Had my first seriously bad 6412 experience this morning. I had previously been using the box only as a PVR, without any HD viewing. Earlier this week I switched on HD service, and had recorded one or two HD shows. I also had about 10 recorded SD programs in my list, waiting to be viewed. Until this morning.

I recorded part of an INHD show this morning, and later played it back. At that point, everything was hunky dory. But when I deleted that one recording, ALL my other listed recordings were also deleted except one old SD program that was manually marked to be saved and one HD program from last week. Aaaargh!

dwcliff -

Thanks for your help.

I just looked and when I record a program on one of those channels with analog and digital duplicates, both the analog and digital channels turn red in the programming guide, both have that "REC" icon on them in the program guide, and both have that "red recording button" on them in the program guide...however, the analog channel is the one that records.

In your program guide, do the duplicated channels have the exact same name? For example, in Stillwater, channels 26 and 300 are both named HBO-E or HBO-East (Starz, Encore, Cinemax and Showtime are also the same in both analog and digital).

Also, when you set one of the channels that is duplicated as a favorite, does its counterpart also mysteriously become a favorite?

I have also tried to set up manual recordings on the digital channels, but as soon as I finish setting it up, the DVR starts recording the analog channel and not the digital one I wanted.

And I also tried to set up a repeat recording, and I tried to do what you suggested (change it from "any" channel"), but I am not even given the choice to make it record the digital channel....the only choices I have are "any channels" and the analog channel.

I emailed Cox and I will try to call them sometime this week. I doubt it will be fixed soon though.

Need help in resetting my program codes using the Cox Remote. I tried setting up a code and screwed up my swap and B button's. Is there a way to reset the codes to go back to the original setting?

Also, I have an Onkyo TX-SR501 and can't seem to find a code that will let me control it via the Aux button. Anyone have a suggestion?

Thanks

To reset the remote I believe it's something like the following:
Select cable device on remote
Hold down setup and wait for 2 flashes.
Enter 982
Then enter 1376 (or perhaps 01376, I forget).

However, haven't used the remote with this box for a long time so may not have given the right code - got an MX-500 universal remote I'm using instead.

Originally posted by OSUMike
dwcliff -

Thanks for your help.

I just looked and when I record a program on one of those channels with analog and digital duplicates, both the analog and digital channels turn red in the programming guide, both have that "REC" icon on them in the program guide, and both have that "red recording button" on them in the program guide...however, the analog channel is the one that records.

In your program guide, do the duplicated channels have the exact same name? For example, in Stillwater, channels 26 and 300 are both named HBO-E or HBO-East (Starz, Encore, Cinemax and Showtime are also the same in both analog and digital).

Also, when you set one of the channels that is duplicated as a favorite, does its counterpart also mysteriously become a favorite?

I have also tried to set up manual recordings on the digital channels, but as soon as I finish setting it up, the DVR starts recording the analog channel and not the digital one I wanted.

And I also tried to set up a repeat recording, and I tried to do what you suggested (change it from "any" channel"), but I am not even given the choice to make it record the digital channel....the only choices I have are "any channels" and the analog channel.

I emailed Cox and I will try to call them sometime this week. I doubt it will be fixed soon though.

Mike.....I checked out my program guide and I can duplicate your issue with HBO, Starz, and Encore. We have those channels on channels 14, 15, and 16 but also 300, 360, and 370. If I set channel 300 to record it actually records on channel 14. It also duplicates the favorites when picking one of these channels for the favorites list. What I do notice though is that I get identical surround sound from each channel....no difference. If the HBO broadcast is in dolby digital 3/2 I get it on 14 and 300...no difference. The same on Starz and Encore. On our cable system in Tulsa several of the digital channels are listed below channel 100, such as the local channels. We get ABC for example on channel 8, 708, and 718(HD). Channel 8 is the digital signal and channel 708 is the analog channel. I would venture a guess that what we are receiving on channel 14 for HBO is actually digital as well as what we get on channel 300. Do you actually see any difference in pic quality and audio stream between the two channels?

In New England, my box used to list hbo on 64, 200 and 720. 64 was typically analog, 200 digital 720 hd. The box was remaping 64 to the digital HBO, rather than ever showing the analog hbo. They have since taken 64 off of the guide, since it was just remaping to 200 anyway.

I checked this out by going into the diagnostics, under current channel status and notating the frequency.

I am pretty sure that on my system, the lower channels are analog.

When I first noticed this problem, I was recording "Starsky and Hutch" on Encore ch 212 (digital). I watched the first few minutes and noticed it had 5.1 sound, but the next day when I went to watch the whole thing from start to finish, I immediately noticed that it was no longer 5.1 sound.

But you both make good points - maybe I am wrong - maybe it is actually recording 212, just indicating its recording 25, or maybe the lower channels are now digital??? Since I just got this box last week, I really havent had time to play with it that much, so I will have to really look and see.

As for picture quality - I cant tell much difference between HBO on 26 and 300, or Encore on 25 and 212 etc.

Do most of you have both analog and digital versions of your local network channels?

Originally posted by OSUMike

Do most of you have both analog and digital versions of your local network channels? In Orange County certainly not. I wish we did!

Hi moyekj, nice little "faq"....I had no clue how to reboot the system...and after reading here how it might help to reboot it once in a while I'm glad I know how to do it.

by the way. i know this is somewhat offtopic, but its related to HDTV and cox. I am planning to move my HDTV monitor to another room. That room already has my cox cable modem service. I looked at the wiring outside in the side of my house, it appears there are no filters different on the HDTV connection compared with the cable internet connection.
So I'm thinking I can share this one connection with both. I only need to go get some kind of splitter.
I don't want to have cox do this because they charge something like $50 I think, to come out and move an outlet around. Plus I have to be there to let them in. For something this simple I'd rather do it myself anyway. I dont like paying people something I can do myself with little effort.

omarh, yes there's nothing special about the cable modem feed - a regular splitter will work fine assuming the signal strength is good enough to handle a split. If you do use an amp make sure it's bidirectional and it should work fine. I have an 8-port electroline amp/splitter from the cable drop feeding 6 terminations in the house: 4 RTVs, 1 6412, 1 cable modem. The 2 remaining ports are capped with terminating resistors. Works just fine.

Originally posted by OSUMike
I am pretty sure that on my system, the lower channels are analog.

When I first noticed this problem, I was recording "Starsky and Hutch" on Encore ch 212 (digital). I watched the first few minutes and noticed it had 5.1 sound, but the next day when I went to watch the whole thing from start to finish, I immediately noticed that it was no longer 5.1 sound.

But you both make good points - maybe I am wrong - maybe it is actually recording 212, just indicating its recording 25, or maybe the lower channels are now digital??? Since I just got this box last week, I really havent had time to play with it that much, so I will have to really look and see.

As for picture quality - I cant tell much difference between HBO on 26 and 300, or Encore on 25 and 212 etc.

Do most of you have both analog and digital versions of your local network channels?

You can check by going into the diagnostics. Tune to 300, then power off, select, select, the go to option 6 (current channel status) it will tell you if it is digital and what the frequency is. If you tune to 26 and it is the same freqency, then the box is just remaping 26 to the same carrier that 300 is mapped to, and shouldn't change how the box records it.

Actually, the box defaulting to the analog version of a premium channels seems to be a part of Pioneer's software. I've tried setting reminders on a regular digital box and also a 6200 HD box, and they both tune to the analog premium channel instead of the digital one. So I wouldn't count on a fix for this anytime soon.

I think it could be fixed by the cable company by simply renaming the digital channels (or vice cersa, renaming the analog channels).

So the analog HBO would remain HBO, while the digital one would be renamed to HBO-D.

Has anyone run into this problem? I was recording Cold Pizza on ESPN2 this morning and the show was supposed to run from 8 - 10 am EST but the recording cut off at around 9:00am. The last thing on the screen was the EAS banner at the top of the picture.

I'm assuming this is what interrupted the recording but I'm not sure. Has anyone else run into this?

I am quite happy to report that my 6200 has actually been quite stable lately and recording smoothly with my JVC30K. Has anyone else noticed this? I was having terrible reboot problems. Has there been a new firmware update? I have been leaving the box on all the time lately, could this be helping?

Glad yours is more stable shugazer9, I am still having problems missing recordings. The workaround posted earlier does work ... leaving both tuners set to analog channels over night but ....... when I go to bed and leave the box to record even one show on CBS-HD, all CBS-HD shows disappear from the Scheduled Recording screen the next day. After that, the only way I have found to bring back the scheduled recordings is to reboot. Hopefully, the new firmware, whenever it comes, will fix this and not break something else.

New user here in Orange County and so far, I am NOT impressed. I truly cannot believe that this thing was released this way. I'm even more dismayed to find out how long all of you have been dealing with these problems which STILL aren't fixed months and months after they were identified. That is just unacceptable.

All this frustration and it's only been a week and a half for me! In that brief amount of time I have:

Returned box #1 because it was DOA with no menu coming up at all rendering unusable

Returned box #2 because it was locking up on live TV, recording a full hour of TV but not letting me access all of it (at about the half way point it thinks it is at the end), had missing time gaps in the middle of shows that it would just skip over.

Box # 3 is now doing the same things as #2 did with the addition of the zero length bug.

I'm at my wits end. Is it really that hard to make things WORK as they are supposed to?

An odd occurance has been that (of course) the time it becomes most unreliable is the time you want it most. I watch all the Sci-fi shows on Friday nights and two different boxes have now done the same thing which I find really odd and too much of a coincidence.

Star Trek Enterprise - (UPN) Records the full show but only lets me watch the first 33 minutes

Stargate - (Sci-fi Channel) Did the same thing but was recording at the same time as Enterprise so that might have something to do with it. Last week though that was not the case, as I was only recording Enterprise yet I had the same results last week on a different box with the same show. Weird.

Atlantis - (Sci Fi) This came on right after Stargate and resulted in a zero length file. Don't know if it was because of the prior problem or not. First time I have seen this problem. And obviously not a HD station so it has nothing to do with that.

Playing back these shows resulted in the box eventually going to a black screen, then live TV which then froze. Then the unit rebooted itself unprompted by me. And it's still locking up on live TV today (the day after). Unplugging it will probably fix that problem, but the question is, should I have to do something like that as an end user? Why can't the thing just WORK?

As it stands now, I'd say that Cox's DVR solution is not ready for prime time and completely unreliable. And I'm not paying for the privlege of being a beta tester. They should be paying US!!!

So, I am going to start looking into other solutions. Pity as this one had so much promise too. But looks like Cox blew it and will ultimately lose my business over it unless something happens REAL quick.

Coasterbuf, other than the 0-length recordings which are most often linked to subscription bug (for which we have developed a workaround for now - read back a few pages), your other problems are not common occurence. The freezes and gaps in programming sounds like most likely a signal level problem to me. First tune to the problem channel(s), then bring up diagnostics (power off, select, select) and go to module d03 and right click on it and tell us what kind of snr and agc readings you are getting and take note if there are any correctable and non-correctable errors. Most definately if there are non-correctable errors or too many correctable errors or the snr says Poor on either tuner then you have a problem that Cox could likely resolve with a visit - and you have something to prove that there is a problem with signal level in the first place.

Setting both tuners to an analog station doesn't prevent 0 length recordings IMHO. Last night, as usual, I set one tuner to 2 and the other to 4. At 9:00 I had 702 scheduled and at 10:00 I had both 702 and 704 scheduled. The 9:00 702 recorded fine. I assume that tuner switched to 704 at 10:00, because it recorded fine, but the 10:00 702 ended up as a 0 length recording.

This is really getting old.

flip831, yes the workaround won't eliminate subscription problem 100% (though it has for me so far), but it sure seems to minimize the problem.

moyekj,

I did what you said and these are the readings I got:

UPN
SNR 20.5 Good
AGC 17% Good

SCi Fi Channel
SNR 21.1 Good
AGC 17% Good

So I don't know that singal strength is a problem here. But I will keep monitoring. Also to be clear, I do NOT have ANY HD channels or equipment so I do not believe my zero length recording problem has anything to do with subscription issues since it is basic cable we're talking about.

So far I have gotten one zero length recording on Sci Fi channel Friday and then again last night (Saturday) on ABC with the Happy Days reunion special.

I'd apreciate any additional insight anyone else might have on these issues. Again, these same problems have occured with two different boxes, two different weeks.

Coasterbuf, I didnt' realize this was for analog channels only. I was mistaken - d03 is the wrong module (OOB status). What you really are interested in is d04 which has information related to each tuner. Unfortunately for analog channels it doesn't provide any insight, only for digital channels. I use the 6412 exclusively for HD channels as I have 4 RTVs to handle all analog channels so can't help you with analog channel recording problems. I will say that for analog recordings the 6412 is a LOUSY DVR. The encoding of analog channels by this box is awful compared to ReplayTV and I would never use it for that purpose. For digital (SD and HD) there is no encoding needed as they are already encoded from headend so those channels don't suffer in picture quality. Comcast's solution to all the complaints they got over 6412 terrible encoding is to simulcast most channels in the analog lineup also in digital which eliminates the problem. The goal for Comcast is something like 75% rollout by end of this month. I've heard no dates from Cox when they're planning on doing the same.

I see what you mean. I looked up the d04 page and it provides blank fields as information which is a little frustrating. I guess I don't have much issue with the analog recordings since they all look WAY better then the VCR that I was using before. So to me this has been an improvment. And the recorded version is no different than what I see on live TV.

So now the next question...is there any other way to find out the quality of my signal besides using the cable techs themselves. I have only had the dumbest of the dumb come out and all they ever do is waste my time. When I know more about a subject then the person that's supposed to help, that's a problem!

FYI. I revised the HD-downconvert guide in my sig link below with more detail and some corrections/clarifications for those interested in making nice widescreen DVDs from Hi Def 6412 recordings.

Ok, I am going to upgrade the hard drive. Any idea what is in there and what I would need to get? Don't want to bust it open until I have purchased something.

You can't upgrade the hard drive.

Andrew Wees


Originally posted by Bruehaha
Ok, I am going to upgrade the hard drive. Any idea what is in there and what I would need to get? Don't want to bust it open until I have purchased something.

Sigh...the other night that stupid 0 length bug hit me on two shows in a row!! Really sucks.
I keep debating every day whether I should dump this and go back to DirecTIVO...sure I'd lose on HD, but at least I know things will record properly virtually every time. I can't believe how incredibly reliable my DirecTIVO was for the year and a half that I had it.
It really spoils you.

My box locked up on me again and when that happens all recording stops on both tuners. I figured out that was what was causing the problems where the full show LOOKS recorded but I can only access part. Or the middle is skipped. I was watching live TV the other night and it did it while I was watching. So at least I know the cause of that now, just not how to fix it.

I'm going to call Cox and see what the deal on this is. I've had the same thing on two different boxes. It's well ventilated and not overheating. I find it unusual that two different boxes would do the same thing though. Am I the only one that has experienced this?

ajwees41 are you certain? Has someone tried and failed to upgrade the internal hard drive with a similar drive with similar specs of a larger size?

I am not certain, but if tried you could end up frying the box. Cox owns the boxes.


Andrew Wees

Originally posted by Bruehaha
ajwees41 are you certain? Has someone tried and failed to upgrade the internal hard drive with a similar drive with similar specs of a larger size?

all of these 12/31/1989 recordings i'm getting sure are bringing back memories of being 15 on new year's eve!

Did anyone in KS or otherwise notice an update today? I came home today my recordings were screwed. All of my series recordings were still listed, but nothing was showing on the "to be recorded" (or whatever it's called - "B" button) screen. I noticed there is now a little TV Guide icon at the bottom of the guide which I don't remember seeing before. This makes me think there was an update of some sort, but I can't see anything else different so far.

No update or anything else in Omaha NE. Do you mean on Passport IPG or somewhere else?

Andrew Wees


Originally posted by Brett Miles
Did anyone in KS or otherwise notice an update today? I came home today my recordings were screwed. All of my series recordings were still listed, but nothing was showing on the "to be recorded" (or whatever it's called - "B" button) screen. I noticed there is now a little TV Guide icon at the bottom of the guide which I don't remember seeing before. This makes me think there was an update of some sort, but I can't see anything else different so far.

I'm really close to switching back to Cox from D* mainly due to their package deal which includes phone and watching this thread is making me nervous.

Any Cox Oklahoma/Tulsa folks willing to calm my fears a bit? I currently have a D* TIvo that works great but the wife wants the dish off the roof and the ability to record HD is salivating.. plus HD. The cost of the HD hardware for D* has been the sticking point a this point for me staying and they won't help. They don't seem to care anyway.

That's strange... DirecTV gave me a $250 credit to go towards the purchase of a HD-Tivo (got one for $799 last week), as well as Showtime free for 6 months. Takes the total effective price down to about what I paid for my first 30 hour standalone Tivo 4 years ago (with the lifetime service fee).

$500ish dollars is still an awful lot of cash to buy a DVR. My existing one was free(basically). Still if I plunk down $500, the cost of the programming works out ot be more and on top of that, It will take a long long long time to recoup the $500-$700 I pay for the equipment in rental fees.

Yeah, it's hard to beat the free DVR offer solely on price. For me, until Cox in New Orleans actually offers all local channels in HD, they are out of the running completely. I'm pretty much forced to pay the $500 if I want my locals, but since I (and my family) are so used to the Tivo interface, and we expect to get about 2 years or so out of it before it's replaced for free (or for a nominal charge) with an MPEG4-compatible DVR from DirecTV, I figure we're going to pay about 68 cents a day for the HD-Tivo. (It's amazing how easily the human mind can justify things, isn't it? :D).

My DirecTV bill breaks down as follows (from memory, so it could be a little off):
$42 for Total Choice Plus for first receiver (it's an SD-DirecTivo).
$5 DVR fee (covers all DirecTivos on the account)
$5 mirroring fee for second receiver (it's an SD-DirecTivo).
$5 mirroring fee for third receiver (it's an SD-DirecTivo).
$5 mirroring fee for not-yet-activated 4th receiver (new HD-Tivo).

So it's $62, once I activate my HD-Tivo. I'll probably sell one of the SD Tivos, taking my bill back down to $57. So I'll have the ability to record 6 things at a time for that price. The other cool thing I like about DirecTV is that you can turn on premium channels one day, and then turn them off the next day, and you're only charged a prorated amount of about 40 cents per premium (as long as you make all changes via the DirecTV website). With the multiple tuners available, I'll turn on one or more of the premium channels for a day or two, and load up on movies for about a dollar or so. (Sorry if this comes across as a DirecTV sales pitch - I really did want to try out the Cox DVR, but they are really lacking here in New Orleans, so it's not even worth it if I can't get all local channels in HD).

Originally posted by Shane Martin
I'm really close to switching back to Cox from D* mainly due to their package deal which includes phone and watching this thread is making me nervous.

Any Cox Oklahoma/Tulsa folks willing to calm my fears a bit? I currently have a D* TIvo that works great but the wife wants the dish off the roof and the ability to record HD is salivating.. plus HD. The cost of the HD hardware for D* has been the sticking point a this point for me staying and they won't help. They don't seem to care anyway.

What fears do you wish to be calmed? I've got COX HD service along with the 6412 and am quite satisfied.

What fears do you wish to be calmed? I've got COX HD service along with the 6412 and am quite satisfied.
Missed recording issues especially for the most part. If a Desperate housewives or an Alias episode gets botched, Cox is going to hear it from her :)

Originally posted by Shane Martin
Missed recording issues especially for the most part. If a Desperate housewives or an Alias episode gets botched, Cox is going to hear it from her :) I have avoided subscription bug completely for about 3 weeks now using the workaround (tuning to 2 analog channels before turning off the box for the night). Looks like not everyone has 100% success using the workaround but it certainly seems to help. If you are still not comfortable with that then wait until sometime in summer and come back here to see if the next firmware/software update has corrected the problem as Cox has told us this is fixed in that update (presumably happening sometime in May).

Originally posted by Shane Martin
Missed recording issues especially for the most part. If a Desperate housewives or an Alias episode gets botched, Cox is going to hear it from her :)

In that case if I were you I'd wait till the May firmware update. I've tried the workaround that works so well for moyekj as well as the other variations listed in this thread and still experience a few zero length recordings. Normally only when I am recording two back to back HD shows on the same channel and another HD show on the other tuner at the same time.

I also own an E-80 and an E-85 so if it is a show I don't want to risk missing and I'm not going to be at home to confirm the 6412 is working properly I'll just record the analog version on one of them.

It really doesn't take a lot to satisfy me but I've read posts in this and other threads where the chance of someone missing their show is a life or death situation so they are unhappy with the 6412's performance. I'm waiting patiently for this small bug to be worked out but until then I'll just go with the flow.

Originally posted by Shane Martin

Any Cox Oklahoma/Tulsa folks willing to calm my fears a bit? I currently have a D* TIvo that works great but the wife wants the dish off the roof and the ability to record HD is salivating.. plus HD. The cost of the HD hardware for D* has been the sticking point a this point for me staying and they won't help. They don't seem to care anyway.

I've had Cox HD and the 6412 here in Tulsa for about 2 months.

I had my first 0 length recording this week. I've also had a 1 hour recording keep going for over 4 hours until I finally shut it down.
Other than that, the box has worked great.
I don't have total faith in it yet which is why I still use my two ReplayTV's to backup record everything, but it's great being able to record in HD.

put together a web page for the 6412/Passport collecting together a bunch of information I gathered in this thread and in other locations as well as personal experience with the box. The idea was for a kind of 1 stop shop to quickly find relevant information without having to go hunting through this giant thread or other locations.

http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/DCT6412_Passport.html
(same link as last entry in my sig)

Please provide suggestions, comments, missing information, etc. I can update as necessary. Please be gentle as I am no HTML guru.

In Omaha Nebraska the guide will show a full seven days of data once manually refreshed.

Andrew Wees

QUOTE]Originally posted by moyekj
put together a web page for the 6412/Passport collecting together a bunch of information I gathered in this thread and in other locations as well as personal experience with the box. The idea was for a kind of 1 stop shop to quickly find relevant information without having to go hunting through this giant thread or other locations.

http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/DCT6412_Passport.html
(same link as last entry in my sig)

Please provide suggestions, comments, missing information, etc. I can update as necessary. Please be gentle as I am no HTML guru. [/QUOTE]

I found in the diagnostics screen when checking the INBAND and OUTOFBAND frequency if the up or down arrows around select are pushed the db levels would change. Does anyone know if this does anything useful?

Andrew Wees

I'll talk to the wife then. If anything this might be a good excuse to get a re corder of some sorts or jump on the HD DVD-R Type bandwagon earlier than I planned :)

Getting a DVHS wouldn't be too bad of a proposition.

One of these days us Tulsans will get together for a meet.

Thanks moyekj for the web page.

Originally posted by madpoet
Thanks moyekj for the web page. You're welcome. :) Still waiting for someone to provide some more juicy information that can be added. I changed 6 days of guide data to 6 or 7 since looks like some Cox markets actually do get the full 7 (Orange County never has).

After much experimentation I have updated the HD-downconvert guide which is now even more streamlined and produces very nice DVD-compatible mpeg from any 6412 HDTV show. See 4th link in my sig below (refresh your browser if visited before).

After 3-4 "Quiet" weeks the 6412 acted up last night. While watching a show in delay that was still been recorded as I watched, the 6412 shut itself off and rebooted. I had to manually turn it back on. After the reboot I saw the Pioneer Passport boot screen. When it came back on it started to record the show that was in progress again, so in the list there were 2 shows, one at 15 minutes length and one being recorded. 5 minutes later it shut itself off again and rebooted this time it did re-start to record the show. I went to the info screen and it showed the first reboot at 10:15 PM but not the second. The box is well ventilated and it is my second one. I checked the scheduled recordings and series manager and everything was OK.
Is thing haunted????

I can confim that the guide 2 posts above is working great. I've been woking with moyek (he's been doing MOST of it, i just nudge and ask the questions :P ) and am VERY pleased with the results, now I just need a distributed rendering farm to do the darn encodes, it takes forever at the highest quality settings (2 pass, trellis, slow settings, etc). We'll see how good the Daytona 500 looks on DVD by oh, say......NEXT Sunday :P 3.5 hours of video, 16-20 hours of encoding..... My poor Barton 2500 oc'd to 2800 will be melting.....

I optimized the HD-downconvert steps even more by eliminating another whole step. I think the process is pretty streamlined now and results in an excellent DVD-compatible mpegs.

Tonite I was watching TV - Sportscenter on ESPNHD, and all of a sudden my picture went off, I heard a click (almost like when the cable company hits the box), and now I get this "Send Init" message flashing on the LED of my 6412.

After unplugging it and plugging it back in, which didnt work, and holding down the power and guide buttons, which also didnt work, I called the Cox activation number again, and it fixed it.

This just happened out of the blue - I wasnt recording anything - and everything has worked OK here since I got the DVR a few weeks ago.

Does this happen to people often?

OSUMike, this has never happened to me, so I would say this does not happen often.

Very quiet around here lately. :rolleyes: Is it because people are content with the problems and their workarounds and just waiting for some action when a software/firmware update rolls around sometime in May? The 6412/Iguide thread is very active - probably because there are relatively a lot more problems with that solution right now and the user base (Comcast) is bigger. They are already on 9.15 firmware from Motorola (we are on 9.12). Hopefully we won't be forgotten.

Is any reason why we should turn this box off? I just received my box and can see the 'subscription bug' when I tune to various HD channels. Having a TiVo also, I just don't see why this box should be turned off. I have a bunch of recordings today just to see if I get the 'zero length' bug.

I'm still wanting to know if anyone else ever expereinces lock ups on their tuners at any time. Strangely, it so far seems to only happen mostly on Friday nights though I record lots of programing each and every day. It did lock up on one Saturday night as well. But during the week it works just fine recording away with no problems at all. I've seen this behavior in two different boxes.

Really weird.

Originally posted by klemsaba
Is any reason why we should turn this box off? I just received my box and can see the 'subscription bug' when I tune to various HD channels. Having a TiVo also, I just don't see why this box should be turned off. I have a bunch of recordings today just to see if I get the 'zero length' bug. Turning box off does turn off all outputs of the 6412 so probably accomplishes some power savings and some other things factor in (see below). Other than that the unit is still buffering both tuners to hard drive so is really no different than leaving it on.

I use the DVI connection to my TV and found that many times if I have the 6412 turned on and then turn on the TV, the picture is all mangled - the handshaking between 6412 and TV is basically screwed up. This is fixed by turning off the 6412 and turning it back on. Because of this issue I usually leave the 6412 turned off and my power on sequence turns on the TV first followed by the 6412.

Does anyone else experience bursts of audio static or dropped audio when changing channels in the "super-digital" (300+) channels? Fox Soccer Channel (324) is on a lot at our house, and about every third time that we either change channels from 324 or go to FF or Rew, we get one of these lovely features:

a) a LOUD burst of static (could-blow-out-speakers-or-ears loud)
b) all audio replaced by a high-pitched whine
c) no audio at all

I have to fix both b) and c) by messing with the audio receiver, but the 6412 is clearly what caused the receiver to freak out. Not sure if it matters, but the audio is connected via digital coax. There are other more subtle audio weirdnesses on other 300+ channels, but nothing as consistent or severe as on 324. I don't watch any other channels between 319 and 329, so I don't know if the problem on 324 is specific to that channel or affects a range of channels.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Not in Omaha NE.

Andrew Wees



Originally posted by Steve Wilcox
Does anyone else experience bursts of audio static or dropped audio when changing channels in the "super-digital" (300+) channels? Fox Soccer Channel (324) is on a lot at our house, and about every third time that we either change channels from 324 or go to FF or Rew, we get one of these lovely features:

a) a LOUD burst of static (could-blow-out-speakers-or-ears loud)
b) all audio replaced by a high-pitched whine
c) no audio at all

I have to fix both b) and c) by messing with the audio receiver, but the 6412 is clearly what caused the receiver to freak out. Not sure if it matters, but the audio is connected via digital coax. There are other more subtle audio weirdnesses on other 300+ channels, but nothing as consistent or severe as on 324. I don't watch any other channels between 319 and 329, so I don't know if the problem on 324 is specific to that channel or affects a range of channels.

Has anyone else experienced anything like this?

Originally posted by moyekj

I use the DVI connection to my TV and found that many times if I have the 6412 turned on and then turn on the TV, the picture is all mangled - the handshaking between 6412 and TV is basically screwed up. This is fixed by turning off the 6412 and turning it back on. Because of this issue I usually leave the 6412 turned off and my power on sequence turns on the TV first followed by the 6412.

I just swap tuners back and forth when I see the DVI jumble, takes half a second.

Originally posted by moyekj
Turning box off does turn off all outputs of the 6412 so probably accomplishes some power savings and some other things factor in (see below). Other than that the unit is still buffering both tuners to hard drive so is really no different than leaving it on.


I'll have to try it again, but I seem to remember that firewire is still active out when the box is off. I'll check and confirm.

Originally posted by moyekj
Very quiet around here lately. :rolleyes: Is it because people are content with the problems and their workarounds and just waiting for some action when a software/firmware update rolls around sometime in May?

I am far from content. There's just no point in continuing to complain about known problems that will supposedly be fixed in April or May. On Friday I had 5 one-hour shows scheduled and when I got home, I found that not a single one of them had recorded. No zero-length recordings, just nothing at all. It was as if they had never been scheduled. This kind of thing happens to me about once a week. Setting both tuners to analog channels before walking away seems to help some, but I often forget to do it.

I'm just waiting patiently for an update that will actually make this box usable.

Originally posted by madpoet
I'll have to try it again, but I seem to remember that firewire is still active out when the box is off. I'll check and confirm. Yeah I never tried firewire with box turned off before - usually like to see what I will capture from firewire so never thought to try it with box turned off. In any case, DVI, component and S-video outputs for sure are quiet with box turned off, though as was noted a long time ago the widescreen areas outside of the 4:3 display area still show something when tuned to an HDTV channel and turning the 6412 off, so DVI and/or component are not entirely quiet even in off state. Back to the question though I don't think there really is much point in turning the box off.

Hi, I thinking of Switching from Direct TV and Tivo to the Cox cable 6412,

Should I wait on switching till this is fixed? Is it usable? I record about 7 shows every week.

Question #2
How is HD out puted? With the HD Direct Tivo you select 720p or 1080i and that is what it always does. With the Cox 6412 does it out put in Native meaning for Standard Def show it out puts Standard, and ESPN it does 720p and NBC HD it does 1080i like the network sends in?

ScottChez if you're in no hurry wait until after the new firmware + software rolls out around May timeframe to see if the remaining critical issues are resolved as expected. Otherwise you have to live with some bugs (and workarounds to them). These bugs affect some more than others. I will say that I'm at the stage where I would not want to give up my box since using the workaround for subscription bug I've not had any missed recordings for a few weeks now. I only use the 6412 for HD recordings, RTVs for the rest. Also, you likely will be dissapointed at picture quality of analog channel encoding (channels <100) by the 6412 coming from the all digital Direct TV world.

For output specification you can independantly control the High definition 16:9 resolution output type and the 4:3 output type. For 16:9 output you can choose 1080i, 720p or 480p. For 4:3 you can choose 480i or 480p stretched or unstretched. Once you set your outputs the box will output what you select regardless of the source to the DVI/component/composite/s-video outputs.

The 2 firewire ports however are completely independant and output the native resolution of the source. i.e. for example if you tune to a 720p channel that's what you get out of firewire, if you tune to a 1080i channel that's what you will get out of firewire. Also, the firewire outputs do not output graphic overlays of the 6412 software, just the audio/video of the source foreground tuner.

I have a 65" HD RPTV, have they many any improvements with the 6412 and the pic quality of the analog channels less than 100?

I last checked two years ago and the Sci Fi channel was bad, but since then some have said Cox has made there analog channels better lately with the newer boxes?


I have noticed sometimes on Direct TV the Sci Fi channel looking bad also so I can live with some analog (Direct TV compresses a lot).

Analog picture quality is subjective and depends on where you live. Most of my analog channels look very good using TV tuners or even using ReplayTV tuners and viewing the encoded to digital image. However, the 6412 encoders are cheap and pretty bad so when viewing analog channels through the 6412 they are pretty grainy and you will likely be dissapointed versus viewing directly through an analog tuner with no encoding. Of course all digital channels (SD and HD) are not re-encoded by the 6412 so they look good.

At some point Cox will likely follow Comcast's lead and start simulcasting to digital all the analog channels, but who knows when that will happen. In the meantime I'm more than happy to use my ReplayTVs for all analog channel recordings and playback.

Yep... the honest truth is that I just have run out of energy to bitch about it. There are still some pretty serious issues with this box, but nothing's going to happen for a couple more months :(

I see lots of future talks from Cable and Direct TV about future Home Media Options. . .

Question: can the 6412 be used today as a "poor mans" home media system?

Meaning can it do dual outputs at the same time?

Would this config work?

1. Component (YpbPr) connected to my HDTV on the main level.

2. Composite Video and Sound Out to an old VCR or RF Moduator where Coax is then ran to the Bedroom TV.

3. Then use one of those "rabbit" IR extenders for the remote (buy an extra remote).

4. a standard cable box would be in the bedroom connected to the Composite in for watching TV with the Main level TV is in use. Changing channesl on the TV would be AV for Cable Box, and Chanel 4 for the Home Media feed from the main level.

5. Repeat bedroom setup for the basement TV.

This way I could watch recorded Non HD Shows in the bedroom?

Would this work?
Would I have to set the box at 480i or would it automaticaly adjust down on the composite out?

Can both be active at the same time? I know the Dishentwork 921 and the HD Tivo both can only have ONE active output at a time (they auto sence on the port).


I know cable is working on making a home media option, but if this setup works today, it would be a good reason to switch now back to cable as we wait for the real Home Media solutions to hit the market.

Anyone try this?

ScottChez, the HDTV DVI and component outputs and 4:3 composite and S-video outputs are all active at the same time (the firewire outputs are also active). The composite and S-video outputs are unaffected by your choice of outputs for the DVI and component outputs. So I would say you should be able to do what you're looking to do. Note that you can watch HD shows in the bedroom just as well as SD shows, just that they are downconverted by the 6412 to a letterbox format for composite/S-video outputs.

mokeyj and scotchez,

I am doing exactly what you are saying with only the 6412 and a $22 rf modulator, and a remote control sender with two senders.

The only problem I notice is that for some reason after I change output to 720p or 1080i then back to 480i stretched I get a sidebar on the left for non high def material on the main abc type channels. One time I was able to eliminate the sidebar but I cannot reproduce it. So just just beware the high def channels replay is not 100% in alot of cases.

Any word on the analog inputs on the front and the back?

What I am trying to do relates to sporting events. I like to listen to the local broadcasters over the radio while watching the video. The only problems is that the radio is often out of sync with the tv with the radio being ahead by 3 or so seconds. I was thinking I could output the radio signal analog and put it in the buffer of the 6412. I would then not be able to use the video of the 6412 but I have other sources for video so it isn't an issue.

Any updates on the box or suggestions?

After reading many many threads on the 6412 for both Cox and Comcast it sounds like Channels 1-80 look real bad on 55" and Higher HDTVs due to the poor Analog conversion chip in the 6412 box.

The solution is the Simulcast of 1-80 in Analog and Digital.

Question:

I see Cox has a big push to upgrade everyone to new boxes THIS MONTH Are we sure this is not related to making room for Simulcasting 1-80 in Digital to solve the picture problem and to beat Direct TV and Dishes all Digital solution.

I saw one spec on the new box related to the Guide, is there a better hardware chip in there so it can do better compression to meet the ALl Digital solution?

Anyone heard anything? How do this do all Digital (simulcasting) at Comcast??

Do you mean my post about Omaha upgrading the digital boxes. The are changing IPG's at the end of this month to a guide that looks like the guide on the 6412's with 1/4 screen video.

Andrew Wees



Originally posted by ScottChez
After reading many many threads on the 6412 for both Cox and Comcast it sounds like Channels 1-80 look real bad on 55" and Higher HDTVs due to the poor Analog conversion chip in the 6412 box.

The solution is the Simulcast of 1-80 in Analog and Digital.

Question:

I see Cox has a big push to upgrade everyone to new boxes THIS MONTH Are we sure this is not related to making room for Simulcasting 1-80 in Digital to solve the picture problem and to beat Direct TV and Dishes all Digital solution.

I saw one spec on the new box related to the Guide, is there a better hardware chip in there so it can do better compression to meet the ALl Digital solution?

Anyone heard anything? How do this do all Digital (simulcasting) at Comcast??

ScottChez, simulcasting means they are still carrying the old analog channels 1-80 but they have also added digital versions of the same channels in digital channel lineup (which requires a digital set top box to decode but would be included with any digital package). Comcast and Cox cannot do away with the analog channels since there are many customers (including me) who are using their own tuners for the analog channels and don't want to have to rent set top boxes to do that. The transistion to all digital is in the roadmap for Comcast and Cox, but I think it's a long way down the road yet, so there is not much incentive for Cox to simulcast the analog channels - besides this takes away bandwidth for them to add more HD channels which we wouldn't like either. It would take about 8-10 new carrier channels to simulcast the analog lineup, so is not a cheap proposition in terms of bandwidth for Cox and doesn't generate any new revenue for them unless they can convince those with basic lineups to upgrade to digital package with the carrot of "crystal clear" picture quality (for a price).

So tell me, the one Analog channel I record the most is the Sci Fi Channel. Switching from a DIgital Sci Fi on Direct TV, will I be happy on my 65" RPTV recording 3 Sci Fi Channels a week (Sci Fi Fridays)?

My other option for a HD DVR is to stay with Direct TV and buy the $900 HD Tivo. The Cox $15 a Month HD DVR is a lot cheaper and you get free upgrade as you are renting.

I cant decide.

As I said it's very subjective. I think most analog channels encoded through the 6412 look grainy when compared to viewing directly via TV tuner, and this is only on a 30" LCD. I imagine blown up to 65" it would look even worse. If you read the other 6412-related threads there are many complaints there from users about analog channels looking bad. Some are more picky than others and it's a very subjective thing - I'd venture to say that since you are used to digital only channels you will be dissapointed at analog picture quality in general when viewed through the 6412. Personally it's not an issue for me since I use my ReplayTVs for recording all analog channels anyway, and they do a good job of analog encoding.

Originally posted by ScottChez
So tell me, the one Analog channel I record the most is the Sci Fi Channel. Switching from a DIgital Sci Fi on Direct TV, will I be happy on my 65" RPTV recording 3 Sci Fi Channels a week (Sci Fi Fridays)?

My other option for a HD DVR is to stay with Direct TV and buy the $900 HD Tivo. The Cox $15 a Month HD DVR is a lot cheaper and you get free upgrade as you are renting.

I cant decide. In case a few hundred dollars makes a difference or not, you can get the HD Tivos cheaper than that... got mine for $799 delivered (with a 5 year warranty) during a limited-time sale, and it's commonly available for $849 when it isn't on sale, and then DirecTV gives instant credits to most existing customers (there's a special thread here (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=216440) with details on that) that can lower your effective price by another $250. I mention this because for me, paying $999 (the MSRP price) was basically out of the question, but paying $550 was low enough to get me to jump.

Originally posted by ScottChez
So tell me, the one Analog channel I record the most is the Sci Fi Channel. Switching from a DIgital Sci Fi on Direct TV, will I be happy on my 65" RPTV recording 3 Sci Fi Channels a week (Sci Fi Fridays)?

My other option for a HD DVR is to stay with Direct TV and buy the $900 HD Tivo. The Cox $15 a Month HD DVR is a lot cheaper and you get free upgrade as you are renting.

I cant decide.

I switched my SciFi recordings from my TiVo to the 6412 and they are now actually clearer. I have watched 2 weeks worth of SciFi Friday now and I just watched "The 4400" last night and it looked fine.

Note:- I watch on a 110" screen via projector connected via component cables

Keep in mind that's Tivo with analog inputs versus 6412, ScottChez is coming from DirecTivo all digital perspective. That said, that's not much of a vote of confidence for analog Tivo if the encoding by the 6412 is better! In my experience and with just a 30" LCD display ReplayTV analog encoding at medium quality blows the 6412 encoders away.

Cox Cable in Omaha as a Plasma and a 6412 connected up for customer to try out at the 76 and Dodge store.

If I go there and watch the Sci Fi channel live will it be the same quality that I get from playback on there DVR?

Also is it possible that there store fronts analog channels may look better becuase they have one of those $50 amps they always try to see people with 3 or more TVs and a cable modem in there house?

I must admit, some days Direct TVs Sci Fi channels does look bad. Rumor has it they adjust compression rates all the time when they move channels around or when they do the NFL HD package.

Anyone know the width of the 6412?

I am moving and I have having a custome Intertainment wall builts. I want to make sure the 6412 will fit when I switch to cable at my new house.

It seems like it is wider than Satellite receivers so I want to make sure.

Thanks

17" wide by 12" deep - it's the same width as my DVD player and ReplayTV so that must be pretty standard.

Just looked at the guide. 24 is not scheduled to record tonight. The guide info says New, although I have my Series Recording set to First Run and Repeats anyway. I know this isn't a new issue, but things have been quiet lately so I thought I'd see if this can get the 6412-hating discussion going again. :)

Looks like they got that new Home Media Center expander for the Xbox now.

Lets you stream videos from your Home Media Center PC to your Xbox via Cat 5.

Does the 6412 have anything planned with Cox (I know its software based).

Anyone doing anything right now to make there 6412 do Home Media center type stuff? Anyone got it going to Windows Home Media Center and then to the Xbox?

Maybe a wild shot but never hurts to ask. . .

It doesn't sound like cox in Omaha is going to use the Motorola Home Media center. If anyone that has a 6412 from cox in omaha email or call them about the Motorola Home Media Option maybe if enough people request cox will carry it.

Andrew Wees


Originally posted by ScottChez
Looks like they got that new Home Media Center expander for the Xbox now.

Lets you stream videos from your Home Media Center PC to your Xbox via Cat 5.

Does the 6412 have anything planned with Cox (I know its software based).

Anyone doing anything right now to make there 6412 do Home Media center type stuff? Anyone got it going to Windows Home Media Center and then to the Xbox?

Maybe a wild shot but never hurts to ask. . .

In addition to bug fixes here's some "hints" I've had at some of the new features to be added possibly in the next software update. These are based on a wishlist set of items I submitted to Cox a long time ago.
- Folders for better organizing scheduled and already recorded shows
- Anamorphic widescreen output or "16:9 to 4:3 stretch and zoom capabilities" so that you can get widescreen output on S-video and composite outputs if you wish which I think would be GREAT (hooking up my RTV to it to get great looking down-converted HD that preserves widescreen aspect ratio instead of being letterboxed as is currently the case).
- Remove unwanted channels from the guide listings.

My top wishlist items were:
> external storage - complicated for Cox/Pioneer to implement and will involve a lot of DRM (i.e. encryption, restrictions, etc.) to appease content providers
> 30-sec skip - I'm told this is out of the question since advertisers selling 30-sec spots vehemently oppose it of course.
> home networking - this too is pretty complicated to implement and as Andrew stated above will only happen if there is a lot of demand for it
> More than 6-7 days of guide data - I was told that initially Cox was going with just 3 days of guide data but then expanded it to 6-7. This apparently takes a huge toll on bandwidth and supposedly a full 14 days of guide data would take forever to update as well as putting a strain on the 6412 RAM and search capability would take very long. Not sure why the 6412/Iguide or 6412/MSFT solutions then were able to get away with it however, though that may explain all the stability problems the users report with those solutions.

Are they still looking at a May release for the bug fixes?

In the past did they do a phased roll out one city at a time (some my city could be last) or did they do some boxes at each city each day like they do at Direct TV.

May is still the presumed release timeframe. Previous rollout of firmware happened very quickly over all Cox markets from my recollection.

I've had my Motorola Passport DVR (from Metrocast Cable, not Cox) since January. Everything was fine until the past two weeks. During this time I've had two shows on the HD channels give me the "you need to subscribe to this service" error and therefore recorded 1 minute and then gave up.

Was there another thread on this or is it buried in here? I want to point their tech support to this in order to see if it can be fixed. Thanks. I tried doing a search on "passport" and "error" but no dice.

IcedCornholio, type in "subscription bug" in the "Search this thread" field and you will get lots of hits (most recent references first). For a summary of this and other problems/workarounds you can refer to:
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/DCT6412_Passport.html#Known_Problems_and_Workarounds

Oh my, I'm such a n00b. I just noticed that search this thread instead of search everything and saw your link. Thanks so much. And thanks for putting up with me. ;)

Some observations and possible causes to 6412 problems:

Okay...I haven't got much feedback here from the problems I posted earlier. But after about a month of problems with this unit, I think I have figured them out myself. There is a pattern to my problems!

I think that the freezing problems I have been experiencing and the subsequent failure to record shows properly are directly related to the Sci-Fi channel in some way. Each and every week on Friday night, the box will lockup/freeze and Stargate will have only the first 20 or 30 minutes recorded. This occurrence will then also bring down the second tuner and results in Enterprise having the same problem. 4 weeks in a row, exact same issues. With several different boxes.

I believe this to be due to my SciFi channel's habit of blacking out at times. This has always been the case with this channel even on non-DVR hardware. For whatever reason, the picture will go black and audio will stop for around 5-10 seconds. I don't think there is a pattern to these dropouts, but considering my each Friday night problem maybe there is. (I recorded 3 nights of "The 4400" Tue through Thur with no problem whatsoever last week).

It's just a hunch but I could be wrong. I have had other non recording or partial recording problems on ABC too, but I suspect the other tuner was still on the Sci-Fi channel which would explain that.

Something happened today along the same lines. It seems that when the Emergency Broadcast EAS test is done, the recording will stop at that point in time and NOT resume. Kind of annoying.

So my question is, who do I report these kinds of issues to at Cox? Any contact info? My local Cox office is rather clueless.

And does anyone else in the Orange County CA area have problems recording the Scifi channel on Friday nights?

Thanks!

Coasterbuf I think you are definately on to something. I do record SciFi shows on Friday nights - Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica. But I use my ReplayTVs for them and maybe they are less sensitive to the problem than the 6412 but they record just fine. Note that the 6412/Iguide people have lots of complaints about freezing up on analog channels and supposedly a Motorola firmware upgrade from 9.12 to 9.15 has helped some but not all.

Which program specifically do you have problem with: Stargate SG-1 or Stargate Atlantis? If I know which one I can try setting up a record of that program with my 6412 this Friday to see if I can duplicate your issue.

As far as who to complain to probably your best bet is to use email to Cox OC for now. If this problem is not restricted to 1 individual then it's likely we can channel this information through VideooooGuy and get the message to Cox corporate engineering in Atlanta where it would ultimately go anyway.

FWIW I have recorded the following on Fridays for about 4 weeks now without a glitch (tough wood)

SG1
Atlantis
Battlestar Galactica
Enterprise
Numb3rs (HD)

As you may notice I have 2 shows recording at the same time, twice

I have noticed a much more stable box if i dont have the DVI connected. I have a JVC 30K connected via firewire and i think having both results in some kind of conflict. Anyone else notice this?

Originally posted by moyekj
Coasterbuf I think you are definately on to something. I do record SciFi shows on Friday nights - Stargate Atlantis and Battlestar Galactica.

Which program specifically do you have problem with: Stargate SG-1 or Stargate Atlantis? If I know which one I can try setting up a record of that program with my 6412 this Friday to see if I can duplicate your issue.


Out of the 4 weeks of problems since I got the 6412 , 3 out of 4 of the weeks occured while recording from 8:00-9:00pm. The box will freeze during this time while recording Stargate SG-1 and Enterprise anywhere from around 8:20-8:40 taking both tuners and recordings down. The freeze usually has not cleared itself up by the time Atlantis rolls around at 9:00, so it doesn't record at all. The first week I had the box it chose to act up on Battlestar Galactica instead. But so far, it's always been a weekly Friday night ritual. And one I am getting very tired of!

It should be noted here that I record every day with my 6412, and many times it is two shows at the same time. But the only day I really have problems with it, is Friday night. (The day most important to me of course!). I did have 1 Monday and 1 Saturday problem but I think these were left over problems from Friday night or related to the other tuner being on Sci-Fi channel. And I have experienced the same problem with two seperate boxes. I turned my previous one in because I thought it was defective, only to have the same problems yet again with the new box!

And sometimes the freezes don't clear themselves. I've seen the same "live" TV image still there 24 hours later. Other times it seems to clear itself up. 3 out of the 4 times it has taken both tuners out of commission, but one time it seemed to only affect one. It's just really strange. I don't really understand how this can be occuring.

I'd love to have one of these boxes on every outlet in my house and see what would happen. Hmmm...maybe I will talk to my neighbors and see if any of them have the 6412 yet and see what happens at their house.

Although frankly, we as customers shouldn't be having to go to these lengths or be putting up with these problems.

3 Cox 6412 DVRs Returned


All these problems with the 6412 remind me of Two years ago when Dishnetwork had there 501 DVR.

You would think other companies would learn from others mistakes in QA and Testing (the lack of) and get these things fix before the product is released.


I was at the Cox Cable Office yesterday looking at there DVR on the Plasma (to check out the quality of the Analog channels- Sci fi).

3 Cox DVRs where returned while I was there, customers all said they missed recordings of there favorite shows and the $15 a Month was not worth the price of missing recordings.

=======COX========== if your out there, please get the new software update sooon.

To do the "Poor Mans" Home media center with the 6412, I will need a 2nd remote.

Does cox rent them or do you buy them? How much? (I think some already have this setup at home).

Go to Best Buy and get one of these 6-in-1 universal remotes (URC 6131) with PVR functions for $11:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?j=1&skuId=5431632&type=product&id=1051826212660

Codes that work for controlling DCT6412 with this remote: 0476, 0276
Learn advanced programming techniques for it here:
http://www.hifi-remote.com/ofa/advanced.shtml

Well I signed up for this.. due next week. A guy at work doesn't seem to be having hardly any issues with it so we'll see how my chances go.

Cox did say they won't let me have more than 1 box due to limited availability

Originally posted by Shane Martin
Well I signed up for this.. due next week. A guy at work doesn't seem to be having hardly any issues with it so we'll see how my chances go.

Cox did say they won't let me have more than 1 box due to limited availability

I know in Omaha they're staring to wait-list again at times because Motorola production can't keep up with demand. :(

Originally posted by dloseke
I know in Omaha they're staring to wait-list again at times because Motorola production can't keep up with demand. :( Actually to me that's actually a great sign - maybe this solution will be around for a while and get the attention it needs to make it more stable and with improved features.

Speaking of stability....

For the first time in 5 weeks, my Friday night recordings went off with out a hitch. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...the only thing different was that Enterprise wasn't on this week.

Maybe the box just doesn't like the UPN/Sci-fi combination from 8-9. Like so many other people, I'd take the easy way out and just say it doesn't like Enterprise :), but it records the second airing on Sundays just fine. So that's not it!

It's a head scratcher as to what it really is though.

Coaster,
A guy at work noticed a software update here so perhaps you got it too.

Originally posted by Coasterbuf
Speaking of stability....

For the first time in 5 weeks, my Friday night recordings went off with out a hitch. Hmmmmmmmmmmmm...the only thing different was that Enterprise wasn't on this week.

Maybe the box just doesn't like the UPN/Sci-fi combination from 8-9. Like so many other people, I'd take the easy way out and just say it doesn't like Enterprise :), but it records the second airing on Sundays just fine. So that's not it!

It's a head scratcher as to what it really is though.

Coast,

Just to let you know, I've never had a problem recording the SG shows or enterprise on the Friday Night.

My line up is very much the same as yours:

Enterprise
SG1
SG A
BS G
Then I also record, Johnny Zero (HD) and Medical Inv (HD.

All with no problems...

Anyone else having guide data problems. I currently have only 2 1/2 days of data. When we left for vacation a week and a half ago, we had the full 6 days. When we returned, only 2.5 days. Tried rebooting and reloading the guide (holding GUIDE button for 5 secs) and no change. Called Cox ... boy is that a waist of time. First CSR said she would send a signal to the box ... nothing happened. Called back and the next CSR told me "they changed the guide and there are now only 2 days available". When she stared arguing with me about it, asked to speak to her supervisor. He didn't have a clue either ... but said "if we had 6 days in the past we should still have 6 days." We now have another tech visit scheduled ... and 2.5 days of data.

Please Cox, fix the problems and train your CSR's.

FYI, lucky souls with the SA8300HD and Sara software solution already have working external storage (SATA drives):
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=516559

Perhaps this will set a good example for Cox/Motorola/Pioneer to follow.

P.S. 6 days of guide data for me.... and no missed recordings for about 5 weeks now since using the subscription bug workaround - wahoo.

Originally posted by moyekj
and no missed recordings for about 5 weeks now since using the subscription bug workaround - wahoo.


moyekj,

I'm glad it works well for you, for me it doesn't work worth diddly squat.

Down to 1 day of guide data. The box won't load anything after 4 AM Tuesday morning. Cox doesn't have a clue. They are sending a tech out but the first appt. is Thursday. Told them the box is useless without the guide and got the response, "no it's not ... you can still record as long as you are there to press the record button when the show starts". Guess this is their new work-around.

Also got the subscription bug tonight. The box recorded Cold Case on CBS-HD then CSI was scheduled. Got the subscription bug and CSI did not record. Next on tap was CSI-NY, another subscription bug. This is the first time I have gotten the subscription bug going from one show to another in the next time slot.

The problems seam to be getting worse.

apaulct, check d03 and d07 in Status Page (Cable, off, select, select). d03 gives diagnostic info about information coming from headend, and d07 gives information about upload status. They may provide a clue something is wrong. Sounds like the internal cable modem is having trouble communicating with headend to me.

If the above provide no clues, go to diagnostic menu and look for errors in downloads:
Menu, Down, B, Up, B.
This provides details of files downloaded from headend. If there are errors there or no files downloaded for a few days then it's definately the cable modem having a problem.

Originally posted by apaulct
Told them the box is useless without the guide and got the response, "no it's not ... you can still record as long as you are there to press the record button when the show starts".

I have Comcast and that CSR has no clue "If you have NO guide you can not record. I tried NO GO.

Call Cox and see if you can just being it in for a trade in.

The guide is back. Tonight, when I turned on the box, 6 days of guide data were displayed. Don't know what happened but it is working again. Think I will keep the tech visit scheduled just in-case I have problems later in the week.

Thanks for the suggestions, moyekj. If it happens again, I will be sure to check out the status screens.

definitly a glitch. I noticed the problem on my NON HD digital boxes also. When I got home last night from work they were all fixed.

Since you had the problem too, schmitter, must have been at the Cox CT head-end. Of course, customer non-service knew nothing about it. Got their standard solution ... send a "signal" to the box ... if that doesn't work, schedule a tech visit (a week later).

Originally posted by Sugrat
Coast,

Just to let you know, I've never had a problem recording the SG shows or enterprise on the Friday Night.

My line up is very much the same as yours:

Enterprise
SG1
SG A
BS G
Then I also record, Johnny Zero (HD) and Medical Inv (HD.

All with no problems...

Thanks for that info. I think my therory was somewhat blown tonight. For the first time ever, it locked up on 1) A tuesday night and 2) On CBS. Two things it has never done before. Just one tuner this time. It kept recording blissfully away on the other tuner.

The problems with this thing are really strange and off the wall. And I am really getting annoyed with it!

After an 8 hr install including phone, internet and HD DVR, I'm installed. The box is pretty cool and the speed is impressive. The PQ on most channels are most impressive. I watched alot of HD last night.

Tomorrow I'll play with it more to get used to the DVR and see what's up because tonight I get to work on a water leak :( or atleast supervise and learn as I'm not too well versed in home repairs.

Found this link for some interested:

Cox is selling some systems it appears. Tulsa is one of them

http://www.kotv.com/main/home/stories.asp?whichpage=1&id=79196


EDIT: Saw a rebuttal that says it may not be in terms of Tulsa.

This may affect Stillwater though.

I saw the same story today in Orange County Register. Cox Orange County, CA will not be affected according to them.

My guide data is definitely messed up today in Rancho Palos Verdes. It looks like they added the TV Guide info to the software, there is a little TV Guide logo in the guide that didn't used to be there and there are channel logos on the info bar but they don't match up correctly to the channel info being displayed!

Anyone else notice this? I rebooted but still see the same messed up info.

Damon

On my system, I find that I automatically get guide data when moving days ahead. For example if I press 4 and right arrow, it goes to Monday's guide.

It will say "loading data..." and then it'll pop up. What's odd is that it won't immediately show a show that's supposed to record with the REC icon when you do it this way. I can always load guide data up to 7 days out this way however. If I press 8 and right it will just be non-stop half hour shows called "No Data." I wonder if I should get a season pass to No Data.

Any further word on external hard drives lately? With the 8300-SARA guys enjoying external storage (some of them at least) I'm hoping we will see something soon.

does this unit output to all outputs at the same time..

I'd like to output dvi to the TV, and output composite low res to an RF modulator so i can watch stuff in other rooms, is this possible?

Originally posted by Mgalin
does this unit output to all outputs at the same time..

I'd like to output dvi to the TV, and output composite low res to an RF modulator so i can watch stuff in other rooms, is this possible? Yes. All outputs are simultaneous and active all the time (as long as the unit is turned on).

Kevin(moyekj),

First off, If I haven't mentioned it already, thanks for all the info you've generated on this and other threads. The guides you've written & linked in your sig line are really handy.

I think I'm going give the DVD instructions a try and I do have one initial question about the process for Widescreen HD programs:
Are the resulting DVD's letterboxed 4:3 or anamorphic 4:3(i.e. "widscreeen enhanced") video?

You mention that they are widescreen but not the specific format & I was just curious about this. I'm guessing this may be of interest to others as well.

Thanks again,
Ray

Ray, you're welcome. The resulting DVD is anamorphic widescreen. i.e. on a widescreen display it occupies the entire screen width and height. On a regular 4:3 display it will be letterboxed with black bars on top and bottom to get to the correct 16:9 aspect ratio.

If I wanted letterboxed 4:3 that would be much easier as I could just run the S-video output of the 6412 to my ReplayTV, but my goal was not to compromise quality and to maintain the full widescreen aspect ratio which is why I do it the "hard" way described in my guide. Anamorphic output from the 6412 SD outputs was high on my wishlist and may eventually be a reality in a future firmware/software upgrade.

After really messing with my new DVR, I'm really liking this thing. I still have my D* TIvo working and while the button layout isn't as nice as the D* Tivo, the fuctionality is there and I do like it quite a bit. It's just an adjustment phase is all.

I am also looking for one of these.

I am now running both a component and DVI/HDMI cable to my TV to see which one I like the best. What I am noticing is that the gamma level is much higher through DVI. Are others noticing the same thing? Maybe it just my TV. No matter what I did with my picture settings, I was not able to bring in down. Almost like there was a fine haze over the entire picture.

I just dropped D* tivo for the Cox 6412... so far I love this thing. It seems to have every feature that my D* Tivo had and I think the the UI is better than Tivo, and it is much faster.

Things I'd like to see improved are, first and foremost, fix the subscription bug.
Then I'd like to see the following features added...
Allow removal of unwanted channels from the guide
Add Folders
Full supt of firewire w on-screen graphics
Allow storage expansion thru use of external harddrives

It sounds like a lot of these are already slated to hit the box with the upcoming firmware upgrade... and I certainly hope so. Great box.

Oh, almost forgot... If possible, improve the analog channel picture quality, either by moving analog channels to digital or improving the tuner and video processing in the box.

Cox Orange County, CA
I only have guide data until 4:00am Thursday morning. I tried forcing a guide re-download by holding down the Guide button on the front panel and waiting a few hours - no change. After that I rebooted the unit last night and checked this morning and still no change... seems like there's only data until Thursday at 4:00am from the headend. OOB diagnostics check out OK and Menu,Down,B,UP,B and scrolling to the end shows several files downloaded last night. While I still get a lot of errors (missing files?) it's no different than normal.

Anyone else in Orange County or other markets seeing this? Seems like this problem is going around as others reported the same problem a few days ago.

Yep. I'm in OC and am experiencing the same problem. The harddrive went out on my previous box so I just got a new one this week. I thought maybe this was in some way related to that change.

Has anyone else had any problems when recording the HD version of CSI? Twice now - I lost the front sound, it's hard to explain, basically, you can hear all the background noises (cars, footsteps etc) but you can't hear a word the people are saying... this usually happens until the first ad break..

Question is, is it my unit (this is the only show I'm having issues with) or is everyone else having the same issue?

Originally posted by Sugrat
Has anyone else had any problems when recording the HD version of CSI? Twice now - I lost the front sound, it's hard to explain, basically, you can hear all the background noises (cars, footsteps etc) but you can't hear a word the people are saying... this usually happens until the first ad break..

Question is, is it my unit (this is the only show I'm having issues with) or is everyone else having the same issue?

I'm in RSM and have had the same problem with CSI twice. First time it was fixed after 1st commercial break(the rich guy dead on his front steps). Last week it didn't get fixed until the 2nd break. We were watching live and were able to just swap to the SD channel and watch it there.

Basically sounds like all the sounds effects and ambient noise is there and the dialog track is missing.

Our assumption was this was someone asleep at the wheel either at CBS or Cox head-end. My vote would go to CBS, since Cox just forwards whatever they're sent. I don't suspect the box.

Originally posted by Tiresius
I'm in RSM and have had the same problem with CSI twice. First time it was fixed after 1st commercial break(the rich guy dead on his front steps). Last week it didn't get fixed until the 2nd break. We were watching live and were able to just swap to the SD channel and watch it there.

Basically sounds like all the sounds effects and ambient noise is there and the dialog track is missing.

Our assumption was this was someone asleep at the wheel either at CBS or Cox head-end. My vote would go to CBS, since Cox just forwards whatever they're sent. I don't suspect the box.

Funny, was going to post the exact same thing this morning as I can usually put up with losing sound in the first 2 minutes or so but it was almost 12 minutes into the show this week without any center dialogue channel !!
Also, the commercials are not affected

Ironically, the situation was reversed a few months ago when the show was OK but the commerciallys had no center channel !!

I just sent them an online email here. Please everyone do the same if you are also having a problem.

Email Support (https://www.cox.com/support/oc/emailchat/emailus.asp)

I've been having the same problem with the center channel on CSI. I just turn on closed-captions and read the dialogue until it comes back on, usually after the first commercial break.

I'm mostly using analog outputs for audio with no problems, so these audio problems for HD channels must be the digital audio outputs only (DD5.1 or PCM).

Originally posted by Sugrat
Has anyone else had any problems when recording the HD version of CSI? Twice now - I lost the front sound, it's hard to explain, basically, you can hear all the background noises (cars, footsteps etc) but you can't hear a word the people are saying... this usually happens until the first ad break..

Question is, is it my unit (this is the only show I'm having issues with) or is everyone else having the same issue?

I have had the same problem with both CSI and Numbers over the past couple of weeks. Looks like CBS is trying 5.1 and missing the center channel. The problem is with CBS, not Cox as I have the same symptoms OTA and with cable.

Originally posted by moyekj
Cox Orange County, CA
I only have guide data until 4:00am Thursday morning. I tried forcing a guide re-download by holding down the Guide button on the front panel and waiting a few hours - no change. After that I rebooted the unit last night and checked this morning and still no change... seems like there's only data until Thursday at 4:00am from the headend. OOB diagnostics check out OK and Menu,Down,B,UP,B and scrolling to the end shows several files downloaded last night. While I still get a lot of errors (missing files?) it's no different than normal.

Anyone else in Orange County or other markets seeing this? Seems like this problem is going around as others reported the same problem a few days ago.

Spoke to a local tech last week, he said they had software problems at the local office causing guide data not to download. It was fixed just before my box ran out of data (fixed Monday ... guide data ended Tues @ 4AM). Been working fine since then.

Sigh.... I called Cox OC technical support to report problems with guide missing data after Thurs 4:00am and they insisted that someone be by the box so they can do their customary "hit" to see if problem goes away one-size-fits-all solution. This was even after I detailed that Cox CT had a similar problem last week (headend problem) and that others in OC are seeing the same problem. Guess I'll have to wait until I get home and call again and go through all the B.S. again to get to a useful point.

When I got home tonight I went to the last page of the Quick Settings page (Menu,Down,B,Up,B) and the logs state that EPG_DATA was uploaded to my box twice today: 1:50pm and 4:16pm. The first time was shortly after I had called Cox tech support, so maybe they did something useful after all without me having to be there. In any case, I have 6 days of guide data again.

Originally posted by apaulct
I have had the same problem with both CSI and Numbers over the past couple of weeks. Looks like CBS is trying 5.1 and missing the center channel. The problem is with CBS, not Cox as I have the same symptoms OTA and with cable.

It happened to me on CSI last week and a month or so ago. I thought it was my stereo system that was messed up, I spent a whole night trying to figure out what was happening! Nice to hear that it wasn't my setup, not nice to hear that CBS doesn't know what they're doing.

Damon

The audio problem may be a local station issue, not the CBS network. It seams to happen when they go from a show recorded in 2.0 audio to one in 5.1. I wonder if there is a switch the local must throw to send the 5.1 signal. This could explain why it does not happen in all markets and why the 5.1 kicks in during the show ...somebody woke up at the switch. I have noticed my AVR senses "STEREO" when the center is missing then switches to "Dolby Digital" when all channels are present.

This reminds me of the old days (last year) when the locals would forget to flip the HD switch. They would broadcast an HD show in SD until we called to remind them to switch over to HD.

Comcast and Tivo joined up. Maybe Cox will get smart and do the same. This box is simply not at the Tivo level, and after a year I don't have much faith in it.

Still considering D*, but will wait until the spring updates to see if there is any improvement on the reliability of the box, and storage capacity.

Any others feel the same way? Maybe Cox will listen if we voice our opinion.

rdenichilo I actually still have faith in the 6412/Passport solution. We have come a long way in less than a year. And remember the new Comcast/Tivo agreement won't result in a real product until sometime in 2006 at which point it will take a while for it's bugs to be worked out too. And from the press release looks like the Hardware platform was going to be the Motorola 6400 series boxes. Remember that many of the bugs we are seeing are due to limitations in the underlying hardware and Motorola firmware which is why Iguide and MSFT solutions also have lots of problems besides their own software-induced ones. So there's no guarantee that the Tivo name alone will solve all these problems, and these other solutions have quite a jump-start on Tivo already, so I'm not convinced the Tivo solution will be any better. Also, the current Tivos already have a lot of DRM built in, and when teaming up with Comcast no doubt even more will be added, so why this could turn out to be a good thing it's way too early to tell.

OK, please excuse me for not scrolling through the 70+ pages on this thread, but my cable company, Cox Baton Rouge, just informed me that a new box will be replacing the DCT 6412 box in mid May. They said it will fix a lot of the problems we are all having, have a larger hard drive, and have picture in picture capability. Anyone know the scoop on this box? Thanks...

jimtigerpt, it's the next phase hardware of the DCT6400 series boxes. It will look very similar to the current box except as you mentioned internally may have a bigger hard drive, will have a SATA port for potential external hard drive expansion and as you mentioned PIP capability. Cox VideooooGuy has mentioned these bits and pieces in prior posts.

I wounder if all Cox areas will get them in May?

Andrew Wees





Originally posted by moyekj
jimtigerpt, it's the next phase hardware of the DCT6400 series boxes. It will look very similar to the current box except as you mentioned internally may have a bigger hard drive, will have a SATA port for potential external hard drive expansion and as you mentioned PIP capability. Cox VideooooGuy has mentioned these bits and pieces in prior posts.

Originally posted by caeguy
I am now running both a component and DVI/HDMI cable to my TV to see which one I like the best. What I am noticing is that the gamma level is much higher through DVI. Are others noticing the same thing? Maybe it just my TV. No matter what I did with my picture settings, I was not able to bring in down. Almost like there was a fine haze over the entire picture.

Any comments?

caeguy, I use DVI -> DVI connection to my Philips 30" LCD HDTV and don't see any problems - very similar picture to component connection which I also tried at one point for comparison. DVI was slightly better (crisper) than component from my recollection.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that the only side-effect of using DVI over component I have noticed is that once in a blue moon (sometimes when you turn on the TV first and then the 6412) the handshaking get's screwed up and you will see a double-image of the video on the screen - turning the 6412 on/off or changing channels will fix it. Not a big deal but just wanted to mention it.

I saw someone mention the analog channels. One thing that has really disappointed me about Cox is how awful their analog channels are. The picture quality is just terrible. One example is UPN. My parents get amazing quality using a standard roof antenna...but when I watch UPN through Cox I see noise, and hear buzzing in the audio.
One major advantage DirecTV has, is that all their channels are digital.
But Cox definitely has them beat on the High Def offerings.
So looks like we have to wait till May for the big software update that was being talked about here a while back?

Originally posted by rdenichilo
Comcast and Tivo joined up. Maybe Cox will get smart and do the same. This box is simply not at the Tivo level, and after a year I don't have much faith in it.

Still considering D*, but will wait until the spring updates to see if there is any improvement on the reliability of the box, and storage capacity.

Any others feel the same way? Maybe Cox will listen if we voice our opinion. Man, I really hope Tivo cuts a deal with Cox cable too. Especially since Comcast and Cox are both using the same boxes. All of the hard work will be done by Tivo and Comcast over the next year or two. Cox can hopefully come in near the completion of the Tivo software for the boxes and strike a similar deal, and then be able to deploy it not that much later than Comcast (within 6 months maybe?). By then, the HD situation should have settled down - I should hopefully have all locals available via cable or DirecTV by then, I won't be under any commitment to DirecTV, and I'll be able to see which company (Cox or DirecTV) wants my business more. ;) Just got to love competition!

I had a COX service rep out because of problems with my 6412, and he didn't do anything... just told me the problems are well known and are due to be fixed with a software update. I've been reading this forum for a couple hours now and I haven't found much indication that the worst of my problems is common. I have several recordings that stop somewhere in the recording and present a popup box that asks if I want to delete or save and end. The recording from that point forward is broken (I can't access any more of the recording). Is this a common problem?? and I don't suppose there is any way to get past the box and access the rest of the recording??

VideoGT - first I've heard of recordings stopping in the middle and presenting a dialog box. You should ask COX to swap out your box for another one to see if these problems persist. If the problem is still there for a new box then I would suspect signal level problems - but I'm sure the COX rep that went out there at least tested that right?

For those that are having trouble with subscription bug and the existing workaround doesn't seem to help, here's another workaround which may give better results:

Setup a manual recording 1 minute in length 1 minute before every real recording.

The idea is to get the manual recording to tune to the channel to be recorded first. You don't care if this recording suffers from the subscription bug or not. 1 minute later if the tuner is already on the right channel and either the subscription message has had time to go away or tuning a second time will clear it up in which case the real recording should work.

For those having chronic subscription bug problems it would be useful if you could try the above workaround and report back here if it helps or not.

For information on how to setup individual or repeat manual recordings consult Setting Up Manual Recordings (Single or Recurring) in my web page:
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/DCT6412_Passport.html#Tips_and_Tricks

The service man did nothing to check signal levels. He just said the box has known problems and we need to wait until the end of March for the software push Motorola is supposed to do then. Here's something to think about though. My wife and I were watching Home Makeover and the box was recording the show. A friend stops by to pick up his daughter so we talk a few minutes and miss the end of the show, but we can see it on the tv, we're just not paying attention to it. After he's gone, we go to the recording and get about 5 minutes into the spot we missed and the recording stops, and the box comes up that asks if we want to delete or save. That was it.. broken recording and I didn't notice any signal problems while we were talking to our friend (daughter's friend's dad). I had saved 3 broken recordings to show the tech but he didn't even want to look at them, he figured he knew exactly what the problem was just based on my description that the recordings were "broken." I've had the problem where I get a 1 minute recording, and the problem where the start and stop time are the same (effectively no recording). I have Tiling sometimes and none at others. I wonder if the box is a problem now.

moyeki,

I am suprised you feel that way. As someone who must have spent an incredible amount of time coming up with "work arounds", why would you believe the box is worth a dime? My Tivo is 4 years old and I have never had one problem with it. Not one. I never feel the need to babysit it or wonder if it will miss a recording. Add to that the superior interface, and you have to conclude that Cox is behind where Tivo was four years ago. Yes, I understand that HD adds complications, and the HD Tivo has some issues. But those issues are not with the interface. I do not think that people are missing recordings with the HD Tivo.

Lets face it. This box is a cheap solution. Analog channels are unacceptable due to bad codecs. I do not want to switch to another input to get a better picture. I pay for DVR, and I want to be able to use it on all channels. The box is unreliable, and has insufficient storage. These are not characteristics of a quality product. I would not recommend this box to anyone.

I am not trying to flame you or start something. I just question why you have the faith. Personally, Cox has a history of dealing with issues I have very well. That's why I am willing to wait for the next update. If that doesn't solve these problems, I suspect I will have NFL ticket in the fall, and will recommend the same to others who seek my input.


Originally posted by moyekj
rdenichilo I actually still have faith in the 6412/Passport solution. We have come a long way in less than a year. And remember the new Comcast/Tivo agreement won't result in a real product until sometime in 2006 at which point it will take a while for it's bugs to be worked out too. And from the press release looks like the Hardware platform was going to be the Motorola 6400 series boxes. Remember that many of the bugs we are seeing are due to limitations in the underlying hardware and Motorola firmware which is why Iguide and MSFT solutions also have lots of problems besides their own software-induced ones. So there's no guarantee that the Tivo name alone will solve all these problems, and these other solutions have quite a jump-start on Tivo already, so I'm not convinced the Tivo solution will be any better. Also, the current Tivos already have a lot of DRM built in, and when teaming up with Comcast no doubt even more will be added, so why this could turn out to be a good thing it's way too early to tell.

I went and looked at the Cox 6412 in Omaha at there Store.

The analogs are real bad on the stores Plasma screen. The HD and Digital channels are the best I have seen anywhere.

But I, like most of the world mostly watch the Top 30 Channels which just happen to be on the Analog channels.

This is not acceptable when you have a HDTV.

Cox needs to either fix the Codecs or simulcast Analog to compete with DBS. The channels are bad.

Analog channels are unacceptable due to bad codecs.

Did anyone elses box reset itself on Wednesday Night? Not sure what time but then I turned on the tv at 12am, the screen was black and I checked the unit and it was powered off - when i switched on, all it had on the channels was 'no data' and that lasted for abount 2 hrs...

Just wanna know if it was just me...

I didn't notice anything in Omaha, but one this week it rebooted on its own and kept rebooting until I unscrewed the cable in and let it boot.

Andrew Wees


Originally posted by Sugrat
Did anyone elses box reset itself on Wednesday Night? Not sure what time but then I turned on the tv at 12am, the screen was black and I checked the unit and it was powered off - when i switched on, all it had on the channels was 'no data' and that lasted for abount 2 hrs...

Just wanna know if it was just me...

Originally posted by rdenichilo
moyeki,

I am suprised you feel that way. As someone who must have spent an incredible amount of time coming up with "work arounds", why would you believe the box is worth a dime? My Tivo is 4 years old and I have never had one problem with it. Not one. I guess I've learned to be patient and we have indications that Cox corporate is serious about resolving remaining issues - and remember I have 4 ReplayTVs that are faithfully recording everything SD as well as serving as backups and so I only use the 6412 for HD recordings. This is one of the few cable-based solutions out there that you can extract recordings (even HD ones) from the box - to me this is a HUGE plus and while I have had to babysit the box a little for the most part it just does what I expect for HD recordings. I totally agree that by itself if you have no other PVR in the house to take care of SD analog recordings this solution falls far short and you are much better off with ReplayTV or Tivo, but for HD-only recordings I think it's pretty good already and upcoming software releases will fix the subscription bug as well as add some more features. I sure do hope the Tivo/Comcast teaming up is successful and they can get a good solution in place, though that won't be at least until mid to end 2006. By then if the solution we have at the time is no good then perhaps Cox can strike an agreement with Tivo too. Until then I don't see a better solution in the short term - Iguide and MSFT and Moxi all seem to have their share of problems/limitations and in comparison I think Passport Echo is just as good if not better. Satellite for me is just not an option since they have bandwidth limitations compared to cable, currently don't offer HD locals (you have to use OTA), require a set top for every TV plus new coax wiring all around the house and an ugly dish on your roof. So as I see it the HD PVR solution we have is the best available, so I will try and do everything I can to help Cox improve it.

My box restarted Tuesday night or Wednesday AM at 12:15. When it came back on it had "No Data" as well. I am in MV.

Ok, I have a new one. Only on Speed Channel, ch135 here in CT. I cannot pause, rewind, or fast forward, but only on this one channel. Same deal with recordings on this channel. I can only "watch from begining". Does anyone else have this issue? I am curious as to whether it is with CH135 or with Speed Channel.

Thanks.

moyekj,

Just want to say thank for all the research and info you have done.
I would not of been happy.
You saved me lots of time.

Thank you.


Its all personal preference . . . .

I am now going with the Dishnetwork new 942 HD and SD DVR media center solution.Just came out.

http://www.dishnetwork.com/content/products/receivers/dvr/index.shtml

I allows you to have two separate TV outs for independent viewing. One out on channel 73 and the main TV on DVI.

The 73 channel is remoted via a Wireless remote included.


I will also add a 522 DVR and out it on Channel 72.

I will end up with a Cable like head in with my DVD out on channel 4 and 73 and 74 on all TVs

Originally posted by moyekj
VideoGT - first I've heard of recordings stopping in the middle and presenting a dialog box. You should ask COX to swap out your box for another one to see if these problems persist. If the problem is still there for a new box then I would suspect signal level problems - but I'm sure the COX rep that went out there at least tested that right?

Moyekj,

No, you actually HAVE heard of this problem before. These are the exact same problems that I posted here earlier and you even replied to! What seems to happen is that one or both tuners lock up at a certain time. If a show is recording at that time, that is when it will stop. It will look like it has captured the entire show, but you will not be able to access the remainder of your show. It will think it's at the end, and you will be presented with the dialog box just as you would at the end of the full show if it had recorded normally.

Rarely, the box will recover before the end of your show and it will resume recording resulting in a gap in the middle. But usually it takes longer to resolve then that and the remainder of your show is a total loss. This also means that if you have another show scheduled to record after, and the box has not resolved itself (or you have not manually fixed it) it will be toast too. You will get a 0 minute recording (which has nothing to do with the HD subscription bug). I have seen the box lock up on a channel for over 24 hours until I finally got tired of checking on it and fixed it myself. Clearing up the problem is just a matter of a simple channel change.


So VideoGT, you are not alone. I don't know what the cause is or why some people have it and some don't. Low signal, different production runs of the boxes? Who knows. All I know is that I have had several different boxes do the exact same thing. Mostly on Friday nights when I want to record my Sci-fi shows dammit!

Coasterbuf, don't remember you ever mentioning about a dialog box presented in the middle of a recording that stops, but in any case it sounds like the problems are similar as you mentioned. I can't be any help since I don't have the problem and never record SD with the 6412.

Originally posted by moyekj
jimtigerpt, it's the next phase hardware of the DCT6400 series boxes. It will look very similar to the current box except as you mentioned internally may have a bigger hard drive, will have a SATA port for potential external hard drive expansion and as you mentioned PIP capability. Cox VideooooGuy has mentioned these bits and pieces in prior posts.

moyekj, do you know if part of the "next phase hardware" is an upgrade to the encoders for the analog stations? My wife and daugter watch a lot of lower channel programming, and they've been on me ever since I switched to the 6412 about how crappy those channels look on our DLP set. Also, do you know if the SA 8300 does a better job on the analogs? I ask because where I live(Prairieville, LA, right outside of Baton Rouge) our local phone company is now offering Fiber-To-The-Premises services, analog/digital/HD TV among them, and they are using the 8300. I'd be willing to make the switch from COX if I thought it could help with the lower channel quality. Actually, I may make the switch anyway, COX PQ out here can be pretty bad sometimes due to, as the COX people say, "aging equipment" :(

adamsbrla, I don't know if analog encoders are being improved in hardware - my guess is not since good encoders tend to be expensive and it seems like the general solution to the problem I have heard is cable co's going towards digital simulcast of analog lineup to solve the problem. While my ReplayTVs with their better encoders do a much better job of analog encoding the resulting picture on my HDTV still has much to be desired, especially for something like a basketball game. When displayed on a regular 4:3 CRT the picture looks OK, but an HDTV is generally unforgiving of any defects. I would go ahead and make the switch and try it out - it doesn't cost too much generally and you get to test drive a competing cable co. DVR, so why not?

One quick test you may want to try is take the cable feed from Cox directly to your TV tuner and display it that way - I think you will find it looks MUCH better that way and if your family still watches programs live then you can always split the cable line and keep a direct feed to your TV tuner.

I have an HDTV monitor, actually two, and I believe SD shows do look worse on them than they do on a standard set. However, Cox SD looks far worse than Dish or DirecTV. I've tried all 3 on my HDTV monitor, and in my subjective opinion, Cox was the worst, and Dish and DirecTV were a tie, though sometimes it seemed like Dish was a little bit better.

For me, viewing Cox analog channels is like watching old VHS tapes and watching those same channels on Dish is like watching a DVD.
Though not quite...you still get the obvious signs of too much compression on Dish/DirecTV.

Originally posted by adamsbrla
moyekj, Also, do you know if the SA 8300 does a better job on the analogs? I ask because where I live(Prairieville, LA, right outside of Baton Rouge) our local phone company is now offering Fiber-To-The-Premises services, analog/digital/HD TV among them, and they are using the 8300. I'd be willing to make the switch from COX if I thought it could help with the lower channel quality. Actually, I may make the switch anyway,


If you do make that switch, please let us know. It hard making a purchase, sight unseen. These forums help. Many of us are getting the same opportunity you are as our local phone company is about to offer Fiber-To-The-Premises services.

Again, let us know. I wonder what the improvement would be since Motorola will be making their box as well.

Originally posted by Joe3

Again, let us know. I wonder what the improvement would be since Motorola will be making their box as well. Huh? SA 8300HD is made by Scientific Atlanta and is very different hardware than the Motorola DCT6412.

Is anyone else having problems with their Cox PVR lately?
last week, the OC was totally messed up with lots of macroblocks and sound problems.
Now an episode of 24 is messed up too in the same way...its just too painful to watch that way. I can hear only every other word.

this is really starting to annoy me...the only reason I switched to Cox was their HD pvr, and now its looking like I can't trust HD recordings are going to be any good.

Originally posted by moyekj
Huh? SA 8300HD is made by Scientific Atlanta and is very different hardware than the Motorola DCT6412.

Perhaps I misread, but I remember a local article saying that Verison New England would have Set Top Boxes made by Motorola. I could be wrong and perhaps Scientific Atlanta has an exclusive contract with every phone company in the country.

Is anyone else having problems with their Cox PVR lately?
Not one.

Ok this is getting annoying. I called Cox support and all they did was tell me to unplug my cable in and power....
The problems don't happen all the time, just once in a while, but often enough to be extremely bothersome.
I missed an episode of 24, the OC, and Alias this past week because of it. My wife says she's going to just schedule the SD versions now...ugh.....I really don't like the idea of getting a 2nd PVR just to record these shows as a backup.
So noone else had problems with these 3 shows?
I heard someone else mention the OC was messed up but noone had a problem with 24 or Alias as far as I can tell.

No problems with 24 or Alias for sure this week or last. OC had some audio problems but those were present in the OTA feed too. If it's the HD tiling bug (God forbid!) coming back then remember the way to avoid the problem is to use no trick functions (pause, rew, ff, etc) while the unit is recording.

Originally posted by moyekj
No problems with 24 or Alias for sure this week or last. OC had some audio problems but those were present in the OTA feed too. If it's the HD tiling bug (God forbid!) coming back then remember the way to avoid the problem is to use no trick functions (pause, rew, ff, etc) while the unit is recording.

But shouldn't his box just download the new firmware as soon as it's plugged in? and would have resolved that issue.

Can you take a look at your firmware number (details are listed in this topic earlier on) and let us know..

Maybe just a unit with a bad encoder? how does the channel look when you watch it in real time? are you doing anything while it's being recorded?

If it's not happening on the screen while you are recording, then you should have them replace the unit (trust me, cox is good at that part of the service now).

Tonight I decided to record both SD and HD versions of the OC. Both appeared fine when I watched them live. I haven't had a chance to watch the recorded version.
I'll look up the firmware version once I find that faq thing someone posted earlier in this thread. I remember seeing that earlier

I was EXTREMELY pleased to see that my 6412 Guide actually updated itself with the impromptu American Idol results show tonight and went ahead and duly recorded the episode. It's great to see that last minute schedule changes are picked up and I must say I am impressed. I felt for sure I would be watching the show in SD from one of my ReplayTVs as I never got the chance to check the 6412 guide.

FYI out of curiosity I was looking at the Quick Settings pages (Menu,Down,B,Up,B) to see the latest file downloads when it struck me it's pretty obvious how the guide info is updated and it always follows same pattern:

config2.dat
passpinfo.oob
03241200 .str & .jpg (listings for 3/24 from 12:00pm-12:00am)
03250012 .str & .jpg (listings for 3/25 from 12:00am-12:00pm)
03251200 .str & .jpg (listings for 3/24 from 12:00pm-12:00am)
...
03310012.str & .jpg (last listings file => last day of available data is 12:00pm on 3/31)
logos_hi.rle

and this pattern repeats every day - so guide is updated once every 24 hours in blocks of 12 hours at a time for 7 whole days. It happens around 4:40am every morning in and takes a little less than 2 hours on average to complete in my case.

So by knowing the structure of these files it should be pretty obvious if there is a problem with missing guide data.

P.S. It's a pure guess but I would venture that "CFS" stands for Cryptographic File System which is an encrypting file system that uses NFS as it's interface. See: http://www.crypto.com/software/ NFS being Network File System very common in Unix systems the core of what file automounting over networks is built on for example.

Originally posted by moyekj
I was EXTREMELY pleased to see that my 6412 Guide actually updated itself with the impromptu American Idol results show tonight and went ahead and duly recorded the episode. It's great to see that last minute schedule changes are picked up and I must say I am impressed. I felt for sure I would be watching the show in SD from one of my ReplayTVs as I never got the chance to check the 6412 guide.

I'm just as happy for the opposite reason. I had Point Pleasant programmed to record all episodes and did not have to suffer through American Idol when PP was cancelled. :)

I have been comparing some sample OTA HDTV transport stream captures versus 6412 extracted HDTV transport stream captures of the same shows. I was very pleased to find that the average video and audio bit rates as reported by TSReaderLite were all virtually identical. Of course visually there was no noticeable difference between them either - so for the few samples I tried I am now satisfied that there is little to no bit-rate reduction for Cox's re-transmission of the HDTV channels at least in OC market.

This is very good to hear. Thanks for looking into this.

The only reason I use OTA is for ABC and for sub-channels. Cox does not carry ABC in my area. My local CBS station was broadcasting 2 NCAA games last night. One in HD and the other in SD. It was nice to have the option to watch either game.

Now, if only SD was as good. :(

The next phase of 6412 hardware incorporates a completely different analog encoder chip. In addition, there are other hardware changes which will improve analog picture quality. This includes use of a new Broadcom chip (the workhorse of the 6412) and some improved video handling (3D comb filter instead of the existing 2D comb filter).

The best solution is to implement digital simulcast in our headends, but it's very expensive to do. It will take time.

Originally posted by adamsbrla
moyekj, do you know if part of the "next phase hardware" is an upgrade to the encoders for the analog stations?

I have had patience with my Cox 6412 until last night. Now I’m pissed. I was on vacation and recorded Monday’s episode of 24. I checked to see if it recorded yesterday and it did along with several other shows. Then my wife told me that we had to leave so I wanted to record the last 5 minutes of the Louisville basketball game so I press record.

Came to to watch 24 – it was gone. I forget to set the options to do not delete. It would be nice (common sense) that if you press record and something is going to be deleted that you would get a warning message. I hope this comes out in a future release. Needless to say I missed my favorite show.

Originally posted by paul172
It would be nice (common sense) that if you press record and something is going to be deleted that you would get a warning message. I hope this comes out in a future release. Needless to say I missed my favorite show.

I really can't show you much sympathy, after all if you are driving a car and forget to hit the brakes whose fault is it you had an accident? It is simple to use the do not erase flags or erase at a later date in the menu.

Jimbo,

True you can use those flags but, it would also be nice to have a warning that something is going to be deleted. We have our favorite shows set up with save till manually erased. Everything else we record gets deleted as needed. It would be nice to get a warning that pops up and says " The following shows will be deleted to make space for this recording:".

Aaron,

Perhaps the user interface on our two units are a bit different but when I look in my recordings menu I do have indications as to how long before certain material will be deleted. Perhaps I improperly assumed you got this information as well. If my disk is getting close to full based on the recordings I have programmed to record my menu shows me warnings such as : 5 days till deletion, 3 days till deletion, less than 1 day till deletion. If you don't have these indicators next to your saved recordings I understand your frustration. But you still forgot to put on the parking (Do Not Erase) brake! :)

Originally posted by VideooooGuy
This includes use of a new Broadcom chip (the workhorse of the 6412) and some improved video handling (3D comb filter instead of the existing 2D comb filter).

Hi VideooooGuy,

Are there any more specs that you can gives us on this broadcom chip and a possible roll out date. I am now convinced that most of my remaining issues are related to minor bugs in my box. I have learned to live with most of them. The one that bothers me most now is a slight lip-sync issue with all HD material, some stations are worse than others. I am sure a more powerful chip would help since video processing is the rate determining step.


Thanks,

niesman

The 6412 after weeks of no problems couldn't get anything right this past few days. 3 scheduled movies were incomplete. one started 24 minutes into the movie and 2 just ended early. Had repeated subscription bugs. If I didn't keep getting credit ffrom COX for the month almost every month I would have given up long ago. As it is I back up everything on my Panasonic HDD DVD player recorder. Of course that means watching SD not HD. This 6412 recorder is so buggy and unreliable it should never been released. I think that it survives only because the early adopters that have HDTV are far ahead of the pack that we are willing to tolerate this piece of crap. My Panasonic has NO work arounds has never missed a program and is very easy to use. I can't believe we can't get quicker frimware updates for long documented bugs. I sick of being a Beta tester

Originally posted by Jimbo Moran
Aaron,

Perhaps the user interface on our two units are a bit different but when I look in my recordings menu I do have indications as to how long before certain material will be deleted. Perhaps I improperly assumed you got this information as well. If my disk is getting close to full based on the recordings I have programmed to record my menu shows me warnings such as : 5 days till deletion, 3 days till deletion, less than 1 day till deletion. If you don't have these indicators next to your saved recordings I understand your frustration. But you still forgot to put on the parking (Do Not Erase) brake! :)

I get those warnings but in the case that happened to me, I was watching the basketball game, my wife told me we had to leave right away so i press record while watching the game. I did not have time to look at the list.

PS
If you use a PC, anytime you want to delete something it gives a warning. You do not have to tag files not to delete, thank god.

It's the Broadcom 7038 chip which is used in lots of DVRs. Specs are here:
http://www.broadcom.com/products/Cable/Digital+TV/BCM7038

We're still hoping to get the new Phase 3 DVRs into customer homes starting in May.


Originally posted by niesman
Hi VideooooGuy,

Are there any more specs that you can gives us on this broadcom chip and a possible roll out date. I am now convinced that most of my remaining issues are related to minor bugs in my box. I have learned to live with most of them. The one that bothers me most now is a slight lip-sync issue with all HD material, some stations are worse than others. I am sure a more powerful chip would help since video processing is the rate determining step.


Thanks,

niesman

Thanks for the updates, Videoguy.

Any plans for larger hard drives?

Sigh...my wife's going to be really pissed tonight when she gets back. Last week, our Cox DVR recorded a blocky messed up version of 24 that was unwatchable because every other word was missing. This week, it didn't tape it at all (subscription bug). Argh!!!!!!!!!!! 24 is the type of show you do not want to miss 2 freaking weeks of in a row !
She's still mad at me for switching us from DirecTivo to this cox pvr because its so incredibly unreliable.
Well, on the positive side, the Cox pvr isn't as bad as the Dish network's Dishplayer. That was my first PVR and it was really really bad...some days it would lose ALL programming on it...remember losing 30 hours of programming in an instant...that was annoying :)

I keep hearing about some planned software update that should fix the subscription bug etc....but that was a couple months ago. When is it coming out? I'm not sure I can wait any more for it..
One thing that sucks, is I'm going to have a much harder time convincing my wife to try anything new again....you guys really burned me bad. She'll always say "remember that time you convinced me to switch to Cox?" and what will I be able to say? Sheesh.
Its kind of like when I convinced her to try Cox digital telephone service...what a waste that was. we ended up paying the exact same if not more..and on top of that, a huge group of old pac bell customers couldn't reach us anymore because of a switching error. That was back when moving phone numbers between providers was still relatively new and the old phone company you were moving from would be a jerk about it.

What you're describing sounds like 1 of 2 things.
1) Either your cable signal is weak and you are experiencing dropouts

or

2) Your DVR is a lemon and you need it replaced.

I have cox in Connecticut with the Motorolla 6412 and I haven't experienced any problems like that. I record OC, American Idol and a whole lot of sports. Most of it in HD and I've never experienced anything that your'e describing.

I know that there was talk of a firmware update going out at the end of this month. Does anyone know if that was pushed out - at least in the Hampton Roads, VA region? The reason I ask is because I was timeshifting 24 last night, and when I got to the end of the episode, I hit stop. That usually just pauses the show instead of stopping it. This time I actually got the dialog to "Stop and Erase" or "Stop and Save." I also noticed that the time indicator did not go off the edge of the screen as it normally does.

These are two issues that I have experienced since getting this box and suddenly they are gone.

New Motorola firmware + Passport software is not slated until May timeframe (and possibly new 6412 hardware available by then too):
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/DCT6412_Passport.html#DCT6412Passport_AVS_Forum_Interesting_

I have not received any new software updates and the bugs pertaining to playback of still recording shows are all still present for me last I checked. The various associated bugs I describe here:
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/DCT6412_Passport.html#Known_Problems_and_Workarounds

Anyone know how to make the On-screen stuff come out of the composite outputs without putting the whole DVR into 480I output ONLY mode? Kinda defeats the purpose if my TV is 720P

I'm trying to output the composites to an RF modulator to another TV, can't really use it unless i can see the menus!

Any help would be appreciated!

Originally posted by moyekj
New Motorola firmware + Passport software is not slated until May timeframe (and possibly new 6412 hardware available by then too):
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/DCT6412_Passport.html#DCT6412Passport_AVS_Forum_Interesting_

I have not received any new software updates and the bugs pertaining to playback of still recording shows are all still present for me last I checked. The various associated bugs I describe here:
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/DCT6412_Passport.html#Known_Problems_and_Workarounds

You're right, the issues are still there. I must have started watching 24 earlier into the show than I thought.

I talked to Cox support and they said they didn't know of any bugs that might cause the audio dropouts but that the subscription bug is as well known bug. She couldn't tell me when they might update the firmware for that though. Not even a ballpark, like which quarter or year.....
Well, my wife's going on vacation next month so they have until then to straighten this out...otherwise I'm dumping Cox and going back to DirecTV. Sad thing is, it looks like DirecTV is also dumping Tivo at some point....in my opinion, no other PVR software matches Tivo's reliability and repeatability.

Has anyone had a problem wher theDVR won't record untill you turn on your stereo? My setup is as follows.

power and coax into DVR
digital audio out to receiver
DVI out to TV

on more than one occasion, the shows to be recorded did not start recording untill the receiver was turned on. I have a Cox tech coming out tomorrow to look at it, but myself and the tech i talked with on the phone are lost as to why it would do this.

arehm, don't know if it's related but I've had similar situations in the past. I used to turn the 6412 off when done with it. On occasion when checking the red recording light was on to make sure recordings started properly I noted the red light not on. As soon as I powered on the 6412 then the recording that was supposed to already be in progress started. It's almost like the 6412 needed a kick start to get going. In your case perhaps the kick start comes from supplying a path for the audio when turning on the stereo. As a result of this problem I normally leave the 6412 always on now.

As a side note I noticed the chances of getting subscription bug are greatly increased when both tuners are scheduled to record something at the same time - makes sense I guess because since with both tuners tuning at the same time the total delay in tuning is longer since the unit has to work harder. If a lock is not achieved fairly quickly then this leads to subscription bug message.

Don't know if anyone still having trouble with subscription bug has tried workaround #2 with 1-minute manual records 1 minute before actual recordings? If you have tried it would be interesting to hear about it's effectiveness.

Originally posted by moyekj
Don't know if anyone still having trouble with subscription bug has tried workaround #2 with 1-minute manual records 1 minute before actual recordings? If you have tried it would be interesting to hear about it's effectiveness.

moyekj, I have not tried your workaround #2 but doubt it will help. I have been watching the channel scheduled to record and received the subscription message when the recording was to start. i.e.: I was watching CBS-HD and had a scheduled recording of CBS-HD from 10-11 PM. No problems with the show we were watching from 9-10 PM. When 10 PM (9:59 actually) rolled around, CBS-HD went away and was replaced by the Subscription Required window. No recording and I had to change channels then back to CBS-HD to continue watching. I did notice that both tuners were now set to CBS-HD. Looks like the box did not know it was recording on the same channel I was watching and tried to switch to the other tuner.

after talking with my wife today, it may have started recording when she hit the guide button, we aren't positive as to shich caused it. Does that narrow it down to a more known bug?

I hope any new hardware comes with a lighted remote! I love the remote, hate no lights! When I watch 24 I have the room dark! I was recording both HD & SD when I pushed the wrong button (again!) trying to hit the FF. Argh!!! Had to watch the last 15min in SD. I cant afford anything like a Harmony....

Besides that mines mostly working well. I turn it off everynight, it gets my late night recordings fine. I generally only see the subscription bug when I stop a recording, and it quickly goes away when I change channels....

JET, I'm surprised you are not already using some kind of Universal Remote control already. I can't imagine living without a decent Universal Remote (most have backlighting option) and having to deal with 4+ remotes - TV, DVD player, A/V receiver, 6412 for most at bare minimum. In my case also add: OTA tuner, ReplayTV, CD player, stereo.

Something like the MX-500 (what I currently use) now goes for less than $100 for a brand new one at many outlets if you do a quick google search. If you go the refurb or ebay route there are plenty of good deals.

The included remote works with all my equipment rather well. It had codes for all, and if I want to get deeper I can create macros for it, just not really felt the need as of yet. It even turns on or off all with one button. That made it family friendly right off.

Since I recently got a Laptop, a Creative Zen Touch 20Gb, and my Ipaq needs replacing, a $100 remote is way out of the question! :D

Originally posted by moyekj
Don't know if anyone still having trouble with subscription bug has tried workaround #2 with 1-minute manual records 1 minute before actual recordings? If you have tried it would be interesting to hear about it's effectiveness.


I've tried every potential workaround ever posted in this thread. I am like a junkie rushing out to get the latest designer drug only to find powdered sugar in the little baggie. How disappointing! The only workaround that works for me is to babysit the unit, let the program(s) begin and then press "Record This Show". Needless to say I run up and down my staircase every hour when I have an HD recording scheduled to begin.

That said I'll still wait patiently for the firmware upgrade because for me being able to record and timeshift at all is better than nothing, no matter the inconvenience.

So far *knocks on wood* I have not had any issues with my DVR. It's been rock solid.

I assume this happened nationwide, not just here in Orange County, but has everyone noticed that the DVR functions no longer work on digital music channels?

I found that you can force it to record the channel, but even then when you go to replay the recording you can't FF/RWD/Pause/Etc... so if you have to play it from the begining unterupted

It doesn't surprise me that thy've done this... but I still don't like it and I've told Cox the same.

Originally posted by Jimbo Moran
I've tried every potential workaround ever posted in this thread.
...
The only workaround that works for me is to babysit the unit, let the program(s) begin and then press "Record This Show". Needless to say I run up and down my staircase every hour when I have an HD recording scheduled to begin.

That said I'll still wait patiently for the firmware upgrade because for me being able to record and timeshift at all is better than nothing, no matter the inconvenience.

Jimbo, I'm in the same boat. If I set up a recording on an HD channel and I'm not there to babysit, there's 90% chance it won't record because of the subscription bug. I've tried all the suggested workarounds. The only sure way to get an HD recording is to babysit the box. If I can't be there to babysit, I have to schedule a "just in case" SD version on one of my trusty, never-miss Tivos.

Cox - It's time for the stinking fix already!

Ray

I have a question about the ethernet port. I don't care about it but a friend of mine asked me why it doesn't work. Does it have to do with copy protection, or just that Cox doesn't want people using their box like a hub to send video to the other tvs?

Originally posted by collven
I have a question about the ethernet port. I don't care about it but a friend of mine asked me why it doesn't work. Does it have to do with copy protection, or just that Cox doesn't want people using their box like a hub to send video to the other tvs?

My understanding is that the box has a DOCSIS cable modem built-in that could be used for High Speed internet access. If it were implemented, it would take the place of a separate cable modem having to be placed in the house somewhere.

So to my understanding, the ethernet port doesn't necessarily have anything at all to do with the PVR/set top box functionality of the box.

I suspect that many of us do get internet access from Cox and for many it would be nice not to need a separate cable modem. It would certainly save one signal split. Don't know if Cox has plans to enable it or not.

Tiresius...what do you know about your line signal strength?

Are you usings splitters?

How many?

What kind?

Any open cable outlets? (no terminators)


Search through this forum for info on Electroline, it's a series of Professional Amp/Splitters that are 1000% better then the crap even Cox OC uses(I'm in MV near you). They strengthen and clean the signal. Myself and others have written about them at this site.

Since what we hear here mostly is problems with the 6412 once in a while it's nice to hear some good things too. I'm up to about 16 HD recordings/week with the 6412 and with some care (using subscription bug workaround #1) it's been months since my last missed recording. Also, I noticed the last 2 weeks that I am finally getting 7 full days of guide data instead of 6 that I always got before. Of course now I've probably jinxed myself but for now pretty happy. It's too bad the subscription bug workaround(s) don't work for everyone but a little more patience and perhaps sometime in May that will be behind us.

I noticed omaha gets 7 full days of data without manual refresh. It seems though the program info discriptions are not updating. It may be a guide data or channel issue.

This morning April 4th it's back to only 6 days of guide data..


Andrew Wees



Originally posted by moyekj
Since what we hear here mostly is problems with the 6412 once in a while it's nice to hear some good things too. I'm up to about 16 HD recordings/week with the 6412 and with some care (using subscription bug workaround #1) it's been months since my last missed recording. Also, I noticed the last 2 weeks that I am finally getting 7 full days of guide data instead of 6 that I always got before. Of course now I've probably jinxed myself but for now pretty happy. It's too bad the subscription bug workaround(s) don't work for everyone but a little more patience and perhaps sometime in May that will be behind us.

Is anyone else having problems with their show schedules after the time change? I have some recurring shows that are now showing up in the series manager as airing one hour later then they really do. Meaning that none of them are set to record this week now!

These are shows that air multiple times and I have them specifically set to record at an offbeat time so they do not conflict with anything else. In other words, in most cases I am picking the second or third airing of a show to record. The shows that air at 1:00am for example now show up in the Series Manager as airing at 2:00am.

Is there anyway to fix this (besides setting each and everyone up again)? Why did this happen in the first place? I don't want to go through this every 6 months.

Coasterbuf, I specifically checked the "Upcoming Recordings" last night and it looked like everything was scheduled to record at the correct time this coming week. I presume that since I checked last night the unit already had received a guide update Sunday morning and any time-change related problems would have showed up. I don't have any manual or single-recordings setup, only series recordings. Will see and check again tonight if they are still OK.

I remember last time around one basically had to delete and re-do all series recordings to get things working properly. I think I recall VideooooGuy stating this was no longer a problem with the last firmware/software update.....

Coasterbuf,
I had the same problem with regards to the time change. All of my series recordings that were set to record at any time are fine. All of the series recordings that were set to record only at a specific time now show that time to be one hour later (and therefore will not record). To fix the problem I had to delete and re-enter all of my series recordings that were set to record only at the specified time.

I have the same fricking issue. What a piece of junk. I hope they do the update..they are very lucky they are the only game in town for HD.

I'm trying to tell my cable company to upgrade their firmware. My system uses 9.11 right now. I see some people have 9.12. Is that the latest?

Thanks.

IcedCornholio, latest that I am aware for Cox/Passport markets is:
TC == Thin Client == Motorola Firmware = 09.12
Passport Echo = 1.6.026

There is an update scheduled sometime in May (as indicated by VideooooGuy) that most likely will be a Motorola + Passport Echo version update.

Comcast/MSFT market is already up to Motorola Firmware 09.17:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5426086#post5426086

And we thought 6412/Passport time-change problem was a pain in the neck. For the 6412/Iguide solution they can't even delete the offending recording setups to correct the problem! Now they are stuck with the machine recording programs 1 hour off and nothing they can do about it - very sad:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5434160#post5434160

Unbelievable this day and age for time-sensitive software to have problems dealing with time changes, especially after the whole Y2K fiasco.

Luckily all my recording setups on the 6412 are any time series recordings so no changes were needed this time around since those work just fine post time-change.

Hey everyone, LONG time browser, first time poster here. I have the 6412 from Cox in Orange County and the joys of its ownership finally convinced me to join this site so I could post my question. Let me start by saying I was a faithful DirecTivo owner for 3 years but I had to ditch it when I got my HDTV because I couldn't get a strong enough signal to capture DirectTV's HDTV offerings. So, my only real other option was to subscribe with Cox for HD and, since I LOVED Tivo, I also subscribed for their HD PVR package.

For about the first month, I had no problems whatsoever with this product, primarily recording weekly network HDTV programs, the occasional movie on HBO, and some SD stuff. The HD picture quality was extraordinairy (SD not so much) and the unit was very reliable. Eventually, i started having some of the problems noted in this thread (seemingly all related to the subscription bug since almost every time I turn my TV on now - when it was left on a network HD channel - I get the "you do not subscribe to this channel" message for a few seconds). Well, I've only missed one or two scheduled recordings...nothing more than a nuisance really. This past week I did experience something very unusual though and I don't recall reading about it in this thread (although, admittedly, i haven't gone thru all 74 pages!).

Sunday evening I started watching one of those scheduled programs live, Desperate Housewives. A few minutes into it, I get a phone call so I hit the pause button. About 10 minutes later I realize I'm going to be on the phone for a while so I randomly flippled to another channel while speaking on the phone just to set my mind at ease as it relates to Plasma burn in. Anyway, I thought I'd watch that show tonight (the subsequent Friday). Sure enough, it appears in my "List" but when I go to select it to view it, I get the green bar indicating a 1 hour of recorded programing but what I see on the screen is whatever live program was on just prior to selecting this show to watch. I tried it on like 5 different channels. The only variation from this was when I started by selecting another recorded HD show (in this case Alias from this past Wednesday). When I tried to select Desp. Houswives while watching that show (which i'm able to view with no problems) I get a black screen and the audio from Alias.....

Anyone else experience this kind of thing??

Oh yeah....glad to finally be a member!

Welcome Lardoggy. That's a very strange problem indeed and I hadn't heard something similar before. It sounds like somehow that show is tapping into the live buffer and the unit didn't dissasociate the recording from the live buffer properly. Are you able to delete the show? Sounds like a reboot is in order. There are plenty of bugs associated with playback of still-recording shows as I've listed on my web page - I'm hoping the next software update will improve on them.

Does anyone know where I can find a guide on the remote that comes with this HD PVR from Cox? I changed my tv set, now I have an LCD widescreen set...and I want the remote to control the volume for the LCD set.
I looked for it on cox's website but their idea of a guide is a pretty picture showing me what all the buttons do. Oh you mean the button marked CH + changes the channel? No kidding.
What their guide doesn't say, is how to program it for another tv set etc.

p.s. whatever stuff the cable guy left with me is lost in the garage....it was a large plastic bag of stuff but i didn't think i'd need it. oops

Here is a link to the remote control manual. It's on Time Warner's site, but the codes are all the same.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Media/68/FAQ/documents/AtlasDVRManual.pdf

Thanks so much!

Thanks, Moyekj.....thankfully, this is the only time it has happened and, yes, I was able to delete the program. As it turns out,the next morning (Saturday) there was a complete service outage in my area...before I found this out, I'd try rebooting thinking it was a problem with my unit, so that's been taken care of. Haven't had any problems since and, in fact, this past weekend's episode of Housewives recorded without a problem. We'll see...defintely keeping my fingers crossed!!!

This is a new one ... I think.

Went to bed Sunday nite with the box set to record Crossing Jordan (cbs-hd). We were not home Monday but had CSI and 24 scheduled to record. When I turned the box on Tuesday, nothing was recorded and Crossing Jordan, CSI, and 24 were still scheduled to record (in the past). It was as if the box was stuck on Sunday ... did the groundhog get into my 6412???? :) The date and time were correct and the guide data started from Tuesday. Only the recording function did not know what day it was.

Reboot and all is working correctly. The three shows were gone from the scheduled recordings and NCIS recorded correctly last nite.

Has anyone else see behavior like this?

Aside from bug fixes which hopefully the upcoming (May) update will address, I found an old 6412/Passport wishlist I had put together a while back that I still would like - I added item 8 today. Anyone else have other highly desireable items? NOTE: I tried to keep the wishlist items within reasonable boundaries of what could be implemented instead of a blue sky approach.

WISHLIST
1. external hard drive storage
2. 30-second skip (I know this is highly unlikely but it's still highly desired)
3. 12+ days in the Guide (current limit of 6-7 is not enough)
4. Anamorphic widescreen format for downconverted HD (on S-video/composite outputs). Currently downconverted HD (16:9) is always in letterbox format. Give choic
e of 16:9 full on S-video output.
5. Home Media Architecture (HMA): Multi-room thin clients - i.e. Ability to playback recordings from the 6412 on other TVs in the house (using a thin client on each TV).
6. Categories/Folders for organizing scheduled and recorded programs (like ReplayTV does)
7. Don't show removed channels in the Guide - i.e. Give ability to hide
all channels you don't subscribe to or care about from the guide.
8. Make "Info" button work for "Saved Shows" and "Scheduled Recordings" lists
so all details of the show can be seen just like it works in the Guide.

Originally posted by moyekj
8. Make "Info" button work for "Saved Shows" and "Scheduled Recordings" lists
so all details of the show can be seen just like it works in the Guide.

moyekj- #8 seems to have a lot of programing attached to this change. Instead of duplicating and keeping their Guide format after it is no longer down loaded. They can copy over just the text that was in the guide.

Just a thought.

Joe3, I'll have to check tonight but I thought once you start playing a recorded show that you can get details of it by pressing the "info" button. If that's the case then the information is already there anyway, if not then I see your point relating to "Saved Shows". However, for "Scheduled Recordings" the guide data is definately still available.

EDIT: I confirmed tonight that during playback of previously recorded programs (even ones several days old) if you hit info button twice you get all the details about the program - so the information is stored along with the show itself already. So I think this is a pretty reasonable request since all the information is available and the implementation is already available - just need a new access point to it.

Anyone see this problem before. Last night when I watched some saved shows the times on the info bar were incorrect. For example: when I watched survivor it show that the program started at 6:17 and ran to 7:17. I then watched Wed's L&O and it showed it started at 0:00 and ran to 0:00. Both shows were OK. Another problem that seems to coincide is the amount of saved shows. It looks like 5-6 hours is max. I rebooted twice. Lastly, I use to be able to see the hard drives status by going Menu down B up, B. That stopped working also. Any thoughts??

marc1023, sounds like hard drive corruption or something along those lines. Menu,Down,B,Up,B definately still works - I just used it last night.
If it is hard drive corruption and the problem persists, I would guess a Factory Reset (wipes out all your saved shows and recording setups!!) may resolve the problem, but it's probably best to have Cox swap out the box instead.

Moyekj:

I read on your FAQ for this STB that the "Subscription Bug" was resolved in the last Firmware upgrade? Maybe I misunderstood your write up on it?

I just got my Moto box 2 weeks ago and the Cox Cable Guy who delivered it said it was "a new one that just came in....not a recycled one", so it should have the latest Firmware in it (btw, what is the latest Firmware Cox has in So OC and what's the best way to find out from the box itself what version you have?)

Anyway, I am just getting started using the DVR and set two future recordings on IN HD. Well, as you can guess, when I went to watch them, I had two zero minute recordings..looks like the box just gave up on recording due to the inability of the software to accept that I AM subscribed to that channel within the available time frame?

While tuning some of these channels directly, it is irritating to have to wait or flip back and forth to get it to "take"...but, I can deal with that...what I can't deal with is having the STB just not record something because of this bug! It is such a MAJOR issue, I can't believe that STBs with this (must have been known) glitch were even put out into Cox's customer base!

I am trying( as I write this) your "work around" by tuning to Ch 717 after setting the DVR to record a couple of shows (thank god for all the repeats on IN HD and the IN HD 2 as another back up!)

Why do I still have this problem and need to do the "work around"?

Second question re the Guide and the info on upcoming shows that you can read off the screen. It is not sufficient in several cases to be able to tell what the hell the show is about to decide if you want to record it or not.

Case in point. IN HD has a series of IMAX shows identified by the # ONLY in the Guide, such as IMAX #29...That's nice to know..but what IS IT?

I finally had to go to the IN HD website and search around until I could finally find the details as to what they were presenting.

Is there some other way of getting this info from the Guide itself...maybe I am not looking in the right place.

I would appreciate responses to the above two issues so I can better operate and enjoy my DVR....thanks!

PS: One other item...might as well get them all out now....there is mention in your FAQ of "turning off" the Moto 6412. I have read in the literature and on line that this type of STB is designed to be "always on". I can't even find the "on/off" switch..what do you have to do...pull the plug? I may be old and blind, but help me out here...where on the front of the unit is this switch..and under what circumstances would you want to turn it off?

Originally posted by chuckip
I read on your FAQ for this STB that the "Subscription Bug" was resolved in the last Firmware upgrade? Maybe I misunderstood your write up on it?
On the web page I wrote: "reportedly fixed in next firmware update"
The next firmware/software update is supposedly sometime in May. You most likely have the same firmware/software as everyone else in Orange County and Cox markets in general (TC=09.12 Echo=1.6.026). You can check using: Menu,Down,B,Up,B. Somehow from your description I don't think you are following workaround #1 correctly. If you are recording HD channels you want to make sure NEITHER tuner is tuned to the HD channels before hand. In any case, while that workaround works great for me it doesn't seem to help others and I don't think workaround #2 was ever proven to help anyone.

Second question re the Guide and the info on upcoming shows that you can read off the screen. It is not sufficient in several cases to be able to tell what the hell the show is about to decide if you want to record it or not.
While in the Guide, scroll to the show of interest and click on the "info" button on the remote and in many cases you are presented with 3 or 4 pages of information at the bottom of the screen describing the show. If playing back a show, click on "info" button twice. For "Saved Shows" and "Scheduled Recordings" there is no way to get this extra info which is why this is one of my WISHLIST items.

PS: One other item...might as well get them all out now....there is mention in your FAQ of "turning off" the Moto 6412. I have read in the literature and on line that this type of STB is designed to be "always on". I can't even find the "on/off" switch..what do you have to do...pull the plug? I may be old and blind, but help me out here...where on the front of the unit is this switch..and under what circumstances would you want to turn it off?
I assume the front of your box looks like this:
http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/dct6412_front.jpg
Don't you see the power button (3rd little one down on left side)? Also, from remote you can power on/off. The clock is still visible when you power off, but a small LED does also power off if you look closely, and most of the outputs of the 6412 go dark so you would no longer see a picture on the TV with it powered off. It really doesn't buy you much of anything to power it off so leaving it on is fine. In advanced settings I think you can change what the front panel LCD shows, but most people I would think would like the clock showing most of the time.

Moyekj: Thanks. This thing is so screwy and unreliable that I still record every show on my Panasonic E80. Weeks go by and everything is working as planned then it starts acting up, very unstable. Now the Menu Down B Up B is working and all the saved shows now have keep 5-6 days vs. the previous less then one day for all. I hope the May firmware update is real. Being in the computer business I know that updated firmware often solves old problems while creating new ones. Let's hope it gets better

Moyekj:

I found the "Power" button....but guess I won't be using it anyway!

I will use the "Info" button on the remote to try and get additional info on a show I may want to record.

Hope the "May Firmware Upgrade" will address the "Subscription Bug" as well as other pending issues?

I am relatively pleased with the SD being passed thru the 8412. Before I got it, I had read horror stories of it being almost unwatchable on a big screen (I have a 46" Sammy DLP with the vid signal connected to the STB by Component cables thru my receiver ). Wouldn't mind it to be even better however!

It is great to be able to post questions like I did and get such a quick response from a VERY knowledgable source...thanks again!

New COX DVR sub here in TX and have a few questions..... a few things are annoying me about this box that I cant seem to find a way to correct (if they can be fixed yet)

#1. I cant find any way to set the guide in 16x9 format (IE use the whole screen)... theres alot of wasted space as there is and it would be nice to get the guide full screen.

#2. I dont sub to digital cable/movies (just basic extended and HDTV) so is there any way to remove channels from the guide/recording?

My box has the 9.12 firmware.

jagouar, the answer is no for both questions.

Interesting about your subscription. In these parts (Orange County) you HAVE to subscribe to digital channels in order to get HDTV. I don't care about the SD digital channels either so will have to check again if that's an option.

Originally posted by moyekj
jagouar, the answer is no for both questions.

Interesting about your subscription. In these parts (Orange County) you HAVE to subscribe to digital channels in order to get HDTV. I don't care about the SD digital channels either so will have to check again if that's an option.

I know its kinda big news around here.... I hear you can even have basic cable (20 channels) and get the HD stuff but I didnt want to test that because after voom I need atleast the 60 or so channels that are in extended basic.

digital cable here would run 60 bucks a month and then 15 for the DVR. (which is quite expensive)

I really do like the dvr but it needs a few things fixed (16x9 screen, ability to drop channels from your lineup, more storage). It has worked flawlessly as far as recording so far.

Is there even any indication that they are going to fix these "problems".... Like with future upgrades?

jagouar, no indication that either of these 2 "enhancements" will be available anytime soon if ever. Your #2 item I've wanted for a while (my ReplayTVs have that very nice feature) and is on my wishlist I posted a few posts back in this thread. Problem is the cable companies are in the business of trying to sell you as many channels as they can, so it's not in their best interest to hide channels from view so you forget about them, so I'm not hopeful about such an enhancement.

One of the things that frustrates me with the inability to remove channels you have no interest in seeing from the channel guide is this used to be possible several years ago. I don't remember what the situation was but it was related to GemStar. Cox was "renting" their guide I think, which you could customize, and then "had" to "develop" their own due to some licensing issue.

I started complaining as soon as the Cox guide was released about no longer being able to drop channels from the display. It was actually one of the reasons I ended up purchasing ReplayTV units. Of course, once I had them, I got hooked on the PVR functionality.

I'm pretty much convinced that no one with any power at Cox even understands why someone would want this feature, which doesn't say much for the future of their product.

The guide was provided by Starsight not Gemstar.

Andrew Wees





Originally posted by flip831
One of the things that frustrates me with the inability to remove channels you have no interest in seeing from the channel guide is this used to be possible several years ago. I don't remember what the situation was but it was related to GemStar. Cox was "renting" their guide I think, which you could customize, and then "had" to "develop" their own due to some licensing issue.

I started complaining as soon as the Cox guide was released about no longer being able to drop channels from the display. It was actually one of the reasons I ended up purchasing ReplayTV units. Of course, once I had them, I got hooked on the PVR functionality.

I'm pretty much convinced that no one with any power at Cox even understands why someone would want this feature, which doesn't say much for the future of their product.

LOL - so did ReplayTV, twice! Sonic Blue bailed them out and then DNNA. Most truly good and innovative technology never makes for good business.

Another wishlist item I would like to see implemented is reverse still frame. If you can advance frame by frame with the right arrow after entering pause (or pseudo slow motion if you hold the button down), I don't see why it would be impossible to give us the ability to reverse the process and step backwards or reverse slow motion by using the left arrow after entering pause. After all, DVD players have had this functionality for years...

Interesting article which gives some exposure to what we can expect from Cox in the future:
http://www.broadbandgear.net/whoswhointerview010505.html

Here's a small snippet from the end:
What's the future hold for your company in the advanced video space?
Digital simulcast, multiroom DVR, external storage for DVR to allow customers to grow storage capacity, and video communications.

Also, this article is pretty interesting indicating that Cox will start digital simulcast of analog lineup this year in 4 markets (unspecified) and move more agressively in 2006 among other tidbits:
http://testced.cahners1.com/ced/2005/0405/ID-0405.pdf

Well, the DISH network lets you list just channels you subscribe to, so I don't see why Cox can't do the same.

It sure would be nice....I hate scrolling through dozens of channels I'm not interested in.

If the next firmware upgrade does absolutely nothing but fix my subscription bug problems I will be ecstatic. Any other fixes or features will be pure gravy.