Greetings from the inside - Page 6  

And the same point can be made about C-band!

Since it would take so little for your boxes to support 4DTV receivers, the cost-benefit ratio is very favorable!

Please consider the tech-junkie factor as well ... home big dish owners today are generally very affluent, very high-end-system owning people!

It looks like support for Canada is not in the cards for now. Since i have a 4DTV system maybe support for it might be possible. Put my name on the 4DTV support list.

Thanks, Kevin Main

Hello Richard:

I am giving my sister my old Replay 2000 (30) hour. I have an 80 hour, I wanted to drop FireFly, two hour program to hers, I already recorded a bunch of shows she missed, can I run the hookups from the back of one to the other and do like I do for a drop to the VCR?

Thanks for any help!

Just in case my Email address is CurtTX53@aol.com

Take care, Curt

Thanks for the support. I'd like to think we're burning through the small dish mindset that likley caused the first No-Support call on the Replay. There are a lot of good points in this thread about C-band and yours adds to the mix. We do buy new equipment, and aren't afraid to buy more (The DVRBB for RTV/Tivo is an example). Everyone who has bought a GI/Motorola 920/922 digital 4DTV did so AFTER the market potential of the small dish was clear. More then a few of the 4DTV owners sampled the small dishes and went back to the Big dish, including upgrading to the 4DTV for the quality and availability of channels etc.

Again Richard, we're not asking for a huge programming change on SB's part. Just continue the serial out support already written for the DTV protocol and allow the selection of the 4DTV/C-Band program listings that are available from your regular listings provider. Number them as you want, internal TNS numbers are fine, we'll do the rest. You don't have to figure out the Sat/Transponder issues. That's done, finished, ready to go. We're just asking not to have our listings held hostage.

From a marketing point of view, the first PVR vendor to support this effort will get a lot of Internet and trade press. You really want Tivo to get that for what is a very small effort on SB's part?

There's hope, Not yet but coming. I'm making a device that will interface between 4DTV and a DVR. A proto type built to work out hardware & software debuging. This will be offered for 4DTV users soon. Canada user's a guide for your channels could be made so this would work with 921 also.

Merry Christmas :-)


www.DVRBlackBOX.com

Cliff,

Great point. Do they want to see this in the news if TiVo picked up the BALL.

Hello SonicRichard.

franc11s wrote:
Internet sharing over the internet is very plausible for many people even at 128/256kbs.
Background transfers (recoverable from failures, even if it takes 3 days) is worth while if the show is good.

Yes, I use the Post Office for that same three day thing!
Regards,
Warren

Richard: I'm having a problem with washed-out colors on the S-video inputs of each of two new 5160s. I've described the problems in this thread.

I would be grateful if you could run this by Engineering. I'd like to know if anyone else is aware of the problem, and whether any fix for it is likely.

for those of you following along... i "finally" got my 5080. remember how i said i'd gotten a tracking number? yeah, and how it hasn't changed from "Billing Information Received"? well, turns out that was the wrong tracking number and the wrong number is still listed on the site.

apparently, after my call on the 18th, they sent my unit out 2nd day air. and the UPS guy tried to deliver it on the 20th. we weren't home. they didn't leave the box or a note.

it arrived today. the 23rd.

yay. (c'mon, you know what i mean)

ooh, and it has an "L2CA" serial number instead of a "K2CA". :rolleyes:

I've often had those sorts of problems with UPS.

Order something on day 1
On day 2, UPS leaves a note that says "This is our second attempt."
Late on day 2/early on Day 3, try to pick the package up, and they tell me they tried to deliver three times, and returned it to the sender. And those are the times when they bother leaving any note.

My bad experiences with UPS are legion.

Hmm I usually have had good experiences with UPS. The one that pulled that stunt with me was Airbourne Express.

I guess it all depends on how lazy and lame the driver is.

Heh and he hasn't been back since... that Vice City must be one HELL of a game :)

Yeah! I'm still waiting. :-)

Any "known" differences between the two?

-haich

Recently had bad experiences w/ my local UPS, but I don't want to piss them off since I depend on them to ship most of my purchases :(

Worst was when I shipped an Archos Jukebox Multimedia for a friend's belated wedding gift. I'd forgotten to bring it to the wedding (I'm a bad best man!), and they'd left straight for honeymoon afterwards. So I shipped it to his Dallas residence (from Houston) soon after so he'd get it after he came back.

I'm an anal package wrapper. I double boxed the gift and taped all sides/corners. And I always fully tape over the shipping label surface area so it wouldn't get messed up by rain, etc.

Well for some reason UPS misrouted it out of state all the way to MA. To make a long story short, rather than sending the package to Dallas in 1 day like they're supposed to, it took them 15 days to send the package back to *me* the shipper. And this only after numerous calls to the various local offices and transit centers to try to track it down (they lost touch with it throughout most of transit).

So I get the box back, it's half flattened, and I see the reason for the misrouting. Part of the shipping label was ripped off, it looked like someone had taken an exacto knife and sliced that portion off, right through the tape covering. Wisely I decided to check the Archos Jukebox.. it wouldn't turn on. By this time I was really late with the gift so I went ahead bought another one from CompUSA for $400 (I'd bought the first for $360 online). Luckily the second package made it to Dallas just fine.

Now the headache continues. I first tried to get UPS damage claim inspection, but it was confusing. The 800-PICK-UPS support rep and the local office kept saying different things and both claim the other is wrong/stupid. I went w/ the local guys who said they have to schedule a pick up to bring the package back to their local office. So a UPS guy picked it up, and a couple of days later he brought it back just like that. Nothing was done, apparently there was some miscommunication or slip up or whatever (but the driver guy didn't know anything about the case). So I brought it in myself to the local center and talked to one of the guys supposedly in charge of inspection. Man, he was rude and antagonistic right off the bat, it's like dealing w/ your auto insurance carrier after an accident. Bottom line he said some stuff about how things can't be proven and *really* pushed that I take care of this with whoever I bought it from, and even the manufacturer as a last resort

So I.. uh, checked in w/ the local CompUSA since that would've been the most convenient :D. But no go, the CompUSA Archos purchase receipt shows the specific unit's serial number, so they would know the one I'm returning isn't the same unit. (Incidentally, I found out CompUSA now charges mandatory 15% restocking for non-defective returns?). So I finally returned the broken Jukebox to the online vendor, paid my own return shipping.

Anyways, later I was in a huff about this whole thing and wanted to put in a complaint to UPS -- I mean they never even refunded me the original shipping fee for the transit that went roundtrip via MA back to me! So I called 800-PICK-UPS again, but the phone rep said he couldn't find a case/claim number about this at all. Turns out when I verbally dealt w/ that guy at the local UPS center, he handled the whole thing informally and never filed any paperwork about the claim. So I called up the local guy again as asked for filing. Finally got the paperwork in the mail awhile later, but by then my righteous anger had dissipated, so the tale thus endeth.

A few days later, I was expecting an RTV4516 from Amazon. Got home, saw that the driver had left a smaller package by the door (different purchase), but there was a note saying he didn't leave the RTV. So off I go to that local center and waited in the long line. After checking, the counter girl couldn't find the Amazon package at all and then kept insisting the smaller package is the only package I was supposed to get. I showed her how the note says package from Amazon while the smaller package is from another company, and had a separate tracking number to boot. Then she checked w/ backroom manager some more, and concluded that they can't find it for some reason.

But I eventually got that RTV, so I'm happy ;)

P.S. I had anoher friend shoot some wedding footage w/ my miniDV camcorder. Then I captured the tape footage to my old RTV, then DVArchived it to my PC. Then I copied select video segments to the Archos Jukebox MM (as well as all the digicam pics). Also copied over some video player apps w/ the appropriate codecs to play these RTV video files. But I filled most of the Jukebox's paltry 20GB w/ MP3's :D

Actually now that I think about it, that doesn't make much sense. If the package was damaged so that the destination label couldn't be fully read (which was the case), why didn't UPS notify me and return to sender ASAP? Instead they lost track of it during a 15-day interstate roundtrip... If I was a stark raving paranoid I would say someone's out to get me :)

And talking about this past incident is getting me riled up some all over again. That UPS inspection guy, claiming he can't be sure if the shipping label on the package was already in that state to begin with. I mean, even if I was lunatic enough to do that, the UPS rep at the counter would've spotted it when I tried to ship the package (in fact she'd read the address off the label to enter into the computer, and she was the one who told me Houston-Dallas would only take 1 day guaranteed).

Oh well, it's lost money, time, and effort... It's weird tho, I would've expected UPS to have firmly established procedures to handle such incidents...

Sorry to hear about your problems... I've had pretty good service with UPS.

I just thought of an idea.... when I print the shipping lables from UPS.COM, maybe I should print out 2 and put them both on the box.
They have the same tracking number, so I don't think it will cause a problem.

(here's a tip, if you have a UPS.COM account, go to supplies and you can get a free package of full page labels (actually split in half) to use for shipping. Much easier than covering it with tape or dealing with those clean envelopes.

Robert

Does anyone know if "Richard" was the real deal? Seems awful fishy he disappeared and haven't been heard from since...

He was the real deal. Maybe the "Guaranteed/Non-Guaranteed concept is lazy" statement got him in a little trouble though... :)

I'm just assuming that once he found out how many bugs there were, and how the "engineering staff" thinks that scheduled reboots is a way to fix a problem, he realized just how much work is on his plate.

I don't envy that position.

Maybe the reason you haven't seen RB here, is that all of Sonic Blue is on vacation from 12/20 till 1/2/03.

Happy Holidays -- ALL!! :)

Wow, long vacation--is it a paid vacation, or one of those unpaid, forced vacations to save money?

-Brian

Hello,

SonicRichard,

Above all

Merry Christmas :)


BTW Any other thoughts on 4DTV ???

6 months ago, sent a case of baseball cards to MA in the factory sealed box via UPS. Recipient received them in a generic container with packs strewn. Imagine the e-mail I got from this guy who bid on a factory sealed case. I fought with ups for weeks to cover the cost. They told me they delivered the box as picked up. Finally had to show them the e-bay picture and kick and scream......they insisted the box wasn't strong enough for the weight...even though Topps sends all their cases out in those boxes with ups.....bottom line, I had to eat $165......my ass still burns when I see brown.

In my years of dealing with UPS, I have learned 3 things:

1. If you want it there overnight, ship it FedEx. If you want it there in 2 days, ship it FedEx.

2. If you want customer service, ship it FedEx. UPS CS operators are trained to NEVER escalate a call. The one time I _did_ get a call escalated, the supervisor was more interested in punishing the operator than in assisting me.

If you step out during the 5 minutes that UPS attempts to deliver (and trust me, they are around the corner waiting for you to leave), you are SOL. They won't help in any way - "You can pick it up at the depot. The depot closes at 5:30. The truck will be in the depot at 7:00. Have a nice day." FedEx will contact the driver and let you know where they are on their route so you can meet them.

3. The only way to get your insurance money out of them is with a gun. A big gun. Grenades are also useful. This also applies for shipping cost refunds due to them not delivering your packages on time, although if you ship hundreds of packages a day they are more likely to work with you.

I ship UPS only when I don't care when the package arrives, and it's not worth insuring. Otherwise, I'll use FedEx or the Postal Service. I ran a business that relied on overnight and 2nd day shipping from a company that only used UPS. I'm not exagerating when I state that UPS met their delivery promises less than 60% of the time, and I lived in a relatively large city, not in East Bohunk Nebraska. It was the most frustrating 3 years of my life.

Wow..they go on vacation the day I order my Replay. Guess that's why it still shows up as "Pending Shipping". :(

Richard,
I too have no commercial advance. I was told it had to do with my model and the software installed. 4080 with software version 520430300. This is my sixth replay unit I have had in just one year. All have been returned and replaced with another unit that has some other problem. If you can fix this you will have a "King Richard" status.

Thanks for your help.

Jon

I've been dealing with FedEx, UPS and Airborne Express for about 7 years (daily) and don't think very little of any of them. None is perfect, most are perfect 99.9% of the time. I've had problems with all three. None likes to pay insurance claims. UPS in my experience is by far the easiest on lost items, about average on damage. FedEx rarely loses things, but never wants to pay insurance when they do. AE is above average but very expensive... But my point is, I don't think UPS is any worse than FedEx. And I seriously doubt that they repackaged an item you shipped, unless your packaging fell apart and they had to.

Yep, forgot to mention my original package was insured for $500 (the package contained a $100 gift check from another person who'd also forgotten to bring it to wedding). UPS insurance fee is very cheap (compared to, say, USPS) and would seem to be a no brainer.

But in my damage claim dealing, I discovered that this apparently meant very little or nothing at all. Seriously, I always tried to mention it when talking to them in case that means anything, but the inspection guy didn't seem to care, in fact many hardly glanced at the yellow receipt copy that I kept...

Anyways, I'm still amazed at how confused the whole thing seemed, although I would imagine UPS handles hundreds (thousands) of such cases everyday given their size. As I said, first time they picked up the damaged package for inspection and later dropped it off at my door again, NOTHING was done. They admitted there was some sort of confusion and no inspection was done because they didn't know they were supposed to do that (the people at the local center) -- they didn't even open the package (which I had re-taped because the driver picking it up told me to). Even though they were the ones who sent the driver to pick it up in the first place. And in the confusion, instead of notifying me they just sent it back untouched.

Bottom line, I was lucky I could still return the Archos to the online vendor I'd bought it from (I made it just under the return deadline), otherwise I'd been out a whole lot more $$$. Admittedly though, I didn't raise as much hell as I should've -- I wanted to try all other avenues first before having to come back to UPS...

Also note that I have limited experience sending via UPS, mostly I receive :) It's not like I'm an eBay seller or anything.. I junk or give away my old stuff...