[mythtv-users] DirecTV receiver problem

[Rich West]

Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 04/21/2007 10:39 PM, Richard Freeman wrote:
>   
>> I have a pair of RCA DRD435RH providing content for my mythtv system,
>> and every few weeks one or both of them stops working and provides only
>> a black screen.  The only way to fix this problem is to power cycle the
>> box.  Channel changes don't work, although the menus work fine.
>>
>> Has anybody else run into this and come up with a fix?  I guess if I can
>> find some way to detect the problem via the serial port I could get some
>> kind of computer-controlled outlet to do the reboots, but that is a bit
>> of a hack (well then again, so is using mythtv in the first place...  :) ).
>>     
>
> Why detect it?  Why not prevent it?
>
> Just power cycle the box every day|couple days|week|... as required.  I 
> did this for a couple of years with my DISH receivers.  It's easy enough 
> to do with a cron job or whatever (especially if you can get discrete 
> power controls).

The "Black Screen Of Death" is actually kind of common.  Well, at least 
from what I have been able to determine with the RCA receivers.  The 
guesses have been that an update is sent down via DirecTV to the set top 
boxes and the set top box is supposed to reboot, but it doesn't connect 
back up properly.  The only solution is to hard power it off and power 
it back on again.  A soft reboot of the box doesn't seem to help.

I've got three RCA directv receivers, and they all do the same thing.  
It will go for months before the problem surfaces again, and sometimes 
it will happen multiple times in the span of a week.  The last time I 
had it happen was the week of the adjusted daylight savings time.

I've been told that this problem doesn't impact the newer directv receivers.

-Rich