The Official 169time AVX-1 Technical Status Discussion - Page 12

Lon, once you burn the patched image, you should just put it in.

John, keep the status coming. Now, for what ever reason, if the signal is getting messed up, then the s/w will keep resyncing. Again, in 48 hours, I had only resyncs at the show changes.

Dave

Okay, whats going on with folks? I have to assume if folks were having issues, you would be posting.

So, is everyone have the same success Richard and I had?

I tell ya, Richard is the man. It may take him a while to get to something, but until he has it fix in his head, no reason to use the fingers.

Again, looking for both success and issues stories.

Dave

Did a few tests last night. Channel changing during recording etc. Excellent results. Recorded Salton Sea last night too. Didn't watch it all but only saw one 'pause' for 2 seconds about 5 minutes into it. Before I couldn't record Anything on HBO. Gonna try a couple of other shows today.

MRwilson, thanks for the status. It seems one still needs a clean signal, but nothing nothing like before. Keep letting us know.

I did get input back from RIchard on the screen dump. We are talking about adding the feature that one could set the time on the machine via keyboard, and then the screen dumps could only be with a sync and then in theory you would know exaclty where on the tape the issue was.

Keep the upgrade ideas coming.

Dave

Recording Fifth Element right now. We'll see how it goes.

I don't have a monitor on my AVX1. Guess I need a 9" vga or a vga -> composite video so I can plug it into my tv and read the messages. Anyone know of a cheap one?

not to go slightly off topic, but is Fifth Element in 16:9 yet? or still 4:3?

MrWilson, Try looking in a used computer parts store. I have some in my area and 15" used monitors sell for about $40.

Anyone who cares about a "glitch" really needs to have a monitor connected to see whats going on.

Dave

Kirby, yes, this mornings was 16:9 and looked great. Its in DPL and not 5.1 though.

Clark, thanks but I need SMALL. I've got 4 15" and a 19" monitor in the closest I'm not using.

Mrwilson, I would hook up the monitor now if you can, just to see whats going on. Long term, you probably dont need it.

dave

Can't make this new version crash. It's almost perfect as far as stable. I still get a few video glitches but not as many as before.

Good Job!

I think I will start using it again.
Jeff

Jeff, now if you cant make it die, thats great. I am waiting for Don to beat up on it now.

If one has glitches, the s/w will pick up, but atleast it fixes itself now.
So again, the cleaner the signal, the better it will be.

Dave

I fired up the Mits last evening at the start of the Sopranos and then let it run through "Six Feet" and 15 minuts past that. No problems on the Sopranos and no video problems the rest of the way either.

However, when HBO went to 5.1 (for Six Feet) the audio suffered dropouts lasting for about 20 seconds each interspersped with 5 seconds of "good" audio. These audio dropouts lasted until Brenda's dad's funeral on the cliff when the audio cleared up and everything was fine again with the remainder of Six Feet being perfect. However, the same audio problem occurred when Six Feet was over and the broadcast went to 2.0 audio. I never did hear the preview of the next episode.

Of course, all of the rebooting of the Mits and the DTC-100 was performed prior to recording, in order to get the "blinking light" on the DTC-100.

I do have a couple of questions:

1. Does this mean we can now leave the AVX-1 connected to the firewire at all times? I look forward to installing this unit in my rack which does not provide access to the rear.

2. I have seen mention of connecting a monitor to the AVX-1. Which jack on the AVX-1 do I use, and what am I looking for once I'm set up? Perhaps there are detailed instructions on this procedure elsewhere that I missed.

Mikey, I know I have no concerns on the JVC. You guys will have to tell us on the MIts.

There is a standard 15 pin VGA plug on the back on the avx-1. Its just a std computer. You dont have to have it. I just like to look and see what the resync count says.

Dave

One nice side effect of the new software I noticed. My local ABC affliate broadcasts the weather on the first sub-channel and the HD broadcast on the second sub-channel. They're encoder or broadcast hardware vendor recommended that to them. So when I record and watch Alias I have to use channel + on the JVC to get to sub-channel 2. When recording/watching ABC through the AVX1 now I only see the sub-channel with HD content. Very nice.

I really think its time I just bit the bullet and bought the JVC. The Mits is fine, but it appears from what I see the JVC works better with this setup. I can then still use the Mits to playback records made on the JVC (right?) and use the JVC to record only, and play D-Theater tapes. Anyone happen to know when Bestbuy is going to have another preferred customer 10% off sale? Seems like its about time.

I recorded HBO from 8:30AM to 11:30AM PDT this morning. I should have most of "The Fifth Element", but I have not had time to watch it yet. I will post my results later today.

The AVX-1 is still running and only reports 3 resyncs. I think what ever dropouts I have seen so far are related to a different problem.

I know each time HBO changes the movie, I get one resync.

Dave

And I have to say, the JVC is much more flexible with the AVX-1. (And the dtc100)

dave

Brian:

What exactly did you do wrong and waht did you do to correct it?


Lon

Never Mind I got the CD I Burned to boot,

EDIT


but some how the CD was burned of software version 8.2, back to the drawing board


Lon

Re 0.8B3 software and the "pad"

The new software certainly has solved many of the old problems, however the new software has nothing to do with the 6dB pad and the problem it addressed. I would not remove the pad, especially if your dish to satellite receiver cable is short, e.g., less than 50 feet.

The pad adds attenuation to help insure 3rd time reflections are below the receiver threshold and thus cannot combine with incoming signals to produce invalid data. If your transmission line is long, normal cable attenuation produces the same effect.

I don't recommend amplifiers in the transmission path unless the cable length is extremely long, e.g., over 150 feet. So long as signal strength (actually bit rate errors) are the acceptable range, I still wouldn't use an amplifier.

Here is some more data.

I recorded "The Fifth Element" this morning on my DTC-100. When I played in back on my TV connected to a Mitsubishi 1100U, the video stability was the worst I have seen with the new code. There was pixelation about every 10-15 seconds and I also noticed video noise just above the black bar on the bottom of the picture. This reminded my of what I saw yesterday on the same TV watching "Six Feet Under". I have had NO problems watching OTA recorded on the DTC-100 on this TV.

Next I took the tape upstairs to my projector and the DTC-100. Here the picture was much more stable but there was still some pixelation, about one/minute. I did not notice the weird noise above the black bar at the bottom. This was the same thing I saw yesterday with "Six Feet Under"; the picture quality seemed better with the JVC 30K and the DTC-100.

I have just removed the signal amplifier, which I was using to help the original software record. I see that the signal strength for the satellites is 72 for 101 and 64 for 119. There are still very few resyncs reported by the AVX-1. I will record "The Fifth Element" once again at 5PM and see how things look.

Everything you say makes a lot of sense. However, I recall the early FORUM discussions about the need to add an inline amp. I dutifully inserted the RS inline amp and the result was near perfect recording from SHO and HD NET, but only an occasional decent recording from HBO.

Then the attenuate the sat signal idea became the rage.

I then concluded that there was no hard and fast rule.

With the new software, I have acheived a perfect HBO recording with the amp still in the line (perfect except for the audio dropouts when the programming changes to or from 5.1).

On the theory that less is better I am going to remove the amp. I anticipate no change one way or the other.

Hi -- haven't posted before, but thought I'd chime in on this one.
Started running the new B3 patch on the avx last night (via JVC 30K) & like most others had good success. Was able to change channels repeatedly between SHO, HBO, and HDNet, enter and exit the guide, disconnect / reconnect antenna input, disconnect / reconnect firewire, etc.. all with no lock-ups, pixelization, or drop-outs. Also turned everything on, off, and back on with no regard to sequence & even skipped the CH 2 to I2 channel down ritual on the 30K --- no apparent problems. Viewed channels for about 1 hour with no problems.

Decided to leave all equipment on overnight and during the day to check the long term stability. Left the channel set on HBO. This afternoon (about 20 hours later), checked on the picture. There had been about 25 resyncs over the 20 hour period tuned to HBO. Video and audio were present and in sync, but there was severe pixelization randomly across about 1/3 of the screen. This pixelization was continuous but picture was not overly choppy. Interestingly, I then changed channels to HDNet and then to SHO. All three channels had the same degree of continuous pixelization. Channel changes and video/audio sync still worked well with no freezes or dropouts, however -- my system had simply gone into a continuous pixelization mode on all HD channels, as if signal strength was lacking. I was confident that signal strength wasn't the issue since I always have strong signals and never see any pixelization from satellite. My first suspicion was the 30K because of it's general reputation for flakiness with regard to pixelization (a lucky guess), so I cycled the power on the 30K and everything came back to perfection --- no pixelization on any channel. It's been an hour and everything is still fine.

Thought I'd post this in case anyone else has a similar experience. I've used the AVX / 30K combo extensively over the last 8 months & have experienced all the typical AVX B2 problems, and the typical 30K tendency to pixelate under certain tape playback conditions -- but, overall the 30K has generally worked reliably and I've had a 70-80% success rate with recording HBO and SHO movies over 8 months. This strange, continuous pixelization mode was a unique experience since it involved live data and was not associated with lockups, loss of sync, or any one channel.

I am currently watching "The Fifth Element" after REMOVING the inline amp from my configuration. The results are much better so far, but I have only watched about 10 minutes of it.

The pixelation has not been seen but there were one or two very brief "stutters" in the video. However, everything recovered without any intervention.

For my next experiment, I will record "Hard Eight" from HDNet.

Last try, I have a folder containing the CDIMAGE.gi and the Patch file saved in zip, I unziped the patch file and double clicked the UPD3B_GI.EXE file and I get the message original version 0.8B2 to 0.8B3 procees started.

Original 0.8B2 image not verified.


I was told to burn the CDIMAGE.GI to CD, which I did and the CD contained software version 8.2

I think I need to wait for the CD from 169time.


Lon

Re-do your CDIMAGE.gi file by overwriting it using stomp with your original CD in the drive. Then try again. Sounds like your image file is bad. Also make sure the image file is in the same directory as the patch files.

Someone had mentioned no sound on standard DTV channels. Thats because they are MPEG audio and not DD. I have gotten sound from 501 (hbo) when a movie with DD is on. If your receiver decodes MPEG audio then maybe it will play back via toslink.

Lon, dont give up. I spent an entire day finding my dumb mistake!!

Erase you folder and start over from scratch, and doc each step. THe only way I saw the error you talked about is if I had the wrong name. Or I believe it you have already patched it. You are doing a .gi file?

We will get you there.

Dave