Official Comcast 3412 & 3416 STB Discussion - Page 206

Didnt the cable companies/content owners recently petition the FCC for a SOC waiver and were granted the right to control outputs? Maybe they are gearing up to turn off your HD component outputs and screwed up and instead their beloved abomination called HDMI was instead disabled?

SOC=Selective Output Control

it needs to be enabled in the setup menu power off the box and quickly press menu to bring up the hd setting menu through the box not the software u also need the tv on since yo can't tell when hdmi is active. it usually gets turned off when the boxes are reset atleast it does with the cox boxes

i see that the search function has been changed

instead of searching by title name in alphabetical order the old way, you now type a word and it searches for titles with that word in it

it also shows on-demand results

Yes, it was about time they improved the search function.

I'm not so sure the new one is an improvement. With the old one, you could start typing and it would immediately start populating the list. Not so with the new search. The new search seems to list every episode of a matching show and it lists shows that have the words you type in it, even if the show doesn't begin with those words. So, if you know the title of the show you're searching for, you may have to page through many, many pages to get to the actual show you want.

On the other hand, if you don't know the exact title, the new search can help you find it. Myself, I prefer the old one.

Any way you can limit search results to show HD only?

this box is so old with very limited space and no way to add hard drives

comcast told me there are no plans to soon replace it

should i be looking into tivo or some other DVR ?

This thread is massive. I have skimmed through it, but perhaps someone has the information readily available.

I have had the 3416 for 2 months. It is connected to a Samsung ln52b750 via HDMI through a Denon 591.

My issue is I get flickering white boxes in a thin line at the top of the TV for certain content.

Examples: A lot of SD content has this. I can watch a HD channel like NBC and the news will often show it when they switch to lower quality on-the-scene segments. I have even seen this on top of a tiny inset picture on the news.

Is there an easy fix that will not distort my picture?

I believe that is a setting in the tv. Someone may correct me on this. It's been a while since I got my samsung 850 series but I think it does that when it's on the "Just Scan" setting. I'm not home right now to check where that setting is.

That is probably not your box but your TV. The good news is your TV isn't overscanning the picture, the bad news is it shows the digital feed 'data' which is what you see (the boxes on top or the bottom of the screen). Is the TV new? If so, check what options you have for scan set-up.

I have the dct3412 and am wondering if I can get it to just display the current time instead of the channel number. Also powering it down and hitting the menu button to enter the system menu it frankly just doesn't seem to work worth a ****. It displays the format (16.9) but I can't change any of the other settings. And shouldn't some sort of GUI show up on the television? Because currently it doesn't. Thanks for any help.

Austin

to get the clock off, with the cable box on, hit the menu button twice on the remote

go to "cable box setup"

switch "Front LED Display" from "current time" to "current channel"

With the cable box powered on, press the Menu button.
This brings up the "Quick Menu" at the bottom of the screen. Choose the following: Menu > Setup > Cable Box Setup
The first option is called "Front LED Display". Change it from "Current Channel" to "Current Time"


There should be a "User Settings" white screen displayed on the television.
Here's what it looks like:


If you're not seeing that, then there's a problem.

Excellent thank you fellas. I eventually got the on screen display to show up. And the display now shows the time. One more question what does the MSGS. red light mean? Thanks

Austin

The MSGS light means Comcast has a message for you (usually a Pay-Per-View ad or announcement of channel changes). You can check it by pressing the Menu button, then from the Quick Menu choose Menu > Messages.

The red light means that a DVR recording is currently taking place.

That means a message from your cable provider, you can read it by going into the main menu and selecting "messages" in the main menu.

Holmquist:

Bunch of good information for you here:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/How_to_use_a_Motorola_DVR

Thanks for the info guys.

Austin

I moved this week and took my cable box with me (supposedly saved some $$, and keep my stored shows).

The problem is the few things I had set to tape. They show "to be announced," as one would expect when the guide hasn't been updated yet. Problem is, they still do long after the guide has been updated, and when the time comes the TV starts taping a non-existent channel.

This wouldn't be much of an issue if I could just go in and cancel the scheduled recordings, but there isn't any cancel option.

I thought DVR Manager (Xfinity) might be the way to go, but that isn't even showing all the things I set to record after the move.

Suggestions?

Jim

Jim,

Here's something for dealing with "To Be Announced" entries for scheduled recordings that works on the DCH3416 I'm using.

Highlight it, press GUIDE to go to its place in the guide, then press RECORD.  You'll be presented with the prompts to set a manual recording on the same station for the same slot.

Go ahead and do that, and the manual recording will supersede the "To Be Announced" entry in your scheduled recordings.  You can then delete it, or you can edit its padding and its repetition settings.

Thanks! Although it only gave me a choice of multiple channel 0 no title recordings, this worked.

Good thing I only had about 5 things set!

Jim

I'm considering moving my 3416 out of my media tower and under my LCD. This would mean I would connect it directly to my tv (component or hdmi). I did run a digital (toslink, I think) cable from my media tower to the tv through a molding channel (not sure if that's what it's called) a few years ago.

The reason for this is I am considering getting a logitech revue. It will connect to the 3416 and the tv. So, the video should be fine. Just making sure the audio will be OK running back to my Denon 1909 AVR??? Am I missing something or will it still play all the surround modes from the 3416 (and the Revue)?

Just want to make sure of this before I fix one issue and create 2 more.

i'm thinking about moving to Fios

my bill would drop from 250 a month to 140

the HD channels would not be compressed like comcast

whole house DVR

HD on every set top box (6 tv's)

you can actually add external hard drives to the DVR

i think this one is a no brainer

Does that $250/mo price also include phone and internet?

I have a similar cable HDTV setup including a couple of premium channels in a whole house setup with a Host DVR plus 3 terminal STB units all communicating with each other. I'm paying a regular non-promo month-to-month price of $158 including taxes (which also includes phone w/unlimited long distance and 12/4 high speed internet and modem rental).

You must be living in NYC or something ..... I'd first try calling your provider and tell them you're switching to FIOS. They'll negotiate to keep you happy (but then again if it's in NY/NJ .... well, maybe not .... they'll probably just tell you to shove it ;-)

Just for comparison purposes, I rent two DVR's and a cable modem, have HBO plus phone + pretty basic internet service. My Comcast bill is $223/month. If FIOS was offered in our area and I could get the HD channels that I watch most and could save ~$100/month, I'd certainly go for it.

for 250 i have 2 DVR's plus 4 regular digital boxes, cable modem and every pay channel. that's tv and internet (no phone)

i can get the same exact thing with fios plus whole house dvr (6 boxes) plus being able to add hard drives to the dvr plus uncompressed HD plus more HD channels plus more channels period for 140. that's tv and internet (no phone)

i also believe that fios doesn't give you the constant pixelation problems like cable has

otk ..... The ability to add external HDDs would make even me consider switching to FIOS alone. FIOS in my area was sold to Frontier by Verizion and then Frontier bumped rates 50% to discourage new sign-ups as they soon realized they made a business judgement mistake in biting off more than they could chew here in the Portland, OR area ..... things are unsettled in my area now whether FIOS will even remain available to new subscribers.

Sounds like your FIOS provider is still Verizon, which my sister had just down the street and it had better PQ 6 months ago but my cable provider has improved significantly since then.

But again ..... external HDDs make price any kind of price comparisons irrelevant, IMO.

One thing though .... my sister's FIOS required a box at all TV's even if you only wanted just the local channels at that TV ..... with my cable I can still connect direct for local channels (like in the garage or gym room).

NJ

oh that also includes free HD at every box (my 4 extra digital cable boxes that i have now are standard def only)

when i was going through the options at the fios site you can direct connect and get local channels and even more channels if your tv has a QAM tuner

BTW, for the $158/mo, my extra digital cable STB Terminal units are already HD even though not all my TVs are HD. Interesting news about being able to direct connect w/o a STB within your FIOS service area (including use of the HD QAM tuners) .... However, you might want to double check that as most FIOS subscribers I know can't do that (at least with Verizion or Frontier).

if you go to the fios website and click "get fios now" you put in your address and it takes you through menus of what's available and how much

now that i look again, it looks like you definitely need a "newer" tv with a QAM tuner to run the wire direct or you can get a basic digital converter box for $3.99 a month but if you get the whole house DVR you get 7 HD set-top boxes for free anyway. i shouldn't say free, it's "included"