BillRG

I just got a call from Comcast. I had my name on their waiting list.

I live in MA, 30 miles from Boston.

They quoted an additional charge of $8.75 per month for the STB and $15.95 instalation.

This was for a box with capability for 8 hours HDTV recording, more for SDTV.

I'll post the details after it is in and working.

Bill

57U

Sounds like the Motorola 6208. You may wish to do a search on this site for that model number if you wish. It has a single tuner, 80 GB HDD. It will allow you to record one programme while watching another programme already recorded, but it won't allow you to watch one programme while recording another.

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57U - Toronto, Rogers Cable, SA8300HD, 500GB HDD & Hitachi 61UWX10B HDTV, Yamaha RX-V1 A/V Receiver, Martin Logan Speakers. Photos --> 57U's HT

SA8300HD, 250GB HDD & KDL40W3000 (Upstairs)

Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

BillRG

Yup - It was a 6208 which is in and working great. Mine was the eighth one he installed today.

I got the speech about the one tuner, with the two tuner model promised by August.

Now all I need is more gigabytes

57U

You're right about the gigabytes. My SA8000HD has a 160GB HDD - good for about 20 hours of HD, but I was close to "full" in less than a week of recording and constantly viewing, deleting...

External firewire HDD will come in handy "soon"...

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57U - Toronto, Rogers Cable, SA8300HD, 500GB HDD & Hitachi 61UWX10B HDTV, Yamaha RX-V1 A/V Receiver, Martin Logan Speakers. Photos --> 57U's HT

SA8300HD, 250GB HDD & KDL40W3000 (Upstairs)

Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

mfabien

Can you say more about this external HDD? What make and model are you thinking about, if it exists?

57U

I can't find the link right now, but there were some special HDDs being designed especially for this purpose. They would be formatted by the STB, so that you could not "read" the information, except from the STB. If I recall they were 160 GB HDD, don't recall the price. I don't believe they are available yet, but were announced.

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57U - Toronto, Rogers Cable, SA8300HD, 500GB HDD & Hitachi 61UWX10B HDTV, Yamaha RX-V1 A/V Receiver, Martin Logan Speakers. Photos --> 57U's HT

SA8300HD, 250GB HDD & KDL40W3000 (Upstairs)

Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

keith1229

i have a question: does this 6208 have selectable aspect ratios (or different zoom functions for the picture). i have a 4:3 hdtv and sometimes i like to zoom the pic to fill the screen. with DIRECTV i could do it. with the 6200 motorola box from comcast, i can not (there is a service menu with the option but it does not work). if so i am going to get the DVR, otherwise i will pass. thanks

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"If something's hard to do, it's not worth doing"

sillygoose

The only differences between the 6200 and the 6208 are the DVR capabilities. The aspect ratio functions will be the same.

keith1229

ok thank you.

__________________
"If something's hard to do, it's not worth doing"

BillRG

Here is a link for info on HDD

http://www4.maxtor.com/en/products/...ew_info_req.cfm

robnix

What exactly will they do to guarantee that I can't archive off that drive somewhere else? Besides the Broadcast Flag?

57U

The drive is formatted to be readable only by the STB.

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57U - Toronto, Rogers Cable, SA8300HD, 500GB HDD & Hitachi 61UWX10B HDTV, Yamaha RX-V1 A/V Receiver, Martin Logan Speakers. Photos --> 57U's HT

SA8300HD, 250GB HDD & KDL40W3000 (Upstairs)

Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

sillygoose

I would guess it would be more than just a format thing, probably encryption as well. Then again they did think that not telling people about hitting the shift key was a sufficient protection for audio CDs.

robnix

It would have to be encrypted somehow. I looked around the web and some of the tivo groups, and found nothing substantial on it. It seems to me that it may be more of a marketing ploy to sell drives than anything else.

bestcaster

I too was on a waiting list and was called last Tuesday...they came out Friday and installed the 6208 box. However, rep on the phone said nothing about installation cost, and now I see on my account page under recent transactions that they charged 15.99 for installation. All he did was unplug connections from old box and put in new box. Even used old power cord. And he knew nothing about DVR features...told him I'll read up on it and figure it out myself. he said comcast puts the product out first, then trains techs. I also heard from Comcast VP that Discovery HD is coming very soon an dthe dual tuner DVR-HD boxes this fall.

BillRG

I am having one problem - Comcast says they are looking into it.

My HBO On Demand and STARZ On Demand no longer work. I can access all HBO and STARZ channels, and I can get at the free On Demand stuff such as HGTV, History Channel etc.

If I try to get an HBO On Demand movie, I get a message that I must subscribe to a package, and to check package details. When I check, it says the price is complimentary, but if I try to view it, a message points me at 1-888-COMCAST.

All of this worked with my HD Box but went away when it was swapped out for the DVR unit.

Anyone else run into this ?

57U

The DVRs utilize the "on demand" channels if I recall correctly. I'm not sure if there is a workaround - call your cable company.

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57U - Toronto, Rogers Cable, SA8300HD, 500GB HDD & Hitachi 61UWX10B HDTV, Yamaha RX-V1 A/V Receiver, Martin Logan Speakers. Photos --> 57U's HT

SA8300HD, 250GB HDD & KDL40W3000 (Upstairs)

Please don't PM me with questions that can (and should) be asked in the forum, thanks. Personal Question? Fire away.

Freddy Basset

Thanks for the heads-up on this...

I just called Comcast here in Jersey and ordered the PVR box. Only handles 7 hours of HD, but it's better than nothing. Next week, I'll see how it goes.

BillRG

Comcast just confirmed that I am not the only one with the On Demand access problem. They said that others had called in with the problem, but not everyone with the 6208 is experiencing it.

They are working on a fix.

Looks like a software problem - nothing like being an early adopter

Bill