DirectTV local channel fails 3 weeks in a row...
Steve Henderson
2 in STL - KTVI.) For the last THREE weeks, a program that I wanted to
record on that channel has recorded alright on TIVO, but it has been
blank... "that channel is not available". BUT, when I check it about 45
minutes into the recording, if I change the channel up one to 885, of
course, it tells me that I'm recording, and do I really want to do
that... when I say "yes" then it changes channels just fine, THEN, when
I go back down to 884, it's fine too !!!! I have checked the settings
for the channels, and 884 is selected just like it should be.
So, I haven't the foggiest idea of what's going wrong, but it's getting
very frustrating. The TiVo has been booted at least 3 or 4 times since
this started, and still it happens, only on Tuesday nights (that I know
of). And, unless I do the "change channels and change back" deal,
everything on that channel will be blank the rest of the night.
Just for information purposes... this is a series 2 Tivo, and is an RCA
Direct TV that doesn't support fewer than 3-digit channels. I just
called Direct TV, and they say it may be the DTV receiver. They want to
send me a refurbished one for shipping only (and a 1-additional year
agreement). That brings up their DVR. Anybody have it, and how's it
compare to the Tivo?
-- Steve Henderson
Rod Smith
Steve Henderson <shende...@charter.net> writes:
>
> Here in St. Louis, the local channels on Direct TV start on 884 (Channel
> 2 in STL - KTVI.) For the last THREE weeks, a program that I wanted to
> record on that channel has recorded alright on TIVO, but it has been
> blank... "that channel is not available". BUT, when I check it about 45
> minutes into the recording, if I change the channel up one to 885, of
> course, it tells me that I'm recording, and do I really want to do
> that... when I say "yes" then it changes channels just fine, THEN, when
> I go back down to 884, it's fine too !!!!
I take it this is a standalone (SA) TiVo with a conventional (non-DVR)
DirecTV receiver? If so, how are you changing channels -- via an IR
blaster or a serial cable? If the former, my guess is you've just run into
a string of bad luck with the IR blaster signals not "taking" on the
receiver. Unfortunately, this does happen every now and then. It's also
possible that some light condition at the time the recording starts (such
as a shaft of sunlight hitting the DirecTV receiver) is exacerbating the
problem.
> I just
> called Direct TV, and they say it may be the DTV receiver. They want to
> send me a refurbished one for shipping only (and a 1-additional year
> agreement). That brings up their DVR. Anybody have it, and how's it
> compare to the Tivo?
Some DirecTV DVRs *ARE* TiVos, but they're integrated units. I confess
I've not been following this closely, but some (maybe all) of the newest
units are not TiVos. I can't speak to the non-TiVo units, but the
DirecTiVos (as they're unofficially called) are fine, at least if you
don't want some of the add-on features like HMO, which aren't supported.
The DirecTiVos have the advantage of two tuners, so you can record two
shows simultaneously. They also support Dolby Digital sound (on channels
that are so encoded) and there's never a channel-changing problem. OTOH,
they're tied to the DirecTV signal; they can't record over-the-air (OTA)
or cable signals, if you watch a combination of the two. (The HD DirecTiVo
is a partial exception; it can record OTA HDTV broadcasts.)
--
Rod Smith, rods...@rodsbooks.com
http://www.rodsbooks.com
Author of books on Linux, FreeBSD, and networking
Joe Smith
> Here in St. Louis, the local channels on Direct TV start on 884 (Channel
> 2 in STL - KTVI.) For the last THREE weeks, a program that I wanted to
> record on that channel has recorded alright on TIVO, but it has been
> blank... "that channel is not available". BUT, when I check it about 45
> minutes into the recording, if I change the channel up one to 885, of
> course, it tells me that I'm recording, and do I really want to do
> that... when I say "yes" then it changes channels just fine, THEN, when
> I go back down to 884, it's fine too !!!! I have checked the settings
> for the channels, and 884 is selected just like it should be.
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=3631393#post3631393
I had the exact same problem, on two sets of equipment!
Desired channel: San Francisco local channel 2 (KTVU, Fox) on 884.
S1 Standalones: Sony SVR-2000 and Philips HDR112.
DirecTV receiver: Sony DSS SAT-B2 (August 1996) on each one.
Control cable: Serial port from SVR-2000, IR blaster from HDR112.
(Serial connection from HDR112 stopped working about a year ago).
Problem: If tuned to any channel below 884, then going to 884
produced the white on purple banner "Station not available".
No problem for 885 or above, then going down to 884.
The receiver's channel display showed that is was correctly
tuned to 884. The same problem happened for 8-8-4-Enter as well
as Channel-Up from the highest XM music channel. The TiVo Guide
also showed strangeness. When tuned to 866 (XM-POPS), it said:
866: XM Pops
867: XM Radio Disney
884: Music Channel 104
885: Music Channel 104
886: Music Channel 104
887: Music Channel 104
888: Music Channel 104
Using 8-8-5-Enter correctly went to channel 885, and the TiVo
Guide showed "884 KTVU" and "885 KRON".
I don't remember exactly when the problem with 884 started, but it
could very well have been on the day when the old music channels
got replaced by XM radio channels.
> called Direct TV, and they say it may be the DTV receiver. They want to
> send me a refurbished one for shipping only (and a 1-additional year
> agreement). That brings up their DVR. Anybody have it, and how's it
> compare to the Tivo?
I called DirecTV, they said it was a problem with the old DirecTV
receiver, and send out two refurbished D10 receivers. Hooking one
up to the Philips TiVo fixed the problem. The other one would tune
to all the correct channels, but displayed only a black screen.
(This appears to be a known failure mode for the D10: Banner OK
but no programming.) This particular refurb unit has been declared
defective; I'm waiting for a replacement to arrive.
Since my receivers are so old, they don't want the SAT-B2s returned
and the refurbs are coming without 1-year agreement.
Update 1-Jan-2006: Unable to reproduce the problem today. Channel
883 WABC now shows up in the Guide between 879 and 884.
Problem appears to have been fixed at DirecTV's end.
-Joe
P.S. You could still get a DirecTiVo from DirecTV, as long as you
asked for it explicitly. Check BB, CC, GG, or even Wal-Mart;
the good stuff is is still on the shelves in many locations.
DanR
Just recently and maybe still Direct TV was giving away the DVR for Free. $100
and $100 rebate, 2 year commitment. DirecTV also recently changed over from the
Tivo DVR R-10 to a new model R-15 that does NOT use Tivo programming. But
whatever... don't agree to a one year commitment for an old receiver only form
DirecTV.
I also live in St. Louis and started with an RCA receiver about 2 years ago. The
channel lineup has always had local channels with their REAL numbers. KTVI
channel 2 is channel 2 in the DirecTV programming guide.
Kurt
"DanR" <dh...@sorrynospm.com> wrote:
New customers only.
> Tivo DVR R-10 to a new model R-15 that does NOT use Tivo programming. But
> whatever... don't agree to a one year commitment for an old receiver only
> form
> DirecTV.
> I also live in St. Louis and started with an RCA receiver about 2 years ago.
> The
> channel lineup has always had local channels with their REAL numbers. KTVI
> channel 2 is channel 2 in the DirecTV programming guide.
--
To reply by email, remove the word "space"
DanR
Maybe now but not 2 months ago. I bought my 2nd R10 then and paid $100 and
received $100 rebate. I had already extended my commitment several months
earlier to 2 years when I bought my 1rst R10 for free and free installation of a
2nd coax run and multi-switch and had to just extend it several more months to
make it 2 years from the 2nd R10 purchase. Was a good deal for me.
But now I'm interested in DirecTV HD and wonder if I've used up a lifetime of
rebates and commitments???
Steve Henderson
Joe - I appreciate your reply to this earlier. I just went thru all
this, and yesterday they sent out a refurbished receiver - but it was a
Hughes, and lacks...
1) The low-speed serial port so that TiVo can change the channel. I know
I can do it with IR, but not happy about the decreased reliability that
will problaby bring.
2) No Digital Audio out. And, yes, I know that that would be stripped
out in my series 2 TiVo, but now, I have that digial out going directly
to my 5.1 receiver so I can watch (real time) DirectTV in surround. I
can do without this, however, since I rarely do that.
I called DTV back to see what could be done, with no joy. They suggested
that I go to a retailer and try to find a DirectTiVo receiver. I really
think I'd rather work around my one channel problem than put out that
kind of $$$, so I may send them their Hughes receiver back and just keep
my old RCA... I can work around the few things I record on 884 by first
recording, say channel 890 for a short period, then let it go DOWN to
884 for the real program I want to record. It's a pain, but hey,
everything is a pain about this problem <grin>.
I guess it's close to the time to look for an HD receiver / TiVo. I'm
kinda out of the loop these days... Not sure what the R10 and R15 are...
is there a website somewhre that tells me what to do about all this new
receiver stuff? And, my old TiVo Series 2 is experiencing audio
dropouts... maybe it's time to start all over with a new unit that does
both? What brands do all you folks recommend? I don't yet have a HD
monitor, and will problalby wait for a while before taking THAT plunge.
Regards,
Steve
Jack Zwick
Steve Henderson <shende...@charter.net> wrote:
> I guess it's close to the time to look for an HD receiver / TiVo. I'm
> kinda out of the loop these days... Not sure what the R10 and R15 are...
> is there a website somewhre that tells me what to do about all this new
> receiver stuff? And, my old TiVo Series 2 is experiencing audio
> dropouts... maybe it's time to start all over with a new unit that does
> both? What brands do all you folks recommend? I don't yet have a HD
> monitor, and will problalby wait for a while before taking THAT plunge.
The only HD receiver with TiVo is the HR10-250. It will receive and TiVo
all your Standard Definition channels.
Audio dropouts may be due to overheating of the MPEG decoder chip.
Joe Smith
> kinda out of the loop these days... Not sure what the R10 and R15 are...
R10 = SD recorder with TiVo technology, good.
R15 = non-TiVo SD recorder, not nearly as good.
HR10-250 = HD recorder with 250 GB hard disk and TiVo technology.
-Joe
Jack Zwick
Joe Smith <j...@inwap.com> wrote:
Non DVR HD receivers:
H10 MPEG 2 HD receiver
H20 MPEG2 and MPEG4 Receiver - needs 5 LNB dish for MPEG 4,
Mpeg4 still being rolled out. MPEG4 will
provide your local channels in HD.