Question about Unwatchable Bug with HR20-700

[Blankman]

I have had this HR20 for about 2 years. I have never had the unwatchable bug occur until recently. It has happenned 3 times in the past two weeks. I am using a Seagate FAP 750gb esata with this receiver. My question is, does the presence of the unwatchable bug indicate that there is a problem with my esata hd or a problem with the receiver. I am trying to determine if I should just replace the hard drive or if I should get a new reciever.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Blankman

[Steve]

Depends on your definition of "unwatchable". :)

If you mean black screen with no audio on OTA recordings, I occasionally see that too on my HR20-700, also using a 750GB drive. The good news is whenever that happens, I've learned I can just hit STOP and select START OVER and I'm good to go.

It's apparently some sort of OTA recording playback "miscue" problem. At least in my case, just an annoyance, thank goodness. /steve

[Blankman]

Sorry I wasn't more clear. The Unwatchable Bug problem that I am having is:

Shows appear to record as normal. If I look at the guide during recording of the show in question, it indicates the show is being recorded. The show in question appears in the list of shows recorded, but when you try to play the shows, it immediately goes to the screen where it asks you if you want to keep or delete the program, as if it had already played the entire program. But it doesn't play it. It goes straight to the delete or keep screen.

I read an old thread that says this occurs when data from that show is corrupt. But it was a really old thread and I thought maybe there was newer, more definitive info about this problem.

When I have this problem, it is not with one show, but with every show that was recorded during the previous day. All of them will be unwatchable. If I reset, all the shows dissappear in the recorded list. After this, the reciever functions as normal for several days until it happens all over again. It has happenned 3 times in two weeks.

[Steve]

Sorry I wasn't more clear. The Unwatchable Bug problem that I am having is:

Shows appear to record as normal. If I look at the guide during recording of the show in question, it indicates the show is being recorded. The show in question appears in the list of shows recorded, but when you try to play the shows, it immediately goes to the screen where it asks you if you want to keep or delete the program, as if it had already played the entire program. But it doesn't play it. It goes straight to the delete or keep screen.

I read an old thread that says this occurs when data from that show is corrupt. But it was a really old thread and I thought maybe there was newer, more definitive info about this problem.

When I have this problem, it is not with one show, but with every show that was recorded during the previous day. All of them will be unwatchable. If I reset, all the shows dissappear in the recorded list. After this, the reciever functions as normal for several days until it happens all over again. It has happenned 3 times in two weeks.Gotcha. I believe those show up as "0-minute" partials, if I'm not mistaken.

Sorry you're getting those. What does the HISTORY file say happened? If HISTORY is not helpful, I'd definitely be reporting these missed recordings in the appropriate "issues" threads for your software release. /steve

[Steve]

One other thing you can try is to reformat your drive. It doesn't take long, but you will have to rebuild your SL's when it's done. Doing so may take a day or so, because not all your shows may populate the GUIDE data for a few hours.

To reformat it, restart the HR2x. When you see the "self-diagnostics" message come on screen, hold down the front panel DOWN ARROW and RECORD buttons simultaneously. It will take about 30 seconds, but after the screen changes to the DirecTV color screen, you should eventually see a "formatting" message. At that point you can let go of the buttons.

It's a "quick" format that will only take a few seconds to run. /steve

[Rich]

Sorry I wasn't more clear. The Unwatchable Bug problem that I am having is:

Shows appear to record as normal. If I look at the guide during recording of the show in question, it indicates the show is being recorded. The show in question appears in the list of shows recorded, but when you try to play the shows, it immediately goes to the screen where it asks you if you want to keep or delete the program, as if it had already played the entire program. But it doesn't play it. It goes straight to the delete or keep screen.

I read an old thread that says this occurs when data from that show is corrupt. But it was a really old thread and I thought maybe there was newer, more definitive info about this problem.

When I have this problem, it is not with one show, but with every show that was recorded during the previous day. All of them will be unwatchable. If I reset, all the shows dissappear in the recorded list. After this, the reciever functions as normal for several days until it happens all over again. It has happenned 3 times in two weeks.

How do you "reset"?

Rich

[veryoldschool]

Sorry I wasn't more clear. The Unwatchable Bug problem that I am having is...
Long, long ago, I played with this.
This seems to come when the program doesn't really get recorded on the drive [zero data]. You have the "title" in the playlist, but nothing else. Resetting the receiver causes the receiver to do a disk check on booting up that removes the titles since there isn't any program for it.
I can get the same thing by removing the SAT feed the tuner is using. The recording won't show the 771 error [as this is only fed to the display "live"]. Do you ever get any 771 errors? Are both tuners getting good signal levels?
Since you're using a eSATA, step 1 would be to shift over to the internal drive and see if this problem continued. [if it does look again at your signal levels before restarting to see if a tuner has dropped off line.]

You might try a "reset everything" which will return the receiver to its "out of the box state", and give you a completely "fresh start" [though keeping the software]. If it still happens, then I'd be looking to replace the hardware.

[Blankman]

I am not getting any 771 errors. I will unplug the esata and run of the internal for a while to see if I continue to have the problem.

Thanks for the replies. I really appreciate the help.

Blankman

[GBFAN]

Once again the dreaded KOD strikes it's ugly head. HR20-700

4/28/09 CBS2 Chicago the Mentalist at 8:00 and Without a Trace at 9:00 both shows come up with the immediate Keep or Delete when you try to play. These shows had recorded fine before this last upgrade. Fringe was also being recorded on FOX32 at 8:00 and it was fine. I don't believe anything else was recording at 9:00. We were watching previously recorded Little People Big world recordings that we weren't able to watch due to a problem we were having recording this show that I reported in the past.
I previously posted this in the issues thread:



One piece of information I forgot in the above post is that I had to redo the series link for the Mentalist due to there originally being a conflict with Deadliest Catch. We had recorded the Mentalist and Fringe at 8:00 for the entire season, the Mentalist was on a break when Deadliest Catch started for the season so I didn't realize the conflict was there until I checked my to do list for the night. I saw the conflict and attempted to cancel the Deadliest Catch and record it at 11:00. I couldn't get the conflict to go away on the Mentalist, so I canceled the series links for both programs and then rescheduled them. Everything recorded as expected except the KOD's on both CBS programs as I posted above. The night we attempted to watch these programs and got the KOD, I reset the system after we were done watching TV for the night. Both programs were gone after the reset.



The above post is from me in the issues thread. This is nothing new. I get it randomly after upgrades. The reset I used is from the menu. The best thing you can do is report it in the issues thread for the software. Try to give as much info as possible about when and how it happened. I never get 771 errors on my HR20-700. The box works flawlessly 98% of the time. It seems that software upgrades cause me hiccups. I generally make it a point to do a menu reset after every upgrade just for peace of mind.

The above shows recorded fine last night.

[dvdmth]

I've had 0-minute recordings a few times before with software 0x0255, and in each case I found that one tuner wasn't tuning properly. Either it got no signal or it got a signal but would only produce a black screen when tuning to a channel. In each case, a restart fixed the issue. Since software 0x0290, the problem has pretty much gone away, but the DVR hasn't performed perfectly since (I had two, maybe three recordings fail since, though at least one of those was likely due to bad guide data on the NHL Center Ice channels and not the DVR's fault).

[Steve]

[...]
You might try a "reset everything" which will return the receiver to its "out of the box state", and give you a completely "fresh start" [though keeping the software]. [...]Actually, based on this (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1637099#post1637099) post, it sounds like only a reformat may put the HR 100% into it's factory state.

Whether or not whatever extra a reformat "clears" is germane to this particular issue... :) /steve

[veryoldschool]

Actually, based on this (http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=1637099#post1637099) post, it sounds like only a reformat may put the HR 100% into it's factory state.

Whether or not whatever extra a reformat "clears" is germane to this particular issue... :) /steve
From the earliest days with the HR20:
A reset everything clears the chips on the board, that a reformat doesn't.
It does "clear" the drive, but seems to only drop the file tables.
With some of the worst actors [back then], a reset everything followed by a reformat gave the best results.
I reformated the drive, yet when it rebooted, it didn't start with the setup menu as it does with a reset everything.
In the 2 1/2 years since this, there is the boot menu, system tests, that have improved what you can do to the drive.
"blank recordings" seem to be more related to the chips/board than drive issues.

[Steve]

From the earliest days with the HR20:
A reset everything clears the chips on the board, that a reformat doesn't.
It does "clear" the drive, but seems to only drop the file tables.
With some of the worst actors [back then], a reset everything followed by a reformat gave the best results.
I reformated the drive, yet when it rebooted, it didn't start with the setup menu as it does with a reset everything.
In the 2 1/2 years since this, there is the boot menu, system tests, that have improved what you can do to the drive.
"blank recordings" seem to be more related to the chips/board than drive issues.So it seems like a "reset everything" followed by a "reformat" on the subsequent reboot is the way to go.

Since you have to start from scratch after a "reset everything" anyway, adding a "reformat" doesn't cost anything but a couple of minutes extra time. /steve

[veryoldschool]

So it seems like a "reset everything" followed by a "reformat" on the subsequent reboot is the way to go.

Since you have to start from scratch after a "reset everything" anyway, adding a "reformat" doesn't cost anything but a couple of minutes extra time. /steve
Yep, that's how we did it "in the old days".
I think of the reset everything as moving the jumper on a motherboard that clears the BIOS, which a reformat doesn't do.

[Rich]

Yep, that's how we did it "in the old days".
I think of the reset everything as moving the jumper on a motherboard that clears the BIOS, which a reformat doesn't do.

Ahh, the old days. A time that will live in infamy. The fall of '06, the worst time to buy an HR, and I bought one and got two free. No free lunch, those three damn near gave me a nervous breakdown.

Rich

[veryoldschool]

Ahh, the old days. A time that will live in infamy. The fall of '06, the worst time to buy an HR, and I bought one and got two free. No free lunch, those three damn near gave me a nervous breakdown.

Rich
you mean someone actually paid for these? :lol:
Those were the days that DirecTV seemed to pay customers to use them. IIRC I was around $100 "up" between the credits and all for the year. :D

[Rich]

you mean someone actually paid for these? :lol:
Those were the days that DirecTV seemed to pay customers to use them. IIRC I was around $100 "up" between the credits and all for the year. :D

They gave me the first one with the dish. The second one I found in a CC for around $240, which was a good price then. The third, I bought at Costco and D* gave me full credit for the price. I know I got one more without paying for it and I think I got another, not sure. A couple I got for $99. I could get one now for $99, but I know it would be a 22. So, if I totaled them up (if I could remember what I paid for them), I'd be down a couple two three hundred bucks. Not bad for nine units.

Dish lurkers: Can Dish beat that kind of a deal? :nono2:

I know FIOS can't. And cable? Fuhgeddaboudit!

Rich

[Rich]

you mean someone actually paid for these? :lol:
Those were the days that DirecTV seemed to pay customers to use them. IIRC I was around $100 "up" between the credits and all for the year. :D

I will say this, 2006 is a year that I will always remember. Not with fondness. :nono2:

Rich