From what I remember back a couple of years ago that most pvr's used special 5400 rpm
maxtor drives that were engineered for reliability. So the Faster drives might work
but may cause heat problems, may cause you
to think you have a Xbox360 (noisy) and maybe unstablity.
I have wondered right from the very beginning why a lot of features were not
enabled but over time I come to the conclusion that it's because the boxes are
just too FRAGile. With F/W upgrade things improve but overall they a slow
work in progress. For example my orig. box had no skip forward function but with a
input found from this site it was added, but it did come with a downside, if you
pushed to many buttons in seq. the box would freeze. Now apparently with firmware upgrades this is
a default feature (the skipping not the freezing;). Then by default it only came
with enough data to preview 4 days of shows, even though it was well known
that they could hold 2 weeks. Now that has changed but the accuracy of the info is worse.
I wish we could just build our own pvr's with a cable card slot for what ever provider we desire.
Then I'd get wire frame translucent progress bars, customizable gui's, tv guides,
Storage that TB's huge and wife that would
allow me to sit in front of the tv for days at a time. (well, I can dream).

Cable providers seem to have overlooked the advantage of increasing revenue for enabling the esata external storage function. More storage means subscriber will be more willing to subscribe more HD movies/programs packages, so they can tape them and view them in their own time. For us who have only fixed 120-160G drive and without enough viewing hours during weekdays, we really don't have any desire to buy more packages even though we can afford the price.

So what would be considered a low signal level, where would i look and would a visit from a shaw rep fix it?

Please see the following thread on Motorola STB tips/diagnostics:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=21274


See the following post, useful for those new to the forum:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741

Can we assume that we will never see the firmware update that was promised to us by Shaw to allow the ability to increase HD capacity, (yes I know Shaw is at Motorola's mercy w.r.t. firmware updates), and instead we are to purchase the Pace PVR if we want such a feature?

In other words, should I stop holding my breath and just move on.. I always have a glimmer of hope that we can expand our 6412's...

I would suggest talking with motorola on this. Pace has been able to do it with the same guide interface so Moto should be able to do this. Obviously if the Pace can do it then Shaw has the ability to do it so the limitation is on Motorola.

Yes, it is a shame to have those ports and they be inactive...I'd have no problem going out and buying a 250GB external SATA drive to plug in, if it would work...heck, I'd even buy it from Shaw if they offered it and wanted to make it proprietary.
The problem with using an off the shelf e-sata is with the formatting. The default format is ntfs...the motorola pvrs use the IBM GPFS file system (http://www-03.ibm.com/systems/clusters/software/gpfs/index.html). Because the e-sata is not accessable by the system formatting device file the external drive will not be recognised as a device. However if one where to pre-format an e-sata drive with the IBM GPFS then it maybe the external device will work....all that Shaw says is that the use of the port is not supported, which does not mean that it might not be possible. Pehaps the same thing applies to external USB drives.

What is it going to matter? If the system can't see the drive to format it, it won't matter that it is already pre-formatted. The firmware doesn't support usb/esata hard drives. Motorola isn't interested in making firmware that allows this to happen either. If they truly wanted people to have that functionallity, they could have made it happen long ago.

I really don't think Motorola cares that much if cable providers want units with larger drives either. Since most consumers have very little choice in what cable provider to go with, and can generally only use the model that the cable provider offers it limits competition. Not to mention that the specific drives that get used in these machines are a lot cheaper in the 160gb variety.

Eventually that stance will probably bite them in the ass, but until then waiting for that magical firmware update will be a long time in coming.

There are many ways around being limited to that 160gb in any case, it is just that they require a little more work than just saving everything on the pvr.

If they truly wanted people to have that functionallity, they could have made it happen long ago.

Sigh.. this is too true.

I really don't think Motorola cares that much if cable providers want units with larger drives either. Since most consumers have very little choice in what cable provider to go with, and can generally only use the model that the cable provider offers it limits competition.

Well isn't Shaw by offering the Pace PVRs sending the message to Motorola: "our customers want the ability to augment the HD storage for the PVRs that we offer.", and thus taking some market share away from Motorola?

[QUOTE]Eventually that stance will probably bite them in the ass, but until then waiting for that magical firmware update will be a long time in coming. [/QUOTE

My dct 6412 phase 3 is starting to have problems and I need to install a different hard drive. Are we still limited to 160g and is replacing the hd just as simple as taking out the old one and putting in a new one. Does the box automatically recognze and format the drive etc or are more steps involved. I also understand that the hardest part might be opening up the
shaw box, Are there any instuctions to help
Thanks

Everything you said is correct. There is a special screwdriver you can use but I just used a small pair of plyers. Opening the box is the biggest challenge.

I have a 300gb HDD but it's limited to 160gb and it was easy to format. It did it itself in seconds. Very easy once you open the box.

Its plug & play. The machine will automaticaly format the drive up to 160GB.

I have a security bit for sale if anyone wants one. I moved on from Motorola to Pace. Email me at cavu@flying-colors.org

8 piece tamperproof torx set at Princess Auto for $4.29 that included the required #T10 bit. Item number is 8037019
http://www.princessauto.com/_osn.cfm?CTRY=CAN&output=OSN&SRCH=1&SRCHAREA=OSN&T1=8%20PC%20TORX%20BIT%20SET

Is this right. Read about it on another forum.

Just finished upgrading my dct 6412 III. Thought I'd post my findings.

Original hard drive in the unit was having problems so decided to put in a new hard drive. So far, so good. Have yet to fill the drive and check playback as the problem on the old drive only occurred when playing recorded data between 25 - 45% full.

old drive was a 120 gig Seagate barracuda SATA.
Replaced it with a 250 gig barracuda SATA (smallest available at Memory Express in NE).
Unit recognized the new drive right away but only as a 160 gig drive (expected behavior as per this thread).

The hardest part was getting the cover off. Ended up taking a Dremel to the security screws. BTW, the Active Components 62 piece security bit set does not include the bit necessary for the Shaw box :(.

I did try reformatting the old hard drive a couple of months ago as per the dct6412 wikibook procedure. This did help a bit but was still having issues. So I replaced the drive finally.

Cheers.

I just replaced the original drive in my early DVI box with a 160GB IDE and can't get it to work properly. It recognizes the drive just fine and works without issue until it randomly reformats itself.

Does anyone know of a solution for this, aside from trying to track down a 120GB IDE?

Thanks.

I have a 6412 series 2, and after the 120gb Seagate IDE drive died I've tried replacing it with a 160gb Western Digital IDE drive (as I've been unable to find anywhere that still sells 120gb IDE drives, and the WD drive was the only 160gb IDE drive I could find even) - and am having the same problem that the previous poster and a number of others in this thread are having.

Everything seems fine, I can record and playback for a short time, then BOOM it'll reset, click, and when it comes back the hard drive appears to have been erased and all guide listings are cleared and need to be re-downloaded. :( I just exited the Diagnostics menu, powered it back on and instantly it reset itself again.

In the Diagnostics menu, page d13 shows the drive correctly as a 160gb drive, however the System, GPFS, PVR Content and PVR Index all show up as "N/A". It has firmware 16.42.

I have done both the DVR HDD Reset and DVR Authorization and Full Factory Reset and neither fixed nor altered this behaviour.

Ideas? Has anyone successfully fixed this problem, or knows what causes it in the first place? There are several cases in this thread where people with series 2 6412's have upgraded to 160gb IDE drives without problems, so it should work...

Internal drives larger than 160GB will now be fully utilized, although you may need to reformat the drive. As such, this thread is no longer valid!

Well I hope your right.

We will keep this thread open until a few folks can confirm that this is indeed the case.

Keep in mind that Shaw isn't the only cable company that uses Moto boxes. Rather than having similiar threads, all questions ended up here.

I don't think Cogeco has this firmware yet. I'll check tonight.

Eastlink is still at firmware 16.35 for example.