Homecast Ht8000pvr – Has Anyone Else Bought One?

[oscwilde]

I did note that the clock had jumped 2 minutes forward from the time on my DVD-R, when both of them had been exactly the same the previous evening.

The unit is set to "TDT" in the time setting menu so it receives times from the broadcasters. Could something screwy have happened where at 11.30 it updated the clock and this paused my recording?

If this didn't happen then it seems it was just a plain old recording failure.

I'd say that's pretty likely what happened.

The other interesting thing is that the unit was still on in the morning.

I went away for a week about a fortnight ago...and recorded several shows by timer...all OK,,,and the unit was in standby mode when I got back.

I have the time set manually - the unit is battery backed.

[BigBad64]

One of the main issues HD PVRs seem to have with HD broadcasts is that they can have stuff happen that stuffs up a current recording (ie the format (eg 720p) alters or the like) SD doesn't have this issue as its constant. Sounds like something happened in the broadcast that the PVR couldn't handle.

0.02

Peter Gillespie

Thanks Pete.

Not a very comforting thought that an HD recording has the possibility of not happening properly.

[BigBad64]

I'd say that's pretty likely what happened.

The other interesting thing is that the unit was still on in the morning.

I went away for a week about a fortnight ago...and recorded several shows by timer...all OK,,,and the unit was in standby mode when I got back.

I have the time set manually - the unit is battery backed.

I've changed my time setting to "User Mode" so I'll see how I go.

I'm not surprised the unit was still on this morning as when the timer gets paused, the unit keeps "RECording", thinking it hasn't completed the timer. Well, "RECording" as in the REC indicator on the VFD swirling but no actual recording happening. This is the same thing that happened to me when I hit stop on a pre-recorded file on the 1st unit I had.

I'm going to set similar timers tonight and see what happens.

I'll have to see if I can source a copy of last night's "The Shield" from somewhere else........

[Gazman1973]

I've changed my time setting to "User Mode" so I'll see how I go.

I'm not surprised the unit was still on this morning as when the timer gets paused, the unit keeps "RECording", thinking it hasn't completed the timer. Well, "RECording" as in the REC indicator on the VFD swirling but no actual recording happening. This is the same thing that happened to me when I hit stop on a pre-recorded file on the 1st unit I had.

I'm going to set similar timers tonight and see what happens.

I'll have to see if I can source a copy of last night's "The Shield" from somewhere else........

Hi Guys,

I've had nothing more than a good experience with this unit which I've had for over a month now. I record my weekly shows, some are simultaneous and some not and they never skipped a beat. I've set mine to manual setup of the clock as I've read a numerous amount of complaints when the time is picked up via the networks. I still never depend on the timer being on time and always set it 5 minutes before and 15 minutes after the announced time but this is usually due to the networks never being on time with their shows than the unit being at fault. My smiles were turned to frowns this weekend but I'm not sure if its anything to be alarmed about yet and I'm reluctant to take it back as apart from this small hiccup, I'm very happy with it. I noticed for the first time when watching a recorded show that I lost colour in the display. It tended to flicker at first and go from colour to b/w and then back to colour until it remained in b/w. I first thought it was a problem with the recording or the channel experienced some colour problems during playback until I pressed stop and it went back to FTA shows still in b/w???? I played the recorded show back again and it was again playing in b/w and stopped again and FTA was in b/w too. This confirmed to me it wasn't the recording and that the unit was dropping in and out of colour strangely enough. My only fix for this was to turn unit into standby then fully power off by the switch at the rear and wait a minute and reset it all back on and then played back the recording in colour all fine again and FTA was fine too. Has anyone else expereinced this and is it possible that the HDD is overheating an IC around or underneath it which controls the pictures colour? Thanks all....

[oscwilde]

Hi Guys,

I've had nothing more than a good experience with this unit which I've had for over a month now. I record my weekly shows, some are simultaneous and some not and they never skipped a beat. I've set mine to manual setup of the clock as I've read a numerous amount of complaints when the time is picked up via the networks. I still never depend on the timer being on time and always set it 5 minutes before and 15 minutes after the announced time but this is usually due to the networks never being on time with their shows than the unit being at fault. My smiles were turned to frowns this weekend but I'm not sure if its anything to be alarmed about yet and I'm reluctant to take it back as apart from this small hiccup, I'm very happy with it. I noticed for the first time when watching a recorded show that I lost colour in the display. It tended to flicker at first and go from colour to b/w and then back to colour until it remained in b/w. I first thought it was a problem with the recording or the channel experienced some colour problems during playback until I pressed stop and it went back to FTA shows still in b/w???? I played the recorded show back again and it was again playing in b/w and stopped again and FTA was in b/w too. This confirmed to me it wasn't the recording and that the unit was dropping in and out of colour strangely enough. My only fix for this was to turn unit into standby then fully power off by the switch at the rear and wait a minute and reset it all back on and then played back the recording in colour all fine again and FTA was fine too. Has anyone else expereinced this and is it possible that the HDD is overheating an IC around or underneath it which controls the pictures colour? Thanks all....

I take it that you're using an S-Video cable (or another analog connection)?

I've seen the intermittent B/W problem before with S-Video on an old DVD player...and messed around with the connector - which temporarily fixed things - but eventually replaced the cable....which fixed things for good.

Later on (got a new TV), and switched to using the component connectors - until the DVD player stopped responding to remote commands, so got a new unit.

....but I digress....

First thing to look at is the quality of your connections - are things properly plugged in and is the cable OK?

Do you have any (unused) high quality connection options on your TV?

If so, try these - to eliminate the Homecast as the problem.

Oh...and the HDMI cable that I received with my Homecast occasionally blacked out the screen...so swapped it with my DVD player's HDMI cable (I think I got it from Dick Smith - about $30).

Weirdly, the cable that didn't work well with the HC works fine with the DVD player.

This may be to do with the HC being an HDMI 1.2 device?

Edited March 17, 2008 by oscwilde

[Gazman1973]

I take it that you're using an S-Video cable (or another analog connection)?

I've seen the intermittent B/W problem before with S-Video on an old DVD player...and messed around with the connector - which temporarily fixed things - but eventually replaced the cable....which fixed things for good.

Later on (got a new TV), and switched to using the component connectors - until the DVD player stopped responding to remote commands, so got a new unit.

....but I digress....

First thing to look at is the quality of your connections - are things properly plugged in and is the cable OK?

Do you have any (unused) high quality connection options on your TV?

If so, try these - to eliminate the Homecast as the problem.

Oh...and the HDMI cable that I received with my Homecast occasionally blacked out the screen...so swapped it with my DVD player's HDMI cable (I think I got it from Dick Smith - about $30).

Weirdly, the cable that didn't work well with the HC works fine with the DVD player.

This may be to do with the HC being an HDMI 1.2 device?

Thanks for the feedback OscWilde, Its probably a thing for me to look into. I run my HC via a receiver using reasonably good component cables so I never thought it would be an issue but maybe it is. I'll look into it and see if that works. thanks!

[Seven Types of Cheese]

Hi Folks, first time caller here on the DTV Forum, and I'm interested in the HT8000PVR.

My question is, what do you does the unit support in terms of EPG's? I don't subscribe to any TV service and would just be using free-to-air Digital. I'm happy to subscribe to an EPG if necessary, so which one do you reccomend?

Many thanks!

[jakes]

Hi Folks, first time caller here on the DTV Forum, and I'm interested in the HT8000PVR.

My question is, what do you does the unit support in terms of EPG's? I don't subscribe to any TV service and would just be using free-to-air Digital. I'm happy to subscribe to an EPG if necessary, so which one do you reccomend?

Many thanks!

At the moment the homecast can only use the EPG transmitted in the FTA signal, so you don't have to/can't subscribe to anything to get program info. It's possible that homecast may make the unit icetv compatible if/when they enable the ethernet port with new firmware, but this is just speculation - don't bank on it happening.

[Seven Types of Cheese]

At the moment the homecast can only use the EPG transmitted in the FTA signal

Wow, thanks for the super-quick reply!

So how reliable /usable is the FTA EPG? Can you realistically/reliably setup recording days in advance?

Cheers!

[jakes]

Wow, thanks for the super-quick reply!

So how reliable /usable is the FTA EPG? Can you realistically/reliably setup recording days in advance?

Cheers!

It's okay, but it's not as complete as it could be, due to the fact that we're relying on the networks to get it right (and often they just don't care). SBS is only transmitting now and next info, so anything you want to record on sbs will have to be manually scheduled. The ABC's doing 2-3 days of guide data. As far as I'm aware the commercial networks are transmitting 7 days of data. There can sometimes be problems with this data, though, with errors regarding what's showing, and inaccuracies between HD and SD channels. But in general, I'd say you could program a certain percentage of your viewing several days ahead (depending on your viewing patterns - ie will be more difficult if you watch mostly SBS, ABC).

Finally, one issue to note is that the commercial networks particularly don't really stick to the advertised times, so you'll need to add padding to your scheduled recordings to ensure you don't miss the start/end of them. This isn't a problem with the EPG, per se, and you'd get the same problem occuring if you could use guide data from another source, but is more a result of the networks playing around with starting and finishing times in a desperate attempt to get ratings. It is something you should be aware of though - the FTA EPG is not dynamically updated, so once your recording is scheduled, it will still record, even if the show the guide said would be on, changes. Hope that helps a bit.

[Seven Types of Cheese]

Hope that helps a bit.

Very helpful and very much appreciated! Thanks.

[scarr]

Apologies for what may be a common question but I was unable to find a clear cut answer in any FAQs.

I am interested in the HT8000PVR however for the short term it would need to be connected to an old analog TV which only has an RCA connection.

Will it be possible for me to view the HD channels on this TV? If I connect using the Composite connection on the HT8000 will this limit me to SD channels only?

I understand that I will not be able to view in actual HD but would like to at least be capable of watching the channels at a reduced quality until I have a HD TV available.

Thanks in advance

[oscwilde]

Apologies for what may be a common question but I was unable to find a clear cut answer in any FAQs.

I am interested in the HT8000PVR however for the short term it would need to be connected to an old analog TV which only has an RCA connection.

Will it be possible for me to view the HD channels on this TV? If I connect using the Composite connection on the HT8000 will this limit me to SD channels only?

I understand that I will not be able to view in actual HD but would like to at least be capable of watching the channels at a reduced quality until I have a HD TV available.

Thanks in advance

Yep...

You can watch the HD channels.

[Guest thetwig]

Thanks for the feedback OscWilde, Its probably a thing for me to look into. I run my HC via a receiver using reasonably good component cables so I never thought it would be an issue but maybe it is. I'll look into it and see if that works. thanks!

Gazman,

have you rectified your black & white playback issue? I have the same problem.

Had the unit 3 weeks.

When playback of recorded material, picture goes black and white flickers to then just black and white.

Stop playback and free-to-air is black and white. Have to cold start unit.

Using red-white-yellow out to my Sony CRT TV. Running new 1.02.0A firmware.

Any clues?

[chickenstrangler]

These have just showed up in new JB catalogue for $698. Are these units better/worse than a topfield 5000/7000? Looking to record HD and a unit to go with my Pio 508xda (when i get it).

Any info appreciated.

thx

ps can you playback divx /avi movies/video using usb thumb drive etc?(save some time burning discs!)

Edited May 21, 2008 by chickenstrangler

[Rappo]

These have just showed up in new JB catalogue for $698. Are these units better/worse than a topfield 5000/7000? Looking to record HD and a unit to go with my Pio 508xda (when i get it).

Any info appreciated.

thx

ps can you playback divx /avi movies/video using usb thumb drive etc?(save some time burning discs!)

Have a read through this post http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=60482

Also, you can go to the Homecast forum site for a lot more info on copying files and playback.

http://www.homecastaustralia.com.au/phpbb2/index.php

Edited May 21, 2008 by Rappo

[jakes]

ps can you playback divx /avi movies/video using usb thumb drive etc?(save some time burning discs!)

No at the moment you can only play content that has been recorded to the HDD. There is no media player at the moment, although it's been suggested that one might be added in the future (you may be able to view photos off a USB stick although I'm not really sure - I've never tried). Basically, it's just a fairly stable PVR without any bells and/or whistles.

[diesel]

These have just showed up in new JB catalogue for $698. Are these units better/worse than a topfield 5000/7000? Looking to record HD and a unit to go with my Pio 508xda (when i get it).

Any info appreciated.

thx

ps can you playback divx /avi movies/video using usb thumb drive etc?(save some time burning discs!)

Take a look at the Beyonwiz DP-P1. It can play files over a network and the 250GB model is being picked up for $700 nowadays.

[Guest Shashi]

Hi all,

Can anyone explain exactly what the following section of the Homecast HT8000PVR manual [Page 68] means:

"If the recording ends before you've finished watching the program:

Don't worry, you can still catch the end of the show.

A file is created on the HDD, which you will need to open from the file list.

A bookmark is automatically created at the last playback poistion, so you can immediately resume watching from where you left off."

Background:

Yesterday evening my wife set a timer event to record from 8 to 10.35pm. We were chase playing and watching House from 8.30pm. At about 10.10 [while watching material say back from 9.45pm] I noticed that the REC indicator on the display of the unit had gone off. Major drama!! Alarm was raised!!

We went into the file list and found that the recorded file was of exactly 2 hours duration, 8-10pm. We don't know why this happened, as my wife is 100% positive she selected the end time as 10.35 [House was scheduled to end at 10.30, so...].

Anyhow, I pressed the REC button to start manual recording at 10.13. Somehow we managed to kill that recording after 10 minutes [gulp :-(]. Then we watched the remaining 7 minutes live, not happy at all.

My questions are:

1. Can someone please explain the bit I have quoted from the manual above? Could it have helped us in the above situation? Does it imply that when recording stops and spooling automatically resumes the stored file and the spool file are treated as being part of one whole by the Homecast and we can go up and down and view upto the end as if they were one file? If it can somehow handle such situations as the one we had yesterday night, it would be fantastic.

2. If we see that a recording is over before a program has ended and we go to the file list and start viewing the recorded file will it stop the spooling?

3. Is there any way at all to see the balance of the unrecorded part of the program afterwards as long as the Homecast was on and we were on that channel?

4. Is it right to conclude that if we can see the EPG no recording is on?

5. Why did the recording stop early [this has been answered earlier I think with people pointing out this can happen if something cannot be handled by the Homecast in the transmission, so unless any new information is available, I am satisfied with that answer]

Thanks in advance.

Edited June 5, 2008 by Shashi

[oscwilde]

The manual bit basically means that if you've got a recording from say 8 - 10 p.m....and you're at say 75% through playback AT 10 pm....the recording will stop....which is to be expected.

Unfortunately, chase-playback also stops....

As such, you need to load the file....and watch from 75% to the end of the program.

The Homecast helpfully inserts a bookmark at the 75% point.

Assuming you have the 1.02.0A firmware....

1. The Homecast will automatically begin timeshifting when it is not recording a channel.

If you begin playback of a file, you are not timeshifting, so therefore nothing is "spooled".

If you're recording, you're also not timeshifting....so nothing is "spooled"....but a file is (obviously) being written.

2. If a recording has ended before you've finished watching it (assuming the same channel is being viewed) and you are NOT chase-playing....then you'd better hit the record button real quick...or simply keep watching.

3. Yes...as long as you weren't recording or playing another file at the time.

4. The EPG can be viewed while recording. You cannot, however, access several menus or the reservation window while recording.

5. It's possible that your wife didn't set the timer correctly. It's possible that your time zone is wrong. It's possible that you pressed stop or pause - and inadvertantly stopped/paused the recording etc. etc.

Typically, if the HC encounters a transmission problem, it won't end the recording...but it may show a "no signal" message in the recording. You can circumvent the latter problem by forwarding/rewinding thru the file a little.....or hitting the slow button...and then the picture reappears.

This is a weird little bug, but at least you can view a recording that looks like it is faulty.

Edited June 5, 2008 by oscwilde

[Tbonetoms]

My PC does not recognize my HC when I plug the USB in, I do not get the new hardware found message. I have the drivers and exe mentioned but nothing happens when I plug in the USB, Have checked all cables and ports, all OK

Can anyone help PLEASE

Edited June 7, 2008 by Tbonetoms

[oscwilde]

My PC does not recognize my HC when I plug the USB in, I do not get the new hardware found message. I have the drivers and exe mentioned but nothing happens when I plug in the USB, Have checked all cables and ports, all OK

Can anyone help PLEASE

Download the new manual from here:

http://www.homecastaustralia.com.au/conten...1020A_FINAL.pdf

Follow the steps in section 10.4.2.

If you get stuck, either ask here or at the Homecast Australia forum:

http://www.homecastaustralia.com.au/phpbb2/

[Guest Shashi]

The manual bit basically means that if you've got a recording from say 8 - 10 p.m....and you're at say 75% through playback AT 10 pm....the recording will stop....which is to be expected.

Unfortunately, chase-playback also stops....

As such, you need to load the file....and watch from 75% to the end of the program.

The Homecast helpfully inserts a bookmark at the 75% point.

Assuming you have the 1.02.0A firmware....

1. The Homecast will automatically begin timeshifting when it is not recording a channel.

If you begin playback of a file, you are not timeshifting, so therefore nothing is "spooled".

If you're recording, you're also not timeshifting....so nothing is "spooled"....but a file is (obviously) being written.

2. If a recording has ended before you've finished watching it (assuming the same channel is being viewed) and you are NOT chase-playing....then you'd better hit the record button real quick...or simply keep watching.

3. Yes...as long as you weren't recording or playing another file at the time.

4. The EPG can be viewed while recording. You cannot, however, access several menus or the reservation window while recording.

5. It's possible that your wife didn't set the timer correctly. It's possible that your time zone is wrong. It's possible that you pressed stop or pause - and inadvertantly stopped/paused the recording etc. etc.

Typically, if the HC encounters a transmission problem, it won't end the recording...but it may show a "no signal" message in the recording. You can circumvent the latter problem by forwarding/rewinding thru the file a little.....or hitting the slow button...and then the picture reappears.

This is a weird little bug, but at least you can view a recording that looks like it is faulty.

Hi oscwilde,

Thanks for the systematic reply. Much appreciated.

We figured out what we did wrong! And this may be of interest to some who may have not realised [along with us] -- using the < and > buttons while a recording is in progress can be dangerous until one understands that they function differently from what they do during time-shift.

When one first presses the 'Record' button to begin chase playing, the recording bar is red. At this time, pressing the < button reduces the recording time and pressing the > button inreases the recording time [perhaps upto the originally set end time, tbc]. To get these buttons to instead only quickly move up and down the recording, we have to **first** use the REW button to get off current time which makes the recording bar turn **green**. Once the bar is green [like in time-shifting], the < and > buttons behave like quick jump buttons, as in time shift, rather than acting like recording time setting buttons.

Perhaps this was in the manual somewhere, but we missed it. Therefore we tried to use < & > as quick REW and FF buttons and when we realised that they did not work like this, abandoned that attempt and started using the REW and FF buttons instead. Sadly however, we had reduced the recording end time down to 2 hours. Sigh.

Anyway, now that we know, it all seems natural and right :-).

Thanks for your other replies, which are quite helpful.

Regards, Shashi

Edited June 10, 2008 by Shashi

[Jliang70]

These have just showed up in new JB catalogue for $698. Are these units better/worse than a topfield 5000/7000? Looking to record HD and a unit to go with my Pio 508xda (when i get it).

Any info appreciated.

thx

ps can you playback divx /avi movies/video using usb thumb drive etc?(save some time burning discs!)

Try to get them to go below $620 otherwise get Topfield 7000. Topfield 7000 can be bought for $590 in some shops and I bought 1 for $600 from Retravision Knox City.

[Tbonetoms]

Download the new manual from here:

http://www.homecastaustralia.com.au/conten...1020A_FINAL.pdf

Follow the steps in section 10.4.2.

If you get stuck, either ask here or at the Homecast Australia forum:

http://www.homecastaustralia.com.au/phpbb2/

Thanx oscwilde

Turning HC on and connecting, then going to stand-by worked, Pc finally recognized HC and now I'm away.

Cheers Very much

PS Can you give me the link to convert these files to Pc format and vica-versa, is the program free or if not can it be cracked?

Cheers

Edited June 11, 2008 by Tbonetoms