Cloud DVR Playback Issues (recordings are freezing) - UPDATED 4/18/24 with a message from Spectrum

jchtxst

I traded in the Xumo boxes for the old school DVR boxes. I can watch the DVR again with no issues. The cloud DVR is trash.

ToddH

Give Spectrum credit. I was going to cancel the Cloud DVR service Thursday due to extreme buffering and pixelization. Thought it was isolated until reading many complaints here. Polite and informed Spectrum representative gave me the heads up of the email that was going to be sent out to all DVR customers later in the day. I did not cancel. Spectrum giving service credit and being transparent in the email was a perfect response to this situation. Think the servers are located in their regional footprints and some regions are maxed out at capacity if I had to guess. Tampa area here….

Watching a crappy DVR recording now from the Movie Channel and it is pixelated like a pirate video site, but will be patient and hope things improve. Trying to move on from TiVo after 20 some years of great DVR service, but the cable card and tuning adapters are hard to find support for anymore. Tuning adapter has not worked for months and lost many channels because of it.

GinnyB

To the commenter above this post , you are lucky you had a well informed honest representative. I called for at least the fourth time , the last time asking about the refund that was being issued and she had the nerve to tell me that I should go back to using the boxes and I said my TV’s are mounted and don’t want the clunky boxes and she said “ well the cloud service Is not working out for you “ ha, FOR ME AND MILLIONS OF OTHERS . I was angry and even angrier who hours later I received the email with the explanation. Worst customer service thru this ordeal !!!

sbs8331

In playing around with this I've found that the cloud DVR won't record a series even though it indicates that recording is taking place. However, a scheduled recording for a single episode seems to work. Going to try that work around for a while.

James_M

Reposting this message from 4/18/24 to ensure awareness:

Hello—

We’d like to give you an update regarding the technical difficulties some of our customers have recently experienced with our Cloud DVR service.

Due to the success of our Xumo platform and the resulting higher interest and usage of Cloud DVR within the Spectrum TV App, our Cloud DVR platform has seen much higher use than expected. We are making significant improvements to the Cloud DVR platform to meet this higher demand.

In the meantime, while the current Cloud DVR product meets the expectations of many customers, it is not meeting our quality standards for some customers, we would like to communicate the following:

We will provide Cloud DVR customers with a full credit for their Cloud DVR service, including last month and each new month until we restore performance to our quality standards. No action is required on the part of our customers – this credit will occur for all customers currently billed for Cloud DVR service, whether you have experienced issues or not, and you will continue to be able to use Cloud DVR service.

In the short term, recordings you have scheduled through Sunday, April 21, may not be recorded. As an alternative, you can access most programming Free On Demand. Beginning Monday, April 22, you will be able to record programming as usual.

We have accelerated our planned improvements, made additional capacity investments in the platform, temporarily stopped accepting new customers, and restricted our own employees’ Cloud DVR Plus access to provide more capacity for our customers.

You can expect to see progressive improvements in the quality of your experience as we complete these upgrades over the course of the next two months. We will notify you when the updates are complete, so you can enjoy the high-quality Cloud DVR experience you deserve.

We want to again apologize for any inconvenience. Thank you for being loyal Spectrum customers and thank you for joining the Spectrum Community.

azure57

Last Monday, April 22 — the day that Cloud DVR recording capability was restored to Spectrum subscribers — I tried the service again, and was pleased that a couple of shows that I recorded played without any problems. But the next day, when I attempted to watch another program, the glitches once again reared their ugly heads, skipping, freezing, etc. So I went back to using YouTube TV for its Cloud DVR, which records and plays programs without any of the bugs that have plagued Spectrum's service for months, if not years now.

I'm aware that Spectrum has cautioned that it will take time to work the kinks out of its system, and that in the meantime, the company is offering a credit for what is essentially an unusable Cloud DVR as it now exists. But it shouldn't have taken a groundswell of complaints from subscribers to reach a boiling point before Spectrum finally announced that it would try to repair its broken Cloud DVR apparatus. I remain a Spectrum subscriber because my apartment building has a bulk service agreement with the company, and the price that I pay for cable TV and a modem is actually less than the company charges for a modem alone. But in order to have a viable Cloud DVR, I am being forced to pay an extra $80 a month for YouTube TV — an additional sum for which Spectrum's $10-a-month credit can hardly compensate.

So Charter really needs to make certain that it either fixes its Cloud DVR service expeditiously and permanently or stops offering it altogether and adjusts its monthly fees accordingly, because unlike over-the-top virtual cable providers such as YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV, Spectrum's cable systems are franchised and overseen by local governments, and as such, are ultimately answerable to them for the services that they promise to deliver to their customers.

Tagman

To the last post, don't pay an extra $80 for YouTube TV, cancel your Spectrum TV completely like I did a month ago. Best move I ever made. The Spectrum Cloud DVR is unbearable and will take months to correct, I wasn't waiting that long. I went to Direct TV Streaming and now have a flawless Cloud DVR. I canceled my Spectrum TV package and still using Spectrum internet 300Mbps. Funny, no more buffering issues on DVR playback using Direct TV Streaming. Saving money on my total monthly also.

hooverme

We also have been having problem with Cloud DVR for several months now. Also noted dramatic improvement after April 22 for a few days. Then, instead of fuzzy video, we started have sound drop out, or just having the entire recording freeze up with three blinking dots on the screen. Every once in a while, we would get a message about having "temporarily lost the program" which would kick you out of the recording.

We noted prior to April 22 that if we started a recording that had fuzzy video, if we fast forwarded the recording to the end, then hit the PREVIOUS button to get out and restarted from the beginning, it would most times play clean for that 1 time. Haven't tried that that work around since April 22. Will try again later today and report back.

Otherwise, for now we are seeing the cost of cloud DVD being credited out as they recently reported. In the mean time, recording quality is sporadic with video, sound, and lockup problems still occurring.

Satch

Everyone is getting monthly Cloud DVR credits until service has been fully restored and updated.

Spectrum says the total project is estimated to be about two months.

Satch

CES_MDS

Cloud DVR quality is unacceptable. Buffering, video like looking through security glass, audio dropouts. This is TERRIBLE. Especially vexing while watching live sports, such as F1 qualifying, and totally useless when watching "The Voice". And, since it appears that this is going to a support bot, it is insulting that we cannot even talk to, or email, a human being. And there seems to be no inclination to adjust billing to recognize the shortcomings in the service.

CES_MDS

After some difficulty finding my previous comment, I see that my statement regarding fees was in error. I apologize for that, as I could not find the cloud dvr comments when I set up my membership in the forum. The rest stands. My point of reference for quality regarding cloud dvr function is expecting the equivalent of local DVR contained in a previously supported Windows Media Center, digital tuner, cable card, tuning adapter environment, on a much lower bandwidth internet feed. The Cloud DVR interface is obviously a first attempt, and needs work, but the bandwidth should have been anticipated with market research to determine the volume of local, non dedicated hardware, recording being done in the existing customer base (via other devices and dedicated digital tuners).

Kent_o

Disconnected my cable box and installed xumo and now Spectrum there are issues with cloud and I won’t have DVR capability for months!

K_Engel

It is now MAY 13th and I am still having issues that appear to not be fixable from Spectrum. Yes I saw the letter stating they were going to do something about it, and now my CDVR is actually getting worse. I will try to attach pictures to show my experience tonight. SPECTRUM. Please spend some money and fix this issue. I am getting sick and tired of not being able to watch shows.
Getting fed up…

stormy224

After talking to the customer service with Spectrum - this person told me to go here. Almost forgot about this discussions group.

HI Everyone! Omg! I will have to say that I'm glad I am not the only one who's having this SAME problem with the xumo box. I'm so FRUSTRATED! As everyone said - freezing, no audio, freeze (but, background audio still there), 3 dots over and over, this channel is not available at this time, dvr shows can not play at this time (I have lost several, MORE than several of my shows because it not available to play). I only have like 15 to 20 shows saved - then I decided to deleted more of my recording. Still have this issues. I have done everything what I was told to do - reboot and all that crap. That doesn't help at all.

My question is WHY is this ongoing? I definitely can not wait til the Google fiber become activated in our unit so I can make the switch. I can't take this anymore. Spectrum has my worst experience since they bought out Time Warner!

SPECTRUM - FIX THIS PROBLEM!!! 😤

Pkatz

Still having terrible performance, mid May. I delete recorded shows, which is painful in the UI! Should be easy to multi select, or have other recording options like only record last show! Terrible UI design! Deleting old shows does not help. I notice that the performance is at its worst particularly if the show I’m watching is being recorded, and I want to be able to “pause live”. The buffering makes the show unwatchable.
On top of that, the On Demand feature of the app cuts shows off during dialogue for commercials??!! That happens with some shows where I miss the punchline or the ending every show because of where it cuts to commercial. The “upgrade” the end of April was short lived and this is still wildly unacceptable performance from an enterprise service provider like Spectrum. Seriously considering alternatives at this point. Spectrum is failing to manage how to run a streaming service, or how to compensate with uncut content on demand.

jWS9518

Same here..worked ok for a few days after they made the announcement of the intended accelerated improvements and here we are several weeks later and I am getting pixelation or in the case of some shows, recordings stop playing part of the way into watching the show with the unable to complete request error or something like that.

The cloud service has not improved much in my opinion.

Satch

Remember,

The estimated time frame given by Spectrum in the notice was two months. April 22, to June 22. Cloud DVR subs have about another month to go until the full restoration of Cloud DVE Service and the 100 show storage capacity for Cloud DVR+ subscribers. (As of May 19, 2024.) Hopefully everyone still gets monthly Cloud DVR credits until full service has been restored.

Users can always go back to a traditional DVR box.

Satch

jWS9518

Satch:

I think most of us understand that. I am just saying that over the course of the last 4 weeks, the service has started declining in quality again after they restored recording ability. And, again, the traditional boxes don't work a whole lot better.

You sound like an employee and not a customer, defending Spectrum. The whole point of streaming is to do just that and not have boxes.

It is pretty simple. Spectrum should have prepared their infrastructure to handle the capacity before selling the service, but that has been par for the course from my experience in dealing with the numerous service issues we have had here in our area with Spectrum. If I had an option, I would have gone to Comcast years ago.

selwynator

I received the email from Christopher Winfrey (President & CEO) apologizing and informing that the problem has been fixed.
My Cloud DVR issues have been resolved. The issues have been resolved for about 4 weeks now and I’m very happy. I am a Cloud DVR Plus subscriber and Spectrum has resumed my 100 show recording capacity. Thank you Spectrum.