The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic! - Page 438

I don't think the Pal DVR is bad as force you need to find alternative while it works for you. I don't like its security powered in cube: no extension to write, prosecuting ppl who want have access to recordings, no schematics to fix it, etc.

I just upgraded my pal to 1 tb with this drive from newegg:
SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Works great and plenty of storage.
It was on sale for $49 with free del.
I didn't do anything to it. Just opened my pal and installed it.

How much was it?

Is fw f08 the latest for the DTVPAL DVR?

F208 - yes

And most likely the last update ever.

Some has newest F4.00 , but practically it is F2.08 with replaced "DTV Pal DVR" to "CM7000-DVR" labels.

So I experienced two weird new behaviors, one Tuesday evening and the other Wednesday evening.

The first:
I was watching a recorded program and stopped it for dinner. Upon exiting out of the DVR menu area, I saw channel 66.1 (FOX) displayed in the info at the top, yet the programming was that of 19.1 (PBS). I know the Pal will sometimes retune to a nearby station if the signal is weak--and FOX 66's RF channel is in the teens--but that channel almost always has a signal strength around 100, and the info in the display didn't change as it would if a flip occurred. For kicks I pushed the channel up button and saw 19.2 programming with 66.2's channel information. I changed the channel to 25.1 (NBC) and then back to 66.1, and that's when I finally saw the correct programming. After I finished watching my recording and went back to live TV, I once again saw the programming of 19.1 and 19.2 "displayed on" channels 66.1 and 66.2, respectively. A channel change reset it as before.

The second:
I was watching live TV through the DVR and paused it for a bit. When I came back and restarted it, the counter on the bottom of the screen remained, with the time incrementally increasing even as the program played on. After a minute of watching it like this, I hit the INFO button to bring up something else on the screen and maybe clear or reset it, but it was still there when I exited out. I think I ended up pausing and starting the program again to make it disappear.

Well, we were talking about DTV Pal DVR and not ChannelMaster. :P I don't think CM even got an update since its public release?

My DTVPal let me down yesterday. Was watching some recorded shows in the early afternoon. A few hours later, it reported that there were no recorded shows. A year's worth of shows is gone and I have no clue why. The hard drive still works because I can still record shows. All old settings are still there but new recordings are ignoring my record defaults (e.g. record extra minute before and after show).

Hi tooldogg, Did you have to reset the ADD setting on this drive?

Do your settings automatically "protect" recordings when finished? There have been many reports of mysterious deletions on well-filled drives ('though perhaps not as extensive as yours) when recordings are not "protected".

Not sure what might account for it ignoring the extra padding before and after. How long since you did a reset to factory defaults?

What is that ADD means ? AAM - acoustic management, but ADD ?

All the recordings were protected. I have the settings set to automatically protect recordings but the unit is ignoring that setting since this occurred. The recordings are supposed to start a minute ahead, run a extra minute, and then protect. None of that is happening now. I checked and the settings still are set to what I described.

I've never done a reset to factory defaults.

Well do it, it only hurts a little. You won't lose any recordings if there are any. If a reset doesn't clear thing up you may want to reformat the drive.

Attention Deficit Disorder. He thinks the PAL needs some electronic Ritalin.

Does this drive need to have the AAM reset? Does it even have AAM? Can the tools listed on page one be used for the Samsung Drive?

Actually it is standard SMART feature and you can control it from any software: MHDD (boot CD), Victoria (Windows), etc.

Are those the same utilities mentioned in step 7 of "storage expansion" on the first page of this thread? Sorry if I appear to have ADD.

Do I have to have a computer with a sata drive in order to change the AAM of a new bigger sata hard drive so that I can install the bigger hard drive in the DTVPAL?

No, this is different purpose programs - to test, repair (some) and tune drives.

Yes, those programs required to have PC to run.

Ohhh, Okay. My 10 year old dell has a eide or Pata drive. So which of the TB drives would be a better choice that wouldn't have to have the AAM changed to use in the DTVPAL DVR? Or is there a cheap adapter available that would allow me to plug the Sata drive in to my old Dell in order to use one of those utilities? Thanks a lot for the help P Smith.

How close to filling your HDD were you? ...at least a few available HD hours left?
You don't want to fill up the drive so that it does not have enough room for the 1+ hr. it uses constantly (to enable live pause, rewind etc.). If you do, it may force a reformat of the drive erasing everything (you would think this would be included in the calculation of free hours left - but maybe not since this problem has come up before).

Just buy SATA PCI adapter, some of them has eSATA ports on back, usually those SATA port(s) internal, ie you'll need power dongle - from PATA Molex to SATA power connector.
All this tasks is not necessary, install the disk, start using it - if you will hear the noise, then start changing AAM settings ...

The drive had hit FULL earlier in the day so I deleted something and I was back up to 3.5 hours free. But this has been a semi-common ritual for many months. It is always almost full and has hit FULL many times before.

I bought the recommended 1 TB drive for it when I bought the DTVPal but by the time I got the drive, things were already on the DTVPal that were keepers so the drive never got swapped. But even with the 1 TB, I'm sure we would have had that full too.

Thanks for the info and help P Smith. I think I will order one of the drives and see if I can install it. What do you think of the Samsung drive mentioned by tooldogg in post # 13152 ?

I used the type of Samsung drives in PC and once in the TR-50 for tests. Looks good.
I'm treat drives equally exclude those what get bad publicity like Seagate 7200.11 and like 7200.12 now when I get a bunch of those to inspection.
[I'm in IT for almost 20 years ...]

Thanks P, I think I'll order one and give it a shot. If I have any problems with it, I'll be back asking questions. Thanks again for your input.

I had a warranty replacement just sent as I kept getting the "hard disk too cold must be above 40F to operate" error, or something along those lines. Is there a way to tell if the unit I have is new or a refurb? It is sent in one of their boxes, but the device is not wrapped in plastic, nor is it in a original box...just a plain brown cardboard shipping box. Though the unit is protected by foam sides. The folks at channel master tell me they left it up to the warehouse to decide.

Any letters on white sticker on a back ?