Lost some local channels

I know you are new to the forum, but it is getting really old now to have every problem with a DTiVo blamed on DirecTV trying to get rid of TiVo customers. This is especially nonsensical now that the THR22 is out there. (I have one and a HR21 and like them both. Neither is a "POS".)

I assume you are in the Denver market - I was looking at the spreadsheet of channels and transponders to see if there was any correlation, but I couldn't find any.

Have you checked the signal strength on all transponders for both tuners on the affected boxes? What happens if, as an experiment, you swap the HR20 and HR10 boxes?

You could get a THR22 if you love the TiVo UI so much. I have checked dbstalk.com and don't see anyone with a similar complaint, and I'd also expect to have seen something in this forum if the problem was widespread.

 

We've seen this problem with older Receivers and DVRs. It might be due to limited Guide Data memory. Checking with DirecTV contacts now to see if they can shed any light. Certainly the THR22 HD Tivo would be an immediate solution.

 

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The same thing has happened to us in the Seattle market. Just lost 4-5 of our local channels. We have an HDVR2.

 

Well it's happening in the St. Louis market as well. I have four Hughes dvr40's that lost some of the local stations. Fox, ABC, CBS, PBS, and NBC are gone. However, I have an old Hughes GAEBO SD receiver and all the locals show up fine.

After talking with DIRECTV and going thru their processes, I was told that to fix the problem I can either upgrade to HD or swap out the DTIVO's with DIRECTV sd dvr's.

By the way, this is one case where it is DIRECTV that has made some type of change that has affected the old DTIVO's, because not only have my four stopped receiving locals, but my dad's are also not working.

I don't have a problem going HD, but I'd like to do it on my own timeframe, not because I can no longer get local stations on my old DTIVO's.

 

I lost a bunch of locals on my R10 here in Indianapolis, too. I have signal in the 90's. My old RCA freebie receiver and my Series 1 DSR6000 both work fine. Reauthorized, re-did setup, cold reboot, even switched the cables around to see if there was an issue with my multiswitch. Nothing.

I posted over on the DirecTV forums as well.

And I'd love to buy a THR22. I wish they'd let me. I can't afford another day at home just to have the installer show up with the wrong box again.

 

Hey everyone..... the same problem is happening here in Minneapolis. I have lost at least 4 of my locals on 3 of my HDVR2's.

I called Directv and they did all their troubleshooting and they could not figure it out either. I was offered free replacements to all my DVRs with newer standard DVRs, but not high def ones. What models could this possibly be? I have currently declined the offer.

So this does sound like a problem affected many of us.... what are our options?

 

Happened on my end too. St. Louis area. I've had 2 Hughes SD-Tivos running for about 9 years without problem (with the exception of a harddrive upgrade here and there). We lost a local channel KPLR-11 recently, due to a contractual dispute between the station and DTV. That issue apparently recently resolved and KPLR-11 was added back to the local channel lineup. However, I've lost all my other local channels on the 2 Hughes SD-Tivos.

I have 2 HR-22 HDTivos, which receive local channels fine. On the SD-Tivos, I went through the automated reauthorization process, no luck. Unplugged/plugged both boxes to reboot, no luck. Hard to believe this is a memory issue if it affected both boxes simultaneously. I'm on the phone now with DTV Technical Support. The Tech has me on hold now trying to come up with a solution. I came here to the forums to see if any solutions have already been found.

 

For those of you having problems, can you comment as to whether your tivos are zippered or not? Both of mine have been hacked for several years. Is anyone having this problem with unhacked (virgin) Tivo OS? Perhaps it is a memory issue manifesting itself on zippered SD-Tivos?

Edited to add: Tech support recommended running guided setup, which I did on both boxes. This was not successful. The next solution offered was to have a tech come out which would cost me $50. I declined. I guess I will try a "reset all". If that doesn't work, I guess I'll try formatting/copying virgin Tivo software to the drives without zippering.

 

After more research, it appears this is affecting people at least in the St. Louis area and Minneapoils areas and does not appear to be specific to the Hughes SD-Tivos, or Tivos in general. So, I doubt a clear/delete everything on my end OR rewriting the OS will do much good. I only post this to save someone else the trouble.

I went to the DTV Technical Support forum, seems like there are some fairly rude people there. I'll just stay on this forum.

 

Had hoped to have some updated information from my DirecTV contacts by now. But nothing to report yet.

 

I have lost some local channels in St. Louis area, too.

The specific channels are 2 Fox, 4 CBS, 5 NBC and 30 ABC. They are not listed in the guide at all on my three Series 2 DTivos. Our other local channels: 11, 24 and 46 are still working. Best I can narrow down is it happened sometime between 4/4 at 5 pm and 4/5 at 4:30 pm.

I checked my standard RCA box and all local channels are working fine.

I guess I will be making my call later today.

Edit: Also missing channel 9 PBS


Zipped.

 

I have also lost the same local channels in the St. Louis area as the previous posts. It seemed to happen after 11pm on 4/4 since I had recorded shows on several of those channels earlier that night. They are still out as of today. I have a Hughes DVR80 and a Phillips DSR7000 that are affected. I also have tried all the rebooting and reauthorizations as previously mentioned with no change. I know several other people with the same SD models that have not been affected. We did have a storm that night with lots of lightning strikes and several brief power interruptions, but don't know how that could have contributed to the problem.

 

Columbus Ohio market checking in with the loss on NBC local. The others are still there just fine.

 

I have five series 2 SD DTivo's in the Denver, CO market with the same problem. Not receiving local channels 4 (CBS), 7 (ABC), and 9 (NBC) which started sometime late on the 27th or early on the 28th of March.

Have made several daily hour plus phone calls to CSR at DTV with "troubleshooting" and promises of escalating the calls to "network". Never was escalated by CSR and never resolved.

Confirmed satellite and transponders for missing local channels, and looked at signal strength on 101 satellite / transponders 4 (channel 9) and 12 (channels 4 and 7) and they are in the 90's. Declined a service call due to problem not being on my end, and then swapped one SD series 2 out for an "HD" DTivo HR10-250 and it's receiving local channels 4 (CBS), 7 (ABC), and 9 (NBC). Confirmed that this is definitely not a dish / wiring problem at my house and is isolated to a DTV change that affects the receivers.

Was offered replacement HD DVR's but not ready for a large monthly bill increase for HD and leased DVR's, nor loss of access to hundreds of hours of recordings.

If this is a memory issue, what was changed in late March that broached the memory capacity of the series 2 SD DTivo units?

Confirmed items 6 and 7 above (although not a DVR upgrade kit -- manually performed) are the same on my series 2 SD DTivo units, and concur with item 10 statement.

Looks like this happened in Denver in late March and other markets in early April.

forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=11047514#endform (can't post full link due to # of postings)

forums.directv.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=11046740 (can't post full link due to # of postings)

 

If this is a Directv problem, them how come that not all Series 2 SD Dtivos in a particular area are affected?
In St. Louis, I have friends with the same Series 2 model SD Dtivos (Hughes DVR 80 & Phillips DSR 7000) as mine that are not affected, while I have two that are.
I don't have any local channels that are blank, just not there at all. My units have been hacked, but so have theirs.
This is getting really strange.