[gbuskirk]

I've experienced an anomaly twice now with my 3030, and am getting worried. If it's a known software issue I'll wait for a fix - but if I'm the only one seeing it I'll address it through ReplayTV.


I was replaying a show last night when the image froze. All remote buttons were ignored. After est. 45-60 seconds, the system seemed to reset itself, and came back up through startup screens. The colors on the overlays and video were off. It seemed a component of the colors was missing. There were rolling rainbows slightly visible at times. Eventually it went to black & white (grayscale). I held the power button in for awhile to force a reset, which did not correct the problem. I unplugged the unit for a minute, plugged it in again, and the problem was gone when it came back up. A similar episode occurred about 4 days ago. Software v3.0 release 20 or 21, I believe.


------------------

The Other Glenn

 

[Ryan]

This is your Replay...


This is your Replay on drugs...


------------------

Ryan

 

[karog]

Quote:

Originally posted by gbuskirk: I've experienced an anomaly twice now with my 3030, and am getting worried. If it's a known software issue I'll wait for a fix - but if I'm the only one seeing it I'll address it through ReplayTV.

I have a 3060 3.0 v.21. Twice mine has frozen and had to reboot. The last time a few days ago I was watching live a program that was also recording because I scheduled it to do so. The image froze as if paused and when I could do nothing via the remote, I hit the power button on the machine for 1 second. Since it went off, I turned it back on, it rebooted and things were fine.


I believe the first I had to soft reboot it ie hold the power button for 10 seconds.


I am somewhat concerned too. I suspect it is the software going awry in some uncommon circumstance, perhaps a bad disk spot. I don't know.

 

[toots]

Ow!


Do we suspect this reflects a bug in 3.0, or a fault in the hardware involved?


Shoot. Freedom from this sort of thing is one of the things that makes (made) the Replay look so much nicer than TiVo.

 

[Serra]

I also reported the same thing on my 3060 last week. The Replay froze for about 30 seconds and then rebooted itself. I lost my scheduled recording, that I was watching slightly delay. When the unit powered back up, it saved the first 10 minutes of the current record and recorded the last 4 minutes, missing the middle of the show completely.


In addition, the lockup caused my Replay's internal clock to loose about 4 minutes. All of the recordings it made for the rest of the night started 4 minutes late and caused me to miss the start of several shows. The clock was reset with the connect later than night.


When the image froze, I was not pressing any buttons and was watching a show that was currently recording. I did not have to do anything, the machine rebooted without any prompting from me. However, it lost most of the show that had already recorded, about 40 minutes worth of recording.


The unit was on an APC UPS, so I don't think it was a power problem. Also the signal was over cable using the RF input.

 

[gbuskirk]

OK, others have seen the hang with subsequent reset (a watchdog timer reset perhaps). Has anyone else seen the color problems I described in the original posting?


------------------

The Other Glenn

 

[gbuskirk]

Remember you can edit a past posting and eliminate embarrassing errors before anyone else reads it, and you don't even have to post a mea culpa. Thats latin for the modern "my bad".


------------------

The Other Glenn

 

[Keith Myers]

I have had horrible luck with the RTV 3060 so far. I got my first unit about a week ago. After initial setup, I got 3.0 S/W. The unit worked OK for about a day. Then I started noticing glitches in the live/recorded shows. Then the the playback started freezing for about 3 seconds, then would start back up again. Pretty soon this started happening every 1 miniute. Then the unit would sponataneously reboot itself. I missed several recordings. I got a RMA and sent the unit back to Replay. Got the replacement unit this last Friday. Setup initialization and checked for the S/W version as shipped. 2.1 I then did a Net Connect to get 3.0. Everything fine. Setup all my scheduled recordings. Nothing to record on Saturday. Was watching the second of two recorded shows Sunday night live and all of a sudden, I get a blue screen saying signal has disappeared. Flip over to the TV and Showstopper feeds and everything is fine. Back to the 3060 and I notice the recording has stopped. Check Replay Guide and notice all my scheduled channels are gone. Try to tune to other stations, nothing but black screens. Soon the unit has stopped responding to any remote commands. OK, soft boot by holding the power on button. Wait a few moments message comes up and the unit turns itself off. Try soft boot again. Message screen and then Replay logo screen. Logo screen stays up for 15 minutes before I do anything. OK, pull the plug for two minutes for hard boot. Unit gets to Replay logo and hangs again. Try hard boot many times, no success. Give up and pull the unit from system and rebox it. Call Monday morning tech support to get a second RMA. They won't give it unless we go through official useless soft reboot and hard reboot procedures several times with me with installed unit. Don't have time to put unit back into system before getting to work. Find time to re-install unit. Actually get past logo screen to real channel guide output. Look at the Setup and menus and notice something strange. Go to a 411 Zones and GUESS WHAT?! The unit has reverted back to the original 2.1 S/W as shipped. Didn't think that was even possible cause I assumed the 3.0 download overwrote the old operating system. Unit hangs and turns itself off shortly and I hard boot again and leave the unit on all day. While at work call tech support and ask them if it even possible for a unit to revert itself. They never heard of such thing. They don't believe me when I say that I had successfully downloaded 3.0 S/W and setup scheduled shows with the weekly Options toggle in Record or that I verified that I was running version 21 of 3.0 Get back from work on Monday night and discover the unit has turned itself off. Hard boot again and get to logo screen. The unit now is cycling itself off and on every 10 minutes. Start the long tech support process with Replay of trying several reboots while I restate my problems with the unit again. Finally, after one and a half hours I get the RMA out of Replay. The unit is bad, something I knew Sunday night. Waiting another 3 business days for another replacement unit. Will miss many recorded shows while I am away for Thanksgiving because of insufficient capacity in my Showstopper.


How many other people have had this much trouble with the RTV3060? Is there a fatal flaw in the hardware and incompatibility to 3.0 S/W? 3.0 S/W has run flawlessly on my Panasonic Showstopper PVHS-2000 30 hr. unit. I think there is a major design flaw in the RTV3060. Probably with the Maxtor hard drive, the Quantum in the Showstopper has nary a problem. Also, I am told by tech support that there are differences in the tuners in the Replay and Showstopper. I am told that the Replay tuner needs 40 dB of signal strength????!!!!! That is completely insane. You'll never get that kind of power out of a cable operator. They won't allow it. The Showstopper tuner hasn't a bit of problem with the same cable signal. Another reason to avoid the Replay and stay with the Showstopper??????


A very unhappy Replay branded owner of a $800 defective boat anchor, am I.

 

[Keith Myers]

The cheap RatShack or equivalent cable boosters will do nothing but add a huge amount of noise to the signal. Your picture will look significantly worse. Trust me, I know. I've tried about 2 dozen varieties of antenna/cable boosters from fixed 10 dB to 30 dB and variable amplification devices. The problem is that the amp design is about $2 of cheap parts assembled in Taiwan or China. The best luck I've had with the cheap kits are simple inline boosters that contain no AC power supply and depend on a DC blocker/power insertion tap which locates the AC/DC power supply remotely from the amp module. This type is typically called a mast mounted amplifier. The best choice is to just fork over the bucks for a quality commercial MATV amplifier from the manufacturers of broadcast/distribution TV equipment. You'll probably have to spend minimum of $125. You might try the Wineguard $80 amp too. The general rule of thumbe is that if you have positive dB signal strength, i.e. over 0 dB, preferably +3 - 10 dB, any competent commercial tuner will have no troubles providing a good looking picture. I think that there is a flaw or the tuner in the Replay branded units are sub-standard. My Showstopper has no troubles at all with a +3 dB at Ch. 2 to +13 dB at Ch. 78 cable signal. This same signal to the Replay was so-so.

 

[gbuskirk]

I've gone almost a week now without a reoccurance of the problem that started this thread. This 3030's going back to Mercata this week though, I've got a 3060 on it's way here now. I'm glad I waited to apply for rebates! I hope this problem is easily overcome with a software fix!


------------------

The Other Glenn

 

[uncleblaine]

Tech support has absolutely NO IDEA how much signal strength the units need. If they give you a number they have picked it out of the air.

 

[RandyL712]

After losing another show to no signal, I'm going to get a stupid little signal booster to put inline right before the replay. I know, I should install one for the whole house, but I want to see if the $5 Radio Shack booster will help. It SHOULD http://www.avsforum.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

[cooldeal]

Ketih,


I too had the same problem with my Showstopper unit reverting to 2.0 after a major crash, but no one believed me. I was running 2.1 fine until one day the picture froze and I had random dots and strange colors all over the screen. The machine would then just reboot over and over and never come all of the way up.


Belive it or not after about 4-5 days of being unplugged, I plugged the unit back in and it worked fine until I shipped it back to Mercata. I have no idea how electronic components can function this way, but they do with these devices.


I have a new Replay 3030 now that runs way too hot and I get the video skips since 3.0 all of the time now. Time shifting shows while the unit is recording is just not an option any longer. If you use the skip button or FF or RW, the material being recorded gets very choppy and audio and video dropouts occur.


Let's hope we get all of these issue cleared up soon!


cooldeal

 

[Keith Myers]

Cooldeal,


Thanks very much for confirming what I observed. I knew I wasn't crazy and imaginging things. Yep, these electronic doodads really do inhabit their own reality. I am waiting for the second RMA to show up and I am going to do things a little differently this next time. I am not going to automatically force a net connect to get 3.0 S/W. I am going to let it run on the shipped 2.1 S/W for as long as possible and hope that the automatic nightly programming downloads don't get me 3.0. I might just force a net connect to get the schedules and then cancel the connection if it says it is checking for new S/W. I want to see if the next replacement 3060 is stable on 2.1 S/W. I will try to determine if the 3060 H/W is defectively designed or whether it is incompatible with 3.0. My Showstopper PVHS-2000 seems to be happy with 3.0. I'll keep everybody posted on my travails. Cheers.


Keith

 

[boblinds]

Adding my voice...


This week, after 2-3 months of flawless service, my Showstopper started glitching. Little digital artifacts and dropouts in the picture, interruptions of movement, brief freezes... VERY irritating.


Done a hard boot -- unplug/replug -- but no fix.


Are we looking at a problem with the 3.0 software? I hope so, otherwise it looks to me like a problem with my compression chip and, ergo, a bad ReplayTV that may be just days out of warranty.