[jkc120]

So I'm about to adventure into an interesting test.

I am still very suspicious of the HR20's error handling when there's a hiccup in the stream or some other problem.

I'm going to try telling it to record a show I'm watching now, and unplug the coax cable from that tuner briefly while it's recording and see if it fails (test #1).

Then, I'm going to unplug the cable first (after the guide is up), and hit the record button to see if I can't induce the partial bug.

I'll report back in a few minutes.

 

[jkc120]

Well crap, I could not break it

- started recording the late show with david letterman and yanked one of the coax cables. It kept working! Yes, it dynamically switched tuners. Which is very neat, actually. And kept right on going.

- opened up the guide while still on the letterman channel and highlighted the tonight show with jay leno. unplugged both cables from the back and hit record. It started recording. I plugged the cable back in, and it continued to record. So then I decided to really try to break it - I left one cable out and plugged the 2nd in, and took it out repeatedly. It kept right on happily recording. And is still recording properly.

So the unit does have some fail-safes. It's good to know it'll toggle tuners if one of them fails, although it's questionable what would happen if both tuners were recording when one of them goes out I guess a corrupt MPEG4 stream is more of a problem for the unit than no feed at all. :/

 

[Jeremy W]

- started recording the late show with david letterman and yanked one of the coax cables. It kept working! Yes, it dynamically switched tuners. Which is very neat, actually. And kept right on going.

Um, how do you know that you actually pulled out the cable for the tuner that was in use?

 

[jkc120]

Um, how do you know that you actually pulled out the cable for the tuner that was in use?

Because I pulled one out, and it stayed on. I plugged it back in then yanked the other and it stayed on. Only pulling both out made the live tv feed go away.

 

[Tom Robertson]

Because I pulled one out, and it stayed on. I plugged it back in then yanked the other and it stayed on. Only pulling both out made the live tv feed go away.

Now this is a way cool feature for the "HR20 Advantages" list: http://www.dbstalk.com/showthread.php?t=70065

Some serious wow with this one. Any noticeable glitches as it switched from tuner to tuner?

Good work, btw. Both Jkc120 and D*!

Cheers,
Tom

 

[mtnagel]

Yes, definitely impressive. Directivo's would do that, right?

 

[walters]

Um, OK, impressive bit of work they've done on that "feature". Now can someone educate me on when this would actually happen in practice?

At least when XM does it (switching from sat to terrestrial) there's a meaningful use case.

 

[Jeremy W]

Directivo's would do that, right?

No, the Tivos cannot do this.

 

[wmschultz]

Um, OK, impressive bit of work they've done on that "feature". Now can someone educate me on when this would actually happen in practice?

At least when XM does it (switching from sat to terrestrial) there's a meaningful use case.

I guess you have never had a searching for satellite signal on one tuner.

 

[walters]

BTW, what would it do if you were recording two things? Would it try to preserve the higher-priority item, or does it only switch to the other tuner if that tuner is idle?

 

[Jeremy W]

Now can someone educate me on when this would actually happen in practice?

I can't imagine any real life scenario where this would be helpful. I wonder if this feature is one of the things holding back dual buffer support.

 

[Jeremy W]

I guess you have never had a searching for satellite signal on one tuner.

That wouldn't happen if both tuners were on the same channel.

 

[walters]

I guess you have never had a searching for satellite signal on one tuner.

Sure I have, for a brief second before either getting it back or losing both tuners. This whole thing really violates KISS, which they've done throughout the products. I mean there's an onscreen low remote battery warning for crying out loud (talking R15 here, but HR20 probably has it, too).

 

[Jeremy W]

I mean there's an onscreen low remote battery warning for crying out loud.

All of the DirecTV branded receivers have this. I imagine that low batteries in the remote is a common problem on tech support calls, so adding this simple feature to the receiver probably helps cut down on that quite a bit.

 

[lpctv]

Well crap, I could not break it

- started recording the late show with david letterman and yanked one of the coax cables. It kept working! Yes, it dynamically switched tuners. Which is very neat, actually. And kept right on going.

- opened up the guide while still on the letterman channel and highlighted the tonight show with jay leno. unplugged both cables from the back and hit record. It started recording. I plugged the cable back in, and it continued to record. So then I decided to really try to break it - I left one cable out and plugged the 2nd in, and took it out repeatedly. It kept right on happily recording. And is still recording properly.

So the unit does have some fail-safes. It's good to know it'll toggle tuners if one of them fails, although it's questionable what would happen if both tuners were recording when one of them goes out I guess a corrupt MPEG4 stream is more of a problem for the unit than no feed at all. :/

I didn't see you mention playback. What was it like? Any trick play loss? What about the "Searching for satellite..." message appearing (I'm assuming that since you're on the left coast you have the benefit of that improvement) during playback?

 

[walters]

By the way, for more adventurous testers, what might be interesting to see is what happens if the receiver continues to get a good signal, but on the wrong set of transponders (to test the "power the dish" theory). Might even be able to test this by unplugging a powered multiswitch?

 

[jkc120]

I didn't see you mention playback. What was it like? Any trick play loss? What about the "Searching for satellite..." message appearing (I'm assuming that since you're on the left coast you have the benefit of that improvement) during playback?

Playback was fine, I was able to fast forward/rewind. It did kind of lag on the portions I had yanked the cord out, but no lockups or stalls in the trick play features.

 

[lpctv]

Playback was fine, I was able to fast forward/rewind. It did kind of lag on the portions I had yanked the cord out, but no lockups or stalls in the trick play features.

Great...thanks!