Michael Rogers
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- Dec 31, 2005
- Messages
- 740
I think I have had a Time Warner SA DVR for about 5 years. The interface was sort of primitive looking but it worked fine and was quick (not that it didn't have an occasional glitch). When I found that the internal memory was not quite enough for my needs I got an expansion drive and had no trouble installing it. I liked recording things to DVD (mostly old movies from TCM that were not in DVD) and the interface had a useful copy to VCR function which allowed me to watch and use the DVR while a locked playback of any DVR recording was fed through another set of audio/video outs.
Then, I got "upgraded" to the Mystro software. Not quite as quick, Copy to VCR is now removed and in general, kinda clunky. Soon after that my first expansion drive folded and I got a new one. When the new one came in, the installation was a pain where I couldn't quite figure out if the drive or the box was the problem. I actually had the drive replaced and then the box replaced but things still wouldn't work, it recognized and supposedly formatted the drive but there was no additional space. Imfigured it formatted improperly so I decided to format the drive to the computer and have it trigger a reformat on the DVR. That worked and things were reletively smooth for the last couple years.
Until things started to go screwy a few weeks ago. Some recording would glitch and loop back on an earlier portion. Recordings would cut off early. I observed that a recording would stop when the picture would momentarily freeze if I were warching it live.
I removed the expansion drive and it seemed to kill the problem (along with many of my recordings). So, the drive was under warrenty and I got a replacement. Upon installation and rebooting of the drive, the DVR made a clicking noise over and over again and when it came back on all the rest of mynrecordings were gone and it was unable to record. Internal hard drive failure.
I get that box exchanged and use it without the expansion drive in the beginning. First thing I notice is tha this is a newer version of the software that boots with a Cisco screen rather than Mystro. The interface is slower and less responsive than before,data loading time is more. And also, the secondary analog connection that I still used, despite not having copy to VCR anymore would block out if the HDMI connection is used and the TV is not on or set to DVR position. All I would get on my analog connection (which feeds to a DVD recorder and is monitored on a small TV) is a notice that the HDMI connection is not working. The only answer is to switch to componant connection.
So, to maintain my setup I had to forgo the HDMI connection unless I never switched to the blu ray player or the roku when I recorded something from the DVR.
Adding in the expander drive was a pain to, took a couple of reboots but it seems t be working.
I am just pondering what "improvements" Time Warner will be making to the software next.
Then, I got "upgraded" to the Mystro software. Not quite as quick, Copy to VCR is now removed and in general, kinda clunky. Soon after that my first expansion drive folded and I got a new one. When the new one came in, the installation was a pain where I couldn't quite figure out if the drive or the box was the problem. I actually had the drive replaced and then the box replaced but things still wouldn't work, it recognized and supposedly formatted the drive but there was no additional space. Imfigured it formatted improperly so I decided to format the drive to the computer and have it trigger a reformat on the DVR. That worked and things were reletively smooth for the last couple years.
Until things started to go screwy a few weeks ago. Some recording would glitch and loop back on an earlier portion. Recordings would cut off early. I observed that a recording would stop when the picture would momentarily freeze if I were warching it live.
I removed the expansion drive and it seemed to kill the problem (along with many of my recordings). So, the drive was under warrenty and I got a replacement. Upon installation and rebooting of the drive, the DVR made a clicking noise over and over again and when it came back on all the rest of mynrecordings were gone and it was unable to record. Internal hard drive failure.
I get that box exchanged and use it without the expansion drive in the beginning. First thing I notice is tha this is a newer version of the software that boots with a Cisco screen rather than Mystro. The interface is slower and less responsive than before,data loading time is more. And also, the secondary analog connection that I still used, despite not having copy to VCR anymore would block out if the HDMI connection is used and the TV is not on or set to DVR position. All I would get on my analog connection (which feeds to a DVD recorder and is monitored on a small TV) is a notice that the HDMI connection is not working. The only answer is to switch to componant connection.
So, to maintain my setup I had to forgo the HDMI connection unless I never switched to the blu ray player or the roku when I recorded something from the DVR.
Adding in the expander drive was a pain to, took a couple of reboots but it seems t be working.
I am just pondering what "improvements" Time Warner will be making to the software next.