Anyone ever experience pixellation and sound "blip" (for a split second) every 45 seconds to 1 minute. Looks like its only on the HD channels. Occurs when watching live and recordings. On recordings theyre always on the same spots.

BTW, I do have an external hard drive. Problem started after I hooked it up and without seems to work fine (although I havent removed the hard drive and tested the STB standalone long enough yet).

Any thoughts?

Same problem here, although not as often. I get it maybe 3-4 times per hour.

It's annoying. I wish Rogers would get on with it and update the firmware so these things can function properly.

Nothing like a $500 POS.

Trying the "trick" to fillup the hard drives (both external and STB) and then delete to see if the problem is bad sectors. Currently recording 2 HD channels set for 12 hours, will run again until its full.

Will post update.

Any other thoughts or suggestions are appreciated!

24 hours of HD recorded fine...at least they showed up as 2, 12 hour recordings and they are playable (didnt watch the entire length of the recordings and blips were present). 40% filled.

Today a combined 40+ hours of recording. BTW, i have a fan blowing the STB and external hdd. Both were ice cold when I got home yesterday.

I'm trying the same thing now...

Lost yesterdays marathon recordings, 2 x 20 hrs, logged only 22 min each. But it was recording for sure, just didn't write to disk. Another short record story. Think the problem however was setting the manual recording to straddle the 12am, recording over 2 days, issue some people on this board have experienced also was having problems with HDFOX (won't get into that here, many other posts on that topic). Did a cold reboot and try again today. So far with 60% used no improvement in the "blip" frequency.

I hit 100% usage this morning and deleted everything. I've noticed an improvement in "blip frequency" as the drives got fuller and fuller, and observed no blips in the 15 minutes I spent watching this morning over breakfast.

I'll report back in a day or two....keeping fingers crossed.

Well, I can report that filling up the drives did not solve the problem.

I've still seen blips since, although I'm unsure of the frequency. They seem to come in spats now, with less frequent occurrences.

Bottom line: I'm still not getting the quality of product I was promised when I purchased the 8300HD. Maybe time for a class action against Rogers and SA?

Hit 80% last night. Blips are definitely less frequent and less intense also (both picture and sound). Will hit 100% and delete the files this weekend. Hoping that at least the improvement sticks if not fixing the problem completely. If not may try formatting the drives.

Hit 80% last night. Blips are definitely less frequent and less intense also (both picture and sound). Will hit 100% and delete the files this weekend. Hoping that at least the improvement sticks if not fixing the problem completely. If not may try formatting the drives.

I had the same experience....blips went away when the hard drives were almost full.

I'm still not getting the quality of product I was promised when I purchased the 8300HD. Maybe time for a class action against Rogers and SA?You were never promised that an external drive would work on an SA8300HD. This is a "hack" that many people are able to make work and some people (with some equipment) cannot make work. (I'm not saying you're doing anything wrong or have the wrong equipment, however, there are many variables that come into play that can affect the performance of the external drive - drive, enclosure, cable, etc)

The same holds for the HDMI or DVI connection, which most people can make work (for their HDTV connection), but which Rogers (and many other service providers) doesn't officially support.

You simply cannot blame Rogers for your problems. If your STB has issues with the internal drive and no external drive connected, they'll be only too happy to assist you.

The tips in the Digital Home FAQ (under help) "Tips for SA STBs" MAY assist you - like a cold reboot (which you have likely done) and checking the signal strength (again).

Other service providers like Shaw and BEV don't have the SATA ports active, so no external drive is available for their customers at all. At least Rogers has the SATA port active.

57, ever heard of record issues being caused by using HDMI? Or are these issues independant.

noticed a lot of views of this thread but not so much replies.

does this mean no one else out there has this issue? only me and belgian?

You cannot record via HDMI. I was only giving it as an example of something that people make work, but is not officially supported by Rogers.

does this mean no one else out there has this issue? only me and belgian?Most of the discussion on external drives has taken place in the following thread. Many people have no issues. Some do.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=23773

Check out the last few pages of the thread.

On the contrary, when I purchased it at the Future Shop last month, that was one of their selling points - that the capacity was easily increased through the addition of an external Sata drive.

I fail to understand how adding an external HDD, which is supported by the PVR and firmware, is a "hack." I hacked nothing. I simply plugged in hardware that is obviously supported, since it is now functioning.

I know this: I purchased a PVR with an eSATA port designed to offer expanded capacity. I purchased it based on this representation, which was made to me at the time of sale. I added an eSata compliant external HDD. It fails to perform properly.

I fail to understand your viewpoint of zero accountability. It simply doesn't make sense. If I didn't know better, I'd think you're an employee of Rogers corporate.

Companies can't sell a product and then simply say, "We support none of the features on our product."

On the contrary, when I purchased it at the Future Shop last month, that was one of their selling points - that the capacity was easily increased through the addition of an external Sata drive.That was a Future Shop Salesman speaking, not a Rogers representative. If you believe everything that a FS salesperson tells you, then you are indeed naïve.

The FACT that Rogers doesn't officially support the SATA or Firewire, or HDMI or DVI ports is well known and something that you (and I) may disagree with, but not something to be argued. It is simply a FACT.

One of the reasons that I have not yet added an external drive myself, is because of some of these reported issues. I mentioned that in the External Drive thread not long ago. I will likely consider the option of replacing the internal drive on my purchased unit when/if I have issues with drive space.

It may be a FACT, but that doesn't mean it complies with Consumer Protection Legislation or the principles of contract law.

I constantly have dealings with Rogers where they appear to be running afoul of the law.

I'm sure that the corporate lawyers make sure that what the various corporations do stays within the law. We hear about it when they don't.

For example, years ago Rogers (and others) attempted something called "negative billing", which received a huge amount of press.

If you are a lawyer, perhaps you can make the statements in your last post, but if not, I suggest you don't make such statements, or YOU may be the one running afoul of the law for slander.

All of this has nothing to do with the topic of this thead. There is a thread for Rogers Rants (sticky, top of Rogers Forum), please post there in future.

I have done nothing other than express my opinion in these posts. And, yes, you nailed it...I am a lawyer, and an engineer, working in the general area of technical law. That's precisely why I take issue with a company offering a substandard product and trying to weasel out of its obligations with such positions as "those features are not supported."

Corporate lawyers may make sure the company stays within the general boundaries for big items like billing, but I'm sure less than 1% of Rogers' customers are actually taking issue with such things as external storage on the PVRs.

The technically savvy, like the people reading these posts, are often left out in the cold by big companies. Most such companies survive only because most of their consumers don't know when the product they purchased isn't performing as promised.