 in the bedroom before posting, but then turned it off (it usually is always on). When my wife went in to watch TV, it then would not turn on. Coincidence? Maybe - I could shut off the box in the kitchen and wait a while to turn it back on. Maybe it will then freeze as well???


----------



## 5 ACES

Same here. Couldn't change the channel on my HR21-700. I reset the receiver and it worked. Now, it has just rebooted on it's own.


----------



## cdizzy

1st time today I could log in here and found this. My wife called me this morning to say out HR20 was locked up.

She didn't mention anything about the noon lockup. I'll have to ask.


----------



## bwaldron

dreadlk said:


> I was up till 3am and all was fine at that point. That narrows the window a bit


It wasn't here -- my bedroom DVR was locked at 2:45 AM.


----------



## Doug Brott

Starchy77 said:


> One thing I noticed, though, the HR22-100 and the HR21-100 that did not lock up are always on. The HR21 in the living room that did lock up was shut off when it happened and would not come back up even with RBR (needed to pull AC). I checked the HR22 in the bedroom before posting, but then turned it off (it usually is always on). When my wife went in to watch TV, it then would not turn on. Coincidence? Maybe - I could shut off the box in the kitchen and wait a while to turn it back on. Maybe it will then freeze as well???


Yes, if you have not tried to use the receiver with the remote, it will likely have problems once you do. Check/reboot right now so you are all set by 8pm ET.


----------



## bwaldron

Starchy77 said:


> Coincidence?


I would say so. My three are always on, and they all locked up (though one of them not until this afternoon).


----------



## armophob

armophob said:


> Both of mine are bricked. Waiting 15 minutes with no power.


Both back up and recordings intact.
armophob happy


----------



## bwaldron

nevea2be said:


> I read through a lot of these pages and see a few people have lost their favorite channels like we did. But we also lost all the programs on the DVR, is there any way to get the saved programs back? The disk was 85% full with all the first few shows of this season unwatched


I think they're gone for good, unfortunately. I lost all my recordings on one DVR (luckily the least-used one).


----------



## nevea2be

bwaldron said:


> I think they're gone for good, unfortunately. I lost all my recordings on one DVR (luckily the least-used one).


Is there a way to recover them from the hard drive?


----------



## Starchy77

Doug Brott said:


> Yes, if you have not tried to use the receiver with the remote, it will likely have problems once you do. Check/reboot right now so you are all set by 8pm ET.


Yeah - it was fast! I turned off the last HR21-100 and it would not power back up. Pulled the AC for a reboot. Thanks for the heads, but if you don't mind, why the 8:00 deadline?


----------



## bwaldron

nevea2be said:


> Is there a way to recover them from the hard drive?


Even if they are still there (which I don't believe they are), there's no way to do that -- at least that I am aware of.


----------



## steinmeg

davring said:


> One of my HR20-700's was dead this morning, would not power on, had to pull the plug to get it to reboot. It came up fine, all seems to be well except all of my favorite lists were wiped clean. It is on a UPS, there was no software update indicated. This is the first hard reset I have had to do in well over a year.


I had to do a hard boot to all three of my DVR's ( 1 HR 20 & 2 HR 21's) After they came on I like a jerk turned the power off when I left the house and guess what when I returned...the were all dead again..I had tio reboot all of them again..The idiots at DirecTV want to send a service man to my home.
steinmeg
PS the H20 in another room is fine


----------



## bwaldron

steinmeg said:


> IAfter they came on I like a jerk turned the power off when I left the house and guess what when I returned...the were all dead again.


Don't worry, they would have been locked again even if you had kept them on.


----------



## Beefcake

Count me in. Both H20-700 and H21-100 needed some red button love.


----------



## poppo

I did another reboot just for good measure and I'm still not getting one of my local OTA subchannels (5-2 San Antonio). I get the 771 screen but the signal meter shows 100%. Anyone else in the San Antonio area that can check theirs? I get this on both of my HR20s using OTA so I don't know if it's a HR20 problem or the station, although I don't see how I can get 100% signal and 771 for the same channel.


----------



## mdwood

Same issue here on HR20 100 & 700. RBR fixed both, rebooting second time as a precaution since I just got home and discovered it. *Is there a way to tell if my reciever got the update that fixed the issue?* It would suck to have them reboot while recording tonight.

Thanks for all the info Doug.


----------



## Doug Brott

Starchy77 said:


> Yeah - it was fast! I turned off the last HR21-100 and it would not power back up. Pulled the AC for a reboot. Thanks for the heads, but if you don't mind, why the 8:00 deadline?


prime time shows start @ 8pm .. don't want you to miss anything ..


----------



## dshu82

Just did an unplug in Bedroom on HR20-100. Slow to load, guide seems all there, signal strengths good, but cannot view all channels yet.

All DVR content in tact on both, LR HR21 has been working all afternoon.


----------



## Grentz

HR21-700, had to do it twice today.


----------



## Doug Brott

poppo said:


> I did another reboot just for good measure and I'm still not getting one of my local OTA subchannels (5-2 San Antonio). I get the 771 screen but the signal meter shows 100%. Anyone else in the San Antonio area that can check theirs? I get this on both of my HR20s using OTA so I don't know if it's a HR20 problem or the station, although I don't see how I can get 100% signal and 771 for the same channel.


You may need to redo guided setup for your Antenna.


----------



## MercurialIN

My HR 20-700 locked up about 2:30 or so EDT, this morning while I was watching a recorded show. I had hit FF to go through some commercials, the progress bar showed up on screen but nothing else happened, as in the unit became totally unresponsive to both the remote and front panel buttons. 

The unit continued played the recording to the end. The progress bar remained on screen the entire time. When it got to the end, no keep or delete box popped up. The screen just froze. I gave it five minutes then did a RBR. 

Also the power in my home went out twice in a fifteen minute period this afternoon around 2:40 so both my DVR's reset themselves.

So I cannot say if my HR 21-700 was affected because it was in standby until the power went off this afternoon. I wasn't using it or around it to notice if it had locked up or not.


----------



## Starchy77

Doug Brott said:


> prime time shows start @ 8pm .. don't want you to miss anything ..


 That's what I was thinking! Just wanted to make sure someone who went to eat after work, or for some other reason missed all this, wouldn't be SOL.


----------



## Alexandrepsf

Good for working from home. 

It is 4:35 PM and both of my box just rebooted by itselves.


----------



## Doug Brott

mdwood said:


> Same issue here on HR20 100 & 700. RBR fixed both, rebooting second time as a precaution since I just got home and discovered it. *Is there a way to tell if my reciever got the update that fixed the issue?* It would suck to have them reboot while recording tonight.
> 
> Thanks for all the info Doug.


There was no software update today .. This was related to the broadcast transmission not the receiver.


----------



## doo4usc

Both receivers now doing a reboot...


----------



## Nobody

Just had my latest problem. Auto reboot @ 4:36 Pacific time.

(This morning I had the lock-up that required unplugging each of my units.)


Hopefully this latest issue is due to an emergency fix.


----------



## kauf2938

Alexandrepsf said:


> Good for working from home.
> 
> It is 4:35 PM and both of my box just rebooted by itselves.


All 3 of my hr-20's just rebooted themselves.


----------



## bobkeenan

2nd time now at 4:37PM PST


----------



## jfm

Alexandrepsf said:


> Good for working from home.
> 
> It is 4:35 PM and both of my box just rebooted by itselves.


+1


----------



## Karen

My HR20-700 just rebooted. I've had hardly any problems with it until today. This is annoying. Right now, it's 12% complete on receiving satellite info... Sigh! I was watching a SD channel and wasn't recording anything. I'd been watching the same channel for an hour and a half.


----------



## NR4P

Both HR20-700's and HR21-700 were dead at 7pm.

The HR20's with a RBR came back OK, just needed to wait about 2 mins after hitting red button.

The HR21 was a headache.
RBR did nothing.
Pulled power cord for 5 mins, nothing.

Pulled power cord and network cable and then it powered up.

All seem OK, no lost recordings.
But Mrs. NR4P is very disappointed that all 3 DVR's missed recording her show today.


----------



## VeniceDre

Ran around all day rebooting client's boxes... Yeesh.

Now all the boxes in the house rebooted themselves around 4:34 PST.

Yeesh x2


----------



## bobkeenan

Between this and the lost recordings I am starting to price check Dish Network.


----------



## AirShark

Alexandrepsf said:


> Good for working from home.
> 
> It is 4:35 PM and both of my box just rebooted by itselves.


Same here in Northern California. My HR20-700 just rebooted itself at 4:35.

Also, I'm not sure that I ever noticed this before, but during boot it said something like "Running Receiver Self Check."


----------



## nevea2be

Ok thanks bwaldron


----------



## satman48

Yeah me too. Only now I can't seem to get back my newest HR-21 box. It came up with the usual yada yada about starting up, just a few more seconds please (yeah,,,right!) but now all I get is a black screen and the blue circle on the front panel is just kind of dimmed and spinning round and round (Blue circle of death perhaps  ).

This is the 2nd time I unplugged and plugged this box, the first time the resoulution panel was just scanning, and then...nothing.

Oh well maybe the third time's the charm.


----------



## VeniceDre

I wonder if DirecTV did this on purpose to get everyone's boxes reset before Prime Time started on the East Coast. I'm sure a lot of customers haven't noticed their frozen boxes yet.


----------



## HalfMoon

AirRocker said:


> Yes, because they are going to be flawless!


I never expect flawless, I write software.  However, in all my years of SD and HD TiVO DirecTV boxes I've never had the amount of trouble I've had with the HR-20 series units.


----------



## birdman1

Both of mine just rebooted by themselves too.


----------



## or270

All 6 of my boxes just restarted, even the one not on a CE.


----------



## Tony Chick

After this mornings lockup that required pulling the power cable, I just went to watch the 4:30pm news and when I tried to turn it on, the receiver rebooted again by itself. 

FWIW, before I went to bed last night (1am PST) I did notice that there was just a black screen on some channels, notably HBO-HD 501 and Smithsonian 267. Perhaps there are some sat outages that are confusing the receiver.


----------



## billsharpe

mhayes70 said:


> Hmmm....... If I remember correctly I don't think I have ever seen a post about Dish or any cable company ever having any problems. Come on now. There was a problem and they have figured out what caused it. At least a RBR fixed it and you wasn't out of service for the entire day.


RBR didn't fix mine or others. And many reported multiple restarts required and lost recordings. If "they" have figured out what caused the problem, "they" certainly haven't told us yet.

Edit: A "broadcast anomaly" is a pretty weak explanation -- sure doesn't tell us much

Little early for Christmas, but bah! humbug!


----------



## techdimwit

We had dead receivers this morning (HR20 and 21). Have had to reboot the HR 20 two additional times today because of freeze-ups and problems with unresponsive remote. So far no automatic reboot but we've had enough trouble that it might not happen. Things are very weird today and I hope it sorts itself out soon because it's annoying.


----------



## longrider

One more for the list, my HRs did not lock up this morning but both rebooted at 5:05 MDT. After rebooting the loading guide data seemed to pause at several unusual points.


----------



## Doug Brott

Nobody said:


> Just had my latest problem. Auto reboot @ 4:36 Pacific time.
> 
> (This morning I had the lock-up that required unplugging each of my units.)
> 
> Hopefully this latest issue is due to an emergency fix.


This is expected ..


----------



## Doug Brott

satman48 said:


> Yeah me too. Only now I can't seem to get back my newest HR-21 box. It came up with the usual yada yada about starting up, just a few more seconds please (yeah,,,right!) but now all I get is a black screen and the blue circle on the front panel is just kind of dimmed and spinning round and round (Blue circle of death perhaps  ).
> 
> This is the 2nd time I unplugged and plugged this box, the first time the resoulution panel was just scanning, and then...nothing.
> 
> Oh well maybe the third time's the charm.


press the power button (even during the restart) .. Other possibility is that your TV and the HR21 is not sync'd to the same frequency. Once it completes the bootup cycle all should be good.


----------



## California King

My HR21 randomly reseted today while it was on pause...strange! And must say, very annoyed. And yes, I had to do a RBR this morning


----------



## codespy

My HR20-700 affected, I noticed this going through 'Active' menu last night adding cities for my weather page. The unit would lock up and had to do RBR many times.

Funny, but all my HR10's that are supposed junk are working flawlessly. :lol:


----------



## IwantmyTHX

2 more here in So-cal. my neighbor called me to see if mine just went off. It did and now is up and running. :hurah:


----------



## jaficker

Dx key: 20081006-def

I just got the reboot. Should we be sending a diagnostic report to d*?


----------



## cdizzy

Auto reboot of my HR20 just went through about 30 minutes ago.


----------



## Beefcake

First thing this morning I had to reset my hr20-700 in BR. All was well. 7:30pm est I checked my hr21-100 and have the same problem. Another reset corrected issue. Now I have logged on and read some of these posts and am wondering if my DVRs are going to reboot again on their own. After fixing the one in BR this morning, I turned it off. I just now checked it to see if it is working and all is good.


----------



## Doug Brott

jaficker said:


> Dx key: 20081006-def
> 
> I just got the reboot. Should we be sending a diagnostic report to d*?


No, it is not necessary.


----------



## IwantmyTHX

Is this the fastest growing thread or what?


----------



## ktabel01

Okay, this is still not fixed? Mine just spontaneously rebooted in the middle of the Sox game. What a joke.


----------



## Doug Brott

IwantmyTHX said:


> Is this the fastest growing thread or what?


We've had worse (thread growth, that is)


----------



## joe221

Both of my HR-20s rebooted at about 4:33PM PST. I was on the phone and watched my silet TV go blue screen. :eek2: 
All seems well now....:nono2:


----------



## BLWedge09

Just had a spontaneous reboot here. Still booting up now. Maybe this is the fix that Doug mentioned being implemented...


----------



## Doug Brott

ktabel01 said:


> Okay, this is still not fixed? Mine just spontaneously rebooted in the middle of the Sox game. What a joke.


This is expected ..


----------



## dramirez

tried rbr, no luck, I had to unplug the receiver... it is working fine for now.


----------



## lwilli201

All 4 of my HR2x just rebooted.


----------



## codespy

Did RBR (reboot) at 6:25 CST.

While looking at this thread, magically another AUTOMATIC reboot just now at 6:55 PM on my HR20-700.

Thanks Rupert for your great idea!


----------



## Richard

Mine are restarting right now after I restarted them a few times during the day. They are cutting it REALLY FREAKING CLOSE to 7PM. All my recordings are set to start 2 minutes early, this had better not mess them up.


----------



## frogg

More spontaneous reboots just now on ALL HD STBs, H21 and HR2xs. This is really ridiculous. When is it going to end?


----------



## diggerg56

Ditto here...Playing the waiting game now.


----------



## tuff bob

Just got a reboot in the bottom of the 8th of the white sox game in Chicago. Not good at all!!!


----------



## Racer88

WTF DIRECTV!?!?!?! spontaneous reboot of both HR's 5 minutes before primetime now!?!?!?!?! WTF!!?!?!?!?!


----------



## cwdonahue

I had to reboot my HR20-100 this morning and again after I came home from work. Sat down about 10 mins. ago and noticed that the time is an hour off -- behind by an hour. Even weirder, the guide shows everything as an hour behind, too. The ToDo list was adjusted to the one hour behind condition, so everything would record "on time". I went into the display menu, selected the clock tab, and forced the timezone to Central instead of Central (auto). Did a restart and now everything is correct. Now, as I'm typing this, the HR20-100 just rebooted itself. This is frustrating. Went downstairs and checked and my HR21-700 is rebooting, too. Is someone pushing buttons somewhere in the sky?


----------



## dchamero

Both my HR20-100 rebooted itself again just now.... this is getting annoying....


Now all my 7:00pm recordings are going to be screwed....


----------



## wurlwynd

Mine too - all four in the house at the same time are rebooting as we speak.


----------



## prospero63

Doug Brott said:


> This is expected ..


Pretty sad statement about the quality of service DTV provides when it's expected that your receiver spontaneously locks up and reboots 5 minutes before primetime starts.


----------



## SSpectre

Seriously? They restarted my box now, minutes before recordings are supposed to start... :nono2:


----------



## Game Fan

Both my HR20-700's just rebooted on their own. This morning my bedroom HR20-700 was locked up tighter than a jug. Had to pull the plug to get it to reset.


----------



## Richard

Mine aren't going to make it by 7PM, this is royally screwed up.


----------



## mikejos

Upon reboot, mine said "just a few more seconds", then "just a few more minutes" and it then took another 5 minutes. I think it's time to axe the seconds screen.


----------



## Dr_J

Amazing. I come on here to post my experience and see I'm not alone by a longshot. Everything was fine when I went to bed last night, and I didn't know anything was wrong until my daily 6 p.m. recording didn't come on. The box was dead. Unplugging and replugging it had no effect. Finally, after doing a RBR a few times, it started to reboot. When it finally came on (after hanging at 97% for almost an eternity), all the hard drive contents were there, the prioritizer list was there, but the "to do" list was wiped out. It got reconstituted over a couple of hours.


----------



## codespy

Can't take this anymore.....switching over to my TiVO HR10!!! Old reliable.


----------



## scottchez

Mine rebooted 2 mins before prime time recordings. In fact, I will miss the first 3 mins it looks like

Not happy, could of rebooted after Prime time.


----------



## turls

ktabel01 said:


> Okay, this is still not fixed? Mine just spontaneously rebooted in the middle of the Sox game. What a joke.


Yep, me too. What little time I've had to spend with it it won't stay up for more than a few mintues without rebooting. Actually, when I'm not paying attention it seems to be dead and requires power cycle, but it seems to come back if I'm actually trying to watch something.

I don't know if anything else is wrong yet or not, since it doesn't stay on long enough for me to check.

Its a HR20 that is my main box, but the others HR21s are messed up too.

I hope this puts people over the edge to realize how stupid it is to have only one STB platform and convinces everybody with multiple receivers to make at least one of them the new HD Tivo box (which is the setup I had until I swapped them out for this junk).


----------



## seern

Mine has not done a spontaneous reboot yet. Just that RBR at 1745.


----------



## frogg

Wife up in arms, making threats.


----------



## jmrwiseguy

Both my HR21s locked-up earlier today and required power-reset and now at 18:58 they both rebooted on their own. Prior to the auto reboot, I noticed that the picture would go black for about 5 seconds every 10 minutes or so on one of my receivers but not the other.

I've only had these units for a month so I was about to call DirecTV when I decided to see if others experienced it too. Well, at least it wasn't just me.


----------



## Racer88

Thank God For Tivo Hd And Ota...........once Again Tivo Is Going To Bail Out Directv's Sorry Ass Excuse For A Dvr..............


----------



## Fezmid

Both of my HR21's locked up. Playing live TV just fine, but unresponsive to remote and front panel. Power cycled one, it's fine. In the middle of a power cycle on the 2nd. No forced reboot from "them."

Also interesting (and I haven't read the whole thread, so maybe others have said something), but my old "Series 1" DirecTiVo had a weird message saying something like, "Call to activate." When I pressed "play" on the TiVo remote, the message changed to "Press Select" (in the standard blue window overlay on live TV -- like "Searching for Signal."). I pressed select, and everything was fine. I've had this DirecTiVo since around Dec '99, and never saw that message before.

Bad guide data seems likely.


----------



## Steve615

Both units rebooted on their own approx. 3 minutes ago.


----------



## Laserjock

Yep...I found my receiver not responsive to remote or front panel commands and did the RBR, however just as it was about to finish it appeared to reboot again.

Just came back up...


----------



## vikingguy

Both of my HR20s went down now I am going to miss the begining of prime time TV. WTF this is the second restart today once was a red button reboot on both recievers earlier.


----------



## GenTso

Walked into the kitchen to get a beer, walked back out and the machine was in the "just a few more seconds" mode of reboot. Must have been done from the D* end.


----------



## mdwood

Whew! They just rebooted my DVR's and they got back up @ 7pm CT to start recording...


----------



## smokes20

raott said:


> Same here, HR20-700 was dead when I woke up.
> 
> Pushing "Power" did nothing. Took pushing the red button to get it to wake up.


Yep, I had the same issue this AM with mine. I was really irritated  and thought to call tech support then decided against it. Hitting the power button didn't work, nor did removing the power cord from the outlet. I finally got it working by hitting the reset twice and holding it down before it would power on.

I checked the last update which was 7.22. I hope this doesn't happen again.


----------



## hasan

Yup, my HR20-700 and HR21-200 both rebooted at about 6:55 p.m....spontaneously. They were both frozen solid this morning when I checked them. I did a reset, then went to work. Came home and when I turned things on, all of a sudden both rebooted. Haven't checked my HR20-100 yet.

Yep...the HR20-100 at the other end of the house is reloading as well.

Hopefully things will get straightened out by kickoff. (MNF)


----------



## Visman

Good job DIRECTV reboot my HR right before my shows start and Primetime. Could they not do this after midnight or so!!!!


----------



## texasbrit

All the DVRs will be doing a reboot, deliberately triggered by DirecTV. 
My three DVRs here in DFW rebooted at 6.50pm Central.


----------



## Richard

So, can anyone loan me the first 5 minutes of Chuck and Terminator?


----------



## sgsmitty

Mine just restarted at around 6:55 CST in DFW, while watching Annie recorded


----------



## marksman

All three of my boxes now just rebooted at the same time just minutes before 7:00pm CT.


I hope this was something they did intentionally.


----------



## bleucheeseburger

Mine just rebooted while watching the White Sox game also.
This is crazy.


----------



## mstenbrg

I am glad they rebooted the receivers right as 7:00 shows were supposed to start recording.


----------



## CJTE

FWIW, this isnt just affecting HDDVRs. Its affecting the R22 as well.

(SO I guess its safe to say its affecting MPEG4 DVRs?)

My R15's have been fine.


----------



## volkl

came home, system locked. unplugged, plugged in, would not start, RBR, working.

Five minutes later, hit guide, tried to go to Smithsonian channel, bam, system reboot.

System came back. Now no MSNBC.


----------



## rahlquist

Doug, no word other than it was a 'broadcast' issue?

Thank goodness its just TV. Right everyone? Breathe.....


----------



## PRT940

Ugh. Both of my HR20-700s spontaneously rebooted right before 7:00 PM CST. Crazy stuff.


----------



## Steve615

Steve615 said:


> Both units rebooted on their own approx. 3 minutes ago.


Both units are now on with programming.


----------



## rahlquist

CJTE said:


> FWIW, this isnt just affecting HDDVRs. Its affecting the R22 as well.
> 
> (SO I guess its safe to say its affecting MPEG4 DVRs?)
> 
> My R15's have been fine.


My R16 has been fine as well.


----------



## I WANT MORE

They had to do this because they are adding 26 national HD channels tomorrow at 6 am.


----------



## vikingguy

Laserjock said:


> Yep...I found my receiver not responsive to remote or front panel commands and did the RBR, however just as it was about to finish it appeared to reboot again.
> 
> Just came back up...


That happened to me earlier on both units. Then I got the reboot a little bit ago. I am not happy right now when do those tivo units come out again. Thank god I moved most of my programming to my tivo because my vikings are on tonight. Only going to miss 5 minutes of terminator.


----------



## codespy

frogg said:


> Wife up in arms, making threats.




My wife on the phone w/ her Attorney until I pulled her in the Living Room with my HR10-250.........Whew that was close. Almost lost 50%.


----------



## hasan

All 3 boxes came back up at 7:04 p.m. Fortunately, I didn't have anything set to record until 9 pm central, and both of them show they should record (as they are still scheduled).


----------



## dandabald

My wife's making threats, too. Very difficult to live with this - if it wasn't so damned difficult, I'd swap in the TiVo......... but it's not HD.

Maybe tomorrow . . . . . . . .


----------



## bertman64

I unplugged one at 6:55PM then the other 2 were rebooting also so now I see why! All Tivo's working ok. Can't wait for the new HD TIVO DVR!


----------



## joshjr

bleucheeseburger said:


> Mine just rebooted while watching the White Sox game also.
> This is crazy.


Yep me to. I called again and of course they still say they dont know what is causing the issues. I asked what I should do if it happens again. They guy said well a reboot fixed it earlier right. I said no cause it just happened again this is the 3rd time so thats not a fix that is a work around. He said well you can call back if it happens again lol.


----------



## ciscokidd979

Steve615 said:


> Both units are now on with programming.


If I miss any of the Vikings game someone at D* will feel the pain! AGHH!


----------



## bleucheeseburger

Thank God I kept my HR10


----------



## lucky13

I apologize for not reading the voluminous posts, but since my situation is in a distinct minority, I wanted to get it in.

All 4 of my HR20-700s were operating properly today. No frozen box, no restart that anyone noticed.

1 HR21-100 was locked up. Had to RBR twice to get it to restart. (Started back up at 6:52 pm ET.)


----------



## Ben_jd

All 3 rebooted at the same time ... came back online at 7:02 CST ... missed just the beginning of prime time.


----------



## boomchip

Wow.. my 700 "restarted" itself 5 minutes before primetime. I thought it was a software update... wow was I wrong. I only missed 2 minutes of Chuck while waiting at 97% for nearly 5 minutes. I was about to pull the plug after frantically reading posts here.. wonder if a manual reboot is still necessary as it all seems to be well now??


----------



## Doug Brott

prospero63 said:


> Pretty sad statement about the quality of service DTV provides when it's expected that your receiver spontaneously locks up and reboots 5 minutes before primetime starts.


OK, the timing wasn't expected, but the reset was ..


----------



## Nuance

Apparently the issue has been addressed and is being taken care of. If your DVR has rebooted on it's own after 2:35 p.m. you should be good to go (I think you all already knew this already, though). Mine just rebooted on it's own, and it's just after 7:00 p.m. here. I hope this is the last of this issue.

Source: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667


----------



## west5648

So what is the reasoning behind these reboots, as mine did as well.


----------



## bleucheeseburger

Doug Brott said:


> OK, the timing wasn't expected, but the reset was ..


Are they telling you what is causing it?
Was it an update gone bad?


----------



## ziggy29

Saved by the DSR704 DirecTiVo in the bedroom during the reboot!


----------



## hasan

boomchip said:


> Wow.. my 700 "restarted" itself 5 minutes before primetime. I thought it was a software update... wow was I wrong. I only missed 2 minutes of Chuck while waiting at 97% for nearly 5 minutes. I was about to pull the plug after frantically reading posts here.. wonder if a manual reboot is still necessary as it all seems to be well now??


No reason to do another manual reboot, as it auto-booted at D*'s command. Let's see if that fixed things.


----------



## curbside

Both my HR20-100 & HR21-700 reset around 4:40pm just when Judge Judy was going to give her decision! Man, now I'll never get to sleep tonight!


----------



## flexoffset

Mine just rebooted itself at 6:58pm CDT. (HR20-100)


----------



## sigma1914

LoL, it's so funny how upset/outraged people get over missing 5 minutes of TV.


----------



## Sixto

Very weird.

Was watching the Rays/Sox game (on TBS).

At 8pm ET, expected the box to switch to record both Chuck and Terminator.

Nothing happened!

At 8:04pm ET. Nothing had happened.

Looked at Guide. It showed the "R" for both shows.

Looked at Todo. They were both in there.

Looked at History. Nothing about not recording.

Just manually hit record to start both.

I had already rebooted this box earlier to avoid a forced boot.

Weird ...

We'll see what happens at 9pm ET ...


----------



## DougWare

My DVR was frozen, happened sometime late last night. After I got home, I tried an RBR which didn't work. I pulled the power and waited.

It finally came back up, but everything lower than channel 71 (all of my locals) are missing. It'll be 9pm soon and Heros and Terminator are coming on shortly.

I can't get through to DTV to ask them to ping my receiver with the programming data because the line is busy.

Does anyone have any ideas?

Thanks


----------



## bobbyv

If there is a silver lining it is that it wasn't just my HR20-700. 

It rebooted by itself just a bit ago. Hopefully it is all good now.


----------



## vankai

2 HR20s rebooted also before prime time. Both now up with 4 shows recording with the 2 units, but terrible pixelation on all 4 recordings. 

Should a RBR fix this? It's unwatchable.


----------



## Richard

sigma1914 said:


> LoL, it's so funny how upset/outraged people get over missing 5 minutes of TV.


Dude, not FUNNY at all. If you have nothing useful to add, then don't.


----------



## too hip

I rebooted mine when i got home around 4:30p.m. so why did it reboot again right before 7:00p.m. Bad timing..... i suppose all receivers were sent the reboot command not knowing if they were rebooted earlier or not.


----------



## loudo

sigma1914 said:


> LoL, it's so funny how upset/outraged people get over missing 5 minutes of TV.


Good thing they are not cable subscribers who loose it for hours at a time. :eek2:


----------



## codespy

vankai said:


> 2 HR20s rebooted also before prime time. Both now up with 4 shows recording with the 2 units, but terrible pixelation on all 4 recordings.
> 
> Should a RBR fix this? It's unwatchable.


Try a sledgehammer.


----------



## Villager

HR21-100

Restarted this AM by unplug/replug routine. Worked fine all day, and just did the (expected) auto reboot just before 7 PM CDT. No loss or recorded material or todo list.

I sure hope that DirecTV will offer some explanation of what has happened today.


----------



## seagod

Both of my HR20-700 locked up overnight and then again today around 7:00pm CDT. I have performed a RBR and they are both working. Would like to know a statement by DirecTV on why this happened and also on what was done to fix it if it is indeed fixed now like some are indicating. 

I have always thougth that although there has been problems from time to time with the HR20-700 it has generally been a good performer. Definitely better than a couple years ago when I had TWC with their DVR box. I am please with the HR20-700 and hope this is just a glitch of some sort and not a sign of a more serious and permanent problem starting up.


----------



## wallykski

drewmotz said:


> Must have been a wide spread problem. Two -700's here, both unresponsive this morning, both recovered with RBR....
> .....when is does new HD-Tivo unit start shipping??


Same thing happened to me today as well! Strange! Did the RBR, and it came back after a long startup, then it locked up and reset on its own. Funny! Coincidence...


----------



## I WANT MORE

Richard said:


> Dude, not FUNNY at all. If you have nothing useful to add, then don't.


WHOA big boy.....


----------



## hasan

sigma1914 said:


> LoL, it's so funny how upset/outraged people get over missing 5 minutes of TV.


Yes, and it should be noted, there would not be this kind of "command performance" at a particularly bad time, if it weren't really important to do so. Who knows what ugliness was actually prevented by this proactive reboot.

It's not convenient, but it would not have been done without a very good reason. Now we have to see how things play out. I'm just about ready to watch kick off of MNF. Good luck to everyone else, and a BIG THANKS to Doug and the other Mods for being on top of this and letting us know (as much as he could), what was going on.

Further proof positive of the value of dbstalk to the HR2* community.

Great job guys!


----------



## ATARI

I got home at 4:30, tried the RBR -- no go.

Did the unplug, replug. The machine rebooted, I checked and all my recordings were intact. To Do was blank, but no worries as I know it takes time to rebuild. I tuned to channel 15 (NBC) so at least the buffer would get Chuck.

Went to my sons soccer game, came home and turned on the TV, and saw..."aquiring satellite data"..WTF!!!???!!!

What braniac at D* restarts a DVR at the beginning of primetime?


----------



## bleucheeseburger

Richard said:


> Dude, not FUNNY at all. If you have nothing useful to add, then don't.


I agree. Also ==It's not so much the 5 minutes as the threat of future problems


----------



## Lethargic

My series timers aren't working right since the reboot. They're not recognizing any episodes. All timers are there in prioritizer, but they don't see any episodes so there's nothing in the "to do" list except for one time recordings. Anybody else seeing that?


----------



## Doug Brott

bleucheeseburger said:


> Are they telling you what is causing it?
> Was it an update gone bad?


Just "broadcast anomaly"


----------



## scottchez

Wow, All 3 rebooted at the same time at 2 mins before Prime time.

I have Tw0 HR20-100s and One HR21-100

They have way too much power to control things. Starting to sound like Sky Net in the Terminator (after all, my DVRs are on the net).


----------



## Sixto

Lethargic said:


> My series timers aren't working right since the reboot. They're not recognizing any episodes. All timers are there in prioritizer, but they don't see any episodes so there's nothing in the "to do" list except for one time recordings. Anybody else seeing that?


yes. same here. posted earlier. had to manually start.


----------



## I WANT MORE

My F5 finger hurts.


----------



## scottjf8

Do we have an update as to what is going on? I dont' really have time to read 24+ pages of this thread.

Both of mine have had problems today (HR20-700 and HR21-700). Just a few minutes ago, both rebooted at the same time. I don't think it's a software issue.

ok I found this, my answer http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667


----------



## sigma1914

loudo said:


> Good thing they are not cable subscribers who loose it for hours at a time. :eek2:


No kidding! I went 4 days without cable during an outage. These people going crazy over 5 minutes would implode. :lol:


----------



## bcbaumei

So I think the guide data being messed up is spot on. My HR20-700 was setup to record Modern Marvels today and it recorded over 6 hours of programing. Anyone else have that issue?

For what it is worth mine was also locked up this morning and required the plug being pulled. Was locked up again this evening when I got home from work.


----------



## mdwood

Got a guide update too and now I have some channels that will only display 480p. Can't reboot now I'm recording.


----------



## hasan

bleucheeseburger said:


> I agree. Also ==It's not so much the 5 minutes as the threat of future problems


There's always a threat of future problems if computer code is involved, so don't let this little glitch get the best of you...there will be more, you can count on it.

Let's see how well this "adjustment" does...after all we have a full night of Prime Time ahead of us, not to mention MNF. With all this viewing, anything really hinky is going to show up.


----------



## MLBurks

My HR21 just rebooted itself right as prime time was starting. The timing was sure lousy (Monday nights are a heavy recording night for me) but I am glad that they are taking care of this issue.


----------



## David MacLeod

mdwood said:


> Got a guide update too and now I have some channels that will only display 480p. Can't reboot now I'm recording.


uncheck then recheck all resolutions, I reported this some posts ago.


----------



## Lethargic

bcbaumei said:


> So I think the guide data being messed up is spot on. My HR20-700 was setup to record Modern Marvels today and it recorded over 6 hours of programing. Anyone else have that issue?


Yes. I got a 6 hour long version of The Time Machine today.


----------



## psweig

The trouble is that HR2Xs are rebooting that Did not have problems this morning.


----------



## m4p

"If your receiver was restarted after 2:35pm ET, then you are all set."

Doug, are you talking about a manual reboot, or the one initiated by DTV? I did manually do a reboot around 6 pm. It never rebooted on its own after that.


----------



## rakstr

Got home to a total lockup. Power button had no control either. Had to RBR. HR21-700

Report # 20081006-31A1


----------



## psywzrd

I don't like the fact that DirecTV can just reboot our receivers whenever they want to. If I was in the middle of a recording or watching an important game, I'd be furious.

Both of my HR21-100s were not responding to remote commands when I got home from work. RBR both of them and only one responded to remote commands. A 2nd RBR brought the other one back to life luckily. How many days until the DirecTV HD Tivo is available?!


----------



## vankai

vankai said:


> 2 HR20s rebooted also before prime time. Both now up with 4 shows recording with the 2 units, but terrible pixelation on all 4 recordings.
> 
> Should a RBR fix this? It's unwatchable.


Update......

Rebooted both via menu.

I was wrong about 4 recordings with pixelation, it's 3 with and 1 black recording.

After reboot, still 3 recordings with terrible pixelation, and the same 1 black recording.

Wife is giving me "The Look"


----------



## sigma1914

bleucheeseburger said:


> I agree. Also ==It's not so much the 5 minutes as the threat of future problems


DVRs are basically computers, anything can happen.

Remember, it's just TV. Take the 5 minutes during a reboot & talk with family, go outside, or meditate....everything will be ok.


----------



## Davenlr

Wonder if it has anything to do with todays peak of the annual fall solar outage?


----------



## tbh999

Both of my DVR's (HR20-100s) have 0x254 and both of the had to be reset numerous times today. But it appears to have NOT fixed the problem, because it just had to be rebooted AGAIN.

I want my new HDirecTivo!


----------



## PersistenceOfVision

Mine has been either locked up or rebooting all day (still is during prime time.. ouch)

Difference between cable outages and this? THE PROVIDER IS 100% to blame. I don't see ANY other providers out there claiming this BS...... 

DirecTV go suck wind jerks....:nono: :nono:  :nono: :nono:


----------



## sigma1914

psywzrd said:


> I don't like the fact that DirecTV can just reboot our receivers whenever they want to. If I was in the middle of a recording or watching an important game, I'd be furious.
> 
> Both of my HR21-100s were not responding to remote commands when I got home from work. RBR both of them and only one responded to remote commands. A 2nd RBR brought the other one back to life luckily. * How many days until the DirecTV HD Tivo is available?!*


Yea, Tivo's never mess up.


----------



## CessnaDriver

I don't know where everyone is getting 5 minutes... mine always take 8-15 minutes to reboot.


----------



## Indiana627

Man if my HR21s reboot tonight in primtime while recording - that'll just be the icing on this cake I've been eating all day.


----------



## Puckhead012

Maybe this is old news, or something everyone has already known, but this is new to me, and I like to think I stay up on stuff like this. I, like everyone else, was experiencing problems where the HR21 would not boot or simply reset itself. I unplugged the SINGLE satellite line, unplugged the HR21, then plugged in just the power cord. When it came back up and began looking for satellite signal, I plugged in the SINGLE satellite line. Once the picture returned, it said it was searching for signal on line 2. Strange, cause I had it plugged into line 1. But after about 30 seconds the picture came back on and started recording Dancing With The Stars, but I was watching ESPN Monday night Football. I have a SINGLE line plugged in but I am recording something (yes I confirmed it is actually recording), while watching MNF. Did they implement the whole two tuners on a single line feature without really announcing it? Could this be what they did that messed up the signal?

Again, please pardon me if this is old news and I simply missed it...


----------



## sigma1914

PersistenceOfVision said:


> Mine has been either locked up or rebooting all day (still is during prime time.. ouch)
> 
> Difference between cable outages and this? THE PROVIDER IS 100% to blame. I don't see ANY other providers out there claiming this BS......
> 
> DirecTV go suck wind jerks....:nono: :nono:  :nono: :nono:


Cable goes out a lot more often here.


----------



## Doug Brott

psywzrd said:


> I don't like the fact that DirecTV can just reboot our receivers whenever they want to. If I was in the middle of a recording or watching an important game, I'd be furious.


This is not something that DIRECTV does often or lightly ..


----------



## David MacLeod

Indiana627 said:


> Man if my HR21s reboot tonight in primtime while recording - that'll just be the icing on this sh*t cake I've been eating all day.


I did a manual reboot around 7pm est and watching just fine. all sl's working ok too.


----------



## codespy

I just heard that it was Dish Network that sent out an ECM to DTV's DVRs in a move to get more customers!!!!!!!!!


----------



## Doug Brott

codespy said:


> I just heard that it was Dish Network that sent out an ECM to DTV's DVRs in a move to get more customers!!!!!!!!!


 ..


----------



## Alebob911

Yeah cause technology never has it's glitches. At least you have an avenue other than a phone call to a call center in who knows where telling you some line of why the service is down.



PersistenceOfVision said:


> Mine has been either locked up or rebooting all day (still is during prime time.. ouch)
> 
> Difference between cable outages and this? THE PROVIDER IS 100% to blame. I don't see ANY other providers out there claiming this BS......
> 
> DirecTV go suck wind jerks....:nono: :nono:  :nono: :nono:


----------



## beestea

Puckhead012 said:


> Maybe this is old news, or something everyone has already known, but this is new to me, and I like to think I stay up on stuff like this. I, like everyone else, was experiencing problems where the HR21 would not boot or simply reset itself. I unplugged the SINGLE satellite line, unplugged the HR21, then plugged in just the power cord. When it came back up and began looking for satellite signal, I plugged in the SINGLE satellite line. Once the picture returned, it said it was searching for signal on line 2. Strange, cause I had it plugged into line 1. But after about 30 seconds the picture came back on and started recording Dancing With The Stars, but I was watching ESPN Monday night Football. I have a SINGLE line plugged in but I am recording something (yes I confirmed it is actually recording), while watching MNF. Did they implement the whole two tuners on a single line feature without really announcing it? Could this be what they did that messed up the signal?
> 
> Again, please pardon me if this is old news and I simply missed it...


Yes, its called SWM (single wire multiswitch) it enabled the newer receivers to use both tuners with only one coax cable connected. HOWEVER your dish needs to have the SWM hardware built in, or you need to have an external box that does it for you. If it is really working for you, you probably either live in a MDU (multi dwelling unit, such as an apartment or condo) or your hardware was installed in the past 4 months or so?


----------



## Sixto

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageNR.jsp?assetId=P4950006

Need help with your DIRECTV Plus® HD DVR or DIRECTV Plus® DVR receiver?
October 6, 2008
In our effort to improve and expand our service, we experienced a temporary technical glitch. If your HD DVR or DVR receiver is not responding to your remote control or front panel commands, you can resolve this issue by pressing the red "Reset" button located inside the small door on the front right corner of your receiver. Please allow about 15 minutes for your receiver to complete the resetting process. Once completed, your picture will return automatically. Unfortunately, any show you may have scheduled to record earlier today will not be available on your DVR.

Please note, in certain customer regions DIRECTV will automatically reset your HD DVR or DVR receiver remotely to resolve this issue for you. You may experience a temporary interruption to your TV viewing or recording during that time.

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Our promise is to provide you with the best television experience, and to resolve any issues that might arise as quickly as possible. If you have any further concerns, please do not hesitate in contacting us at 800-347-3288.


----------



## Alebob911

Rerun the Sat setup and choose "dual" then hit continue. After that hit cancel after it goes to verifying and then you should see the guide download screen. I had this happen to my HR20-700 and that fixed it.

After re reading your post, Do you Have A SWM setup??



Puckhead012 said:


> Maybe this is old news, or something everyone has already known, but this is new to me, and I like to think I stay up on stuff like this. I, like everyone else, was experiencing problems where the HR21 would not boot or simply reset itself. I unplugged the SINGLE satellite line, unplugged the HR21, then plugged in just the power cord. When it came back up and began looking for satellite signal, I plugged in the SINGLE satellite line. Once the picture returned, it said it was searching for signal on line 2. Strange, cause I had it plugged into line 1. But after about 30 seconds the picture came back on and started recording Dancing With The Stars, but I was watching ESPN Monday night Football. I have a SINGLE line plugged in but I am recording something (yes I confirmed it is actually recording), while watching MNF. Did they implement the whole two tuners on a single line feature without really announcing it? Could this be what they did that messed up the signal?
> 
> Again, please pardon me if this is old news and I simply missed it...


----------



## Metalface12

Came home, all 3 HD DVR's locked up. Rebooted a few times and got them functioning. However, channels 339, IFC, FX (non HD) are now searching for satellite in almost all non HD 200, 300 and 1/2 the 500 channels.

Called, tested, swapped BBC's, swapped tuners, everything. Rebooted numerous times and still the same issue.

Anyone else have this since the AM lock ups?

DTV, 14 months of garbage service. Love the channel selection but it has to work for that.


----------



## eahmjh

Yeap the HR20-700 in the bedroom was locked up (RBR did not help, had to pull the plug). The HR20-700 in front room had all my favorites channels setting wiped out. Had to reselect all my favorites channels. This was at 4:00pm CST. About 7:00PM both HR20 rebooted. Favorites OK this time and bedroom did a complete unlocked boot.


----------



## Kansas Zephyr

sigma1914 said:


> Yea, Tivo's never mess up.


No, but my HR10-250 never went down today.

My wife was furious that all of the TVs she uses were off-line today.


----------



## HouseBowlrz

sigma1914 said:


> Two HR20s, both had the record light on, both unresponsive, and RBR fixed them.


Not going through 25 pages (of 40 posts each) so I will summarize my story.

I noticed it this morning, did the RBR and the remote starting working again. When I got home this evening, I noticed the same thing ... this time, I tried the buttons on the box itself and they were non-responsive. So I started the RBR and came here to see any news ... this thread very active.

Hopefully, it will finish just in time for kickoff ... I need to make adjustments to one of my recurring recordings (drop "Raising the Bar" to 0100 ET tomorrow so I can still watch MNF while "Boston Legal" records)

cheers


----------



## bobbyv

ATARI said:


> What braniac at D* restarts a DVR at the beginning of primetime?


One that feels it is necessary to actually fix the problem? :nono2:


----------



## jmh139

After rebooting my receivers at around 6pm eastern, my hr20-100 is missing ESPNHD. Saints/Vikings did not start recording, had to manually record it on ESPN in SD. HD Channel is just not there, even if I set favorites to all channels. I am recording Chuck and Heroes so can't reboot again. 

Anyone else?


----------



## Metalface12

FYI, now on reboot #10. Sometimes it comes back and I have half my channels.

Sometimes HD has sound and no pic.

This is pathetic. Got a $250 credit but what good is that when the next tech visit available is 3 weeks.

Hello Comcast.


----------



## mhayes70

All my units did a reset about 45 mins. ago. So, I am assuming I just got the fix.


----------



## bleucheeseburger

I have come to the conclusion that the last reboot was Directv doing a nation-wide ctrl-alt-del.

My wife called me at 4p to tell me she could not change the channels on any of our HR21s. When I got home I manually rebooted the machine in our home theater so we could watch the remainder of the White Sox game. It rebooted on it's own at 6:58p so I switched to the HR10 that I keep as backup then switched back after the HR21 finished booting at 7:04p. Once the game was over (sox lost) I went to the other machines in the house to force a reboot but they were working fine now.
The buffers on the other 2 machines would only go back to 7:04p so they were rebooted obviously.

So that is why I think they sent this. They knew the problem was occuring and figured they would bite the bullet and send out the reboot command before the west coast started getting home and flooding their lines even more.


----------



## psywzrd

sigma1914 said:


> Yea, Tivo's never mess up.


Tivo is not perfect but it's a heck of a lot closer to it than these things. I've only had my HR21-100s for about 2 months and I've already missed more recordings than I ever missed in God knows how many years with all of my Tivo units.


----------



## inkahauts

All my units rebooted on their own... I came home and found them all with their bright lights on!!!


----------



## raungst

I'm new to all of this. Can someone explain how to do a RBR? Do I just press the reset button? My HD-DVR is frozen, and I've tried unplugging it and resetting it and nothing happens. No lights, no signal to the TV, nothing. Theres a faint humming from the box, so I know its getting power. I don't know what to do.


----------



## dreadlk

Yikes go through another 2 years Beta testing with a new receiver, No Thanks.



tbh999 said:


> Both of my DVR's (HR20-100s) have 0x254 and both of the had to be reset numerous times today. But it appears to have NOT fixed the problem, because it just had to be rebooted AGAIN.
> 
> I want my new HDirecTivo!


----------



## Puckhead012

beestea said:


> Yes, its called SWM (single wire multiswitch) it enabled the newer receivers to use both tuners with only one coax cable connected. HOWEVER your dish needs to have the SWM hardware built in, or you need to have an external box that does it for you. If it is really working for you, you probably either live in a MDU (multi dwelling unit, such as an apartment or condo) or your hardware was installed in the past 4 months or so?


No, it's a single family house, and there was no special equipment installed that I'm aware of. The dish was upgraded at least 6 months ago (though this box is only 2 weeks old) and this capability has not been available until tonight. I know this for a fact as it's been bugging me forever that I could only watch one thing at a time at this location in the house and had considered running another line to the box, but it would be a big pain in the butt so I haven't done it.

Is there any way to tell, short of going on the roof to look at the dish, if I have a SWM setup?

This is strange, but definitely a pleasant surprise, as this box hasn't worked this way until today.


----------



## dettxw

Kiddo pulled the plug on the Living Room HR20-700 this morning to recover but also pulled out the eSATA cable so that it booted to the internal drive.  

When I got home I got it going in time for prime time recordings, but, then it immediately rebooted again on its own. 
Came up properly on the external drive but late for complete 7pm recordings.


----------



## xmguy

Mine (R22-200) just rebooted at 6:30 PM CT. Had not restarted all day other than the time I did a reset.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

raungst said:


> I'm new to all of this. Can someone explain how to do a RBR? Do I just press the reset button? My HD-DVR is frozen, and I've tried unplugging it and resetting it and nothing happens. No lights, no signal to the TV, nothing. Theres a faint humming from the box, so I know its getting power. I don't know what to do.


Yes....just press the red button behind the access card door on the lower right of the receiver.

You may want to unplug the power and the cables from bother tuners for 10 or more minutes.


----------



## mx6bfast

WTF with D* rebooting at freaking 6:55. Doesn't the person know who made that choice it takes 10 minute to reboot the dvr's?


----------



## ATARI

bobbyv said:


> One that feels it is necessary to actually fix the problem? :nono2:


I guess we agree to disagree then.

Timing was piss poor.


----------



## luvdtv04

Did an RBR on my HR-20 at 6:00am EDT this morning. Got home about 8:30pm and had to do another one. Missed all the shows I had set to record this afternoon.


----------



## beavis

I'm glad I have a fiancee that doesn't give a crap about network TV.


----------



## Zamps

My wife reported that our receiver locked up this morning. Now I have lost my favorite channel setups. Does this get lost with a RBR?


----------



## kingphil69

THAT, OR INSIST THAT THEY PROVIDE ALL OF THE PROGRAMMING FOR FREE IN HD VIA ON DEMAND!!!! i love my HR20 but this is ABSOLUTELY REDICULOUS!!! and, im tired of getting a poor helpdesk tech in india that's getting screamed at and hangs up on me thinking im angry at him/her!!! 

DEMAND atleast ONE months credit. if they cannot provide (reasonably) stable service, why should i pay on a normal basis!!!!


----------



## ATARI

bleucheeseburger said:


> I have come to the conclusion that the last reboot was Directv doing a nation-wide ctrl-alt-del.
> 
> My wife called me at 4p to tell me she could not change the channels on any of our HR21s. When I got home I manually rebooted the machine in our home theater so we could watch the remainder of the White Sox game. It rebooted on it's own at 6:58p so I switched to the HR10 that I keep as backup then switched back after the HR21 finished booting at 7:04p. Once the game was over (sox lost) I went to the other machines in the house to force a reboot but they were working fine now.
> The buffers on the other 2 machines would only go back to 7:04p so they were rebooted obviously.
> 
> So that is why I think they sent this. They knew the problem was occuring and figured they would bite the bullet and send out the reboot command before the west coast started getting home and flooding their lines even more.


I should have figured that D* had a "back door reset" to their machines.

Not sure I like the idea.

It's a control issue on my part.


----------



## David MacLeod

Puckhead012 said:


> No, it's a single family house, and there was no special equipment installed that I'm aware of. The dish was upgraded at least 6 months ago (though this box is only 2 weeks old) and this capability has not been available until tonight. I know this for a fact as it's been bugging me forever that I could only watch one thing at a time at this location in the house and had considered running another line to the box, but it would be a big pain in the butt so I haven't done it.
> 
> Is there any way to tell, short of going on the roof to look at the dish, if I have a SWM setup?
> 
> This is strange, but definitely a pleasant surprise, as this box hasn't worked this way until today.


unless you are watching OTA, if you're watching one and recording another with 1 input you are swm.


----------



## jangell2

It used the be the nation would watch a popular program at the same (at least in the same time zone). We would be as one. Than the DVRs split us up. Isn't nice they've brought us back together again?:sure:


----------



## raungst

HDTVsportsfan said:


> Yes....just press the red button behind the access card door on the lower right of the receiver.
> 
> You may want to unplug the power and the cables from bother tuners for 10 or more minutes.


I have a SWM. So just unplug everything from the box, wait 10 minutes. plug everything back in, press red button?

For some reason, it hasn't reooted on its own.


----------



## hdrosen

DFWHD said:


> We had to do a red button reset on all 3 of our DVRs over the past hour to get them to come on. The affected items were a HR20-700, an HR21-200 and an HR21-100. No power surges detected and all three are on Panamax power centers. Has anybody had an issue with their DVRs this morning? Rather strange...


Same with all 4 of my machines.
HDR


----------



## ATARI

psywzrd said:


> Tivo is not perfect but it's a heck of a lot closer to it than these things. I've only had my HR21-100s for about 2 months and I've already missed more recordings than I ever missed in God knows how many years with all of my Tivo units.


I still have the SD Tivo, and I can say that it is perfect. It never missed a recording. It also never spontaneously rebooted.


----------



## ATARI

kingphil69 said:


> THAT, OR INSIST THAT THEY PROVIDE ALL OF THE PROGRAMMING FOR FREE IN HD VIA ON DEMAND!!!! i love my HR20 but this is ABSOLUTELY REDICULOUS!!! and, im tired of getting a poor helpdesk tech in india that's getting screamed at and hangs up on me thinking im angry at him/her!!!
> 
> DEMAND atleast ONE months credit. if they cannot provide (reasonably) stable service, why should i pay on a normal basis!!!!


I would be happy with a free VOD of Chuck in HD and a $10 credit.


----------



## VaJim

...hell I thought it was the battery in the remote. Both HR-21 700 were affected. Both seem to be feeling better now.:eek2:


----------



## ATARI

WOW!

450 active users. That's the most I've ever seen in a thread.


----------



## RF_Eng

Davenlr said:


> Wonder if it has anything to do with today's peak of the annual fall solar outage?


No it had more to do with the ineptitude of the DirecTV programmers.


----------



## rahlquist

Doug,

So clarify for me. My hr20-100 and my r16-300 neither have had any issues today nor a reboot should I manually reboot????


----------



## tjofamber

On the brighter side I now have my todo list and my history back
tj


----------



## spidey

looks like rbr has both hr20 up and running hope I didnt miss recordings


----------



## beavis

kingphil69 said:


> THAT, OR INSIST THAT THEY PROVIDE ALL OF THE PROGRAMMING FOR FREE IN HD VIA ON DEMAND!!!! i love my HR20 but this is ABSOLUTELY REDICULOUS!!! and, im tired of getting a poor helpdesk tech in india that's getting screamed at and hangs up on me thinking im angry at him/her!!!
> 
> DEMAND atleast ONE months credit. if they cannot provide (reasonably) stable service, why should i pay on a normal basis!!!!


An entire month credit? for this?









Maybe $10 off per month for 6 months, but that's it.


----------



## Starchy77

raungst said:


> I'm new to all of this. Can someone explain how to do a RBR? Do I just press the reset button? My HD-DVR is frozen, and I've tried unplugging it and resetting it and nothing happens. No lights, no signal to the TV, nothing. Theres a faint humming from the box, so I know its getting power. I don't know what to do.


After plugging it back in, you need to hit the power button on the front. Typically you don't need to do this, but with today's mess it seems to be required!


----------



## cover

I don't know exactly how long my HR20s take to reboot, but I do know it is longer than 5 minutes. I lost 5 minutes of Big Bang Theory because my HR20s didn't finish rebooting until 7:05 Central.


----------



## Puckhead012

David MacLeod said:


> unless you are watching OTA, if you're watching one and recording another with 1 input you are swm.


I guess there's no other explanation, and I'm definitely happy with it. I thought it was strange that it started working this way after all the reboot wackiness going on today. But I'm certainly not complaining!

Thanks for the answers!


----------



## Starchy77

beavis said:


> An entire month credit? for this?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Maybe $10 off per month for 6 months, but that's it.


People always trying to get something for free from DirecTV....


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

raungst said:


> I have a SWM. So just unplug everything from the box, wait 10 minutes. plug everything back in, press red button?
> 
> For some reason, it hasn't reooted on its own.


After plugging everything back in you shouldn't have to do an RBR. ideally and hopefully you can just hit the power button and it will power up.


----------



## bleucheeseburger

cover said:


> I don't know exactly how long my HR20s take to reboot, but I do know it is longer than 5 minutes. I lost 5 minutes of Big Bang Theory because my HR20s didn't finish rebooting until 7:05 Central.


You watch the Big bang theory?


----------



## RobertE

Wonderful, another thread is turning into a HR2x is a POS and the Tivo is perfect ***** fest. Yippie.

:beatdeadhorse:


----------



## markrubi

Is anyone else having this issue? My guide on one of my HR20's only shows data for the current channel I am tuned to. It's been this way since this morning before resetting for the 1st time due to the lockup problem


----------



## raungst

Starchy77 said:


> After plugging it back in, you need to hit the power button on the front. Typically you don't need to do this, but with today's mess it seems to be required!


So should lights be flashing or anything show up on the TV during the reboot? When I hit the reset button the orange ethernet port glows for a second or two, and then goes off.


----------



## njblackberry

Anyone have a definition for a "glitch"?

Love to know what really happened. And not to be treated like a mushroom...


----------



## satman48

Doug Brott said:


> press the power button (even during the restart) .. Other possibility is that your TV and the HR21 is not sync'd to the same frequency. Once it completes the bootup cycle all should be good.


Well it's up and running now, I needed to unplug the HDMI and reboot again. Once I saw that the blue light was on solid on the HR-21 I plugged it back in and I can now watch the Vikes lose in all thier glory!!!!!


----------



## raungst

HDTVsportsfan said:


> After unplugging everything you shouldn't have to do an RBR. ideally and hopefully you can just hit the power button and it will power up.


I get nothing.


----------



## CJTE

kingphil69 said:


> THAT, OR INSIST THAT THEY PROVIDE ALL OF THE PROGRAMMING FOR FREE IN HD VIA ON DEMAND!!!! i love my HR20 but this is ABSOLUTELY REDICULOUS!!! and, im tired of getting a poor helpdesk tech in india that's getting screamed at and hangs up on me thinking im angry at him/her!!!
> 
> DEMAND atleast ONE months credit. if they cannot provide (reasonably) stable service, why should i pay on a normal basis!!!!


Screw That.

Lets say you have Premier, with DVR Service, and HD Access.
$118.
Now lets divide that by the 30 days in a month.
$4/day
Now divide it by 24 hours
16c per hour
divide by 60 minutes
.002 per minute
Multiply by 5 minutes
= .013
So, DirecTV owes you just over 1 penny.

SO, if everyone calls and demands a 2 penny credit, DirecTV will have refunded About $5,000,000. Because only about 2,500,000 will call (yea right).

:lol:

I don't care about any of your other services, because I doubt you were watching an NFL ST channel, for example.


----------



## kingphil69

but with the amount of times this reciever has a black screen recording, and dealing with CSR's who "have no idea what you're talking about" and then THIS! maybe a months credit is overkill, but atleast somehow get people the programming that's missed, or seriously set a timeline to having all the issues fixed. ive had this reciever over a year now and it's no better now than the first week. i know, its cutting edge, but honestly... not anymore. if they did not have people tied into contracts, im willing to bet atleast 10% of the readers of this thread would agree, they'd ditch for their local cable provider, or worse, give up on directv alltogether.


----------



## bobbyv

bleucheeseburger said:


> You watch the Big bang theory?


You don't? :lol:


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

I only tried turning on one of the HR2X's this AM. I had to pull the power plug not really thinking anything of it other than being a 15 minute annoyance. After my wife turned it off to go to work and returning it wouldn't come on again. I had to RBR. Then I discovered I had to RBR my other two HR2X's.


----------



## bleucheeseburger

RobertE said:


> Wonderful, another thread is turning into a HR2x is a POS and the Tivo is perfect ***** fest. Yippie.
> 
> :beatdeadhorse:


Every machine has the potential to flake out when the people behind "the curtain" don't test test test. 
It didn't seem to happen so noticably when it was tivo programmers.


----------



## Doug Brott

kingphil69 said:


> THAT, OR INSIST THAT THEY PROVIDE ALL OF THE PROGRAMMING FOR FREE IN HD VIA ON DEMAND!!!! i love my HR20 but this is ABSOLUTELY REDICULOUS!!! and, im tired of getting a poor helpdesk tech in india that's getting screamed at and hangs up on me thinking im angry at him/her!!!
> 
> DEMAND atleast ONE months credit. if they cannot provide (reasonably) stable service, why should i pay on a normal basis!!!!


DIRECTV doesn't have anyone in India that I'm aware of, and last I checked yelling at the CSR is rarely productive ..


----------



## dheckman

markrubi said:


> Is anyone else having this issue? My guide on one of my HR20's only shows data for the current channel I am tuned to. It's been this way since this morning before resetting for the 1st time due to the lockup problem


Check your favorites configuration. There are probably no channels assigned to the favorite list that you have selected. Just re-add them and all will be OK.

Good Luck


----------



## DanER40

I would like to know how 2% were unaffected.


----------



## Doug Brott

rahlquist said:


> Doug,
> 
> So clarify for me. My hr20-100 and my r16-300 neither have had any issues today nor a reboot should I manually reboot????


You should be OK ..


----------



## bleucheeseburger

bobbyv said:


> You don't? :lol:


I have to admit I do find myself staring at it every once in a while. :lol:


----------



## TimG517

My HR20-700 required two restarts. The first one worked, then I was watching TV and it reset itself.

My R22-100 required a red button restart to start up. Very frustrating at 5:30am in bed. 
I'm over it though. 

Damn meetings all day, I wish I would have seen this sooner.


----------



## kingphil69

Doug Brott said:


> DIRECTV doesn't have anyone in DIRECTV that I'm aware of, and last I checked yelling at the CSR is rarely productive ..


no no, i wasnt yelling, when i said "hey, i have an hr20 and i restarted it with the red button reset however im missing my locals, and half my todo list is gone.... CLICK" - - to me, that's unacceptable.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

raungst said:


> I get nothing.


Do you have another HR2X series receiver by chance?


----------



## bobbyv

DanER40 said:


> I would like to know how 2% were unaffected.


Maybe has something to do with their software version?


----------



## Fastdad

Like everyone else I guess, my HR20 was remotely reset at about 6:50 CDT. Since then, I'm not able to get my locals back without HEAVY pixelation. They were fine right before the reset. I've gone through all of the resolution settings and reselected each of them. From what I can tell, all of the rest of my channels look good. It's just the locals that are having problems. Have restarted and reset numerous times. Still no luck.


----------



## joshjr

DanER40 said:


> I would like to know how 2% were unaffected.


Thats the 2% that dont have DVR's lol or the 2% that have DVR's but did not have them hooked up lol.


----------



## rahlquist

kingphil69 said:


> but with the amount of times this reciever has a black screen recording, and dealing with CSR's who "have no idea what you're talking about" and then THIS! maybe a months credit is overkill, but atleast somehow get people the programming that's missed, or seriously set a timeline to having all the issues fixed. ive had this reciever over a year now and it's no better now than the first week. i know, its cutting edge, but honestly... not anymore. if they did not have people tied into contracts, im willing to bet atleast 10% of the readers of this thread would agree, they'd ditch for their local cable provider, or worse, give up on directv alltogether.


I understand you're upset. Its television, not a life we are saving here.

When an event like this happens the CSR are bombarded faster than they can be notified. Trust my my wife used to be a CSR. They have seconds between calls unless updating notes on an account. So yes just like poor 911 operators who are called immediately following a real disaster begin asked what that explosion was or what the smoke people see is, the CSR dont know. You did the best thing for now, you came here and got info and everything will be ok.


----------



## loudo

DanER40 said:


> I would like to know how 2% were unaffected.


They could have been like one of my units, it rebooted itself during the night. I thought it was OK, until I noticed my blue ring was bright blue, instead of the dim blue I set it to after last weeks CE.


----------



## raungst

HDTVsportsfan said:


> Do you have another HR2X series receiver by chance?


Nope. My other is an SD receiver, and its working fine.


----------



## mchaney

Starchy77 said:


> People always trying to get something for free from DirecTV....


Can't speak for anyone else, but all *I've* ever tried to get is a DVR that works! Looks like that is impossible! These HR2*'s are constantly locking up, recording gray screens, locking up, recording gray screens, and locking up some more. I now have zero hope that these things will ever be reliable enough to actually be used as a DVR. I've missed two more recordings tonight before I noticed that both my HR20-100 and HR22-100 were bricks. Way to go DirecTV!  Verizon is now starting to lay FIOS cable near my neighborhood and once they get to my house, I'm *GONE* from DirecTV! This is beyond ridiculous! I miss on average 3-4 recordings a week because of DirecTV's garbage DVR's/software.

And no, I don't want any refund: by the time I wait an hour and a half on hold and am transferred 6 times to get someone who has a clue, my wasted time will be worth more than the refund.

Mike


----------



## poppo

I posted earlier in this thread and asked in a separate thread if someone could confirm, but I no longer get OTA 5-2 sub-channel from San Antonio on either of my HR20-700s. I get 771 message but signal shows 100% for the channel. I redid the antenna setup and it did not help. Not sure if it is a problem with the HR20 or the station.


----------



## Alebob911

Starchy77 said:


> People always trying to get something for free from DirecTV....


Maybe a few dollars but not a whole month!!:nono:

Not aiming that at you Starchy77. Just a general statement


----------



## ATARI

FYI -- my H20 (non DVR) is fine. {As is my SD TiVo.}


----------



## rahlquist

Doug Brott said:


> You should be OK ..


Thanks Doug, we love ya man, hows the Nomex Undies hodlingup?


----------



## David MacLeod

Doug Brott said:


> DIRECTV doesn't have anyone in DIRECTV that I'm aware of, and last I checked yelling at the CSR is rarely productive ..


getting tired Doug? I think D* does have people in D*..


----------



## Sneezy

I had to pull the plug on both of mine. Thought it was odd oon our bedroom TV this morning. Tried to turn on my main TV just now and had to pull the plug in the DVR. Guess where i came right away eh?

gotta go check the upsatirs TV again.


----------



## kingphil69

hey Guys (still on hold with DTV) if your box isnt fully back up, here's what i did.

unplug.
remove access card
count to 60
replace card
plug in
let it boot, it's Sluggish in the first 10 min
(didnt see any locals, or hbo, etc)
sent another activation signal from the website
within 5 min, it was ALL back. all my todo, but i still missed chuck, terminator, and how i met your mother/ two and a half men on my recievers  

hope this helps Someone!!!!


----------



## vankai

Fastdad said:


> Like everyone else I guess, my HR20 was remotely reset at about 6:50 CDT. Since then, I'm not able to get my locals back without HEAVY pixelation. They were fine right before the reset. I've gone through all of the resolution settings and reselected each of them. From what I can tell, all of the rest of my channels look good. It's just the locals that are having problems. Have restarted and reset numerous times. Still no luck.


Hey Fast,

This is also happening here in NW SA. I haven't seen or maybe I missed other posts with these issues. Directv told me it should only affect recordings, but confirmed with them that live tv also has bad pixellation. They advised me to be patient as they are attempting to resolve the issue.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

raungst said:


> Nope. My other is an SD receiver, and its working fine.


So you unplugged everything for 10 minutes or so and plugged everything back in again and it still won't power up......?

When two of my units wouldn't powerup i was able to hit the RBR and the power light came on for a second or two and then went out. At that point I was able to power it up.

Against my last post, after pulling the power plug and SAT lines and re-connecting you shouldn't have to hit the RBR..... but at this point you might as well try it.


----------



## Starchy77

mchaney said:


> Can't speak for anyone else, but all *I've* ever tried to get is a DVR that works! Looks like that is impossible! These HR2*'s are constantly locking up, recording gray screens, locking up, recording gray screens, and locking up some more. I now have zero hope that these things will ever be reliable enough to actually be used as a DVR. I've missed two more recordings tonight before I noticed that both my HR20-100 and HR22-100 were bricks. Way to go DirecTV!  Verizon is now starting to lay FIOS cable near my neighborhood and once they get to my house, I'm *GONE* from DirecTV! This is beyond ridiculous! I miss on average 3-4 recordings a week because of DirecTV's garbage DVR's/software.
> 
> And no, I don't want any refund: by the time I wait an hour and a half on hold and am transferred 6 times to get someone who has a clue, my wasted time will be worth more than the refund.
> 
> Mike


Sorry to hear your problems, I have had very few - I do have some coworkers with FIOS and they are very happy with it. Good Luck! I will get FIOS for my internet connection when it is available, but no chance of leaving my NFLST behind!


----------



## Fastdad

vankai said:


> Hey Fast,
> 
> This is also happening here in NW SA. I haven't seen or maybe I missed other posts with these issues. Directv told me it should only affect recordings, but confirmed with them that live tv also has bad pixellation. They advised me to be patient as they are attempting to resolve the issue.


Thanks Vankai - I'll be patient then and quit messing with it.


----------



## ziggy29

poppo said:


> I posted earlier in this thread and asked in a separate thread if someone could confirm, but I no longer get OTA 5-2 sub-channel from San Antonio on either of my HR20-700s. I get 771 message but signal shows 100% for the channel. I redid the antenna setup and it did not help. Not sure if it is a problem with the HR20 or the station.


I lost 36-1 in Austin for a while. After doing a full antenna reset I got it back. I still don't have 14-1, but I think that's actually down right now because I have a DTT-901 in another room that usually locks on 14-1 and it reports no signal as well. Plus all my OTA signals are stronger and 14-1 used to be prone to overloading my tuner so I suspect it's down. (Which is actually good for me since 14-1 and 36-1 are the same programming and with 14-1 down, my antenna and preamp work better!)


----------



## Starchy77

raungst,
I sent you a pm to try to help - send me one back if you need any more!


----------



## jonikr

Fastdad said:


> Like everyone else I guess, my HR20 was remotely reset at about 6:50 CDT. Since then, I'm not able to get my locals back without HEAVY pixelation. They were fine right before the reset. I've gone through all of the resolution settings and reselected each of them. From what I can tell, all of the rest of my channels look good. It's just the locals that are having problems. Have restarted and reset numerous times. Still no luck.


Same problem here too and am in San Antonio also . All HD locals pixelated and unwatchable but nationals are fine.


----------



## DarinC

CJTE said:


> Lets say you have Premier, with DVR Service, and HD Access.
> $118.
> Now lets divide that by the 30 days in a month.
> $4/day
> Now divide it by 24 hours
> 16c per hour
> divide by 60 minutes
> .002 per minute
> Multiply by 5 minutes
> = .013
> So, DirecTV owes you just over 1 penny.


You watch TV 24x7? My math would be _significantly_ different.


----------



## mx6bfast

Nice marketing spin on the official word from D*.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Starchy77 said:


> raungst,
> I sent you a pm to try to help - send me one back if you need any more!


Would you mind sharing with the rest of the class....it may help others that are having problems.


----------



## MikeG0628

vankai said:


> Hey Fast,
> 
> This is also happening here in NW SA. I haven't seen or maybe I missed other posts with these issues. Directv told me it should only affect recordings, but confirmed with them that live tv also has bad pixellation. They advised me to be patient as they are attempting to resolve the issue.


This is also happening on the east side of SA. They scheduled a service call for me with Mastech. Of course the earliest available appointment is next Thursday.


----------



## icsfsedod

Got the lock up, RBR, nothing, message 750, called, CSR reset, box locked up again, RBR, back to message 750. What a POS.


----------



## thekochs

Wow....mine did same thing BUT RBR did nothing....pulled power came back up but when I powerd down for hours...same thing. Did a RESET EVERYTHING !!!.....crud, wish I had read this post first.


----------



## cts33fan

I had to reset both my DVRS My HR21-700 is fine, but my HR20-700 is running 1 hour behind. Everything is recording OK, but it just seems weird to see the clock say 5:00pm, and the title of the show is "CBS 2 News At 6". Anyone else having this problem. I am in the LA area, so it is in the Pacific time zone.


----------



## Starchy77

HDTVsportsfan said:


> Would you mind sharing with the rest of the class....it may help others that are having problems.


Sure, I just thought it seemed more specific to him, and this thread is getting pretty cluttered! Here is what I wrote:

When I plugged the AC back in, the only thing that lit up was the orange light on the ethernet - nothing on the face. The ethernet is how I knew it had power. I then hit the power button on the left hand side of the unit and the blue lights would come on as normal. You should not have to hit reset if you have unplugged the unit.

Hope this helps!


----------



## raungst

For what its worth, I just called and the CSR told me that I had to wait until it downloaded something overnight for it to be fixed. Am I the only one whose box still doesn't work?


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Starchy77 said:


> Sure, I just thought it seemed more specific to him, and this thread is getting pretty cluttered! Here is what I wrote:
> 
> When I plugged the AC back in, the only thing that lit up was the orange light on the ethernet - nothing on the face. The ethernet is how I knew it had power. I then hit the power button on the left hand side of the unit and the blue lights would come on as normal. You should not have to hit reset if you have unplugged the unit.
> 
> Hope this helps!


Thank you very much.  Much appreciated.


----------



## icsfsedod

raungst said:


> For what its worth, I just called and the CSR told me that I had to wait until it downloaded something overnight for it to be fixed. Am I the only one whose box still doesn't work?


Nope, my box is still not working. I'm on hold for the SECOND TIME to get it reset.

Someone needs to be fired, and in the soup kitchen line before midnight.


----------



## firemed509

Both my HR21-100 needed to reboot. One lost all information.


----------



## tknopf

After a third reset(unplug, red reset didn't work) I have LOST ALL OF MY RECORDED SHOWS, MY PRIORITIZED LIST, and my TO DO LIST on 1 of my HR20-100 receivers! It was all there after the 2nd reset earlier this afternoon, now tonight all gone. I did another red reset hoping all was back, but no such luck. I just called D* via the protection plan prompt and was given a $50 credit on my account. Also, when I tried to search for my shows, most of the guide data is not present and I'm unalbe to search for most of my shows. Will this guide data populate soon??


----------



## Starchy77

raungst said:


> For what its worth, I just called and the CSR told me that I had to wait until it downloaded something overnight for it to be fixed. Am I the only one whose box still doesn't work?


Ah..... if it is not turning on, how is it going to download something overnight?


----------



## machavez00

I was wonder what happened. I did an RBR and all is well. I have not looked to see if I lost any recordings.


----------



## bellvis

Mine sort-of lost a recording. I was expecting Zathura (to catch the last 30 minutes cutoff by Cartoon Network last week), but ended up with 17 hours of a gray screen with audio from at least Chronicles of Riddick (I think) and Married with Children.

After a RBR, the box is working again -- even while "downloading" guide data it managed to record OTA, but now I have no MPEG-4 channels.


----------



## Jon

Did this "lock up" only affect the HR20- Series DVR's as it appears my Tivo HR10-250 did not lock up like my HR20?

Bring on the new Tivo.........


----------



## uscboy

HR20 & HR21 wouldn't turn on. RBR and they're both fine.


----------



## larock0wns

mchaney said:


> Can't speak for anyone else, but all *I've* ever tried to get is a DVR that works! Looks like that is impossible! These HR2*'s are constantly locking up, recording gray screens, locking up, recording gray screens, and locking up some more. I now have zero hope that these things will ever be reliable enough to actually be used as a DVR. I've missed two more recordings tonight before I noticed that both my HR20-100 and HR22-100 were bricks. Way to go DirecTV!  Verizon is now starting to lay FIOS cable near my neighborhood and once they get to my house, I'm *GONE* from DirecTV! This is beyond ridiculous! I miss on average 3-4 recordings a week because of DirecTV's garbage DVR's/software.
> 
> And no, I don't want any refund: by the time I wait an hour and a half on hold and am transferred 6 times to get someone who has a clue, my wasted time will be worth more than the refund.
> 
> Mike


I totally agree with you, DirecTV's DVRs are horrible buggy. Every couple weeks I have to do at least 1 reset on 1 of my 3 DVRs.

I don't want 1080p... I would rather DirecTV fix the consistent bugs with the devices instead of adding on more options.

Yesterday, my HR20-100 completely lost my favorite list. I only had the 1 channel I was watching left on my favorite list. Today, the HR20-100 refused to turn on so I had to unplug it and plug it back in. And using the Game Mix options during Sunday Ticket makes things way more buggy on this DVR.

My HR21-700 refuses to accept any commands for 3 minutes after you turn it on. It accepts the power on button, then sits there for 3 minutes before it will accept any other commands. You can even press the buttons on the front of the unit and it will do nothing. Along with occasional reboots required. Sometimes it will slow to an absolute crawl or again stop receiving commands. Before somebody blames the remote or the batteries... this happens with any remote or batteries and even the front panel of the device doesn't respond.

My last DVR HR21-700 (I barely use) but when I go to use it, it seems to always need a reset.

I had none of these issues with the TiVO units... god I miss those.


----------



## CJTE

Doug Brott said:


> DIRECTV doesn't have anyone in India that I'm aware of, and last I checked yelling at the CSR is rarely productive ..


Thats be correct. Almost all centers are US-Based, short of one in mexico and one in the phillipines.

Oh, and if you say 'THANK GOD, Finally someone who speaks english/is in the US!' You'll usually notice an immediate accent change. Even if its made up.


----------



## bleucheeseburger

I've been reading through the posts here and it looks like some people have constant problems with their HR2Xs.
I have 3 and I never have problems with them. This was the first time in months.
Am I in the minority here?


----------



## Kojo62

I had to pull the plug to get a reset, but fortunately, no loss of data or settings. All is now back to normal.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

bleucheeseburger said:


> I've been reading through the posts here and it looks like some people have constant problems with their HR2Xs.
> I have 3 and I never have problems with them. This was the first time in months.
> Am I in the minority here?


This probably isn't the thread for this question...a bit off topic..and it will start an arguement.

There are many of us that have had very few problems. But also a few that seem to have consistant problems.


----------



## poppo

jonikr said:


> Same problem here too and am in San Antonio also . All HD locals pixelated and unwatchable but nationals are fine.


FWIW, one of my HR20s is set up for sat only San Antonio HD locals and they are all fine.


----------



## DocBM

Locals missing on HR21-700 after RBR. Wife now reporting MSNBC is not found as one of our channels. All signal strength are in the 90's for all sats. 

What a mess.


----------



## wilbur_the_goose

Both of my HR20-700's were dead this morning. Didn't respond to anything but a RBR. Both came up OK.

Went to work.

Again, both were dead. No recordings all day. So far, they've stayed up for 4 hours.

First issues I've had with the HR20's in many months.


----------



## homebase

At around 7pm CST, both receivers locked up on me (HR-20 & HR-22). After the reset, all seems fine. 3rd reset for the HR-22, 2nd for HR-20 today.


----------



## DBSooner

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Both of my HR20-700's were dead this morning. Didn't respond to anything but a RBR. Both came up OK.
> 
> Went to work.
> 
> Again, both were dead. No recordings all day. So far, they've stayed up for 4 hours.
> 
> First issues I've had with the HR20's in many months.


I just know my recordings are going to be screwed up after I get off work. :nono2:


----------



## Visman

:nono2: I hate to say it but I think DirecTV needs to go back to RCA or Sony and let them make the receiver's, Like the early year of DTV. I never had a problem with those receivers. DirecTV needs to stick with just sending the programing. That would elevate alot of these problems:eek2:


----------



## t_h

The directv 'auto reboot' took about 15 minutes out of the middle of Oprah.

That'll sit well with the wife when she gets home...


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Visman said:


> :nono2: I hate to say it but I think DirecTV needs to go back to RCA or Sony and let them make the receiver's, Like the early year of DTV. I never had a problem with those receivers. DirecTV needs to stick with just sending the programing. That would elevate alot of these problems:eek2:


RCA and Sony only made the harware...not the software. There is a list of manufactures that DirecTV uses around here somewhere. They use several different companies for the hardware.


----------



## homebase

I'm so mad about this, I'm switching to Charter Cable

No no no. I would never do that. LOL

Carry on...


----------



## Jeremy W

HDTVsportsfan said:


> RCA and Sony only made the harware...not the software.


No, I'm pretty sure they made the software back then as well.


----------



## wilbur_the_goose

I haven't read all 44 pages - has DirecTV issued a press release or anything official on what's going on?

Trust me, it's just TV. Compared to the credit problems and the resultant equity problems, this is nothing...


----------



## Jeremy W

wilbur_the_goose said:


> I haven't read all 44 pages - has DirecTV issued a press release or anything official on what's going on?


Yes, although it doesn't go into any details and we'll probably never know exactly what happened: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageNR.jsp?assetId=P4950006


----------



## chevyman601

I THINK WE SHOULD CALL THIS

BLUE MONDAY

THE DAY THE BLUE LIGHTS STOPPED MOVING!


----------



## Legends

What a pain in the butt. It took me 3 resets to get it to work and now the time is off by an hour. Shows an hour earlier. Weird.


----------



## uncouth

Woke up to find my HR20-100 locked up. I did a RBR and went to work. Came back around lunch time (1:30PM Central) and the unit was locked up again. Did a second reboot... Came home and was watching the White Sox lose to the Rays when the unit rebooted itself at 6:58PM. All has been fine since. I did miss the few first minutes of Chuck - it took about 5 minutes for the unit to come back on. Not a total catastrophy but definitely a tad agitating.


----------



## Carl Spock

wilbur_the_goose said:


> Trust me, it's just TV. Compared to the credit problems and the resultant equity problems, this is nothing...


Wow, perspective. What a concept.

There are many people on this board whose net worth has gone down tens of thousands of dollars over the past few weeks. Losing thousands of dollars of wealth versus losing a day of TV. Humm. Which is a bigger loss?


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Jeremy W said:


> No, I'm pretty sure they made the software back then as well.


ok...thanks for the info. I stand corrected then.


----------



## Kansas Zephyr

Carl Spock said:


> Wow, perspective. What a concept.
> 
> There are many people on this board whose net worth has gone down tens of thousands of dollars over the past few weeks. Losing thousands of dollars of wealth versus losing a day of TV. Humm. Which is a bigger loss?


Markets go up...markets go down.

That requires perspective, too.

I can just buy more stocks for less, now.


----------



## MrDad0330

My HR20-100 and my new HR22-100 were dead all day. My daughter wasnt happy. Non responsive from the remote or the on set controls. Had to pull the plug on both and all seemed fine. My HR22 sat on 97% for over 10 minutes before it kicked in. 
Once up and running I checked my lists etc and everything was fine...strange...


----------



## Lethargic

Carl Spock said:


> Losing thousands of dollars of wealth versus losing a day of TV. Humm. Which is a bigger loss?


I'm poor anyway. TV!!!


----------



## compac

+1 on HRxx RBR still a pia even w/ perspective... did not know about the problem 'till seeing it in this forum went to check dvr ... Locked up no recordings after 3 AM yesterday. D* messed w/ my M nite football

R10-100 had no problem.

BTW, I have some AIG stock I'd let you have it... cheap "MUST ACT NOW"



Kansas Zephyr said:


> Markets go up...markets go down.
> 
> That requires perspective, too.
> 
> I can just buy more stocks for less, now.


----------



## gquiring

Mine was locked up also. I lost Terminator, Heroes, Prison Break and whatever else was on a series record today. When I came home and saw no red light I knew something was wrong.


----------



## Folin

I was 1700 to vote all of my HR-2x needed a restart today.

Was it bad to go RBR w/ an external FAP on the unit? Is all data lost? After the first RBR it went to the internal drive (older shows so it was obvious). Second restart and still went to the internal HD. Trying a 3rd time...but I'm getting a bad feeling here...

EDIT: Got it going that time...my shows are there. A few of tonight's recorded on the internal, but that's a small price to pay for the hours of stuff on the external.


----------



## Kansas Zephyr

compac said:


> R10-100 had no problem.
> 
> BTW, I have some AIG stock I'd let you have it... cheap "MUST ACT NOW"


Much like leasing a HR2x...being in the market comes with risk. 

My HR10-250 is fine, too.

But, please, let's not tun this into a TiVo is better rant.


----------



## spartanstew

mx6bfast said:


> WTF with D* rebooting at freaking 6:55. Doesn't the person know who made that choice it takes 10 minute to reboot the dvr's?





ATARI said:


> I guess we agree to disagree then.
> 
> Timing was piss poor.


I'm so glad you guys aren't in charge. So, what would you have done? Hold off on the fix/reboot until midnight? So that all of the customers that were still at work or were having dinner and hadn't checked their DVR's or were out of town wouldn't get any of their Monday night recordings? Or would you do the fix as soon as you could even though everyone would miss 10 minutes or so of one or two shows?

Hmmm, lets see: One option causes the loss of 10 minutes of 1 or 2 shows (at most) and the other option causes the loss of the entire Monday night lineup for many, many customers. Hmmm.

Decision making is rarely about one individual or one circumstance.


----------



## Sleepercell

This is the new DIRECTV exercise plan


----------



## jazzyd971fm

Pulled the plug when I got home, reset my custom channels to get the guide back, all was fine until 6:57 P.M.( Great Timing !!!!!!) auto reset, all seems fine now, no recordings lost


----------



## Syzygy

My HR21-700 was dead all night and all day until I did an RBR around 6:20pm.
Around 6:50pm, it spontaneously restarted itself *again*. Luckily, just before the start of prime time TV! So far, it's still on its feet.

*Addendum:* Sometime between 10:00pm and 10:35pm, one of my tuners stopped working ("Searching for satellite..."). This time, instead of an RBR, I pulled the plug and let the box sit for a while before plugging it back in again. Now I have two tuners once more... _but for how long?_ Incidentally, the programs that didn't record were represented by zero-length black pictures which self-deleted when I tried to watch them. Even so, History still shows them as Recorded (not Deleted).



sigma1914 said:


> Considering how wide-spread this seems to be, I wouldn't go on a little "POS" tirade about the unit...This seems like a Directv issue. I've been extremely happy with 2 HR20s for 2 years now.


It always astounds (and frustrates) me how some people can accept POS hardware, plus software that's abysmally stupid, and broadcast how contented they are.

The hardware sucks because, among other things:
• My first HR21 had a weak power supply that restarted when the voltage dropped a little
• HD resolution is inferior to that which I experienced with MPEG-2 on an HR10
• The remote is very "user grouchy" (you have to press too hard and the badly-arranged buttons all feel the same)

The software? OMG!
• Missed recordings
• Black recordings
• Recordings delete themselves when there's plenty of room
• Ugly, illogical, unhelpful UI
• Searching finds only some matches on channels you want
• Searching finds too many matches on channels you don't want
• Autorecording wastes resources recording nothing on channels you don't get
• Only 50 Series Links are allowed
• With 45+ Series Links, the UI (including cruise controls) is as slow as molasses
• The PIG insists on annoying me until I press MUTE or PAUSE

And I've only had my "+DVR" (should be "--DVR") less than 2 months.


----------



## dodgeboy

Am I the only one whose DVR continues to lock-up? I rebooted it this morning, 4:30pm, 5:00pm, and again just now at 10:45pm.


----------



## chris vesuvio

I had to reboot all 3 DVR's this morning.
Had to reboot bedroom DVR just 15 mins ago 10:45pm.
Thought everything was OK but sat down to watch CBS shows and nothing there.
It was stuck on Nick all day. The recordings were not even in history.
:nono2:


----------



## SPACEMAKER

I have to admit that I find all of this rather humorous. I laugh because I have been one to throw a hissy fit over a lock up or a missed recording. It's good to see that others are prone to throwing the same hissy fits over something as trivial as television.


----------



## mx6bfast

spartanstew said:


> I'm so glad you guys aren't in charge. So, what would you have done? Hold off on the fix/reboot until midnight? So that all of the customers that were still at work or were having dinner and hadn't checked their DVR's or were out of town wouldn't get any of their Monday night recordings? Or would you do the fix as soon as you could even though everyone would miss 10 minutes or so of one or two shows?
> 
> Hmmm, lets see: One option causes the loss of 10 minutes of 1 or 2 shows (at most) and the other option causes the loss of the entire Monday night lineup for many, many customers. Hmmm.
> 
> Decision making is rarely about one individual or one circumstance.


If I were in charge I wouldn't have waited over an hour to send the reboot command after it had been communicated to Doug, http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667. As someone who works in a large corporation who has dealt with this kind of stuff before, all facts are known before any communication is approved for distribution to outside parties. So from my calculations D* figured out the problem before 1:35 cst, tested for a couple of hours, provided the info to Doug and he posted final confirmation at 4:47 cst, so that gave them a lead time of 2 hours to reboot at least central and eastern time zones if you factor in 10 minutes for a reboot. Before they provided the info to Doug they would've known when they were going to send a reboot command to all receivers.


----------



## spartanstew

mx6bfast said:


> If I were in charge I wouldn't have waited over an hour to send the reboot command after it had been communicated to Doug, http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667. As someone who works in a large corporation who has dealt with this kind of stuff before, all facts are known before any communication is approved for distribution to outside parties. So from my calculations D* figured out the problem before 1:35 cst, tested for a couple of hours, provided the info to Doug and he posted final confirmation at 4:47 cst, so that gave them a lead time of 2 hours to reboot at least central and eastern time zones if you factor in 10 minutes for a reboot. Before they provided the info to Doug they would've known when they were going to send a reboot command to all receivers.


There's no way you could know all the facts and procedures. It's very possible it could have taken over an hour to implement what needed to be done. I'm sure they were working on this all day and wanted to fix it as soon as they could. I believe that's what they did. Of course, I could be wrong, but that's what I believe.


----------



## vid53

Both of my HR-20s had to be restarted twice today. once this morning and again this afternoon and then tonight both units restarted themselves.These things SUCK!


----------



## armophob

I can't imagine being outside this community with this happening and not knowing if my house was hit by lightning. 
I called a work friend who I knew had 2 HR's and he was confused until I told him about the mass failure. 
DBS/Talk = wooby


----------



## mx6bfast

spartanstew said:


> There's no way you could know all the facts and procedures. It's very possible it could have taken over an hour to implement what needed to be done. I'm sure they were working on this all day and wanted to fix it as soon as they could. I believe that's what they did. Of course, I could be wrong, but that's what I believe.


I'm not saying I do know, just stating what I would've done in this situation since I was asked. I could be 100% wrong on all counts.


----------



## spartanstew

mx6bfast said:


> I'm not saying I do know, just stating what I would've done in this situation since I was asked. I could be 100% wrong on all counts.


Fair enough. Maybe I should have rephrased my question. If that was the soonest something could be done, wouldn't you do it then? Or wait until after prime time in every region? In my mind it had to be done then, even though it was prime time in two time zones. If it could have been done earlier, then I agree with you that it should have. I just doubt that's the case.


----------



## homebase

At least this issue didn't occur on February 3, 2008 around 7pm EST....


----------



## spartanstew

Was that SuperBowl Sunday?


----------



## Bronco70

44 pages in one day, a record?

2.55% with no problem, they must lead charmed lives. 

My first glitch with a HR-21 100. Was scary for a few minutes when it stuck at 97%. Years back 3 Sony SAT-T60 units failed at 70% or so. All replaced under an extended service contract. 

All is good now. No big deal.


----------



## spartanstew

Bronco70 said:


> All is good now. No big deal.


You're not going to rant and rave?


----------



## Bronco70

spartanstew said:


> You're not going to rant and rave?


Nah, life is too short for that most of the time. Plus the NO / Minn game just got exciting.

Joe


----------



## rickeame

Arrrghghghghghghghgh. Until I saw this, I didn't know. I just went up and yeah, my HR21 Pro would not power up. Had to unplug it. I am really starting to lose it over the DVR's. They are completely crap. Gray recordings, missed recordings, lockups...My TIVO on Comcast was a fortress ... this is getting sad.

What is this "red button" reset you all talk of?


----------



## BWELL316

Couldn't figure out why my DVR kept turning on today. I could watch one channel but couldn't do anything else, the restart took forever, now I know why. I love this place.


----------



## PoitNarf

I blame Earl! not really


----------



## funhouse69

armophob said:


> I can't imagine being outside this community with this happening and not knowing if my house was hit by lightning.
> I called a work friend who I knew had 2 HR's and he was confused until I told him about the mass failure.
> DBS/Talk = wooby


This is a great point - This morning when I came home from work both of my HR20's were unresponsive but since the last national release I wasn't completely surprised since I've had them each lock up on me more times than probably since I bought them. After the RBR and getting suck on 97% for about 15 minutes I pulled the plug on them and went through it again. This time they came up and seemed to be working ok.

Since I've been part of this community for quite some time now I went to post in the release thread what happened and saw a new thread about the issue. I immediately posted to that and sure enough the posts came in fast and furious. So it made me feel a little better when they became non-responsive yet again at about 8:30am and again sometime during the day while sleeping (although I have a VERY unhappy girlfriend that missed her "Shows").

I called all my friends today with HR20-xxx's and each of them had multiple issues and of course had no clue what was going on.

There has to be a way for D* to communicate this issue to its customer base. I understand that they need to address the issue first and foremost but I as a customer would like to be notified what the issue was, and what steps are being taken to prevent it from happening. I can only imagine the calls of the people that didn't have this resource, I'm sure that they are demanding some kind of credit or something for the lack of service.

I know, I know D* has a huge customer base and communicating with all of its customer would be a huge undertaking but there has to be a way. I for one would sign up for an e-mail notify list or something. I hope that at the very least if someone called they would be notified about the issue without having to go through all the hoops and waiting to talk to someone or get to the right group.


----------



## MX727

RobertE said:


> Wonderful, another thread is turning into a HR2x is a POS and the Tivo is perfect ***** fest. Yippie.
> 
> :beatdeadhorse:


Scoreboard


----------



## sperho

RobertE said:


> Wonderful, another thread is turning into a HR2x is a POS and the Tivo is perfect ***** fest. Yippie.
> 
> :beatdeadhorse:


Those who have not drank from the cup of the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD cable DVR don't know true pain. That thing was a piddly toy compared to the HR21 that I just received with my Directv installation. I've been raving about how great it is and how close to TiVo it is compared to the SA box. The HR isn't perfect but it is light years ahead of the SA that I gladly returned last week! SA = :bang


----------



## werinshades

Not that it's any news anymore, attempted to turn the HR20-700 to watch the Sox game, and as all have described, would not turn on. Before I even came here, did the reset which solved the problem. did have a second reset during the game, but went through the process. I came here and saw over 40 pages on this subject, was just thankful I didn't call DirecTV and came here for the scoop...thanks to all who had the scoop..I appreciate it !


----------



## carlsbad_bolt_fan

2 reboots (so far) on both HR20's

Once this morning, the other around 4:35pm.


----------



## MIKE0616

bleucheeseburger said:


> Every machine has the potential to flake out when the people behind "the curtain" don't test test test.
> It didn't seem to happen so noticably when it was tivo programmers.


D* seems to live by the motto "we don't need no steenkin testing" :lol:

Its very apparent that the systems staff at D* is the cheapest that money can buy.

Professional systems staff? :lol:


----------



## ebeck88

Woke up this morning and had to reboot my hr-22. Everytime I turn the tv off I have to reboot it when I turn it on again. My step-daughter started complaining to me about me screwing up the satellite in her room, which ultimately led me here as I knew it had to be a bigger problem if both my hr-22's were having problems. I flipped out on her and she ran offt to her dad's. Then my wife got mad at me for flipping out on her daughter, actually threw a big jug of water at me hurting my foot and getting ice water all over the floor which I had to clean up. She is currently in bed crying. Thank you Directv...


----------



## MIKE0616

carlsbad_bolt_fan said:


> 2 reboots (so far) on both HR20's
> 
> Once this morning, the other around 4:35pm.


Did you get to lose your favorites lists on both occasions? I haven't added them back yet, still waiting to see if it gets ill again, after all, its a new day (in EDT. anyhow.)


----------



## Groundhog45

All four restarted sometime during the afternoon. No menu restart or rbr needed as they had already restarted when I found them.


----------



## Vanka74

Glad (I think) to not be the only one this happened to. It's clear it is something DirecTV did...probably an update. I'm wondering how many of these people have theirs hooked up to the internet because my friend who lives across town didn't experience what we all experienced. The only difference between his and mine are that mine are all connected to the internet through ethernet.

Very odd. So far it seems to be working fine now but I did have one that required 2 resets.


----------



## carlsbad_bolt_fan

MIKE0616 said:


> Did you get to lose your favorites lists on both occasions? I haven't added them back yet, still waiting to see if it gets ill again, after all, its a new day (in EDT. anyhow.)


Favorites lists? 

So far, nothing seems wrong. Did some reshuffling in my prioritizer. Outside of that, nothing seems out of place or missing.


----------



## Ed Campbell

Jeremy W said:


> Yes, although it doesn't go into any details and we'll probably never know exactly what happened: http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageNR.jsp?assetId=P4950006


Probably should post this about 4 times per page of "discussion". That might sort out the folks whining about hardware.


----------



## FilmMixer

No ethernet... both needed plug pulling reboots..


----------



## ChrisPC

My HR20-700 froze up a couple times this morning. I disconnected my eSATA drive and it's running fine now. I had to reset my favorites list, too.


----------



## Goldlexus

I had to pull the plug, the rbr didn't work at all. One thing I have noticed is NOW my dvr has the right time. Before it was about 2 mins. behind.


----------



## Ed Campbell

After beaucoup years with D*, I have to chuckle because I didn't even think of checking their site - just came straight here to see what's going on.

The D* "Warning" post may be almost as vague as an Apple tech announcement; but, there wouldn't have been anything at all not too long ago. Someone in management appears to have noticed there is an Internet out here.

And we know it wasn't Earl who wrote it.


----------



## frederic1943

I lost all the channels in my Custom List on my HR20. :grrr:


----------



## srtpusher

just posting up the i too am having heavy pixelization on locals.

i love this forum, it keeps me sane.


----------



## pgiralt

Had to reset 1 HR20 and 1 HR21-PRO. Did not have to reset 1 HR20. Interestingly, the 1 that I did not have to reset is one that I leave turned on all the time as opposed to the other two that only get turned on when I'm watching.


----------



## exieramos

My Brother-in-law who is not technically inclined, watches TV all day and falls asleep with it on all night :new_sleep (and is only staying a couple of weeks-thank goodness:joy calls me up at work to tell me the TV is broken! :flaiming This is at about 4:00pm PDT. He tells me he couldn't watch TV all day. :crying: I have a harmony 880 remote programmed so it's a no-brainer turning the system on. Naturally, I think the worst and start coming up with a story to tell my wife (who's on her way home from work as well) how the TV broke cause her brother watches the darn thing all day and leaves it on all night.  I get home around 5:30pm and head straight for the TV--I press "Watch DirecTV" on the remote and everything turns on-NO PROBLEM! :nono2: My Brother-In-Law hears the TV on and runs into the room and his jaw drops at the sight :scratch:. He emphatically tells me that he had been trying to turn on the darn thing all day and had just tried an hour ago with no luck! :whatdidid I just gave him a "your an idiot" look :icon_stup and walked away. Now I come here and you all have just made me the idiot! :grin: I did apologize to him and told him about the issue discussed on this forum. :icon_hug: I then proceeded to show him how the RBR works. I don't know if that was a good idea though!:eek2:


----------



## capegator

Both our HR20-700s were reset overnight. The blue lights of a night in Tokyo woke us at 3 AM.


----------



## funhouse69

Both my HR20's (100 & 700) Reset at 03:00 EST unfortunately it was when I was recording Poker After Dark :-(


----------



## njblackberry

HR21s reset and local CBS and NBC are gone (NY locals).


----------



## Ronv

HR20-700 was reset overnight. The blue lights woke me at 3 AM. So far every thing seems OK.


----------



## rahlquist

hr20-100 rebooted sometime between 1am and 5am eastern.


----------



## VetteVert

Mine rebooted around 3am EST here in NC. I have mine run through a sound system that is always on, so it starts blaring which wakes (and startles) the wife an I. 

I'm sure it would have been a humorous site to see me in my boxers about to make a .45" hole in this particular TV (which is downstairs below the bedroom).

VV


----------



## macmikey

Woke up this morning to find my HR21-700 on. Turned it off. Now, while watching and trying to see if anything changed, the menus are glacially slow. I mean like several seconds between remote button press and response, graphics tearing as they slowly change, very bad.

Going to pull the plug twice and try to force a clean guide and reset.

Hope this fixes it, because I have had nothing but trouble for months with this thing and I hate the way it works.

Mike


----------



## goldfishhh

So, I just read 46 pages of "yep, mine rebooted too" and came to the conclusion "something" is going on.

Any idea "what" or "when" it will be fixed?

For the record, mine rebooted 5 times yesterday and again all by its self last night (thought I'd join in on the fun)


----------



## SteveHas

Both my HR20-700s seem fine here
menus do seem a bit slower than normal however


----------



## mikepax

Had to reset bothe HR20-100 and HR20-700 on 10/6/2008. Then last night at 6:55 PM central time, both units reset by them selves.


----------



## David MacLeod

VetteVert said:


> Mine rebooted around 3am EST here in NC.


mine too, between 1230 and 3am est both units rebooted themselves. seem to be running normally.


----------



## tkrandall

I was not able to check mine until last evening, but it would not power up at all. RBR did not work - I had to unplug the unit. 

I see it looks like they did another load overnight - the unit is on and the blue ringis bright this morning. I had turned t "off" last night. HR20-700

The re-boot must have been at 3AM. I had set up to record Last Flight of the Concorde at 3 am, and this mornign I had a 0 minute partial at 3am, and a 51 minute long resumption at 3:09am, according to my recorded listings.


----------



## grogargh

macmikey said:


> Woke up this morning to find my HR21-700 on. Turned it off...


Me too - Darn blue lights woke me up this morning in my master bedroom - I had to turn it off also. I can probably read a book in that light...:read:

Anyway, I am awake now and sharing everyone else's pain from yesterday. At least It didn't flake out during prime time last night...

So is that it? Are we done with this and can we move on?


----------



## Bofurley

I had the same problem yesterday the 6th. 
Actually I had to uplug my HR-700 three times yesterday.
Has anyone got a handle on what is happening?


----------



## poppo

poppo said:


> FWIW, one of my HR20s is set up for sat only San Antonio HD locals and they are all fine.


I take that back. all of the San Antonio HD locals via sat are indeed pixelating and breaking up very bad every few seconds. In my statement above, I had only scrolled through them very quickly.


----------



## Jon

Woke up this morning with the blue ring starring me in the face. I thought the statement said if you reset after 2:30pm (Oct. 6) that you were set? If so why the reboot during the middle of the night.........new software?

Where is the new DirecTv Tivo? :eek2: 

John


----------



## David MacLeod

Jon said:


> Woke up this morning with the blue ring starring me in the face. I thought the statement said if you reset after 2:30pm (Oct. 6) that you were set? If so why the reboot during the middle of the night.........new software?
> 
> Where is the new DirecTv Tivo? :eek2:
> 
> John


maybe they decided to not force the reboot for many users during primetime and instead scheduled it for later when usage is lower.


----------



## GP245

Same here!

Turned everything off last night - this morning, my HR-21-100 and AM-21 were on.

Wonder what the gurus at Direct were trying to do that inadvertently locked things up.


----------



## Toyo

My HR-21-200 needed a RBR to get it running, it hung up at 97% for about 10 minutes. 

My HR-20-100 need to be unplugged for 5 minutes to get it running. The record light was on when I entered the room. 

Just started reading about this, wondering if it was just me or not? Did anybody find the reason? That blows my mind that they can actually freeze up the box like that, kinda freaky.


----------



## VaJim

Jon said:


> Woke up this morning with the blue ring starring me in the face. I thought the statement said if you reset after 2:30pm (Oct. 6) that you were set? If so why the reboot during the middle of the night.........new software?
> 
> Where is the new DirecTv Tivo? :eek2:
> 
> John


DITTO


----------



## Compton

RBR didn't work for me, had to pull power cord


----------



## hobbes4444

2 of my HR-20-100s are ok. My main HR20-100 is not outputting over HDMI. Outputting OK over composite though. When I woke up this AM to turn it on it was stuck at the reboot screen at 100% complete. I think i need to do another RBR, but my kid's watching a show on the DVR.

Update: RBR did the trick. Let's hope this expanded service was something worthwhile. AMC-HD would be nice. . .


----------



## MIKE0616

GP245 said:


> Same here!
> 
> Turned everything off last night - this morning, my HR-21-100 and AM-21 were on.
> 
> Wonder what the gurus at Direct were trying to do that inadvertently locked things up.


It wasn't a new software release, at least not one that has been announced, so it was probably "enhancing the service" by adding a boat-load of new PPV channels for US. :lol:

Quote from D* website: "In our effort to improve and *expand our service*, we experienced a temporary technical glitch."


----------



## say-what

GP245 said:


> Same here!
> 
> Turned everything off last night - this morning, my HR-21-100 and AM-21 were on.
> 
> Wonder what the gurus at Direct were trying to do that inadvertently locked things up.


According to a DirecTV TechKnow Guide:



litzdog911 said:


> Re: System-wide problem the DirecTV with DirecTV-brand DVRs Oct 6, 2008
> It was actually a Guide Data problem that triggered these lockups. Resetting the DVR should solve it.
> 
> http://forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=10447583


----------



## Bay CIty

Yes, I had to to a RBR on my Hr20-700 also.
I had to do it twice to get it to work.
Also I lost all my channels in my favorite lists.

The Directv/Tivo can not get here fast enough.


----------



## hdtvfan0001

Returned from traveling on Sunday. All 3 HD DVRs working fine.

Back on a plane Monday....upon arrival...wife called to tell me all the HD DVRs would not start up....powerup failed on all....required RBR....all appear fine, with all programming saved fine.

From scanning through the thread...a problem that is widespread...but DirecTV surely knows this already now.


----------



## cgiannetto

Both my HR20-700's were locked up yesterday evening. Power cycle recovered the devices. Woke up this morning and found both units had rebooted overnight (blue lights on). At least I'm not alone ...


----------



## njblackberry

I would love to know what the "temporary technical glitch" was...


----------



## sangs

capegator said:


> Both our HR20-700s were reset overnight. The blue lights of a night in Tokyo woke us at 3 AM.


Us too! The one in our bedroom (HR-20, which oddly enough was the only one of HRs_ not _to stop working yesterday) woke us around 3:00 a.m. I thought one of our kids came into the room and turned the lights on it was so bright!

All seems well with our HR-20 and two HR-22s today.


----------



## paulman182

My HR20-100 locked up twice yesterday.

Strangely enough, my HR20-700 did not lock up at all.

Both they, and my R22-200, were restarted by DirecTV overnight last night.


----------



## lordfam

Had to RBR both HR20-100 units yesterday morning, found them both dead again when I got home from work. Had to hit the red button AND then the power button to get them going. I always put mine in standby at night - both were powered on when I got up this morning.

Aside from the time for the reboots, nothing seems to be lost. Still, I could do without the drama.


----------



## jkusnetz

Mine is in the bedroom and it turned itself on around 3am eastern, woke me up with the bright blue glow!


----------



## CTJon

And on mine last night the clock was an hour off - so was the guide so it worked ok but lockup - wrong time, reboot with blue light and lost sleep. I want a day's worth of charges back from DirecTv on this on.


----------



## groove93

I noticed my HR21 was on this morning when I walk down stairs. I'm assuming it was reset remotely because by default my remote shuts everything down together. Mine did not reboot during primetime and all my shows recorded without a hitch.


----------



## DarinC

njblackberry said:


> I would love to know what the "temporary technical glitch" was...


I'm picturing something like when Johnny unplugged the runway lights in Airplane!


----------



## groove93

DarinC said:


> I'm picturing something like when Johnny unplugged the runway lights in Airplane!


Whoops....sorry:lol:


----------



## I WANT MORE

Someone should start a poll. Of all of you who threatened to leave D* what % actually did/will? 
The over/under is .005% and I'm on the under.


----------



## Dr_J

Woke up this morning to all the lights on. Must have been a spontaneous reboot overnight.


----------



## kdonnel

Both my my HR21's were locked up in one way or another.

Yesterday the one in the bedroom was in standby and would not respond to the remote or front panel. I had to pull the plug.

The one in the theater did not record The Big Bang Theory, Chuck, or Heroes even though it seemed to be working when I tried to start watching TV last night around 10:15. They were not in the list but were listed in the To Do list. Then it stopped responding to the remote or front panel key presses. I had to pull the plug. When it came back up it recorded the last 11 minutes of Heroes.


----------



## y2khardtop

all 3 of ours locked up, although one of them did it 3 times over a few days. I left them ON in hopes that they would respond. Hope they have it straightened out, as 40 minutes on the phone with them yesterday accomplished nothing.


----------



## The Merg

Had to perform an RBR on my R22-100 (my only HR2x series DVR) twice on 10/06. Once in the morning and once at night. In the morning, I was on the PlayList and hit Guide. When the text cleared, it froze up so I still had the PIG with the background of the Guide, but no text. In the evening, it was on LiveTV when no remote command would work.

An RBR solved the issue both times.

- Merg


----------



## The Merg

Well, I just read the Update thread... My receiver apparently automatically rebooted at 3am EST. I know this because I was set to record Charlie Jade at that time. I have a partial recording of 0 min and then a partial recording starting at 3:09am.

- Merg


----------



## carbonms

Yes, My remote just stopped working. Had to do a full reset. What a pain!


----------



## Doerner

My receiver needed a reset as well, but for the last few days it has been resetting on its own for no apparent reason. Any idea? The first automatic reset I noticed was during the NASCAR race on Sunday, then it happened again on Sunday night during MGM HD James Bond marathon. So far so good since I reset it yesterday, but I hope it doesn't continue resetting on its own.  This is the first time I've noticed my receiver resetting on its own.


----------



## tnflyboy

Im not on a CE at this time, but mine was locked up. Video coming through, no response to remotes or front panel buttons. After RBR it resumed normal operation, however seems a bit sluggish.


----------



## rkcoll1

sigma1914 said:


> Two HR20s, both had the record light on, both unresponsive, and RBR fixed them.


Same thing with my HR20. RBR fixed problem.


----------



## TheRatPatrol

njblackberry said:


> I would love to know what the "temporary technical glitch" was...





DarinC said:


> I'm picturing something like when Johnny unplugged the runway lights in Airplane!


D* tried adding more HDPPV's but the system couldn't handle it and crashed. :lol:


----------



## uscboy

Hey, thanks for paying attention to details there, DirecTV... boxes got a new 
software update or something last night apparently. Both were powered on, LED 
lights blaring, including the one in the nice dark bedroom I happened to be 
sleeping in.

I'm sure there's a last_power_state somewhere in your code, just because you're 
rushing to fix a problem you caused doesn't mean you can't be detail oriented.

FYI, they both turned off using the remote, I assume they're not locked up again 
this morning.


----------



## DarinC

Hmm, this whole fiasco has fixed an issue I had with the unit in the kitchen. Ever since I got it a few months ago, the power button on the front panel was flaky... the remote could power the unit on/off, but the front panel had trouble. Eventually the front panel button stopped working completely, hasn't worked in the past month. Now it works fine. :whatdidid


----------



## JRich7911

I had to reset my HR20-100 by pulling the plug. My Favorites List was erased and I had to rebuild it.


----------



## msmith

Just another data point.

My DVR's rebooted on their own at 3am. I happened to be awake when it happened.


----------



## mark_winn

All 4 of mine had to be restarted. 3 of the 4 required the plug be pulled. My HR21-100 just neeeded a RBR. Also the HR21-100 lockmode was different. It was frozen with the screen saver with the blue ring lite and all the proper LED's on, while the other 3 boxs appeared completely dead.


----------



## jbk1703

After all the fun yesterday,I don't know if mine did a forced reset, but after a few moves withe the remote this morning, its locked again.


----------



## rahlquist

Ok from what I've gathered from this thread and others, it sounds as if D* started to add additional data to the guide, whether it was for something new or just additional data, of course we will never know. It caused some sort of memory of buffer overflow causing some of your DVR's to hang, probably the ones that run tight already with close to 50 series links. Someone at D* figured out the issue and cut off that data by midafternoon yesterday but it was too late, thousands of DVR had pulled the bad guide data. 

Likely the only quick, efficient way to pull the (bad?) guide data was to reboot the machine which wipes the guide data anyway. Those who had their DVR 'ON' caught the first round of reboots, the rest of us caught the leftovers or perhaps a secondary set sent out to make sure EVERY HR2x dvr reboots to clear the junk.

Thats how it sounds to me at least.

At least one other thread has made it sound as if it may not have been a problem that originated at D* but perhaps with (one of?)the companies transmits guide data to them.


----------



## bobbin

All three of my HR20 have reset themselves twice resulting in failure modes as described in this thread. All needed a five minute break without their AC to finally wake up OK. None have had a software upgrade since July. Two live on a battery backed up UPS. If they haven't had new software download or lost power, what would cause them to reboot?

Didn't lose any prime time recording, The first wild reboot happended at 3PM yesterday and the second between midnight and 5AM this morning. All three.

Clueless......


----------



## Sardaan

Both my DVR's required full resets, my living room unit locked up three times yesterday requiring resets each time. Both units are VERY sluggish right now when responding to remote commands.

As noted above I woke up about 4am this morning and found both units powered ON.


----------



## DarinC

rahlquist said:


> It caused some sort of memory of buffer overflow causing some of your DVR's to hang, probably the ones that run tight already with close to 50 series links.


According to the poll, it affected more than 97% of the respondents. And that's probably low, based on people posting that theirs were ok, but they then locked up after voting that they were OK. One of my units gets very light usage: I think it has two series links. Yet it was locked up when we got up yesterday.

I think the very small minority that weren't affected were probably due to some low percentage exception, like people who don't have line of sight to 119 and didn't get a guide update due to the channel they were tuned to.


----------



## rahlquist

DarinC said:


> I think the very small minority that weren't affected were probably due to some low percentage exception, like people who don't have line of sight to 119 and didn't get a guide update due to the channel they were tuned to.


 Never said my WAG(wild a.. guess) was perfect.

I get 119 and had no issues, however I can confirm the DVR was 'powered off' most of the day.

As for the overflow maybe it wasnt constrained to just heavy use units then. Assuming the guide data is some type of hypertext type markup this could have been something as simple as someone screwing up a


Code:


</block>

 tag and bingo, the guide treats all remaining data in the stream as a singe guide item, so one show that lasted for 14 days on channels 200-9999.

I like the idea and until D* gives us something more detailed officially I'm betting its close to the right track.


----------



## Hoxxx

carbonms said:


> Yes, My remote just stopped working. Had to do a full reset. What a pain!


Same here and also had to go rebuild my favorites list. one more thing my ESATA drive was not there it took 2 more power cord removal reboots to solve that. I finally was able to get back to normal.


----------



## RunnerFL

The Merg said:


> Well, I just read the Update thread... My receiver apparently automatically rebooted at 3am EST. I know this because I was set to record Charlie Jade at that time. I have a partial recording of 0 min and then a partial recording starting at 3:09am.


Same here, 2 recordings of Charlie Jade. A 0min at 3 and another starting at 3:13.

It's bad enough that Sci-Fi puts the show at 3am and now DirecTV forces a reboot at the same time. argh!


----------



## David MacLeod

DarinC said:


> According to the poll, it affected more than 97% of the respondents. And that's probably low, based on people posting that theirs were ok, but they then locked up after voting that they were OK. One of my units gets very light usage: I think it has two series links. Yet it was locked up when we got up yesterday.
> 
> I think the very small minority that weren't affected were probably due to some low percentage exception, like people who don't have line of sight to 119 and didn't get a guide update due to the channel they were tuned to.


I had one not affected (hr20) and 1 affected (hr21) and both have los to 119. wonder if the channel it was on last affected it.


----------



## billbillw

This was the most frustrating experience I've had with my HR20-100s to date. Before work yesterday, I found the bedroom unit locked up. Red button didn't work. Had to unplug the unit 3 times to get it to come up. When it did, my Favorites were wiped out. 

Wife called and complained in the afternoon that the DVR in the living room wasn't working. Told her to hit the reset button. 

Flash forward to 8:15pm. Both units were still locked up. The living room unit had to be unplugged 3-4 times before it came back up. No loss of favorites or recordings. The bedroom reset with just the red button. Favorites had to be redone on the bedroom unit. 

I missed out on my recording of 2 shows during the 8-9pm time slot because of this problem. One reason I have two DVRs is to have redundant recordings so that if one goes down, the other is usually OK. This is also the reason why I have one DVR record OTA and the other record Satellite feed for HD locals. I have both my DVRs on separate battery backups too. 

I really, really, hate missing shows that I follow. I hope to hell that whoever caused this problem gets demoted, reprimanded, or fired. There is no excuse for releasing something into the feed that causes 97% of the DVRs out there to lock up. 

BTW, I don't have anywhere near 50 series links. Probably less than 20 on each DVR. I also never let the DVRs get more than about 40% full, so its not like my units are running at the limit of their capabilities.


----------



## netPOSER

Between this fiasco, political debates, and long running NFL games my DVR botched a few season openers, and other new shows.

At least I have Hulu for some the TPB for others that I've missed.


----------



## MRinDenver

Both mine required an rbr yesterday morning early, then rebooted themselves again at 5 pm MST. 

I lost -- not my "favorites" list -- but my "to do" list. 

Oddly the list still populated the "prioritizer" section. Since I had nothing scheduled for last night, I decided to wait until this morning to rebuild the "to do".

This morning, the "to do" is back.

It is a strange thing.


----------



## sritter

I have two HR21-200's. One I had to RBR and the other was fine yesterday morning.


----------



## rahlquist

MRinDenver said:


> This morning, the "to do" is back.
> 
> It is a strange thing.


When your DVR is rebooted things like the Guide and To Do list get repopulated. Since the items were still set to record, as the guide data flowed in the To Do list was able to rebuild.


----------



## loudo

Both of my units re-booted at 2:55 am this morning. Woke up and saw the BR unit re-booting, then went into the Living Room and the other was also re-booting.


----------



## DarinC

rahlquist said:


> Never said my WAG(wild a.. guess) was perfect.


Yes, there's no telling what it was. My point is simply that it appears to have been VERY widespread, the boxes that weren't affected seem to be a very small minority. If we could figure out what those few had in common, it might offer some clues. My two units are very different: an HR21-200 with an AM21, network connected, and very heavy usage, the other being an HR21-100 with no AM21 or network connection, and only gets used while eating breakfast or something like that. But both were affected. :shrug:


----------



## davemayo

loudo said:


> Both of my units re-booted at 2:55 am this morning. Woke up and saw the BR unit re-booting, then went into the Living Room and the other was also re-booting.


Both of mine rebooted overnight even though I had reset them last evening and both were working fine by midnight.


----------



## Lee L

I would love to know how many calls DirecTV got. I imagine it had to be one of their highes volume days ever and I am sure they stats for the month took a massive hit.

I am glad I just checked here to save me lots of trouble waiting on the phone.


----------



## stsrep

My non DVR HD boxes weren't effected at all.
All three of the HR20's restarted last night around 6:30 p.m.
I had already done a RBR on the one CE box earlier in the day but it restarted as well.
All seem ok now.


----------



## Doug Brott

goldfishhh said:


> So, I just read 46 pages of "yep, mine rebooted too" and came to the conclusion "something" is going on.
> 
> Any idea "what" or "when" it will be fixed?
> 
> For the record, mine rebooted 5 times yesterday and again all by its self last night (thought I'd join in on the fun)


Folks in the East Coast had their receivers restarted @ 3am to correct the technical glitch from yesterday ..


----------



## jebber

timely thread - my wife called me to complaion yesterday that the three hr20 receivers were "acting funny" I told her to reset them.

Came homne last night and at 6:52 pm all three machines rebooted one after the other - missed the first three minutes of the 7:00 shows


----------



## Doug Brott

MRinDenver said:


> Both mine required an rbr yesterday morning early, then rebooted themselves again at 5 pm MST.
> 
> I lost -- not my "favorites" list -- but my "to do" list.
> 
> Oddly the list still populated the "prioritizer" section. Since I had nothing scheduled for last night, I decided to wait until this morning to rebuild the "to do".
> 
> This morning, the "to do" is back.
> 
> It is a strange thing.


Yes, if the GUIDE cache gets flushed then it will need to be rebuilt. As a result, your TODO list will have to repopulate as well as the GUIDE gets new information.


----------



## SockMonkey

Both my HR20 and HR21's were locked up (as expected) but I didn't get home until almost 10pm last night. Missed Heroes, Chuck, and a lot more as Monday night is one of my biggest recording nights. Most of what I missed can be watched online... but I am not happy about having to sit in front of my computer to do it. :nono2:

This is when FREE CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX DirecTV on Demand would be nice.

I love my DirecTV, but times like this just burn a little.
Bob


----------



## Ravens96

There has been some discussion in this thread that heat may have played a role with some of the receivers locking up. My receiver is one of the few that will not recover from the "technical glitch" and I believe that heat may very well have been the reason.

I have an HR20-700 with a Targus laptop cooler sitting on top of the receiver to help dissipate heat from the receiver. The cooler is powered via the USB port on the HR20. When I first discovered that my receiver was locked up, I noticed that the HR20 was extremely hot and that the cooler had no power. Un-plugging and re-applying power to the HR20 returned power to the receiver as well as the coolor, but it looks like damage has already been done as the receiver will not get past the Step 1 of 2 Checking satellite settings, even after leaving the unit powered OFF all night. Since the cooler had no power, it looks like it may have done more harm in this instance by blocking the natural dissipation of heat from the receiver.

I would be interested to know if others that are using a USB connected cooler also noticed if their cooler lost power during the glitch or if mine was the exception. Also, if you do have a cooler that lost power, was your receiver able to recover?

BTW, I have a service technician appointment scheduled for tomorrow. They are supposed to bring a replacement unit. Keeping my fingers crossed.


----------



## m4p

Ravens96 said:


> I would be interested to know if others that are using a USB connected cooler also noticed if their cooler lost power during the glitch or if mine was the exception. Also, if you do have a cooler that lost power, was your receiver able to recover?


I have a laptop cooler sitting on my unit as well powered by the USB port. I did not lose any power to the USB port during the glitch.

As to the cause of this problem, some have said maybe it's in the guide data. What I found a bit interesting is you know those ads that are in the guide, for things like game lounge? Well I noticed that there is now a new ad (can't remember specifically what it was for and I'm at work so I can't check, but it was around the channels in the 240's). Just wondering if these ads could be causing the problems.


----------



## rkhobbit

m4p said:


> I have a laptop cooler sitting on my unit as well powered by the USB port. I did not lose any power to the USB port during the glitch.
> 
> As to the cause of this problem, some have said maybe it's in the guide data. What I found a bit interesting is you know those ads that are in the guide, for things like game lounge? Well I noticed that there is now a new ad (can't remember specifically what it was for and I'm at work so I can't check, but it was around the channels in the 240's). Just wondering if these ads could be causing the problems.


Do you use a laptop cooler to pull air out or push air in to your DVR unit?


----------



## HarryC

I got home from work early and proceeded to turn on the satellite to watch the local news at 5:30ish CDT. My single HR-20 was unresponsive, and the red-button-reset seemed to have no effect. I unplugged the unit from the AC power and then plugged it back in after 3 or 4 minutes. 5 minutes after reconnection the unit was still unresponsive, so I decided to call Directv customer service—should have logged on to DBSTalk. Took me a few minutes to find the phone number, and about half way through the voice mail choices—about 10 minutes after plugging the receiver back in—the screen lit up and the receiver suddenly started to boot up.

As others have reported, it stuck on 97% for quite a while, and then finished. Initially, a number of channels were missing, including all my local channels, but the guide did a couple of “updates” and those channels returned. Commands issued from my remote continued to be sluggish and there were some other nagging glitches. I watched the news, but at 6:55 pm the system rebooted spontaneously. This reboot went more smoothly with no hang ups, and once it was complete everything seemed to return to normal.


----------



## dbronstein

I had to reboot twice and had the 97% issue. I'm just glad I found this thread. I just got a Harmony 890 and set up the wireless extender on Sunday, so I thought it was being caused by the remote and I was going crazy trying to figure it out.


----------



## rsonnens

I was not home when the hangs/rebooting fun happened; but last night my favorite channel filters were blank! I've had this receiver for almost two years and don't remember this happening before. I think it must be related to this fun event. Now I have to manually add things back to it which is not a fun exercise. Which leads me to a feature I want...the ability to backup (and restore) externally all my settings.


----------



## pcates

I had reported yesterday that I could not get my HR20-700 to bootup with my external drive attached. I tried again last night and got it to boot by all recordings and settings were gone. I started re-doing my channels and recordings and the box reset again. Spent an hour or so redoing them after that and then this morning at about 7:30 AM Central it reset again. When it came up all of my settings were gone again along with the couple of things I recorded last night. I don't know if it is a function of having the external drive or not. Is anyone else losing everything?


----------



## rkhobbit

Had to soft reboot all 3 of my HR20's. 1 unit, would not display guide data correctly several hours after the reboot. Finally figured out that I had lost all my favorites and had to go in and recreate my favorite channel list.


----------



## d56alpine

I had 19 hours of Masterpiece Contemporary that recorded while the box was locked up! Was watching on WMPT I believe.


----------



## m4p

rkhobbit said:


> Do you use a laptop cooler to pull air out or push air in to your DVR unit?


I have it sitting on top of the unit pushing air down into it. It works really well. It's made by Antec and has 2 fans.


----------



## hasan

pcates said:


> I had reported yesterday that I could not get my HR20-700 to bootup with my external drive attached. I tried again last night and got it to boot by all recordings and settings were gone. I started re-doing my channels and recordings and the box reset again. Spent an hour or so redoing them after that and then this morning at about 7:30 AM Central it reset again. When it came up all of my settings were gone again along with the couple of things I recorded last night. I don't know if it is a function of having the external drive or not. Is anyone else losing everything?


I have the HR20-700 and a FAP750. I did not lose anything on the drive, but did get two partial recordings during the period where all these problems were going on. I was not home all day during the difficulties. I came home to a locked up box that I then reset.....then, of course at about 6:54 p.m., D* initiated a remote reboot of all boxes.

Since then, everything looks normal to me, and scheduled recordings at 9 p.m. last night happened as they should, and they look to be complete and without problems.


----------



## OldRick

I can understand that Windoze has to have a lot of maintenance, but a set-top box? This thing should have stabilized two years ago.

I want my TiVo!


----------



## Stanley Kritzik

rkhobbit said:


> Do you use a laptop cooler to pull air out or push air in to your DVR unit?


I use a few of these units. They have two fans that pull air (put 'em upside down on top of the unit), and they exhaust the air through a full width slot in front of the unit. They keep my DVR and stereo receiver cool as a cucumber. A good $40 (or so) investment.

Stan


----------



## bonscott87

OldRick said:


> I can understand that Windoze has to have a lot of maintenance, but a set-top box? This thing should have stabilized two years ago.
> 
> I want my TiVo!


Of course the problem was with the data stream and had nothing to do with the HR2x but hey, gotta take every opportunity to slam it.


----------



## njblackberry

Well, with the total lack of information about the cause, people feel free to slam the wrong things!


----------



## tvjay

loudo said:


> Both of my units re-booted at 2:55 am this morning. Woke up and saw the BR unit re-booting, then went into the Living Room and the other was also re-booting.


Mine rebooted too, right of the middle of a show I was watching.


----------



## Ravens96

rkhobbit said:


> Do you use a laptop cooler to pull air out or push air in to your DVR unit?


The Targus has 2 fans and I place it upside down on top of the receiver so that it pulls hot air out of the receiver.


----------



## billsharpe

beavis said:


> An entire month credit? for this?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Maybe $10 off per month for 6 months, but that's it.


Depends on what your monthly bill is. Thje bill could be around $60, depending on your service.

I'd say give everybody the Choice Plus pack for a year -- not much of a financial hit for DirecTV and easy to implement.


----------



## Ken S

bonscott87 said:


> Of course the problem was with the data stream and had nothing to do with the HR2x but hey, gotta take every opportunity to slam it.


bonscott87,

It had nothing to do with the box? The box received a signal and locked up...sounds to me like it didn't handle a bad signal or have proper error recovery...that IS about the box. But, please take every opportunity to defend the indefensible. What next the bad data stream was Tribune's fault?


----------



## ATARI

bonscott87 said:


> Of course the problem was with the data stream and had nothing to do with the HR2x but hey, gotta take every opportunity to slam it.


Yet only HR2x were affected, so whatever...


----------



## David MacLeod

bonscott87 said:


> Of course the problem was with the data stream and had nothing to do with the HR2x but hey, gotta take every opportunity to slam it.


I was going to say that but I realized that even though it was a stream/guide error, it did only affect hr2 series and none (that I saw) tivo or older styles. but I didn't want to fan the darn tivo vs d* flames that always start so I left it.


----------



## ATARI

rsonnens said:


> I was not home when the hangs/rebooting fun happened; but last night my favorite channel filters were blank! I've had this receiver for almost two years and don't remember this happening before. I think it must be related to this fun event. Now I have to manually add things back to it which is not a fun exercise. Which leads me to a feature I want...the ability to backup (and restore) externally all my settings.


Already on the Wish List: "OPTION to backup your HR20 settings and/or SERIES LINKS via network or USB drive."


----------



## Stanley Kritzik

I have two Comcast DVR units at a vacation spot where D* is impractical. I'd hate to tell you the number of "surprises", swapped units, etc. I've had in a few years of intermittent use. If this is the worst that D* can toss our way, we're lucky.

Still, if they had informed us earlier, it would have helped, as would better product testing in the first place.

Stan


----------



## RobertE

A little history lesson for the Tivo can do no wrong camp. Some links over at Tivo Community Forums



> Season Pass Problems
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=332166
> 
> More on SPP - Bad Guide Data
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=332358
> 
> Random Restarts Due to DirecTv?
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=333247
> 
> And Yet More on Random Restarts
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=333005
> 
> Getting tired of this crap. Missing recordings.
> http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=350395


The HR2x is not perfect. Neither are the Tivos, and Tivo has been at it how long?

Now lets drop the HR2x bashing in this thread. The problem was on DirecTvs end, not with the HR2x. This isn't the first time a glitch has happened, it won't be the last.

Stop the whining, reboot the box and move on people. If your really that unhappy, pay the ETF and switch to your local cable co or Dish.

:beatdeadhorse:


----------



## dshu82

Stanley Kritzik said:


> I have two Comcast DVR units at a vacation spot where D* is impractical. I'd hate to tell you the number of "surprises", swapped units, etc. I've had in a few years of intermittent use. If this is the worst that D* can toss our way, we're lucky.
> 
> Still, if they had informed us earlier, it would have helped, as would better product testing in the first place.
> 
> Stan


Finally, a perspective on how bad it could be elsewhere. Was all that happened yesterday an annoyance? Absolutely. But how does it compare to "routine" cable outages across the country? Annoying after dinner last night, but I had other rooms I could go to and at least watch something.......


----------



## JoeTheDragon

SockMonkey said:


> Both my HR20 and HR21's were locked up (as expected) but I didn't get home until almost 10pm last night. Missed Heroes, Chuck, and a lot more as Monday night is one of my biggest recording nights. Most of what I missed can be watched online... but I am not happy about having to sit in front of my computer to do it. :nono2:
> 
> This is when FREE CBS, ABC, NBC and FOX DirecTV on Demand would be nice.
> 
> I love my DirecTV, but times like this just burn a little.
> Bob


FOX on Demand is free on there own web site.


----------



## aa9vi

My H20-100 was locked up yesterday AM. I unplugged and it came back with no remote response. I did a RBR last night and got the remote response back, albeit with a VERY SLUGGISH GUI. When I did the RBR the guide data was loading very slow in the step 2 of 2. It hung at 97% for quite a while too. I did not have the latest NR, but an older CE release, (with a newer version than the NR)... maybe it was 269, I forget.

So, is the national cache flush from a reboot a long time fix or short term solution? I rebooted and the box is damn slow. There must be more to it.


----------



## mightyb

Ravens96 said:


> The Targus has 2 fans and I place it upside down on top of the receiver so that it pulls hot air out of the receiver.


How is the noise? I may go this route as I always feel my box is WAY hotter than it should be


----------



## billsharpe

exieramos said:


> My Brother-in-law who is not technically inclined, watches TV all day and falls asleep with it on all night :new_sleep (and is only staying a couple of weeks-thank goodness:joy calls me up at work to tell me the TV is broken! :flaiming This is at about 4:00pm PDT. He tells me he couldn't watch TV all day. :crying: I have a harmony 880 remote programmed so it's a no-brainer turning the system on. Naturally, I think the worst and start coming up with a story to tell my wife (who's on her way home from work as well) how the TV broke cause her brother watches the darn thing all day and leaves it on all night.  I get home around 5:30pm and head straight for the TV--I press "Watch DirecTV" on the remote and everything turns on-NO PROBLEM! :nono2: My Brother-In-Law hears the TV on and runs into the room and his jaw drops at the sight :scratch:. He emphatically tells me that he had been trying to turn on the darn thing all day and had just tried an hour ago with no luck! :whatdidid I just gave him a "your an idiot" look :icon_stup and walked away. Now I come here and you all have just made me the idiot! :grin: I did apologize to him and told him about the issue discussed on this forum. :icon_hug: I then proceeded to show him how the RBR works. I don't know if that was a good idea though!:eek2:


You win the best post of the thread award -- considering we're up to 46 pages, that's quite an accomplishment :joy: :joy:


----------



## RCY

RobertE said:


> A little history lesson for the Tivo can do no wrong camp. Some links over at Tivo Community Forums
> 
> The HR2x is not perfect. Neither are the Tivos, and Tivo has been at it how long?
> 
> Now lets drop the HR2x bashing in this thread. The problem was on DirecTvs end, not with the HR2x. This isn't the first time a glitch has happened, it won't be the last.
> 
> Stop the whining, reboot the box and move on people. If your really that unhappy, pay the ETF and switch to your local cable co or Dish.
> 
> :beatdeadhorse:


FYI, only the last weblink of the 5 you posted actually works.

FWIW, my SD Dtivos were unaffected by this "DirectTV" issue. Don't know if they use the same guide data as the HR2x boxes or not.


----------



## Doug Brott

aa9vi said:


> My H20-100 was locked up yesterday AM. I unplugged and it came back with no remote response. I did a RBR last night and got the remote response back, albeit with a VERY SLUGGISH GUI. When I did the RBR the guide data was loading very slow in the step 2 of 2. It hung at 97% for quite a while too. I did not have the latest NR, but an older CE release, (with a newer version than the NR)... maybe it was 269, I forget.
> 
> What's the timetable on the fix?


There was a glitch overnight (yesterday morning) .. sometime between 2am PT and 4am PT (possibly about 3am PT) that caused most receivers to lock up. There was another glitch around 11:30am PT that caused some receivers to lock up a second time. At ~ 4:30pm PT, the some receivers were reset .. At ~ 4:50pm PT additional receivers were reset and finally this morning at ~midnight PT the remainder of the receivers were reset.

It was a long and trying day for sure, but for the most part it was a few hiccups. DIRECTV has identified and corrected the problem so all is good now.


----------



## Wilhite

bonscott87 said:


> Of course the problem was with the data stream and had nothing to do with the HR2x but hey, gotta take every opportunity to slam it.


Just curious - do the DTivo units not receive the same data stream that the HR2x boxes do? If not, do you know what the differences are? More data? Less data?

I have an HR10-250 that was working just fine that is sitting beside the HR20-700 that locked up. Both are connected to the same dish and multiswitch. I would think that if the data stream is the same to the two, both of them would have had the issue and locked up.


----------



## billsharpe

Doug Brott said:


> It was a long and trying day for sure, but for the most part it was a few hiccups. DIRECTV has identified and corrected the problem so all is good now.


Thanks to this thread, I didn't have to call DirecTV. Now that's a big plus!


----------



## BlueGuy

My two HR2#'s were locked up yesterday morning. I did a RBR and all was fine when I went to work. When I got home last night they were both down again. I must have got stung a second time between 7am and 12:30pm as my wifes Young and the Restless didn't record :nono2:


----------



## RobertE

RCY said:


> FYI, only the last weblink of the 5 you posted actually works.
> 
> FWIW, my SD Dtivos were unaffected by this "DirectTV" issue. Don't know if they use the same guide data as the HR2x boxes or not.


Links are now fixed.


----------



## bobnielsen

I had already reset my HR21, but Directv reset it again a little after 4:30 PDT, causing a recording issue. All has been fine since.


----------



## mx6bfast

rahlquist said:


> Ok from what I've gathered from this thread and others, it sounds as if D* started to add additional data to the guide, whether it was for something new or just additional data, of course we will never know. It caused some sort of memory of buffer overflow causing some of your DVR's to hang, probably the ones that run tight already with close to 50 series links. Someone at D* figured out the issue and cut off that data by midafternoon yesterday but it was too late, thousands of DVR had pulled the bad guide data.
> 
> Likely the only quick, efficient way to pull the (bad?) guide data was to reboot the machine which wipes the guide data anyway. Those who had their DVR 'ON' caught the first round of reboots, the rest of us caught the leftovers or perhaps a secondary set sent out to make sure EVERY HR2x dvr reboots to clear the junk.
> 
> Thats how it sounds to me at least.
> 
> At least one other thread has made it sound as if it may not have been a problem that originated at D* but perhaps with (one of?)the companies transmits guide data to them.


Is everyone ready for more program guide spam?


----------



## Dan1

I think DTV was actually trying to do a software update that went wrong. After I did a RBR, I held down the INFO button to see if they pushed an update and it didn't work. Then I went through the menus to see the info screen and it doesn't show any software data. It used to show current version, date it was installed, and I believe the previous version.


----------



## mrjim

Both of my HR-700's were dead needed a reboot, than watching the baseball game both of them went off and needed a reboot again.


----------



## hockeynut07

My HR20 died as well. I thought for sure it was a goner. I tried uplugging and red button several times before it finally came back up.

I also lost about 7-8 movies that I had saved. Very frustrating. 

What are you doing Directv?


----------



## RCY

I wonder if it is related to the advertisement I get everytime I get to the end of my program and return to my recorded programs list. (SD DTivo)

It used to give you two choices: Delete or keep. Now I get Delete, Keep and an advertisement underneath that you can select to get the SPAM-o-the-day.

Did something similar get pushed out to the HR2x that could have caused your issues?


----------



## Guest

I got home around 5PM yesterday and my HR21-700 was powered down but the recording light was on. It took 2 RBR's(to now avail) and power cord disconnection to get it powered on. The receiver automatically reset at the point I hit the power button. I thought it was toast too. This sure has caused a kerfuffle eh?


----------



## rw99

I'm probably tempting fate by posting, but I was oblivious to this problem until stopping by this site to browse. One SD DTivo and one (brand new) HR22-100 worked fine yesterday PM, no tip-offs that there were any problems. I have left both "ON" all the time. The new HR22 was installed on 10/3; it is not networked yet. But it recorded as instructed yesterday and we watched on the other tuner without any odd behavior.

I wonder why I wasn't included in the kill zone for this. Anyone else?


----------



## bwaldron

rw99 said:


> The new HR22 was installed on 10/3; it is not networked yet. But it recorded as instructed yesterday and we watched on the other tuner without any odd behavior.
> 
> I wonder why I wasn't included in the kill zone for this.


Could it have been rebooted by DirecTV without your noticing? If not, you were apparently one of the few lucky ones.


----------



## Doug Brott

Dan1 said:


> I think DTV was actually trying to do a software update that went wrong. After I did a RBR, I held down the INFO button to see if they pushed an update and it didn't work. Then I went through the menus to see the info screen and it doesn't show any software data. It used to show current version, date it was installed, and I believe the previous version.


There was no software update ..


----------



## RobertE

It hasn't been posted in a few pages so:

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/global/contentPageNR.jsp?assetId=P4950006


----------



## DarinC

RobertE said:


> Now lets drop the HR2x bashing in this thread. The problem was on DirecTvs end, not with the HR2x.


As has already been pointed out, there IS an issue with the HR2x... unless you are suggesting that locking up due to bad data is intentional by design. 

By the way, you could have made your point better if you _hadn't_ included examples of TiVo glitches... a collection of missed recordings due to bad guide data (what would you expect ANY dvr to do if the guide data was incorrect?), reboots (though still not anywhere NEAR the number of reports of that issue as with the HR2x), and some season pass issues. NOTHING as severe as this, and there are essentially eight years of "support logs" available at tivocommunity to pull from. Your tivo comparison was more like an example of weekly threads on the HR2x.

You are right, it is time to move on. But nothing you posted takes away from the fact that the HR2x issues tend to be more frequent, and more severe, than what is experienced by most on the TiVos. Heck, at this point, I think the issues are more frequent and severe than today's Dish DVRs. :eek2:


----------



## rw99

From the DirecTV announcement: 


> in certain customer regions DIRECTV will automatically reset your HD DVR or DVR receiver remotely to resolve this issue for you.


Can anyone link me to a descriptive post for which regions are included? I wonder if they reset mine for me.


----------



## Doug Brott

DarinC said:


> You are right, it is time to move on. But nothing you posted takes away from the fact that the HR2x issues tend to be more frequent, and more severe, than what is experienced by most on the TiVos. Heck, at this point, I think the issues are more frequent and severe than today's Dish DVRs. :eek2:


Yesterday notwithstanding (because clearly that was a problem) .. the frequency/severity of reports can somewhat be explained. There are simply many, many more HR2x receivers out there than there ever were DIRECTiVos .. particularly the HD version. Additionally, there are other considerations .. notably the Ka band addition and the requirement to use the Zinwell multiswitch vs. older style multiswitches.

Perception is a powerful tool and one not easily swayed .. The volume of devices alone will make it seem like the problem is bigger even IF the percentage of issues is exactly the same. So, it's a tough argument either way without real data.

If anything, I get a sense there is a decrease in the number of extremely negative postings here (at DBSTalk.com) .. that along with a continued increase in HR2x subscribers. We've not reached perfection yet, but it's getting closer.


----------



## Stanley Kritzik

mightyb said:


> How is the noise? I may go this route as I always feel my box is WAY hotter than it should be


None that I can hear. It's a nifty device.

Stan


----------



## man_rob

While my HR20 did experience the glitch yesterday, I still think it's a solid device. I've had no major problems (_no more major than that of my Tivo, which I still have and use._) in over a year. I'm quite happy with it. The DirecTV DVR records what I want, (_I've been having a heck of a time getting my Tivo to record one particular season pass. I've moved the show to the top of my priority list, and it still won't record the show unless I go through and manually set it up to record_.) and HR20 records quality, virtually glitch free HD video and sound. I'm quite fond of the box.


----------



## RCY

Doug Brott said:


> Yesterday notwithstanding (because clearly that was a problem) .. the frequency/severity of reports can somewhat be explained. There are simply many, many more HR2x receivers out there than there ever were DIRECTiVos .. particularly the HD version. Additionally, there are other considerations .. notably the Ka band addition and the requirement to use the Zinwell multiswitch vs. older style multiswitches.
> 
> Perception is a powerful tool and one not easily swayed .. The volume of devices alone will make it seem like the problem is bigger even IF the percentage of issues is exactly the same. So, it's a tough argument either way without real data.
> 
> If anything, I get a sense there is a decrease in the number of extremely negative postings here (at DBSTalk.com) .. that along with a continued increase in HR2x subscribers. We've not reached perfection yet, but it's getting closer.


What about the black/grey/no recording issue? I've seen many posts on that thread and not much in the way of solutions offered. Any insight on that issue?


----------



## man_rob

RCY said:


> What about the black/grey/no recording issue? I've seen many posts on that thread and not much in the way of solutions offered. Any insight on that issue?


It's probably not an issue for the majority of the users. I've never had a single black/gray, no recording issue, and I've had the box well over a year.


----------



## Syzygy

Doug Brott said:


> ... HR2x receivers ... We've not reached perfection yet, but it's getting closer.


Boy, does that *ever* beg for a response!

_Perfection:_ Far, far away. 
_Progress:_ Hardly even visible -- on the bugs, design goofs and features that really matter. (But hey, it looks like they're making great progress on Widgets and 1080p VOD!)


----------



## Ravens96

mightyb said:


> How is the noise? I may go this route as I always feel my box is WAY hotter than it should be


The noise is negligible. I'm only able to notice any noise if the room is completely quiet and I'm standing directly next to the unit, and even then, it's barely audible.


----------



## bonscott87

ATARI said:


> Yet only HR2x were affected, so whatever...


Yet my H21, non DVR, was also locked up as were other non DVRs out there. Hmmmm....


----------



## bonscott87

njblackberry said:


> Well, with the total lack of information about the cause, people feel free to slam the wrong things!


Hmmmm, official info posted here (it's even on the home page): http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=141667

In which it is said:


> DIRECTV has identified an issue with the transmission and is in the process of correcting it.


Thus, clearly, it's a problem in the data transmission (may not be guide data).

Sure, the receivers didn't handle the error well but it effected more then the HR2x series.

All older receivers were unaffected because it was probably in the part of the extended data that older receivers like the DirecTivo's and Ultimate TVs just ignore as if it wasn't there.


----------



## bonscott87

Wilhite said:


> Just curious - do the DTivo units not receive the same data stream that the HR2x boxes do? If not, do you know what the differences are? More data? Less data?
> 
> I have an HR10-250 that was working just fine that is sitting beside the HR20-700 that locked up. Both are connected to the same dish and multiswitch. I would think that if the data stream is the same to the two, both of them would have had the issue and locked up.


Yes, they (and other legacy receivers like the Ultimate TV) all ignore the extra data bits that are sent to all modern receivers like the H20/21 and HR2x series. Remember about a year ago there was an update to the Ultimate TV (which haven't received one in what, 4 years?) and also an update to the DirecTivos? That was basically so they wouldn't crash on the new data information DirecTV wants to send down (to do things like Channels I Receive). About 2 years ago they turned on this extra data and the DirecTivos all locked up and went bonkers for about 2 weeks and they had to back out of that. They then had to work with Tivo on an update to them so they would ignore/not go bonkers on that new data.

And speaking of when the DirecTivo's all went bonkers, where was the 65 page thread at that time that the DirecTivo's all crashed while the HR20's didn't? Hmmmmmmm..... 

Please, don't get me wrong. This whole thing sucked and DirecTV should get dinged for this. But this time it wasn't a specific HR2x fault (just like the DirecTivo problem a couple years ago wasn't a problem with the DirecTivos).


----------



## rawilson

Doug Brott said:


> We've not reached perfection yet, but it's getting closer.


It might be getting closer, but it will never be closer than a speck on the horizon without DLB.


----------



## Jeremy W

rawilson said:


> It might be getting closer, but it will never be closer than a speck on the horizon without DLB.


:lol: Yeah, right. Maybe to you, but not in reality.


----------



## exieramos

billsharpe said:


> You win the best post of the thread award -- considering we're up to 46 pages, that's quite an accomplishment :joy: :joy:


Thanks for the award Bill! I just thought I'd visually spice up and hopefully lighten the mood of the thread a bit with the animated emoticons and post more of how I experienced the event instead of just-yeah, my HR20-700 was unresponsive and I had to do a hard reboot...blah...blah...blah. The posts I was reading late last night were getting too monotonous and I didn't want to fall asleep yet! :lol:

I've had my HR20-700 for almost 2 years now and sure I've had like maybe 3 or 4 events that required a reboot over that time period, but overall, I love my HR20-700!


----------



## paragoat

Hello, both my HR21-700 and HR21 -100 rebooted at the same time yesterday at approx 4pm PST.

The HR21 had locked up earlier in the day and needed a RBR.

This morning 10-7, the HR-20 was locked up and needed a RBR,

Is this over yet?

Thanks,


----------



## Jeremy W

paragoat said:


> Is this over yet?


It appears to be.


----------



## tbh999

dreadlk said:


> Yikes go through another 2 years Beta testing with a new [DHTivo] receiver, No Thanks.


To each his own. I'm NOT going to bash the HR2x, I do have two of them and have had them for over a year. However, not a week goes by that my wife doesn't complain about how the HR-20's aren't as reliable as the Tivo's.

There are features that I like in the HR-20's like the Caller ID, the picture in picture and the increased speed of the user interface. But, the show stoppers are the lack of dual live buffers (DLB), the 50 show SP limit and the poor recording reliability (I simply think that Tivo have a more robust recording algorithm). One reason that I jumped to the HR-20 is the promise of multi-room viewing (MRV), which apparently is vaporware at best.


----------



## rawilson

Jeremy W said:


> :lol: Yeah, right. Maybe to you, but not in reality.


I see, so you believe the unit is close to "perfection" when the longest running discussion about it (other that it's instability, I guess) is a recurring poll where the majority of responses want the removed functionality back? Wow, if I treated my customers that way, I'd be fired. Of course, I'd never be able to "upgrade" my users to a new version with widely used function removed...and then force them to pay for it for two years or pay a penalty. Exactly what reality are you referring to?

As for my earlier remark, it was my opinion...and MY reality.


----------



## RCY

bonscott87 said:


> Yes, they (and other legacy receivers like the Ultimate TV) all ignore the extra data bits that are sent to all modern receivers like the H20/21 and HR2x series. Remember about a year ago there was an update to the Ultimate TV (which haven't received one in what, 4 years?) and also an update to the DirecTivos? That was basically so they wouldn't crash on the new data information DirecTV wants to send down (to do things like Channels I Receive). About 2 years ago they turned on this extra data and the DirecTivos all locked up and went bonkers for about 2 weeks and they had to back out of that. They then had to work with Tivo on an update to them so they would ignore/not go bonkers on that new data.
> 
> And speaking of when the DirecTivo's all went bonkers, where was the 65 page thread at that time that the DirecTivo's all crashed while the HR20's didn't? Hmmmmmmm.....
> 
> Please, don't get me wrong. This whole thing sucked and DirecTV should get dinged for this. But this time it wasn't a specific HR2x fault (just like the DirecTivo problem a couple years ago wasn't a problem with the DirecTivos).


What problem with the DTivos two years ago? *I* never had one.  (Sorry, I hear that one all the time with respect to the HR2x issues, couldn't resist.)


----------



## Lee L

bonscott87 said:


> Yes, they (and other legacy receivers like the Ultimate TV) all ignore the extra data bits that are sent to all modern receivers like the H20/21 and HR2x series. Remember about a year ago there was an update to the Ultimate TV (which haven't received one in what, 4 years?) and also an update to the DirecTivos? That was basically so they wouldn't crash on the new data information DirecTV wants to send down (to do things like Channels I Receive). About 2 years ago they turned on this extra data and the DirecTivos all locked up and went bonkers for about 2 weeks and they had to back out of that. They then had to work with Tivo on an update to them so they would ignore/not go bonkers on that new data.
> 
> And speaking of when the DirecTivo's all went bonkers, where was the 65 page thread at that time that the DirecTivo's all crashed while the HR20's didn't? Hmmmmmmm.....
> 
> Please, don't get me wrong. This whole thing sucked and DirecTV should get dinged for this. But this time it wasn't a specific HR2x fault (just like the DirecTivo problem a couple years ago wasn't a problem with the DirecTivos).


Well, my recollection was that there was a multi page thread was over at TiVO community. People were definitely upset about it.

Interesting is that the common denominator in all these issues is DirecTV's guide data and an apparent lack of testing the results of changing. To me that is the part that stings the most. How in the heck did they get what they did Monday through any sort of testing? 95% plus of people here reported issues. Sure seems likely that if they tested it, somethign should have popped up.


----------



## rahlquist

Lee L said:


> Interesting is that the common denominator in all these issues is DirecTV's guide data and an apparent lack of testing the results of changing. To me that is the part that stings the most. How in the heck did they get what they did Monday through any sort of testing? 95% plus of people here reported issues. Sure seems likely that if they tested it, somethign should have popped up.


There is the problem, it was bad data by all counts, D* like most companies probably doesn't test DATA. They expect the code to be able to handle it. Evidently much like any technology company they had an unforeseen. It happens, you see the results of that every Tuesday from Microsoft.

Whatever bug let the data crash the boxes is likely under high scrutiny now and there will likely be a code fix to prevent this in a future release.


----------



## paragoat

Jeremy W said:


> It appears to be.


I will continue to post, if they continue to lock up. Thanks


----------



## jjohns

Maybe their freebie quality assurance folks - the HR20 owners who complain about these issues to dbstalk.com, who in turn take it to their secret buddies at DirecTV, whom they are so close to (but not too close) - have decided they are getting tired of this charade.


----------



## Doug Brott

jjohns said:


> Maybe their freebie quality assurance folks - the HR20 owners who complain about these issues to dbstalk.com, who in turn take it to their secret buddies at DirecTV, whom they are so close to (but not too close) - have decided they are getting tired of this charade.


 huh?

Folks do participate here @ DBSTalk.com for free .. but many benefit from the participation, not just DIRECTV. Sure, we couldn't do much yesterday but folks who checked in here were well informed about what was going on.

What charade are you talking about?


----------



## ATARI

bonscott87 said:


> Yet my H21, non DVR, was also locked up as were other non DVRs out there. Hmmmm....


Yet my H20 was not affected and it is not a DVR. Hmmm...


----------



## gcisko

Lee L said:


> Well, my recollection was that there was a multi page thread was over at TiVO community. People were definitely upset about it.
> 
> Interesting is that the common denominator in all these issues is DirecTV's guide data and an apparent lack of testing the results of changing. To me that is the part that stings the most. How in the heck did they get what they did Monday through any sort of testing? 95% plus of people here reported issues. Sure seems likely that if they tested it, somethign should have popped up.


Apparently no one there has heard of ITIL...

http://www.itil.org/en/


----------



## gcisko

Doug Brott said:


> huh?
> 
> Folks do participate here @ DBSTalk.com for free .. but many benefit from the participation, not just DIRECTV. Sure, we couldn't do much yesterday but folks who checked in here were well informed about what was going on.
> 
> What charade are you talking about?


Are you serious? I think we all know what he is talking about. And being informed is one thing. The point is this should have never happened. Should it?


----------



## JeffBowser

The latest useless buzzword (concept) in a loooong line of similar buzzwords (concepts) going back at least 30 years. They come and go, and come and go again, but with different names and different cheerleading faces.



gcisko said:


> Apparently no one there has heard of ITIL...
> 
> http://www.itil.org/en/


----------



## Wilhite

bonscott87 said:


> Yes, they (and other legacy receivers like the Ultimate TV) all ignore the extra data bits that are sent to all modern receivers like the H20/21 and HR2x series.


I'm truly interested and not baiting you.

What are the extra bits used for in the data stream? What functionality is enabled by these extra bits on the H series units that isn't there on the DTivo and UTV receivers? If anything, it seems to me that there is less program info/data on my D* DVR than there is on the DTivo unit.


----------



## rudeney

gcisko said:


> Apparently no one there has heard of ITIL...
> 
> http://www.itil.org/en/


ITIL in and of itself would not have prevented the problem. Remember, ITIL does not dictate how to develop and test IT, only the structure of the organization that does so. I ran a CMM Level 4 operation and we still had the occasional SNAFU. It happens. As long as the organization learns from it and makes appropriate adjustments to prevent such failures in the future, then it has done all it can. Of course this is no consolation to the customer, but at least this was "just television".


----------



## Kimmer

I also had the lock up problem on my two HR-20 yesterday - on one of them it happened again later in the afternoon. Since then I have lost the program guide. I only shows for the channel I am watching. If I change the channel it is correct for the channel I'm on but doesn't show any other information...I've looked quickly but haven't seen this discussed - any ideas?? I have just completed another Red Button Reset but the problem has not gone away.


----------



## lowgolfer

You lost your favorites lists, you need to replace them.


----------



## Kimmer

That sounds too freakin' simple - I'm gonna give it a whirl.

Thanks!!


----------



## gcisko

JeffBowser said:


> The latest useless buzzword (concept) in a loooong line of similar buzzwords (concepts) going back at least 30 years. They come and go, and come and go again, but with different names and different cheerleading faces.


Interestingly I found the following in your signature "*A fool finds no pleasure in understanding but delights in airing his own opinions*." So I will stick with that as my reply to you


----------



## gcisko

rudeney said:


> ITIL in and of itself would not have prevented the problem. Remember, ITIL does not dictate how to develop and test IT, only the structure of the organization that does so. I ran a CMM Level 4 operation and we still had the occasional SNAFU. It happens. As long as the organization learns from it and makes appropriate adjustments to prevent such failures in the future, then it has done all it can. Of course this is no consolation to the customer, but at least this was "just television".


Yes of course. When things get rough it is always good to see someone do "at least this was "just television"". That makes it all OKay.


----------



## David MacLeod

no such thing as just tv. some of us have addictions that must be fed or the demons escape


----------



## Doug Brott

gcisko said:


> Are you serious? I think we all know what he is talking about. And being informed is one thing. The point is this should have never happened. Should it?


Clue me in, then .. what charade?

I never said that it should have happened, nor did offer justification for what happened yesterday. Yesterday was clearly a problem.


----------



## pmayo2002

Most unreliable pieces of GARBAGE. I am certainly glad they are leased. If they were not I would be suing D*. Buggy software, lockups and just plain unreliable hardware. 5 replaced units in the last 2 years (I have 3 HR21 and a H20. Never a problem with the HR 10's..


----------



## kw2957

Wow I had no idea that I wasn't the only one that experienced this. When I went to turn on my HR21-100 yesterday morning, it was completely locked up, but I noticed the recording light was on. I did a RBR but then the unit wouldn't power up. Unplugging it and replugging it did the trick. Anyway, when I went to List after the HD DVR loaded up, I noticed that the program that was recording before I unplugged it, The Passion of the Christ on Showtime, that it recorded 6 hours 22 mins of content. Therefore, the problem occurred sometime between 11pm and 2am on Monday morning, the time the movie was recording (this all happened to me at about 6:30 am BTW).

I see there's 52 pages of discussion and I dare not read all of that...Is there any word on what in the world caused this?!


----------



## gcisko

Doug Brott said:


> Clue me in, then .. what charade?


I would think the charade is that we are essentially free beta testers. Not the first time this was alluded to. Many people are clearly not happy with that and bring it up from time to time. If I am wrong I hope he clears it up.



Doug Brott said:


> I never said that it should have happened, nor did offer justification for what happened yesterday. Yesterday was clearly a problem.


Roger that!


----------



## n3ntj

raott said:


> Same here, HR20-700 was dead when I woke up.
> 
> Pushing "Power" did nothing. Took pushing the red button to get it to wake up.


Exact same problem here with my HR20-700. Glad I noticed it at lunch, or my afternoon programs would have never recorded.


----------



## Stanley Kritzik

pmayo2002 said:


> Most unreliable pieces of GARBAGE. I am certainly glad they are leased. If they were not I would be suing D*. Buggy software, lockups and just plain unreliable hardware. 5 replaced units in the last 2 years (I have 3 HR21 and a H20. Never a problem with the HR 10's..


Well, FWIW, I had five Tivos. All five failed to work with HDMI, a "known" defect. My end result, until the HR21 came along, was to live with component video and stereo audio. So, all in all, I think the HR21 is a big, big step in the right direction. Not perfect, but not a dead-end product, either.

Stan


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

Stanley Kritzik said:


> Well, FWIW, I had five Tivos. All five failed to work with HDMI, a "known" defect. My end result, until the HR21 came along, was to live with component video and stereo audio. So, all in all, I think the HR21 is a big, big step in the right direction. Not perfect, but not a dead-end product, either.
> 
> Stan


Unless your tivo is flawless and your HR2x is garbage, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to post in this thread...  :lol:


----------



## bobbyv

man_rob said:


> It's probably not an issue for the majority of the users. I've never had a single black/gray, no recording issue, and I've had the box well over a year.


Then you are definitely one of the lucky ones.

Hopefully you didn't just jinx yourself.


----------



## Ken S

kw2957 said:


> Wow I had no idea that I wasn't the only one that experienced this. When I went to turn on my HR21-100 yesterday morning, it was completely locked up, but I noticed the recording light was on. I did a RBR but then the unit wouldn't power up. Unplugging it and replugging it did the trick. Anyway, when I went to List after the HD DVR loaded up, I noticed that the program that was recording before I unplugged it, The Passion of the Christ on Showtime, that it recorded 6 hours 22 mins of content. Therefore, the problem occurred sometime between 11pm and 2am on Monday morning, the time the movie was recording (this all happened to me at about 6:30 am BTW).
> 
> I see there's 52 pages of discussion and I dare not read all of that...Is there any word on what in the world caused this?!


Yes, a bad command from above.


----------



## Axl Rhoads

I just got my replacement HD DVR from Directv today. I've been having problems for about 3 weeks now with playback of recordings. Yesterday, like so many others have already discussed, was the worst. I just want things back to normal with Hocky season around the corner, if my recordings get messed up...I'm gonna hurt someone.

Funny thing was when I called DTV and asked what kind of compensation they would offer me for not being able to watch my recordings AND having to do a full-reboot which would wipe everything off, they told me the service I paid for was to RECORD the programs, which technically that was working fine. So just a head up to everyone, that service fee doesnt actually cover WATCHING the programs.


----------



## Doug Brott

Axl Rhoads said:


> I just got my replacement HD DVR from Directv today. I've been having problems for about 3 weeks now with playback of recordings. Yesterday, like so many others have already discussed, was the worst. I just want things back to normal with Hocky season around the corner, if my recordings get messed up...I'm gonna hurt someone.
> 
> Funny thing was when I called DTV and asked what kind of compensation they would offer me for not being able to watch my recordings AND having to do a full-reboot which would wipe everything off, they told me the service I paid for was to RECORD the programs, which technically that was working fine. So just a head up to everyone, that service fee doesnt actually cover WATCHING the programs.


Most people were able to get by yesterday by just doing a simple restart (or Red Button Reset). Hopefully the CSRs weren't asking people to do a "Reset All" which would indeed wipe out your programming.


----------



## psweig

ATARI said:


> Yet my H20 was not affected and it is not a DVR. Hmmm...


My HR20-700 was unaffected also, but it still got the spontaneous reboot at 4 yesterday afternoon.


----------



## Axl Rhoads

Doug Brott said:


> Most people were able to get by yesterday by just doing a simple restart (or Red Button Reset). Hopefully the CSRs weren't asking people to do a "Reset All" which would indeed wipe out your programming.


No, I was referring to issues I was having last week....that what was they told me to do to solve the problem. Of course it didn't, I just wiped out hours of content for nothing. funny thing is, my box worked great for about 3 months....now, its nothing but crap. We'll see how the new box works....and no, I won't be holding my breath.


----------



## bonscott87

Wilhite said:


> I'm truly interested and not baiting you.
> 
> What are the extra bits used for in the data stream? What functionality is enabled by these extra bits on the H series units that isn't there on the DTivo and UTV receivers? If anything, it seems to me that there is less program info/data on my D* DVR than there is on the DTivo unit.


No problem.

The only one that I know of that was talked about here was the Channels I Receive functionality for the guide which doesn't exist on the older units like the DirecTivo. From what I remember in the big discussion a couple years ago with Earl was they turned it on, it broke the DirecTivo's. They had to turn it off. Then they had to have Tivo develop and update so that the DirecTivo's would ignore or at least not choke on the data. And thus over a year of more complaining (rightfully so) that channels I receive still didn't work (yes, it's still not 100%). But they couldn't turn it on without fear of killing the DirecTivos. Also the Ultimate TVs got an update shortly before the DirecTivo's did and on the UTV forums it was speculated that Microsoft provided a similar update to the UTVs for the same thing since there was no new functionality and it was the first update in years. As for Tivo, they did the update and also tossed in some new features along with remote scheduling.

I'm just connecting all the dots that run in a straight line. Sure I could be wrong but...


----------



## Spoffo

I missed most of the fun yesterday and just got in on the tail end when - around 4:30 PM CA time - I found all 3 of my HR-20s re-booting on their own.

Without having read all 52 pages that precede this one, my understanding is that some seriously corrupted guide data got into the system, and the remotely-forced re-boot was the only way to have everyone get the cleaned/corrected guide data in its place.

However, I just discovered a problem with the supposedly fixed guide data: OTA channel 9-1 in San Francisco (the main PBS HD Channel) has completely disappeared from the guide data, meaning that it is neither in the guide nor available in the edit favorites control panel to be added to the guide. i.e. it is impossible to view this OTA station on any of my HR20s. (A very familiar problem that we early adopters of the HR20 ran into frequently when the OTA capability was first activated back in 05 or 06)

Interestingly, all the other OTA sub-channels for 9 are still there. Only the one everyone watches is missing.

And, yes, I checked by plugging my OTA antenna straight into one of my TV sets, and OTA 9-1 is still on the air. and broadcasting just fine.

I'm sure this isn't the only guide error that out there following this fiasco. Hopefully someone here is compiling these and getting them to the right person at DTV so that they can get fixed?


----------



## digger16309

Spoffo said:


> Without having read all 52 pages that precede this one, my understanding is that some seriously corrupted guide data got into the system, and the remotely-forced re-boot was the only way to have everyone get the cleaned/corrected guide data in its place.


Thank you. I just discovered this thread and I'm happy you recapped it at the end so I didn't have to wade through it.


----------



## mreposter

My Directv Tivo worked flawlessly for eight years. The HD-DVR I got in June has been nothing but trouble. Sigh.


----------



## V'ger

My HR20-100 rebooted sometime before 430AM this morning. I put it to sleep at 1230AM, went to bed and woke up four hours later to find my bedroom illuminated in Bright Blue. My HR20-700 did not experience a reboot during the night.

Not sure why this happened if everything was fixed well before then.


----------



## jjohns

Doug Brott said:


> huh?
> 
> Folks do participate here @ DBSTalk.com for free .. but many benefit from the participation, not just DIRECTV. Sure, we couldn't do much yesterday but folks who checked in here were well informed about what was going on.
> 
> What charade are you talking about?


I'm talking about this dance of "DirecTV listens to us and checks in on complaints." And then of course if one is confronted directly, the song included with the dance is,"Oh no, that would be a conflict of interest for anyone to have close ties with DirecTV." Followed by personal attacks on the poster because he dares to criticize this mega-buck corporation that "no one is affiliated with".

How come DirecTV has never publicly even hinted at acknowledging dbstalk forum as being any part of quality assurance testers for its application? Because it would seem - and would be - extremely cheap for a multi-billion dollar company to use free testers.

If DirecTV is listening to or responding to anything here (or anywhere else for that matter), let's use the most complained about issue since day one of these dvr's - "DLB's". How's the action from D* to that issue coming along so far?


----------



## TigersFanJJ

Just received an email from Directv a few minutes ago. Here is a C&P of what is says.



> IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT YOUR HD DVR OR DVR RECEIVER
> 
> In our effort to improve and expand our service, we experienced a temporary technical glitch. If your HD DVR or DVR receiver is not responding to your remote control or front panel commands, you can resolve this issue by pressing the red "Reset" button located inside the small door on the front right corner of your receiver. Please allow about 15 minutes for your receiver to complete the resetting process. Once completed, your picture will return automatically. Unfortunately, any show you may have scheduled to record yesterday will not be available on your DVR.
> 
> We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Our promise is to provide you with the best television experience, and to resolve any issues that might arise as quickly as possible. If you have any further concerns, please do not hesitate in contacting us at 1-800-***-****.


Good to know they are trying to get the word out about the problem.


----------



## Doug Brott

jjohns said:


> I'm talking about this dance of "DirecTV listens to us and checks in on complaints." And then of course if one is confronted directly, the song included with the dance is,"Oh no, that would be a conflict of interest for anyone to have close ties with DirecTV." Followed by personal attacks on the poster because he dares to criticize this mega-buck corporation that "no one is affiliated with".
> 
> How come DirecTV has never publicly even hinted at acknowledging dbstalk forum as being any part of quality assurance testers for its application? Because it would seem - and would be - extremely cheap for a multi-billion dollar company to use free testers.
> 
> If DirecTV is listening to or responding to anything here (or anywhere else for that matter), let's use the most complained about issue since day one of these dvr's - "DLB's". How's the action from D* to that issue coming along so far?


jjohns, you are more than welcome to believe anything you want .. I do have contact with DIRECTV and yesterday passed on information as I received it. That is what this thread is about, after all.

You seem to be ranting at one phrase that has been mentioned by me, and others: "DIRECTV does listen to us (DBSTalk.com)." History speaks for itself on this matter and you've been around long enough to witness it. Feel free to maintain your beliefs while the rest of us continue on our merry way.


----------



## Tenor

I spoke to a DirecTV rep a couple of days ago who specifically mentioned this forum.


----------



## Agrajag

We are so far from "perfection" that it's laughable to use such a term.

I really enjoy my HR20. I prefer it to my old TiVo. However, MUCH could be done with all the units out there before "perfection" even enters into the vocabulary, let alone is the term used to describe the unit.

DLB is one SMALL thing on my list.

Having completely reliable recording is at the top of my list. I don't care who is responsible for guide data, etc. Perfection isn't something that is downgraded to mean just the parts controlled by DirecTV directly.

When I can record The Daily Show without having to set up four manual recordings or HBO shows without having to get 5 copies of the same episode (both due to Series Master listings) then we're moving forward.

When I can record 60 Minutes and it knows it started late because the football game went long then we're getting somewhere.

When I can confidently record any game and have it deal with delays and overtime, etc., without my having to record a bunch of useless extra time to cover then we're moving ahead.

On the other end, having a unit that can turn on as fast as your receiver would be in the realm of that one area being perfection. On that front alone we're 15 minutes from that summit.

There are countless examples like these that need to be addressed before we can even think about "perfection".


----------



## seern

After the 2 RBR I did yesterday because of this whatever glitch, my recordings are starting on time. Like may who have commented, the internal clock in these dvr's is off by a minute or so. Up till now a RBR would get it back on track for a short period of time but by the next day it has drifted off by that 1 - 2 minutes. Well I am still starting on time, and in fact, slightly early. Anyone else notice this?

Can we hope that something good may have come from this?

Also, having looked at that email from D*, all my recordings for yesterday evening were done without a problem.


----------



## dcowboy7

Doug Brott said:


> "DIRECTV does listen to us (DBSTalk.com)."


just not on the "channels i get" option posts. :lol:


----------



## t_h

> In our effort to improve and expand our service


So what was the attempted improvement/expansion that didnt work out?



rudeney said:


> at least this was "just television".


Wow. I should have tried that one out on my wife when she got home last night to find 15 minutes missing out of the middle of Oprah. Maybe she wouldnt have hit me with the frying pan.


----------



## David MacLeod

many companies use public unpaid testing, MS among one of them.
good way to get a large sampling of data.


----------



## dennisj00

I've done a LOT of beta testing over the years -- and I'm still waiting on my first check!! -- for beta testing.


----------



## pjo1966

My HR20-100 was locked up. I did a RBR and everything is gone. I have an external hard drive that was about 50% full, so it was quite a lot of shows. I unplugged it and plugged it back in with the hopes it would find everything. No dice. I am NOT happy.


----------



## Doug Brott

pjo1966 said:


> My HR20-100 was locked up. I did a RBR and everything is gone. I have an external hard drive that was about 50% full, so it was quite a lot of shows. I unplugged it and plugged it back in with the hopes it would find everything. No dice. I am NOT happy.


Did you unplug your HR20, then unplug/replug your external HDD and then replug your HR20?


----------



## digger16309

jjohns said:


> Because it would seem - and would be - extremely cheap for a multi-billion dollar company to use free testers.


Are you kidding? I am not one of them, but I'm thankful they are out there testing updates "in the wild" before said updates are nationally released.

I personally would not want to pay more each month (a lot more) for the magnitude of paid equivalent testing.


----------



## pjo1966

Doug Brott said:


> Did you unplug your HR20, then unplug/replug your external HDD and then replug your HR20?


I unplugged the HR20, unplugged the HDD from the HR20, plugged the HDD back into the HR20, then powered up the HR20. I never powered down the HDD. Should I do that?


----------



## pjo1966

Everything is back. I don't have to sleep on the couch tonight.


----------



## allenn

I had to unplug to reboot both AM21's and HR21-700's on Nov. 6. After the first unplug reboot, everything worked for a while, and then the DVR's became unresponsive to the remote control. I had to unplug and reboot again in the afternoon. 

AT&T's U-verse is looking better every day. I have been a D* customer in the Atlanta area since 1994. This is the worst service and equipment I have owned. It seems to me that D* should have explained what happened. I thought my equipment had gone North, and I was ready to call for two replacements.


----------



## kandor

Doug Brott said:


> "DIRECTV does listen to us (DBSTalk.com)."


Directv listens and answers. But sometimes the answer is "No."


----------



## t_h

bonscott87 said:


> About 2 years ago they turned on this extra data and the DirecTivos all locked up and went bonkers for about 2 weeks and they had to back out of that. They then had to work with Tivo on an update to them so they would ignore/not go bonkers on that new data.


My recollection having had a pair of directivos at this time was different.

I had absolutely no recording problems with the directivo for almost a year and a half of ownership.

Then the box started crashing intermittently and periodically not recording shows.

For two months we experienced this while directv had me do a full reset wiping out my recordings, blamed our power so we bought two expensive UPS's that didnt help, and various other "solutions". I talked to about 25 people, all of whom assured me that directv had changed/done nothing and that it must be my directivos.

All along the way I was assured that getting rid of the directivos and going to HR's would solve all my problems, as the HR was rock solid and after all, tivo controlled the s/w on the directivo and directv couldnt do anything about their poor quality control.

Around the time I was ready to rip my hair out, the info came out that directv had changed to this new data stream about exactly the same time we started having trouble, and they switched it back.

All the problems immediately went away. About a month and a half later we got a tivo s/w update with a couple of new features that was allegedly compatible with the new data stream. The new datastream was then turned back on, and the problems came right back, although not as frequently. The boxes didnt reboot anywhere near as often (every 4-5 weeks instead of 4-5 days), but basically if a show changed its description or time within 24 hours of recording we didnt get that show.

We lived with that for about 5 months and complained endlessly about it to directv, who continued with the urging to change to the HR, which would solve all of our problems.

So we changed, and our experience over the past 6 months has been that the box reboots or requires rebooting about as often as the directivo before the patch and with the new datastream. We lose, dont get because of mysterious errors or get blank recordings at about 2x the rate of the directivo with the new data stream.

So...seems to me that directv ought to weigh the advantages brought to them by this new datastream and perhaps consider how to perform these functions in some other, more reliable manner.


----------



## OldRick

What a bunch of miserably incompetent screw-ups the DTV DVR programmers are. 

NEVER did any of my TiVos lose a previous recording due to a software ****-up. Now all my saved recording ar trash, with no picture. What a bunch of pathetic jackasses.

You people should all be fired!


----------



## Doug Brott

kandor said:


> Directv listens and answers. But sometimes the answer is "No."


Yes, you are correct.


----------



## jdroncho

Yesterday I had a problem with just one of the two HR20-700 that I have. First it was totally unresponsive and I had to unplug it. Then later the screen went blank and I had to do a menu reboot.

Fun thing is it the one that is on the national release that I had the problem with.


----------



## mhayes70

OldRick said:


> What a bunch of miserably incompetent screw-ups the DTV DVR programmers are.
> 
> NEVER did any of my TiVos lose a previous recording due to a software ****-up. Now all my saved recording ar trash, with no picture. What a bunch of pathetic jackasses.
> 
> You people should all be fired!


Why don't you try to get help and figure out what the problem is, instead of going off like that. There are pleanty of people capable and willing to help you here.


----------



## spartanstew

ebeck88 said:


> Woke up this morning and had to reboot my hr-22. Everytime I turn the tv off I have to reboot it when I turn it on again. My step-daughter started complaining to me about me screwing up the satellite in her room, which ultimately led me here as I knew it had to be a bigger problem if both my hr-22's were having problems. I flipped out on her and she ran offt to her dad's. Then my wife got mad at me for flipping out on her daughter, actually threw a big jug of water at me hurting my foot and getting ice water all over the floor which I had to clean up. She is currently in bed crying. Thank you Directv...


I think TV is the least of your problems.


----------



## pjo1966

> IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT YOUR HD DVR OR DVR RECEIVER
> 
> In our effort to improve and expand our service, we experienced a temporary technical glitch. If your HD DVR or DVR receiver is not responding to your remote control or front panel commands, you can resolve this issue by pressing the red "Reset" button located inside the small door on the front right corner of your receiver. Please allow about 15 minutes for your receiver to complete the resetting process. Once completed, your picture will return automatically. Unfortunately, any show you may have scheduled to record yesterday will not be available on your DVR.
> 
> We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Our promise is to provide you with the best television experience, and to resolve any issues that might arise as quickly as possible. If you have any further concerns, please do not hesitate in contacting us at 1-800-347-3288.


..


----------



## allenn

OldRick said:


> What a bunch of miserably incompetent screw-ups the DTV DVR programmers are.
> 
> NEVER did any of my TiVos lose a previous recording due to a software ****-up. Now all my saved recording ar trash, with no picture. What a bunch of pathetic jackasses.
> 
> You people should all be fired!


Great vent! My guess is D*'s programmers are in India. I doubt they had any problems in India. Communication is not one of D*'s or India's strengths.  By the way, I was a programmer for 40 years. My job was to fix the code that was generated in India.


----------



## GP245

IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT YOUR HD DVR OR DVR RECEIVER

In our effort to improve and expand our service, we experienced a temporary technical glitch. If your HD DVR or DVR receiver is not responding to your remote control or front panel commands, you can resolve this issue by pressing the red "Reset" button located inside the small door on the front right corner of your receiver. Please allow about 15 minutes for your receiver to complete the resetting process. Once completed, your picture will return automatically. Unfortunately, any show you may have scheduled to record yesterday will not be available on your DVR. 

We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Our promise is to provide you with the best television experience, and to resolve any issues that might arise as quickly as possible. If you have any further concerns, please do not hesitate in contacting us at 1-800-347-3288. 


This showed up at 10:20 p.m. Eastern Time this evening. 

Absolutely rediculous - more than 24 hours too late!

How uttterly irresponsible!


----------



## loudo

It would be nice to live in a perfect world where nothing ever goes wrong, but unfortunately we don't. Yes, it was aggravating that our DVRs re-booted and it caused a few minor issues, but in today's computerized world we have to expect occasional software glitches. As programmers work on enhancement and improvements, occasionally things like this will happen. With all of the new enhancements that the DirecTV programmers have come up with and are working on, I don't think that one incident like this is that big of an issue.

I am assuming that most of the complainers have never worked in the high tech field, because those of us that have understand that these minor issues do occur from time to time.


----------



## Hotscot

I'm a great believer in some issue always having a scientific explanation and eventually finding out the reason and hopefully a solution.
However I can empathise with users who lose it.
Imagine buying a car, runs perfectly for three months, then for one week it keeps stopping on the highway on your way to work. You're pissed because it's a new car, and your old car ran almost perfectly for 10 years. (But it didn't have an ipod connector, that's why you upgraded.)
You take it to the shop for a check up. They can't find a reason but really recommend changing your oil.
Ok you do that. It runs perfectly for four days then it stops on the highway on the way to catch a flight.
You feel there's something seriously wrong with it but everyone else who has the same model don't have that problem. You take it back to the shop. The check it. They suggest you change the oil. You do that again, and also the filter, and the timing belt.
It runs fine for two weeks. Then one day on the way to a concert it stops on the highway....anyway...you get the idea. A lot of the time it runs fine, but when you really need it, when it's important, it lets you down.
And remember, it was marketed as reliable, dependable and easy to use...that's why you bought it.


----------



## mhayes70

loudo said:


> It would be nice to live in a perfect world where nothing ever goes wrong, but unfortunately we don't. Yes, it was aggravating that our computers re-booted and it caused a few minor issues, but in today's computerized world we have to expect occasional software glitches. As programmers work on enhancement and improvements, occasionally things like this will happen. With all of the new enhancements that the DirecTV programmers have come up with and are working on, I don't think that one incident like this is that big of an issue.
> 
> I am assuming that most of the complainers have never worked in the high tech field, because those of us that have understand that this minor issues do occur from time to time.


I totally agree with your comment loudo.


----------



## Blademan

loudo said:


> It would be nice to live in a perfect world where nothing ever goes wrong, but unfortunately we don't. Yes, it was aggravating that our computers re-booted and it caused a few minor issues, but in today's computerized world we have to expect occasional software glitches. As programmers work on enhancement and improvements, occasionally things like this will happen. With all of the new enhancements that the DirecTV programmers have come up with and are working on, I don't think that one incident like this is that big of an issue.
> 
> I am assuming that most of the complainers have never worked in the high tech field, because those of us that have understand that this minor issues do occur from time to time.


It's called regression testing. Clearly DirecTV needs a refresher course.

Until I stumbled across the Engadet link, I thought the lockups and reboots were something unique to my unit, especially when Setup indicates that I'm running software from 7/23.


----------



## Doug Brott

allenn said:


> Great vent! My guess is D*'s programmers are in India. I doubt they had any problems in India. Communication is not one of D*'s or India's strengths.  By the way, I was a programmer for 40 years. My job was to fix the code that was generated in India.


Look, maybe you've got a problem with India but that is neither here nor there. There are not programmers or CSRs for DIRECTV in India.


----------



## DarinC

rahlquist said:


> Whatever bug let the data crash the boxes is likely under high scrutiny now and there will likely be a code fix to prevent this in a future release.


That's what I'd like to think, but this post much earlier in the thread concerns me:


Athlon646464 said:


> I'm thinking (unless there was a NR of new software), that the problem arrived with the guide data. It's the only thing everybody got last night. *I know that was the issue for many the last time we went through this*.


----------



## Castlebill

I just received an email from Directv describing the problem and suggesting doing a red button reset to fix it - how timely - only 36 hours later.


----------



## fredandbetty

Well i guess i'm in the minority, since i haven't had to reset any of my DVR's... ( looks for the nearest piece of wood to knock on)


----------



## Kansas Zephyr

loudo said:


> It would be nice to live in a perfect world where nothing ever goes wrong, but unfortunately we don't. Yes, it was aggravating that our DVRs re-booted and it caused a few minor issues, but in today's computerized world we have to expect occasional software glitches. As programmers work on enhancement and improvements, occasionally things like this will happen. With all of the new enhancements that the DirecTV programmers have come up with and are working on, I don't think that one incident like this is that big of an issue.
> 
> I am assuming that most of the complainers have never worked in the high tech field, because those of us that have understand that this minor issues do occur from time to time.


+1

But being also a HR10-250 owner, that has had minimal issues comparatively, it's frustrating to keep seeing excuses from D*, when the TiVo product was/is so darn stable.

If this was the first HD-DVR it would be different.

But it isn't.

Please, don't read more into this, than is intended. I like the HR2Xs just fine...and thank goodness they are much better now.


----------



## fredandbetty

Castlebill said:


> I just received an email from Directv describing the problem and suggesting doing a red button reset to fix it - how timely - only 36 hours later.


well i guess i shouldn't say it like this but...

+1 !


----------



## jwd45244

OK, this whole thing was no fun. It is over. Time to move on.


----------



## fredandbetty

Agreed!


----------



## jtudor

fredandbetty said:


> well i guess i shouldn't say it like this but...
> 
> +1 !


Not jumping on a bashing bandwagon, but I totally agree with this statment. D should have sent out something like this yesterday to keep customers updated.

A statement that we are aware of a problem and we are working on it, and a later statement that the problem has been fixed.

Unfortunately I would be willing to bet that lawyers had to get involved out of fear of improper wording causing lawsuits so that alone probably kept the notice from being timely... Always gotta CYA you know.


----------



## mx6bfast

fredandbetty said:


> well i guess i shouldn't say it like this but...
> 
> +1 !


Or more like +37. 

Yeah I got the email too and was surprised to get it so late. I just deleted it.

Way to keep on top of things D*.


----------



## Doug Brott

The e-mail was just another means .. Additional communication is never a bad thing. As it is, if you called in to DIRECTV or visited their web site you would have already seen the information .. heck, if you were here yesterday you would have known as well. 

But it is likely that there are some folks that didn't get the message until the E-mail was sent out. Is that a bad thing?


----------



## Lord Vader

Doug Brott said:


> jjohns, you are more than welcome to believe anything you want .. I do have contact with DIRECTV and yesterday passed on information as I received it. That is what this thread is about, after all.
> 
> You seem to be ranting at one phrase that has been mentioned by me, and others: "DIRECTV does listen to us (DBSTalk.com)." History speaks for itself on this matter and you've been around long enough to witness it. Feel free to maintain your beliefs while the rest of us continue on our merry way.


Doug,

With all due respect, permit me to play Devil's Advocate for a moment. When you or anyone else here has direct, intimate contact w/ DirecTV, does anyone ever politely blast them? Seriously, does anyone ever tell it like it is, explaining that they just can't keep doing things like this? That they've got to get their you-know-what together with their high-end products, especially since said products have been around for over 2 years now?

Could you imagine if GM, Ford, or Chrysler sold cars that 2+ years later were still experiencing problems that often led to their complete or near complete inoperability, while their competitors hummed along with products that experienced very few glitches?

I think the answer to that is obvious.

I've been rather reticent here in my support of DirecTV's products, having been relatively content with their stuff. I haven't pined for the days of the TIVO boxes, but I'll tell you what--any "glitches" I had with TIVO units paled in comparison with what I've experienced with the HR2Xs I have.

Up until now, I hadn't paid much attention to the recent announcement of a new HD TIVO coming out in late 2009. Recent events have changed my mind. I eagerly anticipate the unit, because I wouldn't doubt it will be hands down more reliable than any DirecTV unit has been or will be.


----------



## Marcus S

I had no lock ups or failure with my HR-700 as I pull the power plug after every succesfull upgrade. Since I finally hooked up this DVR to a composite to RF converter I see a message I don't see via component video due to the video re-sync delay after reboot. The last upgrade showed, something like flash success before the starting up message appears. I don't see the this message when I perform a soft reboot but I have seen it twice on hard reboots for the last two upgrades only via composite. Don't blink, it only displays for 2 secs. I would have prefered Landrew help us and guide us. 

I mentioned this once before that I thought D* was using the Apple / Unix BSD upgrade method which includes a BIOS update from time to time until I was told by a moderator, not Doug, that I was out of my mind. But I have not had a lock up or failure to record since I adopted this practice.


----------



## Jeremy W

Marcus S said:


> I mentioned this once before that I thought D* was using the Apple / Unix BSD upgrade method which includes a BIOS update from time to time until I was told by a moderator, not Doug, that I was out of my mind. But I have not had a lock up or failure to record since I adopted this practice.


Just because it says "Flash Success" doesn't mean it's updating the BIOS. All of the software that runs the unit is stored on a flash chip, so every software upgrade does write to flash memory.


----------



## Doug Brott

Lord Vader said:


> Doug,
> 
> With all due respect, permit me to play Devil's Advocate for a moment.


Devil's advocate to what? I think you missed the point of the post I was responding to which was a slam on DBSTalk, not on DIRECTV.



Lord Vader said:


> When you or anyone else here has direct, intimate contact w/ DirecTV, does anyone ever politely blast them? Seriously, does anyone ever tell it like it is, explaining that they just can't keep doing things like this? That they've got to get their you-know-what together with their high-end products, especially since said products have been around for over 2 years now?


I communicate with folks from DIRECTV often .. they are well aware of the issues that are posted here ..


----------



## squawk

Doug Brott said:


> Devil's advocate to what? I think you missed the point of the post I was responding to which was a slam on DBSTalk, not on DIRECTV. . . I communicate with folks from DIRECTV often .. they are well aware of the issues that are posted here ..


Good. In follow-up to Lord Vader's comments, at a minimum, before DirecTV decides to "reset" the thousands of DVR's it controls, which results in a complete shut-down (i.e. crash) of the unit, it would behoove DirecTV to FIRST issue an ADVANCED notice to DVR subscribers so each may be aware of the shut-down & adjust his/her recording schedule accordingly.

I agree with Vader that time & time again, the folks at DirecTV responsible for the design, continual upgrade and management of these DVRs fall far short of reasonable expectations of DirecTV subscribers. The way this "reset" was handled epitomizes my point.


----------



## Ken S

GP245 said:


> IMPORTANT NOTICE ABOUT YOUR HD DVR OR DVR RECEIVER
> 
> In our effort to improve and expand our service, we experienced a temporary technical glitch. If your HD DVR or DVR receiver is not responding to your remote control or front panel commands, you can resolve this issue by pressing the red "Reset" button located inside the small door on the front right corner of your receiver. Please allow about 15 minutes for your receiver to complete the resetting process. Once completed, your picture will return automatically. Unfortunately, any show you may have scheduled to record yesterday will not be available on your DVR.
> 
> We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Our promise is to provide you with the best television experience, and to resolve any issues that might arise as quickly as possible. If you have any further concerns, please do not hesitate in contacting us at 1-800-347-3288.
> 
> This showed up at 10:20 p.m. Eastern Time this evening.
> 
> Absolutely rediculous - more than 24 hours too late!
> 
> How uttterly irresponsible!


I got the same email at 3AM this morning. The really funny/sad part was that it was sent to an email address that I changed with them over two years ago. Went to my account page online and confirmed that my new email address was there. I wonder how much duct tape is being used to hold together DirecTV's systems.


----------



## Ken S

spartanstew said:


> I think TV is the least of your problems.


Gotta go along with you there.


----------



## paulman182

FWIW, the HR20-700 of mine that did not lock up is the one with the most Series Links, the one with the least free space on the drive, and the one that is is use from 9AM-11PM each day.

The one that did lock up is the much lesser used HR20-100.

I have full LOS to all the sats.


----------



## poppo

squawk said:


> Good. In follow-up to Lord Vader's comments, at a minimum, before DirecTV decides to "reset" the thousands of DVR's it controls, which results in a complete shut-down (i.e. crash) of the unit, it would behoove DirecTV to FIRST issue an ADVANCED notice to DVR subscribers so each may be aware of the shut-down & adjust his/her recording schedule accordingly.


 How did the remote reboot crash the units? And how many people would have actually gotten the message in the short time between when the problem was fixed and the reboot was sent? And how would anyone have adjusted their recording schedule anyway? I swear, I've never seen so many people whine about such a trivial thing as TV. How did civilization ever manage to survive before DVRs or TV?


----------



## David MacLeod

poppo said:


> I swear, I've never seen so many people whine about such a trivial thing as TV. How did civilization ever manage to survive before DVRs or TV?


hooch and hookers, no particular order.

when you can't get out of bed due to legs not working that day tv is pretty important though. lets try to not trivialize peoples personal styles.


----------



## compac

What's it worth for 1 day of missed service and inconvenience by D*?

Missed programs, unhappy spouse and kids... ? 
Not what I signed up for.


----------



## mhayes70

Hmmm.......When I had cable or Tivo. I never had outages or problems with my Tivo. Uh, not true. There was times with my cable being out for more than a day and several issues with my Tivo.

With this issue. I could hit the reset button and get my service back and not have to wait all day. Also, I could come here or call Directv and find out immediately what the problem is. I think they did a good job on communication of the problem. You guys need to understand every company has problems for time to time and in this electronic world we live in. We have to deal with these problems when they show up.


----------



## HolyRoses

Mine was locked up Monday. I reset it via the red button after nothing was working. Was fine afterwards.

I received an email Tuesday at 11:44 PM which said to do that also.

-HR


----------



## EricRobins

compac said:


> What's it worth for 1 day of missed service and inconvenience by D*?
> 
> Missed programs, unhappy spouse and kids... ?
> Not what I signed up for.


Yeah. AS IT WAS COMPLETELY the fault of D*, we should get something. Even if its $1; its a matter of principal.


----------



## njblackberry

Such drama 

After Hurricane Ike, which knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of people for up to two weeks, the children had to learn how to survive without the Internet, World of Warcraft, DirecTV, Facebook and Cell phones.

They went to this place called "Outside". And life went on. 

I don't hear any of them screaming about wanting to recoup a dollar here and a dollar there.

It was a screwup. No one got hurt. No one got killed. It was terrible QA and testing, but nothing more. My wife figured out on her own how to reset the DVRs. She didn't even mention it. Life went on. 

All I really want as more transparency from DirecTV on what exactly went wrong.

BTW - we missed zero recordings because of this. Obviously we don't know how to record on our three DVRs and two Tivos. Love those Tivos


----------



## gcisko

squawk said:


> Good. In follow-up to Lord Vader's comments, at a minimum, before DirecTV decides to "reset" the thousands of DVR's it controls, which results in a complete shut-down (i.e. crash) of the unit, it would behoove DirecTV to FIRST issue an ADVANCED notice to DVR subscribers so each may be aware of the shut-down & adjust his/her recording schedule accordingly.


If I were to send out software updates with SMS to the hundreds of windows machines I am responsible for without a prior notice I would be in big trouble. You must notify your users. They must know this and still did not notify prior to anything, so what does that tell us? If you knew nothing about dbstalk, you were totally in the dark.


----------



## gcisko

Ken S said:


> Yes, a bad command from above.


OK here you go... Do we know 100% the command came from above and not via the network connection?


----------



## Stuart Sweet

Yes, 100%. The network connection was not the key factor.


----------



## gcisko

loudo said:


> It would be nice to live in a perfect world where nothing ever goes wrong, but unfortunately we don't. Yes, it was aggravating that our DVRs re-booted and it caused a few minor issues, but in today's computerized world we have to expect occasional software glitches. As programmers work on enhancement and improvements, occasionally things like this will happen. With all of the new enhancements that the DirecTV programmers have come up with and are working on, I don't think that one incident like this is that big of an issue.
> 
> I am assuming that most of the complainers have never worked in the high tech field, because those of us that have understand that these minor issues do occur from time to time.


Well if you think this was handled properly by directv you have no idea how these types of things are professionally done. So congrats on that point! It appears they do not follow any guidelines at all. And that is all the ITIL framework is about. And then ISO20000 is a measure of how well you are following the framework. Obviously that is not happening either. But hey this is just TV right?


----------



## hasan

What is the likelihood that 100% of the tens of thousands of people who reported the issue were networked? Or conversely, the 2.5% of dbstalkers who didn't report it, were not networked. Highly unlikely...

It pretty much had to be a sat delivered issue, not network, just based on probabilities, don't you think?


----------



## gcisko

Stuart Sweet said:


> Yes, 100%. The network connection was not the key factor.


OK great! I needed to see a positive post about this situation


----------



## paulman182

gcisko said:


> OK here you go... Do we know 100% the command came from above and not via the network connection?


I'm certain my lockups were not from a network connection because there is no such thing in my house.


----------



## hasan

Thank you Paul, for confirming my "probability analysis".


----------



## gcisko

hasan said:


> Thank you Paul, for confirming my "probability analysis".


Hasan - Awesome new sig you got going there! YIKES!!!!!


----------



## BK EH

Our Hr21- came back on from the D* reset with no issues.

Our HR20-100 was dead Mon. evening. Pulling the plug got it back, but the guide had nothing from ch 2-70 inc. no locals, and was missing all 300-level stations. Two RBRs and it still stayed the same. Had to pull the plug and then that fixed it.

Also got the email last night, a day late and a dollar short.


----------



## Richierich

I had both of my HR21-700s lock up and I am not NETWORKED so it had to be a software glitch and what ticks me off is that Directv will not admit it other than to say it was a technical glitch.

What kind of technical glitch??? Bad Guide Data download or what???

Can't believe how late they were getting their email response out!!!


----------



## dyker

Is there any summary thread somewhere that explains what we know so far? I scrolled back 3 or 4 pages and it is just a bunch of petty biching and arguing. BTW one of my DVRs is networked one is not both rebooted. Maybe some disgruntled programmer sent down a virus to the DVRs. That's my story until I read about a better reason. Either way stuff happens and for me the last 4 months of D* HR DVRing have been descent (other than the Sony TV HDMI bug that D* will probably never fix even though they fixed it for other TVs).

So anyway, is there any summary of what we know? Otherwise this thread is just a big suck on time.


----------



## Ken S

gcisko said:


> OK here you go... Do we know 100% the command came from above and not via the network connection?


Yes, because I have machines that are not connected to the network or the phone that also experienced the same lockup. Many others have reported not being network connected and have the issue as well.


----------



## TigersFanJJ

paulman182 said:


> I'm certain my lockups were not from a network connection because there is no such thing in my house.


Same here. I've got Wildblue internet so it is kind of pointless to connect it to my network.

For some reason, this thread sounds a lot like Chicken Little to me. "The sky is falling, the sky is falling." (I have a 3yo, :lol: )


----------



## Dan1

Last night, every time I tried to play a recorded program, my HR20-100 locked up, requiring a reboot. I finally called DTV and they said my model was being recalled. They scheduled a tech visit for Friday morning to replace the unit.

Apparently the problem from the other day is still not fully resolved.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

gcisko said:


> If I were to send out software updates with SMS to the hundreds of windows machines I am responsible for without a prior notice I would be in big trouble. You must notify your users. They must know this and still did not notify prior to anything, so what does that tell us? If you knew nothing about dbstalk, you were totally in the dark.


Those comparisions aren't really that close. Millions compared to a few hundred. Most customers would have ignored the message sent to the DVR's just like many end users ignore the emails sent out by IT/Network support dept's when an upgrade and maint is perfromed.


----------



## Stuart Sweet

I can summarize what we know so far, for those who came in late: 

Some sort of issue caused lockups for close to 90% of DVR users on Monday. This was not due to a network connection or any particular setup. It was an issue on the DIRECTV end. 

DIRECTV acted as quickly as possible to solve the problem and that included, for some people, forced reboots initiated from a satellite command. 

Some people have found that they had to pull the plug for 15 minutes to get full function back, but that's rare. For most people a red-button-reset was all it took. 

DIRECTV knows what caused the issue and has addressed it. There is very little chance that you'll need to address it further. 

An e-mail was sent out as a courtesy. We all agree that it could have been sent sooner but it wasn't. It was sent as soon as the issue was completely under control. 

Bottom line, what happened Monday, is Monday's news. Today is Wednesday.

----

Dan1, no model of DVR is being recalled. It's possible your particular DVR had issues that didn't become apparent until the DVR was rebooted, which can happen with hard-drive-based devices.

gcisko, you would not have been in the dark as CSRs knew about the issue before lunchtime on Monday.


----------



## hasan

gcisko said:


> Hasan - Awesome new sig you got going there! YIKES!!!!!


I tried to shorten it, but I failed.


----------



## Richierich

Doug Brott said:


> The e-mail was just another means .. Additional communication is never a bad thing. As it is, if you called in to DIRECTV or visited their web site you would have already seen the information .. heck, if you were here yesterday you would have known as well.
> 
> But it is likely that there are some folks that didn't get the message until the E-mail was sent out. Is that a bad thing?


Yes, it is a BAD THING if you don't know about this Forum and you had problems with your DVR being locked up and you then did a "RESET EVERYTHING" to fix it and had to go thru all of that setup stuff again to then discover that everyone was having this problem and that if you knew that you wouldn't have done a "RESET EVERYTHING" to try and fix the problem.

They should have been more responsive to let us know immediately via email that there was a problem as there are probably far less than 1% of Directv's customers that know about this forum.


----------



## hasan

Dan1 said:


> Last night, every time I tried to play a recorded program, my HR20-100 locked up, requiring a reboot. I finally called DTV and they said my model was being recalled. They scheduled a tech visit for Friday morning to replace the unit.
> 
> Apparently the problem from the other day is still not fully resolved.


My HR20-100 is being recalled? This sounds like something hair-brained that a CSR tossed out. In any case, they could send me an HR22/AM21 combo and I'd be fine with it.

I have had no significant problems with my HR20-100, btw.


----------



## oldschoolecw

I just find this interesting in the very first part of the e-mail


> In our effort to improve and expand our service, we experienced a temporary technical glitch


 it's like trying to decipher the political arena, there is no exact code book.

I read it as maybe we were sending information to your HR20's maybe we weren't


----------



## paulman182

HR20-100 that was locked up wouldn't even come on, so I couldn't "reset everything" even if I had wanted to.

Even if I were not a reader of this forum, the manual and the welcome videos all say to push the red button in case of a lockup.


----------



## Stuart Sweet

richierich said:


> Yes, it is a BAD THING if you don't know about this Forum and you had problems with your DVR being locked up and you then did a "RESET EVERYTHING" to fix it and had to go thru all of that setup stuff again to then discover that everyone was having this problem and that if you knew that you wouldn't have done a "RESET EVERYTHING" to try and fix the problem.
> 
> They should have been more responsive to let us know immediately via email that there was a problem as there are probably far less than 1% of Directv's customers that know about this forum.


Agreed, but how many "average users" even know about "Reset Everything?" Since most people's problems were cured with a simple red-button-reset, why would someone poke around in menus looking for that command?


----------



## mx6bfast

oldschoolecw said:


> I just find this interesting in the very first part of the e-mail it's like trying to decipher the political arena, there is no exact code book.
> 
> I read it as maybe we were sending information to your HR20's maybe we weren't


Like I mentioned earlier nice marketing spin on it. That sentence made a joke of the entire "explanation"

How is improving my D* experience helping by them locking up my receivers?


----------



## Richierich

Stuart, he said the Red Reset button would not work as mine did not work on my HR20-700 but did on my HR21-700 so I had to pull the plug to reset it.


----------



## rakstr

Guys, I'm a bit more focused on all my money evaporating in my savings  It's only TV!!!!


----------



## Ken S

Stuart Sweet said:


> Agreed, but how many "average users" even know about "Reset Everything?" Since most people's problems were cured with a simple red-button-reset, why would someone poke around in menus looking for that command?


Stuart,

A friend told me they called DirecTV on Monday and the CSR had them do a complete reformat from the front panel. They may call that a "reset everything".


----------



## David MacLeod

Ken S said:


> Stuart,
> 
> A friend told me they called DirecTV on Monday and the CSR had them do a complete reformat from the front panel.


does anyone know if these reports were before or after they (D* csr's) had realized the scope of the problem?


----------



## MX727

poppo said:


> I swear, I've never seen so many people whine about such a trivial thing as TV. How did civilization ever manage to survive before DVRs or TV?


Well, simply put, this is a website and forum that specifically exist to report on, discuss and explore TV related equipment. Of course there are going to be posts here from individuals that are upset with Monday's event.

If there was a problem with their Ford Truck, people would go to TheDieselStop and complain about that there. You aren't going to hear about those type problems here and vice versa.

The fact that they spend 30 seconds posting their frustration here doesn't mean that they are sitting around the entire day wringing their hands over it. Remember too that if they have a problem, 100% of the subset of users that is most important to them has that problem.

They are paying approximately $100 every month for a service that they don't feel is as reliable as it should be. So, for that $100, they get to "whine" when things don't function as they should.

I've never understood the subset of users that defend a company when others are reporting issues. This seems to particularly manifest itself when it comes to electronics. The "fanboys", be it Apple, Microsoft or D*, seem to go out of their way to try to convince others that their problems and frustrations aren't valid.

I believe this is rooted in an individual's need to validate the choices that he has made. Many get vehemently defensive of companies which they have chosen to do business with. There is ample evidence of this type behavior in this thread and other issue and wish list type threads that are scattered about this site.

So, for those that are upset; rant on, get mad as hell, and don't take it anymore. Keeping things bottled up isn't good for you.


----------



## Ken S

rakstr said:


> Guys, I'm a bit more focused on all my money evaporating in my savings  It's only TV!!!!


I think many people are concerned...but this wouldn't be the proper place to focus on that (as this forum is called dbstalk) AND TV may be their only outlet for enjoyment or venue for information during these difficult times.


----------



## Richierich

That's what this guy did after his Red Reset Button wouldn't reset the DVR he called Directv and a CSR told him then he would need to "Reset Everything" to clear everything up and then he found out about the problem and was Ticked Off. This was after the problem had happened so if the technical department would have told the CSRs and sent out an email it would have been a much better situation for the consumer.

If he had received the email earlier then he wouldn't have called Directv but waited for them to fix the problem.


----------



## gcisko

Stuart Sweet said:


> Agreed, but how many "average users" even know about "Reset Everything?" Since most people's problems were cured with a simple red-button-reset, why would someone poke around in menus looking for that command?


No reason the directv home page could not have been updated when CSR started being informed about it. Eventually it was. When the horse left the barn.


----------



## pablo

This is a very long thread, so I'll just ask: Anyone else have their DVR lock up during a recording? When I reset mine and was able to turn it back on, I ended up with a nearly 18-hour HD recording, which wiped out several of my older saved programs. Very unfortunate.


----------



## Doug Brott

gcisko said:


> If I were to send out software updates with SMS to the hundreds of windows machines I am responsible for without a prior notice I would be in big trouble. You must notify your users. They must know this and still did not notify prior to anything, so what does that tell us? If you knew nothing about dbstalk, you were totally in the dark.


Do you support millions of users? What if that SMS update was to install a patch for the Pink Slip Virus .. causing complete loss of HDD .. and it required a reboot to be effective .. and it's fast moving. Do you wait so you tell people what you are doing or do you just do it and then send a message out after the fact?

Reactive mode is a much different beast than proactive mode and this past Monday is a prime example. I'm just happy that DIRECTV is in proactive mode most of the time.


----------



## Doug Brott

richierich said:


> I had both of my HR21-700s lock up and I am not NETWORKED so it had to be a software glitch and what ticks me off is that Directv will not admit it other than to say it was a technical glitch.


Sounds like an admission to me .. :shrug:


----------



## Doug Brott

richierich said:


> Yes, it is a BAD THING if you don't know about this Forum and you had problems with your DVR being locked up and you then did a "RESET EVERYTHING" to fix it and had to go thru all of that setup stuff again to then discover that everyone was having this problem and that if you knew that you wouldn't have done a "RESET EVERYTHING" to try and fix the problem.
> 
> They should have been more responsive to let us know immediately via email that there was a problem as there are probably far less than 1% of Directv's customers that know about this forum.


I'm sure it was all hands on deck and the folks that would normally send out the e-mails were probably answering phone calls that day. Anyone could have called DIRECTV or checked the DIRECTV.com web page to find out that there was a bigger problem. There is no need for someone to know about this forum to have been informed.


----------



## squawk

poppo said:


> How did the remote reboot crash the units? And how many people would have actually gotten the message in the short time between when the problem was fixed and the reboot was sent?


Poppo:

I don't know what the correct term would be to describe the state of the DVR the other morning. After my wife telling me the satellite was down, I went downstairs to discover the unit was unresponsive and needed to boot. That simple.

It's happened before, and I accepted the event as just another glitch with the HR series. I came here & confirmed that my unit was not alone, and concluded that DirecTV must be doing some "cleanup." No problem. But then the system went into reboot mode right in front of me later that evening. I called DirecTV, spoke to a rep, who told me of the problem with some remotes. As I asked more of the problem, since I had not experienced any problem with my remote, the phone connection broke, likely a supervisor listening in, hanging up. Again, not a big deal.

The point of my comments are two fold.

First, if there's a problem of advanced notice. Correct me if I'm wrong, but in it's "dead" state, the DVR will not record programs it is scheduled to record. If I'm wrong, please enlighten me. But it is my present belief that but for my rebooting, and being aware the receiver was in "dead" mode, none of my scheduled recording would have record. If, in-fact, DirecTV knew it was going send some instructions to the DVR that had a likelihood of causing the DVR to "hang," remain in "dead" mode, or "crash," (the term is really not relevant; the state of the DVR I found it in the other morning is), it would AT LEAST give DVR ADVANCED notice of this event, so adjustment could be made.



poppo said:


> :And how would anyone have adjusted their recording schedule anyway?


How? By programming to record a program at another scheduled airtime. Most of the programs I record have multiple airtimes. Your assumption that the customer could not have prepared for the "crash" is not entirely correct.

The second point is these continual problems with these machines, which I need not go into. The record of these machines speak for themselves. The bottom line, subs have grown increasingly frustrated with these machines.



poppo said:


> I swear, I've never seen so many people whine about such a trivial thing as TV. How did civilization ever manage to survive before DVRs or TV?


In response to your closing comments, it is that attitude that only irritates DirecTV customers as well as others here who come here to express their sentiments, to which hopefully DirecTV will take heart. Yeah, I agree with you, it's only TV. But this is a DBS forum, & this particular forum is about the HR DVR Series. So, if you wanna take that attitude, then why does this forum exist? If you attend a baseball game & the crowd goes wild after a stunning last inning comeback, why go wild? It's only baseball.

Bottom line, if you represent DirecTV take heart to the comments here. LEARN from them. Don't dis' them. If you choose latter, it's a poor reflection upon DirecTV or those who support the purpose of this forum. It is indisputable that the HR DVR has had a lotta problems, which many thought would slowly disappear over time. But problems have persisted for almost two years.


----------



## Doug Brott

richierich said:


> That's what this guy did after his Red Reset Button wouldn't reset the DVR he called Directv and a CSR told him then he would need to "Reset Everything" to clear everything up and then he found out about the problem and was Ticked Off. This was after the problem had happened so if the technical department would have told the CSRs and sent out an email it would have been a much better situation for the consumer.
> 
> If he had received the email earlier then he wouldn't have called Directv but waited for them to fix the problem.


Well this is unfortunate .. But clearly if the CSRs had not yet been informed, then it's very likely that DIRECTV wasn't fully aware that they even needed to send an E-mail out yet. What time did your friend call in to DIRECTV on Monday morning?


----------



## jjohns

Doug Brott said:


> Do you support millions of users? What if that SMS update was to install a patch for the Pink Slip Virus .. causing complete loss of HDD .. and it required a reboot to be effective .. and it's fast moving. Do you wait so you tell people what you are doing or do you just do it and then send a message out after the fact?
> 
> Reactive mode is a much different beast than proactive mode and this past Monday is a prime example. I'm just happy that DIRECTV is in proactive mode most of the time.


"I'm just happy that DIRECTV is in proactive mode most of the time."

Wow. 
That one's just a classic. A classic!


----------



## Spanky_Partain

Hick-up, see even Humans do it.

No big deal, it was just a reboot and slight improvement.

EDIT
Hummm.... supporting millions, sure would hate for all of them to call at once.


----------



## 50+

All of my receivers are up and running great again. When I checked here this morning I got a welcome suprise my HD locals were on. Im happy as I can be. 
I know the glitch was frustrating but I think D* did a good job of getting us back on line, and all the disscussion here kept me informed. Thanks


----------



## Athlon646464

pablo said:


> This is a very long thread, so I'll just ask: Anyone else have their DVR lock up during a recording? When I reset mine and was able to turn it back on, I ended up with a nearly 18-hour HD recording, which wiped out several of my older saved programs. Very unfortunate.


Sometimes when a DVR locks up and it is recording at the time, it continues to record that channel until the hard drive is full. It's unfortunate that you had a recording going on at the time.

To guard against that, my wife has 'keep' checked on her most favorite soap, so it cannot be recorded over should that happen here......

:nono:


----------



## say-what

squawk said:


> The second point is these continual problems with these machines, which I need not go into. The record of these machines speak for themselves. The bottom line, subs have grown increasingly frustrated with these machines....
> 
> .....It is indisputable that the HR DVR has had a lotta problems, which many thought would slowly disappear over time. But problems have persisted for almost two years.


Hate to burst your bubble on this, but you're looking at complaints posted in a forum designed to help people troubleshoot their problems and extrapolating this to the entire population of HR2x users. The complaints are not necessarily representative of the collective HR2x experience - remember, people without problems don't tend to post that all is fine in their HR2x world.

I'm not saying people aren't having problems, just that the characterization of the HR2x line as plagued with problems in inaccurate. I have 4 HR2x's that I acquired over the past 2 years and they haven't been plagued with problems. Aside from 2 bothched recordings on my original HR20, the last of which was back in January 2007, my HR2x's have performed as expected.

What happened this week was an unfortunate glitch caused by bad guide data - it can happen, it happened to the DirecTIVO's 2 years ago.


----------



## BruceS

The only problem with my HR20-700 and HR21-100 was that the light rings on both boxes showed that they were on the morning of the 7th.

Since I normally use a Harmony 890 remote, which is set to power off all of my equipment when I stop watching, I new this was not normal.

First I tried to poweroff both boxes using the directv remote, which did not work.

Then I tried to power them both off with the Harmony, which worked.

Neither box has been rebooted and both have recorded programs since that time, which I have viewed with no problems.


----------



## rahchgo

I didn't even notice that my HR20 rebooted, until I saw this thread last night. My only indication is the blue ring is bright, and I always dim it after a reboot. I don't know if my HR20 locked up. I just know that sometime since Saturday night it did a reboot. 

My HR10-250 has locked up three or four times this year. What's the big deal?  It's a computer. Anybody have a computer that they have never locked up?


----------



## billsharpe

My e-mail from DirecTV arrived at 6:54 pm PDT, about 36 hours after the problem occurred. The suggested "red button reset" didn't work for me, but I was aware of the pulling the plug option, which did work. And I also knew to visit this forum for help.

I'd still be interested in knowing exactly what the "temporary technical glitch" was and also what DirecTV meant by "In our effort to improve and expand your service." Just what were they trying to do to accomplish this goal? And shouldn't they have tested this effort on a very small sample of subscribers first?


----------



## poppo

MX727 said:


> Of course there are going to be posts here from individuals that are upset with Monday's event.


There is a difference between being upset and over-reacting.



MX727 said:


> If there was a problem with their Ford Truck, people would go to TheDieselStop and complain about that there. You aren't going to hear about those type problems here and vice versa.


It depends what the problem is. If all they had to do was turn the truck off and back on, I think the ranting would be just as unwarranted.



MX727 said:


> The fact that they spend 30 seconds posting their frustration here doesn't mean that they are sitting around the entire day wringing their hands over it.


Could have fooled me. Several have said they were going to dump DirecTV because of it.



MX727 said:


> I've never understood the subset of users that defend a company when others are reporting issues. This seems to particularly manifest itself when it comes to electronics. The "fanboys", be it Apple, Microsoft or D*, seem to go out of their way to try to convince others that their problems and frustrations aren't valid.


I'm not defending anyone. I'm just saying quite a few people blew it out of proportion. It's frickin TV. Someone else posted about the hurricane victims being without power, homes etc. The way some here reacted, you would think they lost everything.



MX727 said:


> So, for those that are upset; rant on, get mad as hell, and don't take it anymore. Keeping things bottled up isn't good for you.


And whining and ranting over petty things is not good either.


----------



## RichardS

Something similar happened many years ago before the days of DVR's. A simple unplugging of the receiver from the wall outlet for five minutes and replugging it solved the problem. 

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, and I respect them. However, are we beating a dead horse here? If this problem occurs again, then I would be concerned.


----------



## oldschoolecw

billsharpe said:


> My e-mail from DirecTV arrived at 6:54 pm PDT, about 36 hours after the problem occurred. The suggested "red button reset" didn't work for me, but I was aware of the pulling the plug option, which did work. And I also knew to visit this forum for help.
> 
> I'd still be interested in knowing exactly what the "temporary technical glitch" was and also what DirecTV meant by "In our effort to improve and expand your service." Just what were they trying to do to accomplish this goal? And shouldn't they have tested this effort on a very small sample of subscribers first?


+1
I want answers as well; I pay over $130.00 a month on DirecTV for my entertainment and should receive a reasonable answer to what caused this issue. Not a cryptic e-mail 2 days later


----------



## dettxw

Stuart Sweet said:


> Some people have found that they had to pull the plug for 15 minutes to get full function back, but that's rare. For most people a red-button-reset was all it took.
> 
> DIRECTV knows what caused the issue and has addressed it. There is very little chance that you'll need to address it further.


Came home from work Tuesday and the Living Room HR20-700 was locked up again. 
This time only a RBR was required to get it back, no plug-pulling required as on Monday.
The Bedroom HR20-700 was OK, but it only required a RBR on Monday so that's a difference. The unit that had to have the plug pulled on Monday locked up a second time.


----------



## poppo

oldschoolecw said:


> +1
> I want answers as well; I pay over $130.00 a month on DirecTV for my entertainment and should receive a reasonable answer to what caused this issue. Not a cryptic e-mail 2 days later


They gave a reasonable answer. When a station goes off the air and they put up the 'Sorry we are experiencing technical difficulties' message, do you ever see them put up a reason why afterward? Of course not.

Who really cares what caused the problem? I don't. Knowing what it was won't make me sleep any better or worse. Knowing what it was won't allow me to prevent it in the future either, so it's a worthless piece of info. IMO


----------



## Doug Brott

oldschoolecw said:


> +1
> I want answers as well; I pay over $130.00 a month on DirecTV for my entertainment and should receive a reasonable answer to what caused this issue. Not a cryptic e-mail 2 days later


There was a technical glitch and a lot of receivers locked up .. DIRECTV identified the problem and corrected it. This is the most detail that we have received .. This is a reasonable answer.


----------



## Richierich

billsharpe said:


> My e-mail from DirecTV arrived at 6:54 pm PDT, about 36 hours after the problem occurred. The suggested "red button reset" didn't work for me, but I was aware of the pulling the plug option, which did work. And I also knew to visit this forum for help.
> 
> I'd still be interested in knowing exactly what the "temporary technical glitch" was and also what DirecTV meant by "In our effort to improve and expand your service." Just what were they trying to do to accomplish this goal? And shouldn't they have tested this effort on a very small sample of subscribers first?


"In our effort to improve and expand your service" simply means that we coded some improvements for you (didn't fully test it for all conditions) and when we released it, it caused major problems that we didn't anticipate so we will call the "bad software that was not fully or adequately tested" a technical glitch.

End of story!!!

Sorry that it took 36 hours for us to adequately formulate an email response that sounded plausible but didn't directly point a finger at our incompetence when it comes to software coding and testing.

Have a Nice Day!!!


----------



## Carl Spock

oldschoolecw said:


> +1
> I want answers as well; I pay over $130.00 a month on DirecTV for my entertainment and should receive a reasonable answer to what caused this issue. Not a cryptic e-mail 2 days later


At least you didn't use the word "demand".


----------



## oldschoolecw

poppo said:


> They gave a reasonable answer. When a station goes off the air and they put up the 'Sorry we are experiencing technical difficulties' message, do you ever see them put up a reason why afterward? Of course not.
> 
> Who really cares what caused the problem? I don't. Knowing what it was won't make me sleep any better or worse. Knowing what it was won't allow me to prevent it in the future either, so it's a worthless piece of info. IMO





Doug Brott said:


> There was a technical glitch and a lot of receivers locked up .. DIRECTV identified the problem and corrected it. This is the most detail that we have received .. This is a reasonable answer.


I guess I'm just grumpy because I'm on my third HR20-700 in less then 22 months. Had multiple black recordings in August and the RBR did not Fix them then, DirecTV keeps telling me there getting closer to fixing all that is rotten about these units. I have been one of the unlucky users of said unit and just vented in the wrong way.


----------



## oldschoolecw

Carl Spock said:


> At least you didn't use the word "demand".


:nono2:


----------



## Syzygy

say-what said:


> Hate to burst your bubble on this, but you're looking at complaints posted in a forum designed to help people troubleshoot their problems and extrapolating this to the entire population of HR2x users. The complaints are not necessarily representative of the collective HR2x experience - remember, people without problems don't tend to post that all is fine in their HR2x world.
> 
> I'm not saying people aren't having problems, just that the characterization of the HR2x line as plagued with problems in inaccurate. I have 4 HR2x's that I acquired over the past 2 years and they haven't been plagued with problems. Aside from 2 bothched recordings on my original HR20, the last of which was back in January 2007, my HR2x's have performed as expected...


Typical case of diminished expectations.

*say-what *seems to be assuming that no complaints exist unless they're posted in a forum like this one. Obviously, many D* subscribers are complaining directly to D* and to their friends, neighbors and co-workers rather than posting in DBSTalk or AVSForum. Some of them, not finding anyone willing to listen to their complaints, merely steam in silence. Just think how the membership of this forum would expand if everyone who was unhappy with D* had a web-enabled computer *and *came here to vent!



Doug Brott said:


> There was a technical glitch and a lot of receivers locked up .. DIRECTV identified the problem and corrected it. This is the most detail that we have received .. *This is a reasonable answer.*


That's so outlandish a statement that I'm left (almost) speechless.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

What kind of answer do you want. Does Microsoft for example give you a straight answer when your PC gets a BSOD. Stuff happens..... sometimes there isn't s simple answer or explanation to a technical issue. Or maybe it has to do with proprietary info. Who knows..... but the sun still does rise every morning.


----------



## David MacLeod

if ever a thread needed to be locked.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

You mean thread.


----------



## David MacLeod

HDTVsportsfan said:


> You mean thread.


yup, I'll edit that right now


----------



## armophob

Doug Brott said:


> There was a technical glitch and a lot of receivers locked up .. DIRECTV identified the problem and corrected it. This is the most detail that we have received .. This is a reasonable answer.


I work around electronics and computer equipment all day.
Glitch is more than acceptable as an answer.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Ain't that the truth. After awhile you learn to accept certain "glitches" and not lose any sleep in the IT. It obviously just depends on what the issue is. And this speed bump that happened Monday morning is certainly not worth losing sleep over.


----------



## Richierich

Glitch is a term for something that happened that caused problems and should have been discovered by comprehensive testing.

Anyway, at least I didn't do a "Reset Everything" and as soon as I found out that my second DVR was locking up I knew it had to be bad software causing the problem.

Can't wait for the NEW MPEG-4 DIRECTIVO BOX to come out so I can field test it like I've been doing with my HR21-700s!!! LOL!!!


----------



## houskamp

Would an answer of "we put a C8 instead of a C9 in line number 522,654,741,235 of the code" be any better?


----------



## David MacLeod

maybe this was a test by Earl to see how quickly the forum could, and did, ramp up to an "emergency" issue.. jeez, I can't keep a straight face..


----------



## Richierich

BETTER is spelled BETTER not BETER!!! And yes that would have been sufficient!!! 

Or some new Software that we had implemented developed an ANOMALY when Bad Guide Data was introduced and it didn't know how to handle it!!!

Great going Earl on the TEST!!! How did we do???


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

And that would make it BETER how, knowing this.


----------



## houskamp

HDTVsportsfan said:


> And that would make it BETER how knowing this.


Learned from the best typo person


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

houskamp said:


> Learned from the best typo person


*slap* the cat.


----------



## Ken S

HDTVsportsfan said:


> What kind of answer do you want. Does Microsoft for example give you a straight answer when your PC gets a BSOD. Stuff happens..... sometimes there isn't s simple answer or explanation to a technical issue. Or maybe it has to do with proprietary info. Who knows..... but the sun still does rise every morning.


Yes, actually Microsoft makes an attempt to give you information on errors. They have error logs, memory dumps, dr watson, online knowledgebases and forums among other resources. Vista even goes further along these lines. I don't think a DVR and Microsoft OS are comparable, but if you're going to do it...at least be accurate.


----------



## Syzygy

armophob said:


> I work around electronics and computer equipment all day. Glitch is more than acceptable as an answer.


It's not a complete answer, though. There's been speculation that the glitch was caused by D* adding a slew of new PPV channels. Others say that it was bad TMS data (perhaps modified by D*) that brought the receivers down. D* knows all but tells only some. As little as possible.

That's not a "reasonable answer."


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Ken S said:


> Yes, actually Microsoft makes an attempt to give you information on errors. They have error logs, memory dumps, dr watson, online knowledgebases and forums among other resources. Vista even goes further along these lines. I don't think a DVR and Microsoft OS are comparable, but if you're going to do it...at least be accurate.


MS can give very cryptic information in many cases. Sometimes there is no laymans answer. But a blue screen of death with a hex dump and the code that goes with it can be very useless in many cases. For others...yes event viewer and other resources are a big help. The point is....there isn't or won't always be an answer.


----------



## mhayes70

houskamp said:


> Learned from the best typo person


!rolling


----------



## Ken S

Okay, so if you're DirecTV how do you stop this from happening again?


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Syzygy said:


> It's not a complete answer, though. There's been speculation that the glitch was caused by D* adding a slew of new PPV channels. Others say that it was bad TMS data (perhaps modified by D*) that brought the receivers down. D* knows all but tells only some. As little as possible.
> 
> That's not a "reasonable answer."


But that's just it....why does there have to be answer. So many are hung up on the fact "there isn't an answer" or one that has been provided to us. It would be nice to know......but I just don't understand the obsession of having to know the 'exact" reason. Maybe after 15 years of being in IT I have just come to realize I won't know evey cause of every error that occurs.


----------



## mhayes70

Syzygy said:


> It's not a complete answer, though. There's been speculation that the glitch was caused by D* adding a slew of new PPV channels. Others say that it was bad TMS data (perhaps modified by D*) that brought the receivers down. D* knows all but tells only some. As little as possible.


 Caused by them adding a slew of PPV. That got a chuckle out of me. I doubt that is the reason.



syzygy said:


> That's not a "reasonable answer."


I think it is a reasonable answer.


----------



## Lord Vader

Ken S said:


> Okay, so if you're DirecTV how do you stop this from happening again?


Tell a customer to use a DISH DVR.


----------



## Greg Alsobrook

I've said it before and I'll say it again... The majority of people probably wouldn't even understand the explanation if given... Smoke's anaology is a perfect one... So in that case, would DirecTV then be obligated to sit you down and explain to you how satellites work??


----------



## Richierich

houskamp said:


> Would an answer of "we put a C8 instead of a C9 in line number 522,654,741,235 of the code" be any better?


When you put a "C8" instead of a "C9" in that line number and compile the program and test it you discover the "BUG" and that is why you TEST!!!

Oh well, we will never know but the programmer or programmers are now looking for NEW Employment in a recession!!! That'll teach 'em!!!

Now where were we before my TWO DVRs LOCKED UP!!!


----------



## Stuart Sweet

I'm not quite sure how adding PPV channels would cause this issue. That being said, folks this is not an impeachment trial, it's not a war crimes tribunal. I don't think we need to send the angry peasants with torches to El Segundo here.*

I'd love to be able to say, "Yeah, this is a glitch where all the encoders were accidentally changed to MPEG-12"* (which BTW is a totally madeup thing)* but the real, salient facts here remain:


The problem existed on Monday. 
It was resolved on Monday. 
It is now Wednesday. 
The people who solved the problem knew how to solve the problem.

*Movie quote for y'all: "A riot... is an ugly thing, and... once you get one started, there is very little chance of stopping it, short... of... bloodshed."


----------



## mhayes70

Lord Vader said:


> Tell a customer to use a DISH DVR.


Dish has issues also. I have friends that hate them also.


----------



## David MacLeod

for all we know, and this is ONLY supposition, there could be some proprietary info involved with releasing the exact reason.
plain and simple, they are under no obligation to tell us what they did to the equipment THEY own.
I'd like to know, I'll never be told, thats it in a nutshell.


----------



## njblackberry

Would it be too much to expect something like "A change was made to the format of the Guide Data, and this caused instability in some DirecTV HD DVRs. The change was not tested properly and has been backed out." It was guide data, right?

I don't think that is too much to ask. Rather than just "that's old news, move on." I think that's a cop out.


----------



## Ken S

Stuart Sweet said:


> "Yeah, this is a glitch where all the encoders were accidentally changed to MPEG-12"


Thanks Stuart! I have forwarded your explanation of the issue to the press and FCC. The congressional hearings on the matter start next Tuesday...do you have a nice suit?


----------



## Ken S

David MacLeod said:


> for all we know, and this is ONLY supposition, there could be some proprietary info involved with releasing the exact reason.
> plain and simple, they are under no obligation to tell us what they did to the equipment THEY own.
> I'd like to know, I'll never be told, thats it in a nutshell.


What about what they did to the equipment they don't own?


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

But again, why do we have to know? And no company isgoing to admit to "not tested properly and has been backed out". :nono2:


----------



## Ken S

Ken S said:


> Okay, so if you're DirecTV how do you stop this from happening again?


To reply to my own post...While it may be interesting to some of us to understand what went wrong. I would much rather see something from DirecTV stating how they have made changes to prevent problems like this from happening again.


----------



## Richierich

Well, with all my venting here I would just like to say Thanks to Chris & Doug & Earl for this forum where we can get info and share info & opinions indirectly with Directv in trying to get us a better product for us to view our High Def Programs with.

Ain't nothing perfect nowadays!!! Now where was I ..........


----------



## David MacLeod

Ken S said:


> What about what they did to the equipment they don't own?


you're screwed. unfortunate but true.


----------



## mx6bfast

njblackberry said:


> Would it be too much to expect something like "A change was made to the format of the Guide Data, and this caused instability in some DirecTV HD DVRs. The change was not tested properly and has been backed out." It was guide data, right?
> 
> I don't think that is too much to ask.  Rather than just "that's old news, move on." I think that's a cop out.


I don't think so. Has anyone gone and counted how many spam ads are in the guide today?


----------



## Ken S

David MacLeod said:


> you're screwed. unfortunate but true.


Well, there is always that theory


----------



## David MacLeod

Ken S said:


> Well, there is always that theory


lol, it sounded good at least


----------



## armophob

Sunspots, it was sunspots, magnetic rays disrupted the signal and corrupted the data. Directv has now installed a shield to protect us from these. They just thought glitch would be easier to stomach.


----------



## Richierich

Ah, So it was SUNSPOTS after all!!! That is what I thought it was but I just didn't want to tell yall because you can't handle the truth and you would PANIC so I just used the word GLITCH!!!

In fact a GLITCH caused the Wall Street collapse and it can be corrected maybe if we just shell out 700 Billion Dollars to fix the GLITCH!!! LOL!!!


----------



## oldschoolecw

David MacLeod said:


> for all we know, and this is ONLY supposition, there could be some proprietary info involved with releasing the exact reason.
> plain and simple, they are under no obligation to tell us what they did to the equipment THEY own.
> I'd like to know, I'll never be told, thats it in a nutshell.


That's a crock

That's like saying I don't own any of this TV programming that I subscribe to, so I'm not paying paying for it anymore.

See it don't make sense


----------



## Richierich

Maybe this will lead to Better Testing of their Software!!! LOL!!!


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

oldschoolecw said:


> That's a crock
> 
> That's like saying I don't own any of this TV programming that I subscribe to, so I'm not paying paying for it anymore.
> 
> See it don't make sense


 You/we don't own it.


----------



## oldschoolecw

HDTVsportsfan said:


> You/we don't own it.


:nono2:


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Nevermind....I missed that last short sentence in your previous post.


----------



## Doug Brott

Syzygy said:


> It's not a complete answer, though. There's been speculation that the glitch was caused by D* adding a slew of new PPV channels. Others say that it was bad TMS data (perhaps modified by D*) that brought the receivers down. D* knows all but tells only some. As little as possible.
> 
> That's not a "reasonable answer."


How about .. "it was broken, but now it's fixed .. thus not being a problem anymore" .. is that reasonable?

Why should there be more than that?


----------



## Doug Brott

Syzygy said:


> That's so outlandish a statement that I'm left (almost) speechless.


Not sure why you would be left speechless .. When Blackberry's network dropped a year or so back I don't remember getting too many details about that other than .. there was a problem and then it was fixed.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Exactly....I'm not sure why some feel entitled to idea they have to tell exactly what it was.


----------



## Ken S

Doug Brott said:


> Not sure why you would be left speechless .. When Blackberry's network dropped a year or so back I don't remember getting too many details about that other than .. there was a problem and then it was fixed.


Here ya go...
http://communication.howstuffworks.com/blackberry-outage1.htm
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9062218

Is it enough information to satisfy everyone....doubtful.


----------



## monkeyhouse

So, are you saying that everyone who was experiencing lockups before Monday are now not experiencing this as well? My receiver locks up 3-4 times a day, so Monday was nothing new to me, but I still have lockups.



Stuart Sweet said:


> I'm not quite sure how adding PPV channels would cause this issue. That being said, folks this is not an impeachment trial, it's not a war crimes tribunal. I don't think we need to send the angry peasants with torches to El Segundo here.*
> 
> I'd love to be able to say, "Yeah, this is a glitch where all the encoders were accidentally changed to MPEG-12"* (which BTW is a totally madeup thing)* but the real, salient facts here remain:
> 
> 
> The problem existed on Monday.
> It was resolved on Monday.
> It is now Wednesday.
> The people who solved the problem knew how to solve the problem.
> 
> *Movie quote for y'all: "A riot... is an ugly thing, and... once you get one started, there is very little chance of stopping it, short... of... bloodshed."


----------



## man_rob

I really don't care what caused it. DirecTV did something that they probably should have more thoroughly tested, and it caused a major glitch. They addressed, and apologized. It's over. I don't need the details.


----------



## njblackberry

And many of us in the BlackBerry community - who *do* have frequent contact with RIM - pushed hard for a full disclosure... They weren't forthcoming initially (it was a problem, we fixed it, go back to using the BlackBerry) but it wasn't good enough. We eventually did get a full explanation. And BlackBerry Addicts can get just as aggitated as folks here when there is an unexplained outage.

I know this is pushing a rope (move on), but I still think it would be the right thing to do.


----------



## man_rob

njblackberry said:


> And many of us in the BlackBerry community - who *do* have frequent contact with RIM - pushed hard for a full disclosure... They weren't forthcoming initially (it was a problem, we fixed it, go back to using the BlackBerry) but it wasn't good enough. We eventually did get a full explanation. And BlackBerry Addicts can get just as aggitated as folks here when there is an unexplained outage.
> 
> I know this is pushing a rope (move on), but I still think it would be the right thing to do.


What did you do with this information when you finally got it?


----------



## spartanstew




----------



## Doug Brott

Ken S said:


> Here ya go...
> http://communication.howstuffworks.com/blackberry-outage1.htm
> http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9062218
> 
> Is it enough information to satisfy everyone....doubtful.


From the second article ..


> Waterloo, Ontario-based RIM apologized to users affected by the outage, *but it did not offer an explanation of what happened.* The company only said it "continues to focus on providing industry-leading reliability in its products and services."


Sure, and folks have been speculating here as to why DIRECTV had this problem, but I don't believe RIM actually announced anything more than DIRECTV has.


----------



## billsharpe

Doug Brott said:


> How about .. "it was broken, but now it's fixed .. thus not being a problem anymore" .. is that reasonable?
> 
> Why should there be more than that?


I'd like to know WHAT was broken, HOW it was fixed, and WHY it won't be a problem anymore, but I'm not holding my breath awaiting the details. 

The suspicion here is that DirecTV doesn't really know the details either. It took them about 12 hours to fix the problem (my automatic reset was around 5 pm PST Monday) and 36 hours to send me an e-mail notification( 7 pm Tuesday).

The above comment is not meant to denigrate the excellent information that this forum offers.


----------



## billsharpe

man_rob said:


> What did you do with this information when you finally got it?


Got a warm glow and felt I could understand what happened a little better...


----------



## Richierich

billsharpe said:


> The suspicion here is that DirecTV doesn't really know the details either. It took them about 12 hours to fix the problem (my automatic reset was around 5 pm PST Monday) and 36 hours to send me an e-mail notification( 7 pm Tuesday).


Being a computer programmer in the past I can tell you that they know now exactly what caused it, did a back out of the bad software to the previous version of the software which worked and will then put the code back in after they have integrated the fix or patch to it, thoroughly tested it with real world data and then they will download it to us again and hopefully this time it will work successfully.


----------



## Ken S

Doug Brott said:


> From the second article ..
> 
> Sure, and folks have been speculating here as to why DIRECTV had this problem, but I don't believe RIM actually announced anything more than DIRECTV has.


Doug,

Actually, if you read the articles they did. Was it a lot more? No...but there was some detail. Is it important? Not really compared to telling their customers that they are going to put procedures in place to better protect against these types of issues.


----------



## njblackberry

man_rob said:


> What did you do with this information when you finally got it?


I was able to explain to my internal customers and co-workers what had happened. They have never accepted "a glitch" as a reasonable explanation.

To simplify it, it was closure.


----------



## Richierich

Okay Ken let's have Chris close out this thread as we have beat this Directv Horse to death and unless it's name is Jesus I don't think it will be coming back to life!!! Everyone Have A Great Day & Pray For The New DIRECTIVO Coming Soon To A Theater Near You (perhaps even in your own theater).


----------



## Syzygy

man_rob said:


> I really don't care what caused it. DirecTV did something that they probably should have more thoroughly tested, and it caused a major glitch. They addressed [it], and apologized. It's over. I don't need the details.


Thread not closed yet? OK...

I'd like to think that D* did *not* drop the ball, did *not* fail to test a change; rather the change might have slipped into the data stream from TMS without anyone realizing it until it was too late. By keeping mum about the cause of the crashes, D* invites speculation that they intentionally changed something and distributed the change to all of us without proper testing. Alternatively, it's possible they still aren't quite sure what happened.

In any case, so many people were inconvenienced that D* should be more open about what they know.


----------



## dennisj00

What started out as reporting locked up / unresponsive HR2xes turned on Monday morning turned into a HR2x bash / witch hunt / WHINE & Cheese fest / DEMAND for a Congressional investigation !! (Like they don't have anything on their plate!)

I've talked to 5 NON-dbstalk HR2x owners about their experience of this life threatening event! 3 didn't notice anything, 1 had reset his boxes (2) and weren't turning them off so it wouldn't happen again(!) and 1 had a grey/blank recording Monday night - but he admitted he got one about once a month.

So to the 'average' NON-dbstalk user, it was a NON-EVENT!

I have to remind those asking / DEMANDING a refund -- your stocks / mutual funds lost a lot more during that time that your HR2xes were locked up or rebooting than asking for the potential PENNIES from your monthly bill.

And even if you don't have any stocks or mutal funds you lost a lot more this week that a couple of TV programs that may have failed to record.

Close this thread -- the sky is not falling!!


----------



## peterav

Since the Sunday night initial incident, two of my HR20's have had lingering problems including 

a) Full lockups (like Sunday night) requiring a full reset/reboot (It occurred twice on each machine, once Monday night and once Tuesday evening, but at separate times each).
b) Lost video on the HDMI output (The unit is still alive, just not putting video out).... requires reset.
c) Lost signal on a tuner (e.g. tune to a channel, get gray screen for 10 seconds then eventually turning to "Searching for Signal".) Tune to another channel and its fine, and then go back to the one that had "Searching for Signal" a moment ago and its fine too. Its definitely not a signal strength issue though, as I have double checked all transponders/all satellites and signal strength is in the 90+ range.
d) Very slow (5+ seconds) responsiveness to guide/menu actions from the remote at times.

All of these symptoms are new since Monday and are occurring on 2 of my HR-20's (I forget what flavor, I think 700 series). I haven't had time to check my 3rd HR-20 yet to see if similar issues are happening there as well.

Is anyone else seeing lingering issues?


----------



## hasan

Since the 6:55 p.m. auto-reboot, I have noticed no lingering problems with my HR20-700, -100, HR21-200/AM21, or H21-200. I do have a few programs 10 days out or so that have not repopulated in the Guide yet (as far as program info).


----------



## rudeney

It seems like a good number of participants here work in the technology sector. For those of us that do, we tend to be “problem solvers”. Even though we might have no way to fix a problem like this or even prevent it from happening again, we want to know what went wrong. We need to know what went wrong to get closure. Personally this is driving me nuts! In order to keep from going totally insane because I can’t get any closure on this, I began to consider what it could be.

Here’s what we know: The problem was caused by something in the satellite data stream, and it only affect HD-DVR’s and R22’s. So, what comes down in the data stream? Well, obviously MPEG2 and MPEG4 video and audio programming. Also, we get guide data, authorization data, and we get firmware updates. 

I think we can rule out firmware updates because no one reported their IRD’s being in update mode. Also, we can eliminate any specific audio or video programming because the devices only have two tuners and it’s unlikely that all affected receivers were tuned to the exact same channels at the same time. This leaves us with guide data or authorizations. But why wouldn’t that have affected other receivers? What do the HD-DVR’s and R22 have in common? VOD over Ethernet! So, my guess is that they were trying to put some code in related to that. Maybe it was the ability to authorized or de-authorize VOD capabilities, or maybe it had nothing with authorization. Maybe somebody tried to create a VOD channel number with five digits or an alpha character and that caused the units to puke and die. 

Oh well, that’s probably about as close as I’ll ever get to knowing the cause. It doesn’t give me closure, but it gives me something to keep my geek brain busy enough that I’m not so worried about not having closure.


----------



## Syzygy

dennisj00 said:


> ... I've talked to 5 NON-dbstalk HR2x owners about their experience of this life threatening event! 3 didn't notice anything, 1 had reset his boxes (2) and weren't turning them off so it wouldn't happen again(!) and 1 had a grey/blank recording Monday night - but he admitted he got one about once a month.
> 
> So to the 'average' NON-dbstalk user, it was a NON-EVENT!


I wish you'd check back with some of those HR2x owners after a few days to see if there were delayed problems. For example, one of my tuners stopped working about 3 hours after the automatic restart initiated by D* (causing some missed recordings) and I pulled the plug to bring it back on line; others have also reported that they had to pull the plug to restore full functionality.


----------



## oldschoolecw

rudeney said:


> It seems like a good number of participants here work in the technology sector. For those of us that do, we tend to be "problem solvers". Even though we might have no way to fix a problem like this or even prevent it from happening again, we want to know what went wrong. We need to know what went wrong to get closure. Personally this is driving me nuts! In order to keep from going totally insane because I can't get any closure on this, I began to consider what it could be.


+1 That is the only reason I keep posting in this link:goodjob:


----------



## dennisj00

Syzygy said:


> I wish you'd check back with some of those HR2x owners after a few days to see if there were delayed problems. For example, one of my tuners stopped working about 3 hours after the automatic restart initiated by D* (causing some missed recordings) and I pulled the plug to bring it back on line; others have also reported that they had to pull the plug to restore full functionality.


I will. 3 were yesterday, 2 today so I don't expect major problems. In monitoring this board for over a year, there's a (SMALL?) population of HR2x users that have a problem after any reboot. And the problems are so varied it's hard to see any trends or blame a particular device in the configuration.

I know those that have problems don't like to hear it but my two boxes have been relatively trouble free -- even on CE's all year -- but it took 5 boxes to get two.


----------



## Ken S

Why do people beg that a thread be closed? If you don't want to read it....don't.


----------



## Ken S

dennisj00 said:


> I will. 3 were yesterday, 2 today so I don't expect major problems. In monitoring this board for over a year, there's a (SMALL?) population of HR2x users that have a problem after any reboot. And the problems are so varied it's hard to see any trends or blame a particular device in the configuration.
> 
> I know those that have problems don't like to hear it but my two boxes have been relatively trouble free -- even on CE's all year -- but it took 5 boxes to get two.


DennisJ00,
The reason people have problems after a reboot is because that's when the HR2x series tends to find corrupted files and "correct" them. If your favorites list is corrupted...it gets wiped on reboot, same goes for the recordings. When the reboot is because of a system lockup, hard shutdown/RBR it's all the more likely that data corruption will have occurred.

So, it's a pretty easy trend to pickup...shutting off/locking up a computer/HR2x while it's performing a disk write MAY cause file corruption. This is why it should be avoided


----------



## spartanstew

Ken S said:


> Why do people beg that a thread be closed? If you don't want to read it....don't.


Good call AirRocker. You nailed that one.


----------



## dreadlk

That's something I also do not understand. This is the only forum I know of that just closes threads because one or two people ask it to be closed! It's almost like a conspiracy to keep peoples mouths closed.

IMO if a thread gets completely out of hand it should be closed, if not leave it open!



Ken S said:


> Why do people beg that a thread be closed? If you don't want to read it....don't.


----------



## Ken S

dennisj00 said:


> What started out as reporting locked up / unresponsive HR2xes turned on Monday morning turned into a HR2x bash / witch hunt / WHINE & Cheese fest / DEMAND for a Congressional investigation !! (Like they don't have anything on their plate!)


Are you seriously pointing to my joke with Stuart as a call for a Congressional investigation or did I miss a post?


----------



## Ken S

spartanstew said:


> Good call AirRocker. You nailed that one.


AirRocker?


----------



## houskamp

event is over and done (and overdone?) 
time to put it to bed.. night night...


----------



## dreadlk

Oh really! I have a friend who is a Non DBS forum member and he was pressing the bloody reset button for hours and got no where. He called me after 3 hours of reseting and I told him to unplug the unit for 10 minutes and if that did not work to repeat it again (Thats info thanks to this forum)
He called me the next day and said after two unpluggings he got it working and was very thankfull for my help.

Please note that Directv's own email suggests to do an RBR and I can tell you first hand that does not work for everyone.



dennisj00 said:


> I've talked to 5 NON-dbstalk HR2x owners about their experience of this life threatening event! 3 didn't notice anything, 1 had reset his boxes (2) and weren't turning them off so it wouldn't happen again(!) and 1 had a grey/blank recording Monday night - but he admitted he got one about once a month.
> 
> So to the 'average' NON-dbstalk user, it was a NON-EVENT!
> -
> snip
> --
> Close this thread -- the sky is not falling!!


----------



## Lord Vader

mhayes70 said:


> Dish has issues also. I have friends that hate them also.


Obviously that one went right over your head.


----------



## hasan

dreadlk said:


> That's something I also do not understand. This is the only forum I know of that just closes threads because one or two people ask it to be closed! It's almost like a conspiracy to keep peoples mouths closed.
> 
> IMO if a thread gets completely out of hand it should be closed, if not leave it open!


I think it's a bit of an exaggeration to say threads are closed at the request of one or two people. Most threads that get closed have either reached an impasse in a heated disagreement or are closed because they are redundant to other established threads. Threads are closed or remain on merit as far as I am able to discern.

I've been here over two years and have not seen any tin foil hats or black helicopters., although plenty of the disgruntled are certain they exist.

IMO, the mods do an excellent job, giving great latitude to the discussion...and they are the only ones who can close a thread, despite pleas from one side or the other. They seem to be tolerant to a fault in my eyes, but hey...what do I know, I don't have a funny hat or imaginative transportation.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

rudeney said:


> It seems like a good number of participants here work in the technology sector. For those of us that do, we tend to be "problem solvers". Even though we might have no way to fix a problem like this or even prevent it from happening again, we want to know what went wrong. We need to know what went wrong to get closure. Personally this is driving me nuts! In order to keep from going totally insane because I can't get any closure on this, I began to consider what it could be.


I can appreciate that as well. But being self employed, where time is money, if I can't bill for it I do whatever it takes to fix the problem and then it's off my radar screen and on to the next task at hand.

There are plenty of times I've come across an issue and would love to know what caused it, especially if that problem arises again in the future. But again, if I can't bill for it.....then it's just not that important.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Ken S said:


> AirRocker?


Must be an inside joke somewhere.


----------



## Doug Brott

So far the discussion has been mostly civil so there is no reason to close this thread. No doubt the events of Monday left many people frustrated so there's no problem talking about that .. That's what we're all here for, right?


----------



## Ken S

HDTVsportsfan said:


> I can appreciate that as well. But being self employed, where time is money, if I can't bill for it I do whatever it takes to fix the problem and then it's off my radar screen and on to the next task at hand.
> 
> There are plenty of times I've come across an issue and would love to know what caused it, especially if that problem arises again in the future. But again, if I can't bill for it.....then it's just not that important.


How much can you bill for doing CE testing or posting in the forums?
Sometimes things that interest people lead them to want to know more even though they're not getting paid to do so.

But you know that


----------



## houskamp

Doug Brott said:


> So far the discussion has been mostly civil so there is no reason to close this thread. No doubt the events of Monday left many people frustrated so there's no problem talking about that .. That's what we're all here for, right?


Think we lost the just frustrated about 10 pages back


----------



## spartanstew

HDTVsportsfan said:


> Must be an inside joke somewhere.


----------



## HDTVsportsfan

Ken S said:


> How much can you bill for doing CE testing or posting in the forums?
> Sometimes things that interest people lead them to want to know more even though they're not getting paid to do so.
> 
> But you know that


Well......CE testing is done from home. Yeah....I think it's obvious I do post from the office during the day sometimes.

Don't get me wrong, I would love to know the root cause of many issues I've come accross over the years. Some of my post relates to my techs I send out in the field as well. I can't bill the customer for him to sit there for 5 hours to remove a stubborn virus or search thru the registry to delete keys or entries for example. Format the HDD and move on.....it's cheaper and faster and almost guaranteed to fix the problem.

But again, over the years I have just developed an attitude that I can't let my desire to know everything related to a problem bog me down. It's minor in the whole scheme of things.


----------



## Ken S

HDTVsportsfan said:


> Well......CE testing is done from home. Yeah....I think it's obvious I do post from the office during the day sometimes.
> 
> Don't get me wrong, I would love to know the root cause of many issues I've come accross over the years. Some of my post relates to my techs I send out in the field as well. I can't bill the customer for him to sit there for 5 hours to remove a stubborn virus or search thru the registry to delete keys or entries for example. Format the HDD and move on.....it's cheaper and faster and almost guaranteed to fix the problem.
> 
> But again, over the years I have just developed an attitude that I can't let my desire to know everything related to a problem bog me down. It's minor in the whole scheme of things.


It's that old vocation/avocation thing .


----------



## Ken S

HDTVsportsfan said:


> Must be an inside joke somewhere.


Sometimes it's fun to watch the schoolchildren play...especially when they whisper among themselves and giggle.


----------



## dennisj00

dreadlk said:


> Oh really! I have a friend who is a Non DBS forum member and he was pressing the bloody reset button for hours and got no where. He called me after 3 hours of reseting and I told him to unplug the unit for 10 minutes and if that did not work to repeat it again (Thats info thanks to this forum)
> He called me the next day and said after two unpluggings he got it working and was very thankfull for my help.
> 
> Please note that Directv's own email suggests to do an RBR and I can tell you first hand that does not work for everyone.


I'm sure we can all find anecdotal evidence of customers that did have a catastrophe -- just the same as if a thunderstorm had interrupted their evening!

I was mainly drawing attention to the WHINERS that thought rebooting their locked up HR was the end of the world while the average 'joe' (apologies to the joes here!) subscriber didn't notice it! 60 pages??????

I've found that I often have to press the power button after a RBR for it to really reboot. . . not sure if that's documented anywhere or why it's like that. But I've never had to unplug multiple times.

Again, the sky is not falling.


----------



## dennisj00

and by the way, I just found a 'side effect' of Monday's debacle. Was watching the recording of '2and 1/2 men' and the KOD dialog came up within 2 minutes of the start! DID I MISS THIS EPISODE?? CALL 911!!! CALL DIRECTV!!! Can I get on the witness list of the Congressional hearing!!

I selected not to delete. . . pulled up the playlist, started it over and it's playing. . . it's good there's a five day waiting period . . .


----------



## David MacLeod

Ken S said:


> Sometimes it's fun to watch the schoolchildren play...especially when they whisper among themselves and giggle.


lol, fun isn't it !


----------



## spartanstew

Ken S said:


> Sometimes it's fun to watch the schoolchildren play...especially when they whisper among themselves and giggle.


Nary a giggle. Although it is fun to predict behavior.


----------



## dudeman135

I reset my HR20 at 6pm Eastern time on Monday when I got home. It also went unresponsive again at 8:15ish and I reset it again. Since then it has not gone unresponsive. However, I set the DVR to record shows on my local CBS HD channel at 8pm and 8:30pm tonight and they show up in the list of recorded shows, but when I go to play them, nada. Completely black screen on both shows. However, if I switch over to the live 8:30 show still in progress it's there and no issues. Is anyone else still experiencing odd issues with their DVR? I had no problems with the DVR prior to the issues on Monday.


----------



## rudeney

dreadlk said:


> That's something I also do not understand. This is the only forum I know of that just closes threads because one or two people ask it to be closed! It's almost like a conspiracy to keep peoples mouths closed.
> 
> IMO if a thread gets completely out of hand it should be closed, if not leave it open!


I have not seen threads closed here just because one or two people ask. I have seen threads closed when the OP asks because the question has been answered or maybe the issue was resolved, but in a large open community discussion like this? No way.


----------



## dreadlk

Plug it out and reset it again. My friend had the same issue, after he did the first plug out he said it worked but it was acting strange, a second 10 minute plugout solved the problem.



dudeman135 said:


> I reset my HR20 at 6pm Eastern time on Monday when I got home. It also went unresponsive again at 8:15ish and I reset it again. Since then it has not gone unresponsive. However, I set the DVR to record shows on my local CBS HD channel at 8pm and 8:30pm tonight and they show up in the list of recorded shows, but when I go to play them, nada. Completely black screen on both shows. However, if I switch over to the live 8:30 show still in progress it's there and no issues. Is anyone else still experiencing odd issues with their DVR? I had no problems with the DVR prior to the issues on Monday.


----------



## dreadlk

Its happened many times.
The threads then quickly sink off the list  which is why I suspect that some people want them closed. The Mods do a great job but they need to stop listening to these requests. As pointed out in a post above, there are still people having problems and some may be on vacation and not see this thread for a week.



rudeney said:


> I have not seen threads closed here just because one or two people ask. I have seen threads closed when the OP asks because the question has been answered or maybe the issue was resolved, but in a large open community discussion like this? No way.


----------



## Sixto

One interesting item that I've always wondered about, which did arise on Monday.

Does anyone know why that when you press the red button on the HR2x that it sometimes does not always immediately re-boot. 

As an example, the HR2x was dead on Monday. We all know why 

Would have expected a red button press to immediately reboot, the blue light would come on, and all would be fine.

But instead, the box waited for about 3-5 minutes and then turned itself on.

What do we think it was doing during that period.

Most people would not have waited, gotten worried, and maybe just unplugged the unit.

Always wondered why an unplug is ever necessary. Seems like a RBR should always reset the box.

Just curious ...

Not looking to start a rant ... just looking for a technical answer ... and this seemed like logical place.

Thanks.


----------



## gcisko

Doug Brott said:


> How about .. "it was broken, but now it's fixed .. thus not being a problem anymore" .. is that reasonable?
> 
> Why should there be more than that?


Because many would have confidence that things are being dealt with in a professional manner. Simply saying the above is meaningless. You might as well tell the customer to go somewhere else if you have a problem with it. And hey that is the ultimate reality isn't it??? Being up front is a confidence builder IMHO.


----------



## gcisko

spartanstew said:


> Good call AirRocker. You nailed that one.


AirRocker did not have anything to do with what you quoted from what I saw.


----------



## rahlquist

Sixto said:


> One interesting item that I've always wondered about, which did arise on Monday.
> 
> Would have expected a red button press to immediately reboot, the blue light would come on, and all would be fine.
> 
> But instead, the box waited for about 3-5 minutes and then turned itself on.
> 
> What do we think it was doing during that period.


fsck most likely, the R16 at least tells you its running a disk check.


> Most people would not have waited, gotten worried, and maybe just unplugged the unit.
> 
> Always wondered why an unplug is ever necessary. Seems like a RBR should always reset the box.


Yes, this is bad I like to refer to this as user white space. Its bad to leave the user out in the blizzard lacking any knowledge as to whats happening.

As for RBR vs Power Down. I personally think its got something to do with the way they handle software on the HR. I think at power up much like your PC it goes through a POST procedure running hardware testing. After post the SW is moved from NVRAM into system RAM and decrypted. Its my theroy that the RBR does not reset the RAM in a hardware sense (like by pulling the RST signal on the ram low). Leaving the SW in ram decrypted for a (slightly)speedier reboot. The problem is corruption, and occasionally something glitches and corrupts this image. And thats my guess as to why the HW occasionally needs to power off.


----------



## rahlquist

gcisko said:


> Because many would have confidence that things are being dealt with in a professional manner. Simply saying the above is meaningless. You might as well tell the customer to go somewhere else if you have a problem with it. And hey that is the ultimate reality isn't it??? Being up front is a confidence builder IMHO.


Sometimes being too open can endanger trade secrets or tip your hand to the competition, so a vague answer is all we will get. At least its not a public denial.


----------



## gcisko

Doug Brott said:


> So far the discussion has been mostly civil so there is no reason to close this thread. No doubt the events of Monday left many people frustrated so there's no problem talking about that .. That's what we're all here for, right?


Yes it is. Unfortunately now I would like to know how often they tweak things like what happened on monday that we never know about. I think this is why a more detailed explaination is not unreasonable. I would not be surprised if what happened on monday was similar to something that happened dozens of times prior without anyone being the wiser. But since we have no idea, it is all speculation.

We know it happened once. I am positive this was not the first time something was sent in the transmission like that. We do know this was the first time it blew everyone out of the water.


----------



## gcisko

rahlquist said:


> Sometimes being too open can endanger trade secrets or tip your hand to the competition, so a vague answer is all we will get. At least its not a public denial.


Then they could tell us they cannot tell us because it would expose a trade secret. You have no idea at all if that is the reason. It is speculation.


----------



## Sixto

rahlquist said:


> fsck most likely, the R16 at least tells you its running a disk check.
> Yes, this is bad I like to refer to this as user white space. Its bad to leave the user out in the blizzard lacking any knowledge as to whats happening.
> 
> As for RBR vs Power Down. I personally think its got something to do with the way they handle software on the HR. I think at power up much like your PC it goes through a POST procedure running hardware testing. After post the SW is moved from NVRAM into system RAM and decrypted. Its my theroy that the RBR does not reset the RAM in a hardware sense (like by pulling the RST signal on the ram low). Leaving the SW in ram decrypted for a (slightly)speedier reboot. The problem is corruption, and occasionally something glitches and corrupts this image. And thats my guess as to why the HW occasionally needs to power off.


Guess I always thought that a RBR would tell the box to power reset, if that's possible.

In effect, be identical as possible to an unplug.


----------



## rahlquist

gcisko said:


> Then they could tell us they cannot tell us because it would expose a trade secret. You have no idea at all if that is the reason. It is speculation.


They could, if they had any motivation. But less than .005% of their customer base cares why. I wouldnt waste the time. Box is working, was a oops, Juggernaut moving on.


----------



## rahlquist

Sixto said:


> Guess I always thought that a RBR would tell the box to power reset, if that's possible.
> 
> In effect, be identical as possible to an unplug.


Me too, I mean a PC hardware reset button usually physically reset every chip that had a RST line, but the HRxx? We know from empirical data that at times your HR can malfunction, when it does a menu reboot or RBR can fix it. That tells me that data got corrupt, data that like the guides resets at any reboot. Other times multiple menu reboots or even RBRs don't cut it. That tells me that either the RAM is not being reset, or that whatever mechanism they use to dolly Software from NVRAM to RAM can become corrupt.

Without knowing for sure the process I can only take educated guesses.


----------



## mhayes70

Lord Vader said:


> Obviously that one went right over your head.


:lol: Yes, it did. Sorry about that. It has been a long day.


----------



## ATARI

richierich said:


> Ah, So it was SUNSPOTS after all!!! That is what I thought it was but I just didn't want to tell yall because you can't handle the truth and you would PANIC so I just used the word GLITCH!!!
> 
> In fact a GLITCH caused the Wall Street collapse and it can be corrected maybe if we just shell out 700 Billion Dollars to fix the GLITCH!!! LOL!!!


Sorry, but the sun is basically spotless right now.


----------



## ATARI

Doug Brott said:


> So far the discussion has been mostly civil so there is no reason to close this thread. No doubt the events of Monday left many people frustrated so there's no problem talking about that .. That's what we're all here for, right?


+1


----------



## Brian_83

dennisj00 said:


> What started out as reporting locked up / unresponsive HR2xes turned on Monday morning turned into a HR2x bash / witch hunt / WHINE & Cheese fest / DEMAND for a Congressional investigation !! (Like they don't have anything on their plate!)
> 
> I've talked to 5 NON-dbstalk HR2x owners about their experience of this life threatening event! 3 didn't notice anything, 1 had reset his boxes (2) and weren't turning them off so it wouldn't happen again(!) and 1 had a grey/blank recording Monday night - but he admitted he got one about once a month.
> 
> So to the 'average' NON-dbstalk user, it was a NON-EVENT!
> 
> I have to remind those asking / DEMANDING a refund -- your stocks / mutual funds lost a lot more during that time that your HR2xes were locked up or rebooting than asking for the potential PENNIES from your monthly bill.
> 
> And even if you don't have any stocks or mutal funds you lost a lot more this week that a couple of TV programs that may have failed to record.
> 
> Close this thread -- the sky is not falling!!


That's funny. I am a dbstalk user and it was a non event to me as well! I got home Monday night, had the TV on... it was on CNN and I just started watching. I didn't notice until I went to change the channel. Nothing happened. I then noticed it was 10:15 and it wasn't recording CSI either. I went over and hit the red button, waited like 10-15 minutes for everything to come back up and moved on. I'll admit, I missed a good portion on CSI, but not a huge issue. I really didn't think much of it. I just figured my box locked up and needed a reset. I had no clue there was a widespread issue until I got the email Tuesday night! lol

I do want to say my box obviously didn't do an auto reset like others did. It was after 10PM when I did the red button reset.


----------



## rickeame

I am just about ready to throw my HR21 Pro out a window. After the reboots and resets from earlier this week, I went to watch something tonight and lo and behold AGAIN it wouldn't power on. Had to red button it AGAIN.

COME ON.


----------



## Doug Brott

gcisko said:


> Yes it is. Unfortunately now I would like to know how often they tweak things like what happened on monday that we never know about. I think this is why a more detailed explaination is not unreasonable. I would not be surprised if what happened on monday was similar to something that happened dozens of times prior without anyone being the wiser. But since we have no idea, it is all speculation.
> 
> We know it happened once. I am positive this was not the first time something was sent in the transmission like that. We do know this was the first time it blew everyone out of the water.


We know that in the past few weeks DIRECTV has added numerous HD locals channels .. We also know (from RobertE) that some locals were moved from one Sat location to another Sat location .. and that is just what happened recently. Nothing is static ..


----------



## Ken S

spartanstew said:


> Nary a giggle. Although it is fun to predict behavior.


Yes, sadly it's far too easy in the case of some.


----------



## apastuszak

Anyone else have another lockup this moring. Kids woke up to watch TV and couldn't do it without a reboot....

Andy


----------



## TheRatPatrol

apastuszak said:


> Anyone else have another lockup this moring. Kids woke up to watch TV and couldn't do it without a reboot....
> 
> Andy


No everything was fine here.


----------



## David MacLeod

both units here were fine too. bad weather but no signal errors/issues.


----------



## monkeyhouse

dennisj00 said:


> What started out as reporting locked up / unresponsive HR2xes turned on Monday morning turned into a HR2x bash / witch hunt / WHINE & Cheese fest / DEMAND for a Congressional investigation !! (Like they don't have anything on their plate!)
> 
> I've talked to 5 NON-dbstalk HR2x owners about their experience of this life threatening event! 3 didn't notice anything, 1 had reset his boxes (2) and weren't turning them off so it wouldn't happen again(!) and 1 had a grey/blank recording Monday night - but he admitted he got one about once a month.
> 
> So to the 'average' NON-dbstalk user, it was a NON-EVENT!
> 
> I have to remind those asking / DEMANDING a refund -- your stocks / mutual funds lost a lot more during that time that your HR2xes were locked up or rebooting than asking for the potential PENNIES from your monthly bill.
> 
> And even if you don't have any stocks or mutal funds you lost a lot more this week that a couple of TV programs that may have failed to record.
> 
> Close this thread -- the sky is not falling!!


excuse me Dennis? From where I'm standing, they have sold receivers that are at best problematic, I think people have a right to be a little upset. Granted, this thread isn't intended as a witchhunt forum, but I can understand why people might get a little antsy.


----------



## nitty316

My 21 was experiencing issues with the 2nd sattelite not being found, so they sent me a new one. On Tuesday night I hooked it up, and went to bed while it was loading updates. Got home las night to a black screen. So I rebooted it. Then when I tried to change the channel, it froze. Then I rebooted it again, and it worked for about 10 minutes before freezing up again. I spent 90 minutes on the phone before someone finally told me they had an issue on their end. That was frustrating. Anyway, she told me to hook it up to an outlet for a while so it can load and update. This morning I checked on it, and it was frozen. So I rebooted it again before I left. It's very frustrating, and I'm hopefuly it's fixed when I get home, because I really need that DVR to work this weekend.


----------



## allenn

Doug Brott said:


> Look, maybe you've got a problem with India but that is neither here nor there. There are not programmers or CSRs for DIRECTV in India.


I'm glad you cleared that up, but now there is no excuse for the poor programming of the HR-2x dvr's. TIVO got it right on the HR10! I am glad D* came to their senses and we will have the option in the near future.


----------



## David MacLeod

I wonder if CE'rs sets recovered better than people on NR, except for caller id acting odd for a day (working fine now) both my hr20 and hr21 have been smooth since this issue.


----------



## DarinC

dennisj00 said:


> I've talked to 5 NON-dbstalk HR2x owners about their experience of this life threatening event! 3 didn't notice anything, 1 had reset his boxes (2) and weren't turning them off so it wouldn't happen again(!) and 1 had a grey/blank recording Monday night - but he admitted he got one about once a month.
> 
> So to the 'average' NON-dbstalk user, it was a NON-EVENT!


LOL, so based on your tiny sample, 60% don't use the product enough to notice it being non-functional for most of a day, and 20% have problems on a monthly basis, so Monday was "just another day with an HR2x". Proof once again that low expectations are the most efficient way to reduce dissatisfaction.


----------



## trainman

David MacLeod said:


> I wonder if CE'rs sets recovered better than people on NR, except for caller id acting odd for a day (working fine now) both my hr20 and hr21 have been smooth since this issue.


My HR21-700 is running the latest CE. It was locked up when I turned on the TV Monday morning (circa 6:15 A.M. PT); I did an RBR, and it seemed to be working normally after it reset.

Based on the posts here during the day Monday, I expected it to find it locked up again when I got home from work at about 4:15 P.M., but it was still working fine (well, except for a missed recording, but I think that was unrelated to the lockup problem). The DTV-originated spontaneous reboot happened for me at 4:35 or so. No problems since then -- not even with the caller ID, from what I can tell.


----------



## dennisj00

DarinC said:


> LOL, so based on your tiny sample, 60% don't use the product enough to notice it being non-functional for most of a day, and 20% have problems on a monthly basis, so Monday was "just another day with an HR2x". Proof once again that low expectations are the most efficient way to reduce dissatisfaction.


Yes, it was a tiny sample and you can spin it to low expectations if you want. But it was 5 average users that use their DVR daily and had no complaint from their point of view. I won't insult my friends that they have low expectations!

Actually it was larger than any other sample in the 60+ pages of reports that turned into compaints, threats, whines from indivuals that have had longer outages and bigger problems from storms and rain fade!

Threats and whines in this forum do nothing but waste bandwidth -- vote with your money.


----------



## DarinC

dennisj00 said:


> you can spin it to low expectations if you want.


No more spin than suggesting that it was a non-event for average users. My partner is an "average user" (he's not overly technical, or the type who would participate on an online forum dedicated to satellite service), and to him, the service was down when he went to watch TV during breakfast Monday morning. If it wasn't for living with a somewhat "non-average" user, he would not have known how to reboot it to get it going again without calling and sitting on hold with DirecTV. But at least he learned how so he could re-use that knowledge when he came home to find them locked up again. Fortunately we are both day workers, and didn't have to deal with the constant rebooting all day, and only missed a few recordings.

You could also say it's "spin" to suggest that it's a "non-issue" when the vast majority of a multichannel provider's flagship product is down and stuck in a reboot loop for most of the day. I would bet that if it happened to Dish or Comcast, it would have been a topic of discussion here even though DirecTV customer's wouldn't have had any reason to care.

Trivializing other people's concerns and complaints does nothing but waste bandwidth. But if you're interested in paying my $100+/month DirecTV bill, I'll gladly shut up.


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## houskamp

I look at it this way, I pay twice as much for my electricity bill as I do for directv.. This is the 1st time this year I had a problem with directv.. my power has been out 3 times for as much as a couple days at a time.. Electricity is critical, TV is just TV..


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## loudo

allenn said:


> I'm glad you cleared that up, but now there is no excuse for the poor programming of the HR-2x dvr's. TIVO got it right on the HR10! I am glad D* came to their senses and we will have the option in the near future.


Many of us had problems with our HR10-250s and others didn't, just like some people are having trouble with their HR20's and others are not. I have had a lot less problems with my HR20, than I did with my HR10-250, but I know there are others that are having problems with their HR20 and when they had their HR10-250s they worked OK. From my personnel experience I can't say that a TIVO based unit has worked better for me, than a non-TIVO unit.


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## rahlquist

monkeyhouse said:


> excuse me Dennis? From where I'm standing, they have sold receivers that are at best problematic, I think people have a right to be a little upset. Granted, this thread isn't intended as a witchhunt forum, but I can understand why people might get a little antsy.


Indeed like any technology there is an occasion glitch.

However for as evangelical as some here are I would love to see what forums they post such rants about Windows at? Since after all its(Windows) vulnerabilities far outweigh the bugs in a DVR. Of course you Work from a computer and store important things like digital photos on the computer and use it to access financial records and input credit card numbers to place orders so it cant be as important as missing the first 5 mins of Heros could it?:lol:


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## man_rob

In several years of DirecTV service, and over a year of HD service, this is the first big glitch I've ever experienced with DirecTV. Over all they have been a very stable, dependable service provider for me. 

They goofed. They admitted it. They fixed it, and they apologized. Things happen.


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## Stanley Kritzik

rahlquist said:


> Indeed like any technology there is an occasion glitch.
> 
> However for as evangelical as some here are I would love to see what forums they post such rants about Windows at? Since after all its(Windows) vulnerabilities far outweigh the bugs in a DVR. Of course you Work from a computer and store important things like digital photos on the computer and use it to access financial records and input credit card numbers to place orders so it cant be as important as missing the first 5 mins of Heros could it?:lol:


Every DVR has a hard (disk) drive, and MTBF on a disk drive is, maybe four years. Virtually none of these systems provide backup for TV programs or "how the box runs" programs. Just wait until these devices age. With millions out there, there will be unrecoverable failures every day. It would be cheap to mirror these disks, and provide a recovery path to recopy onto a replacement.

I'd sure as heck pay for some sensible backup and recovery system, especially a "no brainer".

Stan


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## Richierich

I've got backup with my DS3RPRO ESATA DUAL HD RAID ENCLOSURE which is running RAID 1 so one of the 1TB Drives backs up the other 1TB Drive.


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## David MacLeod

richierich said:


> I've got backup with my DS3RPRO ESATA DUAL HD RAID ENCLOSURE which is running RAID 1 so one of the 1TB Drives backs up the other 1TB Drive.


but if the dvr itself fails everything on that array is really useless and can't be transferred to another dvr. true backup would allow us to quickly recover our settings/shows/etc after a dvr replacement.


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## houskamp

David MacLeod said:


> but if the dvr itself fails everything on that array is really useless and can't be transferred to another dvr. true backup would allow us to *quickly* recover our settings/shows/etc after a dvr replacement.


doubt it would be quick copying a full drive..


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## David MacLeod

houskamp said:


> doubt it would be quick copying a full drive..


no probably not, but settings (sl's/favorites/etc) should be quick.


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## DarinC

But if that's all you're after, that IS transferrable to another DVR.


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## David MacLeod

how?


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## DarinC

I haven't tried it myself, but my understanding is if you transfer an external drive from one machine to another, EVERYTHING carries over. The only problem is you can't PLAY the content, as it is married to the machine that recorded it. But you should be able to just delete off the content, and everything else will be intact. But someone who has tried it can correct me if I'm wrong.


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## David MacLeod

ok, I thought I had read the stuff is visible there but all of it was not usable. I thought this applied to sl's and favorites too.
good to know.


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## Richierich

The funny thing is that 2 or 3 days ago in this forum someone actually did take their eSATA enclosure and hook it up to another DVR and it worked. He is now doing some more tests because even he thought that it was impossible.

He did it by accident and couldn't believe that it worked. I wonder if anyone else has tried it out. I thought it was tied to the machine by the DVR's serial number that is written on the drive. 

Maybe Directv has Enabled this Feature but hasn't broadcast it???

Why does Directv care if I take my eSATA drive from downstairs and play it upstairs???

It is kind of like having MRV in a more primitive form but after all it is my content and I am watching so why can't they allow it???


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## houskamp

Last I swaped a drive around, all series links and settings worked.. shows were visable in playlist but none from the other dvr would play..


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## DarinC

richierich said:


> The funny thing is that 2 or 3 days ago in this forum someone actually did take their eSATA enclosure and hook it up to another DVR and it worked.


You mean he could actually watch the recorded shows on a different DVR, or just all the settings worked? As far as "why", it's so you can't just copy the contents off the drive and pass content around. It _should_ be married to the account, not the machine. Don't know why they can't do it that way.


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## David MacLeod

houskamp said:


> Last I swaped a drive around, all series links and settings worked.. shows were visable in playlist but none from the other dvr would play..


thats cool, nice to know.


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## Richierich

He actually said that he could view the recordings on his other DVR which was the same kind and he was amazed that he could because he had heard you couldn't. I will try to find that thread where he mentioned that.

I was wrong in what I reported. He was talking about restarting his DVR with an External Drive and seeing nothing on it when there were recordings so he then went thru a procedure where he then restarted it in a different way and then he found his recordings. My Bad!!!

Still I see no reason why Directv can't allow us to view our recordings on another of our machines, it should be tied to the account not the DVR!!!


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## je74

My HR21-700 rebooted on its on around 3am yesterday morning. No lost recordings other than the show that started recording @ 3am and resumed at 3:11am.

Just sharing my rather painless experience.


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## Stanley Kritzik

DarinC said:


> You mean he could actually watch the recorded shows on a different DVR, or just all the settings worked? As far as "why", it's so you can't just copy the contents off the drive and pass content around. It _should_ be married to the account, not the machine. Don't know why they can't do it that way.


I'm old enough to remember that a complex gadget was ready for the masses "when you could buy it at Sears". Well, for today, I'd like to be able to go to BB or Solid Signal and just buy a plug-in gadget for an HR20/21/22 that would provide storage plus mirroring plus a recovery path if any drive failed. Also, one that could transfer to a replacement box if the box failed.

I'd pay a few hundred for that peace of mind, especially as the library of saved programs grows. I think it's a "must" for future MRV devices. No one wants their whole establishment to go blooey just because a hard disk fails. Your kids would never forgive you, and spousal humiliation would be extreme.

At work, we have about 40 drives in our mirrored systems, and every so often, one drive goes. With mirroring, we're back to full protection within hours. And, the longer the drives are there, the more wear on the bearings, and the closer one is to needing a replacement -- when you least expect it.

Stan


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## Jeremy W

richierich said:


> Still I see no reason why Directv can't allow us to view our recordings on another of our machines, it should be tied to the account not the DVR!!!


Soon you'll have MRV, which is a whole lot more convenient than carrying a hard drive enclosure around.


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## kenn157

Music, photos and more is back yea! I rebooted (reset) via menu. All set!


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## David MacLeod

Jeremy W said:


> Soon you'll have MRV, which is a whole lot more convenient than carrying a hard drive enclosure around.


wish they would hurry though. lol, they were promising me that when I bought an r15.never understood how an r15 would ever be able to do that so I just chalked it up to csr normalcy.
but I digress, sorry.


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## dreadlk

I have no idea why! From what I know the data on the hard drive is encrypted in the same way the Sat signal is encrypted and hence you need a valid subscribed access card to view the files on the Hard Drive. At the very worst a person might be able to hack out a movie on the HD and upload it to the Net but then only people with a HR2X and a valid subscription for the channel it came from could view it. So why all the hub-bub by Directv I have no idea.



richierich said:


> Why does Directv care if I take my eSATA drive from downstairs and play it upstairs???
> QUOTE]


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## Jeremy W

David MacLeod said:


> wish they would hurry though. lol, they were promising me that when I bought an r15.never understood how an r15 would ever be able to do that so I just chalked it up to csr normalcy.
> but I digress, sorry.


The R15 won't have MRV. But the HR2x and the H2x (where x >= 1) will have MRV. I wish they would hurry as well.


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## Richierich

Jeremy W said:


> Soon you'll have MRV, which is a whole lot more convenient than carrying a hard drive enclosure around.


Enlighten me as to how MRV will work.

Will it work via an Ethernet or Wireless Connection???


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## dennisj00

Jeremy W said:


> Soon you'll have MRV, which is a whole lot more convenient than carrying a hard drive enclosure around.


Is SOON one month, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, new equipment?

I bought a second HR last January hoping for soon.


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## Jeremy W

richierich said:


> Will it work via an Ethernet or Wireless Connection???


It'll work via Ethernet. If you have a wireless adapter that connects via Ethernet, it'll use that.


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## Jeremy W

dennisj00 said:


> Is SOON one month, 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, new equipment?


My guess is that we'll see it within 6 months, on the current equipment. But it's only a guess.


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## huh?

NYURDRMS said:


> Wow, two of my three had to be rebooted with the red button and were fine, but my third, in the theater room with a 1 TB HD hooked up, lost everything. I am talking about at least 20 movies and and many, many saved shows, that will not be available for recovery. I am extremely upset and I am tempted to call, but nothing is going to get back my shows now. This is extremely frustrating.





NYURDRMS said:


> I had one with a 500 G free agent drive that was fine, but my big one with a 1 TB drive was dead and completly wiped clean.





Doug Brott said:


> power off both the receiver and the external drive, then power on the external drive and then the receiver. Hopefully everything is still really there.


I shall do my best to explain myself here. If you come to end of the post and realize that I may have overlooked a potential answer elsewhere within DBST, please post the link.

*The Goods:*
A) HR20-700, x254 upgrade on 7/22)
B) Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750G external HDD
C) APC XPS900 UPS

*The Knowns:*
A) Internal HDD is fine on the DVR. Nothing was lost.
B) External HDD...not so much. 70% of capacity disappeared just like many others.
C) External HDD was disconnected on Monday, 10/6, after finding "to do list", "custom channels" and "my playlist" were all reset.
D) Oddly, it wasn't until this evening that I was able to pair up the external HDD again with the DVR.
E) Followed many of the suggestions given (as some are quoted above). Thanks to all.

*The Question (or Unknowns):*
Has anyone been able to "view" the lost files of the external drive by connecting it to a PC?

I know it's an odd question, but I only have one DVR so I can't use another within my home to check it as a few have suggested (sorry, but I lost where I saw the responses on DBST). It took me 3 days of trial and error to get my external drive synced with my DVR and am reluctant to check this on my own until Monday, 10/13, at the earliest. I know that for PC's when a foreign drive is introduced to another computer's OS, the files are generally still accessible or viewable, but the programs that run them are not. 
Following this line of thinking if the files are there, there should be a way to make the files accessible again once they are re-synced with its originating OS (in this case, the OS of the HR2x). I was hoping that there maybe a chance for many of us to retrieve the lost contents of the hard drive even though the eSATA functions of the HR2x is "officially" an unsupported bonus.


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## Doug Brott

huh? said:


> Has anyone been able to "view" the lost files of the external drive by connecting it to a PC?


No .. The data on the drive is encrypted and will only work with the HR2x on which it was recorded.


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## Doug Brott

And with that, this thread seems to have reached it's point of usefulness .. We're now quite a bit off topic.


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