Cloud DVR Playback Issues (recordings are freezing) - UPDATED 4/18/24 with a message from Spectrum
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Anyone,
If you are having non-stop problems with DVR, switch your account to a standard DVR box. It's more reliable, and you get more traditional playback features. Call Spectrum to set up an appointment to make the switch on your account. They will send out a tech to check your signals and lines, and than install a traditional DVR box. You will find this better to use. Too many bugs with Cloud DVR service.
Satch
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Hey all, I'm here in Texas experiencing these same buffering and strp-4004 on Spectrum TV Cloud DVR. It started after I got a maitanance message regarding the Spectrum TV App. This is getting annoying as all my recordings end up with errors Anyone actually get thorough to Spectrum about these errors? They seem to just make you run the normal troubleshooting stuff that doesn't fix anything.
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Here in SC on 2 Apple 4K's connected to 2 different TVs …. Cloud DVR stops randomly / sometimes even when clicking to fast forward the show will reset and start from the beginning-
With others on this - it is extremely frustrating
This does not happen on live tv nor other streaming services running on the Apple 4K
on iPAd app - the playback does not stop but does get random glitches on the screen
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DVR playback on most shows has very blurring picture, will lock up, excessive buffering, and 3 blinking dots. Most of the time, if you get the 3 blinking dots, you will eventually get some sort of system message telling you that "something didn't work quite right, please try again later".
After ensuring all software up to date on TV (AUTO update when TV turned off), I tried adding a Xumo Streaming box to the TV. It worked for 1 day with no DVR issues. On the second day, the original problem of blurring picture, will lock up, excessive buffering, etc. when viewing cloud DVR recordings re-appeared.
On both the TV and with Xumo box installed, I stumbled upon a work-around for the fuzzy picture, excessive buffering problem. Start up a recording to confirm fuzzy picture. Once confirmed, fast-forward the recording to the end, then hit the BACK BUTTON to exit the recording. When you then go back into the same recording, there is now a normal, CLEAR PICTURE and no excessive BUFFERING for the entire recording.
If you go back into the same recording later on, original fuzzy picture, buffering problems reappear. However, workaround still works if re-applied.
Any other help available?
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I've been using the Cloud Plus DVR service for about three years now. Last night, all 63 of my recorded shows simply disappeared, as did all of my scheduled recordings.
I used the Spectrum app chat and was told "your Spectrum Account was migrated to a different service area" and "there is a known issue with the CDVR when your account was migrated all the CDVR recordings were deleted and we are unable to restore them".
Given that there was no communication or warning from Spectrum about moving to a new service area, nor the possibility to lose data, I am highly skeptical of this response. Plus, this would have had to happen to thousands of other users, and I just haven't seen anything on this.
Does anyone have a rational explanation on what might have really been going on (like a massive hardware failure or an unreported ransomware attack), and since it's a cloud service shouldn't they be able to restore?
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We have experienced this same issue.
Prior to noticing the missing recordings, when we opened the app on our Samsung TV, the Home screen had zero information. It was as if we'd never used the app. We had to go to the guide and select programming. After that, the home screen began to populate. It has saved our favorites, but all recording settings and shows are gone.
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@Lunatic , yes, exactly the same happened for me on my Apple TV. Had to restore default settings (sort order and the like), but it was like I'd never used the app before. Everything seems to be back to normal now except the recordings (which to me is a pretty big deal).
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Hi @whalenms, @Lunatic, welcome to our community!
Our engineers have been working hard to resolve issues with the cloud DVR service. While certainly not intended, loss of recordings could happen. It may be worth rebooting your modem and signing out/in of the app, but unfortunately if the recordings are still gone at that point there would be no way to recover them. I recommend checking to see if those episodes are available on demand or scheduling them to record again when they next air. I'm very sorry for this inconvenience.
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@William_M , thank you for your response. I did reboot everything and sign out/in last night with no luck. This is disappointing. The chat agent's response last night indicated that this was a planned event (migrating to a new service area) where losing Cloud DVR recordings was a known side effect. If that was the case, why wouldn't I have been notified ahead of time about this? At a minimum, I would have probably watched a few of the shows, but definitely taken a picture of the recordings I had and the timers I had established and outstanding episodes recorded that I haven't watched so I could get back to "normal" as soon as possible. Technical glitches happen, I get it. But if this was planned and known, I am bewildered as to why customers wouldn't have been notified to help prepare for this? Ouch.
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I am having the same issue with the Spectrum app and 500gb (consistent) service. When playing back a cloud dvr recorded video, it freezes. Sometimes it goes black. Some recorded videos speed up for a second or two. Some jump forward. I was missing over 20 minutes of one recorded show this week. I have tried ALL THE TROUBLESHOOTING steps REPEATEDLY. Nothing has worked. I've watched recorded videos via the Spectrum app on Roku, Apple TV, Xumo and my phone via ethernet and where I could via WiFi. It still happens. I've tested the same recordings on YouTube TV. It doesn't happen on them. There is CLEARLY an issue. This started about 6 to 8 weeks ago. It has become impossible to enjoy a recorded program via Spectrum's DVR Cloud. PLEASE FIX IT.
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The work around I mentioned I discovered myself. After trying other ideas, I wondered what would happen if I fast-forwarded the recording, then restarted it. I was shocked when I restarted the recording after fast forwarding it and it displayed with NO FUZZY SCREEN, NO FLASING 3 DOTS, NO EXCESSIVE BUFFERING. Just a clean picture like when in LIVE mode.
As noted, this work around is REPEATABLE. It works almost every time with Smart TV running off WIFI (500Mbps). When tested with XUMO stream box, problem occurred less often, but will still occur 2-3 times per week. When it does occur, I have noticed that it sometimes clears itself within 1-2 minutes. I tested the work around when it didn't clear within 1-2 minutes, and it worked in that situation as well.
I have 2 Samsung TV's. On our Samsung UN50CU8000 Smart TV, this problem occurs on 99% of every DVD iCloud recording I made. It has NEVER occurred on our Samsung 55" Terrace Outdoor TV. We play cloud DVD recordings on both units on a regular basis.
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same thing happened to us today after yet another random outage yesterday.
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This is totally unacceptable but I guess if we pay $4.99 a month for cloud DVR we get what we pay for. With all the competition out there you might to up your game!!
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Hello @StlMini
Welcome to our Community Forums! Our engineers have been working hard to resolve issues with the cloud DVR service. While certainly not intended, loss of recordings could happen. It may be worth rebooting your modem and signing out/in of the app, but unfortunately if the recordings are still gone at that point there would be no way to recover them. I recommend checking to see if those episodes are available on demand or scheduling them to record again when they next air. I'm very sorry for this inconvenience.
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We have XUMO now with DVR cloud. We have 3 or 4 shows recorded now however 1 show will not play we get XSTLP-4001 code. I reset modem and router already.
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Hi @PitbullJoe, welcome to our community!
Could you try recording a few more things to see if it was just that one episode? Could you also check to see if you can view that episode from the Spectrum TV app on another device, or at watch.spectrum.net on a computer?
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I'm having the same issues too with multiple computers, same exact error code. But if played on Roku TV Spectrum App, it's ok. Please fix this issue on PC with Windows 11. Chrome, Edge, FireFox, all the same error code. It has to be a server issue at Spectrum. Why can't you guys find a technical way to identify we are legit and just let us play the video? Or remove the "not working" security check until you resolve and verify the issue?
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Hi @askdrten, and you as well @HJH sorry I missed you.
There is a known issue causing intermittent cDVR issues between 7PM and 8AM, it does not sound like the problem you all are having. Just because there is a known issue with the service, that doesn't mean there can't still be other individual problems that could be fixed with troubleshooting, or other issues impacting multiple people we just haven't detected yet and need to troubleshoot to gather the necessary data to report it to our engineers.
Are you having any issues watching Live TV on your computer? Do you have a VPN, anti-virus, or any other software on your computer which might affect the internet connection which you can pause? Have you adjusted any router settings such as the DNS server?
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Ever since a week or so where Spectrum adviced there was a spectrun cloud dvr maitanance scheduled it has screwed everything up. On Samsung TV Spectrum App watching Cloud DVR shows gives the random error strp-4004. I already contacted Spectrum directly and they just troubleshoot and say that it's my Spectrun internet or TV App. It only happens on Cloud DVR not on live TV on Spectrum App. I am a computer technician and I believe this is a Spectrum Server error nothing on my end. Cloud DVR recordings are played of a server and it seems it tines out on playback. I tried to tell Spectrum this but they won't admit it's their problem. There are tons of related posts on Reddit as well.
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Good evening @dja2k
Thank you for reaching out to us about our Cloud DVR services. I am sorry that you are experiencing this concern. I am not sure what troubleshooting you have already completed. Have you tried to uninstall and reinstall the App? Also, have you tried to use the Cloud DVR outside of your home? If so, are you receiving the same error message? -Lyn
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Yes I've done all that troubleshooting. The problem is random, so it happens when it wants too. The prior rep said they had heard of problems with Samsung TV but I did all the uninstall / reinstall procedure with no difference. Also another note, I see this happen more on my local channel cloud DVR recordings like CBS and NBC. All these problems have gotten worse since that Cloud DVR maitanance message I got some days back.
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Thanks. There is a known issue with CloudDVR (cDVR) and engineers are working a on a fix. Unfortunately, there is currently not an ETA when it will be resolved. We appreciate your patience and will provide an update once one is available.
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Same frustrating issue here and it only started probably 6-8 weeks ago as well. It has nothing to do with our modem or router but support won’t acknowledge that. The DVR playback freezes repeatedly and in the same spot regardless of which device I’m running the Spectrum app on: both Samsung smart TVs (one on WiFi and one hard wired into the router), iPad, and iPhone and even iPhone using cellular…it’s not the internet connection, it’s the cloud servers but good luck getting Spectrum to admit it. I can go to the on demand options to watch most shows but even that option has strange gaps at times. The On Demand recording plays fine…it’s only the cloud DVR recordings that have problems.
And, please stop telling people to call Spectrum and go back to a cable box and DVR…the reason most of us moved to Spectrum streaming (with a lot fewer channels) and cloud DVR was to cut the dang bill down to something reasonable.
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