[btmoore]

As far as I can tell, since I have had the HR20 it has suffered from unwatchable recordings and lost recordings that show up as "Partial" I was optimistic that perhaps this last push of weekly bug fixes might fix this problem but nope, these bugs alive and strong in the HR20. For me both reappeared this morning in sequence of each other.

First my recording of "Meet the Press" set to record off my Local NBC MPEG4 feed did not record the history shows "Partial" and there is no recording in the list and as far as I can tell there was no conflict and I have no idea why recordings come up as "Partial"

Second, my recording of "The Chris Matthews Show" recorded but it is unwatchable. When you try to watch it a negative time code shows up on the status bar and no trick plays, FF, 30 slip, skip to the end, etc. will make it play.

This is not the first time I have seen these issues, I know others have as well. Please start posting them here and perhaps DirecTV will start taking serious attention that a DVR needs to be able to record with reliability. IMO it is not an unreasonable expectation that a DVR records what you tell it to with close to 100% reliability, assuming external factors don't intercede.

Please do not post about how we are early adopters and bugs are to be expected, or every thing is working great for me I don't have local MPEG4 so this is box is great. This thread is for those of us who have a problem with this issues. Here is my photographic evidence.

Earl, if there is any way that you can ask your contacts to provide some insight on what the problem is and when we might see a fix that would be great. I am starting to wonder if there is some kind of fundamental flaw in their code or perhaps their hardware

 

[Earl Bonovich]

What are your signal strengths like for your 99/103 sats

 

[dervari]

Second, my recording of "The Chris Matthews Show" recorded but it is unwatchable. When you try to watch it a negative time code shows up on the status bar and no trick plays, FF, 30 slip, skip to the end, etc. will make it play.

That happend to me today recording the race off NBC. However, when I tried playing it back the box hung and had to be rebooted. Tried again after the reboot with the same results.

My strengths are 94+

 

[centurion]

I had a similar problem on Sunday night. The HR20 was scheduled to record Amazing Race. I tried to start watching from the beginning when the recording was about 75% complete (45 minutes into the 1-hour show). The program opened from MyVOD, but would not move off the 0:00 mark no matter what I did (trick play buttons, etc.)

Since the program was still recording, I tried going to the live version and rewinding from there, but that did not work either. In fact, I could not use any of the trick play buttons on the live version either. I could only watch it in real time. I changed channels and found that the trick play buttons worked fine on other programs.

After the live show had ended, I checked the MyVOD recording again, but there was no improvement. I could still open the recording, but I could not move off the 0:00 mark.

This is the only recording I have seen with this problem. It was an MPEG4 recording off the local Chicago CBS HD channel.

My signal levels on the 103(a) satellite are 95-96. My signal levels on the 99 satellite ranged from 51 to 80.

Any ideas?

 

[Satster]

I had a similar problem on Sunday night. The HR20 was scheduled to record Amazing Race. I tried to start watching from the beginning when the recording was about 75% complete (45 minutes into the 1-hour show). The program opened from MyVOD, but would not move off the 0:00 mark no matter what I did (trick play buttons, etc.)

Since the program was still recording, I tried going to the live version and rewinding from there, but that did not work either. In fact, I could not use any of the trick play buttons on the live version either. I could only watch it in real time. I changed channels and found that the trick play buttons worked fine on other programs.

After the live show had ended, I checked the MyVOD recording again, but there was no improvement. I could still open the recording, but I could not move off the 0:00 mark.

This is the only recording I have seen with this problem. It was an MPEG4 recording off the local Chicago CBS HD channel.

My signal levels on the 103(a) satellite are 95-96. My signal levels on the 99 satellite ranged from 51 to 80.

Any ideas?

I had the same problem. The HR20 was installed on Thursday afternoon 10/26. I played around with recording after the installer left. At the time it seemed to be working relatively OK but I did not get to play around with it thoroughly.

At some point, and I now suspect this may have been the cause of the problems to come, a SW download occurred.

I then scheduled a few hockey games for the evening and I went out for a couple of hours. When I came back, I went to myVOD and started the first game (HD channel 95, I believe), but it would give me a black screen and did not move off the 0:00 mark either. As you say, I could only watch it live. I did not check if other channels allowed me to use the various trick play buttons.

I called DirecTV for support, they spent an hour or more with me on the phone, had me reset the device and supposedly reformat my drive and download the SW again. After that the myVOD option stopped showing on my system altogether. I could not get to it period. Tech support decided that my HW must be defective and scheduled a replacement for delivery. I reactivated my HR10 in the interim (I'll spare you the details of the 2 additional hours of subsequent arguments with 4-5 more DirecTV employees regarding my contract ... ).

So this problem is real, and after having read this and other posts, I am inclined to believe the HW stitting in the box is probably OK and that this recent software version has issues. Tech Support folks at DirecTV seemed pretty clueless on how to identify or resolve the issue though. For now, I will stay with the HR10 and patiently wait for replacement. Perhaps another SW download will solve some of the issues in the interim.

Also, unlike with the TiVo unit, the manual recording option did not seem to populate the ToDo list, just the priorities list. I did not have the opportunity to verify if it would have recorded anything.

Anyway, the HR20 has potential, but I wonder how long it will take to get some SW that reliably performs proper DVR functionality. It better be in 2006.

Before I forget, I believe I had signal strengths in the 90s on all sats.

 

[dervari]

I had another one last night. Close To Home caused the box to hang when I tried to play it back.

 

[premio]

I have been having some issues on this build, they are probably covered, but since thers no 'list of bugs' discussed in the first post and I can't possibly read through them all, I'll throw them out there just in case.

MPEG2 HD (TNT, Universaal) I have experienced the following 2 problems:

1) While watching live tv, at some points (always during a commercial) the audo plays normally but the video freezes. I have to tune to another channel and return to get the video back.

2) During some somes, while live, or near live in a buffer, I have experienced a window coming up stating the channel is no longer available, press select. The video/sound is fine and displayed. If I hit select, to make it dissapear (you can wait 10 seconds or so and it goes away), the preview channel window shows a message the channel is no longer available and then quickly descrambles the show.

While Recording a show in live tv, if I decide I like the show or remember 'oh yeah I had these on season pass on the old Tivo', if you go to the guide and hit record again (this should put the )) series icon next to the already dispalyed R, you get a message to delete the current record, keep playing, etc. If you go to your ToDo list, the series link is setup but the guide shows a single R. Also if you hit delete current and remove the R, and attempt to press R twice again, you see a single R and get a duplicate entry in the series link.

If my TV mode is 16:9, I have no change in output when I cycle through the formats (strech/crop). If my TV is in 4:3 mode, this makes a difference as to what is displayed. I am using HDMI to a Samsung HPS5053.

 

[gpg]

I had the MPEG4 recordings of Standoff and House on NY channel 5 fail last night. I thought something funny might be going on because I lost the ability to use the trick play keys while watching them live. Sure enough, both recordings, shown in history as recorded, were blank and the time bars showed negative numbers. There was no signal disruption because I watched both shows live without a problem (other than loss of trick play).

This happened while I was recording NCIS and The Unit on MPEG4 NY channel 2 at the same time. Those shows recorded flawlessly, so I really don't understand what went wrong. I have recorded simultaneous shows before without a problem, so I don't think that's the issue. If this is just a random bug, I think it's going to be very difficult for D* to fix.

 

[bmachia]

Is this the dreaded Unwatchable Bug?

I keep running into recorded shows that are nothing more than a Black screen and the counter does not go any higher than 0:01 when I try to play the show back. While the length of the file appears to be the length of the show, the file just locks up with a black screen right at the beginning and only allows me to KEEP or DELETE.

This is a brand new HR20-700, using software version 010B.

Can / Would anyone shed some light on my problem?
Is this a BUG? Is this a FEATURE?
What’s the best work-around for the moment?

Bill

 

[HDfreddy]

Is this the dreaded Unwatchable Bug?

I keep running into recorded shows that are nothing more than a Black screen and the counter does not go any higher than 0:01 when I try to play the show back. While the length of the file appears to be the length of the show, the file just locks up with a black screen right at the beginning and only allows me to KEEP or DELETE.

This is a brand new HR20-700, using software version 010B.

Can / Would anyone shed some light on my problem?
Is this a BUG? Is this a FEATURE?
What's the best work-around for the moment?

Bill

Yep I have had 2 of these black dreaded not recorded events.

I wish I could get the fix that worked.

freddy

 

[spolaski]

In a possibly related issue, I've had problems again with manual recordings. Yesterday, I had Hardball set to record on channel 356 (in a recurring manual recording) at 4:00 pm PST. This had been working perfectly since 0x10b. (it hadn't been working at all prior to 0x10b) Yesterday's recording was not there, and a look at the history gave me an error something to this effect:

"The program was partially recorded due to an unexpected error (14)"

All future instances of the manual recording in the "To do list" show as cancelled as well, now too.

I did do a RBR on Tuesday night after crashing the HR20 while listening to MP3s and changing channels (it doesn't seem to like that, BTW). I don't know if that had anything to do with the manual recordings becoming corrupted or not, but it's the only thing I can think of that's happened recently.

I wish they could get this figured out. I have a $20 Emerson VCR that I bought at WalMart that can do a recurring daily recording -- why can't the HR20?

 

[agincajun]

I wish I had read this thread before last night but it still might be worth while conveying my experience so others may not have a repeat.

I just installed a HR20-700 two weeks ago. I AM MORE THAN DISAPPOINTED.

I recorded the New Orleans Saints-Eagles playoff game last night and attempted to watch it this morning.

But before I tell you what the ***!*[email protected]!**!! recorder did, let me say I am a die hard Saints Fan that has been waiting 40 years to see the game that Direct TV's box just deprived me of.

The recording was set to record 1 hour longer than scheduled. It played fine until the 2hr and 18 min mark; third quarter- Eagles 21-Saints 20; THEN THE PICTURE FROZE AND THERE WAS NOTHING RECORDED FROM THAT POINT ON EXCEPT SHORT BURSTS OF AUDIO!!

I have 7 other DVR's by other manufacturers. I have never had this kind of problem with their equipment.

I have not decided what to do with this piece of junk!