VIP612, lots of skips, and short term freezes in recordings

[crisnee]

Hi, I've had 4 VIP612's in the last year or so. Believe it or not this is by far the best one, so I hesitate to complain, but, I will.

Many of the recorded (and possibly live--I never watch live) programs have lots of temporary video freezes and stutters, annoying audio glitches and drop outs. These are mostly but not all HD, but then I watch mostly HD. It happens on various channels. I watch mainly sports so I notice it mostly on Espn, Espn2, Tnt. NESN-was particularly bad today, a day of bright blue skys, and the networks. I don't have OTA.

I thought it might have to do with the Hard drive getting fragmented when fairly full as a previous receiver would freeze for long times and lock up completely when it got about 3/4 full. So I erased everything, did a reformat, but that made no difference.

So any ideas anybody?

I tried to get a different type of receiver from the good folks at DISH without having to pay extra, but they would have none of it. I would quit Dish, but I've had cable and that was worse (at least than my last receiver, not the others which were awful) and more expensive, plus the people at Time Warner Cable didn't give a blank at all. At least some of the Dish people want to help, they just can't.

The annoying part of dealing with DISH (and others I would guess) is that I know way more than most of them do, but every time I talk to them I have to explain the whole thing again at which point they finally hand me off to a better tech where I explain once again. I tried to get them to keep a record and to look at it, but that doesn't seem to make sense to them. I've spent so many hours for so little with them, I hope the new help system here works more efficiently.

Sorry for the minor diatribe.

Chris

 

[HIFI]

Is it getting plenty of air movement?

 

[Teehar]

As hifi mentioned it needs to get plenty of air flow.The cooler a 612 runs the better it will perform.Also check to see which s/w version.L642 just recently streamed and so far my 612 has done much better with it.

 

[boba]

Haven't had L642 long enough to comment on it. As you have discovered that seems to be the way 612 works. If it is an important scene try the 10 sec. skip back some times the replay is better.

 

[tedb3rd]

I have 722k but don't think the procedure would be different for you but...

You can check HD temp in system diagnostic... Goto Menu -> System Setup -> Diagnostics -> Counters... Then scroll way down to "Hard Dive Counters" (about 10 times) and there are three stings: 'HDD High Temp', 'HDD Low Temp', and 'HDD Average Temp'. Can't say that the cause of your problem is temperature related but hot hard drives are bad. My numbers are 111(low), 140(high), and 123 (average). I have not experienced problems exactly like you describe but I've noticed lag time and system freeze/reboots when coming out of 'hibernation' and turning on TV2 when TV1 is 'off'. All hell breaks loose when I try to turn on TV1 and TV2 is recording in background... I've gotten to the point where I expect a problem in that scenario.

 

[crisnee]

Is it getting plenty of air movement?

Yup, getting plenty of air. It's got space all around it. I actually have it suspended in air. Nevertheless I'll try checking it's temp. I've done that previously although maybe not on this particular one.

I do sometimes stop and rewind a bit and sometimes that helps, but more often not.

So is the freezing/skipping a common problem and everybody just puts up with it cuz they know their only option is cable? Or?

Chris

 

[HIFI]

only other thing that comes to mind is the 612's have had an ongoing issue with the HDMI port, so what we have done in the past is connect it using component cables for a temporary fix.

 

[peano]

So is the freezing/skipping a common problem and everybody just puts up with it cuz they know their only option is cable? Or?

Chris

Micro freezes and skipping happens with mine. Also vertical color bars like a test pattern in some cases.

Bell 9241 owners report the same issues (612 equivalent).

Mine runs very cool so heat is not the issue. I think the 612 is just a piece of Chinese crap. My 722 does not have those problems.