Question on the two problems with my DirecTV HD DVR
 

A few weeks ago, my DirecTV HD DVR guide information got down to about 5-6 days. Considering it should be closer to 2 weeks, this was a bit of a concern. I restarted the machine and it filled up almost immediately.

Last night I noticed the clock was off a full 2 minutes and recordings were starting late. Again, restarted the machine and it was back to normal.

Would these be symptoms of a greater problem or just strange coincidences? Both should be automatically updating from the satellite without intervention.

I've had similar things happen, not exactly the same. Not having full guide data, and so forth. I don't think those are necessarily indicative of anything huge. If you are a DIYer, may be a good signal that backing up your drive would benefit you if it dies.

My strangest:
One of my SD Tivos decided to start calling DirecTV every 21 days instead of everyday. But it starts giving error messages after 14 days. That was bizarre for awhile, giving me errors even though it was operating how it wanted to. Now it's on some other schedule.

The one thing that pisses me off about my HDTivo is that the freakin' thing always puts channels back that I've deleted off there. All the PPV channels and NFL Sunday Ticket channels mysteriously show up about 2 weeks after I keep deleting them. :ad:

In addition, it can take up to 5-10 minutes if you rearrange Season Passes. Adding recordings can take a minute or so.

All of these problems add up to me either considering the new Dish HD DVR (with all those Voom channels) or counting down the days until my area switches over to mpg4 and the new DirecTV HD DVR is available. :(

Deftones, that is a DirecTV issue. It is the same on any of their receivers. The channels keep getting reset. The shopping channels and D* info/PPV channels are the worst to me.

Chew, have you read the reviews of the new DVR? The HD version should be very similar, just HD-capable. One thing that stood out to me, besides the lack of 30-sec skip, was that they don't seem to think it is much faster. Bizarre, and hopefully that is wrong. Speed is my only issue with the HDTivo, and I generally just keep from doing much that slows it down, not too much fiddling with SPs, for instance. It does go a little faster if you turn both tuners to SD channels. Maybe save menu work for a time when nothing is recording.

That's very disappointing news that the new DVR isn't any faster.

If that Dish HD DVR had two OTA tuners, I'd switch.

Alright, I've had a few more problems over the last few days.

On Sunday, the unit stopped recording 24 about 65 minutes into the 2 hour premiere and rebooted about 90 minutes into it.

On Tuesday, it didn't record The Shield. The log states "internal error".


DirecTV has a protection plan ($7.99 per month for the HD DVR). It's my understanding that you have to wait 30 days and then you can get this serviced, hopefully even replaced. Then you're locked into the plan for a year. Anybody care to confirm or add to that?

It's got a one year warranty, how long have you had it? Did you miss out on 24? I could get you a copy. Won't be 5.1, though.

I missed out on HD 24, but I have another TiVo that picked up the slack. ;)

My HD DVR is one of the very earliest and has a manufacture date of 04/04. I've had it since the first week of May 2004, so no more 1 year warranty. :(

Based on the thread for The Shield this week, I wasn't the only one who missed it. Glad to know it was a bigger problem than just mine.

They are still claiming the new DVR will come out in 2nd quarter 2006. And that HDTivo owners will get a free upgrade. Another option.

Usually stuff like that is a software problem, though. Or hard drive. You could try replacing that to see if it helps.

A while back, I did pick up a 250gb harddrive and loaded the software. It sounded like a jet engine. I couldn't stand it and put the old one back in. I've read they have specific DVR harddrives, but I'm not exactly sure where to get those outside the ptvupgrade or weeknees options.

I ordered a Seagate, which claims to be the quietest drive out there. It comes today and had better work. :)

Nope :mad: It's still very loud. I give up.

Is it the drive or is it rattling in the Tivo? Maybe you're trying to hear it too much and just need to give it a couple days. I sit right under my projector and right next to my rack with 2 Tivos. I can hear all of them if I try and none of them if I don't, or if the furnace kicks on. Years of computer use has almost driven the fan noise from my head unless there is a serious rattle in the fan.

It's entirely hard drive "reading/writing", not the fan or rattling. I agree I've been paying much closer attention, but I barely heard the original drive and never hear my standalone TiVo/DVD Recorder.

Spiky, my components are currently in a stand more or less similar to this:

http://www.standsandmounts.com/Produ...raft/wf45b.jpg

If I switch to a cabinet with glass door, do you think that'll muffle the noise enough while still maintaining enough air flow?

This one has a breathable cloth in back: http://www.standsandmounts.com/index...ROD&ProdID=903

Hah! I think that's the exact cabinet I have. Although right now I've left the door open for quite some time. Fighting with IR issues, messy room, etc. Even when the door was shut, I only ever had airflow problems with my CD burner, and that was its fault. Although my basement is always under 70 F. Could be different with a higher ambient temp. And I kept the Tivos away from other machines that are on frequently, or the amp.

And the cloth refused to stick to the velcro dots that are supposed to hold it on. I would've had to staple it to keep it on, so I gave up.

But yes, it would help muffle the noise. Still, it shouldn't be that bad. My wife's S2 DTivo is sitting on a plastic shelf on top of our bedroom TV and I almost never hear it. I typically hear the spinning of the drive, not the read/write clicking. So maybe you do need to find quieter drives.

It's not really this dusty! DTivo on bottom, HDTivo up a couple:
http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y20...eater/rack.jpg

Who's your cleaning lady? :lol:

I made the error of getting 7200rpm drives rather than 5400 and that's where my problem lies.

I'm right here!

Finally found it. You can buy the PVR drives without pre-formatting from Weaknees, drops the cost a bit. Or maybe search for a cheaper reseller, but probably not an authorized place.

http://www.weaknees.com/quickview_drives.php

It's actually not as good a deal since they include the brackets and formatting for only $20 more. Geez, the 300GB is actually MORE without the package. What's that all about?

I called up DirecTV last night and was offered their Protection Plan. It's $7.99 per month with a one year committment. I have to wait 30 days, but then I can call them again for a replacement receiver.

Thanks for all the help, Spiky!

There's any easy fix for this. Just use the "Favorite Channels" filter and add in the channels you want that way. It never changes.

Unfortunately, that is not true. D* adds channels dynamically. I just went through and deleted about 2 dozen channels from my Favorite list again a couple days ago. PPV, NHL and some D* channels, mostly.

Weird - this happened constantly with both my DirecTivo and HD-DirecTivo, and ever since I switched to the "Favorites" filtering method, I've never had a channel return (8+ months now)