The Official AVS Dish DTVPal DVR Topic! - Page 326

I have a Samsung and it is only when he screen is dark (like when the DVR is in a funky mode or I turn the TV on too soon before truning DVR on) that I have a problem otherwise the remote works as long as it is in the same room.

The news article is at the link below.

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/st...ntent=My+Yahoo

I occasionally have to "reboot" my Samsung cell phone. It has hung up so that it wouldn't allow me to call out, and it was fixed with a reboot.

nice post

Awarding patents on 25 year old out of date technology; has been silly ludicrous since the get go. With TiVo, Rovi, and others suing everyone for stuff that has been common place in Germany, England, France, and Japan forever will only continue to keep the United States in the dark and out of date.

I wouldn't recommend shipping a PAL DVR using express shipping. The TV subscription services use UPS etc. to ship their DVRs, but they are expecting to absorb a certain amount of loss, and I don't think the PAL is anywhere close to being as robust as the Motorola/Cisco DVRs. If you want it in one piece, don't use one day shipping. Your much better off if you can find one at a brick and mortar store where it has been truck shipped.

Good post. It states that Echostar is responsible for the satellite transmission technology. This probably means they provide all the hardware/software while Dish provides all the content.

It looks like our DTVPal DVRs aren't the only boxes that have problems when they receive bad guide data: DirecTV Users Wake Up To Crippled HD Boxes

They never were. Check out the Sony DVR thread sometime (which also uses digital TVGOS). Even when they are getting data, some of the operations can get corrupted.

Question: If the TV Guide data is erased and redownloaded for the soft and hard reset, then why can I disconnect the antenna on the DVR, do the soft or hard reset, and wait for it to come back up. Then verify that the TV Guide data is "gone". However after 10 minutes, the TV Guide data is back, all without having the antenna connected (and no ethernet cable connected either).

Answer: The data isn't erased. Only a Factory Defaults erases the TV Guide data, which the DVR then has to download again during the next download time shown in my earlier message. If the DVR is reset too close to the download time, it still may not get the data, and have to wait until the next download. There are several things that have to occur before the DVR will download the data (like setting the clock), and if those things aren't done yet when the download time arrives, the download is skipped.

Mark

Prepare to be shocked - our Sharp Aquos and the remote for a Sony DVR/DirecTV box.

Quote:
Originally Posted by pvdave
If anyone has found an LCD TV for which turning off a room light sensor causes the DVR remote to start working normally, I'd be shocked.



Prepare to be shocked a second time. My Hewlett Packard LC3760N 37-inch LCD TV, which is essentially a rebadged/tweaked Sharp Aquos LCD TV, has to have its room light sensor turned off to allow the Dish DTVPal DVR remote to work normally.

The Channel Master CM-7000PAL DVR was originally scheduled to start shipping in "early April" but its availability was delayed several times.


Maybe some people want to record the new episodes and the new TV shows that are being shown by the broadcast networks during the current summer TV season i.e. Persons Unknown (NBC), Flashpoint (CBS), Miami Medical (CBS), Boston Med (ABC), etc.

Is there any downside, other than the wear on the batteries in the remote, to doing an occasional soft reset (by holding down the POWER key on the remote) when the unit is not recording, even if nothing seems wrong?

Possibly a soft reset, had I thought of using it, would have fixed the problem my unit had on the third or fourth day of use, and unplugging and replugging maybe weren't necessary.  (It wouldn't stay out of RF passthrough mode: pressing the RF passthrough key on the remote would get it out for less than one second and then it would pop back.  Since the component video and RCA audio outputs are also dead during passthrough mode [haven't tried the HDMI output yet], I couldn't watch or hear anything from it.)  Well, if it happens again, I'll try the soft reset first.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TedJM View Post
There are 3 types of Resets for the DTVPal DVR

1. Soft Reset (least aggressive Reset):

Hold down the Remote's 'Power ON' button for 10 seconds.

Note:

Erases and re-downloads TVGOS data.
Does NOT erase recording schedules.
Does NOT erase the HDD recordings.

2. Hard Reset (restart locked DVR):

Unplug the DVR from its AC power outlet,
wait at least 30 seconds, then plug it back in.

Note:

Erases and re-downloads TVGOS data.
Does NOT erase recording schedules.
Does NOT erase the HDD recordings.

3. Factory Reset (most aggressive Reset):

Restores the 'Factory Defaults'. Select Menu (button), Setup/System Setups/Factory Defaults.

Note:

Erases and re-scans local channels.
Erases and re-downloads TVGOS data.
Erases any previous 'Menu' changes.
Erases recording schedules/timers.
Does NOT erase the HDD recordings.

____________________________________________________________ _

Quote:

Posted by mabuttra

Question: If the TV Guide data is erased and redownloaded for the soft and hard reset, then why can I disconnect the antenna on the DVR, do the soft or hard reset, and wait for it to come back up. Then verify that the TV Guide data is "gone". However after 10 minutes, the TV Guide data is back, all without having the antenna connected (and no ethernet cable connected either).

Answer: The data isn't erased. Only a Factory Defaults erases the TV Guide data, which the DVR then has to download again during the next download time shown in my earlier message. If the DVR is reset too close to the download time, it still may not get the data, and have to wait until the next download. There are several things that have to occur before the DVR will download the data (like setting the clock), and if those things aren't done yet when the download time arrives, the download is skipped.

Mark
__________________________________________________________

Mark, you are correct about this!

When I initially did my testing with the Reset functions I saw that after a Soft and Hard Reset/Reboot that the DVR reports that it is downloading 'guide program data'. And when it had completed, I had ~1 day of data, and the remaining 8 days of data came up shortly later. Ok, it looked like everything is back clean.

I just repeated the test without the antenna connected to the DVR (the test that you performed).
After the Reboot it still displayed that it is downloading data. I then went to the TV Guide and it didn't have any program data at all. I put the DVR in Standy for 10 minutes, then turned it back on, and I now had my 8 days of Program Data back. What is going on here? You were right about this!

So instead of 'Erasing and Re-downloading guide program data' following Soft and Hard Reset, it is 'Removing and Re-installing the data. So now we have another false report due to the system Software (Firmware).

Where it reports: The program guide information is now being downloaded to your DTVPal DVR. It apparently should say being 're-loaded' instead of 'downloaded'.

Interesting, thanks for your comments.

TedJM, Rochester, NY

PS And as others have said, I love my DVDPal DVR.

IMO, no.

My speculation is that when it says it is downloading guide data, it is switching to each scanned channel, and getting the PSIP data for each one.


Thanks for verifying this. It's good to know I didn't just imagine it .


That same "downloading guide data" message is displayed after doing the "Factory Defaults" reset, and there is no TV Guide data to load, since none has been downloaded yet. That's why I think it is gathering PSIP data. They did a good job of merging the two kinds of data (PSIP, and TVGOS) seamlessly together, which adds to our confusion.

Mark

Thank you, Chuck.

Note: I don't believe that this is related to PSIP (Program and System Information Protocol) data
downloads from the individual broadcast channels.

This has been successful for me and a few other people that asked me for suggestions to
help them recover their TV Guide updating and/or previously deleted channels.

I call this a 'System Manual Reset':

>> Rescan for channels, Time, etc. by going to the following:

Press the 'Menu' button. Select - Setup (3), System Setup (2), Installation (1), Setup Wizard (1),
press the 'Select' button. Note that even with Cancel highlighted in the Setup Wizard, pressing
'Select' will start the process. If you want to Cancel, you must press the 'Cancel' button.

This is much easier than doing a Factory Reset, because all of your Menu preferences you previously
made will be retained. Although YOU WILL HAVE TO re-enter your Program Recording Schedule (if you currently have one) in the Program Guide, but this is easy to do, just make some notes about it before performing the reset.

Please let us know if this works for you. I’m sure others will be interested in your results.

Before posting this, I read the general topics and quite a few threads/posts regarding related problems with this unit.
Quite frankly, I was skeptical about purchasing it to begin with (considering all the various complaints). Having 30 days to return it convinced me to take the risk.

The unit was working well (in general....see below) for approx. 3 weeks.
I made a recording of "America's got Talent" this past week. I receive it on WNBC (channel 4 here in NYC). My signal is consistantly good (90-95) and I've had no video related problems (after recording this channel on a daily basis).
When I played this particular recording back, the video was perfect. However, the audio suffered from consistant dropouts. Every 15-20 seconds I would lose audio completely for 1-3 seconds. After approx. 15 minutes I lost my patience with this and switched to another recording that I had made at the same exact time on another channel. The audio for that recording was fine. I then went back to replay the original recording and the audio dropouts were still consistantly there.

I then turned the unit off and when I went back to it later (that same night). It was suddenly normal (no audio dropouts whatsoever)!
I've tested it several times since then and its been fine.

I'm confused. The problem was obviously in the playback vs. the recording itself. Otherwise it would never play normally. I thought this was strange.

I'm questioning this problem (and the reliability of this particular unit), since it appeared and then mysteriously dissapeared!
Is this at all common? Has anyone else had this exact problem with the audio?

For the record, on several occasions, with this same unit, I lost the audio completely upon powering it up. Video was perfect but no audio. On 2-3 occasions I simply changed the channel back and forth and the audio was restored. On 2-3 other occasions, I had to turn the unit off and back on to restore the audio. On 2-3 other occasions, there was a channel update screen upon turn on with no audio. When I cleared that screen, the audio was restored.
Are these common problems? Has anyone else experienced these issues?

I apologize if these particular issues were already covered but I'm new to this particular forum and was unable to find any references to these specific audio problems with this unit (especially the on again, off again dropout problem).

Since I still have a (brief) window of opportunity to exchange it.....should I?
.....or can I anticipate having these same problems with another unit?

BTW, It has F208 software.

Thank you in advance for any and all responses and opinions!

You may want to re-set the Factory Defaults to see if it helps.

Although if you can get a new replacement, that's what I would do. The DTVPal DVRs are not easy to find now, so if they are out of stock, you may not be successful getting a replacement. Although you should be able to get a full refund. Dish Network doesn't take any responsibility for them at all (possibly a different case if you are a current Dish customer(?)), as I understand it's all up to the retailer we got them from.

Good Luck, Ted

See "Known Issues #12" at top. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...p?t=1099071#A6

Thanks!

I read this and understand that audio dropouts are a known issue....but.....
what confuses me is that, although I was convinced originally that this problem existed in the original recording....it dissapeared completely later on!

Does anyone have an explanation as to why it would come and go?....and be related (supposedly) to the playback (vs. the recording) process?

Also, why the complete loss of audio upon powering up the unit?

Perhaps I should've mentioned that the unit is connected to the TV via HDMI.

You might try a different HDMI cord.

or component cables. Some tv's have HDMI problems.

I have had two instances (in 18 mo, f208) where I recorded shows that had no audio when first played back. I did not do any troubleshooting. One hour show had no audio the first time I tried to play it but had audio when I went to watch it a few days later after realizing I could enable closed captioning. On another (Jeopardy!), I just used CC because I wanted to watch it at that time. I did not check SAP but will next time.

I have a unit that was delivered on 12/24/08 and use it moderately to at times heavily for the past year and a half. I have never reformatted the hard drive until a few days ago. The reformat did not provide any noticeable change in performance, so I'm guessing that fragmentation does not affect this DVR that much.

Sure, as it does allocate space by 4 or 2 MB chunks for stream;
you shouldn't reformat HDD, run instead MHDD or Victoria and do ReMap. Or at least you'll get info about performance at sector level.

I've had it once where I was recording a show I was watching, the audio I was watching was in English, but when I went to view the recording it was in Spanish for some reason. This sort of thing has only happened to me a couple times.

Can the DVR reformat it or do you have to take it out and hook it up to a computer?

It could (install any drive into it and you'll see how DVR will do format), but we don't know how to invoke the format routine by remote.