Favorite channels disappear in TiVo Live Guide [Text View] - Page 3

waynenm

02-21-2004, 03:03 PM

I've spoken to a DirecTV manager who told me he was having the same problems we're *all* having. I know this has been said before, but he did say the "fix" was coming with a software upgrade to version 3.1.1c, which supposedly started rolling out on February 2nd, and will take 6-8 weeks to get through the system. This is absolutely absurd, considering the "fix" is available. I asked Tivo tech support if there was any other way to install the patch - such as accessing the USB port. Tivo has in fact done this kind of thing before, via various network interfaces - so I felt like someone there might shine a little truth on this subject. I received a very nice reply from E. Stephen Mack, Director of Tivo Service Operations.

I don't know what kind of games DirecTV is playing, but I'd say it's quite obvious that the software upgrade could be distributed by Tivo *if DirecTV would allow them to do it!* Here's Stephen's mail:

From: "E. Stephen Mack" <estephen@tivo.com>
Date: February 15, 2004 9:04:00 PM MST
To: Wayne Scheiner <wayne@scheiner.com>
Subject: Re: Season Passes Disappear / Acquiring Program Data / v 3.1.1.C upgrade

Dear Mr. Scheiner,

Thanks for writing, and I understand your frustration and desire.
Unfortunately I can't help you; we've been explicitly instructed
by DIRECTV to roll out software in the way that we're doing. We
have proposed some alternatives to DIRECTV, and I understand that
they are considering these methods (which include something similar
to what you propose). But the best channel to express your wishes
is with DIRECTV, so that they can give us the go-ahead.

Thanks for choosing TiVo!

Best regards,
S.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway - I know this question has been asked, but I've not seen an answer:
"Has anyone received the 3.1.1c upgrade?"

Wayne

Darichard

02-21-2004, 04:16 PM

Grrr... removed in edit. Posted to wrong thread.

jkrell

02-21-2004, 06:32 PM

Originally posted by Darichard
Sooo, DISH is willing to give me 2 free DVRs without requirign a 1 year serice contract - I can quit whenever I want to. I know the DISH DVR isn't as cool as TiVo, but I wonder if it's time to give DTV a few months to get their act together. Plus the DISH HD DVR is out now, the HD DirecTiVo may ship in April.

Hate to do this, but I can't see the downside in going to DISH for a few months.

Why'd you post this here??!?! Get the right thread!

wired711

02-22-2004, 08:34 AM

Thank you very much waynenm for posting this update including the letter from Tivo Service Ops Director. I've been hit two more times in the last month or so (one on each of my two GXCEBOTD unaltered units). The old story, down to a handful of channels (aprox 500-600 range), lost Todo lists, had to reboot to restore everything. Last time it happened was on Feb 13th. Like everyone here, I'm so very tired and frustrated by this. Loosing convenience features is one thing when our Favorites or Channels I Receive are wiped out but lost channels that can no longer be received and the resulting missed recordings in ToDo lists is a disaster. This is inexcusable to be going on this long and especially now when a fix is ready to be deployed. A quick and immediate path should be chosen to get the fix out to everyone who needs it now!

It's clear we've all been paying the price big time since DirecTV took over full support. I know that I for one, would gladly pay the old $10 per month service rate when Tivo was in charge of support rather than the $5 we do now for bad support. At least there's more reports of acknowledgment of the issue now but doesn't do much good unless they get the fix out! Thanks again.
Wired

waynenm

02-22-2004, 09:53 AM

Well, I'm glad I got some tangible information from both DirecTV (the "second level" tech support guy I talked to told me he couldn't even get *his own* units upgraded) and E. Stephen Mack at Tivo. The question remains though - has ANYONE received the 3.1.1c upgrade?

Wayne

jkrell

02-22-2004, 10:45 AM

I'm still stuck with 3.1.0b.

:mad:

TV addict

02-22-2004, 01:43 PM

Originally posted by waynenm
I've spoken to a DirecTV manager who told me he was having the same problems we're *all* having. I know this has been said before, but he did say the "fix" was coming with a software upgrade to version 3.1.1c, which supposedly started rolling out on February 2nd, and will take 6-8 weeks to get through the system. This is absolutely absurd, considering the "fix" is available. I asked Tivo tech support if there was any other way to install the patch - such as accessing the USB port. Tivo has in fact done this kind of thing before, via various network interfaces - so I felt like someone there might shine a little truth on this subject. I received a very nice reply from E. Stephen Mack, Director of Tivo Service Operations.

Anyway - I know this question has been asked, but I've not seen an answer:
"Has anyone received the 3.1.1c upgrade?"

I think there is some confusion here.

There are 2 different problems occurring.

One problem is the "Acquiring Program Guide data" message on the screen. This problem is being discussed in another thread. This problem is occuring with all DTiVo's. Most people claim this is a cosmetic problem, but some people claim that it is causing other problems. I believe software update 3.1.1c should fix this problem with second generation DTiVo's. I don't think that software is for the second generation DTiVo's.

The other problem is the lose of favorite channels, and most of the "Channels You receive". This problem is only being seen on the first generation DTiVo's. I believe this problem is caused by the 3.1.0b software and some P4 access cards. This is the problem being discussed in this thread.

You must be seeing the first problem, because you refer to the USB ports. These don't exit on the first generation DTiVo's.

When we discuss these problem with Direct TV, we need to make sure we make clear which problem we are talking about, or we are just causing more confussion.

John Hafer

02-22-2004, 02:52 PM

Well, I have been lurking here and reading this thead for weeks and thought it was about time I added my name to the "list" of folks who have this problem.

So with that, yes I too have this problem. I have a Sony SAT-T60 and it randomly will drop my channel lists. I will turn on the TV and find a blue banner that says" Channel is not available" even though the TiVo was left tuned to a known good channel.

Doing a receiver reset, corrects the problem, but then I have to go through and re-select all my favorite channels and channels I receive lists.

I thought this was happening only when I would turn off the DirecTiVo, (set it to standby), so I decided to leave it on. Still no good. It sill happened.

So, add me to the "list".

thefisherman

02-22-2004, 02:57 PM

direct tv are paying any attention at all????

Majestic-NJ

02-22-2004, 10:07 PM

Add me to the list of people that didn't get SITC tonight. I had the problem last week and decided to manualy record the 3 episodes that were in the guide for this week. Tonight I came home to a "did not record because of internal error #4." and that was it. No SITC. Boy am I pissed! Just hung up with John/Floor Supervisor in Tech Support who says that he has opened a tracking ticket regarding this complaint. He said that as people call in with the same problem it will be added to the tracking ticket. Funny thing is he tried to pull the BS answer of not hearing about this problem from anyone else so far. I told him to back off and refrain from passing crap off to me. I told him that I was serious and want something done.

So, call people and complain. We need to send DirectTV a wakeup call. I am also sending an email to News.com to see how interested they may be in this.

Good luck!

Fred

waynenm

02-22-2004, 10:20 PM

I think it is quite interesting that NOBODY has said they have the 3.1.1.c upgrade.
Anybody?

Deven

02-22-2004, 11:09 PM

Okay, I just read through all 27 pages and 522 posts that this thread currently contains. It took several hours just to read the entire thread. I haven't had time to participate in this forum for quite some time, but my SAT-T60 just lost the favorites list yet again. It has happened to my SAT-T60 a number of times in the past few months, and to my DSR6000 a couple times too.

Just because only a small percentage of users *report* the problem doesn't mean that others aren't experiencing it also. I've experienced this problem repeatedly, and at first I shrugged it off as an annoyance, but it keeps happening and it's really starting to become aggravating. I haven't made a "cheat sheet" of my channels yet, but I believe I need to do so.

I intend to call DirecTV about this, although I'm not sure I'm prepared to make this a crusade yet or not...

Deven

02-22-2004, 11:15 PM

Oh, I forgot to mention. What makes this *particularly* aggravating is that I get "This channel list has not been set up." for my Favorites list, and I go to the Customize Channels screen, check all channels, select "Done selecting channels" and the list is STILL not set up. I can go right back in to customize the Favorite Channels, and everything is unchecked EVERY TIME. This is ridiculous, and I'm surprised nobody else has mentioned this variation of the problem. I would try rebooting the box, but it's in the middle of recording something...

Deven

02-22-2004, 11:43 PM

Interesting. Looking at the dbsforums thread that was linked earlier, I noticed this post with information that I didn't see here:

http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=278330#post278330

Apparently this bug is related to older P4 access cards, and there is a newer version of the P4 access card that doesn't exhibit the problem. So perhaps the people having constant troubles with this issue should be pushing the DirecTV CSRs to send them new access cards, ideally for free. It sounds like that might resolve the problem. (Assuming they're exclusively sending out these newer P4 cards now...)

thefisherman

02-23-2004, 12:36 AM

i called direct tv four times. they did send me an access card. trust me when i say it does not fix the problem. can someone get a link of this thread to someone at directtv that will actually read it?

BlankMan

02-23-2004, 12:14 PM

Originally posted by TV addict
The other problem is the lose of favorite channels, and most of the "Channels You receive". This problem is only being seen on the first generation DTiVo's. I believe this problem is caused by the 3.1.0b software and some P4 access cards. This is the problem being discussed in this thread. Nope, it happened in 3.1.0 also, it started way before 3.1.0b was rolled out. There's also been reference that it happened with 2.5.

This thread is approaching it one year anniversary, this problem has been around for possibly close to two years (or more). There were a couple threads reporting it before this one that my search missed before starting this one.

TV addict

02-24-2004, 02:18 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
Nope, it happened in 3.1.0 also, it started way before 3.1.0b was rolled out. There's also been reference that it happened with 2.5.

This thread is approaching it one year anniversary, this problem has been around for possibly close to two years (or more). There were a couple threads reporting it before this one that my search missed before starting this one.

You are correct. What I was trying to say was that this problem does not exist with second generation DTiVo's, which currently have 3.1.1b.

Some people think this problem is the same as the "Acquiring Program Guide data" problem. This is causing alot of confusion.

If Direct TV does fix this problem, the software version will probably not be 3.1.1c. It might be 3.1.0c. This is not a second generation DTiVo problem.

TV addict

02-24-2004, 02:22 PM

Originally posted by waynenm
I think it is quite interesting that NOBODY has said they have the 3.1.1.c upgrade.
Anybody?

That might because 3.1.1c has nothing to do with this problem. 3.1.1c is for a second generation DTiVo. The problem being discussed in this thread only affect first generation DTiVos. This problem is not related to the "Acquiring Program Guide data" problem.

TV addict

02-24-2004, 02:35 PM

Originally posted by thefisherman
i called direct tv four times. they did send me an access card. trust me when i say it does not fix the problem. can someone get a link of this thread to someone at directtv that will actually read it?

It has been reported that there are 2 versions of the P4 access card. Possibly Direct TV shipped you an older one. I wander if someone could find out how to detirmine which version a P4 card is?

dwynne

02-24-2004, 11:05 PM

Well, things have gone from bad to worse.

Last night I did a reboot - to try to prevent the lost channel and favorites problem. AFTER the reboot, all the favorites were gone and ALL channels were selected.

Now tonight, when I turned on the TV that DTivo is in a loop.

It says "Welcome. Powering Up", sits there for 10 seconds, then the green light goes out, the video flickers, and it comes right back to the same message. No storms here, the DTivo is plugged into a UPS as well. Unplugging and re-powering the unit get no place.

Sounds like maybe a fried hard drive? I did a search and did not find a match for my exact problem. This is a new drive (120gb?) I put in a few months back.

I wonder if this is related to the losing channels problem? Maybe a flaky drive makes it lose the channels and now my problems has gone "solid" ?

Dennis

BlankMan

02-25-2004, 02:03 PM

Originally posted by dwynne
Well, things have gone from bad to worse.

Last night I did a reboot - to try to prevent the lost channel and favorites problem. AFTER the reboot, all the favorites were gone and ALL channels were selected.

Now tonight, when I turned on the TV that DTivo is in a loop.

It says "Welcome. Powering Up", sits there for 10 seconds, then the green light goes out, the video flickers, and it comes right back to the same message. No storms here, the DTivo is plugged into a UPS as well. Unplugging and re-powering the unit get no place.

Sounds like maybe a fried hard drive? I did a search and did not find a match for my exact problem. This is a new drive (120gb?) I put in a few months back.

I wonder if this is related to the losing channels problem? Maybe a flaky drive makes it lose the channels and now my problems has gone "solid" ?

Dennis Nope. More likely a bad drive. Been there 4, 5 times.

BlankMan

02-25-2004, 02:06 PM

Originally posted by TV addict
You are correct. What I was trying to say was that this problem does not exist with second generation DTiVo's, which currently have 3.1.1b.

Some people think this problem is the same as the "Acquiring Program Guide data" problem. This is causing alot of confusion.

If Direct TV does fix this problem, the software version will probably not be 3.1.1c. It might be 3.1.0c. This is not a second generation DTiVo problem. Agreed. My HDVR2 never had the problem.

Didn't mean to sound ornery, I've seen a lot of people call this cosmetic and try to minimize it, mostly because it never happened to them, but it has become a major pain and a disruption of service, i.e. it misses recording.

TonyD79

02-26-2004, 08:43 AM

Add me to the brigade of those seeing the problem.

First time yesterday.

Did a reboot, reset the lists and forced the To Do by making mods to the SP lists (took about 25 minutes).

BlankMan

02-26-2004, 11:02 AM

Grrrrr.....

Well it just happened again to my TiVo1 unit a T60. Only 3 channels are left in my Favorite Channels list, all channels below 173 are gone from the Channels I Receive list, HBO channels except HBOL are gone, Showtime and Movie channels are gone, Music only channels are gone, and a lot more then I'm mentioning here. And they're all telling me "Channel not available". Now there's only 2 channels left in my Favorite Channels list, they're still disappearing!

The fact that they are continuing to disappear right before my eyes is something I've not noticed before. Be nice to hear an explanation of this problem, but fat chance from DirecTV, they're not a Customer orientated company.

E-mailed the Exec's again, haven't done that in a while, guess I'll have to set up a script to do it daily.

I knew I was due, it's been a while. My TiVo1 is the only one I can check remotely, I'll have to look at TiVo2 and TiVo3 when I get home, but I'm sure they'll get nailed again in the next week or two, always seem too.

BlankMan

02-26-2004, 07:31 PM

Unbelievable. Well I guess not really.

This was the response to my email of this morning. An email that I just add each occurrence to and send, so it is a running track history of these occurrences dating back to almost a year now.

Shows Abhishek spent a whole 2 milliseconds looking into this problem. And it still amazes me that people stick up for DirecTV's Support people. This is a shining example of just how good they are. :rolleyes: (Well probably not all of them, it's not fair to lump all of them into the same basket with one bad apple I know.)Dear <BlankMan>,

Thank you for writing. We apologize for any inconvenience. However,
resetting your system can resolve many of the problems you could be
experiencing. To reset your system, follow these steps:

1. Leave the receiver on.
2. Unplug it from the electrical outlet.
3. Leave it unplugged for 15 seconds.
4. Reconnect it to the electrical outlet and return to normal viewing.

If this does not resolve your problem, please call our technical support
center. To reach them, call 1-800-531-5000 and select the option for
technical assistance.

Sincerely,

Abhishek
DIRECTV Customer ServiceWell, I wrote a script and cron'd it so the Exec's will be getting a daily reminder to look into this problem.

stevel

02-26-2004, 08:01 PM

More likely they'll add you to a "junk senders" list.

BlankMan

02-26-2004, 08:16 PM

Originally posted by stevel
More likely they'll add you to a "junk senders" list. Probably already have. Probably laughing at this guy Hey he thinks he's got the right email addresses and is geting through. Yeah well I know, but gotta keep trying.

cramer

02-26-2004, 10:43 PM

Mine S1 lost it's channel list -- entirely this time -- at exactly 8:13pm tonight. One thing I find odd... the last GC completed at 00:57. That's right, no garbage collection ALL DAY LONG. I should remove the system drive and have a looky at the logs.

And I just fired this off to the monkeys at DTV:
Tivo Service ID: ...-BA48

At 8:13pm EST 2/26/2004, the receiver lost it's entire channel list. It has previously lost portions of the channel list. The last time was just over a month ago.

Don't waste my time telling me to power cycle the receiver -- it's a TIVO, you should never have to power cycle it. And as everyone is very well aware, a reboot is the *only* way to get the channel list back. This is a very well known problem even if DTV won't acknowledge it.

See Also: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115194

(Tivo, Inc. will not hunt down and fix this bug until DirecTV tells them to do so.)Maybe we should just start the class action suit already.

Deven

02-27-2004, 12:26 AM

How do you tell the new P4 card from the old P4 card? According to the post I saw, the new P4 card has a silver edge. I guess that's how you tell them apart.

cramer

02-27-2004, 10:12 AM

Originally posted by Deven
How do you tell the new P4 card from the old P4 card? According to the post I saw, the new P4 card has a silver edge. I guess that's how you tell them apart. As others have indicated, the new P4's don't fix the problem. I've had the same P4 card in this tivo since 8/2002 (there abouts) and it never malfunctioned until 12/2003.

Someone (both Tivo and Directv) changed the way things work and created the problem. In fact, many things have changed creating a plethora of oddities and s*** that just doesn't work the way it should (notice how you cannot remove the shopping channels or ch 170?) To say this problem is "rare" is a major understatement. It happens randomly without any idication or warning thus compromising system reliability. You can no longer rely on the tivo to record what you expect it to as at any moment, it could lose the channel -- even while you're watching it. So, you have to watch the show as it's recorded to be sure it's recorded... what's the point then.

It can lose its channels at any time aborting the current recording(s). It'll drop everything from the to-do list -- in most cases permanently without user intervention (move the #1 SP to the bottom of the list and then move it back to the top -- the process can take a long time.) And if you don't catch it in time, the garbage collector will delete all of the guide data.

TonyD79

02-27-2004, 05:27 PM

Originally posted by cramer
(notice how you cannot remove the shopping channels or ch 170?)

Huh? I just removed shopping channels when my Sony did this for the first time the other day.

stevel

02-27-2004, 07:22 PM

I have no problems removing any channels I want to remove. I just wish the TiVo didn't remove channels on its own!

TV addict

02-27-2004, 10:06 PM

Originally posted by Deven
How do you tell the new P4 card from the old P4 card? According to the post I saw, the new P4 card has a silver edge. I guess that's how you tell them apart.

I was told that the the first generation P4s are light blue and have a "4" on them. The second generation P4s are dark blue with a silver border.

I just was told this about 30 minutes ago, so I have not looked at my access cards yet. I received my P4 access cards in 2002, so I assume they are first generation.

steelcurtain

02-28-2004, 08:00 PM

Well, this just happened to me today on my 6000R. My HDVR2 has, so far, been unaffected.

I restarted the unit and readded all the channels, but still no upcoming recordings. I'm going to try to jog the SP list a bit and see if that works.

stevel

02-29-2004, 09:16 AM

It takes a few hours for the ToDo list to repopulate.

BlankMan

02-29-2004, 03:58 PM

Well my daily reminder emails to DirecTV are generating a response. On Friday my answering machine had a message to call them. Once again I told them (via email) that this is not an issue that can be fixed over the phone and unplugging it for 15 seconds will not eliminate it either.

Today I got a call from Eileen at DirecTV. I was on the phone with her for quite a while, explaining the whole situation and the frustration dealing with them and also getting the I've never heard of this before answer. I explained how TiVo was able to reproduce the problem and gave her the names of TiVoOpsMgr and TiVoBill as people at TiVo that are aware of this problem. She took down TiVoOpsMgr email address at TiVo and told me she was going to try and raise this issue up with DirecTV corporate.

She also wanted to make sure these units were running the latest software, 3.1.0b, which they are (course the newest software to her was 3.1, she was not aware of "b") and that they have P4 cards, which they do. We got onto the subject of the P4 cards and that I had heard (but I told her I do not know for a fact) that there is a newer P4 cards, but I also told her that it has been reported that the newer P4 card does not solve the problem. At any rate, after she spoke with a supervisor, they are going to send me three new P4 cards and I told her I will try that if nothing else to rule that out. I think I got my P4 cards before 3.1 came out so that would put it in 2002, if my memory serves me correctly.

She also said that it would help if people called in the problem and not just post about it. I told that they do, and tend to get the I've never heard of this before response, even when they themselves have called it in before. I told her that people are having it noted on their account, and she admitted that really doesn't do anything as far as getting the attention of anyone that can/will do something about it.

She mentioned if they had a list of people that would help, well Doh! you do. (I thought that but didn't say it.) I offered to compile a list if there was some way I could get it to them. She said there was no way she could do that, said she doesn't have access to email herself (furthers my suspicion that DirecTV is run very tight, like the Gestapo), but she will see if there is a way to do that and if anyone there would want to do that. I also told her that back in September/October 2003 E. Stephen Mack at TiVo did that, got ID numbers of affected units from people, so I reinforced my suggestion to have someone at DirecTV contact him.

So, if that can be done, who would be willing to PM me their real name as it appears on the DirecTV statement if indeed DirecTV wants a list? I would not want account numbers and I would not publish the list other then give it to DirecTV. I doubt this will happen knowing DirecTV, but I want to be prepared. Don't PM me now (my inbox is kinda full), but just post here if you'd be willing to do that to increase the chances of this getting fixed.

<added>

I just noticed on my Caller ID that the call from DirecTV came from Boise Idaho, guess it would be hard for her to walk it over to Corporate.

stevel

02-29-2004, 04:42 PM

I don't think we need a long list of "me too" responses. I think it's reasonable to assume that enough of us would be willing to do almost ANYTHING to get this fixed.

I do note with annoyance/amusement that the DirecTV supervisor who promised to call me back within two weeks with status never did so. I have called about this four times now.

BlankMan

02-29-2004, 05:46 PM

Well I hope so, and do agree about the posts. My only concern was that if they take me up on it I can do it and not have people afraid to pass on that information, ergo I can't come through. People can be funny that way sometimes.

dwynne

03-01-2004, 12:31 PM

I have mentioned before, I have 3 DTivos (2 series 1 and 1 series 2). Only one of the S1 DTivos has this problem.

The hard drive crashed in it last week. I will be curious to see if after restoring the image from last year then re-downloading the OS update all on a new drive if the problem goes away or comes back.

Dennis

TheRogueMarine

03-01-2004, 04:50 PM

The reason why no one really knows how big of problem this is is because that information hasn't reached the front-line grunts. I personally didn't realize how big of a problem this was until I was introduced to the forums. I suspect the reason behind that is because there's no fix for it yet. None of my information at work, at least that I've noticed, mentioned this. I haven't been in the office for about 10 days now, so God may have had that stuff put in while I was gone, but I doubt it.

Having a list of people who are experiencing this problem, IMO, wouldn't serve a big help if the problem can be recreated in the lab and the problem has been identified. I'll be keeping my eyes out and hopefully something will happen soon. All of this talk has me paranoid about my RCA DVR40, and just like how some people can't live without their WWF, I can't live without me Robot Wars and Family Guy.

Ensoniq

03-01-2004, 07:18 PM

Originally posted by TonyD79
Huh? I just removed shopping channels when my Sony did this for the first time the other day.

I think what Cramer is referring to is an issue I have experienced myself where there are a few channels that keep getting put BACK into your list after you have removed them. (The opposite of the problem where people are having problems with channels getting removed...)

Once a day, I go into the "Channels You Receive" section and manually remove the following channels:

HERE GEMS CSHP DSN

Within 24 hours, the channels have been re-added back on my list of channels I receive. (This is on two different Series 1 DTiVos with 3.1.0b software and P4 access cards.)

What's interesting is that if you go and check the channels list at certain times of day, you'll find those channels missing. Not just unselected...but actually MISSING...not in the list of channels at all. (Such as right now...which is why I am listing the channels only by name and not # because I can't find the numbers.)

paul_w_downing

03-02-2004, 08:11 AM

What is the best thing I (and others) can to help raise visibility, or is it just a sit and wait type issue ?

I've had Direct-Tivo going on about 2 years. The issue has been going on at least that long. Once every 6-8 months this has happened to me. It was within my threshold of tollerance. But I've had 4 incidents in the past 2 months.

For Stat Keepers

Hughes units - 1 W/ Added HD, - 1 Original, Oval Dish. Usually it hits one, then a few days / weeks later it hits another. Last week (Wed ?) it both at the same time. UPS on both units.

I've had Two type of issues.

#1. Lost everything below 2xx (Around Nov / Dec) - Unplug fixed
#2. All "Channels you Received" selected, messing up SP's

I could not read all 28 pages of posts here, but my $.02 says it's something in the stream that is either there purposely (like when they add a channel or want to make certain you have all your shopping channels), or something that Tivo does not like in the stream having unintended issues.

Good Luck, if there is a list sign me up. If there is person inside of DTV that I can at one more to the counter with, let me know.

BlankMan

03-02-2004, 01:04 PM

I typically only remove one channel from the Channels I Receive list and it stays removed until one of these events occur, then after the reboot to get all the channels back it is back also. I have not seen it return at any other time.

dwynne

03-02-2004, 01:31 PM

Originally posted by paul_w_downing
but my $.02 says it's something in the stream that is either there purposely (like when they add a channel or want to make certain you have all your shopping channels), or something that Tivo does not like in the stream having unintended issues.

Just FYI, my DTivo that has this problem has only the locals, the premiums I subscribe to, and select other channels. There are a LOT of channels removed from my preferences - all the DTV, PPV, NHL, shopping, and more.

On the other 1st gen box (never had the problem) there are a LOT more channels. When Tivo adds one "automatically" I usually don't get around to removing it any time soon.

Dennis

BlankMan

03-04-2004, 01:19 PM

Well well well. Interesting. My daily reminder email to the 62 Exec's listed here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1612712#post1612712) were all returned to me today with a 554 Mailbox unavailable status.

So, either their mail system is unavailable or they have finally blocked me, how absolutely RUDE of them! But by doing so they tipped their hand and verified that the email addresses were correct, something I had been wondering about. We'll see if it happens again tomorrow. If so, I'll have to change the source of my emails.

Boy if that's how DirecTV deals with their customers, shut them out instead of dealing with the actual problem, that's a pretty sorry state.

Being a Sys Admin I should be able to get around this. (All legal and above board.) They probably think they're dealing with a PC Desk Jockey. They may miss their daily reminder for one day every once in a while, but that's minor.

lgkahn

03-04-2004, 01:22 PM

give me the list of emails and content I will try from here and see if they are just blocking the source address or something in the header

BlankMan

03-04-2004, 01:29 PM

Originally posted by lgkahn
give me the list of emails and content I will try from here and see if they are just blocking the source address or something in the header Thanks for the offer.

The list of email addresses is here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1612712#post1612712). Pick a couple and see if they don't bounce.

This is the beginning of the message I've been sending, it is a running history of all the occurrences I have had. So you might want to remove the paragraph that references that.

Oh and you're better off to send each one individually. Their email system will not accept email for delivery if it is going to too many people. Probably have it set that way to prevent SPAM.
Well, here's your daily reminder message reminding you to look into
the problem DirecTV Receivers with TiVo are continually having that
cause them to lose any channels set up in the Favorite Channels List
and in the Channels I Receive List, the latter impacting the ability
of the unit to record programs. Hope this helps to remind you to
check on the progress of fixing this problem.

This email contains a running history of this problem dating back
to at least May of 2003, so your repeatedly many recommendations
to unplug the unit for 15 seconds and that will fix it, obviously
has never fixed it.

You keep saying "We appreciate your patience while we research
this further", it's going on a year, how long do you need?

Hope to hear from you soon,

<BlankMan>

lgkahn

03-04-2004, 01:36 PM

It looks like not all are bad... only some are removed.. I ie...

Unknown user: Francine.Harsini@mail.directv.com
Unknown user: LARRY.CHAPMAN@mail.directv.com

Original message follows.

Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 13:31:18 -0500
Message-Id: <200403041331.AA46401166@lgk.com>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
From: "larry kahn" <kahn@lgk.com>
Reply-To: <kahn@lgk.com>
To: <ROXANNE.AUSTIN@mail.directv.com>,
<LARRY.CHAPMAN@mail.directv.com>
CC: <SUSAN.COLLINS@mail.directv.com>,
<Francine.Harsini@mail.directv.com>
Subject: bug with series 1 tivo boxes losing channels.. failing to record
X-Mailer: <IMail v8.05>

BlankMan

03-04-2004, 01:48 PM

I dunno, it took 30 minutes for all 62 to come back to me this morning so... But the fact that you got it too means either their system is unavailable, maybe shutdown due to all the viruses out this week for cleaning, or they changed email addresses, or they blocked email from the outside world, or they will only accept email from known sources. Lots of Or's, We'll have to see over the course of the next few days what happens. Well at the moment it appears they didn't just block me.

Thanks again!

BTW Did you get any headers that indicate reason, like from sendmail or qmail or something?

theharleyman

03-05-2004, 07:39 AM

Well, I guess I will join in here. I was not able to read through all 28 pages, so please excuse me if I state the obvious.

This happened to me for the first time last night on my series 1 Phillips unit. My series 2 Hughes unit has not had any problems yet.

I lost most but not all of the channels from "Channels I receive" and also in "Watch Live TV".

I re-started and everything came back, my to-do list re-populated in a couple of hours.

I guess the only bright side to the problems is that at least I didn't get the "stuck at xx% error" while re-booting! :mad:

IOTP

03-08-2004, 01:45 PM

Yesterday or over the weekend it happened to me again. 3rd time in a month! The DSR6000, and all locals 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 13, 15, 33, 45, 51, and 61 were gone, not to mention everything under 244.

I was away for a few days, went to watch the normal shows and black screen, "channel not available".

I restarted the unit and wholla, back in business. I then needed to "filter-out" the un-necessary channels (spanish, shopping, lds-net, etc.. )
channels I receive, else it trys to record NBC on the 380's vs. my local channel 12.

I'll get home and see, I am pretty sure I've been upgraded to "P4" cards. I am already dealing with "full program guide" in 1-2 days "nag" message.

I need to call those pukes (DTV) and see "what line of crap" they'll try to sell me.

Time will tell. Count to 10 and settle down. Geez.

BlankMan

03-08-2004, 03:38 PM

Well I'm pretty convinced they put up a block or changed their addressing scheme on incoming mail at @mail.directv.com now. I tired sending from places that had no trace of my domain name, personal name, etc. in the From's or email headers. Maybe I'll go hunting again and see if it was a change.

So they'd rather ignore the problem then address it. What a totally sh*tty way to deal with their customers, but not surprising. All they seem to want to do is run commercials telling the world how great DirecTV is. 12 million customers and counting. Whoopee. They should start taking care of the customers they have instead they want more so they can subject them to this kind of service also.

lgkahn

03-08-2004, 03:50 PM

yep the other 2 emails I sent eventually bounced also but with a different tried 15 times error message.

BrettStah

03-08-2004, 04:04 PM

We've heard from normally reliable folks that a fix is in the works. The problem wasn't an easy one to fix, and is going to be rolled out soon (within weeks, maybe a couple of months). I don't see the point in aggravating anyone at DirecTV about it anymore.

PJO1966

03-08-2004, 05:05 PM

Exactly... I don't see how spamming executives is going to help.

walkera

03-08-2004, 06:11 PM

I'm glad I found this thread before assuming that my hard drive was failing and needed replacement.

I've had much the same expereince as most people probably have: DirecTV told me to call Sony. Sony said it sounded like a severe problem and said I should clear and delete everything. After suffering through that pain last Saturday (the one hour of downtime was actually 5 hours, and it's only an 80GB unit), everything was fine until Sunday, when the channels were gone again.

TonyD79

03-08-2004, 09:59 PM

Different effect today. Most channels have no information but none got "lost." Hope a new data download will fix it but I am moving primary recording to HDVR2 away from T60. Gonna switch them when I get back from a trip I am going on.

Mose

03-08-2004, 11:10 PM

Add me to the list - just got home and everything is kaput. I have a Sony T-60.

BlankMan

03-08-2004, 11:35 PM

Originally posted by PJO1966
Exactly... I don't see how spamming executives is going to help. SPAM'ing??? :confused: I'm not trying to sell them Viagra or enlargement products or Free Cable TV. I'm sending them a polite request to correct this problem, or at least acknowledge that they are trying. They should also inform their CSR's that the problem exists so that when customers call in with it they don't get the I never heard of the problem before BS. Help Desk software with a knowledge base makes that so easy nowadays.

PJO1966

03-08-2004, 11:43 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
SPAM'ing??? :confused: I'm not trying to sell them Viagra or enlargement products or Free Cable TV. I'm sending them a polite request to correct this problem, or at least acknowledge that they are trying. They should also inform their CSR's that the problem exists so that when customers call in with it they don't get the I never heard of the problem before BS. Help Desk software with a knowledge base makes that so easy nowadays.

From dictionary.com:

spammed, spam·ming, spams
To send unsolicited e-mail to.

I'd say sending the same e-mail to a large number of executives at DirecTV on a daily or weekly basis qualifies as spam.

As for the CSR's... the last time I called I was informed that this was a known problem and a fix is in the works. I am not the only person in this forum to receive this information. They admit there is a problem. They are working on fixing it. What more do you want?

lgkahn

03-09-2004, 06:44 AM

well last time I called in I got the "I never heard of the problem" BS by second level support... give me a break... that is with it noted in my record multiple times... their support just plain sucks... it's not even worth calling in my opinion. I have no problem with someone sending them emails to get it fixed.. it should not take years to get a fix to a problem when tivo has had a fix long ago. If there was an alternate supplier of tv that had the features of direct tv with tivo.. I would have switched long ago due to the terrible support and I hope they realize this... that I am not alone, and as soon as cable or someone else has the quality and features available I fear if they don't improve drastically they are going to loose lots of people.

dwynne

03-09-2004, 09:24 AM

Originally posted by PJO1966
From dictionary.com:

spammed, spam?ming, spams
To send unsolicited e-mail to.

I'd say sending the same e-mail to a large number of executives at DirecTV on a daily or weekly basis qualifies as spam.

Not the same - we have a business relationship with DirecTV so we have the "right" to contact them with our problems and concerns. Hey they take our money every month, they shouldn't get their panties in a twist if the users want the products to work - and at least acknowledge the problem by answering complaints and training their staff.

Dennis

PJO1966

03-09-2004, 09:42 AM

right... we have the right to contact customer support and tech support. Going through the corporate offices will not get anyone anywhere.

BlankMan

03-09-2004, 10:58 AM

Originally posted by PJO1966
right... we have the right to contact customer support and tech support. Going through the corporate offices will not get anyone anywhere. Right, and going through customer support and tech support works so well at getting issues corrected, this thread can attest to that. :rolleyes:

BlankMan

03-09-2004, 11:22 AM

Originally posted by PJO1966
From dictionary.com:

spammed, spam·ming, spams
To send unsolicited e-mail to.

I'd say sending the same e-mail to a large number of executives at DirecTV on a daily or weekly basis qualifies as spam.

As for the CSR's... the last time I called I was informed that this was a known problem and a fix is in the works. I am not the only person in this forum to receive this information. They admit there is a problem. They are working on fixing it. What more do you want? Well then, by that definition any email you send out can be considered SPAM unless you first get permission to send it via a phone call saying send me that, or a letter in the mail telling you to reply via email, or any prior communication. By that definition you could never send out that first email message to family or friends or anyone unless they ok'd it first. Because unsolicited means Not looked for or requested. If you're sending out invitations for a party and the recipients know nothing about it, that is unsolicited, ergo by your definition, SPAM. Granted the recipients may want it once they get it, but at the time of delivery it is SPAM, because they were not looking for it.

So any first email sent out on a topic is usually unsolicited, SPAM by your definition.

I think what the definition of SPAM is trying to convey is unsolicited email that is trying to sell something, just like all the flyers sent through the USPS.

dwynne is correct, we have a business relationship with DirecTV, we are the customers, they are the vendor. In all my years or working in that type of relationship, when the customer is not satisfied with the product or services received they have every right to contact the vendor. And if satisfaction is not forthcoming through normal channels you have every right to escalate it to the next level(s). That is all that is being done here.

After having this problem for over a year, it's obvious to me (doesn't look like it is to you) that the first line of contact is not proving to be beneficial in getting this resolved, so you move up the chain.

PJO1966

03-09-2004, 11:27 AM

And e-mailing Rupert is getting you where?

BlankMan

03-09-2004, 01:26 PM

Originally posted by PJO1966
And e-mailing Rupert is getting you where? I only did that once. And who are you? My conscious? What exactly have you done to help get this problem addressed other then express that you don't agree with other peoples methods?

And actually, I have gotten a call, from parties that have asked to remain anonymous and will, explaining to some depth what the cause of the problem is and the efforts that are underway to correct this.

So, that looks to me like it got me somewhere, wouldn't you say?

Now that I said that much, I'll say what I was told I could.

Engineering at both DirecTV and TiVo are taking this very seriously and working on. They thought a number of times that they had the fix in hand only to have it happen again, so that is what is holding up the fix. It has happened to the ranks of DirecTV employees so I was told they are well aware of it.

PJO1966

03-09-2004, 01:33 PM

I'm just curious why you continue to send e-mails to these people when you know that they are working on it. It just seems like a waste of time to me. I apologize if I am coming off as your conscious. I'm just trying to understand. I applaud the fact that you got a response to your e-mail.

pickrarkerz

03-09-2004, 01:44 PM

Originally posted by walkera
I'm glad I found this thread before assuming that my hard drive was failing and needed replacement.

During the same phone call I was told by the CSR that he has never heard of this problem before, that everytime he heard of it before was because of a bad hard drive, that it was caused by HBO changing their guide data at the last minute, and that it happened because they tried to send a new version of the TiVo software but had problems.
I am sick of excuses, I want it fixed.

BlankMan

03-09-2004, 01:57 PM

Originally posted by PJO1966
I'm just curious why you continue to send e-mails to these people when you know that they are working on it. It just seems like a waste of time to me. I apologize if I am coming off as your conscious. I'm just trying to understand. I applaud the fact that you got a response to your e-mail. I never said I sent an email after I was informed of this. This information only came to me very recently.

I also volunteered my three T60's to run any beta code that might correct this problem, we'll see if I'm taken up on that. In my mind with three units that's like having three other volunteers, the old two birds (in this case three) with one stone.

<added>

But one thing I keep bringing up is that if it is known, which it obviously is now, and if it is being worked on, why is it so hard to get that information in the hands of the front lines CSR's and stop this I've never heard of the problem response? Even to people that they themselves have called it in and had it noted on their account. The answer always seems to be, that they are such a large organization with many call centers and employee turnover (not necessarily leaving but moving within) that it's hard for them to do that. Well, that to me is a problem. A big problem. In this day and age of IT, it shouldn't be that hard with all the tools and applications available to be able to do that. You just have to get your head out of the sand and realize you can do it and then do it.

How big is DirecTV? How many employees do they have? I work for a big organization there are times when we have to inform 50K people. We do it. Is DirecTV that big?

Mark Lopez

03-09-2004, 08:04 PM

Originally posted by PJO1966
right... we have the right to contact customer support and tech support. Going through the corporate offices will not get anyone anywhere.

Wrong. We have gone through the proper channels and have gotten nowhere. I personally have called about a dozen times and have always gotten the 'We never heard of that' line. When people exhaust the 'proper' channels, there is nothing wrong with taking it to the next level. At a minimum, those 'corporate office' folks need to be aware that their support people are not doing their job.

Originally posted by PJO1966
I'm just curious why you continue to send e-mails to these people when you know that they are working on it. It just seems like a waste of time to me. I apologize if I am coming off as your conscious. I'm just trying to understand.

Ok, let's talk about this alleged fix. As far as I can tell it is strictly a rumor. If you can show me an official statement from DirecTV that they are working on it, then I will be glad to stop bugging them. But until that happens, this rumor of a fix is just that - a rumor.

And as far as your 'wanting to understand', obviously you are not having the problem or at least not as often as some of us otherwise you would understand perfectly.

PJO1966

03-09-2004, 08:59 PM

I have had the problem repeatedly. I have not reselected Favorite Channels while I wait for the fix. For me, it's a minor inconvenience. I understand that for others it's more than that.

Mark Lopez

03-09-2004, 09:55 PM

Originally posted by PJO1966
I have had the problem repeatedly. I have not reselected Favorite Channels while I wait for the fix.

How does not reselecting favorites help? It doesn't stop it from happening and unless you leave all of the 'channels you receive' selected, it is just as fast to reselect favorites as it is to select channels you receive.

PJO1966

03-09-2004, 09:56 PM

I haven't had it happen since I stopped selecting Favorite Channels. It's probably a coincidence, but so far so good.

dwynne

03-09-2004, 10:01 PM

Originally posted by Mark Lopez
How does not reselecting favorites help? It doesn't stop it from happening and unless you leave all of the 'channels you receive' selected, it is just as fast to reselect favorites as it is to select channels you receive.

I have 2 series 1 and 1 series 2, the "2" never has the problem - and one of the series 1 never does either. On the one that loses the channels I keep the "channels you receive" trimmed down to just what I want - and have favorites set. On the one that never fails, I don't think there are any favorites set - and I bet almost every channel is in the "channels you receive" list.

As a test, I was going to set the favorites and remove the channels we never watch on that DTivo - and see if it started failing. I just have not had time to mess with it.

Dennis

BrettStah

03-09-2004, 10:34 PM

I haven't had the problem since I left the Favorites channel list alone either.

PJO1966

03-09-2004, 10:41 PM

hmmm...

pickrarkerz

03-10-2004, 01:05 AM

Originally posted by BrettStah
I haven't had the problem since I left the Favorites channel list alone either.

I haven't set a favorite channels list for over a year, and still experience the problem (3 times in the past 2 weeks, but not for a few months before that).

BlankMan

03-10-2004, 01:53 AM

Originally posted by BrettStah
I haven't had the problem since I left the Favorites channel list alone either. When I see the Favorite Channels list disappear I know it has happened. As stated a number of times in this thread without that as an indicator it could be happening and you just don't know it. The channels could come back on their own and you never know it, unless a program doesn't record because the guide data is gone. Those are the two main indicators that say it happened.

I for one don't know how someone does without the Favorite Channels list unless they don't surf. Surfing through all the Channels I Receive is a major pain.

On on another note, it happened to me again today on my TiVo1 unit, but his time I happened to be viewing it. Well, actually not viewing it, listening to 841 the Blues, when all of a sudden there were no Blues! I looked at the screen and it was in the Failed to Acquire Satellite Data menu asking if I wanted to retry. I did a number of times but it never got past 29% then went back to the Failed screen asking if I wanted to try again. I wondered if it had rebooted so I looked at the uptime and it hadn't so this was definitely the problem right before my eyes. After giving it an hour or so to recoup, which it didn't, I rebooted it and sure enough, the Favorite Channels list was gone.

BlankMan

03-10-2004, 02:05 AM

Originally posted by Mark Lopez
Wrong. We have gone through the proper channels and have gotten nowhere. I personally have called about a dozen times and have always gotten the 'We never heard of that' line. When people exhaust the 'proper' channels, there is nothing wrong with taking it to the next level. At a minimum, those 'corporate office' folks need to be aware that their support people are not doing their job.

Ok, let's talk about this alleged fix. As far as I can tell it is strictly a rumor. If you can show me an official statement from DirecTV that they are working on it, then I will be glad to stop bugging them. But until that happens, this rumor of a fix is just that - a rumor.

And as far as your 'wanting to understand', obviously you are not having the problem or at least not as often as some of us otherwise you would understand perfectly. Mark I happen to agree with you 100% but just ignore him, he seems to be sticking up for DirecTV like they can do no wrong and it's OK for them to let their customers have to deal with this for over a year, going on two, let alone still saying they never heard of it.... I don't know why he bothers to post to this thread if he doesn't have the problem now and it's only a minor inconvenience when he does. What could his motives be?

Larus

03-10-2004, 08:21 AM

It looks like I'm joining a large club today!

I've had the problem of the Pay for View and shopping channels getting added back to my "channels you receive" on my 4 Phillips DSR6000s for some time. (Still running 2.5 software version, P3 football access cards, one modified unit, 3 stock, never use the "Favorites List") After unchecking those channels repeatedly on all the receivers only to see them eventually "come back" in "channels you receive", I called DTV support last night. After an hour and a half of waiting, getting shifted to other CSRs, and eventually a "Tivo Specialist", I was told that tonight at 6:30 the "Senior TiVo Specialist" will return my call to "resolve the problem". All of those I spoke to assured me that I was the first person to report the problem and they had never heard of it before. I suggested that DTV must be adding these channels back to "channels you receive" to encourage customers to tune the Pay for View and shopping channels but was advised DTV would never do that.

In preparation for tonight's callback, I decided to visit the DirecTiVo Forum to determine whether this is really only my problem and found this thread!

We will see if I get the call back tonight and what the "Senior TiVo Specialist" at DTV tech support has to say (and whether he says he has never heard of it before and I am the first to report it). I'll report back. Personally I think directv is doing this on purpose to encourage viewing of Pay for View and shopping channels because that's the only channels I see coming back, except for occasional new channels directv has added to their line up.
Larus

BrettStah

03-10-2004, 08:44 AM

Larus, that is not the problem people have reported here. You're reporting normal (albeit annoying) behavior. What happens is that new channels are automatically added to your "Channels I Receive" list. This is so that people know the new channel exists, I assume. Well it apears that some channels are removed, and then added back sometime later (due to a new PPV movie, new basebal, basketball, or football season, etc.) and this is considered a new channel at that point. I'd love it if "Channels I Recieve" would remember the fact that I previously had certain channels unchecked, so that when they're added back they'd continue to be unchecked, but that's not the behavior that was programmed. Do non-Tivo receivers do that?

In any case, that's not the bug that most of us have had, in which all or most channels become "unavailable" and recordings are sometimes missed. A reboot typically clears the problem.

Larus

03-10-2004, 08:58 AM

BrettStah,
Why would the shopping channels be considered "new channels" over and over again? They are the same channels they were before they were added back to the "channels you receive"?
Larus

dwynne

03-10-2004, 09:42 AM

Originally posted by pickrarkerz
I haven't set a favorite channels list for over a year, and still experience the problem (3 times in the past 2 weeks, but not for a few months before that).

Do you remove channels you don't like, don't subscribe to, or never view (like shopping and/or PPV) from the "channels I receive" ? If so, maybe that is the part of the "key" to the problem. Just stop removing them - or go in and check all and don't set favorites and see if the problem goes away?

Dennis

BrettStah

03-10-2004, 10:10 AM

Originally posted by Larus
BrettStah,
Why would the shopping channels be considered "new channels" over and over again? They are the same channels they were before they were added back to the "channels you receive"?
Larus I don't know why they do it, but apparently the reason they come back as new is because, for some length of time, they were removed as a channel. Maybe they have contracts with the shopping channels where the channel is active for X days, and then at the end of the Xth day, assuming the contract is renewed, the channel is removed and then added back. Do they do this on purpose so that we're more likely to see the shopping channels? I don't know. I'm still waiting to hear if other DirecTV receivers act like the DirecTivos do. If they do, then maybe that conspiracy theory is correct. if not, then I seriously doubt that they would do this just because of DirecTivo owners. We make up a miniscule amount of DirecTV customers, and are less likely to probably watch shopping channels.

lgkahn

03-10-2004, 10:37 AM

>Do you remove channels you don't like, don't subscribe to, or never view (>like shopping and/or PPV) from the "channels I receive" ? If so, maybe >that is the part of the "key" to the problem. Just stop removing them - or >go in and check all and don't set favorites and see if the problem goes> >away?

Dennis

right good response..
tell that to parents.. who want there kids to scroll through shopping channels and porn channels etc. and other innappropriate channels...

Corey

03-10-2004, 10:43 AM

Just in case someone is keeping track of all this, I thought I would report that I lost my favorite channels list yesterday. Everything was fine on Monday evening when I went to bed but when I turned on my TV on Tuesday evening, my favorite channels list were gone. The All channels and all channels received look OK EXCEPT that the local channels were gone from both of those lists. Unplugging the unit and plugging it again restored the local channels but not the favorites list. That has to be redone manually. If this problem happened to a lot of peole in this same time frame, it might help to narrow down the cause of the problem (IF DrirecTV reads this board).

I have a phillips DRS6000 series 1.

Corey

dwynne

03-10-2004, 11:02 AM

Originally posted by lgkahn

right good response..
tell that to parents.. who want there kids to scroll through shopping channels and porn channels etc. and other innappropriate channels...

Well, you have a ratings lock on the DTivo so they can't order PPV or watch your porn subscription, right?

I was just SUGGESTING that leaving all the channel in and not selecting favorites MIGHT be a away to prevent the DTivo from losing its stuff. I would rather have to wade through some extra channels than to turn on the TV to find that it had missed shows again.

Of course, having DTV fix it would be the best solution. I wonder if our support was still via Tivo if this would not already be fixed?

Dennis

BrettStah

03-10-2004, 11:05 AM

I think it would have definitely been fixed by now, if we only had to deal with Tivo.

pickrarkerz

03-10-2004, 12:18 PM

Originally posted by dwynne
Do you remove channels you don't like, don't subscribe to, or never view (like shopping and/or PPV) from the "channels I receive" ? If so, maybe that is the part of the "key" to the problem. Just stop removing them - or go in and check all and don't set favorites and see if the problem goes away?

Dennis

I don't do any of that. I reboot and that's it, never reset anything at all. This happens on my 2nd TiVo that I only have 1 season pass on and I really only use it during football season so I can have 4 games buffered. I would have to wake up early on Sunday to reboot it because somehow over the previous week all of the channels except for 2 or 3 had disappeared (no Sunday Ticket left).
I hadn't really noticed it hapenning for a while, but then again football season is over so I don't use it too much. Once Curb Your Enthusiasm restarted, I've been noticing it again (that's the season pass), it's missed recording it 2 times so far this season. Luckily they show it again so I'm able to get it, but it's annoying none the less.

Mark Lopez

03-10-2004, 07:10 PM

I know this is a long thread, but I just want to mention again that I have tried every combination of not using favorites, using favorites, selecting channels you receive and just leaving them alone. Regardless of what method I use, the problem still happens. And as BlankMan mentioned, if you are not using favorites, you may not be aware that it happened. While not using favorites 'might' stop it from happening on some machines, I would bet that more likely it has just been hiding it.

BrettStah

03-10-2004, 07:14 PM

Are we sure that the "Channel Not Available" bug is the same exact bug with the disappearing "Favorite Channels" list?

BlankMan

03-11-2004, 11:43 AM

Originally posted by BrettStah
Are we sure that the "Channel Not Available" bug is the same exact bug with the disappearing "Favorite Channels" list? Yep. I have it on good authority that it is a hardware issue at the root of the problem that is only in Series 1 DTiVo's, it was not used in Second Generation units. It gets mixed up and thinks it no longer receives the channel so it gets removed from the Channels I Receive list and that is why you get the "Channel Not Available" message. That is also why it gets removed from the Favorite Channels list, and the Guide Data disappears and then a program may not get recorded if it's not caught in time and the unit rebooted.

TV addict

03-11-2004, 12:26 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
We got onto the subject of the P4 cards and that I had heard (but I told her I do not know for a fact) that there is a newer P4 cards, but I also told her that it has been reported that the newer P4 card does not solve the problem. At any rate, after she spoke with a supervisor, they are going to send me three new P4 cards and I told her I will try that if nothing else to rule that out. I think I got my P4 cards before 3.1 came out so that would put it in 2002, if my memory serves me correctly.

Did you ever receive the replacement P4 cards?

I have not lost "Channels You Receive" for about 3 weeks. Previously, it was happening to one of my 4 DTiVo's about once per week. So, it might take awhile to verify that a change fixes the problem.

BlankMan

03-11-2004, 12:55 PM

Originally posted by TV addict
Did you ever receive the replacement P4 cards?

I have not lost "Channels You Receive" for about 3 weeks. Previously, it was happening to one of my 4 DTiVo's about once per week. So, it might take awhile to verify that a change fixes the problem. Yes I did, but I have not installed them yet. They did not come with instructions like previous replacements did where you pull the old one out, put the new one in, pull it out, put the old one in, pull it out, put the new on in, or something like that. Basically to transfer info from the existing card to the new card. It looks like when I install these new cards I have to call DTV and get them activated like you do when you get a new DTV Receiver. I haven't had the time to do that yet, this isn't going to be a 30 second call to DTV for three units.

This is what the new card looks like (I thought DTV refereed to it as a new P4, but some people are talking about a P5 card, so this may be that. Dunno. Don't have a pic of the old P4 yet, I'll post it with this one when I do.)

http://www.curtronics.com/Pics/NewP4.jpg

<added>

This is what the old P4 card looked like for anyone interested:

http://www.curtronics.com/Pics/OldP4.jpg

steve457

03-12-2004, 04:59 PM

I'm experiencing something similar with my Sony SAT-T60. Twice now in the past couple of weeks, I'd go to turn it on, and notice that most of the channels appeared with the "Channel not Available" bar. This obviously caused many scheduled recordings to be missed. I'd still receive a couple of random channels, ie: 511, 518, .. but there would be huge gaps where channels used to be. Also, both times all local channels were competely missing.

I do not have any favorite channels, and have every channel selected in the channels I receive list. Rebooting the system causes the channels to come back, but is definitely annoying.

Deven

03-12-2004, 08:02 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
Yes I did, but I have not installed them yet. They did not come with instructions like previous replacements did where you pull the old one out, put the new one in, pull it out, put the old one in, pull it out, put the new on in, or something like that. Basically to transfer info from the existing card to the new card. It looks like when I install these new cards I have to call DTV and get them activated like you do when you get a new DTV Receiver. I haven't had the time to do that yet, this isn't going to be a 30 second call to DTV for three units.Maybe they just figured you were a savvy enough user that you didn't need instructions? Odds are that the replacement procedure is the usual -- pull the old card, put in the new one, then the TiVo prompts you to swap them twice more and you're done. Have you tried? It'll probably just work. And if it doesn't, then the old access card should continue to work, so there's probably little risk in trying it, no?This is what the new card looks like (I thought DTV refereed to it as a new P4, but some people are talking about a P5 card, so this may be that. Dunno. Don't have a pic of the old P4 yet, I'll post it with this one when I do.)I've seen it described as a "new P4" also, and that makes sense. The encryption system and intended mode of operation is probably the same as the original P4 card, so I doubt it would be considered a "P5" card. Also, the description I saw on the other forum mentioned a silver edge, so now we know we know what that looks like.

I'm surprised you haven't tried installing the replacement P4 cards yet. I have the old P4 cards, which are light blue with darker blue arrows (no silver edge), and the text reads "Access Card: 4" on it. If necessary, I suppose I could post a photo, but I'm too lazy to bother at the moment. :) I would really be interested to find out if this problem can occur with the second-generation silver-edge P4 card you now have -- I don't know whether to lobby DirecTV for replacement cards or not...

BlankMan

03-13-2004, 01:12 AM

Nope. I need step by step instructions and someone to hold my hand. ;) I was just going to try it before I called but the old round tuit. I'm in no really hurry because I beleive it's already been reported that this new card is not a fix it still happens.

And after the cause of this problem was explained to me with no mention that a card will fix it I have my doubts. I would think that if it were as simple as that they'd be rolling out these cards left and right to reduce the flack.

BlankMan

03-13-2004, 01:22 AM

Well I was curious now and as I suspected I cannot replaced the cards, when I try I get a message "Your card is not authorized for replacement".

Why I initially suspected this (but forgot) was because the paperwork did not say "This Card" replaces "This Card". So I figured they were virgin cards and I would have insert them and call DTV and give them the receiver ID and the card ID so they could zap it into life. I definitely don't feel like doing that now.

TV addict

03-13-2004, 11:49 AM

Blankman - I am not trying to argue with you. I just want to make sure we don't make some incorrect assumptions.

Originally posted by BlankMan
I'm in no really hurry because I beleive it's already been reported that this new card is not a fix it still happens.

The only report that it still happens that I have seen is:

Originally posted by thefisherman
i called direct tv four times. they did send me an access card. trust me when i say it does not fix the problem. can someone get a link of this thread to someone at directtv that will actually read it?

Has it been confirmed that thefisherman received a "new" P4 card, and not another "old" P4 card? You have posted pictures of the "new" P4 card. Can thefisherman confirm that it looks like your posted picture? Did the replacement card look different than his original card? Has onyone else report that they still lost "Channels You Receive" with "New" P4 cards?

Originally posted by BlankMan
And after the cause of this problem was explained to me with no mention that a card will fix it I have my doubts.

I have not seen a post of the cause of the problem as explained to you. Did you post the cause as explained to you?

Deven

03-13-2004, 01:21 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
Nope. I need step by step instructions and someone to hold my hand. ;) I was just going to try it before I called but the old round tuit. I'm in no really hurry because I beleive it's already been reported that this new card is not a fix it still happens.Where has this been reported? Everyone I've heard talking about a "new" P4 card not fixing the problem (including you) seems to have actually been talking about the "old" P4 card, not realizing there was more than one version of the P4 card. I've seen someone claim specifically that the silver-edged P4 card *does* fix the problem. I haven't seen anyone confirm that it doesn't. Has anyone reported that it doesn't work and confirmed that they have the "new" silver-edged P4 card? I haven't see it, if so. Still seems like it's worth a try. You should be able to replace all 3 cards in about 2 minutes -- and if it really doesn't fix the problem, you'll be able to confirm that next time it happens. Who knows? Maybe it does fix the problem...

Deven

03-13-2004, 01:27 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
Well I was curious now and as I suspected I cannot replaced the cards, when I try I get a message "Your card is not authorized for replacement".

Why I initially suspected this (but forgot) was because the paperwork did not say "This Card" replaces "This Card". So I figured they were virgin cards and I would have insert them and call DTV and give them the receiver ID and the card ID so they could zap it into life. I definitely don't feel like doing that now.Oh well, it was worth trying it. So why don't you call DirecTV already? Surely any front-line person could handle the call? Annoying that they didn't send you cards that would just work, but maybe they were afraid you'd sell them to someone. Yes, calling DirecTV is a nuisance, but after the number of hours you've invested in this issue, what's one more phone call?

If you're not motivated to do it for yourself, do it for the rest of us. You've reported this problem recurring frequently on your machines. You have replacement P4 cards which have been claimed to fix the problem. You can test it and report back to the rest of us, so we know whether to harass DirecTV for new P4 cards. If it doesn't work, you'll probably know in a few weeks, and nobody has to waste their time pursuing a dead end. It's been said to work; isn't it worth testing?

BlankMan

03-14-2004, 08:27 PM

Originally posted by Deven
Where has this been reported? Everyone I've heard talking about a "new" P4 card not fixing the problem (including you) seems to have actually been talking about the "old" P4 card, not realizing there was more than one version of the P4 card. Ask cramer:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1768536#post1768536Originally posted by Deven
I've seen someone claim specifically that the silver-edged P4 card *does* fix the problem. Where?

And as I said here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1794275#post1794275

I was not told the the "new" P4 card would fix it, if the fix was that simple, which it was explained to me that it is not, I think I would have been informed of that.Originally posted by Deven
If you're not motivated to do it for yourself, do it for the rest of us. You've reported this problem recurring frequently on your machines. You have replacement P4 cards which have been claimed to fix the problem. You can test it and report back to the rest of us, so we know whether to harass DirecTV for new P4 cards. If it doesn't work, you'll probably know in a few weeks, and nobody has to waste their time pursuing a dead end. It's been said to work; isn't it worth testing? Who are you to tell me that I should do this, when sources that are intimately involved in getting the problem solved have not? But you make a semi good point on whether we should continue to contact DirecTV, but as I've said before, I was told that DirecTV and TiVo are taking this problem very seriously and trying to correct it. As long as they continue that endeavor, I doubt us "harassing" will speed up the fix and the rollout to get it to us. It's probably months away at best.

But, just to put his matter to bed I have called DirecTV and replaced all three cards.

BlankMan

03-15-2004, 01:58 AM

Originally posted by BlankMan
So I figured they were virgin cards and I would have insert them and call DTV and give them the receiver ID and the card ID so they could zap it into life. I definitely don't feel like doing that now. Oh by the way, I was almost right on with this, I had to give them the old card ID and the new card ID, I guess from the old card ID they figured out which receiver it was.

cvarner

03-15-2004, 07:35 AM

CRAP! I just got hit again. Twice in 2 days. And for the first time, several seemingly random channels disappeared from the "Channels you receive" list. Seems to be locals and premium channels for the most part. This is the first time my channels you receive list has been corrupted. Normally I only lose the favorites list. It looks like some progress has been made here towards getting DTV to troubleshoot the issue since I visited about 2 months ago. Hopefully it will continue to progress.

BlankMan

03-15-2004, 10:32 PM

I added a pic of what the old P4 card looked like in this post (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1799527#post1799527) if anyone is interested.

Deven

03-15-2004, 10:37 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
Ask cramer:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1768536#post1768536He said: "As others have indicated, the new P4's don't fix the problem. I've had the same P4 card in this tivo since 8/2002 (there abouts) and it never malfunctioned until 12/2003." He must be referring to an old P4 card (like mine) if he's had it sine 8/2002, since the new P4 card has supposedly only been out for a few months now. So this report doesn't contradict the information I saw.Where?I'll respond to this at the bottom of my message.And as I said here:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1794275#post1794275

I was not told the the "new" P4 card would fix it, if the fix was that simple, which it was explained to me that it is not, I think I would have been informed of that.What if the fix turns out to be that simple, but this information just isn't widely known? Maybe the guy explaining the problem to you didn't know that the new P4 card could help. Or maybe the new P4 card doesn't help, but we don't have any reports of this happening yet with the new P4 card.Who are you to tell me that I should do this, when sources that are intimately involved in getting the problem solved have not?I don't recall ever saying that you should do anything. I requested that you test the new P4 cards, based on the information I had read, just in case it might help. After all, they sent you the cards, so it didn't represent much of a hardship to you to install them. Given the lengths you've gone through to get DirecTV's attention, I thought you'd jump at any possible solution, even a long shot. Since you've evidently been experiencing the problem more often than most of us, you would be more likely to discover quickly if it doesn't work. And if it does work, I would imagine you'd want to benefit from the workaround.But you make a semi good point on whether we should continue to contact DirecTV, but as I've said before, I was told that DirecTV and TiVo are taking this problem very seriously and trying to correct it. As long as they continue that endeavor, I doubt us "harassing" will speed up the fix and the rollout to get it to us. It's probably months away at best.I'm not talking about harassing them to work on the problem -- it sounds like they're (finally) working on it. But it would be good to find out if the new P4 card actually helps or not. Since you had the opportunity to test it and saw the problem frequently, I was hoping you'd be able to tell us if it helps or not. Otherwise, someone else would have to lobby DirecTV for some new P4 cards to see if it seems to help.But, just to put his matter to bed I have called DirecTV and replaced all three cards.Thank you, I appreciate that. I'll be interested to hear if you see the problem again with the new P4 cards. If it happens again, then this is probably bogus information, but I have yet to see any information that actually contradicts it. I certainly hope you'll report back if it happens again with the new P4 cards, so we know to write off that approach. If enough time passes that you think it should have happened again (a couple months maybe? what's the longest gap you've seen?) and it still hasn't happened, that might suggest that the "new P4 fix" may have some validity to it...

As for where I saw this information, it was in a thread (http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?threadid=34077) on DBSForums.com, where Mark Sutton said (http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=278209#post278209):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.
Later in the thread, Dan Collins said (http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=278323#post278323):ALL DirecTiVos have had their cards swapped by now (it was a requirement for the 3.1 software). The NEW P4s do not exhibit the problem, nor do ALL the old P4s. As Mark notes, I have 3 Series 1 DirecTiVos (all Hughes) that have been running since 9/2001 and I have never seen this problem.After which someone immediately complained that he's seen the problem with the P4 card, which forced Dan to clarify (http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=278330#post278330):You are not paying attention to what I am saying...

There are TWO versions of the P4 - the original version (which almost all DirecTiVos more than 3 months old have) and a new version (the silver edged card) which is now being distributed. The OLD P4 is part of the problem...the NEW P4 is not.Later in the thread, he also added (http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?postid=278428#post278428):If they knew for a fact exactly WHICH old style P4s in which Tivos wil act up, they probably would just replace them. But replacing EVERY old style P4 that is in a DirecTiVo is both expensive - both in terms of the cards themselves and the logistical expense of distributing them and communicating instructions to the users.

You might get new cards from DirecTV, but don't expect any CSR to have ever heard of this issue.Now, considering that Dan Collins is the forum administrator over there, I'm not so quick to write off this information as invalid, especially since nobody has contradicted it with a report of this problem occuring on a system verified to be using the new P4 cards, like the one you posted the image of earlier, with the silver edges.

At this point, what reason do we have to believe this information is false, rather than simply unknown to most people?

Deven

03-15-2004, 10:39 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
I added a pic of what the old P4 card looked like in this post (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1799527#post1799527) if anyone is interested.Yup, that's exactly what my P4 cards look like too. I knew I had the old P4 cards since they looked nothing like the silver-edge new P4 cards you posted the image of...

BlankMan

03-15-2004, 11:38 PM

I tend to now agree, that thread offers some hope, but if that will fix it I do not understand why DirecTV wasn't being proactive and sending these cards to the people that called it in instead of telling them I never heard of that problem.

When I discussed this on my call the answer I got is that DirecTV has five call centers and people are getting involved that do not know the complete story, the caller attributed the person offering to send me the "New" P4 cards was one of those.

Deven

03-15-2004, 11:46 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
I tend to now agree, that thread offers some hope, but if that will fix it I do not understand why DirecTV wasn't being proactive and sending these cards to the people that called it in instead of telling them I never heard of that problem.Could be poor internal communication. Maybe they weren't sure it would fix the problem. Maybe they wanted to avoid the expense. Maybe they hoped the problem would just magically go away (or the complaints would). Who knows? Maybe they just hadn't gotten around to it yet. Or maybe it doesn't fix the problem, but the people on that thread seem to think it does...When I discussed this on my call the answer I got is that DirecTV has five call centers and people are getting involved that do not know the complete story, the caller attributed the person offering to send me the "New" P4 cards was one of those.It's really hard to know at this point what's going on. I guess we'll just have to wait a while and see if you see the problem again on the new P4 cards, or until they have an official fix out for the bug...

By the way, what were the details of the explanation you were given regarding this bug? Did it involve communicating with the access card at all?

BlankMan

03-15-2004, 11:57 PM

Originally posted by Deven
By the way, what were the details of the explanation you were given regarding this bug? Part of what was said was not to say too much and to paraphrase.
Originally posted by Deven
Could be poor internal communication. Doh? Ya think?

ByronTodd

03-17-2004, 03:03 PM

Please tell us that the new P4 cards fixed the problem!

I've had this problem for months on my unmodified SATT60 and had been living with it by not touching the Channels I Receive list nor the Favorite Channels list.

Have any of your DTivos blanked yet, BlankMan?

cvarner

03-17-2004, 08:28 PM

I made another call tonight to DTV about this issue. Front-line support denied having any prior knowledge of the issue (as usual). The TiVo "specialist" I spoke with also denied any knowledge of the issue, but she will be sending my information to an engineer to look into it. I'm sure they'll be calling me back any day with the fix. Yeah, right. I asked her to send me a new P4 card because that has been suggested by others in her office, and she claimed that all P4 cards are the same, and since I already have one, a new one won't help. But here's an interesting thing: She found an issue in her database with favorites disappearing on 3 models of non-TiVo Hughes receivers. She said they have a new software release going out 3/20/04 to fix that issue. Maybe there's a slim chance it's related to our issue and progress is finally being made here. I guess time will tell.

BlankMan

03-18-2004, 01:52 PM

I've only had the new P4 cards in a few days, I can go weeks sometimes without the problem, so if I go a couple months without it I might consider that the new P4 cards have done something.

super dave

03-20-2004, 08:38 AM

I just finished reading this novel of a post, out of curiosity, since I haven't used the favorites option on my Rxs. Last month I was watching live TV(sports) and BAM, picture gone, message was acquiring data please wait. Then the only thing I got out of that was guide and programming are unavailable, you can watch anything from your list, but live TV is not available. I hit my guide button and the only channels I had were LMN and all of the music channels. This was 8:30PM on a Thursday. I did a system restart and everything came back, and I posted this somewhere at the time. Not sure if it's tied in with what you guys are going through, but sometimes any info is better than no info. Don't have the new cards either, have the old P4s.

BlankMan

03-20-2004, 08:44 PM

super dave I think you just had happen to you what happened to me a little over a week ago, as I described here in this post (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1795824#post1795824), it is part of this problem.

Well, I can unequivocally state the the new silver edged P4 card does NOT correct this channel loss problem. I've gotten in the habit of checking all my T60's in the morning which I did this morning, all three had their Favorite Channels list intact. This evening I went to watch TiVo3 and pulled up the Favorite Channels list and once again the list was completely empty, all the channels were gone. I looked at the Channels I Receive list and all seem to be there, all are checked, including channels I had un-checked, and the unit has/was not rebooted.

So the "New" P4 card is NOT a fix for this problem. Well that didn't take long...

<Added>

And once again it missed recording programs. It missed Cops at 7:30 CST and it's not even in the To Do History List with an explaination as to why. It picked up the Cops at 7:00 CST but not at 7:30.

ByronTodd

03-21-2004, 01:08 AM

Ah well. That just sucks. I was "looking forward" to that telephone call to DirecTV customer service requesting new P4 cards (*sarcasm*)....

The way that DirecTV is ignoring this problem, I have to believe that they are trying to get customers to purchase the Series 2 unit as a *fix*.

Deven

03-21-2004, 01:55 AM

Originally posted by BlankMan
Well, I can unequivocally state the the new silver edged P4 card does NOT correct this channel loss problem. I've gotten in the habit of checking all my T60's in the morning which I did this morning, all three had their Favorite Channels list intact. This evening I went to watch TiVo3 and pulled up the Favorite Channels list and once again the list was completely empty, all the channels were gone. I looked at the Channels I Receive list and all seem to be there, all are checked, including channels I had un-checked, and the unit has/was not rebooted.

So the "New" P4 card is NOT a fix for this problem. Well that didn't take long...That's too bad. Well, thanks for checking it out! At least now we know it's a complete waste of time for anyone to pursue getting new P4 cards as a possible solution to this problem. If anyone here also has an account on dbsforums, passing this information along might be helpful...

TonyD79

03-22-2004, 09:35 PM

Okay, since I rebuilt the guide data (not the To Do list, but the option to "Clear Program Data & To Do List) about a week ago, I have not had a single problem.

I still haven't heard if anyone has tried this. And, no, I don't think it is a permanent solution, but some of you are getting hit quite often with this bug.

This, of course, wipes out your wishlists and SPs but my Tivo had become pretty much useless when I resorted to this.

Just keeping you informed on my little experiment....

BrettStah

03-22-2004, 09:38 PM

Someone has completely wiped out and reset their Tivos, to no avail.

Smiles

03-23-2004, 10:20 AM

Originally posted by ByronTodd
The way that DirecTV is ignoring this problem, I have to believe that they are trying to get customers to purchase the Series 2 unit as a *fix*.
Too bad my experience with the series 2 is just as bad. Dead/dying/malfunctioning TiVos are just as bad as ones that keep losing their channel info. (Three HDVR2 failures in four units within five months.)

Mark Lopez

03-23-2004, 10:45 AM

Originally posted by TonyD79
Okay, since I rebuilt the guide data (not the To Do list, but the option to "Clear Program Data & To Do List) about a week ago, I have not had a single problem.

I still haven't heard if anyone has tried this. And, no, I don't think it is a permanent solution, but some of you are getting hit quite often with this bug.

It won't fix it. I tried and posted the results a few times in this thread (it's listed in the original post too).

bcushman

03-23-2004, 08:31 PM

I am a LONG TIME Tivo user. I left on vacation last Thursday - I returned today (Tuesday) to find all my channels gone, my ToDo list gone, my season pass list gone - none of the programs that I had set to record while I was away were recorded. I am one unhappy camper. I had to restart the machine and then add my favorite channels. When I tried to set up a new season pass for programs that had previously been on the list, it came back asking if Iwanted to record this program also but of course there was nothing showing on the To Do list. Altho I have been getting the "acquiring signal" message for weeks, I have always had a 15 days listing of data. Now, it is no more than 2. I AM NOT HAPPY.

stevel

03-23-2004, 08:44 PM

Then please call DirecTV and let them know you are NOT HAPPY.

bcushman

03-23-2004, 09:45 PM

Originally posted by stevel
Then please call DirecTV and let them know you are NOT HAPPY.

I called DirecTV this afternoon when I first found the problem - I was told by the CSR that she was not aware of the problem. I insisted on talking to a higher level - he said to do what I had already done, and said he would make a note of the problem. After checking the forum I then called back and went through the same thing, even giving the "high" level rep the address of this forum. After being put on hold for over 5 minutes I was told they were looking into a resolution of the situation.

I have had a TiVo since they first came out - I have had this DirecTivO since 2001. I have never had a problem until now and didn't even pay attention to this thread until today. The fact that this is an ongoing problem which obviously has not been fixed does not make me any happier. So... I called DirecTV and am still NOT HAPPY!

chamelea

03-26-2004, 01:06 PM

Wow! I read the first few pages of this thread, dated July last year, then jumped to "last page" and it's still a problem??

I just subscribed in October '03, and have been frustrated. Though I don't subscribe to HBO, so I was getting hours of blank screens saved as TiVO suggestions. Seems to me that TiVO should know better !????

I just learned about the "Channels I rec'v" list a month ago. A great find, since now I can avoid having HBO recorded ... until couple nights ago, my "receive list" got blanked out. Strangely, my Season Passes survive, but the channel list dies.

Doesn't seem like rocket science that they should be stored in the same protected partition - does it?

CharlieB

03-26-2004, 03:20 PM

Over the past year or so, I've had the favorites list disappear maybe 4 or 5 times. Last night I was doing something in the kitchen while the DTiVo was on live TV. When suddenly there was no sound from the TV, I looked and saw the DTiVo was "getting satellite info". Once it stopped and went to the screen where you're presented with the choice to try again, etc., I restarted the receiver, cursing that I would have to rebuild my favorites list. When it finally came back to life I was surprised to find that the favorites list was intact, but BOTH tuners were tuned to the channel it had been on before the malfunction. Is this a new variation on the problem, or was I just lucky to have not lost the favorites this time?

stevel

03-26-2004, 03:43 PM

Charlie, that's a separate problem that some of us have seen. See http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125181

BlankMan

03-29-2004, 10:57 AM

No, I think Charlie's problem is this problem I had that happen also, as I described here in this post (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1795824#post1795824).

CharlieB

03-29-2004, 12:40 PM

Originally posted by stevel
Charlie, that's a separate problem that some of us have seen. See http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=125181

Steve, I don't think it's that. I've always been able to restore normal function by just restarting the receiver. I've never had to resort to disconnecting the dish leads to get past that "28%" problem.

gtwrek

03-29-2004, 06:45 PM

I think I may have just hit this problem too on my unmodified Series 1 Hughes.

Came home last night to notice none of my recordings had happened from about Sunday morning on. I was able to surf - so it appeared "Channels I Receive" was ok, but nothing was recording. Reboot seemed to fix things.

I never mess with "Channels I Receive", nor "Favorites". Have no use for favorites - don't watch live tv. For Channels I Receive, I got tired of going in and removing channels that Direct TV kept on adding back. So, I gave up, and let it populate all channels.

I have a question however. In my Todo List history, it shows my programs as not recorded because of an "Internal Error 4". Searching through this site, I see some references to this message, but it wasn't clear if that's what people were seeing with the problem in this thread. Does anyone else see this for the bug in this thread? If I decide to call up and tackle the DirectTV support hell, having an explicit error message like this might help... (or not, from the responses seen in this thread!)

Here I've been checking this thread about once a week for months on end, just chalking up to coincidence that I've never been hit...

BlankMan

03-30-2004, 11:51 AM

gtwrek, what I've seen in the history when a program doesn't record due to this problem is program not recorded because it no longer exists in the guide data, because when the channel disappears so does the Guide Data for the channel. I am not familiar with the Internal Error 4 myself.

On another note, my TiVo2 unit was hit again yesterday 3/29, I noticed it in the morning when it had only one channel left in the Favorites List. I rebooted it then and when it came back up even that channel was gone. Since I wasn't around much Sunday it could have happened anytime from noon Sunday to Monday morning.

stevel

03-30-2004, 01:41 PM

Happened to me again sometime since yesterday - lost all the "Channels You Receive" and locals did not appear in the channel list - had to reboot to fix it.

TonyD79

03-30-2004, 04:35 PM

I saw Error #4 when my guide data got really, really bad. It no longer knows what programs are on for indexing (SPs, wishlists, searches) even if they show up in the guide.

After Error #4, that is when I deleted by SPs, wishlists and guide data (I know not a permanent fix, but working for a week from that basically boat anchor mode that gtwrek seems to be describing).

gtwrek

03-30-2004, 07:14 PM

Hmm, not sure what to make of it. I guess it was similar to Boat Anchor mode - no recording at all (didn't really look at the live buffer). I was just looking at the fact that my episodes were not recording.

A reboot cleared everything up, however. No deleting SPs/etc, as TonyD seemed to need to do.

This Tivo does have a big list of SPs/wishlists - especially for a stock unit. It's got around 50, with some overlapping - i.e. a wishlist also happening to match a SP. So, the Tivo must be very busy with it's scheduling. Any messing with the SP priority takes about 20 minutes of "please wait...".

Sounds like this was different from this Channel Favorites thing, although I'm not sure...

jaymerkramer3

04-03-2004, 12:12 PM

I have had my t-60 since october 2000 and it has done this for the first time since i've owned it last night. I had to do a reset to get my guide data back and have to reset all my favorites. In the information screen it says my guide data is only up to Saturday the 3, but I can go 2 weeks up when I look in the guide. I checked the other 2 units in the house one is a dsr 6000 and one is a dsr 7000, and they were both ok. Strange problem.

Dirac

04-03-2004, 12:16 PM

Well, you win, DirecTV. I deactivated my Sony SAT-T60 and activated a new Samsung SIR-S4040R last night.

tivoreno

04-03-2004, 02:28 PM

I am curious to know if anyone has tried to cancel their service due to this issue? I wonder if customer retention would replace the "defective" unit(s) in order to keep us as a customer.

Dirac

04-05-2004, 10:10 PM

Honestly, I'm pretty confident I'll get at least $106.99 for it on eBay, and hopefully I'll get at least what I paid for it (remember FFDVR?). However, you do raise an interesting question. Might be hard to get CR support for an issue they don't ever seem to even acknowledge.

khark

04-06-2004, 12:54 PM

It happened to one of my Tivos again yesterday and caused me to miss several shows last night. :down:

PJO1966

04-06-2004, 01:11 PM

mine got hit again... a couple programs didn't record. Luckily it was stuff that repeats constantly.

Mark Lopez

04-07-2004, 01:19 PM

Originally posted by Dirac
Well, you win, DirecTV. I deactivated my Sony SAT-T60 and activated a new Samsung SIR-S4040R last night.

That is what I was going to do (about 10 pages back in this thread). However, I have not been happy with the speed of my HDVR2. The Now Playing list is painfully slow compared to my series 1 units. I was waiting for the 'acquiring guide data' fix on the series 2 to see if that would help and it didn't. It's an unhacked unit with very few shows recorded and only 3 or 4 season passes. So for now I will will just deal with this channel loss issue and hope they eventually fix it.

FWIW, my one unit always looses the favorites on Sat night. Not every Sat, but it is always on a Saturday that it gets hit. My other one surprisingly has not lost them in several months (after a period of having it hit almost weekly). No idea why the one has started to behave.

BlankMan

04-07-2004, 02:25 PM

I agree, walking through any menu on an HDVR2 is painfully slow, you can press the buttons faster then it can react even when not really pressing them that fast. Mark, I think someone pointed that out to you when you were going to throw in the towel. :D

In the past, one of DTV's ploys to correct this problem was to tell you the unit was broke and should be replaced with an HDVR2, oh and by the way, that'll cost you $99. I know this first hand, they tried it with me, defective to the point of needing to be replaced, my arse.

Mark Lopez

04-07-2004, 08:08 PM

Originally posted by Mark Lopez
My other one surprisingly has not lost them in several months (after a period of having it hit almost weekly). No idea why the one has started to behave.

HFC! DirecTV must be monitoring this board or something. I came home and the unit that I just said has been 'behaving' got hit. :mad: <sigh>

BlankMan

04-07-2004, 10:10 PM

Ditto. It just happened again to TWO of my units, TiVo1 and TiVo3. TiVo3 while I was watching it. All three were fine this morning, Favorite Channels list wise, and again this evening, like I said, I have gotten into the habit of checking daily so I know when it occurs. I don't know exactly when TiVo1 got hit but TiVo3 acted up at 20:09 CDT, that means I lost Forensics Files for sure. And this is just a cosmetic problem as so many have tried to pawn it off as, yeah right. All of a sudden it pops up the orange "Satellite Info" screen and says:
Sorry, the Recorder must re-acquire information from the satellite. As soon as the Recorder is done, you will be able to watch Live TV again. Meanwhile, you can press the TiVo button to watch the Now playing List programs.It then times out and gives me the orange "Satellite Info Error" screen asking if it should try again. I tell it to and it times out again. And again. And again. And the Favorite Channels list is empty once again in TiVo1 and TiVo3 only has the NASA (376) channel left. (Now don't anybody get the idea this was a reception issue due to dish or weather, the other three units were receiving just fine.)

I let it sit while I documented this and sent off an email regarding it to DirecTV. In the process of doing that I had left the TV on TiVo3 and all of a sudden (~39 minutes after it went brain dead) I heard sound from a program and went and checked on it and sure enough it recovered to the point where it was once again receiving. That is when I discovered that NASA was the only channel left in the Favorite Channels list. I did not reboot TiVo3 (yet) and it did not reboot itself, uptime is currently >29 days.

So, my bet is that this is what happens normally, except usually no one has been watching it when these anomalies occur. This is the second time I saw it happen now, and someone else reported this within the last few weeks also.

<correction>
39 minutes not 29 as I had originally posted.

parzec

04-08-2004, 12:26 AM

Ditto

Smiles

04-08-2004, 02:33 AM

I lost my favorites the other day, and once again, it was not long after I had a power outage (resulting in a loss of signal because my multiswitch is not on a UPS).

Sure, it could be coincidental ... but this is the third or fourth time I've lost my favorites within a day or so of having lost my satellite signal.

handiq

04-08-2004, 09:59 AM

I normally don't post I just read, but I am now suffering the same problems as the rest of you. I was hoping to find it a upgrade issue but now I see it is not! I hope DTV gets its act together or I will be forced to go by by.

handiq

BlankMan

04-08-2004, 11:07 AM

Smiles I think it is coincidental, all my TiVo's and my multiswitch are on a UPS and it continually happens to me.

cvarner

04-08-2004, 11:39 AM

Same here. My receiver and multiswitch are also connected to UPS's and this has been a recurring issue with me.

Smiles

04-09-2004, 08:04 AM

But that doesn't mean you haven't lost some part of your signal for another reason.

It took me a number of episodes before I noticed the coincidence, but since then, I don't think I've ever lost my favorites without having lost my signal within the previous 24-48 hours.

I can only report my experiences.

bullitt

04-10-2004, 12:26 AM

Originally posted by BlankMan
Smiles I think it is coincidental, all my TiVo's and my multiswitch are on a UPS and it continually happens to me.

I got hit on Sunday 4/4 for no apparent reason again, no favorites. This is a major PITA. :mad:

wraith1

04-10-2004, 03:33 AM

I've experienced the same problems as the rest of you. I don't use Favorites...but I do notice when a program that I have specifically set to record, fails to record. Invariably, the failure is due to the loss of the channel from the channel guide. I typically lose my local channels when this phenomenon hits. I have Sony and Hughes DTivos. Like you, I have called DTV and I have gotten the same placating mumbo jumbo.

The last time it happened, I called a friend of mine who works for Hughes. I asked him to check into the issue and see if he could learn anything new. He called me back today. He said the issue is related to DTV's use of ECM signals.

I frankly doubted the accuracy of his diagnosis...at least initially. It was my understanding that DTV only ECM'd boxes a few times a year to spoil pirates' viewing of the SuperBowl, for instance. He disabused me of that notion. Evidently, DTV blasts pirates on a pretty frequent (but irregular) basis. These ECM blasts will predictably fry a small percentage of legitimate cards. I knew that. What I did not know is that an ECM can, and sometimes will, disrupt the box's programming too.

According to my friend, this is the most probable explanation, both for the issue itself and for DTV's reluctance to embrace the issue. It would explain, too, why DTV offered to exchange cards. The fact that the new cards don't render complete immunity to the continuing ECMs, is probably a function of the boxes themselves as well as their internal programming.

Since DTV blasts our units via satellite, disconnecting the telephone line will not reduce our vulnerability. Newer boxes may well offer better protection; or so my friend tells me. But that seems like a pretty cynical approach to marketing, doesn't it?

Anyhow, until I hear a better explanation (or, better yet, get a permanent repair), I'm going to assume that this is why we have 34 pages, and counting, dedicated to this problem.

Larus

04-10-2004, 08:41 AM

What is an "ECM signal"?
Larus

stevel

04-10-2004, 09:30 AM

"Electronic Counter Measure" - in other words, an attempt to disable boxes of those stealing service.

I severely doubt that this is the case here, but one never knows...

TonyD79

04-10-2004, 01:59 PM

This morning, my T-60 was okay but had rebooted sometime during the night. No power hit, no indication that anything was changed. I am assuming something came down on the call that was scheduled for last night and I got an auto-reboot but I don't see anything different.

Anyone else?

Smiles

04-12-2004, 06:53 PM

Originally posted by Smiles
It took me a number of episodes before I noticed the coincidence, but since then, I don't think I've ever lost my favorites without having lost my signal within the previous 24-48 hours.
I know everyone's going to tell me it's not related, but yesterday afternoon I had a one-second power hit (multiswitches went out, TiVos are on UPSes). Today, my Favorites were gone and CYR were all reset (so I had national network feeds turned on) on my Philips.

What's funny is that as I was sitting on my couch resetting the channels I thought to myself, "Wow, this is the first time I can think of where I didn't have a signal loss prior to this problem." Then I remembered sitting in the office yesterday when I took the hit.

Your mileage may vary, but mine doesn't seem to.

BlankMan

04-13-2004, 10:27 AM

Smiles, why don't you put your multiswitch on an UPS then? It can't take much power, my Spaun doesn't, so I'd bet you could put it on the same UPS as the DTivo(s) and save yourself the frustration.

Smiles

04-13-2004, 01:06 PM

Because my multiswitches are in my basement, nowhere near any of my many other UPSes.

But the point is that in my case, I have a strong relationship between losing my satellite signal and then losing my Favorites or CYR. Maybe others do as well.

Markman07

04-14-2004, 02:03 PM

I have never had this problem many were reporting. I noticed this sticky thread and started to read it the other night. I was considering myself lucky because I have never had this issue with either of my two DSR6000s. Well low and behold the next night I notice most of my channels are gone except for the music channels and a few other ones on my unmodified unit! UUUUUUGGGGGGGG

BlankMan

04-14-2004, 02:28 PM

Welcome to the not-so-elite club.

Mark Lopez

04-15-2004, 11:14 AM

Originally posted by wraith1
The last time it happened, I called a friend of mine who works for Hughes. I asked him to check into the issue and see if he could learn anything new. He called me back today. He said the issue is related to DTV's use of ECM signals.

While I doubt that is the cause, it is possible. Now that the HU stream shutdown has officially started, it will be interesting to see if the problem goes away. The next few weeks should tell. It may be wishful thinking, but perhaps that's why DirecTV has been brushing this under the rug, knowing it would be resolved once the HU was dead.

PJO1966

04-15-2004, 11:21 AM

I was on the phone with a CSR about another matter when I mentioned the problems with the TiVo losing channels. He was from the retention dep't and had no knowledge of it. He asked what had been done so far and I listed everything mentioned in this thread. he put me on hold while he consulted with his "gurus". He came back and offered to replace my TiVo with a reconditioned one. I explained this wasn't an option because I have too much stuff on it (with 160 hrs of storage) and I had already pre-ordered the HD TiVo. That was that. I just wanted to pass that along. Those that are interested in swapping out their TiVo for another may want to suggest that. i don't really think it would make a difference.

Markman07

04-15-2004, 11:27 AM

If they want to swap all my Series 1's I might be interested. I do have one modified unit. Not familiar with upgrading s2.

Dirac

04-15-2004, 05:16 PM

Originally posted by PJO1966
Those that are interested in swapping out their TiVo for another may want to suggest that. i don't really think it would make a difference.

Series 1 DTivos usually sell for well over $99 on eBay. I plan on selling my SAT-T60 and DSR6000, and using the money for new receivers.

ksquid

04-16-2004, 02:23 PM

I've had the same problem with both my Sony SAT-T60s. I always thought it was DirecTV sending a bullet type signal to clear out illegal users with a bad side effect to others.

I set the Channels I Receive to the ones I "want" to have Guide listed and remove the "junk" channels. However, the Channels I Receive setup has never interfered with the channels I actually get (which includes the junk). When the Channels I Receive setup barfs, it adds the junk channels back into the Guide list as opposed to loosing channels so that shows can't be recorded.

The last maintenance I performed that's worked so far was... completely power down the deck, carefully remove the card, CAREFULLY clean the contacts with an eraser, carefully use CLEAN compressed air to blow dust out of card slot, carefully reinstall card, power up deck, reset Channels I Receive and Favorite Channels. That was a few weeks ago and the problem has not returned since.

Occasionally DirecTV seems to "add" channels at their discretion which will show up as ones I did not select. They will be an ongoing maintenance at DirecTV's whim. Simply deselect these new channels and they should stay away.

Hope this works,
ksquid

dwynne

04-16-2004, 03:18 PM

Originally posted by PJO1966
mine got hit again... a couple programs didn't record. Luckily it was stuff that repeats constantly.

I wonder if it is bad data in the DTV stream that is doing this?

My trouble box did it again last week (Wed 4/7 - Thu 4/8) and I missed more shows.

I have been very busy and have not been on the forum for a few weeks - but reading through these notes I see that a lot of the other folks with the same problem ALSO had the problem around the same time.

So it could be some bad data that we all got?

Or (more likely?) DTV sent down some new channels or removed some channels and our boxes saw them around the same time and that triggered the problem?

I WAS rebooting my box once a week to see if that helped - but I had forgotten to do it for a few weeks :)

Dennis

dwynne

04-16-2004, 03:52 PM

Originally posted by Smiles
Because my multiswitches are in my basement, nowhere near any of my many other UPSes.

But the point is that in my case, I have a strong relationship between losing my satellite signal and then losing my Favorites or CYR. Maybe others do as well.

I don't have a powered switch (other than via the DTivos) and mine DTivos are on UPS units.

If you watch the Sunday paper, Office ____ or Staples is always having cheap deals after rebate on UPS units. A Belkin or APC can be had for as little as $20.

Dennis

Fish Man

04-17-2004, 11:13 AM

Originally posted by wraith1
I've experienced the same problems as the rest of you. I don't use Favorites...but I do notice when a program that I have specifically set to record, fails to record. Invariably, the failure is due to the loss of the channel from the channel guide. I typically lose my local channels when this phenomenon hits. I have Sony and Hughes DTivos. Like you, I have called DTV and I have gotten the same placating mumbo jumbo.

The last time it happened, I called a friend of mine who works for Hughes. I asked him to check into the issue and see if he could learn anything new. He called me back today. He said the issue is related to DTV's use of ECM signals.

I frankly doubted the accuracy of his diagnosis...at least initially. It was my understanding that DTV only ECM'd boxes a few times a year to spoil pirates' viewing of the SuperBowl, for instance. He disabused me of that notion. Evidently, DTV blasts pirates on a pretty frequent (but irregular) basis. These ECM blasts will predictably fry a small percentage of legitimate cards. I knew that. What I did not know is that an ECM can, and sometimes will, disrupt the box's programming too.

According to my friend, this is the most probable explanation, both for the issue itself and for DTV's reluctance to embrace the issue. It would explain, too, why DTV offered to exchange cards. The fact that the new cards don't render complete immunity to the continuing ECMs, is probably a function of the boxes themselves as well as their internal programming.

Since DTV blasts our units via satellite, disconnecting the telephone line will not reduce our vulnerability. Newer boxes may well offer better protection; or so my friend tells me. But that seems like a pretty cynical approach to marketing, doesn't it?

Anyhow, until I hear a better explanation (or, better yet, get a permanent repair), I'm going to assume that this is why we have 34 pages, and counting, dedicated to this problem.

I believe that your theory has merit. I've suspected essentially the same thing for some time now.

The problem you describe only affects the "Series I" boxes. From their introduction, there has been evidence that the interface to the access card on the "Series I" boxes is a little flaky.

For example, series I DirecTiVos almost never take a change in programming with the first "hit". Without exception, each time I've ever changed my D* programming (admittedly, only two or three times since becoming a customer), I've used their web site to make the change.

My HDVR2 always shows the change within a minute or so after submitting the change to the web site. At least one of my two GXCEBOTD's, invariably doesn't take the new instructions, forcing me to call DirecTV and ask them to "hit" that particular unit again. Sometimes two or three additional "hits" are necessary. This is evidence of a flaky interface to the access card.

I have experienced the "loss of many/most channels" bug a total of 3 times. Once on one of my GXCEBOTD's and twice on the other.

A few weeks ago, I experienced another interesting bug, which my "programmers intuition" suggests is related, and some discussion of this bug appears in this thread.

I sat down to watch something on one of my GXCEBOTD's and found that both tuners were on the same channel (BBC America, for whatever that's worth) and both were displaying a blank screen with the "Channel Not Available" banner at the bottom. I put up the grid guide and no channels appeared to be missing from it, my "channels I receive" list was correctly checked/unchecked.

I also observed that several recordings had been missed. The reason given in the recording history was "someone in your household modified the season pass" which was untrue.

So, I selected another channel from the grid guide. After a very very long delay (like 90 seconds it successfully tuned to that channel. I then checked the other tuner, it still "said" it was on BBCA, and showed a black screen with the "Channel not available" banner. So, with the "black screen" tuner selected, I tried to change the channel on that tuner. I got the channel I selected, but it used the "healthy" tuner to do it!, that is, if flipped off the "black screen" tuner and to the tuner that was working!

Several attempts repeated this result (and BTW, the "healthy" tuner could tune to BBCA successfully).

Finally, I hit upon an idea: while watching the "healthy" tuner, I selected "record", to lock it on that channel. I flipped to the black-screen tuner and selected another channel. Another 60 - 90 second delay and then BINGO, that tuner was "healthy" again also.

I did some checking and found that a major wave of ECM's had been sent out that day.

An ECM would require a rather major amount of data to flow between the box's on board memory and the smart card. If this interface is "flaky" as I suspect it is, this amount of data flow could easily result in a "glitch" that produces buggy behavior of the box.

wraith1

04-17-2004, 04:42 PM

Yes....that's pretty fair inferential evidence, Fish Man. It would also explain DTV's willingness to exchange our Series 1 boxes for S-2 receivers.

Here's my notion. Let's stop spinning our wheels by talking to peons who either don't know or won't say anything useful. Emailing those same peons is an equally pointless exercise in futility. I recommend that we write brief, civil, but pointed (snailmail) letters to one of DTV's executives.

I have found this to be an effective means for overcoming bureaucratic logjams in the past. Here is my choice:

Roxanne S Austin
Executive Vice President;
President and Chief Operating Officer of DIRECTV, Inc. at
The DIRECTV Group, Inc.
2250 East Imperial Highway
El Segundo, CA 90245

Phone: 310 964-0700
Phone: 310 964-0808

I list a couple of telephone numbers (above), but nothing is quite as powerful as a concise and specific letter to an individual who has the necessary authority to deal with an issue.

Rick

ksanders

04-19-2004, 01:33 AM

Originally posted by Dirac
Well, you win, DirecTV. I deactivated my Sony SAT-T60 and activated a new Samsung SIR-S4040R last night.

My SAT-T60 has no issues with the loss of Favorites. However, my Hughes GXCEBOTD all the time. It never fails. I can set my Favorites and the next time I turn on the unit, they are no longer setup. It is very frustrating.

I do not have runs to my new Samsung Series II DTivo yet, so I haven't setup any channels. I plan on putting in runs to it from the multiswitch sometime this week.

ksanders

04-19-2004, 02:04 AM

Originally posted by Smiles
But the point is that in my case, I have a strong relationship between losing my satellite signal and then losing my Favorites or CYR. Maybe others do as well.

One would think that losing signal would cause this issue on all DirecTivo units, possibly. I have not had that to be the case here. It only happens on my Hughes box. The Sony SAT-T60 has kept its Favorites for quite some time now.

Clark

04-19-2004, 02:49 PM

I keep having my favorites lost on one of my tivos but not the other. I've finally given up hope of it ever working correctly.

ksanders

04-19-2004, 03:14 PM

Originally posted by Clark
I keep having my favorites lost on one of my tivos but not the other. I've finally given up hope of it ever working correctly.

Same here. I just deal with it. I need to put in the runs to my new Samsung and see if that one works properly. Hopefully, as someone else mentioned in this thread, this issue will disappear when the HU stream is fully gone.

Unregisterable

04-20-2004, 05:23 PM

We were watching live tv Monday night when everything disappeared from our Tivo service - all program guide data, all favorite channels, in fact all channels vanished. Went through the satellite setup process and we were getting 95% signal on both of our inputs, plus our other two non-Tivo directv boxes were working just fine. Attempted to download program info from the satellite several times, but it would always kick out before the data download finished. Called DTV today and they said to reset the unit - pow, it was all back - except my favorites were lost. Is this the bug everyone else here has experienced?

dwynne

04-20-2004, 05:35 PM

Originally posted by Unregisterable
We were watching live tv Monday night when everything disappeared from our Tivo service - all program guide data, all favorite channels, in fact all channels vanished. Went through the satellite setup process and we were getting 95% signal on both of our inputs, plus our other two non-Tivo directv boxes were working just fine. Attempted to download program info from the satellite several times, but it would always kick out before the data download finished. Called DTV today and they said to reset the unit - pow, it was all back - except my favorites were lost. Is this the bug everyone else here has experienced?

We will forgive you for not reading through all the messages :) But yes, that is the problem.

"Losing favorites" is the least of my worries - since as you observed you can lose it all. Several times I have sat down to watch a show that I Tivo'd earlier in the day or a previous day only to find that it failed to record it due to this bug. That is unacceptable - the reason I HAVE a Tivo is so I don't have to be there to watch the show when it airs. In my case it has been stuff w/o repeats that I missed.

Welcome to the "club" :mad:

Dennis

aciurczak

04-23-2004, 01:23 AM

D*mn it all to hell. This bit me again, and it didn't record Survivor or any of the other Thursday shows I like. This is really getting old.

Markman07

04-23-2004, 10:08 AM

So are we screwed? What are we to do with an issue they won't fix?

stevel

04-23-2004, 11:41 AM

Are you people calling DirecTV support and complaining? If all you do is gripe here, it's a certainty nothing will happen. I call every time it happens to me.

gregstud

04-23-2004, 09:10 PM

This issue has happened to me a few times. ALMOST always when I'm on vacation and I come back to miss a bunch of programming I set to record when I'm gone.

Smiles

04-26-2004, 12:57 AM

Originally posted by ksanders
One would think that losing signal would cause this issue on all DirecTivo units, possibly. I have not had that to be the case here. It only happens on my Hughes box. The Sony SAT-T60 has kept its Favorites for quite some time now.
Heck, you'd think it would happen to both of my Series 1 units simultaneously when I lose signal, since both of them lose it at the same time. But they don't. It could be any combination of things, perhaps losing signal being one component of that.

wraith1

04-26-2004, 02:31 AM

Not to repeat myself, but sending snailmail correspondence will do the trick if anything will. Referencing this forum thread (all 35 pages of it) would add credibility. I furnished the name, address and telephone number to one of the exec's at the top of this page. I can virtually assure you that a well crafted letter to Roxanne will produce a positive response. Further telephone calls and email to low-level CSRs and more griping in this forum is unlikely to accomplish anything new at this point. The image of banging one's head against the wall comes to mind.

A letter such as I suggest should be polite, but firm. It should concisely set out both the problem and its scope, describing the various unsuccessful efforts to resolve it. Try to avoid the ultimatum approach. Antagonistic missives containing empty or inconsequential threats rarely provoke more than a curt reply.

It would not be inappropriate for a copy of the correspondence to be uploaded here.

Perrin

04-28-2004, 01:14 PM

I have a SAT T60 and just experienced this bizarre bug for myself yesterday. Its strange, I had this unit for over a year and it never happened until now. I lost nearly all of my channels and it didn't record a bunch of shows on tuesday night. My wife is ticked off and I'm annoyed too :( I hate missing 24..
I'm at work so I can't really call a CSR cause they'll ask me to do stuff with the T60 that I can't do remotely.

jaydro

04-28-2004, 01:42 PM

I've read the first eight and last eight pages of this thread, and I'm not sure if I'm seeing the same problem with my DSR7000. I first reported this problem in the "problems with 3.1.1c" thread (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=169977&perpage=20&pagenumber=2), but today I witnessed the problem "live" and it makes me think it *might* be the problem described here....

As I described before, this past weekend my DSR7000 didn't record programs for a day-and-a-half while I was away. When I had left the unit it was displaying the "Acquiring Program Guide Data" message for the first time since getting the "c" update, and the only other time I've seen that was when the unit was new and when the "b" problem was manifesting itself, though I understand the message can occur under normal circumstances. The recording history showed that Friday evening programs did not record because of internal error: 4 (which seems to mean that no guide data was available for that channel at the time the recording was to occur), while Saturday programs did not record because "power was lost or the unit was unplugged" and there was no power outage. Recording resumed Sunday morning with a program 15 minutes in progress. I had left the unit in standby while away (I normally don't use standby). Other than that, everything seemed normal.

This morning I noticed that my DTiVo wasn't recording a 7:30 am program I was expecting to record. I turned on the TV (DTiVo wasn't in standby), and found it on a channel I had left it on last night and apparently working. I entered the channel number the program I wanted to record was on, and I got a "channel not available" banner at the bottom of the screen. I switched to the other tuner, which was on the channel it had been on last night and working, and I switched it to another channel--"channel not available."

I checked out TDL--it looked like it was stuck at some time prior to 2 am this morning.

I then rebooted.

Everything came back okay, and the recording history showed that overnight programming, including the program that had been on when I began this process, was not recorded because "power was lost" etc. Obviously, again, there was no power outage.

Next time this happens I'll try channel up/down and the "channels you receive" list to see if it's empty or whatever.

Most posts here reference Series 1 DTiVo's--can (ersatz) Series 2 DTiVo's be affected?

Markman07

04-28-2004, 01:50 PM

Yes JayDro, as far as I know only Series 1 were having the problem discussed in this thread.

Perrin

04-28-2004, 02:20 PM

Uhm quick question...I haven't had to reboot my DirecTIVO (sat t60) before...so uhm how do I do it? Pull the plug? That's how I would reboot my standalone years ago.

BrettStah

04-28-2004, 02:27 PM

You could do it that way. You can also go into the Setup menu and reboot with the remote. If you unplug it, wait about 15 seconds or so before plugging it back in.

Larry Hutchinson

04-28-2004, 04:49 PM

Basically a "me to", but here is my story.

I've lost my Favorites quite a number of times in the past. But yesterday, I noticed a program had not been recorded and when I checked the todo list, it claimed someone in my household had canceled the season pass (not true.)

Then today, I found the machine could not tune to any channel. Reset by unplugging and, except for Favorites, all was ok.

Series 1.

P.S., My HD TiVo was unaffected -- I assume it is Series 2.

dwynne

04-28-2004, 06:03 PM

Originally posted by jaydro
I've read the first eight and last eight pages of this thread, and I'm not sure if I'm seeing the same problem with my DSR7000. but today I witnessed the problem "live" and it makes me think it *might* be the problem described here....

Yes, this thread is titled "Favorite channels disappear in TiVo Live Guide" but that is just a minor problem (a symptom of the real problem). The real problem is as you describe - the DTivo thinks you no longer get the channels you should so it does not record your shows for you. It does not matter if the shows are on a favorite or any other channel - once the DTivo loses that channel then no more recording. The channels disappear from the "channels I receive" list and if they are ALSO favorites they vanish from that list as well.

In my case looking at the "Tivo 2" to-do list is says "no shows upcoming" and in recording history it says it was not recorded because it was not on. I don't RECALL it telling me it was because someone in the house canceled it.

When this happens "live" while you watch, there are channels you can't tune to (black screen). When you go into "channels I receive" these channels are missing - not there and un-checked, they are gone. If you try to re-do setup (for example) it will not work, if you check signal strength it will be fine. Just do a restart (from the menus) and it will re-find all the channels. You will then have to un-check the ones you do not want and re-select the favorites (if any).

Dennis

jaydro

04-28-2004, 10:21 PM

Looking back, Dennis, I see that your "Tivo 2" is a series 1.

If people aren't seeing this with the newer DTiVos, and it isn't accompanied by a TDL that shows upcoming recordings that should have already taken place, and the recording history doesn't blame the problem on a non-existent power outage, then maybe I should start a new thread....

BlankMan

05-02-2004, 01:22 PM

Anyone know for sure if the ECM's for the HU cards were really stopped? Because if they were then that was/is not the cause of the problem, my TiVo1 just got hit again, last night it was fine, this morning all the channels in the Favorite Channels List are gone.

TV addict

05-02-2004, 09:27 PM

One of my 4 DTiVo's lost most of the "channels you receive" last night.

From the end of December to the middle of February this happened about 8 times. This is only the second time this has happened since mid February.

So, it seems to not be as bad lately. I will be gone on vacation soon, so it probably will happen then, so I can't notice it and reboot the DTiVo.

callmeox

05-02-2004, 10:56 PM

My 18 month old T-60 has been acting flaky for a few months now, with one major annoyance in the program guide that I see every day. Channel 171 (porn pay-per-view) keeps reappearing in the guide every morning after the service d/l, which I promptly remove each day from the guide. I'm not some radical puritan, but the program descriptions are pretty racy and I don't need that info flowing into my already hopped-up 12 year old son's brain.

I've placed 4 calls in the last month that ended up with me talking to the 'senior' level techs at D* and the tech today was able to reproduce the channel 171 reappearance while I was on hold. The past calls have ended with recommendations ranging from forcing a call to get the software upgrade (thanks...) to replacing my access card and nothing has worked. He said that since he was able to reproduce the error there, he would pass it on to (??) for the lab to look at it. He tried to recommend the normal razzmatazz that I should call the manufacturer about the issue and I stopped him cold with some of the facts that I have learned here on this board.

After reinforcing the fact that I don't want my kid to happen upon this adult material, they offered to overnight a new (refurb?) unit. I took them up on it since I'm honestly only peeved about this because of the subject matter of the channel. We'll see what arrives on Tuesday.

Vesper

05-02-2004, 11:02 PM

Had this bug show up again tonight. 3rd time now (all since the Acquiring Program Data "display" bug.) Missed Alias, Sopranos, and Cold Case because of it. THANKS DIRECTV.

Unfortunately, I may have no choice but to buy a Series 2 to "fix" this. It's unfortunate, not fighting the system. But since our complaints are ignored, it kinda looks like I have no other choice. :(

ksanders

05-03-2004, 12:33 AM

Originally posted by callmeox
After reinforcing the fact that I don't want my kid to happen upon this adult material, they offered to overnight a new (refurb?) unit. I took them up on it since I'm honestly only peeved about this because of the subject matter of the channel. We'll see what arrives on Tuesday.

A new unit is not going to fix your problem. I have it happen all the time on all my units. This is just another of many software problems that the DirecTivo units have. They just need to get off their duffs and get the problems fixed.

BrettStah

05-03-2004, 06:53 AM

callmeox, remove all unwanted channels from your Channels I Recieve list. Then, go to your Favorite Channels list and add all channels. Then go into your Live TV Guide and configure it to display your Favorite Channels rather than your Received Channels..

BlankMan

05-03-2004, 11:21 AM

D*mn! My TiVo1 got hit again overnight after rebooting it and fixing it yesterday. Favorite Channels list is empty, and from the Channels I Receive list all channels below 245 were gone, all Premium Channels except HBOL and most of the music channels were also gone. Could be more missing also but those were the only areas I checked. That's twice in two days. Haven't check my other two units yet because I can't do that remotely.

FourDown

05-03-2004, 08:59 PM

Well....

This "losing favorites" happend to me Saturday. First time and I've had this virgin unit for almost three years now.

I looked here first and saw this 37 page rant. After rebooting and redoing my favorites list, I called DirecTV and spoke to a very nice kid who had heard of the problem and had no remedy except for the reboot and redo.

He said that this wasn't a fix, it was just a way to get the machine working again.

He apologized, but we both knew there was nothing he could/would do.

I will not be forced into a Series 2 buy by bad programmers.

For the sake of other's getting into this thread...isn't there a way to delete the first 30 pages or so to save time?

Good luck to all.... 4D

Vesper

05-04-2004, 12:57 PM

Originally posted by FourDown
I will not be forced into a Series 2 buy by bad programmers.

I'm a software engineer, so I feel it's my duty to stick up for the Tivo programmers. They aren't at fault. All software has issues come up. It is the duty of the company to provide adequate funding to find said problems before they ship out, and to address them once they are found in the wild. Having a serious bug in the hands of the public for this long is inexcusable, and shows a serious management problem at DirecTV. Please don't blame the hard working tech guys who'd love to have this fixed within 5 seconds of the first person finding it. Unfortunately, it's not up to them to allocate time to fix the bug or release the fix.

dwynne

05-04-2004, 01:12 PM

Originally posted by Vesper
I'm a software engineer, so I feel it's my duty to stick up for the Tivo programmers. They aren't at fault. All software has issues come up. It is the duty of the company to provide adequate funding to find said problems before they ship out, and to address them once they are found in the wild. Having a serious bug in the hands of the public for this long is inexcusable, and shows a serious management problem at DirecTV.

I would have to agree - I hate having this bug on one of my DTivos, but being in the software biz that hardest thing to do is find and fix a bug that you can't duplicate. If they can get this to happen "in the lab" then the fix is probably not that tough - but it may be hard to do. I have 2 identical DTivos (the 3rd is series 2) and one fails and the other never has this problem.

Now if it IS something like ECMs taking us down, that would make me madder than I already am. Come on DTV, pour some resources into this and give us a fix!

I am back to regular (once a week) reboots of the "bad" box and I DID miss the outage some reported the other day. I try to keep doing that and see if that keeps the missing channel monster at bay until we get a fix.

Dennis

gregstud

05-04-2004, 02:15 PM

But the real question is WHO is responsible for the "fixes"...DTV or Tivo? I would guess Tivo is responsible for all Software related programming/problem solving. Granted DTV has authority over selecting new features (like HMO)...but I don't think they do actually fixes, I would guess Tivo is contractually obligated to provide software support in this capacity.

cvarner

05-04-2004, 02:30 PM

If I remember correctly from what BlankMan has stated previously in this thread, since DTV took over, DTV has to tell/authorize TiVo to make the fixes to the code. So technically DTV is responsible, but TiVo has to implement the fix. Also, in response to dwynne's comment above, BlankMan has said that DTV and TiVo have been able to recreate the problem in the lab, so it's not an issure that can't be reproduced.

dwynne

05-04-2004, 02:43 PM

I think if we were calling and complaining to Tivo directly the problem would already be fixed. DTV probably figured "this stuff is pretty much bug free, let's drop Tivo and take care of it ourselves". I don't know what the financial deal was/is between the two but it can't be in our best interests.

Dennis

BlankMan

05-04-2004, 03:49 PM

Answers to some of the questions posed on this page (and thanks cvarner).

It is a hardware issue that they are trying to fix in software. As it was explained to me a particular chip gets confused under just the right circumstances and the end result is that channels get removed. What those exact circumstances are were not explained to me, probably so as to not give out too much information so the source could be traced. DTV is being very tight liped on this and has instructed people at our favorite company not to comment on it. However, it was not said that it was or was not due to ECM's so that possibility exists and could be the cause of the chip getting confused if other variables happen to be in place on that unit just at the right time. That would explain why it does not happened to every unit at the same time. Had the ECM issue come to mind during my last discussion I would have specifically asked about it.

TiVo is responsible for the fixes BUT DTV has to approve them, that Red Tape is part of the problem.

TiVo has reproduced it in the lab, but just like it happens to us, randomly. So, a number of times they thought they had the fix only to let it sit and run a while to find it happened again.

I have also been told that it is happening to DTV employees (middle management) and based on that fact that DTV is very aware of it.

It also was eluded to me that TiVo being a startup company thus trying to turn a profit, the cash infusion to brand the DirecTV Receiver with TiVo as a DirecTV DVR was very helpful, but they are sympathetic to the poor support we now get based on what we were used to when dealing with TiVo directly.

BlankMan

05-04-2004, 03:56 PM

Originally posted by FourDown
I called DirecTV and spoke to a very nice kid who had heard of the problem and had no remedy except for the reboot and redo. FourDown, I'm really surprised that you talked to someone that knew about the problem, that is a miracle in itself.

I'd like to hear more from anyone that calls in if this is now happening or just a fluke. Maybe, just maybe, DTV has gotten the information to their front line CSR's and/or told them it is OK to admit this problem exits finally.

FourDown

05-04-2004, 09:08 PM

BlankMan... After reading most of this thread, I was also surprised that the guy on the other end of the phone was aware of this issue.

But he was and he even filled in the gaps when I didn't have the right words.

I think he was genuine in his disappointment that he couldn't really help.

I don't think in my earlier post I meant to be angry at the programmers. But you have to admit, if this was any other software company, this ongoing, disruptive, bug would have been fixed by now. Programmers, middle management, senior management be damned. This is a customer talking and many customers are affected. Fix the problem.

4D

BlankMan

05-05-2004, 11:49 AM

Well Sylvia from DirecTV called me last night in response to my two emails depicting this problem on the 2nd and 3rd. She had never heard of the problem (surprise!) but took down a lot of notes and said she was going to bring it to the attention of management. She was sympathetic to the problem and said she had a SAT-T60 but was not experiencing the problem. She mentioned that they had a TiVo Specialties group abut I explained to her that a software patch was needed and there was nothing they could do to fix it over the phone. She didn't sound like she totally understood the how and why of a software patch. I also explained to her I have gone down that path a number of times over the past year, both with someone calling me after they received an email and with the TiVo Specialties group, always to no avail.

She said she will try to find out something regarding this and get back to me within a week even if she has nothing more to add. I've heard that before also (as have others here) so we will see. If nothing else dealing with DirecTV has made me a skeptic, they promise but don't always follow through. She also did say that if this were happening to her she would not be too happy about it either.

I also mentioned this Forum and this thread (as I have many many times in the past), and she wrote down the URL (even though it is in the content of the email I add to and send to them each time) but I doubt anyone will take the time to come here and find this Forum and find this thread. DirecTV probably doesn't allow it. I added that once here to do a search on Favorite Channels figuring that would be an easy way to find this thread (I hope). But based on past performance of DirecTV I doubt they take any of this seriously.

FourDown

05-05-2004, 01:21 PM

I called Saturday night about 9:00 Massachusetts time (which is about 4:17 a.m. in the year 1634 judging by the attitude, education, and political leanings here) :)

Like I said, I only called that one time and guy was friendly and knew what I was talking about.

Maybe I dialed the wrong number? :eek:

Good Luck

4D

pickrarkerz

05-05-2004, 03:49 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan

I'd like to hear more from anyone that calls in if this is now happening or just a fluke. Maybe, just maybe, DTV has gotten the information to their front line CSR's and/or told them it is OK to admit this problem exits finally.

I called on Monday about something switching a non-TiVo receiver, and asked the CSR (who had told me she was new and wasn't sure how to switch the receiver) about the disapearing channels. She said that it was a problem and the only fix was to reboot the TiVo. I explained that isn't really a fix, she then said it could be the access card, but I would have to pay $20 to get a new one. I was in a hurry (was on hold 30 minutes before anyone answered), so I said I'd call back when I had more time.

BlankMan

05-05-2004, 05:25 PM

Originally posted by pickrarkerz
she then said it could be the access card, but I would have to pay $20 to get a new one. I was in a hurry (was on hold 30 minutes before anyone answered), so I said I'd call back when I had more time. Don't waste your money, went that route. As one of DirecTV's attempted fixes to correct this problem they sent me three of the lastest access cards, one for each of my T60's, which some people call "New P4's" and some people call "P5's", regardless, the problem still occurs.

There's a picture of them here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1799366#post1799366).

callmeox

05-05-2004, 06:48 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
Don't waste your money, went that route. As one of DirecTV's attempted fixes to correct this problem they sent me three of the lastest access cards, one for each of my T60's, which some people call "New P4's" and some people call "P5's", regardless, the problem still occurs.

There's a picture of them here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=1799366#post1799366).

Ditto, I went the same route, but for free. The CSR said that changing the card would help me get the software update on my T-60 (grin). I took her up on it only because it was better than doing nothing and it cost me zero. I figure that D* is like Microsoft in that they will stop trying to help you if you don't do as they ask or have the latest stuff.

BTW, they sent me a refurbished replacement unit for my T-60 to try to fix this issue and the 'porn PPV 171 reappearing in the channel guide' issue. It is going back since it is a DSR6000 and has the same software on it.

I'm going to plug it in in another room and let it go for a week. I'm sure that one or another of the same issues will happen in a few days and it will be on its way back.

Ox

Psychoderelict

05-06-2004, 01:35 PM

I've been luck as this didn't start happening to my Series 1 until two weeks ago... Why hasn't this been fixed?

BlankMan

05-06-2004, 04:16 PM

Originally posted by Psychoderelict
I've been luck as this didn't start happening to my Series 1 until two weeks ago... Why hasn't this been fixed? The proverbial $64,000,000 question.

Cajonkev

05-07-2004, 11:18 PM

So I must admit I have been so caught up in the HR10-250 threads that I have been out of this one for a while but since one of my DSR6000's had its little "problem" again tonight for the umpteenth time I thought I would check back in.

I see that nothing new has evidently occurred and D* is still avoiding the situation.

Just got off the phone "logging" our latest event.

khark

05-08-2004, 02:55 AM

Add me to the list for about the 7th. time. If I wasn't so pleased with the way Tivo works, when they work, I would just give up on them. I just don't know how long Directv can pretend they don't know about the problem.

Maybe the people that suggested a class action lawsuit were right because the product sure doesn't do what it promised in the ads when it loses the program information and misses recording the shows.

bstock

05-09-2004, 09:44 PM

I have a Phillips DSR6000, unmodified. It's two years old. I just started having the problem many people have reported in November 2003. Since then it has happened three more times, occurring more frequently (the last two times have been in the last few weeks).

I don't use Favorites. I only use Channels You Receive. When the problem occurs, I lose some to all of Channels You Receive. I have to reset the machine, and it goes back to normal. When I lose the channels, I also lose all the program guide information and whenever that particular instance of the problem started, it stopped recording anything on my To Do list.

I called DirecTV several times. They disclaim any knowledge of this being a widespread problem. They just say I need to buy a new receiver. I've never asked for a credit for the time lost. I should have. They've offered me $50 toward the purchase of a new receiver, that's it.

I just discovered this thread today. It goes back to July of 2003. My take on reading some of the later messages is that neither DirecTV or TiVo is willing to do anything to help us. The only solution is to buy a Series 2 machine, which, apparently, doesn't have the problem.

Is that correct?

Thanks.

alphawave7

05-10-2004, 04:40 AM

Originally posted by bstock
I just discovered this thread today. It goes back to July of 2003. My take on reading some of the later messages is that neither DirecTV or TiVo is willing to do anything to help us. The only solution is to buy a Series 2 machine, which, apparently, doesn't have the problem.

Is that correct?

Thanks.

Yep, that seems to be correct. Just to let you and others know, even tho this thread goes back to June-ish 2003, we've endured the problem even a year longer than that!!
Archived Favs Zapped Again (http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=70022)

dwynne

05-10-2004, 09:03 AM

Series 2 question.

I don't have one. But let us say I hound DTV into swapping me out for a series 2 box to replace the one box I have with this problem. Do I care?

I have modded my boxes by putting in larger capacity hard drives, but I can easily put the original drive back in to return it to DTV.

My understanding is that the Series 2 boxes add protection against hackers - the kind that are stealing service - and still can be modded to use my larger drives w/o a problem.

If this is correct, then is there any reason not to accept a box swap out if we can get offered one?

Thanks
Dennis

stevel

05-10-2004, 01:21 PM

You can add larger drives to S2 boxes easily. What's harder is adding software hacks. Not impossible, just harder.

BlankMan

05-12-2004, 11:09 AM

June? I thought I started this thread in May of 2003?? But it was happening to me long before that I just wrote it off as a fluke. But when it continued to happen and I was getting frustrated especially when contacting DTV (continuing exercise in futility) I thought I'd see if this was happening to others. And yep, sure enough, it was/is.

One thing to be aware of, at least in the HDRV2 Second Generation units it is painfully slow to step through *any* menu including the Now Playing list, on *unmodified* HDVR2's at that.

alphawave7

05-12-2004, 11:47 PM

I was zapped again sometime in the last day or so. :( What a fricken PITA. Calling India after dinner.:mad:

Budget_HT

05-13-2004, 02:18 AM

My Sony SAT-T60 was just hit for the second time in 3 weeks. Actually it is my wife's DTiVo and she is raving mad. It did not record any of her season finale shows tonight.

I called DirecTV and reported this again. They had me reboot/reset the machine from scratch (still in progress). Since I have their protection plan, they seem willing to replace this box if it misbehaves once more.

I also have an HDVR2 and an HR10-250 HD TiVo. Neither of them has had this problem ever (of course the HD unit has only been here 2 weeks).

I lost all local channels, all 100-200 channels, most 300 channels, many 400 channels (which I don't subscribe to anyway). The second try to reset left me with just 8-10 channels, none of which come from the 101 satellite, even though the unit says both tuners are receiving all 3 satellites.

On a previous failure, I swapped cables from my multiswitch with my HDVR2 and the problem stayed with the Sony unit (proving the cables and multiswitch were not the problem--all other receivers fed by the multiswitch are having no problems). I also swapped output ports on the multiswitch and the problem still stayed with the Sony unit. I am not having any reception problems on any other DirecTV receiver.

I have perused this thread and a few others. I think I am understanding that this problem is limited to series 1 DirecTiVos, not HDVR2s and other series 2 units. Am I understanding correctly?

stevel

05-13-2004, 08:08 AM

Originally posted by Budget_HT
I think I am understanding that this problem is limited to series 1 DirecTiVos, not HDVR2s and other series 2 units. Am I understanding correctly? Yes.

BlankMan

05-13-2004, 03:47 PM

I did the Multiswitch port switch per DirecTV's request a long time ago and as you noticed it has no affect on the problem.

Steve, what's Seven hundred seventy-three, zero?

dwynne

05-13-2004, 04:45 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
June? I thought I started this thread in May of 2003??

I was thinking about this last night when noticing my boxes still say "loading data". That bug is old (and the fix was simple) yet we still have that - so there may be "no hope" to get this other thing fixed?

I guess the resources they do still have were used to bring the HDTivo out. After all, they are get $1,000 for that baby and they already have our money :mad:

Dennis

Budget_HT

05-13-2004, 07:15 PM

Originally posted by stevel
Yes.

Thank you!

stevel

05-13-2004, 07:53 PM

Originally posted by BlankMan
Steve, what's Seven hundred seventy-three, zero? Those are today's counts. The first number keeps going up on an almost daily basis - I get it from the newspaper. The second I am certain never will. If you need a further hint, send me a PM.

BillPowers

05-14-2004, 07:12 AM

Originally posted by stevel
Those are today's counts. The first number keeps going up on an almost daily basis - I get it from the newspaper. The second I am certain never will. If you need a further hint, send me a PM.

I know, I know. The first number is the number of people who left ZKO since Compaq and then HP took over and Intel bought, and the second is the number of people HP is shooting for to reside there. Do I win?

bill powers

griffincherry

05-14-2004, 09:54 AM

Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. Glad I'm not the only one having this problem, but man is it discouraging to see how long this thread's been active with no real progress made.

I've had this same problem twice in the last month or so on an unmodified Series 1 with no multi-switch. I did not have this problem at all for the first two years I had the box.

The first time this happened both my Favorites and Channels I Receive lists were cleared. The second time, Favorites was cleared but Receive was set to all channels checked.

I've noticed a couple of things that I didn't see mentioned elsewhere. First, after each time this happened, I noticed channels I wasn't receiving before. Could very well be that I'd been receiving them all along and just didn't notice, but the first time seemed to correspond to WB (or was it UPN?) being added to my locals. After the second, I noticed I started getting NBC and CBS western feeds (which is weird, being in Boston) but not the easterns or either feed for other nets.

(As an aside, I thank the stars that those western feeds were there, because both last night's Survivor and the final Frasier were botched by this glitch, but I was able to get them off the western feed later.)

Even stranger, both times this has happened I noticed the TiVo running unusually hot -- in the low 60s (which even though it says "Normal" seems dangerously high to me). Generally it runs in the high 40s. I actually noticed an increase in fan noise starting a couple of days before the first zap. After the first occurrence, I spread out the shelves in my entertainment cabinet and kept the door open. This brought the temp back down to normal. A couple of days ago we cleaned the living room and closed the door again, and within a day we got zapped.

My HD10-250 supposedly arrives today, so I'll be moving this unit up to the attic where it gets much hotter. I'll see if that increases this problem.