Can't say we never had any issues with recordings (our pr...

[philipgarson]

Can't say we never had any issues with recordings (our problems have been intermittent for over a year) but have not, in my memory, had a problem pausing and rewinding recordings. Had some gaps in recordings but that could have been problems with the original broadcast. The tech mentioned that more and more problems relate to the software compared to years age when it was connections. He had not seen our problem before and only one other person on this forum has posted in this thread with similar problems. Anyone else had problems with pause and rewinding live TV?

[philipgarson]

Well  that didn't last long, it was working ok until today around 7:30 PM today, Wed Sept 2nd. . Paused live TV (CNN) for a few minutes then hit play, it jumped forward to live and then wouldn't pause giving me the "pause isn't available, this set top box doesn't support it" message. Changed channels using the channel up/down away and back to CNN and now pause works but when I paused a few minutes and then tried rewinding a few minutes it jumped to live and the pause isn't available returned again. Not sure what to do next, maybe wait for Paul the tech to check back with us. 

[mdk]

@philipgarson -- your PVR is recording the current channel to the disk-drive inside the BlueCurve, while you are watching CNN (or any other channel), as a "buffer", to enable the "skip-backward" button.

When you change channels, away from CNN, all that "buffered" content is discarded, making the disk-space allocated to that "buffer" available for buffering the channel that you just selected.  So, if you immediately switch back to CNN, then the "buffering" starts again, until either the disk-drive is 100% full, or there is some "error" reading/writing the disk-drive.

Can you successfully record some program on any other channel, and play it back, to "prove" that the disk-drive is consistently "writable" ?

Can you check if the disk-drive is nearly full?

[philipgarson]

Yes, I regularilly record several programs everyday on other channels and don't recall any problems with them. They record and while playing them I can pause, rewind, fast forward all with no problems. I just tried another channel, just for a few minutes but I was able to pause, rewind and play with no problem. Went back to CNN, I tried rewinding, it started to rewind then jumped forward to live TV tried to pause a few minutes later and got the not supported message again.  I'll try some more tests with other channels tomorrow and report. Checked and the PVR is 63% full. 

Just curious, what's your experience in this area? 

[mdk]

@philipgarson -- Just curious, what's your experience in this area? 

I have a Shaw Expander connected to an older PVR.

The combination PVR/Expander started to show the same symptoms as yours -- "freezing" of live TV, and pixellating of recorded content.

I detached the Expander from my TV, and connected it to an eSATA port on my computer. Then, I ran the free SPECCY software, and examined the S.M.A.R.T. (Self-Monitoring, Analysis and Reporting Technology; often written as SMART) section of the report. It showed that the disk-drive was in a "failing" status, with many "bad" sectors.

Obviously, if the PVR tries to write to those "bad" sectors, either the "write" will fail, or the electronics inside the disk-drive will make multiple, time-consuming, attempts to "write" to those sectors.  Thus, the PVR "freezes" while it is waiting for the disk-drive to report "Input/Output has completed". When playback tries to "read" those sectors, then pixeallation will be observed.

Similarly, a "not supported" message means that the PVR has lost its connection to the disk-drive (or external Expander).

Ergo, dying disk-drive. Contact Shaw, and get them to ship (via Canada Post) a replacement PVR to you, and return (via Canada Post, at Shaw's cost for shipping) the current PVR.

You will lose all the content that you have recorded. So, watch it, as soon as possible.

[philipgarson]

Thanks for your input, you obviously are more knowledgeable in this area than I. Some of our problems match yours so it might be the PVR but it has been replaced once already so what are the odds? I assume there is just one PVR  in the main box not one in each of the auxiliary boxes (we have 3) and the problems don't appear to happen on all the TVs although they don't get as much use as the living room TV which is on one of the aux boxes. We have no problems recording and playing back programs which we do almost every day and no pixelation  issues.   I'll try some more tests on all 4 TVs and document the results here and when the Tech checks in I'll ask him about your suggestion. I deleted most of the recordings and we went from 63% full to 8% full but that didn't appear to make any difference at least so far. I like a good mystery but this is getting old. 

[philipgarson]

Test  1

I put all 4 TVs on same channel (CNN) and waited about 10 min and tried to pause them. Living Room (LR) would not pause, got message, Kitchen (K), Master Bedroom (MBR) and Front Bedroom (FBR) all paused as they should. Waited about 5 min, LR still won't pause, rewound other 3 a few minutes and then hit play, all played from where they were no problem. Waited another 5 min, rewound all 3 to the beginning of buffer, all 3 rewound and played from beginning of buffer, LR still won't pause. (Note FBR is main box). 

Changed LR to another channel (SNP) using Guide, waited 5 min, paused no problem, waited a few minutes, rewound a few minutes, waited a few minutes then hit play and rather than play from where it was paused it jumped to live TV and then wouldn't pause. Tried pausing other 3 TVs, none would pause (perhaps because they were at beginning of buffer?), fast forwarded all 3 to live TV, pausing  part way and they paused and then played  OK so maybe the buffer was full? LR still won't pause.

Hockeys on so that's all for now, any comments or suggestions on what to try next? Thinking I'll swap the LR box with another aux box (MBR) and see if problem moves with box or stays in LR. 

[mdk]

@philipgarson -- any comments or suggestions on what to try next? 

Try tuning all 4 TVs onto the same channel, but make it a channel OTHER than CNN.

[rstra]

I agree with @mdk other users are reporting signal problems with CNN, this could be the source of your frustration.

[philipgarson]

Thanks , next time I have time to play with it I'll try a different channel before I try moving the boxes around. Knock on wood but the last few days it has worked as it should (even on CNN).