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800 Series Discussions

138K views 419 replies 74 participants last post by  P2B 
#1 ·
Yesterday I phoned a tech at SD to get the time changed back as we have NO daylight savings time in our area. I complained having to do this every 6 months and couldn't they set something up? He said the 800 series receivers are in the works and they will be able to set our time zone and if we have DST or not. I asked him "You said 800 series and not 700 series", he said they are bypassing the 700 and are working on the 800 series.
If I needed more info he could patch me through to customer relations or something like that but it was Sunday, I could phone back today(monday).
Does that mean we have to wait longer for a newer receiver, or just a stall tactic.
 
#290 ·
Thanks @ralphf!

For #1, since the box only has two tuners, this may not be possible (but would have to consult with the developers).
#2, do you have a use case you could outline for this just so I better understand? I'm trying to think through how you would initiate this while also considering that most folks want the full recording on an impulse record. Perhaps the pop-up receives another button that says "Record from this point."?
#3. This would be against our agreements with the networks, so we wouldn't be able to implement this (I know, it's not ideal). It falls back to digital rights and the potential of sharing content between accounts.
 
#292 ·
#1. I dont believe the number of tuners has anything to do with last channel recall. The last channel is not stored in the tuners. I had a free to air receiver that had twenty channel recall, and it had one tuner.#2. Watching the news for 2 hours, then a news item comes on that I think my wife would like to see. So I want to rewind and record just that one item and not 2 hours. Also on TCM between movies they sometimes show shorts. Again I would like to back up and record just that short. Sports is another example where I would like to back up and record a certain play etc.
 
#291 ·
#3. I don't see the reasoning behind this response. Bell Satellite PVRs allow switching external drives between similar PVRs on the same account. The recordings are tied to the account, not the device. I don't see how preserving recordings when a PVR is replaced would contravene broadcaster agreements. It's a technical limitation of Shaw's external drive implementation, not a legal issue. It's also no different than whole home PVR or being able to watch recordings on other devices in the home, features which are available from other BDUs. It's also much less susceptible to abuse than being able to watch recordings or live TV on portable devices outside the home.
 
#295 ·
There are lots of agreements with rights holders that limit what BDUs allow their customers to do with various equipment.

Recording to a DVD, or videoing a programme are "allowed" because they degrade the original content and almost no one does that any more, especially since most programming is now available on the web or on demand. That ship has sailed.

Having friends over is also allowed, provided you don't charge money or have some other financial gain.

Not sure if you saw post 293 since you and I were typing at the same time.

Edit - Please remember that some of these "nice to have" features require additional code in the firmware which usually slows down the equipment. If there is little or no demand for these items, a BDU will not incorporate them for the good of the overall customer base.
 
#298 ·
I wonder if SD will listen.
Dream on. At one time there was a thread over 50 pages long that detailed problems with Shaw Direct (then Star Choice) HD channels. Some of the issues are not yet fixed to this day, some 10-15 years later. Anyone looking for a BDU that will provide the latest features and technology needs to look elsewhere. Shaw Direct has been 5-10 years behind other BDUs when it comes to providing new equipment, new features and adding HD channels. I thought that Shaw Direct would have used the HDPVR 800 to add whole home technology but they missed that opportunity.
 
#299 ·
@ExDilbert

Having stuck with Shaw Direct through many years I can say I do not find many issues (unresolved) with the signal nor the equipment. I do recognize that some people have issues with audio but I do not find I have those issues of late. The 600 series has very stable for years and the 800 series seems to have built off of that base. As to HD offerings they have surpassed Bell Satellite and by fall will be almost entirely HD. The final channels hopefully to be converted in spring 2020, where the HD version is available. As to audio issues I will acknowledge are talked about but they seem to be channel specific and may be a source/encoding issue or the users dish may need tweaking. There is for now an active Shaw Direct rep on the forum who seems to be listening and providing good feedback and is soliciting feedback on the hardware and service.

Shaw Direct having Vertical and Horizontal polarity is a little fussier to tune and all dishes need to be tweaked from time to time. Some transponders/channels seem to react to misaligned before others.

I have seen people with Rogers Navigator equipment and I would put Shaws PVR capabilities and reliability miles ahead. As to whole home it would be a nice to have but having read about Rogers implementation of it, it might be best that Shaw didn't go down that route.
 
#300 ·
I had two Shaw HDPVR 600s for a year after they were introduced. Apart from one failing after a software update and the tiny hard drive (which I upgraded), I rather liked them. That doesn't negate the 500 series fiasco and the way Shaw treated customer over their own failure to provide MPEG4 compatibility. The 800 series seems to be as good or better than the 600 but it's too little too late.

As for Rogers NextBox issues, they originated with Cisco. Cisco should have fixed the problems but they decided to sell their NextBox subsidiary to another company and walk away. It is painfully obvious that Cisco was negligent and that Rogers is incapable of correcting the issues they caused.
 
#301 ·
Suggestions

One issue I have noticed randomly is that the remote skip forward function acts up on some recordings. The fast forward seems to work fine on these recordings. I haven't seen this on a 630.

A nice to have new feature would be to add some sort of Netflix integration so that I don't have to use my TV remote to access the smart TV integration.
 
#313 ·
630 Quirk or External HD

Starchoice, not exactly what you have experienced. This may be my 630 or the external hard drive I installed back in April. I just love the new HD, but I twice now I experienced a quirk. The playback of a recording results in a blank screen and no audio. I exit the recording and start over; all is fine then.

It has only happened a couple of times with no real loss so the huge benefit of the external HD offsets any very occasional and recoverable quirk.

I am grateful to ipabrewer for posting this recommendation:
https://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/3077969-post232.html
 
#305 ·
Correct, we are rolling out a new software version this week for HDDSR 800s and HDPVR 830s next week. The biggest feature you'll actually notice is the integration of VOD in the Guide. You can press D on applicable programs and networks to search the VOD library to make finding content easier.

You can also now disable Stingray poster album art if you wish to connect to WiFi but save bandwidth there, and you can also press STOP during an in-progress recording to stop recording it (I think someone from here actually suggested that one... maybe it was an email to me.)

Other than that, the usual under-the-hood improvements. You may notice trickplays are lot better while recordings are in-progress, most notably.
 
#311 ·
Intermittent signal loss?

Lately we have been experiencing a strange happening. When tuning to channel 231 (ABC Detroit) yesterday, we had no picture or sound. All other Detroit channels were fine.

Looking at the Status screen, the signal level showed -2.3 dB. All other channels showed over 8 dB. We did a soft reboot and the channel came back to life and the dB showed 8.7.

This happened to our 630 and 830 receivers.

Yesterday was ABC Detroit but the other times it would be other US channels. There does not seem to be a particular pattern

Looking for any ideas as to what may be going on here.
 
#315 ·
#317 ·
The differences are listed elsewhere in another thread, probably the DSR800 discussion thread. (Tried searching but the results were useless.) They are mainly cosmetic with slightly better hardware. The difference in picture quality will be minimal. If a 4K box ever becomes available, that would make a difference with 4K programming.
 
#320 ·
The HDDSR 800 has a much faster processor, the ability to connect to WiFi and will continue to receive feature enhancements (6XX is no longer on the development train for anything but major defect fixes).

The HDPVR 830 has the ability to schedule recordings for as far as your Guide is loaded, generally 14 days in the future.
 
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