This page originated Nov 14, 09'
in 2013 the DVR is now over four years old.
New ones are now available from Channel Master
This page was last updated: January 4, 2017
I purchased a DTVPal DVR from Dish Network in January 09'. It is actually an Echostar Technologies L.L.C., FC Model ID032 made in China. According to the embossed data on the actual plastic of the back cover. see dtvpal or Sears.
Problem #1
It died in mid September 09' It made no sounds on power up and there were no LED's on, no picture on screen and no response to remote commands. Dish Network folks had me
Cycled power and do all the power up reset functions in the manual.
In September 09', Dish network refuses to replace it or repair it even for a fee. They could not even recommend a place to get it fixed. This may be changing click here for details or call them at 1-800-894-9131.
I now realize that it had only a 90 day warranty which was not obvious at the time of purchase as I only found out once I read the manual that came with the unit. I also contacted EchoStar the original marketing outfit for the DTVPalDVR under the TR-50 model name and pretty much I was ignored completely.
When it worked it did so very nicely, but I don’t want to buy a new one every ¾ of a year. I thought a computer repair shop might be in a position to do it, but I have not found one yet. The bar codes are RRETAT02214L for the unit and RR67517T02110M for the Main Board.
Why did I want this? I bought a TV in 2006 that is HDTV ready but had no HDTV tuner. So to see HD quality I needed a tuner with HD output. This was pretty much the only unit that I found in January 09'.
I soon realized that my VCR is now very limited as it can only record stuff on channel 3 that is being supplied with the output from one of the coupon HDTV to analog converters. So that is not so bad as we really only record channel 26 stuff and we can leave one coupon converter connected permanently to the VCR and use another one to watch. The monitor has a number of analog inputs (Red, White, Yellow) that can be fed with the VCR or the coupon converter.
So glad this TV died and was replaced with a LCD with 42" screen.
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Solution for Problem #1
After opening the box using the cotter pin trick I found no output voltage on any of the supplies feeding the Main multilayer board yet there was great conductivity on the 2.5A fuse.
JMP 7 12V and also top of R1
Bottom of R1 is on a Ground plane
JMP 1 DVP ?
JMP 4 7V
JMP 2 5V
I also did observe roughly 75 VAC across the spark gap. Further trouble shooting led to the plug on the wall end of the AC power cord. The white wire made no contact with the blade coming out of the plug. I got a replacement plug from Wal-Mart for about $1.50 and now it works just fine. I'll bet I am not the only one to have this exact same problem. I almost never unplugged the unit and I never pull on cords. The unit is plugged into a ten circuit surge protector that is unplugged when storms are approaching or when ever we are out of town over night.
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Solution for Problem #2
In the Fall of 2012 it started to lock up often and at first I just had to cycle the Sony Bravia off and on to get it to unlock for often several hours. This winter Jan 2013 my wife started to get really upset with this symptom and was ready to throw it out in the trash. Next I removed the HDMI cable from the DVR and the Bravia and walla the problem disappeared. Now using just the Component output from the DVR and no problem since then. She is happy again.
The Bravia works fine with the HDMI from the Sony BluRay.
Digital Video Recorder
