The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic! - Page 538

I believe it is an FCC regulation that they have to provide PSIP data on their OTA signal

It is, but a lot of them don't.

They are required to send out a minimum of 12hrs, but as seen it is hit in miss in some areas.

I didn't mean to imply that they were not sending out ANY PSIP...they were only sending out 12 hrs. worth. And as I said the NBC station is now sending 33 hrs. after I sent them an email.

Do I assume DTVPal DVRs can't do undelete a deleted recording? Thank you in advance.

phildaant,

I asked this same question a little while back and had a great response. The bottom line is NO. Once the PALDVR deletes a recording there is no way with the PALDVR to retrieve it. Even if you have not done anymore recording since you hit the delete button and it still may be on the drive not wrtten over.

Thanks. I assume undelete is complex and tedious with a third party computer software. If so, then it's not worth it then.

If anyone is interested there is an eBay seller (antennalogic) selling brand-new (old stock) DTVPal DVRs for $309 plus shipping which is based on your zip code ($23.95 to my zip code). It says that there are "more than 10 available" and 26 have been sold. According to the listing these were found by the manufacturer in a warehouse somewhere and had the original firmware installed. The seller is updating the firmware to F208 prior to shipping and including a Channel Master remote because these newly-found units only included the receivers themselves. They are also including the user manual on CD, RCA cables and an HDMI cable.

I've attached a couple of pictures to show how they are shipping these units and how they were received in bulk from Dish. BTW I have absolutely no connection to the seller and am only posting this information in case anyone wants to buy a brand-new DTVPal DVR which has been almost non-existent in the marketplace for quite some time.
Edited by trp2525 - 2/26/13 at 10:31am

I waited to see what would happen.
Pal#2 timer OK last night. So why it misfired last Friday night I have no idea.

Still have the TVG logo on Pal#1.

Already have all the Pals I need, but thanks for posting that. Someone might want to pick up a second Pal for spare parts and/or another TV in the home. Including an HDMI cable is a nice touch, BTW. The original units included RCA composite cables and maybe component cables (I don't remember for sure), but definitely no HDMI cable.

Personally, I'd like to see the price dropped under $270 (or else the drives upgraded), but they do seem to be selling fine at the $309 price point. The above picture shows 64 units, so they won't run out for a while

Well, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, I guess. If your timers are working and both Pals are picking up the PSIP guides OK, I suppose you can live with the false TVGuide logo.

Yep. Leave it alone if it is fine. Only mess with it if it starts acting very weird.

FWIW, a week ago, I had 2 timers 'skppped' and have no idea why. All has been fine since.

I have a station in town, the ABC affiliate, who did keep up when we had TVGOS but ,at least since the weekend, there has been "no information" in the PSIP guide. I think I will send them an e-mail, not that they will answer and threaten to contact the FCC if the problem is not fixed or an explanation.

I saw these a few weeks ago, when they were selling at $289. Looks like they keep raising the prices to see what the market will bear. http://offer.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewBidsLogin&_trksid=p2047675.l2564&rt=nc&item=130836912170

They are also selling them directly on their website for only $269.99. http://antennalogic.ecrater.com/p/17000550/dtvpal-dvr-w-cm-7000pal-remote

.

trp2525

Thanks for posting this. I have 2 working units and I just bought one of these just in case. Seems to me I recently saw an ad for 30% discount on Squaretrade warranty, I might check that out.

Squaretrade 30% discount available 3/26, after that 20% discount through 3/4. Code needed from Squaretrade. I phoned them and told them I never got the email with code and they gave me a code over the phone. If you don't have a Squaretrade account you would need to open one before calling for the code.
Edited by anant - 2/26/13 at 12:08pm

Question for PSMITH about failed units: You have indicated that many of the DTVPals you have looked at have issues with solder balling and solder spatter. These issues are typically manufacturing process problems like dried out solder paste or solder reflow profile used. Do you keep track of serial numbers? Any correlation?

Not sure if you can get the Square Trade warranty on this. Usually if eBay is willing to offer that, there is a notice that additional warranties are available in the blue shaded box next to the price. The DTVPalDVR auction doesn't show this.

For example, here is an auction that has the SqT warranty available, look by the price: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Measy-E8DVR-DVB-T-TV-HD-Recorder-H-264-MKV-HDMI-Network-Media-Player-1080p-/160912097724

NICE FIND! You can save $39.01 by purchasing directly from their website instead of purchasing from them through eBay! The shipping charges appear to be almost exactly the same (for my zip code $23.95 going through eBay and $23.62 buying from their website).

I hope you bought it directly from their website to save the $39.01 ($269.99 as opposed to $309) as wiscojim posted above!

I'd probably be polite in my first email. After all they may not even be aware of the problem - your email may be the first to let them know of it.

But if they don't respond and don't fix it either, feel free to express your annoyance in the next email

I'm very skeptical of the stations here in the Dayton area, but since a lot of you guys have had luck convincing the station engineers to provide more PSIP data, I figured I'd give it a shot with one of them to start. I emailed our local CBS affiliate, WHIO, yesterday. We'll see if they respond. I'm NOT holding my breath.

Thanks trp2525 and wiscojim for the info. I pulled the trigger for an additional unit myself.

What does the F208 firmware update add or change on this unit that the CM-7000Pal does not have? Supposedly the Channel Master version did not receive this update.

Didn't take down the numbers ... so far, three of such DVR been in my hands. Actually the issue combined with bad CPUs [STi7109WECP C2L], perhaps the bad joints develop CPU's failure.

Posted: F400 = F208.

Just to clarify what P Smith said, the CM-7000 came with F400 which is the same as F208 on the DTVPal.

I think that it is wise to try nice and hold off on threats. You might also find it is worth writing several people at the stations in question. It took me three emails to get through today to the local CBS engineering department. As it turns out I was able to write the programming department and they forwarded my note after finding the mail box full at the engineering link. I eventually received a nice response and indicating they would look into my request. (I asked for 72 or more hours) We are about to lose TVGOS for good tomorrow. We have decent ABC PSIP, about five days and FOX is about three days. NBC is stuck at two days and will be my next email. Unfortunately CBS which was the TVGOS station is not even 24 hours yet. PBS is at three days. Both JOE and Ant are at three days and CW and ION are still at 24 hours. I did suggest that all the other networks were much longer in time so maybe they would want to match the other stations. Who knows but at least I did receive a response. If you live in the western Washington area try an email to KIRO programing and ask them to forward to the engineers. In the past I have had very good response to requests in our area. At least I almost always receive a response, even when I have had to try a couple of times and through several different routes. Good luck.

As far as anyone's been able to tell, the CM-7000's F400 is identical to the DTVPal's F208 except for cosmetic differences (screen colors, logos, etc.), so whichever one you have, you're on the Pal's latest firmware.

I saw the ebay listing last week, but held off ordering. However, with good psip info, it is hard to beat the Pal for an OTA dvr with no fees, so I went ahead and pulled the trigger and ordered a 2nd Pal from their website this afternoon. I think I paid $250 for my current Pal when it was new and being closed out a couple of years ago and I was fortunate to grab a used one for $170 on ebay at christmas for my Dad. This new one can replace my now virtually useless Sony and $300 with shipping was a fair price.