Official DVICO TViX M6620N HD (ATSC/QAM) Tuner Topic - Page 48

TP,
All channels are fine. Re-scanned anyway. It didn't help.
See some other of my posts above.
Found something new. I'm trying to delete the KDNL-DT folder and it says, "Warning Remove dir error." Then "OK" no YES or NO option.
I have no problem deleting any other folder.

Thanks
Steve

The image is centred and the zoom naturally keeps it centred (the centre of the content stays centred on the centre of the TV). However, while in zoom mode, you do have the option of manually positioning the image with the up/down/left/right keys. If you stop the video or get interrupted for a recording, you'll have to re-zoom but it's quick and easy.

Basically, for me most content simply fills the screen. For the times that it does not, I press the zoom button which brings up the zoom/pan menu in the upper right corner which the video continues to play, then volume up twice (it make sense) to zoom to 3x (which works out to 120%) then the channel up to increase in 1% increments to 125%, then zoom again to close the menu.

With respect to the drive, the Seagate looks to me like it will work. I bought a WD green drive and downloaded the XP WDAlign (I think this was what it is called) tool from the WD website and formatted the drive in XP.

Now were getting somewhere! My guess is that the folder somehow got made read-only. Hook it up to your PC and reset its permissions to R/W.

Maybe the next update the programmers can remove the code that makes a folder read only? Taking code out is always easier than adding it.

I don't think that there's any code to do such, since nobody else has seen this issue AFAIK, but rather that it was some sort of glitch that occurred during that strange episode when Steve's TViX stopped recording the channel.

EDIT to avoid confusing new readers of this thread: Subsequent to Joe's post below, I confirmed that all TViX folders are normally marked R/O, so that was not the source of Steve's problem. Rather, as Steve found out two posts below this one, it was caused by some incomplete file operation that left some sort of detritus in one folder and made it impossible to write new files into that folder or even to delete it.

Ok, that's not a problem. Then remove the code that checks for a r/o folder. Unless there is a reason to have a r/o folder.

UPDATE:
According to Win7 on my laptop, all the channel folders under PVR have the r/o attribute set. So ignore previous posts on this problem.

Still wish I could get a HDD cradle.

I connected it to the computer. All I can see is the folders like PVR, BT, etc..
I opened the PVR folder and looked at the properties of all the folders and the attributes are all set at Read Only. However, I unchecked the one pertaining to the KDNL folder and it asked this folder only I said yes. Got out and rechecked properties, still Read Only is checked.
I tried to delete the folder and I got the following:
"Cannot Delete KDNL-DT: The Directory is not Empty" (There is nothing showing in the folder that I can see)

My solution was to rename the folder.
I tried recording 30-1 KDNL and it made a new folder and now works.
I have a corrupt folder I can't get rid of, but I can live with that.

Thanks for all the help.

Steve

Schedule forgets one specific channel

It took a while to figure out what has been happening with the Record Schedule function.

I noticed that once in a while, it forgot a "Record Daily" program item on channel CITV.
Then today I noticed that it all recordings for channel CITV. Even the ones that
have not been recored and including the ones that are marked every day or every
Tuesday.

Yes, I can delete the folder for channel CITV and have done so.

So what is going on? Everytime I set up a recording for channel CITV, or multiple recordings
for same, once the PVR records one program for CITV, it removes all scheduled recordings
for channel CITV.

UPDATE: Fixed it. The problem was PEBKAC. I was not using the Record Schedule function
properly. Took a while to realise what I was doing wrong. Nothing to see here. Move along

Steve, the folders are normally created as R/O, but the files within are not. From the symptoms that you described in your final post on this above it's clear that there was some sort of glitch during the writing of the last channel 30-1 file. Did you try running either the TViX' own or the PC's chkdsk function? I suspect that doing so would clear that bogus file fragment so that you can delete the old renamed folder.

Rick, I'm confused. You start by saying that this amnesia happened only occasionally but your conclusion seems to suggest that it's happening routinely. Which is it? Have you confirmed that this only occurs for one channel? And is that an OTA or CATV channel?

Thanks for wading through my ill-written post. Rather than correct it, I'll move on and answer the above questions.

ANY scheduled recording for channel CITV that is periodically repeated, i.e. Daily or Weekly, is promptly forgotten by the PVR after the first instance is recorded.

This is not occurring on other channels, as far as I can tell. I have not tested all channels yet. I am re-resting CITV tonight, with a Weekly recording. But I am not crossing my fingers.

CITV is an OTA channel.

and a mini-rant:
I did read with dismay a posting above about R-O and R-W settings on files and folders in the PVR area of the HDD. I am encountering similar nonsense with my Movies sub-folders. I can copy files from my PC to sub-folders in Movies. But when I try to rename some of the those folders I am told by SAMBA that I do not have permissions to do so. On other folders therein, yup, I can rename them. Then I invoke a shell and recursively list the entire contents of the SMB mount (called venus) - call it black magic, but reading all directory entries on the mount did something. And voila! I can now rename the sub-folders that I was previously unable to. I know the SAMBA authors rev.engineered Microsoft's tortuous SMB protocol to get the thing working, but it seems it still has a way to go, even after all these years.
-- end of rant

And addendum to my original HDD troubles: I unplugged the HDD from the PVR. Then I plugged it into a Windows 7 box to copy some files from it to the local hard drive. I then unplugged the HDD, without doing a "Safe Unmount", reasoning that the HDD should be fine since I was only reading from it. How wrong I was. Windows 7 wrote to the HDD and as a result of my unplugging it, the drive became corrupt. I have tried to repair the disk several times with Windows 7, which tells me that the journal is populated with unwritten entries. But to no avail. Now Windows and the Mac cannot read the drive at all. I plugged it back into the PVR and the drive works just fine. NTFS seems to be a very questionable file system when such variability in reliability and recoverability is experienced across Windows, Mac and Linux. Give me ext2 or 3 or better any day.

Rick, I have it on good authority that EXT3 formatting of a TViX HDD works fine if you care to set that up. (Of course, that means that you can't simply connect the HDD directly to a Win7 PC anymore, without adding some drivers that is)

Thanks TP. I may get another SATA drive to test out various formats. Would be good to know if the Linux running on the PVR recognises the EXT family, as well as the Mac's HFS+ family of file systems.

Now to figure out how to ssh to the PVR. Anyone done this?

Final note about file security: the FTP server on the PVR rightfully requests a username and password to login. I wonder why the SMB mount called venus is totally public and open? The latter is totally insecure and does bother me.

I get logged into the PVR just fine. Can see directories on the PVR in the FileZilla application. When I try to transfer files I get the error message 421 1 users(the maximum) already logged in. How do I fix this problem?

Status: Directory listing successful
Status: Connecting to 192.168.1.71:21...
Status: Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
Response: 421 1 users (the maximum) are already logged in
Error: Could not connect to server
Status: Delaying connection for 5 seconds due to previously failed connection attempt...
Status: Connecting to 192.168.1.71:21...
Status: Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
Response: 421 1 users (the maximum) are already logged in
Error: Could not connect to server
Status: Delaying connection for 5 seconds due to previously failed connection attempt...
Status: Connecting to 192.168.1.71:21...
Status: Connection established, waiting for welcome message...
Response: 421 1 users (the maximum) are already logged in
Error: Could not connect to server




Thanks,

Russ

Try power cycling the PVR.
Once that is done, try the file transfer again.

I have no trouble logging in with FTP and grabbing files.

Thanks. Tried it. No luck. The response I got from TVIX support was http://www.tvix.co.kr/ENG/faq/defaul...rial=79&id=381 was how to set up FileZilla. This did not work either. Don't know if it is an issue with FileZilla setup or a problem with the PVR... Not sure what to try next..

Thanks,
Russ

Found the answer at http://wiki.filezilla-project.org/Using

The wiki site had a better explanation of setting the max users to 1 in the connection manager. All is good.

Now as to why the PVR's FTP service is set to one connection max is anyone's guess.

And why FileZilla by default is making multiple connections is another anyone's guess.

Interesting how multiple independent processes can conspire against us.

Hi All,

Just updating my previous question. I got a WDTV Live Streaming (model number WDBHG70000NBK). Not surprisingly, the results are exactly the same as the WDTV Live (non-plus).

So the current score is:

Patriot Box Office - Thumbs up!

WDTV Live (non-plus) & WDTV Live Streaming
- Only one file played ever
- Other files generate the unsupported format message but also stop the device from playing most other normally supported files requiring a reboot to correct.

I decided to jump on the TViX bandwagon, so I now own a unit, too. Everything's working as expected, although there is one thing happening that I wanted to see if anyone else has observed.

When the TViX turns off, it makes a rather loud click/clunk noise, almost like a physical switch is being thrown. The unit doesn't exhibit any problems when it's running, but since I don't remember seeing anyone else post about this, I thought I'd ask if it's normal or an indication of some kind of problem. I'm hoping it's just related to cutting the power, or something.

No loud click/clunk noise at shutoff with my PVR.

Have your tried powering down with the HDD removed? Perhaps
the external disk is a loud sleeper.

It didn't make the noise before installing the HDD, so I opened the grate and got close to it during a power down just now. Judging by the direction the sound is coming from, it would seem that the HDD clicks when it shuts off. It's very quiet and doesn't make any weird noises when it's running, so perhaps it's due to parking the heads when the drive turns off.

I'm using a Hitachi Travelstar 5K500.B, since I couldn't find any 3.5" drives that had good reviews and operated at 5400 RPM. Since the drive needs support when it's in the horizontal position, I have it resting on an upside-down plastic cap secured to the bottom of the drive bay. It keeps the drive straight, and a lip on the cap prevents the drive from moving and working its way loose from vibration. I looked in the drive bay with a flashlight as the system was shutting down, and I didn't notice any movement from the drive when it clicked, so it appears to be happening internally and without relation to the mounting technique.

At least the problem doesn't seem to be with the TViX unit itself. I guess I'll just have to hope that the drive will continue to operate. If not, Hitachi gives a three-year warranty...

My old 5000 will do this and I am 99.99% sure it is the hard drive arm locking into place when the spindle powers down to protect the platters when off. I think drives do this so that during shipping the arm doesnt crash into the platters, thereby destroying the new drive even before it see the end user?

Probably because it does not have the processing power to support multiple FTP threads, concurrently with decoding/playing back high bitrate AV content, thereby ensuring a minimum QOS level. Just my guess.

Filezilla is a program for general purpose computers, many of which today have absolutely no problem handling 10+ threads devoted to the FTP service. So this default makes sense to 99.999999999% of the user demographic.

My understanding is that laptop HDDs also park their heads when they turn off to prevent damage to the installed drive when the laptop is moving. It's not necessary in a stationary device like the TViX, but I'm glad it doesn't seem to be a sign of a faulty unit or HDD.

I've also been able to answer my question about the closed-caption support over HDMI: the TViX uses the HDMI to send commands to the HDTV to disable its caption menu. Not only do closed captions not work when watching live or recorded TV from the TViX, but the caption menu is greyed-out and can't be selected at all.

I wonder what the odds are of the TViX getting a final firmware update at this point, now that the Xroid is out? I'm tempted to post a feature request on the My Q&A forum to see if it gets any results. Realistically, I'm guessing there might be a chance of getting support for closed captions and having the TViX auto-detect duration changes in recorded files, so you can have proper chase-play support without having to stop and reload the video to get the TViX to discover the new length of the file. Fixing the new ION-related crashing problem and removing the "meatball" might also be possibilities.

Is it worth making a feature request on the official TViX forum, or is it pretty certain that the TViX isn't going to get updated again? None of the unit's shortcomings are particularly problematic for me (including a few minor bugs I've noticed), but I know other people who would want one if it had support for closed captions.

A fix request is simple to do but hard to receive. And don't forget to adjust the clock for DST. That request is been around for a while.

AFAIK, DTVCC data packets from the transport stream are not relayed via HDMI and I don't think that the old "Line 21" CC data stream makes sense there either. That's the most likely reason that your TV's CC menu is grayed out when you're watching an HDMI input.

Supporting DTVCC would require some considerable coding effort at Minevox and I'm not optimistic about that's happening at this point for the M6620--much as I would like to see it.

Remember that the M6620 will play an external subtitle file (SRT file) and you can create one from a recorded program using CCExtractor. A bit of a pain, but you get there eventually!

The importer I got mine from told me that CC support through a firmware upgrade is unlikely due to design limitations.

But dont they support a tuner option and are therefore required by US regulation to support closed caption decoding and display? Could their products be banned from import to the USA or fined if they are not in compliance with FCC regs? If so, maybe someone should file a written complaint with the FCC-not that they will do anything about it?

The thing that baffles me is that my old (and far more primitive) setup did work with CC. After the digital transition in 2009, I had to use a Zenith DTV converter box connected to my VCR with composite cables to record anything, and I also had to connect the VCR to the TV with composite cables.

If I play back a VHS tape recorded using the converter box on my HDTV, not only is the caption menu available, but it displays the captions from the tape. If such "ancient" technology works to deliver captions, it's hard to believe that there's no way to make the TViX work, especially since it records the raw transport stream and preserves the caption data. Even if the TViX can't parse the .tp file to detect the subtitles itself, you'd think that there would be a way to send the information to the TV to let it do the decoding and display instead.

It's also kind of baffling that they put so much effort into the subtitle support in the TViX by letting you change the size and position of the text (which is a feature I've never seen in another unit), yet they don't support the most basic and important source of captions for a box designed to record TV broadcasts.

To be clear, this isn't meant as some anti-TViX rant; I love my box and consider it a huge upgrade from the VCR I was using. I just find it unlikely that the difficulty in adding CC support is as high as people seem to think it is. Then again, perhaps it's due to the same firmware limitations that prevent the TViX from silently recording shows without interrupting what you're watching. One would also think that it would be easy to make a fix for that problem, but if the initialization procedure for DTV recordings was designed in such a way as to prevent it, it could take far more effort than the developers are willing to expend to fix that limitation, too.

Regarding the CCExtractor option, since raw HDTV dumps are so large, it would take a significant amount of time to transfer files from the TViX to a PC so that the subtitle data could be extracted. The only way around this that I can think of is if the TViX was connected via NFS to a computer, CCExtractor might be able to see the .tp file as though it was on a local disk, and then it could parse the file, extract the captions, and place the SRT directly on the TViX HDD without having to download the entire show from the TViX first.

If such a method would work, somebody might be able to create a CCExtractor automation program or script that would check the TViX PVR directory every X hours for new files and automatically dump the subtitles without requiring any user interaction. That would be almost as good as having native CC support, but I imagine there are other limitations that would prevent it from working, not to mention that somebody would need to create such an automation program first. It's an idea, at least. Since CCExtractor is already designed to be called from scripts, it might work in some form.