Silicondust leaving me in the dust?

[heffneil]

I was wondering if anyone knows anyone at silicon dust or a phone number or maybe someone from silicondust monitors this forums but I have made numerous support requests and not received any response. I had two tuners go bad on me in the 0 tuner not the -1. They replaced one on warranty and I ordered a brand new one from amazon. The new one came and now the -0 doesn't work on that one?! I emailed in response to the same request and started a new ticket when they didn't respond to that old one. It has been 4 weeks without a response now!

Help!

Neil

[Opus4]

Have you checked your spam folders? Maybe they run into the same issue that SageTV tech support does -- they send a reply, but it is blocked by spam filters.

- Andy

[jafa]

Hi Neil,

I am from Silicondust.

You should receive a response to any trouble ticket post/email within one working day. Sometimes two if the case needs to be reassigned.

What is the case number (or case numbers)? - I will look up the history.

Nick

[heffneil]

Thank Nick I did get a reply. I replied back and nothing back. Something is really amiss there with the ticketing system or you guy do hate me

Neil

[jafa]

Originally Posted by heffneil

Thank Nick I did get a reply. I replied back and nothing back. Something is really amiss there with the ticketing system or you guy do hate me

What is the trouble ticket number?

[heffneil]

Ticket 9710. I need something to happen here. The quaility of my recordings / watching tv is really degraded. I have had comcast out here on two different occasions and there isn't an signal issue at this point.

[jhkoenig]

I have had HDHR units since they were first available. Over the years I have had questions and issues. In every case, I have received a personal response from a SD employee within 24 hours of posting on their forum.

In fact, I am pursuing an issue right now and received two message today; one responding to my question over the weekend and a second message in response to log files that I sent at their request.

Truly responsive. I can only think that your trouble report got wedged somewhere in their system. It certainly is not their typical behavior.

[heffneil]

I get some responses but ultimately now I have three HD Home Runs and only two tuners I can say work - ok at best! I am getting some responses but ultimately I can't send back my three non working units in advance of replacements. I have to run three units to have enough recording capacity. Anyway sometimes I get replies from them and other times I do not.

I am evaluating alternatives at this point as I can't continue this way. I will probably box up the newest one I bought from amazon about three weeks ago and send that back with no hassle. I should have done that a couple days after it starting causing trouble!

Also I had comcast come back out again to verify the problem is the tuners and it is without a doubt a tuner problem and not a provider issue...

[QueOnda]

question is did comcast check only the signal coming into the house or did they check right before going into the HDHR?

What kind of splitters are you using?

[heffneil]

The last guy was pretty knowledgeable talking about return path and other signal levels. We have a particular tuner on one unit that is always bad. We moved the RG11 input I ran to this tuner direct and it was a big problem. Moved it to the other tuner on the same box and it wasn't too bad. I have a single splitter that goes to the cable modem and then a booster to a 1 x 8 splitter for all the tuners. We eliminated everything that could have been a problem and it still is. We checked signal quality with his test equipment and the comcast STBs and everything indicated cable signal was fine...

I have been traveling for a week and haven't heard back from Silicondust but I was anticipating the replacements being shipped to me this week so I could receive them and implement next week...

I don't believe this happened.

[QueOnda]

I'm no way an expert. but boosting your signal could also give you issues. I have a 0 gain cable drop amp which worked wonders when I had all sorts of trouble.

You can have 2 type of trouble when you boost your signal; noise and over saturation.

[jhkoenig]

I think that your HDHR units are newer than mine, but after quite a bit of troubleshooting (with a lot of help from silicondust) it has been determined that my one unit is just plain worn out. kaput.

Now I need to figure out if I can limp along with one unit until their cablecard devce is released.

Good luck!

[KryptoNyte]

I also have a fairly old dual-tuner HDHR unit. Here's just a few little tidbits that I'll add to the discussion:

1) I've only had to contact Silicon Dust once, I don't even recall what it was at this point. They responded in less than 24 hours, and I setup the equipment to forward info to them, and within 3 days, the questions was answered.

2) After first purchasing the HDHR unit quite a while ago, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I could move it to any room in the house and test the signal quality to that coax using the HDHR software from any computer - a nifty side-effect.

3) I have a cheap Radio-Shack signal booster where the coax enters my dwelling. It does appear to boost signal without negative affect on the quality.

4) I'm using some fairly decent coax cables, but I do have a 4-way splitter just before the HDHR device, and if I carry my notebook computer over to the HDHR while viewing signal meters, just simply moving the cables around a very small bit will alter the signal quality. I'm not really sure why that is so extraordinarly sensitive.

[jhkoenig]

Before admitting to myself that my tuner was dieing, I bought a commercial grade 1:8 drop amp. Now every cable consumer has its own feed right from the drop amp.

Then, with SD's help, it was determined that my tuner was going out.

Still, I love the HDHRs and can't wait to buy their cablecard tuner.

[heffneil]

I keep emailing and no response. I bought some components to build a new server for sage and with that I am installing avermedia duet. I am going to see how it works. I expect better than my HDHomeRuns. I have two - one they recently replaced and another brand new one from amazon that are under warranty. The other one is older and not covered but at this point I am ready to throw my hands up and look elsewhere.

No phone number to contact anyone, numerous emails aren't getting me anywhere and I even pleaded my case to this forums which little improvement.

Overall I am disppointed in the customer service. I have a ceton card I can use as well so maybe in a few weeks I will be silicondust free.

Neil

[jhkoenig]

Neil,

Have you posted on www.silicondust.com/forum? I have never waited more than 24 hours for a response from SD. Might be worth a try.

--John

[95TBird]

Also make sure you add their email address to your address book / white-list & make sure that their messages to you are not being dumped into your, or your providers spam folder(s)

I have 3 HDHomeruns & in the past they have always been very responsive whenever I've either submitted a trouble ticket or posted a problem on their forum.

-Bruce

[heffneil]

Guys I just want to reiterate that at this point silicon dust has been completely unresponsive to me. I have three of their tuners and they promised to replace them however it has been almost two weeks with not so much as a single email. At this point I strongly suggest looking elsewhere for your tuners needs. I hate to do that but I can not stand for poor customer service that I am experiencing.

Neil