Tales of CableCard Woe - Sony VGX-XL3 Edition Curbnoise 08.06.2007 18:40:01 I bought the Sony VGX-XL3 about a month ago, and for the most part I am happy with it. The one exception is the flakiness of the CableCard anytime I have to reboot (and this is Windows afterall!). If you do a standard restart (like after installing an update) 1 of 2 things generally happens. 1 is that the OS doesn't see the ATI tuner at all. Don't need to say much more about that one. The second option is that the CableCard tuner is detected and intializes, but premium (eg HBO...) channels are not viewable. In the literature that came with the machine it stated that it can take up to 10-15 minutes for restricted channels to be available. Not so with a warm reboot. They never come back. Even a cold reboot doesn't bring the channels back from the dead (or the tuner itself if condition 1 above is experienced). Through trial and error I figured out that if I shut down for an extended (at least 20 minutes) period, boot up AND NOT TOUCH THE PC for another 15 or so minutes, generally all the channels return. Not a good solution, but it works. So I call Sony support, get routed to level 2 support and they tell me that this (extended shutdown...) is the preferred method for having the machine function as intended. When I pointed out that this is not a good answer for a $3,000 + machine, the tech told me she would refer it to engineering. Needless to say I have turned off MS recommended "Automatically Install Critical Updates" to avoid losing the tuner and any scheduled recordings that may take place between 4 am and when I notice and have 35 minutes to rehabilitate the machine. I just thought I would share this in case anyone is looking at buying this unit. Again, I like it alot and believe that they will probably work it out in time, but I also would have liked to know this going in. Does anyone else have this machine? Experiencing similar issues? What about one of the other cablecard equipped machines shipping from other manufacturers?

Re: Tales of CableCard Woe - Sony VGX-XL3 Edition Barb Bowman <barb[ at ]nospam.com> 08.06.2007 19:26:05 I have external DCT's that hold my cable cards. When I restart the machine, the connection on the cablecard side is not lost. So it is only the USB side that has to reconnect. It's a different experience because of the external power supply. There's no need to have the tables fill in again on the cablecard side. Is the documentation you refer to about the 15 minutes posted online somewhere? Link please? I was unaware of this. On Fri, 8 Jun 2007 11:40:01 -0700, Curbnoise <Curbnoise[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: [Quoted Text] >Does anyone else have this machine? Experiencing similar issues? What >about one of the other cablecard equipped machines shipping from other >manufacturers? -- Barb Bowman MS Windows-MVP Expert Zone & Vista Community Columnist http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/

Re: Tales of CableCard Woe - Sony VGX-XL3 Edition Curbnoise 08.06.2007 20:05:00 There was an insert in the box that alluded to this (it states something like "It may take several minutes for the CableCard to update after you restart your computer" - I will try to find the exact wording this evening). However, the level 2 tech I spoke to over the phone verbally checked with her supervisors while I was on the line and then just told me my scenario was the recommended path. "Barb Bowman" wrote: [Quoted Text] > I have external DCT's that hold my cable cards. When I restart the > machine, the connection on the cablecard side is not lost. So it is > only the USB side that has to reconnect. It's a different experience > because of the external power supply. There's no need to have the > tables fill in again on the cablecard side. > > Is the documentation you refer to about the 15 minutes posted online > somewhere? Link please? I was unaware of this. > > On Fri, 8 Jun 2007 11:40:01 -0700, Curbnoise > <Curbnoise[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > > >Does anyone else have this machine? Experiencing similar issues? What > >about one of the other cablecard equipped machines shipping from other > >manufacturers? > -- > > Barb Bowman > MS Windows-MVP > Expert Zone & Vista Community Columnist > http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx > http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/ >

Re: Tales of CableCard Woe - Sony VGX-XL3 Edition Michael Brown <mike[ at ]mabrown.net> 08.06.2007 20:25:09 In my Velocity Micro machine I have internal tuners and I am not experiencing the same issues as Curbnoise. The internals act just like my externals just that you can't see them. : ) Mike On Fri, 08 Jun 2007 15:26:05 -0400, Barb Bowman <barb[ at ]nospam.com> wrote: [Quoted Text] >I have external DCT's that hold my cable cards. When I restart the >machine, the connection on the cablecard side is not lost. So it is >only the USB side that has to reconnect. It's a different experience >because of the external power supply. There's no need to have the >tables fill in again on the cablecard side. > >Is the documentation you refer to about the 15 minutes posted online >somewhere? Link please? I was unaware of this. > >On Fri, 8 Jun 2007 11:40:01 -0700, Curbnoise ><Curbnoise[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: > >>Does anyone else have this machine? Experiencing similar issues? What >>about one of the other cablecard equipped machines shipping from other >>manufacturers? -- Michael Brown http://thegreenbutton.com/blogs/mike/

Re: Tales of CableCard Woe - Sony VGX-XL3 Edition Barb Bowman <barb[ at ]nospam.com> 08.06.2007 23:24:13 I should have asked you this question first - about a month ago you posted info on your firmware for me and it was at 1.14. At that time I advised you to check with Sony for any upgrade. It's posted at http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGXXL3&UpdateType=Everything "Improves the response time of the cable tuner upon start up of the Microsoft® Windows Vista™ operating system " On Fri, 8 Jun 2007 13:05:00 -0700, Curbnoise <Curbnoise[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: [Quoted Text] >There was an insert in the box that alluded to this (it states something like >"It may take several minutes for the CableCard to update after you restart >your computer" - I will try to find the exact wording this evening). > >However, the level 2 tech I spoke to over the phone verbally checked with >her supervisors while I was on the line and then just told me my scenario was >the recommended path. > >"Barb Bowman" wrote: > >> I have external DCT's that hold my cable cards. When I restart the >> machine, the connection on the cablecard side is not lost. So it is >> only the USB side that has to reconnect. It's a different experience >> because of the external power supply. There's no need to have the >> tables fill in again on the cablecard side. >> >> Is the documentation you refer to about the 15 minutes posted online >> somewhere? Link please? I was unaware of this. >> >> On Fri, 8 Jun 2007 11:40:01 -0700, Curbnoise >> <Curbnoise[ at ]discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: >> >> >Does anyone else have this machine? Experiencing similar issues? What >> >about one of the other cablecard equipped machines shipping from other >> >manufacturers? >> -- >> >> Barb Bowman >> MS Windows-MVP >> Expert Zone & Vista Community Columnist >> http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx >> http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/ >> -- Barb Bowman MS Windows-MVP Expert Zone & Vista Community Columnist http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone/meetexperts/bowman.mspx http://blogs.digitalmediaphile.com/barb/