DVR not Recording Many Shows

[lamacguy]

Should I be calling Tech Support on this? It doesn't sound like replacing hardware is helpful - am I going to be taken down that road?

[scottlives]

Read this thread: http://forums.att.com/t5/Total-Home-DVR/not-recording-series/td-p/2640397/page/6

Tech Support seems to be aware of the issue. 

[lamacguy]

sigh. somehow it always seems worse when it's a "known problem", especially when it comes down to core functionality of the service. Meaning that people in the organization know there's a problem that affects the primary function of their service, but yet refuse to publicly acknowledge the issue, communicate that they see it as a serious problem for those affected, or explain a timeframe for solving the problem.

Instead, we get second-hand reports from bottom tier support that things are "known", and apparently have been known for months to no avail. Woo hoo.

(sorry scottlives, wasn't directed at you)

[scottlives]

No worries.  I am working on getting a specific answer about this (from an ATT Exec in So Cal) to the exact problem and the solution.  Up to this point I have not bothered them ( a good friend ) with any of my issues.....but this one seems important enough.....hopefully I will be back with an answer to whats actually happening....and what ATT is doing about it to resolve the issue......

[lamacguy]

After spending the morning resetting several series with 0 episodes (plus catching some with 1 that should have had 2), it's much appreciated

[JefferMC ACE - Wizard]

Sometimes recognition of a serious problem (like you're having) can be misattributed to a less serious problem that is already known (like the series recoding problem that I--and many others--sometimes have).

I think the best hope you've got now is that a lot of you got very specific about your symptoms and that TG37 noticed that y'all were in one narrow geographic area.

[sherylraeh]

As I reported last week, a technician was out and replaced our modem and the cable to it, hoping this would resolve the problem. At that time we had 67 shows set to record. A couple of days ago it was 47, and today it's 39. This is because it is not has not picked up any new shows since the day the modem was replaced so obviously that was not the fix. As I stated before, we live in Riverside, CA and none of our friends have this problem. We have had U-verse since shortly after Christmas and would be happy if this were not an issue, but this is a huge problem. Again we will have to go in to each series set-up and change it from once per day to a specific time or back again to start it recording again. Last week we had decided to let U-verse go if the tech couldn't fix it but we keep hanging on.

[sherylraeh]

I have just made my 4th repair call. They reprogrammed my dvr, showed us how to reboot the dvr, replaced the modem, and now they are mailing us a new dvr due her March 2nd. Again, we live in Riverside, CA and none of our friends have this problem. We determined since the last time the tech was out it takes exactly 12 days for the scheduled programs to run out from the time we go into series, change settings, time. It doesn't matter what we change the time setting to, it schedules the recordings for the next 2 weeks but it will only record for the next 12 days. We know this because it was 12 days from the date the last tech was out. Wish us luck with the new dvr.

[lamacguy]

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sherylraeh wrote:

We determined since the last time the tech was out it takes exactly 12 days for the scheduled programs to run out from the time we go into series, change settings, time. It doesn't matter what we change the time setting to, it schedules the recordings for the next 2 weeks but it will only record for the next 12 days. We know this because it was 12 days from the date the last tech was out. Wish us luck with the new dvr.

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That's because, I believe, you get 12 days of guide data. The problem boils down to your series recordings  only triggering on shows that are in the guide data when you set up the recordings, as opposed to picking up new shows when you get new guide data each day. Whatever is there when you hit record will record, anything after that gets missed.

I keep hearing here that it's being worked on, but every week I still have to go in and reset my series. I can't believe that no one at AT&T is owning up to this.

[lamacguy]

If anyone has a contact at AT&T regarding this issue, please pass it along. I think it's time for a telephone campaign to someone above tech support, this is clearly a failure of the product and we're due attention to get the problem fixed.

We know that:

1. Replacing or resetting hardware does not solve the problem
2. It seems to be localized. There have been reports outside of SoCal, but very few. May be a problem elsewhere, they can start their own thread.
3. It has been ongoing. I've only had U-verse for a little more than month now, but reports of this go back a few months.
4. It makes the whole DVR worthless. Having to reprogram all my shows every week is not a legitimate option for a DVR

WHAT IS GOING TO TAKE TO GET SOME ANSWERS HERE, AT&T?

[lamacguy]

{Content Removed: Keep it Relevant}

I think it's a legitimate question to ask if a) AT&T actually has acknowledged that this is an issue, and b) what the timetable is for addressing it. I have not been calling Tech Support about the problem because people on this forum have indicated that it's a "known issue" by AT&T, and I have no time to waste in my life going through hardware replacement and resets that we already know won't solve the problem.

But with no way to verify that AT&T has acknowledged a problem, no statement from anyone officially employed by AT&T about the problem, and no resolution yet, {Content Removed: Keep it Relevant}

This is an AT&T-owned and managed forum, and if they choose to bury this topic because it suits them better, that's their perrogative. But frankly I think it deserves to be a "sticky" at the top of the forum. There's nothing that makes customers angrier about a problem is if they think that no one is listening when they talk about it. As much as I appreciate the quasi-official word we get from some of the forum members here, it's ridiculous that in a forum under the att.com domain can't get a response from someone with @att.com in their email adress.

[Escapee]

Drop txnroger a private message. He may be able to find an answer on a fix status.

http://forums.att.com/t5/user/viewprofilepage/user-id/445822

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

I previously posted the message below about an email that I received from Matt, who is an AT&T employee in Tier 2 Technical Support.  He was responding to an email that I sent him directing him to the threads on this forum about the problems being reported in the Los Angeles area.

http://forums.att.com/t5/Receivers/Serious-Recurring-Issue-With-U-verse-DVR-Not-Recording-Series/m-p...

[lamacguy]

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texasguy37 wrote:

I previously posted the message below about an email that I received from Matt, who is an AT&T employee in Tier 2 Technical Support.  He was responding to an email that I sent him directing him to the threads on this forum about the problems being reported in the Los Angeles area.

http://forums.att.com/t5/Receivers/Serious-Recurring-Issue-With-U-verse-DVR-Not-Recording-Series/m-p...

---

Ahhh, I hadn't seen that... One of the many reasons why this issue ought to be a sticky at the top of the forum.

This is Matt with the U-verse Tier II technical Support Group. First off I do want to thank you for emailing the U-verse Care Social Media Support Team where our goal is to get your issue resolved as soon as possible. xxxxxx, we are aware of this and currently working on it like an outage, I do apologize for the inconvenience, we should have a fix for it soon.

I guess my issue is that your message was dated a week and a half ago still with no resolution, which isn't what most people would consider "working on it like an outage". In fact, it's a whole additional cycle of lost recordings for those of us dealing with the problem.

I decided to call Tech Support just to see what they would say. The (very nice) rep told me it was a known issue (as in "I've been hearing about that"), but that it wasn't listed in his database of "known issues". And then he told me my only two options were a disaster recovery or equipment swap, which we know won't solve the problem. How is resetting my equipment to "out of the box defaults" going to help solve a problem that started from when the equipment first came out of the box?

So what we have is a lot of people who are telling us that "it's a known issue" but yet it's still being treated by tech support as an unknown issue most likely caused by customer equipment failure - suggesting a troubleshooting route that includes erasing all the customer's video content. You can imagine why that might be annoying at this stage of the game.

[cmoen]

trying to read through these posts however there are so many.  Is it true there is no fix at this time and the best solution is to reboot weekly to ensure all our your shows get taped.

My DVR not recording are exactly depicted in these posts - I have "reset" up my series recordings many many times.

Thanks in advance!

[lamacguy]

Well, to summarize - If

1. You live in Southern California
2. You have series recordings that stop finding new shows to record after 12 days, even though there are episodes it should be recording

you are probably suffering from this issue. There is no fix or workaround, except to either delete each of your series recordings every 12 days and re-create them, or to edit the settings (change from "about X:XX every day" to "anytime" and back again) of each one and re-save. 

We have another source, txnroger, who says it is a "known issue" and being worked on, with no ETA for solving. So it still really really sucks, but theoretically it's being worked on and we'll just have to cross our fingers that March is the lucky month we get this solved.

[tbanucci]

Not totally true.  I'm the person who started this thread and I live in Northern California.  I'm not sure who came up with the SoCal theory and how they came to it.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

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tbanucci wrote:

Not totally true.  I'm the person who started this thread and I live in Northern California.  I'm not sure who came up with the SoCal theory and how they came to it. 

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I went back and re-read your 1st post in this thread.  The problem that you describe does not sound like the same problem that has been reported by some in the Los Angeles area.  What they are reporting is that when new series recording are created, programs are scheduled based on what exists in the Guide at that time; however, as programming information for additional days is added to the Guide, NONE of their series recordings are scheduling addition programs.  Also, no attempts to reset the DVR or update the series recordings result in additional programs being schedule.  The only way they can get additional programs to be scheduled, is to delete their series recordings every 2 weeks and set them up again.  Is this the same problem that you are experiencing?

[tbanucci]

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texasguy37 wrote:

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I went back and re-read your 1st post in this thread.  The problem that you describe does not sound like the same problem that has been reported by some in the Los Angeles area.  What they are reporting is that when new series recording are created, programs are scheduled based on what exists in the Guide at that time; however, as programming information for additional days is added to the Guide, NONE of their series recordings are scheduling addition programs.  Also, no attempts to reset the DVR or update the series recordings result in additional programs being schedule.  The only way they can get additional programs to be scheduled, is to delete their series recordings every 2 weeks and set them up again.  Is this the same problem that you are experiencing?

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My symptoms are similar to this, but not exactly the same.  I'm basically just losing series recordings after 3-4 weeks, and I either have to reset my unit and/or reset my program recording information.  From what I have read on the forum here, this is a common problem many people share.  

I guess my thread was officially hijacked by the uniqueness of the SoCal problem then.  

[sherylraeh]

I do not have to delete the series but I do have to go into each one and change the recording time. It does not matter what time setting I change it to - anything will work. Rebooting and all the other tricks people have mentioned do not. Deleting the series and re-adding it will work also. Does anyone know how to move this up the AT&T ladder to get something done?

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Best I can suggest is EVERYONE needs to file a report with David's team.  There may be more people experiencing this, but they aren't reporting it.  The more reports, the faster the fix?

You can contact David here:
http://forums.att.com/t5/The-U-verse-Lounge/my-contact-thread/m-p/2381355#M9041

[sherylraeh]

I did this yesterday. I followed the directions, listed my support calls, listed this forum at http://forums.att.com/t5/Total-Home-DVR/DVR-not-Recording-Many-Shows/m-p/2694363#M10774, and explained my problem. I explained the problem, and received a reply today that they  are investigating the issue and I may notice some intermittent restarts of the DVR or other unexpected behavior while this is going on. I would also encourage others to contact the  Tier II Technical Support Social Media Support Team at uversecare@att.com. Follow the directions on this site for u-verse as spd2demun says. 

http://forums.att.com/t5/The-U-verse-Lounge/my-contact-thread/m-p/2381355#M9041

Thanks.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

It seems like this issue is regional.  According to the posts most csr's don't know about it and others say its being addressed.  Unfortunately the only thing that can be done is to wait (if you can or care to) and hope ATT gets this issue resolved sooner than later.

[scottlives]

I want to remind everyone, while we are waiting for a fix to this issue, that most Network Shows are availible ON DEMAND with U-Verse.  For instance, I missed two episodes of Survivor because of this issue, and was able to go into ON DEMAND, under the Network tab, find CBS HD, and watch the episodes I missed.  You can do this with just about any show.......as most all the networks are listed....and most all the shows are on there.

I had actually forgotten about this until my wife reminded me.....so check it out....

p.s. If your show is not listed...sorry...but most are....

[sherylraeh]

Hi all,

We installed our new DVR and as someone someone said before, it didn't fix our problem. In fact, it got worse. Within 2 days we started dropping scheduled programs. The good news is that I emailed our Tier 2 Technical Support person to let him know and this was his response: This issue has been escalated to our network teams.

They have identified and put in place a fix scheduled for deployment later this month.

No workaround is currently available however a short term temporary solution is still being researched.  Needless to say I am very encouraged. In the meantime, Dish Network turned us over to a collection company for not paying the $35. postage when they sent us a prepaid shipping box to mail back their equipment. They didn't do anything to try to keep our business and I don't think they are too interested in having us as a return customer, while AT&T has done everything to try to retain our business. We'll keep trying with AT&T for a while.

[scottlives]

OK...so this is encouraging news.....thanks for the update.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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scottlives wrote:

I want to remind everyone, while we are waiting for a fix to this issue, that most Network Shows are availible ON DEMAND with U-Verse.  For instance, I missed two episodes of Survivor because of this issue, and was able to go into ON DEMAND, under the Network tab, find CBS HD, and watch the episodes I missed.  You can do this with just about any show.......as most all the networks are listed....and most all the shows are on there.

I had actually forgotten about this until my wife reminded me.....so check it out....

p.s. If your show is not listed...sorry...but most are....

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Depends on where you live, re: CBS on demand shows.  If you live in a CBS O&O market (where CBS owns and operates the station), you will have access to the CBS VOD shows, however if your local station is owned by a firm other than CBS (LIN, Sinclair and so on), you will NOT have CBS VOD shows.  I live in Indianapolis and WISH-TV is owned by LIN, so no CBS VOD for me.

Hulu is an option as is the U-Verse online site. 

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

When I look at CBS on demand I only see two shows listed.