Hey guys!
***Somebody please respond to this so I know I am not being ignored.***

I just got my 8300HD and I was wondering how to hook it up to my computer and then download my recordings onto it, and ofcourse watch the files.

Can somebody tell me exactly what cables I need aswell as drivers/software.

Thanks alot,
Taylor Fenwick

(fenwick@rogers.com)

as far as I know, the SATA external hard disk drive capability is not "activated" by Time Warner in New York City (and elsewhere).

The External SATA is enabled when the box ships from SciAtl, the cable company can disable it, but most don't as there is no benefit to limiting. To use the sata, you must have a sata1.0 to sata2.0 cable, as a 1.0 cable will not work in the dvr. Once plugged in and powered on the OS will detect the new hdd and ask you if you'd like to format it.

I have adelphia and I am really unhappy with their software rollout. I am not sure which software package it built off of, but it is terrible.

Problems include but are not limited to:

When watching a show that is recording you have to rewind back to the beginning as it doesn't start at the beginning, but where it is currently recording.

When the show you are watching finishes recording it boots you out to the menu and forces you to start from the beginning again, thus you have to now fast forward to where you left off.

Season passes are hardly season passes. You must choose your show and then choose wheter to only record this show in this time slot, or in all time slots. This doesn't allow you to filter first runs from reruns etc.. Shows like realworld etc.. on mtv, will fill your dvr in 2 days if you set a always record season pass, as mtv likes to run marathons on shows like that, and if there is a week where the network decides to show later than usual, you won't get it if you don't have the "all times" enabled. It is really a bad implementation, I've heard that other cableco's don't have these issues, so just commenting on my own.

--Josh

I have the 8300HD from Charter cable and I was wondering if I can plug the USB into my laptop to access the drive in the box. It would be a great way to record on my laptop dvd recorder the programs I like, does anyone know anything about this or if this is a possibility?

I have an 8300HD connected to a Toshiba HD projection TV with DVI input. I have an HDMI to DVI adapter connected to my DVI cable at the 8300HD end as per page 9 in the connection booklet. I have RCA audio cables for sound. Get no picture or sound when I select DVI input with the TV tuner. I am only able to get picture and sound using component input. Cox Cable can't solve my problem. Any one have an idea what's going on?
Al

I have the Pioneer 3510HD, and read the earlier posts here about it. Can someone tell me how to get the best standard definition picture with it? My HD channels look awesome, but the SD channels leave a lot to be desired. I'm using component cables to a Sony 34XBR800 CRT.

Thanks!

Mark

I just received my 8300HD. I upgraded from the 8000hd specificaly for the ability to add additional storage via the SATA port. Does anyone know what specifica SATA hard drives are compatible or will any SATA work?

I think I have the same problem as Al does above. I have a Samsung 42" DLP with an HDMI input...I got an HDMI cable from Best Buy where I work and tried to go from my 8300HD into my TV. My TV said there was no signal coming from the HDMI input! But when I use component cable for video and RCA cables for the stereo audio it works just fine. It sucks that I spent so much cash on a 3 foot HDMI cable and not have it work. Anyone know how to enable the HDMI output on the 8300HD???

Thanks,
Adam

To set HDMI audio out:

Go to settings, digital out. scroll to HDMI and press, "Select". Exit settings. That should work.

I have the same problem as Al. I could not get sound or picture to my Tobisha 57" HD projection TV when I hooked up to the 8300HD with a DVI-HDMI cable. Cox could not help! I can change the Audio setting to HDMI, but how do I get a video signal?

If the 8300HD is in 480i the HDMI interface will not output a signal

To get to 480p 720p 720i 1080i turn the power off then hold down info and guide at the same time then follow the promps for setting up the advanced settings it will step you through the various screen formats and to can accept them or block them. I found that the output from the HDMI was not a crisp as I would have liked as I was seing quite a bit of compression noise specifically in the blacks. Also if you forget to remove 480i from the list of available screen modes and you go to the picture setup menu and choose auto by accident you better be ready to hook up the component outputs again as auto on my box went back to 480i again. I must say that even comcast was not all that knowledgable about this box.

I Have Adelphia cable and would like to expand the recording time of my 8300HD DVR. Could someone recommend the largest external SATA that would be compatible with my DVR.

Can I record a video that I am playing from a hd video camera playing through the rca inputs on the front of the 8300?

480i problem. Arrrgh --- it looks like I just ran into the 480i problem. I mistakenly approved 480i output, and my box is connected only by HDMI to my Samsung HDTV. Now I can't see the damn TV, and even though I hit info/guide on the cablebox to try to fix it, I think the **menu itself** is now outputting at 480i, so I can't even see the @#$$# menu to fix it?!!? HAs anyone run into this problem? Is there a way to hard-reset the cable box so that when it starts back up, it's at least outputting at 480p (which I assume my TV will show?) Otherwise, it appears I'll have to temporarily put in component cables from the box to the TV, fix the menu, and then remove the component cables. ********RELATED QUESTION: I was having problems getting digital surround sound through a receiver -- was this because I was using the HDMI audio output, instead of "Dolby Surround" output option? I switched it to Dolby, and now my receiver seems to realize it should be doing audio output as Solby surround (I had a digital audio output going from the box to the receiver, and an HDMI from the box to the TV??)

Getting the HDMI to work just about drove me nuts. In fact, I still don't know what fixed it. It wasn't working, so I turned off my TV (still set to DVI input) and left the room. What I came back and turned it on, suddenly it worked. I didn't do anything that I hadn't done 20 times already (including the power cycle).

Mathmn - That path above doesn't work/exist to enable HDMI sound on my 8300HD. I can't get my sound to work either.

Kevin, I just read SA's site a little while ago and it says the front RCA ports are disabled. They claim they may enable them at some point via a software update.

Sound problem solved. For those who may come along later, here's the answer: HDMI and DVI are quite different. HDMI includes sound, but DVI does not. The adapter cable only converts the video signal; you still have to connect audio separately.

If your HDTV has a DVI connector, and you have an 8300HD DVR, you need an HDMI to DVI adapter, and you need a separate audio connection.

As to why the Setting for Audio: 2-channel vs digital does not appear, I can only surmise that the 8300HD_DVR is smart enough to detect whether there is a HDMI-capable device on the other end of the cable. DVI doesn't qualify.

Here's the link to the user guide:
http://www.scientificatlanta.com/ExplorerClubGuides/getting_started/4003870.pdf

Cool, Brian, thanks for the tips!

Also, I wanted to update this post. I think the firmware in the 8300HD has since been updated, since I now have no complaints about the picture quality of either live or recorded content. It's quite good, I'll admit -- I can't tell live from recorded, even in HD, which is impressive.

So many have figured how to connect an external drive to the 8300HD and fill it up with shows, anyone take the next step and be able to connect it back to a pc and read the files on it? I know windows sees nothing, but can you pull the files off in linux for osX or windows viewing?

How do you download into a pc? I tried connecting it to my pc using firewire but windows kept asking for a driver. The 1394 driver was already installed in my driver list so it should have worked. Are the firewire outputs activited in the 8300?

Also, when I use the copy to vcr function, the sound eventually kicks to whatever else I'm watching, but the picture will still be recording. Anybody else have this problem?

I just bought the Samsung DLP HL-R5067W and picked up the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD box. I had a real tough time getting the HDMI to HDMI connection to work. Component worked fine, but the HDMI did not work at all. I even had the Cable Guy (Brighthouse Networks, Orlando) come by, and he had no clue. I replace the 8300HD box and the HDMI cable, but it did not fix the problem.

Based on the 8300HD documentation, you should only need to connect the HDMI cable to TV, but Samsung’s documentation says to also connect the Composite and Coax cables. Once I did that and selected either of those sources on the TV it had the following message "Your HDTV does not support HDCP please use the Component connections to watch TV." (Not the exact wording.) I thought this was very interesting. The Samsung claims to support HDCP, which is an encryption protocol that runs over the HDMI connection.

Something that I read on this forum was that the Samsung HDMI port can not support 480i. So I went ahead the change the setting on the 8300HD to only support 1080i and 720p and it worked. I can't believe how much time I wasted.

Thanks for all the great information.

Regards,
Milton

I have 3 8300HD's and this is what I have found.
1. In Houston, Time Warner does not broadcast digital sound on cable channels 2 thru 47. Only analog sound. So, your HDMI will have sound only from cable channels 48 and higher.
2. Time Warner sends out programming signals from about midnight until 9 or 9:30 every other night. Your 8300HD dvr makes a small noise then spins up for about 2.5 minutes then spins down. This goes on every 5 minutes of the night and morning unless you power up your box. Time Warner e-mailed me they are aware of the problem, and "the engineers are working on it". Time Warner will not let me contact "the engineers" nor will they give me a time frame for fixing those issues.

I have a 8300HD from Time Warner and I cannot at all get the "info and guide" advanced setting to work. I can access basic aspect ratio and output formats through the regular setting menu.
Any thoughts?

Derek, I have the same problem and my cable company cannot help me. I'm going to the SA site to see if the 8300HD help guide really helps. -T

I have the SA 8300HD from Time Warner Cable in Raleigh, NC - can I use the usb port to record to a portable drive mounted in an enclosure?

Adding an external hard drive to boost the capacity of the 8300HD is easy.
I purchased a 250GB SATA hard drive and external SATA enclosure from www.zipzoomfly.com for about $135. Then, I purchased a SATA to eSATA cable from www.satacables.com for $20. I installed the hard drive into the enclosure, and connected the SATA end of the cable to the enclosure and the eSATA end of the cable to the 8300HD. I rebooted the 8300HD, and it recognized and formatted the hard drive. Now I can record 50 hours of HD material on the 8300HD. Awesome!!!!!

The hard drive on my 8300HD is running contantly, even when the box is off and not recording anything.
The constant chugging is driving the wife nuts.
Anyone else have this happening?

In response to Milton's post about the HDMI, I have a Samsung TV as well, but I had to disable 480i and 480p inside the 8300HD before HDMI worked properly. Now my box shows 720p for everything except the 1080i channels.

***********************************

Posted by: Craig at December 28, 2005 08:26 PM

So many have figured how to connect an external drive to the 8300HD and fill it up with shows, anyone take the next step and be able to connect it back to a pc and read the files on it? I know windows sees nothing, but can you pull the files off in linux for osX or windows viewing?

***************************************

Craig:

Did anyone ever respond to your post? I was hoping to pull content from my SAE 8300 to my Dell laptop for viewing while travelling on business...

BTW, my nephew is in his first year at UC studying business...go Bearcats!

andycapp: Nah, I haven't found an answer, but then I do what you're describing with my TiVo (their TiVoToGo service is really slick), so I haven't looked into it at all for the SA DVR. And yeah, go Bearcats! :-)

Objective: Get .tsp files off of the Satellite-based DVR (Digital Video Recorder) to PC Hard Drive.
(The following steps were tested on a dish network DishDVR model 625.)
(This info is considered to be current as of January 2006.)

Stumbled across this recently... I'm assuming the 8300 uses the same linux type filesystem...pretty interesting article, good info for windows users, including a link for installing the EXT3 filesystem (ext2fsd) for windows...

and oh yeah, Go Bearcats!!!

I have an 8000HD now but am hoping to pick up one of the 8300HD before the Olympics start tomorrow. A few comments.

1. I am very interested in expanding the HD storage capability of the unit. I see Mr. Torres above was successful. Anyone get this working with Time Warner Cable? Is it a TWC issue or an SA issue?

2. A number of people have asked about moving their external drive back to their computer to rip or save the shows elsewhere. From my cursory research, it appears there is an encryption key to prevent that. I think I found that on avsforum.com

Thanks to all who've participated and helped out here - it's much appreciated.

Michael Levy

http://lyberty.com/mediatech/projects/dishrip.html

sorry, forgot to post the url last time....this is not the explorer 8300 or 8000 or TW cable, but if someone has an external drive, i think it's worth a shot...I'm still waiting for my drive to arrive...

Anyone please help.

I know my stuff when it comes to this but I cant figure it out!!

I have the 8300HD box, I have HD service and everything works fine untill I noticed burn in occurring on the sides from the stupid black boxes when watching non-HD content!! I finally discovered that you can hit settings once and scroll down to change it to "stretch" to eliminate the bars---The only problem in doing this is that you stretch the HD channels and have to change it back!!!

Does anyone know the safest settings to leave it on so no further burnin will occur, and if I can eliminate the black bars all at once?????

Thanks.........

Has anyone figured out a way around the issue of the two problems with the SATA HD8000 that
1. When watching a show that is recording you have to rewind back to the beginning as it doesn't start at the beginning, but where it is currently recording.
AND
2. When the show you are watching finishes recording it boots you out to the menu and forces you to start from the beginning again, thus you have to now fast forward to where you left off.

Because I just got this machine through Comcast and it is really annoying...especially when I was watching the Olympics and then got booted out of it and had to fast forward through 3 hours of programming..yuck! If anyone has figured this out, please let me know.

Is 8300HD compatible with JVC HM-DH5U digital VHS recorder? I understand this VCR uses a FireWire for its video input.

I use the optical output to supply the sound to my amp when using HDMI in most cases. I found if you changed the audio settings inside the 8300HD it would also output to the TV.

I have hooked up a SA 8300 to both a Sony VPL100
(SXRD Projector) and a LG Plasma, Both with HDMI
When they both were hooked up they would work for 5 to 10 minutes, then I got the Your TV does not support HDCP, please use Y-CR-CB. Both of these sets support HDCP and both manufactures said the problem is with the box. Time Warner has no clue what I'm talking about. I believe, but will double check that I had all outputs but 720p or 1080i selected. Can anyone help me.

I have installed an SA8300 to both a Sony VPL100(SXRD Projector) and a LG Plasma. Both with HDMI. Both sets worked for 5 to 10 minutes after being hooked up for the first time. After that I got the (Your television does not support HDCP, please use Y-CR-CB) I have swapped out cable boxes, turned off all outputs but 720P or 1080i. I talked to both manufacturers and both sets support HDCP, they said the problem is with the cable box. I talked to Time Warner and they have no clue what I'm talking about. PLEASE HELP ME!!!!

To anyone that got the SATA jack to work, do you know if your scientific atlatna 8300 is running scietific atlanta software or pioneer software. Time Warner and Comcast in Kansas City use Pioneer software on all cable boxes.

also hooked the 1394 port to the back of my computer.. it recognizes that the box is there, but i can't find a driver for it... anybody else figure this out yet?

This should allow you to connect with FireWire.

http://www.thegreenbutton.com/community/shwmessage.aspx?ForumID=26&MessageID=104152

Can I run a USB from my laptop to my cable SA 8300HD, so I can convert my favorite programs to play on dvd and mpeg? If so, do I have everything, if not what do I needd?

I have the SA 8300 HD, a sony 7.1 DD reciever and a sony wega 36" TV. I cannot get the reciever to play in surround sound when watching TV. The receivers little blue light does come on (indicating 5.1 DTS sound) when I watch a DVD but never when I watch a tv show... even if the show says it is dolby 5.1.

Any advice as to what I'm doing wrong?

thanks

Well, I'm getting the 8300HD tomorrow and after reading all of your comments, I think maybe I'm nervous. I'm a die-hard ReplayTV junkie..and aside from the obvious HD quality issues, it sounds like the ReplayTV is a far superior unit to this SA8300. I hope I didn't make the wrong decision...any comments from former ReplayTV owners would be greatly appreciated!

Don,

I consider the ReplayTV (& Tivo) units way superior to the SA8300HD. The only problem is RPTV doesn't record HD. And I believe Tivo HD is only available from DirecTV. Additionally the cost for either unit (RPTV/Tivo) with subscription is not cost effective. I was looking at $100 (unit) and life time subscription ($300). With $400 / $8/m (rental of equip) equates to 4 years before break even point. I'm not to sure that either ReplayTV nor TIVO will support (ie: continue developement) a 4 year old product.

I have 3 ReplayTV units and got my SA 8300HD on Tuesday (02/21/2006). So far, I hate the GUI. :)

Just food for thought,

Dan

Jim D,

You can press the '#' on the remote to toggle between all the stretch/zoom modes....
I think this works for all 8300's but I have Cablevision and I know the remote is different than other cable companies.

Also does anyone know what happens if you use the external SATA drive and then disconnect it....do you loose all of your recording or just the ones on the external drive....basically does it span the drives when recording??

I just received a new SA 8300 HD-DVR from Time Warner. When I switched out my SA 3100 HD receiver for a SA 8300 HD-DVR the recording part of the DVR worked fine. However I am having a problem with my picture. With the HD receiver I ran my component video cables from my tv to my cable box and I received a perfect HD picture. I hooked up my HD DVR exactly the same way, but the picture looks “overexposed.” Even with the channel guide, everything white is too bright. I have tried to adjust everything picture wise with both my tv and DVR, but the picture still does not look like it should.

Has anyone ran into this problem?

Steve

I am setting up a home theatre with a Sharp XV-12000 front projectore. Will my Exp;orer 8300HD box allow me to access TV programing or will I need a separate tuner?

I have a 8300HD connected to a Panasonic plasma with a HDMI to DVI cable. I was having a problem where if I turned the plasma off, the 8300HD would turn off. I could not turn the 8300HD back on without first turning the plasma back on. The unit would not record shows overnight without the plasma on, and I could not listed to music over a cable chanel without the plasma on.

I discovered a fix. Here is what I had to do:

1. Turn the 8300HD off and unplug it. Turn the plasma off.

2. Unplug the HDMI cable from the 8300HD.

3. Plug in and power up the 8300HD. (I had no picture when doing this because the plasma was not connected). I waited about 5-10 minutes until it appeared to be fully booted up.

4. Plug the HDMI cable back into the 8300HD.

5. Turn the plasma back on.

After that everything works without any problems. I am able to turn the plasma off and still listed to music and record shows.

I hope this helps for some people because it drove me &*$@& nuts for a while :)

Hi, I've read the above with great interest as I just upgraded to the SA8300HD yesterday to hook up to my new Denon receiver and Samsung 32" HDTV. I'm on Time Warner NYC.

First, using component connections I only get a few channels that appear at all. The others are just grey boxes. Channels that do appear are of so so quality and there is clear pixelation.

Second, the 8300HD doesn't have any "Setup Wizard" functionality enabled from the front of the box (holding down the guide/info keys does nothing, holding down the Set key button does nothing). I've tried changing the settings via the onscreen but I only get the most basic setup options...which leads to:

I would rather use the HDMI output but I too am getting the "your monitor doesn't support HDCP" when it clearly does. I have a feeling that because I don't have access to advanced setup options on the cable box that I can't set it properly...any thoughts!

help!

HDMI Prevents record/rewind/stop/ff when initially turned on or when turn tv on/off.

I have the 8300HD and hooked up HDMI to my Sceptre 37" LCD. Everything worked well, some audio/video glitches when going into the menu (though not always). After a few days I noticed a strange glitch.

When I first turn the tv & 8300HD on I can not rewind/record/stop, etc. I can display what is on and go into the kind. I have to change channels to record. This means I can not rewind the show if it was the first thing on since powering up.

I tested some things and noticed if I turn the tv off and then back on the 8300HD does the same thing. If I do this via component it works fine.

Anyone seen this? Anyone know a fix? Thanks.

I found SATA to eSATA cable to connect my external SATA drive to the 8300HD. Plugs in the back and the cable box took care of everything. The cable from this place was a good deal compared to others. See
http://www.SATAsupply.com

HDMI Prevents record/rewind/stop/ff when initially turned on or when turn tv on/off.

Further comments to my dilemma. This is WEIRD.
I have HDMI hooked up to my Sceptre 37" LCD from the 8300HD ver 1.87.16.1.

I have the 8300HD OFF. I turn on my tv from the remote or the tv directly and the 8300HD changes from showing the clock to displaying the channel I am on. It then goes back to the time, however the audio and video is enabled. The 8300HD is STILL OFF though.

From this point I can rewind/ff/stop/record, etc. I can not change channels or anything at this point as theoretically it is OFF.

I then turn on the 8300HD and I can change channels but I can NOT rewind/ff/stop/record until I change a channel. This goes along with my post above.

Anyone seen this? Why does the 8300HD display audio/video and allow DVR functionality when it is suppose to be off?

On a further note, if I turn the TV off after this (without turning on the DVR) the sound continues through my receiver (via analog RCA's). The only way to turn the sound off is to turn on the 8300HD and then turn it off again.

It just gets stranger the more I try to figure it out. I have rebooted the box.

Thank you!

HELLO. SOME OF YOU MAY THINK I AM WEIRD OR SOMETHING BUT I AM NOT INTERESTED IN HAVING HD OR DIGITAL CHANNELS RIGHT NOW. WAITING FOR IT TO COME DOWN IN PRICE OR BE AT THE SAME PRICE OR IT REPLACES STANDARD CHANNELS WITH NO ADDITIONAL COSTS. BUT I STILL WANTING TO GET A DVR TO RECORD STANDARD ANALOG PROGRAMS, SO WHERE I CAN REPLACE MY VCRS.

I FIRST STARTED LOOKING INTO DVD-RECORDERS W/HARD DRIVE (MAINLY SONY RDR-HX715 SINCE IT HAD A HARD DRIVE AND THE ABILITY TO RECORD IN ALL AVAILABLE FORMATS), BUT I NOTICED IT HAS PROBLEMS WITH THE TV GUIDE FEATURE AND OTHER ISSUES. SO I STARTED LOOKING INTO A DVR, MAINLY THE SCIENTIFIC ATLANTA EXPLORER 8300HD. SINCE A FRIEND TOLD ME ABOUT IT. I CALLED TIME WARNER AND THEY TOLD ME THAT I CAN NOT GET ONE MYSELF THAT IT WILL NOT WORK THAT WAY. THAT I HAVE TO GET ONE THROUGH THEM FOR IT TO WORK. THAT THEY HAVE TO SET IT UP, FOR IT TO WORK. THAT I EVEN HAVE TO GET A DIGITAL CABLE BOX TO JUST TO RECORD STANDARD ANALOG PROGRAMS WITH THIS DVR. TO ME THIS DOES NOT SOUND RIGHT WHEN THIS UNIT HAS BOTH ANALOG AND DIGITAL/HD TUNERS BUILT IN. I HAVE A SONY 55" LCD HDTV THAT HAS BOTH TUNERS, AND I HAVE NO PROBLEMS GETTING ANY STANDARD ANALOG PROGRAMS AND I EVEN GET ABOUT 14 HD OVER THE AIR BROADCAST CHANNELS, WHICH IS ENOUGH FOR ME RIGHT NOW. I JUST WANT TO KNOW IF I CAN GET THIS UNIT TO RECORD STANDARD ANALOG PROGRAMS, WITHOUT HAVING TO GET ANY OTHER EQUIPMENT OR SUBSCRIPTIONS, LIKE TIVO OR REPLAY? I DO NOT WANT TO HAVE TO PAY A MOUTHLY SUBSCRIPTION AND ETC, JUST TO GET SOMETHING TO REPLACE MY VCRS.

IF ANY ONE HAS A REPLY TO MY QUESTIONS, EITHER POST IT HERE OR SEND ME AN EMAIL AT BMHEIAR@AOL.COM.... THANKS. BRAD :)

I just picked up my 8300HD from Adelphia. The constant sound of the hard drive(?) whirring is a real pain - especially when all I want to do is sit in a quiet room and read. Is there a way to stop it?

Pressing the power button will put the 8300 in sleep mode, which will stop the hard drive, and also save some electricity.

I have a 3800 HD cablebox. Is there really a benefit in picture quality with HDMI connection vs. components cable? Anybody out there tried and see a difference... I would appreciate any info.

Hello. I have been following these forums for months now trying to resolve my issues without any help. But &^%$#!! I can't do it...
I have a Sony Grand Wega, Scientific Atlanta 8399 hd, and a Sony Vaio Computer.
I have tried to connect all three for this purpose. Not only do I want to record cable broadcast with my pc, but I would like to do this in real time in High Definition (HD). Windows media center sucks (image is poor and the sound is always distorted and the only connection into the comp is through coax cable or rca jacks?! whatever!) and meedio is just not there yet.
What steps are needed in order for me to get results?
(pc spec) pentiumR 4 cpu 3.40ghz, 3.39 Ghz, 2.00 gb RAM. Hard drive memory is over 500 gb
I have firewire, and Esata connections. Also, I already have the setup done to view hd on my tv (dvi out on computer to hdmi in on tv; dvr- hdmi to hdmi)
please help

can't get my io to work, everytime i press guide button it just flashes a black screen then goes back to program, anyhelp as how to get my guide up and running

For Jim D.

There is a known issue with the 8300HD and HDMI in the 8300HD user manual. (Go to Scientific Atlanta's Explorer Club to download the manual and discussion of HDMI). If you select the HDMI output, when you switch to a non HD channel you need to switch to component output since they are in 480i. Sometimes the 8300HD will remember the settings and automatically stretch the video, sometimes it will not. It is best to not leave your HD monitor on if you are not watching it in case it forgets to stretch the non-HD channels. If you always use component video you will have to over ride the component settings of the 8300HD or it will up convert all 480i channels to 1080i (obviously with no improvement of video quality). Dan already talked about using the "#" shortcut to stretch non HD channels. Also, the unit will not automatically stretch all 4:3 HD broadcasts; just watch HD HBO - all HBO intros are 4:3 but the movies will be shown in 16:9 (unless the show is recorded/broadcast in 4:3 aspect ratio like most network HD broadcasts, you can select to stretch those too). Hmmm...

For non-HD recordings I use an HP m1195c Media Center PC and play them back using VGA output. Noisy thing when the cooling fans kicks in but I save the 8300HD for HD recordings only. I have an Akai 42" PDP 4225M monitor and a Samsung HT-WP38 home theater. I always use the Dolby 5.1 output in the 8300HD settings for audio output and the digital optical in on the home theater. HDMI settings on the 8300HD disables all Dolby 5.1 output unless you specifically over ride and select the Dolby 5.1 settings on the 8300HD. (The stereo speakers on the Akai are poor for audio.) All "low end" of the "high end" gear but good enough for my purposes.

How do you get the audio video inputs on the front of this unit to work?

I have an 8300HD and a 42" LG HDTV. They are connected with an HDMI-to-HDMI cable. Sometimes when I turn on the TV I have no sound. If I turn the TV off and back on (sometimes it takes a few tries) I will get the sound. Any suggestions as to why?

Also, I paid $150 bucks for the HDMI 1000 Monster cable. Is it worth it?

I have the Explorer 8300 HD from Charter. Anyone know how to successfully connect it to a pc so I can store shows or make DVDs? Please help!!!

1) Passport and SARA seem to be the Operating system of the 8300HD... so when the box formats a sata hdd, it is no longer in the standard PC format. Just like MAC and Windows drives cannot be swapped without certain steps (not HOT-SWAPPABLE).
2) I would like to know more about using linux to read a HDD formatted with SARA or Passport. Is the data still in a MPEG file format?
3) Has anyone found out what the USB or the Flash card reader on the front does? It would be very unlikely that video and audio go thru such an interface. Firewire is a bit faster than USB 2.0 but only because it has direct access to the CPU. Has anyone confirmed that any multimedia has passed thru any of these interfaces?
4) I think that the USB or the Flash card reader on the front is for loading configurations or doing diagnostics or transfers of small data.
5) The firewire is a mistery to me because it can stream data for a decent video quality but I am sure that the 8300HD does NOT have a device driver for windows which is necessary to make it compatible. The SciAtl box is not a PC. And its internal HD is NOT PC formmated.
6) You can burn HD-DVD's if you have the latest technology. Regular DVD's cannot hold that quality of video. High Def must be supported along the whole path. An HD cable box, an HD video capture card (ATI HDTV WONDER), an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray Burner(SH-B022A, Samsung), and then an HD-DVD or Blu-Ray Player. $$$
7) The best (cheapest) way to get your recordings on your PC and to DVD is to get a Video capture device ($40-$300) the cheaper it is, the worse the interface and quality. $ Composite(yellow RCA), $$ SVideo(4pin round), and $$$ Component (3 cables red, green, blue) which will get HD to your PC. Software is needed but usually included with hardware.

abe, this is a HDTV Tuner from Newegg for $113...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815116310

I've run into a problem with my AS 8300HD. When I first hooked it up to my new Toshiba LCD tv through HDMI, the picture was great. Now, I'm getting color replacement, where blue turns to red, and vice versa. It's not a permanent feature, but it happens with extreme regularity (once every few seconds). Any thoughts?

I was told by Time Warner Austin that the sata port wasn't enabled yet, that this would happen in the "future"; should I believe them or risk getting an enclosure for one of my sata drives? I have several 300 gb sata drives and it sure would be nice to have the extra storage for the 8300HD.

Hello, everyone.

***Somebody please respond to this so I know I am not being ignored.***

It has been a month now since I posted my questions, with no response from anyone. But I have noticed others' questions being answered. Just curious on why the only way I can get this unit is by paying a monthly rental & service fees with Time Warner Austin just to get it to work? Why? All I want one for is to record normal standard analog channel programs, so I can replace my vcrs. If I buy one myself an not pay the Time Warner Austin's monthly rental & service fees will it work the way that I want it too? According to Time Warner Austin, if I buy one and not from them, they will not activate it because they would consider the unit that I purchased to be a lost or stole unit from some other cable company. I explained to them that I do not want the HD channels just want a DVR (hard drive) to record standard analog programs, so I can replace my vcrs. They said that the unit will do that, but I have to pay them for it. For it to be activated and linked to their system. To me this does not sound right. You don't have to call them to activate or link your tv's, vcrs, and other equipment that you buy yourself. You do if you want certain features and/or type of channels like digital or HD channels, which I do not want right now. So I am asking again. If I buy one myself and do not call or pay Time Warner Austin to activate it & etc, will it work the way that I want it too? Or is the only way that I can get one is paying the monthly rental & service fees by Time Warner Austin and according to them it is an additional $20 a month for rental fees and service? To me this does not sound right? To me it would be cheaper for me to just buy one myself and etc, without paying Time Warner for rental or service. Am I right or wrong? Please someone response to my questions?

(Bmheiar@aol.com)

can you hook up your camcorder to the 8300
and record home movies onto it?

Maybe someone here can help me....I just got my SA 8300 and am waiting for my 2 new hdtvs to arrive. For now I have my box hooked up to a crt. My problem is that I have the box connected via component and using optical for sound. I am running it thru my Onkyo TX NR1000. I am experiencing a bad lip sync problem....especially on the HD channels. I have 8300 set to output 480i. Can someone tell me why I am having a lip sync problem and maybe a solution to fix it. My other set does not have this issue. Although on the other set I am not using optical. I am using the rca for audio....any suggestions?

I have Cox cable and recently got a 32" LCD tv and ordered the HD DVR, it's a SA 8300HD. Composite works fine, but when I tried to use an HDMI-HDMI cable I thought it did not work at all, then I noticed something strange about it. The picture quality is fine on all the digital channels (and "normal" on the non-digital ones), but I get no sound on any digital channels. However, I do get sound on channels 1 through 99.



I do have HDMI audio selected in the settings menu. Support said they would send an update to the box that should fix it, but after that I still have the exact same problem. They said if the update didn't fix it, then they would send a technician out to look at it. I'm thinking to skip the tech visit and just use the 5 bulky component cables instead of the single HDMI cable.

this is for Jules and Joe...and anyone else looking for HDMI cables

Jules...I am not a fan of any Monster product, and I'm what you'd call an audiophile, or audiosnob. And you paid retail price. So I'll put this in bold print for everyone

GO TO BUY.COM FOR YOUR CABLES

that said I'll tell you that I was going to buy the Pure A/V by Belkin, or the SonicWave HDMI cables, both of which are technically vastly superior to Monster in wire construction, and the retail price for the Pure A/V at Circuit City is $119, and I got it from Buy.com for $52. 'nuff said.

Joe...if you have sharp bends in your HDMI cable anything can happen, and I would think color smearing would be at the top of the list

Pete

Bmheiar@aol.com

Why not just get Tivo if HD is not your concern?

Anyone figured this one out... it has been posted here a few time but no responses yet:

=======================================
1. When watching a show that is recording you have to rewind back to the beginning as it doesn't start at the beginning, but where it is currently recording.
AND
2. When the show you are watching finishes recording it boots you out to the menu and forces you to start from the beginning again, thus you have to now fast forward to where you left off.
======================================

I find this to be sooooo freaking annoying - I seriously considering going back to Comcast - as their Motorola boxes are way better then these pieces of junk Scientific Atlanta boxes - i just really hate Comcast.... so I kinda don't want to do that

Very weird error. I have a Mitsubishi WD-62627 and a 8300HD obviously. I'm using the HDMI input on it. I recorded Prison Break and 24 yesterday in HD and House IN HD the tonight and when i went to watch them I saw that the shows have besically been split up..the Entire hour show was chopped into several section 28 minutes..then 2 minutes...then 23 and so on. It almost looks like the commercials were causing the box to cut on and off...except for the fact that there were commercials on there that didn't cause the error. Any thoughts? Also on top of that...when i'm watching a show live and then the DVR starts recoding another channel...it will switch to the channel that is being recorded..and i'm NOT recording 2 at a time so that's not the error. Any help is greatly appreciated!

I have a sucess story to adding a SATA drive to my Explorer 8300HD. My provider is Cox(Phoenix, AZ).

Buy drive and connect to case. external SATA cable included with case.

Then followed the instructions I read on the net:
1. disconnect wall outlet from Explorer.
2. Connect hard drive. Power it on.
3. reconnect power to Explorer. After boot, message appears: "do you want to format the external drive ?". 30 sec later, it was done.
4. My space taken dropped from 75% to 16%.

The equipment I bought at newegg.com:
- Seagate SATA II 500GB
- Penguin Gear PG380 SATA to eSATA enclosure.
no fan but alum case

cost $325 with shipping.

To phlojo:

"Bmheiar@aol.com

Why not just get Tivo if HD is not your concern?"

At last a response from someone! Thanks for your response and suggestion. But doesn't Tivo require a monthly service fee to use, just like if I rented a DVR unit such as the SA8300HD unit from Time Warner Austin? I do not want to pay a monthly service fees & other fees just to record standard analog programs to replace my vcrs. That would sort of be defeating the purpose now wouldn't it. Since nobody pays monthly service and rental fees to use vcrs to record progarms. I just want to upgrade and replace my vcrs without paying any monthly service or rental fees. That is why I would like to have a DVR such as the SA8300HD or a unit that has a Hard Drive & has the capabilities to record standard analog programs which hooks up to my entertainment center equipment without paying the monthly service & rental fees to use. I have also been looking into a DVD Recorder with Hard Drive, but most of them have issues with the TV guide feature or other major annoying issues or do not have correct connections and/or number of connections on back and/or do not record on all available DVD formats. But I guess I am just picky on what I am looking for! I like the Sony RDR-HX715 because it has a Hard Drive, the correct & number of connections that I need, and records in all available DVD formats, but has a major problem with the TV guide feature and other annoying issues. Plus it is too expensive for a piece of equipment that has major issues or annoying issues, to justify the cost. If anybody else has suggestions or answers to my questions, I would really appreciate it. Please post them here or email me.

Bmheiar@aol.com

Here's my issue with this box. SO I have this Mitsubishi 55' rear projection HDTV. I LOVE it and so does my wife. This is the thing. When we first met I just had digital cable with some HD channels. The TV would auto adjust the format when you changed to an HD channel and then change back to whatever setting it was on when you went back to a regular channel. The deal with the ratio difference between an HD signal and the regular signal the TV gives me about 7 settings to choose from... from stretch, stretch plus, to standard... you get the idea. It allowed us to pick the best way to stretch the Cable TV signal to our liking. We chose to make it only stretch the edges which made a gradual distorotion on the edges of the regular signal but it looked good. Then Hurricane Rita hit and we stayed with some friends in Dallas who had a DVR. We got hooked so soon after returning to Beaumont Texas after the storm we called up our Time Warner Cable company and got them to give us a box that included a DVR. So now we have digital tv, HD channels, and a DVR. Sounds great right? Well here's the issue. NOW the tv will not allow us to adjust the picture with the new DVR. It just allows us stretch mode and standard mode! Stretch mode stretches the entire screen and makes things look strange. I thought it might just be the TV but when I play my Xbox 360 through another input it still allows me all the options I had before. So I changed inputs but still no luck. any idea what the problem is with the Time Warner DVR and HDTVs?

I have an SA Explorer 8000 and an SA Explorer 8000HD. Both DVR's have a USB port on the front of them. I would like to pull my recordings of the DVR and onto my hard drive for viewing. Is it possible to do that, for example, with an external hard drive connected via the USB port? Is there another route I must take? Am I asking for too much?

My local cable company does not carry PBS' HD channel, which I can receive and view on my HDTV. If I run the antenna coax into the 8300 instead of the cable company coax, will I be able to record PBS HD shows on the DVR for playback later?

Anyone figure out yet how to save off programs to computer? I have seen this asked and no one has reponded. Any ideas?

To "Bmheiar@aol.com"
******************************************************************************************
With Tivo, you are really just paying the monthly fee for the easy-to use, nicely formatted, and up-to-date tv guide information. The SA 8300 is a dual-tuner HD-DVR, which if you check with any electronics retailer you will see can cost $600 or more. Renting one from your cable company is a better deal because it would take you 5 years to break even to buying one($10/mnth x 12mnth/yr x 5yrs = $600). And you would have to pay for repairs yourself, etc... The DVD Recorder with Hard Drive that you mentioned from Sony (also Pioneer, Panasonic, and Toshiba make good ones) all use the TV-Guide On Screen program guide. This guide is totally free to use with no monthly fee at all. This free guide may not be as "nice and simple" to use as a Tivo guide, but again, that guide is something many people are willing to pay for. If you really are just asking to "replace your VCR" the go ahead and buy the Sony unit, you can disable the TV-Guide and continue to set recordings as you do with your VCR...looking in the newspaper for the time and channel, and then setting them in the Timed Recording screen for each tv show. An awkward way to use a DVR, but the only way you'll be sure to avoid monthly fees and TV-Guide issues.

Hi.
I picked up the SA8300HD (incl. DVR) on Saturday at the Time Warner Center New York and hocked it up to my A/V receiver and the Panasonic HDTV. Everything works great except that all my on-demand channels are missing (200, 210, 220, etc.), the food network and the HD channel 706. Also, it doesn?t have any data available. Every channel gives me the message NO DATA and the program guide doesn?t even come up when I press the GUIDE button. I re-booted the box several times and I also unplugged and restarted it. No success.
Any idea what?s going on and how I can resolve that problem?
I would be very thankful for help.
Sascha

I just received an Explorer 8300HD box for my 65 inch Toshiba HD TV. My old box let me stretch non HD stations to fill the TV screen. This one only allowes me to zoom1 zoom2 or normal can any one tell me how I can stretch the screen so I don't chop off the top or bottom

How does one set up the Media Center PC to receive signal from the 8300HD using coax, s-vid, or composite, while my component output goes to my projector? Any chance of getting the Media PC recording the same time that 8300HD is recording itself?

When I attempt to get Media Center to talk with the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD, it keeps complaining about the IR. Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

You can buy a 300GB Maxtor QuickView SATA Hard Drive "designed to work with the 8300HD" from http://weaknees.com. I have connected it to my 8300HD supplied by Cablevision and it is basically working as expected. However, recordings have frequent dropouts causing pixelation and sound gaps, and I do not remember having the problem before adding the expander drive. Live TV is fine, so I know it is not a weak cable signal.
The drop-out problem is much worse with HD programs but does occur with standard programs. It's my impression that the problem is worse when using both tuners, e.g., recording one program while viewing another.
The worst scenario is to record two HD programs while playing back a previously recorded program. There are gaps in the recordings probably due to inadequate buffering either in the 8300HD or in the QuickView external drive.
It's really annoying.

Hey Guys, first time posting
one of the things in here is that everybody brags about their equipment. Anyway. Did anyone figure out how to transfer the digital media stored in the external SATA and play if with a WIN based PC.
thx

OK, a few things. First, for the people who want to use a DVR for free, well good luck. Cable operators are not going to allow you to do that. You can buy a 3rd party device, but you will not be able to get it provisioned with digital access so you'll only be able to record analog channels. Further, you won't get the EPG (program guide).

Now, for the 8300HD. I have 3 on the Adelphia system in PA. I've had both DishPVR (including the 921 HD model) and TiVo. Of these, the least reliable and worst user interface - along with worst quality - is the SA8300HD. Actually, I guess the dish 921 was the least reliable to be honest but I was a very early adopter and only kept it for 3 weeks. The ONLY reason I've got these is because they are the only PVR solution to get HD. Dish and Direct have no real network HD content so I got rid of Dish after years. Since I don't think they'll ever get local networks in HD in the next couple years at least, they are a non-player for me. That leaves Adelphia. Since TiVo doesn't (yet) have a cable HD unit, that means that I'm stuck with the SA8300HD. The specs look good. The execution is horrible. The user interface iw unbelieveably bad. The search (if you've used ANY other DVR) worthless. The box locks up on occasion. Sometimes it just wacks out and records stuff you never programmed. Sometimes it just doesn't record things you HAVE scheduled. Sound and picture frequently drops out on HD recordings. Many times content aired in Dolby 5.1 only record in stereo. Lots of pixelation. This is NOT a unique situation. ALL of mine exhibit this behavior, as do many others in my area. Adelphia can't solve it, and Scientific Atlanta won't talk to consumers (I've tried - you can try by calling 610-238-6800 and asking for John Hall). The instant TiVo releases their multi-tuner HD model, my 8300s will be dropped off at Adelphia never to be seen again.

Bottom line, if you've got ANY other choice - such as not needing HD - go for it.

Dear Seller

I just received the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 HD. However, when I plugged (Power Cord)it the Green LED screen displays (Er.63) then stays on (h) with numbers ascending quickly from about 066 to about 874.

I kept it on for several hours and overnite, but with the same results.

If anyone has any suggestions or resolution to this problem it would be great to hear about them.

I think based on LED display the converter is going through some diagnostics process and is unable to proceed due to en error. During this process, you can't start the system using the power-on button because it does not work.

My guess is that there is something wrong with the internal hard drive.

I just received the scientific atlanta explorer 8300hd from a friend that was moving out of state. I hooked up the new box to my TV and all I got was the LCD in front saying BOOT..
Anyone have ideas on if this is a compatibility problem or a HD error?

Thanks

QUOTE: I was told by Time Warner Austin that the sata port wasn't enabled yet, that this would happen in the "future"; should I believe them or risk getting an enclosure for one of my sata drives? I have several 300 gb sata drives and it sure would be nice to have the extra storage for the 8300HD.

I have Time Warner Austin, and now have an extra 300GB of storage. Unless I was just a lucky SOB, they are on crack!

Thanks, glad I found this discussion.

i have had issues since January with this box & the Vizio HD TV I acquired for my wife for X-mas.

I got an HDMI cable at the NEX for under $40.00 and it worked well until I or my 5 yr old accidently hit the PIP button. Fixed that but still not super quality. Cox rep out yesterday to replace a standard def DVR in the bedroom that died after a power out. I discussed the glitches and freezez in ff & rw of the dig DVR but she was clueless, blamed it on my having the coak run thru a surge protector, I hoped sha was right but todays TV viewing proved otherwise. I just tried eliminating the 480i & p settings as discussed here and currently have a great picture of Sheryl Crowe in HD. More may be revealed. Seems I may have lost my analogue HD options in the process though.

Bob

I have an 8300HD cable box hooked up to my TV, HDMI/HDMI. I also have it hooked up to a Tivo through non-digital connections and then the Tivo to my TV. Because of this, I often switch inputs on my TV to go from Tivo to the HDMI connection if I want to watch something in HD. My problem is that when switching to HDMI, I often don't have sound (though not always). I have to go into settings, more settings, audio digital out, select something other than HDMI and then re-select HDMI. This fixes it every time, but it's very annoying - especially because I can't do it with the Tivo remote. Anyone have any suggestions?

Also, in a totally unrelated questions, how does the video quality from coaxial cables compare to the other connections? Tivo doesn't have any digital inputs/outputs, but would S-video look a lot better than coaxial?

SATA II standard should be used with the SA8300 HD.

Bmheiar@aol.com

The reason you pay a fee to your cable company or TiVO is for 2 reasons 1.Program Guide (without the program guide the DVR would not know what to record when or what is on). 2.DVR capable box from cable company for TiVO you purchase this equipment.

In order to get the guide you must pay a subscription service. Media PCs have this service free, that is your other option.

Problem with 8300. When schedule recording and begin to watch part way through recording, the early portion of the recording is erased and as I watch, all except rolling last few minutes is erased. Hard drive is not full. Any ideas?
Thanks
Ed

Ed,

I'm having similar problems. When I schedule a recording and begin to watch partway through, it simply stops recording, so that when I reach the end of the prerecorded part, I'm booted to live TV and can't get back whatever happened in the second period (in the case of tonight's Stanley Cup final). At that point, it won't even record the channel live until I delete the partial recording of the program.

Also happens when I pause live TV for too long. I know it's only supposed to have an hour buffer, but even if I start watching before that hour is reached, it'll just stop recording and boot me to live TV at what seems like a random point of its choosing.

Hard drive says it's about 20% full. Anybody have another idea?

I have a problemn between my Scientfic Atlanta Explorer 8300HD and my JVC RX-D402 A/V Receiver. I connect my 8300 HDMI or component outputs to the receiver. I then connect the HDMI or component outputs to my TV. There is a signal level coming out because my TV has an indicator, but its black, nothing else. If I connect my JVC prograssive scan DVD player to my receiver via component then I do get a picture out via HDMI-DVI to my flat panel. Also if I connect the the 8300 to my tv directly it works fine. JVC says to send to depot for repair. Overstock.com sent me another to try. Charter Communications has no idea of the problem (sounds like I got an India call center) and was going to swap the 8300. I was upset and asked them to research before they sent a tech which I think would waste my time and their money!

I have an RCA 25" tv, which is only 2-3 years old. It was fine last night, through a wicked thunder storm. We never lost power, not even a flicker. The other sets in the house are fine. When I turned it on today, the entire screen was red! Never saw anything like it. Does anyone know what that is? I really don't want to bring it somewhere and pay a lot, only to find out it would cost less to buy new. Can anyone offer any advice?
Thanks much.

i've gone thru at least 4 of each the 8000hddvr and 8300hddvr for various problems....the one recurring problem with all of them (and an increasingly occuring issue) is recordings not taking place, time grid shows it red, its in the 'scheduled recordings' list, but it just outright doesn't record shows sometimes. just a little research shows people complaining about these boxes constantly, yet the local time warner says 'we haven't gotten many complaints'
another bizarre issue i'm having is recorded show in list, shows appropriate length of recording, hardrive space is shown being used in the preferences, yet you select the program in the list, then select 'play ______' the screen blinks, then goes back to the basic dvr channel with the big green 'list' image in the middle, thats happened a few times now i wish TW would offer other dvr options like the motorolas or toshibas, anything other than this SA garbage

I've seen many posts asking how to hook up a pc to the 8300 HD DVR. I've never seen a response so I thought it wasn't possible or it was so easy that a response wasn't necessary because you could just play around with the connections and figure it out yourself.
Fortunately the latter is true. Here's how I did it.

I'm using the 8300 HD DVR, a Dell m170 laptop with XP 2005 Media center. I have a TV tuner.
First, keep your computer and DVR turned off. I connected the S-Video cable to the back of the 8300 and connected it to the TV tuner. I connected the red and white audio cables to the back of the 8300 and connected them to the TV tuner.
I then connected the TV tuner to the laptop with the supplied cable. Turn on your laptop. I set up the Media center to recognize the TV.

I was able to tune to any channel including HD. I wanted to copy some saved shows from the DVR to the laptop, so I put in a DVD-Ram disk, started the show from the DVR and set the DVD on the laptop to record and Presto! Copied the shows perfectly. Excellent picture quality too.

I haven't tried copying live TV, timer recording or using a DVD other than a DVD-Ram yet. I imagine it's simple and possible to do.

I forget to include that I hooked up the cable to the TV tuner as well

In response to Ryan who had the burn-in problems -- I think the setting you want to look at is Set: Picture Format. I've found (with two different cable companies) that this is usually set by default to Fixed, which generally means it outputs 1080i widescreen for every channel (upconverting if necessary). This also means it will add the left and right side bars if that channel is not HD. My TV does 480p and 1080i natively, so I use the "Upconvert-1" setting -- that makes the box pass on 480p and 1080i signals untouched, upconverts 480i to 480p, and 720p to 1080i. One side effect of this is that on the non-HD channels, it doesn't add the sidebars. So maybe this is what you're looking for. If you go to the Scientific Atlanta website you can find an HD guide for the 8300HD that will explain the different settings.

My SA 8300 HD Explorer running a 50" Panasonic Plasma TV hangs up every 5 minutes for 10 seconds. The connection is HDMI and, frankly, the picture, even with HD broadcasts isn't all that great. Any one know if setup can cause this hang problem? The disc drive noises make me crazy.

Is there anyway that one can plug in an IR sensor in the back of the unit so as to put the box in a cabinet and only have the IR sensor sticking out? I tried it, but it doesn't seem to work. Any advice or suggestions/alternatives

8300HD connected directly to Panasonic plasma via HDMI works fine; Connect 8300HD to Harmon Karden 745 AVR via HDMI then from HK HDMI out to plasma, get the no HDCP, use component message.

Sony HDMI to HK to plasma works fine.

Has anyone solved this mystery yet? Is SA in self denial about the problem? Can anyone help.

Local TW techs haven't a clue what you are talking about.

Thanks,

Brad

I Would like to save recordings from my 8300HD to a Panasonic DMR-ES46V DVD recorder that I just picked up at Costco for $299.00 Anyone else tried connecting the two together with any luck?
Ron

8300HD to panasonic plasma HDMI to HDMI - I loose the video and sound a couple of times per hour. Any ideas?

To Bmheiar@aol.com



I wounder how Time Warner justifies what they told you considering that they are required to allow you to provide your own equiptment. Here's the passage from Title 47, Sec. 76.1201:

No multichannel video programming distributor [Cable Co] shall prevent the connection or use of navigation devices [converter boxes] to or with its multichannel video programming system [Cable TV], except in those circumstances where electronic or physical harm would be caused by the attachment or operation of such devices or such devices may be used to assist or are intended or designed to assist in the unauthorized receipt of service.

Sounds to me like they are stonewalling you expecting that you will not know your rights. I imagine if you start talking about complaining to the FCC they will start singing a different tune.

I have Cox Cable and just got the SA 8300HD box. Connected to my Sharp 45"LCD via hdmi and while I get both picture and sound, the sound cuts out intermittently every 10 seconds or so. It's really annoying and I can't figure out if it's my hdmi cable, the 8300, or my TV that is the cause. When I use component, everything works perfectly.

I am currently using a Scientific Atlanta 8300-HD DVR with 160 GB with Time Warner Cable. Can anyone tell me with absolute certainly that when I turn in my two old boxes and hook up this new box to my plasma it will work with no problem? Time Warner says they only rent the box I am tired of paying the monthly fee with the digital package. I just want to make sure this box will work with timer warner and know for sure that their is no way they can shut it the box off or anything like that ... right? And, will the DVR, service still work also? Thanks to the person(s) who answer this question with certainly! Spygosh...

Hey folks!
Wanted to let you know I added an external HD to my Cablevision provided 8300HD.

...Specifics...
From CompUSA for about $250 total:
500GB Maxtor SATA HD (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=333926&pfp=BROWSE)
External Drive enclosure (http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?product_code=52079766&pfp=SEARCH)

I didn't need to buy an extra cable as the drive enclosure had the right cable.

Easy install:
Unplug the cable box.
Connect the external HD to the cable box with the eSATA cable.
Plug the external HDD and power it up.
Plug the cablebox.
Wait a couple of minutes and the you will be prompted for a format of the HD.
Click yes and you are ready to go.
I had to unplug the cable box and the ext. HD to you see an increase in recording space.
Follow the above instruction again.
Always make sure you power up the ext. HD before the cablebox.

BIG space increase!

Scientifc Atlanta 8300HD and samsung HDS4253 Plasma tv

you can get these 2 working together, problem is that after rebooting the tv, it doesn't see the HDMI signal. I have not solved that yet.
Note that the only connnections in my tests were the HDMI cable between the cablebox and the Samsung 4253.

The below sequence does work with the above caveat. If i solve it (with Samsung) i will post the answer here.

1. Turn on Samsung TV, set input as HDMI
2. Turn off Scientific Atlanta 8300HD
3. Press INFO+GUIDE buttons on 8300HD (you will see nothing on screen)
4. Press A B B A B on cable remote (8300HD HD Setup Wizard will now appear). By doing this I think you set the 480p mode ,so the wizard will appear on screen.
5. Step through Wizard - I was told by Samsung the 4253 supports 480p and 1080i (so these are the ones i selected)
6. You must then press EXIT on the 8300HD remote, if the wizard quit out on you prior to pressing EXIT, start again (step 2)
7. After pressing EXIT, turn on the 8300HD
8. The picture should appear

Unfortunately now, when i turn off the Samsung TV and turn it on again, it cannot see the 8300HD and i must start again at step 2
every time i turn on the tv. hat f'ing sucks. But I do note that the 8300HD does remember my choices
for screen choices (480p and 1080i). So the
8300HD is remembering the settings, but on reboot of the TV, it seems the TV does not accept the signals.
Cablevision (NY) says it has something to do with copy protection on the Samsung, the person speaking was working from a
script (IMO). They said Cablevision gives out composite cables as they know they work, and they have seen lots of issues
with HDMI, and they don't support it. Seeing the posts in this forum confirms that.
I am continuing my calls to Samsung on Monday when their 2nd tier support comes in.

The above will work 95++% of the time, but it sometimes becomes erratic (i have witnesses!).
Again, the only cable i have between the HD8300 cablebox and the Samsung 4253 is the HDMI cable

I have a LG 42 inch HDTV HD-DVR. The cable card makes the tv power off completely after the tv has been turned off for more than 5 hours. The only way you can turn it back on after this happens is buy unplugging the TV from the outlet! Has anyone had any similar problems???

Bought a SA Explorer and when I turn it on it says Please contact the cable co. is there anyway around this? Or do they have to activate it. Thanx

Bought a SA Explorer 8300 and when I turn it on it says Please contact the cable co. is there anyway around this? Or do they have to activate it. Thanx

I am having difficult using SA Explorer 8300HD wit Panasonic TH-50PHD8UK Plasma TV. When I connect HDMI signal to TV (Input 1) then the Composite Signal (Input 3) no longer functions. When I disconnect HDMI from Plasma then Input 3 (Composite Signal) functions fine. I would like to have both signals on Inputs 1 and 3 function on Plasma. Is there a setting on SA Explorer to enable?

Does anyone have any recent experience using the 8300HD with Brighthouse as the cable provider and accessing the SATA drive port to provide additional capacity? Just FYI, Woot (http://www.woot.com) has a 250G SATA drive on sale today until midnight for $54.99, so I want to get one if this will indeed work with my setup. Any help appreciated. Thanks!

Gee, after reading all the posts I feel lucky I'm not experiencing MOST of the problems. My concern is not mentioned here; to wit: I cannot get closed captioning to work when using the 8300HD component output. I've been back and forth with Panasonic (TC-32LX60 TV) and Adelphia and they are just pointing fingers at each other. The cable company says it is up to the TV to decode and display the text; Panasonic says the opposite. Does anyone know? The 8300SD has a setting for CC -> "digital 1" though "Digital 6". I've tried all the settings to no avail. Does anyone know what they mean or what they should be set to?
Thanks, John -- k2cib "at" arrl "dot" net

Apparently I am not the only one who has experienced this - Time Warner SA 8300HD users in Houston have been reporting a problem where shows are not recording at all. For example, when I schedule 2 shows to record at the same time, only 1 show is recorded. I also have a show that is supposed to record daily (record all shows) which does not record at all. After rebooting the DVR (Info, vol -, vol +), it shows that the shows are there, but when I try to play it back, nothing happens. Have not tried to record again after the reboot... but apparently this is a Scientific Atlanta issue which they need to address - hopefully soon!!!

I just got the 8300SD from my cable provider. The thing seems to make a lot of noise - the cooling fan, I'm sure. But the fan seems to stay on even after the power is turned off. Is this possible?

Spygosh, from what i've read, the enclosure you are using is only suppose to recognize hard drives up to 400gb. Did it recognize your full 500gb hd? Thanks.

Anyone know if the 8300HD has a limit on the items in "scheduled recordings" and if so, how to increase it? I occasionally lose things from my list of scheduled recordings. A friend says there must be limit. He once told his 8300HD to record all episodes of something having a marathon and it removed almost every item from his list except the new ones. He believes the limit to be around 25. I don't normally record that many shows in a single week but my list contains things in the off season and I often have shows in the list that are cancelled and I'm just not aware yet (I just removed "Convicted"). I currently have 27 shows set to record first runs only and occasionally will add 1 or 2 single episodes of something to the list.

Reporting success attaching 300GB external SATA drive to Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 obtained from BrightHouse in the Clearwater, Florida market. Drive would format correctly only after DVR was powered off and unplugged for about ten seconds.

Nobody has commented on other people's question. But I just got the 8300HD and I am receiving No Program Data and the Guide isn't working.

I called TWCNYC and they said it had to be escalated to IT. I know have to wait 24 to 72 hours for it to be resolved and they never said they would call me back. I just turned in a perfectly working 8300.

For all "new" HDTV customers: I had my 8300HD hooked up 15 months ago. The HD channels certainly looked better than the analog channels but I wasn't really blown away.

Fast forward to now. I was in search of a HDMI cable so I could hook up my XBox 360, DVD and Cable box directly to my TV (two component and one HDMI connection).

I plugged in the HDMI cable and got pic but no sound. Find this forum and read about how to setup the output for HDMI from the 8300.

I ALSO FOUND THAT MY 8300HD HAD BEEN SETUP OVER A YEAR AGO TO ONLY OUTPUT IN 480i FORMAT!!!!!.

Argh! For over a year I could have had output to 1080i and never knew it because BrightHouse Networks only setup my box to output the most common signal.

NOW I know what HDTV can really look like!

I have had my SA8300HD for a couple weeks now, and man do I hate this thing. A couple of responses to previous questions:
1) Watching a recorded program while it is still recording - yes, when the recording stops, you get booted out, and have to restart the show and fast forward to wherever you were when the recording stopped
2) On the audio out, when using and HDMI cable *and* a digital audio connection to a receiver, selecting HDMI will send the audio to the TV, selecting Dolby Digital sends it to the receiver. Not intuitive, but it works...

Let me also say that I have used Tivo for the last few years, and a $700 price point plus subscription is starting to look really appealing to me. Whoever worked on this SA8300 should be embarassed to call themselves "engineers". The interface for this thing is pathetic, and the functionality is surprisingly unintelligent. For instance, as mentioned above, the unit has no way to understand what is a new episode of a show versus a repeat, even though it implies to be able to tell the difference. I am left with the choice of hoping a network wont change the time of a show I subscribe to, letting the DVR fill with the same episode shown at multiple times, or setting it to only keep 2 episodes or so, and hoping that one of them is the new episode I want.
I have accepted that I cant do anything about these factors, but I do have one annoying issue - when I power on the Panasonic plasma and the cable box, and I am on an HD channel, the signal seems to be lost between the dvr and the tv every few seconds, so that the tv goes black, and the dvr shows the channel like it is changing the channel or rebooting or something. The really weird thing is if I change to an analog channel, it is fine, change back to hd, goes on and off. My only solution is to change to analog, change back to HD, change the resolution a few times, and then let it do this for a couple minutes and it stops. What a piece of crap. And I know the issues are not related to the TV, because my PlayStation 3 is hooked up via HDMI, and it rocks.

Hello!

I have a 8300HD from TWC NY. Everything works fine as of now. My system comes with passport OS.

My only problem is that my TV is 32" windescreen LCD, when I use the guide or any other menu, it appears in 4:3 format. So basically, the menu does not strecth to the whole screen size.

Anyway I can see the menu also in 16:9 format?

Thanks!!

I've just posted to my blog about my Charter Communications debacle, in which the 8300HD features prominently:

http://loquaciousmusic.blogspot.com/2007/01/youtube-trumps-charter.html

I have an 8300HD DVR box through Time Warner in Rochester, NY. I had no problem setting it up for HDMI output to my Sony LCD through my Denon 2307 DD receiver via HDMI switching.

But I didn't want to ALWAYS run my receiver when watching the news and tv shows that didn't call for surround sound, particularly when guests/babysitters are in the house.

I connected the 8300 directly to my LCD via component and audio cables (in addition to the HDMI connection to my receiver). When watching TV, the 8300 outputs via component/audio to my LCD. Now here's the great part. The 8300 senses when I turn on my receiver and automatically switches the output to HDMI (sound and video). All I have to do is change the input on the LCD from component to HDMI or vise versa.

Somebody was thinking when they designed the 8300 firmware and operating system. Kudos to Time Warner for supporting this functionality.

I just got the 8300hd from TWC and hooked it up to as Sony SXRD 55" TV via HDMI. I run the setup and select the formats I have and everthing works fine. The problem im having is that I have my locals in HD via an antenna. The problem im having is when I switch my TV to antenna or turn it off by remote the 8300hd automatically jumps to a 480i output and hangs up there. If I want HD output from the box I have to run setup again. This is driving me nuts since I do watch the local channels alot and obviously have to turn off my tv. Any help would be appreciated.

I was able to connect and use an external SATA drive to my SA 8300HD box from Brighthouse cable in Bakersfeild CA, even though Brighthouse says it doesn't work. The Scientific Atlanta web site has setup documentation.

The constant spinning up of the hard drive and humming of this box is driving me insane. My wife called Time Warner Austin and they said that this is normal. Normal? This is insane. When the box is sitting still, powered off, not recording anything, it should be quiet. Is this just my box or do they all do this? I have seen at least 2 comments indicating that they have this "feature" on a 8300HD.

I had the problem with not able to watch a show from the beginning while it's recording and had to restart when the show finished recording. However, my box seems to received a software update and now both of my problems went away.

Around the middle of February I happened to be up at 2AM and got a message the box had to shut down for an hour to be reprogrammed.

The firmware update fixed a lot of problems � finally after two years.

If you access a show you are recording through the List (not the Menu) you have a choice of watching from the beginning or starting from the current location. The show no longer stops when it finishes recording.

They also added a fourth speed to the fast forward and rewind, so if you have to scroll through a long program you can get there pretty quickly now.

I also haven�t encountered the problem of recorded shows that won�t play but just revert back to the list button screen. It wasn�t that frequent a problem so maybe I just haven�t encountered it since the firmware update.

They have eliminated most of my major irritations with the box. It seems to take their programmers a long time to write firmware code.

Slipe's comment reminded me that I should probably update my opinion here. Now, after several firmware updates, I don't feel the picture quality of the 8300HD is too terrible. In fact, I can't tell the difference between HD content streaming in live and pre-recorded HD content played off the unit's disk. Granted, that's like comparing two apples from the same tree, but I've no complaints about the PQ of this DVR. Now, the menu system and overall DVR functionality still stinks, especially compared to the ever-improving TiVo, but at least the HD image is enjoyable.

Ive gotta give out a big thanks to everyone here! I got my 8300HD just a couple weeks ago and have TW NE Ohio. The installer mentioned picking up an HDMI cable because they don't provide them. Made sense at the time, he had Composite's so we went that route. Problem is that the RCA 52" I have only comes with one set of composites and then a DVI. I figured the dreaded 'can't use this' message would come up and for the pricing of cables lately was it going to be worth the shot just to find that out?

Thanks to this thread -yes! Not only did I find a place that sells the lowest priced HDMI-DVI cable ($10 shipped to me!) but I plugged it right in and went to town. Followed some of all of the instructions here like killing off the 480/720 settings on the 8300HD - worked like a charm!

First I got Audio but black video, so again I followed the instructions here and unplugged the 8300HD - waited about 30 secs - plugged it back in (cable already connected between 8300 & TV) and fired both up - full image and great picture quality! As someone mentions, I believe I have the latest Passport OS w/fixes as I have the same features like 4X FF and little quality loss.

So now it's back to sitting in the chair flipping to the 360 and back to the HDMI feed instead of a goofy Pelican manual switchbox! Was looking at $40 for a refurbed composite switchbox with IR remote to replace that, no need now.

Kicker of the deal is when I called into TW for something else and asked about the HDMI port being dead. I had what sounded like an experienced TW Rep, she said 'you have the Sci Atlanta, the 8300, the one that says 8300HD on the front top right corner?' and I replied 'yep', she then replied 'yes, the HDMI ports are turned off on those and won't work.'

Thank God I didn't buy anyone's story and went with the experiences here! And since the cable I needed to take a whack at it was only about $10 shipped compared to pricing from $35-$150 + S/H (for those not in-store close to me) I figured I had little to lose!

Here's a link to the cable I'm using, I see very little - if any - signal loss or impedance that'd cause stuttering, etc. and I've put it through it's paces on HD and SD channels as well as the Demand & TW Util pages. Everything autosizes when it should, very little distortion at all and I'm not seeing artifacts or black-loss like I did with DirecTV.

http://www.firefold.com/ProductInfo.aspx?productid=HDMIDVI-6-BLK

$6, and fully capable of 1080i uncompressed without loss. Went USPS Priority and had it in 48 hours, excellent company for all kinds of cabling too!

Next project is the SATA HDD, I've also reviewed everyone's comments & suggestions here about using 16MB buffered HDD's and what brands to avoid. Finding quite a few solid cases and noting the biggest failure problems seem to be people not getting external HDD SATA cases with fans?? Same as a PC - no cool = fail. Since we can't control the HDD's use with the 8300HD, you know it's going to get spun like mad. I see the WD's tend to fail under that load but I've had that problem in the past and it always came down to not using fans on the HDD's (not what normal PC's come with) if you beat on the drive.

So my plans are to use a specific eSATA/USB case I'm seeing at Newegg, picking up a 300-500GB drive like a WD or Maxtor with a real 3 year warranty on it and ensuring it's a 16MB buffer and 7,200 RPM for playback. I'm only on a signle-room DVR but why skimp on slower/smaller? The combo I'm looking at's only around $150ish (amazingly). Figure if we dropped TW or anything else happened I've got an eSATA or USB pluggable portable HDD for my PC or laptop?

Thanks again to everyone here though! I know I'd have spent hours beating the thing to death without the tips, tricks and experience here - and thanks to Google for indexing it! LOL

Dave

I have a Sony KP-61HS10 Rear Projection TV and recently had an 8300HD Converter box installed from Cablevision. My t.v. does not support HDMI. It was therefore hooked up through my component jacks. I am having a problem with HD channels in only the 1080i format when the program changes scenes or goes to a commercial. The signal drops off for a second which causes my t.v. to display lost signal. It only seems to have in 1080 format. It never happens on Analog channels. Has anyone out there had this problem?

I have my cable box and other audio/video equipment in a media closet which is about 30ft away from my tv. I found it very difficult to find a long length high quality HDMI cable. but eventually I have found some awesome long-length cables at http://store.technicaldrafting.net/auca.html. I am using Sonicwave cables. These cables are much better than monster cable and they are also cheaper too.

I'm on TW Manhattan. Want to add external drive to 8300-HD. Getting mixed messages on whether it will work with Passport operating system. (Of course the local reps say they don't support external drives and leave it at that.) Anyone here in NYC get it to work or someone on TW elsewhere that can confirm that it works with Passport? If so and you have specific hardware recommendations I'd love to hear them. Thanks.

Just hooked up a 32" samsung LCD to 8300HD via HDMI. When scrolling through HD channels using time warner NYC, I get a delay of upto four seconds for the audio to come on after the video and sometimes the video loads on a delay of upto 2 seconds. Any thoughts what the cause might be?

Hi Lucy! Photo I received! Thanks!

Just FYI with the dual tuners you can record two programs at once only if you are watching them. What it says up at the top about recording two and watching another won't work.

Has anyone found a solution to the problem Steve talked about when after rebooting the tv, it doesn't see the HDMI signal? When i turn off my Sony KDL 52XBR3 and turn it on again, it cannot see the 8300HD and i must reset the cable box
every time i turn on the tv. I also note that the 8300HD remembers my screen choices. So the
8300HD is remembering the settings, but on reboot of the TV, it seems the TV does not accept the signals.

I am so glad I finally found someone who has been having the same problem. Both Sony and Cablevision have been making me think I am crazy. PLEASE HELP!

Java manny,

i also have a 32 inch Sammy LCD. love the tv and it looks great with component, but since my xbox is using component, i opted HDMI from my SA 8300HD dvr box (time warner as well, in NC)to the TV. the picture is not nearly as good as the component picture. Plus, with HDMI, there are little white lines on the borders (grey borders while the viewing guide is pulled up), and, for example, on ESPN, the bottome line scores, show up very faintly in that same white in the middle of the screen. it is weird. I put component back in and beautiful. So i am going through a switch right now, but am i missing something with the HDMI? i tried both ports, and same thing, faint white lines and not a good picture.
any thoughts from anyone?

I need help!! Someone may have already posted this question / problem, but I am too tired to go back and look.

I have a Samsung DLP TV and an Scientific Atlanta 8300 HD receiver. Comcast hooked up the two by way of HDMI on the television and DVI on the receiver. I am constantly getting a sound problem. (Sounds like a CD is skipping.) The picture flickers a lot as well. I can admit that I am not technically savvy. However, it seems to me if the HDMI is both a video and audio connection and the DVI is video only that my problem might lie in that connection.

Has anyone else had this problem with a Samsung DLP and an 8300 HD receiver? How should I connect everything?!! I'd love to enjoy this television!!

I've now got about 6 months experience with the 8300, provided by Time Warner in Southern California. I switched over at the same time I purchased my Mitsubishi 65" 1080p DLP.

My biggest conclusion thus far is that there are a LOT of bad boxes out there...each coming with their own unique set of issues. Since all of these boxes are effectively recycled (there are no new ones available from Time Warner), I suspect that one's new box for today is often someone else's problem box of yesterday.

To date, my 4 (and counting) 8300's have had pixelization issues, sound issues, auto-resetting issues, and color-shift issues. I haven't had any DVR recording issues....yet.

My advice is to hook up your system, go through all the basic set-up, and if something is still not quite right...go get yourself another box. Who knows? You might get lucky!

Just got the box yesterday from Time Warner in Raleigh and attached it to my Samsung LNT3253H 32" LCD. The box appeared brand new and still had the film over the front display. I had no problems with the setup. I did have to enable 480p and 720p and it would not let me turn on 480i [a modification to the software?].

I tried both the HDMI and Component inputs on various channels. I have to say they were equal showing bright outdoor stuff, but the component looked better when the stuff was darker. Less compression effects and better fast motion. I am leaving the connection on the component [supplied by TW] and put the HDMI in the drawer. At least I only paid ~$8 for it.

So, any way to get items from the DVR to a PC without a TV tuner on your PC?

Hooked up Seagate 500GB 7200 rpm 16M Cache Barracuda drive to SA8300HD DVR. Used the listed
procedure, but unit would not recognize drive. Had to set jumper on HD for 1.5GB (factory default)(tried on 3GB no go)so back to default.
Finally after 3rd try, I just held the power button in(for the SA8300HD) for about 15 secs and then when it finished the reboot it recognized the harddrive and asked the "do you want to format" question. By the way, called TimeWarner cable in Milwaukee for capacity and how to view
capacity if that was possible - TW absolutely NO HELP - in fact tech was almost hostile to the fact
that I "Dared" to hook-up to their unit. I asked the tech if TW were to charge me $10 a month for the additional hard drive space, I bet they'd suddenly find the answer to my ? and they'd be glad to help. End of phone call with TW. So does
anybody have a way to view capacity of the internal and external drives.
TY if U do.

Since my post yesterday + being corked off by the tech's response at Time Warner, I decided to do some snooping on my own. All I wanted, was to see the hard drive capacity of the internal hd - 160GB + the capacity of my external SATA 500GB HD, + what space had been used, + what was left for free/useable space. I tried to access my Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD using the "remote" instructions listed in an earlier post. Did not work. NOTE: For "VIEWING" ONLY, DO NOT ATTEMPT TO CHANGE ANY SETTINGS that you will be able to see on the SA8300HD DVR.
This does work:
1.)TV on, SA8300HD on.

2.)Press + hold "Select" button on the front panel of the SA8300HD (not on the remote). While holding in the "Select" button, press and hold in the "Exit" button on the front panel of the SA8300HD. After about 5 secs the front panel led will show "diag" and your tv may beep. You are now in "diagnostic mode" on the SA8300HD. Release both buttons on the front panel.

3.)Now press and release the "Exit" button on the front panel of the SA8300HD. You will see a long list of items on the TV screen. This screen contains many, many items. The two items I was interested in are way down the list.

4.)Now use the SA8300HD front panel "Channel -" and "Channel +" buttons to scroll down/up the list.

5.)The first item is "DVR INFO" that will show you the info of the internal 160GB HD.

6.)The second item just below is "DVR AVFS". The info here will show you the "Total" of both the internal 160GB HD + the 2nd External HD. It does not show them individually, but as the combined HD capacity. It will be less than the individual capacity, I believe this total is similiar to what happens in pc capacity. A certain amount is lost in "overhead" formatting of the drive. For me this was 160GB + 500GB came out to 600GB of total HD capacity.

7.)The item "DVR AFVS" also shows how much "Free" space BOTH drives have left. I've recorded in regular definition and find that I'm using between 1.3 - 1.8GB of HD space per hour of DVR recording. High definition is not very consistent
either. I find Hi-Def recording uses anywhere from 6.4 - 8.3GB of HD capacity for each hour of recording. I suspect that the lower number may be from a certain lack of "content" in the signal. And the higher number of 8.3GB per hour is "full blown" Hi-Def signal, one with all the high definition "content" being streamed in the signal.

8.)As far as getting out of the "Diagnostic Mode"
I use the remote and input 2 channels on the cable box and I don't see the "Diagnostic Info" anymore. I'm not sure if this actually takes you out of "Diag Mode" or it it eventually times out on its own. And if you "Power Off" the cable box I know you are out of "Diag mode". If you power any electronic device off, WAIT at least 5 secs or more before turning the power button back on. Else you face the possibility of causing a damaging power surge in your electronic equipment by rapidly toggling the power switch or plugging out and in rapidly.

9.)I experimented with recording that went to the external HD, I recorded regular and Hi-Def that went to the external Sata HD. I followed the instructions for adding and removing the external HD using those posted on the Scientific Atlanta website. Part of the reason for using their procedure is to avoid a "short circuit" that would damage the cable box, your external HD or both. The external Sata (eSata) cable and its corresponding connector on the cable box have some "slop/wiggle" room in them, and it may be possible to cause a short while inserting or removing the eSata cable. My content that was recorded to the external HD remained after removing the external HD. The "LIST" button on the remote still showed the program list, but with the external HD removed, the actual "content" was not available for viewing. When I reconnected the eSata HD my data was now viewable. So as previously mentioned in another post, the content is on the eSATA HD, but the directory is actually on the internal HD.

10.)The are many items listed in the Diagnostic mode on the SA8300HD box. One I found interesting is the one that shows whether "HDMI" is "enabled"
on the box when the TW tech initially installed the box. HMMMM. Seems as though many are having trouble with HDMI on their sets. Mine shows that HDMI is NOT enabled. I'll be calling TW after this post to find out why not. The same goes for the "SATA" port, is it enabled - yes or no. If you've followed the directions for adding you eSata HD and it is still not working, that could be the reason.

11.) Please remember that this information is presented for Viewing only and I'm not a tech, nor
am I trying to "hack" anything. I just wanted a place to see how much capacity was available to record on, how much was used, and how much was free to use.

12.)Maybe Scientific Atlanta can do a software/firmware upgrade to their units, and give us a button on the remote to actually view this information. Hey, Time Warner - Thanks for "ALL" your help. Can't wait for some competition to move into the area.

First off, thanks to everyone for all your posts. They have been extremely helpful!

I have TWC in Raleigh, NC. I got my box in April 2007 and it has been working perfectly, thank goodness. I decided to try and hook up an external hard drive using the advice from this forum. I purchased a Seagate 500GB, 16MB cache, 7200RPM eSATA drive from Newegg.

Last night I hooked everything up; the first try was a no-go, so I unplugged everything and did it again, and it worked. The external drive formatted and when I tuned to channel 999 (which shows a lot of techie info) and scrolled down to DVR AVFS, the capacity had indeed jumped. I recorded and watched Grey's Anatomy with no issues.

However, this morning, I was watching the news and wanted to rewind to hear something again, and I discovered that I could not. When the progress bar displayed, there was no green part, indicating that I could not rewind live TV. I could pause and resume, but could not FF or RW once I started replaying. When I hit the back arrow to replay 10 seconds ago, it started playing something I had been watching 10 minutes ago (on a different channel!), and I could not view live TV without changing the channel. Very odd.

Just today I read that external drives may not be compatible with 8300HD's running Passport, which mine has. I hope this is not the case. I have fallen in love with HD and want to record so many things but the drive fills up so fast!

So close, and yet so far, it seems. Any suggestions?

I have an sa 8300hd from time warner, is there a way to hook this to a dvdrecorder and get the programs you record on the sa to the dvd recorder.

I am having the same issue as Melissa above.
I have Passport Echo 2.6.002, TWC-NYC.
I added an Azio enclosure with WD 7K 16M SATA2 500GB drive.

Everything works fine - recorded several programs to external with no problems. But I can't rewind/ff programs while watching live shows. Same as above, I get no green bar when I hit INFO.
If I hit the Instant Replay button it goes back to when I switched to the current channel. Can't even use the LIVE button - I have to switch channels to get back to live.
I was able to record back to when I switched over to current channel.
Does anybody know if this is Passport related?
Is there a way around?
I just added it today, so I'll keep playing with it. If I find anything, I'll post back.

I have had a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR for several months. When I got an HDTV and started watching HD channels, I noticed that there is a picture disruption every 5 minutes. This only shows in the HD channels, and it is worse in prime time. The only time of day it is not there is in the wee hours. I can recore an HD show at 3 in the morning and there is no disruption. I suspect an EM pulse of some kind. The Time Warner guys have swapped out the DVR, and checked everything. They can't find it. Above in this discussion "Stevie" seems to be having the exact same problem. Can anyone help me get to the core of this problem? Please please please Help!

How do i download movies that i recorded onto my computer

Jim,
You have to take an external drive, fill it with programs, and connect to your PC.

Problem is, the drive is not readable by windows. You have to get an EXT3 viewer. I have a linux box that I can attach it to.

Anyway, the programs need a key to play back; they are encrypted.

ok on the time bar when playing back recorded shows there are hash marks in it one is at 15 min anouther at 30 min and so on is there anyway that I can just skip to that hash mark so I dont have to FF through the whole show

Thannx for any help

the USB port on the front is for a keyboard, the box can access the internet if your cable CO installs the softwear and allows you to use that feture but most all of them dont. so other then that you cant use it for much more then changing channels.. as for the HD i have a 300 gig ESATA harddrive by maxtor hooked up, it seems to work, it just takes a long time to set the drive up.. im about to hook it up to my computer to see what filesystem the cable box uses. ill repost soon

I have a Toshiba HL67 42" LCD HDTV and recently picked up the SA 8300 HD DVR from Time Warner (Rochester, NY). So excited to watch 24 and the Sabres in HD (when they are on NBC). I hooked everything up on Wednesday night (using HDMI). After running the setup SEVERAL times, I finally got an HD signal on YES HD (man baseball looks cool in high def). Anyway, I decided to select