World Peace looks to be easier.

Anybody notice slow response on their HD-DVR's lately?

Seems like it's taking a fraction of a second longer when navigating the guide and record list. It's also not fast forwarding nearly as fast through commercials on recorded content. Normal commercial breaks are about a "10 count" but now they're 20-count plus...

Wondering if it's just me.


We want to check this out - please if anyone thinks they see this, post with model number. IrmoGamecoq - model please?

World Peace looks to be easier.
ESPN2HD is a prerequisite to World Peace.

ESPN2HD is a prerequisite to World Peace.


:p

We want to check this out - please if anyone thinks they see this, post with model number. IrmoGamecoq - model please?

I thought the same thing on my 8000HD DVR.

Any idea as to when it first occurred to you?

Any idea as to when it first occurred to you?

I believe it was either Wednesday night or Thursday morning that I first noticed it. I haven't been watching it today, but I'll post back if I still notice it during the weekend.

I also had another weird problem with the 8000HD-DVR Thursday morning. A scheduled recording tried to start but gave me an error message that the hard disk was full. I checked and sure enough it said 100%... taken up by a grand total of 4 hours worth of SD programming. All of the other previously recorded programs were gone. I unplugged the unit then plugged it back in. It took about 10 minutes before the time displayed again on the front panel and the unit was usable. After that it was OK again: the missing recorded programs were back, and the unit was at less than 50% hard drive utilization. Weird.

When I make it over to Greystone to attempt a swap of my HD DVR's to get the 8300, I'm thinking about getting a non-HD, non-DVR STB for one of my other TV's.

Which one is the best to try to get?

Thanks

2200, but 2100 is a good little workhorse (just the 2200 is smaller ....)

Do NOT accept a 2000

DigitalJohn - Engineers want to take a closer look. Please PM or email me your home phone number so I can look up your MAC address and get it to them. Thanks.

twcscnews@twcable.com

I also feel our TWC STB (SA8000HD on the Georgetown/Andrews system) is a little sluggish for the last 4-5 days, but I am not sure...it's kinda subjective.

I did note that about the same time the 8000 "lost" the ability to output DD on the optical output; I had to go into settings and reselect that option to restore it. Also I now see a little rectangular yellow/black "HD" icon on the Info bar (on HD programs, that is) which I don't remember seeing before; has it always been there?? Did we get a firmware update push in the last week or so?

There was an update to all Converters early morning hours Wednesday - which is what we are trying to explore for any DVR latency byproduct... I don't know about the HD icon - I'll try to remember to look for it when I get home today.

DigitalJohn - Engineers want to take a closer look. Please PM or email me your home phone number so I can look up your MAC address and get it to them. Thanks.

twcscnews@twcable.com


Diana -

Email has been sent to you. Thanks!

And I've been seeing the HD icon too.


DigitalJohn

Thanks DigitalJohn - I sent your info to the engineers.

NHL Games in HD from Outdoor Life Network.

Some of you have emailed me about potential NHL HD games coming from OLN - and I had absolutely no information to share on that point. I got my first info on it Friday afternoon - with the first game this Monday - wasn't that helpful!

Anyway, TWCSC will provide the following games to all HD subs free on Special Events Channel 814. {sometime Monday my webmaster will get the schedule on the consumer web site for future reference} This is only the schedule for October/November. They will send additional schedules as we get to those months.

All at 7:00 pm eastern

Mon 10/10 - Pittsburg at Buffalo
Mon 10/17 - Florida at NY
Mon 10/24 - Detroit at Columbus
Mon 10/31 - Montreal at NY
Tue 11/8 - Boston at Philadelphia
Wed 11/16 - Pittsburg at Philadelphia
Tue 11/22 - Tampa Bay at Philadelphia

Thanks DigitalJohn - I sent your info to the engineers.

Diana - FYI, the sluggishness seems to have disappeared during the weekend, maybe after that re-boot I did on Friday when everything was missing from my list of recorded programs.


DigitalJohn

Diana,

Is the 1.88 Sara firmware in the forseeable future for TWCSC? It would seem to me that this would had been a priorty for cable compamies.

(This is the SARA software that allows you to watch a "live" recording from the beginning while it is still recording).

Kevin,

I haven't heard about when this will roll out. I would say it depends on how well it has been tested against and works with SDV. My opinion only granted, but at this stage of the game, I would be very surprised if they change anything on the DVR unless it contributes to the success of that endeavor.

Anybody notice slow response on their HD-DVR's lately?

Seems like it's taking a fraction of a second longer when navigating the guide and record list. It's also not fast forwarding nearly as fast through commercials on recorded content. Normal commercial breaks are about a "10 count" but now they're 20-count plus...

Wondering if it's just me.

Mine seems a bit slow and Rome, which was supposed to be ready for me to watch, is not there. It fell off the scheduled list, and I think I even have less available space now, but the show is not on my recorded list. I wish this thing would just work. You woudl think with all the software updates, they would get it right. It's not like it's a PC with thousands of different configurations out there. I was all ready to watch Rome tonight and looks like I can't. I set to catch it tomorrow, but there's no guarantee it will. What's with the issues we are having now? It seems the firmware update made things worse.

Was it a actual DVR firmware update? I see no change in anything in regards to my 8300HD.


I've noticed audio static and audio drops on channel 810 via TWC for a week or so.

Was it a actual DVR firmware update? I see no change in anything in regards to my 8300HD.




No, it was not a DVR firmware update. It was a software update to all Converters and DVRs. We don't know of a connection between the two, we're trying to take your information and see if we can find a connection. Obviously if there is we will fix it.


Shahram I will have the Engineers look at your converter and see if they can find a reason why you didn't get Rome. Did you try to reboot though? Sometimes that's magic...

Yes, my DVR has been slower to respond for the past several days. Mostly noticable as increased latency in response to remote-control commands. Very minor but definitely there.

Oh yes, I always try the reboot. Did it twice. Still not there. I once had all my programs disappear and my drive showed 100% full and a reboot fixed that. This time Rome was not there but my others were still there. It showed 100% full in Prefs, so I rebooted it and that fixed the 100% message, but Rome is still gone. I'll bet it's on the hard drive, just the directory was incorrectly written to, however the software works. I was planning on not using the DVR for a while, watching all my content, and then asking for a master reset that would completely reformat and erase the hard drive. I imagine the hard drive content can really become a mess after a while and that is causing a lot of our problems. Do these things do a defrag overnight occaisionally? Now that would be somthing to include on updates. Could cause less problems which would mean less service calls which I would imagine would be a serious money saver for a cable co. So this would benefit both sides.

Yes, my DVR has been slower to respond for the past several days. Mostly noticable as increased latency in response to remote-control commands. Very minor but definitely there.

It's definitely there.

Haven't thought to re-test the "slow" fast-forwarding, but there is some latency on the remote control functions in the on-screen guides still.

Diana - Sorry for the delay in responding. I have an 8000HD.

Was it a actual DVR firmware update? I see no change in anything in regards to my 8300HD.


I've noticed audio static and audio drops on channel 810 via TWC for a week or so.

I, too, have noticed the audio static on Channel 810. Last night watched the CBS lineup and heard a crackling static throughout the evening. When I switched to 815, 820 and 805 there were no audio problems.

I, too, have noticed the audio static on Channel 810. Last night watched the CBS lineup and heard a crackling static throughout the evening. When I switched to 815, 820 and 805 there were no audio problems.



Last Monday, and Thursday before both had static. Getting a lot more audio drops. I will check ota to see if it is the local station.

Early this evening, both my Explorer 2000 and SA 8300 DVR went into a reboot mode. The Explorer 2000 came on a few minutes later, but the 8300 took a while. In the meantime, I called TWC and the message when it first answered indicated that Time Warner was aware of a problem with Digital converters. While I was on the phone, the time appeared on the 8300.

However, when I turned it on, all cable channels above 101 as well as HD channels are all pixelated with garbles sound. As the picture cycles, audio is somewhat heard. This happened last Wednesday as well, but it cleared up in about an hour. It's been 2 hours and the channels are still terrible. Anybody else experiencing this? Any thoughts/suggestions?

Early this evening, both my Explorer 2000 and SA 8300 DVR went into a reboot mode. The Explorer 2000 came on a few minutes later, but the 8300 took a while. In the meantime, I called TWC and the message when it first answered indicated that Time Warner was aware of a problem with Digital converters. While I was on the phone, the time appeared on the 8300.

However, when I turned it on, all cable channels above 101 as well as HD channels are all pixelated with garbles sound. As the picture cycles, audio is somewhat heard. This happened last Wednesday as well, but it cleared up in about an hour. It's been 2 hours and the channels are still terrible. Anybody else experiencing this? Any thoughts/suggestions?

my 8300HD spontaneously rebooted itself twice sometime between 8 and 8:30 tonight. and earlier today when i first turned it on it seemed like it had rebooted sometime prior because it went through the long startup procedure.

i wasn't watching at the time so i don't know how the channels looked after it came back up, but later on when i switched over to the game WACH-HD looked fine.

I haven't heard about when this will roll out. I would say it depends on how well it has been tested against and works with SDV. My opinion only granted, but at this stage of the game, I would be very surprised if they change anything on the DVR unless it contributes to the success of that endeavor.

that's disapponting, because the inability to start a recording in progress from the beginning, and even worse getting kicked out of watching a recording in progress when it ends are the 2 big issues i have with the DVR and a caveat i always feel i need to give to someone interested in getting one.

a friend in columbia has a pioneer elite plasma, but the individuals that set it up (tweeter/TW?) 6 months ago or so used component cables to connect the SA3250HD box to the tv.

the cable box has DVI, the plasma has HDMI. are their any handshake issues with the cable box that would prohibit using a DVI-HDMI cable to get a pure digital connection to the tv? anyone else out there using a DVI-HDMI cable with the SA3250 and getting good results? just want to know before I tell him to go get a DVI-HDMI cable.

I haven't heard of anyone who felt there was enough difference between component and DVI-HDMI connection to justify the cost.... doesn't mean they aren't there, just I haven't heard from them.

Now, here's what is consistent - ditch the 3250 and get an 8300 HD DVR, well worth it.

yeh, I agree the DVR is the way to go for my friend, but it's not my choice .... the cost for a DVI-HDMI cable isn't as much as one might think. you can obtain a 2 meter cable from companies like pacificcable for under $40 -- and they're top quality.

from personal experience, on digital fixed-pixel displays (lcd, dlp, plasma) the difference in picture clarity is noticeable when you switch from an analog (component) connection to an all digital (DVI/HDMI) connection -- specially if you have a larger display i.e. > 42". it's not a dramatic difference, but it's noticeable IMHO.

does the 8300HD DVR have a DVI or an HDMI connector?

does the 8300HD DVR have a DVI or an HDMI connector?

HDMI.

and IMO the picture going HDMI-DVI on my display is noticeably brighter than using component cables. i suspect it will vary depending on the display...

I haven't heard of anyone who felt there was enough difference between component and DVI-HDMI connection to justify the cost.... doesn't mean they aren't there, just I haven't heard from them.

Now, here's what is consistent - ditch the 3250 and get an 8300 HD DVR, well worth it.


DVI connection to the 2 plasma tvs we have makes a much brighter and better picture than any other connection we can use and it should make sense that DVI is all digital and doesn't go through reprocessing to analog and back to digital in the set.

Well I have to sleep in my theater room now for a few days after getting home from the hospital after getting a Radioactive Iodine treatment for Thyroid cancer (yes, I am slightly radioactive). Other than waking up from nightmares(medical side effect for a while, unfortunately) with life size Yoda staring me in the face (he is now under a sheet), the DVR is making a bunch of noise keeping me awake. I know the 8000 DVR does a shut down of the hard drive late at night, but mine kept turning on and off repeatedly. I would hear it start and spool up, then off, the repeat again about ten times before I finally got up and unplugged it. Is it going to do this every night or was some update going on last night? I am worried about losing my stored content if I unplug it every night for the next week. Man, I like my theater room, but not this much! On a blow up mattress that is taking off in the middle of the night like a magic carpet on drugs! This is no fun at all. And I have the same to look forward to tonight. At least my DVR can cut me some slack!

OK, now again Rome has disappeared, again. This stinks! I guess I just can't watch Rome. And the on demand isn't working either. Is the DVR supposed to be this unreliable? I didn't unplug it while it was recording, it was 3am last night. Do I need to swap this thing out for another? I might just get a regular box, this time.

Well I see WOLO still hasn't figured out how to let us watch the whole MNF game in HD. Precisely at 11pm and it switches over to SD. I guess its rocket science on how to set a timer so that every monday night for 17 weeks that from 9pm till 1230am it should be HD feed.

Edit: The HD returned at 11:47pm and the rest of the game was in HD.

Actually, we do it just to see what you'll post :D

No, actually the MCO on duty will be spoken to about this.. :(

Well I see WOLO still hasn't figured out how to let us watch the whole MNF game in HD. Precisely at 11pm and it switches over to SD. I guess its rocket science on how to set a timer so that every monday night for 17 weeks that from 9pm till 1230am it should be HD feed.

Edit: The HD returned at 11:47pm and the rest of the game was in HD.

I noticed that as well; however, I didn't stay up to see it come back on. I agree, there should be a way to set a timer or a reminder for at least the next 10 Mondays.

I hope I remembered that correctly from this morning...

1.87.27.1 - new OS for 8300's

1. Fixes the Daylight Savings Time bug
2. Preparation for Switched Digital Video

OK, now again Rome has disappeared, again. This stinks! I guess I just can't watch Rome. And the on demand isn't working either. Is the DVR supposed to be this unreliable? I didn't unplug it while it was recording, it was 3am last night. Do I need to swap this thing out for another? I might just get a regular box, this time.


Engineer's recommend you exchange it seems to be on its last legs - but it is interesting enough issues that they want to send this one to SA for dissection. Anyway you could bring it in to Greystone with a note for me/let front counter know to call me???

my 8300HD picked up the update this morning but rebooted itself around an hour ago. it also did so last night, and 2-3 times last week. are you able to tell if this is being caused by something in the system or just this particular unit occasionally spazzing out? it seems like somebody else was experiencing it last week too.

also, what is channel 497 (mcidp)?

Still wishin' I could watch something that is recording from the beginning.

I'm not sure about an hour ago, but probably something happening in the Headend. We were adding software last week as well.

mcidp - I have no idea - Engineers created it for something they are doing and they didn't tell me what it was.

Also I guess I got the update. I have the little yellow HD symbol on some of the HD channels. (821,840,845,901,902,920,921,930,931,940, and 941.)

Also, display of the program guide is quicker. In general it seems more responsive than before.

...and there a few new screens in the diags to check out and decipher...

Fox HD doesn't have the little HD symbol, but the music video channel does. MAybe they got swapped...

my 8300HD picked up the update this morning but rebooted itself around an hour ago. it also did so last night, and 2-3 times last week. are you able to tell if this is being caused by something in the system or just this particular unit occasionally spazzing out? it seems like somebody else was experiencing it last week too.

Scruffy,

I was having problems last week with my 8300. Apparently, due to the software updates last week and the previous week, my box was unable to process all of the new information. All channels above 101 were pixelated with garbled sound, and my box would reboot several times.

I called TWC and asked if they had any 8300's available at their Greystone Office - they did - and I ran over and picked one up. Hooked it up Thursday night and it's been working perfectly. I returned the "bad" box Friday and they simply swapped it out.

Good luck.

The yellow HD tag looks like a mistake. A lot of the HD channels do not have this tag.
( ESPN-HD and All the HD locals are not tagged)

Fox HD doesn't have the little HD symbol, but the music video channel does. MAybe they got swapped...

Yeah, I saw that on that , that channel is about as far from HD as the all the weather radars are...

The yellow HD tag looks like a mistake. A lot of the HD channels do not have this tag.
( ESPN-HD and All the HD locals are not tagged)
That is because they were not showing a HD broadcast when you were watching.

Ok Guys - I'm on vacation! I'll be up very early in the am driving to Illinois and not back to work until Wednesday the 26th.

If you have an issue with your TWC Services please call 866-892-7201.

Have a great weekend,

That is because they were not showing a HD broadcast when you were watching.



You are somewhat mistaken to what is going on in Columbia. The local Fox Station has a subchannel and it is taged with the yellow HD symbol. The local Fox-HD has no symbol with the MLB game that is HD. This is most likely because the onscreen program guide never list anything as HD. You are correct about the local HD tags, except in regards to our local Fox-HD channel.

The yellow HD tag looks like a mistake. A lot of the HD channels do not have this tag.
( ESPN-HD and All the HD locals are not tagged)

When the locals show an HD program the little "HD" tag shows up, if the show isn't in HD then no tag. I watched two or three shows last night in primetime and they were all in HD and all had the tag. I never watch Fox's music channel so I cant comment on that one. I dont know where the "HD" tag comes from, whether it comes from TWC or maybe the program guide vendor, but I would doubt if its 100% accurate.

You are somewhat mistaken
I've been upgraded!

And your in Pawleys Island ,and you have a totally different Fox station. The TWCSC columbia IPG seems to be using a duplicate of the analog for Fox-HD.

When the locals show an HD program the little "HD" tag shows up, if the show isn't in HD then no tag. I watched two or three shows last night in primetime and they were all in HD and all had the tag. I never watch Fox's music channel so I cant comment on that one. I dont know where the "HD" tag comes from, whether it comes from TWC or maybe the program guide vendor, but I would doubt if its 100% accurate.It looks like a logo rather than an indicator. The FOX-HD station turned on the 1080i light on the front of my 8300HD but had no HD tag. The TUBE music video channel (nice mix of music; lucky we're allowed to record it since the Music Choice channels are denied) had the HD tag but wasn't lighting the 1080i...

Sorry, it was the HDTV light.

And it's not a logo because it replaces the blue 'favorites' icon when needed. I'll have to assume any HD channel I'm watching is a favorite.

So if it's the box's job to show favorites or HD channels, then the box is being confused...

Whats up with the SEC football game on WLTX-DT. Its supposed to be in HD but its not. I wonder if someone at WLTX forgot to flip the switch to HD or if CBS is even sending the game out in HD.

Well, the logo is on channel 810 (CBS) for the Tennessee vs. Alabama game, but it's not in High Def. Is this WLTX's fault or is it not in HD? The guide indicates HDTV.

Today, our local CBS is passing audio with crackle for the Philly game. OTA and via TWC.

Today, our local CBS is passing audio with crackle for the Philly game. OTA and via TWC.

2-channel audio too...

NFL game on FOX-HD was in 5.1 !

2-channel audio too...

NFL game on FOX-HD was in 5.1 !


Our local CBS does not do DD 5.1.

Our local CBS does not do DD 5.1.

Sad...

Just an observation... since the SARA update to the SA8300HD, analog component output is not active simultaneously when an HDMI link is active between the STB and the display.

Just an observation... since the SARA update to the SA8300HD, analog component output is not active simultaneously when an HDMI link is active between the STB and the display.
I haven't checked in a few days to see if my box's s-video output to my VCR is still working, along with the component video my HDTV uses. I sure hope they haven't gone copy-protection-happy already...

i have noticed the crappy sound on channel 810 too. also the fox-hd sound sucks. commercials are twice as loud as the show, and it's only on this channel. any ideas?

i have noticed the crappy sound on channel 810 too. also the fox-hd sound sucks. commercials are twice as loud as the show, and it's only on this channel. any ideas?


You can always call the stations. What they are broadcasting over the air is the same as what TWC is passing along. Wis and Wolo seem to be more responsive to email. I have had little success with Wltx or Wach in regards to email.(to the point that I no longer try)

Just an observation... since the SARA update to the SA8300HD, analog component output is not active simultaneously when an HDMI link is active between the STB and the display.Component and s-video still work OK together. And my box has rebooted several times these last 5 days, so I'm sure I've gotten some updates, even if I don't know how to check for them.

Maybe when "Copy to VCR" is pulled we'll know when the fair-use days are gone...

On the front page there is an article concerning a new feature called Start Over that will soon be available for TWC customers viewing NBC channels. Apparently if you are just tuning into a program and have missed a portion of it you can rewind back to the beginning. This is for programs that you haven't set up previously to record. The reason I mention this article is because this feature will be debuted in Columbia, SC. Looks to be starting next month. Any news/info on this Diana?

Also UPNHD for TWC.

There isn't a UPN HD channel in the Columbia area. What we do have is the worst SD video possible with mono sound.(ota is just a dreadful as the TWC feed).


Can you believe another USC game on ESPN2HD? Sad....

On the front page there is an article concerning a new feature called Start Over that will soon be available for TWC customers viewing NBC channels. Apparently if you are just tuning into a program and have missed a portion of it you can rewind back to the beginning. This is for programs that you haven't set up previously to record. The reason I mention this article is because this feature will be debuted in Columbia, SC. Looks to be starting next month. Any news/info on this Diana?


It was discussed on page 140 of this thread. It has nothing to do with HD.

Has anyone contacted Midland's WB4 to see when they will be brodcasting HD? sure would be nice to see some new shows in HD.

Has anyone contacted Midland's WB4 to see when they will be brodcasting HD? sure would be nice to see some new shows in HD.

According to what Bruce has posted on the first page of this thread, they had planned to be broadcasting HD by June 2005. I have no idea why they are not doing so. Not to mention a carriage agreement with TWC may take a awhile.

Has anyone contacted Midland's WB4 to see when they will be brodcasting HD? sure would be nice to see some new shows in HD.

My "Update" post #1347 (dated 1jan04) had a bit more current info than post #1
(WB information date of 09/26/05) which should now be fixed. The later Update said this:

"UPDATE: According to Station Manager S. Rein, their full DT buildout (with HD capability) on the Columbia tower (same one used by WACH and WOLO) has a new drop dead/expected date of July 1, 2006."

I have no further info and, like Kevin said, we do not know the specifics of the delay.

Component and s-video still work OK together. And my box has rebooted several times these last 5 days, so I'm sure I've gotten some updates, even if I don't know how to check for them.

Maybe when "Copy to VCR" is pulled we'll know when the fair-use days are gone...


Can't say without checking again, but at the timm the update occurred, the component output is shutting down or is not putting out a signal my display can use when the HDMI output is being used. For me it really doesn't matter, I'm using HDMI (to DVI). I just thought it was curious. S-Video and RF didn't seem affected.

On the front page there is an article concerning a new feature called Start Over that will soon be available for TWC customers viewing NBC channels. Apparently if you are just tuning into a program and have missed a portion of it you can rewind back to the beginning. This is for programs that you haven't set up previously to record. The reason I mention this article is because this feature will be debuted in Columbia, SC. Looks to be starting next month. Any news/info on this Diana?

There will be much more information on this in the very near future. As soon as I can share specifics I will. Along the lines of I'd tell you but I'd have to kill you.

I can say all the updates you have seen over the past 3 weeks are in preparation of Start Over and SDV.

Not to mention a carriage agreement with TWC may take a awhile.


We have a very good relationship with Independent owner Ms Rein. If I were EVER to be confident of a quick deal, this would be the one.....

That's not a promise mind you, just a very strong gut feeling.

As of last night, I'm still not receiving any signal for INHD or INHD2. I have the 8000 box. I saw that one other person was having the same difficulty, maybe even in the same town. The CSR at Time Warner did not have any reason as to why it was out. I rebooted several times, to no avail. What do you suggest? Should I just switch the box out for the 8300? I was hoping to keep the 8000, because it has some programs on it that I wanted to save.

Thanks.
duse

Diane,

What do you make of this quote?

The pact with NBC was part of a larger deal in which Time Warner agreed to continue carrying NBC Universal's cable channels — including newcomers Universal HD and Telemundo Puerto Rico — for two years.

From the very last sentence of the article from the link below.

http://www.usatoday.com/life/television/news/2005-10-24-nbc-timewarner-rewind_x.htm

It reads like TWC has finally made a deal to carry UniversalHD or I'm reading it completely out of context.

As of last night, I'm still not receiving any signal for INHD or INHD2. I have the 8000 box. I saw that one other person was having the same difficulty, maybe even in the same town. The CSR at Time Warner did not have any reason as to why it was out. I rebooted several times, to no avail. What do you suggest? Should I just switch the box out for the 8300? I was hoping to keep the 8000, because it has some programs on it that I wanted to save.

Thanks.
duse


If it is only two channels, its probably an issues with levels coming into your home. If you want to PM me your home telephone number I'll get a technican to swing by and check it out to see if you need a service call. You don't have to be home for this to occur.

There has been no announcement from Corporate Programming that we are able to launch UniversalHD yet. We received a great deal of information on this deal in Columbia because of our Startover test, but there was no mention of UniversalHD.

FYI- HD will not be part of the Startover initiative for the foreseeable future.

I don't know what to make of the quote at this point. I do know that it is not uncommon for a reporter to get something incorrect when they are covering such a large deal.

If its true we will get right on it. Promise

But - PLEASE don't call me Diane - I really Hate that.

well, with SDV there ought to be plenty of bandwidth for lots of new HD channels...

is the end in sight for rebooting the DVRs? my 8300HD is still rebooting a lot at all times of the day and night. i just came home to find it had rebooted and advanced services are unavailable. :(

well, with SDV there ought to be plenty of bandwidth for lots of new HD channels...



EXACTLY!



I think all the new software applications necessary for Startover and SDV have been downloaded in preparpation for.... oh yeah, I can't tell you :D


There was a big VOD problem yesterday, so that's probably why your converter rebooted.

There has been no announcement from Corporate Programming that we are able to launch UniversalHD yet. We received a great deal of information on this deal in Columbia because of our Startover test, but there was no mention of UniversalHD.

FYI- HD will not be part of the Startover initiative for the foreseeable future.

I don't know what to make of the quote at this point. I do know that it is not uncommon for a reporter to get something incorrect when they are covering such a large deal.

If its true we will get right on it. Promise

But - PLEASE don't call me Diane - I really Hate that.

Thx for the info, I was just curious. And I am soooooooo sorry for calling you Diane. Just unconsious typing. Diana is prettier anyhow. ;)

I did ask my VP about UniversalHD this morning and we have recieved no word from the corporate programming group in regards to having the ok to launch yet. We sent an email asking for some clarifiation.

Thanks for the compliment - I like it much better (obviously)

:http://www.timewarner.com/corp/newsroom/pr/0,20812,1122634,00.html

Haven't heard back on the email yet - will send another one....

more gremlins in the system today? my box rebooted twice again (that i know of)...

Yeah scruffy, my 8300 has been rebooting a couple, three times a day the last few days as well.
Although my 8000 on my other HDTV hasn't rebooted once.

Haven't had a reboot in at least 3 months.(8300HD)

Scruffy - sent your MAC address to the Engineers to review

Nucleartiger - I don't have your 'citizen' info, can you PM me your home telephone number so I can do the same for your equipment?

Kevin - thanks for letting me know its not all 8300s

Diana,

Can you take a look a my connection. Signal is clear sd/hd, but have had a few reboots and can't get free on demand content or ppv preview keep getting an error codes (1003).

Techman - sent your MAC and info to Engineers as well.

Anyone else notice how poor the UGA and FLa. game was on our local CBS? OTA and TWC were the same. Interlaced banding artifacts, etc.

Yep,

It really sucked.

theres a thread over in HD programming promoting how great it looked. To me the local HD passage has regressed from what they have broadcast in the past.

fwiw, my 8300HD has still been crashing more than Lindsay Lohan and Billy Joel at a demolition derby. something new tonight, seems like every time i try to play a previously recorded program while it is recording another program the box locks up and reboots. maybe something on the hard drive is fubared, but the programs play back ok when it's not recording and space used is in the 30% range.

another anamoly maybe related to DST change, SNL last night recorded for 2.5 hrs instead of 1.5, Austin City Limits recorded for 2 hrs instead of 1. recordings tonight have been the scheduled length.

I tried to cancel a recording last night, and my 8300HD locked up. I had to power off to get it to respond again.

I hope the lead-time to the Next Big Thing these updates are for is long enough for problems to settle down...

fwiw, my 8300HD has still been crashing more than Lindsay Lohan and Billy Joel at a demolition derby. something new tonight, seems like every time i try to play a previously recorded program while it is recording another program the box locks up and reboots. maybe something on the hard drive is fubared, but the programs play back ok when it's not recording and space used is in the 30% range.


I've seen the same thing on my 8300HD. It wouldn't be so bad if the box didn't take six minutes to reboot every time!

Well I got my 8300 swapped out. Diana, did they give the box to you? I doubt it. They could have cared less. I taped a note to the box with your name on it. Anyway, time will see if I can watch Rome, but some other shows recorded OK. But these boxes just cannot handle simultaneous recording of two programs. I segments the programs into two. Did it to me twice already. If it can record one program and keep it, I'll be happy.

Today I noticed that "Starting Over" has been turned on.

Since I believe that we are a test market for this service, I'll start with some feedback:

1) The PQ of the playback is much better than the live feed on the analog channels. If this is a hint of what all the channels will look like when we finally go all digital, then I can hardly wait.

2) The visual notification that starting over is available every time you tune a channel is annoying. It would be better if it was just an incon on the station /show banner at the bottom of the screen. It would also be helpful to see this icon on the guide screen and info screens.

3) It looks like you loose closed captions when in starting over mode.

4) Don't press the 'A' button when using starting over. It dumps you into the live feed. If you've invested any amount of time in the current program your two choices are to skip everything you've missed or to have to sit and watch the show from the beginning again!

5) The info button does not display show info when in this mode. Also, if you have the guide up when viewing a show in starting over mode, the info button won't display the program information.

6) I'd love to see the criteria used to determine whether a channel/show allows starting over.

7) Unfortunately, starting over is not available on HD channels. Perhaps it will be in the future?

8) This is an exciting technology that can be very useful if you miss the beginning of a show. If only it would allow you to FF, turning TWC servers into a mega DVR, then my TV viewing habits would change forever for the better.

Hi Blizz - you must live in Irmo as that is the only place we have turned the capability on.

To address a couple of your points that will be of interest to Forum viewers:

1. The technology for Startover is the same that will be used for SDV, so yes this is how your analog channels will look in the future - pretty cool huh!

7. Startover will include HD channels at some point, but I don't have an eta for that now.

As for the rest of your comments, I hope you will go to the website forum included in the letter sent you for this information. I would invite you all to visit this website, but we really want to limit it to launched subs for the time being.

Thanks!

Diana,

Why doesn't channel 820 Fox-HD have the HD tag when HD is being broadcast? I have also noticed that the onscreen guide never list anything as HD on Channel 820.

When will Universal HD be on TWC?

Kevin:

I don't know why 820 doesn't show the tag.... I don't exactly know why the tag showed up in the first place or who is responsible for providing the information.

We haven't been given any information on Universal HD at all yet.

No audio at all on ABC-HD Monday Night Football. Don't know about OTA since I can't check that anymore...

Had a report about no audio in Montgomery WNCF/ABC..we have audio here..

Getting audio on both TWC Ch 815 and OTA 25-1 here.

Network issue, more better now..

Network issue, more better now..

Well, it's better assuming that Al Michaels and John Madden is preferable to no Al Michaels and John Madden. There are some Mondays when I'm not so sure.

MY HD DVR locked up and rebooted last night twice when I tried to access a recorded show in progress. Don't know if it was connected to the start-over feature or what, but it was pretty annoying.

I also noticed the start-over icon and agree that it could be better handled also.

I wanted to say I love the Start over feature, since it seems I do nothing but complain here. The picture quality is very good. It will be nice to have all channels digital, but I wonder what will happen to my other 2 TV's in the house that are analog TV's and have no cable box. I watch them very little so it's not worth paying for boxes. Will we still have any analog channels after the changeover? How soon will this happen?

Someday you'll need a box of some type for any analog TV sets still in service.

Stories were around for a while of a government subsidy to give digital adapters to the needy, but even if that survives budget cuts, people with cable may not qualify...

Someday you'll need a box of some type for any analog TV sets still in service.

Only for OTA TV.

Diana, have you heard anything from the engineers about those of us who are plagued by the rebooting DVRs? mine is still doing it and i can make it crash-on-demand (COD?). i have narrowed it down that it will consistently crash if i am attempting to play a recorded program while it is simultaneously recording a HD program. if it is recording a SD program it will not crash if i play back a previously recorded program (HD or SD). at least that's the way it is today. :confused:

Hi There,

Engineers are perplexed and would like to see more examples.

Anyone who has experienced the spontaneous reboots

or

Recording / Playback issues - dual recording issues - please let me know

Please email me twcscnews@twcablc.com
1. Home Telephone number
2. as much detail of issue as possible

I have submitted spontaneous reboots on Scruffy, Nucleartiger and TechMan

Recording / Playback issues - I will share Scruffy's comments and I know shahram said he couldn't record 2 at once on the last converter of this one, so I'll add that one.

Anyone else, please?

No crashes or reboots, but my dvr missed all my scheduled recordings for Sunday and Monday. All the times listed were off by a hour, so the dvr did not record. Today's scheduled recordings have the correct date. We shall see if all is well.

Kevin,

We recently completed an agreement that give Time Warner the right to offer Universal HD to their customers. However, due to current bandwith constrictions some Time Warner markets are bandwith constrained. Which market are you in and perhaps I can inquire on your behalf.

Brian

-----Original Message-----
From: Belcher, Shane (NBC Universal)
Sent: Monday, October 31, 2005 1:22 PM
To: Hunt, Brian (NBC Universal, CNBC)
Subject: FW: Time Warner Cable

Hi Brian - can you please respond to this viewer?

thanks,
Shane

Shane Belcher
Manager, Programming and Operations
Universal HD
Suite 250
3400 W. Olive Avenue
Burbank, CA 91505
shane.belcher@nbcuni.com 818-840-2684

-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Ivey [mailto:kevinivey@sc.rr.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 30, 2005 8:49 AM
To: +NBC Uni Universal HD
Subject: Time Warner Cable



Sender's Full Name: Kevin Ivey
Sender's email: kevinivey@sc.rr.com
Email message: I saw where TWC has signed a carriage agreement to carry UHD, but no TWC systems has added the channel. My local says TWC corporate has not told them anything.

Kevin - were working on it. Should know something more tomorrow.

Thanks!

I have clinged to my 8000HD on the theory that if its not broke
don't exchange it (plus I have some recording I do not want to lose). I
know the Start Over function works with the 8000HD and I suppose SDV
is a system hardware change and not specific to the DVR, so my question
is should I upgrade to the 8300HD? What are the advantages?

Only for OTA TV.
I wasn't aware that any cable company was going to continue to pump an analog signal through when nobody was broadcasting analog anymore. Without some sort of box, owned or rented, analog TVs will be useless.

OK, you could watch VHS tapes and stuff. Not quite useless...

Hi There,

Engineers are perplexed and would like to see more examples.

Anyone who has experienced the spontaneous reboots

or

Recording / Playback issues - dual recording issues - please let me know


Anyone else, please?

This happened to me three times yesterday. A few things that I can add:

1) The box does not crash immediately - it hangs and is unresponsive for about 5 minutes and then it reboots.

2) Contrary to Scruffy, I was recording an SD program (on both an analog and on a digital channel) and tried to play back an HD recording.

Well I am certainly not going to pay for two more additional boxes. That would just be ridiculous. I would even be happy if they left just a few channels for our extra TV's.

On another note, I ran accross this post

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=598335

Apparently, this user has an 8300HD with an outboard SATA hard drive. This would be a nice way to archive HD material. Does this work in our location? Why is the box totally loaded with features that are not enabled? Just to tease us? There is a handly USB port, 1394 ports, all kinds of stuff. I don;t beleive that SA included that stuff just for decoration. So guys, even if TW does not support it, what works and what doesn't? It would be nice to have an external HD, seeing how the built in HD cannot be trusted.

I have known for some time that the machine is not capable of using the HD for more than one thing at a time. You can watch something else, but it has always been hit or miss trying to use the HD for more than one function at a time. I know it is supposed to work, but I'm not holding my breath. I still like my DVR, I just don't expect too much out of it and try not to stress it. It will be nice one day to have one that works and has some capacity as well, though.

This happened to me three times yesterday. A few things that I can add:

1) The box does not crash immediately - it hangs and is unresponsive for about 5 minutes and then it reboots.

2) Contrary to Scruffy, I was recording an SD program (on both an analog and on a digital channel) and tried to play back an HD recording.

ok, i just tried this and it appears as if playing back a previously recorded program does not work if i am currently recording a digital channel, HD or SD. the other night when i discovered that i could play back a program while recording an SD program it was on an analog channel. and you are correct, the box hangs for a few minutes before rebooting. over here the video goes black and audio goes out although the record light stays lit. sorry it's happening to you too, but glad it's not just me.

my sunday and monday programs recorded as scheduled, and i was able to record 2 HD programs simultaneously last night (although i had to wait until they were over to watch anything recorded). if we were able to combine all our DVRs we might just end up with one fully functioning unit.

My experience with reboots pretty much reflects what was described above.

However, last night, it hung up and then rebooted when I was trying to send/copy/archive a SD program to the VCR. It hung up for 5 minutes...then rebooted for 5-6 minutes.

Well I am certainly not going to pay for two more additional boxes. That would just be ridiculous. I would even be happy if they left just a few channels for our extra TV's.

On another note, I ran accross this post

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=598335

Apparently, this user has an 8300HD with an outboard SATA hard drive. This would be a nice way to archive HD material. Does this work in our location? Why is the box totally loaded with features that are not enabled? Just to tease us? There is a handly USB port, 1394 ports, all kinds of stuff. I don;t beleive that SA included that stuff just for decoration. So guys, even if TW does not support it, what works and what doesn't? It would be nice to have an external HD, seeing how the built in HD cannot be trusted.

I have known for some time that the machine is not capable of using the HD for more than one thing at a time. You can watch something else, but it has always been hit or miss trying to use the HD for more than one function at a time. I know it is supposed to work, but I'm not holding my breath. I still like my DVR, I just don't expect too much out of it and try not to stress it. It will be nice one day to have one that works and has some capacity as well, though.

1. The necessary converters for post-digital conversion will be very cheap, dumb (not including any bells and whistles) and government subsidized.

2. Sidecars - we have not launched them yet. And, the last time I checked they had a major flaw: they mate for life to one DVR, so at least the last time I looked at them (Jan of this year) if your DVR crashed, having saved content on this device didn't save you the content because the device wouldn't work with another DVR (this is a copyright protection thing - not an SA or TWC thing)

3. Since you just got an 8300 you PROBABLY got a new one that was manufactured after July of this year. Turn it over and see if it has part number 4006781 on the casing. If so, the 1394 will be active.

4. They did get me your former 8300 today - so I'll get it to the Headend for dissection.

Hi There,

Engineers are perplexed and would like to see more examples.

Anyone who has experienced the spontaneous reboots

or

Recording / Playback issues - dual recording issues - please let me know

Please email me twcscnews@twcablc.com
1. Home Telephone number
2. as much detail of issue as possible

I have submitted spontaneous reboots on Scruffy, Nucleartiger and TechMan

Recording / Playback issues - I will share Scruffy's comments and I know shahram said he couldn't record 2 at once on the last converter of this one, so I'll add that one.

Anyone else, please?


Diana - I've had some reboots this week with the new 8300HD I just got. I sent an e-mail to you last night about it.

Thanks

DigitalJohn

Thanks DigitalJon - I did get your email and sent all the information I collected to Corporate Engineering.

Corporate Engineering is all over SA to fix this bug (which by the way is tied to SDV, not SO).

Yes, I have that part number, but what can I do with the active 1394 ports? IS it the same purpose as the SATA port? I read more into it, and many are already using external Hard Drives with their 8300's. But I agree it's halfway a moot point if the content dies with the DVR. There's no point to archive then. Just watch what I want and delete it. I just hated to delete Shark Tale, it was such a great demo title. That and Insectia on Discovery HD are the best I've seen.

I quote:

IEEE 1394 - one standard for high-speed data transfer used primarily in the transmission of digital video and professional audio devices.

My understanding of the most common use on the HD DVR is to transfer copies of HD programming from the HD DVR to a HD VCR for permanent keeping.

Other's may be able to provide additional uses.

I know you DON'T want to use this connection to hook your converter to the TV because you (1) can't view any analog channels with this method of hookup (2) can't view graphics such as the IPG or DVR list (3) can use VOD trick modes (Rewind, Pause, FF), but while you are using them you cannot see the graphic bar at the bottom or the video, so you don't know how far to Rewind, etc

Corporate Engineering is all over SA to fix this bug (which by the way is tied to SDV, not SO).Good. My 8300HD had rebooted overnight, and when I tried to get it to re-sync to my HDTV this morning (why it didn't stay in sync is another mystery) it rebooted again...

.... Not to mention a carriage agreement with TWC may take a awhile.

Thats the understatement of a lifetime. :)

Hi Blizz - you must live in Irmo as that is the only place we have turned the capability on......

When is it coming to the rest of Columbia??

I wanted to say I love the Start over feature, since it seems I do nothing but complain here. The picture quality is very good. It will be nice to have all channels digital, but I wonder what will happen to my other 2 TV's in the house that are analog TV's and have no cable box. I watch them very little so it's not worth paying for boxes. Will we still have any analog channels after the changeover? How soon will this happen?

At some point in time TWC will turn off the analog channels after going full system wide to SDV, thats their plan to gain a large amount of bandwidth. If they are still broadcasting all the analog channels in analog and a digital copy of each one, then they aren't saving any bandwidth at all. So eventually everyone would need a digital cable box. The articles I have read suggest that a stripped down digital cable box just for that purpose could be produced cheaply so hopefully TWC wont charge $10 per box per month for it. Some people have 4-5 tvs in their house but only have a cable box on the family room tv, that would mean they would have to rent 4 other boxes just to watch cable at all. At current TWC rates that would be an extra $40/month, which to me seems a steep fee to make customers pony up for changes they made. But nobody ever accused the cable monopolies of being fair. There's no telling how soon TWC would try to get everyone using the SDV system so they could cut off the analog feed.

When is it coming to the rest of Columbia??

Lexington - very soon

Rest of Columbia/Division - 2006

At some point in time TWC will turn off the analog channels after going full system wide to SDV, thats their plan to gain a large amount of bandwidth. If they are still broadcasting all the analog channels in analog and a digital copy of each one, then they aren't saving any bandwidth at all. So eventually everyone would need a digital cable box. The articles I have read suggest that a stripped down digital cable box just for that purpose could be produced cheaply so hopefully TWC wont charge $10 per box per month for it. Some people have 4-5 tvs in their house but only have a cable box on the family room tv, that would mean they would have to rent 4 other boxes just to watch cable at all. At current TWC rates that would be an extra $40/month, which to me seems a steep fee to make customers pony up for changes they made. But nobody ever accused the cable monopolies of being fair. There's no telling how soon TWC would try to get everyone using the SDV system so they could cut off the analog feed.


this is not accurate, but I have to run to a meeting and will provide a full response later this evening.

Where was the Bobcats' game last night? I thought that TWC had an agreement to show the games on WBHQ, but I turned it on last night and only found reruns of That 70's Show.

Are any Bobcats games going to be available in HD this year (since every home game will be produced in HD now)?

The 15 games slated to be shown by WBHQ have nothing to do with TWC. If the game didn't air, you need to contact them.

The 50 games that TWC will show will be on channel 148 and require subscription to the Digital Sports Tier. Here is the schedule http://www.twcsc.com/AllHosted/DigitalSportsTier/Bobcats2005.aspx

The Bobcats haven't provided us any information on the availability of providing any games in HD.

At some point in time TWC will turn off the analog channels after going full system wide to SDV, thats their plan to gain a large amount of bandwidth. If they are still broadcasting all the analog channels in analog and a digital copy of each one, then they aren't saving any bandwidth at all. So eventually everyone would need a digital cable box. The articles I have read suggest that a stripped down digital cable box just for that purpose could be produced cheaply so hopefully TWC wont charge $10 per box per month for it. Some people have 4-5 tvs in their house but only have a cable box on the family room tv, that would mean they would have to rent 4 other boxes just to watch cable at all. At current TWC rates that would be an extra $40/month, which to me seems a steep fee to make customers pony up for changes they made. But nobody ever accused the cable monopolies of being fair. There's no telling how soon TWC would try to get everyone using the SDV system so they could cut off the analog feed.

Alright - here are the refinements to d-rock's description.

The discussion previous to this post had been about the transition of Broadcast OTA stations to digital carriage. This is a transition that is being dictated by the Federal Government, not TWC. The final date for this transition is still under debate. Part of the deal is that upon transition, there will be government subsidized, very dumb converters to unscramble the digital broadcast feeds for viewers of analog TV sets. The details of who provides the converters / rent or own / potential monthly fees / etc. all still up for debate and finalization by your government leaders. Again - not a TWC gig.

TWC will ultimately eliminate all analog channels - many, many, many years from now. In the meantime, Digital Customers will benefit from Digital Simulcast and SDV to receive an increased number of Digital and HD Signals. This system will exist side by side with the analog only lineup. So, d-rock you are correct, if we were still to broadcast all the Analog channels as well as digital simulcast, we wouldn't save any bandwidth, but that's not how we are going to do it. Most digital and HD channels will ultimate come to your home via SDV so we will be able to provide a very large lineup to our Digital customers while maintaining our analog only lineup.

please let me know if you have any additional questions,

Diana,

Can we wait till you all get r right before sending SDV and SO to Lexington? :D Whats up with UHD being added?

So if I understand correctly, we digital customers will soon have all digital channels, and no more analog noise. This is good. And we also don't need to be concerned yet about losing the analog feed for our additional TV's yet. Also good. Well I have my new cable box and so far the DVR functions seem to be working, but it still has the issue of making the last 5 minutes of ANALOG programs that are recorded on the DVR pixelated. Just like my old box. This must be a bug in the software, since the old one did it too. I am surprised that no one else has reported this. I can't be the only one. You wouldn't see it on a small TV, it would have to be a big HDTV or FP setup. Guess I'm just going to have to live with this one. At least it doesn't do this with HD material, which would be unacceptable. I think I need to trade in my other 3250HD box now too, it's getting worse. It loses color and has rainbow flashes from time to time, and has always done that occaisionally, but is doing it daily now. Just trying to get one working box first.

Diana,

Can we wait till you all get r right before sending SDV and SO to Lexington? :D

no SDV or SO happening on this side of town but my DVR continues to reboot. unless that's what TWC means by "Start Over". :rolleyes:

Well I have my new cable box and so far the DVR functions seem to be working, but it still has the issue of making the last 5 minutes of ANALOG programs that are recorded on the DVR pixelated. Just like my old box. This must be a bug in the software, since the old one did it too. I am surprised that no one else has reported this. I can't be the only one.

i've never seen this on either the 8000HD or 8300HD.

Diana,

Can we wait till you all get r right before sending SDV and SO to Lexington? :D Whats up with UHD being added?



There are no issues with SO. There are ways that it reacts right now, but they aren't bugs, they are simply going to be part of the evolution.

The simultaneous reboot/recording issue is tied to SDV code that was loaded onto 8300s with new OS that you guys saw on Monday 10/24 - so there is no going back on it - all 8300s in the SC Division already have it. As with many issues like this, not ALL converters react the same, so since you are not experiencing this with your 8300 your a lucky man.

Still waiting on the final verdict on Engineers on bandwidth for Universal HD. Definitely don't have enough bandwidth throughout the Division to launch traditionally and at this point still not sure if Columbia falls under this umbrella. So, it appears - although I'm not positive yet, so please don't take this as anything other than conjecture on my part - we might have to launch this via SDV because of bandwidth constraints. Final solution to 8300 bug would then be required as well as a couple of other exchanges with equipment in headend. There are a couple of target dates I have been told based on a couple of different 'if-then' scenarios, but I'm not comfortable sharing either of those yet.

I will provide updates as I receive solid information. The goal is, however, ASAP

no SDV or SO happening on this side of town but my DVR continues to reboot. unless that's what TWC means by "Start Over". :rolleyes:


As I mentioned in the response above to Kevin's comment - yeah... SDV code loaded in the entire SC Division and that's the cause of your spontaneous reboots. Corporate Engineering has SA working on this as "Urgent Ticket" and they have dropped several other items for the time being to concentration on resolving this one asap.

i've never seen this on either the 8000HD or 8300HD.



I'm with Scruffy - never seen this myself and haven't heard about this from anyone else - I'll add it to the list of things when I turn over your last converter for dissection.

So if I understand correctly, we digital customers will soon have all digital channels, and no more analog noise. This is good. And we also don't need to be concerned yet about losing the analog feed for our additional TV's yet. Also good. Well I have my new cable box and so far the DVR functions seem to be working, but it still has the issue of making the last 5 minutes of ANALOG programs that are recorded on the DVR pixelated. Just like my old box. This must be a bug in the software, since the old one did it too. I am surprised that no one else has reported this. I can't be the only one. You wouldn't see it on a small TV, it would have to be a big HDTV or FP setup. Guess I'm just going to have to live with this one. At least it doesn't do this with HD material, which would be unacceptable. I think I need to trade in my other 3250HD box now too, it's getting worse. It loses color and has rainbow flashes from time to time, and has always done that occaisionally, but is doing it daily now. Just trying to get one working box first.

You have it correct, except I neglected to mention it may be a while before you have total digital channels. For example, based on expense and viewership, we probably aren't going to digitize Channel 2 city channel anytime soon or the Ch 12 schools channel - but other than that, yes. And yes, Analog feed will be around for a good yet.

As I mentioned about, haven't seen the last 5 minute issue and don't remember you talking about that previously when we discussed issues with this unit. Your 3250 issue is also unusual. I'm not sure but we may need to just get someone in your home to check for any sort of anomaly, because you seem to have too many unique issues. When I get together all your past comments to turn in with the previous unit I'll run this by Tech Ops and Engineering.

I'm with Scruffy - never seen this myself and haven't heard about this from anyone else - I'll add it to the list of things when I turn over your last converter for dissection.


Me either.

Still waiting on the final verdict on Engineers on bandwidth for Universal HD. Definitely don't have enough bandwidth throughout the Division to launch traditionally and at this point still not sure if Columbia falls under this umbrella. So, it appears - although I'm not positive yet, so please don't take this as anything other than conjecture on my part - we might have to launch this via SDV because of bandwidth constraints. Final solution to 8300 bug would then be required as well as a couple of other exchanges with equipment in headend. There are a couple of target dates I have been told based on a couple of different 'if-then' scenarios, but I'm not comfortable sharing either of those yet.


You could suggest they kill 813 or 814 as they are really a waste of bandwidth. I understand that they are used for special events but does that justify 2 HD channels? 814 does nothing but duplicate what is on inHD 95% of the day.

You could suggest they kill 813 or 814 as they are really a waste of bandwidth. I understand that they are used for special events but does that justify 2 HD channels? 814 does nothing but duplicate what is on inHD 95% of the day.


True, but the Special Events programming is included in the Progrmaming deals and a legal obligation on our part - if we don't provide the Special Event programming there would be very bad repercussions.

True, but the Special Events programming is included in the Progrmaming deals and a legal obligation on our part - if we don't provide the Special Event programming there would be very bad repercussions.

Agreed but does the contract require 2 HD channels?

Agreed but does the contract require 2 HD channels?


Yes - This option is a dead end as far as bandwidth is concerned.

Yes - This option is a dead end as far as bandwidth is concerned.Too bad you can't provide something otherwise unavailable between the Special Events. I'd take UniversalHD on a part-time basis... ;)

How about we kill off some of those weather/radar sub-channels. It seems there is one for NBC, ABC, and CBS. I don't have the need for one, much less three of them.

I wouldn't mind seeing the CBS one disappear anyway.... I'm sure it would reduce the pixelation seen on their Saturday HD college football game considerably.

You could suggest they kill 813 or 814 as they are really a waste of bandwidth. I understand that they are used for special events but does that justify 2 HD channels? 814 does nothing but duplicate what is on inHD 95% of the day.

I could be mistaken, but I don't think I have ever seen anything on Channel 813. What has been broadcast or might be broadcast on this channel?

I'm pretty sure Braves games were shown on 813 during the season.

Too bad you can't provide something otherwise unavailable between the Special Events. I'd take UniversalHD on a part-time basis... ;)



Uh huh.... sure - until the first time we pulled it off the air...

How about we kill off some of those weather/radar sub-channels. It seems there is one for NBC, ABC, and CBS. I don't have the need for one, much less three of them.

I wouldn't mind seeing the CBS one disappear anyway.... I'm sure it would reduce the pixelation seen on their Saturday HD college football game considerably.


Not our programming to take off the air - part of deal with each Broadcast affiliate. Besides that, I don't think the bandwidth used for all 4 combined would be enough for an HD channel.

I'm pretty sure Braves games were shown on 813 during the season.

813


Braves games from Turner South in Baseball Season

Carolina Hurricane's game from FSNS in Hockey Season



814

Other NHL games from HD Net

PPV Events

902 and 921 should be taken off.

If ESPN2 HD came available Today, would there be hesitation to add it?

We are not going to drop any existing HD programming - period

We are currently experiencing a very limited time frame in which we cannot immediately turn the switch on an HD channel. It is unavoidable at this time and will be resolved as quickly as possible. I cannot give you an exact date for the launch of Universal HD right now, but we are not talking about any significant length of time.

Our SA8000 died a couple of weeks back, so I took advantage of the opportunity to upgrade to the 8300HD (TWC/SC-SARA-Georgetown system). I'm posting here because I know many of you also have 8300HD's, are on the TWC statewide system, and that Diana is a frequent reader/contributor.

So far I'm not impressed. Yes the resolution is visibly better, but the 8300 seems much more "finicky" than the old faithful 8000 was. I have seen some odd problems which I wonder if are common or maybe due to my ignorance in setup and operation differences.

The most glaring is an apparent inability to record show "A" in HD and watch show "B" in HD at the same time. I know that the 8300 has two tuners/input codecs and two output codecs so in theory you should be able to record 2 shows simultaneously, and watch a third off the hard drive, all at the same time. Or watch one and record a second, etc. The one time so far when I tried to watch and record HD simultaneously the 8300 froze up (would not respond to any remote or front panel command) and I had to do a hard power-off reboot to recover. Is this in any way normal? I used to do this with the 8000HD with no problems.

My next stop will be the AVS Master SA8300 threads with a search for similar questions, but I'm hoping the local knowledge here will be more relevant.

Thanks,

Mike

No problems at all with any functions of my 8300HD. You should be able to record 2 shows at the same time and playback. I haven't ever had a problem doing with any 8300HDs that I have had.

My next stop will be the AVS Master SA8300 threads with a search for similar questions, but I'm hoping the local knowledge here will be more relevant.
Recent updates have made the 8300HD less than completely stable. Your issue sounds a lot like mine from a few days ago, where the box rebooted while I merely tried to cancel the recording of one of the two shows I was recording at the moment.

I'm expecting a return to normal eventually. In the mean time, when I find something cut into two pieces, I'm assuming the box rebooted then picked up the recording again after it recovered. "Spin City" did that the other day...

Just got a Sony DHG-HDD250 DVR..hope it works better than the 8300's..so far it do..

Bob,

We are switching to SDV here, so the Sony may not be the choice for most. I haven't had any problems with my July manufactured 8300HD.

Yes, I have been following the SDV..while in theory a great idea, will be interesting to see how practical it is in everyday use..from a technical and operational standpoint. The system is already quite complex, as is indicated by the number of problems with the current dvr's and associated technology..

I am real excited about having it added to my Lexington hub. :rolleyes:

Satori84 - Shahram72 also reported this issue. I do not know positively, but I believe this is part of the overall 8300 issue we have seen on some set-tops since loading the new OS on 10/24. As I have reported previously, our Corporate Engineering group is all over SA to get this resolved yesterday. I apologize for your experience, but I'm confident it will be resolved fairly quickly (not quick enough for some, but..)

Bob & Kevin - nope, no Sony's here - just SA. As you mention Bob, its complicated, so you can imagine how much more so it would be if we added another equipment vendor into the mix.

SDV - yes, some issues lately, but in the long run the problems will be much of much shorter duration and much easier than a plant upgrade - and the results will be even greater bandwidth than a physical upgrade could provide.

Bob & Kevin - nope, no Sony's here - just SA. As you mention Bob, its complicated, so you can imagine how much more so it would be if we added another equipment vendor into the mix.
.

Must not be familiar with the Sony..it does support cablecard, which I hope to have
one for it very soon. That would meet all my needs...and hoepfully work better than the 8300's seem to. At least it provides a seamless integration of OTA ATSC, Cable,both analog and QAM withCablecard...with considerably more drive space to boot.

SDV will be what the Telco's use as well. I have a friend who is an engineer with Bellsouth..I hope they are able to execute their plan as I have heard it to be. :)

I have a brother at Gastonia Bellsouth......He says there are some very very big ideas in the works!!!

....you buddy might know him. His name is Aaron.

Satori84 - Shahram72 also reported this issue. I do not know positively, but I believe this is part of the overall 8300 issue we have seen on some set-tops since loading the new OS on 10/24. As I have reported previously, our Corporate Engineering group is all over SA to get this resolved yesterday. I apologize for your experience, but I'm confident it will be resolved fairly quickly (not quick enough for some, but..)


thanks for being a liaison to the engineers regarding the 8300 issues. fyi some of the problems predate the 10/24 update. i think if you look uptopic around 10/12 a couple of us were reporting rebooting DVRs.

anyone else have problems with HBO-HD saturday night? i wasn't home but recorded George Carlin and when i played it back yesterday it was unwatchable, not just a little pixellation but total video and audio breakup. everything looked good last night.

anyone else have problems with HBO-HD saturday night? i wasn't home but recorded George Carlin and when i played it back yesterday it was unwatchable, not just a little pixellation but total video and audio breakup. everything looked good last night.I saved a sample to my computer, but didn't check to see if it looked as bad there as it did live. All the HBO/Showtime HD channels were bad at that time, as well as some plain Showtime ones I looked at...

We are not going to drop any existing HD programming - period

We are currently experiencing a very limited time frame in which we cannot immediately turn the switch on an HD channel. It is unavoidable at this time and will be resolved as quickly as possible. I cannot give you an exact date for the launch of Universal HD right now, but we are not talking about any significant length of time.

I always kind of figured that TWC was basically out of available bandwidth to launch new HD channels. So basically until they get SDV going to relieve some of that bandwidth we wont get UHD turned on (not that I'm especially worried about UHD, I'm more concerned with adding ESPN2-HD and ESPN-U or additional movie channels such as Cinemax-HD, Starz-HD, etc.), but I do find it annoying that its been almost 1yr since the last new HD channel and when they finally do get a carriage agreement they can't even turn it on. There have been multiple posts in here asking that same question about bandwidth but we were always assured that TWCSC has "plenty of bandwidth to add new HD channels as soon as the carriage agreements are signed."

According to what I have been reading that wont be until sometime in 2006-2007 according to what TWC Sr executives announced at the SCTE annual conference in San Antonio, TX. I read that Columbia, SC might be one of the first adopters so hopefully we get it sometime in 1Q of 2006, but thats still a ways off. This is a pretty good article/report detailing what the aspects of the test of SDV in Austin, TX. Its given by Paul Brooks, senior network architect in Time Warner's advanced technology group:

http://www.bigbandnet.com/news/inTheNews/2005/news_062705a.php

anyone else have problems with HBO-HD saturday night? i wasn't home but recorded George Carlin and when i played it back yesterday it was unwatchable, not just a little pixellation but total video and audio breakup. everything looked good last night.


SHO and HBO both started scrambled video and audio around 9 and stayed that way until the next morning.

I always kind of figured that TWC was basically out of available bandwidth to launch new HD channels. So basically until they get SDV going to relieve some of that bandwidth we wont get UHD turned on (not that I'm especially worried about UHD, I'm more concerned with adding ESPN2-HD and ESPN-U or additional movie channels such as Cinemax-HD, Starz-HD, etc.), but I do find it annoying that its been almost 1yr since the last new HD channel and when they finally do get a carriage agreement they can't even turn it on. There have been multiple posts in here asking that same question about bandwidth but we were always assured that TWCSC has "plenty of bandwidth to add new HD channels as soon as the carriage agreements are signed."

According to what I have been reading that wont be until sometime in 2006-2007 according to what TWC Sr executives announced at the SCTE annual conference in San Antonio, TX. I read that Columbia, SC might be one of the first adopters so hopefully we get it sometime in 1Q of 2006, but thats still a ways off. This is a pretty good article/report detailing what the aspects of the test of SDV in Austin, TX. Its given by Paul Brooks, senior network architect in Time Warner's advanced technology group:

http://www.bigbandnet.com/news/inTheNews/2005/news_062705a.php



I apoligize if you believe I mislead you about bandwidth. There was bandwidth available until last month - and it will not take that long for us to get SDV up and running.

This is a very temporary situation. I apologize for it, but I am very confident it will be very short term

http://www.bigbandnet.com/news/inTheNews/2005/news_062705a.php

By monitoring "volume" and "mute," Time Warner can tell if a stream is still active. The company decided to send out a message after four hours of no-volume activity to check and see if a viewer was still there. A prompt appears on the screen: "To continue viewing, press Select."It may not come up often, but when I'm away and I'd like to record something for 5 or more hours like a whole-day Twilight Zone marathon and the box keeps shutting off, I'll be really annoyed about decisions like this...

http://www.bigbandnet.com/news/inTheNews/2005/news_062705a.php

It may not come up often, but when I'm away and I'd like to record something for 5 or more hours like a whole-day Twilight Zone marathon and the box keeps shutting off, I'll be really annoyed about decisions like this...

Yeah I had a question about that too. I don't use the cable box to control the volume of any of my tv's. In the settings menu I have the audio output level set at "Fixed" and use the home theater or tv to adjust the volume level because I use the digital audio and the red/white RCA audio outs. So does that mean every 4 hours I'd get some silly "Press Select to continue watching" message. I assume not. Well I really hope not.

There were a couple of other issues I was curious about I have 4 tv's at my place and only two are on digital cable boxes and the other two just have the cable piped into them. So when TWC goes to digital simulcasting obviously on the two tvs with the digital boxes I'll want to see the better quality of the digital version of the analog channels, but on my other two tv's I'm not going to pay extra for a digital cable box so I'll be watching the regular analog channel. So thats using extra bandwidth to provide basically two versions of the same channel. I believe thats why there is this bandwidth shortage now.

Satori84 - Shahram72 also reported this issue. I do not know positively, but I believe this is part of the overall 8300 issue we have seen on some set-tops since loading the new OS on 10/24.

Diana-

Thank you as usual for trying to keep on top of the various issues we bring up here. I know it must be a bit of a pain at times but I think all your customers eventually benefit from the generally constructive feedback in these forums.

I have experimented with the 8300 a bit more and have to refine what I said above slightly. I can record A and watch B both in HD no problem. I can record both A and B HD at the same time (and get the expected error screen if I try to tune away to a third channel) no problem. But if I try to play back a program from disk while recording, the 8300 locks up, and can only be recovered by a hard power down restart. To its credit, the 8300 picks up recording both shows again, but as additional separate new files in "List".

This failure mode would be rare because we don't often try to watch off-disk while recording, but when it does happen it's a major problem due to the need to reboot and the fractured recordings. I hope this is a bug that can be fixed by a later patch in SARA.

Thanks again,

Mike

Well here it is at 10:50pm and I have no sound on my HD channels from my 8000DVR. my 8300 is working just fine and OTA is good as well. Anyone else having this problem?

I have experimented with the 8300 a bit more and have to refine what I said above slightly. I can record A and watch B both in HD no problem. I can record both A and B HD at the same time (and get the expected error screen if I try to tune away to a third channel) no problem. But if I try to play back a program from disk while recording, the 8300 locks up, and can only be recovered by a hard power down restart. To its credit, the 8300 picks up recording both shows again, but as additional separate new files in "List".

This failure mode would be rare because we don't often try to watch off-disk while recording, but when it does happen it's a major problem due to the need to reboot and the fractured recordings. I hope this is a bug that can be fixed by a later patch in SARA.

oddly enough i noticed monday night that i am now able once again to initiate a program playback while recording a digital channel without hanging the box. i tried it again earlier tonight while recording an HD program and SD digital tier program and it still worked fine. hopefully something got tweaked somewhere and this issue is fixed now, although it will be a while before i can hit play while recording another program without every sphincter in my body involuntarily tightening in anticipation of a hang/reboot.

http://www.bigbandnet.com/news/inTheNews/2005/news_062705a.php

It may not come up often, but when I'm away and I'd like to record something for 5 or more hours like a whole-day Twilight Zone marathon and the box keeps shutting off, I'll be really annoyed about decisions like this...


Where did you get this quote? TWCSC is not doing this and I don't know of any plans to do so during the day. That is essentially what occurs overnight for the 'nightly' shutdown between 2 and 6am. That started in July of 04 and we know customers don't really like it - as does Corporate and SA, so I don't see them going this way.... doesn't mean an individual Division didn't make the decision for a specific reason, but I really think they are talking about their overnight shut down.

There were a couple of other issues I was curious about I have 4 tv's at my place and only two are on digital cable boxes and the other two just have the cable piped into them. So when TWC goes to digital simulcasting obviously on the two tvs with the digital boxes I'll want to see the better quality of the digital version of the analog channels, but on my other two tv's I'm not going to pay extra for a digital cable box so I'll be watching the regular analog channel. So thats using extra bandwidth to provide basically two versions of the same channel. I believe thats why there is this bandwidth shortage now.

Yes
Yes

oddly enough i noticed monday night that i am now able once again to initiate a program playback while recording a digital channel without hanging the box. i tried it again earlier tonight while recording an HD program and SD digital tier program and it still worked fine. hopefully something got tweaked somewhere and this issue is fixed now, although it will be a while before i can hit play while recording another program without every sphincter in my body involuntarily tightening in anticipation of a hang/reboot.


Cross your fingers that I'm not jinxing it, but...


Engineers thought they got it all fixed by end of the evening Monday, but they didn't want to call it a total sucess until they watched the reboot rate during prime time on Tuesday.... I was going to wait until they said it was good to go, to ask you guys for some final evaluation....

So, essentially, let me know if you have seen this beginning Yesterday / Tuesday or see it again going forward please.

Cross your fingers that I'm not jinxing it, but...


Engineers thought they got it all fixed by end of the evening Monday, but they didn't want to call it a total sucess until they watched the reboot rate during prime time on Tuesday.... I was going to wait until they said it was good to go, to ask you guys for some final evaluation....

So, essentially, let me know if you have seen this beginning Yesterday / Tuesday or see it again going forward please.

We had a reboot of the 8300 yesterday (Tuesday) afternoon - around 2:30 p.m. Hopefully that's it.

I'm sure some people have heard this already, but some may not have. The USC-Clemson game will not be televised this year. I've heard that the only way to watch it will be to either attend the game or watch it on PPV. I realize that neither of the school's are responsible for this, and don't have any control over it. The television networks have other games already lined up, whether it's because of contractual obligations or because they feel another game would be a bigger draw. The number I've heard thrown around for the PPV airing is $25, which is obviously something most of us don't want to have to pay. I already subscribe to ESPN Gameplan, but the past PPV USC games have not been shown on Gameplan. So, I'm assuming this game will be the same.

Maybe TWCSC will find it in their hearts to show this game free of charge. I mean, if their going to air it on PPV they can probably just waive the fee. It would be a nice gesture, and probably earn them some new customers. Maybe it's not possible, but a guy can dream... right? :D

I'd venture that contractual agreements with the PPV provider would prevent TWC from
doing so, despite their overly generous nature!

Maybe TWCSC will find it in their hearts to show this game free of charge. I mean, if their going to air it on PPV they can probably just waive the fee. It would be a nice gesture, and probably earn them some new customers. Maybe it's not possible, but a guy can dream... right? :D

LOL yeah right. TWC giving something away for free :rolleyes: But seriously they can't. Read the article in today's The State. Gamecocks Sports Properties is making money off of the PPV. They also had the option of letting any local affiliate do the game and broadcast it for free in the Columbia and Greenville/Spartangburg areas but they wouldnt do that because they can make money from the PPV. USC has fallen in love with the idea of PPV. According to the article they are making $200,000 per game with that figure expected to rise for the Clemson/USuCk game.

This is fairly off topic but I was just reading the USAToday and see where Cablevision in the Northeast has recently bumped up the speed of their lowest priced internet package from 10Mbps to 15 Mbps. They also are offering it for 29.95 for the first 12 months then the price goes up to 44.95. They are getting 3 times the speed for the same price as RR. RR's 5 Mbps is good but imagine getting 15 Mbps, that'd be great.

...I realize that neither of the school's are responsible for this, and don't have any control over it....

Actually the greedy people at USuCk are to thank for that. They had other options, such as letting it be broadcast for free in Cola and Greenville area.

More speed sounds great, but 5Mbps is fast enough for most purposes. I, for one, would rather see a slight increase in upspeed, which for the amount we pay, is too slow.

Maybe when we're over the whole HDTV-and-everything-bandwidth hurdle, more upload speed can be had. I know I see several sites sending stuff at 700+Kbps, but some at under 100. Working on what I can put in the pipe is better than just making it bigger...

I'm sure some people have heard this already, but some may not have. The USC-Clemson game will not be televised this year. I've heard that the only way to watch it will be to either attend the game or watch it on PPV. I realize that neither of the school's are responsible for this, and don't have any control over it. The television networks have other games already lined up, whether it's because of contractual obligations or because they feel another game would be a bigger draw. The number I've heard thrown around for the PPV airing is $25, which is obviously something most of us don't want to have to pay. I already subscribe to ESPN Gameplan, but the past PPV USC games have not been shown on Gameplan. So, I'm assuming this game will be the same.

Maybe TWCSC will find it in their hearts to show this game free of charge. I mean, if their going to air it on PPV they can probably just waive the fee. It would be a nice gesture, and probably earn them some new customers. Maybe it's not possible, but a guy can dream... right? :D


Except that it's not ours to give away...we have to pay per view the company that owns the game for every viewer who opts to ppv it.

Ok - out the door to a meeting out of town until Friday night.

You guys behave yourselfs....

More speed sounds great, but 5Mbps is fast enough for most purposes. I, for one, would rather see a slight increase in upspeed, which for the amount we pay, is too slow.

I have to say I pretty much agree, the download speed of RR is pretty good for home use. I've seen some files coming in at speeds around 600-650 KB/sec. I don't upload a lot of files really but I tested the upload speed and it tops out around 24-32 KB/sec (only 3-4 times what dial up is). As for playing some online games, I experience lag a lot of times. I would have to say if they gave us an option of increasing the download or upload speed my vote would go to upload speed to help relieve lag.

In my previous post I was just shocked at the fact that the other company had upped their speed from 10 to 15 Mbps because I already thought that RR was pretty good at 5 Mbps and they werent charging any more than what TWC charges for RR.

LOL yeah right. TWC giving something away for free :rolleyes: But seriously they can't. Read the article in today's The State. Gamecocks Sports Properties is making money off of the PPV. They also had the option of letting any local affiliate do the game and broadcast it for free in the Columbia and Greenville/Spartangburg areas but they wouldnt do that because they can make money from the PPV. USC has fallen in love with the idea of PPV. According to the article they are making $200,000 per game with that figure expected to rise for the Clemson/USuCk game.

I didn't realize that it is in fact something USC could have controlled. On the radio this morning they were getting on people who were mad at USC, and saying the schools had no control over it. I hadn't read the article in The State, but it sounds like they did indeed have that option.

And I assumed there was no possible way TWC could simply waive the fee. I'll just have to see how many people I can shoehorn into my home so we can get the cost down to about 10cents each. ;)

My DVR refused to tape lost in HD last night. It was scheduled and it showed up as a red block in the guide to indicate that it would record. And during the show it had the red record icon on the info for the show, but it was not recording. The show also was so pixellated and choppy that it was unwatchable in HD. I had to switch to the analog sd channel to record the show and that channel looks horrible it is just incredibly fuzzy. Did anyone else see the same issue last night.

chilley - I watched Lost last night and recorded it. It was fine for me on the HD channel... no problems at all. I haven't watched the recording yet, so I can't comment on it.

I'll just have to see how many people I can shoehorn into my home so we can get the cost down to about 10cents each. ;)

You can just go to a bar and watch it. Just about every bar in Columbia will have it and most of them wont even have a cover charge. That's how I've watched the 3 other PPV games this year.

chilley - I watched Lost last night and recorded it. It was fine for me on the HD channel... no problems at all. I haven't watched the recording yet, so I can't comment on it.

I guess it may have been an isolated incident.

The 8300HD just rebooted while I was watching TV while saving to VCR and recording ESPN.

It wasn't exactly the same time recording started, but that may have pushed it over the edge. It did pick up the recording after the reboot was over, but my HDTV has decided the 1080i signal it's getting isn't 'good enough' again, so I have to watch OTA until it decides to re-sync with the box. I hardly ever saw this before these recent reboots started, like the box comes up sending a signal that confuses my TV...

another reboot 8:30pm...starting to get a little old
I'm about ready to plug my tv in strait from the wall!!!!
I hope all of this will be worth it ;)

my reboot was a bit earlier, sometime between 4 and 5 p.m. thursday afternoon. it was the first one since the early part of the week.

I dont know if my 8000HD did a reboot or what but now when I pause live tv and resume there is no audio for the replayed portion, when I hit "LIVE" button then the sound comes back. But all my recordings have audio and everything else works great. I hate to have to take it back and exchange it, I've got a lot of stuff on there I havent watched and some movies in HD that I dont want to get rid of.

With everyone always on here complaining about their 8000HD messing up, in my opinion they suck, nothing sold should have this many flaws in it. I've had my 8000HD for maybe a year and a half and havent had any problems till now but still the operating life of a piece of electronic equipment should be longer than that.

Well I think they make these things like this because they are sold to cable companies, and not end consumers. I don't end consumers would put up with this. I would never want to own one of these POS devices. I love what they do, but they are bug ridden. I still have the pixelation issue with analog recordings, but now think it may be just channel 64, where I recorded the Star Trek episodes. I was watching Spike TV live and noticed that the pixelation was on the whole show. It was not like that when I tuned to channel 64, but became that way after a few seconds. The other analog channels did not have this problem. Since I am the only one with this issue, maybe it has something to do with the Fixed-Upconvert settings and how my projector scales the input. It's still a bug IMO since all other channels look good, great actually considering they are analog 480i. Can anyone explain how this setting on the HD boxes work and how they should be set?

Are these reboots happening to you guys while you're watching TV? Or is this happening when the TV is off and you've gone to watch TV and notice that the DVR has rebooted itself since you last were watching? Reason I ask is because my 8300 has only rebooted itself once or twice since I got it about 6 months ago. And this only happened when it got hung up while I was playing with it while watching TV. When I'm not watching TV I turn the DVR off because I noticed in the manual it advises you to do this. And I have a harmony remote so I just incorporated the DVR off into the macro that turns everything off. I also have a 2100 box downstairs that is normally left on, and occasionally when I go to turn on the telelvision I'll notice that the box has turned off... I'm guessing this means it has rebooted itself due to an upgrade or maintenance. But it only does it once in a great while. All in all the 8300 has been great.

I also have not experienced frequent reboots. Not that I've noticed anyway. Just occaisionally I'll come back to the box and it's on channel 01, which tells me it must have rebooted overnight, but this is not often.

Hey usace, long time no chat, did you get my last PM?

Are these reboots happening to you guys while you're watching TV? Or is this happening when the TV is off and you've gone to watch TV and notice that the DVR has rebooted itself since you last were watching?I only had early issues with the 8000HD I traded for the 8300HD. Until the update a few weeks back that triggered these problems, I had no big issues.

I've had it reboot while just watching but it was playing and recording stuff, reboot while using the remote to do something while recording (2 shows), and (I guess) reboot while recording one show while I wasn't home which cut the recording into well-spaced parts...

Oh, yea, I've seen channel 01 some mornings, but I thought those were updates...

Are these reboots happening to you guys while you're watching TV? Or is this happening when the TV is off and you've gone to watch TV and notice that the DVR has rebooted itself since you last were watching? Reason I ask is because my 8300 has only rebooted itself once or twice since I got it about 6 months ago. And this only happened when it got hung up while I was playing with it while watching TV. When I'm not watching TV I turn the DVR off because I noticed in the manual it advises you to do this. And I have a harmony remote so I just incorporated the DVR off into the macro that turns everything off. I also have a 2100 box downstairs that is normally left on, and occasionally when I go to turn on the telelvision I'll notice that the box has turned off... I'm guessing this means it has rebooted itself due to an upgrade or maintenance. But it only does it once in a great while. All in all the 8300 has been great.

mine has rebooted at all times; when it's just on while watching tv, while it's recording or playing back, or while it's off. it has worked great up until a month ago when they started updating for SDV and it appears to be affecting only some of us.

i disagree with those who say it sucks and defy you to find a DVR that works flawlessly. i've had a ReplayTV for several years and while it has more bells and whistles than the SA boxes, on occasion it has locked up requiring me to pull the plug to reboot it. one time there was a program on the hard drive that would not delete and i had to reformat the drive. on another forum recently i read a post from a TiVo user talking about a scheduled program that did not record. anytime you're using a cpu based device with a hard drive things might get funky at times. some of us are going through a rough time with the 8300 now but i think the engineers will get it back on track soon.

Can anyone explain how this setting on the HD boxes work and how they should be set?

you might find some helpful info at this link: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=471859

No reboots ,and no problems at all with my 8300HD. Startover was launched on Wednesday in my Lexington area. (its been several months since my 8300 rebooted itself)

I do not use the HDMI output. I used to use "passthrough", but since I have switched to 1080i Upcovert .

No reboots ,and no problems at all with my 8300HD. Startover was launched on Wednesday in my Lexington area. (its been several months since my 8300 rebooted itself)

i'm guessing it rebooted last month with the firmware upgrade...

meanwhile another reboot this afternoon over here. :( at least i can still initiate a playback while recording a digital channel without causing a hang/reboot.

On my 8000HD I use 480p output with component cables, it seems to give a better picture than 480i on my HDTV with the analog and digital SD channels. If I leave it set to 1080i all the time then the channels that arent HD give you the black bars all the way around the 4:3 picture. If I'm going to watch a ball game or a movie in HD then I will manually set it to 1080i for that. I remember on my 3250HD there was a different option that would automatically select 1080i for HD and 480p for non HD. I know when I first got my 8000HD that setting wasnt in there, I dont know if its been added back with one of the many updates we've gotten since then or not, honestly I havent checked.

i disagree with those who say it sucks and defy you to find a DVR that works flawlessly.

My father has a TiVo and has had it for quite some time and it works flawlessly. I do agree that the TWC DVR has some very good pros but it also has a lot of cons too. It seems like there'll be one bug and then they download a patch and then it causes another bug, then they fix that and another creeps up, and on and on. I do like the fact that its designed to work with the TWC program guide and you have pretty much one touch recording for scheduling programs to record whereas with tivo you have to plug it into the phone jack and pay a monthly service fee. For $5/month extra it does seem like a good bargain. Granted mine has given me about a year and half of excellent operation while a lot of people on here were complaining of dropped audio or pixelation, etc. I do agree that if this was sold retail every unit would be returned or exchanged quickly. I'm just frustrated that I have a lot of programs and HD recordings I dont want to lose and now I have to exchange it for another one.

anyone else see the twc hd commercial on mtv today? it was 2 clips of a baseball pitch one hd the other nonhd, but..........it wasnt shown on a hd channel. come on if your going to sell hd you have to show it in hd which leads me to another point. you would already have hd to see it anyway. they need to show more of this stuff in the stores. the number one question i get about hd is, " is the pic really any better?" anyway no reboots today. and i was wondering about all you guys that are getting reboots, are you all using hdmi?

anyway no reboots today. and i was wondering about all you guys that are getting reboots, are you all using hdmi?

i was using an HDMI-DVI cable but i unplugged it and went with the component cables not long after i started getting the random reboots but it hasn't made any difference.

no HDMI here

My father has a TiVo and has had it for quite some time and it works flawlessly.

if we limit ourselves to an anecdotal sampling of one we can conclude that the 8300 also works flawlessly.

i hear all the time from TiVo users who can't set a first run season pass for The Daily Show without getting all eleventy million reruns during the day, or who miss programs that are rescheduled at the last minute because the TiVo thinks it was already recorded, issues i've never had with the 8x00.

of course their DVRs are not currently randomly rebooting so i'd call it a draw. ;)

i was using an HDMI-DVI cable but i unplugged it and went with the component cables not long after i started getting the random reboots but it hasn't made any difference.


Using HDMI->DVI, fixed 720p, and everything has been fine since getting back from the beach yesterday. No reboots, except for one I did initially when I brought up the AV system.

I've had two crashes in the last day. One last night while recording SNL and watching it. It crashed about five minutes into the program.

The other tonight while recording two shows and watching a third. It didn't crash until about 5 minutes into watching the recorded program. Coincidence?

I was hoping this problem was fixed, but I guess not.

I would swap it out for a newer 8300HD.

If some 8300HDs are better than others, and mine is identified as a lame one, I'll swap.

Until then, the idea of another 8300HD hunt is just not something I'm looking forward to...

Reboot rates have come down considerably with several patches put in over the past week or so, but there are still a couple of outstanding issues to be resolved to resolve everything.

Confidence is high it will be totally resolved soon.

it wasnt shown on a hd channel. come on if your going to sell hd you have to show it in hd

We don't have permission to place local advertising on any of our HD channels. Once we get access to those avails, we will do exactly that.

Earth to WOLO...Come in please. Need to see the Cowboys vs Eagles game in HD.

ABC HD is not working at all and CBS HD is extremely pixellated with no audio. I live in Elmwood Park downtown. Anyone else seeing this problem.

i hear all the time from TiVo users who can't set a first run season pass for The Daily Show without getting all eleventy million reruns during the day, or who miss programs that are rescheduled at the last minute because the TiVo thinks it was already recorded, issues i've never had with the 8x00.

of course their DVRs are not currently randomly rebooting so i'd call it a draw. ;)

Actually this is my *only* issue with my HD Tivo. John Stewart made a joke about it on the show one night, I guess he's a Tivo user. I just go through my "to do" list and edit accordingly for this show.

It is nice getting the NYC HD Network feeds via Dtv...and west coast SD. :cool:

ABC HD is not working at all and CBS HD is extremely pixellated with no audio. I live in Elmwood Park downtown. Anyone else seeing this problem.

Yes, ABC HD is not working here either; however, CBS HD is fine with just a little audio crackling.

Actually this is my *only* issue with my HD Tivo. John Stewart made a joke about it on the show one night, I guess he's a Tivo user. I just go through my "to do" list and edit accordingly for this show.

It is nice getting the NYC HD Network feeds via Dtv...and west coast SD.

:cool:

So, it's cool to break the law?

Earth to WOLO...Come in please. Need to see the Cowboys vs Eagles game in HD.

Yes, I agree!!! WOLO I want my Cowboys in HD!!!!!! :mad:

Looks like HD too me. The Cowboys are prentenders. The real team is about 93 miles from here. FWIW

Diana,

Please help me. I still can not get free on demand or PPV access on my box. Keep getting 1112 error code after a very long wait. Could you have them take another look at my box remotely? Would like to PPV the Clemson vs Carolina game Saturday night!!

I'll get after them first thing TechMan.

So - what was the deal with ABC last night? Was it just TWC or both OTA and TWC?

Most likely MCO asleep again..I'll let you know..

So - what was the deal with ABC last night? Was it just TWC or both OTA and TWC?

I checked again around 9:45 p.m., and ABC HD - channel 815 was on. I didn't check OTA, but the game finally came on.

Looks like HD too me. The Cowboys are prentenders. The real team is about 93 miles from here. FWIW

Apparently the game came on sometime after 9:41pm when I posted that message. What a comeback though!!

I've been a cowboys fan since I was 6 yrs old. Then they plop a new team down 90 miles from here and I'm supposed to do what? Just stop liking the team I've liked for 25 yrs?? No way. I dont mind seeing the Panthers win some games thats fine but the Cowboys are my team.

...I still can not get free on demand or PPV access on my box. Keep getting 1112 error code after a very long wait...

I had the same issue with our SA8000HD a couple of months ago. While waiting for TWC to analyze the problem, I solved it myself, kinda by accident. Don't know if your situation is the same but it's worth a look at the box diagnostics.

For the STB to work with PPV and other on-demand services, it has to be in two-way mode. For that to occur, the downstream signal strength has to be good, which is easy to do, even with multiple splitters or other sources of passive loss between the cable demarc point and the STB. But in addition the UPSTREAM signal strength, what the box sends backwards up the cable to the head end, has to be adequate. A one-way (non-bidirectional) CATV amp will block the return signal completely. Too many passive splits may make the return level too low to work. The 8000/8300 will increase its output level from about +30dBmV to a point (I think about +50dBmV?) to try to overcome the loss but if it's just over the "edge of the cliff" it won't be able to establish two-way communictions.

You can check both the incoming (downstream) and outgoing (upstream) signal level in the STB diagnostics page. Check the SA8000/8300 Tips thread in the HDTV Recorders Forum (start here http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=581843 ) if needed for directions on accessing diagnostics. If the upstream level is already at max +50, your return path is likely too lossy.

I won't waste sapce here with what was wrong with our setup, but a small rearrangement of how the feed goes to the STB solved our problem.

Hope that helps,

Mike

I checked again around 9:45 p.m., and ABC HD - channel 815 was on. I didn't check OTA, but the game finally came on.

Transmitter had a case of dypepsia as well to compound the problem..

Am I the only one having audio issues with WLTX-DT? I have been told by the station engineer that last night there was no issue with the broadcast.

DSTALNAK@WLTX.GANNETT.COM (please let him know)

Damn, Damn, DAMN!!!

Diana, I got your letter today regarding cable cards. So December 13 is the official launch for SDV in Columbia? Looking at the list of channels headed to the switch, it doesn't look like a whole lot. How much bandwidth will this save? Does this mean we will see additional HD channels on the same day?

Damn, Damn, DAMN!!!

Diana, I got your letter today regarding cable cards. So December 13 is the official launch for SDV in Columbia? Looking at the list of channels headed to the switch, it doesn't look like a whole lot. How much bandwidth will this save? Does this mean we will see additional HD channels on the same day?


Not exactly, there are some 2 way services that do not impact Cable Cards now which will be SDV prior to the 13th.


Sitting at home drinking coffee, I don't know the exact amount of bandwidth this is - haven't added it up.


We don't have the exact date for the launch of Universal HD yet - that will come as soon as it is nailed down.

One thing I've noticed about some HD channels, like (but not limited to) PBS's Channel 800, is that pixels seems to shimmer in and out of existence during scene transitions. I've always assumed that this is a sign of lower-than-necessary-for-best-quality bits per second (but I'm willing to be educated.)

Would this kind of thing improve (less shimmering, more solid picture) once more bandwidth opens up, or is this the way the signal is delivered and the provider would also have to improve bandwidth?...

One thing I've noticed about some HD channels, like (but not limited to) PBS's Channel 800, is that pixels seems to shimmer in and out of existence during scene transitions. I've always assumed that this is a sign of lower-than-necessary-for-best-quality bits per second (but I'm willing to be educated.)

Would this kind of thing improve (less shimmering, more solid picture) once more bandwidth opens up, or is this the way the signal is delivered and the provider would also have to improve bandwidth?...


Bandwidth allocated to channels will not increase because that is determined in the contract, however the provider can use the full spectrum allocation rather than use some of it for multiplexing channels. For example, if ETV didn't also offer the South Carolina Channel and the digital simulcast of their analog feed, then they could devote the full 19.8 mbs to their HD signal.

Diana,

Please help me. I still can not get free on demand or PPV access on my box. Keep getting 1112 error code after a very long wait. Could you have them take another look at my box remotely? Would like to PPV the Clemson vs Carolina game Saturday night!!


Engineers have determined you have a return path issue - Santori may be on the right track, there is probably something in your home prohibiting the return path and if your converter can't speak with the headend then you get cut off.

If you don't see anything, then we can get you a service call set up - let me know if you need more assistance on this.

I know you guys already know, but what kind of programming can we expect to see on Universal HD? And will it cost extra? I hope not, I still can't get used to my TW bill, which is higher than my power bill!

I know you guys already know, but what kind of programming can we expect to see on Universal HD?

http://www.universalhd.com

And will it cost extra?


It will be placed on the existing HD Tier at the existing rate.

I'm sure many people know this already, but the USC-Clemson game this saturday is going to be shown on ESPN2 now instead of PPV. Good news.

Shahram - there was a thread over in the HDTV Programming section recently where Universal HD's programming was discussed. I read through some of it and it seemed most people were dissapointed with the lineup. It sounded like most of it was movies and old, cancelled sitcoms no one was interested in. I'm going to wait until we actually get the channel to make any judgement. I'm just glad we're getting a new channel at no additional cost. I'm sure the programming will improve as time goes by.