LG LST-3410A Review and Discussion - Page 14

I'm on my second unit and this one still has the brightness level shift issue through the RGBHV output. It runs very warm. Also, the remote sensor has a very narrow field of view on this unit. I am sending the original unit to LGE as agreed. I have asked the dealer for a return on the replacement unit. There is a problem and it will not work correctly through the RGBHV output. I called LGE's tech support as instructed by LGE's cusstomer service. The fellow who answered told me they had never heard of such a problem and that they could not do anything for me. At this point, all i want is my money back. I am hoping Value Electronics will act reputably. I'll report back here.

Thanks

Automatic power off after scheduled recording will be done when the following conditions meet
- the unit power on for scheduled recording
- no key input during power on

If you press any keys when recording, the unit will not power off after scheduled recording.

Thank you! I noticed my unit sometimes would not shut down after a timer record. Since it's so new, I've been fiddling a lot. During timer recordings I will sometimes check signal strength.

You've just saved me some time testing for this.

The 3410A has fortunately been performing very well for me. It seems that a couple of people here have received lemons and I hope that LG will stand by their product.

The only other complaints seem to be from those folks who wanted/expected TiVo type operation. Since TiVo functions were not intended, this is not a defect of the unit. It would appear that the 3410A is proving to be generally reliable, or we'd be hearing a whole lot more complaints.

My lst-3410a is performing well except for these issues:

1) the enclosure can occasionally vibrate or buzz. I just need to remove the cover and tweak the hard-drive mounting.

2) The DVI output can go blank. The audio still works. The first time it happened I had to unplug the unit to restore video. The second time a warm start restored video output.

I have a few more weeks to return to BB. Will call LG tech support in a couple days. Don't know if it's a HW or SW problem.

thkim,

Thanks for the help.

joe

1) Make sure your shelf is level and all four feet of the 3410A are firmly planted.

2) I switched to DVI last week and have not experienced your problem.

Colors via DVI are slightly different than through component. Just different, not better or worse. I'm not sure which I like better.

1) It's on a glass shelf so the feet are level. It seems to be getting quieter. So, I'll keep an eye on it.

2) I have several DTV channels with sub channels. The first time the dvi output went blank was on initial power-up in the morning. Cold start (un-plug power) was required to fix. The second time was when I tuned to ktwb-dt subchannel 2. Warm start (remote control power-cycle) fixed it this time.

I have a 42"Sony GWIII RP LCD monitor.

Are you connecting directly to a display with a "VGA" cable or are you using a "VGA to RGBHV" adaptor cable? I have the 3410 connected using a "VGA" cable directly to a Fujitsu plasma and have not seen a brightness level shift.

It does run warmer than the LG LST-3100A that I had (There is a hard drive in there generating some heat.), but not as warm as the SAMSUNG SIR-T165.

I also found that the remote had to be "aimed" directly at the 3410. This problem went away when I programmed my MX-700 to control the 3410 and used the MX-700 instead of the 3410's remote.

I use a 15Pin VGA to 5 BNC cable. I have my DTC100 hooked up this way and an HDD200 with RGBHV using 5 video cables. These two work perfectly.

It does appear to be the remote. Pretty sad that they can not even get the remote right. I would like to hear from someone connecting this unit to a DWIN HD700 or any multisync Data grade CRT monitor.

Interesting. I also have the MX-700 and expected the results you got. But I found no substantial improvement, i.e. the 3410A is far less sensitive to remote commands than any other equipment I have. The MX-700's powerful signal improved operation of everything but the 3410A. I have a small table in the way, which does not bother anything but the LG box.

Did you use the .ccf file posted on remotecentral.com (as I did) or did you have the MX-700 learn commands from the LG remote?

There is some info at

http://www.vcrplus.com

There is a FAQ that answers a few useful questions and there is a forum that may answer more. I've not tried the forum yet.

Originally posted by PhillyC


I used both since some of the commands in the .ccf file did not work for me.

I do agree that the 3410 is less sensitive to remote commands than other equipment, but the MX-700 is a noticeable improvement over the original remote.

The 3410 is MUCH better with my Pronto than my T165 was.

Can anyone compare the abilities and limitations of the FireWire implementation of the Samsung SIR-T165 and the LG LST-3410A when used with D-VHS decks only?

Also, is there a hard limitation on the 3410A where only a single D-VHS deck may be connected by FireWire, and, no other devices, not including an HDTV, can be in the "daisy chain" at all?

Lastly, has anyone viewed a D-Theater D-VHS tape over the DVI outputs of a 3410A?

Thanks. Agreed. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing anything.

The 3410A cannot control the D-VHS for timer recording. You can manually dump previously recorded material to and from each. Or manually record a "live" program to D-VHS.

I thought there might be a way to set a "favorite" on the 3410A and separately set the D-VHS to timer record from the firewire input, but this is not allowed (at least on the Mits 2000).

You cannot connect two of the SAME 1394 devices to the 3410A or daisy chain devices. Get the .pdf manual from the LGE site for details.

The 3410A and the T165 are built for completely different purposes. The 3410A is self-contained and can archive to D-VHS.

PhillyC

Sounds like you had/have a T165 yourself.

If so, have you viewed D-Theater tapes over the T65, or, is the Mits your only D-VHS device?

Your post infers you can hook up several similar and/or dissimilar 1394 devices to the T165 with good results- is that correct?

I am particulalry interested if the 3410A supports glitch free ayback of 169Time/JVC 30K made tapes, but, no one sems to have that combo and a 3410A too.

mkerdman,

I have two Mits 2000's , but no D-Theater machine. They were both connected to the T165 and worked OK. Of course, the T165 interface is terrible and he OTA tuner is way behind the 3410A performance. A/V dropouts were always a problem. On at least two OTA channels, there would be more droputs on tape playback than the same broadcast watched live.

You should know that I am confined to indoor antennas for OTA.

The 3410A has solved all of the above problems for me and doubled the number of OTA channels received.

If you insist on timer recording to tape, you need the T165, but I don't know why you would want to do this. You can use the 3410A and then archive to tape.

Can't address your D-Theater/JVC questions.

PhillyC

Does your 3410 control both of your Mits 2000's, or, only 1 at a time?

Are you using the DVI output, and if so, is it clean and artifact/error free?

I am clear after reading the 3410 and T165 manuals that neither can control a D-VHS timed recording of sources, such as other iLink inputs to the D-VHS deck, other than those channels tuned by the respective boxes.

I tested the LST-3410A with D-Theater enabled D-VHS, for example JVC 3000U and 40000U.
It works (40000U is not included compatible device, but basic play operation is no problem), but you cannot copy D-VHS contents to HDD inside LST-3410A.
LST-3410A supports 5C copy protection.

thkim

Were you able to support both decks, the JVC 30K and 40K, attached to the 3410 at the same time and select between them?

Someone wrote earlier that you could not have two of any one device, such as (2) JVC 30K's, connected to the 3410 at the same time.

I am still hoping to find someone with the 3410 and 169Time/30K to confirm that those tapes will play properly on the 3410.

1) One at a time. You can connect only one D-VHS.

2) 1394 > DVI playback looks great (as does component).

Is there much of a discernible difference between DVI and component?

You cannot copy D-Theater tapes, but you can copy OTA recordings. I just transfered Alias from D-VHS to the LST-3410A.

PhillyC


The 3410 manual states that there can be a list of 1394 devices to select from, so, how there only be the ability to connect one D-VHS device?

Seperately, it would seem you could have two D-VHS decks connected to the 3410 and only one of the two powered up.

fp4me,

My 3410 exhibits the same problems. I would occasionally like to record from cable or watch non-OTA channels through the 3410. However, it behaves much better if I tell it I do not have cable. When I DO set it up for cable, I have to use option 7 for cable systems, "no match found", then remap all channels. Then, when I turn it off, it downloads a new cable guide, which causes me to have to remap the channels AGAIN!

For now, I'm just manually programming and getting good results.

Jim

Phil,
I didn't expect TiVo type operation and carefully researched what I thought this unit would do. Unfortunately the implementation and my experience has been less than ideal. I'm having a lock-up issue where I often have to unplug to get back to normal operations. I'm exchanging the unit and hopefully that is just a defect.

However, I had also expected to be able to use both the OTA tuner and the Cable tuner inputs (for the unscrambled signals). Unfortunately the unit has been set up to allow Cable - OR - OTA, but not for BOTH in a fully functional mode. My cable signal video quality is not as good at the local OTA signal. Therefore I would prefer to receive these OTA, and get other stuff off cable. Can more or less do this with the OTA stations that are HD, but if I tell the system I have Cable it disables the SD OTA tuner input, and defaults to only using the cable tuner input for SD. If I tell it I don't have cable then the cable input (and no guide) is useless.

Another problem - last night I had to unplug to get it back working. When It came back up, I wanted to instantly record something off the AV1 input that my cable box feeds into. It wouldn't let me do that, because the time wasn't set. It wouldn't let me set the time because it wanted to get the time from the guide, or it wanted me to delete a program previously scheduled to record. I couldn't get the guide to come up to delete anything scheduled, so finally unplugged the cables from my cable box and connected them into my old VCR!

Very frustrating - I really want this unit to work. Tuner is good, Guide if fine, operating like a VCR is fine with me, but the shortcomings are a pain. I'm hoping the exchanged unit I'm expecting won't have the lock-up problems I'm currently experiencing.

Unfortunately, I don't think I would recommend this unit.

I quickly read the FAQ at the VCRPLUS.COM site, and I think that this what is described as a 'cannot have both a cable box and OTA' limitation of the 3410A is in fact a limitation of VCR+. The VCR+ site does not exactly say it in those words, but I got the impression that you cannot setup Gemstar to download Guide data for both.

This is explained in the manual.