R15 Issues

[Upgrade Lately?]

I have had a week to play around with my R15 and I have found a couple of bugs.
The first issue that I have is the "Channels I Receive" feature. This is supposed to scan all of the channels and only display the ones that you subscribe to. Well it doesn't work....All channels are displayed. My 5 year old Hughes receiver handles this function just fine...

Next is the disappearing caller ID, which has been addressed in another thread.

Finally, this unit has frozen twice while viewing extended info from the guide.

Other than these few things, the R15 is a pretty decent DVR, especially for $99 with a $100 MIR.

 

[dfergie]

Welcome to SatelliteGuys... please report any more bugs with your new receiver in this thread...

 

[belmont]

I have had many issues with lockups when viewing extended program info as well as horrible scheduling issues. The new "Series Link" feature has some serious bugs. I have yet to find a way to record the same program on different channels. Originally, I could create a Wishlist with a keyword -- such as "CSI" and I could get all CSI programs on all channels. Otherwise, I could just create multiple season-passes for CSI on each channel. However, it does not seem possible with the R15 now.

Is there any word on when an upgrade is rolling out? In the mean time I am moving my R10 back out into the living room while they work out these bugs.

 

[eddieic]

I picked up an R15 Friday night at Best Buy. So far, the only issues I've had is with the remote. I've set the remote up to control the TV, but the "TV on/off" button on the right side of the remote that is supposed to turn off the TV and box at the same time only turns off the box. Not really a big deal, but it would be a nice feature to be able to use.

Also, with the NFL Sunday Ticket, when you're watching a game, you can use the yellow, green and red buttons to see scores and stats from other games, but sometimes when you push the buttons, nothing will come up...also quite often, the blue button for the mini-guide wouldn't produce the mini-guide when pushed...had to press 'exit' a few times before the guide would come up. Not sure what's happening there.

One other small issue I noticed is response time for 'prev channel' button. On my old receiver (don't know the model), it was instantaneous when the button was pushed, but with the R15, there's a bit of a delay.

I've had no major issues in 2.5 days, just these relatively minor ones. This is the first DVR I've ever owned, and I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

 

[joedekock]

My only beef remains to be the Caller ID feature not working properly.

 

[Tonedeaf]

I have found a minor irritating point with my R15. When I press guide, it asks me which filter I would like to use. Is there an option to just get me to the guide for my custom channel list? It is listed first in the list that pops up, but come on, I took the time to setup a custom list, just get me there already.

 

[Tonedeaf]

One other small issue I noticed is response time for 'prev channel' button. On my old receiver (don't know the model), it was instantaneous when the button was pushed, but with the R15, there's a bit of a delay.

Consider yourself lucky that you didn't get a DirecTivo unit then. They take a bit longer to switch channels.

 

[KingsFan]

I picked up an R15 Friday night at Best Buy. So far, the only issues I've had is with the remote. I've set the remote up to control the TV, but the "TV on/off" button on the right side of the remote that is supposed to turn off the TV and box at the same time only turns off the box. Not really a big deal, but it would be a nice feature to be able to use...

I think this has to do with if your TV supports discrete on/off commands or not. If it doesn't then the "TV on/off" buttons only turn the R15 on/off which makes no sense, but that's the way it works.

 

[schwalls]

I'm wondering about the "Showcases" section of MYVOD...will anything ever be downloaded into there for us to enjoy?

 

[rlmalmberg]

Just adding my bugs....

I got the new R15 the first week it was out and mine is full of bugs. The most irritating is that it is just not reliable. It will miss episodes of my series link (formerly known as season pass) programs randomly. If I look in the guide, all the episodes will be flagged with a red "R" indicating that they're scheduled to record. If I highlight the episode and look at the info screen, it will indicate that all episodes are scheduled to record. HOWEVER, when I go to the scheduler to do list, some of the episodes are missing and they do not get recorded. I have removed and reprogrammed the shows several times, but the problem just randomly recurs.

On the opposite side, another problem is that shows record which shouldn't. Example: I have CSI set to record first run episodes only. It picked up every single episode of CSI on tv last week...from all channels...first run and repeat. So, I removed and re-programmed that one last night. We'll see how long it sticks.

I called tech support last night. Poor guy was really nice but it seemed that he'd never even seen one of these units. He was not at all familiar with the way it works and was very surprised to hear that it didn't have a "season pass"...he kept trying to find it in his instructions. Anyway, after he talked to his supervisor they decided that it was probably a hardware problem, so they're shipping out a new unit by Fedex. I'm not convinced that's going to help...but I guess we'll see.

Lynn

 

[sheepishlion]

eventually there should be some stuff in the showcases section. Right now there should be showcases for those who subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket, but they are not being displayed. I am sure that DirecTV has plans for other things to go into the showcases section.

 

[Janney66]

I got the new R15 the first week it was out and mine is full of bugs. The most irritating is that it is just not reliable. It will miss episodes of my series link (formerly known as season pass) programs randomly. If I look in the guide, all the episodes will be flagged with a red "R" indicating that they're scheduled to record. If I highlight the episode and look at the info screen, it will indicate that all episodes are scheduled to record. HOWEVER, when I go to the scheduler to do list, some of the episodes are missing and they do not get recorded. I have removed and reprogrammed the shows several times, but the problem just randomly recurs.

I had this exact same problem!! I'm going back to my Tivo until they get this problem fixed. Very annoying

 

[rlmalmberg]

Update to equipment replacement

Got my replacement DVR yesterday, and guess what???? They sent me one of the Tivos. I'm a happy camper. The R-15 is going back just as soon as they send me the return shipping label.

Lynn

 

[joecool1964]

I had this exact same problem!! I'm going back to my Tivo until they get this problem fixed. Very annoying

Exact same problem here. What concerns me is Tech Support told me they have a list of known issues with the R15, and none of the issues have anything to do with the series link. She said that people have got to call them if they want to have things resolved. I told her that she will probably get her wish as more people buy the thing. She just had me to a restore to factory settings. Will try to set up new Series Links tomorrow after the guide populates and see what happens. The last alternative they offered is to have a tech come out and observe the issue, and replace it with another R15 if necessary. I told her, with all due respect, I rather doubt replacing the unit will resolve the issue...

 

[joecool1964]

Exact same problem here. What concerns me is Tech Support told me they have a list of known issues with the R15, and none of the issues have anything to do with the series link. She said that people have got to call them if they want to have things resolved. I told her that she will probably get her wish as more people buy the thing. She just had me to a restore to factory settings. Will try to set up new Series Links tomorrow after the guide populates and see what happens. The last alternative they offered is to have a tech come out and observe the issue, and replace it with another R15 if necessary. I told her, with all due respect, I rather doubt replacing the unit will resolve the issue...

Well, the delete and reset didn't do the trick. This morning the guide is populated out around 4 days. I set up a series link for daily (M-F) program, and it's only
showing Monday's on the 'to do' list. If I manually check the guide for Tuesday
and forward, there are not any "R's" showing on that program, but if I go into 'details', it says it's set to record. Guess I'll be calling later today to have a tech to an assessment, or perhaps just swap the thing out for a new R15. I really do want to stick with this box, as I believe it's got potential. :

 

[Tonedeaf]

I got the new R15 the first week it was out and mine is full of bugs. The most irritating is that it is just not reliable. It will miss episodes of my series link (formerly known as season pass) programs randomly. If I look in the guide, all the episodes will be flagged with a red "R" indicating that they're scheduled to record. If I highlight the episode and look at the info screen, it will indicate that all episodes are scheduled to record. HOWEVER, when I go to the scheduler to do list, some of the episodes are missing and they do not get recorded. I have removed and reprogrammed the shows several times, but the problem just randomly recurs.

Had this same exact thing happen last night. Went to my To Do list to be sure that Amazing Race was gonna record and it wasn't there. So I start thinking, is it even on tonight. Check the guide and it is on, and it had the icon for Season Pass or whatever it is called now, but when the show started it did not record. I had to hit record again on the remote to start it.
Lucky I checked it as I was heading out the door. I wouldn't have missed it entirely as my Tivo unit is set to record aswell. Glad I have double assurance that my favorite shows will still get recorded.

 

[m2000]

Beware of the R15 possible defects

After having my R15 for two weeks and having it lock up a few times. It locked up for the last time for me yesterday. I accidentally switched to a channel i did not subscribe to and got a 721 that said you did not subscribe to this channel. Then all of my channels showed this error message and by DVR came to a crawl channel changing and menus were very slow. I reset the receiver and it that was it. It died. The receiver wouldn't fully boot. The screen is said "Hello please wait while your receiver is starting" then said "almost there" and the screen would flash and it would reboot . The loop would continue forever. Luckily i was able to take it back to the store and get a replacement but I am concerned about the reliably of this product.

If boot os can get corupted because of a crash and the device becomes unusable and has to be returned. I think there is a possibliy of a major firmware bug. The other possilbility it the Hard drive crashed.

Im not fully bashing the R15 but if there is a major issue wiht the software we are all doomed.

 

[boba]

Just think of this as a DISH Network product,it acts like their buggy equipment. Directv had to get it out before CHRISTMAS they were afraid they would lose too many customers.

 

[rlmalmberg]

We're not the only ones...

When I went into the FedEx office to ship back my DVR, the gal at the desk commented that she had been sending a lot of stuff back to Directv in the last week or so and wondered what was going on.

 

[Upgrade Lately?]

I just got off the phone with D*
According to tech support the last software update was supposed to fix the caller ID issue.
They are replacing my R-15 due to the caller ID not working even with the most recent update.
I'm not holding my breath...