Samurai
03-01-08, 05:05 PM
I just had Comcast triple play installed after 13 years with DirecTV. I had a specific Motorola DVR listed on the sign up agreement as a condition of me getting Comcast but I did not receive that DVR and have since been told that Howard County Maryland only has the Scientific Atlantic DVR. The Scientific Atlantic DVR software is horrible and a good 5-10 years behind what I have been used to with DirecTV. I am probably going to cancel my Comcast service. Before I do I thought I'd try to see if a few of the many complaints I have with the Scientific Atlantic DVR are not valid. Here are 4 of about 20+ complaints I have.
Scientific Atlantic 8300HD with SARA 1.88 software
1) How can I tell the DVR to record only new episodes of a reoccurring show ? The Scientific Atlantic 8300HD manual says you can do this if the cable company supports it but the option does not show up for me. Considering how little space this DVR has for HD recording is is essential to be able to record just new show and not repeats. How can I do this ?
2) If I am in the Guide on channel 2 and I want to look at programs around channel 300, how go to go directly to channel 300 without having to scroll through 300 channels in the guide ? If I type in 300 as the channel number it changes the channel and I start watching that TV show.
3) How do I get the guide to show only the channels that I received ? It's ridiculous to have to go through all kinds of channels that I don't receive in the guide. The favorites feature on the Scientific 8300HD is worthless since it doesn't work with the guide but cycles through the channels.
4) How can I record all Maryland Basketball games ? I used to do this with several different shows. I can see how to record every "College Basketball" show, which would wipe out all DVR space, but no way to record only Maryland basketball games. I think this requires a keyword search.
I am very surprised at how primitive and awful this DVR is. I probably going to cancel and go back to DirecTV unless Comcast has something better coming very soon. I'm not all that excited about Comcast's TiVo implementation but it's got to be 1000 times better than this DVR.
Scientific Atlantic 8300HD with SARA 1.88 software
1) How can I tell the DVR to record only new episodes of a reoccurring show ? The Scientific Atlantic 8300HD manual says you can do this if the cable company supports it but the option does not show up for me. Considering how little space this DVR has for HD recording is is essential to be able to record just new show and not repeats. How can I do this ?
2) If I am in the Guide on channel 2 and I want to look at programs around channel 300, how go to go directly to channel 300 without having to scroll through 300 channels in the guide ? If I type in 300 as the channel number it changes the channel and I start watching that TV show.
3) How do I get the guide to show only the channels that I received ? It's ridiculous to have to go through all kinds of channels that I don't receive in the guide. The favorites feature on the Scientific 8300HD is worthless since it doesn't work with the guide but cycles through the channels.
4) How can I record all Maryland Basketball games ? I used to do this with several different shows. I can see how to record every "College Basketball" show, which would wipe out all DVR space, but no way to record only Maryland basketball games. I think this requires a keyword search.
I am very surprised at how primitive and awful this DVR is. I probably going to cancel and go back to DirecTV unless Comcast has something better coming very soon. I'm not all that excited about Comcast's TiVo implementation but it's got to be 1000 times better than this DVR.