Motorola DCT6412

The Motorola DCT6412 is a dual tuner HDTV PVR distributed by both Comcast Cable Co. and RCN Corporation. The unit can record two analog, digital, or HDTV channels at once and play back a recorded show at the same time. The 6412 has a 120 GB hard drive giving it an HDTV recording time of 12-20 hours and much more for analog or standard definition digital TV. There may also be some 6416 models with have 160G drives.

There are 3 known versions of the 6412, called the Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III.

Phase I is identified by the model number DCT-6412/2000 on a label on the bottom of the unit.

Phase II is identified by the model number DCT-6412/2005 on a label on the bottom of the unit.

Phase III is identified by:

6412 III logo on front of unit.
HDMI port on back of unit instead of the DVI port on older versions.
SATA port on back of unit.
(optional) RF output jack on back of unit.

Little is known about differences between the Phase I and Phase II.

Beyond the external differences, the Phase III has better analog picture quality and a 12.xx firmware revision (the older models use 9.xx).

The Motorola 3412 is similar to the Phase III 6412, but has no analog tuner and can only be used on cable systems where analog-digital simulcasting is set up.

Features

Remote Control Button Remapping

The Motorola 6412 (these work with the single-tuner 6208 with silver remote as well) can be operated with a variety of remote controls. Cable operators are not locked into a specific model, though two forms of the "silver remote" (one with DVR-specific controls at the bottom and one without) are the most common. Both of these remotes are programmable - most of the buttons can be remapped to support functionality that is either not normally deployed (30-second skip) or that is missing (tuner swapping on the non-DVR specific remote). Some remotes supplied by cable operators (one of which is commonly called the "brown" remote) are not programmable.

The three most common remappings are:

The 30-second skip (aka commercial skipper)
The dedicated STB (Set-Top Box) mute/unmute
The tuner swap

How To Add 30-Second Skip

The following technique can be used to map an unused or unneeded button on the "silver" remote to the 30-second skip command. Current versions of the iGuide DVR software will skip forward 30 seconds into a recording when this command is sent. The '15-second back' button can be a good choice, since PgDn already provides that functionality.

Press the "Cable" button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
Press and hold the "Setup" button until the "Cable" button blinks twice.
Type in the code 994. The "Cable" button will blink twice.
Press (do not hold) the "Setup" button.
Type in the code 00173.
Press whatever button you want to map the 30-second skip command to.

Note: This does not work on boxes with the Microsoft TV Foundation Interface (currently Washington State).

How To Add A Dedicated STB Mute/Unmute

The following technique can be used to map an unused or unneeded button on the "silver" remote to the 6412's mute/unmute command. Since the "silver" remote's mute button often controls the TV's or HT receiver's mute command, this allows you to reenable the sound if the box has muted itself (see bugs below).

Press the "Cable" button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
Press and hold the "Setup" button until the "Cable" button blinks twice.
Type in the code 994. The "Cable" button will blink twice.
Press (do not hold) the "Setup" button.
Type in the code 00141.
Press whatever button you want to map the STB mute/unmute command to. (PiP On/Off).

How To Add A Tuner Swap Button

The following technique can be used to map an unused or unneeded button on the "silver" remote to the tuner swap command. The Motorola 6412 contains two tuners. Some versions of the "silver" remote lack the DVR-specific buttons, including the "swap" button that tells the 6412 to swap the "background" tuner (which can record but does not display on-screen) with the "foreground" tuner (the tuner that is actively displaying on your TV). A common use for this command is to switch to a tuner that is not currently recording a program in order to watch another live program.

Press the "Cable" button at the top of the remote to put it into Cable Box control mode.
Press and hold the "Setup" button until the "Cable" button blinks twice.
Type in the code 994. The "Cable" button will blink twice.
Press (do not hold) the "Setup" button.
Type in the code 00236.
Press whatever button you want to map the tuner swap command to. (PiP swap)

Note: This does not work on boxes with the Microsoft TV Foundation Interface (currently Washington State).

How To Restore a Remapped Button

The following technique can be used to restore the original function to a button that has been remapped.

Press the "Cable" button.
Press and hold the "Setup" button until the "Cable" button blinks twice.
Type in the code 994. The "Cable" button will blink twice.
Press (do not hold) the "Setup" button.
Press the button you are restoring twice.

(If the above doesn't work, retry and skip step 4 (do not press the "Setup" button))

Bugs

The early versions of the hardware, software, and service have quite a few bugs. Many of these have work-arounds and are being worked on by Comcast and TV Guide, the suppliers of the software on the 6412.

Hardware

Comcast has not disabled the firewire output on the 6412 -- it was only intended to be used for connecting to DVHS recorders. As a result, the firewire output will NOT display any Program Guide or DVR Menus. This is the normal, expected behavior.

One can emulate a DVHS recorder on a PC or Mac through various software programs. These resources have instructions:

Windows XP

Some units have noisier disk drives than others

Seagate drives seem to be quieter than Maxtor Quickview drives
Exchanging the unit may help you find a quieter one

Software

Many of the software problems first encountered by users can be remedied by remembering one simple rule: Don't turn off the DVR. The 6412 is never really off anyhow. Turning it off just turns off the video and audio outputs. It continues to buffer TV (on some models).

Other bugs you may encounter:

The picture quality of analog recordings is not very good.
- Origin of Problem: Comcast put this box out with an eye toward doing digital simulcasting (transition underway) of analog channels and this is why they spent little to no time or money on analog picture quality.
The box may switch from sending Dolby Digital out of the digital outputs to PCM.
- Remedy: Turn the box off and on.
The box may freeze while recording or buffering analog channels.
- Remedy: Keep it tuned to digital channels (bug should be fixed as of firmware 9.15 and newer)
When turning the box on, it may not display a picture or sound. Changing channels has no effect
- Remedies:
  - Don't turn the box off
  - Play a recording to restore functionality
  - As of 12/01/2005 this bug persists in the current revision of Firmware (9.19).
  - To properly restore normal power on picture and sound, reboot the box (unplug power for a minute.)
Picture but no sound ("MUTE" superimposed over top-center of picture in small white letters)
- Origin of Problem: Box turned itself on for a scheduled recording but muted its audio in case TV or HT audio was left on.
- Remedy: If needed, configure cable box mute (see above) on the remote and unmute.
Box turns off by itself.
- Origin of Problem: Viewing began after box had turned itself on for a scheduled recording. Recording concluded.
- Remedy: None.
Brief flashes of green every few seconds or minutes.
- Origin of Problem: Both tuners are on analog channels.
- Remedy: Change one of the tuners to a digital channel.
There is a recording with a blank title and a date of 12/31/1989
- Origin of Problem: Power was lost or the box was rebooted while recording. Some other issues may also cause it.
- Cautions: Do NOT attempt to play or delete any 12/31/1989 recording. Doing so may cause the box to lock up and/or corrupt existing recordings!!
- Remedies:
  - Try rebooting the box. Turn it off, wait a minute, unplug from power for a minute, then plug it in. Wait one minute before trying to turn it on. Sometimes, this may clear it up or make it appear as a regular recording.
  - Try rebooting as above, but start a recording first, unplugging while it's recording.
  - DVR RESET You can perform a DVR reset to wipe it out. WARNING, this will ALSO wipe out all of your recordings, all scheduled recordings, all series recording (your series priority list), and all manual recordings!! Write down everything you can before you do this! Turn the box off, and within 1-2 seconds, press OK/Select. This puts you into diagnostics mode. You will see a screen with several entries beginning with 'd'. While on this screen, using your remote, type in the following keys: Replay (counter-clockwise arrow), MyDVR, MyDVR, MyDVR, Live, then press any other key. The box will reboot and erase everything.

Service

Some of the bugs you will see come from a combination of the software in the 6412 combined with the guide data being sent by Comcast.

Series recording does not work right, especially for non-network daily shows.
- Cause: The guide data being sent to the box does not contain the New or Repeat flags. Also, the box doesn't remember what it's recorded after you delete it (unlike TiVo).
- Remedy: Either let it record shows you don't want or do manual recordings. As of early 2005, this seems to be improving as the quality of the guide data improves.
The box records in analog when you've set it to digital.
- Cause: If your digital and analog broadcast network channels share the same name in the guide listing, the box will record the analog.Comcast could easily and immediately fix it by adding -DT to the digital channel in locations where it's not working right.
- Remedy: None
Some channels can't be rewound or fast forwarded or have other problems with recording
- Cause: Apparently some channels do not have marker frames, complete frames embedded in the digital stream. Instead, they encode the information which re-draws a new frame in multiple frames. The fast forward works on these marker frames and doesn't work for those channels.
- Remedy: There is apparently a software update Comcast can get at the local office that will fix this. Not all locations appear to have this problem, but BBC America and the digital Discovery channels seem to have this problem.
Simultaneous series recording cancellation problem, aka whack-a-mole
- Description If you have two Series recordings scheduled at the same time (i.e. two events of separate full-season recordings at once), and you want to cancel them, it will let you cancel one OR the other, but not both. I.e. if you cancel show #1 @ 8pm it shows up as 'Negated' as soon as you say 'Don't record this episode'. But if you attempt to to cancel show #2 also @ 8pm, that works...but then show #1 shows up as to-be-recorded again.
- Remedy: None at the present time.

Credits: The first version of this page was based on (and quoted liberally from) a post post by frankz1 from the AVS Forum discussion of the 6412.

External links

Motorola's DCT6412 page User manuals can be downloaded from this page.

Motorola DCT6412 Phase III page

Unofficial 6412 Users' Forum

CJH Engineering's DCT6412 pages Describes undocumented features of the remote control