Yes, thanks for the detailed info. I agree, this is a difficult receiver to understand at times but your obervations have been very helpful.
Diamond 9000HD PVR Review
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I too have experienced some of the things Anik has mentioned.
The lack of blindscanning is irritating. I either rely on global-cm's MPEG-2 list or fire up the Coolsat and scan away.
By far the most annoying, though, is the stuttering audio when playing back a show recorded in HD (OTA anyway; I haven't confirmed it for FTA). If I don't FF through the commercials it seems the audio is okay. It only seems to occur for HD shows (SD recordings behave normally) so I have this feeling the receiver can't keep up with the data transfer from the HDD (something like 19 Mbps?).
Having said that I really like the receiver especially the ATSC tuner. Using HDMI connectivity the picture quality is stunning.
The lack of blindscanning is irritating. I either rely on global-cm's MPEG-2 list or fire up the Coolsat and scan away.
By far the most annoying, though, is the stuttering audio when playing back a show recorded in HD (OTA anyway; I haven't confirmed it for FTA). If I don't FF through the commercials it seems the audio is okay. It only seems to occur for HD shows (SD recordings behave normally) so I have this feeling the receiver can't keep up with the data transfer from the HDD (something like 19 Mbps?).
Having said that I really like the receiver especially the ATSC tuner. Using HDMI connectivity the picture quality is stunning.
Sure thing...they're right here.
http://www.satelliteguys.us/free-ai...atellite-tv-you-will-get-you-banned-life.html
Enjoy your stay!
Stogie, you are just SOOOOO subtle .
Just call me an old softie, I have a soft spot for the misguided among us.
Uh, yeah.
Only reason I really did it was that I was sure Ice would have found it by now and did his thing and all of this would have dis-<click>
Great move Stogie, got a good laugh out of that move, very well put.
He must have not have looked at the link before posting a thank you.
He must have not have looked at the link before posting a thank you.
didnt see it until recently. Since I dont have a Diamond I read the thread about once a week or so to see the updates
Now won't record (some) Satellite HD at all
Now that I've had the Diamond for a while it seems to have developed a new problem - if I try to record a true HD signal from the satellite (I won't mention which in this forum, but let's just say there are a couple feeds on C-Band that are probably not intended for us to watch), not only is the recording complete trash but if you try to watch the program as you are recording it, even the live signal you're viewing will skip (have audio gaps and picture freezes). Stop recording and the signal becomes viewable again.
I'm not sure if this has always been the case because I hadn't paid that much attention to either of these channels at first. Not every HD signal has done this, I am certain that I've been able to successfully record HD off of certain other channels (and always off terrestrial stations). I suspect that if it may have something to do with how the signal is compressed, or something of that nature.
Anyway, I'm guessing the Diamond is very underpowered in the CPU department for decoding true HD. It does just great on standard definition but you are pushing the box to the limit if you try to record HD.
Now that I've had the Diamond for a while it seems to have developed a new problem - if I try to record a true HD signal from the satellite (I won't mention which in this forum, but let's just say there are a couple feeds on C-Band that are probably not intended for us to watch), not only is the recording complete trash but if you try to watch the program as you are recording it, even the live signal you're viewing will skip (have audio gaps and picture freezes). Stop recording and the signal becomes viewable again.
I'm not sure if this has always been the case because I hadn't paid that much attention to either of these channels at first. Not every HD signal has done this, I am certain that I've been able to successfully record HD off of certain other channels (and always off terrestrial stations). I suspect that if it may have something to do with how the signal is compressed, or something of that nature.
Anyway, I'm guessing the Diamond is very underpowered in the CPU department for decoding true HD. It does just great on standard definition but you are pushing the box to the limit if you try to record HD.
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That would be correct, IMO. Anything over 20000 S/R, PVR is useless. Which is why I don't even use the PVR. Saves more gray hairs.
For the Mac users, it is perhaps possible to watch recorded shows on your computer
Just thought I'd let you know, I discovered this partly by accident. What happened was I was playing a recorded show and trying to fast forward through a commercial, and the wonderful(?) Diamond instead shut down (as happens more frequently than I would like). When I powered back up, something was corrupted about the file (I think an index file had been zeroed out or something) and although the recording was still there, the Diamond wouldn't play it. Worse yet, it reported the drive as being corrupted (or something to that effect), although I could still record shows, and could still play back anything previously recorded except that one show.
Anyway, I finally decided to reformat the hard drive, but before I did, I copied the one program that would not play off onto my computer. This basically involves copying all the files with the same root name (only the extension different) to a single directory (note you may have to change Finder's preferences to show file extensions). I then reformatted the external hard drive that I use with the Diamond, first doing so on my Mac (using Fat32 format) and then again on the Diamond. After that, the Diamond no longer complained about the drive.
However I still could not figure out if the program could be recovered, until the other night I spotted an article that made me try something. There is a program called MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac OS X and it can be downloaded for free. You simply use the program's File menu to open the file with the .trp extension (it will likely be the only one not grayed out, if you copied all the files for the show in question to a single directory). If you get a message saying that the Apple QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component is not installed, just continue, because you don't need that for this operation. Then, also under the File menu, you use "Convert to MPEG" to save the file as an MPEG file. If it won't play using a native Mac program (such as QuickTime, which may complain that it's "not a movie file") then try another player such as VLC. If it doesn't convert the entire program (look at the "Out" time and see if it's a realistic length) then you may have to take extraordinary measures, like concatenating all the files with numbered extensions (.001, .002, etc.) into one huge file, then processing just that one file rather than the .trp file (note, you'll probably have to set the dropdown to show "All Files" so your concatenated file isn't grayed out).
This is not a perfect process nor would very many folks consider it easy, but it can be attempted, and it might let you view the rest of the program (on your computer) if the Diamond corrupted the .idx file and won't play the program. As long as all the files with numbered extensions are intact, you should (hopefully) be able to recover the show.
I'm guessing there's probably software that will do this in Windows also, but I have no idea what it is offhand. But I just wanted to mention this for the Mac users out there, so you don't miss an episode of your favorite show because the Diamond flaked out on you while you were trying to skip through a commercial break.
Just thought I'd let you know, I discovered this partly by accident. What happened was I was playing a recorded show and trying to fast forward through a commercial, and the wonderful(?) Diamond instead shut down (as happens more frequently than I would like). When I powered back up, something was corrupted about the file (I think an index file had been zeroed out or something) and although the recording was still there, the Diamond wouldn't play it. Worse yet, it reported the drive as being corrupted (or something to that effect), although I could still record shows, and could still play back anything previously recorded except that one show.
Anyway, I finally decided to reformat the hard drive, but before I did, I copied the one program that would not play off onto my computer. This basically involves copying all the files with the same root name (only the extension different) to a single directory (note you may have to change Finder's preferences to show file extensions). I then reformatted the external hard drive that I use with the Diamond, first doing so on my Mac (using Fat32 format) and then again on the Diamond. After that, the Diamond no longer complained about the drive.
However I still could not figure out if the program could be recovered, until the other night I spotted an article that made me try something. There is a program called MPEG Streamclip video converter for Mac OS X and it can be downloaded for free. You simply use the program's File menu to open the file with the .trp extension (it will likely be the only one not grayed out, if you copied all the files for the show in question to a single directory). If you get a message saying that the Apple QuickTime MPEG-2 Playback Component is not installed, just continue, because you don't need that for this operation. Then, also under the File menu, you use "Convert to MPEG" to save the file as an MPEG file. If it won't play using a native Mac program (such as QuickTime, which may complain that it's "not a movie file") then try another player such as VLC. If it doesn't convert the entire program (look at the "Out" time and see if it's a realistic length) then you may have to take extraordinary measures, like concatenating all the files with numbered extensions (.001, .002, etc.) into one huge file, then processing just that one file rather than the .trp file (note, you'll probably have to set the dropdown to show "All Files" so your concatenated file isn't grayed out).
This is not a perfect process nor would very many folks consider it easy, but it can be attempted, and it might let you view the rest of the program (on your computer) if the Diamond corrupted the .idx file and won't play the program. As long as all the files with numbered extensions are intact, you should (hopefully) be able to recover the show.
I'm guessing there's probably software that will do this in Windows also, but I have no idea what it is offhand. But I just wanted to mention this for the Mac users out there, so you don't miss an episode of your favorite show because the Diamond flaked out on you while you were trying to skip through a commercial break.
i have it flake out all the time... i just use vista's check disk on the drive and tell it to repair all bad sectors and then watch them on the diamond.
It finally up and died on me
I just came across this old thread while looking for other information and thought I'd report that the Diamond 9000HD just up and died on me one day. When I hit the power button the blue light on the front never comes on (well, I should say it's always off, since it was always normally on when the unit was off and vise versa) and the unit seems unresponsive. If I toggle the power switch on the back, a connected TV (old style analog TV) will flicker but not do anything else. I think perhaps its firmware might have been scrambled by a power surge or something.
At the time it died I wasn't finding it very useful anyway because it would not do blind scan, and it had a lot of other issues. So, R.I.P. Diamond 9000HD. While there are still a couple of channels on FTA that might interest me, I'm not in any big rush to drop more money on satellite stuff right at the moment. When all those Equity channels disappeared a few years ago, and then then CBS station was dropped from the Puerto Rico feeds (I get a crap signal from my local CBS affiliate but the other OTA networks all deliver a strong signal), that kind of killed everything I was using that receiver for. There is one option I am considering but that's another topic for another thread elsewhere in the forum.
I just came across this old thread while looking for other information and thought I'd report that the Diamond 9000HD just up and died on me one day. When I hit the power button the blue light on the front never comes on (well, I should say it's always off, since it was always normally on when the unit was off and vise versa) and the unit seems unresponsive. If I toggle the power switch on the back, a connected TV (old style analog TV) will flicker but not do anything else. I think perhaps its firmware might have been scrambled by a power surge or something.
At the time it died I wasn't finding it very useful anyway because it would not do blind scan, and it had a lot of other issues. So, R.I.P. Diamond 9000HD. While there are still a couple of channels on FTA that might interest me, I'm not in any big rush to drop more money on satellite stuff right at the moment. When all those Equity channels disappeared a few years ago, and then then CBS station was dropped from the Puerto Rico feeds (I get a crap signal from my local CBS affiliate but the other OTA networks all deliver a strong signal), that kind of killed everything I was using that receiver for. There is one option I am considering but that's another topic for another thread elsewhere in the forum.
It might be worthwhile to determine what happened to it, might be something simple. What other issues were you having?
Those Diamond 9000HDs are still among my favorite receivers. I used mine for several years as my main receiver for daily viewing. More recently I have been using a microHD for that but mine is still used for a OTA PVR and no recording issues with mine. Before that I used a series 1 TIVO with a DTVPal converter.
The Diamond lost the ability to use for the RTVs on 87W because of the audio change but for the most feeds, it's still fine.
Those Diamond 9000HDs are still among my favorite receivers. I used mine for several years as my main receiver for daily viewing. More recently I have been using a microHD for that but mine is still used for a OTA PVR and no recording issues with mine. Before that I used a series 1 TIVO with a DTVPal converter.
The Diamond lost the ability to use for the RTVs on 87W because of the audio change but for the most feeds, it's still fine.
Still use my Diamond 9000 have to use NDF editor program to enter S2 feeds on USB stick then put them into the 9000
Found out today it was a bad 3300uf/10v capacitor in the power supply that went completely open.
Sideswiper , could you direct me to more info and a safe download site , for NDF editor program. Put my Diamond 9000 up , 2 months ago . Never was able to figure out S-2 on it . Great receiver otherwise .
The editor is necessary for the Diamond. All the parameters must be correct, especially the FEC when entering into the editor, then scan the TP from the receiver and the S2 channels will scan in.
Post #4 has a link to the editor. /www.satelliteguys.com/threads/171769-NDF-Editor-for-Diamond?highlight=ndf+editor
Thanks to Lak7
Post #4 has a link to the editor. /www.satelliteguys.com/threads/171769-NDF-Editor-for-Diamond?highlight=ndf+editor
Thanks to Lak7
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