Shaw Direct 630 Official Problems / Issues / Resolutions Thread. Read posts 1, 2

[SD 630 Support]

Originally Posted by ElenaH

Picture Freeze while Sound Continues
picture will freeze but sound will continue uninterrupted, no buttons will work and receiver will not turn off.
Workaround: reset receiver by pressing and holding front power button for 10 seconds

This issue has proven very difficult to reproduce. For those that have seen this, if you could provide the following information it may help narrow down the cause:

1) What channel were you watching? (HD/SD)
2) What date/time did the issue occur?
3) Were you watching live TV, time-delayed (LOD), or a recorded program?
4) Where there background recordings going on at the same time?
5) How are you connected to your TV?
6) What are your current Video Settings in OPTIONS 4-5? (Output Format, 4x3 Override, TV Type)
7) When the issue occurred, were you still able to access Options/Guide/etc? Or was the entire system locked up?
8) What was done to resolve the issue?

Guide Not Displaying NEW
guide does not show the NEW icon in show information for new episodes
Workaround: set recordings to All

This is unfortunately an issue with the data the broadcasters send in to the Guide Data providers (which feeds all providers in North America). If you can provide specific examples, we will do our best to follow-up!

[SD 630 Support]

Originally Posted by tico

"Sticky Remote:" Acts as if button on remote is stuck until you press another button. ie Press "7" - receiver acts as if you are pressing 7.7.7.7.7. Also happens with "skip forward".

Hi tico,

We've seen this during testing, but only when multiple remotes are being used at the exact same time in the same immediate area. It will affect both IR and UHF signals. The receiver will ignore commands not meant for their address (e.g. if you have the living room receiver set to address 0001 and the bedroom set to 0002), but they still receive these commands. If they get both commands at the exact same time, it can lead to this issue.

Does this match how you've been seeing this issue? Are two remotes being used at the exact same time in your house?

[ElenaH]

Picture Freeze while Sound Continues
picture will freeze but sound will continue uninterrupted, no buttons will work and receiver will not turn off.
Workaround: reset receiver by pressing and holding front power button for 10 seconds

1) I was watching 391 CTV Newsnet (SD)
2) Sept. 8th at approx. 8:17pm
3) Live TV
4) No
5) HDMI
6) 1080i, 4x3 override 480i, 16x9
7) Nope - entire system locked up - won't even turn off
8) power button 10 sec reset

*Note this was the same night that I experienced tuner lock-up (recordings not happening and had reset it prior to this problem.)

Guide Not Displaying NEW
guide does not show the NEW icon in show information for new episodes
Workaround: set recordings to Al

The show I noticed it on was Haven on Showcase HD. Prior to Labour Day it was displaying NEW, then the labour day episode was a repeat so of course it did not say NEW, but now the next two week's eps are not labelled NEW but they are NEW.

[ElenaH]

After stopping a recording, the screen zooms in really close so you can't see to delete recording.
Workaround: press one of the arrow buttons and screen snaps back to correct size.

[SD 630 Support]

Originally Posted by Ochato

- If three onetime recordings are set and they overlap at some point, after one of the recordings is over the 630 will start taping the third show.
Ie:
Show#1 starts @ 9pm until 11pm
Show#2 starts @ 9:30pm till 10:00pm
Show #3 starts @ 9:30pm till 12:00am.

Show#1 and show#2 will start taping at their respective starting time. When Show#2 is over the 630 will start taping show#3 (starts @ 10:00pm).

Hi Ochato,

Under normal circumstances, this won't happen. The PVR will go based on the priority of each show and 1 of them would simply not be recorded (or get scheduled for a later time if you've allowed the PVR to do this).

PVR Planning may appear to behave funny if the Guide is not fully loaded. (You're basically asking the PVR to make decisions and planning based on incomplete information). Once the Guide is fully loaded, PVR Planning will automatically rerun and everything should be scheduled correctly.

In the above example, the shows may have been scheduled to start before the Guide had fully loaded. If you've been up and running for a couple of days, try this again. One of the shows will appear as a Conflicted Recording (with the "!") and will not recorded. (I just confirmed with Ninja Assassin (9pm-10:45pm), Living in Your Car (9:30-10:00PM), and Beverly Hills Cop II (9:30-12:00AM). Ninja Assassin is now marked as conflicted and will not be recorded.)

- When finishing watching a recorded show the 630 returns to the top of the pvr list instead of highlighting the watched show to allow it to be deleted.

I've been playing back shows all morning trying to reproduce this. Each time (from each of the 3 sort modes), the program is still highlighted when the recording ends and it returns to the PVR List. The only exception is when you start with the "Grouped by Program" mode, it will return with that programming grouping highlighted rather than the individual episode. Additionally, if new recordings have started while you're watching another one, it will be off by that number of recordings.

Is anyone else seeing this?

- Any pvr maintenance is too slow. It takes more than 10secs to update any changes made (like set up new recording, deleting, changing priorities)

When you're changing recording settings, the PVR needs to replan to update the changes. This involves going through each Recording Event and looking at 14 days of data times 300+ video channels. Each change made potentially affects another recording event, which affects another, which may then affect the first event (and so on). It takes a little while to run through all this and update the schedule.

- in guide mode selecting a show to be recorded it should show the extra options window if the series recording is selected. Currently after selecting the show to be recorded as series, one has to click menu, scroll to pvr, scroll to pvr options, look for the added show and press enter to change the options like record new/all episodes, only XXX channel/HD only, etc. Too cumbersome and too slow.

It's designed this way so you can schedule a whole bunch of series at once, and then go into PVR Options and make all the adjustments at once. When scheduling multiple series at the same time, you really appreciate this design versus some of the other PVRs out there!

- Search feature includes shows from unsubscribed channels and theres no way to determine visually that the listing is on an unsubscribed channel.

Simply select "View upcoming air dates". Airings that occur on unsubscribed channels are shown in gray.

- Can't filter porn stuff from the search feature.

Ensure that "Movie rating" is set to "Adult" and "Locked Programs" is set to "Hide". This will replace any programs with an Adult rating with "Parentally Locked".

Let us know if you're still having issues with any of the above (or anything new) and we'll do our best to explain or help resolve!

[SD 630 Support]

Originally Posted by ElenaH

After stopping a recording, the screen zooms in really close so you can't see to delete recording.
Workaround: press one of the arrow buttons and screen snaps back to correct size.

This one is caused by having the 4x3 Override enabled, and will occur when playing back the "opposite" program type (e.g. you're tuned to an HD station and play back an SD recording, or vice versa). At the end of the playback, you're immediately going from 1 resolution to another and the graphics scaling hasn't updated.

Another workaround is to disable the 4x3 Override and use the ASPECT button to stretch the show instead. We're looking at other options right now to permanently work around or eliminate this issue!

[SD 630 Support]

Originally Posted by tico

A couple of Q's.

Regarding the guide not displaying NEW. This has been verified by more than one user. Is it intermittent? Is it true for all programs, or only missing on some? Has it recently been resolved? I find that my 630 is reporting NEW on some shows, so I'd like more info on what to look for.

This is highly dependent on the individual network and program being broadcast. For regular scripted primetime programs, it's pretty close to 100% accurate. Reality TV shows and stuff that airs on the specialty channels can be a bit more dodgy. Your best bet is to setup the Recording Event however you want (new, channels, etc.), exit PVR Options (which saves the settings and replans accordingly), and then go back into PVR Options and select "View upcoming air dates" for the program in question.

You'll see from this menu exactly what is and isn't scheduled to be recorded and can adjust the Recording Event settings accordingly.

Note: Some programs don't have data a full 2 weeks out (Soap Operas are a good example) so may appear as expected for this week, but be a mess of recording conflicts and duplicates for next week. When updated data is provided by the broadcaster, the HDPVR will replan automatically and adjust the schedule accordingly. No intervention is required.

Next possible glitch (I mentioned it in the owners thread, but..) PVR history goes up to 90 days - apparently recurring recordings will not trigger re-recording of the same episode of a show even when the (first) recording has been deleted from disk. However, in the "upcoming" list, the option to "do not record this program" just causes it to reschedule the same episode later on.

Correct. The "Do not record this episode" option really means "Do not record this episode at this time on this channel". We just couldn't fit all that into the button

So yes - if your Recording Event options allow, the PVR will reschedule that episode for a different channel and/or a different time.

[SD 630 Support]

Hi Everyone,

For anyone experiencing issues with digitizing or pixelation , we're interested in finding out the following:

A) What channel were you watching?
B) What date/time did the issue occur? Did it occur live, or on a recorded program?
C) Go back to the channel and access OPTIONS 4-7. Either T1 or T2 will be tuned to the station. What is the signal and ebno reading for this tuner?
D) Were there any background recordings occurring at the same time?
E) What was done to resolve the issue? (E.g. did changing channels and changing back fix it? Was a Front Panel Reset required? Etc.)

We'll keep you updated on anything we find out! Thanks!

[fatkev78]

Originally Posted by SD 630 Support

This is unfortunately an issue with the data the broadcasters send in to the Guide Data providers (which feeds all providers in North America). If you can provide specific examples, we will do our best to follow-up!

An example of this as I mentioned earlier is "The Ultimate Fighter" on Sportsnet HD (not sure if it does or not on SD).
It does show 'NEW' on SpikeTV (which very unfortunately is not in HD), so I have the series setup to record on it.

[smp01]

I would think that for reality TV, you should probably pick a channel and select record ALL. They are hardly ever repeated on the original channel, but may not get flagged as NEW. Especially shows that air more than once per week. (performance vs results shows)

My guess is that regular Prime Time shows would have cleaner data.

[fatkev78]

^ Yeah, for sure. I have several Prime Time shows setup flawlessly (The Office, House, etc), but I figure if Spike can setup Ultimate Fighter to 'New', so can Sportsnet.
Also, unfortunately SN does show alot of repeats of old 'Ultimate Fighter', so setting up the one channel & record all isn't the greatest option.

[Ramdamit98]

I've found that with "The Ultimate Fighter" as well. The problem with "record all" for that show is they constantly air old seasons as well so you get a ton of shows recorded besides just the one episode you want in the week. The other problem is Sportsnet never seems to air the show at the same time so you can't set a manual timer. Of course most of that is a Sportsnet issue not a 630 issue. I was hoping to see the "NEW" in the guide for it so I would have to track it down like my 530, but again it's not a problem with the 630.

[smsat]

Because of the lack of "new" indicator in the guide, I set manual timers to record Market Call on Weekdays at 1 and Market Call tonight weekdays at 7. They recorded perfectly on Thursday but neither timer now appears. It did not record today at 1 and is not scheduled to record tonight at 7. I decided to go back and change to record all episodes but each repeat is set to record this weekend. Selecting "Do Not Record This Episode" takes 25 seconds to execute, but sill leaves the episode in the upcoming episode list. This should not be this difficult. Why can't I find the episode in the guide and tell it to record this show on weekdays? --- not well thought out at all.


Edit

Yet another soft reset has sped up this process but the lack of abilty to record certain shows at a certain time needs to be addressed.

[smsat]

Really starting to regret dumping that horrid company Bell. At least their hardware works. This thing is brutal. I have never paid so much money for such an unreliable piece of hardware.

[osmosis]

These are my problems copied over from the owners thread:

In the first day since activating and updating to 13, I have had the following problems:

1. Did not record a show last night. It was showing the date and time in the record options when I created the recording but no show recorded. Did 10 sec reset after. (Note to tico: There was an upcoming recording scheduled ... nothing wrong with my settings ... Record All New in HD)
2. This morning the list of recorded shows ony showed two shows and should have had four. After powering off the unit the remaining two recordings showed up in the list.
3. Crash/reboot while watching and recording a show this evening.

This is an upgrade from a 530 which had been working well since the last firmware update so I am sure that this is not install related.

Another observation: The list of shows that have already been recorded does not seem to be persisted on the hard drive. This means that after a reset, shows will be re-recorded again so it is imperative that the unit does not crash or you will end up with duplicate recordings. I could be wrong here but shows that I have already recorded, watched and deleted are being recorded again after the 630 has crashed/rebooted/reset.