Again a newbie question, I am quite comfortable with removing the screw and replace the drive with a new one, can anyone please suggest a HDD that surely work. I had a look at the Samsung one at http://www.itestate.com.au/products_detail...code=PD00004067 which was mentioned by a couple of ppl b4 and it doesnt have the CE mark on it

Thanks

CE Samsung ATA HDDs model number start with SV

Techo, on the samsung site there are no HDDs with the SV prefix. Have you made a typo or are the CE-quality drives imported or something?


http://www.samsung.com/au/products/harddiskdrive/index.asp

This makes a lot of sense to me. The previous HDD discussion was really about general reliability, rather than what HDD will work properly in the DSE PVR – and I think this is the point.

I certainly wasn’t criticising WD drives – I’ve had quite positive experiences with them.

I was criticising the fact that someone decided to change the drive type from a relatively-expensive CE type (that happens to be Seagate) to an inexpensive base model drive (that happens to be WD), without adequate testing.

It’s likely that the PVR’s software/firmware was developed using a Seagate drive (or some other CE or AV variant), and it has a minor problem when talking to the WD drive. That problem manifests itself as freezing on playback, and this is why the Seagate-fitted PVR is the desirable option. It’s due to an interfacing quirk/problem, rather than an inadequacy of the WD drive.

As far as other drive types are concerned, the positive reports about the 250gig SAMSUNG dive imply this may be the way to go (thanks, Motoman). While I can see the benefits of using a CE/AV type of drive, I suspect it doesn’t make a huge difference in this case, and it gets tough to justify the additional cost for such a budget PVR.

I plan to install a Samsung drive soon and will report my experiences. Hopefully anyone else who does this can also report the results.

You're right. I stuffed up. Wikipedia says this about real world speeds:



I will try to test what rates I get.

Yep, I bought one of these Units from DSE in Canberra City on Thursday afternoon. At that stage Tandy in the city had none left, there was one in Tandy Belconnen and 6 at DSE Belconnen. I got the same spiel as someone else who purchased from DSE, they would only price match if there was a unit in stock at Tandy selling for $199. I guess as long as there was a unit somewhere in Aus, which could be shipped, then that price-match might still apply.

The bloke who served me at DSE was very nice. I mentioned I didn't mind if I got one with an old looking box as I was after the model with the Seagate drive. He offered to take it out of the box to check, and we could see the Seagate name through the grill as was mentioned on this forum.

I am stoked with this PVR. I have never used a set top box, or even knowingly seen digital TV before, and I had it working within 10 minutes (including the 2 minutes it took me to find the power switch on the back of the unit). My ABC signal was a little weak (I am using rabbit ears) so I altered the aerial as per the instructions on this site and everything was fine.

I have had no stutter and even the sound problem other people have noticed I haven't seen yet. This is a steal at $199. Thanks to all the people on this forum who posted useful information. Rugby World Cup here I come!

Dang, I should have tried that. The guys at DSE Cannington WA had no problems matching the $199 but took a hell of a long time to get one from the store room. I don't have a legitimate use for the time-shift function so I've disabled that. That should make any stutter problems less likely right?

No typo. I still have several in stock I use for my business, however I know of no Aus importer. I was importing them myself for my custom jobs, you also need to be aware if you are an end user the manufactures won't give you a PC drive style warranty - you need to be a real OEM or developer of AV or security gear. look here


agreed - However I'd still like to know what model WD. I'd also like to know what model/type of drive the Topfields now sold by Strathfield are.

Not yet

Have now had my unit for 4 days and it hasn't missed a beat, works perfectly.

Oh, and dont know about anybody else but I've never seen a more powerful remote control. It works from any part of the room regardless of angle, even when pointing in the complete opposite direction!

The only tiny annoyance is continually having to press the Exit button to clear the play/record status bar. Reckon I'm gonna wear that little button out

OK, my unit is all set up and behaving itself nicely. The live pause function is lovely; just like on Foxtel iQ (it was always a bit slow and noisy on my Strong 5390, which doesn't have a timeslip buffer).

I have a question about chaseplay. I have read right through this topic (admittedly skimming through parts) and read that chaseplay was possible (e.g., I set a program to timer record; come home half way through, and want to start watching from the beginning before the timer ends). Both the Strong 5390 and Foxtel iQ do this effortlessly; you go into the list of recorded programs, pick the one you want and push "play" and it starts playback at the beginning. BUT I can't seem to get this working on the DSE unit. The program recording is there, but I can't seem to do anything but stop the recording. If I exit to where the program is still showing, I can rewind back to the start but this is pretty clumsy. Am I missing something?

Venus,

For chaseplay, just select the show while it is recording, full screen, not in the recording list, and press Play.

The unit will start playing from the beginning and continue recording the show. ie. chaseplay

Thanks Alex! Not exactly intuitive is it?

I picked up this PVR from DSE in Box Hill yesterday (after DSE Camberwell refused to price match )

Since my Panasonic 42PX600A doesn't accept RGB I'm using svideo and the picture quality is very poor. I have tried different svideo cables, svideo via scart, and plugging the pvr directly into the TV and the picture quality is still very poor. I would describe it as being way too sharp.

Since I get very good picture quality through the inbuilt TV tuner I'm reluctant to mess around with my TV settings.

Any suggestions for improving the picture from the DS6200PVR would be greatly appreciated.

Regards
Grant

Just leave the status bar on the screen, like my wife does.

Annoys the hell out of me. Most frequent thing I say to her now is EXIT!.

Apparently the firmware upgrade fixes that little annoyance

I just need to buy or make myself a serial cable to load it

It sounds like you're using your AVR as a switching device but, as you are probably aware, your Pana doesn't have a global setting for all its AV inputs. Therefore, you can play around with the sharpness, etc, if you use a direct AV input on the TV (I think AV3 has the S-vid input. I'm also assuming that you're using a splitter on the aerial input but getting decent signal strength and signal quality (the red and green bars).

I haven't found the picture to be over-sharpened but it will certainly be below the quality of your inbuilt HD tuner as it is only SD (and yes, others have said it's below the quality of the SD channels as well). For mine, and I don't understand why this is the case, the 3D look of the picture is superior to the HD and SD stbs I was running into my 50 series Pana. However, the resolution didn't appear as good.
On my sister's new TH700, the PQ is below that of the inbuilt tuner but above foxtel although she only had a composite input available for the PVR.

I think all you can do is play with the picture settings until you have a picture that you can live with, and then keep in mind that you paid about as much for this PVR as you would for a decent VCR with half the resolution

If you're referring to the 1.04 update, no it doesn't. The EXIT button on this device should be as big as a 50 cent piece, it gets that much use.

I picked up one from DSE Belconnen on Saturday ($199, price matched Tandy).
This is a brilliant device... picture quality is fantastic over RGB to my Loewe. PVR functions work like a charm, and USB transfer to PC seems to work well too.

BUT... I am also experiencing the freezing. Yep, it's a Western Digital hard drive. Roughly once every half hour everything freezes for around 15 seconds. It happens whether or not there is something recording and whether or not automatic buffering is on. If something is recording it leaves a 15-second glitch permanently in the recorded program.

I'll be very interested to hear if more people managed to fix this problem with a hard drive upgrade. MotoMan, is yours still working fine since your upgrade? I agree with others that $199 plus the cost of a hard drive is still probably very good value for this device if it does indeed fix the problem.

yep gubits, I've also now found the playback to freeze occasionally regardless of whether I'm recording at the same time.

Regarding the HDD upgrade, I visited a couple of computer shops today and it doesn't appear that picking up a CE-grade drive will be likely over the counter. Both places weren't even aware that Seagate and Samsung have HDDs designed purely for pvrs and dvd recorders.

However, I have no problem with putting in a new drive when I source the right one as the WD unit will simply go into my PC for extra storage which I need. So I see it as still having a $199 pvr but that I upgraded my PC

I picked up a Harmony 525 remote, which were on special at Tandy for $95 at about the same time as the DSE first dropped to $199. I almost beat it to a pulp trying to set it up, but now that it's going, I thoroughly recommend one if you can get it for under $100, The PVR isn't natively recognised, so that took a bit of IR learning to get working properly, but now the harmony acts just like the original remote, but on steroids!

The moment someone tries that EU firmware with MP3 and it works, I'll be putting it on mine

Since CE drives are not really designed for PC use you'll be lucky to find any within their stocks. Given that modern PCs are so specialized these days, used as a primary PC drive I doubt if a genuine CE drive would last more than a year in that environment.

I just canceled my online order with Tandy. Found out that the HDD is actually WD.

Also went to DSE today and they only have WD HDD instocked. Did not bother to ask for price match since not what Im looking 4 anyway.

I think I would unfortunately have to poke out abit more money for a toppy unless some1 kind enuff to show me somewhere in melb I can get a Seagate model

Just goy my delivery from tandy online store today, and it has WD hard drive, and it glitches....

Been thinking about this and since it seems to happen not only when recording and playing multiple things, but even
when playing a single show with no recording in the background, it could possibly be a power supply problem.
Maybe the WD drive pulls more power than the specialised versions and is pushing the PS over the limit that it was close to with the seagate model???
A quick look through the WD website for specs show that the th wd1600bb has a 7.75W power on idle/read/write 12W on seek while a WD1600AVBB which is specifically for PVR use has read/wrie of 6.6W but no listing for seek.

This doesn't seem a huge difference so maybe ths isn't the problem?

Anyone actually swapped to another PC type drive and either fixed or not fixed the glitching?????
If no one has then I might try putting in a 60Gb drive I've got laying around here to see what happens.

I am very interested to know if the European firmware works as it appears to have the editing functions that the DSE box lacks. From the manual for the T8000:



The DSE box has the A-B button, but the manual says this can only be used to repeat a block. So the DSE box may only be a firmware upgrade away from Nirvana (doesn't appear to support file splitting though).

For those who really feel they need the editing functions (someone mentioned recording a block of kids programs and editing it) the DSE box does have the ability to set markers within a larger file and "jump" to those positions (I think this is done with the "paperclip" keys down the bottom). So you can make markers where different programs start.

The supernet boxes will display a list of the programs within a single file (named from the EPG). I'd love a feature like that.

When I have time in the next 2 days, I'll be trying two 80Gb HDDs that I have; a 5400rpm Samsung SV0802N out of a Panasonic DVD recorder (although it might be faulty) and a 7200rpm Seagate ST3802110A. I'll report my findings.

Hi everyone, bought one of these a couple of weeks ago at Tandy - it was old stock so no hard disk problems. The question I have concerns the screen saver function. This appears in the menu and seems to be adjustable in terms of time. I assumed that it would go to sreen saver mode if I paused live TV - but it does not do this. Have I got this completely wrong? Anyone out there know anything about the screen saver function?

OK people just a little update..

After upgrading the HDD to the samsung PS2514N 250GB drive the DSE PVR has been alot better..

However i still get the occasional freeze on playback.. (we are talking very occcasional compared to the WD)

I am more than happy to live with this minor thing.. This is a BUDGET pvr and im treating it like that..

Hope ive helped

MotoMan

Hi All



I had to split my signal.
I have a 4-way splitter, one to the DSE6200PVR, two to 2 PC's with analogue PCI TV tuners and one to my PC with a DVICO PCI Digital tuner.
I rearranged and split one of the signals to the two PC's with analogue PCI TV tuners. This allowed me to connect directly to my TV. Reception to the 2 PC's is not affected.
Now when SBS digital signal plays up my wife can still watch SBS on analogue.

I thought having a 4-way splitter may be affecting SBS so I connected up the masthead amplified signal directly to the set top box (no splitter) unfortunately, there was no difference, SBS still drifted in and out. Some of the other stations drift out but nowhere near to the same extent as SBS.
I live in a gully surrounded by large trees in a semi rural setting on the Central Coast, so I shouldn't complain about my reception or should I, analogue is fine.

So far the 6200PVR is working well, I have worked out how to use most of the function buttons, there is a slight hard drive noise, not enough to be concerned.
My wife recorded Teachers on ABC and I found that it was missing a bit of the recorded program in a few sections (it seemed to look like it was fast forwarding) however on replaying the same sections over and over I think that may have been the reception dropping in and out. Other recordings have been fine.

Again, thanks to all in this forum.

My sister lives at Kincumber in the shadow of a large hill and when we set up her DS6200 we got decent reception on all the available channels. However, that was very late Saturday night with a clear sky. Next day the signal strength was fluctuating under 50% on 7, 9 and 10 from Sydney. WIN, Prime, ABC and ABC2 were all okay.
My brother-in-law has since pushed up the aerial mast by 60cm, and cleaned and reattached all aerial connections (the aerial is only analogue but manages to service 3 digital and 2 analogue devices via a powered amplifier). They now report that all stations are receiving at least 80% signal strength since Sunday arvo so problem solved.

For those who are interested in upgrading the firmware to the Homecast T 8000, I noticed that when I set up my Harmony remote I put in the PVR as Make: DSE; Model DS6200PVR. This was not listed as known by Logitech, but it did give DSE T8000 as an option. I will try setting up the Harmony using that setting and see if it completely mimics the original remote. If it does, I think it makes for a strong case to upgrade

I'm not game to upgrade to this just yet in case I kill the machine. It was after all my wife's birthday present and the only PVR we have..

Hi Scott,

Did they ever get back to you?

Alex

I am looking at buying one of these today. I currently have a Pioneer DVD recorder with Svideo connections. I am a complete novice when connecting up the PVR and DVD-R and Tv. What is the best way to do this???? As I like to archive onto DVD I wish to be able to record a program which I know I will want to archive directly to the DVD recorder from the PVR if possible (recording live rather than transferring from PVR to DVD recorder at a later time). Can I do this and also can I still watch a different program in digital while this is happening.??? I love the ease of use of my DVD recorder but wish to improve my analogue reception which is not the best. My TV only has one set of AV inputs. How do I connect these and still keep it user friendly? I have read where the PVR does not loop through - will this effect my situation. Any help is greatly appreciated.

You wouldn't be able to send one program to your DVD recorder and watch another, as you can only output one signal at a time. You could certainly record one program for later archiving while watching another. If your TV has only one set of AV inputs (what sort are they?) then an AV switch box will probably be your best bet. These can range from cheap manual RCA switch boxes from Tandy etc up to remote controlled switch boxes that do component, s-video and composite as well as digital video.

Regarding the loop through; as others have mentioned, you can split the aerial signal at the wall with a splitter then send one to the PVR and the other to wherever else you want it.

As a matter of fact I e-mailed the person in charge of the Australia market yesterday to offer some feedback - mainly the issue with the freezing with the WD drives, ability to edit recordings and increasing the number of timers to say 20.

I also gave him a link to this dforum discussion.

He has e-mailed back and said that he will try to apply those suggestions.

Stay tuned.

Cheers

Scott

AVroom,

my analogue reception used to be terrible until I got a qualified antenna guy out. That was about 12 months ago and he was puzzled then as to why SBS signal fluctuates so much.
The antenna mast can't be lifted any higher, it's 4.9 metres high (38mm diameter) from the top of my roof. I've checked the connections and they're all OK, the cabling is Belden RG6. I suppose I could use a 6 metre long pipe with a larger diameter. I think I've got one under the house. If I get energetic enough I might try it.

Thanks

Ok, I am willing to take a punt and try the german firmware just for fun. I think somewhere in this long thread someone mentioned a null modem cable with a cross over? But I can find it? Can someone confirm this?

If you type "null modem" into the topic search at the bottom left of the page, it brings up several references, including some on page 9 of the topic.

Thanks Venus. I am familiar with them and can make one fairly easily. I justed wanted someone to confirm if a cross over was needed in the cable.

Edit : OK, I found it, post 176 So I will try it tonite

That's the can-do spirit! (he says .. not willing to do it himself ...)

P.S. The T8000 manual also alludes to the ability to output component (YUV) through the scart in section 5.3.1 "TV Output Setup":



Is this likely to be a firmware-changeable feature? If so, whack-o the didilly-o. If not then it points to a significant hardware difference between the DSE and T8000.

I believe you can use a serial to USB cable as well but you have to install the right software with this feature.

Good luck, I'm sure lots of people here (including myself) have been curious to what this firmware can do.

Ok, can anyone point me to the latest homecast UK english firmware as well? I might as well try that too (in case the German firmware is in German!)

Edit : Or the Model ID, Hardware version, Software version from the status information page so I can try to id the correct version?

hey this looks just like our DS unit (in physical exterior appearance only)

DS6200 look-alike

I would suggest you should (probably will) make the PVR your primary viewing device. That way you can use all its great features for recording navigating and viewing digital TV. As mentioned you can definately send a recorded program (which will have the identical PQ as a 'live one') at a later time to the DVDR but this will tie up both machines for the duration.

You could also grab a cheap SD STB from DSE ($90?) and plug that into the DVDR. That way you can make sure the STB is on the right channel and set timers on the DVDR for the show you want to record. This is independent of the PVR which you can also set timers etc. for and use to watch TV at any time. You might then only occasionally need to schedule a transfer to the DVDR for a show you got on the PVR but missed via the STB/DVDR.

Also have a read of the PVR FAQ if you haven't already

Regards

Peter Gillespie

PS Most STBs and PVRs do have a passthrough option. Not sure on the DSE model though

Just so there's no confusion here folks, the serial RS-232 connection is for firmware updates and the USB port is for file (that is, recorded programs) download.
There is a 'German' version of the USB interface program (HC_XDRIVE_USB), which is far better than the original buggy HC_USB thing.

I think the DSE PVR lookalike on the Homecast website is an IP TV gadget, which has provision for a HDD. Seems likely the DSE one is based on that.

Thank you Peter and Venus. Yes Peter I agree I will now mainly use the PVR as the primary source. However it would be great when I know in advance that I wish to record onto a DVD for archiving, that I could do this at the original 'live' broadcast stage (save having to do it later) and still be able to watch another channel. I regularly record shows onto a DVD-RW for my wife to watch on a TV in another room, (AV sender didn't work too well) and archive Movies for the kids to watch over and over. Ideally I wish to be recording to DVD from digital source and also watching another program being digital. Peter, would a Topfield allow me to do this????
Otherwise if one was via digital and another via anologue be possible.

BTW - my wife picked up the DSE PVR from Tandy today for $199 and it has a Seagate hardrive. With the 14 day return policy I can try it out. However, if the above situation cannot be handled by the DSE and the "Topfield can" I may consider returning the DSE and paying the extra for a Topfield. I have been spoilt by the ease of use of my Pioneer (even my wife loves it) so the pressure is on for a PVR to match this. (my analogue reception is only ok so I am hoping this will improve with digital). Peter I have read your posts (and Tassies) which have been a great help but still get a little confused by what can be done with the different combinations. Peter (or anybody else) I would really appreciate your input to the above queries.

I guess you know that the german T8000 firmware can be downloaded from here:

http://www.homecast.de/sc_downloads.php

scottv got emailed a firmware upgrade from homecast (see http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtop...t&p=641250) with the name

2410002003-1040A.sgn

There doesn't appear to be any firmware with that model number on the english homecast site.

Note that scottv also says in that post



So it looks like that will not come to pass.

I have had a play with the marker/jump functionality and that seems to work pretty well. I can see that this would be a useful next best option to editing functions as you can just mark the relevant locations in your file and jump to them.

MrGadget quoted his model numbers as:



But I cannot find any firmware matching that code either (note that it is the same code as the firmware scottv was given but with a '24' missing from the beginning).

Thanks Aidan! I agree there doesn't seem to be any matching software on this page http://www.homecast.net/eng/service/downlo...earch=&Sp=1 So I guess I will just take a punt and give the german version a try tonite.

Cheers, Paul

No worries. I just got that info from this thread and collated it. Scottv is the guy who actually contacted the Homecast bods and extracted information and an updated firmware (just bug fixes).

I forgot to mention that scottv put that firmware update on a website:

http://www.members.optusnet.com.au/~tloade...02003-1040A.sgn

So you may as well reinstall that if the German stuff gives you grief.



Good on ya! Looking forward to hearing the results.

Hi Cricket, I suggest re-reading my post (and Venus') cause they both (hopefully) state you can't watch one show on the PVR and record another to the DVDR at the same time. (You can obviously record the show you're watching straight to the DVDR (just don't change the channel, FF etc.) Possible fixes:

1) Keep the analogue into the DVDR and record that while using the PVR

2) As mentioned also buy a cheap SD STB and send that to the PVR

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Peter, thank you for your help . I was under the impression this issue may have only related to the DSE PVR because of its output connections. Also, I had incorrectly assumed that PVR's could still be used when transferring to a DVDR. Therefore, because of your patience I think I understand it now as - 'it doesn't matter what type or brand of PVR you have it can only output to one source at a time. For example if transferring from PVR to DVDR for archiving then can not view any other digital program apart from the one being archived". Have I finally understood this???????????

If my statement is correct then the PVR is basically out of action while this transfer is occurring. However, is the PVR able to record another program (twin tuner) for viewing later while this transfer takes place?????

Also, with the correct connection in using Analogue (eg splitter as mentioned by Venus), then it is possible to view an analogue program while the transfer takes place.

I await your reply to confirm I now have it correct. (it may have finally got through my thick skull!!!!!)

Ok, it doesn't work. Says "Model Id error" at the beginning and doesn't proceed from there. I did successfully re-flash 2410002003-1040A.sgn though.