Walmart US Digital STB Questions - Page 48

This same problem happens to us in the Detroit area on 4.1 it only occures in composite mode.

If your interested I have two new units for sale. They were purchased as spares and are just sitting in the closet. They were tested and placed back in the boxes and never used. Functionally and cosmetically in perfect condition. All cables and remote included.

Sent you a pm.

2 used very little. Original boxes remotes etc. The other two were never used. Was going to give those to my grandparents but reception is not good where they live. PM if interested.

I can see that no one had any answers for my last post, that's ok, I'm not that worried about it. It would help if someone else has had this happen to one of their channels and can explain how they corrected it. I have a new question. Does anyone know if a new update will come out soon. Everytime I check the program guide it takes over three minutes to scan for program info and descriptions

Make sure that you leave the box in standby mode. It's set to update the guide while it's off, but if you unplug it or turn off the power strip it'll take forever to update the guide while you want to use it. If you leave it in standby over night this problem *should* go away, it did for me. I've heard dogleg69 mention that he programmed it to work this way.

sorry I looked through the past few pages and didn't see a post from you.

I had that problem a couple of times it helps if you set the time zone and then select system time with a channel that has fairly accurate time.....but still it takes a while for the guide to update....try different channels for system time and see if the download improves. I don't remember it taking 3mins to load.

I don't see your original post either, but I'm having the same problem. Doesn't seem like the program guide update is happening while it's suspended, nor the clock update, so everything gets fully populated in the guide the first time it's used that day. I've changed the update time from the default 2:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. to see if it perhaps creates a cron job if one isn't already present. I'll know in a couple of days whether this was successful (we don't watch much TV so the program guide data often expires between uses).

BTW, when I sync the clock manually it picks it up from PBS KQED-9 instantaneously so I'm fairly certain it's not a timeout issue.

Have you tried setting it to a different channel to perform the updates? do guide data and time have to be sent over the same stream? I'm just wondering if that really is a valid test of the updating capabilities of a particular channel.

The nightly update was to update the firmware (which does not happen since they are out of business).

Are you running 2.9.5? If so, choose a channel that has a good time stream (I personally found ABC was the best in my area). Set that station as the time station. Then go into the Timers. Set a timer for to come on at say 2:00am and go off at 2:05am on the same station as the time station.

What happens is that when it comes on, the time and the EPG may not be correct. However, when it turns off from the timer, it will request the time from the current channel and then loop through all enabled channels to update the EPG (this means tuning into each channel). You can partially test this manually if you turn the box on and see from the channel info that the time is off a few minutes or more. Note the time on the box and the actual wall clock time. Then turn off the box and wait about 30 seconds. Then turn the box back on. See if the time was updated - it should be. You can also try this if you find to stations that are broadcasting time a few minutes apart.




Also, about the EPG taking so long. It has to tune to each channel in order to pull the guide info from the PSIP stream for that channel. So, if there are stations that you don't watch (like QVC or infomerical or whatever), make sure to turn them off in the edit channel list. The EPG code will only loop over the enabled channels. You can save 10-30 seconds per channel you take out. Also, some stations PSIP information is different than others even though they all adhere to the ATSC spec. I have seen some stations that break up the information and it takes longer (much longer) to gather all the information and re-assemble it.

Thank you!!! You just solved my problem. I have 2 Hisense boxes and both of them had the freeze-up problem on channel 33.1 . I was using the S-Video connection. The reason I did that was the component connections caused my picture to have a black frame around it. Wouldn't fill the screen. Switching back to component cured my freeze-up problem.

Thank you!!!!!!

I have 2 of these boxes, and am really happy with the performance.
The system info has a software version of 2.9.2 (2.4.18.17) on hardware db2020.

I see a firmware of 2.9.5 out there, but can't track it down.
Any help finding the file?

Thanks

This thread has information in it:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1055192


It will point you toward:

http://www.mediafire.com/dogleg69

Thanks Dogleg.... got the file, copied it to a freshly formatted 32mb key, and it cycles through, similar to the way mentioned in previous posts.

Should it be formatted ext2? via linux... also, I tried to use a flash method from teh setup menu, and now only get the box searching for USDTv channels Silly me didn't write the secret sequence to undo this booting from teh second partion... I should know better.

Help... please?

Oh... and is the .gz file the only one to be on the key, or shoul dit be expanded?

OK.. I am an ID10T... just read the README in the correct folder....

So sorry for wasting time.

... me again...
After doing more searching and reading... which I should have done in the 1st place... I found your post from Apr 08...
"One thing you can try, let the box boot up and get stable. Then try the following sequence:

Red Guide
Program Info
Aspect
Program Info
1 (one)

It tells it to boot off the other NAND flash."

This worked even with the box wanting to find USDTV signal.

Thanks a ton for putting up with my ignorance.

dogleg69

since analog will decease on June 12th have you looked into the db-2010 software to see if the channel scan can be shortened - I was under the impression that there is no need to scan from channel 52 on up anymore (I may have that channel number wrong)

Just curious

smintn

One thing I have not figured out is how to set up the timer to automatically tune to a program so that I can automatically record it. Hear me out -- I understand how to set timers in release 2.95 (which is what I'm running), but my VCR requires downsampling to standard definition. I've programmed my Logitech Harmony remote to go through the magic sequence if I'm manually controlling the record process and to put it back into 1080p mode when done, but I can't do it in lights-out fashion.

The only thing I can think of to get around that is to put it in standard definition every time the digital tuner is powered down, but the rest of the family just doesn't have the patience to wait for the Harmony to complete the sequence.

buy a second tuner just for recording.

That is one that I never thought about. I don't record from the db-2010 that is on my HDTV. I record on the db-2010 hooked up to the VCR and the old TV (using composite).

I will look to see if there is a way to capture the current resolution, possibly put a res setting on the each timer (to change it to), and flip it back once the timer is done. No promises, but I will look to see how difficult that would be (or if it is even feasible to switch video modes like that).

I have no idea. Anyone know about this? Would it affect any regional stations?

dogleg69 found this link that has tv channel information history http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_A...on_frequencies

I'd hoped that it was performing other functions during that time besides firmware updates, such as time updates and guide updates. Ahwell.


Ahh. Great idea; thanks!!

Appreciated dogleg.

If all else fails, when I'm employed again and have disposable income I guess I could go the hi-def PVR route and replace the VCR. Linux MCE with MythTV is certainly tempting...

I rescaned today due to the cut over. While watching this evening, the box kept saying signal not found after a few minutes of watching. I would reboot the box and try a new station and then the same thing. I've had this box for 3+ years without problem. Been running the 2.9.5 without issue. However, after scanning, kept going to signal not found and basically locking the box up.

I noticed that the time was not correct. So I looked to see which station the system time was being set from. It was being set from the last station in the channel list -- in my case the 4th sub channel of a local independant. I switched it back to my normal ABC (which I have been using for over 2 years). No more signal not found or lockups.

So, if you are experiencing the signal not found, check to see which station is being used in the Set System Time. Changing it fixed the problem for me. BTW - I have found it best to not use PBS for the time even though you may have used them to set the old VCRs and such. Your mileage may vary.

Hi Dogleg69:

My wife told me that we lost channel 2, 5, 9, 11, 13, 28, etc. I rescanned the Hisense box and got all the channels back except for 11 (KTTV Fox in Los Angeles). I rescanned my other two tuners (Channelmaster 7000 and Zenith 900) and also could no longer find 11.

PS. I tried leaving the Hisense on 28.1 after the conversion and it still locked up after a few hours. My other two boxes (Channelmaster and Zenith) do not have any of these issues. My time is always set to retrieve from 7 KABC with no problem.

Thanks for the update and information. Something is in the KCET 28.1 signal that causes the USDTV box to blow up in the parser. I didn't think the time issue I noticed last night would help the problem you are having in LA (but one never knows).

When time permits, I'll look into the parser again. Again, thanks for information from your environment.

I would use this feature if it was available! Thanks for all your work on this dogleg69!

Hi, dogleg69,

I have been having the same problem with kcet-hd (28.1) in LA. My Hisense db-2010 says that the station is off the air with no signal. I must unplug the box to get it to unlock. This problem always occurs when the broadcast program changes, never in the middle of a program. Hope this add more info to the troubleshooting. Thanks.