DVR22 issues, or what?

[BirdieBoy]

D* customer for years. Upgraded to HD at end of Feb. and hooked up from DVR22 via HDMI cable to Sony 46k4100.

Have pixel breakup, "skipping" (video & audio), freezing (a black screen from 2-3 secs having to re-boot the DVR): on both live and recorded. Sometimes hours w/o an issue and sometimes 2-3 in a row.

30 days and at least 50+ man hours (mine) later:
4 "tickets" from a "case manager" (a joke), plus several repeat visits from techs who gave me their cell numbers. (Last week had 6 D*/contractor vans in front of my house with a mix of techs and supervisors-like that would help.)

On my 3rd DVR, all cables and connectors replaced, every component on my dish replaced plus the dish itself, transponer testing, re-alignments, etc.

Have BEGGED for an engineer-level person, but they keep them hid better than CIA operatives.

Moved my old TIVO to a non HD tv..no issues there, or my 6 year old box in another bedroom.

Called Sony. Scoured the internet (until finding this site). Discussed it with friends and neighbors. Tried all sorts of diagnostics myself.



HELP

 

[jdspencer]

By DVR22 do you mean the HR22 or R22?
I realize that the techs have checked all of this, but what dish do you have? What are the signal strengths from the dish?
Any multiswitch being used? If so, was it replaced?

 

[BirdieBoy]

Sorry: not a technical guy.

HR22NC-100
Software: 0x256
Slimline-3 (replaced the 5 whatever)
Switch type: Multiswitch

Had a supervisor "tune" the new transponders/dish last week.
Tuner #1 @ 101 has a low of 83 and high of 100, mostly in the 90's; @ 103 76-90's
Tuner #2 @ 101 is 84 to 100, mostly in 90's; @ 103 72-86

If you go through the satellite setup you can get a grid called "Installation Status".

Across the top are 3 columns (99, 101, and 103 for the the 3 satellites) Down the side are 2 columns (odd 13v and even 18v)
99 has an X @13v, 101 has an X @ 18v and 103 has X's in both . On the bottom it says " Errors found on both tuners"

This can't be good! But, the super. called someone and was told that these are "software errors" and do not cause my issues??
"

 

[swampman]

D* customer for years. Upgraded to HD at end of Feb. and hooked up from DVR22 via HDMI cable to Sony 46k4100.

Have pixel breakup, "skipping" (video & audio), freezing (a black screen from 2-3 secs having to re-boot the DVR): on both live and recorded. Sometimes hours w/o an issue and sometimes 2-3 in a row.

Welcome to the world of the HR series! Don't feel lonely. I went through 4 in the first 8 months. I was like you. I just haaaaad to have the new HD channels. BS! A day I regret to this day.

I had the same skipping, freezing, selecting a prerecorded program and there was nothing there, etc. I remember that day well...I had my brand new HR20-700 a total of 2 weeks after initial installation, when a tech guy made a housecall and said the hard drive was defective. The other issues came with future replacements.

Alot will rest on this new DirecTivo coming out "hopefully" this year as far as my future with Directv. Until then, Sept 2 marks then end of my 2 year contract. The only thing that may keep me with Directv is this new Tivo....maybe. BTW I still have problems with this one, just tired of calling.

This reply probably sounded colder than it was meant to. Get them to replace the unit. GOOD LUCK.

 

[terry1]

I must agree with "swampman" the biggest mistake of my short DTV life was going from my TiVo, non HD receiver, to my Hr22.
The Tivo worked like a charm,plus the two live tuners is/was great.
My HR22 has dropped pre-programmed series episodes left and right,now lately I've been getting "Your receiver has not received Guide information from the satelitte for one hour. Please contact ............ etc".Then it,sort of, goes into the pause mode;the flying DTV logo.
I shure hope the new TiVo receiver is on the horizon,soon.

 

[texasbrit]

I must agree with "swampman" the biggest mistake of my short DTV life was going from my TiVo, non HD receiver, to my Hr22.
The Tivo worked like a charm,plus the two live tuners is/was great.
My HR22 has dropped pre-programmed series episodes left and right,now lately I've been getting "Your receiver has not received Guide information from the satelitte for one hour. Please contact ............ etc".Then it,sort of, goes into the pause mode;the flying DTV logo.
I shure hope the new TiVo receiver is on the horizon,soon.

terry1 - the problems you are having are almost certainly because you are not getting good signals from the 119 satellite. When you are watching a channel from the 99/101 satellite the guide comes from 101. When you are watching a channel from 103/110/119 the guide comes from 119. DirecTV added a diagnostic in the latest software releases to check for the guide updates and if you are not receiving them you get the message.
post back with your signal strengths on every transponder on 119 - check both tuners and if they are different post both sets of numbers.

 

[terry1]

Thanks"texasbrit"for the follow-up.I rebooted my HR22,un pluged it for about 10 min,then all was fine.
But I did check my sig stren. on both receivers/tuners on sat 119.
Tuner 1; trans 25 and 29 only.25=71,29=79
Tuner 2;trans 25 and 29 only.25=72,29=79
The display says 11 total on 119.
No sig on the other 9 transponders.

 

[texasbrit]

Thanks"texasbrit"for the follow-up.I rebooted my HR22,un pluged it for about 10 min,then all was fine.
But I did check my sig stren. on both receivers/tuners on sat 119.
Tuner 1; trans 25 and 29 only.25=71,29=79
Tuner 2;trans 25 and 29 only.25=72,29=79
The display says 11 total on 119.
No sig on the other 9 transponders.

So you definitely have a problem with the 119 signals, and that is what is causing the guide data error. You need to do the following:
First, check to see if you have a line of sight issue to the 119 satellite. Use dishpointer.com to help you understand where the 119 satellite is in relation to your house.
Second, if you do not have a line of sight issue, make sure your dish is correctly aligned. The best way to check this is to post all the transponder numbers for 101, 99c and 103c, for both tuners - then we can probably see if you have an alignment problem.

if you have a line of sight issue to 119 the only way to solve this is to get an SL3 LNB to replace the one in your 5-lnb dish.
What's your zip code?

 

[terry1]

What I don't understand is that I am getting all the channels I pay for and my channel guide is always well populated.
Is there a script, or file, or program, to tell you what transponder you are on coresponding to the channel you are watching?

 

[texasbrit]

What I don't understand is that I am getting all the channels I pay for and my channel guide is always well populated.
Is there a script, or file, or program, to tell you what transponder you are on coresponding to the channel you are watching?

I think you are missing the point here. The message is telling you that you have a problem and your signals are telling you why the message is appearing. This has nothing to do with the channels you receive. If you don't have decent signals from 119 with a 5-lnb dish then there is no guide data refresh when you are on a 103/110/119 channel. If you are tuned to 99/101 often enough then you might not notice the guide issue, because when you tune to a 99/101 channel the guide refreshes properly.
The SL3 LNB gets over the problem because it does not receive 119 so "fakes out" the 119 guide data by sending the guide updates from the 101 satellite even when you are tuned to a channel on 103. If you have an SWM dish the same thing happens, the guide data always comes from 101. There are no other ways of solving this issue. Even though you think that things look OK, they are not, so don't blame the DVR, it is working correctly.

 

[Liquidforce88]

He does not have 119 in his setup. He has the SLM3 from what I can read. It only gets 99, 101 and 103. 119 would have no effect on his system.

It also sounds like he has a WNC ODU, because that is exaclty the kind of crap that they produce. The tech can peak the dish all day long and have good signals, but the receiver won't read it properly.

 

[terry1]

I do have the 5 LNB slim dish.
I guess I will have to fine tune my dish for 119,a bit of a hassel but no porblem.
Thank you guys for the input.

 

[texasbrit]

He does not have 119 in his setup. He has the SLM3 from what I can read. It only gets 99, 101 and 103. 119 would have no effect on his system.

It also sounds like he has a WNC ODU, because that is exaclty the kind of crap that they produce. The tech can peak the dish all day long and have good signals, but the receiver won't read it properly.

No, he does have 119, he has posted his signals which are just low (probably line of sight blocked by trees) so he has an SL5.
QUOTE:
But I did check my sig stren. on both receivers/tuners on sat 119.
Tuner 1; trans 25 and 29 only.25=71,29=79
Tuner 2;trans 25 and 29 only.25=72,29=79
The display says 11 total on 119.
No sig on the other 9 transponders.