Favorite channels disappear in TiVo Live Guide

[duanej]

Just to add my name to this long list, I've had it happen to my series 1 Philips 3 times in the last month, yesterday being the last time. I'm running 3.1.0c2. What a pain.

[Rcrew]

Originally posted by duanej
Just to add my name to this long list, I've had it happen to my series 1 Philips 3 times in the last month, yesterday being the last time. I'm running 3.1.0c2. What a pain.

Congrats on the 1000th post to this thread!

Kind of a dubious award... :(

[duanej]

Actually, I meant to say that I lost all my channels from 'Channels that I receive', but yep, it's getting kinda sad, isn't it. Any chance of this ever getting fixed?

[jamesbobo]

This hit me for the first time on Tuesday, Oct. 26. I see that this thread was started over a year ago. I have to wonder why this bug just got to me now, what took so long? I've had my unit since June, 2003.

[Doomed]

My problem isn't really losing (not loosing, thank you) favorites, but since other "channel not available" questions are being directed to this thread I'll post it here:

I just re-activated my SAT-T60 after having been out of the country for 2 years. I made a 4+ hour daily call and rebooted to update from 2.5xxxx to the current 3.1xxxx version. I made a second daily call and went through another 30 minute data update.

My problem is that all of my local channels are displaying the "Channel not available" message. I have called D* and confirmed that my local channels are in my subscription. The channel name and program info through next week show up in the guide, but not the channel itself. I spent over an hour with level 2 tech support, and their final answer was to let it wait 24-72 hours to download program guide info. I reminded them that I have guide info through next week, but she said I need to wait a few days before they'll do anything more.

Again, this is not a favorites lost issue, just local channels unavailable to watch. Has anyone else experienced this problem and resolved it?

Thanks in advance.

[BrettStah]

Originally posted by Doomed
Again, this is not a favorites lost issue, just local channels unavailable to watch. Has anyone else experienced this problem and resolved it?

Thanks in advance. Reboot.

[Budget_HT]

Reboot fixed my series 1 DirecTiVo (with the same symptoms as yours) and it has worked fine ever since (about 6 months). DirecTV tech support said they would replace it if it failed that way again.

[Doomed]

Yeah, it would have been nice if reboot had fixed it, but between the 3 technicians I worked with I rebooted about 5 times with zero success. In the end, I did a complete erase and then re-ran guided setup. After that the local channels were not available in the guide or anywhere. I called D* again and asked them to try resetting the local channels. A very helpful tech did something none of the others had done since the box started re-acquiring satellite data on its own instead of having me manually do it. At the end my local channels were available for the first time!

[JJA]

Don't know if this is the same thing.

I have a FOX waiver coming. I was told to keep watching for the change on CH385,386.

Went to "customize channels" to add CH385,386 to my favorite list. They are missing. I have 382, 383 (NBC) but no 380, 381 (CBS) or 385, 386.

They were all there last week. Resetup and reboot did not help.

Is this the same bug?

[stivovance]

Are the channels in your channels you receive list? and are they checked?

[JJA]

Originally posted by stivovance
Are the channels in your channels you receive list? and are they checked?

No, they are not in any list. I have all the Spanish, NFL, NBA, MBL, and many others I do not receive listed but not 380,381,385,386 (PBS 384 is still there).

I know there were there last week because I checked the FOX stations so I could watch for them to become active.

[Dirac]

Fox and FoxW are 388 and 389. Are you sure you're watching for the right channels to show up, or did I miss something in a previous post?

[boberonicus]

Hmmm,

Just lost favorites on my DSR6000 running 3.1.0c2-01-1-001. Bummer! Thanks to blankman for continuing to push this. Is the TivoOpsMgr still interested in this issue? Not surprisingly, it doesn't look like we've seen any progress on this over the past year. I would call DTV but I don't need to be told how to reboot.

Robert

[Tutman]

Blankman is long gone from this issue...D sent him new series 2 machines and didn't even ask for the old ones back. I'm still running C1, and both machines have yet to lose favorites. Ever since this problem started (I first posted to this thread in July 2003), I never went longer than about 6 weeks without this problem on at least one of my systems. It has now been several months with C1, and I'm convinced this problem is GONE!

The story is that they fixed this problem in C1, but C1 caused problems with the video stream locking up during low signal strength. They brought out C2 which reversed the "fix", and now this problem is back. I don't seem to experience the problem with the video stream locking up very often (happened once in the past 4 months), which is why I have chosen to stick with C1.

I suspect that D (or Tivo on their behalf) isn't working on this issue. Hopefully they know it is fixed in a version yet to be released, and they are getting it prepared.

If you (or anyone else) are experiencing the problem, call them every single time it happens. It will fall off their priority list if people don't keep pushing it to the top. After a few calls, demand free series 2 machines. Just don't let them play dumb, and don't perform circus stunts like "clear and reset". There are no fixes other than software fixes.

Tutman

[boberonicus]

Tutman,

Thanks for the excellent writeup and advice. I just lost all favorites AGAIN tonight. I was so irritated that I had my wife call D. The tech suggested decided that my DSR6000 was running out of hard drive space. We chose not to debate this. Frankly, I'm really glad I wasn't on the phone to hear that sage advice, my blood pressure's fairly high as it is.

She then told us to unplug for 15 minutes, which we did (20 minutes just to be safe) and that faves would return. They didn't, of course.

Frankly, I can't see how this call will help push this issue to the top of the priority list. After all, the tech "fixed" the issue and closed the case.

The tech had never heard of this problem. I made sure the error was logged in my account.

Cheers,

Robert

[kschoenberg]

Just happened to me for the first time. Turned on the machine and my Channels you receive is now gone. Not thrilled. I can see this thread is quite long and has been going on for quite some time. Will there ever be a fix? I mean other than buying another brand of DVR?

Sony T60 here...unmodified and nowhere near full.

[pcbuilder]

1

[pcbuilder]

nevermind, new here sorry

[MauriAnne]

::: sigh ::::

It happened again to me this weekend. I hadn't seen it in months, but it came back.

:::: sigh :::::

[agliofiore]

Hi. I'm new to this forum. Recently, a local channel (WB) disappeared from DTV; I rearranged TiVo scheduling manually for 3 weeks, until DTV and TiVo made the change official. I'm assuming this will happen again. After failing to ID the problem, DTV sent me 2 receivers, which, they claim, will move my local stations from the 900s to the lower channels. I haven't been able to hook them up, because DTV now uses a phone jack, instead of a serial port. After a week trying to find the cables with DTV, I finally found them on the TiVo website. I will change the receivers, when the cables are delivered, to see if this will help.

I'm posting here for 2 reasons: 1) Does anyone know if changing to lower channels (e.g., WB will show up on 39, not 918) will solve the problem of a channel disappearing, then reappearing elsewhere with no TiVo programming? 2) Is there anything new and helpful about this issue? Thank you.

[elitefunky2000]

This just happened to me twice in the last week. I lost all of my channels, so I rebooted, and all of my season pass info was still there, but nothing was recorded. i had to select "edit recording options", and then hit "continue with these options" for EACH season pass.

I called DTV and they said it was my card. They told me to pay them $20 for a new card!! I told them if they don't fix this, i'm switching to cable.....

RIDICULOUS!!! I JUST MISSED THE SEASON PREMIERE OF 24!!!

[ksanders]

I have not had this issue happen to me in quite a long time. I believe it has been since the latest 3.x upgrades.

[dwynne]

Neither have I, it has been a LONG time.

I wonder if "elitefunky2000" is running with no phone line connected and has missed the updates?

Dennis

[ksanders]

That is about all that I can think of that would be the issue here. I have a SAT-T60 with the problem. Unfortunately, I cannot upgrade it, because the modem was fried on the Tivo unit during a storm and I cannot get the TivoNet card to be recognized by this particular unit. I have TivoNet working on a different unit with no problems. The SAT-T60 will not boot with the card in there. :(

[cvarner]

My SAT-T60 has not experienced the problem since last summer.
Knock on wood...

[elitefunky2000]

my software version: 3.1.0c2

i hope this doesn't happen again......this sucks...:mad:

[Dirac]

I have had it happen once on my Philips since version c2. That's a lot better than before, but it seems it still can happen.

[Fish Man]

On one of my GXCEBOTDs:

Last week had my "Channels I Receive" list revert to all channels. Fixed that.

Last night I lost all channels, To Do list went to no entries (rebooted in time to record "Lost"! Whew!).

This is the first trouble of this sort I have had in a year or more.

So, just when we thought this bug was fixed....

It's Baaaaaack!!! :( :down:

[davemayo]

I just had it happen to me on my SAT-T60 a couple of weeks ago. The first time it's happened in the three years I've had it.

[TV addict]

It happened to me Wednesday morning on one of my 4 series 1 DTiVo's. First time since getting c2.

[elitefunky2000]

just got off the phone with extended technical support from directv. they said that they were having problems lately with their feed. i think that the problems cause the tivo software to get messed up.

they didn't say that there was a fix coming. :(

[bareyb]

I'm beginning to think they don't want to fix the problem. From a business perspective I can see the advantage to them to force folks to at least consider new channels. They know once you have locked in your favorites that you probably won't ever stray. Therefore any NEW programming or channels would never be seen by the vast majority of their customer base.

Anyway, call me paranoid (or call me a Cable TV business owner). Either way, I have my doubts that they want this fixed any time soon. If they did, they wouldn't be playing the "blame game" and avoiding the issue. They have intentionally put a lid on this. That's my opinion of course, but at this point I can't see any other plausible explanation for the secrecy and lack of action on this issue. As bad as they are, they can't possibly be this bad unless it's on purpose. Hey their strategy worked on me. I DID see some new channels that weren't there the last time I'd gone through them and I did manage to pick up a couple new ones that I added to my favorites. Hopefully, they might stay there for awhile, at least until DTV decides they need for me to re-choose them again. ;)

[spellow]

I have a new HR10-250 and it happened on it....twice in first week...but not since then.

[BrettStah]

spellow, this long thread is about a bug/bugs that are specific to the older first-generation DirecTivos. None of the Series2 DirecTivos, nor the HD-DirecTivo, are supposed to have this bug, unless I missed mention of it. Of course, you could be the first to report it, right? Lucky you! ;)

[cvarner]

spellow, can you describe exactly what happened on your box? I think it's important to determine if this is THE bug, or if it is something similar-but-not-exactly. This could be a huge issue if this bug has migrated to the HR10-250.
Thanks...

[bldxyz]

Originally posted by Fish Man
On one of my GXCEBOTDs:

Last week had my "Channels I Receive" list revert to all channels. Fixed that.

Last night I lost all channels, To Do list went to no entries (rebooted in time to record "Lost"! Whew!).


I've had both of these happen to me recently.

The "Channels I Receive" list reverts to all channels for me often. Just the other day, in fact.

The "lost all channels" issue happened to me just once, December 28 or so. That was a shocker! I'm glad I did a reset before I lost the recording of anything I cared about!

BTW, I'm using a Phillips Series 1 (DSR6000)?

I tried to read over this whole thread but it doesn't sound like there is a solution... True?

->Brent

[BrettStah]

The only true solution has been to get replacement Series2 DirecTivos.

[eroseme]

Another data point: The "lost all channels" problem happened to my Sony SAT-T60 last night at about 6pm PST (Tue, 1/18/05). My receiver has the phone line connected and makes all daily calls.

Note that I can duplicate this at will by leaving the receiver tuned to a music station. If I come back the next day, it will have the "lost all channels" problem.

Sorry - I have not read the full thread, so I may be missing details.

Note that my HR10-250 also has a (non-related) re-occurring problem like this, with similar customer failure rate, and DTV exhibits about the same level of concern.

[duanej]

I've also had the "lost all channels" problem happen once to my new HR10-250. Most annoying as it has happend to my older Series 1 box several times.

[Tutman]

Well, I sure hope the R10's aren't having this problem in wide numbers. I've been on this thread from almost the beginning.

This problem WAS FIXED in C1. However, it broke something else. They came out with C2 which reversed the change. I know this was fixed in C1, because I've been running C1 on both of my DSR6000's since July or August, and no problems on either unit since. Before C1, I could count on each system losing favorites at least every 6 weeks.

I finally jumped on the bandwagon to replace my old units. D is giving me $150 credit, plus 6 mo. showtime, and 6 mo. with $8 credit per mo. to go buy 2 new units. See the thread about getting $49 dtivo for free.

I'm planning on picking up a couple of R10's, and that is why I surely hope this bug is not back on the R10's. If it is, then a new thread should be started.

[gschrock]

Had the all channels disappear thing happen again sometime between wednesday night and thursday evening, noticed it before primetime stuff though. I need to seriously consider replacing my last S1 dtivo, although I kinda wish I could get a dsr704 to match what the other two I have are.

[killerdc]

I have NEVER had this happen. I have not had my TIVO hooked up to a landline since the day the guy came and installed it though. 15 months. The software that came with the machine seems to be working just fine. I was going to hook it up to a phone line, but this makes me leary.


EDIT It took my TIVO box 5 hours to update last night lol. It had not made a successful call in 456 days HEHE. It took 20 minutes to connect and then 390 minutes to update. At least thats what it said when I went to bed. I dont know if it helped anything, as I didnt get a chance to watch it this morning. IT had been running pretty slow.

[DouglasPHill]

I noticed this right away. Exclude the shopping channels from your list of channels and they mysteriously return on their own. Other excluded channels stay excluded. Come on DirecTv - stop this.

[Dirac]

That's a different issue. The shopping channels do not broadcast 24 hours a day, so when they go off the air and come back on, they automatically appear back in your Channels I Receive list. Some of the other channels do this too, but the shopping ones are usually the most noticeable culprits.

[ustewjt]

Alright ... it has happened again to me for the last time! I missed Survivor last night because my DSR6000 decided to once again reset and remove all but three channels. So I called the retention 800 number mentioned in the other thread and now I have two brand new Series 2 boxes scheduled to be installed on Monday (for free!). Hopefully, that will prevent this from happening again.

Is there any problems with the Series 2 boxes that I should be aware of? I guess I need to research the other threads for that information. My two Philips were great machines and I will probably keep them around for spares - I still have a Hughes DirecTivo in use for the kids. They tend to forgive the channel disappear problem more easily that I.

However I do owe it to this group for the opportunity to obtain two new boxes for free - just by asking!

Thanks, Tim

[ericlhyman]

I also had a problem the night of the season premiere of "24", which was not recorded. When I noticed this the next day, All "channels I receive" were gone from that list and "record by channel" was nonfunctional because the program guide was not showing the programs. Unplugging the next day solved the problem, but it happened again last Thursday or Friday and I lost 3 days of scheduled recordings. This happened with my Sony SAT-60. The problem did not solve itself after a forced daily call. Only unplugging worked.

It did not happen with my HD tivo on those two occasions. Is there a perhaps a correlation between when these events are happening for many of us? Is it connected to some software change or glitch of DirecTV or the program guide transmission? Could it be weather related?

[Dirac]

This happened to my Philips DSR6000R last week for what must have been at least the 12th time. Look at my signature for the solution I chose. I had the CC protection plan so I actually got money ($50 gift card) back.

[CharlieB]

Sometime between late Friday night and Saturday evening Favorites and Channels I Receive were hosed. Restart revived CIR, had to rebuild Favorites. DSR6000. Hadn't had the problem for a few months, and was hoping it was fixed. Oh, well... :(

[boberonicus]

Just happened again to me after four months of OK operation. Called DirecTV and they said it wasn't their responsibility to fix the problem, as the DSR6000 was out of warranty. They requested $50 for a Series2. I agreed to this as I'm getting tired of this problem and DirectTV has no interest in fixing it.

Robert

[kschoenberg]

Just happened here as well. I wonder if it's tied to something else that Direc may be doing...like adding channels, etc.

[cvarner]

Happened to me again Sat. Mar. 6. After the box had done a service data download, it was OK, but as soon as it did a GC update and inxed itself, BOOM. No favorites.

[Dirac]

Just happened here as well. I wonder if it's tied to something else that Direc may be doing...like adding channels, etc.

Throughout the whole thread, there are different hypotheses as to why this happens. That is one of them--something having to do with adding and removing certain channels. Another one is electronic countermeasures. I don't even think BlankMan follows this thread anymore, and I would imagine most people who had this problem, myself included, have given up and traded in for a S2 DTiVo.

[CraigHB]

I have an SIR-S4040R with S/W version 3.3.1e-01-2-381. It doesn't have any problems with "channels you receive", but drops my favorites on a seemingly daily basis. I've resorted to keeping a printed list and setting up my favorites before searching for programs to record every time . It's lame, but I don't have much of a choice.

Your sig says you have the same box with the 4.x software. How does one go about getting the newer software version? My box has been making its daily calls.

Thanks,

- Craig

[Cosmic]

It just happened to me, today, for the second time (last September also). I noticed there was a Service Data Download this morning, 3/10 @2:40am. I'm wondering if that's the problem.

It only happens on my DSR6000, not my two S2s. I have software version 3.1.0c2-01-1-001.

Its not the loss of "favorites" that makes this such a pain, its NOT recording because the channel is no longer in the guide. You never know when you'll sit down to watch something only to find out it wasn't recorded.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it seems to me that one way of getting everyone to drop their S1s is to "introduce" this type of behavior occasionally.

[John Silver]

Been happening to me on my Series 1 Hughes DirecTivo every day for the last week. Loosing channels I receive. It has always happened "every now and again" on both my Hughes and my T-60 (once a quarter or so), but in the last week, every day.

What is going on DirecTV?

[netringer]

Another me too.

Upon reading this I checked my Series 1 DSR6000. Yup. "Your channels have not been set up."

My service data download was at 2:33AM Saturday, which is likely when I got hosed.

Who woulda thunk that I would have better off if I hacked the DTiVo to reject updates? I hadn't got a round tuit.

I just added a third premium package online with DirecTV last night. After that I thought that I need to face reality and cut back on Season Passes since I can't possibly watch all of this stuff.


I think I'll call and tell them I'll be backing out the new service and scrapping this Series 1 DTivo if they don't fix this.

It wouldn't be so bad if setting the channel list was easier. You should be able to do from the program guide where you can see the channel name and the programming it has AND WHETHER YOU REALLY RECEIVE IT.

Maybe DirecTV and TiVo are already going for the Comcast-style STB brain damage.

In the meantime I'm getting more frequent sound pops on the Hughes HDVR2, even when it's parked at the Now Playing List....and I'm getting really sick of it not responding to the remote controls and the "Please Wait" clock for half a minute every time I bring up the Now Playing list. I hope that update fixes the Series 2..or !! For sure I won't be paying money for any more equipment.

[bldxyz]

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but it seems to me that one way of getting everyone to drop their S1s is to "introduce" this type of behavior occasionally.

I just can't believe that. True, it may be a motivation to not fix the problem with software in the older boxes, but I doubt it is done to deliberately convince people that there is a problem that can only be solved by buying new hardware.

They'd have to field a bunch of calls, which costs them money
Do they get the money off the hardware, or off the subscription? I think the subscription, for which there would be no new money.

[BlankMan]

This is still happening to others I see. Just curious, what is the latest software version for Series 1's? Especially T60's.

[alphawave7]

Back again. :( Documenting the loss of favs on both of my Hughes gxcebots...I s'pose DTV has added new channels again? :confused:

[pbolya]

After a little over a year without the bug yesterday my series 1 SAT-T60 has dropped all (except 6 I never watch) of the channels from the ALL channels list (Only Now playing functionality until reboot - nothing else). After reboot the channels and the schedule came back but the todo list was emtpty for a long time (I guess it needed indexing) and of course the CHANNELS I RECEIVE and FAVORIT channels setup was wiped out. This is not looking good. I am running 3.1.0c2 Is that the latest version ? Are there any more relases planned (e.g. 6.something) ? I am not plugged in to the phone line so it wouldn't upgrade on it's own.


Regards,
Peter

[tivoreno]

Same here this week on my Hughes gxcebots and yes, 3.1.0c2 is the latest sw for us Series1 holdouts. I guess that's the penalty for wanting fast(er) menus.

[duanej]

Happened again to my HD Tivo. Scheduled stuff wasn't recording, got the "Channel Not Available" message on all channels, and the System Information said that all 4 tuners were "unavailable" #!@#*@!@!@!!!!

[pbolya]

Wow,
I never had any problem with my HR10-250 I thought this problem is fixed long before 3.1.5 came out (for series 2 that is). However I do have a huge issue with my Series 1 Sony SAT-T60 (3.1.0c2). Almost 2 weeks ago I had this channels dissapearing issue (see post above). I rebooted and the channels came back. I thought everything is back to normal but 2 days after the incident I noticed that the TiVo is keep rebooting. The following days the reboots came closer and closer until a couple of days later the reboots became 5-15 minutes appart. Since I do not think my TiVo is pregnent I investigated the issue and I foung out that none of my hacks causing this but TiVo's sceduler task is failing and causing the TiVo to reboot. When the TiVo came up I killed the task 'Scheduler' and the TiVo was up and running without a reboot eversince. Unfortunately the scheduler task is responsible for checking my season passes and scheduling shows according to it. The shows scheduled runs out next Monday. After that my TiVo will become a glorified VCR as I have to schedule each show manually (even if the guide is filled out for the next 2 weeks).

Has anyone else experienced before? What did you do to fix it? I really think that it was caused by the same error made my channels dissapear (but I could be wrong). I think that there was an error put into one of my season pass or the guide database which makes the scheduler die. This error might be a leftover from the Channels dissapearing bug (but again I could be wrong). The error why the TiVo is rebooting is: Task (164) Scheduler died due to signal -2.

I have over 200 hours of shows recorded. I would hate to spend several days to download and reload all of these shows after a restore from 6 month ago. (I checked the drive and it is error free). Not to mention that maybe I also have to set up 70+ season passes again if the problem is in the season pass database.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Regards,
Peter

[Budget_HT]

pbolya,

When we had an SAT-T60 receiver going through a process similar to yours (frequent reboots, losing channels you receive, etc.) I called DirecTV (I am on their protection plan) and they offered to replace my series 1 with a series 2. They wanted me to wipe it clean and start from scratch before they would replace it.

It is my wife's TiVo and she wanted some time to watch her programs. We set up my series 2 to record her shows going forward while she watched the shows she cared about on the faltering series 1. When she was done, I did a full reset (can't remember proper term right now), clearing the entire machine. Surprisingly, it has worked fine ever since (over 9 months now). DirecTV did note on my account that if we experienced the failure again, they would replace the box. They had already replaced our other SAT-T60 after an obvious hard drive failure.

I recall reading that other folks were offered replacements (series 2 for failing series 1) even when they were not on the DirecTV Protection Plan. I interpret their actions as acknowledging a problem with the series 1 boxes that they have chosen not to fix. Their "fix" is to gradually eliminate the series 1 boxes.

I have never seen any similar problem on my HD Tivo, which I have owned since late April, 2004. Mine has never been replaced (probably because I have no means of using HDMI at this time).

[pbolya]

pbolya,

When we had an SAT-T60 receiver going through a process similar to yours (frequent reboots, losing channels you receive, etc.) I called DirecTV (I am on their protection plan) and they offered to replace my series 1 with a series 2. They wanted me to wipe it clean and start from scratch before they would replace it.

It is my wife's TiVo and she wanted some time to watch her programs. We set up my series 2 to record her shows going forward while she watched the shows she cared about on the faltering series 1. When she was done, I did a full reset (can't remember proper term right now), clearing the entire machine. Surprisingly, it has worked fine ever since (over 9 months now). DirecTV did note on my account that if we experienced the failure again, they would replace the box. They had already replaced our other SAT-T60 after an obvious hard drive failure.

I recall reading that other folks were offered replacements (series 2 for failing series 1) even when they were not on the DirecTV Protection Plan. I interpret their actions as acknowledging a problem with the series 1 boxes that they have chosen not to fix. Their "fix" is to gradually eliminate the series 1 boxes.

I have never seen any similar problem on my HD Tivo, which I have owned since late April, 2004. Mine has never been replaced (probably because I have no means of using HDMI at this time).Budget_HT,
I have no doubt that if I do and clear and delete my TiVo would come back to normal as it would wipe out all of the databases including the guide and my season passes. Unfortunately that method would wipe out my logos as well. In any way since I have a backup 6 monyh ago I am sure I can just restore that backup and my TiVo will work again. Unfortunately I do not think a DD from one harddrive to another would do any good as the harddrive has no errors.

I have over 200 hours of shows. we usually record 90% of our favorite shows on the HD TiVo and we use the SAT-T60 to record shows that we like but they are not a must see. Than when in the off season only repeats are showing we watch these shows instead. Watching off 200 hours of shows is out of the question especially that we need to watch our HD TiVo all the time as it fills up rather quickly.

When I have a chance I will delete all season passes and see if the sceduler works without them. Than add them back one by one to see if any of them breaks the Scheduler. This will take a while and might not work but the only other alternative is to download all shows restore from backup and upload all the shows back. That will take even longer and I need to get and I need to get about 200GB of harddisk space temporarily.

By the way I am sure I could make them replace my series 1 unit with a series 2 unit but I do not want to. I love my Sony TiVo. With the cachecard installed it is very fast and besides the software it is very reliable (not to mention that I installed a network plug on the back of it so I couldn't let them replace it even if I wanted it to).

You should feel lucky that you do not use the HDMI on your HD TiVo. I am on my second HD TiVo and I see the same signs of it failing as the first one. I got my first one late April too but the HDMI was starting to fail 2 month later. I tweaked it a little but it just got worse and worse and by November the hard drive failed too so it had to go back. Besides these the new unit also stops responding to remote control commands every now and than for a minute or 2 (although it always came back - others are not so lucky or patient.

Thanks for your reply though. It feels good to know that others had the same problem and it was not hardware related.

Regards,
Peter

[Budget_HT]

Peter,

I have actually followed (read) many of your posts over the last year or so, so I am somewhat familiar with your TiVo history (as posted).

I believe we still have and use the superior DVR product--both SD and HD. Perfect? No. Friendly, usable, reliable in terms of recording via Season Passess and Wish Lists? You bet! A few frustrating glitches? Yes, at times. But, I dare you to suggest to my wife that she give up her TiVo. Of course, you already know how that goes.

I have been reading a thread for the Motorola 6412 HD Cable DVR--the version with Microsoft application software being used only in Washington state. They have many frustrations with both the design and the performance of that product. Those who never had TiVo love it as the best they have experienced. Those who have used TiVo (typically SA TiVo) tolerate it as their only viable option (typically they are unable to get HD OTA reception).

I dread the day when we are told to start using a non-TiVo DVR (SD and/or HD). I am not anti-other products, I just don't believe that the newer products can come close to the more complete and mature TiVo products. I guess time will tell.

I defiinitely understand your frustration with the possibility of losing your library of HD TiVo programs.

[pbolya]

Peter,

I have actually followed (read) many of your posts over the last year or so, so I am somewhat familiar with your TiVo history (as posted).

I believe we still have and use the superior DVR product--both SD and HD. Perfect? No. Friendly, usable, reliable in terms of recording via Season Passess and Wish Lists? You bet! A few frustrating glitches? Yes, at times. But, I dare you to suggest to my wife that she give up her TiVo. Of course, you already know how that goes.

I have been reading a thread for the Motorola 6412 HD Cable DVR--the version with Microsoft application software being used only in Washington state. They have many frustrations with both the design and the performance of that product. Those who never had TiVo love it as the best they have experienced. Those who have used TiVo (typically SA TiVo) tolerate it as their only viable option (typically they are unable to get HD OTA reception).

I dread the day when we are told to start using a non-TiVo DVR (SD and/or HD). I am not anti-other products, I just don't believe that the newer products can come close to the more complete and mature TiVo products. I guess time will tell.

I defiinitely understand your frustration with the possibility of losing your library of HD TiVo programs.
Budget_HT,
I should be a millioner from TiVo commitions as I can not count how many people I talked into buying a TiVo. I have put off buying an HD TV for 3 years as I knew that no picture quality would make me watch TV without TiVo. I am just said how poor D* did with the hardware quality of the HR10-250 but do not think for a second that I would gave up this faulty box for anything else than a better (by that I mean Sony) HD D* TiVo. I am hoping that D* will not force us to replace our TiVo's with there PVR (although I am sure they will). But this post is not about my HD TiVo it is about the Sony SAT-T60 which is still one of the best D* TiVo's out there.

Anyway here is what I did: I backed up my season passes and than run "delete all guide, season pass and ToDo data". Not Clear everything as that would get rid of my Logos and maybe my shows too. Than after a day and a half (after the guide filled in enough) I added all of the season passes back manually one by one (with the exception of the shows masrked as cancelled/ended by tvtome.com). The only season pass I could not add back was 4400 as there are no repeats for the show right now.

It is now running for 2 days without a glitch and the ToDo list looks OK. Also I see a huge speed increase too (maybe with all the garbage accumulated in the last 3 years gone the whole database now fits into the 512MB memory of the cachecard or it just does not need to swap that much). Also as a result I gained 9MB space in my VAR partition (That one I can not explain) and 12GB of more Disk free space (I guess it deleted all the teleword and DVR showcase data collected through the years). So finaly all is well.

It was just bugging me why this happened and as I was investigating I found something that may or may not caused this. All of my season pass data in the mfs database looked ok with one exception. The FSID for the USA channel for the show 4400 does not exist in the channel database!!! I do remember that they had a problem with USA a while back and they changed to a new channel FSID causing me to miss several episodes of Monk. Could it be that this whole issue was because they removed the old channel from the database thinking that noone is using that dead channel anymore? I tried to restore that season pass from my backup but the program realizes that the channel do not exist and does not letting me restore that show without pointing it to the new USA channel FSID.

[Budget_HT]

Peter,

I am not as far into manipulating our TiVo boxes as you are, other than using the limited features and functions provided with the products.

One interesting coincidence (maybe?): On her SAT-T60, my wife records several programs from the USA channel, including Monk when available. Maybe our episode with the SAT-T60 was somehow also related to the USA mess.

I too have "sold" a fair number of SA and DirecTV TiVo's. If we were offerd $25 commisions on each, I could have almost paid for my HR10-250 with them.

Anyway, glad to hear your SAT-T60 is performing well right now. Like I said, after everything was reset, we have not had any more problem with ours.

[LacyinTX]

Please forgive me for not reading the entire 54 pages of this thread. But from what I have read it seems that most folks are losing their entire favorite channels list. Is anyone here losing just single channels willy-nilly? A few days ago there were two channels missing from my favorites list. I added them back. No big deal. Then today there were 12 channels missing. Is it just going to keep getting worse until they are all gone? I just don't look forward to spending 15 min everyday adding back channels. I called the place I bought my Hughes SD-DVR40 from and they don't have a clue. I really don't want to call DirecTV. They are no help on other issues, why would this be different? :rolleyes: But if they have anything useful to tell me, I will call in.

Any help would be appreciated.

Lacy

[eengert]

I have an R10 with 6.1. First time I lost any favorites was this weekend - lost about 10 channels. No clue why, and this hasn't happened before.

[Dirac]

Hey, I just noticed this problem this weekend on my bedroom receiver! I thought it might have been shutting the power off, but maybe it's more widespread.

Perhaps this deserves a new thread, as it now appears to be occurring on Series 2s??? :mad:

[johnfl]

I also lost about ten channels from my Favorites guide....A couple of them were, Travel Channel, FX, the Nik channels, and Speed Channel...I have 3 R 10's with 6.1
I lost them over the weekend.....No known reason either i.e. no power problems....Glad it wasn't just me (I think)

[cvarner]

After seeing these recent posts, I went and checked the favorites list on my SAT-T60 and at least 6 channels had been removed from my Favorites list. A few of them are: MTV.MTV2, HGTV, Discovery Kids, and 2 or 3 Music Choice channels. It seems to be random. Strange. If I get some time this week, I will call DirecTV tech support and see what they say.

[Fofer]

If I get some time this week, I will call DirecTV tech support and see what they say.

They'll tell you to reboot the receiver.



:rolleyes: :o

[LBCABob]

This has just happend to me on both receivers (a Series 1 and a Series 2) - just Channel 5 was dropped. Thought I was crazy or something. Now I know it's the unit.

How about a NEW sticky thread to track how badly DirecTV / TiVo handle the problem this time around?

[tbone526]

I also lost several channels sometime around the weekend on both my D* TiVo's. Sounds like a lot of the same channels others lost, such as FX, NIK, and others.

I was able to reprogramm both lists, so it wasn't fatal, just annoying.

On a side note: it would be great if you could see the channel description while you're selecting the favorites for the channel list. I've found myself flipping back and forth between the selection menu and the guide to determine exactly what I want to keep. This is much easier once I discovered that after hitting Live TV from within the selection menu, I can get right back into it by hitting the Left arrow. Had these things almost two years now and didn't know Left arrow takes you back to where you left off on the TiVo menus....

[j0hnW]

Just got bit by this bug tonight on my T-60 (3.1.0c2-01-1-011). Lost all but five channels in both "Channels You Receive" and "Favorites". Plus, I missed all my scheduled shows today(Internal Error:4 and No longer in Schedule Data). #$@% !!

Did a reboot and all the channels reappeared. While it was extremely annoying to have to re-configure all the channels, I was relieved to see that my 43 Season Passes were still intact. That would have been a serious pain to reconfigure/remember those.

I've now got my fingers crossed that I won't see this problem again for another few months, and that my T-60 won't suffer the "creeping reboot" problem suffered by some others.

Tonight I'm not feeling the love with Tivo. Sigh.

John

[Phantom Gremlin]

Tonight I'm not feeling the love with Tivo. Sigh.

John


Okay, I haven't read back to the beginning of the thread. But I don't think the recent posts blaming TiVo are correct. I lost the same channels myself.

Here's what I think happens.

For some MORONIC reason DTV temporarily drops channels like MTV, then adds them back fairly quickly if not immediately. When this happens the TiVo drops them out of the favorites (because they disappeared from the overall list of channels).

Just to make it clear, I'm talking about channels like MTV and MTV2. I remember distinctly that those were among the dozen or so I lost from my favorites. I'm not talking about how ALL or MOST of the favorites disappear.

I don't think the TiVo behavior is a bug. Yes, TiVo could be a lot smarter and attempt to notice that the channels were previously in favorites and then put them back into favorites when DTV adds them. But, sheesh, why should they have to do that??? The bug is in DTV dropping them, why should TiVo need to workaround that???

[john-duncan-yoyo]

Okay, I haven't read back to the beginning of the thread. But I don't think the recent posts blaming TiVo are correct. I lost the same channels myself.

Here's what I think happens.

For some MORONIC reason DTV temporarily drops channels like MTV, then adds them back fairly quickly if not immediately. When this happens the TiVo drops them out of the favorites (because they disappeared from the overall list of channels).


FWIW my old RCA DirectV reciever w/o TiVO lost a few channels as well. This is a problem of the channels being dropped and added back. A simple reset took care of this.

[Manic_D]

I had this just happen to me a couple of days ago, too. It's a Samsung S4040R. I lost 20-30 channels. Some of the ones I remember were MTV, MTV 2, HGTV, some Music Choice channels, Nickelodeon, FX, & a bunch more that I don't recall.

[eengert]

Some of you mention a reset...are you saying that we don't have to manually add the channels back to our lists? We just have to reset the box and the lists are back to the way we had set them up previously?

[jon777]

Similar losses here, HGTV, NIK, MTV, MTV2...

[BJBBJB]

Here is a series 1 directivo lost favorites update.
It happens often enough I almost don't want to reset the favorites up, but I do... This time I SAW what caused them to disappear. It came up saying it just HAD to connect to the satellite to get updated info.... You know the 25%....50%.... etc. etc. with the little colored circles.. Anyway, it tried like 3 or 4 times and finally it made it to 100%. When it went back to guide... no channels. All favorites were gone. I changed the guide to "all channels received" and everything showed up. But of course favorites are gone.

How hard can this be to debug and fix after a year????!!
O yeah, I have 2 units, and there is no rhyme, coordination, or apparent reason when this happens with each one.
I am sure after I get over it I will key them back in and they will stick for like 2 months again...

BJBBJB

[cvarner]

Some of you mention a reset...are you saying that we don't have to manually add the channels back to our lists? We just have to reset the box and the lists are back to the way we had set them up previously?

Doing a reset will restore the "Channels I Receive" list, but you must add back the "Favorites" list manually.

[BJBBJB]

Is this reset a hard "unplug, let sit, and plug back in" reset or a reset off the menu. I don't want to lose season passes, etc. just to get the channels I receive back correctly. Now I think it just thinks I receive everything..

BJBBJB

[cvarner]

You can reset it either way. You DO NOT need to do a clear and delete.

[cvarner]

For the record, I just lost my favorites again today, 6/6/05.

[unclestinky]

I have a Philips (DSR-6000?) Series 1 Tivo/DirecTV, and this has happened to me several times in the three years we've owned it. Just happened a few days ago, in fact. I've taken to keeping a list of my channels on my PDA just to save time in re-setting the guide. THIS IS BULL!!!

I can't recall if it was Tivo or DTV, but one of their CSR's admitted that the disappearing channel list occurs about every two months. They had no guess as to when and if a fix might be available.

PS. Just spoke with DirecTV. Their official line is that the Series 1 Tivo's are unable to receive the software updates that corrected this disappearing channel problem.

Their initial remedy was to exchange our Series 1 for a current, refurbished unit with the same 35 hour capacity for $49. Problems is, we upgraded ours a year ago to 135 hours.
They then offered to upgrade us to a new 70 hour unit for $49 + $14.95 shipping, with installation. Hmmm...

[unclestinky]

For the record, I just lost my favorites again today, 6/6/05.
My channels disappeared on the same day as CVARNER. Anyone else?

[dwynne]

My channels disappeared on the same day as CVARNER. Anyone else?

Mine were gone on 6/7 . I mainly use the HDTivo so I had not looked at the SD DTivo for a day or two, so it is POSSIBLE they went on 6/6.

In my case this time I lost the favs AND all the channels - the black screen with "channel is not available". You do the sat test and had a strong 99 signal. Just reboot and all the channels come back, but I had to re-do favs again. I missed some recordings since the channel was not available or "program was removed from the guide" or whatever the wording is.

I think I am on 3.1c, I have not phoned home on that box in several months - since switching to VoIP telephone. I just got PPP going so I do have it PPP'ing home when I want it to, so maybe I can get the newer software?

Dennis

[JackS]

I lost some local channels from the Favorite Channels lineup last month.
This month some channels I don't receive were added to the lineup.
I noticed this problem occurred more often after the v6.2 s/w upgrade.

I phoned DTV customer service to get a solution. Three calls and over
90 minutes later, I spoke with a tier-2 technical person. They said
that the solution was to reformat the hard drive. This act returns the
unit to it's factory condition, losing all recorded programs and season
passes, etc.

While I had the tech on the phone, I bent his ear with regard to the
misnamed "Channels You Receive" lineup. When I see those three
words, I am expecting DTV to automatically show only those channels
which I pay for and receive a signal on. This is not the case, as you
all know. DTV knows which channels I receive, so why can't DTV
fill in the "Channels You Receive"?

It's only been a few days since the reformatting of the HD. So far
there's been no more modification to the channel guide. Probably
too soon to tell for sure. I'll monitor this and report back.

-Jack
Hughes HDVR2 35hr.

[JackS]

Over the weekend I noticed that some shopping channels were
added to the 'Channels You Receive' list. I specifically remember
removing those (and other) channels from that list and now they
are back.

Phoned DTV customer service to let them know. One suggestion
was to use the Parental Controls to block those shopping channels
from ever appearing in the list. When we got to the part where you
set up a password, I stopped them cold. I do not need another
password to remember to not see a shopping channel on my TV.

I asked to speak with a supervisor. And I told them my story.
They said that noone should have suggested reformatting the HD.
The latest solution is to replace the old satellite receiver box with a
new one. An R10 was installed yesterday at no cost to me. Wow.

Will continue to monitor the situation. Hopefully this is the fix.

Jack
DirecTV R10 70hr.

[stivovance]

I lost mine on my s1 hughes either late on 6/20 or early 6/21. CYR and Favs were gone, rebooted had to reprogram fav channels and go into all my season passes and massage them by saying change record settings and then just saying okay for my todo list to re-populate as I had only 35 mins before a scheduled recording was to take place. It's been about a year since this happened to me, but still annoying.

[bldxyz]

AAAZAARRARAGRAGRAGRGGGGGG!!!

This just happened to me for the first time: I turned on the TV, and it said "channel not available"... pressed the "guide" button, and saw NO CHANNELS. Having recalled that others in this thread had solved this with a simple Restart of the receiver, I did that, but it seems to be taking it's sweet time in repopulating the To Do list.

How long should that take?

It happened today between 6:30pm PST and 8:30pm. Can I expect this to happen more and more? If I bitch and moan, will DTV do anything? Am I hosed because I have a Series 1, Phillips DSR6000, now feeling really dumb for having bought a lifetime subscription (back when the monthly was $10)...

[Budget_HT]

Your lifetime subscription stays with your DirecTV account, not any one specific DirecTiVo box. This was changed when DirecTV took over these accounts from TiVo Inc.

I have a Sony SAT-T60 series 1 box that periodically has its favorite channels and channels you receive go away. I decided to relegate it to recording childrens program for when my grandkids come to visit (often). We have an HD TiVo and a series 2 DirecTiVo (SD) that are handling our programs for now.

When I asked DirecTV (I have the protection plan) about a replacement for the ailing series one box, they said they needed multiple documented occurrences before they would replace the box. SO, be sure to report each incident to DirecTV to build your case file.

[JackS]

After a hardware upgrade this problem persists. A shopping channel (QVC) and
a contemporary christian music channel were automatically added to the Favorite
Channels list. I know that I took QVC out, and the only music channel I selected
was the bluegrass channel.

DTV explained that the shopping channels go off-air from time to time. When they
come back on-air, DTV thinks it's a brand new channel and adds it to the list.

I told them that this is not acceptable. After waiting on hold a while, DTV said that
adding and deleting channels was a known problem. There is no solution at this
time. DTV is in the process of developing a solution.

-Jack
DirecTV R10 70hr.

[Fofer]

I guess the explanation is sound, but the receiver thinking a "new" channel should automatically be marked as "Favorite" is the bug that should be addressed.

(Not to mention, a channel that's "dropped" and soon thereafter re-added back identically shouldn't be seen as "new.")

[pbolya]

I guess the explanation is sound, but the receiver thinking a "new" channel should automatically be marked as "Favorite" is the bug that should be addressed.

(Not to mention, a channel that's "dropped" and soon thereafter re-added back identically shouldn't be seen as "new.")
Fofer,
most of the times they change the channel number too. I added DirecTv schedule to my standalone so I can look up shows from all rooms even if I can only watch some of them from the living room. My standalone TiVO use to send me mails all the time about DTivo channels added and removed and there are a couple of channels keep poping up with changing the channel numbers back an force. I think D* do not care as they probably get paid a lot to look the other way (or even to do this for them). As long as they do not loose subscriptions because of this it will never be fixed. This is not a bug it is a loophole.

Regards,
Peter

[tivojenesis]

I have two new Tivo boxes (one a new Humax DVR) connected to one-year-old DirecTV receivers by infrared. I lose all but local channels on these two DTV receivers several times a week. Have to unplug the DTV receiver and wait, then plug back in and wait while it reaquires channels.

DirecTV sent out a "technician" who shrugged and said he didn't know what caused it. I have lost many hours of scheduled programming, and DirecTV's only other solution was to sell me two new receivers for $30 each plus $14 handling.

I talked them down today to two receivers for $30 total and no handling fees. It's the best they would do. I wonder if it will even solve the problem?

-tivojenesis

[dpbnj]

Chalk up another one on the list of people with DirecTivos loosing Favorites. I have 3 old Series 1 units, all running 3.1.0c2. They all started with the problem in the prior release. 3.1.0c2 may have made it less frequent, but all 3 have lost favorites since the upgrade as well.

[cvarner]

Lost my favorites again yesterday (7-21-05). Received the famous "This channel guide is not set up..." message.
Called D* to see what they could do for me as far as replacing the Sony T-60.
After much wrangling, I got them to send me a 70-hour R10 for $99. plus $15. shipping. And, they will credit my programming fees by $20 per month for 6 months, so my net cost is zero. WOO HOO. I'm really going to miss my Sony Tivo box, though. They don't want the Sony box back, so if I don't like the R10, I guess I can put it in the closet and hook up the Sony again.

[Joeymojo]

I think it's appalling that this is a 2 year old issue and still going.

Nearly new R10 (under 1 month old) and I can't keep the shopping networks off my "Channels you receive" list. I'll delete them from the list, and within 24 hours they begin creeping back. Left alone for a week and about 10-12 channels will have reappeared, including some PPV and DTV channels that I could care less about.

[seymouru]

Different problem. When a channel is deleted from D*'s master list, and is then added back in, it will reappear in your own list, even if you deleted it earlier. They delete and re-add some of the shopping channels intentionally, just to make sure you can't delete them for long. I think D* has a deal with those channels to do that in order to maximize the number of viewers. So there's no point in deleting them manually, since they'll just keep showing up. Annoying as hell, but not much we can do about it.

[Joeymojo]

Great, so it's not a bug, it's just bad design...

So now I just have to move all my channels to favorites and switch the guide over to that?

[seymouru]

Great, so it's not a bug, it's just bad design... Not bad design, bad business practice. They've intentionally designed the process to prevent you from deleting certain channels for very long, so they can charge the providers more by ensuring that more viewers get their channel.

So now I just have to move all my channels to favorites and switch the guide over to that?Personally, I just leave them in my lineup, and ignore them.

[Fofer]

Not bad design, bad business practice. They've intentionally designed the process to prevent you from deleting certain channels for very long, so they can charge the providers more by ensuring that more viewers get their channel.


I seriously doubt that.

[hefe]

I'm not sure what the incentive is, but it's no accident that all the stupid shopping channels re-add themselves after I delete them from the Channels I Receive...It's only certain channels...

[Fofer]

It has something to do with these channels being deleted and re-added, sure. But I don't think it's a sinister deal or some form of collusion between DTV and the shopping channels.

It's just a combinations of bugs... the biggest being that the receiver doesn't allow the prefs to "stick" when an identical channel is re-added.

[hefe]

It has something to do with these channels being deleted and re-added, sure. But I don't think it's a sinister deal or some form of collusion between DTV and the shopping channels.

It's just a combinations of bugs... the biggest being that the receiver doesn't allow the prefs to "stick" when an identical channel is re-added.
Maybe, maybe not...but then it begs the question, why is it just those channels? They are not new. They don't need to be readded. Other channels that I remove don't re-appear as these do...

[JackS]

I think it's appalling that this is a 2 year old issue and still going.

Nearly new R10 (under 1 month old) and I can't keep the shopping networks off my "Channels you receive" list. I'll delete them from the list, and within 24 hours they begin creeping back. Left alone for a week and about 10-12 channels will have reappeared, including some PPV and DTV channels that I could care less about.


I've had this problem for a long time. DTV has yet to provide a solution.

One of their suggestions was to block the shopping channels you dislike
with parental controls. (I didn't actually try this, it seemed a little over the
top and I don't need to remember another password to NOT see another
shopping channel on my tv.)


Shopping channels have not been added to my Favorite Channels for a
month or two. I have had some resorting (by title) of the programs I have
saved with the DVR. I prefer to see them sorted by date and in folders,
so I've had to reset that at least twice since I got the R10 unit.

-Jack
DirecTV R10 70 hr.

[cvarner]

I have NEVER had channels added to my Favorite Channels list other than those added by me. This "bug" has removed some or all of them several times, though. The Channels I Receive list is mysteriously modified all the time.

[lofgren_l]

FYI -
I've had my DSR6000 TIVO now for several years. I've had only one earlier problem and was able to recover from a dead drive with the generous help of this forum. This problem happened to me tonight so I logged in and have been reading all 2 years worth of communications for a while and just wanted to let you know what I did to correct.

I noticed under the system info that the internal temp was reading 60. I switched the unit off and removed power for about 30 min - 1 hour and then rebooted. All seems to be back to normal so I'm thinking that this is a temperature issue and am gonna look into testing/ replacing the cooling fan. When the unit was switched back on temp was back to a more normal 48.

I do not believe that this has anything to do with the 3.1.0c2 software as it has been working flawlessly since my drive repair which was long ago.

just my 2 cents.

Hope this helps.

[unclestinky]

We upgraded our DSR6000 a few months ago; the warranty is long expired; and neither Tivo nor D* seem to be willing or able to fix this annoying problem.

Has anyone heard of a hack that can be applied to fix it?

[Fofer]

We upgraded our DSR6000 a few months ago; the warranty is long expired; and neither Tivo nor D* seem to be willing or able to fix this annoying problem.

Has anyone heard of a hack that can be applied to fix it?

Well, this hack doesn't "fix" it, but it does allow you to easily mark "channels you receive" as well as "favorites" ... and then take a snapshot of those settings:

http://geocities.com/mindrover_st/ChannelPrefs.html

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=222248

This way if the settings ever get forgotten you can easily "restore."

[p26963]

I just lost all of my favorite channels for the first time in around 2 years or so. I have the R10 unit. Very frusterating. :-/

[lieutenantglorp]

This bug always catches me off guard after I've long forgotten about it. Sometime before tonight for example when my highest priority season pass among others failed to record. :mad:

[extension 721]

I am certian this problem DOES occur when software updates happen. Anyone sending in info also take note of the software version. It may happen at other times but I KNOW it happens when dirrerent DTIVOS get an updae at different times based on zip code, programming, and Dtivo MODEL#

[DanB]

I just lost my channel list today (10/06) for the second time in appx two months (the last time was the first time it ever happened).

This is on an old DSR6000 Philips unit, currently running software version 3.1.0c2-01-1-001

Looks like the data loss is tied to either the data call or GC, both ran on 10/6 in early morning, before my next scheduled recording at 10am (which did not occur).

Data call was 10/6@2:31am GC was 10/6@3:25a

[pigvig]

I have a Sony SAT-T60, which has now lost the Favorites about 5-6 times this year. The last one occurred this morning. I also noticed a service data download, which I might assume is not a coincidence.

[thorntons]

Up front I apologize if I am posting to the wrong thread but I have been searching and searching and have come to the conclusion that this thread may be my best option. I have posted here in error please be kind and let me know where to post to. :)

I have DirecTV and came home tonight to see that they have changed my local channel line up. :( Now all my locals run from 880-896. Originally my NBC channel had been 900 now it has moved to 888. Here’s where the problem comes in. My TiVo (Series 2) DVR does not yet have the newly changed channels listed in the guide. So tonight when my TiVo was supposed to tape a local show it changed to the old local channel and recorded nothing (since it’s not a blank channel). I can use the TiVo remote and change the channel to the new local channel and watch the show but the TiVo box isn’t getting the new channel in its lineup. On the Guide I have it set to view “Channels I Receive” so it’s many listed there. Just not 880-896. I have connected to TiVo’s service (3 times via broadband), powered off/on my TiVo box, powered off/on the DirecTV box. I have gone into TiVo Central – Messages & Settings – Settings – Channels – Channel List and if I look for 888 it’s not listed there. I have even gone through resetting up the channel list by hitting enter on that screen saying it was the wrong channel list. But still no local channels listed. I am trying to force my TiVo to update itself and get those channels added in. If I don’t I will miss many tapings since almost all my recorded shows are local channels. :mad: Any ideas or advice? It’s greatly appreciated!

~thorntons :) :)

[Budget_HT]

Thorntons,

It sounds like you are using a combination of a stand-alone TiVo with an older DirecTV STB. The newer DirecTV STBs map the local channels from the satellite channel they broadcast on to a familiar local channel number (like SE5 for Seattle channel 5, which is tuned in on the STB simply by selecting channel 5).

You may have good reasons for not getting a DirecTV with TiVo DVR, but if you had one, you likely would not have this problem at all. Plus you would get two tuners and higher quality recordings for a lower monthly fee (unless you have a lifetime TiVo subscription for your SA TiVo).

That said, you can call or email TiVo with the channel lineup changes so they can update their channel lineup accordingly. I would guess that, over time, there are fewer and fewer people with your combination of equipment, so they may not even be aware of a problem yet.

Even if you don't want a DirecTiVo unit, if you upgraded your DirecTV STB to a newer vintage, you might end up only having to tune in by a channel number equivalent to what you receive OTA with an antenna.

Then again, I could be all wrong here, and if so, someone please bring me up to speed.

[thorntons]

Thorntons,

It sounds like you are using a combination of a stand-alone TiVo with an older DirecTV STB. The newer DirecTV STBs map the local channels from the satellite channel they broadcast on to a familiar local channel number (like SE5 for Seattle channel 5, which is tuned in on the STB simply by selecting channel 5).

You may have good reasons for not getting a DirecTV with TiVo DVR, but if you had one, you likely would not have this problem at all. Plus you would get two tuners and higher quality recordings for a lower monthly fee (unless you have a lifetime TiVo subscription for your SA TiVo).

That said, you can call or email TiVo with the channel lineup changes so they can update their channel lineup accordingly. I would guess that, over time, there are fewer and fewer people with your combination of equipment, so they may not even be aware of a problem yet.

Even if you don't want a DirecTiVo unit, if you upgraded your DirecTV STB to a newer vintage, you might end up only having to tune in by a channel number equivalent to what you receive OTA with an antenna.

Then again, I could be all wrong here, and if so, someone please bring me up to speed.


Budget_HT...You are correct that I am using a Stand-Alone TiVo & it could possibly be a older DirecTV STB (it's my roommates) but there's no need for me to have to purchase anything as you suggested. I called TiVo support & explained the problem & the TiVo support tech informed me that DirecTV indeed planned a channel line up change for channels other than my local channels. I reported the local channel change & he put in a service request for DirecTV to look into it. I looks like DirecTV forgot to inform TiVo that they were going to be doing a channel change. I called Thursday night and by Sunday I had the channels listed in my guide. I can now record shows w/o having to manually set the time, channel, etc. Just wanted to let you know.

~thorntons

[Budget_HT]

thorntons,

That sounds like a pretty quick response to me.

When we had similar guide data problems with local digital channels appearing in the DirecTV Advanced Program Guide for our area, we had to report the problems to Zap2It.com and they had to work with the local TV stations and DirecTV to get things straight. That process took several weeks to complete, but all has been well ever since (for nearly 2 years now).

Glad all is working for you now.

[BJBBJB]

Don't even know if this data is still helpful.
I was watching a show (which was also being recorded) and the other tuner was recording a show. A screen popped up that said the unit HAD to acquire information from the satellite. It said I could do it now, and watch something from the now playing menu. It was near the end of the show so I watched it OTA, and let it do it's thing....25%, 50%, etc. etc....

Anyway, when it was done, I had "No channels" i.e. I had to switch to all channels as my favorites were gone. Note, this is BEFORE I rebooted the unit. Then, in all channels, I no longer had my local channels.

Long story short, had to call, had directv zap my unit...re-booted and locals and all others were there. Then I reset my favorites till the next time.

Directv said they were aware of the favorites problem and were working on a fix. Of course she was absolutely clueless as to what had ocurred and kept trying to tell me they had not downloaded a software update to my unit (which of course I KNEW) and there just had to be something wrong wtih MY UNIT!

Anyway, I said thanks, I was fine and went away.

I did notice that the XM channels were in all channels. Since they were not in my favorites to begin with I do not know if that is what forced this download or what (it is about one week since they debuted, right??).

Anyway, that's my story...
BJBBJB

[cvarner]

I had several of the old Music Choice channels set up in my favorites, and after the change to XM music, those Music Choice channels were gone from my favorites list. I had to go in and set up a few of the new XM channels in my favorites list. No big deal.
I finally gave up on the favorites issue and replaced my Sony T-60. The new machine's menu navigation is slower and I liked the Sony remote better, but otherwisse it's OK.
DirecTV replaced the Sony with a new 80 MB box for free ($99. cost minus $99. programming credit), so I can't complain much.

[BlankMan]

This is amazing, it's coming up on 3 years now when the this problem first occurred for me (it was a few months before I started this thread) and it still isn't fixed.

This thread has got to be setting some kind of record here at TC as the longest running active thread I bet.

What's really sad is that in 3 years they can't figure out how to fix it. I'm truly starting to suspect that they are never going to fix it (by choice) and are waiting for it to go away by the fact that the hardware having the problem will go away by replacement.

I can't fathom any other scenario, in 3 years you can't identify the cause and correct it?? I guess if you're not tying or don't want to you can't....

[Fofer]

DirecTV replaced the Sony with a new 80 MB box for free ($99. cost minus $99. programming credit), so I can't complain much.

80 MB? How much can that thing hold, like 6 minutes of video? I'd complain...

:o

[lieutenantglorp]

Got hit again. Sometime between midday friday and midday saturday. Over three months of uptime, I guess I can't complain. :rolleyes:

[Budget_HT]

80 MB? How much can that thing hold, like 6 minutes of video? I'd complain...

:o

Chuckle, chuckle!

We have lived with a pair of 40 GB DirecTiVo's for years, each with a capacity of about 30 hours. The Sony SAT-T60 (I still have one) only came with 40 MB, although many folks upgraded or added HDD capacity well beyond that.

My Sony was losing its channel lineup about once every 8-12 months. If it happens once more, DirecTV (protection plan) has agreed to replace it. So, of course, we have gone more than a year since the last failure.

[john-duncan-yoyo]

Chuckle, chuckle!

We have lived with a pair of 40 MB DirecTiVo's for years, each with a capacity of about 30 hours. The Sony SAT-T60 (I still have one) only came with 40 MB, although many folks upgraded or added HDD capacity well beyond that.

My Sony was losing its channel lineup about once every 8-12 months. If it happens once more, DirecTV (protection plan) has agreed to replace it. So, of course, we have gone more than a year since the last failure.
Shouldn't that be GB? Although I do remember the Apple III a friend had with a massive 4kB hard drive.

[dwynne]

Got hit again. Sometime between midday friday and midday saturday. Over three months of uptime, I guess I can't complain. :rolleyes:

Me too. I am using HD DTivos mostly now, but still grab some SD stuff on the old SD DTivo. I went to check for something I knew was coming up on a favorite and found I no longer had any favorites - and all channels were now "channels you receive".

Dennis

[Budget_HT]

Shouldn't that be GB? Although I do remember the Apple III a friend had with a massive 4kB hard drive.
Yes, it should be GB. Thanks, I'll correct it.

[Fofer]

Yes, it should be GB. Thanks, I'll correct it.

Hence my initial joke to cvarner, he got it wrong too.

[Budget_HT]

Hence my initial joke to cvarner, he got it wrong too.
Wow!

His 80 MB went right by me, I did not even notice it was not GB.

I guess we "read" what we expect to read sometimes instead of reading literally.

I will try to get more sleep to be more awake and more observant.

BTW Fofer, I really appreciate your contributions in the Mac thread.

[eroseme]

Here is a new discovery for those who may still see this. My HR10-250 has never had this problem. My SAT T-60 has gone at least 6 months without seeing it. I used to be able to duplicated it by leaving the tuner set on a music channel. I now use a scheme on my HR10-250 of scheduling a manual recording every night on each tuner to set a default channel to 582. This leaves each tuner on a non-recording channel and the menus go nice and fast (until you tune to an HD channel again). Anyway, I decided to set this scheme on the SAT T-60 too, and immediately I had the favorites gone on 3 straight days (reboot recovers). So it would appear (for me) that tuning the SAT T-60 to non-ordinary channels and leaving it can induce the favorites-disappearing spell.

[Alecp]

I just had what happened to Blankman in post #656 happen to me... all of a sudden it stopped recording, then went to a "satellite info" screen and got the same message "the recorder must re-acquire information from the satellite".... then it starts to go to 100% but fails after getting to a random %-age (sometime 60%, sometimes 95%, etc).

It says I can view some channels but not all - I go to the guide and get "this channel list has not been set up". I'll try a reboot and see what happens. Too bad this is on my main Tivo and not on the 'backup'... at least it's sunday and I'm home! Missing recordings would be really annoying...

Edit: ok, got it back up and everything looks normal. Just had to re-add my favorite channels. (after re-booting) Annoying... and at least it happened while I was at home, so I didn't miss anything...

[yani_m]

I have a problem that might be related. I always remove shopping channels from the channels I receive list. I never use them, and if I need to, I can see them by changing the guide to all. BUT some of them keep coming back! For example, I keep having to remove 228 GEMS from the channels I receive! Is this a DirecTV gimmick so I will HAVE to see those channels? Anybody else have a problem like that?

[seymouru]

This is a well-known pattern, which is likely due to a business deal that DTV has with the shopping channels, to guarantee that viewers can see them. They pay DTV a nice sum to get on the channel lineup, and DTV prevents viewers from deleting them from their CYR list for any length of time. The only way to keep them off your CYR list is to manually delete them whenever they show up again.

[phox_mulder]

I have a problem that might be related. I always remove shopping channels from the channels I receive list. I never use them, and if I need to, I can see them by changing the guide to all. BUT some of them keep coming back! For example, I keep having to remove 228 GEMS from the channels I receive! Is this a DirecTV gimmick so I will HAVE to see those channels? Anybody else have a problem like that?

Yep.

Every other week I go through and make sure the Channels I Recieve are the ones I actually care about.
I'm constantly getting rid of PPV channels, Sports pak channels (MLB, NCAA, NFL, NHL, etc), and shopping channels.

D* is either adding them (sports pak, PPV) or in the case of shopping channels, moving them around perhaps, or just putting them back in after they've been removed.
GEMS is one I remember getting rid of a couple times.

phox

[dwynne]

Just as a point of reference, my Philips lost it stuff one day last week. I mostly use a pair of HD Tivos to record stuff now, but still have the old Philips DTivo recording a few things in SD. The last show it got was on Thursday night of last week (April 6) so I know it failed sometime between then and Sunday when I checked it. Like it has done before every channel was blank and not available. Recordings were missed since the "listing no longer in the guide". A simple reboot fixed it. We did have strong storms with lots of rain and wind on Friday - there was a thought at one time that a weak signal condition could cause this.

Dennis

[dthreet]

Well if you did a clear and delete it will loose logos. You can wait till DirecTV does a update, However you prob get gray hair waiting and have a lifetime of off spring. Otherwise if you and got some spunk you can your 90 day directv warranty by taking the hard drive out and loading PTVupgrades get them back plus all kinds of addons. If you get stuck on welcome powering up. Call DTV and be like i am stuck on powering up. You cant say thats a lie cant say that's a lie.

[BJBBJB]

I am not certain that DirecTV even cares that this is still happening...

However, I can verify that the last software upgrade to cause favorites to go away. Both of my Series 1 units received the 3.5 software upgrades a week apart. They BOTH lost their favorites after the upgrade.

It is bad enough that this happens between software upgrades. It is an insult that a software upgrade also causes it.

Does Directv even still consider this a bug or is it now a feature? I mean this was so obvious, this HAD to happen when they were testing the software upgrade??

BJBBJB

[rminsk]

However, I can verify that the last software upgrade to cause favorites to go away. Both of my Series 1 units received the 3.5 software upgrades a week apart. They BOTH lost their favorites after the upgrade.The loosing of the favirotes during the 3.5 upgrade is in the release notes.

[Budget_HT]

Didn't every software upgrade result in losing favorites?

[BJBBJB]

Went back and dug up the notes on the release and see that favorites are indeed lost during 3.5.

I could live with losing them during the upgrade if losing your favorites is fixed going forward (i.e. between software upgrades). But I have not seen that is the case.

They go away on both of my machines every 3 months or so....That isn't from software upgrades.

BJBBJB

[ck42]

Just had this happen to me today on my DTiVo S1, for the first time ever.
What a PITA.