Pioneer DVR-633: Problems?

[sapiendut]

I'm somewhat concerned about my Pioneer DVR-633HS. The problems are as follows:

1. It took 2 weeks for the TV Guide to start downloading. All that time, the HDD is spinning continuously even when the unit is powered off (standby). The clock is always on and 'EPG' shown on the front panel display even when I set the option for the display to be off. During these two weeks, the I can barely hear the HDD spinning, only if I'm about 1 foot away from the unit.

2. Now, part of the EPG have been downloaded, but the HDD becomes VERY noisy. Even in standby mode (powered of), I can hear grinding noise from 10 feet away.

3. In video playing mode (playing from HDD), I can hear the grinding noise from 10 feet away while the TV sound is set at my normal sound level (on a Toshiba 20" flatscreen, I set volume to 8, or about 25% of the entire volume range)

4. I can not optimize HDD. Every time I try to optimize it, it shows the amount of time it will take to optimize (so far I've sen 41 minutes, 19 minutes, 16 minutes, and 9 minutes) but the process never took more than several seconds (with OPTIMIZE shown on the display) and the unit power is automatically off and back on right away. Then I see "WAIT" on the diplay for about 30 seconds before I can resume using my DVR.

Please advise.

[Beavis]

1. These players will often show EPG on the screen and you'll hear the hard drive while it's downloading and updating info throughout the day. It takes a full week for the player to download one continuous full week of programing, but most people have at least 2 days of programming in the system in the first 24-48 hours after system setup. If you have problems here, it could be the machine- but it could be your cable company, too.

2. There's reports out there that some of the drives in these things are louder than others. I have an 80 gig 531 version, and yeah- you can hear the drive if the room's totally silent or if I put my ear real close to it, but it's no louder than the drives in my PC's.

3. Do you think you've even owned and recorded enough stuff for your HD to become very fragmented?

[sapiendut]

as far as item 3, yes. I've transferred about 10 LD in XP+ mode, more than 30 TV episodes in EP, LP and SP modes in between (and have erased some of them). Totalling maybe about 100 Gb worth of data with quite a number of holes in between.

going reverse to item 2. The first 2 weeks I own the unit, it was as quiet as you described. Only starting 2 days ago it became loud ("krrrr, krrr, krrr", typical HDD grinding sound) to the point it's audible from 10ft away WHILE the TV is playing at 25% volume level.

[ann coates]

Mine is most definitely louder than both of the hard drives in my computer. How anyone could not be bothered by the sound the Pioneer EPG makes when downloading tells me some of us have louder drives than others. My Panny E85 EPG is whisper quiet, I can't even hear it. It's the one disappointing thing about the Pioneer 531 for me.

[MJA]

I think Pioneer uses Maxtor hardrives

[sapiendut]

I think Pioneer use Maxtor hardrives

That explains part of it. My Maxtor drive is the loudest in my array of HDD in my PC. Still doesn't explain why it was quiet for the first 2 weeks, though.

[MJA]

every pc I worked on with a maxtor hardrive are so loud I can hear them from far away

[FulciLives]

I've had computers for years now (my first Intel/Windows computer was in 1990) and I've updated and upgraded god only knows how many times ... as in MANY!

I've had many HDD drives over the years and the only HDD that ever failed (physical failure) was a Maxtor.

My new computer has a Seagate and I hear they are very reliable.

Never again with Maxtor for me but I do have a Pioneer DVR-531H-s but I can't help it they put a Maxtor in it.

I haven't had mine long enough to notice any excessive HDD noise but I've had it hooked up for only a few hours (yes it is that new).

- John "FulciLives" Coleman