The Official R5000-HD Technical Status Discussion

R,
The link doesn't work. I think you need to remove the last period.

Also, Do these buffer stats numbers appear to indicate normal operation?


[Recording stream for 1 hour, 15 min]:

<1ms= 2470
2-10 ms= 0
10-20 ms= 77
>20 ms= 72190

Also, this morning I set OTR for one hour, but it continued for one and a half hours and kept going.

dcarl

Which satellite provider do you use and what model STB did you have modified?

Directv, RCA DTC-100.

Has anyone received a Dish 6000 unit with the new R5000-HD modification?

I've received a 6000 with R5000-HD modification. Right now my PC is out of the rack for upgrades so the USB cable won't reach to the 6000. I'll post when I've tried it.

Mark

The laptop I've been using with the R5000 recorder has been fairly good.
What a PITA it is use this laptop all the time, then reconnect the USB drive to the 1 Ghz HTPC for playback to the projector...

SO I just ordered a new HTPC with all the trimmings. I'll post back after it arrives and is up and running with the R5000 recorder installed in it.
I'm pretty sure the R5000 will work perfectly with it.

I'll also end up with something around 720 gigs of storage space too.
Can't wait.

[I'll bet some of you guys have much more than even that]

Yes.
My VIA C3 1200 MHZ 512 MB may not be enough CPU power.
Getting empty recordings and and a much worse < 1ms buffer count than dcarl's.
Will try tweaks; if no go, new motherboard.

Problem with VIA C3 was not solved.
It was a VIA C3 1.2 GHz, 64 MB L2, in a VIA MII12000, 512 MB PC2100 RAM.
It's now a Intel Pentium M, 1.7 GHz, 1 MB L2, 512 MB PC2100 RAM and works well.
Problem was probably due to low L2 cache size (a Pentium 3 is 256 KB or 512 KB) but
may be due to BIOS, chip set hardware/software, or IRQ overloading.
Noticed high page fault rate.

I got my new Dell Pc yesterday and loaded it with a new Myhd card and the R5000 program.

Everything is almost perfect now. [I suspect the USB2 adapter was buggy in the laptop I was using].

Anyway,
-Buffer stats are much better.
-No lost data.
-MyHD is handling the files much easier/better than the Hipix.

BUT, the OTR record is still weird, it counts down to the specified 60 minutes, then starts over, counting down from 71,581.

I like the fact the DTC-100 can output to a composite video and to the USB2 output simultaneously.

How does one implement hibernate and wake with this system [and XP Pro]? Zap2it?

I have the R5000-HD mod on a Dish 6000. Since I have a fairly noisy PC in my bedroom, I'd like to be able to put the system in Hibernate or Standby mode. But, the system doesn't awaken to do the recording. Are we missing something?

Also, the remote control app keeps telling me IR codes need to be recorded, and the "Remote Address" is grayed out and stuck on "1." My 6000 is on "7." Does this matter? Should I change the remote to 1? The grayed out drop down box seems to indicate I should be able to change the address from within the app. Is this not implemented yet?

Another question. In the main R5000-HD window, under "IR Control," there are two radio buttons, "REC" and "STOP." The "Enable" button is grayed out and "Waiting for Code..." is in the box at the bottom. What is this section for? As I write, the VCR timer function that I set in the 6000 failed to trigger. Is this because I don't have the code set properly?

I appreciate the simplicity of this device and the interface, but there needs to be thorough documentation with it. There are those of us out here who would be happy to assist with this.

R5000,

Why oh why did you use the crappy mini USB connector on the Dish 6000 upgrade? The pins on this connector are so small they are almost guaranteed to break with repeated insertions (like the small firewire connectors do). The hole you cut in the back of the 6000 could have easily accomodated a type B USB connector.

I haven't opened up the box to see if there is an obvious reason to use the mini connector over the type B one.

Mark

After all the interest prior to this product becoming available, there appears to be very little feedback and discussion here either pro or con.

Is the product actually shipping?

If it is, how well does it work?

Is there a recomendation for which DirecTV receiver to get these days? Is one of the preferrable over the others?

It is shipping and it works well with Dish 6000.
The only intermittent problem I have is apes ring buffer overflows, and this is mostly on Showtime-HD.
This problem is in work by Nextcom.
--
Dish 6000, Pentium-M 1.7 GHz, 512M, MyHD 120, WinXP SP2.

Probably answered in R5000-HD's 10-07-04 08:33 PM reply to PeterS in thread "Alert: New HD recording option information!".

It is shipping, I have received. I actually got my DTC-100 back a week ago, but due to business/personal stuff going on, I have not had the opportunity to install. May not get the chance until early next week, frankly.

I apologize for that. I feel some responsibility to others to get this think up and running and report on it - not to mention the fact that I want to start using it!

After a few false starts, my DTC-100 mod is working nicely now.
I had issues mostly non-related to the unit or program. I had serious problems using Hipix, then my file playback was really buggy using MyHD, until I rolled back one of their software updates. Everything seems okay right now...

One thing I don't understand is why the IR capture warning prompt couldn't have been disabled if the user decides that it's not going to be needed. Few (online) users would ever use the STB initiated recordings once they see how perfectly the Zap2it method works, no?

Ralph

Still, after 552 Posts and 49215 Page Views in the "Note:Alert: New HD recording option information!" thread, it's hard to understand why there have only been 22 posts here and about half of those are from the company itelf and not from end users.

Is everyone else who owns one of these under an NDA or what?

I don't have one, but if everything just works, what is there to post about?

- Mike

I sent in an E8 that arrived on Tuesday. When I get it back (no idea how long it takes), I'll post an in-depth review. I was on the fence for quite some time due to the lack of reviews from existing users. Hopefully, it will be ~1K well spent.

Will be using MyHD (w/DVI daughtercard) on a variety of LCD displays (until I make a decision on a projector). Not using other software for software .ts playback, but that may change.

Mark

Mike

That's a very optimistic outlook.

Ok, I'll bite. This thing rocks! I have had mine for a month now and I love it!

A bit of history.. I have had a 169time DTC100 AVX-1 JVC30K for over a year and have built up a pretty large collection of DVHS tapes, but have always struggled with that system, and when I started archiving to hard disks instead of DVHS tapes had to find another solution. I was only able to get one out of about 10 recordings transferred to the PC (DVHStool) to play in other decoders. I am using Rokus to play back the .ts files from my video server. The Rokus flake out often on some of the 169time stuff.

The HD-5000 is a gift from above. The interface, while it lacks sparkle, is fairly simple and enables recording in one panel. The PVR is another application/panel and interfaces seamlessly with zap2it. I have two weeks of shows lined up to record. You just go the zap2it url and browse the schedule. Click on the "rec" button of the show you want and it messages the PVR to schedule it. Then you just forget about it... assuming you have enough disk space. There is a 28 show limit to the PVR.. which is lame. I see no technical reason there should be a limit there. I'm sure it will get fixed soon. Also a warning in the interface if you run out of disk space while recording is needed.

Once the .ts file is recorded to disk I use HDTVtoMPEG2 trim it down and splice it into one minute chunks for playback on the Roku. These files are more reliable when played back on the Roku than the 169time versions. It might be nice if the HD-5000 would let you record in chunks, but then I always end up editing the file to get the start and end points correct so that doesn't really matter to me. In fact, it is better to have one file to load into HDTVtoMPEG2.

I use the HD-5000 on my Dell XPS 3.4G Laptop and it runs in the background. I pretty much forget about it while dabbling in Photoshop and assorted other "heavy" applications. Haven't noticed any performance problems with this setup. Occasionally, some kind of glitch causes the shows to be recorded in two files. It is nice that the HD-5000 corrects itself and continues to record to a new file.

It would be nice if the two applications could be rolled into one. Maybe a tab for the DVR and a tab for the PVR schedule. And they need better looking icons... If I were an UI designer I would design some new ones and send them off to nextcom. Hey.. wait! I am a UI designer.. dough! I'll get on that right away...

This is almost a perfect solution. I only wish Roku would get their act together.. their interface gets my vote as "worlds worst digital media player". Their only saving grace is that they are cheap and somewhat open-source and third parties have produced some promising applications. One is almost better off to throw a MyHD in a cheap PC shell and use that. It just costs quite a bit more than a Roku.

The HD-5000 is well worth it and anyone who doesn't think so is welcome to buy my 169time setup that is gathering dust in a box in the garage. I'll let it go cheap. I feel guilty selling that thing to anyone knowing the HD-5000 is out there.

Keith

Keith

Which step top box and satellite service do you have working with the R5000?