Motorola DCT6412 HD Dual Tuner PVR

(Cox cable markets with Passport Echo software)

Web Page last updated	December 2006 (NOTE: This web page is no longer being updated)
Motorola Firmware Versions	Phase 2 box: 10.12 Phase 3 box: 12.31 & 12.35
Passport Echo	Current version (many Cox markets): 2.5.040 Cox Kansas City (2.7.027), Omaha NE & Orange County CA (2.7.044)

Official Hardware Information
DCT6412 Phase 3 Box Information (hardware differences from earlier boxes)
Audio/Video Outputs
Specifying Video Output formats
Official Passport Echo Information
Unofficial DCT6412/Passport Echo Feature Summary
Passport Echo 2.7 New Features Summary
Archiving Recorded Shows
Tips and Tricks
Known Problems
My Wishlist
DCT6412/Passport AVS Forum Interesting links
Sample Mpeg2 Transport Stream Information (from firewire captures)
Guide Update Analysis
Hard Drive Available Space Analysis
Motorola Home Media Architecture
DCT6412/Passport Versus ReplayTV 50xx Summary
DCT6412/Passport Versus Tivo Series 3 Summary
Miscellaneous CATV Information
5C Copy Control Information (CCI) Flag
Cox Orange County Headend Map

Official Hardware Information (Back to Table of Contents)

DCT6412 Information at Motorola site
Picture of the front
Picture of the back
Picture of the remote
Technical Guide/Installation Manual

DCT6412 & DCT6416 Phase 3 Box Information (hardware differences from earlier boxes) (Back to Table of Contents)

SATA port (not currently active in software)
USB 2.0 (older boxes had 1.x. Not currently active in software but power is active - 5V)
HDMI output (older boxes had DVI output). There were some reports that with earlier firmware versions (12.15) using HDMI output causes box to reboot and miss recordings. There were also reports that sound output reverts back to PCM from Dolby Digital when changing channels. These problems were fixed with firmware update 12.27 on January 18, 2006.
Fan on the bottom for improved cooling
Improved mpeg2 encoding of analog channels
PIP capability (not currently active in software)
DCT6416 has 160GB drive compared to the 120GB drive for DCT6412

Audio/Video Outputs (Back to Table of Contents)

VIDEO	1 DVI (Phase 2 box) or HDMI (Phase 3 box) (HDCP compliant), 1 Component (YpbPr), 1 S-video, 1 composite
AUDIO	1 Optical and 1 electrical SPDIF (Dolby Digital 5.1 or PCM), 1 Stereo L/R
FIREWIRE	2 enabled 1394/Firewire ports (audio + video: mpeg2 transport stream)

Specifying Video Output formats (Back to Table of Contents)

You can control the DVI/HDMI and component output formats for 16:9 and 4:3 video of the dct6412 as follows:

Press Menu on remote followed by A (More Settings)
Scroll to Output Formats and press Select
The output options are listed under FORMATS column and you can choose one of:
1080i Wide
720p Wide
480p Wide
480p Std
480i Std
If you choose one of the Wide output formats, then these are the options for 4:3 channels:
Sidebar 4:3 Pic
Stretch 4:3 Pic
Preserve 4:3 Pic - 480p
Preserve 4:3 Pic - 480i
If you choose one of the Std output formats, then these are the options for 16:9 channels:
Zoom 16:9 Pic
Letterbox 16:9 Pic

NOTE: These settings only apply to DVI/HDMI and component outputs, not to S-video or composite outputs
NOTE: Firewire outputs are not affected by these settings since Firewire outputs the native resolution from the source (headend). Firewire outputs also do not include any graphics overlays, only audio/video.

Official Passport Echo Information (Back to Table of Contents)

Passport Echo Site
Passport Echo Animated tour
Passport Echo Manual
Passport Echo 2.7 Aptiv Digital features web page
Cox Cable Orange County Support Page
Programming the 6412 remote
Motorola HMA Press Release (May 2004)

Unofficial DCT6412/Passport Echo Feature Summary (Back to Table of Contents)

Recording and Playback

2 tuners => can watch a live show while another is recording or record 2 shows at once while watching a pre-recorded one.
Each tuner can record HD digital, SD digital and SD analog - analog is encoded to mpeg2 by the box on the fly before being buffered to disk and displayed.
Resume playback or play from beginning are options for playing recorded shows. Remembers last playback position of all shows that were interrupted during play.
Can begin watching a show that is still recording.
Each tuner is buffered independantly up to 60 minutes each.
Can record a live buffered show from beginning (60 minute max buffer).
A swap button allows you to switch between 2 tuners without losing buffered content.
Screensaver kicks in after 5 minutes of video inactivity
A nice way of handling schedule overlaps. For cases when there are more than 2 recordings set to record at the same time it will make partial recordings as soon as possible of shows that initially lost out in recording priority. For example:

Show 1 from 8:00-9:01pm
Show 2 from 8:00-10:00pm
Show 3 from 9:00-10:00pm

In the above scenario one may expect that Show 3 would never record because at it's scheduled start time both tuners are busy recording Show 1&2. Show 3 actually does start recording as soon as Show 1 completes. Furthermore the Scheduled Recordings list highlights the start time of Show 3 as a different color indicating it did not start on time.

Navigation

Pause, rew, ff, frame-by-frame playback, instant replay (-10 secs), return to live. Frame-by-frame playback is accomplished by pause followed by Right Cursor/Menu key. HD ff/rew as fast as SD ff/rew and can go up to 40x speeds. Auto skips back/forwards a few seconds when ending ff/rew (different skip lengths according to ff/rew speed used).
Skip forward/back in 15 minute increments in a program. To do this, start ff (any speed) and then press the Right Cursor/Menu key. This skips you to the next 15 minute "tick mark" on the timebar of the program. The same thing works in reverse with the rew key and Left Cursor/Menu key.
No 30-second quick skip possible with Passport software (this only available as a hack with Iguide software).

Scheduling Options

Recording types: Single record, manual record, series record, theme record.
Series record options: First run only or first run & repeats, restrict to certain days & channels, specify how many episodes to keep.
Pre-padding (up to 30 minutes before)
Post-padding (up to 3 hours after)
You can search for a program by title using a virtual keyboard. As you type in letters the list of matches are filtered away making it very easy to find what you want. You can also search by keyword to match anything in a title, description, actors, directors etc. again using the virtual keyboard.
While in search, after typing in some keywords you can select the record button and it will give you the option of setting up a "theme" channel matching your keywords - can specify all shows or restrict to movies only and can even limit to certain days of the week.
Automatically prompted for extended record time (30 minutes by default) when scheduling sports or live events to record.
Manual record can be setup from Quick Settings Menu:
Menu->Record this channel->Create a manual recording
NOTE: There is no way to edit program titles of these recordings - they always display as Untitled Recording in Scheduled Recordings and/or Saved Shows.

Recordings Management

Guide is grid-based (like ReplayTV) and has day+/- buttons or equivalently FF/REW will also skip forwards/back a day in the guide. Only 6 days worth of guide data is available with Passport. You can initiate searches from this page (see Scheduling Options above for details).
Grid background changes to red for scheduled recording slots and a graphic distinguishes between single and repeat recording types. Conflicting recordings that cannot be recorded are displayed with a black background.
By default, single and manual records take priority over series recordings, but can manually change priorities to select which shows the unit should record.
Saved Shows shows a list of all recorded (or currently recording) shows which are sorted by date/time in a single column (most recent recordings first). You can scroll up and down to get to the entry of interest. Then you have several options such as: play, resume play, erase, change keep time, etc. A summary of the recorded show automatically is displayed once you have scrolled to it (though it does not contain the full description you can get from the Guide).
Scheduled Recordings shows a list of all upcoming recordings list for the next 6 days sorted chronoligically with soonest upcoming recordings displayed first again as a single column. You can scroll up and down to get to the entry of interest. Then you have several options which vary according to the recording type, such as: Cancel recording, change recording options, etc. A summary of the show is automatically displayed but again does not contain the full description you can get from the Guide).
Series Manager shows a list of all repeat recording channels you have setup in order of highest priority shows first again as a single column. By default a newly setup repeat recording automatically gets the lowest priority out of the group. You can scroll up and down to get to an entry of interest. Selecting an entry gives you the option to cancel, modify options or modify priority. Changing priority is simply a matter of moving entries up and down in the list, most important ones at the top. In case of conflicts the ones at the top will win).
Cancelled recordings are displayed with a no-record icon in the Guide and the Scheduled Recordings list as a reminder that they were cancelled.

Passport Echo 2.7 New Feature Summary (Not yet available in all Cox markets)

Passport Echo 2.7 Aptiv Digital features page
Aptiv Digital (formerly Pioneer Digital Technologies) new Passport Release article
Summary:

Video Mosaic capability - video thumbnails that can be selected for more information
iSubscribe capability - impulse subscription for VOD or premium channels used in conjunction with Video Mosaic.
Passport Weather - 5 day forecasts from Accuweather
Passtime Games - high resolution card games
Can view full show details now from Scheduled Recordings list (not possible in prior versions)
Folders for organizing saved recordings - "Auto Play" feature to play all episodes in a folder
Re-designed high-resolution graphics for settings and menus organized in expandable folders
Saved Show List enhancements:

Summary of used disk space and estimated remaining time
Sort recordings alphabetically or by erasure date
Unviewed shows shown in bold font, already viewed in standard font
Episodes of a series can be grouped into expandable or collapsable folders with several options for actions on the whole folder such as play all, erase all, etc.

A new "Upcoming Episodes List" option to display all episodes of a repeat recording for the week
New sorting and filtering options in Time View of the guide such as hiding PPV and Music channels, showing HD channels only, showing favorite channels only, etc.
DAC messaging support for messages from headend (this already is in 2.5.x)

Video Mosaic Brochure
iSubscribe Brochure

Archiving Recorded Shows (Back to Table of Contents)

The 2 1394/Firewire ports are active and you can extract recorded (and live) shows from the box through these ports to a DVHS recorder or a PC running WindowsXP or a Macintosh.
NOTE: PC archiving only will work for channels without 5C protection enabled.
See DCT6412 Firewire capture and HD to DVD guide for full details of how to extract shows to WindowsXP as well as a guide on how to downconvert extracted HD recordings to widescreen DVD-compatible mpeg.

Tips and Tricks (Back to Table of Contents)

Rebooting the 6412

Easiest way to reboot is to hold down the Power button on the front panel for 5 seconds. Of course you can also unplug the power and plug it back in.

Force Guide Data Download

You can force the unit to purge the current Guide data from DRAM and download the latest available guide data from the headend by holding down the Guide button on the front panel for 5 seconds.

Status Page (Phase III box, Firmware 12.27)

A lot of good diagnostic information is available on this page. NOTE: Activating this page kill any recordings currently in progress, so be careful.

DCT6412 should be on
Press Cable, Power off, Select, Select

d01 GENERAL STATUS
d02 PURCHASE STATUS
d03 OOB STATUS - Tuner inside the 6412 that interprets signal levels sent from the headend
d04 INBAND STATUS - Information about both tuners (only relevant for digital channels).
SNR = Signal to Noise ratio - the higher this number the better
AGC = Automatic Gain Control - the lower this number the better. Represents amount of work the box is doing to keep the signal tuned to the "sweet spot".
CORRECTABLE ERRORS - Number of error corrections in the last 5 second sample. These errors don't cause any visual distortion of the digital channel but could indicate a signal level problem.
NON-CORRECTABLE ERRORS - Number of hard uncorrectable errors in the last 5 second sample. If you are seeing these then there is definately a problem and you will see image distortion.
d05 UNIT ADDRESS
d06 CURRENT CHANNEL STATUS - More information about both tuners including the Inband (carrier) frequency of each and other flags such as encryption
ENC = Encrypted
CLR = Unencrypted
INBAND FREQUENCY = midpoint frequency of the 6MHZ carrier channel. Analog channels each occupy their own carrier channel, several digital channels can occupy a single carrier channel.
d07 UPSTREAM MODEM - Internal cable modem upload signal readings (used for PPV, VOD, etc.)
If there is no return path to the headend this page will indicate a problem.
d08 CODE MODULES - Firmware and software versions
d09 MEMORY CONFIG - RAM information
d10 KEYPAD/LED
d11 INTERFACE STATUS - Information about I/O port status (installed or not)
d12 USER SETTINGS STATUS - Information about user selected settings for the box, including video output
d13 PVR/HDD STATUS - PVR information including current and max temperature, and details about hard drive space and partition allocation
d14 DOCSIS - DOCSIS Cable Modem Info (NOTE: Disabled)
d15 APPLICATION SPECIFIC INFORMATION - Video On Demand Server Name (SEAVOD1) and IP (172.21.14.45)
d16 INTERACTIVE STATUS - More cable modem information
E EXIT

Advanced Settings Page

You can control various settings of the 6412 including settings for DVI/HDMI and Component outputs, digital audio output, close captioning, etc. This is a better alternative to changing hardware settings than the User Settings Page described below.

DCT6412 should be on
Press Menu to display Quick Settings Menu
Select A - More Settings
Press Exit to exit this page

Diagnostics Page

This is a quick means of obtaining some useful information:

DCT6412 should be on
Press Menu to display Quick Settings Menu
Press Down, B, Up, B (within 5 seconds)
Press A, B or C to get different info pages

C Page (default page):

Passport Echo software version
Motorola firmware (TC=Thin Client) version
Available hard drive space remaining for recordings & space occupied by current recordings
Current tuner frequencies and current/max temperature on Page 2

B Page:

DVR log page with recording activity log for the last 24 hours.

A Page:

Lists all files recently downloaded from the headend (oldest first)

NOTE: Use Page- and Page+ to scroll pages
NOTE: Press Exit to exit this page

User Settings Page

This is another means of changing 6412 settings for DVI/HDMI and Component outputs and some other settings. It's better/easier to use Advanced Settings Page instead (see above). This method provides feedback of what you are doing on the 6412 front panel LED in case you are doing it "blind" (video not displaying on your TV).

DCT6412 should be on
Power off, Menu, Menu (within 5 seconds)
Power on to exit the page

Setting Up Manual Recordings (Single or Recurring)

Though it's in the Passport Manual not many people can find the menus for setting up manual recordings - recordings the old fashioned way by time and channel. There are 2 ways of bringing up the manual recordings menus:

While watching live TV or a show playback press the Record button on the remote then select Create a manual recording...
While in the Saved Shows or Scheduled Recordings menus press the Record button on the remote

Once in the menus you can choose between Individual and Recurring manual recordings, the channel, the days of the week and start and stop times.

Adjusting DCT6412 internal Volume level

Press Cable, Setup, 1, 4, 3 for volume UP. (repeat for further increase)
Press Cable, Setup, 1, 4, 5 for volume DOWN. (repeat for further decrease)

Factory Reset (use at your own risk!)

*WARNING* If you want to just reboot the unit consult the Rebooting the 6412 section above. You can completely purge all data from the hard drive (including any saved recordings) and force the unit to factory reset as follows:

DCT6412 should be turned on
Press Cable, Power off, Select, Select to bring up Diagnostics Page
With diagnostics page showing press Replay, DVR, DVR, DVR, Live (or Replay, LIST, LIST, LIST, Live)
6412 now should show "Clr" in the LED display.
Press Select to proceed with the reset (and presumably Exit to cancel).
The 6412 should now reset and download a bunch of data from the headend

Known Problems (Back to Table of Contents)

Phase III box frame hiccups/hesitations for 1080i channels

DESCRIPTIONS
Phase III boxes sometimes have issues displaying 1080i channels such as NBC HD & CBS HD. When there is some slow motion such as the camera panning slowly there will be an instantaneous freeze or hesitation of a frame followed by a jerk a few frames ahead and this pattern keeps repeating itself. It's not immediately obvious but once you start noticing it it is very annoying.

WORKAROUND FIX
This workaround seems to resolve the problem for me:

Select Menu and then A (Advanced Settings) .
Scroll to Output Settings and press Select.
Choose 480p Wide as output setting.
Verify the hiccup problem is gone for a few minutes.
Go back to Output Settings menu again and change back to 1080i Wide.
Now magically enjoy hiccup free playback again.

Black video

DESCRIPTION
1 or both tuners have no audio/video when tuning to them on certain channel(s). In this mode recordings appear to proceed normally and are listed in full length in the Saved Shows list, however when attempting to playback such recordings nothing happens.

WORKAROUND FIX
Tune to the "black" channel(s) and then tune to a different channel and then tune back again. Repeat for 2nd tuner using Swap button.

First-run only repeat recordings sometimes miss first-run episodes

DESCRIPTION
Unit does not record a first-run episode of a show presumably thinking that it was a repeat.

WORKAROUND
Don't mark any repeat recordings as first-run only. Taking the trouble to delete repeats is better than running the risk of missing a new episode.

STATUS UPDATE FROM COX
We believe this is caused by missing information in the guide data. Echo looks for a specific bit to be set in the guide data which indicates a program is a first-run episode (i.e. “new”). If this bit isn't set in the guide data, Echo doesn't know it's a first-run episode.

Phase III box firewire issues

DESCRIPTION
Phase III units with firmware 12.27 will often have problems with FF/REW following attempted firewire capture to WinXP. The FF/REW basically don't work anymore and you need to reboot the box to regain proper functionality.

Also, firewire capture via CapDVHS appears to be somewhat less stable than before with the newer (12.27) firmware. Quite often I need to re-connect the firewire cable to be able to start a new capture. So while it still works it's not as reliable as with older firmware or Phase I boxes.

My Wishlist

1. external hard drive storage
2. 30-second skip (I know this is highly unlikely but it's highly desired)
3. 12+ days in the Guide (current limit of 6 is not enough)
4. Anamorphic widescreen format for downconverted HD (on S-video output).
Currently downconverted HD (16:9) is always in letterbox format.
Give choice of 16:9 full on S-video output.
5. Home Media Architecture (HMA): Multi-room thin clients - i.e. Ability
to playback recordings from the 6412 on other TVs in the house
(using a thin client on each TV).
6. Categories/Folders for organizing scheduled and recorded programs
(like ReplayTV does). Passport Echo 2.7 reportedly has this feature.
7. Don't show removed channels in the Guide - i.e. Give ability to hide
all channels you don't subscribe to or care about from the guide.
8. Make Info button work for Saved Shows and Scheduled Recordings lists
so all details of the show can be seen just like it works in the Guide or
during live viewing.

DCT6412/Passport AVS Forum Interesting links (Back to Table of Contents)

Sample Mpeg2 Transport Stream Information (from firewire captures) (Back to Table of Contents)

1080i Sample

Program	ER - 61 minutes (including commercials)
Channel	NBC-HD (704)
System Stream Type	Transport
Video Standard	NTSC
Video Compression	MPEG-2
Video Bitrate	VBR: Average=*18.29Mbps, Peak=19.2Mpbs
Video Resolution	1920x1088i
Frame Rate	29.97 fps
Aspect Ratio	16:9 (1920x1080)
Audio Compression	Dolby AC-3
Audio Stream	6 channel, 48kHz
Audio Bitrate	384 Kbps
1 hour show size	8,400 MBytes (8.2 GBytes)
	(18.29+384/1024Mbits/sec)(3600sec/hr)(1Byte/8bits) = 8,400 MBytes/hr
Total recording capacity	88*1024/8400 =~ 11 hours

720p Sample

Program	American Idol (60 minutes - including commercials)
Channel	FOX-HD (711)
System Stream Type	Transport
Video Standard	NTSC
Video Compression	MPEG-2
Video Bitrate	VBR: Average=*11.42Mbps, Peak=19.2Mpbs
Video Resolution	1280x768p
Frame Rate	59.94 fps
Aspect Ratio	16:9
Audio Compression	Dolby AC-3
Audio Stream	6 channel, 48kHz
Audio Bitrate	448 Kbps
1 hour show size	5,336 MBytes (5.2 GBytes)
	(11.42+448/1024Mbits/sec)(3600sec/hr)(1Byte/8bits) = 5,336 MBytes/hr
Total recording capacity	88*1024/5536 =~ 17 hours

SD Digital Sample

Program	?
Channel	?
System Stream Type	Transport
Video Standard	NTSC
Video Compression	MPEG-2
Video Bitrate	VBR: Average=*3.7Mbps, Peak=15Mpbs
Video Resolution	528x480i
Frame Rate	29.97 fps
Aspect Ratio	4:3
Audio Compression	Dolby AC-3
Audio Stream	2 channel, 48kHz
Audio Bitrate	128 Kbps
1 hour show size	1,721 MBytes (1.68 GBytes)
	(3.7+128/1024Mbits/sec)(3600sec/hr)(1Byte/8bits) = 1,721 MBytes/hr
Total recording capacity	88*1024/1721 =~ 52 hours

SD Encoded From Analog Sample

Program	?
Channel	?
System Stream Type	Transport
Video Standard	NTSC
Video Compression	MPEG-2
Video Bitrate	VBR: Average=6.2Mbps, Peak=7.5Mpbs
Video Resolution	720x480i
Frame Rate	29.97 fps
Aspect Ratio	4:3
Audio Compression	Dolby AC-3
Audio Stream	2 channel, 48kHz
Audio Bitrate	320 Kbps
1 hour show size	2,930 MBytes (2.86 GBytes)
	(6.2+320/1024Mbits/sec)(3600sec/hr)(1Byte/8bits) = 2,930 MBytes/hr
Total recording capacity	88*1024/2930 =~ 31 hours

*NOTE: Average bit-rates vary according to program and headend bit-rate shaping

Guide Update Analysis (Back to Table of Contents)

The Quick Settings menu A Page (Menu,Down,B,Up,B,A) contains information about files downloaded by the 6412. Examining these files it's pretty obvious how guide updates are performed. For example, the following pattern of files is repeated every 24 hours:
config2.dat
passpinfo.oob
03241200 .str & .jpg (listings for 3/24 from 12:00pm-12:00am)
03250012 .str & .jpg (listings for 3/25 from 12:00am-12:00pm)
03251200 .str & .jpg (listings for 3/25 from 12:00pm-12:00am)
...
03310012.str & .jpg (last listings file => last day of available data is 12:00pm on 3/31)
logos_hi.rle

This pattern repeats every day - so guide is updated once every 24 hours in blocks of 12 hours at a time for 7 whole days.
It happens around 4:40am every morning (for my unit) and takes a little less than 2 hours on average to complete in my case.

P.S. It's a pure guess but I would venture that CFS stands for Cryptographic File System which is an encrypting file system that uses NFS as it's interface.
See: http://www.crypto.com/software/ NFS being Network File System very common in Unix systems the core of what file automounting over networks is built on for example.

Hard Drive Available Space Analysis (Back to Table of Contents)

120GB drive => 120e9/2^30 = 111.76GB available
Looking at allocation totals (d14 module of Status Page):
System = 238MB
GPFS = 2861MB
PVR Content = 109944MB
PVR Index = 1431MB
=>TOTAL allocation = 114474MB = 114474/1024 = 111.79GB (matches hard drive spec)
Looking at useage totals with no recordings saved on the box (d14 module of Status Page):
System=1MB
GPFS=21MB
PVR Content =~ 19280MB (=> Total buffer space taken by both tuners)
PVR Index =~ 96MB
So really these are the true numbers in GB that we have available:
Total drive space =~ 112 GB
Total recordings space =~ 109944/1024 =~ 107 GB
Buffer space (for 2 tuners) =~ 19280/1024 =~ 19GB
Space available for recordings = 107-19= 88GB

NOTE:
1 Byte = 8 bits
1KByte = 2^10 = 1024 Bytes
1MByte = 2^20 = 1024^2 = 1,048,576 Bytes
1GByte = 2^30 = 1024^3 = 1,073,741,824 Bytes

Motorola Home Media Architecture (Back to Table of Contents)

This is Motorola's plans for in-home networking over coaxial cable. Hopefully this means that someday we can stream recorded shows from an HMA enabled DCT6412 to any other TV in the house with the aid of HMA-enabled thin clients. Here's the press release from May 2004. So far this is vaporware as far as I know:
Motorola HMA Press Release (May 2004)

DCT6412/Passport Versus ReplayTV 50xx Summary (Back to Table of Contents)

DCT6412 Passport Echo Advantages

HDTV capable (including Dolby Digital 5.1)
2 tuners
No IR blaster needed for digital channel tuning
Scheduled Recordings shows upcoming recording schedule for all shows and allows conflicts to be resolved manually
Repeat recordings can be ranked in recording priority order
In the case of schedule overlaps where a recording can't start because 2 other shows are already recording, the show in conflict will start recording as soon as possible (Replay will not record if recording can't start)
Digital (including HDTV) channels not re-encoded - ReplayTV only has analog inputs so re-encodes everything
"Picture in Menu" - Video window in upper right quadrant is used while browsing Guide and other menu interfaces, so you can continue watching while interfacing with the unit
Dynamic search match (matches show up as you type keywords during find shows)
Search does not pause/interrupt video
Non-protected channels (with no 5C protection enabled) can be extracted via firewire ports in their native transport stream mpeg2 formats from the headend, including HD channels
Passport 2.7 has feature to play all shows from a folder

ReplayTV 50xx Advantages

Automatic Commercial Advance (CA)
Flexible navigation: 30-second quick skip, jump anywhere, Show/Nav
12 days of Guide data - 6412/Passport only has 6
In home LAN video streaming between multiple ReplayTV units
Internet Sharing (IVS)
Categories/Folders for organizing recorded shows and replay channels. (Passport 2.7 has something similar)
Ability to hide all channels you don't care about (Passport 2.7 has something similar)
Show extraction via network interface (using DVArchive or other 3rd party tools)
Real time internet scheduling of shows (using DVArchive or other 3rd party tools)
Scheduled automatic show archiving over LAN (using DVArchive)
"Find All Episodes" feature either from grid or from Replay channel
Replay Zones (Specifically channels to automatically record all Series and Season Premieres)
Up to 3 separate inputs allowed from any source - DCT6412 only allows one CATV input
Customized channel lineup (using Wirns 3rd party tool)
Live buffer limited only by available hard drive space (60 min limit for Passport)
Internal hard drive upgradeable (external hard drive capability coming soon for DCT6412 Phase 3 hardware)

DCT6412/Passport Versus Tivo Series 3/HD Summary (Back to Table of Contents)

Tivo S3/HD Negatives

Cannot see what is going to record from the guide (no marks in the guide) – have to consult the ToDo list
No Picture in Menu capability - i.e. Now Playing, Search etc. eliminates video/audio. Cannot access guide without interrupting playback of a recording. When accessing guide you are forced to Live mode.
30 min max buffer limit per tuner (Passport can do 60 min HD/buffer and more for SD)
No Screensaver!
No PPV or VOD (not a big deal for me since I never use those anyway)
Will not support Switched Digital Video channels should they be employed in the future
CableCard installation issues and reliability

Tivo S3/HD Positives

Can record from both OTA & cable natively
30-second skip support
Easy to upgrade internal hard drive
External Esata drive support (November 2007)
Tivo To Go and Multi-Room Viewing capabilities (November 2007)
Web scheduling capabilities (and other HMO features such as pictures, music, Amazon Unbox, etc)
Functioning first-run only season passes and Advanced wishlists
Native passthrough output format i.e. Output 480i, 720p, 1080i according to whatever the source resolution is
14 days of guide data (only 7 for Passport)
Can customize the guide channels to be only those you care about
Guide data much more complete
S3: Front panel displays show titles of current scheduled recordings for each tuner
Overall picture quality is better over component and/or HDMI compared to DCT3416

Miscellaneous CATV Information (Back to Table of Contents)

QAM = Quadrature Amplitude Modulation
QAM-256 => 38.3 Mbps total bit-rate (8 bits/sec/Hz)
QAM-64 => 24.0 Mbps total bit-rate (6 bits/sec/Hz)
CATV QAM Distribution spectrum:
Upstream: 5-50MHz
Analog = channels 2-78 = 55-547Mhz (6Mhz carrier channels, single channel per carrier)
Digital = channels 79-136 = 553-865Mhz (6Mhz carrier channels, multiple channels per carrier)
Coax cable: ~1dB loss per 100 feet of cable
Higher freq => higher loss (proportional to sqrt(freq))
EXAMPLE:
Channel 2 = 54Mhz
Channel 13 = 216Mhz sqrt(216/54) => 2x loss on channel 13
QPSK = Quaternary Phase Shift Keying modulation technique
A QPSK modulator is used for bidirectional data transmission between a home settop box to the headend of a cable system. Burst mode transmission occurs in a small frequency band shared by a number of subscribers, each of which transmits information in its own multiplexed time slot (using TDMA).

5C Copy Control Information (CCI) Flag (Back to Table of Contents)

OpenCable defined a Copy Protection scheme called "5C Digital Transmission Content Protection" (abbreviated DTCP or 5C) for IEEE 1394 (Firewire) connections. This later evolved into a generalized Copy Protection Scheme over digital transmission media. A Copy Control Information (CCI) flag can be embedded in an mpeg2 transport stream descriptor which defines the copy rights for that content. The CCI flag consists of 8 bits:

MSB bits 5-7 are currently reserved/unused.

Bit 4 is the Constrained Image Trigger (CIT) bit which specifies if the HD analog outputs (usually component) need to be constrained to lower resolution.

Bits 3 and 2 are the Analog Protection System (APS) bits which specify what Macrovision encoding needs to be applied to analog outputs.

The 2 LSB bits (bits 1 and 0) are called the EMI bits which define the copy control permissions whose meanings are as follows:

BINARY	HEX	DECIMAL	MEANING
00	0x00	0	Copy Freely - No authentication or encryption required.
01	0x01	1	Copy No More
10	0x02	2	Copy Once - After 1 copy made the content is then marked with EMI of 01 (Copy No More) or 11 (Copy Never)
11	0x03	3	Copy Never - Only fully authorized devices may decode

NOTE: 5C stands for the original 5 companies involved in formulating the protection scheme: Intel, Panasonic, Toshiba, Sony, Hitachi
For more information on dtcp:

http://www.cablelabs.com/udcp/downloads/DFAST_Tech_License.pdf
http://www.dtcp.com/data/dtcp_tut.pdf

http://www.dtcp.com/data/wp_spec.pdf

Cox Orange County Headend Map (Back to Table of Contents)

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