Channel Master TV CM 7400 HD DVR - OTA, Clear QAM, Internet Content - Page 41

By SD I assume you mean analog. Anyhow, as for HD, there is the Jimmy's. Title based would mean Tue-Sat. Be brave. Do the manual and the EPG based recording. You have two tuners.

Yup. See edit.


What be a Jimmy??


Always.


Thank the patron saint of couch potatoes for THAT!

That is not name-based recording. With the date/time scheduling of the CM-7400, if you schedule a recurring recording from the guide -- say every Wed @9-10:00 -- and one week they move the show to 10-11:00, you will miss the recording because it will only check for the program name in the scheduled time slot. With name-based recording it will find the program on that channel any day and any time -- and that includes catching a 2hr episode they may throw in there.

I don't see how the conflict resolution Charles R is after can be done without name-based recording.

Standing corrected even though fully reclined.

I should've recognized the distinction. My old ReplayTV 4508 has been doing just that for 12 years.

In my experience, the 7400 will follow schedule changes for a 'record series' timer. I don't know if it will look for the same series on a different channel, but within the same channel it will follow day/time changes.

#1 - I don't believe the 7400 will do this. The reason I say this - the premium guide states the series episode as 'new' or 'repeat'. It does not state the episode number, which I would think is necessary for this feature.

#2 - Again no for the same reason stated above.

Jimmy Fallon (NBC 12:01AM) and Jimmy Kimmel (ABC 12:35AM)

Both are midnight or after daily shows. If it's named based, you will get the right episodes. If it's day/time, you can test the logic of recording a show that runs Tue-Sat.

Old Sony has manual recording with a "daily" frequency. They defined "daily" as Mon-Fri, so the above shows fail to record "Friday night". It's common and even some web sites get lost too.

Really. Now that would be something new that hasn't been reported. I presume you are using the paid subscription guide?

I believe that to be true for me as well. I use the free guide and it recorded a Saturday repeat of a show after it had already recorded the original airing during the week. I think I will try the paid guide after my first 30 days of ownership are up which will be the very first part of March.

Yes, I use the premium (paid) guide.

Although it doesn't say anything about name-based recording explicitly in the manual, there is a graphic of the schedule screen on page 35 that clearly shows the upcoming episodes of a series recording that are scheduled for different days and times. So, for series recordings the CM-7400 does use name-based recording.

Yes, but there is still that issue of the CM-7400 not updating the PSIP data automatically if the unit is unused for several days. The channels have to be scanned to obtain their PSIP data. I can't see how anyone who has been used to any kind of a DVR from cable or satellite would find this thing tolerable without a real guide -- hence the subscription. When I set up a media-PC recently (for fun and for "overflow recording" to supplement up my TiVo) I tried using the PSIP guide with the NextPVR software. That lasted about 2-3 days before I subscribed to the Schedules Direct guide. Perhaps I would find PSIP tolerable if my only previous experience was a VCR or a manually scheduled DVD recorder, but if you are used to a DVR with a real program guide, PSIP is a bad joke.

It's obvious that once one gets used to the guide from a paid service that PSIP is a let down. How much is in the eye of the beholder.

I bought the premium guide for 2 reasons - To evaluate/compare and to get the new vs. repeat episode information.

For the few weeks I used just the PSIP guide, it didn't miss recording any series episode I had set up, but it did record a few repeat episodes due to lack of data in the guide.

I could live with PSIP, I chose not to at this point. My opinion may change when the next $50 is due.

Aesthetics and accuracy aside. Given that the time period of PSIP data is very limited and usually does not go out beyond 24 hr (typically much less than that), if the CM-7400 does not update the PSIP information on its own when the unit sits idle, then its recording function is inherently unreliable using a PSIP guide. A DVR that requires daily intervention by the user in order to perform its function does not provide a very satisfactory DVR user experience. Go on a business trip or vacation a couple days and come back to missed recordings. And that goes directly to the statement I made that I can't see how anyone who has been used to any kind of a full-feature DVR would find this thing tolerable without a real guide.

And in my case, this was the issue with NextPVR and PSIP that caused me to buy a real guide. It required a manual update of the PSIP data just before the evening primetime which means I could not set it and forget it.

Please excuse this comment if it is stupid, but since the power consumption is the same when the unit is plugged in, why not leave it on? And since the same power is used when it's off, why doesn't it do guide updates continuously or at least while it's not recording?

The reason is because it fills a need. Before I got my cm7400, if I wanted to watch a program in HD OTA, I had to watch it live. Now I can record it in HD and watch it later and I think that is more than tolerable. It is great. If you're going away and are afraid of missing a recording, set it up to do manual records and it will record flawlessly.

CM would have to add programming in the unit's firmware to cause it to tune through each channel periodically while the DVR is not being used for other tasks (such as recording or just plain watching a live channel). The DVR would also have to be able to determine which tuner was "free", and which was possibly being "watched" for hours on end by someone relaxing in an easy chair.. Could they do this? Who knows, it depends on how much free space there is in their flash memory . . .

Here's an idea to force PSIP data update....

One simple expirement is to setup short manual daily recordings on every channel that you ever plan to record.

e.g.
NBC 4:30p 1minute
CBS 4:31p 1minute
ABC 4:32p 1minute
PBS 4:33p 1minute
FOX 4:34p 1minute
CW 4:35p 1minute

This should update the 8 hours of PSIP data during the primetime recording period.

It's principal bug - even small CECB box with one tuner doing scan while it's offline.
Don't worry about space in NAND - there is plenty and more then enough to fix the damn error.
They [ENTONE, not CM] must fix it promptly. Without such irrelevant excuses.

There is no doubt it fills a need and many will be more than happy with it. At the same time those already using a DVR (close to 50% of viewers now have access to one) will find the CM7400 lacking in many features they have come to expect.

So to my thinking their market is limited to those who have never used DVRs for a variety of reasons in the past and are now looking for one and simply want a VCR or aren't aware of what they are missing. Of course there are always exceptions to the rule (and I'm sure we'll see a few posted here ) but those of us that have been using DVRs (in my case over a decade) certainly expect more.

And if you have cable? This implies that the "free" guide only functions for channels you have viewed within a very short time period before their viewing or scheduling. I still say: wow.

Your Sony DHG didn't need that.

I guess I don't fit that profile as I've been using DVR's for probably 10 - 15 years now. It's been so long that I can't remember not having one. I still think the cm7400 is great.

This actually sounds like a very good idea. I will try it.

You guys, owners of the CM7400, better send/call CM for fix the nasty bug - it missed a poll of all channels to update EPG from PSIP data.

Wow! What planet did you live on? I don't think they've been around that long here on the 3rd Stone from the Sun . . .

Yeah they have. The first t**o's came out in 1999.

Unless it is done on purpose as an inducement to purchase the guide subscription.

I would qualify that as corporate conspiracy and cheating customers.
I smell clause case...

It is an interesting idea and I was hoping someone would try it for a couple days just to see if it worked. Of course you will have to be diligent about deleting all these dummy recordings every day otherwise your list will fill up. Seems like that might get old quick.