External Hard Drive Archive Bug Thread

[NightRyder]

I Did what NightRyder said and changed the sleep modes to never, on both of my seagate modems. But on my main hdtv in the living room I have the hard drive plugged into an extension cord with the lights over the shelf behind the tv -all into the plug in on the back of my a/v receiver. When I turn off the a/v receiver it turns off my external hard drive and my lights too behind the tv. This way I can use the seagate external hard drive anytime I need to and when I turn off the tv and receiver, it goes off too. Works seamlessly now with no problems when I try to archive shows or view them. Just like my internal hard drive.


On my second hard drive I use it just for Adult movies, so I keep it turned off untill I need to access it . I have it plugged into a surge protector power strip with a simple on /off switch. So I am happy now that I can use the hard drives now the way I thought I could use them when I bought them , except I can not turn the lights off. I did this both times from the seagate menu over the computer but each time I plug it in again to the 622s it comes right back on.

Did the same with the drive and one of the switched outlets on my A/V Receiver. This should work fine until Dish addresses the problem. :up

NightRyder

 

[DefDude]

the clapper to the rescue

Maybe Dish will give everybody a clapper to help out.

CLAP ON CLAP OFF

 

[primetimeguy]

Did the same with the drive and one of the switched outlets on my A/V Receiver. This should work fine until Dish addresses the problem. :up

NightRyder

Agreed, very good idea.

 

[voripteth]

Don't take any chances - be sure to take ALL stress off the HDMI port by using a ziptie to hold the HDMI cable firmly in place on the back of the receiver so that there is no tension on the port by the cable.

What I find odd is that the socket itself still seems firm. Wiggling the connector doesn't seem to improve the connection. The only times I did manage to get the reconnection to work again was to plug the cable halfway into the socket. Obviously a rather precarious position that didn't last long.

It seems to me to be a defective socket that has nothing to do with tension on the port itself. Just to be sure I'll probably buy a new HDMI cable to see if that makes any difference.

 

[Sammy033]

Is there an HDMI cable that is flexable so it bends well and without much if any torque, especially around the plug? Or are the innards of the cable such that by design there is too much and its too thick to make it practical? I havent had a problem with my 622 but I try to be very careful and not put any stress on it. The hole it goes through in the cabinet is a little higher than the receiver on the upper shelf so it cant be pulled up or down.

 

[odbrv]

Day 4 of Seagate Freeagent EHD. I still have not set the spin down time to "never". I am waiting to read whether anyone is having EHD overheating problems or E* has discovered a fix. Both my EHDs are conveniently placed to allow me to unplug them. This morning I wanted to see a few shows my wife had already seen while I was watching sports and placed on the EHD. It took 2 manage device selections to get the 1st one to play. After seeing 3 events , I tried to delete them. I could not get the 622 to finish the deletion. Did the EHD reboot and the deletion was completed. What I don't understand is why the 622 sw could play the shows , but could not delete them . The EHD was not in spin down. Is there a different relationship between the 622 and the EHD for play than for delete?? It would seem the never spin down option would not solve this problem.

 

[adidadi]

Like I too posted earlier, I can't get the 622 to back out to the menu when stop is pushed. I also can't get it to delete.

 

[voripteth]

FWIW, I left my Seagate drive in sleep mode and the rest of the DVR worked just fine. When I did try to access the sleeping drive I did have to make it try twice but once it woke up on the second try everything worked fine.

I think all my previous problems were related to the HDMI port going bad.

 

[whatchel1]

My details

I've had the HDD on my system since the 15th. It has been able to transfer to it and watch from it. Now for the problem. Yesterday the 622 lost some of my sats and had to do switch check didn't work. So did hard reboot. Then it came up to tell me I needed to call E* to authorize the ext. HDD. It wouldn't go past that screen. So called E* and was told that it is a 441 problem . Went thru a bunch of hoops w/ the CSR and is being fixed w/442. Got it working again, & didn't loose anthing on the HDD. Was afraid that I would wind up having to reformat and loose the 14 hrs of things transferred to the ext HDD. Today the 622 has rebooted itself twice. Hope 442 get to all the 622's soon for the fix. If it keeps it up E* will be hearing from me.

 

[riffjim4069]

Bugs...

Ok, I have played around with external storage long enough to uncover a couple bugs...

The Good: (lots of good)

1. First, except for a minor glitch connecting the drive for the first time, my WD My Book 500GB has worked flawlessly. Additionally, I grabbed an old 100GB Maxtor drive and "free with rebate" cheapy no-brand USB external carcasses I have had sitting around the house the past six-months - it too works just fine. Surprisingly, I'll keep this one connected to the ViP622 in the bedroom.

2. Second, it is very cool that the filesize of the recordings are listed when managing external storage. It's nice to how much bandwidth is being given/used by the recording, and it's also nice to see how much bandwidth, and hard-disk space, is being saved by the new MPEG-4 encoders.

The Bugs: (must a few minor ones)

1. I have noticed a choppy picture when offloading recordings, and watching/recording two or more events on the internal hard-disk. It's not often, and it only appears to be when I am putting the ViP622 through a workout (may be when it is decoding an MPEG-4 HD channel too). Has anyone else noticed this?

2. While not a problem, I can't wait to see E* rollout an eSata receiver with a faster MPEG-4 decoder. In any case, I recommned archiving to hard-disk when the receiver is not viewing/recording multiple events or overnight.

3. I archived a variety of "stuff" just to look at the filesizes (posted below). However, I think I found a "glitch". I recorded both the OTA local news (HD here on WUSA-DT channel 9) and its Dish HD LIL version (channel 6360). I did this mainly to compare the filesize between the Dish MPEG4 verison and the local MPEG-2 "full bitrate" version. Here are the problems:

• I scheduled both and subsequently archived both to HDD.

• I noticed only one of the recording was archived to HDD (the OTA HD).

• When I viewed the archived verision is was 7.1GB (1 hour).

• When I tried to again send the Dish HD LIL news recording to archive the 622 told me it was a duplicate event

• I then tried to "restore" the OTA HD event already archives and the 622 displayed a "this event is in use" message.

• I had to delete the OTA HD recording from archive and then archive the Dish HD LIL version.

After a little more than 18 minutes I now had 4.290GB of the Dish MPEG-4 HD LIL version. It would appear that you cannot archive the same OTA/Dish HD LIL recording at the same time. Likewise, after I arived one of them, I could not restore the other without first deleting the one on the ViP622. Offhand, I am not really sure this is a "bug" since it doesn't make much sense to archive both versions. Can someone else test this?


1. It's a bit slow...not a bug, but it would be nice to see

Recordings:

Local Sunday News (OTA), 60 minutes, 7.1GB (MPEG-2)
Local Sunday News (HD LIL), 60 minutes, 4.290GB (MPEG-4)
Talladega Nights (Starz), 110 minutes, 4.065GB
Eight Below (Starz), 135 minutes, 3.698GB
Mommy Dearest (HDNet Movies), 137 minutes, 8.128GB
Scary Movie 4 (Starz), 92 minutes, 2.784GB
All My Children (Dish SD LIL), 60 minutes, 943MB
Dish Network Tech Forum (SD), 60 minutes, 703MB
The Closer (TNTHD), 60 minutes, 4.231GB
How the Best is Done (VOOM), 6.547GB (still at MPEG2)
Shark (CBS OTA), 60 minutes, 60 minutes, 7.029GB

 

[riffjim4069]

A Possible Future Bug...?

Ok, let's say you archive all your HBO recordings and then, for whatever reason, you terminate your HBO subscription. Will you still be able to play these recordings from external HDD or Restore these recordings to internal HDD? As I recall, I had no problem viewing recorded programs...even after cancelling all the premium channels?

Anyone want to give it a try?

 

[StuAV]

This morning, when I started each 622 with Seagate Freeagent 500 GB and went to manage device, I got the 787 message to get my receivers activated. Then when I tried to send to device, I received the 855 message that an error occured in the transfer. Called E* and they had a 10:00 am eastern time memo to CSRs to take down all info and send to engineering. The CSR don't have any of the error messages I got. I soft rebooted each receiver. Still got the 787 activation error but all send to worked. I then tried to restore and the timer went to all zeros but never left the screen. I had to manually get rid of it. The restore did work and different than yesterday , it was removed from the ext harddrive. Yesterday I had to reboot to delete events from the external hard drive.

I am having same problem. I have reported it to Dish and they will send to engineering.

 

[hdaddikt]

Help please on understanding FreeAgent problems..

OK.. I have the Free Agent Go 500GB drive. The 'only' problem I am having is deleting archived events (unprotected) on the Seagate drive.

I can transfer events back and forth with no problem. I do have some of the glitchy control problems if I playback from the Seagate, but if I restore the events to the DVR and play them from there, no problem. (Which I thought is the preferred way to replay archived programs anyway.)

Again, my only problem is deleting any events from the ext. drive. I get a flash screen the deletion is complete, but the event is still there. Is this characteristic of the sleep problem?

 

[primetimeguy]

OK.. I have the Free Agent Go 500GB drive. The 'only' problem I am having is deleting archived events (unprotected) on the Seagate drive.

I can transfer events back and forth with no problem. I do have some of the glitchy control problems if I playback from the Seagate, but if I restore the events to the DVR and play them from there, no problem. (Which I thought is the preferred way to replay archived programs anyway.)

Again, my only problem is deleting any events from the ext. drive. I get a flash screen the deletion is complete, but the event is still there. Is this characteristic of the sleep problem?

I'm going to guess yes as it seems the drive "sort of works" after it goes to sleep. If you have something to delete, trying powering down the drive, then powering it back up and the delete the program. My guess is it will work fine.

 

[ralfyguy]

I bought a Maxtor One Touch III 500GB and it plays like a charm. Even the drive going into sleep mode after an hour is not an issue. After a the about 5-10 seconds it takes for it to spin up again, the 622 still shows it as online. So this drive is just great for that purpose. I swear that's the drive they showed back then at CES. Not that they said that it was a MAXTOR, but it looked exactly like the one I got now.

 

[hdaddikt]

I'm going to guess yes as it seems the drive "sort of works" after it goes to sleep. If you have something to delete, trying powering down the drive, then powering it back up and the delete the program. My guess is it will work fine.

Excellent! Worked as you predicted.
It would seem it is not necessary to set the sleep to never. You could simply set it for 10 hrs, or so, if you only plan to use the ext. drive for manual archiving and restoring during normal viewing hours. Scheduled recordings should have no effect.
Thus adding to the life of the drive.

 

[DefDude]

Ok, let's say you archive all your HBO recordings and then, for whatever reason, you terminate your HBO subscription. Will you still be able to play these recordings from external HDD or Restore these recordings to internal HDD? As I recall, I had no problem viewing recorded programs...even after cancelling all the premium channels?

Anyone want to give it a try?

I have done that already with some movies I had from before. I had to cut back my channels after the 15th. while I was transfering them around I found a way to make duplicates by accident when my seagate went to sleep. It came back on but there was no list, it was blank, there was another post here from someone that had the same thing happen with his seagate, I freaked out but then I saw that it showed about a third of the gb's were also missing, same as the other post I saw here, to make a long story short, I was able to get them back and make duplicates from that point. I have verified this in a number of ways. one of the best way's was I started a movie on the 622 then I paused it, then I went to the seagate and started the same movie"a copy from the original" and paused it in a different spot, I could go back and forth and each one would play from the different spots that I paused them at. it's been 4 days with no problems I have a more detailed post in this thread #161 and 172 if anybody wants to try. This is way to make a backup of your backup but you have to start with your seagate being blank even though you transfered your movies.

 

[pdxsam]

I bought a Maxtor One Touch III 500GB and it plays like a charm. Even the drive going into sleep mode after an hour is not an issue. After a the about 5-10 seconds it takes for it to spin up again, the 622 still shows it as online.

That freaked me out the first time I went to the menu and it said I had to purchase but then a couple of seconds later the list popped up with the external storage.

It's nice to know it goes out of power save so easily.

My first big beef is the fact that there's no delete on the menu when you're done with a recording. When you hit the done button it pops you back to the top of the list of archived recordings. Then you have to scroll down and try and find the episode you were watching and hope you deleted the right one

 

[ralfyguy]

I didn't get the purchase pop-up yet, when the drive comes out of "sleep". That's weird that some get that, and some don't. I hope I won't get it in the future.

 

[MW390]

Having same problem: first transfer was fine with Seagate free agent. Then today, no longer able to send material until I rebooted 622. Since it is hidden in a cabinet, this is hardly convenient. Also, huge pity that you have to reboot whenever swapping drives.

Sheesh...I was under the impression that Unix runs these machine..Is it too much to ask to have an umount command as some panel selection to dismount the file system and mount a different file system (drive)?