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Disclaimer: The entries you find in these pages are based on my individual opinions and thoughts. Some of the entries may be just plain wrong, and others harmful. Should you choose to act on, or try, anything you find on this site, you assume any and all risks associated with your actions. So there.



 


LG LST-3410a Troubleshooting

June 3, 2006

I noticed a bunch of searches in my web logs for the title of this entry, so I figured I'd share my experiences.

My PVR is an LG LST-3410a, sporting an ATSC digital tuner and HDTV from a rooftop antenna. It gets its TV Guide info over the air, which allows you easily to record upcoming shows. It also allows you to schedule regular timed recordings for stations that might not be on the guide.

TV Guide
The first thing to know is that TV Guide is ANALOG-- not digital. This means that your recorder must have one or more of your local analog stations in the channel lineup in order to receive TV Guide. Those stations must be ones that carry the TV Guide signal-- which you may not be able to determine without contacting TV Guide (which I had to do). In my area, Charleston, SC, the only reliable source is the local channel 4. This happens also to be the weakest of the stations I receive.

So, do NOT do what I did and remove all of the analog stations from your channel lineup. I did this because in my town all of the analog stations also broadcast in digital, so I never have a reason to watch the analog version (except in rainstorms, bah). If you do this, you will discover that within a few days you will lose much of your TV Guide information.

Also, although your guide setup allows you to change the channel for a particular station (in my case analog 4 could be changed to digital 4-1), do NOT change the one that your TV Guide comes in on. Because if you do this it will cause your tuner NOT to search the analog signal for the TV Guide. If you do this, you can lose all of your guide info.

Grab TV Guide Manually
Sort of. Ordinarily, the LG will download the TV Guide data only when it is off. This is because the tuner must switch to the analog channel for your guide-- which it can't do if you have the unit on and in use. If you know the analog station that locally broadcasts your TV Guide, and you happen to want to watch it, tune to that station and your unit will immediately begin downloading TV Guide data while it is on. This is a great way to jump-start the download process. You can even do this while watching a recorded show.

Invalid Channel for Scheduled Recording
Because the recording of programs relies on date and time info, if your LG date gets out of whack due to a power interrupt or something else, you can get this error. Sometimes, a regularly scheduled recording of a weekly program can cause this. I suspect it happens with the program drops off the schedule for a week because it was preempted. But, this can just happen for no apparent reason.

When this happens, the TV Guide will no longer come up, and you'll get this error every time you turn on your unit. In my experience, it will not cure itself, and you won't get your guide back without intervention.

The fix is to turn off your unit, then unplug it for 15 seconds or so (long enough for it to lose the time). Then, when you turn it back on, as soon as you can, go to the TV Guide. If you can't get in, unplug it again and start over. Once in the TV Guide, go in to your scheduled recordings and delete everything. After you've done that, power off the unit, then power it back on and set the time manually (or tune it to your TV Guide analog channel and let it set it's own time).

 

updated Sat, Jun 3, 2006 12:17:29 pm

MTR (Matt's Traceroute)

June 3, 2006

Matt's Traceroute is one of the best traceroute/ping utilities I've ever found. But I couldn't install it on my new MacBook Pro :-(

I scoured their website http://www.bitwizard.nl/mtr/ Matt's Tracereroute MTR and found a simple fix that worked. It was listed as a fix for version 0.56 on Mac OS X 10.3, but I took a shot and it fixed the install problem.

Download the latest mtr (as of now 0.71) from their site, and before you run configure, edit the dns.c file. Add the following line at the top of the #includes:

#include <nameser8_compat.h>

Then do your ./configure, then make, then make install (I used sudo for all of mine, but you may not have to).

Now you have your mtr compiled on your nice new Intel Mac.

 

updated Fri, Aug 18, 2006 9:36:31 am

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