I am currently having no problems at all with my 6412 and haven't in several months. Where do you live I want your 6412. Just kidding. Your a very lucky dude.DCT KNOWN ISSUES: (Quite long!)

6208
6412
CIU error on display of DCT - 100% full indicator
is showing Issue: CIU error on display of DCT - 100% full indicator is showing
There is a known issue within TVGuide that can cause this issue on any PVR.
It can be duplicated by;

Playback a delayed program.
Go into the guide and attempt to record the next program on the same channel AFTER it has already started (i.e. program started at 09:30, user went to record at 09:35).
The disk full error message will appear and the disk will show 100% full
Workaround: The only way to clear the 100% full indicator is to delete a program from the hard disk.


Workaround my ass. How about all the programs that were not recorded while this was at 100%
Yes, I too have had the blank screen and the grey stuff when the old tvs were off channel. I just power off. And it usually fixes it. Either that or use a baseball bat on it. Though I dont recommend the latter.

Just to update, that a Shaw tech came to the house today, new 6412 under arm. (my 4th one now!). I said I don't need a new one if its dBs at fault. He checked the cable where it goes to the TV at the splitter in the grey box outside and he said it was acceptable. Not low at all.
He said that 15dB on the SNR diagnostic would not cause any of the freezing or blank screens, or audio cutting out.... but would cause faint rolling bars or fuzz if the dB was way too low or high. I asked over and over about this and the same reply. He said its the software, the software, the software.
Anyway he put all new ends on the cables. Installed the new 6412 anyway and said that they'll keep replacing them as long as I keep having problems, until someone fixes the issues.
The SNR is still 15.2 dB FAIR on the new box. He says thats perfectly fine.
Shaw did line tests from their end, or what ever they do, and said that I have an excellent strong signal.
He says that the freezing and no sound and blank screen is a software issue and they can't fix that themselves. He did agree that for the price of the box that someone should get on top of it as this is Shaws latest box and all that and a bad thing to sell stuff this way.
He says theres only about 500 of these 6412 PVRs out there.

So here I am with yet another new box, lost yet another load of recordings just before the weekend again! :( I spend the week recording stuff to watch on Friday night and the weekend.

I emailed Shaw "Contact Us" to "Supervisors", filled in both the online form and emailed to the local email address for my town. This was the suggestion of the Shaw customer support lady on the phone the other day. Just to let them know theres one more person waiting for software updates to fix my issues.

And also....when I said I was going to just leave it on 24/7 so its not blank screen when I turn it off and on again later, he sort of whistled in as he drew a breath, as if the say "Ooooo, I wouldn't do that", then he says to me "You mean leave it on all the time every day?" sort of thing, and I said I would. He sort of made a face like thats not such a good idea.

The funny thing today too...he arrived and I had the TV on. First he checked the cables in the grey box outside, so he disconnected the one that goes to the 6412 from the box, put a new end on. Then we came inside. Well there was a blank screen on the TV, the receiever was on CH8 still. I thought the TV had gone off, I turned everything off and on and still the blank screen. So he got to see what I mean. Funny he caused it when he disconnected the cable to put new end on outsdie. The 6412 didn't bring a picture back on afterwards, no way, until I unplugged it and plugged it in again and he stood and watched as the picture came back.
So I asked if theres anything he can think of that happens that might be similar to what he caused by disconnecting, is there something that could be going on inside the box to maybe do a similar thing? He had no idea.

...faint rolling bars or fuzz if the dB was way too low Was the guy older? These types of artifacts are analogue artifacts. They should not (and do not) come into play with digital transmissions, with proper hookups.

With digital channels, you either get them or you don't. (At the "limit" you may get some nasty pixellation.)

I believe you were just fed some more Shaw Bull....

Rolling bars are usually caused by ingress to the signal, NOT a low signal. These can happen on digital or analogue channels, however, the root cause is external.
Fuzz or snow ARE due to a low signal, BUT only on analogue channels. See the following:

http://www.cabletronix.com/support/trouble.asp

He was maybe mid 40's.
He did tell me that the techy who came out one week ago to check my 1st 6412 and didn't check anything or cables was new.
Since then my 2nd had no audio and the 3rd was same blank screen as the 1st, now I am on my 4th 6412 in just over a month!
i have no idea if this one will have the same issues. I expect so to tell you the truth.
This tech seemed quite knowledgable today though.
How do I change my dB from 15.2 dB to maybe 30 dB?, thats what I asked him. H e jsut figured everyone will be the same as me form what he said. And its acceptible. He did say that with the heat that Shaw techs maybe behind on looking at problems, like me working outside, its unbearable, so there may be troubles or something they'll look at when its cooler.
Yeh...maybe BS, but I ask and ask and thats what they say. Wheres the dBs going, he couldn't say. But he tried real hard to reasure me its not the cause of the problems I see.

I should confirm that I do get that issue on the music channel where it will display the last frame of the channel I was watching....no big deal coss I can still listen to the music.....now I may be pushing my luck now but it'd be great to watch the channel and listen to the music too!:o I guess thats what radios are for:D

I have had box #4 for less than 24 hours now and its just the same as all the others. First thing this one did to us was when it was working OK this morning, then the Guide and Info and List stopped working, etc, had to unplug.

Anyhow, since I'd emailed Shaw supervisors last week I had one phoned me this morning. She was not aware of similar problems plagueing the 6412. She looked in to it a bit and see the problems they deal with are all the same. So she said she is quite concerened and no ones ever brought these problems to her or other supervisors attention, apprently. No one told her about it, and she will talk to others next week and see that something be done. Well something to that effect. We talked about dBs and freezing, no audio and blank screens. She didn't agree. Says it looks like software from what she's looked up now. And also she said that theres people out there with 6412 that have no problems whatso ever.
Does the version (Phase III, etc) make a difference to troubles? Is it all the 6412 PIIIs that are freezing? Or same software on different versions causing this? I hope they sort this out. I mentioned theres loads of people I read on Forums with same models, or similar, and have all these issues. So she said its a good to email so that people are made aware. I address the emails to "Supevisor" in the title, she got it.
I guess the techs replace these things and no one seems bothered after that.

So I got a months credit for cable for my troubles! So I'll keep the complaints up each month till they fix it. In the meantime I'll have to leave it on 24/7. She said they will keep replacing the box if it keeps freezing, but even I said thats stupid opening brand new ones when we are certain its software, but she said that its their dedication to their customers to keep replacing these until somethings fixed.

And I found this at Motorola.... http://www.motorola.com/mediacenter/news/detail.jsp?globalObjectId=4151_3506_23

Couchpotatoe sorry that you are having so much trouble. After Shaw replaced my first box, I can't say enough about the stability of my box. Where are you located? Are your running everything through your receiver first? Are you using HDMI or component? My 4 yr old set doen't do HDMI and I run component out to my tv. Nary an issue.

I've had my box since February. I had to exchange the first one within a week because it had a bad 'audio dropout' problem. Since then I've been pretty happy with it. I can't say it's been 100% perfect, but certainly nothing that has caused too much inconvenience.

I've had the 100% full bug 3 times IIRC. I've had to re-boot it a few times for various reasons; freeze ups, guide data etc...

I like to think of it as a computer (that's what it is), and as such it will occasionally have issues that require re-starts or re-boots.

I have taken to leaving it on all the time, although I'm not fully comfortable with the idea. The main reason I leave it on is to avoid that problem of powering it down while it's in the midst of recording something.

Thanks everyone.
I'm in Chilliwack,BC.
Yes the cable comes in the house and straight to the 6412 and for a few weeks now its just been connected to the TV only, by HDMI the whole time (so was my older 6200). When the issues were acting up I just unhooked everything except the TV, eliminated the power/surge bar too and its on its own on the TV. But I can hook the video (Yellow VIDEO out on the 6412) to my DVD recorder and there is a picture to that when I have that blank screen to the TV on HDMI.

Anyhow I am tempting fate by saying what I am about to say!......since the supervisor called me on Saturday, early AM, I have no issues happened whatsoever. I have even been recording shows on and off all weekend and using the List and deleting them and doiing tons of stuff that would have brought on an issue last week....but ok now. (Knock on wood of course).
And since I had blank screens or freeze once per day and other audio stuff happening I am surprised nothings gone wrong in about 48 HRS. And we have used the TV, kids too, all weekend and its been on and off many, many times. I even got agitated that it won't freeze, etc, and yesterday turned it on and off a few times in a row, I expected that it'd bring up the blank screen at least once like it did every day for weeks....nope!
So I go to the diagnostics screen, now the SNR says 36.7 dB GOOD !!!!!
What gives? Is this really the cause?

Can they just crank up the dB to make me happy after I spoke to the supervisor?:eek:

I like to think of it as a computer (that's what it is), and as such it will occasionally have issues that require re-starts or re-boots.

I think of this as a set top box.
Like a vcr, dvd player, dat deck, cd burner etc.
Or something with a computer chip in it like a fridge, a car, an elevator...
I lose the ability to customize for reliability.
But I dont.
Hmm, a monopoly or government must be involved.


Now if I could build a PVR that would interface with digital cable ......
I would have like a better progress bar, wireframe maybe or something that doesnt
block what I am actually trying to see in slow motion or none at all
And where the thing is actually placed on the screen
and slow motion that is slower and hard disk that is 500 gigs not 120,
and a choice of hardware interfaces and access to programing 2 weeks in advance not 4 days.
Then maybe I could accept random reboots.

I would have like a better progress bar, wireframe maybe or something that doesnt block what I am actually trying to see in slow motion or none at all. And where the thing is actually placed on the screen.
You can make the status bar vanish for 30 seconds, in pause mode, by hitting the 'exit' key on the remote, as many times as needed. It's a little something for you, anyway. :)

Thx, I find that I usually end up hitting the exit button near the end of the progress bars cycle the bar disappears with out my effort and I exit out of the recorded program I am watching. Usually baseball. Requiring me to hit the go back key. These remote get a good workout watching a game with me. 30sec fwd 15back. Commercials in a 3 hours game, 4 to 6 games a week, I dont watch most as they are rarely new ones hit that 30sec fwd button at least 4 or 6 times during a pitcher change or inning break. The speciality digital channels are worse often 5 mins. of commericials in arow. This is why a pvr is great.

Well here I am after so many days of happy trouble free PVR'ing . But I am back because today it finally decided it had to do the blank screen thing after almost 7 days with no toruble. It was 6 days ago a Shaw supervisor phoned me (see post higher up) and since that time I had no trouble. I thought that was coincidental as I never went a day without freezes or blank screen when turning on all this week.
So I had been turning this 6412 off ond on at will, never froze or blank screened all week. I have recorded at will, set recordings days in advance, and no troubles, watched recordeings with no trouble. Today I came in from work and turn the thing on....it comes on with CH 1 !!and blank screen. It was on like CH 13 or something when I last used it. I change channels, and still blank screen. Unplug and that fixed it. Ohh boy, and I thought a miracle had happened 6 days ago. I can't figure out what gives, what do I do different to make it fine for days and now it blanked out?...nothing:eek:

I suppose the 6416 (bigger HDD:D ) unit is exactly the same exact insides and firm/software as the 6412 except for the harddrive???
If it was a whole new model and that maybe I'd just demand an exchange. I don't record that much as it is. What I do record I watch at night so its deleted. Maybe record the odd movie off MCHD. Its no more than 50% full ever. I have yet to encounter the 100% full problem...or was that solved in firmware update?

Whats a 6416 worth anyway?

ohh well, life goes on.

ok....yet another couple days gone by and this 4th 6412 PhIII has had blank screens daily and just today I come in from work, sit down with a coffee, switch it on and I have picture and audio, but no Guide, Info or List or other stuff. I can go up and down the channels, but I notice that when press any remote button that the remote LED on the display stays lit for seconds after I let go of the button, nothings working anyway!

I think this is something to do with a Shaw cable line on my road! How on earth can it be so bad on and off and then I had an almost perfect week for days? Like as soon as the wind blows it goes haywire or something! They test the line and say its excelelnt, but what about when it has a glitch at that time? They told me on my first unit it wasn't communicating with them, does that cause these problems if for a moment it can't contact Shaw??
If its a hardware or software glitch then it should be screwey all the time...right? And others testify they have no problems ever.

I am phoning Shaw tomorrow, if theres something with their end thats causing my box to hickup then I want it fixed. For now I will leave it turned on all night again. It was fine all last week turning it off. That figures:o

I am phoning Shaw tomorrow, if theres something with their end thats causing my box to hickup then I want it fixed. For now I will leave it turned on all night again. It was fine all last week turning it off. That figures:o

How many times do people have to tell you to do not turn the power off.? Save your self the headaches (and save us from your posts).

Well I just had my first Blank screen with audio. I was trying everything to get the picture back, then I remembered this forum....Unplugged the unit then plugged it back in 2 min later and there was my picture back. Now i just have to wait for the guide to show up.