New in P196 - PVR self-reboot?

[Mark Holtz]

Here is something that I noticed with P196, but I'm not sure if it existed beforehand. I've seen it twice now.

I had my TV switch set to the VCR so that the output from my 501 goes to my VCR Line input. Then, the output of the VCR goes through my selector switch and then into my TV. If the VCR doesn't get a good signal, it puts up a blue-screen which is very noticable.

The 501 is always putting out a video signal... even if that signal is "black screen with no audio" in standby mode. Now, if the PVR goes through a front panel reset or (I believe, it has been a while) a card reset, then the PVR outputs no video signal during the reboot process.

Well, I think the engineers have put in a event that says "reboot PVR" that runs after 12:02 AM every night. If you happen to be watching something at that time, then that event is delayed until you "shut down" the PVR at night. Last night, for instance, I watched Junkyard Wars until 1 AM, but then shut down the PVR. Sure enough, after 5-10 minutes, the PVR rebooted.

I wonder if anyone else has noticed this.

[Steve Mehs]

That explains it! Last night I was in bed and I heard the hard drive on my 508 spin up and it sound like it was going to turn on, I glanced at my alarm clock and it was just passed midnight, I thought maybe another software upgrade but the power light wasn't blinking. I put my head back down and didn't give it a second thought. If I can stay awake I watch it happen tonight.

[toddjb]

Wow....in the software industy we call that a "kludge" fix! :eek2:

...putting in your own automatic resets to clean up error conditions. Oy!

[DDRio]

Steve:

What you experienced was the 508 getting the program guide from the satellite. It does this everytime at 12/4/8 AM/PM. Try it at a different time than 12 AM and you will hear the hard drive spin at the specified hours while the unit is off.

[toddjb]

...that makes more sense.

[MrAkai]

My lady noticed the 501in "her office" (ie 2nd bedroom :) was blinking like a reboot even though all she had done was turn it off, I thought it might be an upgrade but it didn't last long enough and we were at 196 at the end of it, just like the beginning.

It's a Kludge, but if it keeps the box more reliable, it's a hell of a lot more convient than the 45 minutes/day downtime I had on my 7100s :)

Plus in a year, even though we've had lockups and missed timers rarely, we've never turned on a 501 to a blank pvr list, like what happened so many times on my 7100s.

[MikeW]

I had a timer bug that's happened a couple of times on my 508. It would start the recording and, when the timer should have stopped, the red light turned off but the machine continued to record. The first time this happened, I was out of town. The end result was, a 52 hour recording. It eliminated everything but the protected items in my PVR list. Furthermore, because it continued to record beyond the limit of the hard drive, the desired recording wasn't even available. This has happened three times in the last two months.

[TomCat]

Originally posted by MikeW
...The end result was, a 52 hour recording. It eliminated everything but the protected items in my PVR list...Furthermore, because it continued to record beyond the limit of the hard drive, the desired recording wasn't even available....

Well now there's a cautionary tale if I ever heard one. I protect everything, specifically because it makes sense to me that if I asked the PVR to record a program then there's a good chance its something I want to actually see, and I don't want it to delete it arbitrarily when there's a space issue. I understand there are a few who subscribe to the "if I missed it then I missed it" theory who protect nothing but still consider a PVR an appliance that will keep "current" programming available for a time, but I'm honestly puzzled why "protect" isn't the default mode on all PVR's.

As far as recording "beyond the limit", that is not normal behavior. If you have 40 minutes left and a 60 minute timer set, a 508 should (and will) record for 40 minutes and stop, allowing you to at least get that part of the program. My 501 does.