Rogers 8642 HD (Nextbox) PVR Owners Thread: Read post #1 )

[Eluder]

So I was recording two HD programs last night at the same time, no issues with the guide, or anything else at all. I'd guess there's something wrong with your box icemankent.

[ANDYA]

Originally Posted by Eluder

So I was recording two HD programs last night at the same time, no issues with the guide, or anything else at all. I'd guess there's something wrong with your box icemankent.

Is this with or without an eHDD? And what type?
Thanks

[hdwaterloo]

I have not had the problem solved (bought the box in April ..sigh)
I am still on the third box, it sucks.
All 3 were 500GB 8642
I've had 4 tech's come and measure the signals etc, replace stuff, of course its all fine, and issues remain.

Eventually (June) I had the manager come out with the tech. He watched it all happen and did some investigation internally within Rogers. They did have some internal reports of this (including a Rogers VP who has the problem, but didn't push it ...should be fired since this is such a terrible product)
He says Cisco have reproduced the problem (in June)
waiting for solution and trial/rollout that Rogers will have to do.

I've been back and forth with him on it monthly.
They still don't have a rollout, waiting on results from a Videotron trial of the new software which is supposedly much better. That is the last I heard (in Sept)...though my wife is ready to junk the whole thing so she will likely talk to him again this week.

The shocking part is that there are not a ridiculous number of complaints about this beyond the 5 or 10 on this forum.

[Eluder]

Originally Posted by ANDYA

Is this with or without an eHDD? And what type?
Thanks

With eHDD, a 500GB western digital caviar blue I believe, it's a pretty old drive, but works quite well.

[NeSportz]

Not really a huge Recording guy but I would like to be able to record my PS3 Games or Netflicks Movies?

Where is the internet access update? Whats the point of launching something with no support off the get go?

What will it take to get the PiP fixed to allow you to move it around manually or at least add 4 more positions in the true corners of the WIDESCREEN TV?

Why not make PiP display Widescreen instead of 4:3 while your at it?

Allow custom colour schemes for the Themes?

Allow Custom 6 or 8 channels at once like Direct TV so we can watch all the Football games and choose the audio of the game we want?

Please PLEASE Please Fix this stuff!

[57]

Menu - you can stretch it with your TV or with the * button on the STB - this also stretches the programme. The menu is 4:3 unfortunately.

PiP - Nope (to additional options at this time)

Here's a post useful for those new to the forum - FAQs, Search Tips, Optimization, etc:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741

[moti]

The shocking part is that there are not a ridiculous number of complaints about this beyond the 5 or 10 on this forum.

So what is the best way to proceed. Rent or buy the box?

[ajaxmike]

I sent my rental 8300 back and bought an 8642 to get the 500GB drive and eliminate the monthly rental fee. I regret that now. If there is no minimum contract on the rental I would rent until they have this sorted out. You can buy then. If there was a 12 month minimum on the rental, I would still rent.

[icemankent]

Originally Posted by Eluder

So I was recording two HD programs last night at the same time, no issues with the guide, or anything else at all. I'd guess there's something wrong with your box icemankent.

I have two boxes. (I upgraded both of them to have a 1TB hard drive).
Perhaps the boxes don't play well with having to seek alot on such a large drive to read/write multiple streams of information ?
The most annoying thing about (both) of them is when recording 1 or 2 programs, and then going into the IPG to scroll through programs.
It is not bad up/down - but is a real sluggish mess scrolling forward in time.
It is almost like it can't keep up with you.

When nothing is recording, scrolling around the IPG works fine.
Maybe it is due to the size of the drive ?
I should test it out by re-installing the original 160GB drive and seeing if it works better.

[jz7jl3]

Rogers "upgraded" my still-under-warranty purchased 8300 when it died with an 8642. The first one showed 0% used when "empty" and 12% used with 4 seconds of recording. Back it went with no questions asked for another one. Same issue. Like others in the thread I wondered if it were just a calculation glitch but it would appear that 12-15% of the advertised space is wasted and that the 8642 does take more space per hour of actual recording.

No one seems to have replied to the others with an "answer" as to why this has happened with this model. I am about to add a 1TB eHDD and will report on the usage trend with that ...

[Jake]

why this has happened with this model

Most people do not care. It works. That was enough. I suspect all models work this way. Perhaps when a new drive is dropped in or reformatted it takes a few hours for the disk information to be collected as a background process. I am thinking of scanning for bad blocks etc. This could also explain some of the initial drive chatter people were seeing.

[RomanZ]

I've just replaced my 8300 PVR with the 8642 160gb and am very disappointed.

It seems that the delay between changing channels is longer and when I change the aspect ratio of the picture the sound goes out and the screen goes black for about four seconds. Never happened with the 8300.

Called rogers tech support and they said it must be the box so I exchanged it for a new one. The channel lag seems better but the aspect ratio problem is the same and very frustrating.

Has anyone else experienced this and if so is there a fix?

Help!!!

[slam_to]

Is the IEEE1394 port on this unit active?

Also, besides trying to work around early-adoptor problems. Has anyone tried to swap out the HDD in the 160 GB unit with a larger drive? I know this was possible with the 8300HD (I ended up putting in a 500 GB PATA drive).

In the future I'd probably switch to the new box since it supports H.264 and I assume Rogers would start transmitting new channels with that encoding scheme.

LMK,
SLam

[gzero]

Originally Posted by RomanZ

It seems that the delay between changing channels is longer and when I change the aspect ratio of the picture the sound goes out and the screen goes black for about four seconds. Never happened with the 8300.

Change the output setting from 'Auto DVI/HDMI' to 'Upscale 1' or 'Upscale 2' to get rid of the delay when changing aspect ratio. The same applies to the 8300HD.

[57]

Originally Posted by slam_to

Has anyone tried to swap out the HDD in the 160 GB unit with a larger drive?

Please see this thread on the topic. http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=122489

gzero, "fixed" will also work. It's not an issue with the STB, but rather the time it takes for the TV to change formats from say 480i to 1080i, etc (the stretch modes utilize a different format if you've enabled 480i for example).

Some TVs are much faster at changing than others, however, the "fixed" setting will make things as fast as possible since then the TV will not see any different formats. I've seen TVs take as long as 10 seconds and as little as 2.

The best format if you want fixed is usually 1080i. There shouldn't really be any reason to change aspect ratios these days. I recommend watching 4:3 as 4:3 for the best picture quality without distortion and 16:9 as 16:9. People often forget to "unstretch" when they go back to a true HD signal and miss 33% of the programme if they stretched 4:3.


RomanZ See the following FAQ on proper setup:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=17719


And the following post, useful for those new to the forum - FAQs, Search Tips, Optimization, etc:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=57741