LG LST-3410A Review and Discussion - Page 18

I have spoken to LGE's technical support. They said all they could do was take the report because they had not run into this problem before. I use the same path for the LST3410A, an RCA DTC100 STB and a Motorola HDD200 HD decoder. I send the signal through a Zektor HDS-4 RGBHV switcher through the RGBHV input on a DWIN Transcanner which connects to a DWIN HD700 . The lRCA and Motorola operate perfectly.

Are you certain that the overall brightness does not change when the scene has large portions of the field get brighter or darker, e.g. a bright window or light or conversely, a dark wall or room? This only happens through that VGA connector. Everything is perfect through the S connection but then of course it is not in HD.

I don't notice what you are seeing. I do use an Extron AV4 RGBHV switcher. Have you switched ports on your switcher and the cable to the 3410?

SR,

I have been doing this for 40+ years. Yes I switched cables and followed simple procedures for checking cables and devices. I am concerned about the sync voltages. I know the DWIN likes +/-.75V. I'm not sure what the 1080i puts out at 1080i. If you know, please let me know.

BenSanford, I have that same question into LG customer service. I've actually called twice since I have yet to receive an answer. I suspect this was an unexpected feature.

The difference from your situation is that I'm OTA only and use one of the AV inputs for satellite. There seems to be no way to do timer recordings off this input.

Please call LG at 1-800-942-3786 and ask for a solution to this problem. The more inquiries concerning the lack of this function working, the quicker (in theory) they will respond. Just tell them what you are trying to do and what the 3410a does in response.

Does anyone know if the design of the 3410 allows for user firmware upgrades in the field, and, whether LG-Zenith has a prior history of updating any of their STB's this way?

No they don't.

Lovely.

Even Samsung has done this when necessary.

Historically, LG has performed all updates themselves. They don't tend to give customers access to the Serial Port.

KornerKlub

Oh well, that's good.

At least they do have some policy/history of upgrading firmware/software when necessary and possible to cure problems or enhance functionality.

I have another question on skipping commercials. Is anyone using a universal remote with the 3410A? Is it possible to setup macros to emulate a 30 second skip? Seems like you could program a button on a universal remote which simulates holding down the x5 or x20 button down for a certain amount of time which fast forwards for 30 seconds. Anyone try this?

John

Anyone know if 3410As are on shipment hold? I know a few people have reported problems with 3410s, but I've been on the list with my local dealer to get one and everytime I call it's like next week the delivery is due. But the problem is this has been going on for about a month now, so it makes me think LG isn't actually shipping any new stuff out the door?

John

On March 17, 2004 I asked LGE for a refund. The lady said it would take a week before I heard from them with a decision because three levels of management have to agree for a refund. I really love this PVR but can not watch it at 1080i because of the brightness variability issue. They had offered to send me another unit to try over a week ago and never sent it. When i called to find out why it had not arrived, the lady said they had no units to send out and if i wanted to start the refund process she would. Sounds to me like there's a problem with these. I've had one burn up and have the brightness anomaly, the other works but has the brightness problem. Both had lousy response to the remote control inputs. The tuner is great and the PVR records flawlessly. Now if they could get it to deliver the picture properly and engineer the remote to be more forgiving, they would have a superb unit. Too late for me.

I have the SONY AV-3000 remote and yes I have it set up to skip, but I do not use the x5 x20...ect I have it using the drag+ which will skip faster over the un wanted video parts. Works very nice either way I have one for x5,x20,x50,x300 that will move a set amount of time. and one that use the Drag+ (hit it fast and do not hold it down). You should work with the Drag+ on the LG remote it dose work ok for skipping. I use it amybe 3-4 times then I use the contact- bottum to get back to the start of the program.

Well, my 3410A lost all Guide data again (2nd time) overnight. I noticed something was wrong when the green "Reserved" light was not lit on the front panel. Sure enough, the recording schedule was gone.

This had nothing to do with the position of the indoor antennas, since the Guide had already begun to renew itself. Days 1,2,3 and 8 data were present.

At one point, when exiting the Guide, the entire TV screen turned yellow except for the live picture in the upper left corner. All controls were frozen. Unplugging the unit and restarting brought it back to normal.

Ah, to be on the bleeding edge!

That's very similar to the problem I had with my 1st one. It would just freeze up, every few hours, etc. I've had a replacement for about a week and so far it hasn't shown this same problem.

For those who have owned both the LG 3410 and the Samsung T165, how would you compare just the OTA & DVHS-1394 Picture Quality of the two, particularly over DVI?

The LG is much better over DVI or component.

umr

What display do you have your 3410 running through?

One of my VCRs has a 30 second skip button. Very handy. If you know a commercial break will be 2 minutes, you just tap the button 4 times and it stops FF after 2 minutes.

A question about the 3410A - I heard you can't record one program while watching another. I assumed this meant I couldn't timeshift. Someone tells me that's not true, that you CAN timeshift with the 3410A. Is that true, and if so, how? i.e. can I watch the first part of a program I'm in the middle of recording and still record the conclusion?

And what is the best way of skipping commercials with this thing?

At first glance I thought the HD DirecTivo was the way to go - until I saw that you have to subscribe to DirecTV before they will sell you one. I have no current intention to subscribe to anything.

A Sony KF-50XBR800.

I have both the 3410a and t165 connected to a 503cmx with a303 card.

I can't tell any difference in PQ via dvi. However, I can see the towers from my house. PQ is outstanding on both.

good luck

Lew

re D-vhs: I have the 3410a and t165 both connected to a Mits 2000 d-vhs.
The 3410a recognizes both machines are connected but will only operate the d-vhs if the 165 is turned ON. I can therefore record from 165 to Mits and then play back through the 3410a. The playback through the 3410a is very smooth and easy, not like the grief of playback through the 165.

ymmv

You CANNOT record one program while watching another program.

But you can timeshift a currently recording program, and move back to the start of the recording or move forward to any part of the record part.

YES you can timeshift a show being recorded.

and "can I watch the first part of a program I'm in the middle of recording and still record the conclusion?" is YES, but you must have used the timeshift to start the recording, You cannot view a show that is being record with a preset record program, until it has finished recording.

"And what is the best way of skipping commercials with this thing?"
I like hit the Drag+ button to move over commercials, I do not like the Skip+ because you need to hit the bttom many times to skip, because the skip is based on screen change contanct.

Lew

I just received a 3410 and on first viewing it seemed the PQ of the Samsung might actually be better. I need to A/B them this weekend.

I ma surprised to hear the the 3410 allowed two components to be connected simultaneously, much less, required them both to be powered before providing picture and sound.

The 3410 would not allow playback with a daisy chain of the 169Time AVX-1/HDVR connected to the JVC30K.

Once I removed the 169Time components playback was fine.

What was so bad about the DVHS implementation in the T165 that works better in the 3410?

In DC tonight my 3410 recorded 3 hours of a cruisline still picture promo with the regular program audio in the background. It was set to record the ABC WJLA-TV Fri night Digital programming. Luckily I also ran my analog VCR and captured the programs that way.

Mine records everything flawlessly in Houston .

I only have a rooftop UHF/DTV antenna connected to the 3410, and, setup TVGuide accordingly.

I scanned edited and accepted my eight or so local networks, PBS and major locals.

I left if ff overnight and recieved no EPG data.

What might I be missing?

mkerdman:

Playback of mits 2000 through the t165 is very cumbersome if you use the 165's firewire controls. ( This does work great if all you are doing is letting the tape run to the end uninterupted. Trying to skip over commercials requires an abundance of correct button pushes.) If you try to use the mits' controls directly you end up with multiple "no signal" signs on the screen that are all but impossible to quickly remove. This results in negative numbers on the WAF.

With the 3410a otoh once the d-vhs is powered up via the1394 all controls (play, ff , rw ,stop ) ar controlled by one push on the 3410a remote.

Daisy chain- I have the 3410a connected to the mits 2000 and the t165 connected to the mits 2000. When entering the 1394 button my screen shows a choice of the mits or the samsung 165. If I choose 165 it displays "not supported" or something similiar. If I choose mits the 3410a will only control the mits if the 165 is turned on or has it's firewire removed from the back if the mits. Kind of weird but not that difficult to work with.

No OTA guide- been there done exactly as you have with the same results. You will need to put back the "right" analog channel onto the guide, the analog channel that is carrying the guide info. I have no idea which one it is so I put back all the majors. The analog channels show up in the front of the guide so I just renumbered them 2-1 6-1 etc and then renumbered the second set of majors 2-0 6-0 etc.

With the 3410 off my guide actually started filling in in the afternoon. go figure.

Lew

hello... by using a semi-redundant hdr230 one might watch one program while recording another with the 3410A . does anyone know if the remote control codes overlap between the hdr230 and 3410A ? i'm hoping & thinking local adelphia DTV is in-the-clear and not HRC or anything similarly nonstandard. by the way i hear that in Korean mountain cave a shroud was discovered that has the dim outline of an LST-3410A.

I currently have the LG LST 3410 and Samsung SIR-T165 both hooked up by DVI to an Infocus SP 1280X720P DLP projector on a large screen through a Gefen 4X1 switch.

As such, I am able to A/B the two STB's, and, the 3410 comes up soft with both poorer black levels and color saturation.

I tried 1080i and 720P OTA material switching the T165 so both STB's were at the same output resolution for each resolution.

I also tried a D-Theater tape of Alien with the same results.

It would take considerable tweaking of the SP 7200 saved to a custom memory to bring the 3410 PQ into line.

I am bummed because I wanted to like the 3410 more simply because of the native output mode and the DVR Time Shift feature.

mkerdman,

These two STB's do not output the same signal levels. They need to be calibrated differently. I find the T165 to be off compared to the 3410. The T165 required SM adjustments on my set to even be usable over DVI. The 3410 levels appear to be much more normal. I see no difference in resolution using a 720p version of DVE between the two. The LG does a much better job converting 480p/i broadcasts to 1080i or 720p. The T165 did a poor job with this.