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Bell TV 6131 Discussion thread

781K views 2K replies 412 participants last post by  Battscrew 
#1 ·
This discussion thread is for owners to discuss the new ExpressVu 6131 HD Receiver when it becomes available.

Any posts discussing when it will be available or from NON-owners will be deleted and the poster will receive an infraction.

Once again, this thread is for OWNERS only.

For non-owners who would like to learn more and discuss the new ExpressVu 6131 or 9241 receivers you can discuss it here.

Edit by 57 - 6131 User Manual:

http://support.bell.ca/_web/guides/tv/userguide/receiver/6131/6131_12_ch10_eng(en).pdf
 
#33 ·
Hi how can I find out how many hours of recording is left on my EHD? I am using a 500GB EHD and went into "My recordings" menu but no option to show
the remaining hours of recording.

Thanks
ON my 6141 when I press the "PVR" button on the remote it takes me to a page that lists what shows I have recorded. On the top of that page is says how many hours of SD and HD recording space I have left. I suppose the 6131 is the same.
 
#34 ·
6131 PVR Recordings

Just registered with Digital Home today and wanted to post about my experiences with the 6131 receiver (bought 10 days ago).

I have a 640 gig EHD connected to the 6131 and have had issues with the drive disappearing. When I've left the receiver for a long time (6-8 hours), on pushing PVR button on remote, the system responds with a message indicating that I should connect an external hard drive to realize the benefits of the PVR. Power cycling of the EHD and the receiver clears this. I've turned off the satellite update feature and there has not been any problems with the EHD for the last few days.

Also, when recording movies, sometimes the recording is shown on the PVR menu in two chunks. I really do not know what causes this. As far as I am concerned, a movie show be recorded in one continuous file/chunk. Usually delete these broken events and so am not sure if there are any time gaps between the two files. Any suggestions?
 
#49 ·
I have a 640 gig EHD connected to the 6131 and have had issues with the drive disappearing. When I've left the receiver for a long time (6-8 hours), on pushing PVR button on remote, the system responds with a message indicating that I should connect an external hard drive to realize the benefits of the PVR. Power cycling of the EHD and the receiver clears this. I've turned off the satellite update feature and there has not been any problems with the EHD for the last few days.
I added a 500 gig EHD to my 6131 on the weekend. I'm having the same issues with the PVR functionality disappearing overnight. I turned off a couple of scheduled update features that I found enabled in the main menu and will check to see if the PVR is still working tomorrow. My EHD light is always on or flashing and it always feels warm to the touch and is vibrating slightly so I don't think it has some unadvertised sleep mode that is causing the 6131 to get confused. When it gets into this state, if you unplug the USB cable, the 6131 puts up a message indicating that the USB device was just removed so it still knew that something was there...
 
#35 ·
Valid EHD`s

I have just received my 6131 and so far, so good. The latest software version is V166, and no green screen or pop`s encountered. I would like to know what EHD`s can work with this receiver. Bell recommends a LaCie 750Gb drive, using USB 2.0 and running at 7200 rpm. Their web site lists this at about $200. Since Seagate and Western Digital have 1-Tb drives for a bit more than half that price they seem like a better buy - but only if they work with the 6131. If you are using a non-LaCie drive with the 6131, would you please let us know how compatible it is and what problems (if any) you have encountered. One point on their web site says that the drive must be formatted by the receiver before it can function and that the EHD will no longer work on a PC. A technician also said that before the PVR will work, they must load a software extension (on the 6131) at that will cost 35 bucks. (k-ching, k-ching k-ching)
 
#37 ·
EHD must be:

7200 RPM rotation speed
Between 40 and 1TB of capacity
Holds a single hard drive (enclosures holding 2 disks are not supported)
Plugs into an AC power outlet
USB 2.0 connection
No sleep mode (cannot power down when idle)

Would reccommend getting one with at least 16MB cache as well.

I prefer to buy a drive and put it in an external enclosure. I personally use only Western Digital and/or Seagate, personal preference based on experience ... these seem to be very reliable and quiet.
 
#38 ·
kandkt... everyone has different experiences concerning hard drives. I personally have found that Western Digital drives run hotter than other brand name drives and so, in my opinion, have a higher failure rate unless the owners take special care in making sure that they are very well ventilated.

The EHD that I use on the 6131 contains a WD drive but the case has no fan. So, I removed the front cover from the case to ensure that the heat could escape from the case.

My 6131 has been running for 7 days now without incident. I still see occasional recordings that are split (ie. a 2 hour movie appears on the PVR menu in two chunks - first part is 33 minutes - then the second part is 89 minutes) but for the most part, are recorded in one file.
 
#39 ·
Just registered with Digital Home today and wanted to post about my experiences with the 6131 receiver (bought 10 days ago).

I have a 640 gig EHD connected to the 6131 and have had issues with the drive disappearing. When I've left the receiver for a long time (6-8 hours), on pushing PVR button on remote, the system responds with a message indicating that I should connect an external hard drive to realize the benefits of the PVR. Power cycling of the EHD and the receiver clears this. I've turned off the satellite update feature and there has not been any problems with the EHD for the last few days.

Also, when recording movies, sometimes the recording is shown on the PVR menu in two chunks. I really do not know what causes this. As far as I am concerned, a movie show be recorded in one continuous file/chunk. Usually delete these broken events and so am not sure if there are any time gaps between the two files. Any suggestions?
with the drive disappearing afater that many hours it sounds like the HDD is going into sleep mode so depending on the make of it there might be a utility to disable that mode

as for the separate chunks it might be the filesystem that your HDD is using. i am only offering my advice dealing with hard drives and do not own this reciever so i do not know if the 6131 will format the drive itself or what filesystems can be used with and external hard drive with this IRD
 
#44 ·
Hi there,

I have a 6131 connected to a Denon AVR-788 via optical and a Panasonic TH-50PX75U via HDMI. I am using a LaCie 750GB external hard drive to record.

I recorded this week's episode of House in HD off Global HD West, and near the end of the episode at around the 57min to 58min mark (where House is playing the piano) I get a nasty crackling noise (sort of like a crackling fire pit).

At first I thought it was a problem with my AVR, but the noise is reproducible every time I play the clip whether it's through my home theatre speakers or my TV speakers. I even ruled out my AVR by downloading a remuxed MKV copy with DD 5.1 (448kbps) to play on my PS3, bitstreamed using the same optical cable to the same optical input on my AVR and got no such crackling.

Just wondering if anyone else has gotten similar problems. Any help would be appreciated, or any redirection to another forum that may be of more help.
 
#45 ·
I recall one or two instances where the Audio cut out, and was replaced by a loud HISS of about 1 or 2 seconds during House, and another show that aired on Global HD. It was unusual, and not the audio dropouts that have been mentioned before. I suspect it was a Global issue, or Global's feed to Bell. I haven't heard it on any other station.

-Mike
 
#48 ·
Brand New Hard drive problem

Just got my 6131 last Friday. Hooked up a brand new 80g Western digital Hard drive in an old ADS enclosure I had lying around. The receiver recognized I plugged something in but kept tell me to go to Bell's website for some reason.
I plugged the EHD into my computer and created one partition then did a complete format (Win XP). Once done plugged it back into the 6131 where it recognized the hard drive and offered to format it for me.
Works great.
 
#50 ·
Well the 6131 survived the night as a PVR. I turned off the automatic/scheduled updating of the guide info and some kind of inactive receiver standby mode and that seems to have done the trick. I don't know which one did it but I also don't care at this point. I should mention that when the PVR functionality was disappearing, doing a re&re on the USB cable made the 6131 recognize the EHD and offer to reboot to enable the PVR functionality, but that never worked. I always had to force a hard reboot by unplugging the receiver to get it back to PVR mode. Thanks to standers for posting the line about turning off the satellite update feature!
 
#51 ·
I just got a 6131 and here is what is happening:

Received the 6131 receiver and it worked fine. Then, 2 days later, I plugged in a 1TB External Hard Drive which it recognized immediately. I went through the process of formatting the HD. Then, when it rebooted, my TV screen started to blink from a black screen and back to the TV programming. It blinked continuously back and forth until I turned off the TV and then back on. It does this about once per day. The only way to resolve this is by shutting off the TV and then turning it back on. It has never done this until I plugged in the HD.

Note that when it blinks, it is NOT the TV that is shutting off. The TV light remains on during this blinking. The receiver & HD also stay ON during this.

Any idea what this could be related to?
 
#52 ·
How does the 6131 connect to the television, HDMI or Component? It sounds like some sort of hand shake issue. Have you tried rebooting the receiver (by holding down the power button for 10 seconds)?

-Mike
 
#54 ·
If the power button reboot doesn't clear it up, unplug the receiver for 10 seconds or so. The CSRs at Bell also tend to suggest that you disconnect the satellite cable when you unplug it, but I don't know if that makes the receiver do anything differently when it comes back on.

When I had PVR issues with my 6131, front panel power reboot didn't fix the problem but unplug the receiver reboot did.
 
#55 ·
sharing some info..

Got the 6131 yesterday, It is very compact, in comparison to the 6100 it is replacing. I got the unit mainly for the PVR capabilities and the add on feature of the EXT HD. As I had a 500gig sata Seagate barracuda 7200 not been used I went out an bought a Taotec ultimate 3500 case, $20.00 at pccyber.com.The case is all black aluminum with black plastic stand to hold the enclosure upright on its side. Standing next to the 6131 it looks good. Has a green led to show it is on, and flashing blue led when writing to the drive.
Connecting the HD to the 6131 was just a matter of plugging in the power adapter and the USB. The 6131 saw the HD and request to format. Took 4-5 minutes with the 6131 going to a blank screen, reboot, and download guide at the end. I wasn't expecting this and at first I taught the 6131 had died.
According to the menu 'my recordings', I will get 66Hours of HD and 495Hours of SD. By the way there is no info in the manual on how to do recordings, you learn on the fly trying and reading the on screen help. I was very impressed with the quality of the HD recording, is was identical to the HD feed.

My only disappointment is the 6131 does not have UHF remote capabilities, something the 6100 has. I would like to hear how I might be able to add on this feature if possible.
 
#57 · (Edited)
My only disappointment is the 6131 does not have UHF remote capabilities, something the 6100 has. I would like to hear how I might be able to add on this feature if possible.
There is a kit available, but I am not sure how you might be able to order it, I received it when Bell sent the replacement 6131 for my 6000. The kit I have is from Dish "IR-to-UHF Pro Upgrade Kit" If you search the forum you should be able to find information about it.
 
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