HR20 Pixelation on recorded programs, Live TV OK

[cdw63]

I searched and I didn't find anyone who had this problem that had found an answer or solution.

Any recorded shows on my HR20 700S are practically unwatchable. Even if I pause live TV for 5 seconds and then restart, the picture has major pixelation and audio dropouts. Then if I FF to catch up to "real time", picture and sound are perfect.

Is my hard drive bad or going bad? I tried deleting some programs from my hard drive. It was close to 95% full, now it's about 60% full but that hasn't helped.


If the Hard drive/DVR is the problem, will DirecTv charge to replace it?
(I don't have the protection plan)

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[cdw63]

Well, now it seems to be working OK, so I'm confused.

I have had this problem for about a week now. I was watching a basketball game last Saturday that was recorded and had the pixelation/audio drop out problem. I thought it was just the feed from CBS, but then had the same problem with a game recorded on ESPN on Sunday.

Through this week it kind of came and went and I thought maybe my dish was out of alignment. I checked the signal strength yesterday and almost everything was at least in the high 80's. I fine tuned the dish alignment and got slightly higher signal strength numbers on some transponders, but that didn't fix the problem.

That's when I figured out that the problem was only on recorded programs (or from the "live buffer"). Today, when I tried to watch some recorded shows from the DVR, everything was pixelated, even one program that I watched last weekend with no problems.

Earlier today I did delete some things and got it down to about 60% full, that didn't seem to make any difference at that time but a couple of hours later when I checked my recorded shows again everything was fine.

I just now deleted some other stuff to get it down below 50%, I'll try to keep it there and see the problem returns. I still think it's the hard drive and I think it will happen again.

Just thougt I would post this for anyone else that's having this problem, and if anything changes I'll post an update.

 

[Ace68]

I have it too! Called D* and have the protection plan, they wouldn't send me a replacement (I called from work) without being in front of the unit and reformatting the harddrive....still have the probs on recorded shows only. When I hook up an external HDD and record to it, all is fine... Told that to D* Tech sppt, they said sorry, call back when you're in front of the TV. Haven't gotten around to it yet...

 

[ERNIE PAUL]

Also having ongoing intermittent pixillation of HD recordings via my H-700.The third replacement is to be delivered today.only way I got 3rd one was to threaten to drop Direct TV for Dish[I really would not do it].They offered to send a tech to investigate but because this problem is intermittent I was convinced that the tech would not find the problem.My previous crappy experiences with Direct TV techs for minor problems has proven that to be true. If this third refurb exhibits similar issues i will certainly notify Direct TV for a house call and further investigation into other related system defects.My signals all read in the high 80's-high 90's on all available sat. transponders.My receivers in bedroom and, guest bedroom record duplicate programming without any pixillation issues. Thanks to the Direct TV Protection Plan coverage no major financial losses but plenty of aggravation.

 

[dcwebman]

Guess I didn't have to look far for people with the same problem I'm having now. I recorded a bunch of movies over the weekend with the Starz preview and have video artifacts all over them. The audio occasionally goes out but if I back up, the audio will come back. I restarted the receiver hoping that would clear things up but obviously it was a recording problem. Not sure why the audio stops and will come back though.

I see someone mentioning format the drive. Would that fix it? Any suggestions as to what else to try?

 

[Bob Nielsen]

It might or might not help, but I would try resetting the DVR first.

 

[cdw63]

Just an update

Everything had been working OK until yesterday. The DVR starting locking up, would not respond to the remote, so I kept having to do the RBR. Once it it even reset by itself. It happened again this morning and when I tried the RBR I got this message:

A problem has been detected in your hard drive.

The system will now scan the disk to attempt to fix it. This process may take several hours.

Scanning disk...

1% complete



It took a little over 2 hours to complete and then locked up when it tried to reboot.
On the second try it booted OK and is working as of now, but I think it will probably fail completely soon.

I've been holding off on getting a replacement from Dtv because I have maybe 10 hours of stuff that I haven't had a chance to watch. Guess I don't have much choice now.

 

[dcwebman]

I haven't that error yet, thankfully. On new recordings I am still getting the video artifacts from different stations. I hesitate to call D* because I also have a about 5 movies taped that I want to watch first in case they tell me to reformat. It's weird too that the audio sometimes cuts out but if I do the quick rewind, the audio will then play.

 

[ERNIE PAUL]

On my 3rd HR20-700 refurb.Have not experienced previous pixillation of recorded programs as yet but have had pixillation and lock up along with a blank screen occur during the viewing of the Fox channel Sunday Nascar racing event.My other H20-100 in bedroom functioned ok on the same event.Receiver required a" Reset All" to bring back to a normal operational state.A real aggravation and time consuming.Also experience the audio drop problem.Reset/Reset/Reset

 

[BirdieBoy]

I have a HR22NC-100 DVR, but have been experiencing the same issues for over a month: Pixel breakup, from short blank screens to total lockup when changing channels, short blank screens for no reason, audio and video skipping, etc.

On my 3rd DVR, all new cabling and a new dish.. and have had more tech's here than I can count over the past 30 days.

On my second DVR we experienced all of these issues on something being recorded at the same time we were wtching a program that was OK. then, if we re-set the DVR from the front panel, all of our bad recordings cleared up. And we still could not convience the tech that it was a DVR issue.

We just got HD in late Feb. and was pissed about being charged for a Protection Plan I never authorized, but maybe it has saved me from putting their equipment out in my front yard.

A case supervisor gave me the management number for the local tech support so tomorrow I will continue my fight.

I requested that D* add me to their vacation and 401K plan since I had put in at least 50 personal man hours last month..but they also can't take a joke.