domino82's profile

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78 Messages

Wednesday, September 14th, 2011 2:26 AM

DVR stuttering nightmare

I'm extremely frustrated with my U-Verse service and desperately need to vent.

For the past months, I've been having severe stuttering/freezing while playing back recorded programs. This occurs on all TVs in my house. Live TV, On Demand, Internet and Voice all work fine. However, this totally ruins my TV experience because I only watch recorded shows, never Live TV and rarely On Demand.

Last week after I finally decided it couldn't possibly be a temporary issue, I called support. I got the automated voice saying how busy they were which walked me through restarting the system. This did not fix my problem. Not wanting to waste more time with an automated voice support system, I tried chat support.

The chat support rep was quite helpful although extremely slow, and over the course of an hour he had me do a factory reset of my DVR box and when that didn't fix the issue, ordered me a replacement. The replacement arrived a couple of days ago (the setup of which was NOT plug and play, I might add) and several resets later now that it's actually able to record, I'm once again having stuttering and freezing.

I'm beyond ticked off right now, and if I didn't hate Comcast even worse and had another option, I'd drop AT&T immediately. The truth is, though, until this stuttering started I loved U-Verse aside from the button lag.

Any suggestions from techs or someone who has been through this? Is there a direct phone number to speak with a human being? Can a local AT&T store set up a tech home visit for me? I want this fixed yesterday, and the last thing I want to do after a long day at work is spend hours on the phone doing the same idiotic troubleshooting algorithm for the third time.

Accepted Solution

Official Solution

Mentor

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78 Messages

12 years ago

GREAT news! Someone from T2 Support came out today and as far as I can tell, the problem is fixed. For anyone experiencing these problems, here is all he did:

 

1) Replaced the router with a new, black, 2Wire 3801HGV RG

2) Replaced our DVR box with a new, black one (looks about the same) with a 500GB HDD

 

He said the new router is much better... Apparently our line was running at 80% capacity even when we weren't doing anything. Now it runs at 50% baseline, just by changing the router. /shrug

 

Also, he said the new DVR has a "buffer" of sorts when recording, which eliminates a lot of recording errors.

 

Again, all he really did was to swap out 2 pieces of "functional" hardware with updated versions!! Keep this in mind if you have similar problems!!!

 

Just FYI, here are the new and improved screenshots from UV Realtime post-appointment:

 

Stats.png

ErrorTable.png

Bitloading.png

CoaxHPNA.png

4 Attachments

Mentor

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78 Messages

13 years ago

Just to describe the stuttering further, it sporadically occurs when playing a recorded show. When I rewind, the stuttering sometimes reoccurs at the same place, but sometimes it makes it through okay. I can't pin down what makes it better/worse or where the issue is. I was convinced I had a failing hard drive but obviously that wasn't the issue.

Incidentally, this all cropped up right after some major thunderstorms with severe winds went through my area. I wish I could talk to someone who could just send a tech to check the lines leading to my unit. Now my suspicion is that the signal to my house is wacky.

Expert

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14.5K Messages

13 years ago

Make sure that all of your connections are tight at the wall, on the TV's and on the U-verse boxes.

 

Also, can you download and install SomeJoe's tool at the link below?

 

http://www.uverserealtime.com/

 

Once you install the tool, please post screenshots of the following tabs: IP/ProfileError Table, Bitloading, & Coax/HPNA.

 

We can take a look at the screenshots to see if there appears to be any issues with your system.

Contributor

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2 Messages

13 years ago

I've had the same problem with the picture freezing and/or pixilating.   They eventually had to come out and replace the modem even though I hadn't had my service that long.

Mentor

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78 Messages

13 years ago

Thanks very much for the replies. Here are the screenshots you requested.... I'm guessing the results are bad, but could someone please explain what they mean? 🙂

 

Expert

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9.4K Messages

13 years ago

It looks like there may be a bridge tap on your line. A bridge tap is an extra length of wire attached to your pair that doesn't terminate anywhere. It is usually left over from a previous customer that used your pair. Bridge taps cause problems with xDSL services.

You should call technical support, have them send a premises tech to your house to check the line. He should open a helper ticket with the Installation and Maintenance group (I&M), which are the linesmen, to come find and remove the bridge tap.

Mentor

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78 Messages

13 years ago

Thanks very much for the reply. What is the best number to call to get that accomplished?

Mentor

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78 Messages

13 years ago

My concern is that I'm going to call the standard 800 number and:

1) The automated system will make me reset my system and tell me to call back in 12 minutes.

2) I'll call back and some low-level nobody will follow some troubleshooting manual to try and help me.

3) I'll tell them what was posted here and they won't have a clue what I'm talking about.

4) Maybe 2-3 transfers later I'll get to talk to someone who understands the above solution.

So I'm just curious if there's a phone number or magic phrase that can allow me to skip to #4. 😉

Sorry if this seems whiney - I've just wasted too many hours of my life doing #1-#3 above with various company's phone support systems.

Mentor

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78 Messages

13 years ago

P.S. How come in that scanning software no Coax/HPNA devices were found?

Expert

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9.4K Messages

13 years ago


@domino82 wrote:
P.S. How come in that scanning software no Coax/HPNA devices were found?

 

That is a known bug in the 2Wire 3800HGV-B router.  Hopefully a new upcoming firmware release for that router will fix that.

 

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