I was wondering if anybody else here has ever seen them, basically my 6412p3 worked fine for several months but for the 3-4 occasionally it creates unplayable recordings (more frequently as time goes on, more frequently if it's an hd recording, even more frequently if both tuners are recording at the same time or if I ff/rw on one while the other is recording).

By unplayable I mean that the recording might go for a while but then it starts chopping and if the chopping gets severe enough the pvr will either get a black screen or freeze on the last frame: any key I press brings up a 'this action is available only in play mode, contact shaw with code NPLY'.

I thought for the longest time this was due to bad sectors on the hard drive (since it happens more often when the pvr is above the 70% mark) but yesterday I tried to tape the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade on both the HD and the standard feed at the same time and they both broke (chop/black screen) at the 34 minute mark, so the odds of having bad sectors at the same time on two locations on the HD are very unlikely.

I have called shaw about this a few times and I have gone through the reset the box, update the bios, etc. procedure already, I was wondering if this happens to anybody else and if so if next time it happens I should push for a replacement (hopefully they fixed this in the 6416)

Sorry, I've never had that error message, and I've seen many 6412 problems.

I did find a couple of other mentions of it here:
(Cogeco) http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=352057&highlight=nply#post352057
(Eastlink) http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=271294&highlight=nply#post271294

The Eastlink fellow said :
I've noticed some freezes/glitches - my most recent recording of Lost had two spots in it where the picture froze and the box came up with an error message (NPLY or something like that was the error code- No Play?) that I dismissed - and I was then able to stop the playback and then FF past that part and keep watching the rest.


And I found someone in the US had the same NPLY error on a 3412. So it is not specific to Shaw.

I have done some more research on this post and I've seen that as well, it does seem that for some reason the recording is corrupt, but it doesn't say much about the reason: most people that get this have signal strength issues also although sometimes I can FF (if it's just a small chop/drop) most of the time the 'damaged' area of the recording is too large and causes the NPLY/black screen.

When looking at d03 my signal strength is at 18db (fair) and snr at 22% (good), while on d04 I am at good (34db)/good: do you think that could be an issue? I also wonder why the d03 reading would be so much lower than d04. I have a shaw-installed 3 port splitter in my garage (that I unfortunately can't access, it's inside the little cable key-protected box) with different gains on the different ports, in fact my tv upstairs (not on a pvr) has a 'good' signal strength (22db) vs fair.

I wonder if I ought to try and get somebody to come out to switch the splitter, still I wish I didn't have to get a service person out for something that simple.

wdmc,

Did your problem with NPLY errors ever get fixed? I've been having this issue with my 6412 on several of my recordings over the last few days and I'm wondering if it means I need a new box or if there is any other way to fix it.

Anyone else having this issue? Sometimes it's called NPLY with me and sometimes it's called NS.

Have a look at the Digital Home FAQ (under help) "Motorola STBs". Lots of tips, hints, suggestions, codes there.

I had the same problem & error messages with my 6412 PIII
After 3 resets (and moving the box because one rep said it
was a known issue if stacked with other equipement because
of overheating - which didn't make any difference) shaw
replaced my box ( with a non Phase 3 - which gave me much
poorer SD reception - so I got them to come back and
give me a Phase 3)

Well, I phoned Shaw as the problem is not going away. They're sending someone on Sunday and the representative said they would likely replace the box. I said I wanted to make sure that I would get a Phase III if they did so, and he said that they were out of the older models, so that shouldn't be a problem. He said I might even get a 6416. I said I wouldn't object to that ;-)

I just wrote down all my series recordings since I'll probably have to re-enter them and realised I watch way too much TV!

I have been getting this error since I got my 6412, one month ago. I bought it off ebay, its a Comcast model and because of this the Shaw TSR only pointed me to this website (which I already knew about and helped me actually get this box for so cheap and get it activated) to help me with the problem.

He told me it was up to Motorola to fix the problem. I will be removing a splitter I have on the line to see if it fixes it. Other than that there isn't much else I can try. I thought it was over-heating (it was almost too hot too touch when it was in its shelf) but I removed it from my TV stand and let it sit on the floor where it is much cooler. I still got the NPLY error though, 40 minutes into a 1 hour HD recording.

I haven't found a whole lot of supporting cases on the internet. I'll continue to search though.

I had the same issue with my 6412. After a visit from a shaw installer they have all but gone away. The problem was that my signal coming into the house was too low. Apparently the PVRs are very picky about the signal strength and quality.

The installer diagnosed the problem to the box outside and after replacing the connectors everything was much better. My signal strength increased greatly and the problem has almost completely gone away. That is, it doesn't happen at all with recorded SD shows. However, I still get some choppiness with recorded HD shows. On the bright side, I haven't seen the NPLY error once since it was fixed.

I had the same issue with my 6412. After a visit from a shaw installer they have all but gone away. The problem was that my signal coming into the house was too low. Apparently the PVRs are very picky about the signal strength and quality.

The installer diagnosed the problem to the box outside and after replacing the connectors everything was much better. My signal strength increased greatly and the problem has almost completely gone away. That is, it doesn't happen at all with recorded SD shows. However, I still get some choppiness with recorded HD shows. On the bright side, I haven't seen the NPLY error once since it was fixed.
I thought that was probably the cause; I had two (cheap) splitters on my line before it connected to my 6412. I guess I'll be running a single cable across the room and as long as the signal in my apartment building is OK then hopefully my problem will be fixed as well.

Does anyone know how I could get an installer to my house to check the signal strength? I know they won't dispatch someone to check if I use my cable box as an excuse because they know its a third party box and will just say it is a problem with the box and it isn't up to them to fix.

xraycat you can check in the diagnostic screen (turn the DCT off and then press select) and go into the OOB screen option 3 or 4 and see what it says in there for the SNR. Even though it is a 3rd party DCT Shaw will still come out and troubleshooting things with the DCT BUT they will NOT replace it. They should do everything else for you though with regards to ensuring signal quality is good. If you have issues call them and get it corrected.

How do you know you have poor signal quality?
What is considered poor in the diags screen?

I thought I should mention that the error went away for me after I had the box replaced, so it might not always be a signal strength issue. The new box is still a 6412-PIII, so I didn't luck out with a 6416, but I was happy to find that the muting issue went away (my old box used to mute itself after fast-forwarding).

Any evidence to suggest that replacing the HDD would have resolved this issue?

Running a new cable from a different coax outlet seems to have fixed the problem. I never checked the diagnostics screen before trying the different connection but if anyone would like me to I will check the signal quality on the original, split line and then what it is now currrently with the new cable and no splitters.