First post from a new member.

First, I want to say that this forum has been a huge help for me this week. I've been on Rogers digital for a couple of years. Earlier this week, I upgraded to Rogers HD.

I picked up a Pace HD Box at my local Rogers outlet, and brought it home and hooked it up. Hook up was quick and easy, but right off the bat...I noticed that I wasn't getting 3 channels that I was supposed to receive in HD. These were the two PBS HD channels and the Score HD.

As well, there were a couple of times when HD channels that I was receiving, would suddenly be black the next time I would scroll to them.

A quick call to Rogers tech support....and my ordeal began :-)

The Pace box doesn't work properly in my area the tech told me over the phone. Hmmm.....ok, then why did you give me one? Go exchange it for a SA3250HD he advised. Ok...aggravating for sure, but not a huge issue.

Off to Rogers to exchange the box, and low and behold....they have no 3250HD in stock. We'll call another store they say, and a couple of minutes later ( after being told that another Rogers store has 3250HD's ) I'm off to complete the exchange. Get to the second store.....no 3250HD's in stock.

So, back home I go. I re-hook up the Pace unit, and once again Call Tech support. They send by a tech ( got there in 20 minutes ) and he can't do anything. He's not even aware of the Pace incompatibility issue in my area problem. He leaves, I call tech support.

They send out a second tech the next morning. He walks in with a Pace unit. Hmmmm....that ain't going to help me now is it, I say to him. Off to his truck....and he's back in with a 3100HD.

I say...where's the 3250? He says....this unit is the same.

He hooks it up, and voila.....I've got PBS and the Score, but SD channels look awful and my PBS is flashing on and off between a picture and a black screen.

Now, I'm actually starting to feel pissed off.

So, off to Futureshop I go. I purchase a 3250HD....get it home and fire it up. Call for a box authorization, and Bob's your uncle....I've got all my channels in HD.

Here's where this forum came in handy. There were issues with the box ( laying in grey bars etc ) that I didn't know how to resolve. A quick search of these forums, and I go into the advanced menu....and I tweak the 3250HD for my set. SD programs now look pretty good, and HD looks great.

I return the 3100HD to Rogers, and get a regular digital cable box to use on a second set.

While Rogers were quick to send out techs....the techs don't really understand the issue with Pace incompatibility from what I can gather. I called the Help desk maybe 6 times. Only 2 techs were aware of the Pace issues.

So....if you're having trouble with the Score HD, or PBS feeds with a Pace box.....try and get your hands on a 3250HD. It should clear up those issues.

I'm in Nepean, Ontario by the way.

Thanks again to this forum. It's been a real help to me this week! ;)

Thank you for the feedback. Did you check your signal strength? See the Digital Home FAQ (under help) "Tips for SA STBs". I've been to several homes and PBS was not being received due to low signal strength.

57, I have the same issues that Utah went through with his Pace 551HD . I'm also not getting 507, 525 and 530. I've called Rogers support, spoken to many support technicians who have no idea what's going on and had a service person show up at the house to see if there is anything that he can do. He checked the signal for those channels and determined it was fine.

I also mentioned to the Rogers support staff that it wasn't me who was having the same problem but there were others. I mentioned that I read about this issue at this site and gave them the URL to this site.

I also have an incident number they gave me. They were going to put somebody on it and would call me back within 24 hours. Guess what. I'm still waiting (5 days and counting).

I'm kind of reluctant to switch to the 3250HD because I am using the HDMI connection on the back of the Pace to connect with my HDTV.

BTW, when I called Rogers support I was connected via component cables and still had the same issues with the 3 channels. There is no difference between HDMI and component hookup.

I'm planning on waiting a few more days before I call it quits and switch over to a 3250HD.

In the meantime I will keep you posted with any information I get from Rogers with regards to the Pace551.

Signal strength was not the reason why I wasn't receiving PBS on the Pace HD box. The help-desk tech had me display the info screen. What we determined was that there is an incompatibility between the Mhz setting in the Pace unit for the 'missing' HD channels....and the actual frequency that these channels are broadcast on in my area.

This is why I needed to switch to a SA box. However, it's possible that signal strenth may have been an issue as to why the PBS channels 'flashed' when I swapped the Pace unit for a SA3100HD.

In the end though.....the SA3250HD works fine on ALL the channels. Whatever loss I face from using component cables versus the HDMI connection that I enjoyed with the Pace box, is more than compensated for by the fact that I now enjoy all the channels offered in HD that I'm supposed to receive.

As well, I had two techs visit during the week from Rogers...and both said that my signal strenth was very good.

I was at my father's place today setting up his HD box and noticed he got the Pace HD box. It was my first time using it so I looked around for instructions on how to change it to 16x9 and to use 1080i, 720p etc... Once I figured out that, we noticed the same problem as the last few posts. No PBS HD channels and The Score. He lives in Barrhaven (Ottawa). We called Rogers Tech Support and they are sending someone out to "fix" the problem, but I am glad I read the posts to know that it is a problem in that part of town with the Pace Box. I will try to make sure he gets the SA3250HD box instead.

Where abouts do you live. Are you a Rogers subscriber. What is firmware level of your Pace 551HD.

I've read a couple of places in this thread that others have the same problem with the Pace551HD and channels 525 and 530. I haven't seen anything with regards to channel 507.

I'm a Rogers subscriber living in Richmond Hill. The firmware on the Pace 551HD is 1.1.1.

Sorry this took me so long, been real busy.

I live at Young/Davisville. Sadly I'm not at home right now and I don't know the firmware level of my Pace box, but HDscore and PBS work absolutely fine-- I forget which numbers those are. I'll check again to confirm when I get back tonight, truth be told when I do watch TV, it's almost always sports anyway :)

Ok. I can confirm that all of those channels work for me, but I'm not certain how to check my firmware and am to tired to search said details. Mind telling me how to do it? :)

See the Digital Home FAQ (under help) "Tips for SA STBs". Somewhere in the diagnostics.

I wonder what the chances are that since Rogers has introduced the Pace HD box that sometime this year we'll see the Pace HD PVR box.

From their website, it looks pretty snazzy, although I have yet to find any pictures/videos of the UI.

I've refused to buy the 8300HD for the fact that it's been out for so long, and I've never been a fan of the UI, that I'm scared rogers would simply introduce something this year turning my 500+ purchase into a piece of trash.

The UI would be the same as the SA boxes...functionally identical...

The UI on the SA boxes are old, but functional. There are, of course, features I'd like to have, but I can't imagine them implimenting them. With the new firmware coming out, the box will essentially do everything I need it to...and I'll have no other major complaints.

count me in as another with a Pace box....who lives in Ottawa (barrhaven).....and cannot receive HDPBS.....I'll be calling rogers next week too.

Anyone in Markham area have experience with this STB. I ordered one but not sure if I'll have problem getting all HD channels. Thanks.

I am in Markham. With the Pace 551 box and I cannot get the PBS and Score HD channels. So far, it does not bother me too much because with my new TV purchase, I got the 12-month free HD. If this is not resoved by the time I have to pay for the service, I'll probably switch box. I also cannot get TV native Closed captions on the HD channels. But that's another issue...

There are several threads about the PACE 551HD and issues with the HDMI / HDCP connections. This box has been out for about 6-8 months and still has major problems with HDCP failures.

Short description: When HDCP handshaking is lost, all video (HD or not) is replaced with an error message "HDCP is unsupported, use YPbPr cable" and requires a cold reboot to clear the error.

AVOID this box until the problem is fixed.

In remarks to my post a few weeks ago, it seems Rogers has done something to fix some of the problems I was having with the Pace box. I never got around to switching to the SA, but I turned on my TV today find that not only am I now getting theScoreHD and both PBS HD channels properly, but also channels are changing much quicker. By that I mean, as of even yesterday, when I changed channels from a 720p to 1080i and vice versa, there would be a longer delay than if I were to change from 720p to 720p or 1080i to 1080i. Both these have improved dramatically. I'm hoping the problem with channels never showing up (black/blank screen) has also been fixed, because if so, this box is now perfect. :D

There doesn't seem to be a post about the firmware upgrade for the Pace STB. Only the SA box.

But when I turned on the TV this morning it was on channel 1 and there are now grey bars on either side of the screen as it's no longer stretched. This wasn't the case when I went to bed last night.

Has anyone else noticed this?

As discussed in several firmware threads, ALL of the Rogers STBs are receiving upgrades, due to the DST issue, also resolving other (known and important) issues in the STB.

You MAY need to re-run the advanced setup wizard, or go into "set picture format" to output the appropriate formats. Sometimes these upgrades reset the output to "fixed" and your TV is no longer stretching SD channels...

See the Digital Home FAQ (under help) "Tips for SA STBs".

Thanks for the info 57. I've used the Digital Home FAQ "Tips for SA STBs" to set up the box when I first got it back in December.

Just thought you'd like to know the information for the Pace box doesn't seem to work since the update was applied.

The Display button on the front no longer works making this section of the FAQ no longer legit: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showpost.php?p=434126&postcount=7 Holding the # key for 5 seconds no longer works either.

The ease of changing the Pace resolution was great. Now you have to use the same steps as posted in the FAQ for the SA box -- shutting off the box and holding guide/info to run the wizard. This wasn't available when I was setting up the box in December.

I'm still unable to get SD channels to appear full screen. If I set the picture size to Stretch (via the Settings menu) it also stretches HD channels and they don't appear as clear as in normal mode.

I've also tried setting the Picture Format to Upconverting 1, Upconverting 2 and Auto DVI, but they seems to be no difference to the current fixed mode. In fact, the Upconverting modes seemed to take the Stretch option away. Only allowing Normal and Zoom Picture Sizes.

If another Pace owner can confirm these settings that would be great. Maybe then 57 can update the FAQ, as my experience may not be the norm.

I'm still unable to get SD channels to appear full screen. If I set the picture size to Stretch (via the Settings menu) it also stretches HD channels and they don't appear as clear as in normal mode.
You need to stretch the SD channels using your TV's stretch mode, NOT the one on the STB, since the latter will stretch all formats. The TV will likely stretch 480i/p signals (set the stretch mode on the TV), while HD signals will be "forced" into Full mode (or you can set the appropriate stretch mode if your TV can stretch HD). The TV then should "remember" the stretch mode for SD and HD separately, provided you've activated the appropriate formats.

What is the make/model of the TV?

I don't plan to change the FAQ since it discusses "both" ways to handle the Pace - either as if it were SA, or the "Pace way". People with Pace will simply have to use whatever works.

I have a Samsung LN-S4041D.

Thanks for the tip. It's just funny how nothing changed on my TV and it just no longer stretches. I'll give it a try tonight. I didn't have a lot of time last night and I guess I focused on the wrong thing.

No worries about the FAQ. I was just trying to contribute something after taking so much from this site.

I'm sure if I can figure out what to do, anyone can. ;)