The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic! - Page 8

I don't think that is the case, I did not tune to several channels and they still showed info yesterday when I was relying on PSIP data.

Same for me. All channels had extended (several hours) programing data psip.

Has anyone with a 4:3 ratio HDTV monitor figured out how to display a HD picture that isn't letterboxed or horizontally squeezed? Otherwise the device is providing a better picture with two additional channels, versus my Zenith HDV420.

Use your page up button to scroll through the 5 options.

change your monitors display format to 1080i or 720p

I don't have a clue. Personally I'd never pause live TV longer than it takes to run to the bathroom.

Unpacking the DTVpal DVR

The (blurry) smart card:

After one hour, it comes off of pause and it will be playing one hour behind (at least that's what my Dish DVRs do). You still have one hour of buffer, but that's it.

As requested, the location of the smart card slot on the device:

So, does it just pull out or is there a release button?

Anybody have an overly sensitive tuner? My DTVPal got 39 channels. I can only get 17 with the DVR. This tuner is a different beast. If i so much as touch my antenna than i get nothing. Just got it so let me play around with the antenna a bit more.

i'm thinking about buying one...but I had a bad experience with a panasonic dvd recorder that only lasted 1 year. Do dish network DVRs usually last awhile if the hard drive does not fail? I don't want to spend $300 on something that will only last me a couple of years. Is the quality comparable to other companies' DVRs?

Thanks.

Just pulls out. Bit of friction when you pull it in and out.



Edit: Higher res shot of the smart card, courtesy of "navychop" at Sattelliteguys.us

http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...8&d=1229983819
http://www.satelliteguys.us/attachme...9&d=1229983819

Good enough for me, Thanks

Most reports have been of great reception, and that's my experience as well.
I would definitely check the antenna and connections.

...about that smart card....would it possible that Echostar was so forward looking that they included the hardware for a cablecard slot?

Nagravision (the name on the card) does (according to Google) security stuff for DTV and satellite.

My experiance with the DVR is its tuners are on a par with the DTVPAL's, which are generally decent.

[quote=akbungle;15372909]Yes in MN we get TVGOS.
QUOTE]


I thank you

Jay

Ah man this tuner is messed up!!!! I set my antenna up with the DTVPal and got it where i get 39 channels, mostly 80-90. I don't touch the antenna and hook up my DVTPal DVR to it I get 16 channels at about 50-60. Most of the channels break up. I can't even get my NBC station which is psip station 2.1 but OTA channel 11. I tried the point antenna thing to get my NBC station and it says 0. I Take the antenna and turn every which way over my head and i get nothing...zilch. Not a happy camper here. Not at all!!!

Tried changing the RF cable? Double checking the connections? Double checking that the cable is connected to the Antenna IN jack?

As we discussed in the speculation thread, you have the Thompson tuner in your DTVPal, which seems to work well in your near-Orlando-airport scenario. The Microtune tuner in the DTVPal Plus and DTVPal DVR is optimized for fringe reception. The main differences would tend to be that the Microtune is optimized for sensitivity while the Thompson is likely optimized for handling changing multipath distortion. I suspect that the Microtune tuner has slower time constants than the Thompson, making it less able to handle changes in the antenna that may occur.

One final possibility is that Dish did not do an adequate job of amplifying the signal in the DTVPal DVR before splitting the signal for the dual tuners, meaning that the signal is getting reduced too much for some locations that do not have a preamplifier. I doubt this is the case, but we'll have to see what the design looks like after someone de-lids this thing and reverse engineers the tuner.

I hope you can improve your reception, but as you say, this is a different beast...

Good luck,

Reg

I subsequently found the solution to my problem on page 24 of the manual, which describes 'Changing Display Formats' using "PAGE DOWN (for HD outputs)".

Thx, i would have prefered the thompson tuner. Well i'm going out of town so i'll mess with it after the holidays.

You had indicated in the other thread that you had "tried every indoor antenna i could get my hands" on to try to get reception from your pre-DTVPal tuner. Is the antenna you are currently using amplified? If so, you may be providing TOO MUCH signal to the DTVPal DVR and overloading the input. I would suggest that you try running with something fairly omnidirectional, such as rabbit ears, before you give up.

Good luck!

Reg

As the digital transition occurs, expect to see much greater attention paid to PSIP. I expect not much less than 99% PSIP accuracy, after lets say next April. Give'em a little time to really button it down, once analog is history.

What would really be nice is the DTVPal DVR having a menu option to select which source to use for the guide; TVGOS or PSIP.

This is an HDTV forum. Please keep on topic.

That should not be a surprise. The Zenith is how old? 4 years? 5?

CableCARD? No.