I think it was called PDS.... P? Delivery System.... or maybe just "Pretty Damn Smart"....anyhow, I miss that feature!

One simple solution to fix this problem.
Dual tuner receiver. :)

Dual tuners only take you so far, but it is quite a way as I lean on my dual tuner cable HD PVR often.
However, that doesn't help with the guide data and shows that extend.
A system setting to have all shows start early/end late by 1,2 or 3 minutes would help, and yes, dual tuners would allow you to flip for the next program at the top of the hour.
But on a busy night, I have had conflicts due to the 1 minute overlap when trying to do 2 shows at the top of the next hour when the previous one runs 1 minute late.

So what I'm saying is all the smart technology we have is countered by unsympathectic broadcasters trying to mess with the growing hoards of DVR users.

Quite frankly, I think a broadband connection and TV Torrents are the real answer to ondemand TV when used with a HTPC.

BTW, nice to hear from you HammerJoe, been in hibernation?

I'm pretty sure I know the likely diagnosis, but just to confirm with the experts here...

Last night the 530 stopped responding to commands while I was watching TV. I could still see the channel I was on, but couldn't bring up the guide, change channels, etc. I left it alone because I was DVRing something in the background.

This morning, still locked, so I did a front panel reset. Powered down and now seems to hang on boot up. The blue lights start cycling and then just stop. It never gets any further and no display on the TV. Same story when I unplug the unit.

Is there anything that can be done, or is it finally time to send my beloved machine to calculator heaven?

How long does it normally take for SC to ship out a replacement machine?

BTW, nice to hear from you HammerJoe, been in hibernation?

You can say that, I was away on vacation and just returned.
Too bad *c does not have any exciting news regarding the development of the 530.

I wish they would release a new version with some interface fixes like returning to previous position on the guide when a conflit window pops up.

I would like to see the new guide as well, it looks good, along with a searchable guide. Do you think it is a possibility that it will show at the same time in December?

As for dual tuner, I kinda lost hope of seeing that happening with the 530.
I think it is evident that it is becoming more and more a necessity these days as the networks pack all their top shows at the same time on the same day.

Thursdays are brutal, even with timeshiffting.

The flashing Blue lights is a strong indication that the operating system flash has become horribly corrupted.
Something that was quite problematical in BC code.
It would appear that the 'fix' in CC code to prevent this may in fact be worse.

In any event, the box needs to get replaced.
They get Purolatored out of Toronto and may take a week.

I'm pretty sure I know the likely diagnosis, but just to confirm with the experts here...

Last night the 530 stopped responding to commands while I was watching TV. I could still see the channel I was on, but couldn't bring up the guide, change channels, etc. I left it alone because I was DVRing something in the background.

This morning, still locked, so I did a front panel reset. Powered down and now seems to hang on boot up. The blue lights start cycling and then just stop. It never gets any further and no display on the TV. Same story when I unplug the unit.

Is there anything that can be done, or is it finally time to send my beloved machine to calculator heaven?

How long does it normally take for SC to ship out a replacement machine?
My situation exactly! By doing a series of power unplugs/plug-ins and front panel resets over a period of an hour or so, I got mine to reboot. I called tech support and they offerred to replace my unit, which I agreed to. It took about 10 days. During that time, the machine was very unstable with live programming. A simple change of channel would require a front panel reset. Strangely enough, recorded materials played fine.It gave us a chance to watch some of the HD movies we had recorded with the MCHD promo. The new machine is working fine so far, with only 1 reset in the 2 weeks or so that we've had it. *choice also gave me another month of the movie package as I didn't get to watch all of the recordings on my HD. I did have to pay for return shipping though for the old unit.
As far as I can tell, I got a new 530 and not a refurb. It shipped with A4 I think, but CC was downloaded the first night. We didn't use any of the PVR functions until CC was installed. I'm happy so far and the other unit was well past it's 1 year warranty, 15 months, I think.

Thanks BScott and ARR. Figured it was worth asking. Oh well...off to call SC tonight and start the process. At least the call centre folks are friendly and helpful...

Thanks for the responses to my post (#438) about having to edit the end of timers for movies recorded from Turner Classic Movies.

Just to warn anyone else who has a machine that fails, SC actually tried to tell me last night that my machine was out of warranty and any repairs/replacement costs were going to be mine to swallow. I couldn't believe my ears...

I won them around by pointing out:

1) the problem was almost certainly due to *their* unsolicited software updates causing a crash, and was likely not due to a failure of my hardware;

2) I explained how patient I'd been through the early teething pains for this machine and gave them my early lockup/bug history; and

3) I mentioned that I'd read online that the warranty on the machines had been extended a further year once the CC code had come out and proven "stable".

In the end, they grudgingly agreed, put a note on my file and warned me that this was a one-time special offer....

Amazing. I've been unfailingly supportive of SC and really believe the 530 can be a great machine if they keep working at it. However, if the machine dies again thanks to their lousy code, and they refuse to replace it, I won't waste a second before dropping SC forever and going back to cable.

300BaudAcoustic I'm with you on that. My first receiver was a 921 way way back. I have two 530's and the one that had stable BC now has unstable CC I now have to reboot everyday. The other unit that went from A8 to CC has now locked up twice. If Starchoice doesn't fix at no charge when they finally are totally useless I will be giving my $120.00 month to Bell, and enjoy an inferior picture but at least it will be there.

Back in mid June I returned my DVR530 to Starchoice for a full refund after having owned the unit (and a number of replacement units) for almost a year. I’ve been watching this thread over the past few months and finally decided to give the DVR530 another try with the CC code. According to a source I have I was definitely not the only one who demanded a refund on their 530. Apparently this was one of the factors that finally got the attention of Jim Cummins so that some important changes have been made regarding further development of this product (this is another reason I decided to try the unit again).

I found a local retailer who was willing to sell me the unit even though I was up front with him that I was just trying it out for 30 days and that I would be returning it if I was not satisfied.

The new unit I received had Ver. A0 on it to start. I hooked the unit up, activated it through Starchoice and promptly turned it off for the night. Next morning the unit had the CC code. I think it is a good policy to use the unit as little as possible until you get the latest code.

Well, so far so good. The unit has worked acceptably for the past three weeks. I know that a four-week trial may not be enough to reveal all potential problems, but at least I have a fresh new one-year warranty to fall back on as well.

Let’s hope that the improvements continue from here on!

I’m hoping that ARR might have some insight into this: is there any chance of getting a future 530 firmware version to support discrete ON/OFF IR codes for use with programmable universal remotes? I guess what I’m asking more specifically is: could this be added via a firmware update? I would be surprised if it couldn’t, but you never know. I suspect that this would be a very small change in the firmware, but boy would it be nice to have!

There is a way to kill the recording feature of the 530 and it is REPEATABLE.

-Create a weekly recording with the time 11:00PM to 12:00AM
-Create a conflicting recording from 10:00PM to 11:30 PM
-You will NOT get a recording conflict message.
-After the first recording runs the 530 will be Recording dead. It will not record any other shows until a soft reset.

I had this conflict and kept missing a number of shows until I figured it out. (What happend on this seasons first CSI Miami show?)

NOTE: They must both be weekly recordings and one must pass from one day to the next (12:00 or later)

BTW: I am an unemployed test engineer from Motorola Mobile Division due to restructuring. Their loss.

... is there any chance of getting a future 530 firmware version to support discrete ON/OFF IR codes for use with programmable universal remotes? ...could this be added via a firmware update?
Certainly anything can be added via a firmware update, but I just checked with the coders and their is currently NO Discrete on/off codes, only the single value that works in a toggle fashion.
I appreciate the merit of what you ask, but since it never was in the original design, their is no low level support.
That said, it 'could' be added, so there would be the ON/OFF, ON & OFF codes. But since that functionality doesn't exist on the current remotes and only a small population can take advantage of it, how would you propose they test such an enhancement and what remote to use and how to disseminaite the codes for all 0-7 remote addresses?

So in a nutshell, I would safely say, you likely won't see it in this product at all.
While adding it might be easy, actually having prople use it becomes the challenge.

That's not to say, you shouldn't lobby *C for it and try to ensure it gets spec'd in future products that would likely be intergrated into a Home Theatre environment.

Unfortunatly, not being there anymore, I can't carry the torch forward and lobby for it internally or ensure it becomes part of the basic specs for new products.

Like I said, nobody is captaining the ship anymore and auto-pilot can only take you so far before you run out of gas and crash.

Here is an interesting question for you guys, how many DSR530 are in service? Is it 10%, 15%,30% etc of the subscriber base?

Here is an interesting question for you guys, how many DSR530 are in service? Is it 10%, 15%,30% etc of the subscriber base?

I'd go out on a limb and say low single digits. If it was more than 4 or 5 percent, I'd be amazed. There were over 1.3 million active receivers before the 530 was even released.

ARR can probably give us exact figures on the number of 530's Starchoice ordered and I beleive they are nowhere close to selling all of those yet.

I never considered the # of boxes, only the published # of subs at around 900K, but many of those will have multiple units, so CB's #'s seem OK.

The initial 530 factory order was 10K and last I heard, they were between 1/2 to 3/4 moved with the pace quickening since CC.

So in spite of all the complaining we might do here, the 530 is a very small drop in the bucket, but does serve as a great platform to showcase new stuff on.

If it's not as high as you wanted, then we can only blame fellow members and poor Moto code.
Thankfully, both seemed to have moved on for the most part.

A good source recently told me that about 4% of customers had a 530. He said this was about 40,000 units. Now, I’m not saying it IS 40K units because I can’t confirm it. I'm just letting you know what I was told...

That said, it 'could' be added, so there would be the ON/OFF, ON & OFF codes. But since that functionality doesn't exist on the current remotes and only a small population can take advantage of it, how would you propose they test such an enhancement and what remote to use and how to disseminaite the codes for all 0-7 remote addresses?

From what I’ve seen most companies will add the discrete IR support to their product and then deny that the product includes that support. In this way they don’t have to do major testing with a large number of different non-OEM remotes since the feature officially doesn’t exist. The codes don’t have to be communicated to the public even in the 530 case where were talking 16 different codes (8 remotes addresses times 2 discrete power codes). This is because users find the codes on their own using software tools and remotes such as a Philips Pronto (I've done this myself a few times). These codes are then posted on sites such as http://www.remotecentral.com/. From there the hex codes get included into the databases of other remotes such as Harmony models etc. This whole "system" allows the developer to be off the hook should the discrete IR support prove to be buggy.

Currently there are actually millions of people using universal remotes capable of taking advantage of these kinds of codes. The number is growing every day as more people realize that they can actually control all their products with just one clever remote instead of say ten separate ones.

I realize that I’m probably preaching to the converted here (or at least the well educated), but I’m kind of hoping that someone at Starchoice might read this post (yes hope springs eternal here at my house ;)), and that others might show some support.