stevelogin
@rr.com
| reply to Vchat20
Re: hdtv
I just purchased a new TV and also paid the extra money to get the HDTV receiver. We have several HDTV channels in this area and anyone who has seen HDTV knows, the picture quality is outstanding. Anyway, the problem I have come across is that when I select anything in HDTV for viewing, the picture is reduced to a much smaller screen. I purchased a Sony 32" TV and when I view HDTV it is very clear, but now I'm viewing a 19" screen. My question is, am I missing a step in the HDTV conversion process? Is this normal? The reduction in the viewing screen is very obvious and I was wondering if everyone else had experienced the same problem? Please provide any help or comment on this matter. Thank you. |
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mike_san_diego
@rr.com
| reply to mreed_911
Re: 160GB Maxtor Hard Drive
Yes, the 8000HD is the only box with an option of a larger hard drive, if the cable company wants to spring for 160GB instead of 80GB. Lucky you! 
The cable companies won't install one unless you have an HD ready television, as they are in limited supply and you pay an extra $10 per month for the 8000HD over a standard 8000 box.
Still, its cheaper than a $500 HD tuner!
If they turn out to be as unreliable as the 8000 boxes, you will be losing twice as much, every time the box fails!
Apparently, you already have one failure under your belt! Start archiving anything you can't live without today! |
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mreed_911
@rr.com | reply to mike_san_diego
I've got 160GB!
I swapped out my SARA/8000HD today due to a problem, and I've got a 160GB HD! VERIFIED BY MODEL NUMBER - 4R160L0
Woo hoo!
Mike  |
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davedo2
@ctc.com
| reply to maartena
Re: Extra info
You can grab the video output to whatever you want post box. It comes out as straight data. It's only encrypted on the way in, and stored on the box. The fact taht you can watch the digital video on a regular tv means that you can rip it to whatever you want off the coax out. get a video converter and rip it to DivX -- fit an entire season of the simpsons on a single cdrom. Just think of it this way: you can also rip any audio files you want no matter what kind of DRM or encryption that have -- just plug the line in of another computer into the line out or headphone jack on the player. Not rocket science. That's why it's a joke that companies are going to all this trouble with DRM. The fact that you can hear or see the output means that you can capture it somewhere. Last time I checked people can't process encryypted signals. |
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ej1007
@rr.com
|  reply to Howdy05
Firewire possiblilty.
I Just thought i'd add something to this forum.
I recently pulled apart my explorer 8000 out of curiosity and found something kinda interesting.
(btw, if you cant get the security torx off, a pocket knife works well to break off the security pin :P, and an allen wrench will fit)
but anyway, once i got the box opened... i noticed there was an added jumper wire and a definately aftermarket resistor.
i could not find the info on the chip the resistor was on, though the jumper wire went from a resistor near what looks like the main tsop to the firewire controller chip... (34ANJCt)
maybe a lock?... i desoldered them both and taped them off... hoping this may have been an afterthough added by time warner to try to avoid dvd-r piracy. (cause it was that ghetto looking)
upon reboot, everything seems to work fine..., though no dice on the firewire.... at least not from what i could tell.
i do not have a big->big firewire cable though, so i was unable to test it in premiere or other capture programs as of yet, but on the dv camera nothing came up.
hopefully ill try another cable soon, and see if i have results, but someone feel free to beat me to it.
also, im too poor to care about new developments in home theater technology, but i did read something about them using firewire to xfer video in the future instead of vga, dvi, rgb, etc... so that one cable can do the work of 5 or 6... might be worth looking into how this works to see if it can be adapted to a computer.
anyway, good luck, let me know if you find anything. |
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Howdy05
@adelphia.net
| reply to MapleGuy
Re: Adelphia's DVR (Digital Video Recorder) Statio
Hi all thanks alot for the info.
Have a qustion: It seems I have some bad sectors on my dvr's disk, and I was wondering if the thing goes into any sort of auto-diagnostic that might quarantine them, or if perhaps there was something I could do about it.
Thanks!
-Howdy05 |
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MapleGuy
join:2004-02-06
Maple Heights, OH | reply to JeffWilson
I have a theory.
The F1 and F2 buttons are for the Firewire ports. That might trigger something. I dont know anything though.
There are 2 Firewires and there are F1 and F2. |
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vragecolumbusrrcom
@rr.com | reply to vragecolumbusrrcom
Re: 160GB Maxtor Hard Drive
also, i found this page VERY interesting....
»www.scientificatlanta.com/custom···4400.pdf |
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vragecolumbusrrcom
@rr.com
| reply to dlevens
interestingly i was just messing with my 8000.... i found 3 channels of interest.... 841.... weird pioneer echo stuff, 842 -- that big menu thing with all the information, and, 825 which is labelled by time warner as VIDEOCONF and is a black screen with static.... i think later today i'm going to run an ethernet cable down to the box and fire up a dhcp server on one of my linux boxes see what i can earn from a little nmap-action ;] anyone have an idea about what VIDEOCONF is for? if these things have cameras unbeknownst to us then i will be both scared and outraged ;] |
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dlevens
join:2003-12-31
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
| reply to mike_san_diego
Your + exit trick works but you have to press info on the box after to see the info on a SARA box. You must have the other software. 611 brings up nothing as the channel does not exist, nor does 211, 311 all the way through. But as soon as I press info I get the 22 pages of text.
Dennis |
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mike_san_diego
@rr.com
|  reply to dlevens
Happy to be of service.
Actually the Maxtor website works just fine. It's the user. You have to carefully read the fine print. A search under 4R080L0 brings up multiple options, all of which clearly state "Capacities of UP TO 160 GB" [emphasis added]. The links all then take you to pages, where the various capacities are to be found, based upon your specific model number of that type of drive.
What threw me about your post originally is that in July of 2003 Time Warner claimed an HDTV version of the SA8000 was soon to be available with a larger hard drive. It has yet to materialize. A call to them yesterday revealed they have no knowledge of any larger hard drives than the 80 GB being available now or in the near future.
Don't rely on the device not to erase expired recordings unless they are needed for a show to be recorded, like a TiVo manages to do. The SA8000 has a VERY aggressive deletion algorithm which wants to keep upwards of around 10 to 15 GB of free space at all times, whether it is needed or not, and will delete recordings (unless marked keep until delete) at will to maintain it. If you mark everything Keep Until Delete, it simply won't record anything more, or starts deleting shows immediately after recording them. Pretty dumb box.
Press and hold the PLUS key and EXIT key at the same time on the box (NOT on the remote) until you get a "BONG" sound and "diag" appears in the display. Then select channel 611 and scroll down to "DVR AVFS" to see your available hard drive space under the label "AV Free Space". "AV Capacity" and "AV size" on the same screen will show your audio video partition size which should read 74.3 GB each, again proving that you have an 80 GB drive. To get out of it, press the LAST button on the remote to be returned to your channel in the buffer. You can toggle back and forth at will, once you have it set up, with the LAST button. However, if the box shuts off, you will need to repeat the procedure.
Happy DVR'ing and when you get frustrated with this device's buggy software, supplement it with a TiVo which works the way this box should, with a much more comprehensive guide so you don't record shows you have already seen because of a lack of detail, and catch all the ones you haven't and manage to keep all you have recorded and even know WHY things didn't or won't happen as you expected with a Recording History file! »www.tivo.com
I have 3 SA8000's and 3 TiVo's. The TiVo's actually work better with the regular digital box (which saves $10 a month), as that way you never record a whole show with a DVR error message plastered over the entire screen about shows the SA8000 doesn't have space to record! |
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dlevens
join:2003-12-31
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
| reply to mike_san_diego
That makes sense now. It appears the maxtor website is screwed up, cause when you select the 4R080L0 it shows you the 160gb drive. Also what threw me off was the cycles since on an 80GB drive is is 158,000,000 making you think that is size i.e. 158GB.
Thanks for clearing it up. 80GB is plenty for me anyway since I typically have stored around 16 hours of recordings.
Dennis |
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mike_san_diego
@rr.com
| reply to dlevens
Like I said, you have an 80 GB hard drive, just like the rest of us. You need to dig a little deeper into the website you supplied to find that your model number, Maxtor 4R080L0, with 80 in the middle is an 80 GB hard drive. See
»www.maxtor.com/en/documentation/···pecs.pdf. The 4R160LO is the 160 GB model. Note the 160 in the model number.
Let us know if and when you ever get a real 160 GB hard drive in an SA8000.
The 80GB model holds between 30 and 45 hours depending upon the channels recorded. All digital channels take up less than analog channels, which must be digitized by the box in a less efficient format than Time Warner digitizing at the head end. Most likely, the largest capacity recognizable by the Linux operating system would be 137 GB, like with the TiVo, regardless of the size of the drive above that put into the unit. |
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dlevens
join:2003-12-31
Rancho Cucamonga, CA | reply to kloogee
Interesting. I missed that. So would you agree that the drive is using a full 160GB? Seems like I can record close to 60 hours if that is the case.
Dennis |
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kloogee
@fuse.net
| reply to dlevens
"But that is beside the point as even if it was an 80GB it appears from "Capacity: 33168" that it is not even using 80GB." I disagree, I would say that it is using it all.
Size = Capacity * Cluster Size
155889600 = 33168 * 4700
------------------
Size: 155889600
Capacity: 33168
Cluster Size: 4700 |
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dlevens
join:2003-12-31
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
| reply to mike_san_diego
It is 160GB. I confirmed it here:
»www.maxtor.com/en/support/produc···ndex.htm
and also just look at:
AVFS
Size: 155889600
But that is beside the point as even if it was an 80GB it appears from "Capacity: 33168" that it is not even using 80GB.
Dennis |
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mike_san_diego
@rr.com
| reply to dlevens
From your Maxtor Model 4R080LO, it appears you have the same 80 GB hard drive as the rest of us...
The 80 buried in the middle of the model number is the size. What made you think it was 160 GB? |
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dlevens
join:2003-12-31
Rancho Cucamonga, CA
| reply to saber11
I got one of the new 160GB models but it appears you don't get to use all 160GB? Can anyone make heads or tails of this info?
Model: Maxtor 4R080L0
FILE SYSTEMS
ITFS
Size: 2097152
Capacity: 1048576
Cluster Size: 2
Free Space: 1026022
Bad Blocks: 0
AVFS
Size: 155889600
Capacity: 33168
Cluster Size: 4700
Free Space: 28163
Bad Blocks:
Software Versions
PTV OS: Fri Feb 20 2004 12:12:06 AM PST v6.0.9sp (11)
Flash: Fri Feb 20 2004 4:46:05 PM EST v1.82.1a35s9 (35) pe
App(s): wink v4.0.35.9
SARA v1.82.1.a35
CPU/Bus: 164/90
Ev Pool: 797
MEMORY
System Heap
Total: 29239296
Free: 19823400
Largest: 18509092
Chunks: InUse=20 Free=4
SARA Heap
Total: 716800
Free: 423016
Largest: 403444
Video Heap
Total: 3672064
Free: 1905024
Largest: 971772 |
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saber11
Check Six
Premium
join:2000-06-09
Clayton, OH | reply to rogerscableuser
Re: Leap Year Issues???
Sounds like you need to swap the box for a new one.
--
I know what I know, and that's about it. |
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rogerscableuser
@istop.com
| reply to gartonhill
I'm in Ottawa, Ontario (Rogers), and the recent software update (25 Feb) also affected my Explorer 8000. First noticed that the box hadn't recorded anything on the 25th, then that the my 'programs to record' list had gone from 12 to 2 programs... Now although I can watch TV when I try and record anything I get a very long pause (around 1 minute) followed by a reboot... |
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