8300HD Time-Shift and Recording Problems

[HDRabbit]

This has been going on for at least 2 months. I finally swapped out the box thinking it was a hardware issue. I assumed it was the hard drive. I haven't even had this new box a week yet.

And now, as it turns out, the new one is doing the EXACT same thing.

Here's the issue. (It's gonna sound weird, so I'll explain it best I can...)

Lets say I'm watching ABC-HD for a while. A few hours. Watching live TV. There's absolutely no visible symptom that anything is wrong...

I go to pause or rewind and suddenly, all by itself, it time-shifts back by several hours. So live, I'm watching a show that's on at 7pm (Jeopardy), I hit pause and suddenly it's playing a show that was on from 4-5pm (Oprah). All the content inbetween is "missing". Rewinding backwards goes through the 4-5pm show. Fast forwarding jumps right back to live TV. Everything from 5pm to 7pm is gone.

Ultimately, by itself it's weird, but not a huge issue. It resolves if I switch channels and then switch back.

The big problem is this.... like I said, there's no outward sign there's a problem until I try to rewind or pause. BUT if that same channel needs to record something later in the day it will not record it. It will look like it's recording it. It will show in the recorded list (red) WHILE it's recording, but as soon as the show ends it's gone forever. It's deleted from the recorded list. It doesn't exist.

Mind you, there IS no conflict. It's not trying to record more than 2 shows at a time (I'm very careful of this). Like I said, it will actually show it's recording the show... red light, red title in recorded list, the whole nine yards. But the minutes the show is over, it's gone. If I'm still on the channel and try to rewind, I'm suddenly time-shifted back by several hours... letting me know that everything in the "void" could not be recorded properly (because to the DVR its not there).

I've lost several shows this way now. I can't be 100% sure, but it seems to be happening mostly on ABC (could just be I record a lot of stuff on ABC).

I'm starting to think it's a buffer problem... and some fatal flaw in the software. It's almost like the buffer goes fine for a while, but then at some point stops deleting older stuff as it's chugging along. I can't really replicate the problem, but then again, I can't sit in front of the TV for 24 hours straight either to watch exactly how long it takes to become a problem. I do know that I've experienced the problem in as little as 3 hours after having changed the channel.

Like I said, I thought it was the box and returned it and got a new one... it was sealed and in the box. Is this some major flaw in the software? It's become REALLY annoying now that I can't rely on the box to do what it's supposed to... to actually RECORD SHOWS.

Anyone experience similar or know of this "bug"?

[HDRabbit]

I haven't been able to replicate the problem since my last post, even letting it go into screensaver/sleep mode.
I also got a random shut-down last night at the worst possible moment (of course)...

[donuconn]

I've experienced the same issue with the buffer that you describe, but on more than one channel so I doubt it has anything to do with ABC. Although I haven't been able to consistently replicate the problem, it occurs most often when I switch out of a recorded program, or swap the picture-in-picture frequently.

Although the DVR can get "flaky", I've never lost a recorded show. Powering the box off and then on, or rebooting the box usually fixes the recorded program issues.

Just another of the many issues inherent in the 8300HD. Simply put, it's not a great product.