I don't have the new Sammy boxes yet, but I know a lot of people with HD sets that leave their aspect ratio setting at 4x3, because they say, "The people look more like people," whatever that means.

When I saw those Jpeg screen shots, the picture did look very "stretched." Is the user at a 16x9 aspect ratio. From what I have seen between the OCAP and MDN screens with the new colored version of Navigator, the differences are fairly small.

Question, when you go to that "Devices" setting, what does that actually give you the option to change?

Jack

Interesting... even the Tivo HD is stretched. I think that says alot about the way many HD channels broadcast, almost everyone seems to be catering to those who "want the screen filled" rather than real 16:9.TiVo's GUI isn't "stretched", per se--it's just kind of spread out and rendered at the same resolution as on the standard-def TiVo (upconverted to HD-rez).

They're working on it. They're recently launched a new search tool (http://www.engadget.com/2009/01/07/tivo-has-a-new-search/), which has been in a long-term beta-test. It's high-definition, using all of the screen realistate and some fine pitch fonts. A highly network-oriented "feature", it's only useable on broadband connected boxes. (It dynamically downloads all that photo artwork and searches Amazon Unbox and YouTube for matches--I expect that it will eventually search Netflix Watch Instantly and other streaming and download sources). There are some demo video here (http://www.engadgethd.com/2008/09/29/potential-new-tivo-user-interface-shown-on-video/) which show a version of the main GUI with the same look and feel as the beta search app.

Do I detect just a bit of frustration/bitterness there??? :rolleyes:

The "No eSATA for you!" thing is bugging me, I must admit.

I don't have the new Sammy boxes yet, but I know a lot of people with HD sets that leave their aspect ratio setting at 4x3, because they say, "The people look more like people," whatever that means.

When I saw those Jpeg screen shots, the picture did look very "stretched." Is the user at a 16x9 aspect ratio. From what I have seen between the OCAP and MDN screens with the new colored version of Navigator, the differences are fairly small.

Question, when you go to that "Devices" setting, what does that actually give you the option to change?

Jack

i have the asect ratio in the box set to 16x9 in those pictures.
to test it for you i changed the box aspect ratio to 4x3, tuned to an HD channel the picture is still 16x9 as is the guide ( as i expected).
tuned to an SD channel the picture and guide is also 16x9 but the box is set to 4x3. changing aspect back to 16x9 puts the SD channel back to correct 4x3 aspect. so the aspect ratio of the box has no effect on the guide. but has an opposite effect on the aired show.

anyone know why changing aspect to 4x3 made the SD channel 16x9?
i've always kept the box aspect at 16x9 so if its always been like that i wouldnt know.

another thing i just noticed. when in the guide tuned to an SD 4x3 picture, the inset in the upper right is widescreen without sidebars though if i go out of the guide back to TV the picture is displayed with sidebars.
i dont watch any SD so if its always been this way i wouldnt know.

to answer the other ?. when i click settings -> devices. it backs out of the settings menu. i get a transparent pop up box overlaying what ever is on TV. its blue with a green heading. the options are sleep timer, power on timer, power off timer, analog audio sap, audio coding format, audio output range, audio output, ac outlet, rf bypass, and exit.

Here's a work-a-round (of sports). Generally speaking, a TV sets controls will trump what the cable box is putting out. So if that stretched guide really bugs you (and you're going to be spending some time in it), use the TVs aspect controls to force it into 4:3.

i just realized that the trick of pressing pause after rewinding no longer prevents it from skipping back 30 seconds. is this known with v3.1.0_11?

i rewound just a little, paused, then played and it jumped back to the exact spot that i had began rewinding.

am i the only one having issues with PIP? am i do only one who uses PIP?

other than the no external hard drive since the last update, PIP is my biggest issue.

btw, i think adding a new series should but it at the bottom of the list not the top.

I've just recently discovered this forum so i'm not aware of TWC's timelines so was wondering if anyone knew how long us Kansas City area customers might have to wait before we can get one of the new Samsung DVR's? Also when available can you just go exchange for one or does your current DVR have to be defective in some way?
Also on a side note, how come after the latest upgrade the ability to turn up/down the volume of the DVR box (vol + or -) has disappeared?

Thanks.

I've just recently discovered this forum so i'm not aware of TWC's timelines so was wondering if anyone knew how long us Kansas City area customers might have to wait before we can get one of the new Samsung DVR's? Also when available can you just go exchange for one or does your current DVR have to be defective in some way?
Also on a side note, how come after the latest upgrade the ability to turn up/down the volume of the DVR box (vol + or -) has disappeared?

Thanks.

I just walked up to the TW mall kiosk and said, "I'd like to swap this for one of the new Samsungs". She said, "sure" and less than two minutes later I was walking out with one.

I just walked up to the TW mall kiosk and said, "I'd like to swap this for one of the new Samsungs". She said, "sure" and less than two minutes later I was walking out with one.

What ODN version does that new Sammy have? Is it one of the two versions of ODN 3 that were on the 8300HDCs or is it a special version just for the Sammy?

What ODN version does that new Sammy have? Is it one of the two versions of ODN 3 that were on the 8300HDCs or is it a special version just for the Sammy?

3.1.0_11, exactly the same as was on my 8300HDC. Same build date and all. From what I have read, your newer 3.1.1_3 is virtually identical (except that eSATA was broken - again).

Except for the stretched banner graphics (the guide doesn't look so bad because its full screen, the banner has that stretched silly putty look, lol), its behavior is virtually indistinguishable from the 8300HDC. I haven't had any delayed channel changes, but I only rarely got them on the 8300.

Had one issue with Find Shows Keyboard search last night: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=16206272#post16206272

TWC is testing the Samsung 3260 HD-STB and 3270 HD-DVR in the San Diego area. It's in final testing. You might not get the SMT-H30xx. It could very well be the 3260 or the 3270.

Edit: The 3260 and the 3270 are newer boxes than the 3050 and the 3090.

TWC is testing the Samsung 3260 HD-STB and 3270 HD-DVR in the San Diego area. It's in final testing. You might not get the SMT-H30xx. It could very well be the 3260 or the 3270.

Edit: The 3260 and the 3270 are newer boxes than the 3050 and the 3090.

...and here I thought we were getting the hot shnits here in Charlotte, lol. We're one of the first and we're already behind. Geez.

I've just recently discovered this forum so i'm not aware of TWC's timelines so was wondering if anyone knew how long us Kansas City area customers might have to wait before we can get one of the new Samsung DVR's? Also when available can you just go exchange for one or does your current DVR have to be defective in some way?
Also on a side note, how come after the latest upgrade the ability to turn up/down the volume of the DVR box (vol + or -) has disappeared?

Thanks.

Can you move the volume up/down with the remote? If yes, it could be a software issue, if not, read below:

For the volume control thing, try a reboot of your box. If that doesn't work, since cable never provides customers with remote control program instructions, look for the name and model number of your remote
through a Yahoo or Google Search. You should be able to find instructions for your specific remote on reprogramming your remote control for volume or anything else.

Jack

... since cable never provides customers with remote control program instructions...

Have a look here... http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/site.faqs/Equipmenta/#Remotes
...other divisions must have this as well but if you find the right manual here, go for it.

I would also check to see that the box audio options are not configured for a fixed output.

I've just recently discovered this forum so i'm not aware of TWC's timelines so was wondering if anyone knew how long us Kansas City area customers might have to wait before we can get one of the new Samsung DVR's? Also when available can you just go exchange for one or does your current DVR have to be defective in some way?
Also on a side note, how come after the latest upgrade the ability to turn up/down the volume of the DVR box (vol + or -) has disappeared?

Thanks.

There are three possibilities I can think of:

Someone programmed the remote to control the TV.
Your remote is set to control something other than the cable box. Press the CBL button to tell the remote to control the cable box.
Someone set your cable box's volume control to fixed mode.

The procedure to set the remote to control the TV or the cable box volume control is very big and depends on your remote's model number. I can only tell you to read the manual.

If your cable box has been set to a fixed volume control, setting it back to variable mode depends on your box. If you have an MDN box, you will find the volume control mode in the audio menu in the settings control panel. If you have an ODN box, you will find it in the Devices submenu in the quick settings menu in the settings control panel.

So when is someone going to hook up an eSATA drive to a Samsung?

xnappo

Have a look here... http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/site.faqs/Equipmenta/#Remotes
...other divisions must have this as well but if you find the right manual here, go for it.

I would also check to see that the box audio options are not configured for a fixed output.Also, I believe that you cannot control the volume of the digital feed to your receiver.

So when is someone going to hook up an eSATA drive to a Samsung?

xnappoSince it seems to be a software issue, I very much doubt it will work any better on different hardware.

Since it seems to be a software issue, I very much doubt it will work any better on different hardware.

The eSATA driver is low-level (ie not written in Java) - I think it is worth a shot.

xnappo

When I saw the "cable box volume", I asked myself "Do they still make that?" Haven't used that in years. Been using DD surround receiver for the past three years and before that using the TVs volume level always sounded better than messing with the built in volume control on Passport.

Have a look here... http://www.timewarnercable.com/Carolinas/site.faqs/Equipmenta/#Remotes
...other divisions must have this as well but if you find the right manual here, go for it.

I would also check to see that the box audio options are not configured for a fixed output.

Wow. I don't think I've ever seen or heard of half of those remotes before. :eek:

QA on the SA boxes has gone down hill once Cisco took them over. They had a lot of HDC boxes come back due to issues. They make them in Mexico as fast as they can with little to no QA. The Samsung 32xx boxes still have issues but should be good enough for a late April/Early May launch in San Diego. As for the 32xx being newer, well thats what my divisions president said.

One thing that really struck me when I picked up the box was how open the interior layout was and how much ventilation is available in the case. You can clearly see all components inside in great detail.

One thing that really struck me when I picked up the box was how open the interior layout was and how much ventilation is available in the case. You can clearly see all components inside in great detail.

yep, theres a couple inches between the top case and the components that is completely open. the numerous fairly large holes in the top make it easy to read the part numbers on many of the components. shouldnt have any overheating problems.

There are three possibilities I can think of:

Someone programmed the remote to control the TV.
Your remote is set to control something other than the cable box. Press the CBL button to tell the remote to control the cable box.
Someone set your cable box's volume control to fixed mode.

The procedure to set the remote to control the TV or the cable box volume control is very big and depends on your remote's model number. I can only tell you to read the manual.

If your cable box has been set to a fixed volume control, setting it back to variable mode depends on your box. If you have an MDN box, you will find the volume control mode in the audio menu in the settings control panel. If you have an ODN box, you will find it in the Devices submenu in the quick settings menu in the settings control panel.


Thanks to jnv11 and everyone else that replied. I was able to find that my box is set for fixed and i am not able to access it to change it so during this last upgrade they must have just decided to make it fixed only. I only used it to make sure the box was outputting the loudest volume to the tv as everytime the box rebooted it would put that volume at only about 3/4 max and i would have to manually press the vol + to get it to output max volume. No big deal as I can't change it now anyway, I was just being anal before anyway. Thanks again.

NYC is finally getting MDN on May 31st. So the last major Passport division is finally going all Navigator.

NYC is finally getting MDN on May 31st. So the last major Passport division is finally going all Navigator.

Now ,maybe us in SARA divisions will soon see NAVIGATOR. Fingers crossed.

The "No eSATA for you!" thing is bugging me, I must admit.

Time Warner... the DVR Nazis!;)

NYC is finally getting MDN on May 31st. So the last major Passport division is finally going all Navigator.

Might I ask how you came across this tidbit?

Time Warner... the DVR Nazis!;)

Glad to see it was not lost on you :cool:

The worst part of it is that they had to ruin the one thing that was on par or better than other DVRs - did not have to manually move recording to drive like satelite USB drives, could choose just about any external drive (unlike Tivo, at least without voiding the warranty), and the individual recordings were not split a piece on each drive (Tivo does it, so all your recordings after you hook up the drive only work if both drives are OK).
Maybe their grand plan is to push us (the more demanding bunch) to buy Tivo HD or Moxi, as then we'd feel like we've made a significant investment that does not work with satelite and we'd be locked into cable - collecting DVR fees from us is not worth the risk of us leaving for satelite... :rolleyes:

Glad to see it was not lost on you :cool:

The worst part of it is that they had to ruin the one thing that was on par or better than other DVRs - did not have to manually move recording to drive like satelite USB drives, could choose just about any external drive (unlike Tivo, at least without voiding the warranty), and the individual recordings were not split a piece on each drive (Tivo does it, so all your recordings after you hook up the drive only work if both drives are OK).
Maybe their grand plan is to push us (the more demanding bunch) to buy Tivo HD or Moxi, as then we'd feel like we've made a significant investment that does not work with satelite and we'd be locked into cable - collecting DVR fees from us is not worth the risk of us leaving for satelite... :rolleyes:

Well, if its any consolation, so far the internal DVR functions on the Sammy work fine (OK...the FF/REW video samples ARE a little funky). The doubled capacity is more than enough for me... I usually watch shows same or next day and erase (certainly within a week) or occasionaly dub to my Panny DVR to create a DVD, as with the Dexter series on Showtime. My % full on the 8300 typically hovered between 50% and 75%, so I'll be in good shape with the 320GB HDD.

I may still connect the 250GB Hitachi drive I have just to see how it works with the Sammy. Its just sitting there next to the wall unit and I finally got an eSATA cable a couple days before they released the Samsung here.

One more thing about the Sammy compared to the 8300HDC I had. The 8300 had, I believe, a differential phase issue (at least that's what we call it in analog video) where color hues were shifting with changes in brightness. It was most noticeable in facial scenes with partial shadow... as the skin tones got darker they also subtly got greener. This did NOT happen watching the same channel via QAM or OTA directly into the TV or on Blu-ray/DVD sources, all with the same TV calibrations. This drove me crazy on the 8300, but the Samsung does NOT do this. I know this is more an 8300 issue than a comment on the Sammy, but at least its another welcome improvement - for me, at least.

Still, the most marked improvement is no more ugly silver spaceship on my shelf, lol.

Any pics of the SMT-H3090?

Any pics of the SMT-H3090?

http://www.samsung.com/us/system/consumer/product/2008/05/09/smt_h3090twc/SMT-H3090_dimensien.jpg

More pics (including a flash-based of the rear connections) available here:

http://www.samsung.com/us/consumer/detail/detail.do?group=audiovideo&type=digitalsettopbox&subtype=hdtvtuners&model_cd=SMT-H3090/TWC

And the PDF brochure is here:

http://www.samsung.com/us/system/consumer/product/2008/05/09/smt_h3090twc/SMT-H3090_080205.pdf

I have not found a user/setup guide on Samsung or TW websites.

I may still connect the 250GB Hitachi drive I have just to see how it works with the Sammy. Its just sitting there next to the wall unit and I finally got an eSATA cable a couple days before they released the Samsung here.
hook that puppy up. inquiring minds want to know if it works.
Still, the most marked improvement is no more ugly silver spaceship on my shelf, lol.
amen brother!!! i almost took a black sharpie to the 8300. it was so friggn' ugly in amungst all my black components. like a red headed step child.
I have not found a user/setup guide on Samsung or TW websites..
ive Googled and ASK'ed for hours looking for some info on the home networking and USB connectivity and functions and other than the tad bit of nothing at the Samsung site i cant find anything useful.

I doubt that home networking functions are built into it. It has the MOCA interface and presumably drivers and middleware for using it--the rest is up to the IPG (and it doesn't appear to have any native IPG).

Any idea of when these receivers will see the light of day in the new york divisions ? These receivers come equipped with mdn ...right ?:confused:

Any idea of when these receivers will see the light of day in the new york divisions ? These receivers come equipped with mdn ...right ?:confused:


No, no, no, no, no.

I have no idea when NY will see these boxes. I'll be sure to call Dim Shack sometime this week and ask for our area. However, our areas may deploy the newer Samsung boxes, which are nearly identical to the 3090; though I cannot recall the model number, I believe it comes in grey and black.

These receivers will boot up to the most recent version of ODN in your area. These are tru2way/OCAP boxes, and cannot run MDN under any circumstances.

Hey now! I like my Sexy, Silver, Scientific Atlanta 8300! ;)

It beats the crap out of the POS I had before, the oversized, underwhelming SA8000. Gawd, how I hated that thing!! For as big as it was, you would think it would have a massive hard drive and excellent performance. It was an outdated POS when TWC started using them in 2004. :mad:

NYC is finally getting MDN on May 31st. So the last major Passport division is finally going all Navigator.

Not so fast there...there are some LA areas on Passport, I'm one of them..

Not so fast there...there are some LA areas on Passport, I'm one of them..

I hear they are shooting for this summer to deploy navigator in LA. Sorry my bad.

I doubt that home networking functions are built into it. It has the MOCA interface and presumably drivers and middleware for using it--the rest is up to the IPG (and it doesn't appear to have any native IPG).

Yeah, I wouldn't hold your breath. I have the new Samsung box and I hooked it up to my home network last week. I have a Home Server that supports DLNA and UpNp. The cable box didn't grab an IP, and I saw no reason to think that the ethernet port did anything. I found no settings on the box to make use of the claimed DLNA support. I was hoping to be able to stream photos, music, and videos from my home server to the box, but was unsuccessful and making any sort of connection between the server and the cable box.

I guess I need to keep looking for a cheap used Mac Mini.

Yeah, I wouldn't hold your breath. I have the new Samsung box and I hooked it up to my home network last week. I have a Home Server that supports DLNA and UpNp. The cable box didn't grab an IP, and I saw no reason to think that the ethernet port did anything. I found no settings on the box to make use of the claimed DLNA support. I was hoping to be able to stream photos, music, and videos from my home server to the box, but was unsuccessful and making any sort of connection between the server and the cable box.

I guess I need to keep looking for a cheap used Mac Mini.

ODN 4? (At least for MOCA... then TW can rent you the companion box. :rolleyes:)

I have a SC 8300HDC. I am having a party this Sunday and want to have two HDTVs running off of one DVR.

I have component cables hooked up to the main tv. I want to have a second TV just right outside on the deck with the same feed. I have a long HDMI cable. Can I hook this up to the DVR that is running the 1st TV on component AND have the second TV broadcast via HDMI?

I have a SC 8300HDC. I am having a party this Sunday and want to have two HDTVs running off of one DVR.

I have component cables hooked up to the main tv. I want to have a second TV just right outside on the deck with the same feed. I have a long HDMI cable. Can I hook this up to the DVR that is running the 1st TV on component AND have the second TV broadcast via HDMI?

Nope. I've never seen it work that way. Either one or the other, not both.

I have a SC 8300HDC. I am having a party this Sunday and want to have two HDTVs running off of one DVR.

I have component cables hooked up to the main tv. I want to have a second TV just right outside on the deck with the same feed. I have a long HDMI cable. Can I hook this up to the DVR that is running the 1st TV on component AND have the second TV broadcast via HDMI?

If you are just wanting to view a network channel (ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.), then just use an antenna. It obviously depends on where you live, but where I live in Charlotte, I can just use a 3ft long telescoping anteanna that came off of an old 1990's television, and I can pick up every network channel beautifully with the TV's built in QAM tuner. It's just a set of rabbit ears from the last decade. Is that an option for you?

I have a SC 8300HDC. I am having a party this Sunday and want to have two HDTVs running off of one DVR.

I have component cables hooked up to the main tv. I want to have a second TV just right outside on the deck with the same feed. I have a long HDMI cable. Can I hook this up to the DVR that is running the 1st TV on component AND have the second TV broadcast via HDMI?

No simultaneous HD component and HDMI from that box.

Do you have a second cable box in the house that you could move there for the party? That way you'd only have to split the RF.

Or... what channel do you wish to watch? If its one of the broadcast HDs you can just split the cable feed and pick off the QAM channel directly with the TV's tuner.

Other than that, the safest way to actually split the box output is to use a component video distribution amp (active splitter) or a VGA DA (with some adaptors) to split the component out to the two sets.

NYC is finally getting MDN on May 31st. So the last major Passport division is finally going all Navigator.
So TWC/SoCal (Los Angeles and greater surroundings except San Diego) is not major? We are still nearly all Passport. Originally scheduled to move 2 years ago (glad that did not happen). Got a letter in January that we would be moving over next couple months. Still no action. /Dan

No simultaneous HD component and HDMI from that box.

Do you have a second cable box in the house that you could move there for the party? That way you'd only have to split the RF.

Or... what channel do you wish to watch? If its one of the broadcast HDs you can just split the cable feed and pick off the QAM channel directly with the TV's tuner.

Other than that, the safest way to actually split the box output is to use a component video distribution amp (active splitter) or a VGA DA (with some adaptors) to split the component out to the two sets.

Yeah- I have a second box... I'm moving the TV from my bedroom to the patio. I guess I could run a long cable to outside from the bedroom to the patio.

It's a Masters party... watching the final round on CBS.

Yeah- I have a second box... I'm moving the TV from my bedroom to the patio. I guess I could run a long cable to outside from the bedroom to the patio.

It's a Masters party... watching the final round on CBS.

If its CBS than no box needed... just straight cable feed or OTA antenna into set.

Thanks!!!!

Which version of Navigator on the 8300 HDC does not support external hard drives? We were just upgraded (?), and now the DVR won't record, and I can't access shows from the external drive. What's the fix for this?

Which version of Navigator on the 8300 HDC does not support external hard drives? We were just upgraded (?), and now the DVR won't record, and I can't access shows from the external drive. What's the fix for this?I believe that it's been broken since rev 3.1.x_x. There is no fix that anyone's found.

So TWC/SoCal (Los Angeles and greater surroundings except San Diego) is not major? We are still nearly all Passport. Originally scheduled to move 2 years ago (glad that did not happen). Got a letter in January that we would be moving over next couple months. Still no action. /Dan

Yea San Diego has had Navigator for quite a while. Since February of last year.

I am moving to India tomorrow and will live there for six months, so here is my final wish list and swan song unless the city I wind up moving to after I arrive back in the USA after the six months has TWC. I hope that I do not wind up in a Comcast or Charter Communications area because my job requires that I will be able to move anywhere in the US on demand, so satellite is no option for me. Therefore, I will be forced to rent apartments which might have exclusivity agreements or get their landline service from one or more true T1s, which are not big enough to handle modern DSL or FIOS rates especially if that throughput is multiplexed with voice.

Wish list for ODN:
Critical:

Fix eSATA.

Regular importance:

Add keyword search.
Add manual recordings.
Add real-time data that updates as soon as changes are made if TV Guide makes real-time data available. Switch to another provider if TV Gudie does not provide this data and the other provider is able to perform this service.
Pay the local TV stations out of the DVR fee to provide the original signal for DVR users only that is accessible to them only if they are recording a show. This allows a cut-in to tell the masses to run to their basements when a tornado is incoming, but allow the recording to not be spoiled.
Move everything to H.264 except for Fox, which precompresses everything to broadcast bitrate MPEG-2 so H.264 would require transcoding from a source ill-suited for transcoding. Allow the stations to purchase any H.264 encoders and any other necessary support needed to convert to H.264 and reimburse them for the cost of them. The payoff is cutting the bandwidth used on cable in half, because I think that H.264 gets the same quality for half the throughput. Please correct me if I am wrong about the throughput savings.

Minor:

On a 16:9 capable box, utilize the extra space in a banner more effectively.
Extend the list to two hours when it is displayed in a 16:9 capable box on a 16:9 mode.
Allow the user to fill up the sidebars and move the image when dealing with a 4:3 mode on a 16:9 capable box connected to a 16:9 TV. A stock market ticker or a weather display would be perfect for this area.
Add user-selectable color schemes.

From what I have heard Keyword Search is on the list of major upgrades to Navigator in the comeing year. Remote scheduleing from cell phone or computer is also on list.

Which version of Navigator on the 8300 HDC does not support external hard drives? We were just upgraded (?), and now the DVR won't record, and I can't access shows from the external drive. What's the fix for this?

So far, all versions of ODN 3.x break external hard drive support. I got mine to work again using an old workaround from when I had 2.4.8.2, which had an issue with the box locking up when going into sleep mode and spinning down the external hard drive. BUT, all programs that had been recorded on the external drive prior to the version upgrade were lost.

Here's a description of some workarounds from two of us on the forum. My experience did not require a reformatting of the drive.
http://baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/navigator_comment?db=navigator&Id==64
My HDC was upgraded on 3/30, fix implemented 4/1, and I've had no issues since (aside from occasionally getting a prompt that my workaround show is about to record if there is another recording going on in the background/2nd tuner and I'm watching live TV).

So far, all versions of ODN 3.x break external hard drive support. I got mine to work again using an old workaround from when I had 2.4.8.2, which had an issue with the box locking up when going into sleep mode and spinning down the external hard drive. BUT, all programs that had been recorded on the external drive prior to the version upgrade were lost.

Here's a description of some workarounds from two of us on the forum. My experience did not require a reformatting of the drive.
http://baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/navigator_comment?db=navigator&Id==64
My HDC was upgraded on 3/30, fix implemented 4/1, and I've had no issues since (aside from occasionally getting a prompt that my workaround show is about to record if there is another recording going on in the background/2nd tuner and I'm watching live TV).

Is that why a second software download went out to HDC boxes? My 4250HDC had the original update to ODN 3.1.1_3 last week. Then last night, the box did another software download and rebooted. After that, everything looked identical and versions were the same, according to the on screen menu.

Here's a description of some workarounds from two of us on the forum. My experience did not require a reformatting of the drive.
http://baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/navigator_comment?db=navigator&Id==64

Thanks for posting your workaround, but it just looks like too much trouble to me to go through to make my expansion drive work. It really pi$$es me off that TWC ignores the desires of their customers to have the eSATA port supported properly in their SA boxes. My 8300HDC box was just upgraded to ODN ver. 3.1.1_3 here in San Diego, and I'm not even going to bother trying to hook my 500GB Apricorn drive back up to it, from the reports I've seen here.

Worse yet, I have not even been able to get it to work reliably with the SA 8300HD box in the bedroom running the MDN ver. 2.4.4-14-ptv (Pyramid Peak) of the Navigator software. While it recognizes and formats the drive successfully, it cuts recordings short and does not record the full program for some reason. It shows a reduction of the space % full, but when I look in the diagnostics, it shows the same number of clusters and sectors for the hard drive as when only the internal drive is present. I don't get it. How hard could it be to support external drives properly?

TT

Thanks for posting your workaround, but it just looks like too much trouble to me to go through to make my expansion drive work. It really pi$$es me off that TWC ignores the desires of their customers to have the eSATA port supported properly in their SA boxes. My 8300HDC box was just upgraded to ODN ver. 3.1.1_3 here in San Diego, and I'm not even going to bother trying to hook my 500GB Apricorn drive back up to it, from the reports I've seen here.

Worse yet, I have not even been able to get it to work reliably with the SA 8300HD box in the bedroom running the MDN ver. 2.4.4-14-ptv (Pyramid Peak) of the Navigator software. While it recognizes and formats the drive successfully, it cuts recordings short and does not record the full program for some reason. It shows a reduction of the space % full, but when I look in the diagnostics, it shows the same number of clusters and sectors for the hard drive as when only the internal drive is present. I don't get it. How hard could it be to support external drives properly?

TT

It could very well be that the workaround is only for 3.1.0_11; did not work for me using 3.1.1_3. I gave up getting the recordings from the external drive and formatted it; then both times I tried hooking it up, HDC promptly erased a random recording (even marked "not delete") from the internal drive.

From what I have heard Keyword Search is on the list of major upgrades to Navigator in the coming year. Remote scheduling from cell phone or computer is also on list.

I think Keyword Search should be out before the end of the year. (Maybe by fall in some areas.) Remote scheduling, some time next year. No word on manual recording. I don't think Keyword Search would require a lot of code to add.

Jack

Got a notice in the mail today from TWC that we are going Navigator. It said to watch for updates at TWCnyc.com. After reading some of the posts here, it gave me some pause.

does this pertain to other parts of ny though or just the nyc area :confused:?

does this pertain to other parts of ny though or just the nyc area :confused:?

Exactly, that's the thing. New York State and even New York City are almost two different TWC systems in itself. Half are SARA systems and the other half are Passport systems. I assume that the update notices are all Passport areas. (If you SARA users are getting Navigator, "Ben" is going to be very happy!!!) Keep us posted!

Jack

Got a notice in the mail today from TWC that we are going Navigator. It said to watch for updates at TWCnyc.com. After reading some of the posts here, it gave me some pause.

Did this notice give a time frame?

Jack

Consistent rumors have been saying May 31st.

Consistent rumors have been saying May 31st.

Is that when it is supposed to begin? Navigator usually doesn't happen overnight. The way it was done here, one box model was 'upgraded' per week. This way they could avoid problems of having the download not work or too many boxes bricked, on every model of box. At least if it is only one model, it's less of a major meltdown.

It could very well be that the workaround is only for 3.1.0_11; did not work for me using 3.1.1_3. I gave up getting the recordings from the external drive and formatted it; then both times I tried hooking it up, HDC promptly erased a random recording (even marked "not delete") from the internal drive.

Good to know.
I am currently on 3.1.0_11
Actually had to reboot the box today as it was unresponsive. Had a good 10 day stretch with 24/7 recording workaround.

...How hard could it be to support external drives properly?

TT

Reading data from a mass storage device is one function of computers that has been around since day one. I even remember back to the very first Apple computer... units started shipping before they got a functioning floppy disc drive going. So the ONLY way was... to hook up a standard cassette recorder! Naturally, I created one of those 3 line, Hello World things, then stored it on a cassette, the next day I could load the "program" from cassette to memory and run it.

Reading and writing to mass storage is one of THE most basic functions. So it isn't even close to hard. So that is NOT the issue, it seems quite clear that the cable outfit simply doesn't ever want to have such a function REALLY working. They want you to be buying PPV stuff instead of relying on previously recorded stuff.

Is that when it is supposed to begin? Navigator usually doesn't happen overnight. The way it was done here, one box model was 'upgraded' per week. This way they could avoid problems of having the download not work or too many boxes bricked, on every model of box. At least if it is only one model, it's less of a major meltdown.

TWCs NYC footprint has ODN equipped 8300HDCs and Passport equipped 8300HDs. We had heard that our passport boxes would not be getting MDNed until end of year. We had many happy passport people.

New rumor just sprung up that our Passport boxes were getting MDN... I think it was May 1. Needless to say, there are a LOT of unhappy people...

I have a 4250HDC box with 3.1.1_3. I have turned of Interactive Popups in the Settings. So why am I still getting the "For Enhanced, Press Select" message on my analog channels. I did reboot with no change. Am I missing something?

New rumor just sprung up that our Passport boxes were getting MDN... I think it was May 1. Needless to say, there are a LOT of unhappy people...

If you're getting ODN 3 and MDN 2.4.16, I don't think the people will be as unhappy as they would be with the older versions of Navigator.

To be honest, the OCAP boxes with ODN 3.1.1_3 are far superior to the 'existing' MDN boxes that were upgraded from Passport. ODN offers features like identifying high definition programming in the IPG, giving a category/them in program description and the Nearest Tune, which allows the input of a wrong channel number to tune to the next nearest 'real' channel, instead of flashing ???? as the Navigator default is.

Is this Passport area all digital? How did they get away with the SDV not compliant Passport?

Passport is not "SDV non-compliant"--they started working on SDV versions of it before Time Warner started widely deploying SDV. Adding the ability to interface with any SDV system to any IPG is a relatively minor matter, much of which would be supplied in the underlying middleware and RTOS, which Passport has in common with SARA. That explanation of why TWC went to Navigator is a complete red herring.

You can see a 3-year-old PR about Aptiv working with BigBand Networks on integrating support for their system into versions of Passport here (http://www.itaas.com/company/pc_istart_BigBand.html).

Macrovision (which assimilated Gemstar shortly after they assimilated Aptiv) is selling an OCAP versions of Passport and Passport Echo--there's no way that it isn't "SDV compliant".

Is this Passport area all digital? How did they get away with the SDV not compliant Passport?

NYC doesn't use any SDV (yet). Also, we're down to about 40 analogs here since last fall. Expanded basic is all digital.

If you're getting ODN 3 and MDN 2.4.16, I don't think the people will be as unhappy as they would be with the older versions of Navigator.

To be honest, the OCAP boxes with ODN 3.1.1_3 are far superior to the 'existing' MDN boxes that were upgraded from Passport. ODN offers features like identifying high definition programming in the IPG, giving a category/them in program description and the Nearest Tune, which allows the input of a wrong channel number to tune to the next nearest 'real' channel, instead of flashing ???? as the Navigator default is.

Is this Passport area all digital? How did they get away with the SDV not compliant Passport?

Like I said, we DO have ODN on the 8300HDCs, it's the 8300HD's I'm talking about and that is MDN. BTW, Passport has nothing to do with what goes in the guide... and neither does ODN/MDN. It happens that we DO get HDTV identifiers in the guide (although it isn't 100% accurate all the time), the guide does have "themes," don't think it has "nearest tune."

As for SDV, we kinda don't need it. While it had been happening in most of the city for the past 1-2 years, in Manhattan we just got something like 60-70 new HD channels... all delivered without SDV. We had had something like 70+ analogs hanging around and they dropped 40 of them. That 40 makes room for as many as 120 HD channels at TWC's 3 per QAM channel.

On the 8300HD with MDN, is there any way to have the Guide, banners, and Settings screen stretch to cover the width of the TV screen? The actual channels do stretch, but not the Guide, etc.

On the 8300HD with MDN, is there any way to have the Guide, banners, and Settings screen stretch to cover the width of the TV screen?

Only if you change the aspect ratio of your display.

On the 8300HD with MDN, is there any way to have the Guide, banners, and Settings screen stretch to cover the width of the TV screen? The actual channels do stretch, but not the Guide, etc.

Why would anyone want that? Stretched out graphics are hideous. And that has been one of the 'problems' with the new Samsung boxes too.

Stretching the guide will not cause more data to appear, you'll just have warped, funhouse mirror graphics. :(

Stretching the guide will not cause more data to appear, you'll just have warped, funhouse mirror graphics. :(

or in other words - how it looks on the new Samsung boxes.

That 40 makes room for as many as 120 HD channels at TWC's 3 per QAM channel.3 HD channels per QAM? I'm happy that they're not doing that here (except maybe for some HD cable channels that aren't very high bit rate to begin with).

or in other words - how it looks on the new Samsung boxes.

And so far I'm NOT getting used to it.

Other Sammy issues found today (as I swapped out my non-HDMI Onkyo TX-NR801 for a brandy-new TX-SR876)...

Unlike some others, I never had an issue with the 8300HDC or the Sammy with losing the AC3/DD setting. It always held as set. Now I have a problem where the HDMI out carries only PCM 2ch... No DD. Was that also normal on the 8300 or is this a Sammy issue?
With the above PCM only over HDMI issue, I hooked up the digital coax output. Nothing... Dead. So right now it looks like the coax out is NG on the Sammy. Optical output works (including DD), but I wanted to use the damned coax because I need the opticals on the receiver for other components.

And so far I'm NOT getting used to it.

Other Sammy issues found today (as I swapped out my non-HDMI Onkyo TX-NR801 for a brandy-new TX-SR876)...

Unlike some others, I never had an issue with the 8300HDC or the Sammy with losing the AC3/DD setting. It always held as set. Now I have a problem where the HDMI out carries only PCM 2ch... No DD. Was that also normal on the 8300 or is this a Sammy issue?
With the above PCM only over HDMI issue, I hooked up the digital coax output. Nothing... Dead. So right now it looks like the coax out is NG on the Sammy. Optical output works (including DD), but I wanted to use the damned coax because I need the opticals on the receiver for other components.


UH-OH!!! Looks like the Sammy is a no-no for me. I use coax for Digital Audio. If that doesn't work, I have no digital audio, then what's the point of having an HD box if I can't enjoy the audio too?

I have a PCM issue too. With MDN, whenever a EAS message is sent, the audio drops to PCM. After the EAS message, the audio stays on PCM until the box is rebooted. It's irritating because 99.9% of the EAS messages are 'tests'. And these 'tests' sometimes come several times in one week, and other times none for days. :(

Only if you change the aspect ratio of your display.

My settings are 16x9, stretch. The Guide and banner are full width on HD channels, but on SD channels they are not. The actual picture is full width though on both SD and HD channels.

And so far I'm NOT getting used to it.

[/LIST]

I didn't think so. Those of us who despise stretchovision can never just 'get used to it' or ignore stretching. No stretching will ever be 'OK' for me.

Back on topic to the Sammy. I'm disappointed. This is now strike two against it. Stretched guides, no coax audio out, ... . C'mon, what's strike three? :rolleyes:

I didn't think so. Those of us who despise stretchovision can never just 'get used to it' or ignore stretching. No stretching will ever be 'OK' for me.

Back on topic to the Sammy. I'm disappointed. This is now strike two against it. Stretched guides, no coax audio out, ... . C'mon, what's strike three? :rolleyes:

Let me recheck everything in the morning before we condemn it on the coax issue, lol.

My settings are 16x9, stretch. The Guide and banner are full width on HD channels, but on SD channels they are not. The actual picture is full width though on both SD and HD channels.

You have to use the display to force the guide full width (along with the rest of the programming). How your display does that depends on the model you have.

With the above PCM only over HDMI issue, I hooked up the digital coax output. Nothing... Dead. So right now it looks like the coax out is NG on the Sammy. Optical output works (including DD), but I wanted to use the damned coax because I need the opticals on the receiver for other components.


I've always used coax on the 8300 for exactly that reason. Right now the MDN default outputs DD coax when set to HDMI because my display will accept DD over HDMI.

I bet the magical mystery 32xx will fix that issue or maybe not. I use TOSlink and I don't use HDMI so I don't know if this will effect me or not but I do plan on getting the Samsung box.

You have to use the display to force the guide full width (along with the rest of the programming). How your display does that depends on the model you have.

Are you talking the display settings of the TV or the 8300HD? I've checked all the settings on the 8300 that I can see. The SD programming is full width, but the guide only is full on HD channels.

Back on topic to the Sammy. I'm disappointed. This is now strike two against it. Stretched guides, no coax audio out, ... . C'mon, what's strike three? :rolleyes:

Is there an optical audio output?

I have a specific working arrangement that I can now use that I would like to preserve. I'm about to get MDNed, so I may have a choice of staying with MDN, getting an ODN 8300HDC or waiting to get the ODN Sammie.

Here's my audio setup, can I do this on the 3090? Normal operating mode, choose Dolby Digital on the 8300, no audio goes to the TV via my HDMI connection, but audio does go out the optical to my AVR. Come late night, I switch the STB to HDMI... now I have audio going out HDMI to the TV AND also out the optical to my AVR. I simply shut down my AVR.

Are you talking the display settings of the TV or the 8300HD? I've checked all the settings on the 8300 that I can see. The SD programming is full width, but the guide only is full on HD channels.

He's talking about the display settings on the TV.

However, I've never experienced that on an 8300 ODN. The guide shouldn't fill the screen on HD programming only... unless your screen size is 4:3?

And so far I'm NOT getting used to it.

neither am i

I hooked up the digital coax output. Nothing... Dead. So right now it looks like the coax out is NG on the Sammy.
[/LIST]
digital coax works for me. i only have 2 optical inputs on my AVR and they are used for the xbox and the oppo. i've always used the coax from the 8300 for audio to the AVR and i hooked the sammy up the same way. the AVR indicates its getting Dolby Digital no problem.

neither am i


digital coax works for me. i only have 2 optical inputs on my AVR and they are used for the xbox and the oppo. i've always used the coax from the 8300 for audio to the AVR and i hooked the sammy up the same way. the AVR indicates its getting Dolby Digital no problem.

Funny... some of us are discussing dislike of stretched guide on Sammy and some are discussing how to stretch it with SA, lol.

Same situation here... 2 opt / 3 coax on new receiver. I'm already short on opticals with this receiver... need the opticals for media PC, Panny DVR and for TV (use OTA occassionally). Already was planning on using one optical to coax converter for the Panny.

Hopefully I missed something stupid last night. Worst case... something is wrong with my new receiver :eek:. New Monoprice coax cable, too. Have to try another cable yet.

He's talking about the display settings on the TV.

However, I've never experienced that on an 8300 ODN. The guide shouldn't fill the screen on HD programming only... unless your screen size is 4:3?

It's MDN. It's a 32 " Sony HDTV. Screen size is 16x9. The Guide does fill the screen on HD programming only.

Hopefully I missed something stupid last night. Worst case... something is wrong with my new receiver :eek:. New Monoprice coax cable, too. Have to try another cable yet.

Re-seated cable at receiver end for about the third time and it suddenly worked :confused:. Go figure... not the Sammy's issue in any case.

QA on the SA boxes has gone down hill once Cisco took them over. They had a lot of HDC boxes come back due to issues. They make them in Mexico as fast as they can with little to no QA. The Samsung 32xx boxes still have issues but should be good enough for a late April/Early May launch in San Diego. As for the 32xx being newer, well thats what my divisions president said.

IMO the main problem is that the TWC back office staff who test/repair STBs and their supervision are collectively incompetent. Since I went digital I've been through at least ten STBs, the main symptom being frequent rebooting (Passport or ODN). My second HD box (4250HDC) continuously rebooted from day two. OTOH my latest 4250HDC (built Jan 2009) is the only stable box I've had.

BTW all of the 4250HDCs I've had in LA South Bay run ODN, now level 3.1.1_3. Searching still sucks, usually causes the box to lock up requiring a power reset.

Time Warner Cable - reinventing the Blue Screen Of Death

IMO the main problem is that the TWC back office staff who test/repair STBs and their supervision are collectively incompetent. Since I went digital I've been through at least ten STBs, the main symptom being frequent rebooting (Passport or ODN). My second HD box (4250HDC) continuously rebooted from day two. OTOH my latest 4250HDC (built Jan 2009) is the only stable box I've had.

BTW all of the 4250HDCs I've had in LA South Bay run ODN, now level 3.1.1_3. Searching still sucks, usually causes the box to lock up requiring a power reset.

Time Warner Cable - reinventing the Blue Screen Of Death

I'll agree with that. I had tons of trouble with their equipment in the past. I've had two 8000HD boxes, one of them would not even boot or turn on from the first minute I got it. I returned that one for a non-DVR box. When I tried again, I got another 8000HD, even after asking for a new one. It was "all we have" and that one DIED after an hour. That's right, it clicked off and remained in a constant reboot cycle until I unplugged it. But then again, I think the 8000 boxes are crap in general. I've had better luck with the 8300 series, although I think my current 8300HD is going 'bad'.

Is there something 'wrong' with a box when it doesn't boot right? Lately my 8300HD has been booting very screwy. The mystro screen stays on for close to ten minutes and usually gets stuck on the fourth 'block'. After that, the screen goes dark and when the box is turned on, only analog channels work and the IPG, settings, channel banner and digital channels do not work. Eventually it 'catches up' and everything starts working again. I know it is not a signal problem, as I've had two techs over for a different issue who have said the signal is fine. Also, I have an ODN3 4250HDC that boots perfectly, and faster than the MDN 8300HD.

Can someone explain how the interactive popups vary by version of Navigator? I have 3 boxes, 2 MDN and one ODN. The popups appear on only the ODN box (4250). They can't be turned off in the settings apparently. Is there any way to eliminate them?

Can someone explain how the interactive popups vary by version of Navigator? I have 3 boxes, 2 MDN and one ODN. The popups appear on only the ODN box (4250). They can't be turned off in the settings apparently. Is there any way to eliminate them?

The popups usually say "For Enhanced Press SEL" and a menu pops up to tune to the HD version of the channel. Also, I believe this menu is the 'portal' to the new interactive features coming like StartOver and several of the other interactive services TWC is working on.

The only difference I've found is that ODN 3.1.1_3 has an option to turn on/off interactive popups. Except it hasn't worked for me either. MDN up to the current version does not offer this feature.

IMO the main problem is that the TWC back office staff who test/repair STBs and their supervision are collectively incompetent. Since I went digital I've been through at least ten STBs, the main symptom being frequent rebooting (Passport or ODN). My second HD box (4250HDC) continuously rebooted from day two. OTOH my latest 4250HDC (built Jan 2009) is the only stable box I've had.

BTW all of the 4250HDCs I've had in LA South Bay run ODN, now level 3.1.1_3. Searching still sucks, usually causes the box to lock up requiring a power reset.

Time Warner Cable - reinventing the Blue Screen Of Death

DiveFan,

A lot of people over the years had had trouble with the boxes, especially the newer C-DVR's. Most are waiting for the roll-out of the Samsung DVR's that seem to perform better than the SA's. The SA 8000 is a piece of ****, especially with Navigator. I have had an SA 8300 for several years. Everything works except closed-captioning. Even with the transition to Navigator.

Your problem might be a signal or wiring issue. Have you called TWC and SPECIFICALLY requested a service call for signal strength in your house and outside the house? Frequent reboots are often signal strength, wiring, and outside interference that may be unrelated to the box. If your signal strength is determined to be low, ask about getting the tech to install an amp on your line. Unfortunately, your box problems won't go away until signal strength and wiring are at good levels. You should get that checked out. Even say, I don't want another "new" box until line/wire signals are checked out. I would even ask for a supervisor when you call.

Jack

Re-seated cable at receiver end for about the third time and it suddenly worked :confused:. Go figure... not the Sammy's issue in any case.

Jcalabria, which audio setting did you choose on the Samsung (HDMI, DD, or PCM)? I have my AV receiver hooked up over Digital Coaxial, and have had trouble with it outputting DD audio too.

I have my Samsung DVR set to the HDMI audio setting because I have the TV hooked up with this and like to use the TV's speakers most of the time. However, when I decide to use my AV reciever, I seem to get stuck in pro logic mode all the time and can't get DD to activate on the AV receiver over the Digital Coaxial.

This method definitely worked on the 8300HDC. I see that you have finally had some success with this. Let me know which audio setting you chose on the Samsung DVR.

Jcalabria, which audio setting did you choose on the Samsung (HDMI, DD, or PCM)? I have my AV receiver hooked up over Digital Coaxial, and have had trouble with it outputting DD audio too.

I have my Samsung DVR set to the HDMI audio setting because I have the TV hooked up with this and like to use the TV's speakers most of the time. However, when I decide to use my AV reciever, I seem to get stuck in pro logic mode all the time and can't get DD to activate on the AV receiver over the Digital Coaxial.

This method definitely worked on the 8300HDC. I see that you have finally had some success with this. Let me know which audio setting you chose on the Samsung DVR.

Samsung device setting for audio format is set to Dolby/AC3. That is the ONLY setting that will give you DD on the optical/coax ports. I had no problem with that... just with my connection, apparently. But I never use the TV's audio... always use the receiver for audio. I was actually disappointed that the HDMI mode is PCM stereo only, requiring HDMI and digital audio connections to my new Onkyo 876 receiver - but thats really not a big deal other than using up an extra digital audio input on the receiver.

Unfortunately, in your case there is no easy solution as I believe that the HDMI audio gets shut off if you set the audio mode to DD/AC3.

One possible workaround, depending on your TV: If your TV has an HDMI input that is also designated as a PC/DVI input, it may have analog audio inputs to go along with it. Since the HDMI audio is 2ch stereo anyway, if you have and can use the designated HDMI/DVI/PC input port, you may be able to connect the analog out of the box to the TV's DVI/PC audio inputs to support audio in TV only mode, and still leave the the box set for DD/AC3 out of the coax port. You wouldn't lose much, if anything, using the analog inputs at the TV because TV audio is usually less than ideal anyway and same stereo mix either way.

Looks like Socal is getting Navigator pretty soon...they have changed the info channel 0, with snazzier graphics and some video clips...before it was just static images with info on products.

What software do you currently have, Passport or SARA?

Check sig... ;)

i thought we might be getting the big upgrade last night around 10:11 pm none of the boxers were working in the house . Should have known all for not!:mad:

Yeah true...they like to drag their feet for as long as they possibly can...we got the flyers in the mail in Dec./Jan. as stated earlier in this thread and still nothing.

i think in our case they won't even bother sending us mailers about it and just do it one night at leisure!:confused:

i think in our case they won't even bother sending us mailers about it and just do it one night at leisure!:confused:

I got mailer and automated phone call "warning" just prior to Passport > Navigator upgrade. Mailer was about two weeks ahead... Phone call was 1 or 2 days prior.

DiveFan,
Your problem might be a signal or wiring issue. Have you called TWC and SPECIFICALLY requested a service call for signal strength in your house and outside the house? Frequent reboots are often signal strength, wiring, and outside interference that may be unrelated to the box. If your signal strength is determined to be low, ask about getting the tech to install an amp on your line. Unfortunately, your box problems won't go away until signal strength and wiring are at good levels. You should get that checked out. Even say, I don't want another "new" box until line/wire signals are checked out. I would even ask for a supervisor when you call.
Jack

Since you've read my previous posts you know that I'm a NON-DVR customer, so I can't comment on DVR related statements.

Yes, signal strength was tested first. Unfortunately, that's about the Only thing that the service techs do. Everything else is out of their control. They wouldn't admit that TWC had severe infrastructure problems in my area until a heavily trumpeted upgrade about two years ago.

I stand by my original statement. They can't or won't troubleshoot STB problems effectively. We non-DVR customers are double screwed - they keep foisting the ancient Pioneer, Pace, and SA boxes on us. When they made SD and HD boxes the same rate last January, I upgraded immediately.

If I had bad signal strength in the first place, the boxes wouldn't initialize reliably at first boot up. Not that it's extremely relevant, but analog channels have always looked good on both my PC tuner and direct connected TV.

My latest box has NOT rebooted on its own in three months except for the ODN upgrade. That says a LOT to me.

Called customer service today ben and was told that next week different divisions that the techies would be testing new samsung's and that things are looking up for navigator fairly soon by time warner's standards....Plus there have been a number of hd channels added today didn't know if people in the ny area knew just thought i would passs that along!:)

Called customer service today ben and was told that next week different divisions that the techies would be testing new samsung's and that things are looking up for navigator fairly soon by time warner's standards....Plus there have been a number of hd channels added today didn't know if people in the ny area knew just thought i would passs that along!:)

Next version should have longer program listings and remote DVR scheduling.

i just would like to know how soon after your market starts testing navigator and its abilities and it's tweaks ....how long after will navigator see the light of day?:rolleyes:

i just would like to know how soon after your market starts testing navigator and its abilities and it's tweaks ....how long after will navigator see the light of day?:rolleyes:

We might get the new 3260 and 3270 Samsung boxes hopefully by the end of this month. I can't guarantee it. I think it will be more like in the May/June timeframe.

Has anyone gotten anywhere with TWC regarding issues with the external hard drives and the software update from last month? I'm really getting pissed off about it cause I can't get anything to record and they act like their software update wasn't the culprit. I've tried rebooting I don't know how many times to try and fix it. Only once did I get the drive working to where I could record and view programs for a bit. I have a lot of recordings that I don't want to lose and the support from Time Warner has been pathetic. I want my software to go back to the old version.

Has anyone gotten anywhere with TWC regarding issues with the external hard drives and the software update from last month? I'm really getting pissed off about it cause I can't get anything to record and they act like their software update wasn't the culprit. I've tried rebooting I don't know how many times to try and fix it. Only once did I get the drive working to where I could record and view programs for a bit. I have a lot of recordings that I don't want to lose and the support from Time Warner has been pathetic. I want my software to go back to the old version.What support from Time Warner? Is there some advertisement sent out by your local division that they support external drives on any box? They certainly do not claim to support it here, and if they don't claim support for it where you live, then you connected an external drive at your own risk. I'm surprised that they bothered denying that the most recent update caused your problem.

I would like to see the manual recording feature as well. I hope TWC puts that in the next version. That would be great if American Idiots err Idol goes over.

...I believe that the HDMI audio gets shut off if you set the audio mode to DD/AC3.

Actually, I take that a very good news for me (my market is rumored to be flashing all Passport boxes in May to MDN AND the Sammie should be here shortly, and I'm looking forward to the 320G drive, so I'll go for the Sammie as soon as I can).

I leave my TV's audio enabled (I user HDMI to the TV from the cable STB). When I'm using my 5.1 system, I have the STB set to DD, so I get audio from my AVR but not from the TV. Late night, I turn off the AVR and set the STB to HDMI... now audio goes to my TV through HDMI.

One big good point for the 3090!

Actually, I take that a very good news for me (my market is rumored to be flashing all Passport boxes in May to MDN AND the Sammie should be here shortly, and I'm looking forward to the 320G drive, so I'll go for the Sammie as soon as I can).

I leave my TV's audio enabled (I user HDMI to the TV from the cable STB). When I'm using my 5.1 system, I have the STB set to DD, so I get audio from my AVR but not from the TV. Late night, I turn off the AVR and set the STB to HDMI... now audio goes to my TV through HDMI.

One big good point for the 3090!

One man's "bug" is another man's "feature", lol.

What support from Time Warner? Is there some advertisement sent out by your local division that they support external drives on any box? They certainly do not claim to support it here, and if they don't claim support for it where you live, then you connected an external drive at your own risk. I'm surprised that they bothered denying that the most recent update caused your problem.



I did call them and i got the line that they did not support e-sata ports which is fine I know the risks evolved. But since they updated my Navigator my external drive does not work. and I am stuck with whats in the box i think I can record 20 hours of HD

I am not sure what you can do but hold onto the drive and hope that one day they enable it..

is there somewhere you can write to complain?

Actually, I take that a very good news for me (my market is rumored to be flashing all Passport boxes in May to MDN AND the Sammie should be here shortly, and I'm looking forward to the 320G drive, so I'll go for the Sammie as soon as I can).

I leave my TV's audio enabled (I user HDMI to the TV from the cable STB). When I'm using my 5.1 system, I have the STB set to DD, so I get audio from my AVR but not from the TV. Late night, I turn off the AVR and set the STB to HDMI... now audio goes to my TV through HDMI.

One big good point for the 3090!

So, do you enter the menu and change the audio option from HDMI to DD everytime you use your AV receiver, or is there an easier way to make this change?

I have a harmony remote, so I could probably automate the process fairly simply, but that would involve a lot of commands that the remote would have to send and may get a bit messy if the infrared red controller misses a command during the process. I'm curious if you have a better way than accessing the menu and making the change.

It would be nice if the box could sense which port was being used and make the change automatically...but that is asking a bit much.

Next version should have longer program listings and remote DVR scheduling.

What about Keyword Search. That's listed as top features billing?

Jack

is there somewhere you can write to complain?

So if you bought a drive specifically made for a DVR, you could try complaining the the manufacturer. At least then *they* might bug TWC about it.

Personally I am hoping that what happened was this:

eSATA was broken in ODN 2.x, and a branch was taken to start development on ODN 3.x.

eSATA was fixed in ODN 2.y, but the revision control is so bad that it never got in to ODN 3.x.

Hopefully they know what the fix is, and someone will patch it someday.

xnappo

I did call them and i got the line that they did not support e-sata ports which is fine I know the risks evolved. But since they updated my Navigator my external drive does not work. and I am stuck with whats in the box i think I can record 20 hours of HDThat's is the risk that you run. That's what unsupported means: "If it doesn't work, don't come to us, and if it does work now, we don't promise that something we do won't stop it from working in the future." In software engineering, we have a process called "regression testing". Essentially, before making a release, you test all of the features to make sure that none of your bug fixes and/or new features breaks something else. Functionality that isn't supported, like external SATA expansion drives, isn't tested.

Your only recourse to get more storage would be to invest in one of the CableCARD DVRs, like TiVo or the new Moxi DVR (they will both allow you to use that eSATA drive, though TiVo will only support drives that they've qualified). Eventually, TWC will make newer DVRs with more storage available--the Samsung DVR that they're supposed to be getting has twice the built-in storage of your SA8300HD(C). There's no telling when they'll be rolled out in your area, though.

What about Keyword Search. That's listed as top features billing?

Jack

NAVIGATOR is ongoing. Keyword search in next update or the one following it I bet.

I was just wondering what you guys mean by keyword search. I was at my inlaws on Sun. with ODN 3.1.1.3 the latest version and just like in the passport guide, you hit C to search and a keyboard comes up to search. Or are you guys referring to something different?

I was just wondering what you guys mean by keyword search. I was at my inlaws on Sun. with ODN 3.1.1.3 the latest version and just like in the passport guide, you hit C to search and a keyboard comes up to search. Or are you guys referring to something different?That only searches words in the title--they want a search of words in the description (or title, or keywords in neither that the guide service associates with the entry). For instance, you could search for "Julia Roberts" to find all of the shows in which she appears, or for "medical research" to find shows on that topic.

Gotcha..thanks Mike...

is there somewhere you can write to complain?
I have had good luck getting replies (actually evening phone calls from assitants to the VP) when writing a paper letter to the local division VP. See the local TWC website (F.V. would be http://www.accesstimewarner.com) under Contact Us and "write" a letter section. /Dan

I did call them and i got the line that they did not support e-sata ports which is fine I know the risks evolved. But since they updated my Navigator my external drive does not work. and I am stuck with whats in the box i think I can record 20 hours of HD

I am not sure what you can do but hold onto the drive and hope that one day they enable it..

is there somewhere you can write to complain?

What I would do is file a complaint with whatever local agency is responsible for handling the franchise agreement with your cableco. At least in my market, that can be done through a web page... and always gets a response from TWC within 24 hours... but from a PR guy who actually DOES try to get you at least some measure of satisfaction. The good news is that generally that lay some deal on me... which usually is much to my benefit.

Keep in mind that complaints are supposed to be taken into account when franchise renewal comes around.

I did call them and i got the line that they did not support e-sata ports which is fine I know the risks evolved. But since they updated my Navigator my external drive does not work. and I am stuck with whats in the box i think I can record 20 hours of HD

I am not sure what you can do but hold onto the drive and hope that one day they enable it..

is there somewhere you can write to complain?

I had the same problem with my 8300HDC box with ODN. I took it back to TW and swapped it for an 8300HD box running MDN. Now I have full use of my external drive again. I wasn't about to wait a couple years until they MIGHT re-enable support for the drives, if ever!

So, do you enter the menu and change the audio option from HDMI to DD everytime you use your AV receiver, or is there an easier way to make this change?

I have a harmony remote, so I could probably automate the process fairly simply, but that would involve a lot of commands that the remote would have to send and may get a bit messy if the infrared red controller misses a command during the process. I'm curious if you have a better way than accessing the menu and making the change.

It would be nice if the box could sense which port was being used and make the change automatically...but that is asking a bit much.

More like I enter the menu to change it to HDMI, then back again before I go to sleep.

But that is just me being too type A. I SHOULD just leave it set to HDMI... because that setting has audio going out both methods, HDMI and DD. There's NO difference in power usage if audio is or isn't playing on the TV, the reason I started doing the switching was because I thought having the TV going while my AVR is going will sound odd. Mostly because the TV actually has a damn good system... obviously, it's two tiny speakers on the TV, BUT they do some synthesizing whereby I can occasionally "hear" audio coming from where the satellites are.

That only searches words in the title--they want a search of words in the description (or title, or keywords in neither that the guide service associates with the entry). For instance, you could search for "Julia Roberts" to find all of the shows in which she appears, or for "medical research" to find shows on that topic.

Reminds me that exactly HOW one goes about this (in Passport) is totally not documented... I got some hints on AVS and played a bit and figured out an essential trick. Once I had that down, I realized that it essentially duplicated one of the features I had thought was exclusive to a TiVo.

Rumor has it that a future version may have real keyword search... at their pace that could mean next year.

So if you bought a drive specifically made for a DVR, you could try complaining the the manufacturer. At least then *they* might bug TWC about it.

Personally I am hoping that what happened was this:

eSATA was broken in ODN 2.x, and a branch was taken to start development on ODN 3.x.

eSATA was fixed in ODN 2.y, but the revision control is so bad that it never got in to ODN 3.x.

Hopefully they know what the fix is, and someone will patch it someday.

xnappo

I don't think that's the case, or at least that is not the only case. 2.x worked OK, except when going in the sleep mode, and the "record something 24/7" worked. While some people have reported some measure of success doing the same with 3.1.0_11, if I remember correctly, it required extra workarounds. And, worst of all, eSATA on 3.1.1_13 does not work, period, no workaround known.

What I would do is file a complaint with whatever local agency is responsible for handling the franchise agreement with your cableco. At least in my market, that can be done through a web page... and always gets a response from TWC within 24 hours... but from a PR guy who actually DOES try to get you at least some measure of satisfaction. The good news is that generally that lay some deal on me... which usually is much to my benefit.

Keep in mind that complaints are supposed to be taken into account when franchise renewal comes around.That's always an option with any dissatisfaction, but it definitely carries more weight when it's a complaint about their failure to provide you with something that they're required to give you. The ability to use an external drive on leased DVRs is not something that they offer to their customers. (I personally doubt that they made any effort to make it work, and that it only worked at all as a side effect of their use of Cisco/SA middleware and drivers. I think that the same is true for the limited capability for Passport Echo to use external drives).

If enough people complain that they don't support external drives, it could have some weight in future franchise negotations, but it doesn't contribute to grounds for revoking their franchise.

You'd think they'd wake up and realize even a 320GB drive is too small for HD...hell a 1TB drive is only 80-100 bucks, probably 20-30 more than they are paying for the 320...throw that in there....oh wait this is TWC we're talking about.

That's always an option with any dissatisfaction, but it definitely carries more weight when it's a complaint about their failure to provide you with something that they're required to give you. The ability to use an external drive on leased DVRs is not something that they offer to their customers. (I personally doubt that they made any effort to make it work, and that it only worked at all as a side effect of their use of Cisco/SA middleware and drivers. I think that the same is true for the limited capability for Passport Echo to use external drives).

If enough people complain that they don't support external drives, it could have some weight in future franchise negotations, but it doesn't contribute to grounds for revoking their franchise.

As someone who used to write the technical specs for franchise applications, and was responsible for compliance afterwards, I concurr... you are 100% correct.

You'd think they'd wake up and realize even a 320GB drive is too small for HD...hell a 1TB drive is only 80-100 bucks, probably 20-30 more than they are paying for the 320...throw that in there....oh wait this is TWC we're talking about.

At least throw'em a bone for going with the largest option Samsung offered, lol (although TW probably wrote the spec that Samsung built to).

Actually, $20-30 IS a lot more when you buy 100's of thousands or millions of units... especially on a device whose profit margin is fixed by law and based on the average cost of all models used. Box rental is NOT a profit center for TW... its a necessary cost of doing business in a competitive environment. It has to be good enough... not necessarily the best.

That's not what most of us on this forum want to hear, but its true for the majority of TW customers... you know, the ones who thought that it was soooo nice that their HD cable box and new Blu-ray player came with that nice new composite video cable.:rolleyes:

As someone who used to write the technical specs for franchise applications, and was responsible for compliance afterwards, I concurr... you are 100% correct.

Indeed technically correct. However, it also IS a feature that did function that no longer does, so it's still a valid complaint.

It sure as hell IS a specifically mentioned "feature" the hardware manufacturer says is available. So when you rent an item from a third party, it is not unreasonable to expect it to function the way the hardware was designed to. ESPECIALLY when options are very limited.

Indeed technically correct. However, it also IS a feature that did function that no longer does, so it's still a valid complaint.

It sure as hell IS a specifically mentioned "feature" the hardware manufacturer says is available. So when you rent an item from a third party, it is not unreasonable to expect it to function the way the hardware was designed to. ESPECIALLY when options are very limited.

As michael pointed out... it could be worthwhile pointing out to the franchising authority to request support for the feature for the next renewal, but its unlikely that they have any authority over it now if its not in the current agreement and specifically classified as unsupported by TWC from the get-go. The franchise authority can only enforce what the franchise holder has promised in the franchising procedures.

Whether we like it or not, current use of the eSATA mass storage interface is 100% at the user's risk and us bitching about it here is unlikely to change anything.

As michael pointed out... it could be worthwhile pointing out to the franchising authority to request support for the feature for the next renewal, but its unlikely that they have any authority over it now if its not in the current agreement and specifically classified as unsupported by TWC from the get-go. The franchise authority can only enforce what the franchise holder has promised in the franchising procedures.

Whether we like it or not, current use of the eSATA mass storage interface is 100% at the user's risk and us bitching about it here is unlikely to change anything.

Every "complaint" to my local authority gets immediately forwarded to TWC's PR group, from which I haver always gotten not only a reply, but at least an attempt to "mollify" me. My guess would be that this is true in most if not all other markets. Dissuading folks here from filing such complaints with a narrow "they never said they'd support it" argument seems to serve ONLY the corporate interests of TWC.

So my suggestion to my fellow TWC customers is, pay no attention to that argument... if you HAD eSATA support and no longer have it, file a complaint. At the least, you will know that somebody has listened to your point. And if enough ARE filed, we certainly stand a far better chance of it being addressed!

I reprogrammed my Harmony to leave the STB on all the time. Sure it wastes energy, but I got sick of rebooting my STB and eSATA drive to reconnect it.

Every "complaint" to my local authority gets immediately forwarded to TWC's PR group, from which I haver always gotten not only a reply, but at least an attempt to "mollify" me. My guess would be that this is true in most if not all other markets. Dissuading folks here from filing such complaints with a narrow "they never said they'd support it" argument seems to serve ONLY the corporate interests of TWC.

So my suggestion to my fellow TWC customers is, pay no attention to that argument... if you HAD eSATA support and no longer have it, file a complaint. At the least, you will know that somebody has listened to your point. And if enough ARE filed, we certainly stand a far better chance of it being addressed!

I wasn't trying to dissuade anybody, actually was encouraging... just explaining how the process works. Serving TWC interests is the last thing I wish to do (bastards, lol)

Indeed technically correct. However, it also IS a feature that did function that no longer does, so it's still a valid complaint.

It sure as hell IS a specifically mentioned "feature" the hardware manufacturer says is available. So when you rent an item from a third party, it is not unreasonable to expect it to function the way the hardware was designed to. ESPECIALLY when options are very limited.If the software does something that you like which the company who provided it to you did not tell you that it would do, it is not a feature--in fact, it's arguably a bug. Released software should not exhibit any behaviour which isn't in its specifications, and the process of bug fixing is one of removing such behaviours. There is no requirement whatsoever for your cable service provider to deploy software on their leased hardware which implements all of the manufacturer's specified capabilities. Those capabilities are not specified to you, but to the people who buy the boxes. (This gets a little funkier in the coming age of tru2way, and manufacturers specifying those boxes had better be very careful what they say).

You can tell them that you want a feature in their software to support such-and-so capability in the hardware, but unless they told you that you were going to get it, in some piece of documentation that they provided to you, no one can require them to provide it. If you can find the manufacturer's specification on their site, or if they gave you a copy of that spec with the equipment, you might have some basis for complaint, but your having looked up the manufacturer's spec online or elsewhere and seen a list of capabilities confers no responsibility on your cable provider to provide you with software which implements access to those capabilities. Believe me, if it did, they'd just have Cisco strike that capability from the specs (maybe making a special, physically identical model--say "Explorer 8300HDC-T" :)--whose specifications made no mention of capabilities that they had no interest in supporting).

But go ahead--file your complaint. Just don't think that you have a right to expect them to "fix" it, because you cannot validly argue that its broken, unless you can find a document from TWC which says that Navigator will support external drives on the box that you leased.

If the software does something that you like which the company who provided it to you did not tell you that it would do, it is not a feature--in fact, it's arguably a bug. Released software should not exhibit any behaviour which isn't in its specifications, and the process of bug fixing is one of removing such behaviours. There is no requirement whatsoever for your cable service provider to deploy software on their leased hardware which implements all of the manufacturer's specified capabilities. Those capabilities are not specified to you, but to the people who buy the boxes. (This gets a little funkier in the coming age of tru2way, and manufacturers specifying those boxes had better be very careful what they say).

You can tell them that you want a feature in their software to support such-and-so capability in the hardware, but unless they told you that you were going to get it, in some piece of documentation that they provided to you, no one can require them to provide it. If you can find the manufacturer's specification on their site, or if they gave you a copy of that spec with the equipment, you might have some basis for complaint, but your having looked up the manufacturer's spec online or elsewhere and seen a list of capabilities confers no responsibility on your cable provider to provide you with software which implements access to those capabilities. Believe me, if it did, they'd just have Cisco strike that capability from the specs (maybe making a special, physically identical model--say "Explorer 8300HDC-T" :)--whose specifications made no mention of capabilities that they had no interest in supporting).

But go ahead--file your complaint. Just don't think that you have a right to expect them to "fix" it, because you cannot validly argue that its broken, unless you can find a document from TWC which says that Navigator will support external drives on the box that you leased.

Samsung already bills the SMT-H3090 as a tru2way box on their consumer website. Makes you wonder what, if any, restrictions their agreement with TW put on their direct sale to the public. Samsung, unlike SA/Cisco, already has the distribution channels to make that happen.

I had a few missed recordings this week with the Samsung 3090... just as others have reported (possibly in the Charlotte TWC thread). Same symptoms... no scheduled recording and no ability to record directly with record button. I looked in the record log and they were shown with a "channel unavailable" error. This was obviously not true as I was watching the damned channel at the time (at least for one of them). FWIW, one show each was missed from NBC, CBS and FOX. Others have reported mainly CBS problems for some reason.

But go ahead--file your complaint. Just don't think that you have a right to expect them to "fix" it, because you cannot validly argue that its broken, unless you can find a document from TWC which says that Navigator will support external drives on the box that you leased. And I hope if people complain to the franchise authority TWC doesn't disconnect the eSATA port since they do not officially support it and don't want anymore complaints from their "boss". Easy for them to respond it is not a feature they have anyway and that the user is using it beyond acceptable use. I believe in being careful (polite) about complaining about something "extra". /Dan

And I hope if people complain to the franchise authority TWC doesn't disconnect the eSATA port since they do not officially support it and don't want anymore complaints from their "boss". Easy for them to respond it is not a feature they have anyway and that the user is using it beyond acceptable use. I believe in being careful (polite) about complaining about something "extra". /Dan

The thing that might get their attention is to mention that it is a feature that their competitors (satelite) has, and not offering it, even unofficially, makes their product less appealing than competiton.

The thing that might get their attention is to mention that it is a feature that their competitors (satellite) has, and not offering it, even unofficially, makes their product less appealing than competition.

Can anyone file a "complaint" and mention that Keyword Search has been around other Dish and Cable guides for years, and Navigator still does not have it? Also, finding out when Keyword Search will begin to show up on the boxes? People are sick of TWC's waiting game, incompetent CSR's and field techs, especially their brain-dead independent contractors. If anyone gets an approximate answer as to when Keyword Search for Navigator is coming, please post.

Jack

I'm skeptical that complaining to your local (city/county) franchisor will do much good unless you live in an very upscale demographic. Most city franchise managers will be satisfied with getting a couple of local access channels and maybe some cash for programming and studio facilities.

Since TWC is being spun off, perhaps now is the time to complain directly to the Board Of Directors. The culture of large corporations usually inhibits the details of bad news from flowing uphill. It is possible that top management (mostly finance types) really doesn't appreciate the consequences of their directives, and/or how ineffective some of their middle managers are.

TWC Board members: http://ir.timewarnercable.com/directors.cfm
TWC Board address: http://ir.timewarnercable.com/boardcontact.cfm
Use USPS signature confirmation to ensure that the individual addressee signs for it: http://www.usps.com/shipping/signatureconfirm.htm

If you write, be polite and summarize your points before specifics.

Hey guys, is there a regular digital cable box that has the Caller-Id feature? I have an 8300HDC in the bedroom and a regular digital pioneer box in the living room and would like the living room TV to have the caller id capability.

I reprogrammed my Harmony to leave the STB on all the time. Sure it wastes energy, but I got sick of rebooting my STB and eSATA drive to reconnect it.

this doesn't even work. I hate TWC. Will get rid of it.

Hey guys, is there a regular digital cable box that has the Caller-Id feature? I have an 8300HDC in the bedroom and a regular digital pioneer box in the living room and would like the living room TV to have the caller id capability.

Right now, TWC subs are required to have both Digital Phone and Digital Cable to get Caller ID on TV. You can get Caller ID on TV if you meet both of these requirements. Is your Pioneer box very slow and sluggish? This is due to the low memory of the hardware contained in these 8-10 year old boxes. You may have problems with Caller ID and that Pioneer box in general, because of its age.

You should get a box swap so you can get a faster model box. You DO NOT need a DVR box to get Caller ID on TV, just Digital Phone and Digital Cable.

Jack

Hey guys, is there a regular digital cable box that has the Caller-Id feature? I have an 8300HDC in the bedroom and a regular digital pioneer box in the living room and would like the living room TV to have the caller id capability.

The old Pioneer boxes are crap. Even putting aside the caller ID feature, the entire box/OS with MDN sucks. You're best bet would be to switch the Pioneer box for a 4250HDC box. The 4250HDC should be running the same version of ODN as your 8300HDC and include the caller ID feature.

The old Pioneer boxes are crap. Even putting aside the caller ID feature, the entire box/OS with MDN sucks. You're best bet would be to switch the Pioneer box for a 4250HDC box. The 4250HDC should be running the same version of ODN as your 8300HDC and include the caller ID feature.

I too had a Pioneer box with MDN. I ended up moving the 3250HDC and replaced that one with a 8300HDC. The Pioneer looked like DOS and it was horrible and slow.

Right now, TWC subs are required to have both Digital Phone and Digital Cable to get Caller ID on TV. You can get Caller ID on TV if you meet both of these requirements. Is your Pioneer box very slow and sluggish? This is due to the low memory of the hardware contained in these 8-10 year old boxes. You may have problems with Caller ID and that Pioneer box in general, because of its age.

You should get a box swap so you can get a faster model box. You DO NOT need a DVR box to get Caller ID on TV, just Digital Phone and Digital Cable.

Jack

I have both Digital Phone and Digital Cable service. The Pioneer I have is a BD-V3500, we've had that box ever since we first got service in the apartment 5 or so years ago and it doesn't have the option for Caller-ID. What box should I swap the Pioneer for? One that's not a HD or DVR box but does have the Caller-Id option.

Thanks

You'll have to call TWC customer service and see what boxes they have that do CALLER ID....

i have both digital phone and digital cable service. The pioneer i have is a bd-v3500, we've had that box ever since we first got service in the apartment 5 or so years ago and it doesn't have the option for caller-id. What box should i swap the pioneer for? One that's not a hd or dvr box but does have the caller-id option.

Thanks

Scientific Atlanta 4250HDC

And I hope if people complain to the franchise authority TWC doesn't disconnect the eSATA port since they do not officially support it and don't want anymore complaints from their "boss". Easy for them to respond it is not a feature they have anyway and that the user is using it beyond acceptable use. I believe in being careful (polite) about complaining about something "extra". /Dan

I complained about it since it had been working before. Got the we don't support it line and the engineers don't have time to go back and work on that. They were very soory my DVR wouldn't record anymore and I'd lose my shows if I went back to the old way, but tough luck.

I let them know that as soon as it was possible I would be moving to a different service provider. Especially one that supports the add on drives. I never heard anything back from them further.

Now I did return to town after being gone over the weekend. Found that my power got knocked out. Well somehow after the power came back up, it got my drive working again for me for now. I went through some suggested steps to keep it working such as changing the power on channel to something that I don't subscribe to and recording ESPN News but drop it down to lowest priority and saving only one episode at a time. So far since last night that seems to have been working for me. I'm able to view old recordings and it's recording things as they should. We'll see how long that continues.

I have both Digital Phone and Digital Cable service. The Pioneer I have is a BD-V3500, we've had that box ever since we first got service in the apartment 5 or so years ago and it doesn't have the option for Caller-ID. What box should I swap the Pioneer for? One that's not a HD or DVR box but does have the Caller-Id option.

Thanks

Or the Samsung SMT-H3050.

Due to HDMI flickering problems between my TV, TWC 8300HDC and my home theater system I am going to just connect my DVR to my TV using component cables. Question is are the component cables provided by TWC any good or would I be better suited using an extra set I have, I think they are Rocketfish? Thanks.

Ok, I have read a bunch of posts regarding audio and am still confused about the HDMI, Dolby Digital, PCM settings on these Navigator boxes.

I have 2 SA8300HDs running MDN(neither of which has missed a recording that I remember, btw). One of the SA8300HDs is connected to a Sony XBR5 via HDMI which per the manual is capable of decoding Dolby Digital on its HDMI inputs. However, when I set the SA8300HD to either PCM or Dolby Digital I get no sound, only the HDMI setting produces sound. This leads me to believe that the PCM and Dolby Digital settings affect only the toslink and coaxial digital audio outputs. The result is that I can't tell if the SA8300HD is passing Dolby Digital or 2 channel PCM to the Sony XBR5.

Has anyone connected a Navigator box to a receiver via HDMI and gotten Dolby Digital? I think jcalabria said he could only get 2 channel PCM out of the HDMI connection on his new Samsung Navigator box.

Earlier in the thread someone said they couldn't get 5.1 audio from the toslink output while the box was set to HDMI. I think jnv11 said that the SA8300HD was only capable of outputting one audio format at a time and since the tv could not decode dolby digital that 2 channel PCM was output from both the HDMI and toslink. The theory was that if the tv had been capable of decoding Dolby Digital that the SA8300HD would have output Dolby Digital to both HDMI and toslink simultaneously.

Has anyone set the audio in a Navigator box to HDMI and successfully gotten 5.1 audio out of the toslink output?

The reason I ask is that due to our open floorplan, I ocasionally wake up our baby just using the tv speakers. I'm thinking about getting a receiver that has dolby headphone capability so that I can get "5.1" audio from both the SA8300HD as well as my blu-ray player via the headphones. My issue is that in order for this to be WAF acceptable I need to make it easy to get sound from the tv speakers.

I'm trying to decide whether to get an HDMI receiver or simply an older toslink receiver. If no one has succesfully gotten a Navigator box to output dolby digital via the HDMI output, then the decision is a lot easier.

Ok, I have read a bunch of posts regarding audio and am still confused about the HDMI, Dolby Digital, PCM settings on these Navigator boxes.

I have 2 SA8300HDs running MDN(neither of which has missed a recording that I remember, btw). One of the SA8300HDs is connected to a Sony XBR5 via HDMI which per the manual is capable of decoding Dolby Digital on its HDMI inputs. However, when I set the SA8300HD to either PCM or Dolby Digital I get no sound, only the HDMI setting produces sound. This leads me to believe that the PCM and Dolby Digital settings affect only the toslink and coaxial digital audio outputs. The result is that I can't tell if the SA8300HD is passing Dolby Digital or 2 channel PCM to the Sony XBR5.

Has anyone connected a Navigator box to a receiver via HDMI and gotten Dolby Digital? I think jcalabria said he could only get 2 channel PCM out of the HDMI connection on his new Samsung Navigator box.

Earlier in the thread someone said they couldn't get 5.1 audio from the toslink output while the box was set to HDMI. I think jnv11 said that the SA8300HD was only capable of outputting one audio format at a time and since the tv could not decode dolby digital that 2 channel PCM was output from both the HDMI and toslink. The theory was that if the tv had been capable of decoding Dolby Digital that the SA8300HD would have output Dolby Digital to both HDMI and toslink simultaneously.

Has anyone set the audio in a Navigator box to HDMI and successfully gotten 5.1 audio out of the toslink output?

The reason I ask is that due to our open floorplan, I ocasionally wake up our baby just using the tv speakers. I'm thinking about getting a receiver that has dolby headphone capability so that I can get "5.1" audio from both the SA8300HD as well as my blu-ray player via the headphones. My issue is that in order for this to be WAF acceptable I need to make it easy to get sound from the tv speakers.

I'm trying to decide whether to get an HDMI receiver or simply an older toslink receiver. If no one has succesfully gotten a Navigator box to output dolby digital via the HDMI output, then the decision is a lot easier.

I currently have my 8300hdc connected HDMI to my receiver and get 5.1 DD with the DVR set to HDMI.

At one time I had the DVR hooked to TV HDMI and Optical from Receiver to DVR and could only get 5.1 DD if I went into settings and changed from HDMI to Dolby Digital (I would get Pro Logic II with HDMI selected). The problem with having set to DD was that I couldn't get sound from the TV when the receiver was turned off until I went in and changed setting from DD back to HDMI.

Tonight after work I am changing over to Component from TV to DVR due to my 8300hdc not playing nice with HDMI to my receiver.

Note to TWC boneheads.......

TWC, PLEASE GET INTO THIS CENTURY. EVERYTHING IS GOING HDMI BUT AS USUAL YOU WANT TO BE 5 YEARS BEHIND. TIME TO SUPPORT THINGS FROM THIS DAY AND AGE!

... Has anyone connected a Navigator box to a receiver via HDMI and gotten Dolby Digital? I think jcalabria said he could only get 2 chan. ...

I had it set up like that (DVR -> receiver -> TV both HDMI connections, set DVR sound output to HDMI) after I got the new receiver. It appeared to work fine - receiver was getting DD through HDMI, TV was getting picture just fine, but then, once a day or so, DVR would get completely confused (it would output picture/sound only for a second, then freeze, etc., and receiver was showing that it was getting different sound setting every half second or so, and it could not switch that fast, so there was no sound or picture. The only way it would get out of that is to reboot the DVR (turning receiver and/or TV on/off would not help). Maybe it was at least partially receiver's fault, but, after several days of this, I went back to DVR->TV via HDMI and DVR->receiver via toslink and setting DVR output to DD; this has been working fine for a few months, until 3.1.1_3 update; now every time TV is turned off the DVR setting reverts to HDMI, so I ended up programming a macro on my remote to change it back to DD.

One of the SA8300HDs is connected to a Sony XBR5 via HDMI which per the manual is capable of decoding Dolby Digital on its HDMI inputs.


I have the same TV and I run HDMI to the Sony and digital coax to the AVR. The AVR is hooked into the Sony with another HDMI cable. I can switch between TV and AVR audio in 5.1 with no problem using the one button Theater Mode with CEC enabled.

If the display accepts DD over HDMI it will default to that output on all audio outputs when the box is set to HDMI. The HDMI setting on the 8300 effectively uses the TV to set the audio type. Where it breaks down is when the TV cannot accept DD and then the 8300 sets the all audio outputs to PCM. In that case a remote macro was the way I used to switch between sources. Going from 8300 PCM over HDMI to DD over coax.

The XBR5 can accept 5.1 over HDMI and when the 8300 is set to HDMI audio it will default to 5.1 over all outputs.

I currently have my 8300hdc connected HDMI to my receiver and get 5.1 DD with the DVR set to HDMI.

At one time I had the DVR hooked to TV HDMI and Optical from Receiver to DVR and could only get 5.1 DD if I went into settings and changed from HDMI to Dolby Digital (I would get Pro Logic II with HDMI selected). The problem with having set to DD was that I couldn't get sound from the TV when the receiver was turned off until I went in and changed setting from DD back to HDMI.

Tonight after work I am changing over to Component from TV to DVR due to my 8300hdc not playing nice with HDMI to my receiver.

Note to TWC boneheads.......

TWC, PLEASE GET INTO THIS CENTURY. EVERYTHING IS GOING HDMI BUT AS USUAL YOU WANT TO BE 5 YEARS BEHIND. TIME TO SUPPORT THINGS FROM THIS DAY AND AGE!

Thanks steve. So your SA8300HDC running ODN can output Dolby Digital via its HDMI output, but jcalabria's Samsung also running ODN cannot. So that's two strikes against the Samsung(the other being a stretched guide).

I have the same TV and I run HDMI to the Sony and digital coax to the AVR. The AVR is hooked into the Sony with another HDMI cable. I can switch between TV and AVR audio in 5.1 with no problem using the one button Theater Mode with CEC enabled.

If the display accepts DD over HDMI it will default to that output on all audio outputs when the box is set to HDMI. The HDMI setting on the 8300 effectively uses the TV to set the audio type. Where it breaks down is when the TV cannot accept DD and then the 8300 sets the all audio outputs to PCM. In that case a remote macro was the way I used to switch between sources. Going from 8300 PCM over HDMI to DD over coax.

The XBR5 can accept 5.1 over HDMI and when the 8300 is set to HDMI audio it will default to 5.1 over all outputs.

Thanks VisionOn. Very helpful.

I just went back and verified what was being output for the three audio modes in the Samsung 3090.

For testing, I had the 3090 connected to an Onkyo SR876 with all three digital connections (HDMI, optical and coax), and the 876 connected to a Samsung A550 LCD via HDMI.

STB set to HDMI mode:

HDMI Out: 2ch PCM
Optical Out: 2ch PCM
Coax Out: 2ch PCM
STB set to PCM Mode:

HDMI Out: No Audio Output
Optical Out: 2ch PCM
Coax Out: 2ch PCM
STB set to DD/AC3:

HDMI Out: No Audio Output
Optical Out: Dolby Digital
Coax Out: Dolby Digital

My normal (only) mode of operation is DD/AC3 with both the HDMI (video) and coax digital (audio) connected to the 876. I never use the TV speakers at all... the receiver's HDMI audio out is set to off. It obviously would be nice if the 3090 would feed the 876 Dolby Digital over the HDMI connection, but its not too much an inconvenience in my case that it doesn't.

I had neither need nor opportunity to test these settings when I had the 8300HDC... the Onkyo NR801 receiver I had at the time was non-HDMI, so I had the STB HDMI connected directly to the TV for video and the coax digital connected to the receiver, with the box running in DD mode. The Samsung TV only accepts PCM over HDMI anyway, so there was no way of verifying what the box was outputting over the HDMI link. I do know that the HDMI audio was muted when DD mode was selected at the box, just as it is in the 3090.

Neither the 3090 nor the 8300HDC have had any issues holding the DD/AC3 setting through box rebootsor power cycles, or display power cycles or input switches.

I have both Digital Phone and Digital Cable service. The Pioneer I have is a BD-V3500, we've had that box ever since we first got service in the apartment 5 or so years ago and it doesn't have the option for Caller-ID. What box should I swap the Pioneer for? One that's not a HD or DVR box but does have the Caller-Id option.

Thanks

AFAIK one needs a MDN or ODN box to do caller ID.

One factor folks need to know when dealing with audio... the HDMI spec is bi-directional. AND it has a sort of sensing function. IF it is connected to a device that does NOT have a DD decoder, it will NOT send DD no matter what "settings" are used.

Second, AFAIK there is no TV/display that actually has a DD decoder. It makes NO sense to have one if one does not have the attendant 5 discreet channel output system. I DO see the XBR5 as saying it has DD, but I find it hard to believe; if it DID have a decoder, it would still have to create 2 channels from it for outputting.

Does the XBR5 have a optical or co-ax audio out? IF it does have a decoder, one should be able to hook that audio out to a AVR and see it sense DD.

My normal (only) mode of operation is DD/AC3 with both the HDMI (video) and coax digital (audio) connected to the 876. I never use the TV speakers at all... the receiver's HDMI audio out is set to off. It obviously would be nice if the 3090 would feed the 876 Dolby Digital over the HDMI connection, but its not too much an inconvenience in my case that it doesn't.

Something seems odd. AFAIK if you set the STB to HDMI and the first device after the STB is a DD capable AVR, the AVR SHOULD be getting DD.

I'd suggest (if you are inclined) unplugging the co-ax completely and see if you get DD over HDMI (after making the appropriate settings changes). It's possible that having both online at the same time is confusing things...

Something seems odd. AFAIK if you set the STB to HDMI and the first device after the STB is a DD capable AVR, the AVR SHOULD be getting DD.

I'd suggest (if you are inclined) unplugging the co-ax completely and see if you get DD over HDMI (after making the appropriate settings changes). It's possible that having both online at the same time is confusing things...

Tried that first.... I EXPECTED to get DD into the receiver via HDMI, but couldn't get rid of the damned PLII light, lol. I only connected the coax and/or optical after the fact.

Interestingly, the Vol+/INFO diagnostics on the Samsung 3090 are very comprehensive... You can display the EDID file from the "display" as the box sees it. The flag for "Allow AC3" is set to "No" on my 3090. But I can't believe that is what the 876 is actually sending... after all, the whole purpose of interjecting the reciever in the HDMI chain is to pick off the advanced audio formats before the display. Besides... the Blu-ray player has no problems sending all the advanced audio formats to the same receiver/display combo. I think there may be some flakiness in the way these boxes (including 8300) read/interpret the EDID info... and that may also be part of the problem for those who have had trouble holding the DD setting when something changes in their HDMI handshake process, such as switching inputs or turning off the TV. I have a PC program that also reads the EDID info... I will try running on my media PC when connected to receiver and see what it reads.

In my case its an academic question... I am curious to hunt down and explain what is happening - but I can see how it can be frustrating to those that need to switch between TV and AVR audio setups.

Interestingly, the Vol+/INFO diagnostics on the Samsung 3090 are very comprehensive... You can display the EDID file from the "display" as the box sees it.That's very cool indeed. I've not heard of a consumer device that would display that. (Small nit--it's E-EDID, isn't it? The Enhanced version of the EDID allows for the extensions which specify audio capabilities).

Sony and nearly every other DTV with an ATSC Tuner has a DD5.1 (coax/optical) OUTPUT,
that can be connected to an AVR to drive 5.1 speaker system.

If HDMI is connected to DTV, DTV will ask for STEREO, since it doesn't have 5 speakers.
If HDMI is connected to an AVR, the AVR can ask for DD5.1.

The problem arises when DTV is daisy-chained to STB via AVR.
If AVR isn't equipped with a DD5.1 to STEREO converter, it MUST ask for STEREO
to feed through to attached DTV.
Otherwise, if only the L and R signals were fed-through, the Center channel
information (which carries 90% of the program) would be missing.

HDMI has an serious, inherent design defect. DD5.1 interface carries BOTH STEREO
and DD5.1 signals from the STB....HDMI does NOT....so there is no way for the attached
devices to chose which one they can use...

HDMI has an serious, inherent design defect. DD5.1 interface carries BOTH STEREO
and DD5.1 signals from the STB....HDMI does NOT....so there is no way for the attached
devices to chose which one they can use...HDMI sinks (like your television) choose what they can use by specifying it in the E-EDID returned to the upstream source. One of the earliest problems people were having with HDMI from these STBs was that, if you connect HDMI directly from the STB to your television and try to use S/PDIF from the STB into your AVR, the television will tell the STB that it can only handle 2.0 or 2.1 channel audio and that's what the STB will mix and all that you can get out of any of its digital audio outputs. They added a setting to let you ignore HDMI (and not send any audio out over it) to deal with that problem.

Note the EDID extension audio data block format detailed here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data#CEA_EDID_Timing_Extensi on_Version_3_data_format).

Sony and nearly every other DTV with an ATSC Tuner has a DD5.1 (coax/optical) OUTPUT,
that can be connected to an AVR to drive 5.1 speaker system.

If HDMI is connected to DTV, DTV will ask for STEREO, since it doesn't have 5 speakers.
If HDMI is connected to an AVR, the AVR can ask for DD5.1.

The problem arises when DTV is daisy-chained to STB via AVR.
If AVR isn't equipped with a DD5.1 to STEREO converter, it MUST ask for STEREO
to feed through to attached DTV.
Otherwise, if only the L and R signals were fed-through, the Center channel
information (which carries 90% of the program) would be missing.

HDMI has an serious, inherent design defect. DD5.1 interface carries BOTH STEREO
and DD5.1 signals from the STB....HDMI does NOT....so there is no way for the attached
devices to chose which one they can use...

If that is the case, why do Blu-ray and DVD players have no problem outputting DD/DTS etc when connected to the head of the same AVR>DTV chain? There must be some facility within the AVR to alter the audio requests it makes of the source (particularly if you configure the AVR to send NO audio to the TV, which is how my Onkyo 876 is configured)... or, alternatively, the source device must be able to be configured to ignore/override this.

If passing the TV's audio capabilities all the way back up the chain to the source was a cast in stone rule, Blu-ray and DVD audio would not work as many of us have it working... in an HDMI chain with the AVR in the middle. Whatever "rules" the disc-based sources are playing by need to be adopted by the STBs.

That's very cool indeed. I've not heard of a consumer device that would display that. (Small nit--it's E-EDID, isn't it? The Enhanced version of the EDID allows for the extensions which specify audio capabilities).

Yes, it was a cool discovery the first time I entered the diagnostics. There are even further diagnostic modes that require a password to enter. It's quite comprehensive, even beyond the EDID display.

Since I still have my tripod out from running the Audyssey setup on the 876, I'll slap on the camera and make some screen shots of the Sammy diagnostics pages.

AFIK, the reporting of audio capabilities is part the CEA EDID Extension Block, which I believe was enabled by E-EDID but not necessarily an inherent or required part of it. So yes... it must be E-EDID before it can report audio via CEA EDID. Too many letters, lol... plain old EDID works for me.

BTW... The "moninfo" utility available here: http://www.entechtaiwan.com/util/moninfo.shtm is a PC utility that can read EDID info from an attached display, including CEA EDID extensions. I have used it for reading video timing requirements and it is very easy to use. I have not used it on an HDMI TV or or AVR to test the CEA EDID functions... I think I will.

HDMI sinks (like your television) choose what they can use by specifying it in the E-EDID returned to the upstream source. One of the earliest problems people were having with HDMI from these STBs was that, if you connect HDMI directly from the STB to your television and try to use S/PDIF from the STB into your AVR, the television will tell the STB that it can only handle 2.0 or 2.1 channel audio and that's what the STB will mix and all that you can get out of any of its digital audio outputs. They added a setting to let you ignore HDMI (and not send any audio out over it) to deal with that problem.

Note the EDID extension audio data block format detailed here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extended_display_identification_data#CEA_EDID_Timing_Extensi on_Version_3_data_format).

Oddly enough, the setting you said is meant to ignore HDMI is actually called... DD (audio output setting, choices are HDMI, DD, PCM, 2 channel). For me, I leave the TV audio enabled all the time... I set DD on the STB and get NO audio via HDMI (exactly what I want to have happen). If i set HDMI on the STB, I get audio via HDMI to the TV AND I get real DD also sent via my optical connection, STB to AVR.

If i set HDMI on the STB, I get audio via HDMI to the TV AND I get real DD also sent via my optical connection, STB to AVR.I don't know how that's possible, since the STB has only one audio chip, it can only do one format at a time. If you connect HDMI to the television and the television says that it can only do 2.0 or 2.1 audio, then STB has to mix that. The only thing that I can think of is that your television is capable of handling DD5.1, in order to be able to pass it through its digital audio output (I'm not sure whether my TV can do that, but it does pass DD5.1 from its tuner out of its S/PDIF output). It might also be able to process DD5.1 into fake surround through its 2 speakers.

The original HDMI-to-television, S/PDIF to AVR problem was very real and a much discussed complaint, a few years back, in both the Passport Echo and SARA threads.

Great tip I found!

On my new Samsung HD TV, in working with brand new HDMI cable, the picture is AWESOME!!! (Even on SD channels!) Users with Navigator and HDMI, in addition to setting your box to HDMI output, if your TV supports 1080 res, under the resolution settings, select that one ONLY. (Or the highest that your set allows.) If it is 720 res, go with 720. De-select all other output resolution settings. This not only forces the box to output at the highest resolution all the time, even if an SD station is only at 420. The box will THINK that it is at 1080. What this means is that the box at a 1080 output will change channels faster. (Or 720, if that is as high as your TV will go.) Don't use the Auto Select feature, force your HD box to output at your TV's highest output resolution all the time and de-select the others.

Oh, and those new cables also made my Closed Captioning work! It had not worked before on the box for 3 years!

Jack

So I went to my local TWC store today to swap my 8300 hd and they gave me a Samsung SMT-H3090 box...

So far the box is fine....nothing spectacular...as most of you already know the guide is stretched which doesn't bother me. Menu transitions are not as smooth as i thought they would be. There are different menu options for example: "device" is where audio settings are now. There's a new option to turn "Interactive Pop-ups" on and off, whatever that means. Captioning works with no problem.


I also noticed the network connection in the back so i went ahead and ran a cat5 cable to the 2nd H3090 i picked up when booting. It said IP was enabled...Didnt really do anything when both boxes finish booting.lol and I didn't see any extra menu's.

I know im not the first person to get one on this forum but just thought i'd share my experience.

So I went to my local TWC store today to swap my 8300 hd and they gave me a Samsung SMT-H3090 box...

So far the box is fine....nothing spectacular...as most of you already know the guide is stretched which doesn't bother me. Menu transitions are not as smooth as i thought they would be. There are different menu options for example: "device" is where audio settings are now. There's a new option to turn "Interactive Pop-ups" on and off, whatever that means. Captioning works with no problem.


I also noticed the network connection in the back so i went ahead and ran a cat5 cable to the 2nd H3090 i picked up when booting. It said IP was enabled...Didnt really do anything when both boxes finish booting.lol and I didn't see any extra menu's.

I know im not the first person to get one on this forum but just thought i'd share my experience.

As I understand it. Multi room viewing, remote show programming and keyword search are on the to be added list of future Navigator features.

Somebody in the local San Diego, CA board let the cat out of the bag in that we'll be getting a Samsung model known as the 3270 for the HD-DVR, instead of the initially promised 3090. The word is that this is a better unit than the 3090. The only thing I do know is that they've opted for the 320GB unit (vs 160GB).

Anybody know where to find more specs on this model and how it compares to the 3090? I can't seem to find any info via any searches. Maybe I'm wrong on the manufacturer - is it a Motorola unit? (it's definitely NOT a Cisco/SA model).

EDIT: It's a Samsung model...

I just did a follow-up search and it looks like other divisions (NYC) will also be deploying the 3260 (set-top only) and 3270 (DVR) units as well.

Anxiously awaiting someone getting around to trying eSATA on the Samsung! My sources tell me that in my area they may only roll out ODN on Samsung and keep 8300 on SARA. Or possibly keep 8300HD SARA and HDC ODN.

xnappo

I don't know how that's possible, since the STB has only one audio chip, it can only do one format at a time. If you connect HDMI to the television and the television says that it can only do 2.0 or 2.1 audio, then STB has to mix that. The only thing that I can think of is that your television is capable of handling DD5.1, in order to be able to pass it through its digital audio output (I'm not sure whether my TV can do that, but it does pass DD5.1 from its tuner out of its S/PDIF output). It might also be able to process DD5.1 into fake surround through its 2 speakers.

The original HDMI-to-television, S/PDIF to AVR problem was very real and a much discussed complaint, a few years back, in both the Passport Echo and SARA threads.

Looks like my remembrance was faulty and you are correct! Just went back and double checked... yes I get audio to my AVR via optical WHEN I set HDMI on the STB... but it does, as you say, get changed to Pro Logic, assuming the source does DD.

Nevertheless, it 100% does suite my purpose, which is to run DD through my AVR until after 11 PM, when I switch to the TV speakers by switching the audio out on the STB to HDMI and powering down my AVR.

On my new Samsung HD TV, in working with brand new HDMI cable, the picture is AWESOME!!! (Even on SD channels!)

Jack

Model??

So I went to my local TWC store today to swap my 8300 hd and they gave me a Samsung SMT-H3090 box...

So far the box is fine....nothing spectacular...as most of you already know the guide is stretched which doesn't bother me. Menu transitions are not as smooth as i thought they would be. There are different menu options for example: "device" is where audio settings are now. There's a new option to turn "Interactive Pop-ups" on and off, whatever that means. Captioning works with no problem.


I also noticed the network connection in the back so i went ahead and ran a cat5 cable to the 2nd H3090 i picked up when booting. It said IP was enabled...Didnt really do anything when both boxes finish booting.lol and I didn't see any extra menu's.

I know im not the first person to get one on this forum but just thought i'd share my experience.

Ah, so now the 3090 is available in NC and Milwaukee. And here some guy kept saying NYC would be the first to get 3090s... FWIW, if you're so inclined, as much info on the 3090 as you can muster would be appreciated... there's a LOT of anticipation for this unit. Oh, DID it come with a 320G drive?

What is on the other end of the ethernet cable, router or hub/switch?

I just did a follow-up search and it looks like other divisions (NYC) will also be deploying the 3260 (set-top only) and 3270 (DVR) units as well.

As we are supposedly about to get MDNed on our 8300HD/Passport units, I probably would want too swap it for a 3270/3090. Exactly where does the info that it's being deployed in NYC come from? I kept reading from another fellow in San Diego we'd be the first market to get the Sammies, and I see it's available in at least 2 other TC markets already...

Model??

The set is Samsung's 40"

LN40B550 HD TV with 1080p Resolution.

Jack

Great tip I found!

On my new Samsung HD TV, in working with brand new HDMI cable, the picture is AWESOME!!! (Even on SD channels!) Users with Navigator and HDMI, in addition to setting your box to HDMI output, if your TV supports 1080 res, under the resolution settings, select that one ONLY. (Or the highest that your set allows.) If it is 720 res, go with 720. De-select all other output resolution settings. This not only forces the box to output at the highest resolution all the time, even if an SD station is only at 420. The box will THINK that it is at 1080. What this means is that the box at a 1080 output will change channels faster. (Or 720, if that is as high as your TV will go.) Don't use the Auto Select feature, force your HD box to output at your TV's highest output resolution all the time and de-select the others.

Oh, and those new cables also made my Closed Captioning work! It had not worked before on the box for 3 years!

Jack

Your observation of changing channels faster is almost certain to be true... but the rest is not necessarily so.

Turning off output resolutions at the box only forces the scaling process to occur at the box, and the box is not necessarily the best scaler available in your system. The scaler in the TV is probably as good or better, and if you have a receiver or video processor with a premium scaler such as a Reon HQV it is virtually certain to provide better scaling facilities than the box. With your 1080p TV, all resolutions available over cable or satellite MUST be scaled before they are displayed... its only a choice of which device is going to handle that chore, and which is better at it.

Furthermore, even if your TV and STB scalers are perfect equals in quality, the box can only output at 1080i so the TV must still provide the deinterlacing to display as 1080p... which is effectively dragging your video through the scaling engines twice instead of just once.

I'm not challenging your decision to do what you're doing... the PQ difference may be small and the smoother channel changes may indeed override the potential PQ degradation... just making sure you are fully informed on the trade-offs.

Great tip I found!

On my new Samsung HD TV, in working with brand new HDMI cable, the picture is AWESOME!!! (Even on SD channels!) Users with Navigator and HDMI, in addition to setting your box to HDMI output, if your TV supports 1080 res, under the resolution settings, select that one ONLY. (Or the highest that your set allows.) If it is 720 res, go with 720. De-select all other output resolution settings. This not only forces the box to output at the highest resolution all the time, even if an SD station is only at 420. The box will THINK that it is at 1080. What this means is that the box at a 1080 output will change channels faster. (Or 720, if that is as high as your TV will go.) Don't use the Auto Select feature, force your HD box to output at your TV's highest output resolution all the time and de-select the others.

Oh, and those new cables also made my Closed Captioning work! It had not worked before on the box for 3 years!

Jack

I don't do it as I tend to think that my TV does a better job of converting content than the DVR. Also, it does not look like a good idea to have multiple upscalings/deinterlacings happenning when there is no need. Suppose your TV is 1080p and you set resolution on the DVR to 1080i, and you get 720p content. Then you get 720p->1080i->1080p conversions, (one by DVR and the other by TV) which means one upscaling and interlacing, followed by deinterlacing. But if DVR outputs 720p native, you'd get 720p->1080p, just one upscaling. Similar things happen if you set DVR resolution to 720p and you receive 1080i content.
But if you sit far enough (relative to the screen size), you may not notice the difference, and then if you change channels often, it may be worth it.

I don't do it as I tend to think that my TV does a better job of converting content than the DVR. Also, it does not look like a good idea to have multiple upscalings/deinterlacings happenning when there is no need...

...But if you sit far enough (relative to the screen size), you may not notice the difference, and then if you change channels often, it may be worth it.

Ha ha... same thought process at same time, lol.

FWIW, I recently posted some thoughts and "rules" on scaling in the Onkyo 876 thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=16288458&postcount=2142

Some of it is specific to the 876 but the "rules" are pretty much universal.

If that is the case, why do Blu-ray and DVD players have no problem outputting DD/DTS etc when connected to the head of the same AVR>DTV chain? There must be some facility within the AVR to alter the audio requests it makes of the source (particularly if you configure the AVR to send NO audio to the TV, which is how my Onkyo 876 is configured)... or, alternatively, the source device must be able to be configured to ignore/override this.

If passing the TV's audio capabilities all the way back up the chain to the source was a cast in stone rule, Blu-ray and DVD audio would not work as many of us have it working... in an HDMI chain with the AVR in the middle. Whatever "rules" the disc-based sources are playing by need to be adopted by the STBs.
If you have your AVR configured to send NO audio to the TV, obviously
you would have NO PROBLEM playing DD5.1 via AVR.

If the TV is indeed getting a GOOD STEREO signal (i.e. without missing
Center channel) via AVR, I would presume AVR is doing DD5.1 to STEREO
downmixing (per ATSC A/52B: L = Lf + 0.5C and R = Rf + 0.5C).
This ensures you adequately hear the Center channel info (rather than
diminished dialog level with excessively reverberant sound field).

BTW: Many TV programs are MISSING the Center (and LFE) channel due
to whether each station properly setup their Dolby Decoder equipment.

Ha ha... same thought process at same time, lol.

FWIW, I recently posted some thoughts and "rules" on scaling in the Onkyo 876 thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=16288458&postcount=2142

Some of it is specific to the 876 but the "rules" are pretty much universal.
Setting to 1080i for ALL program types is overly restrictive.

If you have a 1080i/p capable HDTV, you are DEGRADING the 720p signals
by throwing away every other frame....the primary reason sports channels
(ABC, FOX, ESPN) chose 720p in order to have a much faster video refresh rate
(60Hz vice 30Hz for 1080i).

So I enable BOTH 1080i and 720p.
To minimize glitches when changing between resolutions, I do NOT enable
480i or 480p, letting the STB convert to 720p.

Ha ha... same thought process at same time, lol.

FWIW, I recently posted some thoughts and "rules" on scaling in the Onkyo 876 thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=16288458&postcount=2142

Some of it is specific to the 876 but the "rules" are pretty much universal.

I just thought I'd make a tiny comment on your linked post here in that the native resolution of the set is not -always- a good thing to go by. Though it's really hard to do without some strong investigating of your display. For example: The PX80 line of Panasonic plasmas have 768p native resolutions (1366x768 for the 50", 1024x768 non-square pixels for the 42") but the internal scaler upconverts and deinterlaces everything to 1080p first before the final drop down to the native resolution of the panel.

Otherwise it's spot on to everything I usually suggest.

(The image scaling steps argument is one of my major pet peeves btw. I see too many people who own the PX80 Panny's that automatically think it's good to lock in their sources at 720p. So with a ton of HD broadcast/cable programming being in 1080i, that's going from 1080i, deinterlacing and resizing down to 720p, then resizing back to 1080p, then down to the native panel resolution of the set. Too many steps compared to deinterlacing to 1080p and then resizing to the native res. This is not even to mention that the scaler in this line of sets is noticably superior to most with a 'clean' source.)

Though with the quality and compression of most channels on cable these days (especially on SD channels), even the best image scaler does minimally better than these STBs that I have personally noticed so if the resolution switching between channels is a problem, lock in the box at the highest supported res for your set. You won't lose -TOO- much quality (YMMV of course. As a compromise, I'd probably lock it at just 720p and 1080i and let the box upconvert the SD channels). But for much cleaner sources like dvd's for example, the scaler quality comparison then comes into play.

I just thought I'd make a tiny comment on your linked post here in that the native resolution of the set is not -always- a good thing to go by. Though it's really hard to do without some strong investigating of your display. For example: The PX80 line of Panasonic plasmas have 768p native resolutions (1366x768 for the 50", 1024x768 non-square pixels for the 42") but the internal scaler upconverts and deinterlaces everything to 1080p first before the final drop down to the native resolution of the panel.

Otherwise it's spot on to everything I usually suggest.

(The image scaling steps argument is one of my major pet peeves btw. I see too many people who own the PX80 Panny's that automatically think it's good to lock in their sources at 720p. So with a ton of HD broadcast/cable programming being in 1080i, that's going from 1080i, deinterlacing and resizing down to 720p, then resizing back to 1080p, then down to the native panel resolution of the set. Too many steps compared to deinterlacing to 1080p and then resizing to the native res. This is not even to mention that the scaler in this line of sets is noticably superior to most with a 'clean' source.)

Thanks... you are correct about the displays that are not either 720p or 1080p native - I REALLY love the 42" 1024x768/16:9 plasmas! I have slightly edited that post accordingly.

The whole subject is actually more complex than many realize and a good analysis of the actual component chain in a given system is usually required to give a best practices recommendation. I do know, however, that locking an STB in a single resolution is almost never the right choice for best PQ. For most newer displays the on-board scaler is almost guaranteed to be better than the STB's and will also avoid the multiple scaling processes. Same thing usually goes for "upconverting" DVD players - especially the $39 variety. :rolleyes:

Setting to 1080i for ALL program types is overly restrictive.

If you have a 1080i/p capable HDTV, you are DEGRADING the 720p signals
by throwing away every other frame....the primary reason sports channels
(ABC, FOX, ESPN) chose 720p in order to have a much faster video refresh rate
(60Hz vice 30Hz for 1080i).

So I enable BOTH 1080i and 720p.
To minimize glitches when changing between resolutions, I do NOT enable
480i or 480p, letting the STB convert to 720p.

More good points and reasons to not disable 720p at the box.

I do my best not to watch SD programming (or even surf through it, lol) so the channel change delays are not much of a deterrent for me... so I leave the SD resolutions turned on at the box.

I do have to say, however, that when the TW box was directly connected to my Samsung A550 LCD, the very brief handshake/lockup delays never even remotely bothered me. Now, with my Onkyo 876 with its Reon scaler, I so much want to use it for scaling the STB content to 1080p... BUT, the 876 does not keep a steady sync output to the TV while it switches resolutions internally. The delay in the 876 is about the same as the delay in Samsung TV, but now they are stacked on top of each other because the TV doesn't see a constant 1080p input stream as you might expect. The combined delay during channel changes taxes even my usually great patience, lol.

If you have your AVR configured to send NO audio to the TV, obviously
you would have NO PROBLEM playing DD5.1 via AVR.

But that IS the problem and the issue at hand... the Samsung STB will not output anything but PCM stereo via HDMI to the AVR, even with HDMI TV Audio Output disabled... yet my Panasonic DMP-BD35 is quite happy to send any and all audio formats via HDMI to the same AVR/TV combo.

I complained about it since it had been working before. Got the we don't support it line and the engineers don't have time to go back and work on that. They were very soory my DVR wouldn't record anymore and I'd lose my shows if I went back to the old way, but tough luck.

I let them know that as soon as it was possible I would be moving to a different service provider. Especially one that supports the add on drives. I never heard anything back from them further.

Now I did return to town after being gone over the weekend. Found that my power got knocked out. Well somehow after the power came back up, it got my drive working again for me for now. I went through some suggested steps to keep it working such as changing the power on channel to something that I don't subscribe to and recording ESPN News but drop it down to lowest priority and saving only one episode at a time. So far since last night that seems to have been working for me. I'm able to view old recordings and it's recording things as they should. We'll see how long that continues.

Just an update....although the external drive was working, it lost most of my old recordings between when I posted my last message and yesterday. So basically I got knocked back down to square one and at this point decided to disconnect the external drive so I could get back to safely recording shows and not worry about losing things again. As soon as I can get off Time Warner, I will. I've had it with them.

Ah, so now the 3090 is available in NC and Milwaukee. And here some guy kept saying NYC would be the first to get 3090s... FWIW, if you're so inclined, as much info on the 3090 as you can muster would be appreciated... there's a LOT of anticipation for this unit. Oh, DID it come with a 320G drive?

What is on the other end of the ethernet cable, router or hub/switch?

Well the one they gave me two 3090's both with 160gb drives... on our divisions website the user manual has 320 and 160 gb options...I think they will be giving out 320 gb versions soon...maybe they haven't yet received them. Two representatives at the TWC store said that I was one of the first people to pick one up and they asked me to let them know how the box worked because they had no clue. lol

I had the 3090 in the living room connected to the other 3090 in my room via ethernet cable. Thats how it is setup in the user manual...but nothing worked. maybe i didn't do something right....perhaps it doesn't work.....lol I suppose i'll try connecting both 3090's to the router to see what happens...but i'll have to get another cat 5 cable because i only have one in the house.lol

I have this feeling that TWC maybe planning something big with these boxes...alot of the features have not been enabled yet..When booting the boxes for the first time all kinds of messages popped up like "OCAP"...IP enabled...."home network" etc.

Well the one they gave me two 3090's both with 160gb drives... on our divisions website the user manual has 320 and 160 gb options...I think they will be giving out 320 gb versions soon...maybe they haven't yet received them. Two representatives at the TWC store said that I was one of the first people to pick one up and they asked me to let them know how the box worked because they had no clue. lol

I had the 3090 in the living room connected to the other 3090 in my room via ethernet cable. Thats how it is setup in the user manual...but nothing worked. maybe i didn't do something right....perhaps it doesn't work.....lol I suppose i'll try connecting both 3090's to the router to see what happens...but i'll have to get another cat 5 cable because i only have one in the house.lol

I have this feeling that TWC maybe planning something big with these boxes...alot of the features have not been enabled yet..When booting the boxes for the first time all kinds of messages popped up like "OCAP"...IP enabled...."home network" etc.

Interesting... no IP or home network boot messages here. But we have 320GB HDDs.

Missed another recording tonight... "Lie to Me" didn't record... nothing else scheduled... was actually watching it, but light didnt come on... was red in guide... still no record. Log had same message as before... "Channel not available". Wouldn't manually start recording, either.

Interesting... no IP or home network boot messages here. But we have 320GB HDDs.

Missed another recording tonight... "Lie to Me" didn't record... nothing else scheduled... was actually watching it, but light didnt come on... was red in guide... still no record. Log had same message as before... "Channel not available". Wouldn't manually start recording, either.

Wow, the Sammy sounds about as bad as the 8300HD I'm about to chuck in favor of an 8300HDC. My 8300HD frequently missed recordings for the same reasons: Channel not Available or Service No longer exists or channel not available. Also, this box doesn't boot right. Is it a good indicator that a box is seriously screwed up if the boot screen stays on for 10 minutes followed by analog only channels after that? The 4250HDC I have boots fine, so I know it isn't a signal issue.

I was going to ask TWC about the new Sammy, but I think I'll refrain, seeing that stretched guide. :eek:

Interesting... no IP or home network boot messages here. But we have 320GB HDDs.

Missed another recording tonight... "Lie to Me" didn't record... nothing else scheduled... was actually watching it, but light didnt come on... was red in guide... still no record. Log had same message as before... "Channel not available". Wouldn't manually start recording, either.Wow, deja vu. This was a commonly reported problem about 3 releases ago. I used to get it a lot. If memory serves, it seemed to be exacerbated by low signal strength. Since I hadn't seen or heard of it for a long time, I figured they finally fixed it.

Wow, deja vu. This was a commonly reported problem about 3 releases ago. I used to get it a lot. If memory serves, it seemed to be exacerbated by low signal strength. Since I hadn't seen or heard of it for a long time, I figured they finally fixed it.

Never had before, but will look at signal strength. No issues with dropouts or other signs of signal issues

Wow, the Sammy sounds about as bad as the 8300HD I'm about to chuck in favor of an 8300HDC. My 8300HD frequently missed recordings for the same reasons: Channel not Available or Service No longer exists or channel not available. Also, this box doesn't boot right. Is it a good indicator that a box is seriously screwed up if the boot screen stays on for 10 minutes followed by analog only channels after that? The 4250HDC I have boots fine, so I know it isn't a signal issue.

I was going to ask TWC about the new Sammy, but I think I'll refrain, seeing that stretched guide. :eek:

The Sammy did exactly that the other day... had an error message and no guide or banners... rebooted, but hung on OCAP display. After about 10 mins it still said OCAP but you could then power on and use as a very basic box. tuning worked (analog and digital), my premium channels worked, simple OSD for channel ID, but no Navigator features at all. Pic was about 20% overscanned. It was like box was working but no Navigator ever loaded. Rebooted three times, same thing. Finally pulled power and went and cut lawn. When I came back it booted up completely normally.

Wow...well hopefully my two Sammy boxes won't have those problems. I really didn't mind my two 8300hd's. they never gave me any problems. I just traded them in because i wanted the all black sammy boxes to go with my all black appliances. lol

But so far no problems at all from the boxes in both rooms and because we have people with different tv viewing habits in our house these boxes will be on alot. i'll keep u all updated.

Wow...well hopefully my two Sammy boxes won't have those problems. I really didn't mind my two 8300hds. they never gave me any problems. I just traded them in because i wanted the all black sammy boxes to go with my all black appliances. lol

But so far no problems at all from the boxes in both rooms and because we have people with different tv viewing habits in our house these boxes will be on alot. i'll keep u all updated.

Yeah... all black and 320GB was my attraction. Have you checked what version of ODN the box is running? Mine is 3.1.0_11, which is NOT the latest out there. Unfortunately it may take a few releases of ODN to get it working smoothly with the new box. :(

Wow, all this output resolution reading really has my head spinning. Let me see if I got this right. My Vizio 37" TV is a 720p model but I think is 1080i capable too, so i should set the STB to output both 1080i and 720p and make sure it doesn't output 480i/p at all correct?

I also think that it actually has 768p when using 1080i so does that mean when watching 1080i material the picture would be better than when watching 720p material due to the added pixels? Thanks

The Sammy did exactly that the other day... had an error message and no guide or banners... rebooted, but hung on OCAP display. After about 10 mins it still said OCAP but you could then power on and use as a very basic box. tuning worked (analog and digital), my premium channels worked, simple OSD for channel ID, but no Navigator features at all. Pic was about 20% overscanned. It was like box was working but no Navigator ever loaded. Rebooted three times, same thing. Finally pulled power and went and cut lawn. When I came back it booted up completely normally.

Interesting. This box I have has been consistently doing that. Ever since around the time it got the MDN upgrade, it's been acting funnier than normal. When it had Passport, it never missed recordings. In the beginning with MDN, it behaved fine too. But lately it has been worse. When I had TWC over a few weeks ago for a different problem, it did the same thing when the tech rebooted the box. And the eager guy wanted to replace it then. Now, I've had it shut off for the past few days and when I tried rebooting it last night, it won;t even go past the third block on the mystro screen. And it stayed that way for several hours. It doesn't even "time out" anymore. That's why I suspect it used to load analog only, the screen is supposed to stay on for so long before it just times out and comes on at reduced capacity. Same thing happened when my cable went out over the summer. Thought it was the box, tried a reboot and it turned out the system was down, so it didn't download.

Never had before, but will look at signal strength. No issues with dropouts or other signs of signal issues

Update:

Box missed "Lie to Me" (FOX) and two showings of "Criminal Minds" (CBS), but it DID record "The Unusuals" (ABC).

Loaded the box diagnostics and had virtually identical RF parameters for all three channels. All had input levels between -8.2 and -8.7dBmV with SNRs between 35.7 and 36.3 dB. Bit Error Rates were zero for all three channels.

Wow, deja vu. This was a commonly reported problem about 3 releases ago. I used to get it a lot. If memory serves, it seemed to be exacerbated by low signal strength. Since I hadn't seen or heard of it for a long time, I figured they finally fixed it.

My theory is that Navigator was very sensitive to flaky hardware, and a lot of 8300HDC boxes were flaky. If I remember correctly, several people (me included) had issues with one box, swapped it for the same model with the same sofware version, and the problem dissappeared (some people had to do several box swaps until they finally got a good box). Same issue with Samsung maybe indicates that these boxes are flaky (the first batch syndrome, maybe; the bad HDCs were probably from one of the early batches as well, as the problem dissapeared from this board after a while).

I'd reccommend swapping the boxes until you get one that does not skip a recording for at least a couple of weeks. Note that although the message sounds sort of like an SDV message, it probably is not related, as jcalabria was actually watching the channel that would not record; my experience with my first HDC box was similar - it would tune in but not record, than reports "channel not available", and the channels in question were most definitely not SDV ones.

My theory is that Navigator was very sensitive to flaky hardware, and a lot of 8300HDC boxes were flaky. If I remember correctly, several people (me included) had issues with one box, swapped it for the same model with the same sofware version, and the problem dissappeared (some people had to do several box swaps until they finally got a good box). Same issue with Samsung maybe indicates that these boxes are flaky (the first batch syndrome, maybe; the bad HDCs were probably from one of the early batches as well, as the problem dissapeared from this board after a while).

I'd reccommend swapping the boxes until you get one that does not skip a recording for at least a couple of weeks. Note that although the message sounds sort of like an SDV message, it probably is not related, as jcalabria was actually watching the channel that would not record; my experience with my first HDC box was similar - it would tune in but not record, than reports "channel not available", and the channels in question were most definitely not SDV ones.Now that you mention it, my experience is similar to yours. I went through 2 bad boxes that had trouble booting or wouldn't boot at all. Once I got past that, the recording problems also went away.

While not discounting the idea of flaky boxes especially with the 8300HDC's it seems, but also keep in mind that lousy incoming signal also seems to make any box 'act' flaky. Personally I have went through the same with one of the Pioneer STB's running Passport, an SA8000 with both Passport Echo and Navigator MDN, and an 8300HDC with Navigator ODN.

But more importantly, the signal strength to your box is something that, as a customer, you can check it on your own from the box with plenty of stats to spare. It's about the only thing you can check on your own too that would be related to these problems and is always the first thing I usually recommend to be checked before jumping to wild conclusions before any investigating is done.

Just a thought is all. Especially coming from someone who has repeatedly jumped to invalid conclusions on things like this.

Vouching for myself here, I have one of the first batches of 8300HDC's as they were released in this region in the beginning of 2008 and came running out of the box with Navigator. I have yet to have any showstopping problems or unwarranted reboots with it. Only minor software issues which was a given with the earlier versions of ODN. Of course I'll also add the qualifier that I don't use any really non-standard setup with it. No esata drive, no AVR, direct HDMI to tv. Almost daily recordings but rare cases of conflict resolution coming into play (while I'm going to get shot for this, I personally think those who want to run such setups should aim for a Tivo more than anything.)

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags01.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags02.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags04.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags03.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags05.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags06.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags07.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags08.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags09.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags10.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags11.jpg


I switched to a live channel for the next few otherwise no pertinent audio and video parameters were displayed:
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags12.jpg


Note spelling error - "Resolustion" - hope the rest of the code was proofread better than that! :eek:
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags12a.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags12b.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags13.jpg

The "AC3 in Host" Flag shown below changed to "Support" after "AC3 over HDMI" was enabled:
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags14.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags16.jpg

A little better screen formatting needed here:
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags15.jpg


This page was password protected... was able to enable AC3 over HDMI here...
Curious what "Enable Allow NC HDMI TV" actually does (did not change setting):
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags17.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags18.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags19.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags20.jpg


Another password protected screen:
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags21.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags22.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags23.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags24.jpg

http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags25.jpg


It's more like 30 seconds... thought the reboot function wasn't working at first:
http://i34.photobucket.com/albums/d142/jcalabria/SMT-H3090/SMT-H3090_Diags26.jpg

There are many many more screens... these were the most interesting. In particular there are a bunch of CableCard related screens that I did not post (but the main CableCard MMI menu is shown above).

There is a password protected diagnostics page within the extended diagnostic section (see above) that has an entry for "Enable AC3 Support Over HDMI". It was disabled by default. After enabling, the DD/AC3 passses to AVR perfectly over HDMI.

Why it is disabled by default is anybody's guess. After enabling, the "AC3 in Host" flag shown above in the HDMI Status page changed from "Not Support" to "Support"

BTW... the password was extremely difficult to guess - "3090". :rolleyes:

Update:

Box missed "Lie to Me" (FOX) and two showings of "Criminal Minds" (CBS), but it DID record "The Unusuals" (ABC).

Loaded the box diagnostics and had virtually identical RF parameters for all three channels. All had input levels between -8.2 and -8.7dBmV with SNRs between 35.7 and 36.3 dB. Bit Error Rates were zero for all three channels.

I would guess that my Samsung has missed over a dozen recordings over the course of my 2-3 weeks of usage. The latest misses were Scrubs on Wednseday night, and Greek (My wife is getting very upset with this box, and I think missing Greek has pushed her over the edge). We are taking ours back tomorrow and are going to swap it out for a new one. I'm giving Samsung a second chance. If this new one doesn't work out for us, we are going to move back to the 8300HDC.

As I have mentioned previously, all of the shows are "red" in the guide and are set to record prior to the show's start time. However, whenever the start time rolls around, the box never begins recording, and the television show is then colored "gray" in the guide and the broken record logo is shown next to the program title. I am then prevented from starting the record manually, because nothing happens when pressing the record button.

A reboot of the box resets the DVR, and the show begins recording after waiting through the 14-1 Mystro countdown.

There appear to be some pretty big flaws in the way this Samsung box is working, at least for us. The sole purpose of having a DVR is to record shows, and this box is having a really difficult time doing just that.

So I enable BOTH 1080i and 720p.
To minimize glitches when changing between resolutions, I do NOT enable
480i or 480p, letting the STB convert to 720p.

That's what I do as well.

There IS an other factor... the display itself. I have seen first hand that some displays take a LONG time to effect a resolution switch, while others are far faster. I have seen first hand that a Samsung and a Sony from 3 years ago do NOT take the same amount of time to switch resolutions (the Sony is noticeably slower than the Samsung).

Interesting... no IP or home network boot messages here. But we have 320GB HDDs.

Missed another recording tonight... "Lie to Me" didn't record... nothing else scheduled... was actually watching it, but light didnt come on... was red in guide... still no record. Log had same message as before... "Channel not available". Wouldn't manually start recording, either.

Boy. doesn't that sound exactly like the early days of ODN?

Wow, all this output resolution reading really has my head spinning. Let me see if I got this right. My Vizio 37" TV is a 720p model but I think is 1080i capable too, so i should set the STB to output both 1080i and 720p and make sure it doesn't output 480i/p at all correct?

I also think that it actually has 768p when using 1080i so does that mean when watching 1080i material the picture would be better than when watching 720p material due to the added pixels? Thanks

Indeed one must take into account the native resolution in IF one wants to manage what scaling goes on when. Most (AFAIK) sets dubbed as "720p" sets are actually 1366 x 768. The STB isn't capable of that res, so the TV will ALWAYS be scaling. THIS is a primary factor why I want ANY scaling to be going on in the TV, not the STB.

And yes, I actually tried to see some quality difference between scaling only once, and scaling twice. It WAS quite hard to tell any difference, so I stuck to my premise because it was more electronically efficient/elegant.

There is a password protected diagnostics page within the extended diagnostic section (see above) that has an entry for "Enable AC3 Support Over HDMI". It was disabled by default. After enabling, the DD/AC3 passses to AVR perfectly over HDMI.

Why it is disabled by default is anybody's guess. After enabling, the "AC3 in Host" flag shown above in the HDMI Status page changed from "Not Support" to "Support"

BTW... the password was extremely difficult to guess - "3090". :rolleyes:

WOW, thanks for all the Sammie screen shots!

VERY interesting to hear about key settings are password protected... especially ones that have one scratching ones head in the default choice! I probably wouldn't have tried various words...

That's what I do as well.

There IS an other factor... the display itself. I have seen first hand that some displays take a LONG time to effect a resolution switch, while others are far faster. I have seen first hand that a Samsung and a Sony from 3 years ago do NOT take the same amount of time to switch resolutions (the Sony is noticeably slower than the Samsung).

That's the reason why I only use 1080i output. It takes time(I don't even want a second or two) to change formats. Plus I tried this when I had a box with ODN2 and after frequent channel changing the box had to be rebooted due to a white screen because I think the box was "confused". And it doesn't help that 720p and 1080i channels are mixed randomly.

As far as 480i/480p, I NEVER use those as they make the picture look horrible. I've tried those settings before, and I could not believe how bad the SD channels looked. They look decent on either 720p or 1080i, but the PQ really takes a dump on 480.

WOW, thanks for all the Sammie screen shots!

VERY interesting to hear about key settings are password protected... especially ones that have one scratching ones head in the default choice! I probably wouldn't have tried various words...

There is also a lot of eSATA stuff to play with. Hint hint!

xnappo

There is also a lot of eSATA stuff to play with. Hint hint!

xnappo

Come on... I was up till after 3am already, lol.

Thats how it is setup in the user manual..

You got a user manual...i didnt get squat, just the box.


Missed another recording tonight... "Lie to Me" didn't record... nothing else scheduled... was actually watching it, but light didnt come on... was red in guide... still no record. Log had same message as before... "Channel not available". Wouldn't manually start recording, either.

i havent missed any recordings (knock on wood) since reporting those 2 issues in the Charlotte thread.

the wife told me yesterday that the box spontaneously rebooted for the first time though.

You got a user manual...i didnt get squat, just the box.



i havent missed any recordings (knock on wood) since reporting those 2 issues in the Charlotte thread.

the wife told me yesterday that the box spontaneously rebooted for the first time though.

Happy to hear somebody is happy, lol.

Any chance the reboot was caused by a software upgrade? Seems like we need an ODN version tweaked for these boxes. As of last night I'm still on 3.1.0_11... same as I've had since early January on both 8300HDC and H3090.

No user manual here. Haven't found anything online, either.

Any chance the reboot was caused by a software upgrade? Seems like we need an ODN version tweaked for these boxes. As of last night I'm still on 3.1.0_11... same as I've had since early January on both 8300HDC and H3090.



no upgrade. same version.
says last boot was on 4/22/2009 @ 7:31:07 am. confirming what i was told

No user manual here. Haven't found anything online, either.There's one, here (http://www.timewarnercable.com/MediaLibrary/1/1/FAQ/Documents/hookup/Samsung_SMT_3090HD_UserGuide.pdf), on a TWC corporate site.

It clearly says that connecting the LAN port to another STB is an optional function.

There's one, here (http://www.timewarnercable.com/MediaLibrary/1/1/FAQ/Documents/hookup/Samsung_SMT_3090HD_UserGuide.pdf), on a TWC corporate site.

It clearly says that connecting the LAN port to another STB is an optional function.

Thanks!

Just got off the phone with Time Warner and will be picking up the Samsung 3090 hopefully on Saturday. This after problems with 3 Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD/DVR Boxes.

Anyone knwo if this box works better than the 8300/ What a piece of junk.

First, welcome, second if you would have read the last couple pages, there is plenty of discussion about the 3090 and it isn't very good so far...stretched guide, lots of missed recordings.

WOW, thanks for all the Sammie screen shots!

VERY interesting to hear about key settings are password protected... especially ones that have one scratching ones head in the default choice! I probably wouldn't have tried various words...

I didn't have to dig too far... it was only my fourth choice after 1234, 1111 & 9999, lol. Something just made me try the model number and it worked. I really WAS trying to find something to help with the HDMI audio... luckily I struck paydirt. No such luck with a setting to not stretch the 4:3 guide graphics... that must be buried in an ODN setting somewhere, not in the native box diags. Also couldn't find the setting that tells it to miss recordings every Wednesday night, either.:rolleyes:

First, welcome, second if you would have read the last couple pages, there is plenty of discussion about the 3090 and it isn't very good so far...stretched guide, lots of missed recordings.

Thanks... you beat me to a response.

There's only two of us that I know of in the Charlotte area that are having/reporting the missed recordings. I actually think the recording issues are more to do with how ODN - at least the version we have in Charlotte (3.1.0_11) - interracts with the box rather than a fault of the hardware. I guess it doesn't really matter because we can't separate the two... other than there being possible software fixes ahead. I'm interested to see how the rollout goes in systems running 3.1.1_3 and/or higher now that systems other than Charlotte are getting them.

The stretched guide is, well...a nuisance but not a serious issue. Hopefully they are at work at 16:9 native graphics for an upcoming release.

The one other issue was 2ch PCM only via HDMI, which I found the solution for (and posted above) last night.

Wow. I think you have successfully scared me away from the 3090. If I have time today, I'm going to return the 8300HD that bit the dust. I had planned on asking TWC if they had Sammies available in NE Ohio, but now I will not mention that. I want an 8300HDC. Judging by what I've read here, I take it the latest 8300HDCs and ODN3 are pretty reliable with recordings, so that's what I want.

And to those of you with the new Sammies, thanks for taking one for the team and doing TWC's beta testing. They should not charge you for DVR fee since the box is so unreliable. I remember that nightmare in the early days of 8300HDC and ODN2.

Blech...stretched guides.

This is the 21st Century. One of those tech geniuses can't whip up a true 16x9 HD guide?

I'm very happy with my Passport 8300HD. Hopefully the supposed update to MDN won't be too bad.

Wow. I think you have successfully scared me away from the 3090. If I have time today, I'm going to return the 8300HD that bit the dust. I had planned on asking TWC if they had Sammies available in NE Ohio, but now I will not mention that. I want an 8300HDC. Judging by what I've read here, I take it the latest 8300HDCs and ODN3 are pretty reliable with recordings, so that's what I want.

And to those of you with the new Sammies, thanks for taking one for the team and doing TWC's beta testing. They should not charge you for DVR fee since the box is so unreliable. I remember that nightmare in the early days of 8300HDC and ODN2.

C'mon... you guys are running 3.1.1_3 there... we need to know how that works on the Sammie!

But yes... the 8300HDC w/ ODN 3.1.x_x worked fine... just a small HDD and (I know you like it) fugly silver spaceship form factor.

Just got off the phone with Time Warner and will be picking up the Samsung 3090 hopefully on Saturday. This after problems with 3 Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD/DVR Boxes.

Anyone knwo if this box works better than the 8300/ What a piece of junk.

they are just rolling out, so not6 much data other that some missed recordings.

let us know how it goes, take pics.

i hope they are rolling it out, but for I wouldnt upgrade during prime tv season. but thats coming to an end soon.

oh yeah plug an esata drive into it.

Blech...stretched guides.

This is the 21st Century. One of those tech geniuses can't whip up a true 16x9 HD guide?

I'm very happy with my Passport 8300HD. Hopefully the supposed update to MDN won't be too bad.

I'm sure they can, but at least for now they are loading same software version as in SA HDC boxes that only support 4:3 overlays. It would take new/separate software version. Hopefully they will support BEFORE they phase out all the HDC boxes... that could take a LONG time, seeing as my 8300HDC was only made 1 month earlier than my 3090. In the short term, it would be easier for them to find the switch in there that would make it just run the 4:3 graphics overlays as 4:3... I actually liked the way the 4:3 ODN banners looked floating on the 16:9 screen.

Thanks... you beat me to a response.

There's only two of us that I know of in the Charlotte area that are having/reporting the missed recordings. I actually think the recording issues are more to do with how ODN - at least the version we have in Charlotte (3.1.0_11) - interracts with the box rather than a fault of the hardware. I guess it doesn't really matter because we can't separate the two... other than there being possible software fixes ahead. I'm interested to see how the rollout goes in systems running 3.1.1_3 and/or higher now that systems other than Charlotte are getting them.

The stretched guide is, well...a nuisance but not a serious issue. Hopefully they are at work at 16:9 native graphics for an upcoming release.

The one other issue was 2ch PCM only via HDMI, which I found the solution for (and posted above) last night.

Count me in as number 3. As you reported in the Charlotte forum, "Lie to Me" also didn't report on my Sammy box. But can't recall if the record light was on or not.

what stb doesnt do a stretched guide?

only moxi? the new upcoming passport guide looks good.

what stb doesnt do a stretched guide?

only moxi? the new upcoming passport guide looks good.

I never ever saw a stretched guide or banner with my 8300HDC box. 8300 series does not stretch guide (unless you are stretching 4:3 programming). It just lays 4:3 guide over both 4:3 programming as well as 16:9 programming.

The Samsung stretches the 4:3 graphics designed for the SA boxes out to 16:9 regardless of program aspect ratio or stretch/zoom settings.

The Moxi, Uverse, Dish 722, and DirectTV boxes all do widescreen 16x9 guides. I'm not too sure about FIOS, my buddy has it, but I haven't seen any new revisions for a while.

The Moxi, Uverse, Dish 722, and DirectTV boxes all do widescreen 16x9 guides. I'm not too sure about FIOS, my buddy has it, but I haven't seen any new revisions for a while.

Basically the only thing keeping me from going with a Moxi or Tivo box is the lack of VOD and PPV access. Once we get that, I'm turning in my 8300 for a M-Card.

I never ever saw a stretched guide or banner with my 8300HDC box. 8300 series does not stretch guide (unless you are stretching 4:3 programming). It just lays 4:3 guide over both 4:3 programming as well as 16:9 programming.

The Samsung stretches the 4:3 graphics designed for the SA boxes out to 16:9 regardless of program aspect ratio or stretch/zoom settings.

i think you can set it 16x9, but it is stretches to get it. and at least on my tv, its ugly.


Basically the only thing keeping me from going with a Moxi or Tivo box is the lack of VOD and PPV access. Once we get that, I'm turning in my 8300 for a M-Card.

i think the series 3 tivos also stretch. series 4, i believe, wont.

i was thinking moxi, but the price (i know its lifetime) made me pause. then reading some of the post on avs made me stop.

how the guide looks isnt on my top five things to look for in a dvr, i could live with any guide.

im hopping the sammy fixes some of my issues with the SAs. if not im leaning toward the tivo.

I was referring to next gen models coming out and should have stated so. Once Tivo or Moxi drops a Tru2Way unit that TW will support, I'll snatch on up.

Just got off the phone with Time Warner and will be picking up the Samsung 3090 hopefully on Saturday. This after problems with 3 Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD/DVR Boxes.

Anyone knwo if this box works better than the 8300/ What a piece of junk.

Answering that question is difficult... obviously, there ARE issues. In reality, it's all about each person's hot button issues. Example, I have seen some post that they do no series recordings. So flaky series recordings are of no interest to them. I am hugely dependent on them (plus for 2+ years they have worked just fine). Then again, doubling the HDD space IS very compelling to me.

I'd "invite" you to the local NYC TWC thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=297592

You'll find a LOT of folks who will be very happy to hear of all your experiences with the Sammie. Oh, a 3090? We thought that just maybe it might be the 3270, essentially the same unit but somewhat updated.

Blech...stretched guides.

This is the 21st Century. One of those tech geniuses can't whip up a true 16x9 HD guide?

I'm very happy with my Passport 8300HD. Hopefully the supposed update to MDN won't be too bad.

I'm in the same position (and city) as you! We have a post saying NYC is about to start handing out Sammies... BUT we do NOT know which ODN rev. Some of the issues seem to be happening to boxes that are not yet running the latest rev.

We HAVE heard of them handing out 320G HDD equipped Sammies, so if that does hold true here, that could be a good reason to give it a try.

We thought that just maybe it might be the 3270, essentially the same unit but somewhat updated.

Maybe it has the new "Don't miss any recordings" feature!:rolleyes:

Maybe it has the new "Don't miss any recordings" feature!:rolleyes:

Now there's an idea!

About the only ODN "feature" I'm curious about is what I have read is an intelligent series recording function... as in when there is a conflict and the series recording is a lower priority, it will automatically find the next instance of that specific episode and schedule it. This is something I have to do manually now.

Some guy posted he's getting a 3-090 in my market... I wonder if it will run 3.1.1.3???

I'm in the same position (and city) as you! We have a post saying NYC is about to start handing out Sammies... BUT we do NOT know which ODN rev. Some of the issues seem to be happening to boxes that are not yet running the latest rev.

We HAVE heard of them handing out 320G HDD equipped Sammies, so if that does hold true here, that could be a good reason to give it a try.

We have been getting 320s in Charlotte, but somebody just posted from another area that had a 160, so it doesn't look like the 320s are universal across TW divisions.

As more locations roll them out we'll hopefully get to see if newer ODN revs help any. All of the missed recordings have been reported here in Charlotte (not on the latest rev), but nobody with a newer rev has had them long enough to report any problems... yet. I hope they don't though.