Certainly! This would be a vaulable resource, and maybe just the thing needed to get people going on hacking these things.As I already had an analog DVD/DVR with TVGOS before I just recently got an HD-DVR with it, I was pretty used to a lot of the little "in's and out's" of it. There are probably a lot of little helpful things many people could learn about it, if they checked out some of the threads over in the DVD Recorder area, like I initially did (and still do, from time to time).

If there is sufficient interest, I will try to build a FAQ page for our units and TVGOS.

Let me know.

A FAQ would be very useful since many of the same Q and A's repeat many times on this thread. I don't know how to create one but hope we all have way to contribute to it. I've posted my experiences on previous messages but not easy to find in this thread.

You will be amazed at the number of digital channels you get. I get all the OTA LA channels, and PBS in the OC with a $25 Radio Shack UHF antenna. If you have an old VHS/UHF antenna, I suggest you replace it. I suggest you go to the antenna web site, and find out best direction to point the antenna.
Just add .1 to the analog channel number to get the equivalent digital - 2.1, 4.1, etc. Also, several stations have multiple subchannels - 30.1, 30.2, and 30.3, and all three PBS channels have them.


Thanks Ray,
I'm already getting the free OTA channels with a Samsung receiver and also have had great succes. I was mostly concerned about the "TV guide" functions and if they worked. It sounds like they work fine.

One more questuion
What's the story with channel 13, UPN I think? That's the only channel I don't get.

Anyone have a phone number for someone in the Los Angeles area in charge of the tvgos stream, like at pbs? Be nice to have a number/person to talk to whenever this gets screwed up.

Thanks Ray,
I'm already getting the free OTA channels with a Samsung receiver and also have had great succes. I was mostly concerned about the "TV guide" functions and if they worked. It sounds like they work fine.

One more questuion
What's the story with channel 13, UPN I think? That's the only channel I don't get.

I get UPN on 13.1, and channel 9 on 9.1. When I first setup my recorder, I had trouble with 13.1. It is more difficult to get since it is at the upper end of the UHF band. Signal strength would wander from 0 to 70 percent, and that problem went away when I replaced my antenna with a new one. Another possible reason for not receiving it, is that you are using a device between the antenna and recorder that is blocking the signal.

I just spent an hour with various people at Sony, trying to get them to contact TV Guide.
The last person I spoke to said I should tune to the PBS station and turn unit off for 24 hours. He thinks problem may have been caused by Guide update, and claims that he had same problem in the past. He insisted that the recorder will download from the channel it is tuned to. I just set mine on OTA PBS channel 58, instead of Comcast channel 3, which has been the source of guide stuff. Hope that works since I still have the 24 hour message.

Thanks Ray for the suggestion, I just set mine to OTA 58 as well. Hopefully, it would work.
Eric

Can you hookup satellite to it? I don`t see any imput stations to put it on.

Can you hookup satellite to it? I don`t see any imput stations to put it on.


It doesn't work with satellite, only OTA antenna and cable.

Can you hookup satellite to it? I don`t see any imput stations to put it on.

The DHG recorder is designed for Cable and OTA and really not good choice for satellite since you could only record what the satellite box is tuned to.

I just spent an hour with various people at Sony, trying to get them to contact TV Guide.
The last person I spoke to said I should tune to the PBS station and turn unit off for 24 hours. He insisted that the recorder will download from the channel it is tuned to.

Does anyone have any evidence to back this up? When mine is turned off, I sometimes hear it switching from OTA to cable, making me think it's searching for a guide channel.

The Unofficial TV Guide On Screen Help Guide
http://tvgos.theabsolutenuts.com/

I just found this site and urge everyone to go there since it has lots of useful information. The site focuses on Televisions with the TV guide feature but the stuff applies equally to any device that receives the guide.

The DHG recorder is designed for Cable and OTA and really not good choice for satellite since you could only record what the satellite box is tuned to. I'm pretty sure I remember somebody earlier in this thread that said they hooked up their satellite receiver to the cable input and it was picked up as a channel on the scan. I don't remember if it was channel 3 or what. (I have yet to try it myself, but I'll get around to it). I dont know about any other receivers, but on my Dish 322 you can program different channels to go on (or record to a VCR) just by going to those shows in the guide and highlighting them. Or you can manually program it to record a show regularly. Then all that would have to be done is to set the manual timer in the Sony.

I'm pretty sure I remember somebody earlier in this thread that said they hooked up their satellite receiver to the cable input and it was picked up as a channel on the scan. I don't remember if it was channel 3 or what.

You must be rich. Who would buy such an expensive HD PVR to record low resolution mono channel 3 modulated TV signal from a satellite receiver? You know that HD RF modulators are only available for high dollar TV studios or stations. satellite receiver's RF modulated output is < 300 lines of resolution and horrible mono sound.

No, no, no - I use it for OTA. And possible cable in the future. I'm not that crazy. I was just relating what I had read, and just answering his basic question - mainly that I thought it technically could record off of satellite. He didn't really specify at what resolution. But it's good that you brought that up.

No, no, no - I use it for OTA. And possible cable in the future. I'm not that crazy. I was just relating what I had read, and just answering his basic question - mainly that I thought it technically could record off of satellite. He didn't really specify at what resolution. But it's good that you brought that up.

You should be able to record a standard tv signal by tuning the Sony to channel 3 and setting it up for a manual recording of the Satellite tuner output signal. Use an A/B switch to select either cable or Satillie signal input to the recorder.

Thanks, I thought so. Actually, I don't have cable. So I wouldn't even need the A/B switch.

Usually it works great in Los Angeles, but they're having a small glitch right now. Otherwise this is the only area specific problem I've had since August when I got the box. There was another time I lost listings for a few days, but that was nationwide. Otherwise it's been flawless. I'm OTA only also, which is a much easier setup than some of the cable people (who tend to have more problems than OTA people).

nathen, you indicate you've had no problems since august... how do you schedule
your recordings (regular, weekly or one time)? my re-occurring problem of losing
scheduled recordings from the schedule tab has happened twice in the last two
days. i'm going to try changing from regular to weekly to see if that helps...

I have a brand new hdd250 sitting at home in the box unopened. I got a good deal at Best Buy for $450. I want to expand the hard drive and at a minimum, image the drive in case of failure. I'm a very experienced engineer. I want to pull the drive and use ghost to image it. Ghost doesn't support XFS but it will do a sector by sector image. I might look for another program to image it. I have both Drive Image and Ghost. I trust them both. They just don't support XFS. Sector copy is good enough for now as long as I can get a spare WD2500JB. Anyway I would like to ghost it before the unit is turned on so I can have the best image. Is there any seal on the unit someone could tell if I've been in that might void the warrantee?

Thanks,
Marshall Watts

I have a brand new hdd250 sitting at home in the box unopened. I got a good deal at Best Buy for $450. I want to expand the hard drive and at a minimum, image the drive in case of failure. I'm a very experienced engineer. I want to pull the drive and use ghost to image it. Ghost doesn't support XFS but it will do a sector by sector image. I might look for another program to image it. I have both Drive Image and Ghost. I trust them both. They just don't support XFS. Sector copy is good enough for now as long as I can get a spare WD2500JB. Anyway I would like to ghost it before the unit is turned on so I can have the best image. Is there any seal on the unit someone could tell if I've been in that might void the warrantee?

Thanks,
Marshall Watts


Yes there is a sticker in the back. Let us know how it goes. I've been thinking about doing the same. Has anyone looked at the drive yet and figured out how the recordings are stored?

FYI...I have had my lastest unit since the beginning of December. I set it up and got no TVG listings but am used to that, from the previous units I owned. Did nothing and on 12/27/05 started getting the listings. On 1/3/06 lost the listings and have had 24hr update screen since.

Now the strange thing and not sure this problem has been discussed. Yesterday, for the first time the time was wrong. Unplugged the unit and time came back within a few hours. Looked at the unit at 5:10am today and all was ok with the time. Just went in there again and now time says 4:52am and it is 8:10am here.
Anybody have this happen?

Has anyone received a cable card firmware update with their DHG ? I am working with my local headend trying to get new firmware, to hopefully fix the recording not allowed problem. Unfortunately the CC firmware update is not taking. I am wondering if it is related to power level hardware modifications Sony is making for CC.

Also, once you know your host channel and want your clock to set immediately instead of waiting hours and hours for the unit to eventually set it on it's own, you can simply do the G* VBI test (Tune to your host channel, press menu, screen mode, 9012, select TV Guide, G* test) and that will set your clock. This is really nice to know if you loose power or need to unplug it.

JP

Just tried this and it worked like a charm. Thanks JP!!

Now still wonder why the time has gone wrong twice in two days also while fixing the time it showed my VBI packets. Good, fixed and bad. They kept changing while I waited for the time to fix. What does that all mean? Before I hit exit had 41 good, 11 fixed and 12 bad.

Hrmm... I'm in Los Angeles just like Nate and as of yesterday lost all my guide and my clock. :(

I did a guide reset late last night, and was prompted to re-enter my zip code, etc... but 8 hours later still no correct time.

My host channel was 28 (PBS station in Los Angeles)... now it's blank. Not sure what else I can do than the full reset that I've already done... anyone have any ideas?

I have never had problems with not being able to pull in the guide from OTA so I really doubt that's the problem.. reception on all my OTA analog stations is awesome as I have direct line-of-sight to Mt. Wilson with no obstructions.

Robert

Hi Robert,

Same here, no TVGOS this morning but I still have clock. Signal shows good but VBI fails on test, however ATSC passes. I see no VBI packets being received and it looked like it had forgotten which channel sends the guide.

My guide showed it was updating last night but still no info this morning so I did a channel scan to see if that would wake it up. It's off now and maybe we will be back up later.

Did anybody look to see if the guide rev level has been changed? I did not note the previous rev level before this latest failure so I'm not sure if they just sent an update.

I think it was mentioned before, but the least they could do is put a notice of pending rev level updates in the ad panel on the guide, it's not like they are using it for anything else, that way we'd at least have a heads up when they start screwing with stuff.

If there is still no guide when I get home I think I will do a front panel reset, if that doesn't work then maybe I'll do a factory default reset. The trouble is that it takes so long to see if this thing is updating, you could spend the week just trying different resets only to find out it is something else.

Greg.

Thanks Ray,

One more questuion
What's the story with channel 13, UPN I think? That's the only channel I don't get.

When I set up my HDD250 about a week ago it did not get 13.1 but I kenw it was there as my Sammy 415 was getting it, however it had been missing, occasionally the Sammy will update live and a channel will go and later on come back, I think it may happen when the dig signal is interupted for service maybe.

I think I did a channel scan with the DHG when 13.1 was interupted and so it never was in the original channel list and even when I told it to tune to 13.1 it would show no signal. I redid the OTA channel scan and it added it in so all was okay after that.

Greg.

Hi Robert,

Same here, no TVGOS this morning but I still have clock. Signal shows good but VBI fails on test, however ATSC passes. I see no VBI packets being received and it looked like it had forgotten which channel sends the guide.

My guide showed it was updating last night but still no info this morning so I did a channel scan to see if that would wake it up. It's off now and maybe we will be back up later.

Did anybody look to see if the guide rev level has been changed? I did not note the previous rev level before this latest failure so I'm not sure if they just sent an update.

I think it was mentioned before, but the least they could do is put a notice of pending rev level updates in the ad panel on the guide, it's not like they are using it for anything else, that way we'd at least have a heads up when they start screwing with stuff.
If there is still no guide when I get home I think I will do a front panel reset, if that doesn't work then maybe I'll do a factory default reset. The trouble is that it takes so long to see if this thing is updating, you could spend the week just trying different resets only to find out it is something else.

Greg.

From several other posts here and my own experience, I believe the problem is not with you (or the rest of us) but with the equipment at ch 28.

I've done all the things you have done or are thinking of doing with no better success than you've had. I think the most important point is that the VBI test now fails when tuned to 28. Previously when it was even halfway working the VBI test passed.


Another point: Even though you still have the clock, it probably hasn't been updated since the chan 28 VBI went down. My clock hasn't come back since I did a reset to defaults.

Greg:

I also failed the VBI test. BTW... on the other topic, I've never had a problem getting 13.1 (UPN) from where I live just for your FYI.

Back to our problem on guide data, I've done both the front panel reset and the guide reset and neither has solved the problem for me. It sounds like Nate has tried to do both also from what I've seen in his posts.

Maybe the insertion equipment is down at KCET -- although I can't believe that's the only host channel for Los Angeles. So if it was down, you'd think that I'd get a different host station after the guide reset since my host channel is blank.

I try to keep thinking that I should be happy since I'm getting the listings for free, but I keep remembering that I paid $699 for this box and it's worthless without the clock or guide.

Robert

Greg:

Maybe the insertion equipment is down at KCET -- although I can't believe that's the only host channel for Los Angeles. So if it was down, you'd think that I'd get a different host station after the guide reset since my host channel is blank.

Robert

I believe that the insertion equipment is down and that 28 is the only host channel for LA (or the others are down also). I tried the VBI test on 50 and 58 and failed both. If there were another operating the scan should have caught it by now.

Well, I just spoke with someone in engineering at KCET 28 Los Angeles who had no clue what I was talking about. So she transferred my call to someone else, and I left voicemail for him. Hopefully I'll get a call back.

Robert

Just got a call back from KCET in Los Angeles. :)

I was told that the telephone line equipment that they run to the insertion equipment to get the listings from Gemstar is down and that it is scheduled to be replaced later today or tomorrow morning.

He said we should hopefully get listings this evening... if not then, tomorrow.

Robert

Yes there is a sticker in the back. Let us know how it goes. I've been thinking about doing the same. Has anyone looked at the drive yet and figured out how the recordings are stored?
maybe Sony will introduce an external USB BlueRay burner soon. :D

Just got a call back from KCET in Los Angeles. :)

I was told that the telephone line equipment that they run to the insertion equipment to get the listings from Gemstar is down and that it is scheduled to be replaced later today or tomorrow morning.

He said we should hopefully get listings this evening... if not then, tomorrow.

Robert

Thanks for the info. I'm sorry I didn't read your message before reseting the TV guide, which not only deleted my scheduled recordings but reset the clock to 12:00 am 1/1/04.

On the other hand, that the recorder resets to this date and time means that I can continue using it even if the recorder clock can no longer receive the time update.

Isn't this the issue that Sony is making the wiring change for on the motherboard. If you want to use a cable card and yours is one of the ones that causes this error you need to send the unit to SONY to get the wiring change. It is probally a cable card version that is taking more current then SONY had planned for so they are beefing up the power current available to the cable card port.

Do you think could also cause the lack of guide Data when the cable card is in and actually "working" (ie. not yet gotten 161-6 error)

Hi Endo and others following this:

Well, you were right! My system lost its access to premiums again, but this time I caught it soon after the event and the screen still had the 161-6 error notification.

Note for the record that I had followed your advice and popped out the cablecard and reseated it a while back, about a week ago, to see if it made any difference. Nope.

So, the unit is going back to Sony for refit. I'm going to wait about 2 weeks before phoning it in for an RMA, since I hear they have other mods in progress such as to get 4-digit channels (not an issue for me yet, but as long as I'm sending it in, I want to get everything).

From reading all 83 pages of this thread, it sounds like the electrical mod is something that brand new out of box units don't seem to have, as in they came up with it after they shipped the last batch out to the stores. Mine was manufactured in July I think (might be June) and has .06 software. Bought on 11/18 from DataVis.

Marc

Marc,

Glad to see you finally caught it in the act! :) Popping the card out and back in only allows you to decrypt those channels until you get the error again - at least in my exerpience. My two units were both manufactured in June, and have software versions 1.2.05 and 1.2.06. So are we thinking that any new units from at least June on til now will have this problem? Also, I saw software 1.2.09 is that the correct latest version (aside form the SONY upgraded 1.2.13 - I guess if they're on 13 there must be a 12 out there huh?)

I'm trying to decide if I can possbilly buy a unit that is not going to give me 161-6 at this point. My Best Buy has 9 left. I don't want to spend any more money on such a pricy unit to get it fixed (although I feel better that it is being upgraded not just repaired), especially since I have yet to verify if the guide will even work properly in my area. Not to mention that I plan on moving after winter.
(Also don't want to miss any Playoff football, but sick of not knowing what's on)

Marc, how's the guide workign for you onyour unit?

Yes there is a sticker in the back. Let us know how it goes. I've been thinking about doing the same. Has anyone looked at the drive yet and figured out how the recordings are stored?

So can the sticker come off easily or is there no way to do it without breaking it. I say this because I haven't seen it.

Do you think could also cause the lack of guide Data when the cable card is in and actually "working" (ie. not yet gotten 161-6 error)

I don't think so. If you can watch analog broadcast through the unit then the unit would be able to decode the analog VBI data. Just use the diagnostic screens of the unit and verify that the host channels for your area are sending VBI packets that the unit can decode. If there is no VBI data decoded, it is most likely that the cable company is corrupting or filtering the information by remodulating the analog signal.

I don't know how much this has been talked about but these unit seem to use newer VBI information than the older Guide+ devices. I have a Philips Guide+ HD/DVD recorder and it uses a different VBI channel and has different channel listings choices than the SONY does. I have reset the philips unit to factory defaults and it still goes to the older VBI channels with older logos and different provider lists for my area. If only the older VBI info is available, the SONY might not be able to use the Guide+ feature. My SONY is using a ABC local channel. The philips uses PBS, UPN or CBS. Seems to be more choice for the earlier VBI info.

Do all of you with the 161-6 error have SA cards, or does this happen with Motorola cards also?

Do all of you with the 161-6 error have SA cards, or does this happen with Motorola cards also?

I have an SA card. Anyone else?

So can the sticker come off easily or is there no way to do it without breaking it. I say this because I haven't seen it. I can't get at the back of my unit too easily right now, but I seriously doubt it. It says right on it something like "Warranty void if sticker removed".

I can't get at the back of my unit too easily right now, but I seriously doubt it. It says right on it something like "Warranty void if sticker removed".

What ever happen to the good old hair dryer?

I have an SA card. Anyone else?

SA Cablecard

What ever happen to the good old hair dryer? If it's anything like my license plate sticker, forget it.

Ok, it's up in rudimentary form.
I will update it and refine it as I go.
It's very basic right now, but I'm only on the fourth page of posts.

If you DO NOT want me to use your posts in this FAQ please let me know. (For the sake of expediency)

I'm using a lot of post information verbatim, eventually this will all be reworded.

If there is a question you think needs addressed immediately please PM me.

Thanks,

I cannot post the URL, need more posts.

Does anyone else show a digital channel in the vbi under hosts?

I thought VBI was only for analog.

Here is the URL of the FAQ site.

Sony DHG-HDD250/500 Resource Center (http://pvr.hidyman.com)

Remember, it's in develoopment.

If it's anything like my license plate sticker, forget it.

My guess is (b/c I work with refurbishing cell phones) that when you peel the label, it is going to leave a water mark type of residue probably reading "void" or something. If nothing else it is going to be crinkled any way you slice it.

SA Cablecard

I have a SA cable card and I have never gotten the 161-6 error and my unit is running the -05 firmware - manufactured in May and I have had the unit since July.
I guess I am lucky!

I read that a SONY tech told someone that the "out of band" SNR had to be below 18 for the guide data to be downloaded. Currently my SNR is 21.xx on my host channel. I have the channels and logos, they came fine, but no listings. Any idea how I fix this?

Here is the URL of the FAQ site.

Sony DHG-HDD250/500 Resource Center (http://pvr.hidyman.com)

Remember, it's in develoopment.

I like where you're going with it!

VBI is back in the LA area - finally, they fixed the phone line I guess. My box has been off all day but no channel info yet and if it d/l's around 1600hrs I just interupted it :eek: Oh well.

Greg.

Here is the URL of the FAQ site.

Sony DHG-HDD250/500 Resource Center (http://pvr.hidyman.com)

Remember, it's in develoopment.Hidyman - thanks for the work...nice job.

I bought the DHG-HDD250 from Best Buy for $499. I also bought their 4 year service plan for $80. I still have time to return the unit or just the service plan. I like the unit and have almost decided to stick with it even though Sony has discontinued it, etc.

My question is this. Right now I am using it for OTA only. In the future, I would like to have the option of using it for Cable Card. However, since I don't plan on using the cable card right now, I don't know if it is going to work for me properly or not. I don't know if I need the electrical mod that other people have needed in this forum for a 161-1 error or something like that.

Should I keep the Best Buy service plan for the future (any cable card troubles) or is the $80 just pure profit for Best Buy.

There seems to be a general opinion that service plans are ripoffs.

I read that a SONY tech told someone that the "out of band" SNR had to be below 18 for the guide data to be downloaded. Currently my SNR is 21.xx on my host channel. I have the channels and logos, they came fine, but no listings. Any idea how I fix this?

I thought that the out of band SNR was supposed to be 16 or higher or you would have CC problems (weak signal).

discontinued it ? when did this happen?

discontinued it ? when did this happen?

Heheheh - about a day after I bought mine (November 20ish). Or about 20 or so pages back. :D

Wow, I didn't know that. I'm going to start watching for deals on these. I wonder if Sony will dump a bunch as refurbs. Are these $499 at bestbuy right now?

grabbing keys, puting on coat : )

Well, SC (TimeWarner) is having the same VBI issue that LA was having and no idea why.

I'm guessing TVGOS updated something since my information under the 753159852 menu reads:

...
08.01.42/08.06.20/...
Build Jan 21 2005 03:07:36

Seeing as how it's not even that DATE YET :eek: , I'm guessing something's up. My clock is correct, but the normal PBS channel (11) is failing the VBI test. And I noticed that I'm not showing a HostChnl anymore under the 753... menu in TVGOS. Any suggestions from folks out there? How do we go about scanning for a new Host Channel?

FYI, my firmware is the .13 version (newest I know of), my unit's had the 161-6 electrical fix and my SciAtl CC is post Apr 05 (latest firmware for them.)

Wow, I didn't know that. I'm going to start watching for deals on these. I wonder if Sony will dump a bunch as refurbs. Are these $499 at bestbuy right now?

grabbing keys, puting on coat : )The deals have been ongoing for the past month or so. The 500 is available for less than $700 and the 250 for under $500, brand new. Those are comparable to prices on eBay.

Marc,

Glad to see you finally caught it in the act! :) Popping the card out and back in only allows you to decrypt those channels until you get the error again - at least in my exerpience. My two units were both manufactured in June, and have software versions 1.2.05 and 1.2.06. So are we thinking that any new units from at least June on til now will have this problem? Also, I saw software 1.2.09 is that the correct latest version (aside form the SONY upgraded 1.2.13 - I guess if they're on 13 there must be a 12 out there huh?)

I'm trying to decide if I can possbilly buy a unit that is not going to give me 161-6 at this point. My Best Buy has 9 left. I don't want to spend any more money on such a pricy unit to get it fixed (although I feel better that it is being upgraded not just repaired), especially since I have yet to verify if the guide will even work properly in my area. Not to mention that I plan on moving after winter.
(Also don't want to miss any Playoff football, but sick of not knowing what's on)

Marc, how's the guide workign for you onyour unit?

Hi Endo-

To answer your guide question, it's working fine, and has since I first plugged it in almost two months ago. Initially I was using it without a cablecard. The time came up within a couple hours (and now corrects itself in a minute or two, usually if I unplug the unit), and the first listings took 2 days to come in, but then filled just fine and have been full ever since. So, I don't have a problem with the guide, other than the well-documented lack of certain channels (INHD2, for example), and the fact that a few channels are improperly mapped, making me re-map them when I first set it up (and again, after getting the cable card a few weeks later).

My experience was that popping the card didn't do anything more than just hard-rebooting the unit (unplug/replug).

I think chances of your getting a pre-modified unit that is new-in-box are low, though without data to substantiate the date of modifications starting, versus the manufacture date of the units, this is just conjecture.

While I'm annoyed that I have to send my unit in, I'm just going to deal with it. I start a week-long trip on Friday; when I get back I'll arrange to send it in. I'm hopeful that the updates (electrical, software/firmware) will mean that the unit will operate reliably.

Other than this 161-6 error, this thing is totally awesome and has brought me much joy, as it allows me to record HD and play it back via component 480i on a non-HD TV. I LOVE HD. Soon I'll get a Panasonic HDTV and there's no way I can use my old stand-alone TIVO on that. It would be so grainy.

In short, rather than getting upset over this error thing, I'm just going to hope for the best, and get the new year started right. Positive waves!

Marc

I thought that the out of band SNR was supposed to be 16 or higher or you would have CC problems (weak signal).

You are correct! It must be above 16. I'm just trying to figure out why I don't get any listings, so I know if it's worth sending the unit to SONY. I'm fishing for reasons now.

Well, SC (TimeWarner) is having the same VBI issue that LA was having and no idea why.

I'm guessing TVGOS updated something since my information under the 753159852 menu reads:

...
08.01.42/08.06.20/...
Build Jan 21 2005 03:07:36

Seeing as how it's not even that DATE YET...


Beaker,

You DO realize that this is 2006 right? :D

I read that a SONY tech told someone that the "out of band" SNR had to be below 18 for the guide data to be downloaded. Currently my SNR is 21.xx on my host channel. I have the channels and logos, they came fine, but no listings. Any idea how I fix this?

I would think that you want a SNR HIGHER than 18dB.

SNR is Signal to Noise Ratio.
The higher the better.

Beaker,

You DO realize that this is 2006 right? :D


UMMmmmmm, YEAH....I knew...that...

...stooopid New Year....

So what about the rest though!?


thanks, Spiff.

nathen, you indicate you've had no problems since august... how do you schedule
your recordings (regular, weekly or one time)? my re-occurring problem of losing
scheduled recordings from the schedule tab has happened twice in the last two
days. i'm going to try changing from regular to weekly to see if that helps...

Originally I used regular to program, and I "might" have had problems (not sure), but I've been using Weekly now ever since without a problem. I use regular program to record the kimmel show every night, and that has never dropped a recording in 3 months. I would suggest using weekly for shows that are only on once a week, because that's what it was designed for.

Not at home, so not sure if I have guide or not. Man, remote access to the box like in the upcoming tivo would be awesome.

hi, everyone, I just picked this up at BB this weekend after reading some good feedback online and on this forum. I am surprised to find out there is such a long thread on this unit. I am getting lost in finding some info here. I would like to know if there is any way to set HDMI oupout at 720p without losing it after poweroff. forgive me if this has been covered somewhere in this long thread. by the way what is the 161-6 error? can somebody point out where in the thread the discussion of those topics took place? thanks a lot for your help.

:) :) :) Yahoo......my TVG is finally back after a month off the air. After a couple of weeks I emailed the engineer at the Odessa, Tx PBS station and learned they were relocating their control room. I kept checking my unit everyday and today about 6pm I noticed I once again had a time update. Checked my host channel and it is the Odessa PBS station. While the TVG was out my unit did not show a host channel.(00:00)

One piece of advice for everyone......if you are having TVG problems, try and determine if it is lack of data coming in rather than your unit. I made the mistake of resetting my unit thinking it had messed up when my Guide crapped out. Doing so wiped out my time setting and I had been without a current time since before Xmas.

If I would not have reset the unit I could have at least setup recordings like a VCR.

Guide is back in Los Angeles. Only have Today (Tues), Wed, and Thurs...which seems odd. Hopefully start pulling 1, 2, and 8 tonight.

I just gotta say, that after having units with TVGOS for a couple of years now, that 9 times out of 10 it turns out to be the station rather than the unit. Sometimes just a little patience will work best - that and checking with other people in your area. If the problems are pretty much the same, that should tell you a lot. That's why it helps sometimes to check over in your local threads and the LG thread here and the DVD recorder threads.

If you know your host channel, please go to the FAQ page and find the table with the info. There is a link there to add your host channel info.

Thanks

So I'm watching TV around 2pm and it just shuts off and does a reboot recycle 3 times and comes back on with no guide info.

Waited for the midnight update and now the unit is stuck.

After turning it on, I can't change channels or much of anything. Sometime I can pull up the main menu, but then it locks up (scroll buttons don't work).

Ack.. full reset time?

If you know your host channel, please go to the FAQ page and find the table with the info. There is a link there to add your host channel info.

Thanks

Hidyman,

One addition that would be helpful in your FAQ would be a description of what each of the different "reset" operations do. It seems like there are at least three of them (buried within different service menus or tied to button presses on the front panel)...It would help to know what each of them will do (like deleting recorded programs, deleting guide data).

Thanks!

ok, I guess I'm just going to have to break the seal on my brand new unit this weekend and do a image of the drive. This is more important to me than the 90 day warrantee and 1 yr. parts. Survival!! I read where there is three partitions. I want to make an exact copy and see if the machine runs ok. Then I want to play around with partition sizes and see if I can add more HD space for recording. I also want to see about adding another drive but that's not as good to me as making my one drive bigger. I found some cheap image software that supports XFS. I will also make a ghost sector copy. It would be nice if someone could image a 500 so I could compare the setup. The software might be the same. I have a MDP-130 (MyHD) card in my PC and I sometimes want to convert a HD show to SD and write it to a DVD. If the format of the files on the hard drive are transport streams (.tp or .ts) I could just copy them off if I need to archive them. That is the nice thing about the MDP-130 it uses your computer HD so if you need more storage you add more HD space plus it can uses "Titan TV" as the guide and you have direct access to the files so you can strip commercials out. Anyway.... if there are any others out there that information on any of this already that might save me some time let me know.

I've just finished reading all 80+ pages.
I'm on week one with my hdd500 (v.06) and it's been frustrating like hill.
My primary purpose is to supplement our new plasma with a hd dvr so that we can watch our daily shows on weekends. (Weekdays are filled with kid's homework tasks).

Day two, I got my clock and listings with no programs.

Day three, I still don't have any program listings nor does my HD stations show up eventhough I can go there directly.

Day four, I decided to try a few other different zipcodes in hopes of getting at least the mapping correct.

At the end of day four, whatever I did, the whole listing went away. That night, the wife wanted me to record the Golden Globe. I said, 'why not', especially in the glory of HD. Well, this POS refused to do a live recording without any listing!!! Even when I did a scheduled recording to start in the next 5,10,15 mins, it'll will drop the schedule to say no schedule has been set. So, now we missed the program in its entirety.

Day five am, I hooked a splitter up to the cable signal so that I can now rely on my VCR as a contingency as well as a second tuner. I presumed I had now interrupted the listing download which may restart again. Oh well.

Now, I'm reading that the TVGOS service is down in LA. I'm using Adelphia but I can't find what station the VIB is active on. Which is misleading if it's not transmitting at the time.

Last night, still without any listings, I was able to record A.Idol in HD as a scheduled recording. I don't know why but there must be a bug that says if-you-have-no-listings-and-if-its-less-than-30-mins-ahead, -I-will-ignore-your-schedule logic. Still in my attempt to see if it was recording, which it was, it promptly stopped right after I powered it off. Now should'nt it continued recording until the stop time even after I power it off??

So far, this has not been a good buy especially if I have to rely on my trusty VCR. But then again, what are the choices. Throw the towel in and go with a Moxi or D*Tv solution? I don't get TVGOS with the VCR either BUT at least it's not completely dependent on it. With tape, one can label it. We can't even change a DHG recording label since all of mine says 'No listing' ?

OTOT, the channel surfing has been painfully slow eventhough I'm on HDMI only. A more comprehensive channel editing feature would have been heavenly. The constant running of the HDs are bothering me which will lead me to pursue some sort of extended warranty from the retailer if I decide to keep it. The old IT saying, 'not if it fails but when it fails' is clearly applicable here unless its hot pluggable and fault-tolerant. Sony's warranty period is and has always been a dismay.

The HD recordings I have were very, very good and tough to differentiate between live and recorded. Aside from TVGOS woes, more seat time and barring any real competition out there, I'm prone to keep this unit.

This past weekend I took the drive out of my HDD250, and hooked it up to a PC, and booted a Knoppix Live-CD. Knoppix shows that the drive has 3 partitions.

Two of them are small, about 200MB, and appear to have the same content, as though the second one might be for redundancy. Those partitions both have a few very small files (a few hundred bytes), and a LOCKED folder, which I presume contains the crown jewels. Being a Linux noob, I have no skillz to access the locked folder.

The third partition did not show any content or statistics, and I suspect it has a proprietary file system. Presumably the TV show recordings are on that partition.

I tried installing a blank (raw unpartitioned) drive in the HDD250, in the 2nd bay. Booting up the unit resulted in the front panel display giving a "ERR 0008000" message. I am unsure how to partition the 2nd drive, due to the strangeness of the partitions in the main drive. Maybe someone with a HDD500 could see what the 2nd drive contains, and let us know.

Maybe I will try a partitioned drive (with which filesystem?) in the 2nd bay. It should probably the same format as the 3rd partition on the main drive. But how to create it? When the boot process fails with the above mentioned error, you cannot proceed. So the "format" option in the service menu is probably not useful for preparing a 2nd drive. I'm guessing it will just copy the 2nd partition to the 1st on the main drive.

watts2,

Read "cosmicvoid" and "Mark Fontana" posts on page 55 of this thread before proceeding.

ok, I guess I'm just going to have to break the seal on my brand new unit this weekend and do a image of the drive. This is more important to me than the 90 day warrantee and 1 yr. parts. Survival!! I read where there is three partitions. I want to make an exact copy and see if the machine runs ok. Then I want to play around with partition sizes and see if I can add more HD space for recording. I also want to see about adding another drive but that's not as good to me as making my one drive bigger. I found some cheap image software that supports XFS. I will also make a ghost sector copy. It would be nice if someone could image a 500 so I could compare the setup. The software might be the same. I have a MDP-130 (MyHD) card in my PC and I sometimes want to convert a HD show to SD and write it to a DVD. If the format of the files on the hard drive are transport streams (.tp or .ts) I could just copy them off if I need to archive them. That is the nice thing about the MDP-130 it uses your computer HD so if you need more storage you add more HD space plus it can uses "Titan TV" as the guide and you have direct access to the files so you can strip commercials out. Anyway.... if there are any others out there that information on any of this already that might save me some time let me know.


Watts,

I agree with the above posting.

You might want to proceed with caution, as no one has successfully gotten this to work yet. If I recall correctly, Mark Fontana had problems when he tried putting his ORIGINAL drive back in the unit (it wouldn't boot anymore).

I would also strongly recommend reading their posts carefully before you tear into your machine. It doesn't sound like it is as easy as doing a drive image. There may be a "blessing" procedure that is needed (perhaps via USB?)...

I've just finished reading all 80+ pages.
I'm on week one with my hdd500 (v.06) and it's been frustrating like hill.
My primary purpose is to supplement our new plasma with a hd dvr so that we can watch our daily shows on weekends. (Weekdays are filled with kid's homework tasks).

Day two, I got my clock and listings with no programs.

Day three, I still don't have any program listings nor does my HD stations show up eventhough I can go there directly.

....

The HD recordings I have were very, very good and tough to differentiate between live and recorded. Aside from TVGOS woes, more seat time and barring any real competition out there, I'm prone to keep this unit.

Like me you were lucky enough to get your unit just as the LA chan 28 VBI went down.

Friday it still had clock and channel lineup but no program listings. Saturday through Tuesday it had nothing, It's supposed to be up now (although I haven't been able to check) so you should be starting to get something now.

According to what I've read, it can sometimes be a problem getting TVGOS listings via cable but since you were getting something on Friday you're probably OK.

Note that there is NO difference between live and recorded. The unit records the exact digital stream that comes over the air and then plays it back through the same path that it would use for live.

Good news (I hope)

This morning, I had the correct time and listings for at least today in Los Angeles. I didn't bother checking tomorrow or day 8, so I don't know if I got updated listings for that day. I'll have to check tonight when I get home from work.

Robert

I was watching TV Saturday night at 1am and it just shut off without any warning.
Yeah, it's schedule to shut down at 1:00am so it can download the new guide I supposed. But you can override the shutdown schedule by shutting it off if you go to menu->preferrence->system->auto off you can turn it on or off from here.

For manual record scheduling, can you set the record time in minute increments? say 8:59 to 10:01 to take into account shows like Lost that start early and end late.

Rick

I've just finished reading all 80+ pages.
I'm on week one with my hdd500 (v.06) and it's been frustrating like hill.
My primary purpose is to supplement our new plasma with a hd dvr so that we can watch our daily shows on weekends. (Weekdays are filled with kid's homework tasks).

Day two, I got my clock and listings with no programs.

Day three, I still don't have any program listings nor does my HD stations show up eventhough I can go there directly.

Day four, I decided to try a few other different zipcodes in hopes of getting at least the mapping correct.

At the end of day four, whatever I did, the whole listing went away. That night, the wife wanted me to record the Golden Globe. I said, 'why not', especially in the glory of HD. Well, this POS refused to do a live recording without any listing!!! Even when I did a scheduled recording to start in the next 5,10,15 mins, it'll will drop the schedule to say no schedule has been set. So, now we missed the program in its entirety.

Day five am, I hooked a splitter up to the cable signal so that I can now rely on my VCR as a contingency as well as a second tuner. I presumed I had now interrupted the listing download which may restart again. Oh well.

Now, I'm reading that the TVGOS service is down in LA. I'm using Adelphia but I can't find what station the VIB is active on. Which is misleading if it's not transmitting at the time.

Last night, still without any listings, I was able to record A.Idol in HD as a scheduled recording. I don't know why but there must be a bug that says if-you-have-no-listings-and-if-its-less-than-30-mins-ahead, -I-will-ignore-your-schedule logic. Still in my attempt to see if it was recording, which it was, it promptly stopped right after I powered it off. Now should'nt it continued recording until the stop time even after I power it off??

So far, this has not been a good buy especially if I have to rely on my trusty VCR. But then again, what are the choices. Throw the towel in and go with a Moxi or D*Tv solution? I don't get TVGOS with the VCR either BUT at least it's not completely dependent on it. With tape, one can label it. We can't even change a DHG recording label since all of mine says 'No listing' ?

OTOT, the channel surfing has been painfully slow eventhough I'm on HDMI only. A more comprehensive channel editing feature would have been heavenly. The constant running of the HDs are bothering me which will lead me to pursue some sort of extended warranty from the retailer if I decide to keep it. The old IT saying, 'not if it fails but when it fails' is clearly applicable here unless its hot pluggable and fault-tolerant. Sony's warranty period is and has always been a dismay.

The HD recordings I have were very, very good and tough to differentiate between live and recorded. Aside from TVGOS woes, more seat time and barring any real competition out there, I'm prone to keep this unit.

When I first got mine I set it to record two show manually. I didn't think it was gonna work since the time it show on the unit is 1:30AM and it was about 2:00pm when manually set the recording shedule.
When I came home it recorded the shows and I was so happy. I guess once you turn off the unit it will try to sync the clock with either cable or off air antenna depending on what you have it hooked up to.

The guide didn't get loaded until the following day (probably at night time) but be sure to shut if off when you're not using.

You can manually set the recording schedule by tuning in to the channel you want to record. Press and hold the record button for one second and the screen will pop up on your left hand side of the screen. and just enter the time and date you want to have it recorded (daily, weeky.....).
The only thing bad thing is that your recorded show will show up as unknown. I'm trying to read the manual if I can rename the show after it's recorded and I don't know if that can be done.

Overall I'm pretty happy with picture quality. Picture looks exactly the same as the time it was broadcast. My only concern is that I'm afraid that the station will put up a flag which show we can or can't tape. Once that happen this unit will become useless. Since there's no audio or video input and can't use it satellite dish. But for now it's worth every pennies.
I don't even know if I will jump on buying recordable Blu-ray or HD-DVD right away when that become available. It will have to be dirt cheap before I pick one up.

True on the recording quality but I thought there may be some form of compression being done even at the HQ level.

AFAIK, there must be at least four transmission / syncs during setup:

1 - clock set
2 - available cable companies for the zipcode
3 - listing of stations
4 - program guide

And subsequently, 5 - program guide updates.

I've never gotten past 3. Yet.
Which I guess is dependent on the availability of the transmission in the area.
Many pages back, someone said they got their program guide after 3 weeks!!

If I don't get to 4 by this Friday, oh well.

I have been working on getting my 250 upgraded in parallel with cosmicvoid's work. I was planning on writing up a web page with photos, but I guess since the discussion is already underway, I'll mention some details here. (Perhaps this whole subtopic should be moved to its own thread?) Anyway:

The main drive has 3 partitions- the first two are standard ext2 filesystems, each 78 MB, each containing three identical files that I believe comprise the upgradeable non-TVGOS portion of the Sony's firmware: an 18 MB target.cfs cramfs filesystem image, a 65-byte sign.dat signature file (probably verifying the integrity of the cramfs file) and a 52-byte firmware load control file upgRec.bin which contains binary data but has text references to target.cfs and sign.dat inside. Partitions 1 and 2 contain identical copies of all three firmware files for safety.

Partition 3 occupies the remainder of the disk. It's an xfs filesystem containing the video files. I tried mounting it on SuSE Linux 9.1 (which supports xfs) and the mount operation segfaults every time. fsck.xfs indicates problems with the filesystem as well. I was also unable to mount the cramfs filesystem using the normal method (i.e. "mount -o loop -t cramfs target.cfs <mountpoint>"). This all seems rather suspicious to me and makes me wonder if perhaps Sony has hacked up encrypted versions of cramfs and xfs. In the case of the cramfs file, this happens to make it hard to inspect the firmware files to ensure Sony has fully complied with the applicable open source licenses.

Anyway, I am pretty certain the upgradeable portion of the firmware is contained in the cramfs image, and that the main purpose of the USB port is to load updated versions of these files from an external disk. I'm going to try putting target.cfs, upgRec.bin and sign.dat on a USB flash drive and see whether the Sony recognizes them.

As for the hard drive upgrade-- here's what I know so far:

5. What I'm trying now is to clone the original drive to the new drive (using the UNIX dd command). We'll see how the Sony likes that... if this does not work, it would be really helpful if someone with an HDD500 would let us know how the second drive is partitioned.

Stay tuned...

Mark,
Going down the same path. Did you some like Norton's ghost or true image? I can't believe a true bit by bit copy wouldn't be the same and work.

Marshall

My 250 has been working fine for the past one month (I bought it a month ago). However, yesterday it lost its schedule. It said that it is rebuilding the schedule because of my setup change. I did not make any setup change. Also, it lost my scheduled recordings for 1/18/2006, etc. I woke up this morning (1/18) and the schedule is there now. So, for some reason, it lost it last night!! Did this happen to anybody else?

you can override the shutdown schedule by shutting it off if you go to menu->preferrence->system->auto off you can turn it on or off from here.

Just be sure you do leave it off during one of the four three-hour blocks that the guide is transmitted in. I posted the times for my unit somewhere above. They're actually spread out from the middle of the night to the afternoon, so even if you're a night owl you can still catch one of the daytime blocks.

I've scheduled things to record during the middle of the night, so my unit usually gets its guide data during the 7:06--10:06am download.

I was hoping to have a look at Sony's modifications to the XFS package (which they have posted here (http://products.sel.sony.com/opensource/source_settop.shtml)), but the xfsprogs.tar.gz download on that site is just a big file of zeros!

Mark,
I was able to unzip/untar the files using winzip on windows.

Watts,

When Mark posted that originally, there was a problem with the file that prevented us from being able to open it. After contacting Sony, someone fixed the web site and posted a viable file.

Again, I think the speculation was that the drive had to be blessed to marry it up with the motherboard.

Watts,

When Mark posted that originally, there was a problem with the file that prevented us from being able to open it. After contacting Sony, someone fixed the web site and posted a viable file.

Again, I think the speculation was that the drive had to be blessed to marry it up with the motherboard.

Sorry,
I just got one and I'm playing catch up!! I might go buy a drive tonight and clone this weekend. I don't know whether to get a 300G and expand partition 3 and see if that works or just get a 250 and clone that. I can't imagine they would spend too much effort guarding against a clone. It would be hard anyway if the drive is an exact image.

Thanks
Marshall

Well my DHGHDD500 is out and on it's way to Sony. The people at the UPS Store do a pretty darn good job packing using bubble wrap and foam peanuts. It was well packed!!!

Total cost packing, shipping and $1000 insurance was $39. Scheduled delivery to Sony Service Center is Wednesday. I will post when I get it back, etc...

I got my DHG-HDD500 back today. I shipped it to Sony Repair on 1/9 and I got it back today 1/18, so it was about a 10 day turnaround including weekend.

Here is what the invoice states:

Description of Parts or Service

CABLE CARD PROBLEM ERROR 161-1
>>>DID 161-1 REWORK
>>>PERFORM CONSTANT DATA PROGRAM EXEC
>>>PERFORM ELECTRICAL ADJUSTMENT
>>>INSTALLED & VERIFY G* PATCH 8.06.20

SONY FIRMWARE UPDATE
>>>UPDATED SOFTWARE TO VER 1.2.13
>>>RESET TO FACTORY DEFAULTS

TEST ALL FUNCTIONS
NO ACCY
ES 01/16/06

***NOTE***
4 DIGIT CHANNEL EDIT IN TV GUIDE EDITOR REFERRED TO ENGINEERS. UPDATE NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME.

**************************
I haven't turned it on yet, since I'm waiting for the electronics to get to room temperature...the unit is ice cold...it's freezing up here in the northeast. I'll check back later...

>>>INSTALLED & VERIFY G* PATCH 8.06.20


Is the G* patch "new" to us?

Did anybody ever try to connect the cable to the USB port ?
I was wondering if you can upgrade the firmware from there.

One quick question.
When the unit is off I can still here something humming. Is this normal ?
My friend at work brought up something interesting. Since we record and delete it constantly. Doesn't it make the hard drive moving slow if we don't defrag it.
Was the humming noise that I hear is the hard drive being defragmented ?

I just can't fathom why DVRs need to have the hds spinning constantly.
Is is just for the guide data update?
To prevent mass confusion with unresponsive units when they come out of hibernation?
Or is a always-on-and-spinning setup more reliable and not prone to a stop/start shock syndrome?

I'm racked my head quite well but still can't come out with an equivalent gadget/appliance/anything in my well automated home that runs constantly.

...One quick question.
When the unit is off I can still here something humming. Is this normal ?
My friend at work brought up something interesting. Since we record and delete it constantly. Doesn't it make the hard drive moving slow if we don't defrag it.
Was the humming noise that I hear is the hard drive being defragmented ?No, it's simply the HD spinning.

No, it's simply the HD spinning.

And probably the cooling fan? I thought there was a fan in there too.

I just can't fathom why DVRs need to have the hds spinning constantly.
Is is just for the guide data update?
To prevent mass confusion with unresponsive units when they come out of hibernation?
Or is a always-on-and-spinning setup more reliable and not prone to a stop/start shock syndrome?

I'm racked my head quite well but still can't come out with an equivalent gadget/appliance/anything in my well automated home that runs constantly.


The HDD spins constantly because it is ALWAYS recording (at least when it isn't in standby). This is what allows you to pause and rewind "live" tv.

I'm still not getting any program data.

If I go to the 9012 menu while I am on the host channel, what should everything read?

The first three tests on the left should pass, and the last two fail.

In the center:
VBI: Reads 1023-65533 ATSC: 1023-65533
Then of course your VBI Good, bad, fixed, etc.

I only get about 4 packets a minute (all good), and I sware I saw VBI read what the host channel was before.

The HDD spins constantly because it is ALWAYS recording (at least when it isn't in standby). This is what allows you to pause and rewind "live" tv.

Doesn't that wear out the life of a hard drive ?
It should be moving only when the power is on.

Doesn't that wear out the life of a hard drive ?
It should be moving only when the power is on.

HDD's are designed to be capable of running 24/7. I would rather see a drive running all the time than seeing it turned on and off several times a day.

I wouldn't worry about it.

AAAagh...I think I know the problem here in SC. Apparently TimeWarner Cable is switching to an All Digital System. I know I've read about others in this thread having the same issue with their cableco. I've tried searching but am not coming up with any good ideas.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! My HDD250 can't even find a HostChannel now...has been that way for two days.

Thanks.

The fan rpm will usually increase during the guide download. This happens also on my Panny DVDR.

Alan

Holy Mackarel, I have data!! The TVGOS info is in and all's good now. I guess LA's KCET vbi stream was really the cause of all my initial problems. Still, its a little scary the unit is so dependent on it and could render it a costly doorstop.

NE1 know if I can get another hdd500 as a 2nd tuner/dvr and get it to recognize another remote stream?

Yes, the Sony has 2 sets of remote codes. You set the one you want in the menus.

For manual record scheduling, can you set the record time in minute increments?

Yes. If you schedule a recording by selecting a program in the guide and pressing the "Menu" button, you can select that you want to begin early and/or end late by amounts of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes. The larger amounts come in handy for sports events like football games. I set them to end late by 90 minutes, then stop the recording manually when the game actually ends. This came in handy for that triple-overtime Orange Bowl. :)

If you scroll up to the top bar in the guide and over to "Schedule", then press the 'Menu" button, you can schedule a manual recording by entering start/stop times explicitly, down to the minute.

All is good in LA it appears. Days 1,2,8 are here. Luckily having weekly shows scheduled didn't cause any downtime. Even though I lost guide data for several days the recordings were all scheduled and worked, so that's good to know.

AAAagh...I think I know the problem here in SC. Apparently TimeWarner Cable is switching to an All Digital System. I know I've read about others in this thread having the same issue with their cableco. I've tried searching but am not coming up with any good ideas.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! My HDD250 can't even find a HostChannel now...has been that way for two days.

Thanks. Maybe hook up some rabbit ears and try to at least get the locals data.

L.A. folks - what'd I tell ya?

HDD's are designed to be capable of running 24/7. I would rather see a drive running all the time than seeing it turned on and off several times a day.

I wouldn't worry about it.

There is much less wear by running the drive continuously - only negative is power consumption. The hard drive in my Comcast DVR also runs continuously.

The hard drive in my Toshiba DVD/DVR doesn't run continuously, but I assume that's because either the DVD or hard drive can be used to play or record programs.

It's critcal that someone figure out how to hack the sw so at least we can set the time manually.

Just got the 250.

Picked up time almost immediately and all program data overnight as advertised. All data is correct, and scheduled recordings work without a hitch.

picked up one at BB this weekend and am still excited about what it can offer in HDTV WITHOUT any monthly fee. The only wishes I have at the moment are:
1. keeping the HDMI setting (say 720P) without losing after poweroff. 2. being able to hide the channels I never care to watch or record on the TVG.
if someone has figured these out, I would appreciate your sharing the tips. Jim

I got a 3 year parts and labor extended warranty for my hdd500 for 50 bucks. At the same time, I wanted to get another 500 but they were completely out. The 250 was available for 150 bucks less but I really want another hdd500.

The hdd500 is still available from other retailers. But now, my conscience is telling me I'll be stuck with $1.5k worth of doorstops if my cableco ticks me off and I decide to go satellite. Decisions, decisions.

1. I keep mine at auto-hdmi which it will revert to on extended power-out. Auto-hdmi works fine for my hdmi/hdmi run.

2. Yes, you can hide channels via TVGUIDE/SETUP/Change Channel Display/Menu on the Channel you select.

Good luck.

1. keeping the HDMI setting (say 720P) without losing after poweroff.

I assume you are using HDMI? I am and changed to 1080i output and it has always stayed this way when I put the into and out of STANDBY. There is no POWEROFF, unless you unplug the unit. If I poweroff then it will go back to autoHDMI.

AAAagh...I think I know the problem here in SC. Apparently TimeWarner Cable is switching to an All Digital System. I know I've read about others in this thread having the same issue with their cableco. I've tried searching but am not coming up with any good ideas.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! My HDD250 can't even find a HostChannel now...has been that way for two days.

Thanks.

If they are switching over to digital, they are probably doing a simulcast (ADS). Tell them to put you back on analog until they find a way to insert a duplicate PBS analog host channel into the lineup. You are not alone. Many TV's and DVR's need the TVGOS data.

There is much less wear by running the drive continuously - only negative is power consumption. The hard drive in my Comcast DVR also runs continuously.... Same with all TiVos.

1. I keep mine at auto-hdmi which it will revert to on extended power-out. Auto-hdmi works fine for my hdmi/hdmi run.

2. Yes, you can hide channels via TVGUIDE/SETUP/Change Channel Display/Menu on the Channel you select.

Good luck.

Thanks, xsno. I will try it tonight and see if I can hide all those useless channels.
I guess the Auto-HDMI always looks at the diaplay device for the HDMI setting. But the problem is my Sanyo Z4 projector is set to autoHDMI as well and looking to the source for a proper setting. So when 480i gets passed to Z4 the picture looks awful.

1. keeping the HDMI setting (say 720P) without losing after poweroff.

I assume you are using HDMI? I am and changed to 1080i output and it has always stayed this way when I put the into and out of STANDBY. There is no POWEROFF, unless you unplug the unit. If I poweroff then it will go back to autoHDMI.

thanks a lot for the tip and I will try it out today, MTKSU.
when I said poweroff I really meant hitting the power button on the remote. so it was on standby mode. I think I can live with the 1080i signal if it holds after going to standby mode. what I can't stand on my Z4 is the 480i signal, and aspect ratio not being correct if it is on autoHDMI when switching channels.

Does anyone have any evidence to back this up? When mine is turned off, I sometimes hear it switching from OTA to cable, making me think it's searching for a guide channel.

My Sony lost power yesterday and had the wrong time when I came home from work. I tuned to my data channel (WNET, analog 13 in NYC) and turned off the unit. Within minutes the clock had updated to the correct time. It hadn't fixed its time in several hours of sitting there with restored power, but it was correct within minutes when tuned to the proper channel and turned off.

You're be right on that one.
Aside from these informal info, shouldn't there be some 'official' way of notifying folks that the vbi equipment is on the blink and the guide data on their tvs and dvrs will be out of whack. It will sure avoid a lot of grief.

Strange new behaviour: Last night I was looking at my recording list, and a manual recording that was made back in December, which had always shown as "unknown" in the list (as expected), now is showing the title of the show, with info! Has anyone else seen anything like this, recently?

I think this thing's got a mind of it's own sometimes. Last night for the heck of it, I was checking the signal strength on some of the distant channels I couldn't get in. 2 or 3 times the channel number and meter came up in the system menu on the left under "cable" instead of on the OTA signal strength right side. Hope this is not a sign of things to come.

I think this thing's got a mind of it's own sometimes. Last night for the heck of it, I was checking the signal strength on some of the distant channels I couldn't get in. 2 or 3 times the channel number and meter came up on the left under "cable" instead of on the OTA signal strength right side. Hope this is not a sign of things to come.

Digital channels are like that. Fox in connecticut is channel 61
On my parents Dishnetwork boxl shows up on channel 31-1
On my Old sylvania set top box showed up on channel 61-1
Now on my Sony HDD500 shows up as channel 31-3

I believe 31-1 is the frequency and 61 is the assigned channel.
I thought my box didn't pick up Fox because I kept tuning in 61-1
and Fox station is only 3 miles from me.

When you go to the 9012 menu while on your host channel, what should "VBI:" in the middle of the screen read?

I got my DHG-HDD500 back today. I shipped it to Sony Repair on 1/9 and I got it back today 1/18, so it was about a 10 day turnaround including weekend.

Here is what the invoice states:

Description of Parts or Service

CABLE CARD PROBLEM ERROR 161-1
>>>DID 161-1 REWORK
>>>PERFORM CONSTANT DATA PROGRAM EXEC
>>>PERFORM ELECTRICAL ADJUSTMENT
>>>INSTALLED & VERIFY G* PATCH 8.06.20

SONY FIRMWARE UPDATE
>>>UPDATED SOFTWARE TO VER 1.2.13
>>>RESET TO FACTORY DEFAULTS

TEST ALL FUNCTIONS
NO ACCY
ES 01/16/06

***NOTE***
4 DIGIT CHANNEL EDIT IN TV GUIDE EDITOR REFERRED TO ENGINEERS. UPDATE NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME.

**************************
I haven't turned it on yet, since I'm waiting for the electronics to get to room temperature...the unit is ice cold...it's freezing up here in the northeast. I'll check back later...

Was your unit under warrantee? Was there a hardware mod performed? Were you charged anything? I want to clone my drive and to do that I need to break the seal. If there is a mod available I will try to do this before tearing into unit.

Thanks
Marshall

Yes. If you schedule a recording by selecting a program in the guide and pressing the "Menu" button, you can select that you want to begin early and/or end late by amounts of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes. The larger amounts come in handy for sports events like football games. I set them to end late by 90 minutes, then stop the recording manually when the game actually ends. This came in handy for that triple-overtime Orange Bowl. :)

If you scroll up to the top bar in the guide and over to "Schedule", then press the 'Menu" button, you can schedule a manual recording by entering start/stop times explicitly, down to the minute.

I'm one of those that tries to read the entire manual once I get it up and running. I don't recall seeing this. How did you find out about this?

Is anyone in this forum getting Gemstar data over-the-air in Vancouver BC? TVGOS worked fine on my HGD-HDD250 for about 3 months, then a week before Christmas I lost data and haven't received any since. I've tried re-booting, resetting user config, resetting G* config...all with no impact. I have clear reception on 2, 2.1, 8, 17, 32, 32.1 and 42.

I'm one of those that tries to read the entire manual once I get it up and running. I don't recall seeing this. How did you find out about this?It's actually quite simple; it's just one of the recording options you have when you record any program. Very easy to find in the menu system; when you select a program to record, it's a very clearly labeled option.

My 250 has been working fine for the past one month (I bought it a month ago). However, yesterday it lost its schedule. It said that it is rebuilding the schedule because of my setup change. I did not make any setup change. Also, it lost my scheduled recordings for 1/18/2006, etc. I woke up this morning (1/18) and the schedule is there now. So, for some reason, it lost it last night!! Did this happen to anybody else?

I saw the same thing yesterday morning. The message says,

"Updated information will be available withing 24 hours. The Guide is rebuilding your channel list based on your setup change."

But, I did not change anything in the setup !@#$%

It has been more than 36 hours and it is still showing the same message!

Anybody else has seen this?

Baskaran

If you schedule a recording by selecting a program in the guide and pressing the "Menu" button, you can select that you want to begin early and/or end late by amounts of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes. The larger amounts come in handy for sports events like football games. I set them to end late by 90 minutes, then stop the recording manually when the game actually ends. This came in handy for that triple-overtime Orange Bowl.

If you scroll up to the top bar in the guide and over to "Schedule", then press the 'Menu" button, you can schedule a manual recording by entering start/stop times explicitly, down to the minute.

I'm one of those that tries to read the entire manual once I get it up and running. I don't recall seeing this. How did you find out about this?

The two methods are described on page 71 of my manual. The first one is "Recording from a Panel Menu", and the second one is "Recording Manually."

I may have seen one or both of them described in this thread before I actually bought my unit. Also, I already owned a Panasonic DVD/HDD recorder that uses an earlier version of TVGOS, and has somewhat similar methods for scheduling recordings.

I have the Harmony 676 remote and it has controlled all of my gear great until I got the SONY PVR. It some times takes two button presses to get the button to register on the SONY. This makes skipping commercials more difficult and require me to watch the screen to determine if the SONY decoded the command. The orig. SONY remote works great. I have tried to relearn allot of the SONY commands but it is no different.
I have tried to changed to inter IR command delay but that didn't help either.

Anybody else seeing this issue? Any suggestions? :eek:

Just got this recorder and really like the features/functionality. One thing I'm curious about. Is there a way to manually save a channel number if auto scan doesn't find it? I can tune to channels which auto scan didn't find but don't know if I'm able to save it into my list of channels where I can channel up/down and have these channels be part of that list.

Just got this recorder and really like the features/functionality. One thing I'm curious about. Is there a way to manually save a channel number if auto scan doesn't find it? I can tune to channels which auto scan didn't find but don't know if I'm able to save it into my list of channels where I can channel up/down and have these channels be part of that list.

If you don't get listings for the channel, then you can't use the list. For example, there is a KCET HD channel here in Los Angeles that isn't on the listings, but you can remap the KCET SD version from 58 to 58.1, and the listings are accurate for the HD channel. While you could remap any channel to whatever you want, the listings wouldn't change. If you remapped abc to fox, it would still show abc listings. If I'm wrong, someone please correct me.

How can you be able to tune in a channel manually, but auto-scan won't pick it up? As long as it's receivable auto-scanning should be picking it up, too. You may not have it in your program guide, but it should be programmed into your channels when you use the channel button. Doesn't make sense.

Just got this recorder and really like the features/functionality. One thing I'm curious about. Is there a way to manually save a channel number if auto scan doesn't find it? I can tune to channels which auto scan didn't find but don't know if I'm able to save it into my list of channels where I can channel up/down and have these channels be part of that list.

I DON'T BELIEVE HE IS TALKING ABOUT TVGOS, JUST HIS CHANNEL LIST IN THE SONY TUNER. IF SO....

Try an "add on search" to see if they will get added.

Or, when tuned to the channel you want to add, press to the right on the directional pad. A menu should pop up where you can add the channel to your up/down channel list.

I saw the same thing yesterday morning. The message says,

"Updated information will be available withing 24 hours. The Guide is rebuilding your channel list based on your setup change."

But, I did not change anything in the setup !@#$%

It has been more than 36 hours and it is still showing the same message!

Anybody else has seen this?

Baskaran

A few days ago we saw this message in Los Angeles. The Cause was traced to a problem at one of the local PBS channels that broadcast the guide. Unfortunately I read that message on this thread afterI reset the guide - which was a very big mistake. By doing that I reset the clock to 12am 1/1/04, and eradicated my list of scheduled recordings. Without the correct time, it is very difficult to set a manual recording.

I suggest you set recordings manually until the guide returns.

Was your unit under warrantee? Was there a hardware mod performed? Were you charged anything? I want to clone my drive and to do that I need to break the seal. If there is a mod available I will try to do this before tearing into unit.

Thanks
Marshall

1- yes, under warranty
2- I don't know...electrical adjustment could mean anything
3- no, just the cost of shipping to Sony

I just got this response from Comcast (IL) when I asked if ADS was available in my area...

"You area does have the ADS programming available. A DCT700 is needed to receive the All Digital Simulcast programming."

Isn't a digital tuner with QAM compatability all that is needed for ADS? My Sony is now worthless?

A few days ago we saw this message in Los Angeles. The Cause was traced to a problem at one of the local PBS channels that broadcast the guide. Unfortunately I read that message on this thread afterI reset the guide - which was a very big mistake. By doing that I reset the clock to 12am 1/1/04, and eradicated my list of scheduled recordings. Without the correct time, it is very difficult to set a manual recording.

I suggest you set recordings manually until the guide returns.

The guide data is back this morning. I was surprised to see that it recorded scheduled programs even when the guide data was not there. It even had the correct title and information for the program!

Baskaran

I just got this response from Comcast (IL) when I asked if ADS was available in my area...

"You area does have the ADS programming available. A DCT700 is needed to receive the All Digital Simulcast programming."

Isn't a digital tuner with QAM compatability all that is needed for ADS? My Sony is now worthless?

The Sony with CC will work fine with ADS (and so will the Comcast 6412 and 3412). But remember that Comcast will have to insert a duplicate analog PBS channel in your lineup so you can get guide data. I was on ADS with my CableCARD for a couple of days and had to go back to analog because I had no guide data. AFAIK, they have not done the analog channel insertion in downtown Chicago yet. Maybe they have in your area.

West Los Angeles
I just picked up one of these at BestBuy yesterday. I left it off all night but still no program guide. I thought I read in the FAQ that the TV Guide data came from an analog channel in Torrence(KCET 28). I never got this analog channel well in West Los Angeles though the digital version comes in great. Will check again tonight.

Does anyone here use this in Pasadena, CA. I'm moving in about four months and want to be shure the TV Guide will work there. Thanks

The Sony with CC will work fine with ADS (and so will the Comcast 6412 and 3412). But remember that Comcast will have to insert a duplicate analog PBS channel in your lineup so you can get guide data. I was on ADS with my CableCARD for a couple of days and had to go back to analog because I had no guide data. AFAIK, they have not done the analog channel insertion in downtown Chicago yet. Maybe they have in your area.

Supposedly channel 11 is duplicated in analog on channel 94 on a Comcast box. I should have clarified. I only have expanded basic. I just want the analog channels to show up in digital and on the right channel assignments. Right now I've got channels that used to be in the 1-99 range showing up as 89.116 and such.

I don't think you will get the ADS channels to show up on the Sony as 2-99. A Comcast box will remap them as Comcast sees fit, but the Sony w/o CC won't do this.

You ARE getting the digital duplicates on the Sony now? They are not scrambled as someone suggested in another thread?

I don't think you will get the ADS channels to show up on the Sony as 2-99. A Comcast box will remap them as Comcast sees fit, but the Sony w/o CC won't do this.

You ARE getting the digital duplicates on the Sony now? They are not scrambled as someone suggested in another thread?

I am getting about 2/3 of them but a lot are missing while others have no audio.

I have the Harmony 676 remote and it has controlled all of my gear great until I got the SONY PVR. It some times takes two button presses to get the button to register on the SONY. This makes skipping commercials more difficult and require me to watch the screen to determine if the SONY decoded the command. The orig. SONY remote works great. I have tried to relearn allot of the SONY commands but it is no different.
I have tried to changed to inter IR command delay but that didn't help either.

Anybody else seeing this issue? Any suggestions? :eek:You might try adjust the speed of your button responses ("adjust the delays, speed settings") found in "more options" of your device when you go your remote's Web page on the Logitech Web site. Also, try posting this problem on this (http://www.remotecentral.com/cgi-bin/mboard/rc-harmony/list.cgi) forum. It's an EXCELLENT resource for remote information. FWIW, I have the same problem, though, apparently not to the extent you do. I have the Harmony SST-659.

I am in Texas where we are now just getting Verizon Fios installed. Will the DHG-HDD250/500 have the listings for this new fiber service? I'm thinking it will be exactly like the cable card installs. Anyone with experience with the card install on a fiberoptic system?

srnile:

The guide data in Los Angeles comes from KCET-28 and no other stations. We found this out when KCET had problems last week. :)

If you can get KCET-28 analog off-the-air or cable you should be fine. You will NOT be able to get the guide data from 28.1 (KCET-HD) or 28.2 (KCET-SD digital).

Robert

West Los Angeles
I just picked up one of these at BestBuy yesterday. I left it off all night but still no program guide. I thought I read in the FAQ that the TV Guide data came from an analog channel in Torrence(KCET 28). I never got this analog channel well in West Los Angeles though the digital version comes in great. Will check again tonight.

Does anyone here use this in Pasadena, CA. I'm moving in about four months and want to be shure the TV Guide will work there. Thanks

Guide is on PBS channel 28, so the recorder can get it from either antenna or cable. Thus, recorder won't get the guide only if you don't have cable and can't receive OTA channel 28. You can find out what kind of reception you will get in Pasadena, before you move there, by going to the Antenna web site and entering your address.


If you don't have guide today, make sure you didn't turn off channel 28, or the cable equivalent. To aid the process, you might tune to 28 before turning the recorder off. Several people report that this speeds up the process.
I did that a few days ago when the guide disappeared but mine chose cable channel 3, which is the same as OTA channel 28.

I stopped by the BB off the 405 on Rosecrans and they didn't have any Sony PVRs. Which BB still have some?

I would imagine you'll be just fine in Pasadena. Mount Wilson is just but a few miles away and you can probably get KCET's vbi feed via an indoor antenna loop.

i just got this unit and it is great! i am using it now as my primary DVR with the comcast DVR as back-up and for simultaneous shows. absolute advantages over the comcast DVR: closed captioning on-the-fly (worked great for Lost last Wednesday), resolution (720p/1080i/native) change on-the-fly, Smart Cue Adjust, bookmarking, and on and on. i did not notice a difference in PQ between the two over component, but i expect to see a difference over HDMI (my mits first-gen DLP has a poor HDMI implementation).
anyway, i have a couple of questions to the veterans:
(1) i bought mine open-box and the previous buyer ran the initial setup already with cable. i am currently using this unit for OTA (for now). while the cable channels are un-checked in the list, when i tune to channel 2.1, for example, it tunes to its cable input which would obviously get a no signal error. pressing channel up will tune to the antenna signal. how can i force it to tune first to the antenna signal?
(2) does it get all guide listings, including for digital cable, over the analog PBS? when i do get cablecard later, will it get guide data over antenna or cable?

i just got this unit and it is great! i am using it now as my primary DVR with the comcast DVR as back-up and for simultaneous shows. absolute advantages over the comcast DVR: closed captioning on-the-fly (worked great for Lost last Wednesday), resolution (720p/1080i/native) change on-the-fly, Smart Cue Adjust, bookmarking, and on and on. i did not notice a difference in PQ between the two over component, but i expect to see a difference over HDMI (my mits first-gen DLP has a poor HDMI implementation).
anyway, i have a couple of questions to the veterans:
(1) i bought mine open-box and the previous buyer ran the initial setup already with cable. i am currently using this unit for OTA (for now). while the cable channels are un-checked in the list, when i tune to channel 2.1, for example, it tunes to its cable input which would obviously get a no signal error. pressing channel up will tune to the antenna signal. how can i force it to tune first to the antenna signal?
(2) does it get all guide listings, including for digital cable, over the analog PBS? when i do get cablecard later, will it get guide data over antenna or cable?
I bought mine open box at BB last weekend as well. same situation as yours. what I did was to rescan the OTA and Cable to erase all previous channels and also reenter the ZIP code. then after that everything is the same as new. I waited about (with it on standby) one day to receive the whole TVG. Good luck. Jim

picked up one at BB this weekend and am still excited about what it can offer in HDTV WITHOUT any monthly fee. The only wishes I have at the moment are:
1. keeping the HDMI setting (say 720P) without losing after poweroff. 2. being able to hide the channels I never care to watch or record on the TVG.
if someone has figured these out, I would appreciate your sharing the tips. Jim
It can be done by going to menu and preferences and CH+ / - list I believe.

Mine was open box at BB too-- $449. Can't beat that!

closed captioning on-the-fly (worked great for Lost last Wednesday)

How do you do Closed Captioning on the fly? Do you mean that there is a toggle on the remote? Or is it going into the menu, preferences, screen, captions?

If it is the latter, I would hardly call that "on the fly"! :rolleyes:

How do you do Closed Captioning on the fly? Do you mean that there is a toggle on the remote? Or is it going into the menu, preferences, screen, captions?

If it is the latter, I would hardly call that "on the fly"! :rolleyes:

Yeah, I want to know that too...right now I have to go through couple steps before I can turn it on or off....

West Los Angeles
I just picked up one of these at BestBuy yesterday. I left it off all night but still no program guide. I thought I read in the FAQ that the TV Guide data came from an analog channel in Torrence(KCET 28). I never got this analog channel well in West Los Angeles though the digital version comes in great. Will check again tonight.

Does anyone here use this in Pasadena, CA. I'm moving in about four months and want to be shure the TV Guide will work there. Thanks
srnile -- I live in Pasadena and the Sony DHG works great (time, guide data, and all). The guide data in Pasadena is also on analog-KCET28. I pick up ~ 40+ OTA digital channels. I don't think you'll have a problem at all. According to antennaweb the signals from Mt. Wilson are ~ 7 miles away from me.

How do you do Closed Captioning on the fly? Do you mean that there is a toggle on the remote? Or is it going into the menu, preferences, screen, captions?

If it is the latter, I would hardly call that "on the fly"! :rolleyes:

memnoch is referring to the fact that the Comcast box must be turned OFF to get into a menu that toggles captions, then turned back on.

Compared to that, the Sony is indeed "on the fly". :D

memnoch is referring to the fact that the Comcast box must be turned OFF to get into a menu that toggles captions, then turned back on.

Compared to that, the Sony is indeed "on the fly". :D

I don't understand why you have to go through layers and layers to turn it on or off... why can't it be like DVD with just a push of a button.

I don't understand why you have to go through layers and layers to turn it on or off... why can't it be like DVD with just a push of a button.Agreed. That is truly one of the (several) drawbacks of this unit. I found a one-button toggle for CC for my Hitachi RPTV (not on the original remote, but in the Harmony database), and, being a bit hard of hearing, it's invaluable to me.

Yes. If you schedule a recording by selecting a program in the guide and pressing the "Menu" button, you can select that you want to begin early and/or end late by amounts of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45, 60 or 90 minutes. The larger amounts come in handy for sports events like football games. I set them to end late by 90 minutes, then stop the recording manually when the game actually ends. This came in handy for that triple-overtime Orange Bowl. :)

If you scroll up to the top bar in the guide and over to "Schedule", then press the 'Menu" button, you can schedule a manual recording by entering start/stop times explicitly, down to the minute.
I'm one of those that tries to read the entire manual once I get it up and running. I don't recall seeing this. How did you find out about this?BTW, this is only for recordings that are repeated (daily, weekly). And, if you set the repeated recording by selecting the program, and hitting the record button twice or three times (in contrast to setting it manually through the menu), you'd have to go the the schedule list, select the program, then hit edit to change the start/stop by those increments. A recording that is set for once only, of course, allows you to set the start recording/stop recording time to anything.

memnoch is referring to the fact that the Comcast box must be turned OFF to get into a menu that toggles captions, then turned back on.

Compared to that, the Sony is indeed "on the fly". :D

Subtitles on the Comcast recorder is a big problem if you want to add or remove them while a recording is in progress since the recorder must be turned off to make the switch.

On the Sony, it probably takes less than 10 seconds to add/remove subtitles. Having a button on the remote would be more convenient but not a significant feature since most people probably don't use it, and most that do, probably leave it on. Sometimes I use it, but once it's on, it remains on for the rest of the program.

I have the Harmony 676 remote and it has controlled all of my gear great until I got the SONY PVR. It some times takes two button presses to get the button to register on the SONY. This makes skipping commercials more difficult and require me to watch the screen to determine if the SONY decoded the command. The orig. SONY remote works great. I have tried to relearn allot of the SONY commands but it is no different.
I have tried to changed to inter IR command delay but that didn't help either.

Anybody else seeing this issue? Any suggestions? :eek:
UPDATE: With the Harmony SST-659, I was having similar problems as you, though, as I mentioned in a previous response to your post, not quite as bad. However, I adjusted repeats from 3 to 4 and reduced interkey response from 500ms to 300ms. It made all the difference in the world :)...the Harmony is now just as responsive as the Sony's original remote.

I adjusted repeats from 3 to 4 and reduced interkey response from 500ms to 300ms.

Where is the setting for repeats? I can't find it on the Harmony setup pages. Or is it a Sony thing?

(1) i bought mine open-box and the previous buyer ran the initial setup already with cable. i am currently using this unit for OTA (for now). while the cable channels are un-checked in the list, when i tune to channel 2.1, for example, it tunes to its cable input which would obviously get a no signal error. pressing channel up will tune to the antenna signal. how can i force it to tune first to the antenna signal?
(2) does it get all guide listings, including for digital cable, over the analog PBS? when i do get cablecard later, will it get guide data over antenna or cable?

I suggest you edit the TV Guide Listing- set all channels off, except for the OTA ones you wish to view.

What the guide shows depends on the receiver setup: If only OTA was selected, then the listing most of the analog and digital OTA channels. Most of the digital subchannels are not listed. To get the cable listings, you need to change the setup to both cable and ota, and choose a cable provider. If you choose only cable, you may not get the listings.

I don't use a cable card but some who do have encountered a 161-1 error, which has required them to ship the unit back for modification. So if you plan to add a cable card, I suggest you do so within the first 90 days, unless you have an extended warantee.

Where is the setting for repeats? I can't find it on the Harmony setup pages. Or is it a Sony thing?It's on your Harmony home page...
1. On your home page click More Options next to the Sony device.
2. Click Troubleshoot.
3. Select Show me more problems and click Next
4. Select My device doesn't appear to receive every command correctly. and click Next.
5. Select The device responds to some commands occasionally and click Next.
6. Select the option either one above or one below the current setting and then click Save.
7. Click Update My Remote.
8. If that doesn't resolve the issue, repeat steps 1-7 and try a different number of repeats.

Well, I'm on my second day and still no program data. I did purchase an open box that had bee setup but I went through the setup process and entered a new zip code. Have there been any problems with program data in West Los Angeles over the last few days? I'll give it until Sunday before I return it.

UPDATE: With the Harmony SST-659, I was having similar problems as you, though, as I mentioned in a previous response to your post, not quite as bad. However, I adjusted repeats from 3 to 4 and reduced interkey response from 500ms to 300ms. It made all the difference in the world :)...the Harmony is now just as responsive as the Sony's original remote.

Thanks a lot. Changing the repeats to 4 cured my no response to button press issue. (I already had the interkey response at 100msec to make it more responsive).
:)

Thanks a lot. Changing the repeats to 4 cured my no response to button press issue. (I already had the interkey response at 100msec to make it more responsive).
:)Glad to help...

Well, I'm on my second day and still no program data. I did purchase an open box that had bee setup but I went through the setup process and entered a new zip code. Have there been any problems with program data in West Los Angeles over the last few days? I'll give it until Sunday before I return it.

Don't rush to return the unit since you have 30 days to do so, and your problem is more likely caused by either your setup or a station problem. I'm out of town for the weekend so I don't know if guide data is coming in.

Is the clock time correct? Did you tune in channel 2 before you shut off the recorder?

I suggest you check link below for help. You may need to reset the guide or the recorder to clear the problem. If the correct time shows, don't rush to do either.

http://pvr.hidyman.com/

I suggest you edit the TV Guide Listing- set all channels off, except for the OTA ones you wish to view.

What the guide shows depends on the receiver setup: If only OTA was selected, then the listing most of the analog and digital OTA channels. Most of the digital subchannels are not listed. To get the cable listings, you need to change the setup to both cable and ota, and choose a cable provider. If you choose only cable, you may not get the listings.

I don't use a cable card but some who do have encountered a 161-1 error, which has required them to ship the unit back for modification. So if you plan to add a cable card, I suggest you do so within the first 90 days, unless you have an extended warantee. Here in Chicagoland I get all the listings for the subchannels, except the 2 weather ones and one ethnic one, which I don't really care at all about, because I'm never gonna record them. We do have a brand new PBS subchannel which hasn't shown any listings as of yet. I admit, I had to take a few of the analog channel spots and add in the digital channel numbers, but they all filled in with their corresponding guide data perfectly. (Now that I think of it, some of the PAX data is all screwed up - but that's on their end.)

Where is the setting for repeats?
It's on your Harmony home page...
1. On your home page click More Options next to the Sony device.
2. Click Troubleshoot.
[etc.]


Aha! I didn't try Troubleshoot before because I figured it would just ask a lot of questions leading to the options that I'd already seen. Serves me right. :p Anyway, your suggested settings do make the Sony more responsive to my Harmony. Thanks!

On another front, I heard back from South Carolina ETV about getting their digital subchannels listed in TVGOS. Gemstar has agreed to add them, and they should show up in mid February. SCETV didn't give me any specific details, so I don't know if they're actually going to add all the subchannels for each station (which would mean twelve new entries in my guide, because I have four analog SCETV channels in my guide), or just add one set of channels that can be remapped to the station I actually use.

How can you be able to tune in a channel manually, but auto-scan won't pick it up? As long as it's receivable auto-scanning should be picking it up, too. You may not have it in your program guide, but it should be programmed into your channels when you use the channel button. Doesn't make sense.

I'd like to add a channel or delete a channel which is recognized when I use the channel up/down buttons when I'm flipping through channels sequentially.

What I'm doing is getting the local HD stations from my cable company. They provide these channels without paying for the HD package. Unfortunately, I've been watching HD this way for the last 6 months with a HD tuner in my TV and the cable company changes the channels around every couple months.

For example, FOX was on 79.2 and now it's on 79.3 and PBS was on another channel, then moved to 79.5.

People on a local forum post the channel changes when it happens and I've been going into my TV's menu to delete the old channel and add the new channel. The Sony doesn't appear to allow us to do this without a rescan which takes about 20 minutes.

I read the Sony manual where it says while tuned to a channel, one is able to hit the right arrow and enter a menu where you can manually add or delete the current channel. I only see manual delete, no manual add.

Don't rush to return the unit since you have 30 days to do so, and your problem is more likely caused by either your setup or a station problem. I'm out of town for the weekend so I don't know if guide data is coming in.

Is the clock time correct? Did you tune in channel 2 before you shut off the recorder?

I suggest you check link below for help. You may need to reset the guide or the recorder to clear the problem. If the correct time shows, don't rush to do either.

http://pvr.hidyman.com/


The correct time showed almost immediately. Even after I went through setup the time stayed. The channel guide was ok but I did a rescan this morning because I thought that might be a problem, it's set to air so that's ok. I have it on channel 28 KCET analog. Receptions pretty good also.
Thanks Ray, You're right, there's no rush to return it : )

I'd like to add a channel or delete a channel which is recognized when I use the channel up/down buttons when I'm flipping through channels sequentially.

What I'm doing is getting the local HD stations from my cable company. They provide these channels without paying for the HD package. Unfortunately, I've been watching HD this way for the last 6 months with a HD tuner in my TV and the cable company changes the channels around every couple months.

For example, FOX was on 79.2 and now it's on 79.3 and PBS was on another channel, then moved to 79.5.

People on a local forum post the channel changes when it happens and I've been going into my TV's menu to delete the old channel and add the new channel. The Sony doesn't appear to allow us to do this without a rescan which takes about 20 minutes.

I read the Sony manual where it says while tuned to a channel, one is able to hit the right arrow and enter a menu where you can manually add or delete the current channel. I only see manual delete, no manual add.

You will need to do an "add channel" scan. It is in the setup menu (of the Sony, not TVGOS). After you get those channels added, you can edit TVGOS, so the listings match the updated channels.

Can you record the show on the fly ?
According to the menu. It said that if I press and hold the record button for one second it will start recording the show that I'm watching. Well, I did that the menu pop up on the left hand side and I have to enter the time and date like I would normally do if I were to manually set up the program to have it recorded.
Is there a way that I can press record button and have it recorded and stop to have it stop recording like VCR does.

Can you record the show on the fly ?
According to the menu. It said that if I press and hold the record button for one second it will start recording the show that I'm watching. Well, I did that the menu pop up on the left hand side and I have to enter the time and date like I would normally do if I were to manually set up the program to have it recorded.
Is there a way that I can press record button and have it recorded and stop to have it stop recording like VCR does. You have to go to the TVGOS menu first and then highlight the show and then press record. It's pretty quick and simple, especially if you're tuned to that channel in the first place. All you'd have to do is hit the TV guide menu button, then hold down the record button. Of course, if you're not using the TVGOS, you're SOOL.

Can you record the show on the fly ?
According to the menu. It said that if I press and hold the record button for one second it will start recording the show that I'm watching. Well, I did that the menu pop up on the left hand side and I have to enter the time and date like I would normally do if I were to manually set up the program to have it recorded.
Is there a way that I can press record button and have it recorded and stop to have it stop recording like VCR does.

To record a live show, press the TV Guide button and then press the record button for one second. Recording will start from the time you tuned in the station, up to 30 minutes in advance of the time you pressed record. If you change your mind and don't want to record the program, you can delete it by pressing the record button 4 times (according to the manual) but I don't know of any way to just stop recording like a VCR.

When you hit the stop button, a list will pop up that says "stop recording" - it will already be set on this command, as it's the very first one at the top of a list of four - all you have to do is press the "select" button and it stops - it's that simple. So, you would first hit "stop", and then "select" on your remote.

I got my DHG-HDD500 back today. I shipped it to Sony Repair on 1/9 and I got it back today 1/18, so it was about a 10 day turnaround including weekend.

Here is what the invoice states:

Description of Parts or Service

CABLE CARD PROBLEM ERROR 161-1
>>>DID 161-1 REWORK
>>>PERFORM CONSTANT DATA PROGRAM EXEC
>>>PERFORM ELECTRICAL ADJUSTMENT
>>>INSTALLED & VERIFY G* PATCH 8.06.20

SONY FIRMWARE UPDATE
>>>UPDATED SOFTWARE TO VER 1.2.13
>>>RESET TO FACTORY DEFAULTS

TEST ALL FUNCTIONS
NO ACCY
ES 01/16/06

***NOTE***
4 DIGIT CHANNEL EDIT IN TV GUIDE EDITOR REFERRED TO ENGINEERS. UPDATE NOT AVAILABLE AT THIS TIME.

**************************
I haven't turned it on yet, since I'm waiting for the electronics to get to room temperature...the unit is ice cold...it's freezing up here in the northeast. I'll check back later...


Okay, my unit is up and running. I had an issue with the old cablecard, which use to work before the unit went into service, it didn't work. Time Warner tech came and changed out the cablecard (took about 5 minutes).

I have two new issues with the new firmware:

1 - switching channels now produces a longer period of audio and video noise on the screen for about 5 to 7 seconds while the unit tunes in the next channel. I did not have this problem before the upgrade, before the upgrade the sound was muted when switching channels and a brief 1 second display of video noise.

2 - switching channels when using AUTO-HDMI produces a brief 2 second message that states "This program is not available when connected to HDMI or DVI equipped monitor. You may change channel or use the Component or SD Video output.", but this message goes away within 2 seconds and the channel is tuned like nothing happened. This occurs while switching channels and while watching HD channels. I suspect it must have something to do with HDCP handshaking. I did not have this message before the upgrade.

And one old issue:

1 - I can't enter 4 digit channel numbers when using the tv guide channel editor, for example INHD2 is channel 1856 for me, but I'm only allowed to enter 18-56, 1-856, etc...not 1856. The tv guide data has it as channel 1868. And yes, I sent emails to TW to have the problem corrected, the answer I got was they are working on it, but in the meantime that I should get their STB.

Other than the above, the unit is operating as expected. Oh one more thing, they sent me a new manual with the upgraded unit. It is the same as the updated pdf manual online.

To record a live show, press the TV Guide button and then press the record button for one second. Recording will start from the time you tuned in the station, up to 30 minutes in advance of the time you pressed record....That really depends on what you've set the buffer to....mine is set for 60 minutes, so, in my case it would record up to 60 minutes in advance.

Now that this Sony HDTV recorder has been discontinued, are there any products out there (or even product announcements) with similar capabilities? What I'm looking for would be "just like a Sony DHG-HDD250, except that it does timed recordings of HDTV as reliably as a VCR does timed recordings of analog channels."

Now that this Sony HDTV recorder has been discontinued, are there any products out there (or even product announcements) with similar capabilities? What I'm looking for would be "just like a Sony DHG-HDD250, except that it does timed recordings of HDTV as reliably as a VCR does timed recordings of analog channels."

The TiVo 3 may be you best bet, although its arrival may be suspect. There is also an agreement with Comcast offer DVR's with TiVo software but I am not certail what platform that will be.

-- Rich

I had basically given up on finding a "new in the box" 250, but low and behold, a not so local BB had 3 of them still in stock, so I picked one up last evening. BB still selling them for 499.00, but I had some BB Rewards Zone points to redeem so I got a bit of a discount, plus I purchased the 4 year warranty. Anyway, although it's still early in the process, so far, I'm extremely happy with the product. After getting things connected "correctly" :o and running the auto-scan, went to bed and the program guide was populated with days 1,2 and 8 when I checked it out this morning. I have performed a manual recording with no problems, and I'm doing a scheduled recording as I type this. I purchased the 250 primarily as an OTA HD PVR, as I'm currently a Cox Cable customer with a Motorola DCT6412 Phase III HD DVR , but with very limited OTA HD channel recording availability via the cable system. But, in lieu of the potential CC error problems, I'll probably have a cable card installed just to make sure I catch any problems that's going to occur, as soon as possible.

My DHG-HDD250 was manufactured in July 2005, and came with software version 1.2.09.

For those who might be concerned about connecting the 250 via HDMI to a HDMI switching receiver ( I have a Yamaha RX-V2600) and the from the receiver to your HDTV via HDMI, and I can happily report that it works with no issues. The 250 defaults to Auto-HDMI and the receiver passes the signal to my HDTV without a problem. Now my Motorola DCT6412 Phase III STB, OTOH! :mad:

I only issue I've seen so far is although I can access the 250 service menus, I can't seem to get to the TVGOS service menu. Can anyone running software ver 1.2.09 on a 250 confirm if they can get to the TVGOS service menu?

BTW: Kudo's to Hidyman for the Sony DHG-HDD250/500 Resource Guide webpage

To record a live show, press the TV Guide button and then press the record button for one second. Recording will start from the time you tuned in the station, up to 30 minutes in advance of the time you pressed record. If you change your mind and don't want to record the program, you can delete it by pressing the record button 4 times (according to the manual) but I don't know of any way to just stop recording like a VCR.

I used that feature before. Record from the guide. But my box is kind of strange. It picked up the signal that's not even on the guide. There's four options for my cable company listed when I did the initial set up. I tried them all none of them seem to match perfectly. I would get like 6 or 7 CBS and ABC and some of them has no signal I don't understand why the guide loaded them in. My Local HD station is on channel 88-1, 88-2, 89-1 ect.... and those channels don't show up on the guide.

I just thought may be there's an easy way to just hit the record button just like VCR and record. But I guess I can't do that then.

What's the numeric IP address of the FAQ site (pvr.hidyman.com)? I've been trying to get to it all week but I can't get past the address lookup stage. There must be a DNS issue on our network that causes problems with newly-created domain names.

1 - switching channels now produces a longer period of audio and video noise on the screen for about 5 to 7 seconds while the unit tunes in the next channel. I did not have this problem before the upgrade, before the upgrade the sound was muted when switching channels and a brief 1 second display of video noise.


It sounds like you are set for Native resolution, so it switches resolution every time you change to a channel with a different resolution. Try a fixed setting like 1080i or 720p, and you shouldn't have this problem anymore. (I can't remember which button this is - FORMAT or SCREEN MODE).

What's the numeric IP address of the FAQ site (pvr.hidyman.com)? I've been trying to get to it all week but I can't get past the address lookup stage. There must be a DNS issue on our network that causes problems with newly-created domain names. I have the same problem so its probably not your network.

...There's four options for my cable company listed when I did the initial set up. I tried them all none of them seem to match perfectly....I had two options for my cable company, tried them both, and neither matched perfectly. Oh well...

It's been three days and still no program guide in West Los Angeles. I entered the service menu and the right channel (28 KCET)seems to be selected. Unit is set to air, time is correct. Not sure what else to check. Imteresting my "open box" unit had been reset 6 times. None by me.

Any others in West Los Angeles experiancing problems?

I used that feature before. Record from the guide. But my box is kind of strange. It picked up the signal that's not even on the guide. There's four options for my cable company listed when I did the initial set up. I tried them all none of them seem to match perfectly. I would get like 6 or 7 CBS and ABC and some of them has no signal I don't understand why the guide loaded them in. My Local HD station is on channel 88-1, 88-2, 89-1 ect.... and those channels don't show up on the guide.

I just thought may be there's an easy way to just hit the record button just like VCR and record. But I guess I can't do that then.

My HD channel numbers on cable didn't match those in the Guide, probably because I don't have a cable card. I suggest you search thru all the cable channels manually and write down the channel numbers corresponding to ABC, etc. Then use the edit mode to correct the channel numbers. For example, cable channel number for CBS is 183, but without the cable card, the correct channel number is 117.9. I also didn't find the Cable company designation for my area in either LA or Phoenix. It's not a problem if you get the same listings as those for your cable service. If not, you can try a different zip code.

Anyone know how to get INHD2 to show up on the Guide? Thanks.

Jim

You will need to do an "add channel" scan. It is in the setup menu (of the Sony, not TVGOS). After you get those channels added, you can edit TVGOS, so the listings match the updated channels.


Where is this "add channel" menu? When I press the "menu" button then choose "preferences" --> "ch +/- list", the options are:

edit ch +/- list
auto add from antenna
auto scan

I don't see a menu for auto add from cable. My version is 1.2.06 and I've only been playing with this box for a few days so I may be overlooking something.

Where is this "add channel" menu? When I press the "menu" button then choose "preferences" --> "ch +/- list", the options are:

edit ch +/- list
auto add from antenna
auto scan

I don't see a menu for auto add from cable. My version is 1.2.06 and I've only been playing with this box for a few days so I may be overlooking something.

You probably didn't setup the recorder for both OTA and Cable.

Now that this Sony HDTV recorder has been discontinued, are there any products out there (or even product announcements) with similar capabilities? What I'm looking for would be "just like a Sony DHG-HDD250, except that it does timed recordings of HDTV as reliably as a VCR does timed recordings of analog channels."

I'd like dual tuners in next gen recorders. Record one channel and watch another or record 2 channels at once. That'd be nice.

Anyone know how to get INHD2 to show up on the Guide?

As I recall from previous postings here (I'm just an OTA guy so I don't have access to that channel), INHD2 does not show up in TVGOS even as an "inactive" channel when you go into the Setup Channel Display menu (or whatever it's called). Someone needs to persuade Gemstar to add listings for INHD2 to their data feed.

Gemstar doesn't seem to want to deal with mere individual users of their system. I suggest that you contact whoever produces or distributes IHND2, and perhaps your cable or satellite provider, and ask them to ask Gemstar about adding listings. I recently worked through South Carolina ETV to get Gemstar to add listings for SCETV's digital subchannels (which are supposed to show up in mid February... I'm keeping my fingers crossed).

As I recall from previous postings here (I'm just an OTA guy so I don't have access to that channel), INHD2 does not show up in TVGOS even as an "inactive" channel when you go into the Setup Channel Display menu (or whatever it's called). Someone needs to persuade Gemstar to add listings for INHD2 to their data feed.

Gemstar doesn't seem to want to deal with mere individual users of their system. I suggest that you contact whoever produces or distributes IHND2, and perhaps your cable or satellite provider, and ask them to ask Gemstar about adding listings. I recently worked through South Carolina ETV to get Gemstar to add listings for SCETV's digital subchannels (which are supposed to show up in mid February... I'm keeping my fingers crossed).

INHD2 does appear on my guide (zip code 12302), inactive, you have to edit and enter your channel number.

It sounds like you are set for Native resolution, so it switches resolution every time you change to a channel with a different resolution. Try a fixed setting like 1080i or 720p, and you shouldn't have this problem anymore. (I can't remember which button this is - FORMAT or SCREEN MODE).

Thanks, I did set it to 720p (since this is the native resolution of my 61" JVC lycos). It does solve the switching delay, now the delay is down to 2 second, but I still have audio and video noise added by a loud audio pop (when using my receiver) once the unit tunes in the channel. I left it back at AUTO HDMI, since I don't want the popping sound on the receiver.

INHD2 does appear on my guide (zip code 12302), inactive

So Gemstar does have the data for INHD2. If it's not in Jim's guide at all (even as an inactive channel), then it's probably because Gemstar thinks no provider in his area carries INHD2. In that case he should probably work through his provider to get Gemstar to update their channel lineup for his area.

So Gemstar does have the data for INHD2. If it's not in Jim's guide at all (even as an inactive channel), then it's probably because Gemstar thinks no provider in his area carries INHD2. In that case he should probably work through his provider to get Gemstar to update their channel lineup for his area.

AFAIK, dkennedy's is the FIRST report of INHD2 showing up in TVGOS anywhere.

I'd say that Gemstar knows INHD2 is carried by Comcast in Chicago. The Comcast box guide is furnished by --- TV Guide. Yet there is no INHD2 in the Sony's TVGOS here.

Hey people in Los Angeles using Comcast and the dct6208. I am trying to add more space to my unit using a USB 200 gig drive. is this possible. If not can I use the Ethernet? if not how can I expand the size of the recording capacity???

Scott

It's been three days and still no program guide in West Los Angeles. I entered the service menu and the right channel (28 KCET)seems to be selected. Unit is set to air, time is correct. Not sure what else to check. Imteresting my "open box" unit had been reset 6 times. None by me.

Any others in West Los Angeles experiancing problems?

My unit has guide data so I assume the problem is with your unit. I suggest you use manual recording for a few days so you can enjoy recorded HDTV. If guide doesn't show by then, you may wish to reset the unit. That option is in the 9012 menu.

Hey people in Los Angeles using Comcast and the dct6208. I am trying to add more space to my unit using a USB 200 gig drive. is this possible. If not can I use the Ethernet? if not how can I expand the size of the recording capacity???

ScottWhy are you posting this in a thread for the Sony unit?

As I recall from previous postings here (I'm just an OTA guy so I don't have access to that channel), INHD2 does not show up in TVGOS even as an "inactive" channel when you go into the Setup Channel Display menu (or whatever it's called). Someone needs to persuade Gemstar to add listings for INHD2 to their data feed.

Gemstar doesn't seem to want to deal with mere individual users of their system. I suggest that you contact whoever produces or distributes IHND2, and perhaps your cable or satellite provider, and ask them to ask Gemstar about adding listings. I recently worked through South Carolina ETV to get Gemstar to add listings for SCETV's digital subchannels (which are supposed to show up in mid February... I'm keeping my fingers crossed).

Well I think we all need to contact Gemstar and INHD individually it order to get things moving. They are more likely to listen to a group of people than just a single person. We should do this for all the missing channels and subchannels. Otherwise things will likely stay the same.

Has anyone confirmed that INHD2 does show up on some systems? Maybe he was getting it confused with INHD1 or something.

Hey people in Los Angeles using Comcast and the dct6208. I am trying to add more space to my unit using a USB 200 gig drive. is this possible. If not can I use the Ethernet? if not how can I expand the size of the recording capacity???

Scott

You aren't likely to get an answer to this question in this thread. Try searching for 6208 in the forums...

EDIT: Oops - Bierboy beat me to the punch.

Well I think we all need to contact Gemstar and INHD individually it order to get things moving. They are more likely to listen to a group of people than just a single person. We should do this for all the missing channels and subchannels. Otherwise things will likely stay the same.

Has anyone confirmed that INHD2 does show up on some systems? Maybe he was getting it confused with INHD1 or something.

I get both INHD & INHD2 via tv guide data with zip code 12302 using cablecard. You have a choice of two digital channel lineups, select 8865 (all digital channels). The issue I have is that INHD2 is channel 1865 and tv guide is sending it as 1868 and I can't enter a 4 digit channel in the channel editor. But I activated it anyway, to see whats on even thou I have to manually tune to the channel.

My unit has guide data so I assume the problem is with your unit. I suggest you use manual recording for a few days so you can enjoy recorded HDTV. If guide doesn't show by then, you may wish to reset the unit. That option is in the 9012 menu.

I have a question for anyone who ever try to do this.
All my local HD station came in weird numbers may be I don't have cable card inserted. Anyway, I have to do manual recording on all the programs. Now is there a way I can rename the show that I recorded to the actual name instead of unknown ? right now I only have couple show on the list. I will have problem If I have more than 20.
Someone already mentioned something about naming the channel. Let's say my ABC is channel 88-1 and the display is blank instead of ABC. Can I manually enter the letter ?

Thanks

I get both INHD & INHD2 via tv guide data with zip code 12302 using cablecard. You have a choice of two digital channel lineups, select 8865 (all digital channels). The issue I have is that INHD2 is channel 1865 and tv guide is sending it as 1868 and I can't enter a 4 digit channel in the channel editor. But I activated it anyway, to see whats on even thou I have to manually tune to the channel.

Sometimes when I'm remapping channels it acts flakey and lets me enter 5 digit numbers. I don't know if it actually works as I've only entered number like 00035 when it wouldn't let me just enter 35.

Sometimes when I'm remapping channels it acts flakey and lets me enter 5 digit numbers. I don't know if it actually works as I've only entered number like 00035 when it wouldn't let me just enter 35.

I almost posted that too, but I realized that I was entering these numbers in the "position" field (not the "tune channel" field). Does it let you do this in the channel number field also? I thought it was strange when you went in to type these in, and sometimes it would append it to the end of the existing number, and other times it would replace the number that was there already...

That might have been it. I'll double check it tonight.

1. I keep mine at auto-hdmi which it will revert to on extended power-out. Auto-hdmi works fine for my hdmi/hdmi run.

2. Yes, you can hide channels via TVGUIDE/SETUP/Change Channel Display/Menu on the Channel you select.

Good luck.

thanks, xsn0, tried your tips this weekend and managed to clean up TVG. but I still can't set HDMI to 720p I guess it must be a limitation of Sony and my setup.

I have a question for anyone who ever try to do this.
All my local HD station came in weird numbers may be I don't have cable card inserted. Anyway, I have to do manual recording on all the programs. Now is there a way I can rename the show that I recorded to the actual name instead of unknown ? right now I only have couple show on the list. I will have problem If I have more than 20.
Someone already mentioned something about naming the channel. Let's say my ABC is channel 88-1 and the display is blank instead of ABC. Can I manually enter the letter ?

Thanks
You can't rename an unknown program, but date, time and channel information usually is enough to identify the progam. The recorder doesn't come with a cable card so if you didn't have one installed, you don't have it. If you went thru the setup process correctly, you should have a guide display with correct channel numbers, except for HD. For those channels, you need to manually go through all your received channels to find the HD channel numbers. THen you enter those numbers into the guide using the edit mode. For example, if the guide shows ABC HD on channel 184, you replace that number with 88.1.
If the recorder has the correct time but no guide after three or four days, I suggest you reset the recorder and start over again.

What's the numeric IP address of the FAQ site (pvr.hidyman.com)? I've been trying to get to it all week but I can't get past the address lookup stage. There must be a DNS issue on our network that causes problems with newly-created domain names.

You will need to put this in your "hosts" file if the DNS lookup isn't working:

69.218.160.155 pvr.hidyman.com

8^)

This is from the Sony site (referring to the Sony diagnostics screen:

IMPORTANT: If the Out of Band channel status is not LOCKED, or has a SNR value under 16, the signal of the cable feed may not be sufficient.

Philly, where did you see this on SONY's site? as of now, I'm on my third unit trying to get the guide data. and on my host channel my out of Band Channel staus in unlocked. Any idea how to resolve this? i assume this as regarding guide data?

I did a soft reset and program data showed up, after four days of nothing. Finally!!!

Funny the program data showed up within the hour, no overnight wait. So it must have been already downloaded and available

I picked up the hdd250 (firmware 1.2.06) from best buy at the clearance price. I set it up with a cable card (Comcast - Denver), and I am using it only for HD recording (locals plus 4 movie channels.... can't watch SD anymore). The TVGOS was setup within 24 hrs (host channel 80... PBS). 2 HD channels missing from the guide: INHD2 and KWGN-DT (HD version of a local)... but I can live with that. Have not seen any 161-X errors (yet).

The one show-stopper issue (one that may force me to return it) I am having is that some scheduled recordings (scheduling a bunch just to test) have failed with the dreaded "Recording not permitted by service provider" message. I have never seen the CCI flags set to anything other than 0x00. I've tried all the work-arounds (make sure tuner is not on the channel to be recorded, etc) I've found in here to no avail... still get random failures (e.g. a scheduled recording of an episode of "Masters of Horror" from Showtime failed but then a second attempt of a scheduled recording of a later airing of the same episode was fine). Before I plunge into the Sony service abyss, anyone know if a later firmware release addresses this issue? Any other Comcast cable card users with the Sony have these issues?

I picked up the hdd250 (firmware 1.2.06) from best buy at the clearance price. I set it up with a cable card (Comcast - Denver), and I am using it only for HD recording (locals plus 4 movie channels.... can't watch SD anymore). The TVGOS was setup within 24 hrs (host channel 80... PBS). 2 HD channels missing from the guide: INHD2 and KWGN-DT (HD version of a local)... but I can live with that. Have not seen any 161-X errors (yet).

The one show-stopper issue (one that may force me to return it) I am having is that some scheduled recordings (scheduling a bunch just to test) have failed with the dreaded "Recording not permitted by service provider" message. I have never seen the CCI flags set to anything other than 0x00. I've tried all the work-arounds (make sure tuner is not on the channel to be recorded, etc) I've found in here to no avail... still get random failures (e.g. a scheduled recording of an episode of "Masters of Horror" from Showtime failed but then a second attempt of a scheduled recording of a later airing of the same episode was fine). Before I plunge into the Sony service abyss, anyone know if a later firmware release addresses this issue? Any other Comcast cable card users with the Sony have these issues?

Wow, that really stinks. I wonder if they can block OTA recording.

Okay, my unit is up and running. I had an issue with the old cablecard, which use to work before the unit went into service, it didn't work. Time Warner tech came and changed out the cablecard (took about 5 minutes).

I have two new issues with the new firmware:

1 - switching channels now produces a longer period of audio and video noise on the screen for about 5 to 7 seconds while the unit tunes in the next channel. I did not have this problem before the upgrade, before the upgrade the sound was muted when switching channels and a brief 1 second display of video noise.

2 - switching channels when using AUTO-HDMI produces a brief 2 second message that states "This program is not available when connected to HDMI or DVI equipped monitor. You may change channel or use the Component or SD Video output.", but this message goes away within 2 seconds and the channel is tuned like nothing happened. This occurs while switching channels and while watching HD channels. I suspect it must have something to do with HDCP handshaking. I did not have this message before the upgrade.

And one old issue:

1 - I can't enter 4 digit channel numbers when using the tv guide channel editor, for example INHD2 is channel 1856 for me, but I'm only allowed to enter 18-56, 1-856, etc...not 1856. The tv guide data has it as channel 1868. And yes, I sent emails to TW to have the problem corrected, the answer I got was they are working on it, but in the meantime that I should get their STB.

Other than the above, the unit is operating as expected. Oh one more thing, they sent me a new manual with the upgraded unit. It is the same as the updated pdf manual online.
5-7 secs delay for channel switching with the new firmware!? mine is 1.2.05 and i thought 3 secs delay is worst enough (only when switching from 1080i to 720p or 480i and vice versa). No upgrade for me.

Well, I have found a recurring problem/annoyance with my Sony...

I have had numerous instances of the DVR freezing up when I am fast forwarding. It will become unresponsive for about 30-60 seconds and then pick back up.

I had one happen last night and then about 1-2 minutes after it started playing again, it "skipped" ahead by an unknown amount of time. I tried rewinding to see what I missed, and when I did this it skipped back to the beginning of the show.

Some of these situations occurred when i was watching a show that was still recording. I think the skip ahead described above happened to be an empty "blank" space in the program that was created as it was trying to record while it was frozen. (I was only a few minutes behind live tv when the freeze occurred).

Has anyone else run into this behavior?

I am thinking I want to do a "reboot" to see if it helps, but what is the best method for doing this type of simple reboot? Is it just unplugging and then plugging it back in? Or is there an easier way?

Thanks!

The one show-stopper issue (one that may force me to return it) I am having is that some scheduled recordings (scheduling a bunch just to test) have failed with the dreaded "Recording not permitted by service provider" message.

This just happened to me so I ran more test recordings today. As reported by others, successive recordings on the same premium channel will fail after the first one records. For example, I had three one hour programs set to record on ESPN-HD Sunday afternoon at 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30. The 1:30 recorded OK, but the next two failed with the "not permitted" message.

Today I tested this on ESPN-HD and HBO-HD and got the same result every time.

I don't recall if amyone resolved this issue previously or at least determined who is at fault --- cableco, CableCARD, or Sony.

I have had numerous instances of the DVR freezing up when I am fast forwarding. It will become unresponsive for about 30-60 seconds and then pick back up.

This was happening to me with heavy FF use while zipping through recorded football games. Sometimes the freeze would last for 2-3 minutes and once it was longer requiring a reboot. The solution was to use the Advance function instead.

I do use FF with other programs, but have not seen this behavior for a couple of months. It's possible this was fixed by the necessary reset after our national Guide problem a while back, but I'm not sure.

Wow, that really stinks. I wonder if they can block OTA recording.

Only blockage I encountered was when I tried to burn a DVD of a Showtime movie.

Instead of a cable card, I use my Comcast recorder for HBO and Showtime movies, and never have a problem, so I assume the inablitlity to record premium shows on the Sony is not intentional. I suspect that the only programs you aren't allowed to record are PPV.

This was happening to me with heavy FF use while zipping through recorded football games. Sometimes the freeze would last for 2-3 minutes and once it was longer requiring a reboot. The solution was to use the Advance function instead.

I do use FF with other programs, but have not seen this behavior for a couple of months. It's possible this was fixed by the necessary reset after our national Guide problem a while back, but I'm not sure.

What is the best way to reset it? And can I reset it in a way that won't reset the guide data? Basically I just want to reboot it. Maybe pulling the plug is the best option...

You can press the "Exit" and "TV Guide" button at the same time on the front panel, this will cause a soft "Reboot". You will only lose the time, leave the unit off for a few minutes until the -:- changes back to the current time.
;)

You can press the "Exit" and "TV Guide" button at the same time on the front panel, this will cause a soft "Reboot". You will only lose the time, leave the unit off for a few minutes until the -:- changes back to the current time.
;)

Thanks, kenrick...I will give that a try tonight.

What's the numeric IP address of the FAQ site (pvr.hidyman.com)? I've been trying to get to it all week but I can't get past the address lookup stage. There must be a DNS issue on our network that causes problems with newly-created domain names.

I can get to it now. It just took a while for the newly-created address to percolate through the DNS system enough so my server could recognize it.

So far, my DHG-500 has performed well.
Since I have a front projector with a native 1080p resolution, I decided to experiment with the difference between HDMI and component hookup. Surprise - I couldn't tell any difference in color, dynamic range or resolution. And I like the NATIVE option for component that doesn't work for HDMI, so I'm sticking with component.

So far, my DHG-500 has performed well.
Since I have a front projector with a native 1080p resolution, I decided to experiment with the difference between HDMI and component hookup. Surprise - I couldn't tell any difference in color, dynamic range or resolution. And I like the NATIVE option for component that doesn't work for HDMI, so I'm sticking with component.
is DHG-500/250 1080p capable?

is DHG-500/250 1080p capable?

It will not output 1080p, if that is what you are asking. Just 1080i/720p/480p/480i

Two days ago I setup "regular" recording of the Fox show "24" and CBS show "CSI-Miami". On monday 1/23, my DHG-HDD250 recorded "24" successfully. While it was recording, 30 minutes into the show, I started watching the show from the beginning. So, I was behind by about 30 minutes. At 9:00 PM CST, it should have started recording CSI-Miami, while I was watching the recorded "24". It did not. I missed CSI-Miami because of this mixup. After watching "24", I checked the recording schedule and CSI-Miami is nowhere to be found.

Has anyone come across this kind of problem? I am using OTA only. Both CBS and Fox tune well. I am in Kansas City, MO.

Here are some reasons it could have happened, but I don't know what the culprit is

1) I was watching "24" and the DVR somehow stayed on Fox after "24" was finished, so it skipped CBS recording.

2) I set "regularly" as the scheule for "24" and "CSI-Miami". May be it got confused since CSI-Miami is scheduled for more than once this week.

3) I have two channels set to record consecutively (8 - 9, 9-10). I have heard that this does not work well for premium cable channels. But I am having problems with OTA. Also, I think I have setup to record both last week also and I think it worked.

4) Sony software has bugs that it just drops programs without any reason!!

Any ideas!!

Two days ago I setup "regular" recording of the Fox show "24" and CBS show "CSI-Miami". On monday 1/23, my DHG-HDD250 recorded "24" successfully. While it was recording, 30 minutes into the show, I started watching the show from the beginning. So, I was behind by about 30 minutes. At 9:00 PM CST, it should have started recording CSI-Miami, while I was watching the recorded "24". It did not. I missed CSI-Miami because of this mixup. After watching "24", I checked the recording schedule and CSI-Miami is nowhere to be found.

Has anyone come across this kind of problem? I am using OTA only. Both CBS and Fox tune well. I am in Kansas City, MO.

Here are some reasons it could have happened, but I don't know what the culprit is

1) I was watching "24" and the DVR somehow stayed on Fox after "24" was finished, so it skipped CBS recording.

2) I set "regularly" as the scheule for "24" and "CSI-Miami". May be it got confused since CSI-Miami is scheduled for more than once this week.

3) I have two channels set to record consecutively (8 - 9, 9-10). I have heard that this does not work well for premium cable channels. But I am having problems with OTA. Also, I think I have setup to record both last week also and I think it worked.

4) Sony software has bugs that it just drops programs without any reason!!

Any ideas!!

my guess is reason 4 :-( i've seen the same problem and have not determined
a pattern yet. last week i changed all my scheduled recordings from "regular" to
"weekly". since the change i haven't lost anything from the schedule. longest
i've gone in the past is a week without losing something from the schedule.
if all goes well for another week or so i'd begin to believe the use of "regular"
has something to do with the problem..

a question for the group. has anyone seen a scheduled recording change to
??/?? for both date and time, due to the next airing of the show not being in
the 8 day listing window, then show the correct day and time once the next
airing is within the window???

my guess is reason 4 :-( i've seen the same problem and have not determined
a pattern yet. last week i changed all my scheduled recordings from "regular" to
"weekly". since the change i haven't lost anything from the schedule. longest
i've gone in the past is a week without losing something from the schedule.
if all goes well for another week or so i'd begin to believe the use of "regular"
has something to do with the problem..
I've seen postings on this, too, and changing it from "regular" to "weekly" seems to take care of it. Still appears to be a Sony or TVGOS bug that shouldn't happen.

a question for the group. has anyone seen a scheduled recording change to ??/?? for both date and time, due to the next airing of the show not being in the 8 day listing window, then show the correct day and time once the next airing is within the window???Yes.

I've seen postings on this, too, and changing it from "regular" to "weekly" seems to take care of it.


I've lost "weekly" scheduled recordings in the past, so unfortunately I don't think switching from "regular" to "weekly" is a work-around. This problem is very sporadic, I've seen it happen twice in 24 hours and I've also gone a month without seeing it. I just gave up and have been using manual recordings, which isn't ideal, but I've gotten used to it. I'm hoping that we'll hear back from philspice1 and see if the 1.2.13 software has fixed the problem, he's been using that version over a month now.

I've lost "weekly" scheduled recordings in the past, so unfortunately I don't think switching from "regular" to "weekly" is a work-around. This problem is very sporadic, I've seen it happen twice in 24 hours and I've also gone a month without seeing it. I just gave up and have been using manual recordings, which isn't ideal, but I've gotten used to it. I'm hoping that we'll hear back from philspice1 and see if the 1.2.13 software has fixed the problem, he's been using that version over a month now.
This is why I daily check my scheduled recordings to make sure none have disappeared. This is something we should not have to do, and it's another reason I'll snap up the TiVo Series 3 when it becomes available (and eBay the Sony). I've had a TiVo Series 2 for a couple of years now and have NEVER lost a scheduled recording. To me, it's worth the sub fee.

I can probably guess the answer is no but I don't to just assume so.
Has anyone been able to set up the channel up/down to work off their favorites list instead? Since my stations are all over the map, my days of station surfing are over. Punching in 94.1 <enter>, then 103.1 <enter>, then 101.9 <enter> e.g. is not my cup of tea for surfing needs.

Is it safe to assume that if the show appears in the schedule tab, it will be recorded? I am still annoyed by the fact that a lot of the shows in the guide don't have the red dot by them, and if you push record in the guide, it will say something like "24" conflicts with "24" ... do you still want to record "24"?

Strange.

I did notice that yesterday as 24 was about to start, I was watching (chasing playback) another show, and it popped up the message that another recording was about to start. I accepted this pop up message, and in between that time and the start of 24, I reached the end of the show I was watching, and went through the menu to delete it. This seemed to mess up the recording of "24". I had to switch channels manually, and start the recording manually (of course it said that it conflicted in this situation too).

Two days ago I setup "regular" recording of the Fox show "24" and CBS show "CSI-Miami". On monday 1/23, my DHG-HDD250 recorded "24" successfully. While it was recording, 30 minutes into the show, I started watching the show from the beginning. So, I was behind by about 30 minutes. At 9:00 PM CST, it should have started recording CSI-Miami, while I was watching the recorded "24". It did not. I missed CSI-Miami because of this mixup. After watching "24", I checked the recording schedule and CSI-Miami is nowhere to be found.

Has anyone come across this kind of problem? I am using OTA only. Both CBS and Fox tune well. I am in Kansas City, MO.

Here are some reasons it could have happened, but I don't know what the culprit is

1) I was watching "24" and the DVR somehow stayed on Fox after "24" was finished, so it skipped CBS recording.

2) I set "regularly" as the scheule for "24" and "CSI-Miami". May be it got confused since CSI-Miami is scheduled for more than once this week.

3) I have two channels set to record consecutively (8 - 9, 9-10). I have heard that this does not work well for premium cable channels. But I am having problems with OTA. Also, I think I have setup to record both last week also and I think it worked.

4) Sony software has bugs that it just drops programs without any reason!!

Any ideas!!

Here is my reason: Shortly before the CSI recording was scheduled to begin, a dialog window should have appeared asking you if you want to stay tuned to the current station or switch to the one for the next recording. Did you see that window? If you did, perhaps you made the wrong choice.

Many of my programs are recorded back to back without any difficulty.

I can probably guess the answer is no but I don't to just assume so.
Has anyone been able to set up the channel up/down to work off their favorites list instead? Since my stations are all over the map, my days of station surfing are over. Punching in 94.1 <enter>, then 103.1 <enter>, then 101.9 <enter> e.g. is not my cup of tea for surfing needs.

I believe that the answer is no but there is (sort of) a "work around". All you have to do is arrange your TV guide in the order you want the channels. Then just press the TV Guide button to select the station. Not as easy a pressing channel up/down but much easier than keying a five or six digit number.

I've lost "weekly" scheduled recordings in the past, so unfortunately I don't think switching from "regular" to "weekly" is a work-around. This problem is very sporadic, I've seen it happen twice in 24 hours and I've also gone a month without seeing it. I just gave up and have been using manual recordings, which isn't ideal, but I've gotten used to it. I'm hoping that we'll hear back from philspice1 and see if the 1.2.13 software has fixed the problem, he's been using that version over a month now.

As I've said several times before, I can't blame Sony for not eliminating this problem since it is so sporadic.

I assume most people don't realize what regular programing is used for. I use it to record the nightly news every day. If you make that choice for weekly programs, you may also get additional recordings if the show is broadcast on other nights.

This is the method I am trying to avoid dropped programs: I select the program but don't press record. Instead I press menu, and set the recording there. It's too soon to know if that method is a solution.

I can probably guess the answer is no but I don't to just assume so.
Has anyone been able to set up the channel up/down to work off their favorites list instead? Since my stations are all over the map, my days of station surfing are over. Punching in 94.1 <enter>, then 103.1 <enter>, then 101.9 <enter> e.g. is not my cup of tea for surfing needs.Why do you punch "enter"? No need to. Plus, you can edit that channel list under menu-->preferences-->channel +/-

Here is my reason: Shortly before the CSI recording was scheduled to begin, a dialog window should have appeared asking you if you want to stay tuned to the current station or switch to the one for the next recording. Did you see that window? If you did, perhaps you made the wrong choice.

Many of my programs are recorded back to back without any difficulty.As are mine...and I've even altered the back-to-back recordings of "Lost" and "Invasion", adding one minute the the stop time of "Lost" and delaying the start time of "Invasion" by one minute. Works like a charm.

And, I agree with your assessment of the problem; I believe he/she made the wrong choice when that dialog box appeared. The default selection would be the one that would allow the DVR to change channels to record the next show. The catch is that, when I first saw that dialog box, I thought it meant it would change the channel immediately, and I didn't want to do that; I wanted to finish watching what I had on at the time. But that's not what that selection means; it simply means it will change the channel when the time comes for the next program...usually another couple minutes.

so what happens in the following situation?

1. Set recording of 8-9pm show
2. Set recording of 9-10pm show on different channel
3. @ 8:30 watch 8-9pm show from "live TV" but rewind to beginning, i.e., not from "Recording" list.

At 9pm what happens? What should I do if I want to continue watching my 8pm "live TV" show?

If I'm recording something does it mean I'm watching that recording even if I don't specifically select it from the "Recordings" list?

It really stinks that this thing doesn't have two tuners :(

I think that whoever (at Sony) wrote the text for those dialog messages either didn't speak English well, or is just not a very good communicator.

The messages themselves are VERY confusing, and the wording that they use is terrible. I wish I could remember exactly how it reads, but the first time I saw it I think I read both choices several times and basically felt that the default made more sense than the one on the right side, so I chose it. VERY unintuitive.

so what happens in the following situation?

1. Set recording of 8-9pm show
2. Set recording of 9-10pm show on different channel
3. @ 8:30 watch 8-9pm show from "live TV" but rewind to beginning, i.e., not from "Recording" list.

At 9pm what happens? What should I do if I want to continue watching my 8pm "live TV" show?

If I'm recording something does it mean I'm watching that recording even if I don't specifically select it from the "Recordings" list?

It really stinks that this thing doesn't have two tuners :(


I am about 98% sure (without seeing it in person), that you will get one of the confusing dialog messages, and that you should choose the option on the LEFT side (the default).

I am about 98% sure (without seeing it in person), that you will get one of the confusing dialog messages, and that you should choose the option on the LEFT side (the default).I agree...that will allow you to keep watching your recorded show (even if you rewound watching from "live TV" because, really, "live TV" is actually recorded to the buffer for viewing), and the tuner will change channels for the upcoming recording.

And, FWIW, yes, it does suck that it doesn't have dual tuners.

I am about 98% sure (without seeing it in person), that you will get one of the confusing dialog messages, and that you should choose the option on the LEFT side (the default).

Last week, when I was watching 24, I saw the message about another program about to start. I chose the left option that allowed the recording of CSI-Miami to begin. However, yesterday I did not see that message. There could be two reasons for this. Either, the CSI-Miami got deleted from my schedule completely or I did not see the dialog because at that precise time, I was using the advance function to fast forward commercials shown during the airing of "24". May be there is a weird situation during which the Sony drops the scheduled recording.

Another thing that bothers me is I had CSI-Miami on "regular" recording and it was not even there in the schedule for next week.

Another thing that bothers me is I had CSI-Miami on "regular" recording and it was not even there in the schedule for next week.

Sounds like the program got dropped from the schedule, as they occasionally do. Next time check the record schedule on the evening that recording is to take place. Also use weekly instead of regular.

OK - apparently the front panel reset (Exit-TVGuide) can/will reset all of the guide data. :eek:

Since I don't have anything set to record until tomorrow, I thought I would try a little experiment. I am currently using both cable (with cablecard) and antenna (just for CBS-HD). When I set it up this way, it sets my Host channel as PBS OTA, and it sets my clock set channel as PBS on cable. This seems to make sense with the PBS on cable being a clock set channel, as I have used this channel (on cable) many times to set the clock on my TV.

What I want to try (for future use in the event that CBS-HD is added to my cable lineup), is set the DVR to think that it is only connected to cable (no antenna). I want to see if the cable PBS channel carries the necessary VBI data for the guide AND the clock. I went through and set it up for this, and I have turned it off to let it "think".

The question that I have is whether I will be able to add my CBS-HD OTA channel to the guide once it (hopefully) establishes a host channel and starts grabbing guide data?

If not, is there a better way to "force" it to try the PBS cable channel to be the host (at least to see if it works)? Would it be better to set it up for OTA and cable, and turn off the OTA PBS channel in the guide?

Thoughts??

Please let me know soon so I can adjust the setup before the overnight shutoff!!

Thanks!

yes, it does suck that it doesn't have dual tuners.

No recorder is perfect:

My dual tuner Comcast recorder sucks because its capacity is only 15 hours versus 30 to 60 hours for the Sony, and it can't do instant fast forward. Sometimes fast forward stops and I need to press play to move ahead. Recently green bars covered the TV screen. Only way to clear it was to pull the power plug for a few seconds but that action also clears my guide information.

My VCRs sucks because I can't view a recording while a recording is in progress, it only holds two hours, it has no guide, the recording is completely unknown without making a written notation, and I need lots of storage space for the tapes. Also, some recordings are not viewable because either the recorder damaged the tape, or the tape was defective.

The new TIVO HD recorder, assuming it becomes available, may also suck.

is DHG-500/250 1080p capable?

Which 1080p?
1080p30? Not that I know of, I don't know of anyone who broadcasts in 1080p30.

OK - apparently the front panel reset (Exit-TVGuide) can/will reset all of the guide data. :eek:

Since I don't have anything set to record until tomorrow, I thought I would try a little experiment. I am currently using both cable (with cablecard) and antenna (just for CBS-HD). When I set it up this way, it sets my Host channel as PBS OTA, and it sets my clock set channel as PBS on cable. This seems to make sense with the PBS on cable being a clock set channel, as I have used this channel (on cable) many times to set the clock on my TV.

What I want to try (for future use in the event that CBS-HD is added to my cable lineup), is set the DVR to think that it is only connected to cable (no antenna). I want to see if the cable PBS channel carries the necessary VBI data for the guide AND the clock. I went through and set it up for this, and I have turned it off to let it "think".

The question that I have is whether I will be able to add my CBS-HD OTA channel to the guide once it (hopefully) establishes a host channel and starts grabbing guide data?

If not, is there a better way to "force" it to try the PBS cable channel to be the host (at least to see if it works)? Would it be better to set it up for OTA and cable, and turn off the OTA PBS channel in the guide?

Thoughts??

Please let me know soon so I can adjust the setup before the overnight shutoff!!

Thanks!


I suggest you set it up for both Cable and OTA. Otherwise, the CBS-HD OTA won't show up in the guide, and only way to record would be manually.

Which 1080p?
1080p30? Not that I know of, I don't know of anyone who broadcasts in 1080p30.

My guess is that the 1080p TV sets convert 1080i to 1080p. By the way, if you choose the recorder 1080i format option, the recorder will convert standard 480i to 1080i. That's the way mine is set.

...The new TIVO HD recorder, assuming it becomes available, may also suck.But I'm hoping it will suck less ;)