6.3c Locking up HR10-250 (including lousy workaround) - Cleveland Beware

[RonOhio]

One of my HR10-250's keeps locking up (unresponsive remote, black screen lockup, rebooting) after some investigation I have pinpointed the cause and developed a work around until D* or T* can fix the software. I thought it may be helpful to share this workaround.

Symptoms - For me the locking up and reboots only happen when the the HR10-250 is tuned to a particular station, Cleveland OTA 5-1 WEWS-DT ABC. When my HR10-250 is tuned to this channel there is stuttering and breakups. Also, the HR10-250 is less responsive or completely unresponsive to the remote control. It is messing up the system so bad that when the HR10-250 is tuned to this station the menu is also unresponsive to the remote control. Sometimes the HR10-250 is so unresponsive that I need to reboot it to regain control of the system. This issue was difficult to isolate because sometimes this station would be tuned in on the background tuner and I wasn't able to correlate the issue to the 5-1 station. It was easier for me isolate this problem because I have 2 HR10-250's and Cleveland has 4 OTA HD stations that I do most of my recording off of. So one of my HR10-250s is set up two record 2 of the stations and the other HR-10-250's is setup to record the other 2. It was only the HR10-250 set to record the ABC channel that was locking up.

Solution - Unfortunately, the only way I have found to take make my HR10-250 more stable is to remove the Cleveland ABC WEWS 5-1 station out of the 'Channels List' menu, replace it with the low definition channel 5, and record off of that station.

Extreme Lockups - At least one time the lockups were so bad that even after I rebooted the HR10-250, trying to regain control, it would still lockup to the point that I couldn't control it. I went 3 days thinking my HR10-250 was dead. I found in this instance I needed to unplug the antenna lead from the back of the HR10-250 then reboot. Control of my HR10-250 was restored and I could go to live TV and change both tuners off of OTA 5-1. At this point I would also recommend going into the Menu and removing OTA 5-1 out of the 'Channels List', then reboot the HR10-250.

Misc Info - I went over to a friends house that also has 2 HR10-250's and records Cleveland locals via OTA. He is experiencing the same issue with 5-1 - so it isn't an issue with my install. Also, I have an HR20-700 and it can record 5-1 OTA just fine so it is a problem with 6.3c.

[csparks]

You might try removing the access card when watching that HD station....

I've been having those exact symptoms, with varying severity, all last week. In fact, it got so bad that I called D* and had them replace the unit...funny thing was they told me to dispose of the unit any way I wanted....shea, right...I'll fix the damn thing and keep it! ;-)

I'd really like to talk some more about this with you as this just started happening out of the blue and can find no hard drive errors (bad sectors, etc.) to explain the behavior.

I also see that you have 6.3c.....when did that show up? I guess the only way to test if it is the software or not is to load a different version and see if the issue goes away. Wouldn't it be just like D* to roll out a software update that would make watching HD impossible on the HR10-250 so that people will have it replaced with the piece of junk HR20-700....

[RonOhio]

You might try removing the access card when watching that HD station....

I tried pulling out the access card and putting it back in and that does seem to fix the issue while on 5-1 but isn't a solution because the TiVo locks up as soon as I try to change the channels. Also, I never watch Live TV - I record it, so I would have to pull the access card out as soon as the TiVo changed channels to record and put it back in before it change channels to record the next station.

[csparks]

Right, buyt have you tried leaving the access card out while watching 5-1? I found that when I did remove the card, I could get any local HDs without studdering, skipping, etc. But the minute I put the card back in, the problem re-appeared. So, I'm wondering if we could be having the same issue.

[csparks]

BTW, I realize leaving the card out is not a solution, I'm just trying to keep note of the symptoms and look for commonalities...I've seen a few other people on here with similar issues.

[lancelot]

The same thing is happening with my HR10-250. We are here in Cleveland, and the wife turned from 5-1 during Depserate Housewives, and the box completely locked up. This is the second day in a row. This problem was introduced when 6.3(c) was downloaded. Anybody have any suggestions on reporting this problem?

[csparks]

I just re-imaged my HR10-250 with instantcake, and so far it appears that the issues have disappeared. And D* said the box was dead....riiight.

[stiffi]

It's entirely related to 6.3c (I think).

My HR10-250 locked up and rebooted itself while tuned to OTA CBS here in Baltimore. The signal was stuttering due to heavy winds.

I've had a lot of OTA trouble, with 6.3a and 6.3b. Everytime I was able to leave the station tuned, no matter how badly it was stuttering. I've watched entire shows this way, because I really wanted to watch something.

My unit never rebooted itself until yesterday, 2 weeks after getting 6.3c

[lancelot]

Agreed.

[cneubert]

I am experiencing the same symptoms with 6.3c and 5-1 in Cleveland. I have two HR10's and with both of them I experience severe system slowdowns and occasional lockups when I'm on 5-1. It is easily reproducible. If I tune to 5-1, I can immediately see that the TiVo menus are responding slowly. If I change away from 5-1 (on both tuners) the slowdowns go away.

The trick here is that sometimes I cannot change away from 5-1 because it freezes on a black screen.

The interesting thing is that I have never missed a recording on 5-1. I record this channel on Sunday and Wednesday nights and I have come home to lockups on Monday and Thursday when I get home from work. Presumably this is because the unit remained on 5-1 and eventually locked up.

As a workaround I have set 2 manual recordings from 12:00 midnight to 12:05 (I also set it to keep at most one episode). This way BOTH tuners get switched off of 5-1 so that I can get back to my Now Playing list the following day. So far this is working but I have only had one night of recording on 5-1 since I set this up. I also removed 5-1 from my channel list so that it doesn't get used when changing channels. Season passes that were set up before removing the channel still work fine.

[Bizily]

I was having lockup and reboot problems all weekend. I'm also running 6.3c. I wasted an hour on hold with Directv this evening so they could eventually tell me they had no idea what the problem was. Thanks for troubleshooting this and sharing it with the rest of us. Hopefully, someone (Directv?) will come up with a reasonable solution soon.

-James

[scooby_doo_53]

I've been having the same problem coming off of channel 20 here in Denver. Lucky for me, that's the old UPN feed, so the only time I really watch it is when there are some old rerun comedies on. I don't know if they still have the contract for the Colorado Rockies Baseball team or not - that may factor in my watching that channel come next month.

I do have a question though....All of you have said that it is affecting various channels. I'm wondering if it is all on one UHF frequency. Channel 20-1 here in down is on UHF channel 19. Are your channels mapped to UHF 19?

[cneubert]

Cleveland 5-1 is digital channel 15.

[Markman07]

THe same thing happend to me here in SE Minnesota on channel 6-1. ABC. I am using 6.3b

[kpollari]

I haven't noticed a problem at all with 5-1 affecting performance. I rarely watch 5-1 but it works fine as long as my antenna is aimed correctly. Otherwise, it just pixelates. I live on the near west side of Cleveland.

I think I had had a few unexplained reboots (never while watching). But since I got 6.3c, I ran my drives through SpinRite and zippered them. Haven't noticed any issues since.

Kermit

[scooby_doo_53]

Cleveland 5-1 is digital channel 15.

Rats, I was hoping maybe it was a UHF frequency issue with the box. I guess it's just random luck. I have 2 units, and the one upstairs never reboots itself!

[Pyroto]

I'm locking up as well, and that's something new as I have never locked up since receiving the unit.

Bleh to rev C.

[Cheezmo]

Same thing (although it happens sporadically, not all the time) with WFAA-DT (ABC affiliate in Dallas). Has been going on since the first 6.3 upgrade.

[Cheezmo]

Here is an example of the kind of garbage you would likely see in your kernel log on the Tivo when this stuff is going on...


Mar 10 15:22:30 (none) kernel: /tvbin/dssappAV: ### ERROsAvailable=32)
Mar 10 15:22:30 (none) kernel: /tvbin/dssappAV: ### ERROR: CwpSecondaryThread: Packet error on vchan 1 (overflow=0, bytesAvailable=100)
Mar 10 15:22:30 (none) kernel: /tvbin/dssappAV: ### ERROR: CwpPrimaryThread: Packet error on vchan 1 (overflow=0, bytesAvailable=32)
Mar 10 15:22:30 (none) kernel: /tvbin/dssappAV: ### ERROR: CwpSecondaryThread: Packet error on vchan 1 (overflow=0, bytesAvailable=100)
Mar 10 15:22:30 (none) kernel: /tvbin/dssappAV: ### ERROR: CwpPrimaryThread: Packet error on vchan 1 (overflow=0, bytesAvailable=32)
Mar 10 15:22:30 (none) kernel: /tvbin/dssappAV: ### ERROR: CwpSecondaryThread: Packet error on vchan 1 (overflow=0, byte

[RonOhio]

I saw TiVo's notice about what would not work if you did not have 6.3c for DST and decided to re-image one of my HR10-250's to 3.1.5f. After about 4 hours 5-1 works perfectly on this one and it is still screwed up on the receiver I left at 6.3c. I am now 100% confident that 6.3c is the cause of the lockups.

[rcbray]

I live in North Royalton and get 5-1 OTA. I'm running 6.3c and have no problems.

[wkearney99]

Is the 6.3c problem due to the tuner doing a poor job with a low signal for the station? As in, if the picture is marginal on a HD station with 3.1.5f will it cause problems in 6.3c? Or is it unrelated to channel strength?

[Cheezmo]

Unrelated, I believe. It happens in my case on two different tivo's with signal strength's stable and in the high 80's.

[BJBBJB]

I had this problem all of a sudden over a week and a half ago for two nights straight. Then just as mysteriously it has not done it since.

BJBBJB

[texasbrit]

Unrelated, I believe. It happens in my case on two different tivo's with signal strength's stable and in the high 80's.

I responded to the same post in the directv forums. Since in Cleveland it seems to be only happening with 5.1 I suggested there must be something in the ABC video bitstream (or in the PSIP data) that the 6.3c release can't handle correctly. Maybe it's a coincidence that you see it with WFAA which is also ABC, maybe not. I had wondered whether it was an issue with 720p but of course WFAA is 1080i, even though it's ABC.

[HSaid]

This seems to be on going problem with 6.3d with some high def on air stations.

[Jon J]

It is refreshing to see these posts. I suspected my freeze/lockup problems came from something in the ABC datastream conflicing with 6.3x and this confirms my suspicions.

I only experience symptoms when I tune to the local ABC digital signal but in a long discussion of the problem with the station's chief engineer he discounted my belief that there is something in the datastream that is fouling up my receiver.

It seems the problem is reproducable at ABC stations elsewhere. Maybe he'll believe me now.

[JimSpence]

This seems to be on going problem with 6.3d with some high def on air stations.
Why was this thread resurrected about version 6.3c? The latest version is 6.3e, which also seems to be giving some people problems.

[JimSpence]

Jon J,
I just noticed a few PMs to me.
I don't record from OTA very often as I have the HD DNS. :)

I would like to know which digital frequencies this is happening with?
This may help narrow the problem.

All others with the reboot problem, please post your frequencies.

[Jon J]

I would like to know which digital frequencies this is happening with?
This may help narrow the problem.

Got your PM.

I reproduced the problem again yesterday and almost never got it away from the offending frequency because when the only solution becomes rebooting it reboots to the frequency causing the problem...almost an endless loop. Once I was able to finagle it away from the bad channel it has been perfect and required no reboot to straighten out.

The problem only occurs with WKRN whose digital signal is on UHF channel 27 which remaps to 2-1 on the HR10-250.

[bluesman64]

I've been having the same problem coming off of channel 20 here in Denver.

This a problem i've had off and on since I've had the HR10-250 (1 year+). Had not experienced it for quite a few months, but have had the problem multiple times over the last few days with one new twist. Previously, i was able to re-boot and get the unit to work again. Now, re-booting does no good and I am locked on Channel 20-1, unable to get the unit to respond. Took RonOhio's advice and disconnected the antenna line in, re-booted, and now have removed 20-1 from my channel lists, replacing it with SD 20. We'll see if that helps - I suspect it will.

[tww]

The only thing that works for me so far is power cycling the unit.

Any other ideas?