FIOS DVR Stinks! Just plain stinks!

prisaz · 11-16-2008, 07:43 PM

There have been many times when the DVR has just pissed me off. Like today when I had to leave in the middle of a HD movie on the Hallmark channel. I was watching the Ford movie and hit record, came back home later and it only recorded about 30 more min. Yes I did miss the end of the movie. Perhaps it was the crappy guide that may have told the DVR the movie was over. Or the fact that I had previously paused it at some point. I guess if all you want to do is pause while you get food then perhaps it is ok. I have considered getting a TIVO, but if I wanted to pay $500 for my own TIVO and then pay for service, I could have kept my Directv. Only difference would be after paying for the TIVO Directv would want it back. 12.95 a month for TIVO service would be the same as what I pay for my DVR under the old pricing plan. But I would have to pay VZ for a cable card, and that would drive the price up. I do not understand how Verizon can provide these and call then a DVR. As far as the home media service, why should we pay for the function of what the box hardware does within your own home, when we pay for the use of the DVR? And like many have said, what good is it if it does not record what you tell it to? You need to have the programming on the box to watch it in another room.

mshulman · 11-16-2008, 08:11 PM

I use the DVR on my fios box all the time. While its not perfect and has issues from time to time, overall I find it pretty decent.

I rarely do what you did however and usually program a show to record at a specific time. Its probably most likely that the movie you were watching wasn't listed properly.

RES4CUE · 11-16-2008, 08:31 PM

it has its faults but mine works fine as far as recording, the thing that bugs me is the guide is generic and doesnt account for reruns.

Justin · 11-16-2008, 10:31 PM

Yeah, the Guide data is frequently wrong. But don't confuse the DVR software with the Guide data - with decent data, many of the problems about not recording or recording the wrong thing would just go away.

Having said the above, I don't think my DVR has failed to record even once in 3+ years. I guess I just record stuff that is correctly described in the Guide or something, but for me, the DVR works almost flawlessly, recording and playback.

schvidah · 11-17-2008, 03:12 AM

I often wonder why a huge company like Verizon, especially one that is trying to corner the cable and internet market can not come up with anything that works even close to as well as tivo. The guide that tivo uses is much more detailed and most importantly shows the year that the show first aired so you know if it is a rerun, and when it was first aired. Why can't Verizon do that??

Also the interface for the tivo is about 1 million times better. Everything from locating programs to checking when repeated shows are aired is easier. There are so many more features.

On a positive note things are getting better and better. I have subscribed since July 2007 and with every firmware update, things work a little better each time. When I first got it, the DVR was completely not dependable, you never knew if your show was going to be recorded or not.

monjul · 11-17-2008, 10:56 AM

It does act funky occasionally. I tried recording the series 30 Rock and it told me that there was a scheduling conflict when there was none. The next day, it took the record-series command with no problem.

Last night, it decided to record the Cowboys-Redskins game on it's own out of nowhere (I wasn't even watching the game). When I cancelled the recording, it began recording the event again. This happened over and over again until I gave up. At 9PM when there was a scheduled recording on HBO, it stopped recording the game. It was quite strange actually. Looks like it needs another power-on reset.

prisaz · 11-17-2008, 06:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Justin

Yeah, the Guide data is frequently wrong. But don't confuse the DVR software with the Guide data - with decent data, many of the problems about not recording or recording the wrong thing would just go away.

Having said the above, I don't think my DVR has failed to record even once in 3+ years. I guess I just record stuff that is correctly described in the Guide or something, but for me, the DVR works almost flawlessly, recording and playback.

Yea but if the guide data is wrong how can it not fail to record? Like if it says the program is not timed right. Wee My guide came up tonight and said "TV Guide" Hooray!

prisaz · 11-17-2008, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mshulman

I use the DVR on my fios box all the time. While its not perfect and has issues from time to time, overall I find it pretty decent.

I rarely do what you did however and usually program a show to record at a specific time. Its probably most likely that the movie you were watching wasn't listed properly.

Decent? Have you ever had a TIVO? I guess as of tonight my guide shows up on the Verizon DVR as TV Guide, so we shall see how it works now.

"Wasn't listed properly". I would second that and that is the bigest issue with the DVR. Try to record a season or new runs and your small drive fills up with repeats and trash, then the new stuff has no room or does not record.

rkkeller · 11-18-2008, 08:51 AM

My only problem with the HDDVR is mine seems to get worse with every update. When I first got mine over a year ago, it worked fast and hardly any problems. Way better and faster than the DirecTV Dvr's which I came from.

Then 2 updates back, mine started getting random reboots, blank parts of some screens, HDMI issues and pauses when pressing keys to do things.

The most recent update seems to have done nothing and might have made things worse. Same exact problems but more random reboots, more HDMI handshake issues, skip seems to not always skip you have to press twice, jump back sometimes jumps back more than the 10 seconds its set at (sometimes 10, sometimes 30). On top of this awful soft SD picture.

JPL · 11-18-2008, 11:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkkeller

My only problem with the HDDVR is mine seems to get worse with every update. When I first got mine over a year ago, it worked fast and hardly any problems. Way better and faster than the DirecTV Dvr's which I came from.

Then 2 updates back, mine started getting random reboots, blank parts of some screens, HDMI issues and pauses when pressing keys to do things.

The most recent update seems to have done nothing and might have made things worse. Same exact problems but more random reboots, more HDMI handshake issues, skip seems to not always skip you have to press twice, jump back sometimes jumps back more than the 10 seconds its set at (sometimes 10, sometimes 30). On top of this awful soft SD picture.

You're still getting random reboots? I got them pretty frequently right after we got the IMG, but since 1.5 we got, I think, 1. That's been a couple months going without a reboot.

As for the skip issue - I've seen that too. Hit skip twice in a row, and the second one doesn't seem to take.

And on the softness issue - that was actually intentional by Verizon. The SD picture on my SD STB is just as sharp as ever, but I've seen the SD picture on the HD box on an SDTV, and you can still see the softness. Basically Verizon mucked with some of the video processing settings to intentionally soften the picture (their studies have supposedly shown that people prefer the softer picture on their HD sets). The good news is that a future release of the s/w (not sure when) will allow you to adjust that processing. You can shut it off too, which will take the box back to the setting it was before the last couple s/w updates.

One good thing that they did with this update - they did improve the signal processing on the box. In the past if I set my SD override to 480p or to 'off', the mosquitoing that I got on some SD channels would drive me batty. Since 1.6 rolled out I decided to put the SD override back to 480p. The mosquitoing is totally gone.

rkkeller · 11-18-2008, 01:10 PM

I still get 2-4 random reboots a week. I do have 75+ SP's and dont know if that has anything to do with it.

I called Tech Support over the weekend and they forced a redownload of the software saying that should fix it but I got another just this morning.

hakstone · 11-18-2008, 02:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prisaz

There have been many times when the DVR has just pissed me off. Like today when I had to leave in the middle of a HD movie on the Hallmark channel. I was watching the Ford movie and hit record, came back home later and it only recorded about 30 more min. Yes I did miss the end of the movie. Perhaps it was the crappy guide that may have told the DVR the movie was over. Or the fact that I had previously paused it at some point. I guess if all you want to do is pause while you get food then perhaps it is ok. I have considered getting a TIVO, but if I wanted to pay $500 for my own TIVO and then pay for service, I could have kept my Directv. Only difference would be after paying for the TIVO Directv would want it back. 12.95 a month for TIVO service would be the same as what I pay for my DVR under the old pricing plan. But I would have to pay VZ for a cable card, and that would drive the price up. I do not understand how Verizon can provide these and call then a DVR. As far as the home media service, why should we pay for the function of what the box hardware does within your own home, when we pay for the use of the DVR? And like many have said, what good is it if it does not record what you tell it to? You need to have the programming on the box to watch it in another room.

I had the same thing happen. When you manually record a program, the dvr assumes for 30 min. You can change this in the dvr menu under 'creating recording'. You can specify an end time for the recording.

prisaz · 11-18-2008, 04:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by hakstone

I had the same thing happen. When you manually record a program, the dvr assumes for 30 min. You can change this in the dvr menu under 'creating recording'. You can specify an end time for the recording.

Should not the DVR know you mean record the current program? They advertize that when you hit record it should record the program from the time you started viewing the program. It worked before. Perhaps it's one of the inbetween builds they show no build number for. You can't tell me they are not patching things without telling us beta testers. Current customers that is. I guess I should have known starting this thread would get some traffic.

prisaz · 11-18-2008, 04:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prisaz

Decent? Have you ever had a TIVO? I guess as of tonight my guide shows up on the Verizon DVR as TV Guide, so we shall see how it works now.

"Wasn't listed properly". I would second that and that is the bigest issue with the DVR. Try to record a season or new runs and your small drive fills up with repeats and trash, then the new stuff has no room or does not record.

Just as a follow up statement. I told it to record the season of Lost. Look what happened. It scheduled it on the HD then SD and then on the G4 channel. They are all new versions but it should know I mean the channel I am viewing when I select record. Nice way to fill a small drive with crap I do not want. Why would I want the same program recorded off of three channels when the guide shows the HD and SD as the exact same program. I don't know why in the world it thought I wanted to record it on the G4 channel. Nice DVR product. Come on Verizon, why not pay someone to program the DVR code to work. Do all the cable companies have the same issues with this Motorola DVR?

mshulman · 11-18-2008, 04:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by prisaz

Decent? Have you ever had a TIVO? I guess as of tonight my guide shows up on the Verizon DVR as TV Guide, so we shall see how it works now.

"Wasn't listed properly". I would second that and that is the bigest issue with the DVR. Try to record a season or new runs and your small drive fills up with repeats and trash, then the new stuff has no room or does not record.

No, I never had a Tivo. I do have a replayTV though.

Overall, I don't have many issues with it. I select shows to record and it shows them. Simple as that, which is why for me - its decent.

11-16-2008, 07:43 PM	#1
prisaz Glasses off HD is SD! Join Date: Jun 2008 Location: Maryland / Metro Washington Posts: 127	FIOS DVR Stinks! Just plain stinks! There have been many times when the DVR has just pissed me off. Like today when I had to leave in the middle of a HD movie on the Hallmark channel. I was watching the Ford movie and hit record, came back home later and it only recorded about 30 more min. Yes I did miss the end of the movie. Perhaps it was the crappy guide that may have told the DVR the movie was over. Or the fact that I had previously paused it at some point. I guess if all you want to do is pause while you get food then perhaps it is ok. I have considered getting a TIVO, but if I wanted to pay $500 for my own TIVO and then pay for service, I could have kept my Directv. Only difference would be after paying for the TIVO Directv would want it back. 12.95 a month for TIVO service would be the same as what I pay for my DVR under the old pricing plan. But I would have to pay VZ for a cable card, and that would drive the price up. I do not understand how Verizon can provide these and call then a DVR. As far as the home media service, why should we pay for the function of what the box hardware does within your own home, when we pay for the use of the DVR? And like many have said, what good is it if it does not record what you tell it to? You need to have the programming on the box to watch it in another room.

11-16-2008, 08:11 PM	#2
mshulman My Projector is High Def. Join Date: Nov 2004 Location: Marlborough, MA Age: 35 Posts: 6,572	I use the DVR on my fios box all the time. While its not perfect and has issues from time to time, overall I find it pretty decent. I rarely do what you did however and usually program a show to record at a specific time. Its probably most likely that the movie you were watching wasn't listed properly. __________________ Toshiba HD-A2 and HD-A3 PS3 Sanyo PLV-Z3 Canon HF-10 Onkyo 805 "I eat green berets for breakfast and I'm very hungry!"

11-16-2008, 08:31 PM	#3
RES4CUE Early adopter junky!!! Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Manassas, VA Posts: 206	it has its faults but mine works fine as far as recording, the thing that bugs me is the guide is generic and doesnt account for reruns. __________________ Samsung PN50A650A Plasma Sony 7.1 reciever STR-DG1000 POLK speakers PS3 BLU RAY XBOX 360 W/ HD-DVD Samsung upconvert DVD Harmony "ONE" Fios HD service 360 TAG= TRUCKY512 PS3 TAG= RESCUE4

11-16-2008, 10:31 PM	#4
Justin High-Def Newbie Join Date: Dec 2005 Location: Keller, TX 76248 Age: 68 Posts: 209	Yeah, the Guide data is frequently wrong. But don't confuse the DVR software with the Guide data - with decent data, many of the problems about not recording or recording the wrong thing would just go away. Having said the above, I don't think my DVR has failed to record even once in 3+ years. I guess I just record stuff that is correctly described in the Guide or something, but for me, the DVR works almost flawlessly, recording and playback. __________________ Justin Verizon FiOS TV and Internet Motorola QIP6416 DVR Sony KDL-V40XBR1 LCD Sony SLV-D360P DVD/VCR

11-17-2008, 10:56 AM	#6
monjul High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Marlton, NJ Posts: 166	It does act funky occasionally. I tried recording the series 30 Rock and it told me that there was a scheduling conflict when there was none. The next day, it took the record-series command with no problem. Last night, it decided to record the Cowboys-Redskins game on it's own out of nowhere (I wasn't even watching the game). When I cancelled the recording, it began recording the event again. This happened over and over again until I gave up. At 9PM when there was a scheduled recording on HBO, it stopped recording the game. It was quite strange actually. Looks like it needs another power-on reset. __________________ Sony 52XBR4 Adcom 535-2 Energy C3 Boston Acoustics sub API Power Wedge 112 Conditioner

11-17-2008, 03:12 AM	#5
schvidah High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Oct 2008 Location: MoCo Maryland Posts: 109	I often wonder why a huge company like Verizon, especially one that is trying to corner the cable and internet market can not come up with anything that works even close to as well as tivo. The guide that tivo uses is much more detailed and most importantly shows the year that the show first aired so you know if it is a rerun, and when it was first aired. Why can't Verizon do that?? Also the interface for the tivo is about 1 million times better. Everything from locating programs to checking when repeated shows are aired is easier. There are so many more features. On a positive note things are getting better and better. I have subscribed since July 2007 and with every firmware update, things work a little better each time. When I first got it, the DVR was completely not dependable, you never knew if your show was going to be recorded or not.

11-18-2008, 08:51 AM	#9
rkkeller High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 307	My only problem with the HDDVR is mine seems to get worse with every update. When I first got mine over a year ago, it worked fast and hardly any problems. Way better and faster than the DirecTV Dvr's which I came from. Then 2 updates back, mine started getting random reboots, blank parts of some screens, HDMI issues and pauses when pressing keys to do things. The most recent update seems to have done nothing and might have made things worse. Same exact problems but more random reboots, more HDMI handshake issues, skip seems to not always skip you have to press twice, jump back sometimes jumps back more than the 10 seconds its set at (sometimes 10, sometimes 30). On top of this awful soft SD picture.

11-18-2008, 01:10 PM	#11
rkkeller High Definition is the definition of life. Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 307	I still get 2-4 random reboots a week. I do have 75+ SP's and dont know if that has anything to do with it. I called Tech Support over the weekend and they forced a redownload of the software saying that should fix it but I got another just this morning.

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