Sony DHG-HDD250/500: Official Thread - Page 815

Bought a Tivo HD several years ago and never looked back.
Upgraded to the premiere (not XL) with the WD 1TB companion a year ago.
Yearly subscription at $128 is less than the TWC charge for their HDDVR.

Still use the HDD250 OTA only (which still has 8 day listings) for sports events from CBS, FOX etc.

If more is needed the Silicon Dust HDHomerun streams to every computer here if more recording capacity is needed.

Joe, I'm curious did your clock come back with the accurate time? My second HDD500 just froze on me a little while ago and is now 38 minutes behind, which will make recording new programs a b--tch without listings and with a grid chopped into half-hour segments (and assuming a fix doesn't occur anytime soon).

Also, has anyone out there tried HD OTA recording using a PC TV tuner card? I'm about to purchase a new PC next week with that option, just in case the DHG's soon become darn near useless thanks to this TVGOS fiasco.

Clock was off until it found the host. Setup bits were all 0 also. But it never gave up. On the 753... screen, have you gone from [3] to [2] yet? Have you checked the year?

Please don't reset anything yet. While this is a bad time for TVGOS due to lineup changes, I'd wait a day at least. Unless it's too late. And I do all my recording manualy. Always have.

As for the PC tuner, I think WS picked the right road to travel.

I hooked up one of the 3 new Premiere-XL's over the past couple of hours, including the N-Adapter. I didn't bother with the Tuning Adapter yet, as with that plus the N-Adapter to plug in I need to finagle another extension cord in there somehow. This installation was done in place of my DHG#2 (the bedroom DVR) which is the easiest one to get at. Probably will tackle DHG#1 (main one in the Family room) on Monday.

The new installation got Listings for today in about 20 minutes, and claims it will have Listings for the next 14 days withing the next 2 hours. Although I bought Wireless-N TiVo adapters, my household WiFi is still "G" at this point in time . . .

I now have some initial TiVo operational questions but I'll ask them in the proper place, the TiVo thread.

I would appreciate any internet related information. You don't have to post it here. Especially IP Radio and Pandora.

Am I missing something, or does Walmart NOT sell TiVo?

Yes, I have two USB ATSC tuners on my PC and use Media Center with it as a DVR, so, with my DHG, I have the ability to DVR three programs concurrently.
The USB ATSC tuner can be had for $25 incl shipping (Newegg.com). Media Center works very well for this, and, with an HDMI feed to my AVR & HDTV (and a long distance remote keyboard/mouse) it is almost as nice as my DHG (quality is at least as good - using a KBM rather than the DGH remote makes it a little complicated for my wife).

I think some Sam's Clubs do, but not Walmart, per se. Pretty much all Best Buys do, too.

In a quick look, it seems the internet stuff is not enabled until after you subscribe to TiVo. At his point I'm using free 7 day trial. Do have full 14 day Listings at this time. Got plumbing issue (drain clogged) at home now.... staying the night at my sisters house. Happy New Year... not. I got m tivos from amazon. Posting by Droid.....

This sounds like the right solution for me. I had thought about doing something similar a couple of years ago but didn't see the need since I already had my four DHG's, which were almost always more than enough to cover what I usually watch (network programming). Of course I didn't foresee that TVGOS support could ever become so unreliable, with outages of several weeks or longer. And, I figured, we were already past the *great digital transition* hump, which I chalked up to a one-time issue that the .21 firmware upgrade was supposed to have alleviated permanently. Silly, naive me!

So, if you don't mind, a couple more questions:

1) How powerful a pc is required to support two (or more!) ATSC tuner cards, vis-a-vis RAM, processing speed, etc.? (Or you could just tell me your specs so I know to purchase something at least as powerful.) It would be nice to regain the TIVO-like dual/multi-tuner functionality without that annoying service fee.

2) What mechanism does Windows Media Center (I assume that's what you mean) utilize for OTA timer recording? I think you get what I'm driving at here: my obvious aim is to have an alternative to TVGOS, so as NOT to run into similar problems as the Sony DHG's. No sense spending more money just to still be subject to the same hassles!

This is a DHG thread and we shouldn't take it too far off topic. I'll answer your questions here this time, but, hereafter we should take this conversation elsewhere.

There is a Windows 7 Media Center Thread on AVSforums already.
I've not been there yet as WMC is very easy to set up and use, but, now that I know it is there, I'll have to check it out. You should to if you are interested in this alternative.

"Out of the box" I know WMC will support 4 tuners and there is a simple hack to allow it to support more. I don't know how much computer resource is required per tuner, but, I don't think it is much. My HTPC is way more powerful than required, although it is a few years old.

MB - ASUS P5Q-EM (Intel G45 chip set with Intel X4500HD integrated graphics)
Intel E8500 @ 3.16GHZ (dual core)
8 GB RAM
64 Bit W7
1 TB Disc (of course you could have larger and multiple)
Intel Performance Scores - CPU 6.6 RAM 6.6 Graphics 4.2 Disk 5.9

I've always used the "Guide" to schedule recordings, but, there is a simple method to set up time&channel recordings.

With the guide, you can select a program to record, set it to record that episode, or the series. If you select series, you can choose to record only new episodes, or new and rerun. You can also select to record on a specific channel/day/time or on any channel/day/time. You can search for a program by name or other attribute and it will show you all matching programs in the guide. If a program isn't currently in the guide, you can still set WMC to record it. Under "Recorded TV/Add Recording/Wishlist or Keyword" you can select to record "All shows with" the exact keyword you enter from a catagory of "Actor Name/Director Name/Movie Title/Program Title/Generic Keyword" and WMC will monitor the guide to record programs that match the criteria.

To record a specific time and channel, you go to the "Recorded TV" menu (where what you've already recorded shows) and select "Add Recording" then "Channel & Time". Here you can enter a channel, whether to record once (on a selected date)/every day/a specific day of the week/multiple specific days of the week, start/stop time, how long to keep (until disc space needed is default), and enter a title for the recording.

WMC can be fully controlled using a remote, I just don't have one for it and find using the KBM better because having the full 1920x1080 desktop displayed on my HDTV bit for bit - I can surf the web or do any other functions there just as if I were at the main display in my home office. (my desktop monitor is a 1920x1080 display as well so I run them in "clone" rather than "extended" desktop).

I also really like using WMC for showing my pictures and home videos to visiting friends.

Something I've wished for (and am now going to go search the W7MC thread for) is to be able to have program start/stop automatically shift when a program starts late as during football season. It should be easily accomplished programatically, but, I don't know if WMC provides a way to.

Sorry to DHG'ers for the long off topic discussion, but, with DHG's TVGOS dying for some, it may be of interest to more people.

I'm in the Seattle DMA, and (knock on wood) my OTA TVGOS service has generally been excellent since I got my 3 DHGs in '06, so I count myself very lucky. But I know the day will come, so to hedge my bets, a couple months ago I bought a pair of SiliconDust HDHomeRun OTA dual tuner devices ($90 ea @ amazon) and did a test install on a spare quad core Win7 box, using WMC's DVR app.

The HDHomeRun hardware works really well on my OTA setup, and I can record 4 HD channels simultaneously. WMC is pitiful as far as DVR software goes, but the HDHR3 is supported by a dozen or more DVR app packages, so when the time comes to migrate from the Sony DHG, I may find an app that will be nearly as good as the Sony software, maybe not.

Anyway, I hope the DHGs will keep chugging along; but now I've got fallback hardware that didn't cost much.

Wow, dude! Yeah, I agree, I didn't want to take this forum too far off topic, either - which is why I tried to get enough DHG discussion into my previous post to justify its presence here. I wasn't expecting so much detail in your reply, but thanks a bunch! I will definitely check out that other forum 'cause judging from what you've told me I need to do some more homework before I make any purchases. Whatever alternative I pick has to make sense so I avoid being in this situation again.

I try to keep my TVGOS specific posts to that thread. But the DHG is just too joined to TVGOS to keep them apart on everything.

Off of the usual TVGOS conversation, FWIW, a 250 just went for $225 on e-Bay.

BTW, PC's use around 3x (and up) the AC current than this DVR. Not very green. especially if they are left on 24/7.

As of last night my three new TiVo's are all operational, and my three DHG-HDD500's are sitting on the sidelines . . .

1) If you are worried about being green.
2) One PC can have multiple tuners (4+) potentially making it less power hungry per tuner than DHG's
3) While serving the DVR need, it can also be used for many other activities.
4) When not active, the PC can put itself in standby, significantly reducing it's power consumption

Another factor for me as an OTA only user, is my DHG seems far more prone to problems with multipath than even very inexpensive new tuners. There are times when this has made the DHG almost useless for recording certian stations. I've not had such problems with the tuners on my HTPC (I mostly eliminated this problem by moving the DHG from my main antenna in the attic to a dedicated, highly directional antenna mounted on the roof, yet, the DHG continues to have signal problems due to multipath more frequently than the tuners on my HTPC). Probably not an issue for cable users.

I guess you don't have a Kill-A-Watt to see their power consumption?

I have read all the posts on the Premier XL thread. And the TViX thread. And the PHD-VRX thread. I already have the BV-980H. I had & sent back the CM-7400 (bad for cable). I need to call my cable people and see how much time is on their $96/year HD/DVR (it's dual tuner). A cable card would be $3/month today. It's tough, and I'm following the Tivo thread. But I still feel you made the right move. When I get my letter, I pretty sure I will follow your lead. I just hope I don't get the letter for a while. Their "managed" HD PQ and iGuide suck compared to their raw QAM and TVGOS.

You should be able to get about $500 each for the DHG units. I would wait a while until people get their tax refunds.

Still no ads.

I don't have a Kill-a-Watt. I think I remember seeing something like "28 watts" somewhere, but I'm not sure. I do know these run MUCH quieter and cooler than the Sonys did.

I tried DVR3 (the last TiVo I set up) without the CableCard. I did tune all the analog Cable channels, but I couldn't find any of the QAM channels. That wasn't surprising though, since I don't know what the QAM numbers are any more, and they're always hard to find if you don't know the numbers. Installing the CableCard afterwards, I had to go through the whole TiVo setup again . . .

I did watch a Youtube video or two on the TiVo, that worked fine. My son has the NetFlix "online only" $7.99/mo package, I need to get him to try and see if that works on the TiVo. There's some kind of Hulu thing, but you need to be subscribed to Hulu I think. There's a couple of other online things too, but I really don't have a lot of interest in that stuff.

CableCards are $2 per month here, and the $5 per month "HD Package" gets you the HD equivalents of the basic/expanded channels that have HD equivalents (ESPN, History, etc.).

The DHG was a first generation ATSC receiver. Even my USDigital Mallwart box is "better". The HDD and my Panasonic TV are hooked up to the same wire and the Panasonic will resolve one station the HDD will see, catch, pixellate over and over, while the Panasonic will keep a picture. It comes in the 50 % or slightly less.

I have little multipath in my location, fortunately, but in my case, the Panny is more sensitive than the HDD.

Where's my HDD 750 with two tuners and a clock set screen ? (probably killed in an office meeting between "content providers" and the "CE Industry".

We do apologize for taking so long to get back to you.

We are aware that the TVGOS service is currently not available in the NYC broadcast area. We have been told that once some troubleshooting and maintenance has been completed at the station the TVGOS data will again be inserted into the WCBS-DT data stream. Unfortunately we have no ETA as to when the service will be restored.

We will add this case to the escalation and you will receive an update when more information becomes available.

Thank you,

CE Tech Support
Rovi

I had to program the (ack !) Cable Box, but this gives me hope for the future....no door stops yet.

I have this image of something burning at the stake.

I thought that there was some kind of law that the cable company has to give you your first Cable Card for free. Any additional ones they can charge for. At least that's the way it works here (Delaware County, Pa. ... just outside Philadelphia) in my Comcast system. I've had one for 4 years and it hasn't cost me a penny....yet.

I never heard of a cable card for free. A DTA, those are usually free for the first. Sometimes two.

All cable is local.

Is the device on your bill? My DTA shows up as a $2 charge next to a $2 credit. My feed's web site shows a cable card on their rate chart for $3 each in addition to needing their digital service.

[quote=My feed's web site shows a cable card it on their rate chart for $3 each in addition to needing their digital service.[/QUOTE]

Cablevision in NY, same here. "HD Fee" and "cablecard fee", so a bit under $5 per month to feed the HDD. Their DVR is $20 per month (also two silly fees) so once it comes off promotional free I'll probably drop or Tivo it.

The old HDD is better than all but the last of my Dish Boxes, better than the SA cable box and better than the Samsung set top. At least Dish also "lets you have" a 30 second skip button.

I have two HDD units, one with cable and one without. The "without cable" box is WAY more stable, even getting more use. I've also saved $ over time, even counting the hobby of keeping it going.

I just checked my bill to be sure, and it's there... Listed as "Cable Card = $0.00". On their price sheet, each additional one would cost me $2.99/mo.

Latest response from Rovi: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...0#post21455110

Yeah, I received pretty much the same reply from them yesterday. They're basically saying, 'yeah, yeah we know there's a problem, we'll fix it when we get around to it and don't hold your breath."

...to which I say, the allmighty dollar obviously wields far more power than the allmighty pen.

On Monday I'm going to buy a HD tuner with internal HDD support. It has a lot of features but, of course no TVGOS. So far I can say few good things about the BV-980H and CM-7400. The PHD-VRX is still vaporware. I hurts to say it, but it still seems the TiVo XL is the best alternative unless you like building things. I don't (anymore). If my cable company has a "special" I might try that since it can all be returned if (when) it sucks.

Still no ads but day8 has been ok for two days. I'm starting to miss the Bose ads.

After a week of intense research, this is the path I chose. Yesterday I bought two SiliconDust units and a brand new Windows 7 PC. I've been long overdue for a new desktop anyway, and this latest DHG/TVGOS fiasco merely provided additional incentive.

Still setting things up (in the midst of file transfers now) but as soon as that's done I'll hook both dual tuners up to my new blazing-fast toy and I'll (hopefully) be right back in OTA HD recording heaven.

So take THAT, Rovi!!

Except for the first sentence apology, received the identical e-mail today.

I don't remember, has anyone here contacted CBS?