# I think I've had about enough of 6.3a



## TyroneShoes (Sep 6, 2004)

I am growing weary of the audio dropouts, and other issues, and wouold be much happier with a reliable OS version than one that adds what 6.3a adds but is not reliable.

That said, does anyone know of a kickstart code or other method to return to 3.1?


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

Yes. Try restoring the backup you made of 3.1.5f (you did make one, didn't you?).


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## rbreding (Dec 12, 2004)

Once your database was converted you can't revert without doing a restore of that backup you made


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## gquiring (Dec 13, 2002)

I don't think the audio dropouts are related to 6.3. I don't have 6.3 and for the last 3 weeks now it's audio dropout city. They broke something else and as always customer service is clueless.


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## ilovetv (Jan 3, 2003)

gquiring said:


> I don't think the audio dropouts are related to 6.3. I don't have 6.3 and for the last 3 weeks now it's audio dropout city. They broke something else and as always customer service is clueless.


Ditto


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## Frank_M (Sep 9, 2001)

gquiring said:


> I don't think the audio dropouts are related to 6.3. I don't have 6.3 and for the last 3 weeks now it's audio dropout city. They broke something else and as always customer service is clueless.


Agreed, totally. I just had my HR10-250 replaced (dead hard drive) and when I started to hear the audio dropouts on the new one, I feared we had another hard drive starting the death rattle.

But I don't have the upgrade yet, and it's been all over the place... so I don't think it is the individual units, nor do I think it's the software version. It's just something else they don't know how to fix.


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## Kevin L (Jan 10, 2002)

gquiring said:


> I don't think the audio dropouts are related to 6.3. I don't have 6.3 and for the last 3 weeks now it's audio dropout city. They broke something else and as always customer service is clueless.


I agree. Two of my HR10s have 6.3a and one is still on 3.15f. All three have dropouts.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

gquiring said:


> I don't think the audio dropouts are related to 6.3. I don't have 6.3 and for the last 3 weeks now it's audio dropout city. They broke something else and as always customer service is clueless.


How on Earth could they cause audio dropouts on OTA reception without changing the software?


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## ShiningBengal (Mar 19, 2001)

gquiring said:


> I don't think the audio dropouts are related to 6.3. I don't have 6.3 and for the last 3 weeks now it's audio dropout city. They broke something else and as always customer service is clueless.


3.1.5f here. Occasional audio dropouts on DirecTV satellite broadcasts. None on OTA--ever. (Knock on wood)


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## mr.unnatural (Feb 2, 2006)

> How on Earth could they cause audio dropouts on OTA reception without changing the software?


Exactly. I've had zero dropouts on any DTV channels but lots of them with OTA recordings using 6.3a. I could see a problem with DTV channels due to sunspot activity or something else that could be mucking with the satellite transmissions but not with OTA. It has got to be something that DTV has done to the latest software.

I'm starting to wonder if DTV hasn't done something to thwart extraction of HD content from the HDTivos. Everyone is reporting problems with extraction on other forums that coincided with getting 6.3/6.3a. Perhaps they didn't anticipate the side effect of numerous audio dropouts in the recorded signal.

I'm just waiting to see how DTV addresses this issue. If they respond with "We don't know what the problem is and don't have a fix for it but we'd be glad to upgrade you to one of our DVRs" I'd start yelling conspiracy at the highest level. I realize that may sound a bit paranoid but the way they've been doing business lately, nothing would surprise me anymore.


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## jym (Aug 30, 2002)

I have a new HR10. It is about three weeks old. Starting about 5 or 6 days ago it started having audio drop outs. I am still on the old software, 3.1.

This box has not been hacked yet. I don't know how it could be possible without some software change but the audio drop out, atleast in my case, can not be related to 6.3.

-Jym-


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## scooby_doo_53 (Jul 19, 2004)

I never had audio dropouts on my unit until it upgraded to 6.3a last night.


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## bwaldron (Mar 16, 2003)

cheer said:


> How on Earth could they cause audio dropouts on OTA reception without changing the software?


Exactly. Too many folks started having them exactly after the upgrade. I'm not much of a programmer, but I think it's a coding issue and buffering/playing (larger) OTA-HD streams, especially more than one at a time, is not being handled as efficiently in 6.3 as in 3.1.

Problems could happen in the older software, but less often. I'm at a loss to explain why so many more folks seem to be having them on 3.1...perhaps there is a bunch more OTA recording going on with start of the fall season?

I'm not seeing any dropouts on my 3.1 box. Keeping the phoneline disconnected for now.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

mr.unnatural said:


> I'm starting to wonder if DTV hasn't done something to thwart extraction of HD content from the HDTivos. Everyone is reporting problems with extraction on other forums that coincided with getting 6.3/6.3a. Perhaps they didn't anticipate the side effect of numerous audio dropouts in the recorded signal.


I don't think this is deliberate, because it's so inconsistent:
Some people have no problem at all
Some people have problems outputting dolby digital audio on all channels with dolby (sat, OTA, whatever) but are fine when switching to PCM output
Some people are having dropouts that are repeatable via rw/ff, regardless of output type
Some people have problems only on OTA channels
Some people have problems only on one or two specific channels
Etc.
So what this tells me is that there isn't *one problem*; there are *several problems*.

Second...if there is a code problem in 6.3/6.3a that is contributing to some or all of these issues, then it's Tivo's responsibility, not D*'s.

Third...it really hasn't halted extraction per se, only muxing. And even then, one of the two major muxing tools seems to be working pretty well (remuxing is trickier but...) and the author has had great success. The other just needs some update work, I would think, but the author has been away for a bit.

Some of the issues are unrelated, and some could well be reception problems -- over the past few weeks many of us have seen big weather changes, and folks, weather changes breed reception changes. I suspect people are paying closer attention to these things too, as a result of the upgrade and reported problems. Finally, I expect that the issues that are caused by the code are simply bugs and/or issues with box load.


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## dv8 (Sep 13, 2004)

I've been on 6.3a for a week now and have had zero audio issues or any issues really overall... I'm running HDMI to DVI to the tv and Toslink cable to my receiver.


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## mluntz (Jul 25, 2006)

dv8 said:


> I've been on 6.3a for a week now and have had zero audio issues or any issues really overall... I'm running HDMI to DVI to the tv and Toslink cable to my receiver.


6.3a for 2 weeks and no problem whatsoever. HDMI to TV, toslink to reciever.


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## bluesman64 (Jan 25, 2005)

Been running 6.3a for about 5 days. Yesterday, I had a previously unseen issue - the machine becomes completely unresponsive. While it continues to output live TV on whatever channel it happened to be on, I can't change channels, go to D* Central, access the menu, etc. Neither remote commands nor direct access on the box work. Ended up having to pull the plug and restart. Twice.

Anyone else have a similar problem?

I, too, have had audio dropout issues - both satellite and OTA.


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## Sir_winealot (Nov 18, 2000)

I've had this problem on several occasions...don't have 6.3 yet.


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## tomr (Oct 2, 2000)

It is not possible for 6.3 to have any issues. This software was Two years in the making with extensive beta testing with forum members. This software was not released any earlier so to have perfect code with NO bugs.  

I think you are all imagining this or everyone is going deaf.

(Back to reality)
Oh yeah, I have the audio drop outs also with "f" software. Most of my viewing is OTA. 

I have 2 units and both are running 3.1f software


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## TyroneShoes (Sep 6, 2004)

cheer said:


> ...what this tells me is that there isn't *one problem*; there are *several problems*...


Well yes, you are correct, as you usually are. There are a lot of different problems.

And muddying the waters by not being specific does nothing but make the 6.3 problems harder to identify, and harder for Tivo to respond to in a sea of issues that may have nothing to do with them. It also allows them to smokescreen the real issues. I probably should have been more specific when starting the thread, because now every little problem seems lumped in, whether 6.3 related or not.

But I am really only most concerned about one specific problem that I can associate with 6.3/6.3a. It manifests as audio dropping out for 5-8 seconds on playback, a brief pixellation, or a freeze and pixellation of the entire screen, followed by the return of audio and video to normal.

That problem began instantly after 6.3, never occured at all before in two years, and continues under 6.3a. The rest of the problems out there, well, there's just not enough evidence to convict.

I am not speaking of DD problems or singular reception pixellation problems that typically have an associated audio dropout, only the exact problem above.

The only way to speak out about a real broken OS, which I now consider 6.3/6.3a to be, is to cut away all of the extraneous meaningless info, and concentrate on just what appears to have changed specifically, which is exactly what Tivo should be doing. And fixing a broken OS means concentrating on one problem at a time and associating the precise evidence with the precise problem. Unfortunately, that is difficult for them when we get sidetracked onto every other little imagined problem. So it looks like we aren't able to help them very much, I guess.


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## RunnerFL (May 10, 2005)

cheer said:


> How on Earth could they cause audio dropouts on OTA reception without changing the software?


That's a very good question but I have audio dropouts via OTA on my 6.3a HR10 and my 3.1.5f HR10.


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## alwayscool (May 10, 2005)

bluesman64 said:


> Been running 6.3a for about 5 days. Yesterday, I had a previously unseen issue - the machine becomes completely unresponsive. While it continues to output live TV on whatever channel it happened to be on, I can't change channels, go to D* Central, access the menu, etc. Neither remote commands nor direct access on the box work. Ended up having to pull the plug and restart. Twice.
> 
> Anyone else have a similar problem?
> 
> I, too, have had audio dropout issues - both satellite and OTA.


I had that problem 2 weeks ago. Would press a key on the remote or the front of my HR10-250 and it took 5-10 minutes to respond. It was my hard drive, or more specifically the software on the hard drive. I did a "clear all program data and to do lists" and it got stuck in a loop. So I removed the drive, added a weaknees TwinBreeze bracket and a 400 gb secondary drive, used the PTVnet and InstantCake CD's to install networking etc... and a clean 3.1.5f image, and it's back to it's old self again. Try that and let me know if it works for you. Only bad thing is I lost all of my recordings, so burn your recordings to DVD's first.

By the way, I have the 6.3a slices on my box but unplugged the phone line because I'm waiting for them to get all the bugs worked out, and all the hacks to be updated to 6.3a before I let my box install it.

I haven't noticed any audio dropouts ever on my HR10-250 except in bad weather. I run my video via HDMI and my audio via the fiber-optic toslink using Dolby Digital (DD).


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## brian_c (Sep 8, 2001)

you mean dropouts on HD only? I get that recently.. not on 6.3, Dallas area....


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## jginaz (Aug 1, 2004)

I've had audio dropouts since the day I got my box a year and a half ago. Maybe 6.3a will fix it.

Jg


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## leesweet (Mar 13, 2004)

Hm. After reading all this, I think I may have dropouts also, but can't be sure. 90% of our viewing is OTA from Washington DC, and the path is across the final approach to IAD (Dulles International). *So*, the two second dropouts I had always attributed to a jumbo crossing the line-of-sight, and now I'm not so sure... 

I've always had them, but they've affected audio and video. I'm not sure, but are the many references here to audio dropouts *only* to audio and never to video?! In which case, my original theory may be correct.


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## videojanitor (Dec 21, 2001)

This (and the other) threads are making me very nervous.  I have two HR10s running 3.1, and both are very solid -- never heard an audio dropout from either one, ever. Like many, I have been awaiting 6.3 with great anticipation, but now I am running scared! This is all very curious. Obviously there IS some kind of a problem, or we would not be hearing these complaints -- but the question is, why does it affect some and not others?? There must be an answer -- we just don't know what it is.

Jeeez, I think I'm going to have to unplug the phone line until this gets sorted out. I can live without folders and sluggish performance, but not with 5-8 second audio dropouts.


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## cheer (Nov 13, 2005)

TyroneShoes said:


> Well yes, you are correct, as you usually are. There are a lot of different problems.





> But I am really only most concerned about one specific problem that I can associate with 6.3/6.3a. It manifests as audio dropping out for 5-8 seconds on playback, a brief pixellation, or a freeze and pixellation of the entire screen, followed by the return of audio and video to normal.
> 
> That problem began instantly after 6.3, never occured at all before in two years, and continues under 6.3a. The rest of the problems out there, well, there's just not enough evidence to convict.


It's hard for me to tell whether I am universally having this problem because of the just-plain-audio-drops problem I am having.

But you're right -- it's about really narrowing down the evidence as scientifically as possible.

So this weekend, I am rolling back to 3.1.5f. I intend to then record and watch live several feeds (OTA, sat HD, etc.) and note my experiences in as much detail as I can. After a few days of this, I will again roll up to 6.3a and perform the exact same tests.

This should help put some fences around some of the issues. The biggest problem I see is that even your issue isn't being experienced by everybody. That's what's making this so tricky (well, that and the whole different-problems thing).


> The only way to speak out about a real broken OS, which I now consider 6.3/6.3a to be, is to cut away all of the extraneous meaningless info, and concentrate on just what appears to have changed specifically, which is exactly what Tivo should be doing. And fixing a broken OS means concentrating on one problem at a time and associating the precise evidence with the precise problem. Unfortunately, that is difficult for them when we get sidetracked onto every other little imagined problem. So it looks like we aren't able to help them very much, I guess.


I think perhaps we can, but it will take real focus. I'm thinking the only shot we've got is to create multiple threads, titled such that it's clear which specific problem each is for, and cross our fingers that most folk can keep the symptoms/experiences where they belong.


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