Noddy5

No loss there - I bought one thinking it would provide most of the benefit for a little of the cost, but as a consumer-level attempt at a NAS it is dire, dodgy, and just generally busted. First one was DoA, second wouldn't install because I live in a half-hour timezone, I accidentally nuked a pile of files because of how it manages users, it misbehaves on my network (even with its DHCP disabled), and it doesn't do the JBOD they said it did. Oh well, a learning exercise, and maybe I'll install the non-kosher firmware I've heard about to make it more functional. Noddy

... sort of. I have put up with the occasional sound dropout for a second or so, and had one in the NFL this week (NFL seems to be main guilty party) when I had some time to play with it a bit. It was eminently repeatable skipping back to that exact spot. As soon as I took the 5490 out of Dolby it stopped occurring. I might try a coax audio cable, but I don't expect it to make any difference. Noddy

Strong 5490 or 5492? That's what I do for my 5490, but I thought the 5492 split the recordings up. Noddy

Alternately, perhaps a re-scan caused it. Have you inadvertantly changed ABC transmitter when you rescanned for 7two? Noddy

Not a problem I've seen (touches wood). All my recording issues have been adequately explained as finger trouble. I still get picture breakup issues (notably during last week's Ashes to Ashes when Gene was confronting the bent copper - Grr). Have you been watching ABC at any stage when the timers have kicked off? Even that may be no guarantee though as the tuner you are watching is probably not the tuner recording. Noddy

The manuals are now on the Strong website. John

I assume these are both inherent issues as I also always had them with the direct feed into the TV. Thanks for the feedback guys. I'm all hooked up now (Optical for audio) and it looks like it's playing cleanly. Not as much surround source material as I thought, but some stuff sounded pretty neat. Now I just need to resolve the many remote problem to improve the WAF! Cheers, John BTW - yep, 5492 probably not as useful as keeping the 5490 and adding a WDTV or similar.

After many happy years with the Strong 5490 plugged directly into my TV I am finally upgrading to some Vaf surround speakers and a Denon 3808A receiver. The knowledge I seek is regarding the problems people have posted about the sound being out of sync with the video when the 5490 goes via a receiver. What settings or connection type should I be using to avoid this, or did it become moot with one of the firmware upgrades? Thanks, Noddy

Specifically discussing the returning of files to the machine - this is difficult. It was conjectured several years ago in the 5490 threads that it would be possible to take the file off (but don't delete it), edit it, and return it with the same file name (to ensure the file list still knew about it). I tried this once without success, but as it is not core to the way I use the unit I did not pursue it any further. A masterful post was done once (author escapes me) that described the binary format of the file list file, so if you are committed to this approach you could look to upload/hexedit/download that file (though you would probably need to reset the unit afterwards to force a re-read). http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?act=fin...&pid=528740 On the ethernet side, I periodically connect my laptop to my 5490. I go direct with a crossover LAN cable. Setting the IP address on the 5490 to something compatible with my PC (and setting a suitable netmask also) works. Sometimes I need to go into the network settings fields an extra time which seems to force the 5490 to set the IP address again when it does not connect to the PC first time. One thing with using Filezilla I found was that I had to set an extra-long timeout or it would timeout the connection before the 5490 got around to responding. Use ping to check the connection before trying ftp though. John

Very apropos - I was about to post a question about DST on the 5490. Mine has been similarly reliable since the final firmware release. I run manual time and having just been through the biannual adjust of time and start times I had thought to question whether it was good enough to go to auto-time. But I think you've answered my question for me! I mostly concur on the other issues, but they each work just about well enough. Noddy

I've had dropouts on OneHD Adelaide, but in all cases the logo was still there (so I assume it was the stream of live NFL from the US that was the problem). Damn - this means the logo is actually good for something! Noddy

Whilst they do well on consumer goods, I don't put much weight on Choice's reviews of technical products. I have never seen them manage to do a good review of flat panels or similar (partly due to narrowness of products purchased). However it is probably an indictment of PVR's that I don't consider them to be generic consumer goods! Oh, and my Strong 5490 has not missed a timer for years (hasn't had a firmware release in two years though). Not in the review list either. Noddy

Hmm, interesting results from a play on Saturday afternoon. Firstly, the "TV Ant In" connector feeds the tuner that you see when you watch TV the first time. "Loop In" feeds the tuner that records the first program. Swapping input to feed the LoopIn first and output from that to TVAntIn gave similar results to initial tests (loss of signal on the looped back feed). Feeding the wall straight to a single tuner and looking at only that: Just TVAntIn: sbs 96% or 77%, abc1 96%, seven 96%, nine 100%, ten 100% (don't understand why sbs was oscillating between the two figures). Just LoopIn (after starting the other tuner to force "watching TV" onto that tuner): ABC1 96%, sbs 96%, seven 96%, nine 100%, ten 100% So summary is: Normal: Wall ---> TV Ant In ---> Loop Out ---> Loop In ---> RF Out ---> TV TVAntIn indicating good signal ("watching TV" and second recording), LoopIn indicating average signal (tuner that records first). Alternate: Wall ---> Loop In ---> RF Out ---> TV Ant In ---> Loop Out ---> TV LoopIn indicating good signal (tuner that records first), TVAntIn indicating average signal ("watching TV" and second recording) So signal direct into either tuner gives high signal on that tuner, but the output from that (regardless of which tuner) seems down when fed into the other tuner. I know that some loss is inevitable (damn physics) but I'm not sure how much. Now to decide on if there is a next step to try an external splitter or splitter/amplifier. I guess a $8 splitter from tricky dicky is an easy step. Noddy

I have a slightly odd problem (possibly) with my 5490. It appears that the two tuners are showing different signal strength ... but I'm getting ahead of myself. Occasionally I record a Timeteam on ABCHD that is completely unwatchable with breaking up. And often other programs will have momentary breakups (jeapordising WAF). I had thought it might be disk related, but now have another possibility. My observations from a couple of repeatable sessions are: 1. Watching a channel, everything is fine and the "!" button shows "signal strength" close to 100% (lowest is ABC with 93%). 2. Set that channel recording. Everything is still fine. 3. Change to and record another channel also. 4. Changing back to the first channel (hence also changing tuners I assume) I get a "signal strength" much lower than before (ABC is down to 70% or so). 5. Changing to the second recorded channel it is still at full strength. Repeating this with the order of the two channels swapped gives the same results - the first channel to be recorded shows a drop of "signal strength" (I put that in quotes as it could mean anything). Appreciate any thoughts, or any other 5490 owners who feel like checking their unit. Noddy

mistered indicated "formatted capacity for video is 684GB". Sweeet! Previous posters I think said it is just to format it. BTW - I've had some weirdness lately (but not consistently) whereby I get low Signal when I am recording two HD channels, but if I stop the recording the Signal jumps back up to its usual 96%. Haven't been able to determine a consistent pattern in it yet, but it continues to jeapordise WAF. Noddy

Is it any quicker with generating the preview images or starting playing? Noddy

Anything which is only on one hard disk is vulnerable. Anything which is on multiple disks but on one PC is vulnerable (a friend had his raid controller die -> much sadness). The 5490 is no different from anything else computerlike - treat it as temporary storage. You don't have to change the video format when you archive it, but you can save heaps of space if you do. Noddy

"3 in High Definition" - so even they admit that ABC and SBS don't meet the real expectation of HD. Noddy

Not related to bennos' problem, but one thing I have learned is not to have timers starting/stopping at the same time. So if I have two timers I want at 7:30 I will set one for 7:29. Similarly if I want one stopping at 7:30 and another starting (especially if the other tuner is recroding), I will move one of them one minute either way (only feasible with ABC and SBS of course!) Even more critical when I have multiple stopping/starting, though it is difficult to arrange when each of them are daily on different day combinations. I found that the machine was occasionally hanging when the timers were not deconflicted. A side-oddity I noted (can't remember if I mentioned it before) was that if I am watching a station, start playing a recording, and then two timers activate on stations other than the one I was watching, then when I press Stop the picture will freeze. It does not hang or stop the recordings, but the only way out is to start another playback then go to the channel menu and select one of the channels being recorded. Noddy

Do you know what type of drive Strong put into the unit? When my drive died they told my shop to just replace the whole unit as the lead time on a replacement drive was significant. I'll try to remember to have a squiz at my unit when it is doing nothing sometime. Noddy

Hmm, I had a go at this on the weekend without any luck. The machine just went to black screen when I tried to play the file I had uploaded. I'll have another go sometime as it may need it to be from the same channel/rate, or some other thing that I did not check in the limited time I had available. I recall this topic coming up many moons ago in one of the lengthy Strong threads, but the power of SEARCH has failed me (SEARCH is strong but my use of it is weak- all hail SEARCH). For the moment I guess bennos' kids will have to keep watching DVD archived Play School. Noddy

There was a post by TroubledFool some time ago that included some clever analysis that had been done about the file on the machine that is the list of recordings on the unit. It may be possible to put your edited file on the machine and then edit the "list" file to include the file you put there. Downside is that the file is binary so would require a program to edit using the format data that was posted, and you would have to reboot the machine afterwards to get it to re-read the file and find out about the one you uploaded. As indicated - tricky. Ah, found it - http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtop...st&p=780175 As for the less courageous way of doing it - record a program for a couple of minutes. Look at the file listing for it and note the mule's xxxxxxxx.trp filename. On your PC change the name of your edited file to the mule filename. In your ftp client (filezilla or whatever you use), you will have to upload (vice the usual download) the edited file to the Strong. The program will probably ask you to confirm that you want to overwrite what is there. Then the edited file should be viewable. As I said, I have not tried this. Possilbe problems I can think of - the file permissions might be wrong which would have to be fixed using telnet (?), the unit might need a reboot to get it to notice the change (probably not though), horrible corruption could occur (probably not though), or, worst of all, Strong's team of contract ninjas (ex-RIAA) might crash through your window and chastise you for trying to do something that is not documented in sublime detail in their wonderful manual (probably not though). Good luck. If it's a bit intimidating I might have a go next week once the boss has watched all of her critical programs, but let us know how you go if you do. Noddy

Back in the youth of the 5490 it was suggested that the only way to do it (without editing the binary listing file) was to make a new short recording, and then upload the edited file over that file (same directory, with the mule's filename). The time summary details for the file would be wrong, but it would play to the end happily. I've never tried it. Ah, truly showing how mileage may vary - I run mine on manual time, and my timers did muck up when I changed the time. Noddy

As a resident of PC-land I use VLC to play .trp files. Their website indicates a mac version exists. http://www.videolan.org/

No - video only. >DVI- I OUT >10. Digital video signal and RGB component output for >10. connecting the STB to a television using a DVI cable. and to quote again ... Can we put this baby back to bed now?