Annoying Blue Leds

[15_Off]

Hi,

Yesterday my HR20 began a new irrritating feature. The Pink Floyd-like circle of leds now cycles on and off. It fades off then fades back on. The old method of turning off the leds no longer works.

Is this part of the recent upgrade?? Anyone else notice this?

Thanks

[byron]

0xdc still allows you to disable the "ring" using the same method. may want to give it another try. i had no problems doing this.

[911medic]

The only time mine fades in and out like that is when I have a program paused. Otherwise it works like always.

If nothing else, you can try a reboot.

[Earl Bonovich]

As medic said... you LED may think you are in a paused state.

Try Pausing, then going back to standard play.
Else, reboot

[Andrew_J_M]

Does anyone think that these are any more than a gimmick? I leave mine turned off all the time as they are way too bright even when at the lowest setting. Even the two other blue leds and the yellow recording indicator are distracting in a darkened room. The blue led was my biggest "hate" on the UltimateTV, time to get the duct tape out I think.

[EJB]

Hi,

Yesterday my HR20 began a new irrritating feature. The Pink Floyd-like circle of leds now cycles on and off. It fades off then fades back on. The old method of turning off the leds no longer works.

Is this part of the recent upgrade?? Anyone else notice this?

Thanks

Is saw the same thing on mine a few weeks back when I saw the "tip" to turn them down so they are not so bright. If I turn them down to one click from being totally off, they continually come on and off as you describe. This is true when watching live TV or something from the list, paused or not paused. In my case, I have to leave them totally bright or totally off.

ejb

[joejhawk]

Hi,

Yesterday my HR20 began a new irrritating feature. The Pink Floyd-like circle of leds now cycles on and off. It fades off then fades back on. The old method of turning off the leds no longer works.

Is this part of the recent upgrade?? Anyone else notice this?

Thanks

I had this happen too. I tried everything I could think of, FF, RW, paused, unpaused and nothing worked until I thought "What would Earl do?" I hit my the red reset and 30 minutes later it was booted up and I haven't had the problem since.

I agree, the blue lights are too bright and annoying. They should have replaced them with a clock.

[911medic]

If I turn them down to one click from being totally off, they continually come on and off as you describe. This is true when watching live TV or something from the list, paused or not paused. In my case, I have to leave them totally bright or totally off.

ejbThat's weird. I always set mine one level up from totally off, and they work the same as when they're on any other level of brightness.

[911medic]

Does anyone think that these are any more than a gimmick? I leave mine turned off all the time as they are way too bright even when at the lowest setting. Even the two other blue leds and the yellow recording indicator are distracting in a darkened room. The blue led was my biggest "hate" on the UltimateTV, time to get the duct tape out I think.Gimmicky, maybe. It's kind of cool, watching them spin when you FF or REW, or fade in/out when paused. But perhaps for me the novelty just hasn't worn off yet.

At least they give you the option to turn them off if you don't like them.

I wish they'd let you dim them further, but I think they don't want to because if they let you dim them too low, the "trail" of lights that follows the brightest one when the ring spins wouldn't be able to be gradually dimmer; just a guess.

[Leftcoastdave]

I find the LED's to be too bright in any position except "off". I do find it handy as a reboot indicator since after a reboot the little buggers are back on again in all their splendor. And duh, could they not have made the record beacon red instead of that putrid yellow?

[Schyler]

I'm not fond of the ring of lights on the HR20. What I don't get is why the R15 has a nice set of diffusers on them to make it look like a contiguous ring. It's a bit more aesthetically pleasing, I think.

Any possibility that a future update could let the power/resolution/record lights dim along with the ring, or is that beyond the reach of the software?

[byron]

I'm not fond of the ring of lights on the HR20.

yet you have the "ring of lights" as your avatar? :D hehe.

[Schyler]

You know, that never occurred to me before....kinda ridiculous, I guess.

It seemed to be the ideal icon since the ring of blue LEDs is sort of iconic for the HR20. It's like the big creepy eye on the original TiVo - I used to think HARDAC everytime I looked at that thing.

But the HR20 is the device that's brought me back to the forums, so there you go.

The DirecTiVo worked TOO well in that respect. I stopped needing to discuss it when they stopped updating the software. I used to sign up for the DirecTiVo betas, so this is all a bit reminiscient of those days.

[byron]

hehe. yeah, i'm not in disagreement with you.. i don't care for them either and they are disabled on my unit. i just got a laugh out of it. ;)

i do my fair share of cursing this unit, but i understand that there will be growing pains and i knew that when i purchased the unit (leased it rather). so i just take it in stride and move on. if it misses a recording, oh well... if it doesn't thats great. i will say that this unit far exceeds my expectations that were set extremely low due to the shoddy R15 i purchased back in the spring.

[Schyler]

Yeah, my experiences with it have been largely positive.

It's better than I'd expected it to be, although I don't think it will ever engender the brand-devotion in me that the TiVo did.

I am glad it took a while to get one, though... seems like it's been a rough few weeks for the very first people to get them.

Incidentally, it's not even that I don't like the ring of lights... I just don't like the implementation. If it was dimmer and had the R15's diffuser, it would actually be kinda nice.

I'd probably still turn it off, though. With an open-front cabinet, I like to keep components dim or blank if possible.

One one hand, I do think blue LEDs are really cool and high-tech looking; but on the other hand, they're often overwhelmingly bright and the light they emit is in the wrong part of the visible spectrum for easy readability in displays.

I'll be glad when home theater equipment gets back to red/amber/green.

[Xatrix]

So .. uh... how DO you turn them down/off?

[Schyler]

Simultaneously press left and right on the ring buttons. On each press they'll go through several levels of brightness, then off.

[PoitNarf]

It seemed to be the ideal icon since the ring of blue LEDs is sort of iconic for the HR20. It's like the big creepy eye on the original TiVo - I used to think HARDAC everytime I looked at that thing.

You mean this HARDAC? :D

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.A.R.D.A.C.

BTAS FTW!

[Schyler]

BTAS FTW, indeed. :D

Yes, that HARDAC. Best Episode(s) Ever.

Robots to sweep and mop... Robots to make coffee... Robots at the bank...

And the best robots of all, the ones that collect my TV shows for me.

Rossum would be pleased. Zort!

[talbain]

here's the timetable of my life with these blue leds on the hr20:

day 1: holy crap this looks cool

day 5: damn these things are bright

day 10: i dim them but they're still bright as hell. very distracting

day 14: there's got to be a way to turn these off! It's hard to watch tv or sleep...

day 19: HOLY CRAP I NEED TO TURN THESE F@#$ING THINGS OFF

day 24: i am now considering cracking the case open to disable the leds...

[Knepster]

BTAS FTW, indeed. :D

Yes, that HARDAC. Best Episode(s) Ever.

Robots to sweep and mop... Robots to make coffee... Robots at the bank...

And the best robots of all, the ones that collect my TV shows for me.

Rossum would be pleased. Zort!

What in the world are you guys talking about?




On topic, the LEDs don't bother me at all. Maybe the HR20 is far enough away from me, or just far enough away from the TV that I don't find them distracting. In fact I don't even notice them at all.

[Schyler]

Sorry. Batman geekery.

About the lights, though, cracking the case may be a bit extreme.

Personally, when I got sick of them, I hole-punched a couple of little dots out of the adhesive part of a blue post-it note, then stuck them on the lights.

Now, they're dim and pleasant, but still visible.

[talbain]

What in the world are you guys talking about?




On topic, the LEDs don't bother me at all. Maybe the HR20 is far enough away from me, or just far enough away from the TV that I don't find them distracting. In fact I don't even notice them at all.


you should try relocating the hr20 to the bedroom. when you sleep with no lights on, these damn blue leds are bright enough to read by (literally). when a piece of electronics has lights bright enough to cast shadows throughout the room, there's a freaking problem

[paulman182]

I like them.

My wife likes them.

No worries.

[911medic]

you should try relocating the hr20 to the bedroom. when you sleep with no lights on, these damn blue leds are bright enough to read by (literally). when a piece of electronics has lights bright enough to cast shadows throughout the room, there's a freaking problemThen turn them off. Problem solved.

[redfiver]

You can turn off the ring, but you can't turn off the other lights (without the HR20 being turned off). I wish I could dim the power and format lights on the HR20. It's very bright in my dark bedroom.

[Meklos]

White medical tape. Works wonders.

[redfiver]

Yeah, tape is my next stop. But, i hate to have to put tape on a brand new unit. I can't believe how bright it is. It's the most annoying thing about the HR20 (to me)

[luckydob]

Please don't turn the LED's off...they are one of the few things that work properly on this unit.

[Avery]

You can turn off the ring, but you can't turn off the other lights (without the HR20 being turned off). I wish I could dim the power and format lights on the HR20. It's very bright in my dark bedroom.

I was annoyed by the lights too so I used a small piece of scotch tape on the power, record, and format lights then very carefully used a black Sharpie on the tape which worked great. It dimmed it just enough for me and is easy to remove if needed.

[houskamp]

how about post-it notes?

[nocaster]

Schyler,

I hope you don't mind, but I took some liberty with your avatar and made it look more like my HR20.

[Schyler]

:lol:

I don't mind at all. Why does yours have a missing light?

As I mentioned elsewhere, I used post-it notes, too... I just used a hole punch to punch out little dots of the adhesive part and stuck them on top of all the LEDs. Blue on the blue LEDs and yellow on the record light...

I didn't bother covering the ring, though... I just turn it off. As it stands now, if I wake up in the morning and there are blue shadows on the wall I know that the HR20 has been updated.

[nocaster]

Mine has been "missing" that particular LED since the day it was intalled. Several other posters have mentioned the same thing. Stupid MSPAINT wont let me save the png with transparency.

[Schyler]

When I first started mine up, the LED in the 11:00 position was dark. I assumed that it was defective. At some point, it started working again. Either it was something in software, or maybe a little electronic defect that corrected itself.

[oldguy1]

You can turn off the ring, but you can't turn off the other lights (without the HR20 being turned off). I wish I could dim the power and format lights on the HR20. It's very bright in my dark bedroom.

Use a black felt tip pen on the lights. Dims them to a tolerable level.

[JCO]

these lights are dumb. I liked what my Motorola Digital CATV HD DVR had instead which was three alphanumeric LEDs that showed channel number tuned, REC, PLA, PAU, etc. I really miss the channel tuned indication, this HR20 box sucks in that you have to press a button on the remote to see what channel you are on.

[dukefan]

Those little Hallmark "Gold Crown" stickers are the perfect size and block out all the light.... :-)