[jingcha]

Dear Moderaters jleavens, The Robman, David Bott,all other ReplayTV enthusiasts, and ReplayTv Gurus,


I see the popularity of this forum particularly the RTV related one growing enormously among many of us to the extent of many of us even buying RTVs faster after surfing thro' this forum and to the extent that Sonicblue tech support reps themselves recomending to surf here to get more info. ( Atleast this happened to me more than once).


You people are doing an extraordinary job in answering lot of our q's be it simple , complicated, meaningful or stupid, all I thought I could request from u are is there any way u could set up a dedicated thread or page for simple details (yet major problems for many of us ) on


1. Sonicblue photoviewer software related issues, like from finding an alternative or properway of settingup etc (as mentioned in another thread the software is very poor, I had problems multiple times ( with Xp os)).


2.DVarchive related issues: Again from scratch to more detailed info,

for ex: I have downloaded the program from the appropriate site multiple times, and all i see is either zip files or jar files which with extraction didn't really do what ever body is talking about.

3.Harddrive upgrading

4. Firmware upgrading if any

in other words some threads or info web pages thro' links similar to the www.vcdhelp.com, as dedicated step by step info.

I know it is too much of asking, but I think this will enourmously minimize lot of repeat queries with multiple threads for similar issues, although everybody go thro' FAQ's about RTV at the beginning of the forum, I am sure many will agreee that atleast for newbies like me not all the info thro' the FAQ thread is enough or complete.


I am desperate about setting up the DVarchive on my PC for directly transferring some of my favorite program ( I have XP OS 512 MB DDR, 80 GB HD, with RTV 4504 connected to broadband cable connection thro' router ( MR 314) and PC internet connection sharing thro' MA101 Netgear USB adapter, my PC pings RTV IP well)


Lastly, I heard from one of the RTV (sonicblue) tech support person the other day, that the tech support will be replaced by the call center oriented tech support people from India beginnning next week, not that I am against it, but how could somebody possibly give good support about a product which is specific for country like USA or Canda, as the concept is not there yet in India I think, ( I may be wrong )


Thanks

Jingcha


3.

 

[heathriel]

Um, wow.


Ok, here's some quick answers off the top of my head:


1. Not many people seem to use the photoviewer, so I couldn't even begin to tell you who to speak to about writing a FAQ entry on that one.


2. There are MANY threads dedicated already to DVArchive. Mainly, you download the windows version from http://dvarchive.sourceforge.net . You go to http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.4.1/download.html to get java installed on your computer, and then you just open the DVArchive.jar file that's in the zip you got from sourceforge. That's it; that's all you do to run it.


3. Again, everything you want is at http://rtvpatch.sourceforge.net about hardware upgrading.


4. Firmware is done by Sonicblue. In the event you have a machine so outdated it won't update, firmware fixes are available through Mikeyboy


5. India call centers are actually the best in the world. And in case you didn't know, they speak english there, what with having been part of the British Empire for so long. But I seriously doubt that Sonicblue is routing all calls to outsourcers; probably just specific key sequences through the phone directory.

 

[KenL]

Quote:

Originally posted by heathriel ...Ok, here's some quick answers off the top of my head...

Um, wow.


That answer is annoyingly comprehensive.


And hey that's why we come here.

 

[Ghoul]

I think what jingcha meant was to have sub-topics under the main ReplayTV forum. (Just like most forum boards... see www.macfixit.com for an example.) I asked about this not too long ago and was told by the moderators that it is a feature that is often requested but not supported. -- which sucks.


The linear posting format of these boards is nice and has some benefits...like being able to see all new posts.. but it is also a BIG hindrance for newbies. The common answer "Search" while accurate, is somewhat archaic. One normally searches under a specific topic area..not a general one like "ReplayTV & Showstopper."

 

[jingcha]

Thanks Heathriel,


I did the search with plain simple "DVarchive" which showed up so many threads and as Ghoul said it is really difficult to find the most common answers atleast for a newbie like me. I never came across any threads about installing the java for the Dvarchive to work as you mentioned in your simple answer, it worked like a charm, I am so delighted to see my PC retrieving my RTV recorded program, Thanks a lot again.

I hope many newbies will find answers similar to mine


I am sure I will be back again with more q's


Jingcha

 

[heathriel]

No problem jingcha, that's what we're here for.


I tend not to give the standard "the search button is there, use it" answer to people, as many people don't know what keywords they should use in the first place so how will they get help that way?


And even if a question has been asked here a hundred times, its our job to answer it or at least recognize that it should be in the FAQ, so we can point people there for more thorough instructions.


I seriously doubt many people know what a jar file is or how to run it. Heck, Winzip tries to extract the files from a jar. So its not intuitive and there should be a better explanation somewhere. I do think the readme file with DVArchive has exact instructions, but who reads readmes? I rarely do

 

[BaysideBas]

And that's exactly what makes the wench annoying.... she's so right most of the time.

 

[KenL]

Quote:

Originally posted by BaysideBas ...she's so right most of the time.

Let's just put it this way:


The ***** ******** is "so right" significantly more of the time than BaysideBas****Roller?


And we'd all agree our Expert Senior Curmudgeon (bless his or her heart) is "right" more often than not?

 

[KenL]

The 'Roller must have a minimum 50.00000009/49.99999991 right/wrong (naughty/nice, funny/or NOT, female to male) androgyny?

 

[jingcha]

Thought I should post the query here instead of opening another thread,


1.Is DVarchive and ReplayPC are the same kind of programs, to retreive mpeg ( recorded) files from the replay TV?


2. How to uninstall the DVarchive current version, Heathriel, my Dvarchive worked fine initially, but looks like it is corrupted now, I can get all the Categories guide displayed in the DVR window, also I have to setup a new DVR every time with the IP address of my RTV, as everytime I close the program, it removes the DVR also.


3. Is there a way I could fix this or should I wait for the next version of DVarchive , or If the replayPC does the same thing can I do it with my RTV 4504, I need space on my RTV harddrive, and I have few recorded programs which I want to burn them as either VCD or DVD, before I remove them from my RTV.

4. Are there any other alternative programs to DVarchive or replayPC which can retrieve my saved Mpegs from my RTV

Thanks in davance

Jingcha

 

[Biscuitsjam]

Is there any way to speed up the FAQ? It is VERY slow.