Sony DHG-HDD250/500: Official Thread - Page 926

First, a correction: Instead of '2 locals' the DHG and S3 receive 2 subchannels from 1 local but can't receive the other one.

Please post examples of standalone 2013 tuners which exceed the S3 and DHG tuners. TiVo's Premiere OTA tuner is inferior to both earlier products, but of course it's no longer new.

A standalone tuner is not "inside" anything. Perhaps that's the wrong word?

The DHG can show relative signal strength for vsb (not an OTA issue) and a relative digital strength but not in any unit of measurement I can find. It does show IfAGC % for a signal. The same QAM signal is 44 on my DHG and 47.23 on my TV. The TV shows a 36-37 SNR but the DHG doesn't have that. The TiVo shows a SNR of 37-38 so it may be a reliable indicator.

So last night I sat for an hour plus, deleting all the old recording schedules out of the Schedule page, one by one. I had six pages to delete, one by one. Everything from Summer Olympics to long off the air shows.

I was never thrilled with the TVGOS user interface, and this gave me another reminder for why it feels slow and clunky to me. How TVGOS needless makes me waste my free time by having to always babysit it. Often one-by-one at a time, versus having any notion of "Select All".

Apart from a full factory reset, was there a faster way for me to "delete all recording schedules" in one step?

I had two competing manual recordings on the schedule. I wonder if this was the reason for the lockup.

I remembered how to get to the 753 screen... but forgot how to parse out that one long string. Nothing jumped out at me. Will repeat tonight with the parsing guide.

I also have never heard the clicking sound that everyone is talking about. Is that for cable only?

So now all my remaining recording schedules are adjusted to be off by 5hr 5 mins. One by One. What a PITA!! All we need is a good clock.

No silver bullet to just delete all scheduled items only. The clicking happens when searching for a host and you have scanned both cable and antenna during setup. You can lose one or the other, or set the zipcode to 00000 which stops the scan and makes the unit more stable since when scanning it might find something it doesn't like.

I would kill for a good date and clock.

Thanks, I just did this, will see if that works.

Perhaps 'standalone' is the wrong word. How would you suggest the question be worded to ask about components with 'today's tuners (that) outdo the DHG'?

I would suggest just tuner. It's job is to convert rf to something you can the feed to a viewing device. A standalone device would be as example, a Samsung DTB-H260F. I guess digital tuners were born when there were HD panels that only accepted video.

I would hope that a 2013 tuner does a better job than a 2005 tuner. Yet that is quite optimistic on my part.

 

The Sony is 4th generation. Today's are at least the 6th (that's what the CECB's were), and they're much improved.

 

(For the record, the DTB-H260F is a 5th.)

Tuner is a good word but for purposes of comparison in this Forum I'd prefix it with 'hi-def'. It appears the Samsung DTB-H260F is a good example, but unfortunately that Samsung model has been discontinued. RU basically referring to tuners in currently available hi-def recorders featured in various threads at this Forum?
Edited by fallingwater - 3/20/13 at 4:49am

CECBs were standard def. RU basically referring to all the tuners in currently available hi-def recorders featured in various threads at this Forum?
Edited by fallingwater - 3/20/13 at 4:48am

Sorry but I can't do that. My interest is academic not practical since I'm cable only. As for using the DHG as a tuner, I'm sure you can find better or worse devices. If a device works then it's good enough.

I'm sure there are more experienced users here that can help you with tuners and their abilities. Honestly, I can't get my head around the concept of using a DHG as a tuner. But that apples to a TiVo, Magnavox, LST-3410a or any other recording device.

^^
Also, I'm pretty sure that if the hard drive in the DHG fails the unit becomes totally useless. It won't even function as a tuner, since EVERYTHING you see and hear comes from the hard drive.

I was trying to be nice. But you're right. Without TVGOS it barely qualifies as a DVR. Once while replacing a fan I applied power without the HDD plugged in. It got as far as an error on the FP then wiped all memory clean.

I'm still too chicken to touch it. Have a 3rd channel to record tonight on the Sony because the TiVo is heavy booked. LOL

Letter to Sony:

The following e-mail addresses for Sony are good, if anyone else is interested in send them a message...

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Original Message

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From: Kenxxx@
To: Phil.Molyneux@am.sony.com
Cc: Michael.Fasulo@am.sony.com
Sent: Wed, Feb 27, 2013 3:18 pm
Subject: Sony DVR Support

Dear Mr. Molyneux,
President & COO of Sony Electronics

There are many of us that have purchased Sony DVR’s that we had paid a significant amount of money for, $750.00 for the DHG-HDD250 and $1,000.00 for the DHG-HDD500. Many users of the DVR have been satisfied with the device until lately.

Since Rovi pulled the plug on providing TV Guide (TVGOS) and Date/Time date to the many products out there that used this information, the fact that Sony never provided the ability to manually set the date/time has created a lot of unhappy users. Sony's attempt to provide a way to be able to record TV programs with the "Recording Time Calculator" is an inadequate interim solution since many of us do not have an android tablet or a smart-phone to use this app.

The DHG-HDD250/500 was released in early 2005 and since then there have been at least a couple of firmware upgrades. The latest version 1.2.21 released 04/10/2009 was made to specifically address the use of the new digital channels to work properly with the TVGOS data and setting of the date/time. All of the DHG-HDD250/500 users were delighted when Sony made this upgrade available.

I would think that the wizards in Tokyo (Sony Engineering) should be able to come up with a permanent fix by altering the firmware to provide a way to set the date/time in the setup menu. If (ROM) space is an issue, there are items in the setup area that can be eliminated (TVGOS, ZIP code, etc.) to make space for the setting of the DVR's real time clock (RTC). If that's not possible then Sony should release the source code for the DVR to those who could find and provide a way of setting the date/time.

All we are expecting is that Sony to devise a way of manually setting the date/time of the DHG-HDD250/500 through a release of a firmware upgrade.

Regards,
Ken xxx

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I sent this follow-up e-mail two weeks later and received no response...

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Original Message

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From: Kenxxx@
To: Phil.Molyneux@am.sony.com
Cc: Michael.Fasulo@am.sony.com
Sent: Thu, Mar 14, 2013 2:02 pm
Subject: Fwd: Sony DVR Problem

Dear Mr. Molyneux,

I am very disappointed that I have not heard from your office regarding the following note. [Above]

Why doesn't Sony release the software (firmware) source code? Don't you think a knowledgeable DVR owner could revise the firmware to add a manual clock function?

Regards,
Ken xxx

Twin Recording Test:

 

If anyone would like to test this before I eventually get to it, I would like to know the following…

 

If you have…

 

  Lost and/or Shutdown TVGOS,
  Deleted the Patches by way of resets,
  Have lost and do not have the Front Panel Clock anymore,
  Regularly do resets to synchronize clock and day of the week,
  End up with Twin-Date Recordings.

 

 

Do each of the recordings playback OK?  Delete OK?

 

I am wondering if by different resets, there may or may not be problems with Twin-Date Recordings?

 

Recently, I have problems with these recordings whereas before, they coexisted OK together.  Example:

 

Two recordings, due to a previous reset:

 

  Program B)   1/1 Thu 1:00pm
  Program A)   1/1 Thu 1:00pm

 

I can only play back one of the Twin-Date programs (I believe it is the most recent one).  When I delete one, the other is listed,
but will not play…  live TV just pops back on.  Therefore, I delete the other ‘twin’ that is listed.   I think the other twins were fine under the Factory Guide resets. 

 

The 147 412 356 Warm Resets may not be good for these Twin-Date Recordings?

Even if they released all the code for it (assuming they can), the tools for the DiskOnChip flash boot aren't freely available. You wouldn't be able to build a new firmware to load onto your DVR - besides the previously-mentioned probable breakage of HDMI and CableCARD and other fun problems.

Also, I'm 99.9% sure Sony will not release a firmware update for this now 8 year old DVR. My XBR8, which I bought in 2009 and uses TVGoS v8, hasn't seen a firmware update since... oh wait, 2009. This DVR is dead to them. If they do, by some remote chance, release an updated firmware, I will eat my hat. And upload video to YouTube for you to see.

You might be a redneck?
[joke]

Grasshopper, 2 recordings can not occupy the same place at the same time, it seems the resetting back to 12AM 1/1/2004 has a flaw, if you do not delete same time and date recordings!....
You must delete like recordings, though it may show the 2 recordings, one seems to be overwritten....

Since nobody has the source code, can we be sure that recordings are indexed by time, date and channel? They could just be given a reference number based on some unknown like the last number or clock ticks since power on. But then you could be 100% right and the easy solution would be to add or subtract a minute for the start time for each recording. More work, but since we're doing CPR anyhow.....

Been thinking. There is one day every year that the possible exists to make two recordings with the same time, date, and channel: 2am on 11/3/13 when DST ends. That shows as 2am twice in the listings. I never tried it so I can only guess you would get a recording conflict error. Or not.

Since the DHG can only record one show at a time, why code for the impossible?
Edited by JoeKustra - 3/21/13 at 5:30am

Well, sheeeeeoooot, if that don't 'scribe me to a tee! ;^)

- Kerry

Yeah, what Joe said. The machine wasn't designed to store two recordings made on the same date, channel, and time — and I understand why the programmers would not consider this possible scenario. (on the other hand, maybe the .21 firmware addressed it...)

Personally, I don't do the resets every week, and I also watch and delete programs every night, so it hasn't been a problem. (yet?)

- Kerry

^^^^ check edit. And you quoted me.

Thanks for your replies, Joe.

Rammitinski's post refers to tuner versions and IMHO rather glibly made the statement that today's tuners are 'much improved'. He may be right but without a formal comparison test, I have no way of knowing.

I compared the DHG with TiVo's S3 and Premiere DVRs using the same type of antenna at the same location. At my location, for all practical purposes, the DHG and S3 are equivalent in the number of OTA stations they receive and both achieve similiar signal strengths from the received stations, while the more recent Premiere tuner doesn't do quite as well. That's all I know! And it's enough to know because the important point is that both the DHG and S3 tuners are more than adequate while the newer Premiere tuner is merely adequate.

I'll use a DHG to supply a line level standard-def signal to a Funai Magnovox DVD recorder until the DHG fails, but only to take advantage of the Sony's tuner, not its abilty to record. LG's LST-3410a fares somewhat better as a back-up recorder because its recordings can be titled and its HDD easily replaced.

I understand. The reason I have several tuners is that feeding an HD channel to even an analog DVR still has better PQ than using the analog tuner. I did that with a Toshiba RX-50 for a while, then moved the recording to DVD-RAM for playback on a different DVD player. Sadly, all my DVD-RAM disks became obsolete when I went to the Magnavox DVDR. I was using the LST-3410a until PBS stopped its TVGOS V7 feed. I did cut the cap, but then I started collecting DHG units and the LG became retired. Take care.
Edited by JoeKustra - 3/21/13 at 6:44am

Yes, I was just agreeing, and adding my 2¢

- Kerry

Yet, Another Reset Test Update:

 

I tried two other 9-digit code resets:

 

971 397 135 Factory TVGOS Reset & Welcome… (01, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06) (Resets to 12am 1/1/2004, Retains, Listings (If you still have one - I do not), and Scheduled Recordings – Does Scheduled Recordings maintain every time with this reset?  It remained on my first try with this code.)

653 214 741 Cold Reset (Resets to 12am 1/1/2004, Retains Listings (If you still have one), and Scheduled Recordings).  About a 4-to-5 second delay before Menu self-exits.   At 12:00:05am, I did this reset.   With the added reset delay, this produces an approximate 10-second late time to account for this unit’s fast clock drift.  If I skip two or even three weeks until the next reset, I would need to pad the time even more if I do not want end of program credits be snipped when the clock eventually runs ahead of actual time.  (Unless I start late the next program by one minute.)

 

I do not know what is different with this Cold Reset, but it otherwise looks/acts just like the 147 412 356 Warm Reset.  

May I ask what firmware you have installed?

I find that the 753... reset log is a good place to track the DHG codes that are associated with various reset methods. If you share it would be appreciated.

A 147... produces a 0x110 code unless you get a reboot, then it produces a 0x800A code. Other codes are a few posts back.

Very odd. When I did a 971397135 on a unit with a lineup and TVGOS feed, it took me to the VBI G* test directly.
Edited by JoeKustra - 3/21/13 at 9:27am

I am very curious whether the Cold Reset will do more for the people who have not performed one of the major resets earlier. Of course, it's hard to get one of them to risk becoming "one of us". (as if I'm suffering...)

- Kerry