Official DVICO TViX M6620N HD (ATSC/QAM) Tuner Topic - Page 59

Sorry, mine is back in the box. But feel free to try it on yours.

I can't imagine wanting to put one back in the box. If I was sure they would have a good shelf life, I'd be buying up a lifetime supply of spares.

I am living without any PSIP data on my clear QAM channels. The TViX doesn't like that. I haven't sold it or even removed the 500GB drive. It's just waiting for a better day.

http://www.avsforum.com/t/1195962/official-dvico-tvix-m6620n-hd-atsc-qam-tuner-topic/1280_40#post_21531400
Edited by JoeKustra - 12/19/12 at 12:54pm

I was just about to take the plunge on getting one. How do I find out if I have (or don't have) PSIP data in my area?
Edited by Goes to 11 - 12/21/12 at 1:52pm

The TVIX works fine on channels without PSIP. The issue is that you have to identify those channels by their actual channel numbers rather than the virtual channel numbers with which you may be familiar. The actual channel numbers are arbitrarily assigned by your cableco and rarely have any logical connection with either the OTA rf channel or its PSIP (virtual) channel. This does not impair the TV functions, but it does mean that all recordings must be manually set up (sort of like on your old VCR).

BTW, Goes-to-11, this PSIP-less condition is only possible on cable, since the FCC demands that all OTA broadcasts include PSIP.

If you're receiving TV over-the-air then you'll have PSIP, including at least 12 hours of guide info, on all your full-power stations, no matter where you live. Low-power stations may not provide it, but most LPTV's do provide a minimal PSIP with a channel map and the current date/time.

If you're receiving TV via cable, you probably won't have PSIP.

What's your CBS channel call letters? Still using Comcast cable without a STB?

Let's say it is KOIN:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KOIN

Then KOIN transmits on OTA physical channel 40. The PSIP table means you should get it on channel 6, its old pre-digital channel.

Like many cable feeds it may still have an analog signal on channel 6. If it's sent via clear QAM the physical channel could be anything. If it passes the PSIP data you will get the digital channel on 6. If not, there is no way to predict the actual physical channel, either SD or HD or both.

I have left off decimal subchannel numbers.

Without a STB you should get KOIN on the same channel as your digital TV when your TV is connected to the rf cable from the wall.
Edited by JoeKustra - 12/20/12 at 1:17pm

Joe, JH and TPeterson, thank you for the helpful responses. My intentions are to go completely OTA after I get this thing, I'm tired of Comcast's shenanigans--like now charging 2 bucks a month for the digital transport boxes they mailed me a while back and said would be free. Yes, free until they decide to start charging for them.

Anyway, your answers have reassured me that it's going to work fine, so I'm going to take the plunge. And dropping cable is going to free up a lot of $$ to buy BluRays of the things I'm going to miss like Mad Men.

To be thorough, if you happen to live in one of the markets with an ION affiliate that transmits the AirBox service, make sure you remove ION, qubo, and ION Life from your channel list as soon as you finish your first channel scan. You may have to unplug the antenna to get enough time to do the removals. You can also check this site to see if your ION is one of those that sends the deadly AirBox service that makes these units crash:

http://www.rabbitears.info/market.php?request=airbox

@ Aleron Ives

Thanks for reminding me and clarifying. From reading this thread I was going to delete ION which we do get OTA. But from your link, we're not listed as getting the Airbox service. However, I might delete it anyway. Have never watched it, until the 12/12/12 benefit concert for Sandy victims last week, and after hanging in bleary-eyed to see McCartney at 12:30 am, just before he came on they switched to their scheduled WWE event!

From looking at the TViX manual, I'm a little confused about formatting and partitioning the disk. I haven't read all the posts in this lengthy thread, does anybody know if there is a good one on doing this initial set up?

The unit comes with an A/B USB cable. I connected mine to a laptop with XP, booted the TViX in USB mode, did a quick NTFS format with the laptop, rebooted the TViX, and then it "saw" the HDD and created the folders it needs to operate.

I just sent Kei my order. Merry Christmas to me! The excitement is building.

Do you know of any reason not to use a Vista or Windows 7 laptop? And I take it that when formatting, you just went with one primary partition? Also, the manual (page 27) talks about the user manually creating 3 folders named movie, music and photo. But it sounds like you're saying it created the folders it needed itself?

When you boot with the A/B USB cable attached to the TViX and a computer, it boots in USB mode and the computer sees the TViX HDD as though it's a normal USB HDD. You can then use the standard Windows disk tool to do a plain "quick" format to NTFS. If it's a new HDD, there's no need to do the exhaustive type of formatting that checks the disk for surface errors. After the format is complete (which only takes a few minutes), you can do the whole "safely remove hardware" thing and then turn the TViX off. Remove the USB cable and turn it on again, and it will detect the new HDD and create those folders for you. I have no computers with Vista/7, so I cannot attest to how well or poorly the formatting process would go with those OSes. I can only recommend that you use an actual Windows computer, as the off-brand NTFS drivers in Unix/Linux/OSX might not format the drive correctly.

You should then be sure to update the firmware to the latest version (2.1.0), which you can do from the main menu once you configure either Ethernet or WiFi Internet access. Note that firmware updates wipe all your settings, so don't bother configuring anything other than the network prior to updating. If you plan on using the box's networking features a lot for streaming videos, I highly recommend that you use Ethernet, as it's more reliable than wireless.

*edit*

I just remembered the distinction with folder creation: the PVR and various system folders get created automatically, but it is necessary to create the MOVIE/MUSIC/PHOTO folders manually afterwards. I created them over FTP, now that I think about it.
Edited by Aleron Ives - 12/21/12 at 6:25pm

Hey just some FYI: I discovered lately that the TViX will play DVD .iso files directly. I didn't see this in the documentation or recall anyone else talking about it so I thought I'd post the info.

I realize it's not the most efficient way to store a movie, but if you've a lot of hard drive space and like the full featured DVD menus, you can play them with the tvix.

Re. Goes to 11: The TViX will format the drive for you if it's new. In my case, I took a used drive and delete the partition table prior to initial insertion. When I put the drive in the TXiX it formatted it just fine. Also, if you don't want to do the USB to laptop thing, you can also create folders and copy files using the network connection (SAMBA).

The ability to play DVD ISOs is documented (somewhere), and I've read it can even play some Blu-ray ISOs, although it may have trouble with the menus.

Mr. Ives and Oshunluvr:

Thank you, I think I've got it. On the formatting of the drive, at least. The other conflicting/confusing things I've been reading about the drive in this thread and over at Amazon are these: 1) don't use a drive with a 64mb cache, stick with 32; 2) don't use SATA III, use SATA II (Kei says III is OK as long as you don't use XP to format it; and 3) (Kei says) use a drive that spins slower than 7200 rpm. Any comments or experience with these issues?

The HDD selection hasn't been that great this year, so it's hard to find an ideal one. I recommend getting a 500 GB one, as 1-2 TB drives made recently tend to die 50% of the time after a month or so, according to the reviews I've seen on Newegg (which isn't encouraging). I got a 5400 rpm laptop drive, since the smaller form factor and lower power requirements are good for DVR applications. The problem with using the smaller form factor is that the TViX's drive bay isn't sized for them, so you have to rig up a support system for the thinner 2.5" form factor.

I used a 500 GB SATA 2 drive formatted with XP and a 8 MB cache. I suggest that you play it safe and get a similar one, as there is no performance benefit achieved from getting a top-of-the-line drive for a DVR, and the potential bugs that could arise from using such a drive would be tedious to solve. You can use a 7200 rpm drive, but again, it won't improve performance, and it will have higher power requirements and generate more heat than a slower drive.

@ Aleron Ives--

That sounds like good advice. However, one of the reasons I'm ditching my Motorola from Comcast is because it holds only 20 hours of HD, so I'm probably going to use a 1 TB despite the risks because I want to be able to save lots more. If it dies, it dies. I have a 1 TB WD Caviar Green on hand that I've been using in a Netgear ReadyNAS for six months no problem. I'm thinking of reformatting that and trying it. It spins slower than 7200, and when not in use it goes to sleep--but I don't know if the firmware in the TViX will allow that to happen. Since I already have it, it's "free," and if it dies I'm only out $80. Well, plus the cost of a replacement.

Interestingly, WD doesn't recommend using Green drives in NAS units, and I would think the same caveat applies to DVRs. But this drive is one of the few on Netgear's approved list that you can actually find. Since it's been spinning away happily for months, I'm going to take a chance with it, I think. Supposedly there's a way to use a jumper to make it behave as SATA II, so I'm going to look into that.

If this plan blows up in my face, I will take your advice and get a notebook drive and jerry-rig it to fit.
Edited by Goes to 11 - 12/23/12 at 2:20pm

I'm using a 7200 RPM WD "blue" 500GB drive with no problems. It does fill up, so I'd go with a 1TB or more.

IMO, the main reason to go with 5400 RPM drives is heat and to a lesser extent noise.

The current main stream hard drives are quieter and cooler than they were a couple of years ago. Currently, in my servers I'm using Western Digital "Red" 2TB drives. They are very quiet and about 6-10°C cooler than the "Blue" drives and 20°C cooler than my "Black" and RE server drives. The Red drive reports only 6°C warmer than my SSD.

The "Green" drives may be cooler and certainly use less energy but the Red's are designed for full time server use and should be more durable in a DVR.

Obviously, I'm a fan of Western Dig. drives (I have 14 in current use along with 32 Samsungs and a few others).

If you've already had it for several months, you're probably good to go. A lot of the bad drives are DOA. The jumper for SATA 2 mode is true AFAIK, so you just need to look up how your particular model needs to be jumpered. There will be no problems with the drive sleeping: unlike other DVRs, the TViX behaves like a VCR and only runs when it needs to record something. It turns on ~3 minutes before the timer is set to start, records, then turns off again (which stops the HDD).

Good to know. So, as long as the 64mb cache isn't an issue, it should be fine.

Hey guys, rare visitor here. I have a tvix 6620 that has performed beautifully for about a year but within the last few days it is having problems powering up. I have no idea what could be causing this, as I haven't changed any settings or even moved the thing from its perch on top of my old tube HDTV. I apologize if this issue has been previously addressed as I didn't really want to wade through all 60 pages of this thread...

When I initially power it up it goes through the motions and the "tvix" logo shows up on my TV. The hard drive is definitely spinning. The display on the box goes from "hello" to "wait" but then it suddenly crashes and powers down by itself (i.e. it's basically right before the moment when it would normally hit the main menu screen). Any suggestions?

TIA - Norbs

Could also consider a 750GB drive; 3/4 the space of a 1TB at about 2/3 the price.

@ MC Lew

Have you tried booting in USB mode and using a laptop to do a disk check on the HDD? If you have, have you also tried booting it without a HDD connected?

I have the vague recollection of mine doing the same thing after I'd changed some setting in Setup. I think I ended up booting directly to DTV mode using the "DTV" button on the remote and getting into setup from there.

@ mr. H - THANKS!!!

that worked like a charm and now the powering on/off seems to have gone back to normal. Thanks guys for helping out a rare visitor to these parts.

I have 3 Western Digital 2TB drives with 64MB cache and never had a problem with any of them. They all operate at 5400 rpm and generate less heat. I have two WD20EARS and one WD20EARX. I just take the hard drives out of the M6620N DVR and put them in a SATA docking station at my computer so I can edit out commercials with VideoReDo and burn them to DVD-Rs with ImgBurn. The videos are still in HD and have DD5.1. Unfortunately, only the LG Blu-ray players can play the .m2ts files that ImgBurn puts on a data disc. I can also burn an AVCHD DVD-R with Roxio and although it takes longer and is more difficult, it can play on all my Blu-ray players.

Hey Doc--

If the M6620N itself can be plugged into a USB port and be seen as an attached drive, what is the purpose of using a docking station? OK, as I asked this, I'm thinking it's maybe so the M6620N can be in use as a DVR while you are editing programs from one of the other drives in the docking station? When this thing arrives I want to use it to its--and my--fullest capabilitities, so I want to understand how you're using yours.