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

[PeterOS]

I have noticed in the past month, my hard drive in my 8642 HD has been spinning/turning off, and then on every 5 minutes or so. This happens when my 8642 is turned off. I can hear the hard drive spinning down, and then up again after a few seconds. It's annoying. Anyone else know what might be causing this? Could it be a faulty hard drive? I bought mine from Best Buy 5 months ago. Should I take it back to Rogers, and replace it?

[57]

Your post was moved to this existing thread on the 8642. The spinning probably has to do with the new firmware that's being rolled out for the 8300 - the 8300 does the same. We speculate that PVRs are "surveyed" to see if they have the new firmware at regular intervals. See post 1 of the following thread:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=131572

It was similar during previous firmware downloads (although they didn't last as long since there were fewer customers years ago). If you don't like this behavior, you can leave your PVR on, put it on a music channel so the HDD doesn't get accessed and set a start timer for the early morning since it will turn off at 1:10AM for PowerSave.

Should stop in December...

[PeterOS]

Thanks for the clarification 57, and here I thought it was my 8642 box. I will try the tips you mentioned, and wait until December for the fix.

Thanks again.

[MooBaloo]

Has there been an update on the 8642? My guide looks a bit different today. Has anyone noticed this?

[ajaxmike]

Yes. Rogers sent a notice with our bill notifying us of the change. If you tune to a standard definition channel and the same program is available in HD, it will automatically switch to the HD channel. A few cosmetic improvements too, which you noticed.

[57]

Just as an FYI, Auto-HD affects all HD STBs and is discussed in a separate thread.

[jnestor]

I am using the 8642 PVR. When using the Boardwalk theme, there used to be a horrible colour combination of black letters on dark blue background when you clicked Info on a program while viewing the Guide. You could hardly read it most of the time.

Now all of a sudden the characters are a very visible white on dark blue. Much better! It seems the PVR was rebooted this morning at 4am which is when I assume the change was made.

Does anyone know whether this was a firmware update or some other configuration change? Any other changes?

[hdwaterloo]

They had a scheduled update of all the software on Dec 7th

Old version was 801 (they skipped the 9xx patch) and installed 1002.

So far this seems to have improved some of the issues I have been seeing...only recorded a few shows so far, so we'll have to wait and see...

but haven't seen a macro-block/glitch in a couple of hours...

[Sanek]

Did anyone try using an SSD in 8642HD? The unit is in my bedroom and since the hard drive almost never goes to sleep, its very annoying when I'm trying to get some sleep myself (the drive stays on and active for a while, then goes to sleep for some time, then wakes up again).

I was thinking about something like an OCZ Vertex 2 Extended Sandforce 240GB SSD. I know 8642 is picky with the drives, so just wondering if anyone has tried putting an SSD in it before?

What about an external USB hard drive? I have an unbelievably quiet external usb hard drive, so could I just turn the internal one off and use the external one instead?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[57]

You can't use USB - the port is not designed for eHDD use, that's what the SATA port is for. Read the various eHDD threads in this forum. I cannot comment on an SSD.

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

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

[Sanek]

Thanks 57! I figured as much about the USB port
I'm curious - would it be possible to disconnect the internal drive all together and use an external drive instead? I mean I don't see any issues involved in doing something like that, but perhaps I'm wrong?

[57]

would it be possible to disconnect the internal drive all together

No, the index and IPG are stored on the internal drive. Please read the stickies/threads on the e/iHDDs and then please ask questions about the drives in the appropriate threads. Most of these types of questions have already been addressed.

[Wayne]

But it may be able to physically remove the drive from the case and put it in another sound dampening case but then you still need to run the SATA cable (and power cable) back to the interior of the box. I haven't seen the inside of these boxes but assuming that they use standard SATA cables you could replace the existing cable with a 1m SATA cable. There are acoustic enclosures that you can get for hard drives that should quiet them down a wee bit. But that is a lot of work and will look fugly.

[scotta]

Originally Posted by Sanek

What about an external USB hard drive? I have an unbelievably quiet external usb hard drive, so could I just turn the internal one off and use the external one instead?

If your external drive is fairly new then the drive itself is probably SATA. You could probably take it out of the external case and install it directly into your 8642HD. That's assuming that it's not the external casing that's making the drive "unbelievably quiet".

Oops, sorry, I don't own a 8642HD and I don't believe some others posting on this topic are either, which is a no-no according to post 1. As 57 said, this topic should be moved to another thread.

[zuka]

I have a rental 8642HD PVR. In a recorded or on-demand show, the FF and REW options are too slow if I want to jump to a point more than 5 minutes from my current time. For example, I'm near the end of a show but want to re-watch something halfway through, even after pressing REW a few of times it still takes about 10 seconds to go one minute.

Is there a way to jump forward or backward in larger increments? Or input a specific time to jump to?