Can "hunting" Comcast Motorola DVR be put in "playback only" mode?

[Jimw338]

We had a power "blip" outage the other day, and afterward our old non-X1 Motorola DVR went permanently into its "hunting" mode - whatever that is. We got it replaced with a new one, but of course they "can't" get stuff we'd already recorded off the old one. (Read "won't bother enough about customers to assign an engineer to figure out how to do it..)

Is it possible for a Comcast Motorola DVR to play stored video as a "playback only" device? Or does it have to authenticate with Comcast to verify that it's actually being used by a current Comcast subscriber before it can play anything back? (I presume decoding session keys for each individual video file recorded).

Or for that matter, to simply buy the old Motorola off of them, and a new Motorola, and then swap the hard drives? Or is there a hardware serial number lock in there somewhere?

This of course assumes they haven't wiped the old one we turned in today already.

[october262]

you might be able to play back the content you have on the DVR, as for swapping the old HDD
that may not be possible, not without formatting the HDD first. the content on the HDD may be encrypted.

[orsetto]

All ComCast DVRs are encrypted to death, sealed box, one-and-done devices. When they break, you lose everything on them, end of story, no happy ending. I have TWC/Spectrum now, the same applies with them, except I've never seen this "hunting" error you mentioned: can you describe in more detail? Do you know what it is "hunting" for? If it is hunting for authorization, and a hardware failure from the power surge disabled that function, you're SOOL: the thing will not work (even for playback) unless/until it confirms an authorization code from the cable line.

This gets further complicated if you had ComCast disconnect it when they supplied your replacement DVR: the office may have de-authorized your old broken DVR to avoid double billing you, so if you attempt to re-connect it will get nowhere until you call a rep and tell them you want that box re-authorized in addition to your new DVR (plus they'll probably bill you for a minimum period of use, a week or a month, even if the box technically achieves authorization but still displays "hunting" and locks you out of playback).

As october262 noted, there's unfortunately no way to get the videos off the HDD with a PC or make another DVR play them by swapping drives. Each DVR HDD file system is encrypted and locked to that specific DVR unit via motherboard serial number, firmware, etc: if the DVR croaks, the HDD inside becomes a useless brick and all recordings on it must be considered lost forever. The Hollywood Studio and Premium Cable Channel nexus demanded that as an anti-piracy measure.

Theres a small (very small) chance you could have your broken DVR repaired independently: in some cities/towns there is a thriving cottage industry of technicians who specialize in repairing dead cable, satellite and TiVO DVRs. Once repaired, the DVR should function normally when reconnected to the system and re-authorized. The trick is finding such a technician: they don't generally advertise their services. Also theres no guarantee the repaired DVR will be able to play the videos if the HDD itself sustained any damage from a power surge: the DVR box can be fixed, but a wrecked encrypted HDD cannot. No way of knowing until the DVR is serviced, so you risk throwing away money on a worthless repair if the HDD then proves to be damaged anyway. Which is why cable/satellite companies won't provide DVR repair service: it isn't cost effective. Its cheaper for them to just exchange the unit.

[Gripweed]

Did you try Googling "Motorola DVD hunting"? Basically you have a low signal to the DVR. Follow the advice on the Google recommended pages.