Recording on Friday mornings is disrupted.....

Hi @TVBelle,

Updates normally happen after 12a to minimize customer impact. Updates are not pushed weekly though.

In the past, issues like this were caused by surge protectors. If one is in use, remove it and plug the DVR into a wall outlet. Also, sometimes our members recorded multiple shows at the same time. This can cause issues depending on the priority of the recording. Last, the DVR is at capacity and unable to handle the requests. This is unfortunately can happen with all hard-drives. It starts to run slower as it has to work harder. 

Last, a reset of the entire system could resolve this if it has not been done already. 

-ATTU-verseCare

This does not happen every Friday.  It happens every 4th, 5th, or 6th Friday.  It varies.

We do not have the receiver plugged into a surge protector but we do have it plugged into a UPS (which also offers surge protection).  The reason we have it plugged into a UPS (uninterruptable power supply) is because if there is a power "blink" (where the power blips off for just a second or so), the receiver does not recover and requires human intervention before functioning properly again.  If that happens when no one is home and won't be for several hours, many programs will not record.  Unfortunatly, there is an issue in our power grid where power "blinks" happen often enough to make this necessary.  So, we have the receiver plugged into a UPS so it will not be subject to any power outages of any duration.  

I don't really see how a UPS or surge protector could cause issues on the same day of the week at the same general timeframe (always Fridays and always around 6am in the morning).  I have not seen this problem with any of my other recordings and, believe me, I have recordings scheduled all days of the week at all times of the day.

It is not a problem of multiple recordings scheduled at the same time.  99% of the time, this is the only program schedule to record.

It is not a problem of capacity as I generally keep about 40-45 hours of HD capacilty available in the DVR.

We have reset the system many times with no effect to this issue.  We've restarted the receiver ("restart" in the menu) and we've also restarted the gateway.  There really is nothing else for us to restart.

Hi,

It may be worth trying to delete the recording and set it up again. But the UPS could cause issues because the transition from direct power to UPS may not be as seamless as it may appear and effect the recording. The DVR may not lose power, but there is enough of an interruption where the recording stops and does not resume. One other thing to try is to disconnect the DVR from the UPS just for Friday to see if that could be an issue.

-ATTU-verseCare

It happened again but this time on a Saturday - March 18.  The recording was scheduled to start at 6am and go to 8am but it only got 36 minutes of the show.

Hi,

Did this happen after our suggestion of removing the UPS?

-ATTU-verseCare

No.  I will not remove the UPS as that creates an even bigger problem.  The receiver does not recover from a power "blink" and requires human intervention before becoming usable again.  This was the whole reason a UPS was installed.  

The entire purpose of a UPS is to provide uninterruptible power (The "UP" in "UPS").  And we have a very high quality and relatively new UPS in place.  Unless you can explain to me, technically, how the presence of the UPS can disrupt recordings only at a specific time of day, I do not accept it as a viable solution.

Even if I remove the UPS, and it doesn't happen for 4 weeks doesn't mean that it won't.  And I'm not going to go through the hassle of unplugging from the UPS and plugging into the wall every Friday (and I suppose Monday) and then reversing it later forever.

As far as I can tell, the two recent instances of the issue were not related to a power blink.  There was no other evidence of a power blink (clocks needing to be reset, etc).  So, there was no transfer of power to the UPS anyway.

Hi,

We understand, and we just wish to do it for testing purposes. If it is consistently happening, and then after directly connecting it to the wall, you do not see it happen again, it may be an issue with the UPS. We understand that it does not seem like a power blink causing the issues, but if it is, and the DVR is not phased on live TV, but the recording aspect is, then we can only conclude there is an issue with the DVR connected in the UPS. 

-ATTU-verseCare

Today (Friday) there was a little twist.  The program recorded in 2 segments.  6 minutes in the first and 1 hour 55 minutes in the second.

Happened again today (Friday).  This time it only got one hour of a 2 hour recording but it was the last hour of the 2 hour program.

Hi,

Was this happening with the UPS disconnected?

-ATTU-verseCare

Today, the program did not record at all.  And, yes, the receiver was plugged into the wall and not the UPS.

If you will reboot your DVR once per day you will not have that problem.

My DVR power is connected through a coffee-pot timer....it turns OFF at 2AM and turns back ON at 2:01AM.

This causes the reboot at 2:01AM every morning.  Pick your own time for the "automatic reboot."

The DVR is an embedded application that runs on the "Windows-CE" operating system in the DVR box.

Just like your PC it benefits from regular reboots.  It really needs a reboot every 2 or 3 weeks but I can't make that happen with my simple coffee-pot timer, so I reboot every day.

It takes 2 or 3 weeks for the "ill-behaved" application (DVR) to eat-up enough Windows resources that the Windows-CE hiccups.  If the ill-behaved application were "Turbo-Tax" on your PC then 20 million people would complain and Turbo-Tax would fix the problem in their application.  But the DVR application in your DVR box has such a small installed user base that the application does not get the testing it needs before release nor the support it needs after release.....just reboot regularly.

Hi @TVBelle,

Try setting up a manual recording to see if still having the problem. It sounds like it may be an issue with that program on Friday. Let us know the program you are trying to record and the channel.

-ATTU-verseCare

Interesting but in order to remove it from the UPS and plug it in the wall, it had to be rebooted.  So, it was rebooted just a few hours before the show was scheduled to record.

I don't see how this type of thing would target one recording on the same day of the week at the same time.

We are thinking it's not targeting the recording, but something is happening at that time in your house that is causing it to interrupt the recording. Try setting up other recordings at that time. If the other recordings do the same thing, it is probably an issue in the house or with the line.

-ATTU-verseCare