I hope you're in London and they're in the U.S. That's about the only reasonable explanation for them calling you that late your time :-/

I have a handful of clients that i take phone calls from if i am awake. Mostly projects outside of Chicago. I answer the phone because its always something stupid like this. It saves me from getting an email, responding to the email, talking on the phone, scheduling someone to visit... only to find out its a DirecTV upgrade. I can usually put the fire out right away.

I used to do the same thing with service calls. If i got a call at 4PM on Friday i would try and head straight to the clients house to resolve the issue. That was back in the day when knocked off emitters and cable-sat box lock ups were 95% of our service calls. Thank god for embedded emitters and IP controllable power solutions. I would get there, flip a switch or glue an emitter on and keep them from ever landing on our to do list.

This client in particular just got iPads added to his system remotely. 2 nights ago we uploaded to the PRO2 and iPads and then the DirecTV boxes are off so he immediately assumed it was the upload. And lets face it... it wouldn't be the first time that new programming broke something that was working. I had him press room off while standing in front of the receivers. While i waited for him to get to the rack i checked RC and found this thread. Minutes earlier i told him how stuff like this gets reported immediately at one of the forums i participate at :).

They are not trying to take away our freedoms. They are trying to make this a better world.

The problem is, they are totally crap at figuring out what will happen in the long run if their programs are enacted.

Yes, it's true, elimination of DDT reduced some problems, perhaps extinction of some or even many bird species. And the result? DDT banned in Africa removed the single most effective means of controlling mosquitoes, and literally millions of people have died as a result. Let's see, bird species versus millions of people... I'd have to be a genocidist or a liberal to want to protect the birds in this case.

The diamond lane is supposed to make us share our vehicles. It's been a drastic failure, but when it works, the diamond lane fills up and so offers no advantage over the other lanes. But while the purpose was to reduce pollution, slower traffic in other lanes have produced much more added pollution than was saved by those in the diamond lane.

Both Democrats and Republicans really want the world to be a better place for everyone, and they see different ways to make it happen. The best judgment I've heard of all this is that neither party does things right, but the Republicans seem to do less damage, so they're the, well, the lesser of two evils.

I was being sarcastic. I personally freaking hate the energy conservation nonsense. I am a US citizen. If we can explore outer space we ought to be able to generate as much clean energy as we need. If i have the money to pay for it i should be able to buy it and use it for whatever i want.

I would rather have my tax dollars be spent researching clean/cheap energy than trying to enforce ridiculous regulations. This thread is a perfect example of what happens. People just disable the feature. Low flow toilets get flushed 2 or 3 times. Its ridiculous.



One could argue that the extinction of the birds would remove the mosquitoes natural predator and remove a link from the food chain.

Africas problems dont start or end with DDT. Most of the continent is in perpetual dire straits. Stronger economies would warrant better medical facilities that would eventually turn the tide on many of their medical issues. Their population continues to grow but the means to support it are not there.


We dont have these in Chicago. When i was in LA i made use of them every single day on the way to the project. They cut drive time in half. But i tend to agree with you... i really hate stuff like this. If they allowed me to pay for the privilege of using the extra lane then i would be all for it. I often pay for express passes to events and air line tickets etc.


There are two sides to every story and here is one topic in particular. Everyone assumes the welfare system problems are because of the liberals. What they forget is that the Republicans cause it to be just shy of effective. If $5 dollars fixes it today they allow $3 to be spent tomorrow and then another $3 and then another $3 and then another $3.The homeless problem began when public control of mental health facilities was privatized or simply eliminated during the Reagan administration. They allowed him to cut todays spending but it created an ever growing long term problem for everyone else.

"Union Busting" is another trending thing amongst conservatives. A few decades of actually being able to earn a living has allowed people to forget about the days of the "company store". The "lazy union worker" has become the "black man" or more recently "the mexicans" in the minds of those looking to blame someone for their financial situation. If you feel like your not moving up at work because of union workers why not go work somewhere else? Why not stick it out and get that high school diploma? Why not join the military? Why not do anything other than blame the boogie man?

The republicans doing less damage is a laughable statement. They are at least responsible for half.

So...........is anyone having any latency issues with the new GUI?

I just worked on a system last week with the new GUI, and it seemed incredibly slow. I don't have DirecTV at home, and can't remember if the last one I worked on was as slow, so I don't know if that's "how it's supposed to be".

I'll have to compare it to a couple of other houses I'll be working in later this week...

Both my DVR's (hr23's? not the touch glass ones) are dog slow to get started. Scrolling zooms however but its painful for everything else.

I've had a couple of customers call and complain and it sucks that there isn't anything I can do. I've always thought there has been an extra delay with RTI as the control system so this added delay isn't helping. Do any of their current boxes have the horsepower to handle the HD GUI?

Yes. The HR24, HR34, H24 and H25 have the power. DVR's will slow down some once past 70% full.

Fixed that little error for you....

Really, I think they both think the world will be better for everyone if things are done their way... and both sides think so.

On the other hand, beware the call for unity. Whoever calls for unity wants things done his way by everyone. Nobody asks for people to unite and then lists how he will compromise to make it happen.

I have read that the cable/satellite providers have taken heat for their receivers' energy hog history and this is just their way of being "green". If the receiver can play Pandora, it has an energy saving feature that can be disabled. Mine turned off yesterday and when I turned it on again, it had a window asking if I wanted to keep it that way, or disable Power Saving. I did. Mine is an H20-200 and it's connected to the network via ethernet cable but it wasn't when the updates hit.

FWIW, my desktop computer turned 12 last month and I leave it on.- Rarely does it turn off- the last time was when the power went out unexpectedly last week. It has the original hard drive in it so, unless the ones they're putting in the receivers is really crap, I'm not sure the warranty cost is really a problem.

If they agreed WRT how everything should be done, why would we need two, or more, parties? OTOH, we NEED more than one party, to avoid sliding too far in either direction- ALL legislation must be debated. However, debate is far from what they appear to be doing. The problem is that our Congress and politics in general have become too argumentative and less cooperative. Neither side wants to appear weak by compromising, and then they decide that pissing out their territory will make them seem stronger and decisive in the eyes of the American public.

I think we should lock them in their chambers and stop paying them until they learn that OUR needs come before theirs. Unless they learn this and start hammering out some sensible legislation, they stay there- no clothes, no visitors, no vacations, no luxuries of any kind. Our government is bi-cameral in nature and it's supposed to represent the population. We have three branches (a Supreme Court, Congress and a President), all in place so one branch doesn't run amok and take over. This is specifically so we don't end up with a ruling class or king, but we're damn close to having both because the only people who are elected are wealthy and selfish or come from nowhere, swept up in a tide of hope and change, because that party has kept people in poverty by making them depend on the government for their basic needs. If our Federal government wanted to do some good, they would make poor people see that the reason they don't get anywhere is because they have to try. They have to try to finish school. They have to try to hold a job. They have to try to communicate with others effectively, not come up with slang for everything so they can talk to their own and keep the rest of us in the dark. They have to try to stay off drugs and booze, stay out of prison, BE A FU#KING HUMAN. When immigrants can come to the US with few possessions and without speaking the language (sorry, we can't have an official language because it "disenfranchises" people who don't want to speak the same as most of the country's population) and become wealthy in one generation, people who were born here should be able to do the same. All I see/hear is people saying that it's impossible for poor people to get anywhere and when that's all those people hear, that's what they'll believe. The US used to be able to do anything and we have been reduced to a nation that thinks it can't. "I would, but......" is basically what it comes down to, not "I'll try".

Nicely put. And you know a lot of people will be rabidly against these opinions of yours, which I agree with.

I used to frequent a woodworking forum until all of the name-calling and ugliness just before the last Presidential election. The Left just couldn't debate anything- all they did was lambast everyone and act like their farts don't stink and that was on a good day. I had never seen anything like it, especially from people who were so willing to tell us how intelligent they are and how stupid we are for being on the other side. I thought it was disgusting. A lot of people were banned for it and the sad thing is that they also carried it over to the non-political threads, where people were asking about making cleaner dovetails by hand or some other woodworking topic.