DVR is dropping programs as soon as it finishes recording them

[starbuck1105]

Hello everyone!

I'm new to this form. Wasn't exactly sure which sub-forum was the best place for this question, so I'm posting here in General Discussion.

Anyway, I'm having a problem which I hope someone can assist me with. I have a Scientific American DVR unit from Time Warner. For the last day or so, it has been recording programs, but dropping (losing) them as soon as it finishes recording them. This doesn't seem to happen with all recordings... but maybe 50% of them.

At first, I thought maybe I had just forgotten to record the programs that were missing. But I recorded some stuff this evening, double-checked earlier today that I had them set to record, and even checked the DVR when they were in the process of recording and could see that everything was there. But it seems like as soon as the show is done recording, it disappears from the DVR completely.

This is not a case of the DVR being "full." I have checked the DVR and it is only at 50% capacity currently.

Anyone experienced anything like this and/or have any suggestions as to go about remedying the problem? Time Warner has thus far been unresponsive to my emails.

Thanks for your help!

[lumis]

It could be a number of things. It could be buggy software, it could be that the cable company and broadcaster doesn't want people recording specific things so they've come to an agreement to make them expire/delete quickly/instantly..

I'm not sure you're going to get much help from the cable company aside from them telling your to clear/format the DVR box or exchanging it for another one..

Pretty much, I'm guessing you're screwed.

[coondog1234]

Lumis ive heard of that, i think its called broadcast flags its where the broadcaster doesnt want you recording their work starbuck if you wanna record TV shows try getting an older Tivo DVR the non broadcast flag compliant ones, or theres this box that hooks to your pc and you can record in i think any format from any source like VHS tape DVD TV anything with red white and yellow cables lol record yourself playing your favorite video game and make a video

[Krispy Kritter]

It was my understanding broadcast flags were not in use yet. I don't believe they were ever approved.

Anyway, it still sounds like a hardware issue. Your best bet would be to contact your cable company and see what they say.

[painkiller]

Starbuck1105,

As a TIVO owner/user, I can tell you that certain video programs that I get stored on my PVR get "flagged' so that I can only view them. CNET & Tivo have an agreement to send 15 minute vids to a subscribers PVR, these are flagged for viewing only. PPV could be the same, I don't use PPV so I don't know for sure.

WHile I have the features that allow multiple TIVOS to share/transfer vids between each other - and also allow me to d/l to my PC, these certain videos I refer to being 'flagged' will also not allow them to be transfered. Can't move it to PC either.

That having been said, I would be susipicious that you are having some technical flaw/problem in your DVR.

When something if flagged, you get a chance to see it is flagged and what your restrictions may be. THere have been reports where forthcoming broadcast flag settings may indeed specify you have a certain period of time to watch it before it is deleted.

I don't believe this is working just yet.

Which is why I would suspect you have a problem in your machine.

If I were you, I'd contact the maker of the DVR - or at least your cable/sat distributor to see if it can be replaced.

[starbuck1105]

Thanks everyone. I will try to contact Time Warner again in hopes that I get someone a little more helpful on the phone this time. I do not believe that it is an issue of certain programs being flagged, as one of the programs was MTV's "Real World." There were two episodes shown, back-to-back. The first episode was on the DVR but the second one disappeared. Thanks again.

UPDATE: Had a couple of conversations with Time Warner this afternoon. During my first call, I got a guy on the line who really seemd to know what he was doing (and was quite friendly, to boot). Anyway, he had me disconnect my DVR for about three minutes while he sent a signal to the unit. Then, we rebooted the DVR and it appeared that everything was back to normal. The programs which disappeared last night were even showing up in the DVR program menu, so I figured everything was okay.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. Shortly after my first phone call, I realized that while the programs were once again showing up in my DVR menu, I could not access them. Also realized that the problem seems to be occurring when I attempt to record two programs at once. The second tech from Time Warner wasn't nearly as helpful (or nice) as the first, so I'm just taking the unit back to their offices tomorrow morning to swap for a new one.