False sense of security

Well, it's been a while since I've posted. I was hoping this thing was finally starting to work, but of course that was just wishful thinking. I had an inkling that things were going south last week - the DVR just froze entirely while I was using it. A reset appeared to fix the problem. My old friend the funnily-stretched crop mode was also bad early last week, but I just let it go, since things were working mostly as expected. Then, yesterday, I noticed that a schedule episode of one of my 'season pass' programs was running, but not being recorded. I could see it in the 'To Do' ist, but it sure wasn't recording. The episode came and went, but the DVR made no effort to record it whatsoever. Even hours later, it was still in the 'To Do' list, long after its broadcast had passed. I didn't bother calling DirecTV since a rebroadcast was available later in the evening and I just set it up to record that particular showing. Today I came home from work to find the system happily recording my two Monday night shows. I got home from work late, so I watched an episode of seinfeld while waiting for these two programs to record. One of them is just fine - the other didn't play back at all, just a blank screen. I reset the box, hoping it would come back to me, but it's gone from the list entirely. I called DirecTV, they have no way to fix it nor any compensation to offer. After the call, I went to check the to do list, only to find that the 10-15 movies I had set to record over the next 2-3 weeks are all also gone from the list. Thanks DirecTV. Thanks for nothing.