X1 Technical Issues

[rubietuesdayt]

I was curious about that, however on the quick setup quide it said that in order to set up HDMI you hookup the cable as normal and then just plug in the HDMI & use that source. I could've misread/misunderstood. Regardless, when changing source inputs I have the option of both using the HDMI source or the standard cable input source. Both work when I use them.

I wasn't sure if the HDMI source would improve the picture even a little bit, regardless of the fact that I dont have HD channels. It's my understanding that some networks broadcast at different resolutions, so for those channels maybe the HDMI will be useful in that aspect & therefore improve picture quality?? Correct me if I'm wrong, definitely not my forte.

[barbie123]

Can you see a difference between the coax picture and the HDMI picture?

[rubietuesdayt]

nothing super noticeable. next time im home ill try and really look.

just need to know if you think box output should be at 1080p to optimize SD pic quality or if 720p is best. anything lower is extremely horrible. 

TV itself is 1080 capable, has a very nice picture when streaming netflix or its smart TV apps. 

[barbie123]

Those numbers are meaningless without HD service. 480i is all you can get from an SD cablebox.

You cannot just create 720 or 1080 from a SD signal.

[rubietuesdayt]

I am not sure how true that is, because yesterday I tried reducing my output to 480i resolution and it absolutely butchered the picture. The 720p and 1080p look much better. So even if these SD channels are broadcasting at 480, the picture is indeed improved when I switch my output to 720 or 1080.

[barbie123]

By all means, choose the setting that looks best.

[Rustyben]

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@barbie123 wrote:

There is a problem. You have a coax and an HDMI both going to the TV? I bet you are not using the HDMI, which should not even be active without paying for HD service.

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HD is always active because of must carry local channels. not paying for HD still lets you get local HD channels.

[barbie123]

I have never heard that HD is ever active without paying the HD fee. Also, the OP does not seem to be getting an HD picture on any channel.

[CoreyD]

Regardless if you're watching HD or SD channels, the receiver settings should match your TV capabilities.  Use only the HDMI cable to connect your TV, and if your TV supports 1080p, set it and forget it.

[MrScott1]

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@RickGr4 wrote:

Sorry but I cannot imagine why you would not be willing to pay for HD channels.

HD is the norm. SD is a dinosuar. Ultra HD is coming soon and will be the norm by the end of this year.

Unless you are willing to pay for HD channels you may need to get used to "fuzzy" picture quality.

I've been nagging DirecvTV for years about this. HD is the norm, there should no longer be any silly charges for it. If anything, SD should be surcharged. It's patently ridiculous.

As for getting HD, my Comcast rep told me if you have the X1 box, you get HD, period. Would not surprise me if this wasn't true, I have yet to run into a Comcast rep who told the full story.

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[boomer666]

I've got the same X1 mini cable box connect issue. I swapped all components at least twice (including the X1 mini). I then thought the problem was with the cable-in connection to the room, until I replaced the X1 mini with an unused DTA box (using the same coax cables) and got a cable signal. I then moved the X1 mini to another room and got the same "can't connect" issue. Primary TV with DVR works fine. I think the issue is that the X1 mini can't connect to the DVR. I've scheduled a service call (and will no doubt be charged by Comcast). I've spent way too many hours debugging this issue. I would have kept the original DTA if I knew it was going to be this much of a time drain. Tech support wasn't much help ... reset and/or power cycle all devices. Has anyone with this issue resolved it without requiring a service call? A frustrated Comcast customer!!  

[RickGr4]

Are you seeing error codes or error messages?

I would suggest you keep the service visit you have scheduled. If the problem is wiring within your house Comcast may charge you. If the problem is your hardware or wiring outside the house Comcast won't charge you.

Remember unless you have Comcast's monthly protection package, we are all responsible for the wiring within our homes.

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@boomer666 wrote:

I've got the same X1 mini cable box connect issue. I swapped all components at least twice (including the X1 mini). I then thought the problem was with the cable-in connection to the room, until I replaced the X1 mini with an unused DTA box (using the same coax cables) and got a cable signal. I then moved the X1 mini to another room and got the same "can't connect" issue. Primary TV with DVR works fine. I think the issue is that the X1 mini can't connect to the DVR. I've scheduled a service call (and will no doubt be charged by Comcast). I've spent way too many hours debugging this issue. I would have kept the original DTA if I knew it was going to be this much of a time drain. Tech support wasn't much help ... reset and/or power cycle all devices. Has anyone with this issue resolved it without requiring a service call? A frustrated Comcast customer!!  

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[CCAndrew]

Will the DVR work in that room you are trying to put the secondary boxes. Using DTAs isn't a good way to troubleshoot, they only use a one way signal (the X1 boxes use an upstream and downstream signal) and it doesn't rely on the DVR like the Secondary box does. Check on how your cable is configured, splitters, amps etc.

[boomer666]

I'm confused. If the problem is house wiring, why does a DTA box provide me with a clear video signal, but no connection with an X1 mini? I don't see the corrolation. I did see an earlier post about older signal boosters and possible incompatability with new equipment such as the X1 mini?  I had Comcast install one many years ago, becasue of poor signal quality on the low band channels.     

[RobertWy]

The HD DTA does not require a clean signal to work because it is not sending messages back and forth to the Comcast servers.

I have one DTA and it worked but my X1 signal was degraded because squirrels had eaten through the coax cable from the pole to my house.

[CCAndrew]

Like I posted, DTA doesn't transmit back and forth, it only uses an incoming signal. If you have an amp in play, bypass it or remove altogether. That amp, if installed long ago,isn't letting the moca transmit ( how the boxes communicate).

[boomer666]

Thanks. I will bypas the amp and retry. I think (not sure) the initial setup on the X1 DVR asked if an amp was connected. If so, any setup/setting changes to the X1 DVR required once the amp is removed?

[CCAndrew]

No, there isn't anything like that. You may have to reset both boxes after taking out the amp.

[Rustyben]

fed FCC rules state that all local channels must be carried on cable in the 'original' format asthe transmission. Unambiguous meaning. Comcast (all MSOs) have to carry and deliver local HD channels even if not paying HD. (will need the equipment, minimum is an HDA DTA.

[Rustyben]

....and if you have a comcast modem look on the back where the wires connect for an LED that might be lit up beside word MoCA.

[BruceW]

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@Rustyben wrote:

fed FCC rules state that all local channels must be carried on cable in the 'original' format asthe transmission. Unambiguous meaning. Comcast (all MSOs) have to carry and deliver local HD channels even if not paying HD. (will need the equipment, minimum is an HDA DTA.

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Cite?

[Rustyben]

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@BruceW wrote:

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@Rustyben wrote:

fed FCC rules state that all local channels must be carried on cable in the 'original' format asthe transmission. Unambiguous meaning. Comcast (all MSOs) have to carry and deliver local HD channels even if not paying HD. (will need the equipment, minimum is an HDA DTA.

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Cite?

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google is our friend. try FCC television rule must carry

[BruceW]

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@Rustyben wrote:

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@BruceW wrote:

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@Rustyben wrote:

fed FCC rules state that all local channels must be carried on cable in the 'original' format asthe transmission. Unambiguous meaning. Comcast (all MSOs) have to carry and deliver local HD channels even if not paying HD. (will need the equipment, minimum is an HDA DTA.

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Cite?

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google is our friend. try FCC television rule must carry

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"Google it" is not a citation of an authoritative source.

You've made the rather extravagant claim that cablecos are required to deliver HD local stations in HD, and at no extra cost. I can find no such requirement in the Rules. Since you claim this is an FCC requrement, you should either:

1. Provide the requested authoritative source (FCC Rule) that backs up your claim, or

2. Stop making the claim.

[rubietuesdayt]

I don't believe its cable companies that are required, but rather the local stations themselves are required to broadcast in HD... FCC awhile ago changed the whole HD thing and you can purchase one of those antennas for a lowish cost and receive those local HD channels for free (using antenna). Outside of that, not really sure. Bottom line is I guess I'll be watching dinosaur tv for awhile. Looks like I'm gonna be super lame for awhile.

[BruceW]

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rubietuesdayt wrote: I don't believe its cable companies that are required, but rather the local stations themselves are required to broadcast in HD... ...

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I know of no requirement that any stations broadcast in HD. I believe that decision is in response to market forces, not laws or regulations.

[CoreyD]

There is a lot of red tape and stipulations, but the must-carry rule in a nutshell is from US Code Title 47.  In section 614(b)(7) and 615(h), it states the operator of a cable system is required to ensure that signals carried in fulfillment of the must-carry requirements are provided to EVERY subscriber of the system.  It talks about analog and digital signals, but not specifically HD.  The big caveat is retransmission consent, which a broadcaster can elect and require compensation for retransmission of their signal.  We all know that most brodcasters elect this, and when they do, that releases the cable cos from the must-carry requirement.

So the bottom line is if the broadcaster is getting paid by the cable co for their signal, they're not even required by the FCC to carry it.

[barbie123]

This thread is way off track. The OP stated that they do not subscribe to HD channels or service. They asked if changing the resolution to 1080i would help their not so good picture. Claimed that their HDMI worked without HD service, which surprised me. Then also stated that they were usng a coax connection at the same time.

Someone needs to answer this: Does the HDMI output work on the X1 without HD service?

[rubietuesdayt]

Thank you! Hahaha my thoughts exactly.

[CoreyD]

I can't say positively (maybe ComcastAndrew?) but I would believe that the HDMI out it active no matter what package you have.  HD is just a channel package.  If I tune to an SD channel it still gets to my TV from the HDMI out.

[Rustyben]

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@barbie123 wrote:

This thread is way off track. The OP stated that they do not subscribe to HD channels or service. They asked if changing the resolution to 1080i would help their not so good picture. Claimed that their HDMI worked without HD service, which surprised me. Then also stated that they were usng a coax connection at the same time.

Someone needs to answer this: Does the HDMI output work on the X1 without HD service?

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HDMI is just standard digital carrier media it is not limited as is cable (NTSC) coax. The signal that is received by the tv no matter what format is decoded/recoded (transcoded) to whatever Progressive scan that is used by the display panel circuitry. 

to answer question for x1 since native is not allowed is to set to 1080i from the cable box to the digital receiver or TV and forget about it. the zoom on either TV or cable box may be able to increase SD letter boxed images to a larger image to more closely fill the television screen. When a (usually local in the example case) broadcast is in HD, that zoom will need to be switched off or much of the image will be out of sight.

[barbie123]

Hundreds of posts here about the HDMI not working until HD service is added to the account. Is it different with the X1?

[CoreyD]

For a definitive answer I guess we'll have to wait until either a Comcast rep chimes in or someone without the HD package can verify it.

[Rustyben]

note that the HD DTA is provided so you can see local channels in HD along with SD package channels.

[RickGr4]

First of all, I am aware the OP feels this thread has deviated from the original intention.

HOWEVER, I do not always agree with Rustyben but in this case I happen to think he is correct here. Unless something has changed in the past year or two, there is a "must carry" in place.

SOOOO, in regards to the original poster (college student with limited means) you should be aware of this. Why? Because even if you have the most basic of channel package from Comcast you should be able to receive the local channels in HD.

That being said, if you live in a dorm or apartment you may have no say over this because there could be a different commercial agreement with Comcast in place.

I just spent the better portion of the past three weekends in two different hospitals and I quickly realized that Comcast can custom design ANALOG cable TV service as needed.

[rubietuesdayt]

Very interesting, maybe I'll make some phone calls. Thanks all for your input I appreciate it

[Rustyben]

this thread has had another topic combined to it and that is ok. original topic back on this post

new version XRE1.62.04 3/17/2016 firmware 2.2p7s1 on an MX011AN DVR

first, wow, something happened it appears on the "x1 upcoming updates" thread that is sticky and now locked? 

second, this new version won't let me play already recorded shows on differnet (3 available) DVRs. any attempt to play a recording on a different DVR gives you error "Sorry, we can't access this recording right now. Please give us a few minutes and try again. XRE-06025".  I checked the diagnostic MoCA menu and had good 260+ on all 3 DVRs. The recording is available on the cloud.

in case a comcast person wanted to know it was the 2 episodes of father knows best today and was on the other two DVRs (tried reboot of both of those using the myAccount app and when they finished rebooting the recordings showed up on this DVRs recordings list but any attempt to play the recordings locally gave error above. playback works on each other DVR as they are recorded on that DVR.

[Beta_jonnylotto]

People keep mixing up Digital TV (ATSC@480) with HDTV (720p+)

[Beta_jonnylotto]

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@BeowolfJones wrote:

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(Connecting to your X1 Tv experience)  Sometime this century please ! OOPs ! you missed ten minutes of the Superbowl, So Sorry !

If you had a PC that malfunctioned as much as X1 does you would get a new PC or a  better OS to run it.

X1 is a TV operating system and it runs like a real early version of DOS. ( Track 0 bad, disk unusable) (DVR service unavailable,  we are Blah, Blah, Blah and Blah). (Windows has encountered a fault in Kernel32.exe at EF0A:FB2C)  (Somethings not quite right call Comcast and mention RDK XXXX-XX) Yeah, Right.

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I'm on my second X1 in 2 days. No.1 checked out fine except no picture at all. No.2 is as glitchy as a memory board with a bunch of loose 4k DIP chips. You've just explained quite succinctly why I was feeling deja vu all over again.

Now I know to get my line tested next but reading this whole thread is making the X1 look like my biggest mistake of 2016.

[RobertWy]

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@Beta_jonnylotto wrote:

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@BeowolfJones wrote:

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(Connecting to your X1 Tv experience)  Sometime this century please ! OOPs ! you missed ten minutes of the Superbowl, So Sorry !

If you had a PC that malfunctioned as much as X1 does you would get a new PC or a  better OS to run it.

X1 is a TV operating system and it runs like a real early version of DOS. ( Track 0 bad, disk unusable) (DVR service unavailable,  we are Blah, Blah, Blah and Blah). (Windows has encountered a fault in Kernel32.exe at EF0A:FB2C)  (Somethings not quite right call Comcast and mention RDK XXXX-XX) Yeah, Right.

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I'm on my second X1 in 2 days. No.1 checked out fine except no picture at all. No.2 is as glitchy as a memory board with a bunch of loose 4k DIP chips. You've just explained quite succinctly why I was feeling deja vu all over again.

Now I know to get my line tested next but reading this whole thread is making the X1 look like my biggest mistake of 2016.

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My X1 system with two DVR's and two companions worked great for 2+ years.  Then the cableing from the pole to my house was chewed on by squirrels and power company linemen worked on the power lines in my alley and also caused the Comcast repeaters in the alley to become disconnected.

It took a week for Comcast to sort out all the issues.

But X1 is not to be faulted for those physical connections.  It works great when I get a clean signal.

[BeowolfJones]

The thread seems to be open again.I thought orphaned recordings resisting deletion were a gone item. Nope !

[sahooavinash18]

Hi,

So since November of 2015 up to this month March, I have been experiencing the dreaded rdk-03032 error code. To solve this problem I have had 8 techs out now who have replaced everything including the drop, tap, and all new cables in my house. So now, I just wanted to verify if my signal levels are within spec and would appreciate if someone could take a look at this and reply.

[RickGr4]

Your SNR numbers should be higher but more importantly your "correctables" and "uncorrectables" should be ZERO or very close to ZERO.

RDK-03032 is a very common X1 error code. It means your X1 box can't talk to Comcast servers.

Sorry but you still have signal related issues. Comcast needs to fix this for you. I was in the same boat back in 2004. It took Comcast the better portion of six months to fix it but they finally did.

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@sahooavinash18 wrote:
Hi,

So since November of 2015 up to this month March, I have been experiencing the dreaded rdk-03032 error code. To solve this problem I have had 8 techs out now who have replaced everything including the drop, tap, and all new cables in my house. So now, I just wanted to verify if my signal levels are within spec and would appreciate if someone could take a look at this and reply.

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[HowAboutThisOne]

What you posted looked like your cable modem statistics. The cable modem has nothing to do with the X1 TV service (although poor internet service could be indicative of poor overall quality of signal on your coax line).

If you want to check your X1 cable box signal levels, see this post.

[RickGr4]

Not entirely correct.

Yes the OP posted modem signal levels but many X1 boxes also have modems. I happen to think the information posted by the OP explains many things, mainly incoming signal quality issues.

I could be wrong but I happen to think the modem results the OP posted demonstrate CLASSIC Comcast signal problems. Codeword errors mean the incoming signal is defective.

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@HowAboutThisOne wrote:

What you posted looked like your cable modem statistics. The cable modem has nothing to do with the X1 TV service.

If you want to check your X1 cable box signal levels, see this post.

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[sahooavinash18]

Oh okay, thanks for clarifying. Here are my tv signal values. Can you please confirm if these are within good spec or not and also elaborate of you remember what Comcast specifically did to fix the error code rdk03032 errors?

[RickGr4]

What are the X1 codeword errors???

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@sahooavinash18 wrote:
Oh okay, thanks for clarifying. Here are my tv signal values. Can you please confirm if these are within good spec or not and also elaborate of you remember what Comcast specifically did to fix the error code rdk03032 errors?

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[sahooavinash18]

The error code is rdk-03032, we are having trouble connecting to the X1 platform. This may be temporary. Is this is what you are referring to by code word?

[RickGr4]

Ok here is the deal.

Your modem specs are very suspect. The X1 numbers you posted are well within spec but they only tell about half of the X1 signal picture. The only person that can see ALL of the critical X1 signal numbers is a tech that is on site. No Comcast employee can see all of your X1 signal levels from a remote location.

The X1 diagnostic menu also indicates codeword errors just like your modem. You haven't found that screen yet.

That doesn't change my original opinion. You have defective signal coming in to your house. Comcast needs to send a "line crew" out to your neighborhood to troubleshoot the problem.

Like I said earlier... RDK-03032 means your X1 box has a very poor or no connection to the Comcast servers.... You could have issues both inside and outside of your house...


sahooavinash18 wrote:

The error code is rdk-03032

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[sahooavinash18]

Ok, sounds good. As of now the linesman have replaced my drop, tap, undergorund cables, and all new cables going into the house. I guess i need a network team out here now. Once again, do you remember though what was the final thing comcast did for you that finally resolved your error codes?

[RickGr4]

Comcast didn't have X1 back in 2004 so the error codes do not apply.

I am not sure you are understanding what I am trying to say. RDK-03032 means that particular X1 box has a very poor connection (or no connection) to the Comcast network.

If you unplug and reboot that particular X1 box and still get RDK-03032, either the signal to that box is horrible or there is a small chance the box is defective.

Either way, I think you need to get another tech out to your house.

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@sahooavinash18 wrote:

Ok, sounds good. As of now the linesman have replaced my drop, tap, undergorund cables, and all new cables going into the house. I guess i need a network team out here now. Once again, do you remember though what was the final thing comcast did for you that finally resolved your error codes?

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