[Norseman00]

I'm wondering if we could gather any actual success stories with

regards to lockups in the 5K series with the 5.0 s/w. Reading through

the various threads, there seem to be many suggestions (reformat, heat, leave it off, etc) that may or may not work.


What I'd like to see are folks that had a system that was locking up as many are but did X and that fixed the problem for them and it's been gone for Y amount of time.


The main reason for this for me anyway is that my 5040 refurb locks up

several times a week playing back shows and I'd like to cure this before

the wife makes me put the showstopper back


Possible solutions like pulling the drives and re-low level formatting them or

resetting the system have a very high PITA factor and if the chance of success is low then it may not be worth it. Waiting for the Rock to arrive is similar in that no one knows when that will happen of if it will affect their individual problem.


Just seeing if we can pull the signal from all the noise...

 

[rugby]

I had a 5180 that locked up all the time. I deleted 50 some episodes of farscape and my lockups disappeared.


Don't worry, I watched all of them.

 

[kreigerm]

I used to have lock-ups every few days.


I switched from using the photos as a screen saver/ pause screen to the Replay Shuffle.


I have not had a lockup since I did this - probably about 4 months.

 

[troilore]

New 3 weeks Replay 5060 user here,

(should be a "5200" tomorrow)

All lockups stopped after canceling myreplaytv.com

Learned from this board....


I am a modem user....

 

[BigCubsFan]

Prior to the rollout of 75 back in May(?) my 5040 never locked up. The day after the machine received the update it was constantly locking up while watching live t.v. No lockups doing anything else, but only while watching live t.v. Absolutely nothing changed with my setup except for receiving the new build. Well after about a month of rebooting and cussing at the machine I realized that if I was able to play recorded shows without any problems then maybe if I simply did an Instant Replay a couple of times right when I started watching a channel LIVE I wouldn't have a problem. Well that seems to solve the LIVE t.v. bug! Since then I only experience the LIVE t.v. bug if I forget to do the Instant Replay when I switch to a channel for live viewing.


Again, this only works for the LIVE t.v. lockups and I am currently running build 110 with the same results.

 

[Dan the Man]

Like creigerm, I had intermittent lockups when using the photo screen saver. When I went to the default, it stopped locking.

 

[toots]

I think this shows a serious problem that ReplayTV is having.


We'd all like to have some control over what does or doesn't cause the lockups. Some people manage to get the lockups to stop on their boxes by taking certain measures that only seem to work for them or a few others. Other people just get a placebo effect, possibly due to using the box less.


The bottom line on all of this is that ReplayTVs are prone to lockups, at least from the impression I get here. I know that not all of them suffer from this problem, but a sufficient number do - enough to fuel all these threads that discuss what you might or might not be able to do to get rid of them.


The real answer is pretty much out of the control of the end user:


ReplayTV has produced a product that's prone to lockups, possibly for multiple reasons. A lot of this, you can't control. I mean, you can't control when ReplayTV decides to download a new version of software - or whether that new version will cause new lockups or fix existing lockups.


A lot of these threads seem to deal with workaround strategies: don't watch live TV, don't use the photo partition, don't let the disk fill up.


They all have a common denominator, which is out of our control: Buggy hardware or software from the vendor.


And that much is a shame.

 

[ozzieman]

Well lets hope then that "Alcatraz" takes care of all of these issues.

 

[arjay]

Quote:

Originally posted by toots We'd all like to have some control over what does or doesn't cause the lockups. Some people manage to get the lockups to stop on their boxes by taking certain measures that only seem to work for them or a few others. Other people just get a placebo effect, possibly due to using the box less. The bottom line on all of this is that ReplayTVs are prone to lockups, at least from the impression I get here. I know that not all of them suffer from this problem, but a sufficient number do - enough to fuel all these threads that discuss what you might or might not be able to do to get rid of them.

FWIW, the lockups on the 5040 that I sent back under RMA appeared to occur whenever the recording buffer got completely filled. It'd work fine with a 13 hour buffer and would lock up whenever the buffer reached that magic 13.5 (or whatever) full capacity. If the unit was turned off whenever not actually being watched it would record scheduled programs just fine but the buffer would never get full and the unit wouldn't lock up.


Of course turning a ReplayTV off and losing the ongoing recording buffer is exactly what I don't want (might as well own a TiVo!) so off it went. If the replacement doesn't work any better I'll be forced to exchange the 5040 for a 4504! My 4532's just keep working uneventfully.

 

[BaysideBas]

Quote:

Originally posted by arjay (might as well own a TiVo!)

If you're happy with a 30 minute buffer capacity, why not?

 

[jleavens]




toots, I feel like we're getting mixed signals from you. what do you really think?

 

[Daren Dahl]

Quote:

Originally posted by kreigerm I used to have lock-ups every few days. I switched from using the photos as a screen saver/ pause screen to the Replay Shuffle. I have not had a lockup since I did this - probably about 4 months.

Ditto on this.


Although I am not very happy about having to give the Photos On Pause feature. Hope they fix it with "Alcatraz" but I doubt it.


Daren

 

[Subrec]

Mine seems to be the record buffer issue.....I think......


It's so hard to tell because the unit only gets used a couple hours a day. I have taken to turning the unit off more often, especially when there is a show that I especially want to be recorded.


I had been locking up on the nightly phone home, but has stopped that for the last couple of weeks. It locked up after the 110 update too, so that didn't really solve anything as far as I can tell.


Someone else nailed it......there are a bunch of symptoms but the underlying problem is just buggy code (or hardware). My guess is we could all RMA these to death, and never have it make much of a difference. Luck of the draw. There's someone that's RMA'd their box four times before getting one that worked correctly. Luck of the draw.


Replay has a long way to go to make this up their user base. I can't for the life of me understand how anyone on this message board could recommend a Replay to a friend until they've stepped up and fixed all the outstanding issues.


At this point I don't think there is a valid "fix" for the Replay 5000 blues, other than Replay rushing out some working software...

 

[arjay]

Quote:

Originally posted by Subrec I can't for the life of me understand how anyone on this message board could recommend a Replay to a friend until they've stepped up and fixed all the outstanding issues. At this point I don't think there is a valid "fix" for the Replay 5000 blues, other than Replay rushing out some working software...

As far as the 5000's go you're right.


Has anybody had stability problems with the 5500's? I hope that the sales promos for the 5500's make it clear before purchase that their activation isn't permanent (per jleavens) but if they work OK the deal sounds OK.


I can recommend the 4500's without any reservations. I only hope that the later models with their enhanced capabilities eventually work as well. Even DrStrange seems at least moderately impressed with the 5000 (and I guess 5500)'s capabilities.

 

[matt_20v]

Quote:

Originally posted by toots The bottom line on all of this is that ReplayTVs are prone to lockups, at least from the impression I get here. A lot of these threads seem to deal with workaround strategies: don't watch live TV, don't use the photo partition, don't let the disk fill up. They all have a common denominator, which is out of our control: Buggy hardware or software from the vendor. And that much is a shame.

Need to clarify that most of the problems are with the 5000 series boxes developed by SonicBlue. The earlier boxes designed prior to the SonicBlue acquisition were far higher quality.

SonicBlue did wreck and nearly destroy this thing we all love so much, and THAT is a shame.

I'm optimistic that the new owners will provide the resources Replay needs to get back to making good products. Owning 3 boxes (5040, 3000 series, showstopper) I am committed to Replay. Used to own a Tivo too, but gave it to my parents. I just like the replay way of doing this much better, and they are so much better about respecting my privacy.

BTW, my workaround for the "checking for new ReplayTV software" and "transferring additional information" hangs is to leave the phone line unplugged and just do a manual connect once a week. If (when) it hangs, I perform a hard reset. This way, no recordings are missed.


-Matt

 

[BaysideBas]

Matt, consider that late breaking changes to the schedule are only downloaded for the particular day on that day's connect. Even if there are changes for days subsequent to the current day, they will not be automatically downloaded.


The common misconception is that each daily download updates the whole guide, 8 or 12 days depending on model. No, the daily download only updates the current day's listings and adds any days missing at the end of the guide. So, unless you connect daily, you could indeed be missing recordings due to changed schedules.

 

[jleavens]

Yes, it's good that people can work around the problems. The issue that toots and others have, including myself, is that it shouldn't have to be like that. The good thing is that it won't be like that forever.


Let's give DNNA a chance to fix some of these problems in the first software release they've had a chance to shepard and then see where we are.

 

[fwaltman]

Quote:

Originally posted by Subrec Replay has a long way to go to make this up their user base. I can't for the life of me understand how anyone on this message board could recommend a Replay to a friend until they've stepped up and fixed all the outstanding issues.

Well, not everybody on this board has the lockup problems you do. My replay 5040 almost never locks up. Base on my experiences, I have no problem recommending Replay.


I am not making light of your problems -- I am sure they are real and I know I would find ithem frustrating. But I wouldn't want people reading this board to think ALL 5000's are junk.

 

[Subrec]

Quote:

My replay 5040 almost never locks up.

Great, but when was the last time your stereo or TV locked up? Ever reboot your toaster-oven? Dedicated appliances should never lock up.


I'm not claiming that everyone has problems, but wow, there sure are a lot of us here with them, and as I said....I think it's just the luck of the draw. You got lucky. I didn't.


Honestly, I'd send this thing back in a heartbeat if I was J6P, and demand a refund. J6P wouldn't make the recommendation, so why would I make it to J6P knowing there is a darn good chance that they will end up with the same headaches I've got?

Quote:

Let's give DNNA a chance to fix some of these problems in the first software release they've had a chance to shepard and then see where we are.

I agree. But the squeeky wheel is the one that gets greased, so I think it's up to all of us that have these problems to complain loudly about them until something is done by DNNA. It worked for the 4000/5000 streaming issues.


One other point is that I believe it was DNNA that put out the software version that started all these problems. 110 was an attempt to fix one of the problems they created, and from where I sit, didn't work very well. If 5.1 solves everything then great. I'm really pulling for them to do that, because I'm not making the switch to Tivo. However, they will now have to proove to me that they can put out a stable product that runs like an appliance should, before I'll be recommending them to anyone else.


Our word of mouth is what will really help them to pull through, nad they know that, otherwise they wouldn't be recutiing us to demo their products in stores. So making good to the current owners should be a top priority for them (and judging by the 4000/5000 exchange offer, they will).

 

[scottamus]

 http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...12#post2660912