Need digital transition advice.

[Jon J]

In Nashville, two stations returned to their legacy VHF channel from their temporary UHF channels. My HR10-250 refuses to find one of them and it seems is continuing to tune channel 56 instead of channel 5. I've done everything I know to do (scan, rescan, setup, etc.) but the receiver is stil searching. The digital signal strength on channel 5 is 95%.

All suggestions appreciated. ;)

Jon

[markis]

I'm wondering the same thing. I've lost some local digital/HD OTA channels on my HR10 as well. Will a simple re-scan find the channels or will the HR10 require a guide update from DirecTV to tune the new local digital frequencies? (Will DirecTV even bother to push an update for this older model DTiVo?)

[dwynne]

In am in the same boat (and live in the same area as Jon J).

Scanning does find the relocated channels and they come in fine, the problem is associating those channels with those in the EPG. I have entries for 2 x 5-1 and 2 x 8-1 channels now, one set has program guide info but tunes to the old, temp UHF channels. The newly found set tunes to the proper VHF channels, but lacks program guide info. So I can manually schedule recordings on those channels, but no season passes or show info to be found.

None of the current DirecTV HD Tuners does OTA HD, right? So it is possible they will not bother to "fix" this for us. It is similar to the clear QAM issue with the non DirecTV HD Tivos - they lack the ability to manually associate a QAM channel with a EPG entry, so you HAVE to use a cablecard for it to all work correctly. In our case we HAVE to have (as far as I can tell) DirecTV associate the new channels for us or we will never see matching EPG data.

Dennis

[stevel]

None of the current DirecTV HD Tuners does OTA HD, right?

Not right. The HR20 has an OTA tuner and the AM21 is an add-on to others.

[Jon J]

At least I'm not alone, Dennis. I did this scanning early this morning and only had one 5-1 and one 8-1. Maybe I'll have the same situation as you when I check later today. Since DirecTV doesn't do HD for NPT, I record them on the HR10-250.

What scans are you doing to initiate updates?

My HR20-700 had no problem adjusting to the new lineup.

[dwynne]

Not right. The HR20 has an OTA tuner and the AM21 is an add-on to others.

Are those CURRENT models? I thought they dropped those and now sold newer models w/o OTA?

Dennis

[Jon J]

I understand only HR20s have OTA, Dennis. Mine does.

Later receiver models have outboard tuner capability instead of builtin.

[stevel]

Right - the AM21 is the outboard OTA tuner for use with the HR21/22/23. DirecTV provides the guide data. Note that unlike the HR10, there is no "scan" capability, so if DirecTV doesn't have the assignments right, you won't get the signal.

[dwynne]

At least I'm not alone, Dennis. I did this scanning early this morning and only had one 5-1 and one 8-1. Maybe I'll have the same situation as you when I check later today. Since DirecTV doesn't do HD for NPT, I record them on the HR10-250.

What scans are you doing to initiate updates?


I did a scan for OTA last night and found the new 5-1, 8-1, and 8-2. So now I have two of each, one tunes to the old UHF channel but has EPG info, the others have nice signal but no EPG. I DID reselect my local area last night, but that was no help (at that time).

Update: I now have the EPG sync'd to the new channels. So I went in and turned off the dupes under "channels I receive". I have several other HD10s I need to check, but the first one is now working correctly. I didn't do anything from last night until now, so DirecTV must have updated the database and this Tivo picked it up. It is possible that you could do nothing and when the new data was picked up it would start working on its own. I will test that idea later on the other HD Tivos. It could be you just need to re-pick the local area. I KNOW you don't need to call in to fix it, since this Tivo has not called in for 60 days or so - and did not call in last night.

Dennis

[Jon J]

Thanks Dennis.

[jhillestad]

confused about this too , my local ch 7-1 changed freqs and I rescanned and it found it but I cant get rid of the old one , I changed my favorites to the new one but nothing shows up in the guide for that channel , in my channels list I have two 7-1's but they are named differently , is the tivo using its internal database ? if so, will tivo update this? Is there an faq on tivo somewhere how to handle this ?
Thanks

[markis]

Well, the channels I was missing earlier seem to be coming in okay now on my HR10. I cleared the old OTA channels and did a full rescan after the noon switchover. One of my local former UHF station's digital channels are causing the HR10 to completely lock up, so I have to unplug the unit to reboot. I don't know what the problem is, but I hope they can sort it out soon.

[dwynne]

Jon,

Two other HR10s got the new channels on their own. No need to rescan or do much of anything else. It did add 5-2 which it thinks is 5+ which it is not. I went in and unchecked a couple of other channels that it added (that I had previously unchecked) and while tuning around the first of the 2 locked up and had to be unplugged. I went through the same steps on the other HR10 and then rebooted it myself since it seemed to be on the verge of locking up.

As user markis stated, I think the box is getting confused and trying to tune on the wrong station and locks up. Rebooting after the new channels have been updated seems to fix it so it does not lock up (so far).

I have to check the last HR10 to see how it is doing, but I don't see the need to scan - just wait until your box gets the updates (via sat) uncheck ones you don't want then reboot the box. Scanning will find the new channels so you can watch them now, but you have to wait for the update from DirecTV to make the EPG work on the new channels.

Dennis

[Jon J]

Everything appears sorted now Dennis. Thanks for your help. :up:

[dwynne]

Makes you realize how helpless we are :mad: . I own my HR10s and can pick up free OTA and record them, but I have to DirecTV to make it work correctly. So if they really wanted to force me into giving up my HD Tivos in favor of renting new HD boxes from them, this would have been a good time for them to do it - just not update the channels.

Dennis

[Jon J]

You might investigate an HR10 swap (not upgrade) of some sort. I only have one and swapped it for an HR20 that I still own with no programming contract. And, they don't seem to care the HR10 is still active. ;)

[dwynne]

I am a Tivo fan and long, long, long time Tivo owner starting with a stand alone series 1 with lifetime sub years ago up through HD Tivos and DirecHDTivos now. Not really interested in swapping, to be honest.

Now if they sent me the HD boxes and new dish and let me install myself as I have always done from Dish Network on forward I might think about it. To have some installer come out is not attractive to me nor is me paying to "buy" new receivers that are actually rental boxes (how dumb is that?).

Between the locals in HD and the few other channels and a Netflix account, I seem to have more to watch than I have time for now.

Glad you got everything working. All of mine are working fine. Note that the first one I worked with I never bother to reboot, and it locked up today while I was tuning around the local channels checking the images. It seems that once you reboot then it is OK to tune around, but if you don't then it will lock up at some point.

Dennis

[shibby191]

I am a Tivo fan and long, long, long time Tivo owner starting with a stand alone series 1 with lifetime sub years ago up through HD Tivos and DirecHDTivos now. Not really interested in swapping, to be honest.

Same here, first stand alone Tivo in 2000. Been using the HR2x series since 2006 with no issues. My programs record and I can play them back I'm fine, rock on.

Now if they sent me the HD boxes and new dish and let me install myself as I have always done from Dish Network on forward I might think about it. To have some installer come out is not attractive to me

Why? If you have everything all wired up inside just have the installer replace the dish while you install the new switch and receivers inside. Then let the installer verify the receivers are activated and working and send him on his way. He'll probably be happy too that you did most of the work. That's what I did anyway, installer didn't touch any of my stuff other then replace the dish and he was happy to go home an hour early.

nor is me paying to "buy" new receivers that are actually rental boxes (how dumb is that?).

Well, DirecTV has been leasing for a long while now. Heck, the last DirecTivo I got was a lease. If you're doing a swap/upgrade they would probably be free to nearly free anyway. You can always actually buy an HR2x for around $450 or so (thru DirecTV only). Compared to free to $99 or so to do the standard lease. Same monthly fee either way. And if you cancel early and pay the ETF you'd still be less then buying. Personally I'll take the lease with little to no up front. Up to you though.

Good luck in whatever you decide!

[Matt L]

My swap was FREE. New HR23-700, New Am21 tuner, New Dish, all done free. Kept my old HR10-250 active though I'm about to put it to rest.

Long time Tivo user, SA in 1999, DTivos, Hd DTivos you name it. But with the CE I'm VERY happy with the HR2x units. Just Dropped HBO and went with Showtime and got 8 more Hd movie channels to go with the many dozens of Hd channels I'd never see with my TiVo.