Posts by BCScott
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I've started to get the odd lock-up with CC, so I called tech help yesterday to register a complaint. I was told a couple of months ago that I would receive a warranty extension for 1 year after I receive a stable software download. I confirmed it yesterday, but the clock started running when I got CC. I guess I'll deal with it in the future, depending on what happens down the line. I have about 16 hours of HD available on my machine.
Well, mine just died after a couple of power outages tonight. A new unit is on the way, hopefully with CC. After the power came back on, it wouldn't reboot. It would only cycle the LEDs. After 30 minutes of front panel and power cord resets, I finally got it to come on and it immediately froze on the channel it rebooted on. Another 30 minutes of resets got it to reboot and change the channel once. At least my wife got to see Survivor! Then it froze on CBS. A slow and painful death I guess.
jbobh- Instead of pressing "jump" a number of times, try this. If you want to go ahead 3 minutes for a commercial block, push the # 3, then jump. It will take you ahead 3 minutes into the recording. 15 jump will take you ahead 15 minutes, etc. I have my "jump back" set for 20 seconds, so if I go ahead too far and get into programming, I can quickly get back to where it starts. It's a great feature and you'll find that you can get very familiar with how long the commercial blocks are at various times in your favourite programs.
Just received my replacement 530 and got CC last night. Here's hoping! The last time I tried DVI-HDMI with a cable (no adapter), I didn't notice any improvement over component with my Sony SXRD ( I could A-B them on the same channel), but I did get a "blinking" in the video every minute or so with DVI. I don't use it anymore.
I think this is the networks' answer to the TIVO problem in the US of so many people recording shows and doing commercial skips. The advertisers complain to the networks so the networks make the shows go past the 1/2 hour blocks in the hope that a certain percentage of viewers will get fed up with missing the end of the shows and not bothering with recording them. The answer is stated above, just extend the parameters of the shows you record. The same shows tend to do this every week, so you will get to know which ones do it and adjust accordingly.
My situation exactly! By doing a series of power unplugs/plug-ins and front panel resets over a period of an hour or so, I got mine to reboot. I called tech support and they offerred to replace my unit, which I agreed to. It took about 10 days. During that time, the machine was very unstable with live programming. A simple change of channel would require a front panel reset. Strangely enough, recorded materials played fine.It gave us a chance to watch some of the HD movies we had recorded with the MCHD promo. The new machine is working fine so far, with only 1 reset in the 2 weeks or so that we've had it. *choice also gave me another month of the movie package as I didn't get to watch all of the recordings on my HD. I did have to pay for return shipping though for the old unit.
As far as I can tell, I got a new 530 and not a refurb. It shipped with A4 I think, but CC was downloaded the first night. We didn't use any of the PVR functions until CC was installed. I'm happy so far and the other unit was well past it's 1 year warranty, 15 months, I think.
After re-booting the box, it told me that I had lost the program it was attempting to record because of a power failure.
Often, if it tells you the recording failed, it will still play, at least to the point of lock-up. You can tell if it's still recording by the LEDs. If they're still scrolling, it's still recording. If they stop, do a front panel reset and when it comes back on, it will start recording again after 30 sec or so (the red rec light will come on and it will start scrolling again). You can then watch your recording in 2 parts. Not ideal, but better than losing the whole recording.
Make sure you have CC code before you try any recording or you'll quickly become VERY frustrated!
Often, if it tells you the recording failed, it will still play, at least to the point of lock-up. You can tell if it's still recording by the LEDs. If they're still scrolling, it's still recording. If they stop, do a front panel reset and when it comes back on, it will start recording again after 30 sec or so (the red rec light will come on and it will start scrolling again). You can then watch your recording in 2 parts. Not ideal, but better than losing the whole recording.
Make sure you have CC code before you try any recording or you'll quickly become VERY frustrated!
It takes 10 days or so for Starchoice to send a replacement so it might be prudent to call them and start the process of a replacement. Ours sufferred the same fate. We decided to replace it while it was on it's last legs and by the time the replacement came, we had to do a front panel reset every time we wanted to change channels. Fortunately, we only had a couple of days of that.
Check thesourcecc.com and look for their clearance items both in store and online. I got one in November that has UPS, power conditioning, surge protection and enough power to run both my 530 and my SXRD 50" for a few minutes to allow me to shut them both down properly. Mine was item#6118508 for $100. Works perfectly at 60%capacity.
If you look at the "Who has had their 530 replaced" poll, you'll see that only 1 contributer had to pay more than shipping costs (and if I remember correctly, there was some question of this person telling the truth). I would talk to a supervisor and get your free replacement as soon as possible.
Another one bites the dust!
Our second unit is heading back. It's very eratic with recording now, breaking recordings, freezing during playback, etc. We did a factory reset last week and cleaned out all but 3 hours of recordings and it was stable until last night. Now, with 21 hours of HD remaining, it's completely useless for recording. New unit is on the way with no charge for shipping. Maybe this will be "THE ONE". I hope so, because we could never live without one!
Our second unit is heading back. It's very eratic with recording now, breaking recordings, freezing during playback, etc. We did a factory reset last week and cleaned out all but 3 hours of recordings and it was stable until last night. Now, with 21 hours of HD remaining, it's completely useless for recording. New unit is on the way with no charge for shipping. Maybe this will be "THE ONE". I hope so, because we could never live without one!
My replacement came last week as a refurb with A04. They told me to expect to be targeted with CC within 14 days! I escalated and have a new unit on the way. My current CC unit records fine until it gets 4 or 5 hours of HD on the HDD, so I wasn't interested in A04 for 2 weeks. I don't know if my marriage could take A04 again.
My new unit came yesterday and it is indeed a new one. This one came with CE. I'm loading up 8-10 hours of HD recordings to see how it performs with info on it. I had 1 lockup last night, but I was working it fairly hard, going back and forth between channels while recording another channel. I did notice a lot more very short audio drop outs than my CC unit. We'll have to monitor that.
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