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newbie with dicky 9200

(11 posts)

Masked Marvel

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Wotcha! This looks like a sensible forum, so here goes. Apologies for starting with a question, hopefully will be able to contribute answers later.

My 9200 has stopped recording a lot of requested series, films seem okay.
Also, if 2 items are recorded at the same time, one doesn't show on 'recorded programmes' until the other is deleted. But, it has the letterbox logo, and won't play.
Also also, I have 2 or even 3 copies of the very same item on 'recorded programs'. When this happens, if I delete 1, they all disappear.
It looks like (though I'm wildly guessing) the 2 tuners are out of whack; either it's rcording on 2 when it should only be on 1, or 1 doesn't work at all. Or is that a red herring?

Is this a known issue? is there a way to retrieve recordings?

Look forward to hearing from you.

| Wed 21 Sep 2011 12:03:40 #1 |
gomezz

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The best way of confusing any PVR is to have it tuned into channels from more than one transmitter leading to to duplicates. As DSO is proceeding a haste this is becoming an issue for more people as the power for the digital signal is ramped up across the transmitter network.

Check to see if you have on of these duplicate channels in the 800 range and if so delete all your existing channels and do a manual rescan of just the 5/6 MUXes coming from your local, preferred transmitter.

| Wed 21 Sep 2011 13:22:34 #2 |
Martin Liddle

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Masked Marvel - 1 hour ago »
Also, if 2 items are recorded at the same time, one doesn't show on 'recorded programmes' until the other is deleted. But, it has the letterbox logo, and won't play.
Also also, I have 2 or even 3 copies of the very same item on 'recorded programs'. When this happens, if I delete 1, they all disappear.

In my opinion what you are describing are the classic signs of the file system being corrupt (which is a very well known problem). The fix is to watch any recorded programs and then format the disk from the HDD control menu. This should fix the problem but if it reoccurs quickly then it could indicate that the hard disk is failing.

| Wed 21 Sep 2011 13:29:19 #3 |
Masked Marvel

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gomezz - 1 hour ago »
Check to see if you have on of these duplicate channels in the 800 range and if so delete all your existing channels and do a manual rescan of just the 5/6 MUXes coming from your local, preferred transmitter.

Thanks for the reply. By '800 range' do you mean the channel number? I have an aerial, not a dish, and the TV channels go up to about 120 or so. And, there is only one of each channel on the EPG. Or would I not necessarily know that there was more than one possible source just by looking at the EPG?

| Wed 21 Sep 2011 14:47:09 #4 |
Martin Liddle

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Masked Marvel - 2 minutes ago »
By '800 range' do you mean the channel number? I have an aerial, not a dish, and the TV channels go up to about 120 or so.

Yes he meant the channel range. If the box finds channels from more than one transmitter then it will place the first instance it finds in the normal numbering range and the second instance on a channel number above 800. If you have no channels above 800 then that indicates the box is correctly tuned. I will say again your problem is a classic case of a corrupt file system and you need to format the hard disk drive. If you delay then ultimately all recorded programs will vanish.

| Wed 21 Sep 2011 14:53:39 #5 |
Masked Marvel

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In my opinion what you are describing are the classic signs of the file system being corrupt (which is a very well known problem). The fix is to watch any recorded programs and then format the disk from the HDD control menu. This should fix the problem but if it reoccurs quickly then it could indicate that the hard disk is failing.

Ok Martin. The good thing is, it's faith-restoring to receive thoughtful replies from 2 members in short order. The bad thing is, didn't want to format, but needs must, I guess. How long do the discs last before failing; it doesn't seem very long? Or is it more a case that most of them live a long time, but that a few will give up after 3 or 4 years?

| Wed 21 Sep 2011 14:59:16 #6 |
Martin Liddle

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Masked Marvel - 54 minutes ago »
The bad thing is, didn't want to format, but needs must, I guess. How long do the discs last before failing; it doesn't seem very long? Or is it more a case that most of them live a long time, but that a few will give up after 3 or 4 years?

Nobody wants to format but in this case nothing else will fix the problem. The disk manufacturers statistics would suggest a few percent failure per year. In the real world I would suggest a failure rate might be closer to 10% per year so after 4 years of use I would expect 30 to 40% of disks to have failed but my statistics are based on a very small sample so may be complete nonsense.

| Wed 21 Sep 2011 15:58:31 #7 |
aldaweb

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Do you leave the unit on all the time or put it into standby?

If the former then the current thinking suggests setting the unit to turn off at night (mine is set to 02:00) and back on a short ime before first use the next day (in my case 05:00) within the time settings.

I previously had a few bouts of file system corruption when my (nearly 6 year old) 9200 was left on 24-7. The reason for doing that initially was the slow population of the EPG on earlier firmwares. Since setting the timers neither of the 2 units I am responsible for have experienced corruption; (touches wood) and the 2nd unit (9200TB) seemed more prone than my own.

You may be able to retrieve sme but not all recordings if you remove the drive, attach it to a PC, DO NOT allow the drive to be initialised, and run humaxrw from the blog here in recovery mode. versions for Windows or Linux. Note it is best run from an administrator command line.
If you don't feel confident with that a format in the 9200t is the only other option.

| Wed 21 Sep 2011 19:38:09 #8 |
Masked Marvel

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aldaweb - 18 hours ago »
Do you leave the unit on all the time or put it into standby?
If the former then the current thinking suggests setting the unit to turn off at night (mine is set to 02:00) and back on a short ime before first use the next day (in my case 05:00) within the time settings.
I previously had a few bouts of file system corruption when my (nearly 6 year old) 9200 was left on 24-7. The reason for doing that initially was the slow population of the EPG on earlier firmwares. Since setting the timers neither of the 2 units I am responsible for have experienced corruption; (touches wood) and the 2nd unit (9200TB) seemed more prone than my own.
You may be able to retrieve sme but not all recordings if you remove the drive, attach it to a PC, DO NOT allow the drive to be initialised, and run humaxrw from the blog here in recovery mode. versions for Windows or Linux. Note it is best run from an administrator command line.
If you don't feel confident with that a format in the 9200t is the only other option.

I leave it on standby, otherwise it's too noisy and I can hear it downstairs. (No carpets, steel-framed wooden-floored house).
Have formatted now, so we'll see what happens. Even so, I wouldn't have gone down the PC route. To me it's a utility like the TV, and I don't expect to have to be an IT geek for it to work. I know some folk like to tinker, but honestly, that's not me.

After formatting, decided to look for new channels (a couple more porn and shopping it seems). That went fine, but then the EPG took far longer to load than normal, don't know if that's related. Will see tonight I guess if it's a one-off.

| Thu 22 Sep 2011 13:59:27 #9 |
Biggles

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Masked Marvel - 17 minutes ago » .....
After formatting, decided to look for new channels (a couple more porn and shopping it seems). That went fine, but then the EPG took far longer to load than normal, don't know if that's related. Will see tonight I guess if it's a one-off.

Did you do an Automatic Search for channels and if so have you got channels in the 800 range? If you have then this will cause EPG and Accurate Record problems, you will need to do a Manual Search. See my Manual Search instructions here

| Thu 22 Sep 2011 14:22:56 #10 |