Comcast RNG 110 STB - Page 3

I have the comcast rng110 box. I cannot get history channel HD, HD theatre and occasionally BBC. The message, this channel will be available shortly comes up, but nothing ever comes on. It has been like this for three weeks. Any ideas?

it took Comcast two months to roll out some channels in our area......give them a call

Put the set top box on the channels with problems first.
Check the main diag page on the RNG110 set top box. With your Comcast remote, power down the box, and right away (withing 2 seconds) press the "ok/select" button. The main diag page will come up. Check that all the items with colors are green. If you have any that are brown or red, then you are having signal issues that need correcting.

Please post back if you have any lines brown or red.

Has anyone got the ITV function to work? Comcast finally got the caller ID to display on the TV but they cannot seem to get the ITV option to show on the menu of the RNG110. Too easy to talk to someone that really doesn't know what they are doing.

I recently found out that it may be due to the Comcast system showing that I have a different cable box other that what is installed. Not sure. They sent a tech out to fix the issue a few weeks ago and he got nothing done at all. He tried a few cable boxes while he was here to compare pictures. Perhaps he didn't remove them off my account and this ITV feature is trying to sync with a box that I don't even have.

I am in diagnostic dashboard
IB1 Tuner SNR is brown and says poor
IB1 Tuner Errors. Is. ----
everything else is green and good

Your having signal level issues. You might have too many splitters daisy chained in the house, or a signal issue due to loose/corrorded/wet f connectors, bad cabling, bad splitters or other wiring issues. If you want to clean up your splitter issues youself, eliminate what you are not using.

Otherwise, best to call in Comcast and get a tech out to get the signals back to proper levels.

I just got my RNG110 from comcast. I am using HDMI cable into my HDTV. Comcast has activated my box, but all of the HD channels display as 4:3, not 16:9. I have spent an hour on the phone, and several hours on tech support chat. My box didn't come with a manual, so I got the details of how to get at the RNG110 menu. When I change from 16:9 to 4:3 on the RNG110, the picture is exactly the same on my HDTV, that of a 4:3 signal. Same as when I change the 1080/720/480 option.

Do I have a bad RNG110 or is there another reason I can't get widescreen?

If I tell my HDTV to zoom, I get widescreen, but then all channels are widescreen, and not just the HDTV. So the RNG110 is taking all channels, whether HD or not, and displaying them in 4:3 mode, with black boxes on the side.

Also, the comcast info menu for the channel is in 4:3 mode. Does anyone know if on HDTV, these menus are wide?

I've noticed some channels coming through in a smaller format. It's like 16:9 but smaller. I've seen this done with ads but not regular TV very much. But after Comcast pushed out some updates back on 2/18 I've seen this more. Not sure pbbear if this is relative to your issue.

Your notes say you switched from 16:9 to 4:3. So apparently no matter how you set it you are not getting 16:9? What process are you going through to make this change.

The Guide and Menu items can also be displayed in 16:9.

Follow these instructions:

(RNG110 manual here with these and other instructions: http://www.midcocomm.com/classlibrar.../files/191.pdf. Page 11 for the instructions below.)

Here:
Putting your set-top into user settings mode
1. Make sure that your set-top is turned on (POWER light is green).
2. Press the POWER button on your remote control (POWER light goes off), then press the Menu button.
You should see the USER SETTINGS menu, shown right, on your TV screen.
3. When you have finished making changes (see pages 11 through 15), press the POWER button to remove the
USER SETTINGS menu and return to normal viewing.
About the TV Aspect Ratio
The TV that you have connected to your set-top has an aspect ratio (width-to-height ratio) of 4:3 (basic/
standard) or 16:9 (widescreen). You must set the appropriate TV Aspect Ratio (4:3 or 16:9) on your set-top, so
that it is compatible with your TV.
Setting the TV Aspect Ratio
If you have not done so already, put your set-top into User Settings mode, as described above.
Press the U or D button on your remote control and highlight TV Aspect Ratio on the USER SETTINGS menu.
1. To change the TV Aspect Ratio, press the R button.
The TV Aspect Ratio menu, shown below, appears on your TV screen. On the menu, the current setting
(4:3 or 16:9) has > in front of it. Also, whenever the current setting is displayed, the DATA light will be
lighted on your set-top's front panel.
TV Aspect Ratio
4:3
>16:9
2. Press the U or D button to highlight the TV Aspect Ratio you want.
3. Press the OK/Select button to confirm your choice and change to that TV Aspect Ratio.

V1.05 Pace Seattle DC701X Loader
The ASTB needs to download new software. This could take a few minutes, please be patient.
Tuning to frequency LKC: Done
Checking available software : P404sfj_
Find Software Channel : Done
Find Download Channels : Failed
SAM message not received

and it keeps rebooting and failing forever. Comcast technician's remote diagnostic doesn't "find" the box on the network. Dead box.

I just picked up one of these from my local Comcast office, got it set up and activated, mostly seems to be working fine. But is this box supposed to pass 5.1? I can only get two channel audio to my AVR. Using optical only, so the cable, output jack, and input jack are working since I do have audio, just not the audio I want.

I read the manual online and it doesn't mention 5.1 specifically, unless I missed it. I'd rather not call comcast until I know there is an issue for sure.

Thanks!

AVR says we are getting 5:1 on our RNG110 using optical...avr is an older onkyo....I did not have to touch the setup menu when installed

Thanks for the response. I cross-posted in the Boston Comcast thread and someone there with vast Comcast knowledge and experience is helping. I'll post what I learn there here for future visitors.

for what it is worth...I had a hard time activiating the box, they sent out a tech (no charge plus $20 credit)...tech was able to activate it with his handheld, apparently the telephone activation was not sending out all the codes.....he did have a replacement unit in the truck in case it was a box hardware problem

I've got exactly the same problem, now with a second box Comcast sent me. Is this a common problem? Now they're sending a tech, which will take 10 days. Is there a way to reset this box? Or is it just a brick now?

I would PM Linden on this forum. He works for Pace and may provide insight on what a SAM message is and why the box cannot find it or why it thinks it needs to download new software.

Interesting to note that the Comcast RNG-110 is just a repackaged and re-branded Pace Seattle dc701x. That's good to know, now it's easier to get specifications on the actual chipset.

I have the same problem. same box and same tv. I noticed when i changed the color of the guide to black the remote acted up. when i changed it back to the standard blue i did not have this problem. I have been through 3 boxes so far all with the same problem.

Hi everyone, this is my 2nd post on avsforum since joining the other day, so please excuse any mistakes I make.

Two weeks ago my Comcast/Pace RNG110 HD STB fried and I got a replacement and tried Firewire on it with no luck. Win7/32 and Vista would not detect it, called CC and they said they sent a signal to activate it but it never rebooted. I asked her to escalate the issue and got the usual BS - "we don't support it, it's factory disabled, blah blah blah!

So I came here knowing that some people have it working and found out about some of the diag menus and discovered it IS enabled! Called CC again. got a good tech and he fixed it and a brown IPPV Enabled (NO) in the diag dashboard.

I'll pass on a few tips that may help some of you:

1. Pace RNG110 is so sensitive that the remote pointed at my workstation TV (which is facing the stb ~25 ft away) will change channels on it! Good or bad depending on how you look at it.

2. I know for fact that the new CC DTA remote will control the stb (without guide and navigation) and it has been reported here that the remote control IR receiver with the DTA works on it also.

3. Found out yesterday about a great $20.00 6 device remote that will control the RNG110 on comcastsupport forums. It is the Universal Remote Control brand Model # URC-R6 - I bought one today at best buy - best $20.00 I've spent in a long time. The 3 digit setup code is 110! Also avail on Frys, buy.com and newegg (check out the reviews at newegg!)

4. Here are the 3 RNG110 STB menus/settings controlled with the remote that I am aware of (1st 2 allow user changes):

4.1 User Settings - Power off > Menu (press < 2 sec)

4.2 Cable Box Setup - Menu > Main Menu > Setup > Cable Box Setup

4.3 Diagnostic Dashboard and Diag Menu - Power > OK/Select (press < 2 sec)
(1394 status is item 21 in Diag Menu)

Any other Diag menus you might have please pass them along -feel free to PM me also.

dawg111

In case this helps others. A couple of days ago my RNG110 (installed about 2 weeks ago) started rebooting in a loop with the same symptoms others have been reporting and same problems with comcast trying to fix it remotely.

After some of my own troubleshooting I discovered that if you disconnect all the cables (e.g. hdmi, component, video to slingbox, optical for sound, etc.) the system completes the software update, reboots and stops the cycle.

At this point the system was not authorized for on-demand and any channels beyond basic. First comcast attempt to send a signal did not work. Finally they realized they needed to send a double signal also to the network card and that fixed that problem.

Last issue I have is that standard channels that show 4x3 are centered fine, HD channels are full screen and fine, however, when a HD channels shows a 4x3 image it is offset to the right (black bar on the left is twice the size of the one on the right.) Attempts to center via the regular menu setup, or via the user settings of the box have made no impact. Might be a bad box but I would be interested if others have seen this and what the fix might be.

In my area Comcast pushed through a firmware update and the RNG110 works with the silver Comcast remote as well as the dark grey remote. So the original silver remote codes should work with a universal remote.

I noticed this as well -- my old universal remote just started working one day -- this was good news.

Have not seen this issue -- 4:3 always shows up with black bars on both sides. I have seen a different issue where the HD channels become enlarged so that the outside edges of the screen are cut off (it's most obvious when something like QVC is on where the graphics on the outside of the image are cut off). I "fix" it by going into the cable box menu and toggling the aspect ratio to 4:3 to 16:9 and that corrects it till it comes back (usually about 1 week). It always shows 16:9, but when this happens it seems to go into 4:3 even though the setup is still set to 16:9.

You might want to try toggling the aspect ratio setup and see if that helps.

Recently got a new, larger plasma and so moved our 2006 Panasonic plasma to a bedroom. This tv is 720p, 42 inches. Swapped out our old SD box for a new HD one, the Pace RNG110.

With our other box (Motorola with DVR), SD content set at "justified" filled the screen correctly and HD content set at "Full" displayed correctly. I am having a lot of trouble with the Pace box getting proper aspect ratio on both SD and HD content. I have it set to 16:9 and "yes" to all display capabilities. Turning off 1080i makes no difference that I can see. Most HD programs fill the screen as they should but some have black bars top and bottom (and these are not movies shown in letterbox). Also, some HD programs that fill the screen look sort of stretched in the middle. Many SD channels also have the black bars. Using "justified" or "H-fill" settings on our tv does not eliminate the bars. Using HD zoom as Comcast says to do in these cases enlarges the picture too much so that parts are cut off.

Don't want to pay for two DVR's so is there anything I can do to get the proper displays?

I was annoyed with the RNG110 when I first got it because my TV had trouble tuning channels when going from HD to SD channels. There would be a blank screen and a "video not found" warning for a second before the new channel would display.

The fix is to change the TV display properties in the User Control menu [User Settings - Power off > Menu (press < 2 sec)] to just one input setting. In my case the TV's native display is 1080i. By setting that as the only one as YES and then NO for all other resolutions I was able to get faster and smoother channel changes.

+1

I did the same thing, only for a different reason. I was seeing it sometimes use other resolutions than 1080i, not sure why, but fixed it by setting it to 10808 only. Hardcoding it to 1080i also helped reduce time to change the channels.

I have a flashing amber data light on the RNG 110. Everything appears to work fine, however. Does anyone know why the amber light would flash all the time?

check to see if you have a message (main menu) from your cable provider....our's is usually a steady amber (data) light with a message

I checked and no message. Mine is solid amber when there is a message. ZI finally just unplugged it for a short period of time. When I plugged it back in, the flashing amber stopped.

Anyone using the ethernet port on the RNG110? The user manual says it's for future use.

When I installed mine (not far from you actually) I asked about it and they said no plans at the time. But that was back in March.

I am curious if anyone is having issues with the mini Guide. You can use the up and down arrows to page up or down. I've found that some times the Menu pops up, it switches to Comcast On Demand or occasionally doesn't respond (while the mini guide is up). This happens with my Harmony 880 and the Comcast remote as well.

i got one of these the other day and the cable guy said the usb and ethernet were disabled. Didn't ask about the firewire, but I imagine that is disabled, too. Someone told me that they were able to charge their ipod using the usb port. Haven't tried it yet, but that might at least be useful. I am finding the lack of output options on this unit to be very annoying. I'm already looking at cable adapters and alternative routing in order to most effectively connect the peripherals I need to access. Also coming across occasional "cannot record" messages, which I never saw on my other motorola box, even with HDMI, so there's clearly some kind of extra copy protection thing kicking in. I'm referring to standard fare -- repeat episode of House and a PBS show, nothing fancy or pay per view. And some on demand works, while other shows would not load on the RNG110 (tho they worked fine on my motorola in the other room). The message said to replug the cables. Very odd, temperamental little box.