[mrmike]

Well after a couple of weeks of fiddling around with Firewire driver code on my PeeCee and determining that I'm at least 4 weeks away from having any usable code I pulled the trigger on one of the SR-VD400's that AVS was selling at a splendid price just to get some form of HD recording functional in my home. Alas, that is not what I ended up with.


The good: My STB can talk to and transport control the deck. The deck displays a grey screen with a box labeled "Tuner - MDR200" on it and tuned itself to I-1 when recording.


The bad: The grey screen isn't video. I did a timer record and got an hour of blank tape (as far as I can determine - it shows blank on playback on the JVC and through the MDR200 and when capped with DVHStool it's a zero-length file). I pushed a short (5 second) .ts file back to the deck using DVHSTool and it displays on the deck outputs just fine but the MDR-200 just shows a blank screen. I recorded some SD material from the tuner on the JVC (And boy does it make super pretty SD tapes even), but this also does not play back on the MDR-200 though it does on the deck outputs obviously. Attempting to cap the SD material with DVHSTool resulted in a zero-length file.


I'm a bit stumped. I had expected based on what I've read here to perhaps have to power one or the other box on and off to get them to sync up on the Firewire, but they're obviously talking because the transport controls work and the deck knows what tuner it's connected to.


I'm expecting a couple of D-Theatre tapes in this week but they won't be viewable over the Firewire (correct?) so I still don't know if it's at the deck end or the tuner end that I'm busted (or both). I could perhaps use a pointer to some known good .ts files or to the elusive mpeg2ts utility so I can chew on some VOB files and make some longer and more stable test cases than the one I have.


At this point I have a kilodollars worth of expensive paper weights in my living room and I'd appreciate any guidance in making them somewhat more useful for their desired tasks.


-MM

 

[mrmike]

And once again I seem to be foundering in uncharted waters. Ah well, at least I'll get a nice tan out here.


-MM

 

[Ken H]

Quote:

Originally posted by mrmike I'm seeing the issue with my SR- VD400US and an MIT-MDR200 STB feeding it. I'm hope that I didn't choose poorly when I went for the pro deck over the 40K that it's ostensibly the big brother of. -MM

I spoke with Marek (DVHS expert) of JVC today. He confirmed the 400U is the same as the 40000, except for the Pro DVHS feature of the 400U.


He also said he was unaware of the MDR-200.


I'm going to send him an e-mail with the details and work with them to see what can be done. I suspect it's a fixable issue.

 

[mrmike]

If I can provide you/Marek any data that'd be useful in diagnosing, let me know.

 

[jsb_hburg]

Ken H,


The consumer DVHS decks are known to work with the MIT MDR-200. See the power buy thread for the MIT MDR-200.

 

[mrmike]

News on my front. I moved some gear around, reconnected all of it and now although I can still use the transport controls on the MDR200 to control the VCR the VCR no longer "tunes" to I-1 when the STB is using it. It tunes instead to "I-" with no unit number and no longer displays the "Tuner:MDR200" on the screen. I still have grey screens. I've powered each on with the other off and with it on, and plugged and unplugged and it just doesn't seem to be connecting the same way it did before. Colour me confused. Anyone know if there's a way to reset the JVC decks to factory defaults in case I've mucked something up?


-MM

 

[jsb_hburg]

I have had success using VirtualDVHS. Connect Mac (powered-off) to MDR-200. Turn on Mac. Launch VirtualDVHS. Click D.I. button on remote to record or use GUI of VirtualDVHS. Playback - either way as well.

 

[Ken H]

Quote:

Originally posted by jsb_hburg Ken H, The consumer DVHS decks are known to work with the MIT MDR-200. See the power buy thread for the MIT MDR-200.

Thanks for the note. I'm going to get the Digital Connection guys on the case.

 

[Cliff Watson]

MM,


Is the JVC listed under Setup for the Digital Interface (DI)?

 

[mrmike]

Yes, and the controls work and it will do timed records, I just don't get any video on the tape or any pass-through viewing from the JVC side. I get a grey screen on the JVC and when I play back I get a black screen on the MDR-200. I unplugged the JVC and replugged it in and it now is back to tuning I-1 for the MDR-200 and listing it as Tuner: MDR-200 on the OSD when it's tuned to that channel. It's almost like the MDR isn't sending the right video format except that even when I played back the small TS I was able to transfer to tape over DVHSTool it still only showed a black screen and that video wasn't from the MDR.

 

[Cliff Watson]

MM,


I don't have an answer for you because I have no problem recording to and playing back with my MIT D-VHS.


I believe Kei Clark from Digital Connection has a JVC and I'll pass this on to her for resolution. You may have a bad MDR-200 box.

 

[mrmike]

Alas the big game came and went without a functional recorder. I poked around a bunch this weekend and all I know is that I don't know much. I could really use a source of a "known good" .ts file to make sure that I can ship to and from my deck from my PC correctly. This would give me some greater confidence in the JVC. I've been unable to find a copy of brzez's mpeg2ts to attempt to generate my own. At this point I don't know if it's the MDR-200 or my JVC deck or both that's being recalcitrant.

 

[mrmike]

More data: With both the PeeCee and the MIT box connected to the JVC deck I get an I-1 channel which is labelled "Tuner: MDR200" and an I-2 channel which is labelled "1". I cannot capture a stream using DVHSTool when recording onto the D-VHS from the D.I. controls on the MDR-200, nor when playing back SD material recorded directly from the tuner on the D-VHS in this configuration. I'm even more confused than before.

 

[jsb_hburg]

Either the MDR-200 or the JVC is bad, I suggest getting an exchange on the MDR-200. Perhaps, DC can test the box with their JVC gear to determine whether the problem lies with the box or the JVC.

 

[Barrybud]

MM,


I got the JVC through the same deal and was looking at the MDR-200. But I am waiting to see if there is a resolution to this.


Thanks,

Barry

 

[mrmike]

Update: AVS doesn't have an MDR-200, DC doesn't have a SR-VD400, JVS tech support is clueless and I'm still looking at some very expensive paperweights.

 

[mrmike]

I'm about ready to punt this issue. JVC tech support has had nothing useful to add, and frankly the level of support from the respective retailers has been sorely disappointing. I don't know why I expected more, but I did. At least it's not the most expensive mistake I ever made.