Unfortunately, it comes with the territory. You didn't think they would enable the firewire port without also activating copy protection, did you?Hmmm... Not quite that clear cut.
Macrovision is on the AUX port - nothing to do with FireWire.
Broadcast flag prevents you from recording or limits the retention time - nothing to do with FireWire.

Please let's not hijack this thread with these firewire, copy protection discussions. We have a firewire thread and there are plenty of threads discussing recording HD, including a Digital Home FAQ (under help) "Recording HD".

There are currently no broadcast flags, however 5C settings do affect firewire (recording), as discussed in the FAQ.

Macrovision is an analogue recording issue, however, they are likely using CGMS-A, as discussed in the following thread.

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=44045 (post 98)

I can confirm the SA8300 firmware upgrade in Brampton and I can now run HDMI from the SA8300 to my Samsung HTIB and it works!

Is it me or the existing fast forward speeds changed a little bit? They seem to be a little bit faster. I regularly used to skip commercials by fast forwarding with 2 arrows and use the Instant Replay key to stop it. Now I have to watch like a hawk or I will miss the beginning of the show. Before it used to be a lot more forgiving.
Of course this also could be that the amount Instant replay sets you back is different.
Anybody having similar experience?

I am thinking maybe we should create a poll which improvement is most popular with this upgrade. I looked but I cannot see that I can create one. I guess only mods can create one?

I have encountered a really ANNOYING bug (which I notice one other member has noted) and recorded it in this thread (http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=56924).

If you find a bug that you can consistently replicate please post it in the bug thread. If you can't replicate it then please keep any discussion of it here.

Hmm, for about 2 days now my HDD has suddenly started spinning down again, both after I use it and after scheduled recordings. In fact I'm by the box right now and I just tried turning it off and about 2 minutes later the HDD spun down. Turned the box on, then off and once again 2 minutes later it spun down (much quicker than the previous firmware). Maybe Rogers changed a setting or something??

It also doesn't seem to be doing weird things due to HDMI either - my TV turns itself on now and again to look for new QAM channels and update its clock, and each time this happened it seemed to renegotiate with the 8300HD. And even if the 8300HD was off it would flash the last channel number on its screen briefly and spin the HDD up, even though it actually stayed off. Sometimes after something like this the HDD wouldn't spin down again. Now it just seems to sit idle through this.

If this behavior continues I'll be very happy.
Well, so much for that. About 12 hours after my post it started NOT shutting of the hard drive. Ever. And I can't actually get it TO shut off the drive at all now. I also note that when this happened the unit was back at channel 1, so it seems like Rogers is playing games...

My HDD is spinning down as before. I just checked and it was off. I can only assume that the HDD is active due to some download when you're hearing it on. Rogers may be updating minor firmware items as they find issues...

I would just like to say that this 1.89 software has totally transformed this machine's usability!

Last night was the first time since the upgrade that I really got to use the machine and it was just so nice that things worked so well!

I got to sit down at the TV at around 8:25. I started watching "My Name is Earl" which had started recording at 8:00 pm It was great to be able to say yes to "Start watching from the beginning"!!! 8:30 came and went and the show kept playing. I even paused after 8:35 for a few minutes then came back and watched the rest of the show. I was done at around 8:50. I started watching "The Office" and again started from the beginning. Sometime after 9:15 I was done with "The Office". I went upstairs for a bit then came back down and started watching "CSI". Again, right to the beginning. 10 pm came and went without interupting my viewing. I picked the second CSI being shown on Glabal, went straight to the beginning and then confirmed it was a rerun I had previously watched and cancelled the recording. I then selected an hour-long documentary that I had partially-watched previously. It was so nice to fast-forward to where I had left off in a few seconds, find the spot, and continue. It was after 11 when I was finished. Selected CTV national news (which I always record) and started watching that at 11:20 or so. Listed to the headlines, zapped through most of the news only stopping at a few items that were of interest to me. Finshed after 11:30 with no interuption, selected the local CTV news and started at the beginning. neat thing here is that I had previously done a manual recording as I only realy wanted to record from 11:30 to 11:59. sometime it took a while to have the repeating manual recording "stick" properly; but now I can set a recording of CTV news from 11:30 to 11:59 (instead of the normal end at 12:05 or so) and have it repeat every day.

None of the above things are earth shattering and really reflect how this unit should have worked from the beginning but now that it does my satisfaction level has gone up 1000%. I am sure other little bugs will be found but the positives outway them so much!

..Tom

One other change that might be my imagination:

I have always had the PVR hooked up to my Surround sound receiver directly (Either digital wire or optical.. i don't recal which.) It has worked well and the 5.1 surround was always appreciated. (My TV is hooked up vis DVI)

It seems to me, though, that the surround now works better than before. There seemed to be more background surround sounds in the shows I watched last night and the previous night. Again, I might be imagining it or maybe the shows I watched have improved the surround sounds tracks... but has anyone else noticed this?

Since the PVR does Bit for bit recording, I cannot imagine a difference in the DD5.1 audio surround, when properly configured and connected..

That was one of the recent firware updates.... you can now press it 4x for 4 arrows (fast forward)...watch that thing smoke!!! Wayyy too quick. Be ready to hit the rewind button to go back to where the show picks up again....it can amazingly take longer now to watch your show than before if you choose 'the 4th arrow'.

With the 1.89.16.2 update, I have noticed that occasionally when you're in playback of a recorded show and hit stop to get the playback menu (ie. to erase the show that is being played back) that if you press the up/down button too quickly before the menu comes up, the unit thinks that you are browsing the descriptions on the other channels, (ie. the show description bar for channel 948/951 would show up) as a result in order to get back to the current playback menu, I have to go through the recorded list again; even selecting channel 950 will not do anything. The overall strange thing is that it doesn't really change the channel, but it cycles through the channel desciptions on adjacent channels.

akennedy said:
I also noticed this morning that instead of powering down automatically like before, the audio was still playing and a screen saver displayed a message "Press any key to watch TV". When you press a key you get a message saying something like "Please wait while the hard dirve powers up".

I find that to be quite annoying now, well, both turning off and going to screensaver are both annoying, but I find that turning off is the lesser of the two annoyances, since sometimes, I fall asleep and I don't mind it turning off at 2am or whenever, but now with the screensaver, the sound is still going so in the middle of the night I notice that the TV is still on, and not to mention wasting power, and causing phosphor wear on the TV.

I have SARA 1.89.16.2 now.

I was recording Medium and had set the 'end' time to 11:02 - a new feature!

I started watching it at 10:30, and at 11:02 I was in the middle of fast-forwarding over a commercial when WHAM! it kicked me out to live :(

Has anyone else experienced this (uncommon) bug?

klaatu2,

How did you tune in the show? If you watched it by tuning the channel I have heard that is what happens (kicks out at end.)

I have watched several shows since the new software and when tuned in via "list" not had the kick-out bug. (I don't recall if the end tiems were altered but I suspect at least one of them had a changed end time with no problem.)

..Tom

How did you tune in the show? If you watched it by tuning the channel I have heard that is what happens (kicks out at end.)

Tom: I picked it from the 'Recorded' List - and then "Play from beginning".

...occasionally when you're in playback of a recorded show and hit stop to get the playback menu (ie. to erase the show that is being played back) that if you press the up/down button too quickly before the menu comes up, the unit thinks that you are browsing the descriptions on the other channels

I've had that happen to me in the past many times, although I cannot recall it happening recently (still the old firmware). I believe all I had to do is hit Stop again. But since it hasn't happened in a long while I could be mistaken (about the workaround). I've got very little on my drive now, so perhaps it's related to that.

10. Firewire appears to be enabled (for viewing), but functionality still in question for recording. - See firewire thread and discuss there.


I can confirm I can record PVR playback onto DVHS deck equipped with a Firewire port (JVC DTheater deck in my case).

Also new: The 1:10 am auto-shutoff is now replaced with a sleep mode with a screen saver-like text line that jumps around the screen that reads something like: "Press any key to reactivate". The audio remains active. After pressing the key a message will appear reading something like: "standby as the hard drive is restarted".

Gary

People, firewire discussions belong in the Rogers firewire thread please. Future firewire posts will be deleted from this thread.