[fender4645]

It looks like Comcast will be releasing the Moto 6412 in the next month or two -- dual-tuner and the ability to record HD. Does anyone plan on dumping their Replay for the unit? Personally, I plan on getting a 6412 for the HD TV in my living room but keeping the Replay for the bedroom and the office. While having the "all-in-one" box sounds nice, the DVArchive factor will always keep my Replay's in the house. That and the ability to pause for as long as you have disk space (I can't believe all of the other DVR's will only pause for 30 minutes!!)

 

[pkircher]

I was talking to a comcast techy the other day and he told me to hold off on the new dual tuner unit because it is full of bugs and chances are the first customer will get faulty equiptment. According to my sources they haven't got the hardware or software completely ironed out yet and will proably be using their first customers as basically a second round of beta testers.

 

[danm]

I won't be dumping my Replays for the Comcast DVR, but I'll certainly be using the Motorola unit to timeshift the HD shows I'm interested in. I'll use the Replays for the non-HD stuff.

 

[fender4645]

Quote:

Originally posted by pkircher I was talking to a comcast techy the other day and he told me to hold off on the new dual tuner unit because it is full of bugs and chances are the first customer will get faulty equiptment. According to my sources they haven't got the hardware or software completely ironed out yet and will proably be using their first customers as basically a second round of beta testers.

I don't think they're going to make the same mistake they did with the 6208 (single tuner DVR). They released it way too early with very buggy software and ended up getting a ton of CS calls on it. My contact at Comcast said that it's almost finished and should be released within the next 60 days (the physical units are already in the district warehouses). I'm sure there will be bugs but as danm said, the ability to timeshift HD will have me ordering one the first day they're available.

 

[chain777]

I wouldn't count on Comcast working out the bugs on anything they release. They rolled out VOD in my area almost a month ago, and it's worked all of 2 days for me. Calling support just gives you the same scripted answer of "we're having problems in your area, but we're working on it". If you press, they'll send a tech out who will look at the signals, check your cables and tell you "there's nothing we can do, they have to fix it at the head end".


Why do they bother rolling out these new services when they seem to still be in the alpha stage of development? Oh yea, it's cheaper to use us as beta testers than to actually pay someone else to do it.

 

[MaxH]

Quote:

Originally posted by danm I won't be dumping my Replays for the Comcast DVR, but I'll certainly be using the Motorola unit to timeshift the HD shows I'm interested in. I'll use the Replays for the non-HD stuff.

That's exactly what I plan on doing, now that I have been told by a reliable source that the 6412 will record in HD while allowing the Replay to use the other tuner to record another channel. I can't see giving up the convenience of my Replay, so I'll have them both on the same TV, but I'll only use the 6412 for HD content.

 

[moyekj]

If you want all the gory details about the 6412 with the Pioneer Passport Echo software here is your ultimate source:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=414680


The short of it right now is that Cox/Motorola/Pioneer are still working hard to iron out some of the kinks. When it does work (and with proper precautions you can get it to work right most of the time right now) it's a pretty good system for HD recording - I still need and want my 4 RTVs for SD recordings and as backups for the HD recordings. First 2 weeks in November there will be a firmware update where most of the current bugs supposedly will be fixed.


Whatever software your market ends up with for the 6412, the single biggest problem is lack of disk space - only 10 hours of HD recordings and currently no support for external firewire drive means you have to watch what you record pretty quick. There is a means to pull shows off the unit via firewire to WinXP right now assuming the copy once protection is not enabled in your market on the channel you record from.

 

[kip r]

Quote:

Originally posted by pkircher I was talking to a comcast techy the other day and he told me to hold off on the new dual tuner unit because it is full of bugs and chances are the first customer will get faulty equiptment. According to my sources they haven't got the hardware or software completely ironed out yet and will proably be using their first customers as basically a second round of beta testers.

I hope the dual turner works out ok..I'm on my third single turner DVR and it seems to be holding up, but I had a real tough time with Comcast (and I even used to work there in the video prod. area, NJ).

kr

 

[cr0wbar]

Quote:

Originally posted by moyekj Whatever software your market ends up with for the 6412, the single biggest problem is lack of disk space - only 10 hours of HD recordings and currently no support for external firewire drive means you have to watch what you record pretty quick. There is a means to pull shows off the unit via firewire to WinXP right now assuming the copy once protection is not enabled in your market on the channel you record from.

I am new and trying to absorb that whole thread, but I cannot find anywhere in there that says you can access the shows via firewire and winxp. Could you tell me what page that is on, or post it here thanks.

 

[sfhub]

Quote:

Originally posted by moyekj Whatever software your market ends up with for the 6412, the single biggest problem is lack of disk space - only 10 hours of HD recordings and currently no support for external firewire drive means you have to watch what you record pretty quick.

I wish these PVRs designed for cable TV market would just ship with slots

to insert your own HDs. It's not like they are selling to the end user where

they can charge exhorbitant rates for more hours. I'm sure someone can

come up with a tray where you place your drive, clamp it in, and insert into

the DVR, similar to the removable dvd drives in laptops.

 

[fender4645]

Quote:

Originally posted by sfhub I wish these PVRs designed for cable TV market would just ship with slots to insert your own HDs. It's not like they are selling to the end user where they can charge exhorbitant rates for more hours. I'm sure someone can come up with a tray where you place your drive, clamp it in, and insert into the DVR, similar to the removable dvd drives in laptops.

Why have clamps and stuff...that's what FireWire/USB is for. Maxtor recently announced that they are going to have a new line of external drives that are specifically designed for upgrading space on DVRs. While they didn't announce any partners, I would bet they are working with major cable/DVR providers to get these into customers hands. Of course this may be a while. Then again, I really don't care about hard drive space in my Replay...that's what DVA is for

 

[moyekj]

Quote:

Originally posted by cr0wbar I am new and trying to absorb that whole thread, but I cannot find anywhere in there that says you can access the shows via firewire and winxp. Could you tell me what page that is on, or post it here thanks.

I responded to your message in other forum thread, but just in case, here's info on how to do it:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=403695

 

[sfhub]

Quote:

Originally posted by fender4645 Why have clamps and stuff...that's what FireWire/USB is for.

That's fine for expansion, but I'd like the builtin drive to be user

selectable and, just as a matter of personal perference, I'd prefer

not having a firewire enclosure hanging off the box for everyday

usage. More cords to worry about and potentially another a/c

adapter if the firewire can't power the drive.

 

[IFLYSWA]

Quote:

Originally posted by fender4645 It looks like Comcast will be releasing the Moto 6412 in the next month or two -- dual-tuner and the ability to record HD. Does anyone plan on dumping their Replay for the unit? Personally, I plan on getting a 6412 for the HD TV in my living room but keeping the Replay for the bedroom and the office. While having the "all-in-one" box sounds nice, the DVArchive factor will always keep my Replay's in the house. That and the ability to pause for as long as you have disk space (I can't believe all of the other DVR's will only pause for 30 minutes!!)

I've still got the 6208 and I use it almost exclusively for recording HD stuff. They will hopefully have the kinks worked out on implementing the 6412s in an A/B environment soon so I can swap out for it....they are available in other parts of DFW already. When (if) a good platform independent HD DVR becomes available with the features I want, I will consider selling one of my Replays, but not before. I am looking forward to the two-tuner capability to be able to record one show on the 6412 while piping another downconverted stream to a Replay. I hope that does, in fact, work. I've considered going the D* route and grabbing the HD-TiVo, but I don't want to do that just yet. Maybe if I decide to buy a house soon......but I digress. Anyway, I don't plan on getting rid of either of my Replays just yet.....


-Randy

 

[Walburga]

Quote:

Originally posted by IFLYSWA I am looking forward to the two-tuner capability to be able to record one show on the 6412 while piping another down-converted stream to a Replay. I hope that does, in fact, work.

Dumb question: Why bother piping the down-converted second tuner to the Replay.. why not just record both on the 6412?


As long as you don't need to move it to your computer (which you can do straight from the Cable-Box via firewire), it seems like you're downgrading the quality for...?


--Walburga


PS: Although I have both a Replay and a 6412, I haven't bothered trying to record a down-converted output yet so I'm not 100% sure it'd work.. but I don't see why not, as long as the IR blaster will work with the box to change channels (and since I know the IR codes are just an extended set of the DCT22xx/51xx/62xx codes it should..)


My only worry would be that if somehow the currently viewed tuner got switched to the one that was currently recording HD, and whether entering channel changes would then kill that recording.


Hmmm.. gonna have to mess with that.. start a recording, switch to that tuner, and see if changing the channel does anything...

 

[IFLYSWA]

Quote:

Originally posted by Walburga Dumb question: Why bother piping the down-converted second tuner to the Replay.. why not just record both on the 6412? As long as you don't need to move it to your computer (which you can do straight from the Cable-Box via firewire), it seems like you're downgrading the quality for...?

Funny you should ask that....as I was typing that I was asking myself the same question. Since I had seen the process of using the second tuner in this way referenced earlier, I assumed (there's a lesson there) that you couldn't record two shows simultaneously on the 6412. If that is possible, then I totally agree there is no real reason to mess with the downconversion. If not, though, I would want to.

Quote:

My only worry would be that if somehow the currently viewed tuner got switched to the one that was currently recording HD, and whether entering channel changes would then kill that recording. Hmmm.. gonna have to mess with that.. start a recording, switch to that tuner, and see if changing the channel does anything...

Since I haven't had the opportunity to play with (or even see) a 6412 yet, I'd like to hear how this turns out. I have been reading about the HD-TiVo, and it doesn't seem like you can even select which tuner is being used for what function, although I am not positive about that. Since that was my understanding of that platform, I assumed (there's that word again!) that the 6412 worked the same way. I need to see a 6412 so I can better understand how you would select what is going out a particular output, or if you have multiple outputs for the multiple tuners, or what. I think I'll poke around to see if I can find a soft copy of the manual online....


Edit: I see on the Moto website that it does record two shows at once...so there's that! If anybody wants to check out the manual, here is a link:

Motorola 6412 Manual


Thanks for the input!


Randy

 

[ianken]

Quote:

Originally posted by moyekj If you want all the gory details about the 6412 with the Pioneer Passport Echo software here is your ultimate source: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showt...hreadid=414680 The short of it right now is that Cox/Motorola/Pioneer are still working hard to iron out some of the kinks.

In Seattle they are shipping with Microsoft TV Foundation, not software from Pioneer.

http://www.microsoft.com/tv/content/...Whats_New.mspx

 

[sfhub]

Quote:

Originally posted by IFLYSWA Funny you should ask that....as I was typing that I was asking myself the same question. Since I had seen the process of using the second tuner in this way referenced earlier, I assumed (there's a lesson there) that you couldn't record two shows simultaneously on the 6412. If that is possible, then I totally agree there is no real reason to mess with the downconversion. If not, though, I would want to.

If it were me, it would be for streaming to other locations in the house and

for IVS purposes.


The downconverted HD looks significantly better than analog cable.

 

[jesup]

We have 2 (soon to be 3) Replay 5000's, and a Motorola 6208.


The 6208 is used by my inlaws primarily. They rarely use the PVR function with a few random cases of using Pause and playing back the Daily Show (which I have scheduled to record). It still has a bunch of HD material from the Olympics on it. Plus they occasionally mash buttons and accidentally record things.


They don't use the Replay because they're used to flipping channels and to the motorola DCT boxes, and it's easier to leave it in "live" mode with the replay out of the loop. Also My father-in-law decided the 6208 was "a wonder" because it has a one-button on/off that will handle the TV, receiver and cable box. Before that he was always getting confused by what was on and what wasn't. ANd the Replay remote can't control the receiver volume.

 

[moyekj]

Quote:

Originally posted by sfhub If it were me, it would be for streaming to other locations in the house and for IVS purposes. The downconverted HD looks significantly better than analog cable.

Unfortunately the 6412 (and the 6200/6208) doesn't have any way to output anamorphic widescreen on it's S-video/composite outputs, so HD recordings come out letterboxed 4:3 when recorded to ReplayTV. Because of this limitation I usually do it myself the "hard" way by extracting the HD Transport stream from the Firewire port and then down-converting it myself while preserving 16:9 AR. It's a very long software-based re-encoding process, but if you want a high quality 16:9 DVD it's definately the way to go. I find it hard to distinguish between picture quality of the original HD feed versus the finalized DVD. From what I gather there are several OTA HD tuners that do downconvert to anamorphic, so for those the process is MUCH quicker/better.