DirecTV Cutting Edge Program: Terms, FAQ, How-To, Hidden Features, and More

[jcrandall]

Welcome to the DirecTV Satelliteguys Cutting Edge Program!

The Cutting Edge (CE) program is a way for DirecTV subscribers to participate in public beta testing new receiver software and occasionally special trial projects for DirecTV. By participating, users can get access to the latest receiver software before it is released to the general public. Participants are expected to help test the software though normal use and active testing participation.

The most important part of the CE process is feedback. Our feedback is read by DirecTV, every single post. Provding feedback on any issues you experience with your receiver while using a CE release assists the DirecTV development team in getting this software ready for release to all customers.

While Cutting Edge users often have access to the newest and latest features first, our motivation to participate should be to improve the DirecTV experience for everyone.


On behalf of DirecTV and everyone at Satelliteguys - thanks for your participation and feedback!

Post 2: Terms & Risk
Post 3: How the CE Program Works
Post 4: How to download a CE release
Post 5: Posting Feedback
Post 6: Diagnostic Reports
Post 7: Hidden Features / Search Codes
Post 8: Boolean Search Codes (for advanced recording setup)

Thanks to Darrencp22 & Brewer4 for assisting in preparing these notes.

[jcrandall]

Risks
CE software is Beta software. Any bugs/issues you encounter are not supported by DirecTV. Customer service will be unable to provide you with support. You acknowledge the risk of losing recorders and timers. Your may also encounter new bugs and other loss of functionality. You are strongly encouraged to read the release notes to understand any risks associated with the current release. Participants have the opportunity to revert back to the current stable national release outside of the CE window. Reverting back to a national release does not ensure that lost recordings or timers will return.

Terms
Participants are asked to report any issues with CE releases. Please don't participate just to try the latest software or features. Active participation is essential for the program to be effective and reporting any issues in the SatelliteGuys CE forums is helpful. Most importantly, you acknowledge and accept the risks outlined above with participation in the program.

Last, and most important, by using a CE release you agree not to contact DirecTV support (email or phone) for any reason related to the software, or it's effects on your receiver.
You may contact support for help on your account or programming. If you are in doubt about whether to call support or not, or are experiencing problems, please post or private message jcrandall or dfergie for assistance.

[jcrandall]

How the Cutting Edge Program Works

Participants in the CE program “force” a download of new software to the receivers on scheduled timeframe, typically Friday and Saturday nights between 11pm-2:30am EST.
Once software is downloaded, participants are expected to use the receiver as they normally would, paying attention for any problems or issues. User feedback is the most important part of the CE program, users post any issues in the SatelliteGuys Cutting Edge forum, using the thread specified for their software release. DirecTV will monitor these forums, reading every post, and use our feedback to improve the software, in anticipation of a future CE release.

Multiple CE releases are part of an overall release cycle. Once a CE release cycle has been completed with minimal issues, it is provided to the general subscriber base as a stable national release. National release are downloaded to receivers automatically.

Remember - your feedback is an essential part of the CE program.

We also have a email-alert option, via which we will notify you of any scheduled CE release.
This is important, as occasionally a CE is released outside of the traditional Friday/Saturday 11pm window.

See this thread to signup for this email alert:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/directv-...rt-option.html

[jcrandall]

How to Download a CE Release

First, you will need to restart your receiver. There are multiple methods to accomplish this goal, but the preferred method is to use the menus.
To restart your receiver, you can do one of the following:

• Using the remote control, select Menu -> Parental, Fav's, & Setup -> System Setup -> Reset, and then choose Restart Receiver. You will also need to press the DASH (-) key to confirm. This is the safest way to do a reset.
• If the Menu reset fails, then try a Red Button Reset (RBR). Press the Red Button behind the access card door on the front right-side of the receiver.

After Reseting your receiver, you will start the download:

1. Once you have restarted your recorder, make sure you can access the receiver. In a few seconds, you will need to type in a special code to start the download process:
2. When the reset process starts, the LEDs on the front of the receiver will turn off, and the TV will go black.
3. Once the receiver's front panel lights come on after the reset, immediately start keying in the special code.
4. Press 0 2 4 6 8. You will need to press the keys slowly and deliberately. An easy way to think of this is zero-one-thousand, two-one-thousand, four-one-thousand, six-one-thousand, eight-one-thousand. Make sure that you ONLY type in the 5 numbers and nothing else.
5. After a few more seconds, you should see a screen that indicates that the download process has started. If you get a screen that indicates the receiver is booting, and shows step 1 of 2, the download did not start. You may restart the receiver and try the download code again (you can restart by pressing the red reset button under the front-right access card door).
6. Now, just sit back and relax as the update process will take about 10 minutes to complete. It may appear to "stick" at several points along the download and rebooting afterward. This is normal. Do not reset the receiver unless it is stuck on the same screen/percentage for at least 10 minutes.
7. Note: Do not restart the system again after the download process is complete.
8. Remember - this process may take upwards of 15 minutes.

After the download is installed, your receiver will be doing several things after rebooting, including downloading guide data, VOD channels, rebuilding To-Do lists, etc. It is normal for your receiver to appear slugish for a while after installing software. You may also have timers that appear missing, etc. Do not worry, as the receiver rebuilds the data over the next few hours, your timers will come back.

It is considered a best practice to download the software at the end of your viewing day, and not "work-out" the new software until the following morning.

Remember - the software download window is generally Friday & Saturday nights, from 11pm - 2:30am ET. This day/time window is occassionally changed, so always check the notes for the exact window.

[jcrandall]

Posting Feedback

Your feedback is an essential part of the Cutting Edge program. Please use the dedicated thread related to your CE release to post any issues you experience and your feedback.

A few things to remember:

1. This area is monitored by DirecTV, please keep it constructive.
2. Even small issues make a difference - please report anything that seems unusual with your experience using the software.

Lastly, when reporting issues, provide as much information about your system as possible. This should include your receiver model/sub-model number. For example, HR20-700 or HR21-200.

Also, when reporting significant issues, please consider sending a diagnostic report to DirecTV. See the next post for how to generate this report, and remember to include the report number in your post.

[jcrandall]

Diagnostics Reports

When reporting significant issues, it is helpful to the software developers to have diagnostic information from your receiver.
This is done by enabling the Diagnostics Report sub menu. Please see the next post of this thread for instructions on how to enable this feature using the IAMANEDGECUTTER hidden keyword feature.

You must have an ethernet cable / powerline networking adapter / wireless adapter connected to your receiver to send a report to DirecTV.

To generate a diagnostic report number, click: MENU -> Parental, Fav's & Setup -> Miscellaneous Options -> Report

It will take a few minutes to generate a report and upload it to DirecTV, after which you will receive a report number.

You can only generate one diagnostic report per hour.

[jcrandall]

Hidden Feature Codes

There are certain codes built into the HR2x CE Software used to activate hidden features or access menus for the Cuttng Edge program.

To activate a hidden feature code, you will execute a Keyword Search.
Press MENU -> SmartSearch -> <Search Code> -> RED BUTTON -> Continue -> Done

You can key the search code using the arrows on the remote or "Triple-Tap" text entry like on a cell-phone, using the number keys with the corresponding letters.

After you type your search code and hit continue, it will take a minute to search, and report no results found. Select done. The code will be activated. There is no confirmation message that the code is activated.

Available search codes, and what they do:

IAMANEDGECUTTER:
This code enables access to a Misc Options menu on the setup screen, which includes options to change the playlist sort methods, and send Diagnostic reports. Other features are occasionally activated using this method.

30SKIP
(and 30SLIP to disable this feature)
This code changes the 30 second skip button from "slipping" 30 seconds to an actual "skip" of the seconds, eliminating the few-second fast-forwarding of 30 seconds of content.

[jcrandall]

BOOLEAN SEARCH FEATURES

DirecTV has provided us with advanced recording features for setting up recordings.

Simple Grammar:
[{AANY/AALL} <tokens>] [{NNOT} <tokens>] [TTITLE/NNAME] [{CCHAN} <number> [<number>]]

BOOLEAN LOGIC:

“AALL” => (this is the AND boolean operation) all the following words must be contained within the program (title, about, name, episode, category) in any order
“AANY” => (this is the OR boolean operation) at least one of the following words must be contained within the program (title, about, name, episode, category)
“NNOT” => (this is the NOT boolean operation) exclude any programs that contain any of the following words in that search string

The AANY and AALL keywords should appear as the first word in the search string in order to set the search mode.
The NNOT keyword may appear anywhere and all words following the NNOT keyword are considered words to exclude.

SCOPE FILTERS:

TTITLE => Limits the search to only the Title field of the Programs
NNAME => Limits the search to only the Name field (e.g. Actors, Director) of the Program
CCHAN => Limits the search to only the specified channel range (example CCHAN 500 510, or CCHAN 500 for a single channel)

Some sample queries:

AALL racing car NNOT nascar => finds all shows containing “car” and “racing” (any order/position), but excludes the show if “nascar” appears
AALL hanks tom NNOT vinci => finds all tom hanks movies/shows but excludes the movie if the word “vinci” appears (e.g. da vinci code)
AALL hanks tom NNAME => finds all tom hanks programs where he is an actor
AALL hdtv football => finds all high definition football programs (note you can include category labels in the search and “HDTV” is same as “High-Def”)
AANY usc ucla NNOT football => finds all usc and ucla events/shows, but excludes football events
oakland raiders NNOT miami => finds exact match for “oakland raiders” but excludes show if “miami” appears (e.g. excludes games with Miami Dolphins)
AANY lakers clippers CCHAN 700 730 => finds all games with the Lakers or Clippers on only channels 700 through 730
AANY lakers clippers CCHAN 710 => finds all games with the Lakers or Clippers on only channel 710