The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic! - Page 498

I wonder how long the power supply, specifically the electrolytic capacitors, will keep functioning. Your symptom sounds like it could be a power supply problem.

Originally Posted by P Smith 

His DVR's symptoms sing same old song: a CPU [7109] is on its last leg. Seen that in a few DVR PAL.

Originally Posted by schultdw 

I had a problem crop up on 4 November and my DVR still isn't back to normal.
The problems started shortly after noon when I turned it on. Except that it didn't because it was stuck in the infamous reboot loop. (Yes it is the F208 firmware.) I tried disconnecting the coax to get its attention but that failed. I had to dig up a shorting plug to put on the connector to keep stray RF out of it.
After that a factory defaults reset and it was kind of back to normal

Originally Posted by trp2525 

I'm curious if you carried over any program timers (especially recurring program timers) over the recent time change. If so, that could be the cause of your problem. A few years back I kept some recurring program timers over the DST time change and they were fine the first week. In the second week after the time change, however, they shifted by an hour. Based on that experience I NEVER carry ANY timers over the time change. I delete all of them and re-enter them after the time change takes place. I have not had any problems since I started doing that.

Another point to make is that even though you were watching a program "live" while another was recording, your live show is still recording to the hard drive. Did you do any "trick" functions (pause, skip ahead, skip back, etc.) while you were watching your "live" program? From my own personal experiences (and I have duplicated this behavior) I have found that if you happen to be using a "trick" function on a program that is currently being recorded to the hard drive at the same time another program is supposed to start to record it can cause some problems. I have had skipped recordings, misnamed recordings, etc. all related to this.

Regarding your Scandal recording being 58 minutes long even though it was set to record for 62 minutes, that's a glitch that I have seen from time to time. I've had programs that I've recorded show up afterwards being a minute or two short or long but the entire program is recorded. Last night's Grey's Anatomy was 62 minutes long but showed up in my DVR as 63 minutes after it recorded. I think it has to do with the way the DVR calculates the time from the data stream that it is recording. Different channels have different data stream rates and I think the DVR is not always totally accurate in the recorded time that it displays after the recording has taken place.

Originally Posted by ABHiDef 

My latest experiences:
By 2 am Friday the clock and guide were back to normal, but when I turned on my DVR around 7:30 pm the clock was once again an hour fast. Additionally, I had no TV Guide logo on the guide screen, and every channel but FOX said 'No Information Available." I tried changing the daylight saving time observation setting to No, but it automatically reverted back to Yes even after I confirmed the change. It also said the time had been acquired from TVGuide. By 9 pm the guide was populated with show information for some other channels, but the clock was still wrong. When I checked again at 2:30 am Saturday, everything was once more correct. (The TV Guide logo is still missing.)

Originally Posted by DavidG2 

By a shorting plug, do you mean a coax connector that shorts the inner core conductor to the coax shielding?
On the day of the DST change, my f208 DTV PAL system several times rebooted, was unresponsive for 5-10 minutes then rebooted again. After several cycles of that, the system now just is stuck at the "loading please wait" screen. I removed the input coax but it is still stuck rebooting. If a coax shorting plugs helps to fix this, I'll try that.

Originally Posted by keyboard21 


"Beginning on November 1st 2012 and completing in April 2013 Rovi will be discontinuing the broadcast data service for consumer electronic guides in North America. The guides known as Guide Plus+, TV Guide on Screen and the Rovi Guide will no longer have the ability to receive data via the broadcast data service. Please contact your CE Manufacturer for further details."
Guess you guys know about it

Will the DTVpal go right to PSIP? When TVGOS is shut off?
Also didn't we pay for lifetime TVGOS with this expensive box. It was the selling point and was included in the price. So Ecostar paid upfront for this service. Can we sue for breach of contract?
Has Rovi given a reason on why they are discontinuing TVGUIDE/TVGOS?
Maybe all the complaints?

Originally Posted by tylerSC 

Has anyone contacted Dish Network or Channel Master regarding the impending demise of broadcast TVGOS? As Rovi suggests? Since it is a crucial component of the DVR, you would think these manufacturers would be obligated to do something. Because PSIP only provides limited data, any long term recording capability becomes quite problematic , if not almost impossible. Which is the primary function of the DVR, soon to becoming a big brick. It sounds like you may have to purchase a new DVR which receives guide data via an internet connection.

Originally Posted by keyboard21 



Will the DTVpal go right to PSIP? When TVGOS is shut off?
Also didn't we pay for lifetime TVGOS with this expensive box. It was the selling point and was included in the price. So Ecostar paid upfront for this service. Can we sue for breach of contract?
Has Rovi given a reason on why they are discontinuing TVGUIDE/TVGOS?
Maybe all the complaints?

Originally Posted by WillN937 

The DVR wil use PSIP for any channel that does not have TVGOS data. Very soon that will be all so the main thing you will notice is that you probably won't have program information more that a few hours out. Some stations more, some less.
TVGOS was a feature of the DVR but unlike most "real TVGOS" devices EchoStar got the right to use that stream as the result of a lawsuit years ago. EchoStar wrote their own software and ROVI or GemStar or whoever claims no responsibility for if or how it works. ROVI probably only sees its obligation to its paying customers (advertisers and perhaps CE manufactures).
I can think of three reasons ROVI may be dropping this after all these years. Perhaps since most cable providers supply DVRs with their own EPG the OTA market does not generate enough advertising income to make it profitable. Perhaps as you suggest they decided it is just too much hassle with us complaining and the stations not wanting to help fix the problem and the cost to redesign the encoder to work being too high. I see very few TVGOS enable devices at BestBuy so maybe CE manufactures don't see this as a value added feature they are willing to pay for.
At any rate I wish it worked (had bad time in my market for months), I will miss it even using a zip code for an adjacent market that does not provide listings for my local stations, and I don't think there is an grounds for DTVpal DVR owners to make a claim against anyone for losing something we basically got for free and Dish said "where available".
What are the chances that someone will think they can get the business model to work and buy the rights to the format and make some hardware? I don't know but I expect slim to none would be close.

Originally Posted by keyboard21 

Also didn't we pay for lifetime TVGOS with this expensive box.

Originally Posted by keyboard21 

We all paid for TVGUIDE it was in the price of the box. Thus we have a right to it; Of course Dish will do nothing as usual. That is why I will NEVER get Dishes Satellite service. They do not deserve my business. IF they treat there SAt customers like DTVpAL customers. I want nothing to do with them

Originally Posted by qz3fwd 

Yes you did pay for the functionality when you bought the device, but I suspect that in the owners manual there is a statement to the effect that the service is not gauranteed to function and may be cased at any time.
My sharp TV states this as I expect any major brand also probably includes similar language to notify the customer of down the road business deals going bad.

Originally Posted by keyboard21 

We all paid for TVGUIDE it was in the price of the box. Thus we have a right to it; Of course Dish will do nothing as usual. That is why I will NEVER get Dishes Satellite service. They do not deserve my business. IF they treat there SAt customers like DTVpAL customers. I want nothing to do with them

Originally Posted by wiscojim 

I'm sure they won't miss you, or any of us. These DVRs were just a miniscule fraction of their business. They lost money on the products, they have abandoned them, and moved on.
And no, we don't have a "right" to TVGOS service. There was no guarantee that it would be available for any length of time in the future, and Dish has no obligation to us in that regard. TVGOS service was only an option in these boxes when and where the service was available. Soon it will no longer be available anywhere. We were lucky to have it as long as we did. If you have a complaint about the discontinuing of TVGOS, blame TVG, not Dish.
Enjoy it while you can, and if it doesn't meet your needs, move on to something else that does.

Originally Posted by keyboard21 

Do we not deserve a reason?
Also I and thinking the DTVpal dvr will be much cheaper on ebay. This is a shame a real shame

Originally Posted by keyboard21 

.....Also I and thinking the DTVpal dvr will be much cheaper on ebay.....

Originally Posted by ccrider2 

Indy market area.......Noticed that I have no TVGOS logo as of last night. I assume they dumped us here in Central Indiana.

Originally Posted by mabuttra 

It has been a few days since "lawsuit" was mentioned over there, and it was mostly panned. The most we could hope for is a class action lawsuit in which we wind up getting a few dollars from Sony for our troubles. Since the Sony was discontinued several years ago, standing around beating our chests, and demanding things from Sony that they probably won't give us, is quite pointless. This is off topic however, so I'll try to bring it back on topic by addressing your other question as to why Rovi is doing this. This is as good an analysis as I've seen as to a possible reason why. Basically they are hemorrhaging money, and they are trying to appease the shareholders by showing that they are trying to cut costs.
Mark

Originally Posted by keyboard21 

Rovi needs to sell its equipment and let someone else take over.

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives 

There's just one problem with this: no company would want to purchase either the rights or the equipment to maintain the service. There's no financial incentive to do so, and there's every incentive to let it die at this point.