The Official 169time AVX-1 Technical Status Discussion - Page 97

It would be very helpful if people would post specifics when making observations.

AVX1 software Version No.:

Satellite Service:

STB Model Number:

Recording Device Make & Model No.:

Satellite HD Channel Recorded:

Program Name:

Time & Date:

Observations:

Murray,

You're quite right. Here is a correction to my error of omission.

The receiver is a Dish model 6000.

The channel under test was HBO HD.

The two movies recorded for testing were:

Basic (Friday Night)
The Ring (Saturday Morning)

--Jerome

I recorded Basic Friday night as well using 08E6. I observed 3 micro second glitches after scene changes but otherwise the recording was excellent. The results for this one tape is on a par with tapes made using 08C6 and 08D6. The recording was made using a Hughes HIRD-E8 and JVC HM-DH30000U. Playback was Mitsubishi HS-HD1100U and Samsung SIR-T165. The glitches were the least obnoxious I have seen and less than a second each and always after a scene change usually from a dark scene to a bright scene and may very well have nothing to do with 169time.

I remember reading over the months about Dish Network 6000 users getting excellent results with 08A5 and wondering why I could not accomplish the same with either my RCA DTC-100 or Hughes E8. It may very well be the differences in the data make one service work better with different software, I don't know. One tape hasn't convinced me that 08E6 is preferred to 08C6 or 08D6. From what I have read the update with 08E6 was intended to improve performance with the newer JVC D-VHS VCRs which I don't have now but I do want tapes that have the greatest possibility of playback with more decoders. With the 2 decoders I have currently, 08C6 was the big improvement.

Soon I am going to make simultaneous 1 hour recordings using 08E6, 08A5 and the HD TiVo and report the results. The HD TiVo will be used to check at the time of each noticeable glitch with either 169time version and see what conclusion I can make for my equipment. I have enough 08A5 tapes to know those have never been decoded by my Samsung T165 adequately although most can be played with several minor glitches using a JVC 30K. The results were watchable with 08A5 but never anything I would use to show a friend.

Chris

Got a feeling there may be another, in my opinion, big new product announcement soon, very soon. )

It is so big, a new thread will have to be started.

Just keeps getting better.

Dave

You're such a tease!

It was a good move for Richard to improve performance of the existing product before the big new product. He should have more credibility although some won't be interested, many might be.

Chris

He always told me, and I wrote here that until he got the avx-1 under control, he would not move ahead with the new products. Looks like he kept to his word, even though a little longer than anyone wanted.

Dave

So when might we hear about these new products? Any hints on what they might be?

I know too much, other than to say hopefully soon!!


Dave

I am using O8E6 now with a 5U. With both 08C6 and 08D6 I was having a high number of dropouts of audio and video (using a Toshiba DirecTV receiver) but now after 2 movies recording with 08E6 and the 5U I've had no problems at all yet.

The HDNETM movie station glitches appear to have cleared up, at least in my setup (08C6, Sony SATHD300 mod, and Jvc 30k). Maybe DirecTV did something...?

Am happy to report glitches are few and far between now, suspect those that do occur are due to tape anomalies.

(Not even using the latest AVX1 software release to boot!)

Didn't bother to watch the HD Redskins recording, wouldn't have even minded TONS of glitches in that recording. It somehow got immediately intentionally erased...

The frequent HDNet Movie glitches stopped with 08C6 for me. Putting 08A5 back in still resulted in the problem. My recommendation upgrade to 08E6, I believe that will give you recordings with the greatest compatibility with decoders for future proofing your tapes. I have checked playback quality with 08E6 and believe it is at least as good as 08C6 with my decoders.

Chris

I was using 08C6 and encountered pretty frequent glitches only on HDNETM movies. Since last Friday (still with 08C6 and everything else same) they just suddenly vanished. Not complaining...

Just for drill last night I recorded:

The Wire on HBOHD
Dead Like Me on SHOHD

JVC 30K
169Time Dish 6000
AVX1 Software v08D6
LG LST 3410a

I played back the tape from end to end on Panasonic HD1000 through an LG 3410 with no glitches whatsoever during the HBOHD hour and 1 glitch during the SHOHD hour.

I attribute the SHOHD glitch to E*- SHOHD.

Since a DVHS deck is only a bit bucket on playback, I conclude that it's all about the decoder you use and how good the error correction is that it has.

BB On-line has the LG 3410 for $599 which includes an ATSC tuner, DVHS dubbing and editing on it's 120GB hard drive.

In all fairness, I also had no glitches on the LG 3410 from 169Time DVHS tapes with AVX1 vA85 as well.

The LG 3410 decoder is that good.

I'm thinking of getting another hardware mpeg2 decoder (in addition to my JVC 30K). It needs to be something with DVI output. Right now I'm considering the Samsung 165 (cheapest option), MyHD, or LG 3410. Can you or anyone else compare these devices? Specifically, what do they offer in terms of:

1) Playback control - random skip, fast-forward, etc.
2) Compatibility with 169time.
3) Picture quality.

Thanks.

P.S. Can the LG unit be used in pass-through mode? Where it simply displays a full screen image of whatever is coming in through the firewire input? Or does it need to record to hard drive first?

1) Playback control - random skip, fast-forward, etc.

MyHD has somewhat better playback copntrol for episodic commercial TV as it can be preogrammmed fro 30 second skips while the LG 3410 has full trick play 5X, 10X, 20X 100X FFWD, RWND, Frame Advance and "Smart Skip", but no 30 second skip.

2) Compatibility with 169time.

LG 3410 is by far the best in my experiance.

3) Picture quality.

LG 3410 is the best in my experiance, however, the MyHD is very very good.

The LG unit cannot be used in pass-through mode to display a full screen image of whatever is coming in through the firewire input, but, I think the T165 can, and, if you press PLAY so can the MyHD.

So on the LG, when you go into DVHS restore mode (to copy a DVHS recording to its internal hard drive). Doesn't it show you a preview of what's going to be recorded from the firewire port?

Mark

Yes, you can view a recording in progress from DVHS to hte 3410 HDD over any of the 3410's outputs, which includes an excellent DVI-HDCP implementation.

So I guess you can use that as a "pass-through" mode for viewing something coming from another device (DVHS deck, PC, etc.). Do you actually have to start hard drive writing or will it display what's coming through regardless? (any annoying icons/display while this is going on?)

Hmm... I'm tempted to get one but with all the horror stories/failures in the other thread it seems a bit risky. It's also likely that LG is coming out with something better soon. (hence the price drop). I can't believe they actually released a DVR that can't record/play at the same time - that's one of the main advantages of using hard-drive vs. tape.

Mark

There is no pass through, but, you can view what's being recorded from D-VHS and then delete it upon completion, or, recorded it beforehand and then delete it after viewing.

There is a new model that adds debatable DVD recording capabilities and hence the price drop:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=430774

Actually, you can record/play OTA at the same time by entering Time Shift Mode and pressing Clip REC. Then you can use all trick play, Pause and Jump to Start features while a recording is in progress.

AFAIK all this was to avoid a Tivo patent.

BB has a 30-day Money Back Guarantee.

MyHD does do more HD things, but, that involves a PC.

With a 3410 unit whose serial number begins 451- and Firmware 1.15, there are no longer any problems.

I have added a 300GB Maxtor drive to expand the recording time to 32 hours.

So have you tried hooking up an AVX directly to the LG unit with the latest software (08E6)? The AVX sort of behaves like a JVC DVHS (same drivers in Windows). Maybe one can dump directly to the LG and not bother with the JVC in the chain?

-Mark

I talked to Richard today and he told me about some new things he was working on for the AVX-1. I'm sure that it is the same thing that Dave (H2OFUN) has been alluding to recently. Richard told me this information freely and didn't ask me to keep quiet so I thought I would try posting.

According to my understanding (and I could of course be mistaken) within the next week or so 169time will release a freely download-able hard drive image that will enable recording to disk in the AVX-1. Initially the interface will be command line base but he seemed to imply that he might work up a GUI later. You will be able to add the hard drive; he recommended a 7200rpm drive of 120gB or larger, to the AVX-1 which will then boot from the drive and chose to run the command line program which will allow you to schedule recordings. There will also be a file format that you can use to put multiple start and stop times in and the program will read it and make multiple recordings without further intervention from you. The AVX-1 will also support Ethernet cards and come with an FTP server as well as a client so you can move the recorded files to and from a networked PC.

This will all be based on the 08E6 AVX-1 software release which changed the way a few things were done to, for one thing, enhance the support for the new DVHS decks. The more testing and bug reporting that all of us can do of the 08E6 release the better the compatibility will be when he does release this new software.

I for one am thrilled with this new development. It certainly reduces my incentive to hack my HDTiVo or look at other solutions for archiving. I hope I got all the details correct but don't hold Richard responsible for my inaccuracies, please!

Wow, I am not sure what it all means but I am thrilled as well. I already have the hard drives waiting to be added to my AVX-1s. This product has been rapidly improving lately and existing users haven't been left behind.

Chris

That good news for the Hard drive recorders. Now if he could only instal a firewire in the HD Tivo that would be amazing.

Man, Richard took my fun away!!! Yep, this is what I have wanted, and have worked on here and there with him for a long time. Going towards a full fledged PVR!!! As I said, the man never stands still!!!

Dave

We actually talked about the HDTiVo and he said that because it uses internal encryption modifying it to include a firewire port would probably violate the DCMA and was therefore not in 169time's future. I would guess that if it could be conclusively shown that modding it wouldn't violate the DCMA he would look into it but I think that would take someone winning a court case. I can certainly understand not wanting to work yourself into jail. With the already available software tricks that allow the HDTiVo to be networked allowing recordings to be moved on and off there is little need for this hardware mod. Of course discussing how this is done is not allowed here.

This is in reference to what jsaliga wrote: "Well, I have made two recordings with 08E6 and in my opinion it's a step backwards. The tape I recorded on the JVC 30K had about 20 audio dropouts when played on a 30K and freezes when played on my 40K. The tape recorded on the 40K had momentary freezes about every 20 minutes. I never bothered to try that tape on my 30K.

For now I am going to roll back to 08A5."
----------------

I have to say I have had exactly the same experience. I have been getting very good results with versions 08C6 and 08D6, averaging 2-3 microglitches per movie. The glitches are so brief that no essential audio and video info is lost. However with version 08E6 I had massive glitches (over 10 during the course of the movie) which were so severe that the audio cut out totally and permanently, i.e. even after the video started up again, there was no sound. The only way I could get sound back was to shut off the vcr and then turn it on again (Turning my audio amp on and off made no difference, simply hitting "stop" on the vcr then "play" made no difference). The glitches occured throughout the movie, with long periods of no problems in between. Needless to say, this made watching the movie a very frustrating experience. I'm going to stick with version 08D6 for now.

The particulars of the "test": AVX version 08E6, Dish Network, Dish 6000 receiver, JVC HM-DH30000u, movie "Goldeneye" on Showtime HD, recorded Sept. 18 at 7:15PM local time. Just hours before at 1PM I recorded "Muriel's Wedding" using AVX version 08D6 and had only 2 minor microglitches, with no other differences in the setup. Playback in both cases was through the JVC's component output direct to the TV (audio sent to Pioneer receiver via optical out).

(BTW this is only my second posting, so I apologize ahead of time if I screwed it up in some way)

I am not seeing any glitches with the 08E6 version (AVX-1, DTC100, JVC 30K).

Talking to Richard last night, the version E6 is not shipping with new product yet since it is pre-release. For some it works fine. For others, not.
Sounds like he has some ideas where he will be doing more tweaking of the code to try and close this corner case. He is putting a lot of energy in trying to finish up the hard disc product.

Dave

Any value for Richard to put together a product that has a DVD writer in it so one can burn their files directly from the LInux harddrive to DVD?

Dave