Dazzar,

It has happened to my unit as well but it is caused by my digital reception which has been a bit choppy lately.

Location: Central Coast NSW. In a valley with trees everywhere.

Installed a new 500gb Seagate drive around a week ago (non ce drive). Firmware is original seagate version. Full drive size was recognised and all has been going well - gave the unit a good workout and couldn't notice any difference functionality wise or increased noise from drive etc except for an issue that popped up last night.

I have around 140gb on the drive so far (including around 70gb that I copied off the old drive - that was a saga in itself in terms of transfer speed but more on that lower down).

Last night when I was recording one program and watching another I inadvertantly hit the pause button which activated the timeshift feature. The drive started making a loudish stuttering noise although still appeared to be working all ok. (I have timeshift turned off by default)

I shut the device down and restarted then started the recording going again, However, when I selected any prerecorded show to play I get the same hard drive stuttering noise. This does not occur if just recording (even two shows at once) but the moment I play back any prerecorded show whilst taping either one or two channels I get the stuttering noise. Equally, if just playing back a prerecorded show without recording I do not get the hard drive noise.

Again - the drive seems to be functioning ok and doing the tasks it should but the noise now emanating is annoying (particular as it was not there during the first week of use).

I would be tempted to reformat if it was not for the 140+gb on the drive. In the process of changing drives over I had to copy around 70 gb and this took 8+ hours! (clearly this device is not USB 2 enabled) Similar devices of mine using same PC and USB connection have completed this amount of data transfer in less than a quarter of the time!

Has anyone had any similar experience with replacement drives? Is there any chance that updated firmware will assist?

That seagate drive, what is the power usage stated on the drive? I am wondering how many amps the 6200PVR power supply is able to handle? Did you format the seagate in a computer before installing it? The first time I format (not quick format) a hard drive, before use, to check for bad sectors.

Most likely, if it is working OK, apart from the noise, it could be hard drive seek/head noise, which would get louder the more files are recorded/deleted across the disc, as the files would get fragmented and the heads of the hard drive have to move further to find parts of the recorded file.

Hi submariner,

didn't check the power use before installing but dont think this will be an issue as in most respects it is functioning ok. Also did not format before installing as I knew I would have to do this once installed anyway (although as mentioned this is just a quick format).

I will check if it's any different once I reduce number of files on it to test your second point. Almost making me wish I had held out for a ce type drive but after checking around these seem to be very hard to locate....

This is the drive I bought, not a problem since installing and quieter than the original drive:
Western Digital WD2500AVJB - $99.00
http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/23279/
Scorptec have them up to 500GB. They also have some seagate AV drives as well:
http://www.scorptec.com.au/product/25976/

BTW how hot is the PVR getting? Higher power usage by the hard drive will increase the overall heat. Do you have the PVR shut away in a cabinet or out in the open? Of course this might be a firmware problem, which occurs once the hard drive gets past a certain used size. Only guessing here

My wife found a further issue last night with infrequent but annoying slight pauses when playing back recorded material (I think we were recording something at the time). I think I will bite the bullet and use this new 500gb drive in my pc instead - not wasted as I wanted to update my old original 80gb c drive in any case.

Regarding temperature - the case is possibly a little hotter than I remember but not significantly so.

I could just go back to my original 160gb seagate but am now considering ordering one of the WD drives in the AV range you mention above. I steered clear of WD due to the other issues mentioned throughout this forum but I think the problems were with the non av versions with later firmware fixing the issues?

In your case did you originally have a WD or seagate drive? and which firmware version do you run now with the WD250gb?

I originally had the 160GB WD, with old firmware, plus those problems. Now I have the 250GB WD AV drive and the lastest firmware, minus the problems BTW the 250GB I now have, uses less power than the original 160GB WD drive. The Seagate AV drives are just as good, but if you get one of them, do not use the latest firmware.

Tricky question?
If I have this unit connected to my LCD via SCART and the LCD in turn is passing digital audio back to my surround amp via coax, is there any point connecting the digital output of the PVR to my amp?
Or is the audio I'm already getting digital?
Does this make sense?

Scart is analogue.
http://www.avforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=714212

On a side note, I was having quite a few problems with my digital output until I set the output from AC3 to Stereo. I can't tell the difference, apart from my problems ceasing.

What the difference is between AC3 & Stereo when it comes to digital output is, I don't know.

Did you sort this problem out?
If you have already copied the original material to the hard disk, then take it out of the PVR, hook it back up to your PC and set the material aside. Then do a reformat. Then copy it back.
That should put you back to square one?
Then again the stuff is still on the original 160G disk right? So just reformat the new disk in the PVR. Then if it is functioning okay take it out and copy the stuff back to the new disk?

Hi All,
I've been using this PVR with original firmware and the WD drive for months - wife and kids love it and we've lived with the freezes - haven't been back to the forum to find out about the firmware fix - now I'll have to find a computer with a serial port and a null modem cable!.

My question is whether there's a big difference in Audio Quality between the standard stereo RCA output and the SPDIF output in normal use. Especially if Beej has to set the output to Stereo and not AC-3.

To get SPDIF connected I'll have to buy a SPDIF to Coaxial converter and am not sure if it's worth the effort.

Any opinions???

Thanks.

Ended up just going back to original drive and using the 500gb as new c drive for pc. I wasn't prepared to live with the couple of annnoyances. Next time I try this I'll be sure to get one of the AV (CE) type drives to save further angst (particularly from the boss as this little box has quickly become her favourite appliance).

As a matter of fact, although I have mine connected I have noticed the sound is out of sync when using the digital sound stream.
Anyone else have this problem?

For anyone who has downloaded and burned to DVD a stored file from this PVR?
My first attempt worked (I thought). Downloaded and burned using trial version of DVR Studio Pro. Everything seemed all right, except when you you get towards the end of the movie (about 60 mins into 90 mins) and I start getting artifacts and freezes.
I've tried rencoding and burning several times using different methods with the same result. Starting to wonder whether it's the original file that's at fault, although it played fine on the PVR?

There's a fair bit of discussion about burning downloaded files way back in this thread. I now do it regularly and don't have any problems (except that it takes a long time).

One suggestion would be to set your DVD burner to burn/write at a slower speed. I was getting a few errors (also near the end) until I did that. I blame the cheap DVD blanks I've been using. Budget CDs seem to suffer from this as well, so I limit the burn speed on those to 16X.

Thanks. I read the thread from go to whoa and saved the relevant bits. I avoid the cheapies. I stick to Verbs as recommended by PC User (before that it was TDK blue but they disappeared and the new ones aren't much chop). I'll try using a slower speed though and see if it makes a diff.
BTW what progs are you using to rip and burn?

My DSE PVR with the WD HDD is having trouble when powering on (via remote or timer). It makes a clicking which I am presuming is the HDD trying to unpark the heads? Mostly it fails to start up. Sometimes works the 2nd time but no good for timer recordings! Short term solution is to leave it on 24/7. Anyone else getting that issue with the WD drive? Its still under warranty so I just need to get a good time to send it back to be fixed.

Have you tried the PVRs reformatting option?

No. The clicking happens almost straight away as the HDD is spinning up to speed so I don't think it would be a formatting problem, it sounds more physical/mechanical than that. Once it powers up on say the 3rd attempt it works perfectly until it has been put back in standby. If the HD format was corrupted, it wouldn't function correctly once running I would think. Also, when the clicking is happening, the red power LED gets very dim as if its trying to drag too much power from the power supply.

.dup

Maybe the power supply is failing in the PVR? The only other thing I could suggest is to try formatting the drive in a computer, in case there are bad blocks. But by the sound of it, probably best to take it back and get it fixed under warranty.

Thats something I hadn't thought of, and it fits the problem so quite likely to be cause. I only have laptops so I can't try the HDD in a computer to get to the bottom of it.

affable, you could get an external drive enclosure with usb 2. They start from $30-$40 and then you could check the drive with your laptop and transfer any files if you wanted to keep the tv shows you've recorded. This is also a far faster solution than trying to copy data off the PVR. I think Submariner is on the right track though - take it back and get it fixed under warranty as it is not supposed to make the noise you describe. BTW, has your PVR always displayed this behaviour? If not, it could be that the psu/hdd was fried by a power spike...

The PVR has been fine for 6mths, it only started this clicking a couple of weeks ago. No power spike that I'm aware of but can't rule it out. Will send away to be fixed when I next go on holidays.

I'm sure replied to this, but the post has disappeared - odd.

Anyway, I use ProjectX (to crop the ends and edit out the ads) and IfoEdit (to convert the result into a DVD-ready format). I burn with DVDshrink (which lets you compress things to fit), but the usual suspects (Nero etc) are fine.

There's an outline of the process in post #444. It's less complicated than all the words make it look. Happy to pass on more details if that would help.

The DTV server died and a few days worth of posts were lost.

Hey all

Very informative posts by all but I couldn't find an answer to my problemo with the DS6200PVR. It is regarding the Set Repeat function.

I press the A-B button to set the starting point and then navigate to another part and press the A-B button to set the ending point. The navigation bar shows a pink section which is the part I have selected. But I don't get another menu to cut or copy. I have tried pressing the A-B button again or the up and down arrows but nothing seems to bring up the pop up menu to copy, cut etc.

Any advice would be very useful....

Dan

I have discovered that Nero 8 can handle the thing from go to whoa, except pulling it off the box in the first place (boy is that a slow process). 12 eps of Underbelly takes a very long time.
I did a couple of things off the ABC where you only have to chop the front and back off, but editing out the ads looks to be a slow process. Still trying to come to grips with that.


Danman,
Sorry have not tried to use that function

There is no ability to cut/copy on this machine.

thanks for responses

what a bummer

why would they let you highlight a block if you can't do anything with it? and why would they put it in the user manual?

danman

Just realised that you can alter the recording time manually I thought I had to set the default quick record time in the menu, but now I hit record button, then either the left or right direction button to increase or decrease record time. Much better

It's there to mark portions of a recorded program to "skip" to when watching it later. Handy to set an point in a fta program at the end of the ad break so that if you (re)watch it later you can press the button to skip to the end of the ad break instead of using the FF button or the right button that goes X% forward in a program. I use it occasionally if i watch a program on my own that i know the wife likes too, so when she watches it, it is then ad-less.



This was mentioned fairly early in the thread - but it would be a fairly long trawl to actually find it. 'Tis a handy feature. You can also pause the recording program to edit ads out too, then press pause to resume recording when the ads are finished.

DSE PVR RECORDS WRONG CHANNEL!

I have had this product for almost a year now - overall I am very happy with it. At first I had the problem of sound going off after pause, but thanks to this forum, cured that by using the RCA stereo output instead of bitstream.

Now I have two problems. The worst is:

1) Occasionally I set up a program to be recorded in the timer list and the machine records at the right time, but records the wrong channel. For example last Wednesday I wanted to record the IT Crowd on ABC but the recording was Cold Case on Ch9. Yet, the program info in the programme library shows the info from ABC! It has now done this to me three or four times - not very often, but very annoying when it does happen. Any ideas?

The other is:

2) When trying to chase play a programme currently being shown which is also in the record timer list. No problem pausing then chase playing a live programme if it is NOT in the timer list. But when it is in the list and I pause the programme, when I press play it jumps to the present time. The part of the programme between where I paused and the present seems not to have been recorded - it is impossible to rewind to it.

It would be great if someone here knows how to overcome these problems.

Never had an issue with the first point. Perhaps as a first fix try doing a factory reset (not reformat) and rescanning the channels.

Re the second point - again I have never experienced this but sounds like you may be actually pausing the recording as opposed to pausing the playback during chaseplay. Or maybe this is a timeshift buffer issue - ie you have timeshift buffer turned on and are then recording the same progam via timer recording etc. As a rule I have timeshift turned off as do some others as mentioned earlier in the thread (you can access anytime via the pause button in any case).

How do you access chaseplay? As far as I'm aware you should access by selecting the channel you are recording and then pressing the left or right arrow button to bring up the navigator bar and then press play which will comence playing the program from the start - you then fast forward or use the right arrow to get to the point you need. Pressing pause in this mode should not lose any data but simply pause the playback whilst recording continues.

Ah! Cheers for that. I've owned the gadget for ages and hadn't twigged to that option.

I had a crack at using Nero 8 (the Vision app), with mixed results.

After getting through the installation and registering all the codecs etc, I found the process quite easy, except for the editing job where you remove sections (ads) - that's pretty weird and clumsy in my mind.
The major problem I had with it was maintaining video-to-audio sync. This was iffy for a basic DVT-DVD transfer, but when I also cut sections out (ads) the final sync was all over the place. Binned a few DVDs.

My TV signal is not the best, so there's short dropouts in the recorded signal here and there. That's what seems to throw any editing/processing program I try, except ProjectX.

Not sure if this is helpful to anyone, but if you have A-V syncing problems when doing the DTV-DVD process, ProjectX may be the answer (even though it looks a bit eccentric).

I use Mpeg Streamclip http://www.squared5.com/svideo/mpeg-streamclip-win.html it seems to work pretty well, I've only had one recording not sync properly after conversion, I think that was because I converted to avi (normally I convert to mpeg). Mpeg streamclip also works pretty well for cutting out the ads.

Someone posted about pausing during a recording, a suggestion was to hit the play button which takes you back to the start of the program. Another trick is just to rewind a bit, to 'get out of the recording' and into chase play, then you can pause. This saves having to fast forward back to where you wanted to pause it

Can anyone advise what's the best format to convert a stream to if creating DVDs from it?

I used Mpeg Streamclip for a while and quite liked it. Editing was fine, but (for me) it crashed a bit and the occasional synch problem made me look further.

The encoding format on DVDs is MPEG, so it's probably best to go for that to save another conversion. Perhaps ironically, that's the original format in the recorded TV stream. The difference is the layer it sits on - DVB uses a transport stream and DVDs use a program stream. The transport type layer is designed for transmissions where error correction is needed (for drop outs etc) while the program stream assumes continuous data. When creating DVDs, the main task (along with editing) is converting between those two stream layers.

Sorry, that's 'eyes glaze over' stuff. If anyone's interested try this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_stream

Does anyone have any pointers with upgrading the hard drive? I have previously tried a 500gb seagate standard pc drive but due to an issue with slight pauses during playback I ended up going back to the original seagtae 160gb - note I did not try to upgrade firmware from the original version at this point.

Over this last weekend I purchased and tried to install one of the dedicated AV drives as recommended in earlier posts - WD AVJB 500gb.

After installation the box started up all ok but appears as if there is no hardrive installed at all - there is no 'pvr' icon in the usual spot in the menu and the record button does not function etc.

Following this I inserted the drive into pc and did a quick format to ensure it was operating correctly. All ok with that.

However same issue after putting back into pvr - no drive-related options showing. I figured this must be beacause I am still running the original version of the firmware which may only recognise seagate drives? As mentioned in first para - I had no such issues on my first attempt when I first tried to replace the original seagate with a standard seagate pc 500gb drive - the drive was recognised and accessible straight away.

So....I purchased a use to serial cable and installed the driver that came with it but I am at a loss at to how to proceed with trying to upgrade the firmware despite reading some instructions previously posted? Couple of questions:

# Is the usb to serial cable enough or do I still need the null modem cable?
# Is there a specific program that I use to copy the firmware file to the pvr or else what is the specific step that copies file across?

Ok - actually found the upgrade software from previous post on page 30 (was getting this confused with the USB file transfer application). but still not sure about the requirement for null cable or not in conjunction with a usb-serial cable?

The usb-serial cable was mentioned earlier on these pages for people with a laptop that did not have a serial cable, only USB ports.
You need to connect serial port of PC to STB.
techo's web page has the firmware to download.

Read what to do here

Have fun

Posted a few times but having such a long thread makes it difficult to find stuff.

Channel 7 - drops out - not for a moment but long term during a program.

Bones at 21:30 just falters then stops. Criminal Minds the same. Sound falters then video then nothing.

Stopping watching 7 now as have missed last 10 mins of most programs.

Postcode 2099 and using the DSE PVR 6200.

Any one else report this problem>?

alfo, how full is your hdd in the pvr? If it is getting full it is supposed to start overwriting
the oldest file on the hdd, but it might start doing other odd things too.

Are you recording 2 shows at the same time or have an overlap in recording times for different shows?
I had the occasional lockup and truncated recordings if i recorded 2 shows and had timeshift on, but
this behaviour dissapeared once timeshift was turned off.

I assume that you have decent reception in your area and normal viewing is ok? I had to install a
new antenna and cable (quad shield RG6 coax) with F type connectors before the reception was good
enough for a stb (pre 6200) to get all channels. The antenna i replaced was 15+ years old, the balun
full of insect crud & corroded to hell and the splitter off the single shield coax was a $1 Crazy Clarks
special that i'm sure even the dodgy brothers would have ethical issues in using...

Hrm.

For some reason, Channel Nine (in WA, at least) is not doing pan and scan correctly on my DS6200 PVR. In 4:3 Pan and Scan mode, instead of filling the screen in both height and width (resulting in cropped sides), it just stretches the image vertically to fill the screen, resulting in distorted image. Every other channel works perfectly fine with Pan and Scan.

4:3 and 16:9 mode work fine for all channels.

Any suggestions?

Win (Ch9) in Townsville does the opposite by squashing the image vertically so the black bars at the top and bottom take up over half the screen. I don't watch Win very much and the 4:3 TV is in the bedroom so I haven't bothered to look for a solution.

Cheers

Scott

Yes the PVR can be tricked into showing a 3rd channel while recording any 2 others - a hidden bonus!

While recording 2 channels,
press"i" twice to show program information
change channels using any method
press "exit"- you can now watch a third channel!
But to change channels again you must repeat this process.

I don't understand how it tunes 3 channels with 2 tuners, but it does.
Read scottv's post ages ago, and could not believe it would be possible.
But stumbled across how to do it last night.
(S/W Vers 1.03.2A)

Is it just showing shows in the same mux - eg you record CH2 and CH7 and you can watch CH20 or CH70

I thought that might be the case - but no. I have tried it with all channels.
eg SBS & 7 recorded & watch 10, etc. No difference to recorded programs.
Just try it! It works every time for me. A 2.5 tuner PVR!
Very handy for those rare occasions when there are 3 good programs at the same time.

When watching a 3rd program no Timeshift is available - so can't pause, rewind, etc.
Timeshift functions don't affect the recorded programs (despite what the dispay indicates).

Just thought I'd say that after nearly one and a half years, I'm still yet to experience any glitch with my DSE 6200 (one of the original ones with a Seagate HDD). Never had a lock-up, never missed a timer ... from the sounds of some of the other forums, it may well be the only PVR in the world that actually works as it should. Wonderful little unit; such a pity that they're no longer producing it.