Originally posted by MrHifi
I'm considering putting the RatShack muffin fan in it. Murray, did you install those? What are the parts list numbers?

Art

I bought, but did not install, the same parts as umr.

Instead, I put a Cool-It2 http://www.activethermal.com/Cool-It_II.htm on top of the unit.

It has a thermostatically controlled set of two 80MM fans that push cool air through the unit and out the bottom and rear vents.

If you buy it, phone ATM and have them send you a free 91 degree thermostat to replace the 99 degree stock one which is set to high IMO.

Originally posted by mkerdman
Art

I bought, but did not install, the same parts as umr.

Instead, I put a Cool-It2 http://www.activethermal.com/Cool-It_II.htm on top of the unit.

Hmmm, I wonder if the Cool Base (http://www.activethermal.com/Cool-Base.htm) might not be a better solution...

Originally posted by kucharsk
Hmmm, I wonder if the Cool Base (http://www.activethermal.com/Cool-Base.htm) might not be a better solution...

I think that the fans on the Cool-It2 better line up with the 3410's top vent holes than the CoolBase ones which are located in the center and cannot be user directed like the Cool-It2 can if the 3410 is centered on top of the base.

Originally posted by jcg
Did you check with them to make sure it comes with FW version 1.15 as that seems like the only version that actually works? I had a 3410 a few months back but had to return it due to all the problems, but if 1.15 actually works and the price is now about $300 less I probably going to try it out again.

John

There is no way for them to know they said. However, apparently there must have been a recent production run because all of a sudden they appear to be plentiful and considerably cheaper. I purchased it again because there is no way for me to accomplish OTA HD recording and playback into my Front Projector with its RGBHV input. That connection alone puts them at a real advantage. Its inclusion was brilliant. Noe if it had black level clamping to eliminate the brightness level changes, it would be the perfect product. I hope that after 6 months of Beta testing on the unsuspecting buyers, the temperature issues have been addressed by rerouting wires and providing better cooling. I'll try mine without and add a fan if it starts pixelating. My last unit only had the brightness level shifting. Everything else worked perfectly.

I noticed Best Buy Web site list it as LST-3410. It leaves off the "A" on the end. The current special price is $758.99 with free shipping or store pick up.

I am waiting until mid September to choose what to buy. The new shows will not start broadcasting until then.

Jim

Originally posted by kucharsk

...if it doesn't come with FW 1.15 I will immediately call LG the minute I take it out of the box, I won't even bother to hook it up first...


Note that my refurb came with a sticker on the back that said 1.14, which turned out to be incorrect. Hooking up the unit and going to the menu showed FW 1.15.

BTW, my unit is still working after 4 weeks.

Originally posted by jhamilto
I noticed Best Buy Web site list it as LST-3410. It leaves off the "A" on the end. The current special price is $758.99 with free shipping or store pick up.

I wanted to order one last night but the online store must be out of stock. It says free shipping but there was no add to cart option. I know I missed the small sale but I called some local stores today and the nearest store that has this in stock in 90 miles away! :( Does anyone know of another reliable etailer that has this unit for $799?

720P

WhenIi asked them about this they told me that it was only available at the local stores.

I took a look again today (Sunday). The sale is off and you cannot order it from the Best Buy web site.

You snooze, you lose.

Jim

Originally posted by jhamilto
I took a look again today (Sunday). The sale is off and you cannot order it from the Best Buy web site.

You snooze, you lose.

Jim

Thanks that's very helpful. So sorry that I have a life which doesn't allow me the time to monitor this forum and Best Buy's website 24/7. :rolleyes: And missing a discount of $41 is no biggie nor does it change the fact that none of the stores around here even carry this DVR.

Originally posted by kucharsk
Those of you complaining about LG should know your experiences are exemplary compared to what I've suffered with Samsung lately.

Though their customer care people do seem to really care, their service department is incompetent and borders on downright malicious:[list=1]


Kucharsk,

I, too had two 165's before I gave up on Samsung. Both gave me the version compare error messages when I tried to upload the fixes. When the second unit failed, I was told a replacement would take over 30 days. Not only that, but one of their knowledgeable techs told me it probably would NEVER be able to control more than one programmed event. (I was using it to output to my JVC 30k). Fortunately, I had bought it at a local HiFi Buys (aka Tweeter). I took it back, along with copies of my 15+ emails. They gave me a full refund.

I'm on my second 3410A, which is working well going into its 3rd month. As I've noted here before, I have been setting all my recordings manually and not using the Guide. Here is where it gets interesting. Three weeks ago I switched from BellSouth cable to Comcast. I have the Motorola 6208 HDDVR which, at $ 10/month, is a MUCH better deal than the $ 1k I paid for the 3410A. Since switching to Comcast, my Guide problems with the 3410 seem to have disappeared. The LG has quit imploring me to enter my zip code and rescan my channels. The channel lineup is correct and program info seems to be correct. I may even try realigning my channel lineup, with my HD channels at the top of the listing, which is what permanently crashed my first 3410. We'll see if it remains healthy. BTW, it is still version 1.12.

Jim

Originally posted by merton

I may even try realigning my channel lineup, with my HD channels at the top of the listing, which is what permanently crashed my first 3410.

Jim


Jim

How exactly do you do that?

I tried and it did not work.

Originally posted by kucharsk
Those of you complaining about LG should know your experiences are Samsung releases new software, required because the unit will continuoulsy reboot when broadcasters enable the Broadcast Flag.

Which broadcasters have begun sending out the Broadcast Flag?

Originally posted by mkerdman
Which broadcasters have begun sending out the Broadcast Flag? Various stations are beginning to experiment with it, as several syndicated programmers are starting to include verbiage in their contracts stating their programming must be sent with the broadcast flag enabled.

Originally posted by kucharsk
Various stations are beginning to experiment with it, as several syndicated programmers are starting to include verbiage in their contracts stating their programming must be sent with the broadcast flag enabled.

I want to know specifically which broadcasters and/or programmers have begun sending out the Broadcast Flag so the I can test my various ATSC tuners and PCI PVR cards to see if any of them will have any problems when the practice becomes widespread.

Which broadcasters and/or programmers foul up the operations of the Samsung SIR-T165?

An update...I heard a little bit about the changes that went into 1.15. As many of us suspected the differences between 1.14 and 1.15 are fixes for PSIP-compatibility issues. I didn't get much more info, so anything else on 1.15 would be speculation on my part, so I'll refrain from speculating.

So far, 1.15 has been great. I had pixelization for about 1/2 a second on one playback but never lost audio. That is the only anomaly I've seen so far, and that could have been the original signal for all I know.

Murray, you won't know who is sending out the broadcast flag unless you either decode the PSIP info with an analyzer or contact a station engineer. It is "just" another bit in the PSIP stream.

I guess another clue would be if a large number of people in one city report their receivers all hang one evening.

BTW, I really don't blame the broadcasters. This is an FCC-mandated flag (with pressure from the content providers and networks). The ones to blame are the folks who make really really poor firmware that ends up in poorly designed set top boxes (such as the Samsung T-165). No signal should cause a box to hang - just really poor design.

Perhaps we should take Samsung-bashing into another forum subject...

Originally posted by mkerdman
Jim

How exactly do you do that?

I tried and it did not work.

Murray,

Go to the Guide, select Setup from the top menu bar, then select Change Channel display. That will take you to the channel editor. Page or scroll down to the channel you want to move, move left to highlight the channel, then use the blue key to move the channel up, green key to move it down. You have to hit the green button once for each move. Unfortunately, most of the channels I want moved to the top are listed near the bottom, so it takes a few hundred key strokes for each channel - VERY time consuming.

I thought I remembered someone posting a much easier way to do this, but have been unable to find it in a search of this forum.

Let us know if it crashes your unit. I just moved one channel to make sure this worked, but, if I remember correctly, my first unit didn't crash until it downloaded new guide data. I'm hoping I won't see a repeat now that Comcast is apparently sending good guide data, vs. the data BellSouth was sending.

Jim

Originally posted by alk3997

Perhaps we should take Samsung-bashing into another forum subject... Please.

Originally posted by merton
Murray,

Go to the Guide, select Setup from the top menu bar, then select Change Channel display. That will take you to the channel editor. Page or scroll down to the channel you want to move, move left to highlight the channel, then use the blue key to move the channel up, green key to move it down. You have to hit the green button once for each move. Unfortunately, most of the channels I want moved to the top are listed near the bottom, so it takes a few hundred key strokes for each channel - VERY time consuming.

I thought I remembered someone posting a much easier way to do this, but have been unable to find it in a search of this forum.

im

Yes --- After you move left to highlight the channel, use the number pad on the remote to punch in the position to which you wish to move the channel. Then hit Select. The numbers appear on the left side of the screen as you punch them.

So if you highlight a channel near the bottom and want to reposition it to second from the top, just hit 2 and Select. The channel moves to the #2 position.

This is not documented anywhere. I discovered it accidentally by hitting a wrong key. I think LG just WANTS to drive us crazy. Else why would they subject us all to such frustration, when the solution is at hand. :)

I'm confused on one point:

The review at this site (http://www.hometheatermag.com/pvr/704lg/) says:

"...you must hit the remote's TimeShift button to begin the backup process that allows you to pause, rewind, and fast-forward pseudo-live TV."

But then it says:

"Unlike its fee-based counterparts, the LST-3410A's DVR won't let you begin watching a program that's still recording or watch one recorded program while it records another; again, we're talking pretty basic functionality here."

These seem inconsistent, and obviously I'm misunderstanding things. What kind of timeshifting does this thing support? Can I walk into the middle of a recording and start watching it from the start and still be able to see the rest? Or is that not possible? If it's not possible, I guess I'll look at the PC HD cards. You have to wait until a recording ends before you can begin watching it? I'm spoiled, I guess, having two SVHS VCRs, and I can watch the beginning while recording the end. I'd like this in HDTV recording. Thanks.

OK,

You ask

"Can I walk into the middle of a recording and start watching it from the start and still be able to see the rest?"

You can only watch the program from the point that you hit the timeshift.
Example, you can hit the timeshift at the start of a program, go away for a half hour, come back and go back to the start of the program and watch it from the start. It will still be recording the show unit it runs out of disk space or you hit the stop, or power down. You can skip over any part of the show by using the FF, RR, smart skip (as LG calls it) "I call it dumb skip, would rather have +30, -7 skip" all you want. Thats called timeshift.
You can even tell it to move the timesift program to disk and save it either all of it or part.

Once to saved to disk, the unit can only play a recorded show from disk but cannot record a show at the sametime.

"You have to wait until a recording ends before you can begin watching it?"

If you hit the timeshift you can watch it while it records it, If you hit the record button then you must wait unit the show is over.
I wish this unit would let you watch a recorded show from disk while it was recording another show, that is the basic function it is missing.

mstanl

Originally posted by PhillyC
Yes --- After you move left to highlight the channel, use the number pad on the remote to punch in the position to which you wish to move the channel. Then hit Select. The numbers appear on the left side of the screen as you punch them.

So if you highlight a channel near the bottom and want to reposition it to second from the top, just hit 2 and Select. The channel moves to the #2 position.

This is not documented anywhere. I discovered it accidentally by hitting a wrong key. I think LG just WANTS to drive us crazy. Else why would they subject us all to such frustration, when the solution is at hand. :)

Phil

I had no luck with your method, but, Jim's worked just fine once I figured out you also need to turn those you want listed at all "ON" and all the rest "OFF" by >> to the right and using the Green or Blue key.

Just got an email from the Web dealer mentioned earlier that the unit would ship in 4-7 days. Seems like a long time if they are in stock.

Murray,

Phil's method worked great for me. When you enter the position number, a window briefly pops up on the left, then you press select. You have to be pretty quick.

I'm really starting to like this unit again, now that I'm getting good Guide data from Comcast (not to be confused with good service from them!). The user interface is much better than with the Moto 6208. The 6208 only lets you FFW or RW at 1x,2x,3x, & 4x, and gives you no time display. Makes me appreciate the slider function on the 3410. The 6208's Firewire is not functional (numerous freezes, skips and pixellation) and Comcast is CLUELESS about 1394. The 80G drive is NOT going to be sufficient for long.

Tonight I'm going to try daisy chaining the 6208 to the 3410 to the JVC 30k, but I doubt if the 3410 will recognize the 6208.

Jim

Jim

Originally posted by merton

Tonight I'm going to try daisy chaining the 6208 to the 3410 to the JVC 30k, but I doubt if the 3410 will recognize the 6208.

Jim

Jim

Jim

Daisy chaining will not work and you will get an error message saying you have too many devices connected or similar.

The only devices that have any chance of working are DVHS decks and DV Camcorders, but, no STB's.

Originally posted by mstanl
OK,

You ask

"Can I walk into the middle of a recording and start watching it from the start and still be able to see the rest?"

You can only watch the program from the point that you hit the timeshift.
Example, you can hit the timeshift at the start of a program, go away for a half hour, come back and go back to the start of the program and watch it from the start. It will still be recording the show unit it runs out of disk space or you hit the stop, or power down. You can skip over any part of the show by using the FF, RR, smart skip (as LG calls it) "I call it dumb skip, would rather have +30, -7 skip" all you want. Thats called timeshift.
You can even tell it to move the timesift program to disk and save it either all of it or part.

Once to saved to disk, the unit can only play a recorded show from disk but cannot record a show at the sametime.

"You have to wait until a recording ends before you can begin watching it?"

If you hit the timeshift you can watch it while it records it, If you hit the record bottom then you must wait unit the show is over.
I wish this unit would let you watch a recorded show from disk while it was recording another show, that is the basic function it is missing.

mstanl That's a funny thing there. Now, if I think I might want to start watching a show before it's ended (in real time) I'd better time-shift it then instead of just hitting the record button. So here's the obvious question: Is there a way to program a recording in such a way that it's time-shifting instead of plain recording? That would seem to be smart. It would allow you to program a recording in advance, come in and start watching before it's done recording and still catch the ending. Am I missing something here?

I'm not clear of what you say about saving something you are recording to disk. Are you talking about the incorporated 120 GB HD? Isn't it already recording it to this HD? Or are you talking about saving it to a different HD via firewire?

"That's a funny thing there. Now, if I think I might want to start watching a show before it's ended (in real time) I'd better time-shift it then instead of just hitting the record button. "

Correct!!!

"So here's the obvious question: Is there a way to program a recording in such a way that it's time-shifting instead of plain recording? That would seem to be smart. It would allow you to program a recording in advance, come in and start watching before it's done recording and still catch the ending. Am I missing something here?"

Short answer NO. You can Timeshift at the start of the program and then watch it. But to do that you must be at the unit and push the button.

If you schedule a program you must wait unit it is finished before watching.
Also you can not watch any other record show thats on the hard drive of the 3410. You can only watch the currently being record show, with no FF, RR ect. functions.

"I'm not clear of what you say about saving something you are recording to disk. Are you talking about the incorporated 120 GB HD? Isn't it already recording it to this HD? Or are you talking about saving it to a different HD via firewire?"

The harddrive I talk about is the 120GB in the unit and how the unit itselfs works with out any other equipment.

This unit is nice for timeshifting but does not work like TIVO in that you must manual hit the timeshift button. And also you can not watch from the units recorded list of shows if it is recording another show.

I still like the unit over the SIR-T165 I had before, cost if high and it has many bugs in the software. Go back in this forum to read about the issues.

Hope this helps.
mstanl

Originally posted by PhillyC
Yes --- After you move left to highlight the channel, use the number pad on the remote to punch in the position to which you wish to move the channel. Then hit Select. The numbers appear on the left side of the screen as you punch them.

So if you highlight a channel near the bottom and want to reposition it to second from the top, just hit 2 and Select. The channel moves to the #2 position.

This is not documented anywhere. I discovered it accidentally by hitting a wrong key. I think LG just WANTS to drive us crazy. Else why would they subject us all to such frustration, when the solution is at hand. :) WHAT A LIFESAVER! This had been driving me crazy. Thanks!:cool:

Crap...this is still driving me crazy.

When you reposition a channel, it does not resort this whole list. It simply exchanges positions. So if you move the 50th channel to 2, 2 moves to 50. Very frustrating!

I am running 1.15 FW BTW

Originally posted by mstanl
"That's a funny thing there. Now, if I think I might want to start watching a show before it's ended (in real time) I'd better time-shift it then instead of just hitting the record button. "

Correct!!!

"So here's the obvious question: Is there a way to program a recording in such a way that it's time-shifting instead of plain recording? That would seem to be smart. It would allow you to program a recording in advance, come in and start watching before it's done recording and still catch the ending. Am I missing something here?"

Short answer NO. You can Timeshift at the start of the program and then watch it. But to do that you must be at the unit and push the button.

If you schedule a program you must wait unit it is finished before watching.
Also you can not watch any other record show thats on the hard drive of the 3410. You can only watch the currently being record show, with no FF, RR ect. functions.

"I'm not clear of what you say about saving something you are recording to disk. Are you talking about the incorporated 120 GB HD? Isn't it already recording it to this HD? Or are you talking about saving it to a different HD via firewire?"

The harddrive I talk about is the 120GB in the unit and how the unit itselfs works with out any other equipment.

This unit is nice for timeshifting but does not work like TIVO in that you must manual hit the timeshift button. And also you can not watch from the units recorded list of shows if it is recording another show.

I still like the unit over the SIR-T165 I had before, cost if high and it has many bugs in the software. Go back in this forum to read about the issues.

Hope this helps.
mstanl To me it seems strange that they didn't let you timeshift a preprogrammed recording. That should be an option, IMO. What on earth could have dissuaded them from incorporating that feature? Seems pretty clear that if all you have to do is hit the timeshift button they could have made it an option when programming. It's a definite knock on this unit. The software bugs? Well, I guess I better check out the thread before I order this. Don't know what I'm going to do in terms of HDTV. Don't even have an HDTV tuner right now, but do have a front projector that supports 720p, DVI and component (Sanyo Z2). Thing is, I'm really into timeshifting and to have HDTV without at least rudimentary timeshifting would bug me quite a bit. I don't see an appealing choice right now. HD Tivo appealed to me a lot until I realized you had to subscribe to DirectTV (I presume for a year, at which point I guess you could cancel and keep your HD Tivo) before they would consent to sell you one. For a guy who has only had OTA for the last 10 years or so, that's hard to swallow.

Folks should understand that the LST-3410A has only one very excellent, the best available, tuner. Timeshifting like a TIVO with its 2 tuners is impossible. I record, then I watch. I watch HD TV using my DTC100 and let this thing record the way it was designed. Timeshifting enough for me.

Originally posted by Muse
What on earth could have dissuaded them from incorporating that feature?

Speculation - The potential of a lawsuit from TIVO or whoever owns the patent on the ability to record a program and watch a different part of the same program at the same time. I have no idea what the license fees are for the use of that feature.

I just called HDTV Time and some woman answered and a guy got on and told me that they ran out of LST's. I told him I had received a FEDEX Tracking No. He said he didn't know what I was talking about. Made the point that they were out of units and they were trying to get more. I cancelled. He hung up. Fedex said that tracking no. belonged to someone else and that the package had been delivered. So goes the saga of the LST. Guess I'm destined to be without.

Originally posted by MrHifi
Folks should understand that the LST-3410A has only one very excellent, the best available, tuner. Timeshifting like a TIVO with its 2 tuners is impossible. I record, then I watch. I watch HD TV using my DTC100 and let this thing record the way it was designed. Timeshifting enough for me.

Not True! The stand alone Tivo has ONE tuner and it maintains a 30 minute buffer, watch a recorded show while recording live TV, no problem.

Originally posted by Marc Alexander
Crap...this is still driving me crazy.

When you reposition a channel, it does not resort this whole list. It simply exchanges positions. So if you move the 50th channel to 2, 2 moves to 50. Very frustrating!

I am running 1.15 FW BTW

It works for me (FW 1.15). When I highlight the last channel in the list and punch "1 8 select", the channel that was #18 becomes channel #19, and the channel that was last becomes #18.

That is, the channel I'm moving gets inserted where I want, and all others below that point move down one.

Originally posted by PhillyC
It works for me (FW 1.15). When I highlight the last channel in the list and punch "1 8 select", the channel that was #18 becomes channel #19, and the channel that was last becomes #18.

That is, the channel I'm moving gets inserted where I want, and all others below that point move down one. That is what I want, but not what is happening. I wonder what I am doing wrong?

Originally posted by Marc Alexander
That is what I want, but not what is happening. I wonder what I am doing wrong?

MArc

In TV GUide Channel Settings, arrow left and use the green or blue to raise or lower each channel to where in the order you want them, and, also arrow to the right and set to ON or OFF those channels you want to appear vs. those you do not want visible in the guide at all.

Originally posted by tomr
Not True! The stand alone Tivo has ONE tuner and it maintains a 30 minute buffer, watch a recorded show while recording live TV, no problem.

The HD TiVo has Two tuners. Having to deal with PSIP makes any comparison to a SD TiVo unfair.

Originally posted by 720p
Thanks that's very helpful. So sorry that I have a life which doesn't allow me the time to monitor this forum and Best Buy's website 24/7. :rolleyes: And missing a discount of $41 is no biggie nor does it change the fact that none of the stores around here even carry this DVR.

Try again at http://store.hdtvtime.com/lst-3410a.html

With shipping it was going for $700 plus some change.

Warning! I know nothing about this site.

Jim

OK, there's got to be a way to do this - or is this really impossible?

Looking through the owner's manual, it appears the only way to "program" a recording is to select a program to record out of the guide.

Is there really no way to have the unit record, say channel 9 from 9:05PM to 9:40 PM next Saturday?!?! Is the 3410 really missing that "even a $20 VCR can do that" functionality? Are the only options really VCR+, the guide and being around to hit "record"?!?! Or is the manual just really poor at describing the unit's features?

Originally posted by KornerKlub
The HD TiVo has Two tuners. Having to deal with PSIP makes any comparison to a SD TiVo unfair.

The point I was making was referring to the comment "Timeshifting like a TIVO with its 2 tuners is impossible." It is not impossible to watch/record at the same time with just one tuner or always maintain a buffer.

It's basic PVR functionality. why LG did not incorporate this is what is in question. The fact that it's HDTV is irrelevant to this feature.

Originally posted by tomr
It's basic PVR functionality. why LG did not incorporate this is what is in question. As was stated elswhere, TiVo actually has a patent on this (on watching a recorded program from an earlier point while it continues to record); whether it's valid or not is a question best disicussed elsewhere.

TiVo has, in fact, sued DISH Network over its PVRs, which do not license its technology. I'm not sure why Panasonic hasn't been sued for providing similar technology in its DVD recorders when using a DVD-RAM disc and./or a built-in hard drive.

Originally posted by kucharsk
OK, there's got to be a way to do this - or is this really impossible?

Looking through the owner's manual, it appears the only way to "program" a recording is to select a program to record out of the guide.

Is there really no way to have the unit record, say channel 9 from 9:05PM to 9:40 PM next Saturday?!?! Is the 3410 really missing that "even a $20 VCR can do that" functionality? Are the only options really VCR+, the guide and being around to hit "record"?!?! Or is the manual just really poor at describing the unit's features?

No not true, you can go the VCR type of setting to record shows, check the manual again. Some of the members here do not even set the zip code on this unit which will not load the TV Guide so they only use the VCR type of program record method.

mstanl

Originally posted by Muse
To me it seems strange that they didn't let you timeshift a preprogrammed recording.

You can timeshift a recorded show! (FF, RR smart skip ect)
But not until it is done recording it.

You can only timeshift a show if you used the timeshift button to record it.

What I mean is this unit has 2 different methods to record a program to disk. The timeshift button and the record button. If you set a program to record or hit the record button then you must wait until the end of the show to start FF, RR and smart skip functions. If you use the timeshift button at the start of the show, and come back say in a 1/2 hour then you can watch from the start and FF, RR and smart skip the program. You can also ask the unit to save all or part of the program to disk once the program is finished.

mstanl

Originally posted by kucharsk
As was stated elswhere, TiVo actually has a patent on this (on watching a recorded program from an earlier point while it continues to record);


But the 3410 can do this function. Called timeshift "TiVO like function".

But I do ask why can I not watch a record show while it is
recording a different show to disk. That to me is not a TiVo function
in that Tivo patent is not for recording a show to a disk drive,
or DVD ect.

mstanl

3410 in stock at Cousin's.

Originally posted by mstanl
No not true, you can go the VCR type of setting to record shows, check the manual again. Some of the members here do not even set the zip code on this unit which will not load the TV Guide so they only use the VCR type of program record method.
Believe it or not, the manual does not cover this at all; it just says you need to setup the guide before you can record, it makes no reference to a method of manual timer entry.

It's also sort of correct; you do need to go through the TV Guide screen to get to the menu that will allow you to set a manual timer... :rolleyes:

Actually you can get to the menu without going through the TV Guide (sort-of). To go to the manual entry screen, from watching TV just hit the "VCR+" key on the remote. The first time you press the button you'll get the manual entry screen, the second time you'll get a list of all items in the timer list.

I wrote "sort-of" because these screens really are a subset of the TV Guide screens, but the VCR+ button is a faster method.

Originally posted by mkerdman
MArc

In TV GUide Channel Settings, arrow left and use the green or blue to raise or lower each channel to where in the order you want them, and, also arrow to the right and set to ON or OFF those channels you want to appear vs. those you do not want visible in the guide at all. That's not what I was having a problem with.

I have a more serious problem now. TV Guide does not properly have my cable channel listing, so I edited the channels manually. I powered back up this morning and got the same message, prompting me to choose between lineups 1-3 and No Match. Choosing No Match deleted my manual edits and seemed to send me to lineup 1.

Sigh... :(

I have a LG 3200A STB and I am thinking of buying the LG 3410A, but am concerned about connections. My Loewe Aconda only has 1 RGB input and 1 component input (used by DVD).

Can I hook the STB to the PVR and the PVR to the Loewe? In these days of components recognizing each other, I am not sure this can be as straight forward as the old analog days of hooking up a VCR.

Thanks for all responses

No I am sorry to say, you can not connect these 2 STB's together in any way.

The best solution is adding a Zektor component 4x1 switch.

Originally posted by jhamilto
Try again at http://store.hdtvtime.com/lst-3410a.html

With shipping it was going for $700 plus some change.

Warning! I know nothing about this site.

Jim

Thank you, I'll see if I can find any info about their reliability but it's a start. :)

You may want to check with MrHifi to see if he's gotten his unit yet. My order went without a hitch.

Start reading from here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=4094921#post4094921

I guess I got luckyOriginally posted by MrHifi
I just called HDTV Time and some woman answered and a guy got on and told me that they ran out of LST's. I told him I had received a FEDEX Tracking No. He said he didn't know what I was talking about. Made the point that they were out of units and they were trying to get more. I cancelled. He hung up. Fedex said that tracking no. belonged to someone else and that the package had been delivered. So goes the saga of the LST. Guess I'm destined to be without.

I wound up ordering one from Cousin's. It will be here tomorrow. This will be my third unit. Hope this one works.

Originally posted by MrHifi
I wound up ordering one from Cousin's. It will be here tomorrow. This will be my third unit. Hope this one works.

My refurb with 1.15 is still working great after 6 weeks. That should cheer you up.

Good luck!

Before I forget, I thought I would post a "funny" that occurred with the 1.15 firmware. I'm not calling this an error or a problem, because it may not have been the fault of the 3410a. Also, had the unit been active for greater than 8 days, this would not have occurred.

Basically a Guide-initiated every-day program failed to record last Monday (7/26) through Wednesday (7/28). The program lasts for 0.5 hours each day. In addition, a 1 hour program I had setup to record every Wednesday (7/28), again using the Guide, failed to record.

After looking at the Guide data, it became obvious that there was no Guide data for the days in which recording did not take place. There was however Guide data for Thursday through the following Sunday.

The unit had been returned from repair and reinstalled the previous Wednesday (7/21). Each night, the next day's Guide, the following day's Guide and a week from the next day's Guide is loaded. What appears happened is that the Guide stopped loading after Saturday evening (7/24).

I cannot say whether the local station that sends the Guide was having problems or if the LST-3410a was having a problem. However, the good news is that after I looked at everything late Wednesday night (7/28), the Guide data has loaded properly each evening. I now have a full 8 days of Guide data, as of this morning (8/2).

Had eight days of data been properly loaded last Monday (7/26) through Wednesday (7/28), I would have never seen a 1 to 3 day loss of Guide data. This is because the Guide data would have been loaded a week earlier and I would not have been relying on a Guide data load the night before a scheduled event.

I know that may be a bit confusing, but it gave me more confidence in the 1.15 firmware since I did not have to do anything to fix this problem. If anyone has a Guide problem with 1.15, the best solution may be to power-on / power-off and check that the Guide data starts loading at the right time (the load starts at 11PM in Houston).

I have 1.15 firmware with a 300 GB HD upgrade. It has been working nearly 1 week without incident.

Has anyone else with 1.15 firmware upgraded to a 300 GB hard drive? What has your experince been?

Jacklh

Checkout this thread - http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=370472

(my 300GB is not here yet)

Its been since mid May, but I finally got my refund check today !!!

I had mine since mid may with ver 1.12 just locked up this week, had sporadic problems with local fox affiliate since I got it but don't think it was box prob the affiliate. I just send it back to get firmware upgrade to 1.15, they said it will take 3 weeks, and they will send a new unit since it is still under warranty. which makes no sense the have the unit already after one day, they are supposed to send a new unit but it will take 3 weeks? that is just crazy I guess we will see what happens.

Jrfsu1,

I received my refund in early July after a four month wait. Recently, I broke down and purchased one that arrived at the store 2 days before I orderd. I'm hoping it has 1.15. I really love this unit and sure hope this one works better. I'm probably willing to put up with a little more crap since I did not get shafted this time with the ridiculous $999.00 price tag.

Originally posted by j.oliver
I had mine since mid may with ver 1.12 just locked up this week, had sporadic problems with local fox affiliate since I got it but don't think it was box prob the affiliate. I just send it back to get firmware upgrade to 1.15, they said it will take 3 weeks, and they will send a new unit since it is still under warranty. which makes no sense the have the unit already after one day, they are supposed to send a new unit but it will take 3 weeks? that is just crazy I guess we will see what happens.

Some CSR's say you will get a new unit, but this is NOT true. You will get either your unit upgraded or (most likely) a different refurb with 1.15.

MR HIFI,

Good Luck !!!

Originally posted by PhillyC
Some CSR's say you will get a new unit, but this is NOT true. You will get either your unit upgraded or (most likely) a different refurb with 1.15.

If you include a note (even handwritten will do) saying that you want your original unit returned with firmware 1.xx (1.15 currently), they will do that. I attached the note to the LST-3410a when I sent it into service. If your hardware is working right, I don't see a reason to risk whether a different 3410a will also work correctly.

I've heard they are busy but my 3410a was returned in a week. I suspect two weeks is probably typical.

Alas, I've just found out one of the 3410A's major shortcomings - its ATSC receiver is somewhat poor. :(

The received picture is IMHO sub-par when compared to the SIR-T165 (grey background blockies are much more obvious via DVI as compared to the same channel when output from the Samsung), and both the SIR-T165 and a CoShip satellite receiver I have can receive one relatively weak (admittedly the signal level is below the "norm" area into the "weak" area) local channel without a single dropout; the 3410A consistently breaks up into blocks and choppy audio and cannot receive the channel without constant dropouts. (Exact same cable, exact same signal; in fact I can use an attenuator and reduce the signal level to the other boxes before they have anywhere near the same problem.) :(

kucharsk,

I found just the opposite. Used to own a T165 and would never go back.

Originally posted by kucharsk
Alas, I've just found out one of the 3410A's major shortcomings - its ATSC receiver is somewhat poor. :(

I too would beg to differ. I've found it to be on par or better than the one in my Samsung SIR-T151 and my Motorola 6208. The Samsung's picture quality was great, but I would get the occasional audio/video drop-out whereas with the 3410a, I get none. Add that to the amount of information displayed on the front panel, the configuration options, and of course the HDD and you have a winner. By the way, my box is running v1.14 firmware and I've not had any problems. I've been tempted to send it back in to have v1.15 applied but I'm afraid to tempt fate again. <grin>

-Skip

With indoor antennas, the T-165 got 4 OTA channels with constant dropouts. The 3410A tuner gets 8 channels with no dropouts.

Same thing here - the 3410a picks-up weak channels that the T165 would not consistently pick-up.

My new LST-3410A that I purchased for a lot better price than the first one arrived yesterday. I plugged it diectly into my NEC 21" FP1370 monitor which can resolve 2048x1536. I set the 3410 to display in whatever ratio and resolution was being broadcast. WOW!!!!!!!!!!! The 1080i CBS broadcast of NCIS was magnificent. So too were the PBS shows I tried. The ABC NYPD ____ in 720P was amazing. Even the WB programs bowled me over. It seemed like there was no glass on the CRT monitor. I felt like I could reach into the screen. The 3410 picked up every station in the DC/Baltimore/Annapolis area. BTW, there was no brightness level variance issue like the first two units I returned. It did not load the guide info overnight and I unplugged it today to connect it into my home theater so I'll have to wait to let you know how it records. So far so good. Damn, I love this unit. It reproduces better than anything I've ever tried. Also, in case anyone is interested, the sweep from this unit takes up more of the available horizontlal space from left to right in the monitor than the RCA DTC100. That helps your resolution because you are using a greater percentage of the horizontal space and you do not have to "widen" the picture as much which causes the vertical lines to be closer together.

Well, all I can say is that one of my weaker locals is KCNC-DT.

The CoShip satellite receiver I have shows a signal level of 42-44 at night, 44-47 during the day.

During the day any of my receivers, including the 3410A, can pick up KCNC-DT with no issues whatsoever.

At night the CoShip and SIR-T165 also have absolutely no issues; the 3410A sees only a maze of blockies, often with not even a single row of video intact.

Reception is just fine on other ATSC channels, even one with a somewhat weaker signal, so it's not a digital decoder problem of some sort.

It's great that some of you are reporting your 3410A's tuners to be better than others, but empirical evidence shows me otherwise... :(

kucharsk,

Maybe your unit is not tuned properly. It happens. Is this a replacement unit or the original?

Originally posted by MrHifi
kucharsk,

Maybe your unit is not tuned properly. It happens. Is this a replacement unit or the original? It's my very first unit, from Best Buy, and I'm loathe to take it back because everything else on it works flawlessly. If it were a tuning issue, I don't think all my other channels, digital and analog, would come in beautifully.

I suspect it may have to do with multipath, as there are two digital channels on adjacent UHF channels in my area (Channels 33 and 34) and the signals are coming from two completely different directions; it may be at night one overwhelms the other or it may be that "one or two number" signal change is all the difference.

Regardless, I guess it goes back, meaning the next one I get is bound to have problems, or FW 1.14, or some other problem putting me in HD torment.

Really, I suspect I should just get a refund and buy one of the Sony boxes coming out in a month or two...

Originally posted by Skipm
I too would beg to differ. I've found it to be on par or better than the one in my Samsung SIR-T151 and my Motorola 6208. The Samsung's picture quality was great, but I would get the occasional audio/video drop-out whereas with the 3410a, I get none. Add that to the amount of information displayed on the front panel, the configuration options, and of course the HDD and you have a winner. Don't get me wrong, I love the 3410A's feature set (well, except for the way it segregates the HD and analog channels, I much prefer the way Samsung interleaves say 9-0 and 9-1) but if it can't pick up my local CBS affiliate at night that means I can watch CSI: using another receiver but I just can't record it... :(

kucharsk-

I know where you are coming from. CSI: Miami to me looks the best of any of the HD programs I watch on a regular basis. I hope things work out for you.

MrHiFi- Congrats on hanging in there and finally getting a good one, although I'll hold judgement until after your guide updates and you hook it up to your projector. I know you were not a happy camper.

-Skip

Just spoke with LG and my New unit is on its way should have it tomorrow, they look like they may have gotten there act together finally, my replacement shipped same day as my old unit got there. I hope that it is new and has 1.15, hopefully my fox affiliate will now work as well, i guess we will see.

Wish LG would allow owners of their product to perform the upgrade. I don't want to ship it out... can't bear to be without my DVR for one day. I am totally hooked on it.

It's hooked up in my main system. It has 1.15. Brightness variance is there but almost imperceptible. This unit seems to be a little less sensitive than the previous two units ( in the rain, the Dolby Digital skips). The worst thing so far is that it has not downloaded the guide info. The program has changed. I liked the original download and ordering scheme much better. I hope it downloads tonight. I'm just using OTA and I have the local PBS station "ON". Oh, on the PBS HD the sound was out of sync with the picture. The NBC Law and Order was fine.

Update---

It did not download the guide again. What am I doing wrong? The prior units downloaded easily. Any suggstions?

Art-

The guide does't always come from the PBS station.

If it didn't download last night try a reset using a neighboring zipcode and then be sure to turn "on" ALL of the local analog stations in your area.

If that works, you can start turning "off" stations to clean up your guide.
When it stops filling up you'll know you turned off the wrong one.

Good luck

Lew

Of course, the other posibility is that the Guide broadcast in your area is having an issue. Suggest you check at 11PM to see if the "Guide" indicator on the front panel comes on. If not, then you know the station either has a problem or the 3410a isn't looking for the data.

The "Guide" is lit always on my unit. I called and they suggested trying another zip. I put it another and it has been 9 hours.
no change

If you don't have a guide yet and you can afford to loose the data off the hard drive, I suggest a reset back to factory conditions. I forget the correct steps, but I believe they are in the owners manual. Once that is done, I would go through the setup steps (with a different zip) and then not change any channels until the Guide looks solid.

That the light stays on all of the time is very strange. I assume it turns off when you start watching a program or playing back a recorded item?

Yes,

The light does go off but I believe that because it is on some of the time must mean it is attempting to download the guide info. It failed to down load with a new zip code. I noticed one thing very strange this morning. While all the UHF channels are coming in beautifully and therefore the Digitals, the VHF channelsare a mess. Snowy and poor, not watchable. My DTC100 and 3 SVHS VCR's on the same Antenna feed have great VHF. I'm going to explore a bit further before blaming the LST. I've never seen it before. How can the VHF be lousy and the UHF be perfect off the same piece of coax? I'll put another piece of 75 ohm in there and see. Course this would mean that the guide info. would be carried on VHF. Anybody know where it is carried.

The most common way for VHF to be bad while UHF is good is to either,

1) Short one of the VHF elements in the roof antenna
2) Use a power amp that filters out the VHF frequencies (particularly the lower ones)

Of course for both of these, you would expect to see the same signature on any device hooked up. I suppose if the UHF was really strong a bad coax cable or connector might give you a similar effect.

You might try rescanning the channels from the 3410a's menu. It couldn't hurt.

Mr. Hifi,
I am having the same sort of issue with my new 3410, I talked to LG cust service and they gave me some line about it taking 3 days. Then another person told me that was incorrect. They told me to unplug unit, put in demo pin, plug in turn on, turn off unplug remove demo pin, then plug in again. I did this I did not lose any of my data of previous recordings, I will see if I get my guide update tonight or not. I had left off for 24hrs with the guide light on and when i turned on it said could not finde data previous to these steps.

I placed an 8dB attenuator in the line and the VHF channels improved considerably. Don't understand it but that's what happened. I rescanned and now I'm waiting to see if they download tonight. Brightness level shift is still there like the first units.

SUCCESS!!!!!! It downloaded. Apparently in our area, the Baltimore, Wash., DC, Annapolis area, the info must be sent via an analog signal and mine were just not getting into the unit. So, I believe it is working correctly. Now I'm ready for the Fall season. Between this unit and my 3 SVHS recorders and the DTC100 I should be able to pick up the lineup until I figure out what is worth watching. I might even use the AV1 input to record some of the 4DTV offerings.

So Mr. Hifi's saga finally ends. What will happen to this thread now?!

Originally posted by Stanton
So Mr. Hifi's saga finally ends. What will happen to this thread now?!

Indeed. Heh, heh.

Actually, it's beginning to look like FW 1.15 has ended many a saga. My refurb has been flawless for almost 7 weeks. And things seem pretty quiet around here.

But I'm still withholding final judgement for a few months. I want to see the 3410A handle the grueling fall TV season.

Guess you will have to carry on without me. I do have one question. How do you add the sub channels? In my area each major channel, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 26 t mention a few, have subs,4-2, 4-3 etc. Those do not appear in the list. How do I add channels?

1.15 has been working very well for me for the past 2 weeks with one exception. The guide light comes on for 9 seconds and then is off for 9 seconds and then on for 9 seconds and then off for 9 seconds. This seems to be continous with the power off, although I haven't sat there for 24 hours.

The guide is full, record and playback are fine. Everything is great except for this blinking light. Is this some sort of trouble shooting code?

It's annoying when your watching something other than the 3410a.

Does anyone know why this is blinking?

Lew

lewlew,

That the way it works for me. Someone else reported that the guide is downloaded beginning at 11:00 PM. Maybe different locations vary in how the download works.

Originally posted by lewlew
1.15 has been working very well for me for the past 2 weeks with one exception. The guide light comes on for 9 seconds and then is off for 9 seconds and then on for 9 seconds and then off for 9 seconds. This seems to be continous with the power off, although I haven't sat there for 24 hours.

The guide is full, record and playback are fine. Everything is great except for this blinking light. Is this some sort of trouble shooting code?

It's annoying when your watching something other than the 3410a.

Does anyone know why this is blinking?

Lew

The guide light on my version 1.15 which has been working without any problems for over 10 weeks now also continually flashes when the unit is not turned on. The flashing is more intermittent in nature and does not have a cadence. The manual states that the guide indicator, "Lights when this unit is receiving TV Guide On Screen data." Apparently TV Guide data is sent out around the clock and not just at night.

Originally posted by MrHifi
Guess you will have to carry on without me. I do have one question. How do you add the sub channels? In my area each major channel, 4, 5, 7, 9, and 26 t mention a few, have subs,4-2, 4-3 etc. Those do not appear in the list. How do I add channels?

If you can tune them, but the guide doesn't download them, your local guide broadcast may be at fault. I don't know of a way to add channels to the guide.

If your guide shows the equivalent channels as cable channel numbers, you can remap them to OTA subchannel numbers. But this is one of the many problems I had with my first unit. At random times, the guide decided to unmap what I had mapped. I don't know if 1.15 corrected that because I now have cable HD. OTA is still connected and I can tune to stations manually, but they do not appear in my guide.

Although I have not had any major problems (freeze up which was corrected with a power on/off) with my 1.12 firmware, I decided to send my unit in for the 1.15 fromware upgrade. I gave customer service a call and they sent the shipping lables out (received them in about 4 days). DHL picked up my unit last Friday. I will keep you posted on the turn-around time on the upgrade. As noted earlier I requested that my unit not be exchanged, upgrade firmware only.

I have a 1.15 firmware 3410 with a 300 gb Maxtor upgrade that has been working for 3 weeks without problems. I have my fingers crossed. I will report again in about a month.

Jacklh

Originally posted by Jcjep
The guide light on my version 1.15 which has been working without any problems for over 10 weeks now also continually flashes when the unit is not turned on. The flashing is more intermittent in nature and does not have a cadence. The manual states that the guide indicator, "Lights when this unit is receiving TV Guide On Screen data." Apparently TV Guide data is sent out around the clock and not just at night. This is true.

For example, in the Denver area Guide data is sent pretty much around the clock; if I turn my unit off in the afternoon I can expect to see the front panel Guide icon turn on shortly thereafter, not just overnight. In fact, it's rare for me to not see the Guide icon lit when the unit is off, no matter what time of day or night it is...

Same here with the Guide Light in DC area.

That is interesting. In the Houston area, during the weekday the Guide light turns off starting at around 8AM. At 11PM the Guide light comes back on. During the weekend, I see the Guide on during the day.

Now to be fair, I know the Guide is off when I go to work in the morning and still off when I get home, so I am assuming that it stays off during the day. There may be a few hours during the day that it is on.

BTW, when the Guide light is on, it is solid (no blinks).

How does one go about centering a digital non-HD broadcast with this DVR? My digital channels are shown too far to the left of the screen. The sidebar on the right is about twice as big as the sidebar on the left. :(

My Samsung T360 STB has an option to change the centering on the monitor but a thorough search of the LG menus have gotten me nowhere.

I have successfully upgraded the 120GB internal hard drive of my 3410 to a 300GB Maxtor.

Has anyone successfully upgraded their 3410 to an external sliding tray style removable hard drive dock with the IDE and power plugs internally connectled to the 3410 and shuttled two or more hard drives in and out of the removable dock?

After further observation it appears that the guide blinking is only in the evening. The light is on steady in the morning before work and steady during lunchtime. It only blinks when I sit down. Sort of saying "watch ME!"

Seriously, I'm thinking the blinking is being controlled by the TV Guide through the cable.

There is no centering option in the LG. I use the horizontal offset in my DWIN HD700 to accomodate the offsets.

Uh-oh!! My refurb has been working since the end of June, but I've had no occasion to try a firewire dump --- until yesterday.

Anything recorded from cable or OTA and dumped from the HDD to D-VHS plays back with audio and video dropouts every few seconds.

If I play back a tape previously recorded from another source, it works OK. Also, a tape recorded live directly from cable or OTA via the LG firewire to tape plays back OK. (I want to try this last one again.)

This would appear to mean that the HDD dump via firewire to D-VHS is flawed.

Hey, Skipm,

Are you still around? I have your old unit, which you said had a HDD problem. Did you ever try the dump to D-VHS when you had it?

PhillyC,

I have no problem with this on mine with firmware version 1.14.

My first unit (1.12) was perfect with the D-VHS dump, too. Of course, NOTHING ELSE worked right. :)

I'm using a Mits 2000. I have two of them, so I've switched cables and VCR's, thus eliminating any problem with them.

Has anyone with 1.15 used the firewire dump to D-VHS and been able to play it back successfully (no dropouts)?

Originally posted by PhillyC


Hey, Skipm,

Are you still around? I have your old unit, which you said had a HDD problem. Did you ever try the dump to D-VHS when you had it?

Still here and no, I never tried dumping anything to my JVC-HD30000. I'll record something on my v1.14 unit and dump it off to tape. I'll let you know how it goes.

-Skip

Originally posted by MrHifi
There is no centering option in the LG. I use the horizontal offset in my DWIN HD700 to accomodate the offsets.

My Mits doesn't give me the option of correcting the centering. I'll give LG a call.

An LG technician is supposed to get back to me regarding the shifted picture problem with mine. I remember reading that some of the Samsung T-165's shifted to the left with DVI so I thought I'd experiment with the LG. Since the results are the same with DVI I tried component to see if there was a change. There was, the picture shifted to the right. :eek: I suppose this isn't a major problem but I'd still prefer the picture exactly in the middle as it is with other STBs.

Now on to the next question, how do I know what version of firmware my LG has? I don't have a DVHS deck to test it with and I don't want to end up with a problem with one after the 90 day warranty on labor, as well as parts.

Originally posted by 720p
Now on to the next question, how do I know what version of firmware my LG has? I don't have a DVHS deck to test it with and I don't want to end up with a problem with one after the 90 day warranty on labor, as well as parts.

Go to the menu and look under "Troubleshooting". I believe the version number is the last item on the list.

Originally posted by PhillyC
Go to the menu and look under "Troubleshooting". I believe the version number is the last item on the list.

Thanks, looks like 1.15 from 4/6/04.

Originally posted by PhillyC
Uh-oh!! My refurb has been working since the end of June, but I've had no occasion to try a firewire dump --- until yesterday.

Anything recorded from cable or OTA and dumped from the HDD to D-VHS plays back with audio and video dropouts every few seconds.

If I play back a tape previously recorded from another source, it works OK. Also, a tape recorded live directly from cable or OTA via the LG firewire to tape plays back OK. (I want to try this last one again.)

This would appear to mean that the HDD dump via firewire to D-VHS is flawed.


PhillyC


I tested FW 1.15 dump to DVHS by:

> recording an OTA HDTV show to the 3410 FW v1.15 internal HDD
> dumping a copy of the program to a JVC 30K
> copying the resulting DVHS tape to another 3410 with FW v1.12 using another JVC 30K

RESULTS: Flawless Audio and Video playback on the 3410 with FW v1.12 even when still/pausing and << >> all over the place.

There is no DVHS related problem in the firmware v1.15 itself.

Phil, a few suggestions:

1) Try a different 1394 cable. Also double-check that the connections are in correctly.

2) Isolate the 3410a and the DVHS unit so the two boxes are the only ones on the 1394 bus.

3) If the DVHS unit is a 30K/40K, then try with Power Saving mode set to "Off".

4) Try powering on the DVHS prior to the 3410a.

5) Try a different tape in the DVHS (also try a different source and make sure the DVHS unit is recording OK).

Hope at least one of the suggestions is useful...

will i have issue with recording 5c=0 programs like INHD, HBO-HD, or discoveryHD program to 3410 HDD?

If you can view them, you can record them from what I've read here. The 3410a does not have a cablecard so you are limited to viewing/recording non-encrypted programs.

mkerdman and alk3997,

Thanks for your efforts and info. I have just finished extensive testing and tried everything mentioned, with no improvement. BUT --- I have updated info on where the problem occurs.

The simplest way to put it is like this:

1) The D-VHS playback dropouts occur ONLY when the original recording is made:

a) from my Comcast cable stations recorded to the HDD of the 3410A, then dumped to D-VHS

2) There is NO PROBLEM when the original recording is made:

a) from OTA stations to the HDD
b) from OTA stations directly to D-VHS via the 3410A firewire
c) from other equipment to D-VHS
d) from my Comcast cable stations directly to D-VHS via the 3410A firewire

Take a good look at item 2d. This really fries my brain. Overall, I'm led to believe that the problem is not with the 3410A. Maybe my cable signal is weak or has some other problem that disagrees with the DVR. But item 2d says that that same cable signal can be recorded live via the 3410A firewire directly to D-VHS, and then played back perfectly.

I called LG earlier today and arranged for a swap, but now I'm wondering if I should just assume that my cable signal is at fault and live with no firewire dump. I really hate to play "LG roulette" again, because my current 3410A has been flawless in every other way.

My head hurts.

Philly,

You may not see the relevance in what I'm about to offer but it does speak to unexpected incompatibility issues.

C Band 4DTV owners use an HDD200 decoder to receive HBO HD, Showtime HD, Starz HD, Encore HD, Discovery HD theater and PBS HD. Recently some owners of the HDD200 decoder have been unable to decode Starz HD. Turns out most of the folks with the problem own the HDD200 with a GUI. Owners without the GUI have had no problems. This is a unit that has been out of production for some time. The problem just creeped up. The Starz and Motorola folks have been testing for several months to resolve the problem that they acknowledge but whose cause they are unable to diagnose. Luckily, I have the original, non-GUI, unit. It does demonstrate the problem of trying to attain Digital compatibility.

BTW---So far so good. New unit is working perfectly and i have ordered the $330.00 DCD2.1 transcoder from the Canadian member of this forum. Hope that resolves the Brightness level issue. It has black level clamping incorporated into the circuit.

On another issue--i checked the LST's ability to downconvert 1080i material. On my HD700 I set up a memory position for 720P and 1080i. When watching 1080i broadcasts the picture is definitely better when watched at 1080i and of course 1080i is selected on the LST vs. selecting and watching 720P. The LST has to downconvert. On the other hand, 720P ABC broadcasts watched at 720P or 1080i look about the same. Maybe it is harder to downconvert than upconvert. Anyway, I'll continue to watch at 1080i and convert to 1080i when necessary.

Also, my unit downloads every couple hours. At least the White light goes on.

Ok, update on my 3410, It has been working for 9-10 weeks up until last week. I now have a problem with the TVguide when I bring it up. It will show the current program in the small upper left hand window but the rest of the screen is all scrambled video. I can see patterns in the scrabble but not able to make anything out. The remote will move from channel to channel and the viewer window will change programs. The VCRPlus does that same thing also.

I unplug the unit for 10 seconds and it may work for a few times or not with the TVGuide button.

I unplug the unit over night and same problems after a few minutes of use.

This is my 2nd replacement unit and it did this to me the first week that I received it back in April. I called LG and they were going to send me a shipping label. I never received the label and the unit started to work ok once I add the fans and UPS to it, so I did not send it back. I have unplugged the unit and will be got fo0r 2 days I’ll see what happens when I return.

Has any one else seen this problem before? If so how did you fix it?

Thanks
mstanl

Has any one else seen this problem before? If so how did you fix it?

Thanks
mstanl

I did once. The output was less than 1080i. Somehow it had shifted to 720i and when I switched the front panel"Dispay Format" to 1080i my problem was solved. I hope this works for you.

Jacklh

I have it set to 480i by default since I'm using s-video output to a standard TV. And I did try the display set up and that did not work. I get a good picture but when I go into the TVGuide the guide part looks like a kaleidoscope of collors.

Thanks
mstanl

Sounds like the temperature problem to me. You said it worked fine with the fan. Was it an external fan or an internal one? Try blowing a room fan on it when it fails just to see if it clears up. Mine did something strange last night. It got stuck in 720P as I was passing through on my way to 1080i again. I would push the select button with 1080i showing and it would not shift. Worked fine after a few repeats.

Originally posted by MrHifi
Sounds like the temperature problem to me. You said it worked fine with the fan. Was it an external fan or an internal one? Try blowing a room fan on it when it fails just to see if it clears up.

OK I have 2 external fans blowing on it, One on top and the other on the left side. The fans run 24/7 and I have been using them for over 2 months now. So tempertature is not a problem now, It is cold to the touch, or room tempertature. I do see a difference with the unit from when I first got the unit 3 months ago. If I unplug the unit for 5 seconds or a few minuts it does set the clock to "--:--", once powered back up it has the clock set. The clock maybe off by a half hour but it is set. I did us the demo pin and the first screen that came up I could read but after a few seconds it went scrambled and could not read it. Took the pin out and turn back on and it would only work for a few times before it would not show the TVGuide screen correctly.

Thanks
Mstanl

Do you have firmware 1.15? I had a similar problem with 1.12 firmware.

Jacklh

Originally posted by PhillyC
Take a good look at item 2d. This really fries my brain. Overall, I'm led to believe that the problem is not with the 3410A. Maybe my cable signal is weak or has some other problem that disagrees with the DVR. But item 2d says that that same cable signal can be recorded live via the 3410A firewire directly to D-VHS, and then played back perfectly.



Phil, let me provide some real life experience on something similar. I've had a couple of instances where an HD signal will play normally but without audio on my 30K. When transferred to the 3410a, the audio would play normally. If I took that same program and then transferred it back to the 30K, there would be no audio again.

Obviously that was an example of where the 30K interpreted the ATSC standard somewhat differently than the 3410a. But neither deck was "faulty", except maybe for firmware.

With that in mind, I can suggest one more experiment. Take a signal from the 3410a to the DVHS. Verify that you are getting the glitches. Then, resend the signal to the 3410a. If the signal is being modified during the HDD transfer then the glitches should reappear on the 3410a. If, however, the 3410a doesn't show any problems with the re-recorded signal, then you may have a cable company issue with the signal.

That is the best I can come up with for a test without a bus analyzer.

Originally posted by mstanl
Ok, update on my 3410, It has been working for 9-10 weeks up until last week. I now have a problem with the TVguide when I bring it up. It will show the current program in the small upper left hand window but the rest of the screen is all scrambled video. I can see patterns in the scrabble but not able to make anything out. The remote will move from channel to channel and the viewer window will change programs. The VCRPlus does that same thing also.


Has any one else seen this problem before? If so how did you fix it?

Thanks
mstanl

The second version 1.12 that I had did the same type thing. Basically it would lose the finished graphics for the guide. I could still read the distorted lettering and use the guide but the colors and the graphics were gone and the distorted lettering was difficult to read. As in your case, the picture in the upper right hand corner remained. I could get the graphics back by unplugging it for a period of time but the problem started occurring more and more frequently. Unfortunately, the only cure was to get the version 1.15 which has not exhibited the problem and has worked flawlessly for 11+ weeks now.

Originally posted by Jacklh
Do you have firmware 1.15? I had a similar problem with 1.12 firmware.

Jacklh

I have 1.12..... I guess I need to send the unit in. I was just waiting unit
the next upgrade fix that would fix more problems.

Thanks
mstanl

Originally posted by alk3997
With that in mind, I can suggest one more experiment. Take a signal from the 3410a to the DVHS. Verify that you are getting the glitches. Then, resend the signal to the 3410a. If the signal is being modified during the HDD transfer then the glitches should reappear on the 3410a. If, however, the 3410a doesn't show any problems with the re-recorded signal, then you may have a cable company issue with the signal.

That is the best I can come up with for a test without a bus analyzer.

Andy,

Nice try, but no luck. I did as you suggested and the dropouts remain when played back from the HDD.

It's clear that my cable signal recorded to the HDD causes the problem in a later D-VHS dump.

Since an OTA recording to HDD does a perfect D-VHS dump, I must conclude that the cable signal is a major part of the problem (even though the cable can be recorded live to D-VHS perfectly).

I'm leaning toward canceling my exchange with LG as long as everything else is working OK. There's really not much that I want to archive anyway. That will apply more to cable movies, which eventually will be handled by a Comcast DVR or a CableCARD DVR.

Thanks for your advice. I know it was hard work to concentrate on this very confusing problem!

One more question for any of you who have HD cable: What is your signal strength on the HD channels? Mine is just barely on the line between Bad and Normal. The strongest stations are just under the N in Normal. This is much weaker than my OTA's.

Originally posted by mstanl
I have 1.12..... I guess I need to send the unit in. I was just waiting unit
the next upgrade fix that would fix more problems.

Thanks
mstanl

Yep, your unit is doing what my first one did. It only gets worse. Just send it in.

Originally posted by PhillyC
I must conclude that the cable signal is a major part of the problem


PhillyC

I had Charter Cable's HDTV service and a S/A 8000 HD DVR for about a week and both were horrible.

Charter puts 3 HD channels on each QAM channel - 38Mbps divided by 3 = washed out HDTV.

The features of the S/A 8000 HD DVR were underwhelming compared to a Dish or Tivo DVR.

Most importantly, the S/A video output over DVI was very weak on video clarity.

I watched in component video only for a few days and returned it.

S/A has an 8300 HD DVR coming out which may be better as it is said to improve on the ATI video section/driver quite a bit.

Murray,

It's just interesting because my HD quality is absolutely great when live or played back from the HDD. So if the first generation is so good, you would think that the dump to D-VHS would be just as good.

Anyway, the good news is that I just dropped in a Maxtor 300 GB HDD. This is the QuickView Consumer Electronics 5400 RPM drive, optimized for DVR's (low heat, low noise, etc.). It took maybe a minute to format, and so far (about 20 minutes!) it's looking good.

Originally posted by PhillyC
Murray,

It's just interesting because my HD quality is absolutely great when live or played back from the HDD. So if the first generation is so good, you would think that the dump to D-VHS would be just as good.

Anyway, the good news is that I just dropped in a Maxtor 300 GB HDD. This is the QuickView Consumer Electronics 5400 RPM drive, optimized for DVR's (low heat, low noise, etc.). It took maybe a minute to format, and so far (about 20 minutes!) it's looking good.

PhillyC

I have had only 2 problems with dump and copy.

1. On TNT-HD only, I could not get a playable copy on to the hard drive from a 169Time DVHS tape. All other HD Sat channels work in this scenario.

2. I had some other DVHS program copied onto the hard drive that played fine but distorted on << >> and pause still.

Murray,

Yes, on my first unit (when I had only OTA) and on this unit with OTA, recording to the HDD and dumping to D-VHS is successful. You can copy back and forth all you want.

But after any copy from D-VHS to HDD, although playback is perfect from HDD, the FF, REW, etc. will not be smooth.

Not that it matters much to those who are having issues with their 3410, but usuing the timer manually to set times and channels, I haven't missed a single show since I bought my 3410 6 months or so ago now with version 1.12 of the firmware, except for the occaisional audio dropout.

I did notice the HD-SAT520 got a slightly better picture than this unit, which when I asked LG about it on the phone, they said was because of the additional electronics for the cable connection, though how having the ability to record cable causes the picture quality to be slightly less is beyond my knowledge.

Its a very slight difference you need a fine eye to see but I spotted it right away when I took delivery of mine.

Speaking of which, I thought I might put my Zenith HD-SAT520 up for sale , ithas been sitting here unused since I got it, anyone know what market price these things are getting?

I live with my 3410a, it records 10 hours a week for me like clockwork, and having the ability to record cable, especially Stargate off the SciFi channel AND my HDTV programs has been the nicest thing with this stuff since I got my plasma tv.

FYI ---

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=430774

LG preparing to expand HD-PVR lineup

Here are the specs posted on a Korean AV review and forum site on July 30 and updated over the past few days...

Starts with LST-3410a specs and adds:

• DVD±RW single-layer recorder
• Records HD to single-layer media using proprietary TS encoding scheme that is now patent-pending worldwide. Assumption is that 1-hour of HD will fit on 4.7 GB DVD media. This will only be playable on the new STB, not standard DVD players.
• Records SD using MPEG-2 encoding. Playable on any DVD player.
• Records from analog inputs to drive or burns direct to DVD.
• Converts recorded HD to SD for burning on DVD. Cannot burn direct from HD to DVD
• 7-in-1 memory reader will playback JPEGs from Compact Flash, MMC, Secure Digital, Memory Stick, etc. Also plays back MP3s.
• Improved iLink support. Will support DV camcorders/decks.
• Improved editing features. Can slice up files into multiple segments.
• Standard 120 GB drive. Optional 160 GB drive.

I would trade all of that additional stuff for a second tuner.

Lew

No HD recording from component in and no saving HD in HD. Does not sound like anything I would be interested in. Need Blue Laser

Making DVD's of HD content that only play on one device is a non-starter.

It seems LG did not want to tackle the whole DRM issue at all.

That is why the 3410 doesn't do exactly what a Tivo does for fear of a lawsuit as has been filed against Dish Network by Tivo.

Originally posted by lewlew
I would trade all of that additional stuff for a second tuner.

Lew

I second that!!

mstanl

Call LG today, and they are sending out return labels for this unit. Over the weekend I also had a problem with it display the TV picture. It had lines in the picture and other distortations.

I'll let you all know what happens with the replacement unit once I receive it.

Thanks
mstanl

Originally posted by MrHifi
There is no centering option in the LG. I use the horizontal offset in my DWIN HD700 to accomodate the offsets.

So are you saying your LG is off center for SD broadcasts as well? Regardless, LG has not called me back as promised so I'll be returning this unit to Best Buy this week. The firewire would have been nice to have but I think I'll pick up one of the new Sony's coming out.

The HD feed via RGB syncs off center on the HD700 It syncs at about the same place the that my Motorola HD200 4DTV decoder does so I know there's nothing wrong with it. I think you are making a mistake. This unit is quite advanced. i say this after returning my first two units, getting a refund from LGB and purchasing through another source.

I just bought a transcoder to use the RGB out instead of the RGBHV. Hope that clears up the brightness level variation.

UPDATE: The transcoder did not clear up the brightness variation problem even though the designer claims it has "black level clamping".

The picture is too far to the left with DVI and too far to the right with component. You're saying this is normal? If so, why would they do this? Even the guide gets cut off. :(

Update:

Through some trial with the Display Format button on the front of the unit I found that the non-HD channels will be centered if I choose the "Native DVI" option. However, this means that ABC and Fox's digital channels will not show up at all on my Mits TV because it won't show native 720p. While I can see that the shift problem is now a shortfall of my TV and not the LG itself I fail to understand why LG did not take this into consideration being that most of the HDTVs available aren't capable of showing native 720p.

Well folks, to revisit my playback problem of D-VHS dumps from HDD:

My Comcast 6208 DVR arrived this morning, and the SAME problems occur, just like with the LG. I can record direct to D-VHS from the 6208 and play back fine through the 3410A. But saving first to the 6208 HDD, dumping to D-VHS, then playing back through the 3410A, results in dropouts every few seconds.

I am at a loss to figure this one out. The combination of Comcast HD cable and saving to HDD must have some flaw.

Update: Firmware upgrade 1.15

I sent my 3410a in for firmware upgrade to 1.15 on August 6 and the unit was upgraded and returned on August 19. Not to bad for turn-around time. As I mentioned before, I have not had any problems with the unit since I purchased it on April 5 (originally with firmware 1.12), but I wanted to have the latest firmware while it was still under warranty.

I just got an 3410A (with 1.15 firmware thank goodness :)) and was reading this thread. While I know it's been a while since it was discussed, the problem MrHifi had with brightness changes in 720p is the exact same thing I had with a Panasonic TU-HDS20 connected to a Sony PFM-42B1 via RGBHV. If the ouptut was 1080i, it looked fine but in 720p the brightness would vary depending on the left edge of the image. After a bunch of googling, I found out how to enable the monitor's Service menu and with a bit of trial and error, I found that by adjusting the 'clamp pulse placement', the picture shifted and the brightness variations went away. Looks like some monitors are sensitive to variations in 720p signals.

I just got two open box 3410's for $250 each at BB. I need two remotes and presumably a firmware upgrade. Any recommendations?

I've been away from this forum for a bit and may have missed the a few posts. Can anyone tell me what is gained by having the firmware version updated to 1.15? The 3410A mysteriously missed recording something it usually record every week and I may wish to upgrade if it fixes that.

Originally posted by Hyrax
I've been away from this forum for a bit and may have missed the a few posts. Can anyone tell me what is gained by having the firmware version updated to 1.15? The 3410A mysteriously missed recording something it usually record every week and I may wish to upgrade if it fixes that.

My 2nd box is a refurb with 1.15, which has been nearly flawless. There is no way of knowing whether it's just the firmware or a "lucky" box. Actually, this box was first owned by another member here, and it did not exhibit the guide-related problems then, either, but was said to have had a HDD problem.

The only real problem now has been detailed here recently. It has to do with cable>HDD>firewire>D-VHS recordings. But my cable signal is at least partly to blame. Otherwise, I think the LG did miss a recording once in two months. It failed to shut down after a recording twice in that time. All in all, it's been very dependable.

Phil -
Are you saying that the 'cable>HDD>firewire>D-VHS' problem only occurs when your source is a cable signal and that you don't get it with an OTA signal? That seems very odd. Almost like a broadcast bit interaction.

I'm on the verge of buying a D-VHS recorder. Do you think it would be OK to buy a JVC HMDH-40000, or should I play it safe and look for a JVC HMDH-30000?

Thanks for the info

Tim

Originally posted by Hyrax
Phil -
Are you saying that the 'cable>HDD>firewire>D-VHS' problem only occurs when your source is a cable signal and that you don't get it with an OTA signal? That seems very odd. Almost like a broadcast bit interaction.

Yes! OTA>HDD>firewire>D-VHS works perfectly. I don't know if my first unit had this problem because I did not have cable HD then. Part of the blame may be the 3410a, but part is certainly the cable signal. What gets me is that the cable>HDD recording plays back perfectly from the HDD. Crazy!

I believe CKNA mentioned he had this same trouble, but he hasn't been around lately.

Meanwhile, I can now make cable>HDD>firewire>D-VHS recordings with the Comcast 6208 DVR. THOSE tapes play back glitch-free via the 3410A.

As an aside, I put a Maxtor 300GB CE HDD in the LG and so far it's great. I doubt it's part of the problem.

I have 1.5 software and can't remember ever missing a scheduled recording. However, sometimes when I skip ahead on the HDD and then hit play, I lose the audio and have to stop the playback and hit play again. Has anyone ever experienced this issue?

Originally posted by kelliot
I got two open box 3410's at BB. I need two remotes and presumably a firmware upgrade. Any recommendations?

I got remotes from LG. Can anyone tell me what the firmware upgrade does? So far I haven't seen any stability problems and I'm not using RGB. One has 1.12 firmware and the other 1.15 and I haven't seen much difference. I really don't need two so I'm putting the 1.15 one for sale on Videogon.

Originally posted by aep
I just got an 3410A (with 1.15 firmware thank goodness :)) and was reading this thread. While I know it's been a while since it was discussed, the problem MrHifi had with brightness changes in 720p is the exact same thing I had with a Panasonic TU-HDS20 connected to a Sony PFM-42B1 via RGBHV. If the ouptut was 1080i, it looked fine but in 720p the brightness would vary depending on the left edge of the image. After a bunch of googling, I found out how to enable the monitor's Service menu and with a bit of trial and error, I found that by adjusting the 'clamp pulse placement', the picture shifted and the brightness variations went away. Looks like some monitors are sensitive to variations in 720p signals.

The brightness variation accurs at 1080i and 720P. Wish I knew how to adjust "clamp pulse placement" in thee DWIN HD700.

Originally posted by kelliot
I got remotes from LG. Can anyone tell me what the firmware upgrade does? So far I haven't seen any stability problems and I'm not using RGB. One has 1.12 firmware and the other 1.15 and I haven't seen much difference. I really don't need two so I'm putting the 1.15 one for sale on Videogon.

The 1.15 version seems to handle bad PSIP data better than 1.12. The stepto to 1.14 (which is obviously in 1.15) eliminates intermitten freeze of the picture.

So, if your local stations or cable system transmits perfect PSIP data, you probably don't need the upgrade. If they do transmit bad PSIP check the earlier 60+ pages of this thread for the effects. It isn't something you'll notice until it or unless it occurs.

I found out from a phone call to a LG engineer that the only difference between version 1.14 and 1.15 is that 1.15 address some DV camcorder issues that were overlooked. (Something to do with no video) So for me, never have connected a camcorder nor do I plan on it, I will be ok with 1.14 and don't need the downtime for a 1.15 upgrade.

Has anyone had issues transferring "clip-edited" shows off their box? I've recently been playing with that feature since I don't have a decent editing setup off-box yet and I've discovered that after a show is edited I can't dub it off (I get grey screens and empty (or nearly so) .ts files)

-MM

So guys I have the big question. Would you still buy the 3410a if you had to do it all over again? I was looking at them for a while then backed off and now I'm looking again.

I will use it for OTA HD recordings only no cable stuff. Any thoughts on problems for that type of usage?

I've got the Zenith HDV-420 box now and can pull in the channels I need to just fine.

Thanks for any advice.

Jim

I'm on my third unit. After a refund, I waited and found tat I could not live without the convenience. So far so good with the new one. Only one reboot in a month. if you have a 420, why buy the 3410? i would not. It's the bility to store and replay HD that is important and you have that.

The 420 is just a HD OTA receiver. I want to be able to record and store HD material.
Are you thinking about the 230? That was a recorder.

I've got some new hours at work and I'm finding staying up late a problem so I want to record some late night HD stuff to watch the next evening.

Jim

I feel better about the 3410A after I got the guide data correct. It took a fair amount of manual station editing. Its definitely better than my old Sony HD100 and although the its not the world's best HDTV DVR, its still an HDTV DVR.

The 3410a is LOADS better than the HD-100. I had both until a couple of weeks ago when my HD-100 finally burned up and died. I just made my first recording of the new season with the 3410a, and it worked flawlessly; I may even start recording some football games.

My apologies motoman. Numerical soup problem I guess The 3410 would work for you. Mine records nightly. It and 3 SVHS VCR's + my RCA DTC100 should allow me to cover the networks and PBS during the upcoming season. My wife and I record 8-11 Mon-Sat. and 7:00 to 11:00 Sunday. On Saturday we relax and watch what we want without commecials. Each night we pick out those shows or movies we want to watch. Normally, we'll watch a movie fron 4DTV in HD.

Originally posted by MrHifi
My apologies motoman. Numerical soup problem I guess The 3410 would work for you.

No apologies needed. I can't remember them most of the time either. I was going to order one to get it by this long weekend and my week got away from me and I didn't get it done.

I'm willing to give it a try and see if it will do the job I need it to.

Thanks,

Jim

OK, so I bought one of these things and received it last Wednesday. I finally finished reading all 71 pages of this thread on Friday. (I started reading last Monday, the day I ordered it.) So far, no problems with the guide data or recording things using the guide.

However, this thing really does burn very hot. One night last week, I could barely stand to touch it for more than five or six seconds before I had to pull my hands away from the sides of the unit, and my hands aren't that sensitive to heat. I refuse to purchase and install a fan for this thing, so I'm hoping that I won't run into any heat-related problems.

That is, until I buy and install a 300 GB drive. Has anyone installed a 300 GB drive without putting a fan in? Does it burn even hotter with the bigger HD?

Also, as far as this thing having a stronger tuner than the SIRT165, I have to disagree. Before I split my antenna cable, I let the LG scan for locals and it couldn't get the WB or UPN digitals. Granted, these were a stretch with the Samsung, but even after splitting the antenna, I was able to pick up the WB with the Samsung no problem, and the LG was still getting no signal. I watched Smallville with no dropouts on the Samsung on Wednesday, and the LG never picked up a signal at the same time. This is a shame as I was looking forward to recording Smallville. I guess I can record "Lost" on ABC and watch Smallville live on the Samsung.

Regardless, this will be a great unit to have now that there is a lot more HD material to see. Bring on the new TV season.

I have noticed less sensitivity on my third unit with 1.15. It also loses lock easier than the rest and requires a rescan if I point the antenna in a different direction. Perhaps they desensitized the front end in the latest batch. The first two units picked up everythng within 40 miles in a 270 degree radius. Dropouts are geting to be a continuing annoyance but still love it. Is there a way to edit the material before copying to SVHS?

Hi Art-

I solved my drop-out problems with a pre amp, but the 3410 is easy to overload. I then needed to attenuate some of the signal and now it is rock solid.

There are directions in the manual for editing. It's fairly simple but practice on something you don't care to save just in case you save only the commercials and not the program.

Lew

Originally posted by lewlew
There are directions in the manual for editing. It's fairly simple but practice on something you don't care to save just in case you save only the commercials and not the program.

Also, try not to trim too much off of the front part. If you leave some unwanted material there, you won't have to worry about the play bar showing on the good material you you play the file.

Originally posted by dbburns
However, this thing really does burn very hot. One night last week, I could barely stand to touch it for more than five or six seconds before I had to pull my hands away from the sides of the unit, and my hands aren't that sensitive to heat. I refuse to purchase and install a fan for this thing, so I'm hoping that I won't run into any heat-related problems.

I was curious about this. Mine would sit in a rack that has a back and glass doors on the front ( Pioneer Elite Racks). Any idea if it would be to hot for it in there. I didn't think about this till I read that.

Thanks,

Jim

I have the Elite SP99D and Elite DV09. The first has a fan and the second has massive metal areas to dissipate heat. Pioneer obviously delt proactively with heat buildup so their enclosed racks would not have affected their components.

The LGE3410A is on the very edge of thermal runaway. If you let it get too hot, the logic and picture breaks down catstrophically. I know this because I had one burn up. The second would get very hot and begin to tile and lock up. If you are not going to install the mufin fan, set it atop a pillar with free air all around it. I have been lzy and did not install the fan as I should have done. Instead, I placed it on top of a pile of SVHS recorders and electronic switches which give off no heat. It sits 5 feet in the air with the room air circulating constantly. It is hot to the touch but not painfully so.

I think you need to use some common sense with ANY of the current crop of HD PVR's. You can't run them 10 hours/day in an enclosed cabinet and expect not to have problems. I have had my 3410 for several months now, and it does exactly what I need it to in moderation: I record/watch a few HD shows per week. Yes, it gets hot, but I've never had any of the problems described above (and Mr. HiFi has had dozens of posts with various problems in this thread) and I don't leave it on all day every day (it's in an enclosed cabinet).

Stanton,
Thanks for the info. My recording habits sound about like yours. I wasn't planning on leaving it on all the time either. I'll sometimes leave the cabinet doors open when using allot of the equipment and I'll point a small floor fan at the rack just in case things get a little warm. We have pretty mild temps here being right on the coast so that helps.
I've been trying to contact Robert at Value Electronis to order one and can't seem to get off the phone here at work to get it done.
Thanks again,
Jim

I'm very happy with Salamander Synergy cabinets and shelves. You can leave the fronts open and you can choose black perforated metal sides that look great and allow heat to escape. There are many options and, whatever you choose, the end result is solid, functional, and elegant.

Did the vendor offering the sub-$700 price on the 3410 mentioned here earlier ever deliver?

I don't think the 3410 is nearly as prone to overheating as some here would suggest.

Be sure to leave at least 3-4" on top of the unit, 2" on the sides and don't stack it on any other components and you should be fine.

Mine was running near 24x7 during the Olympics like this and I never had any issues (I would end up watching the loop of programming at night and my wife would watch it in the morning, and we use our 3410a as our NTSC/ATSC tuner for a Panasonic plasma.)

Don't get me wrong - it does run very hot to the touch, but then again so did my Samsung SIR-T165.

I won't worry about the heat issue too much then. I will probably use mine about three to four hours a day during the week, up to about ten hours on Sundays now that football season is here. It will be turned off when not recording or watching HD.

Mine is on metro shelving, so there are no front, sides, or back to the shelves. It is the bottom component on my upper shelf. The Samsung SIRT165 is the top component on the shelf below the LG. My Panasonic DVD player sits on top of the LG. It doesn't seem to be quite as hot now as it was that first night or two, though it does still get very warm. It seems to heat up the basement, too. That will come in handy with winter approaching. If I think of it, I'll take a pic of how the components are stacked up and post it here.

My concern will be how much hotter it runs with a larger HDD, but I probably won't install one until Christmastime, once it seems to work properly for awhile.

I've still had no problems. I've re-ordered the channel line-up in the TV Guide, and it hasn't crapped out. The eight or so shows I've programmed using the guide have all recorded. My next test will be to set up weekly recordings now that the TV season is starting.

The Guide data seems to download all throughout the day and night. It seems like more often than not, when the unit is off, the Guide light is on. Pretty cool.

Originally posted by mkerdman
Did the vendor offering the sub-$700 price on the 3410 mentioned here earlier ever deliver?

Several of us have gotten units from the aformentioned vendor. Call first to make sure they have stock, though, as some folks reported long delays.

-MM

Originally posted by mrmike
Several of us have gotten units from the aformentioned vendor. Call first to make sure they have stock, though, as some folks reported long delays.

-MM

I guess this mystery vendor can't be mentioned in the forum?

Originally posted by JRTrautschold
I guess this mystery vendor can't be mentioned in the forum?

Well, they have an online store. They are an HDTV retailer operating off of yahoo marketplaces, so if you have the Time you could poke around yahoo.com or do some searching for /lst-3410a.html

-MM

Originally posted by mrmike
Well, they have an online store. They are an HDTV retailer operating off of yahoo marketplaces, so if you have the Time you could poke around yahoo.com or do some searching for /lst-3410a.html

-MM

:p Thanks for the clandestine info! :p

I have never had any heat issues, running original HD and firmware.

OK...picked up one of these bad boys on an open box buy at BB today for $400 (no remote or anything). I knew that was no big deal since I could download the remote codes from Remote Central for my MX-700 (had to use a pronto.ccf file though). I've got everything set up as far as my antenae goes, but was wondering if there are any problems when people hook up their cable inputs. I tried reading the first 20 pages or so of this thread, but most issues deal with the old firmware 1.12...this unit has 1.15. I recorded my first show for the heck of it to show the wife how it works and everything went great.

The only problem I have is that the ABC channel was in and out tonight on MNF, which was never a problem with my Zenith 420 (NBC was the problem child on the 420), but NBC seems more stable than ABC now..weird. I went and got a channel master outdoor antenna amplifier which I am going to install tomorrow, but I am afraid of getting too much signal. Right now all of the channels are at about 75-80%, do you think the booster will help? If it is too powerful, what do I do? Any help would be appreciated.

Dave

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
The only problem I have is that the ABC channel was in and out tonight on MNF, which was never a problem with my Zenith 420 (NBC was the problem child on the 420), but NBC seems more stable than ABC now..weird. I went and got a channel master outdoor antenna amplifier which I am going to install tomorrow, but I am afraid of getting too much signal. Right now all of the channels are at about 75-80%, do you think the booster will help? If it is too powerful, what do I do?
The 3410a seems more sensitive to signal quality than some other receivers, with the end result that the signal strength meter may show lots of signal but if it's multipath-filled, your signal may drop out anyway.

The amp may help, but frankly I've yet to use an amp that actually improved things when there was a decent signal level; you'd probably have a lot better luck tweaking your antenna slightly...

Tweaking how? Direction?

Dave

Dave,

Earlier in this thread i mentioned that I had noticed a difference in the performance of the 3410 vis a vis the first two units I owned. This one is very picky about where you point the antenna. While signal quality may remain high, getting the right direction is a real trick. I use a channel master positioner with a memory to tweak in a position that brings me all 10 of the digital stations in one direction. Interestingly, that direction is not necessarily the optimum position for the station's analog counterpart. Also, I use a mast mounted amp and a +15dB distribution box/amp. I was foeced to put in an attenuator in order to receive guide updates. The guide updates must come in on an analog channel because without the attenuator, the VHF channels go crazy/are unwatchable. Love it though. Use it 4-6 hours every day.

Question--My hard drive is spinning all the time that the unit is on. I thought that on my first two units it only operated during record and playback.

Do any of the brick and mortar stores (BB, CC, GG in northern CA area) carry the 3410 now?

John

MrHifi,
What is an attenuator and what does it do? I bought an outdoor amplifier because the 15dB distribution box/amp made no difference on my interior signal meter, so I returned it.

Dave

I haven't seen it at any of the stores that you mention. But Paradyme carries the 3410 in Sacramento and has a decent price - $800.

I looked at 3 different BB's and was able to get the open box deal I mentioned earlier. I had intended on selling my 420 to recoup some of the costs, but now I may keep it to have 2 HDTV tuners!

Dave

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
I looked at 3 different BB's and was able to get the open box deal I mentioned earlier. I had intended on selling my 420 to recoup some of the costs, but now I may keep it to have 2 HDTV tuners!

Dave


Dave

Was the BB open boxed 3410 tagged at the reduced price or did someone have to establish/negotiate it for/with you.

BB's near me only want to take 10-20% off open boxed units.

What's your secret?

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
MrHifi,
What is an attenuator and what does it do? I bought an outdoor amplifier because the 15dB distribution box/amp made no difference on my interior signal meter, so I returned it.

Dave

Dave,

If your analog VHF and UHF looks OK, you should be fine. If the analog has lines running through it, go to an electronics supply house and ask for a 3-6dB in-line attenuator. You simply plug it between the antenna in F connector on the 3410 and the antenna lead in wire. I believe the "signal meter is looking at quality not strength but ohers may be able to comment. If that is the case, that is why the attenuator works. It simply cuts out the low level multipath.

Hifi...thanks...I picked one up at RS today and will give it a try. I am now wondering if I need the outdoor amp or not.

Dave

mkerdman,
I told them I wouldn't buy it for what they were asking. That simple. Took 5 minutes to get down to 4 bills.

Dave


I may have an issue with my unit though. When set to output 1080i through component, I get what looks like a ground loop problem (horizontile lines very faint moving up the screen), but if I switch to 720P, it goes away. The problem is, my TV is native 1080i and the picture is a little softer at 720P because of the extra conversions taking place..any suggestions?

Dave

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
Tweaking how? Direction?

Dave Correct - check antennaweb.org and make sure your antenna is pointed in the proper direction, or as close as possible to it.

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
mkerdman,
I told them I wouldn't buy it for what they were asking. That simple. Took 5 minutes to get down to 4 bills.

Dave

Dave

I have read similar BB open box stories before, but, in around West L.A. and the San Fernando Valley, the BB store managers are much too conscious of the high artificial cost that appears in their computer, and will not cut prices on open box units unless they were in a train wreck.

They had one unit here locally that had been opened and resealed with BB tape that said on it "inspected by BB" I asked about the price and they said $799.99. I told them it was an open box. How about a discount off of list? They said they would go to $775.00. I told them goodbye. They would not budge off of that.

Jim

Originally posted by motoman
They had one unit here locally that had been opened and resealed with BB tape that said on it "inspected by BB" I asked about the price and they said $799.99. I told them it was an open box. How about a discount off of list? They said they would go to $775.00. I told them goodbye. They would not budge off of that.

Jim

Jim

Now that sounds familiar.

Originally posted by motoman
They had one unit here locally that had been opened and resealed with BB tape that said on it "inspected by BB" I asked about the price and they said $799.99. I told them it was an open box. How about a discount off of list? They said they would go to $775.00. I told them goodbye. They would not budge off of that.

Jim

Go back and see if they still have it. The BB website now lists it for $200 less. The open box would be even cheaper now.

I had trouble in search engines finding the difference between the 3410 and the 3410a. Is there a difference between the two?

There is no LST-3410, only LST-3410A.

We are at $799.00 less our avs forum 10% discount brings your net cost down to $719.00 , no tax.

I've got one like new on Videogon for $599.

What would cause a cable signal to be less than the "normal" setting on the player? Some channels come in at normal, others are way below normal and pixelate (specifically HiDef channels).

Dave

PS My cable system is Comcast.

Originally posted by kelliot
I've got one like new on Videogon for $599.

Great deal, we have 2 factory refurbished HD DVR's in like new condition for $599.

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
What would cause a cable signal to be less than the "normal" setting on the player? Some channels come in at normal, others are way below normal and pixelate (specifically HiDef channels).

Dave

PS My cable system is Comcast.

You may need a amplifier at the head end to boost the signal.

Where is the "head end"? Is that the point it enters the house? I tried an amp on the way to the unit (about 6 feet) and it was no help.

Dave

Best buy now lists the LG unit for just 599$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Is the 3410 compatible with the new JVC deck - the HM-DH5U? I did a quick search and couldn't find an answer.

Dillion
Please let me know if you get an answer to this question. I really want to know as well.

Tim

So let me understand this correcly, the JVC deck is only useful for archiving on SVHS or D-VHS tape. No tuner. Why not buy anothe LGE 3410A and get two tuners so you can record 2 HDTV shows at the same time. I have no interest in archiving. After 30 years of saving audio and video, I find i never watch them. Archiving is not something I would ever do again.

I believe that the JVC deck has an NTSC tuner and it plays D-Thearer movies.

I'm actually thinking of connecting my computer to the 3410A and using it to archive recordings. Although I cannot write Hidef DVDs on the PC, I can create some very high quality DVDs.

Can you set up a future recording by directly entering a date & time, i.e., bypassing the guide data?

Originally posted by Hyrax
I'm actually thinking of connecting my computer to the 3410A and using it to archive recordings. Although I cannot write Hidef DVDs on the PC, I can create some very high quality DVDs.


I was also thinking of archiving HD to my PC, but I'm unaware of any IEEE drivers to support this function, could you post or pm me any how to's or the procedures.

Art,
You're right. Most things on TV are not worth archiving. Heck, most shows show up on DVD 6 months after they air and have no ads or no iratating screen bugs. The real purpose I'd have for using a Digital VCR would be to allow recording Sports events without filling up the hard drive. I hate wasting a Saturday & Sunday afternoon watching football this time of year. Every once in awhile a game is a keeper ("Havlicek Stole the Ball!"), so I would like to have it archived.

Rickmac -
The thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=403695

covers it pretty well. This is one of the 'sticky' threads at the top of this forum - its title contains '1394 to Windows XP'

I have yet to do this, but plan on trying it soon. It is sort of a kludge, but I've several reports of people being able to connect their PC to the 3410A and being able to download the shows to their PC.

Be aware that it does not seem possible to copy the show back from your PC to the 3410A, however. But you should be able to convert the stream to a MPEG file and then write it to DVD. And you should be able to use the PC to play the HD stream.

Originally posted by C Clark
Can you set up a future recording by directly entering a date & time, i.e., bypassing the guide data?

Yes, hit the button right above the Guide button.

Has anybody here made phone or email contact with a technical person or a HD product / project manager who has any contact or input in Korea over the design of the firmware in the 3410?

Has anybody here made phone or email contact with a technical person or a HD product / project manager who has any contact or input in Korea over the design of the firmware in the 3410?

Murray,

You may recall that back in February I attempted to resolve a number of issues concerning my 3410 with LG's repair center, the New Jersey operation--where I talked to the trainer for repairing these units, and I emailed Korea. The latter 2 offerred no help. The New Jersey tech acted like I was crazy claiming the set was "perfect" and no one had complained about it. The Korean operation sent me an email telling me they had a good company with a positive outlook and a great staff. He claimed they would look into my problem and respond in 48 hours. I am still waiting.

The 1.5 firmware seems to have resolved some issues for some owners. My 3rd unit works well however it does have poorer multipath rejection and does not seem to be as sensitive. The VHF analog side of the NTSC tuner is terrible. The UHF and ATSC tuners are excellent. Have you heard about the 5th generation tuner coming out near Christmas? In trials near Baltimore, the area where I live, it worked much better than even the 4th generation tuners in the 3100 and 3410 machines. I look forward to the new tuners.

I just picked up a new 3410 yesterday at Best Buy for $599. They had several boxes on the shelf, only one of which looked reasonably new and un-opened. Got it home and connected, and it's got the 1.15 firmware. I have it connected via DVI to a Toshiba 50HDX82. Configured it to use DVI, and connected CATV & Antenna cables and did the setup. EZ-Scan only found 2 HD channels on cable. (I have limited basic analog service, and only get the basic analog channels.) It did find a bunch of audio-only channels.

After 5-10 minutes of playing with it, the screen went black for a split second then came back. A few seconds later, did it again. A few more seconds, blanked again, this time even longer, and it flashed the text DVI Blocked. Then it came back for a few seconds. It continued to do this, showing a normal picture, then blacking out for up to 3-4 seconds. The audio would also cut out during these blanks.

I figured it was dropouts, but the signal strength was fairly high on most channels, well into the good range. Didn't matter what channel I was viewing, did it on analog cable channels too. I set a manual scheduled record for the emmy's (and just why were those not in HD?), and let it go. So, after the emmys are over, I go to watch the recording, and for the first 5 or so minutes it played back fine. Then a couple brief dropouts, then some longer ones with the DVI BLOCKED text. (Looks like the other text messages; blue background, moves to different areas of the screen every second or 2.) Tried a few different DVI configs from the front panel, makes no difference. Disconnect the Xbox, and connect the 3410 to component. No more problems, playback works fine.

Switch back to DVI and turn it on this morning. Finally got guide data. Was playing in the guide, setting up recording for 5-10 minutes when the screen starting blanking again with the DVI BLOCKED text. This is while I was on the guide screen!

I've been using a HTPC with a MyHD card and DVI daughterboard for months with never any DVI-related display problems, so the TV's DVI port does work.

I searched this thread (and others) for DVI Blocked, no hits. So, I'm guessing this hasn't happened to anyone else? Anybody have any ideas? Or, have a phone number at LG of someone who has a clue? I don't want to exchange this unit at BB for some old one that's been bought and returned before and has old firmware.

Mark,
Sounds to me like a HDCP handshake problem through the DVI port. I use mine on component and haven't had any issues at all. I will try and hook up the DVI connection to see what I get.

Dave

Markz2K -
I doubt if exchanging it for another unit will help.

I believe you've run into a copy protection 'glitch'. The 3410A DVI out is different than a DVI out from a computer - it expects the TV to have a DVI-HDTV input that is compliant with the HDCP specification. As the 3410A manual says ... (page 15) 'Some HD Monitors designed for PC applications using DVD-D may not work with this connection'.

You probably should consider returning the 3410A if you must use DVI, or get a cheap component switcher so you can use the component input on the TV with both the 3410A and your XBox. I use a manual switcher and it works well - but I wish I had an elextronic switcher (except they cost a few hundred bucks).

Those of you who use Guide+, can you tell me how to get it to record from the HD channels? I keep on getting 4-0 insteas of 4-1, for example, and have to do a manual record.

Use the setup menu in the Guide to change the channel from 4-0 to 4-1 that corresponds to the Guide, if it isn't already listed. You should check to make sure that 4-1 isn't already in the setup listing first.

Originally posted by Markz2k
I just picked up a new 3410 yesterday at Best Buy for $599. They had several boxes on the shelf, only one of which looked reasonably new and un-opened. Got it home and connected, and it's got the 1.15 firmware. I have it connected via DVI to a Toshiba 50HDX82. Configured it to use DVI, and connected CATV & Antenna cables and did the setup. EZ-Scan only found 2 HD channels on cable. (I have limited basic analog service, and only get the basic analog channels.) It did find a bunch of audio-only channels.

After 5-10 minutes of playing with it, the screen went black for a split second then came back. A few seconds later, did it again. A few more seconds, blanked again, this time even longer, and it flashed the text DVI Blocked. Then it came back for a few seconds. It continued to do this, showing a normal picture, then blacking out for up to 3-4 seconds. The audio would also cut out during these blanks.

I figured it was dropouts, but the signal strength was fairly high on most channels, well into the good range. Didn't matter what channel I was viewing, did it on analog cable channels too. I set a manual scheduled record for the emmy's (and just why were those not in HD?), and let it go. So, after the emmys are over, I go to watch the recording, and for the first 5 or so minutes it played back fine. Then a couple brief dropouts, then some longer ones with the DVI BLOCKED text. (Looks like the other text messages; blue background, moves to different areas of the screen every second or 2.) Tried a few different DVI configs from the front panel, makes no difference. Disconnect the Xbox, and connect the 3410 to component. No more problems, playback works fine.

Switch back to DVI and turn it on this morning. Finally got guide data. Was playing in the guide, setting up recording for 5-10 minutes when the screen starting blanking again with the DVI BLOCKED text. This is while I was on the guide screen!

I've been using a HTPC with a MyHD card and DVI daughterboard for months with never any DVI-related display problems, so the TV's DVI port does work.

I searched this thread (and others) for DVI Blocked, no hits. So, I'm guessing this hasn't happened to anyone else? Anybody have any ideas? Or, have a phone number at LG of someone who has a clue? I don't want to exchange this unit at BB for some old one that's been bought and returned before and has old firmware.

All you need to do is to always turn on your HDTV first, then turn on the 3410 and all should be well.

Originally posted by Hyrax
Markz2K -
I doubt if exchanging it for another unit will help.

I believe you've run into a copy protection 'glitch'. The 3410A DVI out is different than a DVI out from a computer - it expects the TV to have a DVI-HDTV input that is compliant with the HDCP specification. As the 3410A manual says ... (page 15) 'Some HD Monitors designed for PC applications using DVD-D may not work with this connection'.

You probably should consider returning the 3410A if you must use DVI, or get a cheap component switcher so you can use the component input on the TV with both the 3410A and your XBox. I use a manual switcher and it works well - but I wish I had an elextronic switcher (except they cost a few hundred bucks).

I just looked in the manual for my Toshiba TV. The specs say it is HDCP compliant. The interesting part is that using a PC monitor with a DVI input does work. (19" LCD Flat Panel) You have to set the 3410 for 720P or Native DVI mode, but it will then dsiplay video. Centering could be better, though. I had it running for over an hour, and no blackouts or DVI Blocked messages. The reason I considered exchanging it is that it does work for up to 10 minutes when powered on, then fails after that. Since it works on the PC monitor, I doubt exchanging it will help.

If I could find a manual component switchbox cheaply enough, I'd consider getting one. But I'll probably keep the 3410 for 30 days, and then return it. The lack of a 30-second skip forward feature is VERY irritating. Drag is useless on longer recordings because it goes too far. SmartSkip isn't too smart. I set up some recordings for tonight, we'll see how they go. I'll be recording the same shows on a Replay just in case.

The unit is far from perfect, that is for sure. One issue that I have is that the TVGuide data is incorrect at times for the HD channels in my area. My local CBS has early prime on SDTV, and the CBS feed of HDTV on their HD channel. The 3410, tells me that the HDTV starts at 7:00pm when I know it starts at 8:00 pm. So now I need to record all 3 hours this first week of CBS tonight to make sure I get the shows I want! I wish there was a way to program it like a VCR, to say record channedl 13-1 from 6:58pm to 10:02 pm instead of having 5 separate recordings back to back.

Dave

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
I wish there was a way to program it like a VCR, to say record channedl 13-1 from 6:58pm to 10:02 pm instead of having 5 separate recordings back to back.

Dave

You're not kidding about being far from perfect. If I didn't have the PC with a MyHD card in it already, I'd be much more inclined to keep the 3410A and live with it's flaws in order to record HD. While the MyHD has issues too, they aren't show-stoppers like having semi-funtional DVI output. It's quite a bit cheaper than the 3410 also, IF you have a PC to use it in already.

Still, if I can get the 3410 to work well, it would be nice to be able to record 2 HD channels at the same time.

As for the manual recording, you can. Press the VCR+ button on the remote, this will take you directly to the manual program section of the guide. Then enter the start/stop times and channel info there.

Originally posted by mkerdman
All you need to do is to always turn on your HDTV first, then turn on the 3410 and all should be well.

Nope, that's not it. TV is always on first, and set to the DVI input before turning on the 3410A. Trying it again right now, still doing it. Audio cuts out too when the DVI Blocked message comes up. (Using digital out)

Ahh...I didn't know that. I didn't get a remote with my open box and didn't program that button into my remote because I never use the VCR plus on my VCR...that will be MUCH easier now! Thanks for the tip.

Dave

Mark -
Something funny is happening if your computer's video card DVI out works with the Toshiba's HDCP compliant DVI connector. I believe that if the Toshiba was following the HDCP rules, then you should not be able to connect your computer to the Toshiba. I suspect that you'll have problems with other HDCP compliant devices. But that doesn't change the fact that the 3410A doesn't work for you.

The 3410A doesn't really lack features - it just behaves more like a VCR than a PVR. I think of it as a HD VCR that doesn't need tape, and am very happy with it. Smart Skip works surprisingly well while playing back football games you've recorded.

A real cheap ($20) component switcher:
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/238745.asp

I've got one to switch between my DVD player and XBox. I cannot see a difference in my PQ with it vs without it when playing DVDs. People bash it in some threads, but I do not believe they've actually used it (or I'm lucky and somehow got a better made version).

Note that these simple switchers don't switch AC3 audio, so I switch that via my reciever.

I believe Radio Shack has something similar. Pelican makes a $99 switcher that has been tested and found lacking.

Originally posted by generalpatton78
Best buy now lists the LG unit for just 599$!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

For those of you heading off to BB for the fantastic $599.99 deal, here's a hint. Look for a box with the serial number series starting with "451". There seem to be two serial number series out there - the "351-xxx" and "451-xxx" series. On a whim (figuring that the '4' in "451" equated to a build date in "2004", perhaps the 5th month) I purchased a unit with the "451" prefix. Upon checking the firmware version, I discovered I had 1.15. I don't know which version the "351" units come with, but I'm guessing that they are older releases.

There's also a not very well publicized rebate for these units. The store computer doesn't pull it up (at least not at the stores I went to in the Chicago area) but you can pull it up on the website. When you go here:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1076628571351&skuId=6287047&productCategoryId=cat03021&type=product

look for the link marked "Gift By Mail". It's actually a rebate that gets you a coupon book for 4 free DVDs! The offer is only good until 9/25/04 so hurry over to BB now to purchase a unit and get the rebate via free DVDs.

Oh, BTW, the boxes with the "451" units also have a blue dot sticker on them. The "351" boxes have green dot stickers.

Originally posted by Hyrax
Mark -
Something funny is happening if your computer's video card DVI out works with the Toshiba's HDCP compliant DVI connector. I believe that if the Toshiba was following the HDCP rules, then you should not be able to connect your computer to the Toshiba. I suspect that you'll have problems with other HDCP compliant devices. But that doesn't change the fact that the 3410A doesn't work for you.

Actually, the Toshiba does not work via DVI from a video/graphics card. I have a MyHD card with the optional DVI daughterboard. This is specifically made to connect to DVI-equipped TV's. (It's a PCI ATSC tuner/DVR) It does work with that.



The 3410A doesn't really lack features - it just behaves more like a VCR than a PVR. I think of it as a HD VCR that doesn't need tape, and am very happy with it. Smart Skip works surprisingly well while playing back football games you've recorded.


I'm sure if I wasn't already used to the way the MyHD card handles skip (programmable forward and backward jumps, with the option to have different jumps for forward and backward) I wouldn't mind the 3410's method of doing it. It's cool that you can do visible ff/rew at different speeds, the MyHD can't do that. So far, the smart skip doesn't seem to have much logic to it.


A real cheap ($20) component switcher:
http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/238745.asp

I've got one to switch between my DVD player and XBox. I cannot see a difference in my PQ with it vs without it when playing DVDs. People bash it in some threads, but I do not believe they've actually used it (or I'm lucky and somehow got a better made version).

Note that these simple switchers don't switch AC3 audio, so I switch that via my reciever.

I believe Radio Shack has something similar. Pelican makes a $99 switcher that has been tested and found lacking.

I'll check into the EBGames one, depending on if I keep the 3410. I would use it for the DVD player and Xbox only, wouldn't try to switch HD with it. I'll just keep the HTPC on DVI, and connect the 3410 direct to the TV. Thanks!

For two nights in a row my 3410 has failed to record programs that were entered as Record Regularly. I also had them as Favorites Regularly. Turns out that the timer only seems to work if I program it to record earlier in the day for Once. I reset to Weekly. Any similar problems? I know this occurred early in the 3410's existence with older firmware.

If a program starts late, I thought the TVGuide system would start and stop recording at the beginning and end of the program. It does not. Starts at the original times.

I had a problem last night. Only 15 mins of a scheduled 30 min recording was stored. This was the first night of a record daily, manual recording (we'll see what happens tonight). This is the third time this has happened to me (but the other two recording were filled with signal drop-outs...this one wasn't).

FW 1.15

Marc,
How old is your unit?

Dave

2 months old

Hi, all. Can anyone with the LST-3410a please answer the following questions for me. Thanks in advance.

1. When the unit is off, is the HD and/or fan running?
2. How warm does the unit get when running?
3. How easy is it to archive a recording to D-VHS?

Again, thanks in advance for your reply.


Regards.

1. It has no fan, and the HDD does stop spinning when off.
2. Very (Like can't put my hand on the top right side for more than a few seconds.)
3. Haven't tried, but seems like it should be easy, IF you have a supported D-VHS recorder.

Originally posted by JRTrautschold
For those of you heading off to BB for the fantastic $599.99 deal, here's a hint. Look for a box with the serial number series starting with "451". There seem to be two serial number series out there - the "351-xxx" and "451-xxx" series. On a whim (figuring that the '4' in "451" equated to a build date in "2004", perhaps the 5th month) I purchased a unit with the "451" prefix. Upon checking the firmware version, I discovered I had 1.15. I don't know which version the "351" units come with, but I'm guessing that they are older releases.

Oh, BTW, the boxes with the "451" units also have a blue dot sticker on them. The "351" boxes have green dot stickers. Couldn't find a 451 in my area, so had to settle for a 351. How do you determine the firmware number on a unit, and is there a way to get an update?

The one recording I have made so far (from NBC-DT) seems to be plagued by occasional freezups and audio dropouts. My antenna feed never has the slightest problem on WMAQ 5-1. Hope this 3410 isn't defective.

Mark -
My unit doesn't get that hot. Definitely it gets rather warm, but not too hot hold. I've got one of the original shipment and I may perhaps have been lucky.

It does get hot enough that I'd suggest not putting it behind closed doors unless there is very good ventilation in the rear. I it may be a bad idea to stack it directly on top of another hot appliance.

To get the firmware version click Menu on the remote and then select Setup->Troubleshooting. The version info is the very last option (down) in Troubleshooting. You can get the latest version of the firmware but the only way to do that is to send your unit in to LG.

Thanks, Ned. Looks like I have the 1.12 version of 2/3/04. What problems does the 1.15 deal with? The unit is functioning fine except for the repeatable freezup about 2 minutes into my first recording. Maybe this won't recur. Will try Smallville & Law & Order tonight with the timer. Hope the 3410 works out as it's the only piece of equipment I have with a QAM tuner.

Some advice--Blow a fan on the unit. That is exactly what my first unit did before it burned up. Yes it actually smoked.

Hi,

A bit of a newbie question but I figured someone here might have an opinion.

I have a 42" EDTV plasma and I'm both pleased with the PQ and the price. I've read all the posts that say you should feed the EDTV with a signal that matches it's capabilities, so I currently have my LST-3410 set to 480p output over RGB (15pin DSub) - because of the connection it's better if I fix the output to one resolution rather than use Native or Variable.

I have tried it on 1080i, 720p, Native, Variable etc. and the only real quality differences I've seen is that the TVGuide screens change scale between 480p and the other resolutions. You see more of the channel listings at 720p and 1080i, 1.5 hours of programs instead of just 1 hour.

So my question is, of the two, 1080i and 720p, is one of them better to feed an EDTV - how does the math work out for the scaler, is pixel size an issue on one or other? I realise in one case there's de-interlace too, but does anyone have an opinion on this?

Thanks

Your EDTV can only display 480p, so send it that signal.

Dave

My 3410 is currently in a box but does anyone know if I feed it firewire 1080i HD from a TW digital Cable box (which the JVC DVHS sees) would the LG see this and display it through the anolog outputs.

Originally posted by Alan Gouger
My 3410 is currently in a box but does anyone know if I feed it firewire 1080i HD from a TW digital Cable box (which the JVC DVHS sees) would the LG see this and display it through the anolog outputs.

No. Firewire works only with DVHS decks and MicroMV camcorders.