That doesn't sound good at all.

We've had really good success with the 2 TB product - we waited to release it for a while until we could get a case we really liked.

Probably you've just got a bad drive in there. Email us at [email protected] and we can get it checked out.

I believe you emailed as well and we responded directly to you.

Thanks for the info, I did email but have not received a reply, I assume as it is the weekend I will probably hear something back next week. It's weird though, I have this thread set to "instant email notification" and have received nothing in my email although there have been two replies. I have nothing in my Junk folder, and my spam filter is virtually nonexistent anyway.

Is there anything I can try in the interim as a quick fix for my situation, such as switch to a RAID 1 setting (turn the screw from "fast" to "mirror" or whatever it's called, can't find the instructions just now) or connect the external HD unit to my HR22?

Watching TV in "real time" looks fine (how can that be, doesn't all program material get recorded to the hard drive if only on a buffer?) but all recent recordings break up every 5 seconds, video deteriorates into a colored patchwork and sometimes audio stutters as well.

Thinking about unplugging this setup and substituting the HR22 until all this is fixed, at least I will be able to record. If I will need to do troubleshooting on this unit, it might not be worth the bother to swap it out just yet.

Thanks for any thoughts and suggestions.

OK it is actually not true that "real time" tv watching was fine, the picture did not break up every 5 seconds and the audio didn't stutter but it was noticeably fuzzy as my wife stated when we turned on Underworld on TNT HD which normally has a very sharp picture, "This is not HD."

Swapped out to the HR22 and picture again became very clear on same program material.

It's almost as if there is some form of (RF?) interference with the external box; how do you make a digital picture look fuzzy?

I'm out of my depth yet remain skeptical regarding the viability of this option, hopefully it can be fixed, I thought it was great, in addition to recording lots of prime time series to have on tap, to review Rotten Tomatoes ratings and record all movies on HBO and Showtime that had a 50% or better rating, and 30% or better rating if I loved the genre, then sit back and find there were some real gems in there, the ones that were not so good would weed themselves out after 10-15 minutes. Can't do this in real time without missing all the beginnings and then not having a viable option once you start watching a dud and realizing after 10 minutes that it's not your cup of tea.

Hopefully speak with or receive email from a Weaknees rep tomorrow to find out if there are any known issues or what might be expected to fix the external setup.

OK , question: is this forum a shill for weaknees?

Received no response from customer service until today, not January 10 as Weaknees rep indicates in reply on this forum, there are no other replies, and communication today with RA# authorization is minimally informative (insufficient).

Should I return just the external unit (which contains both hard drives) or do I need to return the HR21 as well (standard instructions for return discuss how to package the DVR for safe transit) at considerable additional cost?

Can anyone explain how I have fuzzy signal on HDTV rather than no signal?

If this is some form of interference with the digital signal I would prefer not to ship the hard drives back just to be informed that everything is working properly as per idealized setting/factory specs . . .

Thanks in advance for your comments/info

This forum is designed to help people who have questions. Is it a "shill"? Are you serious? Our logo is at the top of every page. We are here to help, that's it. If a post relates to a specific order, we prefer to deal with that by email because we don't need or want personal, identifying information on public forums. Further, we are extremely busy, and when we get emails AND posts at the same time, we typically address the duplicate requests only once.

I can assure you that an email response was sent to you. If you used our contact forms and mis-typed your email address, then the reply would have gone to that mis-typed address. Or, it is in your spam folder. Our goal is to provide support and help customers, potential customers and DVR fans.

If you purchased an external drive, then that is what we would want back. The email likely specified that you should ship the DRIVE ONLY, rather than the unit. Please follow the instructions in the email and we will gladly get your drive looked at and replaced.

Sorry I got testy, that was uncalled for, I apologize.

I did not in fact type in my email address improperly, however, it did take until Tuesday and what I got was a standard reply.

The upgrade that was done was removing the 1 tb drive previously installed by weaknees from the hr21 and then placing that in the external enclosure with a second 1 tb drive.

From what you are telling me you only need the external hard drive unit back which makes sense to me, thanks for the clarification.

SKK

Repair Failure

Received a replacement box, weaknees repair states that hard drives, box, and cable were “swapped.”

Watched first movie on STARZ HD, New country for old men, 30 instances of the interference which I have only seen previously during thunderstorms.

Obviously this is no good, completely unacceptable, and if the pattern from before holds will continue to get worse until the interference occurs every 10 seconds.

I did not expect the “repair” to work, the reason I was frustrated before was I believed the analysis was wrong, I never thought it was a “bad drive,” rather there appears to be some form of interference with the external unit.

I can only assume this technology is not ready for prime time, it does not work reliably, and there is no knowledge base to trouble shoot problems when they do occur, the problems are not understood and this is an early adoption alpha stage (in beta there would be answers).

This is disappointing because without reliable storage one is still tethered to the TV to watch content before it expires, not free to watch content when you want to watch. Having experienced that freedom it is hard to go back to the slavery of time dependent viewing, however it appears I have no choice, unless I gravitate to the zen of missing half of the shows I want to watch because in reality they don’t matter anyway.

The best I may be able to do is 1 tb internal, that worked, even the 1.5 tb internal seems flaky from what I have read, perhaps someone at weaknees can provide info as to how to remove one of the drives from the external unit and install it in the hr21.

It would be nice if someone besides weaknees reps could provide info on the “forums”; it seems to me the purpose of a forum is to share info/knowledge that might extend beyond the company employees. For example in my personal experience most solutions to Windows problems have been found by googling error messages leading to threads on other than official Microsoft forums and almost never on official Microsoft solutions databases. Since that is not the case with DVR upgrades (very little info out there) there is no recourse when the weaknees’ knowledge base fails, as appears to be the case in the present instance. The lack of widespread knowledge was of course the reason I was willing to pay without question for weaknees’ expertise; however, now it appears I am completely out of luck unless I want to make a hobby out of tinkering with this stuff which is precisely the one thing I do not have: time for a hobby.

Well, heres a good place to start, maybe will help you do some troubleshooting with your interference....

http://www.dbstalk.com/forumdisplay.php?f=112

Thanks for the link, BTW here are two pictures showing normal video and the interference that arrives every few seconds:

Same issues

If you find a resolution p[lease post it and share. I am having the exact same issues with my HR22 and a 23TB external. I have used WK products in the past and have been thrilled with the results. Not sure what to do here.

That interference really looks like a satellite issue. Have you tried running without the external for a bit?

Speaking from my experience, the HR22 alone has no issues. Also, the interference is not constant during playback. I will see the scattered picture just like those above, rewind past the bad scene and have no isse with the picture. It is not recoreded interference. It is intermittent.

OK - if it's different each time, then, you're right, it's something hard drive-related.

We're hoping the new cable, as in the other thread, will fix the problem.