Shaw was here today and hooked up my Gateway and I have a couple of questions:

1. My TV supports 1080P but when I change the setup to 1080P, the portal resets the resolution to really bad 480i or something low like that. The aspect is also 4:3 instead of 16:9. I had to reboot to get it back to 1080i which was set by the installer. Can this device not work on 1080P?

2: When I select the guide, it doesn't load at the current channel. It seems to load where I was looking the last time I accessed the guide. Is this correct or is something wrong with my unit.

I agree that a software reboot would be preferable but fragmentation already has to be addressed by the pvr. Every time a recording is deleted there is potential for fragmentation so some defragmentation solution is used within the system. A power failure can also occur at any time so the hardware and software have to deal with this except for the lucky souls with the Gateway hooked up to a UPS (unless the power failure runs longer than the UPS backup time).

Originally Posted by Golf Crazy
Another question is I have a 1TB extender on my PACE, can I move it over to the Arris and keep the content that is already on it or will it reformat?

Yes you can move it over, no the content will be lost.


It appears this is not the correct answer. I plugged it in and a message immediately popped up on my portal that said I had to reformat it before I could use it.

Golf Crazy, Your questions have been answered here many times. I would suggest you do some reading as you will likely find the answers to many more that will likely come up.

Go into the 'settings' menu and select the aspect ratio you want and how you want the Portal to handle 4:3 content. The standard setting for resolution is 1080i unless you are watching VOD in 1080p. You can select all three of the options in the 1080 area.

Your last question is about the 'feature' of the guide staying where you left it. Press 'Menu' to get back to the current time and again to get to the channel you are watching if you have navigated away from it.

It appears this is not the correct answer. I plugged it in and a message immediately popped up on my portal that said I had to reformat it before I could use it.

Please, re-read all of the posts about this question since you first asked it.


JasonB, See, we're not alone.;)

I didn't state that it would reformat the drive since it seemed irrelevant considering the content would be lost moving over the drive, which I did state. Apparently, I wasn't as clear on that as I could have been since more than one person didn't read it the way I intended. I'll try to be more explicit in the future.

I have two PVRs installed inside the gateway MoCA circuit. My installer installed a splitter at each TV to connect the PVR. He put a MoCA filter at the MCX3400 and no MoCA filter at the Pace 770D. I did not noticed this after he left. What is the different between the Pace and the Motorola PVRs?

My Gateway system and my PVRs are working for 2 weeks without any problem.

This is a little 'odd' but not so surprising. I have no MoCA filters on either of the Motorola PVRs I have 'inside' the MoCA network and both seem to work just fine. While 'best practices' would dictate 'all non-MoCA' equipment should be 'outside' the MoCA network either before or after the network using filters, Shaw seems to have determined there is no need for additional filters. So, you probably don't even need the one on your 3400 but it shouldn't hurt to leave it in place.

Perhaps Shaw is now installing MoCA filters on 3400 boxes since they are MoCA capable and this capability may be activated in the future. This last bit is just pure speculation on my part.

JasonB, See, we're not alone.;)

I keep finding myself wishing this forum had a "Like" button :)

^^^ Like :p

As to the "reformatting" of the expander on the gateway, that's (IMO) the biggest Achilles heel of the gateway system....

If your gateway fails and needs to be replaced, not only do you lose the recordings on the internal drive, you also lose the external expander contents since they are keyed (DRM) to the original gateway device doing the recording.

Just imagine the WAF after you have to explain that all 1.5tb of shows are gone and the last 3 months of the recordings she's done are toast. Hell hath no fury and all that.....

ARRIS/Shaw, here's a feature request for when you get around to enabling wifi and ethernet access to the gateway along with dlna: allow tagged vlans for both ethernet and wifi, personally, there's no way I'd trust this system with access to my main lan's given the ongoing issues with basic features, I can't imagine the security side of the system is any better.

I couldn't agree with you more, sibble-comp, as far as the DRM issues go with the expanders. I don't see why there couldn't be a process for 'authorizing' the transfer of an expander to a new box in the event of a failure requiring replacement. The likely cause of this current situation is the index file is on the STB, or Gateway in this case, so the recording content becomes useless if the index is removed. A system of index restoration would be needed.

This isn't impossible but it seems they have just decided not to bother dealing with this as a 'feature'. If only pigs could fly....

Index on the drive? Doubtful, from discussions with folks at Shaw (who are in the know) and some of my experiences on the IT side, I think it has to do with the security keys for authentication and authorization which are stored on the box and checked against the ones on the expander (or the hash for example), if they don't match, no access allowed. This is probably documented somewhere on the Arris site. Just haven't been inclined to look for it. Though as I am reading: When Gadgets Betray Us by Robert Vamosi, I am inclined to wonder a lot more what exactly is going on under the hood and what kind of digital breadcrumbs are leaking out....

http://whengadgetsbetrayus.com/

that was the impetus for my posting about vlan tagging for wlan and lan connectivity. Well, I'd like to have that anyways regardless as it allows much more flexibility for QoS and so on.

You're missing my point; since the 'index' is in the Gateway, if it gets replaced, especially due to a 'drive failure', the index is lost and the whole concept of reviving the remotely stored content is moot.

My comment was more geared toward having an 'index restore' file that would be kept on the external storage so that in the case of the above happening, as it will inevitably do, for whatever reason, the index could be restored to the replacement box and you would only lose the recordings that were on the internal drive.

For that matter, there should also be an option to choose where recordings are stored; internally first or externally first. The bigger issue is the 'pairing' of the external storage to the STB or Gateway in this case. As long as any replacement is being installed in the same residence, on the same account, there ARE NO DIGITAL RIGHTS ISSUES(that was directed at Shaw, just so everyone knows) and we, the end users who have PAID FOR the content, should have full access to it.

That's where the real problem is.
(rant off, sorry, that sort of just slipped out:eek:)

I'm inclined to think that the index is irrelevant, since it can probably be easily rebuilt. But I get the point on having some kind of restore file. That would still need access to the DRM keys though .....

Heck, an ideal thing would be to have the index file kept on say a usb key attached to the gateway and then shaw pushes down the appropriate drm keys to allow access to the data on a new gateway, which then reads in the index info and you are good to go. Don't see that happening though whether its technically possibly or not.

Agreed on control of where recordings are stored.

As to the digital rights issues, from what I've seen, the MPAA, RIAA and the like coupled with legislation like DMCA, SOPA. PIPA, ACTA and the Canadian version of DMCA basically state you are "using" the content at the behest of the content holders and they can remove your ability to access the content as and when they see fit without recourse :-(

Or to put it another way, lets come up with a system that punishes legitimate users while not doing anything to stop piracy by the black hats.

<shrug>

Basically as I can see it, Shaw is just following the rules/laws that are made upstream whether appropriate to the average consumer or not.

A good view on this sort of thing is a recent Cory Doctorow talk titled: The coming war on general purpose computation

http://boingboing.net/2011/12/27/the-coming-war-on-general-purp.html

Problem 1: Can't schedule a recurring recording by time/channel. Only by shows?

Problem 2: Can only set one timeslot (or all) for a series to record. This is a problem when a show airs multiple times a day, but the show's length varies. example: 6pm news is 1hr Mon-Sat, but only 30min on Sunday (2 different timeslots). I don't want to record all timeslots, which would also include noon and 11pm daily news, but need to record 2 timeslots because the length differs.

problem 1: I don't think this is currently possible.
problem 2: You can have two separate series recordings for the same show. Try setting up one series recording for the first timeslot that you are interested. Then set up a second series recording for the next timeslot you want. I have done something similar for one of my shows.

Edit: My answer is incorrect. You cannot have more than one series recording of a show on the same channel. You must try to find the show on another channel (timeshift, US/Can running same show, or HD/SD equivalent) and have a separate series recording on each channel of the same show. I had forgotten that I used two different channels when I added a second recording of the same show. Sorry for the confusion I created.

GWNorth, nope. Once the series is scheduled, when attempting to add it again a duplicate error message is shown instead. Even if trying to add the series again from the cell on the guide not set to record.

That might be my mistake then. I do have two series recordings of the same show but they might be on different channels now that I think about it. I'll check later. Do you have a timeshift channel of that channel so you could do the same thing perhaps? Or maybe record one on the HD channel and one on the SD channel equivalent (if you can live with SD).

Edit: I checked and I did use different channels for my second recording so I have edited my previous message to add corrected information. Working around the issue is possible in some cases if the show is available on alternate channels. Sorry that I provided incorrect information. Perhaps both these problems could be considered for feature requests to the Arris/Shaw people.

Hi all: Just a reminder to use quotes sparingly.
Only quote the snippets you need to add context and make yourself understood … and don't use quotes at all for a post immediately preceding yours.
Thanks for your co-operation to help keep this thread as easy to read/follow as possible.
Cheers,
downbeat
Moderator, Shaw Cable and Internet/Home Phone forums