Storms mess up the ENTIRE EVENING of DVR recordings, even after the storm has passed!

A DirecTV service employee came out and tested the signal. He said it was 100 percent. He also replaced a part on the dish and checked the connections form the dish to the house.

I live in central Florida. We get storms practically every afternoon for months on end. I am not about to reset the DVR after every storm. Further, the point of having a DVR is to record programs when I am not home. I cannot very well "reset the DVR" when I am miles away!

I do not understand how this is not a software issue. Does the DVR not have software that keeps track of the time? If I have a 6 p.m. program that started being recorded at the 5:50 point of the 5 p.m. program, that sounds like a software problem to me!

Example: The 5 p.m. program begins on time and the DVR starts recording it. A 10-minute storm at 5:10 causes a signal loss. After the storm passes, the DVR starts recording again and (apparently) "thinks" it is still 5:10, even though it is 5:20. At 6:00 p.m. the 5 o'clock program ends, but the DVR "thinks" it is still only 5:50. The 6:00 program then starts recording at the 5:50 point of the 5 p.m. program! When I arrive home from my errand, I have to search through the 5 p.m. program to find the beginning of the 6 p.m. program.  The same 10-minute problem repeats itself for EVERY program set to record on that channel. If I record five programs in a row, all five recordings have the time delay!

I am on my fourth DVR/receiver. The service rep has checked the signal, updated software, and changed parts on the dish and the entry to the house. We are running out of parts to replace!

I am about ready to cancel DirecTV and get cable.

Hi @colony14, Thanks for the response and clarification of the issue.

With that explanation, I was able to see that other people are reporting the same or similar issue. 

Since the issue only seems to be on the last active tuner, we have a couple of workarounds you can try.

• You can attempt to turn to a channel you won't be recording before you leave and make sure the box does turn off.
• If this happens while you are home, turning the channel after the storm does seem to resolve as well. 

I will be escalating this issue for you as well to get a permanent resolution for you as soon as we can. In the meantime, I hope those workarounds work for you! 

We appreciate your patience! 

Raychel, AT&T Community Specialist 

Nope, the software doesn't know what the time is nor cares all the channels have time codes in the guide data so signal interruptions doesn't change the time so it is unknown why this happens, replacing the receiver maybe to only fix.

Thanks for the advice.  IF I AM HOME during a storm, I typically cancel DVR recordings for the rest of the evening and watch the programs live (but then I cannot skip through commercials). Before I go to bed I then reschedule all the recordings I had temporarily cancelled.

I imagine this issue is not extremely common because it involves not just frequent summer storms, it also involves recording several programs in a row in the same channel. Outside of Florida is might not be a big deal, and many customers probably do not record several shows in a row on the same channel. But I am not making up this issue. It really is a problem and it drives me nuts. Please take it seriously, even if it is uncommon! Sending me new receivers/DVRs, etc. is not fixing the problem, it is only costing you money - and those costs are passed on to all consumers.

Thanks for the quick response, @colony14! 

We definitely are taking it seriously, you are correct that this is an uncommon issue however, upon research and clarification of the problem, you are not the only one affected. We want to make sure this issue is resolved and will be updating the escalation as new information comes in. 

If you have the chance to try both of those options (forgoing your normal solution when you are home to try the workaround above) and let us know the outcome it would be greatly appreciated!  

Thanks again! 

Raychel, AT&T Community Specialist

In the short run, I will try one of the above suggestions: Turn to a channel I am not recording before leaving the house. For example, if have scheduled several HGTV programs in a row to record and plan on leaving the house during storms, I will tune to a channel other than HGTV before I leave. We shall see...

I know this is an old post but this is a very common problem. We had the same issue with Dish too. We just had our first big storm tonight and I was hoping it wouldn’t happen. Well sure enough ALL of my shows set up to record were messed up by about half an hour. It is incredibly annoying but it is a satellite issue ( seems they should figure this put): it will happen with Dish or Direct TV either way. I just spent the whole evening resetting all my shows. Very frustrating!