Quote:
Originally Posted by WS65711 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23511020
Oh Kerry, I'm so glad you're back. I've been asked by the Administrators to forward this form (see below) to you, regarding the recent comments made in this thread regarding your gender. I was beginning to worry that some of the thread participants had hurt your poor widdle feelings so bad that you would never come back. Anyway, let me know if you need any help or guidance when completing this form.
BTW, I liked some features of the TiVo long before I "needed" to buy one. The network / archiving capability was most attractive. I take advantage of the dual tuners as well, but since I live alone, that is less important. Getting a TiVo didn't seem like the best place to spend my extra hobby money, however, until Rovi forced the issue. Luckily, the DHG still functioned well enough that I could wait a few months for a very good deal on eBay.
I lived with a crippled DHG for most of the time I have owned it, but I always had hope that it would work well someday. And it did... just for the last year before Rovi pulled the plug. Now, with no hope of getting a guide back, along with the information from this thread, the time was right to pony-up for something else. I am keeping the DHG for future emergency or expansion use as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by KerryNY /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23514665
That scenario leaves out at least one other factor: The pain of loss. Since we already suffered the loss of the DHG, (and some of us already spent the money for a lifetime subscription), there isn't much incentive to go back (unless your budget is so tight that you really need the cash back).
Think of a widow finding a new husband after two years. Maybe the new one is better than the old in several ways, but the old one was good enough. There was no need for a marital upgrade, but she could appreciate it anyway.
I offered the scenario as a sort of philosophical musing, nothing more. I understand the pain of loss, and remember quite vividly the first time I noticed the "doomsday" message. I knew what was headed my way and didn't anticipate anything positive.
There are other factors as well. Clearly, Mark and Joe enjoyed that challenge of "tinkering" with the DHG, with all its quirks and idiosyncrasies, than they do the TiVo. I understand that as well. The purpose of the musing was for my own benefit (I was interested) and no one was compelled to reply. So I kept it simple.
As for the "lifetime subscription", one has to assume that would be refunded as well or the scenario falls apart. Perhaps I should have phrased it better:
"If the Rovi Guide came back tomorrow, and at the same time your Tivo box disappeared and was replaced with a pile of cash equivalent to what you spent on the Tivo (including any subscription fees), what would you do next?"
Or:
"You've been transported back in time to October 2012, but brought all your DHG/TiVo experiences of the past 8 months with you. TVGOS is NOT going to be discontinued. Would you make any changes."
This could probably be posed better still. But you get the idea.
And enjoyed you closing, I did. Speaking Yoda now are we? Hmm, yes.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23515110
There are other factors as well. Clearly, Mark and Joe enjoyed that challenge of "tinkering" with the DHG, with all its quirks and idiosyncrasies, than they do the TiVo. I understand that as well. The purpose of the musing was for my own benefit (I was interested) and no one was compelled to reply. So I kept it simple.
And enjoyed you closing, I did. Speaking Yoda now are we? Hmm, yes.
I'm not sure tinkering is accurate. I have questions and TiVo (and the TiVo) has no answers. That results in many negative comments on the TiVo sites since their tech support is normal (bad). Two examples:
The Desktop program stopped working. After a few weeks their support people asked for a screen shot of the error. They don't use it?
Latest update may have caused OTA analog to fail. Their response: we can't test it but other new bug fixes might help. They can't test analog?
But just like most threads on these forums, what's old becomes new frequently. As example, I posted that "The Daily Show" problem was fixed last week. Seems that I spoke too soon as it's back to its quirky behavior again. Except for the involuntary updates and the guide bugs I like the TiVo. The DHG became a challenge due to Rovi and the middle man (inserters). It did seem that last year the DHG and guide became less of a problem. Just in time to die.
When I first heard "Yoda" speak, I thought of my four years taking Latin in high school. That proved to be a great investment.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23515110
[...]
"You've been transported back in time to October 2012, but brought all your DHG/TiVo experiences of the past 8 months with you. TVGOS is NOT going to be discontinued. Would you make any changes."
I like the two scenarios better than the original question. Made me think...and it hurt a little. The answer to the original question would be probably not. Now that I have the Tivo, there are certain things I like more about it, especially the season pass and two tuners not to mention significantly more stable.
But if Rovi changed their mind at the last minute and decided not to kill TVGOS, I definitely would not have gotten the Tivo. The interesting thing to me was the fact that I researched Tivo and knew about those features and still would not have gotten one. I was satisfied with the DHG and it fulfilled my requirements and there was no need for anything better. I'm not a programmer, but I am technical so I had no problem living with the quirks and codes. I guess laziness and resistance to change would have played a part in that decision as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23515110
I offered the scenario as a sort of philosophical musing, nothing more. I understand the pain of loss, and remember quite vividly the first time I noticed the "doomsday" message. I knew what was headed my way and didn't anticipate anything positive.
There are other factors as well. Clearly, Mark and Joe enjoyed that challenge of "tinkering" with the DHG, with all its quirks and idiosyncrasies, than they do the TiVo. I understand that as well. The purpose of the musing was for my own benefit (I was interested) and no one was compelled to reply. So I kept it simple.
As for the "lifetime subscription", one has to assume that would be refunded as well or the scenario falls apart. Perhaps I should have phrased it better:
"If the Rovi Guide came back tomorrow, and at the same time your Tivo box disappeared and was replaced with a pile of cash equivalent to what you spent on the Tivo (including any subscription fees), what would you do next?"
Or:
"You've been transported back in time to October 2012, but brought all your DHG/TiVo experiences of the past 8 months with you. TVGOS is NOT going to be discontinued. Would you make any changes."
This could probably be posed better still. But you get the idea.
And enjoyed you closing, I did. Speaking Yoda now are we? Hmm, yes.
I realized I wasn't clear about the lifetime reference, either. That was just to negate the advantage of the DHG having a "free subscription". If someone is still paying a monthly fee to use their TiVo, they might be more likely to choose a fully-functional Sony over a TiVo, as I did when I first bought my DHG.
If I can be transported back to October with my memory intact, I will just be concentrating hard on trying to remember winning lottery numbers.
If I won, I would ADD a TiVo (or maybe a second DHG). If I did not win, I would be happy with a fully-functional DHG, just as I was for a while.
Oh, wait... I forgot about "the last straw"... the DHG audio dropouts were driving me nuts! I was previously happy with the DHG, because I thought the dropouts were in the cable signal. (as the occasional video defects still are) If I knew the audio problem was with the Sony, I might have looked into a used TiVo after all. I'm sure I would have procrastinated for a while, though.
Concerning clock drift, my DHG would still be used every day if I could fix my clock drift so I wouldn't have to reset it once a month. Are there any wise engineers reading this forum who could point me in the correct direction as to where I might add a potentiometer to adjust for clock drift? Or is the clock strictly a digital signal not at all alterable? As it is, my DHG is pretty much a doorstop now and I don't think I have anything to lose by tinkering with it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by rad21 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23519396
Concerning clock drift, my DHG would still be used every day if I could fix my clock drift so I wouldn't have to reset it once a month. Are there any wise engineers reading this forum who could point me in the correct direction as to where I might add a potentiometer to adjust for clock drift? Or is the clock strictly a digital signal not at all alterable? As it is, my DHG is pretty much a doorstop now and I don't think I have anything to lose by tinkering with it.
Like you said: you have nothing to lose. What is the internal temperature? There is no information that I have ever seen for changing the clock drift. With my four units the drift varies from practically zero to a minute per week. So I only use the one that doesn't drift. If there was a crystal located on the motherboard I would add a capacitor to slow it down. If yours is slow, I have no idea how to speed it up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeKustra /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23520194
Like you said: you have nothing to lose. What is the internal temperature? There is no information that I have ever seen for changing the clock drift. With my four units the drift varies from practically zero to a minute per week. So I only use the one that doesn't drift. If there was a crystal located on the motherboard I would add a capacitor to slow it down. If yours is slow, I have no idea how to speed it up.
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoeKustra /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23515226
I'm not sure tinkering is accurate. I have questions and TiVo (and the TiVo) has no answers. That results in many negative comments on the TiVo sites since their tech support is normal (bad). Two examples:
The Desktop program stopped working. After a few weeks their support people asked for a screen shot of the error. They don't use it?
Latest update may have caused OTA analog to fail. Their response: we can't test it but other new bug fixes might help. They can't test analog?
But just like most threads on these forums, what's old becomes new frequently. As example, I posted that "The Daily Show" problem was fixed last week. Seems that I spoke too soon as it's back to its quirky behavior again. Except for the involuntary updates and the guide bugs I like the TiVo. The DHG became a challenge due to Rovi and the middle man (inserters). It did seem that last year the DHG and guide became less of a problem. Just in time to die.
When I first heard "Yoda" speak, I thought of my four years taking Latin in high school. That proved to be a great investment.
I've had none of the problems with the TiVo that you describe, however, I don't use the desktop program (?) and only watch HD programs which are all digital of course. I don't think we even have any analog left in the Twin Cities, OTA or cable. Mediacom is all digital now and boasts that their HD is pass-thru (no compression) but I'm suspicious about that. Although their picture is very good. Our friends is Burnsville have ComCast and I think ours is better although it's difficult to tell when they're not side-by-side on the same TV. Anyway, no analog here so I can't comment.
As for the guide, ours has always been accurate - the only problem is the occasional missed "first run" show which has happened with Rookie Blue and Flashpoint which I'm guessing aired in Canada before they were shown in the US. I'm not sure if that's TiVo's fault or TMS. Anyway, when that happens I just change the setting to ALL episodes and delete the ones I've seen.
Such problems are minor compared to the DHG. My biggest problem with that box was scheduled recordings simply disappearing from the list. It happened about once a month and on all 3 machines. I made it a point to review the schedule every Sunday and sometimes even that wasn't good enough. Now that there is no guide (and no guide "updates") that problem has disappeared.
As for drift, both the DHGs I have running seem to pick up one minute a month. To compensate I just pad the recording times. No big deal. The next time I run Izzy (probably after DST ends) I'll set the time about 3 minutes slow - assuming I'm still using the box.
Your issues could also be the result of your living in a more remote area as opposed to a big city. By the way, we're headed to the Poconos in September, so I'll try to sit on the right side of the plane and wave to Mount Carmel has we pass over.
Yoda, like Rocky Horror, has a special (sentimental) place in my heart. Star Wars is another of those "guy" things that I ended up liking. Some of the gals at work are into it too, and send me programming requests in Yoda. It helps the day move along.
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23520887
I've had none of the problems with the TiVo that you describe, however, I don't use the desktop program (?) and only watch HD programs which are all digital of course. I don't think we even have any analog left in the Twin Cities, OTA or cable. Mediacom is all digital now and boasts that their HD is pass-thru (no compression) but I'm suspicious about that. Although their picture is very good. Our friends is Burnsville have ComCast and I think ours is better although it's difficult to tell when they're not side-by-side on the same TV. Anyway, no analog here so I can't comment.
Your issues could also be the result of your living in a more remote area as opposed to a big city. By the way, we're headed to the Poconos in September, so I'll try to sit on the right side of the plane and wave to Mount Carmel has we pass over.
There is a free utility, kmttg, that displays the bit rate of any TiVo program. I seldom use it, but it's there. I never watch analog. The Desktop program is a nice way to off-load programs from my small TiVo to an external USB drive. If you can get 18-19 Mbs from a 1080i TV program you don't have a problem. You can extrapolate the bit rate from the info screen about the program. A one hour HD 1080i/DD5.1 takes about 8-9 Gb of storage. ABC at 720p on my feed takes about 3-4 Gb. With the latest update you can see that an SD 30 minute program uses less than 1Gb.
The only time I see contrails is to my south, so you would need to be on the left side. Small airports like Scranton-WB are cute. Parking is never an issue and to rent a car you may be told it is "outside to the right about 50 feet". But even that is bigger than Lihui, HI. At least it's a jet. Or "To fly a jet lucky you are".
Quote:
Originally Posted by mac24 /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23520887
I've had none of the problems with the TiVo that you describe, however, I don't use the desktop program (?) and only watch HD programs which are all digital of course. I don't think we even have any analog left in the Twin Cities, OTA or cable. Mediacom is all digital now and boasts that their HD is pass-thru (no compression) but I'm suspicious about that. Although their picture is very good. Our friends is Burnsville have ComCast and I think ours is better although it's difficult to tell when they're not side-by-side on the same TV. Anyway, no analog here so I can't comment.
As for the guide, ours has always been accurate - the only problem is the occasional missed "first run" show which has happened with Rookie Blue and Flashpoint which I'm guessing aired in Canada before they were shown in the US. I'm not sure if that's TiVo's fault or TMS. Anyway, when that happens I just change the setting to ALL episodes and delete the ones I've seen.
Like you, I've not experienced any of the issues Joe mentions. The TiVo Desktop works fine for me, but I only use it to download TO the TiVo, not the other way around. I wasn't aware that any analog OTA existed anymore, unless some LP stations using low-VHF are still around.
Just FYI, but Flashpoint never showed up as New even when CBS had it the first few seasons. It did air in Canada first. Rookie Blue however always seems to have the New tag. Difference being it airs simultaneously in the US and Canada.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Possumgirl /t/537711/sony-dhg-hdd250-500-official-thread/28770#post_23521551
Just FYI, but Flashpoint never showed up as New even when CBS had it the first few seasons. It did air in Canada first. Rookie Blue however always seems to have the New tag. Difference being it airs simultaneously in the US and Canada.
You are probably right. Motive, from Canada, can not be used with a season pass. No big deal. Same issue from programs on BBCAM. It just makes me unhappy when the Zap2It listings are correct and TiVo's guide is wrong. Both have a TMS copyright for their guide. You have probably seen the "28 day" rule. I hope that applies to a lunar cycle. Further comments would be bad.
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