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Shaw Direct HDPVR 630 Owners Discussion Thread

1M views 3K replies 468 participants last post by  tvmaster 
#1 ·
This discussion thread is for owners to discuss the new Shaw Direct HDPVR 630 when it becomes available on September 1st.

Please post your thoughts and your feedback on this unit once you have it up and running.


For non-owners, you can ask questions about the unit in our New 630 In Pre Order


Edit by 57: Here's a thread summarizing problems, issues, resolutions, workarounds:

Shaw Direct 630 Official Problems / Issues / Resolutions Thread. Read posts 1, 2 - Canadian TV, Computing and Home Theatre Forums
 
#27 ·
Beware "Native" Video Setting

Received my 630 tonight (missed Purolator yesterday and had to swing by the depot today to get it - drat!)

And I too got the $50 PPV credits. Unexpected, a nice little addition.

Got it activated no problem -- well, after assuring the rep that I did indeed have the 630.

I was going through the menus setting up settings and when I got to video settings I thought I'd switch it to "Native" as the 0000 mode on the 530 worked really well.

My TV did not like that at all. I got blue screen and "mode not supported" then I could no longer see the 630 menus to switch the setting back. And there is no little red button on the receiver to manually switch it either.

I reset it, didn't help. Couldn't think what else to do so I called technical support. They were flabbergasted that I had the 630 but darn excited to have a go at fixing it -- I guess I was the first call that rep had received.

We tried another reset, still not fixed. Lots of "on hold" before he came up with a great idea (wish I'd thought to do it before calling). He had me hook the 630 up through component, which worked just dandy. Switched the settings back to 720p (which he said was best for my TV, which considering it is a 720p tv I guess that makes sense). Then hooked back up to HDMI and everything was fine.

So watch those video settings! It's not a simple little red button to press if your TV doesn't like it. I'm thinking the mode button probably should have been kept.
 
#41 ·
How to Quickly Change the Resolution

So watch those video settings! It's not a simple little red button to press if your TV doesn't like it. I'm thinking the mode button probably should have been kept.
Hi ElenaH,

If this ever occurs again, there's actually a shortcut sequence designed for when this happens.

With the receiver on, press OPTIONS, 4, 5, and then press 6 repeatedly. The new resolution will update on the Front Panel of the receiver and change each time you press "6". You should be able to cycle through the resolutions and get it back to something that works!
 
#28 ·
Okay.

Second issue.

Just switched the channel and the receiver reset itself.

But on a good note, the reset was much faster.
On a bad note, I had a show recording…

I wonder if that's what did it? Changing the channel right at 9pm when I had a recording set to start at 9pm? Hmm.

Also I miss the circulating blue bars for recording, I found those more comforting than a teeny, tiny red word.
 
#30 ·
Just joined the club.

So I'm up and running, I'm waiting for tonight's update before I really start hammering the system.

Only trouble so far was that my audio wasn't coming through over HDMI. Not sure if it is my TV or the 630 but I'm doing ok with component audio.

I'll try tomorrow to get the audio over HDMI since I'd rather ditch the extra cable.

Dave
 
#32 ·
Hooked the 630 up today, very slow to get guide or any information after pressing guide button. When turning on receiver using HDMI I get no sound until I do a channel change. Recorded a show but wouldn't allow me to play it later then the receiver rebooted on its own, sound familiar to 530 owners? I hope the firmware download tonight fixes these issues since this is a test one before I get another to replace a second 530. I too find the picture a bit sharper and the colors more faithful, but maybe a placebo effect from a new toy, will look further into this.
 
#34 ·
Have had mine up for 24 hours. With the initial firmware I had no sound out of the fiber. I forced the update to 00.13 and its been good. The hidden menu codes are the same.

The only other issue I have had so far was clock on in standby was set on as default but the clock was not on. Set clock to off and then on and it was fine after that.

The old 530 remote works with it as well which means I did not have to reprogram the Harmony - just set the remote number on the 630 to match what the 530 was.

Very happy with the size and guide features.
 
#35 ·
I am loving the search by name feature, I just wish that when selecting record all episodes, the guide would give preference to HD programming. I am having to manually select the HD versions of shows because it seems to select the SD versions by default.

Also, when searching by name, the names of blocked shows come up. I really don't want my children viewing the adult PPV descriptions. Is there a way to block the show titles on search by name?

Dave

EDIT:

To "hide" the adult shows in search by name, turn on parental controls and pick "Locked Programs: Hide" I had selected hide locked channels but missed this setting. Now the names are replaced by "Parentally Locked" ... AWESOME.

Apparently there is also a "Record in HD only" selection in the Recording Settings... I just haven't found it yet :/

Lovin' this 630
 
#36 ·
I for one am a little shocked that SD came through for us a little early, i was all prepapred to have this unit pushed back into the fall season, but now we get a chance to iron out the details before the new television season starts!!
and lets face it, anything was better than the 530 at this point so i am a happy camper:D
Should have my 2nd 630 soon then all my coax is spoken for, ... :cool:
 
#37 ·
I have found to record just HD do the following

Using the guide (not search), find the show you want to record on the HD station you want. Instead of pressing the Record button, press Enter/OK and it will bring up a menu for Record New/All etc, but it will limit the recordings to just that show on that station only.

There may be another way, because I remember seeing HD only or SD only screen. But until then, this will work.
 
#38 · (Edited)
Record in HD Only

Hi Everyone,

Glad to hear you're enjoying the first couple of days with the 630.

To set a recording in HD only, here's what you do:

After setting the Recording Event (e.g. pressing "Record new episodes" or "Record all episodes"), press MENU, then go to "PVR", then "Options".

Find the Recording Event (show) you want to customize, and press ENTER.

You'll have a bunch of options. In this case, the one you want is "Channels". You can set it to "All channels", "SD only", "HD only", or "Ch. XYZ only", where XYZ is the channel you were originally on when you set the Recording Event.

Set "Channels" to "HD only", press GO BACK to save and GO BACK again to exit the PVR Options menu. The HDPVR will replan, and reschedule according to your new preferences.

You can also toggle between "New episodes" and "All episodes" in this menu, change the Priority, add the Start Early/End Late buffers, Keep a certain number of episodes, or automatically protect all recordings to prevent auto cleanup.

We recommend you always take a moment to customize your Recording Events after first setting them - that will ensure exactly what you want is always recorded.

Enjoy!
 
#39 ·
Hooked up yesterday afternoon, no problems except that the Tech Support guy had never done one before and had no idea where the remote buttons where and in fact had never seen one. He didn't even have a copy of the pdf of the instructions, etc. Anyways, firmware 00.10, updated last night to 00.13, and everything is working great.

Only negative is that the older remote was laid out better (or we are used to having it) and a backlit remote would have been nice.
 
#43 ·
How do you check on HD usage

On the old 530's you could see how much space you have left on your hard drive. I've looked high and low, and can't find it anywhere.

Can anyone help? Thanks in advance.

Handy in System Status it keeps track on quality of hard drive, don't think we had that with the 530's.

Full 2 weeks data in Guide!! Cool.
 
#44 ·
Disk Space Remaining

On the old 530's you could see how much space you have left on your hard drive. I've looked high and low, and can't find it anywhere.
Hi Zebb2000,

Disk Space usage can be found in the PVR Options menu.

Press MENU, go to "PVR", and then "Options". It will list approximately how many HD and SD hours you have left.

You'll need at least one Recording Event set to access this menu.

Note that the 630 has self-managing disk space, so when room is needed for new recordings the oldest unprotected recording will be automatically deleted. You don't need to monitor disk space quite as closely as with the 530, because the 630 does it for you.

Existing recordings can be protected by pressing ENTER and selecting "Protect this recording" from the PVR List. You can protect a particular series automatically by changing "Keep until" to "Forever" in the PVR Options menu. Protected recordings are the ones with the little hand symbol, and can only be deleted by a user and NOT the receiver.
 
#46 ·
Ordered a 2nd one

I am impressed enough after having my 630 for a few days that I ordered another one to replace my other 530. It certainly meets my expectations and I have not been able to cause it to have problems no matter what I do with it since 0.13
 
#49 ·
I can't seem to get the 630 audio working with a Rocketfish Optical audio wire connected to our Pioneer VSX-1015TX receiver. For now I'm using the RCA jacks audio connection.

I've never used Optical audio before. Any tips about using this? One thing I notice is that the wire doesn't seem to make a secure connection on both the 630 & Pioneer...it can easily fall out. I see a little dust cover on the Pioneer that pushes in when you insert the Optical connecter. Does this dust cover have to be forcibly removed to get a secure connection?
 
#51 · (Edited by Moderator)
I can't seem to get the 630 audio working with a Rocketfish Optical audio wire connected to our Pioneer VSX-1015TX receiver...
Make sure the little clear plastic clips are removed from the new optical wire ends. You have to turn the optical ends to the correct position before you insert them into the hole. Sometimes takes a bit of fiddling before it goes in properly. Also make sure you press the correct audio button on the remote control of your Pioneer. Try all the different buttons until you hit the right one
Lester
 
#50 ·
What's the best video setting to use? I have it on 1080i and it seems to zoomed in a bit cause some of the screen is cut off at the bottom (golf scores only half there)
What is everyone else using?

Update: I found my problem. These new 630s come with a zoom button(b button) I had pressed it and zoomed the picture. I hit it again and were back to normal.
 
#53 ·
I noticed a skip forward difference compared to the 530. If you have skip forward set to a minute for example and you have less than a minute until you caught up to live, pressing skip forward won't do anything, you have to press FF. The 530 would just go into live, for me I prefer the 530 method but it just might take getting use to. Maybe an setting I overlooked?
Since the firmware upgrade not a glitch, kinda nice to have HDMI since my receiver converts to 1080P better than my TV.
 
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