guitarg20's profile

Mentor

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25 Messages

Wednesday, August 21st, 2019 2:09 PM

DVR Skips when multiple streams running

I am having an issue with our DVR where playing video recorded while other videos are running causes stuttering. It's kind of hard to explain but I will provide some scenarios where there are issues below.

  • When watching a pre-recorded show X while recording another show Y, the show Y will skip frequently and be essentially unwatchable.
  • When watching live TV while recording a show, the live TV and/or the show will skip frequently and be essentially unwatchable.
  • When watching a show recorded while recording another show (multiple recordings at once) both shows will skip frequently and be essentially unwatchable.

When I say skip, i mean that the show will freeze then pop ahead to the position it would be in had it not frozen. both video and audio skip.

Everything seems to point to the cable box having processing issues when running multiple streams that causes skipping and other failures in the feed. AT&T support staff has remotely worked on my cable box probably half a dozen times and one time had me hard restart & force update to the box (or so they claimed) and it still is not working properly.

They really don't seem to want to send me a new cable box. 

I have U450 and 300/300 fiber service at the house, 8 pins connected on both ends of the ethernet run from the RG to the cable box.

This may be unrelated but smart home manager has not worked for several months claiming i have a router issue, although my connection seems to be fine for everything except the cable box.

Does anyone have any troubleshooting steps I can take before I try (yet again) to get a new cable box sent out to see if that solves my problem?

Expert

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15K Messages

5 years ago

AT&T support staff has remotely worked on my cable box probably half a dozen times and one time had me hard restart & force update to the box (or so they claimed) and it still is not working properly.

In all those times did they suggest first rebooting the gateway (pull plug for 15 secs. and let it fully reboot) before rebooting the dvr (pull plug for 15 secs.)? 

 

This problem is only with playing recordings and not with "live" tv?

Mentor

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25 Messages

5 years ago

What they did that time was have me unplug and replug in the cable box 3 times in a specific sequence to force the cable box into what was a very long reboot cycle with screens I had not seen before, including several gear/sprocket screens.

It still happens with live TV if recording a show in the background: the live TV will skip and the recording will have skips in it when watched at a later date.

Expert

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15K Messages

5 years ago

What they did that time was have me unplug and replug in the cable box 3 times in a specific sequence to force the cable box into what was a very long reboot cycle with screens I had not seen before, including several gear/sprocket screens.

You did a Non-Disaster Recovery as described in step 3 in How to Troubleshoot your DVR/Receivers.

 

It still happens with live TV if recording a show in the background: the live TV will skip and the recording will have skips in it when watched at a later date.

So not while watching the live tv whether it's recording or not?

 

If it's only recordings then something is wrong with the hard drive.  You could try disaster recovery (see that page I referenced) which would reformat the entire drive (and of course lose all your recordings).  It may be time to replace that dvr.

Mentor

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25 Messages

5 years ago

Okay! Yes, it only seems to happen when there is a recording happening. When just watching live TV without a background recording, tends to work fine. But when watching live TV when there is a recording in the background, live TV will skip. Thank you so much for your help.

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