Question about U-verse iPad app and home DVR subscription

[tommydkat]

Hi!  A friend of mine has AT&T U-Verse service for TV and Internet access.  She's got a total of 3 DVRs in her house, I think. At least she's got one DVR and a total of three U-verse receivers in her house.  Anyway, she was doing some cleaning and disconnected her living room U-verse DVR.  She reconnected it and eventually discovered she can no longer schedule shows to be recorded from her iPad, something she WAS able to do before disconnecting her living room DVR.

So, I went over there and took a look.  She's got the "U-Verse v. 2.7.1 build 3091" iPad installed and it CAN communicate with her living room DVR. I can see the MAC address of the iPad with the living room reeiver tuned to channel 9301.  The iPad app can change the channel being shown on her TV.  So, the two devices ARE communicating.  I can also use the U-verse remote, on her iPad, to record a show which is currently being shown on TV.  The *only* thing she can't do is schedule a show to be recorded from her iPad.

When we try to look at the recordings on her iPad in the U-verse app, we get this message displayed:

---------- START ----------

Recordings tab:

This tab shows the list of Scheduled and Recorded shows on the home DVR.  According to our records, you are not subscribed to a home DVR. Please contact customer care at 800-ATT-2020 if you feel is in error or if you wish to subscribe to a DVR.

-------- END -------------

So, I'm thinking this is preventing the iPad app from allowing the scheduling of recording of future shows.  We've reset the living room DVR and have uninstalled and re-installed the iPad app but to no avail.

How can we resolve this?  We called AT&T customer service and ultimate the representative determined there wasn't anything he could do to solve the problem.  That's why I'm coming here.  

Any ideas or solutions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks in advance!

Peace...

[aviewer]

tommydkat - This is a real tough one. Are you sure the living room DVR is really the DVR. The DVR is larger than the "non-dvr" STBs.

You can try to resynching everything. Close the ipad app. pull the plug on the RG, DVR and other STBs.
Replug the RG - wait for green lights
replug the DVR - wait for picture.
Do STBs, then try the ipad app.

I much prefer the app for iphones (v2.6). It works on ipads as well, Just say it is an iphone at the top of the screen in the app store. You can see if that works.

Also, you can access the Web remote access via the browser on the ipad - https://loginprodx.att.net/commonLogin/igate_edam/controller.do?TAM_OP=login&USERNAME=unauthenticate...

Not as convenient, but a work around til the other starts again. It may or may not be caused by the original disconnect. In any case, there is no clear path to resolution.

[JefferMC]

Also, it may be necessary to shift some thinking here.

I do not believe that the protocol used for U-verse connected apps, i.e. fairly directly from the iOS devices to the STB, is anything like how the DVR recording app works. My impression is:

• There's an AT&T server farm that maintains the schedule for your DVR.
• Your DVR talks to it to update the schedule and to know when to record.
• The iOS device talks to this server farm to find out about the schedule, not the DVR.

There may be a communication issue between the DVR and this server farm.  To try to rectify this, I would do as aviewer suggests.

[tommydkat]

Thanks for the reply!  When I was looking at the problem, I asked myself the same question regarding whether or not we were communicating with the right box.  So, I went to channel 9301 on the box in the living room and changed the name of the receiver from "U-verse receiver" to "Living Room".   After doing that, I confirmed the MAC address of the iPad was correctly displayed on the "living room" box and I confirmed on the iPad that it was connected to the receiver called "Living room".

Additionally, when I use the remote on the iPad, I can click the red "Rec" button and the red light on the front of the "living room" box lights up, indicating it's recording whatever is on TV at that particular time. I can also use the remote on the iPad to stop the recording and the red light on the "living room" box goes off.

However, I will follow your steps and see what happens.

I'll also look into using the iPhone app instead.

Thanks!

Peace...

[JefferMC]

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@tommydkat wrote:

...

Additionally, when I use the remote on the iPad, I can click the red "Rec" button and the red light on the front of the "living room" box lights up, indicating it's recording whatever is on TV at that particular time. I can also use the remote on the iPad to stop the recording and the red light on the "living room" box goes off.

...

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Ah, well, telling it to record a program via the RECORD button on a remote panel is an entirely different animal from what I was saying.  For some reason, I thought you were talking about recording and/or looking at recorded program listings from withing the iPad app, not on the TV while using the iPad as a remote.

[aviewer]

tommydkat - It is pretty complicated and we can only guess how it works by observing what we can see.

As jefferMC says the remote operation (that changes the TV screen) and the recording management are two different things.
The remote must be linked to a specific STB, but the mgmt applies the whole house DVR and the Remote web access. More opportunity for failure & less opportunity to find a specific fix. All you can do is try other windows into the process - The two I recommended. There is a third - the easy remote app.

If you are going to use the remote function, I suggest you name your STBs with short names. I use three - named DVR, IR and RF. DVR is obvious. IR is my main box controlled by the standard IR remote & RF is a second one controlled by the point anywhere RF remote.. The TVs are 50 panasonic, 20 sharp & 32 Samsung, respectively. YOu can see them in my avatar.

Set the name - menu - options- system options -TV receiver name

Edit - I see you did name the STB. so you have covered that base to make the remote more effective.

[aviewer]

JefferMC - I believe you had the correct interpretation of the initial problem. It is the WRA like part of the app that is failing.

The mention of the red record button was to say some part of the app works - it is connected to the STB.

[tommydkat]

Yep, aviewer has it correct. You both had a proper understanding ot the initial problem and I reported the red record button to show some part of the app works and to hopefully demonstrate that the app was communicating with the right box.

I do plan on going through the above mentioned steps of turning all boxes off and then powering them on in the order mentioned. I just need to arrange to head to my friend's house to do it.

Thanks again for your help!

Peace...

[tommydkat]

Hi!  Sorry for the late reply but only today was I able to try resynchronizing everything.  So, I turned off ALL of the STBs and the main gateway.  I turned the gateway on first and waitied for the lights to come up to show it was connected.  Then, I turned on the DVR and I pressed and held the power button for 5 seconds to reset it.  After it reset, I confirmed my recordings and scheduled recordings were still intact. Everything was fine.  Then, I powered up and reset each STB (there are two) and when they came back up, I verified being able to access the recordings on the main DVR.

Then, we tried the iPad app and got the same problem.  We then uninstalled the iPad app and installed the iPhone app and got the same message about there not being any home DVRs subscribed to.  So, we uninstalled the iPhone app and re-installed the iPad app and we're back to square one.

So, since both the iPhone app and the iPad app report no home DVRs being subscribed to, the next step is to call AT&T support and track that down.  In the meantime, I'll see if the web-based remote can work in the interim.

By the way, when we re-installed the iPad app, we installed version 2.8 of it.

Thanks again for your help!

Peace...

[aviewer · Accepted solution]

tommydkat -
See if it works from Web Recording Access - https://loginprodx.att.net/commonLogin/igate_edam/controller.do?TAM_OP=login&USERNAME=unauthenticate...

If it does not you will need to call in to have it resynched.

[tommydkat]

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@aviewer wrote:
tommydkat -
See if it works from Web Recording Access - https://loginprodx.att.net/commonLogin/igate_edam/controller.do?TAM_OP=login&USERNAME=unauthenticate...

If it does not you will need to call in to have it resynched.

---

Hi!  I was JUST about to post a reply indicating that we tried the website link you posted and that DOES work!  So, thanks for posting that.  We'll use that for now and will call AT&T to see about fixing the synchronization issue.

Thanks again for your help!

Peace...

[aviewer]

tommydkat - OK, We know that the WRA is working. I would like you to carefully go back to rebooting in the correct sequence.

Look carefully at the three STBs. Two are the same and one is different. If you cannot see a difference in the size, look at the model numbers.

The one that is different is the DVR. The other two are STBs.

Pull the AC plug on the RG, DVR and other STBs.
Replug the RG - wait for green lights
Replug the DVR - wait for picture.
Try the ipad app before doing the STBs
Do STBs, then try the ipad app.

Is the DVR connected to the RG via a cat5 cable? If not, if it is connected COAX, can you replace it with a temporary connection with cat5, then do the reboot sequence.

If you have not yet reached your limit, you can try the easy remote apps. The recordings are accessed by a button.

[tommydkat]

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@aviewer wrote:
tommydkat - OK, We know that the WRA is working. I would like you to carefully go back to rebooting in the correct sequence.

Look carefully at the three STBs. Two are the same and one is different. If you cannot see a difference in the size, look at the model numbers.

The one that is different is the DVR. The other two are STBs.

Pull the AC plug on the RG, DVR and other STBs.
Replug the RG - wait for green lights
Replug the DVR - wait for picture.
Try the ipad app before doing the STBs
Do STBs, then try the ipad app.

Is the DVR connected to the RG via a cat5 cable? If not, if it is connected COAX, can you replace it with a temporary connection with cat5, then do the reboot sequence.

If you have not yet reached your limit, you can try the easy remote apps. The recordings are accessed by a button.

---

Thanks for the info and thanks again for the help.  Part of the problem is I don't have convenient access to the hardware, so it's challenging for me to do these things in a timely fashion.  

In any event, I have another update.  My friend called AT&T to ask about the "home DVR not subscribed" issue and AT&T confirmed her DVR *is* properly "subscribed" or "registered".  They also had her install the U-Verse iPhone app on her iPhone and she IS able to schedule recordings, as she desires.  So, the issue appears to be with the U-Verse app on the iPad or at least on HER iPad.

Right now, she's able to use the "Record" button in the U-Verse app on her iPhone to schedule recordings and she's able to use the AT&T website on her iPad to schedule recordings.  This should be sufficient for her.  When I'm able to do so,  I'll try the process you describe above.  If my memory serves me, the DVR appeared to be a physically larger box than the other two boxes and the DVR was the first box I turned on and reset after powering everthing down and after powering up the gateway.

Thanks!

Peace...

[tommydkat]

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@aviewer wrote:
Is the DVR connected to the RG via a cat5 cable? If not, if it is connected COAX, can you replace it with a temporary connection with cat5, then do the reboot sequence.

If you have not yet reached your limit, you can try the easy remote apps. The recordings are accessed by a button.

---

The DVR is connected to the gateway via coax.  The problem there is, the gateway is located in a bedroom and the DVR is located in the living room, with the coax being hidden (either under the floor or in the wall or something). 

Thanks!

Peace...

[aviewer]

tommydkat - There is an STB in the bedroom connected to the RG via cat5?? Yes??
Swap that STB & the DVR.

Before whole house DVR feature, the DVR was paired with the most used TV to allow for live trick play. Whole house DVR feature allows live trick play on all STBs. Now the DVR is best paired with the least used TV.

The best place for the DVR is in the bedroom adjacent to the RG, connected cat5.