UPDATE FOR ALL TDC775 USERS IN GREATFALLS MT

Bresnan pushed an update to the boxes. Mine would not turn back on it showed a ZERO on the display. Had to call techsupport, they sent a test signal to the box. After that I was able to change the channl, however if would not allow me to type in a number on my remote. to fix this go into your menu and go to Guide then go to channle behavior. You need this setting to be on AutoTune. Also something else happend with this update that changes the display to the chanel I dont know what else has changed as to I'm not there... more to follow soon!

same here.......is the firmware still 9.32....I'm at work and can't check.

Just got home for lunch. It looks like Grand Junction also received the update - 9.36. Lindend anything new and exciting in this release? Didn't see anything obvious.

Yep, I got it, too. 9.36.

No programming info in the TVGuide yet. I hope they don't screw up the Guide as bad as they did last month when they went to 9.32. Lost programming info and ability to go into recorded shows for 3-4 days.

The Quick Menu now has subtitles for the icons. That's all that seems readily obvious. 30 sec skip still works. Navigation seems a little more responsive.

9.36 AVS Release Highlights

Disclaimer: These are highlights from the release notes with issues that are relevant to AVS users since 9.31/9.32. Please don't ask (or PM me) if/when your local cable company is going to roll out this release.


1. Analog video recording fixes (i.e. black videos).
2. Loss of very large HD recordings on reboot.
3. If you play to the end of a recording, the next playback attempt will start at the beginning rather than an immediate "Do you want to delete" the recording pop-up.
4. Audio loss while recording/surfing between analog/digital channels.
5. Wildrock's macroblocking on dual HD recordings

Items in bold have been reported by various AVS users served by Bresnan.

Yep, I got it, too. 9.36.

You should be able to watch the remainder of the NBA championships without macroblocking if HD is on your background tuner. :D

Not sure how many more games you have left in this series though. :( The Spurs are a machine right now.

1. Analog video recording fixes (i.e. black videos).
2. Loss of very large HD recordings on reboot.
3. If you play to the end of a recording, the next playback attempt will start at the beginning rather than an immediate "Do you want to delete" the recording pop-up.
4. Audio loss while recording/surfing between analog/digital channels.
5. Wildrock's macroblocking on dual HD recordings

Items in bold have been reported by various AVS users served by Bresnan.Now that you mention it, I have been bitten by #3 also. I just chalked it up to user error. :rolleyes: The #2 and #5 fixes are great news!

You should be able to watch the remainder of the NBA championships without macroblocking if HD is on your background tuner. :D

Not sure how many more games you have left in this series though. :( The Spurs are a machine right now.Unfortunately, ABC isn't broadcast in HD in my local Bresnan market. :mad: But the way the series is going, I don't think I'd enjoy it much more, anyways. Yep, experience is paying off big time for the Spurs. But the Cavs have shown glimpses of greatness for the future!

I'll test out the updates. Many thanks, Linden.

ok nobody has said anything on here in awhile, but i just got this TDC775D and i really want to put a recording i have on DVD, i have a DVD burner and software, but I have NO CLUE how i would do this... can someone help?! I'm not good with all the technical language either :( someone......... please?

PS i have it for Buckeye Cable System in Toledo, Ohio if that matters... i don't know

Lindend,

I have my TDC775 connected via HDMI to a Pioneer HD4270 plasma. My understanding is my plasma will display all incoming signals to 768P, regardless of it being 480I, 480P, 720P or 1080I. Assuming my understanding is correct, how should I have the Display Capability settings set?

Thank you for your help.

ok nobody has said anything on here in awhile, but i just got this TDC775D and i really want to put a recording i have on DVD, i have a DVD burner and software, but I have NO CLUE how i would do this... can someone help?! I'm not good with all the technical language either :( someone......... please?

PS i have it for Buckeye Cable System in Toledo, Ohio if that matters... i don't knowThe only easy way you can do this is to route the output (SD or analog only, I believe) of the Tahoe through an external DVD burner, and record it on the fly. You can't do this with HD material. For HD (and this works for SD/analog also), you are limited to output through the firewire port, and recording on a PC. As you can imagine, this isn't easy, though there are threads in the htpc forums that describe how to do it with some degree of success.

Lindend,

I have my TDC775 connected via HDMI to a Pioneer HD4270 plasma. My understanding is my plasma will display all incoming signals to 768P, regardless of it being 480I, 480P, 720P or 1080I. Assuming my understanding is correct, how should I have the Display Capability settings set?

Thank you for your help.

I'm not positive - but I'd imagine Linden will reply that you should send all the native signals to the Pio and let it handle all the scaling etc. (so all should be enabled)

I have a Pio Elite 940 and that's what I'm doing and it's been working great.

I am not sure if I am looking in the right area or not but, when I go into the Configuration screen under setup, I see 9.26 under firmware. Is the where I should see 9.36 if it were up to date? If so, how many updates have been released since 9.26? I should have mentioned, my service provider is Service Electric, Lehigh Valley, PA. Thanks

Yes you are in the right area. 9.31/32 I believe is the only update since .26. As I recall whether you got .31 or .32 depended on some technical details of your provider, from an end user viewpoint they are the same. Remember that not all cable providers elect to update the software when we would like. It is up to the cable provider to decide if/when they will update. That said, they seem to get around to it sooner or later. :rolleyes:

With regard to how to setup the display capability, I would agree with BillKen. No matter what the Pio is going to be doing some scaling. Let the Tahoe pass through the signal and the let the Pio do the scaling to 768.

I'm not positive - but I'd imagine Linden will reply that you should send all the native signals to the Pio and let it handle all the scaling etc. (so all should be enabled)

That would be my recommendation because the scaler in the Pioneer is likely (although not guaranteed) to be more optimized for your particular resolution. However, this area is one of personal preference so I suggest that you try both alternatives and choose the one you like best.

I know this was mentioned before but is there any way of getting the box to go into standby? I have checked the diagnostic page and the spindowns after a month of ownership are 0.
When the box is turned off with the remote the light turns red, the display is blank but the hard drive continues to spin and power consumption stays around 35-40 watts, the top right corner is rather warm.

I'm using the 775D with Delta Cable and I'm wondering if there is a way to turn on Closed Captions without having to go into the receiver setup menu. My main problem is I would like to turn on Closed Captions while watching certain shows but if I'm recording different shows at the moment I can't hit "power"+"menu" to get to the setup to turn on Closed Captions as it will stop my recordings. I believe the firmware the receiver has is 7.29.

Thanks.

I'm using the 775D with Delta Cable and I'm wondering if there is a way to turn on Closed Captions without having to go into the receiver setup menu.

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to do this.

I've had the TDC775D from Service Electric Cable in PA for about three weeks. I just had my DirecTivo service turned off yesterday. Tonight I turned on the Pace and I get the 0 on the display and no response from the remote. Is there something I can do to reset it, or do have to wait 'til Monday an call the cable company? If this is down until monday I'm going to be calling to have them come and take it away. DirecTV and Tivo have worked flawlessly for six years and I will be happy to have them back. IMO, Pace and i-Guide have a long way to go to catch up to DirecTivo, the ease of use and quality of service just don't compare. I only switched because cable offered me a good deal on bundled services but I regret it already, especially after reading 26 pages of people's problems with this unit.
So can someone tell me how to fix the 0 display issue?

I've had the TDC775D from Service Electric Cable in PA for about three weeks. I just had my DirecTivo service turned off yesterday. Tonight I turned on the Pace and I get the 0 on the display and no response from the remote. Is there something I can do to reset it, or do have to wait 'til Monday an call the cable company? If this is down until monday I'm going to be calling to have them come and take it away. DirecTV and Tivo have worked flawlessly for six years and I will be happy to have them back. IMO, Pace and i-Guide have a long way to go to catch up to DirecTivo, the ease of use and quality of service just don't compare. I only switched because cable offered me a good deal on bundled services but I regret it already, especially after reading 26 pages of people's problems with this unit.
So can someone tell me how to fix the 0 display issue?

Rockcrawl,

I had the same problem with my Pace yesterday. I don't believe there is anything you can do from your side, you need to call Customer Service. They are available 24/7, I called last night and I was up and running within minutes. I don't know the details but apparently Service Electric did a system upgrade and for what ever reason the Pace units didn't reboot.

I don't know the details but apparently Service Electric did a system upgrade and for what ever reason the Pace units didn't reboot.

I looked into the issue. Its the same problem that surfaced after the global TV Guide issue a few months back. We had a known bug handling warm resets and a warm reset was done for Motorola boxes and this surfaced the 0 on the front panel bug on Tahoe. The issue is fixed in all builds post 9.31 but the Tahoe's had not yet been upgraded to 9.31 at your site.

Anyway, the good news portion of this is your build has now been upgraded to the new version of the guide. You're also correct that a call to Service Electric should be sufficient to help anyone that still has 0 on the front panel.

Count me as another very happy person who can now use my HDMI input after switching from a Moto 3416 to the Pace 775. No matter what I tried, I could not get the Moto to sync over HDMI to my Samsung HL-P5063. I learned my local cable provider has the Pace HD DVR in stock, so this morning I swapped boxes. I connected the new box and there it was, HD over HDMI! I have read a substantial portion of this thread and suspect I am going to be very happy with this box. Thank you Pace for getting it right!

Linden,

Any update on discrete power codes for the Tahoe? PHSJason had discussed them with you back on page 12 of this thread I believe. I am also a custom installer and a few of my customers have started receiving these boxes. It would be extremely helpful to us CI guys trying to automate these boxes.

A second issue I'm having is with one of my customers in particular. He previously had a Moto 6412 PIII and replaced it a month or so ago with the Tahoe. He has a Universal Remote MX-850 with a MRF-300 RF receiver base station with emitters to each component. When he swapped boxes and put the emitter on the new Tahoe, it was working fine (no surprise since it uses the same code set as the Moto). But about a week later it stopped responding altogether to the MX-850 remote/emitter setup. But the strange thing was it would still work perfectly off of the cable remote.

While I was over there recently for another unrelated issue, I took a look at it for him. I noticed that the Tahoe had an "IR Receive" 3.5mm port on the back. So I decided to try routing the signal directly into there rather than use the emitter on the front panel. Unfortunately I was not able to get it to work this way. Not only that, but I noticed that while I had a 3.5mm cable plugged into this port in the back, the front IR receiver no longer received IR, not even from the cable remote. I'm not sure if this is designed this way on purpose or not.

So after messing around for 15-20 minutes, I reverted back to the emitter and tried a different code set from Universal's library specifically labelled PACE. This seemed to work all of a sudden, except it was extremely intermittent, at best.

I was wondering if you could shed some light on this problem for me. Are there any tips or tricks with emitter placement on the front panel? Is there something special that needs to be done to be able to use the rear "IR receive" port on the back (like stripping off the carrier signal, or using a specific plug set up like a stereo 3.5mm plug with signal not on the tip, etc.)?

Sorry if I was being long-winded, I guess us Custom guys can be that way sometimes ;) Any help would be appreciated.

Linden,

Any update on discrete power codes for the Tahoe? PHSJason had discussed them with you back on page 12 of this thread I believe. I am also a custom installer and a few of my customers have started receiving these boxes. It would be extremely helpful to us CI guys trying to automate these boxes.

The issue is not forgotten. ;)

Stay tuned to the newly created Tahoe Release Note Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=866125) for updates on this (and other requests/bug reports).

Regarding your other issue, I will have to look into it and get back to you.

FYI,

I created a Tahoe Release Note thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=866125) that will just contain release notes for firmware releases.

This will be much easier to search through and you can subscribe to the thread to get updates when fixes are available (nothing else should be posted to the thread so you inbox won't fill up).

If you can think of other ways to improve things, let me know.

Hi all,

Just found this forum yesterday after picking up a new Tahoe box. I'm really impressed with how much time and effort Linden has obviously spent trying to help everyone here. I'm having the no spin down problem. Firmware 9.29 Power Saving is set to "On". After turning on from standby, I don't see any animation. In the diagnostics pages, all places where spin downs are counted are at 0. The temperature is Current/Max 105/107. I found an earlier post in this thread where someone mentioned that their temp in the diagnostics pages was 105/114. Why is my max temp setting different - Did it get lowered at some point during a firmware revision? Am I overreacting to think that the hard drive not spinning down is a big problem? What is the life expectancy of the HDD if it spins 24/7/365 ? If I can't get this fixed, I will probably return the box so I'm not replacing the HDD in a year.

Any suggestions/comments would be appreciated.

Bry

Bry,

Why is my max temp setting different - Did it get lowered at some point during a firmware revision?

Your drive is just running cooler. Its possible that you have it in a more ventilated area or some other environmental condition. However, readings from both boxes are well within in the expected temperature range.


Am I overreacting to think that the hard drive not spinning down is a big problem?

I wouldn't say you're overreacting. But this isn't something to be concerned about. What you should be watching is the drive spinning down because it got too hot. However, that hasn't happened to you, so all is well on your box other than a software bug that is preventing spin downs while in standby.


What is the life expectancy of the HDD if it spins 24/7/365 ?

Its far longer than a year or several years. Again, nothing to be concerned about.

BTW, I see your in British Columbia. Who is your Cable Provider?

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply Linden. I think you are personally responsible for preventing the loss of several Pace users from what I've seen in the posts.

My box corrected itself overnight. This morning I took the box out of standby, and saw the animation for the first time (I have rebooted the box several times, and gone into and out of standby several times, and never seen the animation until this morning) and heard the drive spin up. The standby spindowns counter went to 1. Temp went to 84. Not sure what happened overnight (maybe it took 8+ hours to download the Guide?), figures it would correct itself after I bugged you :)

However it's good to know from your replies that if it does fail to spin down again, it's not the end of the world. I do have a couple more questions now;

Before the hard drive spun up, it sounded like something was already spinning/humming, and whatever it is it's louder than the drive spinning. Is there a cooling fan in the box that runs full time?

I have my box in a component rack. It has lots of room over the top, but only about 1/2" on each side. Given that you said the box ran well within the normal temp range, is this fine, or should I still try to find another place to put it?

I had taken the Max temp reading to be the Max allowable, but I assume it's the highest temp that the drive has been up to?

Can you tell us what the expected temp range is, so we know when something is getting close to the overheat threshold?

My provider is Delta Cable. They are a small private company, although I believe they just got bought by a U.S. company. They have great customer service. Delta Cable uses Pace and Motorola boxes. Delta is a suburb of Vancouver. If you live anywhere other than Delta in the Greater Vancouver area, Shaw is the provider, but they don't use Pace boxes yet, just the Motorola.

So far, I think the Pace box is great, and it's really good to know that customer issues don't fall on deaf ears.

Thanks for your help.

Bry

The issue is not forgotten. ;)

Stay tuned to the newly created Tahoe Release Note Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=866125) for updates on this (and other requests/bug reports).

Regarding your other issue, I will have to look into it and get back to you.

Thank you for the reply.

Is there a cooling fan in the box that runs full time?

No.

Given that you said the box ran well within the normal temp range, is this fine, or should I still try to find another place to put it?

You are ok given the drive temperatures you report. If the HDD overheats, you'll get a warning on screen that DVR functionality is unavailable until the HDD cools down.

Can you tell us what the expected temp range is, so we know when something is getting close to the overheat threshold?

There are too many variables for me to give an expected range. What I can tell you is you'll get an onscreen warning if its getting too hot.

Delta is a suburb of Vancouver.

Didn't know that. Interesting. I guess that's my Canadian geography lesson for the day. :)

Linden,
Things had been going pretty good since the 9.36 release till two days ago. Had about four recordings that would not play back. Everytime I would attempt it it would go right to the "delete recording" screen. There were two HD one hour, and two SD one hour programs. I could go back and play all my other recordings except these four. I tryed several fixes short of rebooting and got frustrated and deleted one HD recording. Then when I tryed to play two of them worked and the one SD didn't. By the way I did check the Diags. content and none of them had the{0} we discussed earlier. But now the one SD program did show {0} and I deleted it. The other two play fin now. But thursday nite I recorded a one hour HD program and later went to watch and there was no sound and I couldn't fast forward or anything except stop and try again and it did the same thing. The diags. all showed simalar readings to the recordings that worked and I was running short on space so I finally deleted it. Now last night I was getting that stuttering and macro blocking on HDnet movies so before bed I rebooted.
Also with this latest box I get awful backfeed when I change channels. I mean this is super loud popping thru the surround sound system even when I have the mute on.
I have Boston Accoustic system, but it just happens during channel changes but not all the time. It does seem to happen more after a reboot though. Any ideas?

Then when I tryed to play two of them worked and the one SD didn't. By the way I did check the Diags. content and none of them had the{0} we discussed earlier. But now the one SD program did show {0} and I deleted it.

Did they just start working or did you reboot in between?

In the DVR status page in diags, what is the "# of trash empties"?

Was the SD recording digital or analog?


Now last night I was getting that stuttering and macro blocking on HDnet movies so before bed I rebooted.

Did the reboot solve it? Did you have HD content on both tuners? Were you looking at live video?

Also with this latest box I get awful backfeed when I change channels.

Is this new behavior? Does it happen when changing all channels or just certain type of channels (i.e. analog to HD or HD or SD)?

Did they just start working or did you reboot in between?

It just started working.


In the DVR status page in diags, what is the "# of trash empties"?

0

Was the SD recording digital or analog?

It was analog. And it was being recorded as we watched a HD channel and used the pause as I recall.

Did the reboot solve it? Did you have HD content on both tuners? Were you looking at live video?

So far its OK. Haven't watched anything just took a glance.
I was watching live and more than likely had HD on other tuner but can't be sure.
( Just looked again and Planet Earth episode was recording and macroblocking the other tuner was tuned to the same HD channel as the recording so I changed it to SD digital and it seems to clear it up so far except I have no audio now. The only way to get it back is to shut down DVR turn it back on and than it comes back. So I can't have both tuners on HD?

Is this new behavior? Does it happen when changing all channels or just certain type of channels (i.e. analog to HD or HD or SD)?

No. its not new but it happens more often with this latest box. It did on about 5 HD channels (HD to HD) a little while ago and then one SD to SD on digital channel. And then when I was in Diags looking at number of trash empties it popped loudly three times about 5 seconds apart after I was back at the computer. And then it was fine for the rest of the time. I've checked connections and everything seems fine. I am using the optical audio connection and component and HDMI and neither seems any better or worse.

Linden,

Just an update on my IR issue with my customer. I was at another customer's house with a Tahoe box and although I couldn't get it to take IR again through the rear "IR receive" port, when I switched over to an emitter on the front it worked fine. This was off an RTI remote system, but I don't think that was the difference. I think that the problem with the other client is either a bad emitter (he did admit that the emitter came apart on him when he took it off the Moto box, then he just put it back together) or a bad IR receiver in the Tahoe. My money's on a bad emitter.

I would still like to know how to get the rear "IR receive" port to work since that is a much more elegant solution. Thanks again Linden.

I would still like to know how to get the rear "IR receive" port to work since that is a much more elegant solution.

Eric,

I checked into this for you. Pace offers an IR tether for those that wish to have the box out of site and this tether is what is inserted into the IR ports on the back. You will need to contact your local cable company to see if they have any in stock. Its my understanding that many locations don't have this particular item in stock so it may take some effort to get some.

Eric,

I checked into this for you. Pace offers an IR tether for those that wish to have the box out of site and this tether is what is inserted into the IR ports on the back. You will need to contact your local cable company to see if they have any in stock. Its my understanding that many locations don't have this particular item in stock so it may take some effort to get some.

So then it appears that this is some kind of proprietary connection, and not just a mono 3.5mm plug off an IR connecting block, etc. I'm guessing that it's also sending +12V out to power this "tether" so we're probably looking at at least a stereo 3.5mm connection (+12V, signal, and ground). Thanks for the info, I'll see if I get some extra time to play around with it at a customer's house.

So then it appears that this is some kind of proprietary connection

Not sure. I've played around with them in the lab but always had a more pressing software bug to fix and never looked into the electrical details of the tether.

Not sure. I've played around with them in the lab but always had a more pressing software bug to fix and never looked into the electrical details of the tether.

I was just at the customer's house today that was having the problems. I replaced the emitter and everything worked fine, so bad emitter. But before that, I connected a stereo 3.5mm plug to the "IR receive" port in the back with 3 pigtails on the other end and measured the voltages with an ohm meter. Surprisingly, I measured +5V on both the red and white wires of this cable versus black (black appeared to truly be ground). I couldn't tell you which colors matched up to which position on the connector off the top of my head. I'll see if I could get this info later when I have time to flush it out in our shop. But it does appear that port is sending power to the tether.

GCI informed me they were pulling the Pace boxes as of July 1 due to changes in FCC R&R's. I could find nobody at the company that could tell me specifics.

Que Pasa Lindend?

Wolf

TDC775D is replaced by CableCard compliant TDC778X (all Digital) and TDC779X (analog/digital).
I do not know what GUI intensions are.

TDC775D is replaced by CableCard compliant TDC778X (all Digital) and TDC779X (analog/digital).
I do not know what GUI intensions are.

It's kind of late here but do you mean GCI's intentions? But thanks! I think you nailed it. NOBODY at GCI could tell me what the deal was.

Lindend, are there any other changes?

Wolf

Lindend, are there any other changes?


The primary difference between the new boxes and the old boxes is support for separable security. I will post release notes for the software builds when they are available and I have some time.

Just some clarification on the July 1 deadline. Boxes with embedded conditional access can and will continue to be re-deployed after July 1 due to churn. They just need to be been previously deployed to another customer(s) before the July 1 deadline. This is why many MSOs were running promos in May/June.

However, technically you still can deploy embedded boxes after July 1 even if its not been previously been in customer premises. Its just that the penalty/fine for doing so is so onerous that such deployments are a financial poison so IMHO, it will never happen. Thus, post July 1, under all foreseeable circumstances, all new boxes will have separable security features.

I also have two 775's and both have problems with not recording audio during scheduled recordings, going to watch a recording and having it ask me if I want to delete the recording immediately (no video), and also changing the channels and having no audio until I change the channel again. It's been very frustrating and Bresnan can't seem to help me much. They are sending me a tech on Wednesday but I don't think he'll be able to do much. I was actually fooling around on DISH's website last night, getting ready to make the switch, but then I found this topic. Knowing that lindend is on here, I'm willing to hold tight for a while. It's very refreshing to know that someone cares and to know that someone is actually working on a fix. Unfortunately my wife isn't that patient, but hopefully I can hold her out for a while.

Thanks lindend!

I also have two 775's and both have problems with not recording audio during scheduled recordings,

Do you know if this is occurring on analog, HD, SD content or all of the above?

going to watch a recording and having it ask me if I want to delete the recording immediately (no video),

Has this happened on the 9.36 firmware?

I'm willing to hold tight for a while.

I know we're working on the no audio recording issue, but I need to make sure you are encountering the same problem we're trying to fix and also whether or not you're still seeing it on the latest firmware.

Linden,
Again last night my 775 was going right to delete screen when I went to play back a certain recording. It was 60 minute Big Love on HD recording. I would go to other recordings and they were fine. But then on live analog station I pressed the 15 second repeat button and it went to that blue code screen that said it wasn't responding and get and some code numbers I can't remember. It did the same on fast forward and all buttons.
I wentback to list of recordings after powering down and restarting (not rebooting). Big Love did the same thing, it played a few seconds and gave delete screen. I went to other recordings and they were fine and then later went back to Big Love and it was OK. Went to live viewing and all worked well.

Today a little while ago I tried some recordings again. I was tuned in on analog channel and went to list and first pick was The Sentinal in HD which was recorded 7/1. Same problem, right to delete screen. Tried other recordings and they were fine. Changed tuner to HD just for heck of it and it still did the same. Tried several other recordings and they were fine. Went back and tried The Sentinal again and this time it works. Any ideas or any other info I can feed you? Still a bit frustrating but hanging in there.


Also on that loud popping backfeed i get, I have noticed on my Audio Setup under setup, I have the settings set at "channel default", Optimal stereo: yes, audio output:advanced, compression: light stereo, output: matrix. But when I notice the backfeed when changing channels I go back to those settings and the optimal stereo is turned to the off. So I turn it back on and it and sooner or later it ends up off and it seems more backfeed popping, and its loud even when in mute.
Any ideas would be appreciated. Thanks, Andy

Linden,
Again last night my 775 was going right to delete screen when I went to play back a certain recording. It was 60 minute Big Love on HD recording. I would go to other recordings and they were fine.

Heh, that's the exact same show I recently had a problem with. :)

Same problem, right to delete screen. Tried other recordings and they were fine. Changed tuner to HD just for heck of it and it still did the same. Tried several other recordings and they were fine. Went back and tried The Sentinal again and this time it works.

When you are trying to play these recordings back and the delete recording dialog pops up immediately, are you choosing the play from beginning button or resume from last playback position button?

Also, you mentioned that it played a little and then ended once. Did it start at the beginning or near the end before finishing early?

When you are trying to play these recordings back and the delete recording dialog pops up immediately, are you choosing the play from beginning button or resume from last playback position button?

For me, it's when I try to play from the beginning. I've never tried the resume before, I guess because I've never been resuming the video. Although if it doesn't work the first time I try to watch it, it never does.

For me, it's when I try to play from the beginning. I've never tried the resume before, I guess because I've never been resuming the video. Although if it doesn't work the first time I try to watch it, it never does.

When the movie does play, can you perform trick functions (i.e. FF, or Rewind)?

When the movie does play, can you perform trick functions (i.e. FF, or Rewind)?

I've never really fought with it. I just assumed if it does that your SOL. I tried to play it a couple of times and it still wouldn't play.

I've never really fought with it. I just assumed if it does that your SOL. I tried to play it a couple of times and it still wouldn't play.

If anyone runs into this again, please see if trick functions are available. This is important to help us narrow down the problem.

[QUOTE=lindend]When you are trying to play these recordings back and the delete recording dialog pops up immediately, are you choosing the play from beginning button or resume from last playback position button?

Both first the resume and then the play from beginning.

[QUOTE]Also, you mentioned that it played a little and then ended once. Did it start at the beginning or near the end before finishing early?[/QUOTE

I believe its at the end because when it started working it was completely different video.

Linden,
Here's the latest. Just tried playing The Sentinal (HD) and again it did go to definately the last few seconds of the recording and then the delete screen pops up. I click "don't delete" and the "unable to process request, service problem call some phone number, code ACC" and none of the buttons work for several seconds except previous screen which goes back to previous channel on the box display but there's no video or audio until you change channels. I then swapped tuners and went to a HD channel but no Video or audio untill I changed channels and no trick functions. I did notice the remote recieve light on display stays lit during this. Then changed to another HD channel and went to my recording list and The Sentinal worked fine. So I fast forwarded till the end to confirm that it was the end of the recording I was getting when it was screwing up. Never powered down or rebooted.

Andy

Andy,

Linden,
Here's the latest. Just tried playing The Sentinal (HD) and again it did go to definately the last few seconds of the recording and then the delete screen pops up.

Does this tend to happen with particular HD channels (i.e. OTA HD) or all HD channels or just certain programs?

When it happens on analog, is it just some analog channels/content or all content?

Is everyone in Bresnan reporting this issue on 9.36?

"unable to process request, service problem call some phone number, code ACC" and none of the buttons work for several seconds except previous screen which goes back to previous channel on the box display but there's no video or audio until you change channels.

This is interesting. Under normal circumstances, when you see ACC on a Pace box, it means that the firmware is having problems playing the content. We just need to narrow down why that happens.

Did it look like the video played ultra fast through the entire movie before the delete pop-up showed up?

I did notice the remote recieve light on display stays lit during this.

This is how the EPG works when these type of errors are encountered.

Then changed to another HD channel and went to my recording list and The Sentinal worked fine. So I fast forwarded till the end to confirm that it was the end of the recording I was getting when it was screwing up. Never powered down or rebooted.
Andy

This helps me rule out a damaged file.

Andy,



[QUOTE]Does this tend to happen with particular HD channels (i.e. OTA HD) or all HD channels or just certain programs?

doesn't seem to matter but I will try to keep closer tabs

When it happens on analog, is it just some analog channels/content or all content?

one time only the one HD recording wouldn't work and the next time the sentinal in HD wouldn't work, Big Love HD wouldn't work and some Everest thing I recorded wouldn't work. OOPS thought it was an analog recording but it was National Geo HD, My mistake.







Did it look like the video played ultra fast through the entire movie before the delete pop-up showed up?

No. Alls it does is play the last few seconds of the recording and go to delete screen. Plays it at normal speed and the trick functions don/t work in these few seconds.

Now tonight I tried playbacks and all seemed to work fine. But then I was out golfing in 90 + weather chugging a few cool ones and who knows...

Is everyone in Bresnan reporting this issue on 9.36?I haven't been seeing anything like this. Sometimes the 30 sec skip and FF will act a little odd at the end of a recording. But nothing really bad, or unrecoverable. Hit enough buttons fast enough, and the box is apt to do something odd, anyways.

But then I was out golfing in 90 + weather chugging a few cool ones and who knows...Flippin 107 here in Missoula yesterday. All time record. Nobody outside doing anything...

I recorded "Heavyweights" the other day for my kid the other day and it had no audio when I went to play it back. I could also NOT skip forward, fast forward, rewind or pause. It would just keep playing at the same speed with no audio. I tried to play from the beginning and resume, but it still did the same thing. I think I recorded it Sunday morning and tried to play it back for the first time Monday night. I think I am running 9.36 on my receiver.

I recorded "Heavyweights" the other day for my kid the other day

Was this an analog recording?

Based on our investigations, if a recording is made without audio, you won't be able to perform trick actions. If anyone encounters a recording that has audio, but you can't do trick functions, please post the details.

Was this an analog recording?


I guess I'm not sure how to tell if the channel was analog or digital. I'm sure it was from HBO or a premium movie channel.

This is interesting. Under normal circumstances, when you see ACC on a Pace box, it means that the firmware is having problems playing the content. We just need to narrow down why that happens.

Here's what happened tonight.
Recordrd two analog programs, Dirty Jobs and the All Star Game. Noticed the trick functions were not working when watching another analog program live. Went to my list of recordings and they all seemed to play the last few seconds and bring up delete screen as before. This time i tried to rewind after the delete screen came up and it does rewind. I rewinded for a short ways and stopped and tried back to beginning button and it went to the last few seconds again. This was 60 minute recording of Big Love in HD. So I rewind to the beginning and watch the entire recording no problem. It ends and goes to delete screen and I push delete and get the unable to prcess request, blah, blah, code ACC again. Try to play the recordings I made tonight and have nothing except the title and run time. It don't even play last few seconds. Go to content in Diags and the two analog recordings show mpegs 0 {0}. and all the others show normal so obviously nothing recorded and I deleted them. It still won't work normally now as I am set to retire for night. Think I will reboot and check in the morning.
Andy

Go to content in Diags and the two analog recordings show mpegs 0 {0}.

In addition to MPEG file sizes, for everyone experiencing these type of issues, can you please report the # of navigation timeouts in diagnostics for the recording in question?

Thanks.

The other night we were watching Idle Hands and pressed Record. It still wouldn't record the audio!

Ok, here's some info. I'm just going to rattle down the results, without listing what the results are:

Idle Hands
5184
1468792832 {1468792832
4372416 {1468792832}
YES
NO
SD
07/09/2007 03:10:13
07/09/2007 04:45:09
1:34:55
CCI_COPY_PERMITTED
NONE
NO
0
001-600-04-48
0
2062904
0
DOLBY_DIGITAL
MPEG2
0
0
0
0
2
5695690
0
0

Heavyweights
5184
1743257600 {1743257600
4647392 {4647392}
YES
NJO
SD
07/08/2007 14:30:14
07/08/2007 16:10:10
1:39:56
CCI_COPY_PERMITTED
NONE
NO
0
001-600-04-48
0
2325504
0
DOLBY_DIGITAL
MPEG2
0
0
0
0
1
5997560
0
0

Software and HW Ver
SW Version (DENA) - 9.36
HW Version - 0x00000007
Serial Number - I'm withholding that. lindend, if you need it, I can PM you.
Pace Reference - 001-600-04-48-001-990-4-7
Build Type: production (SHARED)
TVG Version: 240

I hope it helps. My wife called Bresnan when I wasn't home and complained, luckily, the guy was very nice, otherwise he would've gotten an ear full. They were supposed to be here this morning and never showed up so we got a $20 credit for that and then they gave us $10 off for each DVR we own (2).

I have also noticed some audio difficulties. My box has 9.31 I think, and is on Armstrong cable in ohio.

My NBC HD channel simply refuses to play any kind of audio during commercials, or any programming that is not the actual show. For example, say I'm watching The Office. I will have audio during the show, but the instant it transitions to an ad, or a "stay tuned for scenes", or the little wrap up segment at the very end, all audio cuts out. Watching live, or recording, this behavior is the same.

I've also noticed some programs that simply have no audio at all, such as an HD show about Lake Erie that was broadcast last week. This is rather annoying, and doesn't seem to happen on any non-HD channel, and only on certain HD ones (with NBC being consistent).

Some might think that the loss of audio during commercials is a "feature". :D

Bresnan just came to my house and is replacing the Pace with the Motorolas. I'm not sure what model, I'll find out when I get home and report back.

Ok, I need help and am not at very savy on tech terms. Had a motorola 6412 that was going bad. All seem ok until recently. THe cable man gave and replaced it with this Pace 775D. First , simply I hate the inability to not to be able to see the time or channel on the display as I did on my motorola. Secondly, My motorola remote not fully function correctly and I am having to enter 003 to get to cable channel 3 instead of entering just one digit.

I use to just push the record button for a quick record and it recorded. Now, it wants time from to time to finish. Mean while my items I wanted to record in gone.

Lastly, I having major shakes in the picture on all channels The picture is having shakes and some movements. I have called tech support and was told the first two calls to unplug the unit for thirty minutes and then plug it in leaving the power off. Then it should work. NOT !

Two more calls, had them "sending hits" to the box though it never helps with the picture quality.

I had component cables running from box to tv ( sony 42" LCD projection) and two rca jacks running from box to tv from audio. Coxial cable from wall to box and just the component from box to tv.

The final call to tech less support said if wanted to and I liked seeing the time on the Motorola then go back to the cable company to regain another motorola box.

Is there setups that I can look up to determine if shakes/distortions can be corrected or stop? Or just take the box back

thanks

cceellis:
Your tech support folks are really messed up. You shouldn't have any of the problems you are seeing. The Tahoe shows time and channel just fine, and has a great, sharp picture. Methinks they just haven't activated the box properly from the head end. You just need to shake the support tree until they give you some love. Who's your cableco?

Bresnan gave me two different DVR's, both Motos but one is a single tuner (with a loud annoying fan that I can hear even with the TV on) and the other is a dual tuner. I'm not happy with either one, back to DISH for me.

I have also noticed some audio difficulties. My box has 9.31 I think, and is on Armstrong cable in ohio.

My NBC HD channel simply refuses to play any kind of audio during commercials, or any programming that is not the actual show.

The symptoms you describe sound like issues in the content and not the problem we're investigating. Can you verify that the OTA NBC signal doesn't have a problem?

I've been the happy owner of a Pace TDC775 for the past month or so. It's been a great box so far but I have had some problems. I had one episode of Star Trek Enterprise from HDNet which didn't play back and had a size of 0 in the diagnostics. I wasn't able to get any of the stats from that page because I recorded a 22 hour HD concert and it was deleted. However just a few minutes ago I had another issue.

http://img404.imageshack.us/img404/9434/p1010049ge7.th.jpg (http://img404.imageshack.us/my.php?image=p1010049ge7.jpg)

This message came up when I tried to exit a episode of Enterprise I was watching. I tried to change the channel and used the power button several times but the message just kept popping up. I unplugged the power and now it seems to be working fine again.

One last question has anyone made any progress with firewire capture to Windows XP with the TDC775? I would love to achieve some HD shows.

http://www.hardfolding.com/ftag1.php/mem/7948/1/0.png (http://www.hardfolding.com?go=38&tnum=33&id=7948)

This message came up when I tried to exit a episode of Enterprise I was watching. I tried to change the channel and used the power button several times but the message just kept popping up. I unplugged the power and now it seems to be working fine again.


Please see the earlier discussion on CIU errors (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=10374869&highlight=ciu#post10374869)

The solution basically mirrors the steps you tried. Do you know if there was an error before the CIU?

I think the error message code was different the first time it showed but I didn't catch it.

Andy,

This time i tried to rewind after the delete screen came up and it does rewind. I rewinded for a short ways and stopped and tried back to beginning button and it went to the last few seconds again.

Couple of questions for you:

1. How many of the problematic recordings were scheduled and/or series recordings versus one touch (i.e. hitting the record button) recordings?

2. If they were one touch recordings, how long were you on the channel before you hit the record button?

3. For each recording that exhibits this behavior, could you please report the Trim Offset and Byte offset for that recording in the Content Listing diagnostics page.

Andy,



Couple of questions for you:

[QUOTE]1. How many of the problematic recordings were scheduled and/or series recordings versus one touch (i.e. hitting the record button) recordings?

Just off memory I hit the touch button on allstar game for sure. And later when I came back it had finished recording, thats when I tried to play other recordings. None of them worked correctly. Can't recall on the other recording that had no mpegs and since then I have deleted.

2. If they were one touch recordings, how long were you on the channel before you hit the record button?

It was probably only a minute or two, because we were headed out and the kid had just turned it on.

[QUOTE]3. For each recording that exhibits this behavior, could you please report the Trim Offset and Byte offset for that recording in the Content Listing diagnostics page.
It has been working since I rebooted last week, but I'll try and document more closely next time.

Andy

Here's a new one. Last night I watched the last hour of a two hour HD movie I started watching the night before. It was a timed recording. It played back fine and ended and went to delete screen. I pushed delete and it froze and the remote recieve light on front panel was lit and nothing worked and then the "unable to process...ACC code" popped up. I cleared that screen and pushed delete again and it deleted but then nothing came back on the live screen. Channeled down and still nothing but TV Guide. Then I got the CIU code screen and cleared that and swapped reciever and still nothing except TV Guide. Tried to play a recording and then somewhere along the line I got a CDIN code screen. Would't play anything but the guide still worked. Powered down and retried and got nothing on HD, digital or analog. Again tried both tuners. Finally rebooted and went to bed. I did get my live signal back.

Andy

My wife called me at the office today to tell me all of our recorded shows were gone. When I got home, I discovered she was correct. Even the shows on my external harddrive were gone. Also none of the series recording we had programmed existed either. We have had the set for 4-5 months with no major problems until now. About a month ago our cable rep told her we needed to bring the set in to exchange it for a different one. He didn't say why and apparently she didn't ask. I told her not to since it was working fine. Any Ideas? I just attempted to set a series recording and the thing froze up for a few minutes, then asked if I want to format the external harddrive... What up??? Thanks for any insight, Rob

Any Ideas? I just attempted to set a series recording and the thing froze up for a few minutes, then asked if I want to format the external harddrive... What up??? Thanks for any insight, Rob

Rob,

Do you know what firmware release you are on? If not, let me know what your cable company is and I'll try to see if I can figure it out.

If it requested permission to format your external HDD, sounds like something on the filesystem got damaged. Older firmware releases definitely could do this.

Thanks for taking the time to help. I have 09.31. Interesting, we got back 1/2 of the shows and the scheduled programing is back. Right now it doesn't appear that the unit is recognizing the external harddrive - which you helped me set up before - thanks again for that. I'll turn off the unit and unplug it _ I think that is what we had to do before and see if when it recognizes the harddrive, if it finds the programs. First, I think I'll connect the harddrive to my computer and see what is on it.

We seem to get lots of power outages around here. I have everything on a surge protector. Question is would it be worthwhile to add an UPS like we have with the computer. Over-all, the unit has worked pretty well. We have had a few hiccups - shows not recording. Sometimes it seems as if the set will not record two shows at the same time, and other times it doesn't seem to be a problem...

Anyway, thanks again for the great support! I'll post what I find later.

Thanks for taking the time to help. I have 09.31.

Unfortunately, as many have posted on this thread, you can lose recordings pre 9.36 firmware. Only real solution is an upgrade. Sorry.

Question is would it be worthwhile to add an UPS like we have with the computer.

Definitely! The DVR is very similar to a PC. Most people have PCs hooked up to a UPS and properly shut down the file system when rebooting. In an ideal situation, the same should be done with your DVR.

I have all my A/V equipment hooked up to multiple UPSes because the UPS has AVR and provides cleaner power to the devices anyway.

Hi all,

I have noticed that my Bypass light doesn't work. I have hooked it up to use the bypass feature, and the feature definitely works, but the light doesn't come on. It doesn't even come on when I go through the LED diagnostic screen. I am on firmware 9.29. Could my service provider have disabled it, or is it disabled in this firmware version, or did I get a box with a dead LED?

Thanks

Bry

How come the Pace Tahoe doesn't use ReiserFS? I've read that XFS caches alot in RAM and it can corrupt things if improperly shutdown (which is probably why our shows are being eaten).

Could you test this theory? I would like to see which FS would perform well AND prevent data corruption, even when shutdown improperly.

Remember, Most customers don't have UPS's and their way of resetting things is unplugging it and plugging it back in.

UPDATE: Well, our Pace box just took a dump. It just gives me "This channel will be available shortly" and that's it on EVERY channel. We're hopefully going to replace it with a Motorola tomorrow.

UPDATE #2: Bresnan gave us another Pace box. This time, it's doing the same darn thing. Grrrrrr..

How come the Pace Tahoe doesn't use ReiserFS?

We did look at ReiserFS during the design phase, but XFS was (is) the only filesystem that satisfied our requirements. I can't get into the specifics of the requirements in a public forum (nor via PM).

I've read that XFS caches alot in RAM and it can corrupt things if improperly shutdown (which is probably why our shows are being eaten).

Sorry, I can't confirm nor deny in a public forum (nor via PM) if XFS contributes to the lost recordings problem.


Most customers don't have UPS's and their way of resetting things is unplugging it and plugging it back in.

I wasn't advocating that everyone run out an get a UPS. The current firmware release (9.36 or later) should handle power interruptions. Just saying, PCs run better/more reliably if you have a UPS connected and so will a DVR. If you don't have a UPS, it should be ok too (just more reboots during power fluctuations and waiting for guide data to load).

I wasn't advocating that everyone run out an get a UPS. The current firmware release (9.36 or later) should handle power interruptions. Just saying, PCs run better/more reliably if you have a UPS connected and so will a DVR. If you don't have a UPS, it should be ok too (just more reboots during power fluctuations and waiting for guide data to load).

This is where those discrete power codes would be nice. ;) I have a UPS on mine so the system ignores short power outages, but if power is out for more than 30 minutes, it starts turning components off in sequence. When power is restored and has been on for several minutes, components come back on-line. Being able to discretely power the Pace box OFF, then back ON, in this scenario would be great.

I know you guys are working on it, I just thought I'd poke some fun.

BTW Linden, thanks again for all the support. It's is very cool that you participate and help people out.

This is where those discrete power codes would be nice. ;)

Still haven't posted the release notes, but if you've got one of our new boxes with separable security (i.e. a CableCARD), you'll find that the discrete power codes as specified earlier in the thread will work. ;)

Will update the thread when the equivalent functionality is available for Tahoe (and Vegas).

Mine is an older one without the CC. I'll wait for the Tahoe update.

We did look at ReiserFS during the design phase, but XFS was (is) the only filesystem that satisfied our requirements. I can't get into the specifics of the requirements in a public forum (nor via PM).

Sorry, I can't confirm nor deny in a public forum (nor via PM) if XFS contributes to the lost recordings problem.I'm familiar with "Classified". I was a Radioman for the U.S. Navy after all.

Still bugs me on the exact requirements for a "PVR Cable Box". I'm suspecting people higher than Pace (ex. MPAA, RIAA) set these damn rules. All these "rules" are doing is pissing off customers. If it was TV Guide setting all these rules, I would say "Fine.. See ya.." and head over to TiVo. I like their interface better anyway.

EDIT: I found out that it wasn't the Pace box causing the signal problems. There's a service outage statewide with Bresnan.

EDIT #2: I recently found out that someone placed an "Internet Only" filter on our main cable line. Both me and the Tech were like "How did this get here?". We're suspecting someone was messing with us, but it was still extremely annoying and time consuming.

Hey Linden,

Any word/feedback on the new HD PVR's Pace has like the 850, 779 and 778?

Can you give us a hint on the features of the various new models vs. the 775?

Any idea if any of us folks in this thread have providers that will be rolling out any of the new models soon? (specifically those of us with Armstrong!) ;)

Any word/feedback on the new HD PVR's Pace has like the 850, 779 and 778?

Its been very positive so far.

Can you give us a hint on the features of the various new models vs. the 775?

The primary difference between the new boxes and Tahoe is separable security (aka CableCARD). However, from an end-user experience stand point, an embedded security solution such as Tahoe looks and feels identical to a CableCARD solution.

The all digital products have a smaller footprint and a different front panel layout. The 779 has the identical footprint and front panel.

From a software standpoint, the highlights for AVS users are:

1. Updated EPG (VOD fixes).
2. HDMI fixes (these fixes were tested in Bresnan and solved an HDMI blanking issue similar to that reported by yourself and Wildrock).
3. Discrete power codes are supported.
4. Less likely to see a CIU error which forces a reboot.
5. Other issues reported here that I can't remember specifically (I know this is nebulous--sorry).

Before people ask, all of these software fixes will eventually roll into a Tahoe service release.

Any idea if any of us folks in this thread have providers that will be rolling out any of the new models soon? (specifically those of us with Armstrong!) ;)

Can't comment on this in a public forum other than to say the same thing I said regarding firmware updates. Each site has their own evaluation/test process and some have beta test trials etc.

I have a slight problem with my Tahoe that I can't determine if it's a bad software flash or a bad box. My unit does not consistently respond to commands from the remote. I've tested with 2 different remotes, tested them both on my older Motorola DCT3000 series box (both work perfectly), changed the batteries, tried the actual Moto DCT codes in the manual -- none of it makes any difference. The unit works fine from the front panel controls, and at random times it will only respond to 1 out of 50 commands, other times it will recognize 9 of 10 commands. This does happen in the service menu as well. I did have issues with VOD rebooting the box and recordings not always completing, but those seem to be solved. Firmware is 9.36, no additional cables connected (optical, e-SATA, nada).

Everything was working fine, until I replaced my TV. I've properly power-cycled the box and had it hit from the provider, no change. FWIW, I'm on Mediacom in southern AL. I have a Panasonic TH50P75U connected to the Pace via HDMI. My former tv was a Samsung TX-R3079WH, and was connected via HDMI. It worked 100% of the time until I swapped out TVs.

I guess the last thing to try is to have the box completed reprogrammed from the provider and see if that fixes it. I'm thinking this particular box may be bad, as I've had to have it hit several (4 or 5) times for various things and a total flash once (within a 6 week period).

Linden, what say you? Anything else I should try?

I have a Panasonic TH50P75U connected to the Pace via HDMI. My former tv was a Samsung TX-R3079WH, and was connected via HDMI.

Your plasma is interfering with the reception of the remote. If you look way back at the beginning of this thread, I think you'll see a similar issue.

The only real solution is to somehow put your Tahoe a little further away from the plasma or change the angle between the TV and the Tahoe to reduce reflection issues.

Your plasma is interfering with the reception of the remote. If you look way back at the beginning of this thread, I think you'll see a similar issue.

The only real solution is to somehow put your Tahoe a little further away from the plasma or change the angle between the TV and the Tahoe to reduce reflection issues.


Heh, kinda weird, especially since the plasma sits about 8" further back than the Tahoe does, and the Tahoe is on a wood shelf below the tv. I'll try moving the two around and see if that helps.

Linden or anyone that can help,
I just went out and bought an external hard drive to hook up with the Pace, it's a Seagate Free Agent Pro 500GB. It has a USB 2.0/ eSATA connection. No cable included except USB. Went to local electronics store and they said the SATA cable would work, but it didn't as you could probably guess. My question is what do I need to make the eSATA on hard drive work with the SATA on the Pace. Can someone tell me a specific adapter or whatever I need. Or is it incompatable. I looked at some sata store on internet and it shows some adapters to go from internal on computer to external but I'm not sure that's the same thing. Thanks for any info.

Andy

P.S. Linden, on post #30 you call it eSATA, when I look at the back of the box it's labeled SATA. So which is it?

Linden or anyone that can help,
I just went out and bought an external hard drive to hook up with the Pace, it's a Seagate Free Agent Pro 500GB. It has a USB 2.0/ eSATA connection. No cable included except USB. Went to local electronics store and they said the SATA cable would work, but it didn't as you could probably guess. My question is what do I need to make the eSATA on hard drive work with the SATA on the Pace. Can someone tell me a specific adapter or whatever I need. Or is it incompatable. I looked at some sata store on internet and it shows some adapters to go from internal on computer to external but I'm not sure that's the same thing. Thanks for any info.

Andy

P.S. Linden, on post #30 you call it eSATA, when I look at the back of the box it's labeled SATA. So which is it?

It is eSATA. The e in eSATA stands for External. You need an eSATA cable, you can get them at most places that sell computer equipment (avoid consumer electronics stores for this item, as most don't carry it or if they do the price will be high, lots of sources online if you google eSATA Cable).

Both the pace and your drive use eSATA connectors, because they are outside the device. The hard drive inside the device probably uses a regular SATA cable.

It is eSATA. The e in eSATA stands for External. You need an eSATA cable, you can get them at most places that sell computer equipment (avoid consumer electronics stores for this item, as most don't carry it or if they do the price will be high, lots of sources online if you google eSATA Cable).

Both the pace and your drive use eSATA connectors, because they are outside the device. The hard drive inside the device probably uses a regular SATA cable.

Thanks for the info. I took the external drive back this morning after talking to a Seagate tech. He informed me this particular one won't work properly with a DVR.
Oh well! If anyone can suggest a good compatable 500GB external drive I could buy on the Internet it would be appreciated.

http://www.buy.com/prod/cavalry-500gb-usb-2-0-esata-dual-interface-7200rpm-external-hard-drive/q/loc/101/203268361.html

I have that one - it works fine with my Pace box. It's a tiny bit noisy (hard drive and fan) but I'm pretty picky about stuff like that.

I have that one - it works fine with my Pace box. It's a tiny bit noisy (hard drive and fan) but I'm pretty picky about stuff like that.

So I looked at it and I assume all the cables are included? And when you say a bit noisy how does it compare to the Pace noise?
Thanks for the help, Andy

First of all, I'm sorry for the problems you've encountered recently. <SNIP>

I don't think its accurate to extrapolate bug reports on AVS an apply it to the Tahoe population as a whole. In general, on Internet forums, 95% of the comments are from people that are having problems (i.e. happy people rarely post ;) ).

Do we have bugs in our code? Yes.
Have we enhanced our testing since the uncovering these bugs? Yes.
Are we carefully monitoring AVS and fixing bugs you report here? Yes.


Just to close the loop, for my situation, I finally called SuddenLink and insisted they replace my Pace Tahoe with a Motorola DCT 6416 III box. They did in mid-May and I'm now :cool: :cool: :cool: .

No lost recordings, all shows record when I program them to record, they stay there until I delete them, and no box hangups or tweeking has been required since the Moto was installed, and I don't spend hours reading this forum to see what problems others have incurred and how to fix them.

All this during the recent South Texas monsoons, with 46" of rain and numerous thunderstorms and power hits.

Y'all have fun, I'm gone! :D

Linden,

I have a question regarding the ir port on the back of the Tahoe.

I have a slingbox pro, and use the ir blaster that came with the slingbox to control the Tahoe. I would like to use the ir port in the back of the Tahoe to get rid of the ir blaster sitting in front of the Cable Box. And to guarantee a consistent signal transfer to the pace from the slingbox.

I believe that I can get a IR dongle that you referred to previously, from my cable company. Perhaps can you give us a little more info on what to ask for? (part number?). But the OP that asked about that port indicated that when he plugged in a regular 3.5 mm plug, that the IR port stopped responding to the remote control directly.

Obviously I would still need the front IR port to continue to respond to my remote while having the plug still plugged into the IR port for when the Slingbox is in use.

Let me know if you need more info on my question.

Thanks for your time,

Chris

So I looked at it and I assume all the cables are included? And when you say a bit noisy how does it compare to the Pace noise?
Thanks for the help, Andy
Yep - it came with the eSata cable etc. You definitely can hear the hard drive reading/writing - but I wouldn't say it's any worse than the Pace itself. What's objectionably loud is the fan in the unit itself - it does have an on/off switch on the back but I'm concerned about leaving it turned off with it being fully enclosed and all.

I believe that I can get a IR dongle that you referred to previously, from my cable company. Perhaps can you give us a little more info on what to ask for? (part number?).

I'll try to get that info for you.

But the OP that asked about that port indicated that when he plugged in a regular 3.5 mm plug, that the IR port stopped responding to the remote control directly.

That's correct. Its an either/or type of thing. Either the remote is active or the IR tether is active, but both can't be functional at the same point in time.

Obviously I would still need the front IR port to continue to respond to my remote while having the plug still plugged into the IR port for when the Slingbox is in use.

I don't think the IR tether is the right solution for you then. Sorry.

I just swappped my Motorola 6412 for the Pace TDC775. I output via HDMI to my Philips HDTV then output the digital audio out from the Philips to my JVC home theater receiver. This worked fine with the Motorola 6412, the digital audio out on the Philips passed thru the Dolby Digital 3/2 or 2/0 on any station broadcasting it, but on the Pace 775 box via HDMI, I am only getting stereo output regardless of the what station I am on or what it is putting out. I know this because my JVC receiver displays the audio mode. The Panel Display on the 775 indicates I am getting a multichannel input but the Dolby Digital information is either not going out the HDMI output of the 775 to my TV or for some reason is different than the HDMI output on the 6412 and my TV won't pass it back out to my receiver. When I look at the diagnostic screen option 5-A/V Status on the 775 it states Audio mode is stereo and Audio SPDIF is 3/2. Is there a setting I missed somewhere. If I plug the optical output of the 775 directly to the JVC receiver, I get Dolby Digital. Why am I not getting Dolby Digital output via HDMI ? Help !!!

This worked fine with the Motorola 6412, the digital audio out on the Philips passed thru the Dolby Digital 3/2 or 2/0 on any station broadcasting it, but on the Pace 775 box via HDMI, I am only getting stereo output regardless of the what station I am on or what it is putting out. I know this because my JVC receiver displays the audio mode.

It sounds as if your JVC receiver is getting PCM rather than 5 channel DD audio.

1. Does your receiver report if its receiving PCM?
2. Please go into diagnostics, select the Interface Status page (21), then select HDMI and please report the information on the Audio Capable line.

It sounds as if your JVC receiver is getting PCM rather than 5 channel DD audio.

1. Does your receiver report if its receiving PCM?
2. Please go into diagnostics, select the Interface Status page (21), then select HDMI and please report the information on the Audio Capable line.

OK, Yes, My receiver is reporting PCM. On Status Page (21) HDMI Status Audio Capable - Yes (PCM). Then further down the page it says Audio Format - AC3. Is the PCM Setting something I can change ?

OK, Yes, My receiver is reporting PCM. On Status Page (21) HDMI Status Audio Capable - Yes (PCM). Then further down the page it says Audio Format - AC3. Is the PCM Setting something I can change ?

What this means is the incoming content is AC3, but your receiver told Tahoe that it only can handle PCM. This is the reason why you hear only two channel audio because Tahoe only thinks it can safely transmit PCM. I'm guessing there is a bug somewhere in the negotiating process of audio capabilities (not sure which device is at fault right now).

What is the make and model of this receiver? When you had your 6412, did you use any HDMI overrides in the PowerMenu so that you could hear AC-3 audio?

What this means is the incoming content is AC3, but your receiver told Tahoe that it only can handle PCM. This is the reason why you hear only two channel audio because Tahoe only thinks it can safely transmit PCM. I'm guessing there is a bug somewhere in the negotiating process of audio capabilities (not sure which device is at fault right now).

What is the make and model of this receiver? When you had your 6412, did you use any HDMI overrides in the PowerMenu so that you could hear AC-3 audio?

I think you are correct but its not the JVC receiver, its the Phillips 32PFL5322D/37 HDTV. It also has an audio info screen and I noticed that even when the Tahoe is displaying the little multichannel icon indicating Dolby Digital , the TV is reporting digital stereo (PCM) so I think the bug is the HDMI signal between the Tahoe and the TV. With the 6412 via HDMI, the Philips audio info screen would correctly report Dolby 3/2 or Dolby 2/0 and pass that signal via the Digital Audio output to my JVC receiver which also displayed the Dolby Digital signal. The only reason this is an issue for me is because I am using 2 HDMI inputs on the TV (Tahoe and PS3) and the JVC receiver only has one digital audio input so by passing the HDMI signals through the TV, I can get both signals to the JVC. I have found a work around by feeding the Tahoe optical output directly to the JVC and using the Tahoe optical input for my PS3, so I get Dolby Digital from both, but I have to turn off the Tahoe to hear my PS3 (no biggie).

But I am still curious about what is going on via HDMI and if there is a fix. I didn't do anything special on the 6412, in fact I am not sure I ever accessed the PowerMenu. I do still have the same 6412 box (I moved it to another TV) so I could take a look if you will tell me how. I don't know if it matters but my cable provider is Mediacom and the Tahoe appears to have the latest firmware (09.36). Thanks for all your help. It sure is great having someone with your knowledge to talk to.

Hey all - just swapped my moto box for the pace one. I haven't read through all 29 pages of this thread - many, but not all! :confused:

I also notice that on the analogue SD channels the pace PQ is much more grainy -- edit --- just found the relevant posts a couple pages back. My box firmware is 9.31, using Mediacom here in SW Missouri.

And - with using HDMI - the analogue audio outputs on the TV (samsung 47" rear proj 4752 HDTV) are not sending a signal to my 2-channel stereo. It does play audio on the TV's speakers. When you first turn the TV on it does play through the stereo, but once the TV picture comes all the way up, the audio output goes off. Is this another HDCP issue?
Geoff

Yep - it came with the eSata cable etc. You definitely can hear the hard drive reading/writing - but I wouldn't say it's any worse than the Pace itself. What's objectionably loud is the fan in the unit itself - it does have an on/off switch on the back but I'm concerned about leaving it turned off with it being fully enclosed and all.

O.K. I recieved the hard drive today. Hooked it up to the Tahoe but it won't recognize the drive. I rebooted several times and it does nothing. The drive came preformatted but according to linden on earlier correspondance the tahoe should ask if I want to reformat but nothing. I went to diags and it only shows 1/1 drives. What am I doing wrong. HELP!
Andy

And - with using HDMI - the analogue audio outputs on the TV (samsung 47" rear proj 4752 HDTV) are not sending a signal to my 2-channel stereo. It does play audio on the TV's speakers. When you first turn the TV on it does play through the stereo, but once the TV picture comes all the way up, the audio output goes off. Is this another HDCP issue?
Geoff

I'm a little confused on how you have you system connected. Are you connecting Tahoe to the TV with HDMI? Does this problem happen on analog, SD and HD content or just analog?

O.K. I recieved the hard drive today. Hooked it up to the Tahoe but it won't recognize the drive.

Have you tried hooking it up to Windows or Linux to see if they recognize the drive?

Yes - tahoe to tv via hdmi - or with dvd to tv via hdmi (just to eliminate the tahoe as the cause, which it is not). I have to hook the audio out to the tv audio input also to get the tv to output a signal to the audio output. That sounds confusing, but hopefully it's not too bad. The TV speakers output sound, but not the audio output (line level to amp) - using hdmi.

I'm a little confused on how you have you system connected. Are you connecting Tahoe to the TV with HDMI? Does this problem happen on analog, SD and HD content or just analog?

Have you tried hooking it up to Windows or Linux to see if they recognize the drive?
Yeah. Brought it over to computer and hooked up with USB and it says mass storage device ready to go.

Update- Tried again. Turned Tahoe off and then unplugged. Hooked up sata cable to hard drive and Tahoe then plugged in and turned on(hard drive). Then plugged in Tahoe. Blue led comes on and the display shows a series of 4 dashes and then two or what ever. Then the display is clear for several minutes and then blue led goes to red. I power back up and it goes to live TV. So I go into diags and check HDD again and it shows 1/1. I then went to page 21 and click down to SATA and enter, it freezes for about 4 or 5 minutes and then finaly gives me the SATA status screen. SATA Enabled Yes
Internal Drive Valid
External Drive Unknown

Any other ideas. I just had a feeling this wouldn't be a cinch.
Thanks Andy

Any other ideas.

How big is this drive?

Try to reformat it with Windows (NTFS or FAT32 will do).

Yes - tahoe to tv via hdmi - or with dvd to tv via hdmi (just to eliminate the tahoe as the cause, which it is not).

So you hear audio from the Tahoe on the TV, but you can't get the TV to send its audio output to another device? If that is the case, I'm not sure if I'll be able to help you.

Yes sir - that's exactly right. I figure it's a TV issue - but just thought someone here might know if it was, in fact, a hdcp issue or not.
Geoff

When you had your 6412, did you use any HDMI overrides in the PowerMenu so that you could hear AC-3 audio?

Just to be sure I wasn't crazy, I hooked back up the Motorola to my Philips HDTV via HDMI and sure enough I got Dolby Digital again. I could not even find any HDMI audio options in the 6412 User Settings Menu, so I can't see how I set any overrides. Bottom line is it just works and the Tahoe doesn't. Any ideas ?

Thanks !

How big is this drive?

Try to reformat it with Windows (NTFS or FAT32 will do).

It's the cavalry 500 GB drive that Billken suggested on post 845. I figured it worked on his it should be no trouble on mine. I did reformat on windows last night to NTSF which it said it already was. It took about 8 hours. Got up this morning and rehooked to tahoe and exactly the same response as my post yesterday. What next? Andy

but just thought someone here might know if it was, in fact, a hdcp issue or not.
Geoff

Doubtful its HDCP related. Do you see the lock icon on your front panel?

Any ideas ?

Not right now. I'm going to try to see if we can replicate this in the lab.

What next? Andy

See post #615 on this thread. Does the drive have a SSC (Spread Spectrum Clocking) jumper?

See post #615 on this thread. Does the drive have a SSC (Spread Spectrum Clocking) jumper?

http://www.cavalrystorage.com/item.asp?itemid=Caxm37500

Linden, could you check this out. I looked and don't see anything about SSC.

Thanks, Andy

Linden, could you check this out. I looked and don't see anything about SSC.

I don't see anything suspicious in the manual.

1. Can you delete all the partitions in Windows and then re-connect it and see if that helps?

2. When you connect it on your PC, are you using SATA or USB? Do you know that you've got a good SATA cable?

I don't see anything suspicious in the manual.

1. Can you delete all the partitions in Windows and then re-connect it and see if that helps?

2. When you connect it on your PC, are you using SATA or USB? Do you know that you've got a good SATA cable?

SATA cable came with it. But I don't know if it's good or not. I might try on my neighbors tahoe tonight and eliminate that it's the DVR. or get another SATA cable to try. Any way to see if SATA cable is bad?

Update... Opened up pc and hooked esata adapter that came with it to port where dvd was plugged, just to see if sata cable worked. It recognized it immediately. I transfered a large picture file to it and it was fast and true. So that eliminates the hard drive and cables. Went to the neighbor and talked him into letting me reboot his tahoe with HD hooked up. It worked, at least as far as asking to reformat external drive. Came home and tryed one more time and no go. It just hangs for several minutes before going to red led from blue. I've got to believe another trip to Bresnan is in my near future.

Thanks for the help

Andy

Got a new tahoe today and it recognized and formatted external drive just fine.

Andy,

What firmware revision is in your box? The symptoms you describe sound like something we fixed a very long time ago.

First Post on AVS Forums, and I have to say I'm completely blown away by the sheer amount of information available here...and seeing an actual person FROM Pace here answering questions and helping out? Very Impressive.

On to my Question- I have a TDC775 from GCI Cable in Alaska and my hope is to connect it via Firewire to my PC, and use MCE Built into Vista and use it as a tuner. Right now I have one of Hauppage's WinTV cards and I'm hoping to A: Free up the PCI slot B: Help remove the clutter of the IR Blaster off my desk and C: Find a more integrated way to record/watch digital cable via my PC

I've looked around for drivers....and even given my extensive use of PCs in various shapes sizes and colors....dont entirely understand what i'm looking at as far as drivers go...I realize it wont be as simple as updating my drivers for my Video Card...but some help here would be GREATLY appreciated.

The next step is I saw a little bit on changing channels via 1394, but w/ google search and searching these forums I'm still a little fuzzy on a firm answer...Can I do it? and if so, what do I need to do it?


My Box is on the 9.31 S/W Version BTW

Any help is greatly appreciated

Andy,

What firmware revision is in your box? The symptoms you describe sound like something we fixed a very long time ago.

Both boxes were and are 9.36. Is that what you mean?

Linden,

Here's a new little gremlin for you. I had a series recording that was set to record an analog channel (USA, ch 53 on Bresnan) from 12am to 1am this morning. Tonight, when I went to look at the recording list, I had no space left. Odd, I thought. So I went to play the recording, and it listed the time at 1247 minutes. So I started playing it, and the play bar listed the program as running from 12am to 1am. When I got to the end of the program, the scrubber was at the end at 1am and stayed there, but the recording kept playing. I fast forwarded for a while, and it was obvious that there was like 21 hours of recording. So I deleted it and everything seems rather back to normal now.

But it was a stuck recording. And it filled up the hard drive. Odd, eh? Or have you heard of this one before. Still at 9.36.

Oh, and if anyone wants to know, a 1247 minute analog recording eats up 25% of the hard drive ;-)

FYI, Had the same problem as Wildrock a couple of weeks ago. The same day I recorded 3 simultaneous episodes of 30 minute AEHD Sell this house. this time it showed it as one 90 minute recording. and later I programed it to record an analog 60 minute episode of Dirty Jobs and about midnight I noticed it was still recording and went to list and I was up to 99% full and the recording was 8 hours plus. It played fine and I deleted it and hasn't happened again.

Both boxes were and are 9.36. Is that what you mean?

Yes.

Linden,
But it was a stuck recording. And it filled up the hard drive. Odd, eh? Or have you heard of this one before. Still at 9.36.


Nope. We've seen reports of black analog recordings, but I've not heard of a recording that went over. I'll look through the bug database and see if there has ever been a similar report.

Nope. We've seen reports of black analog recordings, but I've not heard of a recording that went over. I'll look through the bug database and see if there has ever been a similar report.I wish I could be as lucky with PowerBall as I am with discovering new bugs. ;) Found several with the new forum software, also.

3 Days and no responses to my thread? Aww :( i feel so unloved :P Any help is appreciated guys

The next step is I saw a little bit on changing channels via 1394, but w/ google search and searching these forums I'm still a little fuzzy on a firm answer...Can I do it?

Yes, channel change via 1394 (i.e. remote pass through) is supported (assuming you have a compatible source 1394 device that can originate the request).


3 Days and no responses to my thread? Aww i feel so unloved

Takes time to check the code and ensure you have an accurate answer. We weren't blowing you off.

Bresnan, Great Falls, MT.

We have had nothing but trouble with the pace tahoe. We have the newest software and the bug that has stuck around the longest is audio dropout when changing channels. It does not seem to matter if you are from digital to analog or to HD. Another bug is where you record a program and go to watch it all it shows is the time bar and a box asking if we want to delete this recording. The only way to watch the recorded program is to say no to the delete and rewind to the beginning....Frustrating. Yesterday a bresnan rep told me they have had so many complaints that in a month or two they will begin deploying a new motorola box....I have no idea what model it will be...

Bresnan, Great Falls, MT.

We have had nothing but trouble with the pace tahoe. We have the newest software and the bug that has stuck around the longest is audio dropout when changing channels. It does not seem to matter if you are from digital to analog or to HD. Another bug is where you record a program and go to watch it all it shows is the time bar and a box asking if we want to delete this recording. The only way to watch the recorded program is to say no to the delete and rewind to the beginning....Frustrating. Yesterday a bresnan rep told me they have had so many complaints that in a month or two they will begin deploying a new motorola box....I have no idea what model it will be...


I think you are over-reacting a bit: "Nothing but trouble" :rolleyes:...

The noise dropout is annoying, but a quick pause-play fixes it every time for me...

As for your second problem, it is quickly worked around by selecting the "restart from the beginning" icon in the info menu, you don't have to rewind the whole thing... (What firmware are you using? I thought this was fixed in 9.36, I am still on 9.31...)

I was over at my parents, and noticed several "bugs" with my parents moto box too. If you are looking for a perfect problem free solution, it does not exist.

I'll keep my temporary audio drop outs, and having to select "restart from the beginning" on shows already watched once, to keep my zoom on SD windowed box material and virtually unlimited storage with my external hard drive.

PS I heard a rumor from a little mouse that 9.39 is coming soon. Linden, can you break your code of silence to confirm or deny this rumor? And whether or not it fixes the above minor bugs. :)

First Post on AVS Forums, and I have to say I'm completely blown away by the sheer amount of information available here...and seeing an actual person FROM Pace here answering questions and helping out? Very Impressive.

On to my Question- I have a TDC775 from GCI Cable in Alaska and my hope is to connect it via Firewire to my PC, and use MCE Built into Vista and use it as a tuner. Right now I have one of Hauppage's WinTV cards and I'm hoping to A: Free up the PCI slot B: Help remove the clutter of the IR Blaster off my desk and C: Find a more integrated way to record/watch digital cable via my PC

I've looked around for drivers....and even given my extensive use of PCs in various shapes sizes and colors....dont entirely understand what i'm looking at as far as drivers go...I realize it wont be as simple as updating my drivers for my Video Card...but some help here would be GREATLY appreciated.

The next step is I saw a little bit on changing channels via 1394, but w/ google search and searching these forums I'm still a little fuzzy on a firm answer...Can I do it? and if so, what do I need to do it?


My Box is on the 9.31 S/W Version BTW

Any help is greatly appreciated

Have you looked at the "stickey" thread at the top: How to record via IEEE 1394 (Firewire) to Windows XP? The methodology used to connect will let you view from the Pace to you PC. Don't know how well things work with Vista (good luck :)). When I first got my Pace box I connected using XP and got things to work, but it the long run it was more trouble that it was worth for me.

I think you are over-reacting a bit: "Nothing but trouble" :rolleyes:...

The noise dropout is annoying, but a quick pause-play fixes it every time for me...

As for your second problem, it is quickly worked around by selecting the "restart from the beginning" icon in the info menu, you don't have to rewind the whole thing... (What firmware are you using? I thought this was fixed in 9.36, I am still on 9.31...)

I was over at my parents, and noticed several "bugs" with my parents moto box too. If you are looking for a perfect problem free solution, it does not exist.

I'll keep my temporary audio drop outs, and having to select "restart from the beginning" on shows already watched once, to keep my zoom on SD windowed box material and virtually unlimited storage with my external hard drive.

PS I heard a rumor from a little mouse that 9.39 is coming soon. Linden, can you break your code of silence to confirm or deny this rumor? And whether or not it fixes the above minor bugs. :)

Ok...maybe I am overreacting but when high school musical records with no audio and your 4-year old grandaughter is looking at you like your the devil:D you would understand;);)...hey I'm the one who traded out my perfectly good moto 6412 for the tahoe...I want it to work...I really do.

...perfectly good moto 6412Now there's an oxymoron if I ever did hear one. :rolleyes: I am so much happier with the Pace than I ever was with my moto 6412 pIII.

I have an audio dropout issue, but I traced it to my AV receiver dropping the signal. For whatever reason--changing a channel, going from PC input to Pace input, from DVD to Pac--I occasionally lose audio. Usually has to do with switching modes, or optical ports (I use 3 different optical inputs on my Yamaha receiver). But I need to reboot the Yammy before I'll consistently get audio again. I guess that's what the red button on my remote is for. So there's a lot of variables at play here.

PS I heard a rumor from a little mouse that 9.39 is coming soon.

Hmmmm....turns out 9.39 has been deployed at a couple of sites. Sorry for letting that one slip by. I will post the details of the fixes to the release notes thread when I have a few seconds.

Linden, can you break your code of silence to confirm or deny this rumor? And whether or not it fixes the above minor bugs. :)

You know the drill. If its not public, I can't comment on it (even bribes won't work ;)).

Bresnan, Great Falls, MT.

Yesterday a bresnan rep told me they have had so many complaints that in a month or two they will begin deploying a new motorola box....I have no idea what model it will be...


The first Moto HD DVR Bresnan gave me wouldn't recognize my Boston Accoustic's audio signal. Everytime I changed between digital and analog channel I had to manually change settings on Boston reciever or give up any surround sound features. Also had the remote freeze several times. The reps had no answers for either problem. What was wierd was with the Moto HD box before that worked just fine, but it wasn't a DVR. I've had my fair share of trouble with the Pace but it is improving rapidly, and this forum has helped me immensely. Besides it's fun knowing more about it than the Bresnan reps. But now that I have external HD hooked up and seems to run fine I wouldn't take a Moto.
.

Linden,

I recorded a 1 hour (HD 1080/Dolby 5.1) program yesterday and when I tried to play it back, there was no audio. I tried to fast forward thru the recording to see if the audio ever came back. and realized ff/rew controls were not functioning either. I also noticed that the timer display stayed on 0 during the entire playback. Any idea what caused this glitch. Other HD/DD programs have recorded fine.

Anything new on the HDMI/Dolby Digital issue ?

Thanks!

A question about the volume output of this receiver. Both my parents and inlaws have this receiver and hooked up to two slightly different models of the Vizio 37 inch LCD HD TVs. The tv's volume must be turned almost to it's highest level to able to hear it. But using other sources, dvd or vcr, the volume is fine at low to middle levels. I have hooked the tv from the receiver with different cables and to different inputs with the same results. Bresnan cable techs (twenty-something kids just hire off the street) blame the Vizio with speaker problems. I don't buy it. I just don't think these boxes are pumping out the volume they should. Any comments or suggestions? Thanks.

This was my original complaint. Second receiver did the same thing. Finally got a third receiver that pumps out the volume the way that it should with a tech that said these boxes are pretty poor. Now the volume is comfortable at not even a third of the way up compared to full blast and still couldn't hear it very well with the first two. That was my in-laws box. My parents lucked out on their second box.

Ok Lindend, time to come clean. I hadn't checked on my firmware version in a bit so decided to check tonight - and to my surprise 9.40 :D I presume that that 9.40 & 9.39 are the different flavors of VOD. Anything we should know about in the new version?

Bresnan - Grand Junction CO.

I presume that that 9.40 & 9.39 are the different flavors of VOD.

I'm still working on getting you guys the release notes for 9.39!

9.40 is not just a VOD difference. It has a bug fix in it. When I get the release details, I'll post them.

Linden, were going to have to get "AVS Liaison" added to your job title so that you can spend some work time dealing with us :D Just don't let it get in the way of getting those updates out to us! As always, we really appreciate your participating on the forum and from my point of view, shows Pace's commitment to getting a quality product out. Thanks!

The release notes for 9.39 and 9.40 have been added to the Tahoe Release Notes (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=866125) thread.

I think the big fix for the Bresnan viewers will be the audio loss fix in 9.39 and the discrete power on/off code support.

Anything new on the HDMI/Dolby Digital issue ?

Unfortunately not. I did inspect the code and tested it against several displays and I'm not replicating the problem nor seeing any obvious bugs. We're still working to try to replicate it.

Has anyone been able to transfer HD recordings to a Windows machine using CapDVHS and Firewire? I would love to be able to get Firefly and Stargate Atlantis on my computer and then stream them to my PS3. In fact thats about the only reason I can think of to keep my HD service. Ten channels and no regular Discovery Channel HD doesn't do it for me.

The box is really cool though. Lots of potential if cable companies and content providers will cooperate.

Has anyone been able to transfer HD recordings to a Windows machine using CapDVHS and Firewire?

I finally got some limited success recording via firewire. It only worked on HD programming, SD stuff bombed out CapDVHS. Also, my Tahoe had IEEE1394 ports disabled for some reason but I got them enabled by going to the power/menu and resetting the Tahoe to factory default settings. The thread below will give you instructions and drivers for firewire capture. Good Luck.

(http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695)

Hey There. I think I'm experiencing the same problem as someone above.

I'm on Mediacom (in Missouri) and have had the Pace Tahoe box for about 6 months, and I have really liked it. I've had the same eSATA drive hooked up to it for the same time, and had about 20 HD movies all saved up. Well, I came home yesterday from work, and noticed that it was doing one of its "infinite recordings." It basicly records until you either stop it, or the HD fills up. I tried to stop it, but it wouldn't, so I just decided to pull the plug. Upon plugging it back in, it wouldn't restart... it would just hang up for hours. If I unplugged the eSATA drive, it would reboot just fine.

I plugged the drive into my computer, deleted the partition, gave it a drive letter, but didn't partition it. It's still not working.

Do you think it's a problem with the box?

Thanks.

Hi Linden,

I have had the Tahoe for about two months now, and after working flawlessly for a month (with about a dozen series recordings set up), I now have to reboot it about every two days. Yesterday, I had to reboot twice about 10 hours apart.

I will come into the room and notice that the blue power LED is on, the box has turned on to record, but no red record LED is on. If I go into the list of recorded shows, the show that is supposed to be recording is in there, and the program time does go up minute by minute. If I try to play any of the shows in the list, it goes straight to the delete or don't delete prompt. When I hit don't delete, the picture goes black, and I have to change channels to get a picture back. Also, if I hit the swap button to change tuners it doesn't work. If I turn off unplug and reboot, everything works fine again, and all recorded shows are there except the one that was supposed to be recording. I have tried waiting until the end of the time slot before rebooting, I still lose that show when I reboot. I do not record HD, but I can't remember if the screwed up recordings were digital or analog. All recordings that screwed up the box were series recordings. I am on 9.29.

Not sure if this makes a difference, but at one point I changed all my series recording settings from recording "all episodes" to "first-run and repeats". (I assume the difference is that "new and repeats" won't record episodes that are already on the HDD?) I couldn't remember if I was already having the problem before I changed the settings, so when I started getting the problem all the time, I changed all series recordings back to recording "all episodes" but it didn't help.

Is this a known issue that would be fixed by an existing firmware upgrade? I know that you have fixed the issue of losing recordings on reboot, but I'm not sure that the actual problem that made the reboot necessary has been fixed.

Please help. I love this box when it's working, but right now it's killing me.

Also, I have noticed that the bypass LED doesn't work on my box. I have it hooked up, and it does work, but no LED even in the LED diagnostic screen. Is this disabled in 9.29 or by my cable company?



Thanks

Bry

Deltabry,
I think if you have the time and read through this thread you'll find most of the problems you describe would be fixed up with the latest and greatest firmware. I believe Pace just released 9.40 so Delta Cable is a bit behind in their code by using 9.29.

Cheers

Hi Linden,

I just added an 500gb esata drive, it appears to be working (diags see it, formatted OK, etc...), but what is up with the constant disk access ? When my Tahoe is on, the activity light on the external drive flashes like crazy continuously. Why would it need to access the disk that much when not recording ? Also, is there a way to determine or set which disk is getting recorded to ? And one last thing. Can I plug power for the esata drive into the Tahoe power outlet and set it to switched so the drive shuts down when I power off the Tahoe ? Will it power back up when the Tahoe comes out of standby to record?

Thanks for all your help !

Glen

Linden,
No big thing just curious. Bresnan rolled out the 9.40 on Friday the 31st at about 2 AM. I was in the middle of two recordings at that time so it split both of them as it should. I wanted to know how much was missing so went into contents in diags and I noticed it gives the time of recording exactly 6 hours ahead. I tried a quick recording last night at 11:05 PM (8/31/07) and went back to content in diags and it said recorded on 9/1/07 at 5:05 AM which hadn't occurred yet on this continent. Checked general status under diags and the time and date are correct. What's up? Keep up the good work.

Andy

Hi Linden,

Can I plug power for the esata drive into the Tahoe power outlet and set it to switched so the drive shuts down when I power off the Tahoe ? Will it power back up when the Tahoe comes out of standby to record?



Glen

FYI With my external drive I powered down the Tahoe first and then waited and powered down the external drive waited, powered back up external drive and then the Tahoe. I had my list of recordings the same but the percentage skyrocketed and it wouldn't play recordings.
It went right to the delete screen. So I rebooted Tahoe and it recognized everything as before and played recordigs flawlessly. So my unprofessional opinion is it won't work. But if it could I would like to know how also. I'm just happy to have it working with the external drive so I can record a ton more of crap I don't have time to watch.

Andy

no comments on my earlier post? I'd really like a little advice... I need to know what i need to do.

Thinking of getting a Tivo HD.

Thanks.

I plugged the drive into my computer, deleted the partition, gave it a drive letter, but didn't partition it. It's still not working.

Do you think it's a problem with the box?


I would hang the drive back on your computer, repartion it NTFS as a primary partition, and do the quick format. Assigning a drive letter doesn't really matter.

Then unplug power to the Tahoe (20 seconds or so), connect the drive back to the eSata port and power the drive up, When that is done plug power back in to the Tahoe. This basically reboots the Tahoe and if it recognizes the drive, a message will pop up asking if you would like to format the drive. Tell it yes. There are other threads that talk about eSata problems in detail, Click on the "search this thread" link on the top right of the page and do a search on esata. Good Luck.

Andy,

It gives the time of recording exactly 6 hours ahead.

The times in the content listing are GPS, which for your area should be 7 hours ahead. Is daylight savings active in your area?

I would hang the drive back on your computer, repartion it NTFS as a primary partition, and do the quick format. Assigning a drive letter doesn't really matter.

Agreed. Symptoms sound like something went bad with the drive (a format on a PC may or may not cure it).

Andy,



The times in the content listing are GPS, which for your area should be 7 hours ahead. Is daylight savings active in your area?

Yes it is. Makes sense now, thanks.

Andy

I have the Pace TDC775D HDDVR from Mediacom and have had some problems. The FW is 9.39. I am having the unit replaced but want to save my recordings. What are my options? If I hook up an eSATA drive, can I move the recordings to the external drive?

Randy

I have the Pace TDC775D HDDVR from Mediacom and have had some problems. The FW is 9.39. I am having the unit replaced but want to save my recordings. What are my options? If I hook up an eSATA drive, can I move the recordings to the external drive?

Randy


I believe if you go back in these posts you will find info that states that the external drive recordings will only play back with the Tahoe that recorded them, so I think you are out of luck.

My Pace Tahoe has seemed to have developed this annoying habit of running its fan continuously.

Is this a known issue and is there a fix for it? Even when the Pace is sitting turned off for hours on end the fan continues to run. Anyone have any ideas what's up and if it's fixable? Reboots aren't helping any.

I just got 2 Pace TDC779X DVR boxes from my cable company. They're replacing Motorola boxes currently being used. I like the fact that they will not alter the picture resolution - NBC-HD comes out of the box at 1080I, ESPN-HD at 720P, SD channels at 480I, etc. The old Moto box changed all HD signals to 1080I or 720P depending on user settings.

My problem is that both Pace boxes only put out a 4:3 despite the fact that I have the "Display Capabilities" set to 16:9. Is there a trick to programming these things? The Moto boxes did output a 16:9 picture.

BTW I'm using HDMI connectors to a Sony A2000 SXRD set and a Toshiba Regza LCD set.
The Toshiba has an Auto Aspect Ratio setting that locks the picture to the incoming ratio. When I enable this feature I get a 4:3 picture on all HD channels. When I hit the Display button on the Sony it shows 4:3 for the aspect ratio, so I'm pretty sure the box is messing up.

Thanks for any help.

Dick OKeefe

Dick,

BTW I'm using HDMI connectors to a Sony A2000 SXRD set and a Toshiba Regza LCD set.
The Toshiba has an Auto Aspect Ratio setting that locks the picture to the incoming ratio.

If you look back in the history of this thread, a similar problem was reported. Here is the background. We are sending a 16x9 picture to the TV. However, the aspect ratio flag in the stream is incorrectly set to 4x3. The vast majority of the TVs out there correctly ignore the aspect ratio as 720p and 1080i are inherently 16x9. However, some TV strictly enforce the aspect ratio which likely creates the issue you are reporting.

Edit: I just re-read your post and noticed you are using a TDC779X and not a Tahoe. I will create a thread for that box (and other separable security boxes shortly). You should be on firmware release 9.01 and the HDMI fix should be present in that release.

Can you please try component video output and let us know if the problem persists with the YPbPr connection?

Edit2: Can you please repost your question to the Tahoe Analog thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11540612#post11540612)?

Dick,



If you look back in the history of this thread, a similar problem was reported. Here is the background. We are sending a 16x9 picture to the TV. However, the aspect ratio flag in the stream is incorrectly set to 4x3. The vast majority of the TVs out there correctly ignore the aspect ratio as 720p and 1080i are inherently 16x9. However, some TV strictly enforce the aspect ratio which likely creates the issue you are reporting.

What firmware revision are you on? This issue should be fixed with the latest firmware rev. Until then, I think component is going to be the only workaround.

Thanks for the quick reply:
Model : DCT
S/W Ver: 74.64-3337
A/B : Disabled
Output : 3
Region : 0

I believe both sets are really only getting a 4:3 picture.

Dick OKeefe

Thanks for the quick reply:
Model : DCT
S/W Ver: 74.64-3337
A/B : Disabled
Output : 3
Region : 0

I believe both sets are really only getting a 4:3 picture.

Dick OKeefe

Sorry about that

The firmware rev is 09.01

I also meant to say I believe both sets are displaying 4:3, like they are honoring the stream info.

Dick

Dick,


Edit: I just re-read your post and noticed you are using a TDC779X and not a Tahoe. I will create a thread for that box (and other separable security boxes shortly). You should be on firmware release 9.01 and the HDMI fix should be present in that release.

Can you please try component video output and let us know if the problem persists with the YPbPr connection?

Edit2: Can you please repost your question to the Tahoe Analog thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11540612#post11540612)?

Well I just tried a component connection on my Sony A2000 SXRD set and it works OK. I get the native resolution and a 16:9 format picture out of the box.

Dick OKeefe

Well I just tried a component connection on my Sony A2000 SXRD set and it works OK. I get the native resolution and a 16:9 format picture out of the box.

Dick OKeefe

Dick,

Can you please repost your question and preliminary tests to the Tahoe Analog thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=903826) ?

Dick,
Are you with Service Electric Cable?

Is there a limitation on the size of the external drive that can be hooked up to the Pace? I'm looking at adding an external 750gb drive to it and was wondering if anyone is currently running a drive this large.

Deltabry,
I think if you have the time and read through this thread you'll find most of the problems you describe would be fixed up with the latest and greatest firmware. I believe Pace just released 9.40 so Delta Cable is a bit behind in their code by using 9.29.

Cheers

Thanks Northcountry - I'll try a little gentle prodding with Delta Cable and see if the new firmware is on it's way.

Bry

My Pace Tahoe has seemed to have developed this annoying habit of running its fan continuously.

Is this a known issue and is there a fix for it? Even when the Pace is sitting turned off for hours on end the fan continues to run. Anyone have any ideas what's up and if it's fixable? Reboots aren't helping any.

BillKen,
I have had my Tahoe since late June, and it has never been silent (also tried numerous reboots). When the hard drive spins down there is still a constant fan noise. I have to be sitting right next to the box to hear the drive spin back up, because the fan noise is way louder than the HDD. Sorry I know this doesn't help you, just thought I'd add my name to the list so it becomes a known issue.

Bry

Thanks for adding your experience Bry.

The continual fan running is really annoying - and I hope Linden can track down the cause and let us know if there's a fix for it.

I just picked up my Pace 775 box today to replace my Moto 6412 III, looks like its going back because I can't get it to work with my new Onkyo 705 HDMI switching Receiver. It will display video over my HDMI-DVI cable as long as I go directly to my Mits 55813 but when I try to use my receiver to do the switching it gives nothing but a blue screen. I do get audio thru the cable though. Any ideas?

Oh by the way, it did display over the Onyko when I first hooked it up. As soon as I called to activate it and they sent a signal to it however, the box flipped to a blue screen. Thought that was interesting.

Oh by the way, it did display over the Onyko when I first hooked it up. As soon as I called to activate it and they sent a signal to it however, the box flipped to a blue screen. Thought that was interesting.

Do you get audio?

I just picked up my Pace 775 box today to replace my Moto 6412 III, looks like its going back because I can't get it to work with my new Onkyo 705 HDMI switching Receiver. It will display video over my HDMI-DVI cable as long as I go directly to my Mits 55813 but when I try to use my receiver to do the switching it gives nothing but a blue screen. I do get audio thru the cable though. Any ideas?

Yes I do get audio to the Onyko but video is just a blue screen.

Yes I do get audio to the Onyko but video is just a blue screen.

Do you get both AC-3 and PCM?

If you can connect both Component (YPbPr) and the Onyko at the same time, I'd like for you to go into the HDMI diagnostics page and report everything you see (you will need to scroll down to get all values).

To get to the HDMI page, choose interface status, then HDMI.

In particular, I want to know about HDCP supported and Repeater and audio capable fields.

I seemed to get both audio tracks, as I was flipping between HD and SD channels. I would hook it up if I could but my GF is taking it back to SECTV to get a new Moto 6412 box today. My original issue was that the HDMI port seemed to become loose on my 1st 6412 in the last few days (I tested the same cable with both my Directv box and HD-A2 so the cable is fine) and I could only get video by pushing on the connector awkwardly. I picked up the Pace box yesterday and figured I'd give it a shot, but after it didn't work and goofing with my system over the last few days, I just want the situation fixed. I need to get back to building my deck before it gets cold! :)

In all honesty, I was decently happy with the Moto. As long as a DVR has 2 tuners and records the program when its suppose to, I'm happy. I know the 6412 isn't perfect, but it doesn't seem like the Pace box is either. But it is nice that users have you participating in the thread, trying to help. But since I'm sure the Moto box works the way I need it to, I think I'll just stick with it rather than have to fight with my Cable Co. to upgrade firmware and such:( They like many others cable co. leave alot to be desired in Customer Service.
Its a shame they have such a monopoly throughout the US. If it wasn't for my cable modem and not being able to watch the Flyers I would have been gone a long time ago!:( Its ashame too, because they actually have a pretty decent HD line-up. Alot more than DTV and most other cable co's right now.

Thanks Northcountry - I'll try a little gentle prodding with Delta Cable and see if the new firmware is on it's way.

Bry

Good News for Delta Cable users:

I just received a message from them today saying that they are implementing an upgrade to version 9.39 from 9.29. They said that they should be good to go by Thursday.

Hopefully my digital audio drops will be cured. :)

I got my replacement Moto box today, a 6416. I hooked it up to my Onkyo and Walla! It works! I'm a very happy camper now. So I won't make the bold statement that Pace boxes don't like HDMI switches, but I will say the 775 I had didn not work with my Onkyo 705. I would assume this could be fixed with an upgrade in firmware, I apologize for not being able to tell you what version I had in mine.

Good News for Delta Cable users:

I just received a message from them today saying that they are implementing an upgrade to version 9.39 from 9.29. They said that they should be good to go by Thursday.

Hopefully my digital audio drops will be cured. :)

Sadly, with 9.39, switching between analog channels causes the digital audio to lose synch. Maybe worse than before. FF on digital channel recording seemed fine.

switching between analog channels causes the digital audio to lose synch.Uh, how are you getting digital audio out of analog? Or am I missing something here? Are you talking about losing the digital audio sync like with Dolby on digital channels? Or the audio from an analog channel that is output via the optical digital out of the Pace?

Uh, how are you getting digital audio out of analog? Or am I missing something here? Are you talking about losing the digital audio sync like with Dolby on digital channels? Or the audio from an analog channel that is output via the optical digital out of the Pace?

I have both analog and optical audio outs connected to my Rotel RSP976 Processor from the Pace. The Rotel should switch automatically from Analog to Digital when the formats change. At least it used to with my old Motorola Digital Cable box.

If I check the A/V Status Menu on an analog channel, it says (from memory):

ADS(?) Lock: No
SPDI/F output: 1+1

Checking the status menu of my Rotel, it will show that I have a digital audio connection to the Pace.

On a Digital Channel, those two values show "Yes" and "2" I believe.

I have searched for a way of setting Audio on analog channels to "analog" or "auto" or something that does not output cause my Rotel fits when I change channels in the analog band.

Well so far I've had no luck getting my external drive added to the Pace. The pace is running firmware 9.39 and the external drive is a Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 gb drive. The Pace never gives me the option to format the drive. I've tried to manually format the drive but the Pace only shows drive 1/1. I plugged the drive into my pc through the USB connection and it worked just fine. It came with Seagate's backup software loaded on it so I formatted the drive. Does anyone have any suggestions on getting the Pace to recognize my external drive? Any help would be appreciated.

Well so far I've had no luck getting my external drive added to the Pace. The pace is running firmware 9.39 and the external drive is a Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 gb drive.

I assume this is one the FreeAgent drives with both USB and eSATA connectors? I have verified that the 500GB drive works on Tahoe, but have not tried the 750GB model.

Does your box take an extended period of time to reboot?
You should see a dialog appear on screen asking if you want to format the HDD. Any chance you missed that dialog showing up on screen?

I have both analog and optical audio outs connected to my Rotel RSP976 Processor from the Pace.

Could you explain why you can't use S/PDIF for everything? I too am somewhat confused by your setup.

The analog audio loss issues that were fixed in the firmware dealt with losing audio on a single audio output.

Could you explain why you can't use S/PDIF for everything? I too am somewhat confused by your setup.

The analog audio loss issues that were fixed in the firmware dealt with losing audio on a single audio output.

Old habit I guess. My old cable box would not pass analog audio through S/PDIF. I needed analog RCAs connected to hear audio on the analog channels. On Delta Cable, I think there are about 45-50 analog channels.

I noticed with the Pace that analog audio appears to be passed through the S/PDIF output. I just haven't removed the analog connections. I shouldn't have to IMO if the Pace forces all audio output through S/PDIF.

FWIW, I currently use an optical cable but I had the same problem using a dedicated Coax digital cable too.

I assume this is one the FreeAgent drives with both USB and eSATA connectors? I have verified that the 500GB drive works on Tahoe, but have not tried the 750GB model.

Does your box take an extended period of time to reboot?
You should see a dialog appear on screen asking if you want to format the HDD. Any chance you missed that dialog showing up on screen?



You are correct Lindend, this is a 750 gb FreeAgent drive with both USB and eSATA connections. The box takes about a minute to boot so that doesn't seem bad. I've tried this a number of times and have never got the option to format the drive. I normally have output through HDMI, but I switched over to component to see if that made a difference but still no luck. Are there any other settings that I can look at to see what is causing this problem? Thanks for the help.

Maybe I'm just doing something wrong. Here are the steps I'm currently following to add the external hard drive.

1. Power on the TV.
2. Turn the power off on the Pace DVR.
3. Wait 30 seconds and unplug the power cable from the Pace DVR.
4. Plug the eSATA cable into the Pace and the external drive.
5. Power on the external drive.
6. Plug the power cable back into the Pace DVR.
7. Once it has booted I power on the Pace DVR.

If anyone has any suggestions on what I should do differently, please let me know. Thanks.

Seems like I have a similar problem as JAHENDRIX. I bought a FreeAgent Pro 500 gig drive and tried hooking it up to the Pace box and nothing really seems to happen. I takes a while for the Pace to boot gives -- then ---- and then blank for a while the standby mode with clock displaying. Check the Diags and it only lists one drive being connected. Checked SATA the state (this takes 4-5 min) is Enabled, but also says Internal Valid External Unknown. I checked 3 different cables to the Pace box same result checked those esata cables to a computer no problem finding the drive, formatting the drive, and writing to the drive. So I believe the FreeAgent and the cables are good. The firmware on the Pace is 9.36. Also I am with Service Electric. I have followed the procedure for hooking up the external drive, but still nothing happenes. If anyone has anthing else they know of the information would be appreciated.
Andy

After much playing around I gave up and took the box to SECTV and exchanged it the new one works fine and the format question came up and I see both HD's the only thing is SECTV gave me a TDC779X instead I think the only difference is how the cable card is installed.

The TDC779X manual has the instructions on how to add the ESATA device same process. Odd that this one works.

Andy

The TDC779X manual has the instructions on how to add the ESATA device same process. Odd that this one works.


There are some eSATA compatibility changes in the 778 and 779 firmware that are not yet in the Tahoe firmware. Its possible that these changes fixed your issue.

I have just got this receiver and cant get it to work with my MCE2005 pc I have Bresnan digital cable with HD DVR and yea I don't know how to get it to play a different show in my bedroom than whats playing in my living room... I have a VERY small apartment and I have an IR transmitter running into my bedroom and the IR receiver transmitter thing hooked up to my MCE pc... I can watch the same thing thats playing in the living room, but cant get the remote in my bedroom to change the channel. It's dual tuner so shouldnt it be able to do this? And also why doesnt it even change the channel in the living room?

Thanks for any help.

Yes it's dual tuner but only to the internal hard drive. It still only outputs one channel at a time. For example you can record 2 different shows to the hard drive and then be watching another program that is already stored on the hard drive, on your TV.

Yes it's dual tuner but only to the internal hard drive. It still only outputs one channel at a time. For example you can record 2 different shows to the hard drive and then be watching another program that is already stored on the hard drive, on your TV.

Ok so I guess there is no way to really bypass this setup... so i can watch something different in my bedroom?

Well I have two of the Pace DVR's and still no luck adding my external drive to either of them. Is there a list of supported drives? I would hate to go out and buy another dive and it still not work.

Is there a list of supported drives? I would hate to go out and buy another dive and it still not work.

To this point, we have not published a list of supported drives as the list would be instantaneously outdated the moment it was published.

We have tested with a variety of Seagate, Maxtor, and Western Digital eSATA drives.

I've seen a 500GB combo Freeagent drive working with a Tahoe but I've never personally tried the 750GB model.

There is no reason why the 750GB version wouldn't work other than the bug(s) I referenced above.

Back to my poor digital audio link on Analog Channels, is there no way for me to force Analog Audio on the Analog Channels?

I was recording a program on the fly last night and, as soon as the recording ended, my processor lost the digital link to my Tahoe and I had the loud hiss coming from my system.

Is signal strength a factor in maintaining this digital link? Is my hardware faulty?

I'm happy that I can fast forward through commercials on recorded digital channels but I'd be very happy if I could do the same with analog channels.

Back to my poor digital audio link on Analog Channels, is there no way for me to force Analog Audio on the Analog Channels?

I was recording a program on the fly last night and, as soon as the recording ended, my processor lost the digital link to my Tahoe and I had the loud hiss coming from my system.

Is signal strength a factor in maintaining this digital link? Is my hardware faulty?

I'm happy that I can fast forward through commercials on recorded digital channels but I'd be very happy if I could do the same with analog channels.

What firmware are you running? I have this problem occasionally, a quick pause-play fixes it. (9.39)

I also believe that this is supposed to be fixed with a firmware update that is already out.

linden,

I searched and re-read some of the threads, but I couldn't find this problem listed.

I do not have this issue, but some of the other Buckeye subscribers (all with 9.39 firmware) are having crashes during the hours of 8 and 9 (am or pm). Where the box reboots itself. Sometimes even while they are watching TV.

Do you have any info on this? I know they are getting ready to roll out 9.51, and are curious to see if that will fix this issue.

Thanks again!

-Chris

What firmware are you running? I have this problem occasionally, a quick pause-play fixes it. (9.39)

I also believe that this is supposed to be fixed with a firmware update that is already out.

I'm running 9.39 as well. I haven't tried the pause-play workaround. I usually am scrambling to find the remote and end up powering off the unit then restarting it. It's very annoying (and loud!) regardless.

Hi Linden, et al.

I just wanted to give an update on my experiences with 9.39 (Bresnan). It's very positive, as all of the big issues have been resolved, or so it seems. Losing recordings, VOD hdcp issues, hiccups, tearing, all have been non existent. The one-time endless recording syndrome hasn't recurred, either.

The one little annoyance on my radar right now is more a request. On the 30-second skip, if you have less than 30 seconds left in the buffer (on a time shifted program), hitting the skip button won't advance the program to the end of the buffer. You either have to hit the FF, or the live button. It makes more sense to just have the skip run out to the end of the buffer. Really minor, I know. But hey--down to some feather dusting here.

And one last annoyance is the inability for a series recording to remember that you have recorded a first-run show, watched, and then deleted it. It always wants to re-record it (this affects networks that re-run a series several times a week--like Californication;) ). So I spend a bit of time continually deleting re-recorded first-runs. And going into the future recordings list, and telling it to not re-record a series never seems to work reliably. Maybe this is more of a TVGuide issue, and if it is (is this an area where TVGuide and Tahoe software intersect?), could you file an annoyed user report with them? :D

-j

I currently have a Motorolla 6400 Series HD-DVR box with Armstrong Cable in PA. I was wondering if you guys that have used both think this Pace box is better/worse/same-as the Moto box?

Thanks for your input.

I currently have a Motorolla 6400 Series HD-DVR box with Armstrong Cable in PA. I was wondering if you guys that have used both think this Pace box is better/worse/same-as the Moto box?

Thanks for your input.The Tahoe blew my moto 6412pIII out of the water. I hated the moto box. Made me want to throw my remote through the screen. Not to say the Pace box hasn't had its growing pains. But at least we get some great responsive support here, and our issues get addressed in future software/firmware updates. Motorola just ignored its customers with issues to the 64xx line of dvrs.

I currently have a Motorolla 6400 Series HD-DVR box with Armstrong Cable in PA. I was wondering if you guys that have used both think this Pace box is better/worse/same-as the Moto box?

Thanks for your input.

Check out the earlier areas of this thread - I'm on Armstrong too and the Pace box is much better PQ-wise than the Motos. I just upgraded from my Pace 775 to the new 778 and like it a LOT. Even better than the 775.

I do not have this issue, but some of the other Buckeye subscribers (all with 9.39 firmware) are having crashes during the hours of 8 and 9 (am or pm). Where the box reboots itself.....Do you have any info on this?


Sorry, I don't have any info on what's causing this. If I find out something, I'll let you know.

Trabbic, I too have Buckeye, but I am still on 9.31 as of today. When did they roll out 9.39?

Lindend,

I also am suffering with this dead box issue twice daily. It always seems to happen around 9 am. The second one is not consistent enough to tie down to a time. Picture and sound is lost even if you are watching and/or recording. The blue light is still on but the screen on the box just has lines across instead of the time or channel. The box is unresponsive for ~5 minutes. When it comes back to life, it usually goes to a different channel than what was on before the crash and the program guide has to be announced for everything. This is extremely annoying especially since the afternoon occurrence happens as I am trying to watch/record a football game.

Trabbic, I too have Buckeye, but I am still on 9.31 as of today. When did they roll out 9.39?

I am a beta tester for them, so they must have rolled it out to me to test it out...

I will check with my contact at Buckeye to make sure that this is the case, and let her know. Also they will be testing 9.51 any day now with me, but obviously we won't know if that fixes your problem.

I got a Pace TDC770D series DVR this summer, and I have read the posts on how to record to a pc, but I still don't get it. How do you hook a pc up to the firewire port? I’ve read several posts on doing this, and I downloaded and istalled firestb-vistarc1.msi for my Vista pc, which has a built in firewire port. I get prompted to install the new hardware for my Pace DVR, but it can’t find any drivers. Where do you get the drivers for the Pace DVR?

Have you read the sticky post at the top: "How to record via IEEE 1394 (Firewire) to Windows XP"? The drivers for the Moto box will work with the Pace box. I haven't looked at the sticky in some time so I don't know if people have gotten things to work with Vista. I did get things to work with XP and the Pace box using the information in the sticky post. Good luck!

Yes, I did read the sticky post. I downloaded the files from the location listed, just used the Vista version. As instructed, I let it seach for the drivers automatically, and it doesn't find them. Not sure what I'm doing wrong yet.

Is the eSATA connection on the back of the Tahoe a type "I" or "L" connection? I assume it's type "I".

Is the eSATA connection on the back of the Tahoe a type "I" or "L" connection? I assume it's type "I".

It is eSATA standard, therefore it is type "I".

Type "L" connectors are no longer used, and are not approved for the eSATA standard.

I'm hoping someone has some suggestions on this as it's driving me crazy. I just upgraded to HD and got a new STB from our cable company (Pace TDC775D). It's connected to a Mitsubishi LT-14446 1080p LCD via HDMI. The problem is that changing channels when going from one resolution to another (480i to 1080i for example) is excruciatingly slow. It's taking 5-6 seconds from when you hit OK, or key in the last digit of the channel number, to when the new channel displays. Of course the cable company insists this is normal. Please tell me this isn't so. If not normal, what's the problem?

thanks,
Mike

I have also noticed this whenever switching from an SD cannel to HD and back. I guess it's normal, but it's only 3 or 4 seconds on my set. I only have 720p, not sure if that would make any difference.

It's taking 5-6 seconds from when you hit OK, or key in the last digit of the channel number, to when the new channel displays. Of course the cable company insists this is normal. Please tell me this isn't so. If not normal, what's the problem?

Mike,

Its normal if you have pass through resolutions enabled (i.e. your TV is doing the scaling to the current video resolution). If you prefer, you can force all output to be 1080i. In which case, the 775 will do all the scaling (and the 775 scaler may not be as good as your TVs--its an individual preference type of thing).

To change the supported resolutions, go to the Pace Configuration menu by hitting the Power button and then, within two second, press the select button on the front panel (or remote). From there you can choose the resolutions you want enabled. When done, press the power button again.

Another thing I've noticed with my Pace DVR, if I am watching a program, and another one is being recorded, if I try to turn of the box, I get a warning that turning off will cancel my recording. The box will record if it is turned off to begin with, but how do you turn it off while a recording is in progress? Or do I just leave it on all night and try to remember to turn it off in the morning?

Most people just recommend leaving them turned on. When you hit the power button you're really not turning much off...basically you're just switching the display off. The Pace will spin down the hard drive after awhile if there are no recordings happening.

Mike,

Its normal if you have pass through resolutions enabled (i.e. your TV is doing the scaling to the current video resolution). If you prefer, you can force all output to be 1080i. In which case, the 775 will do all the scaling (and the 775 scaler may not be as good as your TVs--its an individual preference type of thing).

To change the supported resolutions, go to the Pace Configuration menu by hitting the Power button and then, within two second, press the select button on the front panel (or remote). From there you can choose the resolutions you want enabled. When done, press the power button again.

Thanks for the reply. Let me make sure I understand how this works. In the 775 set up there's a menu called TV Display Capability. What you're saying is only have "Yes" selected for 1080i for faster channel switching, with "No" selected for 720p, 480p and 480i. The cable box will then do all the scaling. If I want the TV to do all the scaling "Yes" should be selected for all of these. Is that correct? Does it make any difference that the TV is 1080p not 1080i?

Mike

What you're saying is only have "Yes" selected for 1080i for faster channel switching, with "No" selected for 720p, 480p and 480i. The cable box will then do all the scaling.

Correct.

If I want the TV to do all the scaling "Yes" should be selected for all of these.

yes.

Does it make any difference that the TV is 1080p not 1080i?

No. Many TV's have an internal resolution that typically isn't a normal ATSC resolution so they will scale whatever the incoming resolution is the native resolution(s).

I was spoiled with Dishnet and their DVR's but now I'm on cable using this Pace box. Have read a lot of the psots and have experienced many of the same problems: recordings being unplayable, severe pixelation of recordings as well as loss of sound. Sometimes loss of sound just watching live.

Unfortunately, my cable provider either doesn't know about these things or more likely doesn't want to acknowledge them to me, when I call.

Now for my question: I purchased a WD WinBook 500G eSata drive to connect. I finally found how to connect it in the 779 manual on line. The sequence worked and I get the question: Format hard drive? Yes No

Unfortunately, it's hard to tell which response is selected.

Once I have answered Yes (I think), what should I see? Any indication of progress? How long might it take to do the format?

I have firmware version 9.35.

Thanks in advance for any help.

-Lon in KCK

I have two supposedly identical Tahoe 775 DVR's. I record a lot of 1 hour HD shows on them. One of them shows 99% full with 13 hours of recordings. The other shows about 50% full with the same 13 hours of recordings on it. Thanks to this forum I discovered the diagnostics area and see that they are both 160 G hard drives. Both are set for 1080i output.

Any ideas? Maybe the one is just bad?

Thanks again,

Lon on KCK SunflowerBroadband Cable

recordings being unplayable, severe pixelation of recordings as well as loss of sound. Sometimes loss of sound just watching live.

Are you experiencing these issues with the 779 or the 775?

If this 779, please repost your question on the Pace HD CableCARD settop boxes (757, 778, 779 etc.) thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=903826).

Unfortunately, my cable provider either doesn't know about these things or more likely doesn't want to acknowledge them to me, when I call.

If you're seeing this on a 779, they aren't playing coy. We haven't had a report of any of these issues on a 779.



Once I have answered Yes (I think), what should I see? Any indication of progress? How long might it take to do the format?

There is no progress indication. The format operation only takes a few seconds and the box will reboot. The only way to confirm is to go into diags and verify that two HDDs are recognized (i.e. it will say 1/2 if things are right).

Lon,

I have two supposedly identical Tahoe 775 DVR's. I record a lot of 1 hour HD shows on them. One of them shows 99% full with 13 hours of recordings. The other shows about 50% full with the same 13 hours of recordings on it.

Are your disk full percentages coming from diagnostics or the MyDVR listing in TV Guide? Diagnostics is always going to give the accurate percentage of actual disk space usage.

You can also go into the content listing (page 24) in diagnostics and add up the space consumed by each recording and see if they are the same/similar.

I'm still trying to figure out how to copy off the DVR. I think my cable company (Service Electric) has the 5C encryption enabled, but I still should be able to record the over the air channels, right? I have a digital camcorder with a firewire in/out connection. If I hook it up to the firewire port on the Pace box, nothing, even on the analog broadcast channels. I even tried using the video out and secondary audio out connections. I get what appears to be a scrambled image for a few seconds until the blue screen comes up on the camcorder display. I'm just trying to make a copy of a broadcast show, is it possible with this box? I gave up on the computer connection, I never could get that to work. Any tips would be appreciated.

I ran into the same problem certain local stations. It appears that at least one of the local stations has their digital signal 5c copy protection set to never. I don't know if it is on purpose or if they don't know any better. I was trying to copy a news item that my son was in, and could never get that to record even though I could get other things to record. Good luck.

I got my external HD up and working with my 775. Lots of space now.

New question: What causes recorded programs to suddenly become unplayable? I select Play and get the Delete or not option. Sometimes on recordings we have watched a number of times and others that we have never watched yet.

Basically, it's OK one day and then it's unplayable the next.

Also, is there a way to do a 30-second skip with the 775?


Thanks all:confused:

I got it to work! I found this link in this thread.

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR/Programming_the_Remote#Add_30-Second_Skip


Thanks, Linden:)

New question: What causes recorded programs to suddenly become unplayable? I select Play and get the Delete or not option. Sometimes on recordings we have watched a number of times and others that we have never watched yet.

A couple of questions:

1. What type of recordings are these (HD, SD or analog)?
2. Have you tried the play from start button with these recordings?
3. When the delete/don't delete dialog pops up, can you rewind the movie?

Also, have you had an opportunity to go into diagnostics and compare the recording usage space on the two boxes yet?

I wanted to throw my 2 cents in here and say I really don't like these boxes. the features are cool but I've had nothing but trouble with the boxes. lindend
it's cool you post here and stuff and it shows PACE is atleast trying to fix the problems which is always cool and shows that they want the best product out there. Anyway I just wanted to post my problems and see if there was a way to fix them. I'm on my 3rd or 4th box. I have a Pace TDC-775D HDDVR. I got my first one about a year ago probably from GCI which is the cable company in Alaska. but here are the problems I've had

1. About three days ago I recorded arrested developement I had I think 10 episodes as it was a marathon thing on G4 anyway about halfway through I kept getting a error saying cannot delete recording while playing. I didn't hit any button and that came up about 5 times on 3 different episodes they would still play but if you tried to hit ok/select or exit it would freeze for a few minutes.

2. I was recording two programs at the same time they were both in SD and was showing the red lights saying it was being recorded. I checked my dvr to start one of the programs from the beginning and it wasn't there at all and even now I can see it listed under the diagnostics menu but doesn't show up in the DVR. I reset my box because sometimes when I record something it doesn't show up in the dvr list. And if I unplug the dvr and then plug it back in it usually shows up except this time.

3. I actually think this is the time when it updates but usually early in the morning the box will lag really bad if I'm trying to change a channel everything will freeze for up to 2 minutes and then when it does finally change channels it will start again when I try and change channels. That usually lasts for about 3-5 minutes.

4. Randomnly that (post 3) happens any other time of the day and it's really annoying.

5. when fast forwarding or rewinding it will skip really bad either way like if I fast forward through commercials sometimes when I hit play to get back to the show it will start playing where I wanted to skip.


6. I noticed every once in awhile that on the DVR list thing that the percentage isn't right. Right now it's saying 5% full and there's nothing on there except that one show I can't delete.


I have I think version 9.31 of the software and I have been reading the forum a bit but that was awhile ago so I might have missed some of the fixes. But I do like the features of the box but I would have to say with the problems I've had it's not worth it. My brother has the same box as I do and he's had to replace it once but he doesn't really use it as much as I do and he doesn't record anything on it. I know that some times you just get a bad run with a product that happens with everything but after having to exchange it 3 or 4 times that's maybe a little too much.

Sandman,

I experience the same problems. I'm in Anchorage with GCI as the only cable company. I believe these problems are fixed in later revs of the firmware. But getting GCI to recongnize this is a bigger problem. When I call them, they want to roll a truck to check my signal or just swap out the box. I'm on my second box now and still the same problems. If only we could get GCI to roll out a newer firmware... :mad:

Cheers

I wanted to throw my 2 cents in here and say I really don't like these boxes. the features are cool but I've had nothing but trouble with the boxes. lindend
it's cool you post here and stuff and it shows PACE is atleast trying to fix the problems which is always cool and shows that they want the best product out there. Anyway I just wanted to post my problems and see if there was a way to fix them. I'm on my 3rd or 4th box. I have a Pace TDC-775D HDDVR. I got my first one about a year ago probably from GCI which is the cable company in Alaska. but here are the problems I've had

1. About three days ago I recorded arrested developement I had I think 10 episodes as it was a marathon thing on G4 anyway about halfway through I kept getting a error saying cannot delete recording while playing. I didn't hit any button and that came up about 5 times on 3 different episodes they would still play but if you tried to hit ok/select or exit it would freeze for a few minutes.

2. I was recording two programs at the same time they were both in SD and was showing the red lights saying it was being recorded. I checked my dvr to start one of the programs from the beginning and it wasn't there at all and even now I can see it listed under the diagnostics menu but doesn't show up in the DVR. I reset my box because sometimes when I record something it doesn't show up in the dvr list. And if I unplug the dvr and then plug it back in it usually shows up except this time.

3. I actually think this is the time when it updates but usually early in the morning the box will lag really bad if I'm trying to change a channel everything will freeze for up to 2 minutes and then when it does finally change channels it will start again when I try and change channels. That usually lasts for about 3-5 minutes.

4. Randomnly that (post 3) happens any other time of the day and it's really annoying.

5. when fast forwarding or rewinding it will skip really bad either way like if I fast forward through commercials sometimes when I hit play to get back to the show it will start playing where I wanted to skip.


6. I noticed every once in awhile that on the DVR list thing that the percentage isn't right. Right now it's saying 5% full and there's nothing on there except that one show I can't delete.


I have I think version 9.31 of the software and I have been reading the forum a bit but that was awhile ago so I might have missed some of the fixes. But I do like the features of the box but I would have to say with the problems I've had it's not worth it. My brother has the same box as I do and he's had to replace it once but he doesn't really use it as much as I do and he doesn't record anything on it. I know that some times you just get a bad run with a product that happens with everything but after having to exchange it 3 or 4 times that's maybe a little too much.

Sandman,

I experience the same problems. I'm in Anchorage with GCI as the only cable company. I believe these problems are fixed in later revs of the firmware. But getting GCI to recongnize this is a bigger problem. When I call them, they want to roll a truck to check my signal or just swap out the box. I'm on my second box now and still the same problems. If only we could get GCI to roll out a newer firmware... :mad:

Cheers



Atleast I'm not the only one so that's good in a way. I like GCI and all but I am getting of tired of them not adding Center Ice and they need more HD channels.

I too am in Anchorage with GCI and a TDC775D box. I am trying to install it in my home theater and wanted to use the IR blaster ports instead of a blinker. I found they were not enabled. (via setup menu) So, I emailed tech support to see if this could be set up.

Here is the reply:

"Most cable boxes have multiple features on them, but not all of them are for use in the US. So any disabled feature is disabled because it has to be."

I have sent a somewhat direct reply asking for this to be elevated. My question to you kind folks in other markets is: Are your IR blaster ports enabled?

thanks in advance.

Kevin

"Most cable boxes have multiple features on them, but not all of them are for use in the US. So any disabled feature is disabled because it has to be."




This is starting to really suck. I know the modem isn't enabled either which I don't understand why.

Here is their latest response.

Accusing the customer equals above and beyond bad technical support.

"set top box, we dont approve of tampering with boxes, easier to use a cable card and set top box"

"We do not provide or support IR blasters. You may for yourself look up information on how to apply an IR blaster to your box but be aware that you will be responsible for any damages to the cable box. A viable option that you could try by usiong a set top box and a cable card. If this does not seem to answer your questions please email us back and let us know exactly what you want to do with your IR blaster."

They do not seem to know what an IR Blaster is much less how it works. Also, someone fill me in on why a cable card and a set top box?

If only I could get one of those AV experts that they advertise on TV. Maybe it is only that one guy and he is over worked. :)

Maybe Linden will chime in with some insight.

One can only laugh.

Kevin

One can only laugh.



Yeah looks like it.

Also, anyone have problems with the HDMI connnection? I am trying to go from the HDMI to the DVI in on my projection system. I get interference in the picture. Like sparkles with a trail running horizontally. It does appear to have a pattern. No problem with the handshake just the interference.

I would ask GCI but I am not up for the frustration as it works fine with the RGB connection.

Kevin

Also, anyone have problems with the HDMI connnection? I am trying to go from the HDMI to the DVI in on my projection system. I get interference in the picture. Like sparkles with a trail running horizontally.

This sounds like a potential cable and/or DVI connector issue. Have you tried a different cable? How long is the cable? Have you hooked another HDMI and/or DVI device to the project to validate that its DVI input is ok?

As you suspected, there are a number of fixes for issues you reported in releases after 9.31. However, as mentioned earlier, I can't tell you on a public forum (or via PM) when an individual cable company will update its firmware.



1. About three days ago I recorded arrested developement I had I think 10 episodes as it was a marathon thing on G4 anyway about halfway through I kept getting a error saying cannot delete recording while playing. I didn't hit any button and that came up about 5 times on 3 different episodes they would still play but if you tried to hit ok/select or exit it would freeze for a few minutes.

I'm not aware of specific fix for this issue. Do you know the exact error message (there should have been a three digit code with the error and that is critical).

2. I was recording two programs at the same time they were both in SD and was showing the red lights saying it was being recorded. I checked my dvr to start one of the programs from the beginning and it wasn't there at all and even now I can see it listed under the diagnostics menu but doesn't show up in the DVR. I reset my box because sometimes when I record something it doesn't show up in the dvr list. And if I unplug the dvr and then plug it back in it usually shows up except this time.

The listing being in diagnostics and not TV Guide still exists in the current version of TV Guide. Sorry, not much I can do about this one.


3. I actually think this is the time when it updates but usually early in the morning the box will lag really bad if I'm trying to change a channel everything will freeze for up to 2 minutes and then when it does finally change channels it will start again when I try and change channels. That usually lasts for about 3-5 minutes.

4. Randomnly that (post 3) happens any other time of the day and it's really annoying.

The guide can get sluggish during updates. If this is in fact what you're running into, I'm afraid we can't do much about this either.
Enhancement requests for TV Guide functionality will have to flow through your cable company (please don't shoot the messenger).


5. when fast forwarding or rewinding it will skip really bad either way like if I fast forward through commercials sometimes when I hit play to get back to the show it will start playing where I wanted to skip.

We're looking into this. Could you tell me what channels exhibit this behavior?


6. I noticed every once in awhile that on the DVR list thing that the percentage isn't right. Right now it's saying 5% full and there's nothing on there except that one show I can't delete.

Even when you aren't doing anything, TV Guide has two temporary time shift recordings active so that you can pause live TV. These are roughly 5% of disk capacity. I believe we had a discussion about this earlier in the thread.

Kevin,


"Most cable boxes have multiple features on them, but not all of them are for use in the US. So any disabled feature is disabled because it has to be."

I have sent a somewhat direct reply asking for this to be elevated. My question to you kind folks in other markets is: Are your IR blaster ports enabled?

Kevin

Just wanted to clarify a few things. Each cable company (MSO) has the option to enable/disable certain features such as:

1. CableModem
2. eSATA port
3. HD ports
4. 1394 Ports
5. DVR

There are a variety of legitimate reasons why a given cable company will enable/disable one or more of these features and I can't speculate on why one of these features is disabled by any cable company.

That being said, the IR Blaster port is not a build feature that can be enabled/disabled. Its always enabled. But there is a caveat, you need to get the correct cables from your cable company and inserting these cables will disable your remote (there was a discussion on this several pages back in the thread). Are you sure you want to do this?

Kevin,

Also, someone fill me in on why a cable card and a set top box?

The Pace cable card boxes are functionally identical to the equivalent set top box without a CableCARD (i.e. the 779 is functionally identical to the 775). Please see the Pace CableCARD HD Boxes (TDC779X, TDC778X and DC757X) (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=903826) thread.

Switching to the 779 (or 778) will not help this particular issue.

Linden thanks for the quick reply. I do have my DVD player hooked up via DVI and all is fine. The cable is relativly short (most likely 6ft) just one of the middle grade off the shelf cables. It is the only one I have and the only HDMI device. I am going to look at it a little more (hopefully later today) and see if any setting s between the PJ and the Box are causing this. The cable is fresh out of the box.

Thanks for the help. You represent your company well. I can't say that for your customer GCI. I hope they understand how your effort helps their business.

Thanks,

Kevin

Linden,

Do you mean that if I insert the connection from the IR receiver it will activate the port. Without anything connected, it shows as disabled in the on screen setup.

As for as disabled remote, do you mean that it will not work at all or just through the remote sensor? In effect, disabling the sensor on the box. Since my box is in the equipment closet, Right now I am using an IR blinker, I would think that the IR would be more reliable with the hard wired sensor.

Thanks again,

Kevin

Added on Edit. I did a search and I think answered most of my question. I was tired and angry at GCI last night with I first posted so did not do a search. I do find it interesting though that the setup screen would change when the connector is plugged in and not show enabled otherwise. It would seem easier and cheaper to just have the software show enabled and elimnate the sensor. The set up screen was the source of my confusion. I do have some experience with IR controls systems. I did multimedia for the military and disigned a few rooms.

As you suspected, there are a number of fixes for issues you reported in releases after 9.31. However, as mentioned earlier, I can't tell you on a public forum (or via PM) when an individual cable company will update its firmware.

Yeah that's fine i'm glad I posted here because I thought I was the only one having problems with the box and then I find out it's the cable company.


I'm not aware of specific fix for this issue. Do you know the exact error message (there should have been a three digit code with the error and that is critical)..

I don't. I just figured it was the box messing up again and I didn't write anything down. If it happens again I'll post it.


The listing being in diagnostics and not TV Guide still exists in the current version of TV Guide. Sorry, not much I can do about this one..

Yeah sounds like a TV Guide problem. Is there a way I can get rid of that rogue recording?.


(please don't shoot the messenger)..

Yeah I've learned that lesson the past few days.


We're looking into this. Could you tell me what channels exhibit this behavior? .

They all do it but the one that I find is the worst one is TVLand which is channel 45 in Anchorage, Alaska


Even when you aren't doing anything, TV Guide has two temporary time shift recordings active so that you can pause live TV. These are roughly 5% of disk capacity. I believe we had a discussion about this earlier in the thread.


Oh ok that's good to know. I read some of the thread and haven't gone back to read the rest.

Linden,

I tried the remote IR set up. The IR receiver on the front deactivated but I could get no response from the remote. The remote does work with a blinker.

If you have any ideas let me know. I will post if I have further info. It is working via the blinker but I would still like to plug it in.

It appear that the problem with the HDMI connnection to my PJ is a handshake issue after all. If I cycle the power it will sync elimnating the interference. I do still have problems though shifting from HD to SD and back. I have to resync each time. I will let you know if I find out more.

Thanks for all the help.

BTW were you formerly with ReplayTV?

Kevin

I exchanged one of my 6412's this weekend for the Pace Tahoe. Hooked it up with the Seagate FreeAgent 500GB. Hooked the two together and powered up the external drive first and then the STB. After about a minute it asked me if I wanted to format the attached external drive. I select yes and 3-4 minutes it rebooted and I now have about 650 GB of storage. Another observation. I love the diagnostics set of screens which include status of internal and external hard drives. Nice to know how things are running in the background but I'd say I'm not your average user.
It took an overnight download to full update the calendar. On thw initial download it only downloaded about 5 hours of schedule. That made me nervous at first as I had heard that my provider, Buckeye Cablesystem, had shortened the downloaded schedule as a work around to minimize the spontaneous reboot issue. Once updated the schedule has about 6 days of forward schedule. That's less than the 6412 but acceptable for me. I recorded a bunch of shows this weekend to test it out. About 10 standard def. stuff and a few hours of high definition. So far it's at max only reported 3% hard disk usage in the DVR settings. I love the extra space with the use of the eSATA port.
The iGuide is identical to the 6412 that Biuckeye offers and it uses the same remote that the 6412 uses which for me includes the 30 second skip. Don't know what I'd do without that.
So far, I'm a happy camper. :)
FW2

It appear that the problem with the HDMI connnection to my PJ is a handshake issue after all.

You're using an HDMI to DVI cable correct? Is your DVD player DVI or HDMI?

Are you trying to output 480i? Most DVI displays can't handle a 480i signal and this might explain your SD issues.


Thanks for all the help.

You're welcome.

BTW were you formerly with ReplayTV?

No.

Thanks for the tip on 480i my SD is great now. I am not sure if this is the PJ or the Box (or the combination and maybe my cable provider) but the picture on some of the HD channels shifts horizontally. My hunch is that this is a PJ problem and I have posted in the thread for it. I can bring it in with the PJ controls but it is a pain.

The Reply question:
There used to be a guy, that frequented this board, with Replay named Linden. He too was very helpful. Are all those named Linden very helpful? :)

Tell your boss you deserve a raise.

Thanks,

Kevin