Can you transfer recorded programs from the 6412 to a computer?

Yes, via firewire. If you're interested in doing this, do a search for firewire and 6412 and you'll find many have done this. I followed the directions on AVS and it works like a charm.

Stupid computer Q....is Firewire to USB the same thing?

Hi, I'm on my third 6412 in 2 1/2 months. The first one I bought wouldn't keep the program guide in its memory, it just kept reseting on its own every few minutes. The second one lasted a couple months, then dumped its guide memory and everything I had saved on the hard drive one night while I was watching a show I had recorded. Now my third one, which I have only had a week, just did the same thing. I had a bunch of stuff recorded that I was going to watch, and while I was watching a recorded movie the piece of crap just puked again and all is lost. I should have know better than to buy something made by Motorola, they can't build reliable cell phones either!!!

:confused: Oh ya, I forgot to mention. When I returned my second 6412 to Future Shop, the guy told me that the problem could be with power surges through the coax cable. So he sold me a power bar with a coax in and out on it. I just got off the phone with Shaw and they told me not to use a power bar on the coax because most of them only go one way and the box needs to communicate with them. He also said that the coax power bars don't allow as much signal to get to the 6412's as they need.
Both times they have puked their memory on me, the recording ability has also disappeared. Hit the record button and nothing happens. He said that it may take 3 hours for the record functionality to come back. But I let the last one sit turned on over night and it still wouldn't record the next day.
I think I'll take this one back and trade it back for my old Express Vu PVR. What's the use of recording on something that you can't trust to actually save your programs!!

Stupid computer Q....is Firewire to USB the same thing?

No, and I don't think that would work anyway. At least I've never heard of anyone doing that. If your pc doesn't have a firewire port, you can put in an add-in card for pretty cheap. It should work fine.

Gpouliot, if you're worried about wear on the hard drive, just leave both tuners on the 6412 on digital music channels. The pvr does not cache these channels. I leave mine on all the time, but tune to music channels when I'm going to be away/asleep. PITA, but it works.

Is that really true? Is that a difference when both tuners are enabled?

I have a 6412 on Cogeco, single tuner turned on and it does cache the digital music channels. I can even set it to record as long as I have nothing else set for the next 24hrs.
Found out that it does cache one day when it suddenly jumped back about 2 hrs to repeat a song I had heard earlier, could not get it to display song info which was a sign something was wrong.... my other digital box on another TV was playing a completely different song with the info data available... I guess it does not cache those details.

If it is true then that is an improvement for me to look forward to when Cogeco turn on the second tuner.... hope my interjection here is not off topic.
I find stuff useful as Shaw has had the 6412 longer than Cogeco....

Is that really true? Is that a difference when both tuners are enabled?

I have a 6412 on Cogeco, single tuner turned on and it does cache the digital music channels. I can even set it to record as long as I have nothing else set for the next 24hrs.
Found out that it does cache one day when it suddenly jumped back about 2 hrs to repeat a song I had heard earlier, could not get it to display song info which was a sign something was wrong.... my other digital box on another TV was playing a completely different song with the info data available... I guess it does not cache those details.

If it is true then that is an improvement for me to look forward to when Cogeco turn on the second tuner.... hope my interjection here is not off topic.
I find stuff useful as Shaw has had the 6412 longer than Cogeco....

Interesting. So you have a dual tuner and Cogeco hasn't turned on the second tuner?

On the Shaw box, you can't rewind on a digi music channel, and the hard drive no longer clicks, which would seem to indicate that there is no read/write access going on. You can, however, set them to record, so I could be wrong in my assumption that it doesn't cache the music channels. It might be that there is just so little hard drive activity going on that you can't hear it clicking. If this is the case, then it's probably still easier on the hard drive to leave it on two music channels, and it's certainly quieter for those who have one in their bedroom.

I couldn't say whether yours will behave the same once Cogeco enables your 2nd tuner, but you'll be able to tell easily enough. I was assuming that it must be a copyright issue with the digi music provider, so it might also be that Cogeco uses a different provider? I have seen posts on AVSforum mention that their Cogeco 6412s do not cache the digi music channels, so I took this as a confirmation of my assumption that the Shaw box didn't.

I have seen posts on AVSforum mention that their Cogeco 6412s do not cache the digi music channels, so I took this as a confirmation of my assumption that the Shaw box didn't.

That is the Cogeco party line... but I have proved to them that it does cache and it can record providing you don't have anything else scheduled for that remaining day. The time slot for the music channels seems to be a 12/24 hr day.

I got a new one the other day and the first thing I tried was to record a music channel and it went through the record setup screens just the same as it would do for a regular program... the default time was for the whole day.

I think the latest Moto firmware makes for quiter hard drives... I would say it is best to leave it off where possible.

hi guys,

dunno if I've missed this in any of the threads
but does anyone know if it's possible to hids the time/position/search bar during paused playback

you used to be able to achieve this on the 6208 by pausing, then pressing menu - after 3-4 seconds, the menu bar would disappear leaving only the picture

I know it's not a good idea to pause for too long with a static picture on my CRT set, but sometimes if I'm out of the room for a few minutes, I'd rather pause than stop and re-find the program in the list again (and besides, each time I pause it would be on a different image, except for the time bar) - the problem is, I don't want to end up with a burnt-in time bar at the bottom of my screen!

for now I guess I'll just pause and switch the TV to a different input whilst away :-)

but does anyone know if it's possible to hids the time/position/search bar during paused playback

Try pressing "Exit" while the picture is paused. Should work for slow motion, too.

meshmellow

Try pressing "Exit" while the picture is paused. Should work for slow motion, too.

meshmellow


...and if you're going to be out of the room for a bit longer and want to stay paused, hit the swap button and let the other tuner run instead. That way you won't have to find your tv remote to switch to another input, and your program stays paused on the non-displayed tuner. Pressing "Exit" only makes the bar disappear for about 30 seconds.

That is the Cogeco party line... but I have proved to them that it does cache and it can record providing you don't have anything else scheduled for that remaining day. The time slot for the music channels seems to be a 12/24 hr day.

I got a new one the other day and the first thing I tried was to record a music channel and it went through the record setup screens just the same as it would do for a regular program... the default time was for the whole day.

I think the latest Moto firmware makes for quiter hard drives... I would say it is best to leave it off where possible.

Yes, I think you're right, although it sounds like the drive still spins with the box off. If this is the case, it'll still wear out with the box off anyway. It would seem that the only way to stop it spinning is to unplug the box. This might be something to remember when going away on vacation.

But for those who want to leave it on 24/7, I still believe that you'll get the least amount of wear by tuning in the digi-music channels, as the amount of read/write activity seems to be significantly less. It's certainly quieter on my box.

Incidentally, the default record time on the digi-music channel for my Shaw box is 30 minutes, so there are definitely some programming differences between the Shaw and Cogeco boxes.

Do you know why the new firmware makes for quieter hard drives? We're still on 9.12. Have you been upgraded to 9.15? It would seem to me that it would only be quieter if it was caching less information, which would imply a higher compression ratio?...or maybe there's a better defrag utility in the box?

hi guys,

I know it's not a good idea to pause for too long with a static picture on my CRT set, but sometimes if I'm out of the room for a few minutes, I'd rather pause than stop and re-find the program in the list again (and besides, each time I pause it would be on a different image, except for the time bar) - the problem is, I don't want to end up with a burnt-in time bar at the bottom of my screen!

for now I guess I'll just pause and switch the TV to a different input whilst away :-)



I discovered a very cool thing the other day. While watching a recorded show you can change to any channel. To return to the recorded show just hit last channel (or prev on your Harmony) and it will return to the recorded show picking up at the exact moment you changed the channel. It seems the pvr pauses as soon as you flip channels. No need to worry about burn in or having to navigate back through the list.

My 6412 did not have any picture this evening and I had to call a tech to get it the box rest. The box works fine now and I noticed that the firmware is 9.12. I seem to recall the firmware that we had was 8.** not too long ago. Did we get the new firmware or this old news?

I think Shaw has been using 9.12 right from the start.

Next time you don't get a picture when you turn the 6412 on try just pulling the power plug on the 6412 for about 10 seconds and then plugging it back in. A workaround to unplugging it is to bring up a previous recording and then you'll have picture from that point on. Or just never turn the 6412 off.

many thanks to cwl, roreman and meshmellow for your help

all good advice

my overworked phosphor thanks you

Rather than reading through the entire thread, I have this question to ask:

The Motorola.com/broadband site says that the 6412 allows you to record two shows at once, OR watch one show live while the other tuner is recording a show, OR watch one saved show while the other tuner is recording a show.

BUT, it does not mention recording 2 shows while watching a saved show.

Can someone verify that this CAN be done by the 6412 that is offered by Shaw?

Thanks in advance.

Greg

Yes, you can record 2 shows while watching a saved show.

Does the 6412 support MPEG2 and MPEG4? Some satellite companies are moving to MPEG4 to fit more HDTV channels onto their system.

It hasn't happened too many times but very approx once a week I am watching TV and the 6412 just shuts down. I know that it happened at least once while I was watching a taped show.

I can turn it on and resume but has anyone else run into this?

I'm finding all my problems with the 6208/6412 are normal and service calls are usually useless (since they're all affected the same way). Of course, the exception being that time my 6208 died completely.