Any response regarding my previous question about so many splits? A few years ago Videon/Shaw used to say (in the days when they charged for extra outlets!), when I would call about signal quality problems, that I must be connecting too many TVs. So, is signal degradation a concern with what I'm doing?
I have: cable modem, 2 SDtv's, a DCT, VCR, and my receiver. 6 outlets.
Shaw installed a signal booster that runs off an AC outlet and I've never had a problem. Ask them about it. It might have to do with it. Especially when you experience ghosting on certain channels (usually 4 or 5 here)

In regards to poor A/D with the 6208, does it matter where you live? Calgary, I think has pretty good analog, but I've heard bad stories about other cities. You think thats the problem?

Well I had the Shaw service guy come by the past Monday in order to show him the 30sec delay issue. After showing him he told me that when he was next back to his office (wednesday) he and his boss would try to replicate the problem there. Well on Wednesday he called me back and said that they were able to replicate the problem and that they would be "working on it". Well I just checked and the 30 sec delay on the PB channel is now gone! It's now just as slow as all the other channels (about 3 secs).

+1 to Shaw.

Well I had the Shaw service guy come by the past Monday in order to show him the 30sec delay issue. After showing him he told me that when he was next back to his office (wednesday) he and his boss would try to replicate the problem there. Well on Wednesday he called me back and said that they were able to replicate the problem and that they would be "working on it". Well I just checked and the 30 sec delay on the PB channel is now gone! It's now just as slow as all the other channels (about 3 secs).

+1 to Shaw.

Can you try something out? If you still have a channel with the 30 second delay, go to it, then immediately go into the Audio Setup and change the "Audio Track"(?) (first item on the Audio menu) from the default to "English" and see if the channel immediately pops in or not... (You can leave it at english or change it back to the default right away.) I have two channels that just don't come in AT ALL unless I do that. But it seems like it may be a related problem, so I am wondering if the same "fix" works...

well here's the newest bug

this morning I stopped a timed recording prematurely
(actually, what I did EXACTLY was to start watching it before it finished recording, then pressed stop and cancelled the timer)

now whenever I play it back, if I try ffwding more than ffwd1, I get the delete recording/keep recording selection screen and playback stops (resets to the beginning) - so much for commercial skipping my way thru this one...

I guess I won't be interfering with the timer again!

In regards to poor A/D with the 6208, does it matter where you live? Calgary, I think has pretty good analog, but I've heard bad stories about other cities. You think thats the problem?

I would say no. My analog where I live is as good as It can get. And by that I mean the signal level is good. Any signal deficiencies I see are from source not intoduced by Shaw. The SD out has additional pixel artifacts propably created by the units A/D convertor or too low a sampling rate. An increase in bit rate would probably correct the situation. Future software upgrade maybe.
I am also viewing the SD on a 51 inch Hitachi 51S500. On a smaller screen the prblem may be less evident. I should move my 6208 upstairs to my 27 inch Sony and see what it looks like but right now I am too busy with other projects around the house.

This machine is a piece of crap...now I can't even change the channel without getting a message that says "recording in progress" with the cancel or continue operation options...every channel says the same thing.

Is anyone else having these problems?

I've had no problems with mine.

I have it running through component video into my Sony 53HS10 (set for 480p on non-HD). I don't see what is so VERY bad about the analog PQ as compared to the Digital SD. Maybe it is because I am coming from ExpressVu (lots of it is over-compressed) and don't notice as much. I don't think I will hookup cable directly now to my TV - so I can't see what I am missing :)

This machine is a piece of crap...now I can't even change the channel without getting a message that says "recording in progress" with the cancel or continue operation options...every channel says the same thing.



Fiddled around with it a bit more...and fixed the problem. It was really weird, in my list of recorded programs it said that my hard drive was 98% full, even though it was only around 65%, and everytime I turned off the box and restarted it, it would start up on channel 301, no matter what channel I left it on.

It all goes back to that soap opera I had set to record mon-fri on channel 301. I deleted the future recording and everything went back to normal. I do not know why the machine keeps screwing up when I try to set this program to record on a daily basis.

This machine is a piece of crap...now I can't even change the channel without getting a message that says "recording in progress" with the cancel or continue operation options...every channel says the same thing.
If all else fails, turn it off and kill the power. Then power it back up and hopefully it will return to normal operation for you. It will of course have to download the program listings again, but that shouldn't take too long.

http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/dct6412.asp
The DCT-6412 information page, straight from motorola. It appears it will be shortly available. Would public pressure force Shaw to carry this product? And what would it cost? $1000?

My 6208 has been great. It rebooted once, locked up once, in the first week but other than that nothing to complain about. The upgrade to DVI has made a significant improvement in the PQ of all programing on a Hitachi 60v500a. HD hook up had been component up to this point. As a sidebar, Compusmart carries Startec DVI cable with a lifetime warranty for about 50 beans.

Can you try something out? If you still have a channel with the 30 second delay, go to it, then immediately go into the Audio Setup and change the "Audio Track"(?) (first item on the Audio menu) from the default to "English" and see if the channel immediately pops in or not... (You can leave it at english or change it back to the default right away.) I have two channels that just don't come in AT ALL unless I do that. But it seems like it may be a related problem, so I am wondering if the same "fix" works...

Fortunatly I don't have any more 30 sec delay channels. Sorry!

I need to call Shaw because I tried it this morning and I still have the 30 second delay problem. Those without it, did you get a firmware download?

so I have observed a 30 second channel-change delay tonight here in Calgary
I'm interested if others have had a similar experience...

these are the symptoms

6208 box only has these symptoms
(s/w version 70.47, firmware version 8.06)
hdd is about 50% full
20-30 second delay occurs ONLY when changing to a HiDef channel (I don't have Playboy or anything like that, but as far as I know, that's not HD anyway, so that must be a different issue)
(it DEFINITELY didn't used to take this long to change HiDef channels when I first had it up and running)
StdDef channels only (!) take about 3 seconds to change
reset of box by Shaw did not alleviate this delay

changing HiDef channels on my DCT5100 takes only a second or so - so it's not the basic HiDef tuning capability of a (newer/faster!) Motorola box that can be in question here - it must be related to the Hard Drive/Live Recording somehow

the CSR from Shaw said he would sent out a tech to see it for himself next week

are other people seeing the same issues???????? please post here (with your own setup details, location) so I can quote similar experiences if possible :-)

has anybody here had these problems fixed????

I have a 5100 and I experience frequent lock-ups. I like to use the on-screen banner at the bottom to flip through what's on while still keeping the channel I'm watching on full-screen. It seems after a while the box will lock up for 30 seconds or so and then quickly perform every command I issued while it was locked up.

One time it never came back after about 2 minutes and I had to unplug the box to get it responding again.

So not quite the same issue, but a delay nonetheless.

I too have seen problems with remote control command lockups - the box kind of freezes for a time and yet still receives the commands, playing them all out in one splurge once it wakes up again - I've seen this on both the 5100 and on the 6208 (just tonight even on the 5100)

but the delay I'm talking about happens EVERY time when changing to a new HiDef channel on the 6208

interestingly, since the reboot of my box, the reported HDD usage is down from 49% to 26%, even though all the recordings still look like they're there in the list... that's odd, but it did nothing to fix my problem either, so I don't know what significance that has on anything

anybody else experiencing the HiDef channel delay change? (as opposed to general spurious lockup issues)

I've noticed the same freezes, too, on my DCT6200, since the i-Guide was installed. Perhaps this has more to do with the i-Guide than the box.

meshmellow

Hey magic_1994, it's not just you having the lag during HD channel changes. It's has happened to me to but it seems to come & go but it seems to be worse switching to the HDNBC channel 305 to me. It doesn't seem to matter on how full the PVR is I have it almost empty & 3/4 full doesn't make a difference. I have had a few full lockup when switching channels, I had to unplug it to reset it. Also the fast-foward has seemed to slow down, I like maybe cause the hdd is getting fagmented. You would think it would auto de-fag when not in use but I guess not. Has anyone had a luck with getting a ext. hdd to work yet, I can record video off the firewire port.

Hitachi 51F500
Motoral DCT2000 *2, DCT6208
Shaw Digital Cable (Vancouver)

been playing a little more

looks like the delay is variable between 10-25 seconds sometimes

usually the lag-time can be found to have been recorded before the video is enabled, so you can still rewind what you would have been able to see straight away on changing the channel, if only the video/audio output had been enabled! that seems daft

is it just me, or has rewd and ffwd been improved now - seems quite fast now compared to initial tests???

Just did a check of the ffwd/rewd times for some StdDef stuff I have recorded
it looks like it is doing over 60x speed now (i.e. I can ffwd/rewd more than 1 minute per second) - HiDef looks likewise improved

compare this with what Alan Bealby and I were seeing in our original setups:
http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/forum/showpost.php?p=108883&postcount=35

something has definitely changed...

fyi, I dug out these numbers from my setup info (power off and immediately press select ON-THE-BOX):-

Code Modules:
Bootloader - 03.06
Firmware - 08.06
Object - tcas4208 Ver 42.08

DVR/Hard Drive Status:
Stream Indexer Ver - 131
Content Record Ver - 3

(I wish I knew what the DVR params were originally now!!!)

finally, another behavioural note
if I power off on a regular (StdDef analogue or digi channel), I can power back on to that remembered channel no probs, but if I power off from a slow-poke HiDef channel, the box seems to time out on power-on coz it's taking so long, and resorts to Channel 1 by default...

apparently some things have got better, some things more annoying!