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

[isb035]

Interesting issue with my wifes 630! Her pvr list was empty, but the unit was reporting 39 percent usage on the disk. I took a chance and did a PVR flush and after it finished the pvr had 6 shows listed. After I deleted them the unit was back to 0% full. She had deleted the shows, but looks like they didn't really delete and lost their pointers until the flush made them visable again.

Just something someone else might encounter. She wants all her space free for HD Wimbelton tennis!

[TheHans]

Originally Posted by isb035

Interesting issue with my wifes 630! Her pvr list was empty, but the unit was reporting 39 percent usage on the disk. I took a chance and did a PVR flush and after it finished the pvr had 6 shows listed. After I deleted them the unit was back to 0% full. She had deleted the shows, but looks like they didn't really delete and lost their pointers until the flush made them visable again.

Just something someone else might encounter. She wants all her space free for HD Wimbelton tennis!

I'm curious about this -- since getting the update I always seem to have some percentage of space used even when my recording list is empty. Something like 8-10% capacity. I was thinking it was maybe a new thing with the update, some cache thing perhaps. But after your description, it makes me wonder about this. When you said you did a "flush," what did you do exactly? I do recall that when the 630 rebooted once, it did a PVR flush on its own. And it was annoying quite frankly because it got rid of all my timers. But doing it myself might be a different story. Can you explain what you did to flush it?

[ScaryBob]

My 70% full 630 suddenly said it was 93% full, even though nothing had been recorded. After a restart, it was back to 70%?! Stupid PVR.

[Shady]

I've been having the same problem as isb035 and TheHans: deleted programs are not really being deleted on occasion. They disappear from the PVR list but the space they take up is not released. After a flush the phantom recordings again appear in the PVR list and can be deleted. I think this has been happening since last October at least but I only discovered it after getting the latest update (at which point a flush resurrected recordings from Oct).

Not sure if the problem is worse with the latest release. I only discovered it when recording sporting events of long duration; the delete should have freed up several % but didn't. Tried a reformat but the problem is still there.

For me the likelihood of a delete failing seems much higher for large recordings ( e.g. 3 - 5 hours of HD). Anybody else experiencing this?

[jbobh]

I had the same problem. Drive was almost full even though I only had about 6 hours of HD recording sitting there. I called tech support about a month ago and the tech had me look at a screen that said my hard drive was OK and I shouldn't worry about it. I was not confident that some how my DVR would get through this without incident but I didn't have time to argue. I deleted as much as I could to get free up space before I went on a short vacation. When I came back it said that my drive was 91% full. Again I deleted a couple of programs that I wasn't going to watch to ensure that I could record the evenings fare. Called tech support and they recommended a Flush. Lost my 60 or so recording schedule items and the drive came back at the same percentage as before except now I could see recordings that I had deleted months ago. I deleted all of the old recordings and my disk usage dropped from around 70% to 12%.

The loss of the recording schedule is a major inconvenience but at least I got my drive back.

Bob

[gonkster]

Shady, I recently did a PVR flush and got rid of my failed deletions. This past weekend, I recorded the Nascar race and started watching it before it was finished recording. I eventually caught up to where the recording was at so I stopped the recording and deleted it. Instantly I noticed that the % didn't drop. Thinking this was because of the live recording that happens with any channels that you are currently on as well, I changed the channels a few times to lose the current live recording but alas the % didn't go down.

In thinking back to my list of recordings that came back after the recent PVR flush, there were some of the NBA finals that I did a similar thing with. The rest could have been related to the 630 doing a self reboot during a recording. So the theory for myself at least is that if it doesn't completely finish a recording it won't properly delete it. Could be a coincidence, but I think I might try and test that theory out before the next PVR flush I do.

[Shady]

Well, this really smells like a software bug to me (overseeing QA is a part of what I do for a living). The failed deletions I've seen have mostly been for completed recordings. I've both flushed and reformatted and the problem has recurred. Jbobh, I wouldn't bother putting all 60 recording items back in as you almost certainly have regular flushes in your future.

Personally, after 12 years and several PVR's I've had about enough of SD and their never ending quality control problems. Everything is always going to be fixed in the next release but for every bug they fix they seem to introduce a new one. Telus may have their own issues but I think it's time to give them a try.

[ScaryBob]

The problem with SD's (Motorola's) hardware is that they don't keep fixing bugs after they stop adding features or move on to new hardware. The stock answer is to buy new hardware at your own expense. I went though the same thing with Bell. Bell eventually fixed all the serious bugs in their units. SD doesn't seem to have the same commitment for it's hardware, operations or its customers.

/+OT/From my perspective as a customer, Shaw appears to be a cheap, shoddy outfit from the ground up. They appear to not spend money on upgrades or fixing problems because it might affect the Shaw family year end bonuses. That's pretty common with privately owned businesses. It's really starting to affect Shaw's core businesses now that the telcos are rolling out IPTV./-OT/

[SD 630 Support]

Hi Everyone,

Yes - An issue has been identified where the “delete” command can occasionally fail, resulting in a particular recording being removed from the PVR List, but with the recording file remaining on the hard drive. We have resolved the issue and will be deploying a full fix with our next software update.

We've found nothing to indicate that this has a negative impact on performance, other than obviously taking up space on the hard drive.

My advice is to not worry too much about it - take advantage of the Self Managing disk space on the 630, and let it automatically delete the oldest unprotected recording when space is needed for new recordings. When the next software update goes out, it fixes the issue and will clean up any of these leftover recordings on the hard drive.

When we have confirmed dates for the next update, we'll start a new thread with release notes and such!

[PaulC]

In May I got a new 630. Worked fine for the first 1.5 months. Now some recording won't play. I just get a black screen. This problem is random but getting worse.

Some Info on a non-viewable recording:
The red recording light comes on
It shows as being recorded in the PVR recording list.
No recording error messages are displayed
I have good signal strength

To try & solve the problem I have:
Done soft/hard reboots
Deleted the recording that wont play
Deleted the recording events

However the problem keeps coming back

It would appear that my next step could be a Factory Reset.

Anyone else run into this problem?
Thanks for any help

[skifan]

Originally Posted by PaulC

In May I got a new 630. Worked fine for the first 1.5 months. Now some recording won't play. I just get a black screen.

Is there a possibility that the program you are recording is 'blacked out' due to licencing rights?

Example: If I try to record a Formula 1 race on Speed Channel as opposed to TSN, I get exactly what you are seeing....X hours of black screen. In this case, I have to over-ride the 'smart record' function and force the 630 to use TSN.

[PaulC]

Originally Posted by skifan

Is there a possibility that the program you are recording is 'blacked out' due to licencing rights?

Example: If I try to record a Formula 1 race on Speed Channel as opposed to TSN, I get exactly what you are seeing....X hours of black screen. In this case, I have to over-ride the 'smart record' function and force the 630 to use TSN.

No. The channels I have experienced problems with are CBC HD & Discovery World HD, both of which I am subscribed to. Good point though!

[frenchophile]

before doing a reset, make sure your signal is optimal on both tuners.

[gzink]

I believe it's a bad hard drive. A factory reset may work for a while but I think you will be looking at a replacement in short order.
Nothing ever solvedmyblack screen recordings.

[PaulC]

Originally Posted by gzink

I believe it's a bad hard drive. A factory reset may work for a while but I think you will be looking at a replacement in short order.
Nothing ever solvedmyblack screen recordings.

Update: I did a cold reboot of my 630 around July 21 & it ran fine for about a week. No problems with playing recordings. Then the problem started up again on July 27.

Long story short: The 630 refused to play a recording, just got a black screen as per my prior issues. Contacted SD who told me that I MUST plug the 630 DIRECTLY into a wall socket & NOT the power bar I had it plugged into. (Yeah Yeah I know!! lol) Anyways I've done that & right now it's running ok. If the problem comes back they will do a factory re-set.

Couple of things:

The signal strength is good & the disk health is reported as good.

Also: The last recording that would not play reported a recording length of 60min.01sec.
When I recorded the same program later & it played back ok it was reported as 60.00. I believe I have seen this same situation on prior problem recordings. I wonder if this .01 sec is causing the playback problem?