R5000 reliability?

[olyar15]

OK, so far I have been recording HDTV via firewire. For the most part, it works. But every once in a while, say, one out of every 10 recordings, it is no good. Either I get a video error, a blank screen, or Sage hangs. I have been playing with the timings on when Sage starts recording, but it is difficult to assess how helpful this is since this happens pretty infrequently.

So now I am thinking of going the R5000 mod for one of my cable boxes. I would like to know if the R5000 crowd is happy with the reliability of HDTV recording using their modified boxes.

There doesn't seem to be much talk about this anymore. One long thread, then pretty much silence. Either this is because it sucks, or because it works so well that nobody talks about it.

[NEOSG]

I run 2 of them with SAT boxes and works AOK. Here is what is on my wish list:

1. native mpeg4 (h264/AVC) support withn Sage. Currently I have to watch dish mpeg4 recordings outside of sage using MPC
2. Speed up channel changes


I would say 1 out of 50-75 recordings have issues. But it is pretty rare that I have problems.

[Kirby]

Yup, 2 going here, and havent had an issue for over two weeks (average 6-10 recordings a day). One Dish R5000 and one cable R5000, but the cable box is going away soon after the World Cup is over, because cable here is really starting to go downhill. The are rate-shaping HD channels, and I cant get them to auth the HD Tier on my SD cable box, not to mention still no CBS-HD. So thats gonna get transferred to another Dish STB.

Originally Posted by NEOSG

I run 2 of them with SAT boxes and works AOK. Here is what is on my wish list:

1. native mpeg4 (h264/AVC) support withn Sage. Currently I have to watch dish mpeg4 recordings outside of sage using MPC
2. Speed up channel changes


I would say 1 out of 50-75 recordings have issues. But it is pretty rare that I have problems.

I havent been able to do much in terms of more testing on #1, maybe in the next week or two.

Regarding number 2, its not gonna happen. 8 seconds is about the best you can hope for, especially considering everything that is taking place on a "channel change". The only real place to shave time off the process is the IR blasting from the R5000 DVR app, and you might gain at most a second there, but more than likely would also start getting bad channel changes.

[NEOSG]

Yeah, I know;-)

#1 was a prod for everyone involved, and #2 was a wish that the technology would imporve to allow it to speed up a little.

I've tested a few filters for # 1 and can't find one that can properly handle the stream, work with shared file access (needed for live or currently recording tv), and work over a LAN within the Sage client.

[Kirby]

Its too bad Sage doesnt come out with a new version that supports H.264 natively!

[olyar15]

Thanks for the replies. The delay in channel changes doesn't bother me, since I rarely watch "live" tv anymore, I just let Sage record the show and then watch it at a later date. And since I am sticking with cable for now, I don't think Mpeg4 is a problem for me.

[Kirby]

Yeah you shouldnt have to worry about MPEG4 on cable at all. But you might want to find out which channels you will get on cable. Nextcom cannot modify a box with firewire outputs (due to it having 5C, and thus illegal to bypass) so in a case like me, I can not get the HD Tier of channels on my cable box. This includes HDnet, HDNet movies, UHD, Discovery HD Theater, ESPN HD and TNT HD. My cable company does however pass through the HD locals so my standard def cable box will tune those fine, and the premium channel authorizations are tied to the SD programming pack, so channels like Cinemax HD, HBO HD, and Showtime HD are viewable on my box due to my subscribing to those packages in SD.

Being that you are in Canada, you probably have more flexibility, due to being able to own your cable box, you can probably find a HD box for sale that doesnt have firewire ports (DCT-5100, and some early DCT-6200's come to mind). Of course its also possible (probable?) that a Canadian cable company doesnt have issues authorizing HD tier's on a SD box! If you have more questions about it, feel free to ask!

[olyar15]

Luckily, I have a Moto 5100 HD cable box, which I bought before I also bought a 6200 for it's firewire connector.

[Kirby]

Yep, lucky you are! I got a DCT6200 here for my first cable box, at the time 5C was set to 0 on everything, so me being the brainchild that I am, requested a firewire version! Then the Nextcom cable box mod came along, and I cant mod that box, and havent been able to find a good way to get a DCT-5100 or 6200 sans firewire. Oh well, such is how luck goes in my world!

[camTexas]

I can also say my two R5000 Dish Vip211 units have been working well for a little over a week now without any issues. I also am patiently waiting H.264 support as I still have to get out of Sage to view these shows (and no time to test any new setups in well over a month).