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SA Explorer 8000SD/HD Experiences Y2K-like Bug

Posted by timothy on from the it's-just-like-the-mars-rover dept.

An anonymous reader writes "According to an article at Audioholics, a firmware bug was just discovered in the Scientific Atlanta 8000SD and 8000HD DVRs (Digital Video Recorders) which renders them unable to record. This firmware bug was discovered when the units attempted to recognize February 29th on the programming guide. The units are apparently unable to recognize this date, and as a result, shut down all record functions. All other aspects of the 8000 will continue to work. So far, it looks like no previously recorded material was lost. Scientific Atlanta is apparently in "Emergency Session" working on a software patch. The problem began occuring on the 23rd when the 7-day program guide first began to encounter the February 29th programming."

4 of 39 comments (clear)

  1. SARA VS Pioneer Passport by Gangis · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have the 8000 model, and it runs Pioneer Passport ECHO software, from Brighthouse Central Florida. From what I've been hearing on the SA8000 mailing list, this type of issue only affects those loaded with SARA software. The Passport software has some issues, where it won't display the showings for Sunday in the guide (it just skips from Sat to Mon.)

    No word on if they're going to fix that for the Passport models as well.

    --
    "Black holes are where God divided by zero." - Steve Wright
  2. Mine was fixed quickly by slothman32 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hey I have that. I was watching TV yesterday it it wouldn't record. I pressed the button then select, it right away went back to the guide or show. Manual recording did work though. Luckely TW "rebooted" my machine for me and it works fine now. I didn't even think that it was a "y2k" or feb 29th issue thou it did start just before the end of Sunday. Regardless of what you say about TW or other big companies it was fixed within 24 hours of the problem. And it still worked mostly before that.

    --
    Why don't you guys have friends or journals?
  3. Re:Graceful Error Handling? by TwoStep · · Score: 3, Informative

    If you do this, you will have problems in 2100. It should be:

    if ((year % 4 == 0) && ((year % 100 != 0) || (year % 400 == 0))
    LeapYear()
    else
    NotLeapYear()

    --
    There are 10 different types of people in this world... those who understand binary, and those who don't.
  4. Re:Y2K? by metamatic · · Score: 2, Informative

    Both this bug and Y2K were caused by placing inappropriate range constraints on components of a calendar date.

    --
    GCHQ Quantum Insert installed. If only our tongues were made of glass, how much more careful we would be when we speak