Charter 8300HDC DVR Horrible

[yoshyusmc]

I have read some of the other older post here about the savings of having all three services on one bill with one company. So during these economic times, I have taken the plunge and decided to give Charter Cable a try.

I have the 10mb and phone already, and love both of those services. For television I have been a DirecTv advocate for many years, minus the three years I spent in Germany with the US Army.

DirecTv is an excellent service with excellent quality. Their DVR is also excellent on the DTV DVR-HD box. It is supreme on a Tivo box, which is a god point about DTV. You just yank out your DTV card plug it in a aftermarket box, and activate it. So your not stuck with the choice DTV picks. The main downfall is the price for all of this, and buying a HD-DVR will set you back anywhere from 150-500.

Charter cable was a huge cost savings for me, and I was excited to get started. However the first day I started watching, I noticed that when you pause a live show, the TV screen flashes black (I set it to 1080i connected through my JVC HDMI reciever) then shows the show paused. When you try to unpause the show hangs, and then next you continue 10-30secs later.
Watching a DVR recorded show, it pauses every 5mins, and skips like pausing live TV. This is completely unacceptable!!
The menus are also horrible looking, with a font that looks like it from the late 80s. The menu is quite a downgrade from the look of DirectTv.
Some of the good points are that the on demand on Charter is superb even over DirectTv. With Charter it is quick, don't have the DVR problems, and doesnt affect my home internet speeds. The DirectTv has on demand however must be connected to the home network. I think Charter connects a separate line like the phone, and somehow maintains the speed.
The HD channels are also good quality, and I would say they compare with DirectTV.
The menus while ugly, do seem a little snapier.
I called Charter support, and they told me to do the usual power cycle, and they would send a signal. Then she said to give it a few mins, and it should clear, so for the past 30mins live tv has been pausing. I hope it is for a good reason, there should be a screen prompt notifying of the interruption. But no indication does make it irritable.

I will report back later whether or not the DVR problems clear up. I hope they do, because I like the On Demand better (Tudors!) and the lower cost. Just wish we had more of a choice when it came to equipment.

 

[drbill28]

I experience similar problems, but many of them are due to the cheap HDMI switch, when the switch changes format, the box is trying to adjust at the same time and it results in funny quirks. Like, I'll start a On Demand program and it'll just be black, I'll change the channel and then back and it's fine. Sometimes if I change the channel and back to a channel I'm recording the show will black out and may or may not be recording. I haven't tried this myself, but try hooking the box directly to the TV and see if it helps. Unfortunately this is the only box they use in my area. So changing it is not an option. If you have the same menu I do, it does stink appeal wise.

Also, I like to set the box for the "Upconvert 2" setting. This does convert all the 1080i HD channels into 720p, I don't notice a difference, but it will upconvert all the analog/digital channels to 480p, which I love. You can have the "Upconvert 1" setting which is the same 480p on analog/digital, but 1080i on the HD channels. Personally I like the 720p myself.

 

[swampman]

DirecTv is an excellent service with excellent quality. Their DVR is also excellent on the DTV DVR-HD box. It is supreme on a Tivo box, which is a god point about DTV. You just yank out your DTV card plug it in a aftermarket box, and activate it. So your not stuck with the choice DTV picks.

Not sure what you're talking about here. What is that?

The menus are also horrible looking, with a font that looks like it from the late 80s. The menu is quite a downgrade from the look of DirectTv.
Some of the good points are that the on demand on Charter is superb even over DirectTv. With Charter it is quick, don't have the DVR problems, and doesnt affect my home internet speeds. The DirectTv has on demand however must be connected to the home network. I think Charter connects a separate line like the phone, and somehow maintains the speed.
The HD channels are also good quality, and I would say they compare with DirectTV.
The menus while ugly, do seem a little snapier.
I called Charter support, and they told me to do the usual power cycle, and they would send a signal. Then she said to give it a few mins, and it should clear, so for the past 30mins live tv has been pausing. I hope it is for a good reason, there should be a screen prompt notifying of the interruption. But no indication does make it irritable.

Dont really understand what equipment you have there, but sounds like you would be better off with a TivoHD with that cable service. I just switched from Directv to cable and LOVE IT!

 

[drbill28]

I have the same model he does and experience some of the same issues. They use the same guide on the DVRs as they do on the standard digital boxes.

If he has the same guide, some of the others are just as ugly. This is what it looks like.

I forget the name of what it's called, this is just the one branded for Cox. The one from Charter comes the same just with the Charter branding. That not my TV BTW.

I wish I could buy a TiVO, it's just too expensive up front right now. It's also have to pay for the TiVO service and the Cablecard.

 

[swampman]

Well if you did have a TivoHD, this is what the on screen guide would look like. This is my tivo with Charter cable. This photo is a bit grainy due to transfer, but on the TV its very sharp. Click to enlarge.

 

[drbill28]

Maybe at some point I'll get a TiVO. It'd have to be used though. Overall I would save a few $ per month over my DVR from the cable company, but only like $2-3 I don't like the way this one works and they have so little storage anyway.

 

[dnbama]

As of this week I am giving up on twenty (20) yep 1, 2, 3, ...20 years of putting up with Charter's crap. I have had it. I don't care if Charter is cheaper. The service would be overpriced if it was free. Now the decision id Dish or Direct. Learning towars Direct because of the YES NETWORK and the HD numbers.

 

[swampman]

Maybe at some point I'll get a TiVO. It'd have to be used though. Overall I would save a few $ per month over my DVR from the cable company, but only like $2-3 I don't like the way this one works and they have so little storage anyway.

Well I just bought mine from Sears for $148 brand new. Even with the $12.99/mo Tivo fee, $2/mo cablecard fee, I'm still saving about $12-15/mo.

 

[swampman]

As of this week I am giving up on twenty (20) yep 1, 2, 3, ...20 years of putting up with Charter's crap. I have had it. I don't care if Charter is cheaper. The service would be overpriced if it was free. Now the decision id Dish or Direct. Learning towars Direct because of the YES NETWORK and the HD numbers.

Well I was also lured into the "more HD" of Directv. Then I realized 2 things. 1- it would cost a small fortune to actually get all the HD channels that I wanted, 2- because of packaging, I would be paying for alot of channels I never watch. As with any provider, you can get nickel & dimed to death before you know it. And I wont even mention the nightmares with Directv's HD DVRs. Which is why I left.

 

[drbill28]

swampman, you convinced me, I ditched the DVR from Charter and went with a TiVo HD, $200 used. Works exactl-i like a DVR should. There was an up and down side to changing over to a cable card from the cable company. I took the DVR down to the office and expected to get a card like the person on the phone said I should do and should expect them to program it and give it to me. Well, I get there and they tell me "they don't do that" and a truck roll is necessary costing me $35. Lucky the appointment was for the next day. But I'm disappointed I had to spend $35 for 1 minute of work.