My Charter story...

[kz77]

I don't even know where to start... I've had Charter (the only option I my complex) for less than a year now and has been a lot of trouble. Here's a summary:

- I order one of their bundles, with an HD option and DVR; the first cable guy shows up and he carries only a standard definition DVR?!!! I was like "how are you gonna make my HD channels show up on this?" .... "uhhhh.... I guess you'll need another appointment". "Great!"
- A few days later, cable guy no 2 shows up. The good news is that he has an HD box. Sets it up and... surprise!! It can't be activated! And it's the only box he has! That's just awesome!
- He proposes appointment no 3, I reject it since I can't waste any more time and try to see if I can pick a DVR up from their local office.
- I stop by their office... I convince them that I can install it myself (wasn't easy) and I get another box. After 5 mins of plugging cables and a call to activate it, I can finally watch something on my HD DVR!!!!
- The Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR worked fairly well for 5-6 months. Occasionally, the recording would not be playable but hey, no one is perfect.
- The box gets really, really slow at times. Changing channels, and scrolling through the guide takes 3-5 seconds... After a week I see somewhere on Charter forums that they have some newer Moxi DVRs and I decide to try one.
- I set up an appointment to exchange it, cable guy no 3 shows up, but he warns me that Moxi DVRs have lots of problems. I ignore him. The new interface is at least 10 years ahead of 8300HD's one.
- I leave it running, I leave the room for a few minutes to come back and find smoke coming out of the box. That's just ONE HOUR after it was installed!!! Was I not there, I would have had a chance of running a live test on my smoke alarm and sprinklers.
- Set up appointment for the next day and cable guy no 4 brings me another Moxi DVR. They have a 80GB hard drive by the way - great for HD recording - you could probably get 4-5 hours of HD programs on it. And it's 2010! Anyway, the new box works fine for just over 24 hours after which, it won't show any channels. I unplug and leave it for for an hour and it works again!! For another 24 hours!!!

At this point I don't know where to go... if I had an option I would take it in a second. But in my apartment complex there's only Charter. I don't have a balcony so any satellite TV is out. Should I move or just stop watching TV?

 

[Kirby Baker]

You could go over to the Charter Direct forums on dslreports.com and post a question there. They seem to be higher level representatives of the company, maybe they can help you out. Worth a shot. But in your situation, I would probably opt for a Tivo (S3, HD or Premiere) and get a cable card (and SDV Tuning Adapter if SDV is live there).

 

[thiggin2]

Sorry my experience is with a different provider but same box.
I have that Scientific Atlanta 8300HD DVR I use with Bright House and I have to say that is the BIGGEST POS box I have ever used. I have gone through about 4 so far and ready to make it 5. My brother works for BH as a sub-contractor and he told me they have a new box out and it's suppose to be alot better but I don't think they offer it in my county (area) yet.

 

[Need]

After having the Moxi DVR for a few months, I am getting used to the slow interface. The hard drive is a joke. I connect my 500 Gb external hard drive to it and took care of the problem, but now I have to buy another HD for my PC backup.

The DVR never turns off or in sleep mode, I am worry about summer time. Right now it is sitting outside in the open. When I get the entertainment cabinet and when it is 90 degree inside during the summer... I am not sure how well the box could handle that.

 

[waltinvt]

After over a year of agony with the SA8300HD and numerous attempts to get them to swap for a Moxi (which although the main office said I could do but the local office said I could not - turns out the local was right), I finally got a TiVo Premier. I can't begin to tell you how much better our TV-DVRing is now.

The TiVo cost $299 but I net about $3/mo savings on TiVo vs Charter DVR fees which makes it a no-brainier to get rid of the SA800 aggravation.

I lost the Charter VOD but gained so much more with TiVo, including being able to stream Netflix, Amazon, Blockbuster & U-Tube. PLUS, since our Tivo is wired in to the home network, we can transfer anything TiVo records to our computer and mobile devices. I was told you can't transfer copy protected stuff but so far that hasn't been an issue - even for HBO programs.