R15 issues

2445 Views 20 Replies 10 Participants Last post by cabanaboy1977, Nov 24, 2006

dhammis

Discussion Starter · Nov 21, 2006

I'm new to the R15, but it seems very similar to my HR20, which I love. My wife, on the other hand, is not so happy with the R15. It's very strange behavior leads me to believe that it will be corrected with a clear and delete everything, but I'm trying to avoid that because I'd like to keep what I have recorded.

Problem 1: My wife has a SL for Days of our Lives. The To-Do shows recordings for next week, which is fine. The History shows all of the recordings from the last two weeks plus the next week and they are all listed as "Not Recorded". Deleting the SL and re-creating it doesn't fix the problem. A reset without deleting anything or changing settings doesn't fix it either.

Problem 2: If you watch a recorded program and then stop it part way through, when you watch it again it starts from the beginning, not where you left off.

Problem 3: The remote will sometimes work to power the TV off/on and sometimes it will not. I suspect this can be corrected with new batteries.

I'm likely going to turn this in for an HR20 in a few months, but in the meantime I'd like to come home without hearing about problems with the DVR.

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1 - 20 of 21 Posts

jimbo09

· #2 · Nov 22, 2006

#1 The history will show you everything you have programmed in the past, and whether it was recorded, deleted, or cancelled (not recorded). You cannot alter the history.

#2 Sometimes the time bar doesn't move (glitch?) so it goes back to the beginning or wherever the timer bar stopped moving.

#3 Yes, this happens. I don't see what batteries have to do with it...more power maybe. Heck, it could be the angle at which the remote is held for that matter.

I guess what I am saying is that all of the things you have mentioned are common problems I have had also. The "hard reset" of everthing, as opposed to the reset receiver seems to me to do about the same thing, except you don't lose what you have recorded. On the phone the CSRs always want you to do a reset of everything, but I can't see why. They never have provided a good reason. I wonder if they reset their computer to the original factory defaults everytime it locks up.

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dhammis

Discussion Starter · #3 · Nov 22, 2006

The confusing part about the history is that it lists things in the future and says they aren't recorded. The date on the system is correct, but there are things a week out that it says it hadn't recorded.

cabanaboy1977

· #4 · Nov 22, 2006

dhammis said:
The confusing part about the history is that it lists things in the future and says they aren't recorded. The date on the system is correct, but there are things a week out that it says it hadn't recorded.

I wonder if this is why some have missed recordings?

jimbo09

· #5 · Nov 22, 2006

Another issue along those lines is that my R15 will show programs cancelled, when I haven't cancelled them. I try to only record one program at any given time period so it doesn't cancel both, which it has the tendency to do.

It is very frustrating to come home to find that nothing has recorded.

cabanaboy1977

· #6 · Nov 22, 2006

I wonder if the R15 is marked things as "canceled" that it really should be marking as repeats? Or the guide data is changing and it's miss marking it as "canceled".

I know the R15 had issues before where it wasn't remembering to add shows back to the todo list when it took them off the todo list. Maybe this is happening again?

qwerty

· #7 · Nov 22, 2006

jimbo09 said:
Another issue along those lines is that my R15 will show programs cancelled, when I haven't cancelled them. I try to only record one program at any given time period so it doesn't cancel both, which it has the tendency to do.

It is very frustrating to come home to find that nothing has recorded.

I beleive it marks programs you have watched and deleted as canceled. Is that what you're seeing?

cabanaboy1977

· #8 · Nov 22, 2006

qwerty said:
I beleive it marks programs you have watched and deleted as canceled. Is that what you're seeing?

From what he's saying it's future programs that are being marked as canceled and not in the todo list.

Edit: or at least that's my understanding.

dhammis

Discussion Starter · #9 · Nov 22, 2006

Yeah, it was putting future recordings in the history and listing them as "Not Recorded". I've done the reset to factory defaults and I'm starting to rebuild my series links so we'll see how it goes in the future.

GiantFan

· #10 · Nov 22, 2006

My experience has been as long as the history includes "future" recordings - that until a reset everything is done no recordings from SL's or any recording in the todo list will work. I had shows in the todo list to be recorded, but they also showed up in history as "not recorded" as stated here. They would not record. I did not test a manual recording, but since no scheduled recordings would work - the only way out was a reset that cleared the drive (including history). I am not sure what circumstance puts the device in this state, but once it is there, I think the reformat is the only way out.

cabanaboy1977

· #11 · Nov 22, 2006

dhammis said:
Yeah, it was putting future recordings in the history and listing them as "Not Recorded". I've done the reset to factory defaults and I'm starting to rebuild my series links so we'll see how it goes in the future.

GiantFan said:
My experience has been as long as the history includes "future" recordings - that until a reset everything is done no recordings from SL's or any recording in the todo list will work. I had shows in the todo list to be recorded, but they also showed up in history as "not recorded" as stated here. They would not record. I did not test a manual recording, but since no scheduled recordings would work - the only way out was a reset that cleared the drive (including history). I am not sure what circumstance puts the device in this state, but once it is there, I think the reformat is the only way out.

Guy's are these shows that are listed like this repeats or first runs and what did you have your SL set to record? I'm wondering if the SL logic is working and it's noting in the history that it won't record because the show is repeat so it won't record it?

dhammis

Discussion Starter · #12 · Nov 22, 2006

These were first runs and the SL was set to record first runs. My wife's soaps all show up as first run.

I could understand repeats not showing up in the ToDo list, or showing up as Won't Record or something like that. But they were in the History, which is strange since the dates hadn't arrived yet.

GiantFan

· #13 · Nov 23, 2006

cabanaboy1977 said:
Guy's are these shows that are listed like this repeats or first runs and what did you have your SL set to record? I'm wondering if the SL logic is working and it's noting in the history that it won't record because the show is repeat so it won't record it?

Most if not all of mine were first runs as well. Some were repeats of Dora or I Love Lucy, but most were first runs. The first time this happened all of the future records were also in my todo list. This last time, my todo list was empty - even though they should have been there. When I went to history for the future event, and selected it - it brought it up as if I could record it. So I selected it - it then acted as if it was already in the todo list - asking if I wanted to record it as set. However, they did not record - so I reformatted.

travbz24

· #14 · Nov 23, 2006

I had a R-15 that was having the SL issue of not recording items and putting them into the history list. It continued to do this after many resets and complete resets. I had only had it for a couple of weeks so DirecTV sent me a replacement. It seems to be working fine now.

The original one I had was the R-15 Mfr-300.
The new reciever is the R-15 Mfr-500.

I'm not sure if the 300 was the only one having that issue.

wrj

· #15 · Nov 23, 2006

Am I just lucky or haven't used my R15 enough? I have had my R15-300 for a couple weeks with no lost recordings (I have done dozens of recordings so far) and no partials either. I'm at 104B firmware. I certainly would not call the R15 bug free. I have experienced some strange things. I'm new to Directv so are some R15's better than others?

Bill

carl6

· #16 · Nov 23, 2006

wrj said:
... so are some R15's better than others?

Bill

Better? Not necessarily. Different? It appears so.

First, there are three different manufacturers (resulting in the -100, -300 and -500 models). Each requires a different software build from DirecTV to work, but are supposed to all be functionally the same.

What appears to be more significant than hardware differences though is the behavior of the R15 based on the way in which it is used by the owner. For example, if you do a lot of searches and try to set auto records based on searches, you tend to have a lot more problems than if you simply use the guide and select programs to record from the guide. If you get a lot of series links, you tend to have more problems than if you have relatively few. Etc.

There are many things that affect the R15 that are in the data stream and are not directly part of the software build. Guide data for example. Also, the "showcases" that they push out. There have been indications that quite a bit can be modified, changed, or otherwise impacted by data in the data stream that does not result in a software upgrade or version change. It seems that some of that can have direct adverse affects on the R15's performance, based on some of the symptoms that have been described on these forums.

Probably the worst part is that in order to identify fix these problems, and test to see if the fixes are working, DirecTV continues to fiddle with the data stream and the guide data. I suspect they may have identified things that cause problems, and then test with beta builds that are not out to the public yet, but that impacts some of the installed base of R15's. This is just speculation on my part, but it would account for some of the problems we see and when we see them.

There is a new software build due out for the R15. The most recent test builds we have been aware of are 10F1 and 10F4, both of which were rapidly pulled back out of the data stream based on problems. How close they are to properly fixing those problems and getting another test build out is unknown, but hopefully not too far out.

Those verions (F1 and F4) were specifically for the R15-500. Once a software build is out and released for the -500, and seems stable, you can expect to see upgrades for the -300 and -100. I would guess at least a month after the -500 build, but who knows (other than DirecTV).

Over the past year (since it's initial release) the R15 has improved a great deal. It still has a ways to go, and we are all hoping the next software release takes it a big step along that ways.

Carl

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qwerty

· #17 · Nov 23, 2006

carl6 said:
What appears to be more significant than hardware differences though is the behavior of the R15 based on the way in which it is used by the owner. For example, if you do a lot of searches and try to set auto records based on searches, you tend to have a lot more problems than if you simply use the guide and select programs to record from the guide. If you get a lot of series links, you tend to have more problems than if you have relatively few. Etc.

I feel like the R15 has become much more stable over the last few updates in regard to searches and the number of Sl's you have. Also with using the prioritizer. I do a reasonable amount of searches and have 29 SL's. I've wondered if I'm just lucky, or if it's the way I use it. I did have a lot of probles last spring, and haven't changed the way I use it. One thing I rarely do, though, is use active content. I have suspicions that may contribute to a lot of the problems.

Wolffpack

· #18 · Nov 24, 2006

qwerty said:
I feel like the R15 has become much more stable over the last few updates in regard to searches and the number of Sl's you have. Also with using the prioritizer. I do a reasonable amount of searches and have 29 SL's. I've wondered if I'm just lucky, or if it's the way I use it. I did have a lot of probles last spring, and haven't changed the way I use it. One thing I rarely do, though, is use active content. I have suspicions that may contribute to a lot of the problems.

I do use the News Mix channel almost every day and I'm not seeing the degree of problems others have. But then again, I reset my unit once a week.

bookouri

· #19 · Nov 24, 2006

Im on my 5th r15 unit and Ive only been on directv for about 6 months, and now this unit has started doing strange things too. I've experienced the same "NOT RECORDED" problem with scheduled shows. Just this afternoon, I watched the red light come on and two shows "recorded" but when i went back to the directory the shows were not there. They now show "NOT RECORDED" in the history. A few days ago i noticed that the guide listings categories were missing channels. For example, the science channel is no longer in the "news and information channels" I now have to scroll through the entire listing to get to channels i used to access through the new channels. This unit has already done this once since i got it and the tech support people had me "reset" it and i lost everything. Im convinced that after 5 units, all having the same kind of problems after a few weeks, that the r15 model has problems. I've gotten nowhere with customer support. Im never had a dvr before and i dont know anything about TIVOs or any other products, but is it possible to buy a TIVO or some other piece of hardware and use it in place of the r15 lemon? Im getting tired of paying for a service that is proving to be unusable about 20% of the time.

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Wolffpack

· #20 · Nov 24, 2006

Check out eBay and look for an R10 or SDVR40. Search on Directv and Tivo.

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