Summary and Updates on Comcast HD DVR Deployment -- All Areas - Page 9  

They will not. It's down the road. Right now, D-VHS (or Mac/PC replicating) is it.

For Comcast Montgomery, its a 6208, not a 6408. I too got the message on my cable box, and called them to sign up, but declined to get it when I found it was a single-tuner unit. Given the 620x's DVR UI deficiencies (vs the TiVo that I use now - no Season Pass?) and the small capacity for HD (yeah, records HD...but only 7 hours?), its not worth the upgrade (for me, at least). I'd rather keep watching live HD content and TiVo the rest.

If it had a dual-tuner and perhaps more details on how to add external (firewire) recording capacity, it might have worked....but for now, I'd rather wait (and pay more for) the D* HD TiVo....

So, what's the Comcast pricing for the 6208?

In Montgomery County MD they are going to charge $2.50 extra per month for the box over the $5.00 whe were paying for the 5100 and they will charge $9.95 per month for the DVR 'service'. So about $12.50 extra per month. I signed up and I'm going to try to see if its worth it.

Ken H,

Sorry for the dumb question, but what's the difference between attaching a 1394 hard drive versus attaching a D-VHS, Mac, or PC?

These costs are really disappointing ... I guess we had all expected the DVR would cost about $5 more than our HD boxes in total ... now that will be $12.45 more. Thats about $150 a year to rent a DVR capable of recording 7 hours of HD at a time with a single tuner.

I'm disappointed ... not just in these costs, but in the value I will be getting for the total amount I will be spending.

I'll try this one. The firmware inside the box is only designed to accept and process downstream data on the FireWire port. You would need an upstream connection in order to watch the content that's stored on the external hard drive. Obviously the IEEE-1394 standard allows for this but the box does not. Our good friend Jeremyfr has stated there are no immediate plans to enable hard drive expansion, meaning not in '04.

Not necessarly. It can, and will, vary.

UCSB, with the opencable (or whatever the standard is called) boxes becoming available in the next year or two, we should have the option of buying a better box, if the $150/year (really $90/year over the non-DVR) vs. purchased box features and cost math works out.

Fender, to further refine that, the box CAN support external drives, but Comcast has to enable it, and before that, Motorola has to provide working firmware for that feature (if they haven't already -- the specs claim support). In any case, Marshdom, firewire is like USB, it can be used for all kinds of things. My projector has a USB port, but plugging my MP3 player into it doesn't do much (as an exaggerated example).

Montgomery County, eh? I knew I should have stayed at home... Perhaps it's time to buy Mom and Dad an HDTV (Mom is Tivo-dependent, do HD is pointless without a PVR/DVR).

--Mike ...in the OTHER Washington

I wouldn't bet on that.

The existing 620x Firewire implementation is isynchronous. Asynchronous is coming, not sure when specifically but probably sooner than the end of the year, which will enable outboard hard drive use. Something like this might work: http://www.maxstore.com/product.asp?sku=2392251

I hope you're right, Ken -- it would be great to add more storage. And it's hilarious you sent a link to the Maxtor drive considering I help design the software that comes with it. I have about 6 of them laying around in my office :D

There you have it. It also could be used to turn a 6200 into a 6208, externally.

Oh, since you have a few extra, how about loaning one of these to someone who might be able to help advance the concept forward?

I wonder if we will be able to swap the hard drives out on these 6208 boxes for larger drives. I've upgraded the drive on my ReplayTV DVR twice and the process was easy and relatively risk free.

I would absolutely be willing to let someone borrow one for testing. Most of them are pre-production drives so it's just the hard drive sitting on top of the Cypress/Initio bridge with a power supply. it does the job though.

Since the boxes will be owned by the cableco, I wouldn't advise this. It may result in you buying one.

Thanks, I'll keep in touch.

Yes ... that is true. I guess we will have to wait until the 1394 ports are activated for external drive support.

Sorry, but the honors for the first Comcast area to get the Moto 6208 HD DVR go to Prince Georges County, Maryland. We've had them for a week.

I especially liked being able to pick up the boxes at their office and installing them myself.

Yes ... I said boxes. They gave me two, so I can record Fatal Attraction on Showtime tonight while watching the ESPN HD NHL game. Life is SWEET !!!

I'll try out the firewire source with my JVC 30K, but am not optimistic since I don't yet have the 7.07 version firmware.

I think the key thing to remember when discussing Comcast, is that all areas will not be identical in pricing, programming, hardware, etc. If we remember that, it will make things a lot easier.

OK if PG County has it then Arlington/Alexandria can't be that far behind? Any word on when Comcast will launch on this side of the river?

I'm a subscriber to Comcast HD in Sarasota, FL. I was browsing the channels today and I came across channel 690, which has "DVR" as the channel name but no decription as well as no video or audio content. Anyone know what the plan is for this channel? I'm hoping its one of their help/info chans like the "How to use the on screen guide" for the upcoming DVR unit. If this is what it is intending for this is awesome news. I've been waiting for the DVR to get to our area and the ability to archive HD content. If you have any info on this please post!

Does anybody has the latest on when the ATLANTA area is going to see the Motorola 6208...I am so dissapointed that I thought we will have it by the SUPERBOWL....Everytime I call they keep changing the dates and moving them farther away......I AM VERY IRRITATED by this.....I was told back in December that by the 1st of January they will have it and that's why I decided to go with COMCAST....

Please anybody has any new news any hope ????

Just to clarify (since I don't have one, and have only looked at the Motorola PDF specs)...

(1) The 1394 port on the 6200 is only OUTBOUND, which can send data TO a D-VHS or (presumably) firewire harddrive like one in the Maxtor family.

However playback of this outboard-recorded data cannot be played back through the 6200? You must use some other type of external playback mechanism, such as the component video output of a JVC40K to the HDTV. Correct?

In other words, if you had used the JVC40K as the recording device from the 1394 output of the 6200, then the JVC40K would also be the playback device direct to the TV. Yes?

It seems this would require a component video switch to support at least the component video output of the 6200 as well as the component video output of the JVC40K in order to watch either HD source.

(2) Also, does the 6200 actually control the recording functions of the connected D-VHS VCR such as the JVC40K? And is it user-friendly one-button timer-event setting using an onscreen guide?

Or must the whole timer-event thing be set up manually, by setting both the 6200 and JVC40K timers? In other words, is the 6200 aware of the attached D-VHS machine and can it control it, or is it simply a dumb 1394 data-dump port?

(3) Finally, how many timer-event cells are available with the 6200? I'm really spoiled by the Hughes E45 (connected 1394 bi-directionally and with full recording/playback/functional control to my SD D-VHS machines) with its 32 timer-event cells.

On e quote from a PDF say's "The DCT6200
includes an MPEG encoder, making the set-top "PVR-capable" with the
addition of an external 1394 hard disk drive." Which tell's me that it "IS" two way. They just have to enable it.

I think the term "encoder" in this case would relate to converting analog SD channels into MPEG for recording to an external D-VHS or hard drive (for PVR).

But it would need a "decoder" to read back in that external data and play it out the 6200's component video outputs to an HDTV.

Currently the only supported device is D-VHS, or a D-VHS emulator like VirtualDVHS for Mac's or Firebus for PC's. At this time there is no Firewire support for an outboard hard drive. The plan is for outboard hard drive support somewhere in the future.

The reason for this is the isynchronous nature of the communication of the 6200, at this time.

Not exactly. Once you have a D-VHS recording (or a computer version), you could use it on other D-VHS decks, or make recordings with another compatable device. Of course this is subject to whatever copy protection is in effect.

This is not really related to 6200 Firewire issue. It's related to the particular display device one is using, and how many HDTV inputs it has. Some HDTV's will require outboard switching, others will not.

All the 6200 does is stream MPEG2 video and audio to the D-VHS.


At this time, none. As asynchronous Firewire is implemented in the future, this would probably be implemented. For now, the JVC timer function would be all that's required, along with selecting a channel on the 6200 and leaving it on.

The 6208 obviously has program record slots. There does not appear to be scheduling limits, but I would imagine at some point you would find one.