Stanton,

Considering the amount of hell I went through with the first two units, I sure have become a believer with this third unit. I use the guide to program and only get recording failures if I fail to delete programs scheduled at the same time on a competing station. I know it is supposed to not have a problem but mine does even though it indicates otherwise. Not a problem though and with almost 6 hours recorded daily and 2 12 hour days of playback some weekends, I can honestly say that LGE "got it right". If they lowered the price to $400.00, I would buy 2 more and give away my VCR's.

I already got rid of my other VCRs - except for the DVHS, of course.

I've been using my 3410A since it first came out and it works amazingly well. At first my wife wanted nothing to do with it and just let me watch my shows, but with the new TV season, we've both been watching things. She's the one who noticed the pattern to an odd glitch during play back of a recorded show.

The glitch shows itself as a very brief (one frame?) break up of the signal. It is gone before it is a problem and doesn't even impact the audio for more than an instant. It happens once (at a random time) within the first half hour and then it happens every half hour after that. I do not notice it watching 'live TV' and hardly ever notice it during playback of football games because I'm constantly using the smart skip. We notice it more during playback of PBS shows because there are generally no commercials or instant playbacks to skip. It happens in HD and SD shows.

I assume that it has something to do with a buffer/scratch file used when recording. Once the scratch file is filled, perhaps LG is moving data from the buffer to its final location. I base this on a pure guess and by the fact that the timeshift writes saves a half hour recorded segment when you stop it. My next thought is that it may have something to do with disk fragmentation and may go away if I delete all of the shows I've recorded. I've saved a few segments of the better shows I've recorded so I can show them to visitors. I also wonder if a faster hard drive with a bigger buffer would make the breakup go away.

Has anyone else seen this? It is hard to spot and it is easy to forget about, so you've really got to be scrutinizing the HD signal to see it. My wife really does not like digital TV screw ups, so she spots things of which I'm only subliminally aware.

It only happens on timeshift? I may have seen it before. Never been a concern for me.

Mark -
I think it happens on every thing I record, not just when I use their timeshift button. Not a concern for me either, unless it gets worse.

Tim

Originally posted by Hyrax
Mark -
I think it happens on every thing I record, not just when I use their timeshift button. Not a concern for me either, unless it gets worse.

Tim

Tim, I almost hate to ask this but which firmware? I know on 1.12 there was an intermittent freeze issue that was fixed on the later releases. Perhaps this is a symptom of the "fix"?

I haven't seen this on my 3410a with 1.15.

Are you sure it's not the station? I used to wonder about the breakups I would see on my local WB station each week during Gilmore Girls until I caught it live once and saw it was the WB feed and not the 3410a...

Originally posted by MrHifi
Stanton,

Considering the amount of hell I went through with the first two units, I sure have become a believer with this third unit. I use the guide to program and only get recording failures if I fail to delete programs scheduled at the same time on a competing station. I know it is supposed to not have a problem but mine does even though it indicates otherwise. Not a problem though and with almost 6 hours recorded daily and 2 12 hour days of playback some weekends, I can honestly say that LGE "got it right". If they lowered the price to $400.00, I would buy 2 more and give away my VCR's.

I have to agree. Although I just recently purchased my first unit (one of the BB close-out specials) my 3410 has worked flawlessly, once I got past the weird reboot problem I reported. Exercising those dip switches on the mother board cleared that up. LG apparently did finally get it right with the release of 1.15.

From reading this thread, I know that one of the quirks of this unit is that you must remember to power it off every night so that it can receive the guide data. When you go to use it the next day, you then have to wait a while for it to start up again (even longer if the hard disk has been upgraded).

My question is, can you at least use the OTA tuner during the start-up time? What's the minimum amount of time you have to wait before you can watch TV? My wife and I leave our Samsung T165 box on 24/7 since even its relatively short 8-10 second startup time is annoying...

Wow,

If 8-10 sec is annoying, you need a valium. The unit takes about 10 sec to boot up the HD. You do not have to power it off at night but you do have to power it down sometime during the day if you expect to use the guide. You do not have to wait a while just the 10 seconds. It is an amazing piece of gear. If you hurry, you might still find one for sale.

I've never noticed the recurring 30-minute hiccup, but I'll try to pay attention when I watch something this evening.

I get a digital pixelization/breakup upon unpausing a recorded show, but that doesn't bother me. I usually rewind it a few seconds to remind me what the characters were saying anyway. I know this isn't the same thing that you are reporting, it's just something I've noticed.

I also notice sometimes when I rewind a few seconds and hit play, the audio is off by a split second. In these cases, I rewind it again and hit play and the audio is back in sync. Weird.

Originally posted by Mark Fontana


My question is, can you at least use the OTA tuner during the start-up time? What's the minimum amount of time you have to wait before you can watch TV? My wife and I leave our Samsung T165 box on 24/7 since even its relatively short 8-10 second startup time is annoying...


Just to add a little bit to what Art wrote, the initialization time depends upon how many files you have on the hard drive. It does not depend as much on the size of the files. So, lots of small files will take longer to initialize than a low number of big files.

Once you hit just above 50 files, you may have problems with timer recordings since it takes too long to initialize (about 30 seconds) before the unit needs to start recording. Of course, it would be very difficult to have 50 files with the original disc.

And yes, about 5 seconds into the initialization process the tuner becomes active.

Anyone that has a 3410a also have a ReplayTV or Panasonic Showstopper? I'm trying to see if the 3410a remote can be programmed with a device code for the Panasonic Showstopper. I tried the ones in the manual (under VCR) for Panasonic and it doesn't work, so I'm assuming there isn't one but thought I'd check. It would be very nice to be able to control both PVRs with the one LG controller.

John

I get a digital pixelization/breakup upon unpausing a recorded show, but that doesn't bother me.

This sounds like what I'm describing. It is very brief and very minor. Sometimes you'll see half a dozen big (1/2 inch or so on my 96" screen) blocks on the screen, sometimes only 1 or two small ones. If I'm enjoying the show I don't usually notice them - in one show my wife had to twice pause and backup because I didn't notice them.

You really need to watch shows without skipping commercials, otherwise there is a pretty good chance you'll blow right past them. I've never seen it in a football game because I'm either watching live or constantly 'smart' skipping to the next play.

I'm using firmware 1.12 and if no one else is seeing this it may be the first reason I'd have to upgrade my machine (after the Super Bowl). However, this is so minor a thing that I'll probably not bother.

I have another question on the 3410. So far I've just been using the stereo audio outputs, but now I want to hook up the digital audio out. All my other components have coax audio out, so this is the first time I'm using optical. The optical audio inputs on my NAD T752 have square plastic connectors that stick out, but the 3410 looks like a small receptacle that something sticks into. Is this normal or are they 2 different kinds of optical connections?

John

Originally posted by jcg
I have another question on the 3410. So far I've just been using the stereo audio outputs, but now I want to hook up the digital audio out. All my other components have coax audio out, so this is the first time I'm using optical. The optical audio inputs on my NAD T752 have square plastic connectors that stick out, but the 3410 looks like a small receptacle that something sticks into. Is this normal or are they 2 different kinds of optical connections?

John

They are two of the same thing. The old optical ports came with a removable cover that stuck-out to make it easy to remove. The covers were very easy to loose and so the industry attempted to come up with something better.

The "better" is on the 3410a. When an optical connector is inserted, the built-in cover will fold back and allow the connector to mate. The same type of connector is used for all SPDIF optical connections.

BTW, the reason for these covers is that optical connectors use light (as the name implies). If dust gets on the transceiver it could cause some of the laser light to be blocked.

Originally posted by Hyrax
I'm using firmware 1.12 and if no one else is seeing this it may be the first reason I'd have to upgrade my machine (after the Super Bowl). However, this is so minor a thing that I'll probably not bother. I have recorded and archived multiple programs hours long without any glitches. FW 1.15

jcg -
One thing about optical cables that fools a lot of people is that there is often a thin, flexible plastic cover over the ends of the cables. If you don't take the cover off, the cables will not work.

If you want a great deal on an optical cable, go to radio shack store and buy their A/V dubbing cable. They've been discontinued and marked down - way down. I saw a 6' cable for $9.47 (original price was $39.99) last Saturday - the 3' cable was $5.47. It comes bundled with a composite cable, which you just remove. I've got 3 of these cables and and they work great.

My 3410 (fw 1.12) is working perfectly - except, it will not record from one station (WIFR-DT Rockford , IL) I get plenty of signal from them - picture is clean and rarely breaks up but it won't record from them. Same result wether I use VCR plus, TV Guide, or just hitting record button. Record light comes on, but no recording is ever made. All other digital stations record just fine. There's apparently something in WIFR's PSIP that the 3410 doesn't like.
My question, has anybody else experienced this wierdness and do you think a firmware upgrade will fix this? I'm reluctant to part with the machine if it won't.
Thanks in advance for any advice ...

That is indded terrible news. Perhaps they have turned on the "no copy" flags that we keep hearing about. I would call their engineering Dept. and let us know,

Originally posted by lgdavis
My 3410 (fw 1.12) is working perfectly - except, it will not record from one station (WIFR-DT Rockford , IL) I get plenty of signal from them - picture is clean and rarely breaks up but it won't record from them. Same result wether I use VCR plus, TV Guide, or just hitting record button. Record light comes on, but no recording is ever made. All other digital stations record just fine. There's apparently something in WIFR's PSIP that the 3410 doesn't like.
My question, has anybody else experienced this wierdness and do you think a firmware upgrade will fix this? I'm reluctant to part with the machine if it won't.
Thanks in advance for any advice ...

I was just curious what Network this channel, is I have the same type of problem with the Fox affiliate here in St. louis, everything comes on like normal but the Hard Drive makes a strange clicking sound the entire time it is "recording". I have sopen with the engineers at the station and they said that they are not aware of anything on their end that would be causing this. I am able to record on my DVHS though.

lgdavis -
Are you getting the station OTA, or via a cable box? I had an occasional problem recording HD stations I got via cable. I assumed it was something the cable company was doing wrong, because the same station OTA was problem free.

Originally posted by MrHifi
That is indded terrible news. Perhaps they have turned on the "no copy" flags that we keep hearing about. I would call their engineering Dept. and let us know,

The Broadcast Flag (if that's what you're referencing) should have no affect on recording on the 3410. From what I understand the flag only prevents recorded video from being converted to a streaming format for use on the Internet.

Larry's problem is more likely related to weird PSIP data coming from the station or some weird bug in his 1.12 firmware. (We told him to get 1.15 but he wouldn't listen! :D )

Originally posted by Hyrax
If you want a great deal on an optical cable, go to radio shack store and buy their A/V dubbing cable. They've been discontinued and marked down - way down. I saw a 6' cable for $9.47 (original price was $39.99) last Saturday - the 3' cable was $5.47. It comes bundled with a composite cable, which you just remove. I've got 3 of these cables and and they work great.

Of go to partsexpress.com (http://www.partsexpress.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?&DID=7&Partnumber=189-304) and get those same disco'ed 6' cables for $3.68 each. They even say Radio Shack on them. :D

-MM

Cool, MrMike!

It is nice to be able to walk into a store and buy something, but that price is hard to beat!

What do they charge for shipping?

Originally posted by Hyrax
This sounds like what I'm describing. It is very brief and very minor. Sometimes you'll see half a dozen big (1/2 inch or so on my 96" screen) blocks on the screen, sometimes only 1 or two small ones. If I'm enjoying the show I don't usually notice them - in one show my wife had to twice pause and backup because I didn't notice them. We're talking about two different things then, because if I rewind and watch the part that had the pixelization when I unpaused the unit, the picture is crystal clear where the pixels/blocks were. I think it just takes the unit a second to start reading the drive again when the show is unpaused, hence the break-ups.

Hyrax, I have a similar audio problem with my 3410a when it had 1.12 firmware and still occurs with the upgraded to 1.15. I notice a periodic hickup in which I lose audio for about 1 second. If I rewind and play the same section again it does not dropout. However, an audio dropout happens frequently in other places during playback. I will experiment with analog audio this weekend to see if it is still a problem.

-James


Originally posted by Hyrax
I've been using my 3410A since it first came out and it works amazingly well. At first my wife wanted nothing to do with it and just let me watch my shows, but with the new TV season, we've both been watching things. She's the one who noticed the pattern to an odd glitch during play back of a recorded show.

The glitch shows itself as a very brief (one frame?) break up of the signal. It is gone before it is a problem and doesn't even impact the audio for more than an instant. It happens once (at a random time) within the first half hour and then it happens every half hour after that. I do not notice it watching 'live TV' and hardly ever notice it during playback of football games because I'm constantly using the smart skip. We notice it more during playback of PBS shows because there are generally no commercials or instant playbacks to skip. It happens in HD and SD shows.

I assume that it has something to do with a buffer/scratch file used when recording. Once the scratch file is filled, perhaps LG is moving data from the buffer to its final location. I base this on a pure guess and by the fact that the timeshift writes saves a half hour recorded segment when you stop it. My next thought is that it may have something to do with disk fragmentation and may go away if I delete all of the shows I've recorded. I've saved a few segments of the better shows I've recorded so I can show them to visitors. I also wonder if a faster hard drive with a bigger buffer would make the breakup go away.

Has anyone else seen this? It is hard to spot and it is easy to forget about, so you've really got to be scrutinizing the HD signal to see it. My wife really does not like digital TV screw ups, so she spots things of which I'm only subliminally aware.

I just got a D-VHS VCR and it works great. Everything is extremely easy to control for the 3410A and the tapes I make of HD broadcasts at HS (high speed) appear as good as the originals. I was afraid it might be loud, but so far it is quieter than the 3410A. I've not tested SD material, but I'm assuming good stuff there as well.

The only thing I wonder about is how to set the record speed when controlling the D-VHS deck from the 3410A - it always uses autodetect to record at HS. Does anyone know how to do this?

I'm going to try setting up a timed recording from the VCR to see if it allows me to set the record speed that way.

Originally posted by Hyrax
I just got a D-VHS VCR and it works great. Everything is extremely easy to control for the 3410A and the tapes I make of HD broadcasts at HS (high speed) appear as good as the originals. I was afraid it might be loud, but so far it is quieter than the 3410A. I've not tested SD material, but I'm assuming good stuff there as well.

The only thing I wonder about is how to set the record speed when controlling the D-VHS deck from the 3410A - it always uses autodetect to record at HS. Does anyone know how to do this?

I'm going to try setting up a timed recording from the VCR to see if it allows me to set the record speed that way.

I can kind-of answer your question. First, the source sets the speed of the sink for 1394 recordings. So, the LST-3410a is telling the DVHS what speed to record at. It is supposed to base this on the bitrate of what is recorded. The 3410a can only send the bits of what it recorded (rather than down-rezing or something like that).

The only way to change the recorded bit rate is to send it to the DVHS via analog (s-video, composite) cables. You can then choose the bit rate to record. Of course you've also down-converted to standard def.

If you really want to change the bit rate for the original signal and stay digital, you would have to transfer the recording to a computer. Then, you could render at whatever bit rate you would like and create a new recording. What you'll find is that for 1080i material (and somewhat 720p) the 19.1 mbps (really about 16 mbps for video I believe) is about the minimum you would want for high action scenes.

If there was a good way to render with less bits most stations would do that so that they could cram another channel into their ATSC stream.

So, I think I kind-of answered your question but really didn't provide much of a choice other than "that is the way the HD signals are recorded"...

Originally posted by lgdavis
My 3410 (fw 1.12) is working perfectly - except, it will not record from one station (WIFR-DT Rockford , IL) I get plenty of signal from them - picture is clean and rarely breaks up but it won't record from them. Same result wether I use VCR plus, TV Guide, or just hitting record button. Record light comes on, but no recording is ever made. All other digital stations record just fine. There's apparently something in WIFR's PSIP that the 3410 doesn't like.
My question, has anybody else experienced this wierdness and do you think a firmware upgrade will fix this? I'm reluctant to part with the machine if it won't.
Thanks in advance for any advice ...

I swung my antenna around to Rockford to try your scenario and there is something weird going on there. Hitting the record button all seems well but the remote is locked out...yea it just doesn't respond, record light on and everything. The only way to get the dvr's attention is to power it down. When I powered back up all initialized fine and checked the program list and no recording listed. Tried it again and it repeated the same actions.
I have FW 1.15 and I've had it about 3 weeks now. I regularly record CBS out of Madison Wi. with no probs. so It's not a network thing. This is the first problem/annoyance I've seen on my recorder in 3 weeks or so of stellar performance.

Most likely that means the LST-3410a's processor is very busy handling a higher priority task. Is it possible that you picked up a signal with a lot of bit errors? Is there something on the hard drive with a lot of errors?

Without seeing how the unit is behaving, it is very difficult to diagnose the problem (unfortunately). Any clues as to what else is going on would help.

Thanks for the Radio Shack tip as I went there today and picked up a 6' cable for > $10. I did check the website MrMike posted and actually called them, but the shipping was almost $7 (2x the price of the cable) so it was easier and cheaper to stop by the local Radio Shack.

John


Originally posted by Hyrax
Cool, MrMike!

It is nice to be able to walk into a store and buy something, but that price is hard to beat!

What do they charge for shipping?

Searched the thread first but didn't find an answer so:

When playing DVHS (Dtheater) tapes via firewire to the DVI out of the 3410a, does the LG send the DVHS signal natively or does it scale it to whatever output is selected on the STB? Thanks.

-Anthony

Originally posted by Cilent1
Searched the thread first but didn't find an answer so:

When playing DVHS (Dtheater) tapes via firewire to the DVI out of the 3410a, does the LG send the DVHS signal natively or does it scale it to whatever output is selected on the STB? Thanks.

-Anthony

I think it would it scale it to whatever output is selected on the STB.

The 3410 had a wide variety of output resolution options and combinations.

You can download the manual at LG.com

Thanks for the quick reply Murray. Got the manual at LGE.com

Regards

I reformatted the hard drive last night to erase all the programs, and now I cannot get into the TV Guide. The button doesn't do anything at all. I also cannnot change to OTA now from my cable system (since you have to go through the Guide menu) so this unit is pretty much dead in the water.

How can I reset it back to factory defaults?

-Robert

Edit: 'Figured it out. I just had to leave it unplugged for awhile.

Andy -
Thanks for the explanation.

First, the source sets the speed of the sink for 1394 recordings. So, the LST-3410a is telling the DVHS what speed to record at. It is supposed to base this on the bitrate of what is recorded. The 3410a can only send the bits of what it recorded (rather than down-rezing or something like that).

I guess I do not understand why the D-VHS deck has the option of setting the recording speed if it is the source that controls things. The fact that they offer different recording speeds and the fact that they tell you to set the speed when programming, implies that you can indeed be able to set the speed.

I'm going to do a lot of testing today. I just keep on expecting to be able to find a way. The last thing I want to have to do is swap tapes at half time of every football game.

Last evening I scheduled Washington Week and Wall Street Week to record from my local analogue PBS station while I was out. When I returned, the latter program was still recording, so I turned on the monitor to watch. Some time into the next program, I realized the 3410 hadn't stopped recording. My remote would not bring up the Guide, nor would the button on the 3410. I was only able to stop the recording by powering off. When I powered back on, I still couldn't get the Guide, but the Program List showed only Washington Week and as 74 minutes long (that's about when I powered off). Channel change orders were followed with as much as 30 sec. delay if at all. One program recorded earlier was missing from the list. After I unplugged for several minutes and restarted, along with resetting the clock, all was back to normal, including the formerly missing recorded program. This is the first glitch I've experience since upgrading to 1.15 3 weeks ago.

Originally posted by pretzelkid
I swung my antenna around to Rockford to try your scenario and there is something weird going on there. Hitting the record button all seems well but the remote is locked out...yea it just doesn't respond, record light on and everything. The only way to get the dvr's attention is to power it down. When I powered back up all initialized fine and checked the program list and no recording listed. Tried it again and it repeated the same actions.
I have FW 1.15 and I've had it about 3 weeks now. I regularly record CBS out of Madison Wi. with no probs. so It's not a network thing. This is the first problem/annoyance I've seen on my recorder in 3 weeks or so of stellar performance.

Thanks very much for checking on this, I needed to know if this problem would still happen under 1.15. Forgot to mention it but my box also often goes unresponsive when trying to record WIFR-DT (just them - all my other stations record fine). I'm all OTA here, no cable.
I'm in contact with the engineer at WIFR, he's admitted that he's still learning this stuff (ain't we all ! ) but is willing to help. He tried disabling a copy flag that he said was something regarding audio - no change.
My pal John Trautchold is a PSIP guru - OK John, what do I tell this guy to fix??

Originally posted by lgdavis
Thanks very much for checking on this, I needed to know if this problem would still happen under 1.15. Forgot to mention it but my box also often goes unresponsive when trying to record WIFR-DT (just them - all my other stations record fine). I'm all OTA here, no cable.
I'm in contact with the engineer at WIFR, he's admitted that he's still learning this stuff (ain't we all ! ) but is willing to help. He tried disabling a copy flag that he said was something regarding audio - no change.
My pal John Trautchold is a PSIP guru - OK John, what do I tell this guy to fix??

I have both OTA and Cable (Charter) hooked up to the unit and my WIFR recording was an OTA recording using the rec button. I didn't try rec through TV Guide or a timer recording but I can't imagine it being any different through those means. . All other stations (Rockford, Madison and Milwaukee...my rotor gets a workout) all record fine with immediate response from any remote key presses except for WIFR.
Strange indeed :confused:

------------------------------------
A guy I know wants to get a DTV tuner and antenna to pick it
up in Belvidere. If he puts a ChannelMaster 4228 (8-bay UHF)
on his roof, and a large VHF antenna, and a CM 7777 preamp to diplex into, I know he'll get Rockford with no problem. Question: will he get
Madison, Chicago or Milwaukee DTV's?
------------------------------------

Gilbert
I live in Woodstock (almost near Belvidere) and get Chicago just fine.
However, I'm 30 miles from Rockford ond only get WTVO and WREX. Madison is a hopeless case because alot of their stations are cochannel with Chicago analog stations and even with Chicago off the back of the antenna, I seem to still get interference. Milwaukee is only good for a few stations too. So long story short, I get just 2 stations from each, Madison, Rockford, Milwaukee and all the stations from Chicago. Funny thing, most of what I get from Madison and Milwaukee are PBS.

dickm

oops. ignore my last posting I got my threads mixed up.

To move on topic, I just bought a 3410 from BB and hooked it up last night and watched Monsters Inc. I see earlier in this thread that someone was seeing intermittent interruptions in the picture. I am noticing momentary sound outages every few minutes (maybe 10 minutes) that I've never experienced on my other tuner. It seems to be on the live data stream as well as the recorded stream. Anyone see this?

dickm

Nope.

Dave

dicko2 -
I was having audio drop outs one day similar to what you've described from my local Fox station. I looked at the signal strength and it was not as high as usual. The next day the signal strength was back up and the audio problem was gone. I've never had the problem since. I've no idea if the problem was caused by something at the station or atmospheric conditions.

Also, I may recall that others have said that there can be problems when the signal is too strong. Since I live 40 miles from the broadcast towere, I've not got that problem and cannot comment.

Last night, at midnight, my box became extremely un-responsive, like others have reported. The guide would not come up, it took minutes to change channels, and all that wierdness. I unplugged it for the night and when I came back in the morning all was OK.

I do not know if the same thing will work for whoever was having the problem of not being able to get the guide to appear, but it is worth a try. I suspect that the 'lockup' was that somehow an invalid entry was added to the scheduled recordings (perhaps caused by the fact I was programming the guide while the 3410A was switching from DST), but I'm not sure.

Originally posted by Hyrax
I've been using my 3410A since it first came out and it works amazingly well. At first my wife wanted nothing to do with it and just let me watch my shows, but with the new TV season, we've both been watching things. She's the one who noticed the pattern to an odd glitch during play back of a recorded show.

The glitch shows itself as a very brief (one frame?) break up of the signal. It is gone before it is a problem and doesn't even impact the audio for more than an instant. It happens once (at a random time) within the first half hour and then it happens every half hour after that. I do not notice it watching 'live TV' and hardly ever notice it during playback of football games because I'm constantly using the smart skip. We notice it more during playback of PBS shows because there are generally no commercials or instant playbacks to skip. It happens in HD and SD shows.

I assume that it has something to do with a buffer/scratch file used when recording. Once the scratch file is filled, perhaps LG is moving data from the buffer to its final location. I base this on a pure guess and by the fact that the timeshift writes saves a half hour recorded segment when you stop it. My next thought is that it may have something to do with disk fragmentation and may go away if I delete all of the shows I've recorded. I've saved a few segments of the better shows I've recorded so I can show them to visitors. I also wonder if a faster hard drive with a bigger buffer would make the breakup go away.

Has anyone else seen this? It is hard to spot and it is easy to forget about, so you've really got to be scrutinizing the HD signal to see it. My wife really does not like digital TV screw ups, so she spots things of which I'm only subliminally aware.

I found I got this on 7200 rpm hard drives, I had tried out. When I switched to the Maxtor 5400rpm, it went away. Whether its buffer, drive seek/speed times or something else I don't know. But it happened with 3 Seagate 7200 rpm 200 gig hard drives with 8bm buffers, and none of my 5400 rpm drives.

Originally posted by Hyrax
Andy -
Thanks for the explanation.



I guess I do not understand why the D-VHS deck has the option of setting the recording speed if it is the source that controls things. The fact that they offer different recording speeds and the fact that they tell you to set the speed when programming, implies that you can indeed be able to set the speed.

I'm going to do a lot of testing today. I just keep on expecting to be able to find a way. The last thing I want to have to do is swap tapes at half time of every football game.

I should have provided more of an explaination about the speed control...

At least on the 30K, the DVHS works like this:

- Non-1394 inputs, the user sets the speed. So for all analog inputs you can used the Speed switch to set LS3, STD, HS speeds for digital recording and EP and SP for analog recordings of analog sources.

- For 1394 recordings, the "Auto" indicator appears. I'm not aware of any way to take the 30K out of Auto for 1394-based sources (digital source and digital recording). Depending upon the bitrate sent, the source is supposed to choose between STD and HS, although HS seems to be used no matter what.

Hope that clarifies things. If you find a way to take the DVHS off "Auto" while recording an I-x source, please append.

If the LG unit is hooked up to the monitor via component cables, can a DVHS unit play through the firewire to your monitor? Is resolution selectable?
Thanks.

Emaych -
I do not think so, at least not directly. I believe you need to copy from the DVHS deck to the 3410A. I'll see (tomorrow night) if it is possible to monitor the show while copying, which would do what you want if there is enough hard drive space. You would then just delete the show from your hard drive after viewing it. I'll get back to you after I get a chance to play with it some more tomorrow.

Tim

Originally posted by lgdavis
Thanks very much for checking on this, I needed to know if this problem would still happen under 1.15. Forgot to mention it but my box also often goes unresponsive when trying to record WIFR-DT (just them - all my other stations record fine). I'm all OTA here, no cable.
I'm in contact with the engineer at WIFR, he's admitted that he's still learning this stuff (ain't we all ! ) but is willing to help. He tried disabling a copy flag that he said was something regarding audio - no change.
My pal John Trautschold is a PSIP guru - OK John, what do I tell this guy to fix??

Larry - first of all we need to find out what kind of HD encoder they are using and secondly, which version of PSIP generator or even if they are using an external generator. Encoders such as our Harris Flexicoder can generate PSIP internally - we forgo that and use an external generator. We're currently using Triveni's PSIP generator version 3.02.

Hyrax:
Thanks for the help -- just trying to get an idea how versatile the unit is. Didn't know you could record from firewire, but I plan to pair it with a 30K and would like to know if I can just watch tapes with only the firewire connected to the 3410 and the 3410 being connected by component to the monitor -- I realize I could reconnect 30K to monitor, but don't want to have to.
Thanks again!

Emaych -
I'll play with it tonight and let you know if you can monitor while uploading to the 3410A's HDD via firewire .

I understand about not wanting to connect everything to the monitor, but you may want to do so anyway. The 3410A does not let you record one show while watching another one you've already recorded. You can get around this limitation by playing a tape from the 30K directly.

If anyone near the San Diego area is still looking for the Best Buy $549 deal, the Mission Valley store still had a display model at that price (as of 10-31).

Hyrax:
Actually I have two 30Ks already and two recievers they are paired with -- those will both become my record only units if I can figure out a way to use the other duo with one of my limited number of component connections.
Thanks for your help!

Emaych: You can play back a tape from your 30k thru the 3410 with only the firewire connection. I record programs onto the HDD then dub them tape at a later time. The 3410 is after all an HD DVR. This saves a little wear and tear on the 30k. I also think that the MPEG2 processing is a bit better from the LG. To play back a tape just press the `1394' button on the remote to bring up the menu for the DVHS use the directional arrows to navigate to play icon and press the select button. You mentioned that you had limited component switching availability I would recomend the ZEKTOR HDS4 as a solution.

...Or for really simple operations the Audio Authority 1154A (make sure it is an 1154A, not an 1154). The 1154A simply switches to the latest item powered-up with a manual override available, as well. Four component/digital audio/analog audio inputs and one output.

Thanks Earlydopter,
Very helpful -- it sounds like it operates in precisely the same way as my other two firewire sources. As far as expanding my hookup capability -- one big stumbling block to that is all the component cables plus the switchbox -- not sure it is worth it -- I only need an SD input to monitor to program the recievers -- I only watch tape on one VCR and I can watch one reciever through that 30K by firewire. I just got another 30K so that while recording with my other two sources/30Ks I can watch tapes I've made. The 3410 is starting to look like a very nice third pairing to the third 30K.
One more question -- the 3410 has a resolution selecting switch like 480i or p capable? -- one of my monitors is a non-HD LCD TV.

Yes, the resolution switch is selectable on the front panel. As you would expect for this generation of box, the resolution must be set to 480i for the s-video and composite outputs to work.

Is it possible to get the guide data for HDnet and DiscoveryHD? Also is there a way to add additional icons for the stations?

Chris

I bought my 3410A in April 2004. I've read through all 91 pages of this thread so far, and I'm glad I bought before I read them or they would have scared me off. I haven't had anywhere near the problems some others have had, even though I have 1.12 firmware. I'm generally happy with it and delighted with the PQ. And for what it does it's pretty much the only game in town right now. But I do have some problems and many questions which I'll try to spread out over several messages. Some have been at least partially answered, but I don't claim to remember everything I've read or where to find it again.

First up: guide problems. I have both OTA antenna and cable (Time Warner) connected (direct; no cable box), with good analog and digital reception from both. Originally I got the guide when I told it I didn't have cable, but not when I told it I did. I assumed that was because TW was known to be stripping guide info. Gemstar took them to court over that and lost. It was reported they'd reached an agreement, no details published, and for a while I got guide data over cable. Then it stopped. I've tried reprogramming the guide info (cable/no cable, stations on and off, etc.) to no avail. Tried unplugging, but maybe not for long enough. Haven't tried the demo pin trick yet but will. The clock updates correctly, so it's seeing that at least. And once it asked me to select from a list of cable lineups for my area, but still no listings. Now I just schedule recordings by time and channel on the VCR Plus+ button. So my questions:

What's the most reliable procedure found for regaining program listings, assuming they're actually there?

How can I find out which station(s) send listings in the VBI? I have a waveform monitor with line selector and can compare station OTA and cable. Many have data on various lines, and TWC passes some and blocks or replaces others. I'm in the Albany NY area, in case a reader has specific knowledge of local stations.

What do the various states of the guide light mean? It may be off steadily, on steadily or flashing slowly (the rate varies, but always several seconds on or off). Mostly flashing. Do any of these indicate whether it has found guide data?

Does the 3410A remember what channel it found guide data on and only look there, or does it search for data each time it's turned off? Is there any way to know which station it's looking at?

I understand that it only looks at analog stations, and only from cable if enabled. The right channel has to be turned on in Menu/Setup/Ch. Edit. Does it also have to be on in TV Guide/Channel Editor? Might I be killing the guide download by reassigning my analog channels to their digital equivalents? Could I get around it by assigning the analog channels to stations I don't get, such as distant OTAs or cable movie channels?

What are the chances this problem will be reduced or eliminated if I upgrade to 1.15 firmware? Is there a way to ensure that I'll get the same unit back? It's been reliable except for this, and I don't want to take a chance on someone else's troublemaker.

Has anyone gotten useful information out of LG or Gemstar about guide operation? What will happen when the analogs go dark as they're supposed to do in a few years?

My friend I could spend an hour answering your concerns but instead I will suggest the following based on what I interpret is your principal concern.

To download guide data you must scan for and leave on the analog stations in your area. Do not add or subtract or modify these. See if you get accurrate guide data. from there each night , drop a station and by a process of elimination you will find out who is transmitting the guide info. do not ammend that channel in any way. I'm not sure what you wish to receive via the cable but if they are not passing the Gemnstar guide info. sounds like you are SOL. I use a C-Band satellite system to receive cable and premium HD channels. i would love to be able to have the info come up in the guide but it does not. if anyone knows how i can get the cable and OOTA stuff to show up at the same time, please let me know.

A few additional comments:
1) Don't bother "upgrading" to 1.15; I bought my 3410 (with 1.12) the week they came out.
2) As long as the guide light is on in the morning and goes off sometime during the day, you should be OK.
3) If you suspect corrupted EPG data (or are locked-up), simply pulling the plug for a few minutes should do the trick; I've only had to do this twice (and you'll notice the guide light comes back on immediately--so let it download overnight before messing with it).
4) I've been told by a local station engineer (Dallas) that the EPG data is also re-broadcast over some digital channels as well, so theoretically it should work for many years to come. However, there's no (easy) way to tell where the 3410 finds its data, so I wouldn't go eliminating a lot of OTA channels.

Good luck.

You can see my posts a few pages back about not getting the guide data. I have mine hooked up to OTA only and still don't get guide data. I've called LG 3 times (once a week) and so far haven't gotten anywhere. They say they need to contact Gemstar as if you go to the Gemstar page there is no way for you to contact them regarding over the air guide data problems. I have FW 1.15 so I don't think upgrading will fix this problem.

I still love the 3410 and am just using the VCR plus button to schedule recordings (and I use timeshift alot for football or anything I want to watch when I'm home). The only pain with this is if the clock needs to be reset (like it did with daylight savings time) you need to delete all the recordings before you can change the clock. I'll be calling LG again tomorrow and will report any updates.

John


Originally posted by ebo
I bought my 3410A in April 2004. I've read through all 91 pages of this thread so far, and I'm glad I bought before I read them or they would have scared me off. I haven't had anywhere near the problems some others have had, even though I have 1.12 firmware. I'm generally happy with it and delighted with the PQ. And for what it does it's pretty much the only game in town right now. But I do have some problems and many questions which I'll try to spread out over several messages. Some have been at least partially answered, but I don't claim to remember everything I've read or where to find it again.

First up: guide problems. I have both OTA antenna and cable (Time Warner) connected (direct; no cable box), with good analog and digital reception from both. Originally I got the guide when I told it I didn't have cable, but not when I told it I did. I assumed that was because TW was known to be stripping guide info. Gemstar took them to court over that and lost. It was reported they'd reached an agreement, no details published, and for a while I got guide data over cable. Then it stopped. I've tried reprogramming the guide info (cable/no cable, stations on and off, etc.) to no avail. Tried unplugging, but maybe not for long enough. Haven't tried the demo pin trick yet but will. The clock updates correctly, so it's seeing that at least. And once it asked me to select from a list of cable lineups for my area, but still no listings. Now I just schedule recordings by time and channel on the VCR Plus+ button. So my questions:

What's the most reliable procedure found for regaining program listings, assuming they're actually there?

How can I find out which station(s) send listings in the VBI? I have a waveform monitor with line selector and can compare station OTA and cable. Many have data on various lines, and TWC passes some and blocks or replaces others. I'm in the Albany NY area, in case a reader has specific knowledge of local stations.

What do the various states of the guide light mean? It may be off steadily, on steadily or flashing slowly (the rate varies, but always several seconds on or off). Mostly flashing. Do any of these indicate whether it has found guide data?

Does the 3410A remember what channel it found guide data on and only look there, or does it search for data each time it's turned off? Is there any way to know which station it's looking at?

I understand that it only looks at analog stations, and only from cable if enabled. The right channel has to be turned on in Menu/Setup/Ch. Edit. Does it also have to be on in TV Guide/Channel Editor? Might I be killing the guide download by reassigning my analog channels to their digital equivalents? Could I get around it by assigning the analog channels to stations I don't get, such as distant OTAs or cable movie channels?

What are the chances this problem will be reduced or eliminated if I upgrade to 1.15 firmware? Is there a way to ensure that I'll get the same unit back? It's been reliable except for this, and I don't want to take a chance on someone else's troublemaker.

Has anyone gotten useful information out of LG or Gemstar about guide operation? What will happen when the analogs go dark as they're supposed to do in a few years?

Today my 3410A started having it's first problems. It started when I tried to play a recording of Monday night's SNL Presidential Debate show. I pressed play and the DVR froze up. I had to unplug and replug to get it to work again. Then I tried playing that show again and it turned the DVR off itself. It continued doing this several times so I gave it a rest. Several hours later I tried to turn the DVR on and there was no audio or video and the display was stuck on the "hello" greeting. It never displayed "no signal" on the DVR nor on the TV screen. It won't let me change channels or anything. It's just stuck on "hello" with no a/v or other operation working. Is there a way to reset this unit or do I need to send it to LG for repair?

If someone can spare me from reading all 31 pages of this thread I'd be very grateful.

Hello, I'm going to be installing an LG-3410A and a Sony HD200. Can someone tell me if I can just use a splitter on the cable for the OTA signal or do I have to run cable to the 3410A and HD200 seperately? Sorry to stray OT.

Regards

Originally posted by Cilent1
Hello, I'm going to be installing an LG-3410A and a Sony HD200. Can someone tell me if I can just use a splitter on the cable for the OTA signal or do I have to run cable to the 3410A and HD200 seperately? Sorry to stray OT.

Regards

I've got a splitter connected to my 3410A and a STB for OTA. No problems thus far, except the one I mentioned two posts above. ;)

How long did you leave it unplugged. Many in this forum report needing to leave it unplugged for a min of 5 minutes to do a full reset, and fix weird issues such as this.

John

Originally posted by n2blu
Today my 3410A started having it's first problems. It started when I tried to play a recording of Monday night's SNL Presidential Debate show. I pressed play and the DVR froze up. I had to unplug and replug to get it to work again. Then I tried playing that show again and it turned the DVR off itself. It continued doing this several times so I gave it a rest. Several hours later I tried to turn the DVR on and there was no audio or video and the display was stuck on the "hello" greeting. It never displayed "no signal" on the DVR nor on the TV screen. It won't let me change channels or anything. It's just stuck on "hello" with no a/v or other operation working. Is there a way to reset this unit or do I need to send it to LG for repair?

If someone can spare me from reading all 31 pages of this thread I'd be very grateful.

n2blu, I don't know if you were able to solve your problem yet . If not, you can try unplugging the unit and reinserting the "Demo Pin". Plug the unit back in power on the unit using the remote. At this point the Auto Demo should(hopefully) be playing . If it is, I would let it play a bit . Power off the DVR, unplug the power cord . Wait 5 seconds then remove the "Demo Pin". Plug the unit back in power it up and set up the TV Guide On Screen System over again. Having information in the Guide appears to be critical to allowing the other functions in the unit to work properly . Hope this helps . Good Luck & start reading the manual (They are not so bad if taken a little at a time)

Originally posted by n2blu
Today my 3410A started having it's first problems. It started when I tried to play a recording of Monday night's SNL Presidential Debate show. I pressed play and the DVR froze up. I had to unplug and replug to get it to work again. Then I tried playing that show again and it turned the DVR off itself. It continued doing this several times so I gave it a rest. Several hours later I tried to turn the DVR on and there was no audio or video and the display was stuck on the "hello" greeting. It never displayed "no signal" on the DVR nor on the TV screen. It won't let me change channels or anything. It's just stuck on "hello" with no a/v or other operation working. Is there a way to reset this unit or do I need to send it to LG for repair?

If someone can spare me from reading all 31 pages of this thread I'd be very grateful.

Here is what it sounds like happened - Your local NBC-DT had some issues in its PSIP data Monday night (and maybe still). So, when you tried to play the file, the LG-3410a hung. It always seems to manage to record the bad data, just not play it. Unfortunately, everytime the 3410a is powered-on, the 3410a scans all of the files on the hard disk. So, you hit the same problem again.

Anyway, the first thing I would do is attempt to get the tuner off of NBC and onto an analog channel or a known good digital channel. This can be done before the initialization cycle is complete. You may have to power-on/power-off a number of times.

Next, delete the last files that were recorded (just to make sure). As soon as initialization is complete, try to hit the "show recordings" button on the remote (I forget what the button's real name is). It is likely that the 3410a is in "slow mode" so it may take minutes for some inputs to be recognized and you may have to power-on/power-off a number of times.

Once you complete those items, unplug the 3410a for at least 15 minutes. Once you power back up, the problems should have gone away.

Two other items you can try - 1) call or email the chief engineer at the local NBC and find out if they had any "issues" Monday night and 2) make sure you are upgraded to 1.15 - the upgrade to 1.15 does nothing until a station sends out bad PSIP data - then it is supposed to make the 3410a more impervious to situations like you described.

Thanks to all of you for your input. I'll try your suggestions tonight and report back.

I've again had a problem with my 3410 continuing to record after the scheduled program has ended. I had to manually power off, and then experienced both very slow or no response to orders, and was unable to get the Guide to come up at all. This was true even after I deleted the recording just made. I had to unplug for about 5 minutes to get back to normal. Subsequently, I was able to make a timed recording with no problem. Does it sound as though the PBS station I was recording has a continuing issue with PSIP data? Maybe they aren't coding the program end time properly? I did notice lots of "No Signal" during the offending recording, and it showed less than the scheduled time for the recording it made that I shut down after it should have finished. Also, the Schedule showed the recording still to be made, despite the fact that it had already been broadcast.

Sounds like yourunit is experiencing a temperature problem. you might consider better ventilation as described over and over in this thread.

Originally posted by MrHifi
To download guide data you must scan for and leave on the analog stations in your area. Do not add or subtract or modify these. See if you get accurrate guide data. from there each night , drop a station and by a process of elimination you will find out who is transmitting the guide info. do not ammend that channel in any way.

Success! I'm now getting guide data. Friday through Sunday plus next Friday so far. Thanks to all who responded. I decided to start small and took MrHifi's suggestion quoted above, except that instead of rescanning I simply restored the analog cable channel numbers to the local channels. Then just turned it off as usual overnight.

I just restored the digital equivalents to half the locals and I'll see if I still get data and narrow it down from there.

I've read here that ABC affiliates are a likely source of data. I hope that's true here, because the local one (WTEN) is the only one in my guide with separate entries for analog and digital. So I can leave the analog entry as-is and still schedule recordings on the digital one.

I'll report results in a few days I hope. And probably more questions.

In the D.C. area, the source appears to be the CBS affiliate but I'm not positive.

On a related matter. i just purchased a Sony KDL-32XBR950. it has a guide that never fills in. Any ideas?

Originally posted by jcg
How long did you leave it unplugged. Many in this forum report needing to leave it unplugged for a min of 5 minutes to do a full reset, and fix weird issues such as this.

Originally it was unplugged for a minute or two. I tried having it unplugged for over an hour and it didn't make a difference. :(

Originally posted by alk3997
Here is what it sounds like happened - Your local NBC-DT had some issues in its PSIP data Monday night (and maybe still). So, when you tried to play the file, the LG-3410a hung. It always seems to manage to record the bad data, just not play it. Unfortunately, everytime the 3410a is powered-on, the 3410a scans all of the files on the hard disk. So, you hit the same problem again.

Anyway, the first thing I would do is attempt to get the tuner off of NBC and onto an analog channel or a known good digital channel. This can be done before the initialization cycle is complete. You may have to power-on/power-off a number of times.

Next, delete the last files that were recorded (just to make sure). As soon as initialization is complete, try to hit the "show recordings" button on the remote (I forget what the button's real name is). It is likely that the 3410a is in "slow mode" so it may take minutes for some inputs to be recognized and you may have to power-on/power-off a number of times.

Once you complete those items, unplug the 3410a for at least 15 minutes. Once you power back up, the problems should have gone away.

Two other items you can try - 1) call or email the chief engineer at the local NBC and find out if they had any "issues" Monday night and 2) make sure you are upgraded to 1.15 - the upgrade to 1.15 does nothing until a station sends out bad PSIP data - then it is supposed to make the 3410a more impervious to situations like you described.

I did as suggested and (when I finally got the thing on again which took dozens of attempts) deleted the NBC program as well as a couple other shows that have recorded since it was recorded. I then unplugged the unit for about 20 minutes. It powered up right away after that and appeared to be fine when I tried playing another recorded program and changed channels, powered on and off a few times. I set it to record Conan last night to make sure it was working correctly. When I checked today it took a lot of on/off and unplugging/replugging to get the DVR off the "hello" greeting. When it finally stayed on and appeared to be working I checked and it did NOT record Conan as programmed. I let the unit sit unplugged for three hours or so this morning. When I turned it on the picture on 1-1 showed up fine for a couple of minutes and it went out and the display returned to that frickin' "hello" greeting again. :( This unit does have the 1.15 firmware.

Originally posted by Earlydoptr
n2blu, I don't know if you were able to solve your problem yet . If not, you can try unplugging the unit and reinserting the "Demo Pin". Plug the unit back in power on the unit using the remote. At this point the Auto Demo should(hopefully) be playing . If it is, I would let it play a bit . Power off the DVR, unplug the power cord . Wait 5 seconds then remove the "Demo Pin". Plug the unit back in power it up and set up the TV Guide On Screen System over again. Having information in the Guide appears to be critical to allowing the other functions in the unit to work properly . Hope this helps . Good Luck & start reading the manual (They are not so bad if taken a little at a time)

Unfortunately doing this made no difference. The "hello" greeting is on the DVR display but there's no a/v at all. :(

If anyone has any other suggestions which are worth a shot, I'd love to hear them. Thanks again!

Originally posted by n2blu
I did as suggested and (when I finally got the thing on again which took dozens of attempts) deleted the NBC program as well as a couple other shows that have recorded since it was recorded. I then unplugged the unit for about 20 minutes. It powered up right away after that and appeared to be fine when I tried playing another recorded program and changed channels, powered on and off a few times. I set it to record Conan last night to make sure it was working correctly. When I checked today it took a lot of on/off and unplugging/replugging to get the DVR off the "hello" greeting. When it finally stayed on and appeared to be working I checked and it did NOT record Conan as programmed. I let the unit sit unplugged for three hours or so this morning. When I turned it on the picture on 1-1 showed up fine for a couple of minutes and it went out and the display returned to that frickin' "hello" greeting again. :( This unit does have the 1.15 firmware.

I find it interesting that the 3410a was recording another NBC program when you had a problem. The good part of what you wrote was it appears that the 3410a does work - at least some of the time.

First thing I would try is to take it off of NBC (1-1, I assume?) for the next week to see if the problem reoccurs. 1-1 is a very unusual channel number, so I hope that LG included that as a valid channel number.

Anyway, it looks like the previous procedure worked and then something else corrupted the 3410a. It could be an intermittent problem with the 3410a but I don't think so. So, if it were me I would repeat the same procedure that worked last time.

Assuming that it works, stay far away from NBC (either live or recorded) for the next week. If the 3410a stays stable for that amount of time, then try NBC again. If you suddenly have a problem again, then the problem is something in the NBC data steam or the way the 3410a handles it.

Again, talking with the station's digital chief engineer can help. They are usually very happy to help. Check the phone book for the station telephone number and ask for "engineering". They usually want to fix these problems because they want viewers to be able to watch their shows.

N2Blu-
I thought that the DTV stations were broadcast at one frequency and then mapped to their local analog equivalents. For example, my local fox station is 25 on my analog TV, therefore I get the analog and digital signals as 25-0 and 25-1 on my 3410A.

That being the case, there is something very wrong with your having a channel 1-1. No analog VHF and no UHF station should be using 1-0, therefore no digital station should be mapped to it.

I suggest taking Andy's advice and removing it from your 3410A's channel lineup (using the edit channel function). And definitely talk to the station's engineer about it.

To figure out which digital station is being mapped to 1-1, you need to figure out what the actual, unmapped frequency assignment is for the station (for example 2-1 in my area has been assigned frequence 19). If you go to http://www.antennaweb.org/ you should be able to figure this out fairly easily.

1-1 is CBS here in Milwaukee. I should note that I've had this DVR for about three months or so now and have never had anything other than very small easily fixable problems up until now. My DirecTV STB also gets CBS on 1-1. When the guy installed DirecTV a couple of years ago he stated that CBS intentionally broadcasts their HD channel on 1-1 as well as 58-1 because they wanted the popular, formerly unusable channel 1 identification for their own before another network took it. I don't know if he was full of it or not but I've never had a problem with receiving 1-1 CBS on any of the four HD STBs I've had over the past few years. FWIW, our CBS stations are set up like this:

1-1 CBS digital/HD
1-2 Independent channel 41, owned by CBS (offhand I don't recall if this is digital or analog as I never watch it)
58-0 CBS analog
58-1 CBS digital/HD

In the meantime I'll try what alk3997 said again.

n2blu -
Interesting about 1-1. 58-0 is a UHF staion. D* does their own mapping of stations, so that may not apply to an OTA situation. FYI, 1-1 has been assigned frequency 46. It must be mapped by the 3410A to both 58-1 and 1-1 because there does not appear to actually be a 58-1. Perhaps this double mapping is the cause of the problem.

Good luck.

Tim

Originally posted by Hyrax
n2blu -
Interesting about 1-1. 58-0 is a UHF staion. D* does their own mapping of stations, so that may not apply to an OTA situation. FYI, 1-1 has been assigned frequency 46. It must be mapped by the 3410A to both 58-1 and 1-1 because there does not appear to actually be a 58-1. Perhaps this double mapping is the cause of the problem.

Good luck.

Tim

Unfortunately with the 3410a, it doesn't receive CBS on 58-1 only on 1-1. I don't have a choice. :( I have an STB that receives CBS on 1-1 and 58-1 and I've also got an STB that only receives CBS on 58-1. Very strange.

MrHifi,

I'm sure this isn't an overheating problem, because the unit is on a shelf by itself, in a room that is rather cool. Never had this problem last summer when the box was much warmer to the touch.

I tried recording from NBC instead of PBS using the Guide. The progam recorded, the box shut off, the green record light went out. Then it came back on and started to record the next show. Next, I tried a PBS show using the VCR+ code. All went as it should with no problems. I'm still suspicious that there is a problem with the Guide data.

Originally posted by n2blu
1-1 is CBS here in Milwaukee. I should note that I've had this DVR for about three months or so now and have never had anything other than very small easily fixable problems up until now. My DirecTV STB also gets CBS on 1-1. When the guy installed DirecTV a couple of years ago he stated that CBS intentionally broadcasts their HD channel on 1-1 as well as 58-1 because they wanted the popular, formerly unusable channel 1 identification for their own before another network took it. I don't know if he was full of it or not but I've never had a problem with receiving 1-1 CBS on any of the four HD STBs I've had over the past few years. FWIW, our CBS stations are set up like this:

1-1 CBS digital/HD
1-2 Independent channel 41, owned by CBS (offhand I don't recall if this is digital or analog as I never watch it)
58-0 CBS analog
58-1 CBS digital/HD

In the meantime I'll try what alk3997 said again.

If, in fact, your DirecTV installer was stating this correctly, then the CBS station in Milwaukee is in violation of FCC regulations! All TV stations are assigned specific actual and virtual channel assignments which correspond to their assigned TSID (Transport Stream ID) number. Their digital stream must transmit the following:

Original Analog channel as XX-0
Main digital channel as XX-1
Secondary digital channel as XX-2, etc.

The XX channel number must correspond to the station's assigned analog TV channel. In Milwaukee, I believe the CBS affiliate is Channel 58, so their analog channel must show up as 58-0, main digital channel as 58-1, etc. Again, anything else is a violation.

As was stated by someone a few messages ago, there are no "Channel 1" stations in this country - channel 1 was dropped many years ago as being unusable for television broadcasting. There should be no channels 1-0 or 1-1 or 1-2.

This could very well be why your LST-3410A is having problems locking up with this channel - it's invalid.

Speaking of cable...

I've noticed that my 3410 does not seem to recognize the digital HD cable channels on my cable system. It does recognize all of the analog stuff and some of the standard def digital stuff, but nothing above, say, channel 125 or so. (The HD digital channels here are broadcast starting around channel 180 through about 210, give or take.) I've tried all three cable decoding schemes that the 3410 recognizes.

Our cable system is Comcast (Chicago area - Palatine, IL specifically) and my current HD cable box is a Motorola 5800. Has anyone had any luck using the 3410 to decode HD stuff on Comcast cable systems? It sure would be nice to record some of the HD stuff off of cable!

Thanks.

Originally posted by JRTrautschold
Speaking of cable...

I've noticed that my 3410 does not seem to recognize the digital HD cable channels on my cable system. It does recognize all of the analog stuff and some of the standard def digital stuff, but nothing above, say, channel 125 or so. (The HD digital channels here are broadcast starting around channel 180 through about 210, give or take.) I've tried all three cable decoding schemes that the 3410 recognizes.

Our cable system is Comcast (Chicago area - Palatine, IL specifically) and my current HD cable box is a Motorola 5800. Has anyone had any luck using the 3410 to decode HD stuff on Comcast cable systems? It sure would be nice to record some of the HD stuff off of cable!

Thanks.

The 3410A has channels up tp 135. Your cable digitals are mapped to lower "virtual" numbers. I'm not sure how this internal mapping works or how the resulting channel numbers are arrived at. Near downtown Chicago, the HD channels are:

82-1 ABC
82-2 WGN
114-2 ESPN
115-1 CBS
115-2 WTTW
116-2 FOX
116-5 NBC

You could try punching these in manually to see if you get a signal.

One possible problem is if you are still on a Comcast legacy package, left over from a previous cableco changeover, which I've seen cause problems for friends of mine.

Another possibility is some sort of low power problem. I had some trouble here with weak or seemingly non-existent channels until Comcast realized this building (a high-rise) had too little power coming through their amplifiers. When they cranked it up ---- voila!! --- beautiful HD.

As an aside, I suspect they are still being stingy with the power. FOX and NBC have a borderline bad/good signal strength according to the 3410A. If FOX is left on for a while, the picture will become unstable and turn into a pixelated siganl of NBC, even though the display still reads 116-2 (FOX)! (These two are mapped right next to each other.)

FOX is the only channel affected, so I use the Comcast box for that one.

Anyone happen to know what the Comcast Channels are in atlanta? Just out of curiousity?

Originally posted by PhillyC
The 3410A has channels up tp 135. Your cable digitals are mapped to lower "virtual" numbers. I'm not sure how this internal mapping works or how the resulting channel numbers are arrived at. Near downtown Chicago, the HD channels are:

82-1 ABC
82-2 WGN
114-2 ESPN
115-1 CBS
115-2 WTTW
116-2 FOX
116-5 NBC

You could try punching these in manually to see if you get a signal.

One possible problem is if you are still on a Comcast legacy package, left over from a previous cableco changeover, which I've seen cause problems for friends of mine.

Another possibility is some sort of low power problem. I had some trouble here with weak or seemingly non-existent channels until Comcast realized this building (a high-rise) had too little power coming through their amplifiers. When they cranked it up ---- voila!! --- beautiful HD.

As an aside, I suspect they are still being stingy with the power. FOX and NBC have a borderline bad/good signal strength according to the 3410A. If FOX is left on for a while, the picture will become unstable and turn into a pixelated siganl of NBC, even though the display still reads 116-2 (FOX)! (These two are mapped right next to each other.)

FOX is the only channel affected, so I use the Comcast box for that one.

Hmmm, very interesting information. Thanks for the excellent post. I'll have to check out those virtual channels to see if anything here is mapped.

Regarding legacy systems, I probably qualify. The system here in Palatine was originally installed by Media One (they did the original fiber trunk and was one of the first cable providers in the area to provide broadband Internet as a part of their cable package). They were bought out by AT&T who was subsequently bought out by Comcast. To make a long story short, we're operating off of a Media One system that's been modified and upgraded through the years.

I lost the Guide and remote capability today. Had to unplug for 30 sec. Everything works great now.

Originally posted by JRTrautschold As was stated by someone a few messages ago, there are no "Channel 1" stations in this country - channel 1 was dropped many years ago as being unusable for television broadcasting. There should be no channels 1-0 or 1-1 or 1-2.

This could very well be why your LST-3410A is having problems locking up with this channel - it's invalid. [/B]Virtual Channel 1 has been claimed in Chicagoland as well (several months ago, in fact):

1-1 WCIU-DT27 (analog ch. 26)
1-2 WFBT-CA27 (analog ch. 23)

All of my STBs, including the 3410A, will tune these two channels on either 1-1, 1-2 or 26-1, 26-2 with no problems.

I haven't read all 62 pages of this thread but did a search on "remote" and turned up 4 pages of posts but nothing about a replacement remote.I have found a BB that have 2 of these units but just the unit itself-no box,remote,cables or remote.I already downloaded the manual so all i need would be a remote.I read that a Pronto works fine but they are expensive.I also looked at LG's site but they only list one tv-remote and partsolver does not have it either.Does anyone know where to find an original remote or if a less expensive universal one works?

Just an update that my 3410a seems to be in good working order again. I recorded one show today and watched two shows from the hard drive without incident. Thanks again for the tips. :)

I'm currently testing out a Harmony 659 (they have the LG3410 in their database), and it's working fine. Do a search on "Harmony 659" on Froogle to get pricing.

John

Originally posted by alaindelon
I haven't read all 62 pages of this thread but did a search on "remote" and turned up 4 pages of posts but nothing about a replacement remote.I have found a BB that have 2 of these units but just the unit itself-no box,remote,cables or remote.I already downloaded the manual so all i need would be a remote.I read that a Pronto works fine but they are expensive.I also looked at LG's site but they only list one tv-remote and partsolver does not have it either.Does anyone know where to find an original remote or if a less expensive universal one works?

John -
Does the Harmony have discrete On/Off codes for the 3410A?
Thanks,
Tim

I have discrete on/off codes for the MX-700 for the 3410-a.

Dave

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
I have discrete on/off codes for the MX-700 for the 3410-a.

Dave

Be careful. The discrete off code shuts down the 3410A even if it is doing a manual or timer recording.

Good idea to have discrete codes. Dumb oversight in the implementation.

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
I have discrete on/off codes for the MX-700 for the 3410-a.

Dave

Dave

Where can I get the discrete on/off codes for the MX-700 for the 3410-a?

Remotecental has several 3410 files, is it one of those- which one?

The Harmony 659 is one of the best replacement remote controls for the LG LST-3410A.

Prices have recently dropped on Harmony remotes, so shop around for your best deal.

-Robert

Had another guide attack.

Saturday afternoon I went to schedule another week of recordings via the guide. It wasn't there and wouldn't come up. The 3410 then locked up showing the current 8-1 channel programming.

I unplugged it for about an hour and it came back OK, except it thought it was thursday about 3:52 am pst. The guide said today (meaning thursday) and was showing stuff that was long gone. The list showed it had made all of fridays recordings, so I shut it off for awhile. Then the time corrected so I turned it back on and now everything is normal except I'm missing guide info for next friday and saturday. I'm assuming it will fill in over the next day or so.

I wonder if the day and time that returns immediately after a reset corresponds with the guide attack?

Lew

Originally posted by UncD2000
Virtual Channel 1 has been claimed in Chicagoland as well (several months ago, in fact):

1-1 WCIU-DT27 (analog ch. 26)
1-2 WFBT-CA27 (analog ch. 23)

All of my STBs, including the 3410A, will tune these two channels on either 1-1, 1-2 or 26-1, 26-2 with no problems.

I was just about to go downstairs to check a few things out on the old HDTV - I guess I'll have to take a look at this too! Tsk tsk...

Originally posted by PhillyC
The 3410A has channels up tp 135. Your cable digitals are mapped to lower "virtual" numbers. I'm not sure how this internal mapping works or how the resulting channel numbers are arrived at. Near downtown Chicago, the HD channels are:

82-1 ABC
82-2 WGN
114-2 ESPN
115-1 CBS
115-2 WTTW
116-2 FOX
116-5 NBC

You could try punching these in manually to see if you get a signal.


Just got done checking and indeed, some of the channels you mentioned do show up in my channel listing. 82-1, 82-2 and 114-2 do not show up. When I have more time I guess I'm going to have to go through the entire list to see what's there and what isn't.

How did you discover the channels that have more than one station per number - i.e. 116-2 and 116-5? My channel list only shows one of them (116-2) although when I manually punched in 116-5 NBC showed up.

Originally posted by JRTrautschold
Just got done checking and indeed, some of the channels you mentioned do show up in my channel listing. 82-1, 82-2 and 114-2 do not show up. When I have more time I guess I'm going to have to go through the entire list to see what's there and what isn't.

How did you discover the channels that have more than one station per number - i.e. 116-2 and 116-5? My channel list only shows one of them (116-2) although when I manually punched in 116-5 NBC showed up.

After you run EZ-Scan, the channels show up in the menu under channel edit. The subchannels are not shown, nor can you delete individual subchannels.

Your cableco may be making changes or working on their system. Try a channel scan every few days for only the CADTV stations. You can bypass the CATV and DTV parts of the scan by pressing enter as each starts.

You won't know the subchannels are there until you are in normal TV watching mode and use the channel up/down keys. So punch in 82-1 (the lowest HD channel) and use channel up to see what you have.

Strangely, the guide shows the actual Comcast channel numbers instead of the remapped numbers. These must be changed manually in the guide's channel setup screen, otherwise you won't be able to record. For example, after using EZ-Scan, FOX shows up in the guide as 190, which is the Comcast cable box channel number. You must change this to 116-2. This makes no sense. The guide should be aware of how the unit remaps channels!

A related problem is that every few weeks at random the guide will revert to the cable numbers again, and once again must be changed manually. I've missed recordings because of this. If FOX reverts to 190 and I don't notice it, a record fails because the channel can't be found.

Where a legacy cable package/system comes into play is that you may not be getting some local HD's in the clear as you should. i don't know what package you have and changing to a current one (if this is indeed the problem) might cost you more than you're paying now.

Eek! Another problem with my 3410a, when playing back a recorded program it played the first 40 minutes fine but now it keeps stopping automatically every couple of minutes. :(

Any suggestions?

Originally posted by PhillyC
After you run EZ-Scan, the channels show up in the menu under channel edit. The subchannels are not shown, nor can you delete individual subchannels.

Your cableco may be making changes or working on their system. Try a channel scan every few days for only the CADTV stations. You can bypass the CATV and DTV parts of the scan by pressing enter as each starts.

You won't know the subchannels are there until you are in normal TV watching mode and use the channel up/down keys. So punch in 82-1 (the lowest HD channel) and use channel up to see what you have.

Strangely, the guide shows the actual Comcast channel numbers instead of the remapped numbers. These must be changed manually in the guide's channel setup screen, otherwise you won't be able to record. For example, after using EZ-Scan, FOX shows up in the guide as 190, which is the Comcast cable box channel number. You must change this to 116-2. This makes no sense. The guide should be aware of how the unit remaps channels!

A related problem is that every few weeks at random the guide will revert to the cable numbers again, and once again must be changed manually. I've missed recordings because of this. If FOX reverts to 190 and I don't notice it, a record fails because the channel can't be found.

Where a legacy cable package/system comes into play is that you may not be getting some local HD's in the clear as you should. i don't know what package you have and changing to a current one (if this is indeed the problem) might cost you more than you're paying now.

They sure didn't make this easy, did they? :)

I manually scanned through a bunch of non-selected channels under the CADTV list and found stuff that didn't show as active, such as some of the digital music stations Comcast has available and some of the PPV barker channels.

I could probably spend hours playing with this if I really wanted to!!!

The only code listed is the PowerToggle command. Harmony support is very good so if you get the discrete IR codes for PowerOn & PowerOff they will most likely add them to the 3410 database for you. The only issue I have with the 659 so far is I can't do any macros, so I may be bringing it back to try out the MX-700 instead.

John

Originally posted by Hyrax
John -
Does the Harmony have discrete On/Off codes for the 3410A?
Thanks,
Tim

JCG...the macros on the MX-700 are awesome and easy to program using their PC based program. I bought my unit from a custom installer, with no manufacturers warranty (but he gave me a 1 year replacement warranty). To me, it was worth the money saved.


Dave

Originally posted by n2blu
Eek! Another problem with my 3410a, when playing back a recorded program it played the first 40 minutes fine but now it keeps stopping automatically every couple of minutes. :(

Any suggestions?

I forget to add that I now have no guide either. :mad:

Originally posted by n2blu
Eek! Another problem with my 3410a, when playing back a recorded program it played the first 40 minutes fine but now it keeps stopping automatically every couple of minutes. :(

Any suggestions?

Obviously without seeing the problem, I can only give you a semi-educated guess. First thing that came to mind is that you may have found the source for some of the problems you experiences. That file may have been the one with the problem in it (or one of the ones). Is that an NBC recording?

The only things that are a possibility (although I think it is much less of a possibility) is that 1) the HDD is having issues or 2) there is some type of thermal issue. An easy way to eliminate the thermal issue would be to unplug for 1 hour or so and then try that spot in the file immediately upon booting up. If the problem reappears then it isn't a thermal issue.

As far as recovery for this issue - I think if you unplug for 15 minutes and then plug back in, the unit will reset and your guide will magically reappear.

It is amazing what a TV station signal can do to HD electronics.

Originally posted by alk3997
Obviously without seeing the problem, I can only give you a semi-educated guess. First thing that came to mind is that you may have found the source for some of the problems you experiences. That file may have been the one with the problem in it (or one of the ones). Is that an NBC recording?

The only things that are a possibility (although I think it is much less of a possibility) is that 1) the HDD is having issues or 2) there is some type of thermal issue. An easy way to eliminate the thermal issue would be to unplug for 1 hour or so and then try that spot in the file immediately upon booting up. If the problem reappears then it isn't a thermal issue.

As far as recovery for this issue - I think if you unplug for 15 minutes and then plug back in, the unit will reset and your guide will magically reappear.

It is amazing what a TV station signal can do to HD electronics.

Actually the program in question is ABC's Lost from 10/27. I've deleted it already but I'll try the unplugging thing yet again and hope for the best.

Originally posted by JRTrautschold
[B]They sure didn't make this easy, did they? :)

/B]

You noticed that, did you? :D

Now I've got the guide back but alas even though the "record" light was highlighted for last night's CSI: Miami, that show is not in the program list. I'm starting to regret ever buying this thing. It worked fine for a couple of months and now it's nutty as get out. :(

Ditto that. My guide stopped listing any programming on any channel about a week ago. Quite often, the VCR+ button won't work, and no programmed recording is possible. Manual recording will function. In this condition, channel changing is very slow, and the audio will not kick in for several seconds after a channel change. Pulling the plug for awhile will restore function (except for guide programming), but it takes an hour or so before the correct time is restored. I have 1.12 firmware. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has dealt with this problem.

The delayed audio and slow performance started about a week ago. I thought it was just me but i guess I am glad to hear others are experiencing the same problem. Something must have been changed in the data it receives orr maybe they tried a firmware update via download. In any case, now my audio delays several seconds after a channel change. Wish they would get it back the way it was. I have 1.15.

Problems for me as well. The problems started with the end of Day Light Savings. I started programming what I wanted to record a moment before midnight Saturday and all of a sudden my system went crazy - the garbage error message about trying to record from an invalid source came up, the system responded very slowly to every command. I unplugged it and all seemed OK the next day. Except that it stopped getting new guide data and what it did has slowly disappeared as time marched on. A few days ago all of my stations started having no guide data. I'm still at 1.12.

I suspect this means a call to LG. Something is going on.

You just need to unplug it (to clear) and let it download guide data again; also make sure you haven't deleted (or lost) any of the analog channels where it may be getting it's guide data.

There's NO WAY these units can be upgraded OTA, so any thought of "changes" must be either in the PSIP data from the station or lack of guide data.

Leave the clock alone and it should fix itself overnight.

As I've said before, my unit is over 6 months old with 1.12 firmware, and I've only had to do a reboot/reset a couple of times.

Originally posted by MrHifi
The delayed audio and slow performance started about a week ago. I thought it was just me but i guess I am glad to hear others are experiencing the same problem. Something must have been changed in the data it receives orr maybe they tried a firmware update via download. In any case, now my audio delays several seconds after a channel change. Wish they would get it back the way it was. I have 1.15.

On the LST-3410a firmware cannot be updated via any type of OTA or cable download. If this was true then LG would not spend $$ to ship units back to LG for firmware updates. We'd also all have the same firmware version. The only way to update the firmware is with the RS-232 port on the back or replace the Flash ROM.

I think there must be some type of Guide data format change that went into effect recently. The only digital data (non-video/audio) that comes into the unit is Guide data and PSIP.

OK Andy, I believe you. in fact, I guess I knew that before. Nevertheless, somebody implemented a change that the firmware does not like.

I have unplugged, I have rescanned, I have used the demo pin. I no longer get guide data. It keeps on trying to get the data (at least the Guide downlaod light is constantly on), but nothing shows up in the guide. Therefore, I agree, there has been some sort of change in the data format or something else that is making it impossible for my 3410A to interpret the data.

A possible clue is that my digital PBS station now says that it is C-SPAN, even thought it is showing the PBS-HD material.

I can still use VCR+ to schedule shows, but I miss having the guide. It had been working quite well until the DST change.

Originally posted by MrHifi
The delayed audio and slow performance started about a week ago. I thought it was just me but i guess I am glad to hear others are experiencing the same problem. Something must have been changed in the data it receives orr maybe they tried a firmware update via download. In any case, now my audio delays several seconds after a channel change. Wish they would get it back the way it was. I have 1.15.

The audio is always delayed when changing channels or coming out of drag 'n' play or FF. This is true for both my previous bad unit and my current good one.

Are you saying your 3410A used to have immediate audio after these actions?!?

My Comcast 6208 has "immediate audio". The LG is very annoying in that it can't match that performance.

Mine has immediate audio like it did prior to its short stint of bad behavior. It never delayed prior to a week or so ago and corrected itself a couple days ago.

That's interesting...mine has always had delayed audio...I figured it was normal...takes 2-3 seconds for the audio to kick back in.

I've never seen a unit that DOESN'T have a couple of seconds of audio delay when hitting "play". I mean, we get something like 200x FF/REW!
Come on, guys, complaining about that on a box this complex is pretty picky. Now, if it didn't have audio AT ALL, then you might have something!

I agree with you Stanton...this is the price we pay for being an early adopter.

Dave

I also agree, the 2-3 second delay is small potatoes. I wish it wasn't there, but I can live with it.

Guys,

I'm telling you the truth. I had never experienced any, and I mean any delay let alone 2-3 sec, until about a week ago. Now it fixed itself. Believe me, you should know by now how picky I am. I have no delay. I route my optical output to a Zektor 4 in 1 out box then it goes to a Sony ESp9ES Pre/Pro and finally to the Preamp amp part of my audio system. No delays---i just tried it again. i wouldn't have brought it up if it wasn't a new occurrence and out of normal mode. My suggestion is that if you stil have a delay, something is amiss. of course you may not care but it drove me up the walls watching a picture and waiting for audio. BTW, there is no delay coming off the hard drive either.

I agree. The audio delay has only occurred a few times for me.

I have also not received any guide data since ST resumed. After unplugging a few days ago, the correct time had not returned after at least 12 hours, and the date was four days slow. I reset both time and date manually, and everything has been fine since (except still no guide data).
I suspect Comcast of messing up the guide transmission. Has anyone lost all guide data who is not a Comcast customer?

I have always gotten the audio delay with v1.12 and v1.15.

It's particulalry annoying after "Smart" Search or << >>.

Originally posted by UncD2000
I agree. The audio delay has only occurred a few times for me.

I have also not received any guide data since ST resumed. After unplugging a few days ago, the correct time had not returned after at least 12 hours, and the date was four days slow. I reset both time and date manually, and everything has been fine since (except still no guide data).
I suspect Comcast of messing up the guide transmission. Has anyone lost all guide data who is not a Comcast customer?

Guide data is okay in Palatine. I have both an OTA antenna and the cable system hooked up into the 3410. I suspect my data is coming in OTA.

Guide Info. perfect in Davidsonville, MD. (DC OTA Source)

No Guide. OTA and Adelphia cable, Boston, MA. I unplugged over night and got the correct time when I plugged back in.

Originally posted by UncD2000

I have also not received any guide data since ST resumed. After unplugging a few days ago, the correct time had not returned after at least 12 hours, and the date was four days slow. I reset both time and date manually, and everything has been fine since (except still no guide data).
I suspect Comcast of messing up the guide transmission. Has anyone lost all guide data who is not a Comcast customer? [/B]

As much as it might be a pain, I suggest connecting an OTA antenna to get your EPG info. Once you know which channel(s) it's on (could be analog OR digital), then you could just get a cheap VHF or UHF antenna and then just keep that particular channel(s) on the guide.
BTW, I have had to manually set my clock a couple of times, but usually it corrects itself.

Good luck.

Stanton -
I do not think my problem is OTA related. I'm using OTA antennam, but it's not providing the EPG data. Something has been messed up. When I tune in my PBS station, the info button tells me it is C-SPAN. This is significant because it started right after the DST change and because the PBS station is what probably provides the EPG.

I'm going to try giving the 3410A a zip code right next to the PBS tower and see what that does.

Also, this could be all Adelphia's fault, so I'm going to take them out of the loop and see what happens.

On my recording of Enterprise tonight here in Atlanta, I got a perfect video signal but the audio breaks up into clicks and eventually dies into tones and crashes. I tried switching cabling and ouput from PCM to Dolby, 2 channel RCA to optical. All my other recorded programs are fine and the OTA broadcast sound is fine.

I can't watch my show, its ruined. I can't seem to get the captioning to turn on either.

Its an early unit with 1.12, did they start broadcasting a new sound format that is triggering a bug in this thing?

Anyone?

ZZtop,

I would send your unit back to LG to get the latest firmware and add the following fan mod to your new one if you are able to do this without damaging the unit or electrocuting yourself. I have not had any problems with the player after I did this. I would switch to using silicone to mount the fan instead of rubber cement.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3832290#post3832290

I have both OTA antenna and Comcast cable connected to the 3410A. The guide was fine until the change to ST. I aassumed Comcast was providing the info because it was so detailed on their various channels, but I guess the local PBS channel could have been the source. At any rate, I'm getting no guide data now and don't really care because the EPG from D* is much better. I just use the VCR+ button to program the 3410A.

Originally posted by umr
ZZtop,

I would send your unit back to LG to get the latest firmware and add the following fan mod to your new one if you are able to do this without damaging the unit or electrocuting yourself. I have not had any problems with the player after I did this. I would switch to using silicone to mount the fan instead of rubber cement.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=3832290#post3832290


I was one of the very very early adopters of this unit and posted fan info and hard drive upgrade info a lonnnnggg time ago on here, but thanks for the tip.

As for the new firmware, I am debating it. Since it was only 1 program I am curious as to just what happened.

Well my unit still doesn't get quide data and never has. I call LG support once a week and they send another email to Gemstar, whom is supposed to call me but never does. But at this point I'm starting to think not getting the guide data may be a blessing. My unit has had no other problems since I got it and I love being able to record HD. I just use timeshift 90% of the time so I can just watch the show a bit after it's started and skip the commercials, or I use VCR+ to record if I won't be home.

If you don't really care about the guide data, then maybe folks should delete their analog channels and hope the quide doens't download anymore. Then just use the unit's record capabilities as mentioned above.

John

I figured out at least one way to get my guide back. This is a little confusing, but it appears that the 3410A 'remembers' the stations you've enabled in the different guide setup options.

I had been playing with going all OTA or going OTA plus cable. When you scan for just OTA certain local channels get selected during the scan and when you scan for cable, certain other channels get selected during the scan. If you go to the quide and switch betwwen being connected to cable not being connected to cable, the setup eventually takes you to the scan channel screen. If you do not scan, but go to the edit channel screen you'll see that different sets of channels are enabled for the analog stations depending on which setup option you're using.

I thought that this may be confusing the 3410A's guide, so I deleted all selected analog and digital channels for both setup options. I then set the zip code to be right next to the towers, set the box to use OTA only, scanned completely and turned it off for the night. I had a full guide when I checked in the morning.

The channel lineup for the zip code I gave is exactly the same as the one I gave it earlier, so I doubt it made the difference - but it could have.

I've always had a 2-3 second audio delay and was surprised that others were not. I'm thinking that perhaps it has with signal strength. I'm 35-40 miles away from the towers and it takes a moment for most channels to change.

My other thought is that it may be my tuner. What are you guys who have no delay using as tuners? I'm using the optical input into a Denon 5700. I'm going to try the other audio input and see if it makes a difference.

I barely have any audio delay...when listening to the analog outputs. The digital output is slightly delayed and my receiver adds even more delay resyncing on the digital signal. I would say this behavior is completely normal and expected. The same thing happens when I change channels on Dish or Voom.

The audio delay is not present on the Comcast Motorola 6208 I have hooked up to the same Sony A/V receiver. In fact, on the 6208, sometimes there's a second of video pixelation when coming out of Skip of FF, but the audio syncs immediately --- and the video has to catch up.

So it's the 3410A, not other equipment.

OK, so this is no deal-breaker. It's just another little annoyance. I like my 3410A, but LG's design is rather crude around the edges. But no other unit had all the features of the LG. Amazingly, this seems still be be true. So I'm glad I bought this thing and am enjoying timeshifting HD.

I still have no confidence in LG. I'm one of the people that can't dump from HDD to tape and get a glitch-free copy. (OTA makes a good copy, not a cable source). This obviously loses the firewire feature for me. LG sent me labels for an exchange a couple of months ago, but I'm afraid to exchange it because I finally got a unit that has a working guide.

I've been ignoring the Sony units that are about to be released because they have no firewire. On the other hand, for all practical purposes, I have none with the 3410A either. I'll be very curious to see how the Sony's perform, i.e. if they are typical slick Sony products, or if they will fall prey to the same pitfalls that seem to plague the present state of this technology.

The Mitsubishi HD-6000 may be more interesting, since it has firewire. If the 120 GB HDD can be upgraded, it will be a killer unit.

Enterprise had audio problems on Friday night from the Network. That wasn't the 3410A...I have read other similar accounts but with different STB's.

Dave

FYI, I lost the guide and the clock was way off. I reset the clock and the guide came back. This was for 1.15 firmware.

I asked earlier about a replacement remote and the Harmony was suggested but the cheapest price is around $120+shipping so it's not such a good option(i think).I was able to track down an original remote after some frustration:Call Zenith at 888-393-6484 press 2 for parts,they have it as part # 6711R-1N139A for $37.54 .For someone in LA there is one unit left at the Best Buy on La Brea/Santa Monica bl. location,it is a 351 model just the unit itself and the price they charge is $494.99+tax.Manual is easy to download and cables easy to find(most people here have them already)so this is a good deal just get the remote above.I got a 451 from the same location(it had just been on the shelf as display-it was never even plugged in)and works great.I was even able to do the initial install and setup and make a couple of test recordings in HD without the remote.

Originally posted by PhillyC
I still have no confidence in LG. I'm one of the people that can't dump from HDD to tape and get a glitch-free copy. (OTA makes a good copy, not a cable source). Are you running 1.15 FW? Mine works great with archiving cable sources (except for Discovery http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=429373&highlight=discovery )

Originally posted by N2BLU

"I did as suggested and (when I finally got the thing on again which took dozens of attempts) deleted the NBC program as well as a couple other shows that have recorded since it was recorded. I then unplugged the unit for about 20 minutes. It powered up right away after that and appeared to be fine when I tried playing another recorded program and changed channels, powered on and off a few times. I set it to record Conan last night to make sure it was working correctly. When I checked today it took a lot of on/off and unplugging/replugging to get the DVR off the "hello" greeting. When it finally stayed on and appeared to be working I checked and it did NOT record Conan as programmed. I let the unit sit unplugged for three hours or so this morning. When I turned it on the picture on 1-1 showed up fine for a couple of minutes and it went out and the display returned to that frickin' "hello" greeting again. This unit does have the 1.15 firmware."

I don't believe that the problem has anything to do with the DTV station or resetting the unit. I believe that the unit is defective. The same thing is happening to me. I also have the latest firmware. I was recording an HD program on ABC Sat night when I noticed that the HELLO message was on and the record light was off. Then the message went away to show the OTA channel, then it came back again. When I switched the TV to the input where I could see what was happening, it was clear that the unit was cutting in and out. I tried shutting the thing off and rebooting, but that didn't help. I shut it down for the night. Sun I tried again and on the 2nd attempt, the unit worked as it should. After about an hour of watching TV, however, the same thing happened again. The signal popped in and out and the HELLO message came up. If it had been a signal problem, the NO SIGNAL message would have come up instead of HELLO. I called the LG support line to find out about service and the guy didn't bat an eye. He just said that he would send me shipping labels so that I could send the unit back for replacement. This makes me think that this is a known problem.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

Originally posted by gambler43
Originally posted by N2BLU

I don't believe that the problem has anything to do with the DTV station or resetting the unit. I believe that the unit is defective. The same thing is happening to me. I also have the latest firmware. I was recording an HD program on ABC Sat night when I noticed that the HELLO message was on and the record light was off. Then the message went away to show the OTA channel, then it came back again. When I switched the TV to the input where I could see what was happening, it was clear that the unit was cutting in and out. I tried shutting the thing off and rebooting, but that didn't help. I shut it down for the night. Sun I tried again and on the 2nd attempt, the unit worked as it should. After about an hour of watching TV, however, the same thing happened again. The signal popped in and out and the HELLO message came up. If it had been a signal problem, the NO SIGNAL message would have come up instead of HELLO. I called the LG support line to find out about service and the guy didn't bat an eye. He just said that he would send me shipping labels so that I could send the unit back for replacement. This makes me think that this is a known problem.

Has anyone else experienced this problem?

When I recently purchased my unit at the local Best Buy while being sold for $550, my unit constantly rebooted too. I was about ready to take it back when I decided to pop the cover off to look for something obvious, such as a poorly seated connector. I didn't find anything specific, however, I noticed a group of 5 dip switches on the mother board that didn't look like they were switched as solidly to one side or the other as they could be. I exercised each of the switches, making sure I put them back in the original position. That fixed my rebooting problem, and, I might add, my unit has been solid as a rock since.

If you aren't afraid of popping off the cover, do so and exercise those switches. Your problem may be as easily solved as mine was.

Gambler -
I think it sounds as though you could be describing a heat related issue. Try running it in an open area with a fan blowing on it and see if you have better luck keeping a signal. If that solves the problem, you have something wrong with the box. I'd call LG, or (if you're an adventure loving type and are out of the warranty period) open the box and add a better fan.

Tim

Ganbler,

Hyrax and I and many others have had a lot of experience with these units. I agree with Hyrax, iy sounds like a heat induced failure. Unfortunately, once my first unit heated up, it never came back unless I applied a large fan running at the highest speed pointed directly at it from above. I returned it and 2 more. My last unit works perfectly. When they're working, they are wonderful. I use mine every night for 3 hours at least and on the weekends it might run 12 hours/day. It sits out in the open on top of 3 SVHS VCR's and a JVC switcher.

Originally posted by MrHifi
Ganbler,

Hyrax and I and many others have had a lot of experience with these units. I agree with Hyrax, iy sounds like a heat induced failure. Unfortunately, once my first unit heated up, it never came back unless I applied a large fan running at the highest speed pointed directly at it from above. I returned it and 2 more. My last unit works perfectly. When they're working, they are wonderful. I use mine every night for 3 hours at least and on the weekends it might run 12 hours/day. It sits out in the open on top of 3 SVHS VCR's and a JVC switcher.

Thanks to you and Hyrax for the responses. I'm going to send the unit back and hope that the replacement works. My unit sits on an open shelf by itself with 6" of open space above. If this is inadequate ventilation, then LG really blew the design. Either the circuitry needs to be able to take the heat or a fan needs to be included. Do you use any suplemental cooling on your new unit or have they fixed the problem?

Gambler -
My box runs fairly cool, but Art and others were not so lucky. You've got more than adequate ventilation, so there is some other reason for over heating. Using a big room fan would be useful in convincing LG that there is an overheating problem, but has no other real purpose.

This thread discusses how the cabling could get in the way of the internal fan:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=367927&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

However, if you can exchange it, I'd do so. Why open the box and start messing with it if you've just bought it?

Good luck and let us know how things turn out.

The first two units required a large fan. The third had another problem. The present unit is not artificially cooled but it is up high above a stack of other components. If you read through this thread, you will find a set of instructions and parts you can purchase at the Rat Shack to add cooling in the location where many of us believe LGE's engineers would like to have installed a fan.

Originally posted by Marc Alexander
Are you running 1.15 FW? Mine works great with archiving cable sources (except for Discovery http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=429373&highlight=discovery )

Marc,

Yes, this is my second unit and it has 1.15. The problem affects EVERY cable source HD channel. I believe that only a couple of others here have reported the same problem.

The excruciating details were posted here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=4185996#post4185996

Strange, isn't it?

I think good news is around the corner on supporting robust drive swapping with the LST-3410A. I recently lost two drives (both Seagate) to the dreaded "HDD recovery begins" message.

On another Seagate drive I found a section of a recording that would not play without stuttering; when I connected the drive directly to the 3410 the stuttering disappeared. I've been using this section of recording as a litmus test for parallel ATA read back reliability. I've traced the read back problem to the use of Sanmax drive trays (exactly as bwiklem experienced earlier in this thread). I tried other drive trays (like the fancy Vantec and Kingwin aluminum) and lost more data on another (Seagate) drive!

So, I've been experimenting with parallel ATA to serial ATA bridges as a way to make the communication with the hard drive more robust. The results are very promising, but I need to do a few more tests before I declare this as the way to go.

Incidentally, I have not lost any data on the Maxtor drives, nor have I experienced playback stuttering. My theory on this is that the Maxtors have enough drive capability on the IDE connection to support ATA 133, while the Seagates only support ATA 100. There must be significant added capacitance and/or impedance mismatching when the hard drive has to signal through the drive tray/drive bay connection. The Maxtors appear to have sufficient drive strength to overcome this while the Seagates do not.

-Dylan

Originally posted by dahester
I think good news is around the corner on supporting robust drive swapping with the LST-3410A. I recently lost two drives (both Seagate) to the dreaded "HDD recovery begins" message.

On another Seagate drive I found a section of a recording that would not play without stuttering; when I connected the drive directly to the 3410 the stuttering disappeared. I've been using this section of recording as a litmus test for parallel ATA read back reliability. I've traced the read back problem to the use of Sanmax drive trays (exactly as bwiklem experienced earlier in this thread). I tried other drive trays (like the fancy Vantec and Kingwin aluminum) and lost more data on another (Seagate) drive!

So, I've been experimenting with parallel ATA to serial ATA bridges as a way to make the communication with the hard drive more robust. The results are very promising, but I need to do a few more tests before I declare this as the way to go.

Incidentally, I have not lost any data on the Maxtor drives, nor have I experienced playback stuttering. My theory on this is that the Maxtors have enough drive capability on the IDE connection to support ATA 133, while the Seagates only support ATA 100. There must be significant added capacitance and/or impedance mismatching when the hard drive has to signal through the drive tray/drive bay connection. The Maxtors appear to have sufficient drive strength to overcome this while the Seagates do not.

-Dylan

Dylan

Are you saying you lost data on a Seagate using the KingWin, but not using the KinWin and a Maxtor 300GB?

Am I correct that all your power and IDE connections are made directly to the LG 3410?

Are all the Maxtor you've tried 300GB 5400RPM models adn not the newer 300GB 7200RPM 16 MB Cache models?

I recently read in a thread that many of you have also experienced the fact that CADTV channels do not show up in the TV line up. without this, i am unable to select any of these channels (or sub channels) for recording.

below is a quote from one of the related threads

"Strangely, the guide shows the actual Comcast channel numbers instead of the remapped numbers. These must be changed manually in the guide's channel setup screen, otherwise you won't be able to record. For example, after using EZ-Scan, FOX shows up in the guide as 190, which is the Comcast cable box channel number. You must change this to 116-2. This makes no sense. The guide should be aware of how the unit remaps channels!"

can you tell me how to manually change the guide's set up to add these channels to the line up?

Thanks

Bob K.

Originally posted by bobk101
I recently read in a thread that many of you have also experienced the fact that CADTV channels do not show up in the TV line up. without this, i am unable to select any of these channels (or sub channels) for recording.

below is a quote from one of the related threads

"Strangely, the guide shows the actual Comcast channel numbers instead of the remapped numbers. These must be changed manually in the guide's channel setup screen, otherwise you won't be able to record. For example, after using EZ-Scan, FOX shows up in the guide as 190, which is the Comcast cable box channel number. You must change this to 116-2. This makes no sense. The guide should be aware of how the unit remaps channels!"

can you tell me how to manually change the guide's set up to add these channels to the line up?

Thanks

Bob K.

Guide>Setup>Change Channel Display.

Highlight the channel with the incorrect cable channel number. Use the number keys to enter the mapped channel number.

Be aware that these mapped numbers "stick", maybe for weeks, but can randomly return to the original cable numbers, causing missed recordings.

See previous threads about my guide problems, but wow Zenith actually called me today out of the blue. They just got training from Gemstar on guide issues, and the guy walked me through the whole setup, even though I told him I've already done all the basic stuff. Anyways he says they now have an escalation person at Gemstar to send issues too so maybe I"ll finally get an answer too what channel the guide data is supposed to be sent on in my area. He sent an email to Gemstar (this supposed escalation person) so I'll report back if anything actually comes of this. Of course just using VCR+ and timeshif is working for me so I really don't need the guide but I'm hoping if they do eventually get it working that it doesn't actually create more problems than it's worth.

John

Bob K.
The CADTV stations do show up in my guide's TV lineup. Using the technique described by Phil helps you map from the guide station to the actual frequency the 3410A found when scanning the cable signal. I believe you should not need to remap stations if you're using the cable box. However, I don't have a cable box, so I could be wrong...

John -
Good news that Zenith seems to be starting to take this GemStar stuff a bit more seriously. Hopefully they will be able to figure out what is up with you and the rest of us when the guide gets flacky.

I find the guide quite useful in small ways like labeling the show and making it easy to pad the beginning or end of a show you're recording (I've got Monday Night Football set to record weekly and always add an extra hour on the end). I could live without this stuff, but it is a nice to have.

Tim

Originally posted by mkerdman
Dylan

Are you saying you lost data on a Seagate using the KingWin, but not using the KinWin and a Maxtor 300GB?

Am I correct that all your power and IDE connections are made directly to the LG 3410?

Are all the Maxtor you've tried 300GB 5400RPM models adn not the newer 300GB 7200RPM 16 MB Cache models?

I primarily use Sanmax trays but my brief experimentation with KingWin and Vantec aluminum trays showed that a Seagate (7200.7) drive would get re-formatted on the first power up after installing the drive in the tray. I did not try a Maxtor drive in a Vantec or KingWin tray (I'm presuming that eventually the Maxtor drives could suffer the same type of failure as Seagate, but would take many more power cycles for the failure to show up).

BTW I'm using 7200rpm 120GB to 250GB Maxtors as my workhorses. The 300GB drives are still $0.67/GB or more. I am using direct power and IDE connections from the 3410. The new twist I'm trying is to use an IDE to SATA converter inside the LG box, and then use either a SATA hard drive or this Sanmax drive bay which converts SATA back to IDE:

http://www.sanmax.com/products/index.cgi?display=item&part=PMD-96I-SA

By using the Sanmax SATA bay, the Seagate drive inside only has to drive about 2 inches of cabling and 2 inches of PCB trace before the signal hits a Marvell PATA to SATA bridge I.C. Basically there are two Marvell bridge I.C.s serving as data repeaters between the LG box and the hard drive. I'm waiting on some parts so I can install this system in a second 3410 to verify the drives are still swappable among units. It will take some time using this new setup before I can say confidently that the "HDD recovery begins" problem has been knocked out.

-Dylan

Has anyone else experienced faint horizontal bands running slowly up the screen (mostly noticeable in dark scenes)? If I run the component cable from the 3410A directly to the component input on the TV, these do not occur, but I have to employ a component switcher to connect 4 devices to a single input on the TV. None of the other devices (one of which is a Sony SAT-HD300 which was made by LG) has this problem. I have swapped cables and tried 3 different switchers, both active and passive, to no avail.

I am using a Zektor 4 in 1 out switcher and i use the RGBHV connections. Yes i have the rolling upward hum bars. is yours a Zektor? All my HD devices have these very faint hum bars. i had them even worse on analog before i bought a new analog switcher.

Also, FWIW, I received a call from LGE asking if i knew where the second unit i returned was. i told him I returned it. he said they have lost a bunch of the returned units.

I have the horizontile lines as well running up my screen, but only on 1080i when the unit is first powered on. I run component directly to my TV. After the unit has warmed up for about 30 minutes, they disappear. The funny thing is that they aren't there on 720P at all. Very strange.

Dave

I think I have traced my hum bars to the incoming Comcast line not being properly grounded to the "ground electrode" of my electric meter. If I disconnect the cable line at point of entry, the bars are not present, at least so far. I don't have a Zektor switcher, but even the one built into my Yamaha receiver will cause the bars to appear.

So... my question is this. Has anyone been able to record any HD source, other than network(ABC,CBS,etc), to this thing ? I've been enjoying timeshifting OTA programs w/o any problems since I've had this unit . I'm trying to decide if I gave up on using it with cable too soon . The only time I've had any wacky behaviour from it was when my cable feed was attached. Seeing as how I don't record SD material I decided "Enough of this nonsense" and disconnected it . Has anyone had any `sucess` with the QAM tuner section ? If not I may leave well enough alone . Oh, by the way I've had the unit about 3 months now and, as I said before, haven't had any problems ;>) .

I have had pretty good success recording QAM. I usually record ESPN's Thursday night college football game; that has worked without any problems. I have also occasionally recorded the local HD channels off of cable and that has worked as well. I also recorded INHD once.

My only problem occurred once when I was using the timeshift function; the unit, apparently, momentarily lost the signal and did not resume recording until I changed the channel away from what it had been set to and then back to it. I think someone else reported experiencing this problem.

(I have had the unit for about a month and a half; I have Comcast.)

NS324...I have Comcast as well in California and I don't get the greatest of signals from cable on the HD side. I only get INHD 1 and 2 and the NBC feed as well as ESPN2. The local ABC, CBS and HDNET feeds have too weak of signal to come in.

Dave

Could someone share their best technique on how to do this? Basically, after a couple of attempts, I go through the "prog list" menu to "save to DVHS". The little screen comes up that allows you to control the DVHS player. I hit "start". The system starts playing to DVHS, while the DVHS is recording, then, I hit pause on the DVHS remote, until the recorder gets to the beginning of the program, and hit record on the DVHS remote. This continues through out the program while recording. I pause through commercials then hit record when the program resumes.

Is this the BEST way to do this? Isn't there anyway to use the DVR's fast forward past the commercials to speed things up??

I actually improvised as the manual didn't seem to spell even this much out.

Unfortunately, I got to the last 10 minutes or so of a 2.5 hour program and my cat stepped on the remote and ruined it. Do I need to start all over again from the beginning???

(Is this gemstars way of getting us to watch the commercials???)

Thanks, in advance for any insight!

Originally posted by Judy Y
Could someone share their best technique on how to do this? Basically, after a couple of attempts, I go through the "prog list" menu to "save to DVHS". The little screen comes up that allows you to control the DVHS player. I hit "start". The system starts playing to DVHS, while the DVHS is recording, then, I hit pause on the DVHS remote, until the recorder gets to the beginning of the program, and hit record on the DVHS remote. This continues through out the program while recording. I pause through commercials then hit record when the program resumes.

...
Thanks, in advance for any insight!

As you found out that is not the way to do editing. You want to edit using the LST-3410a. The editing is done before you send the program to the DVHS unit.

Check your owners manual under "clip edit" on page 50. Basically what happens is you tell the LST-3410a which parts of the program to remove. To a user it looks like a delete but I think it really is a skip. Make sure you save upon exiting.

Some practice is required and it is very easy to think you are deleting the sections you intend to save. After editing, press the "Stop" button to see the save menu. Luckily the owners manual is actually written well in this section. Again, practice is required.

Bottom line is that once you do this, you can just hit the "Save to DVHS" select and sit back. No further editing is required.

One word of caution - leave a little time before the start and after the end of your program. There is a slight lag in the pause to record function, so about a second or two of program is lost at the beginning. The same thing is true at the end. I think that one to two second loss is due to buffer issues or I-frame issues - not sure of the actual cause just the effect.

Has anyone yet determined if the LG LST-3410A can record directly from the firewire output of the new Sony HDR-FX1 HDV camcorder?

Originally posted by alk3997
Basically what happens is you tell the LST-3410a which parts of the program to remove.

Actually, it seems to me that you do just the opposite - you mark the sections you wish to keep.
Lets say you've recorder a football game and want to keep all of the stuff except the pregame chat, half time, and the post-game chat. You therefore mark the beginning of the first quarter through the end of the half, and then mark the beginning of the second half through the end of the game. Here is how you do that.
Find the kickoff (smart skip may get you close, then FF or FR if you went past it)
Press edit button
Find end of first half half
Press the edit button
Find start of 3rd quarter
Press the edit button
Find end of game
Press edit button

At this point you'll see the sections you want to keep marked as a darker blue. If it looks right, you press end, and save the changes.

It is very easy to make a mistake and delete sections you wish to keep, so I recommend practicing a fair amount before you start editing some thing you care about.

Hope this helps.

POST REMOVED due to violation of forum policy

Thanks for the tips! That was exactly what I was looking for!! I never reread the editing part of the manual- just looked up recording to DVHS.

Originally posted by gambler43
I called the LG support line to find out about service and the guy didn't bat an eye. He just said that he would send me shipping labels so that I could send the unit back for replacement. This makes me think that this is a known problem.

Same here. I called LG and was told they could either repair the unit or send out a new one, my choice. I chose a new unit, of course. ;) I plan on selling it as I'm not at all impressed with this device nor the hundreds of complaints about it in this thread. This was my first and last LG product. I plan on picking up one of the Sony HD-DVRs when they come out instead. Yeah firewire would have been nice but I'm not hip on DVHS anyway. I'd buy the upcoming LG Blu-ray DVR is only it were another brand. :D

I have had mine since the beginning of September with no major issues at all.

Dave

Has anyone experienced a problem when timeshifting a program when the audio track is virtually non existent when trying to play back what has buffered?

I hope I won't offend when I start my appeal for your advice with the candid assessment that I'm a fairly bright -but very industrious- guy who will earnestly read and try to understand whatever help you may offer. I can see that you're very devoted to the various issues here, and I admire the passion, but in trying to follow you guys these past weeks, all I have for my exertions is vertigo and diarrhea. Unless I get some direction soon, all I'll leave behind will be a smoking crater and a traumatized cat.

Still there? Bless you for patience. For 20 years I watch C-band 95% and OTA 5% but all
was first recorded to VCRs. All. Tedious to program the dish, the satellite rcvr and VCR for each event- but I did for anything I'd watch. (I think it's called timeshifting- but PVRs made new jargon, so correct me if not,please)

I bought a 30” Sony HD-ready monitor (CRT, the KV30HS420) and I love it but the only HD input I have setup is from my C-band “4DTV” satellite. Gorgeous, but no timeshifting. I ordered a D-VHS vcr (JVC HM-DT100) since I'm used to VCRs and I could use its internal tuner as the ATSC unit my monitor lacks.

While I wait for my retailer to restock this great DVCR, I have a crisis of buyer remorse I ask you to help me with: Why go back to tape when the world is marching to Hard Drives
and random access? If I can use a non-VCR solution the storage space will keep getting cheaper (as HDDs do) and then I can network the contents of my huge Raptor SATA and it'd be so much more versatile than cassettes could ever be. Besides, I am good with PCs: I've built my own for years- and with watercooled procs and GPU too, they're fast. My current topdog is WinXP-Pro(SP2), P4-3.0 at 3.3G (Northwood core 800fsb) (i865PE Asus IS7), Corsair 1GB DDR, Radeon 9800XT, WD800JB (only 80g but 8MB buffer),
fast cable connection and wireless G LAN.

How can I decide if the VCR money ($1k) would be better spent on non-tape stuff: like a small form factor box beside my TV with one of those MIT (and capable others) PCI cards and a giant fast HDD?
Would it be reasonable for me to expect to be able to set it up so it provides realtime ASTC signal to my monitor?
Reasonable to expect ability to program ASTC events that would be taken off the VHF antenna on my roof, and then to timeshift- to output the HD event from this PC to my HD monitor at my convenience?

My head spins to wonder at why I would – or would not- use the great new JVC VCR in my brave new HD world... much less *which* card , much Much less the LG 3410A that seems to be so much less interesting to the readers here. Maybe the odd thing abt me is that I don't get Cable TV... that seems to color everybody's interests.

If you took cable TV out of the picture, would you see the world like I do?

Thanks ever so much!

The only VCR I know of that can record the component output of an HDD200 is the discontinued JVC WVHS recorder. it cost $5,000.00+. There is no way that I know of other than by implementing the Firewire mod to record the way you wish.

Maggot -
I believe that you're mistaken about the LG-3410A. If you like VCR's, you'll love the 3410A (and if you like Tivo, you'll probably hate the 3410A). It is a wonderful receiver and recorder that is marred by two things - the GemStar software gets messed up at times and a small (but significant) number of units seemed to overheat. I'm not sure if LG is entirely to blame for the GemStar problem (actually, I'm sure that most of the problem has little to do with the 3410A and is bugs in the GemStar system itself), but LG should be blamed for not making it easier to get around these problems. It would be really nice if there were a reset button somewhere that would return the unit to its initial state. And it would be really nice it the firmware were user upgradeable.

That said, the JVC HM-DT100 looks like another good way to record HiDef material. I'd be happy to have one. You made a good choice, I believe.

The nice thing about both the JVC HM-DT100 and the 3410A is that you do not need to get your computer involved. At least to me that seems to add another level of complexity that I don't want to have to always deal with. I can and do use my computer with my 3410A and my JCV 5U, but it is nice that I don't always need to do so.

Originally posted by Maggot

While I wait for my retailer to restock this great DVCR, I have a crisis of buyer remorse I ask you to help me with: Why go back to tape when the world is marching to Hard Drives
and random access? If I can use a non-VCR solution the storage space will keep getting cheaper (as HDDs do) and then I can network the contents of my huge Raptor SATA and it'd be so much more versatile than cassettes could ever be. Besides, I am good with PCs: I've built my own for years- and with watercooled procs and GPU too, they're fast. My current topdog is WinXP-Pro(SP2), P4-3.0 at 3.3G (Northwood core 800fsb) (i865PE Asus IS7), Corsair 1GB DDR, Radeon 9800XT, WD800JB (only 80g but 8MB buffer),
fast cable connection and wireless G LAN.



Here are the two items you may have to worry about with the LST-3410a and your setup...

1) You cannot (in any way, shape or form) timer-record from the LST-3410a's composite/s-video inputs. The L1 input supposedly can be used for standard def cable recording but for those of us without cable, that isn't even available. This is very much unlike a VCR.

2) Archive, archive, archive. With an LST-3410a by itself you will have no way to archive other than to computer. I think I read that you need a DVHS deck in order to get the LST-3410a to start the archive and then you switch the 1394 cable to a computer.

Finally, if you check the 169Time web site you may get a nice surprise about your HDD-200 (for a price).

Originally posted by Hyrax
Actually, it seems to me that you do just the opposite - you mark the sections you wish to keep.


It is all how you look at it...I look at it as the file is already on the LST-3410a and therefore I'm telling it which parts of the file to delete. Either way of looking at ends in the same result. You say tomato... :-)

Andy -
You're right. As long as you know that the Dark Blue sections of the program's time line are what will be kept you can say poe-t8-tow or potato, its all the same.

I only mentioned it because when I thought about it as marking the sections to delete, I did manage to delete all of the show, and was left with a very nice collection of commercials. But that is just me.

HYrax wrote (in part):"Maggot -I believe that you're mistaken about the LG-3410A. If you like VCR's, you'll love the 3410A (and if you like Tivo, you'll probably hate the 3410A)."

Hyrax, I am indifferent to TiVo. Folks ecstatic these few years since PVRs- it makes me chuckle (in an offensively patronizing way) since the big splash from TiVo seemed to me just relief for folks who'd hankered for TimeShift conveniences but unable to do it w VCRs -not even after that "VCRPlus" feature - even tho it had all been supported by VCRs for decades. For decades folks w S-VHS, ED-Beta or Hi8 decks had great picture and versatility for cheap. Granted 2 problems: you had to read the manual, and even then, none of that buffer playback feature.

Sorry for digress. I thank you for reassurance that the D100-VCR is a nice rig. The 3410a will not be able to record in on composite video? I didn't know that. But surely, for stuff on composite video we can use a plain ol' S-VHS deck to cover that gap?

You said the fact DVCR keeps your setup computer-free is a simplifying influence that pleases you, and I respect that POV. I have a different attitude: computers are our friends, I think. I like feeling of empowerment in ability to customize to my queer prefs, for instance. I also reassert the idea that I worry I may miss out on really neat networking options unless I invest in HardDrive storage. Yes, I'm haunted that my future self(or my wife) will say
"You got...a $1K VCR when the whole world was trading in tape cassettes for cheaper, faster, random-access, data-denser platters and disks??
You're in yet another lunatic fringe -you and your ED-Beta decks!- searching eBay for another $2k vcr so you watch the tapes in 1 more room...while your "clueless Tivo" pals will be adding room after room of connected HDTV by buying WiFi "G" or "N" cards for $50 and laughing abt your OC disorder!"

Building on DVCRs may be as forward-thinking now as DAT was for audio in 1990.

I know that I'm not well-placed with HD C-band ("4DTV") if I want to timeshift.
The idea of sending gear off to a customizing house (for $$$) isn't a happy thought. At least one thread on those PCI expansion cards has hopeful words abt the effort to capture bitstreams from 4dtv satellite receivers (HDD200 HD Decoder by Motorola).

As for the several computer HD tuner cards, it is a bit overwhelming!
Although I have this gut feeling that I should be doing that rather than falling back onto comfortable and familiar VCR solutions, our avsForum posters seem passionate and short-tempered.
They are probably weary of the same pathetic questions posed by confused folks like me- we newbies are confused abt the comparative merits:"MyHD" "SasemOnAir" "Fusion" are representative of the genre. There seems to be no place where they are compared, much less reviewed.

The community is badly Balkanized : the VCR, PVR. and PCI card communities
are quite inbred and guys like me are left out. I have a history of loving VCRs , but my instincts tell me that I am taking the coward's way unless I accept the obvious and undeniable fact that the long-prophesied "convergence" is happening Now... and it's all about hard disk drives, Stoopid.

Reading all that, I sound so confident. I'm not! Please advise me!

Maggot,

I'm not sure what it is you wish to learn. I have 4DTV and an HDD200. I have OTA HD. I have a 3410A. I would like to move HD around my home so I could view the HD recorded material in the bedroom and computer rooms. I use Wavecom Jr's to send NTSC around the house but have no way transmit and receive HD/ATSC.

If anyone has a way to do this, please let me know.

Art -
http://www.iodata.com/usa/products/products.php?cat=HNP&sc=AVEL&ts=2&tsc=&sc=AVEL&pId=AVLP2%2FDVDLA
This might allow you to move ATSC around the house. You would need to get a computer involved (3410A to a computer via firewire then computer to the LinkPlayer2 via Ethernet). Unfortunately, the LinkPlayer2 doesn't have a VGA out and I recall you've a CRT projector, so this may not fit the bill. Also the company IODATA seems to be saying you can use a wireless network, but I believe that you may actually need a 100T wire to get the job done with HD material.

Originally posted by Hyrax
Andy -
You're right. As long as you know that the Dark Blue sections of the program's time line are what will be kept you can say poe-t8-tow or potato, its all the same.

I only mentioned it because when I thought about it as marking the sections to delete, I did manage to delete all of the show, and was left with a very nice collection of commercials. But that is just me.

Don't feel bad - I did the same thing. They really needed a "you are in delete mode" when you are doing the clip edit. Oh well...

Maggot -
At an unknown point in time (next year, 3 years from now, 5 years from now, who knows), buying the JVC HM-DT100 may look like a bad move. But at this point in time it looks to me like DVCRs are the easiest way to record HiDef material. The world may suddenly turn, and we'll get HD DVD recorders at a reasonable price (with media at a reasonable price) that support existing HD TVs & projectors. Until then, it seems DVCRs are the best/easiest option for recording shows and watching them later.

As for computers... The 3410A is essentially a computer. It has an operating system (Unix based, it has been suggested), and stores the recorded shows on a hard drive. It suffers the problem that all computer solutions share - there is never enough hard drive space. The 120GB hard drive fills up before you can watch all of the stuff you can record. My 3410A is full at the moment. I've got (among some other things) two football games and the 7th game where Boston beats the Yankees, that I want to watch before I delete them. This evening I want to record 6 hours of LOTR, and I will need to 'Archive, Archive, Archive (to quote Andy)' to tape or delete something. It seems to me that right now tape is the best way and easiest way to timeshift HD material.

As to Tivo... it is great except for the fact that you need to pay for it every month and that even the best recording quality is less than optimal unless you're using it with a digital source (D*) (but then the digital sources are often so compressed that I cannot stand to watch them in the first place). It also suffers from the 'whatcha going to do when the hard drive fills up' dilemma.

Have had some problems with my LST's lately, that need a fix from LG! I have 1.15 firmware. I want a cd with an update!

I have 2 units, one standard, one upgraded with Maxtor drive.

First problem is disk error related, and is on the Maxtor: This may be my fault buynig a regular Mator instead of a CE one. (I'm thinkiing maybe a CE drive skips errors that the regular one spends too much time trying to read?) Errors bother it way too much:

Sometimes the program records but on play back I get a message it can't play.

Worst is I get a nice recording that plays but if I fast forward, skip, or just pause, the machine locks up and I can only power down to reset things. It may go back to play, but messages stay on screen for skip etc, and no sound. After the power down all was fine till I did a skip etc again.

I then deleted one file, not the one I was playing, and everything went back to normal!

Second problem affects both units: If my antenna drifts off and I get a bad signal the units can lock up so they tune in a picture but there is no sound.

Other times they can just say no signal for all channels, even though the signal meter reports a nomal good signal. Screen is black and no sound on any channel I try.

Powering down and up restores normal operation.

Originally posted by Maggot


I know that I'm not well-placed with HD C-band ("4DTV") if I want to timeshift.
The idea of sending gear off to a customizing house (for $$$) isn't a happy thought. At least one thread on those PCI expansion cards has hopeful words abt the effort to capture bitstreams from 4dtv satellite receivers (HDD200 HD Decoder by Motorola).



Maggot,

I sympathize with your problem but I bit the bullet and sent my HDD-200 to
169time for the upgrade. Using FEDEX, it only took 1 week for me to get
my unit back. Later on, I encountered a problem with the firewire connection
and sent my unit back. It was returned in less than a week. As for the
price, I paid what you are paying for your DVCR. If I were you, I would have
invested in the LST-3410A which of course has an ATSC tuner and a refurbished
JVC30K or 40K from Ecost. For a while, there were questions as to whether
169time supported the 3410A but now their website indicates that they do.
I just bought one and if it works, I intend to use it as my primary recording
unit from C-band as well as OTA. I have encountered occasional glitches
from recording to the 30K, the most serious of which are freezes which I
occasionally encountered. I have determined that the cause was aircraft
flying overhead. It has not been serious enough for me to buy a filter for
my LNB but by recording directly to the 3410A, I should be able to edit
out most glitches.

jhe-
The hard disk problems are probably the price you pay for being bleeding edge - I decided not to replace the HDD in my 3410A because I read somewhere that the specs for the replacement hard drive need to be exactly the same or there could be problems.

What do you mean by your antenna 'drifting off'? Are you using an outdoor antenna? Does it move or is it that the signal comes and goes? I would think that you are so much closer to the towers that I am that you must have a wonderful signal. I'm 30 miles further away from the towers than you are and most of my stations come in with a signal strength 3/4 of the way toward Good. In fact your signal may be so strong that it is overpowering the 3410A - talk to your antenna guy about that.

All I can suggest is getting an outdoor antenna if you're using an indoor antenna.

You guys have let me sing a long rambling rant with not a single reproach -already shaming me for whining about balkanized elitests- and so I am already in your debt for hearing me out. My wife forced me to empty my computer hobby room Saturday (well, I had been warned for weeks) and I'm more lost than usual.

Tonite I will set about cleaning this mess and also a start to my study of your advice. Without great care, I already see a warm, avuncular reassurance from Hyrix: who stands by the VCR while refusing to ridicule my misgivings abt it. ("Mensch"). Sal & Art likewise reject opportunities to gloat. I sincerely thank you guys.
And yet- still no mention of those intriguing PCI cards (Sasem, MIT, Dvico, ATI).
If you haven't discouraged me off of the 3410a, aren't you equally broad-minded abt using a MyHD? You could then -f'rinstance- plug in a HDD better, bigger, faster & cheaper than the LG folks provide? Plug in a SATA: 2 or 3 of 'em! (Art: there are claims in AVS that the MIT folks are now working on C-band compatibility! )
I've gotta clean up now. Again: my sincere thanks for letting me in.
- Dean

PS Art, I found the first mention of C-band support:
http://*******.com/4dzzy

Dean -
I thougth I was talking about computers when I said I thought the 3410A and JVC's tape decks were the simpliest way to record and watch later. If we were into things like MyHD we probably would not have ever purchased a 3410A.

I believe that most of those cards live with DVHS decks rather nicely and you can use the DVHS deck to store stuff once your computer's hard disk fills up.
Tim

Originally posted by Hyrax
jhe-
The hard disk problems are probably the price you pay for being bleeding edge
............................................................ .....
What do you mean by your antenna 'drifting off'?.................


Re the disk, I agree, but the LST OS could have been made more tolerant.
I may run diagnostics soon on the Maxtor on my computer. If that doesn't help I may try other drives.

The reception problem is due to two things: My antenna array is big, and the Channel Master Rotor can't really handle it in wind. It's braking action is virtually non-existent. Secondly, I have no line of sight to Needham and get reflected signals from multiple hills.

Now that I have recorders I will probably have to buy a more deluxe ham rotor that has stronger braking and no syncing problems. I'm thinking of getting a Yaesu rotor.

As to distance one of my best stations is WMUR-DT from Manchester NH. The locals are touchy since I have no line of site, being behind a hill, and I get reflected signals from about 3 other hills nearby.

This bad signal affects not just the LG's. My Samsung 165 gets into a mode where it reboots itself continuously and I can't stop it, when tuned to channel 19 and my antenna is in just the wrong spot.

Tuners should be made immune to this, it is just plain bad design. It is super annoying when everything is set just right and a plane flies over and the glitch kills the sound till I tune off the station and back again! There is no cure for this till they make better tuners and segregate the signal data from the program code properly, and provide some way to periodically re-sync.

I've been through about 6 tuners, and a dozen antennas, so far. And the LG's really are a noticable improvement, just not good enough for unattended recording! Some nights I can even get all of Needham's stations at one antenna aim, but only on the LG's, but usually there are like a set of any 4 I can get and then have to move the aim to get a different group.

My original RCA tuner was actually one of the best handling this, but I got tired of having to do re-scans regularly when an analog channel came in from CT. and disabled the digital. Otherwise it stayed up and running better than any of my newer tuners, even though it has less multipath handling capability.

So my current choices are:

1 RCA DTC 100 that works but glitches from multipath more, and can lock out digitals if it sees an analog.

2 Samsung that can continuously reboot if tuned to the wrong channel when the antenna is not pointed to it first, and then can't even get it to change channels so have to swing the rotor, change channel and then put rotor back.

3 LG that can glitch and lose sound or sound and picture and sometimes for every channel while reporting a great signal. Sometimes changing channels and then back fixes it. Other times it is a blank screen on every channel till I power off and manuall reboot.

4 Panasonic 50 that works except gets the wrong sound tracks on channels with multiple audio.

Maybe next year I can get something that works! Meanwhile I will hook up a second antenna, so each LG can get a sub-group of channels. Then I just have to remember what channel not to tune on each unit!

But meanwhile I hope LG makes a firmware download available that will cure some of this. I can handle a channel going bad once in a while due to multipath, but this shouldn't kill a recording tuner on every single channel!

jhe,

i have a setup very similar to yours. TCA DTC 100, LG3410A, Sony KDL-32XBR950. i use a channel master rotor that syncs and has a remote like yours. All the tuners mess up as you described when the wind blows. I am up about 48 ft. but there are 75 ft. trees within 500 ft. The DD unlocks and resyncs to the point where i turn off the DD audio and use a VCR,s analog audio for the audio source. Tif one could stabilize the audio I could live with the temporary pixelization.

As soon as the wind drops below the point that the branches move, everything is rock steady. If you ask me, it's a conspiracy to sign up more cable customers. NEVER!!!!!!!!!

Problem with PBS-HD and Guide grid

When I do an EZ-Scan, the local OTA PBS-HD station (2-2) does not show up. Yet when I select 2-2 from the remote, it comes in loud and clear.

But I have found no way to add 2-2 to the TV Guide grid. This means that it is not possible to schedule recordings of future broadcast.

Does anyone have a workaround for this? Thanks in advance if you do.

Michael Bate

Try adding 2-1 and see if it automatically switches to 2-2. One of my cable HD channels is on 79-7 and If i enter 79-1 it automatically goes to 79-7.

Dave

Dave,

Thanks for the advice but I guess I don't follow (maybe I'm being dense).

2-1 is a legitimate OTA digital channel (PBS SD). It is picked up by EZ-Scan.

The only way to add channels that I see is to go into the Channel Edit. You are then presented with a grid of numbers, 2 up. Numbers that correspond to channels found by EZ-Scan are in bold, and, when highlighted, show the actual channel number. For instance, 19 shows 2-1. Numbers that correspond to channels not found by EZ-scan show (in every case that I have seen) the number followed by "-1" For instance, 2 also shows 2-1.

To add and delete a channel, I go to one of these and press the Select button on the remote. I tried that with 19 (2-1) and it continues to show 2-1. BTW, 20 shows as 5-1.

(note that these numbers and correspondences would be different in different areas).

Am I missing something here? Is there another way to add a channel?

Aside from this annoyance, this has, so far, been a very good, well performing unit.

Michael

I think I get what you are saying, and no, you can't add a channel that way. You may be able to remap it in the Guide, but I am not really sure.

Dave

"...those cards live with DVHS decks rather nicely and you can use the DVHS deck to store stuff once your computer's hard disk fills up."-Hyrax
==========
Tim,
Gosh, I'd have guessed it'd be easier and cheaper to offload data ("archiving"?) from a filling-up 3410a by just adding on new and bigger hard drives!

Y'know, I think I'm laboring under conceptual problems - in fact, that may be why I feel like I'm more confused than everyone else. Tim, I *was* going to ask if you could frame a basic and brief description of the way that the different options (PVR, VCR, PC and PCI cards, & custom jobs) compare to eachother just now for purposes of doing those jobs that a regular guy (a consumer of entertainment) might find aren't packaged in his new HD-ready TV - not the way they used to be before HD.
I was going to suggest that the "jobs" in question might include:
1) Decoding HD from a)OTA b)Small Dish c)Big Dish d)Cable 2) Recording HD for personal use a)Timeshift b)Longterm Archive 3)Playback for personal use a)Same location as recorder b)Elsewhere same house.

Then I saw that this question really asks a lot!
I truly do not feel that the various FAQ threads here address these basic questions in an understandable, succinct -or even recent- way.

So... do you guys suppose it'd be appropriate to post it somewhere as a new thread of its own?
(If so... where?)
Thanks, Dean

"If we were into things like MyHD we probably would not have ever purchased a 3410A."

Tim I've got to follow up on that remark, it seems so telling: it seems to say that you consider these 2 approaches are roughly equivalent in the services they offer, but folks generally lean to one or other based on... comfort level ?

I somehow doubt that the passionate voices discussing the 3410a would belong to enthusiasts who'd willingly concede that "things like MyHD" can do a better job than their 3410a's or that they content themselves with a 3410a since the superior feature set and performance of MyHD isn't worth the annoyance of dealing with a computer's guts!

Do you really find that 3410a owners -in general- feel these STBs are just a more convenient package compared to the DIYers and their PCI cards?

It appears that EZ-Scan cannot find ANY digital channels with suffic "-2" or any other than "-1." Therefore no such channels can be listed in the TV Guide grid and scheduled for recording.

Am I right about this? Has anyone been able to put one of these channels ("-2" or higher) in the TV Guide grid?

Michael

MichaelBate,

1) No

2) Yes

Go to the guide; scroll to top; move to setup; scroll down to (I can't remember which but there are only three and it's not the last one); then select.

The "right" screen shows channel names on the left and over on the right side the channel number and "on" or "off". Scroll to your PBS station that shows 2-1 and punch in 2-2. Check that it is marked "on" , exit and your done.

Check your guide and the PBS station should read 2-2 and perform properly.

Lew

MichaelBate-
Be careful if you remap any of the stations 2-0 or 2-1, it may mess up your guide completely.

You may want to call LG and ask about the -2 stations. It is a mystery to me as well. At the moment, 2-1 is WGBH-HD, at other times it is the digital version of WGBH-0, and at other times it appears to be PBS-HD. This all has to do with the way in which WGBH is transmitting their data, I believe, and is independent of the 3410A.

I believe that the guide will list all the channels that have data. I am guessing, but it seems to me that either GemStar doesn't allow for -2 stations' data to be broadcast or that those stations do not make their data available in our area. Other areas may have -2 stations, I've no way of telling.

What is playing on 44-2 through 44-5 is simply not available anywhere but on the Web. I called and asked.

You may want to try some of the different setup configurations. I believe that I saw 6 different channel lineup options when I said I was in Boston's zip code 02210. Perhaps one of them will give you WGBH-HD.

Dean -
MyHD and STBs like the 3410A are two completely different solutions to the same problem. Personally, I am not willing to always need a computer in my TV room, so I went with what I believe the simpler solution. I may get a HD tuner soon, but the computer will never be in the same room as my TV - I've already got enough stuff there.

I assume that most of the people who bought 3410A's bougth them instead of HTPC's for the same reason - I could be wrong.

Mainly, what I am saying is that you'll get very little discussion of the strengths of HD tuner cards in this thread. It is a different mindset.

jhe -
I forgot about those hills in Lexington. Odd that I can get so much better reception. Of course, I am on the top of a hill with 15 miles of ocean between me and Boston.

You're right about these tuners not being ready for prime time. It drives my wife crazy when we get digital breakups. We get them a lot when there are high winds and the tuner always takes a moment to recover. Seems to me that tuners should be designed to eliminate that sort of things.

Cable doesn't solve the problem with the 3410A at least. I get a lot of audio drop outs over the cable HD stations. The video stays rock steady, but sometimes the 5.1 flickers on and off when I record the signal.

Originally posted by MrHifi
jhe,

i have a setup very similar to yours. TCA DTC 100, LG3410A, Sony KDL-32XBR950. i use a channel master rotor that syncs and has a remote like yours. All the tuners mess up as you described when the wind blows. I am up about 48 ft. but there are 75 ft. trees within 500 ft. The DD unlocks and resyncs to the point where i turn off the DD audio and use a VCR,s analog audio for the audio source. Tif one could stabilize the audio I could live with the temporary pixelization.

As soon as the wind drops below the point that the branches move, everything is rock steady. If you ask me, it's a conspiracy to sign up more cable customers. NEVER!!!!!!!!!

I have had to do exactly as you have, re the sound, back when our local WB station was on low power. Now everything works if I am home to aim the antenna just right for each channel.

I love the Channel Master remote, but with it losing sync so easily and having almost no braking action, I plan to switch to a HyGain or Yaesu rotor perhaps in the spring. I may switch to a larger diameter mast then too to help with the wind flexing.

I hope LG gets their bugs fixed and gets the new 5th gen chip into a new model recorder tuner by summer too. Maybe then things will become stable enough. I can save the LG's I have now for my more solid channels.

Originally posted by MichaelBate
Problem with PBS-HD and Guide grid

When I do an EZ-Scan, the local OTA PBS-HD station (2-2) does not show up. Yet when I select 2-2 from the remote, it comes in loud and clear.

But I have found no way to add 2-2 to the TV Guide grid. This means that it is not possible to schedule recordings of future broadcast.

Does anyone have a workaround for this? Thanks in advance if you do.

Michael Bate

When I got my first LG I had to remap many guide channels to get them so I could record. They would read physical channels not virtual and these would not record in timer mode.

Now with unit 2 it is mostly jsut the sub channels that are off.

For Boston area I remapped the analog guide WGBH to 2-1 and moved the WGBH-DT guide to 2-2. That works great. Unfortunately there is no data for the WGBX subs other than the analog clone.

Also note for Boston area: I keep all my analogs disabled in the channel map. The guide data downloads from several of the digital channels as far as I can tell.

You really do have to remap so you can record, and far as I can tell the guide doesn't care what numbers you assign to a channel.

Hyrax,

Things are better than they used to be when channel 30(4) was on 4 kw and behind a hill. Lucky in those days I could get it with a Parascope antenna, at least some nights.

To those with guide mapping problems around
Boston: Keep in mind the following:

1 EZ scan is best used by beginners the first time. For those wit rotors it is a virtually useless feature. It makes a mess. Better to learn your real channel numbers for digital and enable them in edit mode. This edit page shows only physical channels and is only for the tuner. No sub channels exist, it is just a tuner frequency. This physical channel can also always be used to tune a channel even if you leave it turned off. You need it on if you want to tune using the psip virtual channel.

It seems only timer recordings can't use physical channels and must use the fake virtual channel numbers. Anyway these physical channels are for the tuner only and nothing to do with the guide.

2 Then the guide data sends its stuff and has some channels right and others wrong as to number. The channel name identifies what it thinks it is sending you guide data for. To use it you must change any errors to show the virtual number (ie old analog number and proper sub channel) for anything to record via the guide.

When editing the guide data channel you can put in any number you wish including the real physical number like 19, 20, 43 etc, but to record you must use the virtual niumber and dash number that matches the guide data, and the corresponding phisical number must be on in the tuners map.

Some channels here have analog guide data and digital. These can be left alone if they happen to match. In the case of WGBH the numbers must be fixed since we have 2-1 and 2-2 and by using the analog guide data mapped to 2-1 we get both subs covered.

For other channels there is only analog data so I have mapped all these from the -0 numbers to -1 to cover the digital channels I actually use or would want to record.

Then when everything is set right recordings will still fail when channel 43 decides to remap to 80-3 instead of 44-1 as I have seen late at night!

Originally posted by Dave Vaughn
NS324...I have Comcast as well in California and I don't get the greatest of signals from cable on the HD side. I only get INHD 1 and 2 and the NBC feed as well as ESPN2. The local ABC, CBS and HDNET feeds have too weak of signal to come in.

Dave Dave,

I found that I have to attenuate the cable signal before feeding it to the 3410A. When I first connected the cable to the 3410A, the unit found a few of the available channels. After attenuating the signal, it found the rest. The indicated signal strength (probably should be called signal quality) improved after adding the attenuator.

This may just be my situation because I also need to attenuate the signal before connecting the cable to the Motorola 6208 to prevent dropouts on some of the HD channels.

I have a 10dB attenuator...I will give that a try! Thanks.

Dave

This attenuation need has been discussed extensively. Most of us have learned to attenuate the signal going to the 3410.

The attenuator didn't work...I lost all signal. I have also tried a signal booster (motorolla) and that didn't boost the signal at all. I think the signal needs to be increased at the junction box on the street. The only channel that I am missing is HDNET and the Bay Area CBS feed....I get CBS OTA from Sacramento with no problem.

The only problem that I have is when the unit is first powered on, I get some horizontal lines going from south to north on the TV when outputting 1080i from the STB, there are no lines with 720P. After the STB warmes up (15 minutes or so), the horizontile lines go away. I think there may be a cold solder problem somewhere. My 90 days is up on the 13th of December....You think I should get a new one from LG?

Dave

I am currently running the following 1394 chain:

G4(VDVHS)<->HD300(169)<->HMDH5U<->AVX1

I would like to put a 3410 into this chain but am told that it will not work, except by itself with only the AVX1/HD300, i.e. introduction of the 5U or a PC will crash the 3410 on the firewire chain. Does anyone know if LG is going to fix this problem? OS upgrade? rumor?

Originally posted by Compromise
I am currently running the following 1394 chain:

G4(VDVHS)<->HD300(169)<->HMDH5U<->AVX1

I would like to put a 3410 into this chain but am told that it will not work, except by itself with only the AVX1/HD300, i.e. introduction of the 5U or a PC will crash the 3410 on the firewire chain. Does anyone know if LG is going to fix this problem? OS upgrade? rumor?

The 3410a only supports two IEEE-1394 devices and only specific devices (DVHS decks and some DV camcorders). That is how the unit was designed and I suspect (but have not heard this from LG) that the reason for this was to simplify the 1394 interface. There are a lot of 1394 software related items that did not need to be included in the way they implemented their DVHS interface.

Anyway, I would be truly shocked if there is ever another firmware update for the 3410a, let alone one that added any functionality. The 3410a production run has already been completed and the remaining units are the ones that just haven't been sold yet.

As I undestand it, placeing the HD300 on one of the 3410a's 1394 port and the AVX1 on the other 1394 port will allow the 3410a to record off of the AVX-1. If so, then maybe an easy solution would be to use a 1394 A/B switch (about $40) so that you could chain the VDVHS into the HD300 and then break the link with the A/B switch when you wanted to use the 3410a.

Can a scusi 16 hard disk raid array be attached to this?

How a bout a 16 input scusi switch connected to the array?

Took the plunge. Observations, Comcast clear QAM details and 2 questions for the group.

This is my first post although I have been following this thread for several months. The many tips, problems and workarounds have been very beneficial for my buying decision. This thread has been very interesting.

I purchased my LST-3410A on Saturday (11/27/04) from the Good Guys in Sunnyvale, CA. I paid $699. They had no units in stock at the Sunnyvale store but they had a number of units in their Bay Area warehouse. My unit arrived at the Sunnyvale store on Monday (11/29/04) morning.

My 3410A is installed on the top inside shelf of an open rack (Bell'Oggetti AR-711 tower). The 3410A sits on top of a seldom-used DVD player. There is nothing on top of the 3410A. There is 8 inches of clearance all around the unit - sides, rear and top. I stuck half-inch rubber feet (Radio Shack #64-2342) under the feet of the 3410A to raise it for better air circulation underneath the unit.

The 3410A is connected to an OTA roof-top antenna and to Comcast cable (expanded basic service with no STB). Optical audio output is going to a Denon AVR-5600 receiver. I am using the 1080i RGBHV output to drive a Philips 55PP9701 CRT RPTV.

HD looks fantastic, much better than my old DTC-100. SDTV looks good and even the analog cable channels are decent. I did not see any of the brightness variation problem that MrHifi experienced with his earlier units.

My 3410A runs cool and the hard drive is very quiet. Even after recording all night, the chassis was barely warm to the touch. I felt the top, sides, rear and underneath. Cool as a cucumber.

In case anyone is interested in the version numbers:
S/W: MP1.15
H/W: 10.4
DB: 4.15
Guide: 7.1.20
Date: 02:51PM Apr.06.2004
S/N: 451-350707XX

The 3410A took over a day looking for the Guide data on the cable input. During that time several messages were displayed about "no Guide data received, check your settings and cables". Comcast goes to great lengths to strip out the VBI that carries the Guide data, so I was not surprised that the 3410A did not find the Guide data on the cable input. After 24+ hours, the 3410A decided to scan the OTA input. The Guide data is available on one of the analog NTSC OTA channels. After the Guide found the OTA stream, it reported 7 channel lineups for my area. I selected the best match. The next day I had about 4 days of Guide data available. Unfortunately, many of the channels are not mapped correctly and several channels are not listed at all. I will need to edit the channel mapping.

I don't plan to use the Guide to program recordings until I have experimented for a while and have developed some level of comfort with using the Guide for recording. In the meantime, I will manually program recording sessions since many members have reported problems when using the Guide to record.

SF Bay Area Comcast "clear QAM" notes:
I have Comcast standard cable (basic + expanded) with no set-top box in my house in Sunnyvale CA. Comcast transmits many of the local HDTV and SD DTV channels using "clear QAM" (a.k.a. unencrypted or unscrambled). Using the clear QAM tuner in the LST-3410A I can tune the following Comcast cable HDTV channels (the referenced Channel numbers below are Comcast cable channel numbers):

KNTV (NBC 11) Channel 703 QAM 33.1
KRON (HDNet) Channel 704 QAM 74.8
KPIX (CBS 5) Channel 705 QAM 74.7
KGO (ABC 7) Channel 707 QAM 99.1
KQED (PBS 9) Channel 709 QAM 99.2

The cable HDTV channels look as good as the OTA channels. I have not noticed any signal drop-outs with the cable but I have with the OTA channels. For these five channels, I will use the cable version since they should be more robust than the OTA channels (no transmitter problems, multi-path problems, etc.). Too bad Comcast doesn't carry the local UPN HDTV signal for watching Star Trek Enterprise. I get quite a few signal drop-outs with this OTA channel (45-1), at least with my DTC-100. Perhaps the 3410A will have better luck.

Additionally, I found the following SD clear QAM channels on Comcast cable:
KQED Encore (Channel 189) QAM 99.3
KQED World (Channel 190) QAM 99.4
KQED Life (Channel 191) QAM 99.5
KQED Kids (Channel 192) QAM 99.6
ABC News Now (Channel ?) QAM 99.7
Outdoor Life (Channel 404) QAM 72.12
TV Land East Coast feed QAM 72.8
Bravo (Channel ?) QAM 77.1
Home & Garden TV (Channel ?) QAM 77.11

I hope that this clear QAM channel information might be useful to others in the Bay Area.


Questions for the group:

1) My 3410A consistently powers-up in the wee hours of the morning by itself. Each time this has occurred (pretty much every day), I checked the Scheduled to Record list the previous evening and it was empty. I shut the unit off (Good-Bye) and made sure that I did not press any other keys. In the morning the 3410A was on again. There were no error messages or Guide messages displayed. Nothing was recorded (nothing new in the Program List) and no DVR messages were displayed. I don't have any other remotes that might be sending signals during the night, but just in case, I blocked the IR detector on the front panel. The 3410A was still on in the morning. The 3410A behaves itself during the day. Has anyone else experienced this odd behavior?

2) Is there a way to resume playback of a Program? Say I am playing back a Program and stop playback then use another 3410A function (like watching live HDTV). Later, I would like to resume playback at the point were I left off. You know, just like most DVD players. I thought that the Bookmark feature (owner's guide page 49) would work for this, but the bookmark does not persist after playback stops. I looked at Clip Edit but this is a different beast and is not the same as resuming playback of a program at a later time. Am I missing something?


Thanks!

First of all, congratulations on taking the plunge. The LST-3410a is a good deck once you climb the learning curve (and if the data coming in is correct). Nice review, too!

I'm going to speculate on both of your questions since I don't have the 3410a in front of me. So, take these as questimates...

1) You've taken care of most of the issues I could think of. One possibility is that you are taking small power-hits at night. I didn't see a UPS in your description. The next time you want to feed the A/V system, a good UPS for the LST-3410a is a nice "snack".

2) Try hitting the "play" button. Depending upon what else has been used the play button sometimes returns you to the spot you left off. It is one of the obvious things but it took me a while to figure that out.

Andy

Pixel King,

Are you able to tune into INHD1 and INHD2? I think they are on channels 719 and 720 on a comcast HD STB if that helps?

First of all, congratulations on taking the plunge. The LST-3410a is a good deck once you climb the learning curve (and if the data coming in is correct). Nice review, too!

I'm going to speculate on both of your questions since I don't have the 3410a in front of me. So, take these as questimates...

1) You've taken care of most of the issues I could think of. One possibility is that you are taking small power-hits at night. I didn't see a UPS in your description. The next time you want to feed the A/V system, a good UPS for the LST-3410a is a nice "snack".

2) Try hitting the "play" button. Depending upon what else has been used the play button sometimes returns you to the spot you left off. It is one of the obvious things but it took me a while to figure that out.

Andy

Hi Andy,

Thanks for the prompt reply and the kind words on my review.

Regarding my 3410A that has insomnia, I agree that it might be a power-line glitch. I might try to borrow a UPS to see if that helps.

Regarding the Resume feature - you made my day! It works!! The feature has some limitations. Namely, if you use any DVR functions after stopping playback, the Resume Play feature will start with the most recent program that was recorded or modified. Which may not be the program that you wanted to Resume. But, the feature will be useful in most cases. The 3410A is rich with undocumented feature such as this.

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

- Steve (aka PixelKing)

Are you able to tune into INHD1 and INHD2? I think they are on channels 719 and 720 on a comcast HD STB if that helps?

Hi styxfix,

I believe that Sunnyvale Comcast scrambles Discovery HD Theater (Ch 722), Fox Sports Network, INHD (Ch 719) and INHD2 (Ch 720). Some Comcast regions transmit these channels in the clear, but not Sunnyvale.

Do you know the QAM channel numbers for Ch 719 and Ch 720? If so, I will give them another shot.

- Steve (aka PixelKing)

Steve,
On your cable signal...how far does the meter read? I have comcast in Vacaville, and I only barely get a "good" signal. I think my unit may be slightly defective and have thought of sending it in for service over Christmas since I won't need to record anything during that time. I have also thought of buying a new one at Good Guys to see if I get similar results and if so, then I won't have to send it in and I can just return the one bought at Good Guys within 14 days and then someone will get a screaming deal on an open box buy!

Dave

Steve,
On your cable signal...how far does the meter read? I have comcast in Vacaville, and I only barely get a "good" signal. I think my unit may be slightly defective and have thought of sending it in for service over Christmas since I won't need to record anything during that time. I have also thought of buying a new one at Good Guys to see if I get similar results and if so, then I won't have to send it in and I can just return the one bought at Good Guys within 14 days and then someone will get a screaming deal on an open box buy!

Dave

Hi Dave,

All of my Comcast CADTV channels show the signal strength same on the 3410A's display - right in the middle of the "Normal" range. The CADTV channels look great, with the exception of 33.1 KNTV (Comcast 703) that looks terrible except when HDTV material is shown.

Based on my observations, the signal strength for CADTV channels may not have as much meaning as it does for OTA ATSC channels. Just my opinion.

- Steve

Steve,
In Vacaville, I can't get HDNET or the CBS feed (channel 5) because the signal is slightly lower than it is for KNTV, ESPN2, INHD 1 & 2 & 3, HBO and SHOWTIME. Another problem that i have with my unit is at 1080i for the first 15 minutes that the unit is powered on, I get some horizontile lines that go up the screen. I think it is a cold solder joint because once the unit is warmed up, it goes away.

Dave

Ive had the 3410 since april. It has worked well to this point other than a few guide issues. I am using this for OTA HD recording only. I have Comcast basic cable, and when I scan for digital channels it wont pick up the local HD channels. I thought these were supposed to be unscrambled. Im in the PG CO MD outside of DC and the local HD is in the 180 numbers. I am getting some digital channels but most are worthless. Is comcast local HD not in the clear in certain areas?

Steve,
In Vacaville, I can't get HDNET or the CBS feed (channel 5) because the signal is slightly lower than it is for KNTV, ESPN2, INHD 1 & 2 & 3, HBO and SHOWTIME. Another problem that i have with my unit is at 1080i for the first 15 minutes that the unit is powered on, I get some horizontile lines that go up the screen. I think it is a cold solder joint because once the unit is warmed up, it goes away.

Dave

Hi Dave,

Too bad about the horizontal lines. Some video DACs and decoders can have temperature dependant problems such as you describe. Hopefully this problem does not get any worse over time.

- Steve

Ive had the 3410 since april. It has worked well to this point other than a few guide issues. I am using this for OTA HD recording only. I have Comcast basic cable, and when I scan for digital channels it wont pick up the local HD channels. I thought these were supposed to be unscrambled. Im in the PG CO MD outside of DC and the local HD is in the 180 numbers. I am getting some digital channels but most are worthless. Is comcast local HD not in the clear in certain areas?

Hi tjfounder,

Comcast Cable HDTV is NOT available in all areas. It depends on the local Comcast provider.

To check availability for your area:

http://www.comcast.com/home.html
Click on: "What's in my area?"
Enter your zip code.
Click on: "Check availability"

If it shows an entry for High-Definition Television, then you have some level of cable HDTV service available.

Next, you need to click on some more links to find the specific details, such as the Comcast channel numbers and the levels of service available.

Click on: "My account" (make sure you have set up a zip code)
Click on: "Local information"
Click on: "Comcast HDTV"

This should bring up a page that shows the details of cable HDTV service for your local area. For example, by local Comcast HDTV page is:
http://www.comcast.com/Support/Corp406/LocalHomepage/Page1.asp?LocResult

In the fine print on this page you should be able to see HDTV broadcast feeds are included in standard cable service. These are the cable HDTV channels that are sent "in the clear" (i.e. clear QAM).

Note: In some areas, even though Comcast has HDTV service available, the local HDTV page may not show any useful information. For example, I tried Lansdowne MD (zip 21227). The Comcast page shows that HDTV cable service is available but the "local information" page shows only a lame blurp about how great HDTV is. Not very useful.

Comcast will generally NOT provide the actual QAM channel numbers, you will need to discover them yourself. Remember - the "Comcast channel numbers" are not the QAM channel numbers used by the 3410A. Comcast cable channels above 135 have no meaning to the 3410A's QAM tuner. You must know the actual clear QAM channel numbers (CADTV): XXX-yyy, where XXX is between 1-135 and yyy is between 1 and 999. Using the 3410A's tuner to discover all the CADTV channels that you receive is a tedious process. It took me several hours to scan all of the CADTV channels and determine which channels are what.

I hope that this helps.

- Steve

Originally posted by PixelKing
Hi tjfounder,

Comcast Cable HDTV is NOT available in all areas. It depends on the local Comcast provider.

To check availability for your area:

http://www.comcast.com/home.html
Click on: "What's in my area?"
Enter your zip code.
Click on: "Check availability"

If it shows an entry for High-Definition Television, then you have some level of cable HDTV service available.

Next, you need to click on some more links to find the specific details, such as the Comcast channel numbers and the levels of service available.

Click on: "My account" (make sure you have set up a zip code)
Click on: "Local information"
Click on: "Comcast HDTV"

This should bring up a page that shows the details of cable HDTV service for your local area. For example, by local Comcast HDTV page is:
http://www.comcast.com/Support/Corp406/LocalHomepage/Page1.asp?LocResult

In the fine print on this page you should be able to see HDTV broadcast feeds are included in standard cable service. These are the cable HDTV channels that are sent "in the clear" (i.e. clear QAM).

Note: In some areas, even though Comcast has HDTV service available, the local HDTV page may not show any useful information. For example, I tried Lansdowne MD (zip 21227). The Comcast page shows that HDTV cable service is available but the "local information" page shows only a lame blurp about how great HDTV is. Not very useful.

Comcast will generally NOT provide the actual QAM channel numbers, you will need to discover them yourself. Remember - the "Comcast channel numbers" are not the QAM channel numbers used by the 3410A. Comcast cable channels above 135 have no meaning to the 3410A's QAM tuner. You must know the actual clear QAM channel numbers (CADTV): XXX-yyy, where XXX is between 1-135 and yyy is between 1 and 999. Using the 3410A's tuner to discover all the CADTV channels that you receive is a tedious process. It took me several hours to scan all of the CADTV channels and determine which channels are what.

I hope that this helps.

- Steve


I have Comcast HDTV in my area. I found the cbs abc and nbc HD channels after some manual searching Didnt find fox yet. However they are very weak and the ezscan didnt pick them up. . Signal strength only shows 20% on the meter. OTA is still the better option right now. I have solid OTA except for very windy days. I might try a cable signal booster later. Thanks.

I have problems on windy and rainy days. I've tried lots of approaches but can not resolve the dropout problem.

Art,
The wind and rain really plays havoc on digital signals. What antenna are you using? The Channel Masters seem to work the best for multipath and poor weather combinations.

Dave

Originally posted by PixelKing
Hi Andy,
............................................................ .......................
Regarding the Resume feature - you made my day! It works!! The feature has some limitations. Namely, if you use any DVR functions after stopping playback, the Resume Play feature will start with the most recent program that was recorded or modified. Which may not be the program that you wanted to Resume. But, the feature will be useful in most cases. The 3410A is rich with undocumented feature such as this.

Thanks for the help, I really appreciate it.

- Steve (aka PixelKing)

Instead of hitting the play button use the menus.

Hit "Proglist" and then instead of just "select" to play the hightlighted program, use the down arrow so "Play" is highlighted.

Then select "Play" and another submenu shows with a choice of "Start" and "Prev"

Start will play from the beginning. Prev will do exactly the same if you have not played this before. If you have it is like a hidden bookmark and play resumes from where you were.

This is just like the hard play button described except you have a bookmark for each selection so you can do other things and resume any program from where you last left off in that program. Not just the one you were playing most recently!

Don't see this feature anywhere in the manual and I used the box for a couple of months before finding out what it did. Now I use it regularly.

Originally posted by MrHifi
I have problems on windy and rainy days. I've tried lots of approaches but can not resolve the dropout problem.

These problems are solved easily, but it gets expensive.

1 Use a better tuner. I am hoping the LG with the 5th gen chips will fix most of this when it comes out! For now I don't know of anything better.

2 Use a very directional antenna. I use two yagi Blakes side by side to make a super sharp beam.

3 Use a tower not a mast. You must try to keep your antenna from blowing in the wind! ( I have a tower but on very windy days it helps me to switch to my old attic antenna when the signals are local enough, since wind does not affect it.)

4 Use a tall tower or mast to keep the antenna above the trees! This is probably the most difficult to do. Big enough towers get pretty expensive. I gave up and my tower is only 19 ft way below the tree tops.

These are the only improvement methods I know of for wind and rain, but everything is a tradeoff: For example a less directional antenna that moves in the wind may work better than a more directional one that is mounted the same way. But if the antenna can be held steady, a more directional one should be less affected by the rain or snow induced multipath.

One other point: I use a rotor and on wet days I don't get any channels at the same direction as I use for dry ground days. The wetter the trees and ground the worse the multipath and I have to aim to null this! So every day is different.

Finally I have a dish mover rigged as a tilter. On wet days it can help to tilt the antenna upward to attenuate some of the ground reflections.

I can get solid glitch free signals good for one evening on any one of my channels that are local. The remaining problem is the LG doesn't know how to aim my antenna when I am doing timer recordings and I am not home!

There are computer controlled rotors, but what is needed is that plus a computer interface to a spectrum analyzer and a program to seek the best signal for the desired channel automatically and an interface to the serial port maybe on the LG so the computer knows which channel it wants!

...and congratulations to all for passing the 100 page point for this thread - at least I think it is "congratulations" and not "condolenses"...

Instead of hitting the play button use the menus.

Hit "Proglist" and then instead of just "select" to play the hightlighted program, use the down arrow so "Play" is highlighted.

Then select "Play" and another submenu shows with a choice of "Start" and "Prev"

Start will play from the beginning. Prev will do exactly the same if you have not played this before. If you have it is like a hidden bookmark and play resumes from where you were.

This is just like the hard play button described except you have a bookmark for each selection so you can do other things and resume any program from where you last left off in that program. Not just the one you were playing most recently!

Don't see this feature anywhere in the manual and I used the box for a couple of months before finding out what it did. Now I use it regularly.

Hi jhe,

You have discovered the hidden Resume Play feature that I have been searching for! Your method works great. If LGE had named the menu selection "Resume" instead of "Prev" it would have made more sense. Also, it would have been nice for LGE to actually include this feature in the Owner's Manual.

Many thanks to jhe and Andy for the help on the Resume Play feature!

- Steve (PixelKing)

Originally posted by PixelKing
You have discovered the hidden Resume Play feature that I have been searching for! Your method works great. If LGE had named the menu selection "Resume" instead of "Prev" it would have made more sense. Also, it would have been nice for LGE to actually include this feature in the Owner's Manual.

The owner's manual is horrid and omits many, many features.

I almost returned my box without even connecting it up because the manual makes absolutely no mention of the fact that you can manually setup a recording, with a start and stop time, as you can with any VCR, rather than use the Guide - until I found out about the feature here...

Since you guys have uncovered this hidden "resume", maybe you can help me figure out how to use bookmarks.

Hitting the timeshift button during playback of a recorded program or a timeshift in progress placess a bookmark on the navigation bar. I just can't figure out how to to skip directly to the bookmarks. Anybody know?

Diid anyone elses 3410-a lock up on them last night? My guiide wasn't working and I had to reset the unit this morning. At least my recordings didn't disappear, but the timer was locked up and was off by about 16 hours...the unit thought it was 3pm yesterday!

Dave

Will the 1.15 firmware (vs 1.12) reduce the frequency of lockups where the guide and VCR+ screen cannot be accessed? Sometimes I get the "Invalid channel (AV1, AV2, & HDD) for schedule recording" message with the lockup, sometimes not. Pulling the plug for a second or two gets it working again. I'm debating whether to send it in and take a chance on winding up with worse problems.

I have 1.15 firmware and have had the AV1 pop up on me twice in the 2 months I have had it. It's pretty easy to get rid of- but I did miss one recording....... don't know if that helps!

Hi Dave,

I didn't have any problems last night. My unit is healthy this morning - clock and Guide are normal. Just my usual problem where the 3410A wakes up early in the morning by itself.

Sounds like the typical lock-up problem that many other members have reported. The problem is thought to be corrupt Guide data or a firmware bug or a hardware bug (or a combination).

Is your unit running version MP1.15 of the S/W? As I recall, 1.14 and 1.15 were thought to fix some of the Guide problems, although members have reported occasional lock-ups even with S/W 1.15.

You could think about sending your unit for repair due to the horizontal lines (POST #1973) and the lock-ups, but even "repaired" units have experienced lock-ups according to other members.

- Steve (PixelKing)

I fixed the horizontile lines problem...I am using the DVI out now. I was using it for my Denon 3910, but I actually prefer the 480P signal over the DVI signal. I have until the 13th to decide to send it in or not. The only problem is that I don't have the original box since I got it on an open box buy...I worry about sending it in for sevice without the original box!

Dave

PS I am runniing firmware 1.15

Originally posted by kucharsk
The owner's manual is horrid and omits many, many features.


Here is another feature that I like to use.

I hit the pause or timeshift. Then after 1 hour or so I start watching
the show from the start. But I have hit the stop button by mistake
and guess what only the last half hour is on disk. Opus I lost the
start of the show and now can only watch the last half hour.

But if you hit the record button after the pause or timeshift, then
if you hit the stop by mistake the unit will tell not that you must
stop the record first before you can stop the timeshift. And if you go
to the end of the show |> button and hit recordend it will save the
total show not just the last half hout.

Hay all,

Here is another feature I found by mistake last night.

I was watching a record show from disk. At 9:00 pm a
show was comming on TV that I wanted to watch so I
hit the STOP button. I started watching the TV show
and at the commercial I hit the PLAY button, just to see
what would happen. And the unit started playing the other
show from disk where I last stopped it. I did not know
that you could just hit the play. I always would go to
the recorded show list pick the show 'play' then 'prev'
it to start it from where I last stopped.

I even did timeshift in and out and when I hit play it
started the recorded disk show from the resume point.

Then I even turned off the unit and power back up,
hit the PLAY and again it started the recorded disk show
from the continue point.

Very cool.... My wife did think I was nuts when I demo it
to her. See I was watching NCIS from disk during commercials
on the other TV show, watched both during that hour.

mstanl

Originally posted by Marc Alexander
Since you guys have uncovered this hidden "resume", maybe you can help me figure out how to use bookmarks.

Hitting the timeshift button during playback of a recorded program or a timeshift in progress placess a bookmark on the navigation bar. I just can't figure out how to to skip directly to the bookmarks. Anybody know?

I havn't used these yet since they seem to be transient, but the manual says to use the green and blue buttons for going to the bookmarks.

Is there anyway to setup the 3410A to have a timed recording to go directly to a IEEE-1394 device (my JVC D-VHS deck)? I'm able to setup timed analog recordings via the S-Video output, but would like to be able to be able to setup timed HD recordings via iLink. I've tried a few things, but none seem to work.

I wonder if anyone else is having problems recording HD from their cable. HD If I watch a show and record it at the same time, I find a number of 'digital problems' in the recorded video that I did not see when I watched the show live. The problem is that cable channels will look fine and sound fine when I watch them but the recorded show will have major video problems and frequent (very frequent) audio drop outs.

The signal strength is in the middle (Normal) range for my cable HD stations but is about 50% higher for my OTA stations. My OTA stations do not have the exact same problem. However, I have noticed even with a good OTA signal that if I see a small glitch (say on a rainy, windy day) in a live show, the same glitch is a lot more noticable in the recorded show. There was a Patriots football game on a very stormy night where this happened a lot.

Does this sound like a problem I should consider getting LG to try to fix?

Tim

Originally posted by Hyrax
Is there anyway to setup the 3410A to have a timed recording to go directly to a IEEE-1394 device (my JVC D-VHS deck)? I'm able to setup timed analog recordings via the S-Video output, but would like to be able to be able to setup timed HD recordings via iLink. I've tried a few things, but none seem to work.

No. According to the way the 3410a was built, timer HD recordings must be recorded to the hard drive.

Now, having said that, there might be a workaround. If you use the timer on the 3410a to start that device and then have a Radio Shack programmer (about $10) start the DVHS deck, you should be able to do what you want to do.

Use channel zero on the programmer and you MUST turn the DVHS deck off with the DVHS deck set to the I-Link channel you plan to use. The 3410a must start-up at least 5 seconds before the DVHS deck. Also this only works for one program at a time (although I guess you could buy multiple programmers for multiple days).

I have never tried this "timer" recording setup, so I'm going only by past experience. Please verify this works before counting on it.

Andy -
I don't think that will work either. As far as I can tell you need to manually press the record button in the 1394 popup to start recording. If the 1394 device is not turned on, the 3410A either tells you to turn it on or turns it on.

The very odd thing is that I can have the D_VHS deck monitor the 3410A and use the D-VHS deck to display what is coming over the iLink connection, but some sort of hand shaking is missing that allows the D-VHS deck to record what it is monitoring. It is like they've gone out of their way to make it impossible to do timed digital recordings.

This isn't a big deal, except that you've got to always go thru a 2 step operation if you wish to put a timed recording to tape. It is easy to manually put stuff directly to tape, I wish it were as easy to have the machines do it automatically

Originally posted by Hyrax
Andy -
I don't think that will work either. As far as I can tell you need to manually press the record button in the 1394 popup to start recording. If the 1394 device is not turned on, the 3410A either tells you to turn it on or turns it on.

The very odd thing is that I can have the D_VHS deck monitor the 3410A and use the D-VHS deck to display what is coming over the iLink connection, but some sort of hand shaking is missing that allows the D-VHS deck to record what it is monitoring. It is like they've gone out of their way to make it impossible to do timed digital recordings.

This isn't a big deal, except that you've got to always go thru a 2 step operation if you wish to put a timed recording to tape. It is easy to manually put stuff directly to tape, I wish it were as easy to have the machines do it automatically

Yes, you are absolutely right. I was trying to get around this limitation by using the Radio Shack programmer. What it does is act like the DVHS's remote control at a specific time. The tricky part is having the DVHS power-up already on the proper I.Link channel. After that the programmer just automagically sends the "record" code out to the DVHS unit.

The funny thing about this setup is that the user ends up with two recordings of the same show (one of the 3410a hard drive and one on the DVHS unit) - assuming that this would work.

I'm really hoping that a better way of doing all this is a JVC HM-DT100. Unfortunately given the lack of reviews or having one in front of me, I don't know that answer yet.

Andy,
I guess I don't understand the RS Programmer. If it works as I seem to understand your description, I should be able have send the 1394 signal to the 3410A at the required time and then have it 'press' the D-VHS record button. If the programmer will do both of these things, I should be able create a tape without also creating the recording on the HDD.

I'll check it out. This will work, I believe.
Thanks,
Tim

Originally posted by Hyrax
I wonder if anyone else is having problems recording HD from their cable. HD If I watch a show and record it at the same time, I find a number of 'digital problems' in the recorded video that I did not see when I watched the show live. The problem is that cable channels will look fine and sound fine when I watch them but the recorded show will have major video problems and frequent (very frequent) audio drop outs.

The signal strength is in the middle (Normal) range for my cable HD stations but is about 50% higher for my OTA stations. My OTA stations do not have the exact same problem. However, I have noticed even with a good OTA signal that if I see a small glitch (say on a rainy, windy day) in a live show, the same glitch is a lot more noticable in the recorded show. There was a Patriots football game on a very stormy night where this happened a lot.

Does this sound like a problem I should consider getting LG to try to fix?

Tim


Im not only having trouble recording Cable HD Im having trouble viewing it. This has been the only disapointment with the 3410A since I bought it. I could never find the local clear channels with ezscan. I found them through manual searching but the signals either breakup, or I get a minutes worth of good feed and a total dropout. They never show more than 30 % on the signal meter. Since I get good OTA its not a showshopper but it would be nice to ditch the antenna.