No one's been able to upgrade to larger drives, the F/W won't support that. And, unfortunately neither boxes have ports or F/W enabled to accept an external HDD. The new DCT6412 Phase 3 has a SATA port for an external drive, but who knows if that's ever going to be enabled.

I'm having a problem where certain recordings (not all) do not show up at the correct length, and once the program reaches the "end", for example the 17 minute mark of a one-hour program, I lose the ability to fast-forward, rewind or pause. Doing so takes me back to the "end".

The program can be watched in its entirety, but it would be nice to be able to skip the commercials. I've had the box switched out, but the previous one did the same thing.

I've tried programming the thirty second skip into my remote, but it has no effect on the affected recordings.

Am I out of luck until they release a new firmware?

dkehler, I've experienced the same problem. Haven't been able to troubleshoot it yet or pin it down to a specific set of circumstances for it to occur. At the moment, I am testing keeping the 6412 powered on all of the time as I have a feeling that the problem may occur when the unit powers on or off while recording. I made a post on this a couple of days ago in a different thread. Have you had any luck solving the problem yet? Anyone else?

Further to this now, I've been leaving my box on all of the time in an attempt to eliminate this issue. I've now been able to trace that this problem seems to also occur if I try to record a program after it has already started. Twice yesterday while watching sporting events, I had to go out after the program had already begun so I simply hit the record button and left. The resulting 2 recordings both had the issue of not being able to ff,rw,skip, or pause after about 10 minutes into the recording. Anyone else seen this issue? Anyone been able to correct it?

I just upgraded from a DCT2500 to a DCT6412. With my old box, the installer set up autoscan so I could use the channel up and down buttons on my remote to go through only those channels to which I subscribed (and skip those with snow). My TV has the same capability. I installed the 6412 myself and am told by Shaw that the Autoscan feature has been disabled on these new boxes. I can program in my Favorites, but this is limited to 25 channels and I can only scan through them upwards. With there now being 300+ channels, and my subscribing to only a fraction of them, this seems to be a major deficiency.
I'd appreciate any ideas or suggestions.
Thanks,
Peter O.

Peter, yes, that pretty much summarizes it. I don't believe that anyone here has found a workaround to this, although I don't think that I've heard of the 25-channel limit for favourites. You're right that this seems like a major deficiency...although Shaw doesn't make the guide. I think that many of us here have complained, so you might want to add your complaint to the chorus.

Hey all,
I have switched to the New 6412 - Phase III box at Shaw and now when ever I watch a recorded show the sound is crap. The surround is lousy and the volume is like a tenth of the volume of live shows. What the frick is up. I have read in other posts here, that with the HDMI plug you get the funky sound but with component it is fine. I am running component out with optical out and the sound is the shytz. Any help, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks in advance!
Todd;)

have you checked the settings for audio output?
make sure it's not in mono.

I understand that the Tivo system is very easy to use. Now that Tivo is available in Canada why would I use the shaw pvr?

Answering my own question I assume with Tivor the effect is the same as with a VCR and scrambled channels. THe signal has to go through the box and I can only record what is on the channel the box is set to. I know I can program the box to switch. But that means I have to program the Tivo box as well as the box. AM I CORRECT IN MY ASSUMPTION?

I assume likewise if I purchase the SHAW PVR the programing would be just a one stop shopping type of affair?

Has anyone used TIVO and the shaw pvr? If so is one better then the other?

Why is Tivo so cheap compared to a SHAW PVR?

You need to sign a 1-year agreement with Tivo, which adds approx $250 (US) to the price, it can only record one channel at a time, and doesn't support HD. Tivo does have a nicer interface though, and is likely more reliable (Shaw's software seems a bit buggy).

...and is likely more reliable (Shaw's software seems a bit buggy).

I agree that Shaw's boxes with recording capability have buggy software that has not been fixed. Two problems that I reported over a year ago have still not been fixed.

Further to this now, I've been leaving my box on all of the time in an attempt to eliminate this issue. I've now been able to trace that this problem seems to also occur if I try to record a program after it has already started. Twice yesterday while watching sporting events, I had to go out after the program had already begun so I simply hit the record button and left. The resulting 2 recordings both had the issue of not being able to ff,rw,skip, or pause after about 10 minutes into the recording. Anyone else seen this issue? Anyone been able to correct it?

I've been having this problem intermittently as well with my new 6412 (phase III M4 series). It seems to occur mainly on the Seattle time shifted stations, but it has occurred on some HD stations as well. I've contacted Shaw about this, and a technician is coming by my house next week to take a look. I've saved an example of a recorded program that is 60 minutes long, but loses skip and FF functions after 10 minutes (from Channel 135). I spoke with the tech today, and he said this was an issue on earlier 6412 units, but he thought it was fixed on these new units. I'll post any new info after his visit next week.

You need to sign a 1-year agreement with Tivo, which adds approx $250 (US) to the price, it can only record one channel at a time, and doesn't support HD. Tivo does have a nicer interface though, and is likely more reliable (Shaw's software seems a bit buggy).

I knew about the $250US cost but it appears even after factoring that in that the cost of a typical Tivo unit would be significantly less then the shaw option.

THe main concern or question I have however relates to actually recording on the Tivo. Would I have to change the channel on the Shaw Cable box to the channel I want to record? If so then this seems like a total non-starter, unless of course I only used it to record non-scrambled channels and by pass the box completely. Not an ideal situation.

I'm sorry if this is answered already, but when it said dual tuner, I'm guessing I can also record two HD channels at the same time? Or I can only record 1 HD and 1 SD/analog?

I'm sorry if this is answered already, but when it said dual tuner, I'm guessing I can also record two HD channels at the same time? Or I can only record 1 HD and 1 SD/analog?
It does not matter, SD, HD you can do either or both
You can also watch a previous recording while recording 2 other shows or start watching a current recording.
Press the swap button to go between tuners

Hi there,

I've had the PH III 6412 for a couple months now. It's been working great but recently I've had choppy recorded HD programs. At first I thought the signal was bad for a program but it's now happened on a few other HD recorded programs. Different channels as well. Can this be a hard drive problem or just it's been a fluke? Not all the programs that I've recorded have been bad. It seemed like it was a string of them and now stopped. Any thoughts? :confused:

Gerry

FOX HD has been choppy lately- if the show is important- always a good idea to record the SD version on the East Coast feeds just in case.

Hi:

I had 3 questions if anyone can help me with regarding the 6412 motorola box:

1)
I know that on many new quality HDTV's that the TV's own built-in "upconversion" chips are better than what is in the motorola Box.

My question is this:

Is there any type of "passthrough" mode for the shaw Box so that I could have 720P stations sent to my HD TV at 720P and 1080i TV stations sent to my HD TV at 1080i with OUT having to change the settings for 720p/1080i on the box menu every time I change channels?

[I was thinking about buying a DVDO box in the future but I will NEVER buy one if the shaw box cannot dynamically passthrough the original direct source signal]

2)
I have heard that on any 720P or 1080i or 1080p TV that it is best to set your Shaw box to 1080i since the company that supplies shaw with the HD channels upconverts all channels to 1080i anyways. Is this true?

3)
Anyone hear if Shaw will soon be releasing the 6416 (and when?)

Thanks.

According to my DCT6400 manual there is no passthrough mode setting for the DVI/YPbPr output. You can only set it to one of the four options:1080i, 720p, 480p or 480i.

My understanding is that Shaw passes through whatever HD signal that is supplied and that some are 1080i and some are 720p. Search the forums and FAQs for better information on this issue.

I've been having this problem intermittently as well with my new 6412 (phase III M4 series). It seems to occur mainly on the Seattle time shifted stations, but it has occurred on some HD stations as well. I've contacted Shaw about this, and a technician is coming by my house next week to take a look. I've saved an example of a recorded program that is 60 minutes long, but loses skip and FF functions after 10 minutes (from Channel 135). I spoke with the tech today, and he said this was an issue on earlier 6412 units, but he thought it was fixed on these new units. I'll post any new info after his visit next week.

My problem is similar but not quite. The program info in the list says it recorded for the proper length (60 minutes, 120 minutes etc) but about three quarters of the way into the program it goes to a black screen with the Delete/Don't delete message. There seems to be no way to watch past that point. It happened with the 11/05 Calgary Flames game from Sportsnet West (Ch. 27) and also with the UFC Final show from Spike. When you try to rewind from the black screen it pops up an error message. Anyone have this issue?

CWL

I have a different issue with the Sportsnet digital channels. I could record them but could not Fast forward or rewind the recordings as the Delete/Do not delete message would immediately pop up if I tried. I could only play the recording at normal speed. It also happens with the Star!TV channel. I gave up and dropped the digital Sportsnet channels because of this problem. Star!TV is free as part of the basic digital package but the three digital Sportsnet channels cost a few dollars a month extra.

I believe I have had one or two occasions when a recording would not play back properly, stopping as if it hit the end of the recording part through the scheduled recocrding. I just erased them and haven't been bothered enough to take further action.

I had to have my box reset today due to massive pixelization (sp?) of all channels and all recorded material. Every channel had horizontal green lines broken up and many green pixels all over. This effect did not happen over iGuide . Shaw reset the box and all is fine. Strange.