Zinwell ZAT-970A Upgrade
Larry Scholnick
upgrade available.
The screen has a procedure that requires putting in a Frequency and a
PID value. The manual simply directs you to enter the proper
Frequency and PID value but never tells you what those values are.
A search finds numerous links and they all quote the manual; they
never tell you what to enter as the Frequency and the PID.
Does anyone have the real answers?
TJ
If you ever find the answer to your question, please let us know. My
Zinwells could use an upgrade/update/bugfix, too. Switching to standard
time in mid-October, for example, is most annoying.
TJ
Roger Blake
> If you ever find the answer to your question, please let us know. My
> Zinwells could use an upgrade/update/bugfix, too. Switching to standard
> time in mid-October, for example, is most annoying.
Although the Zinwell converters in theory have field-upgradeable firmware,
two very unlikey things would need to occur to actually use this feature:
Zinwell would need to provide the firmware, and they would need to partner
with broadcasters in order to distribute the firmware over the air.
I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for these things to happen...
--
Roger Blake
(Change "invalid" to "com" for email. Google Groups killfiled due to spam.)
"0bama snoozed while oil oozed."
Rick
"Roger Blake" <rogb...@iname.invalid> wrote in message
news:2010112...@news.eternal-september.org...
> On 2010-11-25, TJ <T...@noneofyour.business> wrote:
>> If you ever find the answer to your question, please let us know. My
>> Zinwells could use an upgrade/update/bugfix, too. Switching to standard
>> time in mid-October, for example, is most annoying.
>
> Although the Zinwell converters in theory have field-upgradeable firmware,
> two very unlikey things would need to occur to actually use this feature:
> Zinwell would need to provide the firmware, and they would need to partner
> with broadcasters in order to distribute the firmware over the air.
>
> I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for these things to happen...
>
Out of curiosity from someone on this side of the pond, how exactly is
equipment regularly updated in the U.S., is it done in the same way as here
in the UK?
<http://www.dtg.org.uk/industry/download_schedule.php>
Kimba W Lion
>Out of curiosity from someone on this side of the pond, how exactly is
>equipment regularly updated in the U.S., is it done in the same way as here
>in the UK?
><http://www.dtg.org.uk/industry/download_schedule.php>
Well, that's a satellite company, so it's basically a closed system under one
control. The equivalent here would be, say, Dish Network, which regularly
sends updates to its receivers.
The thread here was about an OTA receiver, so you have thousands of
broadcasters across the country and one very little Chinese manufacturer who
would have to coordinate the broadcasting of updates. Not gonna happen.
Rick
"Kimba W Lion" <noreplie...@norepliesbyemail.invalid> wrote in message
news:f0kve6p5002jdcssn...@4ax.com...
The main list in the URL 'is' for Freeview DVB-T/2 OTA terrestrial digital
upgrades, the list at the bottom is for Freesat DVBT-S/2 receiver upgrades.
Drewdove
"Roger Blake" <rogb...@iname.invalid> wrote in message
news:2010112...@news.eternal-september.org...
Could this work?
The firmware update would be burnt on a DVD in the same format it would be
broadcast.
The DVD would be played thru an RF 3 modulator plugged into the STB.
The box would think it was getting a broadcast with the update if it's done
right.
Roger Blake
> The firmware update would be burnt on a DVD in the same format it would be
> broadcast.
> The DVD would be played thru an RF 3 modulator plugged into the STB.
>
> The box would think it was getting a broadcast with the update if it's done
> right.
Something like that would probably work. Now you just need to convince
Zinwell to do it, I don't know how much interest they have in supporting
these units at this point. (In any of their firmware revisions did Zinwell
ever fix the timers that flake out when the channel lineup changes?)
John
Sorry, that will NOT work. The reason that it won't work is that the
Zinwell can only receive digital (ATSC) signals. The signal from the RF
modulator is analog. It MIGHT work if you could get an ATSC modulator
but they are QUITE expensive.
I don't have a Zinwell but I do have another brand that I was able to
get upgraded. I had to send the boxes back to the vendor and they were
updated to the latest software (which did fix the problem that I was
having). That was last year and I doubt if ANY vendor is still updating
their ATSC boxes. For most vendors the OTA converter boxes were a
one-time thing and most are no longer making or supporting them.
John
Roger Blake
> Sorry, that will NOT work. The reason that it won't work is that the
> Zinwell can only receive digital (ATSC) signals.
Good point, we're still thinking in analog.
Bottom line with these units is that they were hurriedly designed and
manufactured to service a limited market -- none of the manufacturers
are likely to give a rat's ass about them at this point.
The Zinwell converters seem to work OK for the most part, aside from not
handling daylight savings time very well and the timers going funny in
the head any time there's a change in the channel lineup. They're usable
as long as you keep an eye on them.
More recently I've boughten a Toshiba VCR/DVD combo recorder that
incorporates an ATSC tuner. This machine has been working flawlessly for
timeshifting and gets used for the most "important" recordings. Considering
that, and the fact that VCRs have had reliable timed recording as a feature
for decades, one really has to wonder why it's been such a problem on the
few DTV converters equipped with timers.
I also have some Dish Network "DTV-Pal" converter boxes sitting in
a corner gathering dust. The original firmware on these converters
was so buggy they were almost totally unusable. After a literally
months-long ordeal fighting with Dish to do something about them under
warranty (at one point I was even told the warranty would not be honored!)
I managed to get replacement units with updated and allegedly more
reliable firmware. In the meantime though I'd found out about and
purchased the Zinwell converters which at least were usable. I was
just too disgusted with the DTV-Pal debacle to do anything with
those when the replacements finally arrived. I suppose one of these
days I should try one to investigate the doubtful proposition that
they might be more stable than the Zinwell boxes...
TJ
>
> The Zinwell converters seem to work OK for the most part, aside from not
> handling daylight savings time very well and the timers going funny in
> the head any time there's a change in the channel lineup. They're usable
> as long as you keep an eye on them.
>
there is so much as a momentary power outage, the clock is disabled. The
timer settings themselves aren't affected by a power wink-off, but the
box will not turn itself on until after it has been done manually, thus
resetting the clock.
Happened here just last week, Winds gusting to 40 mph caused at least
one power wink-out, and I missed a program. Not the end of the world -
it's only TV after all, and there's ways of watching missed programs
on-line. Doesn't make it any less annoying, though.
TJ
John
> On 2010-11-27, John <not_valid@no_isp.none> wrote:
>> Sorry, that will NOT work. The reason that it won't work is that the
>> Zinwell can only receive digital (ATSC) signals.
>
> Good point, we're still thinking in analog.
>
> Bottom line with these units is that they were hurriedly designed and
> manufactured to service a limited market -- none of the manufacturers
> are likely to give a rat's ass about them at this point.
>
> a corner gathering dust. The original firmware on these converters
> was so buggy they were almost totally unusable. After a literally
> months-long ordeal fighting with Dish to do something about them under
> warranty (at one point I was even told the warranty would not be honored!)
> I managed to get replacement units with updated and allegedly more
> reliable firmware. In the meantime though I'd found out about and
> purchased the Zinwell converters which at least were usable. I was
> just too disgusted with the DTV-Pal debacle to do anything with
> those when the replacements finally arrived. I suppose one of these
> days I should try one to investigate the doubtful proposition that
> they might be more stable than the Zinwell boxes...
>
I mentioned that I was able to get a couple of my converters updated.
They were Dish Network "DTV-Pal" converters. The software update did
fix most of my problems but sometimes the converters just lock up and,
once in a while, fail to follow their timer settings. The missed timer
settings are, what I consider, a design flaw in the boxes. The box
depends on the local CBS station for its time setting (for the timers on
ALL stations) and, in my market, the local CBS station does a piss-poor
job of keeping their clock accurate. In the last few weeks their clock
was off (slow) by 56 minutes and another time was off (slow) by 10
minutes. Sometime the time error will go on for days before the local
station corrects it.
As you mentioned, the newer boxes (such as your Toshiba VCR/DVD combo
recorder) have far more accurate timer software. Too bad that our older
converters can't be update to be an accurate as the newer hardware.
John
Larry Scholnick
have a solution to some of the nonsense that happens to timers when
channels are added or deleted.
#1 - Clear out everything.
#2 - Don't use Auto Scan; use Manual Scan. Scan the channels you care
about first, and less important channels later.
I decided that I wanted my local CBS, NBC, and ABC first followed by
Fox and CW (and its THIS sub-channel), and finally ION and three local
stations. Those are the only ones I would ever record.
So I looked up which frequency each was broadcasting on. CBS-2 was
somewhere on a higher channel, NBC-4 was on 36, and ABC-7 was on 7.
So I Manual-Scanned the CBS channel (which has no sub-channels), then
I scanned 36 and got NBC-4 and 2 sub-channels. I deleted its sub-
channels before proceeding. Then I scanned 7 and got ABC-7 and its 2
sub-channels, which I deleted.
At this point I had Slot #1=CBS-2, Slot #2=NBC-4, and Slot #3=ABC-7.
Next I scanned 11 for Fox-11, 31 for CW-5 and THIS-5.2, and finally
ION and the three local stations, deleting the sub-channels that I
didn't want along the way.
Now I had Slot #4=Fox-11, Slot #5=CW-5.1, Slot #6=THIS-5.2, Slot
#7=ION-30, and slots 8-10 were the local channels that I actually
wanted.
If you use auto-scan, it loads the slots in broadcast frequency
order. If you delete anything (such as Spanish, Shopping, Kids,
etc.), those slots become available for new channels. If one of your
channels goes off the air temporarily, they get deleted. When it
comes back it is added into the first available slots, not necessarily
in the same slot it was deleted from.
With my deliberate loading of the 1st 10 slots with the channels I
record, any new channels are added into slots 11 and beyond. I might
face a problem if two or more of my channels go off the air and then
come back on the air, but in a different order than they left, or if a
new channel was added while one of my key channels was off the air...