[Scott Gammans]

The subject line says it all. When accessDTV is finished recording a show that I manually programmed (i.e., I entered the program information manually and did not use the PPG), the bloody thing won't turn itself off. After a few hours, it "hangs" from being on for so long and then it misses subsequent scheduled recordings. GRR!


Before you ask, yes I do have the latest version 2.2 drivers and software installed, and yes I have DirectX version 8.0a installed. The O/S is Windows 2000 Professional, SP2.


Is anyone else experiencing this problem? I really thought that accessDTV had finally settled down (I'm no longer afraid to press the fast-forward and rewind buttons!), but this is really annoying.

 

[HokeySmoke]

I'm also running Win2k w/SP2, and the program does stay on after recording (even using the guide); but it never hangs in this situation and still records everything on its schedule. So to me it's a minor nuisance.

 

[Scott Gammans]

To me it is NOT a minor nuisance; it prevents me from relying on the recorder to function correctly if I am gone for more than 24 hours and leave the HTPC unattended.


Is anyone else seeing this problem besides me and Hokey?

 

[Kei Clark]

Scott,


Are you saying that the problem occurs if you are scheduling multiple recordings manually? I've not really tried that since most of my recording are scheduled with the guide and I've not encountered any problems, but since I finally installed the Dish 5000 I'll have to verify that I'll not encounter the same problems.


Kei Clark

Digital Connection

 

[JKohn]

I've found the same thing when scheduling from the guide; accessDTV does not shut down after it finishes recording. I haven't seen it lock up from this, but then again it doesn't run for hours and hours; I often record multiple shows back to back, and then I shut it down myself later in the evening.


I really hope iTech gets us background recording in the next update.

 

[Scott Gammans]

Kei,


That is exactly what I am saying. I don't use the program guide anymore. The shows I watch are all fairly consistent from week to week and I felt no need to continue paying $120 a year for something I didn't use. Since I don't have my subscription anymore, I don't have any way to test whether accessDTV shuts itself down properly if I use the program guide.


When I used to schedule a recording manually, ADTV started itself up, made the recording, and terminated itself when complete. Now it stays on after the recording is finished. I have found that when this happens, accessDTV tends to lock up or "hang" if you don't shut it off after a few hours. As a result, if I don't attend to the HTPC after accessDTV makes a scheduled recording (e.g., if I'm out of town for more than 24 hours), accessDTV doesn't make any of the subsequent recordings. GRR!


Kei, what is the warranty period on the accessDTV card? If this misbehavior keeps up I'm going to have to demand my money back, if it's still under warranty.

 

[Kei Clark]

Scott,


Hmmm...Does the system lock up also if you simply leave the accessDTV running for equal amount of time without making a recording?


Kei Clark

 

[MKANET]

I have the same exact problem. However, I thought mine was related to beta software.

 

[Cliff Watson]

â€When I used to schedule a recording manually, ADTV started itself up, made the recording, and terminated itself when complete.â€


Scott,


Are you sure about ADTV shutting itself down after a recording? I’ve tested all software including the development of the first release and have never seen ADTV function in this manner.

â€Kei, what is the warranty period on the accessDTV card? If this misbehavior keeps up I'm going to have to demand my money back, if it's still under warranty.â€


The ADTV card has a one-year warranty period and iTech group handles all warranty claims. Digital Connection is not allowed to provide warranty by contract.

 

[Jim Ferguson]

My AccessDTV card does not shut itself off after a recording, whether it was made from the guide or from a manual recording.


Oh how I wish it did.


When signals get marginal, the card tends to hang. My signals are much more reliable in the evening than in the daytime. When the card is operating for 2 or 3 days at a time, there's a pretty good chance that it will hang up because of marginal reception.


Having it turn itself off after a recording (as long as nothing is schedule for at least half an hour or so) would be highly desirable.


Also there NEEDS TO BE A HIDDEN MODE so it can make recordings in the background without grabbing the overlay surface.


Sorry for the rant.

 

[Scott Gammans]

Quote:

When signals get marginal, the card tends to hang. My signals are much more reliable in the evening than in the daytime. When the card is operating for 2 or 3 days at a time, there's a pretty good chance that it will hang up because of marginal reception.

Jim, that is EXACTLY what I am talking about. I'm going to be gone from the casa for several days in a row sometime next month and I do not have any faith in accessDTV catching all my recordings, since it seems statistically certain that a bad signal somewhere along the line will cause the system to hang. I'm actually scheduling my S-VHS recorder to catch the "must-see-TV" shows in parallel (though obviously at greatly reduced resolution).


I think over the weekend I'm going to dust off my Visual Basic programming skills and see if I can come up with some sort of a simple "KillAccessDTV.exe" utility that does nothing but send a WM_CLOSE message to the accessDTV remote control window at, say, 3 AM every morning. It seems absurd to me that I should have to come up with something like this, but if I'm successful I will let everyone know.

 

[Scott Gammans]

Kei said:
Quote:

Hmmm...Does the system lock up also if you simply leave the accessDTV running for equal amount of time without making a recording?

I am not certain but I believe that is correct. Since we are now in the middle of the new TV season I use the accessDTV 6 days a week and so I don't have occasion to just "leave it on" without touching it. The only day I don't watch anything on TV is Saturday, so I will leave accessDTV on starting Friday night and see if it hangs between then and Sunday night.

Cliff said:
Quote:

Are you sure about ADTV shutting itself down after a recording? I’ve tested all software including the development of the first release and have never seen ADTV function in this manner.

Boy, you know I could swear that it never did this before. Keep in mind, though, that I didn't use accessDTV at all between the end of the 2000-01 TV prime-time season and the start of the 2001-02 season (during which time I upgraded to the latest aDTV drivers and software), so my memory could be wrong on this. I really don't remember having this particular problem before, though--it's serious and annoying enough that I think I would have remembered it if it had happened before.

Cliff said:
Quote:

The ADTV card has a one-year warranty period and iTech group handles all warranty claims. Digital Connection is not allowed to provide warranty by contract.

I am trying right now to contact iTech about this; my main two reasons for posting this message here were to bi*ch out loud (makes me feel better) and to see if anyone else was having the same problem.

 

[JKohn]

Scott,


I agree with Cliff, I'm pretty sure the accessDTV has never shut itself off after a scheduled recording.


As for your KillAccessDTV.exe idea, it should work just fine. Just send a WM_CLOSE to the two accessDTV windows and it should exit. In fact, the Girder command I use for closing accessDTV does just that. One word of caution, though. I found that sending the WM_CLOSE msgs while the software was minimized would cause it to hang.

 

[JKohn]

Quote:

Having it turn itself off after a recording (as long as nothing is schedule for at least half an hour or so) would be highly desirable. Also there NEEDS TO BE A HIDDEN MODE so it can make recordings in the background without grabbing the overlay surface.

I couldn't agree more. This should be a pretty easy feature for them to implement, and would make the accessDTV much easier to get along with in a multi-use HTPC.

 

[Kei Clark]

JKohn,


Agreed wholeheartedly, and sent the reference to iTech Group.


Kei Clark

Digital Connection

 

[RJ]

I just wanted to weigh in and report that I've had similar problems. When I go away for a few days, the earliest recordings usually stick, but the system hangs within a couple of days and I don't get the later shows.


Except for this, however, AccessDTV has been working remarkably well. I use it almost every day with no other problems.

 

[jaymer]

scott wrote:
Quote:

I think over the weekend I'm going to dust off my Visual Basic programming skills and see if I can come up with some sort of a simple "KillAccessDTV.exe" utility that does nothing but send a WM_CLOSE message to the accessDTV remote control window at, say, 3 AM every morning.

heh, thats a joke.

when i was on Win2k, I only got the season premier of CSI recorded (manually), and when I'd go to play it back, if I wanted to skip ahead more than a few minutes I'd repeatedly click the >> buttons and if I did it too quickly (i guess) it would hang my entire Win2k OS and not even respond to a Ctrl-Alt-Del. And I hadn't even got into the more complex use of the software...


Good luck having that POS respond to your VB request.


People complain about having to pay Tivo for monthly service, but at least their OS is rock solid and very user friendly. They wouldn't have gotten this far if the Linux box kept getting "kernel panic" msgs and reset. I can't believe the 2 pc-offerings are sooooooo crappy in comparison.

 

[MKANET]

The OS is not to blame.

 

[jaymer]

big mike,


i disagree - according tech support at Digital Connection, the guy outright told me with no hesitation or regret to get off Win2k.


now why should I have to go through all the crap IRQ investigation (as you have) just to watch HDTV? - way too many hours have been spent trying to get it to work.


since DC is my official tech support for the ADTV card, I have to go with his directive - get off WIN2k and go to 98SE.

 

[Scott Gammans]

I have found accessDTV to be remarkably stable on my Windows 2000 Professional PC... until it hangs on a weak signal, that is I also had the "freeze-on-FFWD" problem until I moved accessDTV onto an Intel-chipped PC; seems that aDTV barfs on machines with the VIA chipset.


And by the way, in case anyone has any doubts that iTech monitors this forum: I posted my gripe here first before e-mailing them, and nearly as soon as I sent my first message to iTech I received a message FROM their technical support, stating that they saw this post in the AVS Forum!