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Channel Master CM-7000PAL HD DVR - AKA Dish DTVPal

192K views 858 replies 155 participants last post by  P Smith 
#1 ·
Channel Master is distributing and retailing a High Definition HD Digital Video Recorder (DVR) model number CM-7000PAL HD DVR for dual tuner Over-The-Air (OTA) use. The rem "pal" in the model number is a synonym for "friend" and not a reference to the European broadcast standard.

http://www.channelmasterstore.com/CM...cm-7000pal.htm

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...dingMethod=rr&


Question: As of the initial date of this original post, May 24, 2010 has anyone acquired the hardware unit yet ? Does anyone know if the original equipment manufacture is Funai or whoever ?


Given that the MSRP price point is as mentioned in the above two URL's ... and that it records "only" thirty (30) of HD ... it seems a bit pricey. Yet it is an available option in year 2010.


Does anyone know the quality of the HD recording ?


The following URL is a review authored by David Reinhart:

http://www.bigpicturebigsound.com/DT...-7000PAL.shtml


Note: Mr. Reinhart indicates the hardware is a clone of the (discontinued) DISH Network DTV-pal.


A cached webpage indicates it is the EchoStar TR-50.


Thanks for your time and consideration.



Leo Henton
 
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#202 ·
Glad (in a sad sort of way) to know I'm not alone... As I mentionned in a previous post, I don't believe it's the stations. The stations transmit time in GMT/UTC. The diagnostics screen shows that their time is correct, but the unit is not applying DST. I did send an email to Support@channelmasterstore.com almost a month ago, but never got any reply. Are you able to change the state of the DST flag on the time zone screen (I'm not)? For now, I'm living with the unit in standard time and mentally adding an hour to current or guide times...



My unit also spontaneously reboots while watching, once every two-three days (and I don't watch tv that much!). Did you observe the same behavior on your previous unit?


Dan.
 
#203 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by info_dan /forum/post/20372352


My unit also spontaneously reboots while watching, once every two-three days (and I don't watch tv that much!). Did you observe the same behavior on your previous unit?


Dan.

Have you disabled the automatic check for firmware updates?

You're lucky it only reboots that infrequently, whether or not you disabled that. My refurb was rebooting several times a day, sometimes within 10 minutes of another one. I am thrilled to say that FedEx picked that piece of junk up today to return it to ChannelMaster, and the one they sent me to replace it went several hours last night without a reboot. Fingers crossed, knock wood that I have a good unit this time!
 
#204 ·
Hi info_Dan


You said:
Quote:
I did send an email to Support@channelmasterstore.com almost a month ago, but never got any reply.

The support at Channel Master seem not very well organised. I have to use repetitive email everyday to have an answer.


For your question:
Quote:
Are you able to change the state of the DST flag on the time zone screen (I'm not)? For now, I'm living with the unit in standard time and mentally adding an hour to current or guide times...

The DST flag is like your, always on, you put it to off and it came back to on as soon as you get back to the time zone screen. If you look at the time in that screen, when you change time zone, the time change. If you change DST flag, the time do not change.


For your reboot, disable the automatic check for firmware update, and you can also disable the TVGOS in the preference, because the is no TVGOS in montreal region.

I ask the question again!


Is there anyone, that live in the montreal region that have no time and guide time problem with a CM-7000Pal?


darmand
 
#206 ·
Quote:
Originally Posted by A J
I've read dozens of posts in the other forum about time shifts in some parts of the country. Unless you set time on the DVR manually, and I certainly don't want to do that, you are at the mercy of the local station which transmits TVGOS in your area. The time shift problem, when it occurs, is the fault of the station, not the DVR (garbage in, garbage out, don't shoot the messenger). In my case, the local PBS station transmitting TVGOS has worked flawlessly. I have never found the time to be off, not even by a minute.


I can offer no input on Daylight Saving Time, other than to say my CM-7000PAL switched correctly last month. That's the only changeover that has occurred since I bought my DVR.


AJ
Hi A J,


It's been a while since I last looked at these units, and last I checked, the DTVPal (which from everything I've read, seems to be the same as this, except that the DTVPal is cheaper, discontinued, and harder to find) had problems with setting the time manually. I've read that if TVGOS or PSIP is available in your area, the time you receive from those sources overrides the manual clock setting. Is this problem finally fixed, so you can ignore all external time sources and EPG information and just force the unit to record at specific times solely based on a clock you set yourself, thus eliminating the possibility of faulty TVGOS/PSIP information causing you to miss your program? (I've also read that the clock in the unit can randomly become wrong even if you set it yourself... is this true?)


Assuming that is now possible, I guess that would also force you to give up the ability to set your timers to start early and end late while still having the entire recording given the name of the show you were trying to capture. If having a completely autonomous clock is finally possible though, that may be a sacrifice worth making for me.


I'm actually still using a VCR, and since it's starting to fail and I can't find any suitable replacements, I'm reconsidering getting one of these. Since I've survived all this time without an EPG or automatically-named recordings, I would much prefer timer reliability to the EPG features. I've noticed that the PSIP-provided times on some of my channels are an hour off at times, so I'd rather not rely on them. I can't comment on the reliability of TVGOS, since my converter box doesn't support it. In theory, my TVGOS provider would be KPIX (the CBS San Francisco affiliate).


Thanks for any advice you or others can provide.
 
#207 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Aleron Ives /forum/post/20379149


I've read that if TVGOS or PSIP is available in your area, the time you receive from those sources overrides the manual clock setting. Is this problem finally fixed, so you can ignore all external time sources and EPG information and just force the unit to record at specific times solely based on a clock you set yourself, thus eliminating the possibility of faulty TVGOS/PSIP information causing you to miss your program?

If the time is inaccurate the only way I know to alter it is to set it manually. And, the only way I know to do that is to delete the station (WTVI in my case) which transmits TVGOS. As long as TVGOS is being received, the "Set Date Time" in the "Installation" menu shows "Time has been acquired from TVGOS" and the manual time set feature is not functional.


I have deleted WTVI as an experiment. After a reboot I could set the date and time manually. Of course, I lost the 8-day TVGOS and the 3 sub-channels for WTVI. The Guide then had only the PSIP, ranging from 8 to 24 hours for the remaining channels. I then added WTVI and got back to normal.


Thankfully, WTVI has been flawless with TVGOS and the time setting throughout the 4 months I have owned my CM-7000PAL.


Maybe someone else knows a way to manually set time while retaining TVGOS. The manual doesn't have anything that I've found, but I haven't looked very hard since it was only a matter of curiosity after reading so many posts about time problems in the other AVS forum.


AJ
 
#208 ·
Been lurking in this thread for a month or so since I bought the CM7000PAL refurb'd from CMstore. We love it. We had dish network and were paying them $90 a month for a bunch of programming we never watched and a DVR and bedroom receiver.


Gotta say that so far the unit has been great. Haven't had any major guide/listing problems. It's recorded our shows. I have had it lock up twice while using the guide; not sure but think I was just moving my fingers faster than it could think. Holding down the power button on the remote rebooted it no problem.


Coming from dish DVR interface, the CM7000pal is a breeze to use for us. We like it. The wife wants a 2nd one for the bedroom tv; it's just a cheap sanyo hdtv with just a info button/no guide.

Bob C
 
#209 ·
LOL... this morning my audio wasn't working on any channels, so I held the power button down on the remote and it rebooted. When it came back up and downloaded guide info, the audio worked. Also had to go into the menu and set it back to west coast time.

Quirky... but we still like it.

Bob C
 
#210 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bobbyc /forum/post/20388987


LOL... this morning my audio wasn't working on any channels, so I held the power button down on the remote and it rebooted. When it came back up and downloaded guide info, the audio worked. Also had to go into the menu and set it back to west coast time.

Quirky... but we still like it.

Bob C

Darn bugs!!! These newer toys are sure buggy compared to the older ones like my old CRT TV (1996) and VCR (from dotcom days).
 
#211 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bobbyc /forum/post/20385435


I have had it lock up twice while using the guide; not sure but think I was just moving my fingers faster than it could think. Holding down the power button on the remote rebooted it no problem.


Bob C

I had this issue as well, using the browser buttons. I e-mailed CM support & they told me to make sure DST (daylight saving time) is off. After doing this it hasn't locked up on me to download the guide. I set it to download guide at 4AM.
 
#212 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by phildaant /forum/post/20389081


Darn bugs!!! These newer toys are sure buggy compared to the older ones like my old CRT TV (1996) and VCR (from dotcom days).

I agree...it's all in the software! I didn't realize this when I bought my HDTV in 2005. I kept calling for repairs of 3 problems I had with the set. Toshiba replaced the mainboard and some other components all to no avail over a period of 7 months. Finally, they released a firmware upgrade that resolved the problems.


They rush new products to the market to try and beat competition without spending the time necessary to debug the software! We pay in frustration! Obviously, having to replace parts that are not faulty and paying for labor is less costly than spending time testing new products thoroughly!
 
#213 ·
Hello, all:


I have a friend who's looking for a DVR and the first thing that came to mind was this receiver. However, he lives in a poor signal area that is likely caused by multipath. His TV tuners will not receive all the signals, but a Zenith converter box will receive them.


I'm wondering if anyone here knows how the CM DVR compares with the Zenith converter box, since I've heard good things about the Channel Master converter boxes.


Thanks for any help you can provide.



- Trip
 
#214 ·
The CM7000 DVR is a Channel Master product in name only. This unit is manufactured by Echostar and is the same as the Dish Network DTVPAL DVR (Since discontinued).


I have the Dish version, and have been very pleased with its reception. It handles signals much better than my Sharp TV. The Sharp has severe reception issues at times and is unwatchable, while the DVR signal is rock solid. I am fairly close to the local transmitters, so the conditions I have are most likely due to multipath issues. The DVR has been excellent so far.


I also have two CM-7000 converter boxes, which are completely different than the CM-7000 DVR, and both have worked fine since the digital transition. They also handle the signals just fine.
 
#215 ·
The DTVPAL/CM-7000PAL DVR supposedly has the same tuner as the DTVPAL "Plus" CECB.


Based on that, I would figure that the CM-7000PAL DVR's tuner is better than average, but not quite as good as the Channel Master and Zenith CECB's.


One of the reasons the Zenith is top-rated is because of it's exceptional multipath handling.


I don't know about the later, "DTVPAL Plus", but I've had both the Zenith DTT-900 and the standard DTVPAL CECB's, and the PAL was nowhere near as good as the Zenith with multipath. Even the Channel Master, although it excels in the sensitivity department, can't match up to the Zenith for multipath handling.


I suppose the "Plus" version of the PAL could've improved upon that, though.
 
#216 ·
First, thanks to all who have posted here and in the "The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic!". Much helpful info that I used to decide to purchase a refurb from CM Store. Also, thanks for the discount code to use there (shopcmstore).


I ordered it on April 21st (Thursday), it hadn't shipped by the following Wednesday, so I emailed them and asked what was up. I also told them to cancel the order if they could not ship it by Friday. The reply was, "Sorry for the delay, we just got some in, I will expedite and ship your order today." I was hoping that meant they would pull a new one and ship it in place of the refurb, but no, the unit I received was open box, the DVR was snug in the foam cradles but everything else, including the remote, was rattling around in the box. Also, the remote had no batteries. I received it Monday of this week and it has worked flawlessly, so far. After being on overnight it had 7-8 days of TVGOS data. The time has been correct every time I have checked it. My TVGOS comes from KTHV, ch11 in LR AR.


One question has come up so far: If if lock a station, then select "Hide Locked Channels", so the locked station doesn't show up in the guide, I cannot tune to that station. The manual says if I try to tune a locked station, I will have to enter the password. The stations I have locked are music video sub-channels. But when I turn to the channel, by keying in 01602, it doesn't ask for a password, just tunes to channel 16-1. To tune a locked channel, I have to un-lock the system. I don't need to see a schedule for continuous music videos, but would like to watch them occasionally. I searched for a solution, but found none, anyone have any ideas?
 
#217 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnGa /forum/post/20403564


One question has come up so far: If if lock a station, then select "Hide Locked Channels", so the locked station doesn't show up in the guide, I cannot tune to that station. The manual says if I try to tune a locked station, I will have to enter the password. The stations I have locked are music video sub-channels. But when I turn to the channel, by keying in 01602, it doesn't ask for a password, just tunes to channel 16-1. To tune a locked channel, I have to un-lock the system. I don't need to see a schedule for continuous music videos, but would like to watch them occasionally. I searched for a solution, but found none, anyone have any ideas?

Once you hide a channel, it disappears from the Guide and you cannot tune it manually. To see it again (to the best of my knowledge) you must Add the channel through the menu (which includes a password). Then you can tune it and it is back in the Guide. It is basically all-or-nothing.


AJ
 
#218 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by A J /forum/post/20404997


Once you hide a channel, it disappears from the Guide and you cannot tune it manually. To see it again (to the best of my knowledge) you must Add the channel through the menu (which includes a password). Then you can tune it and it is back in the Guide. It is basically all-or-nothing.

Has anyone actually tried to timer record to a locked channel (using a manual timer program, I assume)?
 
#219 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by wajo /forum/post/20405004


Has anyone actually tried to timer record to a locked channel (using a manual timer program, I assume)?

That doesn't work. When you go manual (Menu/Timers/Create), you must select a channel from a list, which doesn't include hidden/locked channels. Only after you select a channel (which isn't hidden/locked) can you then input start and end times.


AJ
 
#220 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by joel27nc /forum/post/20391129


I had this issue as well, using the browser buttons. I e-mailed CM support & they told me to make sure DST (daylight saving time) is off. After doing this it hasn't locked up on me to download the guide. I set it to download guide at 4AM.

How do you set a time for the download? I thought it just happens automatically whenever, when it has been Enabled to use the TVGOS.
 
#221 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by LuvMyDVR33 /forum/post/20412068


How do you set a time for the download? I thought it just happens automatically whenever, when it has been Enabled to use the TVGOS.

TVGOS updates do happen automatically. The manual suggests that enabling updates, allows you to set a time for it to update the guide, but that info is wrong. That time is when it will reboot and then go out and check for a firmware update on the internet. In fact if you enable updates, and leave the default time set to 1:00am it will actually interrupt the first TVGOS download of the night which runs from 12:56am to 1:21am.


Mark
 
#222 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by Trip in VA /forum/post/20396979


Hello, all:


I have a friend who's looking for a DVR and the first thing that came to mind was this receiver. However, he lives in a poor signal area that is likely caused by multipath. His TV tuners will not receive all the signals, but a Zenith converter box will receive them.


I'm wondering if anyone here knows how the CM DVR compares with the Zenith converter box, since I've heard good things about the Channel Master converter boxes.


Thanks for any help you can provide.



- Trip

I live in the DC area. It all depends on your antenna and line of sight. I use an amplified signal roof antenna even though I live along the DC Beltway (due to nearby buildings interfering with line of sight Your antenna should be strong on the UHF side (only a couple of stations broadcast VHF and they are in the high band VHF).
 
#224 ·
I have this CM device hooked up to an antenna and am very happy with the picture and mostly with the functionality. One big problem though. There seems to be no way to record only a specific program like TiVo season pass. If I want to record American Idol, for example, it will record M-F at the same time, like an old VHS recorder. Am I missing something? I have not updated the software since I bought it in January as it is not on my net yet.
 
#226 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by mike734 /forum/post/20424152


I have this CM device hooked up to an antenna and am very happy with the picture and mostly with the functionality. One big problem though. There seems to be no way to record only a specific program like TiVo season pass. If I want to record American Idol, for example, it will record M-F at the same time, like an old VHS recorder. Am I missing something? I have not updated the software since I bought it in January as it is not on my net yet.

You're not missing anything -- the unit is doing what it's supposed to do. If you want name-based recording, you need to buy a DVR that has a monthly subscription to a TV guide like TiVo does. Because this DVR has no monthly fee, it performs time-based recording (like a VCR) and not name-based recording. While it would be possible to use TVGOS information to do name-based recording, the unit has not been designed to do that, and it's unlikely that such a functionality will ever be added.
 
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