HR-20 responds very slowly

[diitto]

Hi... I have an HR-20-700S that is almost five years old... For the past several months it has become remarkably slow at responding to commands from the remote... Entering channel numbers, returning to a previous channel, pretty much anything takes forever... I've reset the DVR multiple times but that improves nothing...

What does that mean?? Is it time to request a new unit??? Also, what is the common/popular model that Directv is shipping for their HD-DVR???

thanks for any help... bob...

 

[Jimbo]

Hi... I have an HR-20-700S that is almost five years old... For the past several months it has become remarkably slow at responding to commands from the remote... Entering channel numbers, returning to a previous channel, pretty much anything takes forever... I've reset the DVR multiple times but that improves nothing...

What does that mean?? Is it time to request a new unit??? Also, what is the common/popular model that Directv is shipping for their HD-DVR???

thanks for any help... bob...

I just retired my old HR20-700...
Had the same problems you have, I just got tired of it being slow compared to the HR24's.

I called Claude at Dishstore (Site Sponsor) and told him I needed a few (replaced both of mine ) HR24's.
They were at my place the next day ( Thanks again Claude!).
Make sure you talk with Claude and tell him your from here.

FWIW, I'm still waiting for the return boxes from D*, kinda wondering if they really want them back, but I presume they do.

Also, IF you call D* and tell them that your HR20-700 is running slow and your having issues, they will have you go thru the typical reboot and a few other things, once they decide, ya it's going bad, they will probably send you out another HR20-700 ... which will eventually be in the same spot your in now. I'm sure it will be refurbed (nothing wrong with refurbed btw) but seeing they don't make them any more ....

I doubt that they will upgrade you too the HR24 or newer ... ALSO, D* won't send you a particular model, so you can ask for a 24, but chances are not good that you'll get one.

Thats why I went with Dishstore, I knew for sure what model I was getting. Of course I had to pay for it , but I knew what I was getting.
You could ask D* to comp you some for it seeing you want to UPGRADE and see what they say, they may give you a credit.

 

[diitto]

Thanks for the info... We have three total HD-DVR's, two of the older HR20-700's and one HR22-100 which is now a little over one year old... One thing I notice about the HR22 is that it runs waaaaaay cooler than do the HR20's... What about the HR24's??? Do they also run cool?? Anything notable about the HR-24 in terms of new technology??? I haven't paid attention to Directv receivers for a while so it's time to learn again... Thoughts??? Cooler??? thanks for the help... bob...

 

[Jimbo]

Thanks for the info... We have three total HD-DVR's, two of the older HR20-700's and one HR22-100 which is now a little over one year old... One thing I notice about the HR22 is that it runs waaaaaay cooler than do the HR20's... What about the HR24's??? Do they also run cool?? Anything notable about the HR-24 in terms of new technology??? I haven't paid attention to Directv receivers for a while so it's time to learn again... Thoughts??? Cooler??? thanks for the help... bob...

Not cooler, but the temp isn't an issue anyways.
My HR20's ran from 116* to 127*, that was normal and OK.

The HR24's are using newer chipsets than the HR20 series.
Run much quicker and just a better over all recvr, other than not having the OTA tuner built in. IF ya need the OTA, D* has an add on (AM21 tuner) that is integrated into the guide.

 

[keenan]

So this sluggish behavior is typical of the HR20-700 then? I've had mine since it came out and it's become very sluggish, especially with the new HD GUI. Some commands work great but others act as if it never got the commend, it just sits there staring at me.

 

[Jimbo]

So this sluggish behavior is typical of the HR20-700 then? I've had mine since it came out and it's become very sluggish, especially with the new HD GUI. Some commands work great but others act as if it never got the commend, it just sits there staring at me.

They are very old in electronics years.

 

[keenan]

They are very old in electronics years.

Yes, I just wanted to be sure it was not something that was fixable. I haven't been under contract for years and I really don't like the idea of being under one again. I'm guessing my only choice then is to call and play Russian Roulette with what ever they send me?

 

[Blueridge66]

I can add my HR22 to the slow list! It's alway been slower to respond, often taking 4-5 secs, but as of late many of the commands are taking over 10 secs. A reset has had no effect.

 

[Jimbo]

I can add my HR22 to the slow list! It's alway been slower to respond, often taking 4-5 secs, but as of late many of the commands are taking over 10 secs. A reset has had no effect.

The HR20, 21, 22 and 23 are all built on the Hr20 base.

Sent from my Samsung Epic using SatelliteGuys

 

[Jimbo]

Yes, I just wanted to be sure it was not something that was fixable. I haven't been under contract for years and I really don't like the idea of being under one again. I'm guessing my only choice then is to call and play Russian Roulette with what ever they send me?

That or like I mentioned earlier, get what you want from a site sponsor instead and inquire with D* to see if they will comp you any.

Sent from my Samsung Epic using SatelliteGuys

 

[Blueridge66]

Slow response seemed to be a wide-spread issue with the pre-HR24 receivers so I decided to check out some other sources including DTV's forum. One of the common responses was to "reset the NVRAM"... so I did. The responce time is now about half, rather than 10+ sec it's now to about 5 sec... where it was in the recent past.
The process I used was: (as posted on DTV's forum)
1. Set receiver to Channel 1 and let it popluate, including audio.
2. Turn Native to off
3. Enable only 720p and 1080(i or p) depending on your TV's resolution
4. Using the remote and in very rapid succession, push Red - Red - Blue - Blue - Yellow - Green
5. There was brief screen display in the lower left-hand corner indicating "NVRAM cleared". It didn't last long and was in small font.

All my recordings and presets were not affected.

This may have been covered elsewhere in this forum but I didn't search.

 

[keenan]

Slow response seemed to be a wide-spread issue with the pre-HR24 receivers so I decided to check out some other sources including DTV's forum. One of the common responses was to "reset the NVRAM"... so I did. The responce time is now about half, rather than 10+ sec it's now to about 5 sec... where it was in the recent past.
The process I used was: (as posted on DTV's forum)
1. Set receiver to Channel 1 and let it popluate, including audio.
2. Turn Native to off
3. Enable only 720p and 1080(i or p) depending on your TV's resolution
4. Using the remote and in very rapid succession, push Red - Red - Blue - Blue - Yellow - Green
5. There was brief screen display in the lower left-hand corner indicating "NVRAM cleared". It didn't last long and was in small font.

All my recordings and presets were not affected.

This may have been covered elsewhere in this forum but I didn't search.

Tried the above, and it seemed to help although when navigating around leading up to performing the procedure the unit seemed to operating at a decent speed already. Just have to see how it performs over the next few days. I only have the account activated for 6 months of each year for the MLBEI package which no other provider as, so spending money for a newer/better DVR, or getting hooked into another 2 yr agreement is not something I relish doing. Of course, the possible downside to that is suffering on with an interface that moves like molasses. Frankly, I would have been fine with the old non-HD GUI, sadly that's not an option though.

Anyway, thanks for the tip!