I called again Thursday and twice I connected but there was no response and then I got a busy signal. So I gave up.
Then on Friday I got a response from my FB post. Long talk via FB and they called me to set up a new tech appointment.
Tech came out. Said there was a problem with my signals and replaced a bunch of cables and splitters. He had never heard of my problem. Saw my recordings. Did a bunch more tech stuff and we hope the problem is solved. Since it is random we won't know. We both didn't want to replace my DVR if we didn't have to.
Oh and he came early! Really nice. So I am happy now. But such a lot of trouble! Still really odd.