Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 547

How about that, wajo? It worked.

Why would the coax-out affect the scan?

Speaking of using a splitter. I had to add one to one of my setups because apparently the signal boost from the Mag was too strong for my tv. What appeared as a poor signal to the tv- no picture, pixelation- was apparently the results of being too strong. Thanks again to this thread for the tip.

Wajo,
First, I see your still helping so many enjoy all that these DVDRs can do. It's great having you share your knowledge with so many. I stop by every now and then and glance at what's being posted, but for me, my Philips 3576 DVDr has mostly modest duties, which it handles with great ease. But I have come across an ideal that I wanted to ask the guru of these DVDRs about. Is it possible to have the 3576 record off of my FM receiver? Could I have it set to record a radio show everyday at the same time (given that my FM receiver was on)? I wouldn't think it would matter that there's no video signal, just audio? So Wajo, what's your thoughts on this?
Thanks in advance,
Ghpr13

I started doing this with videotape back in the 1980's using a HIFI VCR. I soon found that some VCRs would not play back audio only videotapes. Then I connected an unrelated video feed to be recorded along with the audio. After that there were no problems playing back the videotapes for their audio.

More recently I experimentally recorded a weekday talk radio program from a local FM station using a Funai manufactured Toshiba DVD recorder. I found the same situation as before, the audio could not be played back from the DVD. Then I connected an unrelated video feed to be recorded along with the audio. After that there were no problems playing back the DVDs for their audio.

I've described and pictured that setup in these posts:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...7#post20442257

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post20664673

Even more recently I reconfigured some of that equipment. I'm now concentrating on streaming and recording from the internet as described and pictured here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...4#post21066014

I pulled the yellow video line from my STB, tuned to a music channel, and recorded music only (scheduled) on the rear AV1 input. No problems. Sounded great at LP.

Any speculations why lack of video would cause a change in storage use? I can understand 480i, 720p, etc. making a difference if the recording wasn't always done in 480i. By extension, how much space would a one hour HQ recording of no input require?

I spend a lot of time listening to FM radio. In my backwoods area I need a roof mounted antenna to get more than one station. I use a Gigaware (Radio Shack) radio with an iPod dock. It's 10 time more sensitive than the built-in FM tuner in any of my receivers. It gets RDDS and HD stations too. It does support the video from the iPod, but I have never tested it. I don't have an old iPod. But the FM (and AM) sound from this unit sound great. I would look into feeding the 515H, but my receiver has IP Radio with over 10k stations. I could stream the local sports channels and record them.

There was a discussion back in the end of May about losing the audio from some STBs using the record feature in the STB to auto tune channels. I think the main point was that if you left your box on, you didn't lose the audio when it changed channels. Any further info?

I have a Mag 2160 and an RNG 110 from Comcast. My STB won't turn itself on or off to record, so I've always left it on to record titles on the Mag. Recently, a couple of my titles have been recorded with no audio. It seems to be just programs that have been recorded from the STB after it changes channels. All other titles are fine, and most auto-tuned STB recorded titles are good as well. I've tested the STB by setting it to record/change to a different channel while watching, but it hasn't lost audio while I'm watching it.

Thanks

Initially, in the 'olden days', I don't think that the designers considered that ANYONE would attempt to record AUDIO ONLY on a VHS Tape (or DVD Disc) . Over a decade ago, when I discovered that the audio quality on my Sony SLV-676UC VCR didn't vary from SP to EP, I began copying *MULTIPLE* CDs (borrowed from the Public Library ) to *ONE* T-120 @ EP (i.e. *SIX* HOURS! ).

Unfortunately, as the years go by, designers tend to "Fix Things That *REALLY* Aren't Broken" , as per DigaDo in the following post:


Luckily, I only had / tried this with my Sony SLV-676UC which had NO PROBLEM with no video.


Pretty much the same as why a STATIC Channel ID Pattern would consume fewer bits than a LIVE hockey game.

I noticed the same "Fewer Bits Used" last summer when a TMC movie of over 2:30:00 in length (2:45:00+?), successfully recorded @ SPP to the HDD, and HSD'd onto *ONE* disc. Since, IIRC, it was 'LetterBox', 2.35:1 or 1.86:1, (i.e. black bars top and bottom), I *ASSUMED* that the lack of 'activity' inside the 'Black Bars' contributed to the increased 'Disc Capacity @ SPP'.

Thus, IMHO, *IF* the designers didn't get involved FIXING things, today we might have gotten TONS more 'Audio Only' recorded on a DVD via a DVDR.

Video is stored in a compressed format, nothing compresses really good

Once again the members of this thread came through. I would like to thank DigaDo, JoeKustra, Rallybar41, ClearToLand, rdgcss and of course Wajo, for all the replies given. I will set out to record the audio I want (hopefully next week), and I post back. Again thanks to all and enjoy your DVDrs!
Ghpr13

How often are you supposed to check the time on your Magnavox units?

I have had many VCR's and DVD recorders. I've always done the manual settings and when I saw that the Mag 515H would have trouble with automatic settings I decided to continue using manual settings. I use the digital readout on my phone to set the clock. The one thing that I wasn't counting on is that the Mag doesn't keep good time. In the last two months my MAG has gained 2 minutes! This is something I haven't ever seen on any of my other VCR or DVD recorders. I had set up my timer with a 1 minute cushion on either side to make sure I caught the beginning and end of my show. I had set up a timer to catch the daily broadcasts of my favorite show. The only tested the first show. When I sat down to watch a marathon session the last few recordings were missing the final minutes!

I guess this is why the Maggie turns itself on and off all the times when Automatic settings were turned on. I just though automatic settings were for dealing with power failures.

Once a week should be good enough. I use auto clock but that only updates the time at noon and midnight if the recorder is not in use. My 515 normally has programs recording during both of the auto clock update times on weekdays so auto clock only runs on weekends. I don't notice any clock drift.

Two minutes would be great. If I turn off the automatic setting then my 515 behaves just like my Funai-made Toshiba DVDR before it... that is, it's off by several hours or so within just a few days. I thought those internal clocks worked off the 60Hz power frequency.

Wow, that's pretty bad time keeping. I didn't know the clock was regulated by the power supply. My Kill A Watt meter says my power supply is 121.3 volts at 59.9 Hz. Maybe that's why my clock doesn't drift too bad. Have you checked your power?

Edit: 234 mentioned here these recorders use a quartz clock. I think that means power frequency shouldn't matter.

I keep it set to the known good time signature on our local PBS digital channel... the same one I had always used for the Toshiba. I had tried shutting off automatic updates just to see if I could eliminate the twice daily wakeups (not that that really matters anyway... I'd rather it always have the correct time rather than trying to save a few pennies annually).

I have 2 2160As & 1 515. The 515 loses time as fast as the 2160As gain it. I can get up to 2 weeks between manual settings by setting start "on time" and recording 1 minute long, by setting the 2160A clocks 7 seconds fast and the 515 clock 21 seconds fast according to the NTP time my computer maintains. It also depends on the channels, as some run close to NTP time, while others vary between early and late by sometimes more than a minute. Because of channel start time variations, auto clock setting would require I set 1 minute early _and_ one minute late, which would be a serious problem for back to back recordings on different channels, a common need during prime time.

Modern clocks are junk. The only time I need to set my Sony SL-HF900 clock, which was made 25 years ago, is after a power outage outlives my UPS batteries' charge.

Sorry... I should have emphasized the "IF"...



Local Fox feed seems to have no time signal the the Mag can find.
Using PBS the Mag always agrees with our cableco STB.

Initially I used the time from my T-Mobile cell phone. That time wasn't always accurate, sometimes off by two or three minutes.

Now I use this as my time source:

http://www.time.gov/timezone.cgi?Pacific/d/-8/java

I usually reset my recorder clocks (all fourteen of them) at two and a half week intervals.

That got me thinking. So I decided to see if a conclusion could be made from observations. You tell me.

I made three recordings, all in HQ mode and all for a scheduled 60 minutes.

First was L1 from the STB DD2.0 with no video wire connected.
Next was the 515H tuner of the same (DD2.0) music channel. My cable displays static album art at 480p if that matters.
Third was L2 with nothing connected.

The storage used for L1 (DD2.0, no video) was 8 minutes. The storage used by the tuner and the L2 (empty) input was 15 minutes.

Time used was from the display button's remaining space indication.

What do the L1 and L2 recordings look like when playing them back? I presume that the L2 recording (nothing connected) would have a blue screen (or similar) displayed, while the audio recording from L1 would have a black screen...if so, perhaps black (all 0 bits) compresses better than blue (a mix of 1s and 0s)?

A little while ago the Microsoft time server stopped working. I was able to switch my computer to www.time.gov since I still use XP and don't have a domain server at home. That has been a very good time source.

My 2160A was good for 5 seconds per month. The 515H is good for 10 seconds per week. I no longer have access to a frequency meter, but if the 515H had a trimmer cap I would play with it.

One of my wishes is a blank screen like my Toshiba DVR and Sony Blu-ray. I have enough clocks.

Black screens on both. No blue. My old memory says that black is 100% modulation and white is 0%. That's why old TV's had snow on empty channels. But that might mean nothing.

Well, maybe gray is a better color. There is no "no signal" display on these units. It's the same screen color you get on a blank or scrambled channel.

Well Wajo, your tests seem to confirm my experience when i was recording audio books. I played the CD's on my CD/DVD player to the HDD of my Philips 3576 w/o video cord,then HSD to disc(8x -r).I thought i would get much more time on the disc if i wasn't recording any video,my thinking was:fewer bits=more recording space,but it wasn't so.Amazing,and unfortunate. G.