[Mike99]

I just picked up a Comcast Motorola digital STB, DCT 2524 / 1612. It has an RF bupass jumper on the back. I somehow was left with the impression that when the STB was turned off that the RF would pass through. Just like turning off your VCR. But this is not happening. IOW, I thought I could watch analog channels and leave the box off. I did go thru the setup menu and turned on the RF bypass, but it made no difference.


Anyone familiar with how this RF bypass should work?


Mike

 

[wdsnls]

Check with Comcast and find out if the by-pass is even active on their boxes. My cable company does not have them activated.

 

[Mike99]

I called Comcast earlier & the rep said when the box is off, no signal goes thru. However this is the same tech supt rep that put me on hold a couple times and had to ask someone else about the "record" function on the STB. I asked why she could not just put me thru to the person she has to ask. She said she could not transfer me.


Last week I called & had other questions and the rep also had to put me on hold twice & had to ask someone else. They eventually gave me incorrect info, as I found out once I picked up a digital STB.


It appears Comcast really cannot answer questions about their product. They may be right, but just as likely not. So far they told me the STB has no RF output and and cannot be set to change channels in order to record (with a VCR, etc).


So I rely on the experienced people on these forums. I figured if there is a workaround, someone has probably found it.


BTW, how far in advance can you view your TV Guide? Most of my stuff beyond today is "to be announced". This does no good if I want to select a program for future recording.


Mike

 

[AntAltMike]

How much of a workaround do you need? You can loop RF around the box with a couple of hi-lo signal joiners and get analog channels 7-13, 23-94 and 100 and up, as well as most of the midband (14-22). You MIGHT be able to fashion something with a channel 3 or 4 Channel Master Jointenna, but it might not have enough rejection to serve your purposes


You can split the cable input line and feed one leg into a VCR tuner input, if that would help you in your situation.


There are things that cable boxes are physically able to do that the local cable company's software will not allow them to be authorized to do. For example, most cable boxes can be programmed to output either channel 3 or 4, but, last I knew, the software did not allow individual box addressability of that fearure. A Cable system engineer said they deliberately made it impossible to do that because they didn't want to the headache of having to deal with customers who got interference on the channel that was also used for local brioadcast, or who wanted one box on one channel and the other box on another, etc., etc.

 

[Mike99]

I did split the cable input & am feeding the STB and a VCR. The STB composite out also feeds this same VCR, while the STB RF out feeds a second VCR. I can program the primary VCR to record analog cable and digital via composite when I need to. Also, with cable RF feeding the primary VCR it will keep its clock accurate. But it would be nice if the RF just passed thru the STB though.


The on screen STB setup guide for the box does have a selection for RF bypass ON or OFF. But it makes no difference which way I set it. Since it's there I figured it must mean something. There is a jumper on the back connecting "to RF in" to "RF in". I wonder if this hardwired connection was disconnected if the software setting would do something. I'll have to play with this.


Mike

 

[wdsnls]

I don't know if this is common to a Motorola box, but the RF output on my Scientific Atlanta box carries a mono audio signal. I do have the capability of using all three outputs, which include the S-Video and composite outputs.