Randall_Lind
join:2004-01-24
Saint Petersburg, FL
| BrightHouse (TampaBay) SA HD/DVR 8300HDC - Sound issues
This ticks me off last Tuesday I brought a 32 inch Magnavox and got HD on Wednesday.
I have it hooked up via HDMI and the picture is so amazing. When I record shows however sound seems to pause a lot on the HD recorded stuff.
also on some channels no picture unless I flip back and fouth a couple times. Reboot helps with picture but sound still choppy or pauses.
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LonghornXP
join:2005-08-27
Largo, FL
 ·RoadRunner Cable
| Sadly to say you can find all of the tons of complaints with the cablecard boxes (boxes ending in C...ie. HDC) by searching the forums. These issues cover nearly all cable companies using the cablecard boxes from Scientific Atlanta.
If things don't get resolved or its driving you nuts you can drop into your local Bright House office and request an 8300HD box to replace your badly working 8300HDC box. Just make sure you tell them you want the "8300HD" box and "not" the 8300HDC box as you currently have one. When you get the box look on the upper right front for the model and make sure it doesn't say C at the end.
Also no matter what box you get I suggest you switch to component connections as both boxes still have issues with HDMI right now. You will get just as good of picture quality if not better (My HD set looks worse using HDMI with my 8300HD box) and most of the sound issues aren't present over component. Also the box seems to appear faster and more stable over component for some odd reason with my box. |
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Randall_Lind
join:2004-01-24
Saint Petersburg, FL
edit:
June 9th, @07:20PM
| Thanks! I hooked up with both and did a test and component is faster then HDMI at loading HD channels. The picture looks the same.
I have the cable box format set to fixed. It takes for ever to load a picture if I pick DVI/HDMI or Component 1 which sucks.
Sound issues seems to be gone for now.
P.S.
Recorded shows play perfect also now. |
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heels_fan
No Tag Needed
Premium
join:2003-02-07
Columbia, TN
| reply to Randall_Lind
It has been my experience that the "HDC" boxes are far superior than the "HD" boxes. We have rolled out several hundred "HDC" boxes and have far less problems than other cable system I have seen/heard about.
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everyone is born ignorant. some are born stupid, others achieve stupidity and the rest have stupidity thrust upon them. |
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LonghornXP
join:2005-08-27
Largo, FL
·RoadRunner Cable
| Sorry but many of my contacts who are high level headend techs from both Comcast New England and BHN Tampa Bay markets say these boxes have caused their departments nightmares because they are being blamed for nearly every credit that a customer gets because of how horrid these boxes are. Just to make sure you know when I'm talking about Comcast New England I'm talking about the Adelphia customers who use SA hardware not the rest of the surrounding markets that use Moto hardware.
Here is a small sample of the issues with the HDC boxes using SARA software that aren't present on the HD boxes without cablecards.
1. Shows just don't record at all resulting in a truck roll and/or box replacement.
2. Major sound issues system wide with HD channels with the most issues.
3. Boxes decide to pause on their own (some customers it happens every few minutes). This occurs on live, recorded and On Demand playback. This ticks off customers who love On Demand as it kicks them out of the show every few minutes thus requiring them to go back into the On Demand menu and start the show again.
4. Lets not forget the fact that On Demand just stops working and errors on nearly every attempt until you reboot the box. Rebooting may fix the issue for a few hours in some cases.
5. Channels just decide to say Not Authorized when you do have a valid subscription.
6. Also these boxes also have a knack for losing two-way communication thus ending up losing guide data along with losing all On Demand.
Many of these severe issues have held back the rollout of switched digital video just so you know.
These things above are the major issues still present today on the HDC models of boxes because the firmware is crap on them. Again all of these issues aren't a problem on say an 8300HD box. But if a customer has an 8300HDC box they can expect any of the above issues at some point during the boxes useage.
Now these 8300HDC boxes running on Passport software instead of SARA might not have these issues but for now anybody with SARA software and these boxes are having major issues. |
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heels_fan
No Tag Needed
Premium
join:2003-02-07
Columbia, TN | i can honestly say that we do not have any of those issues presently here.
Some of those issues sound like DNCS or billing or both and not CPE(set top)issues.
We are a SA headend also |
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LonghornXP
join:2005-08-27
Largo, FL
·RoadRunner Cable
| said by heels_fan  :i can honestly say that we do not have any of those issues presently here. Some of those issues sound like DNCS or billing or both and not CPE(set top)issues. We are a SA headend also Most of the On Demand and channel not authorized issues are from constant issues with the boxes losing two-way communication. I've seen homes with near perfect signals but the boxes after some time just refuse to obtain an RF IP.
Your cable system must be the luckiest system in the country or its a small cable system without many customers compared to a major market like Tampa Bay area. Not all of the HDC boxes have problems but more than enough for customer service to get flustered at all levels. They have been offering to customers lately who have had these issues to switch to a different box via a truck roll.
No company does this unless things are that bad because a truck roll isn't cheap at all just to swap a box that isn't dead. |
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Randalllind
join:2007-04-30
Saint Petersburg, FL
edit:
July 12th, @01:17AM
| reply to LonghornXP
I notice the pausing issue some times when playing back stuff I recorded. I also had it say not authorized once on the encore channels which I pay for.
I called and got it fix and never lost the encores channels again.
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