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Why Can't Slow Receivers be Fixed?

60K views 445 replies 99 participants last post by  Stuart Sweet 
#1 ·
I know this subject has been discussed on other threads many times, but my search has not come up with an answer to my question. I have (2) R22-100s w/HD and an HR24-200. The R22-100s are extremely slow, especially when I first turn them on in the morning. I've done the RAM clearing, and they are still slow. It is obvious that DTV can and has corrected other flaws in the past. Why can't they seem to fix this glitch? I would appreciate any useful solutions to this problem. Also does anyone know if DTV is working on this problem? Thanks.
 
#377 ·
Rich said:
We've known for years that the HRs will run better with a large internal drive as opposed to the paltry stock drive.

Rich
So then we're stuck with poor design decisions on D*'s part since opening the box and replacing the drive is a no-no according to D*. Or we can just do it and hope they don't catch it when you send that box back after a failure and you forgot to switch drives back? Or notice that the box has been tampered with?

Again, pretty damning of D*'s design and support decisions. That is sad.

And no, not all of us knew that changing out the poorly spec'd drive with a much better one was the fix. I suspect that most D* subscribers aren't aware of that either. 'we' assumed that D* was designing a box properly. Seems we were all wrong.
 
#378 ·
lparsons21 said:
So then we're stuck with poor design decisions on D*'s part since opening the box and replacing the drive is a no-no according to D*. Or we can just do it and hope they don't catch it when you send that box back after a failure and you forgot to switch drives back? Or notice that the box has been tampered with?

Again, pretty damning of D*'s design and support decisions. That is sad.

And no, not all of us knew that changing out the poorly spec'd drive with a much better one was the fix. I suspect that most D* subscribers aren't aware of that either. 'we' assumed that D* was designing a box properly. Seems we were all wrong.
I don't think D* original design was bad since Tivo is able to run on a HR22 with no problems. I think that D* has added so much crap to their original design that is has driven the paging rate up and caused bad performance. The best fix for a high paging rate is to add more memory but since that is not possible, a faster disk drive will help the problem.
D* needs to either make all these so called features optional so we can turn them off or provide us with a new larger more powerful DVR that will run all the crap they have added.
 
#379 ·
I don't think a feature causes the system to be slow. If you don't use media share, pandora or YouTube, they are not taking processor cycles.

I'm curious when they are going to fix the slow performance you get if you launch TVApps on a Scoreguide enabled channel. That was also a problem in the SDUI. I believe Scoreguide, TVApps, active and game lounge are a part of NDS MediaHighway (3rd party). So likely that isn't fixed (or upgraded to HD graphics) because it involves a lot of time an effort with a 3rd party.

Like I said earlier my H24-200 is blazingly fast... But there's no hard drive or DVR functions.
 
#380 ·
Richierich said:
Well, you have to wait more than 48 hours for the DVR to finish Sorting and Indexing the Guide Data for it to then respond as fast as it should going forward.

You can not expect the Speed to be the same as soon as you have the Software Downloaded then it will be 3 days after the Download when all of the Housekeeping Activities are finished.
I suppose you get that info from the same people who told you the next release is going to be faster. That's just a symptom of poorly written software because anything the receiver needs to do, should be done in the background and shouldn't affect any normal operation.

Since you get so many insider information, mind you telling me why with the new NR when I power up the receiver it outputs 720p despite that resolution being not checked in the display setups?
 
#381 ·
skyboysea said:
I suppose you get that info from the same people who told you the next release is going to be faster. That's just a symptom of poorly written software because anything the receiver needs to do, should be done in the background and shouldn't affect any normal operation.

Since you get so many insider information, mind you telling me why with the new NR when I power up the receiver it outputs 720p despite that resolution being not checked in the display setups?
All I know is I Replaced my Hard Drives in my 5 HR24-500s with Faster 2 TB Drives with a Larger Cache and I have No Problems whatsover so go buy yourself an HR24-500 and Replace the Drive and you are Good To Go.

Perhaps having a Faster Drive with a Larger Cache helps alleviate poor code I don't know but all 5 of mine work Great.

As far as your second situation that is a Bug and it will be fixed shortly.
 
#382 ·
lparsons21 said:
So then we're stuck with poor design decisions on D*'s part since opening the box and replacing the drive is a no-no according to D*. Or we can just do it and hope they don't catch it when you send that box back after a failure and you forgot to switch drives back? Or notice that the box has been tampered with?
All I know is that is the only difference between my 5 HR24s and others who are experiencing problems so I am Glad I Replaced my Drives even though I had to pay a lot to do so.
 
#384 ·
Richierich said:
All I know is I Replaced my Hard Drives in my 5 HR24-500s with Faster 2 TB Drives with a Larger Cache and I have No Problems whatsover so go buy yourself an HR24-500 and Replace the Drive and you are Good To Go.
You know, I am not a person who like to count money in other's pocket and I am glad you're well enough that you can afford to pay for 5 HR24 plus 5 2TB drives, but I cannot afford to spend that amount of money. To tell you the truth, even if I had the money wouldn't do it because it is not a solution. As long as Directv is in control of the software and that the quality of the software is so bad, nothing guarantees that the next NR will kill your system too.

I have been with Directv for 8 years, have always paid my bills on time and never asked for anything more than having a basic HD-DVR. I was perfectly happy with the FW I had and can't care less of all their add-ons. They are breaking a well working receiver and I should fix the problem?

I am just looking for the best option out there and then I will say bye-bye to Directv. That's how I will solve the problem.
 
#385 ·
skyboysea said:
I am just looking for the best option out there and then I will say bye-bye to Directv. That's how I will solve the problem.
Well, let me be the First to say "BUH-BYE" and I hope you will be Happy wherever you land. :)

My point stating that I have 5 HR24-500s is not that I have a lot of money but that all 5 Work Fast and have No Problems other than Slow Channel Changing which is caused by the HDMI Handshake and not by Bad Coded Software.

If 1 or 2 didn't work right I would be curious as to why but all 5 work Flawlessly and Fast.

So maybe if you have 1 HR24-500 you might want to think about replacing the hard drive with a Faster Drive such as I did with a Larger cache.

Just a thought.
 
#386 ·
lparsons21 said:
So then we're stuck with poor design decisions on D*'s part since opening the box and replacing the drive is a no-no according to D*. Or we can just do it and hope they don't catch it when you send that box back after a failure and you forgot to switch drives back? Or notice that the box has been tampered with?

Again, pretty damning of D*'s design and support decisions. That is sad.

And no, not all of us knew that changing out the poorly spec'd drive with a much better one was the fix. I suspect that most D* subscribers aren't aware of that either. 'we' assumed that D* was designing a box properly. Seems we were all wrong.
Go to Weaknees website and read what you have to go thru if you have them install a large HDD in your HR and it goes bad. You have to return it to Weaknees and have them install the original drive and then send the HR back to you so you can send it to D*. That's because they don't have "permission" to modify the D* HRs or any of their leased DVRs. They just do it. I'm not suggesting anyone violate the terms, but there's an example of how they police their policy of not allowing leased receivers to be opened and modified.

Rich
 
#387 ·
My HR22-100 is not connected to the internet, doesn't use Media Share, doesn't use Pandora, etc. and it is very slow and takes forever for the unit to respond to buttons pressed on the RF report control. Been that way for over a year.
 
#390 ·
CCarncross said:
There have been discussions about it at length. Due to the limited write capabilities and the limited drive sizes currently available, it doesnt make that much sense financially, and the speed wouldnt make a night and day difference in the overall performance of the device.
"limited write capabilities"... what's limited about the write of an SSD?
They are getting cheaper every day. I just replaced 2 WinXP PCs drives with Crucial SSDs and I'm very happy so far. I went the route of many stock HR20s (8) instead of a few with large HDDs due to the 2 tuner limit for concurrent recording.

I was wondering if technically a SSD would even work in a HR2x?
 
#391 ·
An SSD can only write to each cell a certain number of times, it's inherent in flash memory. I believe the insulation breaks down. Not a big deal usually in a normal computer, not something I'd do in a DVR. Especially if the device doesn't have support for some of the SSD features like TRIM.
 
#393 ·
To me it seems that adding external to receiver is the culprit sometimes especially 2TB full of recordings (even 1TB) to have really slow responses add to that with Youtube,Pandora,Guide PPV Ads,Whole Home,TVApps,Energy Savings, but i guess it depends on the manufacture brands, but like a computer adding thousands of music or videos acts the same way depending on the CPU and VM so try unplugging external and use your DVR internal drive to see the difference if any
 
#394 ·
CCarncross said:
According to newegg.com, 300GB SATAII SSD drives go for over $500...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&N=100008118 600136715&IsNodeId=1&name=300GB

Most people feel that 300GB drives in their DVR's are too small already, so go bigger and the price just goes up...

You still ready to try one? ;)
The larger SSDs are holding at high prices but the 128GB ones have come down 32% since Jan. I think it's a matter of time and they all will be affordable.
Richierich said:
All I know is I Replaced my Hard Drives in my 5 HR24-500s with Faster 2 TB Drives with a Larger Cache and I have No Problems whatsover so go buy yourself an HR24-500 and Replace the Drive and you are Good To Go.

Perhaps having a Faster Drive with a Larger Cache helps alleviate poor code I don't know but all 5 of mine work Great.

As far as your second situation that is a Bug and it will be fixed shortly.
What drives did you use?
 
#395 ·
acostapimps said:
To me it seems that adding external to receiver is the culprit sometimes especially 2TB full of recordings (even 1TB) to have really slow responses add to that with Youtube,Pandora,Guide PPV Ads,Whole Home,TVApps,Energy Savings, but i guess it depends on the manufacture brands, but like a computer adding thousands of music or videos acts the same way depending on the CPU and VM so try unplugging external and use your DVR internal drive to see the difference if any
I have done this with my HR 20-100 and its external 2TB drive...absolutely no effect on slowness of this DVR. I have not yet received the new firmware update so can't comment on how much it may help.
 
#396 ·
Podkayne said:
I have done this with my HR 20-100 and its external 2TB drive...absolutely no effect on slowness of this DVR. I have not yet received the new firmware update so can't comment on how much it may help.
Then the only other solution is NVRAM clear cache on channel 1, let the channel load till audio returns and press Red,Red,Blue,Blue,Yellow,Green on remote till you see the "NVRAM Cleared" message on the bottom of the screen (look carefully as it is hard to see sometimes on white text) or Menu Reset twice to flush the guide data within 30 minutes. good luck
 
#397 ·
acostapimps said:
Then the only other solution is NVRAM clear cache on channel 1, let the channel load till audio returns and press Red,Red,Blue,Blue,Yellow,Green on remote till you see the "NVRAM Cleared" message on the bottom of the screen (look carefully as it is hard to see sometimes on white text) or Menu Reset twice to flush the guide data within 30 minutes. good luck
I do this daily....I'm vigorously trying all the workarounds with this old DVR, but I think it could sure use the latest NR....:)
 
#398 ·
Richierich said:
All I know is I Replaced my Hard Drives in my 5 HR24-500s with Faster 2 TB Drives with a Larger Cache and I have No Problems whatsover so go buy yourself an HR24-500 and Replace the Drive and you are Good To Go.

Perhaps having a Faster Drive with a Larger Cache helps alleviate poor code I don't know but all 5 of mine work Great.
We shouldn't have to do any of that. When I first started with DTV I had a Microsoft Ultimate TV that certainly didn't have all the bells and whistles that these do but the basic functions of a dvr worked better than these do. At the time it was the best dvr out there, far better than any Tivo and better than most of what DTV first came out with. My HR 21s are pigs and I'm at the point of eating the cost of whatever one will work better than these. Using these is like being back on dial up for internet service.
 
#400 ·
CCarncross said:
While I agree with most sentiments on the surface, anyone comparing old SD technology to HD tech will always be sorely disappointed when you look at speed and performance of the equipment. HD stuff takes longer, no matter what provider you are with.
Congratulations. I believe you have come up with a new excuse...er, explanation.
 
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