HD-PVR can't record some HD channels

[showson1]

Hi all!
I picked up my HD-PVR today and hooked it up tonight.
I got it working... somewhat.

For standard def stuff it seems fine, and on SOME HD channels it seems fine, but other HD channels don't work.

For instance for SciFi HD, it won't display at all on the PC and through the HD media extender the audio pops, it's blocky and jagged and shows a few frames of clear video now and then. It's as if viewing a bad video file.

Other HD channels do this as well and then some HD channels play beautifully.. I can't get a sense of what's going on with these channels.

I thought it might be my cable so I swapped the coax and it's no good, I was able to watch these channels on my TV with the same exact cable box before this setup.

Any ideas or suggestions?
I'm more concerned about getting it working through the media extender than on the PC.

Oh, and I've tried all different recording qualities for the device as well, none seem to have any effect.

Thanks a lot for any help!

[Clift]

Sounds like you don't have your cable box locked to one resolution. I know this has caused some problems. I was going to suggest maybe it's codecs but if some channels play fine then that's not it. What I would do is lock the output of the cable box to 1080i or 720p. What driver are you using for the HD-PVR? 1.0b or the beta? What cable box do you have?

[showson1]

Thanks for the reply, I'm not using the beta drivers.. just the ones that came with the unit.

The box is a Scientific Atlanta 3250HD.

Any idea how I lock the resolution on these boxes?

Thanks again!

--
Well, I just found the manual for the box online and it looks like you were probably right on.
The description in the manual when the resolution isn't set right is exactly what I'm seeing, and it has instructions on how to force a resolution.

I'll try it when I get home tonight and post back when I have some results.

[Clift]

I think the steps are
turn off the box
hold the guide and info buttons until the screen pops up
follow the on screen directions... go the advanced route.

The nice thing is once you select the output you want you can just hit the power button on your remote.

The reason I asked about the beta drivers is because the 1.0b drivers supposedly have an issue with micro stuttering at 720p. I don't know because I never tried 720p. I always had my output at 1080i. Anyway, the beta drivers are supposed to fix the micro stuttering issue.

[showson1]

That was it man.
I set my cable box to output a fixed resolution, rather than passthrough, and I can record those channels now!

Thanks so much!

Problem I have now is that the IR Blaster on the HD PVR is no longer transmitting in SageTV, but that's another topic I opened.