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I am a patient person and can take problems up to a point, but what happened tonight to this *Pathetic Old Software DVR is inexcusable. This DVR has been buggy pretty much since day one. But since there wasn't much to record during the summer, it wasn't too much of a problem and just an annoyance. There would be times where I would go to watch something that had recorded and it said that it had recorded for the full time alotted. But when I tried to play the program it wouldn't go past one second and wouldn't let me forward. Sometimes it would play for awhile and then all of a sudden it would stop and the recording was over. I would then reboot / unplug the set (take your pick) and sometimes the full program would come back, but mostly it wouldn't. Sometimes when it came back, it was split into 2 recordings as if it had stopped recording and then started a brand new recording from that point. Two weeks ago I recorded a one hour block of Cops on Saturday night. I get around to the 4 minute mark just as the officer was pulling a gun on someone and the recording stops, even though it said it recorded the full 60 minutes. So I unplug it and it reboots and still the same problem. I hold down the power key for 5 seconds, it reboots and no change. So that recording is worthless and I delete it a couple of days later. Two Mondays ago, the first full night of the Prime Time Season and I get home and turn on the tv at 5:30 pm and there is nothing. Nothing on this DVR and nothing on the receiver in my bedroom. No signal, no nothing. So I call Tier 1 support and I'm not kidding you, I'm on the phone with them for 1 hour and 21 minutes and they cannot figure out what the problem is. I reboot the DVR multiple times and then I reboot the gateway and then I don't have a HOME PNA signal. They transfer me to Tier 2 support towards the end of that call, we have a bad line and they call me back a couple of minutes later and I'm on the phone with Tier 2 support for another 15 minutes and they cannot figure out the problem. Towards the end the guy tells me 'Oh I just got word that parts of CA are down (this after more than 90 minutes of being down) and that he cannot do anything to help me. Luckily, I get my service back 20 minutes before the first shows are on. I thought about posting about it here, but I thought it couldn't get any worse, so hold off for now. Last Saturday, another one hour block of Cops and I play it a couple of days later and it stops after 1 second. So I reboot the system and luckily the whole program comes back and I am able to watch it. So I think to myself, I will just keep quiet and not post here about. Tonight though is a different story. Thursday nights have been the best night on television since 1981. Tonight I had scheduled these programs to record: CBS: Survivor 8 pm - 60 mins NBC: My Name is Earl 8 pm - 30 mins WB: Smallville 8 pm - 60 mins NBC: 30 Rock 8:30 pm - 30 mins CBS: CSI 9 pm - 60 mins NBC: The Office 9 pm - 60 mins So, I watch Survivor live from 8 to 9 and then I delete the program and then all hell breaks loose. I try to play 30 Rock and it won't play past 1 second and then that picture freezes and nothing will play. But the 9 pm programs are recording. So then I try watching the other programs I had already recorded and they freeze also. I then go to The Office which is recording in progress and then the DVR turns off and reboots. My recordings of The Office & CSI stop and there is nothing I can do about it until the DVR finishes rebooting. It reboots and nothing starts recording again, so I have to rush in change channels and start the recordings manually. I then look at my recorded programs hoping to now be able to play those and low and behold My Name is Earl, Smallville and 30 Rock have been split into 2 separate recordings each. I then start to play what I thought was the beginning of 30 Rock (it only showed 10 minutes recorded) and found out at the end that it was the 2nd half of the recording. The first half? It was the half that froze after 1 second. And now I cannot play My Name is Earl or Smallville because they are freezing. Right now I have turned this POS* DVR off and am letting it record whatever it is going to record. After they are done at 10, then I will try to watch the other programming. So instead of a great night of television, I have been forced to post my rants here about a 'not so ready for primetime' POS (piece of software) & hardware DVR. AT&T, you have forced my hand and now I am going to have to cancel my unreliable U-Verse service and go with Directv, who has been begging me to come back. The sad thing is, I turned my neighbor onto U-Verse the day I got it installed back in May. He's had multiple problems also. And I've also been preaching about U-Verse to many of my friends telling them how great it is. Boy, was I lying. I haven't even mentioned the billing problems I had in the beginning that took months & numerous e-mails to correct. It's obvious (and has been stated here and on U-Verse Users) that AT&T rushed out this product, not giving a feces if it worked properly. Forgot about giving us more HDTV channels, give us a service that actually works when we need it to work. Chris
Message Edited by mrpayroll on 10-04-2007 10:02 PM
Message Edited by mrpayroll on 10-04-2007 10:05 PM
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They used to have Medium, but didn't that stop?
