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Shaw Direct 630 Official Problems / Issues / Resolutions Thread. Read posts 1, 2

418K views 1K replies 234 participants last post by  RuralRouter 
#1 ·
We have a thread on the owner experiences and several people mentioned they'd like to see an "issues" thread. Here it is.

Please try to limit discussion to "real" issues and possible resolutions, workarounds, etc.

Try not to post "I tried to record and it wouldn't. After a reboot, it recorded OK" since that's pretty self-evident.
 
#33 ·
Recording from DVR/PVR to external Toshiba DVD Recording

Hi, generally very happy, had a few issues and forum members were able to assist.

I used to record shows on DVD from the HD using the "S" video out from the Shaw 530 receiver. Since there is no longer "S" video on the 630 I tried to record a movie from 630 HD to Toshiba using composite RCA cables. No luck, I recorded a blank.

Any ideas from other forum members. Thanks in advance!!
 
#36 ·
So it appears that the problem with recording from HDNet making the 530's crash has carried over to the 630's? This problem was discussed quite a bit a few months ago and I thought SD was trying to sort it out. It effected my 530 so consitantly that I gave up trying to record from it. HDNet used to record fine because I had several concert recordings from 2009 saved on my 530. I just finished setting up timers for some upcoming concerts. I guess it will be a good test to see if the HDNet crash bug is still present on my 630.
 
#35 ·
zebb2000, make sure the DVD recorder is "tuning" the correct input. Since you're not using S-video any more, you'll need to change from input 1 to input 2 or something like that. Here's the FAQ. Also make sure you're on an input and not an output on the recorder.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=76077

You can check the connection by connecting directly to your TV. Also, when the DVR is on, the DVD recorder is on and the TV's tuned to the input associated with the DVD recorder, then you should be able to see/hear the DVR programme.

This is probably not a 630 issue, so let's not muddy this thread. If you're still having issues, suggest a new thread on the topic because it's probably something to do with connections, DVD recorder, etc. Give makes/models of all equipment and connections if you start a new thread.
 
#37 ·
First a thanks to SD 630 support for all the explanations and attention given this matter.

Regarding the receiver Lockup issue -this happened to me at 15:17 Thursday as one tuner was recording NUMB3Rs on 615 and the other was set to live TV on an SD channel (probably 505, but I don't remember for sure). I was in the guide exploring "NEW" tags about a week in advance. Upon clicking the EXIT the full tv picture came back, frozen, with no OSD data displayed. Audio continued. Pressing any key had no effect - no menu, no guide, no channel change, no power off, nothing. Unplugged power and replugged to reset (lost 4 minutes of NUMB3Rs). On the plus side, I really liked how the receiver dealt with the recording with a power loss. It maintained the recording in a single file - and the red spot in the progress bar indicates the missing data. I really don't think that there is a magic combination that can make the receiver lock up reliably -- it seemed to be a fluke.

The remotes repeating - I do have 5 remotes in the house 2 set to the 630, 2 set to a 530 and one to a 505 (Every STB is available as a channel at every TV in my house, so we have "downstairs" and "upstairs" remotes with IR repeaters), both PVR's also have UHF antenna's installed. I am relatively certain that the repeating problem has occurred when I am home alone, or when no one is touching another remote at the same time. It is intermittent and difficult to reproduce - makes it all the more of a surprise when it happens - really bad when it happens on "skip ahead".

Another thing - regarding resetting PVR priorities. I understand the searching though the database to re-figure all the recordings and that this could be time consuming, but couldn't this be a background task? How does the PVR handle this when you DON'T change priorities and new guide data becomes available (as will happen every day or few days)? It doesn't lock you out at a random time and display "please wait".

Probably more, but I'll save it for a later post.
 
#38 ·
Played back some PVR'd shows last night. From Golf HD I would have pixelation or macroblocking at times. Hitting FF or RW in succession would sometimes freeze the recording. Pressing play would start it again.

It appears to me that the hard drive in the 630 cannot "keep up" to the data it is trying to record or play. Whether it is the interface or the cache or the buffer, something is not fast enough to keep up. Overtaxing the unit with multiple timers (some overlapped on purpose) also confuses the 630.

Perhaps I have a defective hard drive but I doubt it.

As for timers, if I set three at the same time, there are no warnings of a conflict. And I have not figured out how to find the list of timers and scheduled events or how to prioritize timers.
 
#39 ·
Set up a dual recording of Letterman and Leno last night on the western network HD feeds(I had done this 3 times prior this week with no problems).Also had another show to start recording at 3am.Got up this morning 7:30 am and the record light is still on the front of the receiver like it is still recording.Find out it only recorded Letterman and supposedly it was still recording Leno as when I went into options it asked me if I wanted to stop this recording. Letterma also had a terrible lip sync problem (could of been a network feed problem though don't know).

Also the 3am recording completely disappeared no showing of it at all.Was just trying multiple recordings overnight to see how the 630 would react didn't really pay attention to what channel I had put the 3am to record.Had to do a soft rest to get the rec light to go out. I hope this is not a sign of things to come. First recording issues though.
 
#40 ·
Some Stability -> Change from "All Channels" to "Favorites"

I have been having most of the issues others have documented around slowness, resets and recording issues. This was when guide display was set as "All Channels/Hide Unsubbed".

Common problem with "All Channels" is channel numbers >3333 appearing and corrupting the guide....this leads to resets etc.

I set up my own favorites and ever since that, the box has been a lot more stable and the random resets have significantly dropped.

I am using a mix of "manual" and "automated" recording timers and they have been firing properly. I'm still not confident about the "automated" timers as they are dependent on the guide, which may or may not be out of date.

Question: Has anyone figured out how to adjust "manual" timers for frequency of recordings as it was possible to do in the DVR530. I would rather have that than depending on "automated" timers.
 
#42 ·
Watching the Rangers/Yankees game last night and the picture froze in the top of the 13th, but the audio was fine. Did a soft reset and I just caught Nellie's walk off homer (yay!).

Had a reboot this morning at around 9:40 AM changing from NFL network to Big Ten HD.

I'm close to blaming firmware for these errors.
 
#44 ·
From support:
When you're changing recording settings, the PVR needs to replan to update the changes. This involves going through each Recording Event and looking at 14 days of data times 300+ video channels. Each change made potentially affects another recording event, which affects another, which may then affect the first event (and so on). It takes a little while to run through all this and update the schedule.........

Processors are cheap nowadays but I guess not cheap enough. ;)
 
#46 ·
Multiple HD channels showing the same show at the same time question

I'm not sure if this is an issue or just me not being able to figure it out but here's my question. I have been setting up recording events for some of the US prime time shows that we watch. For example I did a search for Survior and set it to record New Episodes from HD channels only. When I checked the event I see that it is going to record the new episode and use GlobalHD channel 303. This is correct, but I would like to be able to specify the HD channel at the time I create the event so that I can record from the US feed which I believe would be CBSHD 322. I think it picked the GlobalHD channel because it is simply the first one on guide showing the show in HD. With no other input from me it simply picked the first channel that meets the criteria. Same thing happened when I setup The Mentalist. It picked CTV HD which again appears on the guide before the FoxHD channel. I worked around this by looking up the upcoming boadcast screen and unselecting the record icion on the Global channel and selecting the CBS channel. But that seems like more of a work around then it should be so I was wondering if there was a way to specify the channel when multiple HD channels show the same show at the same time. Sorry if this is obvious, but I can't seem to find a better way. Thanks
 
#48 ·
Common problem with "All Channels" is channel numbers >3333 appearing and corrupting the guide....this leads to resets etc.
I have had a similar problem when making changes to the guide by pressing OPTIONS, make a change, GO BACK, and then try to move in the guide. Sometimes the guide will freeze on those particular channels and a five digit number replaces the three digit channel number. I have been able to get the guide to work without doing a reboot by pressing GO BACK, GUIDE, SELECT, CHANNEL UP (or down, maybe more than once) and then the guide will work properly. I have had this happen a number of times and by doing some fiddleing, have always managed without a reboot.

I agree with a previous post that said some of the problems are as a result of the hard drive not being able to keep up. I had this experience. While fast forwarding through a very long recording (7 hours of US Open tennis), after going through 1 or 2 hours the picture froze. Pressing PLAY worked. Another time I left the picture frozen for a while and the picture began fast forwarding again on its own but it jumped ahead 30 minutes or so. It appeared that the fast forwarding was continuing in the background but wasn't showing.

Another issue that came up during watching this recording, and another long one, was that near the end of the long recording the skip forward function had a delay of one or two seconds each time. Fast forward was also slower and had more pixilation than near the beginning of the recording. I have no idea why this would be the case but I guess I will just avoid doing very long recordings in the future.
 
#49 ·
jcol

This is how I set up series recordings for future episodes for a certain channel,go into guide (future listings) pick your show and highlite it,(I did this with Parenthood,Grey's Anatomy and My Generation so far) then press the enter/ok button.From there you will go to program options screen,highlite and enter record new episodes and your series will record on this channel only. At least that is what my future record list is telling me for Parenthood because it goes 2 weeks out and will record on channel 320 NBC east HD for that show.
 
#56 · (Edited)
Thanks Painter and Fatkev78, that makes sense. I was starting the process by doing a search for the show because I didn't know when the new shows were starting for each series so finding them first on the guide would have meant a lot of scrolling on my part. I was sort of letting the receiver figure that out for me, which it did but as noted it then picks the first channel from the list.
 
#50 ·
audio/image dropouts

Just this afternoon, on all channels (SD and HD) I was getting frequent audio and video dropouts.


Soft reset- seems okay now.

Connection: HDMI to Yamaha amp - HDMI to Sony TV.
 
#51 ·
Coax line problems

I have a real big problem that SD support seems unable to fix. I originally set up my 630 with the two coax lines hooked up and attempted to start. It all worked fine until I went to change the channel and the box locks up and needs to be reset. I reset the box and let it sit overnight and tried again, same problem. So I hooked up each coax line individually to the old receiver and both work fine. I have done factory resets and it still did not resolve the problem. Finally SD suggested hooking up the box with a single line, which I did and it works, I just do not have the ability to record and every time I change a channel it says "acquiring signal from satellite" every time. Anyone have some suggestions, as I have spent over 2 hours on the phone with SD and no one could help...

I have it hooked up directly to my TV through HDMI.
 
#55 · (Edited)
Another Problem

I had four corrupted recordings today ... not sure if the 630 rebooted ... they were NOT concurrent recordings and all occured at different times with a combo of HD and SD? They appear in the list with the same indicators as the 530 except they don't play at all.

Here we go again ... I can't believe I got sucked into this beta testing crap again ... how many years is it going to take to fix this piece of &(#@$^ ?????

I am SOOOOO disapointed!!!!!!!

Update: Tried soft reboot and still can't play these corrupt recordings.

Update: At least they can be deleted!
 
#58 · (Edited)
Don't know about Harmony but the Shaw Direct remote is just press the "options" button (bottom right on the new black remote). Make sure the remote is in "SAT" mode.

EDIT: Not sure about the Harmony but the Shaw Direct remote just press the "MENU" button (the "A" button on the old silver remotes), move over to "PVR REC" press that icon, brings up a submenu which you will slide over to "Options REC" and make your adjustments for each show there. Highlight each show you want to change. Don't change pvr options from the main "options" button on the remote or the changes will happen to ALL programs which I found out was a real pain. Doing it for each show from the "MENU" button works alot better.
 
#60 ·
Sticky??

57, Should this not be a sticky??

There's been no activity for a day, and it's almost lost in the list.

Also, this one has the risk of being used as the original owner's thread, with resulting confusion. I suggest:
- questions, observations, or "I wish it did ..." in the owner's thread
- things that clearly do not work properly, as identified in the spec. or user manual to be discussed in this thread.

Maybe we even need a specific thread for the class of problems that SD 630 Support is asking for specific data on time, channel, temperature, wind speed, etc. relating to failed recordings or other clear failures.
 
#61 ·
Activated last night. Forced firmware. Did tons of recording and watching. Finally got it to reboot :confused: after using the Ch Up to channel surf as a test. Reboot was surprisingly quick but as others have reported, guide data is all gone. But the guide loaded fully pretty quickly (less than 15 minutes).
 
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