SA 8300HD mystery!

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

If the show is in the buffer, it will record the whole show. (the 8300
remembers the up to 60 minutes previous of what you are watching, provided
you don't change channels)

"Mack McKinnon" <MckinnonRemoveThis@tvadmanDeleteThisAsWell.com> wrote in
message news:cfWae.25872$AE6.10287@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> I'm sure there's an explanation for this that does not involve the
> supernatural, but at this point, I have no idea what it might be.
>
> Friday night, I watched the first 9 minutes of Bill Mahr's show on HBO. I
> still wanted to see someone who was coming up later but I had other things
> to do, so I set the SA 8300 DVR to record the rest of it. I did this by
> bringing up the program guide to the Bill Mahr Show that was on at the
> time, and pressing RECORD. That show turned red on the guide, showing
> that it would record and the 8300's record indicator light immediately
> came on. I turned off the TV and went on my way.
>
> Saturday afternoon, I went to the list of recorded shows to bring up that
> show. I selected the Bill Mahr show that I had set the box to record.
> When it came up, the first part of the indicator bar was in red and the
> pointer started after that, obviously because I had started the recording
> 9 minutes in.
>
> But here's the weird part -- the show was recorded from the very
> beginning. The HBO intro to the show, Mahr's skit before the theme music,
> his opening monologue -- all of which I had watched before I started
> recording the night before -- was all there. It had somehow recorded the
> 9 minutes of the show before I set the box to record. The indicator bar
> correctly showed that I had started recording several minutes into the
> show but what played back from that point was the show's very beginning.
>
> I had to fast forward through the 9 minutes I had already seen in order to
> get to where I had started the recorded.
>
> How did this happen?
>
> mack
> austin
>

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

When you are watching a program, it is automatically recorded in the buffer
for up to 60 minutes. That is to allow you to use the FF, Pause, and Rewind
functions to their fullest. Try the rewind function or the replay button
while you are watching a channel to see it in action. Now when you decide
you want to record a program, just hit the record button (you don't have to
select it from the guide as you described--but that works, too). It will
save the program in its entirety (if you were tuned to that channel when the
program started).

"Mack McKinnon" <MckinnonRemoveThis@tvadmanDeleteThisAsWell.com> wrote in
message news:vP6be.34270$hu5.19098@tornado.texas.rr.com...
> Well, that explains it. Thanks. Now please explain the 8300 buffer to
> me, if you will. Odd that there is nothing said about it in the
> literature that accompanies the 8300 box. Does the picture I see on my
> screen when I am watching live TV come directly off the cable or off the
> buffer?
>
> mack
> austin
>
>
> "David" <a@b.c> wrote in message
> news:ROidncHMEt0XrPHfRVn-2Q@adelphia.com...
>> If the show is in the buffer, it will record the whole show. (the 8300
>> remembers the up to 60 minutes previous of what you are watching,
>> provided you don't change channels)
>>
>> "Mack McKinnon" <MckinnonRemoveThis@tvadmanDeleteThisAsWell.com> wrote in
>> message news:cfWae.25872$AE6.10287@tornado.texas.rr.com...
>>> I'm sure there's an explanation for this that does not involve the
>>> supernatural, but at this point, I have no idea what it might be.
>>>
>>> Friday night, I watched the first 9 minutes of Bill Mahr's show on HBO.
>>> I still wanted to see someone who was coming up later but I had other
>>> things to do, so I set the SA 8300 DVR to record the rest of it. I did
>>> this by bringing up the program guide to the Bill Mahr Show that was on
>>> at the time, and pressing RECORD. That show turned red on the guide,
>>> showing that it would record and the 8300's record indicator light
>>> immediately came on. I turned off the TV and went on my way.
>>>
>>> Saturday afternoon, I went to the list of recorded shows to bring up
>>> that show. I selected the Bill Mahr show that I had set the box to
>>> record. When it came up, the first part of the indicator bar was in red
>>> and the pointer started after that, obviously because I had started the
>>> recording 9 minutes in.
>>>
>>> But here's the weird part -- the show was recorded from the very
>>> beginning. The HBO intro to the show, Mahr's skit before the theme
>>> music, his opening monologue -- all of which I had watched before I
>>> started recording the night before -- was all there. It had somehow
>>> recorded the 9 minutes of the show before I set the box to record. The
>>> indicator bar correctly showed that I had started recording several
>>> minutes into the show but what played back from that point was the
>>> show's very beginning.
>>>
>>> I had to fast forward through the 9 minutes I had already seen in order
>>> to get to where I had started the recorded.
>>>
>>> How did this happen?
>>>
>>> mack
>>> austin
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

Mack McKinnon wrote:
>
> Are you saying that even if I just use the RECORD button while watching a
> show, rather than recording from the guide, it will still record the show
> from the beginning? But I would never be aware of that if I just hit record
> in order to pause the show and then resume it -- only if I later went back
> to play back what I had recorded -- then I would find that the previous,
> buffered part of the show was also included. Does that sound right?

More or less. If I just want to pause a show, I don't press "record", I
press "pause". Basically, these machines are always recording.

Watch out for one thing, though - these devices don't always work as
expected. Because of the buffer recording issue, you can occasionally
find yourself capturing something other than what you intend.

I watched the Superbowl this year, and decided that I might like to be
able to watch the Paul McCartney halftime performance again. So at the
beginning of his performance I pressed "record", and at the end I pressed
"stop". Seems simple enough, no?

When I went back to play my recording, I found that I had captured
instead about 30 minutes of the game - in fact, the 30 minutes that came
right before halftime. My recorded ENDED shortly before the halftime
show was going to begin. Clearly, the recording was capturing what was
in the buffer, but it never actually got around to capturing the portion
of the program that I was really interested in seeing. Good thing I
watched it live because the DVR didn't capture any of it.

Obviously, this is a bug in the firmware, but it is the kind of thing
that you have to watch out for with these devices. BTW, my DVR is the
older 8000 rather than the newer 8300, but this particular bug may well
exist in both of them. If it doesn't exist in the 8300, then there's
bound to be some other bug that's just waiting to trip you up. <g>

> I still have the question about watching live TV via the cable box. In that
> case, am I watching it directly off the cable, or off the buffer recording?

You may not get an answer to that question. Does it really matter?

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

"Mack McKinnon" <MckinnonRemoveThis@tvadmanDeleteThisAsWell.com> wrote
in news:cfWae.25872$AE6.10287@tornado.texas.rr.com:

> I'm sure there's an explanation for this that does not involve the
> supernatural, but at this point, I have no idea what it might be.
>
> Friday night, I watched the first 9 minutes of Bill Mahr's show on
> HBO. I still wanted to see someone who was coming up later but I had
> other things to do, so I set the SA 8300 DVR to record the rest of it.
> I did this by bringing up the program guide to the Bill Mahr Show
> that was on at the time, and pressing RECORD. That show turned red on
> the guide, showing that it would record and the 8300's record
> indicator light immediately came on. I turned off the TV and went on
> my way.
>
> Saturday afternoon, I went to the list of recorded shows to bring up
> that show. I selected the Bill Mahr show that I had set the box to
> record. When it came up, the first part of the indicator bar was in
> red and the pointer started after that, obviously because I had
> started the recording 9 minutes in.
>
> But here's the weird part -- the show was recorded from the very
> beginning. The HBO intro to the show, Mahr's skit before the theme
> music, his opening monologue -- all of which I had watched before I
> started recording the night before -- was all there. It had somehow
> recorded the 9 minutes of the show before I set the box to record.
> The indicator bar correctly showed that I had started recording
> several minutes into the show but what played back from that point was
> the show's very beginning.
>
> I had to fast forward through the 9 minutes I had already seen in
> order to get to where I had started the recorded.
>
> How did this happen?
>
> mack
> austin
>
>

This is just a bug in the progress display.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

I did not go to the end of that particular show to see if it was on there.
But I know that I have been watching a show, set it to record, then gone
back to watch the rest of it, so perhaps this bug is not in my particular
machine. But, then, I haven't had it for very long. I think if I had had
the experience you did, I would have complained to the cable company.
Perhaps a firmware update or new box would fix the problem.

mack
austin


"DaveR" <NOSPAM_drubin@NOSPAM_i-2000.com> wrote in message
news:iaNzQpkJ2ELi3EIVP52QkryvTfNb@4ax.com...
> Question: did it record through to the END of the show? Or, was there
> 9 minutes missing from the end?
>
> I experienced the latter scenario on my 8300HD and it was maddening. I
> watched 45 minutes of CSI and wanted to record the final 15 minutes.
> Instead, what I got was 15 minutes of CSI that I had already seen,
> going back to the last time I switched to that channel. The end of the
> show was nowhere to be found.
>
> Clearly this is a software bug, but I haven't found anyone to confirm
> it, and I haven't experienced it again...

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

>> I experienced the latter scenario on my 8300HD and it was maddening. I
>> watched 45 minutes of CSI and wanted to record the final 15 minutes.
>> Instead, what I got was 15 minutes of CSI that I had already seen,
>> going back to the last time I switched to that channel. The end of the
>> show was nowhere to be found.
>>
>> Clearly this is a software bug, but I haven't found anyone to confirm
>> it, and I haven't experienced it again...
> The same thing has happened to me 2 time I do not know why and it seems to
> be random. I don know that the time it did it I pressed the red record
> button and did not go into the guide.

When you are watching a program, then change channels and come back, you
apparently lose any access to the buffered show on the first channel. So,
if you press REW, you will only go back as far as when you turned to the
current channel. So, if you were watching a show and wanted to A. leave the
TV and just record the rest of it but B. not have to hunt for the entry
point later, might you not purposely click to another channel to delete the
current buffer, then come back, hit REC from the GUIDE and leave? Would
that not then record the current show, but only from the current point, to
the end?

Also, in general, if you want to be sure you get the whole show, I wonder if
it is not better to hit REC from the GUIDE than just hitting REC?

mack
austin

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 16:03:51 GMT, "Mack McKinnon"
<MckinnonRemoveThis@tvadmanDeleteThisAsWell.com> wrote:

>point later, might you not purposely click to another channel to delete the
>current buffer, then come back, hit REC from the GUIDE and leave? Would
>that not then record the current show, but only from the current point, to
>the end?

Yes, this is a good workaround for the bug. I will try it.

>Also, in general, if you want to be sure you get the whole show, I wonder if
>it is not better to hit REC from the GUIDE than just hitting REC?

Not sure if there is any difference as far as the box is concerned;
it's really the same function just accessed in a different way.

Archived from groups: alt.tv.tech.hdtv (More info?)

On Sat, 30 Apr 2005 20:22:52 GMT, "Mack McKinnon"
<MckinnonRemoveThis@tvadmanDeleteThisAsWell.com> wrote:

>I agree that they are useless when it comes to minor bugs and would not even
>understand what you were talking about, but what you described, it seemed to
>me, could probably best be fixed by either a (1) firmware update (unlikely
>but possible -- they could certainly check your version # to see if one was
>available, anyway) or (2) getting a new box. Your cable company should be
>able to come through with one of these options, just to get you off their
>backs, even if they don't understand the problem.

Unfortunately these bugs are well known and there is no fix from SA.
If and when they do release new firmware, it will take awhile before
cable companies roll it out. I'm still waiting for the last firmware
update which supposedly fixes some other bugs and adds a 4th FF speed
(128x).