briteView BV-980H / Zinwell ZAT-980H thread - Page 7

That's easy. It means your STB can send data back to your headend to request a PPV or SDV channel. A passive device can always do that (with the same signal loss). An active device may not allow such a reverse signal path.

There are signal strength meters pretty cheap, but it would be better to get the opinion of the DVR.

I see that brite-View has created a forum for the BV-980H on its website:
http://www.brite-viewforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

I have lost track -- how many participants of this forum have actually purchased this unit? I know of three...

epvision.com still hasn't answered my email for the shipping date. But your count is pretty accurate.

I've been able to disable 50 channels so far. And it still records every night.
More to do next week I hope.

I still have my unit ...gotta love the clear QAM feature.

I do love the clear QAM tuner, and the brilliant HD recordings and playback. But I am still having problems with about 50% of my scheduled recordings not starting at all or ending early ("failed").

Perhaps we have a unit that has not been fully tested in a USA QAM environment. I have no status and no schedule. And/or the unit does not let me select them. I have no scheduled recordings. My disk may have been full last week. I just deleted a title and added a new scheduled title. I get stutter on 1080i audio and the default resolution goes back to 480i. I have not pulled the plug yet, just to do a reset. That will be next.

Oh, I didn't realize others were having problems (albeit different ones) too.

I submitted an email to brite-View's support address, as well as having posted in the forum they recently created -- but neither has generated any response from brite-View (yet). If I can't get to the bottom of my failed recordings issue by the end of this week, I'm going to have to box up and return mine.

I have ordered and expect to receive in the mail any day now a good quality powered cable splitter (to replace that old Radio Shack one I have). If replacing that in my system doesn't solve the problem, I'm stumped.

Without a diagnostic (like the one they forgot to remove) it will be hard to tell how the 980H feels about it's signal.

My 980H is fed from wall to a 1 to 4 amplified Radio Shack splitter. From there is goes through a Mag 515H for more boost. You might say the signal is too strong, but I have no problems with 480i channels. So I will see if dropping the signal helps. I have an attenuator for that (0 - 40db). But I hold little hope. I hope you have better luck. When I hit REC and check for Status it's an empty table despite 7 recordings. There was a bunch of "passed" there, but they went away. The recordings are still there.

I don't know what you mean. What's "a diagnostic"?

It is my understanding that the "Status" screen and table is simply a repeat list of all your scheduled recordings. It's a screen you can go to to mark a scheduled recording to be skipped. I don't think it would have anything to do with nor show anything about any programs you manually recorded by pressing REC on the remote.

I heard from brite-View support today. They believe my unit is defective and are issuing an RMA for return.

I think my last manual recording was done in 1980 or so. When I hit enter in the status spot I get red circle with a slash. It used to work.

I will await your next post about the replacement.

Please see my posts on the BV forum. I don't think you will see me there again. But you should like my response on the failed recording. The black cloud over this unit just got darker.

Still waiting for a response on the PHD unit.

GOOD LUCK!
I also e-mailed them, multiple times this year. No response either. I eventually gave up & moved on .

"PrimeDTV will be endlessly creating its forthcoming HD Digital Television Program, PVR Recorder box, PHD-eZ1 and supporting our present PHD-205LE, PHD-HM5, PHD-8VX through our online online shop @ ePVision.com."

from:http://hometheatersstuff.info/primed...press-release/
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2011/5/prweb8474677.htm

When I select 1080i output, the 980H upconverts all channels. So that means a 480i SD digital channel gets barn doors since I have my TV set to not mess with HD channels. Add that to the wish list: pass though mode. If we had a wish list. And what is Auto HDMI?

I have this mental picture of a shack in Siberia doing telephone support for frequent flyer miles.

Maybe Funai will make an HD unit for the USA. That I would buy.

What is "the PHD unit?"

I did get an email back from brite-View support with an RMA number. They say they'll mail out to me a new unit with 2 days of receiving my bad unit (which I have to mail to them on my dime).

I also just received my new PCT Power Splitter, which just a few minutes ago I installed, replacing that old Radio Shack version. I'm going to give it a day, to see how the BV-980H does on recordings with this new better/cleaner power splitter in place. If that doesn't resolve the failed recordings problem, then the unit will need to go back.

However, if I'm returning the unit, I'm thinking it would probably behoove me to just simply return it to Amazon (from whom I bought it), through their 30-day return policy (as opposed to returning it to BV through their warranty repair system). My worry about dealing with BV directly is that by the time I get the replacement unit back from them and tested, I will have run out of my 30-day return period with Amazon. If the new replacement unit they send me doesn't work any better, I will no longer be able to return it for a refund. So, I'm thinking return the unit to Amazon I have now for a refund. And then maybe just order another unit through Amazon later to restart another 30-day window for returns. Or, maybe I'd go for a Magnavox 515 instead (although giving up HD recordings...).

I think your logic for returning it to Amazon makes sense. If you believe it to be a bad unit, then please use the Amazon method.

If you are patient, then put a new recorder on hold for a few months. I would wait two months and see what happens. The new broadcast season starts in October. Should you wish to try the 515H, it's still going down in price. However if it drops to $198, I feel the next generation is pending. That will probably be $299 to start, then drop to $259. I don't know if it will have true HD/5.1 ability. The 515H with SD and DD2.0 is a good buy right now and I use it for my clear QAM SD digital. And it will play or record a regular DVD. I have no OTA. As for the PHD mentioned back on page 4 (thread search):

http://api.viglink.com/api/click?for...Fphdez1pre.htm

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=940657

Just read page one about the 515H. Or you can read the customer reviews at walmart.com for fun. The ones that say it is a great unit then give it one star are the best. It does have an unknown issue with some clock signals, but Walmart's return policy is great. I have the 2160A and 515H. No problems with either.

I made an interesting discovery today. If you run the Auto-Scan again, your previously set up recording schedule gets erased. And as I would have guessed, your Channel List and Favorites get reset back to the default of all channels showing up on both lists. There's 4 hours of my time I'll never get back (editing those two lists). :-(

The only reason I even launched the Auto-Scan again is because one of my primary channels (the local FOX broadcast station) just simply disappeared from my channel list.

Just another Tiwanese owned and operated company. Expect the same dismal level of systems, human factors, and software engineering. Chinese junk electronics.

Try doing just the channels first. Skip the Favorites. So far I haven't hit a limit turning off channels.

Yes, that has been my experience as well -- editing the channels list works. It's the favorites list that has some weird limitation to it.

Installed the new splitter, and then scheduled a full day of recordings. As before, about half of them failed. And even just simply watching live TV through the BV's tuner, I see that some channels are suffering pixelation. All my other digital tuner devices (1 HDTV and two other digital recorders) are all displaying rock solid images, so it would seem there is something wrong with the BV unit's tuner. So, it's definitely going back. Just printed my Amazon return label.

Well, it was all an interesting experiment. I have a feeling that BV will simply take my returned unit and simply repackage it and sell it to some other poor sucker...

I'm going to hold off on ordering another one. If and when I do order again, I might try the Magnavox instead next. I'm sure it has a much better user interface.

I just left a very long detailed "review" of this unit on Amazon.com. I am only the 3rd person to leave a review of the unit so far. (My review has to be approved first, and may take up to 48 hours to post there.)

BV-980H on Amazon

By the way, why is this thread titled "briteView BV-980H / Zinwell ZAT-980H"? What is "Zinwell ZAT?"

Never mind -- I Googled it. :-)