DVR Records/Deletes on its own? Please help

[AJ86]

Hello. We have a DirecTV HD DVR HR24-100 in our livingroom. We also have HD channels. But we have a very frustrating & confusing problem. It starts recording, then deleting programs on its own! And we've been having this problem for a long time. And not with just this receiver. We've had at least 4 others do this, too. We've tried so many things, including a new TV. Even when we record shows ourselves, it deletes them whenever it wants. I can never find any topics on this problem, but we can't possibly be the only people with this problem. When we call DirecTV, they just send a new receiver, and that's about it. They never give any reason for this!

And here's the kicker: we also have a HD DVR in the bedroom, it's an HR24-200, and it keeps EVERYTHING. There are shows still on the playlist from a year ago. We made sure all the setting are the same with the two receivers, and they are. Yet the livingroom box acts crazy.

Please help us. We're at our wit's end with this!

 

[Broe67]

The questions that comes to mind. Is how much is currently saved on the units. How much available space is there for future recording availability.

 

[raoul5788]

to Satelliteguys AJ86!

A nearly full dvr will automatically delete the oldest recording to make room for the new one. As Broe67 asked, how full is the dvr? If it's close to capacity, you should watch, then delete shows that you don't want to keep. It almost sounds as if someone has access to it besides you. Is it connected to the internet? Do you see this happening when you are watching it? Are you in an apartment with one dish and many people connected to it?

 

[Jimbo]

AJ,
You said that D* sends out a new box when you call about it ...
Does it somehow happen on the new box as well ...

You also mentioned getting a New TV ?
I hope you bought the TV because you wanted a new one, not expecting the TV to resolve the issue ...

 

[oldford]

Any close neighbors with Direct? Try changing your remote code?

 

[texasbrit]

Are you in an apartment or single family home?

 

[Jimbo]

Any close neighbors with Direct? Try changing your remote code?

I thought about that too ...

 

[AJ86]

Thanks for the welcome, raoul5788! Now for some answers to the questions:

The playlist isn't even close to full. It's usually pretty empty. There's usually about 90-95% still available.

And yes, it happens with the new box they send. It takes a week or so before it starts acting up, but they eventually start doing it. And yes, we bought an LCD TV for a different room, but decided to try it in the livingroom first. (which is a plasma.) But we didn't like it, so we still have the plasma.

It is not connected to the internet.

We never "see" it delete stuff, but if we're watching TV, it still does it. The playlist will have say, 4 shows. We'll be watching one of them, and while we're doing so, it'll delete the other 3 on us. We could just be watching something live, and the playlist still deletes itself ??

We live in a single family house. I don't know about neighbors tbh. We live in the country, and everybody is pretty far away though. The closest house to ours is a few hundred feet away, and there are tons of trees between us. Is there anyway they're causing problems?

 

[raoul5788]

It's doubtful your neighbors are the cause. Have you tried switching the dvrs to see if the location is causal?

 

[AJ86]

No we haven't switched them. After so many boxes have done this in the livingroom, we don't want to ruin the bedroom receiver. It's the only good one we have!

There are 2 things it does, and I don't know if they're clues or not.

1. The little orange light never shows on the receiver when we record something. It used to, but no longer does?

2. Sometimes when we're watching a show from the Playlist, a message keeps popping up that says : "This Program Is Now Available In Your Playlist" - we click "OK", as that's all we can do, but it continues to show up.

EDIT: I forgot to mention that we have just moved the box to under the TV instead of next to it. And I also dusted it very thoroughly. I used a can of air-duster.

 

[Darrell S]

press menu-settings and help-settings-info and test-more system info and look for internal temp. It cold be acting crazy because it is getting too hot.

 

[AJ86]

It reads: Internal Temp 106 degrees F. Is that normal?

Also, after moving the box & dusting everything, we found the one coaxial cable end was in pretty bad shape. So I repaired it. Could that have been the problem?

 

[raoul5788]

That's a normal temperature. I doubt the bad coax was the problem, but it's good that you fixed it.

 

[AJ86]

Just got a message that the Guide data has been missing for an hour. What does that mean? It's filled in until early Tuesday morning.

 

[Jimbo]

Just got a message that the Guide data has been missing for an hour. What does that mean? It's filled in until early Tuesday morning.

What are your signal strengths on the 119 Sat IF you have a SL5/SWM/5

 

[raoul5788]

It means, if you have a 5lnb, you aren't getting information from the 119 satellite for the guide. Can you post your signal strengths for all of the transponders on all of the satellites?

 

[AJ86]

I redid the cable again, and now the signal strengths are all very high. 80's - 90's on both tuners & all satellites.

 

[AJ86]

The guide is filling in again. So I guess that's one problem averted! *whew*

One more thing I forgot to mention before. When I dusted the box with the air-duster, quite a bit of dust came out of the vents. Could dust be a problem? We have lots of it since our driveway is long, and dirt.

I would also like to thank you all for your help & suggestions. It's a lot more than we get from DirecTV!

 

[Broe67]

My guess is that someone has access to the DVR from the outside, and is going through deleting stuff. Really need more info.

 

[lnbchris]

I have a Genie HR44-500 with two clients, and it seems something similar is happening to me:
http://www.satelliteguys.us/xen/threads/odd-entries-showing-up-in-history-list-as-deleted.340467/

P.S. Similar situation to yours, see at least my later posts in linked thread as my ideas had developed some. One difference though is that the shows I wanted to record are not randomly getting deleted, just the randomly scheduled garbage is.

My machine misses all the usual suspected criteria: HDD nearly empty, not scheduling these programs, auto-scheduling working fine on a small amount of intended programs and not causing this, network cable disconnected, dish not shared, not subscribed to premium channels that are randomly getting recorded and deleted.