Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 631

Thanks wajo for the quick reply. I figured it out. The cables were ok. HDMI audio on the Mag had somehow been set to off. I had tried it both ways earlier, but for some reason this time I have sound after toggling it back and forth. I also enabled the HDMI CEC funlink. I'm not sure what worked, but anyway I now have sound. The people at Magnavox had me confused with erroneous connection methods. I'm sure glad you were here to help wajo and I really appreciate it.

Try as a test only to disconnect the HDMI cable from the Motorola. If that produces sound on the 515, you've run into an uncommon manifestation of a known issue. Cableco set top boxes typically won't produce video output on other connectors if HDMI is in use. Most who need to work around the problem by using component cables between STB and TV. "HD" on copper cable is mostly HD in name only, correct format, but because of compression required to put hundreds of channels on a cable sharing telephone and internet duty, rarely actually the high quality the specs provide for.

To see if the 515 is actually your problem, try using the L2 instead.

To see genuine high definition on TV requires BluRay, broadcast ATSC TV from your own antenna, signals from the satellites or fiber that TV stations get their signals from, or possibly streaming off the internet (which I have yet to find), so using component cables likely won't cause you any apparent loss of quality.

Thanks, mrmazda. I just checked my first DVD recording and it is fine with the exception that the STB apparently doesn't pass the 16:9 ws flag so people's faces are a little squished.. I'll be getting a component converter from Monoprice anyway once they get back in stock so yes, I'll probably end up going the component route as I want to get a WS picture. I'll check the front inputs tomorrow. Bad headache now and enough for one day.

I currently have several varieties of the Liteon HDD recorders (5045/A740 and Accurian 3223) which I have been nursing successfully now for many years. One of them even still has the original dvd recorder.

Given the age of these machines, however, I thought it was time that I started to look into more "modern" equipment and was surprised to see that there is not much out there in this mode of dvd recorder....except for the Magnavox 513 and 515 machines and even those are apparently expected to pass on in the near/mid-term future.

I have gone through a great deal of this thread, trying to understand the plusses and minuses of these machines and recognize that they can do a great deal more than my existing Liteon recorders. However, I already also have a DVR provided by my Cable company so I am not really looking to add much in the way of new features, but rather try to protect my ability to continue to record in the future.

Essentially, all I want to do is be able to do advanced time recordings of tv broadcasts to the HDD and then edit them on the HDD and record a final version to a DVD. In looking at the features of the 513/515 as described in this thread, it seems there are at least two aspects of these machines that concern me.

1. Merge. Is it true that if you have two separate recordings on the HDD, that you can not merge them into one title onto the HDD and then record that to a DVD?

2. Empty Space. Also, from what I understand, even after a DVD is finalized, the menu will show not only the title or titles that are recorded to it but also a "Title" called something like "Empty Space."

FWIW, it also seems that the editing process (particularly making cuts at the beginning and the end of a recording) is much more complicated than on the Liteons....but I suppose one gets used to the procedure with practice.

So, before I go ahead and make a purchase I just wanted to get confirmation of my two "concerns" noted above, plus if there are any other positives or negatives I should be aware of ... again, I am only concerned with making timed recordings to the HDD and then creating DVDs.

Thanks for any comments

Thanks for that info...though depending on the amount of empty space available, that means a considerable amount of extra time to get a "clean" dvd.



I had seen that and I am glad you call that very simple...without having the machine and remote in front of me, it did not seem that easy to do.

Given the options of just relying on my aging Liteons or at least having one of these available for the future, I guess it is time to take the plunge.

I remember having that problem. I think this is what fixed it...

Setup / General Setting / Playback / Disc Audio / Dolby Digital. Change this setting from Stream to PCM.

I always keep some short junk titles of various length on the HDD. I use these titles to High Speed Dub to the disc to nearly fill it. It makes the time required to overwrite the empty title in real time minimal. I delete all the dubbed junk titles from the DVD before finalizing.

Incoming your way from Latitude 49.xx degrees North and Longitude 123.xx degrees West

It isn't the time so much as the fact that it is an extra step. With my Liteons, I simply set up the recording from HDD to DVD and go away. Then when I go back, I finalize and I am done and I can start a new one. With the 513/515, I will have to record from HDD to DVD and go away. Then return and record from live TV, and go away. Then, finally, I can go back and finalize and start another one. So essentially, it will take twice as many steps to get to the same place and if I have a lot of recordings to do...which often occurs as I go out of town for a couple of weeks at a time and set up recordings while I am gone...it will double my time. Oh well....complaining to you won't change anything

hi wajo et al...

i received the 513 SATA adapter board today and decided to interrupt my clock cal process to test the thing.

1st, i realize that this will not be for everyone, depending on preference, but my intent is to maximize form factor compatibility when modifying / updating my Philips 3576 machines as time goes on...

by using the 513 SATA adapter board, i retain a good form factor fit without using other brand PATA to SATA adapters inserted in daisy-chain fashion.

so, FWIW, the good news is that the 513 SATA adapter board works fine in the Philips 3576 ( and should also be fine in the older 3575 model )...

since i do not own a 2160 series machine, i cannot confirm that the board will work, but i believe it will either fit right in, or at worst, require the simple mod i performed.

1 - the ribbon cable that provides the interface from the main PCB is an exact fit, both physically and electrically. so there are no issues with primary connectivity.

2 - the 3576 machines utilize a PATA drive and, as such, the power connector is a standard molex HDD power connector. the 513-515 machines utilize a SATA drive and, as such, the 513 power connector is a small 3 pin connector, which is not compatible, although the same power levels are there ( +5v / +12v / GND ).

i elected to attach a mating molex connector to the SATA board at a couple of convenient solder pads. the connector mates properly with the 3576's existing HDD power connector to provide the proper voltages to the board.

i've attached a photo showing the addiion of the power connector.

i installed a 160g SATA notebook HDD and tested. a SKIP 079 confirmed the drive's presence, but improperly formatted. i went ahead and allowed the 3576 to initialize the drive, re-powered, and then performed an OTA test recording, which worked perfectly.

so the bottom line is that, contrary to the ' standard ' Funai response, the 513 SATA adapter functions properly in the Philips 3576, albeit with a minor power connection mod.

back to my clock cal ...

rgds,
ron g
=====

I love simple mods like that, thanks. The only reason it wouldn't work with the earlier units is the changed power plug and you fixed that issue.
When I got my first mother board with SATA support every drive I had was IDE so I made a Y adapter thing that had 2 5 1/4 and 3.5 drive power plugs so I could run the SYBA IDE to SATA adapters on it as I was out of extra 3.5 plugs or adapters and they were getting hard to find, but I did have plenty of regular power Y adapters extra and a dead power supply that had a bunch of the small power plugs on it, instant adapter

I don't think I've ever posted here but I've been looking at this thread for a long time and own 2 3576s along with a Pioneer 531. Before I ask my question I want to say thanks to Wajo for all your work and for the great online manual you created and to all the others here who have posted advice.

I'm having a strange problem that may be due to my 3576 but am not sure so I'm wondering if anyone has had an issue like this. I got Verizon FIOS with a high def DVR a while back and don't use my 3576 as much as I used to but still use it. I have my FIOS coax going directly into the 3576 and then out to the FIOS box thanks to the pass-thru feature. Then my box goes to a Denon 2310 receiver and on to my Samsung high def tv. Everything works fine except when I stop watch something on the FIOS DVR and try to exit from the DVR menu it locks up and will not respond to the remote.

It's been doing this for a while so I finally contacted Verizon and they sent me a new DVR. I set up the new one and have the same issue. I also took the old one and hooked it up to a bedroom tv not running thru a receiver or 3576 and the old DVR now works fine all the time. I have several different remotes and tried them all on both to make sure it wasn't the remote. So my question is, could the 3576 be affecting my DVR. I don't see why it would but I'm wondering if anyone else has had this issue with a FIOS DVR. I was thinking about splitting the coax instead of running the coax directly into the 3576 first but I don't know why the 3576 would only affect one small aspect of the DVR. I guess the only other possibility could be the receiver but again it doesn't seem to make sense. Anybody else have a similar situation?

Golfdad, the only wild stab guess I have is that for some reason maybe the Fios box is expecting to communicate back to the CO when you are exiting the DVR menu, and the coax passthru on the 3576 does not allow 2-way signals. The DVR might be waiting for some kind of response from the CO and never getting it. As you tried the Fios box on a line with nothing in between it and the CO, that could be the case. I'd try removing the 3576 from the chain at your main TV location and see if the problem goes away.

Seconding dare2be's idea.

Never feed a cable box with a signal that's being passed thru one of the recorders. These days just about all of them seem to require 2-way communication.

I'd use a splitter. Even get an amplified one if splitting the signal weakens it too much.

Your cable box needs its own isolated feed of the cable signal.

i 3rd that one as well.... definitely at least sounds like a bi-directional comm issue... a friend with a 3575 had the same issue with his COX service.... placing his 3575 in line caused all kinds of havoc because the 3575 loop is NOT bi-directional... we had to use a splitter to alleviate the problem...

rgds

ron g

I have read all of wajo's excellent help files and have printed some for quick reference when using the mag. A very useful web bookmarklet that saves paper and results in nice clean copy is the "Printliminator". To download this handy bookmarklet go to: css-tricks.com/examples/ThePrintliminator/
Works great for me.

Thanks for the replies. That's what I figured I would have to do, I'll give the splitter a shot. It's weird that I've had it for close to 2 years now and it seems like it used to work fine but it has been giving me problems for a while now.

Amazon now up to $500 for the 515H.

Verizon probably sent a software update to the box recently that changed the way it operates, would be my guess.

Amazon/Planet73 is still only $21 more than I paid it 3 weeks ago for a 513 refurb delivered.

WWD has some back in stock for $226...
http://www.amazon.com/Magnavox-500GB...pr_product_top

...tempting...

The one I bought for Christmas is being happily used...

I'm just not sure I want one of these in addition to my Media Center PC.
Basically, since these 515's are getting rare I'm tempted to just have one around, but I'm just not sure.

I have a quick question that I am sure someone has asked before... Can I record a program on one channel that runs from 8:30 to 9:00 and a 2nd that is on a different channel that starts at 9:00 and runs to 10:00 without screwing up the machine and freezing it?

Yes, you can. I do it all the time without problems.

What does " STOP 2X" translate to in regards to saving the DVR show you are watching to Hard drive. Does it mean hit Stop Twice?

I got my DVD show to save to HD but just not sure how I actually did it

Ok,thanks! Just wanted to see if someone else had done it before I tried