DirecTV HR-34 - disappointing

[gigahurtz]

I'm now over one month with my DTV service and I have to say I'm disappointed with the HR-34. The receiver operates very slowly, responds to controller requests slowly and whole home dvr is extremely unstable. I feel as if I am a test bunny for directv, even though I paid $99 for this box and $99 for my H25s.

Issues I have come across with the HR34 so far:

1. The response for guide and other menu options is extremely slow.

2 . Guide scrolling and channel changing is slow.

3. Receiver is unstable, I feel I have to reboot very often.

4. Whole home DVR is not stable. Every time I attempt to watch a recorded show it seems it can never make a connection and I have to keep clicking try again.

These things have been very annoying. I've tried the two CE releases for this receiver and it was disappointing to say the least, but it's beta software so I'd expect it.

I'm considering calling directv and complaining about all of this. I feel the receiver was not as finely turned as it should be.

[royrdsjr]

On the settings page of your H25's,does the HR34 show up on the Whole Home Status page as "Sharing On,Deletion On"? I would have thought that the HR34 would operate along the lines of the HR24,which I have found very stable. Another thing,I've found that my HD DVR's respond better to my remotes if I have my remotes on IR. RF on my remotes can be a headache when it comes to trying to change channels,pull up the menu,& absolutely trying to type in 0-2-4-6-8 to download the latest CE. I'm not sure if you have your remote to your HR34 set to RF,but if it is,change it to IR to see if the HR34 responds better to your remote commands(if you had your HR34 hooked up to a Slingbox,you'd have to have it set up for IR anyway).

[Hutch1814]

I've noticed the very same things when playing with it. I don't have one but we have one at our warehouse (we have every box that's out there including the TiVo) and when I was playing with the HR34 it was extremely slow to respond and whenever I would try to pull up something on MRV it would either take forever or disconnect half way through. Not sure if it's just a glitch in the software or not. Ours is hooked up via a SWM 16 so I assumed that was the problem with it dropping out of MRV. I've seen that happened a lot but now I wonder if it's really the box having the issues. I also was unable to pull up the signal strength.

And for the record, I bashed TiVo this whole time and the new one is actually a really well put together machine. I actually considered getting one!

[Jason Whiddon]

I'm now over one month with my DTV service and I have to say I'm disappointed with the HR-34. The receiver operates very slowly, responds to controller requests slowly and whole home dvr is extremely unstable. I feel as if I am a test bunny for directv, even though I paid $99 for this box and $99 for my H25s.

Issues I have come across with the HR34 so far:

1. The response for guide and other menu options is extremely slow. Mines only been slow on score/active channels like ESPN

2 . Guide scrolling and channel changing is slow.I use Native, so there is a lag, havent noticed anything other than that.

3. Receiver is unstable, I feel I have to reboot very often.ONLY time Ive had to reboot it since it got going was when I did those damn buggy CE's, they suck right now so I went back the 04c9 software.

4. Whole home DVR is not stable. Every time I attempt to watch a recorded show it seems it can never make a connection and I have to keep clicking try again.Ive not used MRV on the 34, but it was flawless on my HR24 and HR22

These things have been very annoying. I've tried the two CE releases for this receiver and it was disappointing to say the least, but it's beta software so I'd expect it. The current CE's are "high risk", stay away if you want anything close to reliable

I'm considering calling directv and complaining about all of this. I feel the receiver was not as finely turned as it should be.

IMO, as someone who has owned a HR20, HR24 and now HR34 the first month they came out, Directv usually takes a few months after public release to get it worked out.

That being said, Im running mine on a AM21 and EHD and recording up to 4 things at a time some nights without issue. My only complaint right now is how it slows down on the active channels.

[gigahurtz]

On the settings page of your H25's,does the HR34 show up on the Whole Home Status page as "Sharing On,Deletion On"? I would have thought that the HR34 would operate along the lines of the HR24,which I have found very stable. Another thing,I've found that my HD DVR's respond better to my remotes if I have my remotes on IR. RF on my remotes can be a headache when it comes to trying to change channels,pull up the menu,& absolutely trying to type in 0-2-4-6-8 to download the latest CE. I'm not sure if you have your remote to your HR34 set to RF,but if it is,change it to IR to see if the HR34 responds better to your remote commands(if you had your HR34 hooked up to a Slingbox,you'd have to have it set up for IR anyway).

All settings are set up correctly. This issue has gone on since the start. The MRV is very flaky at best. I had issues at the start, but it turned out it was a bad H25 box that was replaced. Now, the problem continues and there is no rhyme or reason to it. It's extremely annoying.

I realize that these issues will hopefully get worked out over time, but why not work most of these issues out BEFORE selling the product to customers? As a returning customer, this puts a really bad taste in my mouth that I'm stuck in a contract on something that's not working that well. It's very frustrating and annoying for me to deal with this. I am happy with DirecTV overall, but this particular issue really bugs me.

[gigahurtz]

IMO, as someone who has owned a HR20, HR24 and now HR34 the first month they came out, Directv usually takes a few months after public release to get it worked out.

That being said, Im running mine on a AM21 and EHD and recording up to 4 things at a time some nights without issue. My only complaint right now is how it slows down on the active channels.

I realize that CE releases are very high risk and aren't stable. Unfortunately, even the NR release with the SD GUI is unstable and not functioning properly so I have nothing to lose at this point. I've reverted back to the NR from the last CE release. I'm hoping that the bugs will get worked out when the NR release for the HD GUI is out.

[qcarm]

I realize that CE releases are very high risk and aren't stable. Unfortunately, even the NR release with the SD GUI is unstable and not functioning properly so I have nothing to lose at this point. I've reverted back to the NR from the last CE release. I'm hoping that the bugs will get worked out when the NR release for the HD GUI is out.

I have the same problems. I have displayed the mesh values and they are all good for DECA everywhere on the RG6 network. I have (3) H25's connected to the HR34. I sometimes have to hit "try again" multiple times in order to connect from the H25 to the HR34 before it actually plays. I also notice that every once in a while it will stop if I am watching an in progress recording when the recording timer stops. I am on the old SD guide using NR software. It is like the HR34 isn't responding quickly enough to not trigger a timeout.

I have had reboots on the HR34 for no apparent reason in the middle of recordings twice. The software wasn't being updated either when I checked the version.

[royrdsjr]

It's strange that with the HR24 running as near flawless as it does,that the HR34 would have the problems that it's having. I guess though that the HR24 is based on the improvements of earlier HD DVR's & the HR34 is new technology out of the box,bugs & all. Are people who would have just the HR34 & up to 3 HD receivers like the H25 & using the "traditional" DECA set up(Cinema Connection Kit,wired or wireless) & green labeled SWM LNB & splitters having the same problems?

[Jason Whiddon]

I have mine as the only dvr with the DecaBB kit, and I just dont have many issues. It is new hardware, so I expected some issues. As bad as the HD Gui CE software is, I think itll be awhile before we get it

[qcarm]

It's strange that with the HR24 running as near flawless as it does,that the HR34 would have the problems that it's having. I guess though that the HR24 is based on the improvements of earlier HD DVR's & the HR34 is new technology out of the box,bugs & all. Are people who would have just the HR34 & up to 3 HD receivers like the H25 & using the "traditional" DECA set up(Cinema Connection Kit,wired or wireless) & green labeled SWM LNB & splitters having the same problems?

Mine is a new install with the Cinema Kit and (3) H25's. Despite my complaint which I attribute to growing pains, I don't regret my choice because 90-95% of the time it works flawlessly. I really have only had 2 reboots that I know of and I discovered because I couldn't see the HR34 from the H25 and when I went downstairs I could see it was resetting. The majority of the time remote viewing works fine, I am able to solve the "retry connection" problem after a several presses of Enter.

I think it is a nice unit and wouldn't want anything else. They probably need to get the software timeouts adjusted since the traffic is so much greater given the extra capacity of the tuners/hardware compared to the previous units. Honestly if it would just retry on its own 2-3 times before giving an error message I wouldn't even know it had a problem except for a 1-2 second delay.