HDMI FAILURE Poll - EVERYONE please respond [Text View] - Page 2

pbolya

08-29-2004, 10:55 PM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
Again, just the snow is normal DVI resolution coordination stuff. You'll see this more with a DVI switch.

Only when this is coupled with solarization, pink, and blanking out, is it an HDMI failure.

Snow alone is sort of normal with HDCP/DVI/HDMI. That is what I am hoping for and the reason why I sad there maybe a software fix after all. However I have the unit for 3 month now and the HDMI went out after 2 month of use. I fixed it with the spacer a month ago but I never had a problem where the snow did not disappear automatically after 1 seconds. I tried everything even putting the unit back to standby but nothing worked until I changed the resolution to 480i when it was magically fixed and no problem ever since. I just have the constant feeling that the HDMI will eventually go dead and even a hammer will not fix it anymore.

Rcam10

08-30-2004, 12:24 PM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
Again, just the snow is normal DVI resolution coordination stuff. You'll see this more with a DVI switch.

Only when this is coupled with solarization, pink, and blanking out, is it an HDMI failure.

Snow alone is sort of normal with HDCP/DVI/HDMI.

Yes, but what happens when the connection is going off/on very quickly on that HDMI card, that causes a confused communcation problem, and it can end up causing show. I've see snow quite a lot when the ones I've messed with were acting up.

I also don't think anyone has actually proven its just the card itself. I've heard one case where the card was changed from a good unit an it worked, in this thread someone said it didn't. Its unlikely someone would damage a card just by unplugging it and switching. Too me, it still acts like a problem where the two connects, along with maybe a frequency type problem in tha area also.

I mean it can be really really sensitive to motion and then again it takes hard force to bring it back on.

The most amusing part is they aren't addressing the problem yet at all, I'm sure one of the reasons probably is the fact so many don't use HDMI yet, so I know that is causing less to come back for repair.

pbolya

08-30-2004, 03:23 PM

Originally posted by Rcam10
Yes, but what happens when the connection is going off/on very quickly on that HDMI card, that causes a confused communcation problem, and it can end up causing show. I've see snow quite a lot when the ones I've messed with were acting up.

I also don't think anyone has actually proven its just the card itself. I've heard one case where the card was changed from a good unit an it worked, in this thread someone said it didn't. Its unlikely someone would damage a card just by unplugging it and switching. Too me, it still acts like a problem where the two connects, along with maybe a frequency type problem in tha area also.

I mean it can be really really sensitive to motion and then again it takes hard force to bring it back on.

The most amusing part is they aren't addressing the problem yet at all, I'm sure one of the reasons probably is the fact so many don't use HDMI yet, so I know that is causing less to come back for repair. I doubt that the problem is with the card itself. I think the problem is with the mother board and how the card is attached to the mother board. It could very well be a frequency issue or in my case seams to do something with the metal pin wich is as I learned has nothing to do with securing the card to the mother board. But than what is it used for? In my tests when the pin touched the card's circuit board the picture went out.

cocoon

08-30-2004, 03:30 PM

I called DirecTV earlier today. I am just tired of testing their product for them. Its obvious to me that this product shouldn't of been on the market til they got the bugs out. Does a $1000 product bring better odds of it functioning correctly apparently not if your DirecTV. I told them I wanted my money back so they are sending a "recovery kit" they said should arrive in 2 weeks so I can send back the defective units. Maybe when they get the bugs out of these HD Tivos I will look into but this whole incident has really soured me on DirecTV.

jlas75

08-30-2004, 03:48 PM

I hear you. I actually considered cancelling DirecTV and going with Comcast. Frankly, you get a lot more bang for you buck in HD programming with cable (Comcast) in my area (Philadelphia) than you do with DirecTV. And, I'm sure Comcast will have an HD DVR that works soon.

ericlhyman

08-30-2004, 04:41 PM

The third unit I received as a replacement was manufactured in Mexico on July 7, 2004 and has no problems with HDMI or the hard drive.

videoholic

08-30-2004, 07:07 PM

I just received my replacement Tivo and it was DOA.

2 questions.

DO I get to keep the remote?

Does anyone have a good phone number to call to fast track to the second layer of tech support? I waited for 1:20 last time.

MrCoolDu4

08-30-2004, 09:28 PM

I told them I wanted my money back so they are sending a "recovery kit"

What is a recovery kit ???

cocoon

08-30-2004, 09:39 PM

I guess "recovery kit" is just their terminlogy for RMA for customers who want refund.

AbMagFab

08-30-2004, 10:20 PM

Now that's jumping to conclusions...

Perhaps he misunderstood, and it's a "Discovery kit", from the Discovery channel? That could be neat.

Or maybe he thought you had fertility issues, and it's an "Overy kit".

Instead maybe he was attracted to you, and it's a "Loverly kit".

It might be because you talked quickly, and it's a "Deliverly kit".

It couldn't be because he thought you were bright, and it's a "Cleverly kit", could it?

videoholic

08-31-2004, 09:39 AM

Does no one have a good phone number for advanced tech support?

AbMagFab

08-31-2004, 09:50 AM

Originally posted by videoholic
Does no one have a good phone number for advanced tech support?

Based on your other e-mail, why do you want this number? It takes like 15 minutes to get a replacement if it died.

jcmartz

08-31-2004, 07:52 PM

Thought I'd add a few observations to the HDMI failure thread; please excuse me if this has been posted before in this thread.

My first HR10-250 didn't support HDMI out of the box (USA box, April 04). I thought this was a problem with the DVI input on my Samsung (specifically, HDCP support).

I just hooked up my second HR10-250 to support an older plasma display without HDMI/DVI input (Aug 04 USA box). On a hunch, I plugged this box into my Sammy DVI input, and it works great! (greatly improved picture, as well). I opened both boxes, and noticed that the HDMI cards were different in each. Specifically, the newer card has "2004" printed on the trailing edge, as well as some other nomenclature differences. To avoid swapping hard drives (I've upgraded my first box), I just swapped the HDMI cards in both boxes. The original unit with the newer HDMI card now works great.

I would conclude that the problem is most certainly with the HDMI card and that swapping a new card into the older unit works fine. I also noted that my other box works fine without any card installed. If we could convince Hughes to ship replacement cards, that seems a simpler solution than sending your whole unit back. The card-replacement is plug-n-play if you have the right torx screwdriver.

Hope this helps,

Joe Martz

milo2

09-01-2004, 01:25 AM

First HR10-250: Mexico, July 10, 2004. Solarization appeared after about four days of use. Gradually worsened. Next day screen was blank, and machine refused to boot if HDMI cable was inserted.

Replacement HR10-250: Mexico, July 18, 2004. Solarization right out of the box. DirecTV sez their entire computer system fell over tonight, so no resolution until tomorrow at least. [Er - pun not intended.]

Crossing my fingers about jcmartz's comment above. There's pretty clearly a mechanical issue with the connector on the older cards; here's hoping they've fixed it!

AbMagFab

09-01-2004, 08:18 AM

Originally posted by jcmartz
Thought I'd add a few observations to the HDMI failure thread; please excuse me if this has been posted before in this thread.

My first HR10-250 didn't support HDMI out of the box (USA box, April 04). I thought this was a problem with the DVI input on my Samsung (specifically, HDCP support).

I just hooked up my second HR10-250 to support an older plasma display without HDMI/DVI input (Aug 04 USA box). On a hunch, I plugged this box into my Sammy DVI input, and it works great! (greatly improved picture, as well). I opened both boxes, and noticed that the HDMI cards were different in each. Specifically, the newer card has "2004" printed on the trailing edge, as well as some other nomenclature differences. To avoid swapping hard drives (I've upgraded my first box), I just swapped the HDMI cards in both boxes. The original unit with the newer HDMI card now works great.

I would conclude that the problem is most certainly with the HDMI card and that swapping a new card into the older unit works fine. I also noted that my other box works fine without any card installed. If we could convince Hughes to ship replacement cards, that seems a simpler solution than sending your whole unit back. The card-replacement is plug-n-play if you have the right torx screwdriver.

Hope this helps,

Joe Martz

I believe that's what Hughes is doing when they get the machines back. Most consumers can't replace a card, and opening the box voids the warrantee.

So, ship the box back, they replace the HDMI card, then they reship it to someone else.

John_D

09-01-2004, 10:03 AM

I can't respond to the poll because I don't know where the 2 units that I returned were manufactured.

Both were manufactured in July 04 and in the same shipment to my local Best Buy. The first one worked out of the box and then developed the pink and blue screen after 2 days. The 2nd one had no video at all so I got my money back. Other than the failed HDMI port the units were great and I miss it already. I'm thinking about trying to find it from another retailer in my area.

I had mine hooked up to a Sony Grand Wega III 42" LCD. The SD output over the HDMI port acutally looked very good. I'm not sure how to word this correctly but it seemed that the 480i output was a closer match to my display's native resolution. There was very little "stair-stepping" on curves that can be caused by line-doubling. The component output was definitely not as good on SD but was very close on HD.

gbohn

09-01-2004, 04:06 PM

Originally posted by TonyM
Same here.

Also, it seems to only happen if I turn off the TV. I have a new JVC D-ILA 61" set and if I leave it on all day, the worst that will happen is the shading effects, like compression artifacts. However, if I turn the TV off, or change the input for more than a couple hours, chances are great that I will have audio, but Snow for picture.

I have had the Directv HD Tivo since the first units were shipped out back in mid April, and mine has been working perfectly (with two different Mitsubishi TVs... one old one and a new DLP) until i got the new JVC D-ILA 61" TV about a week ago.

After about a week of working fine, now for two consecutive days, when I turned on the TV fot the first time that day, I was getting "no signal" from my TV via the HDMI output. If I unplug and replug my box, it works fine again. Today, when I turned on the TV, I see snow, alternating with a full green screen. And now, a reboot does not fix the problem.

Could this be a compatibilty issue with the JVC? Or is it a coincidence that my problems have started since I got this new TV?

gbohn

09-01-2004, 04:35 PM

wow, i called DirecTV, and within just a few minutes, they said they would send me a new receiver... they first tried to send me a new HDMI cable, but I told them the problem is not in the cable, it's in the receiver.... we will see if the new one works better.

For all of those others having HDMI problems, does a reboot or power on-off solve the problem temporarily?

gbohn

09-01-2004, 05:32 PM

oh, by they way, my failure was on a unit made in USA April 28 2004

videoholic

09-02-2004, 06:09 AM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
Based on your other e-mail, why do you want this number? It takes like 15 minutes to get a replacement if it died.

Well the other message was from when I finally found the number.

My original time was 1:20... I called 3 times before that over a half an hour each time but had to drop.

So again, thanks to the member who posted the number in the other thread.

odys

09-02-2004, 10:41 AM

My first HR10-250 died last week after about a month and a half. They shipped out a replacement, which I received yesterday and the HDMI didn't work at all right out of the box. The way the box looked after arriving from Fedex, I'm not surprised it didn't work.

I called the second tier service number to activate and got a totally clueless CSR. When I told her my HDMI connection wasn't working, she asked me if I was using the red, green and blue cables. Aaaaarrrgh! I knew I was in for a long, painful ride. Little did I know what was to come.

As clueless as she was, she knew enough to pass me on to someone else. The next guy at least put in an order for another replacement right away. How much did he know about HDTV? Only slightly more than the other CSR. When he had me plug in the component connections to see if the box worked at all, I had to tell him that the HDMI connection had to be removed before the component would kick in. "Oh, yeah, that's right" he said, trying to cover his lack of knowledge.

Now comes the best part. He asks if I have a picture. I say yes. I hear him start typing. Then nothing but background noise. I figure he's working on the order for the replacement, so I settle in front of the PC and start playing poker while I'm waiting. Still nothing but background noise. How long can this possibly take? After 15-20 minutes (no kidding) I ask how much longer this is going to take.

"Oh, you're done," he replies.

"What? You've got to be kidding me! When were planning on speaking to me?"

No confirmation number for my replacement and he didn't even activate the new box so I could at least watch it through the component connection until the next replacement arrived. He insisted I was activated, which I wasn't. He hadn't asked for my card number, serial number or any other activation info. Time to speak to the supervisor. After several minutes on hold, I'm disconnected. I call back, get a supervisor who knows wtf he's talking about and get everything done. He researches the history of my previous call and it turns out the first CSR was logged into the wrong computer profile and wasn't qualified to answer a tier two service call and neither was the idiot she transferred me to.

I did get the supervisor to admit that they were having extensive HDMI problems with these units (really!?!) and that their people were working feverishly to correct the problem. He also said that there should be no problem with the new unit. So the HDMI problem will be solved by the time my unit ships tomorrow, I think to myself, but don't say anything. We'll see what happens with the new unit.

mfleming

09-02-2004, 10:52 AM

I know this is slightly off-topic, but it is related to DTV support. I'm a former Pegasus customer that they begged to switch to them for better service. HaHaHa! Service was great with Pegasus. Now, Pegasus customers can only order PPV movies over the phone. Ive used it three times. First time, they said the order was done, but the movie never started; when I called back the office was closed! Second time, okay, after 20 mintue hold. Third time, 40 minutes hold, which casued me to miss the movie!

CSRs are understanding and say DTV isn't very concerned about getting Pegasus records integrated into their PPV ordering system soon. Guess they are too busy replacing HR10's!

An, oh, my HR10 HDMI never worked either. Not buying a new one until I hear they have fixed the problem, or until a competitor comes out with one.

AbMagFab

09-02-2004, 12:25 PM

Can't you order with your remote?

milo2

09-02-2004, 03:11 PM

Originally posted by odys
I did get the supervisor to admit that they were having extensive HDMI problems with these units (really!?!) and that their people were working feverishly to correct the problem. He also said that there should be no problem with the new unit.

Huh. The 2nd-tier CSR last night wasn't as optimistic, but he admitted he hadn't been briefed on the latest happenings. There are apparently customers who've gone through 4 or 5 of these boxes and still don't have a functional HDMI port.

MrCoolDu4

09-02-2004, 04:23 PM

I have contacted DTV for dead HDMI's, and both of the replacement units they've sent are dead right out of the box. I dont know what to make of this, I haven't even called to activate the one that showed up yesterday. I see no point to replace a bad unit with another with the same problem. So as for me i'll be going on number four. Sheesh.

panic 66

09-02-2004, 04:57 PM

Originally posted by gbohn

Could this be a compatibility issue with the JVC? Or is it a coincidence that my problems have started since I got this new TV? [/B]

gbohn,

Same problem here. I had an HLP5063 for a couple of months that I returned for 52" D-ILA. Within a days of hooking up the JVC my Tivo's HDMI started acting up. I thought it was just coincidence since so many were having the HDMI issues. Had a replacement sent out and it reacted the same way. Had a second replacement sent out and it definitely had an HDMI issue since I was getting the solarized picture and it would react to pushing on top of the box and wiggling the cable. Sent that box back and kept the second one hooked up via component. At first I still thought it had to be the Tivo since the box seemed to be locked up when it lost the HDMI connection and would not respond to the remote or buttons on the front panel. I called JVC about another concern with my D-ILA (greenish glow in lower corner). I also mentioned the Tivo HDMI problem that seemed to coincide with the D-ILA purchase. Believe it or not JVC flew an Engineer from San Diego to Denver to look at my set. The Engineer said that the HDMI issue is being looked at and they have an HD TIVO in Japan that they are testing as we speak. They are replacing my set this week. I plan on keeping the Tivo hooked up via component and using the HDMI for a Denon 1910 but I would also like to know if I need to get a new Tivo once the HDMI issue is corrected. At this point I guess we still do not know for sure if it is related to the set but it seems like a strong possibility. Sorry for the long post!

grafals

09-02-2004, 06:18 PM

I know I'm gonna regret doing this, but . . . my replacement HR10-250, made in Mexico, has been going strong now for 30 days. The first one was DOA. I sure hope I'm not ginxing myself! (Knock on wood, pinch of salt, rabbit's foot, crossed fingers, is there anything I'm leaving out?)

gbohn

09-03-2004, 10:20 AM

Originally posted by panic 66
gbohn,

I also mentioned the Tivo HDMI problem that seemed to coincide with the D-ILA purchase.

The JVC website has a FAQ under Service and Support... here is what they say for the DILA TVs:
Q. My television shows snow, lines and sometimes no picture when I connect the TV to my set top box via HDMI.
A. There might be a compatibility issue when using certain HDMI equipped sources. To remedy this situation, a relatively simple update to the HDILA TV set is available. As the update requires installation of a component, it is highly recommended that the update be performed only by a qualified professional from a JVC authorized service center. To obtain the name of your nearest JVC HDILA authorized service center, please call (800) 252-5722 or click on the Service Center Locator tab.

I am going to try this

paul01463

09-03-2004, 10:45 AM

I received a replacement HR10-250 from DirecTv yesterday (shipped by second day air, not overnight as committed to in their support agreement, but anyway). Within 2 hours of installation, video from the HDMI port started to pixelate and then display the dreaded pink-hughed picture. Toggling resolution did not help. Further, the unit started to emanate a high-frequency whine - drove the dog out of the TV room, which is a first. The whine sounds to me like a hard-disk about to crash.

I brought the unit out of standby this morning only to find the HDMI port completely dead and the whine even louder.

So, I called the good folk at DirecTv, and they wanted to step through the whole trouble-shooting procedure. Finally, they agreed that I might have a defective unit, but insisted that they could not send more then one replacement unit within a ninety-day period. So, we went through the support agreement and they finally agreed that no such limitations exist - and set up a shipment for a second replacement unit (holding breath). And so it goes.

I started this process at 0600 this morning and finally hung up the phone at 0930 - what a way to run a railroad.

gbohn

09-03-2004, 10:58 AM

i have no idea if the problem is in the TiVo or in my JVC TV... it is clear the problem is only with HDMI output. There are the arguments for the problem being with both units:

DirecTV HD TIVO arguments:
- the problem is corrected with a simple unplug/reboot
- when the problem is occuring, if i switch to component cables and try to press some buttons, the TiVo box freezes up

JVC DILA TV arguments:
- the problem only occurs when turning on the TV for the first time... it never just goes out on me while I am watching programing

Is anybody more technical than me that could possibly explain this? If there is a compatibility problem between the two units, could it cause both units to behave strangly like this??

lawnmowerdeth

09-03-2004, 12:04 PM

Well, I've saved up enough to get the new receiver, but after this thread, I'm not sure I really want to deal with it. But I really really want my HD NFL!

gbohn

09-03-2004, 01:37 PM

I just talked to a guy at JVC. He said the problem is likely a compatibility issue with the TV set, NOT a problem with my DirecTV HD TiVo box. JVC posts right on their website that there are known compatibility issues with HDMI devices .. .and this is one box that they are having a lot of problems with. A simple hardware fix on one of the boards on the TV set will likely remedy the problem.

I think the reason people are having multiple problems with multiple HD TiVos is because it is NOT THE BOX THAT IS THE PROBLEM... many TVs probably are the source of the issue. And since 90% of people buying these new HDMI TVs are using the HD TiVo box, it tends to get blamed on the receiver. Instead of looking to see who is having problems with boxes produced in Mexico or US, or the dates... we should post a poll asking what model of TV people are using that are having problems.

paul01463

09-03-2004, 09:43 PM

[snip] I think the reason people are having multiple problems with multiple HD TiVos is because it is NOT THE BOX THAT IS THE PROBLEM... [/B][/QUOTE]

Your observation maybe correct in some instances, but with my installation, the display's HDMI interface and cable work perfectly with three other manufacturers' products connected to it, but does not work with either of the two HR10-250 units I have tried to date. This would tend to indicate that display's HDMI interface is functioning correctly. Further, the problem grows worse over time and can be corrected for a short period of time by replacing the HR10-250, which again would indicate that the HR10-250 is the culprit

grizzlyt

09-03-2004, 10:39 PM

I just got mine and hooked it up to my new Sony KF-60WE610. First day the HDMI picture looke like what your computer looks like in safe mode. Basic colors. Now I get no picture. Works fine with component outputs.

I purchased online from Circuit City. They told me to call Direct TV. I talked to Direct TV for 1 1/2 hours today. Got to the second service level and they first said they never heard of this problem. After telling them I know they have had issues I was placed on hold for about 10 minutes. They came back and said there is an issue with the chip on the board coming loose during shipping. Said I had to go to Circuit City. I'll go there tomorrow and see what I kind of help I can get.

Does anyone else have my model TV to confirm if the HDMI should work?

beaster

09-03-2004, 10:51 PM

Originally posted by grizzlyt
I just got mine and hooked it up to my new Sony KF-60WE610.

...

Does anyone else have my model TV to confirm if the HDMI should work?

I have a Sony KF-42WE610 (same thing, only 42" instead of 60"). My HDMI worked great for the first 3-4 weeks then died, so yes, it should work fine w/your TV if the HDTivo is functioning properly.

-Sean

AbMagFab

09-04-2004, 08:37 AM

Originally posted by grizzlyt
I just got mine and hooked it up to my new Sony KF-60WE610. First day the HDMI picture looke like what your computer looks like in safe mode. Basic colors. Now I get no picture. Works fine with component outputs.

I purchased online from Circuit City. They told me to call Direct TV. I talked to Direct TV for 1 1/2 hours today. Got to the second service level and they first said they never heard of this problem. After telling them I know they have had issues I was placed on hold for about 10 minutes. They came back and said there is an issue with the chip on the board coming loose during shipping. Said I had to go to Circuit City. I'll go there tomorrow and see what I kind of help I can get.

Does anyone else have my model TV to confirm if the HDMI should work?

I've got the 50" version, and it works fine.

Again, symptoms of an HDMI failure are:
a) Solarization
b) Pink saturation w/ solarization
c) Blanking/snow with (a) and/or (b)

Just blanking/snow does not indicate an HDMI failure. It might be one, but the actual failures show symptoms of (a) and (b) first. If you don't see this, it's possibly a cable problem, or something similar to the JVC TV compatibility problem noted above.

grizzlyt

09-04-2004, 10:12 PM

Well, went to Curcuit City today. Explained my bad HDMI. Because it is within 30 days they said sure bring it in and get a new one. Of course they don't have the box in the store so it has to be shipped. I'll let you know how the second box works.

Glad to hear there are other people with my tv model that the box works on.

Dead President

09-06-2004, 09:24 AM

After reading this forum, I insisted on a replacement from DirecTV and they FedEx-ed a refurbed unit, twice. I have two HR10-250s and so far I've had 2 DOA HDMI on arrival and 1 dead (wouldn't power up) after a month. I still need to send my last one back for the bad HDMI, but that makes 5 HD Tivos to get 2 good ones. I have a Mitsubishi 52" DLP and a 50" Pioneer Elite HD-1110 Plasma. If I didn't have multiple HDMI capable TVs and two DVRs, I don't know how I would have ever isolated this. I can't believe after all this that they are still shipping replacement units with bad HDMI outputs.

breevesdc

09-06-2004, 10:30 AM

I am an owner of two ReplayTV units. Love it. But can't hold out for their (seemingly non-existent) plans to provide an HD solution. I'm ready to make the switch, but I'm spooked by the HDMI problems reported here. Hope it gets resolved before the Super Bowl. I'll keep checking here. Thanks for all of the info and updates.

Brian

mfleming

09-06-2004, 10:40 AM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
Can't you order with your remote?

No. Previous Pegasus custmoers cannot order with the remote and there is no ETA when we can. It's phone only with up to a 40 minute wait to order.

Between this and the HR10, I'm getting ready to go to Dish Network and learn to live with their DVR instead of TIVO.

mfleming

09-06-2004, 10:58 AM

John Dvorak had a column in the 9/21 issue of PCMag about the Dish Network HD receiver/recorder. He loved it. I just emailed him about all the problems with DTV's unit and their support for previous Pegasus customers. If others email him (pcmag@dvorak.org) he might make a stink in his column and force DTV to do something. Here is what I wrote:

--

I read your 9/21 column today in PC Magazine about Dish Network. Relatedly, I knew would be interested in a HUGE problem that DirecTV is not admitting to.

They have a new Hughes box (HR10-250) that is a HD receiver/Tivo unit. It sells for $1,000. The problem is that the HDMI output does not work on a significant percentage of the units, forcing people to go to component video for an inferior signal. People are returning these en masse and getting bad ones again in return. People are pissed. DTV will not comment on the problem and the CSR's will not acknowledge there is a problem.

There is a very active discussion on this problem that you have to read to believe. It is found at:

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=183203&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

on the Tivo Community forum.

My case is like many. I purchased a $4,000 HD TV and then excitedly ordered the $1,000 HR10-250 and hooked it up. I spent hours trying to get it to work and then discovered the forum I linked to above to see that it was a faulty box. Now, I cannot utilize HD on my new TV! And, I won''t reorder a new box since it's such a hassle and I'm waiting for them to admit there was a problem and they have fixed it.

As all TIVO users, I cannot bear the thought of moving to a "ordinary" DVR without TIVO. It just doesn't have all the features like Season Pass and others.

To make matters worse, get a load of this! I am one of the former Pegasus customers that DTV sweet-talked into switching to them for better service. Now, I find that all former Pegasus customers cannot order a PPV movie through the remote or over the computer like regular DTV customers! I can only call to order and the hold time is often nearly an hour. There is no ETA on when this will be fixed and the CSR supervisor told me that corporate is in no hurry to fix this--they are too busy stealing Pegasus customers.

I hope you can use this in your column.

mfleming

09-06-2004, 01:03 PM

Dvorak just responded to me with a "very interesting..."

f2k

09-06-2004, 01:52 PM

Given the failure rate, it sounds to me like I shouldn't even consider upgrading the hard drive or modding the software on a HD unit for fear of invalidating the warranty. No HD HMO for me, I guess.

cocoon

09-06-2004, 05:32 PM

Originally posted by mfleming

To make matters worse, get a load of this! I am one of the former Pegasus customers. There is no ETA on when this will be fixed and the CSR supervisor told me that corporate is in no hurry to fix this--they are too busy stealing Pegasus customers.

Good letter to him other then the Pegasus part I would of just left that part out. I was former Pegasus customer. I have never been with more rude "customer service". They actually yelled at me on the phone and then when I asked for supervisor they just pulled the nasal trick to alter their voice.

I'm not praising DirecTV they are totaly incompetent in my view. I had ordered DirecTV from their 800# in June 2004. I was sure I wouldn't have to deal with Pegasus. On day of install after everything is setup the last step remaining is to get the machines activated they say its in Pegasus area. After an hour on the phone they just cancel the order and tell the installers to leave the equipment. The installers where angry of course because they don't get paid. It was extremely frustrating but at least I got free triple LNB dish and samsung DirecTiVo and no locked in contract. From all of that one would of been led to believe it was DirecTV going bankrupt not Pegasus.

All that said DirecTV is not "stealing" Pegasus customers. On August 27 DirecTV completed the purchase of Pegasus assets.

Would I like to switch to Dish or Voom absolutely if they had Tivo I would do that immediately!

--
3 defective HD DirecTivo and counting

wh0re

09-07-2004, 10:54 AM

Had my second in less then a week fail last night. Yay for Hughes and DirecTV!!! Yay!!!

****S ME RUNNIN

Fangarr

09-07-2004, 11:29 AM

I received my HD TiVo on Friday, hooked it up via HDMI and all seemed good, I thought I got lucky.

Saturday AM I turn on the TV and I have snow. Pressed Standby and got it all cleared up.

Saturday PM turn on TV and picture is black, Standby button/Remote/Front Panel do nothing. Pull plug on TiVo, and all comes back up fine.

Sunday AM, black picture again, pull plug again, and I start experimenting with the order that devices turn on to see it is maybe a sync problem.

Monday AM black picture, pull plug to get a picture.

Monday PM, green tinted picture.

Monday PM - returned to store. They offered me a replacment unit and I declined. I refuse to spend money on this box until this problem is fixed. DirecTV also said to me that had not heard of the problem, which is obviously BS.

Fangarr

mfleming

09-07-2004, 11:41 AM

Tivo and Netflix have a new agrement to deliver on demand movies to Tivo boxes. Does anyone know if the HR10-250 will work with this or will we have to wait for yet another box?

f2k

09-07-2004, 01:02 PM

Originally posted by mfleming
Tivo and Netflix have a new agrement to deliver on demand movies to Tivo boxes. Does anyone know if the HR10-250 will work with this or will we have to wait for yet another box?
Your HR10-250 is a DirecTV box, not a Tivo box. The HMO and TivoOS 4.0 strategies of Tivo and and DirecTV have been very different. It's highly unlikely this feature will make it to DirecTivos.

Of course, the nice thing for DirecTV would be relying on spare, off-peak satellite bandwidth to download your movie to you, rather than relying on a broadband internet connection.

Larry Chanin

09-07-2004, 02:44 PM

Hi,

I'm new to DIRECTV TiVo, but yesterday as I was browsing through the various options I noticed that DIRECTV was advertising a Starz on Demand option. I believe it was listed under their showcase screen menu. It appears to be just standard definition programming.

Larry

milo2

09-07-2004, 05:59 PM

Darn it. HDTivo #3 (Mexico, July 17), which appears to be a refurb unit from the condition of the TiVo and the remote's packaging, arrived with HDMI in early failure. I don't have time to arrange yet another swap with DirecTV, and at least this one generates a clean signal if just the right pressure is put on the jack.

Stay tuned for more adventures.

VicF

09-07-2004, 11:40 PM

Just bought my unit, Mexico, on Monday from BestBuy. Use component connection and am very happy with the unit. This after my 3.8 year old Toshiba DST-3000 lost several transponders worth of signal.

But can you believe the one thing my wife says is, where's the Caller ID ?

Slardybardfast

09-08-2004, 01:26 PM

Well, my 3rd hr10-250 just arrived and it is hooked up and running fine on the HDMI output. My first 2 units were DOA on the HDMI. IMHO, the HDMI problem is not due to TV imcompatibility.

I tried to switch the hard drives but I get error message #51 and instructions to call DirecTV, which I will not do. Has anyone had success transplanting the HD from one unit to another?

FYI, my TV is the Sony KP57WV700 57 inch purchased 2 years ago....beautiful performer. HDTV is awesome.

I can no longer watch TV without TIVO or ReplayTV. The amount of time that commercials consume is unbelieveable. I begin to watch a Football game 45 minutes after it's start and usually finish watching live, i.e. I saved 45 minutes of my valuable time.

odys

09-08-2004, 03:00 PM

Just received my third unit and it looks like it's working fine through HDMI, unlike my second one which was DOA. It looks like a new unit, like the supervisor on the phone promised me. We'll see how long it lasts. First one lasted about a month and a half. All three from Mexico.

AbMagFab

09-08-2004, 07:52 PM

Originally posted by Slardybardfast
I tried to switch the hard drives but I get error message #51 and instructions to call DirecTV, which I will not do. Has anyone had success transplanting the HD from one unit to another?

You can't. You need to do a clear and delete everything if you restore from one Tivo to another (which is effectively what you've done with swapping hard drives). The HD is soft-coded to the receiver S/N.

Now, if you modified the box, decrypted and extracted the content, you could have put it back on the new box. But it's too late now.

lemondjeff

09-08-2004, 09:40 PM

I purchased my HD-TiVo from Circuit City's online store. I already had a DVI cable running from my Panasonic TH-50PHD6 50" plasma through my built-in custom cabinet. It would have been a real hassle to run the TiVo's HDMI to DVI cable, so I ordered a DVI female-to-female gender changer. When it arrived, I hooked up the TiVo's cable to my existing DVI cable, and got no picture.

My local CC said I would need to return my existing unit to them and order a new one off their web site. I didn't want to be without a TiVo in the meantime, so I ordered another unit and had it FedExed to make sure I still had a chance to return the old one within 30 days.

It arrived today. I just unpacked the new unit and its power cord, and used the old TiVo's HDMI to DVI cable. I plugged it in, and got a picture right away. So, it's definitely not a cable issue.

The TiVo went through its boot sequence, then the picture disappeared. It booted up out of the box in 480i, so I switched the resolution using the button on the front panel. I got a picture again at 480p, 780p, and 1080i (it was at the setup screen). Also, the picture wasn't very clean, especially at 780p, I see a lot of pink snow.

I guess I'll return my first unit to CC, but I'm still pretty worried. Since this isn't really an exchange (since I had to buy a new unit first), I'm hoping my 30 day return window is reset. CC does say in their return policy that they reserve the right to limit the number of returns. What a hassle...

Jupiterhead

09-09-2004, 06:38 AM

Just opened mine and the HDMI is DOA. I don't see where it indicates the country of manufacture. It was made 8/4/4

My TV is a Sony KV34XBR800 - my Samsung DVD has been using the DVI input on the TV with no problems......... now I am trying to decide if I should wait before I get it replaced - (by wait, I mean more than the 45 mins I waited on hold last night to DTV!!!)

mfleming

09-09-2004, 08:30 AM

Is there not even one official word from DTV or Hughes yet on this fiasco?

I hope Dvorak uses my tip and publicly rips them a new one.

chip13

09-09-2004, 10:06 AM

Can someone make an educated guess at the failure rate of these things? I would like to know that before I buy one.

vonzoog

09-09-2004, 10:46 AM

chip13,

Take a look at the poll at the top of this page. Of course this is only people that read this forum, however, it can't be any less accurate than the polls used to tell us who to vote for.:D

odys

09-09-2004, 11:03 AM

As other people have mentioned earlier, the poll results are not perfect. I voted initially that I had No Failure. Well, I did eventually fail after the 2 weeks stated and I've had HDMI failure with a replacement too. So if I could change my vote, I'd be at Had Failure on More Than One Unit Made in Mexico.

chip13

09-09-2004, 12:27 PM

I have the impression from reading everything on this site that there are massive problems with the HD Tivo. Am I mistaken?

I have a T60 and an HD receiver both hooked up to my high def tv, so as it stands now I can watch high definition and record SD. I'd rather not dump this system for an HD tivo if it is just going to break.

BarneyGoogle

09-09-2004, 01:24 PM

as of this post there have been 711 votes, 200 people don't know if their HDMI works, of the 511 that do know there is greater than 30% failure rate

I didn't vote because no choice for "failed, don't know where it's made"

odys

09-09-2004, 03:54 PM

gmfbts

09-09-2004, 07:08 PM

I ordered mine online from CC less than a week ago. HDMI dead since day one. Component works fine. Unit assembled in Mexico. Tried most of the fixes in this thread, never seen anything on the HDMI to DVI cable except a black screen. Called Direct TV, was told to call CC for a replacement. Called CC and was told to take it back to the store for a replacement. When I told the rep that this unit is only available online I was told that I had to send it back and they would either repair or replace unit.

When I asked about sending me a new unit first and then I would send back the bad unit, I was told that CC would not do this.

I am going to the local CC this weekend to see if they can get me a replacement without having to first send mine back. I may send the unit back for credit.

Component connection looks great in HD, does HDMI look much better? I have nothing to compare to.

AbMagFab

09-09-2004, 10:34 PM

Depends on your TV. On my LCD RP (Sony GWIII 50"), the DVI looks a little sharper, but it's barely noticable. I could only confirm it on the HDnet test pattern.

Robert L

09-10-2004, 12:11 AM

Originally posted by gmfbts
I ordered mine online from CC less than a week ago. HDMI dead since day one. Component works fine. Unit assembled in Mexico. Tried most of the fixes in this thread, never seen anything on the HDMI to DVI cable except a black screen. Called Direct TV, was told to call CC for a replacement. Called CC and was told to take it back to the store for a replacement. When I told the rep that this unit is only available online I was told that I had to send it back and they would either repair or replace unit.

When I asked about sending me a new unit first and then I would send back the bad unit, I was told that CC would not do this.

I am going to the local CC this weekend to see if they can get me a replacement without having to first send mine back. I may send the unit back for credit.

Component connection looks great in HD, does HDMI look much better? I have nothing to compare to.

Well, you can take it back to the store for a refund, instead of sending it back, but you probably know that. Some CC stores do actually have them, but I guess most don't.

I received two DOA, HDMI outputs units from CC. I just returned both to my local store then reordered. No, it wasn't fun but thats the way it goes sometimes.

Mine is hooked to a Infocus PJ, and the HDMI is some better than component.

BarneyGoogle

09-10-2004, 05:08 AM

definitely return the unit to CC -- not for exchange

When you purchase a new unit from them -- be sure to get the extended protection plan -- it's a minor investment for an item known to fail after 30 days of use

with the plan if the unit fails you don't send yours back until you receive a new one

pbolya

09-10-2004, 12:30 PM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
Depends on your TV. On my LCD RP (Sony GWIII 50"), the DVI looks a little sharper, but it's barely noticable. I could only confirm it on the HDnet test pattern. Looks like it is not that big of the deal if you have a good TV. I have a Sony 42 inch plasma and the quality difference is minuscule. However the picture is noticeably darker. I tried to up the brightness and it looks pretty good. But than my SAT-T60 looks too bright. So I guess if it comes down to not having HD TV or using the component I will definitely choose ........... drum roll ........ the component. For now it is 6 weeks since my fix and don't see any signs of failing knocking on wood (I repeat "no signs of failing" 100 times before I go to bad every night so one day I will believe it too).

robnalex

09-10-2004, 01:17 PM

Originally posted by chip13
I have the impression from reading everything on this site that there are massive problems with the HD Tivo. Am I mistaken?

Yes, you are mistaken.

pbolya

09-10-2004, 03:52 PM

Originally posted by robnalex
Yes, you are mistaken. The HDMI failure rate is very high and a lot of us do not have logos. The rest is minuscule. It is a small price to pay for being an early adopter. Most of the other problems related to problems with outdated TV's and Amplifiers. My friend for instance had all kinds of audio dropout problems but after he got a replacement with the same problem he brought his TiVo over and it run on my Sony 7.1 receiver just fine. Long story short he struck a great deal at CC and bought a Sony 6.1 receiver for $250 and never had audio dropouts ever since.

Slardybardfast

09-10-2004, 06:57 PM

On my third try, I got a working HMDI HR10-250. I ordered a new one (#3) from CC-online and only then did I take the old one (#2) back to the local CC store. No wait, no doing without. As of now (3 days) my HDMI output is working fine. There is a definite improvement in picture with the digital output to my Sony KP57WV700, over the component outputs. Don't let anyone tell you that the component is as good. Use the HDMI TV input, if you have one.

HDTV is awesome!

Slardybardfast

09-10-2004, 07:15 PM

Originally posted by chip13
I have the impression from reading everything on this site that there are massive problems with the HD Tivo. Am I mistaken?

I have a T60 and an HD receiver both hooked up to my high def tv, so as it stands now I can watch high definition and record SD. I'd rather not dump this system for an HD tivo if it is just going to break.

IMHO, 20 to 30% failure rate is MASSIVE! I have a background in manufacturing and this failure rate will kill a company's profits in no time. Typical electronic product failure rates are below 1% by one or 2 orders of magnitude.

You may still wish to get involved, as I did, because of the CC return policy. The only thing it will cost you to get replacements is:

1. about 2 hours of your time, each time, to set up the unit ( installation, setup with DirecTV, Sat. channels, OTA channels, favorites, etc.) This is a nuisance.
2. shipping costs, if you get faster than normal shipping. The first 2 units I ordered with 2 day delivery. The third unit I ordered with free shipping.
3. whatever time it takes you to return to a local CC store. Hopefully, you will have one nearby. Otherwise, you will have to wait between your shipment and the return shipment. As far a I know, they are not sending out replacements before they receive the defective unit.

Of course, you could utilize the component output (lose some resolution) and wait out the issue. I recommend the CC 5 year service plan for $89.95.
If you do not have a digital input to your TV, then by all means, buy now.

I can no longer bear to watch TV any more without a DVR which allows me to skip commercials. That is why I decided to get the only HDTV TIVO type Satellite receiver available in the US today.

whitman

09-11-2004, 06:34 PM

Got my 10-250 two days ago shipped from Best Buy. HDMI never worked. Gave a bizzare pixelated appearence to all images displayed. Composite worked great. Displayed all OTA HD local Philly Channels except FOX.

Tech was out Saturday to set up the new dish. Box could not receive the HD channels (failed on setup) despite the reporting of strong signals at 101, 110 and 119. This box can only display the SD channels unless it is an OTA HD channel.

So, new box assembled in Mexico that failed in two ways right out of the box- the HDMI port was bad and with the internal processing of all the satellite HD channels was broken.

mfleming

09-11-2004, 07:50 PM

Originally posted by robnalex
Yes, you are mistaken.

No, he is not mistaken.

AbMagFab

09-11-2004, 08:07 PM

Originally posted by mfleming
No, he is not mistaken.

Yes he is. To infinity! *covers ears* I can't hear you!

wh0re

09-11-2004, 10:46 PM

Well, I'm now on my 4th receiver. It seems to be fine so far, I'm crossing my fingers

davidwfx

09-12-2004, 04:03 AM

My first HDTivo worked fine for a few months until the hard drive died, got them to ship me a new unit and... surprise! No HDMI. Spent around 2-3 hours on hold combined tonight to talk to the service reps and they couldn't find anything. Had me hang up with them to do a daily call and was never able to get through again.

Also had the error #51 and had to do the clear everything trick (running now, not sure if it will fix it). Maybe they took a unit that was returned with a bad HDMI port, stuck a new hard drive in it, and shipped it to me?

I have been very unimpressed with the quality of the customer service and the boxes, especially considering the absurdly high cost.

-David

Starrbuck

09-12-2004, 11:01 AM

My first HR10-250's HDMI port was noticeably less crisp than its component output. My replacement arrived Friday, and after installing, its HDMI seems as clear as the component, so we are happy. It has been running for about 24 hours now and seems to be stable. As an added bonus, I now have logos where I didn't before.

Starrbuck

09-12-2004, 11:08 AM

Originally posted by Slardybardfast
There is a definite improvement in picture with the digital output to my Sony KP57WV700, over the component outputs. Don't let anyone tell you that the component is as good. Use the HDMI TV input, if you have one. In reality, it depends on the TV. Some may have better pictures on the component than the HDMI or DVI. In general, RPTVs will look better using component and plasma or DLPs should look better using HDMI or DVI. You should always try to use the HDMI output of the HR10-250 if you have a DLP or plasma, and should worry less about it if you only have a RPTV.

davidwfx

09-12-2004, 12:32 PM

yep, finally got through to a tech who agreed that my replacement Tivo is DOA... The error #51 didn't go away after clearing everything and the HDMI is still busted. Said he would send me a "new" unit. Only 25 minutes on hold this morning, too.

Slardybardfast

09-12-2004, 01:55 PM

Originally posted by Starrbuck
My first HR10-250's HDMI port was noticeably less crisp than its component output. My replacement arrived Friday, and after installing, its HDMI seems as clear as the component, so we are happy. It has been running for about 24 hours now and seems to be stable. As an added bonus, I now have logos where I didn't before.

What are the "logos' that are mentioned throughout this forum?

AbMagFab

09-12-2004, 02:02 PM

Channel logos - they show up on the right side of the Now Playing list, and on the top banner when watching a program.

For some odd reason, HD Tivo's don't get logos once they disappear. Most regular D-Tivo's get logos shortly after a clear and delete.

Boddington's

09-12-2004, 07:51 PM

Ok Rapid came through,
But with a bad HDMI
Mine was kind of color negative
Great CSR knew all about the problem and sent a replacement out as we spoke.
Arrived in two days and........................................
Bad HDMI this time pink screen and will work if jiglle the cable but will always revert back to pink if I power off my tv. (panny edtv 37")
Think I'll keep this one with CC's for 6 months then try again.

TriscuiT

09-12-2004, 10:05 PM

I have one of the new JVC D-ILA TVs (52"). The HDMI on my HR10-250 works fine once I reboot it. As others with the JVC have reported, once the JVC has been off for a period of time (over night) when you next turn on the TV you get either no picture, snow/green/pink alternating background, or some combination of the two. Additionally, in this state I am unable to change the format of the output of the HDTiVo with the remote or even when pressing the button on the front of the unit. The HDTiVo is completely non-responsive. Once I unplug/re-plug it and it boots I have gloriously beautiful HDTV. Can others with a JVC TV comment on this? Are you unable to change the output format using the front button or remote? Has anyone gotten this "repair" that was alluded to in an earlier post?

aenea

09-13-2004, 07:03 AM

I have the same problem with my JVC. My local service center is tracking down the part for me. Someone in this (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=441990&highlight=tivo) thread reports getting the fix, and someone else is supposed to get it today (9/13).

I gave up on HDMI until I get the fix because of the frequent reboots required and switched to using component.

mfleming

09-13-2004, 07:18 AM

Incredibly, on another topic in this forum I started to ask if there is any official word from DTV on this problem, and where I mentioned this poll, they are all calling us a bunch of whiners because there is no big problem!

STR3T

09-13-2004, 10:14 AM

Bought an "open box" HD TIVO this weekend at 10% off...

HDMI to DVI would not work...only got Component output to work one time.

On the phone w/ DTV tech support for about 1.5 hours cycling through connections. Only one that worked consistently was S-Video 480i.

Ultimate will take it back and replace w/ a new unit at the same price, which is cool.

This w/ 56" Tantus DLP.

Just found this thread but did not get Born on Date/Place prior to boxing it back up for return...did not cast vote per this reason and "open box" nature. Will vote on replacement unit.

jdc

09-14-2004, 08:06 AM

Thanks guys for this forum. I bought my first HR10-250 from Best Buy on 9/6. When I got home I was very discouraged to find that I could only get component out to work. I returned the unit to Best Buy and received another unit. Same thing. I decided to do a little Internet searching and discovered this forum. I called D* technical support and mentioned "HDMI card failure". Rep asked me a few questioned and said he would send me a replacement unit 2-day FedEx. Received the new unit last night. It works!!

Now I’ve got to see if I can get Best Buy to change the serial number on the 4-year extended service contract that I got from them.

So far – so good.

PS

I am truly surprised by the lack to good quality control on the production of these high $$$$ units.

videoholic

09-14-2004, 08:53 AM

It took me three tries as well, but I now have HDMI running smoothly on my system. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

BryanCPA

09-14-2004, 10:33 AM

My HD tivo freezes whenever I change the output resolution. I have the tivo connected using HDMI to a Sanyo Z2 via DVI. I have to reboot to restore the tivo to normal. I don't have this problem via component, only via HDMI. All other aspects of the HD tivo work fine. I'm not sure if this is a bad HDMI port due to the fact that the picture itself is fine, it's just a lock up issue on the resolution change. Possibly this is a handshake issue with the Z2? Anyone else having any problems with connection to a Z2 or have determined that this symptom is a bad HDMI port?

pbolya

09-14-2004, 12:58 PM

After only 4 month my HR10-250's original WD 250 hard drive started to fail! After some consideration I decided that I am not going to start the replace game and even though I have no logos, HDMI failure and now a bad hard drive I will take matters into my own hand.

- I bought 2 more maxtor 250GB for $129 a piece at Fry's (there where WD250's for 109!!! but with $55 rebate and only 1 per family).

- After a long long weekend I am now back with a perfect unit with a lot of extra functionality.

- Since I needed to see the logs and I wanted to back up my season passes and other info I set up telnet access to the box with TiVoWebPlus(since the drive had failures the normal backup would not work and a DD resulted in an unbootable image). I used the Backup tivoweb module (thanks boygenious) to save my season passes and wish lists. I had to change the code a little bit as it died trying to process ota local channel numbers (my first ever TCL script change but surly will not be the last).

- After restoring my backup 2 month ago (before I upgraded to 63 hours) I got telnet/tivowebplus working again and I restored the settings backed up previously. It restored 41 of the 43 season passes that I backed up. Since I do not know TCL yet I was just happy that I could make it work this much and I added the last 2 season pass in 30 seconds.

- Now for the kicker: I poked around a little bit and I found a script called dbload30 (I do not know who created it) and a slice file called logo-67.slice (logo image file). Even though it was not made for the HD Tivo the script worked and I NOW HAVE LOGOS !!!! It is an older version of the logos but it associated about 95% of the logos to the right channels. The missing ones where some of the HD D* channels like Bravo and Showtime, and some others like VH1 and a couple of others I do not use. I used tiwoveb to associate these couple of channels to the correct logo and now I have logos for all channels I use.

- And now the reason for telling this story in this thread: When I put the TiVo back together played with the HDMI card a little bit more as now I started to see discoloration (which according to previous notes a sure sign of the card failing). After investigating a little bit this is what I found: The reason why my method of wedging a piece of plastic between the pin and the card was working because it pushed the card slightly toward the back and prevented it from pushing it down a little bit. When the plastic separator was not there the pin actually hooks on the card and pushes is downward (I assume so it is tight with the mother board). Unfortunately the connector to the mother board does not like that. So I reseated the plastic piece so that the presurepoint on the connector side of the card is as high as possible but at least in the middle. The higher the pressure point the better the result. This will prevent the card from being pushed down so easily (by just touching the top of the TiVo for instance or pressure caused by the card's own weight). I tried pushing the top of the tivo or wiggle the HDMI cable a little bit and no problem!

Now I have a working Tivo with the following:
- 64h recording capacity.
- logos (and more like tivowebplus etc)
- much less noise than the stock tivo (thanks to maxtors supper quiet drive - 2 of them makes less noise than 1 WD)
- cooler temperature inside the box (thanks to weeknees superb bracket with extra fan).
- a working HDMI card (for the moment - although there is no guarantee that your working card does not go out faster than my fixed one unfortunately).

Regards,
Peter

grizzlyt

09-14-2004, 09:24 PM

Got my replacement box today. So far everything works great. HDMI conection works perfect. Thanks to all those who posted earlier.

STR3T

09-15-2004, 10:59 PM

Got a new unit tonight, Hecho en Mexico...HDMI to DVI working nicely so far. Will hold off adding to the vote for a couple weeks of use. Yeah, I'm grinning big :up:

cocoon

09-15-2004, 11:20 PM

Originally posted by STR3T
Got a new unit tonight, Hecho en Mexico...HDMI to DVI working nicely so far. Will hold off adding to the vote for a couple weeks of use. Yeah, I'm grinning big :up:

Cool that you got a working one. Could you tell us the manufacture date on the unit?

STR3T

09-16-2004, 11:05 AM

Ahh yes B.O.D: 07/24/04

sraike

09-16-2004, 08:04 PM

New HR10-250 had HDMI port DOA. It was built 10 July 04 in Mexico.

DirecTV was nice enough about sending a new replacment but looooong wait on the phone.

HDMI port works on the replacment which was built 04 July 04 in Mexico.

This is my first TiVo unit and I'm very impressed. Plus having the digital over-the-air tuner means one less box for my HD tunerless Hi-def TV.

Rik

09-16-2004, 10:42 PM

I am just starting to see flashes of pink. At this point it's just a few seconds at a time and not bad. Should I expect this to get worse? And if so, what can I do? I've had the unit a few months now. With the doubling of the warranty payment with a credit card gives me I should still be under warranty but I have 40 hours of programming I don't want to give up.

randallman

09-16-2004, 11:14 PM

Received my HR10-250 this week and connected to Panasonic TH42PX25 plasma using an HDMI cable. During second day of operation screen image turned a pink contrast. After unplugging and replugging HDMI cable into the TV, the picture returned to normal. Now the problem is intermittent, but I still see pink occasionally while switching between channels.

Does changing out HR10-250 units solve the problem, or is this idiosyncrasy I will have to work around if I want to continue using HDMI interface?

unixadm

09-17-2004, 08:48 AM

Originally posted by pbolya
After only 4 month my HR10-250's original WD 250 hard drive started to fail! After some consideration I decided that I am not going to start the replace game and even though I have no logos, HDMI failure and now a bad hard drive I will take matters into my own hand.

- I bought 2 more maxtor 250GB for $129 a piece at Fry's (there where WD250's for 109!!! but with $55 rebate and only 1 per family).

- After a long long weekend I am now back with a perfect unit with a lot of extra functionality.

- Since I needed to see the logs and I wanted to back up my season passes and other info I set up telnet access to the box with TiVoWebPlus(since the drive had failures the normal backup would not work and a DD resulted in an unbootable image). I used the Backup tivoweb module (thanks boygenious) to save my season passes and wish lists. I had to change the code a little bit as it died trying to process ota local channel numbers (my first ever TCL script change but surly will not be the last).

- After restoring my backup 2 month ago (before I upgraded to 63 hours) I got telnet/tivowebplus working again and I restored the settings backed up previously. It restored 41 of the 43 season passes that I backed up. Since I do not know TCL yet I was just happy that I could make it work this much and I added the last 2 season pass in 30 seconds.

- Now for the kicker: I poked around a little bit and I found a script called dbload30 (I do not know who created it) and a slice file called logo-67.slice (logo image file). Even though it was not made for the HD Tivo the script worked and I NOW HAVE LOGOS !!!! It is an older version of the logos but it associated about 95% of the logos to the right channels. The missing ones where some of the HD D* channels like Bravo and Showtime, and some others like VH1 and a couple of others I do not use. I used tiwoveb to associate these couple of channels to the correct logo and now I have logos for all channels I use.

- And now the reason for telling this story in this thread: When I put the TiVo back together played with the HDMI card a little bit more as now I started to see discoloration (which according to previous notes a sure sign of the card failing). After investigating a little bit this is what I found: The reason why my method of wedging a piece of plastic between the pin and the card was working because it pushed the card slightly toward the back and prevented it from pushing it down a little bit. When the plastic separator was not there the pin actually hooks on the card and pushes is downward (I assume so it is tight with the mother board). Unfortunately the connector to the mother board does not like that. So I reseated the plastic piece so that the presurepoint on the connector side of the card is as high as possible but at least in the middle. The higher the pressure point the better the result. This will prevent the card from being pushed down so easily (by just touching the top of the TiVo for instance or pressure caused by the card's own weight). I tried pushing the top of the tivo or wiggle the HDMI cable a little bit and no problem!

Now I have a working Tivo with the following:
- 64h recording capacity.
- logos (and more like tivowebplus etc)
- much less noise than the stock tivo (thanks to maxtors supper quiet drive - 2 of them makes less noise than 1 WD)
- cooler temperature inside the box (thanks to weeknees superb bracket with extra fan).
- a working HDMI card (for the moment - although there is no guarantee that your working card does not go out faster than my fixed one unfortunately).

Regards,
Peter

Peter,

Thanks for the great info.

You took the bull by the horns and resolved your problems....I commend you on that.

I, on the other hand, felt that I shouldn't be beta testing a $1000 dollar piece of equipment on my dollar. I considered opening it up when the HDMI failed, but felt it just wasn't worth it. I took mine back, got my money back and haven't purchased another yet. I will wait until there is some sort of official admission to the problem and solution to the problem before I get another. I do miss having TiVo functionality on HD content, but I can't justify the cost for something that has obvious issues.

pbolya

09-17-2004, 07:32 PM

Originally posted by unixadm
Peter,

Thanks for the great info.

You took the bull by the horns and resolved your problems....I commend you on that.

I, on the other hand, felt that I shouldn't be beta testing a $1000 dollar piece of equipment on my dollar. I considered opening it up when the HDMI failed, but felt it just wasn't worth it. I took mine back, got my money back and haven't purchased another yet. I will wait until there is some sort of official admission to the problem and solution to the problem before I get another. I do miss having TiVo functionality on HD content, but I can't justify the cost for something that has obvious issues. unixadm,
I understand your point and everybody has to decide for themselves what works for them. Here are my reasons for doing what i did:

- I can not give up HD TiVo. I was desperately waiting for this box for 3 years and I did not even by an HD TV until they started taking pre-orders. Since we never watch TV without the TiVo buffer (hack we hardly ever watch LiveTv either we just watch from Now Playing List) it would have been a waste of money.

- After I had no problems (besides missing logos) for 2 month I upgraded the unit to 64 hours. Even though I do not condemn anybody who sends there box back after opening it unless they obviously cased the problem I felt like that if I can fix the issue I should do it myself (even if it costs me another $129 on top of the $1,000). By the way during the restore from the backup I made 2 month ago (before I initially upgraded the unit) I looked into the kernel logs and I found signs of the hard drive failing even then.

- The fall season has started and this is the busiest time for us as we evaluate every new show (watch at least the first two episodes) and decide weather we want to add it to our lineup or drop it forever. I wanted the problem to be solved within a couple of days and I need a way to record a lot of shows. Waiting for a replacement would have been risky as the failing hard drive could have stopped working all together preventing me from recording the 6-10 hour/day losing about 30-50h/week.

- As most of us in this forum I had recordings that I did not want to loose.

- I like to mess with anything electronic especially the software part and I learned a lot about both hardware and software from this exercise (I am a programmer by the way).

- I do not want to play the return game. From the posts in this forum it is obvious that there is no guaranty that the unit you are getting is working and not massed up more than the unit you are replacing (although that would be a real challenge with my unit). Even if I get a new working unit right away I would need to open it up right away to upgrade it. 30 hours do not last a week in my family.

- I usually prefer to work on something for a week instead of having to endure an hour conversation with a tier 1 customer support person that is half way to another galaxy and never even heard about NTSC yet alone HDMI.

Having sad that I realize that I am in a situation that I can help myself in this matter and I am an incredibly huge risk taker (I am no longer allowed to even mention the words stock market at home for instance). Although if it is keep going like this my wife will blacklist the word TiVo too (even if she loves it to death).

I do not think you should give up though. Sooner or later you will have a working unit and it will be much sooner if you keep returning it until you catch a good one then if you try to leave without it and wait (although you might save some money that way as by the time they fix this problem the price of the unit will definitally go down). In my opinion if you need it badly than keep returning it until you get a good one. If you don't than you probably shouldn't spent $1,000 on something you do not need (look who's talking - I buy every cool gadget that comes out).

I seriously think that they should have let other manufacturers especially Sony in on this deal. You could not break my series 1 Sony SAT-T60 D* Tivo or my Sony series 2 standalone SVR-3000 even if you try but you better not exhale in front of the huges unit.

miketech97

09-18-2004, 12:43 AM

My HR10-250 has logos dated 21-Aug-04 Mexico and HDMI is working.
The Logos came up immediately after DirecTV verbal phone activation and before a call-in by the HR10-250 to a TIVO phone number.

My Previous HR10-250 box dated 25-Jul-04 Mexico had no logos and a working HDMI for only one week before failing (pink ghost video).

bluedog68

09-18-2004, 07:02 AM

I finally have a working HD10-250. I first experienced an HDMI failure on my first unit 28 days after activation but 32 days after I ordered it from CC. My second unit arrived with a dead port. Now I’m on my third one and I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

My question is whether or not it is better to purchase the CC protection plan or the DirecTV service plan.

Alex Campbell

09-18-2004, 08:53 PM

bought it 28 days ago at Good Guys and was using the HDMI with no problem. today, I hooked up the video out to go to a VCR and movied it slightly...no more HDMI out. Component works fine...strangely enough, I can't get the video out to work at all. And the HDMI isn't coming back. I have reset it three times today. On Monday, I will call DirecTV and hopefuly get a new one sent.

I don't see how this can be a software problem.

AC

pbolya

09-19-2004, 02:11 AM

Originally posted by Alex Campbell
bought it 28 days ago at Good Guys and was using the HDMI with no problem. today, I hooked up the video out to go to a VCR and movied it slightly...no more HDMI out. Component works fine...strangely enough, I can't get the video out to work at all. And the HDMI isn't coming back. I have reset it three times today. On Monday, I will call DirecTV and hopefuly get a new one sent.

I don't see how this can be a software problem.

AC It is not. A lot of the receivers has a connection problem to the mother board (mine certainly fels into that category). However if I am interpretting this right there may also be a software issue where it might not send the right HDMI data all the time causing the TV to drop the connection (Blank or snow - DOA units) . There are certainly a lot of TV's that have HDMI "software" issues and I am sure that a lot of outdated TV firmware out there which the TiVo get's blamed for.

hipreck

09-19-2004, 07:32 AM

Bought my unit from Best Buy last night. Hooked it up via DVI to my Sammy DLP. When it came up, the initial screen was real hard to read, a snowy greenish look.

I restarted the unit and now the DVI port shows nothing, zilch. The component output works fine.

You folks are way too kind about this. For $1K these things should do the basic stuff like producing a picture! D* and Tivo should be ashamed of themselves. Very expensive doorstops.

vonzoog

09-19-2004, 08:46 AM

"It is not. A lot of the receivers has a connection problem to the mother board (mine certainly fels into that category). However if I am interpretting this right there may also be a software issue where it might not send the right HDMI data all the time causing the TV to drop the connection (Blank or snow - DOA units) . There are certainly a lot of TV's that have HDMI "software" issues and I am sure that a lot of outdated TV firmware out there which the TiVo get's blamed for."

I have to say that I am starting to believe this statement.

I received a replacement unit yesterday from D*. The old unit would have to be rebooted everyday because of the "snowy" screen syndrome. When the new unit was started, it was DOA with HDMI connection. I thought what do I have to lose and I preformed the "pbolya" fix by opening the new unit and by pushing down and back on the HDMI card. The new unit was now operating perfectly over the HDMI connection. However, after 12 hours the "snowy" screen was back while turning on the TV. If I leave the TV on continuously, this never happens. It only happens when the TV is turned of and then back on, sometimes, but not always.

After reading where Panny owners have been informed that their problem is with the TV and a "fix" is underway by Panasonic, I now believe that there is a "handshake" breakdown between the DVR and TV's. I have a Samsung and have heard nothing about the problem being related to the Sammy TV. I still feel that the two units are not communicating with each other.

Yes there is a definite hardware problem where the HDMI card "comes loose" and has to be reseated. However, I now feel that there has to be a software issue also. Now is it my TV or DVR, or both, that is to blame? I am not sure.

D* informed me that they are aware and are working on the problem. They are now asking people to use the component connections until a fix is found. I will keep rebooting my unit because I prefer the HDMI connection over the component. I plan to contact Samsung and to see if maybe there is a firmware issue with the TV. It seems that Panasonic is believing this to be true.

paul01463

09-19-2004, 10:46 AM

Snip of quote [After reading where Panny owners have been informed that their problem is with the TV and a "fix" is underway by Panasonic] end snip

I missed any reference to Panasonic "fessing-up" to an issue with their displays and HDMI ports. Could you please elaborate? I'm on my third HR10-250, and each has demonstrated the pink-hued HDMI problem. I called Panasonic, and they are sending someone out to take a look at the problem on the 30th. and would like to have any pertinent information on hand.

vonzoog

09-19-2004, 11:13 AM

paul01463,

Sorry, my bad. Maybe it was JVC or I read something over on the AVS Forum somewhere. I did find the following several pages back in this thread:

"The JVC website has a FAQ under Service and Support... here is what they say for the DILA TVs:
Q. My television shows snow, lines and sometimes no picture when I connect the TV to my set top box via HDMI.
A. There might be a compatibility issue when using certain HDMI equipped sources. To remedy this situation, a relatively simple update to the HDILA TV set is available. As the update requires installation of a component, it is highly recommended that the update be performed only by a qualified professional from a JVC authorized service center. To obtain the name of your nearest JVC HDILA authorized service center, please call (800) 252-5722 or click on the Service Center Locator tab."

My point being, I still believe that the "real" problem could very will be a software issue.

I would like to hear more thoughts on this. Should we be waiting for a D* fix or keep asking for replacement units????

hipreck

09-19-2004, 11:40 AM

I tried the reseat the card trick todfay on the unit I bought last night. No dice. Reseating the card didn't help at all. I will say the way the card is mounted is not good, no wonder they are having all these problems.

My unit is being returned and I'll be trying another one. If that one fails I'll probably just keep it for a while and wait for D* to get a permanent fix.

Regardless, it's just pathetic that this is a problem for a $1K box. D* should be doing something for the early adopters that are hassling with this.

pbolya

09-20-2004, 12:08 AM

Originally posted by vonzoog
I thought what do I have to lose and I preformed the "pbolya" fix by opening the new unit and by pushing down and back on the HDMI card. The new unit was now operating perfectly over the HDMI connection. However, after 12 hours the "snowy" screen was back while turning on the TV. vonzoog, If you pushed the top of the left side of the card slightly toward the back of the TiVo and you got picture it means that it is an issue with the connection to the mother board. It is highly unlikely that this may be fixed with a software upgrade (but than who knows). My method however is to carefully wedge a plastic piece between the pin and the card. This will constantly apply light pressure to the card toward the back of the TiVo and will not let it slip back to the "dead" position. I personally used a plastic container in which the 50cent toy machine rings/toys come in that you can find in almost any shops. If you are a parent you most certainly know what I am talking about. My son conveniently stepped on one of them and it is broken in half. It is a perfect size and it curves around the pin preventing it from falling out. You can use almost anything as long as it stays in there and can take some heat without melting. It is working for me for 2 mont now. Give it a try. I have pictures of it on the HD TiVo upgrade thread (see my first post in this forum for the link).

I agree that this is ridicules. For $900 more, working years on the prototype and delivering 6 month late you would accept the the only one difference the HDMI card would work. But after I had my tantrum (several in a row I might add) I realized that it is still the best HD TiVo out there and HDMI problem or not, no new functionality or not (not even folders) it is still a very sweet machine. Just ask yourself which picture is better the component or the s-video? In fact most of us would have bought it even if they would have included just component video.

vonzoog

09-20-2004, 06:54 AM

pbolya,

Thanks for the info.

vonzoog

Rik

09-20-2004, 08:35 AM

Pbolya ... does this fix of yours also work on the occasional pink screen HDMI issue or is that something completely different?

kimsan

09-20-2004, 03:33 PM

drjeckl

09-21-2004, 03:54 PM

HDMI failure after 3 weeks of usage on a HR10-250 hatched in Mexico on 03-Jul-04. Moved the unit slightly and pop, it went. After reading all the good info on this thread, I popped the cover, reseated the card, put it back together and it was back!

The clip holding the card in is at a decent angle and appears to be holding the card in fairly strongly so I didnt have to rig something like pboyla or kimsan. However, soon after, the video stayed but the sound died. Did the surgical procedure again this afternoon but didnt screw in the card or the cover. By jiggling the card while the unit was on, the sound would break up and sometimes the video would go green and yellow. My set is a new Sammy HLP5063W and I connect on the HDMI port on the TV.

I have partially screwed in the card and just placed the cover on top; no screws. I need to move it around a little more when my replacement stand arrives tomorrow (first one scratched in shipping.) Maybe after its in its final place, I will batten down the hatch. It was fine for 3 weeks and then I moved it. What was I thinking??!!?? I may leave it this way until D* comes up with a permanent fix. To my eye, the difference between HDMI and component is too large to sacrifice and I dont have the time nor patience for the replacement endless loop.

pbolya

09-21-2004, 04:43 PM

Originally posted by Rik
Pbolya ... does this fix of yours also work on the occasional pink screen HDMI issue or is that something completely different? Rik,
When I first did the fix 2 month ago it was either a picture or not (and simetimes snow). Now when I needed to open it again to replace the hard drive and tested the card when I put it together I seen purple and green discoloration instead the snow/no picture. So in short yes it could fix that too (weather it is only temporary or maybe long term we do not know).

I also have to mention that I never took the card off from the mother board and I never messed with that connection. I simply trying to apply the presure towards where the card works.

Kimsan,
The whole problem with my card is downward preasure. When I push the card downward at the top it causes discoloration (probably one of the pin carying data for one of the 3 colors loses contact causing the other 2 to dominate) and if I push the card down at the top left it loses picture (maybe two pins are touching or some control data signal gets lost - I do not know). That is why I put a separator between the card and the pin. It prevents the pin hooking into the whole in the card an pushing it downwards. Equally important that by pushing the card slightly towards the back at a point that is higher then the middle of the card is helping me to lift the card slightly at the connector end. Also I tried pushing the card to get to best alignment and have stady picture but that demn gravity made it out of alignment again after a while. Since I added the spacer it works great.

Also every card could be different depending on whats wrong with it or how it is seated at the moment and some cards could be really DOA too. I am not kidding myself that this will work forever. If it goes wrong again I will take it appart and examine it more but also it is possible that a lot of this is just bad laborship and when they put these together day did not pay good attantion to seat the card properly and there is nothing wrong with some of these units.

hipreck

09-21-2004, 05:28 PM

My second unit from Best Buy works like a charm (so far).

I see cards come loose in PCs and servers quite a bit from shipping. Those cards are installed much better (with larger connectors) than the Tivo uses. I'm really amazed that made it through engineering. They need a much better method for connecting the card to the motherboard.

zubinh

09-21-2004, 09:57 PM

Ya know for some reason I thought I got one of the good ones.

Well after a month of reliable service all I wanted to do was replace the cable with a monster cable. Now I get nothing thru HDMI at all with any cable.

Spent an hour on the phone with Directv (who of course refused to believe it was a hardware issue) and they are sending me a replacement.

For those of you who have been thru this, can you tell me if I have to inform Circuit City to be protected under the extended warranty?

Thanks!

Rcam10

09-22-2004, 01:34 AM

Well, like I've said before, ( an others also) the way that HDMI board is designed connecting to the main board, is a problem waiting to happen.

Maybe some with never give a problem, who knows, but it certainly can, with that type of connector they used. I still think that was added later, toward the end after the unit had been already designed, probably because they didn't know exactly what that HDMI output would need. Thats why they made it so it could be added, which is why it plugs in.

I mean, that actually cost more to do it that way, along with causing this connection type problem, which can happen with plug in boards. Also there are lots of connections on that plug, and they are very close together.

I've actually seen more units lately that has this problem, some will go back to work just touching or pulling that copper strip back away from the card, while others takes much more force, like my first one in April. Also some will never act right, they always either go back blank, or do the flashing color thing, ect.

I think it might actually take a redesign of that connection between the card and main board, to really make the problem go away. I mean there so so many small connections there, very close together, that it has to pretty much sit perfect to work right. Plus thats a extremely sensitive area around that HDMI board, and it don't take much to cause frequency problem, with pins not connecting correctly.

pbolya

09-22-2004, 12:41 PM

Originally posted by Rcam10
Well, like I've said before, ( an others also) the way that HDMI board is designed connecting to the main board, is a problem waiting to happen.

Maybe some with never give a problem, who knows, but it certainly can, with that type of connector they used. I still think that was added later, toward the end after the unit had been already designed, probably because they didn't know exactly what that HDMI output would need. Thats why they made it so it could be added, which is why it plugs in.

I mean, that actually cost more to do it that way, along with causing this connection type problem, which can happen with plug in boards. Also there are lots of connections on that plug, and they are very close together.

I've actually seen more units lately that has this problem, some will go back to work just touching or pulling that copper strip back away from the card, while others takes much more force, like my first one in April. Also some will never act right, they always either go back blank, or do the flashing color thing, ect.

I think it might actually take a redesign of that connection between the card and main board, to really make the problem go away. I mean there so so many small connections there, very close together, that it has to pretty much sit perfect to work right. Plus thats a extremely sensitive area around that HDMI board, and it don't take much to cause frequency problem, with pins not connecting correctly. Exactly,
the connector is so sensitive to movement that just by moving the unit (and probably pushing the top down while holding it) may cause some pins to not touch or short each other. I think they are fixing these units and sending them out again but they do not stand a chance against shipping even if they are properly packed. Probably that is why people get 3-5 units before one works or they give up. I think once the HDMI is DOA it is pron to connection issues even if they fix it. That explains the extremely high rate of failures in replacement units. After a while I believe it will get better as these units get into those peoples hands who do not use HDMI (e.g. as a replacement unit for a dead hard drive) or people will start to fix it themselves (dangerous and not recommended but doable).

What they should do is get certified repairman to come out and fix it on the spot (take it apart and put it together) or better yet manufacture new units in the buyer's living room. Or they could just redesign the motherboard with the card built into it (although that probably will not happen as it would make it harder to upgrade or replace the card in the case of true DOA).

TriscuiT

09-22-2004, 08:20 PM

I am happy to report that I need to change my Vote from "Had Failure on 1 unit - Made in Mexico" to "No failure - In service for over 2 weeks and going strong" without changing units. What I thought was bad HDMI was in fact a problem with the HR10-250 talking to my JVC HDTV. The technician came out on Monday and replaced a resistor on the TV's HDMI circuit board. Now everything is functioning the way it should be. Of course, after he made the change and put the TV back together again we were not getting ANY picture. He had to open it up again and re-seat some ribbon cables and then everything started working. I hope the rest of you find some path to a happy ending.

Rik

09-22-2004, 10:10 PM

Is there anyone out there fixing this? I called Weaknees and no dice there. I'd pay to be able to overnight my unit to have it fixed and overnighted back to me. I have about 40 hours worth of recordings that I don't want to give up.
If DirecTV does provide a replacement - how long do they give you to return the old unit?

Starrbuck

09-23-2004, 08:44 AM

Originally posted by Rik
If DirecTV does provide a replacement - how long to the give you to return the old unit? I was told 7 days, but it's been almost two weeks, I am still waiting on my return mailing label that they forgot to send me, and they haven't billed me for the new receiver yet.

Starrbuck

09-23-2004, 08:46 AM

Originally posted by TriscuiT
What I thought was bad HDMI was in fact a problem with the HR10-250 talking to my JVC HDTV. I imagine this problem is more widespread than many people will want to admit. They'd rather blame the HR10-250.

iwantmyhdmitv

09-23-2004, 09:17 PM

To pbolya and everyone else who has gone/suffered through the "initial production phase" of the HD10-250:

First of all, my user experience has been great. This is my first HD receiver, and my 5th Tivo box. HD is very addicting!

I am a chip designer, and an former electronic tech with many thousands of hours of troubleshooting experience with industrial and consumer electronics.

Here's a synopsis of my observations to this point:

1) Hooked up the box. Everything worked fine for a few weeks.

2) The HDMI output went into a failure mode which resembled the ones most often posted on this forum (flashing, color shifts, etc).

3) Once I saw the post that mentioned there was no warranty seal, I decided to go in and do my thing.

4) Re-seated the HDMI daughter card. Ran the system w/out the cover, and tapped/pressed on the card while watching the monitor. Got all the symptoms of a poor connector to the MOBO.

4) Pulled the HDMI daughter card off the MOBO.
HELLO! Has anyone seen the red goop on the two fasteners on each side of the card ?

Has anyone seen the re-work soldering between the connector and the daughter card ?

This is pretty clear proof that the HDMI card has been re-worked, since no manufacturer wants to do extra production steps like that.

Which is perfectly fine, IF the re-work fixes the root cause. In this case, it apparently didn't. Hughes released this product to the market, and didn't have the requisite 4-6 weeks to burn-in their hardware patch.

If any of this sounds caustic, I'm sorry. Again, I really love this product, I just wanted to share my experience, and I hope that Hughes/Directv fixes the root cause within our 12 month warranty period :-)

Rick

vestaviaScott

09-23-2004, 10:49 PM

Add another to the list. Just received my unit today (Sept 24, 2004) and my HDMI is jacked. I get green tinted posterized video. If I press on the HDMI connector the picture improves somewhat but nothing close to component.

I'll try to pull the case and reseat the card.

ashtangakasha

09-23-2004, 11:10 PM

Purchased HD DirecTiVo from local vendor. HDMI had a flakey connector right out of the box. Could only get picture by pressing on plug into TiVo in a very special, magical way. Dealer replaced unit a couple days later; he had done about 30 installs, and this was first HDMI failure. Didn't record origin of first unit; current unit HDMI connector "feels" very much more solid, almost a detent on firmly inserting plug, and has worked fine since day 1 (now about 2 weeks).

Alex Campbell

09-23-2004, 11:48 PM

good news..it only took three days to get my replacement HR 10-250....looked like a refurbish as the box had been opened once and the top of the box looked scuffed.

bad news...HDMI port still didn't work on the replacement

called second level customer service and got a nice woman in Alabama...didn't have to explain much...she knew about the problem and said she would send a replacement. However, she said they just keep sending out replacement after replacement and they keep coming back. I told her that if DTV would give me a credit of $700 I would keep the box and use the component out. She said that they couldn't do that and that there were certain supervisors who were refusing to send out replacements and telling people to just use the component out. She was very sympathetic and is sending out a new replacement. She told me that she wished that DTV/Tivo would get their act together because they are getting sick of dealing with this problem.

I joked around about switching to VOOM and she told me that they are sending up a new satellite in summer of 2005 for more lHD ocals and sending up two more new satellites in 2007 for even more HD programming.

In any case, I'm getting a new box and I have a feeling the HDMI won't work on it. The CS lady said that they will keep sending me new boxes but...

I honestly can't tell the difference between component and HDMI but I would like the extra flexibility that HDMI gives me because I can plug my Xbox in to the second component in on my TV (Sony KF50WE610). And it irritates me that a very expensive product doesn't work correctly.

I am a long time DirectTV/Tivo user and I am generally very positive about their product but this sitiuation is not acceptable.

AC

vestaviaScott

09-23-2004, 11:54 PM

I unscrewed the star screws and removed the top. Then unscrewed the star screws holding the HDMI jack in place. However, I could not budge the card, even with the clip removed from the card it would not unseat. There are 2 red spots of glue or something near the base of the card where it connects to the motherboard. It appears that these may be holding it tight.

Anyway, I applied some gentle pressure to the card to try to seat it better to the Motherboard. But when I powered the unit back on, the HDMI output is not even registering a signal on the TV.

Please help.

jlas75

09-24-2004, 08:27 AM

I purchased my HR10-250 from Tweeter July 04. The HDMI port did not work from the minute I took it out of the box...Component works fine. I never saw what HDMI looks like so I can't even compare it to component. I have a Pioneer Elite PRO-530 HDI.

I immediately called tweeter and ordered a replacement. Well, finally my replacement is here (3 months later) and I am picking it up today. The biggest pain in the ass is that I lose everything I recorded in HD and have to reset all my season passes (possibly for nothing!).

From what I'm reading on this board, it sounds like nothing has been done by Hughes / TiVo / DirecTV to fix this problem...And that's not acceptable! Did either of these company's make a statement or release that they acknowledge this HDMI problem and will have it fixed?

If the HDMI it is not working correctly this time, I am going to ask for my money back and just wait till this problem is resolved or another model comes out that's better. In the meantime, I'll just have to enjoy TiVo from my Sony SAT-T60 and forget about this unit for a while. It's a shame b/c component looks great but knowing that it was sold with HDMI, and my TV is compatible with HDMI, I just can't settle for the component.

vestaviaScott

09-24-2004, 08:47 AM

Can someone point me to a URL where there is an explanation (with pics preferably) of how to reseat the HDMI card???

rbfowler

09-24-2004, 11:07 AM

I'm glad I read through this forum. I am a new customer for HD and Tivo, although I've had D* for years. When I got my new home theater and HR10-250, I thought it must be my HDMI cable that was bad. Now I think it must be the box. Or maybe the TV. Or maybe it really is the cable... OK, is there a quick test I can run to determine where the problem actually is? I'm getting so picture at all when I hook up the HDMI, but everything is fine through the component cables.

kimsan

09-24-2004, 01:42 PM

Originally posted by rbfowler
I'm glad I read through this forum. I am a new customer for HD and Tivo, although I've had D* for years. When I got my new home theater and HR10-250, I thought it must be my HDMI cable that was bad. Now I think it must be the box. Or maybe the TV. Or maybe it really is the cable... OK, is there a quick test I can run to determine where the problem actually is? I'm getting so picture at all when I hook up the HDMI, but everything is fine through the component cables.

If you have component out available with the HDMI cable plugged in, that means the TiVo is not even sensing the cable. Try the HDMI-DVI cable as well. Same results (component available with HDMI cable in place) would point immediately back to the TiVo. It's spelled out plainly in the manual (once I read it :rolleyes: ) that HDMI cable connected disables component out. If that aspect is behaving normally and the TV has a DVI input, try that as well using the HDMI-DVI cable included with the TiVo. If that fails as well it would mean:
a. two bad cables (not bloody likely)
b. two bad inputs on the TV (almost equally unlikely)
c. bad HDMI output from the TiVo (I'd place my money on this bet)

If c is the answer, it's your call as to whether you want to peek in the case and *maybe* resolve it in a moment, or call for a replacement. Good luck either way!

zubinh

09-24-2004, 06:25 PM

For those who can afford this expensive test, go out and get a DVD player with DVI output and hook it into the same input you had the HR10-250.

If you see a picture, then it definitely is the Tivo and not your cable or TV.

AbMagFab

09-24-2004, 08:18 PM

Originally posted by zubinh
For those who can afford this expensive test, go out and get a DVD player with DVI output and hook it into the same input you had the HR10-250.

If you see a picture, then it definitely is the Tivo and not your cable or TV.

Wrong. There are multiple HDMI chipsets out there, and the interaction between them and your TV can vary. Additionally, the HDCP can add another layer of complexity. Additionally, HDMI <> DVI.

Nice idea, but hardly a valid test.

Starrbuck

09-25-2004, 03:11 PM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
Nice idea, but hardly a valid test. It can at least prove that the port on the TV is working with other devices.

jimmysny

09-26-2004, 05:51 AM

Mine was DOA. Exchanging it at the store today. I'm not optimistic.

Jim

AbMagFab

09-26-2004, 07:03 AM

Originally posted by Starrbuck
It can at least prove that the port on the TV is working with other devices.

Which is meaningless. Take the JVC TV examples. The DVI port has a resistor problem with the chip set. It works fine with some DVI devices, but JVC has acknowledged it's broken, and won't work with other devices. They come out and add a resistor.

Just because it works with one device, and not another, doesn't mean it's the device or the TV. So all you've done is waste some of your time (and money).

Starrbuck

09-26-2004, 08:23 AM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
Which is meaningless. Take the JVC TV examples. The DVI port has a resistor problem with the chip set. It works fine with some DVI devices, but JVC has acknowledged it's broken, and won't work with other devices. They come out and add a resistor.

Just because it works with one device, and not another, doesn't mean it's the device or the TV. So all you've done is waste some of your time (and money). If the port didn't work with any devices, you'd eventually know it. If it did work with your first test device, you'd know a little bit more about what your compatibility problem might be.

Besides, some of us are independently wealthy and don't care about wasted time or money. But, enough about me. :D

grizzlyt

09-26-2004, 10:57 AM

I've had my replacement box for two weeks now and everything is working perfect. I encourage people with the bad HDMI port to keep switching units until you get one that works. It's a pain but there are replacement units being sent that work.

jlas75

09-26-2004, 07:16 PM

I had a good feeling my replacement HR10-250 would not work based on the posts I've read on this board. So, this time around, I decided to buy a five year warranty ($100 ) from tweeter. Well, wouldn't you know, just as suspected the HDMI port did not work on my new replacement.

The only difference this time is that I have 5 years to enjoy my "defected" HR10-250 through component video, not the 30-90 day warranty most manufacturers offer. So, I'm thinking sometime within the next year or two or three, I'll return it for a new, better box and not have to deal with this mess for now. Besides, I think component looks GREAT!

Definitely worth the $100 :)

drjeckl

09-26-2004, 07:44 PM

Originally posted by grizzlyt
I've had my replacement box for two weeks now and everything is working perfect. I encourage people with the bad HDMI port to keep switching units until you get one that works. It's a pain but there are replacement units being sent that work.

I really dont want to be a PITA but, how do you know the replacement units are working? Insider knowledge? Have you inspected the card/motherboard connection on your bad unit and the replacement box and noticed a difference? If there is, then maybe all of us with the bad first batch should send ours back. If not, we're still waiting for the official fix.

I'm amazed that D* has not notified the early buyers that there is a problem and it will be addressed. Sending out faulty replacement units without even testing the HDMI ports is beyond belief!. If it passed the internal QC check, then what is it? Too much bumping during the shipping? Well fix that process! My unit from BB online came via UPS in the original box, not packed in another box with packing material. What do they expect? A smooth ride?

So grizzlyt, let us know. I'll jump on the replacement loop if they truly have the problem fixed.

muoldaar

09-27-2004, 12:42 PM

I guess I need to change my response to the poll now.

I've had my HR10-250 since the beginning of May, and after 4 1/2 months, I thought I was in the clear. But my HDMI output died over the weekend. :( It's probably just a coincidence, but one day after receiving the new software update, my HDMI port began failing. The first time this happenned, I wiggled the cable and got the picture back. (Of course, now I realize by wiggling the cable, I was probably affecting how the HDMI card was making contact with the motherboard.) Then a few days after that, I lost my HDMI output for good.

It looks like I'll have to join you guys in playing HDMI replacement roulette. But I'm still concerned that even if I get a replacement unit with working HDMI, that it's just a failure waiting to happen in X # of weeks/months.

grizzlyt

09-27-2004, 03:59 PM

Originally posted by drjeckl
I really dont want to be a PITA but, how do you know the replacement units are working? Insider knowledge?

So grizzlyt, let us know. I'll jump on the replacement loop if they truly have the problem fixed.

Sorry drjeckl, no insider information. My point was only that some replacements work, mine did as has been for two weeks. Sure, maybe it will fail a few in another week or two.

As long as the your are able to get a replacement sent without too much hassle, I would keep trying until I got one that worked like it should. The more units that get sent back with the HDMI problem, hopefully, the harder they will work to fix it. They loose money on shipping and handling on every defective unit.

If you can't easily return it and are happy with using component, that is up to you, but D* will think that they have another happy customer and the rest of us reporting the HDMI problem are in the minority.

drjeckl

09-27-2004, 06:14 PM

Originally posted by grizzlyt

If you can't easily return it and are happy with using component, that is up to you, but D* will think that they have another happy customer and the rest of us reporting the HDMI problem are in the minority.

This is a good point.

I have the problem of the loose connection. I have reseated the card and not secured it to the back panel. With this, the HDMI connection works. (I was not happy with component.)

But this is a temporary fix. If D* doesn't come up with a permanent fix within the 12 month warranty period, I'm sending it back and start the replacement process.

But you are right. If I don't send it back, they think I'm a happy customer. How do we remedy this? Something to think about.

TwinCityHDGuy

09-27-2004, 08:44 PM

I was wondering if anyone else has noticed the same symptoms that I have. I am on my third HR10-250. The second one had no HDMI out of the box, but the first and third have had a similar subtle problem. Those two units have an oscillating, vertical, soft-edged, bar on only the 1080i outputs of both the HDMI and component outputs.

The first unit was consistently left-to-right about once a second. I thought that, perhaps, it was a shielding problem from the power supply since it seemed to be 60 cycle. But my third unit had a slightly quicker cycle, also left to right, which has now shifted (three days later) to right to left and slowed down. It also seems to have developed a slightly pinkish hue.

This symptom is very subtle and is only readily observed on a solid color subdued background. It can easily be seen when you put the unit in standby or when you try and view a channel you don't have and see the grey screen. It looks like a slight contrast, or brightness, shift that travels along the screen. It is not visible on the 720p output. It is visible on both HD and SD sources, in real-time or pause, and also on pre-recorded material.

Is it possible that it is my monitor? I have a Sony KV-34HS510 crt. Everything else looks great on it. I've had it for about a year and the Hughes is the first HD source I've been able to view.

I purchased the unit via the Internet from TVAuthority (not a great experience) and DirecTV has been replacing the unit.

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

sotapoppy

09-28-2004, 12:22 AM

Originally posted by muoldaar
I guess I need to change my response to the poll now.

I've had my HR10-250 since the beginning of May, and after 4 1/2 months, I thought I was in the clear. But my HDMI output died over the weekend. :( It's probably just a coincidence, but one day after receiving the new software update, my HDMI port began failing. The first time this happenned, I wiggled the cable and got the picture back. (Of course, now I realize by wiggling the cable, I was probably affecting how the HDMI card was making contact with the motherboard.) Then a few days after that, I lost my HDMI output for good.

It looks like I'll have to join you guys in playing HDMI replacement roulette. But I'm still concerned that even if I get a replacement unit with working HDMI, that it's just a failure waiting to happen in X # of weeks/months.

I'm not so sure it is a coincidence. My HDMI started failing the day after receiving the update also. This is my second unit. The first unit worked great for ~2 months then the HDMI port died. My second unit worked great for ~ 3 months. Then the colors began to turn red the day after the update. I was able to correct by unplugging and replugging the cable. This worked for 4 nights in a row. Each night it only occurred 1 time. Today the pic stays red so I assume the card is no longer making good contact. I will be calling for a 2nd replacement tomorrow. In my case, DVI is noticeably better than component. So I'll call every time I have a HDMI failure.

VicF

09-28-2004, 01:24 AM

Had my unit for about 3 weeks; finally able to test HDMI/DVI on a sony rear projection unit. Worked right off the bat not a problem to be found

billsfan1

09-28-2004, 09:18 AM

I bought my first HR10-250 last week from CC online and the HDMI port produced a color distorted image right from the start. When I first got the unit it was obvious that it was used even though I paid for a new unit. The box was a little tattered and the unit had hand prints all over it. (I suspect that the seller may be recycling failed HDMI units and maybe this is why this problem seems larger than it really is) I could not exchange the unit at a local CC store since they do not carry it in stock, so I had to work with the webstore representatives for the exchange. Initially I was told that they would replace the unit as soon as I had a UPS tracking number for the return unit. However, after mailing the unit back they then told me I had to wait a week or so for them to receive and inspect the unit before they would send me a replacement. I was not able to speed this up even after several calls to their support center. Since this unit seems to have a failure history I decided I would be better off dealing with a more responsive seller, and I asked for a refund. I then found that the local Sound Advice stores carry this unit in stock, so I picked up and installed the unit last night. It works great and I am very happy with it. The HDMI output looks much better that I was seeing from the component output. My only recommendation to anyone buying this unit is to try to find a local store that carries this in stock. That way if you do ever have any problems you can exchange it right away and deal with someone face to face instead of talking to a technical support person somewhere in India.

sotapoppy

09-28-2004, 09:33 AM

Originally posted by billsfan1
...... My only recommendation to anyone buying this unit is to try to find a local store that carries this in stock. That way if you do ever have any problems you can exchange it right away and deal with someone face to face instead of talking to a technical support person somewhere in India.

So true! I'm on hold with India right now.:rolleyes:

BryanCPA

09-28-2004, 12:21 PM

Is a Tivo lock up when changing resolutions a symptom of a bad HDMI port or a display incompatability?

AbMagFab

09-28-2004, 12:40 PM

How do you know it's locking up?

BryanCPA

09-28-2004, 04:07 PM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
How do you know it's locking up?
After I use the up arrow to change the resolution, the on-screen setting indicator (1080i, 720p ...) stays on the screen and the tivo is non responsive to any commands. I have to reboot to return the tivo to normal. I am not having any picture quality problems, just the freeze on changing the resolution. This issue does not occur when I use the component outputs.

AbMagFab

09-28-2004, 04:37 PM

Odd. How long did you give it before giving up? What kind of TV? Might be a DHCP negotiation issue? Does it only happen when going to 720p/1080i, or to 480i/p also?

bfdhe

09-28-2004, 06:14 PM

Add one more to the death toll. DTV sending a replacement. Only took 2 hours on the phone, 2 disconnects and 5 CSRs. The last one said" yes, we know this is a problem and are working on a permanent fix, until then, if it happens again just have us replace it"

BryanCPA

09-28-2004, 06:23 PM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
Odd. How long did you give it before giving up? What kind of TV? Might be a DHCP negotiation issue? Does it only happen when going to 720p/1080i, or to 480i/p also?
I gave it a good 2 or 3 minutes before pulling the plug. The tivo is connencted to a Sanyo Z2 projector (it is DHCP compliant) and the lock up happens no matter which resoultion I go to or from.

MrCoolDu4

09-28-2004, 09:22 PM

This is ridiculous. DirecTV has replaced my receiver three times with units that do not work right out of the box. I am of course talking about the dead HDMI's Its simply that this box is as expensive as it is in part to the HDMI. Without the HDMI I believe its a minimum of $250 less. I am tired of the long hold times on the phone talking to those morons. Oh that is unless they transfer me to the extension that rings and rings and rings and auto disconnects. I love that one. So now I am emailing my displeasure with this POS and I actually did receive a reply. Someone will contact me within the next two days. I can hardly wait.

bfdhe

09-28-2004, 09:33 PM

Who did you email? I will email them too. Send me the address and please post whatever reply you get here.

mike_k7

09-29-2004, 12:48 AM

I just received my second HR10-250. The first was fine for about a week, and then it looked like it was only displaying 16 colors. Got a similar story from DTV about the HDMI card not being seated correctly. Second unit didn't work at all using HDMI, works with component (as did the first one). I got mine from BestBuy, and they are only available from their Web site. So of course now I have to buy and pay for a third unit, take the first one back, wait for the new one and then take the second one back. At least the units I'm getting from BB are not used.

FWIW - Date stamp on the first unit was Aug 7, 2004 and Aug 25, 2004 on the second.

MrCool - if you post that email address I will gladly fire off an email as well.

drjeckl

09-29-2004, 01:25 PM

yeah, MrCool, we'll bury them with emails.

mtolson

09-29-2004, 10:41 PM

This is interesting. I am on my third HD tivo receiver. When I hooked this one up the HDMI-to-DVI produced what appears to be inversed or 16bit video. Upon calling DTV, I was told that it was a software issue that they were aware of and were working on. The rep told me to switch to component and to check back in a couple of weeks. Mine is dated 8/31/04.

So far, I am now on my third unit:

Unit 1 - Made April 2004. Hard drive clicked upon boot and never got to Welcome message.

Unit 2 - Made May 25, 2004. Rebooted and could never get past "Just a few more seconds" message.

Unit 3 - Made Aug. 31, 2004. HDMI/DVI show 16bit graphics right out box. Software version 3.1.5-01-2-357.

Is DTV blowing smoke and do I now have yet another defective unit.

Marc

mike_k7

09-29-2004, 11:37 PM

Marc,

My 1st unit had the 16 color problem (I don't think it was 16 bit color - it seemed to actually be only 16 colors) - it did it for the first few minutes during initial setup, then snapped to full color, and then after about a week it went back to the 16 colors. It *could* be a software issue, but it doesn't seem like it would go back and forth if it was.

When I called DTV the CSR had not heard of this problem before. It would be nice to find someone at DTV who had actual firsthand knowledge of the problem and the solution.

unixadm

09-30-2004, 09:16 AM

If you look a few pages back (17, 18, 19), there are some posts that indicate that this is a hardware problem with the way the HDMI card sits in the slot of the motherboard.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=2234485#post2234485

DirectTV's only solution at this time has been to swap the entire unit out with a replacement, which then may also have the same problem.

A page or 2 back, someone posted that DirectTV told them they are aware of the problem and ARE NOT swapping out any more until they resolve the issue.

jbs01

09-30-2004, 01:38 PM

I've had my HR10-250 for 5 months with no problems. Today, I noticed the picture on my TV had gone to the "16 color" mode. I lightly jiggled the HDMI plug on the back of the TIVO and the picture on the TV would change to okay, to 16 color to 2 color. I unplugged and replugged the HDMI only to have the TV then report "no input" on the DVI port. Oh boy. A reboot of the Tivo and still no joy. Guess you can add me to the "failed HDMI" list.

pbolya

09-30-2004, 03:05 PM

Originally posted by unixadm
If you look a few pages back (17, 18, 19), there are some posts that indicate that this is a hardware problem with the way the HDMI card sits in the slot of the motherboard.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=2234485#post2234485

DirectTV's only solution at this time has been to swap the entire unit out with a replacement, which then may also have the same problem.

A page or 2 back, someone posted that DirectTV told them they are aware of the problem and ARE NOT swapping out any more until they resolve the issue. Hay that's me! I am famous.

Any way I am sure that this post of my will add fuel to the fire. But here it is:

I have had it with this piece of equipment. I always knew and said it many times that most likely this fix of mine will eventually stop working. Well that time has come. The HDMI is totally dead and I am not about to take it out and investigate it further more. I am done trying to fix everything that is not working. When I run the self test half of the time it returns errors on one or more SAT or OTA tuners. This is happening from day one but ignored it as it seams to be recording fine (most of the time).

So I put the original bad hard rive in which doesn't even boot anymore and called D*. I got to level 1 pretty quick. 5 minutes later I was at level 2 explaining the same thing and 5 minutes later he forwarded me to level 3 which I was waiting for about 20 minutes. 5 minutes later I was told that a new box is on the way (35 minutes is what I was expecting anyway). When I asked the guy said he does not know about a wide spread HDMI issue. I am only the second customer he did this for. Nothing about software issue (which it is clearly not) but than again I have a bad hard drive as well so it doesn't even matter.

jlas75

09-30-2004, 03:05 PM

In an attempt to try and fix the HDMI problem, I reset my HR10-250 and am now missing the "Showcases" option within the TiVo menu.

Is anyone else experiencing this with new receivers? Does anyone know how to get it back?

mtolson

09-30-2004, 07:15 PM

Originally posted by mtolson
This is interesting. I am on my third HD tivo receiver. When I hooked this one up the HDMI-to-DVI produced what appears to be inversed or 16bit video. Upon calling DTV, I was told that it was a software issue that they were aware of and were working on. The rep told me to switch to component and to check back in a couple of weeks. Mine is dated 8/31/04.

So far, I am now on my third unit:

Unit 1 - Made April 2004. Hard drive clicked upon boot and never got to Welcome message.

Unit 2 - Made May 25, 2004. Rebooted and could never get past "Just a few more seconds" message.

Unit 3 - Made Aug. 31, 2004. HDMI/DVI show 16bit graphics right out box. Software version 3.1.5-01-2-357.

Is DTV blowing smoke and do I now have yet another defective unit.

Marc

I took the HDMI card out of Unit 2 (which DTV never sent a return mailer, in fact I still have unit 1 as well) and placed it in Unit 3 and now Unit 3 appears for working fine on my 65" Mitsu. I would have to say they are still having hardware issues with the cards being that Unit 3 was built in late August.

Rcam10

09-30-2004, 10:15 PM

Personally, ever since the first unit I received the first of April, which had a dead output, and I proceeded to "attempt" to get the output back working, its been my opinion its a messy type of problem.

Like I posted in some thread thats long gone, I did remove the card, the main board, resoldered certain areas, look at it under magnification, ect. and that basically did nothing. They got a problem there with the connection between that card & the main board. Maybe its mostly the card, maybe its not. The signal is extremely sensitive, not to mention all that copy protection mess built in, so if it breaks connection, it goes crazy.

Most can be made to output video if held in the perfect position, but that isn't a fix, and most times that can't even be done, because its a impossible way hold that card.

When they decide to stop playing around an change the production line to correct the problem, then and only then will it go away.

zubinh

09-30-2004, 10:30 PM

Just got my first replacement today. I was soooooo optomistic until I hooked up everything and now all I see are garbled colors and people that look like the negatives of a roll of film.

I going to call directv tomw but I dont think theyre going to help much. I think I'll send them this one back and keep my previous one hooked up with component. Luckily I did buy the Circuit City Warranty so when they get some in stock, I'll swap it thru them.

As many have complained they did not double box it nor did they include any kind of return shipping instructions or label.

I took the top off of my previous receiver but the HDMI card looks pretty tightly held to the board. If there are any last words of advice, I'd sure love to hear em.:(

MrCoolDu4

10-02-2004, 08:56 PM

I have discovered the emails to DirecTV are pointless. Someone contacts you who's job it is to apologize for all the problems you've been experiencing. Then they transfer you to the same support extension we've been calling all along. I have kept my return slips from FedEx and the replacements are coming from Memphis, Tennessee. I am thinking that I should try calling that number ? ( Jabil Global 901-795-5300. )

pbolya

10-03-2004, 12:27 AM

Originally posted by pbolya
So I put the original bad hard rive in which doesn't even boot anymore and called D*. I got to level 1 pretty quick. 5 minutes later I was at level 2 explaining the same thing and 5 minutes later he forwarded me to level 3 which I was waiting for about 20 minutes. 5 minutes later I was told that a new box is on the way (35 minutes is what I was expecting anyway). When I asked the guy said he does not know about a wide spread HDMI issue. I am only the second customer he did this for. Nothing about software issue (which it is clearly not) but than again I have a bad hard drive as well so it doesn't even matter. Wow I got my replacement in 3 days. It is unbelievable how they pack this thing. They just throw it in an already worn down box with no outside packaging or foam. However I am happy to report that my replacement is working (for now at least). It is dated August 31. I will report if that changes but it is definitely worth trying to replace it if you have a bad unit.

By the way since I am returning the failed unit I took the card out and put it back removed the plastic spacer and locked the pin to the card so it secures it to the mother board and now it works again (who knows how long though).

Nalez

10-03-2004, 02:23 PM

Thanks for the idea of proping the clip out.

Today I had my HR10-250 do a pink color thing on DVI. Used some cardboard to prop the clip out from the board, and HDMI works as it sould again.

Guess I will leave it that way until DTV comes up with a perminant fix.

Rik

10-04-2004, 12:45 PM

There is a business opportunity here for anyone that can come up with a premium solution fix. Weaknees or any of the other folks who offer upgrade solutions. I know that I, for one, would pay to have one of these companies fix or replace my HDMI card with a premium card and return the unit to me fedex. I have about 40 hours worth of programming that I'd rather not part with in order to get on the unit swap merry-go-round.

kimsan

10-04-2004, 01:43 PM

:mad: Bummer here.

Pulled my unit out of use Saturday morning and did a copy/expand to a pair of Maxtor 250gb drives. Remounted using the Twinbreeze kit from Weaknees (excellent design, all the necessary parts, a set of Torx drivers, and clear illustrated instruction!). -Tao expand took ~32 hours but came off without a hitch. Plugged the unit back in and was greeted by *NO* HDMI output. Didn't see the card or cable, so component was enabled.

Mucked around with the card and clip at lunch today and never got a stable good output. Plenty of variations on posterized and pink and static and no output and no card, but no success.

Buttoned the pup back up and reprogrammed the MX-500 macros to use component rather than DVI. Still beats the crap out of s-video or composite.

I'll join the ranks of those who wait for a *real* fix from DTV before I go for a warranty exchange. Just too much on the drives to let go on a chancy new box for now.

mark757

10-04-2004, 09:20 PM

Originally posted by TriscuiT
I am happy to report that I need to change my Vote from "Had Failure on 1 unit - Made in Mexico" to "No failure - In service for over 2 weeks and going strong" without changing units. What I thought was bad HDMI was in fact a problem with the HR10-250 talking to my JVC HDTV. The technician came out on Monday and replaced a resistor on the TV's HDMI circuit board. Now everything is functioning the way it should be. Of course, after he made the change and put the TV back together again we were not getting ANY picture. He had to open it up again and re-seat some ribbon cables and then everything started working. I hope the rest of you find some path to a happy ending.

Techs came out and allegedly did the same fix to my JVC today (first time they performed the job). Now when I power up the DVR it starts booting but after about 60 seconds shuts down with the high operating temperature warning (blue screen). If I leave the HDMI unplugged and use the component cables everything works fine.

Anyone experience this? DVR issue or fouled up JVC fix?

AbMagFab

10-05-2004, 06:50 AM

I would love to see a poll that correlated HDMI failures with people who modify their boxes on their own. Since people won't be honest, it's pointless, but I have to believe a large percentage of the HDMI failures come from people who added a drive on their own, and either knowlingly or unintentionally banged/touched the HDMI card.

Yes it's an indication it's too fragile, but maybe not as fragile if you don't modify the box at all.

kimsan

10-05-2004, 07:44 AM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
I would love to see a poll that correlated HDMI failures with people who modify their boxes on their own. Since people won't be honest, it's pointless, but I have to believe a large percentage of the HDMI failures come from people who added a drive on their own, and either knowlingly or unintentionally banged/touched the HDMI card.

Yes it's an indication it's too fragile, but maybe not as fragile if you don't modify the box at all.

Got my unit in July. No HDTV so no way to know if anything better than S-Video worked. Unit was unit was unopened and un mod-ed. Can't blame that on anything I did.

HL-P6063W arrived in mid September and HDMI was "posterized". Opened the case and seated the board and HDMI was fine. Unit still un mod-ed.

Added the TwinBreeze bracket and new drive this weekend. Never came near the HDMI daughterboard. No HDMI out when reinstalled and cable wasn't recognized, so Component was on.

Mucked with the card a bit yesterday. The slightest variation in pressure and position causes a wide range of failure modes. Primarily fuchsia screen with picture, limey screen with picture, a range of posterization, static, no output, and finally no cable recognized.

It's just a badly designed connector/mount. Electronic connections should be clean and precise and stable. This one seems based on the phase of the moon, sacrificing a virgin and swinging a headless chicken over your head ;)

Just my 2¢.

AbMagFab

10-05-2004, 09:40 AM

I wonder how many people have problems with the HDMI with the new red junk on it?

unixadm

10-05-2004, 09:43 AM

Originally posted by AbMagFab
I would love to see a poll that correlated HDMI failures with people who modify their boxes on their own. Since people won't be honest, it's pointless, but I have to believe a large percentage of the HDMI failures come from people who added a drive on their own, and either knowlingly or unintentionally banged/touched the HDMI card.

Yes it's an indication it's too fragile, but maybe not as fragile if you don't modify the box at all.

I never even opened the case......neither did most people here when I started this thread. These failures were happening pretty early in the process....before most people even thought about opening up the case. Many are coming out of the box either dead or not working properly. I am sure there are a few due to a case being open, but that wouldn't explain failures out of the box.

I know many people noticed a failure or the start of failure if they unplugged and plugged in the HDMI cable for some reason (move it in the cabinet, re-route the cable, etc. I think it is just so fragile of a connection that the pressure of pushing in on plugging the cable in or a little rough handling in shipping is enough to cause it to lose connection.

kimsan

10-05-2004, 10:12 AM

Originally posted by unixadm
I know many people noticed a failure or the start of failure if they unplugged and plugged in the HDMI cable for some reason (move it in the cabinet, re-route the cable, etc. I think it is just so fragile of a connection that the pressure of pushing in on plugging the cable in or a little rough handling in shipping is enough to cause it to lose connection.

Yup. The 3 mounting screws support the cable connector very well in relation to the case back. Unfortunately the spring clip has a fairly wide "window" where it holds the card notch down. Down is vague and perpendicular to the main board even more so. But the real culprit is the board connector itself IMO. Those pins should mate solidly even with a slight variation in angle or depth of seating. They do not.

This cries out for a recall/retrofit with a connector that mates at least as solidly and reliably as the cable connector. And when they come out with such a fix, I'll be all over it!

Meanwhile, I'll "suffer" with component out and 90%+ HD material on *my* schedule. :)

Maybe Monday (my holiday, not so for the missus) I muck with the connector one last time. Always a tinkerer ;)

zubinh

10-05-2004, 11:41 AM

Yeah well I tried tinkering with the HDMI card with the unit on and yes the picture did come back, but I was not successfully in keeping it that way.

Anyway, while moving the card, I got a small electric shock which caused my hand jump back and I scratched my arm along side the top edge of the casing. Now I've got a 4 inch scar near my wrist.

I will not attempt it again (even with rubber gloves). I'll keep calling for a replacement until I get a working one.

Thanks Directv, you've scarred me for life.

silyman1

10-05-2004, 01:06 PM

I got mine very early in the release and one died on me. Fortunately i bought it at best buy, and got their Service plan, so they just swapped it out for free, i didn't have to pay to ship it back to hughes or anything like that.

pbolya

10-05-2004, 08:19 PM

Originally posted by silyman1
I got mine very early in the release and one died on me. Fortunately i bought it at best buy, and got their Service plan, so they just swapped it out for free, i didn't have to pay to ship it back to hughes or anything like that. DirecTv pays for the shipping both ways and they send out a replacement in 3 days. On the top of it I got 6 month of HD package free (not a big value as this package sucks but still). First replacement worked (so far).

beardad

10-06-2004, 01:05 PM

I had an HDMI failure shortly after my wife dropped the remote, buttons down. For some reason it went to the 480p format and I lost the picture. After unplugging the unit it defaulted back to one of the 480 modes. After it booted up and all the advisory messages went away so did the picture. I used the button on the unit to return it to the 1080i format and all is right with the world. This has happened twice.

I still get jumps in the picture at irregular intervals as though the hard drive is changing speed, signal loss or some other interruption.

Do I need to pack it up and get a replacement? It happens on the DirecTv HD channels and OTA HD channels. Is this a common problem?

ikitai

10-06-2004, 02:00 PM

I just set-up my HR10-250 with a 30" LCD using the HDMI to DVI cable. With the box set at 720p (native) the HD content looks amazing but SD has a small ~10 pixels~ bar of noise across the top of the picture that doesn't extend into the sidebars. I tried a number of full and panel view combinations but it remains.

Two things solve this problem
1. Using component...
2. Using Zoom on the SD channels.

Is this a sign of impending HDMI failure or am I missing some other more obvious problem/solution. I'd like to stick with the DVI if it can work. My next step is to go back to BB and try another unit, but it is a long drive and I don't want to bother if there is another solution.

Thanks

Frank Buitre

10-06-2004, 05:28 PM

I just received mine today and the HDMI port worked for like 10 minutes, then died.

They are sending a replacement unit this week.

It was Made in Mexico August 2004.

Rik

10-06-2004, 06:07 PM

Originally posted by ikitai
I just set-up my HR10-250 with a 30" LCD using the HDMI to DVI cable. With the box set at 720p (native) the HD content looks amazing but SD has a small ~10 pixels~ bar of noise across the top of the picture that doesn't extend into the sidebars. I tried a number of full and panel view combinations but it remains.

Two things solve this problem
1. Using component...
2. Using Zoom on the SD channels.

Is this a sign of impending HDMI failure or am I missing some other more obvious problem/solution. I'd like to stick with the DVI if it can work. My next step is to go back to BB and try another unit, but it is a long drive and I don't want to bother if there is another solution.

Thanks

I actually experience a similar issue but on 720p only. My small bar of noise appears as a sort of bend in the picture across the top of the screen. Someone in one of my forums suggested that it might be an overscan issue with my set on 720p.

tkentish2001

10-07-2004, 02:16 PM

If I do NOT have HDMI on my Toshiba 65" -- is this the unit for me?

Seriously, I just read all of the pages in this thread - took me 1.5 hours during lunch, but I 'm thinking this unit as a whole may just be a lemon until they work out more details and supply better hardware.

What would everyone do in my case -- as I have NO HDMI input.

Thanks in advance...

TOm

pbolya

10-07-2004, 02:31 PM

Originally posted by tkentish2001
If I do NOT have HDMI on my Toshiba 65" -- is this the unit for me?

Seriously, I just read all of the pages in this thread - took me 1.5 hours during lunch, but I 'm thinking this unit as a whole may just be a lemon until they work out more details and supply better hardware.

What would everyone do in my case -- as I have NO HDMI input.

Thanks in advance...

TOm As you noticed in here the HDMI is the main problem here. If you do not need to use it than do not even think about it twice. This is the unit for you (provided your TV is HD ready). The picture through component still looks amazing and most of all problem free.

sotapoppy

10-07-2004, 02:33 PM

Originally posted by tkentish2001
If I do NOT have HDMI on my Toshiba 65" -- is this the unit for me?

Seriously, I just read all of the pages in this thread - took me 1.5 hours during lunch, but I 'm thinking this unit as a whole may just be a lemon until they work out more details and supply better hardware.

What would everyone do in my case -- as I have NO HDMI input.

Thanks in advance...

TOm

IMHO component hookup renders an excellent picture on my setup. HDMI to DVI is even noticeably better on my set. If you have no DVI input on your tv then this thread is not too meaningful to you unless you plan to replace your tv. However, you said your tv has no HDMI input. Did you mean to say it has no DVI input?

I'm on my 3rd unit. The HDMI port failed in the first two units. Aside from that, I had no problems with any of the units. I would not consider it a lemon aside from the HDMI card.

tkentish2001

10-07-2004, 02:34 PM

I believe I only have component input, no DVI or HDMI. Hope I'm explaining that correctly. You guys are out of my league technically. :)

thejdj

10-07-2004, 07:36 PM

No output right out of the box. I was able to get a little bit of scrambled picture by pushing on the HDMI module. Since I've also been dealing with the searching for sat... problem, I requested a replacement. I'll try it again in 2-5 days.

Alex Campbell

10-07-2004, 07:42 PM

Recieved my third box yesterday...born in Mexico in July 2004.

HDMI is working fine. for how long is the question.

one thing I have noticed is that, in my opinion, SD channels looked better when I was hooked up thru component. too bad you can't output both.

AC

ps. the biggest pain in the ass is setting up all my season passes, wish lists, etc. not to mention all the content I lost when I had to return my last box. I don't think I will be switching boxes again, regardless of what happens with the HDMi port

MikeGst

10-07-2004, 09:22 PM

HDMI dead straight from the box, but VE is replacing. A pretty discouraging experience for a $1K box :rolleyes:

cocoon

10-07-2004, 10:10 PM

I don't want to jinx myself but I think I finally got a working HDTivo. Unlike all the previous units it pauses slightly while it syncs HDMI output. None of the previous units did that. I must say though it did fail to do that a couple times before the "3.1.5.d" software update but since the update been working 100%. This one was made in Mexico September 3 2004.

This was was my 5th or 6th unit I might have lost one of the fedex slips heh. I had given up hope quite frankly as the last 2 units they sent me were less then pleasing. One arrived with satellite input 2 dented which means someone had to have dropped it hard or worse and the other one arrived with grease marks all over it.

To answer a general question I have never opened up any of the HDTivo as I wanted to make sure I got a working one first and I am unsure of my skills to perform surgery on these machines.

To recap my equipment I have been using these machines with a Toshiba 46H84 TV.

--
hoping I finally got a working HD Tivo...

breevesdc

10-08-2004, 12:08 PM

I don't want to jinx myself but I think I finally got a working HDTivo. Unlike all the previous units it pauses slightly while it syncs HDMI output. None of the previous units did that. I must say though it did fail to do that a couple times before the "3.1.5.d" software update but since the update been working 100%. This one was made in Mexico September 3 2004.
Hello. This may be a dumb question but...

I'm a ReplayTV user. I've been planning to make the switch ever since the HD Tivo came out. But I've resisted given the HDMI problem. Now that the HDMI problem *may* be solved, I'm curious... What's the best way to buy an HD Tivo to assure that it comes from the most recently built models. I don't want one that has been sitting on a Best Buy shelf for 30 days. I want one hot off the assembly line so that it has (what may be) the HDMI permanent fix. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Brian

tkentish2001

10-08-2004, 01:48 PM

I will echo the same question Brian asked.

kimsan

10-08-2004, 02:31 PM

Originally posted by breevesdc
Hello. This may be a dumb question but...

I'm a ReplayTV user. I've been planning to make the switch ever since the HD Tivo came out. But I've resisted given the HDMI problem. Now that the HDMI problem *may* be solved, I'm curious... What's the best way to buy an HD Tivo to assure that it comes from the most recently built models. I don't want one that has been sitting on a Best Buy shelf for 30 days. I want one hot off the assembly line so that it has (what may be) the HDMI permanent fix. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Brian

You might want to consider Value Electronics (http://www.valueelectronics.com/). They are a sponsor of the forum and aside from the pre-order/backorder fiasco which had them scrambling just to try and keep up with demand, they've been very highly respected by many in the forum for price and service.

TVAuthority (http://www.tvauthority.com) would be another place to try. They're a sponsor over in the AVSforum.

Whoever you choose, talk to someone *live* and make certain their defect return program will get you a replacement *if* there's a failure. Maybe they can even check the date ofr you prior to shipping.

mayall

10-08-2004, 04:57 PM

I've had two out-of-the-box HDMI failures. Both units were new upgraded units from WeaKnees.

The WeaKnees folks have been great! They swapped the units within 3 days no questions asked.

The third unit has working HDMI but I'm very disappointed with the quality compared to component. The picture is washed out. It has poor contrast and there's lots of black noise. If I pause a picture that has black bars on the top and bottom, the bars are full of splotches.

I'm using a new Panasonic 50" plasma monitor. The Panasonic's quality is stunning.

I'm very puzzled how the quality of the HDMI can be so poor. I had hooked a PC to the plasma's DVI and the picture looked perfect.

AJ500

10-08-2004, 08:48 PM

Well, I need to change my vote from a couple of months ago. Today, I got the pink screen and no amount of power cycling, format change, or ratio button fixes it.

Unit installed since June and made in Mexico.

I note that it has the 3.1.5d software, but don't know when that update was installed.

Looks like I'll be switching over to component or going through the replacement lottery. I'd sure like to have a sure-fire fix before swapping the unit out.

TSpoonEars

10-08-2004, 10:52 PM

Mine died tonight too after 6 weeks. Pink screen and horrible colour banding. Strangely component video is dead too - I get the odd video line on the screen and that's it. S-video still works.

Looks like I'm off to Best Buy tomorrow to take advantage of the Extended Warranty I bought.

Cheers,

Andy

AJ500

10-09-2004, 12:36 PM

UPDATE: Today, I got to the back of the equipment rack and jiggled the HDMI cable at its connector on the back of the HR10-250.

The picture changed as the cable was jiggled (pink stripes and splotches). I was able to find a sweet spot where the picture was normal. But, I doubt that I can keep it there since it seems to be very sensitive.

So, just one more opinion that there's a design problem with the connector/card/board interface. Why is it taking so long for the manufacturer to resolve this problem?

Rik

10-09-2004, 12:51 PM

Originally posted by AJ500

So, just one more opinion that there's a design problem with the connector/card/board interface. Why is it taking so long for the manufacturer to resolve this problem?

So far - DirecTV tech support has been reluctant to answer this question / issue and in some cases don't even recognize it as an issue.
I think we need to start a letter writing and telephone calling campaign to the top executives within DirecTV. In my prior experiences (with DirecTV and others) phone calls to the top are usually addressed - not necessarily by the top but usually by someone nearby or someone in customer relations. I work for a business information company and would be happy to get some names if I can get some volunteers of folks that will pursue this avenue. We need a good effort if we are to get some action - or at least an explanation and a status report.

MrBigglesworth

10-09-2004, 06:09 PM

I just got a replacement because my first one died with the 3.1.5.d update but its HDMI was perfect.

The replacement unit was pretty much DOA, I had a few seconds of purple, digital posterization artifacts then nothing. Can't get anything out of it now.

Unit was made on Sept 5, 04.

robnalex

10-10-2004, 12:09 PM

Not long ago someone posted here that D* told him they were not replacing any more HR10-250s with bad HDMI until the issue was fixed. Is that still the policy, or are they still replacing them?

robnalex

10-10-2004, 12:12 PM

Originally posted by mayall
I've had two out-of-the-box HDMI failures. Both units were new upgraded units from WeaKnees.

The WeaKnees folks have been great! They swapped the units within 3 days no questions asked.

The third unit has working HDMI but I'm very disappointed with the quality compared to component. The picture is washed out. It has poor contrast and there's lots of black noise. If I pause a picture that has black bars on the top and bottom, the bars are full of splotches.

I'm using a new Panasonic 50" plasma monitor. The Panasonic's quality is stunning.

I'm very puzzled how the quality of the HDMI can be so poor. I had hooked a PC to the plasma's DVI and the picture looked perfect. My 50" Panny Plasma behaves similarly with HDMI. Much better PQ with component.

dmyers

10-11-2004, 09:38 AM

HDMI failed right out of the box and component hookups had inferior picture.
Made in Mexico on Sept. 3, 2004
Took back to store for refund and got back a Samsung HD sir-ts360 without TVO. Bought it on October 9, 2004 and returned it on October 10, 2004. This was the DirectV HD DVR Model HR10-250. At a $1,000 not a good value. Could not settle for the inferior picture.:down:

pbolya

10-11-2004, 03:50 PM

Originally posted by robnalex
Not long ago someone posted here that D* told him they were not replacing any more HR10-250s with bad HDMI until the issue was fixed. Is that still the policy, or are they still replacing them? They replaced mine.

Registered

10-11-2004, 04:55 PM

For Rik and others interested in trying to get D* brass' attention on the HDMI problem -- here's some contact info:

Mitch Stern, President & CEO
DIRECTV, Inc.
2230 E. Imperial Highway
El Segundo, CA 90245

Main phone: (310) 957-0000
Main fax: (310) 964-5000

Chase Carey, President & CEO, The DIRECTV Group, is Mitch's boss and can be written/phoned at the above, too.

From the D* website:
For Information on: General DIRECTV Information, Marketing, Advanced Products and Commercial Business:
Jade Valine, Specialist, Public Relations, Phone: (310) 964-3429, Department Fax: (310) 535-5225
There's also their Investor Relations Department's email:
investorrelations@directv.com

I'd be glad to assist with phone calls, letters, faxes and emails.

mike_k7

10-11-2004, 08:39 PM

Got my third unit from BB - made Aug. 25, 2004 - Made in Mexico. Same as my second unit, and same F'ing problem with HDMI. Was fine for a few days, then it went south.

There have been several posts here describing problems with the way the card interfaces with the motherboard - I'm wondering if the problem could be in the way the HDMI cable interfaces with the card. Jiggling the cable seems to affect the picture. I'm wondering if those folks that messed around with the card and how it connects with the motherboard were really seeing differences because they were messing with the cable connecting with the card as well. Just a thought.

Now I'm just waiting for the 3.1.5d update to screw me over like it did on my last one.

Now that we have some names and an address and phone number, I'd say it's time to let them hear from us. They need to understand that these problems are affecting their most loyal and dedicated customers (who else would drop $1,000 on one of these units) - and all of that loyalty and dedication is starting to wear thin. All I know is that they are lucky that the cable service in my area sucks.

Rik

10-11-2004, 10:46 PM

Agreed. I'm in on the calling campaign. It's time to rattle some cages.

Coastal Country

10-12-2004, 09:41 AM

I have a Samsung HLP5063W DLP set. I just purchased the new Directv HD TIVO reciever (HR10-250). The problem I have is that when I hook up the receiver to the tv with HDMI or DVI, I get a No Signal message, yet it does work with S-Video. It seems pretty straight forward to plug in the connection and change the setting on the tv to the correct format, HDMI, DVI, etc. Yet I get no signal at all with the DVI/HDMI connection.
Is this considered a problem or am I doing something wrong? Should I exchange the receiver?
Thanks!

kimsan

10-12-2004, 10:27 AM

Originally posted by Coastal Country
I have a Samsung HLP5063W DLP set. I just purchased the new Directv HD TIVO reciever (HR10-250). The problem I have is that when I hook up the receiver to the tv with HDMI or DVI, I get a No Signal message, yet it does work with S-Video. It seems pretty straight forward to plug in the connection and change the setting on the tv to the correct format, HDMI, DVI, etc. Yet I get no signal at all with the DVI/HDMI connection.
Is this considered a problem or am I doing something wrong? Should I exchange the receiver?
Thanks!

Two things to remember. 1 - Samsung HLP sets do not accept 480i via DVI or HDMI. 2 - The HR10-250 S-Video and composite are only enabled for 480i.

Try using the up arrow or front panel button to change the HDTiVo output to 480p/720p/1080i. You'll see the front panel indicator cycle through the resolutions. On screen you'll see 480i displayed on the first up arrow press, then the screen will show no input. Now switch the TV to DVI or HDMI.

If you still have no picture or any of the variations of colors and posterization, the HDTiVo likely has a bad or badly seated HDMI card. Time for an exchange.

If you've got a great picture, smile and be happy.

Until you exchange, you can unplug the HDMI cable and use Component video.

I've got the HL-P4663W. :) Nice sets, aren't they?

mfleming

10-12-2004, 11:15 AM

Originally posted by TSpoonEars
Mine died tonight too after 6 weeks. Pink screen and horrible colour banding. Strangely component video is dead too - I get the odd video line on the screen and that's it. S-video still works.

Looks like I'm off to Best Buy tomorrow to take advantage of the Extended Warranty I bought.

Cheers,

Andy

I was thinking about getting one from BestBuy since I have a 10% off coupon for this weekend. But, they told me that the Extended Warranty did not allow for them to let me keep the bad unit until a replacement is given. I have to give it to them first, then they try to fix it, and if unfixable, they give me a new one. Said it could take a week. As you all know, a week without Tivo is impossible!

Is the the way you understand the BB warranty to work?

I've been holding back buying one (again), waiting for DTV to address the problem. It looks like they may NEVER address it. This is the most unbelievable case of poor business I think I've ever seen.

Coastal Country

10-12-2004, 11:29 AM

Originally posted by kimsan
Two things to remember. 1 - Samsung HLP sets do not accept 480i via DVI or HDMI. 2 - The HR10-250 S-Video and composite are only enabled for 480i.

Try using the up arrow or front panel button to change the HDTiVo output to 480p/720p/1080i. You'll see the front panel indicator cycle through the resolutions. On screen you'll see 480i displayed on the first up arrow press, then the screen will show no input. Now switch the TV to DVI or HDMI.

If you still have no picture or any of the variations of colors and posterization, the HDTiVo likely has a bad or badly seated HDMI card. Time for an exchange.

If you've got a great picture, smile and be happy.

Until you exchange, you can unplug the HDMI cable and use Component video.

I've got the HL-P4663W. :) Nice sets, aren't they?

I understand what you are saying. I only get picture/signal with S-Video or Component at 480i. When I switch to the DVI or HDMI cables and swith the source on the tv correctly and change the receiver to 720p or 1080i, I get No Signal. I'm thinking I have to switch out the reciever and try a new one...has to be a bad HDMI on it. Going to Circuit City tonight to get another one to try...if still same....I want my $1000. back for this piece of junk.
As for my HLP5063W...LOVE IT! Just haven't seen HD on it yet! Great picture without it, so I can only imagine with HD! Maybe someday....

kimsan

10-12-2004, 12:47 PM

Originally posted by Coastal Country
I understand what you are saying. I only get picture/signal with S-Video or Component at 480i. When I switch to the DVI or HDMI cables and swith the source on the tv correctly and change the receiver to 720p or 1080i, I get No Signal. I'm thinking I have to switch out the reciever and try a new one...has to be a bad HDMI on it. Going to Circuit City tonight to get another one to try...if still same....I want my $1000. back for this piece of junk.

That's a shame. Had it only been a setup misunderstanding, you'd be in HD nirvana by now.

As for my HLP5063W...LOVE IT! Just haven't seen HD on it yet! Great picture without it, so I can only imagine with HD! Maybe someday....

Pull the HDMI plug from the HDTiVo and plug in the Component (GreenBlueRed) cable. You can have HD right now. Just not HD via and all digital path.

But definitely exchange the unit ASAP. Good luck on the next one!

Coastal Country

10-12-2004, 01:30 PM

Hi Kim,
Thanks for the input. I can go that route with component, only thing is that I use the component connections on the back of my Sammy TV to connect to my A/V receiver. I really need the HDMI for hookup between the HD/Tivo receiver and the TV. Hopefully I'll get a unit that works later tonight when I try to exchange this one.
Cheers,
--Richard

MrBigglesworth

10-12-2004, 01:40 PM

I just ran some quick numbers above, and based on failures, this has affected well over $200,000 worth of equipment. That is insane. I wonder if when I write I should include the poll sampling up there.

dmwierz

10-12-2004, 06:42 PM

Originally posted by mfleming
I was thinking about getting one from BestBuy since I have a 10% off coupon for this weekend. But, they told me that the Extended Warranty did not allow for them to let me keep the bad unit until a replacement is given. I have to give it to them first, then they try to fix it, and if unfixable, they give me a new one. Said it could take a week. As you all know, a week without Tivo is impossible!

Is the the way you understand the BB warranty to work?

I've been holding back buying one (again), waiting for DTV to address the problem. It looks like they may NEVER address it. This is the most unbelievable case of poor business I think I've ever seen.

Holy Moley no! The value of the extended warranty as sold to me is, if the thing breaks, you get a new one. Not after they try to fix it! As one who bought a POS RCA DVD recorder last November and who has had it in the shop for 9 of the 10 months I have owned it, all without RCA agreeing it needs to be replaced (they still inisist on trying to fix it), I would NEVER accept paying for a warranty only to have them try to fix it before giving you a new one. As I have found out, trying to fix it could take months!

hyperdoc

10-12-2004, 08:30 PM

HDMI seems to be working for me. Have had it for 4-5 days.

I do have one issue which I am not sure is matching up to others I have read on this forum.

When I turn TV on (Have MIT DLP 52725) I get "channel not available". I flip the format button to toggle 720, 1080... The screen flashes and I get a picture. Sometimes it seems I have to change channels. All seems fine from there. Anybody experiencing this? What is it?

Is this signs of a pending disaster?

I did not buy extended warranty because my normal original Tivo has been so good to me. Should I go back and get the warranty?

Rik

10-12-2004, 09:57 PM

Are you sure your set can handle all formats? Some large screens cannot handle an inbound 720p for example and so you would get a blank screen when feeding 720p to such a set. My previous Toshiba 65" was one such set. It's one of the reasons I sold it and purchased a Pioneer Elite. Didn't want to miss out on the 720p X-Box games.

hyperdoc

10-12-2004, 11:42 PM

Can handle all formats and converts them to 720p. So that not it but thanks for the thought.

Coastal Country

10-13-2004, 07:27 AM

Originally posted by kimsan
That's a shame. Had it only been a setup misunderstanding, you'd be in HD nirvana by now.

Pull the HDMI plug from the HDTiVo and plug in the Component (GreenBlueRed) cable. You can have HD right now. Just not HD via and all digital path.

But definitely exchange the unit ASAP. Good luck on the next one!

Just wanted to give an update. Swapped out my unit for another at Circuit City last night, came home installed in minutes, and WORKS! Just as I suspected...bad HDMI port on the last one. Hopefully this one won't go bad like I've read happening to some people. In any event...I've arrived...HDTV heaven! It's a beautiful thing! Thanks for your support with this.

kimsan

10-13-2004, 08:46 AM

Originally posted by Coastal Country
Just wanted to give an update. Swapped out my unit for another at Circuit City last night, came home installed in minutes, and WORKS! Just as I suspected...bad HDMI port on the last one. Hopefully this one won't go bad like I've read happening to some people. In any event...I've arrived...HDTV heaven! It's a beautiful thing! Thanks for your support with this.

:up: Congratulations!

Since you've got a good'un, care to share the build date? As soon as it sounds like there's a significant success rate I (and quite a few others) will be ready to play the warranty roulette game and get back to digital all the way.

wspo

10-13-2004, 12:28 PM

Local CC received a couple units so I thought I would try one while the unit I purchased via the Web was still inside 30 days. Original unit was manufactured in Mexico Aug 04. HDMI DOA. New unit manufactured in Mexico Sep 04 HDMI DOA. Played with the card a little and got a pink picture for a second. After that only flashes of a signal. Return to CC for refund. I guess I will keep the original unit until a fix is in place. If anyone wants to take a chance they have one unit left (Huntsville, AL).

swspjcd

10-13-2004, 08:16 PM

I've read through this thread and several others and from what I can tell, the HDMI problems that everyone are having are hardware related, correct? The reason I ask is that there were a few people that, after receiving the 3.1.5D update, hard their HDMI working correctly.
I just bought a new Sony KD-34XBR960 tv with a HDMI interface and just received the HR10-250 today. I ran all the cables and installed the new satellite (took almost all day for cables mostly!) and hooked up the new HD Tivo. The picture on my HDMI interface is crappy at best. There is a picture but it appears to look like artifacting and the color is all screwed up also. The component video picture looks fine. I am in the process of getting the 3.15D update now in hopes of it fixing the picture problems. I even tried doing the fix others said would work, by pushing the up arrow to change the output type. A few people said that would fix the picture problems. It didn't. I'm going to retry all the supposed fixes once 3.1.5d gets installed but I'm pretty disappointed, as I'm sure most of you are, that my new unit doesn't work and now I'm going to have to send it back and get another one and try again. I'm sure none of this is new to any of you so I guess I'm just venting at this point. What I'm not sure of though is if the HDMI problem I'm having is the same as others or could it be with HDCP and the tv or something since I actually do have a picture, although it's far from what it's supposed to be.

Suggestions?

John