Official Sezmi DMR-1000 Topic - Page 3

so, I tried recording a program by scheduling it from the guide (which shows only "no program information" for all time slots). It showed up in the "recording schedule" list but nothing was actually recorded.

Has anyone been successful in recording from the now empty guide?

NOTE: in looking further I did find the recorded program by going to "My Guide" and then "All Shows" there's a long list associated with the program title "No Program Information" and the recorded program is in there, just takes a while to find it.

So, if there is no program info in the EPG, how does it create time slots - or does it just create all time slots as 30 minutes?

Also, is there any manual programming interface available (time/channel based, not EPG)?

Why are you trying to record from the guide? You should be loading up on PPV to save for later.
Here is a paste from their final email for those that can't read:
You will no longer be billed for Sezmi service. As of September 26th, you will no longer be able to utilize the programming guide and your digital media recorder will no longer operate as a recorder. You will be able to view movies and shows you have already saved to your Sezmi system and YouTube access will not be affected. Between now and November 1st, you may rent any movies or shows at no charge to you. After November 1, Sezmi's On Demand catalog will no longer be available but you will still be able to use your Sezmi system to view all programming you have saved to the media recorder. Detailed information is on our website, www.sezmi.com/support/news.

Oh, thanks Geezer. I don't currently have a Sezmi (I did in the past), but it seems like it would make a pretty decent fee-free DVR even if it could only record OTA by time and channel, essentially a VCR replacement. Since there are about to be many "doorstops" available, I was wondering if it could be manually programmed. It would be a lot better, and far cheaper, than the overpriced ChannelMaster CM-7000.

Well, I used to have a Direct TV UTV box. Also became a doorstop. I have many doors in my home

it creates 60 minute time slots for each scanned channel, so it has channel info but not program info.

I have been following this thread thinking along the same lines. Besides being able to record from a blank guide, is there a manual record option by date, channel and time such as the Tivo offers? Most importantly is there a manual clock set? If the correct time came from Sezmi the clock will no doubt drift over time, not to mention be incorrect after Standard Time resumes or the unit is unplugged too long.

Has anyone been able to read files off of the HD??? I have hooked it up to a linux system and it see's the partitions as 0x83 (linux) but it can not reconize the filesystem. I figure that we can hack it to use some other EPG then the one from Sezmi.
If not at least they can be a over priced 1TB int HD to use in my PC

I believe they used a proprietary filesystem: http://www.hitachigst.com/press-room...media-recorder

Most likely would need a reformat for PC use.

I saw that too, but I have not been able to get any info on it. Contacted Hitachi over a month ago, the no answer yet. Still it would be nice to see if we can make these things still work with out service from sezmi.

The EPG on both of my Sezmi units is working again, as of about midnight tonight.

It may have been turned on accidentally when the on-demand and you tube access was shut off (11/1 was the cut-off date for that).

Hopefully, the EPG will stay on

its working again for me too. the on-demand is still working, I downloaded a couple of movies this morning. Unfortunately the auto recording feature also started up again (I guess its tied to the EPG) so I had about 30 programs recorded that I don't want. But, its good to have the guide back for now.

can't wait to get home and see if mine is up and running. Ha, I was just looking at the Tivo deal [good till 11-15-11] because all this manual recording [and remembering all the shows to setup!] has been breaking me down!


[update]
Well, mine screwed itself. Set the date back to 11/18/10 and the time is wrong. And all the on demand menus are disabled.

this morning the on demand was not working on mine (gave error message that On Demand not available), but EPG still there and accurate.

Just picked up my Tivo and activated the service. I'll probably be swapping the Sezmi drive into it this weekend.

[update]
got it home and setup now [hdmi, wired ethernet]. I'll need a little bit of an adjustment period, but here are my initial impressions for others thinking of the switch:
First off, tuning performance; this is stronger on the Tivo Premier. No pausing or stuttering. Also picking up more stations. Changing channels is much quicker on the Tivo. One problem when changing channels, it resets the sound mode on my receiver [Onkyo 805] which makes a click sound every time.
A big problem I have with the Tivo is the Menu system. It goes between HD menus and really bad SD menus, each time also resetting the audio and video stream... again with the receiver click and screen blanking. Also the popup menus are also non-HD, so they look blurry and stretched out. Menu system, Sezmi had the win for sure.
Overall TV video quality is up for me. I could only run the sezmi at 720, I can run the Tivo at 1080. My display is a Panasonic G15, and when I had the Sezmi on 1080 it did not fill the whole panel.
It is nice having just one box with the Tivo, instead of the two/three with the Sezmi. I think overall the sezmi remote is better, in that it is more comfortable to use. But I do love having numbers again with the Tivo. Ok I rather watch TV than type now.

[Update 2]
WTF? the menus have advertisements... even the popup ones.

My guide is working tonight & I have taped shows all week. PPV is down as promised. What will we be left with when all this settles?

Does the guide still work.

I was hacking the unit to see if I can import my own guide data and fried the drive.

Can someone make be a bit image of the drive?

PSIP will be too hard as the tuner is custom. I will import data in a similar way that Myth TV does.

The OS is on the drive.

BOTTOM LINE QUESTION: I've read all the threads and need this simple question answered ... assuming the EPG dies as SEZMI says will happen, can I use this sort of like we used our VCRs? By that, I mean "set a day, time, duration, and channel and it blindly records on that day/time the channel and duration?

this question was answered in earlier posts; the answer is "yes" and "no". Yes, you can do it, but no, its not very convenient.

If the guide stops showing actual program content, it will revert to just showing time slots (e.g. 7pm 7:30pm, etc) per day, as it now does, but without program descriptions. If you select a time slot, you'll see all the tuned channels with "NO PROGRAM INFORMATION" as the program description.You can then select the channel you want to record and it will set up a default 1 hour recording for that channel/time slot. You can adjust the length of the recording by changing the stop time but max is 2 hours. So, for example, if you wanted to record a football game, you'd have to set up two or three recordings.

All of the programs recorded in this manner are listed as "NO PROGRAM INFORMATION" in the shows area, so you have to scroll down through that list of programs to find the one you want, based on date and time. There doesn't seem to be any way to re-label these recordings with usable names.

Also, you won't be able to set up a "series" recording; e.g. if you wanted to record ABC every Tuesday night at 9PM you would have to set up a new recording each week.

It looks like the re-appearance of the program guide last week was just temporary. As of this morning, my guide again shows NO PROGRAM INFORMATION for all time slots. I guess this makes sense as, in the past, the guide contained one week of data so when it showed up last week, it was just for one week and didn't get renewed this week.

Well just a last update. Been with the Tivo Premier a week now and very comfortable with it and enjoying it. Tivo support was good and we worked out all the issues I initially had with it. At the time I bought into Sezmi, there was no competitive products in the price range, but now that I'm on a Tivo, I am a happy camper... as is the wife . Thanks for the effort Sezmi, as you probably helped Tivo pushed out a more affordable HD box.

Are you OTA, and did you get the $9.99 a month deal? It was supposed to be on until Nov. 15th, at least through Solid Signal.com.

Yes, I am using it with OTA and I did get the 9.99 deal. It doesn't matter where you buy from [I ordered from BestBuy and got a free Outdoor Antenna with the deal - I can provide a link if you want]. When you activate your Tivo on the Tivo website, you just enter the code "Antenna" in the promotion field and the discount is automatically applied. As far as I know, the discount is good till 11/15/11. Before I purchased, I contacted Tivo to confirm the code was for any purchase source.

Oh well...Cannibalized the drive and power supplies from my Sezmi..

I'm still using my 2 Sezmi units as glorified VCRS, using TitanTV to plan my recording schedule.

Has anyone figured out a hack for the EPG yet?

I'm not a technical person (Basic and Fortran are the limits of my programming skills, lol ), so I'm not much help in that department.

Other than stripping the Sezmi for its components, has anyone figured out a way to reprogram the operating system and/or program guide? Also the antenna tuner box feeds the DMR-1000 via Cat5 cable; does anyone know what signal format it uses, and is there any other DVR hardware out there that can read the signal? I know SiliconDust makes a networked tuner (HDHomeRun, which I own) but their Windows software doesn't recognize the Sezmi tuner. PS: It was announced that Sezmi was purchased by KIT Digital on Dec 30, 2011; but no indications that they were going to revive the DMR.

Here is a link to the news: http://www.pehub.com/130943/kit-acqu...moves-listing/
It was also mentioned in the WSJ online.

even though I can still record programs, a minor inconvenience is that the internal clock seems to be off by about 1 1/2 hours so, for example, if I want to record a program at 10am I need to select the 9am slot and then start it early.

I don't see any way of setting the clock - there is a time zone setting but that just allows you to specify which time zone you are in.

Has anyone else had this issue?

(I guess I could try powering off the box, unplugging it and then starting it up again.)

Like many of you, I am bemoaning that my entertainment center contains a barely breathing Sezmi...possibly slowly passing into oblivion.

I have the same problem as a previous poster - the clock is slowly slipping. I know generally what the time difference is, so I can still use it to record OTA, but it's tricky. Also, since I can't figure out how to manually record channel/time, if I ask it to record a show, it actually thinks it is recording No Program Information Found, and it dutifully fills up with hours and hours of that program...

One could wish that Sezmi had just decided to go Open Source on the tuner, so that someone with enough time and talent could figure out how to keep it going...

In the meantime, is anyone willing to post detailed instructions on how to remove the 1TB hard drive from the Sezmi so that it can be used elsewhere? Instructions on how to reformat the drive would be good, too...I'd really like to be able to recover SOME of my investment in the system...

jta

I no longer have the manuals for my Sezmi..anyone here kind enough to send me a scan or note on programming the remote?

Nevah Mynd..I just used jp1 to reprogram it to do what I needed.

Looks like the Sezmi curse is still alive...

Assets of Sezmi and “Content Solutions Business” Sold for Steep Losses

During the quarter, KIT sold off the assets of Sezmi Corporation, for $2.9m. KIT acquired Sezmi at the beginning of 2012 for approximately $27m. At that time, KIT management said that it expected Sezmi contribute revenue of at least $20m, and earnings of approximately $4m in 2012, and be “immediately accretive on a revenue, cash flow, and cash earnings basis.” Instead, less than 8 months after closing the Sezmi acquisition, KIT has sold off the business at a loss of $28.6m.

When pressed for an explanation on the company’s conference call with equity analysts, KIT’s new CFO Fabrice Hamaide said that the forecast for Sezmi “did not turn out the way previous management had believed Sezmi customers and the Sezmi platform would be able to actually deliver.”

The company also said that it sold its “content solutions business” for $1m in cash. The loss associated with the transaction was $15.5m million.