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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.
 
#62 ·
Options problem,,

Like at said before, I can't get the option on my ShawDirect remote and even on my Harmony. Everything was ok yesterday but since this morning it doesn't worked. When I clic on it nothing happend. It's like the remote lost the signal. I try a reset but it's still the same.

thank,
 
#63 ·
I have been frequently getting a horizontal flickering across the top of the screen. It is only about 1 cm in width, but extends the whole length of the screen. It looks sort of like your watching a vcr tape that was recorded on a different vcr and needs to the tracking adjusted. It can be quite distracting.

It happens on both live tv and recorded tv. If I do a soft reset, it goes away, but it often returns the next day or even sooner.

Is this a known glitch in the software or do a have a lemon receiver? Thanks in advance to anyone who can help me out.
 
#77 ·
I have been frequently getting a horizontal flickering across the top of the screen. It is only about 1 cm in width, but extends the whole length of the screen. It looks sort of like your watching a vcr tape that was recorded on a different vcr and needs to the tracking adjusted. It can be quite distracting.
Hi mrbean5411,

This sounds like the Closed Captioning data. What are your current video settings in OPTIONS 4-5? How are you connected, and did you previously have an HD receiver at this TV? If you have overscan adjustment or picture adjustment settings on your TV, you can usually "bump up" the picture to get rid of the line.

If you do a search for "white dashes at the top of a tv picture" or a variation therein, there are some online articles that explain exactly what's going on.
 
#64 ·
Had an odd problem crop up today. Was watching the Packers on RSNHD (East, I think). Decided to try FoxHD East (better sound) but no picture when I switched, just a black screen. Flipped back to RSNHD and no problem. Changed up one channel to RSNHD Toronto, no picture. Started checking and found that roughly every other channel was blank (no picture, no sound), including both HD and SD channels. Did a soft reset and all was good again. Anyone else experience this sort of problem?
 
#66 ·
Yes, from my post in the owners forum from yesterday:

48 hours in, I had a few problems last night.
Ours is hooked up via HDMI straight to the tv and optical to the receiver.
When I turned it on around 6:00pm mountain time, most of my sd CBC and CTV (ch 300-321) channels were showing as blacked out. Some blacked out ones displayed the "not subscribed" message. We have the "Digital Favourites" package, so they should have shown. A front panel reset fixed the problem.

Then, at 8:45 pm, I paused HGTV (ch. 564) and the screen went black again, except for the timeline bar. When I tried to resume, I just got the black screen. Skip forward/back did nothing. If I changed channels, the new channel came in and I could go back to 564 live. I tried this a few times, always with the same result. Again, a front panel reset fixed the problem.

Having been a "beta tester" for the 530 since July, 2005, I'm not prepared to go through this all over again. I'm still in possession of my 530 and will return the 630 if it continues to act up.
 
#67 ·
From post number 20 by SD support.....
I've been playing back shows all morning trying to reproduce this. Each time (from each of the 3 sort modes), the program is still highlighted when the recording ends and it returns to the PVR List. The only exception is when you start with the "Grouped by Program" mode, it will return with that programming grouping highlighted rather than the individual episode. Additionally, if new recordings have started while you're watching another one, it will be off by that number of recordings.........

This is absolutely ridiculous programming code. This is dangerous. You have to remember which date of news/program you are watching in order to delete. The machine should remember which program was being watched not which was the number of the program in the list(now changed by additional recordings). That wasn't acceptable from a programmer over 30 years ago!
Not coming back to the program you were watching for any reason is completely unacceptable. Come on guys..learn how to write code!
 
#68 ·
Problem reported by user in this thread which I also experienced:
Using FF in a recorded episode, especially at fast speeds, can't keep up with what you see on screen.

Workaround (pretty cool):
from the guide, page 35:

If you want to jump to a specific point in the recording, Absolute Jump allows you to do just that. Use the number keys to enter the point you want to jump to, and then press PLAY to move to that location. For example, pressing 4, 5, PLAY will move you to 45:00 in the program!
 
#72 ·
This is OK if you know where you want to skip to. You can also use xx minutes skip forward. But if you want to be able to see what is happening, you would have to skip forward in small segments. This defeats the purpose of having a very fast forward function. An example of this is when the men's final of the US tennis open was rained out yesterday, they showed football for about an hour, then switched to tennis commentators and then to a semi final replay.
 
#69 ·
My machine failed to record a show last night. It was set to record ch 286 at 6:00 pm mountain, then 291 at 9:00 pm. My wife watched the first recording, starting it around 9:00 pm. I came out around 10:30 and noticed the REC1 light was on, but knew there was no show scheduled to record at that time. I checked the list to see what was giong on and there was a blank yellow bar between the 2 shows that were on the list from before, and no Simpsons, which should have been there from 9 pm. I tried a number of things: play the blank bar, nothing, power on and off, nothing. Still no show and no way to get rid of the REC1 light. I finally did another front panel reset and the REC1 light went out.

Not a good sign, lots of resets and now missed recordings.:(
 
#71 ·
I ordered the 'NFL Sunday Ticket/NHL Centre Ice' package. Watching football yesterday 3 of my 4 HD channels were greyed out, but worked. Not a big deal, but strange (FWIW I LOVE the new HD 'RedZone' Channel!).

Like others I too am getting a loud 'pop' when changing channels - really noticed it yesteday flipping between games. I have optical & HDMI between receivers which run out to a projector.
 
#78 ·
Hi Everyone,

Thank you very much for the additional information that has been provided thus far. The details are really helpful in validating the feedback.

We've inquired about the Guide issues that have been reported, including Market Call and The Ultimate Fighter.

As the new TV season gets underway and you fall into more routine viewing patterns, I think you’ll really start appreciating the features and experience the 630 provides. We’ve had hundreds of these units in test in homes across the country for quite awhile. Once you get used to the “change” in the way the 630 works versus the way the 530 works, I think you’ll really start to enjoy it!
 
#80 ·
We just activated our 630 today. We have an issue that we were kind of anticipating, as it was mentioned on another thread. We have the B.C. Digital Value Pack, which is quite a new package. With this package, some of the Eastern 300-series channels are not offered (original line up numbers). What was mentioned on the thread about the B.C. Digital Value Package that happened to me now is that ALL the 300-series channels of the Essentials plus 298 and 299 are greyed out even though most of them are subscribed channels. Everything from 298 up to the SD U.S. feeds. The U.S. feeds I subscribed to are appropriately coloured, then the channels after the U.S. feeds (like 389 Victoria, for example and CBC Newsworld) are also greyed out up to channel 400, which is also coloured appropriately.

The theory is that this has to do with the code somehow for the B.C. Digital Value Package. It would be nice to have this fixed somehow.

Oh, I want to mention to that I already have the 00.13 update, so it has nothing to do with that.

The Hans
 
#83 ·
This happened to me at start-up. I had to wait until the full guide uploaded, about an hour after the update. Then it happened again on Friday. A soft (front panel) reset fixed it.
 
#81 ·
Factory Reset

After numerous frustrations and many soft and hard resets, a tech took me through a factory reset on Saturday. I was frustrated to lose so many recordings, but I was compensated for the PPV's I had recorded. I have had much better success since with only one short reset. This thing is very responsive when the guide is only partially loaded but a tad more sluggish when loaded. I wonder if the guide size could be an issue.

A suggestion -- it would be great if you had a chance to delete a recording when it ended instead of having to go back into the recording to delete it.
 
#82 ·
I had a factory reset this afternoon, too. The tech brought me to a screen first that gave a choice to save any recordings already on it or delete all. I chose save and it preserved the 4 or 5 recordings on it.
 
#84 ·
Mine just blacked out on me again. We were just watching 564 live, with no recording going on. The screen went black and the timeline bar displayed. Changing channels up and down brought back the live show.:confused:
 
#85 ·
We have twice now been fast forwarding/backing up to skip commercials and it just quits playing and goes live on the channel it is on. Both times another recording was at 58 minutes like it was just quitting the other recording. It stopped playing what we were watching! Not good!
Along with almost deleting what you haven't watched yet because you get out and another recording has started so it loses track of what you were playing.

This stuff is not good!

Hundreds of beta testers?? What were they doing?:confused::rolleyes:
 
#86 ·
The 630 is actually unique in that it doesn't have a fixed x minute buffer like the other PVRs.

The HDPVR 630 will retain the current and previous program, regardless of length.
One thing I noticed with this is that using the skip back feature it will only go back to the beginning of the program being viewed. You have to use the rewind button to go further back.
 
#89 ·
I am still experiencing the following:

1. Fast forwarding on ">>>>" speed often fails and glitches. Often, when 'Play' is pressed, the actual current playback spot is far ahead of what was just seen on the screen in fast forward too.

2. Signal numbers have decreased from the 530. I am experiencing glitching during rain now, for example 2 nights ago on 287 during COPS. Here is from system status on a clear night:

SignalT1 (284):84, (Ecb/No: 5.4 dB)
SignalT2 (287):83, (Ecb/No: 5.4 dB)

During the rain it goes into the 60s. They used to be in the mid 90s.

3. Unsubscribed channels are still showing up. I have tried switching back to 'Show' and back to 'Hide' and at least these unsubscribed channels are still showing:

257
258
 
#90 ·
Recording PPV - FREE PREVIEW ICON

I noticed on Friday when I ordered Blind Date HD at 8:30pm EST that the PPV channels now offer a FREE PREVIEW of about 5 mins or so. The FREE PREVIEW ICON was located in the top right of the screen.

I set the timer to record the movie while we watched it....once the free preview was over the ICON stayed there. Only after about another half an hour or so I hit the EXIT button on the remote to remove it....it was a fluke that I discovered that exit removed the ICON.

Shouldn't the FREE PREVIEW disappear by itself??

Cheers
 
#91 ·
My biggest gripe so far is blotchy playback of recorded shows.

Most (well over 70%) of my recordings will skip a few frames every minute or so, it's like a 1/4second edit has been cut out. Or, it will pixelate every so often. Doesn't matter if HD or SD, various channels no recording going on in background. Usually only one recording at a time. LiveDisk is on. Watching live TV does exhibit the same behaviour

If others are getting clean playback, please let me know and I will escalate.

Other than that, it's been fine, no missed recordings or reboots
 
#93 ·
have to agree... so far (fingers crossed) my 630 has been flawless in recording and playback.

The screen resolution issue (zoomed top left corner) when going from HD recorded to SD live is a bug to me, but apparently it is being worked on. I have yet to really put the machine through its paces, but it has handled multiple recordings, ppv recording while switched off and has scheduled shows for the week of the 20th well!

I said before, pixellated playback sounds like a harddrive issue- I would escalate.
 
#94 ·
This morning I'm watching 240 (RDSHD) and I hit guide. Use the arrow key to look for a show on 240. The rest of the channels on the guide go blank but listing for 240 is there except that the 240 label on the left is all mangled up :confused:. I exit, try again, same results. I exit try again and all the sudden screen goes blank for a few seconds. I'm thinking reboot but no... the receiver changes channel to 244, the channel I was on before tuning to 240. The guide is working now.

I'm alone in the house so no one is using another remote. Being in Texas in my home away from home there are no other Canadian neighbors using SD.

Weird.
 
#95 ·
I am having a problem with the 630 remote interacting with another receiver. I have the 630 in our main living room and then in the basement I have my regular HD receiver. I have noticed over the last few days that the remote for the 630 interacts with the reg HD receiver in the basement while we are using it on the 630 upstairs. It somehow is creating timers, changing channels, turning it on and off etc on the reg HD receiver. Is there a way to change the 630 remote frequency or something so it won't so this?
 
#96 ·
yes- you can do this on either receiver. Options, remote address, set a new code, default is 0000.

This has been discussed- search 'remote address'
 
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