DVR dilemma

[barth2k]

My cable co. here in SoCal is Adelphia, which blows. They have SHO, HBO, and ESPN. That is it. And of course you have to pay extra for each. Ridiculous. CSR says more channels -- discovery and "hd something" (hdnet, inhd, what? hello?) -- will come Q1. Be still my heart!

BUT, they have all 4 networks and PBS, AND A HDDVR! It's unclear whether it's dual tuner.

http://adelphiasocal.com/dvr/

CSR says you can record 2 channels at a time, but so does Miss Cleo, haha. DVR is by Moxi, which frankly has to be better than Motorola, even w/o all the networking stuff. They want $13/month for it.

What do I do? Take a chance on cable PQ, which ranges from really crappy to pretty good, so I can record HD locals, which is basically what I'll have? Or wait for Voom? I can't afford both. I'm afraid if I cancel voom now they'll hit me w/ all kind of install fee if I come crawling back. But I think adelphia actually has a better chance of adding more channels by march than voom does of getting the dvr into my home by march. i mean they can't even get the hiding channels thingy to work right, how do you expect them to do dvr?

what to do, what to do?

 

[jagouar]

I would wait for voOm personally... if you can get your locals OTA now with the voOm antenna.

 

[joep]

If you want to view more HD, go Voom. If you want to record local-HD, go with Adelphia. But for me it would be a no-brainer. I went from HD cable to DirecTV to Voom and have no regrets at all. Voom rules, the others are poor substitutes if you want HD!

 

[T2k]

GO Voom and buy an SR-W7U from JVC as I did: http://www.savantaudio.com/wvhs1.html

You'll get the best HD and you'll be able to record it in HD.

 

[CraziFuzzy]

or, if you are willing to give it a shot, pick up an HD tuner card for your computer (around $150 last i shopped). They can record the HD streams to HD, not exactly PVR, but a cheaper solution for the time being. Again, this is only for locals.

 

[T2k]

Again, this is only for locals.

Yeah, that's the problem. Last time I've checked there's no UHD, HBOHD or WorldCinemaHD on locals...

 

[SKrueger]

My cable co. here in SoCal is Adelphia, which blows... It's unclear whether it's dual tuner.

Had the same cable provider (Los Angeles Metro area) with the Moxi unit. HD service is the pits and SD channels through the Moxi unit are almost unwatchable. There is constant signal loss/breakup on the HD channels, something rumored to be caused by Adelphia always borrowing bandwidth from HD for other services. However PQ is great when you have a good signal.

The Moxi unit itself is a dual tuner for the cable channels only. No provision for OTA channels and Adelphia has no current plans to add WB, UPN, or PBS networks if you ever watch them. They also don't care to discuss their future plans for HD other than to feed you fluff. Plan on hefty charges for any additional channels. They are the only local cable/satellite provider that charges extra for ESPN-HD and doesn't include it in their basic package.

Recording quality of the HD feeds is great when a good HD signal is received. SD recording suffers from the same poor PQ mentioned above. Other than that, the user interface of the Moxi is one of the worst around in my opinion. Very cumbersome to use.

Dropped them after 6 weeks of HD and switched to Voom. Haven't looked back since.