Ok guys I phoned up shaw to ask their HD department(yes they have a department thats supposed to be able to answer all your HD questions) I brought up a number of questions for the DCT6416 and my setup. Here is how it went, right now I am going to tell you - it didn't go well. So if any of you owners out there that have Shaw HD package which costs roughly 64$/month they stated for all HD channels that they have and im guessing includes all the digital channels then please answer!

This is for the lower mainland in BC by the way(im in white rock):

Ok so first question I asked was:
" I am looking to purchase a dct6416 and I am getting it from a third party vendor for nearly $300 cheaper, I was wondering if I will be able to activate it with no problems on the shaw network."
answer: Yes you can.

"Ok, what channels in the HD package are unencrypted, I have a HTPC-PVR and want to connect the 2 firewire out's on the dct6416 to my HTPC-PVR to record my shows in HD so I can stream it to my other tv's without having to purchase multiple recievers."

answer: Don't know, we don't get that information from anyone. I believe the firewire ports are disabled actually; I am sure of it.

"Ok so what is there for us users that go out and buy a HTPC-PVR or custom build one and know that these firewire ports/usb/ethernet ports are on these models that you sell/use for the service you provide, we spend up to $1500 on a really good quality system that will support recording of HD content and streaming/replaying and you guys tell us that we can't hook it up even though on your site you state that HDCP compliant devices work with your firewire ports and that the firewire ports are active, if they are active why are they encrypted and how would a HDCP device be able to get the transmission from the reciever's firewire port if the channels are encrypted and how would they be able to be decrypted on HDCP devices and not on our HTPC-PVR's that are sold in stores and have systems like Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition which does have DRM protection"

answer: yeah not to sure about all that but I am sure that the firewire ports come inactive. I don't know the stations that are encrypted, I am sure stations above channels 300+ are encrypted but don't know specific stations or for sure if channels above 300 are encrypted.

"So what is shaw going to do about this, I know everything on the motorola dct6416 come active but the service provider has their own firmware created by motorola thats custom for their system, and shaw has requested then for them to encrypt certain channels if the stream doesnt already come with encryption and also that shaw has requested that on their firmware update that the firewire ports are inactive due to legal issues with people recording and archiving."

answer: I wouldn't know at this time, all I know is that I am not sure about the ports and encryption and also I know that if on certain channels the channels are encrypted and you can still use firewire on other channels, then its that you can't just record those encrypted channels but I don't know exact channel numbers and if they are digital/hd stations.


So if any of you guys have a dct model specifically the 6416; since I haven't found allot of driver info that says that it works forsure with the 6416 for firewire to the pc. Then please reply with where you live, what channels you have unencrypted, are the firewire ports unlocked so you can record to your PC, what channels are encrypted, if you have the HD package, what stations/channel numbers are encrypted and cannot be recorded.

I am one of the many of us out there that has frustration with this, I have also spent enough funds on trying to find a way to just record HD content from a provider(why is it that we can record with vhs but not our pc's in hd? like if we really want things that bad we would record in vhs format if we didnt want to pay, plus we are already paying for a subscription to watch the broadcast! the built in pvr shouldn't be our limits.)

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=34604

Sorry but wondering if we could just have users that own this 6416 specifically to answer questions for us buyers, that link doesn't really explain much just has a few people that just state what channels they have that are encrypted but doesn't state where they are specifically. For these units are allot of money, it helps to have people with a dct6416 that have tried out the firewire or just people who have the dct series and live around the area to comment on what channels are encrypted and which aren't. So far it sounds like TSN/CBC/CITY TV/ABC are encrypted. If anyone could clarify/validate this and tell us anymore stations that are encrypted and which ones AREN'T so we can see out of all the HD channels they provide, how many are recordable and which ones.

here is the list if anyone can clearly state which ones are encrypted for them and which ones aren't then please just copy paste and edit this following channel listing below:


Area (van/surrey/white rock/delta etc..): X
Do you have the full HD packaging?: X
A&E HD: X
Discovery HD: X
CTV HD East: X
Sportsnet HD: X
TSN HD: X
CBC HD: X
CTV HD West: X
Movie Central HD (1 and 2 East/West): X
ABC Seattle HD: X
CBS Seattle HD: X
NBC Seattle HD: X
FOX Seattle HD: X
PBS Spokane HD: X

Where the X is just replace with Yes for encrypted or No for not encrypted, if you don't have a certain channel just leave the X in. This will give us most accurate results! :)

I would applaud anyone supplying you with that information. however, even if you got that information, it could change tomorrow and all channels could either have 5C =1 or 0.

Perhaps you could put your location (White Rock) in your CPUser profile and someone in your area could provide you with the information for your area.

Well its not just for me, if I had gone out and bought it already I would be posting the findings in detail. what helps me, helps others thats how I see it. So if anyone has some findings please post!

I can and do record all hd channels from the firewire out on the 6416 to dvhs which is a 5c compliant device. So the ports work fine if your recording device deals with 5c correctly. Obviously the reason for 5c implimentation is to keep hd programming including movies from appearing on file sharing sites, thus the restrictions to PC recording. Shaw would be at the mercy of the content provider for this so as 57 says any reference to what channels have 5c=1 implimented is regional and changes regularly so meaningless. Shaw is the ONLY provider with active firewire outs on thier pvr in Canada at this time.

could you elaborate on your method of recording? what is the whole D-VHS thing? is it a recorder which is 5c compliant hdcp or whatever but requires you to buy d-vhs tapes to record to? can you stream through the d-vhs machine into your computer?

DVHS is digital video tape and records in hd 1080i from firewire source then outputs via firewire/component or hdmi (on the last jvc model 5u). It uses svhs or dvhs tape to do this and the results are excellent. I have not implimented a pc into my ht so cannot comment on what you can do with that end although I know it can be pc connected (many have). AVSforum.com and the hdtv recording area has lots of info, just search jvc dvhs.

One idea I was made aware of was to record shows off of the 6416 to an exernal hard drive via firewire which if i understood correctly was to come in as as mpeg2 file. If this is true would it not be possbile to burn an mpeg2 file ot a dvd or just a quicktime file on your computer??

One idea I was made aware of was to record shows off of the 6416 to an exernal hard drive via firewire which if i understood correctly was to come in as as mpeg2 file. If this is true would it not be possbile to burn an mpeg2 file ot a dvd or just a quicktime file on your computer??

Unless there's new news on this it is not yet supported to an external drive. You can record material via firewire that is NOT 5C ENCRYPTED to a computer as it is played back on the mot pvr real time. There are threads on this. As more 5c encryption is used by shaw it becomes far less possible.

thanks for the info, seems a little like bs to me how after spending almost $800 you can do little more than to just watch the shows and basically be limited to what you record and keep. for me i not up on all the information that is being provded here so i guess i have some reading to do, however my impression is that whatever i want to do with this pvr is either complicated or near impossible.
so where can i find out or how can i go about finding out in simple terms what this box's limitations are?

thanks again!

If you buy the 6416 from Future Shop, you have 30 Days to decide if it is not for you.

I was reading the Copyright Act yesterday, and as far as I can tell, Shaw (or any broadcaster) has the right to allow its subscribers to permanently store content it transmits.

The thing I find remarkable is that there's no compelling legal concern involved with Shaw enabling Firewire output on the devices and disabling the 5C encryption. There is no law that says that the encryption must exist in Canada BUT it is expressly permitted for a broadcaster to transfer the right of fixing to its customers.

It is a shame that the private copying section of the Copyright Act only applies to audio recordings and not video. That may be why the music channels are not 5C encrypted. I would strongly suggest the beginning of a petition and lobbying your local MP to have video recordings expressly covered by the private copying section of the Copyright Act. This could force broadcasters to disable the 5C encryption on television channels.

I was reading the Copyright Act yesterday, and as far as I can tell, Shaw (or any broadcaster) has the right to allow its subscribers to permanently store content it transmits.

The thing I find remarkable is that there's no compelling legal concern involved with Shaw enabling Firewire output on the devices and disabling the 5C encryption. There is no law that says that the encryption must exist in Canada BUT it is expressly permitted for a broadcaster to transfer the right of fixing to its customers.

It is a shame that the private copying section of the Copyright Act only applies to audio recordings and not video. That may be why the music channels are not 5C encrypted. I would strongly suggest the beginning of a petition and lobbying your local MP to have video recordings expressly covered by the private copying section of the Copyright Act. This could force broadcasters to disable the 5C encryption on television channels.

I don't know much about the copy write act, but if i had to guess, its probably the TV networks that are requiring Shaw to do this. They probably say do it or dont get us, thats my guess anyway, and if thats the case would you rather be able to record threw firewire or get some good shows on a TV network?

I don't know much about the copy write act, but if i had to guess, its probably the TV networks that are requiring Shaw to do this. They probably say do it or dont get us, thats my guess anyway, and if thats the case would you rather be able to record threw firewire or get some good shows on a TV network?

It's sort of a false dichotomy to say that the option is either you get the channel but it's encrypted OR you don't get the channel at all.

A point I would raise is that we should be lobbying our government to enshrine a private copying right for video and not just audio. There are all kinds of moral arguments to be made regarding customer's and citizen's right to fairly store content for which they've paid, either by subscription or by outright purchase. For example, one could easily argue that copy protecting DVDs or Blu-Ray discs should be against the law.

For those interested, Here (http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/index.html) and here (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=403695) are the directions for recording to a PC via the fire wire. After that, there are many ways to edit and encode the video. It is very time consuming. I'll just wait till I can afford HD-DVD or Blue-Ray.;)

So boyaa.

Hmm. I don't know.
Is Hollywood worried about it? I don't know. How many episodes do you have of the A-Team on Beta, T? Enjoy what you have, I don
t like clutter.

See you guy when the Hip sound good again, heh, heh, heh.

DVHS is digital video tape and records in hd 1080i from firewire source then outputs via firewire/component or hdmi (on the last jvc model 5u). It uses svhs or dvhs tape to do this and the results are excellent. I have not implimented a pc into my ht so cannot comment on what you can do with that end although I know it can be pc connected (many have). AVSforum.com and the hdtv recording area has lots of info, just search jvc dvhs.

I have recorded HD content to both a DVHS recorder and a PC. I agree the results with DVHS is excellent and is as simple as using a regular VHS recorder. With regards to the PC, there's really not much to "implement". I use my little 12" laptop to record HD content because of portablilty by allowing me to simply carry it to a friend's place and plugging it into their HDTV's VGA port. All you need is to plug in a firewire card if your pc doesn't have one and download some free drivers and free software (capdvhs to record, vlc for displaying the "native" transport stream file format and hdtv2mpeg2 for converting it to standard mpg file format if you prefer to use standard players like PowerDvd). Takes less than half an hour from start to finish to download and install everything. Nothing to tweak for me. Faster and simpler than installing most games!

One idea I was made aware of was to record shows off of the 6416 to an exernal hard drive via firewire which if i understood correctly was to come in as as mpeg2 file. If this is true would it not be possbile to burn an mpeg2 file ot a dvd or just a quicktime file on your computer??

You can't directly connect an external harddrive via firewire, but you can indirectly do this by connecting to your PC and recording to your PC's hard drive! And yes, the recorded transport stream file is mpeg2. For maximum portablity, I suggest converting it to a mpg file so that standard players like PowerDvd can play them.

I usually burn HD TV series to regular DVDs (typically stores around 50 mins of HD depending on compression, which is more than enough for a typical 1 TV hour show once you strip the commercials) and HD movies to DL DVDs (typically stores around 1.5 hours depending on compression). You can pick up regular DVDs for around 30c per and DL DVDs for 1.20 per, so it's actually much cheaper than DVHS recording where SVHS tapes typically cost $10 per (although I bought a whole bunch for only $5 per during a clearout sale).

Hi everyone,I am new to these forums so I apologize in advance if I am asking questions that have already been answered.I've read a bunch already but I'm not sure my problem has been addressed.Here goes:

I purchased and installed a motorola dct 6416 111 cablebox it is hooked up to a sharp aquos1080p tv and a pioneer hometheatre system.

My problem is the sound cuts out for no reason,the signal on the pioneer reciever shows analog and the shaw reps have had to reset the box from their end 3 times in 10 days so I could get sound back.The shaw rep who came by to look at it said there was nothing wrong with the way any of the components are wired to each other(future shop installers put it together) but the sound continues to drop out for the space of one or two words on a regular and consistent basis and when it returns it is usually accompanied by a type of frequency feedback sound.

Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.