Tell your boss you deserve a raise.



+1

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

I am glad you like it so far. I too feel that any "issues" are worth the extra space made possible and the "zoom" feature to get rid of window boxing...

Is your box rebooting? A quick way to check is to go into the menu... Setup... Cable Box Setup... Select to Display... Then press Fav on the remote, you will get a run time.

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.



I can't remember which box it was (motorola or pace) but I know one of them used to do that sometimes. It hasn't happened in awhile though.

Linden, I just got ten minutes to check the discrete power codes from a was back and they work perfectly! Thank you very much for making this happen. This will save us quite a few 'blue-screen' service calls.

Jason

For those with learning remotes:

Device Code: 0 Function: 74 Power On
0000 006B 0012 0002 0156 00AB 0013 0055 0013 00AB 0013 0055 0013 00AB 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 00AB 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 00AB 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 063B 0156 0055 0013 0D33
Device Code: 0 Function: 75 Power Off
0000 006B 0012 0002 0156 00AB 0013 00AB 0013 00AB 0013 0055 0013 00AB 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 00AB 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 00AB 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 0055 0013 063B 0156 0055 0013 0D33

Thank you again Linden for making this happen. This is very helpful.
Jason

Anyone have the learning remote discrete code for a 30 second skip?

Leon

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.

I too have noticed this. It usually happens like this: I hit fast forward, then play, then hit ff again because I stopped too soon the first time. When I hit play, it goes back to where I started.

My Sony HDTV has only one HDMI input. I want to get a PIONEER upconverting DVD player and it HAS to be connected via HDMI for it to work. I've read all kinds of things regarding HDMI versus component and am confused.

Can I hook the Tahoe up using component outputs and still have a decent HDTV signal?

The HDMI switches I've seen are really expensive. In fact HDMI ingeneral seems to be a real ripoff...

I too have noticed this. It usually happens like this: I hit fast forward, then play, then hit ff again because I stopped too soon the first time. When I hit play, it goes back to where I started.

What type of content do you see this issue and how often does it occur? Is it always back to where you started or is it a random (or semi-random) location?

I too have noticed this. It usually happens like this: I hit fast forward, then play, then hit ff again because I stopped too soon the first time. When I hit play, it goes back to where I started.

Yeah that happens to me too though I don't think it's happened for awhile. Though I get skips through shows like one minute it would be on the 2 minute mark and the next at the 5 minute mark and then it would go to the 2 minute mark again.

Yeah that happens to me too though I don't think it's happened for awhile. Though I get skips through shows like one minute it would be on the 2 minute mark and the next at the 5 minute mark and then it would go to the 2 minute mark again.

The skips/jumps in the transport bar while you are fast forwarding are a separate issue.

The skips/jumps in the transport bar while you are fast forwarding is a separate issue.


I'm just saying I get the same thing the other guy does. It just hasn't happened to me in awhile. It might be he doesn't have a updated release or something.

My Sony HDTV has only one HDMI input. I want to get a PIONEER upconverting DVD player and it HAS to be connected via HDMI for it to work. I've read all kinds of things regarding HDMI versus component and am confused.

Can I hook the Tahoe up using component outputs and still have a decent HDTV signal?

The HDMI switches I've seen are really expensive. In fact HDMI ingeneral seems to be a real ripoff...

I also have my upconverting DVD player hooked up to my one HDMI connection on my Samsung, so I am using the component video hookup for the DVR. To me, it looks great. Supposedly either of these two hookups will give you HD.

For reasonably priced HDMI cables, check out http://www.ehdmi.com/

What type of content do you see this issue and how often does it occur? Is it always back to where you started or is it a random (or semi-random) location?

I haven't really noticed if it is any specific content that I have recorded where this happens, and it does not always happen. It does seem to be on the second hit of the fast forward button, it will return right back to where I started.

I'm having difficulties programing the remote that came with my Yamaha RX-V661 A/V receiver to work with my 775. Has anyone programed the Yamaha remote to work with a Pace box? If so, please let me know what the code number is.

Thank you

The skips/jumps in the transport bar while you are fast forwarding are a separate issue.

FYI...I just updated the 779 Release Note thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12046204#post12046204).

This release contains a fix for the transport bar jumping around in some content (we're still looking into the ending up where you stated bug under certain circumstances). These fixes will incorporated into a future Tahoe firmware release and I'll update the release notes thread as usual.

I'm having difficulties programing the remote that came with my Yamaha RX-V661 A/V receiver to work with my 775. Has anyone programed the Yamaha remote to work with a Pace box? If so, please let me know what the code number is.

Thank you

Anyone?

I've had the Pace Tahoe (775) for about 2 1/2 weeks now and have to say that overall I am satisfied. Particularly in that I've been able to add the additional 500 GB drive to gain the much needed added space.
At this point only one complaint and it's concerning the 30 second skip. With the Moto DVRs I used I could hit the button I assigned the 30 second skip 6 or so times in rapid succession and the box would keep up with the button pushes. Not so with the Pace box. At least with my Pace box. If I hit the button several times to skip, say 3 minutes, it'll catch maybe the first or second push of the button but not the remaining. I find that I have to push, wait, push wait, push wait each time to insure that the box is keeping up with my instructions. If I don't, after pushing 6 times it will maybe only catch maybe 2 of my pushes.
Hopefully that made sense. If others are not having this issue with the 775, I'd like to know about it. Thanks.
FW2

Trabbic - No. I haven't had any issues with rebooting.
You mention the Zoom feature. The remote I'm using with the 775 is the Buckeye remote that I was using with the 6412 Moto and there is no pre-programmed button for the zoom feature. Did you have to program a button for this? If so, what's the codes?
Thanks.
FW2

Toshiba 32" regza LCD
Pace tdc-775D

Went into configuration and set aspect to 16:9. Went into diagnostic HDMI and aspect was "unknown". Settings on tv say 4:3 not 16:9. Just cant get the box to 16:9. Any suggestions? (picture looks like it is in 16:9)

mousitch,

Toshiba 32" regza LCD
Pace tdc-775D

Went into configuration and set aspect to 16:9. Went into diagnostic HDMI and aspect was "unknown". Settings on tv say 4:3 not 16:9. Just cant get the box to 16:9. Any suggestions? (picture looks like it is in 16:9)

This is a known problem with certain HDMI TVs (its been discussed in earlier in this thread) and has been fixed the latest 779 firmware release. It should be addressed in an upcoming firmware release for the 775. I will post an update to the release note thread when the update is available.

Thank you so much. I love the pace box. You guys rock.

Trabbic - No. I haven't had any issues with rebooting.
You mention the Zoom feature. The remote I'm using with the 775 is the Buckeye remote that I was using with the 6412 Moto and there is no pre-programmed button for the zoom feature. Did you have to program a button for this? If so, what's the codes?
Thanks.
FW2


Sorry, I don't have the code for the zoom. It was in my Harmony remote, and I found it when going through the various commands.

Does anyone know how big of an Esata drive the 775 will support?

I searched around on the thread and cannot find an answer.

I started playing a recording tonight and the box became very slow to respond to input from the Remote. I got in front of the box and it was all but locked up. I had to pull the plug to get it to respond. After I rebooted the system, the recording I was watching would no longer play. It just went to a black screen and then I got the delete requester. When I go into diagnostics, they still show up with a file size listed as 968........ (0) One other recording on the machine played but pixelated and dropped frames (signal I think) and a third acts just like the first.

Any way to recover these recordings?

They are HD on v9.31 on the wonderful GCI cable.

thanks in advance

Kevin

Some questions about signal strength...

What are good numbers for AGC and SNR?

I've been noticing macroblocking in dark backgrounds of HD programming. Just wondering if this is a signal quality issue or simply artifacts of compression.

Also, I have the unplayable recording problem as others have mentioned. I'm on Buckeye Cable running version 9.31.

I replaced my 775 with a 778. So I will see if I have problem with it but am optimistic. I still have the same interference on the HDMI connection so I think we can eliminate the 775 as the cause. Component looks very good.

First recording tonight. Now I am off to the 778 thread.

Kevin

I replaced my 775 with a 779. So I will see if I have problem with it but am optimistic. I still have the same interference on the HDMI connection so I think we can eliminate the 775 as the cause. Component looks very good.

Kevin

What firmware does GCI have in the 779 ?

Sadly, only 9.02. They really don't seem to keep up.

I think that my problems with the 775 would have been cleared up it they had rolled out 9.40. My box had 9.31.

So far so good with the new box. I had problems with the 775 the last couple of weeks watching ER on a slight delay. Last night no dropped frames.

The real test will be Tues where I have had real problems watching NCIS and The Unit on a 30 min delay.

I will post results on the 778 thread and at AnchorageHD.Tv

Kevin

Does anyone know how big of an Esata drive the 775 will support?


I have a 500GB external drive on mine and it works fine. If you look in the systems menu it records the drive sizes fine and shows home much space you have left. I think 0.66 TB of space is enough for right now. ;)

We watched NCIS and the Unit back to back (delayed about 30 min) and everything was perfect on the 778. If GCI would roll out the new software then the 775 might be good as well.

Kevin

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.

FYI, we've replicated this bug where you can only get PCM out of HDMI (it exists on the 775, 778, 789 etc.). I will update the release note thread when a fix is available.

I've got a TDC775 exhibiting a number of problems. First and foremost is that the disk is almost full with only a couple of hours recorded. This has gotten progressively worse over time and powering down overnight as suggested by tech support at Bend Broadband recovered some of it a couple of weeks ago but it has come back. I'm guessing HD sectors have somehow gotten locked out. I haven't been able to find the diagnostics pages described in earlier posts. Is there a trick to accessing them?

The other problem, that may or may not be related, is that at least once a day when trying to fast forward through a recording the box locks up and the screen goes gray. I have to swap tuners and change channels, sometimes multiple times, before video and audio come back.

Any help would be appreciated. Firmware is version 9.39.

I have the pace 775 with a 500GB external drive hooked up. I have a bunch of stuff recorded and the other day I had the box lock up (the first time this has happened). I unplugged and rebooted and now although i can see the same listings of recorded material all the movies are unviewable and the amount of disk space left indicates that there are only the shows recorded which you can all view fine. It looks like only the movie length stuff that isn't viewable. If you look in the settings menu it shows the external hard drive and the space. I have tried rebooting the external disk and the box multiple times and the problem persists. Anyone have a fix for this?

I unplugged and rebooted and now although i can see the same listings of recorded material all the movies are unviewable and the amount of disk space left indicates that there are only the shows recorded which you can all view fine.

Two questions for you:

1. What firmware release are you on?
2. What does diagnostics report on the content listing page (24) for the MPEG file size?

I've got a TDC775 exhibiting a number of problems. First and foremost is that the disk is almost full with only a couple of hours recorded. ....Firmware is version 9.39.

Can you report the details from diagnostics pages:

1. DVR status
2. HDD status
3. Content Listing

In particular, I would like do the disk space available and used reports.

Have you tried formatting the HDD since this all started?

Can you report the details from diagnostics pages:

1. DVR status
2. HDD status
3. Content Listing

In particular, I would like do the disk space available and used reports.

Have you tried formatting the HDD since this all started?I recently had a similar problem, where the disk available (total percent) just didn't seem to add up right. The disk was full, when it should have been only around 60-70% by an off the cuff guess. I started deleting programs, and got down to the last few, and it was still up over 30%. So I deleted all the programs. and it went down to zero. But recording a few programs would push it up over 20% much more rapidly than it should. WHat should have been 6-8% (combo SD and HD, say an hour of HD and 2-3 hours SD), was significantly more. So I reformatted the drive, and the problem went away. Still on 9.40.

Linden,
Everything was running great for about 45 days and then had some macroblocking on a couple of HD channels for a couple of days. So I waited for bed time and rebooted the 775. It took forever to come back to where the red LED was on, so I figured maybe it had to do with the external drive. So I tried again and it still didn't go the Red LED so I left as is and went to bed. The next morning the red LED was on and it all worked great except later I noticed the external hard drive wasn't showing activity. Went into diags and it wasn't there. So I shut both down and waited a minute and then unplugged. I plugged external in first and then 775 and it went thru the normal light patterns but still didn't recognize external. Still running 9.40 .
I have lost the external hard drive recognition before when one of my kids turned it off but I just rebooted 775 and it was all OK. What do you think is happening?
Thanks, Andy

Armstrong Cable just rolled the 9.51 software version for the 775. Is there a release notes topic that covers these updates?

Armstrong Cable just rolled the 9.51 software version for the 775. Is there a release notes topic that covers these updates?

Yes. Please see the TDC775D Release Notes thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=866125&highlight=release+notes).

I plugged external in first and then 775 and it went thru the normal light patterns but still didn't recognize external.

Andy,

Several things to check:

1. Are you sure the drive is ok (i.e. does it work on a PC or another device)?

2. Are you sure the cable is ok (see my recent discussion on the Pace CableCARD thread for a similar eSATA debugging session which is in process).

3. Its possible that somehow the internal eSATA cable has come loose (although I doubt it). You really can't open the box up without voiding the warranty, so you may want to see if another Tahoe will recognize the drive.

Can you report the details from diagnostics pages:

1. DVR status
2. HDD status
3. Content Listing

In particular, I would like do the disk space available and used reports.

Have you tried formatting the HDD since this all started?
Linden,

How do I access the diagnostics pages. I've been through every possible menu available to me and can't find them.

How do I access the diagnostics pages. I've been through every possible menu available to me and can't find them.

Push your DVR power button and then immediately push your enter button.And then to get out just hit power button.

DVR power off / hit the ok/select button.

does anyone know what format the pace dvr hard drive uses?

i know it is a form of linux because i think i can be able to access the recordings on the drive by booting ubuntu on my computer.

seeing that firewire only works for live tv and not recordings i would like to try to access the recordings by slaving the hard drive to the computer.

or does anyone know if the recordings can be downloaded with ethernet and how would i do that.

My box from Armstrong Cable in Western PA shows version 9.02 of the software. Is there any way to force an update to get the latest version?

does anyone know what format the pace dvr hard drive uses?

XFS. See discussion earlier in this thread.

seeing that firewire only works for live tv and not recordings i would like to try to access the recordings by slaving the hard drive to the computer.

The content is encrypted and only playable on the machine that recorded it.

does anyone know if the recordings can be downloaded with ethernet and how would i do that.

Ethernet download is not supported at the current time.

My box from Armstrong Cable in Western PA shows version 9.02 of the software. Is there any way to force an update to get the latest version?

Firmware upgrades are controlled by your cable provider. We had an extended discussion on this topic several pages back on this thread. You may want to search the archives.

BTW, 9.02 firmware sounds like you have a TDC778X or TDC779X and not are TDC775. Are you sure you have a 775?

On the firewire recording question, I never did fully understand if this means you can only record live tv while it is coming in from the cable signal, or if you can play a recorded show, and while it is playing, you can also record it in live time. Just wondering -- I've never been able to get any recording to work via firewire.

Mediacom Valdosta,GA

Hello, I have read this entire thread (mostly ;) ) and did not see my solution.
Here's the deal. I have a 775D, I went in to the Service Menu (Power -> Select) I was looking through the menus and information and went in to the harddrive menu (I cannot recall which menu specifically).
I inadvertantly kicked off the format harddive option I guess becuase the next thing i know I see "Formatting Harddrive please wait" on the TV screen.
That was about 4hours ago.
Since then the box appears to be in a loop. Where it formats the HDD, then I get no video for a while (maybe 5-10 minutes) then I see a Pace TDC775D Loader screen v1.09
This looks like the box is downloading software. There is a progress meter at the bottom which makes progress and the display on the box counts down from about 7K to 0001 (I assume this is a filesize meter)
When it reaches the end I get a message that it's applying the software please wait.

Then it starts all over again with formatting HDD.
The entire cycle takes maybe 45 minutes I'd guess.

I just hooked up component video out to my TV. I had only HDMI before. I guessed maybe the box was asking me for some input that I was not seeing on the HDMI output.

I have a tech scheduled to come out next Wed.
I was hoping to resolve this prior to then.

Thanks in advance for any help!

Those of you who have eSATA/USB combo drives and especially those of you who are considering purchasing and eSATA drive, please see my eSATA compatibility (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12448321#post12448321) post over in the CableCARD thread.

FYI, we've replicated this bug where you can only get PCM out of HDMI (it exists on the 775, 778, 789 etc.). I will update the release note thread when a fix is available.
Does the PCM output only problem happen with all TDC775D or is it just some machines that are affected.

Perhaps this link to a list of SATA drives that do/do not work with other DVRs would be useful in weeding out those drives which one should avoid?

http://baseportal.com/cgi-bin/baseportal.pl?htx=/xnappo/main

Does the PCM output only problem happen with all TDC775D or is it just some machines that are affected.

All should be affected (its a software bug). Are you not having the problem?

Yes I just got the TDC775D from my cable provider last week and bought a new plasma. So when I hooked it up with HDMI I noticed that I only got PCM from it. I called my CP and they said they didn't think it was the TDC775D. So I spent half a day trying to figure it out until I found this thread.

GCI cable in Anchorage, Alaska; finally updated the firmware from 9.31 to 9.52.

:):):)

I didn't find any release notes for 9.52.

Cheers

Pace normally puts out two releases that are .01 difference between them. The difference (if I remember correctly) is what system your provider uses for VOD. The release notes for 9.51 will be same as for 9.52. TDC775D Release Note Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=866125&highlight=release+notes)

I was talking about this problem a while back where I was watching something and got a error that said unable to process request. I was watching Futurama which in on Cartoon Network which is channel 46 here. I recorded it and I was playing it and recording two shows at the same time. It said unable to process request and it was code CIU

I'm glad I searched on the forum for my problem with the Tahoe 778. I just got it yesterday and I am also having the HDMI audio issue.
Still no fix for it? I hate to go back to a Motorola box as the PQ is MUCH better from the Pace box.

daimlerguy,

I'm glad I searched on the forum for my problem with the Tahoe 778. I just got it yesterday and I am also having the HDMI audio issue.
Still no fix for it? I hate to go back to a Motorola box as the PQ is MUCH better from the Pace box.

I understand this is a pain, but the fix is not publicly available yet. I will post the moment a fix is available.

Just remember, it may take some time for a given cable company to roll out the fix. Who is your cable provider? I'm guessing Buckeye given your location.

I was talking about this problem a while back where I was watching something and got a error that said unable to process request. I was watching Futurama which in on Cartoon Network which is channel 46 here. I recorded it and I was playing it and recording two shows at the same time. It said unable to process request and it was code CIU

Thanks for the error code. Its always critical that the three digit TV Guide error code is reported. Do you know what release of firmware your running? Your cable company is GCI correct?

daimlerguy,



I understand this is a pain, but the fix is not publicly available yet. I will post the moment a fix is available.

Just remember, it may take some time for a given cable company to roll out the fix. Who is your cable provider? I'm guessing Buckeye given your location.

Yes...Buckeye...and I must say I am VERY happy with them. I have always received great service from them. They were going to even come out today(Sunday), and check to see if I had everything set properly. I cancelled after reading these posts, since it is an issue with the box.
They are supposed to have the 3416 Moto boxes after the 1st, so I may give one of those a try.
I did check the see to what update version the box has and it shows version 9.65. Is this the latest update?

I did check the see to what update version the box has and it shows version 9.65. Is this the latest update?

Yes, that's the latest revision.

Note: if you have a receiver and are willing to run a separate cable, you can connect an S/PDIF cable and get AC-3 over that connection until the HDMI fix is available.

Also, since you have a 778, we probably should take this discussion over to the 778 thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=903826).

Also, since you have a 778, we probably should take this discussion over to the 778 thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=903826).

Thanks...I will do that!

Thanks for the error code. Its always critical that the three digit TV Guide error code is reported. Do you know what release of firmware your running? Your cable company is GCI correct?

GCI and they just updated their firmware. I was going to check and forgot to as I was still recording some stuff.

89.52 I believe it is.

I am new here. I used to have a moto HD-DVR and the HDMI port blew out. When the cable guy came out, he swapped the moto for the pace.

The only issue I am having with the pace is the volume control. On the moto, I used to be able to control the volume of the TV as well as the cable box. On the pace I cannot, and its very low. When I am watching TV (through the pace) I need to jack up the volume to 40+ just to hear it, but then when I switch to the DVD, or the Wii I have to quick turn down the volume on the TV becaue its too loud.

Is there anyway to get the same functionality out of the Pace like I had on the moto?

When I go into menu, audio setup, Optimal Stero is set and cannot be changed. I also have tried every audio option on the TV and the cable box without any luck.


Please help, this is annoying!!!!:)

Andifur,
I had the same issue. I had to break out the instrcutions for my Universal remote to unlock the volume control from only addressing the TV's volume setting. Once I did that I was able to just push the DVR control button on the remote and the volume control for the Pace box could be adjusted with the volume control on the remote. It would have been easier if they had a separate volume control on the Pace box but they don't. It can only be adjusted with a remote and I suspect like mine, your current remote is set to only adjust the TV's volumne settings. Fortuantely this is common and something that cab be adjusted. :)
Good luck.

Andy,

Several things to check:

1. Are you sure the drive is ok (i.e. does it work on a PC or another device)?

2. Are you sure the cable is ok (see my recent discussion on the Pace CableCARD thread for a similar eSATA debugging session which is in process).

3. Its possible that somehow the internal eSATA cable has come loose (although I doubt it). You really can't open the box up without voiding the warranty, so you may want to see if another Tahoe will recognize the drive.

Linden,
So anyway on my external hardrive problem I took it next door to my neghbor who has a 775 again and rebooted his and it wouldn't recognize it.
Got a new Esata cable and that wasn't it. Sent it back under warrantee and recieved a new one around the 20th. Tried it and 775 still wouldn't recognize.
I went to Bresnan to try another Pace and explained my problem and as expected no one knew what i was talking about with the Esata. The lady there said they were not doing business with Pace any longer and gave me a Moto DCH 6416, and said every port on the back was functioning. I was hesitant to take it but she said that's all they had so I relented. Went home and hooked it up. First the HDMI wouldn't work. It would come on for a second and then go to a complete green screen. Then the eSATA wouldn't work as expected. In the diags it showed it but wouldn't use it or recognize it. Then the picture quality on analog was just horrible. And to top it off there were no recording LED's or play, and you had to leave it on to record when you went to bed or left.
I was rather sickened by the whole mess. I went back a few days later after seeing the same problems on other forums about the Moto. I asked if I could get the 775 back even if it didn't work with my eSATA. They had one used one ready and gave it to me. They acted as if I was nuts and I couldn't convince them otherwise because they had no Idea what I was talking about on several issues. Anyhow I got it home and low and behold it recognized the external HD immediately and alls been working fine for about a week.

Thought I would pass this on and inquire if you heard anything about Bresnan dropping Pace Boxes. I know there's been several problems but they mostly seemed to be getting straigtened out. And they sure are nicer than the moto's that I have had experience with. See you. Andy

Today after having this for around a month, I started having for lack of a better expression, Choppy video. Hard to describe but anything moving was like it was missing frames. I have Armstrong Cable. It was also every channel both standard and HD. I don't think its the TV as DVD works fine or the cable because all other TV's are fine. I pulled the plug on the 778 and for the longest time when trying to turn it on it would say formatting drive, then is was downloading software, now it seems to be locked up in standy, wth 4 green dashes on the LCD. What do I do next? Call Armstrong?

Today after having this for around a month, I started having for lack of a better expression, Choppy video. Hard to describe but anything moving was like it was missing frames. I have Armstrong Cable. It was also every channel both standard and HD. I don't think its the TV as DVD works fine or the cable because all other TV's are fine. I pulled the plug on the 778 and for the longest time when trying to turn it on it would say formatting drive, then is was downloading software, now it seems to be locked up in standy, wth 4 green dashes on the LCD. What do I do next? Call Armstrong?

After spending 6 hours I am convinced this unit is fried. As I mentioned it started out by all channels having delayed/choppy video. When all else fails I believe in pulling the plug and did so. The unit would then, on the onscreen display show formatting hard drive then go back into standby. Then it would come back on with a downloading software screen, and a countdown timer on the LCD, then back to standby, then back on and the formatting message again with first two dashes, then four, on the LCD and back to standby. I could not get the unit to do anything by either the remote or any of the buttons on the unit itself. Then downloading software again. The unit did this probably 6 times over the course of 6 hours. Finally I called Armstrong cable and they are sending a tech out Thursday. Its frustrating to say the least. Anything else I can try in the meantime?

Col_Klink, I wish I could provide a solution for you but I cannot. What I can say is that I had my PACE box get in this same "mode" where it formats the drive, downloads and image etc. I finally took it back to the cable company (Mediacom) and had it replaced. Although my problem did not begin initially with choppy video. I was in the Service Menu and hit the wrong button I guess and that started my issues. On a good note, the replacement box has been working great!
Good Luck.

After spending 6 hours I am convinced this unit is fried. As I mentioned it started out by all channels having delayed/choppy video. When all else fails I believe in pulling the plug and did so. The unit would then, on the onscreen display show formatting hard drive then go back into standby. Then it would come back on with a downloading software screen, and a countdown timer on the LCD, then back to standby, then back on and the formatting message again with first two dashes, then four, on the LCD and back to standby.

I don't know that the unit is fried, but there appears to be an issue with the HDD in the unit. If a box gets into this reboot cycle long enough, the low level firmware will try to take preventive action and make sure the firmware image is not corrupt (that is why you see the downloading image screen).

I would recommend getting a replacement unit at this point. There's nothing you as a user can do to break out of this cycle.

Do you have an external drive connected to it? If so, try disconnecting that from the unit.

I don't know that the unit is fried, but there appears to be an issue with the HDD in the unit. If a box gets into this reboot cycle long enough, the low level firmware will try to take preventive action and make sure the firmware image is not corrupt (that is why you see the downloading image screen).

I would recommend getting a replacement unit at this point. There's nothing you as a user can do to break out of this cycle.

Thank you, I have a hard time with not being able to do something. Almost to the point of taking a screw driver to the thing.

Do you have an external drive connected to it? If so, try disconnecting that from the unit.

No sir, no external drive.

Those of you who have eSATA/USB combo drives and especially those of you who are considering purchasing an eSATA drive, please see the latest info on the investigation here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=12721159#post12721159).

Lindend

Do you know if you have heard anything about the ethernet port being activated on the boxes yet? And for a technical question, this has happend three times to me now. I will have 10 or 12 series recording setup and then all of the sudden the series recordings are still there, however it will not record anything.... any ideas?

Lindend

Do you know if you have heard anything about the ethernet port being activated on the boxes yet?

The ethernet activation is a configurable option controlled by your cable company. I would ask them what their plans are in regards to activating it.

I will have 10 or 12 series recording setup and then all of the sudden the series recordings are still there, however it will not record anything.... any ideas?

When this happens, can you do a one touch recording with the remote or is that broken also?

How do you recover from this scenario?

I am having a recuring problem with my Pace 775 it caused me to return one box so far to my cable provider and now it is happening to the replacement, while watching a recorded show the box will drop the sound and the picture will stutter I have it hooked up with HDMI through my reciever Pio vsx84txsi. I was doing it tonight I was watching the show as it was being recorded about 15 mins delay. I switched to something else I had recorded earlier, while I kept recording the same show and the other show was fine. I there a problem watching a show while you are recording it?

I there a problem watching a show while you are recording it?

What you're doing shouldn't cause these symptoms.

1. Are you positive you have a 775 and not a 778 or 779? Just want to make sure especially if they are giving you new boxes.
2. Do you have an eSATA drive connected?
3. Do you know what firmware release is on your 775?

Yes it is a TDC 775D.
No I have no eSATA drive connected.
I am recording right now so I don't know the firmware release, will find this for you later.

What you're doing shouldn't cause these symptoms.

1. Are you positive you have a 775 and not a 778 or 779? Just want to make sure especially if they are giving you new boxes.
2. Do you have an eSATA drive connected?
3. Do you know what firmware release is on your 775?

Yes, its a Pace 775D
No, I don't have a eSATA connected
FW, 09.31
To be exact the box is hooked up with HDMI for video and optical for audio both going to the AVR then HDMI out to the tv.

Has anyone had any luck hooking up a 750 or 1000 gig eSATA drive to the Pace 775? Or does anyone know if the firmware will accept a drive that large? I've looked at the list of other DVRs and there are several large drives that work with them, but I'd like to confirm they'll work with the Pace before buying one.

Has anyone had any luck hooking up a 750 or 1000 gig eSATA drive to the Pace 775? Or does anyone know if the firmware will accept a drive that large? I've looked at the list of other DVRs and there are several large drives that work with them, but I'd like to confirm they'll work with the Pace before buying one.

I believe that 500 Gb is the max...

EDIT, I might be incorrect, according to linden there is no reason that a 750 (maybe larger?) should not work, but I don't think anyone has gotten one to work yet, because of other issues with firewire/usb drives from Seagate, and other externals that share the same buggy chipset. Read the last couple of pages of this thread for more info on that...

Yes, its a Pace 775D
No, I don't have a eSATA connected
FW, 09.31
To be exact the box is hooked up with HDMI for video and optical for audio both going to the AVR then HDMI out to the tv.

Could be an HDMI issue. Have you tried bypassing the AVR and see if the problem goes away? Not proposing this as a solution, just as a way to id what is causing it.

Could be an HDMI issue. Have you tried bypassing the AVR and see if the problem goes away? Not proposing this as a solution, just as a way to id what is causing it.

No I have not tried bypassing. The problem happens when I watch a recorded show and when I rewind and watch the same part it happens again so I am thinking it is on the Hard drive and not the connection, but I will try it and see what happens.

Yes, its a Pace 775D
No, I don't have a eSATA connected
FW, 09.31
To be exact the box is hooked up with HDMI for video and optical for audio both going to the AVR then HDMI out to the tv.

Firmware 9.31 is the problem, when your cable company upgrades to 9.51 or 9.52 you shouldn't have the stutter issue.

Firmware 9.31 is the problem, when your cable company upgrades to 9.51 or 9.52 you shouldn't have the stutter issue.

I contacted my cable company they don't know when they will update the firmware.

FYI, we've replicated this bug where you can only get PCM out of HDMI (it exists on the 775, 778, 789 etc.). I will update the release note thread when a fix is available.

The release note thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=866125) has been updated (sorry, I forgot to put in the HDMI fix in the original post). AC-3 over HDMI works in the latest 775 firmware (this fix has not yet been released for the CableCARD products).

The release note thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=866125) has been updated (sorry, I forgot to put in the HDMI fix in the original post). AC-3 over HDMI works in the latest 775 firmware (this fix has not yet been released for the CableCARD products).

Linden,

Just got updated to 9.90 and don't see it on thread. When I turned on DVR this evening I had lost external HD recognition and showed 0% and was furious, but after rebooting all was back. Thank the lord.
Anyway is this similar to the 10.04?

Thanks Andy

Andy,

Linden,

Just got updated to 9.90 and don't see it on thread.

I'm going to have to check on this one for you, but I don't think this was a nationwide release.

When I turned on DVR this evening I had lost external HD recognition and showed 0% and was furious, but after rebooting all was back. Thank the lord.
Anyway is this similar to the 10.04? Thanks Andy

When you first booted with the new release, did it ask you if you wanted to format the drive or keep your data?

I am a Dish customer and been very satisfied with my SD 622. The interface is great and since the firmware updates of 2007 rock solid.
A friend of mine worked for Sunflower cable here in beautiful Lawrence KS. He convinced me to try cable HD because of the PQ. They PQ is indeed great. But the frustrations of trying to get the Tahoe to work is a real downer. Sometimes the remote works great. Other times I can't get any action to work. Atlas remote work perfectly with my Motorola STB in the bedroom when I change the codes so no it's not the remote.
Some recorded shows have no sound. Some no video.
Sometimes the Tahoe will just "get confused" and freeze up.
I am getting a VIP 625 on the 25th and will post my impressions of that for comparison.

Can anybody inform me on the differences between the 770D and the 775D? My cable company offers these but they don't know which one I'll be receiving. I've seen the specs for the 775D at Pace's webpage, but I can't find the 770D specs anywhere. Is one better than the other so I can make sure I request that one? I will be connecting the box to a Panasonic TH-58PZ700U 1080p plasma through either HDMI or component and with an optical cable going to my Denon AVR-2805 receiver. I have the Moto 6412 dual tuner box now, and the specs of the 775D it definitely looks like an upgrade, I just wanted to make sure the 770D would be good as well.

Thanks so much.

Can anybody inform me on the differences between the 770D and the 775D? My cable company offers these but they don't know which one I'll be receiving. I've seen the specs for the 775D at Pace's webpage, but I can't find the 770D specs anywhere. Is one better than the other so I can make sure I request that one? I will be connecting the box to a Panasonic TH-58PZ700U 1080p plasma through either HDMI or component and with an optical cable going to my Denon AVR-2805 receiver. I have the Moto 6412 dual tuner box now, and the specs of the 775D it definitely looks like an upgrade, I just wanted to make sure the 770D would be good as well.

Thanks so much.

I don't know about the 770D, but I have the 775D hooked up to the same Panny as you have with HDMI and the picture is great. The only thing with mine right now is the lack of multichannel audio through the HDMI so I also have it hooked up to my AVR with optical for audio.
Enjoy!:)

Can anybody inform me on the differences between the 770D and the 775D?

770D? Are you sure you have the right model number? Do you mean 779? If so, that is simply the CableCARD equivalent of the 775.

Andy,



I'm going to have to check on this one for you, but I don't think this was a nationwide release.


Linden,
Bresnan just downloaded 10.10 version to my DVR. So don't worry about the 9.90. I notice a fancy dashboard you can open under diags. Anything else? Is this just a different version of the 10.04?

Andy

Andy,

Bresnan just downloaded 10.10 version to my DVR. So don't worry about the 9.90.

I'll still eventually post the 9.90 release info for completeness. Still trying to get the specific fixes in that build.

I notice a fancy dashboard you can open under diags. Anything else? Is this just a different version of the 10.04?

That's probably the biggest end user feature. What do you think about the dash board?

You may want to post an image of the dashboard so that the other 775 (i.e. non Bresnan) and 778/779 owners will be jealous until its rolled out to everyone. :)

Andy,
You may want to post an image of the dashboard so that the other 775 (i.e. non Bresnan) and 778/779 owners will be jealous until its rolled out to everyone. :)

It sure gives you a birds eye view of your connection and signal strengths in real time. But to be honest I am just happy to have good HD reception and to have my external hard drive running smooth (knock on wood). I would be happy to do a screen shot but I am just not sure how to do that. Oh well. If there's a thread to show me how, point me to it and I'll give it a try.

Thanks.

Andy

770D? Are you sure you have the right model number? Do you mean 779? If so, that is simply the CableCARD equivalent of the 775.

That's what they told me over the phone, maybe Mediacom misspoke or I misunderstood. That would make sense why I can't find any info on the 770, LOL. I hope to pick up the 775 tomorrow if I can get all my programs off my box tonight!

Thanks all.

Has 10.10 officially been released? I have not yet been informed that it is released yet.

I recently got two TDC779X DVR's & added HDTV and DVR service to my package with Mediacom in northern Alabama.


Can you please repost your question over in the 779 thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=903826)?

Thanks.

Anyone found a way to program a 30 second skip yet??

QUOTE=nimchimpski20;12902287]Anyone found a way to program a 30 second skip yet??

Go to post 980 on page 5 of this thread.

Andy

Has 10.10 officially been released? I have not yet been informed that it is released yet.

10.10 is an official release but has only been released to CCOR sites at this point.

I picked up a second 775 about 2 weeks ago and this is in my bedroom. I've noticed that in the last two weeks it's yet to spin down once. The software version is 9.31 on Buckeyecablesystem. Is th e9.31 the issue? My wife complains about the noise and I was under the impression that after a couple hours of no use it should be spinning down. I have nothing scheduled to record. Is this a software issue? Energy save is turned on. Thanks.

Go to post 980 on page 5 of this thread.

Andy

Thanks for the link....page 35 post 980 for anyone else looking for the 30 second skip codes.

Linden,
Here's an attachment with a picture of the dashboard on the 10.10 software version. Just at a glance what does it tell you. And what should we look for in the numbers. Should one be concerned with the tuner errors?
Andy

Should one be concerned with the tuner errors?

Please post the details from the Inband tuner 1 and 2 pages (you can just hit the select button on the dashboard for each tuner item and it will jump to the page in question). The dash board is just indicating that there could be an issue but you'd have to look at the page details to find out if there is really an issue.

Your signal is ~12db and the upper range for a good signal should be around 15db so its not in a problem area, but its near the edge.

Please post the details from the Inband tuner 1 and 2 pages (you can just hit the select button on the dashboard for each tuner item and it will jump to the page in question).

Those tuner errors appear to show up whenever you are tuned to an analog channel as far as I can tell.

lindend;12929997]Please post the details from the Inband tuner 1 and 2

Linden, Ok so all was working well tonight, untill the wife wanted to me to record the Hallmark movie on our local CBS HD channel from Bresnan. All was well for the first half and then I noticed macro blocking on occasion. It wasn't to bad (wish I could say same for movie). After we finished I noticed all my HD channels were macro blocking. Some were unwatchable. I had both tuners on HD channels and went to dashboard and snapped some pictures of dash and the Inband tuner details. Called Bresnan but doubt if the lady had any idea what I was talking about but said she would report it. Check it out and let me know what you think. My thoughts are it has to be a signal problem and the details have to show that. I don't think they can lay the blame on the Pace DVR.
Thanks Andy

Andy,

It wasn't to bad (wish I could say same for movie)

:)

Check it out and let me know what you think. My thoughts are it has to be a signal problem

Its always possible that your local CBS station has issues with the original signal. Tough for me to comment on that part.

However, it would seem like your signal level needs to be investigated. As I mentioned Friday, it was on the edge and the max normal range is 15. Your capture would indicate that you now have values in the 15's which isn't ideal.

Is this also the build that causes macro blocking when launching VOD from HD channels?

However, it would seem like your signal level needs to be investigated. As I mentioned Friday, it was on the edge and the max normal range is 15.



I got a hold of a Bresnan tech and he said they had some issues in my neighborhood. He said they had too much signal. So I am assuming anything OVER the 15 range is bad since the dashboard color goes to red when it goes over this range. When I go to a digital
channel it turns green and is in the 12 range. I take it these are two independent signals? Anyway its seems to be back to normal.

Andy

When I go to a digital
channel it turns green and is in the 12 range.

12 is technically ok, but it would be much better if it was in the 0-5 range.

Hi,
I'm new to this forum, have just got my Pace TDC775. I purchased a WD My Book 500GB eSata combo drive and tried for 3 hours yesterday to get the unit to recognise it. I formatted the drive and did all the things to get the PVR to see it, but no luck. I have searched this forum about which would be the best external to use, but there no real recommendation. Found one thread to a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD eSata database and it seems that the most successful combination was with a WD 500 GB HDD and Vantec Nexstar 3 enclosure. Before I go out and spend more money on another drive, can anyone give me any other advice to try. It seems that the all the My Books on that site are not recognised, as it is with my unit. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi,
I'm new to this forum, have just got my Pace TDC775. I purchased a WD My Book 500GB eSata combo drive and tried for 3 hours yesterday to get the unit to recognise it. I formatted the drive and did all the things to get the PVR to see it, but no luck. I have searched this forum about which would be the best external to use, but there no real recommendation. Found one thread to a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD eSata database and it seems that the most successful combination was with a WD 500 GB HDD and Vantec Nexstar 3 enclosure. Before I go out and spend more money on another drive, can anyone give me any other advice to try. It seems that the all the My Books on that site are not recognised, as it is with my unit. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

This Thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=11540612#post11540612) has discussions about PACE and eSata. The My Book eSata Combo is junk. I had one and it didn't even get recongize on the PACE DVR. When I used it for computer it got very very hot. There is no fan and no metal heat sink to remove the heat away from the drive. Even if you could make it work (new firmware) it would burn up with the DVR running 24/7.

Thanks for the info, I was able to figure out that it would not work with the PVR. Any enclosures and drives to recommend that would work? 500-750 GB is my target.

Thanks for the info, I was able to figure out that it would not work with the PVR. Any enclosures and drives to recommend that would work? 500-750 GB is my target.
There has only been one trouble free recommend external eSata drive for PVRs and it is the "Western Digital - My DVR Expander 500GB External Hard Drive" and it is only sold at TIVO.com and BestBuy (http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8477105&st=western+dvr+expander&lp=1&type=product&cp=1&id=1185271084416). It is approved by Tivo for their new HD DVR products.

Hi Linden,

I've just hooked up a Western Digital 1 Terabyte hard drive in a External Drive external case (That's the brand name, honest!; it's a great case, with a cooling fan. The only drawback is you need an eSata to Sata cable to connect it to the Pace box; the connection on the Pace is an eSata, not a Sata as labeled, or described in the manual).

After turning on the drive and plugging in the Pace; it started formatting it pretty quickly without asking permission. When it finished, I found the space used had decreased from 90%+ to 19%, but when I checked in diagnostics, I found the drives capacity was only (!) 662 gigabytes.

I talked to my tech support guy who suggested the drive might be partitioned, so I moved it to my computer, and found there were several partitions - 7 in fact, with the largest being 610 gigs, and an unallocated one of 312 gigs. I deleted the partitions, but failed to realize at the time that there was also a dynamic disk on the same drive (I have no idea what that is).

So I replaced the drive and it was formatted again, with the same results as before. So now I'm using a freeware program called KillDisk to wipe it completely clean of everything, and will see if the Pace will give me its full capacity.

What I'd like to know from you is this: Is there a size limitation built into the firmware (9.39)? If I used Linux to format the drive with no partitions, would the Pace recognize and be able to use all of it? I would really like to be able to access those unallocated 312 gigs - if I can't, I may use a 750 gig drive instead.

Hi Linden,

I've just hooked up a Western Digital 1 Terabyte hard drive

What is the model # of the WD drive?

I talked to my tech support guy who suggested the drive might be partitioned, so I moved it to my computer, and found there were several partitions - 7 in fact, with the largest being 610 gigs, and an unallocated one of 312 gigs.

Do you know how many partitions were on the drive before it was initially connected?

If I used Linux to format the drive with no partitions, would the Pace recognize and be able to use all of it?

Formatting with linux is not a prerequisite.

What is the model # of the WD drive?

It's a WD10EACS Caviar "Green Power".

Do you know how many partitions were on the drive before it was initially connected?

No, but as it's a new drive I assume only one (or perhaps none?); however, having wiped the drive and all partitions, on my computer properties shows only "unallocated" at this time.

Formatting with linux is not a prerequisite.

I only want to format it with linux in order to get the full 1000 gigs, rather than the 662 gigs I get when formatting with the Pace.

Hi Linden,

After completely wiping the drive, I put it back in the Pace which formatted it exactly as it did when I first put the drive in; I seem to be limited to 662 gigs.

Hi Linden,
I talked to my tech support guy who suggested the drive might be partitioned, so I moved it to my computer, and found there were several partitions - 7 in fact

For a drive of this size, 7 partitions would be expected. We're still checking on the expected capacity of a 1 TB drive.

wow... Bresnan in GF MT reset my cable box at 8:35 last night... and it wiped out a bunch of DVR content..... is there anyway to get it back?

wow... Bresnan in GF MT reset my cable box at 8:35 last night... and it wiped out a bunch of DVR content..... is there anyway to get it back?

Do you see the recordings in the content listing page in diagnostics?

Do you see the recordings in the content listing page in diagnostics?
Bresnan did the same thing to me. Also deleted series and future recordings. I don't see anything in the content listing page in diagnostics.

I got bumped to 10.10 by Bresnan yesterday, too. It wasn't without its glitches, though. Had to call in to tech support and get the box reauthorized. tech support said they had quite a few calls coming in about it. Didn't have to wait on hold for long, so it must not have been too bad. Then it came up 9.40. Then it rebooted, and shut itself off. Then I turned it on, and it seemed ok, but it had updated to 10.10.

I have a few problems with audio breakup and video hiccups on recordings that I didn't have before (SD). Right now I'll chalk it up to Bresnan's network being in a bit of an uproar with all the updates going on. I'll let it settle down for a while and see what happens.

Bresnan is getting ready to swap out all the analog channels for digital here, real soon, too. That promises to be fun. Hopefully it will bring those other 9 or so HD channels we've been promised this year.

edit: I spoke too soon. Bresnan just rolled out 8 new HD channels and HDPPV today!

Do you see the recordings in the content listing page in diagnostics?

Ok, I did a full reset of the system and I also reset the external HD, and now it is showing my info in the Diagnostics.... also ... quick question

What does the 00B Tuner SNR mean... and should I be concerned if it goes back and forth between good and fair?

I als got the 10.X upgrade last night!

What does the 00B Tuner SNR mean... and should I be concerned if it goes back and forth between good and fair?

I will give you my understanding of OOB Status. It is the Out Of Band data used for the Cable Card channel information/firmware updates/TVGuide information. Mine appears to be at 75.250 MHz. Mine also goes petween 18-22 SNR which is Fair to Good. My signal Level is -0.7 - -0.6 dBmV.

Delta Cable has bumped me to 10.06 and I still have an issue with my digital audio link getting corrupted on analog channels. :(

Is there no way to turn off the Dolby Digital decoding manually like I could on Motorola boxes?

AHHH Bresnan in GF just pushed an update to my box again... at 5:45 in the afternoon... Whow are these people pushing the updates.... why not try 3:00 AM....?? More to follow when I figure out what they did!

Starting today Shaw Cable (Canada) has started to trial the TDC-775D in employee's homes. Up to now I've had my 6416 PIII connected with HDMI to an LG 42LC2D. I've conncted the 775D to one of the component inputs, but I'd like to get another HDMI cable to make the comparison fair. Incidentally, Shaw is running firmware 10.20 which I noticed isn't in the release note section yet. So far I haven't had any issues with it, but I've only recorded a couple of shows and played around with the menus. I like the fact that my employer has decided not to cripple the eSATA and firewire ports.

AHHH Bresnan in GF just pushed an update to my box again... at 5:45 in the afternoon... Whow are these people pushing the updates.... why not try 3:00 AM....?? More to follow when I figure out what they did!

What makes you say they pushed an update, is your software version different? Just curious because I'm in GF and haven't had anything since 1/21 when they downloaded 10.10.

Andy

Incidentally, Shaw is running firmware 10.20 which I noticed isn't in the release note section yet.

Not confirming nor denying the Shaw employee trial info you posted, but I generally don't post release notes for sites doing trials (usually for confidentiality reasons).

I will see what I can do here for the 10.20 release.

Hi, I'm on Delta Cable and I believe my Pace receiver is on firmware 9.39 but I haven't checked in a while.

Whenever I try to use the 30 second skip when I'm near the end of a recording it will end up moving back a few minutes. For instance I will hit 30 second skip when I'm at the 59 minute mark of an hour show and it will bounce back to the 54 minute mark.

Another weird thing that happens is when I try to hit the 30 second skip too quickly consecutive times it will sometimes not move forward and bounce around the same area. Say the minute pointer will go from 29 -> 30 -> 29 -> 30 -> 29. I have to pause for a second between skips to allow it work normally. I also get similar results but going backwards when I hit the replay button.

I think most of these recordings are on an external hard drive but I don't know if that matters.

Anybody else experience this?

How fast should I expect the fast forwarding speed through an HD show? At the fastest 5x forward it seems to move at about a minute (show time) per second.

If I want to start watching from the middle of a show it would take 30 seconds for an hour long program to forward through the show. Is there a better way to forward or jump to the middle of a show?

Thanks.

For a drive of this size, 7 partitions would be expected. We're still checking on the expected capacity of a 1 TB drive.
Any luck yet on testing the 1 tera external drive

Any luck yet on testing the 1 tera external drive

Sorry, forgot to post an update on the investigation.

1. The current firmware can't recognize more than roughly 750GB.
2. Drives larger than 750GB will work, but only the first ~750GB will be recognized and used.
3. This is not a hardware restriction, so its not a permanent limitation.
4. If/when a software fix is available, it will be posted on the release notes page.
5. If/when a software fix is available, you may (and I emphasize may) have to reformat 1TB and larger drives in order to use the full capacity. Smaller eSATA drives will continue to function as is without need for a reformat.

Anyone have any suggestions as to a DVD Recorder that will work good with this box?

Hi, I'm on Delta Cable and I believe my Pace receiver is on firmware 9.39 but I haven't checked in a while.

Whenever I try to use the 30 second skip when I'm near the end of a recording it will end up moving back a few minutes. For instance I will hit 30 second skip when I'm at the 59 minute mark of an hour show and it will bounce back to the 54 minute mark.

Another weird thing that happens is when I try to hit the 30 second skip too quickly consecutive times it will sometimes not move forward and bounce around the same area. Say the minute pointer will go from 29 -> 30 -> 29 -> 30 -> 29. I have to pause for a second between skips to allow it work normally. I also get similar results but going backwards when I hit the replay button.

I think most of these recordings are on an external hard drive but I don't know if that matters.

Anybody else experience this?

hey willhong... fellow Delta Cabler. i'm wondering what kind of external drive you have... i'm looking at getting the Acom 500G, but don't know if there is a better option. tech told me ANY eSATA drive will work though.

hey willhong... fellow Delta Cabler. i'm wondering what kind of external drive you have... i'm looking at getting the Acom 500G, but don't know if there is a better option. tech told me ANY eSATA drive will work though.

Hi dtrickle. Just moved to Ladner last May and at first I was hesitant about Delta Cable but so far I'm quite impressed. Beats paying for satellite at double the price for sure.

Based on this thread it seems like there are some incompatibilities with some drives. I'm actually using a regular desktop Seagate Barracuda SATA2 500GB 16MB drive with a Vantec Nexstar 3 eSATA/USB combo enclosure.

I got it from here on sale, don't recall how much. NCIX price matches so look around for a lower price if this is what you want to get as well: http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=18867&vpn=NST%2D360SU%2DBL&manufacture=VANTEC

PM me if you want more info. Good luck.

welcome to Ladner! thanks for the reply willhong... i went and ordered the Acom, on the response i got from Delta Cable. so hopefully the techs know what they are talking about. i have one coming out Friday to fix a SD reception problem i've had since the box went down last Saturday.

i also have a problem with the units response to remote commands. it seems to need a warmup period before the signal takes. i have the 775 and have the problem with the supplied remote and the Harmony 880 that i use. anyone else with this problem? DC says they have not come across this previously.

i went and ordered the Acom, on the response i got from Delta Cable. so hopefully the techs know what they are talking about.

First - Cable techs don't know anything. The one that installed my Pace DVR couldn't even setup the wide aspect ratio.

There are a lot of reasons that drive will give you issues. The eSata/USB combination chipsets these external HDD use have a bug in them and corrupt the eSata data (CRC errors). If you search this forum you will see lindend's post with a link to the 779 forum with the information. I assume you bought the PDHD500USE, you can be the first one to roll the dice on that model. The CRC errors will show up as random lockups, pixelation on play back some times, in ability to reliably record two shows while you watch a third from the HDD. A eSata only drive like WD "My DVR Extender" seems to be recommend for PVR use with great success.

Good luck......

First - Cable techs don't know anything. The one that installed my Pace DVR couldn't even setup the wide aspect ratio.

There are a lot of reasons that drive will give you issues. The eSata/USB combination chipsets these external HDD use have a bug in them and corrupt the eSata data (CRC errors). If you search this forum you will see lindend's post with a link to the 779 forum with the information. I assume you bought the PDHD500USE, you can be the first one to roll the dice on that model. The CRC errors will show up as random lockups, pixelation on play back some times, in ability to reliably record two shows while you watch a third from the HDD. A eSata only drive like WD "My DVR Extender" seems to be recommend for PVR use with great success.

Good luck......

yes, it is that model. it's on order..... i may change my mind though. the problem with the WD Extender is... well, i can't get it in Canada. Tivo won't ship it, and i can't seem to find anyone who will bring it in. i have been looking at that for a while, and i am this close to a two hour border wait!!!! hehehe

i might be able to get it in Point Roberts, maybe.

yes, it is that model. it's on order..... i may change my mind though. the problem with the WD Extender is... well, i can't get it in Canada. Tivo won't ship it, and i can't seem to find anyone who will bring it in.

Do you have Best Buy? I wonder if BestBuy.com would ship to Canada?

Do you have Best Buy? I wonder if BestBuy.com would ship to Canada?
yea...um, no. and BB Canada doesn't list it.

i think after the tech comes in today, i'm off to NCIX to un-order the Acom, and go with something similar to willhong's setup. seems to be working for him.

yea...um, no. and BB Canada doesn't list it.


Will WD store ship to Canada? WD Store My Dvr Link (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=334)

i think after the tech comes in today, i'm off to NCIX to un-order the Acom, and go with something similar to willhong's setup. seems to be working for him.

That enclosure will work. I have it as well. I am worried about heat after reading around the internet. It seems people have destroyed their HDDs in this enclosure for DVR ussage. I paid $34.99 shipped Deal Link (http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=9263&t=723335&highlight=vantec).

The Pace for me can go weeks and never allow the external HDD to spindown. I am in MN and this time of year I have the HDD enclosure by the window to keep the unit cool. In the upcomming summer, I am worried if PACE can't get the firmware fixed to allow the HDD to spindown, the HDD will failure early due to excessive heat.

Will WD store ship to Canada? WD Store My Dvr Link (http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=334)


nope... second method i tried! thank you though.

That enclosure will work. I have it as well. I am worried about heat after reading around the internet. It seems people have destroyed their HDDs in this enclosure for DVR ussage. I paid $34.99 shipped Deal Link (http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?sduid=9263&t=723335&highlight=vantec).

The Pace for me can go weeks and never allow the external HDD to spindown. I am in MN and this time of year I have the HDD enclosure by the window to keep the unit cool. In the upcomming summer, I am worried if PACE can't get the firmware fixed to allow the HDD to spindown, the HDD will failure early due to excessive heat.


i've read that some people have problems with heat, and others wondering what the heck they're talking about!

i've read that some people have problems with heat, and others wondering what the heck they're talking about!

The Vantec one I use is Aluminum (I think) so hopefully is dissipates heat well. One annoying thing you might consider as a drawback for the Vantec is the bright blue hard drive light in the front. Will be fine for a family/entertainment room but probably won't be good for a bedroom.

As far as spinning the hard drive down. I'm not sure if it's fully spun down when I turn the receiver off but I do notice that the hard drive light stops blinking.

BTW I was updated to 10.06 over the weekend. 30 second skip seems better now but replay button not as good.

BTW I was updated to 10.06 over the weekend. 30 second skip seems better now but replay button not as good.I'd ditto the problem with the replay button. I was updated to 10.10 a few weeks back. The replay button has become pretty useless. Oftentimes it even skips forward. Very random, what it does.

yea, i was updated to 10.06 as well. had a problem initializing, but things are fine now.

did you have recordings on the Pace before you installed the external HDD? and if so, were they erased? the tech just told me that would probably happen.

yea, i was updated to 10.06 as well. had a problem initializing, but things are fine now.

did you have recordings on the Pace before you installed the external HDD? and if so, were they erased? the tech just told me that would probably happen.

I added the drive when I was on 9.31 and it didn't delete any of my recordings. I don't recall if it even asked me to format the drive but what you'll notice is the used space % on the recorded shows listing drop.

I later moved the drive to a new box that I purchased from them and this will delete anything on the external drive (9.39 at the time).

I find the tech support is hit and miss with Delta Cable. Some of them will always fall back to #1 - hard reset the box, #2 - reupdate the firmware, #3 schedule a technician to come in.

I had an issue with my new box on day 2 and I refused to schedule a technician to come in as I knew it would be a waste of time. I managed to talk to one of their lead in house technicians/testers and he helped me reformat the main drive that got corrupt and all was good.

I think all the tech support guys would learn a ton just by reading this thread. Lindend might want to suggest that to his customers/partners.

i had an issue from 2 Christmas' back involving the box on the house, so i wanted buddy to come in and i could see him write it down that they will come and look at it. out of sight=soon forgotten(for both parties!!).

after the failed ini on Sat, i called Tuesday and made an 'appointment' for this morning between 9-11. 11:20 had me calling dispatch to which they said they would get right back to me! an hour later, i phoned them back asking what up. the tech calls me 5 mins later and said this was the first he's heard of my 'appointment'. he was even in the office after i had phoned the second time!! boyo... was i PO'd!!!

everything seems to be good now... i went and changed my order and bought what seems to be the consensus around... a WD 500GB Caviar(on sale to boot!) and the Vantec3 black enclosure. seems like that combo has the best success rate anyway.

thanks for the input guys. i feel pretty confident that all will go well. will post later on success!!:)

umm... i searched, but can't find an answer to this:

when installing the external HDD, do i unplug the PVR, plug in the eSATA cable, power cord, then the PVR? thanks.

umm... i searched, but can't find an answer to this:

when installing the external HDD, do i unplug the PVR, plug in the eSATA cable, power cord, then the PVR? thanks.

Yes, The DVR has to be powered off to add or remove an external drive. When unplugging you should always turn the unit off and wait 30seconds and then pull the plug. This allows the disk activity to end. If it is unexpectedly unplugged the disk will have to be error checked and fixed on the next power up. (You could lose recordings)

Yes, The DVR has to be powered off to add or remove an external drive. When unplugging you should always turn the unit off and wait 30seconds and then pull the plug. This allows the disk activity to end. If it is unexpectedly unplugged the disk will have to be error checked and fixed on the next power up. (You could lose recordings)


thank you.

Wildrock,

I'd ditto the problem with the replay button. I was updated to 10.10 a few weeks back. The replay button has become pretty useless. Oftentimes it even skips forward. Very random, what it does.

Couple of questions on this replay button issue:

1. Does this happen on all channel types (analog, SD and HD) or just some content types (i.e. SD)? If just some, can you list a sampling of the channels?

2. Prior to this update, did you experience any issues with the navigation bar jumping around when you were doing trick modes or fast forwards/rewinds finishing in a different spot than you expected?

3. Does this only happen on live/time shifted recordings or on pre-recorded content also?

4. Does this happen immediately or only after you've been on the channel for an extended period of time (~35 minutes on HD and ~2 hours on SD)?

installation went smooth, HDD is recognized! didn't lose any recordings! went from 50% to 10% full... awesome!

WD Caviar S16 500GB SATA2 (WD5000AAKS) HDD, Vantec Nexstar 3 enlosure (NST-360SU-BK), Pace TDC775D

Still wish I could capture via Firewire on my Gentoo Linux box.

Greetings, fellow Ladnerites!

Boy, I wish I had seen the post about the 750GB limit before buying.

On the issue of recognizing external HD, my PACE 775 from Delta Cable won't recognize my external drive. I have a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA drive in an Antec eSATA/USB enclosure. I turned off the PACE unit, waited 1 minute, unplugged the DVR, plugged in and turned on the external drive, then replugged the PACE unit back into the power. Unit had 2 bars on the front display for about 5 minutes, then went back into standby mode. It doesn't recognize the new drive and the diagnostics only note the internal drive.

Historically, I had purchased the HD, it was recognized by the PVR, formatted and good to go, but stopped working due to surface errors (I know it worked because the used space went from 60% to 13%). I took it back to NCIX and got a new drive. I tested the drive first this time by plugging it into my computer and using Samsung's hutil test program under dos, never letting the unit boot into XP. The new unit passed the surface scan test (unlike the last one!) but when I placed it into the external case and plugged it in it didn't seem to be recognized. I plugged the enclosure into an eSATA port on my computer and the drive is recognized by the bios there, but the PACE unit can't seem to see it.

The diagnostics report I am using version 10.06. When I try to go into Diagnostic page 21, right arrow on SATA, unit seems to freeze and won't respond to further remote commands.

Any suggestions or help greatly appreciated! If you need further info, please let me know.

Thanks.

It may have to do with the esata/USB box. As I recall, lindend had a thread that talked about issues with one of the chip sets that had problems. I think lindend recommended that people use a box that only had the esata connection. I'm sure lindend will further clarify.

Schaffer970, thanks for the response. I had thought of that, but I still don't understand why it worked, however briefly, with the first HD but not the second?

It may have to do with the esata/USB box.

Correct. The combo drives may work, but some have some nasty firmware bugs that make them either unusable or gradually degrade your viewing experience.

Schaffer970, thanks for the response. I had thought of that, but I still don't understand why it worked, however briefly, with the first HD but not the second?

I'm guessing its because the drive was generating lots of CRC errors. A future firmware release will have updated diags to help diagnose CRC issues. But ultimately, the firmware on the drive will need to be updated.

This issue (combo drives and CRC errors) is discussed in more detail in the Pace CableCARD thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=903826).

I am having trouble playing a recent recording on my DVR (Pace 778X DVR). I recorded a 3 hour program recently. I actually watched about one hour of the program. When I went back a day later, the "my recordings" section has the program listed, but when I select the program to play, it gives me an option to "delete the recording" or save the recording. It never starts to play. Another thing that is weird is that the percent full has dropped to 1%. This is the only recording currently on my HD. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks!

I actually had a problem with my 1 day old 775 after a power outage. I experienced similar problems like yours but it actually seemed to work from my external drive but not the internal one.

I don't have time to go into detail now but here are some things I noticed:

- In one of the diagnostics I saw CRC errors from the drive.
- Trying to view SATA or Interface devices would hang and then shut down like you mentioned.
- In another diagnostic I believe the DVR process wouldn't start (I'm guessing because of the read errors)

What I ended up doing was going into the hard drive diagnostic and reformatting all the drives, even my external one. Fired it back up and all is well since then. I forgot how to get into the hard drive diagnostic.

Hope this helps.

Greetings, fellow Ladnerites!

Boy, I wish I had seen the post about the 750GB limit before buying.

On the issue of recognizing external HD, my PACE 775 from Delta Cable won't recognize my external drive. I have a Samsung Spinpoint F1 1TB SATA drive in an Antec eSATA/USB enclosure. I turned off the PACE unit, waited 1 minute, unplugged the DVR, plugged in and turned on the external drive, then replugged the PACE unit back into the power. Unit had 2 bars on the front display for about 5 minutes, then went back into standby mode. It doesn't recognize the new drive and the diagnostics only note the internal drive.

Historically, I had purchased the HD, it was recognized by the PVR, formatted and good to go, but stopped working due to surface errors (I know it worked because the used space went from 60% to 13%). I took it back to NCIX and got a new drive. I tested the drive first this time by plugging it into my computer and using Samsung's hutil test program under dos, never letting the unit boot into XP. The new unit passed the surface scan test (unlike the last one!) but when I placed it into the external case and plugged it in it didn't seem to be recognized. I plugged the enclosure into an eSATA port on my computer and the drive is recognized by the bios there, but the PACE unit can't seem to see it.

The diagnostics report I am using version 10.06. When I try to go into Diagnostic page 21, right arrow on SATA, unit seems to freeze and won't respond to further remote commands.

Any suggestions or help greatly appreciated! If you need further info, please let me know.

Thanks.

- In one of the diagnostics I saw CRC errors from the drive.

What firmware release was this and what was the CRC count?

Incidentally, Shaw is running firmware 10.20 which I noticed isn't in the release note section yet.

FYI,

The release notes thread has been updated with the official Shaw release (10.29). This is the first release using the next major version of TV Guide.

Anyone know if the sata port on the back is a real eSATA port, or just an "L" shaped port? If it is a real eSATA port, does it support port multiplier enclosures? (SATA PM)
I know it will do little good until they lift the 750GB limit, but when/if they do, I would like to plug in my 4TB eSATA box.

Also any word on the LAN port? Will it work with NAS, or windows media connect? Or is it just for firmware updates.

Thanks for all the info.

--Deamion

Hi,

I am new here and glad I found this forum! I have searched a lot of the posts, but could not find answers to my questions and hopefully I am not asking stuff that has already been addressed.

Unfortunately we are having a lot of problems with our TDC775D:

- Before we had this unit hooked up, we would have the volume levels on our HDTV set to around 15 and anything over 25 was really loud. Now I find that I have to set the volume levels to 40 and sometimes as high as 75 to hear the shows. Setting the volume levels down to 15 is now like a whisper :( . The volume settings do not appear to be consistent from watching tv from channel to channel, it was before. We have the unit hooked up via an HDMI cable.

- This unit is very loud and the hard drive sounds like it is always spinning. The unit is in our bedroom and is very annoying in this respect. It was not like this for the first week, but after that it began the noise issues.

- It has just restarted itself for no apparent reason when watching a show, at least 6 times. On two of these occasions, it lost all the tv guide data and had to restore that.

- The other day it would not allow us to watch any shows, it was reporting the disk as being full and that I needed to delete some shows. I knew the disk was approximately at 32% capacity. I thought OK, I will delete some shows, however it would go into the menu to delete but then would not respond. It then locked up, so I powered it off with the remote, started it back up again and same problem. We then did a reboot by powering it off and unplugging it from the electrical outlet. Upon powering up, it went through the rebuild cycle again for the tv guide and all was then working OK and it was reporting that only 32% of the drive is full.

- Every now and then, when we record a show and are watching something else, we will notice that the audio cuts in and out for no apparent reason.

- When viewing the list of recorded shows, sometimes a lot of the shows are missing from the menu, I will exit the menu and go back in and then see the full list of shows I have recorded.

And yes, that blue power light is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too bright.

Does it sound like we have a bad unit here, or is there something we should be trying? The firmware is 9.40 and our cable company has offered to exchange the unit next week, however I am very skeptical now after all these problems.

I assume we will lose all shows/movies we have recorded and yet to watch? :(

Thanks for any feedback!

Chuck

I am hooking up this box to my home theatre system, (Philips HTS 3544) is it all right to hook up the audio with both the coax cables and the digital cable at the same time? When I am on analog channels the coax works best and when I am on digital and HD channels the digital cable works best but neither works good for both seeing that I lose my digital 5.1 using only the coax cables, will this problem go away when everything goes digital in FEB?

Chuck,


- It has just restarted itself for no apparent reason when watching a show, at least 6 times. On two of these occasions, it lost all the tv guide data and had to restore that.

The box rebooted (likely due to some type of software bug). When a reboot occurs, TV Guide loses all of its guide data.

The other day it would not allow us to watch any shows, it was reporting the disk as being full and that I needed to delete some shows. I knew the disk was approximately at 32% capacity.

This is well known TV Guide bug. Sorry, but there's nothing we can do about it. You'll need to report it to your cable company. :(

If you search through this thread or the Pace CableCARD thread, or the Motorola STB thread(s), you'll see extended discussions on this topic. When this happens, the only solution is to reboot.

When viewing the list of recorded shows, sometimes a lot of the shows are missing from the menu, I will exit the menu and go back in and then see the full list of shows I have recorded.

How many recordings do you have?

And yes, that blue power light is waaaaaaaaaaaaaay too bright.

This is fixed the in the latest firmware. Its discussed extensively in the early portions of this thread.

Does it sound like we have a bad unit here

No.

The firmware is 9.40 and our cable company has offered to exchange the unit next week,

Who is your cable company. That is a very old firmware release.

I have another error. We just got video on demand and I had to power down the box to get it to work and after that happened my series recordings stopped working and they all said to be announced and nothing recorded I deleted all the series recordings in the list and added all the shows back and it works now but I checked my future recordings list and have atleast 2 to be announced shows. When I go to the to be announced entry in the future recordings I get 11414 and the other one has the number 12039. There might be more but I don't want to go through the entire list. Do you know how to fix that or do you know the problem?

I have GCI (anchorage, alaska) and I'll post the version later but I think it's 10 something.


It's Version 10.10

It takes a LOOOOONG time for the schedule to be repopulated here on GCI in Anchorage. I'd give it a couple of days.

I'm curious why this is such a slow process. Any enlightenment?

It takes a LOOOOONG time for the schedule to be repopulated here on GCI in Anchorage. I'd give it a couple of days.

I'm curious why this is such a slow process. Any enlightenment?


I know they told me it should take about an hour but the problem is that I checked a few random channels and the guide was updated it's just for some reason the shows weren't showing up and once I readded all the shows it was fine. But I got 2 that I'm not sure what they are that are going to be recorded and it just says to be announced and checking the shows at that time 4:30 nothing shows up.

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.

I'm new to the Pace 775D, had it for about 2 weeks. It's my first PVR, but I'm pretty handy with electronics and tech, so figuring out that workaround only took me a few minutes. Which by the way, your help and advice has been excellent in this thread and a godsend to a lot of people. Good on ya mate!

Getting to my question/concern... After disabling the lower resolutions, everything was working great. Oh, yeah, the unit is running firmware version 10.29 (from Shaw). What I've noticed is that randomly over the last week, the unit has been enabling the lower resolutions. After being on standby, after simply changing channels... totally random. Is this a known issue, or did I miss something?

Everything else about the box has been perfect. Knock on wood.

Thanks in advance, to anyone with an answer. :)

What I've noticed is that randomly over the last week, the unit has been enabling the lower resolutions. After being on standby, after simply changing channels... totally random. Is this a known issue, or did I miss something?

No, this is not a known issue. Are you using HDMI? If so, what display are you using?

No, this is not a known issue. Are you using HDMI? If so, what display are you using?

Yes, this is over HDMI. My display is a Samsung HLT6189s and my receiver is a Yamaha RX-V1800. The Pace is passed through from the receiver, I know that might have been obvious, but I just want to be clear on my setup, it can only help to figure out this issue.

Chuck,

The box rebooted (likely due to some type of software bug). When a reboot occurs, TV Guide loses all of its guide data.

This is well known TV Guide bug. Sorry, but there's nothing we can do about it. You'll need to report it to your cable company. :(

If you search through this thread or the Pace CableCARD thread, or the Motorola STB thread(s), you'll see extended discussions on this topic. When this happens, the only solution is to reboot.



Our cable company replaced our box this morning, and we believe parts of my problems were due to a faulty box. The new box is quiet again :) . It developed a new problem, I could not access the new feature our cable company offered, free movies/shows on demand, it kept telling me there was a problem and I needed to contact my cable company to activate this feature or in other parts it was giving me a 413 error. The new box resolved this.



How many recordings do you have?



11 recordings, but they are all gone now as the box was replaced.



This is fixed the in the latest firmware. Its discussed extensively in the early portions of this thread.



No.



Who is your cable company. That is a very old firmware release.


Does the cable company itself update the firmware or is there a way for the end user to do this? I have let them know what you said, hopefully they will update to the current firmware. It is a smaller independent company here in small town Ontario.

Best Wishes,
Charlie

I left the Pace box on last night (to see if turning off the receiver or TV had anything to do with it) and the settings seemed to stay, for the last 12 hours at least. I'll try standby tonight and see what happens tomorrow.

Yes, this is over HDMI. My display is a Samsung HLT6189s and my receiver is a Yamaha RX-V1800. The Pace is passed through from the receiver, I know that might have been obvious, but I just want to be clear on my setup, it can only help to figure out this issue.

Are you connecting through your receiver (i.e.

775->Yamaha->Samsung)?

Are you connecting through your receiver (i.e.

775->Yamaha->Samsung)?


Yes. To my knowledge the receiver is only passing the video signal through to the display. So far, almost 24hrs since leaving the 775 on, the settings haven't reset.

I'll look into the receivers settings to see if anything could be the cause there.

Pace box keeps on deauthorizing encripted digital channels, is anyone else having this problem. Getting the cable co. to hit the box or just doing a power cycle resolves this, but its getting old! firmware version is 10.06

Yes. To my knowledge the receiver is only passing the video signal through to the display.

Can you describe the sequence in which you turn on all the devices (i.e. take them out of standby)?

Can you describe the sequence in which you turn on all the devices (i.e. take them out of standby)?

Funny you mention that, since with my Toshiba HD player, I always have turn on the receiver first or there isn't a good handshake.

I always turn the 775 on first, then the Samsung and finally the receiver.

I'll try starting with the receiver and see what happens.

Thanks!

Funny you mention that, since with my Toshiba HD player, I always have turn on the receiver first or there isn't a good handshake.

Hmmmm... what Toshiba HD player do you have (A2, A3, A35, XA2)?

I always turn the 775 on first, then the Samsung and finally the receiver.

I'll try starting with the receiver and see what happens.

Thanks!

I am suspicious that we are getting an HDMI hot plug notification for the receiver followed by a hot plug notification for the monitor and the multiple hot plug events cause the EDID information associated with the monitor to be re-read and reset the settings you put in.

Now the multiple hot plug events should not be happening and your experiment will confirm/deny this theory.

Pace box keeps on deauthorizing encripted digital channels, is anyone else having this problem. Getting the cable co. to hit the box or just doing a power cycle resolves this, but its getting old! firmware version is 10.06

When this happens again, please go to the Cable Card diagnostics status page and report the validation state, card ready, connection and software version fields say.

Charlie,


Does the cable company itself update the firmware or is there a way for the end user to do this?

The cable company is the only one that can update your firmware.

Charlie,



The cable company is the only one that can update your firmware.
ugghhh.... I was afraid you were going to say this, even if we purchased the box.
Anyhoo, will see what can be done with getting it updated and thanks!

Q regarding the latest firmware upgrade. We are not on Shaw, but I did see that you stated it would would do this:
2. HDMI audio levels are now higher.

Is it safe to assume that when this does become available to everyone, that it will resolve the one issue I stated regarding my audio levels being quite low since we hooked up this box and are connected via HDMI?

Chuck

Hmmmm... what Toshiba HD player do you have (A2, A3, A35, XA2)?



I am suspicious that we are getting an HDMI hot plug notification for the receiver followed by a hot plug notification for the monitor and the multiple hot plug events cause the EDID information associated with the monitor to be re-read and reset the settings you put in.

Now the multiple hot plug events should not be happening and your experiment will confirm/deny this theory.


It's the Toshiba A35, if I don't turn the receiver on first, the A35 only outputs PCM, otherwise it outputs the proper codec.

As for the hot plug issue, I'll give it a shot and let you know.

So my cable box just broke again this is I think the 3rd one I've had to bring in. If you saw the problems I had before I think they are related but everytime I go into my dvr it won't let me fast forward and when I exit the dvr'd program my box restarts and it has to redownload the guide and stuff.

Is it safe to assume that when this does become available to everyone, that it will resolve the one issue I stated regarding my audio levels being quite low since we hooked up this box and are connected via HDMI?

It should improve things. However, as noted in the release notes thread, this change is only currently in certain firmware releases.

I am suspicious that we are getting an HDMI hot plug notification for the receiver followed by a hot plug notification for the monitor and the multiple hot plug events cause the EDID information associated with the monitor to be re-read and reset the settings you put in.

Now the multiple hot plug events should not be happening and your experiment will confirm/deny this theory.

Found the problem. The monitor cannot be turned off before the 775 and cannot be turned on after the 775. I guess this would confirm your hot plug theory?

Hey Lindend, My pace box does not support cable card, do you mean to check status in diagnostics

Hey Lindend, My pace box does not support cable card, do you mean to check status in diagnostics
sorry, here is orig question

Pace box keeps on deauthorizing encripted digital channels, is anyone else having this problem. Getting the cable co. to hit the box or just doing a power cycle resolves this, but its getting old! firmware version is 10.06
lets try this again

My pace box does not support cable card, do you mean to check status in diagnostics

Sorry, I got my threads confused and thought we were debugging a CableCARD issue. :(

Anyways, there really is no equivalent information for embedded boxes like the 775 as the embedded CA is always going to work (unless there is a hardware malfunction which doesn't appear to be likely based on your description).

Who is your cable provider?

I guess this would confirm your hot plug theory?

Yes. Initial symptoms would seem to indicate the receiver isn't handling hot plugs correctly (especially since the A35 has a similar issue).

Yes. Initial symptoms would seem to indicate the receiver isn't handling hot plugs correctly (especially since the A35 has a similar issue).

Well, so much for that. Started the components in order and the Pace still reset itself. Back to square one.

Question for Lindend

I am hooking up this box to my home theatre system, (Philips HTS 3544) is it all right to hook up the audio with both the coax cables and the digital cable at the same time? When I am on analog channels the coax works best and when I am on digital and HD channels the digital cable works best but neither works good for both seeing that I lose my digital 5.1 using only the coax cables, will this problem go away when everything goes digital in FEB?

I am hooking up this box to my home theatre system, (Philips HTS 3544) is it all right to hook up the audio with both the coax cables and the digital cable at the same time?

You could, but I don't understand why/how this helps. The output of the Toslink and the S/PDIF is identical in all cases. Are you sure your receiver doesn't have a lose connector somewhere?

will this problem go away when everything goes digital in FEB?

No. The FCC cutover only applies to Over The Air (OTA) signals not your cable company. They can transition to all digital at any point. If the problem is in fact isolated to analog, then if and when that transition completes, the problem would go away. However, as I pointed out above, the Toslink and the S/PDIF output is identical. The sampling rate for analog is different than digital and that may be causing problems in your receiver, but that is a different item to investigate.

Well, I'm not ready to give up yet, but it is getting frustrating. No matter what I do or what order I start components, the 775 resets the resolution and ONLY the resolution... everything else is fine.

Hoping for a firmware fix.

Well, I'm not ready to give up yet, but it is getting frustrating. No matter what I do or what order I start components, the 775 resets the resolution and ONLY the resolution

The resolution gets reset each time a different HDMI monitor is connected (we query the device to find out what resolutions its supports/prefers). When a receiver is connected, only one HDMI device should be seen by the 775 (and those are the resolutions we show).

Based on your symptoms, it appears like your receiver is surfacing itself as an HDMI display (which is correct), but sometimes, its also exposing the TV (which should not be). This is why I suspect you have the PCM issue with the A35. The A35 sees the TV (which only supports PCM) whereas it really should only see the receiver.

Hoping for a firmware fix.

At this point, this still appears to be a problem with the receiver. Can you please go into diagnostics, go to the Interface status page (21), select HDMI and tell me what you see (i.e. all the fields on the screen)?

Thanks.

The resolution gets reset each time a different HDMI monitor is connected (we query the device to find out what resolutions its supports/prefers). When a receiver is connected, only one HDMI device should be seen by the 775 (and those are the resolutions we show).

Based on your symptoms, it appears like your receiver is surfacing itself as an HDMI display (which is correct), but sometimes, its also exposing the TV (which should not be). This is why I suspect you have the PCM issue with the A35. The A35 sees the TV (which only supports PCM) whereas it really should only see the receiver.



At this point, this still appears to be a problem with the receiver. Can you please go into diagnostics, go to the Interface status page (21), select HDMI and tell me what you see (i.e. all the fields on the screen)?

Thanks.


Interface stats on HD channels...

Devices connected 4c 2d ac 2 0 0 0 0
Repeater - YES
HDCP Supported - YES
Pref Resolution - Unkown
Supported Res - 480p 720p 1080i
Audio Capable - YES (PCM/AC3)
Sampling Rates - 48k 96k 192k

A/V Status Video Audio
Enabled YES YES
Mute NO YES

In Video Format - 1080i
Out Video Format - 1080i
Video Constrained - NONE
Audio Samp Rate - 48k
Audio Format - AC3
HDCP Status - DISABLED
HDCP Scope - Content Activated
HDMI Constrain - YES
HDCP Counter - 0

Interface stats on SD channels...

(everything was the same except these settings...)

In Video Format - 480i
Out Video Format - 480p
Video Constrained - NONE
Audio Samp Rate - 36k
Audio Format - PCM

Can the internal drive be swapped for a 750GB and use an external 750GB at the same time?
If you do this, you will

1. Void the warranty
2. Lose temperature/overheat detection on the internal drive.

It may or may not work, but it is an unsupported operation. Understood. But it would be worth the risk for the storage space. Our TDC775 only cost us $224 so there's not a really lot at stake. ;)Your diagnostics page says you are using the Seagate ST3160023AS drive which is just a stock Barracuda 7200.7 (http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/sata/cuda7200_sata_pm.pdf) drive.

How would it be different to swap it for a 750GB or even a 1TB drive from the same family? :confused:

OTOH, we tried to connect a 500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 series ST3500641AS (http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=785e99f4fa74c010VgnVCM100000dd04090aRCRD ) in an external chassis to the eSATA port but the 775 could not see it at all?! What would be the problem there?? It doesn't have stock firmware. The firmware is optimized for DVR usage.

May work, but you're on your own from a tech support standpoint. I will tell you that we never have tested this scenario.

What model chasis?

BTW, since you talking about a 775, this discussion should be moved over to the 775 thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=659367).
:confused: So you are saying that the Seagate ST3160023AS you are using has different firmware than the exact same partnumber purchased online??

The chassis we used was a Sabrent (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2427201&CatId=2780) from Tiger Direct.

Lindend, just noticed that my firmware went to 10.45. Don't see anything in the firmware notes. Anything new and exciting in 10.45?

:confused: So you are saying that the Seagate ST3160023AS you are using has different firmware than the exact same partnumber purchased online??

Most likely yes. I don't think its anything to get stressed out about though. The DVR firmware is optimized for DVR usage while the stock firmware is designed for PC usage (i.e. increased error handling, louder operation etc.).

The chassis we used was a Sabrent (http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2427201&CatId=2780) from Tiger Direct.

Hmmm, this should work. When you plug it in, what does the HDD status page in diags report? Does the box take longer to boot when its plugged in? Did it ask you to format the drive during the early boot process? What type of eSATA cable are you using and are you sure it fits the drive cleanly (see earlier discussion on this cable topic in this thread).

The DVR firmware is optimized for DVR usage while the stock firmware is designed for PC usageWell, Seagate (and all the others) make drives which are supposedly optimized to DVR/media streaming applications, such as the DB35 Series.

The 500GB SATA II Seagate drive I refer to is spec'd for some high performance DVR applications.

But this begs the question, does Pace have a list of approved drives or known problem drives?

What is the minimum spec to look for?
SATA I or II?
5400 or 7200RPM?
Average access time?
Buffer size?
Etc.?What specifically will not work?

When you plug it in, what does the HDD status page in diags report?Nothing. Only the internal drive.Does the box take longer to boot when its plugged in?Yes.Did it ask you to format the drive during the early boot process?No.What type of eSATA cable are you using and are you sure it fits the drive cleanlyIt works fine on our PC. The Pace unit did not format it because the drive is still readable on the PC.

does Pace have a list of approved drives or known problem drives?

No, but there is info on problematic eSATA enclosures on this thread. There also should be a post that points out eSATA boot problems which you are experiencing.

We do not support eSATA drives with SSC enabled (this normally isn't the default for most drives).


What is the minimum spec to look for?
SATA I or II?
5400 or 7200RPM?
Average access time?
Buffer size?
Etc.?What specifically will not work?

The SATA drive needs to be capable of handling three simultaneous HD streams. HD streams typically don't exceed ~19 mbps, so SATA I will be fine. A larger buffer would be helpful, but isn't required per se.

Long boot times followed by failure to recognize the drive are typically caused by either CRC errors (enclosure) or a bad cable that isn't fitting the housing correctly.

I am very familiar with the DCT 6416. I used to have one through Mediacom Cable. All of mediacoms boxes of this nature have external ports disabled, and the firmware versions, last I checked, were not capable of recognizing additional space anyways. The only thing you could hook up to a Motorola box that Mediacom provides is a Firewire connection to a laptop for "real-time" video capture. HOWEVER, recently Mediacom started carrying the PACE TAHOE boxes, TDC778x & 779X. These do have the eSATA port enabled through mediacom. I recently exchanged my Motorola for one of these and currently I'm using a SATA enclosure with a 750GB internal 3.5 Seagate that you can get from WAL*MART.com and it works swell giving me about 95 hours of HD recording space. This only cost me about a $200 dollar investment in all.

I'm using a SATA enclosure with a 750GB internal 3.5 SeagateWhich model Seagate?

Which model Seagate?

I got mine through Wal*Mart.com. The web site says the model number is ST3750640ASRK. The price is $169.88 and I got a SATA enclosure made by NSPIRE, model number NSP-HD-353-SSC. You can find those on the web too for around $38 bucks.

for Lindend
I went to the settings, Dashboard etc, and did not see the choice of changing the resolutions. I have Bresnan in Western MT, vers 10.10, 775d model.. My problem is with an hdmi connection to a Pannasonic commercial plasma, I can't change the aspect of the view on the pan. plasma. It used to work. No longer. thanks for all your help
Jim

Hello, this is my first post on this site, however i use it alot for researching etc.

I have some questions.. First some background.. i have a TDC775D (abviously)

Awhile back, i was curious how to get recorded content off of my DVR, and onto my computer. I was sucessfully able to do so following the guide: How to record via IEEE 1394 (Firewire) to Windows XP. (Sorry i cant post a url yet, but i think you understand)
At that time i only did a few shows and everything was great.

I have again wanted to get some shows off of my DVR to save them permanantly, and then remove them from the DVR once saved. I did the same exact things as before... (its been awhile since i did it last time.. i have reformatted the laptop that previously worked since then.. so i had to re-set it up) but this time it doesnt work at all. Same OS was installed as before so that didnt change.

VLC player doesnt stream at all now (it worked before), and when i try to record via capdvhs when i hit "record" capdvhs crashes.

I was trying all this last night, so out of curiousity i was wondering what could be causing it. The only thing i can think of is possibly firmware changes since the last time i tried? I searched this forum, and found nothing that really stood out.

1394 is enabled when i go to the diagnostics screen, but i noticed im on an OLD firmware.. 9.56 i think? And now the latest is 10.xx!!

I figured shoot, i have been also having little minor bugs, so ill contact my cable company and see what they say.

I use BendBroadBand in Bend, Oregon.

Here is my conversation with them thus far:

Hello.. I currently have the Pace TDC775 DVR in my house that you guys have provided me. I have been having some issues with playback, and performance with this box I did some research online, and found that most of the problems i am having have been resolved by newer firmware... for example one problem is how bright the blue power light is, has been resolved with a newer firmware. My unit has the firmware version of 9.59 if i remember correctly but now the latest version is something like 10.60 I was wondering when you guys were going to deploy this newer version to my unit? Its my understanding that its done fairly easy through the cable line. Could you please help? Thanks for your time.

Their Reply:

Dear Muad'Dib,

Thank you for contacting bend broadband.

I have forwarded this information to our headend engineers. in their response they have affirmed that pushing a update of this nature is not at all as easy as one would just think. At this time it is not authorized for release on our systems.

If you are having a playback issue on the pace box I would suggest forcing a download of the software to refresh the system. Unplug the box from power and wait about 5 seconds, then plug the box back into power.

When firmware updates have been approved and beta tested the headend will update software in the headend and field. However, I have no dates that this is planned in the near future.

My Reply to that:

THANKS FOR THE REPLY ON THIS MATTER. I HAVE FORCED A DOWNLOAD OF THE SOFTWARE MULTIPLE TIMES, WITH NO LUCK. I GUESS MY MAIN PROBLEMS ARE THESE:
PERFORMANCE OF THE BOX SOMETIMES GETS FAIRLY SLOW.
FOX SOMETIMES IS GRAINLY / PIXELATED... I DOUBT THAT IS A DVR THING HOWEVER.
WHEN WATCHING A RECORDING, SOME OF THE PLAYBACK CONTROLS GET MESSED UP... CANT SKIP FORWARD OR BACKWARD.. AND WHEN YOU ATTEMPT TO PAUSE, RESUME FROM A PAUSE, FAST FOWARD, REWIND, OR RESUME FROM FAST FOWARD/REWIND IT WILL "LAG" LIKE IT HASNT RECOGNISED THE COMMAND FROM THE REMOTE. SOMETIMES THIS WILL CLEAR UP IF YOU EXIT THE RECORDING, AND THEN START IT OVER AGAIN...
DO YOU GUYS BETA TEST IN THE FIELD? OR ONLY IN-HOUSE? IF YOU BETA TEST IN THE FIELD, I WOULD LIKE TO BE A PART OF THE TESTING PROCESS. THANKS FOR YOUR TIME.

And now im waiting for their reply.

My questions are these:

Is what they told me sound about right?

What can i do / try to get my 1394 captures to work again correctly?

Do my issues seem to be ones that are resolved with newer firmware?

Any suggestions, thoughts, and comments are extremely appreciated.

Thanks for your time.

Disregard last post , I figured it out. The cable Co, Bresnan, had done funny things, but it works now
Jim

I have my DVR set to record a couple shows whenever a new episode is broadcast, and it has always worked fine. Tonight, one of the shows came on at 8:30, and at 8:45 I looked at my Pace box, and noticed that it was not recording. I turned on the box, and it immediately began recording the show (and missed the first half). I never had this happen before. Any idea why it would do this?

Lindend, just noticed that my firmware went to 10.45. Don't see anything in the firmware notes. Anything new and exciting in 10.45?

Release notes are up now.

Well as an update to my previous post, i found out that i can record / stream tv and most channels if its live... however, if i play a video that i have recorded, and try to record it, thats when i get the crash with capdvhs... and of course the lack of streaming through VLC.

Seems kind of weird...

EDIT:

Linden, any comments about my previous post? Thanks for your valuable time.

Just curious Lindend, don't want to be a pain, but have we given up on my weird issue? Are we chalking it up to a HDMI handshake problem with the receiver?

Just curious, again, don't want to be a pain in your backside, you're very busy on this forum.

My DVR was reading about 70% full the other night, and nothing has been recorded since. Tonight, when I turned it on, I get a message "DVR is 100% full". I deleted 2 shows, and it still comes up with the same message. I powered it down and back on, and if I change the channel, the message stays up on the screen. Any ideas? Can't watch anything.

Just curious Lindend, don't want to be a pain, but have we given up on my weird issue? Are we chalking it up to a HDMI handshake problem with the receiver?

No, we haven't given up on the issue. Based on your problem description, it sounds like its a receiver bug. We may be able to put in a workaround for the receiver bug in a future release, but we're likely to fix bugs/issues in our firmware first before addressing this issue.

DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME!!

I MAKE NO GUARANTEES OR RECOMMENDATIONS OF ANY KIND AND YOU MAY DAMAGE YOUR DVR OR ELECTROCUTE YOURSELF!!

OBVIOUSLY WARRANTY WILL NOT COVER EITHER. CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!

OK. A progress report on some experiments

Relative to increasing the size of the Pace internal disk drive:

Both 500GB and 750GB Seagate HDDs work correctly when attached to the "internal" SATA port and format to their full capacities.

BUT ... there is a wierd bug which I am chasing: while the supplied internal 160GB drive works properly, the DVR will not recognize the presence of the 500GB bare drive I installed in its place. At least not when the drive was powered by the DVR power supply. :confused: But it does recognize the bare internal 500GB drive when it powered by an external power supply.This is confusing as the 500GB drive actually has identical or lower power consumption than the preinstalled 160GB drive. Monitoring the power supply, there is no change in either the 5V or the 12V rails from one drive to the other. It may be a firmware handshake issue ... I'm looking for a workaround. I haven't tried a bare 750GB drive on the internal port ... the 750GB I just bought for this experiment is a Seagate FreeAgent Pro (http://www.seagate.com/ww/v/index.jsp?locale=en-US&name=freeagent-pro-750gb-usb2.0-esata-external-hd&vgnextoid=590e26bbdae90110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&vgnextchannel=03d5368407f70110VgnVCM100000f5ee0a0aRCRD&reqPage=Model) in a sealed external case with its own power supply.

Another anomally: when attaching the 750GB eSATA drive to the "external" SATA port, it only formatted to 665GB; attaching it to the "internal" SATA port resulted in a formatted capacity of 749GB ... a difference of 84GB!

For the moment, I have disconnected the internal 160GB drive (so that my DVR runs cooler) and am running only the external 750GB drive. I removed, inverted and reinstalled the eSATA connector on the rear panel of the DVR which allows this connector to plug into the "internal" SATA port on the motherboard (instead of the "external" SATA port). The DVR sees the external eSATA drive as drive "1" (internal) and even has temperature monitoring available.

I am considering adding a second eSATA connector to the rear panel of the DVR so that I can attach two external eSATA drives at the same time without leaving the cover off the DVR.

BTW, the DVR reports having 150hrs of HD space available!! :D

No, we haven't given up on the issue. Based on your problem description, it sounds like its a receiver bug. We may be able to put in a workaround for the receiver bug in a future release, but we're likely to fix bugs/issues in our firmware first before addressing this issue.

The only reason I asked again, is after reading a bit more about the Toshiba A35 issue, it's an issue with the A35, not at the receiver end. Everyone with an A35 has to turn on their receiver first to get the proper handshake. I just wanted to add that so you know where I'm coming from.

Thanks again for all your help.

My DVR was reading about 70% full the other night, and nothing has been recorded since. Tonight, when I turned it on, I get a message "DVR is 100% full". I deleted 2 shows, and it still comes up with the same message. I powered it down and back on, and if I change the channel, the message stays up on the screen. Any ideas? Can't watch anything.

After posting this, I found other references with the same problem with the suggestion to unplug to reboot the box. I did that, and now I lost all my recordings, it's showing 0% full, and all my future recording settings have been deleted. Is my box defective, or is this one of those "known bugs" that will get fixed in the future? Very annoying.

Muad"Dib,

Linden, any comments about my previous post? Thanks for your valuable time.

The 1394 support is essentially unchanged between those two firmware releases. We haven't had any problem reports in that area in a while.

There have been periodic reports on this forum about capdvhs being unstable/crash prone. We investigated this issue and verified that we were feeding it a valid stream before it crashed. Since there's no source code available for capdvhs to see why it crashed, our investigation stalled.

What we test with 1394 is DVHS devices (mainly) and some 1394 TVs. These have been verified to work.

After posting this, I found other references with the same problem with the suggestion to unplug to reboot the box. I did that, and now I lost all my recordings, it's showing 0% full, and all my future recording settings have been deleted. Is my box defective, or is this one of those "known bugs" that will get fixed in the future? Very annoying.

Given the loss of scheduled recordings, sounds like there's something going on with your HDD. Have you looked at diagnostics for the drive?

Given the loss of scheduled recordings, sounds like there's something going on with your HDD. Have you looked at diagnostics for the drive?

I looked there, it shows:

Fragmented/max files 0/0
Total size 158 GB
Fail boots 0
Spin down 0

Not sure what I should be looking for.

I looked there, it shows:

Fragmented/max files 0/0
Total size 158 GB
Fail boots 0
Spin down 0

Not sure what I should be looking for.

Last format date/time. # of formats.

Also, if you ever see no hard disk found it could be a problem.

Muad"Dib,



The 1394 support is essentially unchanged between those two firmware releases. We haven't had any problem reports in that area in a while.

There have been periodic reports on this forum about capdvhs being unstable/crash prone. We investigated this issue and verified that we were feeding it a valid stream before it crashed. Since there's no source code available for capdvhs to see why it crashed, our investigation stalled.

What we test with 1394 is DVHS devices (mainly) and some 1394 TVs. These have been verified to work.

Yeah its very odd on my end. I can get anything live to stream off of the DVR into VLC Player via 1394, but as soon as i play something that has been recorded, i have issues. VLC wont stream any of this content. (Nor can i record).

Any suggestions?

Another anomally: when attaching the 750GB eSATA drive to the "external" SATA port, it only formatted to 665GB; attaching it to the "internal" SATA port resulted in a formatted capacity of 749GB ... a difference of 84GB!

We looked into this issue and it relates to why no more than 750GB is currently supported on eSATA drives.

The software has logic to properly partition eSATA drives so that when the equivalent of checkdisk is run, everything will work properly.

By contrast, no such logic exists for the internal drives (since only 160GB is officially supported). Consequently, if the file system is left in a dirty (i.e. improper shutdown) state after a reboot, you may encounter issues with recordings etc. being lost or potentially even a hang as the file system integrity check is done and fails. I'm not saying this definitely will happen, but it is the worst case scenario.

you may encounter issues with recordings etc. being lost or potentially even a hang as the file system integrity check is done and fails.How would I 'force' a system integrity check (FSCK?) to test this? (The answer may be obvious but I seem to be dozy today ;) )

How would I 'force' a system integrity check (FSCK?) to test this?

One is done each time you boot. Its the only time its run.

The problem that you'll have is without a debug build, you really can't see if its reporting errors and/or complaining about something.

One is done each time you boot.A 'cold' boot or a hot boot?without a debug build, you really can't see if its reporting errorsHow can I force a 'dirty' shutdown? Pull power during record?

A 'cold' boot or a hot boot?

Both.

How can I force a 'dirty' shutdown? Pull power during record?

Pulling the power at any point will cause it. Doing it during a recording will increase the probability of potential file system issues. But again, there's no guarantee that the problem will surface after X dirty reboots. It can take quite a while even in a lab scenario with lots of boxes to get a reasonable sample size to determine if there are issues.

Last format date/time. # of formats.

Also, if you ever see no hard disk found it could be a problem.

It shows 1 format, with unknown date. So I assume that means it didn't reformat over the weekend, so what happened to all my recordings?

I need a bit of help. When I am watching a recorded show and recording two other shows at once, and I delete the recorded show that I am watching the DVR hard crashes and reboots. (775D, v10.10). Any ideas?

Also, is there any way to reboot the DVR without losing my guide and having to wait 20 minutes for the DVR to allow me to access my recordings? I seem to recall talk about this, but I can't remember how it is done.

I just got a Pace Tahoe TDC775D from Cable Bahamas. First, although I got the Pace box, they gave me a Motorola remote. The second confusing thing, is that I seem to have the old Motorola software from Passport, although it does have TVguide's logo on the program guide. Anyway, after reading a lot of these posts it looks like I have different software from all of you.

I can't seem to get into the service menu, any idea what will work with my software?

More importantly, everytime I try to change the way SD 480i format is upconverted I can't get it to cheange from "16x9, with 480i passthrough". I hit select, and it just reverts back to the original setting. (this is in the advanced settings page under "Menu")

This is a real pain, since when I change from a HD channel to an SD channel my HDTV can't display the video. I have to manually switch to the s-video feed to see the SD channel.

The other menu item choices are: "16x9 with 480p passtrough", and then 1080i with I think gray bars (can't remember the wording). I think the latter is what I want, but can't switch to it.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

Also the RF Bypass (I only have the button on the Pace box, not the remote) doesn't seem to work, nor do I have a way to switch inputs on the Pace box to see Component pass through etc. Any help or re-direction to more information would be appreciated. Thanks.

I just got a Pace Tahoe TDC775D from Cable Bahamas. First, although I got the Pace box, they gave me a Motorola remote.

The remotes are interchangeable and are made by a third company (UEI).

The second confusing thing, is that I seem to have the old Motorola software from Passport, although it does have TVguide's logo on the program guide.

Cable Bahamas uses Passport and not TV Guide. What is confusing is that TV Guide bought Aptiv (the makers of Passport Echo). So technically, both program guides are made by TV Guide.

I think to minimize confusion, I will create a Passport Echo running on Pace set tops thread. I'll let you know when the thread is available.

Anyway, after reading a lot of these posts it looks like I have different software from all of you.

You do.

I can't seem to get into the service menu, any idea what will work with my software?

With Passport, to get into diags, you need to use the following key sequence.

Power
Select
Select

Note: timing is important with this key sequence (needs to be completed within two seconds).

TV Guide only requires a select select key press.

To get to Pace User Settings, you need to use the following key sequence.

Power
Menu
Menu

Note: timing isn't important with this key sequence.

More importantly, everytime I try to change the way SD 480i format is upconverted I can't get it to cheange from "16x9, with 480i passthrough". I hit select, and it just reverts back to the original setting. (this is in the advanced settings page under "Menu")

I'd recommend using the Pace User Settings. The Passport settings are designed around the Motorola boxes which aren't capable of resolution pass through. As a result, you may run into some oddities in this area.

If you use the Pace User settings to control the support resolutions and whether or not you want auto-pillar box enabled, I believe your issues will be solved.


Also the RF Bypass (I only have the button on the Pace box, not the remote) doesn't seem to work, nor do I have a way to switch inputs on the Pace box to see Component pass through etc. Any help or re-direction to more information would be appreciated. Thanks.

RF Bypass is somewhat limited with Passport compared to TV Guide. Please explain in more detail what you're trying to do.

Thank you so much for the quick response, I'll try the button presses when I get back in front of the box.

Regarding the bypass function:

I'd like to be able to pass the regular cable signal through the Pace box to my Media Center PC's tuner. At the moment that output is the standard "Pass the output of the Pace tuner on Channel 3".

The second thing is I would like to be able to use the component in connections to pass the output of my satellite box, through the Pace and to my HDTV. Basically using the Pace as a switcher (hopefully remote controllable), since I've run out of Component inputs on my amp.

I'm about ready to give up on this one. I have the 775 with the Seagate FreeAgent 500GB and for the most part it's been OK. I did the firmware update of the FreeAgent and that helped a bit but for some particular reason I'm having issues with programs recorded on one of the frequently used (in my household) channels. The digital CBS (611 on Buckeye Cablesystem in NW Ohio) often shows high pixelation break up on playback. Doesn't necessarily happen on every show recorded on that channel but for some reason nearly always happens on the two shows my wife enjoys watching. American Idol and Big Brother (now end of season). It's almost like there is something on this digital signal that's not on the others. I've checked and it doesn't seem to matter whether it's recorded on the internal SATA or the eSATA (Seagate). It has also happened with other shows but 95% of the time it's 611 (CBS digital). I have two other DVRs in my house. Both 778's, neither of which have external drives attached but neither of them have this issue. I've tested recording these shows on multiple TV's and it's just the 775 that has the issue. This box has the original software that was on it when Buckeye gave me the box. They've never updated it as far as I know. If memory serves me it's verion 9.31 or something like that. I can confirm tonight. Am I wasting my time with this set up? Should I just turn it in and get another 778 and replace the Seagate with an eSATA "only" drive like the DVR Expander from Western Digital? My wife has a ton of stuff recorded on this and she's going to kill me when and if I need to pull the plug. :eek:
Thanks.
Bob

I'm about ready to give up on this one. I have the 775 with the Seagate FreeAgent 500GBI have been having no issues with the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 (which also has both USB & eSATA) connections.

I have been having no issues with the Seagate FreeAgent Pro 750 (which also has both USB & eSATA) connections.

I suspect you're also on a newer firmware though. Do you recall which version you're on?

Do you recall which version you're on?No idea other than it is the version Seagate was distributing about two weeks ago when I installed the drive and it did an auto-update!

No idea other than it is the version Seagate was distributing about two weeks ago when I installed the drive and it did an auto-update!

Actually I was refering to the 775's software version. I just called my service provider and asked about whether or not they would be upgrading the software on the 775 and the best they could do was tell me to bring it in and they'd be happy to swap it out. Standard reply.

Actually I was refering to the 775's software version.Last I looked, it was 10.29

OTOH, and while I'm thinking about it ... I have been experiencing EXTREMELY sluggish operation ... slow to respond to remote ... all FF speeds are the same "very slow" and "cyclical and choppy". A hard reset cures it for a brief time.

Last I looked, it was 10.29

OTOH, and while I'm thinking about it ... I have been experiencing EXTREMELY sluggish operation ... slow to respond to remote ... all FF speeds are the same "very slow" and "cyclical and choppy". A hard reset cures it for a brief time.

I just verified that mine is 9.31. I suspect that can't be good. :mad:

It looks like something happened to my hard disk (internal). Every time I try to access the recorded shows it says it can't access it. I'm able to watch Live TV, but can't do any DVR functions. The program guide also has no data. Is there any way I can fix this? My cable company's customer service is technically challenged.

It looks like something happened to my hard disk (internal). Every time I try to access the recorded shows it says it can't access it. I'm able to watch Live TV, but can't do any DVR functions. The program guide also has no data. Is there any way I can fix this? My cable company's customer service is technically challenged.

Can you please repost your questions on the Passport 775 thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1023744)?

Wondering if anyone experienced problems with accessing the guide right after turning on the Pace PVR?

It appears that it does not matter if I set the HD to go into sleep mode or not.
I cannot operate the guide or any menus 15-30 seconds after turning on PVR for whatever reason.

Software version is the 10.29.

Thanks.