Hard Drive upgrade for Pioneer DVR-520H

[Corona]

Have you recently upgraded your DVR 531 or similar model hard drive to a larger size? If so, I would like to purchase your old 80GB drive. My drive developed some bad sectors and crashed, I was able to replace it but now have no Timer record or TV Guide. The bad sectors were located in the firmware area and I need to copy that area to my new disk using procedure 4 of Hkan's guide.
PM me if your old drive is for sale. Thanks.

Corona

[trhouse]

My laptop computer died so I have been occupied with that problem. Thanks for the PM.

Here are some tests I did today.

1. Used the dd command in Linux to try to copy from the good hdd to a cd. It did not work.
2. Used the dd command to copy to a bad WD800 hdd with about 42 MB working. It worked and copied until it said 42 MB was transferred.
3. Used the dd command to copy to a dvd-r. It did not work.
4. Tried to copy using dd to a dvd-ram disk. It seems to have worked. It said it transferred 2.1 GB in 2,948 seconds at a 713 KB/s rate. After about 49 minutes, it gave the same message that occurred with the bad WE800 and ended. I have no idea why it ended with 2.1 GB however.

Maybe later today, I can try to copy using the dd command from the dvd-ram disk to the bad WD800 hdd just to see if will do it. If that works and you have a drive that can read dvd-ram, I can send you the dvd-ram so you can get your new drive setup. I tried to copy the dvd-ram using RecordNow but it thinks the dvd-ram is empty and Windows reports it is an unformatted disk.

Seems like the power of the dd command is that when it works, it can blindly copy anything from drive to drive which in this case is good since there seems no way of seeing what is on the disk. Can any of the DOS programs you have see any files?

[Corona]

Seems like the power of the dd command is that when it works, it can blindly copy anything from drive to drive which in this case is good since there seems no way of seeing what is on the disk. Can any of the DOS programs you have see any files?

Yes, Disk Image, boot to DOS and you can view any drive in Hex view. In addition to much of the gibberish there are areas that print out in plain English, such as instructions regarding TV Guide.

DD is a wonderful tool, I learned a lot more about it at:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=362506

DD cannot copy directly to CD or DVD but can make an .iso from which you can burn. You can also tell it exactly how many bytes you want to copy, as I said, I think the firmware is located in the first 700MB's or less, that would fit on a CD.

I used dd if=/dev/hda of=/media/hdb1/pioneer.iso count 1171875 bs=512

It copied the first 600MB (1171875 sectors) to my spare drive which was partitioned and formatted to a FAT32 file system. Took 136.498 seconds.

hda was set to Master and hdb1 was set to slave, I don't think it is advisable to copy directly to a NFTS file system(WinXP) with Linux, at least I read that somewhere. After formatting hdb to FAT 32, I made a directory /media/hdb1/pioneer.iso and copied to it using dd. From there I burned the .iso using Nero, of course it still doesn't work in my DVR because of the corrupt sectors I copied.

Corona

[trhouse]

I downloaded Disk Image ver. 2 and was able to examine the Pioneer drive contents. I found that the last text appears at sector 7154. After that there is gibberish scattered over the drive even out to near last sector at 156,301,484.

It is interesting to read the text. It refers to VTV Guide on Screen, Guide Plus+. There are references to VCR's and plugging in phone lines. It is hard to say if this text is really about the 531H.

Next I formatted a disk in FAT32 and created a directory with the same name as yours, \media\hdb1\pioneer.iso and verified by going to it.

What did not go so well was the next step. I tried dd if=/dev/hda of=/media/hdb1/pioneer.iso and Linux responded with "no such file or directory".

Next I just tried the usual dd if=/dev/hda if=/dev/hdb an it transferred but when I went back to Windows the drive had disappeared.

I tried a second time with the same result.

[Corona]

Next I formatted a disk in FAT32 and created a directory with the same name as yours, \media\hdb1\pioneer.iso and verified by going to it.

What did not go so well was the next step. I tried dd if=/dev/hda of=/media/hdb1/pioneer.iso and Linux responded with "no such file or directory".

After you formatted the drive, Windows should have recognized it and given it a drive letter. Do not create the directory in Windows but rather in Linux. I used the Knoppix (Ubuntu is probably similar) desktop to do it as follows. The hard drives are shown as icons, click on hdb1, that should mount the drive and open Konqueror which will show what is on the drive (empty at this point) and the path to it. Should be /media/hdb1, then click on Edit, Create New, Folder, name it pioneer.iso
You may have to be logged in as root to do this in Ubuntu, I'm not sure.

Don't understand why Windows did not see the drive after you formatted it, maybe BIOS did not auto detect it, you might have to go to the BIOS and do a manual detect.

Corona

[tonemgub]

Hi I have been reading this thread for hours BUT it is the best I have read so far on the topic!

I THINK I have it down what I have to do. I am TRYING to buy a 2nd hand DVR-107 because my burner has died. I am also d/l the service DVD so please seed if you can for a day or so (Thanks)

I have a 720 does anyone know if the manuals steps are the same as the 510??

AND does anyone know if the DVR-107 is the ONLY DVD that will work in the 720?? taking into account that you have to either take out the laser assembly OR the mainboard of the DVR-107

So, if you could seed thanks! And is there any other DVDs that I can use instead of the DVR-107?

Thanks for all the info

Tone

[trhouse]

I will try this again later today.

This experience reminds me of when I was capturing with a card. I tried all sorts of software and some would not work on my computer. Occasionally it would be discovered that the software was designed to work with an Intel chipset and would not work with others.

Last night, I tried to use Disk Image to make an image of a friend's hard drive to mine. Windows identified my drive as C: and his as F:. When I ran Disk Image, it showed my drive as "unidentified" with no letter but correctly showing its parameters and showed his drive as C:. Since my drive had no letter, I could not send the image too it. Strange.

I found a very small Windows program ( 58KB ) at the link below that will show what is on the Pioneer drive without booting from DOS. The screen looks very much like Disk Image except instead of scrolling through the sectors, it pages through them.

http://www.roadkil.net/Sectedit.html

I never used the EPG on my Pioneer so it has no EPG related download files. If we are lucky, the EPG operating file might be in the first 4 MB.

[edit] I noticed the DOS boot disk created with XP boots as Windows Millenium. My C drive is NTSF which came out with XP so that may be why it does not identify properly.

[tonemgub]

Hi again guys and thanx for all the seeders and Hakan for your help.

I am still hoping someone will be able to tell me what DVDr I may be able to buy new that will work with the 720h?

My other problem is with the remote Control. I have a Logitech Universal 520 remote control that can "learn" from other remotes or can be programmed from their website via a computer and webpage, but I cannot load files in to it.
Is it possible to use a Laptop that has IR controls?
I also have an IR Lens assembly that has a stereo male jack at the end if that is any good.
And if I cannot, can someone attempt to try and explain to me what a J2 connection is??
As you can see when it comes to the IR I am pretty dumb.
Any help would be much appreciated!

[STJEPO]

I still not been able to make the disk to understand the ESC+ESTEREO sequence. I have tryied several times. I am using a PalmOne E2 in which I installed the OmniRemote Pro and the Pronto ccf file transformed to a pdb file (using the CCFCnvt2 conversion program).

Installing the new hard disk was simple. I powered the Pioneer DVR 520H in the FL tube showed the message [HDD ERR] and on the TV screen showed [HDD information is not correct], up to here everything OK but when I pressed ESC+ESTEREO........... nothing happened, the FL tube and the TV screen showed the same message. I have no way to input the ID NUMBER.
I tested the PalmOne E2 and works fine. The OmniRemote Pro with the Pronto database seem to do nothing but is able to learn from my remote control to switch or of the DVR. The Infra Red light shows when I press ESC or ESTEREO but the DVR do nothing.

Have any of you the same problem?Which was the solution?

Please help me.

Thanks

[jcuervo811]

Hello,
I have a Pioneer DVR-530H, a US/region 1 model. I am living in Germany and a friend of mine tried to make my unit region free with the region free firmware that is intended for region 2 units. All appeared to work well. My unit is region free but I am having a couple of problems. I have lost the function to program it to record and I also don't have the funtion of the VCR Plus. These problems seem to be a similar problem when upgrading the harddrive but I did not upgrade the harddrive. Does anyone have a US version default firmware that can allow me to fix my problems and revert back to just region 1 or know of anything I can do at this point to fix those problems and still keep my system region free. Also, food for thought. If I can get my hands on another unmodified unit, does anyone know how I can backup the firmware inside that unmodified unit so that I can just reload that firmware into my unit if all else fails?

JCuervo811

[trhouse]

I have a good Pioneer 531H hard drive and Corona had one that went bad leaving him with corrupted TV Guide and timer function files which he could copy to a new drive but they did not work right. We have been working together to isolate the file on my hdd so he can restore those functions in his new hdd. We have succeeded and his new drive now is working as before.

Corona is out of town until tomorrow. We will be writing up the procedure for restoring the TV Guide and timer functions from this file. Hakan who has his own web site at

http://pioneerfaq.info/

and who personally helped me alot with my upgrade to a 500 GB hdd has kindly agreed to host the file for download along with the instructions for restoring these functions. It may be a few more days before this is all completed.

[jcuervo811]

Trhouse,
Thank you for your response. That seems to shed some hope on the possiblity of getting my unit to work properly again. In Germany, I don't have any use for the VCR Plus function but the Timer Record function is the biggest function I use. If I press either of these buttons on the remote or if I try to go to those options in the Home Menu, it locks up my recorder. The only thing that works after that is the play button. I have to disconnect the power cable to turn the unit off which I know is not good for the harddrive. I have also contacted Hakan and he also tried to help but only had region 2 files. If there is a procedure to get this to work then it is still a possiblity to have a region free unit on a region 1 unit. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Jcuervo811

[KTH]

Does anyone know if these proceedures and hardware (GGV1179 Data Disc) will work on the DVR-640H? I know the GGF1681 remote codes seem to work. Also can anyone seed the BT for the service disc? I am stuck at 634mb. Thanks!

[trhouse]

Corona and I have completed our writeups of how to 1) extract the TV Guide and Timer functions file from a working Pioneer 531H hard drive, and 2) how to install this extracted file on a new hard drive.

Hakan has kindly agreed to host this information on his web site which he says he will work on this weekend so the file and the instructions are temporarily posted to this web site,

www.bcks.com

At the search function, search on "Pioneer DVR-531H TV Guide" then click on the green link to access the pdf's and file. The zip file is about 2 MB and unzips to 4 MB.

[Corona]

First off I would like to publicly thank trhouse for providing me with the iso that fixed my Pioneer DVR. I had a corrupted hard drive and no way to get TV Guide back or use Timer Record until he got involved. After many hours of his trying different extracts, emailing them to me, and me copying them to my hard drive, we finally had success. Turns out the firmware is all located in the first 4MB''s on the Region 1 recorders, probably the same for all regions. If you have a Region 1 recorder, all you will ever need to replace or upgrade the hard drive is the pioneer4.iso and the procedure to install it. See previous trhouse post for location to download. Thanks also go to Hakan for providing the Pioneer FAQ and GGV1179

Corona

[Hkan]

All files are now avalible at Pioneer FAQ

I will integrate it in to the Guide it self, but for the moment you can download PDFs and ZIp file as is provided by trhouse and Corona.

EDIT
It is now integrated in to the Guide.

the guide now supports almost every DVR made by Pioneer, in one way or another.

[Mark_Venture]

.... Turns out the firmware is all located in the first 4MB''s on the Region 1 recorders, probably the same for all regions. If you have a Region 1 recorder, all you will ever need to replace or upgrade the hard drive is the pioneer4.iso and the procedure to install it.

Question... can this be used as a proceedure to upgrade the firmware on a working US DVR-531/533 model then?

If so, what version is in the pionerr4.zip?

[Corona]

.... Turns out the firmware is all located in the first 4MB''s on the Region 1 recorders, probably the same for all regions. If you have a Region 1 recorder, all you will ever need to replace or upgrade the hard drive is the pioneer4.iso and the procedure to install it.

Question... can this be used as a proceedure to upgrade the firmware on a working US DVR-531/533 model then?

If so, what version is in the pionerr4.zip?

Don't think I know what you mean by upgrade the firmware, it totally replaces it. To the best of my knowlege, Pioneer has not upgraded the original firmware for TV Guide and Timer Record incorporated the 53X DVR since they went on the market. The pioneer4.iso was pulled from an uncorrupted 531 DVR by trhouse.

The procedure now posted in the Pioneer FAQ allows you to install a new hard drive without having to copy from your old hard drive in order to have TV Guide and Timer Record.

Corona

[Mark_Venture]

Don't think I know what you mean by upgrade the firmware, it totally replaces it. To the best of my knowlege, Pioneer has not upgraded the original firmware for TV Guide and Timer Record incorporated the 53X DVR since they went on the market. The pioneer4.iso was pulled from an uncorrupted 531 DVR by trhouse.

The procedure now posted in the Pioneer FAQ allows you to install a new hard drive without having to copy from your old hard drive in order to have TV Guide and Timer Record.

Corona

I guess my confusion is around your use of the term "firmware" in your earlier post..

See -> https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=297013&highlight= based on the instructions from Hkan, mine has 1.27

See -> https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=304330&highlight= in which Garman states 1.31...

Does the Pioneer4.zip just the TV Guide and Timer portion or everything?

[Corona]

Corona[/quote]I guess my confusion is around your use of the term "firmware" in your earlier post..

See -> https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=297013&highlight= based on the instructions from Hkan, mine has 1.27

See -> https://forum.videohelp.com/viewtopic.php?t=304330&highlight= in which Garman states 1.31...

Does the Pioneer4.zip just the TV Guide and Timer portion or everything?[/quote]

I just checked the version, got the following:

Ver 1.27
Syscon Release _239
Tuflcon 849.000
Drive 1.54A
Device Prism2 ES2
Region 1

Pioneer4.iso was installed to a blank hard drive, it does the TV Guide, Timer Record, and sets up the disk for Initialization. Beyond that I don't know but I now have all the functions back that I lost when my old drive crashed. Maybe "firmware" is a confusing term but that is what I thought the Ver 1.27 referred to. You may be entirely correct, it may be that firmware is written to DVR ROM and has nothing to do with the hard drive, I really don't know.

Corona

[trhouse]

My 531H has exactly the same version id as described by Corona above.

I believe that Pioneer4 and the version id are completely independent. The version id refers to the version of the operating system of the recorder which resides in sold state memory, where Pioneer4 is a program residing on the hard drive which the operating system can run.

I am not sure why it is done that way. It seems to me that it would have been much safer to incorporate Pioneer4 into the solid state memory where it is less susceptible to what happens to the hard drive. What I suspect is that this may be a copyright or patent issue where TV Guide may object to having their material incorporated into someone else's operating code. Pioneer4 has a lot of this kind of material in it.



Also, if you are interested, here is information in Pioneer4 about when it was created by Pioneer,



The Garman thread says that Mark, you and Garman had a problem with the hdd optimization. That is odd because my 531H has never had a problem with it. After I installed a 500 GB hdd, it says it will take over an hour to optimize but it is actually faster.

[edit1]Also from the Garman thread, it sounds like the Pioneer techs do not know how to correct corrupted TV Guide code on the hard drive instead they are changing the operating system which accesses Pioneer4. They just need to reload Pioneer4 as described by Corona.

[edit2]I forgot to mention that a small Windows program called "sectedit" was used to scan all 8,000 sectors which make up Pioneer4 to see if it had any references to regions other than region 1. It only mentions the US and Canada, but there were also no references to any other functions in Pioneer4 other than the timer and TV Guide.

[Corona]

I think the trhouse post above is correct and an excellent clarification. My use of the term "firmware" is confusing and incorrect as pointed out by Mark_ Venture. All that said, the procedure is valid and works like a charm.

Corona

[Mark_Venture]

The Garman thread says that Mark, you and Garman had a problem with the hdd optimization. That is odd because my 531H has never had a problem with it. After I installed a 500 GB hdd, it says it will take over an hour to optimize but it is actually faster.

When its "complete" does it return you to the DVR's menu? or does the unit reset itself?
If resets that is the issue... When it completes succesfully, it should bring you back to the DVR's menu...

My problem exists with both the original and upgraded hard drives... Hmm... wonder if using this Pioneer4.zip and this new process could possibly fix it? or if its a issue with the firmware in ROM?

Then again, that problem is off topic for this thread.. so I'll not discuss it anymore here...

All that said, the procedure is valid and works like a charm.

No question on that part

[trhouse]

I optimized the 500 GB hdd last night. It started by saying it would take 192 minutes ( the disk is nearly full ) but the actual time was about an hour after which I am left in the menu which is used to start the optimization. I had to hit "return" twice to exit.

Just curious but is your version id exactly the same as Corona's and mine or is it different? I tend to think that hdd optimization would be part of the operating system and not in the hard drive. There would be no copyright issues about that.

[Mark_Venture]

Just curious but is your version id exactly the same as Corona's and mine or is it different? I tend to think that hdd optimization would be part of the operating system and not in the hard drive. There would be no copyright issues about that.

I haven't done anything with trying to extract the TVGuide/Timer stuff from the old HD...

Details of mine appear to be the same based on what Corona posted earlier, and I had already posted in that other thread...

[trhouse]

Yes, I went back to that thread and found your post about your version 1.27. You have the exact same version as we do but it will not do the hard drive optimization correctly. That is strange. It would not hurt to try Pioneer4 in that case. You can always copy from your original hard drive back to the new drive if you have any problem with the new procedure.

[Mark_Venture]

Yes, I went back to that thread and found your post about your version 1.27. You have the exact same version as we do but it will not do the hard drive optimization correctly. That is strange. It would not hurt to try Pioneer4 in that case. You can always copy from your original hard drive back to the new drive if you have any problem with the new procedure.

IF I get time.. (work is busy and I've started taking a training course in the evenings...) I'll give it a try.. but for now.. I have to keep it as is...

[murad]

Hi,

I need the GGV1179 to upgrade my DVR-510H (far east model eq. to the 5100).
I have contacted Pioneer but they replied: "GGV1179 is either no longer available for purchase or your current login status is not authorized to purchase this item."
Can you please advise how I can get it, where to download or purchase.

Thanks

[Corona]

Hi,

I need the GGV1179 to upgrade my DVR-510H (far east model eq. to the 5100).
I have contacted Pioneer but they replied: "GGV1179 is either no longer available for purchase or your current login status is not authorized to purchase this item."
Can you please advise how I can get it, where to download or purchase.

Thanks

murad,

Go to page 12 on this thread, Hkan has it available for download.

Corona

[mtncat]

Just an update:

The new data disc is part# GGV1256 (not sure what the difference is)

http://parts.pioneerelectronics.com/