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#236411 - 04/10/2004 07:58 Tuner & date
mdavey
enthusiast

Registered: 06/03/2003
Posts: 269
Loc: Wellingborough, UK
Hi,

Does any part of the Empeg (including hijack) software use the time and date information from FM broadcasts to correct the date on the Empeg?

If so, how is it done?
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Michael
Ex-owner of stolen empeg #030102741

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#236412 - 04/10/2004 12:08 Re: Tuner & date [Re: mdavey]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
No. The only part of the empeg that uses time information from the radio is the "Info: Radio" screen, and that gets it from the FM-RDS data stream, not the other FM radio time that your VCR uses to set its clock.

More information here.
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Tony Fabris

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#236413 - 04/10/2004 13:19 Re: Tuner & date [Re: tfabris]
tman
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
Don't know about the US but over here the VCRs that have that ability just get it from the teletext stream and not some FM radio signal...

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#236414 - 04/10/2004 13:25 Re: Tuner & date [Re: tman]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
That's the way my VCRs work. It's usually on the PSB station.
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Bitt Faulk

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#236415 - 04/10/2004 13:41 Re: Tuner & date [Re: wfaulk]
robricc
carpal tunnel

Registered: 30/10/2000
Posts: 4931
Loc: New Jersey, USA
That's the only way I've ever seen a VCR get its time automatically.

Don't devices that set their time over radio waves use shortwave and not FM anyway? I have a watch that does that.
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-Rob Riccardelli
80GB 16MB MK2 090000736

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#236416 - 04/10/2004 13:50 Re: Tuner & date [Re: robricc]
wfaulk
carpal tunnel

Registered: 25/12/2000
Posts: 16706
Loc: Raleigh, NC US
Well, WWVB runs at 60kHz. I guess that would be longwave, technically.
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Bitt Faulk

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#236417 - 04/10/2004 13:55 Re: Tuner & date [Re: mdavey]
mdavey
enthusiast

Registered: 06/03/2003
Posts: 269
Loc: Wellingborough, UK
Hi,

Thanks for the replies. Yup, RDS clock - that is what I was talking about.

Cheers,
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Michael
Ex-owner of stolen empeg #030102741

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#236418 - 04/10/2004 14:20 Re: Tuner & date [Re: tman]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
Um yeah, that's right, that's what I meant. I'd forgotten how VCRs get their time signal. Must have gotten it confused in my head because of the split in VHF tv frequencies between channels 6 and 7. In our area, I can tune my FM radio down to the bottom of its band and get TV channel 6's audio stream, and it also happens that channel 6 is the channel our VCR gets its time clock from.

Anyway, to answer the question definitively: No, the empeg does not set its clock to the RDS time. In the US, this is a good thing because that way your clock isn't as wrong as the RDS clock at most radio stations.
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Tony Fabris

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#236419 - 04/10/2004 15:00 Re: Tuner & date [Re: tfabris]
Daria
carpal tunnel

Registered: 24/01/2002
Posts: 3937
Loc: Providence, RI
Hm. I guess a ReplayTV gets its time the same way, instead of over the (internet/dialup) when it's confused, because letting it sit for 5 hours with a network and no cable, it still couldn't reset its clock.

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#236420 - 04/10/2004 16:06 Re: Tuner & date [Re: Daria]
matthew_k
pooh-bah

Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
ReplayTVs only sync once a night, or when you manually tell them to. They do set the clock over the network connection, which causes problems if you want to use your lifetime subscribed unit in vcr mode without any connection.

Matthew

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#236421 - 04/10/2004 20:47 Re: Tuner & date [Re: tfabris]
mdavey
enthusiast

Registered: 06/03/2003
Posts: 269
Loc: Wellingborough, UK
Quote:

...that way your clock isn't as wrong as the RDS clock at most radio stations.


How wrong is it at most radio stations in the US? If it is very wrong (> a few seconds), that would be easy to handle (just ignore that station). Even better if there are a few stations that are wrong by less than a few seconds, but differ from each other too.
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Michael
Ex-owner of stolen empeg #030102741

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#236422 - 04/10/2004 20:58 Re: Tuner & date [Re: mdavey]
tfabris
carpal tunnel

Registered: 20/12/1999
Posts: 31594
Loc: Seattle, WA
I mean that for the one RDS station I can get in my area, the clock is always hours off, as if they never even set the clock or they don't know how to.

Also, when I get the RDS text data from the station, it's frequently corrupted, presumably due to transmission errors, and I'd hate to imagine what that kind of a transmission error would do to the time signal if I were setting my clock by that.
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Tony Fabris

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#236423 - 05/10/2004 09:53 Re: Tuner & date [Re: tfabris]
mdavey
enthusiast

Registered: 06/03/2003
Posts: 269
Loc: Wellingborough, UK
Well, there are a couple of options here.

Firstly a program could reject all timestamps that are more than a couple of seconds different to internal time.

Alternatively, if the clock looks like it is keeping good time, just the wrong time you could calculate the initial offset and then subtract the result from every subsequent timestamp received over the air. That would at least stop the Empeg clock from drifting any further.
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Michael
Ex-owner of stolen empeg #030102741

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