Official AVS Motorola DCX series HD DVR Topic! - Page 56

I just got a new DCX3400 to replace a DCH3416. After activating all the channels were fine. However, pressing the guide button, the OnDemand button, the menu button. the MyDVR button had no effect.

The IR light blinks but nothing happens.

After several hours, 3 activation tries by Comcast, and no resolution, I put the old box back in and have a service call to look at the new box.

Anyone else ever experience anything like this?

The new box was mailed to me, not picked up at the office. It came with 2 remotes and an HDMI cable.

Thanks.

Is the IR light blinking multiple times, or just once per input? Multiple times would mean the batteries are dead/dying. You say it came with 2 remotes, are both remotes doing the same thing?

They were new batteries still in the wrapper. The channel switching and volume worked fine with the remote. It also turned the TV and Box on/off. I only tried one of the remotes.
Also the menu and guide buttons on the front panel of the box did nothing.

If the front panel isn't working, I would say the remotes are fine, and the box is bad.

I think what you may be experiencing is the box is actually updating to the new A28, 22.xx software. One morning recently both of my DVR were doing the same thing. Comcast said they were having problems with DVR's in my area and did not know when it would be fixed. I tried sometime later and everything was fine and I had the new guide and firmware.

YMMV, good luck.

Sounds like the box is just missing the guide software period. If it was updating to the A28 it should take less then an hour. Try turning the box off & within 2-3 seconds press the OK/Select button on the remote, this should bring up a diagnostics screen. Go down to d08 Code Modules, there should be 4 items listed in there as Enabled. Chances are you only have 2 which is the box firmware which will allow the box to work as it is now but have no on-screen info/guide. If you get someone on the phone that knows what they're doing they may be able to correct that or just wait for tech tomorrow & he will either get it to work or swap it out for you.

Hey all, sorry to ask what I'm sure are going to be repetitive questions, but after several hours, I had only made it thru page 10 of this thread.

I just picked up two 320gb DCX 3400's from the Van Nuys, CA Time Warner office. They're both hooked up and seem to be running fine. I was able to add the 30-second skip ahead feature to the provided Atlas 5-Device remote.

A few questions I have, are:

1) Is there anyway to add a 5-minute (or any other multi-minute) skip forward button?

2) I thought I read something about this DVR displaying incoming caller ID, not seeing that in my case, was I mistaken or is this something that can be enabled?

3) Unfortunately, the same crappy guide that was on my old boxes is on these boxes as well. Not sure how to identify it, but it has the TV Guide logo on every page. My software is 74.54 - 4003 with a Firmware version of 22.37. Are there any plans to update the guide or software? I have already seen the same problems we had with the old boxes where you press a button and there is no response, so you press it again, and again (well, my wife does, not me!) and eventually the box issues all of those commands at once.

You need the A28 iguide update and then the Page Up/Page Down will advance and rewind by 5 minutes while a recording is played.

For now, my 'B' key is programmed to do the 'A' key 4 times and the 'A' key does the thirty second skip via the macro function 995 code giving me a 2minute skip. Not as elegant but works nicely to typically skip through commercials.

Hopefully A28 will roll out to your area in the not too distant future.

Synchron

Yes, rewind works too during that delay but the 'Stop' key (for me) does nothing. I could see the logic to that.

..and alas, it was too good to be true, my programmed series SNL show did not record even though it was taking up disc space. Got the typical black screen/could not advance the buffer, therefore, I don't think any F/W updates improved on this. I wish I new what causes some of these dud recordings I get from time to time.

Synchron

No. The 5-minute forward function is automatically associated with the page-up button, and the 5-minute back function is automatically associated with the page-down button... on the A28 software.

Once you get A28 and the function becomes available, you will then be able to assign/reassign them to other keys if you don't like where they are. Page-up is EFC code 00176, and page-down is EFC code 00172, and the new A28 software responds with the 5-minute advance/rewind to buttons assigned with those codes when the "cable" device has previously been pressed.

But the functions themselves are simply not implemented on A24 (i.e. the 74.xxx software you currently have on your DCX3400). Nothing you can do about this, and default "cable" function for page-up under current A24 software is simply "null" (i.e. no function), and for page-down is 15-second rewind.



That's the A24 iGuide software version I mentioned above. That's the current iGuide software TWC/LA has available on most of LA. Some users in some areas have received an early version of A28, but it has not been rolled out wide yet.

Firmware version 22.37 is totally unrelated to the iGuide software which is A24/74.xxx.



Signs of upcoming A28 wide distribution have been observed. But not yet.



This is called "key queuing", and will probably be the most noticeable change for users with A28.

This feature has been eliminated with A28. No more stacking up of unresponded-to button pushes. Now, the function will either be responded to or ignored (if the CPU is 100% busy doing something else). If ignored, you'll just have to push it a second (or third, etc.) time and it will eventually be responded to.

I've heard that this significant design change has done wonders for overall response of all boxes (both DCH and DCX) when A28 is installed. The A28 response time in general seems to be much much zippier.

Also, A28 has a new "folder" approach to collect multiple recordings of the same show, which is a convenience.

Also, there is a "DVR History" function that keeps track of previously recorded and/or deleted and/or un-scheduled shows, which greatly improves "tie breaking" when deciding whether or not to schedule upcoming non-first-run recordings when you have "series/first-run" specified but the show is repeated multiple times per day or week. This doesn't work too well with A24, even though you'd think the presence of "new" and "repeat" in the Guide cell info would be sufficient. Anyway, word is that it's much better in A28 and I'm sure it's this "DVR History" folder (which can be viewed, and purged) that is to be thanked.

Be patient. It will arrive.

The A28 guide is not necessary for the 5 minute skips. It's been working on my boxes with the A25 guide for well over a year. For some reason the 5 minute skips work in some areas with the A25 but not all.

As of now you need to have Comcast phone, internet & a DVR (or some other callerID capable box) to show the on screen callerID. It also takes up to 6 hours for it to start working after the box is plugged in.

Sorry... I didn't know it had been changed back with A25, which I never got. I went straight from A24 to A28.

But it's definitely not on A24, which is the key.

Thanks for all the responses, I really appreciate them! As for the caller ID, I have TWC, so if it's only a Comcast feature, that would explain it. I do have all three features (DVR/Internet/Phone) with TWC though.

In my area it's still A25 and 22.35, though it sounds like many others in Northern CA have been upgraded. ??

Some dud recordings that are as you describe, are caused when there is some kind of a problem with the picture while recording. That could be a freeze, a lot of breakup, or even a black screen, that you would have seen, if you were there to see it while it was being recorded. I have seen this in progress, on my DVR.

Also, I have a DVDR with a HDD, and have recorded the same thing, at the same time, when there were video glitches. The DVDR records no matter what, so you can see the frozen picture, or all the breakup. The DVR recording will just not play, even though the time bar shows a recording of the proper length. Or, sometimes if the video problem starts during the recording, you can play up to the problem, then the DVR picture will freeze, or go blank.

Of course this doesn't necessarily explain all DVR HDD glitches, but it has been the cause of most of mine.

In the ongoing observations about series scheduling and "new" vs. "repeat"...

Strangely, things now seem to have stabilized. And the newly scheduled recordings starting with late next week and after that for MSNBC shows that are repeated 2-3 times per day are no longer scheduled incorrectly! In fact, only the true first-run (identified with "new") is properly scheduled for recording, and the later repeats (identified with "repeat") are properly not scheduled for recording.

I wonder if it's the use of growing "DVR History", or some kind of "learning algorithm", or maybe just the finally complete 3-day Guide populate process that's allowed the scheduling software to finally settle down and do things right.

Whatever it is, I'm actually quite startled to discover that A28 is now correctly handling every one of my more-than-once-a-week series, on HBOHD, SHOHD, FXHD, MSNBCHD, BBCAHD, COMHD as well as the major broadcast networks. In other words, I haven't had to un-schedule an extraneously scheduled upcoming series recording for three days now. It's all done correctly!

Fingers crossed. A VAST improvement over A24... and exactly as it should be working.

Although my A28 guide is still populating, I also noticed an improved behavior relating to shows that re-air multiple times during the week. In the older version, if there was a conflict with higher-priority shows set to record at the same time (i.e. the show was listed as not to be recorded because two other higher priority shows were set to record at the same time), there was no indication that another incarnation of that show would be recorded later. In that older guide, it wasn't until after the time of the first possible recording passed that the next recording would get scheduled.

However, last night I noticed a change. The first incarnation of a program was listed as not to be recorded, but a later one the same evening was listed to be recorded. A good change.

I love how this works with the new guide. But, that is about the only thing good that came out of the new guide.

Maybe it depends on the provider? Until the A28 update yesterday, I was on A24 with Comcast and the Page Up/Down buttons did the 5 minute skip just fine.

That's what I was thinking too. I'm on Comcast too, and Pg/Up/Dn buttons have worked as 5-min skips for some time now.

Hello, all. My apologies if the following has already been covered:

Does Comcast send out 480p content or just 480i? I ask because I'm trying to determine if both 480i AND 480p or just 480i should be selected in my DCX3400 menu. I prefer not to have any upconversion, as I'm not a fan of the picture stretching and strive for the intended resolution.

Also, should I leave 1080p unchecked since only 1080i is transmitted? I'm not sure if it makes a difference or not...

Many thanks...

480p is not a broadcast standard. It's for SD DVD.

Non-HD channels are only 480i, with HD being either 720p or 1080i.



Then you want "native", with "480i override = OFF". That latter choice will be grayed out if you choose "native", but if you went with a fixed resolution for some reason you should specify "OFF" here to ensure no horizontal stretching. But fixed resolution (e.g. 1080i) would result in upconversion of 720p, which you don't want.

==> "native".



Makes no real difference. The 1080p option is not for up-converting, but whether to pass-through any 1080p program content as 1080p, should it be available.

I don't believe any cable system yet provides 1080p content, though I believe DirectTV has some pay-per-view content now provided at 1080p.

So it really will make no difference for your Comcast setup. It's probably pre-checked as on if your connected HDTV can support 1080p (I think the HDMI handshake provided that information back to the setup logic that presents the menu).

Thanks, DSperber. I have my box set to 'Native' and am enjoying its rewards over the DCH3416. 720p content on my Samsung LCD (LN52B750) looks so much better when not converting to 1080i.

So, in theory I could select just 1080i, 720p and 480i (leaving the remaining resolutions unchecked) and call it a day?

Thanks again...

Yep.

My DCX3400 is set to "native", but my DCH3416 (which I retain at my second HDTV because of its working firewire interface, to allow offloading to DVHS at that second location) is set to 1080i (since the DCH did not support "native"). I now use the FORMAT function (i.e. cycle through all resolutions) to drop the DCH from 1080i from 720p when I tune to a 720p channel, because 720p content sent out "native 720p" instead of upconverting to 1080i looks much better... as you yourself confirm.

What's interesting is that if I forget to cycle back to 1080i when next tuning to a 1080i channel, the down-converted 1080i to 720p looks TERRIBLE! In fact, it looks so unlike what I was expecting for that show that I immediately recognize it and quickly cycle back to 1080i.

"Native" is really a great step forward.



Yep.

Does anyone get the "One moment please" message with a reference code? A few times I've been getting that with the Reference Code: s0012 on iGuide A28. Does anyone know what the reference code is for?

Yes, I noticed the "One Moment Please" right after the A28 update from Comcast last Tuesday.

I'm clueless as to what it means though.

Does anybody know if the A28 S/W and 22.48 Firmware updates have solved (or improved) the HDMI handshake issues with receivers?

I can't speak about the HDMI handshake issues, however A28 has created a new annoying sync problem for my "Component" connection from my old Comcast DCT-3412 DVR to my 4 year old Panasonic TC-32LE60 HDTV (directly connected with no A/V receiver).

Over the last 4 years I never turned the DVR off and have had virtually no problems. Now after the A28 update, when I power up the HDTV, there is no picture or audio until I either change the channel, or more preferrably perform a tuner swap and then back again (so I don't lose the orginal channel's buffer). During the no picture/audio state, all the controls work and my menus display on the screen .... just no broadcast video or audio until I jump or swap channels.

Really, really Weird's-ville .....

My HDMI handshakes got worse after the A28 update.

Any RW of the picture will bring it back as well. I simply do a 5 minute skip back and then 5 minute skip forward.. Also, I have noticed that this seems to be channel specific as well. If I leave the box on ESPN, I have to do it every time a turn on the TV. Other channels I have noticed show the picture right away when I turn on the TV.