That's fine, since ARR has pulled my credibility in, I will tape record my conversations with StarChoice reps and post them somewhere (with password protection) so you can hear it from the horse's mouth.


Please be aware that if you tape record a conversation and do not tell the person your talking with that you ARE recording them, there can be some serious legal issues. I had to learn this first hand, unfortunately. This is why companies will put a "your call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes" in their automated system. The same law that makes them tell you is intended for you to tell them. If you do get permission to record the conversation and put them up, that would be great, but unlikely.

...If ARR has the right to call my credibility into question publically then I have the right to give this single rebuttal (and then case closed)....If an external hard drive feature does become available in the next few months I hope you realize it will be ARR that has egg on his face and not me..
You are quite right, my apologies.

Perhaps it was the source of your information that lacks credability as I now understand you believed what the agent spoke, just as the F.S. rep was misinformed, so may have the *C'er been.

If it does materialize as suggested, then feel free to bring attention to the egg on my face.

I have learned to be skeptical about things if the source is not verifiably in a position to make such statements, that's all, and PLEASE continue to particpate here.

Just tried D-Zone(@ 3:00 central) with a polite req. to get a forced BC ,, this is the reply I got 45 Min later-------Copy-n-paste

"""Thank you for taking the time to contact us!

We have passed your request to the technical department to provide you with the new BC download for your receiver. This will happen during your viewing time; it takes approximately 1hour for the download to complete. However, due to the upcoming holiday season, this download will only happen after the holidays.

Please do not unplug or troubleshoot on the receiver whilst this is taking place. When the system is rebooted it will be ready for your viewing. After the download has taken place our technical department may call you to ask for some feedback to see if your problems that you had before have been fixed. Thank you for your patients in this matter

We would like to wish you Happy Holidays!!

Should you have any further question or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you for choosing Star Choice.

"""


Guess this means I am SOL till he 3rd. or so ! So then I called them , same speech.....
Shld. I try again ? Also told csr to note that I want a refund that puts me in line with the ever dropping price of the 530 when the "final version " arrives ! He kinda thot this was a good thing to put on my file cuz he had never heard it before , and was a good Idea!!!!
Will let y'all Know how this works out-----.................... Haggarr

Guess I got in just under the wire. You might be glad that you still have the old code. I've had to do a couple of reboots so far in the 2 days that I've had the new code. Once holding the power button and the 2nd time I just pulled the plug. Since pulling the plug the unit seems to be performing much better. It acts almost like my computer whenever it gets some kind of software update. I sometimes have to reboot it a couple of times to get it working again properly.

At this point I'd say go enjoy Christmas and be with your family. No point stressing yourself out over the holidays.

Guess this means I am SOL till he 3rd. or so ! So then I called them , same speech.....


This means that you should turn your 530 on and they would upgrade it over the next 3-4 hrs. If you leave it plugged in but switched off, then they might not be able to do the upgrade. I received the same message and got my machine upgraded to BC.

For anyone who cares, my final report on BC.

Now, my DSR530 changes channels ok, but everytime I power it off, it sends some kind of noise signal to my tv, either a single pulse, or repeated pulses that never stop. This can't be good for my tv.

For the record, I am sending component video to a Panasonic PT53x54, using native mode. I don't use 1080i because then my tv won't allow scaling sdtv to full width.

I will be asking to get A8 back. It's hard for me to believe that no one else has noticed this problem.

This is the last time I volunteer to be a Beta tester for Starchoice.

Sekhon55,

I got the same message from *C too but his message has an extra line in it...

However, due to the upcoming holiday season, this download will only happen after the holidays.

So as he says, he's SOL 'til the new year.

...If you leave it plugged in but switched off, then they might not be able to do the upgrade. ...
As long as the receiver has A.C. power and is connected to the sat stream, they can ALWAYS contact it.
For a forced download, it doesn't matter, only an overnight opportunity download does it check to see it the unit is ON, and thus will not download if it thinks you are watching it until the 7th day or so.

When the unit is turned off, I've heard what it sends is video mute or black, so there might be a signal there. Keep that in mind and adjust youre other components accordingly.

After I visited Dialog Zone on 20 Dec. I got the message saying my request would be forwarded.

The reply did not contain the message about having to wait till after the holidays.

I did not get the BC code.

After reading some of the posts here I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing. It sems that mileage may vary.:eek:

I dont understand why some people are having problems while others it works fine?

My machine is running fine, I still have the ocasional lock up, but they are rare.

I think *c should reconsider turning the fan back on because it is the only variable that is different from everybody.
Everybody has the same machine, with the same components, inputs are the same, and outputs should not interfere how the machine works.

My two cents...

I think the unit needs a couple of hard reboots after a download. The first night I had a couple of lockups and freezes... did the front panel reset and then pulled the plug yesterday morning for a couple of minutes. Last night and this monring I've had no problems... working very well. So I think the 2 or 3 power reboots kinda cleared out any old bugs.

Me keeps my fingers crossed though!

Gworg,

I also got the same message from the dialogue zone on Dec. 21, but it did not contain the "after the holidays" sentence. I am still waiting for the download. I had a lock up yesterday due to the problems with channels 285 & 292 and was told that the TSR were working on the lock up problems and that downloads were being put on the back burner for at least a day. So if I don't get the download today, I expect that it will not happen until after the holidays. I guess I will just wait and see.

after receiving the BC code, i pulled the plug on the back of mine to ensure no garbage was left trailing behind the memory of the machine. Maybe that is the trick, as I have not had some of the problems that are mentioned here. I am so happy to have received the BC code because most of the things that bothered me about the machine are now gone. I only had time to watch it last night as I played hockey the night before. My wife has been watching it and she is thrilled with the new code too. Here are some things that bothered me:

- you could not tell how close you were to the end of the show. Now they have a time-remaining timer.

- if you sorted your DVR List by NAME instead of DATE, the next time you press DVR List, it would be sorted by DATE again. Now the sort that you desire stays in memory.

- i could never tell what shows i was recording when looking at the timer settings. i had to write them on down on paper. now the name of the recording is being supplied when you look at your timers. it makes the machine so much more user friendly. last night instead of recording LOST, some other show was up on my screen. I thought to myself, "What is that?" I quickly changed the weekly timer to start on 12/28 instead of 12/21 as lost was not on at 9 PM last night on CTV HD. I love this enhancement like you wouldn't believe.

- i noticed that the SELECT/ENTER button no longer works the same. At one time you could press SELECT to see the mini description of a show, and pressing SELECT/ENTER again would remove it. Now you have to use the EXIT key to get it to go away.

- the DELETE feature works differently. It now asks you to confirm that you are deleting something, which is a smart thing to do.

- they have improved the "0000" functionality as the screen is not going totally black any longer when pressing the MENU key to see what is coming on next while watching a DVR recording.

- the timer would deactivate during a power failure. now the timer activates itself even when the power goes off. No more worries of lost recordings due to power failures.

These are the major changes that I have observed.

Problems:

- my machine has locked up twice since the new install. Not a big deal.

- the GUIDE menu does not always work properly. A few times I went into the guide, pressed SELECT to watch something, and had the unit keep me on the same channel as before even though the bottom display bar tells me that I am on the new channel. even pressing EXIT and SELECT/ENTER the bottom display banner still shows that i'm on the new channel when I am not. The way to fix this is to press channel up, then press channel down. It will take you to the next channel up, and then back to the channel you were supposed to be on in the first place.

- the DVR listings still take several seconds to display. i was hoping that would be fixed, but it works the same as it did with A8. Not a biggie. it does not render the machine useless or anything like that.

after receiving the BC code, i pulled the plug on the back of mine to ensure no garbage was left trailing behind the memory of the machine. Maybe that is the trick, as I have not had some of the problems that are mentioned here.

Ditto for me.

... I think *c should reconsider turning the fan back on because it is the only variable that is different from everybody.
I hope they DON'T do that. That was probably one of the biggest piss-offs in the beginnings was the noisy fan.

A quick search here will show how to read the drive temperature and all the reported values are alledgedly well within spec.

Apparently, the fan was a requirement for a similar Voom product and never for *C. With the drive heatsinks, it's a dead issue. Smart design actually.

I hear some of our Bell friends have not been so fortunate in the heat/drive failure department.

I tend to support the speculation of a few good A.C. power cycles whip it into shape. Cleans out the code crumbs that may be left.

My first 3 days with BC were absolutly horrible. I was prepared to go back to reading books and abandon TV, it was so bad, after a brief settling period, for the most part, it's been a real treat to use.

Sure was nice during the busy holiday season and not having to miss any programs.

TO ALL MEMBERS:

I had an email from Star Choice today. A member posted the name of a Star Choice CSR on this thread.

This is against the rules of the forum and its a rule I take it very seriously.

If you post a response from any company, do not post a CSR name or phone number.

If it happens again, you will find your account de-activated for at least 10 days.

This rule came about after someone posted an internal business cellphone number of an employee who then received calls from some yahoo in the middle of the night.

There is no need to post email addresses, names or phone numbers. (toll free customer service numbers in the public domain are the ONLY exception)

I tend to support the speculation of a few good A.C. power cycles whip it into shape. Cleans out the code crumbs that may be left.


What about emptying the DVR list? A TSR suggested that I delete all of my previously recorded programs and maybe that will reduce the frequency of freeze-ups. If an AC reset does the trick, is there really a chance that some corrupted code still remains on the drive? I hate to get rid of a special event (Grey Cup 2005) if I can avoid it.

I don't think it stores any code on the HDD. A power cycle would get rid of artifacts in RAM though.

I don't think it stores any code on the HDD. A power cycle would get rid of artifacts in RAM though.

Guess I'll try it again. Don't know how many more times I can stand a freeze-up before I lose it. It's happening several times a day now, usually whenever I change channels, but once when I cleared a partial recording that had been left behind from a power failure. TSR says Moto is being apprised of all the freeze-ups but will take several weeks to fix it. All we can do is let *C know about the problem and let them put the pressure on.

ARR said this to me recently:

The StarChoice rep I was speaking to on the phone, about the USB ports said "I shouldn't be telling you this, but some new features are about to be released, which include the ability to connect an external harddrive to the USB ports..." So I took all of the info down, and immediately posted what I heard in the forums.



The future possible upgrades for the USB when it is active (currently not active, and will not be active for @ least 1 to 2 years.) will be external Hard Drive to add more storage space as well as other things.