Pace CableCARD HD Boxes (TDC779X, TDC778X and DC757X) - Page 4

From what I have been able to tell the Motorola 6412 has a 120GB hard drive, and the Pace has a 160GB Hard Drive. Just switched my Motorola for the Pace today.

i have tried rebooting my Pace STB twice since hooking up the external SATA drive. Still no luck. I looked at the diagnostic page and it looks like it says SATA drive is not enabled? is it possible Mediacom has it disabled after all? If so, any way i can that changed?

No, it says 1/1 on HDD status page. also says total size 158GB.

What made me think it was not enabled is when i go to interface status then SATA it says:

SATA ENABLED NO
INTERNAL DRIVE VALID
EXTERNAL DRIVE UNKNOWN

Any ideas on what is going on?

i have tried rebooting the box twice with not luck. btw, it takes 1 to 2 hours to reboot each time. is that normal?

i did ask Mediacom if the SATA port was enabled but they weren't sure and were suppose to call me back but never did. i'll try again.

Is there a way to upload content into the Pace 779X and similar CableCARD HD boxes via the built-in Ethernet? I have some HD content available from other sources that I would like to view locally via out HDTV, and/or add to the library of stored programs.

Thanks for the reply.

Rarely, but noticeably, we observe audio dropouts of 2-3 seconds when playing back recorded programs. The firmware for our TDC779X is at 9.56 according to the information screen. If we rewind and re-play, the audio loss seems reproducible.

1) Is this normal, or preventable? How can we diagnose it or pursue it further?

2) In terms of the firmware updates, does our provider do this automatically via the cable connection, or do we do it manually? If the latter, what is the procedure, and is there any chance that this would put us out of sync with what the cable provider expects and requires?

It's outstanding that you have this forum. Thanks for providing it.

See below.


HD.


No, the video is perfect. Looks absolutely beautiful on our new 1080p TV at all times.


It's hard to tell, since the program itself is long gone, of course. We haven't noticed it yet in live programs, but we have not had this setup very long. It has happened twice now in different HD recordings.


That thread is getting quite long. I'll try searching.


Suddenlink. Their online web site is completely devoid of content other than bandwidth-intensive advertising and promotion. In terms of technical support and information, it is awful.

At the risk of veering off-topic, with respect to the Pace site, it would be nice to have further information on specs for add-on eSATA disks, etc. (3 Gbps required, or will 1.5Gbps do? What is the total capacity limit for external disks?) What is the difference between primary and secondary audio? Is audio volume controlled through the cable box if you put it in to the audio in, or through the audio source? And how does that relate to audio connections through HDMI?

We like the 779X quite well, although as a minor comment given that it is an HD/DVR it is surprising that it is called the "Tahoe Analog" - that threw us in looking the unit up for a bit, but Google helped.

The only other minor comment we have is that the slight fan noise hum it makes is a bit distracting. It is quieter than our old VCR, of course, but since it continues even after all devices are switched off, it is noticeable in a quiet room.

Greetings,
I have a Pace 778X
I am having issues with outputting Dolby Digital surround over the Optical Spdif output.
I have it (optical spdif) going into a 5.1 surround system, and I am only getting sound from the front 3 speakers (front left, front right, and center).

Is this related to the issue with HDMI? Is this the same known issue?

Not sure,
Kind of new to the whole HDTV thing.

I was watching Mythbusters on Discovery HD, and it says DD-5.1 on the channel info bar thing.
I wasn't getting any signal in the rear speakers at all.

I guess if I have signals coming out of the center, I can pretty much guarantee that it is decoding correctly.

Has anyone reported frame skipping/dropping?

I have a 778X and attributed it to updating the program information, but another user says it may be caused when dissimilar resolutions are used by each tuner. (720p on one tuner while trying to watch 1080i on the other)

In one brief test of that theory, the frame dropping seemed to stop once both tuners were on 1080i channels.

I only have a few HD channels and rarely have it on the 720p channels -- maybe I should test this theory a bit...

See if i can answer all your questions.
I did disconnect the SATA drive and your suspicions were confirmed. it did boot up in just a few minutes.
The external SATA drive i was trying to use is a Western Digital, model number WD3200F037. Size is 320GB.
Also, i did call MediaCom again and ask them if the external PVR access was disabled on their boxes. She told me it was disabled because Pace charged them extra to enable it and Mediacom didn't pay for that option. She also added that i was the first person in her 19 years of doing customer service for them that anyone had even ask that question? Sometimes i don't know about the support you get from technical support personel. She also told me she would verify her answer and call me back but i never heard from her.

Not suprised that this is the case.




Thanks again for all the help. i'll see if i can find another cable to try. If not that i guess it could be either the box or the hard drive that is faulty?

I forgot to ask - i guess you didn't see any problem with the particular drive i am trying to use?

Thanks for the update!

Oddly enough there are some known issues with that drive model and Vista. Sounds like the usual releasing of software before it is ready for prime time.

can you reccomend one and tell me where i might could buy it? all i seem to be finding are USB/eSATA combos.

i assume that the Pace eSATA implementation is similar to SA one so an ok place to start would be here:

http://baseportal.com/baseportal/xnappo/main

As far as where to get them, i would try the internet. Newegg etc. I once tried to buy an SATA drive from an electronics store and was very frustrated with the lack of selection.

Considering that eSATA drive market is predominantly eSATA/USB combo drives this is quite an interesting statement. If you make a product advertised to be eSATA compatible it should be as such. Then to blame it on the drive as being the problem. Looks like I may be out a couple hundred bucks because Pace may not have fully done their homework.