SA Explorer 4250HDC

[dpz]

there hasn't been much said about the 4250 since the post above in june.
i just got a 4250 for my new panasonic th-46pz85u, i'm using an hdmi cable and "viera" linking the tv with a panasonic sc-bt100 blu-ray home theater (with an optical audio connection). the setup is perfect with everything running off the TW remote. in the 4250 box, i did the hdtv wizard and selected 480i, 720p, and 1080i for displays with the auto passthrough enabled. this works seamlessly with the tv's own switching. if a show is 480i, the tv justifies the picture for no black bars and if a show is 720p or 1080i, the tv switches to full (normal view) though you can stretch or zoom with the TW remote when stuff at 4:3 is on.

the only problem is that the 4250 does have its quirks. there was a loss of most of the 1800's last week, which was a widespread problem, and it happened to a lesser degree a couple of days ago in the area west of albany (e.g., cobleskill). there's once in awhile pixelation and audio blips. but, when it's all working, the picture and sound are absolutely excellent.

does anyone on this board have real knowledge of what the remaining issues are? is it software, pole cable connections, trouble at the "head," etc.. it would be nice to get the straight scoop from someone in the know.

[dpz]

after a visit from an extremely knowledgeable, courteous and straightforward field technician (Gerry), most of my questions have been answered. first, the issue of the recent problem (almost two weeks ago) of the many missing HD channels (1800's) was a problematic software upgrade that needed to be rolled back (hence the auto-rebooting of the cable boxand reappearance of the channels the next day. second, the tiling (boxing) and robotic audio that was sporadic though enough to be quite annoying was definitely in the main line (fortuitously, my across the street neighbor was having the same problem and was his next call). Gerry the tech reviewed all house wiring inside and out, tweaked the box to make sure all measurements were within specs and, when he went to the outside pole feeding the two houses with reported problems, waited for the sporadic issue to manifest itself, thus allowing him to provide the necessary info to the line crew that would follow.
last night, i watched tv into the wee hours, and the line crew must have already done some work because things were pretty much back to normal with only a split second of tiling over more than a six hour span.
on a separate note, if there are readers of this board who have viera linked panasonic gear of recent vintage (like blu-ray home theater and new pz series hdtv's) and you want to know how to get it all to work with hdmi and digital audio cabling and all controlled by the time warner remote, i'd be happy to post instructions.

[pmp]

One issue that remains with the 4250 is the spontaneous reboot (as happened to me again this morning). I've never seen it happen with my 8300HDC.

[dpz]

this may not be the same thing you're experiencing but, if you've got the box set to auto select the resolution (480i, 720p or 1080i), and the tv autoselects the aspect ratio as well (e.g., "justify" or "zoom" for 4:3 displays), and you then change the format on the tv, the cable box will get confused and often reboot. the only other spontaneous reboot i've experienced (two occasions in the last month) were connected with a software download and the same software recall sent by time warner to the 4250's (this was the "before and after" of the meltdown of the 1800's channels about two weeks ago - apparently the update had bugs that caused the channels to not get tuned in).

[Hootster413]

I've got two STBs, one of them is a 4250HDC and I experienced a new anomaly last night. While watching channel 1810, the screen went gray and there was no sound. This was after watching the channel for about an hour and a half. I changed channels up and back down and was everything looked back to normal. About 5 minutes later, the screen went gray again but turned back on after about 30 seconds. It just happened again tonight during the World Series on channel 1808. The screen went gray for about 30 seconds and came right back on. It appears to be happening on the broadcast (non-SDV) channels. It's a little disturbing because at one time the picture and sound did not come back by itself. Anyone else seen this problem with the 4250HDC?

[bruces]

The gray screen during the World Series was probably a problem in either the FOX network feed or at our local FOX station.

I had the same problem whan I watched it on my Tivo S3. Since this recorded the OTA signal, the problem was not with TW or your 4250HDC.

[Hootster413]

I don't think it was Fox or WXXA, reason I say this is I have a Vizio in the kitchen that has a qam turner and is able to receive the "broadcast" HD channels on TW without an STB. I had the same problem again during game 2 and I was able to see both sets at the same time from the dining room and I had a gray screen and no sound on my set in the living room that is connected to the 4250HDC at the same time that I had a picture and sound in the kitchen. The gray screen happened at least twice during the game and lasted about 45 seconds each time. I still believe that it has something to do with the STB.

[pmp]

I've been experiencing sound and signal dropouts with the 4250 over the last few weeks, in addition to about half a dozen reboots, so I did a box switch yesterday. Things are good so far - well, as good as can be expected from TW...

[Hootster413]

Did you swap for another 4250HDC? The one that I have was brand new when I picked it up back in September (manufactured in August).