How to verify that Firewire is functional?

Borrow a D-VHS and try recording?

JVC 30k is a good choice.
Assuming your ports work (and if they don't you can raise a stink with your cableco once you find out), it should work perfectly for recording.

No special procedure, insert tape, push record on remote/menu.

I own two 30K's and they will work fine if your port is active.

Your going to want to make sure you have the tuner set to I-? some number will be assigned when you hook up the cable box.

Also...your cable Co may have flags set improperly on some channels and that may cause recording problems. You will not know for sure until you get to play with the unit itself.

The nice thing about recording HD with a DVHS unit vs a computer is that you do not have to worry about 5C. Computers will not record 5C flagged channels...DVHS will take it with no problems.

A few years ago, this Forum was chock-full of STB > DVHS via IEEE 1394 threads and posts. Now, it's like a ghost town regarding that technology as you have discovered. Everybody seems to have moved on to HD-DVR's since they've become so ubiquitous and thrown their DVHS decks out in the garage. From what I've been able to gather by pulling together fragments of information here and there, the Motorola STB/DVR platform still generally has working firewire, so that's good for you. The Scientific Atlanta platform, like TWC (my provider) uses for the most part, had a software "upgrade" pushed out last August that disabled firewire. (Before that, there were confounding 5C problems that kept it from working properly.) Yes, I know that's supposed to be a violation of the FCC mandate 'n all, but the providers simply don't care. The "law" has no teeth, and no champions to enforce it. And there's no groundswell of indignation amongst the viewers anymore, either, so nothing is likely to change. They've all just moved on, for the most part, to HD-DVR's and the new HD optical formats.

It sucks for me because I've got a zillion movies I'd like to offload from my SA8300 DVR, but it won't hold a firewire lock on my JVC 40k tape deck. I make inquiries from time to time, but they just stonewall me and I never get anywhere. Good luck to you; at least with the Motorola box you've got a fighting chance. For awhile, at least.

I think that the reason there are few discussions of DVHS is that few are trying it for the first time. Myself I have used it for 3 years and it works fine. Nothing to discuss. (However I use DVHS with a firewire OTA STB to record OTA HD.)

Rick R

Sure, OTA using the 2 or 3 STB's that included 1394 ports, but which have all been discontinued, is fine. The problem is that TWC, in particular, has deliberately disabled firewire at the software level on their STB's/DVR's. The SA STB's come with the appropriate hardware; it's just useless. Nobody cares anymore.

That's becausei its a DV camcorder.
Why would you expect that to work with DVHS.
It will "work" with JVC30K, but thats because it has a onboard MPEG2 encoder, which will encode Standard-Def DV to one of the LS-modes on tape (14mbit? I think and below).

Regarding firewire out on your STB, good luck
sounds like time to threaten with FCC to your cableco.

Huh so everyone moved from a STORAGE media to a volatile "time shifting" media where you can't keep the material forever? Makes so much sense.

Make sure you are trying to copy something that is okay to copy, like a network station. Subscription channels often (usually) don't work if you are transfering off the DVR.

Ok now you got me going.

I have a DVHS and OTA STB with firewire to record OTA in HD.

I also have a HD DVR (the Dish 622) to record OTA and satellite HD. Of course you can not save very much of this as storage is limited. So I just purchased a DVD burner that takes the s-video output of the DVR and burns a SD (but pretty good) DVD. My wife and I were watching the Dancing with the Stars final four and she said she would like to save that so I burned a DVD. It was OTA but I only DVRed it so it was too late to record it DVHS. Also several movies I DVRed also are burned to DVDs.

However, every time I burn a DVD it makes me mad that "Hollywood" is preventing me from saving it in HD. As I type this I am getting madder.

Ok, end of rant.

Rick R

Ah, welcome to my world Rick. I'm absolutely convinced that the crippling of firewire was demanded by the studios, and the content providers just rolled over and let them do it. It's no coincidence that the satellite companies never supported firewire (remember how DISH Network shipped their first HD-DVR's with metal tape over the firewire ports?), and just about every cable company platform that once supported firewire no longer does, with the exception of some of the motorola boxes. They must have missed that one.

I know of no box or converter.

My DVHS machines are humming along on a daily basis. Moto 6412 feeding Mits played back through my JVC's.

The latest thing I have had to deal with is that my CBSHD affiliate suddenly now has a flag set to block any computer recording. DVHS still works so my anger is limited.

I agree with the previous posters...the content Nazi's don't want anyone recording their content in HD. Firewire is the last chance we have to capture this stuff. Do it while you can

That'll cost you ~$15k or so.

No

My DV Cam will work with both my TV and my JVC 40K DVHS. I have had no problem getting an I-? assignment from my JVC for my CAM. I also have chained in my FIOS STB.

-=AE=-

Because none of them cost > $10,000

For starters, the firewire port has to work, by law. Search on these forums and you'll find some concrete references to it. I don't own a D-VHS but one way you can fiddle around is to simple attach a firewire cable from your STB to your computers (XP and above) and try to get it running using these drivers--instruction and drivers on this page http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/ This could at least help you tell for sure if it's on or not.

I've read posts where some people found two firewire ports on the back of their unit, one live and one dead, so be sure to check both.
Also, be sure to set the STB to a 'network' channel (ABC, NBC, CBS) etc, to avoid any 5C problems when using a computer--this is a problem you won't have a D-VHS unit.

A side note: if you have a Mac running OSX, this all much easier and foolproof. If you have one, or access to one, just install the firewire SDK from the Apple site, and use AVCVideocap (included with the SDK) to test.

You will want a 30K. Probably the cheapest "standalone box"
It doesn't have to work (tape mechanism). as long as electronics / mpeg decoder part is operational.

You connect Mitsu -> 30k -> component / optical out to TV.