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| Thread ID: 112039 | 2010-08-21 06:24:00 | PVR Troubleshooting | pctek (84) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1130169 | 2010-08-21 06:24:00 | Never opened one up. Someone told me it's just like a PC. Hmm, I doubt that. Anyone had experience with them, easy enough to troubleshoot or should be left to electronics techs? What are the usual things that go wrong with them? |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1130170 | 2010-08-21 09:41:00 | Personal Video Recorder can be a lot of things from a PC to a propriety branded box, you could call a VCR a PVR, so what have you got, sounds like a Branded Box??? | PPp (9511) | ||
| 1130171 | 2010-08-21 11:18:00 | Well, if you can disassemble a PC and know all the main parts without really thinking, you can easily identify most parts of a PVR. The only real difference is the PSU is uncovered (insert boilerplate warning here), and that the front panel PCB (if there is one) can connect oddly to the main board. It's not unheard of to have the PSU on the same PCB as the motherboard (if you can really call it that, but you know what I mean). RAM is usually soldered directly on, as is pretty much everything else. You can easily swap the hard drive though, they're usually PATA/IDE. The DVD drive is usually not PATA/IDE though, and sometimes it mounts funny. Once you've pulled apart as much stuff as I have, you see how lazy electronics designers are sometimes. If you understand one, you understand them all. |
ubergeek85 (131) | ||
| 1130172 | 2010-08-21 22:17:00 | Well, if you can disassemble a PC and know all the main parts without really thinking, you can easily identify most parts of a PVR . The only real difference is the PSU is uncovered (insert boilerplate warning here), and that the front panel PCB (if there is one) can connect oddly to the main board . RAM is usually soldered directly on, as is pretty much everything else . The DVD drive is usually not PATA/IDE though, and sometimes it mounts funny . . Soldered? Just to make it harder to get out then? So if one doesn't go, you'd check PSU, then how do you check the rest if it's all soldered in? Wjays the DVD then if not IDE? |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1130173 | 2010-08-22 01:09:00 | Soldered? Just to make it harder to get out then? So if one doesn't go, you'd check PSU, then how do you check the rest if it's all soldered in? Wjays the DVD then if not IDE? Everything is usually soldered to cut production costs. DVD drives aren't IDE because, for whatever reason, it's cheaper and more convenient to use a proprietary spec. Early models of PVRs had IDE DVD drives though. Usually it's the PSU that bombs in most consumer electronics, so I'd be looking at that. |
ubergeek85 (131) | ||
| 1130174 | 2010-08-22 07:23:00 | Thanks, will see how I get on..... | pctek (84) | ||
| 1130175 | 2010-08-22 21:11:00 | If it's a model with a HDD I'd look upon that with some suspicion as well, as we all know how finite their lives can be. What is unknown in my mind is whether or not there is any proprietary format on the drive, and whether any OS resides on it (hopefully that is all on firmware instead). |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1130176 | 2010-08-22 21:13:00 | It's worth also noting, that in the case of my Panasonic, they make it clear that adding a larger HDD does not result in any extra storage on the device - the extra gigs are left unused. Important however to not go to a smaller capacity if replacing HDD. | Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1130177 | 2010-08-23 01:10:00 | Well turned out to be a PC with a TV card in it. | pctek (84) | ||
| 1130178 | 2010-08-23 02:19:00 | nice | nedkelly (9059) | ||
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