Sony DHG-HDD250/500: Official Thread - Page 40

Not sure, but your comment makes sense. The Sony was using CBS previous to my reset. Now it's latched on to PBS. When I run the G*Factory Test, I don't see any errors and PBS seems to receive many more VBI packets more rapidly than CBS. Of course, this is not during any of the specified download periods.

FWIW, with the LG DVR it seemed (subjectively) that less guide channels meant less guide errors.

I chose the cable area yesterday morning, so the Sony had both the morning and afternoon download periods to get all the data. Maybe it has something to do with the first day of downloads after a reset. Everything is such a big secret with TV Guide that we don't know what might be happening, although there is a lot more knowledge out there now thanks to these forums.

The guide worked smoothly for several months until last week's problem. I expect that it will go back to that good behavior.

Is this show actually in SD format (from an analog broadcast, or from a 480i digital broadcast), or is it SD upconverted to HD with bars added on the sides at the station?

I don't have this DVR myself, but I'm interested in whatever answers you get. I currently have a Panasonic SD DVR/DVD burner that I've hooked up an OTA HD receiver to. I can record upconverted SD material in a full 4:3 image by telling the receiver to zoom the image so as to crop off the bars on the sides.

Now that I actually have an HDTV, I'm considering getting this Sony unit, but most of the material that I'm archiving now is upconverted SD. I'd like to be able to feed the S-video output to the Panasonic, with the sidebars cropped off, like I do now with the receiver. I could just leave the sidebars in, and stretch out the image on the TV when playing it back, but that would throw away some horizontal resolution which I'd rather not do.

Or is the picture quality good that way anyway? In that case, the main drawback would be that I wouldn't be able to play the DVDs on a standard TV which can't stretch the image.

snackmasta later said "BTW, my unit resumed normal operation Saturday night (11/12/05) after being unplugged all day. All recorded programming prior to the Gemstar software glitch was saved."
snackmasta, I hope your hard drives are still working. I was thinking maybe one of them overheated due to the constant rebooting (caused by the bad Gemstar data). Maybe leaving it unplugged all day let them cool down enough to unlock them.
bdfox18doe might have a good idea "I think, given the price of the unit, that the 90 day warranty is pretty weak..I'm thinking of opening the unit after the 90 days and making an image of the hard drive, same as I have for my Tivos..then when the drive dies I can resurrect it.."
I don't know if my imaging software (Acronis) will copy Linux partitions. I'd love to be able to remove the two hard drives, clone them onto two new hard drives, and then put the clones back in the Sony. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to experiment without fear of losing everything? Are these hard drives going to get fragmented? Will "Format Hard Drive" under the 9012 menu wipe out the operating system? bdfox18doe talks about waiting 90 days before breaking the seal. I think I'd wait for the parts warranty (1 year) to run out as well.

You're right, I forgot! It is an upconverted SD transmitted via the HD off-air antenna with the side bars added. It looks normal on my HD set, but has a squeshed looks on the S-video SD feed from my sony recorder. I'll go play with the settings now that I understand things better. Thanks for the pointer.

Well, that wasn't it. But I played with the various setting and found that going to the HD to HD screen settings (go figure) and picking expand, that I have a normal looking picture. I'll have to see how it plays back on an SD TV to confirm things.

So it's HD as far as the Sony is concerned, even though the content is SD. The squeezing is what I would expect from the "Squeezed" mode described on page 76 of the manual (which I downloaded a while ago). The "Side Crop" mode looks like it would be just what we need, but you said the screen mode settings don't do anything. Have you tried changing the display format with the FORMAT button on the remote? Maybe if you can put it in 480i format, you can select "Side Crop" mode.

[added] OK, now I see what you wrote about the "Expand" mode. You added that just after I first wrote this posting. It makes sense. "Expand" stretches the HD image that contains the upconverted SD content, so that the content fills the entire 16:9 frame, and the sidebars get cropped off. Actually, the diagram in the manual makes it look like it overexpands a bit, but maybe it's just a sloppy diagram. Then when you send that 16:9 image to the S-video output, it get squeezed back to 4:3 and it looks normal again, but minus the sidebars.

Any idea of what sony will stiff one for for the labor charges post 90 days?

Probably $200 with shipping both ways (I'm guessing). I think the hard drives are Western Digital SATA 250 Gb. They're about $250 for the pair (Pricegrabber). I'd rather put the money into the hard drives. I'm betting that if there's a problem, it will be either hard drive failure or corrupted data on the hard drive. If I'm going to make images, I want to do it as soon as possible (before Gemstar scares me again). What if Gemstar sends data (virus!-just kidding) that completely renders our DVRs useless. So after further thought, I'm beginning to agree with you: Break the seal after the 90 day labor warranty runs out, and make an image of the hard drive(s).

I just bought the HDD500 through Crutchfield's Outlet store for nearly $100 less than the new HDD250 would cost. Crutchfield offers a three-year service plan (parts & labor) for $79 and a five-year plan for $109. You have until 30 days remain before the Sony 90 day warranty is up to purchase it. I never purchase extended warranties, but for that amount of money (what I consider reasonable), it might be worth it.

bierboy,
I agree with you. I've only bought one extended warranty (20 Gb Ipod for my 17 year old son). It was worth every penny. We're on our 3rd unit since Christmas '04. The hard drives on the first two couldn't take the punishment. I really didn't think I'd need an extended warranty for the DHG-HDD500 since it never moves from the shelf under the plasma. I got mine from Onecall for $764 with shipping. When I received it, I could tell that the box had been re-taped, and there were finger prints on the front of the unit. They didn't indicate that it was an open box or refurbished unit when I ordered it, so I wasn't too impressed with that. However, it has worked perfectly for me until Nov. 10 & 11 when Gemstar sent the corrupt data. I have until the 5th of December to decide whether or not to buy an extended warranty. Thanks...

I bought mine instore at Tweeter and bought a two year extended warranty. I assumed that two harddrives running constantly would cause some trouble sometime in the future.

This new switcher works fine, no HDCP issues. The DVR switches to Auto HDMI when turned on. I usually have the DVR set to 1080i so I have to switch to that format each time. This is a DVR issue, not the Gefen.

Jim

I would like to know if anyone in or near the St. Louis MO area is using one of these PVR's? I'm concerned with receiving the EPG, and if it comes from KETC. Also anyone using a cable card from Charter? I had one installed with my TV and it worked fine, before the TV went dead, but wondered how it works with the Sony box.

I'm seriously considering buying one of these, but I'm concerned about the heat they generate. The manual warns not to put one in a confined space. However, the best location in my current furniture is where my HD receiver is now, in a low rolling cabinet that the TV sits on top of. It has glass doors in front and two shelves. If I remove the doors, each shelf will be about 5" high, 27" wide and 17" deep. It's enclosed on top, bottom and sides, has a panel covering about half the height of the rear opening, and will of course be open in the front after I remove the doors. Will this be workable as is, or should I put a small fan in there, too?

If this doesn't work, I'd have to find a new cart or stand for the TV, DVR and DVD player, at least, preferably on wheels or rollers so it can be moved for cleaning, and acceptable to my wife.

Might depend on which model you get. I have the HDD250, and it doesn't get very warm. But seeing some of the posts where people with the HDD500 tell about their drive temperatures, it think that one could get much hotter.

I have the HDD500 and it runs very cool to the touch, even though it's under a DVD player and has no more than 1/2" clearance on the left and right. Overall it's far, far cooler than my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD on the other side of the rack, which gets scorching hot despite having nothing on top.

jtbell,
You need at least 20 inches depth as the unit is 14 inches deep and the manual says to have 6 inches of room to the rear. I wouldn't restrict airflow to the rear of this unit (especially not the 2 hard drive unit). You might be alright if you use a fan, but I'd keep a close eye one the hard drive temperatures.

So the vents are in the rear, then? If so, then what I've seen so far suggests that my second possible location might work better as far as ventilation is concerned. This is the rolling cabinet that I have most of my other audio/video equipment in, separately from the TV. The shelf is not as wide, so there would be only about 1.5 inches of clearance on both sides of the unit, but there's more vertical clearance, probably 5-6 inches from the top of the unit to the bottom of the shelf above. The back of the cabinet is basically wide open, with just a narrow panel along one side to stiffen it a bit, and it's 2-3 feet in front of the wall behind it. There's a glass door in front, but I can remove it, and have been thinking of doing it anyway so I don't have to clean fingerprints off of it.

This is in fact the space currently occupied by my second HD receiver, that feeds into my SD DVR/DVD recorder. So the antenna connection is there, and the connections for archiving to the SD recorder. And I already have an HDMI cable that's long enough to reach the TV from that location. So this would be better for connectivity, too.

Any 250 owners wishing they had gone with the 500?
I'm trying to decide if it's worth another $170 for the extra storage.


Mitch

The amount of disk space you need really depends on your own viewing habits.

I've been using a SD DVR with a capacity of about 55 hours (in standard-quality mode), and I seldom put more than 20-25 hours on it. When I do have that much stuff on the disk, it's just because I've been lazy about clearing space, and not because I actually have a backlog to watch or transfer to DVD. This suggests that the 250 (30 hours) would be enough for me.

On the other hand, right now there's no way to archive material in HD outside the DVR except for D-VHS recorders. It's possible that something really good might come along that I'd want to keep on the disk until it's feasible for me to get a Blu-Ray or HD-DVD recorder. But then I might not be able to archive it anyway because of copy protection.

So right now I'm waffling back and forth about which one to get, myself.

I own the 500 for the last 2 months and I have it at 50% full for this season shows. I also own the LG that I put a 300GB into that unit and it is holding 15 hours of the 37 hours. So for me yes I needed the 500. I have HD shows from pbs that will not be removed for this time. I went for it and love it and I think that it will be 80% full by the end of this show season. I'll be able to watch other shows during the rerun season. I love both.

I just bought the 500 over the 250 when Crutchfield had "special pricing" on both this week. Just got delivered today, so I'll be busy when I get home tonight! But I agree with mstanl; there's some great PBS HD content I'd like to hold on to for quite awhile and view at my leisure along with all the major network HD stuff that's on this year. Plus, I'm sure I'll be recording some HD sporting events, and those typically last several hours.

I just looked, and there are vents on the bottom too. Due to the collection of cat hair, I think air goes into the unit through the vent just above the ANT IN & CABLE IN connectors as well as the vent on the bottom (right side). The vents by the CableCard jack and on the bottom (left side) must be where the air leaves the unit (no cat hair). Thanks for getting me to clean those clogged vents!

I bought the 250 figuring it was likely I could add a second drive later (taking advantage of ever-falling prices) or at least upgrade the existing drive to a bigger one. I haven't confirmed either option is possible yet, though.

My 250 has never been over half full (15 hours). I watch about 7 shows a week, but I watch most by the end of the weekend. There are a couple shows I don't have time to watch, but I'm downloading them weekly for off-season viewing. Even with the 500, two full series archived isn't very realistic. HD divx captures on my phillips looks great.

I have had my 250 for a couple of months now. 250 Gigs has proven to be just fine for me. If someone later discovers an easy way to add a hard drive though, it might be worth it.

I never save anything after watching it so I usually have plenty of space.

All,

I thought that the problem may have gone away ... but last night, while I was sitting watching the recorder, it failed to record CSI

I was hoping that the latest software update would have fixed this.

I run a 500, and it shows "Near Full". I am allowing it to delete shows on an "as needed" basis. Similar to Nathan118, I record around 7 shows a week.

Nathan118,

Could you please describe the setup that you are using for recording? Are you using a computer (or a DVD recorder etc.)? What software? Is your computer mounted next to your recorder (in the home theater) or is your recorder in your "computer room". How do you connect (component, S-Video) - If component what capture card do you use? etc. etc. ...

I had CSI scheduled to record weekly last night. I'll check when I get home from work to see whether it recorded and let you know.

CSI recorded fine for me. Since last week's fire drill, all my recording schedules recovered correctly, and I have not lost any. To be fair, I haven't retried Commander-in-Chief, the program which was dropping the most for me, as I gave up on that program.