[chris83]

I think my H20 is acting up. I welcome what you folks think. My TV is a Sony KDS-50A2000.

We have our own list of channel lineup “favorites” on the H20. The past several days when the receiver has first been turned on in the morning, that favorites selection has been reset to “Channels I Get”. We haven't done anything in the menu setup to change this. We change it back to OUR favorite channel list, and in the morning it's reset to “Channels I Get” again.

Also, when we turned on our TV tonight to watch the Mets-Cardinals game, I didn't think the picture looked too hot. I have “Native” turned off on the H20 and resolution set to feed a 1080i signal to the Sony. When I looked at the resolution, all that was being fed from the H20 was 480p, even though that was NOT even selected as an option. I switched to HDNet; STILL 480p. I finally had to go in, de-select 1080i and then re-select it for the H20 to finally output 1080i.

I've only had this H20 for about a month, but it's really starting acting up the past several days. Is there something funky with it?

Any thoughts or suggestions?

 

[litzdog911]

First thing to try is resetting the Receiver (reset button behind front panel access door). See if that clears up the problem.

 

[msuspartan]

I know that a while back there was a lot of discussion about the H20-600 rebooting especially in the 70-79 channel area. I am on my second H20-600 and it is still the same. Does anyone know if D* is planning a fix sometime soon? This is beyond ridiculous. They take my money and don't provide what they promise. I own my H20 and feel like I have been had!

 

[Twosted]

I know that a while back there was a lot of discussion about the H20-600 rebooting especially in the 70-79 channel area. I am on my second H20-600 and it is still the same. Does anyone know if D* is planning a fix sometime soon? This is beyond ridiculous. They take my money and don't provide what they promise. I own my H20 and feel like I have been had!

I was curious about this too. My H20 does this also. And sometimes (usually after the 3rd or 4th restart) my favorites reset. Like you said it only happens in the 70-79 channels area. Any news on a software update to fix it?

 

[Twosted]

Anyone?

Bueller?

Bueller?

 

[CorkyMuldoon]

Mine has been resetting itself more frequently of late. I called D* last Sunday and the CSR shipped an H20-100 that was supposed to arrive Tuesday. Called yesterday to ask D* about the box's tracking status. Was told it was delivered on Tuesday. Told the CSR that that was news to me!

They shipped another one yesterday. I'll probably get it Monday. At least the H20 is relatively functional.

I haven't had problems with my favorites resetting, though.

 

[Twosted]

Mine has been resetting itself more frequently of late. I called D* last Sunday and the CSR shipped an H20-100 that was supposed to arrive Tuesday. Called yesterday to ask D* about the box's tracking status. Was told it was delivered on Tuesday. Told the CSR that that was news to me!

They shipped another one yesterday. I'll probably get it Monday. At least the H20 is relatively functional.

I haven't had problems with my favorites resetting, though.

Keep me updated. I called D* when it first started happening and was told by the CSR that they knew about the problem and a software update was comming out to fix it. Let me know if the new box fixes it so I can call and get a new one.

 

[CorkyMuldoon]

Keep me updated. I called D* when it first started happening and was told by the CSR that they knew about the problem and a software update was comming out to fix it. Let me know if the new box fixes it so I can call and get a new one.

What an absolute horror story this turned out to be.

The replacement H20 arrived Saturday morning. I made this mistake of setting it up Saturday afternoon and missed out on a helluva lot of college football because of this decision.

Connecting the receiver was a non-issue. I went through the dish setup procedure while on hold with D* and noted the system test would fail because the receiver couldn't "see" the 99 degree satellite (I was told later in the afternoon that this is normal as the 99 degree satty is supposedly dedicated to foreign broadcasts - at least according to one of the CSRs I spoke to). I chose the option to "continue and fix later." What I discovered by choosing this option later, however, was that the dish type reverts to the 3-LNB dish.

Activation went OK, although I was on hold for a pretty long period of time - this despite being on D*'s "A" list. I'd hate to be on their "B" list.

After activation, I noted that I had none of my local digital channels (I'm in the Boston DMA with the AT-9 dish). The local SD channels wouldn't appear in the guide, either. The CSR handling my activation couldn't address my lack of channels and transferred me to tech support. This is where the fun began.

The first tech support representative started working the issue and had me try some steps with the system, such as resetting the box. After about 15 minutes I was disconnected.

I called back and navigated the clugy voice-activated phone tree and finally got reconnected with another technical support rep. After a few more resets and more troubleshooting, she was able to force my locals into the guide. The only issue here was that I'd only get a blank screen on any of the local digital HD channels. The SD channels were fine. It was at about this point that the technician actually asked me if I was sure I had the AT-9 dish installed! After a little more troubleshooting, I mentioned that I was sure that if I reconnected the H20 experiencing the overheating issues, I was sure I'd get the local digitals. The tech asked me to do that. This was about an hour into our conversation. I went to get the old H20 out of the box when my call with this second tech suppport rep was disconnected.

I called back, navigated the clugy phone tree and finally connected with another tech. While discussing the issue with this technician I warned him that if this call was disconnected I'd been cancelling D* altogether. He activated the old H20 and, like magic, all channels, including local digitals, were back. It was at this point that I decided I'd keep the H20 (an H20-600) and live with the overheating issues and return the replacement receiver (an H20-100).

I told the technician that it was unfortunate how far D* technical and customer support had fallen since I first signed up for D* 10+ years ago. I mentioned to him that it was also unfortunately that all calls to D* invariably include an apology from whomever you speak to at D* and mentioned my belief that if they didn't have a choke hold on NFL ST that they'd see a major loss of their customer base. Sensing my frustration, he transferred me to retention where I was given 6 months of Showtime for nothing.

The incentives are nice, but I really wish the only incentive necessary for me to stay with D* was outstanding customer and technical support. D* can't seem to do routine tasks routinely.

So I'm back to square one. As a fitting end to my Saturday adventure, the original H20 reset itself during the Virginia Tech - Miami game Saturday night. Somehow this seemed fitting.

 

[loudog2]

I had D** swap out my -600 using my protection plan. Now I have the -100 and have had no reboots for 2 weeks now. During setup I couldn't find my locals or 70-79 either. It took a couple of minutes, but the tech finally got them going. I used the new card and not the old.

It did take some time because it was a new receiver. The receiver had to download the new updates, then program the new card. But not having the reboots is worth it.

I still have one more h20-600 that I am not using right now. Traded it in for the hr-20. So I guess I will have to go through this again when I buy my new tv, and reconnect the other h20-600.

 

[bobnielsen]

I've seen in another thread that some people have had good results by using a fan to cool the H20-600, either with a laptop cooler or a fan mounted inside the top cover. The inactive USB ports can be used to provide power to the fan. I have only had one reboot in 3 months, but if starts doing this a lot, I have a fan ready to go.

 

[ZepherRR]

I have looked on several forums and I have not been able to find any comments about the H20 features. I have had one since Feb, and it has worked well with exception of dropping channels on favorites and channel setup - normally 20 and below. The 2 issues I have with the unit is that it does not have a true favorites setup in which you can save channels and retrieve pop-up screen with one selection/button. It also does not stretch the 4x3 pictures on the HD channels. It will only works on pillar selection (this is native and non-native). D* says that it's not possible to do this on the non-16x9 pics, Funny, it works on my Sony HD300.

Does anyone know if these things are going to be fixed in future or are fixed in some of the new units like the HR-20.
D* and LG just can't use a little logic in their design efforts.

RonR

 

[CorkyMuldoon]

I've seen in another thread that some people have had good results by using a fan to cool the H20-600, either with a laptop cooler or a fan mounted inside the top cover.

I got one of those laptop cooling devices and gave that a shot. Problem was that I got some RFI. The PQ was degraded by what looked like AC hum.

 

[23sharks]

I know that a while back there was a lot of discussion about the H20-600 rebooting especially in the 70-79 channel area. I am on my second H20-600 and it is still the same. Does anyone know if D* is planning a fix sometime soon? This is beyond ridiculous. They take my money and don't provide what they promise. I own my H20 and feel like I have been had!

I'm having similar problems. My issue is that the channels will freeze up or pause. The regular reset button didn't work for me. They had me disconnect the receiver and the satellite antenna, then plug them back in. It works, for a while. But then I end up having to do it just about every day. And I always have problems with it freezing while watching the HD games on the NFL ticket. Very frustrating.

 

[Twosted]

So I'm back to square one. As a fitting end to my Saturday adventure, the original H20 reset itself during the Virginia Tech - Miami game Saturday night. Somehow this seemed fitting.

Sorry to hear about that. I got a replacement H20 today and had no truoble at all. Called and activated it, all channels are there. I haven't watched it enough to see if it locks up. I'm sure it's ok though because it's a -100.

 

[msuspartan]

Finally - D* gave up on my H20-600 and replaced it with a H20-100. No difficulties since then.

 

[satman74]

You should write to the head of DirecTV's customer service and complain. Seriously. The address keeps getting yanked from here, so you may never see it, but its only through going to the top do you get any bit of service. It's not like I'm giving out her personal gmail address, this is her job to make sure customers are serviced.

Nicole Martin
[email protected]
Office of the President

She's the head of customer service. Tell her your story. I told her mine. Probably does no good because big business will still do whatever big business wants. I'm not advocating screaming at her, I'm advocating telling your situation and many like yours that are all too common. Hopefully, with your information, she can better deliver the customer service that D* claims to be delivering already.

What an absolute horror story this turned out to be.

The replacement H20 arrived Saturday morning. I made this mistake of setting it up Saturday afternoon and missed out on a helluva lot of college football because of this decision.

Connecting the receiver was a non-issue. I went through the dish setup procedure while on hold with D* and noted the system test would fail because the receiver couldn't "see" the 99 degree satellite (I was told later in the afternoon that this is normal as the 99 degree satty is supposedly dedicated to foreign broadcasts - at least according to one of the CSRs I spoke to). I chose the option to "continue and fix later." What I discovered by choosing this option later, however, was that the dish type reverts to the 3-LNB dish.

Activation went OK, although I was on hold for a pretty long period of time - this despite being on D*'s "A" list. I'd hate to be on their "B" list.

After activation, I noted that I had none of my local digital channels (I'm in the Boston DMA with the AT-9 dish). The local SD channels wouldn't appear in the guide, either. The CSR handling my activation couldn't address my lack of channels and transferred me to tech support. This is where the fun began.

The first tech support representative started working the issue and had me try some steps with the system, such as resetting the box. After about 15 minutes I was disconnected.

I called back and navigated the clugy voice-activated phone tree and finally got reconnected with another technical support rep. After a few more resets and more troubleshooting, she was able to force my locals into the guide. The only issue here was that I'd only get a blank screen on any of the local digital HD channels. The SD channels were fine. It was at about this point that the technician actually asked me if I was sure I had the AT-9 dish installed! After a little more troubleshooting, I mentioned that I was sure that if I reconnected the H20 experiencing the overheating issues, I was sure I'd get the local digitals. The tech asked me to do that. This was about an hour into our conversation. I went to get the old H20 out of the box when my call with this second tech suppport rep was disconnected.

I called back, navigated the clugy phone tree and finally connected with another tech. While discussing the issue with this technician I warned him that if this call was disconnected I'd been cancelling D* altogether. He activated the old H20 and, like magic, all channels, including local digitals, were back. It was at this point that I decided I'd keep the H20 (an H20-600) and live with the overheating issues and return the replacement receiver (an H20-100).

I told the technician that it was unfortunate how far D* technical and customer support had fallen since I first signed up for D* 10+ years ago. I mentioned to him that it was also unfortunately that all calls to D* invariably include an apology from whomever you speak to at D* and mentioned my belief that if they didn't have a choke hold on NFL ST that they'd see a major loss of their customer base. Sensing my frustration, he transferred me to retention where I was given 6 months of Showtime for nothing.

The incentives are nice, but I really wish the only incentive necessary for me to stay with D* was outstanding customer and technical support. D* can't seem to do routine tasks routinely.

So I'm back to square one. As a fitting end to my Saturday adventure, the original H20 reset itself during the Virginia Tech - Miami game Saturday night. Somehow this seemed fitting.

 

[CorkyMuldoon]

Funny. Another H2-100 showed up at the house yesterday. I'm thinking, though, that this was the first H20 D* shipped to me late last month that was mis-delivered by FedEx.

The H20-600 that I'd decided to live with has encountered more resets of late, so I decided I'd give the installation another shot.

Same initial symptoms as the last time. No locals (HD or SD). Fortunately, however, the CSR I spoke to to activate the receiver had encountered this error before and he (Scott) was able to get me fully operational in no time.

Time will tell if the H20-100 is immune to resets, but I'm a happy camper at this point. It was nice having a pleasurable experience talking to D* for a change.

 

[randyk47]

I had something happen with my H20-600 last night that I've never had happen with it or any other receiver. In the middle of the Unit, watching it in HD over my OTA, the screen went to some notice that my access card was invalid and needed to be activated and/or replaced. I'd not touched a thing since I turned to set on to watch NCIS over an hour earlier. The notice stayed on the screen with the Unit up in the right hand corner.....in what I can the "postage stamp" view.....so I switched channels, to a D* fed channel, just to see what would happen. The channel came in and the notice disappeared. Switched back to OTA and the Unit and watched TV for another hour plus, through the first episode of 3LBS, and the notice never came back. I could have understood, kind of, if this behavior had happened at start-up but in the middle of an OTA show??? And never came back???? Hmmm....never had an access card hiccup. Strange........

 

[CorkyMuldoon]

Hey, Randy, I'd seen the "invalid access card" notice on my 600 for time to time. I remember being pretty surprised (shocked?) when it first appeared.

Seems this is another anomaly specific to the 600.

 

[randyk47]

Lovely. Hope this isn't some new and wonderful problem with my H20. Up until now, and I've had the unit for 4-5 months, I've not had any problems with it. I use it in my main set-up which is my "theatre" and it's getting lots and lots of use now with all the HD programming on D* and OTA. Prior to this season this was mostly where we watched movies as SD broadcast look better on our CRT Sony in our family room than on the SXRD Sony in the theatre room.