Hi Cricket. Yes all PVRs can only output one video stream (but to multiple sources if desired). In the case of (proper) twin tuners it can input 2 video streams (record) and also output another (previously) recorded stream.

So your 'choices' are

1) Record from the PVR to the DVDR later

2) Use the analogue input to the DVDR (Might work but since you say its not crash hot you will probably need a KingRay spltiter/booster ($80 from Dick Smith) to feed all boxes.

3) Get acheap ($90) STB for feeding digital independently to the DVDR (You may still need a Kingray if you're doing this but DSE have a 14 day money back guarantee)

My suggestion is that No 3 would fit your requirements best if No 1 is not acceptable..

Regards

Peter Gillespie

I knew I should've posted this, anyway for those members with a harmony remote use the PVR Homecast model g2083. the key mappings are perfect with my 880 remote.

Don't like to blow my own trumpet (much!) but that's actually a link to my personal webpage where I uploaded the firmware - I put it there so others can download it.

I have to warn you though, I've recently changed ISP's, so I don't know how much longer it will be there - if you want it, GET IT NOW!

Thanks for trying to get an update Scott, hopefully there will be a response.

I've had this PVR for several months now, and it's been pretty flawless, loving it!

Hey guys, saw this PVR at Tandy for $199.

Just some quick questions:
1) Is S-Video the best output from this unit or does it come with a Scart -> Component adapter? I have a 50" HD Plasma so I think S-Video or composite is going to look pretty crap.
2) Can you run the USB out straight into a laptop for copying of the video files?
3) What is the difference between the coax 'Signal in' on the leftmost side of the rear panel and the coax 'Aerial' in the middle?

Thanks

1) It outputs RGB over scart. If your plasma doesn't accept RGB, you can pick up a RGB -> component converter for around $100. I have s-video going into 42" SD plasma. I might try a RGB -> component converter soon to see if there is any improvement.

2) Yes, you can dowload files through USB although transfer rate is pretty slow - between 1 - 2 M per second. I find it easier to copy to the Hard Drive of my DVD recorder and edit and burn from there.

3) One coax is for antenna in, the other is for output via RF to old style TV's that don't accept RCA type plugs (or better).

Cheers

Scott

Dam, $100 for a converter. Will S-Video on a 50" HD plasma look like trash?

It'll still look quite good in s-video, just not quite as good as component. But still a huge improvement over composite.

Okay, I installed the PVR last night which was quick and easy. The digital picture for Channel 9, 7, and SBS is far superior to my analogue which is great. However no picture is generated for Channel 10 or ABC. The signal strength for these is 80% and 70% and quality is only 10% and 5% respectively. Could someone give me some tips on how to improve these or direct me where best to look for information. The strange thing is Channel 10 and ABC have the best Analogue reception. I live west of Brisbane but checking the reception area map would be just inside the adequate coverage area.

PS Thank you for helping me out on my earlier queries Peter and Venus.

Too true.

I'm picking up another one tomorrow for a mate.

I have some minor specs of this PVR that may help some people.
cpu = STi5514AWD -Omega
HDD = WD 1600BB
Tuners = Thomson DTT75200A, DTT75206
USB chip NetChip NE12270
logicboard = T8000 CVG PVR R1.0 2006.09.20
3Volt lithium battery backup
This is whats under the hood of my DS6200PVR. For those that asked about MP3 this omega does not support H/W decoding of MP3. The USB chip is the same used by the toppy 5000, but the DS6200PVR only has it powered while in standby and switches it off when booted.

Durn. I wonder if there is any way of fooling the system into thinking it is the right model Id, or alternatively engineering the software and modifying the code to match the required model Id? (one could always dream that they would open source it )

Oh well, good on you for trying! Have you seen any benefit to the firmware upgrade you did get on there?



Missed this, I guess there's no chance of MP3 then, more timers would be good though! - I'm a dreamer from way back..

I think we will have to wait and and see if any more firmware updates are available through official channels Beej...

There had better be a firmware update that at least addresses the freezing issue (that's if it can be fixed via firmware) which occurs on both PVRs I've installed. Today I had the 27sec playback freezes just 2 minutes apart. I could live with them being half hour apart but 2 minutes is unwatchable. DSE/Tandy must be having huge warranty problems with these WD HDD machines and they're about to get more pressure from me.

Want a Seagate: Check the S/N!

An update to my update...

My first DS6200PVR was a Western Digital (WD) model, and displayed all the problems people have been crediting them with: the picture would occasionally freeze for 30 secs, or you might get “machine gun” stutters, where the picture seems to go back-and-forth through a couple of frames for about 30 secs. These problems wouldn’t occur in every recording, but they happened often enough to be annoying. At $199 (Tandy), I could live with these problems if there was no alternative, but I thought I’d try to find one with a Seagate CE (Consumer Electronics) drive installed. It seems that the CE drive makes all the difference in this PVR. I even thought if Tandy didn’t have a brand new one available, I’d give the display model a go (it had a CE drive in it). It seems I got lucky because the very first one he brought out from the storeroom had a Seagate CE drive in it.

It was during the swap that I noticed something that might be useful for anyone chasing a Seagate CE drive model: check the serial number sticker on the top of the box first. I noticed that the WD model had a serial number starting with HCY1AB, but the two Seagate CE models (my replacement model and the display model) BOTH had serial numbers starting with HCY1A9.

I’d be interested if any WD and Seagate model owners could confirm this:

The 6th digit in the serial number is a:
“B” on Western Digital equipped models,
“9” on Seagate equipped models.

- Mav

PS - I’ve only had the Seagate model for 2 hours now, but the two problems mentioned above haven’t occurred during the recording I’ve done in that time (and I’ve been recording continuously to see if the problems will crop up). The sound dropout still occurs during Timeslip recording, but I never timeslip anyway. I just press record and watch the recording from the beginning.

PPS - The S/W version is 1.03.2A on the Seagate model. I’m going to try upgrading to 1.04.0A later today (thanks scottv!)

Mine is a HCY1AA

Thanks for all the info here!

I bought the DSE PVR with the WD drive from Dick Smith for $299. I got fed up with the picture freezing so I decided to take it back and buy something else. I came onto this forum to see what that "something else" might be and discovered that Tandy was selling the same unit for $199, and also that the WD drive was the cause of the problems I was having.

I decided to return my unit and buy another from Tandy. I would then use the $100 difference to upgrade the hard drive if necessary - but I got lucky! Got a unit with a Seagate drive and it has performed flawlessly for over a week. Just one problem - when I fast forward then return to normal play, often the sound disappears. However this can be rectified by selecting "slow play" then going back to normal play. A lot less annoying than the freezing problem.

I am wondering if a firmware upgrade from 1.03.02A to 1.04 will solve the sound problem. In any case this is a huge bargain for $200. It is only 18 months ago that I paid $130 for a simple SD set top box from Rick Hart.

Lots of great info from this forum. Thanks a lot!

This PVR looks interesting ... but im told it only supports 10 timers .. is that true for all firmware versions?

For a twin tuner PVR I would have expected at least 20 timers...

everything I've read shows only 10 timers, regardless of firmware used. I'd really like to be proved wrong..

the other downer is it doesn't have much flexibility with timers, you can't allocate 'weekly' for a start

Both problems are only minor in my opinion, ones I can easily live with

You can allocate weekly in the timer, it just does not give you Mon-Fri option.

I have recently given feedback to Homecast indicating that increasing the number of timers to at least 20 would be appreciated.

Changing firmware to 1.04 gave no noticable difference to me, but I didn't have the sound problem in the first place so I don't know whether this fixes it.

I am currently testing 5 of these in my workshop ATM. All are have WD160BB HDDs and 1.04.0A software. I have unceasingly cycled between long recordings and playback, trying to trip them over. In more than 100 hours (500 combined) I have had only 2 clichés thus far both short stuttering lasting for about 10 seconds before resuming normal play back. I have had no sound issues. I have several CE standard HDDs ready to test any functionality differences but with the relatively low error rate so far any improvements maybe hard to detect. If any users, ex users or anyone familiar with these care to comment on their experiences, in this regard, it might be very useful.

Edit: Sorry I always seem to make long posts, however I neglected to include that the 2 clichés coincided with the termination of recording events, I have some playbacks while recording from 1 tuner, some from 2, while some are not simultaneously recording at all. The issues were from the machines with both tuners being recorded from.

If anyone having problem with finding the seagate model, as of this morning Tandy Chadstone has some stocks.

I can make this problem - or at least something very similar - happen at will. It happens when you stop playing a recording, during which the PVR started recording something that required it to change the channel. Let me give you the sequence of steps:
1. Start by watching a channel live. (Say channel 2).
2. Set the PVR to record something in the not-too-distant future. (Say on channel 10). The key is that this has to be a channel OTHER than the one in step 1.
3. Start watching something you've previously recorded. Keep doing so until the PVR commences to record whatever you set in step 2.
4. Once the PVR has started the recording, stop the playback. You will find yourself watching the channel you were watching in step 1.
5. Stop the recording in progress (unless you want to let it proceed to completion).

The results vary depending on what channel you chose in step 2:
- If you chose channel 10, you will find the recording continues, but has changed to the channel in steps 1 & 4.
- If you chose channel 9, the recording will have stopped when you stopped the [unrelated] playback.
- If you chose channel 7, the recording will go into a weird lockup mode, with the short file length as per Nick's example.
- I've not tried with ABC (either channel) or SBS.

This to me sounds like a firmware bug. I doubt its the hard disk issue discussed a few times in this thread because (a) it's repeatable and ( if the channel in step 2 is the same as in step 1 the problem does not occur.

I have also done the above steps with a "step 0" being recording something on a 3rd channel for the duration of the experiment. (So for a period both channels were recording). In thise case, I got the same results as above.

I don't have the firmware version at hand. I bought the unit in May (ish) this year.

Does anyone else get the same results as me?

Yes I’m getting similar results with your process. I always get a stutter when the timer kicks in. I get the same results with ether the stock WD 1600BB HDD and a Seagate ST3120025ACE HDD.

Sorry, my bad.. that's what I meant.. weekday not weekly!



That would be good. that an an option to select what days you want to record would be enough for me..

i.e. mon,tues,wed or mon-fri or mon,wed,fri.

Do any of the PVRs allow you to request just certain days in a week like that? (the topfield does monday-friday I think)

Ditto for me with a Seagate.

Just to add my unit has been going since November last year with 2 simultaneous daily recordings plus at least another 2 recordings per night. On top of this my fiance gives the unit a real run for its money with playbacks while recording 2 channels. And in all this time the unit has only ever twice locked up requiring resetting.

I do find that when recording 2 channels and playing back a recording at the same time the unit does get a bit touchy but I put this down to the pressure on the processor.

The Wintal PVRX10 allows you to select certain days of the week, in the one timer slot.
So I don't see why other firmware programers don't allow this.

Went to seagate site mine says its under warranty until 01-Sep-2011 , got my unit couple months ago.

Please forgive in advance possible breach of forum protocols - newbie, first post.

Bought DS6200PVR three days ago. Almost got WD hard disk model, then got layby deposit back, and scoured Perth Tandy/DSE stores for Seagate model. Hint: phone DSE head office your State, explain your mission, and ask which are the Tandy/DSE stores with lowest turnover. Target these for the seagate drive model. Getting few and far between now. Previous post gave hint to look into top grill of unit to see the HDD label. Also serial on top of box. Worked for me.

Now for a question and I hope someone with more experience & knowledge can help. At the moment in some Tandy/DSE stores there is a GRUNDIG DVD recorder for $135 on special. Now it is generally accepted that the DS9200PVR does not have editing functions. But it has ability to place markers, correct? So if one wanted to connect a DVD recorder without HDD to the DS9200PVR, when you played your recording (with "Bookmarks" in place) then you would get a DVD recording sans ads? Right? Or is that altogether too hopeful? Are the bookmarks of the DS9200PVR in fact somehow inferior to, for example, the "skip points" of say, the STRONG SRT5390?

The DVDR will record whatever the PVR puts out. If you skip to halfway through your PVR recording (by pressing 5 on the remote) and then press record on the DVDR, that's what you'll get. If your question is more about the bookmark operation of the DSE, I haven't used that feature yet so maybe you can experiment and tell us how it works

btw, welcome aboard!

That's extraordinary that you haven't had the playback freeze problem on any of the 5 machines when everyone here who has the WD HDD has had it occur. It only happened to me once tonight in watching about 2 hours of recorded material but usually it can be guaranteed to happen at least once every half hour.

My disk is about half full at the moment and I would have thought that would make the problem worse but it apparently has improved. I just can't get a read on what triggers the freeze.

maverick#1

mine is HCY1A9 and is a Seagate HD.

Extraordinary, to say the least! For my machine, like all the others with WD drives, it will just freeze for 20-odd seconds during playback then recover without intervention. Pretty much guaranteed to happen within a 1hour+ playback session.

Techo, I think you need to swap one of the units you have with mine. It's a sacrifice I'm willing to make...

4 of the 5 were packed up this morning and sent off to their homes. I still have 1 that I am continuing to test, I am starting to see a little more freezing but still not as frequent as some it seems. I hope to be able to keep this unit until I have a conclusive understanding of the issue. Whilst I can consistently replicate the issue raised by mrbilby, this is not really a concern when compared to the unprovoked freezing.

Do you think it worthwhile for more people to make this same request? If so, do you think the email at homecast-australia (sales@homecast-australia.com) is the best address to use?

Thanks for trying that. Now we can stop dreaming about Nirvana and cope with the fact that we own nice, very cheap, PVRs.

I'll be really interested in how this progresses. It's great to hear that someone's taking a tech-savvy look at the problem - there's been a stony silence from DSE and Topfield in this regard.

I'm still backing the 'WD drive trips up the firmware' theory, but if I can find a guaranteed way to replicate the problem (it still seems pretty random at the moment) I'll pass it on.

Oh, if anyone is interested, I've worked out a 'relatively' simple, but effective, process to create DVDs from the downloaded PVR programs. It's all free software and the results are good.

No worries Aidan! I like living on the edge And yes, this PVR is quite a deal! I also tried it with Srto2 's RGB to component converter and it worked very well.

I don't know how the STRONG works, but the markers on the DSE don't work the way you want. You set markers in the file and then you can manually push the 'jump' button to go to the next marker you have set. The box does not do this for you.

I think he was meaning to have theDVD recorder recording the show transmitted from the PVR, using the bookmarks to jump through the ads (whilst recording on the DVD recorder..)

I'm not au fait with how a dvd recorde works, but assuming they have s-video in (or other type of connection i.e. scart) I presume that would work.

or if you had the RF out of PVR going to aerial in on the DVD recorder it would work too?

That's my take on it anyway

I would like to know how you put it on DVD.

Thanks.

I found mpeg streamclip to be pretty ok. http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-win.html I think last time I did it I converted to mpeg-4 then burnt to dvd using nero.

That was pretty easy. data transfer off the PVR is bloody slow though.

I am sure he can speak for himself, but I think he wanted it to work "automatically". You're right that he can manually hit the jump button, but that sounds a little tedious.

I started off thinking there must be a ‘silver bullet’ available to do the DTV to DVD transfer – as in a single piece of automated software – but it wasn’t to be. Part of the problem I guess is the basic technical differences between the two streams, even though they are both the same size, fps, MPEG encoding format etc.

The software I’m using is ProjectX, IfoEdit and DVDshrink. They are all free and the results are great.

Anyway, here’s brief version of how I’m currently doing it. The assumption is I’m putting 5 30min episodes of a program on a DVD. They’ve been downloaded to my laptop using HC_Xdrive_USB (the one that works properly).

Job 1:
Use ProjectX to edit a TP0 file and demultiplex it to its video and audio components
- load the TP0 file in bottom LH files window
- Move to each edit point using the slider and frame step buttons. Click the + below this to mark
- You should end up with alternating red (remove) and green (keep) sections under the slider bar.
- Bring up the Process window, select Demultiplex (and an output folder) and go for it.

Job 2:
Use IfoEdit to multiplex the A/V components into DVD-compatible files (VOB, IFO, etc)
- Author new DVD window
- Use buttons to add video (mpv) and audio (mpa) streams generated above
- define a specific output directory (you need one for each job/episode) and go

Job 3:
Use DVDshrink to assemble and burn the DVD
- ReauthorDVD to open and progressively add each Title (VOB etc) generated above
- Leave the compression set to Auto so the files can be squished a bit if necessary (see NOTES)
- Use Backup to compile and burn the DVD. You can delete the backup files later.

NOTES:
ProjectX
- Needs the Java runtime environment (version 5) installed. It uses it for the user interface.
- I had used MPEG Streamclip for a while, but editing (trimming and cutting bits out) was very slow, it would crash sometimes and the results sometimes had video-audio syncing problems.
- Importantly, ProjectX fixes stream dropouts problems. Streamclip struggles with this.
- The ProjectX user interface can be challenging until you figure it out. There’s loads of options.
IfoEdit
- Very straightforward. Don’t worry about the arcane messages on the screen.
- Create a folder for each generated episode. Otherwise the last job will be overwritten.
DVDshrink
- It automatically creates the DVD structure. All you to do is add the episode Titles (VOBs)
- There’s other options (Nero etc) but the DVDshrink compression feature is useful.
- Keep the compression >90% of the original if possible. Otherwise you start seeing the effect.
- Approximate maths for my example:
5 x 30min episodes = 5 x 20mins (edited) = 5 x 950MB (ish) = 4.8GB x 92% = 4.4GB

Hope this helps!

Are you just looking at 'freeware' programs?
If you are happy to spend time fiddling with different programs, and cost outlay is a prime issue, then 'freeware' is probably the way to go.

If you would prefer to buy a couple of relatively inexpensive programs, that may be another choice. I've done both; I know what I prefer...

Actually, I'd be interested in knowing about these couple of programs. I'm committed to doing the transfer regularly so a small investment would be worth it, now that I know it all works.
As it is though, the fiddy bit is editing out the ads so I guess that wouldn't go away. Anything that streamlines the process would be good however.

Thanks for posting that.

I have downloaded some of these (and other programs) and will have a look a them tonight. For any others who are interested there is some additional information about this sort of process at:

http://www.doom9.org/index.html?/DigiTV/dvbs-soft.htm

It explains it all pretty well and gives more detailed information (possibly too much?).

They also have a good tutorial on ProjectX:

http://www.doom9.org/DigiTV/projectx-fullguide.htm

I too would be interested to hear of pay software that could make this job easy and simple.

Unfortunately the ProjectX guide link above is for the old version (very different user interface) so it's only helpful in general terms. I fudged my way through intitially, but once there it was all pretty quick and easy.

I found the TV to DVD guide very useful: http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=9423&st=0

The results of my freezing-stuttering tests are still not complete but the results so far are interesting.
Even though I initially had little freezing, as the WD drive filled up it started to occur more frequently.
Drives I used

• Western Digital - WD1600BB caviar – original drive 5v-0.65A 12v-0.90A =5v-3.25w 12v-10.8w T=14.05w
• Seagate - ST3120025ACE – virtually the same as the drive used in the Seagate version 5V-0.72A 12v-0.35A =5v-3.6w 12v-4.2w T=7.8w
• Samsung SV160E – Drive from a DVDR and built for PVR or video recording 5v-0.6A 12v-0.5A =5v-3w 12v-6w T=10w
• Maxtor 6E040L – only 40gig and single platter with higher power demands than the 2 CE drives (Seagate and Samsung) 5v-0.65A 12v- 0.79A =5v-3.25w 12v-9.48 T=12.73w

Logs with DS6200PVR all executed while dual recording.

WD1600BB caviar
11:05 start playback
11:35 freezing
12:20 freezing
12:21 freezing
12:23 stuttering
12:26 freezing
12:31 freezing
12:55 stuttering
12:57 stuttering
13:44 stuttering
13:55 freezing
1400 stop playback

Seagate ST3120025ACE
1500 start playback
1800 stop playback

Samsung SV160E
1900 start playback
2200 stop playback

Maxtor 6E040L
1130 start playback
1210 slight stuttering (after forward seek)
1305 stop playback

The poor results from the WD1600BB suggests power starvation on the 12volt rail during seek activity, possibly initiated by error correcting attempts.

Whilst there is not much extra information here I think this issue is caused by the drive, and those that put the PVR together. The digicrystal 9077p uses the same drive, does not have this issue but it has its own set of problems. I agree the solution is a different drive, but what drive? With AV CE drives hard to source I recommend a drive of no more than 10w with much lower 12volt usage than the WD1600BB.

Thanks for posting the initial results. Very interesting indeed - when the WD finally played up it sure did it big time.
I guess monitoring the 12V supply to the drive with a storage scope would bear fruit, but I imagine you already have that in mind.

Someone on this forum (Motorman I think) has tried the Samsung SP2514N with some success. It's readily available and well priced, and the power requirements look OK: http://www.samsung.com/au/products/harddis...=Specifications