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

[SD 630 Support]

Originally Posted by Gogie

Had an odd problem crop up today. Was watching the Packers on RSNHD (East, I think). Decided to try FoxHD East (better sound) but no picture when I switched, just a black screen. Flipped back to RSNHD and no problem. Changed up one channel to RSNHD Toronto, no picture. Started checking and found that roughly every other channel was blank (no picture, no sound), including both HD and SD channels. Did a soft reset and all was good again. Anyone else experience this sort of problem?

Hi Gogie,

It sounds like one of the tuners locked up. There are a couple of variations of this issue, including the "stuck REC1 light" problem. When this happens, a Front Panel Reset (hold the front panel power button for 10 seconds) will get things back to normal.

Everyone is doing their best to get this one resolved. Keep us updated on if you see this again.

[SD 630 Support]

Originally Posted by mrbean5411

I have been frequently getting a horizontal flickering across the top of the screen. It is only about 1 cm in width, but extends the whole length of the screen. It looks sort of like your watching a vcr tape that was recorded on a different vcr and needs to the tracking adjusted. It can be quite distracting.

Hi mrbean5411,

This sounds like the Closed Captioning data. What are your current video settings in OPTIONS 4-5? How are you connected, and did you previously have an HD receiver at this TV? If you have overscan adjustment or picture adjustment settings on your TV, you can usually "bump up" the picture to get rid of the line.

If you do a search for "white dashes at the top of a tv picture" or a variation therein, there are some online articles that explain exactly what's going on.

[SD 630 Support]

Hi Everyone,

Thank you very much for the additional information that has been provided thus far. The details are really helpful in validating the feedback.

We've inquired about the Guide issues that have been reported, including Market Call and The Ultimate Fighter.

As the new TV season gets underway and you fall into more routine viewing patterns, I think you’ll really start appreciating the features and experience the 630 provides. We’ve had hundreds of these units in test in homes across the country for quite awhile. Once you get used to the “change” in the way the 630 works versus the way the 530 works, I think you’ll really start to enjoy it!

[SD 630 Support]

Originally Posted by fatkev78

How about the 'pop' on the speakers when changing channels some have reported? It wasn't doing that with my 530 before I replaced it with my 630 - exact same setup.

I'm going to guess that the "HDMI Audio" setting is on "Auto".

If you're connected through an Amplifier via HDMI and having this issue, try "Pass Through" and see if it makes a difference.

If you're connected to a TV via HDMI, change it to "PCM".

If you have Optical ("Digital Audio" in the menu) for sound and HDMI for picture, you might have to turn off HDMI audio on your TV to ensure it's not giving you sound through both the Amplifier and the TV.

If this doesn't fix it, let me know and we'll gather some more information from you!

[TheHans]

We just activated our 630 today. We have an issue that we were kind of anticipating, as it was mentioned on another thread. We have the B.C. Digital Value Pack, which is quite a new package. With this package, some of the Eastern 300-series channels are not offered (original line up numbers). What was mentioned on the thread about the B.C. Digital Value Package that happened to me now is that ALL the 300-series channels of the Essentials plus 298 and 299 are greyed out even though most of them are subscribed channels. Everything from 298 up to the SD U.S. feeds. The U.S. feeds I subscribed to are appropriately coloured, then the channels after the U.S. feeds (like 389 Victoria, for example and CBC Newsworld) are also greyed out up to channel 400, which is also coloured appropriately.

The theory is that this has to do with the code somehow for the B.C. Digital Value Package. It would be nice to have this fixed somehow.

Oh, I want to mention to that I already have the 00.13 update, so it has nothing to do with that.

The Hans

[smsat]

After numerous frustrations and many soft and hard resets, a tech took me through a factory reset on Saturday. I was frustrated to lose so many recordings, but I was compensated for the PPV's I had recorded. I have had much better success since with only one short reset. This thing is very responsive when the guide is only partially loaded but a tad more sluggish when loaded. I wonder if the guide size could be an issue.

A suggestion -- it would be great if you had a chance to delete a recording when it ended instead of having to go back into the recording to delete it.

[BCScott]

I had a factory reset this afternoon, too. The tech brought me to a screen first that gave a choice to save any recordings already on it or delete all. I chose save and it preserved the 4 or 5 recordings on it.

[BCScott]

Originally Posted by TheHans

We just activated our 630 today. We have an issue that we were kind of anticipating, as it was mentioned on another thread. We have the B.C. Digital Value Pack, which is quite a new package. With this package, some of the Eastern 300-series channels are not offered (original line up numbers). What was mentioned on the thread about the B.C. Digital Value Package that happened to me now is that ALL the 300-series channels of the Essentials plus 298 and 299 are greyed out even though most of them are subscribed channels. Everything from 298 up to the SD U.S. feeds. The U.S. feeds I subscribed to are appropriately coloured, then the channels after the U.S. feeds (like 389 Victoria, for example and CBC Newsworld) are also greyed out up to channel 400, which is also coloured appropriately.

The theory is that this has to do with the code somehow for the B.C. Digital Value Package. It would be nice to have this fixed somehow.

Oh, I want to mention to that I already have the 00.13 update, so it has nothing to do with that.

The Hans

This happened to me at start-up. I had to wait until the full guide uploaded, about an hour after the update. Then it happened again on Friday. A soft (front panel) reset fixed it.

[BCScott]

Mine just blacked out on me again. We were just watching 564 live, with no recording going on. The screen went black and the timeline bar displayed. Changing channels up and down brought back the live show.

[gzink]

We have twice now been fast forwarding/backing up to skip commercials and it just quits playing and goes live on the channel it is on. Both times another recording was at 58 minutes like it was just quitting the other recording. It stopped playing what we were watching! Not good!
Along with almost deleting what you haven't watched yet because you get out and another recording has started so it loses track of what you were playing.

This stuff is not good!

Hundreds of beta testers?? What were they doing?

[rlb]

The 630 is actually unique in that it doesn't have a fixed x minute buffer like the other PVRs.

The HDPVR 630 will retain the current and previous program, regardless of length.

One thing I noticed with this is that using the skip back feature it will only go back to the beginning of the program being viewed. You have to use the rewind button to go further back.

[TheHans]

Originally Posted by BCScott

This happened to me at start-up. I had to wait until the full guide uploaded, about an hour after the update. Then it happened again on Friday. A soft (front panel) reset fixed it.

Do you have the B.C. Value Package? Otherwise, I'm not sure it's the same thing, as another poster on the B.C. Value Package thread noted the same problem as this. Also, I'm sure the guide has loaded fully.

[BCScott]

No, I'm still on Digital Favourites.

[Millstone]

I am still experiencing the following:

1. Fast forwarding on ">>>>" speed often fails and glitches. Often, when 'Play' is pressed, the actual current playback spot is far ahead of what was just seen on the screen in fast forward too.

2. Signal numbers have decreased from the 530. I am experiencing glitching during rain now, for example 2 nights ago on 287 during COPS. Here is from system status on a clear night:

SignalT1 (284):84, (Ecb/No: 5.4 dB)
SignalT2 (287):83, (Ecb/No: 5.4 dB)

During the rain it goes into the 60s. They used to be in the mid 90s.

3. Unsubscribed channels are still showing up. I have tried switching back to 'Show' and back to 'Hide' and at least these unsubscribed channels are still showing:

257
258

[rob1]

I noticed on Friday when I ordered Blind Date HD at 8:30pm EST that the PPV channels now offer a FREE PREVIEW of about 5 mins or so. The FREE PREVIEW ICON was located in the top right of the screen.

I set the timer to record the movie while we watched it....once the free preview was over the ICON stayed there. Only after about another half an hour or so I hit the EXIT button on the remote to remove it....it was a fluke that I discovered that exit removed the ICON.

Shouldn't the FREE PREVIEW disappear by itself??

Cheers