I have had an HR20-700, from DirecTV for a little less than a year. It was working well until a couple of weeks ago. Now, whenever I playback a previously recorded show, it will play for a few seconds, then freeze (as if paused), and not respond to any commands from the remote for several minutes; then play for a few seconds, and freeze again. Even shows that were recorded months ago, before this issue had ever occurred, are impacted.

Does anyone have any idea what causes this playback issue, and/or any potential solutions for it? It appears that the HR20 and HR21 machines have this issue a lot, but searches on this and other forums do not offer much in the way of solutions....many have suggested to just reboot the system, but that hasn't worked.

This seems to be a very well designed device, with a lot of very nice features. However, there is a problem when so many people have the same issue with a machine. A device like this certainly should be dependable for far more than a year of service. If it's not, it's a piece of crap , and any responsible company should take the time to investigate why they have such a high failure rate.

If it helps, my Software version is 0x29b, and it says my last upgrade occurred on 11/8, which is quite possibly when the issue started. I am also connected to a network, though i'm not sure if that's relevant or not.

Any help that doesn't require me to delete all my shows would certainly be appreciated!!

I also have this problem on HR21, especially when recording NBC and CBS.

Head over to dbstalk.com, where tech support for DTV DVRs is more helpful. People have recommend me to call DTV and get a new machine. I'm still not convinced it's a hardware issue, though.