Well, I have been meaning to write this entry for several days, but have been holding off as I gathered some of my thoughts about the unit. This is a long entry, so read on if you're interested...
We have now had the unit for approximately 2 weeks. It is truly a mixed bag. As for the whole "DVR/Tivo" thing, I couldn't possibly be happier. This thing is a breeze to work with, and to say that our TV viewing habits have changed would be an understatement. We simply won't watch anything live anymore - we wait for the DVR to catch it and watch it later. Just last week, I waited 1/2 hour into a show just so I could watch it without commercials. In some respects, my wife and I feel like snobs - "who would want to watch TV *live*? Yuck!"
The other thing that we find interesting and great is that we are finally getting a chance to sample shows that we never really watched before. We see an advertisement that catches our eye, we talk to somebody who mentions a really good show - *bang* we add it to the record list, and give it a chance. Already we've found a couple of good shows (Playmakers on ESPN, Joan of Arcadia on CBS) that we would have never watched before. The opportunity to simply say "that might be good - record it and I'll see" has made such a seismic shift in our TV viewing habits that it is truly hard to describe - and yet, for anyone who has a similar device, they all know exactly what I'm talking about.
The downsides? The interface, to put it mildly, sucks. Actually finding something to watch isn't that big of a deal - the guide for shows works just like our old digital cable box, so it is easy and quite familiar to work with. The problem comes when you know *what* you want to record, but not *when* it is on. Finding a show by title is nigh impossible - you select the first letter of the show, then have to scroll through literally hundreds of shows to find what you want. It doesn't even collapse shows with multiple runtimes into a single entry - with some shows, you can flip through a dozen pages of the same show, all at different airtimes. Quite annoying.
The list of already recorded items is a pain to work with as well. It shows all the shows in reverse chronological order (oldest at the bottom), and has absolutely no method for sorting, even temporarily. We often find ourselves having to flip through several screens trying to find a show that we know it recorded. You can move shows around on the list if they are set to "Save until space is needed", but then you are changing the order at which items will be deleted as space runs out. Not exactly ideal. I also wish it would sort permanently saved recordings ("Save until Manually erased") to the bottom, as you can watch them as you find time. The idea, of course, is that anything that isn't marked that way is fair game for removal (non-important shows), but we still find this to be awkward at times.
There is absolutely no way to know how much space is left on the hard drive, or when it will have to start deleting shows. The list of recorded shows will tell you on "Save until space is needed" recordings the amount of time that a show should stay on the DVR, but it is an approximate value only - "About 2 days", "Less than a day" - that sort of thing. Not particularly helpful.
The scheduling software is not as bad as some people have made it out to be on the Internet. Series recordings (Season Pass in Tivo parlance) can be configured a number of different ways, recording any instance of that show or any number of limiting factors (only one channel or all channels; only one time or all times; any combination of different days of the week; first-run or all shows). "First run" seems to be a bit buggy, so we haven't used it (it refused to recognize a new "CSI" as first run). The limitations work fairly well, but we end up catching a ton of repeats which is annoying (esp. on channels like FoodTV or TLC, which often air the same show 3 times in one day - and since they don't run the same show at the same time each day...) The scheduler conflict for series recordings works okay, handling priorities fairly decently. We do have a problem right now with Tuesday night's schedule - we have a 9pm show set to run one minute overtime, which conflicted with 2 shows to be recorded at the 10pm - 11pm slot. we fixed the overtime issue by telling it to end on time, but the box still hasn't figured out that there isn't a conflict anymore. I think we can work around that, but it shows the relatively immature software being used.
The scheduler also does get "behind" - as we delete shows, or even remove shows from the scheduled recording lists, it often takes as long as 15 minutes for it to update the length of time before stuff will be deleted in the main list.
Absolutely no "suggestions" or other cool Tivo features - a definite bummer, as I think I would enjoy it finding new things for me.
So, my overall feeling? It is a decent starter box, but I am definitely looking forward to seeing the new Tivo boxes that are (supposedly) coming out. I'm desperately hoping they include 2 tuners in these new boxes - I'm not sure that I could live without 2 tuners at this point, no matter how much I think Tivo's software is better. Even if I would be limited to only being able to record one digital channel (as it would require a digital cable converter box and an IR blaster) and one analog channel (or 2 analog channels), I could manage.
I would still recommend this box to somebody who just wants to get a feel for how it works - no hardware purchase, just a monthly fee makes it a bargain for somebody getting into this to see if they like it.
Posted by Mark at October 13, 2003 12:56 PMMark,
Hey...Started reading your blog because I saw it on Derek's list of blogs he frequents. How's it going?
Do you have a problem with your Timewarner DVR switching itself off at times in the middle of a show to re-set itself? Happened to me several times in the middle of a recording, including when I was recording The Godfather off HBO....Pissed me off.
Posted by: Blake at November 2, 2003 12:06 PMGoing quite well, thanks. How about you?
No, I haven't had that trouble at all. You might want to get Time Warner to replace the box, and if that doesn't fix it, have them come out to check the signal levels. Apparently, low signal levels coming in to the box can cause all kinds of crazy problems - shutting off, black screens, audio sync issues, the works.
Posted by: Mark at November 2, 2003 05:20 PMHave you noticed that the DVR is really slow to change channels. It also has some issues coming on for the first time after it has been turned off. I called TimeWarner about it and they said that the twenty seconds you wait for the menu to come up or the channel change is normal. That can't be good for sales!!!
Posted by: Steve at November 10, 2003 11:06 AMIt can be slow at times - sometimes taking 3 to 5 seconds for the box to react to a button push. From my understanding, it has a lot to do with fragmentation buildup on the hard drive. (Heavily fragmented drive takes time to dump its old contents and shift to the new channel.) 20 seconds seems excessive, and when coupled with the slow startup, makes me think you may have a bad (or failing) hard drive in the unit. May make sense to see if they can replace it - you'll have to setup your series recordings again, but it might be worth it.
Posted by: Mark at November 17, 2003 11:24 PMI JUST got my Time Warner DVR and I'm so excited! I totally agree that its slow to react to button pushing but I figure I'll adjust and it'll be worth it because I'll never have 'nothing to watch' again. I can't wait for when you can defragment the drive yourself and it comes with removable media!
Posted by: Dawn at December 31, 2003 02:12 PMHave any of you figured out if there is a way to hook the unit up to a PC and transfer recorded material off so you can burn it to a DVD for permanent keeping?
Posted by: Greg at January 29, 2004 11:05 AMNope, actually nobody that I'm aware of has done this yet. I belong to another mailing list that discusses these units, and pretty much the big issue is that you are renting these units from Time-Warner, and if you dismantle them you may end up buying it outright (and they aren't cheap). Time-Warner/Scientific-American is highly unlikely to make any digital transfer of shows possible, as that would aid in people pirating shows and posting them on the Internet. If you really want to record a show that is on the DVR, you would need a capture card in your PC, and you would need to capture the show as it played back in real-time. Not ideal, but alright if you are really just interested in archiving a few shows here and there. (Or you could go out and buy a consumer DVD-Recorder that you could tape the show like a VCR does.)
Posted by: Mark at January 29, 2004 01:52 PMThanks for your review. I love my TW DVR for the most part, but I find it noisy. Does yours make a constant "crackle" similar to a computer starting up? I realize the DVR is a computer, but mine makes that noise continually, even when it isn't recording something or the power is off. The only way to silence it is to unplug it. I'm wondering if that's normal or if there's something wrong with my box. Thanks!
Posted by: Philip at February 10, 2004 11:32 AMI'm am assuming that the "crackle" you are hearing is actually the hard drive - the DVR has a hard drive that is constantly in usage as it records shows. Even when it isn't recording a show, it is maintaining a constant 1 hour buffer for any channel that you are watching, and (if you have the Passport software), it is also doing this buffering for the current channel even when the box is "off". Actually, when you turn off the box, it just shuts off the video/audio output of the box - it is still running.
Best bet is to find a decent muted location, maybe a ventilated cabinet, to keep it in. Ours is in a glass-fronted entertainment center, and I never hear the thing.
Posted by: Mark at February 10, 2004 04:59 PMI had the cable guy come and install it today, and many of the channels were black. We changed the box and still some channles wouldnt come up, some did once, but then refused to come up again. Only channels that were consistent were networks and 100% digital (like HBO). We can't live without Noggin (we have a 9 month old), so I sent him back and stayed with my old box. Somebody said something about signal strenght, can it be it? Any idea?
Posted by: Eyal at February 19, 2004 11:10 AMSignal strength is absolutely crucial for these boxes to work right - and they require more signal than your old digital box. They should have techs who can measure the signal strength and add an amplifier if it is required.
And I hear you about Noggin - life would come to a standstill in my house without it!
Posted by: Mark at February 19, 2004 11:42 AMI love my dvr but for some reason I cannot for whatever reason manage to tape one show in particular. Each time I set the record to tape Maisy for my son, it turns up blank. The timer on the "recorded" show usually reads something like 9:59-10:00 and the time bar is empty. Anyone else experience this? Just having trouble on this one channel/show.
Posted by: jennifer at February 19, 2004 04:12 PMI got my DVR yesterday (March 24th) and everything was working perfectly. That slight "crackle" that a previous post alluded to also occurred on my set, but that's due to the fact that the hard-drive is still working while the cable is technically powered off. Performance with this DVR was good as the shows I wanted the box to record were recorded smoothly. The problem with the device? This morning, it started making an incredibly loud noise as though it were an alarm clock that wouldn't shut off (for intervals of 10-15 seconds at a time). Occasionally it would stop, but then it would do it again. It is the type of noise you can hear 50 feet away, and it sure is depriving me of enjoying this system. Also, the box itself has shutdown and rebooted itself three times on its own already, which isn't a good sign. I will be getting this box replaced tomorrow, and I do hope the problems will cease to exist. Has anyone else had this problem? Thanks!
Posted by: Turk at March 25, 2004 04:36 PMYes, actually a few people have had problems. It sounds like you have a bad hard drive in the unit, unfortunately. They should be able to replace it to fix it, although you'll lose any recordings you already have.
Sadly, more than a few units seem to have bad hard drives. I don't think they are treated as well as they could be at times by the technical staff (they have to be handled much more delicately than a normal cable box), and they do require very good circulation to run properly - otherwise they overheat and fail prematurely.
Even though, you'll love having one! They are great! :-)
Posted by: Mark at March 25, 2004 05:14 PMThanks for the reply Mark. I unplugged the box for 5 hours while I was away and replugged it back in and it seemed to be working fine. Then I went to try and retrieve some of my saved movies, and the same noise started repeating itself. I also smelled the heat that was coming up from the box (is the circulation dependent on the room setting, or is it dependent on the hard-drive itself)? I just hope I don't get another defective system.
Posted by: Turk at March 25, 2004 06:11 PMI just wanted to let you all know that my box was replaced and everything is finally working smoothly now. I'm really happy that my problem was resolved with the changing of the box and that I can now enjoy my DVR service.
Posted by: Turk at March 27, 2004 08:29 AMFYI, if you tune the DVR to a digital channel in the guide and then type 999 on the remote, A screen will come up that shows signal level (Need to be better than -8dbm). You can also scroll down and see the hard drive size and how much space is currently being used.
Posted by: Garfield at April 12, 2004 07:04 PMHave the new 8000hd explorer.All the bugs seem to have been worked out.Have had it for 3 months 100% acuracy in recording so far.The hd picture is perfect.Over 100 hours recording space available.Had a long conversation with the tw installer who really was on top of it.The problem with many of the earlier 8000 units were they were runing the passport echo software.It is more feature rich than the sara software but lot more buggy.The 8000hd runs sara and most if not all problems have vanished.He said the newer 8000 reg units are now running on the sara software.I can set it for no repeated shows and it works great.I can add buffer minutes to start or finish of show with no problems.So far the sara software seems to be the fix.The rep said a wishlist is being developed and will be added to the software when it is ready.I have a reg 8000 as well as the new 8000hd and can state the 8000hd has the bugs worked out of it.
Posted by: woody at May 26, 2004 09:56 PMHello,
I decided to pick up the DVR even though I knew it was available in my market for over 4 months. I am in the NY.NJ area. My daughter asking me when spongebob was going to show again was just too much. The fee of around $7.00 for the box a month is actually less than what you will pay for replay tv per month and NO UPFRONT cost for the unit itself.
I've also read reviews that with TIVO, you cannot watch tv while you record. With this box, you can record 2 channels at once which is a plus. Also, what sold me was that I didnt have to run IR repeaters or anything else to play with, just plug it in and I am ready to go. Its all intergrated. I am a very technical person, I am well capable of doing the extra wiring and quickly too, but having something from the cable company that works with one remote is great.
The remote that comes with the unit is also great, it even controlled my HK receiver and all my units. As a matter of fact, my Pronto sits idle on the tablestand now while I use the remote it comes with.
I set it to record spongebob and it is recording ALL shows on all channels. SO far in 48 hrs, it ha recorded 4-5 showings and I couldnt be happier. My daughter woke up and was delighted.
I was watching something on A&E, which was 2 hrs, grew tired, hit the RECORD button, ONE button and finished the last 1/2 hr the next morning. I am sold on this unit.
However, the big drawback and this is a woosey is that it is EXTREMELY EXTREMELY slow to any remote keypresses. It is SUPER SLOW, so if you get button frenzy, you are going to be buffered...
Its the same as doing something on your computer, issuing 20 commands, it doesnt respond and then all at once the commands will go through. It is no different with this unit. You have to learn patience, press it once and WAIT. And dont tell me about software revisions, i Just picked it up and it was sealed brand new in a Scientific Atlantic cardboard box. It is the newest unit.
IT IS ALSO SUPER SLOW when you change channels. Forget channel surfing, it is NOT going to happen. You are looking at at least 3-5 seconds AT LEAST!! when you change channels before you even hear AUDIO or see a picture. If you think your digital cable blox was slow with the 1 second delay, this will drive you insane.
I have learn to live with it, thats live tv, it has to buffer. They should make it so that you can turn the live repeat off so it doesnt have to buffer, but that request will probably take 6 months, I am sure it is full of red tape.
You CANNOT channel surf, it is too slow, so what I do now is just hit the guide button, see whats on and then hit select. Alternatively, you can FAVORITE all your channels and hit favorite, at least your UNFAVORITE channels will be skipped while surfing, but it is very painful.
You can also record from the guide, something that is not mentioned. There is no manual, I figured out you can ff in 5 min increments or use a slower ff on the remote. I wish there was like a 30-45 second ff programmed so you can skip commercials, but they probably did that on purpose to prevent liability from lawsuits.
The signal strength is critical. I have 4 digital boxes in my house along with this unit and a cable modem. I used to have cable modem drops before so I ran through the red tape with time warning. THEY SENT DOZENS of people out to my house, you stay on hold with tech support. Finally one nice tech said, hey you need to replace the line from the pole to your house, it goes bad. He did that and it improved signal like 40%!!! No more dropped cable modem. Then he offered to give me on the side an amplifier, that boosted the signal and now I have NO problems with my cable modem and my digital boxes work perfectly. The signal has to be strong, there is a ton of data coming through.
My house is 3 floors and is ran in HOME run configuration, each room is wired and split off, so there is a lot of cable wiring, I dont think the signal was strong enough off the pole to supply all the rooms, who knows. it is RG58 in the house and RG68 from the pole.
If you have kids or if you keep missing shows, this thing is a MUST have, the monthly isnt all that much considering you dont have to put any money upfront and hey, if they make it better, you can return it and get a new one. Plus you get one remote and everything is integrated.
If you channel surf, you may want to try it out at the Timewarner office before bringing it home, it may drive you nutty.
Posted by: sniperscrubb at June 27, 2004 11:35 AMI know this great site where you can find all needed info on DVRs http://www.hdtv-info.org
Posted by: HD TiVo at August 10, 2004 05:44 PMWow, for once I saw something that looked like comment spam at first but actually turned out to be on topic and useful. Thanks for the link "HD Tivo". :-)
Posted by: Mark at August 10, 2004 11:15 PMI just got my Time Warner DVR can you help i want to record from the hard drive of the dvr to my dvd recorder. it has copy to vhs can yu help thanks
Posted by: joe hawkins at November 1, 2004 05:47 AMWow! My time warner 8000 hard drive gave out friday.Monday the tw van arrives to replace it.When the rep opens the box to my shock out comes a explorer 8300sd.Let me tell you they went back to the drawning board with the 8300.This baaby is feature rich and fast.The lag time is completely gone channel hanges are lie at once.The thing crawls withnew features.A new all episodes manager lets you program for first run shows only or all shows.You can save 1-5 shows are all shows.You can program it for single days every day just weekends or every day.A new gage lets you see how much space is left on the drive.It now has auto erase when spce needed feature.You can archive shows from dvr to vcr while you watch another show or are recording another show.A new heavy dutyy processer has ended the constant rebooting problem.This baby is feature rich and a hd version is now avvailable and a multi room version will be availabe in arround 2 months.The rep said a wishlist simular to tivo is in the works.Look out tivo the explorer 8300 is here and it looks ready to play with the big boys like tivo.At 4.95 a month what a deal. Hope this heads up helps everyone.
Posted by: woody at November 8, 2004 11:40 AMI have to agree with the previous poster that the Explorer 8300 is much, much better that the 8000 version. No more delays in channel surfing. You can even export your stored programs via the s-video out to a vcr. Actually, while I haven't tried this yet, you could send the signal to a standalone DVD recorder like the Pioneer DVR-510H DVD Recorder via the s-video. It would be nice if you could actually capture the digital signal but that's not possible on the 8300.
You can also expand the storage capacity of the 8300 hard drive by plugging in an SATA external drive. I have been trying to find the list of supported drives but haven't found it yet. Maxtor makes a PVR with a serial connector which might work.
The Firewire (1394) connector found on the 8000 model is missing from the 8300 model. Instead there is a USB port but according to the manual it isn't operational yet.
Posted by: Chrys Zaglifa at November 17, 2004 11:54 AMMan, I'm getting jealous - they have no ETA for the 8300 in my Time Warner office yet. I can't wait for the unit, because there are some definite drawbacks to the 8000 that sound like they have been fixed.
Thanks for the updates!
Posted by: Mark at November 17, 2004 04:44 PMThe 8300 hd becomes available in rogers area on Dec 13. Does it output to s video as well as component at the same time? I have a projector and I don't like to have it on all the time (due to the cost)So I have a small set to watch the news.
Posted by: Gerhard at December 7, 2004 06:55 PMThe 8300 sd is everything the previous reviews have said and more.Love being able to record shows to dvr,record two other shows and watch a recorded show at same time.The new schedule manager blows the 8000 manager away.Now you can record first runs without repeats.It has a auto erase now to keep your dvr from running out of space.Seems to have mre manual recording options also.All in all the 8300 should give tivo and replay a run for its money.The time warner rep said several more new features such as a wishlist type optionwill be comeing soon.This is a great dvr with a much stronger and faster processer no more lag.All bugs gone and new features all over.TW got this one right.
Posted by: scott at December 24, 2004 10:01 AMJust got the new tw explorer 8300hd dvr.Boy is it sweet.Had a 8000hd it was ok but the 8300 is something special.No more freeze up crashes or lags.You can finally schedule shows like you want with no repeats.A new gage lets you kow how much recording space is available.Also you can archive to vcr while recording another show and watching another show.It has auto delete to keep your dist from filling up.Still has dual tuners.While still not a tivo in any ways the 8300 is more than tivo.
Posted by: alan at December 30, 2004 09:07 AMInteresting problem with DVR. Recorded several shows and wanted to archive to VCR. I was able to copy one show by selecting Copy To VCR.
Now all of my programs say...Copy To VCR Not Available.
Posted by: EM at January 23, 2005 02:55 AMHave not had any problem recording to vcr as the previous poster had.Only problem i have had with my 8300 is on manual recording.When i choose daily,weekdays or weekends it works great.However the mon,tues ect repeating option it fails me.It records the first time and no more ever through it shows up on the to be recorded list.Other wise this is a great dvr.I had problems with the early 8000 units but for the most part except for the single day repeat manual recordin glitch the dvr has performed to almost perfection.My record to vcr optin works 100% of the time.
Posted by: woody at February 6, 2005 04:21 PM