Ya that might work too. The ghosting would probably have a better chance but either one is worth a try. I'd be very grateful if you try it out when you find the time and post the results. I'm holding off on buying one because I know that 80 GB won't cut it and for now I can get by with my DVD/HDD recorder. But I want that HD recording badly! :)

Ya that might work too. The ghosting would probably have a better chance but either one is worth a try. I'd be very grateful if you try it out when you find the time and post the results. I'm holding off on buying one because I know that 80 GB won't cut it and for now I can get by with my DVD/HDD recorder. But I want that HD recording badly! :)

...well , myself and my linux running laptop are out in the field right now, and i won't be home until later this week...maybe :). I'd like to know myself, i remain optimistic about future possibilities of the 6208..i may try and research the tivo drive cloning solution in the interim for any parallel info.

I have had a few recording problems in the past couple days:

The show I set to record on a recurring basis (HD soap opera for my wife) did not record yesterday.

There is a movie that is set to record on Friday, can't remember the name, and I did not put it in to be recorded and for some reason I cannot take it out. I get a message that says I need to call to Shaw and quote them some 2 letter error code.

Anyone else experience anything like this?

I haven't had those recording issues but I haven't done a lot of scheduled recording yet.

The only issues I've had have to do with video and audio dropouts during the recording of JPIII the other night. I actually recorded both scheduled showings. The first one had a couple of video and audio dropouts but the second one was completely out of sync. The audio was completely garbled.

I don't think it was your unit Icemann... I just have a 5100 and I was getting major breakups at the very start of JPIII last night... I flipped after about 20 seconds and never came back to see if it got better.

My impressions of 6208 (I had a Bell 5100 PVR)

The 6208 is technically superior to the Bell. The IGuide is nicer and overall the user interface looks much better than Bell.

But... the Bell actually works better as a PVR for SDTV than the 6208 (of course it cannot do HDTV). It is fast, more responsive FFW/REW thru the recording and has 30-second commercial skip (I really REALLY miss that on the 6208).

If the 6208 crashes (has once) and have to power-cycle, I will lose all the guide info. With the Bell 5100, it loads the 48hr guide each time you power on.

Enough of the Bell comparisons though... what I wanted was HDTV PVR and currently Bell does not have (and I don't believe will actually have for quite some time).


Some are complaining about the Analog PQ of the 620x box. I believe this is because these boxes are not sending the analog signal directly to TV but instead are sending the compressed MPEG data from its onboard encoder (yes, the 6200 does this even though it does not have a HDD - dumping an analog show via firewire proves this). Remember that everything on the 6208 is constantly being recorded as you watch live TV, including analog channels. This MPEG2 encoding will theoretically result in poorer PQ so explains why other STB's and TVs provide better analog quality. It has to do it this way because of the way PVR works - it stores only digital streams - the analog ones from the realtime MPEG2 encoder, while leaving digital broadcasts alone and recording the native stream. They use lower compression for analog because the onboard MPEG2 encoder is probably not as high quality to produce lower bitrate streams in realtime as compared to the equipment they have at the source.

Is there anyway to view ALL of the future recordings? In the DVR menu it only lists them by each day. I would like to see all of them at once. It seems that I could setup a recording months in advance and then not easily view and delete it without pressing the right arrow hundreds of times.

Also, from what I hear, SOD does not work with the 6208. A Shaw CSR informed me that there is a firmware bug in the new I-Guide for the HDTV boxes (I presume 6200 is affected also) and they are awaiting a patch. Can anyone confirm that SOD does or does not work on Shaw 6208? I am new Shaw subscriber and never used SOD before. I have an account setup but I get an error message on site saying that the receiver is not supported.

I have just had the SHAW tech guy over and he too knows nothiong about this box. The reason this box takes so long to change channels apparently, is because the box waits for the entire signal to come in before it spits it out in one complete package. This is different than the non HD boxes that instantly bring in a broken digitalized signal in via small packets over the 3 seconds.

Now I get a call that sais it takes so long to change channels because the box is recording live TV and needs to set up on the fly. He is trying to get a hold of somebody who knows how to shut this feature off. I don't give a rats' hoop about recording live TV. I will either hit record when I want to record something, or will program the time in. I want fast changing channels.

I've been through the entire set-up guide and cannot figure out how to shut the auto live recording feature off. Does anybody here have the insight?

My firmware version is 7.07.

I'm using the Cogeco box without the I Guide and without the 3 second delay issue.

I'm not aware of a way to turn the auto-record feature off.

Felgar, thanks for the feedback. Good to know it was the source and not the 6208. The earlier showing on HDTV1 was much better.

researchboy, as far as I know, that's the way all pvrs work so you have the ability to pause live tv - they are constantly recording. It is a great feature.

As far as taking 3 seconds to change a channel, something must be wrong. Mine takes a second or less. I can't really tell a difference in speed whether it is changing between analog or digital. HDTV changing is a little slower but definitely not 3 seconds.

I know that PVRs are slower changing channels, but not that slow. I am going to time mine when I get home and follow-up.

Woody,

as far as I can tell from Shaw's on-demand website, neither my 5100 or my 6208 are able to work with SOD at the moment

guess we're waiting for some ipg fix so we can order stuff with the remote instead (or something similar)

generally, I like the 6208 because
a) the recording is integrated with the guide
b) you can record HD

but there are some big problems/nuisances I'd like to see fixed
starting with...

a) faster ffwd/rewd
b) ability to disable live recording to make channel surfing FAST
c) reintroduction of timers for external recording devices

I've tried 2 different 6208 at 2 different stores now.
Both take about 3 seconds to change channels.

A previous poster mentioned that the Shaw 620x has inferior analog
PQ because it is showing the MPEG digitized picture instead.
If so then this is really disappointing. Hopefully this is something that
can even be fixed through firmware.

Also, I wish Shaw could update the boxes to flip channels quickly.
Maybe the PVR live caching could be delayed by 5 seconds.
Keep flipping and displaying channels quickly, only kick in the HD caching
after you sit on one channel for 5 seconds or more.
Wouldn't that also ease the wear and tear on the HD as well as enable fast channel flipping?

Surely nobody will worry about being able to review the first 5 seconds of a channel they just flipped to.

Munumina! I've had this 6208 for a week. I LOVE the picture quality of HD and the Dolby Signal. Why can't SHAW/Motorola learn from history?

1) Standard definition should not be converted to digital and then fed to my display! Why can't they just let the analog channels be analog? This digital analog conversion was and still is still crap. Didn't they get enough feedback on that? Is there anyway to bypass this conversion?

2) There MUST be a way to dissable this "live recording" business to make the channel changing faster. It's closer to 2 1/2 seconds per channel wait. Live recording is abolutely useless to me. I can wait till a commercial to have a pee or grab a drink. What then are the variables if the very same Motorola/Cogeco box is not having the same issues as the Motorola/SHAW boxes?

I think we should push more for Shaw to get rid of the Analogs altogether.
Or why not duplicate popular Analog stations (eg. networks, specialty etc.) onto digital ones and remap them seamlessly in the STB. I read that other cable companies do this.

After a long wait.... here is the call form SHAW. There is no way to dissable the auto-record feature... and we are just supposed to live with the converted analog signal. THE DELAY FOR THE CHANNELS TO COME IN IS LIKE AN IRRITATING MOSQUITO BITE THAT YOU JUST CAN'T SATISFY BY SCRATCHING. Thank you very much for your effort SHAW. Please refund my $913 ( tax inclusive ). Reason: We have a 'communications' problem... we aren't paying attention to each other. Hello Star Choice... what are you offering in a couple of months..? SHAW dropped the ball.

Hello Star Choice... what are you offering in a couple of months..? SHAW dropped the ball.

What makes you think SC management is any different than Shaw?

Ok...my 6208 is still acting up:

I have the movie "Underworld" in my list of future recordings to record on channel 58, 10pm to 12pm. I did not put it there and when I go to cancel the recording it says "contact Shaw and give them code NH".

Also, the soap opera I wanted to record for my wife did not record again this morning even though it was listed in the upcoming recordings.

This is strange...

Hello Star Choice... what are you offering in a couple of months..? SHAW dropped the ball.

What makes you think SC management is any different than Shaw?

Star Choice will hopefully be using different boxes in their new line. Let's start right there. Since the new bird has recently been launched, we can expect more. I realize it's all the same money between Shaw and Star Choice, but hopefully there are a few people in upper management at *C that have listened to the research and customer feedback enough to have made some changes with the new generation DVRs becasue this 6208 technology is just not worth the bucks.

See.. SHAW is limited to it's bandwidth. It takes an equal amount of bandwidth to broadcast an anaolg signal as it does a High Def signal. The digital channels are a farce. SHAW can broadcast 6 digital channels for every one analog or High Def signal. They are MAXED OUT. In order to add another High Def signal, they will have to drop an analog signal. There is no room to add without removing. Enter the CRTC !

There is plenty of room for all kinds of crap on either Bell or Star Choice. I find it funny that Bell actually rents space on the satellites for Star Choice to use....

One thing is you should only blame Shaw when they're to blame. The fact that the Motorola 6208 digitizes analog signals in order to record them is not Shaw's fault. There are only a few makers of these devices and Shaw went with Motorola. And personally I doubt any PVR box would keep the signal analog and allow the disabling of the live recording buffer... Even the renound Tivos don't do that AFAIK. Have fun with Starchoice but it's not like they are going to be any better.

And for all the complaining you do and apparently all the analog watching too, just flip to your TV tuner...