Welcome to the DIRECTV Community Forums

New to the Community? Visit the Community How-To and Guidelines to get started.

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

Thursday, May 9th, 2024

Whole home not working

whole home feature suddenly stopped working 

Oldest First
Selected Oldest First

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

Thanks Shannon02, I am guessing that there is no way to capture the recordings to an external hard drive via a digital port on the DVR.  Not being adept at digital devices, maybe I should call up DIRECTV and endure the process to see if I can speak with a tech rep who could return my service remotely.  Bad way to kill half a day!

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

Anyway…..thanks so much for your help!  It is a kind thing you are doing to help folks like me.

ACE - Expert

 • 

23.4K Messages

2 years ago

Whole Home without a Genie is not common but certainly a valid setup. Just means you are an early adopter of it.

Recordings are encrypted to the DVR, even when using an external eSATA hard drive. It is designed to prevent any kind of transfer. Unfortunately upgrade/warranty replacements don't change that.

Instead of the Genie-2 (HS17) which replaces all boxes, you could consider a regular Genie (latest was the HR54) as would only replace one of your HR24s. That way you only need to watch, etc. recordings from one of the boxes. It has 5 tuners and 1TB space compared to 2 tuners and 500GB of an HR24. For as long as they still have them of course.

Note: If you do eventually get a Genie, if you have an external wireless CCK to connect to your home internet it should be disconnected at that time. The Genie has it built-in and would cause conflicts with the external as they fight for priority.

In the future if you want to use an external eSATA hard drive, up to the HR24s they support a max of 2TB and Genies have no official hard cap (some use 12TB or more which I think is overkill). It is used instead of the internal, though you can go back if needed. Just plan for it being connected long term as the port is not intended for being connected and disconnected often.

Genie-2 after the first run was no longer built with the eSATA port. So they were moving to lower cost simple setups.

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

Thanks for that mini lesson Juniper!  Shannon02 started my education and you have taken me to the next level of understanding.  Now that I have a Roku, I  am less dependent on DIRECTV for my entertainment, so perhaps it is time for me to upgrade the equipment.  I appreciate the info on the difference between the Genie 1 and 2.  It looks like I have some homework to do so that I can figure what will be the best set up for my needs

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

Thanks again, Juniper.  I like the way you think!  Your logic regarding having two working boxes in case one fails is spot on.  As far as obtaining a genie goes….what would be a good strategy?  If I call DTV I am guessing that they will hard sell me on the Genie 2 and/or tell me that they are out of the Genie 1. Have any ideas there?  Can I buy one on the open market and then have DTV activate it?  What should I expect?

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

Thanks shannon02.  So if I purchase an HR54 from a 3rd party retailer, if I put it in the DIRECTV equipment array, I don’t own it….they do.  I suppose I can understand that concept.  Further more, I run the risk that it won’t be able to work in the DTV system and the retailer may not want to take it back.  

If I order the genie from DIRECTV, an installer may show up with a genie 2 and not offer me a choice.  Does that sum it up correctly?

If that is the case, I think I may take the agonizing path of calling DIRECTV help line and suffer through the process of finding a tech help person to see if they can re-enable my whole-home features on my 2 HR-24 receivers and go from there. ( after all, you and juniper suffered through educating me on how the system is supposed to work.  Incidentally, the last time I checked, at least one of my hr24 units could access the play list of the other, but not vice versa 

Community Support

 • 

255.7K Messages

2 years ago

Thank you, @shannon02 and @Juniper, for addressing the customer's concern regarding the Whole Home equipment feature. Send us a DM, @Jailorsurf, If you need help upgrading your equipment, DIRECTV is here to help. Jason, DIRECTV Community Specialist.

ACE - Expert

 • 

21.3K Messages

2 years ago

Are you sure that share playlist is still enabled on both of them?

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

The share playlist is enabled on both

Community Support

 • 

255.7K Messages

2 years ago

Let's take a closer look into this and see why you cannot access your shared playlist on your other receivers. We're sending you a DM now. Julina, DIRECTV Community Specialist

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

Thanks Julina, I am not seeing any messages….where did you send it to?

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

Julina…is it possible that I am not seeing your DM because I am using an iPhone?

Community Support

 • 

255.7K Messages

2 years ago

Hi, @Jailorsurf. We appreciate you trying to look for the DM. The Private Message/Direct Message (PM/DM) icon (text/speech bubble) is located in the upper right between the notification icon (bell) and "directv.com". Let me know if you still have problems looking for it. Christian, DIRECTV Community Specialist

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

Still not seeing a message icon

New Member

 • 

19 Messages

2 years ago

So…..for some technical reason I can’t see direct messages on my iPhone.  I called the 800 number for DIRECTV support and when a rep called to help me, he had me go thru a series of resets etc, all of which I had already tried with guidance from folks on this forum.  He finally said that they will have to send a field tech to my house and that it will cost me $99.   Hmmm…..i think not!


NEED HELP?