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Note: I am working on a site/book for "Open Source Politics, and this header and some of the Page end is retained. This page is a referance page for those of us who have the Comcast DVR and should contain links to other sites, blogs, forums that are useful, in addition to any information that I may have discovered or been told about.

I just, Dec 22, got a Comcast DVR system in Palo Alto, CA, and noted that it had some differences from my older ReplayTv DVR (comparison of older system). I am trying to learn about how to make it work best as well as seeing if we can establish a forum for:

1. QUESTIONS -- Asking questions of each other about the capability
2. DISCUSSION -- Discussing other topics relative to the DTR
3. SUGGESTIONS -- Making suggestions about improvements that could be added.

If we can establish a form, then these will be linked to it, in the mean time, I will point to a Blog in case others want to comment on these topics

• Active forums
  • (New Posts) Comcast 6412 w/ iGuide Discussion of AVS Forum
  • (New Posts) Comcast 6412 / MSTV Thread Microsoft software, only in Washington state.
  • Comcast Cable TV of DSLReports > forum > Comcast
  • DVR Chatter -- Talk and information about the DCT-6412 DVR and more (Est. 2/14/05)
  • WiKi area on Motorola 6412

 

• AVS Forum > ... Digital Recorders (PVRs) General (also in: HDTV Recorders ) > Comcast 6412 / MSTV Thread or Comcast 6412 w/ iGuide Discussion

• Summary of Comcast's Rollout of Motorola 6412 (and Moxi)-- All Areas
• Comcast Dual Tuner DVR (6412)- A Review after 1 week 12-10-04 02:02 PM
• Discussing the features, bugs, issues, likes, dislikes, etc. of the 6412 using iGuide on Comcast
• PVR Blog -- So you got a PVR for Christmas...A lot of people received a PVR like TiVo, Replay TV or a Windows XP Media Center for Christmas and are thinking "OK, now what?"
  • Motorola's serious looking DVR rolling out to Comcast (Also Lance Arthur's discussion)
    
• Comcast DVR Nov 25, 2004 , A view from elsewhere, John Montgomery's Weblog

News

• Comcast and Microsoft Comcast Cable yesterday announced a plan to roll out Microsoft's software across its digital-cable system in Washington state. -- Nov. 09, 2004
• Bigger glitch with Comcast's DVR service By Mike Langberg --Mercury News Mon, Jan. 31, 2005

Hardware/Software links

• Comcast (Cable vendor) Support: 1-800-945-2288

• Motorola: (DVR-Receiver)
  • HD Capable Motorola 6412 DVR-Receiver Contact_us
    • User Guides
      • DCT6400 Series User Guide (PDF, 1.5 MB)
      • inside I-Guide, 50 page DVR Manual (PDF, 2.4 MB) i-Guide
      • New TV Guide Interactive Program Guide features and functions (PDF, 751 KB)

    NOTE: I have a 6412, but here are some thoughs of an earlier version, I will document if they seem to be valid on the 6412

    • DCT 5100 / 6200 series On Board Diagnostics Screens (6412 is said to be an upgrade for the 6208)
    • DCT6208 30-Sec. Skip Forward Works, Enabling 30-second skip on the silver 6208 remote (one for all type?) (Note: it was stated: ("30 second skip is supported by the core FE platform but most MSOs do not enable it and there is no hidden code to enable it.")
    • Post on Diagnostics @Time: 2004-12-21 00:26:59 , (to determine signal space diagnostic screen 4)
      • 1. Tune to a digital channel.
      • 2. Turn the box off (leave tv on) and immediately press
        the ok/select button.
      • 3. Scroll down to #4 and press ok
      • 4. Press the power button twice to turn the box back on.
      • If the SNR is poor you have a weak signal and a tech would need to fix it. If it is fair the signal may be borderline and only freeze occasionall

      Note: A Feature has been reported: No TV Picture after Power on: Solution, Switching to recorded show seems to restore TV display

    • MY configuration:
• Microsoft foundation edition 1.7 software, The great cable race - Video, 6 minutes, 30 second, 14,267 KB,
  • Note: I have learned that the MSFE is only availalbe in the Washington area, and so far, I believe the easiest way to tell if your Comcast system is using it is whether the SWAP button/function is inactive, unneeded. The i-Guide software seems to require the user to swithc tuners with the SWAP function. This Forum is for the MSFE based software
• i-Guide software, DVR Manual (PDF, 2.4 MB)
  • 30 second ship support by i-Guide, but not in MSFE
    

Remotes #.

Comcast Remotes pictures and Pages

.
• ICXGlobal (Remote control), about, "4-1" Cable TV Remote: Enterprise ENT 6412 Support: 1-800-873-2552

  • Enterprise ENT 6412 (almost none reprogrammable )

   

• CJD engineering info on Motorola hardware/software -- Remote control Programming guide ( Universal Electronics, Inc ~52 buttons)

  How to program 30, 120... second skip (avs forum)

  Hi-Remote forum users say: This remote, the URC-1068BG0 Comcast Remote, is a "no go" so don't waite your time with it. It's a "JP1.1" remote and we don't support those (not that we don't want to, we just don't know how). -- Note: Comcast also provides a "less" capable remote, the Comcast On Demand 3-Device (Without the bottom "Picture in Picture" set) DON'T GET IT as there are 4 less avaible buttons that you probably can benefit from, Also note that the lowest button is the "SetUp" button..

• Comcast DVR 3-Device (not all reprogrammable)

 

• Discussion of "Universial" remotes, e.g. resonably fully programmable remotes

• OneForAll remote (Hi-Remote forum -- Jp1 Radio shack and OneForAll)
  • Programming a OneForAll remote
  • Comcast 476 codes
• OneForAll URC-8811 (almost all reporgrammable)

 

• Remote Central.com -- Experiences, specifications, programming help and much more on a variety of universal learning remotes designed for your home theater system
• AVS Forum > Theater Room Items > Remote Control Area
• Remote Contol venders
  • Surf Remote control -- selling remotes online since 2000 (OneForAll's)

Note: This is not directly applicable to the ComCast hardware,
but it does show what can be done to extend a Digital DVR.

The PTVnet DirecTiVo upgrade drive review -- Let's face it, DirecTV customers with the combo DirecTiVo boxes have been left in the cold for the past few years when it comes to TiVo announcements.

My notes:

MY configuration (Dec 21, 2004>:

Model: DCR, SW: 71.44-120, A/B Disable, Output: 3, Region: 0, MCA: 0-4 1-8192, 2-16388, 3-35791, UnitId: 000--03313-???, Disc: NO, Return: RF, IPPV: No, Stereo?: Unk 2, IRBlast: Yes, FermVer: 09.15, NTSC/PAL: NTSC

• Suggestions in AVS forum for Microsoft sysem. (My summary)

• Navigation should allow EXIT, Previous... for going brtween menus, Up and Down should WRAP, be circular so that down moves back to top from bottom of menu
• Other: #325
• Open questions:

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September 22, 2005 23:56