No TV buffering on 8300HDC

[DXer720]

I've not been able to use the functions on my 8300HDC that are associated with buffering live TV, even after the box has been on for a long time.  Is this feature not available on this model?  It works on the 8300HD.  Why not the newer box?

[duncantuna]

Are you positive your remote is sending the "pause" command?

I have the 8300HDC, and it buffers live TV just fine.

If yours does not, you should swap it for a new box.

[LoadStar]

I've not been able to use the functions on my 8300HDC that are associated with buffering live TV, even after the box has been on for a long time.  Is this feature not available on this model?  It works on the 8300HD.  Why not the newer box?

Do you have an external drive hooked up? I've heard that will disable the "trick play" features of the box.

[DXer720]

I have no external drive.  When I press "pause" or "rewind", the screen goes black..  After about 10 seconds, it will go back to live on it's own.  It's not storing (no yellow in the progress bar) any programming from either of the tuners no matter how long the box has been tuned to a channel.  When you press "record" it says that this feature in not available.  Future recordings (from the guide) work fine.:bang:

[duncantuna]

Have you tried unplugging it, letting it reboot?

[Jack 1000]

Have you tried unplugging it, letting it reboot?

How old is this box?  When did these issues start happening?

Also my recommendation,

Unplug the box for about 5 minutes to clear out any data, than plug it back in, letting the system reboot on its own.  Watch a show for a few minutes, can you buffer it by rewinding?  After this unplug and reboot process, what happens when you press record?

Call for a tech if this does not solve your problem.  You may want to specifically request an IN-HOUSE TECHNICIAN and not an INDEPENDENT SERVICE CONTRACTOR.  The IHT, seem to be more knowledgeable.  When the tech comes, show him what the box is doing and please have him also check wiring and signal strength from both outside and inside your home.

I am about 80% sure this is a defective box, but have the tech rule out other issues that may be involved.  If your box needs to be changed, have him check those features that weren't working on the old box to make sure they are working on the new box.  Good luck!

Let us know what happens!

Jack

[DXer720]

The 8300HDC was put in on Friday.  When the tech was over then, the wiring was fine & the signal level was excellent.  

I called TWC Customer Support twice.  The first (wrote down her name) had me reboot the box, but she hung up before I had a chance to make sure the problem was resolved, which it wasn't.  The second call (got his name) helped with the buffering issue, but the box still won't buffer the second tuner unless I'm recording.  If I switch between tuners, it wipes out both buffers.  The only way I can go back to the other tuner's buffer is while recording.  On the 8300HD, I can change between the tuners (via PIP swap or manually keying in the other tuner's channel number) & not lose the buffers of both tuners.

Please forgive the length of this next.

EXAMPLE:  The box has been on for 30 minutes.  Nothing is recording.  The tuners are tuned to channel 12 & 141.  On the 8300HD, I could switch between 12 & 141 without losing the buffer, as long as I don't change to something other than 12 & 141. On the 8300HDC, I can't even change between 12 & 141 without losing the buffer for both channels.  I'll also lose the buffer if I watch a recorded program.  Once I'm back to live TV, the buffer starts from that moment.  The 8300HD buffers while your watching a recording.  The 8300HDC does not.

[HiFiTy]

I am having the same problems as DXer720.  In my case the hard drive on my three year old 8300 finally went out and I was forced to swap out boxes about 2-3 weeks ago at the Southridge TWC store.  The new DVR is not buffering the same as the old one.  

I can confirm from experience that the old box buffered just like DXer720 is explaining and that the new one does not buffer at all.

I have not tried a hard boot.

I know this does not solve the problem, but now you know you are not alone and crazy.

[duncantuna]

The second call (got his name) helped with the buffering issue, but the box still won't buffer the second tuner unless I'm recording.  If I switch between tuners, it wipes out both buffers.  The only way I can go back to the other tuner's buffer is while recording.  On the 8300HD, I can change between the tuners (via PIP swap or manually keying in the other tuner's channel number) & not lose the buffers of both tuners.

EXAMPLE:  The box has been on for 30 minutes.  Nothing is recording.  The tuners are tuned to channel 12 & 141.  On the 8300HD, I could switch between 12 & 141 without losing the buffer, as long as I don't change to something other than 12 & 141. On the 8300HDC, I can't even change between 12 & 141 without losing the buffer for both channels.  I'll also lose the buffer if I watch a recorded program.  Once I'm back to live TV, the buffer starts from that moment.  The 8300HD buffers while your watching a recording.  The 8300HDC does not.

Yep.  That's the way it works now.  

Prior to the Mystro software .. it worked as you described.  You could be buffering two shows, flipping between them with SWAP.  Not any more, Mystro broke that functionality.   Now if you are on Channel A, and SWAP to channel B, .. A's buffer is gone, and B's buffer will be zero.

I'm pretty sure that's not just the 8300HD and 8300HDC.  That's all Mystro boxes.  (Could be wrong, but 95% sure.)

[DXer720]

Thanx, duncantuna:  You may be on to something.  

There may be a slight difference in the software for the newest 8300 (HD & HDC) boxes.  I noticed during boot up, the new Mystro was a bit different on the new box I got.  This may be a clue to the no-longer-available 2-channel buffering.  

Durning the boot of Mystro on the old box, the boot progress was indicated by boxes being filled in near the bottom of the screen.  

During the new Mystro's boot on the new box, the boot progress is indicated by a numeric countdown near the bottom of the screen.

[WITI6fan]

Our 8300HDC recently started having issues recording programming in progress. If you rewind to a point you want to start recording and hit "Record", it says "RECORD" on the box and the software displays the "REC" box, but it starts recording from the point you turned that channel on.

For example, being a TV news geek, I attempted to record one of WDJT's new promos earlier. I rewound to the commercial before, hit record, let the promo play, hit stop, and played the recording back. It recorded 30 seconds of David Letterman's monologue from like 30+ minutes prior.

Did some software "upgrade" break something again? :huh?::mad: I'm considering taking it in for one of the new Samsung boxes.

[duncantuna]

Our 8300HDC recently started having issues recording programming in progress. If you rewind to a point you want to start recording and hit "Record", it says "RECORD" on the box and the software displays the "REC" box, but it starts recording from the point you turned that channel on.

For example, being a TV news geek, I attempted to record one of WDJT's new promos earlier. I rewound to the commercial before, hit record, let the promo play, hit stop, and played the recording back. It recorded 30 seconds of David Letterman's monologue from like 30+ minutes prior.

Did some software "upgrade" break something again? :huh?::mad: I'm considering taking it in for one of the new Samsung boxes.

Um, again .. that's the way it works .. actually the way it's always worked, for me at least, over the past 3 years of having a Time Warner 8000 or 8300HDC.

Backing up and hitting record has never changed the start point of the actual recording.  Hitting Record will always just take the entire buffer and save as far back in time as it has FOR THAT SHOW.  That's been consistent with Mystro and the Passport software before it.

"FOR THAT SHOW" being an operative phrase.  If you've watched from 4:30 to 5:20, with a new show at 5:00, hitting record should only record from 5-5:20 (and on to the end of that show).   -- However, if you back up to 4:55, hit record .. the results can be wacky.

[Jack 1000]

Um, again .. that's the way it works .. actually the way it's always worked, for me at least, over the past 3 years of having a Time Warner 8000 or 8300HDC.

Backing up and hitting record has never changed the start point of the actual recording.  Hitting Record will always just take the entire buffer and save as far back in time as it has FOR THAT SHOW.  That's been consistent with Mystro and the Passport software before it.

"FOR THAT SHOW" being an operative phrase.  If you've watched from 4:30 to 5:20, with a new show at 5:00, hitting record should only record from 5-5:20 (and on to the end of that show).   -- However, if you back up to 4:55, hit record .. the results can be wacky.

This is a prime example of why Navigator needs what Passport always had, Manual Recording where users could enter the specific start/stop times for shows, independent of the guide grid.

I doubt that getting another model box will change the behavior of the recording issue described above.  On my SA8300-HD box when you hit Record, it just starts recording what is on the screen to the end of the show indicated in the grid.

The above is "sort of manual recording," but it is flawed as this version of manual recording needs babysitting.  You have to be there to hit record to start portions of a show that you want to record under Navigator's current guide software.

Jack