Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD Question (DVR)

I have the 8300HD box. Hooked up a little old tv as a monitor. Connected svideo cable from cable box to svideo input of my HP multimedia pc, launched Ulead Videostation 10, capture, selected svideo input, used cable dvr menu to select output recorded program to vcr, voila, recorded program from dvr appeared in preview window in Ulead !! I was feeling really confident at this point so I started the capture and walked away. I announced my marvelous electronic skills to my wife, and she very matter of factly said "are you sure you're getting the sound too?" I realized I wasn't sure I was getting sound or picture and maybe I should check a short segment to be sure. Here's what happened....I recorded a short segment and then played it back....black screen no sound...tried it again same result...checked to see if the avi file got created, yes, 2 of them, normal size. launched one of them in WMP..no pic no sound..

How do i get video and sound to appear in captured file?

 

evinrude -

Try using a good video capture software (ulead is terrible, even for something included with an HP)

otherwise, try getting a good capture device (I don't know who makes HP's video capture stuff, but based on EVERYTHING else that HP includes in its systems, it must be a terrible piece of trash)

 

sorry, didn't mean to repost that last message!!

I did want to make a comment on the dvr recording. The content recorded on the dvr is coptrighted and only allows you to record it in analog, not digital. Unless the software and dvd recorder on your computer can accomplish the analog recording I don't see how it can work.

 

I plugged in a 500 Gig external Sata drive into my Scientific Atlanta 8300HD. When powered on it asked to format drive. I said yes and the page went away. I checked to see what disk utilization was and it said 83% so it did not see the 500 Gigs.

How do I know if the drive is working properly?

Thos forum is the only information I can find on figuring out wha to buy and what to do.

Help!!

 

I spoke with customer support at Bright House (my cable company & supplier of my DVR) because the external SATA HDD I tried to install won't work (DVR didn't even ask me to format). They told me quite calmly that they dissable the port. When I asked why, they told me it was policy and that they could not turn it back on. I told them that the manual that came with the unit claims this port as one of it's selling features, they said they are not responsible for the contents of the manual that they provided.

Long story short: bright house won't let me use SATA to increase capacity, and they have a sticker over the seam so I can't even upgrade the internal drive.

The customer 'service' rep told me that they might be getting a new version of the DVR soon, and that it would be available to me once they have it...but since company policy is to dissable the port, he didn't think the new one would work with an external drive either.

This was almost enough to drive me to TiVo...AND I WOULD CANCEL MY HD CABLE THAT MY DVR ONLY RECORDS AT ANALOGUE QUALITY, EXCEPT THEY WON'T LET ME HAVE 15mb ROAD RUNNER WITHOUT THE HD CHANNELS!!!

 

Wow, thats not good. As it turns out all I had to do was plug it in. It asked if I wanted to format the drive. I said yes and got no other indication that the drive was working. I tested by copying many many hours overnight and they all recorded. I shut both the drive and the 8300HD and rebooted and when I checked the available disk sapce and it dropped used space from 83% to 18% so I assuem that it is seeing the drive in its entirety

 

Comcast here in Northern Virginia also disables the port.

 

while I said earlier that it installed and everything seemed fine, its not.

Unfortunately recorded the finale of 24 and during the playback the drive somehow just stopped working. I had to pull the plug and reboot the 8300HD and the hard drive in sequence. I had to do it a couple times but somehow got through most of the show. During all playbacks I get a frozen picture for like 5 seconds and then it starts again. Every time that happens, I think I will have to reboot the devices.

Any ideas?

 

I own a 8300HD PVR I purchased and use it with rogers cable and what really bugs me is that they do upgrades to the firmware and even activated to eSata port and I did not know it until I read about it on a forum, often I just notice that new function are available through the remote, they recently add another notch to fast forward that comes in handy when trying to get back to where you stopped watching earlier, it now has four fast forward and rewind speeds. For people that are looking for external hard drive to use with this PVR several have been made that are targeted specifically at it, by Both Western Digital and Maxtor here are a couple of links. I had put off purchasing my unit for a long time due the 160 gig hard drive only holding 20 hours of HD programming not nearly enough.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/Products.asp?DriveID=334

http://www.weaknees.com/maxtor-quickview-expander-qvx.php

Hope this helps someone

Paul

 

Thanks for the info Paul, that's GREAT news! As soon as the WD unit is available at NEWEGG I'll be getting one.