Sony DHG-HDD250/500: Official Thread [Text View] - Page 7

mswlogo

11-30-05, 10:18 AM

Just wanted to report that the tuner in this unit is really good.

I just got a Pioneer 5060 and was expecting to just hook it up like I did the Sony and find all the same stations. NOT.

I had a quality AMP on the line and Sony pulled more in with it, than without. Pioneer could not find stations with it on. So I took it off Pioneer. But when I put the splitter native on the OTA Antenna I lose stations on Pioneer but not Sony. Every combo worked on teh Sony (Amp, no Amp, Split, no Split). You can't Hide Channels on the Pioneer, you get what it finds and that's it. It also doesn't find QAM stations (it is a QAM tuner) like the Sony found. It Also can't do OTA Digital on one Ant input and Cable QAM on the other. Only one Ant input can do OTA Digital or QAM.

I was very spoiled with the Sony DVR Tuner.

I've heard the Panasonic TV's have even a worse tuner than the Pioneer !!! Only one Ant input and if a station gets weak (e.g. bad weather) it removes it until you search for stations again.

spiff72

11-30-05, 10:23 AM

PhillyC

11-30-05, 10:33 AM

This looks like a good deal at the local best buy, but does anyone have this with the cable card installed and able to record digital from cable?....

If you do, what did you have to do to convince your local cable provider to disable the copy protection enabled???

Esp in St louis market or charter cable...

thank you very much

hdaddiction

Comcast Chicago has no copy restrictions. The CableCARD gives you all of the channels you pay for and they can be recorded at will (except PPV I suppose, although I have not tried it). The more common problem is getting the cableco to program their systems properly for the card to work, but once that is done the Sony works very well.

Look through as much of this thread as you can. If you don't see complaints about Charter or the St. Louis area, the odds are that you will not have much trouble.

(BTW, this is a good example of why EVERYONE should put their location in their forum profile. It makes it much easier for others to scan a lot of posts in a thread like this to find information pertinent to a particular area. Very helpful to everyone.)

spiff72

11-30-05, 10:47 AM

Comcast Chicago has no copy restrictions. The CableCARD gives you all of the channels you pay for and they can be recorded at will (except PPV I suppose, although I have not tried it). The more common problem is getting the cableco to program their systems properly for the card to work, but once that is done the Sony works very well.

Look through as much of this thread as you can. If you don't see complaints about Charter or the St. Louis area, the odds are that you will not have much trouble.

(BTW, this is a good example of why EVERYONE should put their location in their forum profile. It makes it much easier for others to scan a lot of posts in a thread like this to find information pertinent to a particular area. Very helpful to everyone.)

LOL - PhillyC, if you didn't have your location in your profile, we might think you were in Philly!

Anyway, you can't do PPV with the Sony anyway, since the cablecard isn't a 2-way device.

PhillyC

11-30-05, 11:11 AM

Anyway, you can't do PPV with the Sony anyway, since the cablecard isn't a 2-way device.

Well, it's early and I'm sleepy... :)

Even I get confused now and then since I have both the HDD500 *and* the Comcast 6412. At least, with the card in the Sony, all the channel numbers are the same on both boxes.

Ruidh

11-30-05, 02:25 PM

They have abandoned New York though - NYC has been without TVGOS since October, and Gemstar rep contacted me saying that they dont know if and when they will resolve the all digial lineup with TWC

I just dont understand how Sony and all the other vendors sell a product with a premium without any contracts in place with cable companies.

This is quite an overstatement. NYC has TVGOS on channel 13. Now this may mean that you, like I, need to add an external antenna and pick up your TVGOS. The good news is that the Gemstar protocol appears very robust so that the data is received even on a staticy channel.

philspice1

11-30-05, 05:24 PM

Last night's scheduled recording of Commander in Chief failed to record. I am on the phone with Sony trying to get them to resolve this issue before my warranty expires Dec 6.

Has anyone else been able to resolve this problem with Sony?

verriere

11-30-05, 05:32 PM

My goodness, sooooo many assumptions....they might start broadcasting, they might abandon.....

here is my two cents, tvgos will continue to backwardly support all products out there.

And the sony dvr recorder will continue to operate with tvgos for 10 years.

I cant beleive all the doom and gloom post on recording will or won't it....will congress let us record...*I'm betting they will*...will tvgos work with the new roll out...I'm betting it will and not abandon 2 or 4 million tvs out there already.

Mango

I spent about an hour working my way through three levels of Sony tech support today trying to nail down the fate of the hdd250/500 when analog TV goes away. The highest level individual with whom I spoke acknowledged that the DVR can only extract TVGOS time and program data from specific analog TV signals and that the DVR is nearly useless without the TVGOS and time data. He further acknowledged that Sony currently has neither plans nor the ability to reconfigure existing DVRs to operate in the digital-only world. He assured me, however, that Gemstar and Comcast would not allow Sony's DVR and similar devices to become obsolete when analog tv goes away. I think I'll not test that assumption.

philspice1

11-30-05, 05:35 PM

I spent about an hour working my way through three levels of Sony tech support today trying to nail down the fate of the hdd250/500 when analog TV goes away. The highest level individual with whom I spoke acknowledged that the DVR can only extract TVGOS time and program data from specific analog TV signals and that the DVR is nearly useless without the TVGOS and time data. He further acknowledged that Sony currently has neither plans nor the ability to reconfigure existing DVRs to operate in the digital-only world. He assured me, however, that Gemstar and Comcast would not allow Sony's DVR and similar devices to become obsolete when analog tv goes away. I think I'll not test that asumption.
Call me a cynic, but why will Sony care what happens once the units are all out of warranty?

jlentz

11-30-05, 05:45 PM

My guide updated overnight, but I've got a question about how (if possible) to add channels to the guide. The channel scan pulled in a couple of digital channels in my area, but the guide is only showing the analog one. It shows ch 29, but the digital ones are 29-1 and 29-2. Is there a way to add these to the guide? All my channels are OTA.

Thanks.

Alan Curry

11-30-05, 05:49 PM

PoolShark

11-30-05, 05:50 PM

bierboy

11-30-05, 06:00 PM

I am looking for some help in the the following area's if anyone has experienced this.

1. On Monday the 250 recorded NBC Surface in the Dallas area but it was not the full anamorphic screen it was inset and I could not expand it to cover the whole screen. One hour later it recorded CBS CSI Miami and it was the full screen.

2. When displaying some HD content that comes in 4x3 ratio I get a video glitch on the top of the screen that is very annoying. It looks like a line of static noise at the top of the 4x3 HD picture but it disappears in the anamorphic view. This happens during commercials or local news in 4x3 ratio.

3. How long before the TVGOS fills up and stabilizes? It is frustratingly glitchy, especially since my SD recorder is TIVO but I decided to take advantage of the Best Buy deal for now. If it doesn't stabilze it is going back.

4. Am I understanding correctly in some of these threads that the Sony 250/500 DVR's have a chance of being disabled in two years? Could they not get a firmware upgrade like Samsung did to their HD recievers earlier this year?

1 - This was a network glitch as evidenced in the HDTV programming forum.
2 - Can't help you here.
3 - Took my HDD500 one week before the guide fully filled. Been fine ever since.
4 - Don't think they will be rendered useless. Indication is the current TVGOS will be supported indefinitely.

All that being said, I am returning my unit to Crutchfield for a full refund and will anxiously await the Series 3 SA HD TiVo with dual tuners and cablecard. TiVo's program guide, even at $12.95/month or $300 lifetime is WAAAAY better than TVGOS ever will be (upgrade next year notwithstanding).

philspice1

11-30-05, 06:01 PM

This won't help but my HDD250 recorded Commander in Chief without any problems. I'm OTA only here.
Thanks for the info. My HDD250 uses cable and OTA but Commander in Chief was set to record from OTA.

It is now on its way back to Sony for a system check (or something like that). Once I got past the first guy (probably outsourced), the other two people I spoke with were very understanding and helpful. At least this warranty service incident has a 90 day guarantee so I won't have to worry about this issue recurring when the labor part of the warranty expires.

mswlogo

11-30-05, 06:10 PM

Did you get rid of the Sony?

No way, I love it.

spiff72

11-30-05, 06:16 PM

1. On Monday the 250 recorded NBC Surface in the Dallas area but it was not the full anamorphic screen it was inset and I could not expand it to cover the whole screen. One hour later it recorded CBS CSI Miami and it was the full screen.

I can't comment on the other ones, but my understanding is that NBC messed up the feed for surface this week, and it wasn't shown in HD. It was not in HD anywhere.

jtbell

11-30-05, 06:19 PM

The channel scan pulled in a couple of digital channels in my area, but the guide is only showing the analog one.

That's the case for me too, with some of my stations. The program guide doesn't always show the digital channel that corresponds to the analog one. You can go into the guide's channel editor and change the channel number that the guide tunes to for a particular station. This usually works OK because the digital station usually shows the same programs that the analog one does.

The procedure is something like this. It's from memory because I don't have my unit at hand where I am now:

In the program guide, move up to the top bar, then left/right to SETUP, then down to "Change Channel Display". Hit the SELECT button on the remote and you'll see a list of all the channels that the program guide contains.

Scroll down to the analog channel corresponding to the digital one that you want to use. Hit the MENU button on the remote and you'll see a list of fields on the left side of the screen, including the channel that this entry tunes to.

Scroll to the box for the channel number and enter the digital channel number instead, e.g. 29.1.

Scroll to the item that saves or confirms changes (I think it's called DONE), and hit the SELECT button on the remote. You should now be able to go back to the program listing and use it to tune the digital station and schedule recordings for it.

This works only for a digital channel that carries the same programming as an analog channel, of course. If you have a subchannel that carries something else, you're out of luck as far as the program guide is concerned. Here in South Carolina, the digital ETV stations have three subchannels: one that matches the analog channel, one that carries SC-specific programming (the "SC Channel"), and one that carries the 24-hour PBS HD feed. The TVGOS doesn't show any of the digital channels. I can "re-map" the analog ones to the first digital subchannel of each, but I can't do anything for the other two subchannels. I have to tune those stations by entering the channel number directly on the remote, and I have to record from them using the manual recording mode where I set the channel number and the starting and ending times explicitly.

PoolShark

11-30-05, 06:32 PM

1 - This was a network glitch as evidenced in the HDTV programming forum.
2 - Can't help you here.
3 - Took my HDD500 one week before the guide fully filled. Been fine ever since.
4 - Don't think they will be rendered useless. Indication is the current TVGOS will be supported indefinitely.

All that being said, I am returning my unit to Crutchfield for a full refund and will anxiously await the Series 3 SA HD TiVo with dual tuners and cablecard. TiVo's program guide, even at $12.95/month or $300 lifetime is WAAAAY better than TVGOS ever will be (upgrade next year notwithstanding).

What news have you heard of a Stand Alone HD Tivo? That is what I have been waiting on and finally gave up. :D There is hope :D

spiff72

11-30-05, 06:57 PM

Can anyone produce "real" news about the upcoming HD Tivo? The only info I have been able to find is the press release from January of this year. I thought I had heard that they had dropped plans to make this HD standalone unit.

Has there been any speculation about the price? Or do we have any idea what part of 2006 it might arrive? I suspect that the price will be around $1000 like the DirecTV HD Tivos...

gothamweb

11-30-05, 07:39 PM

Are you in NYC? I tried an external antenna but dont get anything at, this is Manhattan.

Chanel 13 (PBS) is digital. Its not just my Sony with the issue but also my TV set with same issue. Gemstar has contacted me saying that TWC changed their lineup to all digital thus messing up TVGOS.

It may be an overstatement but fact is that TVGOS isnt working in 10011 since first week of October.

This is quite an overstatement. NYC has TVGOS on channel 13. Now this may mean that you, like I, need to add an external antenna and pick up your TVGOS. The good news is that the Gemstar protocol appears very robust so that the data is received even on a staticy channel.

jlentz

11-30-05, 08:19 PM

That's the case for me too, with some of my stations. The program guide doesn't always show the digital channel that corresponds to the analog one. You can go into the guide's channel editor and change the channel number that the guide tunes to for a particular station. This usually works OK because the digital station usually shows the same programs that the analog one does.

Thanks. I'll give it a try.

Mitch G

11-30-05, 09:41 PM

There's a bit of disconcerting rhetoric floating around this thread.
So, I thought I would throw out some happy-ish thoughts/opinions/prognostications (sp?). :)

I think the DHG was discontinued because Sony is in a bit of a world of hurt and felt the business case no longer made sense.

Analog TV will be around for at least 5 more years. And even after it goes bye-bye, I'll hold out some faith in the hacker community to maybe find a way around this problem. (Although, I'll admit it's a slim chance.) But, 5 years of service for the box will be a reasonable return on my investment.

I think the Tivo unit will be about twice the cost of the current Sony price plus the monthly or lifetime fee. Will it be more user friendly and have nicer features? Sure. But, will it be 2 times better? I don't think so. But, that is the opinion of a person who's never really experienced Tivo in all its glory.

My DHG is working just dandy. It took about 5 days for the TVGOS to fill up but has continued filling in and even fixed a mistake I saw. (For a while it was showing the wrong program in one of the listings and then one day it was magically fixed.) It's been recording everything I tell it to - even back-to-back shows on different channels. I have a couple more weeks before my return window closes but unless evil starts to befall the box, it's a keeper.

So, there are some happy thoughts,

Mitch

aholic

11-30-05, 10:24 PM

I'd like to add to the happy thoughts and hopefully summarize some of the posts I've found helpful here, though I've only had the 250 for about a week. So far, I haven't had any significant problems with it that weren't my fault and I've really enjoyed recording HD programs in their full glory. The one unpublished "feature" I have found to be nice is that you can hit record, set the start time back to when you switched to the current channel (the beginning of the live record buffer), and save the whole thing starting from when you started watching the channel, rather than when you hit record. I've never owned a tivo or any other dvr, so I don't know if that's normal, but I really like features like this that behave as you would expect them to.

Here's a summary of the "special menus" I've found after scouring this board, thanks to those who found and posted these:

1. Menu -> "screen mode" -> 9012
2. Menu -> "screen mode" -> 1234
3. TV Guide Menu -> Setup -> Change System Settings (highlight don't select) -> 753159852

bierboy

11-30-05, 10:33 PM

Several comments here --
1) I am very happy with the Sony, please don't get me wrong. I have mentioned that several times since I got it two weeks ago.
2) There is NO WAY the SA HD dual tuner TiVo will be twice what the Sony cost. That would be absolute suicide for TiVo, and they know it. I expect it to be in the same range as the HDD500...possibly even cheaper.
3) And, yes, once you experience the TiVo interface and programming guide, you realize how very pathetic TVGOS is. I can nearly guarantee the new TiVo will be MORE than twice as good as the Sony. Its current features ensure that already, and whatever they add in the near term before the new unit appears will enhance that.
4) A TiVo employee posting on the TiVoCommunityForum about two weeks ago said that the dual tuner SA HD unit WILL BE available sometime in 2006. Now, I know that could mean anywhere from Jan 1 to Dec. 31. But I'm taking the money I will get back from my Sony and plow that into a unit that will feature dual HD tuners, a much more intuitive interface, an exceptional programming guide (that goes out 14 days and not 8), and cablecard (possibly the 2.0 version). Yes, to me it's worth it.

spiff72

11-30-05, 10:44 PM

....
2) There is NO WAY the SA HD dual tuner TiVo will be twice what the Sony cost. That would be absolute suicide for TiVo, and they know it. I expect it to be in the same range as the HDD500...possibly even cheaper.
...
I interpreted that as twice the "current" cost (of the 250). Thus 2 times the $499 Best Buy.

bierboy

11-30-05, 10:50 PM

Yeah, a lot will depend on storage capacity, too. I suspect TiVo will offer several storage size options.

Alan58

12-01-05, 07:31 AM

I purchased the DHG-HDD250 the first of Nov. 2005. Everything set up perfect and I was loving life. After 10 days I lost the TVG listings and my life went to hell. To make a long story short spent many days and long hours with Sony support which was really a joke. Finally I was told to either send in the unit for repair or exchange the unit at place of purchase. Since I bought it online I ordered another and got return authorization for the first. I received the second unit and now had two units which were both on my credit card. The second unit would never even download the correct time not only TVG. I sent back both units at my cost after Andy, at Sony, said you have two options, return the units or live with the one that at least gives you the correct time.

Now, because of this wonderful forum I saw Best Buy has the unit on sale so I have another unit coming my way. I really enjoyed everything about the Sony and even could live with the no TVG but I least must have the correct time to do manual recordings. Anyone have the same problem? Any suggestions would be very helpful. I have read all the posts on this subject and only a few have mentioned not getting TVG but none on not getting the correct time. Appreciate the help.

Alan58

12-01-05, 07:35 AM

1. Menu -> "screen mode" -> 9012
2. Menu -> "screen mode" -> 1234
3. TV Guide Menu -> Setup -> Change System Settings (highlight don't select) -> 753159852

What does this do and what does it mean?

verriere

12-01-05, 08:09 AM

pri9908

12-01-05, 08:50 AM

kbgl

12-01-05, 09:07 AM

dp70

12-01-05, 09:28 AM

Received the new WD 250GB HD from the Circuit City Black Friday sale. I will try upgrading my HDD250 in the next day or two and follow up with the results.

bierboy

12-01-05, 10:26 AM

For anyone interested, Crutchfield is running $100 off retail on both units. I know you can get this cheaper at many other places, but you can't beat Crutchfield's customer support and return policy.

mswlogo

12-01-05, 10:52 AM

mswlogo

12-01-05, 10:55 AM

Received the new WD 250GB HD from the Circuit City Black Friday sale. I will try upgrading my HDD250 in the next day or two and follow up with the results.

Thanks, look forward to it.

Ruidh

12-01-05, 11:16 AM

Are you in NYC? I tried an external antenna but dont get anything at, this is Manhattan.

Long Island with Cablevision. Cablevision strips out the Gemstar data when it rebroadcasts analog channel 13 so that no data is received.

I put a cheap set of rabbit ears on the antenna, I marked Cable 13 as not received on the Sony channel editor (not the TVGOS channel editor) and redid the setup so that it looked again for the channel to get VBI data from. My data started filling up shortly thereafter. You can also use the undocumented service menu which has been posted in this thread to watch a channel live to see if the VBI packets are being received.

Now the reception from the rabbit ears was so poor I wouldn't have wanted to watch that channel, but it was good enough to get guide data.

Ruidh

12-01-05, 11:21 AM

Freeze up last night. Hard.

I had started watching Verinica Mars about a half hour after it started and the Sony froze up last night just as the recording was finishing. Front panel reset got the Welcome 06 freeze. I had to do a power cord reset.

I didn't lose any recordings except for Letterman last night. (It took a few hours for the time to update.) so I'm not too upset. But it is frustrating.

aholic

12-01-05, 11:25 AM

What does this do and what does it mean?

1. Menu -> "screen mode" -> 9012
2. Menu -> "screen mode" -> 1234
3. TV Guide Menu -> Setup -> Change System Settings (highlight don't select) -> 753159852

I may have 1 and 2 swapped here, but this is what they do:

1 is a system level menu that provides several, more detailed, diagnostic menus about the system, hard drives, etc.
2 is a system level menu that allows you to reset the unit, reformat the hard drive, reset the tv guide etc.
3 provides several diagnostic screens for TVGOS (use up, down, right, left).

More details of these are posted elsewhere in this forum.

carfac

12-01-05, 11:33 AM

Hi:

Just picked up one of these, and things seem to be OK. Only using this for OTA, so that simplifies things.

Had a TVGOS question, though. I have a local PBS- channel 7. In finding channels, I get "7", which is analogue FTA, and then 7.1 Digital SD rebroadcast, 7.2 HD PBS (which is TOTALLY different that 7.1) and 7.3 Digital PBSKids.

The channel guide only shows for 7, which I know I can map to 7.1. But what about 7.2 and 7.3? No where are they in the TVGOS/ Since the major things I want to shift are on 7.2- and because I do not want a folder full of recordings all marked "Unknown", I am concerned. Will 7.2 and .3 eventually show up, or am I SOL?

When I look at TitanTV, they break down all the sub channels (correctly, too).

Thanks for your advice!

Dave

PhilB

12-01-05, 11:57 AM

The channel guide only shows for 7, which I know I can map to 7.1. But what about 7.2 and 7.3? No where are they in the TVGOS/ Since the major things I want to shift are on 7.2- and because I do not want a folder full of recordings all marked "Unknown", I am concerned. Will 7.2 and .3 eventually show up, or am I SOL?

When I look at TitanTV, they break down all the sub channels (correctly, too).

Thanks for your advice!

Dave

Dave,

You've found a limitaion of the TVGOS system. It's only as good as what it transmits. For some reason your local PBS subchannel listings are not broadcast by TVGOS. In Houston we have the same situation. With no way to contact TVG directly, I suggest calling your PBS station and speak to the engineering department. Explain the issue you are having and see if they can figure out how to get TVG to list all of their information. I tried this in Houston and it hasn't worked, yet so good luck.

-phil

dmaster

12-01-05, 02:01 PM

...
I've heard the Panasonic TV's have even a worse tuner than the Pioneer !!! Only one Ant input and if a station gets weak (e.g. bad weather) it removes it until you search for stations again.

Just for the record, the tuner in my Panasonic ED Plasma is excellent. It gets
every station the Sony gets. Both do a great job at pulling in OTA analogue
and digital stations. And, no, my Panasonic does not remove weak stations
by itself.

Dan (Woj...)

mswlogo

12-01-05, 02:26 PM

Just for the record, the tuner in my Panasonic ED Plasma is excellent. It gets
every station the Sony gets. Both do a great job at pulling in OTA analogue
and digital stations. And, no, my Panasonic does not remove weak stations
by itself.

Dan (Woj...)

Ok, I don't have personal experience with the Panasonic Tuner. I just see a lot of complaints on the new HD models and no complaints on the Pioneer. They also only have 1 Ant input.

Rbrodzinsky

12-01-05, 02:27 PM

Thanks for the info. My HDD250 uses cable and OTA but Commander in Chief was set to record from OTA.

It is now on its way back to Sony for a system check (or something like that). Once I got past the first guy (probably outsourced), the other two people I spoke with were very understanding and helpful. At least this warranty service incident has a 90 day guarantee so I won't have to worry about this issue recurring when the labor part of the warranty expires.

I've continued to have problems with recording Commander in Chief, OTA. The only way I've been able to get it to record, regularly, is by a timed-recording, not a scheduled by name. I haven't had any other programming problems (since the big glitch). I still think there may be something weird in TVGOS and CIC. I have verified that the recording "disappears" from the scheduled list on Tuesday mornings.

Either that, or someone at Sony just doesn't like Geena Davis :)

bierboy

12-01-05, 02:50 PM

bierboy

12-01-05, 02:51 PM

...Either that, or someone at Sony just doesn't like Geena Davis :)Add me to that list...my wife likes the show, but I just don't care for her.

On your original problem, I guess I don't have a solution, but I know that TVGOS "lost" the program information for Lost (no pun intended) and Invasion when ABC adjusted the show lengths last week for this week's shows. But then, about 24-36 hours before they aired, it corrected itself. I had deleted the shows in the schedule (which had the multiple question marks) and had scheduled manual recordings. But, when TVGOS corrected them, I deleted the manual recordings and re-scheduled the programs.

pri9908

12-01-05, 08:45 PM

Add me to that list...my wife likes the show, but I just don't care for her.

On your original problem, I guess I don't have a solution, but I know that TVGOS "lost" the program information for Lost (no pun intended) and Invasion when ABC adjusted the show lengths last week for this week's shows. But then, about 24-36 hours before they aired, it corrected itself. I had deleted the shows in the schedule (which had the multiple question marks) and had scheduled manual recordings. But, when TVGOS corrected them, I deleted the manual recordings and re-scheduled the programs.

Lately I've been recording Lost/Invasion as a continuous 2 hour block since it's one of the best 2 hour segments on television. I bookmark the recording at the beginning of Invasion with the chapter edit function since they won't appear on the 'Recordings' list as separates. I also bookmark important segments of each show to enable quick retrieval in the event that further discussions of the contents are required (ie: forums, chats).

TVGOS notwithstanding, I love my HDD500! It's just so unfortunate that Sony is giving all of us such a screwing on this.

spiff72

12-01-05, 08:48 PM

Received the new WD 250GB HD from the Circuit City Black Friday sale. I will try upgrading my HDD250 in the next day or two and follow up with the results.

Good luck to you, Mark! I am anxious to hear what you find out.

Jeff

hdaddiction

12-01-05, 09:10 PM

thoth

12-01-05, 09:27 PM

FWIW, my unit has been recording Commander in Chief just fine (Comcast w/o a CableCard).

optivity

12-01-05, 09:29 PM

I having a devil of a time trying to figure out why my cable card is not passing through the digitial channels. One parameter that I noticed is the copy protection: enabled.

could this be preventing the view of the digital channels?

Does anyone know the KEY parameters that I should be looking at when I call charter in st louis?

Many thanks

HDaddictionDisplay the CP Authorization status screen for your DVR, it should look similar to this:

for programs you can not record you should see CCI byte: 0x02 with the Decryption status set to: OK

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzequg9f/0x02_with_ecms.JPG

for programs you can record you should see CCI byte: 0x00 or CCI byte: 0x02 with the Decryption status set to: No ECMs detected

http://mysite.verizon.net/vzequg9f/0x02_no_ecm.JPG

Ray1938

12-01-05, 09:53 PM

Hard drive failure would be disastrous but heaven help us if our remote controls failed. Wonder how much support we will get from Sony after the warranty period now that the unit has been discontinued

This situation is not unique to this product. Most remote controls that come with electronic equipment have unique features that can't be duplicated by a universal product.

I am confident that Sony will support this product for many years, and a replacement remote will be available for purchase.

spiff72

12-01-05, 10:06 PM

This situation is not unique to this product. Most remote controls that come with electronic equipment have unique features that can't be duplicated by a universal product.

I am confident that Sony will support this product for many years, and a replacement remote will be available for purchase.

The remote issue is minor, in my opinion. I have a universal remote that operates the Sony box with no issues (each and every command is accounted for).

It is the Harmony 880, and it ROCKS.

mswlogo

12-01-05, 11:39 PM

Ok, I have a Pioneer TV with TV-Guide and the remote has Next/Prev Day for TV-Guide.

Is there a way to jump a day with out scrolling through 24 hr's of TV-Guide?

aholic

12-01-05, 11:59 PM

Ok, I have a Pioneer TV with TV-Guide and the remote has Next/Prev Day for TV-Guide.

Is there a way to jump a day with out scrolling through 24 hr's of TV-Guide?

Typing in numbers directly in the guide brings up a menu for whether you want to jump forward or backward that number of hours, or change to that channel. The day that you are currently viewing appears in the top position of the channel column.

Is there a way to have the guide always in widescreen mode? I find that it displays in whatever mode the current channel is on, but more information is displayed when it is in 16:9 so I would like to display that regardless of the current aspect ratio.

Mitch G

12-02-05, 12:40 AM

aholic

12-02-05, 01:24 AM

aholic: I think you want to play with the General Defaults in the TVGOS setup:

go to the guide -> Setup -> Change default options -> General defaults

Then try tinkering with "box size." Mine is set to "last used" and always displays in 16:9.

Mitch

Thanks.
The info for the "box size" option says it controls the size of the info box when the guide is first entered, i.e. the size of the grey box that is displayed when you press "info", which works as expected (3 different default sizes) for me. It doesn't seem to control the overall display of the guide menu screen for me, which is what I'd like. Are you using a dvr aspect ratio of 16:9? I like things in their original aspect ratio, so some programs display as 4:3 and others 16:9 etc (I have output set at "HDMI Auto", which I believe is similar to "Native"). The problem is that if I'm watching something in 4:3 the guide is then displayed in 4:3, and I'd like it always to be 16:9.

MTKSU

12-02-05, 02:33 AM

Well, after 1 week I've decided to return my HDD250 to Best Buy for a refund.
The main reason is that none of my local analog stations are broadcasting the TVGOS information OTA (Lincoln, NE). I got the TVGOS to work when I connect to a cable channel (which includes Omaha, NE channels), but I want to cancel cable alltogether so that's not a solution for me.

It's a real shame that there are no other options at this time for HD DVRs for OTA folks. It's also mind-boggling that we can't manually set the time on these machines- if so I'd probably keep it just to use like a VCR.

Oh well, it was worth a shot. Hopefully Sony will come out with some better models, although I bet they have lost money on these first ones.

Best of luck everyone....
-MT

mabrandt

12-02-05, 08:32 AM

It's also mind-boggling that we can't manually set the time on these machines- if so I'd probably keep it just to use like a VCR.

-MT

I agree. While the TV Guide feature is nice, why do we HAVE to use it. All I want this unit for is to record HD shows OTA. If the show is not in HD, I can record it off the satelite on my VCR. I took Best Buy up on their sell out offer this week and have had no problems with this unit. A lot cheaper than paying Dish Network for their HD package and DVR or my cable companies package. If it had it's own clock, it would be perfect. It just scares me to read that it could go away, but I have no intentions of taking it back.

mswlogo

12-02-05, 11:11 AM

jeffcmcc

12-02-05, 11:48 AM

I having a devil of a time trying to figure out why my cable card is not passing through the digitial channels. One parameter that I noticed is the copy protection: enabled.

could this be preventing the view of the digital channels?

Does anyone know the KEY parameters that I should be looking at when I call charter in st louis?

Many thanks

HDaddiction
Yes the CP: Enabled could prevent you from recording but you should be able to view anything (that you're subscribed to). There are a lot of posts here relating to problems getting cablecards to work. Do a search on Charter and see what you come up with, in the meantime a couple of questions:

1. What kind of cablecard do you have?
2. You are subscribed to all the channels you're trying to tune?
3. Can you view them but not record, or both?
4. Any problems with OTA or QAM unencrypted channels?
5. Was the card installed by a tech or did you pick it up from Charter?
6. Was the card in another device then put in the Sony?
7. At any point have you taken the card out then put it back in?

hdaddiction

12-02-05, 11:57 AM

As a follow up to my post on the cable card, got Charter in St Louis to come, after I stopped by their local office. Found that IT WAS the copy protection ENABLED that had to be turned off. Once that happened, it work.

Now if I can get the tvgos guide to fill up properly, it will be sweet.

Gotta love the 30 sec skip and the ability to program it up 90 secs.

HDaddiction

MTKSU

12-02-05, 02:18 PM

How good is the OTA Ant your using?

Not fancy, but good enough to pick up all my local stations in Lincoln NE (we have all the networks except NBC). Not good enough to pick up the Omaha analog signals (Omaha is about 60 miles away). but good enough to pick up the Omaha digital signals (which as we know doesn't matter for TVGOS).

Are you in NE also? If so and you have other information to share please let me know.

Alan58

12-02-05, 02:44 PM

Received a call from Gemstar-TV Guide about my problem of not getting the listings nor the time on my Sony DVR. Only problem was I couldn't figure out the phone number he gave me because he talked so fast. It was 800-386-7???. Anyone have their phone number or know where to find it?

jeffcmcc

12-02-05, 03:26 PM

mswlogo

12-02-05, 05:24 PM

I just got a Cable Card, but I put it in the TV first. Can I move it to the Sony DVR or is it programmed for a specific device?

aholic

12-02-05, 06:13 PM

The remote issue is minor, in my opinion. I have a universal remote that operates the Sony box with no issues (each and every command is accounted for).

It is the Harmony 880, and it ROCKS.

Do you have discreet Power On and Power Off buttons for the Sony on the Harmony 880?

PhillyC

12-02-05, 06:14 PM

A CableCARD is tied to a specific device. In fact, once the card is activated, some of the necessary information may be stored on your device rather than the card itself (according to a Comcast tech supervisor). After activation, I was able to successfully remove the card and re-insert it in the Sony. It still worked fine.

But you cannot insert it in a different device. the cableco would have to send a new hit and pair it with the 2nd device (which of course would not allow you to use it in the 1st device.) The whole idea is that you are not allowed to take your card to a friend's house and use it to "steal" cable for him.

spiff72

12-02-05, 06:38 PM

Do you have discreet Power On and Power Off buttons for the Sony on the Harmony 880?

Yep. I had to send Harmony Tech support the hex codes for a Pronto remote and added them to my account.

Just tried them for the first time 5 minutes ago, and it works nicely.

These are the codes I sent them:

Power On:
0000 0067 0000 0015 0060 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 01d9

Power Off:
0000 0067 0000 0015 0060 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 01d9

Prev Channel:
0000 0067 0000 0015 0060 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0018 0018 0018 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0030 0018 0018 01d9

aholic

12-02-05, 07:05 PM

Yep. I had to send Harmony Tech support the hex codes for a Pronto remote and added them to my account.

Just tried them for the first time 5 minutes ago, and it works nicely.

...snip...

Awesome, thank you.

mswlogo

12-02-05, 07:55 PM

mswlogo

12-02-05, 07:58 PM

spiff72

12-02-05, 08:26 PM

Awesome, thank you.
No problem - glad I could help.

PhillyC

12-02-05, 09:43 PM

Question on AUTO HDMI.

Is this a global setting or only per station.

When on Auto some stations have trouble (Pioneer 5060).
But when I switch it to 1080i it works like a champ.

Is there a way to globally set this to 1080i. It seems to be per channel or it keeps flipping back to Auto HDMI.

AUTO HDMI is global and it varies the output according to the signal it's receiving. It can be annoying. If you manually switch to 720p for example, it will stay that way until you change it. But when you turn off the unit, depending on how long it is off, it may switch back to AUTO HDMI on its own. This is the behavior when using an HDMI > DVI adapter.

I called Sony on this months ago and they said this is a "feature". The unit determines if AUTO HDMI is best for us. But why does this only apply after the unit is off for some amount of time? Very strange.

Someone here did a poll on this, but I don't think there were a lot of responses at the time. If I recall, HDMI > HDMI did not have this problem.

mswlogo

12-02-05, 10:13 PM

AUTO HDMI is global and it varies the output according to the signal it's receiving. It can be annoying. If you manually switch to 720p for example, it will stay that way until you change it. But when you turn off the unit, depending on how long it is off, it may switch back to AUTO HDMI on its own. This is the behavior when using an HDMI > DVI adapter.

I called Sony on this months ago and they said this is a "feature". The unit determines if AUTO HDMI is best for us. But why does this only apply after the unit is off for some amount of time? Very strange.

Someone here did a poll on this, but I don't think there were a lot of responses at the time. If I recall, HDMI > HDMI did not have this problem.

This is HDMI to HDMI.

jtbell

12-03-05, 01:27 AM

Is there a way to globally set this to 1080i. It seems to be per channel or it keeps flipping back to Auto HDMI.

As far as I know the only way to keep the unit from switching back to Auto HDMI whenever you turn it on, is to not use HDMI. That is, use a component-video connecton instead. That's what I finally did.

Sirluckyj

12-03-05, 02:27 AM

I am using HDMI-HDMI and it switches back to Auto HDMI when the unit is off for a period of time. I like to watch all at 1080i. I am using a Gefen 4x1 HDMI switcher which has no effect on this issue.

Jim

Alan58

12-03-05, 07:39 AM

Check post #1087 -- Cheryl, 800-386-7380.

Thanks, appreciate the help.

SteveGoTex

12-03-05, 08:03 AM

This behavior must have something to do with the device the DVR is plugged into. I have a Panasonic PT-L500U projector with a DVI input. I use the HDMI to DVI adapter the DVR came with, and it remains in 720P output mode no matter how long the DVR is powered down. When the projector is powered down, it is in standby mode also. There must be some vestigial power or signal that remains alive on the projector DVI interface while it is in standby, so that when both are turned back on, the DVR stays in 720P.

I noticed that when I removed the HDMI cable and plugged it back in, the DVR went back to AUTO HDMI.

AUTO HDMI is global and it varies the output according to the signal it's receiving. It can be annoying. If you manually switch to 720p for example, it will stay that way until you change it. But when you turn off the unit, depending on how long it is off, it may switch back to AUTO HDMI on its own. This is the behavior when using an HDMI > DVI adapter.

I called Sony on this months ago and they said this is a "feature". The unit determines if AUTO HDMI is best for us. But why does this only apply after the unit is off for some amount of time? Very strange.

Someone here did a poll on this, but I don't think there were a lot of responses at the time. If I recall, HDMI > HDMI did not have this problem.

jeffcmcc

12-03-05, 03:44 PM

Thanks, appreciate the help.
You bet. Hope you got the problem solved.

spiff72

12-03-05, 04:32 PM

hdaddiction

12-03-05, 05:51 PM

Some observations on this Sony HDD 250 versus the Moxi....

I have had the Moxi for almost a year. Here in St Louis all the HD locals save ABC are in charter's lineup. Moxi had two tuners which really made it nice and the reception and playback was very good, although I think the sound was sub par. After awhile of using Moxi, two small things began to drive me nuts, one was the lack of a grid schedule, apparantly they did not want to pay a royalty on the patent holder of the grid and second the fast forward was IRRIATING......not to mention Charter's inability to get ABC in HD oh, and it would delete automacticly

So I started looking around for some alternative to MOXI. I primarly watch OTA HD and some cable movies amc tnt turner fox....

Got the sony and was intrigued by it esp if it could do everything my MOXI could do. At first I was bummed out that it had only one tuner, but the more I used it, I realized that the storage capacity makes up for the tuner as, once you get a bit a head of the recordings, you can replay back and record. So that tended to mitigate the loss of the turner.

What I love about it is the 30 sec skip and how fast it goes through the dreaded commercials, the sound is fantastic, loving not to have pay for the schedule, (crossing fingers), however if you have cable, it can also get the time from the cable co. Oh, as an added bonus, the ease to add a second hard drive to double the capacity.

Building a media center was out of the question since the wife watches also.

Anyway I think for me and my location the Sony is awesome...and I don't work for em!

HDaddiction

spiff72

12-03-05, 06:28 PM

Some observations on this Sony HDD 250 versus the Moxi....

Oh, as an added bonus, the ease to add a second hard drive to double the capacity.

Do you really know how easy it is? :D

Have you tried it? I am still waiting to hear from someone to see if the "Format hard drive" option in the service menu will format a new drive that is added (without having to format the one that is already there).

hdaddiction

12-03-05, 09:20 PM

Spiff72, I make that claim based that it is easy to add a 2nd drive by these issues
1- there is actually mention of a hdd in the service menus and appropriate software appears to be on the machine to handle the device
2- it is linux based
3- the hardware spot is there save the drive, connector and power plug
4- a leap of faith on sony, with the WIDE spread distrution, perhaps thought ahead of dealing with the large number of independant service shops, may have, repeat may have, decided to have soft ware on the machine for those mom N pops to fix a failed hard drive.
5- going into the hard drive menu format, ask you if you wish to format the hard drive and it will after formatting the hard drive, will go through a factory reboot.

Your honor, while this is ALL circumstantial, I rest my case.

Will I add a second hard drive?, you bet! I have a 250 gig on my desk from Tiger direct. But, I'm only into day 8 of having the machine and I more concerned about the tv guide filling up at the moment.

I guess time will tell eh?

HDaddiction

spiff72

12-03-05, 09:25 PM

Will I add a second hard drive?, you bet! I have a 250 gig on my desk from Tiger direct.

HDaddiction

Did you buy the same model as the drive in the unit, or is it a different model?

And you haven't gotten the guide to fill after day 8? That is a bummer. How long has it been since the last reboot/restart of the guide data acquisition?

Entegrity

12-03-05, 10:42 PM

Has anyone had a problem with the sound cutting out for a second? I noticed my reciever looses the sound input, just like when I change my channel. It seems to happen every 15 seconds for about 5 minutes then stop, sometimes changing the channel makes it go away for a while.

I've got the Sony DHG ->HDMI-> Yamaha AV Reciever ->HDMI-> Sony TV

Also do I need an antenna if I'm using a CableCard? Before I got the CableCard I got "some" program information from TVG, but since I got the CableCard I haven't gotten any TVG. My time is correct though.

I have Comcast.

TIA.

buccikong

12-03-05, 11:59 PM

Has anyone had a problem with the sound cutting out for a second?

I have the sound problem too. I brought it up in post #973 and others have experienced it as well.

Here's a link to the post:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=6447355#post6447355

hdaddiction

12-04-05, 12:52 AM

entegirty..\
"I've got the Sony DHG ->HDMI-> Yamaha AV Reciever ->HDMI-> Sony TV"

why don't you run the hdmi out to tv, and the optical to the yamaha...thats what I do..and no problems.

..

PhillyC

12-04-05, 11:23 AM

Also do I need an antenna if I'm using a CableCard? Before I got the CableCard I got "some" program information from TVG, but since I got the CableCard I haven't gotten any TVG. My time is correct though.

I have Comcast.

TIA.

Is your area on ADS? You need the TVGOS host station to be analog. It's possible your card has been provisioned for all digital, which means the host channel would not pass the guide data to your Sony. Comcast is well aware of this problem. Call them.

Rbrodzinsky

12-04-05, 12:30 PM

Is there any trick to re-ordering the channels? Do you just have to methodically go through and assign the channel order to each channel? If I spend an hour doing this, could I lose the changes in the future in the event of a power loss? (I am considering plugging a UPS in behind the TV to back up this unit, my Tivo, and the TV (just long enough to shut it off properly - letting the fans cool the lamp down).

Thanks!

I've only lost the channel ordering when the TVGOS changes, not when the power goes out. Of course, during the "great TVGOS debacle" of a few weeks ago, I waited a few days, after the first resetting, before taking the time to reorder the channels.

hdaddiction

12-04-05, 01:23 PM

I think I figured out why my TVguide is not filling out. After I reset it, and I get two days and the 8the day. Then I go through the guide and take out all the stations that I don't use and all the "analog" OTA stations. And what I have read from previous post, it is broadcasted in analog.

Anyone know which station in St louis, for sure?

thanks.

HDaddiction

jtbell

12-04-05, 04:51 PM

Anyone know which station in St louis, for sure?

You can find out which station your unit is expecting to get the guide data from, by looking at the TV Guide diagnostic menu. Search this thread for the string "753159852" and you'll turn up postings about how to get to that menu, and where the "host channel" information is located in it.

Daniel Tonks

12-04-05, 07:31 PM

It's likely to be on PBS, FOX or PAX/i... so don't go removing those. :-)

PhillyC

12-04-05, 07:39 PM

CBS and ABC can also be host channels in certain areas.

dp70

12-04-05, 08:20 PM

There's been a lot of FUD (http://fud.urbanup.com/181688) in this thread about these units becoming doorstops when analog television broadcasts cease, but I'm not so sure that's the case. In the TVGOS factory test, the stats screen seems to indicate that the existing firmware is prepared to receive packets from three sources: VBI (vertical blank interrupt of an analog broadcast), plus "ATSC:PAT" and "ATSC:PMT". Sure seems like the second two might correspond to packets delivered as part of a digital transmission. If anyone manages to reach a technical person at GemStar, please try to confirm that this indeed indicates that the firmware is capable of receiving the guide data digitally.

hdaddiction

12-04-05, 08:50 PM

Regarding tvguide in the St Louis market, it appears to be channel 9 pbs. That was one channel I was deleting, hence the inability to get the guide. Live and Learn.

Hdaddiction

CH MN

12-04-05, 09:19 PM

bierboy

12-04-05, 09:21 PM

Although I do not own one of these units (yet?), I have posted about TVGOS issues on my Samsung HDTV. Please confirm when you say you delete the TVGOS channel that you mean from the Sony DHG-HDD channel list not from the TVGOS listing. My experience with the Samsung TV is that I can delete the ANALOG channel from the TVGOS listing and everything is fine. If I delete that one channel from the Samsung channel list, I start to lose listings.

It is kind of annoying when flipping channels, we have to always flip through that one station (which does not come in good and is a duplicate of the digital channel). I do not understand why these manufacturers cannot come up with a way to figure out which channel contains the TVGOS information and pass it to the TVGOS chip/program without having to have it in their channel list.

I might have missed a page or two, did somebody say Sony was discontinuing these units without announcing a replacement?
See...this is the exact reason I'm dumping the Sony and patiently awaiting the TiVo SA dual tuner HD in 2006; it's program guide and user interface is light years ahead of TVGOS and Sony's interface.
...and, yes, Sony IS dumping the unit with no replacement announced -- another reason the Sony goes back.

I'm sure folks who have the Sony but have never used a TiVo may not understand my position. But for the past two weeks plus I've been using the Sony and the TiVo, and, the more I compare, the more dissatisfied I get with the Sony. Just too clunky...and now that it's been discontinued so soon after it was unveiled, I just don't see any reason to stick with it.

Alan Curry

12-05-05, 10:25 AM

Received the new WD 250GB HD from the Circuit City Black Friday sale. I will try upgrading my HDD250 in the next day or two and follow up with the results.
Mark,

Did you get a chance to install the 2nd drive?

Alan

verriere

12-05-05, 12:29 PM

There's been a lot of FUD in this thread about these units becoming doorstops when analog television broadcasts cease, but I'm not so sure that's the case. In the TVGOS factory test, the stats screen seems to indicate that the existing firmware is prepared to receive packets from three sources: VBI (vertical blank interrupt of an analog broadcast), plus "ATSC:PAT" and "ATSC:PMT". Sure seems like the second two might correspond to packets delivered as part of a digital transmission. If anyone manages to reach a technical person at GemStar, please try to confirm that this indeed indicates that the firmware is capable of receiving the guide data digitally.

Could you expand on "the TVGOS factory test" and "the stats screen"? Are these associated with the Sony DVR? If so, I am very surprised that nobody at Sony tech support with whom I spoke acknowledged, when asked directly, that the Sony DVRs could extract TVGOS data from any source other than analog TV.

mmccking

12-05-05, 12:47 PM

Is the hard drive allways on, even after power off? Is there anyway to turn it off besides pulling the plug?

Doesn't having the HD on 24x7 increase the chances of HD failure? Does TIVO do this?

bierboy

12-05-05, 12:59 PM

Is the hard drive allways on, even after power off? Is there anyway to turn it off besides pulling the plug?

Doesn't having the HD on 24x7 increase the chances of HD failure? Does TIVO do this?Yes, the hard drive(s) are always on, short of pulling the plug. Theoretically, it could reduce hard drive life, but, these days, hard drives last a LONG time. And, yes, TiVo hard drives run constantly (again, short of pulling the plug).

spiff72

12-05-05, 01:03 PM

Ray1938

12-05-05, 01:46 PM

Yep - TiVo cannot be turned off, so the drive is recording 24/7/365.

The hard drive in the Motorola dual tuner DVR, which I rent from Comcast, also runs continuously.

bierboy

12-05-05, 05:44 PM

nameless33

12-05-05, 05:56 PM

philspice1

12-05-05, 06:01 PM

I'm in the market for a hdtv set top box/tuner. I understand the Sony DHG has a nice combined OTA and Cable tuner set up. I was wondering if the tuner functions independently of the TVGOS ie even if you lost all your TVGOS data, can you still punch in channel numbers and have the tuners work properly for simply watching TV ? Also once you've dialed in a channel can you hit record and "manually" record the program as long as you're there when it starts ? If I see one of these things real cheap it may be a useful item to me.
You can tune to any channel just fine without TVGOS. However, I doubt you would be able to record at all without TVGOS to control the end time (or beginning time) since TVGOS sets the clock on these units. I have not attempted to record without any TVGOS data, though.

kbgl

12-05-05, 06:33 PM

I'm in the market for a hdtv set top box/tuner. I understand the Sony DHG has a nice combined OTA and Cable tuner set up. I was wondering if the tuner functions independently of the TVGOS ie even if you lost all your TVGOS data, can you still punch in channel numbers and have the tuners work properly for simply watching TV ? Also once you've dialed in a channel can you hit record and "manually" record the program as long as you're there when it starts ? If I see one of these things real cheap it may be a useful item to me.

It looks to me like the manual recording would still work even if the time is wrong and there is no guide. You could also connect a dvd recorder to it. The outputs for the dvd recorder can be scheduled. If you can make sure it's on the right channel, the dvd recorder can record at the precise time. These dvd recordings of hd shows look very good.

If you mostly need a tuner, Circuit City had the LG set top box / upconverting DVD player for $200 this past weekend. It was $400 a while back.

philspice1

12-05-05, 06:35 PM

It looks to me like the manual recording would still work even if the time is wrong and there is no guide. You could also connect a dvd recorder to it. The outputs for the dvd recorder can be scheduled. If you can make sure it's on the right channel, the dvd recorder can record at the precise time. These dvd recordings of hd shows look very good.

If you mostly need a tuner, Circuit City had the LG set top box / upconverting DVD player for $200 this past weekend. It was $400 a while back.
If there is no TVGOS data at all, the time would not be merely "wrong" it would be non-existent (the display will show --:--).

Daniel Tonks

12-05-05, 07:31 PM

Although the outside display shows --:--, internally the clock starts running at 12:00 AM from the moment you plug it in.

rcrach

12-05-05, 08:07 PM

It looks to me like the manual recording would still work even if the time is wrong and there is no guide. You could also connect a dvd recorder to it. The outputs for the dvd recorder can be scheduled. If you can make sure it's on the right channel, the dvd recorder can record at the precise time. These dvd recordings of hd shows look very good.

If you mostly need a tuner, Circuit City had the LG set top box / upconverting DVD player for $200 this past weekend. It was $400 a while back.

The last thing I tried before returning the unit was a manual record with no guide. No luck, It needs the guide to basically do anything. There is no "limp along" mode. Without the guide it's doorstop and will not even do basic VCR functions.

rcrach

12-05-05, 08:14 PM

I take that back. It will pause live TV, if that's worth 500 dollars.

Entegrity

12-05-05, 08:30 PM

entegirty..\
"I've got the Sony DHG ->HDMI-> Yamaha AV Reciever ->HDMI-> Sony TV"

why don't you run the hdmi out to tv, and the optical to the yamaha...thats what I do..and no problems.

..

Are you saying this is the work around to the audio bug? One of the main reasons I bought the unit is for HDMI w/ my HDMI reciever.

hdaddiction

12-05-05, 08:34 PM

Actually it will record without the guide, i have done it...what it does need is the clock.

My god, what bashing though....If you don't like a product return it....What doomsday.

A couple of points though, it can get the time and guide from either OTA anaolog or Digital or Cable, it does not need to OTA.

Some one said this thing appears to be history...gimme a break, what customer electrictronics is not history?....who has a xbox?....are you throwing that out?

Fact is NO ONE knows what Sony discontinued it, maybe they have a dual tuner OTA HD recorder, or maybe they have a "triple" turner OTA HD. Or maybe they are combining it into a TV like LG.

Some guys wanna go for the vapor ware TIVO....go for it...its a free country...

Anyone read TIVO's financials lately? Last year they lost $75 Mil on Sales of $172 MIl...
Yeah, last quarter they only lost $449000 on $39Mil

Here's my bet, my cable company just doubled the moxi rental, so this unit will pay back in 24 months...If I salvage it I get $50 bucks for the cables, and $50 bucks for the hard drive and it will still function as an OTA HD tuner at the least.

Ray1938

12-05-05, 08:50 PM

This thing appears to be history...Crutchfield is now offering the 250 for $499 new and the 500 for $699 new. Can you say "clearance"? And Best Buy now lists the 250 as sold out. Curiously, they still have the 500 at full retail price.

Good time to buy one before they are no longer available. Seems like this product was released prematurely, before all the bugs were worked out. On the otherhand, I am very happy to own one - in spite of the bugs.

The Sony may not be perfect but it's far superior to any VCR, and in some ways better than TIVO. I initially ordered mine last December and finally received it in mid June. I couldn't wait to get it and spent lots of time on the web searching for information about its availability.
I've experienced some of the problems mentioned in this form, including failure to record Commander and Chief, and am willing to accept those flaws. I'm not concerned about losing TV Guide since they are probably under contract with Sony to provide that service.
On the other hand, I understand TIVO recorders become paperweights without their guide, and since the TIVO company has yet to make a profit, who is to say that TIVO won't go out of business.

With the Sony OTA feature, I record Veronica Mars in HD, which is not carried by Comcast. Also, if the cable goes out, I still have access to the network programs.
Initally, signal strength was too low to view that station until I replaced my old dual VHF/UHF antenna with the Radioshack $25 UHF antenna.

Another feature I enjoy is the ability to fast forward instantly. The dual tuner Motorola HD recorder doesn't have that feature, and I predict that it won't be included on future recorders because of pressure from advertisers.

One of the complaints about the Sony is the lack of dual tuner. That is easily solved by getting a second unit.

spiff72

12-05-05, 09:11 PM

Are you saying this is the work around to the audio bug? One of the main reasons I bought the unit is for HDMI w/ my HDMI reciever.

I actually choose NOT to use HDMI, because my TV (a Mits WD-62525 DLP) has an HDMI input that looks detailed, but very washed out. I have tried to correct it by making video adjustment, but I haven't gotten it to look right. Component video looks much better.

However, my understanding is that the HDMI output only carries Dolby Digital 2.0. The HDMI interface doesn't allow for 5.1 channel audio. I am sure someone will correct this if I am wrong, so fire away! I'm not saying that using the optical out will fix the audio problems, but I haven't had any audio dropouts for my setup.

jlentz

12-05-05, 09:14 PM

Good time to buy one before they are no longer available. Seems like this product was released prematurely, before all the bugs were worked out. On the otherhand, I am very happy to own one - in spite of the bugs.

The Sony may not be perfect but it's far superior to any VCR, and in some ways better than TIVO. I initially ordered mine last December and finally received it in mid June. I couldn't wait to get it and spent lots of time on the web searching for information about its availability.
I've experienced some of the problems mentioned in this form, including failure to record Commander and Chief, and am willing to accept those flaws. I'm not concerned about losing TV Guide since they are probably under contract with Sony to provide that service.
On the other hand, I understand TIVO recorders become paperweights without their guide, and since the TIVO company has yet to make a profit, who is to say that TIVO won't go out of business.

With the Sony OTA feature, I record Veronica Mars in HD, which is not carried by Comcast. Also, if the cable goes out, I still have access to the network programs.
Initally, signal strength was too low to view that station until I replaced my old dual VHF/UHF antenna with the Radioshack $25 UHF antenna.

Another feature I enjoy is the ability to fast forward instantly. The dual tuner Motorola HD recorder doesn't have that feature, and I predict that it won't be included on future recorders because of pressure from advertisers.

One of the complaints about the Sony is the lack of dual tuner. That is easily solved by getting a second unit.

I have to agree 100%. I've only had mine for about 1 week and I love it completely. I previously had only a VCR, so compared to that this is heaven. I don't have cable or a dish, so all I wanted to pay for was an OTA HD tuner/DVR. My kids have already gotten spoiled by sleeping in and watching their cartoons that came on earlier, skipping all the commercials, and getting it all in static free, ghost free pictures.

John

bierboy

12-05-05, 09:37 PM

Good time to buy one before they are no longer available. Seems like this product was released prematurely, before all the bugs were worked out. On the otherhand, I am very happy to own one - in spite of the bugs.

The Sony may not be perfect but it's far superior to any VCR, and in some ways better than TIVO. I initially ordered mine last December and finally received it in mid June. I couldn't wait to get it and spent lots of time on the web searching for information about its availability.
I've experienced some of the problems mentioned in this form, including failure to record Commander and Chief, and am willing to accept those flaws. I'm not concerned about losing TV Guide since they are probably under contract with Sony to provide that service.
On the other hand, I understand TIVO recorders become paperweights without their guide, and since the TIVO company has yet to make a profit, who is to say that TIVO won't go out of business.

With the Sony OTA feature, I record Veronica Mars in HD, which is not carried by Comcast. Also, if the cable goes out, I still have access to the network programs.
Initally, signal strength was too low to view that station until I replaced my old dual VHF/UHF antenna with the Radioshack $25 UHF antenna.

Another feature I enjoy is the ability to fast forward instantly. The dual tuner Motorola HD recorder doesn't have that feature, and I predict that it won't be included on future recorders because of pressure from advertisers.

One of the complaints about the Sony is the lack of dual tuner. That is easily solved by getting a second unit.Yeah...for another $500 or $700...no thanks. I WILL wait for TiVo. Every feature mentioned by you and hdaddiction is available NOW on TiVo SA SD units and I'm sure will be even more so on the SA dual tuner HD unit coming in '06. And even in the remote chance the TiVo doesn't materialize, I can either get this unit back (at a MUCH lower price) or get the Sony "dual' or "triple" tuner unit hdaddiction referred to. Any way you cut it, I'm ahead. My Sony is packed and going back tomorrow. Sayonara...

PhillyC

12-05-05, 10:06 PM

You can always wait for the next, better thing in electronics. And wait. And wait. Because there will always be something better around the corner.

But not me. I bought a Sony plasma in December of 2002, before having a cableco that had HD. I struggled with early OTA tuners and indoor antennas and D-VHS decks. Then I got on the condo association committee that would prod everyone into going with Comcast. I struggled with the LG HD DVR. Now I have the Sony DVR along with the Comcast 6412.

Sure, I could have waited for everything in the HD world to be perfect before spending a buck. I'd still be waiting.

Instead, I've been enjoying HDTV for three wonderful years. With the two current boxes, I have three HD tuners. The DVR's can store a combined total of over 80 hours of HD programming. (And just in time for the White Sox championship season.) It's HD heaven.

I'm glad I didn't wait.

Daniel Tonks

12-05-05, 10:19 PM

HDMI carries 5.1 audio just fine. But your receiving device has to support it, and some do not.

I'm very happy to have my DHG-HDD500 and, while it's not perfect, you certainly can't claim the Motorola or Scientific Atlanta products are perfect either. In fact my 8300HD has been far less reliable at recording programs and in general just "working" compared to the DHG - the 8300 has tons of bugs. And you can't talk about the potential TiVo until the thing is actually out.

Discontinued... who knows why.

Another product coming out? The DHG was so delayed in its initial release the next one is probably ready to roll.

Sony giving up on the whole DVR market? I doubt it, they've been making them for ages and have plenty of new Japanese models.

TVGOS issues? Certainly I doubt they're happy with having to rely on TVGOS, but there are a lot of other devices out there using the exact same software so they're not alone. Unless you pay for the information it's the only free guide alternative. And don't think that TVGOS is going to be made obsolete any time soon. As mentioned there are TONS of units with this same software and Gemstar has been very good at supporting old devices. Heck, my ancient VCR still gets channel mapping information with station names. And they've already stated that they're working on ways to get information from HDTV signals and it would be a simple matter to send a firmware update to support this.

For all we know it's some conflict with some of the GPL software used in the Sony's firmware.

mswlogo

12-05-05, 10:39 PM

Fact is NO ONE knows what Sony discontinued it, maybe they have a dual tuner OTA HD recorder, or maybe they have a "triple" turner OTA HD. Or maybe they are combining it into a TV like LG.

I agree, or maybe Sony is buying Tivo. Who knows.

The box exceeds my expectations.

spiff72

12-05-05, 10:41 PM

HDMI carries 5.1 audio just fine. But your receiving device has to support it, and some do not.

I'm very happy to have my DHG-HDD500...

Daniel,

You say your DHG-HDD500 above...

I thought you said you had a 250. Did you successfully upgrade it to a 500??

Daniel Tonks

12-06-05, 04:41 AM

No, I've always had the 500.

brianvann

12-06-05, 06:05 AM

Sorry if this question has been asked/answered before, I checked and couldn't find any reference to it. I just started researching these Sony DVRs, and I don't see any mention of whether or not you can rip the recorded shows to PC hard drive like you can other DVRs via firewire connection.

Thanks

spiff72

12-06-05, 07:51 AM

No, I've always had the 500.

Sorry. Just realized that I was thinking of someone else!

kbgl

12-06-05, 11:44 AM

Actually it will record without the guide, i have done it...what it does need is the clock.

I want to confirm this for myself. What do I need to do to lose my guide information and clock setting? Will unplugging the unit do the trick?
I will delete all analog channels and see if the guide or time still fills in.

cosmicvoid

12-06-05, 02:05 PM

CCOUPE

12-06-05, 02:20 PM

This thing appears to be history...Crutchfield is now offering the 250 for $499 new and the 500 for $699 new. Can you say "clearance"? And Best Buy now lists the 250 as sold out. Curiously, they still have the 500 at full retail price.

I picked up a 250 at a bestbuy store on Saturday and it looked like they still had 3 left? When I look at bestbuy online they still say this store has it available for pickup but seems you can't buy it online anymore. Probably because the warehouses are sold out but not the stores? They will probably pull some back from the stores. The store I made the pickup from did not even have the DHG on display. The guy only knew about it because an employee had bought one? I got an extra $20 discount ordering online so with the gift card and taxes it ended up just under $500.

Mine installed really nicely without any problems. I had TV Guide the next morning. It is a lot of work to get the TV guide channels arranged and turn off all the channels we will not be watching. I use OTA antenna and basic cable so it is nice to not have to switch devices when changing between HD OTA and a cable channel. No problems so far.

spiff72

12-06-05, 02:21 PM

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

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

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

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

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

Interesting information...

You might be right about the "Format" option just duplicating the partition like you said.

I am guessing that you were unable to to access that service menu (Menu -> Screen Mode -> 1234 or 9012) when the unit was in theis error state?

What kind of power cable (and IDE cable) did you end up using? And how did you set the Master and Slave jumpers on the first and second drives? What is the original drive's jumper set to?

Finally, the back of the manual refers to XFS as one component of the unit (and XFS is an SGI-developed journalling file system that can be used for linux). Perhaps you need a knoppix boot cd with XFS support...

BTW, I am no linux expert - I just have a little bit of knowledge that I got from running a linux machine "for fun".

Alan Curry

12-06-05, 03:00 PM

Maybe I will try a partitioned drive (with which filesystem?) in the 2nd bay.
Partition type and filesystems are two different things. Try partitioning the drive as Linux native filesystem (type 83) then put it back in the Sony and see what happens. If you don't get a error then see if you can format it in the Sony.

Alan

mswlogo

12-06-05, 03:11 PM

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

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

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

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

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

In addition to other suggestions, you might try just putting in the new blank drive in place of the original. Same jumpers etc. This way you won't hose your original drive. I suspect both drives are configured the same or very similar. Be nice to know that the original master drive can be replaced in the event it ever fails as well. This will also verifiy that the drive is correct drive type etc.

After that success, then try the dual config.

Baby steps.

spiff72

12-06-05, 03:54 PM

In addition to other suggestions, you might try just putting in the new blank drive in place of the original. Same jumpers etc. This way you won't hose your original drive. I suspect both drives are configured the same or very similar. Be nice to know that the original master drive can be replaced in the event it ever fails as well. This will also verifiy that the drive is correct drive type etc.

After that success, then try the dual config.

Baby steps.

Good point, mswlogo.

dp70

12-06-05, 04:15 PM

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

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

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

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

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

1. If you replace the 250's single drive with an identical brand new bare drive (unpartitioned), the Sony cannot deal with it and recover. It does not get past the Sony boot logo screen. Partitioning the drive and putting a valid filesystem on it does not make a difference. From watching the hard drive activity LED on the mainboard for a successful boot, it is pretty clear that the Sony runs a flash-based bootloader that in turn loads those firmware files from disk. So the first thing I did was to make a backup of those firmware files so that I can recover if the drive fails.

2. If you simply connect the second drive as a slave on the IDE bus, set the original drive to master (original setting was Cable Select), the drive is not automatically initialized. However, I was able to get the system up and running enough to see the second hard drive appear in the diagnostic menus with 0% free space. The DVR model was still shown as HDD250.

3. With two drives connected, there is no way to choose which drive to format. I tried formatting (realizing I was going to lose the stored content on my main drive) and the format operation failed with the unit restarting repeatedly until I disconnected the second drive. The Sony then happily formatted the main drive and booted into "out of box" setup mode. I am pretty sure the "format" terminology refers only to performing a mkfs.xfs operation on the video storage area-- the firmware partitions are not disturbed.

4. I tried creating a single large partition on the second drive, but the Sony still refused to format the drive. I tried creating a valid xfs filesystem on that large partition... still no luck.

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

6. I confirmed the two hard drive power connectors in the Sony's power supply are tied together electrically, so it should be OK to use a Y-cable to run both drives off the single PC-style power connector. I went ahead and made a power cable just in case, though. One end needs to be a standard 4-pin Molex PC power plug, and the other end needs to be the smaller size 3.5" floppy drive power connector. The header on the power supply uses a different locking mechanism, but the pinout and pin spacing are the same, and the floppy drive plug fits well enough.

7. Mounting the second drive requires four extra-long screws and the fabrication of some anti-shock rubber mounts that are not present on the second mounting sled. I used two sizes of rubber grommets for this (photos to follow) and the results came out pretty well.

Stay tuned...

jtbell

12-06-05, 05:53 PM

This morning I saw a posting from someone asking me how the tuner in the Sony compares with the one in the Accurian STB that Radio Shack has been clearing out at $90 the past few months. I can't find that posting now (must have been in a different thread), but here's my response.

As far as I can tell, the two units are about equally sensitive to weak signals. If there's a difference, I haven't noticed it. Although I mainly use the Sony as my digital receiver now, I still use the Accurian as my second receiver when I want to watch one channel while recording another. I also use it for adjusting my antenna because it has a nicer signal strength meter that you can access quickly with a dedicated button on the remote. Just now I tried rotating the antenna to the point where the picture on one station starts to break up, and it seems to be about the same postion for both receivers.

I can't judge multipath or overload performance because I don't have any major "reflectors" nearby, and I'm too far from my stations to get a super strong signal from any of them.

rcrach

12-06-05, 06:05 PM

If it's similar to the Pioneer DVRs the hard drives have a CPRM ID. The Pioneer needs a service remote and service dvd to write the ID. In the Sonys case It might just be a service remote, or something that plugs into the USB port or the drives are factory configured.

Rammitinski

12-07-05, 12:44 AM

dp70

12-07-05, 06:55 AM

So I think rcrach is right: there is apparently a CPRM issue. The Sony will not boot from an identical cloned drive. The message displayed on the front panel for various cases:

With the clone drive only: 0904 ERR 0008000

Both drives, clone as master: 0904 ERR 0008000

Both drives, clone as slave: 0904 ERR 1000000

I've ruled out all the obvious stuff like bad cable, bad jumper settings, etc. It's possible I made a mistake cloning the drive (48-bit LBA Linux issues?).

It was pretty naive of me to think that this could have "just worked". At this point, I've exhausted the patience of my family and need to get the HDD250 back in service, so I'm taking a break for a while. I'll touch base with an old contact at Sony for possible assistance. In the meantime, if any lurkers would like to step forward with the service manual procedure for drive troubleshooting and replacement, that would be appreciated...

dp70

12-07-05, 09:17 AM

I set the HDD250 back up and all seemed well until about an hour later, this popped up:

http://dp70.dyndns.org/tmp/hdd250_hderror.jpg

Going to try a format from the service menu, but since I never wrote to the disk ever, I am worried that some sort of anti-tamper mechanism was activated by connecting a disk other than the one blessed at manufacturing. :(

(You gotta love that weather caption... "NOT AS COLD, 14 DEGREES")

Alan58

12-07-05, 09:35 AM

[QUOTE=Daniel Tonks]

Type in the number "753159852". You'll now be in the diagnostics menu... use up/down to select category, and left/right to see other screens. When you first enter the menu, if you hit RIGHT you can see what Host Channel it's using (ignore the VBI Channel, that seems to just be the last .

Just received my second unit. Time came on within first two hours but no TVGO listings this morning. Checked for host channel and it is blank. What does that mean? Also checked version and I have 08:01:42 followed by all zeros.

dp70

12-07-05, 09:53 AM

dozens

12-07-05, 11:26 AM

Mark - Thanks for all your efforts. I hope you can get your box back online.

hdaddiction

12-07-05, 12:11 PM

I will check some sources about getting a Service Manual for the Sony....to help Mark

I will let you know.

spiff72

12-07-05, 01:12 PM

That really sucks, Mark. I hope your sources can track down a service manual for the Sony.

Jeff

Munkeung

12-07-05, 01:15 PM

Did a reset to factory defaults and that completely killed the unit. It will not boot up now and displays only 0206 ERR 200FF80. Fortunately, I know what that code means. It means "if it ain't broke, don't fix it".

Mark,

I've watching your posts with great interest and my sony hhd250 is still in the box unopened. Your effort is much appreciated.

al

Ruidh

12-07-05, 01:29 PM

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

I also got my hands on a target.cfs file from a helpful friend and I, too, guessed that it was a cramfs and could not mount the filesystem.

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

I guess we need to look at the source code on the Sony site to see if it has been modified.

One thought, the hard disks in a TiVo are byte swapped and need to be mounted in a byte-swapped manner. Is there a similar option for loop mounting a cramfs? Is there a fack for cramfs?

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

I have it on good authority that the firmware is updated from a USB key in exactly this way.

cosmicvoid

12-07-05, 02:01 PM

Mark,
Sorry to see that your HDD250 has become unusable. That's a bummer (I wonder if the Sony programming geeks are cackling evilly, saying "ha, we caught our first one"). Thanks for the information, though.

I decided that, with my ad hoc Linux setup and lack of experience, that I was out of my league on this experiment, so I decided to sit back and watch. It looks like the only hope for this project is some 'inside help'. I wonder if the drive signature is burned into the boot flash, for tamper detection.

dp70

12-07-05, 02:58 PM

Thanks for the support, guys. An offline contact suggested a few things to try this evening. At this point, the service manual would help the most.

Ruidh, good call on the byte swapping. There's probably a lot of valuable info to be found in various TiVo/DVR-hacking threads. If only there were more hours in the day...

fsck.cramfs reports "bad magic" (incorrect header) with both normal and byteswapped versions of target.cfs.

By the way, if any Sony folks are reading recent postings with the DMCA in mind, let the record show that I have no intention of messing with the television content on my DVR or circumventing any protective mechanisms of this device. I just want to be able to add another hard drive and to know that in the future I can restore functionality myself if the hard drive fails. That's all. This business of poking at the filesystem is just out of curiosity as an embedded engineer and to see how various open source technologies are being used, not an attempt to unravel anything proprietary or compromise anyone's intellectual property.

s002axb

12-07-05, 09:04 PM

This may sound like a weird question, but I do not have my HDTV yet, and was wondering if the S-Video out on this unit could be used to display to a standard TV, until I get my HDTV? Anyone try this yet?

cosmicvoid

12-07-05, 09:21 PM

Yes. I'm using the S-video out to feed SD converted video to my old 4:3 TV.

KevinCLovesU

12-07-05, 11:25 PM

TWinbrook46636

12-08-05, 12:21 AM

I'd like a DHG-HDD1000 with Firewire out please!

jtbell

12-08-05, 12:36 AM

if the S-Video out on this unit could be used to display to a standard TV

Yes, as cosmicvoid has noted. I use the S-Video output to dub to my older SD DVR/DVD recorder, which receives the signal as a 4:3 TV would.

You need to set the display format to "SD Out" (not "480i") so that the menus, on-screen displays, closed captions and EPG appear on the S-Video output instead of the HD output (component or HDMI). To do this, press and hold the FORMAT button on the remote until the current display format appears on the front panel display. Then release and press the FORMAT button repeatedly, which cycles through the display formats, and stop when you reach "SD Out". After a few more seconds, the format will actually change.

Daniel Tonks

12-08-05, 12:52 AM

You can also hasten the change by pressing SEL/OK once you get to the format you want.

dp70

12-08-05, 04:28 AM

Found a front panel service menu this evening. This is dangerous stuff, so don't try this unless you are having a problem and your unit is already out of warranty.

When the unit boots up, the instant Welcome appears, press and hold Menu and Format simultaneously. Keep holding until the display says Repair?. Release both keys.

Then press and hold one of the following keys:

Format to get Clear NVM? (NVM = non-volatile memory)
Select to get Zero HDD? (resets CPRM code? does not appear to modify the disk itself)
Exit to get Wipe Unit? (performs both a Clear NVM and Zero HDD in one operation)

Release the key.

Once one of the above questions is displayed, there is a lengthy confirmation step to actually execute the operation. You'll notice there's a 1 displayed above the operation name.

Press and hold Guide until the number changes to a 2 (takes about 5 seconds).
Release Guide and press Exit until the number changes to a 3.
Release Exit and press Format until the number changes to a 4 - the operation will then begin.

hdaddiction

12-08-05, 07:02 AM

Does anyone know the part number for the service manual? If I can get my hands on that, then I think...thinK...get the service manual.

thanks.

HDaddiction

Ruidh

12-08-05, 07:46 AM

fsck.cramfs reports "bad magic" (incorrect header) with both normal and byteswapped versions of target.cfs.

Sometimes embedded device designers include a header which needs to be stripped off to find the cramfs in a file. Perhaps the magic could be found a short way into the file if we knew what to look for. (Time for me to find and read the source for fsck.cramfs).

Marc_G

12-08-05, 07:49 AM

Just to add a quick note to the various answers about displaying from the Sony onto a "regular TV" I wanted to mention that I use the component out to my circa 2001 Toshiba TV, and the picture is absolutely wonderful. As previously mentioned, it is necessary to set the output to 480i via the format button.
When I bought the unit, I wasn't certain this would work, and was planning to use the SD out via s-video. But a "regular TV" that has component input will work ver nicely with the Sony.
Marc

mswlogo

12-08-05, 10:24 AM

I had punched in a whole bunch of programs to record so I would have a nice buffer of TV to watch when needed. But I was not careful to select quality thinking I'd do it later when the drive started to fill up or had time to fiddle.

Well I had some time and started to set all the non HD programs to lower quality, because it was waste of capacity. So I looked in the book for what the different qualities meant. There is a little note there that says the Quality option has no effect on DTV (HD or SD). And it will record the raw digital stream and it will use what ever it uses.

So as most of you know even though a station may be broadcasting SD material it is still often using a HD format (i.e. 1080i or 720p).

So I went back and checked % usage of the dozen or so programs which 3/4 of them are not HD. And everything is recording at the HD quality clip. That is, I only have 30 hr's of capacity no matter what I record and no matter what the quality setting is set to. I only watch DTV stations.

This is not putting the product down or anything, just making folks aware of what capacity to expect.

Come on Mark, we are gonna need that 2nd drive more than I realized.

Alan58

12-08-05, 10:51 AM

Third day and still no TVGO listings but the clock is correct and I have recorded shows. The system shows nothing for host channel, it is just empty. I have called TVGO help for 3 days and I haven't received one return call. I emailed my PBS station to see if they are the TVGO host with no response. Anybody have any ideas where I can go from here?

dp70

12-08-05, 12:03 PM

mswlogo, that's indeed one of the reasons I want a second drive. Here in the Minneapolis area, the FOX affiliate has both HD and SD subchannels. I guess this results in about 20% lower bandwidth for the HD one, but the SD one is handy for taping SD shows like The Simpsons, King of the Hill, etc. On the Sony, I just edited the analog FOX channel 9 in TVGOS and pointed it at the SD subchannel instead (9-2). They both get the same guide data, and I can just choose to record the SD version depending on the show. Works great. Our UPN affiliate has both HD and SD subchannels too. Wish WB did- I've been recording all those South Parks WB's been running in syndication (two episodes every night), but they suck up a lot of space in HD...

verriere

12-08-05, 12:30 PM

Alan58

12-08-05, 01:47 PM

How long after you fired the dvr up did the correct time appear? I assume you are programming by setting start and stop times and channel. Correct?
Yes. I am just recording manually which is fine. I was just curious on why I do not have a host channel. Funny thing is that TVGO called me last friday and left a message. I had orginally bought my first Sony the first of November and had many conferences with Sony before I found this web site. Anyway called TVGO 4 times now and left messages and they still haven't called me back. Sheesh they call me first and never want to call back? Wierd and stupid. Anybody every talk to them? The clock became the right time less then two hours after plugging in the unit. How does that happen without a host channel?

I must ad feel like a semi-expect because of the great input on this site. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!!!! :D

verriere

12-08-05, 02:12 PM

Yes. I am just recording manually which is fine. I was just curious on why I do not have a host channel. Funny thing is that TVGO called me last friday and left a message. I had orginally bought my first Sony the first of November and had many conferences with Sony before I found this web site. Anyway called TVGO 4 times now and left messages and they still haven't called me back. Sheesh they call me first and never want to call back? Wierd and stupid. Anybody every talk to them? The clock became the right time less then two hours after plugging in the unit. How does that happen without a host channel?

I must ad feel like a semi-expect because of the great input on this site. THANKS TO ALL OF YOU!!!! :D

Are you getting your signal OTA or cable?

Alan58

12-08-05, 02:17 PM

Are you getting your signal OTA or cable?

Just using OTA.

hdaddiction

12-08-05, 02:53 PM

Just using OTA.

You are getting time signal probably from your public tv station.

kbgl

12-08-05, 02:54 PM

cosmicvoid

12-08-05, 03:04 PM

Third day and still no TVGO listings but the clock is correct ...Are you sure that all of the analog channels found in your setup channel-scan are actually "on"? Have you tried going thru the TVG setup again, and re-scanning fresh (not add new channels)?

I suspect that the time setting can come from any station that puts clock data in their VBI data stream.

jtbell

12-08-05, 04:07 PM

I just noticed that the DHG-HDD250 is no longer listed on Best Buy's web site. The 500 is still there, at $1000, but it has to be shipped from the warehouse, no in-store pickup.

dozens

12-08-05, 06:57 PM

I got tired of waiting for a return call from Sony on my failed HBO recordings so I called them back. Once I got hold of a "product specialist" he said he would research the issues and would call me back. Well he actually did call me back and he said if there is any "flag" in stream, meaning non-zero value then the recording would not be allowed and this is the correct behavior. I tried telling him that 0x02 was "Copy Once" and it should work but he said he called Comcast and confirmed that the recording should not work. I have a hard time accepting this issue but it looks like it is FAD, at least according to Sony.

PhillyC

12-08-05, 07:07 PM

Sony CSR's have given me totally erroneous information about the HDD500 after "speaking to a supervisor" or "researching the issue". Your CSR called Comcast? He probably spoke to someone who knew even less.

Ray1938

12-08-05, 08:27 PM

nascar24

12-08-05, 08:57 PM

Looks like Sony is gearing up to release a next generation HD recording system. Even though the 250 was in the Sony winter catalog, the 250 and the 500 are gone from the website. Looks like Blu-Ray is ready to take over. It's sad. I really hope Sony puts out a combo DVR/BD-R(W) player. You can't beat having everything in one place, rewritable, and the enhanced live tv watching features.

Im amazed the prices on these units never went down all that much before they are going off the market. I got a great deal on an open box from vanns on the HDD500. Almost half the list price.

dp70

12-08-05, 11:57 PM

davygrvy

12-09-05, 01:56 AM

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

It sure would be great if we could do the same thing that was done to the Linksys WRT54G (http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/12/01/2326222&from=rss) wireless router :)

Not sure who it was, but an FOSS advocacy leader politely threatened Linksys to release the whole source code for that router. So Linksys released the full source including all drivers to the deepest innards. It fueled a great and lasting hacker community (http://www.openwrt.org) around that router.

Sure would be nice in our case, 'cept for the daunting DRM issue with the CableCard Labs liscensing. Probably a no-go with that part should Sony be so kind for us at all :rolleyes:

dp70

12-09-05, 09:48 AM

Some good news: I got my HDD250 working again, using the front panel service functions described a few posts ago. Wipe Unit did the trick (and without clearing out any vital data, such as my unit's serial number). I think the HDD error was caused by accidentally leaving the disk's jumper in the Master position instead of the Cable Select position. The Wipe Unit operation was apparently needed to clear the unit's "I need factory service!" status.

The bad news: still haven't got the Sony to boot up and use the second drive. The closest I've come is ERR 1000000 at bootup. The error bitfield indicates just one error condition, but I don't know what it is.

Once I figured out how to recover the unit using its original drive, I tried doing the same thing with the second drive instead. This failed, so it looks like you can't just throw a replacement drive in these units if the existing one fails. The replacement disk will probably need to be prepared on a Linux PC first.

Maybe someone with an HDD500 can let us know how the second drive is partitioned once their unit is out of warranty...

Alan58

12-09-05, 10:28 AM

I suggest that you check the zip code entry. Also, make sure that the channel for the analog PBS station is being received.

Strange thing is that I got listings the beginning of November when I got my first unit. They disappeared, I think, when everyone else also lost theirs about 11/10. Never got them back. Since then returned the unit and bought another which is the source of my post. All channels are listed as open. Zip code is correct and have changed it a few times. Still can't get TVGO 1-800-386-7380 to call me back. PBS analog station is working. Anyone from the Boise Idaho area? Still love the unit and need it for the tuner. Just need to write down what I record because it says unknown. Am I the only one in America not getting the listings at all??? :eek:

hdaddiction

12-09-05, 11:05 AM

Some good news: I got my HDD250 working again,

Maybe someone with an HDD500 can let us know how the second drive is partitioned once their unit is out of warranty...

Mark, would you hazard a guess that one could make a image backup of their 2nd disk drive? Then take that image and clone that image to a new same size disk drive, and then put that 2nd hd into the unit, would that work, you think?

Alan Curry

12-09-05, 11:06 AM

I think the HDD error was caused by accidentally leaving the disk's jumper in the Master position instead of the Cable Select position.
Did you by chance try adding the second drive using a "Cable Select" cable instead of the more normal master/slave configuration?

Mitch G

12-09-05, 12:04 PM

Strange thing is that I got listings the beginning of November when I got my first unit. They disappeared, I think, when everyone else also lost theirs about 11/10. Never got them back. Since then returned the unit and bought another which is the source of my post. All channels are listed as open. Zip code is correct and have changed it a few times. Still can't get TVGO 1-800-386-7380 to call me back. PBS analog station is working. Anyone from the Boise Idaho area? Still love the unit and need it for the tuner. Just need to write down what I record because it says unknown. Am I the only one in America not getting the listings at all??? :eek:

There are various forums here, http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=45, for local broadcast and cable TV. Is there one for Boise? If so, maybe you could ask in that forum if anyone has TVGOS and how it's working etc.

Mitch

dp70

12-09-05, 12:10 PM

Alan: I tried both styles (master/slave and cable select) using the appropriate cable and jumper settings for each.

Which reminds me- anyone know if it's safe to use a PC IDE cable backwards (i.e. with the host end connected to the drive, the slave connector connected to the slave, and the master end connected to the host)? This willl NOT work with a Cable Select cable, of course, but is it OK with a normal IDE cable? On the HDD250, the host and slave IDE connectors are less than 3 inches from each other, but from the slave, we need a run of about 10 inches to reach the master. Using a typical PC IDE cable backwards could solve this problem.

htaddiction: That's definitely something to try, though it is time-consuming to clone the drives, and convincing someone to void the warranty on their HDD500 is unlikely. We'll probably need to wait another six months...

Sledge

12-09-05, 01:41 PM

When I use the diagnostic page I find several channels that are receiving packets.
It lists the host channel as 0x0f (I assume this is hex for 15 but I don't have a channel 15 for pbs).
Could I possible be receiving packets from multiple channels?
Is there a specific way to choose which channel has the best signal and thus the most reliable guide data?
Anybody with two units try connecting the two of them via USB?
What would happen if Mark put the first drive in a USB enclosure and then plugged that into the rear USB?

You guys are AWESOME!! I only have the HDD250 for 5 days now but am really looking forward to working with everyone on this unit. I love my ReplayTVs and their usability - I think these could be even better with Linux on them.

Alan Curry

12-09-05, 04:14 PM

When I use the diagnostic page I find several channels that are receiving packets. It lists the host channel as 0x0f (I assume this is hex for 15 but I don't have a channel 15 for pbs). Could I possible be receiving packets from multiple channels?PBS is not necessarily the only carrier. Both the local FOX and PBS stations in my area carry the signal and I've seen it switch between the two.
Is there a specific way to choose which channel has the best signal and thus the most reliable guide data?The only way I know to specify which channel to use is to delete the competing channel.

Alan Curry

12-09-05, 04:45 PM

I sent a email to the Sony Open Source contact asking for a valid xfsprogs.tar.gz since I consider it be corrupted.

Mark: As for the flipping the IDE cable around, off the top of my head it shouldn't matter since it's a straight through cable.

I really want to crack open the case on mine but I'm not right now since I've only had it for month now.

Alan

PhillyC

12-09-05, 04:46 PM

Is there a specific way to choose which channel has the best signal and thus the most reliable guide data?

This is just a guess. You need to start with no host channel in the diagnostic screen, so you might have to reset the guide first. Try leaving the Sony tuned to the next higher channel than the one you want to use as the host. That is, if you want host channel 11, tune to channel 12 and shut the unit down for the night.

Observation of my unit SEEMED to indicate that it searched backwards for the next host channel. Of course, I didn't do this enough times to be sure. Hey --- it's worth a try!

ellinj

12-09-05, 06:42 PM

Getting a cable card for my unit tomorrow, what is likely to happen? Will I need to rescan for channels or will the channel mapping appear automatically?

Sledge

12-09-05, 08:06 PM

I know I am showing my ignorance but, what does the "auto-hide" function do when remapping the channel guide? I tried it on some channels and they all showed up.

Just a question that has been bugging me.

Alan Curry

12-09-05, 08:11 PM

I sent a email to the Sony Open Source contact asking for a valid xfsprogs.tar.gz since I consider it be corrupted.Here is the response:

Dear Mr. Curry,

We are so sorry about your inconvenience. Our engineers are taking look
into this problem right now. Please give us some time.

Best regards,

Satoshi Ishiguro
Senior Software Manager
Sony Technology Center
At least it looks promising.

dp70

12-09-05, 09:32 PM

Auto-hide hides any channels for which program listings are not available.

bierboy

12-09-05, 10:02 PM

I've been out of town for four days and just got caught up on this thread. Glad my Sony's been returned.

ATCtech

12-09-05, 10:20 PM

If it's any consolation Alan I have the same problem here in Toronto. I had a Canadian guide for about a week and after a power failure was never able to get it back, not even a time sync. I switched to a Buffalo NY zip code and get US listings via the PBS channel in Buffalo. Neither TVGOS or the Canadian station that's supposedly sending TVGOS data has answered my questions. I too am using off-air only, and the box does say it's using the Toronto channel when I use my Canadian postal code. (I get VBI counts in the diagnostic menu.) When I switch it to a zip code, it indeed does change host channels.

Bob

Marc_G

12-09-05, 10:29 PM

Getting a cable card for my unit tomorrow, what is likely to happen? Will I need to rescan for channels or will the channel mapping appear automatically?

I went through this recently, having used the thing for plain cable for a while then getting a cable card to get the digital/encrypted channels. I missed some of it since I was controlling my 1 year old son while the cable guy did his thing. He hadn't worked with a Sony DVR before (the cable guy, not my son), but between the two of us we got it working.

Once the cable card is authorized (took a few minutes before the prompt came up), the channels will be available, but it will pop up the prompt to select the cable lineup from a list of available lineups. Given that, the available channels will automatically come up. It apparently remapped existing guide data to the new lineup (properly) but any channel now present that wasn't available before showed No Listing.

In my case, there was a mistake in the lineup, and the guide channel (PBS station near me) was turned off. So, for a day or so I got no lnew isting data until I figured this out and enabled that channel. That done, the guide filled in just fine.

The thing I can't tell you is whether the authorization screen pops up automatically, or if you have to navigate through the menus to it.

Marc

easycruise

12-09-05, 10:47 PM

The one unpublished "feature" I have found to be nice is that you can hit record, set the start time back to when you switched to the current channel (the beginning of the live record buffer), and save the whole thing starting from when you started watching the channel, rather than when you hit record. I've never owned a tivo or any other dvr, so I don't know if that's normal, but I really like features like this that behave as you would expect them to.

As a long time TIVO user, I can assure you that the feature you mention is a very elementary feature of the Tivo unit.

As for this Sony DVR, this is my first visit to this thread, which at 57 pages, starting in May, is mostly a tale of aggravation. I've only read the first 10 pages of this thread and the last 10, but nothing has changed in SEVEN months. Problems, problems and more problems. I'm glad I've never strayed from my Tivo. Heck, even the new Mitusbishi 1080i DLP set users are complaining about the TV Guide system that comes with that set.

Check the stock price of Gemstar lately? Ticker is GMST. It's much worse than Tivo's. Want to bet who goes out of the GUI guide programming business first?

bierboy

12-09-05, 10:56 PM

As a long time TIVO user, I can assure you that the feature you mention is a very elementary feature of the Tivo unit.

As for this Sony DVR, this is my first visit to this thread, which at 57 pages, starting in May, is mostly a tale of aggravation. I've only read the first 10 pages of this thread and the last 10, but nothing has changed in SEVEN months. Problems, problems and more problems. I'm glad I've never strayed from my Tivo. Heck, even the new Mitusbishi 1080i DLP set users are complaining about the TV Guide system that comes with that set.

Check the stock price of Gemstar lately? Ticker is GMST. It's much worse than Tivo's. Want to bet who goes out of the GUI guide programming business first?easy-Couldn't have said it better myself. As I stated in a previous post -- I'm sure some (or perhaps most) of my disenchantment with this unit was that I constantly compared it to my TiVo. I really wanted to like the Sony, but, even with its free program guide (or, perhaps BECAUSE of it), it paled by comparison. That's why I took advantage of the Crutchfield 30-day, no questions asked, full refund (incl. shipping on return) offer. My HDD500 went back earlier this week. Will I miss it? You bet...but patience is a virtue (especially with home theater gear), and whenever (even later in 2006) I get the TiVo SA HD dual tuner CC unit, I won't miss the Sony one bit.

TWinbrook46636

12-10-05, 12:13 AM

As for this Sony DVR, this is my first visit to this thread, which at 57 pages, starting in May, is mostly a tale of aggravation. I've only read the first 10 pages of this thread and the last 10, but nothing has changed in SEVEN months. Problems, problems and more problems. I'm glad I've never strayed from my Tivo. Heck, even the new Mitusbishi 1080i DLP set users are complaining about the TV Guide system that comes with that set.

Well, when TIVO gets off it's collective butt and sells a standalone HDTV unit then we'll talk. Until then any comparison is pointless. It doesn't matter how much better the guide is or how much easier to use it is if it doesn't record HD. As soon as they get their act together I'll consider buying one. I'm not impressed with the demo on their website though. The guide seems very unintuitive.

inlogan

12-10-05, 07:35 AM

Well, when TIVO gets off it's collective butt and sells a standalone HDTV unit then we'll talk. Until then any comparison is pointless. It doesn't matter how much better the guide is or how much easier to use it is if it doesn't record HD. As soon as they get their act together I'll consider buying one. I'm not impressed with the demo on their website though. The guide seems very unintuitive.

I agree. I've had my HDD500 since June 25 and it's been worth every penny. And I paid full price when it came out! I use strictly OTA so this is the only feasible option. I've only had one hiccup when back two months ago TVGOS screwed everyone's units up over the VBI download. Other than that it's worked next to perfect. I'm so glad that I bought this unit.

It seems to me that many of us who have had this unit for months have learned all the quirks of the unit and the people who just bought them in the past few weeks because of the sales are the ones complaining the most and returning them. I would be more worried too if I had just bought mine and something new does come out next year. However I'll have mine probably for over a year by then and that's still cheaper than a monthly cable payment :)

hdaddiction

12-10-05, 10:20 AM

These discussions remind of the type years ago of Apple vs IBM. Or one game vs the other. The truth is the argruements will never be settled. Why? Because its an arguement of personal choice.

I do find it somewhat interesting that, in this thread, there are contributors that NO LONGER OWN THE DEVICE and yet they still contribute, well, post. Over in the MOXI forum, (which I had the MOXI and decided, FOR ME, the Sony was a better deal) I wrote one time about why I gave up on the MOXI. I have'nt been back. Maybe its like breaking up with your bf/gf. Some can do it and never look back, others, well...

You want real trying....go get a moxi and pay $20 bucks and you cant skip commercials. You think the TVGOS is screwy, look at how MOXI does your schedule, atleast with TVG you get the grid.

This is my bottom line on the Sony. I actually love it, why?....well cable just doubled ...doubled their rental and assorted fees on MOXI. Oh, the MOXI is 80 gigs, this is 250 or more...The sound of this is better than moxi. Plust I can skip the commericals.

This unit will work as long as there is OTA transmissions. Now if your in the middle of the Dakota's your screwed.. Get Satelite.

And everyone knows the downside of the Sony unit....we get refreshed on it daily.

But good hunting for the perfect recorder., free of fees....

HDaddiction.

fox200

12-10-05, 10:34 AM

I agree. I've had my HDD500 since June 25 and it's been worth every penny. And I paid full price when it came out! I use strictly OTA so this is the only feasible option. I've only had one hiccup when back two months ago TVGOS screwed everyone's units up over the VBI download. Other than that it's worked next to perfect. I'm so glad that I bought this unit.

It seems to me that many of us who have had this unit for months have learned all the quirks of the unit and the people who just bought them in the past few weeks because of the sales are the ones complaining the most and returning them. I would be more worried too if I had just bought mine and something new does come out next year. However I'll have mine probably for over a year by then and that's still cheaper than a monthly cable payment :)

I bought 2 dhg hdd250 units at the Best Buy sale and I have to tell you people, as one of the very first owners of a Dish 921 dvr in Jan. 2004, you don't know what bugs and quirks are. Today they are still uploading fixes for this unit. I now only use it for HBO alacarte. As for the Sony's, I think they work perfect! I only bought them for ota. I have the perfect rooftop antenna setup (high vhf and uhf) and receive about 25 digital channels in the upper 80's and 90's in signal here in the Bay Area. The Sony tuner is much better than the Samsung sir-t451 and the 921. The guide data loaded up on both units in about 24 hours very nicely. I think some people here hook up a set of rabbit ears and then say the guide data does not load. Antenna setups need a little research to accomodate your area. I would not have bought the Sony to use on a cable system. The cable company wants you to rent their equipment and pay $100 a month subscription fees to watch free commercial television. And they still don't offer all the networks in hd on their system. As for the Tivo? What hd? Then when that happens, pay your fees, and pay and pay. Now the Sony has been discontinued, and unless a new product is coming, their will be no more free ota dvr's.

videophiles

12-10-05, 11:03 AM

fox200

12-10-05, 12:54 PM

Info for new Sony 250/500 owners who don't want to read 50+ pages to find this info.

Does Gemstar provide information for the Digital Channels? Not at this time.

Will the guide still work if the channel that sends the information is deleted from the receivers channel list? Depends on the receive device. Most likely it will stop working.

Can ATSC receivers find Gemstar guide information? No, it's sent analog only. They are currently working on ATSC insertion equipment. Perhaps later this year.
When analog goes away they still plan on providing their guide info.

I learned something new. Milwaukee area has a total of four Gemstar Hosts.
They are WITI, WCGV, WMVS, WJJA. Of these four stations WMVS sends the data designed for the newest Gemstar decoders (2004 & up).
The above answers were provided by Gemstar/TV Guide.

A customer support number is available by private message.

Karma16

12-10-05, 12:55 PM

HI All,
Sorry for not adding this post earlier but I have been very busy.

Almost a week ago my HDD500 lost its clock display. It indicated only AM or PM. The program listing was not getting updated.

Been out of town for a couple of days. I noticed that the clock had not returned to normal. Last night I checked out the program listings expecting them to be missing. Wrong. They are completely up to date. Weird.

I am running OTA on Albuquerque stations. Except for the glitch that affected everyone several weeks ago, I have not had problems until now. What's going on?

Thanks, Sparky

Edit: Is no one else having this problem? Boy, that worries me. I may have an HDD500 problem if no one else is seeing the same thing.

bierboy

12-10-05, 01:52 PM

....I do find it somewhat interesting that, in this thread, there are contributors that NO LONGER OWN THE DEVICE and yet they still contribute, well, post....Gee....let's see....in the forum rules.....where it says....SOMEONE WHO DOES NOT OWN A CERTAIN DEVICE CANNOT POST ON THAT THREAD. Ooops...can't find that rule....I guess the true test of a man is one who refuses to learn from others' experiences...

Ray1938

12-10-05, 02:16 PM

Will anyone be able to post a photo of the System Menu info? i just want to see if the firmwares on HDD250 & HDD500 are same.

Is anyone from Minnesota using Comcast? i'm using HDD250, Comcast, OTA & Cable-ready without CableCard, and i'm getting hidden channels like 69.2 (WBHD) by mannually entering channel number (AutoScan won't find this channel). Does anyone know any other hidden channels?

I have Comcast in Los Angeles and encountered the same problem with HD channels. I've been told that cable card would correct that problem. However, Comcast wants $29 to install it and so far, lived without it since I get most of the OTA HD channels via cable - the remainder via antenna.
Here is the procedure I used:
Pressed the Channel up/down button to change channels. In doing so, I found all the channel numbers. Sometimes I scanned thru the analog channels to determine the station. I wrote down each of the channel numbers and associated stations.
With this information, I went to the guide edit mode, found the listing for each of the HD stations, pressed the menu button, and changed the channel number.
Be sure to keep that channel information for future reference.

videophiles

12-10-05, 02:26 PM

I have Comcast in Los Angeles and encountered the same problem with HD channels. I've been told that cable card would correct that problem. However, Comcast wants $29 to install it and so far, lived without it since I get most of the OTA HD channels via cable - the remainder via antenna.
Here is the procedure I used:
Pressed the Channel up/down button to change channels. In doing so, I found all the channel numbers. Sometimes I scanned thru the analog channels to determine the station. I wrote down each of the channel numbers and associated stations.
With this information, I went to the guide edit mode, found the listing for each of the HD stations, pressed the menu button, and changed the channel number.
Be sure to keep that channel information for future reference.

it costed me $15.99 for a technician to come install Cablecard, but CBS-HD & NBC-HD channels are working intermittently!

i wonder if Comcast'll be offering HD-Package anytime soon - perharps every available HD channels for $14.99/month? hehe.

Once watched HD, never go back to analog!

UncD2000

12-10-05, 02:53 PM

Ray1938

12-10-05, 03:00 PM

it costed me $15.99 for a technician to come install Cablecard, but CBS-HD & NBC-HD channels are working intermittently!

i wonder if Comcast'll be offering HD-Package anytime soon - perharps every available HD channels for $14.99/month? hehe.

Once watched HD, never go back to analog!

I agree. HD is far superior to analog, and recorded HD is best way to watch it.

In LA, Comcast includes the major HD channels with my $10 per month service. My impression is that all of the HD signal quality problems are caused by the TV stations. One of the HD stations stopped transmitting for several days. I know it wasn't a cable problem since I normally receive that station on cable but can also receive it OTA.

jeffcmcc

12-10-05, 03:20 PM

There have been several posts here relating to whether to wait or not to wait for the HD Tivo so perhaps this post is not off topic. I'm a great Tivo fan having had them since the first 13-hour Tivo with the cyclops eye. But, HD is HD, I rarely watch SD anymore and time shifting is a must. So I've been having the same internal debate -- go for the Sony now or wait for HD cablecard Tivo. I've gone with the Sony and here's why (I offer this in case its helpful to anyone else having the debate).

I don't believe much of anything in the consumer press, preferring the legal and financial press to find answers where possible. FCC SECOND REPORT AND ORDER, Adopted: March 17, 2005 (http://www.fcc.gov/omd/pra/docs/3060-0849/3060-0849-11.doc)* was a hearing, followed by order, before the FCC relating to extending the date for phase-out of integrated set-top boxes. The phase-out would require cable companies to separate the navigation and security functions in their STBs, basically leveling the playing field by requiring ALL boxes to use cablecards (great over simplification and I'm not sure I understand it fully so check the document itself if interested). The FCC extended the phase-out date from July 1, 2006 to July 1, 2007.

Interesting is Tivo's comment in the document:

"TiVo states that if the Commission retains the July 1, 2006 deadline, TiVo and others are committed to deploying competitive CableCARD-enabled devices in 2006 or earlier ... TiVo further states that if the deadline is postponed, the impact on CE will be the same as eliminating the ban, and that in such case TiVo will have difficulty justifying continued investment in a CableCARD product line."

I took from this and other comments in the document that Tivo is powerful worried about deploying a not 1, but 2 cablecards enabled device in the face of, at best, cable company indifference. I doubt we'll see that thing in 2006 and maybe not until the July 2007 date looks like if will hold firm.

* Watch out for this link -- its a link to a Word document. If I screw it up, just go to the FCC website and search on Tivo.

jeffcmcc

12-10-05, 03:38 PM

After 15 months with the LG LST-3410A, I got a DHG-HDD250 two days ago and am very pleased so far. I'm considering a Comcast CableCARD. Will it still allow me to enter the QAM channel #'s of the local HD stations, or will it just accept the Comcast numbers? I am used to 114.1 for WBBM-DT CBS, 115.5 for WMAQ-DT NBC, etc. Even though I also have a 2-tuner 6412 DVR, I don't really remember the Comcast numbers for the 6 local HD stations they carry. I also have a Comcast cablecard and if I understand your question, it will accept both. In other words, here in Denver I can tune 4.1 for the OTA local CBS affiliate (via antenna), or 654 for the Comcast cablecard version. But obviously if you don't have an antenna you'll be stuck with the cablecard channel assignment (which you might be able to change in the TVGOS setup, but I haven't tried it.)

hednic

12-10-05, 03:50 PM

[QUOTE=fox200]Info for new Sony 250/500 owners who don't want to read 50+ pages to find this info.

Does Gemstar provide information for the Digital Channels? Not at this time.

It's not true what you say about the digital channels. In my area (Northern Virginia) Gemstar provides information and listings for almost every encrypted digital channel
except INHD2, UNIVERSAL HD and TNTHD. More than 250 premium and non premium digital channels!

jtbell

12-10-05, 03:54 PM

Does Gemstar provide information for the Digital Channels? Not at this time.

Are you referring to digital cable and satellite here? I get separate program listings for both the analog and digital channels for most of my stations (OTA).

mhsieh66

12-10-05, 03:54 PM

I bought a Sony DHG-HDD250 HDTV Digital Video Recorder recently, anything is fine except it can not receive PBS KQED Life, World, and Kids(9-3, 9-4, 9-5 in Bay Area, 94539) from antenna off-air, it is quite strange because I can receive other KQED channels(9, 9-1, 9-2) and I used my another receiver LG LST-3410A, it has no any problem to receive these channels, and I check the signal from 3410A, it shows very good signal strength for these channels, so Does someone know what's going on this machine?

Ray1938

12-10-05, 04:29 PM

fox200

12-10-05, 04:48 PM

Are you referring to digital cable and satellite here? I get separate program listings for both the analog and digital channels for most of my stations (OTA).

This info here is 6 months old and from another hd forum. I posted it here because of guide data rumors when anolog shuts down. Here is the link #27
http://www.milwaukeehdtv.org/forums/showthread.php?t=5184&page=2

And yes your right, I do get some digital guide info too. I should of edited that out.

Alan58

12-10-05, 05:45 PM

A customer support number is available by private message.

I have the number, it has been posted on this forum. 1-800-386-7380. The problem is they don't return your calls. They called me first and left a message and I have returned the call 5 times with no return call. Is there a trick to get ahold of them?

mhsieh66

12-10-05, 06:02 PM

Perhaps these channels were off when the unit scanned for OTA channels. I suggest that you rescan when you know that these channels are on.

Yes, these channels is on because LG3410A can receive these channels when I did scan channel. I guess Sony may have some problem, my firmware version is 1.2.06.

ellinj

12-10-05, 06:06 PM

I also have a Comcast cablecard and if I understand your question, it will accept both. In other words, here in Denver I can tune 4.1 for the OTA local CBS affiliate (via antenna), or 654 for the Comcast cablecard version. But obviously if you don't have an antenna you'll be stuck with the cablecard channel assignment (which you might be able to change in the TVGOS setup, but I haven't tried it.)

I just had my cable card installed this morning, I do not have an OTA antenna hooked up. I can no longer tune to nbc using the qam assignment, I must used the cable company assignmnent. eg, 232 instead of 93.1.

ellinj

12-10-05, 06:07 PM

anyone know how the box determines the order of the channels, the don't seem to be numeric, alphabetic or anything else that I can discern.

PhillyC

12-10-05, 06:56 PM

After 15 months with the LG LST-3410A, I got a DHG-HDD250 two days ago and am very pleased so far. I'm considering a Comcast CableCARD. Will it still allow me to enter the QAM channel #'s of the local HD stations, or will it just accept the Comcast numbers? I am used to 114.1 for WBBM-DT CBS, 115.5 for WMAQ-DT NBC, etc. Even though I also have a 2-tuner 6412 DVR, I don't really remember the Comcast numbers for the 6 local HD stations they carry.

UncD2000, installing the CableCARD will make all of the channel numbers exactly the same as on your 6412. If NBC-DT on the 6412 is 188, then the Sony will also use 188.

Welcome to the Sony. If you recall, I got my money back from LG after the third 3410A failed. The Sony is far and away the better and more dependable unit. No firewire, but plenty of storage space for timeshifting, especially on the HDD500.

UncD2000

12-10-05, 11:27 PM

Ray1938

12-11-05, 02:55 AM

anyone know how the box determines the order of the channels, the don't seem to be numeric, alphabetic or anything else that I can discern.

Only way I know how to do it is manually - you can arrange any order you wish. It's just time consuming. Since there are lots of channels, I arranged only the ones I watched, in order of OTA analog channel number 2, 3, 4, etc.

Ray1938

12-11-05, 03:14 AM

Yes, these channels is on because LG3410A can receive these channels when I did scan channel. I guess Sony may have some problem, my firmware version is 1.2.06.

I doubt that it's a software problem since I get up to 5 subchannels on one of the PBS outlets.

What is your method for selecting these channels? For example, do you enter the channel number?

Daniel Tonks

12-11-05, 08:28 AM

Just a note that runninng an "Auto Add From Antenna" will not make ANY modifications to existing channels, it will only add new ones.

So, for example, if 10-1 decides to add a 10-2 after you first scanned in 10-1, then running an auto-add on the DVR will NOT add 10-2 to your channel list. For that, you must run a regular scan which will, of course, completely reset the antenna list and only show the channels available at the exact time you scan. Of course you can auto-add after that.

Basically, it seems that the only time the DVR checks the PSIP is when running a regular scan and, after that, it is cached and will NEVER be checked again, even when you tune the station.

I noticed this behavior when a new station in my area was having PSIP problems, where what was supposed to be 9-1 (or 40-1) tuned in only as 40-4. A week after people reported it working as 9-1 again, I did an auto-scan and noticed... no difference. It was only after I did a regular scan that 40-4 disappeared and 9-1 was added. And since the "bad" 40-4 continued to tune long after the station's live PSIP was changed, it's obvious the DVR caches it.

I also noticed this issue occurs when you can receive two different HDTV stations broadcasting on the same channel number (it was a good tropo day and I got something from over 200 miles away). After scanning in one version of the station, it would not do an auto-add of the second - it just ignored it despite completely different PSIP contents.

TWinbrook46636

12-11-05, 09:27 AM

Best Buy has sweetened the deal even a little more: you get a free $25 gift card with purchase of the HDD250 or HDD500 if you order online. :)

After much debate for the past few days, I just decided to make the plunge :confused: and get the HDD250- I'll be picking it up later tonight from Best Buy and will let you know how it all works out. I'm using it exclusively for OTA at this point.

Regarding the Best Buy deal on the DHG-HDD250 ($499 plus free $25 gift card) was the gift card supposed to be shipped along with the unit or do they mail it out separately? They shipped the original Sony box inside a freakin bag instead of double boxing it. No gift card. Fortunately everything seems to be working okay.

ellinj

12-11-05, 10:13 AM

I got my gift card seperately, although I did in store pickup for mine, did you add the free gift card to your cart per the instructions?

PhillyC

12-11-05, 10:27 AM

Are you paying $5/month for CableCARD? Someone on another thread was quoted that fee by a CSR. First I've heard of it. Thought it was free after installation.

I have been working on the LG buyback ever since I learned about it from you. I supposedly got approval last week, but we'll see how it works out from here. As soon as I heard that, I ordered the Sony from bb.com. It's working great so far. It is a big improvement over the LG 3410A, especially with the guide working fulltime.

With CableCARD, do you get the program scheduling for INHD 1 & 2 and Comcast SportsNet HD in the guide?

My install was $24.99, but the charge was removed because it took 3 months to get the card working (all Comcast's fault). There has been no monthly charge for the card. Some other cablecos around the country charge $1.75 or $2.00 per month. Comcast has not done this yet. And, for now, all copy protection flags are set to 0x00.

The guide has INHD1, but not INHD2 or CSN, unfortunately. Comcast boxes use TV Guide (same company as TVGOS), so you would think it would be easy (and a priority) to have TVGOS carry CSN info. Ha! But I also have the 6412, so I can search the schedule on it and set a manual recording on the Sony if necessary.

The LG buyback took several steps. It may have been 2-3 weeks after approval before the transaction was complete.

verriere

12-11-05, 10:35 AM

Although the outside display shows --:--, internally the clock starts running at 12:00 AM from the moment you plug it in.

I have really wanted to like and buy the HDD250, and would be quite content to simply be able to do programmed recording: Date, Start Time, Stop Time and Channel # as described on page 71 of the rev2 manual. Information in the manual and in this forum suggest, however, that the DVR's clock cannot be (visibly) set without access to TVGOS. All indications are that this DVR will not "see" TVGOS when analog TV goes away. The quotes in messages 1611 & 1610 suggest that there really is a functioning clock even if there is no displayed time. This raises the possibility of plugging the DVR in at local midnight and programming using local time. Has or would anybody out there give programmed recording using the inner "hidden" clock a try?

Blinding Flash of Insight: I think I may have figured this out! Although there is or may be an invisible clock, there probably isn't also such an invisible calendar that would permit a date to be entered for the programmed recording.

dp70

12-11-05, 10:57 AM

verriere, this unit really would not be much fun without the TVGOS. Having all the recordings identified and sorted by show plus scheduling new recordings with one keypress are the features that make it so family-friendly. Personally, I wouldn't bother using this unit with no guide data, especially with more than a few shows stored on the hard drive.

As I mentioned in a previous posting, there's a hint in the Gemstar test mode that the device might be capable of receiving packets via ATSC. However unlikely it seems, perhaps Gemstar has thought ahead and included firmware support in advance of getting the insertion equipment deployed at the broadcasters?

By the way, I've observed that the clock freezes in time when you unplug the unit and resumes when you plug it back in (that is, it starts at midnight the FIRST time you plug it in out-of-box, but it does not reset back to midnight subsequent times).

hdaddiction

12-11-05, 11:26 AM

dozens

12-11-05, 11:35 AM

I have been working on the LG buyback ever since I learned about it from you. I supposedly got approval last week, but we'll see how it works out from here. As soon as I heard that, I ordered the Sony from bb.com. It's working great so far. It is a big improvement over the LG 3410A, especially with the guide working fulltime.

I must of missed it. What is the LG buyback ?

mhsieh66

12-11-05, 11:42 AM

verriere

12-11-05, 12:22 PM

As I mentioned in a previous posting, there's a hint in the Gemstar test mode that the device might be capable of receiving packets via ATSC. However unlikely it seems, perhaps Gemstar has thought ahead and included firmware support in advance of getting the insertion equipment deployed at the broadcasters?

Mark; as I recall, you did make reference to "gemstar test mode" in a previous post. Is this test mode a feature of the DHG-HDD? If so, I agree that the previously posted test mode results do suggest that the DHG-HDD may be able to handle digital implementations of TVGOS. If that is the case, I am still surprised that nobody at Sony tech support would acknowledge that capability when asked directly.

Rbrodzinsky

12-11-05, 12:36 PM

Perhaps these channels were off when the unit scanned for OTA channels. I suggest that you rescan when you know that these channels are on.

Yes, make sure you scan during the day, when they are broadcasting. I've had no problems with receiving these channels

UncD2000

12-11-05, 01:05 PM

I must of missed it. What is the LG buyback ?If a 3410A fails after having been replaced or repaired 3 times, they have a buyback program where they offer you a percent of the original price. I haven't progressed that far yet, but I think PhillyC was asked just to send in the serial no. sticker, and was allowed to dispose of the unit as he saw fit.

Alfmeister

12-11-05, 02:51 PM

There is quite a bit of hand wringing on this conversion to digital. In PCworld Mag in March 2005, it stated that only 15%only a digital tv and only 4% have the right equipment to veiw HDTV, (that is to day, 15% own the hd tv but 4% have the stb).

As I understand the FCC ruling, analog will be phased out WHEN 85% of the market place has digital inplace. That means to me that the 15% number needs to grow to 85%.

If I would hazard a guess, I would guess it is going to take 5 years to get that number to 85%, atleast. In affluent neighborhoods yes, in urban cities....not so quick.

Lastly my guess is the sony can recieve the digital gemstar if and when it broadcasts.

But in any event, in 2-5 years will the Sony HDGHDD outlived its usefulness?

HDaddiction

As a new owner of the HDD250 I too am hopeful that it will receive TVGOS when analog broadcasting is eliminated. However I believe a quote by Mark Twain is appropriate to this discussion of 'the end of analog broadcasting';
"Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."
In other words; You can kick around Americans in a lot of ways but don't mess around with our TV's! If you were to tell someone (outside of this community) that their TV will stop working in a year (or two or three) unless they subscribe to cable or satellite they would be shocked. I personally have 4 TV's, 2 VCR's, 2 DVR's (and a partridge in a pear tree. (Actually a Cockatiel.) ;)
All of these devices are wired to expanded basic cable as they all have NTSC tuners. I know there are millions of people with a like number of devices. The idea of throwing out all of these devices or obtaining STB's for all of them is a chilling thought. I have friends and family who just use OTA. One elderly friend has been using OTA since the 50's and there is no cable available where she lives. I can't imagine telling her that she has to either get a STB to watch TV (and a new UHF antenna) or subscribe to satellite. Again there are millions of these folks relying on OTA for news and information.
I believe that if congress doesn't keep OTA analog going for at least 10 years you will hear such an outcry that 'heads will roll' over this.
I think the 85% requirement is that 85% of people 'have access' to digital broadcasts be they OTA or cable. That is ludicrous. As you point out only about 4% are currently receiving HDTV.

jtbell

12-11-05, 07:11 PM

In PCworld Mag in March 2005, it stated that only 15%only a digital tv

But something like 85% of all people in the US now use either cable or satellite for TV. These people aren't directly affected by the conversion. Their provider can take the digital broadcast signal and convert it to analog for transimission over their system. (And satellite is digital anyway, right?)

As I understand the FCC ruling, analog will be phased out WHEN 85% of the market place has digital inplace.

That's the way the rule stands right now. But Congress is about to pass a bill that specifies a complete analog cutoff on a certain date, regardless of how many OTA viewers have digital TVs or STBs by that point.

Lastly my guess is the sony can recieve the digital gemstar if and when it broadcasts.

The comments someone posted here recently about the Sony apparently looking for guide data via digital signals is encouraging. And we're not the only people in this situation. A bunch of other DVRs and TVs use the TVGOS system. If it stopped working after analog shutoff, a lot more people than just us would be mad about it! :eek:

So I'm more optimistic now about the continued functionality of our Sonys, than I was a couple of weeks ago. But I may end up getting something else in a couple of years anyway. That 250GB disk is starting to look a bit smaller than it seemed at first! There's no way to archive in HD, so anything in HD that I really want to keep, I have to give up some disk space for it.

philspice1

12-11-05, 08:30 PM

As a new owner of the HDD250 I too am hopeful that it will receive TVGOS when analog broadcasting is eliminated. However I believe a quote by Mark Twain is appropriate to this discussion of 'the end of analog broadcasting';
"Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated."
In other words; You can kick around Americans in a lot of ways but don't mess around with our TV's! If you were to tell someone (outside of this community) that their TV will stop working in a year (or two or three) unless they subscribe to cable or satellite they would be shocked. I personally have 4 TV's, 2 VCR's, 2 DVR's (and a partridge in a pear tree. (Actually a Cockatiel.) ;)
All of these devices are wired to expanded basic cable as they all have NTSC tuners. I know there are millions of people with a like number of devices. The idea of throwing out all of these devices or obtaining STB's for all of them is a chilling thought. I have friends and family who just use OTA. One elderly friend has been using OTA since the 50's and there is no cable available where she lives. I can't imagine telling her that she has to either get a STB to watch TV (and a new UHF antenna) or subscribe to satellite. Again there are millions of these folks relying on OTA for news and information.
I believe that if congress doesn't keep OTA analog going for at least 10 years you will hear such an outcry that 'heads will roll' over this.
I think the 85% requirement is that 85% of people 'have access' to digital broadcasts be they OTA or cable. That is ludicrous. As you point out only about 4% are currently receiving HDTV.
Actually, one of the current bills being considered in Congress includes a program for the government to subsidize STBs so that the transition will not be delayed any further. Something similar has been done recently in Berlin.

http://www.slate.com/id/2089424/

RALNC

12-11-05, 08:36 PM

If there's anyone in the Raleigh NC area that's been able to get guide data with just OTA, could you let me know what zip code you used and what your host channel is? I've tried the G* test, and see VBI packets coming in on several channels (including UNC-TV, the local PBS, on 4), but I've yet to get any data in the guide (not even a channel lineup) after 1 week. I've noticed in the diag screen that the "host channel" is still blank. I've tried different zip codes in the area, but still no luck.

RobMeyer1

12-11-05, 08:36 PM

Alfmeister

12-11-05, 09:40 PM

[QUOTE=philspice1]Actually, one of the current bills being considered in Congress includes a program for the government to subsidize STBs so that the transition will not be delayed any further. Something similar has been done recently in Berlin.

Interesting article. Thanks for posting it. I think however that the people of Podunk, Idaho won't be as easy to convince as the cosmopolitan people of Berlin.
We Americans treasure our TV. I have never seen any sort of poll of what people would think if their TV's went by bye bye. The public is in the dark here. Go to any store and ask the buyers of analog TV's, VCR's, DVR's, etc (which are still being sold) if they are aware if the impending shut-off. Of course your survey will be small because the store won't be too happy to have you there.

mmccking

12-12-05, 04:59 AM

pyedog

12-12-05, 10:02 AM

If there's anyone in the Raleigh NC area that's been able to get guide data with just OTA, could you let me know what zip code you used and what your host channel is?

I'm in zip 27587 - near the intersection of 98 and 50, and my guide data is working fine off of channel 4. I get an OK signal off of 4, but not good enough that I'd ever want to watch it (i.e. a bit of snow, minor ghosting) so it doesn't need to be perfect.

Make sure you leave 4 turned on as a channel and in the guide - if you remove it from the guide it doesn't seem to be able to get guide data.

Now I just need to figure out how to get 4.1, 22.1, 17.1, and 45.1 with good signal all at the same time without moving the antenna ...

-Jim

Alan Curry

12-12-05, 04:46 PM

An update to the "corrupt" xfsprogs.tar.gz

Dear Mr. Curry,

We have confirmed the problem, and now we are in the process of updating our
web site.
Please give us some more time. We will let you know as soon as it is
complete.

Best regards,

Satoshi Ishiguro

Even more promising.

pmiranda

12-12-05, 06:34 PM

Or a summary of some sort? I just now heard about this unit being shipped (and discontinued, but cheap!) and I'm curious if anyone gets reliable guide info with this box and a cablecard or if I should keep waiting for Jebus...er, I mean the standalone HD TiVo :)

You'd think that with HD and DVRs become more common these days we'd have more choices :mad:

sansan

12-12-05, 07:25 PM

fox200

12-12-05, 08:36 PM

A while ago some people had posted that they had poor picture quality (choppy, blocky images) with channels 4.1 and 11.2 in the SF bay area OTA transmissions. I bought this Sony DVR about two weeks ago and have the same issue. Did any of you have a resolution to this problem?

I escalated my issue with Sony and a level 2 support engineer said he will get back to me in 48 hours after finding out from their engineering team.

I have also written to KRON and KNTV today to see if they have any clues. No response yet.

Sansan,

I'm in the Bay Area too, I see what you mean and you need to use auto-HDMI
or component out to correct the problem.
Has something to do with the way those channels are broadcast and the way they are received by the Sony.

videophiles

12-12-05, 10:10 PM

I've got DHG-HDD250 and am very pleased with it. If anyone's been having choppy or paused audio intermittently while playing back recorded contents, and setup uses only 1 HDMI cable, try this:

Auto-HDMI Out (or whatever formats you prefer)
Need to use Optical Audio Output to receiver

Cheers!

dp70

12-12-05, 10:39 PM

An update to the "corrupt" xfsprogs.tar.gz

Thanks for contacting Sony on this, Alan. Looking forward to seeing the "fixed" version posted and still puzzling over how any reasonable use of tar and gz could produce a file that size of all zeros.

I did contact Sony tech support about adding a second drive (I know, but hey, worth a shot) and did not make it past second tier or so, getting the standard boilerplate about how Sony cannot advise modifications to its products due to liability concerns, warranty voiding, FCC certification violation, etc.

I like how the warranty text warns that it's the user's responsibility to back up the hard drive content prior to sending the unit in for warranty service, yet they put a sticker on the back voiding the warranty if you open the unit. Reminds me of a contest I saw on a bag of chips a few years ago.... You could be a winner! No purchase necessary. Details inside!

hdaddiction

12-12-05, 10:57 PM

Mark, me wonders if somehow the model number needs to be modifed during the time the 2nd drive is added. Or maybe the model number changes once the second drive is added.

On another note, anyone following what the 500 gig model is selling for on EBAY? Not a bad deal at all....500 or so..

Lastly I have noticed in the st louis market the guide is out 3 days but the 7 and 8 are show no listings....Anyone have any thought on that?

HDaddiction

jengle1023

12-12-05, 11:04 PM

I got one of these from Best Buy a few weeks ago. I returned my first unit due to not getting the on screen guide. I am happy to report what I did to solve my problems.
I do not have cable. I do not have a small dish.
I live in Seattle, WA.
I have a great UHF setup on the roof (rotator and inline amplifiier). It took a lot of work to get it up and running and it works great.
I have a so-so VHF antenna.
According to Sony, the TVGOS must be received thorugh VHF over the air.

Only after I combined the UHF and VHF antenna with an antenna combiner and fed them into the ANT input was I able to get great HD signals and I pick up the TVGOS signal through channel 9, my local PBS station.

I also have a big ugly satellite dish with a receiver. My VHF antenna plugs into that receiver. The output of that receiver sends either satellite signals, or the output of the VHF antenna throughout the house. It is sent on channel 3
I can manually record channel 3 or Digital/Analog Satellite Signals, HD over the air signals, or even analog (although I have no reason to).

I was ready to return this unit after a few weeks of using it. Now I am quite happy with it doing everything that Sony said it would do.
Jerry