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E N G I N E E R I N G

Motorola HD Cable STB Info Pages

Set-Up

Here are some of the things to look at when setting up the Motorola High Definition STB.

If Cable Co. is coming out to to set up your STB

In order to avoid any problems I would have all of your equipment accessible & pulled out if possible. Most Cable Cos. do not allow their technicians to move furniture so if it is inaccessible they may not be able to complete the installation.

If you are having problems with your Picture Quality, make sure that you let the technician know this before he starts the installation. Knowing the location of the splitters, junctions & other cable connections also helps when troubleshooting.

The Cable Co. may provide a decent set of Component Cables, but don't count on it, so having your own cables will only make the installation go much more smoothly. Its also a good idea to have your Owners Manuals available for all of your equipment, just in case. Even some of the better technicians do not know all of the different equipment configurations & how they function. Its up to you to know how YOUR equipment works.....

If you are installing the DCT yourself

There are a couple of common problems that you may encounter, starting with the activation signal sent by the Cable Co.

Non-Responding STB

When a signal is sent to any 2-way Digital Cable Boxes, the box has to respond back to the Cable Companies’ Head-End in order for it to activate, if it doesn't respond back, the system may disconnect the box, shortly after. This will also cause Video-On-Demand (VOD) not to work.

Anyway, the reason this happens is the return signal path (about 8-20 MHz, sub-band) is being blocked. Most common reasons for non-responding digital boxes are:

-The input cable is looped through a surge protector, with high-pass noise filtering
-The input cable is looped through the TV's Ant A/Converter Out/Ant B RF jacks on the back of your TV.

-The input cable is looped through the VCR before the DCT
-The input cable is running through equipment (amplifiers, splitters, ect.) that is not capable of passing return, and/or doesn’t meet 5 MHz-1000 MHz specs

-High pass Filter on cable line designed to block out sub-band noise

-Poorly made fittings, corrosion and/or water in fittings, bad/old cable lines

-Too many splitters in-line with the offending STB.

If you have a Cable Modem or Another Digital Cable Box that is working fine (VOD works) then you can rule out any problems with the cable system itself.

Basically you should have nothing but 5mhz-1ghz splitters in line from the street to the back of your DCT. The only exception is "return capable" amplifiers, most amplifiers installed by the your Cable Co. are capable of passing return.

It is remotely possible that the box is bad, but I would check these things first.

Here is a spreadsheet to figure out approx. how much signal you are losing on your cable drop system

User Settings

Next use the User Settings Screen to do the initial configuration. To access this do the following:

Power the STB "off" --> then press "menu"

This will enter into a screen that looks something like this:

Now you can use the arrow buttons on your remote or the front of the DCT to change these settings.

Your options are:

16:9 – For TV’s that are Widescreen

4:3 Letterbox – For Non-Widescreen TV’s that wish to view HD feeds with bars @ the top and bottom

4:3 Pan & Scan – For Non-Widescreen TV’s that wish to view HD feeds in Full Screen but it will crop the sides of the program (basically like a zoom function)

1080i – Will convert all material on designated HD channels to 1080i format

720p – Will convert all material on designated HD Channels to 720p format

480p -- Will convert all material on designated HD Channels to 480p format

480i -- Will convert all material on designated HD Channels to 480i format & will turn OFF the “480 Override” function

480i – Will set the output of the box to 480i format when NOT tuned to an designated HD channel

480p – Will set the output of the box to 480p format when NOT tuned to an designated HD channel*

OFF – Will set the output of the box to whatever format was selected in the Y/Pb/Pr Output section.*

*If you set the 480 override to “480p” or “OFF” & view the output of the box on any of the analog outputs (S-video, Composite, RF) The on-screen functions (Guide, Menu, etc.) will NOT be displayed. These will ONLY be displayed on the component outputs.