The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic! - Page 216

I had a problem with multiple reboots. A friend installed a larger drive and the problem ended. He believes that the SATA cables are the problem. Possibly opening up the case and reseating the cables could help--but make sure someone opens the case who understands all the clips and hidden screws. Info elsewhere in this site.

Look at first post on how to take it apart.

F206 fixed the reboot for almost everyone. If it is a new unit it should already have F207 or F208. Again if it is a new unit I would check the firmware version and if it is F206 or greater send it back while it is still in warranty. Once you start trying to open it there is no going back.

The post you are responding to is over 6 months old. He is talking about an original Gen-1 unit (before it was pulled from the market for 2 months) and the firmware update he cites is pre F206.

I got a new unit last week from solidsignal and it came with F202.

[ot] I checked out this addon and it still lists the trackers even though they are blocked with Adblock. So what's the purpose of Ghostery?? Disclaimer . . . since I am still on FF 2x, I had to install an older version. Don't know what features the new version has. [/ot]

The unit I got yesterday came with F206. Updated to 208 right away.

Wow, that one's been sitting around in a dark corner for a while. How much dust was on the box.

I'd have to disagree and recommend that it's not worth the gamble to pick up this device.

Sony (or someone who really knows how to make CE products) should come out with a subscription-free DVR that is more akin to a traditional VCR. Use PSIP data, which is mandatory ala FCC anyway now for digital broadcasts, to populate a rudimentary program guide, and provide a basic DVR, flat free no subscriptions (people hate subcriptions), and there will be a box in every home in America.

No dust on the box that I saw...and more important it's worked flawless so far.

13 days, 1 hour, 23 minutes and 12 seconds since last (first) boot.

Have their been any changes to the hardware itself made since early units?

But wouldnt they then run into the same legal problems that Dish is now running into due to the TiVo patents and such?

I'm sure once their patents expire, which may not be for a while, there will be a jump in DVR mnufacturing. For now the DTVPal DVR is probably the only non subscription DVR to be had...unless one acquires an older model with a seperate tuner box and g-link cable to control it.

I don't think anyone knows for sure.

It has certainly been a topic of speculation but I don't believe anyone has established that Dish's Pal DVR has fallen afoul of the TiVo patents.

Sony, and others, already came out with them a few years ago. They were expensive and a market flop. I think Dish marketing is exploring the waters of using the Pal DVR as an entry device for their on-line VOD service. If they cannot establish that market, I would not be surprised to see the Pal DVR go the way of the Sony.

Didn't notice that since I was responding to something only a couple of posts back but the main point still exists. F206 seems to have fixed the problem so load F206 or F208 before trying anything else.

The people who have looked didn't notice much differance. The early boxes that have had the F206+ firmware loaded seem to be working OK (for the most part, a few are still reporting lockups) so the evidence suggests that the hardware has not changed but "only the Shadow knows".

The Pal DVR does all that plus it can use TGVOS if it is available. Turn TVGOS off and it will use PSIP.

Even though Echostar seemed to rush this thing to market before it was ready (to meet the Christmas market?), they have fixed most of the problems. I think the problem is not that they don't know how to build a CE product but that they are not used to dealing with the consumer market and the way they handled the problems has left a bad taste in peoples mouth.

That's a shame. It seems to me that the consumer market either was not ready for them at the time or was not aware of them. I, for one, had never heard of them until I first came to AVS Forum a year or so ago.

It almost seems like Dish wants their OTA products to fail because they haven't really promoted them. I mean if you could buy the DTVPal DVR at brick and mortar stores, they would probably be flying off the shelves. Due to the DTV transition, many OTA viewers are either getting by using a converter box and a VCR or have purchased a DVD recorder partly because they don't know that there is another alternative available.


I think that would be a great feature to have. However, it would probably involve some sort of subscription or pay per use fee; and judging from the sentiment regarding subscriptions here, I doubt that it would be a very popular feature. I think the smarter marketing decision would be to make the DVR more widely available and add name based recording and auxiliary storage to the mix before adding VOD services.

If it depended strictly on PSIP, and only being able to program through the guide, it'd probably go over like a lead balloon.

It would have to have a back-up manual timer and manual clock setting, and be priced cheaply enough (like the Pal), before it would sell at all.

And then, at that price, they'd have to be able to make it reliable. Not to beat a dead horse, but you get what you pay for with these things - one way or another (one big reason why the Pal DVR is so cheap is because they don't use any quality control - other than you, the consumer).

Not having TVGOS in it would cut down the cost quite a bit, I'm sure. But as long as it's an HD DVR, it should sell some. Don't know if it would sell enough for it to be worth it for them to make, though. Of course, they'd have to actually market the thing this time.

There was actually a Zenith DVR just like that a few years back (the first, standalone, HD DVR, I think). That didn't sell very well at the time, but maybe now something like that would do better (considering that PSIP was in it's early stages and even worse shape then).

I seriously doubt if Sony will ever make anything of that sort so cheap, though. They seem to only be interested in making $3000.00 "digital entertainment" systems now (under the "VAIO" line). And I imagine the copy-protection or HDCP is atrocious, anyway, like with their DVD recorders (and that's because they're also such a huge content provider now).

I have two Sony DHGs and had also considered buying one of these units for extra recording. But since it is the summer and with the fall looking a little on new good programming, I will wait till I have areal need. From what I read, there are problems and those seem to be getting addressed, so when the time comes I'll give it a shot.
The reason VCRs went over so well when they came out was for several reasons: 1- Ability to record a second show while watching something else. 2- To record your favorite shows weekly( since back then the networks did not play games with the time slots) 3- You could use it to watch tapes you bought or rented (movies, adult stuff and such) 4 It was a brand new gadget that had no other competition. It was simple, easy to use.
Today though, we have so much more to choose from: SAT,OTA,Cable, and not to mention Hulu and the like as well as the own networks streaming content to watch on demand. Plus factor in the studios anti-copying schemes and I can see why it is so difficult to make and sell these DVRs. Oh, and not to mention the advertisers who hate the commercial skipping of these devices.
Michael

Yes same here

Has anyone noticed as more and more "positive owner reviews" pour in, the louder a couple of "non-owner" posters become trashing Dish and the DTVPal DVR?


Just saying.

*crickets chirping*

Or maybe not.

Seems like a lot of problems might be fixed if Dish just let us turn off the tv guide OTA and then sent it over the ethernet instead.

Are You willing to then PAY for the guide information ? What's it worth to you ?
$1 / month ? More ?

To me, one of the best things about the DTVPal DVR is that it is 100% functional WITHOUT a connection to the internet. This means that regardless of future lawsuit settlements, or advertising partnership deals, or corporate bankruptcies, or whatever, the functionality of my DVR CANNOT be affected by anyone unless I ACTIVELY CONSENT to download a software update manually. You can't get this "peace of mind" from Tivo or any cable or sat-box DVR.

This factor (and the $400 price advantage) made the DTVPal an easy choice for me. I've had it for a little over 2 months now. Bought it direct from Dish. Shipped with F206, ran perfectly no clock-drift, re-boots or anything. I loaded F208 recently after all the positive reviews on this forum. Still works flawlessly.

I agree. My setup is far from my router. I could run an ethernet cable, but it would likely take 4 hours to do. I like having my HT separate from my computer setup too. When I watch tv, I just want to veg. I got a bad box first (dead tuner) and then the replacement box has worked great. It is now running fw208. My only gripe is that the guide doesn't show the tv that I was watching, like exists in the menu. I put my old samsung STB on ebay too, so upgrading to a DVR will cost $50-100 :-)

That makes sense. For me, standalone DVD recorders never had much to offer beyond my old VCRs. Why would I want another device with the same headaches of swapping tapes (or discs) in and out, trying to find your recordings, etc. I could never understand why the box stores carried multiple brands of DVD recorders, but no hard drive recorders. Once I got wind of a hard drive recorder with dual tuners, then I was finally interested in getting rid of the VCRs and getting a DVR.

You can turn off TVGOS but then you will have to bug your stations to send more than the minimum PSIP (assuming you want to have a full guide).