Insight digital Pace Multi room DVR

I put in an order to get this setup...should be installed 5/3 for 3 tv's

I wish you both the best of luck with your systems. We've had it installed for about a week now, and it's giving us a lot of trouble. The program guide information took forever to load. After 3 days, we were still missing about 1/4 of it, so we called and they "sent a signal" to each box which cleared it all out. About a day later it was all loaded.

Once we thought it was all finally setup, my wife created about 50 series recordings and then checked the "future recordings" list to ensure there were no conflicts and that everything would record for the rest of the week (red dots vs. red not signs). Everything looked good. We didn't really touch it again for 3 days, as we had lots of shows on our old TiVo to watch before watching anything the Insight box was recording. But when we did look at it again (tonight), there were about 9 shows that simply weren't there. These were shows that 3 days ago it claimed it would record. There is no history that we can find to tell us why it didn't record them either.

To top it off, we couldn't play anything or watch live TV from one of the boxes either. I couldn't find any way to fix it other than power failing it (pulling the plug). Once it booted back up (which is surprisingly fast, especially compared to TiVos), it could show live TV and play the recordings again, but the program info was gone. We started to freak out, worrying it would take another 3 days to load and we'd miss even more programs, but about an hour later it showed up.

Maybe it's just going to take some getting used to, and probably a lot more babysitting than we're used to with TiVo. The only reason we switched is because of the stupid digital rights crap that prevents programs from being transfered between TiVos. Insight gets around it by keeping a single copy on NAS and streaming it to multiple boxes. If TiVo ever supports that, we'd switch back in a heartbeat.

Can anyone give me the width and depth of this box. We are having a custom shelving unit built and Insight is no help on this simple question. I cannot find any specs online, thanks in advance!

I got this installed yesterday...I can get dimensions if you still need them.

I got this installed for 3 TVs and it seems to be working good so far. I don't like the blue lighting for the channel/time display because its hard to read.

Yes, Please, That would be great!

Digital Receiver - 14"W x 9"LG x 2 1/2"H
Storage Box - 12"W x 10"LG x 2"H

My apologies in advance for this duplicate post as I have also asked the same question in this topic.
I have Insight Cable Service and the Multi-Room DVR setup using 2x (Pace RNG150N 'Denali') and a Pace DC900X 500GB Storage unit

>>I am Looking for remote codes for a 30 Sec FWD/15 Sec Back skip feature similar to my old Motorola DC Series Unit<<
Has anyone found out if it is possible to program the feature into the remote?
I wonder if the Pace unit even has the capability?

I found my solution.
The Insight remote for my old Moto DCX and the Pace RNG was similar enough that the same programming codes worked, and as it turns out the Pace box has the same skip capability.

Pulled from this site.


For 15 sec reverse, substitute 00179 for the code above.
I mapped the 30 sec fwd to PIP +, and 15 sec rev to PIP -
Love the setup so far.

If you all want some info on upgrading the storage capacity of the Insight multi-room search for my thread DC900X upgrade. It's amazingly simple. Just insert new bigger SATA hard drive.

We got our multi room installed today. I must admit it is a little bit of a disappointment. The boxes are slow as anything. One box didn't work tech's claimed it was DOA and would return tomorrow (yay another day off work I can't afford) so I called and complained. Turns out insight needed to send a reprogram to all boxes for Showtime to show up. That fixed the doa unit.

So far not real impressed. Guide is only good till tomorrow morning then TBA. Hope it gets fixed. They could fix the speed if they simply networked the boxes with Ethernet instead of RF. However that would require network cable and a Gigabit switch. I'm tempted to do it myself and see if it helps.

I'll keep my experiences posted here too. Interested to see if our series recordings work.

Thanks for the DC900X upgrade info Supermansrf.
I noticed that my guide grid was slow to update as well, but I had read a long time ago that if you turn the cable box off it helps speed up the process. I shut off my receiver and left for work and the guide list seemed to fill in all of the TBA time slots by the time I got back home. I'm not 100% certain if it helped do the trick or not.
The only issue I have come across with these new Pace boxes is that the living room HDTV developed an intermittent signal issue that the old Moto DCX boxes didn't have. There were some vertically scrolling, horizontal lines in the picture of the HDTV and a 'load noise hum' coming through the speakers that would last for hours at a time. I purchased a 30$ Panasonic surge suppressor with coax ground hookups, placed it inline, and that fixed it. I guess the Pace boxes are slightly more sensitive than the Moto boxes were.

If you decide to rewire your MoCA setup to cat-5 ethernet please post back. I would like to know how it performs for you.

I had my Insight installation yesterday. One of the boxes wouldn't do a timer record from the Guide. Even the DVR icon was missing from the Menu. They had me unplug the AC, wait ten seconds or so and plug it back in.. That worked.

The Guide still takes forever to load, much longer than the old Motorola DVR box. Is picking up the Pace too much to ask?

I went to the Pace web site and downloaded the manuals for the cable boxes and the DVR.

The only issue I had was some distorted audio in a John Wayne movie I watched this afternoon. It could be the station. I'll see.

If anyone finds out how to network everything with Ethernet let me know as I have gigabit switches near each box.

I have configured mine as Ethernet network. You mentioned that you have gb switches in each room, I wouldn't use more than one. I have cables ran from each dvr and the NAS to one gigabit switch. It is NOT on my network as the devices create their own network. So basically I have a 5 port switch near 2 of my boxes and the NAS. Each device is plugged into the switch 4 total and nothing else is plugged in to the switch.

So far it seems to be working ok. I have been having multiple issues where we push the my dvr button and it says not available. I'm hoping this curbs that. I didn't have to make any configuration changes to any boxes or the NAS. Reading the install guide does pretty much say that I should move the low pass filter to right behind the NAS but I'm leaving it where it is for now which means that MoCA still could be networking too so I'll just have to play with it and find out.

I'd love to know if I can do anything else with this NAS. I have read that some people were asking if it could be accessed from things like an x-box or ps3. Just don't have the time to play with it right now.

I'm still having no issues with my upgraded hard drive. We have it 43% full so probably 600 hours of recordings in 2 weeks. That's a lot of Chuggington and Sesame Street.

I'll report back after I test thoroughly with speed increases better performance etc.

We just got our multiroom DVR installed on Monday. I use the word "installed" very lightly. My wife was home with the installer and by the time I got home to try it out, the one remote cable box would say that DVR was not available. I only have 2 boxes and one NAS. The downstairs box is hooked up via ethernet and it worked. The upstairs one I had to read on the internet for an hour to finally realize that the technician never enable MoCA on my box. Once I did that, then I got the dvr to sync. How the hell did this technician charge us $25 to connect boxes and test nothing?!?!

Here is my problem...so far on the upstairs box we get a lot of stuttering and freezing when playing back a recording. I ran the diagnostics from the box and it looks like my MoCA network fluctuates between "good" and "fair". It seems like a bandwidth issue. I am going to try and swap out some coax cables to see if this helps, but so far this is pretty sad for only having 2 cable boxes. My wife is bitching at me like crazy that the old DVR solution was so much better because at least it didn't stutter. Anyone have any tips to improve my network and eliminate this stuttering?

I had another issue with the Pace network. This time I checked a cable box to see if a schedule recording was happening. Not only was my program not being recorded but at least two of my three cable boxes had locked up. I called Insight and the CSR had me unplug the NAS, wait a minute, and plug it back in. That cleared everything up.

I hope this doesn't become a daily occurrence.

I have experienced the same issues both of you have spoke of. Daily. I can say that after a few days of being Ethernet connected the issues seem to be gone.

I honestly believe that the way insight hooks it up isn't the way the manufacturer specifies. The moca can be used to network but unless the boxes we have are newer than what I have read about they need Ethernet dongles.

I think if insight would spend the extra dollars to network them the way they were meant to be it would curb these problems.

I have notices significant speed increase in menu navigation and the whole system just seems more responsive now that it's networked. It's easy for me to say go out and do it since that kind of stuff is what I do for a living but I would if you have the ability.

Insight will be a great company one day. Right after they actually test something completely before they start selling it.

S

So I seemed to have found a way to improve the macro-blocking and stuttering on playback via MOCA. I noticed that all of the splitters installed in my house are rated up to 1000 mhz. I downloaded the PACE DC900X installation manual and it clearly states that macro-blocking will occur if coax splitters are not rated up to 1.5 GHz.

I ran to Radio Shack and picked up some satellite tv splitters that are rated just over 2 GHz and installed those in my house to replace all of the old splitters. the diagnostics screen still read "fair" for my MOCA network, but after several days of uses during playback, I would say that I received signal loss and macro-blocking about 1-2% of the time and it would last for a second or less. Going even further into the diagnostics, my transmit and receive rates were all in the "green" and ranged from 230,000,000 to 255,000,000. Basically, my playback experience was VASTLY improved to where the programs were very watchable.

I called Insight to complain and they are supposed to send out a technician today to look at my MOCA network. I am definitely going to demand that they install higher rated splitters so that I can return my $50 worth of product to Radio Shack. I shouldn't have to spend $25 on an install fee and then more money out of my pocket just to make this thing work. Can anyone else comment on what splitters Insight has installed at their homes?

Here is the only link that I could find for the DC900X installation guide. http://mediacomcable.com/pdf/Pace%20...User_Guide.pdf

I'll look tomorrow at my splitters however it shouldn't matter any more on mine as I'm Ethernet based now.

I will say that I'm still disappointed with this setup. After being out of town for just over 24 hours my 2 remote boxes say "dvr service unavailable" yet again. Power cycling everything fixes it but it's still a pita. Then we lose the guide for hours etc not to mention 2 of my dvr's and the NAS are in my AV rack that's another pain to open up and get to.

On top of everything else; when signing up for everything, turning in a few HD dvr's and replacing with multi room was supposed to ultimately only cost an extra $28 a month. My latest bill has an extra $120 on it that I'm gonna have to have explained and corrected. I got charged $45 for install fee and I refuse to pay $1 for it.

As previously stated; Insight is almost good. Things like this keep them from being great.

I read through this post and didn't notice problems that I'm having. maybe they're just not as annoying as the networking. Constant freezing and glitchy playback. To fix the glitchiness, I just hit exit and resume or rewind for a little bit. If I go to delete a show (don't confirm delete) in the dvr, then press left on the remote when the dialogue box pops up, the last show I watched from dvr will show up. If I have two shows about to record at the same time and I'm watching a recorded show, the dvr will freeze when new recordings start. I don't like how I can't play a recording in slow motion and not remove that time position bar at the bottom. Not able to see the guide when watching a recording. The response time is pretty slow. I expect my replay or 30 sec skip to happen when press it, Not 500 ms later. Sometimes I could hit the replay button and it will skip back almost 10 minutes. I'll hit Live and it won't even be live, it'll be behind a range of times (not good for sports). These are all things I really didn't experience with the old dvr. Conceptually, I give insight an A for effort. Functionality, no sir. Thanks for reading my vent session. There may be more...

I hate the resolution switching from channel to channel....every time I switch to a channel that is 1080 or 720 or 480 the screen goes dark for a couple seconds and then the picture pops up. Even if a commercial on the same channel is say 480 the screen goes black even when fast forwarding....annoying!! Is there a way around this?

Force a single resolution.
This resolves 'Every time you change the channel the TV pauses while it adjusts to the new resolution'.
Go into the settings of the Pace box (Power off, then press Menu) and tell it that your TV supports 'only 1080i'. Now the box does all of the converting/upscaling and only outputs the single resolution and your TV is happier.
Note: make sure your TV actually supports 1080i, if not then choose a lower resolution like 720p

I've not had the issues mentioned above. Every time I access my DVR it has always delivered.
I do get *some* tiling/blocking from time to time, but that has been an existing issue in our area since Insight went to a digital signal. It doesn't happen often.
Before I decided to purchase this upgrade I did some reading about MoCA. Barrels and slpitters will cause RF signal degradation and in some cases noise. Its recommended that you have as few as possible with MoCA.
Here is how my house is wired.

I would try and eliminate any extra barrels/slpitters and keep is as simple as possible with your setup. There should only be one barrel filter at your Demarcation point with the purpose of preventing MoCA feedback into the cable providers system. unless you have some sort of 'mixed network' with Standard def boxes along side the MoCA boxes, then they may require filters between them and the rest of your MoCA network.
If you have ruled out your wiring design look into a surge suppressor with coax ground hookups to eliminate noise issues that my interfere with your digital signal.

Is there a way to switch the video off? I have auto switching on several of my displays and whether I like it or not the input changes to the cable box.

This is especially bothersome on my computer monitor. The computer outputs HDMI and the cable box component. When the computer turns off the display after 20 minutes the monitor switches to the component input that is supposedly turned off. I get a gray screen.

What a waste of monitor life and electricity. I have to turn the monitor power button off.

Here's a new issue:

I set up a series recording of the Tour de France (yes, I ride) at noon and the DVR on its own proceeded to set up and record every instance the Tour is broadcast today (how about six times). Yes, I set up the recording from only one cable box).

So, I'll be erasing a bunch of recordings every day as the show repeats.

My wife had set up the Casey Anthony trial to record. When our son naps she starts to watch it. Halfway through playback on Thursday it goes live and says "dvr service unavailable" on all 3 boxes. Only way to reset is power cycle the NAS. Turns out the ip address is forced to renew every 2 weeks and when it does they all go nuts.

Has anyone else tried to network theirs or even seen where to control ip settings? Something has to be handing out 10.8x.x.x addresses. I'm not sure where. I'm gonna incorporate my dvr network with my home network today and see what happens when dhcp server takes over.

I've never seen an ip device without some way to set ip behavior. This is nuts. I switched out all my CAT 5e to shielded CAT 6. The NAS links up at 1000mbps but the boxes will only do 100. The NIC on the boxes is only a 10/100 NIC. It fixed the jitter and skipping finally but still plagued my this dvr unavailable occasionally.

I also got the "DVR Service Unavailable" error yesterday evening. I tried recycling and the error comes back on all three boxes.

I called insight yesterday evening and spent a good half hour trying things from their script. Finally, the tech says he will send someone out. Unfortunately, earliest date is Saturday. I asked for and received a credit. I also asked if I should try servicing it with a steak knife.

Don't they realize that with AT&T on the block and WOW coming there are options?

Today after numerous error messages, recyclings and black screens I unplugged the damned DVR thing. All the cable boxes work as receivers but I cannot of course, record, play or rewind. Not having a DVR means I have to make choices.

A few minute ago I tried to start from zero: unplugged power from DVR and all cable boxes, plugged in DVR first to initialize, waited, plugged in the cable boxes. Still gives me flashing DVR power button, disappearing network lights and blank screens. The menu disappeared, too.

It also occasionally makes a very loud buzzing. Hard drive failing?

It's not fun being a beta tester for this immature technology on my dime.

Cable guy was here at 1:00 EDT. He had me unplug the power from all the cable boxes and replaced the DVR box. The hard drive had failed. After giving the DVR box time to boot I plugged in the cable boxes. He checked things out. So far, so good.

He told me that Insight has had to replace DVR boxes due to hard disk failures far more than they would have liked and asked Pace for a solution.

New day, new problem.

After working fine for a day the DVR rebooted itself. I was recording one program and watching another. I hit the "My DVR" button and found a show to erase. I hit delete and the show disappeared. That's when the DVR rebooted. I lost the first part of the program I was recording (When I went to play it I could only select keep or delete) but at least I could watch the second half (after the DVR finished rebooting) of the show. Looks like another call to Insight tomorrow. Is this hardware or software?

With a service call scheduled for next Monday I just sent the following to Pace support:

My installation includes a DC900X server and three RNG150N set-top boxes.

I have had many problems with the server rebooting.

One of the set top boxes is connected to the DC900x Ethernet port via a CAT6 cable. The other two set-top boxes are only connected via coaxial cable with nothing going to the Ethernet port. No dongles are used.

Should Insight complete the installation properly with dongles on the two set-top boxes not directly connected to the server? Or will the system function properly as installed?

Thank you,

Ira S Weiss

Here's the response from Pace:

Dear Ira,

Thank you for contacting Pace regarding your experiences with our product.

Unfortunately, you will need to contact your cable provider for assistance with this issue.

Regards,

Pace Technical Support
techsupport.pace.com

They don't want to get involved, I guess.