DirecTV DVR Glitch

[Stanley Kritzik]

Maybe it wasn't easy, but last night, DirecTV downloaded some guide data (I suspect) that knocked out all the DVRs in the country.  The solution, it turns out, is to unplug the DVR, plug it back in, and let it re-start.  At that point, the DVR will be running, but with bad data in it.  So, within 30 minutes, it must be re-started again -- red button reset, or unplug/replug.  This flushes the bad guide data out of the DVR and all's well.

Not a nice thing to happen, and there are a lot of casual users who won't have the savvy or the courage to take the corrective steps on their own.  I understand D*s support phone lines are jammed.

They need to improve their QC, their software, or both.  Sorry to see it happen.

Stan

[JohnRacine]

My receiver wouldn't even power up today.  Unplugging didn't help.  But, I held in the red, reset button for about 20 seconds, and that did it...the receiver came back to life and went through the long start up process.

However, the first time that I accessed the "List", it locked up.  

I held in the reset button, again for about 20 seconds, and it unlocked.  It has now been working fine for the rest of the day, and I didn't lose any of my stored shows.

I hope the bugs are gone now...

[Talos4]

Annoying, A WTF moment even before the coffee was done.

Not a good start to the day.

One RBR, one power pull and done.

[kevbeck122]

I usually watch OTA before work, so I didn't even notice the problem this morning.  I came home to a dead box during my lunch break though... did a RBR, which worked for about 5 minutes, then I was stuck on the channel I was watching.  A second RBR completely fixed it.  I guess they did a mass reboot of all HR2x boxes around 2PM today also.

[Stanley Kritzik]

I usually watch OTA before work, so I didn't even notice the problem this morning.  I came home to a dead box during my lunch break though... did a RBR, which worked for about 5 minutes, then I was stuck on the channel I was watching.  A second RBR completely fixed it.  I guess they did a mass reboot of all HR2x boxes around 2PM today also.

Early this AM, customers with e-mail addresses got an apology from them, too.  But, I'll bet they'll test the heck out of their data in the future, since they inconvenienced all their DVR customers with the tricky little recovery scenario.

Stan

[kevbeck122]

TVApps no longer works for me and my extended guide info is gone... things like the star rating, cast and crew info, and the common sense rating info.  I did another double reset... hopefully that fixes things.