Have you tried going to a different prerecorded item, start playing it and then going back to the original item?

I just figured out why the "blank" recordings are there. We had a free subscription to some of the channels and the subscription ran out at the end of last month. Without a subscription it records the show but you cannot watch it. This is silly and should be fixeed. iGuide needs some fixing in this area. I have no need or desire to see the listings of shows that I do not subscribe to.

Hey guys, just got our 6208 hooked up last night and activated. I don't have our HD tv yet, get it tomorrow night. A Hitachi RPTV 46F510. Just had a few questions.

I hooked the Shaw 6208 into my receiver (Panasonic SAHE-100) via component cables and used the optical input for audio. Then I ran a component cable over to where the new tv is going to go. For the time being I'm using a S-Video cable to watch on the 27" Sony were replacing. Do you guys think its ok to have the receiver do the switching between Shaw, DVD, VCR etc? Or do you think its better to have the Shaw hooked directly to the tv? I read earlier in the thread that the picture quality is better if you use the tv's tuner for analog channels. But can you get all the channels just using the tv tuner? I know on my Sony that you can only get up to 60 something, and not 135 channels like with the digital cable box. There are some time shifted channels we like to watch at 132 or so.

Something else I wanted to ask about, the digital input from the 6208. On my receiver it only shows Front Left and Right as input audio. When I finally found a channel in Dolby Digital (Scream channel) it didn't change, still the same speakers. Mind you the movie they had on was old and probably not recorded in DD. Do you actually get 5.1 from the Shaw box? Or should I try the coaxial input from it?

Thanks!

the only way you're going to get 5.1 is through the optical out, maybe the spdif connection, i don't know about that one because i haven't used it before.

you're propbably going to want to connect the component cables from the cable box directly into the tv. if you plug it in to your reciever first, you'll need an extra set of component cables from thee reciever to the tv to get the HD picture. and i'm sure you konw by now a decent set of component cables aren't cheap.

and then to watch the analogue channels withouth the cable box, get a splitter, and connect one end to the box and one to your tv. don't waste money on a splitter or extra cable, just go to the shaw office and tell you ust bought a box and you need some extra cable and a splitter and they'll give it to you for free.

You will not get much 5.1 on anything but the Movie Central channels and the 6 HD channels. I don't know of any other channel that would have 5.1 on it. If you want to test it out and you do have MC, go to the moviecentral.ca site and click on the programming guide and it will tell you when a 5.1 movie is on.

See the Digital Home FAQ on "What's available in DD5.1".

Thanks guys, so I did have it hooked up properly to begin with. I guess with my old Shaw box, I had the regular right/left coming into my receiver, and it processed it into "surround", so it sounded different than the optical input.

Also, I just thought of this. I also hooked my VCR up to the receiver (before I had a switch box because the tv only had a couple of inputs). Can component cables carry the crappy VCR signals to the tv? I don't want to have to run 15 feet of cable just for the VCR if I don't have too.

If your A/V receiver "upconverts" the composite (or s-video) signal out of your VCR, then it would work. If not, then a separate cable would be required. (Not many receivers do this "upconversion".

If you already have an S-video cable run, and if your VCR is composite out, you can simply buy a composite to S-Video adaptor for the input to the receiver.

1-I recorded Survivor last night from 8-11pm. I started watching it from the beginning at 9pm and when the box finished recording at 11pm, it turned itself off when I was still watching and had only gotten 1:45 into it. When I turned the box back on, it did not remember where I had left off so I had to ffwd to the 1:45 mark that I had gotten to, even though I had watched parts of shows before, turned the box off and got back to where I had left off by using "resume" a day or two later. Obviously we want these boxes to turn on and off themselves for recording while we are doing something else, but to turn off while multitasking doesn't make any sense. Imagine if you're watching your favourite program live but have rewound 15 minutes, or left it on pause, and the box ends the recording of another show by shutting off? You'd lose what you had time-shifted!

2-When I press the ffwd button four times fast the 4xffwd is stuttery and not all that fast. If I press the ffwd button four times a little slower, only then does it appear to increase in speed at each level.

3-While scrolling through the guide to set recordings for upcoming shows, the box started acting funny, flickering and acting as if I was pressing lots of buttons quickly in succession. It went crazy and it would not turn off. The only thing that I could do was unplug it. Once I plugged it back in it was fine. A minimal menu came back after 10 minutes or so, then the list of my recordings after 15 minutes and access to future recordings came back after 20 minutes but the program names said "to be announced" for about 30 minutes, despite Shaw saying it would take up to 4 hours to all come back (I guess I got lucky).

Any comments, suggestions or similar stories from others?

i have had all of those happen to me, and more

the only way to get around the box not turing off is to leave it on all the time

just avoid scrolling through the program guide really fast, use the day +/- button instead.....and they always say it'll take an hour to download the entire guid, but i usually get it within 15-20 min

as for the fastforward, that would explain why mine never seems to go that fast

The unwanted scrolling is a known issue according to Shaw. When and if they fix it, who knows. If you have a Harmony remote there also is a day up button.

I am considering buying a 6208, but noted that a few months ago people were complaining about delays when switching channels, which makes it tough to channel surf. As a chronic surfer, this would be a deal breaker for me. It seems that Shaw has worked out some of the glitches recently so I'm hoping that's one of them. Could someone with one of these boxes reply with their experiences?

My 6208 takes about 2 to 4 seconds to change channels except for Playboy and Hustler. Changing to either of the latter two channels locks up the 6208 for 30 seconds before changing channels.

The problem with much longer channel changes on the High Definition channels was fixed in early November.

one to two second lag tops... working really well (touch some reasonable facsimile of a wood product)

3-While scrolling through the guide to set recordings for upcoming shows, the box started acting funny, flickering and acting as if I was pressing lots of buttons quickly in succession. It went crazy and it would not turn off. The only thing that I could do was unplug it. Once I plugged it back in it was fine. A minimal menu came back after 10 minutes or so, then the list of my recordings after 15 minutes and access to future recordings came back after 20 minutes but the program names said "to be announced" for about 30 minutes, despite Shaw saying it would take up to 4 hours to all come back (I guess I got lucky).

Any comments, suggestions or similar stories from others?

My basic cable has some problems with the signal. It comes and goes but the symptoms are snowy analog picture, degraded internet speeds, and dropouts on the digital.

There were times when the upstream speed was severely degraded, to about 1/20th of the normal throughput. At those times the HD STB and DVR act weird. They don't respond to remote button presses, sometimes for 2-40 seconds. It's as if the box is waiting for it's upstream communication before it responds. When it does 'wake up', it sends all the button presses at once and looks all spastic.

Is that the kind of behavior you're seeing?

Ok ... I now have both the Shaw HD 6208 and Bells 5900 SD video recorder.

FF and FastRewind comparison:
- 6208 is a DOG - slower than molasses on a cold day
- Bell 5900 is variable, SMOOTH & FAST,up to *300* times FF and REWIND
(Takes about 20 seconds to zip through an hour movie)

Hard Drive Space:
- 6208 is small (especially for HD) at only 80 Gig
- 5900 has 120 Gig and its only for SD

Functionality:
- 6208 operation is real clunky, and my biggest peave - YOU CAN'T PERFORM GO-BACK RECORDING!!! Whats with that????
- 5900 is smooth, slick and very user friendly guide. If you are watching a program and some time into it, you decide you want to record, YOU CAN! You simply FAST REWIND at 300 times, and hit record, then FAST forward to the spot you left off. That's the way these pvr's should work, eh!!!

Quiet:
- While not unbearable, the 6208 runs hotter and makes more noise
- the 5900 is whisper quiet - I never hear it

Conclusions:

First let me say that as I am comparing an SD PVR and an HD PVR, there may be technical constraints (sheer file size is likely an added burden) on the HD box that cause it to perform so poorly in comparison, so if you can get it cheap enough, I'd still buy the HD PVR again, just to have something to record HD with.

I like the option to record HD, but this Motorola PVR feels like the dark ages compared to Bell's 5900!!!

I am watching to see what the Bell HD PVR looks like when it finally comes available. If the 5900 SD-pvr is *any* indication, BELL's offering will be the hands down winner for HD.

- No flames please - don't shoot the messenger!

Happy CHristmas!

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I just got the 6208 and am quite happy with it so far, thanks to all of you pioneers for flushing out the bugs. I do have a few questions though, mostly about PPV.

1. when watching a PPV movie does the PVR buffer it? ie. can I rewind, pause etc.

2. Can I hook up more than 1 output to the cable box? I currently have the component video to the tv and the optical spdif to my receiver. Can I also hook up the composite video and l/r audio rca to a vcr at the same time?

I know this is in the domain of VOD but I can't use it because of the BS stiplulation of being on shaw internet.

I have also seen on this thread that it's not possible to record PPV, what a bunch of BS. I should be able to record it with an expiry of 24 hrs or something like that.

thanks.

...I know this is in the domain of VOD but I can't use it because of the BS stiplulation of being on shaw internet. ...
I don't think that's the case anymore. Originally you needed shaw internet for VOD, but I believe that now even a DCT2000 is able to do VOD without having to order via a shaw net connection. At least that's the case in Winnipeg. Pick VOD on the I-Guide menu and see what happens.

This cannot be normal so it must be a bug or an oversight. I have parental controls on everthing that is not appropriate for kids (anything that is not c or C8 rated is locked). When watching a show that is recorded on the DVR I am asked for the pin when I start it up, as it should. But then it will ask for the pin again at the top and bottom of the hour. While the pin is being put in the recorded show continues to play. Is this a feature or a bug?

2. Can I hook up more than 1 output to the cable box? I currently have the component video to the tv and the optical spdif to my receiver. Can I also hook up the composite video and l/r audio rca to a vcr at the same time?
Yep you sure can. There are audio and video settings that come into play to set up the signals sent on the composite and analog audio though. See http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18236 here for details.