All Series 2 DirecTivos: 6.3f Issues/Discussion

[Stuart Sweet]

Version 6.3f for DirecTiVos.

Expected rollout: Jan 22 to Feb 12 All time zones
Release Notes:

corrects a random rebooting problem.


PLEASE DONT POST... DIDN'T GET IT, or GOT IT tracking posts in this thread, they are subject to deletion

The more detail the better Simply put... the more detail you can provide the better the feedback.

Please post the model of your receiver along with all issues.

[dstager]

I have a Hughes SD-DVR80 and I noticed the 6.3f slices in the MFS and decided to upgrade using slicer. The previous software I had was 6.2a and I had upgraded to that via slicer from 6.2 to preserve hacks. I noticed a difference in upgrade process this time around.

During the 6.2 -> 6.2a slicer upgrade I was not forced to reboot even though slicer said to reboot. 6.2a just ran immediately. When I did reboot, the thing just went through the normal boot up process and it was business as usual.

When I upgraded 6.2a -> 6.3f I was forced to reboot. The difference now upon reboot was that I got the screen that said the Tivo was installing a system upgrade and it may take up to an hour -- which is what you'd expect to see if it had just called in and had the upgrade activated. Not sure what gets changed when this kind of process occurs.

The slicer upgrade method was supposed to preserve hacks, but for me at least, tivoweb and gotomydvr didn't work any more. The regular telnet and FTP hacks still worked.

There was a new prompt that was not there with 6.2a when you go to Music & Photos menu. It prompted me asking if I wanted to enable home network applications. I did activate them, but noticed no differences in the machines operations or features. Tivo Desktop detected it but said I had to subscribe to the home media option when I tried to connect to it.

There's probably something DirectTV has to turn on, or maybe Tivo. It's been running stable for two weeks. That's about it.

[jal]

If an HR10 is deactivated, but still hooked up to the dish and phone line, will it get the software update? Just curious in case I want to reactivate it later.

[litzdog911]

If an HR10 is deactivated, but still hooked up to the dish and phone line, will it get the software update? Just curious in case I want to reactivate it later.

No.

[dishrich]

If an HR10 is deactivated, but still hooked up to the dish and phone line, will it get the software update? Just curious in case I want to reactivate it later.

I've done it a couple times with a couple deactivated D-Tivo's & they all got the upgrades with NO problems. It did take a few days to catch the update downloads, but after making a daily call, they all sucessfully updated.

[whitepelican]

If an HR10 is deactivated, but still hooked up to the dish and phone line, will it get the software update? Just curious in case I want to reactivate it later.

That's worked for me in the past for updates to several DTivos.

[curt8403]

I've done it a couple times with a couple deactivated D-Tivo's & they all got the upgrades with NO problems. It did take a few days to catch the update downloads, but after making a daily call, they all sucessfully updated.

daily call seems to be the thing that is most important

[drill]

my HR-10 was granted permission to install 6.3f last night. had the pending restart message in the setup->phone screen. i restarted the tivo so i could set the 30 sec skip for when my wife got home. unfortunately the tivo never fully booted. its stuck at the "Almost there ... just a few minutes more" screen. i didn't have time to deal with it this morning, so i left it.

i'm guessing the only option i have is to pull the plug and see if it boots on power up. if it doesn't, i guess i will have to pull the drive and reinstall a backup OS. losing all my recorded programs :( man my wife will be pissed if that's the resolution. anyone else got any ideas?

[drill]

my HR-10 was granted permission to install 6.3f last night. had the pending restart message in the setup->phone screen. i restarted the tivo so i could set the 30 sec skip for when my wife got home. unfortunately the tivo never fully booted. its stuck at the "Almost there ... just a few minutes more" screen. i didn't have time to deal with it this morning, so i left it.

i'm guessing the only option i have is to pull the plug and see if it boots on power up. if it doesn't, i guess i will have to pull the drive and reinstall a backup OS. losing all my recorded programs :( man my wife will be pissed if that's the resolution. anyone else got any ideas?

power cycle fixed it. i did notice that this time i got a screen that said something like installing system updates. that didn't show up when i did a menu restart.

[Random987]

Ok. I am having a similar problem. Even after a "pull the plug" reset, the unit still gets hung on the "Almost there...." screen. I spoke to Directv and they are trying to push a new box on us. This is my wife's TV and she is adamant that she wants to hang onto the Tivo, she mentioned something about prying it from her cold dead hands....

Other than the unplug reset, is there anything else I can try?

Thanks


my HR-10 was granted permission to install 6.3f last night. had the pending restart message in the setup->phone screen. i restarted the tivo so i could set the 30 sec skip for when my wife got home. unfortunately the tivo never fully booted. its stuck at the "Almost there ... just a few minutes more" screen. i didn't have time to deal with it this morning, so i left it.

i'm guessing the only option i have is to pull the plug and see if it boots on power up. if it doesn't, i guess i will have to pull the drive and reinstall a backup OS. losing all my recorded programs :( man my wife will be pissed if that's the resolution. anyone else got any ideas?

[Grentz]

Ok. I am having a similar problem. Even after a "pull the plug" reset, the unit still gets hung on the "Almost there...." screen. I spoke to Directv and they are trying to push a new box on us. This is my wife's TV and she is adamant that she wants to hang onto the Tivo, she mentioned something about prying it from her cold dead hands....

Other than the unplug reset, is there anything else I can try?

Thanks

Was it hacked at all before the update?

Have you tried unplugging it and leaving it unplugged for awhile?

Have you tried unplugging everything except for the TV (so unplug the phone, sat lines, etc.)?

Just some things to try.

I think I might just leave my Tivo in the dark, doesn't really sound like the upgrade brings anything new to the table yet, and mine is probably going to go to the closet tomorrow when my HR2x comes!

[Random987]

I left it unplugged for about five minutes, which didn't help. I am going to try to leave it unplugged for a couple of days to see if that works. The directv flunkie said that it has to be hardware related (or the software of the box) as opposed to a directv issue because of where it is hanging, at the Almost there screen. He claimed that this was where the box checked its internals right before trying to connect to the satellite.




Was it hacked at all before the update?

Have you tried unplugging it and leaving it unplugged for awhile?

Have you tried unplugging everything except for the TV (so unplug the phone, sat lines, etc.)?

Just some things to try.

I think I might just leave my Tivo in the dark, doesn't really sound like the upgrade brings anything new to the table yet, and mine is probably going to go to the closet tomorrow when my HR2x comes!

[drill]

I left it unplugged for about five minutes, which didn't help. I am going to try to leave it unplugged for a couple of days to see if that works. The directv flunkie said that it has to be hardware related (or the software of the box) as opposed to a directv issue because of where it is hanging, at the Almost there screen. He claimed that this was where the box checked its internals right before trying to connect to the satellite.

i did some searching over on tivocommunity.com forums before i got home to power cycle mine (which thank god fixed it). anyway, there were some references over there regarding some "kickstart" sequences that you can do to force the tivo to do disk checks, etc. if power cycling doesn't work, i would search over there and try some of those (report back here if they work!). most likely, its your harddrive that's bad. if nothing else works, you can install a new one. info on doing that is over at tivocommunity.com forums too.

[codespy]

Bugs still present after getting 'f' d. Both SD and HD IRD's.

1- With clock on (SPS9S), and playing a program in the NPL, pause the program and the time of day clock halts after 1 minute.

2- With clock on and tuner data (SPS[IR]S) on, clock flashes repeatedly.

[captain_video]

If an HR10 is deactivated, but still hooked up to the dish and phone line, will it get the software update? Just curious in case I want to reactivate it later.

A deactivated Tivo will get the same updates as a subbed unit as long as it's connected to a dish and phone line. I'm not sure if it still makes the daily calls automatically without a sub so you may have to initiate a few manually before it gets installed.

Some people have misconceptions about what functions are available with an unsubbed Tivo. The only difference between a subbed unit and an unsubbed one is that you're limited to the barker channels and can't record anything without a sub and the DVR service. You'll still receive all guide data and software updates.

[Lord Vader]

I have a Hughes SD-DVR80 and I noticed the 6.3f slices in the MFS and decided to upgrade using slicer. The previous software I had was 6.2a and I had upgraded to that via slicer from 6.2 to preserve hacks. I noticed a difference in upgrade process this time around.

During the 6.2 -> 6.2a slicer upgrade I was not forced to reboot even though slicer said to reboot. 6.2a just ran immediately. When I did reboot, the thing just went through the normal boot up process and it was business as usual.

When I upgraded 6.2a -> 6.3f I was forced to reboot. The difference now upon reboot was that I got the screen that said the Tivo was installing a system upgrade and it may take up to an hour -- which is what you'd expect to see if it had just called in and had the upgrade activated. Not sure what gets changed when this kind of process occurs.

The slicer upgrade method was supposed to preserve hacks, but for me at least, tivoweb and gotomydvr didn't work any more. The regular telnet and FTP hacks still worked.

There was a new prompt that was not there with 6.2a when you go to Music & Photos menu. It prompted me asking if I wanted to enable home network applications. I did activate them, but noticed no differences in the machines operations or features. Tivo Desktop detected it but said I had to subscribe to the home media option when I tried to connect to it.

There's probably something DirectTV has to turn on, or maybe Tivo. It's been running stable for two weeks. That's about it.

If I'm not mistaken, you're dealing with two different platforms here. 6.2 and 6.2a were for the non-HDTIVOs, like the DVR80, the DVR40, and the HDVR2 (of which I still have two). 6.3 and its subsequent versions, including 6.3e and 6.3f, are for the HR10-250 (the HDTIVO) alone.

[drill]

If I'm not mistaken, you're dealing with two different platforms here. 6.2 and 6.2a were for the non-HDTIVOs, like the DVR80, the DVR40, and the HDVR2 (of which I still have two). 6.3 and its subsequent versions, including 6.3e and 6.3f, are for the HR10-250 (the HDTIVO) alone.

unless i am mistaken, that statement is not true. 6.3e and 6.3f are unified versions for the HDTivo's and SD Series2 platforms.

[Lord Vader]

I believe one can technically use them on S2 DTIVOs, but the 6.2x platform is for S2 non-HD models and 6.3x is for the HD TIVO.

[whitepelican]

I believe one can technically use them on S2 DTIVOs, but the 6.2x platform is for S2 non-HD models and 6.3x is for the HD TIVO.

I think you're missing the point here. Over the past few months, the versions have been merged. The latest version of 6.3f is for all DirecTivos - both the SD ones and the HR10-250.

[Lord Vader]

I don't think it's for SD ones, because none of my SD units have received 6.3f. Even the nonhacked ones haven't received it. My HR20-250s have, however.

[Drew2k]

I don't think it's for SD ones, because none of my SD units have received 6.3f. Even the nonhacked ones haven't received it. My HR20-250s have, however.It is. See the thread title, first post, and comments from others in this thread and another (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1444370) who received it on their SD TiVo receivers.

[Lord Vader]

Maybe my units just don't like 6.3x then. :D

[dodge boy]

ok I pulled my sd-hdvr2 out of the closet and hooked it up. My qestion is does it need the sat feed or just the phine line? This thing has been powering up for over a freaking hour.... On another note, my son's r10 got it fine.

[Grentz]

From what I remember when my Tivo got upgrades it was usually via the phone line. So I would hook it to the phone and force a call.

My Series2 is in the closet though now since I got the HR2x and it is all hacked and happy so I dont really want to try upgrading ;)

[litzdog911]

ok I pulled my sd-hdvr2 out of the closet and hooked it up. My qestion is does it need the sat feed or just the phine line? This thing has been powering up for over a freaking hour.... On another note, my son's r10 got it fine.

If it's already been through the "Tivo Guided Setup", then you don't really need a phone connection. If it's stuck on "Welcome, starting up ....", then I would suspect a dead hard drive.

Now once you get it going, you do need the phone connection and regular "phone home" to trigger the installation of the latest software that's downloaded via satellite.

[dodge boy]

If it's already been through the "Tivo Guided Setup", then you don't really need a phone connection. If it's stuck on "Welcome, starting up ....", then I would suspect a dead hard drive.

Now once you get it going, you do need the phone connection and regular "phone home" to trigger the installation of the latest software that's downloaded via satellite.

Thanks, it's been on the "Welcome powering up screen" for all night lastnight and all day while I was at work. I called D* (Protection Plan) they are sending an "Owned" R15.......

[Lord Vader]

Just stick in a new hard drive that has an updated software image on it. :)

[LI-SVT]

HR10-250 running 6.3f

When deleting 1 of 2 programs from a folder I expect TiVo to return me to the main list with the remaining folder show selected. What it is doing is returning me to the show previously watched. This could be on a different page of the list.

[Beo]

Since the autoupdate to 6.3f, my HR10-250 is dropping audio for about 2 seconds, at 10-20 second intervals.

I've tried everything, turned on/off DD, activated PCM, reset and removed power... no improvement.

I've never had audio dropouts before. Very few reboots or freezes.