Anyone have Time Warner Cable's PVR? Comments? (1 Viewer)

Tom McA · Jun 9, 2003

I just moved into a new 'hood, and was told by my TW cable installer that they're about to roll out their dual-tuner cable-box-PVR in the Los Angeles area shortly. A buddy of mine in western NY already has it, and he says it's kinda buggy. Anyone else have anything to say about this thing?

JamesHl · Jun 9, 2003

Buy tivo instead. You can't trust that tw won't start controlling what you can and can't record.

Tom McA · Jun 9, 2003

For now, I don't mind trying it. There's no startup cost, the monthly fee is cheaper than TiVo, and it has two internal tuners so I can watch one thing and tape another without jumping through duplicate equipment hoops.

So, back to my original question...

Stephen Tu · Jun 9, 2003

Yes, given the price differential it's worth a shot. Can always go to Tivo if it's still too buggy.

Bob McElfresh · Jun 9, 2003

They are about to roll this out in San Diego as well. Here is a comparison between the SA8000 and the PVR501 from Dish:

I have an SA8000
I have the DVR Box. It's an SA8000 explorer. I don't know the Hard Drive size, but they claim it will record 50 hours of digital channel programming and 40 hours of analog. It will not record or tune HDTV, you need a 3100HD to tune HDTV. It is an integrated cable box and DVR in one box. I used to have the DISH 501. If it had cost me the same I would definitely have kept the DISH 501.

Differences:

Pro SA8000:
Two tuners - Record 2 shows at once or record one and watch another, or record 2 and watch something you taped earlier.

Record Always Feature - Records a show whenever it's on (e.g. South Park, records Wednesdays at 10pm and Midnight, other days at 9:30.

Cheap! - Montly fee only. No upfront costs.

Con SA8000:

No ability to record something just once per week - For example South Park, you can't record just Wednesdays at 10:00pm, either record once or you get all episodes.

Volume level changes between live and buffered. If you are watching sports live, the hit instant replay, the volume goes way up.

No 30 second skip ahead - Must use fast forward to skip commercials

Slow response - hard to stop precisely at the end of a commercial set.

Forgets posistion when watching recorded show - Dish 501 would remember if you stopped watching a show then went back to the same spot later.

Slower fast forward and rewind. - Dish 501 had 300x.

The roll-out in San Diego may be waiting on new software that addresses some of these issues.

Click to expand...

Harley · Jun 10, 2003

TWC VS TiVo review

Harley

Harley · Jun 10, 2003

There is a discussion going on at a different site, if rules allow I will post the link for it..Please let me know if it's OK.

Harley

Bob McElfresh · Jun 10, 2003

Harley: posting links to other sites is fine as long as it's not for your own commercial purpose or the site does not feature un-ethical (how to pirate things) material.

Harley · Jun 10, 2003

Bob

Thanks for the swift answer I have NO Commercial interest.

Here is the link: TWC vs TiVo

Harley

Jay Heyl · Jun 10, 2003

it has two internal tuners so I can watch one thing and tape another without jumping through duplicate equipment hoops.

Believe me, you will NEVER do this once you have a PVR. The only exception might be for live sporting events. If, like it says in one of the other messages, it can record two shows at once while allowing you to watch something previously recorded, that would be pretty cool, though I have to wonder how well a single disk drive would keep up with all that activity. Anyway, once you get used to having a PVR, live TV will be a thing of the past.

When I got my HDTV tuner I started watching a few things live so I could enjoy the HD aspect. That lasted about two weeks and I was back to watching regular broadcast quality on the ReplayTV. Even the HD picture wasn't enough to make me want to sit through all those commercials.

Click to expand...

Duane M Davis · Jun 18, 2003

Con SA8000:

No ability to record something just once per week - For example South Park, you can't record just Wednesdays at 10:00pm, either record once or you get all episodes.

Volume level changes between live and buffered. If you are watching sports live, the hit instant replay, the volume goes way up.
.

Forgets posistion when watching recorded show - Dish 501 would remember if you stopped watching a show then went back to the same spot later.

These must have changed because they are no longer true. The Record/live volume can be adjusted in the settings. You can resume playback of recorded shows from where you left off and you can specify when you want to record a certain show, like Weds only, or monday-friday only, etc, or all showings or only 10:00pm showings, etc.

oh, and I use the dual tuners all the time.

Click to expand...

Bob McElfresh · Jun 19, 2003

I have dual PVR's and they were necessary on hot Tuesday and Wed nights to get everything my family wanted to watch. Add Thursday night as well with Friends, Scrubs, CSI, Will and Grace - no way to get all this on competiting channels without dual tuners.

Duane M Davis · Jun 19, 2003

How can anyone say you'll never use the Dual tuners? If you have anyone else in the household then it is a necessity. Not having one is what kept me from getting TIVO and I hate DBS. Reading that debate on the link gave me this impression: It's a TIVO community BB. Most of those people have invested $300 + in their TIVO. Of course they are going to turn their nose up at the TWC PVR. For what it seems, if anyone can get past that then they seem to give it good reviews. Recommending it especially for folks that it's either the TWC PVR or nothing. Other than the few bells and whistles not included, I think it's a fine unit.

Tom McA · Jun 20, 2003

Duane -

Amen, brother. You said a few things better (and prolly less sarcastically) than I think I would have.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to the Software forum to ask why there aren't more full-frame DVD releases these days...:rolleyes

Bob McElfresh · Jun 22, 2003

Duane - You have to admit that Tivo has done a great marketing job and that Tivo is currently the most popular PVR out. It does not mean that this fourm is Tivo based, just that Tivo has the largest market share.

One of my gripes about the DVR is that it seems to be a ANALOG device. Just like your VCR, it takes the analog signals and converts them to digital so there is a generational loss. Yes, you have to subscribe to "Digital" service and pay an extra fee to use the "navigator" software, but this is so the DVR can show you a program guide, not do a digital-digital recording.

I personally prefer the digital recorders from the sat companies (DirectTivo, PVR from Dish). These things record the actual digital signals so the playback is bit-for-bit identical to the original broadcast.

Tom McA · Jun 22, 2003

Bob -
I think Duane's (and my) point is that there is often a knee-jerk Tivo-centric response to issues raised on this forum. My original question at the start of this thread was to ask specifically about the TWC DVR. The first response did not answer my question; it was just "Buy Tivo instead." Yes, Tivo is a great product, but to put it in car terms, if I ask for advice from current Saturn owners because I'm thinking of buying one, I'm not interested in a response that only says, "Saturns are crap - get a Porsche."

The pro & con issues about the various DVR's that were discussed here were interesting and helpful. "Buy Tivo instead" was not.

Bob McElfresh · Jun 22, 2003

Ahhh it was the off-topic part that bugged you. Sorry :frowning:

I've seen 2 reviews that directly compare the TW DVR unit against a Tivo unit, and against a Dish PVR501.

Both of these are helpful - but only to people who already have the existing units. But then again, people who already have some other PVR are likely to be able to do a more in-depth comparison and point out subtle differences, including solving annoying problems with older units.

Note: TW has just rolled out the DVR units in San Diego. A fellow member got one and found that they must have some firmware upgrades because problems mentioned like volume change, and scheduling all-or-nothing seems to have been fixed. Oh, and it now DOES remember where you stopped in a recorded show.

Michael St. Clair · Jun 22, 2003

I personally prefer the digital recorders from the sat companies (DirectTivo, PVR from Dish). These things record the actual digital signals so the playback is bit-for-bit identical to the original broadcast.

Bit-for-bit identical to an original broadcast that was often overcompressed to begin with.

DirecTV might have better picture quality than most cable, but it doesn't have better picture quality than my cable, including the analog channels. And yes, I have compared the two on the same TV.

Also, the SciAtl box does do a bit-identical recording off of the analog channels (everything but the extended basic channels below 100).

Click to expand...

Jon_Stevens · Jun 23, 2003

My biggest problem with the tw pvr is the fact that you can't do keyword searches. I'd gotten so used to typing in "egypt" in my 501. A few seconds later many titles with egypt as the keyword would pop up. It's gotten to the point where I might go back the dish because of this.

Jon

Tom McA · Jul 1, 2003

Just got the phone call - my unit's on its way. An installer doesn't even come. It's just gonna show up on my doorstep and I ship the old one back in the same box. Further details as events warrant.

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