Just purchased a refurb unit and am pretty happy with it. The improvement in picture of dvd's and digital channels is worth the price alone.

The three issues I have are:
1) Is it possible to have this unit send on channel 3 instead of 2?

2) My remote has three buttons that don't work. Has anyone ever returned one? Do they make you send the whole unit back or the remote back?

3) I can't tune 90% of the cable stations on COX. The auto tuning process missed a few of those available, but big ones like Fox News and ESPN won't tune (even manually).

Also, just out of curiousity, why does it only tune to channel 135? I really doesn't matter since I get so few digital channels, but I'm just curious.

Thanks for the sticky help file, it made most of the setup easy.

3) I can't tune 90% of the cable stations on COX. The auto tuning process missed a few of those available, but big ones like Fox News and ESPN won't tune (even manually).Most digital cable channels are encrypted (and if they are not, will be soon). To tune and record them, you need a cable company box, a CableCard DVR like the TiVo or Moxi, or a Windows 7 PC with a CableCard tuner.

Also, just out of curiousity, why does it only tune to channel 135? I really doesn't matter since I get so few digital channels, but I'm just curious.There are a maximum of 135 QAM channels on a modern 860MHz cable system. Each QAM channel provides 38.8Mbps usable in 6MHz of bandwidth, sufficient for 10-14 SD channels or 2-3 HD channels. That's why you see channels like 85-1, 85-2, 85-3, 85-4, etc, all of which are separate channels; on cable company boxes and CableCard devices, those QAM numbers are remapped to more intuitive numbers, such as 200, 201, 202, and 203.

Eventually, cable systems will upgrade to use more than 860MHz (and thus, more than 135 QAM slots), but that's a ways off, since only the newest set-top boxes can tune channels >135.

Just purchased a refurb unit and am pretty happy with it. The improvement in picture of dvd's and digital channels is worth the price alone.

The three issues I have are:
1) Is it possible to have this unit send on channel 3 instead of 2?
The 2160 doesn't send any internal signal (menus, channel, HDD or DVD titles) thru coax or channel 2 or 3. It sends its internal signal thru a line connection directly to your TV... composite Y/W/R, S-Video, Component or HDMI, as described here. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12298409&postcount=10)

2) My remote has three buttons that don't work. Has anyone ever returned one? Do they make you send the whole unit back or the remote back?
Not sure which buttons but there may be operational reasons for that. You need to say which buttons and when you're trying to use them and they don't work.

3) I can't tune 90% of the cable stations on COX. The auto tuning process missed a few of those available, but big ones like Fox News and ESPN won't tune (even manually).
You may need to use one of the Manual Channel Preset option described here, the best in your case being #4, All-or-Nothing. (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12298432&postcount=12)

Also, just out of curiousity, why does it only tune to channel 135? I really doesn't matter since I get so few digital channels, but I'm just curious.
Another oddity that's almost impossible to explain w/o some additional details on how you scanned, how you're set up.

You need the 2160 1st on the coax, with connections as shown in Sketch 2 or 3 here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=12298409&postcount=10), depending on if you have a Cox cable box or not.

The 2160 doesn't send any internal signal (menus, channel, HDD or DVD titles) thru coax or channel 2 or 3. It sends its internal signal thru a line connection directly to your TV... composite Y/W/R, S-Video, Component or HDMI,

I'm not sure how it works, I just know that my cable box is sending on channel 3 and the dvdr is sending on channel 2. That makes changing back and forth a multi-part process (e.g tv channel has to be changed).

Not sure which buttons but there may be operational reasons for that. You need to say which buttons and when you're trying to use them and they don't work.

Channel buttons "7" and previous channel never work. Channel button "5" works one out of a hundred times. All other buttons work.

You may need to use one of the Manual Channel Preset option described here, the best in your case being #4, All-or-Nothing.

Another oddity that's almost impossible to explain w/o some additional details on how you scanned, how you're set up.

You need the 2160 1st on the coax, with connections as shown depending on if you have a Cox cable box or not.

The instructions are great! I've got it set up exactly according to the directions in the links. I will try the "All or nothing" technique once I get a working remote.

Again, your 2160 is NOT outputting anything on channel 2, 3, or 999.

You HAVE TO connect it to your TV by way of the audio/video outputs.

The RF output is essentially a pass-thru only. The recorder's functions, what it's tuning/recording, etc., can NOT be seen on the TV if you're only using the RF to feed the TV.

Again, you HAVE TO use the audio video outputs on the 2160 to feed the TV's inputs.

We don't know how you want the machine to work. If you want the cable box to be the signal source for the DVD recorder, feed it into the 2160's inputs. The 2160 will in turn feed the TV.

This will leave you needing to keep the 2160 turned on in order to view TV from the cable box.

If you feed the cable box into the TV by one input, and the 2160 by another, you may be able to record one channel while watching a different one, but that'll depend on if the 2160 has its own cable feed, and what type of channels you get.