DHG HDD250/500 OWNERS UNITE !! Fix the 999 Channel Limit TV Guide Issue

[Bru]

DHG HDD250/500 OWNERS UNITE !!  OK, it's come to this. The cable companies have moved their digital programming above channel 1000 and our high definition video recorders will not allow channels to be bound in the TV Guide above 999 using software update 1.2.21 which is a year old.  Strange that I could bind channels up to 1013 with software update 1.2.13!  Those channels remain bound even after applying the 1.2.21 software update and I can record up to Channel 1013 in the TV Guide.  So you see, the cats out of the bag. This is entirely doable. This is a very simple software fix. As it stands you can can tune these channels, and buffer them, you just can't record them using the TV guide because they don't exist in the the channel lineup because the highest number that can be entered now is 999.  We need the engineer who edited the number of channels that can be bound to add another 9 to make it 9999.  This is not a major fix. It's a minor one and quick to do if Sony would get off their assets.  I called Sony's customer services and got the usual initial runaround.  The last person who made this inquiry from our forum was in November 2009.  I REFUSE TO BUY ANOTHER SONY PRODUCT UNTIL THIS ISSUE IS RESOLVED!  The cable companies get the other barrel. There are 200 channels between 600 and 800.  Why did they have to move any channels at all above 1000?!  4 numbers are harder to remember than 3 and take longer to input on the remote anyway. Plus you have to relearn the dammed numbers.  What corporate genius thought this up! The whole thing smacks of a conspiracy to render our $800 to $1000 devices obsolete and needlessly so.  Sony called my 5 year old DVR unsupported on the phone but MY MONEY is not forgotten by me!  We need a ground swell of support in our forum to get Sony to post a minor software fix for our expensive DVRs otherwise I REFUSE TO BUY ANOTHER SONY PRODUCT UNTIL THIS ISSUE IS RESOLVED!

Bru


On 4/22/10 a Sony customer service representative above the call in level said that someone is now looking into this matter (again) and that I would be notified of the result.  I'll give Sony the benefit of doubt but I'm also sticking to my guns.  Here is a link to the Sony support site for the 250 model:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-home.pl?mdl=DHGHDD250 

If this doesn't pan out in a reasonable amount of time other options would be:
The Consumer Protection Agency
Better Business Bureau
Your Congressman
A Class Action Lawsuit

[JoeKustra]

I use the 1.2.13 firmware. I allows manual recording of any channel the Sony finds. If I can view it I can record it. The .21 firmware broke that. The guide doesn't show the channels. Not as much fun, but it works.

[Bru]

5/24/20010

RELEASE  THE HOUNDS!!!

It's been a month since I contacted Sony so I called the engineer who gave me his phone number.
He said that Sony is not going to make available a software update because of this.
He gave me a song and dance about Gemstar but it has nothing to do with Gemstar.  It's an internal Sony software issue.*  We have to take this to the next level.   Contact any and all agencies that will pursue this and our behalf. Reference the following Sony internal customer ticket number for this service issue:
E45325359

The Consumer Protection Agency
Better Business Bureau
Your Congressman
A Class Action Lawsuit
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* ok, it could be solved a couple of ways.
1. Sony coud issue a software update where owners could manually bind TV guide numbers up to 9999.
2. TVGOS could send the correct channel data. This would vary by channel provider and region.
A third possibility would be that the service providers move the channels back below 999. 


I REFUSE TO BUY ANOTHER SONY PRODUCT UNTIL THIS ISSUE IS RESOLVED!


 

[Bru]

5/31/10
More Interesting information. My unit was acting funny so I went through the setup procedure. The next day I selected Brighthouse-TampaBay as the cable source. All of the channels in the 700's that I was referring to in the TV Guide to watch where they really were in 1000s were set to "off". So I reset them to "on" to get the TV guide information guide back. The channels (1003 to 1013) that I had bound in the TV guide using software V1.2.13. were gone. That’s unfortunate because I could record those channels using the TV Guide directly and under software V1.2.21 the highest number that can be entered to bind channels is 999. This may open a new avenue to fix the problem. If TVGOS can make these changes why can't they add the proper channel numbers in the first place?  I'm going to contact Rovi and my service provider and see what can be done.
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I found this on the web. 

http://www.rovicorp.com/support/9526.htm#12   and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rovi_Corporation

Getting your service provider and TVGOS together may solve the problem in your area.  Manual channel adjustments above 999 are not possible at this time.

[Bru]

June 5, 2010

This is the response I got from Rovi CE support, the parent company of TVGOS.  Its in broken english but it does not sound promising.  It looks like the ball is back in Sony's court.  Better, these two need to get together to solve the problem.  They are both pointing the finger at each other leaving the consumer stuck in the middle. 


"Thank you for the information.  Even in you are able to see listing information for 4 digit channels within the TV Guide On Screen, those channels will be be tunable from the Guide due to the limitations of the Version 8 guide within the Sony DHG DVR.  You would not be able to set recordings for those channels."

CE Tech Support

This does not ring true. As I said before, I could record 4 digit channels up to 1013 with the
software update 1.2.13 with Version 8 TV guide.

And again...  I REFUSE TO BUY ANOTHER SONY OR ROVI PRODUCT UNTIL THIS ISSUE IS RESOLVED!

[Tdbo]

Hey, Bru, how is that boycott working?

The disfunction between TVGOS and Sony is nothing new.  Both sides are never at fault and the consumer is always the one left with the mess.

That's why I simply moved on to TIVO.  It simply does the job without all the drama.

As far as Sony, they used to be a quality product.  Now, they are average at best.  I don't go out of my way to buy anything Sony unless they are the cheapest.  That way, I get what I pay for.

[roebling]

TIVO's not an option for us because they don't allow recording of undocumented channels. TIVO virtually works for the cable companies in the sense that they enforce cable plans that the cable company doesn't itself enforce.  Unscrambled digital local channels can be viewed on Charter Cable's basic plan here if you have the right tuners.  And, the carrier here uses a single head-end and feed for many stations for other markets that it doesn't, for some reason, offer here. So, because Sony and TVGOS allow the adding of those stations manually and TIVO doesn't allow users to manually assign extra, undocumented channels to their published listing info, going TIVO would cause the loss of those channels.  TIVO actually doesn't allow any digital channels without an activated cable card or cable box.

Specifically, if I went TIVO, I'd lose other-market, hi-def PBS stations that have different programming and scheduling than our local PBS channel. I'd lose all my "free" local hi-def local channels because Charter requires extra money for them.  And, with TIVO I'd have to pay not just one but two cable-box rentals (minimum) every month, to be able to watch and record different digital channels at the same time.

[Bru]

Here is another nail in the coffin of indifference and subterfuge.  I noticed that I am able to create a future reminder for any 4 digit channel and that it would popup when the time arrived and tune to the 4 digit channel when selected just like a recording would under V1.2.13.  Sony has not covered all its tracks.  I also create reminders using the TV guide and the 3 digit channels then cancel the reminder when it pops up and manually tune to the 4 digit channel where it is.

The way I'm recording channels above 999 now is to find the program I want to record by binding the channel to a number below 1000 (or where they used to be) in the TV guide, then cross reference it to the new 4 digit channel on a piece of paper, then tune to that 4 digit channel and advance in the time schedule to that time and press record.  The default is 1/2 an hour so the recording must be extended in the edit menu if its longer than 1/2 an hour.  It ends up being an "unknown" recording in the recorded program list.  This is an awful work around but it gets the job done until SONY releases a software update.

I went through the TV Guide channel line up and noticed a few 4 digit channels that I could not possibly have entered even if I had wanted to.  Location: BrightHouse, Tampa Bay, South Pinellas County.
 
1127 ESPNHD, ESPN HD  (program matched the TV Guide)
1154 GLFHD, The Golf Channel HD  (program matched the TV Guide)
1401 HBOHD, HBO HD (I don't have HBO but its in the TV Guide lineup)

The only explanation is that the tune channel information came encoded with the TV Guide info for those channels.  That blows away the lame excuse that the TVGOS version can't support 4 digit channels.
Wump! There it is!  If TVGOS would include the channel information encoded for all the channels in a local market, there would not be a problem.  When I tried to edit the channel number for 1127 it would only let me enter 3 digits even though 4 were displayed initially. I did not save any changes other wise it would be like the other channels that are not tunable through the TV Guide.

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8/2/2010
See my next entry below the next comment. 

[JoeKustra]

Ever notice that the Sony display on its box and ads for this unit shows channel 1234? Funny, right?

[Bru]

8/2/2010

A few days ago I took out my cable card while the unit was off to see if it was made by Scientific Atlanta (it was).   I put it back and turned on the system and noticed that the TV Guide was all messed up.  I went through the location set up and the next morning it asked me to choose my cable provider (Bright House, Tampa Bay).  When I went to the TV Guide there were only a few channels in the list so I went to the channel edit list and was amazed to see so many 4 digit  high-definition channels now correctly defined.  All I had to was turn on the channels I wanted including some nondigital ones as well.  This really cleaned up the TV Guide display by getting rid of all the dead channel is that there were anyway.  This puts me 90% of where I want to be.    There are still are a few tuneable channels that do not have in the TV Guide:
 
1283 FXHD not in the TV guide
1286 SIFIHD not in the TV guide
1256 DISHD not in the TV guide
1285 SPIKH not in the TV guide
1238 USAHD not in the TV guide
1357 LIFEM not in the TV guide
1240 BIOHD have the guide but no signal. 
 
Its alot better than it was, using a crib paper to translate every high-definition channel.
Now if Sony would issue a software update so that you could enter 4 digits in the few cases that needed it, that would be the end of the issue. 

Whoever did this, Bight House, TVGOS, Gemstar, ROVI.  THANKS!
I hope its the same for everyone else in the country.   

Bru
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Two days later I found alot of the channels were turned back on so I had to go through the list and turn off the dead channels and the duplicate low definition ones.  A trick I came up with for the channels that only had a low definition TV guide was to map it to the last 3 numbers of the correct 4 digit channel since you can only input 3 digits.  Example: 1283 map to 283. I don't have any active channels in the 200s to 400s.  All I have to do is close the TV guide and add a 1 to the 3 digit mapped number and input it.

[JoeKustra]

Of the channels you listed that are "not in the guide", can you record them manually?

[Bru]

Yes, any tunable channel can be recorded.  It just requires knowing when and the channel to record.
It’s not as convenient as using the TV guide directly and the recording becomes an "unknown" in the recorded list.

 

[JoeKustra]

After buying a Sony 32EX700, I find that V10 of the guide accepts my wierd channel numbers. I can map 106.1201 to analog cable channel 5. When I tune to the guide's ABC channel, I now get HD. This function also follows to the Favorites display. I know it doesn't help you (us) much, but I wanted to keep you in the loop.