Channel Master CM-7000PAL HD DVR - AKA Dish DTVPal - Page 15

Just remember Hulu and FOX.com make you wait eight days later after the broadcast dates if you're watching their shows free.

The CM-7000PAL itself has only two tuners, but if you connect a coaxial cable from it to your TV, you should be able to tune the TV to the appropriate OTA channel and watch it that way, using signal "pass-thru".

Thanks so much! I will try that.

If your signal is strong enough, connect a 2-way splitter to the coax and run one coax to the DVR and one to the TV antenna input. Then use the TV's tuner to watch a channel while the DVR is recording two others.

I'll second LDM's suggestion, having done it often myself.  The passthrough instructions say it's for watching analog stations, but as long as the TV has an ATSC tuner it works perfectly well for digital stations.

That is the way I do it. I would add, however, that the antenna signal pass-thru to the TV's antenna input is active only when the DVR is switched "off", with no green light showing. If you turn on the DVR (green light on) the TV will get no signal from the antenna (it will get an analog output from the DVR, but that is of no use unless you have an old analog TV.

I often have two recordings in progress with the DVR while it is switched off (red light displayed, but no green light) while watching a third channel using the TV's tuner.

I'm grateful to you folks for these details. Thanks.

My channel master 7000 which I got this june, 2011 went nuts this weekend when the time changed back dst. had programs set to record during that time period. dvr rebooted itself. after that it would not pause. go backwards unplugged it, now it just hangs on the reboot. screen msg "loading... please wait" Waited for an hour, no change. Unplugged for several hours, still no change. THoughts?

The Dish PALDVR version does the same thing with the time change. Someone on the PAL forum has the same issue with the reboot starting at the time change.

Can you get in to the system menu during the reboot loop? Try unplugging the antenna, and if you can get in to the menu during the loop, delete all channels, unplug for 30 seconds, reconnect antenna, then plug back in. Sometimes a corrupt channel will send the DVR into the reboot loop. If that doesn't work, then it looks like you may be out of luck. If you ask nicely someone on the PALDVR forum, they may be able to fix it for you for a fee. Since it is less than a year old, Channel Master should warranty it.

I had tried all that. Disconnected the antenna wire, all cables, unplugged over night, etc. Could not do a soft reset as the dvr would not response. Still under warranty so its going back for a replacement. When I called them, they acted like they didn't know about the bug in the firmware for dst. Once I pointed out it was a known bug and posted all over the net, they admitted they knew about it, and that the unit was most likely dead at that point. Lucky its still under warranty. Thanks for your input although.

Sounds like it's time to order the new one......and get away from the buggy 7000/DTVPAL.

I would wait on that. It might be like jumping from the frying pan into the fire.

a.k.a. Better the Devil You Know than the Devil you don't.

I'll hang onto my CM-7000PAL, with its aggravating random reboots and other faults, until the dust settles and some reliable reviews become available on the new CM DVR.

Agreed. Even after the last firmware, DTV Pal DVR is still buggy. CM-7000PAL is still buggy with the same firmware too and never got updates. Hmmph.

If you haven't sent it back yet...
Did you:
1. unplug unit and disconnect antenna
2. replug and wait for "Downloading Program Guide" to finish and immediately press the DVR button (before it loops and reboots again)
3. If sucessful, go to the Menu-->Setup-->Sytem Setup-->Factory Defaults-->Reset Factory Defaults. When it reboots and you get the "Point Antenna-Find New Channels" screen, replug the coax antenna in and select find new channels and go thru the install process. (If not sucessful in #2, you may try pressing Sys Info button at the same point in #2 or hitting "Cancel" when you see the "Downloading Program Guide" begin and immediately pressing Menu and going to #3)

So far, trying these methods has saved me from a dead DVR about 4 times!

My apologies if I'm not asking my question properly. I've had dtvpal since 8/09 and it's worked beautifully with an 8 year old non-HD Panasonic. Yesterday set up new HD plasma 3D Panasonic and can't get the tv & the dtvpal to talk to each other. I had a brand new HDMI cable that didn't work so I bought another brand new HDMI this afternoon and that doesn't work either. I can connect the 2 with the really old cable that connected the old tv with the dtvpal and that works fine except pretty lousy picture. I don't have cable and connect the dtvpal to my antenna thru the wall 'outlet'. I've just spent over a half hour going through all of these posts with HDMI in them but have yet to figure out a solid solution for my problem. My initial thought was that the dtvpal has a bad HDMI connection plug? (I don't even know the right terminology.) I have read & reread my dtvpal manual several times since last night and believe I've followed it's directions but nothing has jumped out at me from there of what I'm doing wrong. Can you help me or point me in the right direction? Thanks. Susan Silliman, Mpls.

Try to change TV output settings a couple times with cold reboots.

Susan it sounds like your dtvpal may have had a DOA HDMI port 8 years ago, but you only found out recently :|
P Smith's idea is good too.
Also, doesn't dtvpal have component-video connection too? those would provide HD signal.

by the way, is there a release-notes for each release showing which bugs fixed/etc?
sincerely,
kruschev@kremvax.nyet

Didn't some people have sucess by pushing the SYS button also? As a last resort. I remember reading it

Mr. Khrushev ? Blast from a past !

Sorry, no notes, nothing. Just read first page for user's observations.

Hello All-

We own two CM-7000PAL DVRs and in recent months have occasionally seen an odd error or status message. Sorry for the lack of details here, but the message says something about a "lost IP connection" (the next time this occurs, I will make sure to write down the exact wording). These DVRs do not currently have an IP connection, let alone the ability to lose one, so the message seems mighty strange. If you click on "okay", the message usually disappears for the evening, but not always -- I do believe I have seen it pop up again within a short while.

One of our DVRs is over a year old, the other is brand new, yet both have shown this same behavior.

In the past I supplied an internet connection to the older unit for a few hours to see if by any chance a firmware update might be available, but no luck on that. Still, I might have guessed that this single short-term internet experiment could have "confused" that DVR after the connection was removed, somehow making the lost IP message appear (even months later). However, this seems highly questionable since both DVRs have produced the same message yet only one unit has ever had an actual internet connection.

Can anyone shed any light on all this?

Sure.
You can find posts with similar problem and a solution in the thread.

No, the dtvpal is only 2 years old so it is a HDMI connection.

To Susan: It seems to me that I have seen several posts indicating some people have had trouble with getting the HDMI pushed in completely.

Skipped timer events

anyone having this problem with the CM-7000PAL?
all the timer events are SKIPPED.
When I checked on the info of the skipped events, it indicates "failure to start recording"
I've tried to reset to factory default, which resolved the problem for 1 day, then it began to have the same problem again.

Read http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1099071 for the known issues. Maybe the same problem as yours since both DVRs are the same design.

I will try to unplug the HDMI cord and see if the "skip" problem resolves.
Will post the update.

HW wise - absolutely same devices; from FW side: F400 = F208 with only two changes in a name of the device "DVR pal"->"CM7000-PAL" and palette/skin. No difference in code.

Does anyone know if this thing will ever be updated? I've been following it for a couple years now and I don't recall any firmware or software updates, let alone any electronic upgrades.