well i got my replacement receiver yesterday(spoke to the tech support rep on saturday). very fast imo. replaced the receiver and everything is working perfectly.

except my remote. since my yamaha htib is not fully supported by the remote, everytime i turn on or turn off my stb or tv, my yamaha htib opens its disc tray. it's annoying. if i could "de-program" it to not be included in the master power on my remote, that would be awesome. i have the urc 550 remote, the one where you have to press Enter + Mute to program. Apparently there's like 27 thousand different versions of this remote.

well i got my replacement receiver yesterday(spoke to the tech support rep on saturday). very fast imo. replaced the receiver and everything is working perfectly.

except my remote. since my yamaha htib is not fully supported by the remote, everytime i turn on or turn off my stb or tv, my yamaha htib opens its disc tray. it's annoying. if i could "de-program" it to not be included in the master power on my remote, that would be awesome. i have the urc 550 remote, the one where you have to press Enter + Mute to program. Apparently there's like 27 thousand different versions of this remote.
You cannot selectively remove one componenet from the remote, unfortunately its all or nothing with the 550.

What you'll need to do is remove the batteries from the remote for a couple hours, as it has a code saving feature built in. Then go in and reprogram the TV and rcvr if need be.

Im pretty sure you can turn off the master power

ENTER + POWER for 5 seconds. release. hit 0.

My 530 PVR finally died last week after a brave fight against constant freeze-ups. My wife called *C and the CSR tried to revive our receiver but agreed that it was too far gone. Even though our 1-yr warranty expired a couple of months ago, they said that they would send us a new one.
It arrived less than 24 hours later! I had the new one activated about 27 hours after my wife first called. I am pretty impressed, although the CSR admitted it was probably because we are only an hour away from their warehouse.

My 530 began acting up late last week - I had some trouble getting some of the HD channels at first and then by the weekend the recording functionality went pfft. I called *C Sunday evening to see if I could get the recording fixed and the CSR proceeded to put the unit through a number of machinations (soft reboot, hard reboot, factory reset) and nothing seemed to work. During this process I also mentioned the problems I was having with the HD channels. The CSR said they were having "issues" and that they were getting the engineers in Monday to work on it.

By this time we weren't having any success and in fact she couldn't get the channel map reloaded into my machine. As she was attempting to do this apparently *C's system "went down" and she informed me that she wasn't going to be able to do anything so I would have to call back - Tuesday would be good, she said, as the engineers should have things fixed by then. In the meantime, no TV on this set.

I called back late last night and got right through to a CSR. She tried a couple of times to send a signal to my DVR without success and promptly informed me that it was fried. She asked how long I had owned the DVR (it's been all of 18 months!) and then put me on hold for a minute. She came back to say they would ship me a new unit and since I was a longstanding *C customer (probably around 10 years, I would guess) they would waive the normal charge for the unit :). I thought that was pretty cool, as she offered the free unit without any prompting from me. She did make it quite clear that I shouldn't expect the same to happen should the new unit fail after a year (we'll see about that if and when the time comes).

To top it off, when asked she promptly reauthorized an old Navigo 401 unit that I had been using prior to getting the DVR so I can at least watch SD TV until the new unit arrives.

The 2nd hand 530 I bought recently is working flawlessly(touch wood). The original 530 is totally screwed up after factory resets, etc. Timing seems questionable. It's almost like updating the new one from E4 to F0 screwed the original F0.. Anyway as of today a replacement is on the way after only 14 months of use and actually only about 10 months of good service.:rolleyes:

I guess the replacement means good customer service..but the "don't expect another free one next time" comment was a stupid way to treat a customer.

I have good customer service and really bad customer service with *choice.
When I first got my system, I continually had to keep programming the remote every time I turned the t.v. on. I was told some wild things to do on how to fix this problem, one even involved taking the batteries out of the remote for 72hrs. *choice told me they would send a new remote to me free of charge. It's been five years , i'm stilling waiting. My most recent interaction with the service department took nearly an hour for me to complete, most of it involved me on hold, and ended with a tech calling me a liar. It really left me with a bad taste in my mouth. I emailed jim for answer but all he did was answer me with a form letter and when i replied saying the problem still existed i never received a reply. The problem, if anyone cares is my next door neighbor recently got *choice and he gets all the blacked out hockey games on the sportnet channels and come to find out so does my best friend. I'm the only one in the dark.

I'm the only one in the dark.

Cheer up...spring is coming :rolleyes:

meannoyed: ...The problem, if anyone cares is my next door neighbor recently got *choice and he gets all the blacked out hockey games on the sportnet channels and come to find out so does my best friend. I'm the only one in the dark.

You're not supposed to get them. This seems to be the luck of the draw...I got the regional games as well (for the last 2 years or so), until my 530 was recently replaced...I miss my Canucks. Oh well.:(

A little more on-topic, the two CSRs I dealt with in the process of diagnosing and replacing my 530 were great.

Got my "new" 530 unit last night. As expected, it was a refurb (the huge scratch on the top of the unit was my first clue; the lack of any accessories or documentation was my second). When I called to get the receiver authorized I asked the CSR what they meant by "refurbished". He said that it meant the case was used but the insides were new. I then asked him if the insides were new, why was there a history of PPV purchases showing up on the DVR list and why were there a number of telephone numbers still in the history as well? Oh, he says, the hard drive was ok so it wasn't replaced but the rest is new. Really?

Anyhow, got it up and running and we'll see how it goes. So far, so good, except I've got to go back into the settings and fix the video to show full screen SD channels (I have an HDTV and my wife doesn't like having black bars on the sides for the SD channels).

They only replace components that have failed. So there is pretty much zero chance that everything is new.

By refurbished they mean it has been through the repair center.

When a defective receiver is processed through the repair center, they diagnose the problem, and fix that, and just that. For instance, if a DVR530 has a problem with say it's RAM, just that will be replaced. The unit will be tested, then sent out as a replacement refurb unit.

Frankly, I'd prefer a refurb unit over a new one, at least I know it's been fully tested.

By refurbished they mean it has been through the repair center.

When a defective receiver is processed through the repair center, they diagnose the problem, and fix that, and just that. For instance, if a DVR530 has a problem with say it's RAM, just that will be replaced. The unit will be tested, then sent out as a replacement refurb unit.

Frankly, I'd prefer a refurb unit over a new one, at least I know it's been fully tested.
I then asked him if the insides were new, why was there a history of PPV purchases showing up on the DVR list and why were there a number of telephone numbers still in the history as well? Oh, he says, the hard drive was ok so it wasn't replaced but the rest is new. Really?

Um.... if there are phone numbers showing up, couldn't there be Privacy Act issues here? If so, I'm surprised *C doesn't wipe the HD first.

Usually a factory reset is also done at the repair center so PPV movies & phone numbers are not showing up anymore. However, some things do slip through.

It is a bit of a privacy issue. I mean, worst case scenario someone finds a bunch of porn movies in the PPV history and they start calling the numbers from the call display to inform whoever is on the other end about what titles were ordered.

Got my "new" 530 unit last night. As expected, it was a refurb (the huge scratch on the top of the unit was my first clue; the lack of any accessories or documentation was my second). When I called to get the receiver authorized I asked the CSR what they meant by "refurbished". He said that it meant the case was used but the insides were new. I then asked him if the insides were new, why was there a history of PPV purchases showing up on the DVR list and why were there a number of telephone numbers still in the history as well? Oh, he says, the hard drive was ok so it wasn't replaced but the rest is new. Really?

Anyhow, got it up and running and we'll see how it goes. So far, so good, except I've got to go back into the settings and fix the video to show full screen SD channels (I have an HDTV and my wife doesn't like having black bars on the sides for the SD channels).
What do you do to fix the video to show full screen SD channels ?

Zoom Zoom Zoom

i know you can zoom it, but he stated that he had to go back into the settings and fix the video to show full screen SD channels
Where do you change this in the settings ?

Options 6-4-5, change 4x3 override to 480i or 480p.

i find the attitude of cetain employees at starchoice very rude and unhelpful especially one arrogant french woman with no people skills. during the conversation with a family member to try to fix a problem with my receiver, she was eating, munching and walking away from the phone. instead of fixing the problem she was trying to say that it was illegal for me to have two receivers. one in my living room and one in my son's room. excuse me but when i purchased this system 8 years ago. starchoice tried to get me to buy as many as they could. they even gave me the pitch that is could put one in a guest cottage in my yard ( which is 640 acres). two is good enough. my son can watch what he wants and i can watch what i want. my son keeps his room locked so no one has access to it in the day. however she did not fix the receiver so i went out and bought a new one.
today a man called to continue the harrassing and in the process he did fix my receiver as the problem was from starchoice head quarters. they needed to input some kind of code. now i have to take the new system back to the store.
i have been a paying customer of starchoice for the last 8 years and don't appreciate the way i have been treated by your reps. your prices are too high and keep rising. that's my opinion.

What do you think your son is hiding from you?