I think you've expanded the working theory. :)How have I expanded it? I'm assuming that the decision as to which drive to use in Passport is made the same way as SciAtl's documents say that SARA decides.

Glad to see others in the NYC area mentioning a firmware update on the 8300HD. I guess that explains the different behavior I'm seeing now from mine. My problem is a variation on the old grey pillar bars (yes I've searched the thread).

I was using the technique of setting the 8300HD to stretch 4:3 programs and having my tv (Sharp LC37D90U) add the side bars (thus eliminating the annoying grey bars). This was working fine. I could watch 1080i/720p and then switch to 480i and the sidebars from my tv were there.

However, now after the update whenever I go from a 720p or 1080i channel to a 480i channel the picture is stretched. For some reason the update has caused my tv not to remember the sidebars for the 480i picture.

Once I get the stretch picture I can set my tv again to sidebars and all's good, but the extra step is annoying and it didn't used to be like that prior to the update.

Anyone else have this problem? Anyone figure out a solution?

Thanks, Matt

The trickplay buffers on the internal drive are permanent allocated. It's possible that, as currently written, the code will not access the internal drive during times when it's recording to the external drive (i.e., when the percentage of free space on the external is greater than that on the internal). I can't understand why that should ever be true, but if it is, there should be trick-play buffers also permanently allocated on the external drive and the DVR should switch to them when recording to the external drive.
Passport SATA support is still in beta stage and is not fully implemented. The loss of the live TV trickplay feature was the first (and only) feedback I gave to my cable provider on it. I've emailed my contact following up on his previous comment that Aptiv would release code supporting - in the context we've been using - SATA "late Summer" but have not gotten a reply. I'll tickle him again in a week or so.

How have I expanded it? I'm assuming that the decision as to which drive to use in Passport is made the same way as SciAtl's documents say that SARA decides.
"It's possible that, as currently written, the code will not access the internal drive during times when it's recording to the external drive (i.e., when the percentage of free space on the external is greater than that on the internal)."

Perhaps the 8300HD is "deciding" at a basic level which drive to use and Passport is not yet dealing with that properly vis-a-vis live TV buffering, as SARA seems to be doing. I don't know, we're all just speculating here.

Must be a slow day. :)

or maybe some of us just couldn't be here....

Tuesday night's firmaware update blew out my cable modem, which was replaced today :) (unless by mere coincidence they both happened around the same time).

Passport SATA support is still in beta stage and is not fully implemented. The loss of the live TV trickplay feature was the first (and only) feedback I gave to my cable provider on it. I've emailed my contact following up on his previous comment that Aptiv would release code supporting - in the context we've been using - SATA "late Summer" but have not gotten a reply. I'll tickle him again in a week or so.
More likely the developer INTENTIONALLY released crippleware to make sure that they get the next increment of funding....

Oh, alright, I'll jump in on this semantical discussion. I'm in agreement with Dave; something can only be busted if it was once functional. Furthermore, neither the manufacturer nor the cable provider have advertised the SATA feature, so expectations should be nil. "Not fully functional" would be more accurate.
I agree here -- rather than considering the software "busted", I'd consider it a stroke of luck that an external drive is supported at all.

My guess is that it's supported in the lower-level PowerTV operating system (the layer below Passport or SARA that is the layer between Passport and the physical hardware), but that Passport (at least the version that we have) has not implemented the "hooks" that allow it to support the external SATA drive.

How do you then explain the loss of the live TV trickplay features when adding an external drive?

Beats me. Software error/omission?

I think the working theory is that as new material is recorded on the drive with the lesser fill ratio, so is the buffering of live TV. But no space is allocated for it on the external, so it no longer functions.

One would think that in the formatting process for the external drive (doesn't it ask you to format when you first hook it up?), buffer partitions would be created. Maybe that's where the software glitch "explanation" I offered above comes in....? They just didn't write the creation of those permanent buffers into the code. Doesn't seem like that would be a tough problem to overcome, if that's where the problem resides.

I agree here -- rather than considering the software "busted", I'd consider it a stroke of luck that an external drive is supported at all.

My guess is that it's supported in the lower-level PowerTV operating system (the layer below Passport or SARA that is the layer between Passport and the physical hardware), but that Passport (at least the version that we have) has not implemented the "hooks" that allow it to support the external SATA drive.I've taken a look at the PowerTV programming overview and API reference and from what I can see it would require a significant effort to make external drives work for seamless DVR recording. This only started working at all on Passport Echo 2.5.048; it was first reported as working on SARA 1.85.17.3, in a thread here posted 18 months ago. I have to think that the PowerTV versions in use in the rev of SARA was significantly older, so, if it were a basic function of PowerTV, it should have worked in earlier revisions of Passport Echo.

Ugh -- removing this feature has caused a huge problem for me -- I would routinely switch between "HDMI", "2 channel" and "dolby digital" for getting HDMI audio, PCM or DD5.1 depending on what I wanted. Now that this option is gone, I'm stuck in the last mode I was set for (2 channel), which means that I have NO WAY to set my box to output DD5.1!

Anybody have any suggestions?????

I'm puzzled. I received the firmware push here in Raleighwood on Tues PM/Wed AM and now have version 2.5.066. My Audio outputs are the same as before. I may choose between HDMI, DD and 2 channel. All works the same as it did under previous version (2.5.048?).

However, I'm getting some unusual stuff, like occasionally no audio (channel surf a little and it comes back).

Interesting problem. SA8300HD stops recording the two shows it is recording at the same time, then restarts them one minute later.

Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas as to cause?

Same DVR was scheduled to record a program at 9 PM, it was 9:03, and it hadn't started, I had to start it manually. The recording stopped about 1 minute before the program ended.

I assume the DVR is at fault. Any other thoughts?

Interesting problem. SA8300HD stops recording the two shows it is recording at the same time, then restarts them one minute later.

Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas as to cause?

Same DVR was scheduled to record a program at 9 PM, it was 9:03, and it hadn't started, I had to start it manually. The recording stopped about 1 minute before the program ended.

I assume the DVR is at fault. Any other thoughts?
Any pets near the remote? :D

I tried one time to STOP an ongoing recording that had been scheduled as I was now watching the program. I'd stop it. A minute or so later it would repeat. This went on for nearly 30 mons when I finally gave up. Never did it again. Not quite the same as your situation, but half(?) the same?

I agree thats half the problem and probably the good half. But why did it stop. That is th real question. Also the issue with not starting (or starting very late) and then ending early?

So Far I think I have only seen that on one DVR so i may ask for a replacement.

I don't think my "logic is flawed." Indeed, expectations are at the heart. My expectation is that rudimentary SATA support is in the software, so that means (IMO) an obligation on the providers part to insure that it functions correctly. It matters not what you call it, it's still half-assed. As someone who has managed software development, no way I'd ever release half-assed functionality. If it's in there, it should bloody well work correctly. Yes, I understand that way too many folks find acceptable the release of half-assed software, I just don't. Never have, never will.

Yes, I will undoubtedly make use of that functionality and cross my fingers that someone attempts to fix the issue. And I sure as hell will be upset if they aren't even bothering trying to fix it... which I suspect could be the case.

I don't think my "logic is flawed." Indeed, expectations are at the heart. My expectation is that rudimentary SATA support is in the software, so that means (IMO) an obligation on the providers part to insure that it functions correctly. It matters not what you call it, it's still half-assed. As someone who has managed software development, no way I'd ever release half-assed functionality. If it's in there, it should bloody well work correctly. Yes, I understand that way too many folks find acceptable the release of half-assed software, I just don't. Never have, never will.

Yes, I will undoubtedly make use of that functionality and cross my fingers that someone attempts to fix the issue. And I sure as hell will be upset if they aren't even bothering trying to fix it... which I suspect could be the case.
What on earth did your cable supplier do to give you the expectation that SATA support would be in the DVR that they rented you? I'll bet that they gave you no expectations!

I'll also bet that working with an external drive was not in the software development specifications for this version of Passport. I'll also bet that there was no specification that it not work either! People working to specs within a software project management structure are not going to develop test cases for things not specified!

Amen! Just because a box has a SATA port doesn't mean any particular piece of software is going to support it, ask the Tivo S3 folks about SATA support. :)

"Interesting problem. SA8300HD stops recording the two shows it is recording at the same time, then restarts them one minute later.

Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas as to cause?

Same DVR was scheduled to record a program at 9 PM, it was 9:03, and it hadn't started, I had to start it manually. The recording stopped about 1 minute before the program ended.

I assume the DVR is at fault. Any other thoughts?
Report Post "

maybe the box is not getting enough signal and is rebooting

Interesting problem. SA8300HD stops recording the two shows it is recording at the same time, then restarts them one minute later.

Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas as to cause?

Same DVR was scheduled to record a program at 9 PM, it was 9:03, and it hadn't started, I had to start it manually. The recording stopped about 1 minute before the program ended.

I assume the DVR is at fault. Any other thoughts?I had an 8240 (8300 without analog tuners) do the same thing, but only if I turned the box off for more than 3 minutes. It would also do it during the early morning IPG update (3:00 am here) and could be reproduced at anytime. We tested it against another 8240 with 2 different SARA software releases and it turned out to be a bad box, though we never pinpointed exactly what was wrong with the box. We swapped them and the other one has been working fine since.

I'll also bet that there was no specification that it not work either! People working to specs within a software project management structure are not going to develop test cases for things not specified!There doesn't need to be a specification that something "not work". Any behavior not in the specification for the release should not be present in the release. Rudimentary partial implementations of future features should not be accessible, particularly in a release going out to customers. It's easy enough to create divergent code branches and work on the development of new features within them, merging them together when integrating the release; it's common practice.

We've had this discussion before :rolleyes:.

Of course, it's nice for those Passport Echo users among us who are desperate for more space and don't mind the loss of live trick-play.

I will agree with you, Dave--nothing advertises the SATA expansion drive feature other than the SciAtl's spec-sheets for the device; those spec-sheets are intended for their customers, the cable providers.

Dave, Thanks for the reply. If it happens again I will have the box swapped. It is just a very strange way for a box to go bad IMHO

Yeah, mine was that way out of the box. I could make it split recordings simply by turning it off for a few minutes. It would stop and then start again 1 minute later. If I turned it off and then right back on, there was no problem, it had to be off for at least 3 minutes, weird!

They gave it to me to test the digital simulcast channels without the analog tuner using the next few releases (1.88.19.1, 1.88.22.1 and a new one that should be here shortly). Anyway, since the 8240 is quite a bit cheaper than the 8300, I think they intend to use some for folks who don't need an analog tuner, which should actually be everyone. :)

There doesn't need to be a specification that something "not work". Any behavior not in the specification for the release should not be present in the release. Rudimentary partial implementations of future features should not be accessible, particularly in a release going out to customers. It's easy enough to create divergent code branches and work on the development of new features within them, merging them together when integrating the release; it's common practice.

We've had this discussion before :rolleyes:.

Indeed! Even back in the days before proper version control in software development, I remember sections of code not deemed worthy of release simply being commented out.

What I find distressing is what appears to be a acceptance of the release of half-assed, unfinished, untested, not functioning as well as it could software AND being told I am "wrong" in feeling that way. Despite the fact that I will try and take advantage of this, it still just isn't right. The fact that your standards are so low implies to developers that it's just fine to release software this way; sorry, but my standards are higher.

Indeed! Even back in the days before proper version control in software development, I remember sections of code not deemed worthy of release simply being commented out.

What I find distressing is what appears to be a acceptance of the release of half-assed, unfinished, untested, not functioning as well as it could software AND being told I am "wrong" in feeling that way. Despite the fact that I will try and take advantage of this, it still just isn't right. The fact that your standards are so low implies to developers that it's just fine to release software this way; sorry, but my standards are higher.

Would you buy a car that was 1/2 complete? I wouldn't. So why do developers release poor builds. I get a sense they put out bad software to keep themselves employed. If they made it well the first time they might be out of work.

What on earth did your cable supplier do to give you the expectation that SATA support would be in the DVR that they rented you? I'll bet that they gave you no expectations!

I'll also bet that working with an external drive was not in the software development specifications for this version of Passport. I'll also bet that there was no specification that it not work either! People working to specs within a software project management structure are not going to develop test cases for things not specified!
If the port is on the box I expect it to work, but clearly that is a mistake when dealing with cable companies. Look at poor SlingBox with the "High Definition" not really a HDMI, just using the same connector we really meant to do this and didn't fubar the HDMI at the last minute thing.

FireWire is now dead for the combination of a Mits HDTV/Mits D-VHS/SA8300 STB.
It was very broken for that combo on 1.8.112, but it's impossible on 2.5.066. Thanks SA/TWC for the kill.

FireWire is now very broken on the JVC D-VHS. Tiling was marginally acceptable under certain circumstances before the "update". I can still watch TV through the FireWire interface but recording now has heavy tiling.

External SATA storage does work and is now the only way to expand HD storage.

I never thought I'd see the day that I actually wished for Verizon.

TWC-NYC/2.5.066

-Mike

the real problem i'm having is that i read the 1st 20 or so pages of this thread that cover early 2005 and it is now end 2006!!

a lot of the info i've gotten -- while totally interesting to me -- is pretty much missinformation at this point simply b/c oit is about the SA8000HD which is not the DVR i'd be given if i picked one up today...

i think i'm jsut going to bite the bullet and try my one month free and hope for the best...

Famous last words, within 30 days somebody in the house will be hooked. Convenient high quality timeshifting with pause, ff, etc. changes the way you watch TV within 30 days, so that you feel deprived if you don't have it.

This thread like all the good long ones could use a touch of summary and linking in the first post, but all people do not have the same version of software, so many things outdated for us .66 types may suit 1.8 users.

FireWire is now dead for the combination of a Mits HDTV/Mits D-VHS/SA8300 STB.
It was very broken for that combo on 1.8.112, but it's impossible on 2.5.066. Thanks SA/TWC for the kill.

FireWire is now very broken on the JVC D-VHS. Tiling was marginally acceptable under certain circumstances before the "update". I can still watch TV through the FireWire interface but recording now has heavy tiling.


Yep, that's exactly what I see. They killed the firewire ports on the SA3250HD STB as well with that box's update (4.2, build 068). It's interesting that we can still see content thru our decks, but can't successfully record what we see. Anybody with a sufficiently Great Big Brain have any idea what that's about? :confused:

At any rate, this looks like an issue that could be fixed by the folks who write the Passport software. Has anyone had any success contacting them about this problem? TWC is worthless; they don't understand and they don't care.

If the port is on the box I expect it to work.That's not a reasonable expectation. There are often all sorts of connectors on these boxes for functions that the STB OEMs offer optionally. There's been USB connectors on every box that I've leased for many years--I don't think any of them has ever been useful for anything. Often, if a cable box manufacturer offers an optional connection, the hardware for the connection is present on the cabinet whether the option was ordered or not. It's probably cheaper to tack on a 5-cent connector than to leave it off and produce two different version of the enclosure.

Yep, that's exactly what I see. They killed the firewire ports on the SA3250HD STB as well with that box's update (4.2, build 068). It's interesting that we can still see content thru our decks, but can't successfully record what we see. Anybody with a sufficiently Great Big Brain have any idea what that's about? :confused:.Are you saying that if you connect the D-VHS deck to the cable STB with only 1394, that you can view video from the cable STB through the D-VHS deck's HD video outputs? If, that would imply a DTCP problem, such as the cable provider mistakenly marking the output of the STB as "Copy No More".

Are you trying to record a DVR recording, or record live television? If you're trying to record a DVR recording of non-core-basic cable content, "Copy No More" would make sense, since "Copy One Generation" content is supposed to be marked that way on replay by a recording device. If it's core basic cable content, like OTA rebroadcasts, it should never be protected against copying by DTCP.

Are you saying that if you connect the D-VHS deck to the cable STB with only 1394, that you can view video from the cable STB through the D-VHS deck's HD video outputs? If, that would imply a DTCP problem, such as the cable provider mistakenly marking the output of the STB as "Copy No More".

Interesting. I hadn't thought of that. Just to reiterate, I can see HD content from the 8300DVR (and 3250STB as well) through the D-VHS deck via firewire just fine. But tape recordings of that video I'm seeing are full of macroblocking and dropouts, unwatchable. And you're saying that's because they've flagged these channels as "Copy No More"?

If I go to the Copy Protection Policy page in the diagnostics, under the EMI columns, bottom half of the page, they all read "off", which leads me to believe they haven't even "turned on" the flags. Does this make sense?

Are you trying to record a DVR recording, or record live television? If you're trying to record a DVR recording of non-core-basic cable content, "Copy No More" would make sense, since "Copy One Generation" content is supposed to be marked that way on replay by a recording device. If it's core basic cable content, like OTA rebroadcasts, it should never be protected against copying by DTCP.

It makes no difference if I try to tape record live content or recorded content from the DVR via firewire, the results are the same. I can see it clearly, but can't get a good tape recording.

Yep, that's exactly what I see. They killed the firewire ports on the SA3250HD STB as well with that box's update (4.2, build 068). It's interesting that we can still see content thru our decks, but can't successfully record what we see. Anybody with a sufficiently Great Big Brain have any idea what that's about? :confused:

At any rate, this looks like an issue that could be fixed by the folks who write the Passport software. Has anyone had any success contacting them about this problem? TWC is worthless; they don't understand and they don't care.

I can confirm that firewire is now dead on the 3250 with Passport 4.2 build 68. I can no longer record "copy freely" content to my PC, to a Mits 1100, Mits 2000, or JVC 30K. TWC has completely destroyed the 1394 functionality. And yes, the content is marked "copy freely" or "copy once." And yes, it is the box, because I can still record to DVHS from my Toshiba 42HP95 w/ cablecard. I think we need to start a new thread to gather our resources and get TWC's attention to this matter. Where is the 1394 trade association when we need it?

How do you drop into the firmware 'info' screen on the SA8300HD STB?

redjr...

How do you drop into the firmware 'info' screen on the SA8300HD STB?

redjr...

That depends on where you are. Where are you? When you respond, someone who lives near you will probably post the answer.

-Mike

We had the same problem here with the last update of SARA for the 3250, so you Passport users are not alone. Fortunately, they rolled back here, but since they also enabled the 5c copy-protection flags, they still cut out a lot of recording capability, but that's the reason the flags are there to begin with. :(

New to this forum and search did not turn up this new problem i am encountering since receiving the update to TWC-NYC to passport Echo 2.5.066 this past Wednesday. I am using a 8300 SD box

On HBO Main Channel (here in NY that is 80 or 201) i cannot pause or rewind unless I first select the program for recording. If I try to the following message appears in red:

if I hit pause: You must record this PPV show in order to Pause
if I hit rewind: You must record this PPV show in order to Rewind
If I then do that and record I can then pause or rewind.

This behavior is not repeated on any of the other HBO plex channels.

HBO1 is of course not a PPV channel here.

Call in to TWC resulted in total bafflement there and a ticket being opened....

Thanks for any help on this. It's not the end of the world of course, but certainly not desirable to have to hit record in order to rewind the buffer.. :confused:

Have the new Passport revisions over past 6 months solved the "Your Display is not HDCP enabled" problem that plagued us early adopters?

I'm looking into new receivers and am wondering if I'll be able to route cable box to receiver via HDMI. (Probably Denon).

I know HDMI now works directly to my projector but I have read switching through receiver is different.;

That depends on where you are. Where are you? When you respond, someone who lives near you will probably post the answer.

-Mike
You are right. Didn't think of that.. :o Anyway, I'm in Albany, NY using TWC.

Thx,

redjr...

That's not a reasonable expectation.
When I am paying them $114 a month why should Time Warner have any expectation that I am going to be reasonable?

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people." -George Bernard Shaw

"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people." -George Bernard ShawROTFLMAO!!! That quote is so appropriate. Can I use it in my signature? :)

It makes no difference if I try to tape record live content or recorded content from the DVR via firewire, the results are the same. I can see it clearly, but can't get a good tape recording.But you are getting something on the tape, just ruined with macroblocking and audio dropouts, etc. If this was a 5C violation you wouldn't get anything and your recorder should tell you that it's not allowed to record it.

This sounds like a problem that people were having early in the game, when the output of some cable STBs through 1394 was the entire 38.8 Mbps MPEG Transport Stream in the QAM carrier containing the the desired channel's content (as well as possibly two other HD channels or a number of SD ones or some combination of both). The recorder could demux it for display, but couldn't handle that task while recording, or it would try to store the entire stream on the tape and couldn't keep up. (It was very long ago and I can't remember which; a user working on 1394 A/V firmware and had the means to analyze the stream and figured out what was going on).

So this used to work in earlier versions of Passport Echo and was broken by 2.5.066?

You are right. Didn't think of that.. :o Anyway, I'm in Albany, NY using TWC.It's the single-page diagnostic summary that's area-specific. It's permanent displayed on a channel and that channel's number depends on where you are. On TWC San Diego, it's 998--other's have reported numbers in the 990's and 1000's. You might try flipping through that range to see if you can find it.

Regardless of where you are, you can enable the multi-page diagnostics by simultaneously holding down the SEL and EXIT buttons on the STB enclosure (not the remote) until "dIAG" appears in the LEDs; release the buttons and press EXIT again to make the diags appear. You can get out of the diags by tuning any channel and back in again by either tuning a location-specific diag channel (check the channel with INFO while you're in the diags) or by pressing EXIT on the front panel again--the latter method will work even if both tuners are in use for recording. Once you put the box in the "OFF" state by pressing the power button, the diags will cease to be accessible until you do the SEL+EXIT thing again.

While in the multi-page diags you can use the UP and DOWN arrows on the remote to flip through the pages.

I will agree with you, Dave--nothing advertises the SATA expansion drive feature other than the SciAtl's spec-sheets for the device; those spec-sheets are intended for their customers, the cable providers.

Mike, this is intended for information only (I am NOT trying to take any sort of position here):

The functioning of the eSATA Ports have also been documented on the various SA user documentation on their web site. The cover: specifications; connection; initialization; operation; and troubleshooting of the external driveOf course:
1) That documentation is for SARA
2) The documentation also has the "check with your cable provider" disclaimer.

The unfortunate thing is that many cable companies do not provide user documentation and the customer ends up turning to that on the SA site for the only user documentation available.

For those that want to play with the esata that doesn't work Micro Center has a sale this week on a external case (no drive, includes cable and power thing) for a single ATM sized unit of currency. I plan to pick one up so I am ready for the next cheap drive deal and can test it myself.

But you are getting something on the tape, just ruined with macroblocking and audio dropouts, etc. If this was a 5C violation you wouldn't get anything and your recorder should tell you that it's not allowed to record it.

Yes, that's what I thought. As I said in that post, I don't even think the flags are turned on, based on what I see in the "Copy Protection Policy" screen in the diagnostics. I was kinda' hoping someone would verify that. All protocols under the EMI settings (Copy Freely, Copy Once) are set to "off" - shouldn't that mean 5C flags have not been turned on?

This sounds like a problem that people were having early in the game, when the output of some cable STBs through 1394 was the entire 38.8 Mbps MPEG Transport Stream in the QAM carrier containing the the desired channel's content (as well as possibly two other HD channels or a number of SD ones or some combination of both). The recorder could demux it for display, but couldn't handle that task while recording, or it would try to store the entire stream on the tape and couldn't keep up. (It was very long ago and I can't remember which; a user working on 1394 A/V firmware and had the means to analyze the stream and figured out what was going on).

So this used to work in earlier versions of Passport Echo and was broken by 2.5.066?

No, that update merely "activated" the 1394 ports for the very first time on the SA8300HD-DVR. Lot of good it did us. :(
The SA3250HD STB was always the box they gave you when you requested a live firewire capable box from TWC. It worked, more or less, until the latest upgrade, now not at all. Both boxes seem to be firewire-failing in the same fashion (even though they have different Passport software packages), which lends support to your theory related above, Michael.

What I find distressing is what appears to be a acceptance of the release of half-assed, unfinished, untested, not functioning as well as it could software AND being told I am "wrong" in feeling that way. Despite the fact that I will try and take advantage of this, it still just isn't right. The fact that your standards are so low implies to developers that it's just fine to release software this way; sorry, but my standards are higher.What you misunderstand to be "satisfaction" is actually simply acceptance of reality. Currently, I am taking advantage of an undocumented, unsupported feature to get capability that has not been advertised. In my application, it has worked pretty well.

If the code were disabled as you argue it should be, I would not have access to this undocumented feature, and I'd be worse off than I am today. Why would I want that??

If you suggest that I'm part of the problem, because I "settle" for poor software and service, and am "satisfied", then I think you misjudge me.

I assure you, I am no giant fan of my cableco. I would like better service, better equipment/software, better programming choices...and better prices!

Please explain to me where I can go to get a customer-responsive video content provider who uses equipment that implements 100% of my desired features and will "hop to it" when the equipment or content lineup needs updating, all for a reaonable price, and I'll gladly sign up. I haven't found them yet.

Alternately, please explain to me how to convert my cableco into such an entity, and I'll join the cause.

As long as I'm dealing with a near-monopoly, I won't be satisfied. But in the meantime, I'll take advantage of whatever nuggets of goodness I can legitimately get my hands on.

Given the choice of Passport with fully-functional eSATA functionality vs. Passport with no eSATA functionality, sure, I'd want the fully functional version.

I don't have that option. I don't know how to get that option. No amount of posting on AVSForum about how we *ought* to have that option is going to get it, that's for sure.

If my choice is between Passport with ZERO eSATA functionality and Passport with partial eSATA functionality--the only choice you're really offering with your "good software development" approach--then I'll take "something" instead of "nothing", thankyouverymuch. If that means I'm voting for "poor software design", then so be it.

That's not "being satisfied", or having "lower standards". That's simply playing with the cards that are dealt.

I think our standards are more similar than you think. But one of us is tilting at windmills, while the other has been enjoying a big hard drive plugged into his 8300HD while he waits for the situation to improve, because he realizes he has no control over the situation.

What you misunderstand to be "satisfaction" is actually simply acceptance of reality.

...

I think our standards are more similar than you think. But one of us is tilting at windmills, while the other has been enjoying a big hard drive plugged into his 8300HD while he waits for the situation to improve, because he realizes he has no control over the situation.

Yes, they are undoubtedly very similar. I was using a generalized "you" that didn't refer to you specifically. Partly it was a reaction to my feeling that I was kinda being taken to task for voicing such an opinion... and I DID say that despite my feeling, as long as it was there I would probably take advantage of it, warts and all. Absolutely there is an expectation... once they put the code in there in a functional fashion, they absolutely have an obligation to insure it functions fully and correctly, documented or not; to me there is nothing in that statement to equivocate over.

My mini rant about standards actually applies far beyond anything happening in this realm, I have absolutely run into this before.

As for titling at windmills, I think it has it's place. First is purely personal "satisfaction." Better to scream and jump and shout then harbor a resentment that gets played on in some totally different realm. Second, I still have some bit of optimism that if a LOT of folks rose up and titled, something might change. So "firing up the troops" can also be thought of as a legitimate avenue. As for dumb CSRs, first we need to always treat them as coming from the same human race we do, there is NEVER a need to treat them without basic respect. Second, my tactic is always to ask them kindly to note whatever I am saying in their system. TWC has thousands and thousands of employees, I gotta believe some actually want to know what their customers are saying. I don't have an MBA, never took Business 101 but it seems damn obvious to me that knowing what your customers want is a key in whatever business you are in, and that the more you pay attention to it, the better your business might be.

BTW, I am very impressed that we can have disagreements and still be civil to each other.

I've been running my 8300HD (Time Warner New York) connected to a new Dell Ultrasharp 2407WFP monitor via an HDMI-DVI cable the last few weeks, and everything has been working great. However, last Wednesday it suddenly ceased to function properly. I've read through the forum and this seems to have occured right after my firmware update. The problem I'm now getting is that when I try to view over the DVI interface, my monitor displays the following error message:

"Out of signal range.
Can not display this video mode,
Change computer display input to 1920x1200 @ 60Hz"

I also note that my 8300HD seems to be defaulting to 1080i no matter what channel it's on. The component output works fine, so I've tried changing the settings on the box to support only 480i, 480p, and 720p (even just 480i and 480p), but whenever I switch back to the DVI input the box switches right back to 1080i and I get the same error message. Has anyone encountered anything similar to this? Any idea what could be going on and how I could resolve this issue?

As for titling at windmills, I think it has it's place.In this particular case, the likely consequence of screaming at your cable provider that a partially finished feature that they haven't authorized use of is implemented in a "half-assed" fashion will probably cause the cable provider to contact Aptiv and ask how they can disable it on all of their deployed STBs (and there is a command that they can send to all of their boxes to disable it). The feature being in a build released to customers is essentially a bug (though it's useful to a few and probably harmful to none); they have legitimate cause to turn it off, particularly if CSRs will have to waste time listening to complaints about it.

Complaining in a more general fashion, by saying "I desperately need more storage on my DVR" would be more productive.

I also note that my 8300HD seems to be defaulting to 1080i no matter what channel it's on. The component output works fine, so I've tried changing the settings on the box to support only 480i, 480p, and 720p (even just 480i and 480p), but whenever I switch back to the DVI input the box switches right back to 1080i and I get the same error message. Has anyone encountered anything similar to this? Any idea what could be going on and how I could resolve this issue?

I also have this problem using HDMI to DVI with my Sony KV36XBR800. The only thing it would send over the DVI interface was 1080i, even though my TV supported 480p and 720p as well over the DVI interface. I switched to component cables, and everything works as expected.

Ted

The basic problem is that we all like what we are getting enough that we aren't willing to give it up just because some of it isn't working. If people were returning boxes when the DVI stopped working instead of switching to component that would catch TimeWarners attention.

The basic problem is that we all like what we are getting enough that we aren't willing to give it up just because some of it isn't working. If people were returning boxes when the DVI stopped working instead of switching to component that would catch TimeWarners attention.

I, personally, knew the problem was with my TV. I have never gotten anything but 1080i to run over the DVI interface. DVI was brand new when I bought my TV, so incompatibility was unsurprising. My D* HD Tivo only did 1080i over DVI as well, so it isn't just an SA thing. Sorry if I implied otherwise.

Ted

...Regardless of where you are, you can enable the multi-page diagnostics by simultaneously holding down the SEL and EXIT buttons on the STB enclosure (not the remote) until "dIAG" appears in the LEDs; release the buttons and press EXIT again to make the diags appear...

TWC-NYC is an exception. Pressing EXIT only after "dIAG" does nothing. After "dIAG" you must press both SEL and EXIT simultaneously again, momentarily to enter the multi-page diagnostics menus.

-Mike

As for titling at windmills, I think it has it's place. First is purely personal "satisfaction."True enough. I have let loose my share of rants here, myself. :)Second, I still have some bit of optimism that if a LOT of folks rose up and tilted, something might change. So "firing up the troops" can also be thought of as a legitimate avenue.No doubt. Unfortunately, I have yet to see a plan for how to do this effectively. As cablecos and satcos gain and lose hundreds or thousands of customers daily, you'd have to have a very large number of boycotters to get noticed at even a single cableco, and there are many cablecos represented here. Letter-writing campagns require finding someone at a company who cares about your letter, and will actually get to see if it you mail it to him/her. And it'd probably still take more than 10 or 20 letters to get someone's serious attention.

If cablecos were really interested in what their most demanding customers thought, they'd check enthusiast forums like this from time to time. Because they don't do that, it makes me believe they really *don't* care what we think.TWC has thousands and thousands of employees, I gotta believe some actually want to know what their customers are saying.I have actually dealt with one or two who did care, but I was only put in touch with them via someone else who was "in the know"--I would never have found them on my own, nor would they have ever heard my cries in the wilderness without said intermediary. I have no confidence that anything I've ever suggested to a CSR as room for TWC improvement has ever gone anywhere at all. Maybe my comments were noted in my customer records...but that's just a dead-end. There's no mechanism to cause anyone else in the company to ever go read those notes.BTW, I am very impressed that we can have disagreements and still be civil to each other.I agree! That's when this forum's at it's best.

I also have this problem using HDMI to DVI with my Sony KV36XBR800. The only thing it would send over the DVI interface was 1080i, even though my TV supported 480p and 720p as well over the DVI interface. I switched to component cables, and everything works as expected.

Ted
They got a much more plausible denial of responsibility on eSATA than on HDMI/DVI.

TWC-NYC is an exception. Pressing EXIT only after "dIAG" does nothing. After "dIAG" you must press both SEL and EXIT simultaneously again, momentarily to enter the multi-page diagnostics menus.

-Mike
If when you do get it to enter DIAG you see a channel number flash on the display, you can enter that on the remote the next time you get the ding after SEL & EXIT to enter DIAG.

TWC-NYC is an exception. Pressing EXIT only after "dIAG" does nothing. After "dIAG" you must press both SEL and EXIT simultaneously again, momentarily to enter the multi-page diagnostics menus.Huh. I wouldn't have thougt that that would be adjustable.
If when you do get it to enter DIAG you see a channel number flash on the display, you can enter that on the remote the next time you get the ding after SEL & EXIT to enter DIAG.Once you have the multi-page diags up, all you have to do is press the INFO button to see what channel they're on.

Ugh -- removing this feature has caused a huge problem for me -- I would routinely switch between "HDMI", "2 channel" and "dolby digital" for getting HDMI audio, PCM or DD5.1 depending on what I wanted. Now that this option is gone, I'm stuck in the last mode I was set for (2 channel), which means that I have NO WAY to set my box to output DD5.1!

Anybody have any suggestions?????

I got up this morning and when I checked the Advanced settings the Audio Digital Out option was back again. I double checked and the box still running Passport Echo 2.5.066. I'm 100% sure that the Audio Digital Out option was not there last week after the box was automatically updated. Here in NYC tunning to channel 996 displayed the version of Passport that the box is running, but I tried it today and I got a message saying that the channel was not available and so I checked the version using the Diag. Then I decided to reboot the box just to make sure I was not dreaming. That was a bad call on my part. I called TWC NYC as Passport Echo was not loading after booting. Well there is a message in the Support answering system that says that TWC NYC is updating something in the network and telling the user NOT to reboot their boxes... Arrrrrrrggggggggg!.... Now I'm getting just a few channels .After watching any of the channels for a few minutes the screen switches to screen saver mode. Oh, well... I guess I have to wait until they fix whatever it is they're fixing.

According to some posts, the Audio Out option showed up later on the same day the 066 update was delivered. I saw it there the next day. Over the course of the first 2-3 days, I think several code changes were slipstreamed in; several smallish problems seems to have been corrected. The next thing I'm looking for a correction to is the screen of snow when switching channels (minor annoyance to me, it only does that for under a second, others get stuck on it and have to power off and on the box to get rid of it).

Someone mentioned he was using it around 7 AM and saw first hand the 066 update happening; dumb, dumb, dumb on TWC part. Anything like that should be happening between 3 and 4 AM, not when a LOT of folks are actually watching morning show TV!

Huh. I wouldn't have thougt that that would be adjustable.
Once you have the multi-page diags up, all you have to do is press the INFO button to see what channel they're on.
Cool, thanks!

According to some posts, the Audio Out option showed up later on the same day the 066 update was delivered. I saw it there the next day. Over the course of the first 2-3 days, I think several code changes were slipstreamed in; several smallish problems seems to have been corrected. The next thing I'm looking for a correction to is the screen of snow when switching channels (minor annoyance to me, it only does that for under a second, others get stuck on it and have to power off and on the box to get rid of it).

Someone mentioned he was using it around 7 AM and saw first hand the 066 update happening; dumb, dumb, dumb on TWC part. Anything like that should be happening between 3 and 4 AM, not when a LOT of folks are actually watching morning show TV!

Good to know that they can "slipstream" small changes to the box software without having to update the whole thing... 10:30 AM... my box is back up and running. The Audio Out option is there and channel 966 displays the Echo version. My 8300 is connected to my TV via HDMI only. The two new things that are new in my setup are: 1. When I select HDMI I can get "non-Dolby" digital sound via my TV speakers and my stereo simultaneously. In the past when I selected HDMI only the TV's speakers worked (I got no sound via the digital out of the 8300). 2. Now when I select Dolby, the TV speakers stop working, but I get Dolby Digital via the stereo... The little Dolby light of my receiver goes on. This was not the case with 1.8.103. I think I'm a happy camper.

I see what you mean about the snow and the little delay when switching from an HD to non-HD channel. Not a big deal for me either. Maybe they be another slipstream update to fix that.

Thanks...

Ohmigod, I now have 066. And I have no idea when it was pushed. The last time I looked - perhaps a week or two ago - I had 052.

Ohmigod, I now have 066. And I have no idea when it was pushed. The last time I looked - perhaps a week or so ago - I had 052.


Congrats! :D

Ted

I got up this morning and when I checked the Advanced settings the Audio Digital Out option was back again. I double checked and the box still running Passport Echo 2.5.066. I'm 100% sure that the Audio Digital Out option was not there last week after the box was automatically updated. ....

That happened to me the last time an update was pushed. I'm not surprised, but it does freak you out :) Glad to hear all is working.

Ext HD update:
Purchased new wd400 gb 0EM and apricorn ext sata case.

Result:
Trickplay is a no go BUT it was really odd that the box asked me if I wanted to format the newly recognized HD. How close can we get? Seeing the drive notifing the user and then asking to format. Sounds similiar to how sara works. Shows up in the DVR total like older BC 2.5.66 diag screen.

Details: When the drive was connected properly with all power off the system did not recognized/utilize the drive when it booted. I used my "old" yank the sata when the unit was running trick. The system said "the external drive has been disconnected" press "a" when it is reconnected and reboot. I followed the instructions and re-connected pressed "a". Soft-rebooted and no love. I tried it again and tried changing channels with the sata unpluged and then plugged back in. I then got the "a new external drive is connected press a to format" I clicked a and got the message your drive is now ready for use" I rebooted just for safetys sake.

HDMI changes:
not sure what changed in the code but I noticed that communications from my panny plasma are not recognized as they used to be on earlier versions. I.E. when powering up the television the 8300 (connected by HDMI of course) would automatically turn on 8300. It would not turn off after the tv was off though. The question is what changed and what will those changes affect.

Are those changes helpful enough that we can now actually use a receiver with hdmi now?

HDCP:
I got the dreaded HDCP error the "first" time after reboot on my older Panny. Never saw this before this release. It required that I turn on the 8300 before turning on the tv. After that original sync I can turn them on in any order. Strange.

Program recording/guide changes:
Items set to record but then canceled still display the record icon on the Guide but are not red. Looks like an "enhancement" not a bug, letting you know what you once wanted to record.

VOD Macro/Blue Line issue:
One of kind I guess. The 2nd unit I have with the new hard drive does not have this issue at all with the new drive attached. VOD plays smoothly with out vertical blue lines. The 8300 that had the drive formatted BC 2.5.66 still has the display issue with VOD unless the drive is disconnected.

Well now I will be able to store up to 1 TB of jerry springer...lol...

Program recording/guide changes:
Items set to record but then canceled still display the record icon on the Guide but are not red. Looks like an "enhancement" not a bug, letting you know what you once wanted to record.You must have upgraded from 1.8.xxx. In ways it is an enhancement, in some ways not. For one thing, you can reinstate the recording request without going to the guide; you might have deleted it by mistake.

In generally, it's become somewhat more paranoid about deleting things. If you stopped a recording, it used to ask whether you wanted to stop and delete, stop and keep or resume playback; if you chose stop and delete, it would just do it. Now, if you choose stop-and-delete, it brings up another popup asking whether you're sure.

Maybe this is old news, but the other "good" thing that I found in my setup with this latest reflash/slipstream of 2.5.066 is that my TV no longer toggles the 8300 on/off via the HDMI connection.

Funny, from day one I had the master power switch on the remote turn the 8300 and the display on and off.

Don't like the "Guide" changes at all. Used to be one delete and it was gone, whether it was a conflict or not. Now, if there was a conflict, it is STILL listed in future programs with no way to get it out of my face, and if there was no conflict, I have to manually delete it twice in that menu to get rid of it (delete a program that does NOT have a conflict and it now LOOKS like it's a program that DOES have a conflict). This is bad, bad, terrible UI design!

Funny, from day one I had the master power switch on the remote turn the 8300 and the display on and off.
Me, too, but I think that's IR as I am using component video.

This is bad, bad, terrible UI design!It's actually an improvement in the UI design, probably brought on by many user complaints that they were deleting things by accident. It's orthogonal to the way that deleting items from the "Saved Shows" list has always been: you select the item and use the menu to request deletion and thing it pops up a dialog to ask you whether you're sure. Now, before it deletes or cancels anything, it pops up a dialog to ask whether you're sure.

It's a bit annoying at first but you'll quickly get used to it. The one thing that still bugs me after many months is the persistence of the conflict entries in the "Scheduled Recordings" list. They won't go away if you just ask to cancel them. If you're desperate to get rid of them, cancel one of the things that was in conflict (only once, leaving it grayed out in the list), which'll bring the eliminated one back into the recording schedule, at which point you can get rid of it. After it's gone, you can select the one that you grayed out previously and ask to record it.

The one thing that still bugs me after many months is the persistence of the conflict entries in the "Scheduled Recordings" list. They won't go away if you just ask to cancel them. If you're desperate to get rid of them, cancel one of the things that was in conflict (only once, leaving it grayed out in the list), which'll bring the eliminated one back into the recording schedule, at which point you can get rid of it. After it's gone, you can select the one that you grayed out previously and ask to record it.
Indeed, why it continues to show cancelled recordings is beyond me.

Indeed, why it continues to show cancelled recordings is beyond me.Well, it can be useful. If you find that you've canceled the wrong entry, you can just select the grayed-out item and tell it to record it, without having to search the program out in the guide again. If it's not a conflict, you can get rid of the grayed-ouyt item in the Scheduled Recordings list permanently by selecting it and asking to cancel it again.

Well, it can be useful. If you find that you've canceled the wrong entry, you can just select the grayed-out item and tell it to record it, without having to search the program out in the guide again. If it's not a conflict, you can get rid of the grayed-ouyt item in the Scheduled Recordings list permanently by selecting it and asking to cancel it again.
That's true. But absent that, the cancelled recording gum up the list and add confusion when one is trying to eliminate duplicate recordings of, say, Smart Travels or Enterprise.

Well, it can be useful. If you find that you've canceled the wrong entry, you can just select the grayed-out item and tell it to record it, without having to search the program out in the guide again. If it's not a conflict, you can get rid of the grayed-ouyt item in the Scheduled Recordings list permanently by selecting it and asking to cancel it again.

I'm actually using this in another way.

Since the DVR likes to erase things when it feels the need and because my schedule is so packed at the moment, I'm cancelling shows in the upcoming list whenever the hourglass starts to appear. I know I'm going to watch something before the next recording which will free up space but the DVR doesn't know that.

I can cancel the recordings for the next day to fool the DVR into thinking it has nothing scheduled, watch a few shows and erase them, then just go back into the record schedule and re-enable those I "cancelled." That makes it easy for me to ensure what I was going to record still gets recorded and shows I have recorded don't just vanish when I look away for a second.

I'm actually using this in another way.

Since the DVR likes to erase things when it feels the need and because my schedule is so packed at the moment, I'm cancelling shows in the upcoming list whenever the hourglass starts to appear. I know I'm going to watch something before the next recording which will free up space but the DVR doesn't know that.

I can cancel the recordings for the next day to fool the DVR into thinking it has nothing scheduled, watch a few shows and erase them, then just go back into the record schedule and re-enable those I "cancelled." That makes it easy for me to ensure what I was going to record still gets recorded and shows I have recorded don't just vanish when I look away for a second.
You know you can set recordings to manually erase only and they'll not be erased willy nilly?

That's true. But absent that, the cancelled recording gum up the list and add confusion when one is trying to eliminate duplicate recordings of, say, Smart Travels or Enterprise.I understand--I get duplicates all the time, mostly Smallville and 24. I have to go through, canceling each one twice. It is annoying and I'm not sure that its a good thing. I do think that showing the conflicts is good.

You know you can set recordings to manually erase only and they'll not be erased willy nilly?


yeah but I'm running on full capacity at the moment and still trying to evaluate new shows so some haven't reached my must-see list yet.

If the hourglass starts appearing I can decide which shows are DVR worthy and which can be recorded with the VCR at the last minute to save space. The cancelled list gives me a quick overview of what's coming up.

yeah but I'm running on full capacity at the moment and still trying to evaluate new shows so some haven't reached my must-see list yet.

If the hourglass starts appearing I can decide which shows are DVR worthy and which can be recorded with the VCR at the last minute to save space. The cancelled list gives me a quick overview of what's coming up.
External drive?

External drive?

Or, you know, just getting a second 8300. I'm kind of amused at all the money guys will spend and all the trouble they'll go to for those external drives and enclosures, in which the trick play functions don't even work, when all they have to do is call up the cable company and lease another DVR for another $7/month and get another 2 tuners in the bargain. :confused: :rolleyes:

Or, you know, just getting a second 8300. I'm kind of amused at all the money guys will spend and all the trouble they'll go to for those external drives and enclosures, in which the trick play functions don't even work, when all they have to do is call up the cable company and lease another DVR for another $7/month and get another 2 tuners in the bargain. :confused: :rolleyes:

The 6.95 a month is only part of the equation. That covers the upgrade of a cable box to DVR. The cable box itself is $8.95. That means an additional DVR actually costs $15.90 per month.... These are TWC Raleigh Rates.

The 6.95 a month is only part of the equation. That covers the upgrade of a cable box to DVR. The cable box itself is $8.95. That means an additional DVR actually costs $15.90 per month.... These are TWC Raleigh Rates.

and then of course you actually need a TV to plug it into. My main screen is already maxed out on connections.

External drive?

if the trick play stuff worked I'd consider it. I'm just waiting for shows to get cancelled. That should thin out the herd.

i just pluged in an esata drive. and i dont think its working what should i do. I can feel it spining. TWC 8300 NYC

if the trick play stuff worked I'd consider it.
That may never happen. This may be as good as it gets.

Or, you know, just getting a second 8300. I'm kind of amused at all the money guys will spend and all the trouble they'll go to for those external drives and enclosures, in which the trick play functions don't even work, when all they have to do is call up the cable company and lease another DVR for another $7/month and get another 2 tuners in the bargain. :confused: :rolleyes:
Surely, you jest. I added a 500GB external drive. That's three more STBs. Someone else added a 750GB drive and that's equivalant to nearly six more boxes. Even if you could interface all those boxes with your A/V system, you'd go mad keeping track of what was recorded where. Then there's the remote control issue. The geniuses that designed the boxes and remotes never considered that anyone might have more than one box in the same room, and one remote commands them all - simultaneously. I have no idea how one would work around that problem. And finally, every cable split drops signal by 3dB or so and a four-way or six-way drops it proportionately. Too many boxes, too little signal, and now you've got PQ problems.

You were kidding, right? :)

I've got 2 (one is free for testing) and it's a PIA keeping just 2 straight, even though they are in separate rooms. But, I can record 4 programs on Thursdays, so that's a big plus. :)

i cant get my box to recognize a 750gb esata drive. Please help

i cant get my box to recognize a 750gb esata drive. Please help
That's all the info we get to work with? :rolleyes:

NYC time warner cable. I bought external esata case and a 750gb drive. Its connect to the 8300 hd and I can feel it getting warm. The drive is spinning. How can I tell if the cable box is useing it or not?

NYC time warner cable. I bought external esata case and a 750gb drive. Its connect to the 8300 hd and I can feel it getting warm. The drive is spinning. How can I tell if the cable box is useing it or not?
What case? Any power and/or data lights on it? What sequence did you use for powering up and connecting the two devices?

I dont know the boot sequence. But i have a http://tonyh.stores.yahoo.net/sadims1ho3sa.html case.

I dont know the boot sequence. But i have a http://tonyh.stores.yahoo.net/sadims1ho3sa.html case.
Is that a power light I see? If so, is it lit? With both the 8300HD and the external drive powered, unplug the SATA cable from the 8300HD and plug it back in after counting to ten.

nothing happend

Try changing the channels with the drive plugged in, watch the lights on the case and report anything.

Press select and exit at the same time on your DVR box, hold them down for about 5 seconds and you should hear a boing, release and press again to see a diagnostic screen, page down to the info on the drive and space etc.

nothing happend
try different cable

Try changing the channels with the drive plugged in, watch the lights on the case and report anything.

Press select and exit at the same time on your DVR box, hold them down for about 5 seconds and you should hear a boing, release and press again to see a diagnostic screen, page down to the info on the drive and space etc.
He never got the "drive attached - wanna format?" dialogs . . .

That may never happen. This may be as good as it gets.


it's sad when, "as good as it gets" it's the best we can hope for.

it's sad when, "as good as it gets" it's the best we can hope for.
OK then, have high hopes but low expectations! :)

When I plugged the driv in first it said something was wrong with the power. So i unpluged it and then removed drive from case and fired it up agian. No new dialog about formating came up. If i turn the drive off the box say drive disconected. When I change channels the lights apear the same. Under DVR info it says storage devices 1. capacity 148.9. Sata Status authorized.

When I plugged the driv in first it said something was wrong with the power. So i unpluged it and then removed drive from case and fired it up agian. No new dialog about formating came up. If i turn the drive off the box say drive disconected. When I change channels the lights apear the same. Under DVR info it says storage devices 1. capacity 148.9. Sata Status authorized.
If you disconnect it and it says disconnected, then it seems like it knows it's there when it is connected. Even though I have a drive attached to my box, the "DVR Info" page still only reports only the internal drive. I need to go to the next page, "DVR AVFS" to see the combined storage space of both drives. Turn on the 8300HD, power up the external drive and attach it. Then check the "DVR AVFS" page for total capacity.

whe i take the esata cable out of the hard drive the dvr says please reconect drive. It now says the external drive is not functioning properlly please make sure the power and data cables properly conceted

when i turn the drive power off it says "The external drive has been disconect please reconnect the drive and restart the dvr" when i do this it says the drive is not connected or powered corectly

whe i take the esata cable out of the hard drive the dvr says please reconect drive. It now says the external drive is not functioning properlly please make sure the power and data cables properly conceted
OK then, that would be the next step. You might need to use DIFFERENT power and data cables than the ones you're using now. One or both might be bad.

Mike, I agree deleting an already recorded show is kinda bad (I've done that maybe 3 times in 2+ years of using a DVR) but having to go through an additional confirm dialog I find annoying.

But we were talking about a scheduled program. If you mistakenly delete one of those, you've ONLY cost yourself a few extra button presses. Already in the first week of using this UI, I've spent about 400% more button presses than I ever used in rescheduling something I might have deleted (although in all honesty, I can't recall every deleting a scheduled recording that I wanted to keep on the schedule).

FAR more importantly, I want to hear is someone getting .070 and that pausing live TV is back to functioning correctly.

Surely, you jest. I added a 500GB external drive. That's three more STBs. Someone else added a 750GB drive and that's equivalant to nearly six more boxes. Even if you could interface all those boxes with your A/V system, you'd go mad keeping track of what was recorded where. Then there's the remote control issue. The geniuses that designed the boxes and remotes never considered that anyone might have more than one box in the same room, and one remote commands them all - simultaneously. I have no idea how one would work around that problem. And finally, every cable split drops signal by 3dB or so and a four-way or six-way drops it proportionately. Too many boxes, too little signal, and now you've got PQ problems.

You were kidding, right? :)

No, not at all. You've got a point when you talk about total storage; in most cases, another 150 GB should suffice but there might be folks who "need" much more, perhaps because of storing movies. But that seems tenuous to me. If you fill that mongo external drive with movies, then you still have to count on them keeping the 8300 in service because there's no other way to access the data on that drive (in fact, the externals are tied to that particular box, are they not?). If they switch to, say, a motorola system, or you need to replace your 8300 (may be wrong about that, not sure), you're out of luck.

As to your remote control issue, that's an easy fix. I have two TWC SA boxes (the 8300 HD-DVR and the 3250 STB) that, of course, use the same code set. There's an easy way to get around that problem, which is to get a universal remote with both IR and RF capability and use emitters to send signals to each particular box. You can have 16 of them using the same code set if you use a higher-end universal remote like the MX-800/MRF-250 system (that's what I do; discovered it right here on AVS).

Finally, I split my cable signal up 5 ways, 2 to the two digital boxes referenced above, and 3 to analog TV's and VCR's. I have no signal problems leading to degraded PQ (can't see a "degraded" digital signal anyway - it's either there or it's not) and I'm not trying to amplify the signal anywhere in the chain either.

Anyway, I'm not trying to bash anyone who's chosen to go the external drive route. With the trick-play bug, and the additional significant expenditures, it just hardly seems worthwhile to me when it's so easy just to lease and hook up another box. But I also scratch my head at those trying to get video and audio from HDMI. It's too simple just to connect the digital audio output to an A/V receiver, which everyone trying the HDMI approach already has, and the video directly to the display (or thru a video switching A/V receiver). Why bother with all-inclusive HDMI, especially with all the problems it has? But that's just me.... ;)

OK, so I got an 8300HD about a month ago and am just now thinking of moving files to my computer. I've tried reading up on all of that stuff on this forum, but so far I have seen threads that started from two years ago to now and it didn't look like anyone still knows how to take recordings off of it through firewire. Did I miss something or is this still impossible? I've got the firewire port on the back of mine, but I still can't figure out how to get into diagnostic mode to find out what software i have, I've tried holding exit and info, select and exit, and so on, but the front panel never reads 'DIAG', so it must be different on mine. My cable provider is TWC in Austin, TX

EDIT: Also I have installed the drivers and stuff, but when I use CapDVHS it crashes the program. Any fix for this yet?

The 6.95 a month is only part of the equation. That covers the upgrade of a cable box to DVR. The cable box itself is $8.95. That means an additional DVR actually costs $15.90 per month.... These are TWC Raleigh Rates.

Not here in Charlotte. The DVR fee is $6.95 per month (same as the STB) and the Guide fee is another $7 or so. You can add more DVR's for additional charges of $6.95/mo, but don't have to pay for another guide fee.

But I also scratch my head at those trying to get video and audio from HDMI. It's too simple just to connect the digital audio output to an A/V receiver, which everyone trying the HDMI approach already has, and the video directly to the display (or thru a video switching A/V receiver). Why bother with all-inclusive HDMI, especially with all the problems it has? But that's just me.... ;)
That's a head scratcher for me as well. I don't find that the simplicity of a single connection comes anywhere near making all the hassles worthwhile.

EDIT: Also I have installed the drivers and stuff, but when I use CapDVHS it crashes the program. Any fix for this yet?
Wrong thread for this.

Not here in Charlotte. The DVR fee is $6.95 per month (same as the STB) and the Guide fee is another $7 or so. You can add more DVR's for additional charges of $6.95/mo, but don't have to pay for another guide fee.

The Charlotte TWC website shows that you get one converter with Digipic and then its 7.95 per converter per month. You can then upgrade any converter to DVR for 6.95 per month. Thats 14.90 per month for an extra DVR....

http://www.timewarnercable.com/charlotte/customer/1653price.html

If you disconnect it and it says disconnected, then it seems like it knows it's there when it is connected. Even though I have a drive attached to my box, the "DVR Info" page still only reports only the internal drive. I need to go to the next page, "DVR AVFS" to see the combined storage space of both drives. Turn on the 8300HD, power up the external drive and attach it. Then check the "DVR AVFS" page for total capacity.

I did that and it says 149g. Maybe my drive came with a sata 1 cable and not a sata 2 cable. I am calling the case company. will that make a difference?

The Charlotte TWC website shows that you get one converter with Digipic and then its 7.95 per converter per month. You can then upgrade any converter to DVR for 6.95 per month. Thats 14.90 per month for an extra DVR....

http://www.timewarnercable.com/charlotte/customer/1653price.html

Hmmmm, that's not what shows up on my bill. I'm paying $6.95 each for an 8300 and a 3250, plus the DVR guide fee. I was also told that if I wanted to "convert" my 3250 to another 8300 it wouldn't cost me any more. I've been thinking about that since the firewire port on the 3250 is no longer functional as of the last software "update" (and that's the only reason I have it - archiving HD material to D-VHS). Maybe I get a discount or something based on bundling (I have Road Runner broadband as well). Dunno; just know what I pay.

I did that and it says 149g. Maybe my drive came with a sata 1 cable and not a sata 2 cable. I am calling the case company. will that make a difference?
No, "SATA I" and "SATA II" refer to the rate at which the data is transfered. Did you try different cables? You might have a bad one.

I did that and it says 149g. Maybe my drive came with a sata 1 cable and not a sata 2 cable. I am calling the case company. will that make a difference?
Check the drive's documentation and see if you can force SATA I (150) operation. The 8300HD is SATA I and, while the drive is supposed to negociate down from SATA II, it may not be doing that. If you can do it, it'll be a small jumper in the connector-end of the drive (I think).

If I want to use Component instead of HDMI as my video output, Do I need to unplug the HDMI cable from the 8300HD? GF is coming to house sit and With her it is reliability as opposed to "ALL Digital"

If I want to use Component instead of HDMI as my video output, Do I need to unplug the HDMI cable from the 8300HD? GF is coming to house sit and With her it is reliability as opposed to "ALL Digital"
Might be a good idea. I've seen where people have had the HDMI connected, but using another input on the display causing no handshake on HDMI. No handshake on HDMI, no video output - period. Try it.

the jumper was on the sata 1 setting I removed it and no luck. I put it back and same problems. I am now trying the drive with my mac using the usb2 connections. maybe i have a bad drive.

worked with mac usb2. esata didnt work with 8300hd

the jumper was on the sata 1 setting I removed it and no luck. I put it back and same problems. I am now trying the drive with my mac using the usb2 connections. maybe i have a bad drive.
If it works with your Mac, you might have a bad SATA cable.

the dvr known when the hd is disconected.
Huh?

I think its a bad Sata cable. The cable says serial ata on it. Maybe it version 1 instead of 2. When I disconect the harddrive the 8300 tells me to reconect it and reboot.

I think its a bad Sata cable. The cable says serial ata on it. Maybe it version 1 instead of 2. When I disconect the harddrive the 8300 tells me to reconect it and reboot.
I said that wouldn't matter. If the cable fits into the connectors, it is not the "wrong" cable. It could still be bad though, but because it is bad not because it is SATA II.

No, "SATA I" and "SATA II" refer to the rate at which the data is transfered. Did you try different cables? You might have a bad one.pepar, though that may be true, when the "eSATA" connector started out there was no "eSATA" designation and it was commonly referred to as a "SATA-II" connector. I do wonder, if the connector is his issue, however. The connector (eSATA) needed for the 8300 is keyed differently, but one might be able to force the old SATA connector on (I just tried and get a "half-assed" fit). The old (wrong) SATA connector has an "L" shaped slot, and the eSATA has an "I" shaped slot (hence, some people refer to the old SATA as type "L" and the eSATA as type "I".

Its working now. I flipped the plug, switching the ends plugged into the cable box. Turned on the cable box 3 times and it finally asked me to format. 826g'ss thanks guys

Its working now. 826g'ss
Sure, rub it in. :)

I have the 8300HD with a Sony Bravia TV. Should I set the box for all supported resolutions (480, 720, 1080) or just 1080 (which is how it was set when I got it? Does the latter approach harm the TV (bad) or improve the picture quality for nonHD broadcasts (good)?

PS - A few weeks ago I posted because I was using a Monster HDMI cable and when I turned the TV on I would see a black L shaped image (the outline of the program guide) that would disappear only if I changed the channel or hit Guide twice. I've since gotten a new TV cabinet and the HDMI cable is too short anyway, so I'm back to Component cables. But, if there have been any developments in solving the problem I would be interested in knowing since I gather I wasn't the only one seeing it.

Thanks!

ellen,

Could you be more specific about the model of Bravia (what I am trying to get at is the native resolution)?

Thanks. It is the 26S2000.

OK, I'm pretty sure that set has 768x1366 native resolution. From what I have seen, that set looks best when fed 1080i on everything. I could be wrong, but I suggest that you try setting your 8300 to fixed output at 1080i.

OK, I'm pretty sure that set has 768x1366 native resolution. From what I have seen, that set looks best when fed 1080i on everything. I could be wrong, but I suggest that you try setting your 8300 to fixed output at 1080i.
I must bring up the classic argument that whichever device - 8300HD or 26S2000 Bravia - has the best deinterlacer/scaler should handle those duties. Would the Sony not do a better job? If so, it should be fed the unchanged video signal with the box passing all resolutions. It's probably best to try it both ways.

It's always best to try things both ways, especially since everyone "sees" things a little differently. I personally doubt there will be enough difference to put up with the format changes between channels if a lot of channel surfing is done. The bottonline though is that what looks best to you is what's best, not what someone else or the specs suggest. :)

I gave up after watching the unit(s) reboot 3-4 times within an hour. I was switching between the two units, they both were recording on both tuners. There is definately something amiss between the DVDO scaler and the SA8300HD with regard to HDMI connectivity.

I changed the cabling to component video with digital coaxial out, disconnected the HDMI cables from the back of the DVR's and added Digital caxial audio. The configuration is now two DVR's feeding component video and digital coaxial audio to a KDS component switcher and then to a DVDO VPxx, component input. The following was observed.

1) The picture is a little softer
2) The resoultion indicators on the SA8300HD now stay solidly lit. The DVR's are set to put out all resolutuions. When using HDMI they would often flash on and off and change. I suspect this was indicating HDMI sync problems.
3) Audio and video go through the scaler taking advantage of lip sync processing
4) No audio Dropouts.
5) No Video dropouts or lockups
6) No Black L shaped masks.
7) On a change of inout Dvr0 to DVR1 or DVR1 to DVR0, The change is instantaneous. No 2-3 second delay waiting for HDMI sync.

I will leave it this way for a while. I can change it in 1 minute by merely reinserting the HDMI cables and setting some parameters on the Theater control system.

I've been planning on getting a RPTV, hope to do it maybe even this month, but ran across a Gateway FPD1975W 19" widescreen computer monitor on sale for $159 and bought it on impulse.

I can't believe how thick I am on some of these HD details, if I had a HDMI / DVI I am sure I would have tried plugging the monitor into the 8300, but I am guessing that would get me "nothing?" since even though it has HDCP, it doesn't have a normal TV video mode. With a HTPC though it should work fine, I think, at1440x900 . Weird, me or it, haven't decided.

Wait a minute, specs don't show it, but on the box it says 720p, so maybe I am golden and one little cable from now and I enter the tiny but HD world of home video. ;) Yup, very thick.

Any idea if plugging this into the 8300 HDMI/DVI and playing around a bit is going to mess up my normal SD viewing via S-video to my ancient SD CRT? I won't be starting out at least with a cable long enough to leave the display connected more than a few hours, then it goes to a PC.

OK, I'm pretty sure that set has 768x1366 native resolution. From what I have seen, that set looks best when fed 1080i on everything. I could be wrong, but I suggest that you try setting your 8300 to fixed output at 1080i.Huh. I'd have thought that, if you weren't going to let the television do the scaling, feeding it 720p for everything would be the best bet. The SA8x00HDs do an amazing job scaling from 720p to 1080i; I'd imagine that it would do just as well in the other direction.

Do 1366x768 televisions leave actually scale everything to that resolution, or do they display 1280x720 images with 24 blank pixel on each side and 43 on the top and bottom. It only leaves 3% of the available resolution unused on all sides, a 12.5% overall reduction. I doubt that it'd be noticeable and it'd avoid a stupid scaling step for 720p content.

I've never understood why there were so many 1366x768 flatscreens out there, when there are also some 1280x768 ones and a few 1280x720 ones. It must have something to do with PC display formats; 1360x768 and 1280x768 are WXGA display formats.

Huh. I'd have thought that, if you weren't going to let the television do the scaling, feeding it 720p for everything would be the best bet. The SA8x00HDs do an amazing job scaling from 720p to 1080i; I'd imagine that it would do just as well in the other direction.
Hi Mke - deja vu - do you still think the 8300HD's scaler is better than that of a new Bravia?

Huh. I'd have thought that, if you weren't going to let the television do the scaling, feeding it 720p for everything would be the best bet. The SA8x00HDs do an amazing job scaling from 720p to 1080i; I'd imagine that it would do just as well in the other direction.

Do 1366x768 televisions leave actually scale everything to that resolution, or do they display 1280x720 images with 24 blank pixel on each side and 43 on the top and bottom. It only leaves 3% of the available resolution unused on all sides, a 12.5% overall reduction. I doubt that it'd be noticeable and it'd avoid a stupid scaling step for 720p content.

But that isn't they way they do it. EVERYTHING is converted to 768 x 1366. I've found that with customer's Sony 768x1366 displays that they look sharper when fed 1080i than when fed 720p for everything.

I've never understood why there were so many 1366x768 flatscreens out there, when there are also some 1280x768 ones and a few 1280x720 ones. It must have something to do with PC display formats; 1360x768 and 1280x768 are WXGA display formats.You got it! BTW: What 1280x720 flat panel have you seen? I haven't seen any. I know that Sony has a 1280x720 Grand Wega (the A10 series).

Hi Mke - deja vu - do you still think the 8300HD's scaler is better than that of a new Bravia?I have no idea what the Bravia is using for a scaler; the scaler in the SA8300HD is an ATi chip. It does an absolutely brilliant job of scaling 720p to 1080i. ABC best is a close second to the best I've seen on HDNet as the sharpest HD on my 1080i/480p/480i CRT RPTV.

I thought that the Bravia line's main thrust was to have an industrial design with high appeal to both women and men. I haven't heard them brag that it was their best performer. (I'm sure that there's nothing wrong with its performance).

I have no idea what the Bravia is using for a scaler; the scaler in the SA8300HD is an ATi chip. It does an absolutely brilliant job of scaling 720p to 1080i. ABC best is a close second to the best I've seen on HDNet as the sharpest HD on my 1080i/480p/480i CRT RPTV.

I thought that the Bravia line's main thrust was to have an industrial design with high appeal to both women and men. I haven't heard them brag that it was their best performer. (I'm sure that there's nothing wrong with its performance).
OK, just checking in with you on this. :)

How old is that ATI chip? At what point will even new, run-of-the-mill onboard scalers surpass the aging 8300HD scaler/deinterlacer? I have no firm opinion because I have no first hand experience, but I'd be inclined to lean toward newer stuff - in general - being a lot better than a 3-4 year old design. I could be wrong, and would love to see some test results.

But that isn't they way they do it. EVERYTHING is converted to 768 x 1366. I've found that with customer's Sony 768x1366 displays that they look sharper when fed 1080i than when fed 720p for everything.I repeat--stupid. That means that the device has to scale every television input resolution. It'd make sense for them to at least display 720p in real pixels. If you set the output of the video source to 1080i only, everything except for 1080i will undergo two separate scaling operations (1080i will only be scaled by the monitor). Ugh :rolleyes:.

BTW: What 1280x720 flat panel have you seen? I haven't seen any. I know that Sony has a 1280x720 Grand Wega (the A10 series).See this (http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=197/popup7%5B%5D=51:301/qlty=n) list generated by PriceGrabber.com. (I use them for available product research a lot because of the nifty filters). I'm sure that they're wrong about some of those models--that expensive 60" Planar PDP actually has a 1024x720 res (pretty crappy for the price). I did check a few and the Toshibas, the Westinghouse and the Viewsonic are all verified to have 1280x720 real resolution.

Hey, this may be a little off-topic, but it's something I always wanted to know and just never knew where to ask it. This looks like it's already a bit O.T. on the subject and maybe I can sneak this one in:

How do you connect up an old computer monitor (19" Dell circa 1999) with the typical connections thereof to a cable box or DVD player? What's required?

I repeat--stupid. Who are you calling stupid?
That means that the device has to scale every television input resolution.That's right - and is why 720p does not look good on these displays.
It'd make sense for them to at least display 720p in real pixels. You'd think so - but then people would be bitching about the blank areas on the screen

If you set the output of the video source to 1080i only, everything except for 1080i will undergo two separate scaling operations (1080i will only be scaled by the monitor). Ugh :rolleyes:. Double conversion is not good. It may depend on what you watch the most. It's ABC, FOX, ESPN (all 720p) vs everyone else (1080i). But really, one should try both and see. I am simply repeating what I have found on customer's displays.

See this (http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib.php/page_id=197/popup7%5B%5D=51:301/qlty=n) list generated by PriceGrabber.com. (I use them for available product research a lot because of the nifty filters). I'm sure that they're wrong about some of those models--that expensive 60" Planar PDP actually has a 1024x720 res (pretty crappy for the price). I did check a few and the Toshibas, the Westinghouse and the Viewsonic are all verified to have 1280x720 real resolution. Interesting, I note that all the 720x1280 LCDs are 27". I suppose that they are provided by a single panel manufacturer. Some of the plasma configurations are really screwy.

PS - A few weeks ago I posted because I was using a Monster HDMI cable and when I turned the TV on I would see a black L shaped image (the outline of the program guide) that would disappear only if I changed the channel or hit Guide twice. I've since gotten a new TV cabinet and the HDMI cable is too short anyway, so I'm back to Component cables. But, if there have been any developments in solving the problem I would be interested in knowing since I gather I wasn't the only one seeing it.

Thanks!

Funny, my sister has Bravia XBR1 and was plagued with this problem. I brought my box over and it still was an issue, so I thought it was the TV. Then, when I got my box back home I had the problem. A cold boot and I was fixed, but that never worked for her.

Soon as 2.5.066 got downloaded here, the Backward Black L went away.

I have no specific knowledge, but can offer my speculation.... 1366 x 768 was more pixels than 1280 x 720 and now represents a sort of half way point to 1920 x 1080. I think it's technological advantage certainly comes into play when you are hooking a computer to it (more screen real estate). Other that very real advantage, the rest is marketing.

After asking a lot of questions and getting answers that made good sense to me, I realized ALL signals to my 1366 x 768 set had to be scaled, I looked at the scaling on the TV vs. scaling on the 8300. No real significant visual discrepancy showed up so I went for the engineering, set my 8300 to not touch any signal it gets and so the TV is the ONLY device doing any scaling.

Besides, I'm totally convinced that a FAR bigger impediment to less quality in a program comes from what the source is sending to TWC. Not to say TWC could muck stuff up, but I think a lot may forget that back in the non-HD days, some channels looked like total crap while others looked really good. Back in my first few weeks, every time I saw a picture that didn't look that great, I switch over to DiscHD... my set has NO blame for a bad picture, this image is 100% always fabulous.

How do you connect up an old computer monitor (19" Dell circa 1999) with the typical connections thereof to a cable box or DVD player? What's required?
Nothing I can think of will directly connect any of the 8300 outputs directly to a VGA style analog RGB input. What most people do is hook the monitor to a PC with a video input card of some kind and watch stuff on the monitor that way.

Crossing fingers, I now go to plug my new LCD monitor into the 8300 and see what happens.

Who are you calling stupid?I think that you're joking, but there's no smiley. Perhaps I should have said "I repeat--the way that these 1366x768 displays treat 720p is stupid". :)
You'd think so - but then people would be bitching about the blank areas on the screenNo doubt--I've heard people complain about the tiny bit of unused space when 1.85:1 material is displayed OAR on a 1.77:1 monitor.
I have no specific knowledge, but can offer my speculation.... 1366 x 768 was more pixels than 1280 x 720 and now represents a sort of half way point to 1920 x 1080. I think it's technological advantage certainly comes into play when you are hooking a computer to it (more screen real estate). Other that very real advantage, the rest is marketing.I speculated that it had something to do with computer display formats--it's the primary format for WXGA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXGA). It's the common VGA 4:3 format 1024x768 extended horizontally to make it 16:9 ((768 / 9) * 16 = 1365.33).

Hey, this may be a little off-topic, but it's something I always wanted to know and just never knew where to ask it. This looks like it's already a bit O.T. on the subject and maybe I can sneak this one in:

How do you connect up an old computer monitor (19" Dell circa 1999) with the typical connections thereof to a cable box or DVD player? What's required?
There are component-to-VGA adapters.

I plugged in my cheapy 19" widescreen HD monitor (Gateway FPD1975W), no smoke, but eyeballs don't feel so good.

I turned on the monitor, plugged the HDMI end into the 8300 and turned it on, and without doing anything else after a few seconds a sharp, but harsh to look at picture was displaying. It took me a few minutes poking around the guide to find the free broadcast HD channels. I watched stuff I would rarely be willing to watch, letting the tiny HD rot out my eyes, then starting messing with set up for the LCD (very minimal allowed with DVI), brought up the LCD info screen that showed 1920x1079 60 hz, then brough up the 8300 setup on my old tv, but I couldn't get the output to anything but 1080p. I would manually deselect 1080p and select 720p, but when I left the setting mode it still showed 1080p.

After a few more minutes something glitched and the screen started to reset every few seconds, black with some white lines, TV picture, repeat. I turned things on and off and tried various, but after being off about 10 minutes it was fine until I got sick of watching an hour later. Goes on my PC tomorrow so I can rot my eyes up close.

Out of the box picture was mondo harsh, very sharp, very bright, very contrasty, pumped colors with a slight red tinge. Also connected to the 8300 the display didn't go into sleep mode even after 30 min, checked the info screen and it was still showing 1080p input.

I speculated that it had something to do with computer display formats--it's the primary format for WXGA (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WXGA). It's the common VGA 4:3 format 1024x768 extended horizontally to make it 16:9 ((768 / 9) * 16 = 1365.33).

Funny you should say that... the 16:9 widescreen computer display thing was one of those Jobs things; here was a guy with a solid connection to Hollywood who was able to wrench Apple into going 16:9 for computer monitors and again lead everyone else in that space into the same thing.

Even more amusing (to me) is that I definitely used to have some disdain for 16:9. Fans would argue with me that 4:3 was 16:9 with the sides cut off, I would argue that 16:9 was 4:3 with the top and bottom cut off. Both of which are true... sort of. OF COURSE now that I have a 16:9 HD TV, I've totally changed camps!

Funny you should say that... the 16:9 widescreen computer display thing was one of those Jobs things; here was a guy with a solid connection to Hollywood who was able to wrench Apple into going 16:9 for computer monitors and again lead everyone else in that space into the same thing.

Even more amusing (to me) is that I definitely used to have some disdain for 16:9. Fans would argue with me that 4:3 was 16:9 with the sides cut off, I would argue that 16:9 was 4:3 with the top and bottom cut off. Both of which are true... sort of. OF COURSE now that I have a 16:9 HD TV, I've totally changed camps!
To my knowledge, computer displays are 16:10.

To my knowledge, computer displays are 16:10.What kind of computer displays are you referring to? Good ol' fashion displays or new-fangled widescreen ones?

What kind of computer displays are you referring to? Good ol' fashion displays or new-fangled widescreen ones?
I'm referring to the new-fangled widescreen ones just like the Samsung 244T I pulled out of the box a few days ago. Sixteen-by-ten. Strange, but true. Check specs.

My Samsung 244t is 1920 x 1200. The widescreen on my Acer laptop is 1680 x 1050. 16:10 all.

I'm referring to the new-fangled widescreen ones just like the Samsung 244T I pulled out of the box a few days ago. Sixteen-by-ten. Strange, but true. Check specs.


Yep. The display on my 17" PowerBook is 16:10.

Ted

Huh. I checked a few of them and you're right. I guess that Apple's Cinema Display started the trend. In which case 1366x768 has little relationship to computer displays in actuality, except that it's the VESA XGA resolution widened to 16:9.

Huh. I checked a few of them and you're right. I guess that Apple's Cinema Display started the trend. In which case 1366x768 has little relationship to computer displays in actuality, except that it's the VESA XGA resolution widened to 16:9.
Yes, I think the 1366x768 that Sony, Sanyo and a few others use(d) came from them modifying their LCD manufacturing line from making 1024x768 to making 1366x768. That still doesn't explain why HDTV went 16:9 and computer monitors went 16:10 though.

In Raleigh, NC my DVR was upgraded to 2.5.066 overnight as well. And it has a behaviour that I really don't like. My primary TV is connected via HDMI, but I have two TVs in other rooms that are fed off the DVRs coax. This allowed me to use DVR in multiple rooms (with the same program going to all TVs obviously, but that's OK).

As of this morning, if I power down my primary TV, the DVR complains about HDCP now missing and explains this in an error message on the image and dims the picture by about 75% .. on the coax.

I am fine with it requiring HDCP on HDMI. But not by dimming f the coax when it is missing!
I tried pursuing this with TW. Although I did get to some nice sounding folks, they were saying all sorts of bizarre things, like ..

"The reason for this firmware upgrade was to prevent people from doing what you are doing [using the RF output to feed another TV in the house].

And of course, they kept saying "We can't help it if your TV doesn't support HDCP", [My HDMI-connected TV does. The RF-connected ones do not.]

And finally, they offered to send someone over to swap out the DVR.

Anyone got a solution?

I tried pursuing this with TW. Although I did get to some nice sounding folks, they were saying all sorts of bizarre things, like ..

"The reason for this firmware upgrade was to prevent people from doing what you are doing [using the RF output to feed another TV in the house].

And of course, they kept saying "We can't help it if your TV doesn't support HDCP", [My HDMI-connected TV does. The RF-connected ones do not.]

And finally, they offered to send someone over to swap out the DVR.

Anyone got a solution?

Use component instead of HDMI and that should solve the problem.

Yes, I think the 1366x768 that Sony, Sanyo and a few others use(d) came from them modifying their LCD manufacturing line from making 1024x768 to making 1366x768.It's not just "Sony, Sanyo and a few others"--1366x768, so called WXGA, is far and away the most popular resolution for flat panels televisions. At PriceGrabber, out of 498 widescreen flatpenels listed, 274 of them had 1366x768 resolution, from 34 separate manufacturers; the next most popular format was 1024x768 (63 models) followed by 1920x1080 (32 models).

It's not just "Sony, Sanyo and a few others"--1366x768, so called WXGA, is far and away the most popular resolution for flat panels televisions. At PriceGrabber, out of 498 widescreen flatpenels listed, 274 of them had 1366x768 resolution, from 34 separate manufacturers; the next most popular format was 1024x768 (63 models) followed by 1920x1080 (32 models).
I've never junderstood how 1024 x 768 could be (mis-)construed as "widescreen," but it is. :confused:

And I sure don't understand how 1024 x anything could be (mis-)construed as High Def either!

I've never junderstood how 1024 x 768 could be (mis-)construed as "widescreen," but it is. :confused:Since they are widescreen, the pixels must not be square; scaling tricks would compensate.

There's one even funkier flat-panel resolution on widescreens: 1024x1024. It actually has more pixels than 1280x720, but it's not a VESA format.

Since they are widescreen, the pixels must not be square; scaling tricks would compensate.

There are some even funkier flat-panel resolutions on widescreens, like 1024x1024 (more pixels than 1280x720) and 1280x1024.
That's exactly the part I don't grok - how a "square" field of pixels can accurately present a 16:9 image w/o distorting it.

That's exactly the part I don't grok - how a "square" field of pixels can accurately present a 16:9 image w/o distorting it.Take a 1920x1080 still picture, and use Photoshop to resize it to 1024x1024. Photoshop throws away some horizontal information, and uses interpolation to fill in some extra vertical information to create the new image.

If pixels on your display are "square" or "circular"--i.e., 1:1 width-to-height ratio--then the resulting image will be horizontally "squashed": objects will appear taller and/or thinner than they should.

But if the pixels on your display are stretched horizontally to a 16:9 width-to-height ratio (so that the resulting display itself has a 16:9 aspect ratio), then objects will appear properly proportioned and the overall picture will still look pretty good.

How good? Good enough that hundreds of thousands of folks with 1024(or 1366)x768(or 1024) "high-definition" plasma and LCD displays have no idea their display only shows them about 40-50% of the actual resolution of an incoming 1080i (1920x1080) signal...

Any fixed resolution display (like plasma, LCD, or DLP) will have a built-in scaler designed to convert the input signal resolution to the display's native resolution. It's essentially doing "the Photoshop conversion thang" on every frame, unless the input signal happens to match the display resolution.

We got our new channel lineup today in the mail, casual look didn't show me much of a change, anybody wiser?

I still don't have my computer area sorted out, so Gateway LCD stayed hooked up to the cable box. The reseting behavior happened again when I turned it on this morning, power cycle of the display fixed it, now I am wondering if its a real problem or just flakiness with the 8300 and HDMI.

Yup, 16:10 is another Jobs thing. They started doing "widescreen" displays at 16:9, then switched over to 16:10. I remember the outcry in the Mac community. Typical, they pioneer and get the market going in a different direction than it had been, but they put their own twist to make it not quite as compatible.

Take a 1920x1080 still picture, and use Photoshop to resize it to 1024x1024. Photoshop throws away some horizontal information, and uses interpolation to fill in some extra vertical information to create the new image.
In PS, one can change canvas size (crop) or image size (w/o constraining proportions) to make a 1920x1080m image into a 1024x1024 one. Either way visibly alters the image - unacceptably in my opinion.

. . if the pixels on your display are stretched horizontally to a 16:9 width-to-height ratio (so that the resulting display itself has a 16:9 aspect ratio), then objects will appear properly proportioned and the overall picture will still look pretty good.

How good? Good enough that hundreds of thousands of folks with 1024(or 1366)x768(or 1024) "high-definition" plasma and LCD displays have no idea their display only shows them about 40-50% of the actual resolution of an incoming 1080i (1920x1080) signal...
And, again, that's the part I don't understand. ARE the pixels 16:9 in a 1024x1024 "widescreen" image?

In PS, one can change canvas size (crop) or image size (w/o constraining proportions) to make a 1920x1080m image into a 1024x1024 one. Either way visibly alters the image - unacceptably in my opinion.Perhaps, but maybe that's at least partially because you're seeing the "before" and "after" side-by-side and know what you're missing.

You know, of course, that your Sony VPL-HS20 has a 1386x788 resolution, which does not correspond to either 16:9 or 4:3. It is doing the "Photoshop thang" on every image it projects, since no source you feed it will match that resolution. (Or else you're scaling the signal via some other method before you feed it to the PJ.) Even so, it still looks pretty good to you, doesn't it?

And, again, that's the part I don't understand. ARE the pixels 16:9 in a 1024x1024 "widescreen" image?Um...yes. But you can ask me again if you want to be *really* sure. :)

Or at least, they *could* be. Pixel spacing can also be varied (i.e., the horizontal gap between pixels may be different than the vertical gap between pixels), so the individual pixel ARs may not be 16:9.

But at the least, a 1024x1024 widescreen display will NOT have square or circular pixels. They'll be rectangular (http://www.answers.com/topic/rectangular-pixel) or oblong to some degree. You can't make all that "stretch" up by spacing alone without it becoming noticeable to the viewer.

We have drifted well off-topic here, however, so I'll shut up now.

We have drifted well off-topic here, however, so I'll shut up now.
But . . but . . you're doing so well. :)

I tried pursuing this with TW. Although I did get to some nice sounding folks, they were saying all sorts of bizarre things, like ..

"The reason for this firmware upgrade was to prevent people from doing what you are doing [using the RF output to feed another TV in the house].

And of course, they kept saying "We can't help it if your TV doesn't support HDCP", [My HDMI-connected TV does. The RF-connected ones do not.]

And finally, they offered to send someone over to swap out the DVR.

Anyone got a solution?
Although it is highly inconvenient, try disconnecting HDMI cable when HDTV is turned off--it should re-enable the Component Video (and other) outputs.

Or give up on HDMI and simply use Component Video....like I did....

I also have given up and am running component. So far it looks almost as good as Digital (screen is 10 feet wide) but;

Has no problems with dropouts (unless they are transmission dropouts)

No rebooting of the DVR's

No stopping recording and perhaps restarting it later.

Also switching between the two DVR's is almost instantanous.

And I have not seen the black masks.

The hardest part of dealing with Cablecos and the 8300 is knowing when you can fight and get someplace and when its time to switch to component and move on.

No stopping recording and perhaps restarting it later.So, are you saying that the software and 8300 are the same? The only difference is you now use Component instead of HDMI? And you no longer have short recordings? If so, I wonder how many others experiencing short recordings are using HDMI and how many are using Component? Could a very short HDCP error be causing the recording to stop short without affecting anything else?

The one thing that still bugs me after many months is the persistence of the conflict entries in the "Scheduled Recordings" list. They won't go away if you just ask to cancel them. If you're desperate to get rid of them, cancel one of the things that was in conflict (only once, leaving it grayed out in the list), which'll bring the eliminated one back into the recording schedule, at which point you can get rid of it. After it's gone, you can select the one that you grayed out previously and ask to record it.

Yes! I'm in NYC and was upgraded to the new firmware about two weeks ago and am sorely disappointed. I had no beef with the previous software, the box did reboot every couple of weeks but was otherwise fine. But this new firmware introduces "features" that seem to me absurd. I cannot understand why it takes two separates requests to remove canceled shows from the record queue. It's been suggested the change is to cut down on accidental cancellation but the previous software already prompted you to confirm the cancellation/removal from queue before it did so; how many times must one be prompted before it's enough? 2, 3, 4, 6 times? It seems to me the accidental deletion of recordings is far more frequent and the consequences much more severe yet there are no additional prompts before shows are erased. Why? The logic of giving the removal of canceled shows from the queue heightened level of protection escapes me. Reasonable people can disagree about this but being unable to cancel schedule conflicted recordings - no matter how many times you choose to cancel it - is clearly a bug. I had figured out the workaround described above but it is ridiculous having to jump through so many hoops. It amazes me these things don't go through the most rudimentary testing before it's pushed out to customers.

One other step backwards with the new software. I have a couple shows set up for series recording with one minute added to the start and end times to make sure it's not cut short. These shows have episodes shown back-to-back, say the first episode begins at 1:00, the second at 2:00. The previous version of the software was able to figure out that I wanted both shows recorded and ignore the additional one minute added to the end of the first show and one minute added to the beginning of the second. It would automatically end the first show at 2:00, ignoring the add one minute setting, and begin recording the second show at 2:00. The new firmware is too dumb and now thinks there is a scheduling "conflict."

DoubleDaz et al,

That is correct. That was the only change. The only malfunctions I am seeing now are drop outs involving transmissions, although I want to verify that by running the audio around the scaler. 90% of the audio drops are accompanied by video pixelation.

What I think is happeneing (and this is only conjecture) is as follows:

There is a transmission glitch. The stream is interrupted and the HDMI/HDCP requires resynchronization. Most times it just resyncs and continues after a drop of Audio and or pixelation. Sometimes however I think the SA8300HD gets its drawers in a knot. Those times it will do many things from a complete drop of Audio, A video freeze, a cessation of recording, a Reboot. The scaler never reboots.

IMHO rebooting is unforgivable and just implies lack of good code design. It is a copout, a band aid shortcut. Could you imagine the computer that runs your car rebooting while you are driving at 90 miles per hour?

I have seen all of the aforementioned. Next week I will run the Audio around the scaler directly to the audio processor and see if there are Audio drops. If so it must be the SA8300HD.

Thanks, Barry. Can't disagree about bad code design on this one. As a former programmer, I always tried to end gracefully in the event of unexpected conditions. However, I saw a lot of code with just 1 leg (vs 2), leaving the unexpected result to cause a crash, not good design at all.

FWIW, I've been experiencing some unexplained glitches too, but only on a couple of our digital simulcast stations and always the same ones (we are still in the implementation stages and my hub has not been completed yet). I suspect it might have something to do with how many are crowded on the same frequency, but I've been too lazy to dig deeper. I'm supposed to get new SARA software to test soon and I'll dig deeper if it's still happening then.

*Sorry, I'm new and not sure which forum to place this in, so it may pop up in a few, thanks for understanding, I just really want my HDTV to work!*

Hello, My name is Ryan and I'm fairly technical savvy yet I'm new to the world of High Def. tv and have ran into a problem in the setup of the new TV I received yesterday. I purchased a Sony 60" sxrd, the KDS-60A200. I also have Time Warner Cable and use a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD high definition cable box/DVR. I have them connected using an NXG HDMI cable. The problem I am having is that of being able to keep aspect ration settings. It seems to me that the HDMI cable sends information both ways and some settings on the cable box are being changed without me changing them as I do different things with the TV.

For instance, i plugged the cable box into the HDMI (video input 6) and turned the tv on to theat input. Had the cable box off and went into the HD setup wizard (guide + info on the box). I chose that I could see all inputs using advanced setup, then turned the power on the cable box. I went into settings on the cable box and told it to use the "Auto DVI/HDMI" setting. On regular channels, the picture was in 480p I believe and on the HD Channels it would be either in 720p or 1080i depending on the channel. The aspect ratios it showed no the cable box would change depending on the channel. I believe the TV's settings were with Autowide ON, default 4:3 OFF, and Wide Mode set to FULL. Every channel I went to, the cable box would change to the correct ratio for the input, and the TV picture would fill the screen.

The problem arises when I change the input or turn off the tv. I switched the input to Video 4 (which is component and had my xbox 360 plugged into it), and the TV played my xbox fine, but I noticed that while the cable box was still turned on and on an HD channel in 1080i, the input source on the cable box itself switched to 480i when I changed the input on the TV. It does the same if I go to any other video input or if I turn the tv off. I thought no big deal, but then I went back to watching tv and the tv's settings I don't believe had changed, but the cable box would only show every channel only in 480i, no matter what channel I put it on...HD or SD. If I turn of the cable box and run the HD setup wizard again, then power it on while on the right video input, everything will be good again until I turn it off or change the video input on the tv. Any help on getting the TV and cable box to keep the same settings when I change inputs or turn off the power would be greatly appreciated. As of now, unless I keep redoing the setup wizard, all I can watch is 480i after a power down or an input change. Thanks in advance.

-Ryan

Reasonable people can disagree about this but being unable to cancel schedule conflicted recordings - no matter how many times you choose to cancel it - is clearly a bug. I had figured out the workaround described above but it is ridiculous having to jump through so many hoops. It amazes me these things don't go through the most rudimentary testing before it's pushed out to customers.Well, you can't call the inability to remove the entry for a conflict-canceled program from the list a "bug" (or at least not a serious one) since it doesn't stop you from doing anything except remove the entry from the list, which isn't an entirely necessary ability. It's more of an annoyance.

Though it may be intentional (whatever their reasons might be) it may also be related to their decision to simply gray-out a recording request when you first cancel it. A request to "cancel" a grayed-out entry left after a manual cancellation is taken as a request to remove the entry from the list, without canceling the request to record it, since that's already been done. If it treats "canceling" a conflict-canceled recording the same way, after it removes it from the list, the request to make the recording still exists and it just gets put back on the list. If that's the case, it should detect that the recording request hasn't been canceled and do that as well as remove the entry from the list.

IMHO rebooting is unforgivable and just implies lack of good code design. It is a copout, a band aid shortcut. Could you imagine the computer that runs your car rebooting while you are driving at 90 miles per hour?IMO, the only instance in which rebooting is the proper action is when a very bad state is detected when attempting something. The software can't get what it needs to do something or some information that it retrieves is obviously gibberish and under no circumstances should it be possible for this to happen, so something is really, really cocked up and it's dangerous to continue. This would indicate a serious and previously undetected bug and the crash-and-reboot sequence should produce some kind of state dump, if possible. In this application, I'd leave that dump in non-volatile memory which, if found immediately after reboot, will be automatically sent to the headend.

No amount of testing of a realtime system as complex as this will find every possible failure mode. It could be that the circumstances which cause the failure occur very rarely (it only happens when the unit is standing on one foot, jumping up and down while singing "America the Beautiful" on Ash Wednesday :)); it could be that it's due to a hardware failure in that particular box. But when an embedded system detects a really bad state, the safest thing to do might be to start everything over from scratch.

The systems which run your car aren't nearly so complicated; the operating conditions and possible input values are much more easily convered in a test plan. But even they could possibly fail in operation, just as any mechanical part could. (Imagine what would happen if your timing belt should snap while driving your car at 90 MPH). Restarting those systems is also probably extremely fast and they could probably restart and get back up to speed in less than a second.

Wondering if anyone can help. I have the 8300HD box and have the video connected through a receiver with component cables and audio with digital coax.
While watching HD programming the video will flash to a black screen and then back to the show. Can't seem to find anyone who actually has fixed this problem and was looking for any help.

.....For instance, i plugged the cable box into the HDMI (video input 6) and turned the tv on to theat input. Had the cable box off and went into the HD setup wizard (guide + info on the box). I chose that I could see all inputs using advanced setup, then turned the power on the cable box. I went into settings on the cable box and told it to use the "Auto DVI/HDMI" setting. On regular channels, the picture was in 480p I believe and on the HD Channels it would be either in 720p or 1080i depending on the channel. The aspect ratios it showed no the cable box would change depending on the channel. I believe the TV's settings were with Autowide ON, default 4:3 OFF, and Wide Mode set to FULL. Every channel I went to, the cable box would change to the correct ratio for the input, and the TV picture would fill the screen.

The problem arises when I change the input or turn off the tv. I switched the input to Video 4 (which is component and had my xbox 360 plugged into it), and the TV played my xbox fine, but I noticed that while the cable box was still turned on and on an HD channel in 1080i, the input source on the cable box itself switched to 480i when I changed the input on the TV. It does the same if I go to any other video input or if I turn the tv off. I thought no big deal, but then I went back to watching tv and the tv's settings I don't believe had changed, but the cable box would only show every channel only in 480i, no matter what channel I put it on...HD or SD. If I turn of the cable box and run the HD setup wizard again, then power it on while on the right video input, everything will be good again until I turn it off or change the video input on the tv. Any help on getting the TV and cable box to keep the same settings when I change inputs or turn off the power would be greatly appreciated. As of now, unless I keep redoing the setup wizard, all I can watch is 480i after a power down or an input change. Thanks in advance.

-Ryan

Welcome. Do you know what version of Passport the 8300 is using? Where are you located, as it varies by locale. There is a diagnostic channel to find this out, which depends on where you are. For example its 999 here in Raleighwood, and 998 elsewhere, 666, etc...

Also, describe what you get from "Settings" and "more" as choices for output formats. Did you select them all, etc.?

Welcome. Do you know what version of Passport the 8300 is using? Where are you located, as it varies by locale. There is a diagnostic channel to find this out, which depends on where you are. For example its 999 here in Raleighwood, and 998 elsewhere, 666, etc...

Also, describe what you get from "Settings" and "more" as choices for output formats. Did you select them all, etc.?

What I got from the Settings screen was:

Software Version
PTV OS: OS, Home Server Edition 1.4
FLASH: 1.87.23.1
Apps: vodlink v1.29.6.1
SARA v1.87.23.1

I assume this means I have the SARA software instead of passport, the thread said TWC and I have Time Warner so I assumed. In case you can still help...I am located in Northeast Ohio near Cleveland. We were Adelphia and were recently bought out by Time Warner. On the cable box I chose all outputs that I could see clearly, they were 480i, 480p standard, 480p widescreen, 720p, 720p widescreen, 1080i and 1080i widescreen. This way it should give me the signal as it comes into the box and with the "Auto DVI/HDMI" setting selected as opposed to Fixed, Upconvert1, or Upconvert2 so that the TV can upscale it itself. I just don't understand why it works perfect until I turn off the tv or change the input on the tv. Then the cable box will switch to 480i on it's display and not give me any HD singnals no matter what I do with the TV until I reset the cable box and run the HD Setup Wizard again. Thanks for all your help. I will try posting this in the SARA forum too, but if you know anything, all help is appreciated. :-)

What I got from the Settings screen was:

Software Version
PTV OS: OS, Home Server Edition 1.4
FLASH: 1.87.23.1
Apps: vodlink v1.29.6.1
SARA v1.87.23.1

... I will try posting this in the SARA forum too, but if you know anything, all help is appreciated. :-) Other than TWC, we have little in common. You're best bet is the SARA thread, and maybe one for your TV set. I have the Sony XS955, which is similar, but not the same. This may be it for your set: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8625769#post8625769 Good luck

Hi all--

I had to reboot the other day and noticed I no longer had Pioneer software--- it now says Aptiv.

What's new about this?

The reboot cleared up the nasty noise coming out of my Dolby Digital spigot. 2.0 stereo was fine, but my Sony reciever only gave me 5.1 outboard motors when the 8300 was set to Dolby digital.

I had to reboot the other day and noticed I no longer had Pioneer software--- it now says Aptiv.

What's new about this?Pioneer Digital Technologies, the group responsible for the Passport family of IPGs, renamed itself "Aptiv Digital" about a year ago. Releases of Passport since that time has featured the Aptiv Digital logo. If, as so many other, you just went from Passport Echo 1.8.112 (more than a year old) to 2.5.066, you'll be seeing that logo for the first time.

I'm having trouble with my HD8300. When I got it, TWC in Manhattan told me I'd be able to watch one show while recording two others. This feature has NEVER worked. I always get a message saying in need to stop one of the recordings in order to watch the live show. I had passport 112, but TWC did some kind of rev a couple weeks ago and now I'm not sure. Regardless, this problem existed when the STB was first installed and has continued through any software rev. TWC's only response is to send out a techie to swap the box. Of course, I'll lose all my saved shows and waste a lot of time.

Has anyone else had this problem and do you suggest a solution? I've tried all the usual stuff, rebooting, unplugging, having TWC send reset signals. Nothing changes the problem.

Thanks for help and I will be grateful for reply's or even PMs.

Thanks
A

I'm having trouble with my HD8300. When I got it, TWC in Manhattan told me I'd be able to watch one show while recording two others. This feature has NEVER worked. I always get a message saying in need to stop one of the recordings in order to watch the live show. I had passport 112, but TWC did some kind of rev a couple weeks ago and now I'm not sure. Regardless, this problem existed when the STB was first installed and has continued through any software rev. TWC's only response is to send out a techie to swap the box. Of course, I'll lose all my saved shows and waste a lot of time.

Has anyone else had this problem and do you suggest a solution? I've tried all the usual stuff, rebooting, unplugging, having TWC send reset signals. Nothing changes the problem.

Thanks for help and I will be grateful for reply's or even PMs.

Thanks
A
Are you sure that's exactly what they said? Or did they say you could record two shows while you watched a third, PREVIOUSLY RECORDED, show? 'Cause that's what you can do. The box has two tuners and the I/O capacity for three video streams.

They probably told you that you could watch a "previously recorded" program while recording 2 other live programs. This is all that's ever been advertised and that's all that's possible with any 2-tuner DVR. Of course, they could have miss-spoke, but that doesn't change the capabilities. :)

If the live show you want to watch is one of the analog channels, first 99 I think for TimeWarner, just split the coax coming into your house and run one to the cable box and one directly to the TV and use the tuner in the TV. I split my coax about 7 ways, Cable DVR, Cable Modem, TV, 2x VCR, 2x HTPC, and not sure if I run FM to my receiver or not (thinking not cable used to hose FM). All the digital channels have to go through the DVR (8300), but any of the other devices can tune the analog channels for watching or recording.

If the live show you want to watch is one of the analog channels, first 99 I think for TimeWarner, just split the coax coming into your house and run one to the cable box and one directly to the TV and use the tuner in the TV. I split my coax about 7 ways, Cable DVR, Cable Modem, TV, 2x VCR, 2x HTPC, and not sure if I run FM to my receiver or not (thinking not cable used to hose FM). All the digital channels have to go through the DVR (8300), but any of the other devices can tune the analog channels for watching or recording.
Splitting causes a reduction in signal level. The more ways a signal is split, the more it is reduced. Care should be taken when doing this because at some point, the signal becomes too low. After two service visits for problems where the solution was to put my cable modem and digital boxes on dedicated lines from the service entry area, I would not consider splitting any of those to get an additional TV in a room.

Just my $.01, $.02 or $.03.

If the live show you want to watch is one of the analog channels, first 99 I think for TimeWarner, just split the coax coming into your house and run one to the cable box and one directly to the TV and use the tuner in the TV. I split my coax about 7 ways, Cable DVR, Cable Modem, TV, 2x VCR, 2x HTPC, and not sure if I run FM to my receiver or not (thinking not cable used to hose FM). All the digital channels have to go through the DVR (8300), but any of the other devices can tune the analog channels for watching or recording.

An 8 way split without an amp is really asking for trouble....

Suggest something like this.....

http://cgi.*********/VIEWSONICS-8-PORT-CABLE-TV-SPLITTER-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ9706994949QQihZ008QQcategoryZ39803QQcmdZV iewItem

I actually use this one at the house cable entry.... It has more gain and will allow further splits in the house if needed (I dont).

http://cgi.*********/VIEWSONICS-VSA-VSMA-608-8-PORT-CABLE-TV-HDTV-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ9706994906QQihZ008QQcategoryZ39803QQcmdZV iewItem

Are you sure that's exactly what they said? Or did they say you could record two shows while you watched a third, PREVIOUSLY RECORDED, show? 'Cause that's what you can do. The box has two tuners and the I/O capacity for three video streams.

I'll try this at home, but the CS rep on the phone said I should be able to watch live TV. Of course, the reps are usually clueless.

thanks for the tip.

-A

An 8 way split without an amp is really asking for trouble....

Suggest something like this.....

http://cgi.*********/VIEWSONICS-8-PORT-CABLE-TV-SPLITTER-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ9706994949QQihZ008QQcategoryZ39803QQcmdZV iewItem

I actually use this one at the house cable entry.... It has more gain and will allow further splits in the house if needed (I dont).

http://cgi.*********/VIEWSONICS-VSA-VSMA-608-8-PORT-CABLE-TV-HDTV-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ9706994906QQihZ008QQcategoryZ39803QQcmdZV iewItem
Asterisks in a URL lead to dead links . .

If the live show you want to watch is one of the analog channels, first 99 I think for TimeWarner, just split the coax coming into your house and run one to the cable box and one directly to the TV and use the tuner in the TV. I split my coax about 7 ways, Cable DVR, Cable Modem, TV, 2x VCR, 2x HTPC, and not sure if I run FM to my receiver or not (thinking not cable used to hose FM). All the digital channels have to go through the DVR (8300), but any of the other devices can tune the analog channels for watching or recording.


I've tried using the coax out of the HD8300 to connect to my JVC FH97 HDTV, but I have not gotten any signal out. Is this a setting? I've also tried splitting before the cable box, but this hasn't worked either. The TV is not the problem because before I got the HDSTB, I connected a straight basic cable system to the HDTV. I split the signal since the JVC has two coax inputs and both worked perfectly.

Any thoughts? Oh, and thanks for the fast help everyone.

-A

Asterisks in a URL lead to dead links . .

Interesting.... it butchered the links....

Lets see what this does....

8 port 0 db outputs powered splitter (http://cgi.*********/VIEWSONICS-8-PORT-CABLE-TV-SPLITTER-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ9706994949QQihZ008QQcategoryZ39803QQssPag eNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)


8 port +4db whole house amp (http://cgi.*********/VIEWSONICS-VSA-VSMA-608-8-PORT-CABLE-TV-HDTV-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ9706994906QQihZ008QQcategoryZ39803QQssPag eNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem)

if you change the ******* in the url to ebay dot com (in proper ebbay.comm then it works.

Here is that companies store.... lets see if this works....

http://stores.*********/Cable-Amplifier-Warehouse

Interesting.... it butchered the links....

Lets see what this does....
Same-o, same-o. I don't think you can cut and paste a CGI link.

Same-o, same-o. I don't think you can cut and paste a CGI link.

AVS seems to be 'censoring' url's it doesnt like. if you change the asterisks to ebay dot com then the link works.

I've tried using the coax out of the HD8300 to connect to my JVC FH97 HDTV, but I have not gotten any signal out. Is this a setting? I've also tried splitting before the cable box, but this hasn't worked either. The TV is not the problem because before I got the HDSTB, I connected a straight basic cable system to the HDTV. I split the signal since the JVC has two coax inputs and both worked perfectly.

Any thoughts? Oh, and thanks for the fast help everyone.

-A
The coax out of the 8300HD is not a pass-through. It is how the severely interface-challenged watch what's tuned on the box. There is a setting - usually ch 3 or ch 4 - but you would only see what's on your other display. Splitting before the STB, assuming it didn't drop the level too much, should have worked.

AVS seems to be 'censoring' url's it doesnt like. if you change the asterisks to ebay dot com then the link works.
That's exactly what's happening. Our hosts sell stuff and don't want competition "advertised" on their site.

When I designed my house I speced out how I wanted cable and Satellite feeds brought in. The satellite feeds are no longer in use and just sit in the head end cabinet. The cable feed (A single line) comes from the BHN pedestal in the back of the house underground through 3/4 sprinker hose as conduit so it can easily be pulled at any time. At the service entry point it is attached to a feed through ground block which is grounded to the house ground point (a 8 foot by 3/4" copper rod driven into the ground).

The feed then goes to a 2 way splitter and one output leg of the splitter goes to the cable modem and the other leg to an 8 way amplified splitter supplied by BHN. All runs from the amp/splitter are in RG6 dual shielded cable with compression fittings used at all cable end points. The three DVR's read 0 dbm as signal strength and the BER (Bit error rate) numbers are almost always at zero. All runs are homed with no splitters or splices.

A tech that was over (the three techs I have come in contact with are very good and really do know what they are doing, but do have to follow the party line) commented that I have one of, if not the best, signal he has seen when measured at the STB's. I still get some signal problems but I do not believe it is from the cable plant in the house.

I have attached a jpg file of the TIVA (Teleohone, Internet, Video, Audio) cabinet, the head end of the house for those interested. It is a little out of date as the PCB in the middle of the cabinet is gone, and there is a Voltage inserter for the LAN cable which supplies the ON-Q WiFi access point. The Cable equipment is in the lower left. The LAN equipment occupies the right side. Note the telephone for talking to BHN while trouble shooting.

AVS seems to be 'censoring' url's it doesnt like. if you change the asterisks to ebay dot com then the link works.

Gol-darn, here I thought they were links to those .xxx domains!

When I designed my house I speced out how I wanted cable and Satellite feeds brought in. The satellite feeds are no longer in use and just sit in the head end cabinet. The cable feed (A single line) comes from the BHN pedestal in the back of the house underground through 3/4 sprinker hose as conduit so it can easily be pulled at any time. At the service entry point it is attached to a feed through ground block which is grounded to the house ground point (a 8 foot by 3/4" copper rod driven into the ground).

The feed the goes to a 2 way splitter and one output leg of the splitter goes to the cable modem and the other leg to an 8 way amplified splitter supplied by BHN. All runs from the amp/splitter are in RG6 dual shielded cable with compression fittings used at all cable end points. The three DVR's read 0 dbm as signal strength and the BER (Bit error rate) numbers are almost always at zero. All runs are homed with no splitters or splices.

A tech that was over (the three techs I have come in contact with are very good and really do know what they are doing, but do have to follow the party line) commented that I have one of, if not the best, signal he has seen when measured at the STB's. I still get some signal problems but I do not believe it is from the cable plant in the house.

I have attached a jpg file of the TIVA (Teleohone, Internet, Video, Audio) cabinet, the head end of the house for those interested. It is a little out of date as the PCB in the middle of the cabinet is gone, and there is a Voltage inserter for the LAN cable which supplies the ON-Q WiFi access point. The Cable equipment is in the lower left. The LAN equipment occupies the right side. Note the telephone for talking to BHN while trouble shooting.

Very nice!

An 8 way split without an amp is really asking for trouble....

Suggest something like this.....

http://cgi.*********/VIEWSONICS-8-PORT-CABLE-TV-SPLITTER-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ9706994949QQihZ008QQcategoryZ39803QQcmdZV iewItem

I actually use this one at the house cable entry.... It has more gain and will allow further splits in the house if needed (I dont).

http://cgi.*********/VIEWSONICS-VSA-VSMA-608-8-PORT-CABLE-TV-HDTV-AMPLIFIER_W0QQitemZ9706994906QQihZ008QQcategoryZ39803QQcmdZV iewItem
Cable entry through wall
Maspro GDA151 amp
2way split - cable modem and
8way split - all the junk mentioned earlier.

Signal level is whatever the tech wants to set it to, down line or inside your house. My signal was actually too hot some time in the past and I needed an inline attenuator. The only reason the amp is there now is that original 1980 coax going through my garage to the underground tap at the curb went bad and messed up the cable modem, they put in the amp before figuring out it was the cable and just left it in. All the but the 8way is from TimeWarner, and I paid $2 at a swapmeet for it.

Only thing the tech had to say about the 8way was to terminate all the unused taps, and he gave me a couple of the terminators for that.

When I designed my house I speced out how I wanted cable and Satellite feeds brought in.
That is one slick looking install.

My neighbor did something like that, only on a MUCH smaller scale, plus since he wasn't a trusting type, it was all fake with the real phone wiring hidden.

My own wiring is a small rats next of looping coax that nearly fills the bottom "box" of my av wall unit.

They probably told you that you could watch a "previously recorded" program while recording 2 other live programs. This is all that's ever been advertised and that's all that's possible with any 2-tuner DVR. Of course, they could have miss-spoke, but that doesn't change the capabilities. :)

This worked. Just not the live feed. I assume the 8300 is only capable of receiving 2 signals at a time. That would explain why you can watch a recorded show, but not a live feed.

Thanks for the help. I'll try the splitter tomorrow.

-A

This worked. Just not the live feed. I assume the 8300 is only capable of receiving 2 signals at a time. That would explain why you can watch a recorded show, but not a live feed.No assumption required; as mentioned previously, the 8300HD is a two-tuner box, so it's physically only capable of tuning to two different live programs. Playback of a previously recorded program does not require a tuner.

As they say on a particularly annoying furniture commercial (or is that redundant?) in my area, "That's a fact, Jack!" :)

No assumption required; as mentioned previously, the 8300HD is a two-tuner box, so it's physically only capable of tuning to two different live programs.
Actually it has 4 tuners, 2 analog and 2 digital, but only two are allowed at the same time. The trick is to shift all the analog recording duty off to a VCR, Tivo, DVR (not from cableco), or a HTPC. About half of what we record is from the first 99 analog channels, but the hard core among us just get two or three 8300 boxes. ;)

Watching live tv without pause and FF, how primitive. ;)

Actually it has 4 tuners, 2 analog and 2 digital, but only two are allowed at the same time. The trick is to shift all the analog recording duty off to a VCR, Tivo, DVR (not from cableco), or a HTPC. About half of what we record is from the first 99 analog channels, but the hard core among us just get two or three 8300 boxes. ;)

Watching live tv without pause and FF, how primitive. ;)
I think it's "dual analog and digital tuners" not "dual analog and dual digital tuners."

I have noticed that if a show has an odd recording time, my 8300HD DVR will add an hour to the recording time. I recorded Grey's Anatomy, which was listed in the guide as being on from 9:00-10:01 and my 8300 recorded from 9:00-11:01. This isn't just a one time instance, it does it consistently. Does this happen for anyone else?

Actually it has 4 tuners, 2 analog and 2 digital, but only two are allowed at the same time.

This is incorrect. The SA8300 DVR only has 2 tuners (total). They can tune to any available channel, digital or analog, makes no difference.

I have noticed that if a show has an odd recording time, my 8300HD DVR will add an hour to the recording time. I recorded Grey's Anatomy, which was listed in the guide as being on from 9:00-10:01 and my 8300 recorded from 9:00-11:01. This isn't just a one time instance, it does it consistently. Does this happen for anyone else?

That's an odd one. Never heard of it before. On the plus side, you'll never have to worry about not catching any overruns! ;)

Hi, pretty much a rook question (and a double post from the HDTV hardware thread, so I'll delete it from there if I can get an answer here...) but I am not sure what makes the most sense for me.

I am a TWC-NYC customer and have the SA8300HDTV recorder (using Passport software), and use a Toshiba 34HFX83 set that accepts 480i, 480P, 720p, and 1080i, and upconverts to either 540p or 1080i. (The owner's manual says the DVI/HDCP connection will accept and display 480i, 480P, 720p, and 1080i signals). I use two inputs from my SA8300 HD recorder, for standard cable, a simple S-video cable, and for high def, an HDMI/DVI cable (RAM electronics).

QUESTION: Which output format settings should I select from the SA8300HD-DVR box? For example, when selecting the "output format" settings on the SA8300 box, should I select all four choices (480i, 480p, 720p, 1080i), choose only 1080i, or a combination of 2 or 3 (e.g. 1080i and 720p)...?

thx, walk

I won't answer your specific question, but here is the logic.

Which unit in your opinion does a better job of scaling, the DVR or the TV? If you set the DVR to output all four possible resolutions, then the TV will do all of the scaling. If you set DVR to output the NATIVE RATE of the TV then the DVR will do all of the scaling.

In My setup I set the DVR's to output all resolutions so it never scales the signal, I set the video processor (scaler) to output the Native rate of the Projector so the Projector never scales the signal. In that way the scalar does all of the scaling.

Just too piggyback on barry's comments, there is no right/wrong way, it's what looks best to you. The SD channels are generally 480i, the Music Channels 480p, ABC/FOX/ESPN (and maybe some others in your area) 720p, and the rest 1080i. Compare your 720p channels using both 720p and 1080i individually. If you don't see any difference, you can eliminate the reformatting that takes place when changing channels by using just 1080i. You probably won't see any difference on scripted programming, so be sure to compare live programming, like the NFL, etc.

I have noticed that if a show has an odd recording time, my 8300HD DVR will add an hour to the recording time. I recorded Grey's Anatomy, which was listed in the guide as being on from 9:00-10:01 and my 8300 recorded from 9:00-11:01. This isn't just a one time instance, it does it consistently. Does this happen for anyone else?

Do you have this as a series recording? Once you "add" some time, it will always "add" that additional recording time.

I suspect a LOT of the displays you guys have are of the 1366 x 768 variety... up until recently with the 1080p sets shipping, that was the highest resolution offered. The display will generally ALWAYS scale to it's native resolution (with scale up or down). My display is 1366, so if I set the STB to do any scaling, there could be double scaling going on. So, as many others, I arrange for my STB to never, ever do any scaling, to just send whatever signal it gets to my display.

While it's also true that when I did some testing I found the PQ difference difficult to discern. But I also know that one CAN move closer to the screen and intently stare looking for issues and finding them, one can also sit back and just watch the content and not really see the issues. I think a lot of folks might not realize how amazing the human eye really is; go sit 2 feet from a SD CRT, then back off 8 feet or so. STILL, from a sort of engineering purists standpoint, I still want the STB to send the native signal so it doesn't get double scaled!

I've got the 1366 x 768 variety as well. Since it's gonna scale everything anyway, I pass all resolutions through my 8300HD and let the display handle deinterlacing/scaling. I do this because I think the display does a better job. My 3910 DVD player, however, is set to output 720P as it has a much better deinterlacer/scaler than the 8300HD. My display scales that as well, but it doesn't have to do much.

Thanks DoubleDaz and barrygordon. I appreciate the prompt replies and will do the A/B and let my eyes be the judge. thanks again, - walk

So pepar, you see a definitely better looking picture from upconverting at the DVD player? While I know there are players out there that do NOT have a progressive option, I suspect those to be quite old (FWIW, I set my 6-7 year old DVD player to progressive, so it's sending a 480p signal to my display where it gets scaled to 768p). So, the only difference for you would be double scaling vs. single scaling... right?

Remember that any DVD player (non HD) that puts out a progressive resolution is doing some sort of "scaling". The DVD is recorded at 480i. I have my DVD players set to interlaced output so that my scaler does all the heavy lifting.

So pepar, you see a definitely better looking picture from upconverting at the DVD player? While I know there are players out there that do NOT have a progressive option, I suspect those to be quite old (FWIW, I set my 6-7 year old DVD player to progressive, so it's sending a 480p signal to my display where it gets scaled to 768p). So, the only difference for you would be double scaling vs. single scaling... right?
I do see a better picture with the 3910 doing most of the work - deinterlacing and upscaling - with the HS20 only needing to add a few pixels to get 1280x720p to its native rez.

Do you have this as a series recording? Once you "add" some time, it will always "add" that additional recording time.
Of course this solution can very easily create conflict issues with things that are scheduled to begin at the top of the hour and need the same tuner to record....

The following is a reply I made on the Xbr2 owners thread in response to a post about the picture blinking while changing channels. The orignal poster had a blinking problem when switching channels with a commercial on. Has anyone seen this problem?

"Had the same problem last night with my 46xbr2. Occurred when I switched channels. Had to power down hd8300 to get rid of non stop blinking. Not sure there was a commercial on or not at the time of switch.

Just for thought, I have a brand new (1day old) Scientific Atlanta hd8300 from TWC with apparently new software in it.

Also, at time I was using HDMI cable and the hd8300 set to output all signal formats directly to the tv without conversion. When using this pass through as opposed to having the hd8300 format to the tv, I always get a short delay and one blink of the picutre before the picture goes steady on the new channel.

This particular time in question, I got non stop blinking and had to power down."

AMJ7

Update.

Did some more research on the blinking problem. When I take the raw cable signal straight to tv (no stb) there is no blinking problem when switching channels.

There is also no blinking using the hd8300 if the channel I am switching to has the same format as the one I am on: 1080i to 1080i, or 480i to 480i, for example. However if the channels are say 1080i to 720p, or 720p to 480i, 480i to 1080i, then the blinking problem occurs.

AMJ7

Update.

Did some more research on the blinking problem. When I take the raw cable signal straight to tv (no stb) there is no blinking problem when switching channels.

There is also no blinking using the hd8300 if the channel I am switching to has the same format as the one I am on: 1080i to 1080i, or 480i to 480i, for example. However if the channels are say 1080i to 720p, or 720p to 480i, 480i to 1080i, then the blinking problem occurs.

AMJ7
HDTVs typically take a second or more to change from one resolution setting to another.
To avoid the "blinking", you can set the STB/DVR to output a single, fixed resolution setting.
e.g. 720p for a 720p/768p HDTV and either 720p or 1080i for 1080i/1080p HDTV.

I do not mind the pause between channels. What I dislike is the blinking with corrupted pictures for a couple seconds before the new channel settles down.

This does not occur when I use the raw cable coax feed directly to the tv and bypass the stb.

With regard to setting 1080i as the output of the set top box, I have tried that and you are correct, no blinking. However, the pq is much better if I pass thru and let the tv do the conversions. That is why I am trying to find a solution that will allow pass thru without the blinking.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Sony 46xbr2 with TWC (san diego) hd 8300. New tv and it worked great for a week on raw feed. All the problems started when TWC installed the stb yesterday.

AMJ7

Any recording or live channel with Dolby Digital encoding, I get no audio from the DVR anymore. Any ideas? I've checked all the settings in the device and on the receiver with no luck.

Any recording or live channel with Dolby Digital encoding, I get no audio from the DVR anymore. Any ideas? I've checked all the settings in the device and on the receiver with no luck.
And after that, if you find no loose cable, try using a different cable between the two components, a different source on the input of your AVR/prepro, etc.

Any recording or live channel with Dolby Digital encoding, I get no audio from the DVR anymore. Any ideas? I've checked all the settings in the device and on the receiver with no luck.

My fix for this is to go into the DVR Audio Output settings, and switch the output from Dolby Digital to HDMI or whatever the other option is, then switch back to Dolby Digital. Should restore the sound.

Whatever your 8300HD audio settings are, currently, just temporarily switch to something else and then back to your preferred setting for Dolby and it should kick back in.

I have a similar problem. I don't loose the audio it just somehow reverts to AC-3 (Dolby Digital) 2.0 channels. If I go to advanced setup and "kick" the audio output Dolby Digital setting then it will generally switch to 5.1. When I say "kick" All I do is select it and then accept it. The question is why does this happen (Component output)?

Unfortunately when I select the "Two channel stereo" in the output, it works, and when I switch it back to Dolby Digital it goes silent again.

Unfortunately when I select the "Two channel stereo" in the output, it works, and when I switch it back to Dolby Digital it goes silent again.
Turn the box off and pull the power plug. Wait for a few minutes and then plug it back in. When the display shows the time, turn it on and watch the remaining part of the boot sequence. When the tuned channel appears on your display, go back into settings and select DD. Let us know if that works.

Turn the box off and pull the power plug. Wait for a few minutes and then plug it back in. When the display shows the time, turn it on and watch the remaining part of the boot sequence. When the tuned channel appears on your display, go back into settings and select DD. Let us know if that works.
That seemed to work. Thanks!

That seemed to work. Thanks!
That's the first thing to do when there's a problem. If that doesn't fix it, a call to the cableco's tech support is probably needed. (They will probably tell you to do what you just did, but you can tell them that it didn't fix it.)

Yesterday, most of my saved shows were automatically deleted. I did get the firmware update last month, and everything was going along smoothly. I wasn't nearly at capacity for the drive -- I've had many more shows saved in the past. Not one hourglass was showing.

But for some reason yesterday all but 5 of my shows were deleted. For example, 3 more recent "The Office" were deleted, but the oldest one remained (??) Recording yesterday went on as normal. I rebooted, but no change.

Luckily I had already watched most of my important shows ; ). Why on earth, I wonder.


This is the first time this has ever happened. Has anybody had this problem?

Yesterday, most of my saved shows were automatically deleted. I did get the firmware update last month, and everything was going along smoothly. I wasn't nearly at capacity for the drive -- I've had many more shows saved in the past. Not one hourglass was showing.

But for some reason yesterday all but 5 of my shows were deleted. For example, 3 more recent "The Office" were deleted, but the oldest one remained (??) Recording yesterday went on as normal. I rebooted, but no change.

Luckily I had already watched most of my important shows ; ). Why on earth, I wonder.


This is the first time this has ever happened. Has anybody had this problem?

Yep; happened to me a couple of times when I first got the machine and hadn't yet learned of its "quirks". If you let it get down close to 20 GB free, squirrely things will start happening to your recordings. Since it needs about 17GB for the two buffers and a few more for "overhead", I figure 20 GB is about rock bottom. The machine will automatically start deleting things, beginning with the oldest, in order to create room for the new stuff. It's also looking at what you have scheduled to be recorded when it's figuring out how much space it's going to need. You won't always see the hourglass if you have a whole bunch of new stuff scheduled for recording. What I learned to do is never let it get down to around 30 GB free, just to give me some "breathing room". Haven't had that issue since.

Yep; happened to me a couple of times when I first got the machine and hadn't yet learned of its "quirks". If you let it get down close to 20 GB free, squirrely things will start happening to your recordings. Since it needs about 17GB for the two buffers and a few more for "overhead", I figure 20 GB is about rock bottom. The machine will automatically start deleting things, beginning with the oldest, in order to create room for the new stuff. It's also looking at what you have scheduled to be recorded when it's figuring out how much space it's going to need. You won't always see the hourglass if you have a whole bunch of new stuff scheduled for recording. What I learned to do is never let it get down to around 30 GB free, just to give me some "breathing room". Haven't had that issue since.


Thanks archiguy.

The weird thing is, though, between my saved shows and scheduled recordings, I still wasn't even close to 30 GB. I was actually operating with less than I usually do.

And, it deleted newer shows before older shows -- it seemed totally random. It seems to have been some kind of glitch -- makes no sense in terms of how the box usually operates. I'm just afraid that it will happen again.

Yep; happened to me a couple of times when I first got the machine and hadn't yet learned of its "quirks". If you let it get down close to 20 GB free, squirrely things will start happening to your recordings. Since it needs about 17GB for the two buffers and a few more for "overhead", I figure 20 GB is about rock bottom. The machine will automatically start deleting things, beginning with the oldest, in order to create room for the new stuff. It's also looking at what you have scheduled to be recorded when it's figuring out how much space it's going to need. You won't always see the hourglass if you have a whole bunch of new stuff scheduled for recording. What I learned to do is never let it get down to around 30 GB free, just to give me some "breathing room". Haven't had that issue since.
FWIW, once an individual program is scheduled to be recorded, you can go into the Scheduled Recordings, select it and change the recording options to "manually erase." Similarly, series can be also tagged for manual erase only, but that can be done when selecting "record entire series."

Thanks archiguy.

The weird thing is, though, between my saved shows and scheduled recordings, I still wasn't even close to 30 GB. I was actually operating with less than I usually do.

And, it deleted newer shows before older shows -- it seemed totally random. It seems to have been some kind of glitch -- makes no sense in terms of how the box usually operates. I'm just afraid that it will happen again.
Have you looked into adding external storage?

FWIW, once an individual program is scheduled to be recorded, you can go into the Scheduled Recordings, select it and change the recording options to "manually erase." Similarly, series can be also tagged for manual erase only, but that can be done when selecting "record entire series."

Thanks Pepar.

Interestingly, many of the shows that were erased were set to be 'manually erased' only, including newer 'the office' shows that were erased. It left me my oldest 'the office'. Extremely strange.

Thank *gods* they left me my Battlestar Galactica from Friday.
:p

Thanks Pepar.

Interestingly, many of the shows that were erased were set to be 'manually erased' only, including newer 'the office' shows that were erased. It left me my oldest 'the office'. Extremely strange.

Thank *gods* they left me my Battlestar Galactica from Friday.
:p
Then that truly was a glitch. Was there a power surge/outage?

Then that truly was a glitch. Was there a power surge/outage?

Not that I know of. Although our area did have a cyclonic weather system this weekend. :confused:

On the other hand, my building was struck by lightning Memorial Day and no electronics in our apartment was affected, only thing affectged was part of our roof which was reduced to crumbs.

I will have to investigate the SATA drive! Thanks for the support.

Indeed I understand the logic it tries to use in calculating when to delete. BUT I think it also miscalculates. Yesterday I got notices (the hourglass) on all recorded shows. Uh, we're talking 1 hour of SD and 3 hours of HD! Even with all the stuff scheduled for recording, no way, no how should it have shown that. I had something like 5 hours for the next day and 6 for the following day.

Wow barrianne, I'm not that far from you; but I've never heard of lightening strikes in my area. Then again, I'm 10 stories and the building next to me is 18.

Speaking of BSG, what happened to the HD second season last night? It usually shows at 8PM on UnHD...

Indeed I understand the logic it tries to use in calculating when to delete. BUT I think it also miscalculates. Yesterday I got notices (the hourglass) on all recorded shows. Uh, we're talking 1 hour of SD and 3 hours of HD! Even with all the stuff scheduled for recording, no way, no how should it have shown that. I had something like 5 hours for the next day and 6 for the following day.


Well, if all 11 of those hours were HD recordings, you had about 60 GB scheduled. If you were "down" to around 80 gigs free when you started, that would make strange things start to happen (but it doesn't sound like you were).

Thank *gods* they left me my Battlestar Galactica from Friday. :p

Thank the gods, indeed! If my 8300 ever "accidentally" flushed a BSG episode (best show on TV, hands down, end of discussion), it might find itself flying out the window without a raptor. :D

Indeed I understand the logic it tries to use in calculating when to delete. BUT I think it also miscalculates. Yesterday I got notices (the hourglass) on all recorded shows. Uh, we're talking 1 hour of SD and 3 hours of HD! Even with all the stuff scheduled for recording, no way, no how should it have shown that. I had something like 5 hours for the next day and 6 for the following day.

Wow barrianne, I'm not that far from you; but I've never heard of lightening strikes in my area. Then again, I'm 10 stories and the building next to me is 18.

Speaking of BSG, what happened to the HD second season last night? It usually shows at 8PM on UnHD...

That IS weird -- it should definitely not show hourglasses with that little material. I usually only get hourglasses when I have about 5 frames of recorded materials to scroll down through, plus all my daily scheduled recordings news and Jon Stewart, etc. Gosh, is it a TWCNYC issue? I don't want to have to break down and call them.

The lightning strike was an unusual thunderstorm that rumbled through on Memorial Day. Lasted half an hour, but did indeed hit our building on 145th street. Our building is 14 stories tall.

Here's another one for the files: After my previous posts where I noted that most of my saved shows were suddenly, unaccountably deleted (and things have been fine since then) ...

Today I looked at my scheduled recordings, and SUDDENLY the box wants to record EVERY Daily Show and Colbert Report for the next few days, like 4 a day. I have the settings on 'first run only', as per usual. So I'm thinking, have they changed a setting? I look at the Recording options, and try to change it to record a particular time only (11 pm), and for the Daily Show, the only option it gives me is an 8 am showing. (??) Rebooting did nothing.,

I'll cancel and reschedule, but my God I'm going to have to call TWCNYC, yuck.

Anybody had similar problems?

Here's another one for the files: After my previous posts where I noted that most of my saved shows were suddenly, unaccountably deleted (and things have been fine since then) ...

Today I looked at my scheduled recordings, and SUDDENLY the box wants to record EVERY Daily Show and Colbert Report for the next few days, like 4 a day. I have the settings on 'first run only', as per usual. So I'm thinking, have they changed a setting? I look at the Recording options, and try to change it to record a particular time only (11 pm), and for the Daily Show, the only option it gives me is an 8 am showing. (??) Rebooting did nothing.,

I'll cancel and reschedule, but my God I'm going to have to call TWCNYC, yuck.

Anybody had similar problems?

So I just canceled and rerecorded the series for The Daily Show. It did the same thing as above -- wanted to record every showing all day, so I had to set the 'air time' to 11pm only, which I've NEVER had to do before. Shouldn't 'first run only' take care of that as it has in the past?

So I just canceled and rerecorded the series for The Daily Show. It did the same thing as above -- wanted to record every showing all day, so I had to set the 'air time' to 11pm only, which I've NEVER had to do before. Shouldn't 'first run only' take care of that as it has in the past?
The "first run only" instruction relies on the program guide putting "new" in the listing. Check that. If that doesn't explain it, try pulling the power cord (turning off AC to the box) for five minutes and then restoring power. Sometimes the boxes get confused and this will give it a slap up 'long side the head. If the program guide is not at fault and this doesn't fix it, then you need to make the call . . .

Bottom line is that the software is lot buggier than it should be. Closest thing to your issue I've seen is that in the listings grid, I'll see shows I never, ever had recorded set to record. However in the listing of programs scheduled to be recorded, they aren't listed. Back in the schedule grid, there is no way to get rid of the recording indicator. And they do NOT get recorded.

The "first run only" instruction relies on the program guide putting "new" in the listing. Check that.Sorry for the dumb question: The SARA program guide doesn't actually allow the customer to see whether the first run flag is set. Are you saying the Passport IPG does? How, specifically, is that indicated in the guide?

The "first run only" instruction relies on the program guide putting "new" in the listing. Check that. If that doesn't explain it, try pulling the power cord (turning off AC to the box) for five minutes and then restoring power. Sometimes the boxes get confused and this will give it a slap up 'long side the head. If the program guide is not at fault and this doesn't fix it, then you need to make the call . . .

Interesting. Possibly 'new' got drop from the listings for those two shows? Both Comedy Central -- maybe it's their fault. I pulled power card and tried to slap it back to last week, no dice. ;)

Sorry for the dumb question: The SARA program guide doesn't actually allow the customer to see whether the first run flag is set. Are you saying the Passport IPG does? How, specifically, is that indicated in the guide?
Yes, in my Passport guide, in the "More Information" area for any given show, the program description will say "New" if it is first run.

Interesting. Possibly 'new' got drop from the listings for those two shows? Both Comedy Central -- maybe it's their fault. I pulled power card and tried to slap it back to last week, no dice. ;)
With yours set to record ALL the shows, it would need to have "new" for all of them. Have you checked the IPG?

[Thinking Out Loud]
Surely it looks at a separate [binary field/flag] and is not searching for "new" in the description text field.
[/TOL]

v/r,
C-F