Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 336

> What are the bolded 7835/7836... S.B. 3575/3576?

Yep. Blame brain warp, can't think of anything sensible to explain that dumb a mistake.

> One more question: wouldn't that jp1 file be the
> same for all the units, 2160/2160A/513 since they
> all operate with the same commands?

Yes, but given the upload date Sat Oct 18, 2008 2:39 pm it is unlikely there will be any title change at JP1.

Sigh, it's always sumthin'.

I time-shifted an older HBO movie last night using my 2160 with the T.B.C. and it plays back fine. But...it has the crossed-out disc icon indicating copy-once protection. I scratched my head and looked at the setup and saw that the S-Video cable from the cable box is hooked in/out of the T.B.C. but the W/R audio cables are hooked up direct from the box to the 2160. I was shifting things around last week trying to find my low audio problem and forgot to change 'em back. I wonder if the encryption ju-ju is in the audio signal as well?

I'll have to try it again sometime to see what happens with the audio going through the T.B.C.

Thanks wajo. Hmmm, interesting! I don't know if the T.B.C. performs it's magic on the audio track too but I'll try it later and report back.

Yes, correct.

Cool, Comcast finally talked me into the triple play plan here with a free HD box and phone, plus stars for a year for like 119 so we figured more TV channels, HD and a phone that is cheaper then everything was separately before hand.
I don't normally sign up for these things becuase by the time the promo price wears off it really doesn't save me any money.
I still use my 3575 to cap some of the local shows I don't need in HD and a few of the channels they didn't encrypt like Discover for some reason.
The installer was a independent contractor and was cool, didn't freak out about all the amps and splitters and asked me what connections I wanted to use. I told him HDMI or component was fine and as long as everything he brought in was working I'd figure out the placement and extra cables later.
He was 45 minutes late and so gave us 20 bucks off on our next bill and gave me a Motorola DCH-3200 box. It has live outputs for HDMI, Component, and optical out so I think it will work great.
He was only here half an hour and said I can see you wont have any problems figuring anything out and was happy to get moving rather then spend 2 hours trying to show someone how to use everything I think he ended up making his next call on time... hoping someday we get standalone boxes that work with a cable card and can record without having to rent their stuff. doubt Funai will ever make one but crossing my fingers.

Our Comcast Motorola DCH3200 uses the component output to the TV. The Panasonic DMR-ES35V records from the DCH3200 composite or RF feeds. The DMR-ES35V also uses a component output to the TV. This arrangement works well.

wajo I tried you & kenavs' "loopback" suggestion of recording from the HD back to the HD with the T.B.C. in the loop to try to clear the CP but could only get a scrambled up black & white image.

I then tried recording part of a movie off of the same channel that gave me the problem last night with the audio connected direct 1st. Go figure, it worked perfectly with no CP so I guess last night's particular movie was encrypted for some reason. The same movie plays twice more this week so I'm going to try again and see if it's the audio signal that does it.

Yeah, I was hoping I'd end up with one of those boxes, it appears the newer ones down-convert the component outs according to their web site.
I might just try hooking it into the 3575 through the Svideo later sometime but for now I just use it for the few in the clear channels I don't need to record in HD. For HD I use the tuner card in here which I'll probably upgrade to a cable card version as soon as some show up that are somewhat reasonably priced.
They claim they'll never charge me rent for this box, though they are charging 5 a month for the combined phone modem/broadband modem box that apparently is only available from them for like 150 outright.
I've been checking out the free HD on demand stuff lately and also a few of the older movies that stars has, pretty cool and I'm sure I could record them with the 3575 if I wanted to.
So their grand plan finally worked to force me to get a HD box and upgraded service, though for now I'm only paying about 10 more a month and getting much better quality video feeds and the phone seems to work well too with free long distance in North America, so I'm actually saving about 50 a month and getting more stuff too.

I have a DCH 3200 and got a real runaround when I tried to order another one for my second tv.... I posted this elsewhere so you may have already heard my whine. The guy didn't really want to send me one, told me to go to the local office -- I told him that was very inconvenient, and he said they cant tell you which box you're gonna get. He said all phone requests are "centralized" and there's no way to know what box will ship. At least I think that's what he said. He said I could always swap it (at the local office) which obviates the reason I'm calling for a shipped box in the first place. Long story - let's just say the "local" office isnt someplace I want to go. I told him I needed HDMI, component, and svideo outputs on my set top box. I'm not even sure he was going to send me a high def one, cause some of the numbers he rattled off seemed like SD flavor box numbers. He also said it'd be another 9.99 a month for box #2 (whichever one they happened to send) and when I pointed out that the first one has been costing 3.25, he mumbled something about it including the rental .... They are making us lease extra boxes AND charging more for them ? Unbelievable. I decided not to take him up on the offer to send me "something'. I will call back and spin the roulette wheel again to see who or what I get offered next time. RCN just offered a tivo premium and faster internet connection for less than I'm paying now, so .... I may have to put my money where my mouth is. Either way, it seems I'll be inconvenienced, so might as well get a decent recorder out of the deal. I think I can output from tivo to the 2160 if there's anything I want to keep, but need to check further . I may give comcast one more try and call a different number -- I tried the "upgrade" line -- maybe I should call their "digital conversion" line instead? Any suggestions as to which branch of the "central office" would be best place to start? Used to wait hours for the local guys to answer the phone but once you got 'em you could actually make a deal. This national thing is very centralized and 'take it or leave it'

Regarding that box, I use the svideo out to a 2160, the HDMI to the tv, and the composite to an old dvd recorder. Tried component to tv, but it didn't make that much of a difference, so I finally decided to use component input on the tv to receive signal from a second 2160, instead, which is piggybacked and uses the amplified RF from another 2160. It's a nice box - the only issue I've seen is underscanning at the top on some HD stations when fed to 2160A. It went away for awhile, when they revised the HD channel lineup and moved to 800 tier, but now they've done something and it's back, so ... I'm guessing it relates to the way they're feeding the signal or how the svideo converts whatever is sent. Annoying, since I know it doesn't HAVE to be there (it was gone for about 2 months). I'm learning to live with it.

Four of the Philips and three of the Maggies were upgraded to 500GB hard drives more than a year ago. One of the Maggies (original 160GB hard drive) has a bad digital tuner. So, here goes:

One Philips in master bedroom running off cable.

One Maggie in computer room running off cable. One Philips in computer room running OTA.

The front living room has one Philips running off cable, the Maggie with bad digital tuner recording from TWC cable box, another two Philips running from both cable and TWC cable box, and one Philips currently unused. The ones running off the cable box get the scrambled HD channels I can't tune on the DVRs.

The back living room has one Philips running off cable and TWC cable box (mostly premium channel movies), a Maggie running the same way, another Maggie running off cable, and one Maggie I am currently watching shows recorded from this past TV season.

Boxes are situated on opposite sides of the TV in the living rooms (mostly one of each brand and each side) and I use cardboard covers to block the remote signals on the ones I am not currently working with.

I don't watch TV shows during the fall and winter--I read books instead. So, beginning in late spring and throughout the summer, I watch all the shows I recorded one show at a time thru completion. For example, yesterday I began watching 19 episodes of Nip/Tuck. Next up is either Justified, Ghost Whisperer, or Bones. Once I am done with the shows on this DVR, I'll swap out for one of the others. By October, I will have enough boxes cleared for next season. I already have three completely cleared. Really only need 4 or 5 for the network shows. I like to split up shows on one network that are back to back and put them on different DVRs. That way I'm sure to get the complete show in each recording.

Artwire - I suggest you go to www.dslreports.com/forum/tvcomcast, and click on the Comcast Direct tab. This allows you to communicate with a Comcast technical person in Philadelphia. I had a problem with my STB, and I created a thread on this. ComcastSteve (the technical person's screen name at Comcast corporate) got back to me within a couple of days, and the next thing I knew I received a call from a CSR at Comcast. The new STB was delivered to my door a few days later.

Hi--tried searching for reports of this in forum, but didn't find anything. When doing a "Program Change" on my 2160A for a (permanent) timer program to change start and/or end times, I get the "timer programs overlapped" message, even when the new time interval does NOT overlap any other program. What appears to happen is that some OTHER timer program (no apparent rhyme or reason as to which one) gets REPLACED with the updated program, while the original program (the one being changed) stays on the list with its original time settings.

Once this happens, I have to delete the original program, and then go through the list to figure out which timer program disappeared, so that I can re-enter it.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Looks like I may have to start getting in the habit of deleting/re-entering programs instead of using "Program Change". Did the FW update for the E19 bug fix this issue also? (Just found out about FW update today, so have not applied it yet).

Thanks,
Pete

Pete -

I don't have this problem in any of my 3 H2160A's (all still have original FW). The only time I see the 'Timer Programs Overlap' message is when I make a mistake and actually try to set 2 sessions having the same day/time setting or a partial overlap of the same day/time setting.

ww

I have never seen this on my 3575, 3576, or 2160A(Original Firmware-NOT PATCHED).
Just out of curiosity: How many recording events do you have scheduled?

I have 14 events scheduled (2 full pages, plus 2 entries on page 3). I have been able to add 15th & 16th entries (for one-time programs) without problems.

Will post back with a detailed observation of this problem.

Pete

While awaiting delivery on my MDR513H/F7 I started poking around on the Phillips website to see what else I could learn about it. According to the official "leaflet" for this unit found here (pdf), they claim it can play VHS tapes.

Copy/paste from the Product Specifications section of the leaflet:
Video Playback
Playback Media: CD-R/CD-RW, DVD-R/-RW, DVD-Video, Video CD/SVCD, VHS Tapes
Compression formats: MPEG1
Video disc playback system: NTSC
Number of Video Heads: 4
Video tape playback system: NTSC

I think someone at Phillips goofed.

Unit: 3576
Program source: Cable
Connection: Wall outlet to 1:2 splitter. Output 1 to STB. Output 2 to 3576. Passthru of 3576 to HDTV tuner in HDTV. HDMI output of 3576 to HDMI input of HDTV.

Using the HDTV tuner directly, I get some unscrambled SD and HD channels. For example, I even get TNT and USA on ch 37 and 38 (SD).

So, I figured on the 3576 I should be able to record TNT and USA without going through STB. Nope. When I tune to ch 37 and 38 (even when I manually enter the channels and a range of subchannels), I get no signal.

Anyone know what's going on? Why do I get TNTand USA via the HDTV tuner but not via the 3576? If they were HD channels, this would make sense. But they are SD.

Thanks.

If TNT and USA are in the clear (non-scrambled) they may be assigned to some sub-channels that have no relation to the "locations" where those services are "mapped" by your STB.

In order to find TNT and USA you will have to browse the sub-channels, perhaps hundreds of them, to find those services. It might be easier to inquire as to the TNT and USA clear QAM sub-channel assignments at your local cable provider thread found in this sub-forum:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=45

Due to variations in clear QAM tuners the TNT and USA sub-channels reported by those with different products may not be the exact sub-channels where those services may be found with the hybrid tuner in Philips and Magnavox recorders, but that information should point you to the correct "major channel," the number before the dash/decimal point as in 118.xx. So, if someone reports that TNT is found on clear QAM sub-channel 118.1506 then you should look for TNT in the 118.xx sub-channel range with your 3576.

Addendum: As cable providers have been known to make frequent changes to sub-channel assignments you might want to run a new digital cable channel scan if it's been some time since the last channel scan.

Umm...

The 513 is a Magnavox. Not a Philips.

They've got it on a Philips website?

I tried to get a no signal message with DTV selected. Never could. I could get "Scramble Program" displayed though. This is on a 2160, so yours may not be the same. So, without the STB, you enter 37.1 and get what on your screen? I know of no digital channel without a decimal point unless you have a STB, but I may be wrong.

That sounds like a low enough number that there should have been a fair number of users who have been there, or higher. I sure don't recall anyone else reporting anything like your situation.

When I first saw your report, I wondered what would happen if someone had maxed out the events(36 I think) and tried to do an edit, or an add. All too often, boundary conditions are not well tested. I don't think I have ever had a unit into the 3rd page, so I would not have any relevant experience, if there is some sort of bug when the number of events gets higher.

As I recall, the specs for the Philips only said 12 events. Maybe that's all they could get to work reliably. (Just kidding, I hope). I always assumed that the 12 limit was from a cut and paste from a previous unit.

Philips and Magnavox are trademarks owned by Philips Electronics North America Corp. which in turn is owned by Philips Electronic, NV (in the Netherlands)

Philips Electronics North Anerican Corp. have licensed Funai Electric Co. Ltd. (a Japanese company) and Funai Corporation, Inc. (USA) to use the Philips and Magnavox tradmarks on various Philips and Magnavox products, including the Philips 3575/3576 and Magnavox H2160/H2160A/MDR-513H models of HDD/DVD recorders.


ww

Yes. The document links weren't working on the Magnavox website so I went to the Phillips website. The Magnavox website links are working today and the same leaflet(pdf) can be found there.

The first blurb describing the unit reads:
"The ultimate all-in-one player that plays your movie collections in DVDs & VHS tapes."

Would you please post the scheduled events. Maybe one of us will see something you don't.

I use Time Warner. The channels you mention above are actually the old analog channels (no sub-channel, e.g,. 37-1). On my HDTV the TNT and USA digital SD channels are in the 101 channel grouping. The TNT digital HD channel is in the 102 channel grouping. Not at home right now so can't give you specific sub-channels.

Correction: Should have said on my HDTV and my DVRs, TNT and USA digital SD channels are in the 101 grouping......

I just wanted to let you know, I have experienced the EXACT same issue with my 2008 model year 2160's. I haven't been able to duplicate this "Program Change" bug consistently, but I've seen it several times (during daily use over the past 1.5 years). I normally have 3 or 4 pages of recording events at any given time.