Connecting to DVR Service Nightly

[m4p]

I have an old Hughes D40 DVR that someone just gave me. I have it hooked up in the bedroom and every night it connects to the DVR Service through the phone line, and it takes quite a while to update. When this happens, the screen goes black, and I can't watch live tv, and so I lose the live buffer. I can of course interrupt it, but I wonder is this behavior normal? Would unplugging the phone line stop this from happening?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[Michael D'Angelo]

I am moving this to the "DIRECTV Legacy Receiver" forum.

[BattleZone]

Most likely it hasn't been connected to a phone line in forever and is downloading all of the "slices" (chunks of code) to allow it to update the TiVo software to the current version (6.4a). It has to do this via phone line now because it didn't get those updates from the satellite (they're no longer being streamed). Once it is finally done, and all the parts are there, it should reboot one night and spend an hour or so updating itself to the latest software, and then you won't have that problem anymore.

[m4p]

Thanks very much for the reply, IIP. This DVR was used by my sister up until she gave it to me a couple of weeks ago. I'll ask if she had the phone line plugged in but I'm pretty sure she did.

I just checked and it looks like I have software version 6.4a-01-2-151. For Service Connection, it said last service connection 2/8/09, and next service connection scheduled for 2/18/09.

However, for Service Data Download, it says last one was 2/13/09 at 2:30 a.m. What exactly is the Service Data Download? This must be the one that is happening every night.

I looked at my Dial In Configuration and that says 000, TFA=0
Not sure what that means.

Any other ideas what might be causing this?
Thanks!

[Ricka]

Could it be that you only have ONE satellite (coax) feed coming into it and/or only have one tuner enabled?
If it only has one, that is probably it downloading the "Tivo Service" via satellite.
No way to stop it unless you run another feed and activate tuner two.

[codespy]

You can stop the nightly TiVo service by changing channels even if the download is occurring. It just takes a few seconds to get a picture after you change channels. The TiVo service download will resume the next night. Usually 2:00am weekdays and 2:30am weekends.

I have an HR10 with one sat input and that's how it works.

[m4p]

Could it be that you only have ONE satellite (coax) feed coming into it and/or only have one tuner enabled?
If it only has one, that is probably it downloading the "Tivo Service" via satellite.
No way to stop it unless you run another feed and activate tuner two.

Yep, only have one tuner hooked up. Last night I unplugged the phone line. This morning I checked system info and it said last Service Data Download 2/15/09 at 2:30 a.m. and completed successfully. I had fallen asleep so I didn't get to see whether or not the screen went blank and whether or not I lost my live buffer.

Sounds like you're right about the Service Data Download is happening from the satellite instead of the phone line.

I guess it's time to hook up the second tuner. I haven't done it yet because I need to buy a long coax since it will be hooked up to the switch in the basement, then run to the other end of the basement and finally up through the bedroom floor to the receiver.

So if I do, then this shouldn't happen anymore?

Codespy: Thanks for your reply. The problem is if I change the channel it interrupts it, but then I lose the live buffer. I like have the live buffer so I can fast forward through commercials. I guess not a big deal though.

Thanks again for the replies :)

[Ricka]

Sounds like you're right about the Service Data Download is happening from the satellite instead of the phone line.


So if I do, then this shouldn't happen anymore?



It will still happen every night. It will use the second tuner for the service download, you can watch the other tuner.
Not to mention be able to record two shows at once or record one while watching another channel.

As was mentioned earlier, it doesn't matter if you change channels to skip the download, it will do it later or the next night.