Official Comcast 6412 w/ iGuide Discussion - Page 3

Yeah I am wondering as well since this is a pretty annoying attribute of the box for me.

I haven't experienced this problem in the 2 weeks I've had my 6412.

I disagree, I can hear harddrive activity stop everytime I turn off the unit. Because of buffering harddrive is always active when there is video passing through, and it will shorten it's lifespan. True, since we rent it from Comcast, who cares if HD dies, but it would be unpleasant to deal with Comcast CSR and wait for replacement.

Edit: removed false HDD lifespan data. Current HDDs are designed for 5 years of service. Sorry for misinformation.

Do I understand that you swapped boxes at a Comcast Cable store in Marietta?
I've got a 6208 here in Decatur and was told I would have to have a service call to
swap. What's the trick?

Really? I have a half dozen PCs that I have never turned off in years (some have been spinning for 4-5 years) and I have not had one hard drive failure. I know they eventually will fail but 4-5 years is a long time to keep a DVR. I would be surprised if we had these 6412's for 2 years.

I have a 6200 & 6208 and I had to swap them out a total of about 6 times for what turned out to be software issues related to firmware. All 6 times Comcast quickly responded without hesitation. I must be fortunate to live in an area where the customer service for Comcast is very good. I say, leave the damn thing on and fuggedaboudit!

Originally posted by butvinik
Current IDE HDDs have average 10,000 hours per failure rate. If your unit is always on HDD may fail in 14 months. If buffering always writes over same HDD surface area (don't know how their file system is structured) it might even fail sooner.

Where are you getting your data? Most hard drive manufacturers advertise several hundred-thousand hours MTBF ratings on their drives. Like a previous poster, I leave my home PCs on 24x7 and have only had one drive failure - and that was the result of a bad batch of drives from the manufacturer (and even then, it took two years before the drive failed).

I would be surprised if drive quality becomes a problem on these machines.

I apologize, my info regarding HDD lifespan was a bit outdated

To prove myself wrong I will never shut off my 6412 again

TO KM:

The local stores do not have phone numbers so you need to go by one. The Alphareatta amd Marietta stores can hand out the DVR/HDTV boxes. I got my 6208 (remote would not work but worked on the TV) today andthey had a the 6412 there and I switched out. I to was intially told that I had to have a service call but this is incorrect and most of the CS people do not know it.

DVR Problem:

After palying with the new box I no longer have any DVR functions except record and the date and time as well as the guide info still has not dlownloaded (it has been plugged in for 4 hours). When I go into the serive menu and under DVR it sales FALSE under the DVR being activated yet the CS told me she sent a singal to the box with all the proer info and the box is receiving the data. I have a tech coming out on Friday. Anyone else have this problem

Does everyone have a swap button? I just got a 6412 but my remote does not have a swap button. So, If I am watching a show and hit record, I don't seem to be able to switch to the other tuner to watch something else. Has anyone programmed this into a universal remote? I use a harmony but haven't set it up yet for this new box. Worse comes to worse I guess I'll have to back to comcast yet again!

If you read the previous posts in this thread, you will see someone discovered the code for the swap function, so you have a workaround until you get the remote which has the swap/pip buttons.

Actually, the code is the "deployment" thread. I will re-post the information here.

As posted originally by vj9999:

Here is the exact procedure to program a swap or 30 second skip to the remote.

1) Press the "Cable" button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
2) Press and hold the "Setup" button until the "Cable" button blinks twice.
3) Type in the code 994. The "Cable" button will blink twice
4) Press (do not hold) the "Setup" button
5) Type in the code 00173 (for 30 second Skip) or 00236 (for Swap).
6) Press whatever button you want to map the skip or swap function to.

Marc

Are you sure you have the remote for the 6412? I know in my area they quickly ran out of remotes, so they were giving people the remote for the 6208 which does not have a swap button. I was one of the lucky ones that got the remote for the 6412 before they ran out.

I would keep bugging Comcast until they give you the remote that has the swap button and the other PIP buttons. The PIP buttons aren't activated yet, but at least here in Jax, they say they will be activated in Dec./Jan. timeframe.

Evidently, in some areas they will only give you a new box if you get it through a service call. Here in Jacksonville you can pick up a box at the main Comcast facility.

Good point! I have my routed thru my receiver, and never use my TV speakers

Actually, the remote that came with my 6214 has a "mute" button on it. All I had to do was un-mute it by pressing the "mute" button. It was not technical at all

Scolumbo, with the 6412 remote can you get the 30sec skip? I'm not giving up my silver remote if it can't.

Actually, I think there a two different remotes for the 6412, one is silver like the 6208 remote, and one is brown (mine). Both of them have the PIP and Swap buttons, but the brown one doesn't have a Setup button which is how you would program the 30 sec skip.

I'm going to try to exchange my brown remote for the silver when they become available here in Jax. Last I heard, they were still waiting for them to arrive.

btw, did you get your box exchanged for one that works?

Something I didn't notice before, but under the Series Priority Options, there is an option to choose either "Record This Channel Only" or "All Channels" for the program to be recorded. If the All Channels option is used, maybe that's why it would record the SD rather than the HD channel for the program.

Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

I remember reading about that feature. Thanks for the confirmation scolumbo. I still don't have i-Guide yet here in NJ. I'm glad some of you are getting it and the experience seems overall to be positive.

Now we just have to wait till 2043 when SD goes away

So soon? You are an optimist.

Gov - The mute button on the comcast remote controls the mute on the TV not on the cable box. If you were to hit the mute button on the remote it would nothing to solve the problem only mute your TV assuming your TV was programed into the remote. This other mute is engaged by the STB and unless you know how to program the remote and found the code you would be SOL. But thanks

Good thought but unfortunetly I do set the "this channel only" option on my series. I think it may have something to do with how the channels are read by the 6412. If it is reading the actual station ID instead of the channel number then the SD and HD channels would appear the same since they are multicasts of the same affiliate. Just a guess at this point.

Comcast NJ - Union/Verona

It is probably more a function of the i-Guide. TV Guide needs to start differentiating SD and HD data that they send to the STB for this feature to work as we want it too.

Will someone share the physical demensions on this unit? I will be replacing a 6200 with the 6412 & have limited space for the box to fit. Also, is the power cord the same as the 6200? I would like to not have to fish out the current cord & then fish in another if possible.

Both units housed in identical cases and you can keep your power cord, that's what I did for the same reason.

Has anyone had a problem with the 6412s turning themselves off? Both my units turn themselves off at exactly 10pm CST every night. I've looked in every menu I can think of trying to find a "auto shutdown" setting, but to no avail.

So far, it's just been an annoyance, but one day I'm sure I'll be recording something that goes past 10pm and I'll end up with a truncated recording.

I just wanted to say that I am here in Irving, Texas, and I went to my local Comcast facility yesterday morning and upgraded my box. I currently have an analog tv, but my old digital cable box did not have SVHS out. I just was unhappy with the picture quality, knowing that there was at least one step up I could use.
Anyway, I called Comcast the day before to see if it would be possible to upgrade, and they said yes...just bring in the old box. So, I went in this morning and walked out with a 6412, brought it home and connected.

My first impressions are very good. First of all, the picture quality has improved, as I suspected, going to SVHS connection. Second of all, I noticed the change in the guide and menus, which I love. I hated the old yellow guides with advertisements on them, very distracting and ugly. Third, the channels do seem to change faster, although there is a slight pause, becuase the PVR unit starts recording it so you can pause live tv.

So, like I said, I am very happy with this unit so far. I will record some stuff tonight and see how that works. I do not have an HDTV, so I cannot compare full hdtv resolution, hopefully after the first of the year I can get me a nice tv.

Thank you. Very helpful!!

It just cracks me up on these forums when I have a question and right before I get to typing it in, there is someone else who had just asked and answered the same question. Thanks for the info.