Cisco 8640HDC HD-DVR Thread

Originally Posted by JimXX51

I'm in Cincinnati, OH and have Time Warner Cable. I got a brand new Cisco 8640HDC HD-DVR last week when I upgraded to HD because I bought a new Samsung 46" B750 HDTV. I was looking for one of the newer Samsung HD STB DVRs, but the Time Warner rep indicted that many customers had issues with the Samsungs and that Time Warner was no longer purchasing the newest Samsung model. The Ciscos are Time Warner's newest hardware.
It has the 320 GB hard drive. The space available seems to be OK even while recording the Olympics in HD, but I have been watching and then deleting the recording every evening. It's premature, but maybe replacing the internal drive with one of the bigger WD AV drives (or getting a large external eSATA drive) is an option worth exploring to increse recording capacity.
The unit feels a little sluggish to respond to the remote compared to the old Scientific Atlanta SD DVR, however the PQ seems quite good. And the buffer seems to function differently then what I was used to with the old DVR. That is, if I leave a channel tuned while watching something recorded, when I stop viewing the recoring, I'm unable to hit the back key on the live program beyond that time point, not the roughly hour or so which is what I remember the old SD DVR kept in it's buffer. Specifically, I've recorded the prime time Olympics coverage, started watching the recording program a little later to skip through commercials, with the live program on that same channel. But when I finish watching the recording I cannot back up the live program (local news on NBC) to the start of it's time period, it will only go back to the exact time I finished watching the recording.
Additionally, even though I have the box's output resolution set to 1080i, which the TV is compatible with (it's 1080p native resolution), every time I turn the TV and box on the TV reports the incoming signal as 720 x 480i (SD) until I change the unit's output resolution to something in addition to 1080i, at which point the TV reports the signal as 1080i incoming. Then I can change the resolution back to only 1080i. However, when I turn the TV and box off, the next time I turn them on again, the resolution as reported by the TV is 480i again. I will try setting the resolution to auto to see how that affects the resolution output.
Has anyone else observed this behavior, the buffer functionality (or lack of) and resolution switching? Or has someone found a work-around?

Originally Posted by Blaidth

I have tried the WD My DVR Expander 1TB eSata hard drive. This did not work.
I also tried a Thermaltake Black Widow Toaster- ST0005U with a WD 1TB Caviar Black HD- Also does not work for expansion.

Tried out the Ethernet port but i think that is disabled.

Cannot find any info on this DVR for expanding the recording capacity- and I already lost some Olympic days because of too much on it.

Anyone have any success connectiong a eSata drive to this DVR?

Called TWC it seems as if there is no support to expand this DVR- what a waste why disable so much- talk about bad customer service... Going to have to look toward TIVO but wish TIVO had Tru2Way.
Locked into a bad situation I guess.

Originally Posted by JimXX51

les236 - is your 8640HDc connected to your HDTV by HDMI? And, if so what TV?

Originally Posted by Smoof15

I leave the box on I don't even turn it off, so when im watching an hd channel at 1080i, turn off the tv only, and turn the tv back on, the cable box while still viewing the same hd channel changes to 480i. It appears to be an hdmi bug.

Originally Posted by GatorWorm

Smoof15 is dead on with this one. There are many of us having this issue. I would hate to go back to the 8300. I am hoping brighthouse/cisco comes up with a fix or updated driver soon.

Originally Posted by tyler555

if you do select 1080 only than it will also keep the screen from blinking trying to determine the optimal resolution, the only downside is that it doesnt always auto stretch the picture to take up the full screen. It just tricks the box into thinking everything is 1080. Mm as far as calling the cable company that isnt going to really get you anywhere the macro on the remote will cycle slowly to turn the components on and off. One thing i could say for you guys is to leave your cable box on. The cable box is going to actually use the same amount of power if it is on or off the only thing that is doing when you hit the power button is turning off the input. The cable box is constantly taking updates as far as the tv guide, software upgrades and flashes which tells the cable box what channels it is supposed to be broadcasting and making sure that you have not altered the internal card to recieve additional channel frequiencies that are not being paid for. So basically just leave the cable box on and turn off your tv best solution because it doesn't really turn off anyways.

Originally Posted by steve1022

I have the same problem only it isn't just when box is powered off/on, mine does it everytime i go to another input to either watch a DVD or play the Wii. When I come back to HDMI 1 input from DVD player the box displays 480i until changing to HD station and back then all is fine. If I go into settings it is still set to only output 1080i. Now if I leave the Wii's component input to the HDMI 1 input for cable it has defaulted to having all the resolutions checked again, very weird.

I had the handshake problem with my old 8300HDC but only when connected HDMI to my AVR. If I was plugged HDMI from cable box to TV I never had a problem but with this box I do.

Also having another problem where when pausing a show and the screen saver comes on it will only cover the middle 4:3 section of the tv. On the outside sidebars you can still see the show that is paused. It's not cool walking in and seeing your TWC screen saver logo just bouncing around in the middle of the TV screen

I have TWC navigator with the 3.1.3_3 firmware load but that is supposed to be updated soon. I'll update if it makes a difference.

Originally Posted by Netbookjunkie

Thought the updates are automatic. There is a manual update?

Originally Posted by MiahXgaming

To my understanding the screensaver issue is actually a software/firmware one, it was built that way because the older boxes like the 8300HD could not display a widescreen guide or screensaver due to a hardware limitation. You will notice none of the menus or guide are 16:9.

My guess is that they released this new box knowing it could handle the current firmware already used on the other boxes, with the intention to send an update for these new boxes that can handle it to enable widescreen. I hope so anyway, I hate the 4:3 guide.

Hopefully the firmware update you mentioned will be that fix, and likely fix the reverting to 480i as well. If we're really lucky, it will also fix the remote lag.

Originally Posted by TouchdownVeejus

I am having a similar issue w/ my new Central Florida Brighthouse Cisco 8640HDC box.

I can set the resolution to any combination of 720p/1080i, and as soon as I turn off the TV, the cable box resets its signal to 480i/p. The only way I can get the HD signals back is to change the settings again.

I'm currently running a HDMI cable from my 8640 to my Onkyo 607 and then another HDMI cable to my Samsung LN52B750.

I'm going to try to bypass my receiver tonight to see if I can get it to work at all, then start adding components to the pipeline to see if I can identify the issue.

Has anyone gotten any resolution to this? Brighthouse has been essentially useless. Their proposed solution seems to be a box swap for everything .