Big Problems with HR20

Hi Bruce,
Sorry to hear about your problems. I have 6 HR20's and have had no problems. I have Monster surge protectors on all of them. Keep the faith. Could the problem be something else on your end? I have heard they are susceptable to surges, ask Direct.
Dave.

Bruce I have even more bad news for you now this is going back to the day they came out but I have gone through at lease no less then 10 HR20's. Now I own 3 of them so it hasn't been the same one but over the course of the pass year all 3 have had to go back quite a few times. Now I will say that it's been about a month since one didn't freeze up or be DOA or just not work right.

Duh Bruce I have to correct that. I have 6 H20's. I do have 1 HR20-700 with no problems, but again i have a surge protector.
Dave

Hi, I keep my HR20 and TV and a 1000 APC Ups unit. That way I protect the unit and don't have to reboot after the power flickers. They won't let me protect the cable coming in , directv says the cable can't run through a surge protector. It has to run from the dish into the b band converter and to the dvr. Bruce

I run my incoming satellite cables to the monster surge protector and then to the b band converter with no problems.

Might I suggest that instead of the HR20 you try a H20 plus the Philips DVDR3575H. ($289 at Circuit City).
I have been using the H20 plus the previous Philips model DVR (3455) and have had great results.
Although you cannot record one channel and watch another, you can edit what you have recorded and archive it to the inbuilt DVD recorder. Also , there is no monthly fee.
Check out:
http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/Customer ... ew.do#tabs

Are you able to record and playback in HD?

Yes you can record and playback in HD, as long as the unit is working

What is the connection between the H20 and DVD? Firewire?

I use HDMI to the TV and componet cable to the DVD

Sorry, Bruce. I was talking to danerigden who said he used a H20 with a DVD hard disk recorder and I was questioning whether he was able to record in HD using that setup.

Yes you can record and playback in HD, as long as the unit is working

Bruce, do you leave the HR20 on all the time or put it in standby often? I have a HR20-100, leave it on all the time, and have had very few problems.

I use the remote to turn the DVR and TV off. I don't know if that puts the DVR in standby or not. I did not see an option for standby. Bruce

Yeah, I guess off and standby are the same thing. I am used to my old HR10-250 that had on and standby but no "off". If you get the thing working the way it should, try not turning it off. They are made for that, IMO.

That's actually one problem (if you can call it that) with most modern DVR's: You can't turn them off. Since most have a 30 or 60 minute buffer of the currently tuned channel, the unit is always on and recording to hard drive.

I think manufacturers should start including a configuration with these DVR's that can be set by the consumer to completely shut them down during certain blocks of hours when they know they won't be needed (like overnight, assuming nothing is scheduled). This would not only prolong the life of the internal hard drive, but also save on energy consumption ... which is a growing concern these days.

- Shane

Are you saying to just shut the TV off and leave the HR20 running?

Yes. I haven't turned my HR20 off or put it in standby since it was installed a year ago. Once the software bugs were fixed in February I only recall having to RBR it (red button reset) once.

Putting the DVR in standby just turns off the outputs - it's still tuning and recording. At least the Tivos are, not sure about the DirecTV DVRs.

The HR20 will still record if you turn it off, When its off you can see the yellow light come on when a scheduled show starts to record. I turn mine off to save heat/energy.
Pete

Next week I will receive my fourth HR20 receiver and I am not happy. I spend more time rebooting , repackaging, and re mailing receivers than I do watching them. Today I hooked up my 3rd hr20 and it working fine fr 4 hours. The receiver quit responding to the remote or it's own buttons. I had to reset it. I gone through freezes, choppy sound, crashes, instant reboots, shutdowns, tuners going out and much more. Will there be a end to this madness. Directv acts like no one has problems. This will be the last time I hook one up, i don't know if Dish is any better but I'm pulling my hair our. Bruce

You might want to check and see that this isn't a grounding issue or bad electrical wiring. Try buying one of those deals from Home Depot that you plug in to the electrical socket and a series of lights tells you if your electrical socket is working correctly. Electrical problems can play havoc on complex electronics.

Another thing you should do is to check and see that your satellite system is properly grounded. If it isn't, you need to have this done to protect your equipment, home, and you. It also can affect system stability with complex electronics. Furthermore, lack of grounding is the number one cause of LNBF failure as static that builds up on the dish will eventually dissipate through the LNBF.

If your satellite system is grounded, try unhooking the ground by disconnecting the ground wire from the ground block. (google some images if you don't know what it looks like) Be careful to only unhook this ground and not the house electrical ground wire. Check system performance with it unhooked and see if it stabilizes. If it is stable, then there is errant voltage that is possibly grounding out through the satellite ground. You can check this with a volt-ohm meter by applying the leads to the ground block and ground wire and seeing if any voltage is present. Reverse the leads and try again as it is possible to sometimes have voltage coming up through the ground wire in unusual circumstances. If you find voltage, contact an electrician, not a satellite tech. An electrician will be more capable of locating errant voltage than a satellite tech.

You can also use a volt-ohm meter to check for voltage on the shield of the coax by disconnected the satellite in cable from the receiver and checking for voltage between the chassis and the connector nut, not the center conductor with your volt-ohm meter. You shouldn't have any if your system is properly grounded.

Sorry, Bruce. I was talking to danerigden who said he used a H20 with a DVD hard disk recorder and I was questioning whether he was able to record in HD using that setup.

Umm, ya, how is that possible?

I had an early model H20-700 that went back 3 times (my older H10-250 went back 5 times). I also have an H20-100S. Since they updated the software (several times actually) I haven't had any problems, and I never leave them on all of the time. They also need lots of ventilation because even when they are "off", they generate lots of heat. The last thing you want to do is place one on top of your A/V receiver. They are never really "off" anyway - they record an hour or so of any channel that is currently selected (in addition to "waking up" to record preprogrammed shows). I have turned the unit "on" found a show on that I liked (on the station it was already on) , hit the record button and got the entire show as long as it was within the hour window.

I have lots of extra air circulation space around my A/V receiver (which is in the very top of my rack as it generates the most heat), 2-3", and the H20 sits in it's own shelf with equal air space below the A/V receiver. All of my other gear is below that. I understand that DVD players are particularly susceptible to heat damage and shortened life expectancy.

It seems that every single cable or satellite box I have ever owned runs hot.

The A/V rack, for my home theater, is designed for good convection cooling with air passages on three sides but I am considering adding a whisper fan to push even more hot air out.

On my older original A/V cabinet I drilled extra holes in the back because it's ventilation was very poor. I had to do the same thing for the computer bay in my desk.

Open racks obviously ventilate better but then you have all the cables to look at.

So what I am suggesting here is, in addition to grounding and electrical issues already discussed, is that heat must be taken into consideration as well. Right now the only way to really turn one off is to unplug it, then you have to go through all of the rebooting and guide reloading stuff.

The VIP-622 & VIP-722's are much better than what you are going thru now. I have had mine for as long as they have been out at 1st the s/w was a little buggy but that mostly has been fixed. They still have occasionally quirks. But Dish usually fixes those problems overtime. I had to replace mine once in the time that I have had it but it was one of the series that had hardware problems and Dish replace all of those when they went bad for free. So I can highly recommend the Dish HD-DVR's. If by chance you decide to come over to the "dark side" (lol) get the new 722 unit. It has more HDD space and can get HD content via the internet from Dish. It also has outboard storage that allows you to use both the internal & external drives at the same time. So now if you can get out of contract by the fact that all the equipment being bad then maybe you want to try Dish. BTW these units can record 3 events at 1 time. 1 OTA & 2 sat while you can watch 2 events playing back. So this is your answer to the question of are the Dish units better. I think they are MUCH BETTER. And very soon Dish will again be the HD leader. Their new sat will be going up in just a couple of months and will have all the channels Directv has plus a few extras. The only reason to stay with them is if you are a Sunday Ticket sub. That is exclusive to Directv.

My HR20-700 is working just fine thank you. I am enjoy all the great HD programing from Direct.

I was replying to the person that started the thread. For those that came after I was just supplying the info related to the question asked about Dish. The question was ask if Dish was any better. So don't think it was directed to you just because it followed your statement.

I have had my HR20-700 since June and it has worked flawlessly. I have even attached an External 750gb eSATA drive to triple it's capacity. I too am enjoying all the HD channels that DirecTV provides.

Since my reply follows others already posted I want say I am replying to anyone who is interested in how well my HR20 performs.
Pete