Thx LEGO, it WORKS!!!!!!

I can't believe that for 6 long weeks, I have been swearing at my box, waiting, hoping, that I would get my HD channels tuning in right away.

Why wasn't this fix posted before, oh why, I ask???

Two days before the firmware update... Oh well, if that ends up being late, this will tie me over. Thx man!!!

Thx LEGO, it WORKS!!!!!!

I can't believe that for 6 long weeks, I have been swearing at my box, waiting, hoping, that I would get my HD channels tuning in right away.

Why wasn't this fix posted before, oh why, I ask???

Two days before the firmware update... Oh well, if that ends up being late, this will tie me over. Thx man!!!
It was, its just buried in this very long thread. It should probably be in a FAQ.

The other option is that someone who's interested can go through the thread and summarize the various items for the first post - like I did for the SA8000HD sticky and has been partially done by Shawguy for this thread. If someone does that, just PM Shawguy and he'll put the information in the first post.

Hey Faston, I had my 6208 reset on me on friday around 9:45pm. I got a ticket number the last time I called shaw so now I have a tech. coming out tommorrow to check my hookup & maybe replace my 6208. I find it wierd that their sending out a tech out to check the wiring/hookup for what seems to me to be a box problem, but if it fixes the problems it worth the hassel. Has anyone else had them send out a tech & what was the result?

Hey Faston, I had my 6208 reset on me on friday around 9:45pm. I got a ticket number the last time I called shaw so now I have a tech. coming out tommorrow to check my hookup & maybe replace my 6208. I find it wierd that their sending out a tech out to check the wiring/hookup for what seems to me to be a box problem, but if it fixes the problems it worth the hassel. Has anyone else had them send out a tech & what was the result?
Mach3, mine reset today at about 2:30pm or so. I think this one was induced by me scrolling across the guide multiple days. I've had this happen a couple of times now as opposed to the spontaneous resets.

I've also had a tech come out and check all the connections and levels and talk to the headend which also was able to observe the HD delay problem. They replaced my 6208 on the first try and its reset itself many times since. I think I'm going to log it again since I don't want them to believe my problem is fixed.

Mach3,

Unless being home when the Shaw tech comes is very convenient, I suggest you hold off. They sent a tech out since my Lonestar and adjacent stations were not coming up on my 6208. When the tech arrived he said it was a known problem with the 6208 and he couldn't fix it.

The other day I called Shaw tech line to see if there was any fix available for that problem and once again the tech rep said that they would need to send a technician out since it was clearly a signal problem. I then told her to double check because I don't want to arrange to leave work early to meet their tech if it was a known problem. After checking for about 10 minutes, she acknowledged that it was indeed a known problem and having a tech visit my location was useless.

I know fixing all the problems with the 6208 isn't an easy task.
I do believe that Shaw should have their story straight on the 5 or 6 "known" problems with the box though. Sending technicians out cost both Shaw and the end user time and aggravation if it is pointless.

I should note that I always exchanged my 6208 many weeks ago since the Shaw tech on the phone suggested that should solve my other problems.
All of these problems have been raised on this forum at some point.

I firmly believe that 99% of the problems associated with the 6208 today are due to software bugs or similar. In other words, a tech coming out to your location will not be able to fix it. Let's just hope that Motorola can fix most of them. And hope that they don't just fix it for new releases of the 6208.

What happened to the "fix" that was coming on Oct. 17th?

I think that 17th date that someone got was more likely the latest that they would be getting the update from Motorola, or perhaps a very optimistic deployment date.

The fellow I talked to at Shaw said they would be getting the update from Motorola around mid-month and then they would be testing it themselves before rolling it out. But he said they would have it deployed before the end of the month.

Had the Shaw tech in this past Sunday morning, he took a quick look at the hookup & said it all looked fine. Then I told him about the reset problem & the long HD channel change delay (25-60 seconds for me). He said he thinks something is wrong with the box but doesn't know exactly what it was so he replace it. He hooked the new one up & then called in to authorize the box. We wait a little bit then to my surprise the HD Channel change delay is down to maybe 5 seconds at the most which he said is the time that it take to buffer the Hd channels for the PVR. After confirming the box was working he left, but on the way out he did mention that they are having some issue at their office with these boxes too. So I guess by him saying this we can assume that these problems are driving shaw crazy too. So far (knock on wood) the box has been working great with no problems, I just hope it keeps it up.

Mach3, hopefully yours will continue to work but I bet it does reset itself within a week or two. Sometimes though, it will reset itself while your not using it so you may not even know.

The HD channel delay was not there when the 6208 was first introduced back just before the Olympics so I don't buy the HD buffer delay. Besides, the delay is not consistent. Sometimes I get the channel immediately and sometimes not.

Because of the HD delay when switching channels I have started putting 5 minutes of padding at the start of a HDTV show that I want to record on my DCT6208. It has worked so far until last night recording Lost. I missed the first 5 minutes or so of the episode because of this damn problem. (Yeah that's right, 10 freakin' minutes to change to the channel!) I called up SHAW and was given the same song and dance that we have been getting for the past few months.

This is getting ridiculous. What the hell is the point of having HDTV when you cannot even turn to the station!! :(
(and yes, I have tried the workaround that has been posted previously, but it only seems to work for a little while when it works)

Greetings

I am in Vancouver..got the 6208 from FutureShop on Sept18

the problems i seem to be having with the box is the slow channel changes. Channel 109 (deja view) stopped coming in, was just a blank screen. Playboy for the first few weeks would not come in..then it started coming in after about a minute...The HD stations take from 30sec to a min...tho as of this morning the HD stations take 5seconds to come on.

I have a problem that i havent seen yet tho. All the HD stations with the exception of 303 have jaggies. The edges around people and straight lines in the scene have Jaggy edges like you would see on a computer screen.
The TV i have is a Sharp 20" that only does 480p..but dont think that is reason for jaggies as 303 comes in perfect. I have the unit hooked up via the component connection. All the other stations come in fine, Regular digital and analog look good.
(i did the power off menu thing- i have it set to 4:3 and both HD and non HD at 480P)
I had a shaw rep come out to look at my system because when i phoned the rep said the slow changing channels was due to a low signal strength..

The repair guy said i have a strong signal ..5 he said... he told me (like so many others have heard here) of the known problems at the head end.

I called again recently to ask about the slow channel changes and no 109 and PB... they wanted to send another repair guy..and the guy asked me if i had the unit plugged into a power bar. ..i told him no.. "are you sure?" he says...that really erked me..what kind of attitude was that...

They made an appt to send a repair guy out again. but i cancelled that a few days later. no point.. phone guys says a repair guy has to come out.. repair guy says nothing he can do it is problem at head end and is known problems.

so anyway..main reason for this was to ask about the jaggies and if anyone has any ideas...is it the cable? using the one that came with the 6208.
dont want to spend 50-100bux to find out nothing changes.

I have since cancelled both PB\Hustler and 5 of the digital channels -109(never came in - tho when the repair guy was there he showed me a "trick" tune to 109..remove the incoming coax from 6208. wait a few secs ..then reattach coax. 109 tunes in fine. ) 116 92 89 129 -removed.

So if anyone has any tips or advise i am all ears :)

Recently I posted a thread regarding long delays on switching HD channels on the 6208 STB. My friend had been waiting for a long time for SHAW to come up with a fix. We were lead to believe a fix would come out on October the 17th and when this did not materialize my friend again contacted SHAW. This time he was treated well and SHAW told him that they are still working on a fix for the problem of the box locking up when changing channels.

They sent him this Email:

TEMPORARY TUNING FOR DCT

Temporary tuning solution for DCT that exhibit delayed tuning on High

Definition Channels.

1 - Tune the DCT to the desired HD channel

2 - Using the Shaw remote, go to MENU

3 - Select the house symbol, press OK

4 - Choose ‘Setup’ , press OK

5 - Choose ‘ Audio Setup’ , press OK

6 - Scroll the default ‘English’ to ‘Espanol", then back

‘English’ (do not press OK to fully select Espanol – just highlight it with cursor)

7 - You will see the program come up in the split

screen, choose EXIT. The selected HD channel should tune in.

Thank you for choosing Shaw!

He has tried this and it does indeed work to unlock the box.

Hope this might help others who are experiencing this problem.

Very interesting. Now is this something you do each time to get the channel right away?

to be honest I haven't been following this whole thread, but if you want me to add anything to the first post on the front page of this thread - like quotes from other posts, just either Private message me with the post and I will quote it and add it or send me the selected quote in a private message and I will add it if its one that has been asked alot - then hopefully people won't have to go through 18-19 pages of posts to find their answer

Thanks in Advance to all who help out
Shawguy

I was told the same thing to try, unfortunately the workaround isn't always an option, especially when you have set a HD program to be recorded when you aren't around.

Recently I posted a thread regarding long delays on switching HD channels on the 6208 STB.

blah, blah, blah...


problem of the box locking up when changing channels.

They sent him this Email:

TEMPORARY TUNING FOR DCT

blah, blah, blah

3 - Select the house symbol, press OK

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So I see Shaw is relying on this forum to give them ideas about how to fix the slow channel changes. Where else would they get the idea to switch the audio settings? Certainly not from the software engineers. These boxes are the best thing since sliced bread. It's just too bad that Shaw has stuck to the same old guide software. They actually have a choice and have once again made the wrong one. Maybe Shaw just wanted to work out all the bugs with the 6208 before they torture us with the 6412 dual tuner model hopefully coming out next year?

If the 6208 is set to 480i, will the HD channes still appear? Just in widescreen like a DVD?

I haven't tried component output that way, but on my DCT5100 the RF output is as you describe... HD channels show as letterboxed SD.

Oh my 5100 it would depend if you selected 16:9 or Pan & Scan in the menu as to what would happen to the HD if you output 480i on the component line. I can only assume that the 6208 works the same way.