Returning DirecTV Customer with a few questions

[gigahurtz]

Hi everyone, I recently pulled the trigger and switched back to DirecTV after two years (canceled in January 2010). What pushed me to pull the trigger was the HR34. I ordered on Thursday, had it installed yesterday a long with 2 H25s. Overall, I'm very pleased. I have noticed the HR34 seems a bit slow when pressing the Guide button but it has been slowly getting better. I had an issue where I relocated the HR34 from master bedroom to living room and I couldn't access on-demand and the guide and menu buttons were extremely lagged. After a call to customer service and almost having the box replaced, it seems as though things have gotten much better. The CSR told me that my box would be downloading a lot of information over the next 24-48 hours. Is this accurate? Should I expect this to be the reason why the box seems a little slow. My H25s are flying, whether scrolling in the guide or even opening the guide in general.

I love the iPad DTV app. It's absolutely amazing. I've always loved how DirecTV seems so far advanced compared to the other providers, particularly the local cable companies. I just switched from Brighthouse TV and while I was pleased with their service, the outdated boxes, lack of NFL network and poor guide layout was killers for me.

Basically, I'd like to know if there is anything I should be aware of as a returning customer (i.e. box updating over the next few days, protection plan, etc). I would greatly appreciate any information you can provide me. Thank you in advance!

 

[Rey]

hi, welcome back! yes this is accurate. it takes a day or two for the dvr to stabilize.the receivers like the H25 will always be faster even after a reboot because it doesn't have to deal with the functions of a dvr. also you're probably on the old SD user interface. once your HR34 gets the latest HD user interface, you should see an improvement in the overall performance of the DVR.

i also love the Directv iPad app. Enjoy! any other questions just feel free to ask. there are plenty of more than capable members here that can assist you.

 

[jcrandall]

They are still refining the software on the HR34 quite a bit. You may want to read up on the Cutting Edge forum, the new interface that is still in testing for the HR34 will help with the speed issues you noticed on day one.

DirecTV Cutting Edge (CE) Discussion Forum

Also remember to do the rebate online (if it was required for your promotion) so you get the instant savings.

http://www.directv.com/rebate

 

[gigahurtz]

hi, welcome back! yes this is accurate. it takes a day or two for the dvr to stabilize.the receivers like the H25 will always be faster even after a reboot because it doesn't have to deal with the functions of a dvr. also you're probably on the old SD user interface. once your HR34 gets the latest HD user interface, you should see an improvement in the overall performance of the DVR.

i also love the Directv iPad app. Enjoy! any other questions just feel free to ask. there are plenty of more than capable members here that can assist you.

They are still refining the software on the HR34 quite a bit. You may want to read up on the Cutting Edge forum, the new interface that is still in testing for the HR34 will help with the speed issues you noticed on day one.

Thank you to both of you for your quick replies and helpful responses. I'm very excited about being a DTV customer again.

I'm glad to hear that the HR34 should improve. It's not horrible, but I've read so much about the HD GUI and it's improvements I was looking forward to getting it from the start. I then read that the HD GUI is still being tested on the HR34. I would love to be on the CE but I don't think my SO would like that I did read that there is a chance to lose recordings and bugs (as expected, it's beta software) so I don't know if I'd want to deal with calls from her while I'm at work

Regardless, the system overall is running great. Regarding the issue that I had when I relocated the box. After I relocated it, it slowed down to a crawl. When I called CS, they ran a system test and it came back with receiver error code 11-498. She stated this was pointing to a corrupted hard drive. She scheduled an appointment to have it changed out, but the issue cleared itself. I ended up running multiple system tests last night and had no error messages. On Demand wasn't working when I was getting the error code originally but that seems to work now. Is this something I should be concerned with or does it sound like it was just some type of glitch? Also, is it okay for me to relocate boxes throughout the house (I doubt I will anymore but just in case)? I have a SWM setup (as I'm sure you're all aware since I have the HR34 and H25s). At first the CSR said I couldnt, but then she backed off of that. She made it sound like I was at fault for moving the box from my master bedroom to my living room. I told her I was informed by the installer I could relocate it.

Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome. I joined SatelliteGuys several years ago and just saw my first post back in 2006 asking when Brighthouse Networks (my local cable co) would get NFL Network. Over 5 years later and they still don't have it. I got sick of it, along with other things and I'm happy I switched back to DTV.

 

[scoop8]

Hi everyone, I recently pulled the trigger and switched back to DirecTV after two years (canceled in January 2010). What pushed me to pull the trigger was the HR34. I ordered on Thursday, had it installed yesterday a long with 2 H25s. Overall, I'm very pleased. I have noticed the HR34 seems a bit slow when pressing the Guide button but it has been slowly getting better. I had an issue where I relocated the HR34 from master bedroom to living room and I couldn't access on-demand and the guide and menu buttons were extremely lagged. After a call to customer service and almost having the box replaced, it seems as though things have gotten much better. The CSR told me that my box would be downloading a lot of information over the next 24-48 hours. Is this accurate? Should I expect this to be the reason why the box seems a little slow. My H25s are flying, whether scrolling in the guide or even opening the guide in general.

I love the iPad DTV app. It's absolutely amazing. I've always loved how DirecTV seems so far advanced compared to the other providers, particularly the local cable companies. I just switched from Brighthouse TV and while I was pleased with their service, the outdated boxes, lack of NFL network and poor guide layout was killers for me.

Basically, I'd like to know if there is anything I should be aware of as a returning customer (i.e. box updating over the next few days, protection plan, etc). I would greatly appreciate any information you can provide me. Thank you in advance!

Welcome back to the D* world. If sports is your primary viewing category, you definitely made the right choice.

 

[Rey]

you're welcome gigahurtz. i made the switch a few years ago and have never looked back. i should've done it sooner