The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic! - Page 51

Hopefully "motivated self interest" will result in Dish/Echostar fixing the current set of problems. It's not like Sony displays are uncommon!

They'll have to act if they want my $250...money which is currently theirs to take or lose.

ATTENTION DISH/ECHOSTAR: You would be wise to take care of these issues quickly before you lose my business, and the business of others, to a competitor or to general frustration with your terrible customer service and lack of refund on this product.

I'm guessing that this "unique" product will not remain so for long.

I dunno about that. There was nothing coming out of the 2009 CES to address the OTA DVR market that I could see. The Pal DVR is still the only product being offered other than the much more expensive TivoHD. This still seems to be a niche market. I have friends that still record to videotape. Can you imagine, in 2009, videotape??

Does anybody know if they started shipping the second batch of DTVPal DVR's yet?

The website says the expected ship date was January 12th which was Monday. If they have started shipping, what firmware version are the new ones shipping with?

If they haven't started shipping yet, maybe it is a indication that they are indeed trying to fix the bugs from the first batch.

So yesterday I went downstairs to check my recordings so I turn on my projector, receiver and press power on my Pal DVR. Nothing happens So I'm like oh no I've had the lock up so after cycling the power on my receiver to check if it was maybe a HDMI handshake issue I unpugged the DVR for ten seconds. I then plugged it back in and pressed power on the remote, the unit flashes to confirm but still nothing(what's the problem?). At this point I'm pretty flustered and am thinking it's dead. So one last time I press the power button on the remote and notice the "TV" function of the remote light up.

So nothing wrong just inadvertently pressed "TV" on the silly remote.

That happened to me once, not long after programming it for my TV. Embarrasing, but oh, what a relief.

I was at my local walmart looking for this Phillips unit. they had one left, a floor demo, no remote and they were unable to consider selling it. I think the product is being disconttinued as searching on walmart inventory online, found most stores out. this unit is/was? on the Samsclub Auction site.

FYI - it's a single tuner

Yes, I've only used component cables to connect to my projector since Dec. 24 and have had more than 20 power cycles and both reboots and lockups. So I don't think switching from HDMI to component is the answer.

As I posted earlier, I've had zero problems with my unit, so I went ahead and dumped Comcast cable yesterday. I am overjoyed to have done so.

Also, I use an HDMI connection to my TV and digital optical audio connection to my receiver. This is the exact same set-up I used with multiple Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR boxes from Comcast, which had all sorts of issues -- lock-ups, picture would go missing, etc. and required frequent re-boots to fix. (From reading other forums here, it sounds like a lot of these issues were very common and had to do with the HDMI handshake between the cable box and the TV.) When I got the Pal dvr I literally just unplugged the two cables from the SA box and plugged them into the Pal DVR. To date, not a single problem with the DTVpal DVR. Lord willing, that will continue!

One thing I do miss from the SA box is that it had an audio/video IN on the front of the box which was great for plugging in video games or other devices temporarily. All of my components are on shelving which is hard to reach, so plugging in new devices is not a real easy process! Of course, the cable tv savings more than offset this minor incovenience, but it would be a nice feature on a future version of the Pal DVR.

I am expecting a unit from the January 12th batch. I have called Dish yesterday and today trying to get a tracking number but "it is not is their system yet" so call back tomorrow. The csr said it would arrive in 10-12 business days.

FWIW, both csrs that I talked to were courteous and tried to be helpful. Calls lasted about 5min or less each.

Another theory down the drain.

Is everyone who is using HDMI cables using 1.3a category 2 ? this is the latest version and some equipment like my 40xf 550 Toshiba specifically mention to use it. You can get these at www.monoprice.com great cables and cheap. Using on sat receiver and dvr. don't seam to have any issues.

But it was good while it lasted.

Actually, I was considering that as a possible culprit. MonoPrice #3993 - 10' 1.3a Cat 2 Certified Cable.

My $8 (plus $8.67 s&h) cable from parts-express.com simply says HDMI Cable 5m (16.4 ft.) ATC Certified v1.3, nothing about 1.3a or Category 2. (And I've had no problems.)

For what it's worth, my solution to this issue was to buy 3, 3-ft M/F RCA cables, plug them into an open set of connections on the TV, and bring them around to front of the TV (mine were all black so I had to label them R/W/Y). Of course you do need the empty set of inputs on the TV. It's funny that when I bought the TV 20 months ago, I figured I'd never have to worry about that, but I'm getting close.

Maybe I should have sprung for the extra $4

I called their customer service yesterday to find out if my unit had shipped. Spent 30 minutes on the phone, they finally told me that it did not and that I should receive the unit within about 10 business days. By the way, their customer service is located in Manilla in the Philipines...

You might be onto something with the signal strength. What readings are you getting now vs. with the indoor antenna? This gives me hope that my unit will work properly since I also have an outdoor antenna and signal has been solid on ANY (old stuff, new stuff, analog) tuner I've use on it.

There is nothing sadder than a beautiful theory that has been brutally mugged and left bleeding by the side of the road by a gang of facts.

My current working therory is that temperature may be the issue. I noticed that there was a lot of heat comming out of the exhaust vents and the unit was a couple of feet from a furnace vent so I moved it and have not had a reboot since but not long enough to say I have found the answer. Current reading is slightly under 100 degrees.

That's a great line.


How are you coming by that reading?

My Dish 508 had weekly lockups and annoying sound drops here and there. But after a while I figured out some of these problems were heat related, and so I opened the top of the unit and had a fan blowing on the circuit board which helped a lot.

I figure when I get my Pal DVR, after the 90 days, I'll mod the case for a fan if it's needed.

The Pal DVR has a cooling fan (or so I've been told).

Use an infrared thermometer. I scanned over mine and it ranges from ~70° on the left side (fan and hdd side) to ~89° on the right side(power supply side). If you get on the right side and aim inside at the transformer it register ~100°.

Pierre P - Based on many of the posts from the first round of shipments, yours will likely show up on your doorstep before you get a tracking #. Based on after the fact tracking results, mine actually shipped a day before I was told it absolutely had not shipped yet.

Inserted a small thermocouple about 1/4" into one of the holes about 1" back on the right side (looking at the front). 92.7 to 97.

The Dish 508 had one too, but it was really tiny and blew so little wind. I've put my hand on the hard drive and it would be painful to touch. The auxiliary fan was very helpful.

Well, I wouldn't call them fantastic, but I have different situation - I'm trying to get two DMAs (Baltimore: south, Harrisburg: north). In the living room (same antenna as now in the attic), I got a fairly decent signal on the Baltimore stations (I'd say around 76-83). But I only really got one Harrisburg channel, marginally (around 62). Strange though, the antenna was facing north out the window (my house as foil-back drywall on the outside walls, which completely block OTA signals - the antenna had to be at a window).

In the attic I tried facing it south. The Baltimore channels were really strong, but I wasn't getting the Harrisburg channels I wanted. I then turned it around to face north. This obviously weakened the Baltimore channels (now on the backside of the antenna), are now from 69 to 83 (CBS, i.e. WJZ-13 with TVGOS, is 69-73) and tonight ABC is not there (either off-air or not coming in though it was a decent signal if I remember correctly - I'll see what it does with Lost tonight); the Harrisburg channels are now from 61 (on CW) to 90 (PBS, Fox). Three Harrisburg's I don't get (CBS and ABC because they are at 4 and 10, and an IND towards the west that I don't care about anyway).

I aimed the antenna towards the PBS tower (slightly west of north), and the signal was really strong and the Baltimore's were kind of weak. So I moved it slightly away to the east to bring in the Baltimore's better. The PBS is still 90, so I may need to shift it a little more to the east so the back side is more to the south towards the Baltimore towers to get them a little better.

I'm not sure signal level is the answer because I was getting WJZ-13 better in the living room (around 81) then now (around 71). I was thinking maybe perhaps the signal is more consistent since we're not walking around antenna disturbing the signal like when it was in the living room. But other then the fact that the power cycle counter stopped counting, I never saw any reboots or lockups - just two skipped recordings on night and I thinking that may have been due to a weak signal (was recording CW from Harrisburg) - that's why I'm curious to see what it does with Lost tonight with ABS gone. Edit: The recording was skipped, probably the same thing happen when it skipped two recordings the Tuesday before.

I put a Blu-ray disk into a PS3, and a few minutes later I tuned the Toshiba TV to the input that the PS3 is on and then it started to play the movie. There must be some kind of signal that the TV can send to devices.

I've noticed similar occurrences with my Xbox 360 hooked to my Pio. 5080HD via hdmi. If I'm in the 360's menu and I change the Pio.'s input away from and then back to the 360, it will reset the Xbox. It's annoyed me on more than one occasion

Something interesting happened today. I received my Pal Dvr approx 2 weeks ago, I
hooked it up and it performed flawlessy for the 2 weeks. Then I unplugged it to add
a battery backup, after I added the backup I had my first lock up later that day(yesterday). Then this after noon I switched my tv on to see what the pal was doing. It was displaying a black screen with a couple of musical notes floating around on it, like a screen saver. When I tried to switch channels I would hear the audio of the channel I was trying to go to, then it would switch to the 2 musical notes floating around with no audio, the banner at the top of the screen said AUDIO PROGRAM. Unplugging the unit and plugging it back in seemed to fix the problem, guess I'll know for sure in a day or two.