Tech Questions on the Motorola 6412

[dlma1]

I recently had a Comcast Motorola 6412 delivered. I have some technical questions for the gang:

1. On Cable Box Setup, there is a setting for RF Bypass. What does it do?
2. On the audio setup there are settings for are settings for TV Speakers, Stereo, and Advanced. If you select advanced, there are settings for compression (none, light, heavy) and stereo output (mono, stereo, matrix).
I can't find anything in the manual that explains what these mean. I have my audio output going to the optical output into my receiver. Any recommendations for optimal settings?
3. Has anyone used the firewire output to record to a HD VHS? Any thoughts here would be appreciated.

 

[smodak]

I recently had a Comcast Motorola 6412 delivered. I have some technical questions for the gang:

1. On Cable Box Setup, there is a setting for RF Bypass. What does it do?
2. On the audio setup there are settings for are settings for TV Speakers, Stereo, and Advanced. If you select advanced, there are settings for compression (none, light, heavy) and stereo output (mono, stereo, matrix).
I can't find anything in the manual that explains what these mean. I have my audio output going to the optical output into my receiver. Any recommendations for optimal settings?
3. Has anyone used the firewire output to record to a HD VHS? Any thoughts here would be appreciated.

1. AFAIK, if your TV is connected Via RF (coax), and if your VCR etc. is connected to the Comcast box (again via RF), if RF bypass is turned on, the cable box will pass RF signal from the VCR to the TV (if the cable box powered off via remote - not unplugged).
2. The heavy and light compression scheme reduces the dynamic range in audio. This is usually good for late night viewing, where you could turn up the volume just a little bit (to hear the dialogs clearly) but would not offend others with the loud bang when there is a Car crash in the movie. Usually on digital channels the Ads sound too loud. Some people also use heavy compression to turn down the sound of the Ads.
3. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=403695 Not exactly HD/VHS but HTPC. But you could still get some idea from the thread.

 

[dlma1]

Thanks

Thanks for your reply. That clears up a lot. The comcast email just referred me to their DVR manual which makes no mention of these settings. Do you have any recommendations on the output settings for normal viewing -- TV speakers, stereo or "advanced"? I can't seem to hear much difference between them anyway but I am just curious. As I mentioned, I have the output going from optical out to my Yamaha Z1, too bad this model doesn't have coax.

 

[smodak]

Thanks for your reply. That clears up a lot. The comcast email just referred me to their DVR manual which makes no mention of these settings. Do you have any recommendations on the output settings for normal viewing -- TV speakers, stereo or "advanced"? I can't seem to hear much difference between them anyway but I am just curious. As I mentioned, I have the output going from optical out to my Yamaha Z1, too bad this model doesn't have coax.

My 6412 does have both coax and optical. The coax is the orange RCA output. If you use TV speakers, as they are stereo, I would use stereo. For receiver/amp, you have to decide what sounds best to you. Mine is set at advanced, no compression.

 

[Dawson9]

Hard Drive size??

I just had my Comcast installed on Saturday and was wondering about the different models of Motorola HD/DVR boxes. I have a 6412 dual tuner and it says it has 120GB hard drive. A friend says his dual tuner Motorola box has 160GB! Is that a different model or something??? Can someone explain what's available and what firmware version I should be at?

Also, on a different note, I have a message on my box and can NOT access messages. How do I do that?? The manual says there should be a "messages" selection on the menu screen.. but I can not find it!

Anyone?

Thanks!
Dave

 

[zombie]

I just had my Comcast installed on Saturday and was wondering about the different models of Motorola HD/DVR boxes. I have a 6412 dual tuner and it says it has 120GB hard drive. A friend says his dual tuner Motorola box has 160GB! Is that a different model or something???

The 160, afaik hasnt been shipped, but its model 6416 (64 is the current dual tuner model and the 12 or 16 (or 08 on some cases) is harddrive space in 10's of gigs). So if it was model 6425 for example it would be a 250gb hard drive, although this model does not yet exist and may never in this line of hd dvr's.

 

[dlma1]

To find Messages

I am glad I'm not the only one who had trouble with the message indicator! Messages are on the main menu. Hit the menu button twice, that should get you to the main menu. You may have to scroll up or down to see where the message selection is.