HR20 becomes unresponsive and HD local playback choppy

[pyrettablaze]

I can reporduce the locals being choppy. All I have to do is put on a live HD local channel and let if buffer up some. If I rewind and start watching it, the playback is all pixelated and choppy. Also, it will do this on recorded HD local stuff. It does not do this on the HD channels from 70-79. If I am watching live HD locals and have rewinded, the only way to remove the choppy playback is to change the channel. Advancing to the end of the buffer does not solve the issue. Needless to say, the CSR wants to send someone out to check my satelite allignment :lol:

Also, I have in the past day had to reset the unit about 3 times because the system becomes unresponsive to any button presses. The unit seems to record stuff properly while it is locked up however, once it is locked up, I have to hold the reset button in. Even pressing the buttons on the unit itself does not do anything. Last night it was locked up when I went to bed, this AM, it was not recording anything and it was still locked up. Yesterday morning, the unit was semi locked up, I say semi because it would allow me to bring the guide up and hit exit however, it would not respond to any of the number pad buttons or the up/down arrows to navigate through the menu. It would also bring up the setup menu but again it would not navigate through the setup menu. Yes, the remote switch was set to DTV. I powered off the unit and it did not fix it. I had to fix it by the reset button. :mad:

[stuart628]

I can reporduce the locals being choppy. All I have to do is put on a live HD local channel and let if buffer up some. If I rewind and start watching it, the playback is all pixelated and choppy. Also, it will do this on recorded HD local stuff. It does not do this on the HD channels from 70-79. If I am watching live HD locals and have rewinded, the only way to remove the choppy playback is to change the channel. Advancing to the end of the buffer does not solve the issue. Needless to say, the CSR wants to send someone out to check my satelite allignment :lol:

Also, I have in the past day had to reset the unit about 3 times because the system becomes unresponsive to any button presses. The unit seems to record stuff properly while it is locked up however, once it is locked up, I have to hold the reset button in. Even pressing the buttons on the unit itself does not do anything. Last night it was locked up when I went to bed, this AM, it was not recording anything and it was still locked up. Yesterday morning, the unit was semi locked up, I say semi because it would allow me to bring the guide up and hit exit however, it would not respond to any of the number pad buttons or the up/down arrows to navigate through the menu. It would also bring up the setup menu but again it would not navigate through the setup menu. Yes, the remote switch was set to DTV. I powered off the unit and it did not fix it. I had to fix it by the reset button. :mad:


LET me guess, its WEWS that has the Local choppy playback? I know because I have been in contact with WEWS and its on their End....Also one more stab here, you want to blame the HR20 for that local problem, or at least blame Directv? All my Cleveland Locals play back great, except for WEWS, they are updating their encoders and hope to have it done soon...if you get choppy video on your other locals then you might have a bad box...and it sounds like it with the locking up issue.

[pyrettablaze]

The choppy playback does not seem to be limited to WEWS. We recorded Deal or No Deal and the playback was the same choppy playback and that is on WKYC(NBC).

I can reproduce the choppy/pixelated/freezing playback just by jogging back in the live buffer or recording HD content and then playing it back in the VOD menu. Watching live works perfectly. However, if I were to watch 5 minutes of perfect live TV and then rewind 5 minutes and play the same 5 minutes back from the live buffer, the playback is then choppy/pixelated mixed with some freezing.

[DCSholtis]

Has anyone been in contact with WKYC or WOIO about their video problems too?!

[Dusty]

Has anyone been in contact with WKYC or WOIO about their video problems too?!

I don't know if it's the station. I am in Portland, Oregon. I got 2 HR20 installed last Wednesday, and have been battling the same issues since then. My problem is only with KPTV12 (Fox). I have talked to almost a dozen different agents since. I am speaking to advanced tech support who confirmed that they had identical issues reported by different customers in other areas of the countries (Atlanta, Indiana, Florida mentioned). They don't know the cause. The advanced tech support only could make an outage report on my behalf. Supposedly, someone reviews it daily and is more able to do something about it.

A question for those of you who have the same issue. Do you get audio on the channels you have problems with?

The tech support was kind enough to tell me that Seahawk won yesterday. The game was recorded but unwatchable due to the video stuttering and no audio.

Earl, would this be a thread worth tracking?

[pyrettablaze]

When I experience the choppy playback the audio is not effected.

[DCSholtis]

I don't know if it's the station. I am in Portland, Oregon. I got 2 HR20 installed last Wednesday, and have been battling the same issues since then. My problem is only with KPTV12 (Fox). I have talked to almost a dozen different agents since. I am speaking to advanced tech support who confirmed that they had identical issues reported by different customers in other areas of the countries (Atlanta, Indiana, Florida mentioned). They don't know the cause. The advanced tech support only could make an outage report on my behalf. Supposedly, someone reviews it daily and is more able to do something about it.

A question for those of you who have the same issue. Do you get audio on the channels you have problems with?

The tech support was kind enough to tell me that Seahawk won yesterday. The game was recorded but unwatchable due to the video stuttering and no audio.

Earl, would this be a thread worth tracking?

Your right, I forgot. D* is having trouble in some areas with their MPEG4 encoding, in the Cleveland DMA this affects the stations above. (Our local NBC and CBS and local RSN), all 3 of which operate a 1080i signal. The stations outputting 720p (ABC and FOX) I have had no issues with.

[Dusty]

Your right, I forgot. D* is having trouble in some areas with their MPEG4 encoding, in the Cleveland DMA this affects the stations above. (Our local NBC and CBS and local RSN), all 3 of which operate a 1080i signal. The stations outputting 720p (ABC and FOX) I have had no issues with.

How do we know the problem is with MPEG4 encoding? Did DirecTV acknowledged the issue as such? If so, was there any estimatation for a fix?

My problem is with FOX, supposedly, a 720p channel. NBC works fine, except closed captioning.

[pyrettablaze]

Correct me if I am wrong here. The choppy playback that you guys are talking about is the "stuttering" that you see when they are playing football games? Much like the video effect they use in saving private ryan?

[stuart628]

that is because of the FIRST generation encoders that DIrectv is using to pick up the signals it has been put on here by Earl, they are now in the process of doing it, also the ABC issue here in cleveland, is PLAYBACK, like when you get into the buffer/record a show on WEWS, that the original poster mentioned, there is no problem with CBS/NBC/FOX playback here in ohio that I am aware of, and again I have been contacting ABC, and they said they have a fix, when they do it who knows. And to the ORiginal poster if you have problems with more then Just ABC, then you might have a bad box or other problems as I have recorded several things off of NBC FOX, and CBS and they all look fantastic and playback fantastic!

[Dusty]

Correct me if I am wrong here. The choppy playback that you guys are talking about is the "stuttering" that you see when they are playing football games? Much like the video effect they use in saving private ryan?

For me, the program advanced with jitters and in pixelated blocks, like the pictures pause and jump forward a second at times in pieces.

I need OTA turned on as a workaround.

[GADA]

I'm in the Akron, Ohio area as well and have experienced the same thing with our HR20. It ruined the Ohio State / Penn State game this weekend and others before that. The other issue I had with the MPEG4's was a severe lip-synch issue of several seconds with the season premier of ER last week. This is getting VERY annoying and has me anxiously awaiting the off-air tuners so I can just quit using the MPEG4's.

Anyone find any correlation between this problem and signal stength?

[stuart628]

My Ohio State Penn State game was great, not one problem, and ER I cant comment on because wife watched it on the R15, and I was not watching it on HR20, but the shows before that I never had one problem on at all....no lip synch no problem, the only one I see that is not including the ABC buffer/hard drive problem is every once in a while ( I mean like every ten to twenty minutes) on NBC I see a breakup (not the whole screen just a very small breakup somewhere on the screen) but thats it, and I use to see that on OTA and i just wonder if that is related to NBC being on the VHF channel three!

[stuart628]

def. owe everyone here an apology as I thought something had to be going bad on your end, but tonight on Prison BReak lip sync was off by less then a second but still bad :( also NBC kept freezing like crazy, I had to change the channel and then come back to it, this is horrible!

[jbihsop1557]

I Live in Columbus and CBS is freezing up. I have to change channel to the get the picture back several time tonight. It must be in D*.

[mweldridge]

I can reporduce the locals being choppy. All I have to do is put on a live HD local channel and let if buffer up some. If I rewind and start watching it, the playback is all pixelated and choppy. Also, it will do this on recorded HD local stuff. It does not do this on the HD channels from 70-79. If I am watching live HD locals and have rewinded, the only way to remove the choppy playback is to change the channel. Advancing to the end of the buffer does not solve the issue. Needless to say, the CSR wants to send someone out to check my satelite allignment :lol:

Also, I have in the past day had to reset the unit about 3 times because the system becomes unresponsive to any button presses. The unit seems to record stuff properly while it is locked up however, once it is locked up, I have to hold the reset button in. Even pressing the buttons on the unit itself does not do anything. Last night it was locked up when I went to bed, this AM, it was not recording anything and it was still locked up. Yesterday morning, the unit was semi locked up, I say semi because it would allow me to bring the guide up and hit exit however, it would not respond to any of the number pad buttons or the up/down arrows to navigate through the menu. It would also bring up the setup menu but again it would not navigate through the setup menu. Yes, the remote switch was set to DTV. I powered off the unit and it did not fix it. I had to fix it by the reset button. :mad:

I have the same system freeze up that you described. I channel surf (watching 2 or 3 programs at a time) and have to reset the system at lease once a night. My wife watches her programs from start to finish and the HR20 she uses in the living room never freezes up. It must have to do with constant channel changing and resolution switching. It will keep recording in this condition and even stop recording when the program finishes but you have to reset to regain control.

[pyrettablaze]

The system again locked up last night. When trying to play back some saved content, the system just hung there and was unresponsive.

Supposedly, they are going to bring out a new box tomorrow that will fix all of the problems that I have been seeing.:lol: :lol: :lol:

Boy am I glad I did not pay the bargin price of $999 for this thing....

[pyrettablaze]

We received the new HR20 and was able to reproduce the same problem. I am going to hook up the old system just to double check myself but, it seems that the only time that I get the choppy playback is when WEWS is the station that is being watched. I was able to record and watch other local HD content on NBC and CBS with no choppy playback.

So stuart seems to be correct in the issue being related to WEWS(ABC) in cleveland. I wonder what the issue could be if I can view it live perfect but playback is choppy.

I will say 1 thing though, I was able to watch MOST of desperate housewives last night off of the buffer with it only freezing in a few locations.

[stuart628]

We received the new HR20 and was able to reproduce the same problem. I am going to hook up the old system just to double check myself but, it seems that the only time that I get the choppy playback is when WEWS is the station that is being watched. I was able to record and watch other local HD content on NBC and CBS with no choppy playback.

So stuart seems to be correct in the issue being related to WEWS(ABC) in cleveland. I wonder what the issue could be if I can view it live perfect but playback is choppy.

I will say 1 thing though, I was able to watch MOST of desperate housewives last night off of the buffer with it only freezing in a few locations.

WEWS uses Tandberg encoders, they need a firmware upgrade, they are sitting on their butts doing nothing though...if you havent already (not that it seems to matter as nothing has happened but you never know) go here and sign up


http://forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/displaysinglethread?rootPostID=10162058&returnExpertiseCode=

also I am able to watch some WEWS with no to little freezes (watched the hour long lost with 1 to 2 freezes) but then some other stuff just kills my DVR. Also every other channel is flawless (well the 8mm effect is in play, but that isnt a bothersome thing for me yet.)

[sd1199]

Correct me if I am wrong here. The choppy playback that you guys are talking about is the "stuttering" that you see when they are playing football games? Much like the video effect they use in saving private ryan?



I just had mine installed last week, and this is the problem I am getting same as you describe, only really noticable on the wide shots not close ups. Anybody else?

[keithisme]

I am also from Cleveland. I notice pixelation issues on most of the channels. WEWS is by far the worst. As others have noticed, the recording on WEWS primetime have been nearly unwatchable. Two examples were Ugly Betty and Men in Trees. Has anyone switched the HR20 to record on SD channel CLS-5 rather than HD WEWS-5? That was my plan.

[keithisme]

The problem with WEWS can be easily verified on my two HR20s. Just watch live tv on WEWS for a minute. Pause and rewind. The play back is junk.

I am on the phone with D*. Maybe they can help....but I doubt it.

[stuart628]

The problem with WEWS can be easily verified on my two HR20s. Just watch live tv on WEWS for a minute. Pause and rewind. The play back is junk.

I am on the phone with D*. Maybe they can help....but I doubt it.

Just to update, WEWS has now updated the software in their encoders AND!!!! it still dosent work :( its a little better, but now the Ball is in Directv's court, and if they think I will put up with this any longer they are mistaken, they have about two weeks, and I am out! I will try to keep you guys updated on this situation.

[AllAroundPsycho]

I get the unresponsive system thing, too... about once a day. I'm getting a new box brought out to me on Wednesday, but I have hope I can still figure out what the problem is. I'm trying a completely new wiring setup tonight. New component/optical cables, removing the video/audio switchbox, etc...

[tstarn]

This is definitely an MPEG-4 issue. Tonight, I was watching a show on the local ABC affiliate, and the sound kept cutting out. Really annoying (both via HDMI to the TV and via toslink on my receiver). I checked the same show on my neighbor's MEPG-2 box, and no drop-outs. We live literally a few feet away, and while one (my MPEG-4 HR-20 and the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia) was dropping out sound every 15 seconds, the NY ABC affiliate was clear as a bell. Not a single sound issue.

It's clearly an MPEG-4/local problem, at least as far as the sound dropouts go. Anyone try comparing the two signals on the video front? You need to be near someone who gets the MPEG-2 HD feeds from NYC or LA.

A good way to narrow it down to local MPEG-4 issues. You can even call friends who might have those feeds and ask if they are getting the same problems.

[yensid]

WFTV in Orlando (ABC affiliate) has the same problems. Who at the station do I contact? All the shows are choppy and unwatchable. I guess I need to record the non HD station to get a better viewing. :(

[joejhawk]

WFTV in Orlando (ABC affiliate) has the same problems. Who at the station do I contact? All the shows are choppy and unwatchable. I guess I need to record the non HD station to get a better viewing. :(

I don't know who you contact at WFTV but you should definitely call D* about this and get it on record. I think they are tracking these types of problems and only work on the problems that get the most complaints. We need everyone in Orlando to call so we can have this fixed ASAP. I'm sure it's too late for tonight's Lost but we can shoot for next week! Call Customer Retention 800-824-9081 and lodge the complaint, they are the department to get things done if they want to keep their customers.

[thekochs]

This is definitely an MPEG-4 issue. Tonight, I was watching a show on the local ABC affiliate, and the sound kept cutting out. Really annoying (both via HDMI to the TV and via toslink on my receiver). I checked the same show on my neighbor's MEPG-2 box, and no drop-outs. We live literally a few feet away, and while one (my MPEG-4 HR-20 and the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia) was dropping out sound every 15 seconds, the NY ABC affiliate was clear as a bell. Not a single sound issue.

It's clearly an MPEG-4/local problem, at least as far as the sound dropouts go. Anyone try comparing the two signals on the video front? You need to be near someone who gets the MPEG-2 HD feeds from NYC or LA.

A good way to narrow it down to local MPEG-4 issues. You can even call friends who might have those feeds and ask if they are getting the same problems.

Some threads on MPEG-4 audio issues:

http://forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/displaysinglethread?rootPostID=10164384&returnExpertiseCode=

http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?p=681888&posted=1#post681888