ReneKMueller.com: Computer Diary *

Here my little rant and praise place, where the daily experiences of my programming work are expressed. I publish them with the idea that others might find it useful and benefit from it.

2009/02/24
Catch 22 with HDD/DVD Recorder Medion Life
last edited 2009/02/28 17:21 (*)
I had to "fix" (to make work) a HDD/DVD Recorder for my parents, a "Medion Life" MD 82999 (likely a rebrand of LG RH-388H). By default, the recorder after you programmed some recordings, didn't show any menu anymore if you switched it on to view, review, reprogram new broadcasts. Even worse, due problems recording programs it remained in this "timer mode", making it impossible to even remove those to be recorded programs.
The recorder became unuseable, a doorstopper.
Catch 22: you require to get into the Menu to go into "Settings" to enable "TV Mode" with "Bypass" (which by default is OFF), as the customer care of Medion informed me - how do I get to the menu when the recorder is still trying to record and doesn't allow me to get into the menu? They didn't know . . .
But I suspected this recorder being Linux, and in order to get in I thought to bring it in an unexpected state . . . but how? I pulled the power cord while the recorder was switched on (never do this with any computer, unless it's a diskless setup). After 5 Min, I put the cord back, and switched the machine on again . . . after few moments the menu showed up, and I immediatly went into 'Timer' programming, and saw "past" programmings for broadcasts were missed, and the machine was still in "timer mode', yet, yanking the power cord allowed me to see the menu. I removed all those timer programs, and as next went into "Setting" -> "TV Mode" -> "Allow Bypass".
And the device behaves as "expected". Interesting, my parents brought a "defective" recorder of this model back once a few weeks back and got a new replacement, because it stopped to respond to the remote control, and one wasn't able to get back into the menu . . . technology is just wonderful!
Tags: DVD/HDD Recorder, Medion Life, Catch 22 | Permalink

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