Full article written by Evan Marty of Ihiji was originally published in Residential Systems Magazine in April 2017

This system sucks!”

The issue: The video and audio of the recorded show were freezing and dropping portions of the program.

The setup: A DirecTV HR44 in the master bedroom connected thru Wi-Fi to my network; an HR22 located in the basement, connected via Ethernet to the network directly; a few other DirecTV Genie clients installed on other TVs around the house, but they weren’t experiencing this particular issue, so we’ll leave them out of this equation.

Now, before I get roasted on the installation errors that are obvious, I know that the Genie server should not be connected using Wi-Fi and that the HR22 should be using the DECA box. I’ll admit that the current configuration got this way because of poor service practices on my part. I didn’t take the time to properly troubleshoot and solve smaller problems as they happened, and my system just ended up this way. Almost every integrator has actual paying clients who have installs in a similar state as my home, so don’t throw stones.

I immediately blamed the equipment, pointing to a perhaps a failing hard drive, temperature issues with the box, etc. But once I dug into the issue, the problem had nothing to do with the DirecTV service or the hardware. The problem was that the HR44 receiver (Genie server) had a poor Wi-Fi connection, and because recorded shows are distributed over Ethernet for viewing within the home, packet loss was to blame for the interruptions.

How did I figure this out? Click here to read the entire article at Residential Systems Magazine to learn how Evan used Ihiji and other tools to save his marriage! 

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