Dish DTVPal / Echostar TR40 digital to analog converter - Page 215

Just a cautionary note: Walmart has only been delivering the Magnavox 2160A for several months, and it is likely that Target will deliver the same unit. If you just want to Time Shift OTA programing using the HDD in the 2160A, it seems to work quite well. If you want to save programs to a DVD, you will very likely run into a bug that seems to exist in all of the 2160A units. In order to format DVD+RW DVDs and finalize the other types, the scheduled recording lists have to be completely erased first. It can take a while to delete and re-enter a list if it is extensive.

The manufacturer, Funai, seems to be unable or unwilling to resolve the issue, although many suspect it would just take a firmware update. I suggest you research this in the 2160 forums before ordering a unit, and decide if you are willing to live with the unit AS IS.

No - they're not getting popular now - not SD HDD/DVD recorders, anyway. They never really were that popular, and they're on their way out now.

The Magnavox H2160A does have a digital tuner in it. But I would suggest getting one now if you really want an SD HDD model (http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...ct_id=10104532). It's the only thing of it's kind available in this country anymore (with a digital tuner), and may not be around very long.

That Big Lots model was a refurbished Magnavox, for those who want to know.

Also, there was at least one model of D-VHS VCR (HD - but played all tapes and resolutions) from a few years back that had an ATSC tuner - a JVC. But it cost $1000.00. You might still find them on ebay, but I don't know at what kinds of prices.

I've yet to see TV sold in the US that can pipe its audio and video out to another device. (In recent years, that is. Only one I ever saw was one from Radio Shack at least 20 years ago, and it was a little 5" job.)

If you know of any, please tell us about them.

Edit:
Come to think of it, I guess the audio would be a "maybe" since a TV might allow for external speakers, but to pipe the video out to another device? Rare or non-existant.

I pipe my audio from old VCR to my old TV tuner. Sure, the quality sucks and has no bass, but I can record freely.

My TV has no audio outputs at all. Just its internal audio speakers.

My Toshiba 20" monitor from 1992 has RCA L/R output jacks that I feed to my DVD/FM surround system.

FYI: My Philips 42PF7320A 42" Plasma has composite Video Out and RCA Stereo jacks. I bought it, new, late in 2005. I think it was built early that year. I feed those outputs to my old Technics SA-GX490 receiver so it can decode the 5.1 surround imbedded in the video.

My ~1991 ProScan PS27113 & PS27108 has audio/video out. My Zenith ~1992 2768 has audio/video out. My ~1997 Samsung has audio/video out. They are all old 27" direct view crts.
I have no idea if the video is Macrovision modified or not.
tom

I had a 27inch Sony that had audio/video out. Something in it broke and we got a replacement 32 inch LCD to replace it.

My Sony 32HS500 high-def CRT, purchased in 2003, has an SD output for use in recording whatever you're seeing on the TV...

Now I've got to find out where to get one of these. Especially if there's a QAM tuner.

The Sony I mentioned only has an NTSC tuner...it's in the generation before ATSC/QAM was included in most high-def units...

I finally turned on my old CRT TV and DTV Pal today after a few weeks of not using them (summer = slooooooow times on TV). DTV Pal's green power light came on when I hit power on its remote control, but it hung as usual. I waited over 15 minutes and still nothing. Pressing remote control buttons didn't even make the device's light blink like before when frozen.

I unplugged DTV's power cable from its rear (too lazy to do it from the power strip ). I waited about five seconds and reconnected, then still frozen. I unplugged again for a minute and replugged in, and still frozen. I did it again but with five minutes. Same results!! Um, is it dead? If so, then what the frack? I haven't used it very much and it died already!

Earlier in this thread, someone mentioned heat is an issue with this DTV Pal, there has been a heat wave for the last few weeks. Outdoor weather's temperatures have been almost 100F degrees. My room temperatures have been up almost 90 degrees(F). Maybe DTV Pal overheated to kill itself even though it was off (no green light), but still plugged in with power. The box didn't feel hot (just warm) right now (83 degrees(F)) in my room).

I guess I will leave DTV Pal disconnected from power overnight and see what happens in the day time when I connect its power again.

So far, I am unhappy with this DTV Pal. Maybe it's bad luck for me but it doesn't appear to be so from here and DTV Pal's Web site where it mentioned to disconnect power if frozen/hung.

Thank you in advance.

Interesting, NOW it worked after being unplugged and cooled down at about 1:40 AM PDT (after 1.25 hours?).

Sounds like overheating even though the box didn't feel hot? I even turned it on and off a few times to see if it hangs or not without being off for a long time. I guess the issue starts when the device is not on.

Also, I forgot to mention that I tried this with two different video outputs (CRT TV and old computer TV tuner -- both connected through an old Toshiba VCR) and two different antennae (Terk rabbit ears and DB2 bowtie) with the same symptoms.

I am going to disable the inactive timer and leave DTV Pal on to see if it helps at all. Interesting that its warning said it won't be able to do basic maintenance. I thought it can without being off.

The Pal's maintenance while powered up is not the same as in standby. Months ago in this thread, there's a comment from a Dish tech -- saying that during standby, the Pal deletes guide info for past events, in preparation for the guide download on power up. A second standby function is clocks: on this forum when we had the early clock problems (F103), someone discovered that when the Pal loses the CBS time lock, it sets time to the channel it was last tuned to, if the Pal is left 3-4 hours in standby. Powered up and tuned away from CBS for a long while, the clock drifted. I'm not sure about when the Pal can add new channels, it happens so rarely, it's only happened for me at power up.

The Pal can add new guide data when powered on, but if you're short on guide memory, it's slow. My guide memory was maxed out, the Pal made room for the next download by dumping future data it had previously captured, leaving some channels with 0-3 hours of guide info. If I sat on a channel, it took 15 minutes per channel to see what was on that night. Those who saw rapid info filling probably weren't short on memory.

My Pal locked up in standby a couple times on me, bit it fixed itself after a couple weeks of having to unplug it if I wanted to use the Pal for immediate viewing. I never lost a timed event over the bright green light staying on during standby, so it was just partly impatience on my part, the Pal seemed able to unlock in time for an event. But now I'm wondering if my lockups correlated with memory shortage -- my station hogs occasionally list 7 programs per half hour, and they used to show 6-7 days of info. I should hook up the Pal again to see if the memory issues are better when the station hogs aren't overloading it.

i had a similar 'hang-up' problem with my TR40 2 or 3 times...it just put out blank/black/no video on both the rf ouput and the video output.....however, the power led did flash in response to a remote command but the box was otherwise 'dead'....that was an F103 firmware box.... it only happened a few times the first week or 2 that i had it.....

i dont think it was a heat issue....the TR40's i have seen all run fairly cool....nowhere near hot....

the fix was leaving it plugged in and 'locked up' like that for about 30 to 60 minutes....cant remember the exact length of time needed....it then shut itself off and acted normally after that....i think the cpu went into some kind of an 'endless loop' problem and after the 30 minutes it just re-set itself .....just a guess.....

later i got an F105 version and that one never 'hung-up' at all....so maybe the newer firmware fixed it?

and as for disabling 'maintenance mode', i think all that means is that it wont randomly/automatically download any guide info....

Hmm, F105 sure didn't fix my hang/freeze problem. I think I had 61 or maybe 65 channels total since that is what my PC HDTV tuner cards had the highest. How many channels do you guys have with hanging problems?

I still haven't tested DTV Pal's timer to use with the VCR. I assume this one will lock up too after a long time of being down. I just powered my DTV Pal (it scanned the scheduler during its bootup) and it seems to work after 10 hours of downtime so far.

I wonder how long it takes for my DTV Pal of being off to freeze/hang.

A really impatient person could get into a vicious cycle. That is if they are unaware that during the initial 34 second boot-up time the DTVPal appears to be hung.

So they pull the power cord before the 34 seconds is up. Only to have to do it again and again.

Hopefully nobody is doing something this crazy.

I did verify this just now. After briefly pulling the power out, and while in that initial 34 second boot-up time, pressing buttons on the remote had no affect. That is the LED remained solid green and TV picture remained black.

update1(
I forgot to say this was a DTVPal Plus F106 that I experienced this with.

I got it in February of 2009.
)

It drives me crazy when it is frozen.

My lockup was a lot longer than that. The zombie light (bright green in standby) would stay on for hours, not 34 seconds. But as I say, it always woke up in time to launch a timed event, so I only needed to unplug it if I wanted to watch live.

i should have said in my post that i routinely totally disconnect my TR40 from power (via a power strip switch) when i am not watching tv...i havnt used the timers for recording very often...but i do use the timers a lot while watching tv to force a channel change to remind me that something is coming up that i want to see....the timers have worked fairly well for that.....

i'm not sure what my total channel count is but i think its somewhere around 25 to 30.....

and re hang-ups > i just remembered that while my F105 boxes have not hung-up in the power-on/boot mode they have hung up while in use a few times.....the pic freezes, smears or pixellates badly and the box becomes otherwise 'dead'....pulling the power cord fixes it....once i just left it like that and it fixed itself after about 5 or 10 or minutes....this has happened maybe 3 or 4 times in about 6 or 7 months of use....

Lucky you. The DTVPal Plus (F106) I set up for my Dad last year appears to be dead, dead, dead. It hung, has been cycled numerous times, has been unplugged for a week and still won't boot.

Hmm, I'll have to check about the 34 seconds, next time I visit.
Update: He says he's turned it on, left it for 5 - 10 minutes come back, and it's still hung, so it may be truly kaput.

Wow, a Plus and 106 firmware? How long did you have it and did it get worse before dead?

Weird. I was near powered off DTV Pal (last used was last night) and saw its green power light came on by itself. Is that maintenance? I didn't get to check TV to see what it was doing. I assume it was doing that.

You got it! I haven't checked it myself, but according to other users here, there is no video output in maintenance mode. Mine frequently comes on about 1am to do maintenance. I'm sure it comes on at other times too, but that's when I usually notice it.

Hmm, when does the maintenances usually happen?

I've noticed it frequently at about 1am. I've also noticed it sometimes in the middle of the afternoon. I don't know how frequently it does it. I've just noticed the light come on at various times. It stays on for about 30 secs to 1 min and then goes off. Nothing to be concerned about.

I've noticed that mine usually comes on for about 30 seconds, 10-15 minutes after I turn it off.

I think I bought them around the Sept time frame last year - - whenever it was the Pal+ came out since they were supposed to have a slightly more sensitive tuner (key in Denver for OTA). I'll have to verify with my dad, but I think he'd only had 1 case of it hanging in the first couple of months with no other issues before it died. He wasn't using timers or the TVGOS mode. He did turn it on and off every time he used it so it was cycled quite a bit. I'm hopefully retrieving the Pal today play with.

The Pal+ I have is in TVGOS mode. I had the hang reboot issue back in Feb. but only the one time and it was solved by unplugging it for a bit. I've never had issues or had it hang since it's been in TVGOS mode.

Currently, I am trying to see how long my DTV Pal can last before it needs its power to be unplug to reset. So far, I have these logged (will test more):

Converter Box Off With VCR Powered On Ch. 3:
9.5 hours (3:00 PM PDT - 12:30 AM PDT) = OK
29.5 hours (7/13/2009 12:30 AM PDT - 7/14/2009 6:00 AM PDT) = OK
almost 15 hours (7/14/2009 6:11 AM PDT - 7/15/2009 9:00 PM PDT) = OK
6 days and 3.75 hours (7/14/2009 9:15 PM - 7/20/2009 1:00 AM PDT) = FAILED (frozen with green light; had to leave unplug overnight [6 hours]).

If I unplug my DTV Pal's power for long time (days/weeks), will it still remember my schedules?

if by schedules u mean the timer events, no problem.....i unplug my TR40 everyday for many hours.....sometimes a day or more.....and i have never lost a timer.....all program info is lost tho.....but i think u know that.....