The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic! - Page 515

I don't think it'll be too bad. If the show is less than an hour, just record the whole hour; if it laps over a 1-hour boundary, just set two or more consecutive event timers on the same channel. Yes, a long program will be broken up into multiple 1-hr recordings, and the (last) recording will have some unwanted padding, but those don't seem like big deals.

The only problems I see are:

I must be missing something, because these so-called "event" timers sound like an inferior option to just using manual timers in the first place. Having 30+ minutes of padding and breaking single episodes into multiple files to appease some arbitrary requirement of using one-hour blocks sounds silly when you could just set manual timers for 30 or 90 minutes, add some padding to compensate for network delays, set the timers to repeat on a weekly basis, and then forget about them.

You don't have to use event timers, of course; but they are convenient, particularly if you typically pad your recordings:
Another option to keep in mind is to create an event timer using the guide, then edit it, which converts it into a manual timer. That way you get advantage #1 without having to pad and/or break apart a show. But you'll still have problems 2 and 3.

Finally, many TV shows start on the hour and last one hour anyhow, so the 1-hour "dummy" events in the guide work fine for them.

To each his own. Use whatever suits you and the situation; your Pal won't care!

If you're lucky enough to have twenty-four hours of PSIP, yes; if the station gives less, you have to program even more often if you rely on the DVR for a schedule.
When the advantages that I mentioned before don't apply, they are inferior.  My own scheduling has some of each.

I'm planning for the future also. I just ordered an HDHomerun Dual and will put together a cheap computer to put it in when I get dissatisfied with my DTVPal (which has only one working receiver).

Let's face it that even if TVGOS was continuing our DTVPal DVR hardware would not continue forever. My oldest unit is now 4 years old and my other unit is 3 1/2 years old so I wouldn't be shocked if something broke on one of them. After all, at the $250-$300 price point that these were built at they were not designed with the most-expensive/longest-lasting components or manufacturing processes. Granted if you have a hard drive failure that is a relatively easy fix but if your power supply, a tuner or something else fails, you probably won't be able to easily fix it (if at all).

And for those that have discussed the possibility/feasibility of paying Dish/EchoStar a fee ($100 as mentioned or even some lesser fee) to update the firmware one last time, I don't feel that would be an economically-feasible option for me. Do you want to invest more money into the DTVPal DVR when you have no way of knowing how much longer it will last? IMHO that money would be better spent on a current DVR solution that has a robust program guide, a warranty and some support behind it like the TiVo with lifetime subscription.

What I was trying to say is that once you spend the time to get all your events programmed everything is OK until the stations deviate from the schedule, which is too frequent to make me happy. I have one station with about 3 days of PSIP but some don't provide much more than the program name and some don't update their info until there is only a few hours of data but I will suffer through.

I have a Hauppauge card that works great in my PC but have not build a HTPC yet. Intend to see what kind of deal I can get on a TiVo with lifetime subscription at BestBuy or eBay,

Do you not find the DVR is downloading guide info many times during the day? Does not happen with TVGOS. It is much less annoying then seeing that download bar all the time.

Highly recommended. I've halted all recordings on the Pal. I already had a USB tuner so I have 3 tuners in my setup. The guide is wonderful. Name based recording is also a great feature.

Name based recording just paid off. Monday's episode of How I Met Your Mother was an hour long and I had no idea. The new setup recorded the full hour. The Pal would have just recorded the first half-hour.

I've seen you mention an annoying "download bar" before. Would you elaborate on what you are talking about? I have had TVGOS disabled and have been been getting PSIP only for the last month and see no difference in functionality between it and TVGOS (other than the limited guide data). I've never seen a "download bar" of any kind.

Mark

That's certainly true, since I don't own one.

Let us know how it goes. BTW, you don't put the HDHomeRun "in" your computer; you hang it on your computer's LAN somewhere. (It can be shared by multiple HTPCs.)

Quick note: If you're OTA (which is probably true if you've been using a Pal), the HDHomeRun Dual is a fine choice. If you want to be cable-ready, though, consider the HDHomeRun Prime instead - not because you need a third tuner, but because it accepts a CableCard. With the recent FCC ruling, clear QAM will likely go away in many parts of the country, so the HDHomeRun Dual will be "effectively" OTA-only.

That is very interesting. Without Tvgos. Every-time we turn the box on we would get a Downloading info guide with a bar that goes left to right. Takes a good 30 seconds. Not sure if it happens during regular channel surfing. Will let you know when Tvgos goes out. I remember when it was out for a few days last year. Was annoying as heck. The bar thing that is

Nothing lasts forever, of course, and it's true that these boxes are, for the most part, unrepairable. But I wouldn't assume they're all going to drop dead after 4 years of service just because they didn't cost a mint.

The biggest enemy of electronics is heat. But if you upgrade and/or externalize your HD, you'll reduce power consumption, and heat production along with it.

Power cycling and surges can also shorten a box's life, but an inexpensive UPS will take care of that.

And of course, you can re-use your HD and UPS when you do decide to replace your Pal. You won't be able to keep your recordings, but the HD will work fine in another system. So you're not throwing good money after bad.

I've seen this behavior if the power is lost. It repopulates the guide the first time you turn the unit on after power is restored, and shows that bar as it goes.

It might also depend on your firmware version. A few Pal owners still have older firmware.

I have the feeling we'll be learning more about when/how the Pal downloads PSIP guide data as TVGoS continues to go away around the country. Keep posting your experiences.

NP. BTW we have fr208. So it is up to date.
This only happens when the pal lost TVgos and went into PSIP mode
Edited by keyboard21 - 12/20/12 at 8:36am

More misinformation!

That download bar every time you turn on the unit is only on the DTVPal CECB, not on the DTVPalDVR.

.
Edited by wiscojim - 12/20/12 at 8:40am

a) In most parts it is reparable. If you have the parts
b) I wouldn't say so - the service is doable: transfer from old HDD all partitions to new bigger HDD.

I've seen the bar each time when I'm rebooting TR-50; did that so many times while fixing/testing many of the DVRs. I could make a video, but let me check it - internal ID of the screen should be enough...

Thanks Psmith. The truth always comes out.

It also occurs when you just power on. Almost Every-time when in PSIP only mode.

The loading program info bar that appears each time the unit is turned on is on the CECB, not the DVR. keyboard21 said it appeared each time the unit is turned on, not rebooting. That is standard procedure for the CECB.

Yep, I remember this with both DTV Pal models. I hated that TR-50! So buggy and crashy. Not even upgradeable like our DVRs!

Yes, I am stating that the same thing happens to the DTVPAL DVR when in PSIP mode with NO Tvgos found. It acts the same way as the $60 pal with no dvr. The info bar keeps coming up many times a day. Does not happen with TVGOS present.

My local TVGOS provider stopped broadcasting TVGOS over a week ago.
Plus, just out of curiosity I just disabled TVGOS in my DVR.
No progress bar when powering up my unit either way.
The only times I have ever seen the progress bar was on rebooting, or after a power outage.
Edit:
Keyboard21 - are you sure power is not being shut off to the unit (such as using the power
button on a power strip) when its shut off, instead of using the unit's power button?

I should clarify: by rebooting I mean turning on power by additional switch what I added to power cord to avoid insert/removing a plug. That is a requirement when I'm working with HDD's content while the drive moving from/to PC to/from DVR.
And TVGOS is transmitting here.
Edited by P Smith - 12/20/12 at 11:00am

Are you aware of this thread?
http://www.avsforum.com/t/1422535/windows-media-center-vs-tivo-premiere/0_100
Don't let the title fool you. It is a very detailed exposition of setting up a media PC with multiple HD Homeruns running WMC.

Also, the HD Homerun Prime is a cable-card only tuner. No OTA and I believe no clear QAM.

My DTVPal DVR went haywire when TVGOS suddenly disappeared. It would reboot constantly giving the loading program guide on the screen each time. It took a reset to factory defaults to get it to stop.

a) A mighty big "if" though. The power supply board could be repaired rather easily if all that's wrong is a bad generic component, such as a capacitor. But a lot of the Pal's parts aren't something you can just pick up at Fry's. Also, most of us aren't prepared to replace surface-mount components even if a replacement part were available.

b) Just to be clear, what I was saying was that those who give up on the Pal could move its HD to another type of system (such as an HTPC) but their new system couldn't play recordings made on the Pal. AFAIK there's no driver available for the file system the Pal uses. The data may be there, but if there's no way to use it....

You can transfer all Pal recordings from one HD to another using a sector copier like Ghost, but you still need a Pal to play them. Also, if you Ghost from a smaller HD to a larger one, my understanding is the Pal won't "see" the extra space.

Yes, I've been reading it, along with Assassin's beginner's guide. I'm actually thinking about making an HTPC myself, but I haven't decided on the hardware yet. The one 1hd_addict picked looks too small for any internal expansion cards.

Didn't know the Prime was CableCard-only. Are you aware of any HDHomeRun or other tuners that will tune OTA and also accept a CableCard for encrypted QAM?