Rogers Official SDV Issues Thread - Please read post 1

[DLPAddict]

My location is east of Vic Park north of Kingston rd

I think it is Scarborough south west.....but I'm not sure

I just give my relative location in case someone is asking

[Eug]

Tonight I was flipping channels when I noticed that 545 CNNHD said "Tuning SDV" but the channel never came up and after a few seconds it said "channel unavailable". Other SDV channels such as SpeedHD, HDNet, Superchannel(s) HD were the same.

I thought that perhaps my box was in "broadcast" mode but this did not appear to be the case as VOD worked fine. And the result was exactly the same on three HD boxes, all different models - SA3250HD, SA4250HD and SA8300HD.

And I didn't even know that they were using SDV in Scarborough yet!

As I mentioned earlier in the (merged) thread:

I had the same SDV (non-)tuning problem, but a hard reboot solved it. By hard reboot, I mean physically unplugging the machine, waiting a few seconds, and then plugging it back in.

(At least it solved it with one box. I'll try the others tonite.)

[thenewdc]

Can you guys post what areas SDV is working in? I dont have it in Markham yet, but I suspect it wont be long, hopefully before the end of the year. Anyone know if its on in Toronto?

[57]

It's not available in downtown TO. They are probably testing in a couple of areas before they go system-wide.

[Wayne]

They were using, or attempting to use it, in Scarborough last night. I live by Markham and Kingston and several channels tried to tune in on SDV but failed - see my post above.

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by Eug

I had the same SDV (non-)tuning problem, but a hard reboot solved it. By hard reboot, I mean physically unplugging the machine, waiting a few seconds, and then plugging it back in.

(At least it solved it with one box. I'll try the others tonite.)

But that is a last resort option. I will be totally PO'ed at Rogers if I have to do this on a regular basis as you are not able to watch TV for about 5 minutes.

[thenewdc]

Maybe Scarboro is a test location. You guys will have to deal with bugs.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by Wayne

But that is a last resort option. I will be totally PO'ed at Rogers if I have to do this on a regular basis as you are not able to watch TV for about 5 minutes.

No, you do it once, and then it works. Or at least it seems to.

I've now tested all three of my boxes: 2 x 8300HD and 3250HD. None of them would tune those channels. I hard reboot all three, and they all work fine now. One of them I reboot yesterday and it hasn't had any tuning problems since.

It's lame that it requires a hard reboot, but at least it works. I wonder if they're going to improve the handshaking/detection/whatever, cuz if everyone has this problem it's going to be a major tech support problem for them. Or perhaps they'll just force a hard reboot somehow at 4:30 am or something.

[PeterT]

I'm also in the Kingsto / Markham area and noticed when I tuned HDNET just now the SFV message. All seemed find though with it besides the delay.

Came here to see what I could find out via the forums As usual, most useful.

Peter

[FuzzyQball]

I am in the Brantford area and my tech mentioned that they were having some problems with it in this area. Are there some threads that discuss what this technology is all about?

[Wayne]

Originally Posted by Eug

I've now tested all three of my boxes: 2 x 8300HD and 3250HD. None of them would tune those channels. I hard reboot all three, and they all work fine now. One of them I reboot yesterday and it hasn't had any tuning problems since.

I have rebooted one of my 3250HDs twice and I also rebooted my 8300HD once and I still can't tune the SDV channels on these boxes. I haven't tried my other boxes yet.

edit--------

So after rebooting two boxes I broke down and called Rogers. I was on hold for 45 minutes and then heard a ring - but instead of connecting I got a dead line - doesn't that tick you off!

Any ideas - I suspect that when I call Rogers and say that "the SDV channels aren't working for me" the CSR is going to say "What is SDV". Then after having me reboot the box they will offer to send a tech out to my house.

Can anyone think of anything else I can do on my end other than wait? These aren't channels I watch a lot so it isn't too big of a deal for now, although HDNET occasionally has some good movies.

[57]

Originally Posted by FuzzyQball

Are there some threads that discuss what this technology is all about?

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=51559

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=88296

[Wayne]

I called Rogers today to put in a ticket on my SDV channels - I cannot tune in any SDV channels on any of my five HD boxes, even after a reboot (I have tried a power cycle reboot on two of the boxes).

To make matters worse Rogers has added more channels to SD - in my area we now have at least 10 HD channels on SDV - 504,508,509,514,521,525,532,533,541,545 - note that this now includes PBS HD and SRC HD along with several specialty networks. There are also two Superchannel HD channels but I am not including them as I don't pay for Superchannel.

[Eug]

Yes, when I called Rogers, the CSR had absolutely no idea what SDV was... but that's par for the course. I have to say, Rogers really needs to clean up their act. I feel sorry for the CSRs... Their system is sufficiently complicated that they can't know everything, but it would seem obvious that their system needs to be fixed.

Anyways, since I rebooted my boxes several days ago, the previously problematic channels have continued to tune properly on all the boxes. I confirmed this again yesterday - I watch two of the HD boxes fairly regularly, and I also made a point of testing it on the 3rd HD box as well. All are fine (and yes I'm in Scarberia too).

The channels I specifically tried were the OMNI HD channels (508, 509), and PBS HD (which is 525 IIRC).

[Wayne]

So I am wondering why reboot are not clearing my problems - I bet Rogers response will be that signal levels are too low. But everying else works on my boxes including VOD which is usually the first thing to go.

Last night I tried rebooting the third box and this is still not working.

I wonder how they have decided what channels to put on SDV? Would it be based on Rogers' own data on viewership - the least viewed channels on SDV? Because some of the specialty channels are not SDV - TLC HD (which is new), Discovery HD, Nat Geo HD. I have to think that TLC would have less viewership than PBS, would it not?