Hi,

I have my HDD500 in my bedroom. It makes noises at night even when the unit is turned off. It is not really loud, but noticeable. It is like having a laptop running in the room.

Is it normal?

Thanks,

Jane

Clicks are normal - this can be a bit loud as it changes between tuners if you have both cable and OTA connected.

Spiff72 is right. I was talking to a person from TVGOS last week (about a problem with my Philips SD DVR, not my Sony) and I asked her about the end of analog broadcasting and the TVGOS system. She said that the new system is still being tested and they are just starting to deploy the system to digital broadcast stations so that they can do field testing. She said that our Sony's WILL require a software update (likely for the Sony OS and for the TVG OS). I asked about the TVG OS updates via the data stream and she said, yes, they can do that, but they can only do point version updates via the data stream (for example 8.06 to 8.09). She did not know for sure but she thought that the Sony DVRs would need a whole new version (like 9.0 or whatever the new version is). When asked how Sony would handle that she did not know. I asked a Sony support person the same question and he didn't know either.

I sure hope that they find some way to field update our DVRs using a USB micro drive with either downloaded software or the drive perloaded fro Sony. A 256MB unit sells for about $25 and I think most Sony owners would be glad to pay that to be able to keep using their TV Guides after analog channels are gone.

This stuff is just more assumptions, not facts. Lately, nobody has posted concern about drive longevity. It's more likely to me that the Hard Drive will fail before the TV guide source becomes digital only. Also, if software is made available to load into the USB port, you may be able to use the memory in your digital camera as the microdrive.

Please explain the intended meaning of "reseat the card." Does this mean unplug the unit, pop the card out, put it back in, plug the DVR unit back in? Or does it mean to pop the card while the DVR is "off" (standby). The reason I ask is that I'm not sure what difference there would be between simply rebooting the DVR with the card in the whole time, versus going through the "reseat" proceedure, unless the DVR was on (or in standby) at the time. How does the card know it has been reseated, is what I'm getting at.

Marc

It was several months ago, so I'm not positive. Comcast hit the card to reprovision it as analog. It did not take effect. I tried an unplug, which did not work. I can't remember if I then unplugged and pulled the card or if I pulled the card in standby. You're right --- the latter is more likely. When it booted up, the reprovisioning had taken effect and it's worked ever since.

I do remember that I had to completely redo my channel setup in the guide (reorder and turn channels on/off). I don't think a simple unplug causes this, but removing the card in standby probably would. OTOH, it may be the reprovisioning that fries the guide channel setup.

Anyway, the point is that the Comcast guy thinks none of this will be necessary next time around.

It could be that the station was not transmitting the correct PSIP information when you did your scan. You can find out if it is a PSIP problem by directly tuning the digital channel number. Go to http://www.antennaweb.org to find out what the true digital channel is (I'm assuming that 58.1 is the mapped channel and the analog channel is 58). After you have that, just key in the real channel number (like 33.1 or whatever it is). If your DVR can tune the station, it is a PSIP problem and you need to alert the station engineer. By the way, once the channel is mapped (during a scan) it is stored and that is why your other unit can see the stations.

I directly tuned 58.1 on both the 250 and 500, and the 250 received the signal and the 500 didn't. I did rescan while the boardcast was on. Do you think I might find the 58.1 program on another number?

I think he said this OOB channel is received by the QAM tuner, which the HDD250 can receive. He insisted it had nothing to do with an analog channel, and also insisted it is not broadcast on one. Is it possible it is being broadcast and received directly via QAM? I will quiz him again if I know what to ask.

The current TVGOS can ONLY be received via analog channels <100. The data is carried in the VBI part of the signal, which is apparently called the Out of Band part. Look in the menu diagnostic screen at the Mode/Rate info while tuned to your host channel. It will read "analog", not QAM.

That is why folks here with CableCARDS provisioned as digital cannot get the guide. If they go to the same diagnostic screen, they see the Mode/Rate as "QAM". To get around this, cablecos can add a single analog channel which is a duplicate of the local host (usually PBS).

If your 753 menu shows 1:0-6 as the host, that means cable channel 6 is it. The host can be any of various local PBS stations, or CBS, or FOX, or ABC, depending on your area and the version of the guide you use.

Before a digital channel can carry the guide data, the local host stations need new equipment, and several pieces of equipment along the pipeline at each cableco need to be updated or replaced or the guide data is destroyed before it reaches the customer.

Talk to your engineer. He can be an extremely valuable resource. Ask him about encoders. Ask him about edge decoders and how they need to be upgraded to decode TVG data and recreate the information on the proper VBI lines. Once you ask the right questions, we may all get new insights as to the processes involved in making our DVR guides work.

A couple things.

OB (out of band) is not QAM it is QPSK. It is on a lower frequency and the signal must get split to different tuners once inside the sony. On a motorola stb the guide data might come OB depending on your guide but the TVGOS data come in-band on what is usually an analog PBS channel.

I have tried my 4.05 motorola CC in two different DHGs and it did not upgrade in either box. I suspect there is problem with the DHG. Maybe the hardward mod for 161-6 will fix it. I also read on a different board that the moto CC has a wider range of frequencies then spec calls for or something to that effect and maybe that is the problem.

Would someone please help me understand this VBI stuff. Some background info--I have no clock and hence no guide. I pulled the cablecard and now am OTA. Per G* test local PBS channel shows VBI-some good-some fixed-some bad. What does that mean?

Local ABC also shows VBI but they are all good. In addition when I run the G* test on the ABC station sometimes it passes sometimes it fails.

Can someone please help me understand this?

TIA,

JHawk

A few days ago, I hooked up my Tweeter HDD500 and thought I would share my observations. I also have a HDD250, which is stacked below it.

The HDD500 was manufactured in June 05 versus May 05 for the HDD250, which got in June. The display on the face of the 500 is substantially brighter <snip>My HDD500's display is substantially dimmer than my HDD250's. I guess there is not much QC between different lots of display modules.

Hi,

I have my HDD500 in my bedroom. It makes noises at night even when the unit is turned off. It is not really loud, but noticeable. It is like having a laptop running in the room.

I had an HDD250 in my living room for a couple of weeks, and I must say that the one thing about it that annoyed me was the amount of noise that it made. Not sure if it was the hard drive or a fan, but the thing could be heard "whirring" even from another room! I had it sitting right near an HD TiVo, and that is virtually silent by comparison -- I can't really hear that unless I get within a foot or so.

Maybe it was defective? I haven't seen too many comments around here about the noise, so either that was the case, or most people aren't bothered by it.

They could set it up like Mitsubishi does their TV firmware updates.

They send a CF card with a prepaid return shipping envelope. You do the update yourself and then just drop the shipping envelope at a UPS location. Totally free to the customer.
There is no reason they couldn't do that with a thumbdrive.

Just make the user agree to pay for the thumbdrive if the don't return it...
USDigital does the same for their ATSC tuner.

Tweeters apparantly pulled their ad on their website. I would guess that by the time the web site got updated the stores depleted their stock. That might be the last of em! Except for ebay.

Are you saying that you don't think that those of us who managed to place orders will receive them? My order status says "Special Order: Awaiting Inventory" -- I know that doesn't mean much, but it's better than "Order Cancelled," etc.

I directly tuned 58.1 on both the 250 and 500, and the 250 received the signal and the 500 didn't. I did rescan while the boardcast was on. Do you think I might find the 58.1 program on another number?

There apparently is something that 58 has changed that the Sony doesn't like. I got it fine on my 250 when I originally did the Autoscan. Then when I did the Autoscan again to pick up the new 28.3, 58 disappeared. I finally found it at 41 (58 physical channel). 41.2 through 41.6 are shown. I mapped 41.2 to the 58.1 listing and everything runs ok. Apparently, when the Sony can't read the virtual channel in the PID's it assigns subchannels based on the PID number and 58.1 is PID 20.

I'm going to experiment some more since the 58 PID's look ok in HDTVtoMPEG2.

No more TV guide in my system what is going on ?
Last week. For some strange reason my unit is building a guide again. It tells me to wait 24 Hrs. It loaded two days guide and it's bee loading a day after that and it stop loading Monday the 20the. I have to manually set up the unit to have it record 24.
When I turn it on tonight still no guide just no listing.
This TV guide thing is starting to get to me. I guess when everything is free it comes with a price I guess.
I work at night some time I would watch TV when I get home until 2 to 3 in the morning.
I had automatically shut off set 3 AM instead of the default 1 AM.
Does anybody know the hour that the station is sending out the guide so I can shut it off.
The unit is usually off around 1:45PM until 12 midnight weekday.
I have Comcast as a cable provider. Do they have anything to do with this or should I reconnect my OTA antenna to get the guide that way.

Does anybody know the hour that the station is sending out the guide so I can shut it off.Look here: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5384887&&#post5384887

My 500 was working perfect for 3 weeks in Los Angeles but on thursday i got the rebuilding the guide message so i waited 24hrs. then 48.It has been 4 days now so i unplugged it but it's still the same rebuilding message.I know the data is still there because the correct program info shows with the info button.I did the 753 menu but the host channel is completely blank.I know it's KCET 28 in this area.I also followed istructions on the 9012 menu and VBI test failed even though the reception is good.

My 500 was working perfect for 3 weeks in Los Angeles but on thursday i got the rebuilding the guide message so i waited 24hrs. then 48.It has been 4 days now so i unplugged it but it's still the same rebuilding message.I know the data is still there because the correct program info shows with the info button.I did the 753 menu but the host channel is completely blank.I know it's KCET 28 in this area.I also followed istructions on the 9012 menu and VBI test failed even though the reception is good.

My guide update to my 250 stopped sometime last week. After a few days I did a warm reset, which just erased the clock for about 12 hours. After that I decided to just be patient and use manual recording until the guide returned, which it started to do on Sunday. I use both Comcast and OTA. My 250 used to pick up the guide from cable but now it switched over to OTA, and that may be the reason for my guide problem. I also have the Comcast DVR, and used it on Wednesday to record Lost and several other programs. Those recordings were unviewable because of noise on the Comcast digital channels. That problem may have been caused by high winds. Since then I switched all my local channels in the 250 over to the OTA source, and manual recording until Sunday night.
I suggest you also be patient and just use manual record. It's so much better than any VCR I've used. If you can't recognise a program by date, time and channel number, just make a record log on a piece of paper. Until I got my DVRs I did that with 50 cassette tapes, which I reused on one of four VCRs.

.
I suggest you also be patient and just use manual record. It's so much better than any VCR I've used. If you can't recognise a program by date, time and channel number, just make a record log on a piece of paper. Until I got my DVRs I did that with 50 cassette tapes, which I reused on one of four VCRs.

I agree. Had my 250 since December and the TVGO has gone out twice. Once from a power failure and the second time when I turned off the TVGO from showing when you first turn on the unit. The first time it took over 2 weeks for the listings to come back, the second time about four days. The only thing I did was unplug the unit for about 15 minutes.

Received my 500 yesterday from my friend who bought it for me back east from Tweeters. Be interested on how long it takes for TVG to list. The time came on within two hours.

I suggest you also be patient and just use manual record. It's so much better than any VCR I've used. If you can't recognise a program by date, time and channel number, just make a record log on a piece of paper. Until I got my DVRs I did that with 50 cassette tapes, which I reused on one of four VCRs.
Sounds like me. Before I got any DVR I too had 4 VCR's going recording shows. Two in the living room, one in the bedroom, one in the office. :D

The manual record does work good on this unit. It maybe the way to go if you keep having missed recording or guide issues.

Would someone please help me understand this VBI stuff. Some background info--I have no clock and hence no guide. I pulled the cablecard and now am OTA. Per G* test local PBS channel shows VBI-some good-some fixed-some bad. What does that mean?

Local ABC also shows VBI but they are all good. In addition when I run the G* test on the ABC station sometimes it passes sometimes it fails.

Can someone please help me understand this?

TIA,

JHawk

Per G* test local PBS channel shows VBI-some good-some fixed-some bad. What does that mean?

This means your PBS signal is too weak. I had the same problem. You need to adjust your antenna to get better reception on that channel if you can. That will resolve your problem.

JP

I recently installed a cable card in my dvr. For about 5 days prior it was only getting tvguide through ota pbs. I have two dvr's, both with cable cards. On one dvr its gets the guide data through cable and on the other it gets the guide data through ota. I think on the one where it gets the guide data through cable, it went through a set up and rescanned. On the one that gets it ota, it was originally scanned ota and then a cable card was inserted later, but it never went through a set up. (it pulled in all channels and initially set them to air, then the card was inserted and it rebuilt it somehow). Anyway it will be curious to see if it reverts to cable for the guide data

Also for those that like the end of world scenarious when it goes digital, you can edit the begin and end points of bookmarks, which maybe?? helpful when it all goes dark?

thanks to tip to unplug it to reorder the channels.

HDAddiction

Without the Cablecard everything updated and I now have the TVGOS again. The clock wouldn't even update with the Cablecard in when I did the factory reset. I now have a Host channel...6, which is my local FOX. I also acquire that analog channel OTA with an antenna. So why didn't the HDD500 acquire the data from that with the Cablecard installed? Should I insert the Cablecard now and check?

Is your host channel 6 cable or OTA? If cable, the number in the 753 menu will be preceded by "1:"; if OTA, by "0:".

Since the card is set up as digital, you can't receive the guide. Since you do get the guide without the card, you should also be able to get the guide OTA. Go to the OTA channel (which may be a different number than 6 for the same station) and try the VBI test. Also look at your signal strength on that OTA station. Also look in the diagnostic screen for the Out of Band reading, which should be > 16.00.

CCourtney - Do you have a motorola cable card with firmware 4.05 on it ? If so, that is your problem.

Checked the firmware version number on the Motorola CableCARD, it's 4.21.

CCourtney

My guide update to my 250 stopped sometime last week. After a few days I did a warm reset, which just erased the clock for about 12 hours. After that I decided to just be patient and use manual recording until the guide returned, which it started to do on Sunday. I use both Comcast and OTA. My 250 used to pick up the guide from cable but now it switched over to OTA, and that may be the reason for my guide problem.

I'm OTA only in Los Angeles and my guide has been updating without a problem, so it does sound as though the problem was with Comcast.

I had a Bright House CableCARD installed on my new DHG-HDD500 and it's giving me a really annoying issue. It works fine for about a day, even through an overnight update. Then, for no reason, I will turn it on and none of the digital channels are working. I have to pop out the CableCARD and pop it back in for the digital channels to start working again. Of course, doing this loses all my channel settings as well as TV Guide information.

The box is essentially rendered useless if I cannot rely on it to keep the digital cable (and HD) signals for recording.

I actually have two of these DVRs and I'm about ready to return them if this is how they act. Any ideas?

I had a Bright House CableCARD installed on my new DHG-HDD500 and it's giving me a really annoying issue. It works fine for about a day, even through an overnight update. Then, for no reason, I will turn it on and none of the digital channels are working. I have to pop out the CableCARD and pop it back in for the digital channels to start working again. Of course, doing this loses all my channel settings as well as TV Guide information.

The box is essentially rendered useless if I cannot rely on it to keep the digital cable (and HD) signals for recording.

I actually have two of these DVRs and I'm about ready to return them if this is how they act. Any ideas?


Awhile back, someone said...99% of the problems are due to your cable card provisioning. Look at your cable card conditional access screen and good luck.

HDAddiction

Well Bright House is updated my card with new firmware now. It'll be done in about 50 min. They also claim that they've been doing system updates for the last couple of days and that could have caused the digital signals to drop out.

We'll see what happens.

I directly tuned 58.1 on both the 250 and 500, and the 250 received the signal and the 500 didn't. I did rescan while the boardcast was on. Do you think I might find the 58.1 program on another number?

I have had a similar problem to this. I would click through every channel, it might be on another channel.... don't know why this happens...

I had an HDD250 in my living room for a couple of weeks, and I must say that the one thing about it that annoyed me was the amount of noise that it made. Not sure if it was the hard drive or a fan, but the thing could be heard "whirring" even from another room! I had it sitting right near an HD TiVo, and that is virtually silent by comparison -- I can't really hear that unless I get within a foot or so.

Maybe it was defective? I haven't seen too many comments around here about the noise, so either that was the case, or most people aren't bothered by it.

This is a common occurance with all DVR's. Some are very quiet, some are more noisy. Each hard drive makes a different amount of noise. Units with fans are usually louder.

I can hear the hard drives spinning in both of my Sony DVR's...

I just spoke to a CSR at tweeter.com. I don't know if this information is reliable, but....

He stated that the HDD550's are on backorder from Sony. Tweeter.com does not have any in their warehouse. So only time will tell if Sony gets the inventory over to Tweeter.com to fufill the orders.

Seems to me that Sony could be using Tweeter to clear out the remaining 500's and Tweeter.com will probably get inventory to fill at least some of the orders.

No timetable on when the orders will ship....

Anyone out there have a harmony remote that they have working with the Sony DVR's using the previous channel button? I have tried the ChannelPrev from the harmony database but that seems to be function of the button 'prev' on the Sony remote (to go back to the last chapter mark or beginning of a recorded show).

Anyone know of any retailers that still have the 250? Been looking everywhere.

I had an HDD250 in my living room for a couple of weeks, and I must say that the one thing about it that annoyed me was the amount of noise that it made. Not sure if it was the hard drive or a fan, but the thing could be heard "whirring" even from another room! I had it sitting right near an HD TiVo, and that is virtually silent by comparison -- I can't really hear that unless I get within a foot or so.

Maybe it was defective? I haven't seen too many comments around here about the noise, so either that was the case, or most people aren't bothered by it.

Mine is not that noisy. I would not be bothered by it if it is in the living room. The only time that is bothersome is when I try to get to sleep. I cannot tell if it is a fan or hard drive. I am just surprised that the noise continues when the unit is powered off.

any retailers that still have the 250?

A Best Buy in Columbia SC had two 250s in boxes and one floor sample on display a few days ago, at $499. So there are still some out there.

It could be that the station was not transmitting the correct PSIP information when you did your scan. You can find out if it is a PSIP problem by directly tuning the digital channel number. Go to http://www.antennaweb.org to find out what the true digital channel is (I'm assuming that 58.1 is the mapped channel and the analog channel is 58). After you have that, just key in the real channel number (like 33.1 or whatever it is). If your DVR can tune the station, it is a PSIP problem and you need to alert the station engineer. By the way, once the channel is mapped (during a scan) it is stored and that is why your other unit can see the stations.

Antennaweb shows it as Channel 58.1, which I get on my HDD250. On my HDD500 that station appears on Channel 41.2. Is this a station error?

Everything seems ok with channel list EXCEPT there is no INHD2 channel. Question - is there a way to manually insert this channel so i can make it part of the program guide? I tryed taking a generic unused channel and setting the correct frequency for INHD2 but overnight I got program listings for the generic channel I used (unless INHD2 is now broadcasting infomercials selling "Girls Gone Wild" videos HaHa).

Also - I noticed that "info" does not give any actor \ year information - will this change as the guide populates? Right now I only have 3 days population. Thanks.

Mine is not that noisy. I would not be bothered by it if it is in the living room. The only time that is bothersome is when I try to get to sleep. I cannot tell if it is a fan or hard drive. I am just surprised that the noise continues when the unit is powered off.

The recorder is either on or in standby - it is never off. Both the fan and Hard drive run all the time. There is a warning on the unit to wait before moving the unit after it is unplugged to allow the drive to spin down.

Anyone know of any retailers that still have the 250? Been looking everywhere.

Crutchfield has at least one in their 'scratch & dent' store as of 11am pacific time today. $424.99

Anyone out there have a harmony remote that they have working with the Sony DVR's using the previous channel button? I have tried the ChannelPrev from the harmony database but that seems to be function of the button 'prev' on the Sony remote (to go back to the last chapter mark or beginning of a recorded show).
I have a Harmony SST-659. Use the button under the Sony device called "shortcut". Map that to your DVR activity and you're all set (it peforms the function of previous channel). If you have any questions, PM me.

Anyone know of any retailers that still have the 250? Been looking everywhere.

Circuit City $799 ouch!
BestBuy, open box $349 - $469
ebay $?????
check tweeter every day

Everything seems ok with channel list EXCEPT there is no INHD2 channel.

Same problem here. I haven't found a fix, unfortunately.

Well Bright House is updated my card with new firmware now. It'll be done in about 50 min. They also claim that they've been doing system updates for the last couple of days and that could have caused the digital signals to drop out.

We'll see what happens.

The cablecard took the update ? What type of headend does Bright House use, Motorola or SA ?

Same problem here. I haven't found a fix, unfortunately.

I have had no INHD2 guide data as well. TV Guide must not be sending it to its data providers.

The cable card did take the update, but it didn't fix the problem. It is throwing error 161-6 at me now, which Sony and Bright House say that indicates a bad card reader. Of course, I have two of these DVRs and both are doing the samething. There must have been a major error in production on these units.

I'm going to take them back to where I bought them and have them send them away to Sony for repair/replacement. What a pain.

To answer your question, BHN uses Scientific Atlanta cards.

Anyone know of any retailers that still have the 250? Been looking everywhere.

Tweeter.com shows the DHG-HDD250 in stock with free shipping at $599. ;)

Tweeters apparantly pulled their ad on their website. I would guess that by the time the web site got updated the stores depleted their stock. That might be the last of em! Except for ebay.

Also, I have not been able to rearrange my channel list for sometime now. Has anyone else encountered this problem? I hate the thought of resetting the entire list as that takes atleast overnight.

HDAddiction


I had the same problem with the channel re-arranging not sticking. I pulled the plug for 30 seconds and reconnected and the time reappear and the channel now we able to be reordered. I almost sent the unit back to Best Buy after fooling around for a week trying to re-order the guide.

Anyone out there have a harmony remote that they have working with the Sony DVR's using the previous channel button? I have tried the ChannelPrev from the harmony database but that seems to be function of the button 'prev' on the Sony remote (to go back to the last chapter mark or beginning of a recorded show).

I have it working with my Harmony 880. When I associated the 880 "previous channel" key there was a selection in the dropdown menu for the HDD500 functions that said something like "last channel"

Not sure why this key is not actually on the Sony remote.... :rolleyes:

For those that are interested, I have found that the oneforall remote that I have works much better then the clunky Sony remote. I forget the exact program code but its earlier in this thread. It needs to be programed for the sat/cable button.

I had a Bright House CableCARD installed on my new DHG-HDD500 and it's giving me a really annoying issue. It works fine for about a day, even through an overnight update. Then, for no reason, I will turn it on and none of the digital channels are working. I have to pop out the CableCARD and pop it back in for the digital channels to start working again. Of course, doing this loses all my channel settings as well as TV Guide information.

The box is essentially rendered useless if I cannot rely on it to keep the digital cable (and HD) signals for recording.

I actually have two of these DVRs and I'm about ready to return them if this is how they act. Any ideas?
Mine lost the digital encrypted channels once, and the cablecard status showed "unknown" instead of "subscribed" like it should have. After trying everything including multiple hits from the cable company, resetting the DVR from the front panel controls (simultaneous Exit & TV Guide buttons) made them all come back. So, you might try that.

Antennaweb shows it as Channel 58.1, which I get on my HDD250. On my HDD500 that station appears on Channel 41.2. Is this a station error?

41 is the physical channel (transmitter actually broadcasts on this channel). The digital data transmitted contains the information that devices should display 58.1 etc since this channel is the digital version of 58 analog. If the later information has a problem, the Sony reverts to showing the physical channel. If your scan took place when the data was ok then you'll have the correct data unless you do a new Autoscan. This is apparently the case on your 250.

If you do the scan when the data is bad then you'll get the 41 that your 500 shows.

I did a new Autoscan earlier and it appears that the problem is fixed. If you do a new Autoscan on your 500 you should now get 58 correctly. It should be an Autoscan rather than an Auto-add so that the 41 is removed from your channel list. Doing this will retain all of your selections so you don't have to worry about losing anything.

41 is the physical channel (transmitter actually broadcasts on this channel). The digital data transmitted contains the information that devices should display 58.1 etc since this channel is the digital version of 58 analog. If the later information has a problem, the Sony reverts to showing the physical channel. If your scan took place when the data was ok then you'll have the correct data unless you do a new Autoscan. This is apparently the case on your 250.

If you do the scan when the data is bad then you'll get the 41 that your 500 shows.

I did a new Autoscan earlier and it appears that the problem is fixed. If you do a new Autoscan on your 500 you should now get 58 correctly. It should be an Autoscan rather than an Auto-add so that the 41 is removed from your channel list. Doing this will retain all of your selections so you don't have to worry about losing anything.

I decided to do a customer reset since guide information hasn't updated in several days on either of my units. It retained both my zip code and the setting that I use both cable and antenna, so obviously reset doesn't erase everything. I only did antenna scan and TV guide test, and channel 58 problem is gone. Also, the time was set almost immediately. When I first set it up, it took almost 12 hours for that to happen. I'm not going to shut off any channels or add cable channels until the guide shows up.

I assume the lack of guide update has to do with one of my settings since some people in LA are getting the guide.

Not sure why this key is not actually on the Sony remote.... :rolleyes:
Is it me or is there no mute button on the Sony remote either? :D

exact program code

It's 1006. Like you said, using the cable button. This is for the default remote code.

But don't hit the MUTE key.

The Sony has the possibility to use a second remote control code, I wonder what that one would be on the one4all? I wonder if it's the code for the Sony Tivo under the DVR button?

For those that are interested, I have found that the oneforall remote that I have works much better then the clunky Sony remote. I forget the exact program code but its earlier in this thread. It needs to be programed for the sat/cable button.

I guess Sony can't please everyone. I not only like the remote but I think it is one of the best i've ever used, and even like the way it feels in my hand. Only wish it had a switch to select which of my two Sony DVRs it contolled.

I have a Harmony SST-659. Use the button under the Sony device called "shortcut". Map that to your DVR activity and you're all set (it peforms the function of previous channel). If you have any questions, PM me.

Thanks a lot !!! I wish logitech had that labeled better in the Harmony database. There are several commands in there that I don't have a clue what they do. Try any other one's that may be of use?

Update: just tried the 'shortcut' function. It works as expected.

I have it working with my Harmony 880. When I associated the 880 "previous channel" key there was a selection in the dropdown menu for the HDD500 functions that said something like "last channel"

Not sure why this key is not actually on the Sony remote.... :rolleyes:

I think Sony was counting on everyone using the favorites feature...

Anybody here controlling two Sony DVRs with one Harmony remote? If the Tweeter DHG-HDD500s ship, I will need to find a solution. I believe that there are two sets of IR codes, not sure if the Harmony database has both sets, or if I'll have to manually teach the remote.

Anybody here controlling two Sony DVRs with one Harmony remote? If the Tweeter DHG-HDD500s ship, I will need to find a solution. I believe that there are two sets of IR codes, not sure if the Harmony database has both sets, or if I'll have to manually teach the remote.

I believe someone else was successful with this. Harmony database did not have both sets of codes. Had to learn all of the codes to control the second Sony DVR. But it can be done.

Thanks a lot !!! I wish logitech had that labeled better in the Harmony database. There are several commands in there that I don't have a clue what they do. Try any other one's that may be of use?

Update: just tried the 'shortcut' function. It works as expected.You're welcome. When I had the Sony, I tried every command under the device with the Harmony, but nothing else was out of the ordinary; most did what they were labeled to do. None did anything that the Sony remote couldn't do.

Checked the firmware version number on the Motorola CableCARD, it's 4.21.

CCourtney


Hmm. Either the CC has more bugs in it or it is a headend problem. It appears that the guide data was mapped to wrong program id.

Anybody here controlling two Sony DVRs with one Harmony remote? If the Tweeter DHG-HDD500s ship, I will need to find a solution. I believe that there are two sets of IR codes, not sure if the Harmony database has both sets, or if I'll have to manually teach the remote.

Would it be possible to just have a discrete code for on/off ? The DHG won't respond to IR commands if the box is off (er, in standby mode).

I believe someone else was successful with this. Harmony database did not have both sets of codes. Had to learn all of the codes to control the second Sony DVR. But it can be done.

Call Harmony and talk to the tech support - try to get level 2. They have been very good about support for me with my Harmony 360 (I don't have an XBox, I just liked the design). They even took RC-5 command codes as text from my notes on a consumer product that I coded for and fully supported it. Ask them if they can code up an alternate set for a DHG as device code 51 (the default code is 50) - if worst comes to worst, go ahead and set your remote to 51, then "learn" the codes, and tell the Harmony support about it.

I am a very difficult customer, but the Harmony guys & gals have been the best support I can ever recall. Their web guys could use some work...

Andrew

Regarding the numbers counting from 1-6 on reboot... when working on adding a second drive to my 250, I gathered that these numbers reflect stages of the boot process for troubleshooting purposes. A rough guess might be:

1 = bootloader starting
2 = loading kernel
3 = booting kernel
4 = uncompressing cramfs firmware image to root fs (ramfs)
5 = running init
6 = main app starting

I haven't succeeded in adding a second drive yet, and I won't be able to work on that or further firmware probing until I get a second DHG unit. There are no Tweeter locations near me. If anyone who bought multiple HDD500s feels like selling me one on reasonable terms so that I can continue the investigation, please send me a private message.

I'm less interested in getting a second HDD250, since at this point, I need to examine the differences between the two models, particularly with respect to the second drive.

Among my recent discoveries- the engineers apparently used the common embedded Linux development technique of mounting the root filesystem over NFS (making rapid iterative testing easier), and it appears the USB network adapter for which they included kernel support is the Realtek RTL8150. There are many USB network adapters using this chipset, and they can be found with a Google search. It'll be interesting to see what happens when such an adapter is connected to the Sony's USB port.


I used a Trendnet TU-ET100C (I believe it is based on the RTL8150) and I got nada. However, I did have it connected through a passive USB hub with a USB HID converter to PS2 keyboard & mouse connected at the same time. My theory: try everything! Besides, that would be how I would implement a debuggin interface if I was the developer.

By 'nada' I mean: I didn't notice any activity on the 10 Mbps hub the USB adapter was plugged into, and I didn't notice any new entries in the ARP table of another machine on the network. Perhaps there is a better way of doing this? I have a DHCP server waiting to answer DHCP requests - and some BOOTP requests. I've had the HDD500 running for several days now with the USB adapter plugged in, and I haven't noticed any activity yet.

Suggestions?

Andrew

Anybody here controlling two Sony DVRs with one Harmony remote?

Yes. Go into the menu on one of the Sonys, and choose "Preferences", then "System", then "Remote control code", then "Code 51". You'll see a screen of instructions on how to reset your remote to send the code 51 IR commands. Then your two remotes will control the two DVRs without conflict.

In my Harmony configuration, I created a second device for the new DVR, then taught it all the keys that I needed from the code 51 remote. It actually didn't take very long, maybe a half hour.

Tweeter picked a good time for their "fire sale" on the 500's. Mine has nothing but Olympics stuff on it, and is a bit over half full now. After the Olympics are over, I can take my time picking highlights to dub to my DVD recorder, then keep a few nights' coverage to show off to people.

I used a Trendnet TU-ET100C (I believe it is based on the RTL8150) and I got nada.

Do you have version 1 or 2? Version 1 looks like one solid piece. Version 2 adds a cable between the USB and RJ-45 connections. Version 1 appears to be based on the Rtl-8150 chipset. I cannot verify if version 2 is using that chipset.

Is your host channel 6 cable or OTA? If cable, the number in the 753 menu will be preceded by "1:"; if OTA, by "0:".

Since the card is set up as digital, you can't receive the guide. Since you do get the guide without the card, you should also be able to get the guide OTA. Go to the OTA channel (which may be a different number than 6 for the same station) and try the VBI test. Also look at your signal strength on that OTA station. Also look in the diagnostic screen for the Out of Band reading, which should be > 16.00.

The host is cable Channel 6, which is 39 OTA. I have a large Winegard outdoor antenna pointed at Madison and a small indoor for Rockford, with only the Winegard connected to the HDD500. The 39 OTA signal that the large antenna acquires is too weak, so I need to do what I did with the 50" SXRD, have both antennas hooked to a A/B switch. Or better yet, mount a small antenna on the outside mast and use a Winegard Joiner/Coupler.

Thanks for the help Phil, I believe you have found my problem. I will let you know, but I'm pretty sure you have it figured out.

Bjorn

Last night my TVGOS had all my channels but no specific programming (i.e. "no info" at 30 minute increments). Anyone else have that yet? Anyone?...Beuller?...Beuller?

Wolfie

Do you have version 1 or 2? Version 1 looks like one solid piece. Version 2 adds a cable between the USB and RJ-45 connections. Version 1 appears to be based on the Rtl-8150 chipset. I cannot verify if version 2 is using that chipset.

Sigh, this has a cable between the USB connector and chunky unit with the RJ45 - is that version2 or 3? I'll pry it open and check. The supply of RTL8150 based devices seems to be drying up because they are USB 1.1, and all the new devices are USB 2.0.

With just the HID adapter, all 3 keyboard LEDs flash after ever 8 characters or so. They flash after typing "admin\n". I could wear my fingers down to nubs trying this. I tried hitting F3, ESC, etc during the boot process to no visible effect.

Andrew

Yes. Go into the menu on one of the Sonys, and choose "Preferences", then "System", then "Remote control code", then "Code 51". You'll see a screen of instructions on how to reset your remote to send the code 51 IR commands. Then your two remotes will control the two DVRs without conflict.

In my Harmony configuration, I created a second device for the new DVR, then taught it all the keys that I needed from the code 51 remote. It actually didn't take very long, maybe a half hour.


OK, I know about getting a Code 50 "previous channel" for the first DVR on my Harmony remote, but does anybody know how to get the Code 51 version of "previous channel" for the second DVR?

I ordered two of the 500's last Friday, hoping they would be refurbed units with the latest updates. I got an email yesterday asking me to call to confirm my order, so I called them today.

The guy at the number they gave me to call said the order was "missing a street address" but I had no way to confirm that as I didn't print my original order, nevertheless, the information contained in the order was sufficient to actually get the units here (at work). That not withstanding, when they send the tracking info I would be able to arrange final delivery details with the shipping company.

What has this to do with my order? Well the guy said it couldn't be shipped with an incomplete address and he couldn't add the address, he'd have to pass me to customer service to redo the order, I expressed that I was fearful that I'd lose my place in line, but he assured me it would be okay - WRONG. Before I even got to speak to customer service (on hold) he cancelled my order and guess what - yep, customer service can't redo my order because the item is "OUT OF STOCK" - they just royally screwed me.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

The supervisor. Toliver, said he was very sorry but there was nothing he could do but if they got some more in I could re-order, but I'd have to monitor the web site myself. I explained that it was highly unlikely they would get any more as it was a discontinued item, he said he could possibly accommodate me with a comparable unit, except I explained there is no comparable unit and that nobody else makes a 500GB recorder.

I called back on the original number but they couldn't help me so I called Toliver back to say that I'd take two of the 250GB units, he was in a meeting but he left a message saying that he can't do that, he'll only offer a $50 rebate and so the 250's would cost me $550 each.

WARNING - do not let Tweeter cancel your order and send you to customer service for anything that's amiss on your order - you'll never get back in.

I am so disappointed right now. Hopefully it will be two AVS members that get my units rather than some Ebay vendor, oh well.

Greg.

I picked up two DHG-HDD500s from Tweeters for $249 a couple weeks ago. I use one of them to record OTA (alleviate space problems on our Dish Network HD DVR) and I thought a friend of mine would want the other - he doesn't. He has FiOS TV coming his way and is no longer interested in a QAM/ATSC DVR. It's a neat little box at a great price, but the fact is we don't need more than one and it is sitting downstairs gathering dust. Plus, I just ordered a 2nd Dish Network HD DVR since it's wife friendly (much better than TVGOS IMO) and FiOS TV won't be in my neighborhood for at least another year.

I'm keeping the box with the latest firmware (1.2.13). The box I will be returning has 1.2.05 or .06. This was an opened box item, but it is in excellent shape and comes with all the parts: manual, registration card, remote, cables, etc. Also, I have not registered this product since I was not sure I would keep it. I've briefly used this box and it appears to be working just as well as the my box with 1.2.13. Anyway, I did a factory reset and will be returning this unit to the Tweeters in Fredericksburg VA. If you're local, shoot me a single PM and we can arrange a time to meet so I can return it and you can purchase the unit. If you don't hear back from me, it means that I already found a taker. Before anyone asks, I have a hectic schedule and I have no desire to pack the unit for shipping, haul it off to the post office, collect payment, etc...sorry!

Antennaweb shows it as Channel 58.1, which I get on my HDD250. On my HDD500 that station appears on Channel 41.2. Is this a station error?

I would call the station to find out. I have seen PSIP errors (that the Sonys look at during a channel scan) that caused channels to map wrong. Also, digital is still in the transition stage and some stations are moving their digital channels to different channels. If they do their PSIP information correctly the viewer can never tell they moved (the moved channel still maps to the analog channel number).

I ordered two of the 500's last Friday, hoping they would be refurbed units with the latest updates. I got an email yesterday asking me to call to confirm my order, so I called them today.

The guy at the number they gave me to call said the order was "missing a street address" but I had no way to confirm that as I didn't print my original order, nevertheless, the information contained in the order was sufficient to actually get the units here (at work). That not withstanding, when they send the tracking info I would be able to arrange final delivery details with the shipping company.

What has this to do with my order? Well the guy said it couldn't be shipped with an incomplete address and he couldn't add the address, he'd have to pass me to customer service to redo the order, I expressed that I was fearful that I'd lose my place in line, but he assured me it would be okay - WRONG. Before I even got to speak to customer service (on hold) he cancelled my order and guess what - yep, customer service can't redo my order because the item is "OUT OF STOCK" - they just royally screwed me.

:mad: :mad: :mad:

The supervisor. Toliver, said he was very sorry but there was nothing he could do but if they got some more in I could re-order, but I'd have to monitor the web site myself. I explained that it was highly unlikely they would get any more as it was a discontinued item, he said he could possibly accommodate me with a comparable unit, except I explained there is no comparable unit and that nobody else makes a 500GB recorder.

I called back on the original number but they couldn't help me so I called Toliver back to say that I'd take two of the 250GB units, he was in a meeting but he left a message saying that he can't do that, he'll only offer a $50 rebate and so the 250's would cost me $550 each.

WARNING - do not let Tweeter cancel your order and send you to customer service for anything that's amiss on your order - you'll never get back in.

I am so disappointed right now. Hopefully it will be two AVS members that get my units rather than some Ebay vendor, oh well.

Greg.

I, for one, will be shocked if they get more of these in. I also ordered mine on friday the 18th and have heard nothing since. I will post if they contact me to send or cancel this order

I had a Bright House CableCARD installed on my new DHG-HDD500 and it's giving me a really annoying issue. It works fine for about a day, even through an overnight update. Then, for no reason, I will turn it on and none of the digital channels are working. I have to pop out the CableCARD and pop it back in for the digital channels to start working again. Of course, doing this loses all my channel settings as well as TV Guide information.

The box is essentially rendered useless if I cannot rely on it to keep the digital cable (and HD) signals for recording.

I actually have two of these DVRs and I'm about ready to return them if this is how they act. Any ideas?

I had the same exact problem. It's the 161-6 error. You don't see the error message unless you come by within some set period after the error occurs. After that, it's sort of a mystery.

Anyway, the fix is to send the unit in to Sony for the electrical modification that corrects this cablecard-related issue. My unit is at Sony even as we speak for this issue.

Marc

For those of you that sent your HDD's in for service, how many of you had the hard drives cleared (lost your recorded programs)?

I didn't get a chance to watch everything, so I hope they don't delete it all, but I will survive if they delete them...

Thanks

I, for one, will be shocked if they get more of these in. I also ordered mine on friday the 18th and have heard nothing since. I will post if they contact me to send or cancel this order

Same here, and I agree,,,though they did accept my order, and you would think that the web site would be tied into thier inventory computer, and would not sell more than they expected to recieve,,,,as long as I dont get charged nothing gained nothing lost. :cool:

I would call the station to find out. I have seen PSIP errors (that the Sonys look at during a channel scan) that caused channels to map wrong. Also, digital is still in the transition stage and some stations are moving their digital channels to different channels. If they do their PSIP information correctly the viewer can never tell they moved (the moved channel still maps to the analog channel number).

Channel shows up on the correct channel after I did a customer reset and antenna scan.

Channel shows up on the correct channel after I did a customer reset and antenna scan.

Glad to hear that. It was likely bad PSIP data that corrupted your Sony's channel map.

The stations need to do a much better job with their PSIP data because so many STBs depend on it (at least to some extent).

1 & 2: I don't know; I haven't tried either. I would be stunned if it didn't since this is pretty much the same as pausing live TV (from a certain perspective). I'll try it out later and let you know.

3. Yes. This window can either be locked on the channel you were viewing, or show you the channel highlighted in the guide.

4. Name based recording of this type is not available.

5. Yes. You can turn off any channel from the guide.


Earlier someone posted that you can in the channel guide lock the channel that you are watching in the upper left as you scroll through the channel guide. Mine doesn't do that, it tunes the channel that is highlighted. How do I make my system lock the channel? Thanks.

Eric

Go into the guide, and then go up to the top of the guide (so a channel isn't highlighted). Press Menu, and there is a video window lock option.

I think you can get to this by scrolling to the left until a channel logo is highlighted. Press menu here and you can do the same thing.

(I can't verify the exact procedure, since I sent mine to Sony today)...

Earlier someone posted that you can in the channel guide lock the channel that you are watching in the upper left as you scroll through the channel guide. Mine doesn't do that, it tunes the channel that is highlighted. How do I make my system lock the channel? Thanks.

Eric
Press the TV GUIDE button to show the listings, then highlight either a channel logo or the LISTINGS label on the top bar, then press the MENU button to show the "Listings Options" on the left side of the screen below the small video window, then press the right or left arrow button to select "locked" instead of "unlocked". This procedure is mentioned on page 61 of the manual.

See the attached screenshot below.

Do you have version 1 or 2? Version 1 looks like one solid piece. Version 2 adds a cable between the USB and RJ-45 connections. Version 1 appears to be based on the Rtl-8150 chipset. I cannot verify if version 2 is using that chipset.

OK, I'm a dummy: it plainly says "Rev 2.0" on the bottom. I opened it up and it is sporting an Infineon ADM8511, not the RTL8150. Short answer: screwed. I'll try again.

Andrew

Glad to hear that. It was likely bad PSIP data that corrupted your Sony's channel map.

The stations need to do a much better job with their PSIP data because so many STBs depend on it (at least to some extent).

If you're interested (and as I posted a while back), what actually happened in this case was not exactly that the map was corrupted but that the Sony reverted to the physical channel when the virtual channel data was unavailable. Certainly the PSIP was at fault but there was a useable entry as long as you recognized the physical channel for what it was.

Back in the early days of HDTV, everyone was aware of the physical channel nos since the PSIP data was limited or non-existent. Now that the PSIP and virtual channel data is so prevalent, I have to look up the physical channel nos when something like this happens.

Is your host channel 6 cable or OTA? If cable, the number in the 753 menu will be preceded by "1:"; if OTA, by "0:".

Since the card is set up as digital, you can't receive the guide. Since you do get the guide without the card, you should also be able to get the guide OTA. Go to the OTA channel (which may be a different number than 6 for the same station) and try the VBI test. Also look at your signal strength on that OTA station. Also look in the diagnostic screen for the Out of Band reading, which should be > 16.00.

Phil,

TVGOS updated overnight after Cablecard installation and adding the feed from the indoor antenna. Signal strength on the host OTA station is only 77%, so I may add a drop amp. Out of Band reading is 18.88. So I am getting the guide via analog OTA. I get all the HD & Premium channels with the card....all seems to be working fine. Motorola card with 4.21 firmware.

Thank you so much for the help, I was stumped.

Bjorn

OK, I'm a dummy: it plainly says "Rev 2.0" on the bottom. I opened it up and it is sporting an Infineon ADM8511, not the RTL8150. Short answer: screwed. I'll try again.

Andrew

No sweat. I ordered an SMC2208USB/ETH today. I'll see what it does when I receive it.

Phil,

TVGOS updated overnight after Cablecard installation and adding the feed from the indoor antenna. Signal strength on the host OTA station is only 77%, so I may add a drop amp. Out of Band reading is 18.88. So I am getting the guide via analog OTA. I get all the HD & Premium channels with the card....all seems to be working fine. Motorola card with 4.21 firmware.

Thank you so much for the help, I was stumped.

Bjorn

Bjorn, glad I could help. Now you may be better off than I am --- You have card FW v. 4.21. I'm still having trouble with some premium HD channel recordings with v. 4.05. But I know that 4.21 is on the way here in Chicago in the next few weeks.

Enjoy the Sony!

Has anyone verified that cable providers have successfully updated the firmware remotely on a cablecard installed in one of these Sony's?

Hello,

I bought the 250Gig model at Best Buy a couple weeks ago and I've been trying it out and for the most part enjoy it very much. I'm a strictly OTA (non-cable) guy and I'm in Champaign, IL so I don't have to worry about any cable/cablecard issues others have had. I've been reading this thread from the beginning but it's quite frankly a lot of reading so I wanted to ask a few questions that I haven't seen answers to yet.

When I originally hooked up my DVR the listings started to come up within 24 hours and for the first few days worked great. Then, since in Champaign many of the digital stations don't show up in the channel listing, I did some remapping of my analog stations to the digital station and my listings stopped updating. Thankfully, this thread helped me to figure out what a host station was and I was able to determine mine so I'm very greatful for this forum. I just wonder why this isn't spelled out somewhere: "Your host station is xxx....don't turn off your analog host station, and more than that don't even remap it to the digital version of your analog station". Why the secrets?

Now to my questions:

1) Does my local host station send out the listings for every channel in your zip code-determined list (regardless of whether I have the channel turned on or not)? More explicitly, is my zip code-determined list tied directly to my host station's list broadcast? There are PBS stations in nearby cities that I could map to my local digital PBS station so I don't have to remap the host PBS analog. Otherwise, as others have found out I can only use the full capabilities of the recording scheduler on my analog PBS station.

2) As I mentioned earlier, I've remapped all the local analogs (except the PBS) to their digital counterpart. How does one attempt to see if any stations have been since added to the channel listings? It seems like the large list is fixed after I typed in my zip code and it was originally brought up. (For what it's worth, my list had the title "Champaign 75" but it brought in 360 choices which included lots of cable channels. Why would it bring in cable channels if I said I didn't have cable in the previous step....but that's beside the point.) Will this 360 channel list grow on it's own or do I have to go through the original setup and "re-choose" my zip code to bring in the list again to see if any channels were added? For one, we get a neat little station called America One and I'd like to know if and when the listing is ever added to the list so I can turn it on.

3) Does anyone know how long the listings take to fill up during the once-a-day programmed time? Has anyone had success with changing the download time start right away: aka your listing didn't populate last night, you change a few things, and force it to start downloading right away (as long as I'm willing to turn the DVR off)? This is why I'd like to have an idea of how long the listings take to download (maybe in units of channel-days/hour). Finally, I've heard of people turning on their DVR to "check the progress" of listing downloads. Have people found that the listings will always continue downloading right where it left off when the DVR is turned off? This is one way I could "time" how long my list takes to download but this sort of goes back to question 1 (are all listings broadcast regardless if I have the station turned on or not).

4) I realize no one knows exactly what's going to happen when the analog hosts all switch to the digital station in a few years, but is there a realistic chance that when all this goes down that Sony will say "sorry, that model was discontined long ago and we're not updating your dvr" thus leaving us up a creek without a paddle? Or will they have to do "something"?

5) Overall, I've really enjoyed the Sony. I don't mind the learning curve for the Sony being steeper than that for TIVO. I'm a tinkerer anyway so learning curves are a welcomed challenge. So far, I've read about the 1234, 9012, and 753159852 hidden diagnostics screens. Are there any others?

I appologize for the length of my message but I do appreciate your time to discuss my questions.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

Hello,

I bought the 250Gig model at Best Buy a couple weeks ago and I've been trying it out and for the most part enjoy it very much. I'm a strictly OTA (non-cable) guy and I'm in Champaign, IL so I don't have to worry about any cable/cablecard issues others have had. I've been reading this thread from the beginning but it's quite frankly a lot of reading so I wanted to ask a few questions that I haven't seen answers to yet.

When I originally hooked up my DVR the listings started to come up within 24 hours and for the first few days worked great. Then, since in Champaign many of the digital stations don't show up in the channel listing, I did some remapping of my analog stations to the digital station and my listings stopped updating. Thankfully, this thread helped me to figure out what a host station was and I was able to determine mine so I'm very greatful for this forum. I just wonder why this isn't spelled out somewhere: "Your host station is xxx....don't turn off your analog host station, and more than that don't even remap it to the digital version of your analog station". Why the secrets?

Now to my questions:

1) Does my local host station send out the listings for every channel in your zip code-determined list (regardless of whether I have the channel turned on or not)? More explicitly, is my zip code-determined list tied directly to my host station's list broadcast? There are PBS stations in nearby cities that I could map to my local digital PBS station so I don't have to remap the host PBS analog. Otherwise, as others have found out I can only use the full capabilities of the recording scheduler on my analog PBS station.

2) As I mentioned earlier, I've remapped all the local analogs (except the PBS) to their digital counterpart. How does one attempt to see if any stations have been since added to the channel listings? It seems like the large list is fixed after I typed in my zip code and it was originally brought up. (For what it's worth, my list had the title "Champaign 75" but it brought in 360 choices which included lots of cable channels. Why would it bring in cable channels if I said I didn't have cable in the previous step....but that's beside the point.) Will this 360 channel list grow on it's own or do I have to go through the original setup and "re-choose" my zip code to bring in the list again to see if any channels were added? For one, we get a neat little station called America One and I'd like to know if and when the listing is ever added to the list so I can turn it on.

3) Does anyone know how long the listings take to fill up during the once-a-day programmed time? Has anyone had success with changing the download time start right away: aka your listing didn't populate last night, you change a few things, and force it to start downloading right away (as long as I'm willing to turn the DVR off)? This is why I'd like to have an idea of how long the listings take to download (maybe in units of channel-days/hour). Finally, I've heard of people turning on their DVR to "check the progress" of listing downloads. Have people found that the listings will always continue downloading right where it left off when the DVR is turned off? This is one way I could "time" how long my list takes to download but this sort of goes back to question 1 (are all listings broadcast regardless if I have the station turned on or not).

4) I realize no one knows exactly what's going to happen when the analog hosts all switch to the digital station in a few years, but is there a realistic chance that when all this goes down that Sony will say "sorry, that model was discontined long ago and we're not updating your dvr" thus leaving us up a creek without a paddle? Or will they have to do "something"?

5) Overall, I've really enjoyed the Sony. I don't mind the learning curve for the Sony being steeper than that for TIVO. I'm a tinkerer anyway so learning curves are a welcomed challenge. So far, I've read about the 1234, 9012, and 753159852 hidden diagnostics screens. Are there any others?

I appologize for the length of my message but I do appreciate your time to discuss my questions.

Thanks in advance for your replies!

just don't enter the hidden setup menu. these're better left for sony technicians to play with.

Has anyone verified that cable providers have successfully updated the firmware remotely on a cablecard installed in one of these Sony's?

I think there is a report about a SA card being updated but no moto cards. I would suggest you call Sony and talk to their product specialist. When I call and said it wasn't updating they had no clue what to do and tried to redirect the blame. If enough people call maybe they will actually figure out the problem and fix it.

BTW - My box just left the UPS store today for the 161-6 fix , I am hoping it will allow CC updates when it comes back.

When I originally hooked up my DVR the listings started to come up within 24 hours and for the first few days worked great. Then, since in Champaign many of the digital stations don't show up in the channel listing, I did some remapping of my analog stations to the digital station and my listings stopped updating. Thankfully, this thread helped me to figure out what a host station was and I was able to determine mine so I'm very greatful for this forum. I just wonder why this isn't spelled out somewhere: "Your host station is xxx....don't turn off your analog host station, and more than that don't even remap it to the digital version of your analog station". Why the secrets?

The host channel is shown in one of the 753... menus. My experience is that (at least once the host channel is determined), the analog host channel can be disabled in both the Sony and TVGOS lineups and everything will update ok. There are many reports to the contrary so it may be different for you, I just know that I've had the host channel completely disabled for 3 weeks now and I get listings every day. I have got the latest Sony (.13) and TVGOS (08.06.30) firmware/software so earlier versions may be different.

Now to my questions:

1) Does my local host station send out the listings for every channel in your zip code-determined list (regardless of whether I have the channel turned on or not)? More explicitly, is my zip code-determined list tied directly to my host station's list broadcast? There are PBS stations in nearby cities that I could map to my local digital PBS station so I don't have to remap the host PBS analog. Otherwise, as others have found out I can only use the full capabilities of the recording scheduler on my analog PBS station.

Apparently the actual listings include everything (both OTA and cable) which is available in the reception area of the host station. It then has channel mappings that are tied to the zip code and OTA/cable lineup selected. There is no 2-way communication - everything is transmitted and the Sony/TVGOS picks the things it needs.


2) As I mentioned earlier, I've remapped all the local analogs (except the PBS) to their digital counterpart. How does one attempt to see if any stations have been since added to the channel listings? It seems like the large list is fixed after I typed in my zip code and it was originally brought up. (For what it's worth, my list had the title "Champaign 75" but it brought in 360 choices which included lots of cable channels. Why would it bring in cable channels if I said I didn't have cable in the previous step....but that's beside the point.) Will this 360 channel list grow on it's own or do I have to go through the original setup and "re-choose" my zip code to bring in the list again to see if any channels were added? For one, we get a neat little station called America One and I'd like to know if and when the listing is ever added to the list so I can turn it on.

I believe that new things will be added to the list automatically but you may have to go through and fix channel mappings. That said, you DO have to update the Sony lineup by doing an Auto-add or entirely new Autoscan. You really have to do an Autoscan since the Auto-add will not update new subchannels and these can screw up recording if they're not on the Sony lineup. It happened to me - it started recording the SD sub channel instead of the HD and recorded the blank new subchannel for the SD one.

Doing a full Autoscan is not as bad as it seems. It retains basically all of your information. The only exception is that if any particular channel is off the air or has gotten bad data in it's virtual channel listings, then the previously good data will be lost from your Sony (but NOT TVGOS) lineup. The TVGOS listings will not be lost but they may not be useable if the Sony can't find the proper channel and subchannel to tune to. It will come back once the problem is fixed and a new Autoscan is done (and sometimes you can temporarily map the listing to a physical channel).


3) Does anyone know how long the listings take to fill up during the once-a-day programmed time? Has anyone had success with changing the download time start right away: aka your listing didn't populate last night, you change a few things, and force it to start downloading right away (as long as I'm willing to turn the DVR off)? This is why I'd like to have an idea of how long the listings take to download (maybe in units of channel-days/hour). Finally, I've heard of people turning on their DVR to "check the progress" of listing downloads. Have people found that the listings will always continue downloading right where it left off when the DVR is turned off? This is one way I could "time" how long my list takes to download but this sort of goes back to question 1 (are all listings broadcast regardless if I have the station turned on or not).

The Main listings take 3 hours and there are also 1 hour and 1/2 hour updates. You need one of each every day. They are each repeated several times so it's not usually a problem to get them each day. It may take a long time to find the host channel but once that's done just about any six hour period is more than enough to get the listings.

The listings are sent in a one-way stream so if they're interrupted it will have to start all over again on the next download. I don't know if just turning the unit on will interrupt but it certainly will if the channel is changed (and just navigating the listings will do this unless the thumbnail is locked).


4) I realize no one knows exactly what's going to happen when the analog hosts all switch to the digital station in a few years, but is there a realistic chance that when all this goes down that Sony will say "sorry, that model was discontined long ago and we're not updating your dvr" thus leaving us up a creek without a paddle? Or will they have to do "something"?

It's quite possible that we'll all be screwed in 2009. There is one report that the .13 firmware may be ready for the digital switch over and one person claimed to have actually gotten TVGOS from a digital host channel. There are a couple more reports quoting Sony people that say the opposite. We will probably know well before 2009 since TVGOS is starting to roll out the digital support now.

5) Overall, I've really enjoyed the Sony. I don't mind the learning curve for the
Sony being steeper than that for TIVO. I'm a tinkerer anyway so learning curves are a welcomed challenge. So far, I've read about the 1234, 9012, and 753159852 hidden diagnostics screens. Are there any others?

9012 and 753... are the important ones. 9012 can be somewhat destructive if you don't know what you're doing. Other 4 digit ones can be VERY destructive.

753.. just displays information but there are many, many very confusing screens.

3) Does anyone know how long the listings take to fill up during the once-a-day programmed time? Has anyone had success with changing the download time start right away: aka your listing didn't populate last night, you change a few things, and force it to start downloading right away (as long as I'm willing to turn the DVR off)? This is why I'd like to have an idea of how long the listings take to download (maybe in units of channel-days/hour). Finally, I've heard of people turning on their DVR to "check the progress" of listing downloads. Have people found that the listings will always continue downloading right where it left off when the DVR is turned off? This is one way I could "time" how long my list takes to download but this sort of goes back to question 1 (are all listings broadcast regardless if I have the station turned on or not).There are 4 sets of downloads per day, each with multiple data portions. See this post for a link to more info:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7171842&&#post7171842

Like jmonier said, DO NOT interrupt a download session by turning on the DVR.

The host channel is shown in one of the 753... menus. My experience is that (at least once the host channel is determined), the analog host channel can be disabled in both the Sony and TVGOS lineups and everything will update ok. There are many reports to the contrary so it may be different for you, I just know that I've had the host channel completely disabled for 3 weeks now and I get listings every day. I have got the latest Sony (.13) and TVGOS (08.06.30) firmware/software so earlier versions may be different.

I agree. I do not have my host channel on either of my DVR's active in the channel +/- list or in the TV Guide and am receving TV Guide updates without any issues. Firmwares .05 & .06.

Did anybody find out a way to enable component video and HDMI output at the same time?

Thanks!

I too have a problem with the channel guide coming over using the cable input. So I bought a cheap set of rabbit ears and hooked them up last night. This was about 10pm. I didn't turn the unit on until I got home this evening, about 5pm. I had no guide data, even though I have both the cable and the antenna hooked up to the unit and left it off all last night. To make matters worse, when I did turn the unit on tonight there was a box stating something about recovery of something from the hard drive was successful. I found this amusing since I haven't even taped anything with the unit yet(since I have no guide data).

Has anyone else ever seen that message? How do I get the damn unit to get the guide? Is there a way to "force" it to start updating right away? Compared to my replay units this thing is a complete bust. I think I'd rather pay the extra $300 and know that the unit is going to work at this point....

I too have a problem with the channel guide coming over using the cable input. So I bought a cheap set of rabbit ears and hooked them up last night. This was about 10pm. I didn't turn the unit on until I got home this evening, about 5pm. I had no guide data, even though I have both the cable and the antenna hooked up to the unit and left it off all last night. To make matters worse, when I did turn the unit on tonight there was a box stating something about recovery of something from the hard drive was successful. I found this amusing since I haven't even taped anything with the unit yet(since I have no guide data).

Has anyone else ever seen that message? How do I get the damn unit to get the guide? Is there a way to "force" it to start updating right away? Compared to my replay units this thing is a complete bust. I think I'd rather pay the extra $300 and know that the unit is going to work at this point....That is NOT good news. This is the same thing (both no guide and the "recovery" message) that I got before the last DHG unit I had (I went through three of them) went kaput. After no guide and that message, it completely locked up on me (the time was frozen, no blinking, no nothing), I ended up returning the unit for good to BB after that for a full refund.

I too have a problem with the channel guide coming over using the cable input. So I bought a cheap set of rabbit ears and hooked them up last night.

Did you do a fresh channel scan using the antenna input? If you didn't, you're not going to get guide data (or any data!) from the OTA signals.

Gone already...

That is NOT good news. This is the same thing (both no guide and the "recovery" message) that I got before the last DHG unit I had (I went through three of them) went kaput. After no guide and that message, it completely locked up on me (the time was frozen, no blinking, no nothing), I ended up returning the unit for good to BB after that for a full refund.

OK, as much as I hate to come off looking like a moron, I'll ask anyway. Where do I tell the unit to do a channel scan on the antenna input? Also, will the guide for the cable connection populate even though I'm getting the guide from the antenna? So far I've been disappointed with this unit's interface....Of course I'm coming from a replay, which I feel has a pretty easy to follow interface / setup. Thanks.

I think there is a report about a SA card being updated but no moto cards. I would suggest you call Sony and talk to their product specialist. When I call and said it wasn't updating they had no clue what to do and tried to redirect the blame. If enough people call maybe they will actually figure out the problem and fix it.

BTW - My box just left the UPS store today for the 161-6 fix , I am hoping it will allow CC updates when it comes back.

Dozens,

What process did you go though to contact Sony in order to return the unit for repair?

Did you get an RMA?

Did you talk to a particular group or person to explain the 161 error and was he/she familiar with it?

I have several of these units and would like to send them all in to Sony before its too late. Can you tell me where to start and specifically with whom (if you actually have a name, telephone number or department??)

Thanks in advance...

Hotsko

Where do I tell the unit to do a channel scan on the antenna input?

Hit the MENU button, then select "Preferences", then "Channel +/- List". You'll see the options "Auto Add from Antenna" and "Auto Scan". The first one is supposed to add "new" channels to an existing channel list, and the second one is for starting over from scratch (removing the original channel list). I don't know which one would be more appropriate for your situation, since you already have a list of cable channels.

But then you also have to tell the TV Guide software that you're using both OTA and cable. You can do this from the "Setup" section of the TV Guide software.

However, I think in your case it's probably simpler to reset your unit to factory default and repeat the entire initial setup from scratch, instead of wading through the menus as described above.

To start over from scratch, hit the MENU button, then the SCREEN MODE button, then enter the digits 9012. You'll get a menu that includes "Restore Factory Default." Select that, and wait a while. I've forgotten whether you have to hit the power button on the remote to start the unit up again when the reset is complete. Then you'll go through the initial setup for both the Sony software and the TV Guide software, just like when you first got the unit. Tell them that you're using both antenna and cable. Then leave the unit off for a day and see if you get anything in the TV Guide now.

The TV Guide data is often (although not always!) carried by the analog PBS station in your area. So before you turn off the unit, tune to that channel and make sure you get a halfway decent picture on it, adjusting the antenna if necessary. Some "snow" is OK. Or if you can find out from somebody here that it's on a different station in your area, make sure you can receive that one.

Dozens,

What process did you go though to contact Sony in order to return the unit for repair?

Did you get an RMA?

Did you talk to a particular group or person to explain the 161 error and was he/she familiar with it?

I have several of these units and would like to send them all in to Sony before its too late. Can you tell me where to start and specifically with whom (if you actually have a name, telephone number or department??)

Thanks in advance...

Hotsko

Just call Sony (800-222-7669), give them the model number and serial number. If they give you any grief about possible other causes of the error, just cite them their own knowledge base article solution C200609. It says service is required to fix the 161-6 error.

Apparently you can also report this via the web to get the work order number.

Sony has a deal with the UPS Store to pack/ship units in for service. It cost me about $18 including insurance to $750, though I packed it myself. When you call for the work order, definitely get the exact shipping address. The rep told me the UPS store would have access to the address, but this was not the case and was a real pain to deal with there.

Good luck

Marc

http://eservice.sony.com/webrma/web/index.do

I used the above link to arrange for my service. Completely painless process.

Mine is on its way via FedEx Ground. I set up an online shipment, printed out a shipping label, and boxed it up in its original box. This cost me less than $10 with $550 insurance. Granted, it hasn't arrived yet, but I am not worried about it.

Thanks to all for the replies!

The host channel is shown in one of the 753... menus. My experience is that (at least once the host channel is determined), the analog host channel can be disabled in both the Sony and TVGOS lineups and everything will update ok. There are many reports to the contrary so it may be different for you, I just know that I've had the host channel completely disabled for 3 weeks now and I get listings every day. I have got the latest Sony (.13) and TVGOS (08.06.30) firmware/software so earlier versions may be different.
.

I agree. I do not have my host channel on either of my DVR's active in the channel +/- list or in the TV Guide and am receving TV Guide updates without any issues. Firmwares .05 & .06.


I think my downfall was remapping the analog host station to it's digital station counterpart. I never "disabled" or "turned off" the host channel as you both have mentioned. Unfortunately, there's no "SD/DT/HD" version of the channel in the TVGOS channel setting list and I didn't want my NOVA episodes to be recorded on the analog station. Unfortunately, now it means that I either have to accept the program from the analog station or manually record it on the digital station and accept the "Unknown" title. Unfortunately, since I'm a strictly OTA non-cable guy, PBS is one of my favorite stations as I love to watch many shows like NOVA and Nature so this work-around is really a drawback from the unit. I guess what I really need then is for Gemstar/TVGOS to add the SD version of my PBS station to it's listing service and that's probably not very likely.


I believe that new things will be added to the list automatically but you may have to go through and fix channel mappings. That said, you DO have to update the Sony lineup by doing an Auto-add or entirely new Autoscan. You really have to do an Autoscan since the Auto-add will not update new subchannels and these can screw up recording if they're not on the Sony lineup. It happened to me - it started recording the SD sub channel instead of the HD and recorded the blank new subchannel for the SD one.

Doing a full Autoscan is not as bad as it seems. It retains basically all of your information. The only exception is that if any particular channel is off the air or has gotten bad data in it's virtual channel listings, then the previously good data will be lost from your Sony (but NOT TVGOS) lineup. The TVGOS listings will not be lost but they may not be useable if the Sony can't find the proper channel and subchannel to tune to. It will come back once the problem is fixed and a new Autoscan is done (and sometimes you can temporarily map the listing to a physical channel).

I performed a full scan and didn't notice any difference other than the fact that it went through and "re-found" all my stations instead of only adding new ones on top of what I had already. I'm not really understanding what you mean by the "Auto-add not updating new subchannels"?

The Main listings take 3 hours and there are also 1 hour and 1/2 hour updates. You need one of each every day. They are each repeated several times so it's not usually a problem to get them each day. It may take a long time to find the host channel but once that's done just about any six hour period is more than enough to get the listings.

There are 4 sets of downloads per day, each with multiple data portions. See this post for a link to more info:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=7171842&&#post7171842

Like jmonier said, DO NOT interrupt a download session by turning on the DVR.


Until now I thought that the Menu "Auto Update" command was the actual downloading time. Now I see that's Sony's attempt at making it's user's turn off the DVR once in a while so they can hopefully catch one of the 4 listing updates per day.


It's quite possible that we'll all be screwed in 2009.

This could really suck. I was hoping to hear something like "Well, there is a lot of fear but in the end Sony will have to do something otherwise risk a lot of industry criticism." I guess I don't understand the electronics world very well!

Thanks to all for the replies!

I think my downfall was remapping the analog host station to it's digital station counterpart. I never "disabled" or "turned off" the host channel as you both have mentioned. Unfortunately, there's no "SD/DT/HD" version of the channel in the TVGOS channel setting list and I didn't want my NOVA episodes to be recorded on the analog station. Unfortunately, now it means that I either have to accept the program from the analog station or manually record it on the digital station and accept the "Unknown" title. Unfortunately, since I'm a strictly OTA non-cable guy, PBS is one of my favorite stations as I love to watch many shows like NOVA and Nature so this work-around is really a drawback from the unit. I guess what I really need then is for Gemstar/TVGOS to add the SD version of my PBS station to it's listing service and that's probably not very likely.



Have you looked for a neighboring PBS station in the list of channels on the Sony? You could leave your local analog PBS station unedited, but assign the digital channel for your local PBS to a neighboring areas PBS station. This is what I did. Since the listings should be similar (at least during primetime), this can work. Just search in your channel lineup for PBS logos and call letters, and look them up online to see where they are...I found one that mirrors the national PBS HD feed near me...

Have you looked for a neighboring PBS station in the list of channels on the Sony? You could leave your local analog PBS station unedited, but assign the digital channel for your local PBS to a neighboring areas PBS station. This is what I did. Since the listings should be similar (at least during primetime), this can work. Just search in your channel lineup for PBS logos and call letters, and look them up online to see where they are...I found one that mirrors the national PBS HD feed near me...


Yes, this is a very good alternative. Unfortunately, from my small amount of research, the local PBS stations are seem very independent and after turning on many nearby PBS analog stations (Peoria, Springfield, St. Louis, Charleston), they all seem to have different times for their shows, even during primetime. I'm going to keep an eye on this though. Actually, I'll go in and turn them all on now, not just the nearby ones I recognized! Maybe one will be similar!

Coincidentally, your method is exactly what I do for my PBS-HD station since the HD stations have very similar programming from area to area. I have the Peoria PBS-HD station matched to my PBS-HD channel so I have the listing info.

I have been a part of this forum for 3 plus months. I have read much, both pro and con about the units. I am telling my story for those who get frustrated. I received my first unit in November. The guide set within 24hrs but I lost it after a few days. I did not know about this forum and spent many hours with Sony. I ended up replacing the unit with another from OneCall. I couldn't even get that unit to give me the time. I had already joined this forum and saw the $499 price at BB so I returned both units to OneCall and saved about $100 by buying the one at BB. The new unit was hot and cold on picking up the guide but I didn't care I just manually recorded shows. I then saw posts about the great deal at Tweeters and had a friend, back east, purchase a unit. I now have a 250 and a 500. The 500 picked up the guide immediately and has been working flawlessly. The 250 is also working flawlessly. I even screwed up and it lost power for 10 hours but within 12hrs after plugging it back in, the guide was back. The point of my story is:

1. Be patient and read this forum. Outstanding information here. I have never called Sony again and all my questions have been answered through this great forum.

2. Follow the directions given to you on this forum. They really work. The one about getting your clock back almost immediately was great because even without the guide you can still manually record.

3. Some may disagree but I think this is an excellent machine. Yes, it has it's flaws but can anyone argue about the quality of the recordings? Just beautiful in my book.

4. Many of the problems aren't even the fault of the unit. My 250 working perfectly is proof of that.

Just wanted to give each and every one of you, that have contributed so much to my health (tell me your blood pressure didn't rise while trying to deal with a Sony CSR), a huge thank you.

Thanks to all for the replies!
I think my downfall was remapping the analog host station to it's digital station counterpart. I never "disabled" or "turned off" the host channel as you both have mentioned. Unfortunately, there's no "SD/DT/HD" version of the channel in the TVGOS channel setting list and I didn't want my NOVA episodes to be recorded on the analog station.

Don't you mean you re-mapped the digital channel to the analog channel's guide listing, and this left the analog channel that receives the guide info without a home?

I haven't messed around with the re-mapping much as I'm leaving my box alone to record the Olympics and don't want to fuss it up. But I did do some re-arranging when I first set it up so I'm familiar with the menus. I receive only OTA, even so, I had to turn off a bunch of foreign language and shopping channels. My guide host channel is 28, PBS, as well. And I have no guide listing for 28.1, so I was going to map 28.1 to the analog channel listing, then map the analog channel (28) to one of the foreign channels and move it down to the bottom of the listing. I think this should work

I think my downfall was remapping the analog host station to it's digital station counterpart. I never "disabled" or "turned off" the host channel as you both have mentioned. Unfortunately, there's no "SD/DT/HD" version of the channel in the TVGOS channel setting list and I didn't want my NOVA episodes to be recorded on the analog station. Unfortunately, now it means that I either have to accept the program from the analog station or manually record it on the digital station and accept the "Unknown" title. Unfortunately, since I'm a strictly OTA non-cable guy, PBS is one of my favorite stations as I love to watch many shows like NOVA and Nature so this work-around is really a drawback from the unit. I guess what I really need then is for Gemstar/TVGOS to add the SD version of my PBS station to it's listing service and that's probably not very likely.

It may be that remapping the analog listing can be the problem. Here in Los Angeles there is a separate (from the analog) listing of the SD subchannel so I didn't need to remap. It sounds that you really checked everything but I'll just add this for completeness: There can be listings with wrong or blank channel mappings and they can be remapped just fine. I believe that was the case with my PBS SD subchannel. I also watch a lot of PBS so I feel your pain.

I performed a full scan and didn't notice any difference other than the fact that it went through and "re-found" all my stations instead of only adding new ones on top of what I had already. I'm not really understanding what you mean by the "Auto-add not updating new subchannels"?

The full Autoscan will only show a difference if: 1) a new transmitter comes on the air (or an existing one goes of the air for some reason) or a new subchannel is added to (or subtracted from) an existing transmission. An example of the latter: here in LA we have had 28.1 HD and 28.2 SD. Recently 28.3 was added (the CREATE channel that seems to be popping up around the country). My Sony only had the first two in it's lineup and got confused by a third subchannel that it didn't know anything about.

The Auto-add doesn't re-check any channel for which it has ANY data so I still showed only 28.1 and 28.2 after an Auto-add. The Autoscan started from scratch so it picked up 28.1, 28.2 and 28.3.

It's quite normal to not see any difference on an Autoscan. While changes do occur, they don't happen every day (and it can be weeks before a change occurs).

Because the Sony appears to have a bug (and you record a lot of PBS), it's worthwhile to do an Autoscan at fairly regular intervals. In my case, I suddenly noticed that my PBS HD recordings were not HD at all, but were the SD subchannel instead. If you've already got the third subchannel on your PBS station then you don't have so much to worry about.

...... My guide host channel is 28, PBS, as well. And I have no guide listing for 28.1, so I was going to map 28.1 to the analog channel listing, then map the analog channel (28) to one of the foreign channels and move it down to the bottom of the listing. I think this should work

28.1 is the HD subchannel so it has different listings than the analog channel. 28.2 is the one that carries the same programming as analog. There is a listing for 28.1 but is has (or had) an error that showed channel 48. Look for a PBS listing with channel 48 and you can remap it to 28.1. I also found a separate listing that mirrored analog 28 so I was able to leave the analog 28 listing alone.

Looking at your post again, you seem to be using the term "map" in the opposite direction from the way I use it but I think we both mean the same thing in the end. When I say remap, I mean that the listing points to the subchannel to tune and I change the listing to point to a different subchannel. In other words, the listing is the map to the subchannel rather than the other way around. I believe that this is the conventional usage (at least in this thread) but I'm certainly open to other opinions.

Don't you mean you re-mapped the digital channel to the analog channel's guide listing, and this left the analog channel that receives the guide info without a home?

I haven't messed around with the re-mapping much as I'm leaving my box alone to record the Olympics and don't want to fuss it up. But I did do some re-arranging when I first set it up so I'm familiar with the menus. I receive only OTA, even so, I had to turn off a bunch of foreign language and shopping channels. My guide host channel is 28, PBS, as well. And I have no guide listing for 28.1, so I was going to map 28.1 to the analog channel listing, then map the analog channel (28) to one of the foreign channels and move it down to the bottom of the listing. I think this should work


I think we're probably talking about the same thing here (I'm probably saying it wrong) but I'll layout the whole process so there's no confusion.

First, I know that there are 3 local PBS channels because my DVR tuner channel list picked them up when I ran the AutoScan (or Auto-Add) and it found 12, 12.1, and 12.2. Hitting the DVR info button on each station tells me it's WILL, WILLHD, and WILLSD. The WILL station (channel 12) was unique in that, in addition to the station's call sign, it also had the "PBS" logo in the info box. I found out this was because there was a "match" between the TVGOS Channel Listing and the DVR tuner channel list. The other two (12. 1 WILLHD, and 12.2 WILLSD) did not have a match in the TVGOS channel listing.

So I go into the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu and go down the list of 360 stations looking for WILL, WILLHD, and WILLSD (or WILLDT even). I assume that the channel # (and affliate for that matter) isn't important since it can be mis-labelled. So what I'm looking for is the call signs WILL, WILLHD, and WILLSD, my 3 PBS stations. I find WILL and as expected it is 1) turned on, and 2) has the exact info that my DVR tuner channel list info box has (the PBS logo and channel 12). But I find no matching row that have WILLHD or WILLSD.

For clarification (it might be the same for others too), the WILL and the WILLSD are exactly the same program lineups but the WILLHD is different. So I went into the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu, went down to the WILL channel and changed the channel from 12 to 12.2. But when I did this my TVGOS program list stopped updating so I had to go in and change the 12.2 back to 12.

It's interesting to note that the DVR tuner AutoScan (or Auto-Add) not only found the 12.1, and 12.2, it also correctly labelled them in the info box as well (WILLHD and WILLSD). But neither are in the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu. My guess is this means the station is correctly broadcasting it's info (probably listings too) but TVGOS chooses not to carry it (pass it on to me). So it's 100% a TVGOS problem. That's why I was wondering how to discover if and when TVGOS ever adds a station to it's list (so I can find it in the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu). Are they just automatically added? No stations have been added since I've had the DVR (though I've had it less than a month). But I do notice the ones towards the bottom have less-than-useful titles like "61827A" and "Brdcst", and no affiliate logos or channel numbers. What the heck is that!? Maybe I should just turn the last 50 stations on and look at the listings to see if maybe WILLSD and WILLHD are "hidden" in that list?

There can be listings with wrong or blank channel mappings and they can be remapped just fine.

As I eluded to in my last post, would you say that some listings could even have the channel title wrong (not the affliliate or the channel #)? Has anyone had this experience?

Thanks for the info on the Autoscan. I'll definitely run the Autoscan periodically since, as you said, the station itself (transmitter, subchannels, etc) can have changes. But just to clarify, running the DVR tuner AutoScan (or Auto-Add) has nothing to do with a channel being added to the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu list, right? This list would have to be updated by one of the daily downloads along with my program listing.

These two lists seem to not have a lot to do with each other except for maybe the affiliate logo. Hopefully, maybe others can use this the following as a guide of the interaction between the DVR tuner channel listing and the TVGOS channel listing:

1) You can have a channel that is found DVR tuner AutoScan (or Auto-Add) but doesn't have a corresponding listing in the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu list (unless it's simply a matter of the TVGOS list has it with the wrong channel #...which is easy to fix). In this situation, you can tune to the station, and your DVR "may" even know the call sign to the station and put it in the DVR info box. But you won't have a program listing and you can only do a manual record for this station.

2) You'll undoubtedly have many stations in the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu list for which your DVR tuner AutoScan (or Auto-Add) will not find. In this case, you'll see the program listing for those channels (if you turn them on) but won't be able to actually watch the shows since your tuner couldn't find the channel.

What's on the screen for channels in Situation #1 can be compared to program listings from Situation #2 and if what's on the list matches what's on the screen, they can be matched up by simply by changing the channel # of the listing in the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu list to match the channel the shows actually show up on. So in my situation, my local (Champaign) PBS HD station corresponded to Situation #1 and Peoria's PBS HD station corresponded to Situation #2. Match them up in the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu list and I'm off and running. The only thing I have to put up with is that everytime I change channels to that station the info box first shows WILLHD (the DVR's stored info of the Champaign PBS HD station) but then instantly changes to ("technically" incorrect) WTVPHD (TVGOS's stored info of the Peoria HD station). Not a big deal.

Does Sony honor warranty on these DVR's if bought on e-Bay? This would be new in box but not from Sony authorized reseller.

Does Sony honor warranty on these DVR's if bought on e-Bay? This would be new in box but not from Sony authorized reseller.

I would assume Sony would want a copy of the receipt enclosed with the unit when getting warranty service. If you paid by Paypal, that receipt might do it. You are going to have to try it and see.

Some manufactures are very particular with service and check to make sure the vendor on your receipt is an authorized Sony reseller. If they do, you may find yourself with no warranty.

When purchasing from eBay, you should assume that you will not have any warranty unless the company you are buying from is an authorized dealer and provides you with a receipt that has the authorized dealers name on it.

Another option if your eBay seller is not an authorized Sony reseller may be to convince the seller to send you their receipt (most likely from Tweeter @ $249) to see if you can make a copy, black out the name on the receipt, and send that to Sony for service.

Hey everyone...

I have owned a Sony HDD-500 since they first came out, and have sucessfully(for the most part) been using this unit along with a TWC cable card since then.

The only real problem I have had with the unit is concerning the guide and the INHD2 and HDNET2 channels. I originally tried to set them up but found that there was no TWC icon nor preset setting for those channels, so I used some Spanish and Japanese icons and channels and then changed them to the channels for INHD2 and HDNET2 so I could tune them without problems... still the guide shows what it has for the original Spanish and Japanese channels...

Has TWC or Sony done something so that I can now delete those other settings and include (move up to the first 20 channels or so) the #2 channels I mentioned and if so, do I need to go through the entire 3-4 day setup process in downloading the guide/channel setup?

Thanks for your help and advice!

Jack

--snip --

Another option if your eBay seller is not an authorized Sony reseller may be to convince the seller to send you their receipt (most likely from Tweeter @ $249) to see if you can make a copy, black out the name on the receipt, and send that to Sony for service.
Sounds very unlikely that this would work. Just assume no warranty (as suggested) and bid accordingly.

peter

Jack Texas - Don't do a re-setup, because you'll just lose those INHD channels out of the guide. You order and delete/add channels through the "Change Channel Display" setting in the Setup Service in the scroll bar. The information is on page 69 in the manual. To move a channel in a particular order, when you get to it you have to hit the left arrow button on the remote. That will highlight the logo. Then you can use the channel button on your remote to move it up or down a page at a time and/or use the select scroller to move it up or down one at a time to the spot where you want it. Make sure the channel is turned "on" like the info on page 69 tells you how to do.

Sounds very unlikely that this would work. Just assume no warranty (as suggested) and bid accordingly.

peterYou might not get away with the alteration, but you can at least ask the seller for the receipt if he has one, as he wouldn't have any use for it anymore (as long as he's made a copy). It's worth a try. If you have to send it in for service maybe you can get away with using his name on the order (unless, maybe, you're using a credit card to pay for any servicing. There's always a blank money order). Of course, you didn't hear any of this from me.

As I eluded to in my last post, would you say that some listings could even have the channel title wrong (not the affliliate or the channel #)? Has anyone had this experience?

Thanks for the info on the Autoscan. I'll definitely run the Autoscan periodically since, as you said, the station itself (transmitter, subchannels, etc) can have changes.

The whole Sony/TVGOS/digital TV combination can be really confusing (and I don't claim to be completely un-confused) so I hope you'll bear with me while I try to go back to basics.

First of all, I don't know if you know that the analog and digital signals are on totally different radio frequency channels. The analog channel is 12 in your case. 12.1 and 12.2 are a different (digital) channel and that number doesn't show up on the Sony. Through the magic of digital the station transmits the 12.1 and 12.2 for the Sony to display so that you can tell that all three are related. When I speak of subchannels I've been referring to the DIGITAL subchannels and you have 2 of those - 12.1 and 12.2.

When you Autoscan, the Sony (and TVGOS is not involved in this part of it) finds both the digital and analog channels and lines them up next to each other even though they are in totally different places in the radio frequency spectrum. The digital channel also usually includes the call letters that the Sony displays (and, to confuse things further, it also includes the call letters for the analog channel). These are displayed in the Sony channel lineup (Menu/Preferences/CH +/- List/Edit Channel List). So far this has nothing to do with TVGOS (except possibly it gets the logo you see on 28 from TVGOS). You get this (except the logo) even if you have nothing in the TV Guide screens. This is where you get the WILL, WILLHD and WILLSD - that has nothing to do with TVGOS.

Now to TVGOS: The first thing you need to know is that the TVGOS listing usually has only logos and NOT call letters. (I'm not talking about the Info box - I'll get to that later.) It only shows call letters if it doesn't have a logo for that station. Unfortunately (especially in the case of PBS) that means there will be more than one listing with the same logo (there are almost 10 here in LA). The only way to distinguish them for sure is by the content of the listing.

If the listing (as it comes from TVGOS) has a channel and subchannel already assigned (and if the assignment is correct) then it will display the call letters from the Sony channel list in the Info box directly below. If the channel assignment is either blank or incorrect (and we have both here in LA even though the listing is good for a channel I can receive), then you have to figure out somehow that the listing is the one you want. Then, and only then, you can assign it to the correct subchannel and you're home free.

I hope this explains some of the things that you asked about. I try to cover some of your specific questions:

My guess is this means the station is correctly broadcasting it's info (probably listings too) but TVGOS chooses not to carry it (pass it on to me). So it's 100% a TVGOS problem

Yes, this is basically correct. One thing is that the TVGOS listings are entirely separate from the listings that the station transmits as part of it's digital stream. Some other set-top boxes display the listings from the digital stream but neither Sony or TVGOS uses that data at all. The TVGOS listings come from a different source and (as you say) are NOT comprehensive.

That's why I was wondering how to discover if and when TVGOS ever adds a station to it's list (so I can find it in the TVGOS Setup-Change Channel Settings menu). Are they just automatically added? No stations have been added since I've had the DVR (though I've had it less than a month). But I do notice the ones towards the bottom have less-than-useful titles like "61827A" and "Brdcst", and no affiliate logos or channel numbers. What the heck is that!? Maybe I should just turn the last 50 stations on and look at the listings to see if maybe WILLSD and WILLHD are "hidden" in that list?

Yes, you just have to go through the list to find (in whatever way you can) what you're looking for. You can see all the listings without selecting a channel in either the TVGOS or Sony channel lineup. (Deselecting the channel in the Sony lineup only keeps it from being included when you do a Chain Up or Down when viewing live - otherwise everything in the lineup is used whether it's selected or not.)

If you go to TVGOS Setup/ Change Channel Display you can see all the listings (selected or not). I would hope that the cable-only channels are always listed after the OTA channels but since (except for this) the list ordering seems somewhat random I can't guarantee it and you may have to go through all 400 or so listings looking for new ones.

Unfortunately because the listings are often identified only by logo or other cryptic designation, you may have to look for a listing that looks like the correct listing based on a comparison with TitanTV or other source.

I hope this long winded explanation has been useful to others reading this thread. That's why I spent the time on it.

EDIT: I didn't see your edits before I posted this. It seems that you've figured out a lot of what I've explained here.

thanks for the help Rammitinski!
The icons for HDNET2 and INHD2 still aren't available when you use the Change Channel Display Icon still.... there is NO icon for them, and that was why I set up those channels in he quick guide using two unused channels.
Make sure the channel is turned "on" like the info on page 69 tells you how to do. Hmmm, I wonder if that is something I haven't yet done... for any channel?

Thanks again!

thanks for the help Rammitinski!
The icons for HDNET2 and INHD2 still aren't available when you use the Change Channel Display Icon still.... there is NO icon for them, and that was why I set up those channels in he quick guide using two unused channels.
Hmmm, I wonder if that is something I haven't yet done... for any channel?

Thanks again!In my area, I can get INHD1 in my guide, but unfortunately, I think it's pretty common for those channels not to show up for many areas. Also, any channel that's already shown up in your guide is automatically set to "on". You can also get channel schedules from websites like titantv and just set the DVR to record a show from those INHD channels manually.

I have a DHG-HDD250 and a DHG-HDD500, and both units have been working flawlessly since I installed them. Video output from each unit was connected via HDMI cable (no DVI convertor) to my Samsung HDTV (it has two HDMI inputs). Audio output from each unit was connected via optical cable to my Yamaha RX-V4600 receiver.

Yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the HDMI inputs on my receiver, so I disconnected the optical audio cables, ran an HDMI cable from each Sony DVR to the HDMI inputs of the receiver (it has two, switchable HDMI inputs), then ran a third HDMI cable from the receiver to my HDTV.

When I tested the new HDMI-based wiring, everything worked as expected, EXCEPT I noticed frequent audio dropouts when playing back previously recorded programs. Audio just went dead for a second or two during each minute or so of playback. The same audio dropouts happened with both the DHG-HDD250 and DHG-HDD500 units. I also noted that if the program was "rewound" to a point just before the audio dropout happened, the audio would play perfectly, so I know the programs were recorded correctly; i.e., without audio dropouts.

Today, I reinstalled the optical audio cables and the audio dropouts vanished. Life is good again.

My question is: Has anyone else experienced frequent audio dropouts when using HDMI?

I need some guidance on how to determine if this is a Sony or a Yamaha problem before I start returning stuff for warranty service. Thanks!

In my area, I can get INHD1 in my guide,Err.. yeah, so can I. If you reread my Q you will see I am asking about INHD2 and HDNET2... DOH!

thanks anyway for your response.

Exit32,

Sorry but HDMI isn't really a set thing and will vary based on both the source and receiving component and alterable via software by the content providers.... and their forced pressure on those component manufacturers.

In other words.... you are possibly screwed by buying too early. Sorry... but this has been known for at least a year....

Sony's customer service absolutely sucks. I sent my HDD250 in for repair in December because of the disappearing scheduled recording problem discussed previously in this thread. They sent it back to me telling me that nothing was wrong with it and that the hard drive was just too full. That was BS because several shows were set to automatically delete to make room. Well, now 3 months later, the DVR is doing the same thing. And I have been on hold with Sony for over 2 hours, surpassing my previous on hold record with AT&T Wireless. I doubt I will be buying from Sony again anytime soon.

Hi everyone,

Just bought a used Sony DHG500 and I am receiving the TV Guide data but it only lists the programs for the next two days. I do have some data for the 7th and 8th day but it is fairly sparse, like some movies and other major programs.

If I scan the detailed program listing and try to go to three days in advance then I don't see any of the detailed listing?

Is there something I need to do correct this?

Thanks for your help.
mdabral

p.s: I did search the forum but did not have any luck.

Hi everyone,

Just bought a used Sony DHG500 and I am receiving the TV Guide data but it only lists the programs for the next two days. I do have some data for the 7th and 8th day but it is fairly sparse, like some movies and other major programs.

If I scan the detailed program listing and try to go to three days in advance then I don't see any of the detailed listing?

Is there something I need to do correct this?

Thanks for your help.
mdabral

p.s: I did search the forum but did not have any luck.

Check here for info on how the guide data is loaded.
http://pvr.hidyman.com/

Today, I reinstalled the optical audio cables and the audio dropouts vanished.

My question is: Has anyone else experienced frequent audio dropouts when using HDMI?

I and at least one other person get audio dropouts over optical. Lucky you if you don't.

Hi everyone,

Just bought a used Sony DHG500 and I am receiving the TV Guide data but it only lists the programs for the next two days. I do have some data for the 7th and 8th day but it is fairly sparse, like some movies and other major programs.

If I scan the detailed program listing and try to go to three days in advance then I don't see any of the detailed listing?

Is there something I need to do correct this?

Thanks for your help.
mdabral

p.s: I did search the forum but did not have any luck.

No way pal. No way could you have gone throuh this forum and NOT read tons of posts concerning the TV guide. It has been stated many many times how and when and what days the guide gets loads. Don't mine you being lazy, just be truthful.

HDAddiction

No way pal. No way could you have gone throuh this forum and NOT read tons of posts concerning the TV guide. It has been stated many many times how and when and what days the guide gets loads. Don't mine you being lazy, just be truthful.

HDAddiction

I was thinking the same thing! But I chose to keep quiet :-)

I think that the Tweeter deal has created an influx of noobs to this thread, and we are likely to see the same questions being asked OVER and OVER again (even more than usual).

Check here for info on how the guide data is loaded.
http://pvr.hidyman.com/

Just a suggestion:

Is there any way to add a post at the BEGINNING of this 3800 post thread that directs new people to the site above and says that it contains basic info on the Sony unit, the TV Guide, etc.?

I have a lot of sympathy for new people...even if they KNOW how to search, doing a search on TV Guide in this thread turns up almost 300 posts, and reading backwards through the resulting list is not very easy or efficient...

Maybe people could answer their own basic questions, and not bug oldtimers if they could easily acquaint themselves with basic knowledge about this device, especially issues that aren't convered in the Sony manual...

Some time ago, I was thinking about suggesting that those familiar with lots of these issues contribute to a FAQs post at the beginning, and about that time somebody mentioned the site above, which provides info in an organized way.... but until peole ask, they won't know about it....

(PS this is a problem with a lot of the threads at AVS)

For those concerned about the future of the On Sceen Guide, I suggest you look here:

http://www.nationaldatacast.com/apps_ProgramGuides.html

According to this site, the TV on screen guide is one of many applications of data delivery via a TV signal, and the guide is included in many brands of entertainment equipment.

Sometime soon I want to experiment with adding a decent preamp to my antenna setup. Will I lose my TVGOS data if I disconnect the antenna for a few minutes but leave the unit plugged into the power (in standby mode)?

If so, I'll wait until I don't need to record anything for a day or so (i.e. after the Olympics).

Sometime soon I want to experiment with adding a decent preamp to my antenna setup. Will I lose my TVGOS data if I disconnect the antenna for a few minutes but leave the unit plugged into the power (in standby mode)?

If so, I'll wait until I don't need to record anything for a day or so (i.e. after the Olympics).


Only problem you may have is with the preamplifer if it becomes overloaded. There is no problem disconnecting the antenna with the unit either on or in standby. Before you add an amplifier, I suggest you first verify that your antenna is pointed in the correct direction. If you have an indoor antenna, consider getting an outdoor model. In Los Angeles, all the HD and PBS channels are in the UHF band. If the same is true where you are, you only need a UHF model, which is much smaller than the VHF/UHF type. Also, replace your antenna if it is more than ten years old.

Exit32,

Sorry but HDMI isn't really a set thing and will vary based on both the source and receiving component and alterable via software by the content providers.... and their forced pressure on those component manufacturers.

In other words.... you are possibly screwed by buying too early. Sorry... but this has been known for at least a year....

Thanks for your reply to my question about audio dropouts when using the HDMI interface. Your answer prompted me to try another HDMI test with my Sony DHG-HDD250:

After unplugging the optical cable and reconnecting HDMI, I watched a live program through the 250 and did not experience audio dropouts. Then, without changing anything, I played back a program I had recorded last week and experienced numerous audio dropouts as before.

I plan to repeat this experiment again this weekend, but it sure looks like audio dropouts happen only while watching recorded programs -- not when the Sony DVR is used as a tuner. Wouldn't this behavior indicate a problem with the DHG-HDD250 itself and not with the HDMI connection?

BTW, I've also experienced a few random audio dropouts when connected via optical cable, but the frequency and severity wasn't enough to really bother me.

Only problem you may have is with the preamplifer if it becomes overloaded.

I don't expect a problem there. I'm out in the boonies, with three cities in different directions. The nearest full-power station is 53 miles away. I have a big combination VHF/UHF roof antenna with a rotator (the one I used to use for analog TV) that picks up most stations from one city pretty well. I can also get most stations from the other two cities, but they're borderline with occasional to frequent dropouts, and signal strengths in the low 70s down into the 60s.

I already have a 12dB distribution amp indoors so I can split my signal four ways among various components including two Sony DVRs. I'm looking at a 23dB preamp to replace the distribution amp. It produces only about 2dB of noise which should be cleaner than that cheap distribution amp, besides being stronger.

I'll try out the preamp indoors for a while before putting it outside with the antenna.

I ordered a HDD500 from ebay; I'm supposed to get it next week.

I'm wondering, though....can you use the cable input and OTA input as TWO different OTA inputs? I don't have cable, so the cable input isn't all that useful for me.

But is it possible to use the OTA input for one antenna pointed one direction, and use the cable input for another antenna pointed a different direction? This would possibly allow be to get digital OTA stations from two different directions if it would work.

Perhaps the cable input will only work with QAM digital signals, its not clear from reading the manual. At the very least I should be able to feed analog OTA signals into the cable input...but digital OTA signals as well would be cool.

Has anybody tried this?

So after following the advice of the good folks who've attempted to help me so far, I still have nothing. Here's what happened so far:

1. I wasn't able to get the guide from my local cable provider(service electric in eastern PA).

2. Bought a UHF / VHF antenna and hooked it up to the unit. Told the unit the antenna was there, and left it off for the rest of the night(I would say I turned the unit off about 9pm and didn't turn it on until I got home from work at 5pm the next day). Nothing in the guide.

3. Last night I avoid using it, hoping I just didn't wait long enough for the guide to come down. Still nothing.

4. This morning I reset the defaults in the service menu so it's just like the day I got it. Scan for channels. Finds 8 analog channels and 9 digital channels using the antenna. Finds lots of channels with the cable. I check the host channel information in the 753 menu. Nothing listed. No wonder I'm not getting a guide.

Here are some questions that might help me get this unit figured out if I can get answers to them:

1. How do I switch between the antenna and cable inputs on the unit? I want to see what channels I get using the antenna.

2. How do I get it to find my host channel?

3. Is there a website I can use to find what channel my host channel should be. Theres a small listing on the FAQ site that was created, but it doesn't list any destination even close to me.

Like I've said before, I have multiple replay units, and they were all easy to configure. They might have cost me more money, but at least they worked right out of the box. If I can't get this thing working soon I'll be getting a $250 refund in the near future.

Geoff

I have a DHG-HDD250 and a DHG-HDD500, and both units have been working flawlessly since I installed them. Video output from each unit was connected via HDMI cable (no DVI convertor) to my Samsung HDTV (it has two HDMI inputs). Audio output from each unit was connected via optical cable to my Yamaha RX-V4600 receiver.

Yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the HDMI inputs on my receiver, so I disconnected the optical audio cables, ran an HDMI cable from each Sony DVR to the HDMI inputs of the receiver (it has two, switchable HDMI inputs), then ran a third HDMI cable from the receiver to my HDTV.

When I tested the new HDMI-based wiring, everything worked as expected, EXCEPT I noticed frequent audio dropouts when playing back previously recorded programs. Audio just went dead for a second or two during each minute or so of playback. The same audio dropouts happened with both the DHG-HDD250 and DHG-HDD500 units. I also noted that if the program was "rewound" to a point just before the audio dropout happened, the audio would play perfectly, so I know the programs were recorded correctly; i.e., without audio dropouts.

Today, I reinstalled the optical audio cables and the audio dropouts vanished. Life is good again.

My question is: Has anyone else experienced frequent audio dropouts when using HDMI?

I need some guidance on how to determine if this is a Sony or a Yamaha problem before I start returning stuff for warranty service. Thanks!

yes, same here with audio dropouts every 5 secs when playing recorded programs.

i reconnect the optical and not a problem since then.

using component cables now, since me receiver only has 2 hdmi inputs and i need 4! :)

I want to offer sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. I had been searching for a replacement for my old Zenith 420, and did a little searching here at AVS.

I picked up a LG LST-4200a from another member on the forum, and have been pretty happy with its performance. Then I saw this thread.

Got lucky, and was able to pick up an open box from Tweeter in Clairmont Mesa.

So far, the unit works great, and most of my questions about the kludgy TVGOS software have been answered here.

For those of you who are trying to pick one of these units up, keep checking in with your local Tweeter's stores. People are starting to return units that were picked up in the clearance feeding frenzy. I just saw an open-box unit in the Encinitas store the other day, and I had done an exhaustive search of every store in the area a couple weeks ago when I bought mine (it was the only unit left in the county at the time).

Thanks again, and cheers to a great forum!

I've always wanted one of these units but the prices kept me away. I put an order in at Tweeter last week by phone but I don't know if I will get one. I am looking at ebay but with the issues these machines can have I prefer a warranty. Sony does not offer warranty work without the proof of purchase reciept showing when it was bought from a retailer. I just went thru this with Sony on a Sony PC needing repair. they wanted the original sales receipt faxed to them.
Well I hope to get one soon, I'm not so concerned about the guide and auto record problems. I will do OTA mostly and just want to record HD on my own box.

Uh oh! Anyone in the Chicago area having TVGOS problems? My HDD500 did not get any listings since Tuesday. I did the 10 second unplug last night, but still no listings today. The VBI test passes on the host channel (PBS 11).

I'd hate to do a guide reset if the problem is with PBS or Comcast Chicago.

I want to offer sincere thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread. I had been searching for a replacement for my old Zenith 420, and did a little searching here at AVS.

I picked up a LG LST-4200a from another member on the forum, and have been pretty happy with its performance. Then I saw this thread.

Got lucky, and was able to pick up an open box from Tweeter in Clairmont Mesa.

So far, the unit works great, and most of my questions about the kludgy TVGOS software have been answered here.

For those of you who are trying to pick one of these units up, keep checking in with your local Tweeter's stores. People are starting to return units that were picked up in the clearance feeding frenzy. I just saw an open-box unit in the Encinitas store the other day, and I had done an exhaustive search of every store in the area a couple weeks ago when I bought mine (it was the only unit left in the county at the time).

Thanks again, and cheers to a great forum!

I ordered 2 online about a week ago. I hope I get them. Just curious, did you pay less than $249.00 since it was an open box?

I ordered 2 online about a week ago. I hope I get them. Just curious, did you pay less than $249.00 since it was an open box?

Nope. $249 + tax. I tried to pull the "it's an open box, throw me a bone" routine, but no dice.

No big deal in my mind, as this is a steal at $249, either way.

4. This morning I reset the defaults in the service menu so it's just like the day I got it. Scan for channels. Finds 8 analog channels and 9 digital channels using the antenna. Finds lots of channels with the cable. I check the host channel information in the 753 menu. Nothing listed. No wonder I'm not getting a guide.

The 753 menu doesn't show the host channel until after the unit has found it. This doesn't happen during the initial channel scan, but instead while the unit is in standby mode ("power off").

1. How do I switch between the antenna and cable inputs on the unit? I want to see what channels I get using the antenna.

I think the antenna and cable channels appear together in the unit's channel list (Menu -> Preferences -> Ch +/- Edit). I don't have cable so I can't check this directly.

2. How do I get it to find my host channel?

Turn it off and wait. At some point the correct time should appear on the front panel display, and I think that happens when the unit has found the host channel. At that point you should be able to turn the unit on, and use the 753 menu to find out the host channel. But you might interrupt a download of TV guide data when you do this, so you'd best wait.

I don't know if the download schedules vary between host channels, but for what it's worth, mine sends the main batch of guide data in three-hour chunks beginning at 2:21am, 7:01am, 10:06am, and 1:46pm. The unit has to remain off for the entire duration of at least one of these periods. The four chunks contain the same data, as far as I know, so you need just one of them. There are separate, shorter downloads for (I guess) things like channel lists.

I think when I got my second unit (a Tweeter 500) a couple weeks ago, I set it up in late afternoon or early evening, the clock showed up around 11pm or midnight, and I had the first batch of guide data the next day (checked it late afternoon after I got home from work).

3. Is there a website I can use to find what channel my host channel should be. Theres a small listing on the FAQ site that was created, but it doesn't list any destination even close to me.

Unfortunately no. You'd think it would be natural for TVGOS to provide this on their Web site, but they don't, for whatever reason.

Just a suggestion:

Is there any way to add a post at the BEGINNING of this 3800 post thread that directs new people to the site above and says that it contains basic info on the Sony unit, the TV Guide, etc.?

I have a lot of sympathy for new people...even if they KNOW how to search, doing a search on TV Guide in this thread turns up almost 300 posts, and reading backwards through the resulting list is not very easy or efficient...

[snip]

(PS this is a problem with a lot of the threads at AVS)

I heartily endorse what you say. Very long AVS threads can be very hard to search. Their search tool isn't user friendly and needs a FAQ right at the 'search' button. Google it's not.

If I'm not mistaken, it takes a willing member to initiate and maintain a #1 post. Those few threads have have one benefit greatly. This thread surely would.

JTbell,

First off, thanks for the reply. I was at a friends house and just returned home. I should have gotten the 1pm download, but didn't. I made sure to leave the unit in the off position.

Anyway, here's how I have the unit hooked up. I have the cable line going into a splitter, then a cable line to the tv, one to my replay, and one to the sony unit. I also have a UHF/VHF antenna hooked up to the sony. I know it's working because I get a few channels when I connect the antenna directly to the tv(so I know there's a descent enough signal). I then have a HDMI cable from the HDD500 to the tv. I don't see any reason this would stop me from getting the guide over OTA.

I'm really getting frustrated with this unit. Like a previous poster, I got mine open box. Not only did I not get ANY of the cables that would have come with the unit if it was new in box, but the person who returned it has removed the seal, so I'm guessing the warranty is voided. Currently my only recourse it to take it back to Tweeter. It's a nice unit and I'm really pleased with the picture quality, but it's almost useless to me at this point. As much as I'd like to be able to record HD programming, there's always something better on the horizon.

I've already had it about a week, so if I can't get any guide data within the next week, back it goes.

Geoff

Uh oh! Anyone in the Chicago area having TVGOS problems? My HDD500 did not get any listings since Tuesday. I did the 10 second unplug last night, but still no listings today. The VBI test passes on the host channel (PBS 11).

I'd hate to do a guide reset if the problem is with PBS or Comcast Chicago.


No problem with TVGOS west of Chicago. I had a blip last week where it missed three days so I reset the guide and it has been good to go ever since. A reset might be your only recourse since my VBI test passed before the reset.

I ordered a HDD500 from ebay; I'm supposed to get it next week.

I'm wondering, though....can you use the cable input and OTA input as TWO different OTA inputs? I don't have cable, so the cable input isn't all that useful for me.

But is it possible to use the OTA input for one antenna pointed one direction, and use the cable input for another antenna pointed a different direction? This would possibly allow be to get digital OTA stations from two different directions if it would work.

Perhaps the cable input will only work with QAM digital signals, its not clear from reading the manual. At the very least I should be able to feed analog OTA signals into the cable input...but digital OTA signals as well would be cool.

Has anybody tried this?

The cable input may work for VHF analog but don't expect it to work for UHF or digital OTA. Plan to use an A/B switch on the antenna input.

JTbell,

First off, thanks for the reply. I was at a friends house and just returned home. I should have gotten the 1pm download, but didn't. I made sure to leave the unit in the off position.

Anyway, here's how I have the unit hooked up. I have the cable line going into a splitter, then a cable line to the tv, one to my replay, and one to the sony unit. I also have a UHF/VHF antenna hooked up to the sony. I know it's working because I get a few channels when I connect the antenna directly to the tv(so I know there's a descent enough signal). I then have a HDMI cable from the HDD500 to the tv. I don't see any reason this would stop me from getting the guide over OTA.

I'm really getting frustrated with this unit. Like a previous poster, I got mine open box. Not only did I not get ANY of the cables that would have come with the unit if it was new in box, but the person who returned it has removed the seal, so I'm guessing the warranty is voided. Currently my only recourse it to take it back to Tweeter. It's a nice unit and I'm really pleased with the picture quality, but it's almost useless to me at this point. As much as I'd like to be able to record HD programming, there's always something better on the horizon.

I've already had it about a week, so if I can't get any guide data within the next week, back it goes.

Geoff

I suggest you just use a OTA and have nothing connected to the cable side. Give it 24 to 48hrs and see what happens.

I suggest you just use a OTA and have nothing connected to the cable side. Give it 24 to 48hrs and see what happens.

OK, I have removed the cable from the unit. Do you think I should check tomorrow morning to see if it got any of the overnight updates?

Also, has anyone in the forum seen this site?

http://products.sel.sony.com/opensource/source_settop.shtml#HDD250-550

It looks as though it's the open source copy of the OS and other software packages. It was listed in the back of the manual. Hopefully someone can do something really cool with this.

Geoff

Hi folks-

Just over a week ago I sent my 500 in for service (161-6 error), to a site in Laredo TX. It arrived there this Tuesday (2/21) and according to the repair website it quickly was dispatched to a technician. It was like this for the rest of the week.

Last night, I checked the service status and saw that as of yesterday it was being shipped back to me, but when I checked the tracking info on UPS, it says it's coming back to me from PENNSYLVANIA!

What do you all think is going on?

1. They re-shipped it (by overnight presumably) to PA at some point this week.
2. They're sending me a DIFFERENT UNIT as a refurb, rather than sending me my original one?
3. Wormhole connecting the two sites, enabling near-instantaneous movement of the devices?

I really hope I get my original one back, because I don't want to have to deal with cable card issues. I understand the cable card I have is paired with my original unit, and my cableco won't allow end-user authorizations; I would have to set up a service visit ($, time lost).

Thoughts?

Marc

For those of you who've had your DVR serviced by Sony, did it have a fresh anti-tamper sticker on it when you got it back?

No problem with TVGOS west of Chicago. I had a blip last week where it missed three days so I reset the guide and it has been good to go ever since. A reset might be your only recourse since my VBI test passed before the reset.

Thanks. I decided to bite the bullet and reset the guide. Let's see what happens tonight.

I have had my unit for about a week and had a CableCard installed today. It is going through the process of adding the TV Guide listings, but I noticed on my 753 menu that the host channel receiving the data is OTA (ie 0:0-6). I am not so sure I am going to keep my antenna hooked up to the unit. Is there a way for me to change the host to pick up the Tv Guide through my cable connection? Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi folks-

Just over a week ago I sent my 500 in for service (161-6 error), to a site in Laredo TX. It arrived there this Tuesday (2/21) and according to the repair website it quickly was dispatched to a technician. It was like this for the rest of the week.

Last night, I checked the service status and saw that as of yesterday it was being shipped back to me, but when I checked the tracking info on UPS, it says it's coming back to me from PENNSYLVANIA!

What do you all think is going on?

1. They re-shipped it (by overnight presumably) to PA at some point this week.
2. They're sending me a DIFFERENT UNIT as a refurb, rather than sending me my original one?
3. Wormhole connecting the two sites, enabling near-instantaneous movement of the devices?


I really hope I get my original one back, because I don't want to have to deal with cable card issues. I understand the cable card I have is paired with my original unit, and my cableco won't allow end-user authorizations; I would have to set up a service visit ($, time lost).

Thoughts?

Marc

Same thing happened to me. I called Sony repair center in Laredo last Monday to check on the status of my 500. I was told they would expedite my repair. The very next day I got a shipping notice that my 500 was repaired and being returned to me. The first tracking info said it was being shipped from PA. I received the 500 two days later. The first thing I did was check to see if it was the unit that I sent in. It had the same serial #. Unless they somehow changed serial numbers, it was the same one. I still haven't figured out what happened, but I guess I can't complain.

The cable input may work for VHF analog but don't expect it to work for UHF or digital OTA. Plan to use an A/B switch on the antenna input.

Ray1938 -

Thanks for the reply. I tend to agree with your assessment, but I'll sure give it a try when i get mine. But its possible it might work with UHF also, since UHF and some of the upper cable channels are in the same frequency, right?

No problem with TVGOS west of Chicago. I had a blip last week where it missed three days so I reset the guide and it has been good to go ever since. A reset might be your only recourse since my VBI test passed before the reset.I'm in the far NW Chi. 'burbs. My guide went completely down a couple of days ago. Said it was searching for information. Reset the guide and everything reappeared the next morning , channel lineup and info EXACTLY the same as when it went out. Never had anything quite like that happen before. That's actually the first glitch I've ever had with this unit. Had to be coming from the station. Having dealt with TVGOS for 2 yrs. now with another unit also, I've learned that 99 times out of 100 any problem is coming from the station, and I've learned not to panic, and that with patience it will resolve itself. If people would just do the same, I'm sure there'd be a heck of a lot less returned units. I will say that I've only used the guide with OTA on the Sony and OTA/analog cable on the other. Nary a problem, though. On the subject of newbies in the thread, there probably should have been a separate thread right from the start specifically for the recent Tweeter deal posters, but it's probably too late for that now, anyway. It is kind of disappointing having had this thread sort of wrested away from us more experienced users and having to sift through all this redundancy. Oh well.

Ray1938 -

Thanks for the reply. I tend to agree with your assessment, but I'll sure give it a try when i get mine. But its possible it might work with UHF also, since UHF and some of the upper cable channels are in the same frequency, right?

I don't know the answer to your question but as I recall, if you set a TV up for OTA reception, and hook it up to cable, you will only get the VHF channels. Conversely, if you set a TV for cable reception and hook up an antenna, you again will only receive the VHF band.

JTbell,

I've already had it about a week, so if I can't get any guide data within the next week, back it goes.

Geoff

I suggest if you don't have guide data tomorrow, you do a factory reset with both antenna and cable inputs.
Press menu, fomat to access that option. After it completes signal scan, turn it off for a few minutes, then on again. Look for a message saying something about the hard drive. A Ok button should appear on the screen. Press select to clear it, then turn the recorder off again, and leave it off for 24 hours. The correct time must appear on the display before the guide is downloaded. After the correct time appears you can do manual recording until the guide shows up.

Tech from Cox cable in Phoenix Az refused to install a card in my daughter's HDD500. He told her it was illegal to do so. Any suggestions?

I don't expect a problem there. I'm out in the boonies, with three cities in different directions. The nearest full-power station is 53 miles away. I have a big combination VHF/UHF roof antenna with a rotator (the one I used to use for analog TV) that picks up most stations from one city pretty well. I can also get most stations from the other two cities, but they're borderline with occasional to frequent dropouts, and signal strengths in the low 70s down into the 60s.

I already have a 12dB distribution amp indoors so I can split my signal four ways among various components including two Sony DVRs. I'm looking at a 23dB preamp to replace the distribution amp. It produces only about 2dB of noise which should be cleaner than that cheap distribution amp, besides being stronger.

I'll try out the preamp indoors for a while before putting it outside with the antenna.

I just added a preamp to my antenna and it helped quite a bit in strengthing those marginal signals. I am sure you are aware that the pre-amp is better mounted as close to the antenna as possible so you amplify the stronger signal... you can probably just hook it up with a zip tie while you are testing it... It may not perform as well if you are testing it a great distance away from the antenna.

I ordered a HDD500 from ebay; I'm supposed to get it next week.

I'm wondering, though....can you use the cable input and OTA input as TWO different OTA inputs? I don't have cable, so the cable input isn't all that useful for me.

But is it possible to use the OTA input for one antenna pointed one direction, and use the cable input for another antenna pointed a different direction? This would possibly allow be to get digital OTA stations from two different directions if it would work.

Perhaps the cable input will only work with QAM digital signals, its not clear from reading the manual. At the very least I should be able to feed analog OTA signals into the cable input...but digital OTA signals as well would be cool.

Has anybody tried this?

Don't think it is going to work. Your best bet will probably be a A/B switch at the TV to switch back and forth between your two antenna's. Just make sure that the antenna that receives the channel that is broadcasting the TV guide is selected every time you turn the unit off and are not recording something the needs the other antenna selected.

I've always wanted one of these units but the prices kept me away. I put an order in at Tweeter last week by phone but I don't know if I will get one. I am looking at ebay but with the issues these machines can have I prefer a warranty. Sony does not offer warranty work without the proof of purchase reciept showing when it was bought from a retailer. I just went thru this with Sony on a Sony PC needing repair. they wanted the original sales receipt faxed to them.
Well I hope to get one soon, I'm not so concerned about the guide and auto record problems. I will do OTA mostly and just want to record HD on my own box.

If you faxed the receipt, there is no way for them to tell that you used an original, is there?

OK, I have removed the cable from the unit. Do you think I should check tomorrow morning to see if it got any of the overnight updates?

Also, has anyone in the forum seen this site?

http://products.sel.sony.com/opensource/source_settop.shtml#HDD250-550

It looks as though it's the open source copy of the OS and other software packages. It was listed in the back of the manual. Hopefully someone can do something really cool with this.

Geoff

Like Phil suggested. If you have no listings this am I would do the factory reset and just scan for channels with your OTA and say no to having a cable connection. You then must wait 24hrs to turn the unit back on.

After unplugging the optical cable and reconnecting HDMI, I watched a live program through the 250 and did not experience audio dropouts. Then, without changing anything, I played back a program I had recorded last week and experienced numerous audio dropouts as before.

I plan to repeat this experiment again this weekend, but it sure looks like audio dropouts happen only while watching recorded programs -- not when the Sony DVR is used as a tuner.

I spoke too soon. With my Sony DVRs connected to my receiver via HDMI, audio dropouts happen every minute or so whether I'm watching live TV or recorded programs. No difference.

Next experiment, I plan to run HDMI out of the Sonys and directly into my TV, by-passing the receiver. If the audio dropouts continue, it's got to be a Sony problem.

Tech from Cox cable in Phoenix Az refused to install a card in my daughter's HDD500. He told her it was illegal to do so. Any suggestions?

I would say the tech is a moron and call back and have them send someone else. By FCC regulation they MUST allow cable cards.

I would say the tech is a moron and call back and have them send someone else. By FCC regulation they MUST allow cable cards.

Absolutely -- they have an obligation. The problem is that cable cards can be a bit of a pain to set up for installers so he may just have wanted to get out of it. I would get his name and report him.

Hi folks-

Just over a week ago I sent my 500 in for service (161-6 error), to a site in Laredo TX. It arrived there this Tuesday (2/21) and according to the repair website it quickly was dispatched to a technician. It was like this for the rest of the week.

Last night, I checked the service status and saw that as of yesterday it was being shipped back to me, but when I checked the tracking info on UPS, it says it's coming back to me from PENNSYLVANIA!

What do you all think is going on?

1. They re-shipped it (by overnight presumably) to PA at some point this week.
2. They're sending me a DIFFERENT UNIT as a refurb, rather than sending me my original one?
3. Wormhole connecting the two sites, enabling near-instantaneous movement of the devices?

I really hope I get my original one back, because I don't want to have to deal with cable card issues. I understand the cable card I have is paired with my original unit, and my cableco won't allow end-user authorizations; I would have to set up a service visit ($, time lost).

Thoughts?

Marc


This confirms what I suspected. I went via the website and it directed me to ship it to PA from Los Angeles. Apparently, that is the only place where they service it. At least that means you had a tech who knew what he was doing. And, it may have saved you a few bucks on the shipping.

I'm sure you got your original unit back. That's certainly what happened to me.

For those of you who've had your DVR serviced by Sony, did it have a fresh anti-tamper sticker on it when you got it back?

I had the 161-6 fix done and the sticker looked just like a new unit.

I'm in the far NW Chi. 'burbs. My guide went completely down a couple of days ago. Said it was searching for information. Reset the guide and everything reappeared the next morning , channel lineup and info EXACTLY the same as when it went out. Never had anything quite like that happen before. That's actually the first glitch I've ever had with this unit. Had to be coming from the station.

Yep, my guide is back after resetting it last night. I noticed that there is a new selection available for cable system: Comcast Area 1, 4 & 5 Digital Rebuild. The "Rebuild" is new. The previous two choices are still there: Comcast Area 1, 4 & 5 Digital, each followed by a number (1188 and 1293, I think). The lineups are similar if not the same. Even a tech supervisor and engineer did not know what those numbers meant. Maybe the new choice had something to do with the failing guide.

Now for the pain of reordering the guide channels. They should give us more sort options to automate this.

Here's another bit of odd behavior by the Sony. When an HD broadcast has black sidebars, I sometimes want to watch the program "zoomed in". I do this by setting the format to 480p and the screen mode to Side Crop. This normally works. But every so often, the Side Crop is STRETCHED. The other modes are also fouled up.

An unplug cures this. Very strange.

Tech from Cox cable in Phoenix Az refused to install a card in my daughter's HDD500. He told her it was illegal to do so. Any suggestions?

The customer service representitives are indeed morons. I have Cox cable in Northern Virginia, and when I requested a cablecard for my DHG 500 in July of last year, the CSR told me that she had never heard of a DVR with a cablecard slot and that Cox didn't support cablecards for DVRs, only TVs. So rather than argue, I called them the next day and scheduled an appointment to have a cablecard installed in a new piece of "Sony equipment" without mentioning what it was. I had already had a cablecard installed in a Sony TV. When the technician came, he just popped the card in the back of the Sony DHG 500 with no problems, no concerns, etc. That was back then. Now, Cox is "slightly" more aware of what's going on and know that TVs aren't the only pieces of equipment that accept cablecards, so as others suggested, I would demand that they come and install a cablecard in your daughter's DVR. It is the FCC mandated requirement to offer them if requested regardless of the cable provider.

Same thing happened to me. I called Sony repair center in Laredo last Monday to check on the status of my 500. I was told they would expedite my repair. The very next day I got a shipping notice that my 500 was repaired and being returned to me. The first tracking info said it was being shipped from PA. I received the 500 two days later. The first thing I did was check to see if it was the unit that I sent in. It had the same serial #. Unless they somehow changed serial numbers, it was the same one. I still haven't figured out what happened, but I guess I can't complain.

Thanks for relating your experience. I'll post back when I get "my unit" back.

Did your cable card work OK when you put it in the returned unit (presuming you use a cable card, of course...)

Marc

Just bought an open-box dhg-hdd250 from BB a couple days ago. Everything seems to work. The only problem is ntsc channels 99 through 6 are complete crap. The picture is full of hash. I'm guessing it's a problem with this one DVR. It's going back the BB soon. I don't watch ntsc much but I don't want a defective box.

Does anyone else get crap reception of these low ntsc channels?

The customer service representitives are indeed morons. I have Cox cable in Northern Virginia, and when I requested a cablecard for my DHG 500 in July of last year, the CSR told me that she had never heard of a DVR with a cablecard slot and that Cox didn't support cablecards for DVRs, only TVs. So rather than argue, I called them the next day and scheduled an appointment to have a cablecard installed in a new piece of "Sony equipment" without mentioning what it was. I had already had a cablecard installed in a Sony TV. When the technician came, he just popped the card in the back of the Sony DHG 500 with no problems, no concerns, etc. That was back then. Now, Cox is "slightly" more aware of what's going on and know that TVs aren't the only pieces of equipment that accept cablecards, so as others suggested, I would demand that they come and install a cablecard in your daughter's DVR. It is the FCC mandated requirement to offer them if requested regardless of the cable provider.
Kind of makes me worried if they'll say "sorry, no CC for DVR's, only TV's, you must rent our over priced DVR box".

I want to see what happens when the Tivo Series 3 DVR comes out and cable companys reaction to that.

I have looked and read most of the threads on this product but I don't know if my situation is different than the dropped schedule. I can program a show to be recorded and sometimes it will record and sometimes it will not. This seems to only happen on the prime movie channels. Then when I look it up it will give me the message not allowed by service provider. I have contacted Cox several times and they say it is not there problem and they don't trouble shoot 3rd party equipment. Has any one else gone thru this or is this the 161-6 problem? Thanks for any information in advance.
rlh149

I heartily endorse what you say. Very long AVS threads can be very hard to search. Their search tool isn't user friendly and needs a FAQ right at the 'search' button. Google it's not.

If I'm not mistaken, it takes a willing member to initiate and maintain a #1 post. Those few threads have have one benefit greatly. This thread surely would.

Actually, the http://pvr.hidyman.com/ site would serve adequately as a FAQ site, as far as I am concerned. So all we would need is a first post that links to that site.

Can we do that?

Have others using this thread looked at this site, and do you think it would work for putting at the beginning of this thread? Is the info on the site reasonably up-to-date?

I have looked and read most of the threads on this product but I don't know if my situation is different than the dropped schedule. I can program a show to be recorded and sometimes it will record and sometimes it will not. This seems to only happen on the prime movie channels. Then when I look it up it will give me the message not allowed by service provider. I have contacted Cox several times and they say it is not there problem and they don't trouble shoot 3rd party equipment. Has any one else gone thru this or is this the 161-6 problem? Thanks for any information in advance.
rlh149 Oh boy - which one of you wants to break the news to this poor guy.

Yep, my guide is back after resetting it last night. I noticed that there is a new selection available for cable system: Comcast Area 1, 4 & 5 Digital Rebuild. The "Rebuild" is new. The previous two choices are still there: Comcast Area 1, 4 & 5 Digital, each followed by a number (1188 and 1293, I think). The lineups are similar if not the same. Even a tech supervisor and engineer did not know what those numbers meant. Maybe the new choice had something to do with the failing guide.

Now for the pain of reordering the guide channels. They should give us more sort options to automate this. Believe me, the Sony is a breeze compared to my Panny E85. You can only move a channel up or down one space at a time. Everytime I have to do it, I worry that the remote buttons are going to wear out. Are you receiving any guide info for 11.3 Create with the new setup? I'm wondering if any of those options will have it. I really don't want to do a reset unless I know for sure that it's there.

Actually, the http://pvr.hidyman.com/ site would serve adequately as a FAQ site, as far as I am concerned. So all we would need is a first post that links to that site.

Can we do that?

Have others using this thread looked at this site, and do you think it would work for putting at the beginning of this thread? Is the info on the site reasonably up-to-date?

When I click on the hidyman link, I get "Server Not Found" message. That site seemed to be valid for a short time after its initial posting. However, the FAQ can be downloaded as a pdf file, which was submitted by drm2295 in message #3370.

When I click on the hidyman link, I get "Server Not Found" message. That site seemed to be valid for a short time after its initial posting. However, the FAQ can be downloaded as a pdf file, which was submitted by drm2295 in message #3370.


I am able to get to it currently. It is very hit and miss for some reason.

I emptied my cache, and it still works.

I think my question may have got lost in the shuffle before so I'll re-ask it. My unit works perfect with both OTA and a CableCard. The only question is that after looking at my 753 menu, I realized that the TV Guide data is coming across my OTA setup. Is there a way to manually make the unit change in pick it up from the cable? I am afraid if I don't that the listings will not be reliable due to a weak signal. Any thoughts anyone??????????

I received a request to put this link

http://pvr.hidyman.com/

in the top post or FAQ

but I am unable to open it as well: tried IE and Firefox

I think my question may have got lost in the shuffle before so I'll re-ask it. My unit works perfect with both OTA and a CableCard. The only question is that after looking at my 753 menu, I realized that the TV Guide data is coming across my OTA setup. Is there a way to manually make the unit change in pick it up from the cable? I am afraid if I don't that the listings will not be reliable due to a weak signal. Any thoughts anyone??????????

The only way that I am aware of would be do reset the unit and repeat the setup, and tell it that you are using OTA and cable, but DO NOT connect the OTA antenna until it finds a host station (assuming that you don't have any issues getting it via the cable hookup).

I have looked and read most of the threads on this product but I don't know if my situation is different than the dropped schedule. I can program a show to be recorded and sometimes it will record and sometimes it will not. This seems to only happen on the prime movie channels. Then when I look it up it will give me the message not allowed by service provider. I have contacted Cox several times and they say it is not there problem and they don't trouble shoot 3rd party equipment. Has any one else gone thru this or is this the 161-6 problem? Thanks for any information in advance.
rlh149

So far the only solution reported is a Motorola card that gets upgraded to FW v. 4.21 on a Comcast system. I currently have 4.05 and the same problem as you. My area is supposed to get 4.21 in the next few weeks.

AFAIK, the 161-6 error is different happens only with Scientific Atlanta cards. If anyone has added brand/system info, please post.

Believe me, the Sony is a breeze compared to my Panny E85. You can only move a channel up or down one space at a time. Everytime I have to do it, I worry that the remote buttons are going to wear out. Are you receiving any guide info for 11.3 Create with the new setup? I'm wondering if any of those options will have it. I really don't want to do a reset unless I know for sure that it's there.

I did not notice 11.3, but I was not really looking. I have an indoor antenna connected for emergencies, but it only gets a couple of digital stations (lots of multipath near downtown). I'll check again later. Right now, I'm hoping some listings will fill in from this afternoon's data download.

I have looked and read most of the threads on this product but I don't know if my situation is different than the dropped schedule. I can program a show to be recorded and sometimes it will record and sometimes it will not. This seems to only happen on the prime movie channels. Then when I look it up it will give me the message not allowed by service provider. I have contacted Cox several times and they say it is not there problem and they don't trouble shoot 3rd party equipment. Has any one else gone thru this or is this the 161-6 problem? Thanks for any information in advance.
rlh149

A prime symptom of the 161-6 problem is that after the error occurs, you won't be able to tune encrypted/premium channels that require the cable card. After missing a recording, try tuning HBO or something and see what you get. If it tunes OK, then the 161-6 error did not happen.

Marc

Is anyone else getting BAD analog/ntsc pictures for channels 2 through 6 and 99? All the other ntsc channels are ok.

Thanks.

Oh boy - which one of you wants to break the news to this poor guy.Not me...I get ripped nearly every time I post in this thread.

Marc_G
I tried what you suggested, I did miss a recording and I tried tuning the premium channels and they came in just fine. The cablecard I have is a motorola 4.5 and I use cox for the service, after my conversation with them yesterday I will not be able to get any help from them. I will give them a call about the newer cable cards and see how it goes. If for some reason I have to send this in to Sony for any updates it won't upset me since this is a good product with some flaws. I have a sxrd tv and I have read all kind of horror stories people (or maybe a few repeatedly) but I enjoy mine very much, Thanks for the information
rlh149

Thanks avnstf for the helpful link. I wish there was a link in the beginning of this
post that gave a quick summary of the unit. Sony's manual does not really talk about how the TV guide works.

And I really did search the thread for TV guide and how it works, unfortunately the
keyword TV guide is all over so the search was not really successful.

For folks who are pontificating about being lazy, go try yourself to search this 130
page long thread. I have done it and it is not easy, I even tried the advanced search feature with boolean inputs.

Oh well.

I received a request to put this link

http://pvr.hidyman.com/

in the top post or FAQ

but I am unable to open it as well: tried IE and Firefox

I just tried and my browser went right to the web site.

Is anyone else get BAD analog/ntsc pictures for channels 2 through 6 and 99? All the other ntsc channels are ok.

Thanks.

That is usually caused by a bad ground block or a bad cable connector. Sometimes a slight bit of moisture gets into an outside connector (and/or ground block) and it only effects the very low channels.

Ask your neighbors how their lower channels look. It could be a problem in your entire neighborhood.

Did your cable card work OK when you put it in the returned unit (presuming you use a cable card, of course...)

Marc

I'm OTA only. I had the 161-6 mod done so I wouldn't have to worry if I (or a future purchaser) decided to go to cable.

I my case I hadn't specified the 161-6 problem. The tech did call me, however, and I asked him about it. He said they didn't do it unless it was specified as a problem. He agreed to do it when I said I was going to use a Cablecard in the future.

That is usually caused by a bad ground block or a bad cable connector. Sometimes a slight bit of moisture gets into an outside connector (and/or ground block) and it only effects the very low channels.

Ask your neighbors how their lower channels look. It could be a problem in your entire neighborhood.

With the cable directly connected to my hdtv or to my lst3410a the picture is good for the low analogs. It's a problem with the Sony DVR. Looks like no one else has this issue. I'm going to BB to swap it out.

I received a request to put this link

http://pvr.hidyman.com/

in the top post or FAQ

but I am unable to open it as well: tried IE and Firefox
The link works for me right now, but there have been times when it did not work. I suggest putting the link in the top post, along with a note stating that it might fail to open sometimes.

There is also a PDF version that was posted to this thread as an attachment: http___pvr.hidyman.com_.pdf (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/attachment.php?attachmentid=52073)

Just in case, I have attached a text version.

Quick questions. With just cable (no cable card) is it possible to tune by frequency or do I need to do an auto scan and pick the channel for that frequency ?

Quick questions. With just cable (no cable card) is it possible to tune by frequency or do I need to do an auto scan and pick the channel for that frequency ?

Autoscan is part of the initial setup, and if you somehow avoided it, I suggest you do it.
Without doing autoscan you won't receive any HD channels. When you enter the channel number, you will get a no signal response. Also, without the cable card, you need to manually find the channel numbers for the HD stations, and then manually edit them into the guide, replacing the numbers that apply when you have the card.

I think my question may have got lost in the shuffle before so I'll re-ask it. My unit works perfect with both OTA and a CableCard. The only question is that after looking at my 753 menu, I realized that the TV Guide data is coming across my OTA setup. Is there a way to manually make the unit change in pick it up from the cable? I am afraid if I don't that the listings will not be reliable due to a weak signal. Any thoughts anyone??????????

It's not clear from your message if the guide is coming from a weak signal, or you are just worried that somehow it will become weak. If you are getting the guide now, my suggestion is to leave it on OTA. Don't fix what's not broke.

Almost no listings in the guide data on either of my recorders for over a week. On Thursday I did factory reset on the 500, and on Friday I did likewise on the 250. Fortunately, after many hours, the unit clock got set, so I can record manually. A few hours ago, the guide test failed VBI so perhaps there is a problem now at the PBS station.

Is anyone else getting BAD analog/ntsc pictures for channels 2 through 6 and 99? All the other ntsc channels are ok.

Thanks.

Replaced my 250, BB had another open-box unit. Anyway the new one displays the low analog channels clean. The first one was bad.

It's not clear from your message if the guide is coming from a weak signal, or you are just worried that somehow it will become weak. If you are getting the guide now, my suggestion is to leave it on OTA. Don't fix what's not broke.


The signal seems to come in and out on the channel I receive the guide from. I do not have a good outdoor antenna, so I would prefer to switch. Thanks for your help.

Eric

I received a request to put this link
http://pvr.hidyman.com/
in the top post or FAQ
but I am unable to open it as well: tried IE and Firefox

The DNS entry for the site is not correct in every DNS server. The site also isn't reachable by direct ip address like http://69.218.160.155 The server must use the incoming URL to redirect to a user subdirectory.

You have to add an entry into your hosts file located: %SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts

You can paste the following in a Run dialog box:
notepad "%SystemRoot%\System32\drivers\etc\hosts"

Then add the following line:
69.218.160.155 pvr.hidyman.com

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^)

Hidyman, Could you provide a direct link from your ISP provider like: http://in-touch.net/hidyman-pvr that points to your FAQ page? The DNS entry for pvr.hidyman.com doesn't seem to be correct in the main DNS servers.

Are you receiving any guide info for 11.3 Create with the new setup? I'm wondering if any of those options will have it. I really don't want to do a reset unless I know for sure that it's there.

I chose Comcast Area 1, 4, & 5 Digital Rebuild in the guide setup. There is no OTA 11.3 WTTW Create icon. Nor is there a channel 242 Create, although of course I can tune it with the CableCARD.

There are PBS icons turned off: WMVS, WNIT, and KETC. None have a channel number.

Quick questions. With just cable (no cable card) is it possible to tune by frequency or do I need to do an auto scan and pick the channel for that frequency ?
You can tune to a cable channel by entering the channel number (using the number buttons on the remote control), even if that channel was not found by the Auto Scan, and even if you don't have a CableCard (unless that channel is encrypted, of course).

Although you cannot enter the frequency itself, you can use the following equations to calculate the channel number:
Channel = (Frequency - 81MHz) / 6MHz, if the frequency is between 219MHz and 645MHz.
Channel = (Frequency - 51MHz) / 6MHz, if the frequency is 651MHz or higher.
(I won't bother writing equations for frequencies under 219MHz.)

Some cable channels are digital, in which case you must enter not only the channel number but also the subchannel number after a dot (for example, 104.11). Subchannel numbers typically range from 1 to 12, but can be as high as 99.

Almost no listings in the guide data on either of my recorders for over a week. On Thursday I did factory reset on the 500, and on Friday I did likewise on the 250. Fortunately, after many hours, the unit clock got set, so I can record manually. A few hours ago, the guide test failed VBI so perhaps there is a problem now at the PBS station.


I'm new to this forum, but also in L.A. and have been without TVGuide for the same amount of time you have, also getting the info from KCET-28 cable...Have done much reading and finally found your posts...It seems our units are probably working fine, and it is KCET that is the problem...Unfortunately I did a warm reboot several hours ago (as my first journey into trying to solve the problem) and now I don't even have the correct time to do manual recording...hopefully by the morning I'll have at least that. If I'm wrong and you find the solution, "Keep me posted"

I'm new to this forum, but also in L.A. and have been without TVGuide for the same amount of time you have, also getting the info from KCET-28 cable...Have done much reading and finally found your posts...It seems our units are probably working fine, and it is KCET that is the problem...Unfortunately I did a warm reboot several hours ago (as my first journey into trying to solve the problem) and now I don't even have the correct time to do manual recording...hopefully by the morning I'll have at least that. If I'm wrong and you find the solution, "Keep me posted"

I'm in West LA and my HDD500 is working fine. I'm OTA only, no cable

edit: I checked again, I seem to have listings up to 3/5. I did loose data for "Bourne Identity" I was set to record. I think it was on Tuesday at 9pm.

One weird thing. The PBS shows I record are almost never right. For some reason the listings are wrong for these.

I'm in West LA and my HDD500 is working fine. I have full listings. I'm OTA only, no cable

I'm in Torrance (also OTA only) and the listings for next Sunday (which would be day 8) are missing. Do you specifically have those?

Everything has been ok up to now and 28 is still listed as the host channel. Obviously others have been having more problems than just this but a channel 28 problem may have crept in to muddy the waters further.

I'm in Torrance (also OTA only) and the listings for next Sunday (which would be day 8) are missing. Do you specifically have those?

Everything has been ok up to now and 28 is still listed as the host channel. Obviously others have been having more problems than just this but a channel 28 problem may have crept in to muddy the waters further.

That would be 3/6 right? I don't have those.
How long have you had your recorder? I'm on about four weeks with no problems noticed so far.

That would be 3/6 right? I don't have those.
How long have you had your recorder? I'm on about four weeks with no problems noticed so far.

No, Sunday3/5 is what I'm missing. I wouldn't expect the update for Mon 3/6 until tonight.

I got mine 6 weeks ago just as 28 TVGOS was down for 5 days. I sent it in at that time to get the latest firmware and other updates so I've actually had it running for about 4 weeks also with no problems at all until missing this latest TVGOS update.

Almost no listings in the guide data on either of my recorders for over a week. On Thursday I did factory reset on the 500, and on Friday I did likewise on the 250. Fortunately, after many hours, the unit clock got set, so I can record manually. A few hours ago, the guide test failed VBI so perhaps there is a problem now at the PBS station.

Hi Ray,
What is you SNR? Mine seems to stay around 20. I believe the sony tech said it needs to be 16 or higher. Maybe something happened to your antenna.

I have had an hdd250 for over 2-months now. It worked great for the 1st month. I have had "No Listing" in all of my TV-Guide data for a few weeks now. the clock shows the correct time. I live in Cleveland area. After reading various forums on the internet, someone said that they had the same problem and that the local PBS station was not sending the TVGOS signal due to technical problems. I guess they had fixed it when I finally received the TVGOS listings a week ago. I thought that all of my problems were finally solved. By the next day, all of the data went back to "No Listing". I am not sure if the TVGOS signal is fixed yet or not, but it has been a week since that one day when I got TVGOS listings.

One thing puzzles me (actually there are more than one - but that is all I will talk about for the moment). From the hidden TVGOS status menu, I see that it says that my host channel is channel 9 (Akron). This is a different PBS station which does not send the TVGOS signal. WVIZ (channel 13) is the only PBS station in the area that sends the TVGOS signal. So I would believe that my Host channel should be channel 13 for COX cable. The VBI test only passes on Channel 9. Even for the 1 day when I had listings, my host channel was 9. I am getting confused here (not hard to do). By the way, my general channel line-up is correct for stations and channels.

Do I have to find a way to tell my hdd250 to use channel 13 instead of channel 9 (not sure that is possible)? Is the VBI test an indicator of the TVGOS signal? Help, please.

I'm in the far NW Chi. 'burbs. My guide went completely down a couple of days ago. Said it was searching for information. Reset the guide and everything reappeared the next morning , channel lineup and info EXACTLY the same as when it went out. Never had anything quite like that happen before. That's actually the first glitch I've ever had with this unit. Had to be coming from the station. Having dealt with TVGOS for 2 yrs. now with another unit also, I've learned that 99 times out of 100 any problem is coming from the station, and I've learned not to panic, and that with patience it will resolve itself. If people would just do the same, I'm sure there'd be a heck of a lot less returned units. I will say that I've only used the guide with OTA on the Sony and OTA/analog cable on the other. Nary a problem, though. On the subject of newbies in the thread, there probably should have been a separate thread right from the start specifically for the recent Tweeter deal posters, but it's probably too late for that now, anyway. It is kind of disappointing having had this thread sort of wrested away from us more experienced users and having to sift through all this redundancy. Oh well.

I had this experience also. I had something interesting happen between the TVGOS information loss and when it reappered. I very briefly had analog WTTW (Channel 11) and channel 11.2, the SD feed of the analog, in the listing simultaneously. I was somewhat surprised to note that they did not have exactly the same programming; I would have expected them to. When TVGOS went back down and came back up again a day or so later, 11.2 did not reappear in the listing. (Channel 11.3, WTTWCreate, is still missing of course.) Did anyone else in Chicagoland notice this?

I'm in Torrance (also OTA only) and the listings for next Sunday (which would be day 8) are missing. Do you specifically have those?

My listing is missing on my 250 & 500 too.

Greg.

Here's something. On a 60 hour device, I have 55 hours of recorded material, all HD. And, yet, I have available space on HDD1 of 26% and HDD2 of 18%. Doing the math, does that mean I have a capacity of 98 HD hours on this machine?

Wolfie

My listing is missing on my 250 & 500 too.

Greg.

Thanks for the report. It looks like they're down again. I hope they're not down for 5 days like last time. It seems like the station equipment/TVGOS feed leaves something to be desired in terms of reliability.

Here's something. On a 60 hour device, I have 55 hours of recorded material, all HD. And, yet, I have available space on HDD1 of 26% and HDD2 of 18%. Doing the math, does that mean I have a capacity of 98 HD hours on this machine?

Wolfie

Apparently the stream is pared down to the subchannel of interest when recorded. This means that even with HD material combined with 1 or 2 SD subchannels there will some savings in space. And a true SD subchannel (NOT pillarboxed in an HD subchannel) with have a large savings.

Apparently the 30/60 capacity is based on recording of the full stream so the actual capacity will always be more.

Hi all,

I have the .05 version of firmware on my HDD500. It has performed flawlessly so far. There is no reason for an update as far as I am concerned. But I wonder how long will my warranty cover the update? Is it covered under the 90 day warranty or one year?

Thanks a lot for your help,

Jane

I had this experience also. I had something interesting happen between the TVGOS information loss and when it reappered. I very briefly had analog WTTW (Channel 11) and channel 11.2, the SD feed of the analog, in the listing simultaneously. I was somewhat surprised to note that they did not have exactly the same programming; I would have expected them to. When TVGOS went back down and came back up again a day or so later, 11.2 did not reappear in the listing. (Channel 11.3, WTTWCreate, is still missing of course.) Did anyone else in Chicagoland notice this?

Did not see that, but when my problem began I noticed that ESPN Classic had disappeared completely from the guide channel list. And many of my nicely ordered channels had been rearranged. All is back to normal after the reset.

Apparently the stream is pared down to the subchannel of interest when recorded. This means that even with HD material combined with 1 or 2 SD subchannels there will some savings in space. And a true SD subchannel (NOT pillarboxed in an HD subchannel) with have a large savings.

Apparently the 30/60 capacity is based on recording of the full stream so the actual capacity will always be more.

Works for me!

Wolfie

Hi all,

I have the .05 version of firmware on my HDD500. It has performed flawlessly so far. There is no reason for an update as far as I am concerned. But I wonder how long will my warranty cover the update? Is it covered under the 90 day warranty or one year?

Thanks a lot for your help,

Jane

Hey Jane!

I'm in the same boat! My impression is that you can't simply get a software update under your warranty (you need to have something wrong with the unit such as the 161-6 problem). Now, I'm sure that you could claim a problem like this and get a fix with a software update. My impression is that there is some disagreement as to whether such an update is needed. Speculation has it that the latest version of the software will allow for the programming guide to work during the switch to all digital OTA broadcasts -- but the earlier versions may not.

Thanks for the report. It looks like they're down again. I hope they're not down for 5 days like last time. It seems like the station equipment/TVGOS feed leaves something to be desired in terms of reliability.

Only Sunday was missing, I had Mondays listing when I looked this morning. Maybe they were installing the ATSC TVGOS equipment :rolleyes: right

Last time it went down I was also putzing with my antenna and it really didn't help the troubleshooting when you have to wait 24 hours for the TVGOS update to see if you got it fixed only to find out they weren't even sending the data. :mad:

So far though I haven't had any recordings missed. Other than the TVGOS interuption and my original problem setting up the 250 when I first got it (no menu visible as I'm currently only using SD) everything has been great.

I'm fortunate in that I live on the top of a hill and Wilson is only some 12 miles away, I have a ChannelMaster 4-bay bowtie flat panel to put up at some time in the near future, right now I'm just using a small, old Radio Shack VHF/UHF antenna with an 18dB DA to a four way splitter, have very good signal levels and snr.

Greg.

Apparently the stream is pared down to the subchannel of interest when recorded. This means that even with HD material combined with 1 or 2 SD subchannels there will some savings in space. And a true SD subchannel (NOT pillarboxed in an HD subchannel) with have a large savings.

Apparently the 30/60 capacity is based on recording of the full stream so the actual capacity will always be more.

When I sent mine in for service, I happened to take a look at the box, and the 30 hour sticker attached to it. I read it carefully, and it does say MINIMUM of 30 hours (for the HDD250), and actual capacity may be higher based on the content...

I would just like to thank Jan J for sending me the lastest firmware (1.17) for my 3410.
Over the weekend I was able to download it to the box. The menu->troubleshoot-> version verified the change.


Wrong forum, dude...

I had this experience also. I had something interesting happen between the TVGOS information loss and when it reappered. I very briefly had analog WTTW (Channel 11) and channel 11.2, the SD feed of the analog, in the listing simultaneously. I was somewhat surprised to note that they did not have exactly the same programming; I would have expected them to. When TVGOS went back down and came back up again a day or so later, 11.2 did not reappear in the listing. (Channel 11.3, WTTWCreate, is still missing of course.) Did anyone else in Chicagoland notice this? Well, now today I've got all "no listings". But the channels I had in the guide are still all there and in the same order. Something funny must be going on at the host station, because the only times I've ever had any problems like this were when they were fooling around with something, like upgrading the TVGOS service. Also, I didn't really notice the problem with the conflicting info on WTTW, but then again, I don't have WTTW analog on in the guide - I've just got the channel number remapped in the guide (for the TVGOS data reception) onto another channel that I don't ever record from, but want the guide info for. Hmmmm....I wonder if that's got anything to do with the problem? - never has before.

Did not see that, but when my problem began I noticed that ESPN Classic had disappeared completely from the guide channel list. And many of my nicely ordered channels had been rearranged. All is back to normal after the reset.

So do you have 11-2 in your TVGOS along with 11, or did you map 11 to 11-2?

Well, now today I've got all "no listings". But the channels I had in the guide are still all there and in the same order. Something funny must be going on at the host station, because the only times I've ever had any problems like this were when they were fooling around with something, like upgrading the TVGOS service. Also, I didn't really notice the problem with the conflicting info on WTTW, but then again, I don't have WTTW analog on in the guide - I've just got the channel number remapped in the guide (for the TVGOS data reception) onto another channel that I don't ever record from, but want the guide info for. Hmmmm....I wonder if that's got anything to do with the problem? - never has before.

I'll have to check when I get home...but I have a feeling that I'll be in the same boat of no listings!

I'll have to check when I get home...but I have a feeling that I'll be in the same boat of no listings!
i think these units do require Antenna feed to download Guide Listings. All my units took 5hours to a day fo display listings. Not a problem!

Only Sunday was missing, I had Mondays listing when I looked this morning. Maybe they were installing the ATSC TVGOS equipment :rolleyes: right

I've got Monday also so it'll be just one missed day until it gets up to day 2. We'll think good thoughts on the ATSC equipment.


I'm fortunate in that I live on the top of a hill and Wilson is only some 12 miles away, I have a ChannelMaster 4-bay bowtie flat panel to put up at some time in the near future, right now I'm just using a small, old Radio Shack VHF/UHF antenna with an 18dB DA to a four way splitter, have very good signal levels and snr.

Sounds like an ideal location (and a neat neighborhood). I'm in the flatlands 30 mi away but with a clear shot to Mt. Wilson. I've got a fairly high gain VHF/UHF antenna. I tried an amp but it just overloaded, so I'm pretty good also.

AndyDrew apparently gets Mt. Wilson from Tijuana so as long as it's line-of-sight the reception can be amazing. Of course it doesn't hurt that the transmitter is 6000 ft above sea level.

Got mine up and running, it work as it should outta the box. Channels were all there when I woke up. Running .06 in it. Mad my first scheduled recordning no problem :) cancels tivo.

Anybody that ordered DHG-HDD500 through tweeter.com got their box yet. Have they even shipped yet? Mine said awaiting inventory yesterday.

Sounds like an ideal location (and a neat neighborhood). I'm in the flatlands 30 mi away but with a clear shot to Mt. Wilson. I've got a fairly high gain VHF/UHF antenna. I tried an amp but it just overloaded, so I'm pretty good also.

I should have mentioned that because of the high signal strength, even with my small antenna, I also have a variable attenuator in front of the amp to reduce the signal level so that it doesn't over-drive the DA, that way I get a clean output to the 4-way splitter.

It can be confusing when looking at picture quality (analog) as an overdriven amp can make the image look like you still don't have enough signal level, the best way is to use a meter and measure the levels. Luckily I have access to such equipment as one of the systems we install and maintain at work is an extensive MATV system that has both OTA and Cable channels for distribution throughout several large buildings.

Greg.

Anybody that ordered DHG-HDD500 through tweeter.com got their box yet. Have they even shipped yet? Mine said awaiting inventory yesterday.

Same here.....

I am about to send my 500 unit to Sony for the 161-6 problem.

Do I need to send the cable card with the unit? I'd hate for them to lose it.

Hi Ray,
What is you SNR? Mine seems to stay around 20. I believe the sony tech said it needs to be 16 or higher. Maybe something happened to your antenna.

Thanks for your suggestion. The SNR is 55 on both recorders. This morning neither unit had guide data, just a blank form, so as an experiment I reset the guide in my 250. At 3:30pm, my 500 has guide information for today and tomorrow, but not Wednesday, which is normal for the first download. This unit gets the guide OTA. My 250 shows the correct time and that it is set to get guide data from the cable channel, but no listing. I assume it would also have the guide info if I hadn't reset the guide.

I am about to send my 500 unit to Sony for the 161-6 problem.

Do I need to send the cable card with the unit? I'd hate for them to lose it.

Nope.

Thanks Spiff72 :)

without cablcard, just able to scan & acquire TNT-HD, but no sound!

Nope.
can cablecard be hacked???

can cablecard be hacked???

No.

No sweat. I ordered an SMC2208USB/ETH today. I'll see what it does when I receive it.


#@!&^% Got it today. Nothing on the DVR. Installed in on my computer. It has an ADM8513 chipset. :( The product #99-012084-382 isn't even on the SMC website. I'll try to find an USB RTL-8150 chipset nic somewhere......

I should have mentioned that because of the high signal strength, even with my small antenna, I also have a variable attenuator in front of the amp to reduce the signal level so that it doesn't over-drive the DA, that way I get a clean output to the 4-way splitter.

It can be confusing when looking at picture quality (analog) as an overdriven amp can make the image look like you still don't have enough signal level, the best way is to use a meter and measure the levels. Luckily I have access to such equipment as one of the systems we install and maintain at work is an extensive MATV system that has both OTA and Cable channels for distribution throughout several large buildings.

Greg.


Interesting, I'm moving to Pasadena, perhaps 6 miles from Mount Wilson. I never thought being too close would be a problem. Right now I'm about 23 miles away.
I'll have to look into that

Well, now today I've got all "no listings". But the channels I had in the guide are still all there and in the same order. Something funny must be going on at the host station, because the only times I've ever had any problems like this were when they were fooling around with something, like upgrading the TVGOS service. Also, I didn't really notice the problem with the conflicting info on WTTW, but then again, I don't have WTTW analog on in the guide - I've just got the channel number remapped in the guide (for the TVGOS data reception) onto another channel that I don't ever record from, but want the guide info for. Hmmmm....I wonder if that's got anything to do with the problem? - never has before.

My listings have continued to rebuild properly for two straight days now. Looks like you need another guide reset. :(

So do you have 11-2 in your TVGOS along with 11, or did you map 11 to 11-2?

No 11.2 or 11.3 in the guide.

Originally Posted by bommai
Anybody that ordered DHG-HDD500 through tweeter.com got their box yet. Have they even shipped yet? Mine said awaiting inventory yesterday.

Same here.....
Wouldn't it be nice if the wait was because Sony is upgrading the units before they ship the rest of them out? yeah....riiiight :D

And wouldn't it be cool if they could upgrade these units to be able to record 2 things at once, the OTA feed to one hard drive, and the cable feed to the other hard drive? :D

Sounds like an ideal location (and a neat neighborhood). I'm in the flatlands 30 mi away but with a clear shot to Mt. Wilson. I've got a fairly high gain VHF/UHF antenna. I tried an amp but it just overloaded, so I'm pretty good also.

AndyDrew apparently gets Mt. Wilson from Tijuana so as long as it's line-of-sight the reception can be amazing. Of course it doesn't hurt that the transmitter is 6000 ft above sea level.

Reception from LA has been great. I added a pre-amp recently and the signals have been excellent on all of the channels that I am watching. Very few signal issues.

You may want to consider this pre-amp if you have tried other pre-amps in the past and had overload issues: Winegard HDP-269. This pre-amp has lower gain than some other units and is designed not to overload very easily. I live within a few miles of some very strong UHF transmitters here in Tijuana and am not having any problem with pre-amp overload.

So here on T/W Cable in Manhattan on channel 107.4 we have Universal HD. :)

It's awesome because they show Battlestar Galactica in HD on Sunday.

Unfortunately, I can't find a UHD (or whatever it should be called) icon in the guide.
(or for IaTV either) So I have no Guide info and have to go to the universalhd website to see what will be on.

Does anyone know if the channels in the guide are ever updated?
or is this static, based on your zip code. I think I have a possibility of 437 channels that I can map.

Cheers,
-Kevin

Anybody that ordered DHG-HDD500 through tweeter.com got their box yet. Have they even shipped yet? Mine said awaiting inventory yesterday.

Same:

Special Order: Awaiting inventory

So here on T/W Cable in Manhattan on channel 107.4 we have Universal HD. :)

It's awesome because they show Battlestar Galactica in HD on Sunday.

Unfortunately, I can't find a UHD (or whatever it should be called) icon in the guide.
(or for IaTV either) So I have no Guide info and have to go to the universalhd website to see what will be on.

Does anyone know if the channels in the guide are ever updated?
or is this static, based on your zip code. I think I have a possibility of 437 channels that I can map.

Cheers,
-Kevin


I have the same problem here. Charter just added it before the olympics, and they are just now starting to promote it as an added channel. I am hoping that they will update their published lineup with TiVo and TVGOS soon...

The trouble is that I don't know how these are added. Will a reset be needed? Will it just show up at some point? How will I know when it is added without periodically checking? Etc, etc...