I finally got ahold of a CSR at Shaw regarding the lockups. They reset the box and all seems OK now. In fact, I think all channel changes are faster now. Your mileage may vary, but if you are experiencing the dreaded 30 second lockup...its worth a try. I'll see how long it lasts...

When you are watching TV go to the DCT 5100 or 6200 or 6208 and turn off the power by pressing the power button, next press the menu button above the power button. How on your TV screen you will see
TV type pick 16:9
YPbPr pick 1080i
4:3 override pick stretch
Use the 4 up, down, left and right buttons to pick the above settings
When you are finished press the menu button the TV screen will go black the hit power and enjoy

Oh ok, I misunderstood. I thought the box could stretch the 4:3 portion of an upconverted HD broadcast. My TV stretches out the 480i signal itself so the original 480i override option works for me on SD material.

Oh ok, I misunderstood. I thought the box could stretch the 4:3 portion of an upconverted HD broadcast. My TV stretches out the 480i signal itself so the original 480i override option works for me on SD material.

So does mine. I guess the nice part here is that this upconversion and stretch now occurs in the DCT meaning with one less A/D conversion. This usually makes for better PQ with less artifacts. I noticed the difference right away. In addition, Sonys upconvert 480i and 480p to 960i...not 1080i. Finally, since all the input scanrates are the same now, I get no more pauses between SD and HD channels while my TV adjusts to the new input scanrate.

As for your comment regarding stretching the 4:3 portion of an HD broadcast...count me in. This is another pet peeve of mine!

Audio language fix still working for HD channels. Had another reset attempted tonight to fix lockups (had to disconnect power in order to reset). The reset had no effect on the HD channels.

CSR stated that the HD problem was in fact due to the encription that was added a few days ago. They anticipate a software solution in 2 - 4 weeks.

I feel the urge to slag...........again!!!


.....he also mentioned that the grand total of 800, 6208's are presently at large in Shaw's entire kingdom....I thought there'd be more.

2-4 weeks to fix a problem introduced in a new software release? What's wrong with immediately going back to the non-buggy version of the software? That is basic practise, why is Shaw so bush-league?

CSR stated that the HD problem was in fact due to the encription that was added a few days ago. They anticipate a software solution in 2 - 4 weeks.

.....he also mentioned that the grand total of 800, 6208's are presently at large in Shaw's entire kingdom....I thought there'd be more.
Encryption? Does this mean that we will no longer be able to record HDTV through Firewire?!?

For a $800 box that was just introduced, I would say that it is a good start. (considering that I haven't seen ANY advertising regarding the dct6208 yet)

...it definitely won't make it easy. The 5C data encryption would be at the behest of broadcasters to the providers.......i didn't think it would be inplemented this soon though. Sure am glad i bought a 250Gb firewire drive now...ah well if i can't make it go i can use it eleswhere .

I would have to agree that it's more than shoddy service to implement such a fundamental change as adding full data encryption and not testing it extensively with the firmware/software/i-guide first before they upload it to system.Their testing could not have been that rigorous as to let
such a ridculous bug as the stalled hd channel changing we now have to get through.

The CSR stated that Shaw was given a limited period of time to broadcast without encryption. I believe he said it was regulated by CRTC. I thought that sounded like an excuse but who else would enforce a condition like that.

...that's possible, but it wouldn't be something crtc cooked up, the big 'worry' of 'content creators' is that hdtv and on the horizon hd-dvd, allow the distribution of 'studio master' quality digital 'copies'. 5C encryption, among other candidates, sets the
stage for a complete encrypted signal path from source to hdtv as long as a digital connection is maintained from source to TV that supports 5C. There has been some concern for some time, that this would mean 'handcuffing' of component outputs to a lower resolution eventually to 'complete the encrypted circuit'...so component input only hdtv owners may be at risk.

Anyways, crtc and fcc would have been pressured by the above
to 'enforce' 5C on cable & sat hd providers.

Anything can be hacked though, the same hubub was created
over hacking of the decss encryption that 'protected' dvd from copy...linux guys cracked it....the same will happen here, only a matter of time, if it hasn't been done already.

Not to mention I bet you'll get HDCP -> component modules available for people like me with only component inputs. Even if they're sort of grey market I bet they'll show up just like Macrovision removers.

You bought the drive RigPig? Have you tried getting it to work yet? The ghosting option may well get you off to the races. I'm very interested in hearing your results.

I've had my 6208 spontaneously reset on its own for the second time. This time I wasn't even hitting any buttons on the remote. I was just watching a recording I had made and it just reset.

Has anybody else had this happen?

I phoned tech support and someone is coming out Wednesday evening to take a look. I doubt he'll be able to do anything.

Hi Felgar, yeh i bought the drive...i tried a few rudimentary things with formatting as per that avs guy's 'instructions' (although i have a better word for what he wrote ) before i went out to work, but i was unsuccessful in getting anywhere. Tomorrow i will get 6 to 4 pin firewire cable and see if i can mount the internal 6208 drive from my linux laptop, then i will be able to see exactly what file tree is on it...hopefully. The 5C stuff has really lowered my expectations though. I suspect internal drive replacement may be the only viable option...but we'll see how the
firewire research goes. Will advise once i have something useful to say.

Icemann,

My 6208 is just reset all by itself tonight.
This thing seems fairly buggy, hoping Shaw or Motorola will issue software fixes for them all soon.

What drives me craziest is Shaw CSRs don't have their knowledge levels consistent. I told them about Lonestar and another station coming up blank (112 and 113?).
They sent out a tech only to have the tech tell me that it is a known problem.

The CSR on the phone kept insisting that 112 and 113 coming up blank was a clear indication that I had signal problems and a tech had to visit.

Shaw must be wasting a ton of money sending techs out to 'fix' problems that can't be fixed by them.
While I appreciate them willing to send out a tech, it's a big waste of time for Shaw and me.

Sorry to sound so peeved but I am really wondering how they could release a box that can't even receive all their channels. It's not as if it was difficult to figure out.

Will advise once i have something useful to say.

Awesome, many thanks RigPig. Ya that AVS guy seemed a little bit "off" to me as well which is why I didn't go out and buy the 6208 and Firewire drive just on his advice alone. Since I have the 5100 and an SD HDD recorder already it's sort of tough to bite the bullet unless I know that I can get more storage out of it.

I'm holding out high hopes that the Linux plan you have brewing will yield good results. Thanks a lot for your time and effort.

Hi, I have also followed that thread on AVS forum. I have a difficult time believing it.

I experimented a bit on my own...

I have several different firewire enclosures. I took a 120GB drive and fdisk it with one partition and formatted it under linux with EXT2 filesystem. I plugged it into 6208 and it didn't do anything. I still get the error in the system menu (turning on with select I believe... can't remember right now but you guys know what I mean). I also found no options in the regular I-Guide menu related to setting up an additional drive.

I know the firewire works on the 6208 because I dumped video from it to my notebook as a test before.

I never tried to connect to box via USB yet... I will go and get a USB "crossover" cable or adapter and try with my notebook in order to attempt to "mount" the 6208. (I doubt it though).


For those who wish to experiment, you can do it all without installing a full linux distro... use something like Damn Small Linux (DSL) that boots and runs off a CD.

http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/

Ya it does seem fishy. But I think if anything the ghost route will yield the best chance at success (in that the whole file system will have been duplicated). Have you tried to getting linux to recognize the drive and read the file structure?

I've had me 6208 for a couple of weeks now. Overall pretty happy with it. Bought it primarily for football season. I watched a HD game and was a little dissapointed until I switched over to a SD game and saw how crappy that was!

To me, picture quality can be as good as a good DVD, but I would'nt say better. I have a Toshiba 50hx81, the manual says it can be used with 480p or 1080i but doesn't say if down converts 1080i to 480p - does anyone know the resolution of this tv?

I saw a HD baseball game on a 30-36" lcd screen at audio video unlimited a few days ago it was fed from a satellite (not sure if bell or strachoice) but it looked outstanding. I dont know it my tv or shaw is the weak link in my system.

The box is kind of noisy. I can see through the grill it has a small Sunon fan running continously. I want to open the box and put a speed reducer on the fan (like a zalman, that I have used on computer fans) but the 6208 has a couple of weird screws on the back of the box. Does anyone where I can get the proper tool to remove these? Thanks for your help.

I have a Toshiba 50hx81, the manual says it can be used with 480p or 1080i but doesn't say if down converts 1080i to 480p - does anyone know the resolution of this tv?Incoming 1080i signals will be displayed in 1080i. Perhaps you need to do a better setup of your TV?

Also, smaller TVs like the one you mentioned will always look "better", because larger TVs like yours are like putting a magnifying glass to a newspaper, unless you view the two TVs from distances that make them both look the same size...

Hey Guys,I've had my 6208 box for about 3 weeks now & had some questions. I notice last week the fast foward & rewind speed got really slow but today it was back to full speed, anyone else notice this? Also I been reading about people saying the 5c is now turned on but when I checked my box this evening mine is still not turned on (i.e. 5c=0). I would have thought shaw would enable it on all boxes not just some. I have also noticed no ads in the guide or anywhere else like some others have mentioned, is everyone else getting them or is it hit or miss like the copy protection. Like a few other I have played with trying to get a ext. HD working, but like other I have had no success. I have emailed shaw on this issue but they said they had disabled the external ports & they have no plans to change this anytime soon (Oh great!). They also said that the problem with the VOD not working is due to the new IPG upgrade a few weeks back & that a software update in the near future will fix this but again no date. I know one guy on the AVS Forum hacked is box with a big harddrive but then shaw found out & replaced is 250gig with the orig. 80 gig & gave him a ext. 250gig hd. You can check it out,here's the link AVS forum (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?threadid=431805&pagenumber=1). I wish we could get some more info on the box but so far though even with all the little problems I still love having my HD-PVR & haven't touch my vcr since :grin:
Later Mach3

Ya that AVS is the one that Woody was referring to as well. Given that he's the only one to have got it working it's definately suspect. But when you plug the drive in it gives firewire status as "Drive not initialized" or something like that which is what gives me hope that it might still actually work despite what Shaw says. You don't really expect a CSR to know what's going on do you? :)

Until a solid attempt to mirror the file structure of the drive fails I'm holding out hope. I'll give up when someone mirrors another 80 GB drive from the internal one and it still doesn't work. :)