Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 160

L David Matheny 4784:I swear AT&T seems determined to go out of business before they offer broadband to people outside urban and suburban areas.

The old AT&T of Ma Bell fame is no more. The stock owned by widows and orphans is now just like any other stock, a gamble. They provide service where they think they will make moolah, and then only if they can make bales of it.
My question is about the "Universal Service Fee" that is collected every month, and has been collected on local service since 1934, I think. What are they doing with the $Billions? You'd think by now they would have had all the wires hung on the poles, the wireless towers erected or the cables and fiber buried. The local serving offices out in the rural areas are money machines, with guaranteed assistance from the Fed. They will make a profit no matter how inefficient and inept they are at providing service. No matter what level of service they provide.
The same thing applies to the "Internet in the schools" project, another fee on telephone users for something totally unrelated to telephone service. In nearby Atlanta, the schools had millions of dollars of equipment purchased and sitting in warehouses, and there was no oversight until someone turned them in. Why is this an ongoing fee instead of a one-time charge to get them started?
I would have had to pay $2000 to have cable run a few hundred yards, and then got the privilege of paying to use the cable I had paid to install. I finally was able to get DSL lite, at 128k. Whooopeee!!
tom

Pretty sick when they "Blow Their Horn" then can't provide the Music (service).

I guess that explains your politicians.

I've had 3 different times now that my 3576 has recorded the correct channel for about 4 seconds and then switched to recording a different channel for the rest of the timed recording. Has anyone else had a similar problem? Or any suggestions? Thanks.

I live in Vancouver, WA., just across the Columbia River from Portland and am a Comcast subscriber, 3576 owner and HDTV owner. It's true, and it has happened. Nothing at all above channel 30 available without a converter box. Had to get a seperate converter box just from my Phillips, and even then, I can't record on two seperate channels without manually changing the channel on my converter box between recordings.

For those of you who still care about the Comcast digital transition, below is some info from the files I've gathered in my attempts to figure what is going to happen.

Two lawsuits are over STBs being anti-trust because they are sole source.

I could find no lawsuits over Comcast's intent to encrypt the QAM digital channels under 99 which are currently free to Expanded Cable customers.

The claim that to encrypt channels <99 requires an FCC waiver is disproven by the post above from dswensen.

The lawsuit most likely to succeed is the NFL's. That could put a crack in the cable monopoly over content.

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Friday, December 26th 2008

Internet and cable TV provider Comcast is being sued by its customer, Cheryl Corralejo, for requiring its customer to pay rental fees for its set-top and CableCARD boxes in order to view premium content and not giving them the option of buying them outright. The class-action lawsuit was filed at the end of November at the US District Court for the Eastern District of California and alleges Comcast's practice violates the Sherman Anti-Trust Act as well as business and professional codes.

Corralejo argues the practice results in customers effectively paying more in rental fees for the set-top boxes than the devices are worth. While Comcast does offer CableCARDs customers can plug into hardware, such as compatible HDTVs, said hardware must be rented from Comcast. The option also restricts the interactive features as it is a one-way solution and still has associated rental fees for all but the first time-sensitive CableCARD.

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February 10th, 2009

A lawsuit has been filed against Comcast by a San Francisco subscriber with a claim that the cable provider is violating antitrust laws by requiring its customers to rent set-top cable boxes to access digital programming.

Attorneys for Comcast customer Lucas Mays argue that rental fees paid by each customer for the set-top box exceed the cost to Comcast for the box, as well as the price that the set-top box would sell for on the open market.

The suit was filed on February 2nd in federal court in Chicago.

Mays' attorneys are seeking class-action status on behalf of all Comcast digital-cable subscribers, and have asked for a court order barring Comcast from requiring rental of the boxes to view digital services.

Consumers can't buy the boxes on their own from retailers, the suit says.

http://dockets.justia.com/docket/cou...ase_id-228054/

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In a different lawsuit, the City of Dearborn 'won' when a Federal judge issued a restraining order on Comcast to keep the public access channels in their old analog position instead of moving them to the digital tier. 35-40% of residents are still on analog.

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Information which has been reported in some forums.

| Comcast will need a waiver from the FCC to turn on
| "privacy mode" to scramble the digital QAM signal for
| basic cable. They need this, in large part, because they
| are not following the rule that their cable boxes need
| to have separable cablecards to do the decryption.

| As long as the FCC doesn't grant a waiver for comcast to
| enable the encryption/scrambling/privacy mode then
| people with TVs that handle digital signals will be fine.
| I really hope that the FCC sides with the consumer and
| doesn't allow encryption for a company that's been
| deliberately ignoring the rule of cableboxes with
| separable decryption.

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April 15, 2009

The NFL released its entire 2009 schedule Tuesday, but it's eight specific games on the calendar that are the focus of a courtroom hearing in Washington, D.C. this week.

The octet of games will air later this year on NFL Network, which is owned by the league. Comcast has put the network on its premium sports tier, which costs extra on top of the standard digital package, where the league wants its network to be.

Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider, claims it put the network in the premium tier because of high costs associated with carrying the channel; the NFL says Comcast put the channel there so as not to compete with Comcast's own sports channels.

An administrative law judge with the Federal Communications Commission will make a ruling that could have implications beyond sports:

| It is the first big test at the FCC of a 1992 federal law
| that prohibits cable companies, such as Comcast, from
| favoring their own entertainment content over that of
| independents, such as the NFL Network. A ruling in favor
| of the NFL could make it easier for independent
| programmers to gain access to cable systems, experts say.

Cook County sucks, that's for sure. After 40 years there, I couldn't stand it anymore. It's a lost cause. I don't know how any honest, hard-working, taxpaying citizen can stand it there.

One thing that might be of interest to someone if they're planning on using the Philips/Maggie with it: if you're considering an SD TV package, their SD tuners don't have the ability to change channels on their own (no built-in timers).

But at least the SD PQ is very good. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the HD PQ.

If I were having a new system installed everything would have to be HD (receivers). What are your observations or information about their HD PQ?

Found this waiting in my e-mail a few minutes before 8 this morning-

Dear Xxxx Xxxxxxxxx,

The following items from your Site to Store® order have arrived and are ready for pickup....

Items ready for pickup:

Magnavox 160GB DVD Recorder with Digital Tuner

Available for pickup until May 17, 2009

Heh heh heh...

New toy...

It would be helpful if you said whether you are OTA or on Cable, and if cable which service.

In response to the above (in bold), this is my biggest problem with the push for STB's. Companies not only charge more monthly fees for them, but we actually lose recording capabilities. Currently, I have a Scientific Atlanta Explorer 3250HD running Navigator software on TWC. I cannot record more than one show on channels above 100 while I'm away because I'm in the same boat as dswensen.

The funny thing is, it is obvious what they are doing by omitting a simple feature in the STB's software. They are pushing you to use their DVR service! Less than 5 years ago, I used to be an Adelphia cable subscriber. Their cable boxes had software that allowed EIGHT record timers for those still using a VCR and/or DVDR.

If your machine picks up a time signal, good for you (leave Autoclock "ON" and let it recalibrate at noon and midnight everyday). If you can't get a time signal by either autoclock, or the manual 11:57 method in wajo's guide, I found a new idea that I'm going to try.

As things stand, my H2160 gains about 3 seconds per day. Once a week, I manually reset my clock to the time displayed on my cable box. I set it to be (realtime) - 10 seconds. By the end of the week, it gets to (realtime) + 10 seconds at which point it starts to cut off the ends of shows and needs reset again.

In the newest customer review at Walmart.com:


I have my DST set to "Mar - Nov" right now. If disabling it makes it so I don't have to fix my time once a week, I'm going to be a happy camper.

FYI: A 500gb (dvd type) disk from GE
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8021012.stm

The modest adoption of blu ray it says...Well if they would drop prices on players, movies, burners, and blanks I think they'd be amazed how many people start buying it.
I refuse to pay 25 to 30 a movie just because it's HD, and 20 is pushing it as well.
Lets hope the industry doesn't squash this format as well and make it so expensive and crippled nobody wants or can use it.

***** Hotter than Hot *****
Initial sata conversion link
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post16138623
It's Here
Philips 3575SATA500HT goes external is now the Philips 3575ESATA500HT
Newest break through with ESATA drive connection for our DVRs. Never worry about disk space ever again, just attach a new 500gb ESATA drive, and you’ve got 200+ hrs more of SP recording available. This is a tried and tested system. Your program library can now grow to an endless size, just keep adding drives as required. Simple cheap installation. This installation is bullet proof in no way can it harm your DVR. No problems with the DVR power supply or internal heat, your using external power source. No longer a physical drive dimension restriction. Installation takes about 30 minutes at most. Swapping drives takes 1 minute or less. Swap drives between your machines (Maggie/Philips). 2.5” or 3.5” drives doesn’t make a difference.
Convert all those VHS tapes to the HDD of your choice.
Convert all those Home Movies to the HDD of your choice.

More information and procedures to follow and will be posted here.
1 IDE/SATA adapter require for all except 2160A (Regular price: $23.98 Sale price: $15.88)
http://www.cooldrives.com/sahadradtoid.html
You will require the following cable bits (Under $15)
1 M/F sata cable U709092
1 M/M sata coupler ask Charles
1 sata to esata cable U709098

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post17004883
Obtained from: contact is Charles Luevano Phone: 949-598-1795

http://estore.circuitassembly.com

Link to Data Storage equipment
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post16317263
Picture of esata 3575 in testing configuration with 2.5" 500gb drive
http://s569.photobucket.com/albums/s...t=P1020154.jpg
http://s569.photobucket.com/albums/s...t=P1020175.jpg
Homegrown multi-purpose esata configuration:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...3#post16317263
Some of the joys of esata setup
Record all your Home movies/VCR tapes to the HDD of your choice
I record everything in SP mode giving excellent PQ/sound
Never waist time dubbing to DVDs (Oh the pain of real time dubbing)
Swap drives between the DVRs (less than a minute)
Endless recording space. (just add a new drive)
Easy storage and handling.
Never a power or heat problem.
Just a great flexible recording library system
Update: For all except 2160A
Max recoding time test proof positive 212H 58M at SP mode 500gb drive max
Drive 1 a 500gb 2.5 drive full holds 123 movies
Drive 2 1tb 3.5 drive full holds 122 movies (can only use 500gb)
Drive 3 500gb drive holds 117 movies
Interesting test, these boxes do have some memory.
Scheduled a 1 hr recording session about 1 hr in the future.
Shut down the 3575, swapped drives to a previous used drive and powered up. The recording schedule still there. Power down swap drive back to original drive, power up check schedule and it was there. So swapping previous formatted drives does not lose your schedule. Scheduling recordings is held in memory. Scheduling will be lost if you unplug the unit.
or format a new drive.

Update 20090622
Update on esata conversion, the 3575 is on it's 3rd 500gb drive, the 3576 located in bedroom still on 1st 500gb(gets little recording use). Whats nice is they are all switchable. No problems encountered what so ever. Don't know of any other recorders that are this versatile.
Update 20090704
Just installed 4th 500gb drive. Removable drives works without any problems. Approximately 120 movies per drive.
Update 20090808
Just installed 5th 500gb drive. Removable drives works without any problems. Approximately 100 movies per drive.

Well considering the load of dvd's I have around here that might be a great option. Maybe we need to do the same with our HTPC stuff as well because I seem to burn more stuff from my pc to disk these days then I do with the Improved 3575h/250 I have. Or do the media center TIVX box of some flavor as well.
Only thing missing now is being able to read stuff from it into your PC...

My days as a Software Engineer are over( retired 2002), I'll pass the ball to the younger crowd.
It's a shame you can't network these boxes. But you can send audio/video wirelessly

I did put the old drive in a external enclosure I had handy last time it was apart and XP couldn't even see anything and asked me if I wanted to initialize it which of course I didn't. I think everyone's thoughts are it's running some kind of Linux based format or something similar. I wasn't going to risk loosing all my recordings at that point trying different things.
I spose if somebody gets a small drive just to record some throw aways on then they could experiment with different formats/readers to see if anything can see the info.

Yes it is Linux based format, there are some progams out there that will allow you to run Linux under windows, but I'm not going there, like I said retired. Most all DVRs are linux formatted. DirecTv DVRs but the files are encrypted. There are conversion tools to convert some DVR files to Windows playable formats.

FYI: Picture of esata 3575 in testing configuration.
http://s569.photobucket.com/albums/s...t=P1020154.jpg
That's a 2.5" drive in a toaster, currently recording.

Geek friend uses that toaster thing too for his backup drives and testing, says it works great. I may have to give it a shot when work picks up again and I can afford some more drives...or bug my friend to let loose of a few of the hundreds he has laying around, he builds systems and networks for a living.

The one I'm using handles 2.5/3.5 and usb/esata
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...20Drive%20Dock
Many uses DVR,PC,PS3 etc

I've never actually seen it myself, but the general consensus in the HDTV Programming and Technical forums here is that it's probably a little below Dish Network's. It probably won't look too bad on a smaller TV, though. Dish really doesn't.

Order of HD PQ usually goes something like this:
OTA
FIOS
DirecTV
Dish/Cable
U-Verse

For SD, though, only OTA and FIOS are regarded as better. I have seen the SD, and I was very pleasantly surprised at how good it was (except that when I saw it, the person had both an DVR and a non-DVR tuner, and the great PQ was on the DVR - on a 36" CRT. The PQ on the tuner-only, which was on a much smaller TV (I think an old, 25" CRT console), was actually a bit blurry. Could've just been that receiver, though. I would sure hate to get one and find out that it's the norm, though I believe they had it hooked up through the RF input, so that likely had something to do with it).

1080P from DirecTv is hard to beat on a 1080P projector screen of 100"
My SD PQ looks great from directv, depends on what channel your watching.

Yes, I understand it's very good now. FIOS and OTA are supposed to be about as good as you can get - although OTA here is really going down the tubes with all the subchannels. ABC just added that 720p "Livewell" sub (to go along with their 720p main channel), and both channels just look absolutely terrible now (lots of uproar about it currently in the Programming and local OTA threads). The main channel doesn't even look as good as a good SD DVD now. Definitely doesn't even look HD anymore.

NBC already has that useless "Universal Sports" sub, plus their weather channel, and FOX has just started adding some kind of awful edge enhancement to some shows (again, more info in the Programming forum). Makes stuff look like a cartoon. And PBS, PAX and the local channel WCIU-DT have 1 HD and three SD subs each (actually, 4 for WCIU). So that leaves CBS as being the only HD channel w/o subs (here, at least). CW has one, useless, Latino music video sub and an old encoder, and macroblocks like crazy (White Sox/Cubs/Bulls games and fast-action stuff like Smallville look terrible), and MyTV - well - who the heck watches that, anyway.

And since the providers are basically passing them as is, I'm sure it's showing there, too.

Hello all,

I have been using the Philips 3576 for about a year with analog TW cable and an analog TV. I bought a Sharp Aquos LC-52BD80U and "upgraded" to digital TW service (Cleveland "Western Reserve" area, formerly Adelphia). I was appalled to learn that digital channels are only available through the STB. (I haven't had to deal with the hassle of a STB since about 1975!).

I have spent the last couple of days reading this forum - I'm amazed at the amount of useful info. I fed the raw cable to the 3576 and the channel scan found only the analog channels. So I fed the raw cable directly to the TV and scanned, with same result except it found a few useless infomercial and weather channels.

I can't believe that Tivo isn't supported on TW some way so I hope there must be something that can be done. I thought I would check here to get as much useful info as possible before contacting TW. Anyone else in this boat?

Thanks!

Chris C.

Ramm,

And don’t forget our local PBS station WTTW with all its sub channels. I used to record some of their travel type programs when they had the separate digital channel before last Feb. This is drifting off topic, but my Panny EZ17 did not handle this well. If the picture was static is was good. But if there was certain movement, the picture would get a bit soft & look out of focus & then snap back into focus. It would keep doing this as long as there was motion, usually forward like walking down the street.

I called WTTW and spoke to the vice president of engineering. We discussed the situation & he thought it could be because of all their sub channels. He said he’d look into it & perhaps some adjustments would have to be made. He was concerned that all the boxes that were out there could be having the same problem. I took that to mean digital converter boxes. At least he said he’d look into it. Nothing had changed so things must be OK as far as they are concerned. I did mention just using the recorder’s QAM tuner produced the same results. IOW it was not the recording. He said Comcast did not any add any compression to the signal.

Regarding NBC, once in great while I’ll record the Tonight show in order to time shift. I noticed the picture was a bit soft and it appeared the lighting changed with some camera movement. Sort of like WTTW going out of focus but with brightness changes also. So I recorded it again but with the local news preceding it and also with some commercials. The news & commercials looked OK, the Tonight show did not. I’m guessing when the program is sent via satellite to our local network that compression must be added.

My HDTV and Comcast HD STB handles this like there is no problem. But the Panny EZ17 does not. Strike one against the Panny.

Bottom line is that all these sub channels are stealing too many bits & things are not as good as they can be. I sure hope CBS stays with just their one channel.