Hey Joe does the Harmony's web site list all the devices it can work with? I have a Home Theater Master MX500 remote that cost $125 but has problems with my receiver. I have a Kenwood receiver that sometimes works with the remote and sometimes does not. I finally gave up on it after the manufacturer said they could not help me.

Mark - it really depnds on the backlight settings you prefer. I like to light mine up like a christmas tree with the touch of any button and to have it stay lit for a while. You can choose to only have key buttons lit and decrease the time they remain lit, or do no light at all and it will last as long as any remote. Replacing the four AAA's seems like a small price to pay for all the functionalily it provides. To each his own though....let's see...$7000 in AV equipment and $2 a month in batteries to have it all controlled with peace of mind....hmmm.

Brian - yes it does and I suggest you take a test drive like I did before ordering. Go over there and set up a profile and go through the wizard. I would be surprised if it wasn't there. The database is compiled by Harmony AND the users like me. So my Swap and 30-sec skip addition (I actually added it to the 6200 as I didn't feel like switching boxes in my profile) should now be listed under the 6200 map.

URC 6131 is the best if you want JP1 programmability. It has Tivo-buttons so is made for PVR. Favorite in the JP1 scene. Get it from Robman.

I've got a Harmony H688 and it doesn't eat through batteries like was described. Matter of fact the first one I had didn't need batteries replaced after 4-months. Of course the remote died on me and Harmony replaced, but 4-months on 4 AAA and no trouble.

Anybody have any thoughts on my incorrect i-Guide question from earlier. My channels come through properly, but the guide is giving me the channel line-up and descriptions for another system's channel lineup.

Love my Harmony 688. Dedicated PVR controls and ultimate flexibility. The WAF is its main selling point. She hated my old Sony universal, and if one device got out of synch with the macro I had to do painful telphone support.

With the Harmony, she pushes a button that says "watch TV" or "watch DVD" and all the settings are automatically switched. If something does get screwed up, there's a "help" button that uses simple questions to hold her hand as it walks her through to a fix.

Harmony did do a firmware update to address battery issues, and mine is at three months and counting. Support, online and by phone, is the best I've ever seen.

Now back on topic for a sec.

I've noticed that when I shut down for the night while recording, the 6412 stays powered up to finish, as it should. But unlike the 6208, it doesn't turn itself off when the scheduled recording is done. The next morning it's still on, and when I fire up the system I get a warning that there's a recording in progress even though there isn't one.

Any workaround other than leaving the box on 24/7?

Originally posted by wittangamo
Any workaround other than leaving the box on 24/7? Leave the 6412 on all the time. I did and it makes life so much easier.

The batteries for the harmony 659 last alot longer than 3 weeks (more like 3-4 months) if you turn off the backlight or only invoke the backlight manually. The 659 works great with the 6412. If you already had the 659 and programmed it with the 620x and never reloaded the 6412 code, make sure you do that. There are alot of nice additions for the 6412 (e.g. day+, day-, pageup, pagedn).

I've had the Home Theatre Master MX-500 for almost year and I love it!! You don't need a computer to program it, and I've had no problems controling everything in my system with it. The batteries last about 4-6 months.

I just ordered 2 for Christmas presents.


tim

I've had my 6412 for a few weeks now and it's not perfect but I think it's a major upgrade from the 6208. One trick I recently discovered I really like. I was watching something from the DVR and wanted to check on a football game. So I put in the channel, it stopped the recording, and I checked the score. Then I absent-mindedly hit `last' and I was right back in my recorded program! I had been doing the DVR/select program/hit resume deal, and this (hitting LAST) worked like a charm, back and forth from my recorded program to the live channel, over and over. I have a Tivo and I really don't think you can do that with only one button push. Cool.

Originally posted by tall1

The batteries for the harmony 659 last alot longer than 3 weeks (more like 3-4 months) if you turn off the backlight or only invoke the backlight manually. The 659 works great with the 6412. If you already had the 659 and programmed it with the 620x and never reloaded the 6412 code, make sure you do that. There are alot of nice additions for the 6412 (e.g. day+, day-, pageup, pagedn).

Yeah, I am sure they would last longer, but I really need the light and don't mind swapping the batteries out. In terms of the upgrade from the 6200 to the 6208 and now to the 6412, I just kept adding features to my 6200 profile. Pg up and down and Next Day and Prev Day are in the 6200 drop down. I felt like if I removed the 6200 and added the 6412, I would have to set all my LCD stuff up all over again. There didn't seem to be an option to swap cable boxes.

Tired of buffering noise from your 6412's disk drive, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Don't want to power off the 6412 because of the mute bug (excuse me "feature") and remote control macros that won't work reliably without discrete power on/off commands? Here's a solution...

I accidentally discovered a way to get my 6412 to stop buffering to the disk drive without powering it off: set both tuners to Music Choice channels. On Comcast cable systems, the 6412 won't record the music channels, and it doesn't buffer them. With both tuners set to music channels, my 6412, which was already fairly quiet, became nearly silent. I think the disk drive might still be spinning, but the write activity is definitely gone.

Now, I've just got to program my remote to change the channel, swap, and change the channel again when I'm done watching TV for the day. Not sure what happens if the unit is recording a show at the time. I'll have to check that out.

Originally posted by JonM in MN
I have a Tivo and I really don't think you can do that with only one button push. Cool.
Not quite. You can hit "Live TV" to get out of the recorded program. To get back to the recorded program, you can press <left> to return to the program details screen and then "play" to start playing from where you were.

Originally posted by stevehof
Tired of buffering noise from your 6412's disk drive, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? Don't want to power off the 6412 because of the mute bug (excuse me "feature") and remote control macros that won't work reliably without discrete power on/off commands? Here's a solution...

I accidentally discovered a way to get my 6412 to stop buffering to the disk drive without powering it off: set both tuners to Music Choice channels. On Comcast cable systems, the 6412 won't record the music channels, and it doesn't buffer them. With both tuners set to music channels, my 6412, which was already fairly quiet, became nearly silent. I think the disk drive might still be spinning, but the write activity is definitely gone.

Now, I've just got to program my remote to change the channel, swap, and change the channel again when I'm done watching TV for the day. Not sure what happens if the unit is recording a show at the time. I'll have to check that out.

I must be lucky as my 6412 is pretty much silent. May want to have them bring you another box. If you are recording and try to macro your music channel thing, it will display a message asking you to confirm and stop recording.

Originally posted by LarryJoe
In terms of the upgrade from the 6200 to the 6208 and now to the 6412, I just kept adding features to my 6200 profile. Pg up and down and Next Day and Prev Day are in the 6200 drop down. I felt like if I removed the 6200 and added the 6412, I would have to set all my LCD stuff up all over again. There didn't seem to be an option to swap cable boxes. Ahhh, good point. The LCD reset was my concern also and I did have to set the LCD commands up again...which is not fun and they changed positionally on me so it took me about 20 errant presses to relearn where skip and replay were. Hey, two great posts by JonM in MN and stevehof. Thanks guys for the excellent suggestions. Some of you may have read my rant about not being able to record to my JVC 40K from the 6412. Happy to report I got things working just as before with the 6208. I basically panicked. I thought I had been powering off my 40K by turning off a power strip that had my 6412s plugged into and realized my 40K was not plugged into that power strip. Once I unplugged my 40K and powered everything back up, it made the handshake with the 6412. I had also reset the iLink numbers before unplugging but I dont think that had any effect. But in any case, I am back to having to power cycle the 6412 to establish the handshake with the 40K, which is a minor kludge.

Update:

It's day 4 with my replacement 6412 and so far, things are going ok. Not perfect for ok. A few things I've noticed:

Performance: While watching NFL football on CBS on Sunday afternoon, I noticed the picture would occasionally freeze during parts of the game. When I switched to my Mitsubishi's built-in cable tuner, it wasn't frozen at all. I haven't seen this problem since.

Noise: No issues to report. Currently the loudest thing in the rack are the two fans in my two drive modded DirecTivo.

Software: I miss the warning noise that Tivo gives you when you want to delete a program in the DVR list. I got burned by this on the 6412 when I deleted a recording accidentally on Sunday. Fortunetely, it was an INHD program in constant rotation this week, so I can easily get it back.

Keep an eye on scheduled series recordings. Twice now my 6412 has decided not to schedule a recording of a show even though it is a new episode, and says "New" in the guide. The first time I forced it to record it by changing the series option to record All Episodes. This time however it still refused to schedule the recording so I deleted the series and made a manual timer.

This has nothing to do with schedule conflicts - in both cases there was nothing else scheduled at that day/time.

Another oddity is that when I deleted the series recording, at first before setting a manual timer I tried to make a new series recording, but when I selected the show in the guide the series record option wasn't even there like it usually is at the bottom of the screen.

Originally posted by LarryJoe
Mark - it really depnds on the backlight settings you prefer. I like to light mine up like a christmas tree with the touch of any button and to have it stay lit for a while. You can choose to only have key buttons lit and decrease the time they remain lit, or do no light at all and it will last as long as any remote. Replacing the four AAA's seems like a small price to pay for all the functionalily it provides. To each his own though....let's see...$7000 in AV equipment and $2 a month in batteries to have it all controlled with peace of mind....hmmm. Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

Well... When you put it that way.... I'll take two! :)

Seriously, thanks for the details. It really helps in my (and others) decision making.

Mark

Originally posted by JonM in MN
I've had my 6412 for a few weeks now and it's not perfect but I think it's a major upgrade from the 6208. One trick I recently discovered I really like. I was watching something from the DVR and wanted to check on a football game. So I put in the channel, it stopped the recording, and I checked the score. Then I absent-mindedly hit `last' and I was right back in my recorded program! I had been doing the DVR/select program/hit resume deal, and this (hitting LAST) worked like a charm, back and forth from my recorded program to the live channel, over and over. I have a Tivo and I really don't think you can do that with only one button push. Cool. Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

I love that feature too. It is great for watching two football games on at the same time.:D

Awesome 6412/i-Guide feature!

I like to look at what's playing in HD from time to time and I really like seeing a list of what's on that day for each channel. Then I can rapidly page down and see what's coming over the next week or so. Well, from the Quick Guide I can hit HD, then to `by channel' and see a page listing what's coming on say 205 Discovery HD, but what I found is that if I hit arrow right or left it will switch to the same lay-out of another HD channel (like HBO-HD) and what's on then too. Makes it much quicker to see what's on that night on all my HD channels!

Forgive me if this has been covered, I've searched multiple pages of this topic.. I just got my 6412 and I thought that I had the ability to record 2 shows at once, is this wrong? I started recording a show, then went to change the channel to another show, and a box popped up that said if I changed the channel, the current recording would stop? Is this normal? Can I only watch pre-recorded shows while a live show is being recorded?

-- Hag

You need to switch tuners before you change the channel. Hit the swap button on your remote. If you don't have a swap button call Comcast because you should.

Hagfish -
You can record two at once, the problem is, you didn't SWAP the signal. Think of it as an A/B switch... If you are recording on A, and want to change the channel on A, you will get that warning. However, if you record on A, and then SWAP to B, you can change channels like crazy. :)

Look further up in this thread for the code for the SWAP button.

Enjoy.

Record the first show.. now hit the "SWAP" button to get to the other tuner.. after that.. channel surf away on the second tuner.

Wow.. 3 reponses to one question!!!

We are pretty good.

Makes sense.. unfortunately not seeing a swap button on my remote. The "7" button says "input" under it so maybe I can mess with that. Perhaps I got the wrong remote? It's a kind of skinny one that has a "all on" button as well as a big black "on demand" button at the top. Sound familiar?

-- Hag

Some remotes have it programmed to TV/VCR.. try that

It sounds like you have the old 6208 remote, call Comcast and get the right one. In the meantime, do a search here for the procedure and then program a swap button on to your remote.

The cool thing too, I've noticed, is that if you're watching one channel and it's set to record something on a different channel, it will automatically record on whatever tuner you're not currently using. That way, your current viewing won't be interrupted.

Yes---and even better, I think it'll record on the tuner not currently displayed, that way if decide to you tune in part way through the recording you don't see any spoilers. you just go the the DVR menu and hit play from the beginning. Pretty good.

Originally posted by JonM in MN
You need to switch tuners before you change the channel. Hit the swap button on your remote. If you don't have a swap button call Comcast because you should. Sounds like an Iguide software limitation. With Passport Echo software it will automatically swap tuners if necessary without prompting. i.e. if you decide to record something you tune to and then change channels it will automatically jump to the other tuner to accomodate your request. And of course there's a swap button if you would like to manually swap between tuners (and preserve the buffers of each tuner).

I tried programming the swap button via directions I found in this thread and it appeared to work (all the blinks occured, etc..). Am I supposed to visibly see something on the screen that tells me that its switched tuners? I don't see anything, and it still won't let me change channels w/o warning me that the current recording will stop. Are there supposed to be 2 coax cables going into the unit? there's only 1 in there now

-- Hag

Hag, I'm having the same results programming an all in one remote with the codes. My remote from Comcast has the swap feature programmed into the tv/vcr button and it works fine. Can't seem to get it to work with the other remote though. All the other codes work so I'm wondering if 083 is an incorrect code for the swap feature. Any ideas?

Originally posted by BJMoose
Hag, I'm having the same results programming an all in one remote with the codes. My remote from Comcast has the swap feature programmed into the tv/vcr button and it works fine. Can't seem to get it to work with the other remote though. All the other codes work so I'm wondering if 083 is an incorrect code for the swap feature. Any ideas?

Originally posted by Hagfish
I tried programming the swap button via directions I found in this thread and it appeared to work (all the blinks occured, etc..). Am I supposed to visibly see something on the screen that tells me that its switched tuners? I don't see anything, and it still won't let me change channels w/o warning me that the current recording will stop. Are there supposed to be 2 coax cables going into the unit? there's only 1 in there now

Without going back over the thread, I believe it is 0083 or some other 4 digit code.

My "Universal" remote doesn't accept 4 digit codes, either. I had to program the Comcast remote with the 4 digit code and then use the "Universal" remote's learning function to learn it onto a button from Comcast's remote.

If you have the grey "wide at the top smaller at the bottom" Comcast DVR remote, the instructions in the thread work fine.

Frank -- should I see something when the tuner switches, like at least a flash on the screen or something?

Originally posted by LarryJoe
There are a lot of options. I have the Harmony 659 and absolutely love it.

Around every three weeks I am replacing the four AAA's.
Are there any rechargeable AAA batteries out there?

Originally posted by Hagfish
Frank -- should I see something when the tuner switches, like at least a flash on the screen or something?

Yes. You should see a different channel unless very coincidentally both tuners are on the same channel to start. It is a very noticable switch here when I switch tuners, especially if switching between one tuned to a non-HD channel and one tuned to an HD channel.

If you're recording on tuner one and then you hit the button, you should be allowed to change channels without the warning. On the box display, the word "REC" goes away and a small red light goes on indicating that the "Inactive" tuner is recording in the background.

If this isn't happening, you're not programming the remote button correctly (or you don't have two tuners).

Is there a comcast HD-dvr that isn't dual tuner? I guess I just assumed I was getting a dual tuner because I thought they all were.. Perhaps I don't have what I think I do.. Is there an easy way to check?

Originally posted by Hagfish
Is there a comcast HD-dvr that isn't dual tuner? I guess I just assumed I was getting a dual tuner because I thought they all were.. Perhaps I don't have what I think I do.. Is there an easy way to check?

Mine says "Dual Tuner" on the front left. Also, on the underside, the model is DCT6412. The "One Tuner" model is (I believe) DCT6208.

Sorry for wasting everyone's time! My assumption was wrong, I have the 6208.. Maybe the the 6214's aren't available in my area yet (north dallas). Oh well, it will still be sweet to record HD programming, and I have a replaytv set up in the same room anyways.. I guess I chould call back though and see if it is available, and maybe they just brought the wrong one.

-- Hag

Originally posted by Hagfish
Sorry for wasting everyone's time! My assumption was wrong, I have the 6208.. Maybe the the 6214's aren't available in my area yet (north dallas). Oh well, it will still be sweet to record HD programming, and I have a replaytv set up in the same room anyways.. I guess I chould call back though and see if it is available, and maybe they just brought the wrong one.

-- Hag Hag, according to this thread here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/printthread.php?s=&threadid=455705) the 6412 was available in Dallas first. Maybe they ran out? I would call back and get a 6412...the 6208 is nothing but a pile of problems.

Originally posted by Hagfish
Sorry for wasting everyone's time! My assumption was wrong, I have the 6208.. Maybe the the 6214's aren't available in my area yet (north dallas). Oh well, it will still be sweet to record HD programming, and I have a replaytv set up in the same room anyways.. I guess I chould call back though and see if it is available, and maybe they just brought the wrong one.

-- Hag

Hi Hag...
Do you have A&B side cable? I know most of Dallas does, as we do in Plano. If so, you're out of luck for now. They are taking steps to get there, though. Hopefully sometime in the first quarter they are putting all the digital channels on one side and all the analog on the other, then you should be able to hook the digital side up to the 6412....and the analog side to any devices that need that type of signal. Hope that helps...


-Randy

When I had the 6208, I had a splitter on the back (I know it reduced my quality a little)... hooked one end to the box, and the other to the TV, and I just switched to watch cable TV, when I was recording something. Maybe you can do something similar if they ran out of 6412s.

*shrug*

I just called them back. They put my name on a "list" of people waiting to get 6412's. He said they're working out some issues on them and not deploying them until they get it fixed.. Who knows if it's the truth, but I guess I'll get one eventually. He said it would probably be 2-3 months.. I'll just use the 6208 in conjuction with my replaytv until I get one.. no biggie (hopefully anyways, tall1 scared me a little with the "pile of problems" comment)

-- Hag

I have been using the 6208 for months with no problems. The Guide is not as nice as ReplayTV, the fast-forward is slow and the 30 second skip pauses at times. But overall it has been trouble free.

Jack G

I agree that even FF4 is waaaay too slow - no more than maybe 10x play speed. Is there anyway to get a faster one?

Even better how about a longer skip than 30 seconds? I'm using a Harmony 680 remote so I don't have macros otherwise I would probably just string a bunch of 30 second skips together with a slight pause between each. Not elegant but faster than FF4.

What we need is maybe 3 minute, 10 minute and 30 minute skip buttons (forward and reverse).

Any ideas??????

Originally posted by QZ1
Are there any rechargeable AAA batteries out there?

For sure, this is an option. I actually have a charger, but it is easier to just stock up on tradditional alkaline's. Again, it really has to do with your backlight settings. Mine are set to on full at the touch of a button and to stay on for 20 secs.

phew i was gonna say :) you must watch a lot of TV... i have the same remote but have backlight to the minimum, and i change mine once every 2-3 months

anyway, i called back later last night and talked ot someone new, and am getting the box installed Friday morning (my area doesnt allow you to install your own boxes, especially if its HD... i argued and argued, but the longest wait i ever had to deal with for a visit is 2 days, so i can live)... Dec 15th I am getting iGuide... finally a good interface (not the best, but DEFINITELY better then before)

Originally posted by Jacktheg
I have been using the 6208 for months with no problems. The Guide is not as nice as ReplayTV, the fast-forward is slow and the 30 second skip pauses at times. But overall it has been trouble free.

Jack G

Hi, Just got my 6412 installed, I'm new to comcast.
Is the 30 skip you are talking about back or forwards, I have the 'skip back' programmed for my Harmony but can't find a 'skip forwrd button'.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

Originally posted by arkid
Hi, Just got my 6412 installed, I'm new to comcast.
Is the 30 skip you are talking about back or forwards, I have the 'skip back' programmed for my Harmony but can't find a 'skip forwrd button'.
Any ideas?
Thanks.

It's not listed in every profile for the 6412 (at last count there were about 8-10 different 6412 profiles), but where it is available, it's called "advance".

Well, I just went through this entire thread (whew, what a read!) but still haven't seen exactly the problem I'm experiencing. Just got the 6412 a couple of days ago and immediately set it up to record all my favorite series. The next day, I can see a list of things recorded (using the List button), and I can select them (arrow and OK keys), but then I just see a status bar concerning the current channel which stays up for about three seconds and nothing else happens. At that point, the swap button no longer works. And, at that point, attempting to change channels results in displaying the new channel's status info but only a black screen, not the channel itself. Using the power button to turn off and on restores picture to the new channel, but if I try to change channels again, I again get a blank screen.

I unplugged the unit and was able to access the recorded info, but I suppose that caused a guide reload (which I did not know before).

Anybody else have this problem? Anything else I should try?

crossbeaux, If you are having all those issues it is not worth your effort to try to diagnose it.. just call comcast and have them swap

Originally posted by crossbeaux
Well, I just went through this entire thread (whew, what a read!) but still haven't seen exactly the problem I'm experiencing. Just got the 6412 a couple of days ago and immediately set it up to record all my favorite series. The next day, I can see a list of things recorded (using the List button), and I can select them (arrow and OK keys), but then I just see a status bar concerning the current channel which stays up for about three seconds and nothing else happens. At that point, the swap button no longer works. And, at that point, attempting to change channels results in displaying the new channel's status info but only a black screen, not the channel itself. Using the power button to turn off and on restores picture to the new channel, but if I try to change channels again, I again get a blank screen.

I unplugged the unit and was able to access the recorded info, but I suppose that caused a guide reload (which I did not know before).

Anybody else have this problem? Anything else I should try?

I have not had this problem, but I suggest calling Comcast and having them "send a hit to the box." I assume this means they send a reset signal. When talking to Comcast, they act like this is a "cure all" that will repair all that ails you. They suggest it every time I call them. It's worth a try. It must do something.

Otherwise, sorry to say it sounds like you got a bad box. There's no way this behavior is normal, and no one else has reported anything like this that I've read.

Originally posted by nightowl
It's not listed in every profile for the 6412 (at last count there were about 8-10 different 6412 profiles), but where it is available, it's called "advance".

Is there a button on the 6412 remote to learn from?
Thanks.

Originally posted by frankz1
I have not had this problem, but I suggest calling Comcast and having them "send a hit to the box." I assume this means they send a reset signal. When talking to Comcast, they act like this is a "cure all" that will repair all that ails you. They suggest it every time I call them. It's worth a try. It must do something.

Whenever they want to reset my box, or whatever your CSR or tech calls it, it messes up my non-hd, non-dvr box in the other room... so I avoid it like the plague. I lose my pay stations, my on demand... not for an hour, until I am able to call them again, to send a hit to THAT box. what a pain in the pooter. This has happened multiple times, over multiple months with multiple CSR/techs.

just a heads up.

Originally posted by bronowyn
Whenever they want to reset my box, or whatever your CSR or tech calls it, it messes up my non-hd, non-dvr box in the other room... so I avoid it like the plague. I lose my pay stations, my on demand... not for an hour, until I am able to call them again, to send a hit to THAT box. what a pain in the pooter. This has happened multiple times, over multiple months with multiple CSR/techs.

just a heads up.


Hmmm...a Comcast solution that breaks more than it fixes? Whoda thunk it?

Originally posted by QZ1
Are there any rechargeable AAA batteries out there?

Yes. Make sure they appropriate for this application, which is low-power over a long time. When I got them two years ago, I got alkaline rechargable for use in a Gameboy and headphones, rather than the NiMH, which were better for things like cameras.

Things may have changed, so check the packaging for usage. For example, Rayovac is now selling an something they call I-C3, which can apparently charge in 15 minutes and they seem to be saying that it is for all applications.

Originally posted by arkid
Is there a button on the 6412 remote to learn from?
Nope. It's not a documented feature of the box. Most providers, since they make money from adding commercials to the cable channels, don't want you to have the ability to easily skip commercials.

What I did was selected a profile with the "Advance" in it, then learned the PIPSwap function from my remote.

The other option is to get the Pronto software and CCF for the 6412, copy the IR command, and enter that into the Harmony profile. It's a little complicated, but with a little patience is well worth the effort...

I played with the box again this morning and it wasn't exhibiting any symptoms. And all of the Daily Shows (even the ones I didn't want :) ) recorded. Perhaps my reboot helped. I appreciate the suggestion about calling Comcast for a reset. I don't have other boxes that would be affected. That will be my next plan if problems recur.

One other interesting thing I noticed. In my list of recorded programs is one I didn't record. It has no name associated with it, but its date is listed as (I think, not at the box now) January 1, 1989. I don't seem to be able to get rid of it or play it.

Originally posted by nightowl
Nope. It's not a documented feature of the box. Most providers, since they make money from adding commercials to the cable channels, don't want you to have the ability to easily skip commercials.

What I did was selected a profile with the "Advance" in it, then learned the PIPSwap function from my remote. There are about 10 different 6412 profiles on the Harmony site. Can you tell me which one has the Advance command?

How could we create a profile that has all the "goodies":

30 Skip Forward (aka Advance)
Replay
PIP (Tuner) Swap

Originally posted by arkid
Is there a button on the 6412 remote to learn from?
Thanks.

Maybe I am missing something, but why don't you just type the 30-sec skip code into the comcast remote and assign a button to it? The code is about 10 pages back in this thread. The comcast remotes with the "setup" button on the top portion will allow for this (and swap and mute).

This is what I did:
Before comcast came with my 6412, I took my 6208 remote and with the instructions in this thread, mapped a 30-sec skip, swap and cablebox mute. I then had my harmony 659 learn them. I was fortunate to get a true 6412 comcast remote with swap, but never had to use it as my Harmony was good to go, thanks to this thread.

BTW, if you see a "30-SecSkp" in the Harmony DB (under the 6200), it is mine and should work.

Wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem w/ the 6412.

I have set up series recording for several shows, among them NYPD Blue, Lost and the West Wing to record first run only. Monday night I checked the recording schedule for the week and all three shows were scheduled to record. When I checked the box last night, I discovered it had not recorded NYPD Blue, even though it was new episode. I also saw that it was also now not scheduled to record Lost or the West Wing, again even though both are new episodes. Any thoughts on whether this could be a box problem or a problem with Iguide?

Thanks.

Originally posted by crossbeaux

One other interesting thing I noticed. In my list of recorded programs is one I didn't record. It has no name associated with it, but its date is listed as (I think, not at the box now) January 1, 1989. I don't seem to be able to get rid of it or play it.

Yes this entry appeared in my list once, after the box had a spontaneous reboot problem. The only way to get rid of it is to have nothing else in your list, and then you can delete it. If you try to delete it when there are other list entries, it may foul up your list.

LarryJoe: just curious.. when you had your 6208 remote, what button did you find to be the most convenient for the 30 second skip? Just got mine yesterday, wondering which button I should program it to. thx

-- Hag

Originally posted by Hagfish
LarryJoe: just curious.. when you had your 6208 remote, what button did you find to be the most convenient for the 30 second skip? Just got mine yesterday, wondering which button I should program it to. thx

-- Hag

I use the help button on my 6412 (and did the same on my 6208). It's big and easy to find.

Originally posted by LarryJoe
In terms of the upgrade from the 6200 to the 6208 and now to the 6412, I just kept adding features to my 6200 profile. Pg up and down and Next Day and Prev Day are in the 6200 drop down. I felt like if I removed the 6200 and added the 6412, I would have to set all my LCD stuff up all over again. There didn't seem to be an option to swap cable boxes.


It's pretty easy to do via the computer setup interface -- I just did this weekend as I went from the 6208 to the 6412.

I've looked through alot of this thread but don't see definitive answers to these questions regarding the 6412 (I apologize if some have been answered):

1. Is there any loss of quality for the HDTV channels with the 6412, in comparison to the 6200 (the plain High Definition box -- no DVR)?

2. Is there any loss in quality for the analog channels with the 6412. The 6200 I have has terrible quality on the analog channels, I just don't want it to be worse.

3. What exactly is the "swap" issue. Keep in mind that I don't use (nor plan to use) the remote that comes with the 6412. I use my home theater remote to control everything -- including the cable box. It is a programmable remote.

So will I be able to watch something and record something else with the 6412 -- and use my programmable home theater remote to switch between tuners?

4. If I record a 3.5 hour football game in High Definition (a Monday Night football game for example) -- will that even fit on the hard drive?

a. if so, how much space will I approximately have left (assuming an empty hard drive to start)?

b. in general, how many analog and how many high definition programs fit on the hard drive? In other words, how much space does an analog hour long program take -- and how much space does an hour long HDTV program take?

c. without getting too involved or techie, is there any way to move the program off of the 6412 hard drive onto another hard drive (or otherwise save a program forever)?

5. Is the play back from the DVR of a recorded High Definition program, exactly the same quality of the High Definition broadcast? Or do you lose anything on High Definition with a DVR (I never used a DVR -- don't have a TIVO).

6. Any other issues or functionality I should know about?

Originally posted by rollerfink
I use the help button on my 6412 (and did the same on my 6208). It's big and easy to find.

HELP... IMHO seems to be the most logical button!

I am having trouble using my DVI connection on the 6412. i must be doing something wrong, but i'm not sure what. i can't get any other resolution that 480i over DVI, and i get no channel information and guide. everything works perfectly via component. any thoughts?

Originally posted by JimProuty
Can you tell me which one has the Advance command?

How could we create a profile that has all the "goodies":

30 Skip Forward (aka Advance)
Replay
PIP (Tuner) Swap


They all have the replay, about half have the 30 sec skip, and most have the PIP Swap. I called Harmony and asked about this, and the guy told me to program from the original remote, there was no way to consolidate the entries and get all features into one profile. I know that isn't true, as they consolidate the database all the time, but he wasn't willing to do it, so I worked it myself..

Originally posted by caesar1
I've looked through alot of this thread but don't see definitive answers to these questions regarding the 6412 (I apologize if some have been answered):

1. Is there any loss of quality for the HDTV channels with the 6412, in comparison to the 6200 (the plain High Definition box -- no DVR)?

2. Is there any loss in quality for the analog channels with the 6412. The 6200 I have has terrible quality on the analog channels, I just don't want it to be worse.

3. What exactly is the "swap" issue. Keep in mind that I don't use (nor plan to use) the remote that comes with the 6412. I use my home theater remote to control everything -- including the cable box. It is a programmable remote.

So will I be able to watch something and record something else with the 6412 -- and use my programmable home theater remote to switch between tuners?

4. If I record a 3.5 hour football game in High Definition (a Monday Night football game for example) -- will that even fit on the hard drive?

a. if so, how much space will I approximately have left (assuming an empty hard drive to start)?

b. in general, how many analog and how many high definition programs fit on the hard drive? In other words, how much space does an analog hour long program take -- and how much space does an hour long HDTV program take?

c. without getting too involved or techie, is there any way to move the program off of the 6412 hard drive onto another hard drive (or otherwise save a program forever)?

5. Is the play back from the DVR of a recorded High Definition program, exactly the same quality of the High Definition broadcast? Or do you lose anything on High Definition with a DVR (I never used a DVR -- don't have a TIVO).

6. Any other issues or functionality I should know about?

I'll take a stab at some of these:

1. I noticed no difference in picture quality for HD channels between their 6208, 6412 and 5100.

2. I don't watch analog TV channels except ESPN2. I really don't see a noticeable improvement there.

3. The swap issue is that you can only use the second tuner if you pre-program it then tune to a different channel to watch and it starts recording. Otherwise it acts like a single tuner. I had this until I got the swap feature on my remote. Be sure you get the swap feature programmed into your universal remote.

4. I don't know about moving a recording off. The 6412 has 120 GB hard drive and supposedly will hold 15 hours of HD programming. I think it is actually about 12 hours. For SD it is a whole bunch (60 hours?), but I don't watch SD so I can't confirm.

5. Being digital, there is no loss in resolution or quality when stored on the DVR. HD looks just as great from the DVR as it does regularly, although I only see it through the STB. BTW, all programs from the STB are buffered (stored on the hard drive) before viewing so it is exactly the same whether you watch or record from the box.

6. You will enjoy it. And since you never had Tivo you won't be disappointed by some features missing. I also never had Tivo so I don't feel I'm missing anything. The only thing that would be nice is a faster forward/backward jump, like 30 sec, 15 minutes etc. FF4 is about as fast as the FF on a VCR (9-10 times normal).

Hope this helps,

Rich N.

I'll take a shot....

1. Is there any loss of quality for the HDTV channels with the 6412, in comparison to the 6200 (the plain High Definition box -- no DVR)?

No loss in quality.

2. Is there any loss in quality for the analog channels with the 6412. The 6200 I have has terrible quality on the analog channels, I just don't want it to be worse.

It ain't great but I actually thought it was comparable to the 6200 and better than the 6208, others have different opinions but either way it looks like hell. Use your TV tuner to watch analog if it really bugs you.

3. What exactly is the "swap" issue. Keep in mind that I don't use (nor plan to use) the remote that comes with the 6412. I use my home theater remote to control everything -- including the cable box. It is a programmable remote.

If you have a learning remote, you can setup a button for the swap function. If you manually hit record while watching a program, you will need to use "swap" to watch the other tuner.

So will I be able to watch something and record something else with the 6412 -- and use my programmable home theater remote to switch between tuners?

Yepper, if it is a learning remote.

4. If I record a 3.5 hour football game in High Definition (a Monday Night football game for example) -- will that even fit on the hard drive?

Yes.

a. if so, how much space will I approximately have left (assuming an empty hard drive to start)?

You should have about 75% left for HD recording. I routinely fill my hard drive up and I have held 16 hours of HD on the 120 gig HD

b. in general, how many analog and how many high definition programs fit on the hard drive? In other words, how much space does an analog hour long program take -- and how much space does an hour long HDTV program take?

Probably more than you need. I use a SA Tivo for analog SD crap cuz I don't want to waste the valuable HD recording space.

c. without getting too involved or techie, is there any way to move the program off of the 6412 hard drive onto another hard drive (or otherwise save a program forever)?

The 6412 has a firewire port to connect to 5C compliant devices such as a JVC DVHS recorder. You can also record any unencypted channels to your pc via firewire. There is a thread at the top of this forum that you can read more about it.


5. Is the play back from the DVR of a recorded High Definition program, exactly the same quality of the High Definition broadcast? Or do you lose anything on High Definition with a DVR (I never used a DVR -- don't have a TIVO).

Exactly, no loss in quality.

6. Any other issues or functionality I should know about?

Several, but the learning curve is not that steep.

Originally posted by Hagfish
LarryJoe: just curious.. when you had your 6208 remote, what button did you find to be the most convenient for the 30 second skip? Just got mine yesterday, wondering which button I should program it to. thx

-- Hag

Honestly, I never even used the 6208 remote, I only use my Harmony 659. All component remotes are in the closet. I only pulled it out to program my harmony for the things that were not in the database, like the 30-sec skip. I can't remember which button I mapped it to, but I only did it to point it at the harmony to learn the command. Maybe TV/VCR?

Originally posted by CKAmin
It's pretty easy to do via the computer setup interface -- I just did this weekend as I went from the 6208 to the 6412.

Yes, but if you have a bunch of custom buttons on the LCD for say the 6208, they will be lost when you remove the 6208 and add the 6412. It can be a hassle adding them back and getting them positioned the way they were. The 6200, 6208, and 6412 all use the same core commands. I simply just added the new features of each box. Works great.

Originally posted by Hagfish
LarryJoe: just curious.. when you had your 6208 remote, what button did you find to be the most convenient for the 30 second skip? Just got mine yesterday, wondering which button I should program it to. thx

-- Hag
Well, I think the best button is the "STOP" button, just above the "skip back" button. Works perfect for me - and the stop button is basically useless.

I'll save others the trouble of searching. To program the remote:
1) Press the "Cable" button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
2) Press and hold the "Setup" button until the "Cable" button blinks twice.
3) Type in the code 994. The "Cable" button will blink twice
4) Press (do not hold) the "Setup" button
5) Type in the code 00173 (for 30 second Skip) or 00236 (for Swap) or 00141 (for unmute).
6) Press whatever button you want to map the function to.

kellewa, your problem is one I just posted about a bit earlier in this thread. It appears that occasionally the 6412 will decide not to record a series even though it is a new episode. At this point I advise everyone to keep a very close eye on the "scheduled recordings" screen periodically in order to catch this problem and setup a manual timer when necessary.

I'm guessing this may have something to do with bad guide data, but it is weird because as you say, the episodes do have the word "New" in their description.

I found another bug-

Video stored in the 15min buffer doesn't output over Firewire.

Excellent flex! Thanks for saving alot of us time searching through this techno-novel!

I just got my 6412 today in Denver. Everything works great except the lower analog channels have no sound. The digital ones work great.

I have everything connected exactly as I did with my 6200 which never showed this issue.

If I disconnect the digital coax and run standard left/right connections to my reciever all work fine (except no DD of course).

I've experimented with the AUDIO portion of the set-up menu but no avail. I called COMCAST several times but couldn't get to a support person technical enough to troubleshoot this.

Any ideas as to what's going wrong?

Thanks!

Originally posted by caesar1
I've looked through alot of this thread but don't see definitive answers to these questions regarding the 6412 (I apologize if some have been answered):

2. Is there any loss in quality for the analog channels with the 6412. The 6200 I have has terrible quality on the analog channels, I just don't want it to be worse.

So will I be able to watch something and record something else with the 6412 -- and use my programmable home theater remote to switch between tuners?

4. If I record a 3.5 hour football game in High Definition (a Monday Night football game for example) -- will that even fit on the hard drive?

a. if so, how much space will I approximately have left (assuming an empty hard drive to start)?

b. in general, how many analog and how many high definition programs fit on the hard drive? In other words, how much space does an analog hour long program take -- and how much space does an hour long HDTV program take?



Others have answered most of the questions so I deleted them from the quote. Just had my 6412 installed today and the tech told me he just left a meeting where they announced Comcast will start going all digital on the 18th of December in my area. That effectively doubles the capacity of the hard drive to approx. 120 hours of digital programming or 15 hours HD.
No more crappy analogue...can't wait!

Oh, it's supposed to be a secret so lets just keep it between us....

Originally posted by capecodguy
Just had my 6412 installed today and the tech told me he just left a meeting where they announced Comcast will start going all digital on the 18th of December in my area. That effectively doubles the capacity of the hard drive to approx. 120 hours of digital programming or 15 hours HD.
No more crappy analogue...can't wait!

Oh, it's supposed to be a secret so lets just keep it between us.... Eh? I have so many questions, I don't know where to begin.

Originally posted by capecodguy
Others have answered most of the questions so I deleted them from the quote. Just had my 6412 installed today and the tech told me he just left a meeting where they announced Comcast will start going all digital on the 18th of December in my area. That effectively doubles the capacity of the hard drive to approx. 120 hours of digital programming or 15 hours HD.
No more crappy analogue...can't wait!

Oh, it's supposed to be a secret so lets just keep it between us....
What is your area?

In response to capecodguy...

Originally posted by arkid
What is your area?

Hmmmm...if only he'd given us some indication.

Originally posted by capecodguy
Others have answered most of the questions so I deleted them from the quote. Just had my 6412 installed today and the tech told me he just left a meeting where they announced Comcast will start going all digital on the 18th of December in my area. That effectively doubles the capacity of the hard drive to approx. 120 hours of digital programming or 15 hours HD.
No more crappy analogue...can't wait!

Oh, it's supposed to be a secret so lets just keep it between us.... Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

My Comcast contact here in NJ tells me that over the next 4 months we will see the start of Digital Simulcast. We have about 80 analog channels, that over time, will be Digitally Simulcast.

I was told this was hush hush too. So, based on what others are saying, I guess the cat is out of the bag.

Originally posted by frankz1
In response to capecodguy...



Hmmmm...if only he'd given us some indication. Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

Funny frankz1.

He is obviously in San Fran. :D

Sorry for the dumb question what do you guys mean when all Analaog Channels are going digital? Do you mean they will all be in High Def or just Digital.


Rob

Originally posted by rob316
Sorry for the dumb question what do you guys mean when all Analaog Channels are going digital? Do you mean they will all be in High Def or just Digital.


Rob

Comcast will start simumcasting all the current analogue channels (Chs. 2-98 on my system) in digital sometime around the 18th of this month. No new HD channels have been announced.

The main advantage of going digital is vastly improved PQ and lower bandwidth resulting in greater capacity to record on DVRs. Also, it allows Comcast to be in compliance with FCC mandate that all TV goes digital by 2005 (6?)(7?)....

Originally posted by rob316
Sorry for the dumb question what do you guys mean when all Analaog Channels are going digital? Do you mean they will all be in High Def or just Digital.


Rob

Digital, meaning you need a cable box to view the channels. Every TV would need a cable box

Jack G

Apologize for getting OT....The Comcast tech also said they will all be 256 QAM vs many that are now only 64 QAM.

Those of us with Digital RPTVs should see a huge uptick in PQ!

Originally posted by Jacktheg
Digital, meaning you need a cable box to view the channels. Every TV would need a cable box

Jack G

Or a TV equipped with a QAM tuner, I believe. I'm assuming they handle non-HD digital signals as well as HD, though...

-Randy

Originally posted by Jacktheg
Digital, meaning you need a cable box to view the channels. Every TV would need a cable box

Jack G

For now, the analogue signals will be simulcast with the digital (called ADS) so it won't require any change for those with standard anologue TVs. For those with DTVs with digital cable boxes or QAM tuners is means a great improvement in PQ.

Originally posted by stoli412
DVR
Two tuners finally! Series recording finally! Time bar finally! No longer is this a glorified VCR. The blue guide was so limited in its recording abilities; most of those limitations are now gone in the i-Guide. The DVR functions are much more intuitive and useable now. Plus, contrary to rumor, the 30-second skip is alive and well with the 6412 and i-Guide. Also, there is now a 60x fast forward. I haven't found this rumored 15-minute skip function though.


Can u please explain how to utilize the 30-second skip?
I am currently usinf a motorola 6412 from Cox in New Orleans??
Thanks,

Do a search, I think it's in this thread around page 28? Or is that the mute hack? I forget....it's out there, though.

JonM in MN,
Thanks for this extremely rapid answer and you ability to find my reply. My wife will love this feature if I find the answer on these threads.
Once again thanks for the reply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Why do you say that regarding picture quality? I don't find the digital (yet non-HD channels) to be that much of an improvement over, say CNN or MTV.

In other words, the channels at 100 and above are just okay -- similar to the picture quality to the channels 1 to 99 -- with the exception of the High Definition channels of course.

Why do you expect this to vastly improve picture quality?

I thought the whole "digital" channels were basically a marketing scam -- since it allowed for more channels (and more compression), not necessarily better picture quality.

Now HDTV is a different story of course.

I have a Mitsubishi RPTV (55 inch) -- capable of 1080i. It does not have an internal HD tuner.

>> I'll start with a first question. Time tracking bar stays on the screen too
>> short in my opinion (about 3 seconds or less). I haven't found any
>> settings to change it. Anyone else knows if there is a way to change
>> how long is time bar displayed?

I'm just happy to *have* a time bar with the 6412, but I agree that it can disappear too quickly. My problem was getting it to display. I didn't want to pause or rewind or whatever just to check my status in the program.

Then I tried hitting play. Works great! My recorded show keeps playing and I can see how long is remaining. If it goes away too quickly, I just hit play again. Works fine.

Originally posted by FlyByKnight
>> I'll start with a first question. Time tracking bar stays on the screen too
>> short in my opinion (about 3 seconds or less). I haven't found any
>> settings to change it. Anyone else knows if there is a way to change
>> how long is time bar displayed?

I'm just happy to *have* a time bar with the 6412, but I agree that it can disappear too quickly. My problem was getting it to display. I didn't want to pause or rewind or whatever just to check my status in the program.

Then I tried hitting play. Works great! My recorded show keeps playing and I can see how long is remaining. If it goes away too quickly, I just hit play again. Works fine.

In the menu you can change the "flip bar" settings to extend the time it stays on the screen.

Originally posted by silverdou
JonM in MN,
Thanks for this extremely rapid answer and you ability to find my reply. My wife will love this feature if I find the answer on these threads.
Once again thanks for the reply!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 Do I detect a bit of sarcasm? You are new here so you may not understand how things work at avsforums. You may want to invest some time reading these forums and faqs before you pass judgement on someone who is politely telling you how to find the answers on your own. Sometimes folks want to get you the info but simply don't have the time themselves do a search for you and post a reply. I think I read through these threads for about a month before I posted and my first post was to offer a solution. I found the answers to about 95% of my questions simply by reading and searching (it ain't that hard). Your question has been asked several dozen times and answered by alot of helpful avs members and can easily be found by reading and perfoming a simple search. In the spirit of avsforums and out of respect for the fantastic folks who run this forum, here are the specifics on how to program your remote:

30 Second Skip (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/printpost.php?postid=4636291)

6412 STB Mute (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/printpost.php?postid=4720283)

Swap Tuners on the 6412 (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/printpost.php?postid=4654286)

Good luck.

Thanks, Tall, for doing all that work, nice going! I'm not sure the guy was being sarcastic, though, and I read his response carefully for that...I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt. Your points and your work are appreciated.

Originally posted by caesar1
Why do you say that regarding picture quality? I don't find the digital (yet non-HD channels) to be that much of an improvement over, say CNN or MTV.

In other words, the channels at 100 and above are just okay -- similar to the picture quality to the channels 1 to 99 -- with the exception of the High Definition channels of course.

Why do you expect this to vastly improve picture quality?

I thought the whole "digital" channels were basically a marketing scam -- since it allowed for more channels (and more compression), not necessarily better picture quality.

Now HDTV is a different story of course.

I have a Mitsubishi RPTV (55 inch) -- capable of 1080i. It does not have an internal HD tuner.

In a sense, we are both correct. The improvement in picture quality will depend on the type of set you own. Fixed panel displays like LCD and DLP RPTVs will see a major uptick wheras CRT based sets will see little if any improvement. My channels 2-98 are virtually unwatchable now. Anything over 99 is pretty good. No arguement that HD is nirvana.

capecodguy---can you expand on that point? I have a RP CRT---why will I not see much of an improvement?

capecodguy - from memory, I believe we have the same set. I went from a 6200 to a 6208 to a 6412.

What do you think of the PQ from the 6412? Better or worse than your prior box or no discernable difference?

Originally posted by nightowl
They all have the replay, about half have the 30 sec skip, and most have the PIP Swap. I called Harmony and asked about this, and the guy told me to program from the original remote, there was no way to consolidate the entries and get all features into one profile. I know that isn't true, as they consolidate the database all the time, but he wasn't willing to do it, so I worked it myself.. Well with a lot of trial-and-error, I discovered that the 6412 profile that is named exactly "DCT-6412" does have Swap, Replay, Advance (aka "30 second skip"), Live, and all the commands I was looking for.

As I recall, it's about the 4th or 5th item in the list.

Originally posted by capecodguy
That effectively doubles the capacity of the hard drive to approx. 120 hours of digital programming or 15 hours HD.
Where did you find these estimates? 120 hours of digital? Does the 6412 only have the capactity for 60 hours of analog?

Originally posted by JonM in MN
capecodguy---can you expand on that point? I have a RP CRT---why will I not see much of an improvement? I have a RP CRT (Pioneer Elite 610) and there is a noticeable improvement in the digital cable channels (i.e., 100+) vs. the analog ones (<100). The analog channels are much fuzzier, with a lot of grain and artifacts. Generally, the digital ones are much cleaner looking and easier to watch. I wish they hadn't moved TCM from the digital tier down to analog awhile back.

Non-HD programming on the digital TV channels (such as the local channels) is usually slightly better than the regular digital cable channels. And of course the actual HD content blows everything else out of the water.

I just got the 6412 this week, but it was the same as with the 5100 that I had for the past year. I haven't really noticed that analog channels are even worse with the 6412 vs. the 5100, as some say is the case.

I agree hondo. When demo-ing my system I always start with analog, go to digital cable, then DVD, then true HD. Digital is much better than analog with me, and maybe it's me but analog does seem a bit better on the 6412 than it was on the 6208. But the biggest difference, picture wise, is the pixelization and dropouts in HD are gone. Yea for that.

I keep discovering that certain button functions can also do other functions, which can be handy
if you're trying to save buttons or wrist-bending on universal remotes etc., or at least it's mildly
interesting, e.g.:

pagedown also does replay
day+ also does play
day- also does stop
(also the arrow keys of course)

any others?

I am looking for tips, tricks or hacks for the dct6412 does anyone have some???? :cool:

As I understand it.....

JonM in MN:

One weakness of digital fixed pixel displays (like RP lcds and dlps) not shared with analog or CRT based sets is the lack of quality of SD analog channels. Basically, the sets are designed to accurately portray the incoming signal they are unable to "hide" the difficiencies of the standard signal as well as their counterparts. I believe comb filters, and lack therof, has something to do with this. I'm no expert here , mind you, but I see a huge difference in my 60" LCD RTPV as compared to my 5 year old Pioneer Elite 60" CRT RPTV when viewing analog.

LarryJoe:

Yes, we both have the same set. I never had the 6208 so I can't really comment. I don't really see a difference, however, in PQ between my old 5100 and the new 6412.

Tall1:

The Moto 6412's user manual (found here: http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/dct6412.asp) states an estimated 90 hours of analog and 20 hours of HD on its 120 gig hard drive. Given the amount of space taken up by the iGuide, the actual times are closer to 60-75 hours analog or 12-15 hours of HD. I believe reading through this thread will bear this out. Because of the compression factors of converting analog to digital, the capacity of the 6412's hard drive effectively doubles for SD recording.

Originally posted by WhoRu
I am looking for tips, tricks or hacks for the dct6412 does anyone have some???? :cool: A good start would be reading through this thread, although it would be nicer to have things summarized in one post-- once I get some more free time closer to Christmas, I will attempt that. In the meantime, see page 4 (if I remember correctly) of this thread for some information on adding the 30 second skip and swap functionality to your remote. (Your remote might already have a "swap" button, but you could definitely add the 30 second skip.)

Wow...before you flame me...I just read through all 44 pages .....

The new remote that came with the 6412 (found on page 11 on this PDF File http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/downloads/URMD2.pdf ) is causing me some problems.....

Has anyone successfully programmed the "Skip" command into this remote?

The question was asked at least 4 times over the past 44 pages, yet no one seems to know exactly how to get this device to enter the learning mode, or code entry mode.

The silver remote on the 6208 seemed to have a setup button that seems to be lacking on this new one.


I appreciate the advice on the Harmony's. I went to Best Buy but just could not drop the $150 on a remote.....maybe I will treat my self to one at Christmas, but then the wife will want one for the bedroom as well.

:(

I miss "skip"

Cip

I had a 6208, programmed the skip in to it, got the 6412 with the new remote, and did the same, same procedure, same buttoms, all the same. Doesn't your remote have a setup button?

Originally posted by Cipro
Has anyone successfully programmed the "Skip" command into this remote? Cipro, make sure you enter the leading zeros. Folks who have had no luck have not done that.

I programmed the '30 second skip' to the 'Live' button, based on an early recommendation, but I want to change it back to 'Live' (and then program the Skip to 'Help' or 'Stop', since they are unused.)
What is the code for 'Live'?

Originally posted by QZ1
I programmed the '30 second skip' to the 'Live' button, based on an early recommendation, but I want to change it back to 'Live' (and then program the Skip to 'Help' or 'Stop', since they are unused.)
What is the code for 'Live'? Try this procedure (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/printpost.php?postid=4668328) to reset the Live key. Good luck.

There is no 'Setup' button on my remote that came with the 6412.

You can see a picture of my remote here...

Page 11

http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/downloads/URMD2.pdf

So I cant follow the same procedure that I used to program the 6208 remote?

Make sense.....

Sorry to all to clutter the thread....

Well Cipro, that blows. There are cheaper programmable remotes available. Hang in the remotes area at avsforums or go to remotecentral.com and find out what others are using. Radioshack makes a cheap programmable remote for around $20. Or call comcast and tell them you want a fancy silver remote like your friends have at avsforums ;)

Question. I am comcast/nj.

I have a 6412 box that I use to feed the component and digital in puts of my TV. I do not use the box at all to feed the RF input. I feed the RF input directly (RH). I take the cable line and split it, one going to the 6412 box, the other going to RF. My TV has PIP and I use it with the RF input. What is the impact of the low channels going digital? Do I lose PIP on these channnels?

Maybe this will force implementation of PIP on the box.

Ya I think im off to best buy again....

thanks guys for the responses..

avs....one of the best places on the net...

Cip

Originally posted by Cipro
There is no 'Setup' button on my remote that came with the 6412.

You can see a picture of my remote here...



Cipro,

Although I am not on the I-Guide I do recognize your remote. I have had several different Moto STB's over the years and once I was issued this remote. I should still have it in a drawer at home and I'm usually pretty good at keeping manuals and programming instructions (if any) on file. I'll check when I get home tonight and reply if I can offer any assistance.

EDITED BELOW:

I do seem to remember that if you held (for instance) the TV button down for 6 seconds you could then enter a code to program it for your specific display. This makes me think that their are no single programmable keys on this remote.

JonM in MN,
I was not being sarcastic. I was truly amazed at the rapid response from you given the sheer size of the thread and time of day. I expected a response in a day or two, but not so immediate. I am VERY thankful for your speed of reply.

Update....

I caved in....

Bought a OFA 6131 and a

Harmony 659.....gonna try these out for a while before my best buy demo return policy runs out.....

maybe I can become one of those customers Best Buy dislikes


Cip

Originally posted by ThePerfectViewe
Question. I am comcast/nj.

I have a 6412 box that I use to feed the component and digital in puts of my TV. I do not use the box at all to feed the RF input. I feed the RF input directly (RH). I take the cable line and split it, one going to the 6412 box, the other going to RF. My TV has PIP and I use it with the RF input. What is the impact of the low channels going digital? Do I lose PIP on these channnels?

Maybe this will force implementation of PIP on the box.

I have the same splitter set up as you do. They are not "Going Digital." They will be simulcast.

Originally posted by silverdou
JonM in MN,
I was not being sarcastic. I was truly amazed at the rapid response from you given the sheer size of the thread and time of day. I expected a response in a day or two, but not so immediate. I am VERY thankful for your speed of reply. Hey silverdou, that was me asking if you were being sarcastic, not Jon. There are alot of very helpful people here. I would have given up the whole HD hobby had it not been for avsforums. Good luck.

Originally posted by Cipro
Update....

I caved in....

Bought a OFA 6131 and a

Harmony 659.....gonna try these out for a while before my best buy demo return policy runs out.....

maybe I can become one of those customers Best Buy dislikes


Cip

In that case I won't search for the instructions although I did find the remote. FWIW this remote has a JP1 connector in the battery compartment so it might be possible to program in a 30 second skip via a download.

Tall1,
I am sorry about the confusion. Iam upgrading my system. I posted this

Sorry!
Had a bad keystroke
I have a -1106p-b DVD Player, Pioneer VSX452 Receiver an Hitachi 35tx10 CRT TV. Trying to decide which to upgrade first. Suggestion will help. Leaning toward receiver. Like the sx-50 but can't remember the manufacturer.
Once again thanks for all your help

What's all this about the 18th and the digital simulcast? Today I noticed that the non premium HD channels had all been renumbered.. I wonder if this has something to do with the bandwidth allocation of the simulcast..

Any more specific details? Like what areas, and basically anything else you know of.

It's all OT in this thread. Comcast is making lots of changes in lots of places, but there's no consistency of policy or common timetable. You'd be better off asking in your local reception thread.

But while I have a foot on the soapbox:

Where I live, they have changed channel numbering a couple of times in the past year. Just today there was an article in the paper saying that some standard analog subscribers were upset that Comcast has moved all premium channels except HBO to the digital tier, which means people who had been getting Cinemax and Showtime, etc., would have to rent a new digital STB and pay Comcast an additional monthly fee per set to keep them; along with WE, ESPN Classic and a few other analog channels that had been part of the lower-cost standard package. (That was on top of a 5% rate increase in January and another 11% scheduled for the first of the year.)

Meanwhile they are simulcasting the digital (and HD) signals of the local ABC and NBC affiliates, but not the Fox, CBS, PBS or UPN affiliates.

The bottom line is their bottom line. Comcast, like the rest of the industry, is moving slowly toward an all-digital system. But they're doing in in fits and starts that have more to do with profit margins than customer service.

I'm happy with my 6412, but less than pleased with the high cost of service and painfully slow pace of adding new HD content.

Hey, Voom! Where's that DVR you promised?

OK... got a new "strange one" to report. I was watching The Apprentice in HD and recording it at the same time. I paused it while my wife took a phone call. After a few minutes, it suddenly popped onto another channel (Travel? Food") and on that channel there was an "Emergency Broadcast System" test being broadcasted.

I thought that maybe I had lost what I recorded, but went to "MY DVD" and was able to pick up Apprentice where I had paused it. It had everything up to the point where the EBS test had happened, then started a new recording of the Apprentice from that point on. Only lost less than a minute of what I wanted to watch.

SO... is there a new threat of EBS tests interrupting our recordings? Anybody else notice that in Michigan about 9:20 last night?

Originally posted by wittangamo


I'm happy with my 6412, but less than pleased with the high cost of service and painfully slow pace of adding new HD content.

Hey, Voom! Where's that DVR you promised?

I second that emotion. I know Comcast needs to make money, but they just aren't adding channels fast enough to justify cost increases for digital service.

Of course, Comcast would say that we don't pay for an HD tier, so we are getting a bargain, but I am willing to pay for HDNET, UniversalHD and TNT-HD if they need an HD Tier. Just give me the option, anyway.

And in the next 2 years all sorts of new HDTV channels will be coming. One new national channel in a year (we got Cinemax and StarzHD, plus CBS O&O last December, DiscoveryHD in June) is truly unacceptable performance in this market. Comcast is doing better for sports fans with the NBAHD games on INHD, CSTV (when in HD), the NFL GOTW and CSN.

Competition is what will drive Comcast to offer these channels. They made a commitment to the HD-DVR and we got it, so maybe they'll come through. Certainly we all expect Comcast to add ESPN2HD on Jan 6th, but we've been disappointed before.

I had thought about VOOM, but my wife and I really like broadband internet and I don't want to fool with an antenna (apartment) and hope I can get the locals, so we won't be leaving Comcast.

Rich N.

Comcast has changed my channel lineup twice in the past 6 months. As an example, ABC-HD was 180, then in September it was 210, now its 231 as of December 1. The constant channel swapping is annoying on Comcast's part. It'll be worthwhile if they're doing it to free up for all digital broadcasts of analog channels or to add more HD channels in the short term. Otherwise the swapping around was just an annoyance.

Originally posted by Cipro
Update....

I caved in....

Bought a OFA 6131 and a

Harmony 659.....gonna try these out for a while before my best buy demo return policy runs out.....

maybe I can become one of those customers Best Buy dislikes


Cip

Good move. I was going to suggest skipping the $20 cheap remote and going for a Harmony or similar. You will find 30-sec skip in the Harmony database under the 6412.

BTW, you should still bring it back and buy it cheaper over the web. You paid $199 plus tax right? It can easily be found for half that. Check out etronics.com.

Anyone get the silver remote that has the big "ON DEMAND" button up at the top? I just got the 6412 today and the remote doesn't work at all with the 6412. Is there some kind of reset code for the remote that anyone knows about or did they simply give me the wrong remote? It has all the pvr functions on it, and the remote itself works as i programmed my TV code into and it works fine for that. It just doesn't do anything on the box.

Originally posted by RichMI
OK... got a new "strange one" to report. I was watching The Apprentice in HD and recording it at the same time. I paused it while my wife took a phone call. After a few minutes, it suddenly popped onto another channel (Travel? Food") and on that channel there was an "Emergency Broadcast System" test being broadcasted.

I thought that maybe I had lost what I recorded, but went to "MY DVD" and was able to pick up Apprentice where I had paused it. It had everything up to the point where the EBS test had happened, then started a new recording of the Apprentice from that point on. Only lost less than a minute of what I wanted to watch.

SO... is there a new threat of EBS tests interrupting our recordings? Anybody else notice that in Michigan about 9:20 last night?

Rich, I had that happen to me two times. I don't know what happened but it seemed to go back to normal after the EBS test. I wonder if any others have had this happen.

Originally posted by raidbuck
Competition is what will drive Comcast to offer these channels. They made a commitment to the HD-DVR and we got it, so maybe they'll come through. Certainly we all expect Comcast to add ESPN2HD on Jan 6th, but we've been disappointed before. Rich N.

I'm so confused. I don't know where to post this, so I'll try here..

My wife and I still havn't bought a HDTV. We're still on CRT TV's. We would love to buy a plasma, today! But, we use Comcast and 90% of our TV watching is through Tivo. Since Tivo still hasn't come out with a HD recorder (except for dish users-we hate dish), what's the point in buying a plasma?

Went to CC today and they showed me the new Comcast DVR. Looked good initially, except it didn't seem to have what I call "interest programming" like the Tivo does. What I mean is..I am a boat racing fan and a poker fan , so with the Tivo, I input those as a interest and it catches all the shows relating to them.

Then I come to this trusty ol' forum and learn that the Comcast DVR I just saw at CC can only record 10 hours of HD programming. 10 HOURS! What a joke. Heck, my 80 hour Tivo runs rings around that.

Should I still wait even longer to go to HDTV? Who will be first to have a decent HD recorder, Tivo or Comcast?

Originally posted by easycruise

Then I come to this trusty ol' forum and learn that the Comcast DVR I just saw at CC can only record 10 hours of HD programming. 10 HOURS! What a joke. Heck, my 80 hour Tivo runs rings around that.

Should I still wait even longer to go to HDTV? Who will be first to have a decent HD recorder, Tivo or Comcast?

easycruise...I think you are still confused...How much HD can your Tivo record (zero)...The Comcast DVR can actually record 120 hours of non-HD (just like your tivo does..but it runs an extra 1/2 a ring around the Tivo)

trouble is, HD takes about 10x the space (but looks 10x better ;)..hopefully comcast will allow expansion in the future to meet HD needs.

Anyway, the Comcast HD DVR is a pretty good solution (at least compared to Tivo which doesnt have a HD DVR that works with Cable)

Originally posted by davisdog
easycruise...I think you are still confused...How much HD can your Tivo record (zero)...The Comcast DVR can actually record 120 hours of non-HD (just like your tivo does..but it runs an extra 1/2 a ring around the Tivo)

trouble is, HD takes about 10x the space (but looks 10x better ;)..hopefully comcast will allow expansion in the future to meet HD needs.

Anyway, the Comcast HD DVR is a pretty good solution (at least compared to Tivo which doesnt have a HD DVR that works with Cable)

Thanks for your help....Well, if given a choice of either having a DVR that can only record 10 hours of HD versus a 80 hour SD Tivo, I'll take the SD Tivo anyday! Heck, with my wife's daily recording of her soap opera (Young & the Restless comes in HD) and only 2-3 weekly 1 hour prime time HD shows (CSI, etc.), you're already filled up on that HD recorder. That's a joke!

I guess we'll still wait until our needs are met. What was Comcast thinking when they came out with a HD recorder with such a small disk drive?

easycruise, it's not nearly as bad as you make it sound. The Comcast 6412 has 50 percent MORE capacity than your SD Tivo, not less. So you could save everything you're saving now in SD and still have room for Monday Night Football and a few HD soaps.

If you use the Comcast strictly for HD the space does get eaten up faster because the files are bigger. (But based on my experience you'll get closer to 15 hours of pure HD.)

You can set up series recordings just like on the Tivo, and search by topics as well as titles so you won't miss your favorite shows. Most people, me included, save a healthy mix of SD and HD, and you can set priorities on how many episodes of a series get saved and what gets overwritten first when you run out of room.

I do agree with you on one thing. There's no reason to buy a plasma right now. You can get true HD with great PQ and a bigger screen for less money with a Samsung DLP or JVC DiLA, among others.

Wolf, I got the silver remote with the on demand button, too. Works for me, though I stuck it in the drawer and use a Harmony. Did you try pressing the cable button up top to make sure it's working the STB and not the TV?

RichMI and BullittMustang, I've seen those emergency tests screw up my box, too. Mine has changed channels once and stopped a timed recording another time. (Not to mention the awful screech.)

Originally posted by easycruise
Thanks for your help....Well, if given a choice of either having a DVR that can only record 10 hours of HD versus a 80 hour SD Tivo, I'll take the SD Tivo anyday! Heck, with my wife's daily recording of her soap opera (Young & the Restless comes in HD) and only 2-3 weekly 1 hour prime time HD shows (CSI, etc.), you're already filled up on that HD recorder. That's a joke!

I guess we'll still wait until our needs are met. What was Comcast thinking when they came out with a HD recorder with such a small disk drive?

Speaking as someone with both a double-disk drive (self-expanded) TiVo (Series 1) hooked to DirecTv (not a DirecTiVo) and a 6412 through Comcast I can say that I shared the same concern (although I never came to a forum where people were discussing a product they have / enjoy and called it a joke during the period of my concern).

If your needs are met by recording many hours of grainy SD programming alone, you do not want the 6412. TiVo will do that just fine, and it's good at it.

The 6412 can record many hours of digital sourced SD programming and record HD programs and (without a single modification or hack) dump those programs onto a DVHS deck or a PC in their original HD format through firewire where I can store them or (on the PC) archive them in DiVx format forever. Oh, and did I mention the blog reports linked in AVS that 6412 users have gotten a 250Gb One Touch external drive hooked up via firewire, tripling the capacity of the box (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=473793)? They're not verified, but external storage is part of the box's specs.

Once the analog channels get mirrored on digital, this box with have the capacity of @120 hours of SD recording of those channels. Even without thinking about HD, that's a 120 hour TiVo. In my house for free. 9.95 a month. If it breaks, no running out to Best Buy. Just call and get a new one delivered for free

If I really decided to blow my mind and record in HD using both tuners of this two tuner box for all of prime time every viable night, I wind up with 6 hours of programs a night. Say skipping commercials, I can get through about 4 hours of shows a night. Maybe I get "TV Lazy" and only make it through three. Let's work it out how full it will get during the week...

Monday Record 6 hours - watch 3 - 3 left total on box
Tuesday Record 6 hours watch 3 - 6 left total
Wednesday Record 6 hours watch 3 - 9 left total
Thursday Record 6 hours watch 3 - 12 left total
Friday Record 6 hours watch 3 - 15 left total
Saturday Nothing is on / nothing to record watch 3 12 left total
Sunday Record 6 watch 3 - 15 left total

It would take me recording the max HD programming (and I cannot think of a time there would ever be 6 hours of programming 6 nights a week that I would want to record) to fill the box to capacity. Possible. Not probable.

Another option is to wait for a viable HD TiVo and shell out the $900 plus 12.95 a month. Oh, and I'll have to go out and mess around endlessly with an antenna on top of my house to get the HD programs. I was down that road with a MyHD card. No thanks.

Personally, we record any basic cable type stuff and SD network shows (Apprentice, etc.) through the TiVo now and HD network stuff through the 6412. I've not hit 60% full on the 6412, and we watch a lot of TV.

TiVo's guide is better. I don't need a guide that badly. I know what I want to watch. My TiVo remote's getting a bit of dust.

>what's the point in buying a plasma?

I don't think there is one. I have a CRT big screen and HD channels look spectacular.

>I input those as a interest and it catches all the shows relating to them.

Comcast's has interests you can input, too, but they are pre-chosen for you (at least with the iGuide, which is what most customers have for their TV guide).

>CC can only record 10 hours of HD programming. 10 HOURS! What a joke. >Heck, my 80 hour Tivo runs rings around that.

My new 6412 records 18 hours of HD. I've heard some say capacity depends on whether the HD is 720p or 1080i. But I did a variety of programs at random and that's what I got.

>Who will be first to have a decent HD recorder, Tivo or Comcast?

I think they will both be about equal for about two years. Sure, Tivo has one now that will do an advertised 30 hours of HD. But that's not a significant amount more than CC's and it costs about $1000 up front compared to CC's $30 installation fee (if any).

There seem to be two factors for low HD capacity. One is price. Companies want to get customers now, and having a large-capacity DVR costs too much for what they want to spend. Think about it: Comcast is spending about $500 per customer to lease them a DVR for virtually no upfront cost. And Tivo is making customers pay $1000 to get started. The other factor seems to be hard drive capacity. If you look at hard drives you can buy for your computer, 250Gb seems to be about the limit right now. That means if someone wants a much bigger one, they would have to contract specially for them. And that would cost them even more money.

1.Since you mentioned that you get the 6412 for free from Comcast, what do you care if I called it a joke? It's not like you were insulted because you have a big monetary investment in the box.

2. Regarding blog reports and extra external drives via firewire...A previous post on this thread said that Comcast doesn't support firewire. And besides, who really wants to go to the trouble and attempt that seemingly complicated exercise? Kind of like your experience with the MyHD card.

3. Your TV watching calculations (record 6 hours daily and watch 3 daily) ignore the weeks of the year when you go on vacation. You come back from a week's vacation and you missed a lot of your shows because the 6412 has such limited HD space. It's even worse if you go on a 2 week vacation.

4. Let's face it, HD viewing is "not ready for prime time". Since we are in the days of commercial skipping (who wants to go back?), the lack of a good HD recorder is a big limitation.

5. I'll take the "grainy SD", as you say, and be able to skip the commercials rather than watch HD and have to watch those commercials. I guess I'm just not an "early adopter" and I'll wait for, as Tivo says, "TV my way".

6. It might not be that long of a wait. Rumors are that Tivo is working on a HD recorder to work with the CableCard, so you won't need to mess with that antenna on top of your house. We'll see at the CES convention next month.

7. Sorry if I ruffled your feathers, but I do appreciate your insight.

Working my way through 45 pages, if I missed this, my apologies. Got my 6412 yesterday. Works OK with a few quirks:

One of my channels keeps showing up as unauthorized. (GOL TV, which was placed in a new package ... I signed up for the new package, GOL TV now comes in fine on my old non-HD/DVR box, but nothing so far on the 6412, CSRs trying everything but nothing working.)

Initial downloading after initial reset took about an hour and half, during which time I did not get a picture ... not just the guide showing "To Be Announced," but a complete absence of signal. Installing tech thought the box was broken, but while we were working out the problem, it came on ... it just took 90 minutes to download stuff.

I set up some "season pass" series, and asked it to only record new episodes. It doesn't know what's new ... the DVR schedule includes reruns.

So, I am sitting here enjoying my 6412 when halfway thjru a recorded show the picture goes black and no longer fast forwards. The fast forward arrows show up, but the indicator does not move anywhere. I turned back to live, and the guide info shows, but no picture. Anyone heard of this problem, or could I have a bad box.

Originally posted by easycruise
Went to CC today and they showed me the new Comcast DVR. Looked good initially, except it didn't seem to have what I call "interest programming" like the Tivo does. What I mean is..I am a boat racing fan and a poker fan , so with the Tivo, I input those as a interest and it catches all the shows relating to them.
Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

"interest programming" or "WishList" as Tivo calls it, is not part of the Comcast DVR - 6412/i-Guide.

I would DEFINITELY give the 6412 a try since you already have cable. Comcast simply brings over the 6412, connects it to your TV, sets up your subscriptions, and your off and running.

If you hate it, go with the DirecTV Tivo or the HD DirecTV Tivo.

HD Tivo Review here:

http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/DirecTV_HD_DVR__HD_TiVo_/4505-6474_16-30842839-2.html?tag=tab

Be prepared to pay close to a grand for the HD unit.

Originally posted by RichMI
OK... got a new "strange one" to report. I was watching The Apprentice in HD and recording it at the same time. I paused it while my wife took a phone call. After a few minutes, it suddenly popped onto another channel (Travel? Food") and on that channel there was an "Emergency Broadcast System" test being broadcasted.

I thought that maybe I had lost what I recorded, but went to "MY DVD" and was able to pick up Apprentice where I had paused it. It had everything up to the point where the EBS test had happened, then started a new recording of the Apprentice from that point on. Only lost less than a minute of what I wanted to watch.

SO... is there a new threat of EBS tests interrupting our recordings? Anybody else notice that in Michigan about 9:20 last night?

Yes that happened to me too. And to make it even more confusing I had started watching the show from the beginning at about 9:15. Then the EBS message hits and everything stops and suddenly the 6412 skipped ahead to the live point. SO I thought I misssed out on ten minutes or so of show but later noticed that it was broken into two recordings. One prior to the EBS message and one after. The first one had a message saying "this recording may have been interrupted"

Originally posted by easycruise
1.Since you mentioned that you get the 6412 for free from Comcast, what do you care if I called it a joke? It's not like you were insulted because you have a big monetary investment in the box.

2. Regarding blog reports and extra external drives via firewire...A previous post on this thread said that Comcast doesn't support firewire. And besides, who really wants to go to the trouble and attempt that seemingly complicated exercise? Kind of like your experience with the MyHD card.

3. Your TV watching calculations (record 6 hours daily and watch 3 daily) ignore the weeks of the year when you go on vacation. You come back from a week's vacation and you missed a lot of your shows because the 6412 has such limited HD space. It's even worse if you go on a 2 week vacation.

4. Let's face it, HD viewing is "not ready for prime time". Since we are in the days of commercial skipping (who wants to go back?), the lack of a good HD recorder is a big limitation.

5. I'll take the "grainy SD", as you say, and be able to skip the commercials rather than watch HD and have to watch those commercials. I guess I'm just not an "early adopter" and I'll wait for, as Tivo says, "TV my way".

6. It might not be that long of a wait. Rumors are that Tivo is working on a HD recorder to work with the CableCard, so you won't need to mess with that antenna on top of your house. We'll see at the CES convention next month.

7. Sorry if I ruffled your feathers, but I do appreciate your insight.

My feathers got ruffled because it seemed pointless to come to a forum only to denounce the device that's the topic of the forum. Learning I get. Questioning I get. Taking the time to post "Gosh, your device sucks" type material seemed a little pointless. It's like people who go to Eagles message boards just to post "Eagles Suck." What's the point? You can think they suck without telling people who like them that you think they suck.

HDTV viewing is ready for prime time here. Judging from the thousands of HD related posts on AVS, it's ready for prime time a lot of places.

Honestly, the firewire dumping onto a PC is about as complicated as hitting play on one device and record on the other. It works out of the box, unlike the hardware hacks, shell programming and unstable freeware you'd need to accomplish the same task on a TiVo.

My main point was that I now have a free 120 hr "tivo like device" that also does HD. I got it for the HD and we all talk about the HD aspects here. But I could sit in my house and use it just to record SD like you (and I) use an 80 hour TiVo, only for 40 hours more. I'm not sure how that qualifies as a "joke" product in anyone's eyes.

Originally posted by crossbeaux
Well, I just went through this entire thread (whew, what a read!) but still haven't seen exactly the problem I'm experiencing. Just got the 6412 a couple of days ago and immediately set it up to record all my favorite series. The next day, I can see a list of things recorded (using the List button), and I can select them (arrow and OK keys), but then I just see a status bar concerning the current channel which stays up for about three seconds and nothing else happens. At that point, the swap button no longer works. And, at that point, attempting to change channels results in displaying the new channel's status info but only a black screen, not the channel itself. Using the power button to turn off and on restores picture to the new channel, but if I try to change channels again, I again get a blank screen.

I unplugged the unit and was able to access the recorded info, but I suppose that caused a guide reload (which I did not know before).

Anybody else have this problem? Anything else I should try?


crossbeaux

Looks like I have the same condition. Were you able to resolve yours, or did you swap the box.

As a long time tivo user, and one of those customers who pleaded with tivo not to miss the opportunity to make an affordable stand alone box that supports hd, it's a big deal that I've installed the 6412. I think the reason tivo was getting so popular with so many was that it worked well and, except for D*, you could use it with any input source.

However, what also made tivo so cool was that we propeller-heads could crack them open and do fun things to them. I realize it's a fringe market interest, but it was building a community of users (kinda like ipod people) who built a foundation of support for this machinery.

Now, that being said, I enjoy the limited but growing hd programs that cc provides. Tivo made it so tv schedules no more directed my life, but wasn't letting us watch our favorite programs (Lost, Mon Nite NFL) in HD...

The answer? 6412, because I don't want D*, and I don't want to spend 1k on the new D* tivo box. After 1 week, there's nothing about the 6412 vs my tivo2 that I miss... except one thing: the time jog you get on tivo after fast forwarding through commercials. The 6412 makes getting that correct a little harder.

After 1 week, I'll never go back, and it's my old favorite tivo's loss.

Originally posted by dwk
So, I am sitting here enjoying my 6412 when halfway thjru a recorded show the picture goes black and no longer fast forwards. The fast forward arrows show up, but the indicator does not move anywhere. I turned back to live, and the guide info shows, but no picture. Anyone heard of this problem, or could I have a bad box.

For what it's worth, a reset seems to have worked for now.....
I can change channels, unlike crossbeaux
We'll see..

I'm cracking up watching easycruise attempting to justify his decision to avoid HD and HD-DVR's while completely ignoring that the 6412 with its "limited disk space" actually has a 50% larger hard drive than his Tivo, can record 50% more SD programming than his Tivo, can record 15 hours of HD material against 0 hours for his Tivo and does in fact support a 30 second commercial skip.

It's like watching someone pee into the wind and looking for the rain clouds. :D

Something may not be ready for primetime, but it's not HD...

Originally posted by wolf2989
Anyone get the silver remote that has the big "ON DEMAND" button up at the top? I just got the 6412 today and the remote doesn't work at all with the 6412. Is there some kind of reset code for the remote that anyone knows about or did they simply give me the wrong remote? It has all the pvr functions on it, and the remote itself works as i programmed my TV code into and it works fine for that. It just doesn't do anything on the box.

My installer ran into the same problem. Had to enter two codes: first 982. then 1376.

(try 0982 if that still fails).

and it's like two try's with the codes, not just a single try with a 7 or 8 digit string.

jb

I had tivo, loved it, then got rid of it when I got HD. 6208 and now the 6412. The 6412 is as close as you can get to tivo, some search options missing but I never used them anyway. Comparing $120 a year to $1000 out of the pocket its a no brainer. If Tivo would come down to $300 or less, then they would have the market back. Probably in a year or two the way the electronics world works.

Originally posted by easycruise


3. Your TV watching calculations (record 6 hours daily and watch 3 daily) ignore the weeks of the year when you go on vacation. You come back from a week's vacation and you missed a lot of your shows because the 6412 has such limited HD space. It's even worse if you go on a 2 week vacation.

4. Let's face it, HD viewing is "not ready for prime time". Since we are in the days of commercial skipping (who wants to go back?), the lack of a good HD recorder is a big limitation.

5. I'll take the "grainy SD", as you say, and be able to skip the commercials rather than watch HD and have to watch those commercials. I guess I'm just not an "early adopter" and I'll wait for, as Tivo says, "TV my way".

6. It might not be that long of a wait. Rumors are that Tivo is working on a HD recorder to work with the CableCard, so you won't need to mess with that antenna on top of your house. We'll see at the CES convention next month.



I just recently got into HD, and while it isn't perfect, it is so incredible to watch that I will gladly tolerate some hiccups. I was satisfied with SD before I got HD...let's just say that is *not* the case anymore.

Personally, I have the 6208...I'm anxiously awaiting getting the 6412 when it becomes available in my area. And while the box I currently have pales in comparison to my ReplayTVs (functionality is basically that of a VCR), I am very glad to be able to record HD, at all. I have only 2/3 the capacity of the 6412 (the same as your TiVo), but I haven't run into much trouble there, even when I was out of town for a couple of days. Almost everything I record on the 6208 is also recorded on a RTV, so I have a safety net there.

I am very bummed that D&M has basically ceased development on the ReplayTV platform for all practical purposes, so my hopes of getting a Replay-branded HD-PVR are pretty much nil. I'd buy one in a heartbeat if they would make it...even if were still a single-tuner box! Anyway, if there were a CableCard-based, multi-tuner TiVo, I would certainly look at it. The Sony CC-based units sounded intriguing (pretty good storage, actually), but once I found out they are single tuner offerings, I lost some interest. Not to mention the questions around the guide. Anyway, until there is a serious, non-satellite, HD-capable, multi-tuner PVR available on the market, I'll just stand by anxiously awaiting the availability of the 6412 in my area. To each his/her own!

-Randy

Originally posted by dwk
crossbeaux

Looks like I have the same condition. Were you able to resolve yours, or did you swap the box.

After I powered down and powered back up, everything seems to be working fine, as long as I keep away from that pesky little item in my recorded programs list that says it was recorded in 1989. It may be magical thinking on my part, but I think when I attempted to watch or delete that item, that's when the problems began.

Originally posted by crossbeaux
After I powered down and powered back up, everything seems to be working fine, as long as I keep away from that pesky little item in my recorded programs list that says it was recorded in 1989. It may be magical thinking on my part, but I think when I attempted to watch or delete that item, that's when the problems began.


Mine is also back to normal. What a scare!! :D :D :D

Just got my 6212 yesterday, I have a mapping problem my program guide for the majority of my analog channels does not match the actual program shown on channel. For example Guide says Channel 26 espn, but is actually Cspan. Channel 44 is espn but is listed as AMC. Former box before 6212 listed channel 44 in guide as espn and broadcast as espn. Call to CSR for Comcast was unable to change guide after several attempts. Anyone have similar problem or idea

Originally posted by earletp
I'm cracking up watching easycruise attempting to justify his decision to avoid HD and HD-DVR's while completely ignoring that the 6412 with its "limited disk space" actually has a 50% larger hard drive than his Tivo, can record 50% more SD programming than his Tivo, can record 15 hours of HD material against 0 hours for his Tivo and does in fact support a 30 second commercial skip.

It's like watching someone pee into the wind and looking for the rain clouds. :D

Something may not be ready for primetime, but it's not HD...


I'm cracking up at your faulty logic. I'm buying a HDTV to watch HD, not SD. Who cares if the 6412 has 50% more SD space than my Tivo! In fact, it's been mentioned countless times on the AVS Forum Plasma threads that SD looks worse on a HD or ED Plasma than the old CRT TV. But, I'm willing to live with that downgrade in SD picture quality for the opportunity to watch HD shows on a HD TV.

If I spend many thousands on a brand new HDTV, I want to watch HD programming. But it seems that you now have to watch the commercials except for the few shows that you can record in HD, due to the limited disk space on the 6412. I just don't want to give up the Tivo 80 hour recording space to downgrade to 15 hours with HD on the 6412.

To summarize, a old Tivo user like me going to HD has to make some serious tradeoffs. Shell out a lot of money for a new TV, increase your monthly cost with Comcast, give up a lot of Tivo-like storage capacity, crucial when going on vacation. But, I must admit, in return you get that absolutely gorgeous HD picture, except now you have to watch most of the commercials. I'm spoiled by Tivo, I guess.

The only partial solution I see is to have both the Tivo and the 6412, but that, dare I say, is a joke, because you now have two remotes, and two programming guides to program and deal with. My wife would hate that setup

Like I said, it doesn't seem ready for prime time. An 80 hour HD recorder and all problems are solved! Don't mention DirectTV, everybody that I know that had it had nothing but problems, either with weather, programming, inside setup, etc.

Originally posted by IFLYSWA
The Sony CC-based units sounded intriguing (pretty good storage, actually), but once I found out they are single tuner offerings, I lost some interest. Not to mention the questions around the guide. Anyway, until there is a serious, non-satellite, HD-capable, multi-tuner PVR available on the market, I'll just stand by anxiously awaiting the availability of the 6412 in my area. To each his/her own!

-Randy

We found that it really wasn't that often that we would want to watch two shows that were on at the same time. But, with the Tivo "standby mode", even though it's a single tuner, you can still watch one show (with commercials) and record the other at the same time.

Originally posted by easycruise
Like I said, it doesn't seem ready for prime time. An 80 hour HD recorder and all problems are solved!

Yep...just 600-800 GB of disk space and you are home free! :D

-Randy

Originally posted by easycruise
We found that it really wasn't that often that we would want to watch two shows that were on at the same time. But, with the Tivo "standby mode", even though it's a single tuner, you can still watch one show (with commercials) and record the other at the same time.

Unfortunately that is not the case for me...and there are even times when I want to watch/record three shows that are on simultaneously...and at least once that I wanted four! A lot of it stems from wanting to record some prime time show(s) while watching a game of some sort live...

Since I have two RTVs, a 6208 and OTA capabilities now, it seldom is an issue...I just sometimes have to settle for SD if there are two or more HD shows on at the same time and I am not home to watch one of them live. The 6412 will help a bunch there. And make no mistake...I was spoiled, too. But again, I am willing to take some hits in the convenience department for the PQ. This would definitely qualify as a YMMV situation...

-Randy

easycruise says: "To summarize, a old Tivo user like me going to HD has to make some serious tradeoffs."

Most of us agree there are tradeoffs. I'm also an "old TiVo user." So much so that I'd often say I'd rather watch a 19-inch black and white TV with TiVo instead of an HDTV without TiVo. But the 6412 is plenty good enough.

For me, the 6412 with a 50 inch HDTV is much much better than my previous setup of 2 TiVos with a 32 inch Sony XBR. Yes, Michael Powell was right when he said TiVo is so incredible that it is "God's Machine." Yes, the 6412 is missing lots of TiVo features, most importantly wishlists and HMO. And yes, the 6412 has some bugs, as are well documented in this forum.

But the HDTV picture, plus the 5.1 sound, is well worth it. For me.

I don't understand why easycruise is concerned about the 1 or 2 week vacation period during which he would not be able to capture enough HD on the 6412. I do appreciate the desire to enjoy the expensive equipment to view HD to the fullest. But when you're catching up on programming over the long haul, what's more important - FF thru everything so you're current or sitting back satisfying the HD crave? I'd record it off the SD side if I was afraid it would overflow the drive while I was gone.

Unless you've got no other life entirely, how would one ever catch up if (s)he were able to record the 80+ hours of HD that easycruise thinks he would miss during a vacation (is there really that much "must see TV" HD in a week?) because of the 6412's 120 GB drive? I think this is a theoretical limitation easycruise is beating himself with rather than a practical one. Now if you're talking about archiving HD, that's another matter and different equipment.

Bob

Well I've had my 6412 now for 3 or 4 weeks now. I have had no problems, it was flawless, until tonight. I put the tv and 6412 on to watch some tv and no picture! I switched tuners and the same thing. I could get the channel menu on the bottom but other than that, a black screen. I remembered reading about this before. I played a recorded show and it played fine. Then I tried live tv and it worked again. I powered off and then the same thing happened, no picture! Once again played a recorded show and like magic the live tv starts working again. It was working fine yesterday and I did nothing to move any settings or access any diagnostic menus. I unpugged it from the wall for 30 seconds and turned it back on and all is back to normal. I don't know what could have caused this and hope it doesn't happen again.

Originally posted by BullittMustang
...I put the tv and 6412 on to watch some tv and no picture! I switched tuners and the same thing. I could get the channel menu on the bottom but other than that, a black screen...

It's becoming clear through this issue and the "mute" issue that the unit is meant to be left on. Power on / Power Off causes instability in these types of devices. The TiVo has no power button, and takes a few minutes to boot after power is cut / resupplied.

An interesting experiment for someone continually having this problem would be to change their "Switched Power" setting (I remember seeing it but not where I saw it) and see if that clears it up. Maybe there is a synch signal or some other piece of information in the cable signal every so often it's not getting while it's off (talking out of my you know what here), and it takes a while to find that again. If you use it before it's resynched, it becomes unstable.

Then again, maybe it is a power supply issue.

Is anyone having this problem who does not turn off / on the unit?

Originally posted by BullittMustang
Well I've had my 6412 now for 3 or 4 weeks now. I have had no problems, it was flawless, until tonight. I put the tv and 6412 on to watch some tv and no picture! I switched tuners and the same thing. I could get the channel menu on the bottom but other than that, a black screen. I remembered reading about this before. I played a recorded show and it played fine. Then I tried live tv and it worked again. I powered off and then the same thing happened, no picture! Once again played a recorded show and like magic the live tv starts working again. It was working fine yesterday and I did nothing to move any settings or access any diagnostic menus. I unpugged it from the wall for 30 seconds and turned it back on and all is back to normal. I don't know what could have caused this and hope it doesn't happen again.

The same thing happened to me this morning. My DVR is on all the time. So I turned it off (still plugged in) and when I turned it back on everything went back to normal.

Rich N.

easycruise, if you are expecting a seamless transition from SD to HD then I agree with you, you are better off waiting. Even if your desires for the hardware are realized, the majority of programming is still SD at this time and I'm sure you'll end up being disappointed. It will be sometime before it's an all or nothing situation. There's a good chance (I didn't look it up) that at this time you may even have trouble getting all the network stations in HD since only CBS and one Independent station are broadcasting a digital signal in your area.

Each of us has different priorities and ours are markedly different.

I still doubt you'll gain much traction for your views in an HD forum. ;)

Especially when most of us are routinely doing all the things easycruise says our equipment is incapable of doing ;>)

He's trying hard to talk himself out of jumping into HD. Let's just allow him to win his argument with himself, even if he has to use pretzel logic to do it.

I love the 6412, but it seems that whenever I try to access the menu system while watching a DVR program that I've recorded (along with a few other seemingly random times), the box resets itself...anyone else having this problem?

Nope. There were reports of random resets on some early models that had to do with marginal power supplies. A box swap cured it. There's more info in the earlier parts of the thread.

I've had the new box for just over a week now and we're doing a month of "parallel testing" between it and the DirecTivo, of which I've had for two years.

So far, while the HD DVR doesn't have all the features I'd like, it's basically going to replace the DirecTivo. The one feature that I'd actually want to have added is the search by title. Adding in shows for the series recording was a bit awkward in having to go find them and then set them up but it got done.

Since I've got two young children (2 and 5), we record a lot of kids shows during the day. Still haven't gone over 50% in filling up the drive between that and the couple of primetime HD shows we watch. Those who watch a ton of stuff may have problems or record a lot of movies (I'm big on DVD as is) but for me this box is a winner.

Chris,

Maybe I'm missing something in your explanation, but what's wrong with the search by title function? Once you find a single episode of any show, it's a snap to set up a series record.

Originally posted by kellewa
Wondering if anyone else has experienced this problem w/ the 6412.

I have set up series recording for several shows, among them NYPD Blue, Lost and the West Wing to record first run only. Monday night I checked the recording schedule for the week and all three shows were scheduled to record. When I checked the box last night, I discovered it had not recorded NYPD Blue, even though it was new episode. I also saw that it was also now not scheduled to record Lost or the West Wing, again even though both are new episodes. Any thoughts on whether this could be a box problem or a problem with Iguide?



I have had problems using series recordings that are similar to yours. And I think the problem is the way NBC and recently ABC fiddle around with their schedules to have 59 and 61 min shows.

Guessing here, but my theory is you can't even program series if at any future time in the guide data there will be a conflict on at least one of the tuners. If you do get series programmed, then as new (future) data causes a conflict, it just skips a recording. ReplayTV does the same thing.

I just had the 6412 installed and I love the dual tuner feaure. I did not receive the new remote, so I'm using my 6208 remote which, I guess works okay. I do have one problem though. When I scroll through the menu or through anything using the < > buttons, it scrolls through every channel. Same thing if I just press the channel up/down button. It's like those buttons are on some kind of quick search mode. Any on have any idea about this problem???? Please help!!!!

Originally posted by frankz1
An interesting experiment for someone continually having this problem would be to change their "Switched Power" setting (I remember seeing it but not where I saw it) and see if that clears it up. Maybe there is a synch signal or some other piece of information in the cable signal every so often it's not getting while it's off (talking out of my you know what here), and it takes a while to find that again. If you use it before it's resynched, it becomes unstable.

Then again, maybe it is a power supply issue.

Is anyone having this problem who does not turn off / on the unit? Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

The "switched/unswithched power" setting is for the outlet on the back of the 6412. I leave mine set to unswitched and have my TV plugged into it.

The 6412's that randomly reboot have a power supply issue. Just get it swapped out for another.

(Series programming)
Perhaps the iGuide is the culprit for series recording problems. Compare its listings manually with what your DVR does automatically. Does the iGuide say a show is a repeat or new?
I give this possible hint because of my iGuide problem showing it isn't programmed well. For example, a theatrical film editing down for viewing on TV (from, say, R to TV-PG) only shows as "R" in the iGuide. So parental controls on the DVR think it's an "R" movie and not a "TV-PG" movie. And iGuide doesn't even list S, L, V, D, or FV.
The same may go for 59 and 61-minute shows. Does the iGuide list them as 59 or 61 minutes or is it just not a good TV guide from the Gemstar people (who are 51% owned by Comcast)?

Originally posted by nielloeb
(Series programming)
Perhaps the iGuide is the culprit for series recording problems. Compare its listings manually with what your DVR does automatically. Does the iGuide say a show is a repeat or new?
I give this possible hint because of my iGuide problem showing it isn't programmed well. For example, a theatrical film editing down for viewing on TV (from, say, R to TV-PG) only shows as "R" in the iGuide. So parental controls on the DVR think it's an "R" movie and not a "TV-PG" movie. And iGuide doesn't even list S, L, V, D, or FV.
The same may go for 59 and 61-minute shows. Does the iGuide list them as 59 or 61 minutes or is it just not a good TV guide from the Gemstar people (who are 51% owned by Comcast)? Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

TV Guide is certainly the culprit. They need to provide more complete and accurate data more like the way ZapToIt does with ReplayTV. Once TV Guide does this, many "Series Recordings" problems go away. The problem is, is TV Guide listening???

Has anyone else had this issue or been able to resolve:

Watching live TV (an HD channel in this instance if it matters). "Info" shows correct guide / show information and pressing "Play" shows correct show duration information on progress meter. Then Pause program. "Info" goes to "To Be Announced" and show progress meter goes to full two hour block. Switch channels and then back again refreshes correct "Info" display.

UPDATE: Occurs with any keypress (FF, RW, Play, Pause). Hitting "Play" to bring up the progress meter even causes "To Be Announced"

Is there a simple way of skipping to the start of the program buffer other than rewinding?

Pause Live TV and Viewing Previously Recordings differences are curious.

For Pause Live TV, we read that 40min SD/15min HD buffers limit how far you can be "behind". Mikef5 notes that if you are going to fall too far behind (say, you have to leave and pick up later where you left off), that you can simply convert to recording and it will include the pause buffer contents as well. Very nice.

My question is this. If I Schedule a Recording, can I start to watch it before it has completed?

Note that this is a way to avoid any 40min SD/15min HD Pause Buffer limitation :-). Indeed, I regularly watch TV this way. I have no idea - at the time I schedule a recording - whether I'll be able to watch it at that time or not. But if I am, I don't want to have to wait 'til it has completed to start watching it.

Can any of you lucky 6412 w/iGuide users try this out for me?

Originally posted by edmc
My question is this. If I Schedule a Recording, can I start to watch it before it has completed?

Note that this is a way to avoid any 40min SD/15min HD Pause Buffer limitation :-). Indeed, I regularly watch TV this way. I have no idea - at the time I schedule a recording - whether I'll be able to watch it at that time or not. But if I am, I don't want to have to wait 'til it has completed to start watching it.

Can any of you lucky 6412 w/iGuide users try this out for me?

I've done it already ... yes, it works. It's excellent for programs on commercial TV ... record a show, say an hour-long drama. Start watching the recording about 15 minutes in, fast-forward through the ads, and you'll catch up to the recording about 59 minutes in.

Originally posted by edmc
My question is this. If I Schedule a Recording, can I start to watch it before it has completed?

That's pretty much the only way we watch TV in this house. That's the chief beauty of DVR over taping.

When I try to schedule a recording when another show is already scheduled for the same time, I get a screen asking me which one I want to dump. I know I can record two shows at once, so I'm confused why this is happening. Any advice?

Originally posted by masoo
When I try to schedule a recording when another show is already scheduled for the same time, I get a screen asking me which one I want to dump. I know I can record two shows at once, so I'm confused why this is happening. Any advice?

This doesn't sound like the behavior of the 6412, unless it's a :59 starting time issue and there's really a 3 show overlap.

Use your "Swap" button on the remote to change to the second tuner. No swap button? Ample advice to create one exists in the pages of this very thread.

Originally posted by frankz1
Has anyone else had this issue or been able to resolve:

Watching live TV (an HD channel in this instance if it matters). "Info" shows correct guide / show information and pressing "Play" shows correct show duration information on progress meter. Then Pause program. "Info" goes to "To Be Announced" and show progress meter goes to full two hour block. Switch channels and then back again refreshes correct "Info" display.

UPDATE: Occurs with any keypress (FF, RW, Play, Pause). Hitting "Play" to bring up the progress meter even causes "To Be Announced" Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

I had the same problem. I had to pull power from the 6412 and then once the guide repopulated, the "To Be Announced" was replaced by the proper show information during FF, RW, Play, and Pause.

Originally posted by frankz1
This doesn't sound like the behavior of the 6412, unless it's a :59 starting time issue and there's really a 3 show overlap.

Use your "Swap" button on the remote to change to the second tuner. No swap button? Ample advice to create one exists in the pages of this very thread.

The swap button was the first thing I thought of, but that wasn't it.

I checked my scheduled recordings, and there are several cases where it's allowing me to record two at once, so that's not it. It seemed to relate to "season pass" shows ... if I tried to record during a time when a series was scheduled to be recorded, that's when it barked. I think :-).

Originally posted by wittangamo
Chris,

Maybe I'm missing something in your explanation, but what's wrong with the search by title function? Once you find a single episode of any show, it's a snap to set up a series record.

It's finding that single episode, particularly with the grid style that the new iguide has. It wasn't as bad with the previous one since if you double-guided you had a long list of shows. Buf if you're on Friday and you need to set up a show that's not on till next thursday, along with fourteen other shows spread across the week, it takes time. It's just a one-time setup thing but it also makes it hard to find shows if you don't know when they're on. "oh, someone said I'd like Boozlebits. I wonder what channel/time it's on" With tivo, you'd just go to the search function and click in a few letters and have all the recording options right there. With this box, you have to find the time/location elsewhere and then add it.

Originally posted by Chris Beveridge
With tivo, you'd just go to the search function and click in a few letters and have all the recording options right there. With this box, you have to find the time/location elsewhere and then add it.

On my box, if I go to Menu and then to the magnifying glass it allows me to search by title. Is this not the case on all 6412s with IGuide?

Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

Regarding "Search"

I just hit "Menu" twice and you have a bunch of Search choices. You can search by Channel or by Time. If you go into Search then you can do a Title search. You need to know the Title of course but if I told you to check out CSI, then I see three CSI choices. Select one and you can record the very next episode or see all the times and channels over the next two weeks it is on.

Seems easy enough to me.

Once one is selected to record. I can setup the Series.

A former lurker and now new member, new to the forum and HDTV. I've got a Motorola 6412 and tried to copy a DVR recorded show to my VCR. I played back the DVR recording and set the VCR input to L1, the input for my DVR. The video came through fine but no sound. My 6412 audio normally goes Digital Toslink to my Sony Receiver, but I have composite audio and S Video from the 6412 to the VCR. When I played the VCR tape back, the video was fine but there was no sound. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.
Thanks,

Originally posted by Chris Beveridge
With tivo, you'd just go to the search function and click in a few letters and have all the recording options right there. With this box, you have to find the time/location elsewhere and then add it. huh??? have you read the iGuide manual (http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/downloads/URMD2.pdf) ?? If you have then re-read it because you missed a lot. you're wasting your time by not using the software features which ARE there. the title search works just fine, when u find a show u like, u can also hit the icon for 'other times' and it will give you a laundry list of when that show is on for the next 2 weeks on any channel, any time. then there's series recording which sounds like you haven't used yet.

Originally posted by Mikes19
I've got a Motorola 6412 and tried to copy a DVR recorded show to my VCR. I played back the DVR recording and set the VCR input to L1, the input for my DVR. The video came through fine but no sound. My 6412 audio normally goes Digital Toslink to my Sony Receiver, but I have composite audio and S Video from the 6412 to the VCR. When I played the VCR tape back, the video was fine but there was no sound. Any thoughts or suggestions appreciated.
Thanks, Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

Do you have L/R audio going to the "input" (VCR) and coming from the "output" of the VCR to your TV or Receiver?

Never had Tivo, so I don't know what I am missing I guess. I love this 6412 and I couldn't imagine what it could be missing. I like my gadgets, but in honesty, I really don't watch much TV. But when I sit to do so, I like having all this recorded content available to me. Our friends have both a 6208 and Tivo and they say Tivo is easier to use. Then they came over and saw the new 6412 and the iGuide and determined the gap is closing.

My reason for not getting Tivo was simply the monthly fee. I was not going to pay $300 for the unit and then a monthly fee to download the guide. Stuff like this is free all over the internet.

In terms of the 6412 and hard drive space. I pretty much only record HD and I have yet to run out.

For those vacation times, yeah, I guess it may run out, but when I take a vacation, the last thing I am going to be concerned about is TV. To each his own, but I think the 6412 is pretty cool for nothing but a small monthly fee and no upfront cost.

Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

Any one check out the "Official Comcast 6412 / MSTV Thread" located here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=467203&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

Looks like those people are experiencing some horrible problems. They are losing all of their recordings and some settings such as Series Recordings.

I honestly thought MS FE 1.7 was going to be better than i-Guide. It doesn't look that way at the moment.

Originally posted by markjrenna
Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

Any one check out the "Official Comcast 6412 / MSTV Thread" located here:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=467203&perpage=20&pagenumber=1

Looks like those people are experiencing some horrible problems. They are losing all of their recordings and some settings such as Series Recordings.

I honestly thought MS FE 1.7 was going to be better than i-Guide. It doesn't look that way at the moment.

This doesn't surprise me after what I heard from a friend who had an UltimateTV. He had it for about a week before he threw it out and bought a DirecTiVo.

Originally posted by LarryJoe
Never had Tivo, so I don't know what I am missing I guess. I love this 6412 and I couldn't imagine what it could be missing...

Then they came over and saw the new 6412 and the iGuide and determined the gap is closing. Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

The gap has certainly closed. Still see a little light though...

I miss four Tivo (DirecTV dual tuner Tivo) items:

1. WishList (you have to have this to appreciate it)
2. All Digital channels
3. Stream video from one Tivo to another
4. Online Scheduling

Comcast is going to an all "Digital Simulcast" (item 2) next year and Motorola and Comcast are also working on item 3. Should be available in the next DVR model due next year.

Can only hope items 1 and 4 are being considered.

I have the moto 6412 DVR everything is ok except for 1 issue. I cannot change my panasonic 47x54 HDTV channels using the remote, every time I click on TV on the remote and try to change the channels on the TV the channels on the 6412 change. The Remote turns the tv on and off but does not change the channels. Please Help


Rob

Originally posted by jolietconvict
This doesn't surprise me after what I heard from a friend who had an UltimateTV. He had it for about a week before he threw it out and bought a DirecTiVo.

I on the other hand thought the Ultimate TV interface was great. Much better than the 6412. I just ditched it after 4 years when I switched to Comcast and I miss it dearly. :(

However, since it couldn't do HD, I'm happy with the 6412.

Originally posted by markjrenna
Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

Do you have L/R audio going to the "input" (VCR) and coming from the "output" of the VCR to your TV or Receiver?

I've got L/R composite audio and S video from my DVR to my VCR. I've got a JVC DVD/VCR combo with Toslink audio and component video out to my receiver for DVD sound and video and composite audio and S Video out to my TV for the VCR. I have composite audio back to my receiver for VCR sound. I also have cable direct to the VCR for analog stations and that sound passes out the composite and S video connection to the TV and then sound back comes back thru the receiver fine. It is just the L1 input audio input from the DVR that doesn't seem to be passing into the VCR. Is it possible that when Toslink cable is passing audio out of the DVR, that composite audio out is shut off ?

Thanks

Originally posted by Mikes19
...Is it possible that when Toslink cable is passing audio out of the DVR, that composite audio out is shut off ?

Thanks

I don't think that's your issue. I have the 6412's optical audio output connected to my receiver and the L/R audio outputs connected to my TV and they work simultaneously.

If you play the tape in another VCR, do you have sound? In other words, is the audio not playing back through your HT or is the audio not being recorded on the tape at all?

Originally posted by frankz1
I don't think that's your issue. I have the 6412's optical audio output connected to my receiver and the L/R audio outputs connected to my TV and they work simultaneously.

If you play the tape in another VCR, do you have sound? In other words, is the audio not playing back through your HT or is the audio not being recorded on the tape at all?

Duh, the audio cables were going from input (not output) DVR to input VCR. It's embarassing enough here, but I hope my wife never finds out, it'll destroy the image (myth) i've created.

Thanks,

Originally posted by Mikes19
Duh, the audio cables were going from input (not output) DVR to input VCR. It's embarassing enough here, but I hope my wife never finds out, it'll destroy the image (myth) i've created.

Thanks,

What happens on AVS stays on AVS

Originally posted by frankz1
What happens on AVS stays on AVS

Otherwise, none of us would dare show our faces in public. A thread on "The dumbest thing I've done on my AV setup" would take over this forum like a cancer -- but would make hilarious reading.

Your shameful secrets are safe with us cybersinners.

Is anyone else notcing that recording are longer then they need to be ? When I record LOTR:ROTK on Starz HD it recorded well past the end. When I record "Santa vs the Snowman" it was 32 minutes of video but record 1 hour worth of data.

Just checked INHD and "Santa vs. The Snowman" is listed as 42 minutes. So it must be the iguide software that choosed to record 1 hour.

That's likely to be a guide issue where the guide blocks out 3:30 hours but the movie is really only 3:15 or something. They just fill the extra time before the next half hour slot with ads for other movies or shows on Starz. There's not much you can do about this since it is dependent on the guide to know when to start and stop. Maybe you could do a manual timer if you know the exact time, but probably better/easier to just live with the padding.

Originally posted by weldon
That's likely to be a guide issue where the guide blocks out 3:30 hours but the movie is really only 3:15 or something. They just fill the extra time before the next half hour slot with ads for other movies or shows on Starz. There's not much you can do about this since it is dependent on the guide to know when to start and stop. Maybe you could do a manual timer if you know the exact time, but probably better/easier to just live with the padding.

I will try manual recording but that last time I did on thr 6208 with the other firmware it did not include the title in the recording so it got confusing when there was more then one.

I wish iguide would let you stop a recording early :)

Originally posted by wittangamo
Otherwise, none of us would dare show our faces in public. A thread on "The dumbest thing I've done on my AV setup" would take over this forum like a cancer -- but would make hilarious reading.

Your shameful secrets are safe with us cybersinners. I like that idea for a thread. The other thing that I do as well as dumb stuff with my AV setup is when something actually does work I figure there must be something wrong! So I waste the time tracking down a non-problem.

About an hour into the football game yesterday, the comcast cable/internet/phone went offline. Called comcast and they said a car slammed into a headend(?) and took all the services with it. We were without cable for 8 hours. Luckily I had OTA HD and was still able to enjoy the game, as much as you can with a gazillion commercial breaks. Also, my DVR recordings were still there and I could play them just fine even though no cable. I couldn't archive anything to my JVC 40K. It appears you need a cable connection to get the 1394 handshake to work. The other odd thing is my scheduled recordings (e.g. Survivor, Desperate Housewives) began on time even though they were recording nothing.

Originally posted by tall1
Also, my DVR recordings were still there and I could play them just fine even though no cable. I couldn't archive anything to my JVC 40K. It appears you need a cable connection to get the 1394 handshake to work. The other odd thing is my scheduled recordings (e.g. Survivor, Desperate Housewives) began on time even though they were recording nothing.

When I had the 6208 my cable went out and I couldn't access any of my recorded shows. When the cable came back the recorded shows were still there.

Interesting that you were able to watch your shows. I wonder if you could unplug the 6412 and take it to a friend's house and watch your recorded shows on their TV (even if they didn't have comcast).

does anyone else get occasional freezes? change the channel, then back and audio/video resumes?

jb

Yep, just on the HD channels. Once in a while, but did it with my 6200 and 6208, so it is not the box.

Something I've never seen, thought I'd add. Since I got my 6412 about a week or so ago, my Comcast remote would not work, except sporadically, from more than about 8 ft from the receiver. Even my Universal remote, although better, was not the way it should be. The tech recognized it when he was here last week for a different issue, and changed remotes to no avail. He said he would check into it. A few days later I called for a tech call and advised the support person the details. I made sure that they were aware it was probably not the remote, and could be the box, based on their own techs observation. She said when the tech guy came this time, she'd make sure they had another box just in case. The same tech guy came back and said when he reported the remote control problem to his manager, the manager never heard of it, and didn't get back to him with further info. Today, the tech guy swapped out the box and now from 25 ft away, no problem. Just in case anyone runs into this.

Thanks,

Originally posted by jb33
does anyone else get occasional freezes? change the channel, then back and audio/video resumes?

jb

Yup. I just finished reading the whole thread. This was the first time out of all the problems mentioned/listed that I saw reference to the only problem I'm having. Occasionally when 'swapping' tuners the picture freezes. Channel up then back and everything is ok. This usually only happens when swapping to a SD channel.

Anyone else? Software issue? Hardware?

Originally posted by LarryJoe
Yep, just on the HD channels. Once in a while, but did it with my 6200 and 6208, so it is not the box.

So couldn't this severly limit the value of a recorder? Good chance of a freeze while recording?

jb

Originally posted by Lauden
Yup. I just finished reading the whole thread. This was the first time out of all the problems mentioned/listed that I saw reference to the only problem I'm having. Occasionally when 'swapping' tuners the picture freezes. Channel up then back and everything is ok. This usually only happens when swapping to a SD channel.

Anyone else? Software issue? Hardware?


I would seriously look at a signal issue rather than Hardware or Software. HD is a tremendous amount of data going through the pipe, and any small interruption or glitch will cause freezes and/or dropouts. Decoders need a constant stream or else they go out of synch with themselves and register errors that they cannot correct.

I know from my days of trying to get HD via an antenna and MyHD PC card that signal issues trump everything else when it comes to HD streams.

The fact that it happened on multiple boxes over a long period of time pretty much rules out your 6412's hardware or software. What's the only thing that's been constant over the course of you having your various boxes? The cable signal being fed into them.

Start at your TV and work your way out swapping lines and splitters and anything else that is your responsibility.

If you get to your outside line and still haven't solved the problem, call Comcast and have them work their way from there back to the signal source. I just went through this with them (I was getting dropouts during any wind. After two weeks, they found a break in the line between the poles three houses upstream from me: Exactly what I'd told them the problem was at the very beginning). It is a pain in the neck, it took weeks, and they will send Tech after Tech who is well intentioned but knows nothing and can do nothing for you. Eventually, the maintenance people will come and they will find the problem if there is one.

Hope this helps.

Originally posted by jb33
So couldn't this severly limit the value of a recorder? Good chance of a freeze while recording?

jb

Not really, at least for me. I am talking JUST when changing HD channels that once in a great while, the box pauses and waits for the data to come in. This could mean a freeze frame of the channel you are leaving or the one you are going to, or it could be a blank screen for a few seconds.

This is really a non-issue with me as we are talking 2-3 seconds tops and this only happens once in a great while. If you are freezing up during normal viewing, I would get it looked at. As some said above, there is a huge amount of data flowing on the HD channels.

Mikes19:

Thanks for the info, Mike. I reported this in our local Portland Comcast thread and got no bites, so I thought it was just me. I'm getting tired of leaning across the room stretching my arm out to get the thing to work right. I'll have to report it to Comcast, as you did.

Bob

Mikes19 & ridgefamus:

Same problem in Dekalb IL. I did not notice this during the first several months of having the 6412. I hope this doesn't become a reoccurring problem. Guess it's time for a service call :rolleyes:

Steve

Originally posted by frankz1
I would seriously look at a signal issue rather than Hardware or Software.

I thought that too, but when it happens, I go to the Diag menu and it's not reporting any errors for that channel. (Opps! It won't have errors, it's Analog.) It's never happened on an HD channel yet, just when switching from an HD channel to a SD channel (47). I'll keep an eye on it. From past experience having Comcast come out and tinker usually creates more problems!

Originally posted by chimchim5
Mikes19 & ridgefamus:

Same problem in Dekalb IL. I did not notice this during the first several months of having the 6412. I hope this doesn't become a reoccurring problem. Guess it's time for a service call :rolleyes:

Steve

My remote problem began "out of the box". So you're saying it may have been something that changed over time? I would think the only change might be the firmware version. Did you start out with 9.12 when you got the 6412? Did you try changing batteries in the remote? I did but it did not help.

And now a new problem. I use a DVI connection. The last 2 times I turned on my RPTV today, I get 2 overlapping images in the upper 2/3s of my screen, until I change channels. I have not been powering off the 6412. I'm hoping this is merely a display issue and would not affect programmed recording. I can live with changing the channel if nothing else is affected but it may indicate a deeper problem that I should report to Comcast.

Bob

I just got my 6412 from Comcast about 2 weeks ago and have had no problems up to now but.....

When I set a future recording everything seems to run right but when I go to turn the TV on to watch something else when I am recording I get the big message that says if I "Change the channel this will stop my Recording". I assumed I was on the wrong tuner so I hit the "swap" button and the same message comes up. What is even more troubling is both tuners are on "mute". No sound at all and this just started on the weekend. And it is not the TV mute but the cable box mute that I don't even access because I have the remote setup for the Volume controls to be the TV only.

I hope I don't have to get another box so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Jeff

Originally posted by fezz15
I just got my 6412 from Comcast about 2 weeks ago and have had no problems up to now but.....

When I set a future recording everything seems to run right but when I go to turn the TV on to watch something else when I am recording I get the big message that says if I "Change the channel this will stop my Recording". I assumed I was on the wrong tuner so I hit the "swap" button and the same message comes up. What is even more troubling is both tuners are on "mute". No sound at all and this just started on the weekend. And it is not the TV mute but the cable box mute that I don't even access because I have the remote setup for the Volume controls to be the TV only.

I hope I don't have to get another box so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Jeff

The generally agreed upon resolution to this issue around here is to never turn off your box. This "mute" issue happens when the box "wakes up" from being off to perform a scheduled recording. I've not read about the "Change The Channel" message, but I assume it's related.

Originally posted by fezz15
I just got my 6412 from Comcast about 2 weeks ago and have had no problems up to now but.....

When I set a future recording everything seems to run right but when I go to turn the TV on to watch something else when I am recording I get the big message that says if I "Change the channel this will stop my Recording". I assumed I was on the wrong tuner so I hit the "swap" button and the same message comes up. What is even more troubling is both tuners are on "mute". No sound at all and this just started on the weekend. And it is not the TV mute but the cable box mute that I don't even access because I have the remote setup for the Volume controls to be the TV only.

I hope I don't have to get another box so any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks
Jeff

If it mutes the tv instead of the cable box then follow these steps..


1. Press the cable button

2. Press and hold setup until it blinks twice then let go

3. Press 994

4. Press setup and release

5. Press 00141

6. Press the mute button

Originally posted by fezz15
I just got my 6412 from Comcast about 2 weeks ago and have had no problems up to now but.....

When I set a future recording everything seems to run right but when I go to turn the TV on to watch something else when I am recording I get the big message that says if I "Change the channel this will stop my Recording". I assumed I was on the wrong tuner so I hit the "swap" button and the same message comes up.
Do you actually have a two tuner iGuide? A test would be able to record two programs overlapping.

I have a 6412 but my cable company (brighthouse networks) in Livonia has not yet released the two tuner version of iGuide. :(

It appears that you cannot set the clock on the 6412.
I know I can add a minute or two to either end, but can you make that extended time a default.
I do not want to remember every time I set up a recording to add time.

Originally posted by BullittMustang
If it mutes the tv instead of the cable box then follow these steps..


1. Press the cable button

2. Press and hold setup until it blinks twice then let go

3. Press 994

4. Press setup and release

5. Press 00141

6. Press the mute button

Thanks BullittMustang.

Will give it a try and let you know!

Originally posted by KentStater72
It appears that you cannot set the clock on the 6412.
I know I can add a minute or two to either end, but can you make that extended time a default.
I do not want to remember every time I set up a recording to add time. Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

The clock is controlled by your local cable company.

You have to setup padding for each and every recording. Luckily in the Series Recordings, the padding you set carries over to every future recording in that series.

Originally posted by dabhome
Do you actually have a two tuner iGuide? A test would be able to record two programs overlapping.

I have a 6412 but my cable company (brighthouse networks) in Livonia has not yet released the two tuner version of iGuide. :(

I am sure that it is a dual tuner because I have recorded and watched a show on another channel at the same time and am able to swap between the two

I have also had problems missing the start or end of a show. I see that you can pad the ending of a show in minute increments but when I try to pad the start of a show the smallest amount is 15 minutes. Can this be adjusted somewhere? Also is there a way to make these settings the default settings so they are always in effect?


One other question. If I schedule a recording is there any way to determine which tuner it will be recorded on? The other night I was watching a show that ran from 8 to 10PM. I had a recording scheduled for 9 to 10PM and the message popped up at 9 warning me about the recording starting. I know I can and did switch tuners but it would have been better to have started watching the show on the other tuner. Seems strange that you never know which tuner you are on.

thanks

Concerning going to a channel and getting 2 overlapping images in the upper 2/3s of the screen, I get this, too. I, too, fix it by changing channels then changing back.
I had this on the first 6412 they gave me (which had the random reboot problem and was replaced).
I assume it's just another bug and Motorola knows about it.

Orig. message follows:
-=-=-=
And now a new problem. I use a DVI connection. The last 2 times I turned on my RPTV today, I get 2 overlapping images in the upper 2/3s of my screen, until I change channels. I have not been powering off the 6412. I'm hoping this is merely a display issue and would not affect programmed recording. I can live with changing the channel if nothing else is affected but it may indicate a deeper problem that I should report to Comcast.

I have recently become fond of watching my 6412 via my firewire connection instead of my component input. The problem is the iGuide doesn't work through firewire, though I can stop/start a recording. It's a bit glitchy, the screen won't freeze on pause, it goes blank. I think I've read DVI is the same, right? I'm wondering why this is. Why can't my 6412 give me full functionality to iGuide via firewire? Is this in the works? Is it simply a software issue?

I tried to connect my 6412 to my DVDR (Pioneer 310s)and I got video pretty good, but the only available audio out from the 6412 is the SPDIF. Unless there is a way to adapt SPDIF to RCA it wont work.
Anyone know if it is possible, and if there is a adapter for this purpose.

Originally posted by briansok
I have also had problems missing the start or end of a show. I see that you can pad the ending of a show in minute increments but when I try to pad the start of a show the smallest amount is 15 minutes. Can this be adjusted somewhere? Also is there a way to make these settings the default settings so they are always in effect?


One other question. If I schedule a recording is there any way to determine which tuner it will be recorded on? The other night I was watching a show that ran from 8 to 10PM. I had a recording scheduled for 9 to 10PM and the message popped up at 9 warning me about the recording starting. I know I can and did switch tuners but it would have been better to have started watching the show on the other tuner. Seems strange that you never know which tuner you are on.

thanks

This is going to sound funny... but instead of clicking the button to the LEFT when doing increments of time.. Try the RIGHT, as there you can do it minute by minute. If you do it to the LEFT, the increments start with 15 minutes.

I don't have an answer (IE I don't think it can be done.), weird, though, huh? I've had that happen to me, too.

Didn't think to try that. Thanks I'll try that tonight.

Someone correct me if I'm wrong---but can't you go from SPDIF to coax (RCA) digital in on your receiver? That's my set up, though it's not described as SPDIF in any of my manuals.

Originally posted by earletp
easycruise, if you are expecting a seamless transition from SD to HD then I agree with you, you are better off waiting. Even if your desires for the hardware are realized, the majority of programming is still SD at this time and I'm sure you'll end up being disappointed. It will be sometime before it's an all or nothing situation. There's a good chance (I didn't look it up) that at this time you may even have trouble getting all the network stations in HD since only CBS and one Independent station are broadcasting a digital signal in your area.

Each of us has different priorities and ours are markedly different.

I still doubt you'll gain much traction for your views in an HD forum. ;)

No, actually in my area, CBS was the *last* channel to be offered in HD. All 3 networks are in HD now, with quite a lot of the prime time shows.

>>I don't understand why easycruise is concerned about the 1 or 2 week vacation period during which he would not be able to capture enough HD on the 6412. I do appreciate the desire to enjoy the expensive equipment to view HD to the fullest. But when you're catching up on programming over the long haul, what's more important - FF thru everything so you're current or sitting back satisfying the HD crave? I'd record it off the SD side if I was afraid it would overflow the drive while I was gone.

When you buy a $3,000 Plasma (for a cheap one) you would expect to do both, FF AND watch HD. And your last sentence sums it up very well as to the compromises you have to make to go to HD. You still have to go back to SD in a number of circumstances.

>>Unless you've got no other life entirely, how would one ever catch up if (s)he were able to record the 80+ hours of HD that easycruise thinks he would miss during a vacation (is there really that much "must see TV" HD in a week?) because of the 6412's 120 GB drive? I think this is a theoretical limitation easycruise is beating himself with rather than a practical one. Now if you're talking about archiving HD, that's another matter and different equipment.

It's easy to catch up, we do it all the time when we come back from vacation. And it's not 80 hours, but it is certainly a lot more than the 15 that the 6412 limits you with. And that's the point that you missed.

Originally posted by easycruise
It's easy to catch up, we do it all the time when we come back from vacation. And it's not 80 hours, but it is certainly a lot more than the 15 that the 6412 limits you with. And that's the point that you missed.

Clearly, the 6412 is not for you. We get it. The 640Gb 80 Hour HD Tivo should be out in roughly 2035.

Originally posted by IFLYSWA
Yep...just 600-800 GB of disk space and you are home free! :D

-Randy

DVR technology can't use any compression? Such as a .zip file like on PC's?

Originally posted by easycruise
DVR technology can't use any compression? Such as a .zip file like on PC's?

All HD-PVRs that I am aware of record the actual digital bit stream, to my knowledge. I don't know whether they can or cannot use compression, but I don't believe they do. I would think that the amount of data that is transmitted in the HD signal would make on-the-fly compression problematic for consumer electronics at this point. But again, I am no expert. Believe me, I would love to have the same capacities in an HD recorder that I have in my RTVs...but if I am correct in my assumptions above, I think you'll see big HD-array recorders before you see on-the-fly compression of HD at the consumer level. And if I am wrong....well, I'm wrong! :)

-Randy

Originally posted by IFLYSWA
All HD-PVRs that I am aware of record the actual digital bit stream, to my knowledge. I don't know whether they can or cannot use compression, but I don't believe they do. I would think that the amount of data that is transmitted in the HD signal would make on-the-fly compression problematic for consumer electronics at this point. But again, I am no expert. Believe me, I would love to have the same capacities in an HD recorder that I have in my RTVs...but if I am correct in my assumptions above, I think you'll see big HD-array recorders before you see on-the-fly compression of HD at the consumer level. And if I am wrong....well, I'm wrong! :)

-Randy

Sorry, but this compression bit is a non-issue. First, how long should the rest of us have to wait to decompress an 8GB High Def file in order to watch a program as a trade-off so easycruise can get all his TV in glorious High Def during his vacation? These boxes are not NASA supercomputers. Try to ZIP and UNZIP even a 1Gb file on your home computer and see what kind of performance hit you get and how long it takes. I doubt any DVR box is 1/4 as powerful as the average home computer.

Second, what would that do to watching a program while it's recording?

The only way for compression to occur is to have it supplied as compressed to the cable company. The cable company gets enough grief to not want to mess with the signal any more than they have to. I really doubt they would reencode everything or anything.

The 6412 records what it gets digitally. It uses a HW MPEG compressor that is built into it (pretty cheap) to record analog. What make the DVR work is it just records what it gets. Simple and cheap. I get this capability for $5/month and also good quality.

Compressing HD is VERY resource intensive from an analog source. That's why you can't buy an analog HD compressor in the retail market. Also, compression brings you closer to the dreaded SD level of watching programs. You don't get anything for free.

So, the only way to get 80 hours of HD DVR recording is more space. They had to freeze engineering design on the 6412 6 months ago. At that time 120GB was probably a sweet spot for the disk drive market.

Does anyone know how to get anamorphic output over the s-video output on the STB? I have tried various settings in the service menu but with no luck. I have my STB connected to my DVD recorder via s-video. The STB downconverts HD programs to 4:3 letterbox over the s-video outputs. I would like it to output 4:3 anamorphic instead of letterbox so that I can get a better recording. Anybody figured this out?

Originally posted by frankz1
Clearly, the 6412 is not for you. We get it. The 640Gb 80 Hour HD Tivo should be out in roughly 2035. Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

You crack me up. But seriously, the way things are going, I don't see Tivo lasting past 2008 IMHO.

Does the 6412 have coax or optical digital audio out?

Originally posted by markjrenna
Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

You crack me up. But seriously, the way things are going, I don't see Tivo lasting past 2008 IMHO.
As a TiVo owner and supporter, I hope you're wrong. Sadly, that does seem to be the case with groundbreakers in general. They launch their big idea. It gets copied and bested. Then, it turns out that their big idea was their only idea, and they get left far behind.

With the 6208 I only had the optical SPDIF connected and it passed sound with both the digital and analog channels. In the Dallas area at a least, the analog channels are all the channels below 100.

With the 6412 I can’t get audio with either the optical or coax SPDIF’s. And thanks to the post below I see I’m not the only one.

So my question is, does anyone have their digital audio jacks working on analog stations? Is this a firmware bug? Comcast techs are utterly clueless. They kept asking if my component cables where connected correctly!

Originally posted by kkelley
I just got my 6412 today in Denver. Everything works great except the lower analog channels have no sound. The digital ones work great.

I have everything connected exactly as I did with my 6200 which never showed this issue.

If I disconnect the digital coax and run standard left/right connections to my reciever all work fine (except no DD of course).

I've experimented with the AUDIO portion of the set-up menu but no avail. I called COMCAST several times but couldn't get to a support person technical enough to troubleshoot this.

Any ideas as to what's going wrong?

Thanks!

Originally posted by easycruise
DVR technology can't use any compression? Such as a .zip file like on PC's? It already does. All digital cable channels, including HD, are already heavily compressed, most commonly using MPEG2 video compression and Dolby Digital audio compression, which are also used on DVDs. (The compression techniques are far more sophisticated than .zip on PCs.) When recording programs from digital channels, the 6412 is just capturing the existing compressed data.

Forthcoming MPEG-4 compression will further improve video compression rates for digital cable, and also will be used in next generation HD DVDs. We'll probably see this in use by the end of 2005, but it won't happen on the 6412 because it requires new hardware.

Originally posted by frankz1
As a TiVo owner and supporter, I hope you're wrong. Sadly, that does seem to be the case with groundbreakers in general. They launch their big idea. It gets copied and bested. Then, it turns out that their big idea was their only idea, and they get left far behind. Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

Tivo fan here too! And I hope I'm wrong too. But...

DirecTV is about to introduce their own (Tivo like) Guide/DVR called NDS.

No one is going to like this (Me either), but Tivo is dying a slow death.

Tivo relies heavily on their DirecTV deal and that deal is in serious jeopardy with the DirecTV's announcement of NDS.

As far as the stand alone Single Tuner Tivo goes, another slow death. Cable companies are now releasing (like I'm telling you guys something new) "all in one" Dual Tuner/DVR/HD STB's with Tivo like features (most but not all) for roughly $10 a month.

Tivo's HD offering is with DirecTV and cost about $1000.00. Plus a monthly or the lifetime fee.

With Tivo's failure to make a deal with cable companies, specifically the largest... Comcast, I'm sorry to say...

Bye Bye Tivo.

So my question is, does anyone have their digital audio jacks working on analog stations?

Optical works fine here, on all the channels, haven't tried the digital coax.

Originally posted by Tyr
With the 6208 I only had the optical SPDIF connected and it passed sound with both the digital and analog channels. In the Dallas area at a least, the analog channels are all the channels below 100.

With the 6412 I can’t get audio with either the optical or coax SPDIF’s. And thanks to the post below I see I’m not the only one.

So my question is, does anyone have their digital audio jacks working on analog stations? Is this a firmware bug? Comcast techs are utterly clueless. They kept asking if my component cables where connected correctly!

Yes, I have used both audio out jacks successfully. I am using the optical jack now. Performance with the SPDIF with coax was almost equally as good. All going into an aging JVC RX-9000V.

Bob

On my 6412, I've got my digital coax hooked to my DD receiver and I get sound on every channel. I'm not using the optical because I'm using the receiver's optical inputs for my HTPC and XBOX. My analog outputs are going to my TV so my kids don't blast me out of the water when they watch cable.

Originally posted by JonM in MN
I have recently become fond of watching my 6412 via my firewire connection instead of my component input. The problem is the iGuide doesn't work through firewire, though I can stop/start a recording. It's a bit glitchy, the screen won't freeze on pause, it goes blank. I think I've read DVI is the same, right? I'm wondering why this is. Why can't my 6412 give me full functionality to iGuide via firewire? Is this in the works? Is it simply a software issue?

Let me also add this question to the one above, and I hope both can be answered. I have a Mits 55613, connected via firewire to the 6412. When I turn off the TV, the 6412 turns off automatically. I then need to manually turn on the 6412 to avoid the start recording/mute issue. Can this be defeated? Is there a way to get my TV to not turn off my 6412?