THR22 reboot loop.. HD tests fine?

We understand that you're not ready to lose your recordings. If ever you're routed to have your equipment replaced, it will have the same outcome by losing all your recordings. Our Social Care Team is ready to help if you still need assistance. DIRECTV appreciates you.  Lorie, DIRECTV Community Specialist

Software updates should only be happening for HR44 and up as they get the updated GUI and everything.

DirecTV has been shutting down the MPEG-2/SD-only feeds but that should only affect D and R (and equivalent older) models. Anything H or HR (that includes THR22) and later should not be affected unless they were mixed in with an SD-only setup and need some settings adjusted.

This is very odd. I wonder if there is something affecting the TiVO authorizations specifically. If over the phone they are at a lost, and every setting and reset on box has been checked along with even a hardware replacement doesn't fix it, I would consider a BBB complaint. That way upper management can get involved and perhaps push a ticket on a spreading issue localized to THR22s.

(Note for anyone who comes across this, R22 is also a special model as is like a regular HR22 in hiding as is MPEG-4 capable in the right setup. Interesting all the special models are 22...)

Replacing the equipment wouldn’t result in losing the recordings. TIVO DVR units like ours are still usable for playback even without DIRECTV service and they won’t need to be return because they are way too old and DIRECTV doesn’t want them back. I find it disheartening that DIRECTV claims they are committed to supporting legacy equipment and long time customers but that does not appear to be the actual case….not really. This issue needs attention and escalation to an upper their tech. Going thru the reset that and refresh this isn’t going to work this time. All they want is to push us to new equipment and 2 year extensions. 

Thanks Juniper. I appreciate your insight. I think at the end of the day if the issue doesn’t fix itself as randomly as it occurred…well we old THR22 folks are just dead in the water. I’m just glad to know it is not just my unit and there’s nothing that I can really do. It’s the inevitable end of old unsupported tech. Could the issue be fixed? Sure. Is there the will at DTV to fix it? Unlikely. 

As it is not a standalone TiVO but a DirecTV one, as soon as it recognizes it is not getting service authorizations that can disable everything including the DVR as you are not paying for the associated DVR services. A risk to be aware of as the THR22 is not a standalone TiVO unit but proprietary for DirecTV.

Since DirecTV no longer partners with TiVO, and AT&T has pushed DirecTV to a Client based system with the Genie-2 (HS17), any fixes for the THR22 are expected to be low priority at best.

Though I wouldn't expect TiVO to return, I really do want the new co-owner to bring back regular HDDVRs so we could have reliable independent receivers (that still can use Whole Home DVR that TiVOs couldn't) instead of the idiocy of client-only setups.

If it is a DTV problem it hasn't hit my THR22.

Just an update … my THR22 just pop up a purple screen saying a series of problems with the hard drive information it can’t fix and that I need to reformat the drive. Pretty interesting coincidence after the exchange in this thread. Luckily I was able to digitize the recording I needed last night with the help of a $16 capture usb dongle, free OBS software and a laptop. So not the end of the world. Maybe this will fix all my issues. 🤞

That also removes you setting so take pictures of you wishlist/recording programs.

I have 6 THR22s. Recently, one that I rarely use has started rebooting. I have replaced the hard drive twice, using Western Digital drives designed for DVR's.

Strangers still, if I leave the receiver on channel 1 or channel 2, it will work perfectly. If I switch to any other channel, it starts to reboot. There must be something about those two channels that simplifies things for the receiver.

I also have 3, brand new, never activated, never used, purchased from an (at the time) authorized DIRECTV dealer THR22s. As of 3 years ago, DirecTV said they did not know how to activate them.

So it's very frustrated to have a piece of busted equipment that you like, and brand new replacement equipment on hand, but it cannot be activated.

It's possible that Weaknees or Solid Signal might be able to sell me a THR22 that might get authorized, but they're not sure. It seems like what is possible or not possible is entirely dependent on who I happen to speak to at DirecTV.

This WAS such a wonderful company when I first started using them in the 1990s.

Hi. Just replying out of sympathy more than anything else. Just so you know you’re not yelling into void. LOL.  That’s disappointing you have unused THR22s you can’t activate. I learnt that the hard way after leaving a 2nd unused unit on my account for years at $7 per month, just incase, only to find it wouldn’t refresh and so I removed it out of “anger” only to subsequently learn there’s no going back. As for my one active THR22, after I got the purple screen of death…i replaced the drive with an 500 GB SSD, IIRC, and it’s worked as expected…knock on wood. So i wonder why your hard drive “upgrades” are not working out for you. DIRECTV, intentionally or unintentionally, did something to these units that nuked the hard drive on a perfectly good unit….and that’s disappointing they won’t do anything to fix it. The reps were helpful and one guy understood my problem but just didn’t have a means to help and his higher up didn’t either. I’m sure someday I’ll have to upgrade the unit or just move everything to over the top streaming and on demand viewing but I’ll miss the TiVo user experience when it’s gone. 

Thank you for your comments. Could you give me more specific details on the solid-state drive that you used. If you have a part number that would be great. I was under the impression that solid-state drives did not work that well as a video recorder and that rotating drives were the way to go. Most recently, I installed a Western Digital 2TB WD20EFZX. This is a NAS Hard Drive.  After installing, the unit went through a 15 minute process of formatting the drive successfully. To further add to the confusion I can get channels 1 and 2 perfectly, any other channels causes rebooting.

I used to do business consulting prior to my retirement. It's heartbreaking to see a company makes such bad decisions. (To make matters worse, I own stock in AT&T) Receivers with built-in hard drives have a MUCH better user experience than when your shows are stored at the central office. If I was running this business, I would be doing everything I could to keep existing customers happy. It's just too hard to find NEW ones.

Please send me the part number for the drive you got working. Thank you.

AT&T no longer owns DTV.  My THR22 is still working.

Sorry I don’t have a part number or anything specific like that. I think it was just a good Samsung SSD. That’s my go to brand.  980 Pro or a 990… or Something like that. I said 500GB but it could be 1TB. Nothing particularly special. And you’re right, as far as I understand it, a SSD probably isn’t/wasn’t the best choice because of all the writes and re-writes of a DVR. I just did it because i thought it might be a “faster” overall experience. Which if it is…then it’s marginal at best. And i figured the drive even if it’s an SSD was going to last longer than the end life of the unit as a whole. So using those NAS specific WD drives is certainly the smart route. Not that im any type of “expert”….I’m just as confused as you are why you’re still having issues because i did nothing more than replace and let the unit do its thing as for as formatting and installation of software. Which I’m sure is the same thing you did. Wish I could be of more help. 

my biggest concern was the old drive stored some now long gone shows that i wanted to save. Luckily i pulled off the most important stuff literally before the drive failed for good. 

and I totally understand…or don’t understand why the current customer is always valued less than the mythical new customer. But I get it. Always be growing. I’m just more of the mindset that once you find your people and have your loyal base…then you’re in the slot and you service that base and just roll along. But again i get it even if I don’t have MBA on my resume. 

DirecTV is supposed to activate authorized boxes within a reasonable time frame from order as they are owned by DirecTV. They are not intended to sit in a customer's storage for years.

Correct that they will not reactivate boxes. This was a change years ago. With boxes being leased-only (shortly after launch of the 1st Genie which was lease-only from the start), they are to be returned or recycled when removed from the account. So remove a box only if you are sure.

DirecTV still uses built-in hard drives. They have no cloud/central office storage. Unfortunately they were pushed to the Genie-2 (HS17) which means only a single hard drive for the entire setup, as it does not allow other dedicated DVRs being a Client-only design.

As a note, AT&T doesn't own DirecTV as they sold of their remaining part leaving TPG as the sole owner. It is my hope this would eventually lead back to dedicated boxes instead of a forced all-in-one setup, but we shall see. I doubt this would result in the return of TiVO boxes as they didn't support some DirecTV features such as Whole Home DVR, and had limited success with On Demand.