Favorite channels disappear in TiVo Live Guide

[Smiles]

I keep forgetting to post that it happened to me again earlier this week. Argh.

[davidm69]

My Directv PVR has been losing the "Channels Received" and "Favorites" listings during the past four weeks. It has also lost the channels subscribed to in the onscreen guide.

I thought the unit might be getting to hot, so I unplugged it for 8 hours and started it up again only to have the same thing happen again.

Since I've had the unit for two years, I wondered if it was a updated software glitch or if the unit was getting ready to crash and burn.

[fastermac]

I have 2 Sony T60 TiVo's. For about 3 weeks one of them keeps losing most of the channels that I receive. A reboot always brings the channels back. The other unit does not have this problem. Both TiVo's are running the 3.1 software and are modified with bigger drives and TurboNet cards.

[Bicycle Bill]

I believe I am losing my channel selections on my SAT-T60 every time that DirecTV downloads a channel lineup change. Seems that I always have a channel lineup change message on my Series 2 unit whenever the SAT-T60 loses everything. Always have to reset the T60 and then manually put the channels back in. Can't imagine this not being the cause; however, I'm not sure if it is DirecTV doing the deleting or adding of channels that causes the problem. Funny that my Series 2 will have the channel lineup change message while SAT-T60 doesn't...The SAT-T60 is the only one having the problems. Over the past 4-5 weeks, this has occurred 3-4 times; whereas, it used to happen about twice per year.

Now that I think about it. I get virtually all my DirecTV messages via my Series 2 system. Cannot remember seeing one message on my T60 over the past 6 months. Maybe they do that on purpose when you have two TIVOs on one account.

Software Version is 3.1.0b-02-1-011

[tarman]

I quote: "Seems that I always have a channel lineup change message on my Series 2 unit....."

I have a HDVR2 (3?) and have no idea what a "channel lineup change message" is! My HDVR2 is the second or third sold by CC so I have had it since they first came out.

Can someone enlighten me?

[Bicycle Bill]

A "channel lineup change" is when DirecTV adds/deletes/changes a channel assignment. An typical example of a "change" would be something like "As of 12/14 Channel 340 no longer carries the Dog Channel. As of 12/15 Channel 340 is the Cat Channel." I get such messages from DirecTV on my Series 2 fairly often...But not on my T60.

[BlankMan]

I do believe people have reported this problem with 2.5, 3.1, and now 3.1b, there were threads referenced that were posted long before I started this thread. I do believe I was having the problem before I got 3.1, but it didn't start annoying me enough until this past May to start a thread because the frequency increased.

For those of you that haven't read this whole thread and are asking questions TiVoBill eluded to the fact that it is probably caused by DirecTV adding channels. In my post of the transcript when I called DirecTV the CSR, Aldo, also said it is caused by DirecTV adding channels. This thread has a lot of information and some of the questions being asked have already been answered.

[Alecp]

This just happened to me for the first time, on my series 1 which is coming up on two years old now. I just got it fixed, my locals showed up and I added them and everything seems to be ok. I'd call DirecTV now, but I fixed it, so I don't know what I'd say.

Perhaps this should be made a sitcky and a quick fix solution (to add the channels back) could be added to the first post?

[stevel]

You should call and complain and ask that they note it on your account.

This topic IS a sticky. Simply adding the channels is not always a complete solution. Often you have to restart the recorder to get all the available channels back.

[BlankMan]

Well I just got nailed again, figured it would be happening soon with all the reports coming in. My TiVo2 unit a T60 is left with nothing but the NASA channel (376) and HBOL (511) in the Favorite Channel list. Time to contact DirecTV again.

[wired711]

Hi all,

Logging my most recent hit...
Switched to our second Hughes GXCEBOTD unit on Tuesday at around 9:30 PM to find it was on ch 545 (TMCw) which is a channel we don't receive with a blank screen and the infamous message "For ordering information...". The program guide was empty except for these listed channels (none of which we receive anyway) 532,533,537,538,539,540,542,544,545,547,549,550,595,597,598.

These were also the only channels listed in my Channels You Receive list.

All my Monday shows were recorded and the Tivo seemed to have all it's channels in the guide when I last checked it late last night before bed. Nothing got recorded as originally scheduled on Tuesday however.. The first show that was supposed to record on Tuesday was at 7:00 PM. The To Do List displayed "none scheduled" for the few shows that were supposed to be recorded on Tuesday.

Going to any of the menu options like "Pick Programs to Record" shows the message in a box at the bottom of the screen "Acquiring Program Guide data from the satellite. Some data available now. Full data in 1-2 days."

Recording History displays the typical "This program was not recorded because it was no longer in the program guide" for the shows that were supposed to record Tuesday night.

I had to restart the recorder. Over the next 5 or 10 minutes the rest of the channels appeared to come back to the guide but my To Do List continued to display "none scheduled". I selected later showings over the next few hours 11 PM through 2 AM for of couple of the shows that didn't get recorded except that the episode of "24" we missed is not on again so we've lost it. For each show I manually selected to record, it took many minutes to get the record confirmation message. Hopefully over the next day the To Do list will list programs that can be scheduled to record again. Until then I'll have to be diligent to manually select them to be recorded.

Our Tivo1 is working normally but sometimes it's the one to be hit and Tivo2 is fine. It's been a couple of months since I was last hit so I guess I was due. Both units are running software version 3.1.0b-02-1-031 and hadn't made the "daily call" in a couple of weeks (I do it manually). I don't ever put them in standby and they are not on UPS's.

I'll probably give a call to DirecTV just to try to get an event opened to add to a documented history (and not because I think anyone will actually be able to help).

If anybody has any media connections maybe it's going to take some public "bad press" to get some real attention and feedback on this apparently very real issue by someone at DirecTV and/or Tivo.

Cheers,
Doug

[pigvig]

My Sony system has done this twice in the last month or so. Also, last week it lost the ability to see local channels. I called support and they re-authorized the account. After a hard reset (unplugged for a minute) it's been working OK. My s/w on the Sony is 3.1.0b-02-1-011.

I have not had this problem on my Philips unit so far (knock on wood).

[cvarner]

Just happened to me again on 12/15 on my T-60.
Though this time, it was not as bad. My Favorite Channels list disappeared and my Channels You Receive list had everything added back in that I had removed after the last occurrence. The first time I had this issue, the machine stopped recording my Season Passes and I had to do a restart, but not this time. It seems strange to me that the problem has differing levels of severity.

[Mark Lopez]

Originally posted by cvarner
It seems strange to me that the problem has differing levels of severity.

Yes, I have had many variations. Always the favorites are gone, but have had one of the following

All Channels You Receive selected
All Channels You Receive gone
All Channels You receive gone except NASA
A mix of All Channels you receive gone (and always the locals)

A reboot has always restored the channels but always requires setting up favorites again. I've given up on fiddling with the Channels You Receive. I just select them all then just fix the favorites. I now just keep a 'cheat sheet' with the list next to the remote. :(

My new conspiracy theory is this is intentional to get everyone so fed up, they buy a series 2. :)

[sher]

Dammit anyhow. First time this occurrence and I was out last night and no shows taped. Didn't notice the problem til this morning. DSR6000.

Hopefully it won't continue on.

[sigloxx]

I thought I was one of the only ones having this problem. I've thought about calling DTV and now will. T-60, 3.1.0b software. Typically it deletes the channels I receive and favorite channel list, which affects suggestions list.

I didn't read the entire forum, but a few posts. Does anyone also think it may have something to do with their ECM bursts? I'd think it'd more likely be a channel line up change though, since it happens about twice a month, sometimes twice a week, but this is majorly annoying.

To help, I simply program the channels I receive, making those my favorite channels essentially. I don't additionally program the favorite channels. I figure if I want to watch something elsewhere, I'll pop up the 'all channels' window in the guide. For now that helps in not having to program two lists, since this does not appear to be on DTV's fix it list for quite awhile. Thanks for the posts. We are not alone.

[allenw]

Our only receiver (an upgraded DSR6000) got hit today as well. It's been fine for almost 2 years now without any real hitch. :(

I wonder if the channels that you do receive determines how much/how often "damage" is done. In our case, we only have a single, circular dish so only get channels off of the main satellite and the spot beam. I would think that the folks who have an oval or two circles would be seeing the issue more often. At least, that's what I'd think would happen if the issue was tied to channel changes. [Don't more changes happen on the "other" satellite?]

[BrettStah]

<knocking on wood>
It hasn't happened in 2-3 weeks or so on either of our DSR-6000s. Since the last time it did happen, other than rebooting the affected unit we haven't added or removed any channels from either the "Channels I Receive" or "Favorite Channels" lists. I'm not sure if leaving those lists alone is preventing the "Channel not Available" bug we've seen on both of our units periodicially or not, but it's my current theory I'm going with. :)
</knocking on wood>

[sigloxx]

Brett, on my unit you must select channels to receive, otherwise nothing will show up in your guide. You have to set it up. I simply set up the channels I receive as the only channels I want to watch (my favorites) and don't set up the favorite channels list, as it's twice as much work. If I want to watch something else, I'll tell the guide to show all channels.

Another thing I've noticed is that the S-P-S-30-S feature goes away either at the same time as the 'reset' or some time later. Yesterday morning I encountered the loss of channel selections. The S-P-S feature was fine, until that evening. It disappeared and I had to re-enter it. This is another consistent thing that appears to happen, at least on the T-60 units, and another reason why I suspect ECM as the culprit, though resetting of channel information may also wreak havoc with customization of remote features.

As I can't live without this added feature I've not ran a test to see if I don't use it what might happen.

Allen, more channel changes might occur as more channel choices are available, so that's a pretty good point that may determine the frequency of these occurences for each specific user.

[BrettStah]

Every time we've had the issue where we see "Channel Not Available", we've immediately rebooted. Shortly afterwards, everything seems to be back to normal, and we get expected recordings, etc. As you pointed out, any of the undocumented features that have been enabled (such as the 30 second skip) are disabled after the reboot. I've not noticed features like that being disabled without a reboot causing it though.

[kevinm]

I just noticed this for the first time. Last night I lost all channels. Even channel 100 was not working. Some other pieces of data:

1) I have never experienced this issue in the past
2) I have not had my phone line plugged in for a year and installed a TurboNet card about 3 weeks ago
3) I recently noticed a new Tivo message that told me to check for new local dial in numbers

Sounds like a code issue or some relationship to dialing in and/or getting these messages.

A system reset cleared the issue as expected.

[sigloxx]

Does anyone know if unplugging the phone line will help with this or not?
I used to have a need to have it plugged in, but don't anymore. No pay per view orders, etc.

[kevinm]

Probably not, but it can't hurt to try. There is a good chance that this is just a bug in newer code that I downloaded after being unplugged for a year.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
Probably not, but it can't hurt to try. There is a good chance that this is just a bug in newer code that I downloaded after being unplugged for a year. It's been mentioned a number of times in this thread that people have reported this back to 2.5 code, so it is not a new problem with 3.1b. It was happening to me with 3.1 and 2.5.

Read the thread. There's a lot of information in it that you don't see by jumping to the end.

[kevinm]

I did read several pages, but the entire thread is not a light read. However, your RTFT (read the "fine" thread) comment is well taken.

Like I said, this is the first time I have seen it and hopefully the variables I included help the analysis.

[BlankMan]

I know, it's sometimes a pain, I've done it myself in other instances. rcrew came into it at 12 pages and read them all, I give him credit for that.

But on topic, if you haven't already call DirecTV and complain AND get it noted on your account, that will help you and maybe help this thing get fixed., Do it every time it occurs. I know it's a pain, I hate it, you have to start over every time with the CSR's and they usually have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm starting to push DirecTV for compensation in the form of a credit on my account. This is BS, especially now that it's affecting the unit's ability to record programs.

[blips]

It just happened to me today. Grrrr! I hope News Corp will change some policies so we can get this fixed!

[Todd76]

It happened to me Sunday morning; I missed two scheduled recordings.

[BrettStah]

Don't forget to call DirecTV and report the problem!

[austinsho]

And when reporting, it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to make sure you go directly to the Tivo support group, as opposed to a front-line CSR.

[Mark Lopez]

<sigh> Unit one did it again, sometime after Saturday. Another call to DirecTV.

[stevel]

You can try to be connected directly to a TiVo specialist, but most of the frontline CSRs won't let you do so until they filter the request first.

[crusador]

hughes seems to be acknowleding a problem with some of their non tivo recievers losing favorites, and are working on a fix, think the problems could be related? HNS said that HNS HBH-SA and HAH-SA were having problems losing favorites and using turbo tune.....anyone called hns latly?

[khark]

It happened again to me yesterday sometime on my unmodified 35 hour Phillips. I restarted it but it didn't fix the favorites so I had to do it manually.

[BrettStah]

About my statement that a reboot fixes my problem... I don't typically use the Favorites list, so the only thing that it fixes with a reboot for me is the problem with not properly tuning in channels.

[Rik]

First ... you can add me to the growing list. It's happened about six times to my unmodified Hughes in the past four months. It just happened to my modified Philips for the second time in that same time period.

Second. I was once able to get some significant response from DTV on a previous issue by bypassing the standard cust svc 800#s and contacting corporate. I called the CEO, President, VP Operations, VP Public Relations and everyone else I could and was able to get the needed satisfaction. This was several years ago but it may be worth a try again. I am employed in an area where I have access to relatively detailed business information and may be able to get some key contact names and main corporate numbers if anyone is interested in kicking down some doors,

[Rik]

happened again with my Hughes this morning at 7:43 AM right before my eyes. The last call in was several hours earlier. The timing was right as the GC (whatever that is) and the Indexing were occuring.

[BlankMan]

I came home tonight to find my TiVo3 unit a T60 got nailed again. I sent another email to DTV asking what they are going to do about it and what form of compensation they will provide for continuing to have to put up with this. Anyone that calls in I suggest they start asking for compensation also, hit them on the bottom line, maybe that will get someones attention.

[Dirac]

Happened early this morning on my Philips. Will give them a call and see what happens. I've never actually tried calling the problem in before.

[Bnocab]

This has happened to me at least 8 times in the last year. Happened to me sometime on Friday. I came home on Sunday to find both my SAT-T60 and DSR6000 had lost there favorite channels. Switched the T60 to channels received and locals still would not come in. After a reboot everything was fine for channels received. Still had to reprogram my favorites list. What a pain in my a**...

I will try to call DTV on Monday. DTV please read this post.

B

[bareyb]

Add two more to the list. I lost my favorites three times on both Phillips DirecTiVos over the last few months...

My immediate gut feeling was that DirecTV was doing it intentionally to force you to look at their entire list of offerings again. In case you might decide to order some more packages. :rolleyes:

I didn't read the whole thread (it's late) but since it's been promoted to a "sticky note" I am hoping that somebody has some answers by now? Any progress or additional info on this at all?

[stevel]

No progress I'm aware of.

[Bnocab]

Well! Well! Well!

Just call DTV on this issue since it happened to me on Friday. They transferred me to a Tivo specialist. She did a database search and found nothing on this issue. Why wouldn't DTV/Tivo have a report on file. Blankman are you really calling? Is DTV full of sh**...

Stevel, do you know for a fact that DTV/Tivo is aware of the issue??

I told the tivo specialist to log on to www.tivocommunity.com and go to DTV w/ Tivo and read the first line item.

DTV, Just fix it please.

B

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by Bnocab
Well! Well! Well!

Just call DTV on this issue since it happened to me on Friday. They transferred me to a Tivo specialist. She did a database search and found nothing on this issue. Why wouldn't DTV/Tivo have a report on file. Blankman are you really calling? Is DTV full of sh**...

Stevel, do you know for a fact that DTV/Tivo is aware of the issue??

I told the tivo specialist to log on to www.tivocommunity.com and go to DTV w/ Tivo and read the first line item.

DTV, Just fix it please.

B Read the thread. You'll see my transcript of the 65 minutes I spent on the phone. I forward a very long email to them each time it happens to me reporting the new occurrence. The email contains all occurrences of mine. You'll also see where two TiVo representatives have admitted the problem and then been told by DTV to be quiet.

DTV left a message on my answering machine yesterday saying they will try and call again or I can call. Yeah right.

I've sent them the link to this thread quite a while ago and suggested they make sure their management is aware of this.

I am now pushing for credit to my account for each occurrence until they fix it.

[junkmetro]

My Sony Sat T-60 just had this happen for the first time.

In reading the posts it seems the best solution is to:

1. Restart the recorder (restart so that all channels show up)
2. Make sure the channels you recieve is accurate
3. reprogram your favorites list
2. Call DirecTV asking for a Tivo specialist and complain asking for $$ credit for lack of service (TIVO Support Direct Line: 800-695-9251)
3. pray that it does not happen again.

Am I missing any steps? Is reprograming your favorites the only option?

<edited based on feedback from others>

[stevel]

You're missing:

0: Reboot
0.5: Make sure that Channels You Receive is accurate

[junkmetro]

Called DirectTV and elevated to TIVO support. They told me that:

- It is a problem other customers are having.
- I should do a complete system reset / effectively erasing the HD and starting over <I will not be doing this on the advice of others as apparently it does not do anything and only erases some programs that you might get around to watching one day>
- If it happens again I should call back and they will notify the manufacturer of the problem.

They did give me an 800# which I presume is direct to the TIVO support team 800-695-9251... Good luck!

[stevel]

Do not do the complete system reset. It has already been proven to not fix the problem.

The manufacturer is irrelevant here too. It is a software problem, DirecTV knows it, and apparently TiVo knows it too.

[Mark Lopez]

Well, unit #2 did it again. I called DirecTV again and got the same 'Never heard of that' blah blah blah. :rolleyes:

And as stevel mentioned, doing a 'clear and delete everything will not fix it. I tried that and less than a week later it did it again.



Originally posted by Bnocab
Why wouldn't DTV/Tivo have a report on file? Is DTV full of sh**...


Yes

[kevinm]

Does it make sense to continue posting: "Me too"s to this thread? If another goal is to understand the magnitude perhaps a poll is a better way. For those that experience the problem for the first time it is REALLY painful to read through 15 pages of "me too"s and "me too again"s

It also helps when the first post of a sticky like this is updated with all the latest information.

[kevinm]

ok, so here is a shot at a poll. Additions? Think this is worth generating?

This will be a choose all that apply:

o I've never experienced this problem
o I've lost Channels I Receive or Favorites once
o I've lost Channels I Receive or Favorites 1-5 times
o I've lost Channels I Receive or Favorites 5+ times
o The problem box is a Series 1
o The problem box is a Series 2
o The problem box has been "modified"
o The problem box has not been "modified"
o The problem box regularly dials in
o The problem box rarely or never dials in
o I called DirecTV to report it
o I did not call DirecTV to report it
o The CSR knew what I was talking about
o The CSR did not know what I was talking about

NOTE: For those that don't know what a poll is, you do not reply to this thread, there will (may) be another one that you can answer these questions.

[BrettStah]

The problem with a poll on this (and some other topics) is that someone may vote today that they have had no problems. Then tomorrow they have the problem, or their spouse tells them that they've seen the problem and fixed it without telling them about it before, etc.

(Not saying the poll would be useless though, just making a weakness known).

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
Does it make sense to continue posting: "Me too"s to this thread? If another goal is to understand the magnitude perhaps a poll is a better way. For those that experience the problem for the first time it is REALLY painful to read through 15 pages of "me too"s and "me too again"s

It also helps when the first post of a sticky like this is updated with all the latest information. Yes it does, it is a record of the continuing problem. When it stops, if it stops, it might be because it was fixed or DTV stopped doing what is causing it.

DTV is aware of this thread and it is egg on their face until they fix it.

A poll serves no purpose, TiVo has been able to reproduce the problem, TiVo has contacted DirecTV with this information, DirecTV has told TiVo not to comment on the matter any more

Updating the first post is a good idea, I'm open to suggestions as to what to add.

[kevinm]

Originally posted by BlankMan
A poll serves no purpose, TiVo has been able to reproduce the problem, TiVo has contacted DirecTV with this information, DirecTV has told TiVo not to comment on the matter any more.
This sounds suspiciously like you have additional information. What was done to reproduce the problem (i.e. something "DTV is doing") and since that usually is followed by a fix, what is the big hush hush all about?

[Rik]

Maybe DTV is slyly trying to push the movement towards Series 2. I would actually consider replacing my old Series 1s now if:

1. I wasn't already waiting for the HD Tivo
2. I wasn't waiting for the Home Networking option


Rik

[stevel]

Reading between the lines of responses here from TiVo, DirecTV has asked TiVo to stop talking about it, since DirecTV now "owns" the DTiVo service. I'm guessing that DirecTV is trying to shove us under the rug for long enough in the hopes that we'll go away (or buy new receivers which don't have the problem.)

[Mark Lopez]

Originally posted by BlankMan

Updating the first post is a good idea, I'm open to suggestions as to what to add.

I suggest putting all of the know facts. For example: Clear and delete won't fix it. Hacked or unhacked doesn't matter. Phone line or not has no bearing. Seasons passes or any recordings makes no difference. (Mine did it after a clear and delete that had no recordings, suggestions off, no seasons passes or wish lists.)

[BrettStah]

I'd also recommend changing (or asking a mod to change if needed) the thread title to not specifically talk about favorite channel lists only... i don't use favorites, but have been affected by (what we think) the Channel Not Available issue a few times now.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
This sounds suspiciously like you have additional information. What was done to reproduce the problem (i.e. something "DTV is doing") and since that usually is followed by a fix, what is the big hush hush all about?

Yes. Some is covered in this thread.

I have updated the original post with some of your suggestions and will continue to do so, thanks all. I'll also see about updating the thread subject.

[Rik]

OK Ladies and Gentlemen. I mentioned in an earlier post that I've had some success gaining satisfaction from DirecTV by bypassing an unhelpful tech support department and instead calling contacts within the company that are higher or much higher up. Below is some contact information, names, titles etc within DirecTV and two of it's subsidiaries (located at the same address). Below that I've included some corporate contact information at TIVO as well. Some of the contacts may be out of date but this should provide something to work with.

Note, I would not normally advocate moving outside of standard channels if some reasonable level of satisfaction were possible or if the request itself was unreasonable. But this issue was first brought forward about a year ago and so far DirecTV doesn't seem to even want to own up to it let alone address it. And the consistent "gee we've never heard of that problem" response is downright infuriating.

There are a lot of contacts so if it seems like folks are not getting anywhere we may all want to coordinate.

Stay in touch.



DirecTV Holdings LLC
2230 E Imperial Highway Floor 10
El Segundo, CA 90245
#310-535-5000

Eddy Hartenstein, CEO
Roxanne Austin, President (note that Roxanne has announced her intention to leave DirecTV once the News Corp acquisition has been completed)
Michael Palkovic, CFO
Keith Causey, Vice President.
Deborah Griffin, Vice President.

DirecTV Enterprises, Inc
2230 E Imperial Highway Floor 10
El Segundo, CA 90245
#310-535-5000

EDDY W HARTENSTEIN, CHB
ODIE C DONALD, PRES
R L MYERS, EX VP-CFO
BILL CASAMO, VP-SLS MKT
CHIP HENDERSON, DIR-PROCUREMENT
JIM REBMAN, VP-HR, F.
ROBERT WHYTE, vice president info technology
Mike palkovic, cfo.

DirecTV, Inc
2230 E Imperial Highway
El Segundo, CA 90245
#310-535-5000


ROXANNE S AUSTIN, PRES-COO (note that Roxanne has announced her intention to leave DirecTV once the News Corp acquisition has been completed)
LARRY CHAPMAN, EX VP-MKTG/ADV
STAN IBARA, CONTROLLER
JIM REDMAN, PURCHASING-ADMINISTRATION
ROBERT M HALL, SR VP-BUS AFFAIRS-GEN COUNSEL
SUSAN COLLINS, SR VP-MARKETING
Francine Harsini, Vice President.
David Anderson, Busn Sys Analyst.
Bob Radke, Czar.
Thuy T Nguyen, Director.
Joshua Crandall, Manager.
Hoan Do, Network Manager.
Richard Chin, Project Manager.
John De Rago, Project Mgr.
Chao K Yang, Sr Scientist.
Elmer Robles, Sr. Computing Spe.
Diane Augustine, Sr. Mgr. Mkg.
Mitchell Dimler, Systems Architecture.
Edward Huguez, Vice President.
Ali Seraj, Broadcast Sys Engr.
Kathryn Scott, Business Manager.
Robert Paock, Chief Information Officer.
Robin Rogers, Corporate Counsel/Legal.
Takehiko Suzuki, Corporate Counsel/Legal.
Jan Farrell, Corporate Counsel/Legal.
Megan Mcnulty, Corporate Counsel/Legal.
Christopher Murphy, Corporate Counsel/Legal.
Tyler Slocum, Department Manager.
Chris Maehara, Dir Chf Mis.
Tom Liang, Dir Eng.
Robert Gabrelli, Director.
Timothy Evans, Director.
Jason Taback, Director.
Stephen Dulac, Director.
Luis Andrade, Director.
Stephen Condon, Director Marketing.
Brian D Smith, Director Property Sals Tx.
Gene Gonzalez, District Director.
Ringo Ling, Engineer.
L W Butterworth, Executive Vice President.
Ellen Scott, Human Resource Consultant.
Erik Kosashih, It.
Tom Pham, It.
Deniet Yan, It.
Donald Greer, It.
Rick Isa, It.
Chris Wendel, It.
Gary Loo, It.
Chris Wegner, It.
Dale Gunder, It.
Jun Shen, It.
Paul Curry, It.
Audrey Esteb, It Project Manager.
Danielle Desmond, It Supervisor.
Joanne Cannetta, IS Manager.
Ken Park, IS/MIS/IT Engineer.
Eric Jansen, Mail Center Sup.
Chris Beavdin, Manager.
Rochelle Stephens, Manager.
Jim Biggam, Manager.
David Marchant, Manager.
Danielle Bialik, Manager.
Jean Bradshaw, Manager.
Mallory Samora, Marketing Manager.
John Phillips, Mgr Lan Mgmt.
Emma Jackson, Mgr Sys Engr.
Diane Ambruso, Mngr of Acqstn Strtgc.
Brad Gunnell, Pay Per View Manager.
Steve Corbin, Proj Manager.
Kim Doll, Proj Manager.
Jimesa Ellington, Project Manager.
Loren Nguyen, Project Manager.
Cuong Q Tran, Project Manager.
William E Steele, Project Manager.
Redentor Gonzales, Project Manager.
Alison Mattiza, Sales Analyst.
Katherine Bradley, Sales Program Coordinator.
Sheldon Wagorn, Senior Manager.
Christi Uhrig, Senior Manager.
Gene Hahn, Senior Project Manager.
Robert Urling, Senior Project Mgr.
Jim Butterword, Senior Vice President.
Shannon Campain, Sr Project Manager.
Michael Robson, Supervisor.
Brian Holland, Supervisor It Ops.
Van Lowe, Engineer.
Michelle Lee, Unit Engineer.
Thomas Lee, Unit Engineer.
Paul James, Vice President.
Christine L Lavalle, Vice Presidnt Prg Pln Prd.
Damyanti Dayaram, Website Designer.
Tony Tomich, Bus Unit Chf Fnncl Offcr.
Pat Taniguchi, Communications Specialist.
Ed Sharrow, Copy Editor.
Kim Hurwitz, Dir.
Victor Blanc, Finance Manager.
Donald Lossing, Manager Sys Oper.
Marilyn Slominski, Senior Dirctr Ppv Schdlng.
Regin Fenny, Senior Manager Prod.
Vicki Foshee, Svp.
Toby Berlin, Svp Prog.
Scott Nordh, V P Sls & Distr.
Robert Sander, Vice President.
Steven Brister, VP Marketing.
Ruty Schiller, VP On Air Promo.


Tivo Inc
2160 GOLD STREET
AND BRANCH(ES) OR DIVISION(S)
ALVISO CA 95002
TEL: 408 519-9100

MICHAEL RAMSAY, CHB-CEO+
MARTIN J YUDKOVITZ, PRES
JAMES BARTON, SR VP RESEARCH & DEV-CTO+
DAVID H COURTNEY, EXEC VP-WORLDWIDE OP-CFO+
TA-WEI CHIEN , SR VP-GM TIVO TECH
MARK A ROBERTS , SR VP ENGINEERING
Stacy Jolna, Vice President.
Bill Dailey, Training Developer.
Susan Cashen, v pres corp communications.
Joe Miller, v pres sales, I.
Karrin Nicol, v pres hum resources, F.
David Platt, SW Engr.
Jeff Cross, Designer.
Jim Manley, Manager.
Brodie Keast, Senior Vice President.
Anandha Krishnan, Sys Administrator.
Howard Look, Vice President.
Bob Vallone, Vice President.
Luther Kitahata, Vice President.
Andrew Cresci, Vice President.
Dean Dipietro, Manager of Operations.
Stuart West, VP Finance

[BlankMan]

Good job Rik, lets see if I can figure out their email naming convention.

[BlankMan]

Well well well... I just got a call from Bryan at DirecTV in response to my continuing emails and I now have 3 months of free Showtime due to this problem. But of course he was unaware of the problem and could not provide any further information as what if anything DirecTV is doing....

[Clark]

I've had this problem for a least the past year. I thought that I just had a defective tivo (my modded tivo so far hasn't had these problems). I have been toying around with the idea of doing a major hack on my problem tivo and this thread is increasing the probability of me putting extreme on it to see if the problem goes away.

[BlankMan]

After testing a number of formats I think I struck on the one that works, I have sent an email to all of the below addresses and none of them have bounced and it has been over 6 hours, whereas the bad formats bounced almost immediately.

I didn't send to people in IT, Legal, etc. so this list is just of the remaining. The more email they get the better the chance someone may get DirecTV to do something about it.

But don't send to all at once, I sent individually. DirecTV's SMTP server seems to have a limit on how many people you can send to in a single message, probably to protect from SPAM.

ROXANNE.AUSTIN@mail.directv.com
LARRY.CHAPMAN@mail.directv.com
SUSAN.COLLINS@mail.directv.com
Francine.Harsini@mail.directv.com
Thuy.Nguyen@mail.directv.com
Joshua.Crandall@mail.directv.com
Hoan.Do@mail.directv.com
Richard.Chin@mail.directv.com
John.Rago@mail.directv.com
Chao.Yang@mail.directv.com
Elmer.Robles@mail.directv.com
Diane.Augustine@mail.directv.com
Mitchell.Dimler@mail.directv.com
Edward.Huguez@mail.directv.com
Ali.Seraj@mail.directv.com
Tyler.Slocum@mail.directv.com
Tom.Liang@mail.directv.com
Robert.Gabrelli@mail.directv.com
Timothy.Evans@mail.directv.com
Jason.Taback@mail.directv.com
Stephen.Dulac@mail.directv.com
Luis.Andrade@mail.directv.com
Stephen.Condon@mail.directv.com
Gene.Gonzalez@mail.directv.com
Ringo.Ling@mail.directv.com
L.W.Butterworth@mail.directv.com
Chris.Beavdin@mail.directv.com
Rochelle.Stephens@mail.directv.com
Jim.Biggam@mail.directv.com
David.Marchant@mail.directv.com
Danielle.Bialik@mail.directv.com
Mallory.Samora@mail.directv.com
Emma.Jackson@mail.directv.com
Steve.Corbin@mail.directv.com
Kim.Doll@mail.directv.com
Jimesa.Ellington@mail.directv.com
Loren.Nguyen@mail.directv.com
Cuong.Tran@mail.directv.com
William.Steele@mail.directv.com
Redentor.Gonzales@mail.directv.com
Alison.Mattiza@mail.directv.com
Katherine.Bradley@mail.directv.com
Sheldon.Wagorn@mail.directv.com
Christi.Uhrig@mail.directv.com
Gene.Hahn@mail.directv.com
Robert.Urling@mail.directv.com
Jim.Butterword@mail.directv.com
Shannon.Campain@mail.directv.com
Michael.Robson@mail.directv.com
Van.Lowe@mail.directv.com
Michelle.Lee@mail.directv.com
Thomas.Lee@mail.directv.com
Paul.James@mail.directv.com
Christine.Lavalle@mail.directv.com
Kim.Hurwitz@mail.directv.com
Donald.Lossing@mail.directv.com
Regin.Fenny@mail.directv.com
Vicki.Foshee@mail.directv.com
Toby.Berlin@mail.directv.com
Scott.Nordh@mail.directv.com
Robert.Sander@mail.directv.com
Steven.Brister@mail.directv.com

[stevel]

Oh, I'm sure all those people will just LOVE that you exposed their addresses to spammers' web scrapers....

[kevinm]

A few well written emails to the appropriate people are far better then everyone flaming them.

This could border on harrasment.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by stevel
Oh, I'm sure all those people will just LOVE that you exposed their addresses to spammers' web scrapers.... Yeah I know, not the necessarily the right thing to do. But neither is ignoring the problem. If their business policy wasn't to try and sweep problems under the carpet we wouldn't be having this conversation, ergo there would be no email addresses posted. Not a strong justification I know, but when you repeatedly report a problem and they repeatedly deny any knowledge of it, you begin to think they are operating in that mode on purpose. The same thing happened with the stuck on 28% problem, for months they denied it. I have no remorse posting those email addressees in light of how DirecTV operates their Support Organization and directly telling TiVo personal not to comment on the subject any more. It's a cover up. So if their Support Organization is not allowed to help, then bypass them and start emailing the people that make these decisions, in mass.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
This could border on harrasment. Reporting a problem to them and asking for their help because going through their normal channels is not working can hardly be viewed as harassment in my mind. They may think so, but when normal channels do not work, you bypass those channels. And it's very obvious from personal experience and numerous posts that DirecTV's Support Organization is definitely not able to remedy the problem.

I say everyone that has the problem should send them a nice email asking that it be acknowledged and addressed.

[kevinm]

There is a DirecTV support rep that recently joined this forum. I sent him a PM last night asking about this issue. He said he was unaware of it, but will check on it first this morning.

Given the size of their support organization, I would not be surprised if their system has grouped all these reports with the 1000's they get / day for other more generic problems.

As far as "directly telling TiVo personal not to comment" I've seen that mentioned by you a few times but have not read who said that and where the information came from. Can you site the source again?

[kevinm]

One other question.... Has anyone escalated this to DirecTV management prior to this? A diplomatic liaison is a much better first approach then carpet bombing.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
There is a DirecTV support rep that recently joined this forum. I sent him a PM last night asking about this issue. He said he was unaware of it, but will check on it first this morning.

Given the size of their support organization, I would not be surprised if their system has grouped all these reports with the 1000's they get / day for other more generic problems.

As far as "directly telling TiVo personal not to comment" I've seen that mentioned by you a few times but have not read who said that and where the information came from. Can you site the source again? I've been PM'ing with a CSR for quite a while now, the news I get is not good.

Why are you dwelling on who? I will not reveal who at TiVo told me that, but it was more then one. Enough said.

[kevinm]

Originally posted by BlankMan
I've been PM'ing with a CSR for quite a while now, the news I get is not good.
Why are you dwelling on who? I will not reveal who at TiVo told me that, but it was more then one. Enough said.

Well because I do have some concerns with you publishing an exec management email list and telling everyone reading this post (currently 13100 views) to flood their mail boxes based on only your conversations. The word I am thinking of is "incite".

BlankMan, I understand you are frustrated and rightfully so. I just wonder if another approach is for you to be a liaison vs a general. As I understand it you have worked with many low-level people at DirecTV and a few at Tivo. Now that you know who to escalate to at DirecTV, perhaps you can take this case there and let us know how the diplomacy is going before taking more drastic measures.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
Well because I do have some concerns with you publishing an exec management email list and telling everyone reading this post (currently 13100 views) to flood their mail boxes based on only your conversations. The word I am thinking of is "incite".

BlankMan, I understand you are frustrated and rightfully so. I just wonder if another approach is for you to be a liaison vs a general. As I understand it you have worked with many low-level people at DirecTV and a few at Tivo. Now that you know who to escalate to at DirecTV, perhaps you can take this case there and let us know how the diplomacy is going before taking more drastic measures. I have no more pull with anyone at TiVo or anywhere else then another else here, I was told some things in private email and asked to be vague if I repeat it.

You or someone else want to be diplomatic with DirecTV, go right ahead. After seven months of dealing with DirecTV every time this has happened and being told to reboot the unit, do a clear and delete to fix it, or replace the unit, diplomacy, in my opinion does not work with DirecTV.

They have had seven months of my dealing with them with this issue, and even longer with other people. They still continue to deny there is a problem, let alone attempt to correct it. No, it's time to take the gloves off, no holds barred.

You remind me of another person at this Forum who stuck up for DirecTV's Support Organization. They have a very poor track record when dealing with any DTiVo problems, they do not acknowledge problems, it does not appear they share information between CSR's, every time you call you have to start from square one and explain the problem over and over. I really believe that is done on purpose and DirecTV hopes that you will tire of it and just go away. You all come in here spouting how to use DirecTV's Support, how to be diplomatic, yada yada yada, don't you think that if diplomacy was going to work, it should have in seven months? In over a year? Doh!

I am not trying to incite as you say. When the normal means are not working, you take it to the next level.

You go be diplomatic and come back and tell us when you got them to fix this problem.

[wired711]

Given the long drawn out history of getting next to nothing useful in the way of a response from DirecTV on this issue despite sincere and more normal business accepted approaches I would have to essentially agree with Blankman's current direction. The only thing I would suggest as a modifier is that we wait say, 1 week to see if Blankman gets any meaningful responses from his emails (this is somewhat similar to the last suggestion). However, if after a week and no meaningful responses that look like this is going somewhere positive.. then we all do our part and email as well. Of course by now perhaps some of you have already emailed but perhaps the rest of us can wait until say Jan 7th. What do you think? Other ideas?

How freak'n long are we supposed to wait for the decency of even an acknowledgement anyway? I guess eventually we'll all buy the next new unit that hopefully won't have this problem (some conspiracy theorists suggested that this is what they are trying to make us do by not responding) but then again the next new thing will probably have some other issue and we'll be at this all over again. We have to make a statement somehow that this is NOT acceptable support (or lack thereof) practice and of course to get this particular issue fixed once and for all!

Thanks for your efforts Blankman.

Doug

[Mark Lopez]

Well, I got a call back about an e-mail I sent. Once again, I got the 'We never heard of that'. When I asked how they couldn't have heard of it when I personally have called at least 5 times, she couldn't give me an answer. I then (again) told her about this forum (which I had supplied a link in the e-mail) and asked if she looked. Of course the e-mail had already gone into some black hole, so she didn't see it. :rolleyes: I stayed calm and explained everything including all of the troubleshooting we have done here. I even offered up the theory that they are intentionally brushing this under the rug. She immediately denied that, but still could not explain why they had no record of this when I and others have called and e-mailed so many times. It finally got to the point where she didn't know what to say. Anyway, it was pretty much a waste of time.

[seymouru]

Mark, that's really discouraging. The stonewall response you received on that call pretty much sums up how they're handling this problem:

a) Denial that it's been reported before, and
b) No response when confronted with mountains of evidence that it has been reported before.

Stonewalling is by definition a non-response to a reasonable question ("To refuse to answer or cooperate," according to dictionary.com (http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=stonewall)). Clearly that's what we're dealing with here. Diplomacy doesn't usually work against this tactic, and it hasn't so far with DirecTV.

[MadScience]

While it's sad that there are 300+ message on this subject and not one helpful response from DirecTV it does make me feel better to read that I'm not the only one having this issue.

This has happened repeatedly over the last year with the suggestion always to reboot the system or erase everything and set it up fresh. Do you know that CSRs have actually suggested to me that my hard drive might be dying and that's the cause for this weird behavior. And until I read this thread and the one on 'Acquiring Guide Date From Satellite?' I was beginning to believe them. I was actually starting to shop around for a new DirecTV TiVo unit.

So ... thank you to all who have posted!!

[BlankMan]

Doug, that was my plan, when ever I email I give them at least a week to respond before I forward it to them again asking for some response. In this cause due to the Holiday I was planning on the end of next week, pretty much what you said. And thanks, I was beginning to think I was the only one getting frustrated enough to try something.

Mark, if you haven't, get the CSR's name and ID number, I've been doing that to prove I spoke with someone.

[Rik]

I would agree with Doug and Blankman. Give it about a week to give the higher ups a chance to respond. After that ... well ... there's power in numbers. Although I think we should consider picking out specific contacts. We can all then bring our problem to those contacts. I believe we should combine e-mails with telephone calls as e-mails are too easy to ignore. I made quite a bit of progress (actually all of it) via the phone on my prior issue.

[hookbill]

I haven't posted on this thread for a while because I haven't experienced the problem for a couple of months now. I am astonished to see that even after what is it, 9 months of complaining DTV is still stonewalling on this issue.

The purpose of me adding to this thread at this time is just to thank Blankman for his work and persistance in starting this thread. He's taking a lot of heat from some individuals around here and stuck to his guns. Great job, Blankman.

I'll be more then happy to send an e-mail of to one of those execs. I'll probably go to the top, and see what response I get.

[sorahl]

Is this problem happening with all Direct Tivo's or just some?

[stevel]

It doesn't happen with S2 DTiVos (HDVR2, etc.) Otherwise, there's no particular pattern to suggest that some S1 DTiVos are immune. Some people see the problem more often than others.

[sorahl]

Thanks Steve....

[SAFW]

I've experienced 2 losses of my channel lists in the last month on my modified SAT-T60. Both coincided with bad weather, so I chalked it up to a satellite error. The CSR had never heard of such a failure, and recccomended a full power-down restart.

If anyone is keeping tally, add me to the growing list.



SAFW

[Dirac]

It happened again this morning on my Sony.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by SAFW
If anyone is keeping tally, add me to the growing list.
IMO that is what this thread in part is doing.

[schaltegger]

Add me, too.

Last night my second unit insisted that no channels (or guide data, either) were available except the HBO - Showtime block and the channels in between. This corresponded to a loss of Nashville locals, too, on my other unit (which did not suffer the guide issues). I rebooted the bedroom unit (clearing the thumbs/guide data as well). It took over 90 minutes to come back up but when it did, the channels were all available again (although I'm going to have to redo all my thumbs and season passes. Coincidentally or not, by the time the second unit had completed rebooting, Nashville locals were back up.

[BrettStah]

schaltegger, next time don't clear the guide data/thumbs data. Just restart. Much quicker, and fixes the same problem (for me, at least).

[schaltegger]

Thanks for the tip, Brett; I didn't hit the 'net to figure out this was a "known" issue until this morning. Since my unmodded living room unit wasn't affected and since my locals were down on both, I suspected that perhaps DTV was fooling with the bitstream to defeat hackers and in the process glitched my guide data. If this was the case, I figured I needed to rebuild the guide data from scratch. I only had four or five season passes on that unit anyway so it's no big deal, provided it doesn't start recording cartoons again (like it did when it was new: every day I'd have an episode or two of anything from Dexter's Laboratory to Magilla Gorilla!)

[BlankMan]

Well got home tonight to find my TiVo2 unit got nailed again within the last 24 hours. I was watching it last night and it was just fine. Now the Favorite Channels list is gone once again and all that is left in the Channels I Receive list is:

173 184 196 271 284 371 374 411 412 428 456 490 492 494 583 590 627 719 891 892 793 845 847 849 850 851

I emailed DirecTV Support to inform them that it happened again, and emailed that list of Exec's. (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1612712#post1612712) I know I said that I was going to wait until the end of next week but this is too frustrating. Had it not happened before then I would have waited.

In the email I explained it happened again and I included the email that I have been forwarding to their Support Organization every time, adding each occurrence. With that, they will know every time it has happened to me going back to May 2003 when I started tracking it.

I also asked their Support Organization that is denying the problem exists, why then did they give me three months of free Showtime for the trouble a nonexistent problem is causing me?

[Rik]

Great job Blankman. You should also refer the list of execs to this thread.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by Rik
Great job Blankman. You should also refer the list of execs to this thread. Thanks, but, I don't getcha? :confused:

[Rik]

You should send them the link to this thread so they can see the length and breadth of the issue from many of us who have experienced it. A single e-mail from you might make it appear to them to be an isolated issue.

[BlankMan]

I did in my first email to them earlier in the week, and I have sent it in the past to their Support Organizaton.

[MauriAnne]

For those keeping track.....My series1 had the problem (again... I think this is time #3) last week. I lost both the channels I receive as well as the favorites.

[Dirac]

Every time it's happened to me, my Favorites list is blanked, but my Channels I Receive includes (nearly) every channel. So at least I haven't missed any recordings because of it. I have lost count as to how many times this has happened.

[rossboulet]

Add me to the list as well. My Sony T-60 has had the problem at least three times in the last six months. It seems confined to the Favorites list disappearing.

[toon-time]

Same problem here on stock (non-hacked) Sony T-60. It happened most recently over the Christmas break. It was about the 5th time it has happened in the past year.

[SPJones]

I am a new forum member and just read this thread. I have a DirectTV dish and Phillips DSR7000 (r-17) sitting in boxes and was going to call on Monday to set up an appointment with an installer. Would you all recommend that I just return it all and buy a regular Tivo and keep my cable hook up? I won't be able to record one channel while watching another, but it seems with no support from DirectTV that may be my best bet. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

S.P. Jones
Atlanta

[drew2k]

SPJones - I think the DSR7000 is a newer model, considered "2nd generation" or "series 2", so you should probably not experience any issues with the favorite channels disappearing. That problem seems to only be afflicting Series 1 boxes.

I would say go ahead and set up you appointment to install the DirecTV dish and box. You'll love the dual tuners, which gives you more recording flexibility than the StandAlone TiVos, especially when programs start and end at weird times.

Welcom to the forum and to the TiVolution!

[mschwab]

I posted a poll on some of the variations of this problem over a year ago:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=75898

and almost 60 people had seen some version of this, while over 70 had not.

I stopped even trying to set my CYR or Favorites list shortly after that - I just leave CYR with all channels checked, and ignore the extra channels that show up in View Upcoming, etc. I also have not used Suggestions in the five years I've been using TiVos, so I don't have to worry about Suggestions from bad channels. My few Wishlists must be specific enough that they don't pick up bad channels.

And I don't believe I've seen any such problems since! Before that, I was probably seeing the same frequency reported here, but mostly of the CYR having everything re-checked variety. I have a DSR6000 and a HDVR2. Since my DSR6000 is upgraded to 230 hours I'm not in a hurry to upgrade it, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

[hookbill]

Originally posted by SPJones
I am a new forum member and just read this thread. I have a DirectTV dish and Phillips DSR7000 (r-17) sitting in boxes and was going to call on Monday to set up an appointment with an installer. Would you all recommend that I just return it all and buy a regular Tivo and keep my cable hook up? I won't be able to record one channel while watching another, but it seems with no support from DirectTV that may be my best bet. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

S.P. Jones
Atlanta

It's not that Direct TV doesn't give any support. They do, but this is one issue that they seem to be sweeping under the carpet.

I would definitly NOT return your D-Tivo for cable. As bad as this may appear to you, my experience with cable is that they give far less support then DTV does.

[parzec]

Add me to the list. One of my DSR6000's lost all "Received Channels" over the week of Dec 13-Dec 22 while I was out of town. Came back to a Tivo that didn't record any of my season passes. It added some receieved channels over that time so my channel list was under 1 page (I didn't note which channels they were, but I'm sure it was Jems, Home Shopping, QVC, the Church Channel, etc. all the channels that see to contantly pop up even after you manually delete them)

[Agatha Mystery]

Well, I can be added to the list as well. I've got a Huges GXCEBOTD. Twice during december, I lost my "Channels I receive". It seemed that when I lost everything, I had a handfull of channels, and the only ones that recorded were my son's on Cartoon Network. I probably missed a day or two of shows, but I've been checking just to be sure. With the current erroneous "Acquiring Program Data" message, I've been checking my ToDo list just to be sure.

Both times, I rebooted the system and had to reset my favorites. I always leave the channels that I receive set to all, solely because this has happened in the past (as well as some channels going back and forth and getting re-added to the lineup on my favorites). I've finally started keeping a list of the channels that I have to edit out of my 'favorites' next to my chair to make it quicker to re-select my channels.

[Dirac]

Originally posted by SPJones
I am a new forum member and just read this thread. I have a DirectTV dish and Phillips DSR7000 (r-17) sitting in boxes and was going to call on Monday to set up an appointment with an installer. Would you all recommend that I just return it all and buy a regular Tivo and keep my cable hook up? I won't be able to record one channel while watching another, but it seems with no support from DirectTV that may be my best bet. Any recommendations? Thanks in advance.

S.P. Jones
Atlanta

NO NO NO!!! :D Keep those DTiVos!!! The channels problem is a minor annoyance compared to the joy one derives from these babies. The MAJOR annoyance is the fact that DirecTV is quite obviously deceiving its customers by saying to scores of different callers that no one else has reported the problem.

[Hokyfan]

I just spoke to an "Expanded Services" technician regarding the problem. (This was - of course - after talking to a regular tech about it for 10 minutes!)

I started to explain the problem, and he interrupted me and told me what is was. He said he had a few calls about the problem. Although it is know, they have not been able to duplicate it.

HERE IS THE IMPORTANT INFO

I told him about this post and he said, "I'm aware that there is a long post about the problem, but it seems people would rather post the problem then call DirecTV."

He told me that DTV was starting to collect info on which exact series 1 boxes are having the problem. He said that they are getting all the account info for the people that call in and compiling it to go to the manufacturer with.

SO....

Please call tech support and ask for an expanded services tech. Tell him that you are having this problem and it was suggested you call and let DTV know so they can trace down the problem.

He did confirm that this is a series 1 problem only.

[Bnocab]

Happened to me again on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. Not sure since there was no recording set until Sunday and it did not record. I just call DTV and got escaladed to Tivo help desk. The gentleman I spoke to knew of the issue and said they have become aware of the issue in the last couple of weeks.

Thanks Blankman for getting most of us to jump on the bandwagon and call DTV on the issue. Those who didn't call, well you should have.

[Rik]

Originally posted by Hokyfan

SO....

Please call tech support and ask for an expanded services tech. Tell him that you are having this problem and it was suggested you call and let DTV know so they can trace down the problem.

He did confirm that this is a series 1 problem only.

This really doesn't make sense and certainly doesn't seem like a potential solution. "Go to the manufacturer"? Which manufacturer? It's happened with Philips, Sony & Hughes so I can't see how this offering is any more than window dressing or another stall tactic.
Second ... this has been going on for more than a year. Again ... this looks like little more than a stall.

[BlankMan]

And the fact that DirecTV says they can't reproduce it when E. Stephen Mack (TiVoOpsMgr) told me that they (TiVo) were able to reproduce it and raised it as a priority fix with DirecTV. There was no mention that it was hardware or manufacture dependent.

So, can DirecTV be that big that they can't disseminate information internally, or is policy to stonewall their customers? (I'm stopping short of saying lying to their customers, but not by much.)

On another note, I had a call from DirecTV on my answering machine last night when I got home. But all they ever say is call them back and leave the 800 number. They never say what it's about. So is is due to my email to Customer Support over the weekend due to another occurrence? Is it due to my emails to the Exec's?

For the "Expanded Services" technician that said we'd rather post here I wish someone would inform him that having to call DirecTV and jump through all their hoops explaining the problem as a new problem every time because "no one else has reported that" and them telling you to reboot, or clear and delete or call Sony then call them back if they can't fix it. Last time I went that route and spent 65 minutes on the phone in three calls explaining it from scratch each time. And he wonders why people don't call it in?? Doh! He should try it sometime, practice what you preach.

I forward an email each time with the additional occurrence, so each time I send it they have the full history.

[BrettStah]

I'm leaning towards the "they can't disseminate information internally" theory, mixed in with "they aren't properly categorizing/analyzing this issue when people call in" theory. Why? Because there is a very helpful CSR who posts over at www.dbsforums.com named maryruth, and when I brought this thread to her attention she said she hadn't heard of it, and she checked her computer system and didn't see anything mentioned about it. I trust her that she's not stonewalling/lying/etc. too.

[stevel]

I am struck by the contrast betweem the problem in this thread and the one here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=151320) - in the latter, TiVo and DirecTV are falling over themselves to correct what is admitted to be a "cosmetic" problem, but for an issue where recordings fail to be made and the "channels I receive" list is corrupted, it's "we can't talk about that".

[Hokyfan]

Originally posted by stevel
I am struck by the contrast betweem the problem in this thread and the one here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=151320) - in the latter, TiVo and DirecTV are falling over themselves to correct what is admitted to be a "cosmetic" problem, but for an issue where recordings fail to be made and the "channels I receive" list is corrupted, it's "we can't talk about that".

Another item that bothers me is the comment made when I spoke to the rep - his "quick fix" was to buy the $99 series 2 - since the problem only exists with series 1 boxes.

Can you say, "Sweep it under the rug?"

[kevinm]

Originally posted by BrettStah
I'm leaning towards the "they can't disseminate information internally" theory, mixed in with "they aren't properly categorizing/analyzing this issue when people call in" theory. Why? Because there is a very helpful CSR who posts over at www.dbsforums.com named maryruth, and when I brought this thread to her attention she said she hadn't heard of it, and she checked her computer system and didn't see anything mentioned about it. I trust her that she's not stonewalling/lying/etc. too.

No, that can't be it. They must be corrupt, evil, conspiring liers. I read it here didn't I.

Based on this thread and guessing the actual number of people who have reported this service impacting problem, it must account for at least .0001% of the DirecTV daily call volume. That should be at least enough for them to modify their ticketing system and add in a new error code.

[kevinm]

Originally posted by Hokyfan
Another item that bothers me is the comment made when I spoke to the rep - his "quick fix" was to buy the $99 series 2 - since the problem only exists with series 1 boxes.

Can you say, "Sweep it under the rug?"

Oh yes... that is part of the conspiracy. The whole business plan behind DirecTV and Tivo is to piss off the mass market enough that they want to go out and buy more hardware. The CSRs are actually highly trained and well paid sales people.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
No, that can't be it. They must be corrupt, evil, conspiring liers. I read it here didn't I.

Based on this thread and guessing the actual number of people who have reported this service impacting problem, it must account for at least .0001% of the DirecTV daily call volume. That should be at least enough for them to modify their ticketing system and add in a new error code. Originally posted by kevinm
Oh yes... that is part of the conspiracy. The whole business plan behind DirecTV and Tivo is to piss off the mass market enough that they want to go out and buy more hardware. The CSRs are actually highly trained and well paid sales people. I don't understand why you have a tendency to go to bat for DirecTV at times. It is a documented problem, it has existed for over a year, going on two, in that time they should have enough information to acknowledge it. It only took days for them to acknowledge the recent "Acquiring Guide Data" message problem. They did the same thing with the DTiVo's getting stuck at 28% problem, they denied that for a long time also. They definitely show a pattern of behavior.

And this isn't the first time someone that has called in and been told to replace the unit for $99. That in and of itself is totally unacceptable. No one should have to fork out cash to correct their problem. At the least they should offer it for free. Even that still would not be acceptable to me. Not unless they can replace it with a 230 hour unit that runs TiVo Web so I can access it remotely as needed.

[kevinm]

I'm not "going to bat" for DirecTV, I'm commenting on the conclusions some have jumped to based on very limited information. I've agreed with the problem and the fact that DirecTV should do a far better job with issues like this. But, I disagree with the conspiracy theorists.

No one here really knows the full story, but some are quick with making DirecTV Policy inferences from first line CSR comments. I believe that it is more probable that the few that have experienced and reported this problem during the last year never asked for it to get escalated until recently. I have two Series1's and 1S2 and only had the problem once. I called in and a reset cleared it. I would not think twice about it if I did not read this forum.

Unlike a "stuck at 28% problem", the symptoms of this issue could be 1 of 20 known problems on the first line CSR list. For the past year they have been going with that as the solution. It is also possible that it only got on the DirecTV management radar screen recently.

Hypothetically, say this is now a "known" issue in DirecTV management. Say they also have a fix. My money says to do a code roll out is no small or inexpensive task. They probably also don't have a good grasp on the real scope of the issue. How many people are really effected, how often and is the workaround fixing 99% of those for months at a time. This thread helps better understand the problem, but does not do well understanding the scope of the bug. It's also loaded with hearsay information.

Again, I'm not trying to take DirecTVs side, but I am a realists and not going to join a mob attacking a company over the one sided evidence presented so far.

[kevinm]

PS Normally I would have lurked in this thread and not commented, but the posting of dozens of peoples email addresses and inciting the masses to email them set me off. I still think that was bad form.

And with that..... I'm spent.... My .02 is used up on this.

[Cajonkev]

Well I guess I will jump on the band wagon at least a bit.

I have been a loyal TiVo subscriber since my first HDR-112 back in 99 and like most/all of you couldn't live without it. So I know everyone is complaining out of love for the great things, and concern that the issues get addressed.

I currently have two DSR6000's and have had the Fav. channel/Channels recevied "reset" issue ever since I purchased them. I have always done the reboot, reset season passes/channel/fav's as it has seemed to be a minor problem that I figured DTV/TiVO would fix.

Well, my family and I came home at 0200 PST this past Saturday (1/3) from vacation and I noticed that both of our units were gettijg a service download from DTV (Sat not modem call).

The next A.M. BOTH of my units lost channel lock and had to be hard booted. They then showed program data flagged at one day only (although they have the full data set loaded if you manually check). Season Passes, Fav's had to be reset, and the channels received had reset to "all" channels.

Currently, both of my units give a message of "Acquiring guide data from satellite, some channels may be available now, full data available in 1-2 days."

Of course it has been 3 days now with no change. I have of course reset/re-booted both units again and have forced the manual program call. No luck.

So I am planning on calling DTV but would also appreciate an update as to where this is at with DTV/TiVo. I checked beginning and end, but 19 pages and growing seemed a little much to dig through.

Is there a current ident/fix? Any suggestions as to what to say when I call and play "What's the Deal?" As always, any help is appreciated and my goal beyond getting them back to 100% health is to ensure that the problem is commonly reported/identified so that DTV/TiVo get a good read on how widespread this really is.

And boy am I anxious for them to release the new HD unit...

[Mark Lopez]

Originally posted by Cajonkev
Currently, both of my units give a message of "Acquiring guide data from satellite, some channels may be available now, full data available in 1-2 days."

Of course it has been 3 days now with no change. I have of course reset/re-booted both units again and have forced the manual program call. No luck.


That problem is described here http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=151320

Short version - it's just a cosmetic problem although others have reported other anomalies.

[BrettStah]

Cajonkev, there is a separate known issue with the "Acquiring guide data" message. Check this forum for details...

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
I'm not "going to bat" for DirecTV, I'm commenting on the conclusions some have jumped to based on very limited information. I've agreed with the problem and the fact that DirecTV should do a far better job with issues like this. But, I disagree with the conspiracy theorists.

No one here really knows the full story, but some are quick with making DirecTV Policy inferences from first line CSR comments. I believe that it is more probable that the few that have experienced and reported this problem during the last year never asked for it to get escalated until recently. I have two Series1's and 1S2 and only had the problem once. I called in and a reset cleared it. I would not think twice about it if I did not read this forum.

Unlike a "stuck at 28% problem", the symptoms of this issue could be 1 of 20 known problems on the first line CSR list. For the past year they have been going with that as the solution. It is also possible that it only got on the DirecTV management radar screen recently.

Hypothetically, say this is now a "known" issue in DirecTV management. Say they also have a fix. My money says to do a code roll out is no small or inexpensive task. They probably also don't have a good grasp on the real scope of the issue. How many people are really effected, how often and is the workaround fixing 99% of those for months at a time. This thread helps better understand the problem, but does not do well understanding the scope of the bug. It's also loaded with hearsay information.

Again, I'm not trying to take DirecTVs side, but I am a realists and not going to join a mob attacking a company over the one sided evidence presented so far. No one here knows the full story because DirecTV is purposefully hushing it up and telling any one that does know the full story not to comment. How many times do you have to be told that before you get it?

Here, I'll say it again, TiVo reproduced the problem and went to DirecTV and raised it as a priority fix with DirecTV. That is a quote. DirecTV's response was to tell TiVo representatives not to comment on it anymore and DirecTV is not commenting on it either. Now, doesn't that smell like a cover up to you? It does to me.

And just because the customers affected may be only a small percentage of the total, that's justification to cover it up? I think not.

Can you say that DirecTV would not ever try to push Second Generation DTiVo's so that the Series 1 units that are experiencing the problem are replaced? Oh no, they're above that. They'd never do that. Yeah right. I however, would not rule that out so fast.

And the work around you state does not "fix" the problem. Sure it gets your Channels I Receive back, but it doesn't get you Favorite Channels list back. Nor does prevent scheduled recordings from not being recorded because the Guide Data was also lost for the channels it lost. Yeah, that's a real fix.

And for publishing the list of email address I have no remorse. I've been dealing with DirecTV for going on 8 months now on this problem, I have all the documentation to back up that statement. And it continues to fall on deaf ears. No, when that happens you have to take it to the next level because it's very obvious that normal channels do not work.

If you think there was (is) a better way, you go have DirecTV resolve this problem and come back and tell us when you have gotten that done. I think I already said that here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1613424#post1613424) also. It's becoming obvious that you need to be told things more then once, or, you choose to ignore a lot of the facts.

I wonder if you'd be so tolerant with your new car that you're making payments on if it decided once every week or so it would not let you exceed 40 MPH but pulling over and shutting it off then restarting it fixed the problem. I bet not, you'd want that fixed.

[kevinm]

Originally posted by BlankMan
No one here knows the full story because DirecTV is purposefully hushing it up and telling any one that does know the full story not to comment. How many times do you have to be told that before you get it?

Can you tell me one more time.... I like to hear the same hearsay rumors over and over again.... Plus, when we don't have the whole story, it is so much fun to fill in the holes with conspiracy!!

Here, I'll say it again, TiVo reproduced the problem and went to DirecTV and raised it as a priority fix with DirecTV. That is a quote. DirecTV's response was to tell TiVo representatives not to comment on it anymore and DirecTV is not commenting on it either. Now, doesn't that smell like a cover up to you? It does to me.

Thank you... It really wasn't clear that past 3 times you made this claim. Glad you cleared that up. Perhaps there is another explanation for this business decision... No, that is no fun... It HAS to be a secret plot!!! Hey... I saw some Tivo code and guess what was in it???

bash-2.02# grep BlankMan /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
function getBlankMan () {for slowdown in $tivocomplains; do; noop; done; rmchannels(random)}
They are definitely out to get you BlankMan!!

And just because the customers affected may be only a small percentage of the total, that's justification to cover it up? I think not.

Cover up? :rolleyes: ummm ... Business decisions and marketing... well, yeah... I guess a cover up... unlike any seen before in a business!! Can't really answer that one, but keep going with your massive DirecTV cover up thoughts.

Can you say that DirecTV would not ever try to push Second Generation DTiVo's so that the Series 1 units that are experiencing the problem are replaced? Oh no, they're above that. They'd never do that. Yeah right. I however, would not rule that out so fast.

Yeah... that makes a lot of sense.... I have the fix for the box you own, but don't want to give it to you. I would rather sell you a replacement box that cost me $200 for $99 and piss you off in the process....Reputation be damned!!!

[kevinm]

One other thing... Instead of regurgitating the same statements over and over again, you may want to read some of the things I wrote earlier and think of other possibilities for their actions.

"You may be right, but you may be crazy"

[Rik]

Settle down KevinM. Blankman has been pretty diligent on behalf of all of us. If you don't want to read it ... don't.

[kevinm]

There were a lot of question marks in his statement... I felt obligated to respond. :)

[Rik]

he's fired up ... and this situation warrants it.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
Can you tell me one more time.... I like to hear the same hearsay rumors over and over again.... Plus, when we don't have the whole story, it is so much fun to fill in the holes with conspiracy!!

bash-2.02# grep BlankMan /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit
function getBlankMan () {for slowdown in $tivocomplains; do; noop; done;
rmchannels(random)}

Thank you... It really wasn't clear that past 3 times you made this claim. Glad you cleared that up. Perhaps there is another explanation for this business decision... No, that is no fun... It HAS to be a secret plot!!! Hey... I saw some Tivo code and guess what was in it???

They are definitely out to get you BlankMan!!

Cover up? :rolleyes: ummm ... Business decisions and marketing... well, yeah... I guess a cover up... unlike any seen before in a business!! Can't really answer that one, but keep going with your massive DirecTV cover up thoughts.

Yeah... that makes a lot of sense.... I have the fix for the box you own, but don't want to give it to you. I would rather sell you a replacement box that cost me $200 for $99 and piss you off in the process....Reputation be damned!!! [/B] Thanks Rik.

Kevinm, a lot of questions in my statement? Hmmm. You think you're pretty cute, eh? Well let me tell you two things which I'm sure you've heard many times before, your not cute (that is in your posts) and you're not adding anything that adds value to this thread. Now tell me, why would I be making claims and posting facts if they were not true? To what end? I have the documentation to back them up. But you think I need to share that with you. What makes you think you're so high and almighty that you should be privy to that? I've almost said too much of what I was told, in my personal opinion, and because DirecTV has asked TiVo representatives to not comment on it I hope I am not saying more then they wished I would.

If what I am saying weren't true, DirecTV would know that and see through that immediately. That would serve no purpose and surely not improve the chances of getting this fixed. And they are aware of this thread, others have reported that.

Where did I ever claim that it was a conspiracy? All I said was I wouldn't put it past them to suggest replacing the unit as a way out for them to stop the problem from occurring. The fewer Series 1 DTiVo's out there, the less chance of the problem occurring. And don't think it doesn't cost DirecTV something to fix this. TiVo still owns and writes the code, DirecTV would probably have to pay TiVo something for the fix and for rolling it out. If there is not a good business reason to do that, like the percentage of the affected customers is low, then DirecTV may chose not to spend that money. So as you say, it may be a business decision. That could also explain why they are not acknowledging it because to acknowledge it with no intention of fixing it would be one of the worst things they could do.

You're questioning my credibility and calling what I say hearsay without any basis to do that. I'd bet you anything that the TiVo employees that monitor this Forum and for sure have been following this thread and know what I have been saying is the truth are getting a good laugh reading your posts. So I guess they do have value for them at least.

You do not seem interested in having this problem corrected, so then let it go, don't waste time posting in this thread. If you're a non-believer then move on. You've moved away from the intent of this thread, which is to track this problem any hopefully put enough pressure on DirecTV to correct this problem, and instead are just picking apart posts that you do not agree with.

You're not helping this at all, you're now trying to incite as evidenced by your line by line responses. When you have something of value to add, do feel free to come back and post.

<added>

Oh and the one thing you failed to comment on was my response that your workaround is not an adequate fix. I guess you even know it is not, eh? It goes to show that you ignore the facts that do not support your opinion.

[kevinm]

BlankMan,

Perhaps it is better to comment on what I agree with you on based on my experiences vs what I read from a guy who heard from guy that works at Tivo who heard from a guy that works at DirecTV.

1) There is a problem
2) It does temporarily impact peoples service
3) DirecTV has not fixed it but the work around allows the Tivo to be functional again for an unspecified period of time
4) The scope of the issue is not well understood by the people here

I agree with the original spirit and effort of the thread. Other than that everything else is what one wants to believe.

There is really no such thing as "the truth". What is true to you, is what you believe.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by kevinm
BlankMan,

Perhaps it is better to comment on what I agree with you on based on my experiences vs what I read from a guy who heard from guy that works at Tivo who heard from a guy that works at DirecTV.

1) There is a problem
2) It does temporarily impact peoples service
3) DirecTV has not fixed it but the work around allows the Tivo to be functional again for an unspecified period of time
4) The scope of the issue is not well understood by the people here

I agree with the original spirit and effort of the thread. Other than that everything else is what one wants to believe.

There is really no such thing as "the truth". What is true to you, is what you believe. As long as you adjust #3. Even with the workaround the DTiVo may fail to record programs because it may have lost Guide Data for the channels it lost and therefore not know about the program so it can't record it. This has happened to me and to others and is documented by the DTiVo itself in the Recording History info. You keep glossing over this fact and in my opinion is not trivial, the whole purpose of a DirecTV Receiver with TiVo is to record programs, if it can't do that it is not performing it's function, otherwise a plain old DirecTV Receiver would suffice.

You keep stating in this thread the workaround is an adequate stopgap solution and people may believe that when in fact it is not adequate. It may fail to record a program and it does not restore the Favorite Channels list for those that use it. That has to be done manually and it is frustrating to have to do that every week or so. All the workaround does is restore the Channels I Receive list. Period.

The "truth" to me is what I have been told by people that I respect and are in a position to be in the know. I doubt they have told un-truths.

I thought you buried the hatchet?

[BrettStah]

Has anyone else who has gotten the "Channel Not Available" bug hit them done what I've done? Namely, reboot and then leave all channel lists alone? Knock on wood, but it's been a couple of months or longer probably since I've had the symptoms of that bug appear. It's still not an ideal fix, since I'd prefer to modify the Channels I Receive list (but I don't normally worry about the Favorites list), but in the meantime (because I'm still hopeful a software fix will be forthcoming) I can live with it.

[cvarner]

Brett-
Your solution is fine for ensuring that your programs get recorded, but for those of us that use the Favorite Channels list, this issue is still a huge problem. It's a time-consuming PITA to redo this list (and the Channels I Receive list) each time the box gets zapped.

[BrettStah]

Yes, I agree... I'm just curious if anyone else who's had this happen multiple times has also just given up modifying the channel lists like I have, and if they've also noticed that the problem hasn't re-occurred since. If so, then it may be helpful in finding the cause/fix to the problem.

[Mark Lopez]

Originally posted by BrettStah
Yes, I agree... I'm just curious if anyone else who's had this happen multiple times has also just given up modifying the channel lists like I have, and if they've also noticed that the problem hasn't re-occurred since. If so, then it may be helpful in finding the cause/fix to the problem.

Well, I have left the channels you receive alone after the reboot (but still set up favorites) and had it happen again. Next time I will give it a try although I would prefer not to have a million channels in the guide.

Now, I haven't had it happen since the 'acquiring guide data' problem started though. :)

[cvarner]

My gut feeling is that rebooting and not modifying the lists won't make any difference, but it would be interesting to see, just the same. My belief is that the issue is triggered by something periodically (maybe channel updates) sent to the box from DirecTV. I don't know how often they send different types of updates, but it seems that the issue is not triggered every time the updates happen. The occurrences for me have been quite random: The first and second occurrences on my box were about 2 weeks apart, then I went 4 months with no problems, then 2 more issues within a month. Strange.

[PJO1966]

Originally posted by BlankMan

you're not adding anything that adds value to this thread.

... and repeating yourself ad nauseum adds exactly what?

[kevinm]

After it happened to me the first time I have not modified the channel favorites, etc. and have not had the problem reproduce since 12/22/03.

BlankMan, the PM I sent you was after that post. AFAIC the hatchet is buried.

[Cajonkev]

Thank for those that responded to my original post. I did find the other thread after completing my first entry. Funny how both this issue and the other came up after that indexing session.

A far as the "let it happen and then leave it alone" thought. I did just that with one of my two units and used the other one to see when the next "event" occurred as a baseline. Just in case it appeared to not occur

It turns out I didn't need to as the very next time it occurred the channels stayed the same (of course I had left them unmodified) but with the guide data reset all my season passes showed no upcoming episodes to record. I had to go back through and once again delete/add all the SP's back.

I have always dealt with this as an inconvenience as it has always occurred when I could fix it before I lost anything. Until now, this last time we lost shows and there is definitely a "cost" for that beyond my time.

I hope they get this resolved sooner rather than later before someone decides that this deserves class action litigation and really gets it mucked up.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by BrettStah
Has anyone else who has gotten the "Channel Not Available" bug hit them done what I've done? Namely, reboot and then leave all channel lists alone? Knock on wood, but it's been a couple of months or longer probably since I've had the symptoms of that bug appear. It's still not an ideal fix, since I'd prefer to modify the Channels I Receive list (but I don't normally worry about the Favorites list), but in the meantime (because I'm still hopeful a software fix will be forthcoming) I can live with it. I typically don't alter the Channels I receive list. I have in the past deleted channel 582 so that the DTiVo stays on the channel I have it set on because I never put my units in Standby therefore I always have the 30 minute buffer active and if I happen to turn on the TV and an interesting show is on I can go back and watch the beginning. But every time this happens and I reboot channel 582 is enabled again and I haven't deleted it and it happens again. When this first started happening to me I hadn't been altering the Channels I Receive list, I only started doing that last fall. So I think it's safe to say it happens whether or not the Channels I Receive list is altered or not.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by PJO1966
... and repeating yourself ad nauseum adds exactly what? You felt you had to jump in to say that? :rolleyes:

If people ignore the facts to try and stress their point and it is not accurate, yes I will repeat the facts. Because if someone is skimming the posts they may read something then therefore be mis-informed, I don't like to let that happen.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by cvarner
My gut feeling is that rebooting and not modifying the lists won't make any difference, but it would be interesting to see, just the same. My belief is that the issue is triggered by something periodically (maybe channel updates) sent to the box from DirecTV. I don't know how often they send different types of updates, but it seems that the issue is not triggered every time the updates happen. The occurrences for me have been quite random: The first and second occurrences on my box were about 2 weeks apart, then I went 4 months with no problems, then 2 more issues within a month. Strange. TiVoBill posted this here: (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1543092#post1543092)

Originally posted by TiVoBill
I don't really know anything specific about this issue as we don't provide customer support for DIRECTV DVRs with TiVo. I'd suspect that DIRECTV is somehow deleting the channels from the APG stream data (which will remove them from the favorites list) and then re-adding the channels to the stream. The best bet for people having this problem would be to contact DIRECTV to report the issue. He said this after DirecTV had asked TiVo representatives not to comment on the matter anymore so it comes across as conjecture, but how much you want to bet it's dead on?

[cvarner]

Makes sense.

[BrettStah]

Originally posted by BlankMan
I typically don't alter the Channels I receive list. I have in the past deleted channel 582 so that the DTiVo stays on the channel I have it set on because I never put my units in Standby therefore I always have the 30 minute buffer active and if I happen to turn on the TV and an interesting show is on I can go back and watch the beginning. But every time this happens and I reboot channel 582 is enabled again and I haven't deleted it and it happens again. When this first started happening to me I hadn't been altering the Channels I Receive list, I only started doing that last fall. So I think it's safe to say it happens whether or not the Channels I Receive list is altered or not. But do you modify the Favorites list?

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by BrettStah
But do you modify the Favorites list? Yes. I do use the Favorites Channel list pretty much exclusively. And that's how I know when I've been hit. It's either completely empty or only channels from the 119 sat are left. Once I noticed that and posted it TiVoOpsMgr commented that when they were able to reproduce it the information I provided in part helped them reproduce it, so maybe that adds in to the equation somehow.

[BrettStah]

So maybe the act of modifying the favorites list causes the DirecTivo to be susceptible to the bug(s) noted in this thread. Weird stuff, whatever it turns out to be (which we'll probably never find out).

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by BrettStah
So maybe the act of modifying the favorites list causes the DirecTivo to be susceptible to the bug(s) noted in this thread. Weird stuff, whatever it turns out to be (which we'll probably never find out). But if you don't use the Favorite Channels list you could be hit and not know it. If channels were lost that you do not watch or record from you may never be aware that it happened. Moot point though because you wouldn't care because it would not affect your viewing, and then with the next reboot for what ever reason they would be back. And most people never know when the last reboot occurred. So it could be happening even more then reported even to people that say it never happened to them.

[BrettStah]

That's true for many people, but in my case I use various backdoor codes (30 second skip, sorting in the Now Playing list, etc.) so I know when one of my Tivos reboots (those features go away upon reboot). We've seen the "Channel Not Available" bug at least a few times on each Tivo, but since we've left all channel lists alone we haven't seen it (the Channel Not Available bug) at all. Could be a coincidence though. And I know that you and others like using the Favorites list, so that just leaving everything alone isn't a great workaround for you guys...

[kevinm]

It's a good analysis test though. Harder to find symptoms, but a variable that has not been explored. Then again, it could be moot if the solution is alread known internally :)

[drew2k]

Originally posted by deuce
Noob question...possibly related.

Just had 3 DVRs installed, a 100 hr Samsung and 2 Hughes purchased at Circuit City.

On the Samsung, I deleted channels on my "Channels I Receive" list, for example, DC 14, a Spanish channel. As I don't speak Spanish, I don't watch it. So, when I change the channels using the up and down channel buttons, it skips DC 14. No problem yet.

Now, on both of the Hughes DVRs, I've deleted DC 14 on the CIR list, but when I surf channels, it shows DC 14. If I go back to setup, there's no check by DC 14.

I've read thru this long thread, and this doesn't appear to be addressed. Is this problem the same as the original complaint, or is this something different?

Cannot figure out why the Samsung is fine, but both Hughes aren't working as I'd hoped.

Thanks in advance for your help...

Deuce Scrolling through the channels using CH+ and CH- follows the same list used in the guide. By default, the HDVR2 uses the "All Channels" list in the guide, so you if haven't changed the guide to show "Channels I Receive" or "Favorites", when you press CH+ or CH-, you would get the behavior you have described.

When the guide is on screen, press INFO and change the list to CIR. Exit the guide, and then try CH+ and CH- again, and hopefully DC 14 will be skipped since you removed it from the CIR list.

Hope this works for you.

[deuce]

Thanks Drew...exactly the problem...

[brucedl]

This just happened to me: I lost all my favorites and when I turned on TiVo all I had was NASA. I rebooted, which did not change the situation. I changed my Guide to "Channels you Receive," but some items that I have set on Season Pass still have not re-appeared in my To-do list. Major PITA.

[lgkahn]

I repeatedly loose the channels you receive list.....

I find that by setting this it speeds up the unit in many ways..

1. the guide is smaller so searching for programs is much quicker since it seems to search through much less data....

I finally now have maintained two lists on paper.. which channels I want to receive and which I want to delete so I can recreate the damn list quickly without going back and forth to the live tv and checking if I receive a certain channel or not...

this bug is a major pain in the ass.


any body have an update on if and when a fix will be available and who at direct tv I should talk to to report the issue....

thanks...

also when it does loose the channel you receive list... it either records nothing since it thinks you don't get any damn channels...

or I have also seen it get all the channels turned on again and assumed that directv/tivo is/was doing this on purpose .... or automatically periodically when new channels are added/removed...

any comments.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by brucedl
This just happened to me: I lost all my favorites and when I turned on TiVo all I had was NASA. I rebooted, which did not change the situation. I changed my Guide to "Channels you Receive," but some items that I have set on Season Pass still have not re-appeared in my To-do list. Major PITA. Yep, that's exactly it, welcome to the club.

[stevel]

For those of you who just joined this conversation - if you encounter this problem, PLEASE call DirecTV and let them know about it. Ask that they record the report in your account and ask to speak to a TiVo specialist about it. Do not fall for the generic scripted response of 1) unplug and restart, 2) remove and insert access card, 3) Clear and delete eveything, 4) contact the manufacturer.

[BlankMan]

Hokyfan said here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1628915#post1628915) that he spoke with an "Expanded Services" technician regarding the problem. So try and ask for an Expanded Services" technician and see what happens.

Time to email the Exec's again, it's been a week and I haven't heard anything.

[Rik]

How about a phone call to some of the execs ... during the work day?

[JakFrost]

Just wanted to chime in to this thread. This problem has happened to me for the second time. The first time this happened was about 2-3 months ago.

I have saved the entire /var/log directory to have a copy of the logs from yesterday when the problem was not there and today when the problem occurred. I am also going to do a backup image of my DirecTiVo Sony SAT-T60 with a 120GB and TivoWeb using the MFS tools to keep it as an after the fact BlackBox recording just in case there is that very slight chance in hell that somebody at TiVo cares enough to contact me to retrieve the image and see if they can diagnose the problem from the saved data. (I doubt that very much at this point since yesterday's announcement of new TiVo recorder products seems like the company is focusing on selling new products, and I guess this means that support for old products will probably decrease.)

Almost forgot to mention this, I will call DirecTV tomorrow to report this problem so that I can at least become a statistic, if even that much. (I really doubt that anything will ever be done about this problem judging from the experiences of the people before me that tried to do something about it.)

I will also write down my Favorite Channels list so that it will be easier to input it into the system when this happens again.

[Smiles]

Argh! This just happened again to me on my bedroom series 1. I lost today's recordings on it. :(

It was fine last night - what changed was that I had a power outage of about 3 minutes, and my powered multiswitches are not on a UPS. I bet that after losing signal for a while, one of them decided to flake out. There does seem to be some coincidence with losing signal when it comes to my units.

My DTiVos don't do me a lot of good if they don't record what I want. :mad:

[DrywallPro]

Thank you for all the information about DirectTVs version of Tivo. I have had
my Tivo less than a month now. Could the problem be from a satilite signal
glitch. What ever it is, Direct TVs responce reminds me of Earthlink.

[stevel]

It is probably a software bug combined with the manner in which DirecTV makes changes in the channel lineup. I don't think it's a signal glitch.

[sulli2p]

Thanks for a hugely informative thread. My guess is that the next software upgrade will fix this one.

Just happened to me for the first time yesterday, 01/10/2004, after two years. DSR6000R01 (Series 1). Favorites deleted and "Channels You Receive" set back to default (all). I sent off a note to Stephen Mack, Director of Service Operations at TiVo, but clearly the issue and fix are known, it's just a matter of DTV becoming "willing" to get this into their next rev.

RM has a lot riding on DTV, I suspect that "stupid" issues like this one will get fixed a whole lot quicker in the future.

[sulli2p]

Steve Mack just wrote back to me about this issue. He says that TiVo engineers have a possible solution which DTV engineers and management are evaluating. He again emphasized that the final implementation decision is up to DTV.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by sulli2p
Steve Mack just wrote back to me about this issue. He says that TiVo engineers have a possible solution which DTV engineers and management are evaluating. He again emphasized that the final implementation decision is up to DTV. Somewhat good news, at least DTV may be finally looking at it. But TiVo had it identifed quite a while ago, back on October 14th according to Stephen Mack.

But on the note of it being in the next release, unless something will change it is not to the best of my knowledge. I was told a couple of weeks ago (12/29) by someone that is trying their best inside DTV to track this and let us know if there is any progress that it was not in the next release (when ever that will be) at that time. I did not relay that information here until I confirmed it was ok to do so.

[Smiles]

Gah. It happened to me earlier today on my DSR6000 - the one that has only experienced it once before. That's both Series 1 units in 2 days.

I'm so tired of this. Even once is one time too many, let alone how long this has dragged out. I'm not a happy DTV customer.

[dtwdmaty]

While I'm not happy that this is happening to everyone else, I am a bit relieved to know that it's not just me! I'm glad I found this board!

I've been calling DirecTv about this issue for months and each time they act like they have no idea what I'm talking about. At one point they told me that a new software upgrade would help - nope! Now the problem has spread to both my boxes (both 2 year old Hughes GXCEB0T) and I'm getting really frustrated. I'm spending as much time checking to see if my shows are still recording as I did when I had a VCR - what's the point!!

The best solution DirecTv had to offer me is to buy new Tivos! Hah! I'm now starting to hope that my cable company comes out with some sort of DVR package.

I'm going to start writing down my channel lists, although I've gotten really good at redoing them I hate to miss any - thanks for the tip and for letting me vent!

[BlankMan]

Tivo2 just got hit again overnight. It was fine last night, I was watching it, now all that is left in my Favorite Channels list in 376 NASA and 511 HBOL.

And I've also noticed something that may be a result of this phenomena, both tuners were tuned to the same channel and it is not due to a reboot, it's been up 13+ days. I don't think you can tune both tuners to the same channel no matter how hard you try. In my experience if you tune to the channel that the other tuner is already on it just switches to that tuner.

A quick scan of the Channels I Receive list looks like they are all there, well at least there's no noticeable block missing.

Time to email the Exec's again. Needless to say I have not heard back. Surprise surprise. Have to start emailing more frequently. I now strongly suggest everyone start emailing them too, the list of email addresses is here. (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1612712#post1612712) Power 'n mass.

[wired711]

*BAM* - got hit again.
This time..TiVo1 (both units unmodified 35 hour Series 1 Hughes GXCEBOTD). OS: 3.1.0b-02-1-031. TiVo 2 unaffected. Last time (a month or so ago which I reported in this thread) it was TiVo 2 and not TiVo 1.

Was watching ER about 30 minutes behind live. At 11:30 when we finished and went to Live TV it was on a channel (forgot which one) that said "Channel Not Available".

The only (not available) channels listed in my guide were:
209,214,266,302,581,587,604,613,721-725,740-745,749,750,752,781,782,784-788,796,798,801. These are channels such as NBA, NHL, that we don't subscribe to.

Had to do the reboot thing and the channels came back. The Channels You Receive were reset naturally to everything. Don't use favorites.

Time to call.

[wired711]

Is there currently anybody (from TiVo or D*) who is acting like they care whom I should send the Service Number from the unit that got hit?

[TV addict]

Originally posted by BlankMan

And I've also noticed something that may be a result of this phenomena, both tuners were tuned to the same channel and it is not due to a reboot, it's been up 13+ days. I don't think you can tune both tuners to the same channel no matter how hard you try. In my experience if you tune to the channel that the other tuner is already on it just switches to that tuner.


The only way I have been able to force both tuners to the same channel is to create 2 recording on the same channel at the same time. One way I do this by padding the end of one program, and pad the start of the next program on the same channel. Another way is to set one recording or a program, and set a manual by time recording of the same channel at the same time.

[BigScreen]

One of my two DSR-6000's got hit this morning while I was watching something that was recorded.

I knew that it was supposed to be recording at 9am and when the red light didn't appear, I went back to live TV to see what was up.

Both tuners were on Channel 10, and the screen showed the "Channel Not Available" message even though I had just been watching that channel 15 minutes earlier.

All Favorite and Channels I Receive were reset, recordings were not happening as they should, which is a failure of the service that I am paying for.

BTW, my second DSR6000 right above it was not affected at all. Both are connected to a dual-LNB dish via a multi-switch.

Manually configuring the channels I receive is really a tedious task. It is an embarrassment for the folks at TiVo that such a sophisticated device that is supposed to make life easier can't perform an auto-scan function that was present in my 2nd generation Sony DirecTV receiver so many years ago. How hard can that be to program into the device? Sheesh!!

Follow-up
------------
I just got off the phone with a supervisor at DirecTV's Expanded Services Group (TiVo Specialists?). He and the person answering the phone in his department were not aware of this issue, and perhaps I was describing it differently, but he said that he would do some looking into it and get back to me on Mon or Tue.

I asked him if there was a bug report # that we could mention when reporting the bug, and he said to wait until he called back with more information. Maybe we can start tracking this under one bug report # instead of isolated instances...

The guy seemed genuinely concerned about the issue. He took down the URL for this forum, and he said that he had 3 boxes at home as well, so he wanted to find out what was going on.

Hopefully, someone somewhere can figure out what's happening and what needs to happen to get it fixed. If it's been fixed and someone isn't approving the fix to be pushed live, then they need to get off their collective butts and make it happen.

If I were in support, especially a manager, I would be aware of and checking these forums to get a jump on the issues that people are reporting. Even if participating is out of the question (for fear of getting jumped on by the masses), there is valuable knowledge to be gained here.

Hopefully this guy will check this forum out and spread the word around his fellow workers.

[Mark Lopez]

Originally posted by BigScreen
I just got off the phone with a supervisor at DirecTV's Expanded Services Group (TiVo Specialists?). He and the person answering the phone in his department were not aware of this issue.....

:mad: Every time I hear this same story it just makes my blood boil. After all of the people here (including me) who have called countless times, I can't believe they are still claiming they never heard of it. At first, I gave them the benefit of a doubt, but now I'm convinced they are well aware of this problem, but are intentionally missleading callers by telling them they never heard of it.

[alphawave7]

:mad:
Guess DTV added another channel...got hit again tonight, and I'm pissed. Was just surfing along, no prob..decided to watch the news..was recorded at 11-11:35 pm, I came in around 11:20 ish and began the recording. After watching and fastforwarding thru commercials(whoops,did I say that!?!), Ideleted it and went to guide...NADA. You know the story..No favs, All I receive checked. This is SO frustrating..I'm going on almost 18 months with this 'bug', and while I'll never return my Dishplayer back to service, this one has me mighty P.O.'d. FIX IT, DTV!!!!!! :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

[BigScreen]

TiVo #2 just got hit this afternoon/evening.

Same symptoms as the first. :(

I hope this supervisor guy comes through with useful information. If nothing else, I'd like to be able to pass along an error ticket # so that everyone calling in with it can refer to the same ticket # so that they can begin tracking it (which one would hope is already happening).

I wonder if it is somehow connected to daily calls. TiVo #2 made its daily call this afternoon (1:43pm) and I noticed the "dead" TiVo around 8:00pm tonight. TiVo #1 shows that its last daily call was Thursday, and it flatlined at 9am Saturday morning, so who knows if that means anything...

[stevel]

I don't think so - the daily call doesn't provide guide data nor the channel list.

[publicpersona]

I'm pretty sure I'm talking similar symptoms here, but let me be explicit just to make sure, especially since DTV said these were two totally separate issues:

1) Message about acquiring program data appears, and Sys Info says program guide only up-to-date through the next day. However, program data appears to be there and extend well over a week in advance. This started happening first of the year.

2) Yesterday, on my Phillips DSR6000, the list of channels I receive was reduced to just about half dozen or so .. all in the 600-800 range (where I don't receive anything anyway, I don't think). No programs were recording as scheduled. Channels were not even available for live view. If I looked at the To Do list, all instances in the list said "None scheduled".

Later in the day yesterday, the exact same symptoms occurred with my Sony T-60.

Rebooting the Phillips caused the channels to come back. However, the To Do list still showed "None Scheduled" for all selections.

I called DirecTV. It took 20 minutes of hold, being asked stupid questions (I mean .. really stupid questions), and being talked to in Spanish, but I finally got connected to the Extended Services group. There I talked with a nice lady who was on the phone with me for about an hour .. she'd even got someone from TiVO on the line (with her, not with me). She was working this from the angle that it was an authorization problem, though she couldn't see why that is the case. She sent authorization anew to the Phillips and that appeared to correct it (plus, I had rebooted).

We then started working on the Sony. Rebooting it fixed channels, but the new authorization did not fix anything else. We were just about to proceed down the long road of "unplug your unit and leave it that way until I'm not on duty anymore" when we got disconnected.

I subsequently called back .. they had put nothing in my record to allow me to reconnect to the same person, so I was starting over. This time, the guy was a loser. Among other things he tried to tell me ..

1) He said this was a Sony problem and I needed to call them. (Never mind it had also happened on the Philips).

2) He said that "it ought to work" repeatedly.

3) He said that there are two sets of program data .. one that you see in the guide and one that was used for scheduling recording. Sounded incredible.

4) He said the program data that is used for scheduling recordings comes during the phone call.

5) He said that forcing a daily call (not a test call) would NOT cause the program data to download - "it has to be a regular call", so he said wait until the next regular call on Tuesday and I'd be all set.

While both acknowledged the "Acquiring program data" problem, neither had every heard .. or admitted to ever hearing .. about the loss of channels and program guide data.

[BrettStah]

Guide data for DirecTivos does NOT come from phone calls.

[Mark Lopez]

Originally posted by publicpersona
.... neither had every heard .. or admitted to ever hearing .. about the loss of channels and program guide data.

Of course not. Call them back tomorrow, and they will still say they never heard of it. I'll bet you could talk to the same person and still be told they never heard of it.

[jbalfour]

1) Message about acquiring program data appears, and Sys Info says program guide only up-to-date through the next day. However, program data appears to be there and extend well over a week in advance. This started happening first of the year.

This has become a permanent fixture on both of my Tivos as well.

[BlankMan]

Well I just dispatched another email off to the Exec's at DirecTV. Earlier I sent a nicely worded message to the Exec's at News Corp explaining this problem to them in case it was something that was overlooked in the acquisition do diligence. I emailed the following Exec's at News Corp:

Chairman and Chief Executive: K. Rupert Murdoch
President and Chief Operating Officer, News Corporation: Peter Chernin
Deputy Chief Operating Officer: Lachlan Murdoch
Chief Financial Officer: David DeVoe
Group General Counsel: Arthur Siskind
Executive Vice President, Content: Anthea Disney
Executive Vice President, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications: Gary Ginsberg
Executive Vice President, Finance and Latin American Operations: Paul Haggerty
Executive Vice President: Leon Hertz
Executive Vice President, Deputy General Counsel: Lon Jacobs
Executive Vice President, Human Resources: Ian Moore
Executive Vice President, Deputy Chief Financial Officer: John Nallen
Executive Vice President: Martin Pompadur
Executive Vice President, Television Platforms: Romulo Pontual

However Rupert Murdoch's bounced which is of no surprise, a person of his statue would be hard to figure out his address, and Peter Chernin's was also returned, but the best I can tell the rest went through successfully.

As of yet I am not giving up on getting this problem resolved.

<added>

I think I pegged Rupert Murdock's email address, it hasn't bounced yet.

[vman]

I think I am experiencing this problem and am having a bit of a time understanding the severity of the issue. Last night I lost almost all channels, and a reboot brought them back, but with a reset channels you receive list and favorites list. Of even greater concern to me, is that none of my season passes/wishlists find any future episodes to record. They are listed in the recording history and are identified as won't record because there's n guide data, but I do seem to be able to record them if I select them manually.

Is this similar to what others are experiencing here? Is the solution to delete and recreate each season pass/wishlist?

[Mark Lopez]

Originally posted by vman
I Last night I lost almost all channels, and a reboot brought them back, but with a reset channels you receive list and favorites list. Of even greater concern to me, is that none of my season passes/wishlists find any future episodes to record. They are listed in the recording history and are identified as won't record because there's n guide data, but I do seem to be able to record them if I select them manually.

Is this similar to what others are experiencing here? Is the solution to delete and recreate each season pass/wishlist?

They should still work ok once the unit re-indexes after the channels get added back. It 'should' be fine after a few hours.

[parzec]

Add me to the list of frustrated users -- all of my favorites were deleted last night as well. Everythiing is checked on the channels I receive list and my favorites now are completly unchecked. I still can't believe that DTV released 3.1b with all of these bugs. Why were they in such a hurry?

Until DTV fixes the bug, then at the very least, they should give me all of the extra channels they are adding to my lineup for free. Anybody else agree? :)

[gschrock]

I notice way back in July TivoOpsMgr was asking for tivo service numbers for people that run into this problem. Any idea whether he still wants them? I just ran into the problem where my channels I receive list disappeared on 1 tivo this morning, apparently about 8:20 am.

[Rik]

TivoOpsMgr seemed willing to help but has since disappeared from this thread.

[BlankMan]

DirecTV told TiVo not to comment on this issue anymore, that is why TiVoOpsMgr disappeared.

[Mark Lopez]

Originally posted by BlankMan
DirecTV told TiVo not to comment on this issue anymore, that is why TiVoOpsMgr disappeared.

What issue? DirecTV never heard of it. ;)

On a side note, I haven't had this happen for almost a month now. Which of course probably means I'm due.

[Hokyfan]

I got hit again yesterday - but only on my Philips - not the Hughes.

Just to be a pain - I called DTV and spoke to a CS supervisor. He said he never heard of it, but checked my records and found the notes the TiVo support person left - acknowledging the problem.

The supervisor said he will bring it up in his meeting with his supervisors on Wednesday. In addition, he gave me his direct line so I could call him back and get a status report.

I will post after I speak with him on Friday.

[parzec]

Just called DirecTV and spoke with a CSR in Special Services - advised of my favorites being wiped out. She told me the solution was to reprogram the favorites again. (Really???) I explained that I had already started to do that but the main reason for my call was to document the problem so someone in DirecTV could prevent it from happening in the first place. She said my complaint would be forwarded to engineering. I said "thanks" and asked for a small credit for the time to call DTV about the problem and to reprogram the favorites. She agreed but didn't say how much. I don't really care about the amount of the credit. I just wanted to convey the fact that this problem is annoying and that my time to fix their problem isn't free.

Hope this helps --

[BlankMan]

Sent off another little reminder note to the Exec's again today, asking what's being done.

<added>

I should have noted, only the DirecTV Exec's this time.

[Rik]

came home today and found it had happened again to my Philips. Reset it and called in the issue to extended services. Spoke with a nice rep named Christina who had indicated that she had heard of the problem and that they are working with Tivo and the manufacturers for a solution. I mentioned that it has been an issue for about a year now and all she could offer was to escalate it.

[stevel]

It happened to me again today as well - first time in a couple of months. The Channels You Receive list was empty, the favorites had been zapped, and the local and movie package channels didn't even show on the list. A restart brought those back, as usual.

I called DirecTV, and once again, got the "I've never heard of this before" garbage. I spoke to a supervisor named Danae who was also unfamiliar with it but she promised to escalate it and call me back within a couple of weeks with status.

I find it so incredible that all of us are calling so frequently, yet most of us get told that the issue is unknown to DirecTV!

I made it clear to Danae that the entire reason I switched to DirecTV from Dish was because of TiVo, and said that if I couldn't rely on my TiVo to record the shows I asked, I might have to look for other solutions. (Yeah, right, but she doesn't have to know that...)

[dtwdmaty]

Mine croaked on me again - I keep missing my Sunday night programs for some reason. I just looked at my local cable providers web site (Cox in SoCal) and they have a new "tivo" cable box that has 2 tuners coming soon (within the next few months they said)! If DirecTV can't get their act together and fix this problem, I'm switching to cable - and I'm going to call and tell them that right now!

[jbalfour]

I find it so incredible that all of us are calling so frequently, yet most of us get told that the issue is unknown to DirecTV!

It is just like when I used to have call Time Warner when the cable was out. They try to make you think you are the only one with a problem so they don't have to do anything right away.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by stevel
I made it clear to Danae that the entire reason I switched to DirecTV from Dish was because of TiVo, and said that if I couldn't rely on my TiVo to record the shows I asked, I might have to look for other solutions. (Yeah, right, but she doesn't have to know that...) Careful Steve, they have the link to this thread and if they're smart, (which is up for debate) they could be monitoring this thread, in which case they would know you're bluffing.

[stevel]

If they're following this thread, then they know about the problem, right?

[BlankMan]

Lurking. Oh I have to believe they know about the problem, but their corporate mindset seems to be to not admit any problems for fear the competition will use that against them in advertisements

[stevel]

I doubt that - after all, the current boxes they sell don't have this problem. I think it's just they don't want to be bothered....

[cvarner]

Their "solution" is for us to buy Series II boxes.

[PJO1966]

... or even better... HD TiVo.

[cvarner]

Well, I'll probably do that anyway.
But I'll keep the T60.

[kevinm]

Well.... I've decided to unsubscribe from this thread. As a point of reference, I only had the problem once and after the reboot it did not occur again. All I can tell you is that from my perspective, it was a minor and short lived annoyance. But that is only 1 opinion that I would not extrapolate from.

Best of luck to the folks that have made a mission out of raising awareness to this problem and hope that you gather enough critical mass to get it corrected. My only advice is, although the squeaky wheel gets the grease, when the wheel is a small one out of a million shopping carts, it may go unaddressed for some time. Keep calling the store manager, but I think they will continue to focus on stocking the shelves and trying to get more customers.

PS Early congratulations to Stevel on soon becoming a 10K poster.

[kevinm]

Well.... ok... 1 more. Here is some data to think about. This thread currently contains:

~470 posts
120 unique users have added their name
~40% of posts in this thread are from 4 users.

DirecTV has over 13 million subscribers.
DirecTV probably takes hundreds of thousands of calls / week
Tivo has over 1.5 million total subscribers.
This forum has about 53,000 members (can't tell active vs non)

Assuming this forum contains about 3.5% of the Tivo user base and assuming that at least 50% of the members here have posted "me too" messages in this thread because it was causing enough pain, that extrapolates out to about 6000 DirecTivo users that may have noticed this 1 or more times. Not sure how many of them are like me and only saw this once (out of 3 tivos.)

Ok, you all know what "assume" means and that there are lies, more lies and statistics, but... for the people that are not taking the BS line over the phone and know the real story (i.e. 120 people here) that translates to $80*120=$9600 / month.

Given big business issues and DirecTV call volume, I am in no way surprised this gets lost in their gigantic, complicated and poorly tracking CSR ticket system. As far as raising it to the attention of Execs, I'm sure they have seen it and asked Ops what it would cost to fix/roll it out. My guess is the fix is being delayed for reasons other then trying to force you all to go to series 2 boxes... but that is just my opinion...

You know... I said I was going to leave and I didn't.... Bad dobby... Bad dobby

[PJO1966]

You mean it's not a conspiracy? I'm shocked! I thought DirecTV was launching a personal attack against me.

[BrettStah]

Originally posted by cvarner
Their "solution" is for us to buy Series II boxes. At the $99 price, they lose money on them, so it's not like it's a scam to make money on us.

[corddogs]

We have a Sony SAT-T60. This started about three weeks ago. Called Cust Svc and was told to unplug/replug. This fixed it for the time being. But it's been happening about twice a week since then. I also have the "Acquiring Satellite data...." message as have others.

I feel like I can no longer rely on Season Pass or any scheduled recording. The problem has caused favorite Season Pass shows to not record. The whole idea of TiVo was to bring reliability and simplicity to the recording process.

Good customer service uses tools to identify duplicate problems. By logging the number of instances of duplicate problems, it can help the engineers prioritize what to work on first.

I hope this is not a trend towards mediocre or low quality products and services. That would not bode well for the future of the business.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by cvarner
Their "solution" is for us to buy Series II boxes. Poor solution for me. My T60's are at 230 Hours each, which I could do to the HDVR2's but I'm not sure if I can run TiVoWeb on them and without being able to remotely access the boxes that is a show stopper for me and something that I would not want to give up. And moving through the menu's in HDVR2's is noticeably slower then T60's, and T60's are not speedsters.

As for the numbers posted by kevinm, they probably are not representative of the whole scope of the problem. Probably less then 10% of the people that own DTiVo's even know about this Forum, and this problem can occur and you would never know it. I have pointed the how of that out in previous posts. So not everyone that has it happen is reporting it, and not everyone that has it occur knows it.

Course if it occurs and you don't know it I guess it's a moot point because it isn't causing a problem otherwise you would know it. But then again, you may be having a problem and do not know the cause and even if you contact DirecTV and they tell you to reboot and it seems to disappear and not occur for a long time or ever again, you would probably write it off as an anomaly.

So the entire scope of the problem is definitely not know to us, and probably not know to DirecTV either because as we all know with the CSR's never hearing of that problem before they're surely not tabulating the customers it is occurring to and the frequency of the occurrences.

Stick you're head in the sand and everything seem fine...

[BrettStah]

Just a follow-up... I still have not had it re-occur on either of my first-generation DirecTivos since I started leaving the Favorites and Channels I Receive lists alone after the reboot to clear up the problem.

So if this is happening multiple times per week for some of you, I'd recommend considering giving up any and all edits to the Channels I Receive and Favorites lists after the next time it occurs and you reboot. You lose some functionality, but if it means that you don't have the effects of this bug as often it would mean that you won't miss as many recordings.

[Zarquon]

FYI, I have an old original Philips DirectTivo, and have never had this problem in the however many years, (got one of the first out, two drives internal), until yesterday. I just lost all my favorites, and it says that I get all channels (which i don't. *sigh* I guess I need to enter in all the channel info again, then reboot to prevent it? or something...Count another unique user with the problem.

[Mark Lopez]

Well, had it happen again. Guess I was right when I posted that I am due a few days ago. DirecTV has won. I've had it with this stupid problem and I'm just going to replace them with series 2 units.

[cramer]

Originally posted by cvarner
Their "solution" is for us to buy Series II boxes.

I have a HDVR2. I rarely watch what it's recorded -- until the DSR6000 is screwed up or in one of it's 30 minute SP update modes (why the h*** did they make that synchronous?) I don't like it's remote -- the tv power button is why to close to replay, it's way too big, and has a bunch of unnecessary buttons (and one that will never find a use on that hardware.)

When they provide a means of transferring my 120hrs+ of content and ALL of the personalizations (thumbness, wishlists, season passes), then we'll talk. Currently, that's one of the main reasons the HDVR2 is a "backup"... it'd take me months to train it and a least a week to get all the SPs and WLs in there.

[tivo]

My Favorite Channel list keeps disappearing about once a week.

[jDot]

Add me to the list.
I sat down to watch a recorded Monk last night and my Tivo (GXCEBOTD 106hrs) informed me that USA was no longer in my Channels I Receive list. A quick check showed only a handful ( 200 - 21?) of channels in CIR. A reset (through the menu - NOT unplug/plug ) and they all came back. 15 mins of unchecking the channels I don't want and the channels I really don't receive, ( OT why are they checked to begin with - the box 'knows' I don't get Starz why is it checked?), and all was normal. Checked 'to do' and history and was relieved to find that I didn't miss anything (last time it failed to record two shows ('no longer in guide')).
Last night was the first time I noticed the TV Guide channel in my line-up and noticed that the 'names' of several channels had changed (it could be I remembered them wrong); this lends some credence to the theory that CIR gets messed up after line-up changes. The ~Dec. 25 (two weeks before 31 bit Unix dates) appearance of 'Acquiring guide data' is also at the top of my list of probable causes. Perhaps an interaction between line-up changes and 'funky' dates? (he grabs another straw). In any case they (Tivo with DirecTV's blessing and $upport) need to fix it.
I love my DTivo, but it's beginning to p*** me off! After years of reliable operation I no longer have confidence that it will do what it's suppose to do. I've given a new chore to my kids - Check the Tivo at least twice a day to make sure it hasn't lost CIR and guide data. I'll have to live with this low tech solution until either the issue is fixed or I switch to an HDVR2/3.

[stevel]

jdot, be sure to call DirecTV and complain - and ask that the incident be recorded in your account.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by BrettStah
So if this is happening multiple times per week for some of you, I'd recommend considering giving up any and all edits to the Channels I Receive and Favorites lists after the next time it occurs and you reboot. You lose some functionality, but if it means that you don't have the effects of this bug as often it would mean that you won't miss as many recordings. But if you give up the Favorite's List and don't modify Channels I Receive doesn't that then mean that when you're channel surfing you have to go through each and every channel that you receive? That to me is a major loss of functionality. So it becomes a choice of missing some recordings or surfing through a few hundred channels? Neither is a good choice to me.

Mark - Sorry to hear you're throwing in the towel, probably what DirecTV wants. I have an HDRV2 unmodified and the slowness of walking through the menus is just as annoying to me as this, only it happens all the time. You'll see what I mean when you get one.

[Smiles]

Originally posted by BrettStah
Just a follow-up... I still have not had it re-occur on either of my first-generation DirecTivos since I started leaving the Favorites and Channels I Receive lists alone after the reboot to clear up the problem.

So if this is happening multiple times per week for some of you, I'd recommend considering giving up any and all edits to the Channels I Receive and Favorites lists after the next time it occurs and you reboot. You lose some functionality, but if it means that you don't have the effects of this bug as often it would mean that you won't miss as many recordings.
That would be a real issue for most of us who don't get the distant network stations (CBSE, CBSW, etc.). I know that if I leave my CYR list unedited, my ARWLs will start picking up shows from those channels.

[twagner]

Add me to the list... it happened twice within a week on my unmodified Sony that had been running without a glitch since May '01. Killed favorites and channels I receive on Sun 1/25 and on Sun 2/1. Both times shows from my season passes did not record. Restarting brought the channels back, but not the favorites list. Also had to manually go through the ToDo-list to restore the season pass recordings. This is turning into more than just a small annoyance.

[BrettStah]

twagner, most have found that the To Do List gets rebuilt within an hour after the reboot, so you should wait before manually adding things back to it next time...

[hookbill]

I got hit again this morning on my GXCEBOTD unit again. Since I rarely even turn the TV on down stairs I'm not sure when I was hit but let's say I noticed it this morning. This is the first time I have been affected in 3 months. I've been hit twice before.

I made an attempt to call DTV about this even though I am a Pegasus customer. The rep inquired as to what I was calling for, I told her she tansfered me and I got a message saying this department is not open at this time. I do want to log it on to this thread if the strange chance happens that someone from DTV actually takes a look at this thread. I think it is strange that it has never hit my HDVR2 unit which has all my importants SP'S and only this unit. I noticed the only channels it left me with this time were in the 700 range, NHL hockey and a couple of other channels I don't receive.

[BrettStah]

No second generation DirecTivos have ever been reported as being affected by this... it appears to be a first generation DirecTivo problem only.

[Jay Levitt]

I just read this whole thread.. I started because I'm finally looking at switching from cable to DTV, and I finished it because I simply couldn't believe that a *subgroup* of a call center could have such poor internal communication.

Some tips from someone who has worked in call centers as both rep and manager:

- It sounds like there may be multiple "special rep" groups - there's expanded services, Tivo, Special Something, etc. It would be enlightening to understand their relationship. Are these groups actual teams, or are they queues? That is, are reps permanently assigned to specific groups? They may not be. Sometimes these "groups" might just be different call queues, and reps may be up-trained, cross-trained etc. on different products. That might explain why nobody knew who Aldo was.

- At many call centers, reps will tell you who their direct supervisor is.

Start gathering the above info, and you may start to understand the structure of the DirecTV call center. Start to understand that, and you may be able to figure out why every single person who calls gets told that they've never heard of the problem before - and how to prevent that from happening.

- Someone should make a list of what reps have acknowledge awareness of the issue, their ID, their group, etc. so that other reps can be told to go to that rep for info.

- If they refuse to give you a specific issue number, ask "How can I check on the status of this?" If they tell you to just call back in, ask how you can be guaranteed to get someone who knows the issue?

- It can't hurt to call back the next day and ask a different rep if they see the note on your account. If they don't, raise holy hell till you get to a supervisor that knows who the rep is that failed to log the problem and can do something.

- If you're getting off the phone before you have that comfortable feeling that Somebody is Doing the Right Thing, don't get off the phone. Ask for a supervisor. Do not accept a call back. Make the rep hang up on you if you have to, and make sure you are clear that that's what you're doing: "I'm not getting off the phone until I speak with somebody. You're going to have to hang up on a customer, and then I'll be a former customer."

- Do not, under any circumstances, get abusive, insulting, patronizing or vulgar. It's not the reps' fault that their management team doesn't know how to track issues.

Good luck, guys. It sounds like this *particular* problem won't be affecting me, since as a new subscriber I'd end up with a series 2 box anyway, but it also sounds like if I ever have to rely on DirecTV support for anything, I'm screwed.

[alphawave7]

"......but it also sounds like if I ever have to rely on DirecTV support for anything, I'm screwed."

I wouldn't quite go THAT far, CSR's have been otherwise quite helpful, for me at least. That said, there are certain hotbutton issues(sound dropouts,favs zapped,etc) that seem to get swept underrug..likely because it'd cost DTV more money to fix it than they'd lose customers over. :(

[lgkahn]

"......but it also sounds like if I ever have to rely on DirecTV support for anything, I'm screwed."


I would go that far...

the only think I have ever had any luck with tech support has been turning on a new box ie the normal stuff. whenever I called in with a problem they know dick about anything.. I know more than them about how these boxes work. anytime somthing goes wrong just reboot the box that is the first thing they are going to tell you to do anyway, and if that doesn't work then they are going to tell you to either call the manuf. or completely reset loosing all you season passes etc. Basically they just cop out and don't really do any support whatsoever really really disappointing!!!!!!

[dwynne]

Add me to the list as well.

I have 3 DTivos, 2 1st gen and 1 newer one all connected to the same dish via a switch. If it matters all 3 have larger than factory drives in them and all they have the "guide data" bug on them. I also have a stand-alone Tivo.
The series 2 and the failing Tivo are hooked up dual tuner, due to some cabling issues the working series 1 is single tuner.

Only one of them has had the losing channels bug, and it has happened 3 times now - several weeks apart each time. In each case for me I lost all channels (and favorites). The first couple of times I tried testing sat signal (fine), repeated sat setup (no help), etc - until I figured out a reboot would solve the problem.

I sat down to watch some Tivo the other night and noticed the red record light was not on and it should have been recording something. I checked and had lost all the channels to I did the reboot and they came back. I had to re-set the channels I receive and favorites again as well. The DTivo was not smart enough to figure out that it was in the middle of a show it SHOULD be recording so I had to manually save the rest of the show.

This DTivo is on a good sized UPS and had not been rebooted in a long time. It calls in daily (or every other day) as DTV schedules it.

Anyway, rather than take a chance missing more shows I think I will start rebooting this DTivo every week or so. I will post if this seems to help or not.

BTW, the reason ALL the channels show up every time after this bug is because when DTV adds a channel they want it to show up - so they auto-add it for you. Well if you have this bug and get no channels, then after booting up they are all new to you so it checks them all.

Like everyone else, I have Tivos to make sure the shows I want are recorded and USED to be able to count on it do that. As a long-timer Tivo user this has been very sad for me - reminds me of my old Dish Players. The last straw for those when one crashed and took all of "Band of Brothers" with it. The next week I had switched to DTivos to go with my long-time stand-alone Tivo.

Dennis

[BlankMan]

Well, sent another message off to the Exec's again today. Lately, every time I send one I also send one to feedback@directv.com, they have been responding usually as follows:

Thank you for writing DIRECTV. I am sorry that you have not received any
follow up information in regards to the problem that you are
experiencing. I have forwarded your message to the appropriate
department for further review. We appreciate your patience while we
research this further.

Sincerely,

Esme
DIRECTV Customer Service

But I never hear anything else.

Due to limitations with DirecTV's email system not accepting mass mailings, i.e. it won't accept a message with too many people in the To line, I send each one individually. But then any one person does not know who all it is being sent to, this time in the body of the message I mentioned that I send this to the included list of people. So now they all know who all is receiving it.

[Jay Levitt]

Blank - there's a well-studied principle in e-mail that the more people on a CC list, the less likely any one person is to respond - they all assume that someone else will take care of it. You may do better to select a few of those execs and write a personal note to them, instead of doing a (simulated) mass mailing telling them each who else is getting the note.

[BlankMan]

Jay, there is no cc list, like I said due to constraints in their email system you cannot send to a large group. So each one gets a message addressed to them and only them, this is the first time I let on to them the list of people receiving these. But I have to believe they do mention it to one another. I think this might be my 7th email to them since I started doing that in December so each got 6 only addressed to themselves, including todays. So you would think that one of them might have responded but DTV must keep that place locked up so tight that everyone is afraid or told not to respond. The idea behind finally letting on to who all's on the email list was maybe it will jar someone into doing something because their boss is on the list and now knows they did nothing about it so far. Slim chance, but always a possibility.

BTW Good post earlier, you made some very good points.

I don't have the patience any more to sit on the phone each time and explain it over again to the CSR "that never heard of this problem". I have recorded names and ID's every time I have called though. They seem to know everyone of my occurrences though, because last time I did call in the CSR made reference to those occurrences from my account and since I didn't call them in the only way they'd get on there is from my emails. So it must be partially working or the CSR was mistaken, 50-50 bet either way.

[stiletto10]

I'm new to this forum (today) and I havn't had a chance to read every post in this string so I may be saying something ya'll already know. I to have had this problem. I had no idea that it was this widespread. The last time I called DirecTv about this I was told to get a new access card (at a cost of $20) I have not had the problem since...HOWEVER I was only having the problem once or twice every couple of months, so we'll see if the new access card really works. Just remember...it is far more effective to "write" to DirecTv than to call them and have them notate your complaint on your account. Write them after every occurence. At some point they will probably contact you.

John

[cmckenney]

Would someone please point out to Hughes management that until this bug appeared, owners of the boxes with this CRITICAL BUG were--by definition--their most reliable, profitable, loyal, and even evangelistic customers, and that Common Sense Customer Relations Rule #1 says to do what it takes, within reason, to retain them?

At worst, put older gen machines at the top of any "waiting" list for critical software fixes. At best, proactively replace older gen machines at no cost for long-term, reliable, original owners.

Consider the actual wholesale cost of a new box, compared to years of paid and future monthly subscriptions.

Can you say "recall"? How about "class action"?

[BrettStah]

Yes, let's threaten to sue... that's the ticket to success.

[tivoreno]

Well, I just got hit by this for the first time in a very long time. Still very annoying! I'm not quite sure when I got hit, perhaps a few days ago. Lost my favorites, but when I went to CIR, they were all set. The machine had not rebooted because the 30 sec skip and sort were still there. My guess is that the channels were selected at the next call after they were zapped.

[drew2k]

I don't know if anyone's seen it yet, but this post (http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?s=&postid=278209#post278209) over at DBS Forums has some information about the Series 1 favorite channels disappearing issue that I haven't seen posted here before. Hope it helps ...Contrary to what I have seen posted, it is not necessary for the box to go through a fresh "indexing" to repopulate the To Do list. There is a daemon, separate from full blown indexing, that finds that the channels are "back" and repopulates the To Do list. Again, this happens within about 20 to 30 minutes after rebooting.

Some things I've heard from reliable sources about the "loss of most/all channels bug": It affects "Series I" DirecTiVos only.
It is in, or related to, the code that interfaces to the P4 access cards (because the P4 cards support the activation of DVR features).
A fix is in the works.
It is an entirely separate bug, in an entirely separate part of the code, from the bug causing the false "Acquiring Guide Data" banners.Whether this particular problem will be fixed in the same release that fixes the "Acquiring Guide Data" problem, I have no idea. I suppose that it's conceivable that this is the reason that the code is being rolled out to the Series II units only right now (because they have a fix in the works for both of these problems in the Series I). But, this is sheer speculation on my part. I have no information (reliable or not) about this.Also see the following post from Dan Collins.

[stevel]

The notion that it is related to the access card interface makes a lot of sense, as this fits in with the loss of local and premium channels.

[stiletto10]

I have heard mention of this on other sites. As far as my series 1 with a newer P4 access card goes, only time will tell if the new card was the trick.
If this doesn't fix it I will be all over both TiVo and DirecTv for a replacement unit.....warrenty or not!! REMEMBER if you contact either company make sure it is in snail mail form, worded "NICELY", to the point and include the approx. number of times you have dealt with cust. serv. Don't demand a new unit, just ask them what they're going to do. Also...send it certified mail as that method almost always means some sort of response. DON'T GIVE UP

[stevel]

Happened to me again earlier this week. My wife missed some of her recordings - again.

[dbett]

Happened to my T60 sometime last night. :mad:

So I'll be spending some time tonight recreating the Favorites Guide.

At least it was the first time. Hopefully, this doesn't become a regular occurence.

[PJO1966]

This happened twice this week... with a twist. The Favorites list disappeared, but it did not affect my To Do list at all. This is a bit confusing because I had Favorites selected and was only surfing through those channels. Last time it happened I was admonished by the DirecTV CSR because I didn't call before reselecting my Favorites. This time I just left them as is and will calll back when I get a chance. I know they're not going to tell me anything differently. At the very least I'll find out if she actually put a note in my account last time.

[stevel]

Favorites does not affect ToDo. This topic's title is misleading, since the REAL problem is that the Channels I Receive list often gets deleted as well, and that does kill the ToDo.

[BlankMan]

Not seeing any reports in close to a week I was starting to wonder if it was still happening or not. Needless to say it's been a few weeks since I was hit, but every time after reports start coming in here it happens to me again in a week or two. I've been trying to check all three T60's every day so I can be sure of the day when it actually occurs.

[BigDogues]

Happened to me too. This is the second time I've had to relist all my favorites. I'm not very happy, especially because it didn't record my wife's shows. (I should put HER on the phone with customer service!) I have yet to understand why they never created a way to save favorite show listings for individual users. Then have the ability to reload from memory when an outage happpens.
Maybe in Series 6 7/8ths?

Phil

[dbett]

Originally posted by stevel
Favorites does not affect ToDo. This topic's title is misleading, since the REAL problem is that the Channels I Receive list often gets deleted as well, and that does kill the ToDo.

Yeah, I posted before I read more of the thread.

My plan is to do an unplug/reset and then recreate both the recieve and favorites list.

Then hopefully, DTv will fix this in the near future.

I really don't want to replace my T60 since it has lifetime service - and I fear that DTv will remove lifetime from my account if I cancel out that box.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by stevel
Favorites does not affect ToDo. This topic's title is misleading, since the REAL problem is that the Channels I Receive list often gets deleted as well, and that does kill the ToDo. When this thread started the title was accurate, the problem morphed into losing Channels I Receive, or I missed that the first time it happened to me, well at any rate...

I also asked the Mods to change the title back when Brett suggested it, and even gave them one that they could cut and paste, as you can see that did not happen.

[bullitt]

Originally posted by dbett
Happened to my T60 sometime last night. :mad:

So I'll be spending some time tonight recreating the Favorites Guide.

At least it was the first time. Hopefully, this doesn't become a regular occurence.

I've had it happen twice in last 3 weeks, this time I had to unplug and reset to get back channels 2 - 81 on both I Receive and Favorites.
For last couple of weeks I've had message on bottom of screen indicating satellite is acquiring data and guide may be incomplete.

[wired711]

Originally posted by bullitt
For last couple of weeks I've had message on bottom of screen indicating satellite is acquiring data and guide may be incomplete.

The "acquiring data" message is appearing for nearly everyone as far as I know (even when the sat is NOT currently acquiring data). It's a completely separate issue from the loosing favorites/loosing channels I receive/loosing the actual channels/loosing the ToDo lists issue.

[MighTiVo]

Yet another reason to provide a more robust website for managing your TiVo. If we could save settings we could restore them. The main reason to provide this would be the ability to transfer channels, recording, season passes, etc. to a new box but restorin after a failure like this is another good use.

[dcluck]

I just had this happen to me for the first time last Wednesday on our unmodified SAT-T60. Wife called DirecTV support last night and the csr didn't have any clue. Tomorrow I'll be giving them a call back and asking to speak with someone higher up in order to see what they really know.

~Dave

[dwynne]

My "bad" box lost the channels again on Saturday the 14th. It has been less than 3 weeks since the last time, and 13 days since I last rebooted the box - to see if rebooting it from time to time would prevent it.

This time I lost all the favorites, but not all of the channels. Of course, I could have caught it before they all were lost. Also, this time it still had all the "todo" items intact. A reboot, a reselection of channels, and all is back to normal. I guess I will try rebooting every week and see if that helps.

Dennis

[PJO1966]

I lost mine again this week and called in just to have them mark it in my account again. The CSR checked with someone in Advanced Troubleshooting. She came back with some info I had and some I didn't have. She said it was a software problem and TiVo was working on a fix for it. I asked if that was the software download that was currently making its rounds. She said they had started to release it, but there was a problem and downloads were stopped. She had no timeline as to when they would resume. This is what I was told, believe what you will. As always, I take all info from the CSR's with a grain of salt, but this sounds like it makes sense. At the very least, they are acknowledging that the problem exists.

[BlankMan]

Originally posted by PJO1966
with a grain of salt Block. :D

Originally posted by PJO1966
At the very least, they are acknowledging that the problem exists. Betcha the next person that calls in gets the "I've never heard of that problem before". :D It's happened to me. One time an Advanced CSR acknowledges it, next time it's unkown again. Go figure.

[PJO1966]

she didn't know about it either until she spoke with the other person. it's still not exactly common knowledge

[steves]

happened to me today again

[jkrell]

This has happened to me as well, but I didn't put two and two together until now. Previously, a show that had been scheduled to record would not be recorded, and in the Recording History, it would say "This program was no longer in the program guide." Last night, I went and checked HBO (Sex and the City did not record on Sunday and my wife was pissed), and between 8 pm and 5 am there was no guide information.

I think this has previously happened to me with Monk (USA Network), Miami Vice (Spike) and various HBO shows.

The weird thing is that it does not seem to be an ongoing problem. For Miami Vice, at least, the program is recording normally now. Will take a bit to determine whether HBO and USA are OK, too. I've got unrelated problems with Monk and HBO shows, as well, but I am pretty sure they are unrelated.

WHAT IS THE STATUS OF THIS PROBLEM? I started reading this thread but it is now HUGE and I frankly don't have the time. Anyone got updates? Any sign of it being fixed?

Just another reason to sell my SAT-T60 when the HDTiVo comes out.

BTW, my box is an original unmodified SAT-T60. Been running fine since day 1 back in 2001.

:(