Poor experience with new SVR-HDT500 PVR

[Nodrog]

I’ve had different Sony and Pany HDD recorders but is it just me or is this thing phenomenally bad!

• You can’t start to watch a recording until it is finished recoding the whole thing, it doesn’t even show in the recordings list until it’s finished so there isn’t even any indication it is doing anything anyway.
  
• Recordings have no intelligence at all, you get a good few minutes of adverts recorded at the start.
  
• One episode of a series recording only recorded the last 3 mins of adverts but missed the actual show.
  
• There is no auto chaptering so you can’t jump over adverts easily.
  
• Reception is noticeably weak with regular breakup compared to my old Sony HDD, newer pany or the Sony LX703 TV on its own never does.
  
• The fan seems to be temperature controlled so isn’t on all of the time, but when it is on it is quite intrusive.
  
• I had 2 BBC1s followed by 2 BBC2s on my channel list (no the HD ones were up at 50 onwards) I could down channel from any channel in the list (i.e. 3 down to 2 etc) and up channel from any in the list except from channels 1 or 2. 1 to 2… wouldn’t work nor 2 to 3… anything else perfectly fine.
  
• I actually had a channel 0 - never seen that before in my life?
  
• It intermittently seems to lose track of remote commands depending on what you are doing or if you are too quick on the remote. Not sure, bit of a mind of its own at times.
  
• Setup is weird… Region 1 – only option is Scotland, Region 2 - has North or Central, Region 3 nothing extra but depending on what you set (if anything) you may only get half of the channels.
  

I don't suppose there is a firmware update to fix all this is there?

I like my Sony gear but this time, it's gota go back.

[Nodrog]

Since getting annoyed with this last night I came to my senses and gave the box a good kick. (reset and retune)

Forget point 1) of course you can watch the start of a recording before its finished recording, just not if there is no recording there to watch.  The problem was that there SHOULD have been a series episode being recorded but that particular recording failed to start until the end and the final recording constised of 3 mins of adverts at the end of the show?

The channels and tuning seem to be better after a kick so we'll see if they mess up again after another few days.  It still misses out some channels compared to what the TV and existing Panasonix EX83 pick up  so I'm not sure if there is a bit of a fault here or not, I'll see if I get any break up tonight.

Still don't understand the region 1 2 and 3 setup bit - does it make any difference.

• another thing that came to light after giving it a kick - when it was doing silly stuff I noticed that if you were on a different channel and pressed 1 to go to BBC1, it would take you there and then pop up a message saying that this channel was available in HD, if you said yes to wanting to watch HD it took you to channel 50 (where BBC1 HD is in my area)
  -- it doesn't do that anymore but I still have the HD channels up at channel 50 onwards and they show the same stuff
  

Seemingly PVRs as oposed to DVD/HDD recorders don't do chapters?? (thanks to avforums for putting me right there).  Shame, just when you get used to a feature that is actually useful.

That fan is still horrible though!

cheers

[specialist-convergence]

Hi I hope this help with most of your questions

Q1.       Recordings have no intelligence at all, you get a good few minutes of adverts recorded at the start.

A1.       When set from the guide the start and stop time is signalled by the broadcaster and should be more accurate than fixed start and stop time. A manual timer option is available.

Q2.       One episode of a series recording only recorded the last 3 mins of adverts but missed the actual show.

A2.       Could you provide details of the series you were recording?

Q3.       There is no auto chaptering so you can’t jump over adverts easily.

A3.       The SVR-HDT500 is recording the transport stream and it is not possible to insert any chaptering marks. Please use the instant replay/advance feature, pg25 of the instructions.

Q4.       Reception is noticeably weak with regular breakup compared to my old Sony HDD, newer pany or the Sony LX703 TV on its own never does.

A4.       Please could you provide details of the signal level and quality, System menu - others - signal information

Q5.       I had 2 BBC1s followed by 2 BBC2s on my channel list (no the HD ones were up at 50 onwards) I could down channel from any channel in the list (i.e. 3 down to 2 etc) and up channel from any in the list except from channels 1 or 2. 1 to 2… wouldn’t work nor 2 to 3… anything else perfectly fine.

A5.        This problem seems to be related to the signals received, Are you in a position that receives signal for two different areas?

Q6.       I actually had a channel 0 - never seen that before in my life?

A6.       Channel Zero is currently in position 000 on the guide

Q7.       Setup is weird… Region 1 – only option is Scotland, Region 2 - has North or Central, Region 3 nothing extra but depending on what you set (if anything) you may only get half of the channels.

A7.      This is normal operation when receiving signals from different areas, maybe reception from a transmitter out of your service area.

[Nodrog · Accepted solution]

I think I have worked out how the tuning and 3 region settings work and now that I've done it right, the correct region is programmed into the real channel numbers and the second transmitter channels have been stored up in the 800s [This isn't obvious and took a bit of reading to work out what was going on]

Q2 - there were 2 episodes of Emmerdale on one night, the first one recorded and we were watching it when the second should have started but it wasn't listed. I wondered if it had to finish before going in the list (never had a PVR so didn't know) and sure enough that was exactly what happened - problem was, what it actually recorded was the 3 mis of adverts at the end of the episode and before the start of the next show.

Since a reset and retuning it hasn't done it again but I've not recreated the same condition.

Q4 - the PVR shows Signal 45% Quality 100% compared to the sony TV (sorry its an HX703) and Panasonic DVD/HDD 85% and 100%

Q5 Q6 - gone with the retune and not come back. Q7 - Now I understand.

thanks

Gordon

Message was edited by: Nodrog Sorry question not answered yet, no idea what I selected or pressed.

[burkeaw]

I have a similar problem.
If I watch BBC2 or BBC News through the  PVR I get a " Due to signcal  difficulties, the service you require is unavailable", The picture  quality behind the message is perfect.
If I watch these channels direct on the TV ( not through PVR) , I do not get the message.
Both the TV and PVR are fed from the same aerial and the PVR reports Signal strength and Signa quality as 100%.

any ideas?

Tony