SA/Cisco 8*** series DVR's Tips and tricks using Cox's Passport Echo software - Page 15

I finally got it working using Lotus_Nut's method listed here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...16559&page=284

I got the identical results, but because I was getting the error message and system diagnostic boot, I first performed a low-level format of the DVR Expander following Bryan's instructions linked in his reply above, then hard-booted the DVR (hold the power button when restoring power to the outlet supplying the DVR).

I did try the normal install process after the format and hard-boot, but nothing happened. Waited several hours to give the DVR a chance to recognize the external but nothing, so I said a little prayer and followed Lotus' instructions above. Immediately got the external drive format screens, followed the prompts, and went from roughly 35% free to 92% free.

Many thanks to everyone here for your suggestions and speedy responses to my queries. Hope others who come and read these threads benefit as much as I have.

Happy New Year!

Sadly, I'm back where I started, although the interference/tiling is not as bad as is was before I swapped out my DVR box. Guess I'm going to let it ride for the time being while I hunt for the parts on Bryan's list. Fortunately I already have the molex power supply.

FYI:
Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136284

EXPIRED PROMO

8240HDC w/ 1TB Ext. HDD

Has this happened to anyone else?

Over night my "Disk Info"...Space Usage Meter is no longer reporting accurate information. I have rebooted several times with and without the Ext HDD attached. The Usage Meter is no longer correct with or without the Ext HDD attached. The Software Versions are still the same so there was not an update I am aware of. All Recordings on both Internal and External HDDs are still playable and none are marked to Automatically be Deleted as needed with the hourglass symbol.

I hate to mess too much with the DVR as the 8240HDC will no longer Format a New HDD. So I cannot reformat the drive and start fresh.

With 1TB Ext HDD attached:

• Diagnostic Menu shows, 48% Free Space - 520.2GB of 1076.4GB
• Disk Usage Meter shows, 6% Free Space

With Ext HDD removed:

• Diagnostic Menu shows, 78% Free Space - 114.0GB of 146.9GB
• Usage Meter shows, 1% Free Space

Running Passport Echo on an 8240HDC DVR.

This (intermittent) problem started when SARA was removed in favor of Passport Echo.

DVR is set to display time always, except when changing channels. Now, when I'm recording two channels, the display will show one of the channels being recorded. For example, it now reads "708" instead of "10:56." It will continue to display "708" even when all recording has ceased. This occurs whether the DVR is on or off. If it is off, the clock returns when I turn the DVR on, and the clock remains if I turn the DVR off again. It is strange looking up to see what time it is, and seeing "708" instead. Anyone else?

My 8240HDC does not do that. Mine is also set to show the time except when changing channels and still shows the time when recording two channels whether on or off.

I have noticed that when playing back a recording my DVR no longer displays the HDTV LED. I assumed it was because the DVR List is no longer a channel as it was on SARA.

Also, the Scheduled Recording LED no longer is lit when the DVR is off. I am fairly certain the LED was always lit with SARA if there was a Recording Scheduled.

So does mine about 70% of the time. It's the intermittent 30% of the time that the channel number of one of the channels being recorded is displayed. A re-boot failed to clear up the problem.


I will pay attention to those LEDs on my 8240HDC. I usually pay little attention to the display except for the (quite accurate) time.

This operates the same as mine. When playing back a recording, no "HDTV" LED.


What "Scheduled Recording" LED? The only "RECORDING" on my DVR lights up in red whenever the DVR is recording - whether it is on or off. There is also the universal ON icon (a circle, broken at the top, with a | inside.) This icon is white and lights up whenever the DVR is on, recording scheduled or not. There is no "Scheduled Recording" indicator of any sort on my 8240HDC, nor is there one shown in the 8240HDC User Guide.

I was referring to that LED (a circle, broken at the top, with a | inside.) My mistake.

I thought that LED was a representation of a clock, I have a Panny DVD-R with a similar symbol, which is the "Scheduled Recording Indicator". But I see now it is only the Power LED as shown on page 2: http://www.cisco.com/web/consumer/su...s2/4003986.pdf

Yeah, I have two VCRs with a similar clock icon that lights when the VCR is set for a timed recording.

Apparently picture-in-picture (PIP) isn't used a lot. I do use it quite a bit, and just noticed an annoying problem with PIP under Passport Echo.

With the old SARA software, there was also a minor problem with PIP. If you were watching a program that you had recorded previously and paused it, then used PIP to check another (live) channel (e.g., a live sporting event), the recorded program in the PIP window would not stay paused -- it would start running again, and you needed to turn off the PIP window in order to halt the playback. And if you didn't want to miss any of the recorded program, you had to run it back a little when you later switched back to its window. But at least when you used the "Swap" button to switch away from the recording, it was pretty obvious that there was a problem because you could see the recorded program continue running in the smaller window, and this alerted you to the need to turn off the PIP window to stop the playback until you decided to continue watching that program.

The new Passport Echo software works quite differently, and the result is quite a bit more annoying than what happened with SARA. With Passport Echo, if you have been watching a previously-recorded program and use PIP to check another channel, that original recording keeps "playing", even if you turn the PIP window off. This is just an annoyance, because when you later switch back to the recording, you just have to back it up to the point where you had stopped watching it, but this can take some time to accomplish.

Since Passport Echo seems to be a vast improvement over SARA in most areas, I was really surprised to find an instance where SARA's performance was better than that of Passport Echo, at least in my experience and in my opinion.

Ron,

I'm not having that problem with my 8300 and Passport 3.1.085. When I pause a recording, turn on PIP, swap, etc., my recording stays paused until I put it back in the main window and hit Pause or Play.

Yes, that happens here, too. I didn't describe the situation clearly. (By the way, thanks for the response!)

With SARA, whatever you had the first window (the one playing the recording) set to do, with SARA it always paused (stopped "playing") if you swapped windows and then dropped the PIP window.

But with Passport Echo, if you have not paused the playback first, after you have swapped windows and turned PIP off, the virtual "playback" continues, even though no one is watching that recording.

As you pointed out, if you paused the playback first, Passport Echo honors that. Unfortunately, what seems to happen is that if a recording is being viewed in the small PIP window and then that small window is closed, the new software just leaves the playback in whatever state it was in (even fast forward) until you turn PIP back on, bring the window back, and change the playback mode. Good for pause, not so good otherwise.

As I say, not a super-serious problem, but compared to SARA I do find this "keep it rolling" behavior to be annoying.

I'll say, I totally missed what you were trying to say.

Anyway, I get it now and I get the same action. Obviously, I never used PIP much and I don't think I ever used it while watching a recording. I can see where that would be a real pain, but seems like you just need to get in the habit of pausing before you swap windows. I can see where pausing when a recording is not in the main woindow would be a nice feature for those who use PIP.

Yes, it's a little like dealing with the automatic rewind (not sure of the correct term) after a fast-forward. With SARA, I had trained myself to anticipate the end of a group of commercials (such as, watch for the first promo to show up...) so I still sometimes hit "Play" sooner than I need to. No biggie!

And I can certainly learn to hit pause before activating PIP during playback of a recording (which doesn't really happen that often).

I wonder how this works on TiVo?

Edit... I guess they avoided any problems with PIP by just not implementing it. I use it frequently on my SA8300HD, but if I had TiVo I'm sure I could learn to do without PIP.

I started Erasing the majority of my programs and the Disk Usage Meter was still not changing to show additional Free Space. But the DVR and Ext. HDD was seeming to work as expected.

Today the Recorded List index finally became corrupt and no Prior Recording either Internal or External would play back, I just got a Playback Error on every Recording.

• Diagnostic Menu was now showing, 98% Free Space - 1040.1GB of 1075.4GB (Note AV Capacity changed from 1076.4GB to 1075.4GB, not sure why it dropped 1GB)
• Disk Usage Meter shows, 6% Free Space

I did not think this was going to be recoverable so I just deleted all recordings. After deleting and rebooting the Disk Usage Meter now is correctly reporting again. I am upset that several programs I had not watched yet are now gone. But I am very grateful the Ext HDD is still working.

It would sure be nice if Rovi and Cox would fix the 8240HDC Ext HDD issue.

At this point I would really like to Reformat the Internal HDD, Does anyone have any ideas on a button sequence to accomplish that?

According to a Charter employee working in the engineering dept. (Charter Cable is also switching from SARA to Passport)

There is a firmware update available from Cisco for the 8240HDC that fixes the eSATA External HDD issues. This update supposedly reformats the Internal HDD of the DVR, and that is why Charter is not applying the update. As the update would cause customers to lose their recordings.

Can anyone confirm this? And if this is true would it be possible for Cox to selectively apply this update upon request, or would a firmware update need to be applied globally across the entire market?

Cox has confirmed it is working with Rovi Corp for a solution (hopefully not just BS), but has said nothing about Cisco.

I have learned that the fastest way to lose a Cox contact is to mention the Passport/eSATA dilemma. My contacts don't return my calls ever since I broached this subject. It seems to be "verbotten" at Cox. And Cisco leaves eSATA discussion out of its "C" and "HDC" DVR specifications and descriptions.

I thought all tech talk was "verbotten" at Cox

These aren't regular Cox tech support people. These are employees from various Cox departments (from sales to marketing to engineering) that I have cultivated as contacts through the years. Mention Passport/eSata? Poof...they no longer exist. Amazing...

Hey guys, after realizing how incredibly small the 8300HD hardrive space is compared to Dishs I realize Im going to need an external...

This thread is a bit overwhelming though. Im seeing alot people having issues. Is there a 'plug and play' type hard drive I can get (maybe at Frys for you Phx guys) that wont cause any issues?

Amazon is your friend (click me)

When you connect your External HDD, The proper procedure for the new Passport IPG is.

1. Connect eSATA HDD to DVR with all Power off
2. Power up the DVR First
3. With TV on and DVR Running
4. Power Up the External DVR, you will be presented with a prompt to press "A" to format.

The Passport guide only recognizes the Ext if the DVR is running, not during the bootup process like it did with SARA.
Here is the Format Prompt you should get.

Got an update for you guys.

My 8300 DVR somehow got fried in the middle of the night... I could change channels and view the guide fine, but the DVR List wouldn't work. Same problem with and without my external drive attached. I'd get a pop up window asking me to reboot to fix, but that didn't solve anything.

So I called Cox and asked for a replacement, and specifically asked for an 8300 model as the replacement. Cox tech came today, and of course, brought only an 8240.... So now I gotta go the Cox Store and replace the unit myself. Gotta love customer service.

Anyway, I called up after the tech left and issued a 'formal complaint' about the 8240 not working with external HDD's. Not sure if the phone-support guy was pulling my leg, as I have no way of proving that anything was sent as a complaint... but I tried. :-)

Still no Caller-ID on the DVR/STB in Phoenix. (not that I really care, just curious)

Does anyone else have it yet?

To learn how much time remains on the recording that you are watching, simply press the "PLAY" (>) button during playback. The playback continues, but the "time bar" appears for a few seconds then disappears again.

Hello all, COX Cleveland customer who just recently experienced a problem with my 8240HDC (running Passport Echo). All but two of my DVR recordings return the “playback error – we’re sorry this recording is unavailable at this time” message when I try to play them. For what it is worth, all of the recordings are on the internal HDD (no external drive) and are SD shows recorded from Boomerang (~50-60 half-hour shows). Additionally, the disk info appears to be reporting the correct information with respect to disk usage/free space, etc.

The two recordings that still work were recorded this past Monday & Tuesday. I just relocated the cable box from my HDTV (connected via component) in the basement to the SDTV (connected via S-Video) in my kids’ bedroom last night (Tuesday). The Monday recording that still plays was recorded while the cable box was connected to the HDTV in the basement. The Tuesday recording that still plays was recorded while the cable box was connected to the SDTV upstairs.

The reason I moved the cable box is because we had a significant (~4-6 hrs continuous) rainstorm Sunday night and I had to pull up the carpet in my basement (turns out my downspout was frozen solid – rainwater never made it to the drain tile). I figured that I could move the cable box to my kids’ room so they could get their Powerpuff fix while we restore the basement. At any rate, is there any hope of saving these recordings or should I just bite the bullet and start deleting them? The cable box appears to be working fine now; I just cannot play anything recorded prior to the storm.

Those recordings are no longer retrievable. This happen to me twice, each time after trying a hard re-boot (cut AC power) a week or two after getting Passport. This was quite a few months ago. It hasn't happened since.

Thanks for the reply domino. Back when Cox switched from SARA to Passport (I think it was ~ 6 mo. ago here in Cleveland) I lost a bunch of recordings to the same "playback error" message in addition to some recordings that just disappeared. This happened on both my 8300HD and my 8240HDC boxes. All of my recordings prior to the update were set to save until manually erased and right after the update they were all set to erase automatically. At any rate, I just wrote it off to the software update and did not think much about it (following an intricately woven tapestry of profanity of course).

On another note, one thing about the Passport software that I can not figure out is this: When browsing the channel guide, how do you return the guide back to the channel that is currently tuned? With the SARA software, I could hit the "C" button and it would return the guide back to the active channel so I could then continue browsing the guide in the opposite direction; however, the only way I can find to do this now is to close the guide and then re-open it. I know this is minor thing - I just happened to like that feature.