TDC775 Tahoe Pace 700 Series - High Definition DVR - Page 51

Upgrading internal drive on the 775D.

Thought I'd share my experience.

Like many I filled up the 160 GB drive and looked for an alternative. Saw a couple of entries here referring to upgrading the internal drive. Here's what I did.

I had a Seagate 1 TB drive kicking around and decided to try and install it in the DVR. The drive was used on a PC and was formatted for NTFS.

I opened up the 775D, removed the old drive, and slid the new drive in.

Once I started the DVR up, it didn't know how to deal with the drive. The DVR diagnostics didn't recognize the drive. Likely because the drive was formatted in NTFS.

I figured I needed to get the drive formatted in the correct format. The problem was how to do this. I could have put the drive in an external eSata case and let the DVR format the drive there. This meant having the case available. I didn't. I got a little creative and put the sata cable for the internal drive into the connector for the external eSata drive. Powered up the DVR. It saw the drive as external and asked if I wanted to format it. I responded Yes and off it went. Shortly I had the drive formatted correctly. I disconnected power and put the sata cables back the way they were.

Once the drive was formatted and the sata cables were back to the original configuration, I powered up the DVR again. It did show a screen saying it was formatting the internal drive again. I'm guessing there must be something specific to an internal drive formatting the external drive doesn't have. Once it finished the second formatting the DVR went through its normal startup tests/configuration and everything came up perfectly.

I took another look at the diagnostic screen and the DVR had correctly identified the drive (manufacturer, model, and capacity).

So far so good. Started recording shows. 1 movie and a half hour show take up about 1%.

I just received a Pace 775D running 26.60 software from Metrocast Cablevision in Maryland. It is connected via HDMI through my Sony STR-5700ES receiver to my Sony XBR65HX950 TV. When the 775D is tuned to extended high def channels, e.g. Food Network, my screen blanks every 5 seconds. (Yes, I bought all this to watch Food Network. Hey, you first eat with your eyes, right?) This doesn't happen on standard def or broadcast network hi def. Burrowing through the diagnostic pages I saw that the 775D is recognizing the repeater bit out of the receiver, but HDCP handshake results in failed.

Obviously, the Metrocast help line folks were a bit in the dark about how the HDCP repeater bit is parsed.

Is there anything I can do besides resorting to component video? Kind of a step in the wrong direction, considering I have $10K worth of the latest gear.

Cheers,

Rick

Rick,

Can you clarify what you mean by "extended" HD channels?

Metrocast defines basic cable as OTA SD and HD plus junk nobody watches like local access. Expanded cable includes the cable networks (Discovery, CNN, etc.) in both SD and HD.

Basic SD and HD, as well as the expanded lineup in SD, can be received via a QAM tuner, but the expanded lineup HD content requires an STB or CableCard.

My trouble is in expanded cable HD. The same channels work fine in SD.

Have you gone to the HDMI diags page? If so, could you post a screen cap?

Rick,

Sorry for the delayed reply. Does HDCP work if you connect the TV directly to the set top box?

Better late than never my friend! I, also, have been quite busy lately.

HDCP does indeed work if I connect HDMI direct from the STB to the TV and use HDMI Audio Return Channel to the amp. It is workable, but not ideal, since I lose on screen receiver setting displays unless I change TV input to the receiver input. I was hoping to use the AV receiver like... well... like it was intended.

Do you think that I may have a finicky box and that a replacement would handshake through the receiver? Perhaps a later model Pace? I would request a Moto box, but am otherwise happy with the Pace.

Cheers,

Rick

I can't guarantee that a newer model won't have this issue, but that's probably a wise thing to try in order to narrow down the source of the bug.