Sony DHG-HDD250/500: Official Thread - Page 487

Not getting listings but the grid is still available and the clock is correct- which makes manual recording possible.

As long as it stays at least at that level, I'll curse under my breath, maybe occasionally do what I did yesterday and attempt to fill the grid OTA, even as I wonder if that is screwing up something too which caused the freeze last evening, and wait a while doing nothing else hoping for this to be resolved in the near future- or not.

Plenty of time to start experimenting, maybe in a couple of months when shows go into reruns.

By doing the G* test, leave it on routine, I am getting my lineup partially to fill. The most obvious missing are the HD major networks. I get the program listing for the non-HD channel, just not the 702,705,707, etc (comcast)

Cw

I have three of these and only one has the right time. Manual recordings are pretty easy (at least as easy as a VCR) if you have the right time set. But I have one that is 23 minutes off and another one that is 5 hours and 8 minutes off and I'm constantly screwing up setting recordings on those two as I mentally calculate how early/late to set recordings .....

Realizing that you don't want to do anything that might compromise your ability to use the recorder in its current state, you could try rescanning the channels and re-entering the Zip Code information. I don't have any rational explanation why this might help, but it shouldn't hurt anything or do anything to prevent you from using the recorders. Normally I would suggest doing a soft reset beforehand, but recently the soft resets seem to set the software back to the default version (I don't remember them as always doing that before). Another hypothesis that you don't want to test is that your TVGOS software has somehow gotten corrupted in the 500s and needs to be reloaded. Doing this will affect your clock. Just some random thoughts.

When my unit locked up and I did a reset(warm) it took several days of leaving it off before the correct software and time came back. I too kept messing with it in the first day or two and it never updated. So I left it alone yesterday--off all day and overnight. I happen to get up around 1:31 this morning and saw that the unit had the correct time. This morning about 9:00 I checked the software version and it was correct, but noticed that day 8 had some listings missing. Sure that it will correct itself, just have to be patience.
Michael

Ok, after a few days of chat box, email, and today's phone calls - I may have made some real progress - tho the box is still not working. HA!

In order for the box to work correctly it does have to have the correct time.......it will not get the correct time (or unlikely) on version 08.05.40........but it cannot make itself go to the correct time so that it can continue updating with a digital host (unlike it did before with an analogue host).

After getting through first two lines of telephone support with Sony.........the first two levels said the box will never work with a digital host.

Finally spoke with a product specialist (he could read script better in English so that makes him a specialist). Anyway, seriously; we got down to Houston specific problems.........he said that time element is controled by Macrovision and not the local CBS - the local station are not to be modifying that TV GUIDE data stuff.

He said both Sony and Macrovison are aware of the problem, and that Sony is working on a solution. They do not know when. They should send me a email AND that solution should be on their support page for the DHGHDD500.

That is what the Sony man said.

So we shall see.
--------------------------------------------------

I suggest everyone call Sony 1-800-222-7669 (this is considered a television video product). Get pass at least the first tier support.........and ask for a "product specialist". Be specific to your city.

See what kind of response you get.

yes there may be a lot of truth in all of that too...........my plans are to leave it off for a few days.........it may wake up.

On Sunday, there was a two hour power outage here in Shoreline, just north of Seattle. One of my DHGs recovered nicely. A second DHG lost its TVGOS firmware, but fairly quickly got to 08.05.40, which currently lands one in DST limbo with a one hour offset. Last night I ran the G* test and left it *ON*. I was trying to wait for the clock to correct itself, but couldn't resist peeking at the 753159852 info and was pleasantly surprised to find the TVGOS firmware listed as 08.06.44.

I'm not clear on what excursions (other than the obvious two, power off and channel changing) will cause the G* test to stop running, so to be safe I restarted the G* test and found the on screen clock corrected, while the front panel clock was still an hour behind. Within seconds of starting the test, however, the front panel clock updated to match the on screen clock.

So did restarting the G* test nudge things along, or was this just coincidence?

ps box #3 is en-route to Mt. Pleasant after having fallen into a deep dark INF 0000080 hole. I learned from the drill the phone tech ran me through that there is apparently a "magic window" of about 60 seconds power unplugged time that will attempt to run an HDD format, on the way back up, but even that did not help.

Well,
I just did a full factory Default reset on mine and will let it sit now and see what happens. I am hearing people in Detroit are getting the listings so I'm betting on something not being set right in my 500, So back to scratch and we will wait and see.

I use my SONY with cable card and receive my entire channel line-up. I also have a 2 tuner HD cable DVR. It is made by PACE and has to be rebooted every other day if I want to access VOD. Every time it reboots, it comes up with no guide information (all guide and channel information is stored in RAM). The M-Card in the PACE also lockups when recording channels that have marco-blocking issues. This cable card lockup will not let analog or any DVR play back work until the box is rebooted. The SONY's cable card has never locked up.

The SONY is rock solid and the PACE needs to be rebooted weekly.

If the SONY had two tuners and external storage expansion, it would be my only DVR.

I hope my cable company doesn't deploy SDV.

HoustonPerson -

Can you please ask your contact at Sony about these functions? If these can be used to flash the newer version of TVGOS software into the DHG's, then many of the recovery steps can be eliminated. Of course, this would only be of benefit to those of us who currently have working TVGOS software that is updating it's listings daily.

If that info came from Sony then they don't know how it works!

Even with a strictly analog recovery, you get correct time at ver. 08.05.40. On a solely digital recovery, I had correct time, then 08.05.40, then 08.06.44.

I'm not sure if my process would help your clock problem, but I began with G* test to the digital TVGOS station getting me time an hour off. I did a G*-and-leave-on to the same station overnight with the auto-off feature disabled. This got me a software update. After the software update another G* test to the digital station with VBI gave me the correct time.

I had left a brief polite message on their 800 number voicemail some days ago. I did not tell them my phone number, but their voicemail must record the caller's ANI. I missed the return call today, but the man from TV Guide left a message with my ticket number and asked for my email, so I could advise him of my status. He mentioned something to the effect that they now think channel 5.1 in the San Francisco bay area should be operational.

I'll try not say anything stupid as I tell him about my missing channel line-up.

I don't even have a local station transmitting analog let alone digital TVGOS data yet so I can't even get the software updates....

Subako, what channel did you run the G* test on? What host channel is 753... info showing? I'm just curious if your DHG(s) recovered from base firmware with only CBS digital host available (Kiro). I am also in the Seattle area and found that PBS analog (KCTS9) is no longer passing VBI which seems to be the case for analog PBS nationwide.

Just check the box. Turned it on for a "look see"

sw is now 08.06.44
and box finally has correct time (first just the Guide screens with correct time..........then the front panel got correct time while playing around.....)

Will continue to leave it "off" - it seems to do mo better that way.

So from about 6AM to 3:30pm: Went from full factory reset to correct time and 08.06.44

It is "off" now, will not turn "on" till tomorrow. Maybe a grid with a Day 8 in the morning?

I do not have a contact.........you just have to force yourself thru on the phone and ask for "product specialist"

I did not explain myself good on this.......did not really come from Sony, that part came from me. I was trying to say the clock and the sw version were circular. Which came first the chicken or the egg.

Anyway mine finally updated the clock and sw, I do know which was first. The unit was "off" when that occured sometime over the last 4 hours.

I think full factory reset is the key to getting back and working again, I just got done doing one as well and for the first time the Time updated while I was doing a G code test on my CBS digital station. While it is an hour off because of the software version I think we are on the right track now, Either that or TVGuide just fixed their problems today and we are finally seeing it work correctly again.

They're still uploading analog data to the UNC-TV stations in North Carolina. My OTA host channel is analog WUNF (ch 33) in Asheville NC, and I have a full eight days of listings, i.e. through next Tuesday.

Beginning a week ago, a lot of us from the SF area who started experiencing problems on Tuesday started posting what we were doing and what was happening...mostly people who had been posting fairly freequently before, and therefore were already tracking our units' for potential problems...

I wonder if there are others who weren't so actively tracking their units' behavior, and who either did NOT experience such problems OR who saw that downloads were not appearing, but just left your units untouched.....?

If so, did your units recover over the weekend to resume getting downloads without your having intervened???

and/or

Were your units previously receiving downloads from analog PBS, in which case what happened in terms of host channel change? or were they set up to get regular downloads from CBS 5.1? or from other channels (e.g., CBS 5 analog...which happens to be where my LG 3410a has been telling me it's getting data for the last week, unlike my Sony, which has had its host channel blank since last Tuesday, like other SF area people who have posted in the last week...)

Because of the details we have (and don't have) about this past week's episode in the SF area, I thought it would be useful to inquire whether others around SF had DIFFERENT experiences than those who posted about losing regular TVGOS downloads for 4 or 5 days...

Thanks - Tony

(PS...if you respond, it would be helpful if you would specify whether you get your TVGOS listings from OTA or from cable...)

My DHGs are set for OTA and cable. I ran the G* test on KIRO 7-1 OTA.

The 753... info shows host channel blank.

Zip Code 98155
Host State 0xA0
Host ID 0xD
Host Chan
VBI Chan fffffffd


I'm pretty sure the firmware update was all digital from KIRO7-1. Whether there was some analog assist is not totally clear because although my analog cable only RDRs have had NO listings for some time now, their clocks are *NOT* drifting. I do not know where they are getting their clock updates, because I, like you, see no VBI info from KCTS9 analog (Comcast cable channel 90).

That may be the case, or, your local PBS channel may have bought the equipment to generate VBI from the digital feed. I was just repeating what I heard from someone that works at my local PBS.

Ok


This is how I stumbled onto this phenomenon, I did that very thing, and in the morning it hadn't done anything. Then I ran a G* Test and of course it passed. As I was looking in the 753 menu I noticed the Power On field had a date and time that was about two minutes old (remember I had reset the unit the night before). The next time I reset the unit (about a week later), I went into the 753 menu, and had no VBI packets updating. I went and looked at the Power On field and it was N/A. I ran the G* Test, and the packets started coming in, and the Power On field indicated the current time. So my conclusion is that when someone says my unit isn't working, and I see this picture, I would tell them to run a G* Test. I realize my unit isn't behaving exactly as it should, and my VBI data hanging on reset (and having to run a G* Test to get it going again) could be a sign of that. This could also explain why your unit gets data when Power On is N/A and mine doesn't.


The only time I take offense, is when you quote one of my posts, and then respond with nothing but "That is incorrect", or "No". It would help if you would explain what it is wrong with it, and maybe other people (apparently I can't ) will learn from it.


I didn't feel that any of the advice he was getting yesterday was contradictory. In fact, when I saw your responses (and Possumgirl's for that matter), I was glad to see that you were giving him the same advice that I had.

Mark

I have TWC and a cable card in my 500 unit. That unit receives all the free HD channels including ABC Family, TNT, and all the major network channels. My 250 unit doesn't have a card and it receives all the major network channels in HD, except at channel numbers like 75.485.
Ray

FWIW:
2 500's - OTA only-S.V. 1.2.13 on both (For those that care)
Last Friday
1st machine G*test was run with channel showing 2-1 and 963214785 run and unit left on over night. next day host and clock set showed 2-1.
Currently showing no host and 3-0 as clock set. All listing and correct clock.

Last Friday
2nd machine G*test was run same as first and left on. Next day no host showed, clock set was 2-1, listing and clock OK.
I then tried to do the G*test again and aaaagh, I hit the dreaded "Reset to Factory Default".
I tried getting the clock using 2-1 but never did.
I gave up on digital and set to 0-2 and off over night. Got the clock back next day.
By the way, I never lost ads or the 44 sw.
Tried another G*test and aaaaagh again, hit "Reset to Factory default".
(Should never use the wheeled select button after drinking beer!)
Now the second machine will not get time no matter what.
Did a soft reset and lost the 44 sw.
It also appears that 0-11 and 0-2 have stop sending data here, no VBI from either after many tries.
Good VBI data from both 2-1 and 3-1.
I left on 3-1 and turn off over night and got nothing.
will try 2-1 tonight and see tomorrow.
One odd thing I noticed, the machine thats working shows 2.1 WBBMDT on the front screen but the other shows 2.1 CBS2 Ch?
So much for periods of being brain dead!
I guess I'll have to try and recover in a totally digital world...

Last night I left both my 250 and 500 units on all night, tuned to CBS HD, until a few minutes ago. The 250 has guide data through next Tuesday. It also has ads:it has firmware version .05. The 500 unit has guide data through next Monday. Tuesday is blank. Also, no ads; it has firmware version .06. Conclusion: the old firmware is better.

By the way, yesterday I happened to notice the manufacturing dates, May and June 2005. I wonder what is the last manufacturing date?

Ray

Users with the clock only an hour behind are lucky. I'm on Comcast in Northern New Jersey and the clock has been behind by seven and a half hours since yesterday despite my soft(front buttons) and hard(unplugging unit) resets. Forcing to digital WCBS doesn't solve clock problem. Listings are for full 8 days,so data is coming but clock info is incorrect.

Update: G* corrected time problem.

My DVR is not the exact same unit most of you are tracking in this thread. My unit does not have an ATSC tuner within. I watch ATSC OTA via several tuners and converters. I do use the on-screen guide, but usually set recordings manually. I am in the Sacramento, CA DMA.

Up until the DST change on 3/8/09 all was working great. On Monday 3/9/09 I noticed that all recordings went long, one by more than 2 hours. It did the same on Tuesday. On Tuesday I still had Guide data, but I didn't check for more than the current day.

As of sometime THUR 3/12/09 when I turn on the unit it defaults to a screen that displays "no guide data". I went through a setup and reselected my DMA, which at that time was listed. 24 hours later, still no data. Now the selection for the DMA is not there.

On FRI I performed a cold power up and another setup. That stopped the bad behavior it had from the time change, but now 4 days later still no guide data. My post in a local thread led me here. I have no issues with firmware or software updates. The only real problem now is the lack of data.