[rickeame]

I have had nothing but problems, and it is making me crazy. I thought my comcast DVRs were bad -- these things suck about 10x worse.

HR-21 downstairs will randomly get SUPER SLOW. Not responsive at all, has to be rebooted.

First HR-21 pro had to be replaced a month ago because it had the overheating problem.

I walk upstairs not five mins ago to enjoy some recordings in the theater room and I turn everything on to see the DVR (the pro one) frozen AGAIN and my sunday night recordings NEVER HAPPENED.

I mean, come ON. Is there any reliable piece of equipment made for DirecTV or should I go back to cable and my TivoHD? Those at least worked reliably.

This is nuts. I'm missing shows left and right. I haven't had a DVR work properly for more than 5 months without needing to be swapped out. The pro one is the worst, which is ironic given it cost the most. It also has a habit of recording empty shows, particularly if scheduled from the online tool.

Super, Super frustrated right now.

 

[dreadlk]

Are your units all on UPS systems?
Sounds like you either have low voltage or frequent power dips.

Are you sure your LNB cables are in good shape, no cuts or possible shorts?

Are your signal levels good?

As far as the internal firmware and hardware, it did have many of the issue's you desribed, but the last two updates have fixed most of those problems so I believe you either have had a real bad string of luck in getting receivers or you have one of the above mentioned problems.

 

[Ken S]

I have had nothing but problems, and it is making me crazy. I thought my comcast DVRs were bad -- these things suck about 10x worse.

HR-21 downstairs will randomly get SUPER SLOW. Not responsive at all, has to be rebooted.

First HR-21 pro had to be replaced a month ago because it had the overheating problem.

I walk upstairs not five mins ago to enjoy some recordings in the theater room and I turn everything on to see the DVR (the pro one) frozen AGAIN and my sunday night recordings NEVER HAPPENED.

I mean, come ON. Is there any reliable piece of equipment made for DirecTV or should I go back to cable and my TivoHD? Those at least worked reliably.

This is nuts. I'm missing shows left and right. I haven't had a DVR work properly for more than 5 months without needing to be swapped out. The pro one is the worst, which is ironic given it cost the most.

Super, Super frustrated right now.

There may be some things that folks here can help you with as your problems may be related to either known bugs with workarounds or install issues. But, these receivers also have problems. Unfortunately, at least for the next year or so, if you want a DVR and you want DirecTV service you don't have much choice. It's the HR2x series or nothing.

But, let's try some troubleshooting first.

1. On the box that is locked up. What is the internal temperature? Is it in a closed cabinet? To get the temperature Hold the Info Key on the remote for about 3 seconds.

2. Have you tried swapping the BBCs (filters) on the back of your receiver with different filters (You can order additional BBCs from DirecTV).

3. Do you have your DVR plugged into a quality UPS?

Tell us as much as you can about your setup. What dish? What multiswitch if any?, is the cabling new? What are your signal levels?

Hopefully, the folks here can be of help or at the very least help you to determined the DVR(s) are bad and should be replaced.

 

[rickeame]

To answer a few questions.

1. The temp is fine -- the cabinet is open and has been open because I didn't trust the new unit.

2. I have not tried switching BBC's. I am not really a person who wants to spend 10 hours dickering around trying to get a piece of consumer electronics to work. I also am not one to sit around waiting for a tech who won't know any more about it than I do (which is what I got last time). I'm just flummoxed that I never had these problems at all with my TivoHD. Zero.

3. It's plugged into a fairly expensive home theater UPS.

What is clear is that I can't trust this thing. I am at the moment not a fan of the "pro" unit as now two are letting me down. It apparently crashed earlier in the week as now that I look at the recordings, none of my stuff from this past week was there. So I missed essentially everything...

Is it that hard to create a DVR in this day and age? Seriously?

Okay, enough with the ranting. I can try switching out all of this stuff, but it doesn't set aside the fact that I can't trust it to record anything, so now I'm stuck with my shows.

 

[Ken S]

rickeame,

I fully understand not wanting to spend hours fiddling with these DVRs to get them to work...you can always call DirecTV and get them to send you replacements...of course that takes hours too when you consider the hold time, etc...and worse yet...may not fix the issue.

To answer a few questions.

1. The temp is fine -- the cabinet is open and has been open because I didn't trust the new unit.

2. I have not tried switching BBC's. I am not really a person who wants to spend 10 hours dickering around trying to get a piece of consumer electronics to work. I also am not one to sit around waiting for a tech who won't know any more about it than I do (which is what I got last time). I'm just flummoxed that I never had these problems at all with my TivoHD. Zero.

3. It's plugged into a fairly expensive home theater UPS.

What is clear is that I can't trust this thing. I am at the moment not a fan of the "pro" unit as now two are letting me down. It apparently crashed earlier in the week as now that I look at the recordings, none of my stuff from this past week was there. So I missed essentially everything...

Is it that hard to create a DVR in this day and age? Seriously?

Okay, enough with the ranting. I can try switching out all of this stuff, but it doesn't set aside the fact that I can't trust it to record anything, so now I'm stuck with my shows.

 

[Radio Enginerd]

To answer a few questions.

1. The temp is fine -- the cabinet is open and has been open because I didn't trust the new unit.

2. I have not tried switching BBC's. I am not really a person who wants to spend 10 hours dickering around trying to get a piece of consumer electronics to work. I also am not one to sit around waiting for a tech who won't know any more about it than I do (which is what I got last time). I'm just flummoxed that I never had these problems at all with my TivoHD. Zero.

3. It's plugged into a fairly expensive home theater UPS.

What is clear is that I can't trust this thing. I am at the moment not a fan of the "pro" unit as now two are letting me down. It apparently crashed earlier in the week as now that I look at the recordings, none of my stuff from this past week was there. So I missed essentially everything...

Is it that hard to create a DVR in this day and age? Seriously?

Okay, enough with the ranting. I can try switching out all of this stuff, but it doesn't set aside the fact that I can't trust it to record anything, so now I'm stuck with my shows.

Looks like you're not looking for advice so I'll offer you this. Not everyone is having these problems so there could be another problem with your setup. There are many very educated people on this board that might lead you down a path that will correct some (or not all) of your issues.

 

[rickeame]

Are your units all on UPS systems?
Sounds like you either have low voltage or frequent power dips.

Are you sure your LNB cables are in good shape, no cuts or possible shorts?

Are your signal levels good?

As far as the internal firmware and hardware, it did have many of the issue's you desribed, but the last two updates have fixed most of those problems so I believe you either have had a real bad string of luck in getting receivers or you have one of the above mentioned problems.

If I run the "test" it says:

tuner 1: acquired at 91%
tuner 2: acquired at 84%

Tuner 1's and 2's singal strength is at high 80's to 100 on all transponders except for a 47 on 26, which will occasionally go to zero.

Not sure what's on that one or why it would be the one that is doing that.

In this case, it was a freeze that caused all of the mess. The DVR froze on CNNHD, and that was that -- it then didn't obviously get any recordings from that point on.

I also noticed some of my series were reset to hold only 1 episode.

*sigh*

Now I need to go torrent down some shows to see what I have missed.

 

[rickeame]

Okay, I am also looking at the DVR right now, and while there are a ton of series setup, with a ton of shows coming up, the To Do List is empty. Zero entries. But when I try to record any of them by going to the show and saying "record" it will tell me that it's already scheduled. And if I go into the Prioritizer, it says "none scheduled" for every show.

And "history" shows that all of my recordings were cancelled. And shows a premiere of a show as 'recorded' that isn't appearing in my list.

What in the heck is going on?

 

[Tom Robertson]

How recently was that unit rebooted? Often after a reboot, the todo list will be empty until the next housekeeping cycle fills it again. For the next short time, the unit should record everything (mine always have) even before the housekeeping is done.

Cheers,
Tom

 

[harsh]

Okay, I am also looking at the DVR right now, and while there are a ton of series setup, with a ton of shows coming up, the To Do List is empty. Zero entries. But when I try to record any of them by going to the show and saying "record" it will tell me that it's already scheduled. And if I go into the Prioritizer, it says "none scheduled" for every show.

And "history" shows that all of my recordings were cancelled. And shows a premiere of a show as 'recorded' that isn't appearing in my list.

What in the heck is going on?

How many series do you have set up?

Is the machine rebooting alot (or are you rebooting it)?

Do you put the receiver in standby when not in use?

Do you ever find that the entertainment center door is closed?

 

[rickeame]

I just rebooted it around the time I started this thread. I think something is truly messed up as now it appears that recordings that I did have, are now gone as well. So essentially sometime last week:

- The unit froze during either a recording that happened in the background or due to something in the CNNHD signal.

- it sat in that state for how long, I do not know.

- I rebooted it.

My shows are gone. A lot were not recorded because it was frozen, the ones that were recorded just aren't there at all in the list. The history shows they recorded, but none of them are there. These are Smallville, Fringe, Terminator, True Blood .... all missed or gone.

So, it appears corruption has happened. And now I suspect I will have to sacrifice my remaining shows/movies to do a reformat if such a thing exists. Is there any way to force the system to look for shows that are really there?

Am I just hosed?

 

[rahlquist]

Okay, I am also looking at the DVR right now, and while there are a ton of series setup, with a ton of shows coming up, the To Do List is empty. Zero entries. But when I try to record any of them by going to the show and saying "record" it will tell me that it's already scheduled. And if I go into the Prioritizer, it says "none scheduled" for every show.

And "history" shows that all of my recordings were cancelled. And shows a premiere of a show as 'recorded' that isn't appearing in my list.

What in the heck is going on?

A recent reboot will cause the To Do List to be rebuilt in some cases. It can take time.

 

[rickeame]

How many series do you have set up?

Is the machine rebooting alot (or are you rebooting it)?

Do you put the receiver in standby when not in use?

Do you ever find that the entertainment center door is closed?

This is the first time this particular unit has had to be rebooted. The HR-21 downstairs has frozen from time to time, but this Pro unit is fairly new (the old one spiked in heat). This unit is running at around 100 degrees. The cabinet has been open since the unit went in there, it's held in place by the rail racks, so no way the door can even close.

however, the cabinet is cooled, so that was never the issue -- it was just a bad early unit.

 

[rahlquist]

Am I just hosed?

It is starting to sound like you have a heat or drive related failure. Youre not using an external drive are you?

 

[harsh]

Another one I forgot:

Is your HR21 Pro connected to a LAN?

 

[rickeame]

Another one I forgot:

Is your HR21 Pro connected to a LAN?

Yes, I use remote record a TON.

 

[rickeame]

It is starting to sound like you have a heat or drive related failure. Youre not using an external drive are you?

102* right now. That's about where it sits most of the time.

Not using an external drive, just the standard one that came in the pro.

 

[harsh]

Yes, I use remote record a TON.

Try unplugging it. The network connection is one of those things that has been observed to cause machines to lock up. Unplugging it may improve your situation (or not).

I'm still looking for answers to some of the other questions.

 

[rickeame]

Try unplugging it. The network connection is one of those things that has been observed to cause machines to lock up. Unplugging it may improve your situation (or not).

I'm still looking for answers to some of the other questions.

I'll give that a try. As to your other two questions, I have about 5 series setup. And I only sometimes put it in standby. In this instance I did not, it was left running after watching it at the start of the week.

More troubling is that shows were recorded that for whatever reason are not showing up.

 

[Tom Robertson]

The network isn't required for remote scheduling.

I've not had network problems with my HRs for a long, long time unless I'm changing my routers or DHCP settings. And then I'd only have problem with MediaShare itself.

Just to check, is the 102° reported from the Info and Setup screen? That must be some external unit to cool it down that far.

Cheers,
Tom