Houston, TX - Comcast / DBS - Page 34

Has anybody had any problems with recorded shows for this past Monday night? For some reason I tried viewing recorded shows CSI Miami on CBS (regular cable) and Medium on NBC (regular cable) and another show on another channel and they won't play despite showing 1 hour of space used. My neighbor had the same problem. Is this a cable box issue or what? If this is the wrong furom for this I apologize, but only mentioned it because the HD channels recorded the shows without incident. They were accidentally set to be recorded on the other DVR thats why. I use 8000 and 8300 SA. Did anyone else notice this?

Welcome to Houston.

About the only thing you can do with the Analog stations to make them 'slightly' better on your HDTV is to split the cable and run cable direct to the TV and let the TV tune the analog channel.

I actually record my SciFi channel shows using my HTPC and watch them later, it provides marginal improvement over the SA8300HD DVR on the analog SD shows.

If you want to see what SW you have on the SA8300HD on the remote you can push and hold the pause button until the 'mail' icon flashes on the box then push the pgup/pgdwn button of the remote (to the right of the select + arrows on the remote) to scroll through the screens.

You going VoIP now that you can't go SBC DSL? Let me know and I'll get you that extra month free w/ a referal to Vonage.

-CCourtney

ion-man,

Yeah, this is the right place to post that. I had no problems recording Monday Night (other than I was wanting to watch MNF and NLCS while recording two other programs and using PIP to have both games on at the same time - we can't have it all.) But I was recording the HD channels, sorry I can't be of more help.

-CCourtney

Not a problem, least I know it wasn't an isolated incident. Thanks for the response.
BTW... can you split the incoming signal to allow for multiple viewings/recordings like that? I know you may have said it in jest but you got me thinking about possibilites.

Ion-man,

Pre-tuners, Yes you can split it as much as you want so long as you've got enough signal strength. I've got a three-way splitter between the wall and my Equipement in the living room. One going to the DVR, one going to the TV, and one going to my HTPC. My biggest issue is I want all of it in HD

Four Tuners (Two DVRs, One TV, One HTPC) only the DVRs are in HD Though which was the real complaint.

In the past I've used the DVR to provide a PIP as the main source, and my TV to provide another PIP subpicture being feed from the cable to show three games simultaneously. The biggest problem with this, is you have a limited view of the main picture. Some high end sets do this better than others though and have multiple tuners for the cable to provide multiple images and keep it all seperate instead of the overlay which is the common practice.

Does anyone else have problems with 11.1 OTA (KHOU-DT) popping soundtrack on various shows and CBS Saturday College Football. I get 93% reception, i just get frequent sound pops on just this channel (not on other OTA or Dish HD). It is like the sound drops out for 1 sec and the picture wobbles a little bit. Sometimes, the sound drops all together and there is a loud electrical tone, but jsut on this channel...Anyone had experience with this?

Thanks

You may get some answers here, but you might want to ask this in the Houston, TX - OTA thread for OTA related questions

Here's a link.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=452612

-CCourtney

Post #666

Don't know where to post this. But we have Cebridge cable aound L.Conroe and we're tired of the lack of service. Current digital out and HD receivers on back order for months. Ready to switch to satillite. Are ther any opinions out there for cable or staillite?

THanks Ken

In general the opinions are that Cable tends to have the best HD programming and is more reliable than Satellites. That being said, I've never heard of Cebridge and by your description they don't sound to good and I'd probably switch to Satellite if I were in your shoes.

You may find more information to clarify what you want in the HDTV Hardware forum.

-CCourtney

I have had Directv for about 5 years and it is great. Just recently switched to TWC due to moving to the Houston area. Most of the stations are equally good with Directv and TWC. There are some of the low # stations that are just about unwatchable on TWC. These include USA, FX, Sci-Fi and TBS to name a few. They are very grainy.

Is there anything that can be done about these grainy stations? If I could I would have kept Directv I would have, but did not want to go through the hassle of getting everything wired for a stay that is temporary.

I recorded Medium on NBC and while watching it there was a lot of breakups. Did anyone else have this problem?

How does this work and isn't it free? Each time I try it says that it is not installed and to contact TWC.

There is a free component to OnDemand / iControl (some broadcast show episodes, snippets of shows, and trailers), and if you have the right equipment (any digital-capable box), you should at least be able to freely browse the menus. However, most of the content comes with a fee that is charged to your account at the time you select the content for viewing.

If you can't even browse the menus, then maybe someone needs to change a setting at the head end. If it tells ya to call TWC, then call TWC! (They may do that to keep the kids in the house from racking up a $50 blll before the parents even know what "on Demand" or "iControl" is...)

Jim

I had a lot of breakups on my Medium recording this week too. First show in a while that was like that.

I'm not sure what is and isn't free on iControl since I've only used it a couple times. The thing I do remember is it took a fee minutes the first time I went into the system, maybe doing some setup w/ the headend, after that it was only a few second delay when switching in and out of iControl.

-CCourtney

IControl has a free section and also if you have premiums you get some free stuff. I think it is only for the premium you have but have never tried it. I only have tried HBO since that is what I have. Sometimes if it gets real busy I have had the IControl stuff fail with an error message, but I haven't had that in a while and was just in it this weekend.

How would I force the 8300HD box to output at 720P? My TV outputs everything at 720P so I might as well go ahead and just feed the TV a 720P signal all the time.

Thanks

Josh,

Display Format Summary.
Press the Settings button twice to get to the General Settings.
Then scroll up to Set: Picture Format.

* Fixed - Displays all content at whatever resolution you selected, based on what you selected in the wizard. You force the output to a single output and the box scales to that input. Easily changed in the settings menu of the box.
* Pass Through - Passes the input signal through to the output with no change, unless you disable certain resolutions. For example 480i in to 480i out, 480P in to 480P out, 1080i in to 1080i out, 720P in to 720P out. If you disable 720P, 720P in will go to 1080i out.
* Auto HDMI/DVI - If you are using the HDMI port, you will see this option instead of the Pass Through option. Resolution is automatically formatted to the scan rate supported by the TV.
* UpConvert 1 - All 480i and 480P signals get upconverted to 480P. All 720P and 1080i signals get upconverted to 1080i.
* UpConvert 2 - All 480i and 480P signals get upconverted to 480P. All 720P and 1080i signals get converted to 720P.

Here's where I pulled this from http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=471859 a good thread for SA8300HD Information.

CCourtney

Thanks! I appreciate it

Is anyone else getting a lot of tiling on the HD channels?

BTTT _ it is still bad this morning also. Will I need to be home for TWC to do anything about the tiling?

I have not seen anything unusual in my end of the world...(SW/Meyerland area). Sounds like some kind of local "headend" or amplifier problem. Or....could be your box. Try pulling the power cord for @15 sec and then rebooting. It's a simple cure if it works. Otherwise, unless others in your area are calling with similar problems, they'll want to send someone out there. (We keep losing 290, HD-Net, it comes and then is gone. This has been going on for a week. They say I'm the only one calling; however, the real question is how many subscribers in my area have HD and have taken the optional 290, 291, 292 tier? I may be the only one in the immediate area who even knows its gone.)

Good luck.

rgathright: I haven't had the TV on much, but a spot check for a few minutes didn't show any problems. Can you be more specific about the symptoms? Is the phenomenon the same on all your HD channels, or just a subset? Is it constant, or sporadic? If sporadic, how frequently does the tiling occur?

rgathright,
Jim is right, be as specific as you can on where the probmel shows up. Blocking and tiling are frequently caused by low signal levels and that can be anywhere in the chain between your area equipment and your STBs rear connector. Did it per chance start after the storm at the first of the week? Does it show up on some of the digital nonHD channels? Some of them are QAM 64 and some are QAM256 and the higher data rates may have trouble like the HDs.

TerryB

Here is a few more details. TNTHD, INHD, INHD 2 will not even come on (it is a black screeen) . It is solid pilixation and comes in and out. Neither will the HBO HD channels.

I did a hard reboot with no help there. It seems to be the HD channels but not including the Local stations.

It actually was noticed when I came home Thursday night.

I called TWC and the earliest they could come out was Tuesday. I scheduled the visit then decided to work on the problem myself. The splitter at the TV was bad. I installed a Radio Shack splitter and everything works now. I can even get the IControl OnDemand now.

Are any of the OnDemand HBO shows in HD?

No, there are some PPV HDs but all the other stuff is SD.

TerryB

rgathright: Over half the time it's the "small stuff" that can mess things up. Here I am looking for "big" problems, and forgot to ask the right questions...do you have splitters, amps, etc? We forget our own solutions as I had a bad splitter some time ago...and it was indeed the culprit causing my problems also. Glad it turned out to be an easy one.

Enjoy!

Can anyone tell me what box TWC of Houston uses for non-dvr hd? What outputs does the box have? DVI HDMI

The last I heard they were still using the Motorola DCT-5100, but they may have upgraded to the DCT-6200 which is the next generation in the Mot HD Cable Boxes.

The DCT-5100 are Component and Firewire for HD Video.
The DCT-6200 also supplies HDMI.

Neither support DVI.
Both Support SPDIF via Coax and Optical for Digital Audio.

I'd call your local office and see if they have the Mot DCT-6200

-CCourtney

Edit: Looking back through the thread it looks like they do carry the Mot DCT-6200