HR20-100 Questions

[rahlquist]

Arrrg second try at this post forum ate the last one due to a link being in it.... $@$@

Took the plunge and bought a HR20-100 to replace our DirecTivo on our Toshiba HD TV. Had it installed over the weekend. I have to say functionality I am not impressed much. Plus we have had some issues.

Let me start of saying my wife loves the Tivo units and since she bought them and the HD tv in question herself she wasn't thrilled with this change because she could care les about HD content. Now she may be even less thrielled.

The first night with the new unit we had some issues, stuttering recording in the live buffer and on the tv itself, both hd and regular programming. We also had the TV go to dispalying all 4's and 8's overlaid on top of the video when turning it on. Those led us to call direct to come back and look at this thing. They told us (on saturday) that they couldn't make it back till Wednesday. So I decided to try swapping the HDMI cable for component and we stopped seeing the 4's and 8's but still had the pauses only on that one receiver.

They came out yesterday. I wasnt home so my wife fielded the visit, here is what she relayed to me. The tech said he wasn't surprised we were having issues as the HD DVR was in his opinion a pile of junk that break on a regular basis. He forced a firmware download after replacing one cable going from the wall to the unit. He also replaced a couple corroded cable ends at the multiswitch because he insisted our stutter was because of signal issues despite getting signals in the 90-100 range. After that he re-forced a firmware download (it had been done by the original installer too). While waiting on that he informed my wife that they do break on a regular basis, have caused damage to clients TV's etc. My wife commented that the unit runs very hot and he said yeah they can cause fires too.

Now he may have been pulling her leg but this is the last I needed. To her this whole thing is not something she wanted.

Now today I read a message at HDGuru dot com (sorry cant do the linkage) that the black bars put out by Direct's DVR can cause burn in on the screen and that Direct has no plans to address it.

Is my experience typical? Do any of the regulars know if Direct will eventually fix the black bars so I wont have to worry about my wifes wrath from burn in?

[say-what]

Wow, what a installer. Wonder how he keeps his job bad mouthing the product like that.

No, they do not cause fires, but they do run hot - about 127 is a typical temp reading without using external cooling.

The stutter could probably be corrected by just quickly hitting pause then play. Sometimes the units try to get ahead of the buffer - my TIVO would do this on occasion.

Not sure which TV you have, but there have been hdmi incompatibility issues, post your make and model and DirecTV can look into that.

As for burn in, that's not an issue on LCD's and Plasma units and most of the newer DLP's, it may be an issue on tube sets (CRT's). If you're really worried, switch the bars to gray or dark gray in the setup menu.

It's definitley not a piece of junk.

[veryoldschool]

Wow.
I think that installer could be your major problem.
Is the receiver perfect? no. Are all of them a piece of..... no.
After reading your post, I have many questions about your install. The receiver can only work as well as the system does & it sounds like you have more issues with the install than anything else. Corroded connectors? WTF? Wasn't the multi-switch upgraded to a Zinwell WB68 as it should have been?
There are just so many questions that come to mind after reading this installer's BS.

[Stuart Sweet]

Welcome to DBSTalk.com, rahlquist!

It sounds like you're having a tough time. The toughest part is that the installers gave you a lot of negativity about the whole thing.

The problems you're experiencing aren't very common, and a lot of people are very satisfied with the HR20 once they learn its secrets.

If you haven't done so yet, check out the excellent tips and tricks document in the Information Resources subforum.

[rahlquist]

Wow thanks for the replies. Yeah the second Installer who came out to look at things after the fact sounds like a clown from what my wife said and he did a lot fo damage to credibility with my wife. The first installer appeared to do a good and thorough job but things just weren't working quite right.

@say-what The stutter happens when you're not even touching the remote. Just sitting there watching live tv. If you backup into the bufffer it repeats. We were fortunate enough to be watching the same show on two sets on night (the other has a Tivo model) and only the HD one messed up. The TV is a Toshiba 42HP66 I believe (not at home right now). Its been a decent TV but has shown a propensity to burn in at least temporarily so far (darn channels and their bloody logos). This just really concerns me, if it manages to create burn in during 480 broadcasts then watching anything in HD will be virtually worthless since everything will have a pair of lines through it. While its not just Direct*'s fault they could be partly to blame for a poor choice on this particular issue.

@VOS Yeah some of the connectors on the coax from the house side of the multiswitch didnt get changed out during the upgrade to the hd dvr dunno if replacing them is standard procedure or not(personally I would if it could prevent a service call for as cheap as those connectors are). The multiswitch itself did get changed out to a model that resembles the first one that comes up in google when I search with that brand and model so my guess is he used the right one the first time.

@lamontcranston I dont mind having a not Tivo unit myself, although I cant wait for the next firmware from what i read it sounds like it addresses the scanning smoothness which in my opinion is utter junk as a slide show.

[houskamp]

Also Black bars are comonly put on HD channels when showing SD content by the broadcasting station, thus D* can't do anything about them..

[veryoldschool]

If the HD signal drops out [for a moment] you will get stutter. This "could" very much be do to poor cabling/connectors or a low signal at the dish.
I needed to have installers out four or five times in the first week to get my system "done right". Since then it's been great. They seem to leave the cables [$ bolts on the dish] loose, which can also cause what you're seeing.

[rahlquist]

Also Black bars are comonly put on HD channels when showing SD content by the broadcasting station, thus D* can't do anything about them..Hi houskamp;

That much I am aware of and some channel like espn will use their own bars form what I have seen. The bars they are talking about in the article I mentioned ( i have 5 posts and can paste the link now http://hdguru.com/?p=127 ) are two thin black bars that sit inside of the fat black/gray bars. Those thin black bars are the troubling ones.

[rahlquist]

@VOS thank you for that, I will keep that in mind, so used to the Tivo models and the RCA tuners breaking up nearly every time clearly so you know its a signal issue.

[houskamp]

Hi houskamp;

That much I am aware of and some channel like espn will use their own bars form what I have seen. The bars they are talking about in the article I mentioned ( i have 5 posts and can paste the link now http://hdguru.com/?p=127 ) are two thin black bars that sit inside of the fat black/gray bars. Those thin black bars are the troubling ones.
I only see that type of thing on one local channel (OTA)here. It shows up as a blue stripe in the same place. Seems to be the station to me..
also that document is a year old..

[ddeen]

Take the installers and techs words with a grain of salt. Most of them around here install and service all the major providers, Charter, Dish Networks, and Directtv. The installer I had bad mouthed Dish, and I'm sure there are plenty that bad mouth Directtv and or Charter.

Like someone said above, are any of them perfect? No. I have had them all, Charter, Dish, and Directtv, and while I liked the Dish DVR the best, and am with Directtv now and will stay because they have a good DVR, best looking picture to me, hopefully the most HD soon, and it is a bit cheaper than Dish.