I've had some serious lock ups over the past few days. Since getting the BC update I'd say I've had to reboot at least once a day until Wednesday when I had to do about 3 or 4 reboots after lock ups. Then yesterday it got even worse. Had 5 lock ups and the last 2 were right after each other. I would either pull the plug or hold down the power button to do these resets. I finally decided to phone *C last night and the tech guy had me stay on one channel while he did 2 "hits" to my machine. I'm not sure what these hits did but I have not had any lockups or even been able to try and make it lockup since the hits last night.

At no time did he offer to do any kind of Factory Reset, he just did these 2 "hits". My trip count went from 0 to 10 after the hits. It appears he may have been a junior tech as he said he has emailed all my information and comments to the appropriate department but that I would not hear anything until after the New Year. Guess the senior techs are off for the holidays.

Obviously, not all the techs are using the Factory Reset as an excuse or option. It's only been about 12 hours so I shall see how it goes today. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Over the last 5 days, I have been averaging 3-4 lockups a day with the "BC" code....everytime there is a broken recording on the last tuned channel, when the lockup occurs. This after all the factory resets etc.

I was also noticing unusual slow response from the 530 yesterday on everything....and then the dreaded channel change issue returned ....it is very irritating.

Hopefully, *C would have fixed this in the general release of the BC code later this month.

Whatever the tech did, the 2 hits has really helped my machine. I had one video freeze yesterday but thats been it since getting the "hits" on Thursday. One hit took about 15 minutes and the 2nd one took a couple of minutes. I was also getting the broken recordings too but that didn't happen with the freeze yesterday. We did not do any factory resets. Not sure how the hits fixed the problem unless they were like mini updates. It appears these factory resets don't really fix anything other than maybe getting the customer off the phone.

Some observations on the channel change issue. Normally, authorization status (Line B. Options-6-4-7) displays "SWO". Every time I see the channel change issue, the Line B. changes to "??". A soft reset clears the issue...for the time being. Could it be that if the the signal power (Tuner1) drops below a certain level (due to weather etc), the software gets screwed up...just speculating.

Anyway, *C seems to be getting this complaint from some other BC users also and indicated that this would get fixed in the general release later this month.

One hit took about 15 minutes and the 2nd one took a couple of minutes.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were sending patches to the current firmware without completely replacing the firmware.

I wouldn't be surprised if they were sending patches to the current firmware without completely replacing the firmware.

As discussed in this forum in the past, this is something that is NOT done. The only way to do this would to force an update and people would probably notice as there is a screen that shows the forced update progress. If SC started having multiple versions of BC they would have a support nightmare. That is why they have a version!

The only logical possibility is that each hit that *C sends, resets some software component (or pointers) which might have gone astray....the other way to reset all these pointers might be via a "soft reset".

Multiple firmware's are out of the question and they would be impossible to track and troubleshoot with the same version reference (i.e. "BC")

Multiple firmware's are out of the question and they would be impossible to track and troubleshoot with the same version reference

I disagree. Just because the user can't see the specifics on which patches have been applied to a given software release, doesn't mean that they aren't being applied and documented. This is a common practice among hardware manufacturers. Motorola use this practice with many of their products including cellular phones.

I've seen the same thing done by other leading hardware manufacturers (Cisco, Nortel, Sony and HP). It is far more efficient to repair a minor bug by replacing a small localized portion of code (a patch) then replacing the entire firmware. When a patch applies, it rarely changes the software release identified to the user.

In fact, I would be shocked if this capability wasn't being exploited, on occasion, instead of rolling out an entirely new firmware.

I disagree. Just because the user can't see the specifics on which patches have been applied to a given software release, doesn't mean that they aren't being applied and documented.

Without a reference code for a patch or a firmware update, how would a support person cross-check and troubleshoot a customer issue? As varied as the user experience might be, everyone has the same version of BC code (or A8 code). No one is getting any special updates from Motorola under the BC version.

For example, I've had no issues with DVI connections ever with the 530....that does not mean that I had a special version of A4/A8/BC. All *C does is send different types of hits which activate minor reset points in the firmware. In some cases, that helps in fixing the issue temporarily. Some examples of these reset points could be Guide Updates, Channel Map update or Tuner Authorizations (provider-activated) or soft-reset/power down sequence (user-activated).

Without a reference code for a patch or a firmware update, how would a support person cross-check and troubleshoot a customer issue?

Who says there isn't a reference code, or tracking system? All I'm saying is that the firmware version wouldn't necessarily change. There may very well indeed be a way to see if the patch has been applied that we as users (even those of use that are highly technical users) can't see. For example, the information on applied patches may be apparent in the diagnostics screens that we know how to access, but don't know how to read.

For example, I've had no issues with DVI connections ever with the 530....that does not mean that I had a special version of A4/A8/BC.

And that, is precisely why manufacturer's use patching. Since your particular hardware combination doesn't have any issues with DVI, there would be no need to send you a patch to correct DVI.

I have no doubt that we all received exactly the same BC firmware, but I would not be surprised if some of us have received minor patches that will be incorporated into the next firmware.

Are you aware that the 3xx/4xx receivers track 5 different firmware versions? They track boot sector, minimum, application, current and target. All we can see is the current and target.

Who says there isn't a reference code, or tracking system? All I'm saying is that the firmware version wouldn't necessarily change. There may very well indeed be a way to see if the patch has been applied that we as users (even those of use that are highly technical users) can't see. For example, the information on applied patches may be apparent in the diagnostics screens that we know how to access, but don't know how to read.

Diags A, 2nd line.
Sections 1,2,4,5 & 6
Collectively, all those 'modules' form the named code package.

ANY of those change, so does the version number.

Your A8 is my A8 and my BC is your BC.

To my knowledge, they can't send just a module, it's the whole enchillada or nothing.

Trips, are just resets/refreshes to authorizations and other non code specific things.
Just like a factory reset ONLY resets user customizable settings and can format your hard drive.

No actual changes to the code take place.

Diags A, 2nd line.
Sections 1,2,4,5 & 6
Collectively, all those 'modules' form the named code package.

Do you have any documentation that tells you what information is in those sections?

I would be curious to compare whether the data in your sections are the same as the ones in mine. I'm not in front of my receiver at the moment, but next chance I get, I'll document what I have. I would be very curious to see of I match what you, and others specifically, GaryE have.

Is there an option now to disable the display banner that appears at the bottom of the screen on channel changes? I have a DSR500 machine and it sure would be nice to see this option added at some point.

Not that I've found. Any reason why you'd like to see that?

While this isn't a bug I find it bothersome and would rather not see it when I change a channel. Some of the 4XX receivers had the option.

thanks.

I would be very curious to see of I match what you, and others specifically, GaryE have.
05.BD.02 EN23103 00.00.00 S0359dx 2.9.4 3.0.11

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but...

I just got off the phone with StarChoice to ask when I should get the BC update to my 530 (rumours had suggested Jan 3). I was not one of the lucky 500 who got the test download. The rep informed me that an update would not be send until mid to late February.

When I asked if I could get BC as an interim fix, he went to ask his superiors. When he returned, he told me that there were more bugs in BC than my current version of A8 and that no more BC updates would be issued. When the new version comes out in February, it will be a different version.

As a side note...On another call to a knowledgeable sounding tech rep, I was told that we may never see TRUE dual tuner recording (as it appears in every other dual tuner PVR on the market). He said that the tuner which records the live TV buffer writes to a separate partition from the one which stores recorded shows. He was told by one of the lead techies on the 530 that this may prevent them from ever recording a show using that tuner. It sounds to me like they made a serious flaw in the original design. One which we may end up paying for.

So what happens if they don't get the firmware right by the time they reach version ZZ and run out of two-digit hex numbers? Bet they didn't think of that either.

I have completely lost faith.

Is there an option now to disable the display banner that appears at the bottom of the screen on channel changes? I have a DSR500 machine and it sure would be nice to see this option added at some point.
Whenever I make a channel change, I immediatly push the GO BACK button and this gets rid of the banner.

That's sad news on the BC code for those that could have enjoyed the benefits. Heard rumours that some boxes just up and died.
I bet they were dying with A8 and BC just nailed the coffin down tight.

I don't think there are MORE bugs, just some different ones and some old ones that remain.
What are they waiting for, perfection? Move along one step at a time *C.

Your info on Dual record is a bit outdated.

At a very early time, what he said may have been true, but that is not the case today and there appears to be no obstacles to implementing true dual recording in 2006.

So what happens if they don't get the firmware right by the time they reach version ZZ and run out of two-digit hex numbers? Bet they didn't think of that either.


Actually, it's a 4 digit number, and given that it's hex, I wouldn't expect to see any characters above F. So we still have 65,347 versions to go before we run out of version numbers. I'd like to think they'll get it right well before reaching FF.