Edited by Moderator, 8/21/09

Toledo over-the-air HDTV channels, network affiliations , digital, (legacy) channel numbers, subchannels:

WTOL CBS 11 (11)
-1 CBS HD
-2 News Now (SD)

WTVG ABC 13 (13)
-1 ABC HD
-2 LiveWell HD (SD)
-3 Weather Now (SD)

WNWO NBC 49 (24)
-1 NBC HD
-2 RTN Retro TV (SD)
-3 America One TV (SD)

WGTE PBS 29 (30)
-1 PBS HD
-2 PBS Family (SD)
-3 PBS Create (SD)

WUPW FOX 46 (36)
-1 FOX HD


Toledo over-the-air Digital SD Channels:

WLMB Ind 5 (40)
-1 Independent programming (SD)


Toledo Cable and IPTV providers:

Buckeye Cablesystem local HD lineup:
605 WT05 The CW HD
611 WTOL CBS HD
613 WTVG ABC HD
624 WNWO NBC HD
630 WGTE PBS HD
636 WUPW FOX HD

TWC Waterville local HD lineup:
703 WGTE PBS HD
707 WUPW FOX HD
710 WNWO NBC HD
711 WTOL CBS HD
713 WTVG ABC HD

AT&T U-verse local HD lineup:
FOX HD WUPW
NBC HD WNWO
ABC HD WTVG
PBS HD WGTE
CBS HD WTOL


DBS Providers Local HD

DirecTV:
FOX HD WUPW
NBC HD WNWO
CBS HD WTOL
ABC HD WTVG
PBS HD WGTE

Dish Network:
No local channels.

I believe paulr has. He's been a beta tester for Buckeye so he can give you his feedback.
Have they announced their pricing yet? I'm wondering if they're going to be selling the STB as they indicated earlier or if they came to their senses and are goingt o rent it at a reasonable price. So far what I've heard about their pricing isn't too encouraging. Don't take down that Dish yet.

I spoke with Buckeyecable rep on Saturday...what a disappointment.
I have been waiting since January for them to roll out the hdtv, I will be cancelling my cable service for tv and for my computer!
They are selling the boxes for $450, then if you want to receive the local channels and additional 6.95 per month, then an additional 10.95 per month for the rest of the hd channels. I already pay $135 per month, I refuse to go up to $155 per month.
I went to Bestbuy and purchased a 2 room Directv system for $550 which includes all installation, an antenna to receive locals, and a 4 year warranty. My total bill including DSL will now be $100 per month.
I think Buckeyecable needs to wake up!

Forgot to mention that the receiver for one room is HD.

Thanks for the update. I would have hoped they would have realized that their pricing will put them out of the market. I too pay 140 a month currently for thier Ultralink digital service and refuse to be forced to buy a box as well as pay the monthly prices their proposing. I've comapred also with other cable system prices in major cities in OH and they are by far the most expensive. For now I'll continue to recive HD via OTA for free I'm sure as most others will choose as well. Once I deal with a couple trees in the way I'll be going DirecTV as you did.

AFAIK they're still planning on selling the box for $450-- not an economical solution considering what I could pay for an OTA tuner. Anyway, they are currently broadcasting ESPN-HD, and WUPW shows a test pattern. The local NBC affiliate has been popping in and out of the channel guide; 630, which I assume is a placeholder for WGTE's service, was there but is now gone.

Buckeye is crazy. I'm staying with DirecTV with locals OTA.

It's been 2 months now that Buckeye Cable has been carrying High Def conteStill I haven't heard anything about when they plan to carry 24 WNWO and 13 WTVG. Anyone hear anything?

It's been 2 months now that Buckeye Cable has been carrying High Def conteStill I haven't heard anything about when they plan to carry 24 WNWO and 13 WTVG. Anyone hear anything?
I think the better question is when will they drop their ridiculous prices. I would be content with keeping my Samsung OTA box around to pull in the missing locals for a couple months in order to get their other channels... anyone here actually use their service and can comment on the quality?

Well, I actually have both an OTA setup with an SIR-T150 and went for the Buckeye Motorola DCT-5100 box. As for quality they're comparable except that the cable reception is more reliable. Don't have the drop outs due to multipath as I sometimes do on the Samsung. A drawback of the cable is you don't get the multicasting that you do with OTA so with WTOL (CBS) you only get the 11-1 feed. Same is true for Fox except that most of the time on the 36-2 (widescreen) feed Fox only sends the logo when they aren't broadcasting widescreen so that's all you see with Buckeye. HDNET and Discovery HD on the cable on the other hand is great. HDNET knows how to do High Def right as does Discovery. Except you can only watch so many insects before going crazy.
While the cost of the box is steep once you pay it it's gone from memory and your monthly bill.

I just turned in my BuckeyeExpress box because of the cost. As I discuss in my blog (http://www.robichaux.net/archives/000473.php), the cost of the box is too high relative to buying a D* or E* HD receiver, especially since that would give me DD on channels that pass it. As far as I could tell with the DCT5100, Buckeye only provides DD for the HD channels.

In another thread here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=299116&perpage=20&highlight=buckeye&pagenumber=2), I said I'd ask Buckeye whether they thought they were in compliance with FCC rules. Their answer was "yes"; they don't encrypt their OTA HD rebroadcasts, but they also say that only the Moto box will work to decode them. I'd love to try a QAM256-capable box to see whether that's correct or not.

And if you're in the Toledo area and want to sell your OTA tuner... let me know :p

Originally posted by fullwave2
It's been 2 months now that Buckeye Cable has been carrying High Def conteStill I haven't heard anything about when they plan to carry 24 WNWO and 13 WTVG. Anyone hear anything?

They're still negotiating. Apparently, the problem is that the local stations think must-carry should apply to all of their digital channels, not just their HD; Buckeye doesn't want to use capacity to carry the multiplexes if they can avoid it. Until they get this resolved, it's going to limit their adoption rate (especially since no WTVG means no Monday Night Football!)

Paul,
Just curious as to how you got Buckeye to take your box back considering they make you purchase it.
As for the OTA box I saw one at BestBuy on Reynolds yesterday that was "out of the box" being sold for what seemed like a good price. I believe it was a T151 but can't say for sure.

Paul,
Forget the question about Buckeye and the box. Read your Blog and got the answer. :)

Looks like Buckeye-Express has loosened their policy around set top boxes requiring that you only use a box purchased from them. I just got this reply from them regarding purchasing a box 3rd party:

"You can purchase a HD converter from someone else besides Buckeye CableSystem. The converter needs to be a Motorola DCT5100 High-Definition Digital converter . The model number must start with DCT5100/1000. If you do purchase one from outside our company you would need to bring the converter into the office so we can have it entered into our data base to make it addressable for our services. You would still have the monthly charges for your HD services."

They appear to be moving in the right direction. As for Buckeye not yet carrying WTVG or WNWO this is what they had to say:

"I have checked with our Marketing manager and she said that we are still working on getting an agreement with the other channels and things are looking good for channel 13 (WTVG). It is not just the HD issue that is being negotiated. It has to do with all of the ABC packages. Hopefully this will all be worked out by the first of the year.
We will be letting our customers know as soon as a amiable solution has been made."

A little late for Monday Night Football. Oh well.

Buckeye Cablesystem can shove their HDTV up their HDRE. I spoke with the marketing manager today and told her that in so many words. She was supposed to email me with rates that they found to support their decision. I am still waiting. I will be talking to 3 other decision makers at buckeye in the next few days.

We need another cable company in Toledo so bad it isn't funny. 450 dollars just to be able to receive and convert the signal with a soon to be outdated DCT 5100 is outrageous. Fullwave2 is right on in his comparison of other cable companies offers. Most are renting for 5 to 10 dollars a month. I found one with no charge, no installation through the end of the year. Is there any question that at some point they will rent the boxes as HDTV becomes more available. What do they tell the customers who were just forced to purchase the box in the months prior?For the most part your Hdtv purchasers are your 100+ a month customers. Not exactly the customer I would want to tick off. If a customer wants to buy their own that's fine but everyone should have a choice.

If any of this makes sense, let Buckeye know about it. Maybe they will wake up.

Well, I let 'em know by returning their box and dropping back to the "lifeline" service :)

Good news! Follow up to my earlier post - I have been in contact via several emails back and forth with the decision maker at Buckeye regarding their HDTV policy. Following is a brief summary of what was discussed. Yesterday they were meeting regarding their 2004 operating budget and strategy. He stated that many of my issues, some of which are stated in my earlier post, were very convincing and was going to introduce them in the meeting.

It is his intention to begin leasing the receivers sometime in the near future. His dilemma is.. what can the customer afford and how can Buckeye balance the need to get return on investment with this demand. For those of you wondering about hardware, I was specifically interested in the DCT6208 which he said was on order and will be tested for compatibility with Buckeye's system as soon as it arrives. I think I see light at the end of the tunnel! We will see.

UPDATE..... Finally!! Buckeye will now lease the HDTV boxes! Currently they are in and out of stock on the 6200. I picked mine up yesterday. On Saturday they had none. The 6200 has the DVI port enabled and the picture is awesome. They are leasing them for three dollars more than the digital link.

All the phone calls and e-mails finally paid off. Thanks to all :)

Unfortunately, they still don't carry WTVG, which means they're a non-starter in my opinion. If I can't see Alias and MNF in HD, I'll stick with my OTA receiver.

Nor do they carry WNWO but fortunately the playoffs and the Super Bowl are on WTOL.
I don't understand why it would take so long to negotiate the deal with WTVG and WNWO. If letters and emails to Buckeye worked around the STB lease issue maybe an email campaign would be in order to get them to come to an agreement with the 2 remaining networks.

The last time I addressed the 13 and 24 question, I was told that by the first of the year they expected a deal to be worked out. I will try to get an update and pass along the info.

Good news about the leasing of the boxes. Even better that it has DVI; theoretically I could keep my OTA receiver hooked up via component until they get everything worked out. I do have one question though: I have a Tivo and have it hooked up through my cable box so I can record the digial channels. While I know that I cannot record HD signals with it, will it send the video to both the analog and digital outputs at the same time? That would allow me to record my programs as usual, but still be able to turn to the HD channels and watch when I wanted to. If that is the case, I will be calling them very soon.

Nate, If I understand your question correctly, the answer is yes. Through the 6200 I have the same channel appear on three different TV inputs. I have a direct connection through coax, a second connection through my Tivo and the third through the DVI port for the HD. The HD will appear on all three inputs but looks like analog on the non HD inputs. Through the cable box you can only watch what you are recording because there is only one tuner.
Sometime later this year Motorola has a model 6408 coming out which has dual tuners which will allow you to record one while watching another. Depending on the number of your inputs you should be able to watch HD through your OTA while recording other channels through the 6200.

fullwave2, I just found from my source that... as usual it comes down to dollars and cents. ABC and NBC want to charge a fee to buckeye to carry their HD and buckeye does not think it is right to charge their customers for something they can get free OTA. The email campaign may be better directed to the local stations.

We now have ABC. A couple of weeks ago TNT. Thank you NBA playoffs. Now all we need is for the NBA playoffs to be on NBC so we can have all the major networks ;)

If/when they start carrying NBC, and if I decide to stay in the Toledo area, I just might have to signup for their HD package.

There's not enough activity yet from Toledo members to support a separate thread for OTA discussion and Buckeye Cable. I'll make this the Official Toledo thread, but can someone from the area summarize the OTA stations available in the Toledo area?

Thanks for starting the thread. I'll take a stab at summarizing but I suspect I may leave something out. Here's what's currently covered by Buckeyecablesystems in Toledo.

Locals
WB Toledo - 605 (Buckeye Channel)
CBS WTOL - 611 *
ABC WTVG - 613 *
NBC WNWO - 624 *
PBS WGTE - 630 *
FOX WUPW - 636 *

Those with an * denote stations available OTA

HDTV Programming Pak (Buckeye's HD Package)
Discovery HD - 650
ESPN HD - 651
HDNet - 652
HDNet Movies - 653
TNT HD - 654

Premium Channels
HBO - East HD - 308
Cinemax HD - 309
Showtime HD - 347

The primary STB offered by Buckeye currently is the DCT6200. Testing is currently underway for the DCT6412 with a scheduled introduction of early October assuming no further setbacks.
I think that about covers it. Any of you Toledoans out there want to correct me feel free to go ahead. Most of this was off the top of my head.

Does Buckeye pass through WB HDTV programming on their home-grown WB affiliate's HD feed? I'd almost have to assume they do, since they have a separate HD channel for it...

Yes in fact I believe they do. I also believe the local WB affiliate is owned by the same parent company as Buckeye Cablevision and the Toledo Blade newpaper. One big happy family. I may not be totally accurate but I think I am.

Wow, they snuck NBC into the lineup without me noticing. Now that they finally have all the local affiliates onboard, I just might have to get their HD package.

Regarding FOX Toledo WUPW:

Full DD 5.1 and 16:9 HD 720p should running by October 6th, in preparation for NFL on games for the weekend of 10/10/04.

Thanks Ken. This is the reply I got from WUPW's Chief Engineer earlier this week:
"FOX has been supplying us with some upgrades. Currently they are installing new IFL lines from the dish to the receivers. We are now in upconverted 720P on 36-2 and should have the network pass thru operational by this weekend. I think FOX, and the FCC for that matter, is making a lot of this stuff up as they go along. We have been making a lot of changes to the digital stream and some new rules have just been published that will require even more changes. It continues to be a work in progress as the technology evolves. A lot of the changes are software related. You may have to reboot your receiver at some point. "

Also, if Buckeye Cable's latest timing is correct the Motorola 6412 box should be coming out around the same time. They claim the only thing holding it up is their waiting for TV Guide to do their part. This is what they said on 9/24:
"We are still waiting for TV Guide to finish up their end of the process. At this point we are hoping that in about 3 weeks we will have a go from them."

I recently dropped D* for Buckeye HD. The quality is better than I expected but the WB on 605 is NOT HD. It is just their regular TV5 feed stretched and upconverted. I have not seen anything in HD on that channel since subscribing shortly after Labor Day. I was misled by their customer service and their web page since both claim the network HD programming offered in HD is passed through on channel 605. It is not. Beyond that, all of the other local HD and subchannels are carried and are of decent quality with the exception of FOX WUPW which should start HD next week.

At this point, no changes to the WUPW digital channel 36-2. Bummer! Was hoping to catch the MLB Division series in HD tonight. Does anybody have any further info on the status FOX 36's upgrade? They won't return any phone calls to me at the station.

tcotter,
Sent you a PM with the Chief Engineer's name and email address.

fullwave:

Thanks a bunch. Check PM for reply.

No problem. Check your PM's.

OK. Here's the latest from Fox WUPW:

We are still doing the upconverted 720p. FOX has to make some adjustments to a piece of equipment they had us install. It has to be done during prime time programming, which doesn’t thrill me since it will most likely cause some disruption to our viewers. Sometimes I wonder what they’re thinking in Hollywood…
Hopefully, this weekend’s games will be in full 720p.

Thanks for your patience.

Thanks for the info fullwave.

Here is the latest from the Chief Engineer at FOX 36 on their progress with HD:

We are currently working with FOX network to upgrade our network equipment to allow pass thru of the network’s 720p programming. Currently we are upconverting our master control output to 720p, so our HDTV channel 36-2 is in widescreen. Channel 36-1 is a standard definition digital simulcast of the analog signal. Soon we will have something special on the standard def channel and the upconverted simulcast/HD network in full 720p on the HD channel. Not all of FOX’s programming is produced in 720p, but they are telling us 50% of the new shows are being produced in HD. At some point you may have to turn off your receiver (like rebooting a computer) and do a new channel scan. As a company with 21 stations we have found that some receivers require a “reboot” after changes are made at the station or the receiver experiences a power glitch. Unlike the old television systems where we actually broadcast an electrical picture and sound, the digital transmitter is just a big, powerful, wireless modem sending digital packets of information to a computer that turns it back into something viewable. Many of the changes we make here are software changes. We are now spending a lot of our time downloading upgrades from manufacturer’s websites and then uploading them into the equipment. Please bear with us as the technology evolves. We hope to have the HD working for this weekend’s games. If not, it should be up for next weekend.

THE GAME IS ON TONIGHT IN 720P 16x9 5.1 surround sound.

It was worth the wait. PQ and sound was terrific!

Any news on the motorola 6412 rollout? I am really itching for a DVR! I am willing to be a beta tester...

See http://www.robichaux.net/archives/000978.php, which I posted earlier today. Starting 11/7, you can call Buckeye and they'll hook you up with a 6412 for an additional $5/month (over and above the existing $11.95/month fee). In general, I try to post Toledo-specific HD news at my blog, so check it out occasionally for the latest (or, more accurately, "the latest that I've heard about" :) )

Thanks, that is great news, my bill will be over 150, but oh well :) I have communicated with Judy over at buckeye before, but I had not heard back from her about the 6412.

It is funny because I just checked your Blog not even two days ago for updates about this!

Do you know if it will have the new iGuide? And if both tuners will be enabled?

Thanks again!

-Chris

I don't know the answer to either question, but I'm trying to find out :) I'll update my blog post when I have answers.

Judy did say that what was holding this up was TV Guide. Don't know if that answers your question or not but does tell me they are staying with TV Guide.

Judy says yes to both.

Cool! Thanks.

I just got a call from a CSR that I had talked to a couple of weeks ago, she had put me on her personal "list" for the DVR's. She said that they would be ready on the 8th, unless something else went wrong.

Is Buckeye even open on Sunday the 7th to pick one of these up? Or will I have to wait until the 8th?

I am suprised that they actuallly called me to let me know... But I have never had a problem with their customer service...

I can't wait, I actually could be using it right now!

Anyone notice channel 901 and 902 last night? Nothing but music right now, Maybe PPV High Def?

Picked up my DCT6412 this morning at the Buckeye Southwyck office. Won't be able to hook it up until I get home tonight. They said they were getting a fair amount of traffic coming in for the box. Not too surprised but pretty impressive considering they did no promotion other than word of mouth.

Heh, you're ahead of me, Bob. They're bringing mine out tomorrow; I don't have time to run over there. Post here and let us know how you like it!

Will do. They don't have documentation yet but Judy referred me to this for the basic idea about the DVR functionality. You can check it out here. (http://www.i-guide.tv/A23/index.html)

I am up and running, the i guide is pretty nice, and I have not noticed any quality loss on SD or HD stations.

It is taking a while to load all the program data, after 3 hours, it is still pretty spotty (still saying "to be announced")

As a bonus, I have taught my remote to do the 30 second skip, a VERY nice feature.

Program Fast Forward button to be the Skip button. You can do this with any button you want:



Press and hold Setup until red LED blinks twice.

Enter 994. LED blinks twice.

Press Setup once but don't hold it.

Enter 173.

Press Fast Forward key (or any other key). LED blinks twice.

Try it out!

I then tought my Universal remote to reuse this command.

That's great! Thanks for the info. Where did you get that information? BTW, for other's here's a better demo than the one I listed earlier. Click Here (http://www.tvguideportfolio.com/interactive/documents/blue_guide_TVGGeneric_GuidedTour_hb.swf)

I see the box has 2 firewire ports on the back, will "you" be able to extract the recorded video from the 120GB that's inside of it? I just got the box & will have to wait until I get home from work (Buckeye Express) to start playing with it.

I got the information on reprograming the remote from a previous post about the 30 second skip feature of the 6208 (which was held over to the 6412). It is great for commercials, about 4 skips, and the show is back!


About the Firewire ports, you SHOULD be able to record to D-VHS Recorder or to PC, unless Buckeye has disabled these ports. But you won't be able to watch anything else, it will only record what is playing.

There are several posts about how to do this. The PC one is a sticky in the DVR Forum, and it is a little complicated.

The D-VHS option is plug and play, if you have a D-VHS VCR.


Oh yeah, I just found out that when recording something, you must change the tuner manually to watch something else. Use the Swap button on the remote to do this.

Helpful info on the swap. Thanks.
Buckeye does claim that the firewire ports are active. I think we need to confirm that though and the only true test would be hooking it up to a JVC D-VHS. Would be interested in whether or not that works. Would be even better if you could use the firewire for and external storage device increasing the capacity of the box. I'm just dreaming now though. I know that will never happen.

Found this manual (http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/downloads/URMD2.pdf) for the TV iGuide for the 6412 on the Motorola website.

I just need your comments/opinions on the following HDTV. Thank you. Also, thank you Trabbic for the firewire input. I'll post the URL after five post guys, sorry. Its the Samsung Premier 26" Widescreen Flat though.

Maxdefcon,
I don't have any experience with the Samsung Premere. You may have better luck posting that question on the HDTV Hardware section. Sorry.

Well, got my DCT6412 up and running w/no problem. I love the DVR & is the main reason why I got it. I'll get an HDTV sooner or later.

Up and running here as well and I can see that watching TV will never be the same. This is slick. A bit of a challenge trying to learn all the functions and teach my wife at the same time. She's the type that has no patience reading a manual but has a thousand quesitons. So far I haven't found anything to complain about. I suppose if you look hard enough you'll find something it can't do or could do better. For example, one of my wife's comments was "you mean if we're recording two shows at the same time on the two tuners you can't surf the channels at the same time?" No but you can watch a show you previously recorded which in itself is pretty impressive. "I guess so."
On the initial set up it took a call to Buckeye to get the premium services turned on. Could be that I was a bit impatient and if I just waited a little longer it would picked up the signal but a forced signal to the box by Buckeye and all was OK.
Also initially I was seeing flicker in the lower standard def channels. My first thought was "Oh no!! It's back!" but it seems that once the initial download completed the flicker went away. Whew..
Now if I can just get my wife to read the manual.

I had to call work and have them send a signal to my box to get my premium channels. Once they did that, "bam!" everything came in instantly.. ok maybe 2 or 3 seconds later, but you get the idea.

Have you shown your wife i-guide.tv (website) yet?

Yes, I did. Plus gave her a copy of the manual I downloaded and printed. One thing I haven't been able to figure out yet but I suspect I know the answer to is if you have a recording in process do you need to keep the power on for the STB? I believe the answer is yes as long as it's a recording in process. A test of that got a warning that the recording would be canceled when I hit the power button while a recording I manually started was taking place. Then the next question would be, what about a recording that's scheduled for later? Does the unit turn itself on, do the recording and then shut itself down when it's completed? If it records without going through that process why did it tell me that the recording in process would end if I shut down the unit?

Now all we need to do is convince Buckeye to deploy the Maxtor QuickView Expander (http://www4.maxtor.com/en/products/ata/consumer_electronics/forms/quickview_info_req.cfm) . I know I'm dreaming but who knows.

Originally posted by maxdefcon
I just need your comments/opinions on the following HDTV. Thank you. Also, thank you Trabbic for the firewire input. I'll post the URL after five post guys, sorry. Its the Samsung Premier 26" Widescreen Flat though.

Jason, I haven't used that particular Samsung set, but I have a 30" 16:9 Sammy (the TXM3097WHF) and love it. For the money, it's a terrific unit. It doesn't have the high-end features that other sets in the same size range have; in particular, the only S-Video input is on the side panel (boo, hiss). However, for what I paid, I couldn't be happier. If you're talking about one of the 26" sets like Best Buy has, I think you'll probably be happy with it.

Hooked up my 6412 box tonight, info loaded really quickly. The Firewire ports don't seem to be active as a output. Tried recording to my camcorder-no go. Have not tried using the ports as an input though.-another evening perhaps. Already recording two shows, though I keep hitting the DVR replay as the select button on prev boxes alway brought up the mini-guide. Might take a few days to get use to i-guide button locations. So far so good-overall.

Anyone notice that NBC did not switch to HD for Law and Order: SVU?

This seems to happen all the time... But usually switches after about 15 minutes or so...

Edit:

On that same note, Leno looked great for about 20 minutes then the High Def feed cut out to be replaced with the 4:3 feed...

I wonder if this is buckeye's problem or NBC?

New member here.
Set up my 6412 on Monday and so far so good.
I will be looking at this forum to get familiar with what has been said.
I have Voom and got tired of waiting for the HD-DVR so I jumped at this offer.
I will keep Voom for as long as the wife lets me because I would prefer to stay away from Buckeye if possible.

Anyway, Hi, and I will be talking to you folks as time goes by.

Trabbic, About the HD/upconvert cutting back & forth, it's all on the programmers/station side. Buckeye just passes the supplied HD signals through. Many of the stations are still working out the bugs of HD and the automated systems still have timing issues(between local upconvert & network HD programming). ABC kept MNF upconverted for close to 20 minutes before switching over (back) to the ABC HD signal.
Scott

Nice to see all the new members from the Toledo area.
KentStater - I may have been with you a couple years ago regarding Buckeye but considering the size of the market I've been very impressed lately with the way they've been coming through with the upgrades in technology. I certainly can't complain about my 5 Mbps Internet connection when only a few years ago I was downloading at 26K. We have a pretty good offering of HighDef channels for this market with all three major networks, PBS, Fox and a good selection of premiums. Now we have the DVR (6412) to boot and word has it before the end of the year they're coming out with VOIP with local area codes. Sure I'm paying now more per month for all these services than I paid monthly for my first appartment (giving away my age now) but that's my choice. All and all I can't complain. As a matter of fact in my personal opinion I'm pretty thrilled with Buckeye's offerings and glad I ditched the idea of putting up a dish. Of course this is all just my opinion.
Bob

Just to let everyone know, Buckeye is not offering "true" VoIP. The service will be called Buckeye Tel. Our NID will be placed next your exsisting NID. The only time it goes over the cable lines is to our NOC, located on Angola road, from there the phone calls are routed over traditional phone lines. Where VoIP goes from IP to IP. Just incase some of you don't know, I work for Buckeye Cable in the Buckeye Express department. I've been testing Buckeye Tel before it is released to the public and I haven't had any problems with it.

Max,
Thanks for filling us in on the details of Buckeye's version of VOIP. Nice to have a rep from Buckeye here on the forum.
Bob

Fullwave2.
Thanks for the welcome.
Actually I have always appreciated the quality of service and the level of technology that Buckeye provides.
The connection to the Block family is my reason for avoiding Buckeye in the past.

I just had to try the HD-DVR though, and man I like it.

Just a heads up... If you have a 6412 DVR cable box, the WB's TV5 HD audio won't pass through. TV5 has been working on switching to the WB's HD signal during Prime Time, but supplied equipment has been an issue. The engineers have been in contact with Motorola about the audio/6412 issue.Hopefully they'll get that fixed soon, as that is the wife's HD channel!

Originally posted by videditor
Just a heads up... If you have a 6412 DVR cable box, the WB's TV5 HD audio won't pass through. TV5 has been working on switching to the WB's HD signal during Prime Time, but supplied equipment has been an issue. The engineers have been in contact with Motorola about the audio/6412 issue.Hopefully they'll get that fixed soon, as that is the wife's HD channel!

Wow, thanks for the heads-up. I'm glad my wife is still working her way through a backlog of this season's Smallville episodes on the bedroom Tivo, or I'd be in big trouble-- I sold her on the DVR largely because our living-room DirecTiVo can't get WB5!

WB audio is still out. Any word on when they'll have this issue corrected?

As of late yesterday, word is that Motorola is scratching their heads. TV5 increased their bit rate, which helped until prime time hit. So they dumped back to the sd upconvert.

The audio issue with WB HD should now be fixed- encoding issue.

Has anyone else got this new problem?
When I turn on the cable box I get a black screen. I go to the menu and play a recorded show and it is fine. When I am done the broadcast TV is back.

Nope. Sounds like you might need to do a hardware swap. I've got 2 6412's and neither of them have done that. Sorry.

I called Buckeye and the CSR said try a reboot first.
I'll unplug it when I get home and then post the results just in case it happens to someone else.

Originally posted by KentStater72
Has anyone else got this new problem?
When I turn on the cable box I get a black screen. I go to the menu and play a recorded show and it is fine. When I am done the broadcast TV is back.

i had this problem once. after i unplugged the power and plugged it back in, it worked fine & i have not had the problem since.

Thanks Jason.
I did the unplug, plug thing and it is working fine so far.

Has anyone here recorded from the 6412 to DVD or VHS.
Before I start pulling all my equipment out and driving my wife crazy, I would like to know if there is a way to record DVR material to my Phillips 310 DVD recorder.

Thanks

Well I went ahead and tried to connect my 6412 to my DVDR and I got video pretty good, but the only available audio out from the 6412 is the SPDIF. Unless there is a way to adapt SPDIF to RCA it wont work.
Anyone know if it is possible and where in NWOhio, SEMichigan i can go?

As I have mentioned, I have both Voom satellite and Buckeye HD.
Well that will be coming to an end here in January.
Unless Voom has a fully functioning DVR at the CES Show on the 6th, I'm out of there.
Does anyone in this group know if Buckeye is planning on adding HD stations?
Specifically UHD (Formerly BravoHD), TCM is apperantly going HD in the next few months and I would love to get UPN in HD.

The only additional HD channel I know about is the NBA HD channel. SHows up Dec. 20th I believe. So far as UPN HD, Buckeye needs a station to send them the signal. And channel 48 I don't think is there yet. Not sure if they even have the cash & since they are low power, not sure they have to switch. (???). I know ESPN 2 is going HD in Feb. or there abouts. ALSO*** NBC announced that all of their late night programs are going to be HD, even SNL in the Fall of 2005. Others start in Feb also.

I am glad to see hd additions. Even though buckeye's HD offerings are very good for a small cable company (heck they are good for a big cable company), I still want more! I often find my self watching shows that I would not normaly watch, because they are in high def.

on the DVR side, last night I successfully saved output streams to my laptop via Firewire connector. Picture and sound quality were perfect. Conversion to MPEG2 is great, but the file sizes are huge!

I am trying to move these saved streams to DVD in a format that i can play on my DVD player, but Roxio DVD builder does not support AC3 audio streams... Any ideas on DVD authoring software?

KentSkater72: Are you sure that the RCA outputs don't send out stereo sound? Maybe try changing the sound setting from Advanced to Stereo.

Trabbic, So the firewire does work? I tried that output directly to my DVD Recorder and their was no (video) signal. What kind of files were you able to transfer to your laptop?

Originally posted by trabbic
KentSkater72: Are you sure that the RCA outputs don't send out stereo sound? Maybe try changing the sound setting from Advanced to Stereo.

The RCA ouputs do work, I just had to split them off because they also go to the TV. all good now.

New Problem:
When I turn on the DVR/TV/Audio system in the morning I get a message that the channel (so far always 624 NBC HD) cannot be shown and the picture will be back soon. I am paraphrasing, but it doesn't come back and I go to the SD channel and it is ok.
Anyone else notice this lately?

NBC24 was having difficulty with their signal last night duuring the airing of The Apprentice and mid show they gave up on it and cut it off. It's been off since then. I suspect they were getting so many calls about the drop outs and digital artifacts that they finally gave up and killed the signal all together.

Yup firewire works on my system, to my computer. Using CapVHS i get .ts files or Transport Stream files which contain video and sound. More information on how to do that here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=403695

Then I have to convert to mpeg2 files to view them, and my 1 year old laptop struggles to do this without dropping frames, but the picture is amazing.

BTW... as of 2:30 pm 624 is still offline.

>>BTW... as of 2:30 pm 624 is still offline.<<

Wow! I just called them. Believe it or not and I'm not sure what to believe, but they just told me they didn't know the channel was out. They apologized and said they would get on it and get it back up as soon as possible. I guess the lesson learned here is don't assume they know what's going on with their digital signals. If you see something wrong, report it. Hmm.

As far as Buckeye carring a signal, the blus screen saying that the channel will return shortly is an automatic missing signal (alarm). So it will only "be back shortly" if the signal source comes back on. Unless Buckeye has issue itself, but since they are just passing an HD signal through, I'd say the source is the issue.
ALSO did you notice chan 11 (611) having switching problems for the second NFL game today? The beginning of the game was in 4:3 & they once again tried to find the HD version---JUST AS a pass was being thrown for a touchdown!!

>>ALSO did you notice chan 11 (611) having switching problems for the second NFL game today?<< Same thing with COld Case tonight. it came on late as all the programing was delayed because of the games but nonetheless the show, lathough not a repeat as much is this week, is showing in 4:3. As they say, someone is asleep at the switch.

In case anyone is interested, Buckeye Cable as of last night (haven't checked today) was having issues with people who own the DCT6412 being able to view the new NBA-HD channel on 629. It was showing as not subscribed (or some verbiage similar to that). Being part of the High Definition package if you have a 6412 you should be able to get this new offering. They say they are aware of the issue and are working on a solution. It seems that just sending a signal to the receiver isn't enough. We tried that last night and still couldn't pull it in. Hopefully they'll have that resolved today.
Bob

I did notice that about the NBA channel, but was gonna give it some time.

Also TNT is now on 616, which make sense (because the analog is 16). As a side note to that, I had a series recording on TNT that moved just fine with the channel change.

With the NBA Channel added, now all we need is:

UPN (Pull it from Detroit!)
Bravo HD
Encore HD
TMC HD
Starz HD
& a Pay Per View HD channel or VOD HD

I would be happy with the PPV or VOD in HD and UPN, in my opinion that would complete the offering for the time being.

Trabbic

I agree, UPN and Bravo HD (Now Universal HD) are what would complete the picture.

The change to UHD brought a number of Universal Movies, and they are talking about adding things like Monk, and other NBC/Universal material.

Anyone see this on Buckeye's website? Looks like they are getting ready to implement HDCP. Read here. (http://buckeye-express.com/bci_html/indexpages_html/HDCP.html) Maybe that explains why those of us with the DCT6412 still can't receive NBA-HD. Hmm.

Good thing my DVI is HDMI Compliant otherwise I would be pissed, because i don't have any component inputs open on my TV.

Can I ask what the heck is the point, if there are other unmanaged outputs on the box.

I wonder if this applies to the Fire-wire outputs also?

Hey Guys, BCS is saying NBA-HD should be up & running - consistantly - by Sunday. Sounds like they know the issue & a fix is coming.
ALSO, if you have found a DVR recording going on with the cablebox OFF when the recording was triggered, the box enables MUTE. Thus if you came home & wanted to watch something else, BOTH cablebox tuners are muted. So here is the process to enable one of your UNUSED- A,B or C buttons to control the cablebox mute. This is for the 6412. ::: Press & hold setup until LED blinks twice--Enter 994 (LED blinks twice) -- Press setup ONCE & DO NOT HOLD IT -- Enter 141 -- Press the "C" (or A, B button your choice) LED will blink twice.
"C" will now control the cablebox MUTE/UNMUTE.
I now use this cablebox mute,as my setup right now has the sub-woofer "Y'd" out of the cable audio out(s). My Sony HDTV external spkrs output only works when the TV spkrs are turned off - A first for Sony. Every other Sony I own has the ext outs ACTIVE. Thus currently I cannot "vari" control the sub with TV volume. Guess I'll start preping the wife for a surround sound system. Our prev. TV had a very good built in system.

videditor

Thank you for the fix. I thought I was the only one having this problem with the mute. I could not figure out how to turn it off without rebooting the box. I called Buckeye and they had no clue and never heard of it. They told me I probably had a bad box and should exchange it. I'm glad I didn't take their advice.

>>Hey Guys, BCS is saying NBA-HD should be up & running - consistantly - by Sunday. Sounds like they know the issue & a fix is coming. <<

Word I got from Buckeye was that NBA-HD only broadcasts when there's a game to broadcast. Otherwise you'll see what you're seeing now. Boy that stinks. Anyway, here's the live NBA-HD schedule:

NATIONAL TV SCHEDULE - 2004-05
Date Teams Time (ET)
Sun, Dec 26 Boston @ San Antonio 7:00 pm
Tue, Dec 28 Houston @ Milwaukee 8:00 pm
Wed, Dec 29 Minnesota @ New York 7:30 pm
Sat, Jan 8 New Jersey @ Orlando 7:00 pm
Tue, Jan 11 New Orleans @ New York 7:30 pm
Sun, Jan 23 Utah @ Seattle 9:00 pm
Mon, Jan 24 Detroit @ Minnesota 8:00 pm
Tue, Jan 25 Phoenix @ New York 7:30 pm
Sat, Jan 29 Orlando @ Washington 7:00 pm
Mon, Jan 31 Indiana @ Philadelphia 7:00 pm
Mon, Feb 7 Indiana @ Washington 7:00 pm
Wed, Feb 9 Miami @ New York 7:30 pm
Sat, Feb 12 Orlando @ Philadelphia 7:00 pm
Mon, Feb 14 Utah @ Phoenix 9:00 pm
Tue, Feb 15 L.A. Clippers @ Orlando 7:00 pm
Tue, Feb 22 Boston @ L.A. Lakers 10:30 pm
Sat, Feb 26 Indiana @ New York 7:30 pm
Mon, Feb 28 L.A. Lakers @ New York 7:30 pm
Wed, Mar 9 San Antonio @ Phoenix 9:00 pm
Fri, Mar 11 Dallas @ Milwaukee 8:30 pm
Tue, Mar 15 Miami @ New York 7:30 pm
Sat, Mar 19 Utah @ Washington 7:00 pm
Mon, Mar 21 New Orleans @ Dallas 8:30 pm
Mon, Mar 28 Indiana @ Milwaukee 8:00 pm
Tue, Apr 12 Toronto @ New York 7:30 pm
Sat, Apr 16 Sacramento @ Phoenix 10:00 pm
Mon, Apr 18 Milwaukee @ Philadelphia 7:00 pm

By the way, Videditor, I gave the service department that fix a few weeks ago. They were very thankful. Up till then they were swapping out boxes left and right. They didn't have a clue how to fix it. I think I saved them a few bucks. Hmmm. Maybe a discount.

Fullwave2 - I ended up getting it (mute-unmute) from Motorola. Just one of those deals where box "X" is suppose to work with box "Y" until it goes out into the field- been there. Anyway Happy Holidays

Hey, Vid. Happy Holidays to you too.

Another semi-related 6412 question: how do I make it find shows that appear on multiple channels? Example: say I want a season recording for Alias on ABC, starting 1/5. If I search by name, the only result I get is on channel 13-- not 613. How do I force, or choose, the display of the HD version of a show that's simulcast on both HD and SD channels?

Hey Guys,
NBA-TV is on HD full time now. Keep in mind that it is not all HD, but at least there is one more channel with some HD programming. I've looked around, can't seem to find much more in the way of HD channels. What else is out there that we are missing? Checked out what ZOOM is offering, but it seems to be "Homemade" channels. Sports is obviously the driving force. Just this year there were 8 new HD mobile trucks built. (I am a free-lance sports TV guy) Anything I can influence my Buckeye friends to get?

Alright! It's about time. I called last night during the Cavs game and complained to a supervisor who finally agreed that it was a problem and escallated it to the level two support. Looks like they found out what the issue was. OK!

Originally posted by paulr
Another semi-related 6412 question: how do I make it find shows that appear on multiple channels? Example: say I want a season recording for Alias on ABC, starting 1/5. If I search by name, the only result I get is on channel 13-- not 613. How do I force, or choose, the display of the HD version of a show that's simulcast on both HD and SD channels?

The solution is simple: pick the program you want, then use the "show additional times" icon. That will show the program airing on whatever other channels it's on (in this case, the ABC-Detroit affiliate and WTVG-DT), and you can pick whichever alternate showing is correct, then set a season recording.

Originally posted by videditor
Hey Guys,
NBA-TV is on HD full time now. Keep in mind that it is not all HD, but at least there is one more channel with some HD programming. I've looked around, can't seem to find much more in the way of HD channels. What else is out there that we are missing? Checked out what ZOOM is offering, but it seems to be "Homemade" channels. Sports is obviously the driving force. Just this year there were 8 new HD mobile trucks built. (I am a free-lance sports TV guy) Anything I can influence my Buckeye friends to get?

vid- from my original post, these channels are all available in other markets...

UPN (Pull it from Detroit!)
Bravo HD
Encore HD
TMC HD
Starz HD
& a Pay Per View HD channel or VOD HD


UPN and HD PPV are necessary in my opinion...

Got this from the Chief Engineer at WUPW Fox:

WUPW is making changes to the DTV Signal as required by new FCC rules. The DTV signal may experience some outages. Viewers may have to reboot (turn off and back on) their receivers. A new channel search may be required with some receivers.

Sorry for the inconvenience. Please let me know if you have any difficulties that are not rectified by these procedures.

Steven D. Crum
Chief Engineer
WUPW-FOX Toledo
WUPW DT
LIN Television
419-244-3600

Did He say when?
Probably in the middle of the premiere of 24.

P.S. To me Bravo HD (Universal HD) is as important as UPN.
Check out what NBC is doing with the new line up of Monk and other USA/SciFi content.

Good point. Unfortunately no. He did say it would affect both OTA and cable so hope you're not right.

This is what Steve said in response to the question about "when":

Some of it occurred yesterday afternoon (Jan 4th). I hope to have it all finished by Sunday. We certainly won’t be working on it during 24.

Anybody else having trouble with NBC24 (624) on Buckeye? It when out on me Weds. evening and hasn't been back yet. All I'm getting is the message "your station will be available in a minute" or something to that effect. I'm getting that on both of my 6412's so I can only assume it's a Buckeye problem.

FW2
Yes I have the same problem with NBC.

Also, am I understanding it right that the NBA channel is only on during the specific games that were posted?
I keep getting a message to upgrade.

I guess we should probably call regarding the NBC24 issue. As for the NBA issue I don't get the subscription notice anymore but when I attempt to go to that channel it just freezes. I suspect that's because nothing is being broadcast at the time. There was a point that I was getting a "show" that wasn't a game. That was just one evening. Nothing since then. I've yet to see a game and one night when the Cavs were supposed to be on there was nothing. The NBA-HD schedule shows a game tomorrow night at 7PM so I'll make a note to check then.
If you're still getting a subscription notice or one that says "not authorized" I'd call and complain.

I called buckeye.
They said that 624 was on now, and did not know there was a problem yesterday.
I forgot to mention that my Voom was also having problems with NBC-HD, so it was probably a digital thing.

They also said the NBA channel is on only for scheduled games and they will be changing the message to reflect that.

>>They said that 624 was on now<< It is. Thanks.

>>They also said the NBA channel is on only for scheduled games and they will be changing the message to reflect that.<<

The message says "One Moment Please - Your station should be available shortly". We'll have to remember tomorrow night at 7PM to see if the game airs.

Not sure I understand the NBA-HD channel. The studio show is an HD produced show, with SD material inserted-much like ESPNHD. So why the downtime on Buckeye? Is BCS carring NBAHD part-time a perk they got for carring the analog version of the channel? ALso I ended up tuning in last night about 50min before airtime. The channel was up & running- we were watching pre-production tapings, graphic builds, etc. Seems they leave the channel open for about an hour or so after the end of the game-back to their HD Studio show.

Hey Guys, IF you are interested in getting ESPNHD2 on Buckeye Cable (it's currently avail to systems) then write into: askus@cablesystem.com and request the channel. They do follow customers requests and number of requests. In fact the ANIMIE (sp) channel had a group that wrote in consistantly for a few months before BCS signed them on. You actually do this for any of the channels you want them to add, as mentioned in the a few of the prev. posts.

Hey Guys, IF you are interested in getting ESPNHD2 on Buckeye Cable (it's currently avail to systems) then write into: askus@cablesystem.com and request the channel. They do follow customers requests and number of requests. In fact the ANIMIE (sp) channel had a group that wrote in consistantly for a few months before BCS signed them on. You actually do this for any of the channels you want them to add, as mentioned in the a few of the prev. posts.

>>then write into: askus@cablesystem.com and request the channel<<

Done!

I recorded "24" on Fox last night @ 9:00.
When I went to watch it I could not fast forward or rewind.
It was not my box, i tried other recordings, just 24.
When the time line came up it showed the 0/ (international symbol for NO!)
line in circle.
Could the network have put in place technology from stopping us from skipping commercials?
Anyone else have this happen, or not, with the show 24?

Has anyone else been still experiencing audio issues on 633 WGTE? Seems some programming is silent while other shows no problem. When I called awhile back they said they knew of the issue and were working on it. Seems like it should have been resolved by now.

>>Could the network have put in place technology from stopping us from skipping commercials?
Anyone else have this happen, or not, with the show 24?<<

That would be scary. I certainly hope not. I doubt it though. Hopefully just an anomaly. You can bet I'll check when I get home though.

Originally posted by KentStater72
I recorded "24" on Fox last night @ 9:00.
When I went to watch it I could not fast forward or rewind.
It was not my box, i tried other recordings, just 24.
When the time line came up it showed the 0/ (international symbol for NO!)
line in circle.
Could the network have put in place technology from stopping us from skipping commercials?
Anyone else have this happen, or not, with the show 24?

I also have had this "problem" with That 70's Show, twice now. I have not recorded 24, but will try it this next week. If I remember correctly, I can't rewind, fast forward, replay or 30 sec skip, very annoying, especially when I miss something...

On a different note, Three very good friends of mine in toledo, just went HD, two got Sony Wega's RP LCD, a 50 in, and 60, and the other guy got a 65in mitsu! My puny 42 will no longer draw the football/Movie crowds... :( How much are the 70 inchers?

Damn! You're right! I DVR'd 24 last night as well and I too get the same little symbol and the inability to FF or REW. This is not good. What's the use of having a DVR if this happens? Maybe time for some calls to Buckeye.

Got an encouraging reply from the Chief Engineer at WUPW Fox:

"I don’t know of anything in our DTV stream that would cause that. However, we are hearing of new things every day! Let me know if you have any more problems or find what caused that to happen. We see a lot of problems that are caused by a byte or 2 just getting missed. "

I hope this is just an anomaly as he suggests. Let's hope so. I also sent an email to Buckeye so we'll see what their response is as well.

Well, had the same experience last night with recording Point Pleasant on Fox. Funny though. After PP I recorded the Fox local news and didn't have an issue. Apparently only with the primetime or HD content. Fortunately haven't had this issue on any other networks.
Sent off emails to Fox and Buckeye. Waiting for replies.

OK I'll come clean. I recorded "American Idol" on FOX last night- for my wife & daughter. Ok no more laughing or jokes at my expense. During replay we- I mean she - had no trouble fast forwarding that program. Just an FYI for establishing the track record of this bug.

That's funny, I did not want to own up to recording "Malcolm in the Middle"

I have talked to two CSR's that are supposedly talking to the tech folks, but nothing yet.

This does not bode well for the value of the DVR.
If we are all being blocked from certain shows and not from others, it would appear that it is the network, and it is deliberate.
However, I posted this concern on the main AVS 6412 forum and received nothing but a suggestion to unplug the machine. So it may not be as universal as the network. (Buckeye?)

I want to record "That 70s Show" to see if there is continuity in this phenomena.

My brother is a station manager in Wisconsin (CBS), and he hates DVR's because of their potential to dig into sales revenue.

Here's the response I got from Steve Crum, the Chief Engineer over at WUPW Fox Toledo:
Thanks Bob.

I’ll see if I can get anything out of FOX.

Steve

Steven D. Crum
Chief Engineer
WUPW-FOX Toledo
WUPW DT
LIN Television
419-244-3600

Since I can't claim any knowledge with regard to either Malcom in the Middle or American Idol ;) I guess the logical question is were these programs in High Definition? If not, then we may be able to draw a hypothesis that the issue is only seen with High Definition content. Point Pleasant and 24 were High Def and we saw the issue. What's the verdict?

I like your thinking, but That 70's show is not in High def, although I am recording the digital feed on the High def channel 636...

I am off to sit in on a Cable Card install on my friends new Grand Wega 60in... They said that they had to do a install appt. $50 later... We shall see what is so hard, that they needed an appt.

MY American Idol recording was in HD, not just on the HD channel, but actually shot in HD.
As far as Buckeye, I can assure you they are just passing the signal along- no inserts. It's tough enough getting an HD signal thru the station master controls, let alone a cable co. messing with it. You've probably noticed that due to HD being streamed instead of video bandwidth, it's still hard for the stations to insert into a HD Stream locally. Most are still doing it manually.

Just got back from the cable card install, it was a little more involved than I thought.

The install of the card is simple, and then a phone call was placed to Buckeye, where the installer proceeded to read back several numbers to buckeye in the TV's Service menu. This allowed for the additional programing that the customer ordered (ie the HD pack). This process is a little involved if someone does not know what to look for. I can see why they want an installer to come out.

Channels look great, tuning is slow. (I guess about the same as the box if you channel flip.)

The TV has a built in guide, but so far there is no information in it except for the channel. Does anyone else here have a cable card, and do you get information like the description of the show, or at least a title? I'll check later and see if the info takes a while to download.

>>Does anyone else here have a cable card<< Nope. And actually I didn't even know that Buckeye had them. Thanks for the update.
By the way, if you're home tonight between 5 and 6PM you may get an opportunity to see me being interviewed by Jim Carey of 13ABC News. He came by my house this morning to interview me about my son's website, www.showoursupport.com which in this last week has been gaining in a lot of popularity. They asked if they could do a news story. Being that Jeff is in Columbus preparing for mid-terms they decided to do it from the angle of the "proud father". Quite an experience. Jeff's site was also featured this morning on the front page of the Ohio State University newspaper, The Lantern. The electronic version is here: http://www.thelantern.com/news/2005/01/20/Campus/Buckeye.Creates.Site.To.Support.U.Troops-836654.shtml
Have to say, this has been an interesting day. :)

Congratulations to you and your son, it is a very noble thing to do.

Check your link in the body of your message though, there is a comma.

-Chris
-Supporter #3840

>>there is a comma<<

Thanks. Fixed that. Freaky watching myself on TV tonight. Got to use the DVR.

Back to the topic. I'm beginning to think the issue with Fox is a data stream issue. I just noticed that the "24" I recorded didn't have an episode description with the recording. Obviously something was wrong if that was blank. Tried recording "OC" tonight as a test and that went OK.

FW2

Congrats, you must be proud of what your son has accomplished.

RE: "24" I think we need to wait and find out if it happens again with the same shows.
No word back from Buckeye on my inquiries.

Just watched Simpson's from Sunday, last night, and I was unable to ff or rew. So other shows are having this problem.

I think we have traced it to ONLY Fox, correct?


Also, I have had some serious problems lately, where the box locks up, the time is still displaying when the box locked up, the power button was noneffective, I had to unplug it to get it back.

Any one else? I am about ready to get another box from buckeye.

I do not know the details, but my wife said she had a similar problem with the box freezing. I'll post back if it happens when I am around.

RE: the ongoing situation with no FF-RWD.

It does appear to be FOX only

I was watching 24 live last night and went back a few minutes, and then caught up with the 30 sec. skip. But after the show I played it to check it out and it was again only allowing me to play. No FF or RWD.

Very interesting!

Has anybody else been having issues with audio dropouts while watching HD on Buckeye Cable? The sound will go completely silent for about a second or so, and then everything will be back to normal. It happens maybe 4-5 times during an hour long show. Seems to happen on different channels, too.

I'm using the Motorola 6412. Thanks for any input!!

Yes. More annoying than anything else. Saw it last night a few times on "24". What's more annoying though is they haven't been able to fix the issue with the complete loss of audio on 633 WGTE). I realize it's not the High Def channel but it is digital. Some shows have audio but most don't. They keep saying they're working on it.

Guys,
Watched "24" tonight... ALL DVR controls worked fine. FYI

The best answerer I got in the main 6412 forum was this one bellow.
I am hopeful that it has been fixed, and is not the wave of the future.

EvanstonTom
New Member

Registered: Aug 2004
Location:
Posts: 6
I posted about my DVR problem with "24" in another thread, but I thought I would take a moment to add to the collective knowledge here.

Just a quick refresh: I recorded "24" on Monday and when I watched it and attempted to FF, was presented with a circle-with-a-line-through-it icon telling me, "You can't do that."

I called Comcast yesterday and had my concerns escalated from the initial ("There was something wrong with the signal") phone-center person to a ("I'll look into it and call you back") supervisor.

Today, I received a call from a different guy who was very knowledgeable about the technical issues faced with the DVR's and their recordings. In short, he admitted to me that this was a bug in the TV-Guide software which incorrectly marked this episode of "24" to disallow certain functionality. (The same thing apparently happened with "American Idol" last night, but I was not aware of that until he told me about it.) He told me that it would be fixed in an upcoming version of the software and, based on the large number of bugs that have been discovered, this summer's scheduled release of the next version may get changed.

Bottom line: Yes, the DVR features can be selectively disabled as a feature of the IGuide. No, this was not intentional by any party involved in the presentation of "24" on Monday.

KentStater,
That's good information. Now to convince Buckeye that it's an issue and they need to stay on top of the firmware releases. I just shot an email of to Judy C. over there. Let's hope she gets the word off to the right people.
FW2

FYI, I had no function with House on Fox...

Here's the email reply I got from Buckeye this afternoon:

"Our technicians are working with Motorola to try to get a fix on this problem, it seems to only be with the Network programs on Fox."

Judy Carter
Research Department
Buckeye CableSystem

Promising...

Sounds to me like we need to contact TV Guide, not the local cablesystems. (Read about these issues on the main forum- happening to Comcast also) Looks like I-Guide is more powerful than showing us just schedules. TV Guide has control over what we are allowed to view (making us watch commericals), its no technical foul-up. Plus if it was, now they know how to block controls and can sell that to the networks. OK, I am digging in deep, but I how TV Guide, they are not nice to work with. I am sure they put in a few back doors in case the FCC came in & said we must not be able to skip commericals.

Hi...

I'm trying to get NBC 24 and Fox Toledo HD OTA. So far I haven't been able to receive their HD feeds. I have no problem with ABC, CBS, and PBS, but NBC and fox are a no-go. I'm currently using an indoor, set top antenna. I'm located in bowling green.

Thanks

My Ex's Dad uses over the air, and I think that he gets NBC and FOX, I would try a different antenna... Correct me if I am wrong, but with the Digital signal, it is all or nothing, so a very weak signal won't come in at all.

Try www.antennaweb.org (http://www.antennaweb.org)

According to this you should be able to get FOX 36.1 but not 24.1 with a small outdoor antenna... to get 24.1 you would need a "medium" size outdoor. They don't really talk about indoor so your guess is as good as mine.

My HD experience with Buckeye has been anything but stellar. My first DVR box that I received was defective. It would reboot at random intervals. For example, when I pressed the guide button, bam, reboot. Or if I changed the channel like 5 times.

I had the box replaced and some of the problems went away. I now an unable to get Fox 36 and my HD channels have the tiling effect. Worked great on Super Bowl Sunday though. Go figure. After than, I get the message on Fox "Channel available soon." That has been there for 4 days. Buckeye is coming out tonight to check my line. Will keep ya posted.

Sorry to hear about your troubles with Buckeye. While I think it's highly unlikely there is the chance that you got two bad boxes. I haven't experienced those issues myself and I have two boxes 6412's in my home. Checking the line to rule that out is probably a good move. Do you have any splitters on the line besides the one Buckeye probably installed at the point of entry? If they tell you your signal is sufficient find out what is the minimum exceptable range and ask the guy for specifics around what your reading was. You might want to call and make sure the service guy coming out has another 6412 on the truck just in case you do need to swap it out again. By the way, I'm assuming you have the 6412 DVR box but the same holds true if you have just the plain vanilla HD box.
Good luck. Technology can be frustrating at times.

It looks like everything has been solved. We discovered some old 900 Mhz splitters that were in line to the DVR box. There were replaced with some newer signals and the the problem was fixed. Since I have a cable modem with Buckeye, they are going to come back out this week and install and amplifier on my line to boost the signal by 15db. The HD picture rocks.

RYOKUM

Welcome to the forum.
Wait till you see how the DVR changes your viewing habits.

Thanks for the welcome! The DVR has already changed the way we watch TV. I even have my wife saying "wow" to the HD picture. She is always the skeptic. Like when I tried to explain to her that the cable modem with change here Internet habits. I got the customary "Yeah right". Hehe. I win again!!!

Is anyone picking up WTOL 11-1 OTA? It has been dead for me for about the last week or so.

I have a call into their Senior Engineer but he hasnt returned my call yet.

11-1 is coming on for me OTA but it's coming in over it's actual station number 17-1. You may need to do a rescan to pick it up. For some reason they're not sending the virtual channel mapping (whatever it's technically called escapes me now).

I am a little lost on this topic.
Are you referring to over the air through the 6412, or OTA through another HD receiver?

My reply was based upon pulling in over the air via a Samsung SIR-T150. I don't think the 6412 has the capability to pull in OTA. Wish it did though.

FW2

Thanks, I get OTA over my Voom stb, but use it so seldom for locals I did not notice anything re: 11.1

A cable\ota dvr would be great.

Let me ask you folks with OTA setups a question.
Are you receiving both Toledo and Detroit DTV?
I am set up for OTA only for Toledo with a small stealth antenna not amplified.
I was told it would be useless to try for Detroit since I am pretty much in the middle(Lambertville) and had to choose one direction or the other.

Any thoughts?

KS72,
Being in Perrysburg I can get Toledo and Bowling Green on a regular basis but have only on occasion picked up anything from Detroit and I have a roof top double bowtie with a rotator. The occasions I did pick up Detroit were hot and humid summer days when troposheric ducting (short skip) conditions existed. These times were pretty rare for me.
Being further north though I would think you'd have a shot at getting Detroit with an outdoor antenna pointed in that direction.

buckeye is going to be releasing a phone service called buckeye tel. i have the ability to sign people up before it's publicly released if anyone is interested.

Do you know the pricing and features? They haven't communicated much publically yet.

I would be verry interested.
Is Lambertvile, Mi covered?

And of course I would need details.

Greg

Pricing and features are on the web site.

http://www.buckeyetel.com has pricing info, I also have an entry on my site, http://www.warpedthoughts.com , with information. you can also email me here: jashansen@gmail.com

Guys... here's the lastest on NBA-HD channel.
See you full time next fall,
Videditor


Turner Broadcasting System and the National Basketball Association have reached an agreement under which NBA TV's domestic and international channel and commercial integration operations will originate from Turner's Atlanta network operations headquarters.

Through the new arrangement, the NBA will distribute NBA TV in high-definition 24-hours a day beginning fall 2005. Turner's network operations center will manage NBA TV program integration and handle domestic and international distribution. NBA TV programming will continue to be produced at its Secaucus, NJ, facility, which houses all of the NBA's digital media initiatives, including the NBA.com Network of 60 Web sites. NBA TV will also be distributed in standard-definition and international formats.

The arrangement allows Turner to advance its equity stake in NBA TV, and it places NBA TV in an elite group of networks broadcasting full time in high-definition.

Jason
Thanks for the information. Unfortunately they can't go into Michigan yet.
They are still working on the legal stuff.

I'll keep an eye on the web site.

Thanks again,
Greg

Sorry, I will look out as well. I wasn't aware of that.

I have tried to call WNGT 48, the UPN station wondering if they have any plans on going digital.
All they have is an answering machine and they do not return calls.
I know some of you folks work in the business. Anyone heard of plans for UPN?

Originally posted by KentStater72
I have tried to call WNGT 48, the UPN station wondering if they have any plans on going digital.
All they have is an answering machine and they do not return calls.
I know some of you folks work in the business. Anyone heard of plans for UPN?

Don't hold your breath.

WNGT is a "Class A" LPTV (low power TV) station. Only recently have LPTV stations been able to convert to digital based on new rules, and so far, only a handful have done so (translators in the Norfolk, VA market). And even then, those stations are only SD digital.

LPTVers are generally run on a much tighter budget, and even though all of 'em will eventually have to convert to digital in the next few years, nothing mandates that they have to do HDTV.

The most likely LPTVers to be first with the digital, then HDTV conversions would be owned by other full-power stations in the market. WNGT-LP seems to be a standalone.

So...not even remotely any time soon.

Inundated is correct. WNGT is a stand alone operation. It will be a long while before they are digital. They are currently using 3/4 and VHS for program acquisition and playback.

Thanks folks

I spun my antenna to the north and now receiving channel 50 in DT/HD
on voom. I then use the 6412 and buckeye for Toledo locals.

But I can't keep spending money on voom when they do not come through with a DVR. So it wont last much longer.

I haven't been able to pick up WTOL's digital signal OTA since yesterday afternoon. Anyone else having that problem?

It is coming in fine (611 &11) fine here.

OTA I do not get since I pointed the antenna north.

WTOL 11-1,2,3 is fine in Monroe. Try a new channel scan and see if it comes in. What receiver do you have?

i want to get ota hdtv on my computer. what equipment do i need, and is it possible. there's a ton of info on this website, but you all live in the area. any help?

Originally posted by lakefront
WTOL 11-1,2,3 is fine in Monroe. Try a new channel scan and see if it comes in. What receiver do you have?

It turns out I have a receiver issue. I'm running a Dish 921 and it won't seem to lock on the digital subchannels of WTOL. It's in the hands of Dish support - which isn't exactly reassuring. Thanks anyway.

Originally posted by kilalove21
i want to get ota hdtv on my computer. what equipment do i need, and is it possible. there's a ton of info on this website, but you all live in the area. any help?

You may want to post this question in the HDTV Hardware forum and see if anyone there has some suggestions for you.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=25

For the Voom users in Toledo, I'm able to get everything OTA (ABC 19, CBS 17, NBC 49, PBS 29) except FOX 46. The Voom STB is getting 89 for signal strength on 46, which should be more than enough, but it will not lock on 46 in the scan mode.

Is anyone else having problems getting FOX 46 with the Voom STB?

Got this from Buckeye Cable regarding the Fox issue with using FF, Pause, REW, etc. on Buckeye's HD DVR.
Not sure if they're on the right track or not but at least they are working on the issue:

Subject: FOX HD DVR problem - update

I have been working with Motorola on the problem of trick modes (FF/RW) being disabled on DVR recordings of some FOX HD programs. At this point, the problem seems to be related to something that happens during the 10 p.m. switchover back to local programming.

I made three different DVR recordings of FOX 36 HD last night:

9:30 - 9:44 p.m. block - Trick modes worked fine.
9:45 - 10 p.m. block - Trick modes DID NOT WORK.
10 - 10:15 p.m. block - Trick modes worked fine.

Motorola will be scrutinizing the 9:59 - 10:00 p.m. timeframe of the MPEG capture that I sent them to see if they can figure out what is causing trick modes to become disabled.

Ken

I just read your post, sorry but I think I am the only voomer in this Toledo HDTV forum.

I can get all of the Toledo channels including FOX when I point the antenna in the right direction.(I am actually in Bedford Township, Michigan a mile north of the state line)
I currently have the antenna pointed north to get some of the Detroit stations(UPN) in HD.

I am also a little confused on the numbers you are using. Our FOX is 36.

Fullwave2, thanks for your follow up. It got me again last night when I went to watch 24 on the DVR. Glad to know it isn't a plot.

In my never ending quest to have everything, and at a discounted rate...
I am looking at the Sony DHG-HDD500, it is a HD DVR that is both cable and OTA. This would work great for OTA HD from Detroit and Buckeye for Toledo.

It says however that it needs a cable card from the local cable company.
When I ask a CSR they tell me it is a TV card and will not work with a STB.

Any comments?

I am calling BS on Buckeye; CableCard (TM) is the logo in the Sony advertising, and the TV that I saw get setup had the CableCard logo.

Either the CSR does not know what she is talking about (likely), or buckeye is not willing to install their CableCard's into competing equipment (also likely).

Just a warning, the prices are not that much better for the cable card than the box.

Also they may not know how to set one up, the directions they have my be only for TV's, but I am sure that the Sony device will have directions.

I think an Email to Judy at Buckeye is in order... But I don't have her email address.

Good Luck

Can anyone tell me if Buckeye Cable supplies the local HD affiliates using unencrypted QAM? I am wondering if I would be able to use one of the QAM-capable HD PCI cards (like the Air2PC or HD-3000). I'd be willing to bet that they do not, but figured I would ask.

Guys, saw this in one of my trades, thought you might be interested.
Videditor

After more than a year of promoting Blu-ray as the best technology to replace DVD for storing HDV and winning proponents including Apple, a top executive at Sony, one of Blu-ray’s major backers, has opened the door to the possibility of unifying the format with its arch rival, HD-DVD, said a report by IDG News Service.

“Listening to the voice of the consumers, having two rival formats is disappointing and we haven’t totally given up on the possibility of integration or compromise,” Ryoji Chubachi, Sony’s president-elect, said at a news conference last week in which he discussed the company’s performance and future strategy.

The rival camps have assembled consortiums of major electronics companies, disc makers and Hollywood studios to promote the formats in a battle that echoes one fought a quarter of a century ago between Betamax and VHS.

HD-DVD backers, which include NEC and Toshiba, say HD-DVDs can be produced for about the same price as DVDs and are backward-compatible with DVDs and CDs, making the format more convenient for both consumers and the industry. HD-DVD movie titles, PC drives and players are all due out by the end of the year.

Sony has steadfastly promoted Blu-ray as a technology that has greater capacity, saying this makes the format more useful because more content can be stored on a disc. The technology also has wide support in the technology industry, although release dates for movie titles have not yet been announced.

Folks,

Just got Buckeye HD and the DVR. I read that the firewire ports are outputing a signal.

Is this still true? I called Buckeye and they told me no (after a long wait)...but I got the feeling they were being less than truthfull.

Are the wirefire ports active?

Tom

Tom,
The firewire ports I have heard are active, check out some of the earlier pages in this Toledo thread. However, it's not your 1394IEEE firewire signal, meaning you cannot connect your camcorder or dvd-recorder and record from, say the dvr to archive a show. Many of those connectors are not active at this time.
The only activity from the firewire port came from someone who imported shows into his computer for playback. I have not done my homework on this box, but remember what has been said & what I have tried. I know Motorola is still upgrading software for this box, hopefully a true active consumer firewire signal will be part of it.
Hope this helps, maybe some others will chime in.
Videditor

Unless something has changed, it is possible to capture HD and SD content to your computer using the firewire connectors on the 6412 from buckeye...

Here is the link on how to do this, be sure to follow the directions to the word:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=403695

As far as other consumer devices, many people are capturing content to DVHS and to Firewire enabled TV's with the 6412. I don't see why this would not be possible on our boxes, because all the software does on the computer is simulate a JVC DVHS recorder. You will not however be able to see any of the GUI (Graphical User Interface), like the guide, or time indicator that appears when fast forwarding or pausing, through this interface.

Let me know if you need more info!

Thanks guys! This is the info I needed.

I am going to give the PC emulation of the JVC DVHS a shot first. I may then pick up a DVHS machine to archive to tape.

Tom

1. Can the Firewire be used for input to the 6412?

I am looking for a way to input OTA (preferably HD) from my Voom stb box to the 6412. That would give me some use for the box and I could then have Detroit HD through the 6412?

2. Could the firewire be used as input to a DVD recorder?
I could then record from 6412 to DVD at a better PQ than composite.

Answer to #2: As of now, the firewire will not go directly to a DVD-Recorder. I have tried the FW output into my DVD-R & camcorder - does not work. Like I said above. Seems only this PC transfer works. I have many buddies at BCS, and talking to one today he said this about Motorola: "they are NOTORIOUS for putting attractive ports on the box, then saying it’s for “future” deployment." He is checking with Motorola about future software changes to see if these connections will ever become "ACTIVE".
More when I get it.

Okay folks...I hooked up the Moto box to my puter today.

The Good News: It works....kind of. I can record Leno, Conan and any other HD programming from any of the BROADCAST HD channels

The Bad News: Buckeye has disabled the HD channels such as HDnet or TNTHD these are NOT streamed out of the 1384 port!

From what I read...this seems to be a trend among cable providers.

ANyway...the stuff I really want to record is on the networks (Masters/Oscars/Grammys/Olympics).

Probably gonna pick up a DVHS machine now that I know I can get something out of the firewire jacks.

Tom

Yeah, Buckeye is most likely encoding those premium content channels with 5C protection. The PC emulation is not 5c compliant. This is something that many broadcasters/copyright owners require (or want to require) so that we can't record a HD movie and then don't have to buy it.

There are SEVERAL people on this forum recording/archiving to DVHS (including some 5c material), but I would make sure that you have a good return policy just in case; and I think that I read about archiving to DVD recorder with the 6412. It has been my experience that buckeye is pretty much following the rest of the cable industry. So if other people are using the 6412 & TV Guide interface to do something we in Toledo should be able to also.

A quick search did not turn up anything about DVD recorders and the 6412, but maybe a post in the HDTV Recorders and Players forum, might help with a broader audience... If you find something out, let us know.

videditor, I don't doubt that it does not work with your DVD recorder, and I doubt that the firewire ports on the Moto box are 1394 compliant, but because they are not compliant, a different brand recorder my work to archive. Have you tried SD channels, analog and digital?

Guys,

Well I picked up a cheapie JVC 3000 DVHS (yes I am aware of the controversies of thr 30K) and indeed I can now time shift all of the HD channels with this unit with the exception of TNT-HD which is copy protected.

I did have some problems recording a previously recorded program from the DVR Hard Drive (seems like a data flow/hard drive issue) but live realtime seems to work well.

I have bag loads of SVHS tapes that I can use with this unit (soldering iron in hand!)

Tom

Great to hear it, Tom!

Let me know how that 30K works out for you, if I could find one cheap, I may do that to archive off some shows... It would be easier than the PC...

So far the 30K has been perfect. Playback looks great through components to my plasma.

One question....do you guys get occasional dropouts or freezeups with your DVR? I'm getting the scattered freezup every once in a while. It is not a big issue...but just wondered if it is my DVR box.

I recorded two episodes of Hogans Heroes to the DVR earlier today and in both episodes I got a brief freeze. Is this a network feed issue or a Buckeye issue or a DVR issue? Is this just one of those things that happens with digital cable?

Thanks!

Tom

A followup....I swapped DVR boxes today. I had a late night of freezes last evening and Buk suggested a new box. SO far seems like this has resolved the problem.

I spoke too soon...got some minor pizelization/freeze tonight on HDnet movies. I assume this is just a part of HD life.

From info I received today, there is a solution for the no FFWD/REV etc on some of those Fox shows we have discussed in the past. Should happen in the next couple weeks. Motorola has worked around a Fox issue. Seems to come from Fox's 720P HDStream when the National feed switches back to local feeds for the final time. (Fox developed a black box to keep the HD feed from hitting baseband video.)
A situation I don't remembering anyone having on this forum, was where during the recording you could FFWD on the other playback channel (same show), etc BUT once the feed did the switch, you could no longer FFWD.
Have not heard many issues about this recently, but thought I'd pass this along to all of you.

Another followup on my freezing issue.

The problem was on HDnet and Hdnet movies only. Odd because nationally I wasn't reading about others having the problem.

Buckeye sends a tech to my home yesterday....the problem was on buckeye's end...he said they were tormented for two weeks with this issue that plauged the whole system...the techs finally tracked down and fixed the problem early Thursday morning.

Sure enough...for the first time in two weeks...I was able to record HDnet shows with freezes every 10/15 minutes.

I should have said WITHOUT freezes every 10/15 minutes :)

Here is what I was able to find out about the firewire connection on the DCT6412 from a good friend at Buckeye, call it the offical word:

1) The firewire output is activated.

2) Even though multiple firewire devices may conform to the IEEE 1394 standard, they may not be compatible due to how each manufacturer interprets the standard.

3) The IEEE 1394 output of the DCT6412 supports Digital Transmission Copy Protection (DTCP - also known as 5C).

4) Since the majority of our content providers require us to copy-protect our services, you would not be able to record content from the DCT6412 IEEE 1394 output unless it is connected to a device that supports DTCP/5C (unless the content is flagged as 'Copy Freely').

Just an FYI, so when the next person asks, just point them to this post. So as my prev. post goes, MY DVD-R & camcorder must not be a 5C device, thus I get no recordings.
Videditor

ALSO FOUND OUT THIS INFO:
Reply to Post 191.
Believe this was for Kent72.

The CableCARD should work with the Sony DHG-HDD500. It is supposed to work in any CableCARD-compatible device. Since the Sony DHG-HDD500 is a new product, the CRRs are not aware of this yet.
As far as being able to use it to get HD from Detroit OTA and Toledo HD via Buckeye, this should work. If this device works like the Digital Cable Ready TVs, when the CableCARD is inserted and the device is connected to cable and properly authorized, the channels displayed will match the channel line-up that we have on a digital box. Without the CableCARD, the device should search for any available digital signals, which, with an over-the-air antenna, should include Detroit HDs.

Interesting post Videoeditor.

The future of archiving HD is certainly going to be an interesting one. The best outcome would be some type of copy once flag...allowing us to archive a single HD copy...but not distribute it.

This is theoretically how it will shake out (even with the defeat of the flag in court last week). I think Moto and other DVR makers know that users want
active firewire ports and will not shut them down unless some draconian legal opinion destroys archiving forever.

Thanks for the info videditor!! Very useful information, it has also been my experience in the computer industry that "standards" are not always a full-proof way to ensuring compatibility.

As far as "copy once" I believe that the 5c copy protection allows for this flag, if I remember correctly the possible flags are:

1. Never copy
2. Copy Freely
3. Copy once (This MAY include, however, the copy to the DVR, so we may already be using the Copy once to record the program.)

::searches google to make sure he's not making an idiot out of himself:: :)

OK after looking at this white paper:

http://www.dtcp.com/data/wp_spec.pdf

there is one more in there: "no more copies" whatever that means...

That white paper should answer any technical questions about the dtcp/5c standard.

Hmmmm would the DVR copy be one copy??? Or do you get one copy of the recorded show??

How about if you don't copy it to the dvr...just stream it out the firewire into the DVHS.

I'm telling ya...recordable optical HD is going to be jammed with copy protection protocals...no component outs...a mess.

Anyone willing to place bets when recordable Optical HD comes to Best Buy in Toledo? Players will not appear until May06....recorders....Dev 06 or Jan 07.

Looks like Toshiba is balking at the "lets all get along" stuff. Could be late 07 for affordable recordable stuff.

Just an FYI for those of us ahead of the HD game.
VidEditor

Around 2 AM, the morning of 5-18-05 there will be a firmware upgrade to all of the Buckeye DCT 6412 boxes.

Side Notes on this Firmware upgrade:

Future recordings should still be set-up.

The autotune function WILL have to be reset.

The purpose of the upgrade is to resolve the
known FOX DVR problem.

WOOHOOO! Hope it doesn't screw anything else up...

Check my box out this morning... All functions are working as normal. The upgrade seemed to not have affected my box as possibly indicated.

Great news on the firmware upgrade!! I had the fast forward problem with Sunday night's second episode of the Simpsons (the first episode worked just fine).

Is everyone else still getting the ~1 second audio dropouts? I had several of them during 24 on Monday night. I've also had it on other channels, so it's not a Fox-specific problem.

I hope this is not related to the update.
the 6412 kept recording a scheduled show until I stopped it an hour after the show was over. Last night I was watching LOST in chase mode when I noticed it was also still recording past the designated time.

Anyone else?

I will be calling buckeye when I get a chance.

Is the DCT-6200 box still available from Buckeye?

HELP!! Videoeditor HELP!!

The firmware upgrade has now DOWNREZZED the firewire output to 480i!!!!

Why oh why destroy our ability to legitimately archive for our own personal use??? I have three ipods and own every single song on them. I would never think of sharing anything I copy to DVHS.

Has Buckeye now permanently destroyed their customers ability to archive in HD??

I tired this on two JVC machines (30k and 40k) I now get a copy protection message with a down rez to 480i!!

ANyone? Videoeditor can Buckeye change this?

Thanks!

Tom

I can't be the only person who archives HD off of Buckeye? ANyone else ticked off?

I called and spoke to a supervisor today. He was very nice...but was honest about his lack of knowledge regarding DVHS decks and firewire. He wrote a detailed message and will pass it on to the techs. He says the techs will call me today.

We will see!

Originally posted by Nate Thompson
Is the DCT-6200 box still available from Buckeye?

I got one in February for a couple weeks to try it out with a small LCD I bought.
So as of last February they had them

Also I archive, but use a DVDR and composite.

I'll look into the 480I signal. If this happened because of the firmware change, I am sure it is a fix one thing, another is affected unintentionally. Hey all this HDTV stuff is still in its early stages of growth as far as distribution goes. You guys are great, keep pushing the envelope.

I do not archive. I watch too much tv as it is. Besides I have seen HDTV , Digital Standard Def. for years (HDTV since it originally started on 1" videotape in the late 80's) and even though stuff looks good at home, in the studio it looks even better.

Videoeditor,

Thanks for the reply. Buckeye called back today..a supervisor. They are contacting Motorola to see what the problem is. Clearly the firmware upgrade changed something.

Does the non-dvr box have firewire ??

Tom

Okay...I read back a few pages and I think I know what the problem is..........The 5C copy flag is set to 1 which according to an earlier message means never copy. Buckeye has to change this to copy once or copy always.

As it is now...every single channel...even the damn low rez weather radar and SD channels get the copy protection message.

Buckeye...I hope someone from the company is reading this!

I may have spoke prematurely. Some of the channels are set to 1...others are set to 0. It doesn't matter....I get the copy protection message on channels with 5c set to 0!!!

Buckeye...something is wrong when I get a copy protection downrez message even on channels with the 5c set to 0!!

I received a nice email from a supervisor. He has forwarded my emails to a person who deals diretly with Motorola to try to get to the bottom of this.

Is there anyone here, with the buckeye dvr, who can archive to a JVC DVHS unit now?

I recorded Deadwood and Desperate housewives last night and had the strangest problem. Halfway through I turned on Deadwood, no sound, I tried fast forward and it kept on playing. I tried pause and it kept going as well. It would stop and start but nothing else, and no sound. DH worked fine.
New software problem?
STB problem?
Or should I just pull the plug for a while?

I never had sound dropouts till last week and now an entire show.

Also, when it fauled to FF or pause it did not show the old NO synbol it used to on fox.

While watching "24" on Fox last night every time they cut over to local from the network feed the audio cut out. Happened also when cutting back from local to the network. Only way to get audio back was to pause and then hit play. Very annoying. I suspect this has something to do with the DVR firmware upgrade. Apparently fixed one problem and caused another. This was happening on both DVR's that I have so I suspect other's are experiencing this too. Anyone else?
KentStater. I wonder if this is related to the audio issue you just reported.
By the way, this issue seems to be only happening on Fox HiDef cut-overs so far.
What's curious is the same issue appears with the DVR'd material. In other words when playing back the recorded show I would get the same problem with the audio on the recorded content. Not that the audio drop outs were recorded but hitting pause and play would immediately restore the audio so the audio is getting recorded but it's not playing back immediately after a cut over.
The work around for now is using the pause and play to restore the sound but oh, what a pain.

Just spoke to Buckeye and they claim they are aware of the issue and the "engineers are working on it."

Fullwave
Yes I am doing the same thing. Using the pause platy to restore audio. I know that it was that way on 24, but I think it happened while watching LOST also, but I can't confirm(I'm old).
I'll keep track.
Also I unplugged the unit (reboot) hours before 24 and it made no difference.

KS - Thanks. Just got off the phone with Buckeye and they claim the issue is known as of last night and they're working on it. We'll have to live with it until they come up with a solution, and we all know how long that can take. :)

ps - Just looked at your profile. Turns out that I'm a bit older than you. ;)

Bob

Folks,

Here is the latest news on my Moto 6412 Firewire downrez problem.

Spoke at length with a person from my cable company (Buckeyecable Toledo) and she said that Motorola has been notified of the issue and that they were trying to replicate it in their labs. I told her that the problem started immediately upon the flashing of the 6412 with the update.

The 10.08 update was designed to fix an issue that some Buckeye 6412 users were having with fast forwarding the Fox channels. She said this was the only thing included in the firmware update. She was very helpful and seemed to be quite concerned...she acknowledged the right of myself to make a HD copy to DVHS for my own personal use.

I decided to do an experiment today...I picked up a Moto 6200 from the same cable company to see if that allowed me to make HD copies to my DVHS. Indeed it does!! No downrez at all!!! Perfect copies!

SO I have confirmed that the issue is indeed the 6412 firmware upgrade.

I'm hoping that Moto can get to the bottom of this. My cable person did mention that they would consider going back to the previous firmware of the 6412 if they thought that this was the desire of Buckeye customers.

They gotta leave the 6200 alone for now...at least I can archive off of this box! Right now I'm keeping the 6412 also in the hope they fix this thing.

Tom

Can anyone here tell me if NBC (24) and FOX (36) are currently broadcasting their OTA HD channels? I just received a Samsun HLR4667W and have been unable to tune these two via the built-in receiver.

Just had my wife check and we are getting both 24 and 36 HD OTA.

Have you checked the alignment of the antenna at:
http://www.antennaweb.org/aw/welcome.aspx

Thanks for checking... I'm pretty sure I have the antenna aligned properly, but that may be a moot point now. I was able to confirm that Buckeye has the local HD channels transmitted using unencrypted QAM, and the tuner in my Samsung DLP can process this signal. Looks like I'll be picking up a splitter and some RG6 to test this tonight...

Nate,
Are you able to hook your basic cable line to an HD reciever (or TV) and get the local broadcast HD channels? This might be a better option than renting the box from Buckeye.

Yes, that is actually what I am doing. The HD receiver in the Samsung HLR-4667W is capable of receiving OTA digital signals, as well as cable HD channels that unencrypted. If I wanted to, I could use a CableCard and get the premium HD channels as well, but I'm not really interested in them at this time. I just needed to split the signal so I could still run my SD signal through my MythTV HTPC.

On a similar note, does anyone else have any problems with the Toledo PBS HD station showing excessive pixelation? I used to use that channel to show off HD when I received it OTA, but it is hard to watch via cable.

Whoa, talk about timely, I am sitting here looking at the Sony DHG-500 HD DVR and wondering if it would use Buckeyes card.
So you are saying that I could get the basic 39.95 cable plus the 3.95/mo card and receive HD locals, right? That would be about a 24 month break even on buying a unit I could add Detroit HD from OTA and have 500gb HDD.
What about the basic basic cable?(12.15)

You don't need a CableCard to receive the HD locals... I am subscribed to their basic extended package (channels 2-70ish) and I can access the HD locals without any problem. I believe they are required to provide the local HD channels unencrypted. They have wording to this effect in this PDF I found on their website: http://www.buckeyecablesystem.com/downloads/bci_docs/tol-ratesheet.pdf

The CableCard just allows you to tune any of the encrypted channels you'd normally need a cable box for.

First a belated thanks to Nate for the info.

Is anyone else having trouble with HD stations locking up?
Specifically 624.

Also I am having some minor problems with the 30 second skip working once but the second skip swaps the tuners, it is weird.

Thirdly I see more pixilation than in the past. My imagination?

No problem... while I can only get the locals, I have noticed that the PBS feed is much more pixelated than it was via OTA. I assume Buckeye is compressing the heck out of it, which is sad since PBS has some of the best HD sources avaiable.

I would probably just go back to using my OTA antenna, but I'm going to be recording soon with my MythTV box and a PCHDTV card, and it doesn't like when the signal drops out on OTA broadcasts.

I finally got my OTA antenna hooked up to my HR10-250, and I noticed something odd. the TiVo shows WTOL at 11-1, but I don't get a signal there. When I force it to scan for channels, it finds WTOL at 17-3, 17-4, and 17-5: IOW, right where it's supposed to be :) I'm not sure how to remap channels on the HR10-250, or even if I can, but I thought I'd post here to see if anyone else in Toledo had run into a similar anomaly.

paulr
Sorry, I do not have D* yet.
But please post your progress, I am planning to go to D* when they get the Mpeg4 and HD LIL. Since I live in Bedford up here in Michigan I will get Detroit on the satellite and Toledo OTA. So I am interested in your situation.

Thanks

ITS FIXED!!!!!!!!!!!!

Buckeye called today to say they were flashing the Moto6412 to fix the firewire output downrez problem. I am happy to report it is FIXED!!!!!!

Thank you Buckeye cable....you have a very very happy customer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey guys,

I'm new to the forum, and I also plan to be new to the world of HD. I'm a current customer of DirecTV, having defected about a year ago from Buckeye. I'm looking to purchase HD service in the near future, and my options seem to be:

Sticking with DirecTV and using an antenna for most of the HD networks (I presume).

Going back to Buckeye and getting the HD networks directly.

It seems that there are some other variables to think about. I'm a current Tivo user and would love to be able to record the HDTV channels. I'm also considered a HDTV that employs a CableCard.

Basically, I'm hoping that some other people can detail their thoughts on receiving HD in the Toledo area. Success stories, recommendations, equipment lists are all welcome.

Thanks!

Josh

Welcome, Josh!

I started my HDTV service with Buckeye, but I was never satisfied with the UI, performance, or capacity of the Motorola DVR. It's better than nothing, but it's no TiVo. Now I have a DirecTV HR10-250 that has given me flawless service. With an OTA antenna, I get the local stations with good reception.

Buckeye does have some advantages over DirecTV; chief is up-front cost, since you can rent their box for $10/month. In addition, they have TNT-HD (and maybe a couple of other channels), which DirecTV doesn't currently carry. BCSN and some of the other Buckeye-only programming is nice, too.

Thanks for the quick reply, Paulr. I have a few follow-up questions...

Do you have to mount the OTA antenna on the outside of your house?

Can you Tivo the channels you pick up with the OTA antenna?

How difficult is it to switch between the DTV channels and the OTA channels?

Thanks!

1. I had my antenna (a cheap Radio Shack amplified omni) in the attic for a while, but it wasn't great. I moved it outside-- and it's still not great, especially for NBC-24. Time for a new antenna. Lots of folks report good results with a Silver Sensor or similar antenna, but it didn't work well for me because of the location of my house.

2. The TiVo records the OTA and satellite channels seamlessly. It can record on any combination of two inputs (so, two OTA, two satellite, one of each) while playing back a third program-- quite handy.

3. The OTA and DTV channels are in the same channel guide, so there's no difference in switching between them.