Ok so I just had Comcast cable hooked up at my house yesterday to my Samsung 5054 Plasma. I have the digital preferred pkg + HD, and for some reason I cannot bring up the guide on my TV screen. I can see all the channels and my HD is working fine, but when I hit the info, guide, or menu buttons, nothing comes up on the screen. I have the box hooked up via HDMI to my plasma and the audio via optical to my receiver. I called Comcast and they said they never heard of something like this before. They are sending a tech out Sunday, but I was hoping someone on here my have had a similar problem and knows how to correct the issue. My box is also outputting at 720p.

It's probably the remote....

When I hit the guide, menu, info button etc I can see a little light blinking on the cable box so I know its transmitting.

Probably a bad box. If you have a Comcast office nearby, you can probably swap it quicker than the tech's appointment.

If the box is set to output 720p or 1080i, no menus will draw on any of the SD outputs. Make sure that your TV's input is selected to HDMI or Component and you are using the proper HDMI or 5 wire component HD cables. For S&G's remove all other SD connections from the box to the TV. No coax, no composite (yellow) video, no S-Video... JUST Component or HDMI.

If the box is set to output 720p or 1080i, no menus will draw on any of the SD outputs. Make sure that your TV's input is selected to HDMI or Component and you are using the proper HDMI or 5 wire component HD cables. For S&G's remove all other SD connections from the box to the TV. No coax, no composite (yellow) video, no S-Video... JUST Component or HDMI.

Sorry, but that's not correct. I've seen this problem before many times, and most times it'll be the remote (very few times that it's the cable box). I would just have the cable tech come to your home to trouble shoot it properly. Have the tech check the signal strength at the cable box while there to make sure that you won't be having any PQ issues either. Also, have the tech check that all the settings on the cable box are setup correctly.

- Cable Tech

Sorry, but that's not correct. I've seen this problem before many times, and most times it'll be the remote (very few times that it's the cable box). I would just have the cable tech come to your home to trouble shoot it properly. Have the tech check the signal strength at the cable box while there to make sure that you won't be having any PQ issues either. Also, have the tech check that all the settings on the cable box are setup correctly.

- Cable Tech

Well my 6412 will display menu's over the DVI port, but the yellow composite port that goes to my VCR will not display any menu's. Then consulting the "How to use Motorola DVR wiki" confirms that infact the SD outputs will not display menu's if the resolution is set to 720p or 1080i.

If the remote is the problem, why not push the buttons on the front of the cable box? Didn't the OP say that when they push the remote buttons the LED blinks? If the OOB signal is not coming through and downloading the software, you should at least see a "Feature Not Available" screen when you push menu.

Well my 6412 will display menu's over the DVI port, but the yellow composite port that goes to my VCR will not display any menu's. Then consulting the "How to use Motorola DVR wiki" confirms that infact the SD outputs will not display menu's if the resolution is set to 720p or 1080i.

If the remote is the problem, why not push the buttons on the front of the cable box? Didn't the OP say that when they push the remote buttons the LED blinks? If the OOB signal is not coming through and downloading the software, you should at least see a "Feature Not Available" screen when you push menu.

The OP didn't say which cable box they were using. The cable system I work in uses Scientific Atlantic cable boxes. I guess we need to know which cable box they are referring to, because they all operate differently, then we can go from there. You may be right with the Motorola's, anything's possible. I only know that it wouldn't be the case if it was an SA cable box.

- Cable Tech

Oh yeah that's true Tech15.

I'm familiar with Motorola's only. I've used SA boxes in different area's at friends/family's houses before, but my hometown is strictly Motorola. I don't know as much about SA's not having played with them as much.

Ok so I just had Comcast cable hooked up at my house yesterday to my Samsung 5054 Plasma. I have the digital preferred pkg + HD, and for some reason I cannot bring up the guide on my TV screen. I can see all the channels and my HD is working fine, but when I hit the info, guide, or menu buttons, nothing comes up on the screen. I have the box hooked up via HDMI to my plasma and the audio via optical to my receiver. I called Comcast and they said they never heard of something like this before. They are sending a tech out Sunday, but I was hoping someone on here my have had a similar problem and knows how to correct the issue. My box is also outputting at 720p.

As a subcontractor for Comcast, we saw this issue often, especially with the new Comcast boxes with the cable cards sticking out of the back (DCH series). When the box first takes a hit, or activation from Comcast, it can take the box approx. an hour before menu, info, guide, work properly. Same for DVR functions. But also double check that the cable button up top is glowing red when you push these buttons. By the time you read this, though, you problem will have already fixed itself.

I have a Moto box but not HDMI. I seem to remember that you have set the "by-pass" box setup option to 480i for things like menus to appear otherwise it will try and may fail since it likely defaults to the HD setting. See if you can get into the box setup menus.

YMMV

on the box push volume up and down with the info button at the same time - this will reset yoru box. and hopefully fix the issue

I have exactly the problem described in the first post. I have a new comcast HDTV box connected to a regular TV by coax for the moment. When first installed a couple days ago, the menu, info and set up buttons worked as they should. Now, for some reason, they don't. I checked the remote on another comcast hdtv box in the house and the functions work.

When I press Guide, I see a brief flash of a yellow lite on the right side of the box display (remote), but nothing happens. The red light at the top left of the display is on. What's bugging me is all of this worked just a day or so ago. What changed? Did something go belly up in the cable box?

UPDATE.....it works. Minutes after writing the post above, the thing started working! As far as I know, I didn't do anything to fix it. ????

I have the DCH-3200 and the silver comcast remote and it won't let me enter a channel manually on the remote number pad. I'll input the channel and the numbers on the STB will change, but then nothing will happen and the numbers will revert back to the channel I'm currently watching. I can change channels using the up and down arrows and through the guide. Everything else seems to be working fine except for this one annoyance. Any ideas?

Nevermind, was able to fix it after playing around in the stb settings.

Just had this problem last night with a motorola hd-dvr on rcn. The channels showed up fine but neither the menu nor guide were visible. The issue is the selecting hi-def output but having the cable box hooked up via standard def output, like composite. As soon as I switched to using component output I could see the menus. Not 100% what you are having because you are already using hdmi...

Anybody know how to set up your comcast silver remote to change the picture size on the sammy 5054? It's the only button I use on my tv remote and I hate having to have both remotes out..would like to program the comast remote to use the p. size button from the samsung remote somehow.

bump