SA3250 Comprehensive Review Guide - Notes and Setup - Page 6

You guys are killing me! I have the 3250 through Wide Open West in Ohio. Old software. Old drivers. NO PASS THRU! AARRGGG!!! Poor tech support. It's actually my provider killing me, you're just making me envious.

Can you connect an outdoor antenna to this box in order to view OTA HD sources? I have this box with Charter's HD service, but the only local channels they offer in HD are NBC and Fox.

-Jeff

So, after the Explorer screen, did you get no signal for several minutes, and just left it on until it came back?

"It takes a long time to recover to get a signal established after a reboot and for a picture to show. You have to wait longer than just a "few" minutes. Try 10 or 15. When the DVI port did work, it came up initially with the SA Explorer screen. So I think you did have the DVI enabled if you had waited long enough."

OK, I just tried this and after a couple of minutes the Explorer screen dissapeared. I left it alone for over 15 minutes but it never came back. Sound was always there though

No, none of the current cable boxes support OTA.

I spent another couple hours this morning messing around with the DVI connection and I'm seeing the same problems as Free. I use my DVI cable on my HTPC with no problems on my Phillips Cineos TV so I know the cable is okay as far as at least transmitting a picture. I'm using a 6 foot dual link from pacific cables. I think I've given up at this point at least for the time being. I even tried to do a cold boot of the TV to see if that was causing the problem. Is anyone that has the DVI working in Phoenix using a Dual Link cable?

Had my TV (EDTV Akai 4294/SamsungSPN4235) connected to the DVI port on the 3250HD (Monster cable from BB), Rebooted to start up showed TV not HDCP, rebooted OK. Worked great, beautiful clear pictures, still dark images but using the custom option to boost brightness, viewable. Turned off system, went for lunch. Came back, turned on the system, no picutre on snowy screen. Rebooted the sytem, worked fine again. Every time the TV is turned off and then on, will lose the DVI, either had to reboot or push those two buttons as if I wanted to go through the setup Wizard then exited will restore the DVI connection (learned this trick from another post). My cable co. is Charter in Glendale, CA. It is activated but not working as it should.

mp

Does anyone have a 3250 with active 1394?

Are all 3250s equiped with 1394?

Does the 3250 have an encoder in it to put analog video out over 1394?

Thanks!

I'm curios to know what type of DVI cable the people who have the STB working are using. Single vs Dual, Digital(D) vs Combined(I). 1 Meter vs 3 meter. I'm wondering if the box is very picky about the type of cable not necessarily the quality when trying to establish the connection. I have my HTPC running on my TV using a 2 meter dual link DVI-D from pacificcable but I get no signal beyond the initial SA splash screen from my 3250 even if I let it sit there for 20 minutes after doing a clean boot on both the box and TV. Please post cable info on any success stories.

Thanks

I am using the dvi-d cable that came with my gefen switch. It is 6 feet.

Rancyd, make sure you go thru the configuration steps to enable HD outputs.

Got SA3250 from Cox in Phoenix on 2/7/04 and started HD service on 2/8/04. SARA and ROM versions are 1.52.4.1. I do not see in any menu screen, where I would have the ability to choose pass-thru or upconvert1 or upconvert2 or dvi. Can anyone help me understand how to get to this area of setup?

Thanks
George

Sorry for my post...should have done a little more research. Got the answer. Thanks anyway.

George

Last night, Cox Fairfax finally upgraded
from:
OS TE 3.4 SARA v 1.50.18.a45

to:
OS HDE 1.0 SARA v1.52.4.1

About time ... I wonder if the previos version suffered from the same leap year bug as the SAE8k. I didn't think try it out.

Just so you know, there is an HDTV Society of Arizona Forum and we would be happy to have you join us. We discuss anything HDTV in Arizona and have sub-forums for General, Metro Phoenix, Tucson, and Others. It is perhaps the quickest way to get responses to questions dealing with Cox-Phoenix and Phoenix-related OTA questions.

Can't wait to go back home to test the DVI port

Well, it's good news and bad news. The good news is (1)once I selected pass-through mode, HD PQ seems improved a little through component (2) DVI is now activated. PQ through DVI is marginally better than component. But it seems to me the 3250 only negotiate HDCP after initial power up. As a result, whenever my TV(Panny 50LC13) powers down or switches input, only snow will show up on screen until I unplug the power and re-initialize the cable box. For now, I will just use component output instead.

You need press settings button towice to enter the advanced settings screen. There, you can select video output mode (fixed, pass-thru or upconvert). DVI is only showing up when you have DVI plugged in.

I've asked this question in other forums before finding this thread, but here it goes.

Background: I have a KV40XBR800 (supports 480,720, and 1080)
with the SA3250
Connections: Digital cable to TV using S-Video (Input 1)
HD to TV using component (input #5)

STB: Set as widescreen in Easy Setup (TV autoconverts to widescreen)
Picture set to Normal and Output is Fixed

Problem: When STB is set to an HD station (Usually ABC), picture is sharper and has more color with the S-Video input versus the component/HD input. However, PQ on both is excellent, but I am confused as to why the non-HD input looks better.

What am I doing wrong? Should I be fiddling with the advanced set up for each station, i.e. for ABC should I set it to 720 since that is the output? This difference seems to go away with HBO and Max HD, but the HD is only as good, not better, than the S video.

Any help will be much appreciated. I want to make sure I am getting the most bang for my bucks.

Richm99 - I suggest you go back and use the advanced STB setup wizard. With the advanced wizard you will set the box to output all possible resolutions instead of up-converting everything to 1080i. Then you will need to goto the advanced setup (push the remote setup button twice) and go to the PICTURE FORMAT. There you can set the PICTURE FORMAT to pass-thru. This allows the TV to receive the native resolution being transmitted (ABC will be in 720p - others will be in 1080i). Also if you are using the component cables that came with the box, I highly suggest you go out and purchase a better video cable. I hope this help!

Kenni - that thought just crossed my mind as well. I originally used cables from the cable co., then switched to component cables I had on hand (RCA-probably low to mid-quality). Both displayed the same PQ. I am thinking about upgrading to Monster. Is it possible that some component cables deliver inferior PQ than some S-video?
Either way I will go through the advanced set up.

Thanks!

Richm99 - sounds like you've already tried other cables. The installers used the basic component cables (about a 30 ft cable) that came with the equipment and I noticed a major change by installing my own cables (also medium grade $50 cables and only 6ft).
I don't think going to Monster will fix your problem.

To answer your question, I've had component cables connected until they finally updated my firmware so the DVI would work, and the S-video connection was OK but no where close to the component PQ. It didn't matter if it was an HD signal or just 480i, the component was way better. My S-video produces a dark picture with the color overdriven. I needed S-Video connection because my Denon will not produced it's on-screen info over the component cable.

The best thing to try is the advanced wizard setup for the box. If you go to the SA website, they have a complete manual on how to use their wizard. I think will need to register (just give them an email address) to get to the manual. But you really don't need it. The on-screen info walks you right through it. It has a screen with each resolution and if you see it, you just accept it from your remote. It has 6 screens (480i, 480i-wide, 480p, 480p-wide, 720p, and 1080i). See if this maybe helps your problem.

I will give it a shot-BTW, my component cables were less than $30, so I'm guessing the quality may not be there. I already downloaded the manual from SA, so if I get time I will go through the advanced menu.

Thanks!

Sounds like you still have much better cables than came with the equipment. So it should not be a cable issue. If that doesn't fix it, do you have any other component equipment that you can swap out to check your TV input? I know my Song GWIII has individual setting for each input (DVI, component, s-v etc.), your Sony probably does the same. Might need to go into the service menu and make individual adjustments for the component input?

Good luck on the box setup!

I have a friend that has the 3250HD going into his TV/reciever audio inputs via composite. Initially it worked fine, but now he gets no audio out of his receiver (component video) and he loses sound through the TV speakers (composite video) but can get it back through the TV by muting and then unmuting. DVD and VCR composite audio have no problems.

Thoughts?

I did the STB setup using the advanced settings, accepted all resolutions, and set it to passthrough. This made the PQ for the HD better. When comparing HD and S-video, the S-video images are definitely distorted (compressed), and when watching CSI, the S video side cut off some of the picture on each side about 50% of the time. The light colors still seem brighter on the s video when side by side with HD in twin view, but nothing you can notice when watching it in full widescreen. This may be due to the TV settings.
Of course, all this playing around with the settings drove my wife nuts and out of the room.
I am going to change the box anyway. When surfing, the channel changing is rough-the picture jumps for a second. I'll just set it up the way it is now.
I still may upgrade the cables at some point, but I'll wait until I happen to be in the electronics store (any day now I bet).

Thanks to all for your suggestions.

Thanks for the setup info.
I'm also Cox in Fairfax. The help line was clueless about the DVI. My is now online than because of your info. Does anyone know if the Cox Fairfax 1394 connection is up yet.
great thread
Thanks
Mark franke
Chantilly, Va

OK- here we go. I had a green haze over all channels on my 3100hd this morning. It started with the "on demand" channels--migrated to the hd channels and eventually went to every chanel on the box. The haze covered the entire pic as well as the black bars. This was 100% cable box related--no other input or component was affected. I called Comcast and asked for a tech with a new box. Meanwhile I power cycled my 3100 and the green haze disappeared. I cancelled the tech. An hour later the tech rings the bell and as I am telling him 'thanks, but no thanks', I see he has an explorer 3250 in his hands. I tell him I'm fine, but could I get the new box? He says 'sure-no problem'. As he was leaving I gave him my dvd-r copy of "Matchstick Men" (which he had asked about) and told him "this is not a bribe --you were gonna give me the box anyway". Now--the new box is cleaner and has dig output on ALL CHANNELS!. It also has all the options we have read about. 1)can I do any harm by accessing the menus? 20How do we know if the box is ready for the changes we wanna make?3) I have aspect options in the menu but they dont seem to work and 40 I chose to change the color of the sidebars but they didnt change. IS THE MENU INACTIVE ON SOME OF THESE OPTIONS UNTIL WE ACTIVATE THEM IN THE SERVICE WHATCHMACALLIT?/ Help!! I want my box to be all that it can be!!!

First, ccheck your firmware. Here in Ohio with Wide Open West, we have the 3250's but caveman firmware. The customer support people said the "dvi port isn't even attached to anything" they are predominately not the brightest bulb in the chandelier. I'm waiting on a software update to access all the features.

AFAIK the only problem you 'might' run into is a blank screen if you have an option for a resolution that your TV can't handle. Remember (or write down) the key strokes to get to the option so you can change it back. This usually happens when you press the Settings/Menu button on the remote and then scroll up (4 times I think) to the Picture Format option (480i, 720p, 1080i, etc). If your screen goes blank, simply redo the keystrokes and change the setting.

Not sure what you mean by this.

I assume you are talking about resolutions (480i, 720p, 1080i). Your TV may take some of these and convert them so that you won't notice any difference from one to the other.

If you are viewing a 4:3 upconvert image (black bars on the sides) on the component connection, the box option to change the color will not work. The black bars are added at the source to fill the 16:9 image and cannot be changed using this option. This option changes the color of the bars for non-HD channels, but many TVs already give you the option of black or gray bars.