My Digital Life

My Directv HR20-700 Video and Audio Stutter Issues (Update 3)

Back in mid-September Directv released a new version of their software. After the automatic upgrade issues with my recordings started to occur. The video and audio would drop out and essentially stopping the playback from 2 to 5 seconds. This happened so many times that it made the viewing experience of recorded content lousy. I have had no issues with watching live TV, but I seldom do anymore other than for sporting events.

In mid-October Directv released version 0x0368 of their software. This version helped considerably but the problem was still very noticeable.

I have been a Directv customer for 14 years now, but with the onslaught of Verizon FIOS marketing, the fact that I have FIOS for internet and home phone service, I was starting to think hard about switching to their TV service. The two biggest issues I have had with switching are:

1. The Motorola DVR which FIOS provides is substandard and they don't allow you to add an external drive.
2. If you purchase (additional cost) a Tivo DVR which provides the external drive functionality, you are stuck using one way cable cards which eliminates any pay per view or interactive feature.

Yes, FIOS could work for me, but the overall Directv experience is better and their iPhone app is a great little tool. The forums like dbstalk.com have provided very little help other than to the RBR (Red Button Reset) the DVR. This seems to help a little but you have to do it almost daily so that is not a solution. As I was planning my potential move to FIOS, I decided to call Directv customer service to see what they would suggest (I have to say I was pretty skeptical). As I explained my problem, the CS person narrowed the potential issue down to the disk and suggested I run a disk scan and report any errors.

I ran the disk scan (RBR, wait on the "just a few more moments" message, press the front panel down key and record button simultaneously until the scan message comes up). It took 16 hours to scan my 1 Terabyte external hard drive. No errors were found, but the scan clearly resolved some issues.

Last night I started watching recorded programs and although not perfect there are no audio dropouts and the video stutters are blips that do not negatively impact the viewing experience.

Bottom line this clearly a disk related issue associated with the update and probably associated with the external drive functionality which is supposedly unsupported but operational.

Updates:

11/23/09: Good weekend for recorded material with only minor video and audio stutters. It was interesting that the hard drive started making quite a bit of noise again (I wonder what is going on, could it be defragmenting?), but if it makes things watchable I will live with (my DVR and HD are in a cabinet 20 feet away from my LCD panel). I may schedule another scan this week.

11/21/09: I ran another scan Wednesday night and last night watched 3 recorded shows. This seem to help quite a bit, I had 2 minor video/audio stutters on a 30 minute show. I will keep monitoring.

11/19/09: I am sorry to say that the video and audio dropouts/stutters are back when I watched 2 recorded shows last night. I had planned on running another scan and started it around 10PM last night. It is about 60% done this morning. If this does not work, I may purchase a Western Digital My DVR drive to see if that helps (I would need it anyway if I went to a Tivo/FIOS setup).

 

Note: BTW, I am using a special starter edition of Office 2010 (closed beta w NDA) to edit this blog post I created with Office 2007. It is funny to see the file being opened in compatibility mode.

One side benefit from SlingPlayer and Directv; access to some Sirius channels

I am still waiting for the official Sirius iPhone application; rumors pop up every couple of weeks but nothing yet. I guess I could purchase Pocket Tunes Radio which supports Sirius/XM streaming but before plunking down $9.99 I would like to see what Sirius comes up with.

In the meantime I did stumble across a benefit of having Directv and a SlingBox; the ability to stream the Sirius channels available on Directv using SlingPlayer.

The Audio Only option allows you to save bandwidth and batter.

Even in the Audio Only mode, SlingPlayer is still stymied from AT&T's barring 3G support. Argh!!!!

AT&T 3G network not good enough for iPhone SlingPlayer

The saga of bringing SlingPlayer to the iPhone has been a real soap opera, but the release of the application even though crippled by the lack of 3G functionality is still a milestone. Sling Media confirmed it was building a SlingPlayer for the iPhone last March, a year later they submitted the application to Apple. Since then it seems that AT&T, Apple and Sling Media have been in a tussle over whether to allow the Sling Player to stream over the 3G network. AT&T even modified its Terms of Service to block Sling Player type applications to use its network, and then rescinded the change. Last week they reinstated the ban on with this language: "Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our terms of service". They equate the iPhone to a personal computer.

With the release of SlingPlayer, according to engadget, last night AT&T felt compelled to issue a statement on the subject (I could not find the official statement), but engadget published this:

"Slingbox, which would use large amounts of wireless network capacity, could create congestion and potentially prevent other customers from using the network. The application does not run on our 3G wireless network. Applications like this, which redirect a TV signal to a personal computer, are specifically prohibited under our terms of service. We consider smartphones like the iPhone to be personal computers in that they have the same hardware and software attributes as PCs.

That said, we don't restrict users from going to a Web site that lets them view videos. But what our terms and conditions prohibit is the transferring, or slinging, of a TV signal to their personal computer or smartphone.

The Slingbox application for the iPhone runs on WiFi. That's good news for AT&T's iPhone 3G customers, who get free WiFi access at our 20,000 owned and operated hot spots in the U.S., including Starbucks, McDonalds, Barnes & Noble, hotels, and airports. AT&T is the industry leader in WiFi."

It almost sounds like AT&T is apologizing for the inability of its network to handle the potential load. You could view this as a brave move on their part, essentially admitting to capacity weaknesses in their network and it the end saving them from more network performance issues which have plagued them since the release of the iPhone. Maybe Verizon should promote the fact that their Terms of Service does not block this functionality; under their Permitted Uses section they state that "(iv) uploading, downloading and streaming of audio, video and games;" is permitted.

As everyone in the blogosphere is pointing it out, there is no mention that the 3G functionality is available on the version of SlingPlayer for Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices, although I think the Terms of Service also covers those devices, so I guess I can longer use my Windows Mobile SlingPlayer on their 3G network.

Although the SlingPlayer for iPhone lack 3G connectivity, it is priced at $29.99 in the App Store the same price as for other mobile platform with 3G support. I went ahead and purchased it and I have to say that the user interface is pretty cool. Hopefully with their planned network upgrades, AT&T will allow 3G functionally sometime in the near future.

Watching the Today Show on my Directv DVR.

Why do some Blu-Ray movies display in letterbox?

I am a very big proponent of letting the content creator determine how it is streamed to my 16:9 HDTV. I have adjusted all my devices to stream content in their native mode. If the source is 1080P it shows up on my HDTV as 1080P, if it is 720P it shows up as 720P, and so on. Unfortunately when I view certain theatrical (movies) HD content from Directv or my Blu-Ray player, most of it displays in a letterbox with black lines on the top and bottom.

After extolling the virtues of HDTV and Blu-Ray to my family and friends, I get a lot of questions about this effect since the elimination of letterboxing was one of the features often touted by HDTV proponents. Everyone believes that there must be something wrong with their settings. At the beginning, I thought there that as well, however the issue is not with the setup; it is with the content. Well it is not a problem, it is by design. Most theatrical content is filmed in an aspect ratio of 2.40:1, while the aspect ratio of HDTV is 1.78:1 (commonly referred to as 16:9). To display the 2.40:1 content accurately on a 1.78:1 display, the HDTV is forced to produce bars at the top and bottom.

You would have thought that the HDTV engineers would have taken this into consideration when they settled on the 16:9 ratio, well apparently not, and we are left with viewing theatrical content not filmed in 1.78:1 in a letter box. Yes, we can always use our HDTV or Blu-Ray player functionality to expand the image, but the anamorphic conversion is never perfect. As a consumer, I am less than happy not be able to use all of the 46 inches of my HDTV to view movies as the director intended them to be seen. I think that is a pretty sad commentary on an industry that currently makes most of its income from DVD sales. There is artistic value in the wider aspect ratio, but the question still remains why the HDTV standard did not take that into consideration.

For further information this article from Home Theater magazine is good. If you have the watched the Blu-Ray version Dark Knight and noticed that the screen switched from letter box to full screen (at first I thought there was something wrong with the disc), this article explains why.

NetFlix Streaming box released

Ever since Directv changed their Pay Per View policy to a 24 hour viewing windows (see my post) I have been searching for an alternative solution. The closest one I have come up with is the NetFlix service. I went back and calculated what we spent on PPV over the last 12 months and was surprised to find that the $8.99/month NetFlix subscription was slightly less. The only disadvantages are planning our selections ahead of time and the wait time on some new releases. My mother has NetFlix and sometimes she has waited more than 30 days to receive a popular new release. With Directv we used to record PPVs without purchasing them, then we could watch the PPV we were in the mood for. With the NetFlix $8.99 plan, you receive one DVD at time which means only one selection to watch.

With the release of the NetFlix Streaming box for $99, NetFlix now has a real alternative to delivering content. Right now the 10,000+ titles available for streaming are older titles and only in standard definition. The box will be upgraded to HD when NetFlix releases streaming HD content. The one interesting caveat on the content side, is that they have all the most popular TV series which have been released on DVD.

The combination of the new release DVDs by mail and older streaming content maybe the right combination for our viewing habit. With the prevalence of real time data around us, it is funny how technology has changed TV viewing habits from live towards recorded content which allows us to better manager our time...

Here is a good Gizmodo review of the NetFlix Streaming box.

Ramblings for the week of May 5th in My Digital Life

Unless you were living under a rock this weekend, the big technology news was that Microsoft bailed on the Yahoo acquisition. On its face value, I agree with the decision, I was never convinced that Microsoft could properly execute the merger. However, what I have found very interesting is the competition between the blogosphere and the traditional media in coming up with theories good or bad. Techmeme's front page is filled with links from both spheres. The one I found the most interesting (and it has nothing to do with my fascination with Apple...) was the post by fake Steve with the crank shot of Dr Evil (Ballmer) and Mini me (Gates). As the hard charging winner take all executive he is, I always think Ballmer has something up his sleeve and maybe he is gambling on Yahoo falling flat on its face, then picking up the pieces for next to nothing. We will just have to wait and see. In the end the  unfortunate issue in this story, is that Wall Street will decide Yahoo's fate rather than Yahoo, and we all know how fickle Wall Street can be...

I never got to put my 8GB micro SDHC card through it paces last week, by transferring my still pictures from my Sony camcorder. I found that my AT&T Tilt is very fickle when it comes to charging. In addition to the HTC charger, I have an iGo Juice and a Gomadic dual charger. Both of these allow me to charge multiple and different devices by changing the adapter plugs. Last month I had an issue with the iGo and the Tilt, the mini USB adapter I had used with the T-Mobile MDA and Wing did not work so I ordered one specific for the Tilt. This trip I took the Gomadic dual charger, (it does not charge laptops and is smaller), and the same is true, none  of the three adapters tips I had worked, at the end of the first day of travel the Tilt was dead. Good thing I took along my iPhone and Samsung i760. Unfortunately, the iPhone is not compatible with the Delkin USB Bridge and to my disappointment the i760 does not recognize the 8GB micro SDHC card. My planned experimentation was a bust...I was glad for GSM's SIM card technology so I could easily swap it into the iPhone, not true for Verizon's CDMA technology. If the i760 was my primary driver I would have been dead in the water since you can't easily swap phones...although EVDO worked great for watching Directv via my Slingbox.

As I was rushing out the door last Tuesday, Sling Media decided to announce they had released an update to the SlingPlayer mobile for Windows Mobile and I neglected to modify the formatting used by pocketnow.com (bbphp) and my blog (HTML). All fixed now...

This week:

• Finnish and publish my review of SBSH Mobile Software Facade application for pocketnow.com. This is a smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) today screen replacement.

Ramblings for the week of April 28st in My Digital Life

I decided to annotate the title of this weekly post with the word "ramblings" since it more clearly describes the content I write on Monday mornings.

I received my SanDisk 8GB micro SDHC card for my Tilt from Digital Media Outlet for $56 and it includes a USB adapter. It works well with the AT&T Tilt, I just copied the content of my 2GB card to the 8GB card and was on my way...I will be using it heavily this week transferring the contents of my Sony camcorder so I can email selected content to the Kodak Gallery.

I may have found an issue with my Dell XPS 720 disk configuration which might be causing the blue screen. When I installed the RAID 1 array, I use for data, I installed the drives in two bays next to each other without looking at the controller setup. There are 2 SATA controllers in the system and my RAID configurations was using both. Theoretically it should not matter and would provide a redundancy on the controller front, but you never know how the nVidia RAID drivers are architected. I decided to try placing both disks on the same controller, the system seems more stable (it has been up for over 2 days). The jury is out and I will have to see how things go this week.

As HD content includes more and Dolby Digital audio tracks, it is becoming a real pain to switch the Directv DVR audio output between standard PCM and Dolby Digital. I believe the problem is with my older Yamaha AV reciever. It does not automatically detect and switch modes between signal types. So when we switch to a program with PCM audio and the DVR is in Dolby Digital mode, the receiver is still processing the audio as Dolby Digital (that is what output is tagged as) although the content of the stream is PCM. The audio is so low that you cannot listen to it. This off course is only a theory, however from my forum research it seems to be a fairly common issue with certain receivers. I will have to test with a newer receiver to validate. I will probably try to stick with a Yamaha receiver,  I always found them to be solid good sounding units. The local audio/video chain has a 30 day return policy so I should be in good shape, they also match the big box store pricing...

This week:

• Continue work, my review of SBSH Mobile Software Facade application. This is a smartphone (Windows Mobile Standard) today screen replacement.
• Start a review of Slingplayer Mobile for Windows Mobile.

Directv looses one of its major advantage of viewing a PPV movie for more than 24 hours

As of today Directv subscribers will no longer be able to view a Pay Per View (PPV) movie purchase for more than 24 hours (link). The ability to watch a movie in several sittings has been a major plus for my wife and I over the last 12 years as Directv subscriber. When I upgraded to HD, this was one of the major selling points for us to stay with Directv. This weekend we watched "Into the Wild" and it would have been a drag to watch the 2 and 1/2 hours in one evening. Watching a movie over multiple sittings may be heresy to movie buffs, but I find that it allows you to ponder the story.

What I find interesting about this whole situation is that we seem to be in the minority. There does not seem to be a major uproar from subscribers. I googled forums on the subject and found very little dissension. I could not even find a post on the subject on the dbstalk.com forum, although they seem to be less and less independent.

For our use this probably means we won't be purchasing any more PPV movies, we may become NetFlix subscribers and it opens up the door to switch to FIOS TV. Since I currently use FIOS Internet, the current triple play promotions is probably a cheaper solution than Directv. I would have to balance the promotion against the purchase cost of a Tivo HD DVR, since it looks like the current FIOS Motorola DVR does not allow the use of the eSATA port for my 1 Terabyte hard disk array. As telecommunications, the internet and television technologies merge, it seems that flexible consumer solutions are becoming harder and harder to find. I understand the fear of piracy, however I feel Digital Rights Management is hampering my legal rights to use the content I purchase.

I can understand movie studios not wanting us to keep a PPV movie indefinitely but 24 hours is a ridiculous time frame.  I think 72 hours would  be more appropriate and would work for us. I agree that if someone wants to keep a movie indefinitely they should purchase a DVD or permanent download.

In the end this is a big step backwards for Directv who has been a leader in providing advanced technology and content to users. It seems to only advantage they have left is for the die hard sports fan. However, as those contracts come to an end and the cable/telcos offers the same packages, Directv may have a real problem on their hands.

Directv successfully launches new satellite to provide more HD channels

Here is a nice shot of the launch courtesy of Sea Launch. This satellite will provide up to 1500 HD channels. The satellite uses the latest spot beam technology to provide viewers with their local broadcast stations in HD, that is as soon as the local stations provide the HD signal to Directv...I am waiting for our local PBS station (WETA) in HD from Directv, although I do receive it using an ATSC antenna.

I have been very happy with the HD content provided by Directv, and I do recieve many more channels in HD than my friends and family on Comcast.

The week of January 28th in My Digital Life

I have had some issues with the radio on my Tilt (dropped calls and unable to answer second call). When I updated to Dutty's Dual Touch V3 ROM, I updated the radio to 1.27.12.32, last week HTC released a new OS and radio 1.27.15.32R2 ROM. A forum member on xda-developers (thread) has produced a radio only ROM update found here. I updated my Tilt this weekend and the signal is definitely stronger, however as some have posted I was initially having GPS problems. After reading the thread, I ran quickgps, updated my position, performed a soft reboot and everything is working, although the acquisition time seems slower than before. I can live with that, considering the signal strength seems much better. I have not had the opportunity to test answering a second call and will report back.

Since I now have Sirius in my BMW, the subscription provides on line streaming for most of the channels, I have to decided to examine various Windows Mobile solutions to listen to Sirius on my Tilt and will post my results later this week.

Well it looks like the iPhone's new OS version 1.1.3 firmware Jailbreak procedures have been published, although the Google Maps location finder does not work without the new baseband firmware. I will wait a while until the baseband upgrade process is totally flushed out before upgrading. Currently if you reboot or change SIM cards you have to run a script to re enable the baseband. There has also been quite a few postings about the fact that most of the code to support third party applications is already in 1.1.3...

Last Friday Directv went national with its latest production firmware release version 0x1EA for the HR20-700 and HR20-100. So far so good, I have to try playing videos from my Vista Ultimate desktop via the DVR this week. There was also a beta release via dbstalk.com which I passed on.

This week:

• Post more thoughts on the AT&T Tilt and how I used it on my trip.
• Listening to Sirius on my Tilt.
• I should be receiving Verizon's new SMT5800 Windows Mobile 6 Standard phone this week for a pocketnow.com review..