Background: Much of this was edited, updated, and tested from the SA3250HD/SA8000HD posts by AVS Member 'vegggas'. Others were added from personal experience and suggestions, with literary license taken.

Suggested Links to SA8300HD threads/sites that may be of further interest:
SA8300HD DVR User's Guide (http://www.scientificatlanta.com/ExplorerClubGuides/getting_started/4003870.pdf)
Vegggas' original SA8000HD DVR - Cox - SARA - Setup and Review Guide thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=421666)
SA Diagnostic Screens Explained (http://www.dslreports.com/faq/sciatl/3.1%20Using%20diagnostic%20screens)
Time Warner Cable - SA 8000HD & 8300HD w/ Passport software thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=453804)
8300HD and External SATA - It Works!! thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=516559)
SA's PowerTV Developers Page (http://www.powertv.com/developers/index.htm)
SA's PowerTV CreativEdge Developers Guide (http://www.powertv.com/developers/images/devguide.pdf)

Additional Items of Interest

Xnappo's SATA Expansion Databases. Tracks compatibility issues between SA8300HD/HDC (and compatible units like the 8240 series) and various SATA drives/enclosures:
SA8300HD/HDC eSATA Compatibility Database (SARA) (http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main)
SA8300HD/HDC eSATA Compatibility Database (Passport) (http://www.baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/passport)
SA8300HD/HDC eSATA Compatibility Database (Navigator) (http://www.baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/navigator)
How To Determine Software Being Used. Look at the A-B-C button labels at the bottom of the IPG (Interactive Program Guide) to determine which software is being used:
A B C
SARA Browse By Date [curved backarrow]
Passport Echo Time Theme Search
Passport (non-DVR) Time Theme Title
Navigator Access Menu Find Shows [no label]

Hot Topic Of The Day
Cable's OCAP Wish List (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=4683407&&#post4683407)
TIPS & TRICKS (separated in the following categories):
Setup
Setup Wizard
Change Default Format
Removing Bars On SD Channels
Reverts To 480i
Settings
General Settings Option Info
Audio Out Using HDMI Connection
Display Format Summary
Audio Range Settings
Auto Shut-off Workaround
Recording Options
Extend Recording Time
Change Recording Time
Recordings With Manually Set/Altered Start Times
"Save Time" and "Until I Erase" Options
Checking Status Of Current Recording
Lost or Missing Recordings
Blank Recordings
Place-Holders For Future Recordings (1.88.x.x)
Potential Recording Conflicts
Auto-Erase
Playback Controls
Slow Motion Mode
Frame Advance Mode
Fast Forward/Rewind
Mimic Tivo Jump-Back
Resume Playback
Diagnostics
Diagnostic Mode
Disappearing Diagnostic Window
Finding SARA Software Version
Reboot
Forced Reboot (without unplugging unit)
Hard Reboot
Last Resort (Reformat)
Total Reset
HDD Defrag
V/H Resolution Information
Memory Info
Signal Levels
SDV Diagnostics
Miscellaneous
Clearing Pop-up Windows
Program Distribution
Viewing A Third Program
Macro - Automate Remote Turn On
Anamorphic DVDs
New Features - 1.88.x.x
New Features - 1.89.x.x
Bug(s) Fixed in 1.89.x.x
Bug(s) Remaining after 1.89.x.x
Setup
Setup Wizard. UG-3 Instructions for Advanced Setup Wizard to choose TV type and resolutions, done after the box has received it's initial download from your cableco.
Using Power button on unit (not remote), turn off power, then press both GUIDE/INFO at same time.
Choose Easy or Advanced setup - Easy selects 1080i output only - Advanced provides options for TV type (4x3 or 16x9) and user selected outputs.
Follow instructions on the screen. Read instructions carefully. If screen goes blank, it is trying to display a resolution not supported by TV - disable resolution.
Change Default Format. Default format can be changed without going through Setup Wizard:
Press/hold Select until Mail LED lights.
Press Vol Down (-) button - display changes to "HdSr" (HD Screen Resolution)
Press Ch Up (+) for 480i
Press Ch Down (-) for 480p
Press Vol Down (-) for 720p
Press Vol Up (+) for 1080iNote: Does not appear to work using remote.

Removing Bars On SD Channels. Factory default displays side bars on non-HD channels. Toggling zoom modes eliminates them, but this often cuts much of image. Adding resolutions allows TV to stretch images and avoid uneven phosphor wear (burn-in). Use Setup Wizard to enable resolutions other than 1080i. Also set picture format to Pass-Through (press Settings twice, scroll to Set:Picture Format, select Pass-Through).
With box OFF and TV ON, press Info /Guide (on box) together, then follow on-screen directions to enable 480i and others. Cable passes 720p (ABC, FOX, ESPN), 1080i (all other HD channels), 480i (SD channels), and 480p (music channels). If you do not see difference between 1080i/720p, enable only one to minimize reformatting while channel surfing. Note: The 480i/p Widescreen options allow 8300 to stretch image. Do not enable if you use TV to stretch image.
Reverts To 480i. If your setup reverts to 480i and a reboot doesn't resolve the problem, refer to Post #10 in This Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=767661).

Settings
General Settings Option Info. After pressing Settings twice, scroll to any General Setting option and simply press Info for description/other information.

Audio Out Using HDMI Connection. UG-2 HDMI connection will automatically select 2 channel stereo if TV does not support Dolby Digital (DD). In order to restore DD audio to receiver, change automatic setting. Press Settings twice and scroll to Audio: Digital Out. Change setting from HDMI to Dolby Digital. This will force DD audio to HDMI, as well as digital/optical audio outs.

Display Format Summary. UG-5/6 Press Settings twice, then scroll to Set: Picture Format.
Fixed - Displays all content at whatever resolution you selected in Setup Wizard.
Pass Through - Passes input signal through with no change unless you disable a resolution. For example 480i in - 480i out, 720P in - 720P out, 720p disabled - 1080i out, etc.
Auto HDMI/DVI - If you use HDMI, this option replaces Pass Through option. Resolution is automatically formatted to scan rate supported by TV.
UpConvert 1 - All 480i/480P signals converted to 480P. All 720P/1080i signals converted to 1080i.
UpConvert 2 - All 480i/480P signals converted to 480P. All 720P/1080i signals converted to 720P.
Audio Range Settings. Audio Range options are for Dolby Digital output signals and refer to digital "Dynamic Range".
Wide Dynamic Range will render audio that will go from faintest audio level of a whisper at an extremely low level to thundering boom at ear-shattering levels giving great impact to action movies, but calls for good audio setup to properly hear normal dialog without blasting speakers during loud scenes.
Narrow Dynamic Range keeps lower volumes at higher level while muting higher level sounds to lower level. Whispered dialog is not much quieter than explosion and all sound levels are "Narrowed" to a certain level.
Normal Dynamic Range basically splits difference.
These are not specific numbers, but think of it something like this when setting the volume level to about 33% for same scene. Using Narrow Dynamic Range, whisper might be 45db and explosion 85db. Using Wide Dynamic Range setting, whisper might now be 15db and explosion 105db.

Auto Shut-off Workaround. Auto Shut-off feature can be defeated by setting General Settings/Timer: Turn Off option and setting Timer: Wake-up option for 1 minute later to keep unit on virtually 24/7. Useful if 8300HD is connected to Replay TV or other devices that rely on 8300HD for channel change, etc.

Recording Options.
Extend Recording Time. UG-21 Extend recording time of recording currently in progress by:
Press LIST.
Press "A" to switch to Scheduled Recordings list.
Find in-progress recording program (it will be highlighted in RED).
Press SELECT to access options.
Change End time to desired time.
Press the "A" to accept changes.
This is particularly useful for extending time for sporting events that may run over.

Change Recording Times. UG-21 Recording times can be changed by editing Start/End times when scheduling recording or any time before recording begins. This is useful to avoid scheduling conflicts caused by networks who think beginning programs early or ending them late hooks viewers. However, there is a problem whereby contents of buffer is incorrectly added to beginning of recording whose start time has been changed. The problem only occurs if you happen to be tuned to same channel prior to start of recording.

"Save Time" and "Until I Erase" Options. "Save Time" and "Until I Erase" are separate options designed for different purposes.
The term "Save Time" is misleading and has little to do with how "long" programs will be saved, especially when it comes to available space and "Auto Erase". It simply gives one the option to record 1-5 or All episodes of a given program and oldest will be erased when selected option starts recording, etc. This is the case wheher or not Auto Erase is turned On.
However, if "Auto Erase" is turned On, oldest recordings (not just the oldest episodes of a given program) will be erased regardless of "Save Time" settings. If all are tagged "Until I Erase", further recording stops and message is displayed indicating drive is full.
Checking Status Of Current Recording. You can use PIP to check status of a program currently being recorded. Recording program will be displayed in PIP window. If you are watching program being recorded while recording a second program, second program will be displayed in PIP window.

Lost or Missing Recordings. Most of us probably schedule several All or New episode recordings when fall season starts and then forget about them. However, the success of these scheduled recordings depends enirely on the title of the program matching the title when the recording was scheduled. Oftentimes, the title in the IPG changes, sometimes as often as weekly, and that can wreak havoc with your schedule. While it's impossible to attribute every lost or missing recording to a title change, it seems worthwhile to periodically check your scheduled recordings list against IPG to make sure recordings are highlighted properly.

Blank Recordings. Sometimes recording may appear to be blank when attempting playback:
If you get blank screen, try selecting another recording from list, begin playback of that recording, and then re-select original recording. If it still doesn't play properly, try a hard" reboot before giving up and deleting recording.
If you get Playback Channel screen, try a "hard" reboot before giving up and deleting recording.
Place-Holders For Future Recordings. The 8300HD sets place-holders to keep track of future recordings for recurring scheduled recordings (weekly or less frequent). These are set as soon as recording starts and are scheduled for 7 (1.89.x.x) or 9 (1.88.x.x) days out. Unfortunately, these place-holders, especially those in 1.88.x.x, can make things look incorrect when viewing highlighted items in IPG looking for potential conflicts or just reviewing upcoming recordings. An example:
Justice on FOX airs weekly on Monday nights at 8:00 pm. When regularly scheduled recording starts, new place-holder is set for next episode, but it is dated for following Wednesday and will appear as such in Scheduled Recordings list. It is easily identified as a place-holder. When you press INFO, you get an empty display window.
Criminal Minds on CBS and Lost on ABC both air weekly on Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm and when you view the IPG, both of these are highlighted for recording.
Nothing is scheduled to record on FOX on Wednesday nights at 8:00 pm, so nothing should be highlighted. However, if you check further, you will see that whatever airs at 8:00 pm is also highlighted (MLB Post-Game as of this posting).
Even though this appears to be incorrect, is it only highlighted because of place-holder for Justice and not because anything will actually get recorded. It does not need to be cancelled.
In my test, place-holders are reset for correct day once next episode appears in IPG, usually after nightly IPG update. Others have had them reset shortly after mid-night, while still others have them wait to reset until the actual day of recording.
It's important to note to be careful when reviewing IPG and Scheduled Recordings list for upcoming recordings, all may not be as it appears and you may inadvertently cancel recordings that are not erroneous.
Potential Recording Conflicts. There have been reports that "old" scheduled recordings of programs no longer on might cause 8300HD to get confused at some point. This can result in lost recordings or inability to set up new recordings for same timeslot. This can be minimized by cleaning out old scheduled recordings for shows that are no longer on. Also, see previous item before inadvertently deleting potential place-holders.

Auto-Erase. The Auto Erase function should work on programs recorded AFTER it is turned on and for those programs originally recorded without the "Until I Delete" option. Previously recorded programs that were recorded without those two options should not be auto deleted even after you manually change the save time settings (except for the amount of days you set it to) because they were flagged to not be Auto Erased as space is needed.
In summary, to use the feature:
1) Turn ON Auto Erase.
2) Change Save Time for Future Recordings to something other than "Until I Erase".
You should also clean out your recordings so that you have a decent amount of working space for the above rule. If you only have 5% space left, and try to start using the feature it's not going to work because you would only have up to 5% of available working space to begin with (hint 5% is not even enough to record 1 hour of HD). Programs originally recorded with those settings will comply with the rules.

Playback Controls
Slow Motion Mode. UG-14 While viewing a recorded program, press Play 2nd time to enter Slow Motion mode.

Frame Advance Mode. UG-14 While viewing a recorded program, press Pause, FF/REW now become Frame Advance.

Fast Forward/Rewind. UG-13 Pressing FF/REW starts desired action. You can press them up to 4 times to increase the speed; 4x, 10x, 30x, and 128x.

Mimic Tivo Jump-Back. UG-14 Tivo users have gotten used to how it 'jumps back' a few seconds when you hit Play after fast forwarding. You can mimic this behavior by hitting Replay, button with curved arrow on it, instead of Play. This will bounce you back 8 seconds and resume normal speed from there.
One caveat. Next time you press FF, you will be given "next" FF speed, rather than FF1. If you were using FF2, hit Replay, watch some of show, and then hit FF, you will get FF3 instead of FF1. A better way might be to press Play and then immediately press Replay.
Another way to mimic this action is by pressing Pause instead of Play to stop fast forwarding. This way, when you hit Rewind to back up to precise place to restart program, it will remain paused instead of immediately starting to play again.
Resume Playback. If you Pause, Stop, or simply tune to another channel while viewing a recording, you can resume playback from where you left off by simply tuning back to Playback Channel and pressing Play as long as you have not viewed another recording in meantime.

Diagnostics
Diagnostic Mode. There are two ways to enter Diagnostic Mode:
Press and hold Select on front of unit until Mail light starts to flash, then press INFO.
Press and hold Pause on remote until Mail light starts to flash (around 10-15 seconds), then press Page Up (-). On some remotes, Page (+) might need to be used instead.
Disappearing Diagnostic Window. Enter Diagnostic Mode (see above item). Change transparency of screens by pressing Select on front of box or "B" on remote. It goes from 100% opaque to about 50% opaque to about 5% opaque. You can then use Page Up/Down on remote to cycle through screens. This is useful when changing channels, noting signal levels/PQ, or trying to see levels fluctuate as glitches occur.

Finding SARA Software Version. Enter Diagnostic Mode (see above item) and scroll through screens until you find one entitled "Software Versions" or "Component Information". Version number on one of those pages will be in a format similar to 1.85.14.3. Also, there are a number of different naming conventions being used and only one is really accurate in sense that PTV OS version number can differentiate SARA versions across platforms. For example, both SA8000HD and SA8300HD run SARA 1.89.18.1. However, SA8000HD runs PTV OS 6.12.18.1 whereas SA8300HD runs PTV OS 6.14.81.1. This probably doesn't mean much in big scheme of things and is offered only for information when viewing diagnostics screens.

Reboot. Unplug power cord for 5 or more seconds and then plug it back in.

Forced Reboot (without unplugging unit). On front of box, press/hold both VOL+ and VOL- , then press INFO.

Hard Reboot. Hard Reboot will refresh all available software and modules on system, as well as clear out memory cache. IPG and other data may take up to 30 minutes or more to fully download.
Turn off 8300 and wait 5 or more seconds.
Unplug power cord from 8300 and wait 5 or more seconds.
If you are resetting an external drive too, unplug it's power cord at this point and wait 5 or more seconds, then plug power cord back into external drive and wait 5 or more seconds.
Press and hold Power on 8300 front panel. While Power is depressed, plug 8300 power cord back in. Continue to hold Power until 8300 display says "boot" and/or begins to cycle a few times (usually about 15 seconds).
NOTE: Hard Reboot will resolve MANY issues with not only external drives, but memory issues too. You should WAIT until the reboot is completely finished before powering up. It usually takes about 5 - 10 min, depending on your application and IPG data. Best way to determine when the download is finished is to watch the front panel indicators. On the front panel, where the : (colon) seperates the hours and minutes, the bottom " . " dot will appear after all OS firmware has been loaded. An STB getting a download or initializing will be blank. Leave STB alone until dot appears.

Last Resort (Reformat). If for some reason you can't get STB to do what you want and you've rebooted it by unplugging it, etc., this is a "last resort" item - say just before taking unit back, you can try reformatting the HDD. The format operation resets all data on the DVR, including all recordings, preferences and scheduled recordings. It is a "factory fresh" reset.

When doing the format procedure, there are times where it won't always "take" and will have to be redone again. The procedure is to get the mail light blinking from the remote control by holding down the pause button. Once blinking do not press anything else except the page down (page -) button on the remote three times while watching the display. The display should say something like HDD-1 and then HDD-2 or HDD-F. Once on the setting you want (typically the third press) leave it alone and put the remote down. In a few minutes, the DVR will reboot and reformat on it's own. Once complete in about 10 to 15 minutes (depending on RDC and FDC signal level quality) the unit will be available to be turned on, but it's best to leave it off and come back at a later time after it has completely downloaded all of the guide data and info.
Press and hold PAUSE until Mail led is lit.
Press PAGE down or (-), and then press LIST three times.
Turn box off. When turned back on, formatting will begin.
Total Reset. From AVS - vegggas:
I don't think this is common knowledge, but it could save many users a lot of grief. Most failed units can be revived with total reset performed by user, depending on failure type. Instead of replacing unit and losing your shows, try this trick as last (or first) resort. This is known to reset unit no longer displaying Video, unable to lock on to one/both tuners, unable to read Hard Drive, or no longer able to get a download (display counting or hunting).
Complete reset can be done by removing power and all connections for an extended amount of time. This means remove power cable, coax cable(s), eSATA cable, everything, so it can fully discharge capacitors and memory. This can take anywhere from 4 - 24 hours (although it MIGHT work in less than 30 Min), so pick a time that you are not going to be using unit, like overnight and while at work.
After leaving it disconnected overnight, repower it (but don't turn it on) with just the basic connections (no eSATA) and let it sit until it gets a full download, which could take a long time. Basic OS download should be complete once you see time, or dot (depending on your settings), appear on front panel, usually within 3-7 minutes. IPG may take up to an hour, but unit could be turned on at this point.
If it works, unpower unit and reconnect as normal, consider yourself lucky you didn't have to swap it out.
BTW, leaving unit off while repowering and downloading is always a good idea and should be done whenver you may reboot unit. Powering on while downloading OS can result in early fragmentation of memory and erratic results.
HDD Defrag. To defrag drive:
Set unit's MAIN/PIP channels to non-bufferable channels, such as music channel, so that drive is not being used.
Wait a few moments to verify hard disk activity stops (listen).
Press Power on front to turn the unit off, then wait.
Drive should start defragging after about 5 minutes of inactivity.
NOTE: Process can take several hours to all day and will restart if content is deleted or power down sequence is repeated. For maximum efficiency, consider turning off unit, then do a front panel soft reboot (VOL-, VOL +, INFO) and leave unit powered off until you hear it go into defrag mode. Then just leave it off while you go to work, to bed, etc.
V/H Resolution Information. If you are using SA8300HD/SA8000HD, diagnostic page 30 shows MPEG decoder input vertical/horizontal resolutions from cable company.

Memory Info. Memory Map for 8300: Flash = 512Kb
Application Dram = 64Mb
Media Dram = 32Mb [SD versons have 16Mb Media decoding Dram]
Mpeg Encoding Dram = 16Mb
Non-Volatile Memory = 8Kb
Cab files for all recordings are stored in NVM, along with all other settings/preferences. Use of Favorites, among other settings, uses most of this memory. Hard reboot reads off drive and/or account memory to refresh NVM, whereas pulling power plug alone, does not. This is simplistic explanation, not gospel. Cable operators may also have ability to use some of Media Dram for overlay technologies when application dram is too full, thus reducing overall PQ.

Signal Levels. General info regarding diagnostic pages and signal level data displayed:
ANSI SCTE 40 2004 "Digital Cable Network Interface Standard" establishes "acceptable" levels. Free download from SCTE Website (http://www.scte.org/content/index.cfm?pID=59).
Digital QAM carrier, STB Input Level: -12 to +15 dBmV for 256QAM and -15 to +15 dBmV for 64QAM.
Minimum S/N: 33 dB for 256QAM, 27 dB for 64 QAM and 43 dB for Analog. [Also known as C/(N+I).]
FDC QPSK carrier, STB Input Level: -15 to +15 dBmV
Minimum S/N: 20 dB
RDC QPSK reverse carrier, STB Output Level: +25 dBmV to +53 dBmV. (+85 to +113 dBuV is specified in referenced ANSI SCTE 55-2 2002.) Since return loss back to neighborhood node will vary depending on where you are in power divider/amplifier chain, RDC value will be automatically adjusted for more/less equal strength as received at node. If RDC is at MAX, it may have run out of oomph....
CURRENT FDC (Forward Data Channel) refers to I-N channel used to download software and program guide info to unit.
Level: Should be -15 to +15 dBmV
S/N: Should be 20 dB or more
CURRENT RDC (Reverse Data Channel) refers to I-N channel used to send user's PPV/On-Demand and other commands back to node.
Power: Varies depending on where you are in cable power amplifier/divider chain
Delay: Signal Propagation Delay from unit to node (Q: One-way or Round-Trip?)
CURRENT QAM refers to currently tuned video channel:
Level: Should be -12 to +15 dBmV for QAM256
S/N: Should be 33 dB (or more) for QAM256 [This is more important than level]
Seconds: How long channel has been tuned.
Corr Bytes: How many bytes were detected in error and corrected since first tuned
Uncor Blks: How many data blocks that failed parity check, but could not be corrected.
Errs Avg/Inst: Average and Instantaneous Bit (byte? block?) Error Rates.
SDV Diagnostics. For those interested in how SDV appears in the diag screens, new versions of the SARA firmware have some SDV specific screens:

Page 37 - Switched Digital Video
Page 38 - SDV MINI Carousel
Page 39 - SDV Session Info

Page 39 seems to display the most data of interest so far. Here is how some of the fields behave with different channel types:

Fixed QAM/analog:
Name-Status: SDV61444-Ready
SamSvcld/Type: <channel number>/Broadcast
Act Time: n/a
SDV Freq: 0MHz

SDV Channel:
Name-Status: SDV61444-Pending (until lock), then -Ready
SamSvcld/Type: <some number>/Switched
Act Time: <date and time status went to ready>
SDV Freq: Changes depending on SDV pool that gets assigned

Once you check the data for a few channels, you begin to figure out which QAM frequencies are assigned to the SDV pool and can identify them quite easily from the data on page 1.

Miscellaneous.
Clearing Pop-up Windows. UG-18 You can get rid of pop-up windows by pressing Exit.

Program Distribution. 8300HD has 2 tuners and 2 outputs that may be used at same time. Archive To VCR option uses Composite/S-Video connection to "archive" recorded program to VCR/DVD. However, it can also be used to "view" downconverted recorded program on alternate TV while viewing different live/recorded program on main TV or recording two other programs on 8300HD. Also, depending on software version/cableco, 8300HD may be similarly connected to one device via HDMI and another device via Component to view same recorded/live program on different TVs at same time. Component/HDMI no longer work for some, but Composite/S-Video still work with Archive To VCR option for everyone.

Viewing A Third Program. No matter how many tuners 8300HD has, there are times when they are simply not enough. There is nothing to keep you from hooking up an antenna to ANT input on TV and switching to that input to view third program, to keep you from splitting your cable and running 2nd line to TV, or to keep you from running 2nd line to VCR and then to TV to view/record 3rd program.

Macro - Automate Remote Turn On. To automate remote turn-on and stay on whatever channel you previously had on (instead of a dedicated turn-on channel) without using the power button, go to General Settings/Viewer:Power On option. In list of Power On channels, select Last Channel. Now, no matter how you choose to turn unit on (except when using a dedicated wake up timer), it will go to last channel viewed. If you want to set an easy macro, make sure General Settings/Set:Power-On Keys option is set to Power/Numeric. Then in macro, choose non-existing channel (such as "000") to turn on unit, it will turn on, but not change channels.

NOTE: Some software versions may react differently when entering non-existing channel number. In these instances, some folks have had success by entering channel number followed by "Last" to tune to previous channel.

Also, those of you with on/off issues, there are more tricks you can do. Someone mentioned that they can't use channel "0" because it changes to "1", and another says that the guide comes up whenever it's powered on. Use the "EXIT" button to clear commands before they are used. Example: to power on, macro in channel "0" with single press of "0", then press Exit. The channel never changes and the guide data is quickly erased too. The "EXIT" button clears all on-screen graphics and aborts commands any time it's used.

Anamorphic DVDs.
First some background. Basically, Anamorphic DVDs are SD DVDs that have wide screen image "Squeezed" rather than recorded in letterbox format (where upper/lower black bars are wasted). This results in DVD with more resolution. While some DVD recorders/formats support inclusion of anamorphic (16:9) flag, you do not really need flag if you can view DVDs in "stretch" mode. If DVD recorder does have ability to set this flag, then "stretch" will automatically occur in DVD player.

To make this work you need to get SA8300HD to "squeeze" images. 8300HD will do this on Composite/S-Video outputs when in SD mode. Once in SD mode, Zoom button (usually #) on remote will go to "Stretch 480i" mode. This results in 16:9 image being squeezed into 4:3 space so you can record it. It is recommended you use S-Video connection on 8300 for these recordings. Note: when 8300HD is in SD mode, Component outputs will be magenta in color - so you need to be watching what you are doing through DVD recorder output.

Instructions:
With TV tuned to 8300 input, turn 8300 off.
Press both Guide/Info on front panel of 8300.
Setup Wizard will come up - Simply press "A" to go into SD mode.
Do Hard Reboot (described earlier).
Select program to be recorded and make sure DVD recorder is ready to record.
Start DVD recorder, play program on 8300, and press "#" once to get into Stretch (actually Squeeze) mode.
When done and ready to return 8300 to regular HD operation, go through Setup Wizard again. This time press "B" to set up HD mode with desired resolutions and then do a Hard Reboot again.
Note: The Hard Reboot steps were needed with 1.88.17.100 because 8300 would randomly drop out of SD mode, go back to normal letterboxed mode, and then come on in SD mode when turned on next day. Hard Reboot with desired mode (SD or HD) seems to force 8300 to remember correct mode. This does not apply to 1.89.x.x or later software.

New Features - 1.88.x.x (May not be applicable to every cableco)

Enhanced HDD Spin Down - After 15 minutes of inactivity between 1:00am and 1:15am, the HDD will spin-down without powering off the STB, and a screen saver with an MSO configurable logo/graphic will be displayed while the HDD is spun-down. If an external SATA HDD is attached to the DVR, it will also spin down when the internal HDD spins down.
Currently Recording Option - When the user selects a currently recording program from the Recorded List, DVR will always display a Currently Recording Program Options screen with “Play from beginning” as the default highlighted option.
Kick Out To Live - Let's say you schedule the recording of a program and go out for dinner. When you get home, you begin watching the recorded program from the beginning while the rest is still recording. When the recording ends, you are no longer 'kicked out' of your viewing.
Live Or Time Shifted Video Indicator – Added the API for indicating whether user is watching Live or time-shifted video.
Activated Front Panel AUX Input - Front panel auxiliary input is activated.
Macrovision On AUX Input – Turned on the macrovision protection on AUX input.
Return To Live Button - While watching a DVR recording playback, pressing the LIVE remote button will tune the last Live TV channel that was previously viewed.
4th FFWD/REW Speed – Adds a 4th fast forward and rewind trick mode speed at 128x. A fourth arrow will be displayed on the trick mode banner for each direction.
Broadcast Flag – Broadcast flag is activated.
1394 Support On 8300HD – 1394 port is active on 8300 HD boxes.
Improved Picture Quality With "Copy to VCR" Recording - This was inadvertently broken in version 1.87.19a and then inadvertently fixed in version 1.87.27, which was not widely released. Most users are probably seeing it with version 1.88.x.x, so it has been included in ths list even though it is not a new feature.

New Features - 1.89.x.x (May not be applicable to every cableco)
Support for Daylight Savings Time (DST)
Second line of text now includes show's rating if available.
Categories (Talk Shows, Sci-Fi) are now shown in description details.
NEW Flag now displayed in IPG (displays on date/time line in Menu and on last line of Program Description). Note: requires Tribune Data Version 2, otherwise all programs may be listed as NEW.
Memory management improvements coupled with application server settings to prevent loss of IPG data and improve 3rd party app loading.
Switched Digital Video (SDV) support.
Recording future-dated episodes provides options for those wanting to record episodes other than First Run, but not all rerun episodes:
On this channel this day in this time slot
On this channel at any time
On this channel any day in this time slot
Program description is now available with Info button while watching recorded program instead of only showing Playback channel. Note: Cableco option.
If you block a rating, lets say PG-13, then all references anywhere in system to any program with PG-13 rating says "Title Blocked" until you enter four-digit code to unlock system.
DAY UP and DAY DOWN buttons on remote (if you have them) are fully operational.
If you enter channel number that doesn't exist, rather than flashing ??? in channel number field and then doing nothing, it instead switches to next channel above channel you requested.
Enhanced Channel Maps.
MPEG Splicing API on all DVR boxes to support Liberate “On Ramp/OCAP".
High Resolution screens on 8300. Note: Not recommended for deployment at this time.
Fix for On-Demand Quick button.
EAS fixes within ATI drivers.

Bug(s) Fixed in 1.89.x.x (Not all-inclusive)
Turns On In 480i Mode - If General Settings/Viewer: Power On is set to HD channel or Last Channel (if that was HD), unit used to be in 480i mode when you turned it on. If you then tuned to an SD channel and back, it changed to correct HD mode. However, this could be minimized by setting Power On option to SD channel. It used to then power up in correct mode and change to HD when you tune dto HD channel. Another workaround was too simply cycle through zoom modes using "#". You no longer have to do either.
Start From Beginning/Kick Out To Live - If you select a recording in progress from Recorded List, you get Start From Beginning option. If you select this, you can watch recording through to end without getting "kicked out to live" when live program ends. However, if you now simply tune to desired program and rewind to beginning, you no longer get "kicked out to live" when program ends.
Padding Start/Stop Times - Start/Stop times for scheduled recordings set for more often than "once a week" can be altered. However, any changes had to be made while scheduling those recordings. Once scheduled, they had to be cancelled and rescheduled with desired changes. Now changes are saved without need to cancel/reschedule.
Bug(s) Remaining after 1.89.x.x (Not all-inclusive)
Start/Stop times for scheduled recordings set for more often than "once a week" can be altered and changes saved. However, changes for weekly or less frequent recordings are only applied to next scheduled recording and not saved for future recordings.
When switching from live TV to previously recorded program, channel indicator does not change to Playback channel number, it remains where it was before switching. Might cause some confusion.
Issue not resolved (same as before): When you are in FF mode and hit Replay, then hit FF again, you go to next higher FF step instead of FF1. When you are in top step FF and hit Instant Replay, then hit FF again, you go to Play instead of FF1.
When Auto-erase is on, "NOT ENOUGH SPACE" screen may be shown.
Cancelling changes during editing may remove program from Series recording list.
Unit display and channel banner indicate recording in progress, but program may not be listed in Recording List.
"NOT ENOUGH SPACE" overlay does not display when editing future recording and disk is full.
Wake-Up Timer uses incorrect duration during HDD Spin-Down.
End time of scheduled recording not extended past end of program.
After firmware upgrade, video may be output via Composite when unit is off. Simple reboot will fix this.

New Features - 1.91.14.102 (From Cablevision user - May not be applicable to every cableco)
Multiple bookmarks so you can resume any recording from where you left off.
Recorded show info when hitting the info button during playback.
Jumps back when you hit play while fast forwarding in speeds 3 and 4.

(Copied from bgooch's post in a TWC Thread)

Operators Think Out Loud on What They'll Roll Out
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 5/14/2007

Las Vegas — As the nation's cable operators move inexorably toward implementation of new interactive services using the Open Cable Application Platform, cable executives say they are still unclear on what key applications they would like to run utilizing the standard.

They are sure, though, they want to deliver enhanced TV services that end users can exploit with the same ease as watching analog television. And they want OCAP application developers to know that.

“We see a lot of companies with cool applications, but we have limited resources,” Mike Hayashi, senior VP of advanced technology and engineering at Time Warner Cable, said during a panel session at The Cable Show. “I just want an application that runs!”

The wish lists of other major operators: Comcast wants applications that work across all set-top boxes, said James Mumma, director of iTV product development; and Cox Communications would like programs that are simple to run and can be integrated across platforms, said Chris Bowick, Cox CTO and senior VP of engineering. Those integrated programs would allow Cox to make video, voice and data products more meaningful, stickier to subscribers, while making customers lives' simpler, Bowick added.

The executives made their comments to application developers during a panel on OCAP deployment Sunday at The Cable Show.

CableLabs and the NCTA put a major emphasis on OCAP here, scheduling 11 educational sessions on the topic Sunday and Monday. This session, on MSOs' OCAP objectives, was moderated by Leslie Ellis.

Some interactive products are already in consumer homes. Bright House Networks customers in Tampa and Orlando now look to their televisions for caller IDs when they hear the phone ring, as an example. That application, along with others in the field, will be ported to run on OCAP set-tops and digital TV sets, said Arthur Orduña, senior vice president of policy and product for Bright House parent Advance/Newhouse Communications.

Every time they look at that TV, the product reminds consumers they subscribe to Bright House “because we do cool stuff,” said Orduña.

“We need you to work together to tell us what OCAP can do,” Orduña told developers. “My job is to be amazed by your creativity … I've yet to see a push-the-envelope app.”

The operators represented on the panel are making strides in OCAP equipment and software deployment. Cox is trialing “OCAP Onramp” technology, providing enhanced services in two markets with Java programs to legacy set-top hardware, according to Bowick. The trial will expand to five markets by the end of the year with a goal of national deployment in 2008.

Bowick said Cox is close to delivery of video mosaics, games and caller ID on TV with call disposition (sending calls to another number).

Cox is also working on an interactive version of the Music Choice digital music service.

Seventy percent of Time Warner's customers are served with Scientific Atlanta set-tops, while about 30% use Motorola hardware, Hayashi said, so the company is focusing on OCAP capability using the SA hardware first. This week, Cox takes delivery of SA OCAP-compatible DVRs, he said. After July 1, the company's purchases will all be OCAP capable.

Comcast is doing OCAP technical trials in Denver; Philadelphia; Union City, N.J., and Boston using multiple architectures, said Mumma. Those test results will be used to “spring board us” into other markets later this year.

One thing OCAP capability isn't likely to prompt: Internet browsing via the TV. Even with cable modems embedded in boxes and set-top gateways in place, web browsing doesn't seem like a business, executives said.

Cable companies will more likely use the interactive communication capability to improve communications over their own networks, they said.

The executives said the biggest opportunities for program developers are bound applications — enhanced content bound to currently showing television programming, for instance — and in creating programs that break down silos so applications can link various products in the bundle.

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6441550.html

Nets: Make OCAP Happen
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 5/14/2007

Las Vegas— Three top TV programming executives said cable operators have been slow off the mark in deploying a standardized platform for interactive television, making it impossible to launch applications on any sort of scale.

The hope is that the industry is now serious about adopting CableLabs' OpenCable Application Platform, which would provide a common middleware for programmers and advertisers.

“We want the operators to raise their hands and say, 'We'll make [OCAP] happen,'” said Albert Cheng, executive vice president of digital media for the Disney ABC Television Group, at a panel discussion at The Cable Show here.

The pace of OCAP deployments has been “slower than we'd like it to be,” The Weather Channel CEO Debora Wilson said, though she noted that “operators have had a lot on their plate,” including the move to add more HD programming.

Added Wilson, “We as programmers support OCAP because it allows us to publish and deploy broadly. Otherwise, you have a really difficult, and probably impossible, environment to program content and advertising against.”

Cable has been working on OCAP for at least eight years and operators still have yet to move beyond limited market trials on the technology. Recently the industry pledged to widely roll out the technology by the third quarter of 2008.

In the absence of a common ITV platform, programmers have been doing more work with interactive video applications on the Internet, as they race to keep up with the YouTubes of the world to find new ways to engage the next generation of viewers.

“We're competing with folks who can take our content, unpaid for, and take it wherever they want and do whatever they want with it,” NBC Universal chief digital officer George Kliavkoff said. With interactive TV, “we need to figure out how to make the experience better for the consumer, and there's not a lot of time to get it perfect.”

The Weather Channel has developed an OCAP-based application, which allows a viewer to see weather information for different areas and see what programs are coming up on the network. But today, Wilson said, there aren't many cable operators that have OCAP-enabled set-tops or headends to run such an application. “We have to have the ability to deploy,” she said. “That's a fundamental, sort of gatekeeping thing.”

ABC developed a prototype of an OCAP application for the show Lost, which provided a trivia game that viewers could play during the show. However, Cheng said, “We didn't think this would be a great viewer experience. People are so used to the 10-foot application; it was more distracting and less entertaining.”

Cheng said with ITV applications, ABC is leaning away from content and toward ads. “We really feel the advertising opportunity is greater,” he said. “We've focused on delivering a better message for [advertising] clients.”

http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6441551.html

OCAP Inches Closer to Reality

05/14/07 (Broadcasting and Cable)

More than any new-product release, the biggest news from last week's NCTA show in Las Vegas concerned vendors' and operators' showing steady progress in rolling out standard technologies. This new development should allow cable to offer more hi-def and on-demand content, deliver targeted advertising, and explore new interactive programming applications.
One such technology is the long-percolating OpenCable Application Platform (OCAP) standard that allows programmers to deploy interactive applications across a variety of set-top platforms. OCAP, an extremely popular topic on the show floor, is the byproduct of a government-mandated initiative to make set-tops a retail product by standardizing various functions.
OCAP will put common software, or "middleware," in digital set-tops, allowing Java developers to create an application that will then run on any set-top. It will also run on new "digital-cable'ready" TVs that include slots for CableCARD'the removable security technology'allowing interactive applications to be delivered without a set-top at all.
With OCAP, programmers and operators no longer have to create customized applications for each set-top in order to provide simple interactivity, such as graphic overlays that feature targeted advertising, polling applications, or links to weather and traffic information.
"We're happy about OCAP because it rationalizes the fractured platform environment," says Weather Channel President Debora Wilson, who demonstrated an OCAP application that would let viewers call up detailed local weather information, as well as access current conditions for up to 40,000 cities.
In the long run, the Java development community could foster richer applications that leverage the power of the two-way plant, giving operators a leg up on satellite. Several panel speakers referred to creating a "killer app" for the set-top that would be the equivalent of a ringtone for a cellphone.
"The potential next year is for a big network to build an application and have it on 10 million or 15 million boxes, for the same cost as putting it on 100,000," says Patrick Donoghue, VP of ITV product management for Time Warner Cable.
While the industry believes in OCAP's potential, it isn't rushing it to the market. Time Warner Cable is further ahead than other operators in deploying OCAP, because Scientific-Atlanta, which supplies some 70% of its set-tops, is ahead of Motorola in supporting OCAP. Time Warner Cable has taken delivery of some S-A, OCAP-enabled DVRs, says Senior VP of Advanced Technology Mike Hayashi, and is already releasing select Samsung OCAP-enabled HD set-tops. By July 2007, he expects Time Warner systems to be OCAP-capable on the S-A platform.
Even though the industry has been developing the OCAP technology for 10 years, Hayashi cautions that "OCAP is still early." Actually running a new OCAP application on the S-A platform would require significant testing, he says.
"One issue is the performance of OCAP integration," he says. "If [an application] showed up today, we would be concerned about performance, how much memory it takes up, etc. We want the same flexibility analog TV had."
Advance/Newhouse Communications is on a similar OCAP-pace to Time Warner, says Arthur Orduna, senior VP of policy and product, because the vast majority of its set-tops are S-A boxes. Cox, which has about a 50/50 split between Motorola and S-A boxes, has been working with a transitional step to OCAP called OnRamp, a Java-based application standard that is transferable to OCAP boxes, says Chief Technology Officer Chris Bowick. Cox is also testing OCAP in two markets.
"We'll have a national footprint in the first half of '08," says Bowick.
Comcast, with a high percentage of Motorola set-tops, has OCAP trials in several markets, but it won't roll out until early 2008, says James Mumma, director of video product development. For the near term, it is working with the Enhanced TV standard, also known as "EBIF," or "Enhanced Binary Interchange Format," to enable interactive applications. EBIF can work on legacy set-tops, such as the widely deployed Motorola DCT-2000 set-top; Tandberg Television was demonstrating such functionality'a T-commerce application with Home Shopping Network on a DCT-2000'in its booth.
"We're invested in EBIF," Mumma says. "It runs on a low-end set-top box, which is key as we put together a product plan and a roadmap [to OCAP].

http://hd.broadcastnewsroom.com/articles/viewarticle.jsp?id=139390

I tried hitting pause, I was within 15 minutes of live action, the show ended, and I got kicked out. Am I missing something? This one doesn't seem to work.

<i>Skip To End 2. Another option. If you happen to be watching the clock and you know the recording is about to end, simply press Pause and wait for the recording to end. Once the clock ticks, you can press Play and view from the point where you paused. NOTE: You *might* have to be inside the buffer for this to work though. (DravenStone)</I>

Originally posted by trekkerj
I tried hitting pause, I was within 15 minutes of live action, the show ended, and I got kicked out. Am I missing something? This one doesn't seem to work. Thanks for mentioning it. I guess I'll have to do some personal testing on this and see if there are other limits besides the buffer. How close to the end of the 'live' program did you pause? A minute? Two? What software are you using? SARA 1.85.14.1?

I assume that some of your information is specific to SARA, so I edited the title. If I am wrong, let me know and I will undo my edits.

Thanks for putting this information together.

That's a good point, thanks. Most of the credit still goes to vegggas. All I did was take his work and update it for the 8300 because he still doesn't have it yet in Las Vegas. I'm sure once he gets it, he'll discover even more goodies.

DoubleDAZ - I really appreciate all your info on the 8300 and especially putting it all in one place. I have a question on stretching. With my old non-recording HD cablebox - I used two connections to my TV. I used component which I use for HD broadcase and I use composite which I used for SD shows - that way I could use the TV to stretch the SD shows. My TV will not allow stretch for component connections. So can you please tell me how I would accomplish the same thing with the 8300. Thanks.

"The 8300HD has 2 tuners"
Everything looks correct, except for this above. the 8300HD has 4 tuners. 2 NTSC, 2 QAM. You may only use two of them at once, as you said. This is why you can watch analog PIP on both tuners, or digital PIP on both tuner, or you can watch analog on one tuner and digital on the other for PIP.

Originally posted by marchristensen
DoubleDAZ - I really appreciate all your info on the 8300 and especially putting it all in one place. I have a question on stretching. With my old non-recording HD cablebox - I used two connections to my TV. I used component which I use for HD broadcase and I use composite which I used for SD shows - that way I could use the TV to stretch the SD shows. My TV will not allow stretch for component connections. So can you please tell me how I would accomplish the same thing with the 8300. Thanks. The 8300 has all the same connections. It has Composite (Cable) Out, S-Video Out, and Video Out. AFAIK, you should still be able to hook up your composite cable and view the SD channels. I have the S-Video hooked up to another TV input and I get a down-converted HD, as well as SD, channels just fine.

But, are you sure your Panny plasma won't allow you to stretch SD channels on the component connection? Do you have the 8300 set up with 1080i (or 720p) and 480i like Wills suggested? My Hitachi won't stretch 1080i signals on component, but it will stretch 480i.

Did you connect your composite cable and it didn't work?

miniz, please see my changes. I understand your point, but for the purposes of the tip, I consider each tuner a NTSC/QAM tuner. Does that make sense or should I change the whole tip?

It would be helpful to add a conversion matrix for different modes (Upconvert-1, Fixed and so on). It is in posting by cdp1276 in http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=431185&pagenumber=2 thread.

Will

DoubleDAZ, looks good. It gets my point accross fine.

Miniz - Thanks, I aim to please.

will792 - That stuff is all in the original SA8000HD Setup and User's Guide that vegggas authored. Since none of it has changed and I provide a link to his Guide, I really don't want to duplicate it. Plus, as soon as he gets his hands on an 8300, I fully expect him to author the definitive SA8300HD Setup and User's Guide. But then again, I really didn't find what you mentioned in the link you provided, so maybe I misunderstood what you are looking for. Can you cut & paste it into a new reply here and maybe I can add it then?

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ

will792 - That stuff is all in the original SA8000HD Setup and User's Guide that vegggas authored. Since none of it has changed and I provide a link to his Guide, I really don't want to duplicate it. Plus, as soon as he gets his hands on an 8300, I fully expect him to author the definitive SA8300HD Setup and User's Guide. But then again, I really didn't find what you mentioned in the link you provided, so maybe I misunderstood what you are looking for. Can you cut & paste it into a new reply here and maybe I can add it then?

Fixed - Displays all content at whatever resolution you selected, based on what you selected in the wizard. You force the output to a single output and the box scales to that input. Easily changed in the settings menu of the box.

Pass Through - Passes the input signal through to the output with no change, unless you disable certain resolutions. For example 480i in to 480i out, 480P in to 480P out, 1080i in to 1080i out, 720P in to 720P out. If you disable 720P, 720P in will go to 1080i out.

Auto HDMI/DVI - If you are using the HDMI port, you will see this option instead of the Pass Through option. Resolution is automatically formatted to the scan rate supported by the TV.

UpConvert 1 - All 480i and 480P signals get upconverted to 480P. All 720P and 1080i signals get upconverted to 1080i.

UpConvert 2 - All 480i and 480P signals get upconverted to 480P. All 720P and 1080i signals get converted to 720P.

Oh, that one. :) I suppose I can add it to make it easier to find since I didn't see it on the page 2 link you provided. Check out the change and see if that's what you wanted. Thanks.

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
Oh, that one. :) I suppose I can add it to make it easier to find since I didn't see it on the page 2 link you provided. Check out the change and see if that's what you wanted. Thanks.

That's good.

Some people use double connection from 8300 to a TV to avoid limitations of stretch modes for 4:3 content. One connection for HD content via component and one for SD via composite/S-Video. This way you switch input on a TV for SD contents and keep stretch active for that input. Not so sure if this tip is valuable enough to be included in Tips & Tricks.

Will

Will, most folks enable 480i so that when they tune to an SD channel, their TV can do the stretch. That is the whole thrust of the 'Removing Bars On SD Channels' tip. You can also infer as much from the 'Viewing a Third Program' tip. I think I'll hold off a while on that one as I'm sure it will be in vegggas' Setup and User's Guide. I did add a caveat near the Guide link that folks new to the SA8300HD should take the time to read the Guide to get a basic understanding of DVR operation, etc. See how that works for you.

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
Will, most folks enable 480i so that when they tune to an SD channel, their TV can do the stretch. That is the whole thrust of the 'Removing Bars On SD Channels' tip. You can also infer as much from the 'Viewing a Third Program' tip. I think I'll hold off a while on that one as I'm sure it will be in vegggas' Setup and User's Guide. I did add a caveat near the Guide link that folks new to the SA8300HD should take the time to read the Guide to get a basic understanding of DVR operation, etc. See how that works for you.

Agreed.

By the way Vol+/Vol-/Info reboot works in 8300 as I had to do it twice already to fix missing DD. All of a sudden 8300 would stop sending DD to optical output.

Will

Thanks, Will, I'll edit the post.

I've yet to figure out how to record a program while I'm already in the middle of it. Let's say I'm 15 minutes into 'Lost' and decide I want to record the entire hour. I select it from the IPG, but all I get is from that point on, not from the beginning. I thought if the program was still in the buffer that I would be able to record it from the beginning. Am I wrong or am I missing something? If this has been asked and answered in another thread, please point me in the right direction. Thanks.

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
Will, most folks enable 480i so that when they tune to an SD channel, their TV can do the stretch. That is the whole thrust of the 'Removing Bars On SD Channels' tip. You can also infer as much from the 'Viewing a Third Program' tip. I think I'll hold off a while on that one as I'm sure it will be in vegggas' Setup and User's Guide. I did add a caveat near the Guide link that folks new to the SA8300HD should take the time to read the Guide to get a basic understanding of DVR operation, etc. See how that works for you.

Not me, I enable 480i so I can have the TV deinterlace and scale the image rather than have the SA box process the image and then have my tv reprocess the image.

I added the following to the first post:
It should also be noted that the 8300HD can also be connected to one device via HDMI and to another device via Component at the same time. In fact, a local member has it connected through a Geffen 4x1 DVI swither, and a 45 foot DVI cable, to his Marantz VP12S3. While this is supposed to be way beyond DVI specs, it has worked flawlessly. This same 8300 is also connected via Component cables to a W-VHS deck for permanent archiving. (kloarizona)

DoubleDAZ,
If you tune in in the middle of the show, there is no buffer to record. If you tune at the beginning and 15 min. in you decide it's worth recording, the buffer should exist from the beginning (assuming you haven't been surfing after the start). I don't guess I have specificly tried this with the 8300 but I will at the top of this hour.

TerryB

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
Will, most folks enable 480i so that when they tune to an SD channel, their TV can do the stretch. That is the whole thrust of the 'Removing Bars On SD Channels' tip. You can also infer as much from the 'Viewing a Third Program' tip. I think I'll hold off a while on that one as I'm sure it will be in vegggas' Setup and User's Guide. I did add a caveat near the Guide link that folks new to the SA8300HD should take the time to read the Guide to get a basic understanding of DVR operation, etc. See how that works for you.

Finally I recalled the reason for double connection. If SD programming is transmitted on HD channel 8300 sends out 1080i since the signal is technically HD. The only way to enable stretch is a composite connection.

This can be titled "Removing Bars On HD Channels with SD Content".

Will

DoubleDAZ,
It worked as I anticipated, I tuned in at the start and elected to record several minutes in and got the whole show from the beginning.

I have seen several timeslots change identities after being tagged for an episodic recording. Since I've never let one go through, I can't contest your statement that even though the timeslot is highlighted it won't record the wrong show. I'm gonna have to let it happen one time though, because I think it will happen. The holidays should give ample testing opportunities. LOL


TerryB

Originally posted by TerryB
It worked as I anticipated, I tuned in at the start and elected to record several minutes in and got the whole show from the beginning. Yeah, I suspect I had swapped channels or tuned in late and that messed me up. I'll try it again this weekend, butI assume you and others are right and I simply didn't pay attention to what I had actually done.
I have seen several timeslots change identities after being tagged for an episodic recording. Since I've never let one go through, I can't contest your statement that even though the timeslot is highlighted it won't record the wrong show. I'm gonna have to let it happen one time though, because I think it will happen. Well, I don't know why you say that. Since this subject came up, I realized I have Y&R set to record daily for my wife. It skipped yesterday because it was preempted by the NFL and it always skips Sat/Sun when it isn't on. Of course, any skipping assumes the schedule change is updated in the IPG. If the show title still shows in the IPG, then it should record that time-slot because everyhting is based on the IPG data.

Last week I set it up to record House tonight on Fox. House has since changed to Tuesdays, but the time-slot is still highlighted. I know it will not record that time-slot, so I set up a manual recording to see if that will over-ride and still catch whatever is on in it's place. You shouldn't have to cancel an episodic recordng just to catch a special and I don't think you have to. I'll find out for sure tonight, but I'm pretty confident the 8300 works as it should in this regard.

I initially got concerned because someone pointed out that the time-slot was still highlighted, though they had not yet determined that it would skip the recording if the show was not scheduled that day. Rather than wait, I set up a test to verify it, but then I remembered the Y&R schedule when it didn't record yesterday even though it was highlighted and it dawned on me that is never records Sat/Sun. Of course, the time-slot is not highlighted for Sat/Sun because it wasn't in the IPG when the recording was set up to begin with.

This post is a wealth of information. I do not have my 8300 yet, but intend to get one shortly. Just to confirm - I can use two connections from 8300 to TV, one for HD/component and one for SD/composite, and I will be able to record both kinds of shows and watch them both with no dark side bars - right?

DoubleDAZ - right now with my 4200HD and Panny consumer 37" plasma, I cannot stretch component at all.

Can I set it up to time record two different channels at the same time.

For instance Channel 32 from1-1:30 AND a show on Channel 26, also from 1-1:30 ?? Will that work ??

Thx!!

-- Cain

Originally posted by Cain
Can I set it up to time record two different channels at the same time.

For instance Channel 32 from1-1:30 AND a show on Channel 26, also from 1-1:30 ?? Will that work ?? Yes, I rountinely have 2 recordings going while I am watching a previously recorded program or an analog channel (I split my cable and ran a second line directly to the TV).

Awesome!! Thaks for the info.

-- Cain

Originally posted by marchristensen
[B]Just to confirm - I can use two connections from 8300 to TV, one for HD/component and one for SD/compositeYes, you can have multiple connections.
and I will be able to record both kinds of showsYes, you can record any channel/program, HD/SD.
and watch them both with no dark side bars - right?Probably, as far as I can tell using the 8300 and my Hitachi, both Component and S-Video connections.

I don't know anything about the 4200 or Panny. For example, I don't know if the Panny cannot stretch Component because the 4200 cannot output 480i for the SD channels or if the Panny cannot stretch Component no matter what.

If your Panny will not stretch Component, regardless of the resolution (480i/1080i), then you will get bars on all your SD recordings if you view them on the Component connection. However, I just recorded an SD channel and it will playback on the S-Video (and presummably Composite) connection. So, you should be able to use that to stretch the image to fill the screen, if that's what you are doing now. If the Panny can stretch 480i on the Component connection, then you probably won't even need the S-Video/Composite connection. I don't, but I have them hooked up because they were there from the previous box.

Double DAZ - Thanks for your patience and complete answers. Thanks to your explanations I am going to go for it and will report back.

DoubleDAZ,
Yesterday I noticed two shows on SPEED channel which were still in the scheduled recording display past their air time. They had not recorded, nor had there been something else recorded in their timeslot. The reason I am still sceptical is that I had one show appear in my recordings which had replaced a regularly scheduled program. The title in the recording list was correct for the content, I believe that it was JAG replaced several weeks ago in the Friday night slot. It seems like there was a Tim Mcgraw special on in the JAG timeslot, and I got a copy on the 8000, anyway, I'll have to see the 8300 dodge a substitution for myself I'm afraid.

TerryB

PS I remember after a little searching what the issue was. After Standard time returned, the recorder had highlighted a show one hour later than JAG and had not highlighted JAG, because JAG had 'moved' one hour on the nig clock in the sky although it was still 8PM central standard. That's the reason I sceptical about the scheduler being so all seeing. Know what I mean?

TerryB

Terry, it doesn't bother me that you are skeptical, I'm skeptical too until I see something for myself. However, I never said the 8300 is all-knowing. I simply said it skipped Y&R Thursday, even though it records every other weekday, including other Thursdays. I'm sure we can come up with all kinds of situtions where we think it should or shouldn't record and it does or doesn't. So far, that's the only situtation someone asked about and I;ve checked it to my satisfaction.

Your JAG thing is certainly a bug, but it is rather limited in scope. I'm going to have to make a note of the DST for next spring. Even though Arizona doesn't change, I'll have to remember to check the scheduled recordings to make sure they are still correct.

The time-slot should not be high-lighted based on a scheduled recording if the program is not on at that time. The high-lighting keeps you from using the IPG to record the replacement. You can set up a manual recording for the slot and it will record, I've done it, but you shouldn't have to do it that way.

I'm not sure what you are saying about the Speed Channel thing. Are you saying that you scheduled 2 recordings, that they were still scheduled after they aired, and that they didn't record when they aired? Can you elaborate a little more?

How about skipping commercials?

has anyone tried to record to an external hard drive on the SA 8300? also what about the usb connection on the front of the box

Originally posted by mr blumpkin
has anyone tried to record to an external hard drive on the SA 8300? also what about the usb connection on the front of the box

Currently being tested by SA. It will be a rentable item if or when it is ready to go. It is not a standard serial(SATA) connection. The USB slot is not active,and I have heard of no plans to activate it.

Originally posted by Nedtsc
How about skipping commercials?

FF

Originally posted by Nedtsc
How about skipping commercials? I don't know if this is a serious question or not, but I'll answer it anyway. :)

There is no commercial skip. However, the FF has 3 speeds (4x, 10x, and 30x) and once you get adept at using one of those, along with the Replay button (backs up 8 seconds), you can skip commercials with ease.

kevinivey:

Interesting comment about the external drive NOT being SATA. Has SA changed the design specs? It's documented as being SATA.

Press the record button. It will prompt you through the record process for the program being shown and if you've w!atched less than 1 hour the entire program is recorded!

Morey

It is SATA ,but the cable is special and a a normal serial will not plug into the back of the unit. Sorry. for not being more clear.

Originally posted by kevinivey
It is SATA, but the cable is special and a normal serial will not plug into the back of the unit. Sorry for not being more clear. I believe it's been pointed out in the other 8300 thread that the 8300 uses a SATA1 connector and external drives use SATA2. It may be the other way around, but the point is they are both SATA and you need the appropriate SATA1>SATA2 cable.

Originally posted by mcopeland7
Press the record button. It will prompt you through the record process for the program being shown and if you've watched less than 1 hour the entire program is recorded! If you are replying to my post, I've done that and I 'think' I'm getting different results. I just hit Record and checked the LIST. There is a recording for 23 minutes and that appears to match how long I've had the program on. I'll play with it some more to see if I get similar results with whatever is on next.

The interesting thing is I then selected that recording, stopped/erased it, then hit Record again. This time I got only 17 minutes when I was expecting either something more than 23 minutes or just the minute or two since I did the stop/erase. Each time I do this, I get progressively fewer minutes, but there doesn't seem to be any pattern and the length does not correlate to the time the program has been on or the time since I started recording the last time.

EDIT: I was watching Billiards on ESPN and did not change channels or anything. It was scheduled for an hour in the IPG. I waited until 50 minutes into it to hit Record. Well, all I got was the last 19 minutes.

Since another episode is showing now, I erased the other one and hit Record (I'm 15 minutes into the program). Now I get 45 minutes in the LIST, but I see what is happening and why I previously got decreasing numbers. When I look at the LIST while it is still recording, it shows how much time is remaining to be recorded, not how much time has been recorded. So, that answers that question.

But, I still will only get 45 minutes when the show has been on for 15 minutes already and should have been in the buffer. It had stopped recording when the previous program ended (as it should have), so nothing else was going on during this time to mess up the buffer.

As soon as this program ends, I'm going to switch channels and try something that is not on back to back. This time I will try less than 30 minutes in and see what I get. Then I'll try nother one less than an hour in again. I'll post my results.

Just hit the record button.

Well, apparently I've found a thread where I might be able to get answers for my 8300 hd. Here's the situation. When I first got my machine I could not get it to "hold" on to the auto setting. Every time I either changed my viewing screens (tv1, tv2, etc) I would seem to loose my auto selection and be stuck on 480i. It would still show auto but it would not change to 1080i or 780p. I'm using an HDMI connector.

I had to do the set up every morning to get it to work. Then about 6 days after I got my unit in the middle of the afternoon it fixed. I had no problem switching to different screens or shutting off the unit. The 8300 picked the correct formats and all was fine. That is until I had a reception problem and made the mistake of calling Adelphia.

They put me through the reboot process and sent a signal out. When they did that my unit went right back to where it was when I first got it. So if I switch to watch VCR, DVD, or just shut off my tv it has to be reset again.
:mad:

I don't know how I got it to behave in the first place so if anybody has a clue please let me know. It's a drag to have to do the set up all the time.

Thanks - Phil

Originally posted by trekkerj
Just hit the record button. Come on folks, I know THAT, but now I'm really perplexed. I could swear I hit Record 15 minutes into a program I was watching today and all I got was the point where I started recording to the end, 45 minutes out of 60. However, I did it again 4 minutes into another program and got all 2.5 hours. I did it again, 47 minutes into Cold Case, and got all 60 minutes. I just did it again 13 minutes into Desparate Housewives and again got it all.

The first program was one episode of a Billiards marathon on ESPN-HD. I tried it a couple of times during the marathon and one time I appeared to get part of the previous episode and some of the current one, at least according to the gauge when I hit REW. I suppose something could have been messed up in the IPG, even though it looked okay to me. Or it could simply have been that the buffer doesn't clear as each program ends in the IPG, especially if it has the same name.

I guess I am just going to have to keep an eye on it. It's only something I was doing to test things, so it's not a big deal for now. Tomorrow I'm off and there is a SportsCenter marathon on ESPN-HD, so I should be able to do some testing then.

Okay, I wasn't able to use SportsCenter to reproduce what I 'thought' I did yesterday, so I'm going to drop this subect (thank goodness, I know :) ) until I can definitely reproduce something.

can anyone explain to me how i schedule recordings that i want in the future. can i "search by title" as with my tivo? thanks.

No, you cannot search by title like your Tivo. You can only schedule what is currently in the IPG and only as far ahead as the IPG, usually a week. You could schedule a manual recording based upon some other database, like TitanTV, but it's easier to simply keep track of future programs and schedule them as they show up in the IPG. I've heard that Gemstar (where many cableco's get their IPG data) is working on upgrades for later next year, but only time will tell what comes of that and just how much added functionally will be available as a result.

I think the 3 biggest problems with the IPG right now are; the lack of a 'first run' flag, the 1-week limit, and the lack of a search by title. Their current way of displaying programs by titles leaves too much to be desired and I rarely use it. It would be a lot more useful to me if they sorted the entire week and then simply displayed the air date along with the other info. I don't want to have to search day by day, it's way too tedious. I use TitanTV or something else to give me a list and then simply use the IPG to actually schedule it. Fortunately, my wireless notebook is right here, so it's not that difficult.

thanks for the answer. so, if i want hd recording with 2 tuners i have to put up with a shockingly inferior interface compared to my tivo series 1. that's a tradeoff i think i'll have to make.

I'm confused about the search by title comments. I can do it here and I'm sure they're all the same unless cable companies somehow do it differently. It's an option in the guide (press B I think) and it gives you different search options, including alphabetically.

Originally posted by Jim Boden
I'm confused about the search by title comments. I can do it here and I'm sure they're all the same unless cable companies somehow do it differently. It's an option in the guide (press B I think) and it gives you different search options, including alphabetically.

I think what DoubleDAZ was saying is that it is not a very good option. Yes, you can do a search by title but it will only search on the date that your on in your guide. It will do it alphabetically as you state but if your show is not on todays guide or the date your searching on you will not find it.

In comparison with TiVo which will find the title and date of a show simply by typing in a few letters, this is a very tedious type of search option. That is why DoubleDAZ recommended Titan TV, I personally prefer ZAP2IT as I understand it uses the same data source as TiVo. Titan TV is very good too.

Jim, hookbill is exactly right. IMO, the current title option in the IPG is nothing more than an alphabetical list, one day at a time at that. As it is now, it is virtully useless to me. You have to navigate to the first letter, then scroll through all the titles to find the one you are looking for. That can be a bit time consuming and tedious, especially when the next letter is in the middle of the alphabet and you have to decide to scroll forward or backward, etc.

That wouldn't be so bad, but you have to do this for every date in the IPG. If it at least grouped all dates together, you would only have to do the title lookup (I refuse to call it a search) once to find what date it's on, if it's even on that week. Unfortunately, grouping a full weeks worth of data would make the lookup even more tedious as there would then be just that many more titles to scroll through.

I don't know how Tivo works, and I'm not complaining that we lack Tivo functionality, but if you are trying to find a program in the IPG, you shouldn't have to go through the lookup process as many as 7 times to find something. I'm sure there are a number of reasons why they implemented this option the way they did, but I just find it much easier to go to TitanTV and do a 'proper' search there.

And, FWIW, HDTV Magazine's site has been developing a really cool HD guide that lists titles by grid like everyone else. But, they also have an option to find movies/episodes/shows/sports on selected channels and sort them by time/date or title. It also let's you download the search results in CSV format for import into Excel, etc., so that you canmake you own guide. You can also right click on a movie in the guide and it interfaces with IMBD for more info than you'll ever need. Rigth now the database covers 2 weeks, but that may go to 56 days at some point.

I definitely agree the title search function is completely lame, but it's better than nothing. Since we don't have Tivo in Canada, I can only imagine how much better it could be.:)

Hey guys,

I picked up my Adelphia 8300HD yesterday, this is in addition to our current 8000HD that we have hooked up to a 27" Sony 4:3 SD set.

The 8300HD is now installed with our Toshiba 46H83 46" RPHD set.

I've read the thread quite throughly and still have one small issue with letterboxing and pillars.

Originally I set up the box with only 1080i enabled, so the box was upscaling everything to 1080i, which of course gave me pillars on 4:3 content. Since my TV won't let me strech HD material, I added 480i Standard, 480p Standard, 480i Widescreen and 480p Widescreen output options to my setup.

Now, it still adds the pillars when outputting and 480 material, but I can strech with my TV. Of course, for channel surfing this isn't the most efficient solution as everytime I hit an HD channel, then surf onto a SD channel I have to go into my TV setup and change from full screen to one of the strech modes.

I'm pretty sure that's what I'm stuck with as it's a limiation of my TV not being able to automatically strech when it see's a 480 signal, but I figured I'd post just to make sure i'm not missing something.

When in 1080i mode, I could strech the 4:3 contect with the Aspect button on the DVR remote, but the strech modes are flat our horrible compared to my Toshiba's strech modes.

If I'm reading your post correctly your saying your tv does not automatically reset to something like wide screen when you hit a 480i broadcast. If that is the case I don't think your missing anything.

My Sony Wega does not stretch on any digital channel either, however it does have the capability to switch back to widescreen automatically when I am receiving anything in standard definition (actually it will just reset to whatever it was last set on and I always leave it on widescreen). It seems like your only other option is to stretch with the cable box using settings, but I'll bet your pq is better when you do it with your tv.

I know you said you read the entire thread but make sure you put your 8300 on AUTO/HDMI or Pass Thru if your using components. You've probably done that already so it's probably just a limitation of your set.

Just a thought for LordAthens, the ability for my Sony Wega to automatically recall what setting to go to was something I had to set up on my TV. Are you sure your Toshiba doesn't have that? I'd double check your TV settings.

Can the SD and HD outputs be active at the same time on the 8300HD?

That has been a real nuisance for me. I have a projector and an SD TV in my living room. Daily viewing is done with the SD tv and primetime viewing is done with the projector. I have a very complicated control setup that automates everything except for the cable box. The 8000HD requires that I physically change the setup from SD to HD by pressing buttons on the box.

I'd love to hear that the SD and HD outputs are active at the same time :)

Russell

Originally posted by trpltongue
Can the SD and HD outputs be active at the same time on the 8300HD?

That has been a real nuisance for me. I have a projector and an SD TV in my living room. Daily viewing is done with the SD tv and primetime viewing is done with the projector. I have a very complicated control setup that automates everything except for the cable box. The 8000HD requires that I physically change the setup from SD to HD by pressing buttons on the box.

I'd love to hear that the SD and HD outputs are active at the same time :)

Russell

I'm not certain I get what your saying but I think what you may be asking is are component and HDMI active at the same time. If that's your question the answer from me is no. Not on my 8300.

But you mention changing the setup on the cable box so that makes me think your changing the settings on the 8000. If that's the case you wouldn't have to do it manually, you could do it by settings with your remote which I'm sure your aware of.

Now if what your looking for is a way to display SD and HD through the same box by is yes if you have a VCR. The way this works is you would "watch" your SD tv by hooking up your SD plugs from your box to your VCR then setting your channel on L1 on the VCR. This would put whatever you have on your box through to your SD television. On the 8000 you can record to VCR but you cannot watch "live" like on the 8300.

This is the only way I think you could work it. DoubleDAZ may have some ideas too. He mentions this type of hook up in his 8300 manual earlier in this thread.

hookbill,

I think you have answered my question.

What I want to do is essentially watch 2 tv's (a standard def and a high def) at the same time. 1 TV being fed from the S-video port of the 8300, the other TV being fed from the component output of the 8300.

With the 8000 the only way to have the RF and S-video outputs active is to either have the box in High def mode and use the PIP function, or to put the box in Standard def mode.

I want to leave the box in High def mode, and simultaneously have all the channels downrezed to standard def and output via S-video or RF.

I hope that's a little clearer.

Russell

Russell,

Yes, the 8300should have both the SD and HD outputs operational at the same time.
In fact, I believe that this feature itself is one of the upgrades from the 8000 that many were waiting for.
All you need to do is hook the SD TV up to the second video ports on the back of the 8300. They are clearly marked, so no worries.
I don't have the manual on me at the moment, but I can double check it if you want later.
But as far as I know, what you want to do can be done as simple as I stated. No VCR required, no special wiring required.

If i'm wrong, someone correct me.

zx7ninja,

Thanks! That is such a relief for me. My system was unuseable for baby sitters etc. with the 8000. I'll pick one of the 8300's up today and give it a try.

Now if only they could incorporate a *real* search tool in the EPG ;)

Russell

I still have "HDCP error" issues with the HDMI/DVI connection on the 8300HD. I purchased a HDMI to DVI adapter (since my HDTV is DVI) and plugged it in; the picture showed up but only after I powered my HDTV off and on a couple of times (very annoying). Generally, after the 8300HD has powered itself off, whenever I turn it back on and then fire up my HDTV, I receive the "HDCP not supported" error and cannot get video. I am 100% certain that my Panasonic 53" fully supports HDCP, as this is stated all over the user manual and the manufacturer's website. I had the same "HDCP not supported" issue once the DVI was enabled on the SA8000HD box (then again I read that this was an issue among most SA8000HD users). Cable provider is Adelphia.

I had the 3250HD for almost a year and NEVER had issues with the DVI port, it worked flawlessly; so I believe it is safe to rule out the DVI connection as the problem on my HDTV.

Component works fine from the SA 8300HD, and I did notice that the 8300HD can display component and DVI picture simultaneously, which the 8000HD did NOT do.

Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks.

I tried doing this, so that I could drive a Standard Def TV in another room.
Worked great when I tested it, but the other room was the bedroom, and the intent was to watch TV on the big screen during the evening, and at night to watch the news before lights out.

Anyway, what happened, is that as soon as I turned off the HD monitor, the SA8300HD deceided to give me the HDCP error screen on ALL of the ports including the SVID connection.

So, inorder to watch in the SVID connection in the bedroom, I had to leave the HD monitor turned on in the family room. This of course made no sense and unless I can find a solution to this, will be switching back to the component output for HD instead of HDMI.

Can't say I'm very happy with the implementation of HDCP blocking, causing the non Digital outputs to be blocked.

If anyone knows a way around this, short of using component vid instead of HDMI please let me know, but I think for now, I'm stuck.

Steve

The real annoying factor in my case is that I can only get rid of the HDCP error by powering my HDTV off/on -- this must allow the "HDCP Handshake" to initialize properly. Rebooting the 8300HD STB doesn't do anything; I rebooted it 3 or 4 times and the HDCP error came up immediately. I left my TV on the entire time, so it's not like it wasn't up & ready for an HDCP handshake.

terrorbyte: I have the same issue. When I originally had Cablevision install the 8300HD, everything was working fine. All outputs worked without any problems. This was working fine for about a week. Than one evening the STB went off and ever since I have been getting the DVI Alert pop up message. In order to get my HDMI/DVI connection to work, I have to turn on my Pioneer RPTV than turn on the STB. AT this point the HDMI is active. As soon as I turn the RPTV off the DVI Alert message comes back. My assumption is that CV probably did a software update and screwed something up because they are working on a fix for this issue. The annoying thing about this problem is that it affects all the other outputs (S-Video, composite, component & RF) and the only way out is to unplug the HDMI/DVI cable from the STB, power off/on and than I get video and sound. Hopefully, this isssue is resolved soon since it is quite anoying. Other than this peculiarity, this STB is great.

Yeah, this is one of the problems with not only HDCP, but other things they never dreamed we'd do with these boxes. Unlike the 8000HD, all the outputs on the 8300HD are active all the time, so connecting it to 2 monitors as suggested is no problem. I just double-checked and my S-Video connection gives a down-converted image. Unfortunately, the HDCP becomes a problem for those using HDMI/DVI. I wouldn't bank on a quick fix either, as HDCP will only become more invasive as time goes on and they've got other things to concentrate on right now, like First Run flag and other enhancements to the IPG.

My 8300HD from TWC will NOT output HDMI and Component at the same time. All others outputs are active at the same time. When the HDMI is connected the component automatically turns off.

Originally posted by kevinivey
My 8300HD from TWC will NOT output HDMI and Component at the same time. All others outputs are active at the same time. When the HDMI is connected the component automatically turns off.

That's definitely not the case with my 8300HD (Adelphia is the cable provider). I get output from both component and HDMI simultaneously, and when the HDCP error shows up on HDMI, it locks out all of the other outputs with the same error message. This obviously leads me to believe that there are differing versions of firmware floating around for this STB.

Out of curiousity, are you also plagued by the HDCP errors?

No, but I prefer the component image ,so that's the one I use.

terrorbyte, I don't think it's so much different versions of the firmware as it is different options being enabled by the cableco. I believe I've seen references to at least 4 versions of firmware that are currently being used around the country. When discussing problems like this, it's always useful if folks post their firmware info os we can rule thsat in or out.

Originally posted by LordAthens
Hey guys,

Originally I set up the box with only 1080i enabled, so the box was upscaling everything to 1080i, which of course gave me pillars on 4:3 content. Since my TV won't let me strech HD material, I added 480i Standard, 480p Standard, 480i Widescreen and 480p Widescreen output options to my setup.

Try enabling only 1080i and 480i standard in the setup.

I did that on my Panny 53" RPTV and then HD is shown at 16x9 and SD is stretched by the TV automatically.

Any other combo of settings enabled gave me some sort of letterboxing on SD.

Yeah!!!!

I can also verify that component and s-video/rf are active at the same time . There is no more SD or HD mode, just both at once. That is great news for me.

Russell

I just swapped the 8000HD box for the 8300. I have hooked up to one input of my Sony GWIII with compoment and to another with HDMI/DVI to do a comparison. I see a noticeably darker picture with darker shadows on the HDMI feed. I can't run AVIA calibration on video 7 because I can't hook up my DVD player to that DVI connector. I guess I could tweak the settings in the TV without AVIA. Has anyone else noticed this darker picture with HDMI? Otherwise the PQ is excellent with either connection.

Originally posted by stringman57
I just swapped the 8000HD box for the 8300. I have hooked up to one input of my Sony GWIII with compoment and to another with HDMI/DVI to do a comparison. I see a noticeably darker picture with darker shadows on the HDMI feed. I can't run AVIA calibration on video 7 because I can't hook up my DVD player to that DVI connector. I guess I could tweak the settings in the TV without AVIA. Has anyone else noticed this darker picture with HDMI? Otherwise the PQ is excellent with either connection.

My general observance is that HDMI is actually somewhat brighter than Component on my HDTV. I definitely prefer HDMI/DVI as the video seems more crisp than component.

To shed a little light on the HDCP errors, I came across another thread within this site that mentioned the auto power save feature and how to "work around" it. This involved setting the timer (within settings on the 8300HD) to turn off around 2:30am and then back on at 6:15am, overriding the automatic power save that will shut your STB off sometime after 1am (this is a very annoying feature, mandated by SA and the cable companies, that cannot be disabled -- well....this timer workaround seems to do the trick). Sure enough, my STB was on this morning after I woke up at 7am, and the HDTV fired up without any HDCP errors. This is the first time that I was able to turn my HDTV on and get video immediately from the HDMI output. Hopefully the HDCP errors will go away permanently with the new timer settings -- I'll report back if I continue to see them.

Perhaps setting the TIMER will help others resolve this same issue.

Got it...you can store a different TV picture setup for each feed. My HDMI input was different than for the component input. Now I have the same setting on each feed and the HDMI looks good now.

I've had the 8300HD for a few days now and I am still struggling to figure out one issue with my scheduled recordings.

If I schedule a show to be recorded, ask for only the new episodes to be recorded and if there is no new show during the next 7 days (covered by the IPG), then the show does not appear on the Scheduled Recordings list. So, at this point I'm assuming one of the following is happening: either my recording hasn't gotten scheduled, or it is scheduled but it doesn't show because there are no shows to be recorded this week.

How is this supposed to work? If it's the latter, then is there a way to see *all* programmed recordings, regardless of whether there are shows to be recorded in the current week or not?

Thanks much!

Originally posted by Silviu
I've had the 8300HD for a few days now and I am still struggling to figure out one issue with my scheduled recordings.

If I schedule a show to be recorded, ask for only the new episodes to be recorded and if there is no new show during the next 7 days (covered by the IPG), then the show does not appear on the Scheduled Recordings list. So, at this point I'm assuming one of the following is happening: either my recording hasn't gotten scheduled, or it is scheduled but it doesn't show because there are no shows to be recorded this week.

How is this supposed to work? If it's the latter, then is there a way to see *all* programmed recordings, regardless of whether there are shows to be recorded in the current week or not?

Thanks much!

While others have said they never have problems with this I have had several incidents where my 8300 and my 8000 have "forgotten" about shows I had to record all episodes. It hasn't happened as often on the 8300 but there have been a couple of incidents.

If you take a look at you "To Be Recorded" list you will see that a show that was due to be recorded let's say yesterday but wasn't broadcast is still on the list. Eventually I've noticed it will fall off.

I really don't know how it works but I can tell you this thing is no TiVo. I double check my recordings daily to make sure they will take place. I suggest you do the same.

Originally posted by terrorbyte
This is the first time that I was able to turn my HDTV on and get video immediately from the HDMI output. Hopefully the HDCP errors will go away permanently with the new timer settings -- I'll report back if I continue to see them. Are you saying that even if you turned off the 8300 before going to bed, you would get errors the next morning when you turned it on? Or did you not turn it off at all?

Silviu/hookbill,

I have had Y&R scheduled to record daily since I first got my 8300 several weeks ago. It has always skipped preempted episodes that were in the IPG, never recorded that timeslot on Sat or Sun, and has always recorded every episode that was not preempted in the IPG.

I also have The Tonight Show scheduled to record and it does the same thing, records when it's on, doesn't when it's not. However, The Tonight Show is a good example of how things can go wrong if you aren't paying attention. :)

If you look at The Tonight Show in the IPG, it starts at different times. It starts at 10:30 on Tuesdays and 10:35 the rest of the week. So, if you happened to schedule it using Tuesday's IPG and asked for episode in this timeslot, all you got were Tuesday's episodes and you would probably think something was wrong. If you used any other day's IPG, then you got every episode except YTuesday and also would think something was wrong. However, if you scheduled it for any timeslot, then you would get them all. Unfortunately, that would include the reruns at 2:30/2:35.

Now, you might say that is also not right because it really comes on at 10:35 every week night and you'd be right. Unfortunately, as I've said many times, the 8300 is only as good as the IPG data. If you check TitanTV, etc., you will see that it starts at 10:35 and there is something incorrect about the data being supplied by Gemstar/TV Guide.

As an added note, I don't know how Tivo would handle this and I doubt we can check because I will assume Tivo's IPG data is correct. But, even if it weren't, Tivo might handle this better because it might key on title and a New Episode flag or something like that rather than timeslot. If someone has Tivo, perhaps they can look at the IPG and see what time The Tonight Show is scheduled for each night.

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
Are you saying that even if you turned off the 8300 before going to bed, you would get errors the next morning when you turned it on? Or did you not turn it off at all?

The HDCP errors would result after the STB was turned on later in the day after I returned home from work -- this was well after the STB had been automatically powered off late at night, a configuration that cannot be disabled. I was never able to just leave my 8300HD on all night because it would automatically turn off after 1am; unless I sat in front of the HDTV all night pressing buttons to keep it from turning off. It also didn't matter whether I turned on my HDTV first or turned on the STB first, either way I'd get HDCP errors and could not get video until I powered my HDTV on/off a few times, which was very annoying.

I discovered a post (one of the threads in here) that mentioned setting the timer to turn the STB off/on at specific times after 1am and 6am (the times late at night which most 8300HD's have been configured to power off automatically to "extend" equipment life). I set my timer to turn off the STB at 2:30am and then back on at 6:30am. Ever since setting the timer I have not seen a single HDCP error when powering on my HDTV, regardless of when I power it on during the day. Previously, I'd have to turn my STB on (because it had been powered off at night), and then shut my TV off/on several times until the HDCP error went away. Now, after setting the timer, I no longer have to deal with HDCP errors -- so far I've been HDCP error-free for 3 days.

I'm obviously curious as to why this fixed my problem. Perhaps the 8300HD needs to be on for a somewhat long period of time for the HDCP handshaking to work properly. Since the timer turns the STB on every morning at 6:30am, it remains on all morning and afternoon -- when I return home all I have to do is power on my HDTV and I'm good to go.

I'm still a bit confused. I take it you simply left your 8300 on all the time and let it shut itself off automatically during the night. If this is the case, I believe setting the timer fixed your HDCP problems simply because it didn't have to go through whatever routine the auto shutoff goes through. It sounds silly, but I suspect the auto shutoff process doesn't shut it down properly like it does with the timer setting. I and others posted quite a while ago about setting the timer to avoid the auto shutoff but I don't believe any of those posts discusssed HDCP. I used to set my timer, but since I got my Harmony 688 remote, everything goes on and off based upon the remote's Activity buttons.

I can see (kind of) why SA has the auto shutoff feature, but if you routinely turn your equipment off like I and many others do, that feature should be able to be disabled. I suspect though that a lot of folks with HDMI/DVI connections rountinely leave things on just to avoid HDCP errors. Both probelms obviously need to be addressed and I'm gld you found something that works for you. I assume you also know that you can set the channel that comes on when you power up.

Guys, thanks for the help. My true problem however is this: if I schedule a show to be recorded and use the "Record only new shows" option, that show will not appear on the Scheduled Recordings list. If I choose "Record all shows in this time slot on this channel" or "Record all shows any time on this channel", then it shows. Is that normal? I've tried all week to setup Lost and Desperate Housewives to record the new episodes and - since there are no new episodes this week - I can't get the recordings to stick/show in the list.

I had to set them up to record everything, like you guys suggested. I think it's obvious I'll have to stay on top of this, Tivo spoiled my for 2 years, but I guess the good times are gone. I really hope Tivo penetrates into the cable box market with their software.

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
I'm still a bit confused. I take it you simply left your 8300 on all the time and let it shut itself off automatically during the night. If this is the case, I believe setting the timer fixed your HDCP problems simply because it didn't have to go through whatever routine the auto shutoff goes through. It sounds silly, but I suspect the auto shutoff process doesn't shut it down properly like it does with the timer setting. I and others posted quite a while ago about setting the timer to avoid the auto shutoff but I don't believe any of those posts discusssed HDCP. I used to set my timer, but since I got my Harmony 688 remote, everything goes on and off based upon the remote's Activity buttons.

Exactly -- I just left it on all the time, didn't turn it off/on manually because it shut itself off at night. I always power my HDTV off when I'm not watching it, but I never bothered to turn off the STB manually. I had no problem with the auto shut-off when I only used the component connection because I didn't have to deal with HDCP errors. I quickly discovered, after connecting to the HDMI, that the HDCP errors were somehow related to that auto power-off -- once I got past the HDCP errors (by powering my HDTV off/on several times), I could shut off the 8300 with my remote as many times as I wanted and the HDCP errors would not resurface.

I can see (kind of) why SA has the auto shutoff feature, but if you routinely turn your equipment off like I and many others do, that feature should be able to be disabled. I suspect though that a lot of folks with HDMI/DVI connections rountinely leave things on just to avoid HDCP errors. Both probelms obviously need to be addressed and I'm gld you found something that works for you. I assume you also know that you can set the channel that comes on when you power up.

Yes, I noticed the channel setting when I first configured the timer -- I have it set up to load Discovery HD.

Originally posted by Silviu
Guys, thanks for the help. My true problem however is this: if I schedule a show to be recorded and use the "Record only new shows" option, that show will not appear on the Scheduled Recordings list. If I choose "Record all shows in this time slot on this channel" or "Record all shows any time on this channel", then it shows. Is that normal? I've tried all week to setup Lost and Desperate Housewives to record the new episodes and - since there are no new episodes this week - I can't get the recordings to stick/show in the list.

I had to set them up to record everything, like you guys suggested. I think it's obvious I'll have to stay on top of this, Tivo spoiled my for 2 years, but I guess the good times are gone. I really hope Tivo penetrates into the cable box market with their software.
Since there are no new shows within the weeks worth of guide data, then nothing is scheduled for the next week. You based your recording on a "repeat" episode, so it didn't record it. The information should still be there, but there is nothing on file that meets your criteria to display as a new recording, but when one is within the 1 week guide data, it will show up.
If you had set your recordings earlier, while new episodes were being recorded, then the LAST known recording would still be showing as your scheduled recordings.
The next two weeks don't really have much to offer with new programming. The IPG schedules are also subject to change during the holidays, at any time, because of holiday programming.

vegggas

:( Don't have a "Record only new" option here. What version of software do you have?

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
:( Don't have a "Record only new" option here. What version of software do you have?
It's an option in all versions of the 8000 SD/HD and 8300 SD/HD, as long as the IPG supports it. If the IPG doesn't have the data, then the option is not turned on.
I think I'm running the same version as everyone else, but I'm putting together a detailed test comparison between the 8000 and 8300 with all the details. Should be done by the end of the week. So far they are very close in performance, with a slight edge to the 8300.

vegggas

You know I've heard bits and pieces of there being a way to record new shows only. I don't have that option either, matter of fact my data guide rarely says if a show is a repeat or not. I usually have to go to Zap2it to figure that out. I'd love to have that option, it's one of the things I really miss from TiVo.

The guide never says "new" or "repeat" on my TWC system.

Originally posted by vegggas
It's an option in all versions of the 8000 SD/HD and 8300 SD/HD, as long as the IPG supports it. I should have thought of that, I knew it was already int eh software, duh... I should have asked what cableco and location. :)

Originally posted by kevinivey
The guide never says "new" or "repeat" on my TWC system.

Mine sometimes has an "R" in there and I assume it means repeat. I haven't seen it in a while however. I'm with Adelphia Cable.

A noob question:

I just got the SA8300HD and recorded 4 hours of HD prgramming. The box showed me already used 20% of the disc space. That's about 20 hours total HD programming I can record. Does that sound right?

20 hours of HD recording is what to expect with a 160GB hard drive.

Thanks, Jim. I was expecting more. Time to get the extern SATA disc:D

An external would be nice. I don't think it's supported, though. It's one of those "future enhancements".

FYI

The HDCP errors are not specific to the 8300. I have a 4200HD and have the same problem when I turn off my PJ. All the outputs show the error until I reset the box. I am using the DVI out of the box to the HDMI input on the projector. As long as the PJ is on, no problems.

No "overnight" issues.

Regarding to HDCP error, SA3250HD used to do just that (even when I switch TV to a different input) until latest firmware. It's an implementation/firmware issue. I haven't try the HDMI port on my 8300HD yet (my HDMI->DVI cable is back ordered) but my 3250HD is now rock solid with HDCP connection lately. If SA can fix 3250HD, there is no reason it can't release a firmware to fix 8300HD HDCP issue. Or maybe it already did but your local cable co. didn't push it out.

Hi All and Happy New Year!

I updated the first post with information from this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=483609) about the possible workaround for the Auto Shut-off feature. If anyone has anything else they think should be included in the first post, please let me know so I can add it. Also, if anyone discovers any specific info on the Auto Shut-off workaround, like specific time constraints, etc., let me know that too.

I set the Timer to turn off at 8 am and the 8300HD still did the auto shut-off. So, there must be some time constraint and I assume it might need to be between 1-6 am.

JUst curious I may need to read in to the thread further but why is no one using the HDMI output on the 8300 . Cables can be had reasonable on the web .. and i don't mean 125.00 Monster cable either .. Settings are the same settings twice scroll to pic size and select stretch.. I saw a post warlier with a panny so that would definitley be a hdmi to hdmi connection .Digital Audio and Digital video in 1 cable love it ..

I've had the HDMI hooked up on mine since day one. Works great. Even ananlog channels look better. I'm with Adelphia cable and have a Sony Wega 30" 16x9 CRT television.

I have Time Warner Cable and was told that none of the interactive features such as In demand and PPV would work using HDMI.

Just have component cables hooked up as well when you want to use those features (if that's true)...

Originally posted by billatlakegeorge
I have Time Warner Cable and was told that none of the interactive features such as In demand and PPV would work using HDMI.

I rarely use PPV and I don't have on demand (why would you want that with a DVR?). Since I haven't tried it I can't say for certain but common sense tells me it should work. How in the heck can a connector from a outgoing port have anything to do with recording ppv info?

I never have been able to hook up component video on my 8300. It looks all purple like it's not connected properly. I don't know why, I did use component when I had the 8000.

dvdguru,
I don't have HDMI but can't see any reason PPV and IN Demand wouldn't work for viewing. Since they have never copy set, you can't record a paid event / movie but it has nothing to do with HDMI. I can't record PPV and In Demand with componant outs in use either but I can view them.

TerryB

I've used HDMI to connect to DVI on my Panny since Day 1. No problem with Time Warner PPV or In Demand. I also have component output to the Panny, and that works too.

Originally posted by mainemojo
I've used HDMI to connect to DVI on my Panny since Day 1. No problem with Time Warner PPV or In Demand. I also have component output to the Panny, and that works too.

Same here, use the HDMI to DVI adapter to connect to DVI on my Panny. No issues except for the HDCP handshaking that occurs when the STB has been permitted to power off on its own at night. Setting the timer fixed the issue (as I've mentioned before).

I apologize for not reading this whole thread first, but I was wondering if this thread is relevant to those of us with the SA 8300 HD not using SARA (whatever that is?) and/or Cox Cable?

Are there other threads for the other cable carriers?

Originally posted by BustHDTV
I apologize for not reading this whole thread first, but I was wondering if this thread is relevant to those of us with the SA 8300 HD not using SARA (whatever that is?) and/or Cox Cable?

Are there other threads for the other cable carriers?

There is another thread for SA 8300. Do a search to find it. SARA is software in the SA 8300 (at least in my unit). As far as Cox Cable goes, I chirp in here once and a while and I don't have Cox Cable.

Originally posted by BustHDTV
I apologize for not reading this whole thread first, but I was wondering if this thread is relevant to those of us with the SA 8300 HD not using SARA (whatever that is?) and/or Cox Cable?If you don't know what SARA is, how do you know you are not using it? :)

Technically, it is only relative to SARA and Cox-Phoenix, where I've tested the contents of the first post (Tips & Tricks). As you'll find out, even systems using the same software (SARA or PASSPORT) will enable different options depending on what they feel comfortable with. Within this thread, there may be discussions of options that work differently depending on location and how it's implemented there.

There is another 8300 thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=431185) that deals mostly with HDMI/DVI connections, but both threads discuss more than the topics suggest.

There are no SA8300HD TWC/Comcast/whatever threads. I'm not even sure there are 8300's running anything right now but SARA for that matter. I don't know of any tips you can try that would hurt your system if it didn't work. I've tried to keep the first post updated with whatever was added in the thread. That way you don't have to read the whole thread to find the latest tips.

Time Warner Orders DVR ‘Sidecars’

Regarding external hard drives for extra storage capicity.

new thread at: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=491661

NOTE: They merged my thread with another, so I changed the link above.

Originally posted by hookbill
I've had the HDMI hooked up on mine since day one. Works great. Even ananlog channels look better. I'm with Adelphia cable and have a Sony Wega 30" 16x9 CRT television.

I just got an HDMI cable and HD channels look a tad bit crisper over HDMI but my analog and other digital channels look worse when compared to component connection. I do not think this is due to the HDMI cable or the 8300, I think it's probably just due to the way my TV handles 480i 4x3 material over HDMI. I don't think it is "expecting" SD material through this port. My TV is Hitachi 51F510 (CRT-RP). Fortunately it is not that big of a problem since I have a free S-video connection to the TV available and this connection really provides the best 480i picture of all. Since the box can output from both the HDMI and S-video simultaneously, I just use the S-Video when viewing 480i.

One nice thing about the HDMI connection (at least on my TV) is that I seem to get less overscan on the HDTV channels with this connection than I do with the component connection. I noticed this when viewing material on Discovery HD. When viewing on component the right lower logo (when it does come on) is slightly off the screen. When viewing through HDMI, it is completely on the screen.....

Keith

LVKeith,

Great suggestion. I just hooked up an svideo cable and the 480i channels are 100 times better. Easy to just switch inputs to HDMI when I want to watch HD.

Awesome. Thanks.

Would using a component cable be worse then using s-video? Would composite be worse than S-video?

I guess the question is, is S-video the best mode to watch 480i programming in?

EDIT: Component connection gives me the same quality as HDMI on 480i, s-video is much better still. I'd assume s-video would beat composite.

Actually, after playing around a little more with all the settings, 480i (analog and digital channels) look OK through HDMI if I have the box convert them to 480p (I can use "upconvert 1" setting to do this). I think this is very much display specific. It even looks a little better on some material than my S-Video connection.

Like I said in my previous post, I really think that 480i sent as 480i over the HDMI cable doesn't really look that good because of my display's shortcomings. I don't think it knows what to do with a 4x3 480i signal that is sent digitally over the HDMI cable. It has no "processing" for this so it just upconverts the raw signal to 1080i (Hitachi's and many other RPCRT's convert everything to 1080i or 540p), and that is why it doesn't look that good. When it see's a 480p signal on the HDMI, it sees this as a "high definition" signal and knows what to do with it.

I guess the point of all of this is that it is probably going to be very display specific as to how 480i signals will look on an HDMI connection and most likely on other connections as well. The may look better on composite, S-video, etc. on some sets. I would try them all out and then stick with what looks the best (and is not too inconvenient).

The only drawback for me in using the "upconvert 1" mode is that my 720p channels (ABC, FOX, ESPN) are sent converted to 1080i. I find that on the HDMI cable these look a very sight bit better when sent the raw 720i signal over HDMI which lets my display upconvert it to 1080i. However, the big improvement in the 480i-480p convervsion makes it worthwhile - and I can always switch back to fixed mode if I will be watching something for a long period of time (eg sports/movies) on one of the 702p channels.

As a final note, I do remember some posts (I believe they were on the SA3250 thread) that indicated that 480i looked best over composite cables. The posters seemed to think that was because their display's comb filter was active using this connection and not active using an S-video connection. On my current set (Hitachi 51F510) this is not the case.

Keith

Very interesting. I'm with you, I'd rather have my set convert the 720p signal to 1080i then have the box do it for me, but quite honestly I can't see any difference. I'll have to look into the upconvert 1 and see how that does in comparison to my HDMI upconverting to whatever. While I do think that my picture did imporve over composite video, it still is not that great. If I don't see an improvement with the upconvert 1 setting I might try the S-Video. I'll just have to pick up an S-Video cord.

My TV doesn't seem to want to strech 480p over HDMI, so I can't really test out your theory on my TV. It strecthes 480p over s-video no problem and it stretches 480i over HDMI, but not 480p over HDMI.

I have a Panny RPTV.

The Panny doesn't do 720p, so upconvert1 would have been fine for me.

I'll just stick with the 2 inputs..not a big deal.

If you want your STB to output 480P signals instead of 480i along with native 720P and 1080i, Redo your resolution settings. When setting up specific resolutions, choose the 480P INSTEAD of the 480i and then use passthrough. If 480i is not a legal signal, it will be converted to 480P if that is allowed.
Each TV is completely different in the way it handles the SD signals. That's the reason for so many options in the resolution and format settings.
BTW, I get good results through component at 480i on my CRT based RPTV. The TV scales, grooms and conditions the signal as well as the composite and better than the svideo, but has better color saturation and better detail.

To each his own...

vegggas

Vegggas-thanks for the tip. That works perfectly. I did not think it would work as I thought pass-through would only allow "native" signals to go through and would not do any conversion at all.

Also, I do agree with you that SD 480i does look good over component. However I am finding that the HDMI cable on HD signals does look a bit better than componenent to me (maybe I am just imagining things). Like I said, I am sure it is just a shortcoming of my display that makes 480i look so poor through the HDMI connection - nothing in the box. All in all I think this box is much better than the 8000.....

Keith

I took a look at 480i vs 480p and I think on the digital and some analog stations the picture looked better, but unfortunately with my cable company some of their analog stations are just plain bad no matter how you run them and can show little improvement.

I'm still thinking about trying the dual hook up with svideo. Wife is on her way to Wal-Mart now so I'll have her pick me up a connector.

I still think there won't be much I'll be able to do with some of those analog stations, however.

OK, I've tried all 3 types of viewing analog, 480i through HDMI, 480p through HDMI and 480 i through S-Video, and I've come to the conclusion that if there is any difference it is hard to see, if fact I thought that S-Video was about the worst.

Of course I'm with Adelphia Cable and my provider in this area is nortorius for bad analog signals.

I'm not sure that my Sony Vega doesn't convert progressive signals anyways.

Well, I finally got 480p working full screen on my TV (I needed to set it to 480p standard and not widescreen in the 8300 setup).

480p and 480i over HDMI are pretty much identical (bad) over HDMI. 480i over S-video looks pretty good and way better than via HDMI on my TV.

Luckily, the 8300 sends to all the outputs at once, so a quick hit of the video source button on my universal remote let's me switch between inputs.

I'll just stick with this solution. It's not bad at all and everything looks so much better.

I use component and set the box(SARA) to "passthrough", and let the box output the native resolution to my rptv. A little delay, but correct solution. I have set to output 480i standard, 720p, and 1080i. It works flawlessly. No need for the s-video hookup. (except to another monitor at the other end of the house!).

I do too with SARA on Cox Cable. I didn't enable 720p though because I could see no difference between that and 1080i on my Hitachi. I'll admit I don't watch much SD anymore and what I do is on digital cable.

Originally posted by kevinivey
I use component and set the box(SARA) to "passthrough", and let the box output the native resolution to my rptv. A little delay, but correct solution. I have set to output 480i standard, 720p, and 1080i. It works flawlessly. No need for the s-video hookup. (except to another monitor at the other end of the house!).
Yes, that's what I'm doing as well, except for the 720p since my set doesn't support that.

Only problem is that 480i over HDMI looks horrible on my TV, so that's why I need to do 480i over S-Video.

I tried HDMI on my smaller HD set and 480i wasn't even displayed. The Samsung would only do 480p, 720p ,and 1080i. The analog tier looked dreadful via the HDMI. Much better through the component. The Samsung a directview CRT HD set.

Ok,

I asked this on another thread but did not get an answer. When I record a ballgame and come home to watch it before it is over how can I start and the beginning of the recording.

It seems no matter what I try it takes me to live TV of the game. (which when you don't want to see the score is really a pain). I use the list button, select the game and press select, and it promptly puts me in the game live.

It never gives me the choice to start at the beginning. If I wait until the game is over it works fine, but that is also a big hassle.

Originally posted by mojodragon
Ok,

I asked this on another thread but did not get an answer. When I record a ballgame and come home to watch it before it is over how can I start and the beginning of the recording.

It seems no matter what I try it takes me to live TV of the game. (which when you don't want to see the score is really a pain). I use the list button, select the game and press select, and it promptly puts me in the game live.

It never gives me the choice to start at the beginning. If I wait until the game is over it works fine, but that is also a big hassle.
This is a quirk in the software. Veggas stated in another thread that Sci Atl is aware of this and is preparing a software update that will "fix" it.

Your only option is to press REWIND from the live feed and rewind to the beginning.

However, the most annoying part of this SA software is that once the LIVE program stops recording at the end of the program, it will kick you out of the recorded version you were watching and back to live TV.

Go figure.

Originally posted by AlbanyHDTV
However, the most annoying part of this SA software is that once the LIVE program stops recording at the end of the program, it will kick you out of the recorded version you were watching and back to live TV.


Yep....and then you gotta ff to find out where it kicked you out at.

I'll believe there's a "fix" for this when I see it.

Stop the current recording, and start another. It will then split it, and you won't have the kickback problem.

The best thing to do, mojo, is to stop the recording and save it. Then start a new recording to finish the game (or whatever). You will then be able to select the first part from the LIST and start from the beginning.

And, you will be able to select the second part without being kicked out to LIVE TV. Depending on where you start from and how long it takes to view, you may need to go through this procedure more than once.

I know this is not an elegant solution, but it will have to do until S-A releases the fix and your MSO loads it.

Actually, I think there's another way to stop the getting kicked out to live issue.

Let's say you are recording something on Channel 2 from 8 to 9 and you get to the TV at 8:15.

Instead of tuning to channel 2 and rewinding, go into your LIST of recorded programs and start to watch the program from there. It still starts out live and you still have to rewind, but I don't think you get kicked out to live when the live show ends.

I saw that posted elsewhere and I tried it tonight and it seems to have worked for me.

That could very well be. I've noted sometimes I don't get kicked out to live, but I didn't make the connection with starting from the LIST. I'll do some testing and then add it to the first post. Thanks for mentioning it.

I do the same thing that lexluthor does (start from DVR channel list) and I rarely get kicked out.
Here is another thing I often do... If I'm playing back a pre-recorded show that's nearly over, but a new show is starting I can make the new show start at the beginning form the LIST after I finish my other program.
As my pre-recorded show is playing, I will jump out of the playback channel to the channel being recorded. This immediately pauses my playback and sets a bookmark for it. Once the recording starts, I hit pause to mark the start. I then go back to LIST and automatically pick up where I left off of my pre-recorded show and finish it. I then go back into LIST and choose the show I paused earlier and it starts at the point where I paused it, but it doesn't kick me out when finished.

YMMV

vegggas

Originally posted by vegggas
I do the same thing that lexluthor does (start from DVR channel list) and I rarely get kicked out.
Here is another thing I often do... If I'm playing back a pre-recorded show that's nearly over, but a new show is starting I can make the new show start at the beginning form the LIST after I finish my other program.
As my pre-recorded show is playing, I will jump out of the playback channel to the channel being recorded. This immediately pauses my playback and sets a bookmark for it. Once the recording starts, I hit pause to mark the start. I then go back to LIST and automatically pick up where I left off of my pre-recorded show and finish it. I then go back into LIST and choose the show I paused earlier and it starts at the point where I paused it, but it doesn't kick me out when finished.

YMMV

vegggas

Doesn't this work only if your not recording two shows at once? I don't see how it could work if you are using both of your tuners to record.

Still, not a bad idea if your only recording one show at that hour.

All of the above solutions are workable to some extent, but it really shouldn't be that complicated. Maybe I'm spoiled because I use to have a TiVo but I just would like to simply select the show and have it play. The reason I'm skeptical about a "fix" on this issue is because they never employed it into the 8000 which has the same problem.

I hope you don't mind, I posted this in the other 8300 forum as well.

I think I understand that software distribution for the 8300 is from the cable company, not SA. The version of SARA I have is 1.85.14.2. I have had this version since I installed my SA 8300 about two months ago.

My question is, who has the latest version of this software and what kind of changes can I expect to see? That is assuming my cable company will eventually update.

Works fine with both tuners recording. During primetime, this is almost standard for me most nights. I tend not to watch live programming, so being able to record two programs, while watching a pre-recorded show is done daily. The only thing you can't do, is try to pause both tuners and start at the beginning of both of them.

vegggas

Hi all,
I got my 8300 last week and had a strange thing happen. I set it to record 24 in HD using the "all time slots" option since there were going to be 4-hour long episodes on Sunday and Monday. On Monday, the first two episodes of 24 were in the recorded programs list, and the next two were showing up in the scheduled recordings list. When I went to watch them yesterday, only one of the 1-hour episodes was showing up in the recorded programs list, the one that ran from 8-9 PM EST on Monday. How could this happen???? Where did the other episodes go? Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Thanks in advance for your help

So are you guy's saying that you go to the DVR channel list USING THE GUIDE not just by pressing the list button, to watch a show that is currently recording, and it doesn't kick you out?

I always press the list button, and go in and select the program. Did that last night when watching Rebel Billionaire (which again failed to record automatically on my un-Scientific Atlanta box) and it ended up kicking me out when the show ended.

Originally posted by ctSoxFan
Hi all,
I got my 8300 last week and had a strange thing happen. I set it to record 24 in HD using the "all time slots" option since there were going to be 4-hour long episodes on Sunday and Monday. On Monday, the first two episodes of 24 were in the recorded programs list, and the next two were showing up in the scheduled recordings list. When I went to watch them yesterday, only one of the 1-hour episodes was showing up in the recorded programs list, the one that ran from 8-9 PM EST on Monday. How could this happen???? Where did the other episodes go? Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Thanks in advance for your help

I've had some mishaps like that happen if I use that option and I have 3 shows recording at the same time. Sometimes it appears to me that the 8300 will not pick up this and what happens is nothing gets recorded.

My advice to you is when you have this type of situation occurs record it as a one time only event separately. Then after you have watched the event then set up your 8300 on "All shows, this station, this time slot."

Some on this forum will swear the 8300 catches this all the time, but that is not my experience.

Oh, and congrats on your Sox.:)

Originally posted by ctSoxFan
Hi all,
I got my 8300 last week and had a strange thing happen. I set it to record 24 in HD using the "all time slots" option since there were going to be 4-hour long episodes on Sunday and Monday. On Monday, the first two episodes of 24 were in the recorded programs list, and the next two were showing up in the scheduled recordings list. When I went to watch them yesterday, only one of the 1-hour episodes was showing up in the recorded programs list, the one that ran from 8-9 PM EST on Monday. How could this happen???? Where did the other episodes go? Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Thanks in advance for your help
The same thing almost happened to me. I was watching the first hour of 24 on Monday (~20 minutes delayed) and due to the bug that kicks you to live after the recording is complete, it started to show the next hour of 24 at 9:00 PM. I thought it was recording, but when I looked in the guide and in the DVR page it was not. I quickly set up a new recording for the second hour.

Before we go too far with this, I think we need to know if ctSoxFan actually had 2 other shows scheduled to record in the timeslot that didn't get recorded. This seems like a difficult test to setup unless you know in advance that one of the 3 programs will have a 2-hour episode fairly soon so you can rack what happens.

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
Before we go too far with this, I think we need to know if ctSoxFan actually had 2 other shows scheduled to record in the timeslot that didn't get recorded. This seems like a difficult test to setup unless you know in advance that one of the 3 programs will have a 2-hour episode fairly soon so you can rack what happens.

Actually you can test it fairly easily. Let's say you set up a repeating show like Huff or one of the HBO shows like Deadwood to record all recordings. Deadwood would work well right now as they are showing all episodes from the first season. See if it conflicts with anything showing during the same time period during the week. If it doesn't pop up initially but something doesn't get recorded you could check to see if that's the reason why.

I know I have seen 3 recordings set up on the "to do list" like this all at the same time and the 8300 has missed it. It's the random type showing.

Another good show to do this with is record all Law & Order on TNT. That is bound to cause a conflict as they show that constantly during prime time all week.

Sure, I could take that hit or miss approach, but I was looking for something more definite, something I know won't conflict when I set it up, but something I know will conflict the following week. I haven't even taken the time to look into it yet, but I'm sure I will find something I can track without taking a lot of time.

Let's face it, if you do a lot of 'any timeslot' recording, there are bound to be conflicts. I have no idea what Tivo does in those cases and I'm not sure what the 8300 should do. I assume now it can't make a choice, so it does nothing. I suppose it could display a notice, but if you aren't home to see it, that doesn't help a whole lot. What exactly do you think it should do?

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
Sure, I could take that hit or miss approach, but I was looking for something more definite, something I know won't conflict when I set it up, but something I know will conflict the following week. I haven't even taken the time to look into it yet, but I'm sure I will find something I can track without taking a lot of time.

Let's face it, if you do a lot of 'any timeslot' recording, there are bound to be conflicts. I have no idea what Tivo does in those cases and I'm not sure what the 8300 should do. I assume now it can't make a choice, so it does nothing. I suppose it could display a notice, but if you aren't home to see it, that doesn't help a whole lot. What exactly do you think it should do?

Well, I'd like to see it do what TiVo does.:) TiVo has you place your "Season Pass" recordings on a priority basis. That way if a conflict occures it will record in order of priority.

While you will loose 1 recording, at least you won't loose all three. I'm referring of course to D*TV's DVR with TiVo.

I understand that this isn't TiVo, and I don't expect it to be as good. I've gotten quite use to double checking recordings on the 8300 to make sure I don't have conflicts. I think users of these units do need to know they are not infalable and, well, stuff happens. Heck for 7.95 a month it beats laying out a grand, the cost of a HD TiVo.

hookbill, you'll see in a later post that I suspected Tivo had a priority scheme of some sort and I totally agree that it would be nice if the 8300 had something similar. Maybe one of these days it will, but I don't think that will happen until cable decides what they are going to do for their next IPG.

I don't know enough about the competing systems (Gemstar/TVGuide and Microsoft ITV from what I hear) and I don't know enough about how Tivo works with regard to the main system and the unit. In order for these features to be incorporated into the DVR, it has to have the programming and data space. I doubt past S-A units had enough of either and I'm not sure about the 8300. Obviously it has more than past units, but is it enough to do what Tivo does with the season pass options?

I tried going into the guide and selecting the channel, but I still got kicked out of LOST, while watching it during recording, last night. I really don't understand what you guy's are doing to get around this.

Originally posted by Free
I tried going into the guide and selecting the channel, but I still got kicked out of LOST, while watching it during recording, last night. I really don't understand what you guy's are doing to get around this.

OK, there's two ways to do it. The first way is to go to the show as it's being recorded, stop and save recording and then start a new recording of the same showwhere you came in at. Then you would watch your show in two parts. No rewinding necessary.

The second way is to pause the show from the start of the recording, watch whatever you were watching and then select the paused show in the now playing list.

I think the first option is the one most of us would use.

Hope this clears it up for you.

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
hookbill, you'll see in a later post that I suspected Tivo had a priority scheme of some sort and I totally agree that it would be nice if the 8300 had something similar. Maybe one of these days it will, but I don't think that will happen until cable decides what they are going to do for their next IPG.

The 8300HD does have this feature. I changed the priorities of the series I selected after I finished setting them all. I made sure my favorite shows were at the top.

If I missunderstood your posts, please forgive me. If not, I'll post how I changed priorities tonight.

BTW, I have two TiVos as well and that's why I thought to look for the priority manager.

Originally posted by ShannonT
The 8300HD does have this feature. I changed the priorities of the series I selected after I finished setting them all. I made sure my favorite shows were at the top.

If I missunderstood your posts, please forgive me. If not, I'll post how I changed priorities tonight.

BTW, I have two TiVos as well and that's why I thought to look for the priority manager.

Shannon, my first thought was that you misunderstood what we were discussing, however since your post states you have TiVo's I think you follow what we are talking about. I don't see any way that the 8300 can do this because it does not have a Season Pass Manager (it really doesn't have season pass). I have looked at every thing regarding recordings and in the settings. I don't see how it can be done.

But if you do know something we don't please feel free to enlighten us by all means. One request I have: include your SARA version, as you may have something that DoubleDAZ and I don't.

After my post I went back through the thread and tried to read most of it.

I'm a TWC customer in NC, so maybe it's something that TWC has enabled in the software. I'll try and find the version of the software I'm running when I get home.

As to the Season's pass manager, my 8300HD has what's called a "Series Manager". Once you press list, you hit "B" (I think, from memory) to get into the Series Manager. Once there, you can select a show and you have options (including priority) for that series. I can take a pic tonight if it will help.

I have a question as well: I have some of the same problems with side bars that many are complaining of. I feel it's that my unit wasn't set up properly (pass-through, output resolutions, etc.) when it was delivered, but I can't get into the setup wizard screen by pressing Info and Guide after turning the unit off. Is there something else I need to do or is it possible that TWC has disabled this option?

Originally posted by ShannonT
As to the Season's pass manager, my 8300HD has what's called a "Series Manager". Once you press list, you hit "B" (I think, from memory) to get into the Series Manager. Once there, you can select a show and you have options (including priority) for that series. I can take a pic tonight if it will help. This would be great if it is in a future verion of the SARA software. However, ShannonT probably has the PASSPORT software.

One question regarding SARA software version:
Is there a location in the diagnostic mode that lists WHEN the last version of SARA was downloaded? I couldn't find it. If anyone can, please list the page # & location when in diagnostic mode.

Albany NY TWC is currently running SARA version 1.85.17.3 (http://albanyhdtv.proboards18.com/index.cgi?board=boxes&action=display&num=1104420376).

Originally posted by AlbanyHDTV
This would be great if it is in a future verion of the SARA software. However, ShannonT probably has the PASSPORT software.

One question regarding SARA software version:
Is there a location in the diagnostic mode that lists WHEN the last version of SARA was downloaded? I couldn't find it. If anyone can, please list the page # & location when in diagnostic mode.

Albany NY TWC is currently running SARA version 1.85.17.3 (http://albanyhdtv.proboards18.com/index.cgi?board=boxes&action=display&num=1104420376).

Lucky Shannon! Wish I had that software.

I see download information for SARA on the page listed Component Information. Don't know exactly what page that is but that's where it has a date and the version of SARA.

Originally posted by hookbill
I see download information for SARA on the page listed Component Information. Don't know exactly what page that is but that's where it has a date and the version of SARA. You are correct. Component Information is on page 17 of 30.

Here in Albany, NY, it lists:
NAME: SARA
VERSION: 1.85.17.3
DATE: 10/20/04 6:11:00 PM EDT

It also lists:
NAME: OS
VERSION: 6.8.9.4
DATE: 08/11/04 12:32:01 PM EDT

What is "OS"? Operating System? What's that?

Originally posted by AlbanyHDTV
You are correct. Component Information is on page 17 of 30.

Here in Albany, NY, it lists:
NAME: SARA
VERSION: 1.85.17.3
DATE: 10/20/04 6:11:00 PM EDT

It also lists:
NAME: OS
VERSION: 6.8.9.4
DATE: 08/11/04 12:32:01 PM EDT

What is "OS"? Operating System? What's that?

I have to count the screens, I don't have them numbered. When I counted it was on screen 15.

I have the same version OS that you have. I assume that just is the title they've given this OS.

Originally posted by hookbill
I have to count the screens, I don't have them numbered. When I counted it was on screen 15. While in diagnostic mode, at the bottom of the screen, it lists:
The current time Pg X/30 Exit or Diamond

Originally posted by hookbill
The first way is to go to the show as it's being recorded, stop and save recording and then start a new recording of the same showwhere you came in at. Then you would watch your show in two parts. No rewinding necessary. If you STOP & SAVE when you are less than half way through the show, and then immediately watch the 2nd part when you have completed watching the 1st part, won't you still have the same problem? (i.e. kick you back to LIVE when the 2nd part finishes recording)

Originally posted by AlbanyHDTV
If you STOP & SAVE when you are less than half way through the show, and then immediately watch the 2nd part when you have completed watching the 1st part, won't you still have the same problem? (i.e. kick you back to LIVE when the 2nd part finishes recording)

Let me clarify. You stop &save, then you immediately do a record on the show. You can then watch the part you just saved and, provided you have time enough to record the remainder of the show you would go to list and select your second recording.

Oh, btw....my software doesn't work like yours. It doesn't give page numbers or exit. You have a later version of SARA then what I have.

Originally posted by ShannonT
After my post I went back through the thread and tried to read most of it.

I'm a TWC customer in NC, so maybe it's something that TWC has enabled in the software. I'll try and find the version of the software I'm running when I get home.

As to the Season's pass manager, my 8300HD has what's called a "Series Manager". Once you press list, you hit "B" (I think, from memory) to get into the Series Manager. Once there, you can select a show and you have options (including priority) for that series. I can take a pic tonight if it will help.

I have a question as well: I have some of the same problems with side bars that many are complaining of. I feel it's that my unit wasn't set up properly (pass-through, output resolutions, etc.) when it was delivered, but I can't get into the setup wizard screen by pressing Info and Guide after turning the unit off. Is there something else I need to do or is it possible that TWC has disabled this option?



Passport Software is being used by TWCNC.

HDMI is automatic correct? all you have to do is plug the HDMI cable in and it will work with an HDCP set. My friend called me and told me he couldn't get the 8300HD to turn on its HDMI port. yes the port has been activated by TWC, if you are wondering.

Originally posted by hookbill
Let me clarify. You stop &save, then you immediately do a record on the show. You can then watch the part you just saved and, provided you have time enough to record the remainder of the show you would go to list and select your second recording. Example:
My DVR is scheduled to record an hour long show. The recording starts automatically. After 10 minutes, I come home and want to watch the show. I turn on my TV & DVR to find the show and hit the STOP button to stop the recording while it is 10 minutes into the recording. I then immediately start another recording of the same show, which will record the last 50 minutes. I go back into the LIST and watch the 1st part of the show. After 10 minutes (or less after I fast forward through the commercials), I go into the LIST, and select the second recorded part of the show, which is now 10 minutes into recording the last 50 minutes of the hour long show. I rewind to the beginning & watch the second recording for 40 minutes and then....

Wouldn't this kick me out to LIVE TV at this point?

Originally posted by miniz
HDMI is automatic correct? all you have to do is plug the HDMI cable in and it will work with an HDCP set. My friend called me and told me he couldn't get the 8300HD to turn on its HDMI port. yes the port has been activated by TWC, if you are wondering.

I'm not sure what you mean by "automatic." Will it work as soon as you plug it in? That's what mine did. I then changed the settings on the video format. Is he getting no picture at all?

yup, no picture at all. No error messages, nothing. he is using an HDMI to DVI adapter then a dual-link DVI cable to the HDTV. DVI works, as he had the 3250HD before and it worked perfectly.

Originally posted by AlbanyHDTV
Example:
My DVR is scheduled to record an hour long show. The recording starts automatically. After 10 minutes, I come home and want to watch the show. I turn on my TV & DVR to find the show and hit the STOP button to stop the recording while it is 10 minutes into the recording. I then immediately start another recording of the same show, which will record the last 50 minutes. I go back into the LIST and watch the 1st part of the show. After 10 minutes (or less after I fast forward through the commercials), I go into the LIST, and select the second recorded part of the show, which is now 10 minutes into recording the last 50 minutes of the hour long show. I rewind to the beginning & watch the second recording for 40 minutes and then....

Wouldn't this kick me out to LIVE TV at this point?

Yes, that's why I said provided you have enough time to record the remainder of the show. So by your example you would have to do several recordings of the same show at 10 minutes per time.

Pain in the behind, but it will work. Anyway skipping through commercials you probably would get caught up live.

Originally posted by miniz
yup, no picture at all. No error messages, nothing. he is using an HDMI to DVI adapter then a dual-link DVI cable to the HDTV. DVI works, as he had the 3250HD before and it worked perfectly.

You know I know someone in my area who had problems hooking up the DVI/HDMI. As a matter of fact he darn near called me a liar when I first announced in the Cleveland thread I hooked up Adelphia's SA 8300 to HDMI. I told him I had no reason to make up stories so he tried it again and it was working. (He apoligized):)

Maybe some type of upgrade has to go through after you first hook up the box. If not, I'd get another box.

Originally posted by AlbanyHDTV
Here in Albany, NY, it lists:
NAME: SARA
VERSION: 1.85.17.3
DATE: 10/20/04 6:11:00 PM EDT
[/B]

That's weird. I have 1.86.11.1 here on Long Island (Cablevision), but mine is dated 9/30/04.

So my more recent version number is an older file.

anyone???

SA notes:
The SARA version numbers are based on specific builds from SA, and may not apply to your MSO. Some versions are created to fix specific problems on a particular network for compatibility and are not feature enhancements. This is another reason not all MSO's have the same features - There are compatibility issues that need to be worked out. The dates of applications are based on when the MSO has applied the updates to their system. This doesn't mean you got it at that time, but that it was on the system for testing at that time. Once approved, it is sent to all boxes.

Hookbill: The diagnostic screens will always have the page and other info across the bottom of the screen. It's been on SA digital STB's since about 1994. You may have an Overscan issue on your set. To compare your overscan, to normal display values, use the INFO button once to bring up information while watching a program. With 0~5% overscan across the bottom, you will see the info BAR and still be able to see the background video playing underneath the bar. If you can't see that, you can use the Guide button and use the blue square B symbol on the bottom as a reference. If you see the complete square, at the edge of your set, then your set is at about 9~10% overscaned. The diagnostic page info displayed in blue, is right at and below the symbols displayed on the Guide, and may be lost on sets with an excess of 10% overscan across the bottom.

Priority List, as described by ShannonT, is a Passport AND IPG enhanced data feature. These are features of the IPG, along with First Run Flag, Search by Keyword, and other Tivo like features that may be available. For an example of keyword search, if your system has EOD, or VOD, try the search function within that service. The software is in the box, but not compatible with the IPG server.

Also, ShannonT - To enter into your setup, you have to turn off your box. then press and hold the Guide and Info buttons at the same time from the front of your box, not the remote.

vegggas

Originally posted by vegggas
Hookbill: The diagnostic screens will always have the page and other info across the bottom of the screen. It's been on SA digital STB's since about 1994. You may have an Overscan issue on your set. To compare your overscan, to normal display values, use the INFO button once to bring up information while watching a program. With 0~5% overscan across the bottom, you will see the info BAR and still be able to see the background video playing underneath the bar. If you can't see that, you can use the Guide button and use the blue square B symbol on the bottom as a reference. If you see the complete square, at the edge of your set, then your set is at about 9~10% overscaned. The diagnostic page info displayed in blue, is right at and below the symbols displayed on the Guide, and may be lost on sets with an excess of 10% overscan across the bottom.vegggas

I've got to be the most unobservant person on this planet! On top of that I can't even count. Your absolutly right, the diagnostic screen does list the pages, I don't know how I missed it. And the screen we were discussing is on page 17 not page 15.

Thanks for the info about why SARA versions go out with some units and not others. Makes lots of sense.

Originally posted by kevinivey
Passport Software is being used by TWCNC.

Yes, sorry for the confusion. I checked it last night.

The passport software I'm running has several features you guys have requested. So it's better in that respect, but it has none of the configuration features such as the setup wizard or diagnostic screen. At least according to one of the HD development techs at TWC.

If I am watching a recorded show and decide to stop it and watch the rest tommorrow, the dvr does not give me an option to watch from the point where I stopped . I have to FF from the beginning. Anyone have a work around?

I've had this problem once in awhile with the SA8000HD box as well: Instead of recording a show as one block, it records the show in 1 minute increments. It starts recording a 1 hour show, after one minute, it stops and restarts recording a 59 min show, after another minute it stops again and restarts a 58 minute show etc, etc.

I have it set to keep two episodes so I end up with 2 one minute long snippets of the last two minutes of the show.

I reboot seems to fix this; if I don't reboot, it keeps doing it with the next show.

Does this happen to anyone else?

TWC Minneapolis
SARA 1.85.17.9 10/20/04

How can I tell what resolution the incoming signal is, my display always reads 1080i even when not on a HD channel? I do notice that a HDTV light appears on the display of the 8300 when it is tuned to a HD cahnnel, but I'm still not sure what the signal is. If everything is 1080i then why are some HD feeds 4:3?

Also I noticed on the service menue (cant remember which page) a line that says:

HDMI-Active, or maybe its activated, cant remember. Anyway, it does not seem to work.

Any ideas?

I have a problem where my box will sometimes record a show (the red "Recording" light is on) but when I go to watch it later, it's nowhere to be found. I suspect that this is related to Adelphia running 8000HD and 8300HD boxes together on not-so-up-to-date firmware, but haven't checked the version number yet. Has anyone heard of this issue before?

Originally posted by Kingdaddy
How can I tell what resolution the incoming signal is, my display always reads 1080i even when not on a HD channel? I do notice that a HDTV light appears on the display of the 8300 when it is tuned to a HD cahnnel, but I'm still not sure what the signal is. If everything is 1080i then why are some HD feeds 4:3?

Also I noticed on the service menue (cant remember which page) a line that says:

HDMI-Active, or maybe its activated, cant remember. Anyway, it does not seem to work.

Any ideas?

You''ll need to set your box up to receive more then just 1080i. Turn your unit off, tv set on. Press guide and info at the same time ON THE BOX. This will bring you to the set up screen. Grab your remote and follow the instructions to select your screens. You really only need 1080i, 720p, 480i, and 480p. Some will say you don't need 720p but I use it.

After you do this, exit and turn your unit on. Go to the settings and select Video Format. If your hooked up with component select pass thru. If your hooked up with HDMI select DVI/HDMI. The box will pick the proper format and display it to you on the front panel.

Thanks hookbill, must have missed that in the 8300 manual.

Anyone ever had a audio hum problem with this box? I personally think it's the cable feed but it doesn’t hurt to ask.

does anyone have a driver that's updated newer than 10/??/2004? (on pg17 of the diagnostic screens)

kray, I'm not sure those dates mean much. I don't think they relate to the version of the drivers, but a probably the dates they were installed, downloaded, or something. Of course, I could be wrong. :)

Has anyone tried recording to a DVD. It appears that DVD will record a letter box image of an HD broadcast. The letter box would need to be enlarged to fit a 16x9 screen. I miss the ability to transfer anamorphic images to a DVD like I do with the 921 DVR from Dish. I did this with setting the 921 to 480i and 16x9. I had an image "squashed from the sides so that everything looked taller. On the replay of the DVD, I used the Wide screen setting. The PQ looked as good as play back of commercial DVD in 480p play back. I tried ever setting in the set up wizzard along with the picture format in the preference section. I was unable to get an "anamorphic image" It doesn't look like it can be done. Enlarging the letter box image on playback would cause further degradation of picture quality. Too bad. Portability is a major issue. I was using the S video out.

Hi guys,

I've got a KD-34XBR960 with the SA8300 and have two issues:

1) video source switch does not work. Tried a few different codes for the remote but could not get this to work.

2) "#" screen size switch wont work: this is odd. Worked after the cable company tech "installed" the box. Few days later quit on me. I still get the indication at the bottom of the screen that its cycling through the modes, but no change in the screen. Do I need to have the television set to "normal" or "full" during the initial set up for this to work? I ask because I noticed that sometimes I wouldn't even get the indication that its cylcing depending on how the screen is set through the sony remote.

Thanks for your help, this forum has been incredibly useful.
S.

Originally posted by Spank
Hi guys,

I've got a KD-34XBR960 with the SA8300 and have two issues:

1) video source switch does not work. Tried a few different codes for the remote but could not get this to work.

2) "#" screen size switch wont work: this is odd. Worked after the cable company tech "installed" the box. Few days later quit on me. I still get the indication at the bottom of the screen that its cycling through the modes, but no change in the screen. Do I need to have the television set to "normal" or "full" during the initial set up for this to work? I ask because I noticed that sometimes I wouldn't even get the indication that its cylcing depending on how the screen is set through the sony remote.

Thanks for your help, this forum has been incredibly useful.
S.

In your instructions that you got with your remote there is a way to auto set your remote so it will work with your TV. I'm assuming this is a new model Sony so one of the codes should work.

I assume your talking about the aspect ratio key. The only reason that I can think of why this wouldn't work is if you reprogramed it somehow. Now believe it or not I think the numnuts at Adelphia know how to reset your remote so enjoy the experience of calling them and see if they can help.

Also you can change screen size by pressing settings and scrolling to the screen size bar.

Keep in mind that your Sony picture will not change aspects while in HD. It goes to full screen and you cannot change that through your Sony remote. You can do it with your regular remote.

In your intital settings you should have your screen on normal. But it really won't make much difference because once you get to the 720p or 1080i screen Sony will automatically go to full.

Thanks for the quick reply hookbill

To clarify a bit:

the sa8300 remote works for all other functions except the screen aspect ratio and video source switching. I've tried a few of the other codes in the remote manual and they don't work...

Also you can change screen size by pressing settings and scrolling to the screen size bar.

Yeah I tried that and it won't work in there either.


Keep in mind that your Sony picture will not change aspects while in HD. It goes to full screen and you cannot change that through your Sony remote. You can do it with your regular remote.

This has me a little confused - I can change aspects (with the sony remote) in HD and SD without a problem....

The cable company in my area says they are expecting a firmware update from SA next week to fix the HDMI issue. After some questioning they tell me that all the updates come from SA and they have no control over them, so all software issues according to Charter cable here in Fort Worth is controlled by SA. I was able to get the hum out with a very expensive aviation hum buster (bandpass filter). Still can't and won't be able to get CBS in HD here because of some local politics and bad blood between Charter's CEO and the Local CBS affiliate. Can I just hook up an antenna?

Are the HD (cable company) feeds compressed like Satellite?

spank,
It sounds like you are not viewing the STB through the HD inputs of the TV.
2) "#" screen size switch wont work: this is odd. Worked after the cable company tech "installed" the box. Few days later quit on me. I still get the indication at the bottom of the screen that its cycling through the modes, but no change in the screen. Do I need to have the television set to "normal" or "full" during the initial set up for this to work? I ask because I noticed that sometimes I wouldn't even get the indication that its cylcing depending on how the screen is set through the sony remote.
This happens when you are viewing RF, composite, or s-video downconversions.

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Keep in mind that your Sony picture will not change aspects while in HD. It goes to full screen and you cannot change that through your Sony remote. You can do it with your regular remote.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This has me a little confused - I can change aspects (with the sony remote) in HD and SD without a problem....

The Sony will not change aspect ratio when fed an HD signal on an HD input. This seems to further point that you are not using the HD inputs of the TV.

vegggas

Hey Veggas


I may be responsible for the confusion here - perhaps I'm not using the correct terms...

1) I'm 99% certain that the stb is hooked up to the television through component inputs - I haven't gone back around and checked but the installer asked if it was ok to remove the dvd player which was setup through the component inputs. I will double check this evening.

2) I'm using "screen size" and "aspect ratio" interchangeabley when I probably shouldn't. When I said that I can change the aspect of the sony in hd and sd I meant screen size. (normal, full, zoom, wide zoom). I can see now that aspect ratio probably means 4:3 and 16:9. My mistake. If so I have not tried to change that...

3) If I'm not using hd inputs on the tv than I'm pretty impressed with picture quality so far!!

4) So this kinda leaves me where I started ...no video source control and no "screen size" control on the SA remote. I will try and resolve with my cable company and post the results...

Originally posted by Spank
4) So this kinda leaves me where I started ...no video source control and no "screen size" control on the SA remote. I will try and resolve with my cable company and post the results... [/B]

Sorry I can't help you on the screen size control. That should work.

However, the video source button on the remote will NOT change the video source on your TV. It is a reserved button for future use - my guess would be that you could somehow select the video inputs on the front of the box (when and if they are ever activated) with this button. This is pure speculation though.

On the 8000 and 8300 remotes there is no "video source" button that controls the video source TV. There was one on the 3100 and 3250 box remotes, which I previously had.

Because of this and other shortfalls of the new remote, I have been looking into getting one of the Harmony remotes or another universal remote that can control both the PVR and TV better than the one supplied with the 8300. If anyone is using a Harmony or other remote with the 8300 I would sure like to know the model # and how it is working out. I tried contacting Harmony technical support to see which (if any) of their remotes would control the PVR and other functions of the 8300, but they have not answered back....

Keith

I have a Harmony 676 and it works great with the 8300HD. I actually got the remote when I had an 8000HD and there has been no need to change the codes. The remote was very simple to set up, easy to use, and easy to tweak.

I use the Harmony 688. It is designed for PVRs and works great for me. I had to program the LCD buttons for LIST, A, B, and C, otherwise it has FF, REW, Pause, Stop, Play, etc. I also reprogrammed some other buttons for Replay, Settings, Favorites, etc., so that I wouldn't have to use the LCD much. The only time I use the LCD now is if I want to do something special with any of my equipment that the main buttons are not set for.

The remote lists for $250, but I paid $150 and change for it at newegg.com and am very satisfied. One caveat about Newegg. They will only let you return for exchange, so you need to be sure you want it before you buy from them.

Some folks don't like the Harmony series because you have to have an internet connection to program it. The process is pretty painless, though updating the remote on a dialup connect might take a while. On broadband, it is quick enough. You can make all your changes and then connect the remote to make the updates, really pretty easy but not for everyone.

I got my 676 from newegg. Great company. The one thing I like about the 676 for an SA box is that it has hard "A" and "B" buttons. I programmed the "Prev" button as "C" and the setup works well. I'm gonna stop talking about remotes now as we're getting kinda off topic.

Thanks for the info.....

I didn't mean to get off topic with talking about remotes.....
I was already planning on getting one of the Harmony's from Newegg, and they don't allow for returns so I did want to make sure they would work with this particular box. Now that I know that these two models will work I will feel alot more secure in my purchase.....

Keith

Well, looks like many of us in Cablevision-land got our first run flag today.

That's pretty nice.

No other apparent changes, no new SARA or any other updated software on the box, but it's a start.

Originally posted by lexluthor
Well, looks like many of us in Cablevision-land got our first run flag today.

That's pretty nice.

No other apparent changes, no new SARA or any other updated software on the box, but it's a start.

Interesting. When I got up this morning I noticed the box had rebooted. I did get an update from SARA 1.85.14.2 to 1.85.17.3.

I have no idea at this point what this update did. This is Adelphia Cable in Cleveland area.

Wow, Adelphia in Cleveland is much nicer to you guys than it is here. I checked my SARA version a couple of days ago and it was only 1.85.8.3!

Originally posted by bohbot16
Wow, Adelphia in Cleveland is much nicer to you guys than it is here. I checked my SARA version a couple of days ago and it was only 1.85.8.3!

lol....no, they are not exactly nice guys.....The version they issue is whatever is compatible to their system. Since most of these cable companies "inherit" systems from other companies who's to say what is compatible where. I've seen higher versions then mine in other threads, including this one. And I've noticed that some of those versions can't do everything my older version did.

I'm just moving from Dishnet to Cable (Adelphia) and am learning how to use the 8300HD. However, I currently still have a Dish 921 PVR which is being returned, and have two 508PVRs and one 510 PVR. They are NOT Tivo's. However, they have the ability to enter the entire title name, or parts of it, and then it searches through the next 7 days to find all matches. Not that difficult. Though I'm happy about some of the stuff with the 8300, this search is absolutely worthless on the 8300. What kind of crack were the SA engineers smoking when they designed this feature? As an engineer, I'm amazed at the poor design!

Originally posted by Jim Boden
I definitely agree the title search function is completely lame, but it's better than nothing. Since we don't have Tivo in Canada, I can only imagine how much better it could be.:)

I just got my 8300HD, was using a Tivo Series2. While I like now having 2 tuners and HD recording, I agree, the designers must have been totally ignorant of good user interface design.

In addition to lack of search features, the FF appears to be very sensitive. Many times when I press it, the marker advances without the picture in sync - VERY frustrating. I was also just had my 1st experience with the "kick-out" bug during playback while recording. Hope we see some improvements soon.

Originally posted by Rod Rebello
IIn addition to lack of search features, the FF appears to be very sensitive. Many times when I press it, the marker advances without the picture in sync - VERY frustrating. I was also just had my 1st experience with the "kick-out" bug during playback while recording. Hope we see some improvements soon.

I agree about the FF. I hope the upgrade I got today fixed that. I haven't really had time to figure out what differences it has between this version of SARA and my old.

Just curious Rod...Why not go satallite and get a D-Tivo. 2 tuners and you don't loose any of the features....except HMO.

I can answer at least part of that. The DirecTV Tivo's cost $1000 cash. Plus, there's a good bit less HD content (including no HD locals for most of us) on Direct. Dishnet is even worse.

I also should have mentioned that the FF sucks, as does getting kicked out during playback when recording stops. Very poor UI design.

Originally posted by hookbill
I agree about the FF. I hope the upgrade I got today fixed that. I haven't really had time to figure out what differences it has between this version of SARA and my old.

Just curious Rod...Why not go satallite and get a D-Tivo. 2 tuners and you don't loose any of the features....except HMO.

I just got a new Beta software build (not just an updated revision) to test from the cable company... The 8300 was treating me well without many, if any problems. I will have to get back to my contact and see what specific changes were made and what I'm allowed to say.
First impression is that it appears more refined and smoother in the UI screens and control. The previous build, seemed more like just an improvement over the 8000 with a few new features, but almost the same interface and control (like the 8000 was the base code modified for the new box). This new build seems more like a build made specifically just for this hardware.
quick notes. The frozen image glitch while FF and Rew is completely gone, and the currently recording shows in the List are now highlighted the same way as the guide would show.

More details during/after the weekend and some much needed rest.
Sorry to be so vague right now, but it may only be a temporary test...

vegggas

Originally posted by vegggas
quick notes. The frozen image glitch while FF and Rew is completely gone, and the currently recording shows in the List are now highlighted the same way as the guide would show.



The only thing I noticed about my SARA upgrade is that the frozen image glitch is now gone. I tested it several times last night, not once did it freeze up.

To the best of my knowledge, SARA 1.85.17.3 is not exclusive to my area, and of course it's not a beta test (at least I don't think so).

Originally posted by miniz
yup, no picture at all. No error messages, nothing. he is using an HDMI to DVI adapter then a dual-link DVI cable to the HDTV. DVI works, as he had the 3250HD before and it worked perfectly.

I'm having the same problem. DVI-HDMI from 4200HD worked fine. Now 8300 HDMI-HDMI does not work.

What display is your friend using? Maybe it is vendor specific problem.

Originally posted by vegggas
I just got a new Beta software build (not just an updated revision) to test from the cable company... The 8300 was treating me well without many, if any problems. I will have to get back to my contact and see what specific changes were made and what I'm allowed to say.
First impression is that it appears more refined and smoother in the UI screens and control. The previous build, seemed more like just an improvement over the 8000 with a few new features, but almost the same interface and control (like the 8000 was the base code modified for the new box). This new build seems more like a build made specifically just for this hardware.
quick notes. The frozen image glitch while FF and Rew is completely gone, and the currently recording shows in the List are now highlighted the same way as the guide would show.

More details during/after the weekend and some much needed rest.
Sorry to be so vague right now, but it may only be a temporary test...

vegggas

You have me excited that some of these issues are going to be fixed. The biggest one in my book is being kicked out to live tv when a recording ends, and not being able to start a recording from the beginning when its in progress recording. Do you know if these have been addressed...come on, what can you tell us? ;)

DN

I noticed some different strange behavior on the 8300HD last night. I have the 8300HD through Cablevision.

While trying to record 2 shows at once last night, I couldn't get one of the channels to record at all. Instead, it was recording 1 HD channel (that I had set up) and 1 SD channel (that I had not setup). When I tried to cancel the SD channel, the 'yes' button wouldn't work. Also, this SD recording was not showing up in the recording list (King of Queens was recording, but it was not in the list). After a few minutes of frustration, I looked at the list of weekly recordings I had set up. There were a few in the list that were series that were no longer on (i.e. Survivor). The recording settings for those old scheduled recordings matched the time and channel of the mystery SD channel that was currently recording (got that?). It looks like the system got confused and was applying the old scheduled recording even though the names didn't match in the guide. I did find a new "Survivor" recording in the list, but it was marked with a time of -59 minutes and clicking on it led to a black screen.

I eventually got it worked out (after missing 15 minutes of the show I wanted). The moral of the story is to clean out old scheduled recordings for shows that are no longer on. It looks like the 8300HD can get flaky if they are still on the list (even though they shouldn't affect new recordings).

The only thing I noticed about my SARA upgrade is that the frozen image glitch is now gone. I tested it several times last night, not once did it freeze up.
To the best of my knowledge, SARA 1.85.17.3 is not exclusive to my area, and of course it's not a beta test (at least I don't think so).
hookbill, I have a non public beta test build that is Light Years beyond that revision... In fact, it's way beyond the 1.85.x range. It's a new build, not a revision upgrade. I have to do some specific testing and provide feedback before it can be released on my local system. Unfortunately, I won't have time until this weekend. It looks like most of the changes are copy protection, add on storage, and HD notification related.

jonnyb,
That's very good advice and makes a lot of sense. It has also happened to me on the 8000. I think Dave should post a summary at the start of the thread as another tip.

vegggas

Hi!
I have an 8300HD connected via an HDMI/DVI cable to my new Vizio plasma and find that while watching HD the picture "jumps" every few minutes or so from dropping some frames. It is very quick but bothers me each time that it happens.

Is this a common problem using the HDMI output of the 8300? I suspect that the 8300 can't keep up with the required processing. I haven't tested it with component cables yet so i don't know if it happens then as well...

Will the new beta release address this as well??

Thanks for your help from a newbie to the forum (and I apologize if this has been discussed before but I couldn't find it in my searching).

Marc

Originally posted by vegggas
hookbill, I have a non public beta test build that is Light Years beyond that revision... In fact, it's way beyond the 1.85.x range. It's a new build, not a revision upgrade. I have to do some specific testing and provide feedback before it can be released on my local system. Unfortunately, I won't have time until this weekend. It looks like most of the changes are copy protection, add on storage, and HD notification related.
vegggas

I understand. I'm just happy that the freezing ff is fixed with my latest download.

What would really make me happy is to hear you report that they are making improvements on the search feature, which imho is basically useless as it available now.

Originally posted by vegggas
jonnyb,
That's very good advice and makes a lot of sense. It has also happened to me on the 8000. I think Dave should post a summary at the start of the thread as another tip.

vegggas Done!

BTW. If anyone ever wants something specific added to the first post, simply let me know. Many items posted here appear to be single anamolies and generally won't get added unless there are multiple posts cofirming the problem, workaround, tip, etc.

Cox Cable told me that the SA 8300HD would do everything my TIVO would, including move media to my computer via their firewire plug. I just spent $120 on rendering software and a 30ft firewire cable...just to find out that the firewire port is disabled.

A tech-rep mgr at Cox seems to think there's software "out there" that I can download and apply to my box to enable the port. I'm familiar with Firmware updates, so if you know of where I can get my mits on this, I'd be greatly appreaciative.

tks
mike

Ps, is it true that data on the drive is scrambled? that would just be cruel.

Originally posted by cgyn
Cox Cable told me that the SA 8300HD would do everything my TIVO would, including move media to my computer via their firewire plug. I just spent $120 on rendering software and a 30ft firewire cable...just to find out that the firewire port is disabled.

A tech-rep mgr at Cox seems to think there's software "out there" that I can download and apply to my box to enable the port. I'm familiar with Firmware updates, so if you know of where I can get my mits on this, I'd be greatly appreaciative.



Veggas can probably confirm what I'm about to suggest, but all updates have to come from the cable company. That was what I was told when I contacted SA about how updates were done. The reason for this, as discussed in previous posts is the software has to confirm to the cable companies equipment.

As far as doing everything a TiVo will do. Pardon me while I just sit around and laugh.

I have learned that 95% of what comes out of cable techs mouths is not true. Most of the time they just want to come in your house and get you off their list of things to do. I had to show the one who installed my 8000 when I first got it how to do the set up, he couldn't get it to work. While he was fooling around I went on line to SA's site and got directions.

Thanks Hookbill, makes sense to me. The tech rep at Cox was trying to get me to beliieve that there's a driver on the web that I could load myself, to enable those ports. I asked him "how can I load a driver, through a port that's disabled...the only live port on your box is cable jack?"

Alright, so what I'm hearing here is that TIVO is a more powerful medium...is that correct? I know that they, indeed, are releasing a program that will enable me to dump programming to my computer (via a wireless USB adapter - thru my network), by the end of this month. The only down side is that their boxes won't record HD programming...dang!! Any other Strong recommendations? I'm new to this DVR stuff.

tks again,
mike

Originally posted by marcsbike
Hi!
I have an 8300HD connected via an HDMI/DVI cable to my new Vizio plasma and find that while watching HD the picture "jumps" every few minutes or so from dropping some frames. It is very quick but bothers me each time that it happens.

Is this a common problem using the HDMI output of the 8300? I suspect that the 8300 can't keep up with the required processing. I haven't tested it with component cables yet so i don't know if it happens then as well...

Will the new beta release address this as well??

Thanks for your help from a newbie to the forum (and I apologize if this has been discussed before but I couldn't find it in my searching).

Marc

I don't have a problem like that with my connection. Then again there are two major differences we have. First, I have a CRT, not plasma. Second, I'm HDMI to HDMI, though I kind of doubt that makes a difference.

Sorry I couldn't give you a better answer, perhaps someone else will follow up.

Originally posted by cgyn
Thanks Hookbill, makes sense to me. The tech rep at Cox was trying to get me to beliieve that there's a driver on the web that I could load myself, to enable those ports. I asked him "how can I load a driver, through a port that's disabled...the only live port on your box is cable jack?"

Alright, so what I'm hearing here is that TIVO is a more powerful medium...is that correct? I know that they, indeed, are releasing a program that will enable me to dump programming to my computer (via a wireless USB adapter - thru my network), by the end of this month. The only down side is that their boxes won't record HD programming...dang!! Any other Strong recommendations? I'm new to this DVR stuff.

tks again,
mike

Being a former D-TV customer and D-TiVo owner, it's very hard for me to say a lot of nice things about the 8300. Now the D-TiVo has two tuners but no home media option. The D-TiVo for HD is also a thousand bucks.

Regular HD TiVo only has one tuner. But it does have Home Media Option.

All TiVo's have much better search features, wish list (something that you might want to see but isn't listed) and some other bells and whistles.

For the money you spend on the 8300 you really arn't getting a bad deal.

Hi,

I just found this thread, I have had the 8300HD through Cablevision since November and all in all I think its a nice piece of kit, its changed the way we watch TV.

It seems the issues that effect everyone have been pretty much discussed here, I hope we get a fix to the no rewind to start and kickout to live TV for inprogress recordings soon. I have not noticed anyone complaining about pixellated recordings after the box gets more than 40% full, is this problem a Cablevision only one ?

Anyway one thing I have not seen addressed is does anyone know how far out of a guide these boxes can support ? It seems from this thread everyone gets only 7 days. Can the boxes and software support anything longer ? I am now starting to wish that along with some basic guide searching I would like to look out further than 7 days to select programming to record.

Thanks.

The box can almost certainly support more than 7 days, but that is all cableco's are pushing. That wouldn't be such a drawback if the search features were enhanced, even a little, and there was a Wish List feature added. :)

I have the 8300 hooked to a Sony KDF60XS955. When I turned on regular cable today everything is stretched. I believe it is the 8300 because my TIVO and DVD sources look fine. Any ideas?

Try this alternative to the "Lazy-man's diagnostic mode":

Press and hold the pause button for 10 seconds +/- until the mail light appears on the 8300's display.

Press "PAGE -" on the remote (instead of PAGE +).

"E-00" appears on the 8300's display.

"111" appears on the display if you press "2" on the remote.

"d-2." appears on the display if you press "3" on the remote.

"P-00" appears on the display if you press "4" on the remote.

"r-1" appears on the display if you press "STOP" on the remote.

I'd like to know what these mean and what is happening to the box when this is performed. What is the "PAGE -" diagnostic mode? There is no display on the TV's screen.

I have also heard that while in "PAGE -" diagnostic mode:

if you press "STOP" 3 times, the box will force a reboot

and

if you press "LIST" 3 times, the hard drive will erase all the programs on it.

Hopefully, one of the extremely knowledgeable contributers to this thread can shed some light on this for me.

Hello all,

AlbanyHDTV, I can only confirm that pressing "Pause", pressing"Page -", and pressing "Stop" 3 times will cause a reboot. (Glad I never experimentally tried pressing "LIST" 3 times. :eek:


DoubleDAZ,

Back in early December you posted for a bit about troubles with starting a recording of a show when partway into the show. Did you discover anything new in regard to that?

I too have Cox cable here in Phoenix, I just got my 8300HD on January 11th (upgraded from an SA 8000 DVR that is now on my old 27" bedroom tv) The first Thursday night I had it I turned on ER on NBCHD, watched a couple minutes of it, and as we had company I paused it to watch later (I did not set it to record as it wasn't that important to me). One thing led to another and it was about 50 minutes later before I came back to it, I hit play and quickly realized that I did not want to stay up another 40-45 minutes to watch it all. I hit the record button accepted the defaults, and turned off the TV and left the room. I noticed sometime after 10:00 it was no longer recording, but thought nothing of it since the show ended at 10:00. The next night the wife and I sat down, and decided there was nothing on we wanted to watch and we'd watch the recording of ER. When I went to play it I was mystified that it said only 7 minutes in the recorded time column. We started the recording and got the first 7 minutes of the show. Then it stopped.

Apparently it started at the beginning of the buffer but only kept recording until 10:00 pm, it did not automatically copy over the entire buffer as I was used to from my SA8000. I have not taken the time for any experiments since then.

Though one other odd thing happened last night, and I am not sure if it was the buffer or the cable signal or what. I watched NBCHD Medical Investigations through to the opening credits, paused it, and went to do some chores, I came back some 40 minutes later or so, hit play FF'd through the commercials and started watching the show. The action on the show though seemed to be very late in the episode instead of the beginning. I rewound, and came back and I had not missed anything or gone to far. It was as if at skipped most of the show. I hit the live button (accidently actually, one of the annoyances of the remote) and the Live action was just a scene or two after where the FF had taken me to at the beginning of the show. I rewound then from that point back to the beginning and sure enough there after the first set of commercials was the last 5-10 minutes of the show, and then it just jumped to the show in progress at the 10 minute point. So I can't tell if the broadcast was screwed up or if it was something to do with my recording/buffer.

Anyway, other than that it has been great to finally have HD picture on my HD TV after owning it for over a year.

Originally posted by billatlakegeorge
I have the 8300 hooked to a Sony KDF60XS955. When I turned on regular cable today everything is stretched. I believe it is the 8300 because my TIVO and DVD sources look fine. Any ideas?

Try pressing the "#" button on the remote. It cycles through the STRETCH and ZOOM modes of the 8300 DVR.

AlbanyHDTV thanks that was it.

so it turns out the genius installer had both the component AND coax hooked up! Veggas you were right - all worked out and I'm blown away by the picture now. Using HDMI cable from svideo.com

Thanks for the help all.

PhoenixJO, I have not done any more experiments. I can't even remember the last time I recorded something that I happened to be watching. I do remember trying to reproduce the problem at the time and I wasn't able to. Every time I tried to record something while in the middle, it worked as advertised, so I gave up.

However, I never paused a program for 30-40 minutes like you have, so I don't know if that might have something to do with your problem or not. All I've done is hit Record and it has dumped whatever is in the buffer and finished recording the program.

I'll try to get vegggas to look at this thread. Maybe he can shed some light.

Hello all,

I'm having a few aggrevations with the 8300 HD. I'm on TWC w/ Passport software but I think the problems are fundamental.

Problem 1) The 8300 seems to transmit on the HDMI all the time, even when off. This prevents TV's with dual inputs from switching as the digital is always on and "hot".

Problem 2) The 8300 has an active sense associated with the HDMI. If the device it's connected to is powered on, then the 8300 will power on. This reeks havoc with macro programming. (example: everything is off. DVD macro is invoked - TV, DVD player and receiver are turned on by macro. 8300 sees the TV come on and powers up. If a new macro is selected that involves turning on the 8300, it turns off instead.)

Which brings us to problem 3) The 8300 doesn't seem to have a discrete Power On and a Power off code, but a Power Toggle. Is there a coding workaround?

Problem 4) Aside from the HDCP aggravations mentioned by others, I'm seeing one when an HDMI receiver sits between the 8300HD and TV. I cannot use HDMI to the receiver without encountering the HDCP lockout, and power cycling doesn't cure it. However if I run HDMI to the TV, no HDCP lockout occurs except during late night power cycles.

Any thoughts on the above? Regards,
JnC

JnC,

I can't believe HDMI is keeping your TV from switching from Input1 to Input2, but stranger things have happened. It looks to me like you are short of inputs and are trying to connect the 8300 to an input via HDMI while connecting another device (DVD?) to the same input via Component. If that is the case, I believe some TVs don't allow you to use mulitple connections on the same input at the same time or one connection overrides the other when there are signals present on both.

I don't believe the 8300 has discrete on/off codes and that is what the folks over in the Remote Central forums say. My remote (Harmony 688) "remembers" the on/off status of devices, so this isn't a problem for me when switching activities.

The 8300 does indeed enter a "sleep" mode rather than doing a full power-off. This allows scheduled recordings to take place with the power "off" vs leaving the unit on 24/7. There are probably power-off devices that you could control with your remote, but then you'd always be rebooting the 8300 and you'd lose the capability to record when it is truly off.

Also, this doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but this is the first time I've read that the 8300 powers up when the TV is turned on. You don't have the 8300 or TV plugged into a "switched" outlet on one or the other or a receiver, do you?

Originally posted by DoubleDAZ
It looks to me like you are short of inputs and are trying to connect the 8300 to an input via HDMI while connecting another device (DVD?) to the same input via Component. If that is the case, I believe some TVs don't allow you to use mulitple connections on the same input at the same time or one connection overrides the other when there are signals present on both.

Exactly. Input 1 shares DVI and component. Since the 8300 never drops the DVI even when "off", I can't use the component connection on input 1 due to the override. This wasn't a problem previously as my macro would turn off the cable box prior to turning on the component device.

As a workaround, I am using the receiver's component switch to combine sources now. It's not as isolated as I would prefer but it works. You would think if the receiver has the ability to turn off it's display and video circuitry, it must be there for a reason.

My remote (Harmony 688) "remembers" the on/off status of devices, so this isn't a problem for me when switching activities.

I have a Harmony remote as well. The Harmony's memory is ineffective if a device turns itself on that isn't supposed to be on. In other words, the Harmony can't predict the status of the 8300, as it powers-on if the TV powers-on for something else. And since it seems there's no discrete code, I can't put a power-off command in the macro as a preventative measure.

The 8300 does indeed enter a "sleep" mode rather than doing a full power-off. This allows scheduled recordings to take place with the power "off" vs leaving the unit on 24/7. There are probably power-off devices that you could control with your remote, but then you'd always be rebooting the 8300 and you'd lose the capability to record when it is truly off.

Agreed, that wouldn't be a solution.

Also, this doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but this is the first time I've read that the 8300 powers up when the TV is turned on. You don't have the 8300 or TV plugged into a "switched" outlet on one or the other or a receiver, do you?

Nope, both are plugged into the same Monster powerstrip but I doubt if it's cross coupled. If everything is off, and I manually turn the TV on the 8300 turns on in response.

Oh, for info purposes, the firewire outputs seem to be currently disabled with TWC.

Regards,
JnC

Please Help!!!!

Just got the SA8300 HD the other day, traded up from the 8000. Hooked it up to my Sony KV-30HS420 through HDMI and the audio to my reciever through digital audio out. I understand that the SA is sending 2 ch pcm to the tv through the HDMI, but it also is sending it to my reciever. I want to send the dolby digital signal to my reciever. I know you should be able to select this choice in the settings menu(hitting settings twice), but its not there. I don't have that option for some reason. Is there any way around this?? Any help would greatly be appreciated. Trying to get it set up for the football games today!

So to sum it up I'm trying to get video through HDMI and DD through the digital audio out.

How do you completely reset the 8300HD?

Originally posted by kevinivey
How do you completely reset the 8300HD?
Officially, you do the following:
1) Power off the unit
2) Unplug power cord and wait 30 seconds
3) Hold the power button for 10 seconds, while plugging the power cord back in
4) Wait 5 minutes or so for the STB to download the software (the display will show normally what it does when powerd off)

vegggas

Originally posted by JnC
I have a Harmony remote as well. The Harmony's memory is ineffective if a device turns itself on that isn't supposed to be on. In other words, the Harmony can't predict the status of the 8300, as it powers-on if the TV powers-on for something else. And since it seems there's no discrete code, I can't put a power-off command in the macro as a preventative measure.
That's true, but on the few occassions the Harmony has forgotten the device status, I've used Help to update the status of whichever device is out of sync. In your case though, it looks like even if you manually turn off the 8300, your TV will still not use the Component connection because of the latent signal on the DVI connection, correct? I assume the Harmony wil turn it off, but as soon as the TV comes on, the 8300 comes back on and that is really strange.

Again, it seems like others would have reported this happening with their TVs and the 8300 using HDMI/DVI. Could be the Passport software, but surely there are others that use Passport and HDMI. Anyone???

I suppose it's possible your 8300 is defective. Absent a fix though, it looks like you need to be able to unplug the DVI cable whenever you want to use the Component connection. I don't know how often you switch connections, but have you considered an intermediary cable that you could easily disconnect. That is, plug a separate cable into your TV and then connect it to the 8300 cable in the front of the set so you can get to it easily. I know this is a kludge, but I guess it all depends on how badly you want to use 2 connections on the same input. :)

Thanks, Vegggas.

Originally posted by vegggas
Officially, you do the following:
1) Power off the unit
2) Unplug power cord and wait 30 seconds
3) Hold the power button for 10 seconds, while plugging the power cord back in
4) Wait 5 minutes or so for the STB to download the software (the display will show normally what it does when powerd off)

vegggas What does this do besides download the latest software? Does it erase or reformat the HDD? I suppose I should add something to the Tips post about this.

No Dave,
It just "resets" all the SA STB's. The stored data is not touched, but it will refresh your STB with the current download and IPG data. It is the equivelent of shutting down your PC for 30 seconds and then starting it back up later. The software and memory are refreshed and all hardware is reset. This is a good practice once in a while, just like any PC that will eventually need a shutdown to clear memory and hardware issues.

vegggas

Thanks, I've just never held the power button while plugging it back in. I just unplug it and plug it back in after a few seconds.

Does the reset affect the recording schedules?

vegggas:

What about my questions in this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5038056#post5038056)?

Originally posted by AlbanyHDTV
vegggas:

What about my questions in this post (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?postid=5038056#post5038056)?
As I described in the 8000 thread, results will vary. Anything you do in the diagnstic mode could render your STB useless and require a phyical reset by the cable company. Use at your own risk. They do not give you this information, because it's not for customer use. Some things could reset or turn off (like your hard drive) and no longer work.

vegggas

So how do you make changes in the diag mode? ;) I can scroll through the pages but not select any of the fields.

Originally posted by petem23
Please Help!!!!

Just got the SA8300 HD the other day, traded up from the 8000. Hooked it up to my Sony KV-30HS420 through HDMI and the audio to my reciever through digital audio out. I understand that the SA is sending 2 ch pcm to the tv through the HDMI, but it also is sending it to my reciever. I want to send the dolby digital signal to my reciever. I know you should be able to select this choice in the settings menu(hitting settings twice), but its not there. I don't have that option for some reason. Is there any way around this?? Any help would greatly be appreciated. Trying to get it set up for the football games today!

So to sum it up I'm trying to get video through HDMI and DD through the digital audio out.

I've read that there are certain versions of SARA that do not have the digital out in the settings menu. I'd check the version of SARA you have and post back here on the boards.

I'm assuming you do have a digital cable in the back going from your 8300 to your receiver, correct?

For the record, I don't think it's any particular version of SARA, it's the way the cableco implemented it and which options they enabled. I believe I've seen versions posted that are the same as mine, 1.85.14.1, and they don't have the option while I do, though I could be mistaken.

I'm running SARA v1.85.8.a3. The digital out works fine when hooked up through component video, just pcm stereo when using HDMI. Any help?

Originally posted by petem23
I'm running SARA v1.85.8.a3. The digital out works fine when hooked up through component video, just pcm stereo when using HDMI. Any help?

So you can change your settings when your on digital out with component video but not when you have HDMI hooked up?

Again are you running a digital connector from the back of the 8300 to your amplifier?

If your saying the settings won't allow you to select Audio/Digital on HDMI but they will when your hooked up to component, I would check with your cable company. It really doesn't make any sense. Either it's there or it isn't.

Yes I have a monster cable running from the 8300 to my Pioneer Elite reciever. Like I said it works fine with component video, but I still do not have the option to change it. It just works. My T.V. does not support DD input so the 8300 is converting it down to 2 ch stereo for the TV to accept thru HDMI. It is also sending that same non digital signal through the audio digital out. When there is no HDMI hooked up to the 8300 it goes back to sending out the DD stream (5.1 & such). I just need a way to turn off the downconverting of the audio while using HDMI video, or really I don't need audio sent thru the HDMI at all, I use the reciever most of the time anyway. Thanks for the input.

Originally posted by petem23
Yes I have a monster cable running from the 8300 to my Pioneer Elite reciever. Like I said it works fine with component video, but I still do not have the option to change it. It just works. My T.V. does not support DD input so the 8300 is converting it down to 2 ch stereo for the TV to accept thru HDMI. It is also sending that same non digital signal through the audio digital out. When there is no HDMI hooked up to the 8300 it goes back to sending out the DD stream (5.1 & such). I just need a way to turn off the downconverting of the audio while using HDMI video, or really I don't need audio sent thru the HDMI at all, I use the reciever most of the time anyway. Thanks for the input.

Well, it appears that if you want to have DD you will have to use component video until your system updates and gives you the ability to select what audio you will use.

As DoubleDAZ said earlier, some systems do not have the option for digital, and obviously your HDMI is running sound as stereo and not allowing your digital sound out.

I don't think there is anything you will be able to do about this until your cable company does a download allowing you to get digital with HDMI.

Sorry if that's bad news.

I got my 8300HD on Saturday (Jan 22, 2005). I'm pretty sure about this, but when I selected HDMI from the sound options, I'm getting DD 5.1 into my receiver from the coax digital output.

Originally posted by vegggas
hookbill, I have a non public beta test build that is Light Years beyond that revision... In fact, it's way beyond the 1.85.x range. It's a new build, not a revision upgrade. I have to do some specific testing and provide feedback before it can be released on my local system. Unfortunately, I won't have time until this weekend. It looks like most of the changes are copy protection, add on storage, and HD notification related.
vegggas

Vegggas, we have been anxiously awaiting an update on this. Do you have anything you can tell us yet?

Kicked out to live bug fixed? Pixelation and audio dropouts still? Can we play from beginning when we watch a broadcast slightly behind live TV? etc etc etc.

Thanks.

Originally posted by lexluthor
Vegggas, we have been anxiously awaiting an update on this. Do you have anything you can tell us yet?

Kicked out to live bug fixed? Pixelation and audio dropouts still? Can we play from beginning when we watch a broadcast slightly behind live TV? etc etc etc.

Thanks. I still have not got the release notes pertaining to the changes in this build, so everything is still a guess and not applicable for deterministic testing.
Even with the older software, I rarely ever got kicked out to live, as long as I was within the 1 hour buffer. I proved it again to myself this weekend (on both the 8000 and 8300) with both championship games watching and recording delayed, by at least 45 minutes after the game ended. At the start of the games, I paused them, then watched a pre-recorded show, then came back and caught up some of the game and paused, then watched another pre-recorded show, then caught up some more, but after the game was over. There is still no way to start over during a currently recording session.
Pixelation and audio dropouts of recorded content vs live are manifested from the statmuxing of multiple digital signals on a single QAM and the DVR attempting to record the changing stream. Memory Buffers help alleviate the problem, but a headend fix is required to completely eliminate that particular cause. Other causes are related to RF signal issues (low) at the STB, RF system noise, and Digital bit errors in the stream cuased my a multitude of various events. For me pixelation and audio dropouts were very infrequent to begin with, so improvement may be marginal if at all on this build.

vegggas

I was thinking about low RF signal issues this weekend and was wondering if anyone had seen improved results by using a powered signal amp designed for digital cable. I'm also wondering if any improvement would go beyond mere PQ. Any thoughts/comments?

So, I went out and bought a hdmi -> DVI cable with the intention of comparing it to the component cable I've already go hooked up. I installed the hdmi cable, tuned in an HD station, and start cycling through the different video inputs on my Sony HDTV to see what I can tell see as the difference between the two cables. To my eyes, it seems that the component cables give a sharper picture. I was surprised by that. Anyone want to share their experiences?

Also, in the 8300 settings menu, I can choose the resolution to the tv - but what happens when you have an hdmi and component cables hooked up simultaneously? I can select "auto hdmi" from the menu, but what happens to the component outputs?

My experience on my Mits CRT RPTV was about the same. Once I adjusted picture settings for the different input, the difference was minor.

DVI/HDMI probably is more important for fixed pixel displays (DLP, LCD, etc.)

Given the 8300, I was actually surprised it worked at all . :)

I have a 30" Sony Wega 16x9 and when I changed from component to HDMI I felt that not only did HD pictures look better, SD also appeared slightly better.

Now I wouldn't say there was a night and day difference. And I didn't go back and forth several times to compare. I will say that since the manual that came with my TV (crt) says that HDMI is best quality, I tend to believe that to be true. It may have affected my judgement.

Also there is no conversion for me, I'm straight HDMI to HDMI, however I don't believe that would make any difference then DVI/HDMI.

Originally posted by hookbill
I
Also there is no conversion for me, I'm straight HDMI to HDMI, however I don't believe that would make any difference then DVI/HDMI.

I'm using a Sony Wega II RP LCD. Do you have the output setting on the 8300 set to "auto hdmi"?