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SA/Cisco 8*** series DVR's Tips and tricks using Cox's Passport Echo software

post #1 of 597
4/10/10 at 2:41pm
Thread Starter 
Disclaimer: This thread is in no way an official thread by Cox or it's affiliates.
This thread will be dedicated to the new version of Passport Echo specifically being launched by Cox as a change from the old SARA Software on SA / Cisco HD DVR's based on news reports, web reports and media announcements. This will potentially affect all users in Cox markets using SA equipment as a complete OS change. This version is similar to TWC's old version of Passport Echo used a few years ago, but is an entirely new build by Rovicorp and will probably be used by Cox and their customers soon. Users on affected systems will want to know and share information about the upgrade and changes to functionality on the equipment they use.

Quick introduction to the general Passport Guide. Information from Rovicorp is no indication that Cox will support or add specific functions written into the software that they do not advertise.
http://www.rovicorp.com/products/ser...nk_id=rightnav
Here is the data from the webpage as of 03-18-10
Quote:


Archive from 03-18-10
OVERVIEW: Passport Guide

Rovi's Passport® Guide provides an advanced interactive program guide (IPG) for DVR and non DVR-enabled, digital cable TV set-tops. This digital cable TV guide fully supports analog, digital, and HD broadcast signals as well as integration with third-party applications.

Passport® Guide enables digital cable TV operators to:

Facilitate digital cable TV program search and navigation

* View digital cable TV program information in a variety of formats - from listings to detailed information about specific shows
* Search for digital cable TV programs by typing titles into an on-screen keyboard using your remote
* See what's happening on a specific digital cable TV program, and view in-depth TV program information at the same time
* List digital cable TV programs by "themes" or categories such as football, cooking, or Pay-Per-View

Simplify digital cable TV program recording and management

* Easily modify recording options for scheduled TV shows, including start and end times and save options
* Fine tune digital cable TV series recording options, including how many TV show episodes to keep, first run or repeats, and recording priorities

Deliver value-added services and increase business opportunities

* Display multiple thumbnail video streams on a single channel for faster recording and navigation of TV programs
* Create a QuickMenu™ as a promotion tool to showcase cable TV services
* Integrate an impulse subscription tool, enabling viewers to purchase service packages instantly with their remotes
* Provide informative content such as local weather updates and detailed instruction for programming multi-function remote controls



FEATURES:
Listings View
Displays 90 minutes and 5 channels of programming and has custom sorting, filtering and language options.

Theme View
Displays up to 7 days of data in nested categories that included recorded programs, ratings and options for custom sorting, displaying and hiding.

Banner Browsing
Banner area displays current programming along with program details, including time, title, channel information, and length of show; current position of show and how much has been recorded onto the DVR; as well as play, fast forward, rewind, and pause buttons.

Quick Info™
Detailed information for programs is displayed with scaled down video display for easier channel browsing.

QuickMenu™
Configurable menu allows viewers to launch cable TV services with a few remote clicks. Menus can be configured with services such as on-demand, Pay-Per-View, messages, and third-party games—as well as logos and descriptions.

Search
Use the innovative title and keyword search utilizing a virtual keyboard to search all available data in the set-top box.

Parental Controls
Parental Controls restrict viewing of specific programs by TV rating, TV content advisory rating, MPAA rating, program title or channel based on consumer's viewing preferences. Parents can secure television viewing by a specific range of time.

Pay-Per-View Purchase
Order PPV and/or on demand programming with impulse purchase.

DVR (Digital Video Recording)
Control live television with pause, rewind and fast-forward functionality, one-touch record a program, record an entire series, record from a keyword search. Replay an individual show, or group replay an entire series. Manage your DVR with individual or group deletion options.

ShowRunner VOD
Passport® Guide has a fully integrated On Demand client services feature that can be headend configured for a variety of On Demand services including SVOD. Typically genres or categories are menu scrollable on the horizontal plane menu and titles are vertically scrollable. The menu's intuitive nature easily walks a viewer through the On Demand purchase process.

Venue
Venue is a configurable and biaxial navigational interface with scrollable categories on the horizontal axis and scrollable listings on the vertical axis. Venue can be set as the default power-on channel to promote premium channels and to help guide subscribers to the most popular services. Venue can also be used to create an intuitive hierarchical interface seamlessly linking any navigational, informational or revenue generating services with multiple Venue virtual channels. Enrich the subscriber's interactive experience while driving revenue with Venue.

There is a 4 page 6Mb PDF about Passport and Rovi that can be found on the resources tab.
Direct link to PDF file
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post #2 of 597
4/10/10 at 2:41pm
Thread Starter 
It is assumed that any eSATA compatibility a user had with SARA software will still be compatible with the Passport Echo software.
Scientific Atlanta / Cisco recommends pre-made DVR expander system like those available from Western Digital, Iomega, Apricorn, etc.
For example, Let me Google DVR expander for you.
Others have gone through the process of looking for a compatible drive that will remain on 24/7, supports multiple and continuous HD streams without buffering, uses their own enclosure, and their own eSATA cable. There is this thread - 8300HD and External SATA - It Works!! dedicated to the early testing and success rate of do-it-yourself parts that has a database of success and failure, however it is a combined thread with users from multiple Cable co's and systems where some versions of software do not support eSATA or those that have had problems. In general, those using SARA software had decent results when using an approved or highly successful drive combo, however Cox will NOT support your external drive and it is still a use-at-your-own-risk external add on.

vegggas
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post #3 of 597
4/10/10 at 2:42pm
Thread Starter 
Play back options.
The LIST button brings up the list of previously recorded programs.
By pressing the "A" button labeled "Saved Shows" brings up three options.
  • ALL TITLES to view all titles in Chronological and Priority order for erasing, along with their Erasable Status. Erasable status indicated by a Diamond to indicate Saved until manually erased, or an Hourglass with estimated time until it is erased to make room for other programs or previously selected erase time set. You can select any title and choose to keep longer or Save until manually erased. During keep Longer, you can move the show up or down in the priority list with other programs.
    * PLAY
    * ERASE
    * KEEP LONGER
    * SAVE UNTIL MANUALLY ERASED
  • GROUP TITLES to see folders of series of shows in alphabetical order.
    From the folder view, highlight the folder and press INFO. From there, you should be able to:
    * PLAY ALL - To play entire Series of recordings back to back without intervention, or returning to live programming.
    * PLAY ALL NEW - To Play All of the episodes not previously viewed (bold only).
    * ERASE ALL - Erases all shows within the folder
    * ERASE ALL Viewed - Erases All the shows in folder that are not New or not in Bold.
  • Disk Info, which will tell you your Disk usage meters for:
    * SAVED UNTIL MANUALLY ERASED - Total percent of all programs that you have selected as "Save Until I Delete"
    * AUTOMATICALLY ERASED AS NEEDED - Shows that will be erased to make room for new content as chosen in the recorded show options. This is the default for all shows unless otherwise changed.
    * ESTIMATED FREE SPACE - Free space remaining.
During Play Back, you can typically use any of the standard playback functions, as well as advanced playback functions:
  • FF X2 >>, FF X3>>>, FF X4>>>>
  • REW X2<<, REW X3<<< REW X4<<<<
  • JUMP FORWARD 15 MIN - While in any FF mode, press the RIGHT Arrow key to jump forward to each 15 minute tic mark in the program.
  • REW BACK 15 MIN - While in any REW mode, press the LEFT Arrow key to jump back to each 15 minute tic mark in the program.
  • Slow Motion - Press PAUSE, then the FF button >> to begin slow motion playback. (you can also use PAUSE, then PLAY, PLAY to initiate slowmotion on some systems)
  • Slow motion Frame Advance - When Paused, use the Right Arrow key to move ahead 1 frame or LEFT arrow to Jump Back 5 frames. This will jump through the frame buffer and may not start immediately where you paused.

vegggas
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post #4 of 597
4/10/10 at 2:42pm
Thread Starter 
Guide Options.
  • Basic Up, Down, Right, and Left arrow options remain for navigating through the grid.
  • High Speed navigation options by holding any arrow key for more than three (3) seconds can be done to quickly advance the guide in the direction you choose.
  • Page Up or Page Down will jump one guide page (5 channels) in the direction you choose
  • You can still put in a channel number and wait a few seconds to jump to that channel. If the channel does not exist, the guide will take you to the closest channel above the one selected.
  • To Jump ahead by one or several days in the guide, press the number, such as 2, then the right arrow key to jump two days ahead in the guide.
  • At midnight of the current day, as the guide shifts to the midnight listings, all past data will be cleared from the guide.
The guide is broken into three main options once brought up on the screen.
  • A Button on Remote brings up six (6) choices. All changes, except "Custom" settings are applied for the current use of the guide and will revert back to defaults once you close the guide. Any changes to Custom are set with options to make them for Use Now or Use Always.
    1. Sort 1, 2, 3 - The default sort order by numeric channel number
    2. Sort A, B, C - The alternate (single use option)sort order by alphabetical channel names
    3. List ALL - Default option that lists all of the channel available in the guide
    4. List Favorites - Provides a guide with ONLY your selected Favorites listed.
    5. List HDTV - Provides a guide with only the linear channels that are available as HD (no HD PPV or HD On Demand).
    6. Custom - You can choose to either Display or Hide the following
    • List ALL Channels
    • List Favorite Channels
    • List or Hide Music Channels
    • List or Hide On Demand Channels
    • List or Hide Pay Per View Channels
    • List HDTV Channels
    • Hide Skipped Channels
    • Hide Locked Channels (Parental lock)
  • B Button on Remote brings up THEMES to group shows by a specific theme. Themes are also able to show and search all data, including your RECORDED programs. At each Theme, move to the Right to expand the options list or sub-folder and eventually be able to scroll up and down for the program you may want to view or record.
    Once you have pressed B to enter Themes, you can Press B again to choose your sort order preference, similar to options under the A button, but specific for the themes you selected.
    As an example, you can drill down and search for only shows with closed captions, saved on your DVR, but only in HD, and on one of your favorite channels and list those by the date they aired.
  • C Button on Remote brings up the SEARCH function.
    • Search By Title
    • Search By Keyword
    You can use the navigation arrows and the select button to enter in your search term. The search engine is a Drill-Down system, so the first letter will start the search and take a few moments to give you the results to the right and all of the possible options highlighted and selectable as your next entry.

vegggas
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post #5 of 597
4/10/10 at 2:42pm
Thread Starter 
Recording Options
Recording can be done many different ways with many different options.
  • Using the IPG to record a program. Find the program in the IPG and press Record, or the Select key to bring up the recording options. The program can be found in any of the guide modes for Grid, Theme, or Search result.
  • Simply pressing the Record button anytime outside the guide will bring up the options for recording the current show, series, or set a manual recording.
  • Manual Recording
    • Press the record button and choose the Manual option.
    • Choose either Individual or recurring recording
    • Select the channel, day(s) start and end times.
  • Record this show - Records the current show you are watching as far back as the buffer will allow, or the selected future program. Simplistic recording.
  • Recording a Series
    • First run, or First run and repeats
    • The selected channel only, or from ANY channel
    • The selected air time, or All showings
    • Save Until manually erased or as space is needed
    • Episodes to Keep, All episodes, or up to 5
    • Start time, up to 10 minutes early or up to 10 min late
    • End time up to 10 min early or up to 3 hours over
    • Live events are prompted to be extended during setup.
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post #6 of 597
4/10/10 at 2:43pm
Thread Starter 
Official Cox quick guide and Flip Book mailer sent to customers.
Uses flash

http://www.cox.com/support/images/di...k/Default.html


vegggas
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post #7 of 597
4/13/10 at 11:58pm

The following Versions on the 8240HDC & 8300HDC DVR will not recognize a NEW External HDD. For most that had an External HDD already attached and formatted while using the SARA IPG, that External HDD is still working with Rovi Passport, although there is not a screen prompt acknowledging the Ext. HDD.
You can find your Passport and PowerTV Versions in the Diagnostic Menu/Mode.

  • Version: Passport Echo 3.1.085 - Sep 13 2010 (Passport Vers 3.1.086 also cripples eSATA)
  • OS Version: PowerTV 6.20.75.103sp - Jun 2 2010 (this version of PowerTV appears to be the culprit)

Updated 09/09/11:
Currently beta testing Passport Echo Vers. 3.1.091 and PowerTV Vers. 6.20.75.106sp, This update has fixed the formatting issue with the 8240HDC.

The following Versions on the 8300HD DVR should still recognize and accept a NEW External HDD.

  • Version: Passport Echo 3.1.085 - Sep 13 2010 (Cox)
  • Version: Passport Echo 3.1.086
  • Version: Passport Echo 3.1.092 (Charter)
  • OS Version: PowerTV 6.14.98.1sp - May 22 2009

Build Your Own High Performance External eSATA DVR Expander (pdf/181KB/3pp)
Here is a 3-page PDF Parts List Set-Up with No-Enclosure. This is what I have been using since Feb 2010 with no problems. I have swapped the WD1001FALS 32MB Cache for a WD1002FAEX 64MB Cache, both work without issues.
The reason I recommend using no enclosure is to eliminate the need to find a compatible enclosure that will not cause your Ext HDD to glitch during recording. Some enclosures that worked in the past have changed the chipset inside and may no longer work as well as they have in the past.

Updated 04/18/11:
Cox Las Vegas and Cox Arizona have both stated they are testing a firmware update to address and fix the eSATA issue with the 8240HDC.
Cox San Diego has acknowledged the issue but has not yet stated they are testing a solution.

Updated 12/23/10:
Both Cox San Diego and Cox Las Vegas have now updated to Passport Echo Vers. 3.1.085 and PowerTV Vers. 6.20.75.103sp, and compromised eSATA External HDD Expansion on the 8240HDC.

Updated 12/06/10:
I just discovered that with the new Passport IPG, in PHX AZ, my 8240HDC will no longer format a "New" External HDD. The one that was previously formatted while running SARA still works. I am hoping and contacting Cox to find out why. The 8300HD still will format a New Ext HDD. Cox Arizona acknowledges the problem and states they are working with Rovi Corp to try and resolve the issue. The same issue was reported by a customer with Blue Ridge Communications using Passport Echo Vers. 3.1.086 and PowerTV Vers. 6.20.75.103sp

The Passport IPG often requires a "hot plug" with the DVR powered up before powering up the External HDD.

Passport IPG Instructions for connecting an External eSATA HDD
First, Power up the DVR with TV on, (Ext HDD powered off.)
Second, Power up the connected Ext eSATA HDD with the DVR running, and you should be prompted to press "A' to format.
The Passport IPG now only recognizes the Ext if the DVR is running, not during the bootup process like it did with SARA.

The following archived instructions were for the SARA IPG.
Connecting and Disconnecting the 8300 Digital Receiver to/from an External SATA Hard Disk Drive (pdf/190KB/4pp)
These instructions apply to the SA8300, SA8300HD/C and SA8240HD/C
Source Cox Support website:© 1998-2007 Cox Communications, Inc

 

 

 

CoxSupportExtHDDSA8300.pdf 189.4482421875k . file
Edited by Bryan_CoxPHX - 6/8/12 at 8:09pm
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post #8 of 597
4/14/10 at 2:17am
Diagnostic Mode for Passport
To Enter Diagnostic Mode: Simultaneously press and hold the SELECT and EXIT buttons (on the DVR itself) until "DIAGNO" or "DIAG" appears. Release the buttons, then press EXIT and the the box tunes itself to the multi-page Diagnostics channel. After this process the Diagnostic pages can be accessed by directly tuning to that channel using the remote, once you know the channel.
Most likely the Diag Menu is a channel listed in the guide also.
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post #9 of 597
4/14/10 at 7:16am
Thanks for the info! (I got a paper copy of the flip thing in the mail yesterday; note that it contains a copy of the Quick Tips Guide in the beginning).

Passport Echo 3.1 (for DVRs) and Passport 5.1 are newer versions of the IPGs used by TWC in many of their systems (and here in San Diego) before they switched to Digital Navigator. Now that I live in a Cox neighborhood, I'm happy to see it (I share a house and use a TiVo Series3 in my private space, but there's an 8300HDC down in the living room running SARA, which I despise).
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post #10 of 597
4/17/10 at 10:16pm
The following links are directly from the OFFICIAL Cox San Diego Support website:
Cox Support Site has been redesigned and the striked-out links have been removed. 12/06/10
http://www.cox.com/support/sandiego/...r/useguide.asp and http://ww2.cox.com/residential/sandi...ital-guide.cox
and are also referenced on the OFFICIAL Cox Santa Barbara Support website:
http://www.cox.com/support/santabarb...r/useguide.asp and http://ww2.cox.com/residential/santa...ital-guide.cox

EDIT NOTE: Two URLs here have been changed by Cox and updated here. - 05/29/10 - *

Rovi Passport Customer Service Guides for Cox Scientific Atlanta/Cisco DVR/STBs

SA/Cisco - IPG DVR service: Rovi Passport Echo Version 3.1 - http://www.cox.com/support/digitalca...0for%20DVR.pdf (39.6MB/404pp)

SA/Cisco - IPG Non-DVR (SDTV or HDTV): Rovi Passport Guide Version 5.1 - http://www.cox.com/support/digitalca...r%20nonDVR.pdf (24.6MB/232pp)

IPG Flip Quick Tips Guide: http://www.cox.com/support/images/di...k/Default.html (Flash Player)
* DVR Recording Quick Reference Guide: http://www.cox.com/support/digitalca...ing_040810.pdf (705KB/2pp)
* Parental Controls Quick Reference Guide: http://www.cox.com/support/digitalca...ols_040810.pdf (724KB/2pp)
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post #11 of 597
4/18/10 at 8:14am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryan_CoxPHX View Post

Since it looks like San Diego will be the first to transition to Passport, a few sites to keep an eye on are:

You might also want to check out http://www.cox.com/support/sandiego/...ials_aptiv.asp.
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post #12 of 597
4/20/10 at 9:14pm
Message From Cox Tech, SDKiwi, El Cajon, CA.
Quote: "14K set-tops were upgraded this morning to Rovi in San Diego. The upgrades are by model type and will take until the first week in June to complete. I can't share details (ie which box types each week), but the number of settops that will be upgraded will be substantially larger over the next several weeks."

Day 1 Update Posted by Cox Tech, SDKiwi, El Cajon, CA.
"I would say everyone at the SD system was overall pleased with rollout day 1. Call volume was a bit heavier during the day, but below forecast in prime time.

The Rovi guide is not perfect....but the improvement vs. SARA is very significant in terms of speed and usability. There is a a relatively short learning curve. During our transition in SD, the STB will always tune to channel 100 when turned on....there are several screens (with some soft music) that tell customers about some of the most significant UI changes. That is is addition to emails, web page info, and some voice mails."

Source: http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r24127655-
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post #13 of 597
5/12/10 at 6:04pm
(I also posted this here on hdtv.forsandiego.com).

I've played with the new Passport and I have to say that I am impressed. As a software engineer of consumer electronics firmware, I am impressed. As a TiVo user, I am impressed--except for TiVo's networked features (which are formidable), it's at least as good, quite a bit faster and better in some ways. Of course, if they can't get the external drives working properly, that's a major strike against, but as a user interface, it is excellent. I can't imagine that their new custom-made IPG could be any better, except for it's widescreen layout.

Feature superior to SARA:
  • Go into the guide and strike the "A" button and it will offer you a range of time-based guide customizations (the same choices are available for theme-based listings). You can sort the list by channel number (the default) or alphabetically by channel name (ABC, USA, A&E, etc). You can display only HD channels or only your specified favorite channels. You can exclude channels by class: PPV, VOD, Music Channels.
  • You can display the guide by genre (i.e., "theme") and subgenre; you want to know what baseball games are coming up, no problem; action adventure movies, also no problem. As I said the same filters and options are available as for guide-by-time
  • You can page through the guide by days by hitting a digit on your remote and then the right-arrow, quickly (if you pause, it will interpret the digit as the start of a channel #)
  • You can search the guide either by title or by keyword. By default when you hit the search button it displays a list of any future airings of the program displayed on the currently viewed tuner
  • You can switch back and forth between tuners with the PIP SWAP button (when the PIP is off)
  • Every recording has its own bookmark; if you stop in the middle, it will automatically start there if you press PLAY on a selected recording, unless you specify that it start from the beginning.
  • Closed Captions can be customized: font, size, color, background color, background opacity
  • It has a rich set of Series Recording options: for instance, you can restrict recording to an arbitrary set of days of the week and you can sort the Series Recording list in priority order for resolution of conflicts
  • It is very fast on our 8300HDC
  • Last but not least (IMHO), it's pretty: professional fonts and line-art, very good, efficient GUI layout probably designed by human factors engineers (some of it is blatantly stolen from TiVo, which is fine by me )
The only negative thing I've found is that it's slow tuning digital channels and ugly things are briefly displayed while it does it. I'm surprised that they haven't perfected external drive support since Rev 2.6 (if, indeed, they haven't--people are reporting problems on hdtv.forsandiego.com). It mostly worked then, except that when the external drive was in use (any time a greater percentage of the internal drive is in use), you'd lose the trick play buffer for live television, so you couldn't PAUSE it or go back.

EDIT: The slow, ugly tuning thing turned out to be the fact that the guide is set by default to pass 480p, 720p and 1080i video through in native format, requiring the monitor to adapt. Many monitors decompensate when switching between formats and it takes them a few seconds to settle down. The solution was to modify the setting telling it to only pass 1080i native and convert everything else into that format inside of the STB (if your television is 720p, you'd set it to only send 720p).
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post #14 of 597
5/12/10 at 7:39pm
I am one of the San Diego users that had the Cox Passport pushed out to my box last night and overall it looks very good and has cool features as discussed above in this thread.

...Unfortunately, it no longer seems to work with my external Hard Drive and and such I've "lost" most of my shows, including all of the older stuff I have saved for my kids. So now I have a fancy new guide and 2 crying kids. I hate Cox right now.

Anyone have any ideas? I am desperate for some help.
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post #15 of 597
5/12/10 at 9:19pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by rexyvanderpool View Post

I am one of the San Diego users that had the Cox Passport pushed out to my box last night and overall it looks very good and has cool features as discussed above in this thread.

...Unfortunately, it no longer seems to work with my external Hard Drive and and such I've "lost" most of my shows, including all of the older stuff I have saved for my kids. So now I have a fancy new guide and 2 crying kids. I hate Cox right now.

Anyone have any ideas? I am desperate for some help.

I would check your Hard Drive. Remember that the upgrade process had to reboot the STB, possibly multiple times, and the Drive may have powered off, lost connection or something else involving power issues due to reboot situations.

vegggas
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post #16 of 597
5/12/10 at 9:22pm
SD COX user that also received the Passport Echo last night. Similar to my inlaw's Time Warner DVR service - which I never cared for.

The shows on my external drive are all there - and they will play. However, it appears it will not recognize the space available to record. I was at just under 60% free space before the firmware push. Now at 0% free space...and deleting shows does not help. Kind of defeats the purpose of a DVR.

COX = Fail
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post #17 of 597
5/12/10 at 9:37pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

(I also posted this here on hdtv.forsandiego.com).

I've played with the new Passport and I have to say that I am impressed. As a software engineer of consumer electronics firmware, I am impressed. As a TiVo user, I am impressed--except for TiVo's networked features (which are formidable), it's at least as good, quite a bit faster and better in some ways.

michaeltscott,
can you play around with the Drive power manager options?
It looks like you can turn your drives off whe you power down to make it quiet. Or, you can leave them on, and if using last channel at power on option, have a buffer while the TV and STB were off.

BTW, the New Trio Guide is many times better, and offers the full compliment of tru2way functionality, but will be an advanced service.

vegggas
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post #18 of 597
5/13/10 at 12:28am
vegggas --

I'll play around with the drive power options tomorrow and report back to you.

Quote:
Originally Posted by vegggas View Post

BTW, the New Trio Guide is many times better, and offers the full compliment of tru2way functionality, but will be an advanced service.

What I've seen of it doesn't at all convince me of that; the tru2way version of Passport impresses me more. "Trio" is widescreen and high-def, but I think that its three-panel-across-the-screen guide layout is goofy. However, it is a multiroom DVR with per-user customizations, so it's nice for people with families--I have no use for those features so they don't sway me . (What's "the full complement of tru2way functionality")?
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post #19 of 597
5/13/10 at 1:09am
Trio also has a grid guide where the first 2 panels are replaced by a grid guide. The 3rd panel is used for show information.
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post #20 of 597
5/13/10 at 12:38pm
We got the new software yesterday. The space on our external drive is not include in the calculation of available space, The 8300 HD thinks there is no space free to record new shows. The existing show on the external drive are still listed and watchable. We tried rebooting, disconnecting and deleting show etc with no luck. Looks like a straight up software bug to me.

I called Cox and got the standard we do not support external drive story. (Very unhappy that Cox does not offer a DVR with more storage.) I also called Apricorn the company that makes the external drive "DVR expander", they had hear of the issue but had no fix.

Just a side note this is the same brand of external drive that we used with Time Warner and the old passport software three years ago without issues.
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post #21 of 597
5/13/10 at 6:00pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by jmail_3451 View Post

We got the new software yesterday. The space on our external drive is not include in the calculation of available space, The 8300 HD thinks there is no space free to record new shows. The existing show on the external drive are still listed and watchable. We tried rebooting, disconnecting and deleting show etc with no luck. Looks like a straight up software bug to me.

I called Cox and got the standard we do not support external drive story. (Very unhappy that Cox does not offer a DVR with more storage.) I also called Apricorn the company that makes the external drive "DVR expander", they had hear of the issue but had no fix.

Just a side note this is the same brand of external drive that we used with Time Warner and the old passport software three years ago without issues.

I predicted this several months ago, and was chastised many times for attempting to get a campaign going to tell Cox that loss of External HDD capability was clearly unacceptable. Perhaps this is just a first market roll-out tweak that Cox will take care of, But I do not have that much faith in Cox.

See eSATA External HDD Expansion on the 8240HDC and 8300HD for more information.
Updated 4/18/11:
The following Versions on the SA8240HDC DVR will not recognize a NEW External HDD. For most that had an External HDD already attached and formatted while using the SARA IPG, that External HDD is still working with Rovi Passport, although there is not a screen prompt acknowledging the Ext. HDD.
  • Version: Passport Echo 3.1.085 - Sep 13 2010 (Passport Vers 3.1.086 also cripples eSATA)
  • OS Version: PowerTV 6.20.75.103sp - Jun 2 2010 (this version of PowerTV appears to be the culprit)

The following Versions on the SA8300HD DVR should still recognize and accept a NEW External HDD.
  • Version: Passport Echo 3.1.085 - Sep 13 2010
  • OS Version: PowerTV 6.14.98.1sp - May 22 2009
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post #22 of 597
5/13/10 at 6:09pm
Some people in San Diego who had no initial luck with external harddrives are now reporting success on hdtv.forsandiego.com. One guy reported that he restarted the STB and connected the drive and it seems to work now. Unplugging the drive, cold booting (unplug the STB, wait and minute and plug it back in), and reconnecting.
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post #23 of 597
5/13/10 at 7:32pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by michaeltscott View Post

Some people in San Diego who had no initial luck with external harddrives are now reporting success on hdtv.forsandiego.com. One guy reported that he restarted the STB and connected the drive and it seems to work now. Unplugging the drive, cold booting (unplug the STB, wait and minute and plug it back in), and reconnecting.

Thanks Michael,
Please keep us informed on Ext. HDD usage issues. I realize it is a small percentage of customers using an Ext. HDD, but for those that do it is an important issue.

Also, on http://hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages...tml?1273799284 there are reports of recordings disappearing if they are not modified to "Save until manually deleted" within 24Hrs, is this true?

I will also ask again, (If anyone knows the answer) Is it better to leave a currently installed Ext. HDD connected during the update, or best to remove the Ext. HDD prior to the upgrade? Then reconnect after. I would assume the directory/database of recorded programs is located on the DVR for both internal and external programs. And how is this directory/database affected.
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post #24 of 597
5/13/10 at 8:30pm
I believe mine just spontaneously started working within the last few hours. After I cleaned up a bunch of stuff and reset all of my scheduled recording last night I was at 50% full, now I am at 8% full and I didn't delete anything!

Unfortunately, the earlier post about all of your older shows getting switched to "delete when space needed" is true and during the short time the system thought it was way over on storage it auto-deleted arond 2/3s of what i had recorded before I had a chance to do anything about it.

Now to go hunt down all of my missing shows...

Is Discovery showing re-runs of "Life"
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post #25 of 597
5/13/10 at 8:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryan_CoxPHX View Post

Also, on http://hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages...tml?1273799284 there are reports of recordings disappearing if they are not modified to "Save until manually deleted" within 24Hrs, is this true?

This is one small reason why I'm kind of glad Phoenix is rarely first to receive new stuff. Poor San Diego has to deal with learning tips like this and we benefit from their experience. It seems that Passport does not have the same recording settings that SARA has, so any recordings that don't match a Passport setting are changed to "delete after 24 hrs". Unfortunately, Cox will probably not spread the word about this and a lot of folks are going to lose saved recordings. With a little luck, I'll be out of town when the upgrade happens here, so I won't have any recordings to worry about.

Quote:


I will also ask again, (If anyone knows the answer) Is it better to leave a currently installed Ext. HDD connected during the update, or best to remove the Ext. HDD prior to the upgrade? Then reconnect after. I would assume the directory/database of recorded programs is located on the DVR for both internal and external programs. And how is this directory/database affected.

I doubt anyone is going to be able to give you a definitive answer. It's obvious though from reading the San Diego forums, that the drives are usually detected during the upgrade process, though sometimes they need to be disconnected, the DVR rebooted 1 or more times, etc., to get things back in sync. If it were me, I'd leave the drive connected and deal with whatever happens, at least unless someone said not to. So far I haven't read where anyone in San Diego disconnected the drive before the upgrade.
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post #26 of 597
5/13/10 at 8:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bryan_CoxPHX View Post

Also, on http://hdtv.forsandiego.com/messages...tml?1273799284 there are reports of recordings disappearing if they are not modified to "Save until manually deleted" within 24Hrs, is this true?

Read my response to that question here on hdtv.forsandiego.com. As rexyvanderpool stated above, I think that it's just confusion caused by the external drive being connected. It thinks that storage is more than 100% full.

As I said at hdtv.forsandiego.com, these transitions never go off perfectly. Since they've never supported external drives, I doubt that they included them in their test staging of the event.
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post #27 of 597
5/13/10 at 8:55pm
Maybe the Cox tech execs should come by my house and listen to a few minutes of my kids crying because their favorite shows (like Life from Discovery which is not on DVD yet nor OnDemand) have been lost and we'll see how they feel about their "roll out plan"
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post #28 of 597
5/13/10 at 9:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by vegggas View Post

michaeltscott,
can you play around with the Drive power manager options?
It looks like you can turn your drives off whe you power down to make it quiet. Or, you can leave them on, and if using last channel at power on option, have a buffer while the TV and STB were off.

OK--I played with power management and it works as you might expect. I set HDD power to "On with STB" (or whatever it's called) and it shut the drive down a minute after I put the STB into it's standby state (aka, "OFF" ). I then turned it on, set it back to "Always On", turned it back off and waited 5 minutes. I turned it on again and checked the buffers--the other tuner's buffer had the five minutes of video in it. The viewed tuner came up on channel 100, where they have an announcement about the new software and a rolling tutorial for it; they've temporarily disabled the "Power On Channel" setting so that people will see that.

There's also an auto-off setting for the STB which supposedly turns it off after it's been idle for a while, "idle" and "a while" not defined. I set it but did not wait for it to turn itself off. (As I recall, it used to stop buffering the non-viewed tuner if it hadn't been used for recording or viewed for some number of hours).
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post #29 of 597
5/13/10 at 9:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by rexyvanderpool View Post

I believe mine just spontaneously started working within the last few hours. After I cleaned up a bunch of stuff and reset all of my scheduled recording last night I was at 50% full, now I am at 8% full and I didn't delete anything!

Do you have functional trick-play for live TV? Can you pause live TV and start again from the same point, REW and FF in the buffer? In the last version that I used on TWC, the DVR would switch to the external drive when a larger percentage of space was in use on the internal drive than on the external (there must have been a certain amount greater to keep it from switching constantly). When it was the external drive's turn there was no trick play for live TV--basically no live buffer at all--until it switched back to using the internal drive.
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post #30 of 597
5/13/10 at 9:43pm
Someone posted the following at hdtv.forsandiego.com

"Okay, so does anyone know how to access the service menu now?
I used to hold down the select button on the front panel until the envelope blinks then press info. That doesn't work now."

Is this true?
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