DirecTV subscribers all across the country this morning found themselves clicking buttons on their remote controls in futility, trying to figure out why their televisions were frozen. Some users complained of being stuck on a single channel, with no way of changing it or even turning the TV off. Others couldn’t get their DirecTV receivers to even start up.
According to DirecTV’s Twitter feed, the company was having some kind of mass outage for users with HD-DVRs. Most users were unable to reach technical support for help; I tried calling tech support myself and was hung up on five times in a row by the automated answering system.
Service at this time has been restored, but if you are a DirecTV subscriber, and you can’t access your receiver, it’s recommended that you unplug your unit from the wall, wait at least 15 seconds, and then plug it back in. And you may need to repeat this process at least once before it works.
DirecTV has released no statement yet regarding what caused the outage.