Another day in the ongoing saga that is life with an Expressvu 5100 PVR.
I watched some TV last night on the replacement 5100 - it’s loud. I mean really really loud. Headache inducing loud. I called tech support, and they’re sending out another replacement. I think there must really be some nasty notes on my account, because they’re really really quick to send out a replacement lately :-) I don’t expect the new one will arrive until next week, but I guess the one we have is livable until then, since I won’t be watching that much TV until then likely anyway.
As for the netscape comments display problem - I don’t know what could be causing it, but I’ll try to remember to look into it. Netscape runs on a totally different template, so it should never change how it works, but who knows.
Seinfeld quote of the day: “It’s like a full body dry-heave to music” - George on Elaine’s dancing style. (Sorry, that one has had me laughing all week, your regularly scheduled Simpson’s quote will return tomorrow)- 2 comments
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Bell finally just agreed to send me a new 5100. Mine is five months old and for the last month or so has been doing all sorts of crazy things. It no longer seems able to record an entire hourlong event uninterrupted. Instead, due apparently to its repeatedly losing the satellite signal and freezing up, it will record such an event in two to four pieces which, taken together, comprise maybe 50 minutes. Another time it recorded a long (over two hours) section of the australian open for all of maybe 8 seconds yet the PTV list (of recorded events) showed a duration of over 4 hours. I tried to record the superbowl on sunday and was actually in front of the tv set during the start of recording, saw the 5100 change channels, saw the REC sign come up… yet when I went to start the event over again (after having watched it on cable!!) it began midway through the second quarter at a seemingly arbitrary point.
My theory is the UHF (rather than conventional IR) remote is the problem. Clearly, the processor has to be on some sort of interrupt mode where it’s sort of on the lookout for instructions coming in from the remote over UHF. My fear is that the antenna picks up lots of RF interference and the processor spends an inordinate proportion of time attempting to interpret this noise. I regularly get temporary loss of satellite feed for a period of from 2 to 60 seconds. Occasionally the screen simply goes black and I have to turn the machine off. Often, I actually have to unplug it as even the power button on the front of the unit will not power the thing down. Yet other times the remote works but with a 20-second (or so) lag. This is really strange and seems to support my argument that the processor is just getting bogged down in trying to interpret RF noise as remote control commands, robbing valuable CPU time from the processing of the actual digital signal into video and audio.
I’ve attempted to reduce RF interference in the house, with limited success. This reinforced my view that the 5100 has a major design flaw. I’ve kept my VCR in the basement for over ten years, relying on so-called infrared repeaters (or ‘pyramids’ as the bell manual calls them). These inexpensive devices pick up the IR signal from your viewing area, convert to RF, send it out over RF, while another receiver pyramid picks up the RF, converts it back to IR and sits in front of the VCR/component (anything that operates on IR), sending the intended IR signal to its ultimate destination. The UIHF remote on the 5100 seems, on paper, more convenient, but if it’s responsible for these other quirky problems that you and I are having, then obviously the cost is too great.
I hope there are some potentially useful insights in my post. Thanks.
Comment by withheld for now — Monday, January 27,2003 @ 9:57 pm
That’s interesting. One of the steps they had me do when I called in was to remove the UHF antenna - since I don’t use the supplied UHF remote, I haven’t even hooked the antenna back up since the first time they asked me to disconnect it.
So far, with the latest replacement, I haven’t had a single problem (knock wood :-))
Despite all the problems, I’d have a hard time giving it up though…
Comment by Greg — Tuesday, January 28,2003 @ 10:46 am