I have been battleing this for 3 months now. I am so sick of this unit, still have the lockups when changing chanels and fast forward etc. Non of that has been fixed since we got this thing a year ago. It feels like a bunch of Monkeys built this software and unit.I had tivo before and they worked flawlessly always. :rolleyes:


ABSOLUTELY HORRIBLE...

I'm on my third time reprogramming all our recordings. They keep going to "no upcoming episodes". I've missed more shows that I can count, including numb3rs, west wing, family guy, simpsons, american dad, drawn together . . . oh, the list goes on, I lost pretty much everthing over and over.

I weep over the disconnection of my Reply TV. This thing is a piece of crap.

I don't really seem to have problems with my series recordings missing shows. In addition to the precaution of leaving the 6412 on, I set all the series to record at any time, then prune out any duplicates that show up as future recordings.

It's almost time to set up "Formula One" for the new season. I know that if I set this title to record on 33 at any time, it will give me practice, qualifying, and race coverage for each event, plus replays which I will need to delete from the schedule every couple of weeks. Setting up a network series is even simpler.

I don't really seem to have problems with my series recordings missing shows. In addition to the precaution of leaving the 6412 on, I set all the series to record at any time, then prune out any duplicates that show up as future recordings.

You don't seem to need to even do that. I have a number of my series set to record "New Episodes Only", yet even when the repeats show up on my "Scheduled" list (say for channels like CN and SciFi which have duplicate broadcasts for East and West coast), the second showing never does record. I am guessing the 6412 sees that it already has an episode with the same info, so it auto-cancels the second show, even though it is not flagged as a "repeat" by the guide.


It's almost time to set up "Formula One" for the new season. I know that if I set this title to record on 33 at any time, it will give me practice, qualifying, and race coverage for each event, plus replays which I will need to delete from the schedule every couple of weeks. Setting up a network series is even simpler.

Can't wait!

You don't seem to need to even do that. I have a number of my series set to record "New Episodes Only", yet even when the repeats show up on my "Scheduled" list (say for channels like CN and SciFi which have duplicate broadcasts for East and West coast), the second showing never does record. I am guessing the 6412 sees that it already has an episode with the same info, so it auto-cancels the second show, even though it is not flagged as a "repeat" by the guide.

I haven't tested that, but since I usually delete recordings soon after they're made it might not work for me.

Can't wait!

And even the qualifying may be interesting this year.

I've finally managed to set up the firewire to the PC, so I'm thinking of keeping the season on DVD.

[QUOTE=Nausicaa]You don't seem to need to even do that. I have a number of my series set to record "New Episodes Only", yet even when the repeats show up on my "Scheduled" list (say for channels like CN and SciFi which have duplicate broadcasts for East and West coast), the second showing never does record. I am guessing the 6412 sees that it already has an episode with the same info, so it auto-cancels the second show, even though it is not flagged as a "repeat" by the guide.QUOTE]

New Episodes are detected by a data field called First Air Date. If a show has a First Air Date set to today, it is a new show. Otherwise it is a repeat (this applies to shows only, not movies). I know this because I use this in my own program guide that is based on the same data that Comcast uses.

The problem in the past has been that the the First Air Date and Record at Antime
were "ORed" together. Efectively you would get all new shows and all shows shown at anytime. Try this setup with the Simpsons for a good example.

The proper way to do this (which is what I do and I believe the TIVOs do, ReplayTV does not) is to "AND" the two together. In other words, record only if the Original Air Date is today and get it at anytime during that day.
Nausicaa, you seem to imply that it now works as if the two are now "ANDed" together. I wonder if they've fixed this in a software update. I'll give it a try tonight with the Simpsons. That would be a major improvement.

Nausicaa, you seem to imply that it now works as if the two are now "ANDed" together. I wonder if they've fixed this in a software update. I'll give it a try tonight with the Simpsons. That would be a major improvement.

I do not know the specifics, but I know if I go to bed and my 6412's "Scheduled Recordings" show the EST and the PST feeds are both scheduled for recording, only the EST feed is recorded.

I do not know the specifics, but I know if I go to bed and my 6412's "Scheduled Recordings" show the EST and the PST feeds are both scheduled for recording, only the EST feed is recorded.

Cool! :D I'll give it a try tonight. Thanks!!!!!

I do not know the specifics, but I know if I go to bed and my 6412's "Scheduled Recordings" show the EST and the PST feeds are both scheduled for recording, only the EST feed is recorded.

I think this is controlled under "duplicates" instead of "reruns". If you don't have duplicates selected, the DVR won't record something if you have the exact same thing already recorded. If you delete the show and the same episode comes up again, it will still get recorded. Like everything with this DVR, it doesn't work right all the time. Last week my 6412 decided to record both the East and West coast feed of Stargate from scifi, but just the East coast of Battlestar. I suppose I should count myself lucky it decided to record anything at all! The Tuesday before, it didn't record Jeopardy or The Shield, lowering the WAF a new notches.

Has anyone else's 6412 started locking up more? It's gotten to the point where I can't FF though commercials. If I push FF when the commercials start, the DVR won't respond until they are nearly over! Then it will fast forward though the show I was watching while I wait until it responds to 'play'.

Yes, mine has been locking up a lot more this week. I'm only using FF2 instead of FF3 now for commercials because of it. Very aggravating.

Also, I notice it's tuning to random channels now. Every time I turn on the TV, it's on some random channel, and I didn't have anything set to record on that channel.

By the way, I think that doing a software upgrade during the Olympics is a slap in the face to their customers.

I think this is controlled under "duplicates" instead of "reruns". If you don't have duplicates selected, the DVR won't record something if you have the exact same thing already recorded.

That makes sense. None of my shows are set to record "All Episodes, including duplicates".


Has anyone else's 6412 started locking up more? It's gotten to the point where I can't FF though commercials.

For the most part, that bug remains rare on my unit (which I received on Day 1 of their availability).

By the way, I think that doing a software upgrade during the Olympics is a slap in the face to their customers.

What software upgrade was that?

I'm also seeing the sporadic "slow to respond to remote" problems, as well as the "returns to random channel" "feature". It's not a problem with the remote control - most of the time the response is typical / quick enough. But when it doesn't immediately respond, it seems to "queue" any and all button presses for anywhere from 30 seconds to two minutes or so, then executes all of them in quick succession. Very annoying, although it doesn't seem to have caused anything to be accidentally deleted (which would be very annoying). I'm very careful now to not press too many keys when I don't see a response within a second or two.

The frequency of the "slow / queued commands" problem is now about 1 out of every 4 times I use the remote. Something has seriously degraded in the 6412 in the last few months.

The "random channel selection" is odd ... It's mildly irritating, such as when the random channel happens to be one I'm not subscribed to, and I power up the projector and get a black screen, and get a mild fright thinking I've blown something in the projector ... now I immediately press the channel display key and breathe a sigh of relief. So far the random channel selection has not found anything "R rated" while the kid is watching ...

My opinion of the 6412 (stability-wise) started out fairly high, but has steadily declined. I'm hoping something will be done to improve the kinds of problems that have been reported over the last six months or so. Maybe I should look into trading my 6412's in for 3412's (I think my area is now on digital simulcast).

Cliff

Cliff, I'm seeing the same thing in Central Seattle by the Arboretum. The delayed response seems particularly bad lately and the random channel shift is a new bug. Two questions for everyone.

1) Comcast is advertising a new Microsoft software interface. Is that something new for us HD users?

2) When will Central Seattle get the all digital upgrade?

Art

Whew. I'm glad I'm not going nutz. I have also noticed the slow response just lately. I thought some IR code overlap was changing channels as I used my other components. Was planning a debug session this weekend; I would have been going crazy trying to figure it out without everyone's participation in this forum. Thanks.

I experienced a 'lost day' when my wife turned on the set and found the box set on a PPV channel which couldn't be purchased. She's autistic, and it really threw her for a loop. Has anyone noticed any rhyme or reason to the channel changes? It seems to me that they always change upward by a channel or two, never down.

This latest software version is certainly a 'downgrade' from my point of view. Even worse, they decided to do the 'box hit' in the middle of primetime, in the middle of the Olympics, when I had two other shows recording! Maybe they're trying to phase out the 6412s by making them work worse?

If they want me to trade in my 6412, it would be easy. Just offer me a new box with a 320gig hard drive....

Maybe I should look into trading my 6412's in for 3412's (I think my area is now on digital simulcast).

I doubt that will help. I've got a 3412 box and I'm seeing the same problems you are. At first I thought it happened when I was recording one channel while watching another, but that's not it. Then I thought it had something to do with watching HD, but that's not either.

A few weeks or so ago, I hit fast forward and it wouldn't respond again until it had run through the entire program.

Since we're griping, I'll add my two annoyances with the 6412:

1) When fast forwarding or rewinding, it just stops. The icon in the upper right is there, and the bar at the bottom looks normal, but if you look closely, the time isn't changing. It's just sitting there. Workaround: Hit 'play', then start fast forwarding again.

2) When paused, if you hit the 'jump back' button, it sometimes moves forward as much as a second or two, sometimes revealing a bit more of the plot than you were ready for!

All of this (random channels, delayed button response getting more frequent and lasting a long time) sound remarkably consistent with what I'm seeing as well.

What I haven't noticed is any obvious rhyme or reason. The delayed response doesn't seem to happen more often when the box is working hard, e.g. recording two HD programs at once while playing a third, as opposed to when it's doing nothing but playing back an SD program.

Has anyone gotten an answer from Comcast, even if just a "we know about the problem and we're working on it"?

My favorite 6412 MSFT features are:

FFWD + Play = Restart the recorded program over

FFWD (4x) = Stuck on FFWD until end of channel

Record Series Anytime. Next week it will change to record at 9:03pm, the week after that it gets a little crazier record at 9:06pm. That must be some new AI feature. Let's see user says anytime but we at MSFT know better. He means 9:03 first week, and 9:06 second week.

What do you want to record today?
Nothing we hope... - Microsoft

Ok so I just got one of HD boxes from comcast installed the drivers for the motorola box. Now every time I plug the firewire cable in to the computer I get the little noise notifying that a device has been connected, followed by a quick ding ding noise. Also a window pops up for a digital video device. When I check in the tray to remove hardware no device is listed for the firewire port? Anyone have some tips?

Is anyone experiencing lockups while watching a recorded show, not while fastforwarding? Numerous times, I will be watching a show, the show will pause for about 5 seconds, and the screen will go black. No button works (the "NO" symbol comes up) except for STOP. When I hit stop, the DVR page for the show comes up with "START OVER" but not "RESUME PLAY". I have to FF through the show back to where I was. I had to do this 5 times during a recording of Monk. I am also experiencing the delayed remote responses, but no lockups during FF. This is getting highly irritating.

Ok so I just got one of HD boxes from comcast installed the drivers for the motorola box. Now every time I plug the firewire cable in to the computer I get the little noise notifying that a device has been connected, followed by a quick ding ding noise. Also a window pops up for a digital video device. When I check in the tray to remove hardware no device is listed for the firewire port? Anyone have some tips?You need to install drivers. Please read and carefully follow the instructions in this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695).

I'm also seeing the sporadic "slow to respond to remote" problems, as well as the "returns to random channel" "feature".

I have a theory on these random channel problems, although I do not experience it. Here are some questions and let's see if are common.

1) Is there anything plugged into the IR port on the back of the 6412?
2) Is it connected to the tv or something else?
3) Do you have TVGOS on the tv?
4) If you have TVGOS what is the host channel?
5) Is the random channel when the tv is off, or while watching something saved on the DVR?

My 6412 has also been somewhat slow to respond to the remote, but usually clears up in a few seconds.

Anyone know if there is a location to get actual information from Microsoft or Comcast in regards to this box? I'm annoyed by the Comcast box not being able to screen out old episodes of syndicated programs (something DirectTV and by extention TiVo doesn't seem to have a problem doing).

I'm evaluating both services and Comcast would likely be the clear winner if it were a bit smarter or at least had a way for users to follow the progress.

I've tried everything in all the firewire threads and I'm still unable to archive via the IEEE 1394 ports on my 6412. The problem seems to be that my 1394 ports are not active since when I connect to my PC I can't even get the Unrecognized Hardware Wizard to pop up as everyone else says happens for them. I've found no help on this on the various firewire threads so I thought I'd ask here if anyone else using a 6412 has this problem. I've tried various things like power cycling and even a reset to no avail. Anyone else out there with a 6412 w/ MSFT software who has had similar results trying to archive or anyone with any ideas about other things to try? TIA.

I am tired of my scheduled recordings dropping off the list. The only thing that I have discovered is that if you select directly from the guide, select record new and rerun, and leave all other settings alone, it seems pretty stable. Changing any of the record options seems to screw it up.

Any other suggestions?

I recommend that you leave it on. We have just continuously left it on for 2 months now and we haven't lost our programs.

It's a stupid bug and I can't wait to get rid of this thing.

I'm having a difficult time understanding what's going on with these dropped recordings. I have had my Comcast STB set to record ABC News on KOMO (104) every night for months. Every now and then it just doesn't record. The other night, I turned the STB on at 6:10 and the recording started...it should have started at 6pm. It's like the box needs to be left on. Weird.

It's like the box needs to be left on.

Yes. Definitely leave it on.

This morning the number of EPG Files listed on my diagnostics page is 12, instead of the 26 that were there last night. The Guide build number has changed from 25108S to 25129S, and the guide data are one week shorter than last night. The scheduled recordings remain populated through the missing week, though.

The important point is that there appears to be a new guide build, so there may be some changes in the operation of the software.

I always leave my box on. Maybe software (or firmware) upgrades cause the scheduled programs to disappear. I wish someone at Microsoft would take a look at this and FIX IT!

Anyone willing to guess how well the change to daylight savings time will go on the MSFT 6412 boxes?

Anyone willing to guess how well the change to daylight savings time will go on the MSFT 6412 boxes?

We haven't had any problems with DST before, although iGuide customers reported some at the last switch in October.

Ooops! I just did a search and realized that some MSFT users did have problems last time. I wonder how I avoided that.

This morning the number of EPG Files listed on my diagnostics page is 12, instead of the 26 that were there last night. The Guide build number has changed from 25108S to 25129S, and the guide data are one week shorter than last night. The scheduled recordings remain populated through the missing week, though.

The important point is that there appears to be a new guide build, so there may be some changes in the operation of the software.

I actually saw this happen this morning. My kids were watching TV on one of our 6412's before school. Suddenly, the whole thing shuts off. It then displayed this on the front panel

DL - with a little circulating status circle to the left. I assume DL meands downloading. This took about 10 minutes.
EF - end of file?
FP -
------
went totally blank
rebooted

After rebooting, it had to totally download all of the guide information. This took another 10 minutes. Once it did, I went into diagnostics and saw that the build was 1.7.6400 (25129S).

Same thing happened to me this morning around 5:30am while watching "Smallville" on the DVR, so I switched the the TV tuner and watched Discovery. :)

Anyone have any idea what updates were included in the MSFT guide software update? Maybe they're doing a very late fix in preparation for DST Sunday!

Consider yourselves lucky - mine has just taken a dive. It has tried to download the firmware all day and now will not even phone home. Now I get to spend the morning in the North Seattle service center. :(

I noticed tonight that a feature that was introduced via a firmware update has been removed in this latest update. For the last year or so, when FF'ing a recording, when you hit the Play button again, it would jump back (rewind) some distance relative to the speed you were FF'ing (FF2,FF3, etc). This worked pretty well to get you back to about where the commercial ended and the show began again and I assume was Comcast's answer to complaints about the lack of a 30 second skip button.

Now, when FF'ing and you hit play, it stops right where you are when you hit play. Then, you have to either rewind or hit the instant replay button about 5 times to get back to where you should be. This update has truly taken us backwards. They are removing features that we once we had that made the 6412 more functional. You gotta wonder sometimes...........

The slight rewind following transition from FF to play still works for me.

The slight rewind following transition from FF to play still works for me.

Same here (though I am also in Bellevue).

BEK, one thought on your firewire archiving problem. Go into Device Manager and see if there are any unrecognized devices noted- usually show up as yellow question marks. If so, unplug firewire, uninstall them all, then reboot and plug in the firewire. May solve the new hardware wizard not coming up.

Beyond that, we're into confirming that: 1. Your computer's firewire port is working. 2. The firewire cable is good. 3. The 6412 firewire port is on and working. Since it's supposed to be functional, that might be the time for a call to Comcast for a tech to make sure it's working.

I'm absolutely sure archiving can work- I do it all the time with my 6412.

Be aware that the 1394 status may be misleading.

My 1394 works, but the interface status WHEN NOT TRANSMITTING shows:

1394 I/O DEVICE: INST
ACTIVE PORTS: 0
DATA XMISSION: NO
5C IMPLEMENTATION: 0
LOOP STATUS: NO
ROOT STATUS: YES
CYCLE MASTER STATUS: YES

When the PC is connected and receiving data, everything remains the same except:

ACTIVE PORTS: 1
DATA XMISSION: YES

So "active" means currently being used.

drbenson & wareagle: I appreciate the replies.

drbenson: I'm not at home at the moment but I'll check the Device Manager soon, though I don't think there were any unrecognized devices. BTW, do you mean look for unrecognized devices under my firewire controller or do you mean anywhere in the device manager? I'm sure there were no unrecognized devices under the firewire controller. As for the items you wanted to confirm, after the first day of utter failure I tried a different firewire cable and got the same result so I henceforth assumed the problem is not the cable(s). As far as my detecting that the 6412's port is active, I'm not sure how other than doing what I'm doing. Perhaps I can find someone with a laptop w/ firewire and I could test on their laptop? As far as my PC's firewire port, it is recognized in the device manager and I have used it once or twice before, but I don't currently own any other device which does firewire. There again, perhaps I can borrow a friend's video camera or something to verify that my PC's firewire port is (still) working. I will attempt to do these things this week but my working assumption is that the 6412 is not outputing any signal (and BTW, I've tried both output ports). When I spoke with Comcast a while back about doing "resets" they indicated that the firewire output was explicitly not supported by them so I've been hesitant to even ask for another unit or a tech (etc...) --- do you think they would be willing to contemplate giving me a new box? I guess for what I'm paying them they should. Let me know if you have other ideas. I'll post if/when I get more info.

wareagle: I'm not sure where this status interface you are talking about is found. Is it something on the PC related to the firewire controller/card? If so, how do you bring it up (or does it depend on the manufacturer of your IEEE card)? Thanks.

wareagle: I'm not sure where this status interface you are talking about is found. Is it something on the PC related to the firewire controller/card? If so, how do you bring it up (or does it depend on the manufacturer of your IEEE card)? Thanks.

The 1394 status is on the 6412 diagnostic page d11 discussed here:
http://cjhengineering.com/hdtv/cablehdtv/dctdiag.htm

BEK- I do mean anywhere in Device Manager. When I first plugged in my 6412 firewire- before CAREFULLY reading the instructions in the AVS thread, I blew past a couple of screens to which I should have paid attention. I ended up with three unrecognized devices, and they were sequestered in a subsection called unrecognized devices, I believe. One was the 6412, and until I figured it out, I had the same symptoms you're reporting. I thought nothing was happening when I plugged in the firewire; in fact, Windows had already found it, decided it didn't know what to do with it, and ignored it.

I noticed tonight that a feature that was introduced via a firmware update has been removed in this latest update. For the last year or so, when FF'ing a recording, when you hit the Play button again, it would jump back (rewind) some distance relative to the speed you were FF'ing (FF2,FF3, etc). This worked pretty well to get you back to about where the commercial ended and the show began again and I assume was Comcast's answer to complaints about the lack of a 30 second skip button.

Now, when FF'ing and you hit play, it stops right where you are when you hit play. Then, you have to either rewind or hit the instant replay button about 5 times to get back to where you should be. This update has truly taken us backwards. They are removing features that we once we had that made the 6412 more functional. You gotta wonder sometimes...........

I stand corrected on this. It appears that the latest firmware has not eliminated this feature as I thought it had. When I experienced it, I'm not sure if it was the specific program I was watching, whether it was a temporary bug, or if it was fixed by another update (since I was out of town for several days in between trying it again).

drbenson & wareagle: Thanks for the info. I'll be giving it another try this weekend and I'll report back my results.

drbenson & wareagle: Thanks for the info. I'll be giving it another try this weekend and I'll report back my results.

There have been reports that only one of the two 1394 ports works. I don't know if that's true, but I followed the suggestion of using the one on the right (looking at the back) and it worked.

Well I was prepared to try some of the suggested ideas.... when my 6412 died 2 days ago. I got a new one today from Comcast and though I haven't tried to actually archive anything yet, I have verified that when I connect this unit to my PC via firewire the PC does recognize the firewire device and brings up the New Hardware wizard (which it NEVER did with the old unit). So it appears to me as if the old unit's firewire ports were both bad.

And wareagle, yes I had read to use the right hand port, though I had tried both ports repeatedly with the old unit in attempts to get it to work.

Hopefully I can successfully archive now, but at least I've finally gotten past square 1. Thanks for all help and encouragement!

now i have a problem with my 6412 with the DVI port, my tv is Sony 57" WS-512
with HDMI in
6 months ago i converted a DVI to HDMI for my TV sony, AND NOW i see there are little red lines in all the screen, and only in the HD channels.

if i reset the 6412 is the same problem, or the problem is too worst if i disconnect the 6412 for 1 hour, now all channels are with the problem, but with time the SD channels come back normal, and the HD have the problem

with the component OUT all is OK

I was watching a show recorded late last night when I notices the status bar did not appear when I was FF thru the commercials. Next I pressed the MyDVR button on the remote and I got a message that read the feature was being updated and to wait a few minutes. A couple minutes later everything was back to normal.

Guide buld is the same ... 25129S with 26 EPG files
Firmware 9.19

I have not noticed any changes so far. I know there were issues with the 34XX and 64XX powercycling themselves, maybe this was a fix for that?

Also, the EAS/Amber Alert was most annoying for my DVR yesterday. I had several shows I was watching and was kicked out several times, although I understand the need for it so I won't complain too much except there was no information about what it was for. I found out by checking www.amberalert.com.

The major problem was I had 2 shows recording at the same time the third time I saw it and only 1 restarted recording after it was over. I had to manually restart the second. Later, when I had the TV off, it took 6 minutes before it restarted recording the program before. My question is why does it need to stop recording when the alerts appear? Playback I am fine with, but not the recording!

Sorry if this has come up before, but I do not remember seeing it.

If this happened late at night, it was proably just the box updating guide data, as most boxes will either shut down or disable the user interface late at night to download and update the program listings.

That Amber Alert was totally pointless. It didn't work at all. All it did was come on with a single screen that said there was an Amber Alert and then it changed the channel to channel 4 (ABC). I wouldn't have minded the interruption, if it had worked.

OK, I'm seeing something that I haven't found any reference to. My TV needs 1080i in, otherwise I get weird bars at the side of the picture. So I go into the menu on the Comcast and set it to 1080i. (No comment on how stupid/hard this is to do, particularly since you can't do it while it is recording a show - ok, maybe a little comment) In any case, this seems to work fine for a couple of days, but then it reverts back to 720p. I can't figure out why - we never turn the box off etc. We are using an HDMI->DVI cable. Every once in a while I get a screen that says our HDCP has been compromised as well. Any ideas?

If this happened late at night, it was proably just the box updating guide data, as most boxes will either shut down or disable the user interface late at night to download and update the program listings.

I don't normally see this reaction on the 6412 at any time. I record all of my shows to watch later, and I don't get home until around midnight so I use it most late nights. Everything seems to be working okay so I am just going to assume it was some minor software update.

If this happened late at night, it was proably just the box updating guide data, as most boxes will either shut down or disable the user interface late at night to download and update the program listings.
Do you have a Motorola 6412 running Microsoft software (only available here in the state of Washington)?

After working quite well for 18 months (without any of the major problems reported elsewhere), last night my phase I 6412 decided to enter an ever-shortening reboot cycle, starting at about every 10 minutes and ending up down in the seconds. Since it was recording at the time, the last view I got of the list of recordings had about a dozen slices of "Will & Grace". Fortunately, there really weren't any recordings that I minded losing. I had a replacement (3412) by 10AM today, and it seems to have better pictures on the former analog channels.

I've found that the transport functions on the 3412 are really terrible. No matter what speed I choose, the motion seems to be the same as FF1 or REW1 was on the 6412 -- slow. They were great (FF2 or 3 & REW 2 or 3) on the 6412. I'm not sure if it's anything anyone outside the Microsoft guide s/w world would encounter, so I'll post about it here as well as on the 3412 forum. For reference the Motorola firmware version is 12.31.

I've found that the transport functions on the 3412 are really terrible. No matter what speed I choose, the motion seems to be the same as FF1 or REW1 was on the 6412 -- slow. They were great (FF2 or 3 & REW 2 or 3) on the 6412. I'm not sure if it's anything anyone outside the Microsoft guide s/w world would encounter, so I'll post about it here as well as on the 3412 forum. For reference the Motorola firmware version is 12.31.

I have had two 3412's with this problem. I found by unplugging the power and reconnecting it, the slow transport problems were corrected. I have had this problem recur after rapidly pressing the fast forward button. I think it is just another one of those WA state 'features.'

I have had two 3412's with this problem. I found by unplugging the power and reconnecting it, the slow transport problems were corrected. I have had this problem recur after rapidly pressing the fast forward button. I think it is just another one of those WA state 'features.'

Thanks a lot! I'll certainly try that, because it's frustrating. I noticed a stutter in watching ESPN2 via the box today, so I did a side-by-side comparison with the analog via the TV's PIP, and verified that the analog was clean. It may be a problem in extracting the data from the disk, although I haven't noticed it on any other channel yet.

Update -- power cycle fixed the slow transport. It's still not as controllable as the 6412 was, but it will do.

Oops! Power cycle fix was short-lived.

Maybe Comcast is killing all the Phaser I 6412s to get people to switch to the cheaper 3412? My Phase I 6412 also died yesterday. Now it just reboots itself. If I miss the season finale of 24 tomorrow because of this, I'm going to be so pissed at comcast.

You can take the 6412 in and swap it for a 3412 yourself. I did that at the Redmond office Friday morning, after calling & letting a CSR send a futile hit to the box. I was offered a delivered one Friday afternoon, but elected to do it myself.

What is the difference between the 6412 and the (newer?) 3412? Is switching an upgrade?

What is the difference between the 6412 and the (newer?) 3412? Is switching an upgrade?I believe it's functionally the same as the 6412; it's not an upgrade. The 3412 is really about cost-savings for Comcast. The main difference is the 3412 is all-digital - it has no analog tuner or MPEG2 encoder. Since Comcast has all-digital simulcasts in most areas, their boxes no longer need to support analog channels.

What is the difference between the 6412 and the (newer?) 3412? Is switching an upgrade?

The connectors may be different, depending upon your current model 6412, so you may need to replace a DVI with an HDMI, for example:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Identifying_your_model

And, of course, it will have different bugs.

I too recently switched to the newer model motorola DVR to replace my original 6412 (as alluded to in my post from about a month ago regarding firewire).

The reason for my switch was that my original box started freezing and crashing a lot, similar to the reasons wareagle mentioned for his upgrade.

I agree with everything which has been said here, namely that the transport features on the newer boxes soon become VERY VERY SLOW. I end up cursing at the TV often now. I also agree that a total power down (unplugging) temporarily improves this problem with the transport (FF/RW) features, but it is a pain to keep doing this.

When it got bad enough after about 1 month, I called comcast and they replaced my 2nd box with a 3rd one --- the thinking was maybe I just had a bad box. Nope. The new box worked great at first, but soon enough was having the same transport problems. I've called comcast a few times since to complain and I recommend others do the same. If I had the choice I would, at this point, definitely choose the older model 6412 as a replacement as I dream about how easily I could FF and RW with that old box before it died on me. I've asked comcast but they say they don't have any older boxes to give out (not sure if that is true or not, but it makes sense).

In one of my calls to comcast I was told that comcast is working with motorola (they didn't mention MS) to fix the transport problems, but I'm not holding my breath. They asked me if my disk was mostly full since the engineers were hypothesizing that a full disk could contribute to the problem. I was under 15% full at the time so that pretty much shoots down that idea.

I am starting to consider switching to a dish at some point as the newer box is pretty much driving me crazy, and that's not what I'm paying for. Time will tell on that front...

When the tech first replaced my dead 6412 with the newer model he raved about how much better it was (and it would normally stand to reason). But these days I dream about getting an old 6412 back, warts and all.

On the bright side, a minor bug I mentioned previously on the original 6412 seems to be gone in the new box, namely FF very quickly followed by a PLAY used to cause a START OVER on my old box and this doesn't happen on the newer boxes. Then again, most of the time the box won't accept a PLAY for at least 5-15 seconds after pressing FF (this is the primary transport problem). That the aforementioned bug has been fixed in the newer model can only be demonstrated right after unplugging and replugging the box.

Ditto. My 6412 started crashing about two weeks ago (once in the middle of Lost, then again in the middle of Desperate Housewives). Comcast swapped it for a 3412. I think the picture is brighter using a 3412 via HDMI than with the 6412 with DVI, but fighting it to stop FF1 has increased my aggravation levels to the point where I regret moving to HDTV and away from my old ReplayTV box.

To anyone considering the DVR service from Comcast, wait -- this current service is not ready for Prime Time.

I am confused? I have my TV plugged into the cable via a splitter and get channels 2-80 or so, thus the cable is carrying analog... Are the Digital Simalcasts on higher channels, e.g. 702-780?

If so is there any stong reason to HOLD on to my 6412 or try to replace it with a 3412, or is it a don't bother?

The channels below 100 are analog without the box. They are digital when accessed with the 6412 or the 3412. The analog versions of the "xy" channels are remapped by the 6412 to "7xy" and are not available with the 3412. For example, channel 46 is analog without the box, and digital with the 6412 or the 3412, but you can tune to the analog equivalent at 746 with the 6412. There is no reason to trade the 6412 for a 3412, unless you want to experience a different flavor of bugs.

I'm hesitant to take my 6412 back to get a 3412 because I still have a lot of stuff I haven't watched on it. It failed to record some things back when that bug was rampant, and I'm waiting for the re-run before I watch the saved episodes. It's not locking up as much as it was before, but it's still very bad. About 2/3 of the times I try to fast forward, or do anything really, it doesn't work. Until about 5 to 10 minutes later, then it processes the buttons I pushed.

It's obviously not a hardware failure. Hardware just doesn't fail like this. The IR receiver failing or becoming unreliable, that could happen. But it always gets the commands from the remote, it just takes it 10 minutes to respond. It seems that the more upcoming programs you have, the more series you program, and the fuller your disk is, the slower it gets. Eventually it gets so slow, that it can't keep up. If every 5 minutes it spends 6 minutes trying to figure out if a recording should start, or if new guide data has something to record in it, then it can't get around to processing user input. Ever notice that it locks up more on the hour and half past the hour? There are lots of programs starting then, so it has more work to do.

It's just lousy programming, plain and simple. I've had to work on a lot of bad code in my time, and I know it when I see it. It probably works fine when they test it with a clean machine with one saved show and one day of guide data. Just like a new DVR works fine for couple of weeks, when it has no saved shows and nothing programmed in. In the real worked, as you get more and more programs saved and series recordings set up, it gets slower and slower. Until it can't keep up with its background processing tasks and stops responding to user input.

Just found this thread. I live in Kent, Wa and had a 6412 that served me well for 18 months, but then power supply died. I took box in and they replaced it with 3412.

I thought this should be good: all digital, a little smaller, less heat output....

My 1st 3412 was returned after 3 weeks because of the issue with transport keys (ff/rew) not responding to remote. You would press ff twice and 10-15 seconds later it might go to that speed. I called in and they reset the box (wiping out my programming), but that did not solve issue.

The 2nd 3412 is slightly better on transport keys, but not as good as the 6412. It is also not slightly rewinding when you press play (this was a great feature). But, this box has totally froze when replaying recordings about a dozen times. Sometimes, I have been able to restart recording and then watch, others it freezes in same spot and recording will not continue. This box is also making funny noises; fan spins high and then low and it sounds like it is about ready to die.

I'm going in for 3rd box and it better work if Comcast wants to keep me as a customer! The time spent in reprograming my recordings is time I don't want to waste anymore.

What really tells us that this is a programming problem is that I've had a 6412 almost since day one, no problems, but within the last couple of weeks I, too, have been experiencing the ff/rew delayed response. Don'tcha just hate it when the 'upgrades' they pump out without asking make things worse? Ah, well, that's MS for ya.

That's the first I've heard of a 6412 having the same transport problems. Similar to wadewood, I had a 6412 for about 16 months before mine died. One feature/bug I recall on the 6412 was that it would occasionally have this kind of transport problem at the top and bottom of the hour, presumably when it was off doing some kind of "should I record anything now?" action. This has been mentioned on this forum if you look back far enough. Each time it happened on my 6412 I'd glance at the clock and sure enough, it would be exactly at the top or bottom of the hour. So this may or may not have been what you saw on your 6412 --- since most of us hit this problem only when we switched to a 3412, it's still not clear to me if it is a MS or Motorola issue.

wadewood, I doubt you're going to get much improvement from a 3rd box as at this point I'm convinced that all 3412's have this problem (if anyone has had a 3412 for more than a month and does not have transport problems, definitely speak up). I found that each time I got a new 3412 it felt better with transport, but that the behavior would slowly decay back to what I recalled with the previous box. THE ONE THING WHICH HAS BEEN FOUND TO HELP is to occasionally unplug your box for a minute or two. Then the transport problem seems to melt away for a while. No doubt this is why when they install a new box, it feels OK for a while. Of course, this solution is hardly customer friendly, but when you reach the breaking point, you can try it.

I called in and voiced my complaints also mentioning others in WA state were having same issues. They issued me a nice credit for the problems and noted on my account that I could exchange this unit for a 6412. Today, I went to the Auburn office and swapped out the box going back to a 6412. Well see how this works out.

Thanks for posting that info wadewood. When I called a week or two ago I asked for a 6412 but was told that they were no longer available. I guess I'll call back and ask again. There are a few bugs on the 6412 I was happy to be rid of, but overall I'd rather live with those 6412 bugs if it means I can reliably use the FF and RW buttons. Let us know how it goes!

I tested out the 6412 last night and it is working great so far. Instant response on the ff/rew keys. I think this problem is limited to the 3412. Also, this unit has a nice quiet power supply.

When I called in, I walked through the issues and pointed out others with the same issue with the 3412 on this forum. I then asked for a 6412 replacement. They agreed and made a note on my account. The Comcast Auburn office suggested replacing with another 3412 initially. I had them check notes on account and they saw the note about the 6412. They had tech bring a 6412 up from the back.

Anyone have any insight on whether the Tivo firmware upgrade will be an option for those of us using the MSFTV-based 6412? I understand that there is a Tivo beta test taking place in Pennsylvania.

Anyone have any insight on whether the Tivo firmware upgrade will be an option for those of us using the MSFTV-based 6412? I understand that there is a Tivo beta test taking place in Pennsylvania.My opinion: you're dreaming if you think a Tivo-based Comcast solution would be any better than what we have. Both the MSTV stuff and the TvGuide/IGuide version of the DVR application software have tons of problems. And guess what they have in common? 1) the Motorola real-time OS running on the boxes, 2) Comcast managing & deploying the network, and 3) Comcast insisting on restricting advertiser-hostile features like 30-sec-skip. Just substitute Tivo-based application software, and very little will change, IMHO.

If this was a pure soup-to-nuts Tivo solution (Tivo-customized Linux kernel, Tivo application software, Tivo program guide servers, full un-restricted Tivo feature set, and Tivo running the operations center) then maybe it would be better. But it won't be....

I'd suffer the current performance issues we have just to get the Tivo Season Pass system. I cannot stand what we have to deal with, now, as it is a major pain in the bum to try and work with.

I agree with jimre that TiVo is likely to have similar problems with the Motorola OS and the guide data, so I wouldn't hold out too much hope.

maybe the TIVO Series 3 box coming around October 2006 will be the best solution instead of tivo on top of the moto boxes...

i doubt comcast will offer it, and the outlay of initial $ will be high (rumored in the $800 range), but the extra capacity and (hopefully) more reliability in recording (guide, etc), will be worth it.

I should also add that you'd lose the OnDemand capability with the S3 box (because of the one-way cable card functionality), but that's fine with me as long as the other functionality works well

I believe it's functionally the same as the 6412; it's not an upgrade. The 3412 is really about cost-savings for Comcast. The main difference is the 3412 is all-digital - it has no analog tuner or MPEG2 encoder. Since Comcast has all-digital simulcasts in most areas, their boxes no longer need to support analog channels.

So does the 3412 actually have an external sata port for additional harddrive space for the DVR? I see Motorola's site indicates this, but is it turned on? I have a SATA Raid array I wanna hook up..

:)

So does the 3412 actually have an external sata port for additional harddrive space for the DVR? I see Motorola's site indicates this, but is it turned on? I have a SATA Raid array I wanna hook up..

:)

It's there, but no one has been able to make it work. Since you don't have to disturb the box to try it, let us know if you're the first to succeed.

I agree with jimre that TiVo is likely to have similar problems with the Motorola OS and the guide data, so I wouldn't hold out too much hope.

The last I heard it explained, TiVo actually gets the same or similar data, they just do a better job of interpreting it. e.g. if a show originally aired in 2003, it's likely a repeat.

I know the guide data for TiVo isn't perfect: I was never able to get mine to properly record The Daily Show without resorting to a manual recording setting. But in most cases it was smart enough to do revolutionary things like — oh I don't know — not record the same damn episode over and over and over again.

But I am worried about the Motorola OS. The delayed response issues sound a lot like low-level OS issues, and it's disconcerting that all variants have the same behavior.

Frankly, I think it's my wife who's saving her pennies for a TiVo Series 3. She hates our 6412 more than I do. And I hate it a lot.

...But in most cases it was smart enough to do revolutionary things like — oh I don't know — not record the same damn episode over and over and over again.....I don't know about your 6412, but as has been posted previously - mine doesn't actually record the same damn episode over and over and over again. It SAYS it's going to - under scheduled recordings, it seems to list every episode whether new, repeat, recorded or not. But somehow at the last minute it decides to not actually record the repeats, just the new episodes.

I don't know about your 6412, but as has been posted previously - mine doesn't actually record the same damn episode over and over and over again. It SAYS it's going to - under scheduled recordings, it seems to list every episode whether new, repeat, recorded or not. But somehow at the last minute it decides to not actually record the repeats, just the new episodes.


I really don't like this "feature." I'm a real fan of wysiwyg, and would prefer that the list of scheduled recordings indicate what will be recorded, rather than what might be. In addition to the uncertainty, this results in phantom conflicts which must be resolved, even when no conflicts actually exist.

i doubt comcast will offer it, and the outlay of initial $ will be high (rumored in the $800 range), but the extra capacity and (hopefully) more reliability in recording (guide, etc), will be worth it.

I should also add that you'd lose the OnDemand capability with the S3 box (because of the one-way cable card functionality), but that's fine with me as long as the other functionality works well

Well, the higher initial cost plus the higher monthly Tivo service cost. Still, I find the Tivo interface to be more intuitive and requiring of fewer clicks, so it's probably worth it to me. I almost never use OnDemand, mostly because there's no HD content on it.

What really tells us that this is a programming problem is that I've had a 6412 almost since day one, no problems, but within the last couple of weeks I, too, have been experiencing the ff/rew delayed response. Don'tcha just hate it when the 'upgrades' they pump out without asking make things worse? Ah, well, that's MS for ya.

Considering that it happens on non-msft Motorola boxes, I don't see how you could blame Microsoft for that problem.

Considering that it happens on non-msft Motorola boxes, I don't see how you could blame Microsoft for that problem.

You're absolutely correct. Not only that, but there haven't been any "upgrades" recently.

Does it bother anyone else that when you select the 'HDTV' option from the main menu that it shows a listing of what's on in high-def on channels you don't even subscribe to?

I mean, I know they're just hoping I'll hit that screen and go 'oh yeah, Honey I shrunk the kids is on SHOWHD, that's it, I'm ordering the Showtime package right now.' It just ain't gonna happen though and it irritates me that it isn't a smart enough screen to just show me what's on in HDTV right now on the channels that I actually get. :(

Yes, it bothers me too. Of course, after all these years with Windows, I don't tend to associate 'smart interface design' with 'Microsoft' any more.

On the bright side, only the Microsoft guide s/w allows you to prune unwanted channels from the guide listings and the sequential remote selection. That glass is indeed more than half full.

Doesn't bother me at all. There are much worse things about this product than minor UI inconsistencies. Besides, filtering the "HDTV" query to show only those channels you subscribe to is the wrong behavior, IMHO. Some people *want* to see what's on the other channels - so they can make an informed decision whether to subscribe or not.

The correct behavior would be to filter the query to omit those channels that the user has explicitly removed from their channel lineup. That would match the behavior of scrolling thru the guide normally.

The correct behavior would be to filter the query to omit those channels that the user has explicitly removed from their channel lineup. That would match the behavior of scrolling thru the guide normally.


I agree, and the iGuide users complain because they can't even filter their channel lineup.

One of the few benefits of the 3412 over the 6412 is that those analog 7xy channels don't show up from the searches!

I just picked up a 3412 DVR from the Redmond Comcast office last week -- and already my family are frustrated by it -- we have a series 1 Tivo which will remain my primary method for watching analog non-HD shows -- I complained to Comcast about the FF/Play issue and was told to get the box replaced; but from what I've read here all that will do is force me to re-enter some season pass info again, right?

It would be interesting to know if all the 3412 DVR's have a problem with FF & REW. Mine does, and I've been thinking about swapping it out but fear that it won't help.

It would be interesting to know if all the 3412 DVR's have a problem with FF & REW. Mine does, and I've been thinking about swapping it out but fear that it won't help.

The three 3412s that I have had all had the FF/RW problem. I have correlated it with recording over firewire to my HTPC. Every time I record over firewire, I have to power cycle the box. Doesn't make any technical sense, but it is what I have observed.

Bucko -- are you saying I can hook up my PC via a firewire cable to the 3412 and record to the PC HD?? Is there a config option on either end, or do I need to run any special software on the PC?

(I've a PC setup as a HTPC, but just running WinXP-Pro & Beyond TV (the PC has two tuner cards in it and works as a backup to my TIVO) -- it has a IEEE1394 port; just never thought of connecting it to the 3412...

The three 3412s that I have had all had the FF/RW problem. I have correlated it with recording over firewire to my HTPC. Every time I record over firewire, I have to power cycle the box. Doesn't make any technical sense, but it is what I have observed.

That's interesting. I've also been using firewire, but less successfully than I did with the 6412. I'll try disconnecting the firewire and power cycling to see if that prevents the onset of the problem. The only thing I had been able to correlate the problem to was rapidly hitting FF a couple of times, after which the transport functions were trash, and power cycling might or might not restore them.

Bucko -- are you saying I can hook up my PC via a firewire cable to the 3412 and record to the PC HD?? Is there a config option on either end, or do I need to run any special software on the PC?

(I've a PC setup as a HTPC, but just running WinXP-Pro & Beyond TV (the PC has two tuner cards in it and works as a backup to my TIVO) -- it has a IEEE1394 port; just never thought of connecting it to the 3412...

Here's the reference you need in order to transfer to the PC via firewire:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Firewire

I'll try disconnecting the firewire and power cycling to see if that prevents the onset of the problem.

Well, so far I haven't been able to break the 3412 transport functions since I disconnected the firewire and cycled power. I'll continue testing with normal use and report the results.

OK, I'm confused. I thought that the box with HDMI was a 6412 phase III, but Comcast tells me that only the 3412 has HDMI (and I don't want it yet based on what I see here). Is there such thing as a 6412 Phase III w/HDMI?

OK, I'm confused. I thought that the box with HDMI was a 6412 phase III, but Comcast tells me that only the 3412 has HDMI (and I don't want it yet based on what I see here). Is there such thing as a 6412 Phase III w/HDMI?

The 6412-III does have HDMI:
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Identifying_your_model

So does the 3412, and that's what they seem to be passing out around here now. Comcast may mean that they don't have any 6412's with HDMI here.

Yeah, I found this page on Comcast:

http://www.comcast.com/Support/Corp1/FAQ/FaqDetail_3389.html

which clearly states there's a 6412 P3 which has HDMI. I am presuming that the CSR I spoke to either doesn't know this, or has been instructed to only deploy 3412's from now on. I will have to bring a printout of their web page in when I go back. I don't know, maybe I don't even really care enough to bother. I was only interested as I'd heard the lower channels PQ ws improved from the 6412 Phase II (which I currently have).

Don't need the HDMI as I only have component.

I was only interested as I'd heard the lower channels PQ ws improved from the 6412 Phase II (which I currently have).

With ADS the analog tuners in the DVR aren't used, so I wouldn't expect any improvement in the PQ with the Phase III.

I've got the FF problem, and I've never used the firewire port.
Are there people out there with 3412's that don't have the FF problem?
(Is the FF problem a Comcast ploy to force us to watch the commercials? ;) )

While watching some HD World Cup games yesterday that I'd had on time delay recording (I started recording about 30 mins before I began watching) the transport controls worked perfectly... I later tried to watch a recording from the Military channel and it was up to its old tricks...

On my box (3412 - maybe 3 weeks old), the OSD also seems to lag whats happening; when I press FF; the bar showing the show's progress will appear, but it will be empty and the icon on the top right will show Play; all while the show is being fast-forwarded. Then a few seconds later the OSD will update and the bar will draw correctly and the icon on the top right will say FFx1...

Also, I've never used the firewire connection -- though I'm going to try it at some point.

I haven't had the FF/REW 3412 transport problem in the 5 days since I disconnected the firewire. I do have the extreme lag in OSD response.

I haven't had the FF/REW 3412 transport problem in the 5 days since I disconnected the firewire. I do have the extreme lag in OSD response.

Maybe it's time I hooked up the fireware; so I can disconnect it and fix the transport... :)

Stranger things have happened in this Comcastic world.

The FF/REW bug is alive and well on my 6412 (no Firewire devices ever attached). Might be time to swap it for a 3412... :)

Perhaps I've not been attentive, but I just now noticed that a search for a title starting with "The" no longer requires entering "The" -- whether you enter it or not, the search results include titles both with and without "The."

Perhaps I've not been attentive, but I just now noticed that a search for a title starting with "The" no longer requires entering "The" -- whether you enter it or not, the search results include titles both with and without "The."

Yep, looks like they finally fixed that particular stupidity. Of course, it would never occur to them to use the box's message system (or an email list) to notify subscribers of this useful update. The message system is too important for that, apparently - gotta save the space to notify us of upcoming PPV wrestling.

Well, they did use the message system yesterday to inform us of the FM stations they added last Friday. That's an improvement.

Could someone with the new software indicate what software version they have?

Menu -> Settings -> Diagnostics

What is the guide build and build type?

Guide: 1.7.3400(25129S)

Build Type: DCT-FE-1.7

GIOS: 12.31

And I finally found the message option!

And I finally found the message option!

You mean the place to read messages sent by Comcast? That's in about the least intuitive place possible - they coulda done better assigning it with a dartboard.

I noticed the envelope icon & then the message light weeks ago -- but could not find out any way to read the messages -- why the hell is it on the settings menu -- I'm thinking that M$ didnt put their brightest and best people on this project...

Can't we just have a Tivo that works with Digital Cable & HD please? I'd even pay $20 p.m. for that, hell; I'd pay $40...


(edited for additional sarcasm)

The FF/REW bug is alive and well on my 6412 (no Firewire devices ever attached). Might be time to swap it for a 3412... :)

Don't bother, I have had a 3412 for the last 5 months (with nothing attached to firewire ever) and have the transport bug.

It is an extremely frustrating bug... I would call and request a credit for my DVR fee if I paid one (I get discounted services for being an MS employee). At times I want to go back to SageTV or MCE, but can't live without HDTV so I am waiting for Vista/cablecard support later this year - then I can drop this DVR.

I noticed the envelope icon & then the message light weeks ago -- but could not find out any way to read the messages -- why the hell is it on the settings menu -- I'm thinking that M$ didnt put their brightest and best people on this project.

Or, even more scary, maybe they did...

When we first got the 6412 in November, 2004 the message system didn't even work -- there was a disconnect between Microsoft and Motorola as to the message operation. They finally got it to work, sort of, but seldom use it for anything worthwhile -- so it really was better when it didn't even turn on the light!

It looks like Comcast is using a newer version of the MSFT software than FiOS.

Do you notice any differences/improvements from the FiOS implementation shown here (http://mysite.verizon.net/fiosdvr/)?

It looks like Comcast is using a newer version of the MSFT software than FiOS.

Do you notice any differences/improvements from the FiOS implementation shown here (http://mysite.verizon.net/fiosdvr/)?

I didn't realize FiOS was using MSFT, but except for the last two images they seem pretty much identical (functionally). I think they must be the same version.

I posted this over in the general 3412/3416 topic, but I just wanted to briefly ask here if anyone local has seen this problem. All of my recordings disappeared, and all of my scheduled recordings are gone too. It sounds like some people got a firmware update last night, but no one else has mentioned losing their recordings and settings. This is extremely frustrating. Even coming off of TiVo, I was relatively ok with this box (though still yearning for an HD TiVo solution). But losing my recordings *and* scheduled recordings is completely, absolutely unacceptable. If I can't trust it to do its primary job, why am I paying for it???

I posted this over in the general 3412/3416 topic, but I just wanted to briefly ask here if anyone local has seen this problem. All of my recordings disappeared, and all of my scheduled recordings are gone too. It sounds like some people got a firmware update last night, but no one else has mentioned losing their recordings and settings. This is extremely frustrating. Even coming off of TiVo, I was relatively ok with this box (though still yearning for an HD TiVo solution). But losing my recordings *and* scheduled recordings is completely, absolutely unacceptable. If I can't trust it to do its primary job, why am I paying for it???

Only a HDD reset will delete your Hard Drive and the Settings.

This can only be done via remote, or via the head end.

unless you had a power outage that somehow caused it to do a reset.

Nothing else in the house appears to have lost power, so I don't think that's it. I called in to customer support, and the woman I spoke with (very nice) said the only thing she could think of is that the hard drive is going out, so I should replace the box. Worth a shot I guess. Kind of a bummer, though (not only because it's inconvenient to find time to do it, but also because I seemed to have a pretty good unit -- I had very few of the problems others have complained about). And still a major bummer to have lost all of the shows from the past week (I was out of town, so I didn't get to watch any of my normal shows yet). Sigh.

I didn't realize FiOS was using MSFT, but except for the last two images they seem pretty much identical (functionally). I think they must be the same version.

I recently read that FiOS was using the same DVR as Comcast except with the larger hard drives. I did hear a rumor that Comcast is going to supply the larger size also but haven't come across anyone that has one. On the FiOS web site (http://www22.verizon.com/Content/FiOSTV/DVR/DVR/DVR.htm) it claims to record 120 hours of SD. That's a lot more than Comcast would do with the same size.

The interesting part is that FiOS is coming out the gate with the multi-room DVR, something I heard from Comcast at the beginning of the year. It allows you to use one DVR on multiple televisions, but you need the 2500 stb on the others. More info here (http://broadband.motorola.com/whms/index.html) from Moto.

I see a match on every screen except on the adding recordings menu and some differences on the settings screen. I saw the EPG files was 14 and I normally have 26, so does that mean that the FiOS dvr will not go as far into the future to set the recordings?

It will be interesting to see if they have the same bugs as Comcast. It will cetainly answer some questions - is it Comcast or issues with either MS or Moto? With the competition creeping in, it's possible we may see these advances with Comcast but I am willing to wait until it's done right :)

My new box (the third) is exhibiting weird behavior now too. This is a little different. Last night, I spent a long time plugging in my series recordings. This morning, all but four of them are gone. Weirdly, it seems related to the "series priority." The four at the bottom of my priority list are still here, and the ones above them are gone.

Has anyone experienced this problem before?

I'm having numerous 'issues' with my comcastically microsoft-driven dvr, and while I won't get into them and bore you all, I am curious if any of you have any ideas regarding the upcoming availability of TiVo software on Comcast boxes.

First and foremost...when?!? Any target dates around? Comcast told me late 2006. Also, are problems with the current WA Comcast boxes inherent to the MS front end, or to the hardware itself? I miss my TiVo, and know that their dual-tuner HD box is coming out soon, but at $800 retail, I would much prefer the idea of paying a little more each month to Comcast for a TiVo front end. Finally, will we, in WA, get the choice, or are we stuck with MS while others get iguide or TiVo?

I don't think anyone has true solid dates on the Comcast/TiVo boxes. Apparently they're in beta now, and will begin rolling out in the fourth quarter, but it didn't look like Washington was on the list of first markets. So I'm not really holding my breath.

The problems seem to be a combination of the hardware and the software. From what I've read here, the people with iGuide have even more trouble than we do. Some of the things (e.g. overheating problems) are clearly hardware issues, and are extremely unlikely to go away with TiVo software. Still, if the Series 3 really does launch at $800, I'll probably be inclined to wait a while on the Comcast solution. I love my TiVos, but I don't know that I love them $800 worth. My wife seems pissed enough at the Comcast DVR to be willing to go buy the S3 regardless of price, though (usually it's the other way around, huh?).

I don't think anyone has true solid dates on the Comcast/TiVo boxes. Apparently they're in beta now, and will begin rolling out in the fourth quarter, but it didn't look like Washington was on the list of first markets. So I'm not really holding my breath

"Development work on the Comcast front is moving forward and we are working on other mass distribution strategies ... [W]e are happy with the way the Comcast relationship is progressing as is Comcast. Comcast believes we are on track to have the product available in trials before the end of 2006" from PR Newswire (http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=PR&Date=20060830&ID=5983728).

Also mentioned in the article is Tivo's new deal with Cox to load the software onto their dvrs, which from what I could tell are 6412 (no idea if they have 3412 also). I take from the article that beta will be this year, which I thought was already taking place near Philly. I forsee it rolled out late 2006 or early 2007 in stages, depending on when a particular market will be ready to handle the additional support needed. Where WA will be who knows, although they have been quicker than some in the past. Personally I will wait a few weeks after it comes out to see how well it works :)

The beta is already happening and has been for a while. That's been discussed over in the Comcast/TiVo DVR thread. "Available in trials before the end of 2006" doesn't give me a huge amount of hope, for two reasons:

1. The only time I've seen the "trial" areas listed, none of them were anywhere near here.
2. "Before the end of 2006" could mean December 31st, for all we know.

Also, "believes we are on track" leaves some room for slippage. So I wouldn't exactly call this a solid date.

From the Comcast/TiVo DVR thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=8283851&&#post8283851) :

This software is now in Beta, and is due out in Nov. / Dec. 2006 in aprox. 5 - 10 Markets covering the States of PA, De, MD, NJ, IL, MA.

Based on that, I'd guess January 2007 at the absolute earliest, but I think that may be optimistic...

Bah! We never seem to be in a test market. I want to be in a test market! Let me test a fiber to home solution which provides uncompressed 1080p broadcast-quality video streaming. Please?!

<sigh> It is going to be so hard to start seeing those HD TiVo's on the shelves and not buy one. I really hope Comcast tells us actual roll-out dates for markets which don't receive the TiVo software at launch.

I'm sure most of you have seen this, but just in case:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060912/ap_on_hi_te/tivo_new_high_definition_dvr_1

Tivo have announced a $800 HD duel tuner box with cablecard support... supposedly shipping soon... I may just have to buy one.

See you later Comcast! I'm so excited to go back to Tivo finally...

Me too. I'm all over that. It's a lot of money, but it's worth it to me...

This assumes Comcast can get two CableCards working... ;)

Hehehe...and $199 transfer of lifetime's until 12/31. I'll give it a couple more months, save up some, and see how it pans out.

This assumes Comcast can get two CableCards working... ;)

Just for the record, I've had an amazingly good experience with the CableCard situation on my TiVo Series3. I had absolutely no trouble getting two cards (I picked them up in Redmond), and no trouble getting them working (a quick call to 1-800-COMCAST).

I plan to turn in my 3412 in the next few days.

Good to know! Still to rich for my blood, but nice to know there are options!

Yeah, that nice you can pick them up in Redmond... I'll give the 3412 another month or so... to be honest the transport controls have been pretty solid the past few weeks, but it still has a tendancy to reset itself every now and then when playing a stream...

that and the UI is so un-friendly that my wife & kids won't use it...

but the real problem is I just cant bring myself to trust it to watch a Seahawks game on it yet...

With my Tivo, I'd start recording, dink around the house for an hour or so, and then start watching the game, generally catching up to live by midway through the 4th quarter... with the flaky transport controls on the 3412, I dont know that I could confidently do that... of course, watching it in SD on my Tivo is not an option either...

Anyway, from what I've read on the Tivo forums, most people are happy with the S3, just MRV & TivoToGo are missing -- which has quite a few waiting to see what cablelabs decide -- for me, I have a S1; so I've never used those features so I wouldnt miss them... still...

Like I said, I'll give it a month or so

3412 rebooting -- call Comcast and they will roll back your firmware from 12.35 to 12.31. I did so Tuesday, and my daily (or worse) reboots stopped. The CSR was aware of the problem and said this was the fix. Perhaps someday they'll give us a fix for the transport problems that doesn't kill the box.

3412 rebooting -- call Comcast and they will roll back your firmware from 12.35 to 12.31. I did so Tuesday, and my daily (or worse) reboots stopped. The CSR was aware of the problem and said this was the fix. Perhaps someday they'll give us a fix for the transport problems that doesn't kill the box.

The rebooting is less of a pain than the crappy transport controls, so I'll stick with the update... thanks for the info though; figured there was an update but couldnt remember my old version numbers...

The rebooting is less of a pain than the crappy transport controls, so I'll stick with the update... thanks for the info though; figured there was an update but couldnt remember my old version numbers...

My transport control problems are minimal since I quit using the firewire connection (which didn't work very well with the 3412, anyway). The rebooting bothered me much more, particularly if it happened while recording.

+1 to Comcast/Motorola/MSFT last night -- recorded 'how I met your mother' in HD and transport control only freaked out once during playback...

maybe a +0.5 would be a better bump...

I've posted here before from time to time, especially after my tried and true original 6412 died after about a year. I then got upgraded to the 3412 and had nothing but problems. Tried 3 different boxes but they all sucked. Biggest problem was the FF/REW problem --- drove me crazy. Finally when my 3rd 3412 started dieing I brought it in to my local comcast store and swapped it for a 6412 straight-up (they didn't even ask me for id or anything which I thought was a bit strange). The girl behind the counter kept telling me her 3412 worked great and she'd never heard of anyone having problems. uhuh.

But now I've had my new 6412 for about a month. I can't believe I suffered so long with the 3412. I should have swapped it long ago...

Does the 6412 have HDMI outputs? My 3412 has started to reboot every couple of hours now; it's moved into the non-trustworthy state... time to junk it.

I'm not sure if the FF/REW is a specific problem, or just the fact the box's CPU can't keep up with queried command entries. I notice my 6412 often hangs when trying to navigate the DVR scheduling sections (add/cancel recordings) and such, and then executes them later.

Also, when a scheduling conflict happens, the box takes well over a minute to "think" about it and any commands entered at that time will not execute immediately, but will all follow each other once the box has had enough time to process.

Me thinks Motorola needs to junk the G5 and move to Core 2 Duos. :)

Slime, here's my recent history with the 3412

a) About 6 weeks ago my 6412 died and I switched to the 3412. Initially I had f/w 12.31. I noticed that the ff was a little sticky. If I quickly pressed the ff 3 times, the system would hesitate for a brief moment and then jump to 3x. I started pressing the ff more slowly and things seemed fine.

b) Maybe a month ago, the f/w was changed to 12.35 sometime during the night. Immediately I had problems with spontaneous reboots. The box would shut off for a few seconds, the display would show 8888, then ----, then reset itself. The signal would come back on, no data, and no access to the DVR for about 2 minutes. If I was recording something the box would start a new recording which would be missing the 2 minutes. I would eventually end up with two recordings of the program, pre and post reboot, with the missing time. This occurred about once an evening.

c) I called Comcast several times and got the usual run around. Is the box getting too hot? Do you have the box plugged into a surge protector? Hmm, I've never heard of this, swap the box.

d) After reading this great forum, I called a few days ago to get the firmware changed back to 12.31. This time the tech? knew what I was talking about and immediately made the change. No information was lost. Now, I'm back to square 1. No reboots but funky ff. I'll take it for now. I also think the function that briefly rewinds after you press play is somehow different. My excellent timing of ff then play is slightly off now!

Hope this helps.

Art

Art, my experience has been very much like yours except I had the 6412 swapped out for a 3412 back in late May-early June.

I've only had a couple spontaneous reboots since getting the firmware switched back to 12.31 about 10 days ago and most functions have seemed to work as well as they ever did, including recording via firewire.

Since going back to 12.31 though, I've had a number of manually recorded shows not record to the drive. Everything would look like you would expect as far as the recording showing up in the DVR guide and having the red "REC" next to the title while recording, but the red recording LED on the front panel is not lit when it's not really recording. Free space does not change as it's recording nor does it change after deleting the "recording", so I can only assume it's not actually getting written to disk. When I try to "play" it, I always get the message that the recording is no longer available.

I'm getting really tired of missing shows - especially when my days and evenings are planned around the assumption that I'll be able to "catch it later".

The offers from Dish Network with the ViP622 are looking more and more enticing. I get great OTA reception of the HD locals, so I don't think I would miss any HD programming or the ability to timeshift it. I wonder if I cancel my digital cable but keep the phone and broadband if I would still get basic cable to the non-digital tuners in the house? Anybody know?

Tim

My transport control problems are minimal since I quit using the firewire connection (which didn't work very well with the 3412, anyway)... I had transport issues as well when combined with using the firewire connection. Then I read that someone had experimented with leaving their JVC D-VHS recorder in various states and discovered if my JVC 40k was left powered on, the transport functions worked fine before, duriing, and after firewire capture. Ever since I've left my powered-on 40k connected via firewire and I've been able to capture firewire (via the 2nd firewire port of the 3412) to my notebook PC without any issues.

I never had to do that with the 6412, so now that I'm getting glitchy behavior out of the 3412 pretty consistently and reading of others' better experience with the new 6412s, I'm inclined to ask for my 3412 to be replaced with a new 6412. Unless, of course, I decide I'd like to convert over to Dish (my brother's getting 26 HD channels) and the ViP622 (with a way to archive HD off of it via the USB port or having it R5000-HD'd (http://www.nextcomwireless.com/r5000/home.htm)).

Tim

Since going back to 12.31 though, I've had a number of manually recorded shows not record to the drive. Everything would look like you would expect as far as the recording showing up in the DVR guide and having the red "REC" next to the title while recording, but the red recording LED on the front panel is not lit when it's not really recording. Free space does not change as it's recording nor does it change after deleting the "recording", so I can only assume it's not actually getting written to disk. When I try to "play" it, I always get the message that the recording is no longer available.
Tim

I had this problem after the firmware rollback and finally figured out that I had to re-do all my scheduled recordings. I haven't missed a recording since then.

I had this problem after the firmware rollback and finally figured out that I had to re-do all my scheduled recordings. I haven't missed a recording since then.I'm not sure how it would affect manual recordings, but how do you re-do all your scheduled recordings? (I'm thinking of the ones that don't show up in the scheduled recordings list of the DVR menu when there aren't any current guide matches.)

Thanks!

Tim

I'm not sure how it would affect manual recordings, but how do you re-do all your scheduled recordings? (I'm thinking of the ones that don't show up in the scheduled recordings list of the DVR menu when there aren't any current guide matches.)

My DVR/Series Manager/(select from list)/Cancel Series

Does anyone else have this problem, and, if so, a solution? I have one of the older 6412 boxes. When Comcast rolled all their channels to digital, I noticed that more often than not, if a HD channel was tuned in, a scheduled SD recording would fail to record...it would appear to be recording, but if you went to watch it, it would say that there was an error. If I tuned to the channel it was recording, it would just be a black screen. I know that that doesn't provide much in the way of specifics, so if I seem vague, it is because I haven't been able to pin down one salient reason. Any help would be wonderful!

I've stuck with the newer firmware on the 3412 -- I prefer the reboot over the transport issues -- however, I've noticed that the HDMI output can hang after a reboot -- to get the HDMI to work again, I need to turn my TV off and then unplug the box for about 30 secs and let the whole thing boot up before switching my TV to HDMI input -- otherwise, the 3412 never turns on the HDMI output -- anyone else experience problems with HDMI, or could it be my TV or perhaps a faulty box?

We are finally going to get a PDP for the living room and an LCD for the bedroom, finally getting rid of our CRT's and I have a few questions.

I have a DVR already (6412 I think) and am going to get a second for the bedroom, should I try to get another 6412 or will I be forced to get a 3412?

How do I check to see what firmware I have?

What is the best way to connect the DVR's to the PDP and LCD? HDMI? Composite? I know HDMI is preferred, but do the DVR's support HDMI?

I was appalled to return home November 5 after a weekend away, to find that my wonderful Microsoft-powered Comcast DVR (swapped my original unreliable 6412, I think this is a still-unreliable 3412) wiped everything that had been recorded. Comcast customer service has been impossible to contact (that's service?), not that they would admit to knowing anything anyway. After browsing the forums, it is still not clear to me if others have experienced this behavior. Is this a known issue?

Perhaps something happened to my box, as I don't see a mass of posts about the symptom due to botched firmware upgrade or whatever. The building had some sort of power glitch over the weekend, not enough to reset the microwave clock, but our elevator system needed to be rebooted.

The funny thing is, I had been enjoying using my first-generation Replay over the weekend--30-second skip button and all. Rock solid reliable, records what it says it's going to, doesn't lose stuff. I'm ordering a Tivo S3 and dumping this Motorola/Comcast boat anchor. Cheap would be great, but unreliable (and unsupported) is just unacceptable.

We are finally going to get a PDP for the living room and an LCD for the bedroom, finally getting rid of our CRT's and I have a few questions.

I have a DVR already (6412 I think) and am going to get a second for the bedroom, should I try to get another 6412 or will I be forced to get a 3412?

How do I check to see what firmware I have?

What is the best way to connect the DVR's to the PDP and LCD? HDMI? Composite? I know HDMI is preferred, but do the DVR's support HDMI?

The 3412 has HDMI out -- and it works well, except after reboots -- I have to turn my TV off and on a couple of times to get the box to renegotiate with the TV and enable the output...

I was appalled to return home November 5 after a weekend away, to find that my wonderful Microsoft-powered Comcast DVR (swapped my original unreliable 6412, I think this is a still-unreliable 3412) wiped everything that had been recorded. Comcast customer service has been impossible to contact (that's service?), not that they would admit to knowing anything anyway. After browsing the forums, it is still not clear to me if others have experienced this behavior. Is this a known issue?

Perhaps something happened to my box, as I don't see a mass of posts about the symptom due to botched firmware upgrade or whatever. The building had some sort of power glitch over the weekend, not enough to reset the microwave clock, but our elevator system needed to be rebooted.

The funny thing is, I had been enjoying using my first-generation Replay over the weekend--30-second skip button and all. Rock solid reliable, records what it says it's going to, doesn't lose stuff. I'm ordering a Tivo S3 and dumping this Motorola/Comcast boat anchor. Cheap would be great, but unreliable (and unsupported) is just unacceptable.


Costco have the S3's on their website for less than $800 -- including shipping -- and with the Costco return policy if anything ever goes wrong with it, you can just take it back for a full refund...

Comcast customer service has been impossible to contact

Have you tried their online chat? I've never had to wait to get thru, and it's really useful for documenting issues in writing.

http://www.comcastsupport.com/sdcxuser/lachat/user/userchatstartvideo.asp

OK, so I have had problems since day one with Comcast, Customer service will never compensate for anything, we have had the lock up issues since day one, the jerky images, lost sound and complete jerky, stalled till it goes black recordings, and just got back from 10 days away, and all recorded show are trashed, not to mention it did not record a few shows. they stall, jerk and go black, you have to start from the beginning again and sometimes you can get past the bad spot but then they ultimately stall again after being jerky.
I just spent 30 minutes talking online to comcast, after explaining our 2 years of frustration , she credited $9.95 to my account. I said I would get more fun than $9.95 by taking the dvr out in the street and running over it several times.

My question is, does anyone have a comcast DVR service that actually works?

My question is, does anyone have a comcast DVR service that actually works?Yep - my 6412 has worked fine since I got it, over a year ago.

Really? no hang on FF or rewind, no sound loss or stalled recordings?

Well, I've been using Comcast DVR for at least a year now. I have occasional problems, like recordings that end prematurely or didn't happen at all. Now and then the box seems to get stuck and fails to respond to the remote. Now and then I've taken it in to my Comcast office to get a new box. Sometimes I get credited. I blame the software...it's just weak...very weak. And, I assume Microsoft has given up on fixing it because I see the same problem now I did months ago. But, when I get a problem, I just like to take the box in and get a new one... that's the best way (in my view) for Comcast to see there are problems.

anyone know where there is a local comcast office in downtown Seattle, Queen Anne area?

Really? no hang on FF or rewind, no sound loss or stalled recordings?A couple instances of stuck FF early on, but haven't seen it for quite a while. I probably don't use the DVR as heavily as some people - usually record 3-4 shows per week - but it generally "just works". Not something I really think about.

My question is, does anyone have a comcast DVR service that actually works?

I have a 3412 that works quite well. Occasionally, if I hit 3 FF too fast, it gets confused. Otherwise I've been quite happy with it. BUT I just purchased a Tivo Series 3 and I'm returning Moto 3412 to Redmond store this week. IF you would like to meet me there you can return yours and ask for mine. Not sure if Comcast would let us do that but I don't see why not. I'll enable Private Messages in this forum for reply.

OK, so I have had problems since day one with Comcast, Customer service will never compensate for anything, we have had the lock up issues since day one, the jerky images, lost sound and complete jerky, stalled till it goes black recordings, and just got back from 10 days away, and all recorded show are trashed, not to mention it did not record a few shows. they stall, jerk and go black, you have to start from the beginning again and sometimes you can get past the bad spot but then they ultimately stall again after being jerky.
I just spent 30 minutes talking online to comcast, after explaining our 2 years of frustration , she credited $9.95 to my account. I said I would get more fun than $9.95 by taking the dvr out in the street and running over it several times.

My question is, does anyone have a comcast DVR service that actually works?I've had a 6412 for as long as Comcast has offered them here (2 years), and until recently, it's worked great. But over the past couple months, I've had more and more of the dropouts and lockups that you describe. I suspect it's caused by progressive degradation of the hard disk, and I'll soon call Comcast to get a replacement. Meanwhile, I've saved a few recordings that have the most lockups, in hopes they'll use up the most damaged disk sectors and prevent other recordings from trying to use them.

Remember, when the DVR is turned on, it's constantly recording/buffering the current channel. For the past year, I've left my DVR turned on 24/7, which must give the hard disk a real beating. I assume (hope) that when the DVR is "off", it only records scheduled shows.

But, when I get a problem, I just like to take the box in and get a new one... that's the best way (in my view) for Comcast to see there are problems.

Maybe, but it can get pretty annoying when you have 40 hours of unwatched programs...

anyone know where there is a local comcast office in downtown Seattle, Queen Anne area?

I think the only office in the area is at 1140 N 94 St (just off Aurora)

Maybe, but it can get pretty annoying when you have 40 hours of unwatched programs...
I know... I just try to watch what I can, then take it in. Their office is convenient for me. Seems, though, that each new DVR is worse than the last.

I finally replaced my 6412 with a 3412 and, as much as I liked DVI over HDMI, the quality of the recordings is far better. The quirk with this one is that it occasionally reboots on whime :-/

I think the only office in the area is at 1140 N 94 St (just off Aurora)


That is the only one in Seattle I've found, but they are fortunately very helpful. There is one Bellevue somewhere, but haven't stopped by there before.

I just picked up a 3416 and right in the middle of Heroes, it rebooted. What are the odds that the 3416 has the same issues as the 3412?

I finally replaced my 6412 with a 3412 and, as much as I liked DVI over HDMI, the quality of the recordings is far better. The quirk with this one is that it occasionally reboots on whime :-/
So, what's the diff between 6412 and 3412???

I just picked up a 3416 and right in the middle of Heroes, it rebooted. What are the odds that the 3416 has the same issues as the 3412?

Pretty safe bet. What is the firmware version? If it's 12.35, perhaps they'll roll it back to 12.31 for you.

So, what's the diff between 6412 and 3412???The 34xx series is a cost-reduced version of the 64xx series. It has no analog tuner and no MPEG2 encoder - so it can neither view or record analog channels. Comcast locally switched to these as soon as they turned on digital simulcast in our market. And apparently it includes all the same old firmware bugs they spent a year fixing on the 6412.

The 34xx series is a cost-reduced version of the 64xx series. It has no analog tuner and no MPEG2 encoder - so it can neither view or record analog channels. Comcast locally switched to these as soon as they turned on digital simulcast in our market. And apparently it includes all the same old firmware bugs they spent a year fixing on the 6412.
Ah! Thanks. Looks like I've got a 3412-1

I just picked up a 3416

You got a 3416 from the Seattle office? As of a couple days ago, they told me they had not received any 3416s.

I got my 3416 in Auburn.

I definitely have the reboot problem, what issues will I get if I roll back to 12.31?

I took my 3412 into the Redmond office today and swapped it for a 3416. I'll wait to see if I need to roll the firmware back from 12.35 to 12.31, as I did with the 3412. My recollection from the 3412 exercise is that the 12.35 was more responsive to FF/REW, but having it reboot several times a day was worse. Maybe I'll be luckier with this one, but I still have 33% more disk space now, even if I have to revert the firmware.

The 3416 has the same spontaneous reboot problem, so I'm having the firmware reverted to 12.31.

I picked up my 6412 the first day it was available and it has been generally reliable. The CPU hangs processing commands (which manifests itself as the "RR/FF bug" amongst other problems) on occasion, but I have learned if it doesn't respond immediately, just wait.

I picked up my 6412 the first day it was available and it has been generally reliable. The CPU hangs processing commands (which manifests itself as the "RR/FF bug" amongst other problems) on occasion, but I have learned if it doesn't respond immediately, just wait.

Always fun when you hit Play after FF and nothing happens, because the box has still not registered FF even though it's been in FF mode...

Always fun when you hit Play after FF and nothing happens, because the box has still not registered FF even though it's been in FF mode...

Yeah, but at least I know once the CPU catches up, it will stop the FF almost immediately and I can then try again. :D

I've also noticed that the FF/REW hangups are much worse with non-HD channels.

Excerpts from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116726248529661013.html

(Walt Mossberg)---In my recent experience with Comcast, the high-definition DVR it supplies is just awful. The user interface on the Comcast box is crude and confusing. The worst problem is that the Comcast box flubs the basic functions of a DVR. It is maddeningly slow at responding to commands sent by the remote control. You press pause and nothing happens. You try to return to normal speed after fast-forwarding and the unit takes so long to obey your command that you badly overshoot the resumption of the program.

In the program grid, the Comcast box displays just four rows of stations at a time. Until recently, there was a fifth row, but now that has been replaced by an ad. The ad not only sucks up space, but also is aggravating because it gets selected each time you reach the bottom of the grid screen. Sacrificing 20% of an already paltry information screen for an ad just shows contempt for users.

Fortunately, it may be possible to get some, but not all, of TiVo's superior features by just waiting. In 2007, Comcast and TiVo expect to roll out an option for downloading TiVo software to Comcast boxes. This would provide the TiVo interface without sacrificing Comcast features such as on demand. Comcast is also working on other new user interfaces and features using non-TiVo technology.

Excerpts from http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116726248529661013.html

(Walt Mossberg)---In my recent experience with Comcast, the high-definition DVR it supplies is just awful. The user interface on the Comcast box is crude and confusing. The worst problem is that the Comcast box flubs the basic functions of a DVR. It is maddeningly slow at responding to commands sent by the remote control. You press pause and nothing happens. You try to return to normal speed after fast-forwarding and the unit takes so long to obey your command that you badly overshoot the resumption of the program.

In the program grid, the Comcast box displays just four rows of stations at a time. Until recently, there was a fifth row, but now that has been replaced by an ad. The ad not only sucks up space, but also is aggravating because it gets selected each time you reach the bottom of the grid screen. Sacrificing 20% of an already paltry information screen for an ad just shows contempt for users.

Fortunately, it may be possible to get some, but not all, of TiVo's superior features by just waiting. In 2007, Comcast and TiVo expect to roll out an option for downloading TiVo software to Comcast boxes. This would provide the TiVo interface without sacrificing Comcast features such as on demand. Comcast is also working on other new user interfaces and features using non-TiVo technology.You do realize he's not using the same MS user interface that we have here in Seattle? My box has always paused when I hit Pause. Our program guide has 6 rows, and no ads. After FF'ing, our units back up a proportional amount to avoid "overshooting".

I guess the moral is - it could be worse!

And of course like many folks, Walt has drunk the Comcast-Tivo Kool-Aid. It won't matter what kind of lipstick you put on the pig (Motorola's firmware and OS). It's still a pig, even when wearing shiny Tivo lipstick. The reason Tivos work so well is that Tivo controls the entire platform - from hardware design to set-top OS to EPG and back-end delivery systems.

And what part of the Comcast Tivo will they provide? The lipstick...

You do realize he's not using the same MS user interface that we have here in Seattle? My box has always paused when I hit Pause. Our program guide has 6 rows, and no ads. After FF'ing, our units back up a proportional amount to avoid "overshooting".

Except when the FF hasn't yet registered, so hitting Play accomplishes nothing, it just continues FF. If we had the forward skip function, it wouldn't be nearly as much of a problem.

Comcast is now demoing the Motorola boxes with TiVo software at CES this week. Anybody want to hazard a guess on if we here in Washington will ever see the TiVo software due to fact that Comcast & MS apparently have some sort of agreement that we are forced to beta test Microsoft technology?

Either we'll be the first market to get offered TiVo or the last. I'm betting on the latter.

I hope we're not stuck with the M$ version of the software -- there are just too many problems with the UI -- I find it hard to believe that the UI design team ever actually used the box in a real setting...

I'd rather have lipstick that did it's job on my pig...

I hope we're not stuck with the M$ version of the software -- there are just too many problems with the UI -- I find it hard to believe that the UI design team ever actually used the box in a real setting...Id rather have lipstick that did it's job on my pig...
I talked to a support person last night after my box has repeatedly locked in FF mode through an entire 2 hour movie. She said she uses it at home and has never had it lock in any mode like that. I couldn't even get out of DVR mode for several minutes after the FF ultimately finished. Hmmm...

Perhaps the employees get first crack at taking the good ones home. (Although I think it's the basic Motorola firmware design that's at fault, and that should be common to all of them.)

I had a CSR talk me into doing the 'downgrade' to the previous 'non-rebooting' version of the OS -- she said that by pressing Play before FF or REW, the machine was always responsive -- and to be honest, she's mostly right.

She was also the only CSR who ever admitted to having experienced problems with the box...

I'd be happy if the system stopped recording old episodes as new -- I know my Tivo does it from time to time, but this box seems to do that all the time.

The "downgrade" from 12.35 to 12.31, which seems more like an upgrade, was essential for me. My previous experience with 12.35 (before the reboots struck) was that it had fewer problems with FF/REW. Perhaps a macro, adding "Play" to FF and REW, would be a good idea.

I really don't understand why a fix to these fundamental problems (especially the reboots) isn't put out immediately. Based on my own career in producing mission critical realtime software for aircraft control, the phrase "it isn't rocket science" seems very appropriate here.

Perhaps if more people called Comcast demanding a refund of their monthly fee (I've had it refunded 3 times) then they'd do something about it.

The problem is the average person assumes that they are not aiming the remote correctly at the box, or some other factor in their control is the problem, not that the box has such basic problems -- I've talked to neighbors/friends with the box and they all experience rebooting or sticky FF/REW -- they just assume it's them...

Perhaps a macro, adding "Play" to FF and REW, would be a good idea.

Upon reflection, it occurs to me that the macro is not a good idea, since it would prevent you from going to anything beyond the first level of FF or REW. I think I'll try adding a manual "Play" prior to FF and REW, and if it works I'll see if I can be trained to use it.

Dave Perry, a manager in customer service at the Redmond office, has told me that Motorola has "fixed" the reboot issue of 12.35 and they expect to roll out an update at the end of January or the beginning of February.

I haven't demanded the refunds I feel I deserve because I'm hoping to get a resolution to the CCI=0x02 issue on the locals still carrying the broadcast flag (RC Flag=0x01). Since I don't think they're required by law to fix that I figure it would be best to stay on their good side to get cooperation.

Tim

I'd be happy if the system stopped recording old episodes as new -- I know my Tivo does it from time to time, but this box seems to do that all the time.

That could be a problem with the guide. Outside of the networks, it rarely (if ever) has a "Repeat" flag so it records the same episodes over and over again...

And even then it's sporadic. Some of my "season passes" record every episode not flagged as "Repeat" while others seem to remember I have watched this episode before and will not record replays...

:confused:

That could be a problem with the guide. Outside of the networks, it rarely (if ever) has a "Repeat" flag so it records the same episodes over and over again...

And even then it's sporadic. Some of my "season passes" record every episode not flagged as "Repeat" while others seem to remember I have watched this episode before and will not record replays...

:confused:

The proper algorithm for finding new shows is based on "Original Air Date", not the "Repeat" flag. Basically, the way it works is if the original air date is equal to the date the show is scheduled to air, it's an original and not a repeat. This alogorithm actually works very well. Unfortunately, not all DVRs do it this way.

That could be a problem with the guide. Outside of the networks, it rarely (if ever) has a "Repeat" flag so it records the same episodes over and over again...

If we could save searches, that would eliminate some of the need to bother with series recording in the first place...

Perhaps if more people called Comcast demanding a refund of their monthly fee (I've had it refunded 3 times) then they'd do something about it.
The problem is the average person assumes that they are not aiming the remote correctly at the box, or some other factor in their control is the problem, not that the box has such basic problems -- I've talked to neighbors/friends with the box and they all experience rebooting or sticky FF/REW -- they just assume it's them...

Tell them to walk up the box and aim the remote from about 2 inches away. When they continue to have the problem, maybe they'll no longer assume it's their fault...

Tell them to walk up the box and aim the remote from about 2 inches away. When they continue to have the problem, maybe they'll no longer assume it's their fault...

You'd think they'd get a clue when they see the little light on the box indicating the signal was received, followed by (eventual) rapid response to the queued up commands.

Sorry if this is a hijack, folks, but I thought you might be interested in some of the photos of the new Tivo interface for the Moto DVR. Probably won't solve the transport issues but it will bring one of my most missed Tivo features: fully addressable tuners (you can swap between them without losing the buffer). There's a lot of other cool stuff, too. Hopefully we in the Seattle area will have the same access to this as subscribers in other areas.

http://www.engadgethd.com/2007/01/09/comcast-dvr-with-tivo-pics-features/

...fully addressable tuners (you can swap between them without losing the buffer). ...

I believe that's currently possible for Comcast iGuide software customers, who don't have the automatic tuner swap "feature" that we have.

More photos plus the new Comcast TiVo Remote.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wahiggins3/sets/72157594469660371/detail/

Any news on when the TiVo software rollout might happen?

Any news on when the TiVo software rollout might happen?

Yes.

Yes.

Please supply that news or a link to it...

I was told by the North Seattle branch of Comcast that we can expect a Q3 or Q4 rollout in Seattle. We will apparently be one of the last markets served as we already use a custom GUI. I ordered my Series3 TiVo when I heard this for $499. Between the $300 saving off of retail and the delay in getting the TiVo GUI for Comcast, it seemed the right time.

I feared that might be the case -- damn, guess it's going to be a S3 for me too -- where did you get your S3 @ $499?

At NewEgg - I had a coupon with them and they had an instant rebate on it. If you are hoping to do the lifetime transfer, the purchase deadline is Jan. 31...

Got my Series3 today and installed it without too many issues. I had to get comcast to ping the cablecards a few times to to get them set right, but all is good now - so long comcrap dvr! The picture quality really is noticably better as well :-)

Got my Series3 today and installed it without too many issues. I had to get comcast to ping the cablecards a few times to to get them set right, but all is good now - so long comcrap dvr! The picture quality really is noticably better as well :-)

No more lag time from the remote?

Certainly far less than with the comcast box...seems faster than my previous Series2 was as well, but I had assumed it should be.

Yaahh!

No more Motorola DVR for me -- got my S3 and both cable cards up and running -- taking that piece of junk back tomorrow.

Its weird -- all the time Comcast would blame the networks for not labeling the shows as repeats (as to why the DVR would record old episodes when told to only record new), or that the signal didnt have the right frame buffers set (as to why certain shows were worse than others with the FF/Play response) -- with my Tivo S3, same shows, same signal and none of those problems exist... go figure.

The tech guys I talked to (up in Everett) to enable my CableCards did say that the new s/w for the box was in final beta -- I told him that if they tested it as much as they tested the current s/w then beta would probably be a generous term for it -- he did laugh.

Good luck with the 6412s and their ilk -- hopefully they'll never darken my door again!

The tech guys I talked to (up in Everett) to enable my CableCards did say that the new s/w for the box was in final beta

Were they referring to the TiVo/Motorola s/w or a new release of the Microsoft s/w?

He didnt know.

Anyone noticing their 6412 is unable to play shows it has recorded? In the past few days, three shows I have recorded will not play. I hit play and the machine trundles for a moment, then shows "End of Show". Fortunately, I have been able to catch them on repeat, but it's both annoying and somewhat ominous. It did this to me once before, but now it seems to be happening with more and more regularity...

Yes, that has been happening to me too. And even more frequent is the constant power shutoffs in the middle of watching a recorded show. Almost time to get a new box as it is very frustrating.

Yes, that has been happening to me too. And even more frequent is the constant power shutoffs in the middle of watching a recorded show. Almost time to get a new box as it is very frustrating.

The power-off is a symptom of problems with 12.35, which could be cured by reverting to 12.31. The recording problems Nausicaa refers to have just popped up this week, and I also have them.

Thanks for that info. How do I revert back to 12.31?

Something that might be of interest to those following this thread ...

According to the following Multichannel News article, Comcast is dropping the Microsoft guide / software and will be rolling out the iGuide they use in most other markets accross Washington state. Spokane gets the iGuide June 5, with the rest of the state moving over to the iGuide by early-Septemberish.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6442267.html

From http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/315614_msftcomcast15.html --

"The rollout will start June 5 in Spokane, and the Seattle market is scheduled to make the switch around the end of June, Kipp said."

Thanks for that info. How do I revert back to 12.31?

You have to call Comcast and ask them to do it.

It will be interesting to see how the non-MS software does with the Motorola hardware -- I assume this thread will die, and we'll just join the normal 6412 Comcast thread...

I'm thinking about another S3, but if the 6412 without MS is bearable, I'll maybe do that...

Monitor the iGuide forum and you'll see that things are about the same, as far as bugs go. They do complain about not being able to prune unwanted channels from the guide, but they can activate the 30-second skip.

Monitor the iGuide forum and you'll see that things are about the same, as far as bugs go. They do complain about not being able to prune unwanted channels from the guide, but they can activate the 30-second skip.

The 30 sec skip alone would be worth the switch.

Does iGuide buffer both tuners (without having them both recording shows) and allow you to switch between them, as my old DirecTivo did? That would be worth it for me.

Does iGuide buffer both tuners (without having them both recording shows) and allow you to them, as my old DirecTivo did? That would be worth it for me.

I believe they do, and that certainly would be worthwhile. I know they have the manual "swap" capability.

I believe they do, and that certainly would be worthwhile. I know they have the manual "swap" capability.
That would be great! Other than reliability - this is the feature I have missed most! The lack of channel hiding however, iwill be a bit annoying, since I don't subscribe to everything :).

Sorry if this has already been covered. I searched this thread but didn't find reference to this issue. I think this (along with a few other things) are pointing to a defective box.

Just got my 6412 Thursday. Initially the noise (fan?) was unbearable. Came home yesterday and it was silent. Think the fan may have died; good thing it's a rental :rolleyes:

Prior to this we'd had a few instances where after FF of a recorded show the sound would fail to return (digital optical out). Sometimes it would return in a minute or so after random button pushing, sometimes not. Power cycling seemed to do the trick.

Here's the biggy, recording shows last night we attempted to play one show from the beginning when it was ~20 minutes into the recording. No way to do this? The option to "Start over" isn't there and we couldn't rewind back either. Worst part of this experiment is it left the recording unwatchable. Going back after it was finished the guide says it's there but any attempt to "Resume Play" or "Start over" just results in a freeze frame of whatever is currently being watched. The transport buttons have no effect either. Figuring this was a bug we didn't attempt to watch any of the other Friday night shows while they were being recorded. However, at the end of one recorded show we were dumped to the show being recorded. We didn't try to watch it but may have hit pause so we didn't get part of the show while looking at the guide. In any event the result was that the recording seems to skip about 10 minutes of the show.

This is of course very annoying. If it's a bug we'll exchange the unit for a new one. If it's a "feature" then we'll have to learn to work around it until the Microsoft software is replaced. After using a ReplayTV for many years I can't say I'll miss any of the MSFT "features". There's a whole laundry list of little things they should have worked out in beta. -Bernie

Alden_Sloe --

There's been a discussion during the past week, mostly on the Seattle HD Forum, of a local bug that inhibits use of both tuners simultaneously under some conditions. This may be what's affecting you, and if so then it's not your box.

Just got my 6412 Thursday. Initially the noise (fan?) was unbearable. Came home yesterday and it was silent. Think the fan may have died; good thing it's a rental :rolleyes:



The fan noise you heard may have been an over temp. If the unit heats up too much, either the fan speed is increased or another fan kicks in. Don't know the innards to say which it is. Bottom line though is an overheated box may and should become louder as the high speed fan kicks in.

You can check for over temp by going to the diagnostics menu. To get there power off the unit using your remote and then within 2 seconds press the OK button (took me a couple of tries to get the timing right). There's a whole bunch of stuff in there and it even has a section where it tells you the temp of the box, it's highest high, and the number of times it went over temp.

Alden_sloe, F

Finally someone else has the digital out problem. I've had it for about 6 months. Only rarely, while fast forwarding, when I press play, the sound is out. The analog sound is okay if switch to my VCR but my HD sound is gone. Both run through my receiver. When I first called Comcast, they couldn't figure it out and they finally rebooted my system (sent a signal to?), which worked.

Here's what really irked me. The second time I called, I asked them to reboot my system and this is what they told me, "According to our records, on xxx when you called, your sound problem was likely due to your receiver being switched to the wrong output. You need to check your settings. What do you..." As someone who prides himself on his tech skills, I was steaming. Like Elaine on Seinfeld I wanted the statement expunged from my record! Finally when I settled down, I just asked again for them to reboot my system. They did it, and the sound came right back.

I've since learned that I only need to turn the DVR off and then back on. The sound always comes back.

That's my story!

Finally someone else has the digital out problem. I've had it for about 6 months. Only rarely, while fast forwarding, when I press play, the sound is out. The analog sound is okay if switch to my VCR but my HD sound is gone. Both run through my receiver.

I've since learned that I only need to turn the DVR off and then back on. The sound always comes back.That's my story!

Well, if that's your story then stick to it :) It did seem like turning it off and then back on was a sure fire "fix" but not something you want to do a lot. Sort of defeats the purpose of fast forward if you have to go to that much hassle. I could tell from my AV amp that there was no digital signal, but unhooked it and looked (optical) just to make sure. I figured the analog was probably working but didn't verify that. So far it's only done it once but then we've had it less than a week. I'll report back if it does it again. I guess the next question is is this unique to the MSFT software or does it happen with the iGuide boxes as well? -Bernie

Alden_Sloe --

There's been a discussion during the past week, mostly on the Seattle HD Forum, of a local bug that inhibits use of both tuners simultaneously under some conditions. This may be what's affecting you, and if so then it's not your box.


This morning my problems with the 3416 dual tuners have been miraculously cured.

The fan noise you heard may have been an over temp. If the unit heats up too much, either the fan speed is increased or another fan kicks in.
You can check for over temp by going to the diagnostics menu. To get there power off the unit using your remote and then within 2 seconds press the OK button (took me a couple of tries to get the timing right).
Got to the diagnostics menu. It's like the basic screen set-up menu accessed by Pwr/Menu. The only temperature reading I could find was for the harddisk. It had a max temp of something like 104 and an average of 102. I assume that's Farenheit :rolleyes:

I took the box back for exchange today. When unhooking it I had it up on it's side for a few minutes and the fan, which is mounted on the bottom of the unit kicked back on. LOUD

The show stopper problem (literally) seemed to be related to the use of two tuners simultaniously. It's quite possible all the problems I was having with this unit are software and/or frimware related. You'd think Comcast would check for bad versions when they connect to and enable the box... Then again, maybe not. The fact they are abandoning the MSFT software all together makes me think they just don't want to put any more effort into it at this point.

Anyway, on to box two. If this box also has a problem then Comcast will require a tech come out to the house.

I don't know how far reaching this issue is, but I'll start by posting in this thread.

Since Monday April 30th I've had a problem with playback of two programs that I record, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report, at 11:00pm and 11:30pm respectively, on channel 60, Comedy Central.

The symptom is that the show appears in the DVR menu, but when I try to play either show, the screen reverts to a frozen frame of the last live channel I was on and does absolutely nothing. After about 5 seconds the menu is available again, but the show refuses to play back. Other shows on HD channels and at different times have played back, and I even recorded a Daily Show repeat at 6:00pm on the same channel which worked.

This happened for 2 weeks on my 6412 Phase III box so I assumed it was a hardware issue and wanted a 3416 anyway so I exchanged it at the Redmond store and hooked up the new one.

Well, after a couple days I went to watch the Daily Show and guess what... same issue! Different box, different firmware (the 6412 wasn't running 12.35, the 3416 is).

I called Comcast support. After navigating through the automated menus to cable TV and DVR, a special recording asked if I was having problems with playback on my Comcast DVR. I hit the button and got another automated recording saying that this is a known issue and Comcast engineers are working to correct it. Not happy with Ms Robot's word, I waited for a live CS rep and asked what was going on.

Apparently this has been happening to a lot of customers, and they are working on a software fix for it. I was told that the engineering team is "overloaded" with work because of efforts for the upcoming release of iGuide for Washington in June. As such, this software fix is taking longer than expected.

This should be unacceptable for all Comcast customers having this issue, but the sad truth is there's no good alternative except the few who will shell out for a Tivo S3. I'm in the unfortunate (or would it be fortunate?) situation that I have 4 HDTVs and would need at least three Tivo S3s to avoid most of the problems I'm having with the Comcast units. Not gonna happen.

Revelate --

Have you tested the DVR today? My problems with the DVR recordings seem to be fixed now (in Bellevue), with nothing having been done on my part.

Since Monday April 30th I've had a problem with playback of two programs that I record, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report, at 11:00pm and 11:30pm respectively, on channel 60, Comedy Central.

The symptom is that the show appears in the DVR menu, but when I try to play either show, the screen reverts to a frozen frame of the last live channel I was on and does absolutely nothing.
Exact same issue I had after getting my box installed last Thursday. I took the box back to the Redmond Store and got a new one today. If it has the same problem when I get it home I'm going to be pissed. They said you only get one exchange and then send a tech out.

I think the issue is related to trying to use two tuners. Since you're recording two shows back to back and the software pads the recording time at each end there's an overlap which I think causes the box to attemp to access both tuners. We've also had this issue occur when trying to watch a show from the beginning that's currently being recorded or just plain watching live TV when a recording is in progress. This basicly reders the box useless. For now I've hooked up my old ReplayTV as a safe backup.

Revelate --

Have you tested the DVR today? My problems with the DVR recordings seem to be fixed now (in Bellevue), with nothing having been done on my part.
I'll let you know after tonight, new eposides of both programs in 3 hours.

Revelate --
Have you tested the DVR today? My problems with the DVR recordings seem to be fixed now (in Bellevue), with nothing having been done on my part.
I don't know about the original poster, but I had the same problem when attempting a recording tonight.

Since Monday April 30th I've had a problem with playback of two programs that I record, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and the Colbert Report, at 11:00pm and 11:30pm respectively, on channel 60, Comedy Central.



I've not had any problems with recording these two shows as one long recording. Set your DVR to record The Daily Show starting at 11pm and change the options to end it 30 minutes later than scheduled so that The Colbert Report is tacked onto the end of the Daily Show. This avoids the dual tuner problem that others are having.

There's been a discussion during the past week, mostly on the Seattle HD Forum, of a local bug that inhibits use of both tuners simultaneously under some conditions. This may be what's affecting you, and if so then it's not your box.
Didn't notice until I got home that at the Redmond Comcast store they exchanged my 6412 for one of the 3416s. Oh well, I guess it's not up to me and the 3416 provides the features they advertised (i.e. dual tuners, HDTV recording). So from what I read the 3416 is "digital only". Strange, when you bring up the guide all the "analog" channels are still there and work with the 3416. Does this mean Comcast actually broadcasts both the analog and a digital feed for all of these and the box just remaps the guide to get the digital version? How about the 6412, does it tune to the analog even though it should be capable of receiving either? I guess it doesn't make much difference to me. If the whole house network thing they're talking about allows direct transfer to a PC ala DVArchive then I'll be a happy camper.

As it sits the issues I was having with corrupted recordings, not being able to watch a currently recording show from the beginning and digital audio loss/sync seem to be fixed. There also appears to be some other nice features to the software. Like when you do a search by show title it brings up a list of known shows. Much faster to page down to what you want than "type" it in. Oh, and the 3416 is virtually silent... so far. The RF out is handy as I can run it to the TV and bypass the AV amp if I want to (nice for quick news watching at breakfast, etc. There's a setup option you can check for RF bypass but it doesn't seem to do anything different? It would be nice if it would just pass along the whole shebang when the 3416 is powered of like a VCR feed through. Maybe there's a way but I'm not finding it.

-Bernie

...
So from what I read the 3416 is "digital only". Strange, when you bring up the guide all the "analog" channels are still there and work with the 3416. Does this mean Comcast actually broadcasts both the analog and a digital feed for all of these and the box just remaps the guide to get the digital version? How about the 6412, does it tune to the analog even though it should be capable of receiving either?
...


That's ADS, and you are correct about how it is handled. The 6412 is capable of tuning the analogs or being switched by Comcast to use the digital versions.

Revelate --

Have you tested the DVR today? My problems with the DVR recordings seem to be fixed now (in Bellevue), with nothing having been done on my part.

Good news. Both shows recorded and played back on Monday night. I saw the suggestion in another post to set it up as one long recording, but I didn't want to change any variables since this is really a troubleshooting effort at this point.

The DVR firmware (12.35) and software (41.99) haven't changed. Let's hope this sticks.

Good news. Both shows recorded and played back on Monday night. I saw the suggestion in another post to set it up as one long recording, but I didn't want to change any variables since this is really a troubleshooting effort at this point.

The DVR firmware (12.35) and software (41.99) haven't changed. Let's hope this sticks.

Great!
I have 12.31 (reverted to it to avoid the spontaneous reboots with 12.35), but I have no idea what 41.99 would refer to. My guide build says 1.7.3400 (25129S).

Here's a new bug I haven't heard of yet. I swapped out all 4 of my DVRs (6412s and 3412s) a couple weeks ago with 3416s and am experiencing a new issue (to me) on one box that is now occuring on at least two units.

When I FF through the commercials and hit play, instead of skipping back xx seconds (relative to the FF level), it appears to be skipping forward the same amount. It doesn't happen all the time, and the frequency is random.

While playing back last week's American Idol shows, it would do it every time I FF through the commercials, but when I RW back into the commercials and try to reproduce it, it would never do it a second time. But after watching the show segment and FF through the next set of commercials, it does it again.

It magically went away for a week on that box, at least with different shows on different channels, but I just noticed it on the other box when playing back the Daily Show eposide.

It's not a delay/lag issue, I can clearly see the menu react as soon as I press the Play button.

All DVRs are running 12.35 firmware and 41.99 software. I'm going to call Comcast and revert one back to 12.31 and see if the problem goes away. It just may take a while before I'm comfortable that it's been fixed since I don't use any particular DVR regularly enough to quickly notice these random bugs.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I have not experienced that, but it'll be moot anyway since the MSFT guide is going away soon. Hopefully we'll be able to use the 12.35 firmware that fixes the FF response issues without spontaneous reboots since that only seems to affect us MS guide users, once we're using IGuide. I also noticed in the channel guide the four channnels set aside for Comcast Central (957,958,959 and 960). I also noticed three new HD channel numbers in the guide just below UHD. Am hoping this might be for the new HD channels that are coming.

I have not experienced that, but it'll be moot anyway since the MSFT guide is going away soon. Hopefully we'll be able to use the 12.35 firmware that fixes the FF response issues without spontaneous reboots since that only seems to affect us MS guide users, once we're using IGuide. I also noticed in the channel guide the four channnels set aside for Comcast Central (957,958,959 and 960). I also noticed three new HD channel numbers in the guide just below UHD. Am hoping this might be for the new HD channels that are coming.

We should get something like 16.35 (at least) for firmware with iGuide.

I see the new numbers -- 657, 658, and 659.

(I'll bet we never see 666.)