DVR Recordings Disappear

I just sent a very long email to Cox with details about both the DVR & Rebooting problems.  I tried to also post it in its entirety as a reply to CurtB but it doesn't show up yet.  A similar thing happened a few days ago so either the Forum software is buggy or I'm doing something wrong.  I click on Reply, then a box appears and I type my comments in it, then click on Reply in the lower right corner of that box and poof! it's gone.

I sent a long email to Cox a few minutes ago and replied to your comment but the reply failed to show up here so I'm trying again.  This also happened to a reply to CurtB above.  Now when I click on Reply to his post, what I attempted to send pops up but still won't post.  But that doesn't happen when I click on Reply to your post.  Cox sofware always is like a minefield to me.

Tech Visit 8/25/2024

He brought a new DVR box but I refused it for now because 564 recordings would be lost.  He explained that the daily updates taking a long time to finish and recordings disappearing are indicators that the DVR is failing.  Mine is at least 7 years old.

I wanted to eliminate a weak or unstable signal as the cause and asked him to check the signal from the telephone pole across the street and change the sequence of 2 splitters so the coax to the DVR would only go through one splitter instead of two which was the current setup.  Also, the first splitter had a filter on the incoming coax.

He tested the incoming signal and said it was extremely high and thought it might be connected to an amplifier on the other side of the house where the cable enters in.  I told him there were no power outlets for an amplifier there.  I no longer crawl around up there, but there were no amps on that side during my last excursion there last year.

I asked about static or distortions in the signal and if splitters or filters could cause it.  He said it could happen but rarely.  The previous technician last November said that the network was upgraded from 4 frequencies to 8 and some older line filters and amplifiers can’t handle the change.  Does anyone know if there a meter that can test for that?

I asked why daily updates are necessary.  He said they aren’t but didn’t explain why you are required to set a time period for the daily update.  It is set under preferences.  The impression I got from the technician was that an update is done only if a problem with the DVR is detected.  Does that explain why it is updating every day now?  It used to just update about once a week, and not too long ago it only updated a few times over a 2 month period.  During those times the updates were scheduled while I was asleep, and the only way I knew one was in process was when the DVR was rebooting in the morning.  I just assumed that on days when it wasn’t booting that the update finished with no issues.  Was that a bad assumption?  

The changes we made did not stop the daily updates and the durations that last from 45 minutes to several hours and an occasional deletion of one or two recordings either during the update or an hour after it’s completion or just at random times.  So the technician is probably correct.  But it still isn’t clear to me why the updates are necessary even though the DVR works perfectly all day long until the next update. 

Any explanations or answers to the above will be appreciated, but if nothing appears in a couple of days you can mark this as closed.   Thanks for your help.