[Steve]

I've seen some posts from folks saying they have no issues with the AM-21. My experience has been on 30 minute recordings, everything's been fine. No sluggish trick-play or pixelated transitions on the "fade to/from black" frames you see on commercial breaks.

When I record one hour shows (or longer sporting events) however, after about 30 minutes of playback, I often encountered sluggish and/or non-responsive FF and REPLAY, and sometimes see the picture "break-up" when going to commercials or returning to the show.

Has this erratic behavior now been corrected to everyone's satisfaction? Or are folks still experiencing any of this? I ask, because maybe I just need to get my hands on a new AM-21?

TIA for your comments. /steve

 

[ysiamrich]

I have significantly better performance when I changed my 750 calvary drive to a antex-m1 with seagate 1TB and 32 mb of cache. However, I still get some slow response on longer recordings and have the break up when going to commercial. I especially notice it on Fringe. It is now mearly annoying (a couple of seconds slow down etc) instead of "I want to throw this out a window".
There is a lot of argument on if it is the AM-21 or the HR21 etc etc- I really don't care and just know the performace was severly impacted on my HR21-700 when I added the AM-21 and had the Calvary 750 attached and while it works better now it still isn't perfect.

 

[RAD]

Running the latest CE on HR21-100 with AM21 and trick play is as you discribe, starts out of and then degrades the farther you go into the program. The issue with the macroblocking on fade in/out of commercials is a sometimes problem, very rarely see it now but it still does happen. I can say I haven't seen the 771 no signal popup when tuning between ATSC stations for a few CE releases now.

 

[litzdog911]

I've had no problems with my AM21/HR21 combo.

 

[BruceS]

I doubt that the AM21 has anything to do with the sluggish response to the remote.

I have had that problem on an HR20-700 as well.

As far as your picture problems when going to/from commercials, check whether you are using native mode.

Most commercials are still SD. So, if you are viewing HD, your box needs to switch resolutions and so does your TV. Depending on your TV, this can lead to short black screen or pixellation problems.

I was having them and just changed my box to output 1080i all the time.

 

[RAD]

I doubt that the AM21 has anything to do with the sluggish response to the remote.

Not to say you didn't see a problem with your HR20's but I don't have it with either of my HR20-700's. On the HR21-100/AM21 unit I can record the same show on HD LIL and ATSC via the AM21. The program recorded via HD LIL works just fine, the same program recorded via the AM21 get's slower and slower for trickplay the farther into the program you get. OK, so it may not actually be the AM21 but it's something on how the HR21 and AM21 interact that's causing the problem.

 

[Steve]

Ya. Bruce. It's not non-remote response that's the problem The commands get to the HR, they just get "stacked-up" and when they finally execute seconds later, trick play is erratic... stuttering, choppy. It's a very repeatable issue, but only on OTA recordings about an hour in. Games recorded on the same unit in MPEG-4 an hour-in respond to trickplay remote commands normally and as expected. And I have no such issues with OTA recorded to my HR20-700, nor do I see any macroblocking on it when entering and exiting commercials.

Mike, I'm curious if you've recorded anything longer than an hour OTA and watched it through using trickplay? If so, I wonder what's different about your set-up or AM21. Perhaps a later rev? My two AM-21's were from the first batch DirecTV shipped.

/steve

 

[Steve]

Another thought. Is all MPEG-2 OTA equal? I'm recording the feeds from the Empire State building in NY, which are probably compressed as little as possible because they represent the source of the East Coast DirecTV feeds. As I type this, tho, I realize I have no issue with those same OTA feeds on my HR20. Hmmm. /steve

 

[Steve]

Noticed a couple of other DBSTalkers recently complaining about the same issue here. /steve

 

[Maruuk]

Yeah, it's a major problem. I have exactly the same thing. Trick play gets completely wanky on longer AM21 recordings. Though it may be worse on some channels than others because their data may be output differently and the HR-21 can't track certain signals that well.

 

[anubys]

I also have the same problem...only on the HR-21 connected to an AM21...and only when watching OTA recordings...

ever since I connected it to the AM21, I've also have had the HR21 freeze on me (picture simply freezes...the todo list is almost empty as if the guide data needs to re-populate)...something that never happened before and started happening immediately after the AM21 was hooked up...

 

[Sandy]

Same problems as everyone else. The OTA recordings won't play back properly. Any trick play freezes playback for up to 60 seconds. This makes trying to watch something that was recorded using the AM21 a very frustrating and irritating experience. This needs to be fixed.

 

[Steve]

I've reported my AM-21 problems in the "issues" thread for the CE software release I'm on. I encourage others to do the same. Hopefully these are issues that can be fixed, and it's just a matter of getting them elevated on DirecTV's "to do" list. TIA. /steve

 

[Grentz]

I have had good luck with my AM21 and HR21-700, works the same as without it IMO.

 

[Indiana627]

I have problems with my AM21s. But I've yet to find a pattern. Terminator on Fox (1 hour) plays back fine; Prison Break on Fox (1 hour) and recording directly after Terminator has terrible trickplay. This has happened both weeks that these 2 shows have been. Fringe on Fox (1 hour) plays back fine. I thought this might have a 720p issue but my ABC recordings play back fine (also 720p). And since Fox is my strongest OTA signal, I don't think it's because of a weak signal.

Overall, very frustrating when the trickplay is so bad. I hope D* addresses it in the next NR.

 

[Steve]

Terminator on Fox (1 hour) plays back fine; Prison Break on Fox (1 hour) and recording directly after Terminator has terrible trickplay.

Issues with the second of two back-to-back recordings on the same tuner is kind of consistent with my experience trying to record games, which generally run 2 hours or more on the same tuner. The trickplay issues start when I'm well into watching the recording, similar to your issues watching Terminator in the second hour. /steve

 

[bobnielsen]

I run the CE firmware and haven't had any HR21/AM21 issues for a few months. Overall, my HR20 has been more stable than my HR21, however.

 

[Indiana627]

Issues with the second of two back-to-back recordings on the same tuner is kind of consistent with my experience trying to record games, which generally run 2 hours or more on the same tuner. The trickplay issues start when I'm well into watching the recording, similar to your issues watching Terminator in the second hour. /steve

Just to clarify, all of the 1 hour Terminator plays back fine. But when I start to watch Prison Break - which records directly after Terminator on the same channel for a duration of 1 hour - trickplay is bad from the beginning. I can barely FF through the recap of the previous episode. It's then a struggle throughout the entire recording.

And forget about trying to delete it from the on screen Delete/Don't Delete prompt - I usually exit the recording before that point and then go to the List and use the red key to delete it.

 

[Steve]

Just to clarify, all of the 1 hour Terminator plays back fine. But when I start to watch Prison Break - which records directly after Terminator on the same channel for a duration of 1 hour - trickplay is bad from the beginning. I can barely FF through the recap of the previous episode. It's then a struggle throughout the entire recording.

Yup. My mistake. I meant to say your watching of PB in the second hour was like watching one of my games about an hour in. /steve

 

[jwd45244]

I understand that there are people that are having issues with their AM21. I am fortunate to say that I am not one of them. The HR21 / AM21 combination has been much better for me than my HR20s. I don't know what I did other than really work to peak my OTA signals both by antenna aiming and amplification. All of the recordings have been rock solid an trick play has been flawless.

I even diplex my OTA and Satellite with no issues at all.