Just Ordered Cox HD DVR

Welcome to my hell...

Shawn95GT said:
Day 2 and my new annoyance:

Audible hum at all times from the TV when the input that is connected to the 8300HD is selected (RCAs connected to the TV). The optical output doesn't seem to have the hum.

The guide sucks so bad it's pitiful. Even my fiance hates it - lol.

The 'digital' SD looks about the same if not worse than the analog SD. It kind of varies by channel. Vooms SD is/was nothing to party about but Cox digital cable has not been an improvement.

It isn't looking like the cool factor of the DVR is going to save it. I'm not even sure its worth paying for digital cable. $10 analog cable + OTA HD may be making a comeback at my place.


Shawn welcome to my hell, I'm sharing your pain. I moved to Gilbert in December and after being with DirecTV since year 1 month 1, I opted for a change and Voom was it, aside from the DVR or lack of it, I really loved all the HD channels.

About 2 weeks ago I went over the Chandler office of Cox and picked up 2 HD 8300's and 1 SD8300 and for 40 dollars more a month I get to enjoy 5 HD channels and highly unreliable locals!!!!

I reading your post I was amazed about the coax and the CSR, the guy that took care of me was more on our level, in fact he told me that aside from free cable, he had thought about adding Voom and I was the first person that told him that it was dead.

The issues that I had with my install were that I wasn't going to switch over to Cox until the last day but during American Idol my Voom died, I knew that an installer was coming to the house to remove the trap but I specifically advised the CSR to note to NOT ALLOW this guy to do any work inside my box OTHER than remove the trap.

So at 7:30 in the middle of Idol all the tv's die and the Voom boxes have red lights, the guy was out there and had cut all the ends on my coax to put new connectors on, oh gee I guess that a new connector works better than a 3 month old one. To make matters worse, when I ran out to kill him I said ok, just put the lines back on the color coded slots. I had placed color coded tapes on all my lines to know if they were OTA, Satellite, what room they went to etc, he took it upon himself to remove all the tapes as well, total genius!

Hey not to bore everyone here, you need to call Cox and complain about the CSR and the COAX issue, they need to learn to stop being so F'in stupid and train their people. Also give the DVR a few days, it will grow on you. The sheer fact of being able to record 2 programs at the same time is a blessing and both in HD, to boot.

There are a lot of negative features that you're going to find out about the 8300 like the fact that it's not a Tivo, if you get home and start to watch a show from the beginning which it's recording and the show ends and it stops recording, you get kicked out back to live Tv and have to FF all the way to where you left off. Or the fact that you can't actually join a program in progress, you have to rewind it all the way back to the start. Or some of the other quirks that if you haven't found out yet you will.

Finally you need to come over to the local Phoenix AVS forum if you're not there already, there are a couple that you need to get on to keep up with Cox and the 8300HD, I can't post a URL here because I'm too new but if you google for the Phoenix AVS Forum you should find it also check for the Arizona HDTV forum, it's an odd site, something like landpcservices but it's a nice PHPBB board with a lot of the same people in a not so national format such as the AVS... see you on cable dude!

Enjoy dude and just remember the DirecTv Dvr is a thousand bucks so Cox really isn't such a bad deal.

Miguel
 
I got an SA 8300 DVR from adelphia and it's really pretty cool. Dual tuner is very nice and so far I haven't had any problems with it. My only complaints so far are that the user interface isn't as intuitive as I think it should be and also the guide really sucks.
 
Shawn, you need a hum buster on your coax. This breaks...

Shawn95GT said:
Day 2 and my new annoyance:

Audible hum at all times from the TV when the input that is connected to the 8300HD is selected (RCAs connected to the TV). The optical output doesn't seem to have the hum.

The guide sucks so bad it's pitiful. Even my fiance hates it - lol.

The 'digital' SD looks about the same if not worse than the analog SD. It kind of varies by channel. Vooms SD is/was nothing to party about but Cox digital cable has not been an improvement.

It isn't looking like the cool factor of the DVR is going to save it. I'm not even sure its worth paying for digital cable. $10 analog cable + OTA HD may be making a comeback at my place.

the ground loop you are getting. The optical cable being glass/plastic opens the ground loop. Never had to use one myself so can't recommend a specific model. Believe Radio Shack carries them and they are available on the web. That will solve the hum problem but for the rest of your problems....

Still enjoying HDTV via VOOM under mostly cloudy Seattle skies, Gill
 
lostcause said:
I got an SA 8300 DVR from adelphia and it's really pretty cool. Dual tuner is very nice and so far I haven't had any problems with it. My only complaints so far are that the user interface isn't as intuitive as I think it should be and also the guide really sucks.

Well I do agree, going from no DVR to a nice DVR with 2 tuners and HD recording capability is nice but having been a Tivo user in the past, the 8300HD with the SARA software leaves a bit to be desired.

* When you want to join a program in progress that is say 15 miuntes in, you don't have an option in the menu to Play from Beginning, this only appears once the complete show has been recorded. Solution, rewind the entire show to the start and press play. Issue, when that show ends and you still have 30 miuntes to watch, you get kicked out of the time slip back to real time on that channel and you now have to go back into the menu system, find the show you just recorded and hit play, FF to where you left off and resume your show.

* Commercial Skip, Tivo had a hidden function 30 second skip, this does not work on the 8300, you have to watch the commercials in one of 3 FF speeds and get back to the show.

* Overskip correction, Tivo has a patent on overskip correction and the 8300 has to license this to use it if they wanted it. The solution, press the 8 second rewind button one or two times to come out of FF when the commercials are over to get you to about where you want to be. SLOPPY!

* Integrated Program Guide: This leaves many open issues, no 1st run flag, only a 1 week guide limit (Tivo was 2) and the lack of a search by title. Yes you can sort the DAY by title, but you can't type in Star Trek and have all episodes of the show for that week come up.

* The unit shuts off after a set amount of time, there is a workaround to this, setup a daily OFF and WAKEUP 1 minute later, but why! If you have a replay Tv or other unit that you're using with this one for whatever reason, you stand the risk of recording nothing because the box was off when you needed it to be on.

* When a scheduled recording moves (because the airing was at a different time that week) into a conflict with two other shows, the box drops all 3 recordings. Absolutely fatal.

* No physical DVI port, you must use the HDMI port and buy a DVI converter, also in many systems that port is disabled. I use component so I don't care but none the less.

* Serial ATA port may or may not be active depending on what system you're on so you may or may not be able to add more time to your system by adding external drive space.

This is just what I've found in the last week and a half that I've had my units, again I was a little jaded since I had Tivo but was open minded about this, either way, I can get over most of these, some are just plain flat out poor programming!

Miguel
 
yeah, I guess all that could be a problem, but at the same time, it doesn't cost $1000.00 either. :)

My biggest complaints though are the guide which sucks, and the user interface which is anything but user friendly. It's not easy to search for shows either.

If I had to pay 1K for it, I'd be very unhappy but since it's only 7.95/mo or so, I can live with it for now.
 
I'm looking at it as 'what do I gain with the HD DVR / Digital Cable vs. analog cable + HD OTA?'

Right now that consists of 5 HD channels.. 2-3 of which I'd actually miss. Digital cable also gives me some more channels that I and others in the household are looking for (Military / Toon disney / LMN)... that's about it.

I'm not really seeing much value here :(.

I'm going to get some pics of the screen / guide...
 
lostcause said:
yeah, I guess all that could be a problem, but at the same time, it doesn't cost $1000.00 either. :)

My biggest complaints though are the guide which sucks, and the user interface which is anything but user friendly. It's not easy to search for shows either.

If I had to pay 1K for it, I'd be very unhappy but since it's only 7.95/mo or so, I can live with it for now.

Actually, the HR10-250 DIRECTV HD DVR-TiVo cost $829.99 delivered to your door and no tax. You also get a $200. and a $50. rebate, so your actual final cost is $580. delivered, no tax and installed.

-Robert
 
Here are the screen grabs I promised:

Let's start with Two Towers on an SD channel (I paused it so all of these are the exact same frame):

'Normal 1080i':
normal.jpg


'Stretch 1080i':
1080izoom.jpg


'Zoom1 1080i':
zoom1.jpg


'Zoom2 1080i':
zoom2.jpg


Here is the lovely guide:
guide.jpg


And some menus when you try to record something:
record001.jpg


record002.jpg


record003.jpg


The ones highlighted in Red are to be recorded.
 
DTV TiVo Dealer said:
Actually, the HR10-250 DIRECTV HD DVR-TiVo cost $829.99 delivered to your door and no tax. You also get a $200. and a $50. rebate, so your actual final cost is $580. delivered, no tax and installed.

-Robert

the 200.00 rebate ends up being off the programming, so it's still over 800.00 out of my pocket. I'm one of the poor ones on this forum, so that's quite a chunk of change. Plus, there's the tivo subscription fee on top of that. Plus, what happens when they convert to mpeg4??

When directv comes up with a lease option that includes the tivo usage fee then it will be a lot more attractive. BTW, a tivo/dvr isn't a deal breaker for me. I've survived all my life without one. Sure it's cool, but at least for me not a deal breaker. Price and HD picture quality are much more important for me right now. No contract is also nice right now since the HD market is wide open and I don't want to be locked in if someone else takes the HD lead. Right now cable is cheaper and the HD is reportedly better, plus they have a couple more HD channels. And that's without the DVR. Add the dvr to the mix and directv is WAY behind.

BTW, as I said numerous times, I don't dislike directv. I'd love to be able to go back to them. They just don't have any real advantages at the moment other than I hate adelphia cable, which is annoying but considering I have no contract, can be very very temporary.
 
Until my wife and I get our own place again in August we're stuck with her parents Cox service. I do not like it one bit.

I would say their DVR technology fits between the 510 and the DTivo. The DTivo can manage recordings much better, bit the Cox version (I believe i have the 6412) doesn't as well. If I set a program to record first run only it won't record any shows in syndication. If I set it to record first run and repeats then it will record everything, but it will record programs that it's already recorded.
 
Any chance that the Cox HDDVR box can be used to tune and record OTAHD? If not by itself, maybe hooked up to another OTA reciever (hoping my Voom box will still get OTA)?
 
rrobe99999 said:
Any chance that the Cox HDDVR box can be used to tune and record OTAHD? If not by itself, maybe hooked up to another OTA reciever (hoping my Voom box will still get OTA)?

Unfortunately the Cox HD-DVR box will not work for OTA. :no If V* does not disable the OTA function then you would still be able to use it to receive locals OTA.
 
I am actually much happier with Cox than I was with Voom. The HD-DVR player has forever altered how I watch tv. The SD blows Voom completely out the water. I recorded Final Destination 2 on Encore (SD) and it looked damn near like an HD channel. INHD 1 and 2 definitely have the wow factor. PPV porn aint bad either :D

The program guide is a damn joke however, as the favorites option on Voom's PG was in retrospect extremely nice to have. Nothing quite like having to look at what is playing on 300 channels or so of things you will never ever watch. This has got to be an easy fix for them to implement. The favorite channel feature simply bounces you from one favorite to the next.

As far as the cropping on non-HD channels, the 8300 HD has a way to watch in 480 i instead of always having to watch in 1080i. Check out the Scientific Atlanta website. You can also choose 480 p and 720 p resolution.
 
kabota dragon said:
I am actually much happier with Cox than I was with Voom. The HD-DVR player has forever altered how I watch tv. The SD blows Voom completely out the water. I recorded Final Destination 2 on Encore (SD) and it looked damn near like an HD channel. INHD 1 and 2 definitely have the wow factor. PPV porn aint bad either :D

The program guide is a damn joke however, as the favorites option on Voom's PG was in retrospect extremely nice to have. Nothing quite like having to look at what is playing on 300 channels or so of things you will never ever watch. This has got to be an easy fix for them to implement. The favorite channel feature simply bounces you from one favorite to the next.

As far as the cropping on non-HD channels, the 8300 HD has a way to watch in 480 i instead of always having to watch in 1080i. Check out the Scientific Atlanta website. You can also choose 480 p and 720 p resolution.

Well, Kabota, thanks for a dose of reality here. I just got my 8300 yesterday evening and have already wasted way too much time watching it. The experience at the Cox office as well as the ease of setup was the quickest and most effortless experience I've ever had with them (in 11 years). The HD DVR is definitely awesome. Yes, the guide kinda stinks, but at least it excels at viewing listings more than a day or two out. I definitely agree with you on the PQ. It is consistently better than VOOM's for SD and doesn't suffer from the last few week's of "Harmonic Encoder" BS that VOOM did. Yes, some of the SD pictures do look almost HD. Hey, guess what, 480P is the same as DVD. I think some people don't get that. A digital, SD signal broadcast in 480P should look like DVD quality, which it never did on VOOM.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. Just wanted to say that I definitely have enjoyed my one full year of VOOM and will be sad to see it go, but I'm very pleasantly surprised by the COX solution here in Northern VA. No, I don't get the VOOM originals, but the INHDs may end up being my new Equator and Rave.
 
I agree that the PQ is much better on SD than V*, and the HD is as good if not better also! I just wish they had a few more HD channels. I spoke with a CSR today and she told me to either call sales and ask for more HD channels, or write to them and ask for more HD. She gave me the address to write to at their office here in Phoenix, and I will Post that here in this forum when I get to work tomorrow. She said that they have a group meeting at least once a week and that HD has become more of a topic of requests from customers lately. I would at least like to see TNT-HD, Cinemax HD and The Movie Channel HD.

I do expect them to convert everything to Digital and get rid of the Analog channels that are currently on channels 2-73? (or something like that) very soon. The only inconvience for people who just have basic cable on an analog TV, is that they would have to get a STB, but it also would free up a tremendous amount of bandwidth for more HD!! :D

The more we ask for more HD content, the more likely Cox will be to add more. I am even going to ask about the possibility of a few of the Voom 21 being added... :p

I will be posting the address here tomorrow to send your letters to Cox in Phoenix...

Oh, and yes the SA 8300 HD DVR Rocks, but the program guide has a lot to be desired..
 
Cox in Fairfax

Is anyone having problems with FOX breaking up? Odd thing, the other locals look ok.

When I hooked up my box initially (looked new), ALL channels (except PPV) were activated. Called in to correct this annoyance...
 
anyone have cox in CT. ? I am wondering how picture quality of regular channels not only compares to voom but how they look on a widesreen 51" tv. thanks
 
FWIW, I have Cox in AZ and a 50" DLP.

In 480i / 480p I don't don't see a whole heck of a lot of differerence. When Cox is sending crap down the wire, it still looks like crap in 480p / 1080i. DVD quality it is not, that's for sure.

That being said, the SD quality does seem better than Voom's (on the big TV). I just recetly got my box setup to do 480p for the SD stuff and 1080i for the HD. I only chose 480p vs 480i because in 480i my TV looks TERRIBLE on the test menu. Watching actual content I don't see a quality difference.

On a 4:3 set, Vooms SD PQ looked amazing. My 4:3 set is also only 27" but I had Cox analog cable on this set before and Voom blows it away. I expect that the Cox digital STB would look good on it too.

On the HD side of things I'm admittedly watching a lot of Voom as of late. When I do switch back and forth, the Voom looks consistantly softer than Cox's picture. Last weekend's NASCAR race looked AMAZING on Cox.

My gripes right now with Cox vs Voom are:

1. The guide sucks
2. Cox HD hiccups (like dropped frames) contantly.
3. While they do have a DVR it seems you can only record about 10 hours of HD before it's full (8300HD).

#2 annoys the crap out of me. I think I'd prefer macroblocking over dropped frames.
 
Shawn95GT said:
FWIW, I have Cox in AZ and a 50" DLP.

In 480i / 480p I don't don't see a whole heck of a lot of differerence. When Cox is sending crap down the wire, it still looks like crap in 480p / 1080i. DVD quality it is not, that's for sure.

That being said, the SD quality does seem better than Voom's (on the big TV). I just recetly got my box setup to do 480p for the SD stuff and 1080i for the HD. I only chose 480p vs 480i because in 480i my TV looks TERRIBLE on the test menu. Watching actual content I don't see a quality difference.

On a 4:3 set, Vooms SD PQ looked amazing. My 4:3 set is also only 27" but I had Cox analog cable on this set before and Voom blows it away. I expect that the Cox digital STB would look good on it too.

On the HD side of things I'm admittedly watching a lot of Voom as of late. When I do switch back and forth, the Voom looks consistantly softer than Cox's picture. Last weekend's NASCAR race looked AMAZING on Cox.

My gripes right now with Cox vs Voom are:

1. The guide sucks
2. Cox HD hiccups (like dropped frames) contantly.
3. While they do have a DVR it seems you can only record about 10 hours of HD before it's full (8300HD).

#2 annoys the crap out of me. I think I'd prefer macroblocking over dropped frames.

Shawn, You might have Cox check your cabling to make sure everything is OK and your signal is not low and if it is then they should be able to install an amplifier to correct the low signal strength. I have had the 8300 here for about a week now and have watched the HD channels extensively and have not noticed any drop outs at all. I would sure complain, especially if your PQ is not good on the lower channels which are still analog. I am very impressed so far with the PQ on all channels both SD and HD, even on the lower analog channels look great through the 8300. I also have an old 60" SD analog set hooked up directly with no STB and the analog channels even look fairly good on that set.

Hope you are able to get everything corrected soon.

Here is a good site for investigating some of the problems associated with bad cable signals. http://www.broadbandreports.com/faq/cabletech
 

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