Shaw Direct HDPVR 630 Owners Discussion Thread

5.1 surround quality

Is anyone not happy with the 5.1 decoding and seperation from recordings made with the DSR630?
I'm listening to Terminator Salvation at the moment, and although it has a very expansive and expensive 5.1 soundtrack, what I'm hearing on my Yamaha receiver is not as rich or lively as it would be if I were just listening "live" out of the receiver.
Has anyone else noticed this? The rear channel seperation is surprisingly soft, with most things still coming from the front, center position.
What could it be that is reducing the expansive nature of the native 5.1 surround decoding?
Or, is everyone happy and feel their DVR is faithfully reproducing what's being recorded?

Note: the 5.1 surround from a DSR505 is far more lively and room-filling

Jables said:

If you're sending audio to an A/V receiver via HDMI or optical out, the 630 shouldn't be doing any decoding or separation of DD bitstreams - it'll just record and pass along what it was sent from the sat. I can think of no reason that watching a show live or time-shifted would affect the quality of a DD bitstream - should be the same information.

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yeah, that's kinda what I thought - surprisingly, at least with my 630, there IS a difference in what was live and what plays back off the drive

Deleted program by mistake . . . any way to find it?

I deleted a program from the 630's PVR list by mistake.
Is there any voodoo method of bringing it back from the dead
so I can watch it?

channel 293 CTV HD

I record one show off this channel, 293 CTV HD - 'Castle', on Monday nights. Same thing every week - pixelation drop-outs. same show, same time, same channel, same result EVERY week.
no other problems with this on other channel with this consistency and repetition.
is anyone else who watches this show seeing this?
is it possible CTV is reducing bandwidth somehow?
thanks

thanks, that was my next plan. On a side note, I recorded some other shows today on ch. 293, CTV HD with the same result. They must be cutting bandwidth to save money. Why else would CTV be the only HD channel to suffer?

how much time - in hours - can a 630 record (HD).
is there a difference between HD and SD hours, as with TiVo, and if so, any idea what the difference is? I searched here for a while and couldn't find a concrete answer.
Reason: my 630 seems 75% full, but there aren't that many shows recorded

GaryE said:

Common problem at the moment with most of us with 630s...

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=1438159&postcount=1575

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so just to be clear...when you do a PVR Flush, NO programs are deleted? is that correct? thanks

HevyKevy said:

Thanks GaryE for the info on the PVR Flush. It was just the thing I needed to fix my issue.

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can you tell me, after your PVR Flush...did it delete any watched or un-watched or protected programs?

did you do the 'right-arrow' sort of the PVR list?

DSR 630 remote control warranty?

do the remotes carry the same replacement warranty that the receivers do, aka Shaw replaces them when broken? My 630 remote barely responds anymore, likely to the contacts wearing out beneath the buttons

9.15 came into my 630 last night, and at an hour (2:15am) where I was still watching TV - that ticked me off. So far...no problems

in the last couple of days, I'm getting a lot of this when I change channels on my 630:

"receiver has lost satellite signal. signal reacquisition is in progress. please wait."

at the bottom of the screen, the VOD requester is highlighted in yellow, and on the right is a "PVR List" box.

the channels never tune in. I have to de-select and re-select the channels to make a signal appear. Drive is just over 1/2 full, 9.15 firmware, and it doesn't matter if the channel is HD or SD

there are two tuners, and depending on the channel, one tuner or the other sometimes drops into the low 80's or high 70's. no snow, or wind. just started since 9.15 update. could it be attributed to the uplink strength (storms) or are we near into sun-spot season yet?

since 9.15, my 630 has been having lots of trouble: resets, no-satellite warnings, audio dropouts....none of which were nearly as evident with 8.26

tonight, "tuner 1" started showing up as having "0" signal on a bunch of channels, while 'tuner 2'has signal of 85 and above, depending on the channel.

for eg., HBOHDE shows tuner 1 strength of 86, but HBOHDW shows tuner 1 strength as 0. Can't find anything obvious as to why this is happening, aka broken coax, dish alignment, etc. Could the LNB be failing, or has my map become corrupted, or is this yet another 9.15 mess?

anyone else getting these "signal re-acquisition in progress" warnings? Even stranger, If I just leave a channel that shows a "0" tuner 1 level....the channel eventually just pops back on, showing a now fully-functional tuner 1, with high signal levels.

perplexed

ah, good idea. and then I'll keep an eye on Tuner2. any reason to unplug other than static? does that also clear out the 630's malfunctioning brain?

good tip, thanks. ever since the daylight saving time clock update, I've had less problems...go figure

ok, unplugged, swapped tuner coax lines, and essentially the same problem: tuner 1, from time to time, on random channels, shows signal of zero. Then, change channels and back...full signal appears. strength doesn't appear to be an issue, as high 80's and low 90's are common.
flumuxed.

at this time of year, sun spots are a problem....that's all that makes sense at this point, although I don't know what time of day the solar activity is highest

cool map, thanks. F1R and F2?

Hi, I swapped lines, but the problem remained with TUNER 1 ONLY. Seems like a software glitch of some kind. Haven't tried a "flush" or master reset as of yet. Any likelihood a re-hit could fix it?