I just want to isolate if it's us or not before having our headend techs dig deeper

Sounds like you need an HDTV with an outdoor antenna for "test" purposes there in times like this. Of course that's probably considered blasphemy..:)

Sounds like you need an HDTV with an outdoor antenna for "test" purposes there in times like this. Of course that's probably considered blasphemy..:)

We used to have a dish back in the old days of "Charter Anyware"
There was a turkey of a project *L* Cable selling Dish ;)

Hey, Fox, while I got you here, you hear anything about different programming occuring on Fox Sports South here? I had some complaints that a few customers were getting Hurricanes when the website said they'd be watching the Braves

:eek:, I managed to find a south-sider...close. There goes the neighborhood. You even live in South Charlotte while I, being a Cubs fan and therefore a better person, live North of Charlotte. :D

Seriously, I hope so too. Otherwise, we are left to the mercy of the fickle ESPN (both of us) and the one Braves series (Cubs) as far as HD goes this season. Have you noticed that the PQ is somewhat better this year since they started using HD gear, or am I just a victim of the placebo effect?


The only Sox game I have viewed this year so far was the Sox/Tigers this past Sunday night on ESPN. Excellent PQ from ESPNHD on TWC I think. Live, night time sports broadcasts tend to stunning in HD, but I have to say I don't think I have ever seen any Cubs action in HD.........

The only Sox game I have viewed this year so far was the Sox/Tigers this past Sunday night on ESPN. Excellent PQ from ESPNHD on TWC I think. Live, night time sports broadcasts tend to stunning in HD, but I have to say I don't think I have ever seen any Cubs action in HD.........

One of the Cubs opening series games was broadcast by ESPN. PQ was superterrificextragood. Not too thrilled with the sound, something has always seemed not quite right (to me) about how ESPN does surround. Overall, I agree that it makes the games much more enjoyable to watch.

Anyway, good *cough* luck this season. I believe we square off in the middle of June, that's always fun!

I think the "upgrade" the rep was referring to was the download of the Navigator guide to all of the existing cable boxes. It is my understanding that the version of Passport Echo we have is not compatible with SDV so the Navigator software has to be downloaded first and then TWC can implement SDV.

The June date is consistent with the time frame mentioned in the Raleigh News and Observer a few pages back. Charlotte and the Triangle both have Passport Echo whereas the Triad has SARA. The version of SARA they use is compatible with SDV which is why they have more HD channels than us.

I'm in the Monroe system, south of Charlotte. I received a recorded phone call today that my Navigator downloads will begin next Tuesday or Wednesday. Oh joy. :(

I'm in the Monroe system, south of Charlotte. I received a recorded phone call today that my Navigator downloads will begin next Tuesday or Wednesday. Oh joy. :(


Oh my. I'm starting to get that cold, dark feeling of impending doom in the pit of my stomach.... :(

Oh my. I'm starting to get that cold, dark feeling of impending doom in the pit of my stomach.... :(

Look at the bright side, at least we will have something to talk about.


Nah, that really didn't make me feel any better either.

I have 2 questions. First, do you TWC folks get Braves games on FSN South AND on Sports South? Secondly, does anyone on here have Directv and get the Braves games on FSN South AND Sports South? I get the games on FSN South, but NEVER on Sports South (although according to the Directv website, I should!) Just wondering what is going on? Thanks for your replies!

Oh my. I'm starting to get that cold, dark feeling of impending doom in the pit of my stomach.... :(


I live in South Charlotte and I received my voice mail today. NOOOOOOOOO!!

But on the other hand, if we're to get more HD programming, apparently this is the only way we're going to get it.

WCCB, in conjunction with the North Carolina Association of Broadcasters; is pleased to present in High-Definition DTV411.

This award winning documentary produced by WRAL,“DTV 411” gives details about the analog-to-digital TV-signal transition happening in February 2009, including what the public needs to do to prepare.

The special airs this Saturday, April 19 at 7:30pm.

I have 2 questions. First, do you TWC folks get Braves games on FSN South AND on Sports South? Secondly, does anyone on here have Directv and get the Braves games on FSN South AND Sports South? I get the games on FSN South, but NEVER on Sports South (although according to the Directv website, I should!) Just wondering what is going on? Thanks for your replies!

Yes, we get Braves games on both channels. Also, starting this year, we won't get all Braves games, since 45 games have switched to local Atlanta TV (WPCH-TV, which is the old local WTBS).

There are also multiple feeds of FSN South and SportSouth. In Charlotte, we get the one that gets messed up by the Cincinnati Reds as well as the Braves.

Yes, we get Braves games on both channels. Also, starting this year, we won't get all Braves games, since 45 games have switched to local Atlanta TV (WPCH-TV, which is the old local WTBS).

There are also multiple feeds of FSN South and SportSouth. In Charlotte, we get the one that gets messed up by the Cincinnati Reds as well as the Braves.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Charlotte/programming/BravesonTWC.html

FYI... I got the update last night. I have not had a lot of time to play around with it but boy has it changed. It is interesting to say the least. I'm located in S. Charlotte near Prov Country Club. Oh, and both by boxes updated overnight.

I live in South Charlotte and I received my voice mail today. NOOOOOOOOO!!

But on the other hand, if we're to get more HD programming, apparently this is the only way we're going to get it.

Got mine too; said they were going to push it on me yesterday or today. We've dodged the Crapigator bullet this long, but it looks like our luck is about to run out. :(

Here's how they can make it up to us: Add SciFi-HD quickly while the new season of the Peabody Award winning Battlestar Galactica is still young. Anybody from TWC listening out there??

I have two boxes in my house last one being received about 4 months ago. The first box is a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD. The last received box was updated but the original box was not. Do I have to switchout the Scientific Atlanta 8300HD box out with a SA 8300HDC to get the update? Do I even need the update at all? Thanks in advance.

If the cable box is unplugged, would the update occur as soon as it was plugged back in?

Got mine too; said they were going to push it on me yesterday or today. We've dodged the Crapigator bullet this long, but it looks like our luck is about to run out. :(

Here's how they can make it up to us: Add SciFi-HD quickly while the new season of the Peabody Award winning Battlestar Galactica is still young. Anybody from TWC listening out there??


I woke up this morning to see that my cable box had been mutilated, er, I mean updated. Didn't get much of a chance to play with it but two quick impressions: it's much faster than I thought it would be and it harder to set up a show to record the entire season without recording reruns or multiple airings of a show.

My thoughts exactly abut BSG. TWC - we want BSG in HDTV!

Two of my 8300-HDs got 'Gatored overnight.

I played with it for a few minutes this morning, and it looks like it's faster than it was the last time we had it (sometime last year). My wife also said some of the missiing features are back. So at least I have to give TWC credit for trying to improve the product during the rollout period, and not waiting until v1.0 was pushed to everyone before doing upgrades.

I wonder when they'll hit my analog boxes (Sci Atl 2100 & 2200) and if they'll be able to push to my Circa 1997 Pioneer box.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Charlotte/programming/BravesonTWC.html

Great news! Thanks, Sneezy! Of course that only applies to me when the Mets play the Braves :)

I called and asked TWC about this a couple of weeks ago and the TWC rep had no clue about this.

Great news! Thanks, Sneezy! Of course that only applies to me when the Mets play the Braves :)

I called and asked TWC about this a couple of weeks ago and the TWC rep had no clue about this.

Yeah, Cubs fan myself. I think there is one Cubs game in that lineup.

I like the Mets, anybody but the Yankees!

Ugh, I got the new navigator today and it really sucks. The old one seems superior in pretty much every way... what was the reason for the change?

Is there a way to make the guide fill the whole screen without stretching 4:3 content?

Also, is there a way to make it change channels immediately when you enter a 3 digit number instead of pausing for a second or two?

Ugh, I got the new navigator today and it really sucks. The old one seems superior in pretty much every way... what was the reason for the change?

Is there a way to make the guide fill the whole screen without stretching 4:3 content?

Also, is there a way to make it change channels immediately when you enter a 3 digit number instead of pausing for a second or two?

There's an active thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=723830) on all of the wonderful attributes of Navigator in the HDTV Recorders area.

Ugh, I got the new navigator today and it really sucks. The old one seems superior in pretty much every way... what was the reason for the change?


To push additional value-added interactive services and products like VOD on us, as well as provide the capability for Switched Digital Video which will increase available bandwidth and allow for the addition of more HD channels. Theoretically.

But they've developed Navigator in-house and it's been an uphill slog and PR nightmare for them. They could easily have asked Aptiv, the company that wrote Passport, to incorporate the necessary features into a future version of Passport and kept the same interface we all came to know and appreciate. It was bad corporate management, if you ask me. It also put TWC behind the 8-ball in terms of being able to keep up with the satellite guys and all the HD channels they're adding now. And we're all paying for those missteps.

To push additional value-added interactive services and products like VOD on us, .

That's just what I want.. value added services..Of course,usually it's NOT my idea of a value..:rolleyes:

I guess it's kinda like the old saying "one man's art is another man's trash"

Value added......always makes me grab my wallet to protect it from thieves

That's just what I want.. value added services..Of course,usually it's NOT my idea of a value..:rolleyes:

I guess it's kinda like the old saying "one man's art is another man's trash"

Well, we can't forget that the Cable Companies aren't in the business to provide us with high-quality TV. They're in it to "increase shareholder value" which means they have to meet their Wall Street profit targets every quarter. That means constantly looking for new ways to extract ever more money from their marks, uh, I mean customers; that has become their primary objective. Just giving us lots of great television programming at a consistent reasonable price (which is all we really want from a cable TV company) isn't nearly enough in this brave new world of "hyper-capitalism" we live in now. :rolleyes: :(

I noticed 3 calls from TWC on my caller ID when I returned home from work today. I did not have the voicemail enabled. My question is: assuming TWC was calling about the update to my HD DVR and HD boxes, did I miss any important info regarding the update? Special instructions? I guess I'll find out in the morning what happened!:D

i just got the call this morning. like 2 min. ago. said I'll receive navigator on at least one of my boxes Tuesday or Wednesday next week. not really looking forward to it. but a friend just moved and as a result got a new in the package HDC box. i had an opportunity to play with it yesterday. i didn't notice any issues in the 5 minutes i was with it that would cause me to hate it. but it was only 5 min.

to the poster above who missed his calls. basically all it said was that you "shouldn't have to make any changes to the box after the update. you will notice the update has happened by pushing the 'A' button. if you have any problems consult the on line guide. or call CS."

Got mine a couple of days ago and while I am usually in favor of change for the better this really has zero improvements and is slower. The colors look like something for a 5th grader. A number of shows I had listed for recording are gone. It does not advance as quickly when I am watching a recorded show. And guide is a step backwards.

Hugh

Are you all getting 225 & 227 (CBS) via basic cable now (not via box)??

got navigatored on 2 3250hd boxes yesturday. my 8300hd is still passport.

no problems so far with the 2 navigatored non dvr boxes.

And I'm just the opposite. 8300HDs have been upgraded. 2100, 2200, and a Pioneer are still Passport.

I wonder if they'll make me swap the Pioneer box. It's not a DVR, so it's no biggie, but I won't be able to get SDV if they can't upgrade it.

Salisbury: got Navigator on 8300HD last night

Our 8300HD got updated today. I had to go back in and set audio to Dolby Digital and I changed the audio range to normal instead of narrow (anybody else have thoughts on this). When I changed the audio to DD, there was some distortion of some kind. Unplugging the box and plugging it back in fixed that. I think it does feel a bit snappier. No complaints really. We also love the Caller ID feature.

Oh, how do you set the box to output at a fixed resolution? I previously had my 8300Hd set to 1080i but can't find the setting for it now.

Oh, how do you set the box to output at a fixed resolution? I previously had my 8300Hd set to 1080i but can't find the setting for it now.

It's still there. Hit the settings button (same one it was with Passport) but you then have to use the right arrow key to scroll over to the "more settings" topic (or something like that; not in front of my TV right now), then "enter" to get to the full slate of adjustable settings including output resolution.

I think, out of all the new features of Navigator, that what they've done to the rewind button is infuriating me the most. When you rewind, the damn thing jumps forward a few seconds after you hit the "play" button again and it invariably takes you back in front of the spot you wanted to rewind to. So you have to hit it again. With Passport, it dropped you right where you needed to be based on what you saw on the screen. I guess we'll get used to rewinding a few seconds beyond where we actually want to go, but it's driving us crazy right now. Just one more example of how nutty and shortsighted it was for TWC to try to do this in-house instead of the simple, logical approach of having Aptiv do an update to Passport that would enable SDV and the other "services" they want to push.

Anyone been switched over that has an external drive connected to their 8300HD? Does it still work?

When you rewind, the damn thing jumps forward a few seconds after you hit the "play" button again and it invariably takes you back in front of the spot you wanted to rewind to.

My theory on this is that it works the same as the fast forward feature. When you fast forward and hit play, it rewinds a bit (amount is based on the ff speed you were using). It's actually a great feature in terms of fast forward as it makes commercial skipping very easy.

It is a bit more annoying with regards to rewind, because you typically want to start playing right where you stopped the rewind (or even a few seconds before). Hopefully it's something they'll fix through an update.

It's still there. Hit the settings button (same one it was with Passport) but you then have to use the right arrow key to scroll over to the "more settings" topic (or something like that; not in front of my TV right now), then "enter" to get to the full slate of adjustable settings including output resolution.

Thanks, found it. Don't know how I missed the "Display" topic.

Anyone been switched over that has an external drive connected to their 8300HD? Does it still work?

Answered my own question. One of my units was upgraded, and as far as I can tell, things I had recorded are still there and the external drive works

Reading the latest TV Technology, Cisco has let the Sci Atl name go away. All new equipment coming out from them will no longer use that name and will switch to the Cisco name.

Thought that was kind of interesting.

Man, this new guide is really aggravating.

I keep my “picture size” on normal so 4:3 content isn’t stretched… it works fine most of the time, but sometimes it will “compress” the picture horizontally (so everything is skinnier than it should be… even the guide). It seems to happen when I change from a 16:9 channel to a 4:3… and only the 4:3 channels get compressed. The only way I have been able to fix it is to go into settings, change picture size to “stretch” and then go and change back to “normal.” Anyone else having this problem? Seems to happen randomly without me changing any other settings on the TV or the box.

I hate the way that when you are in guide and press “fav” it actually changes the channel instead of just moving the guide along to your next favorite channel.

I hate the way it doesn’t tell you how long until it deletes things on your box… passport would way “3 days remaining” etc.

Some of my “series record” settings appear to have gotten lost in the software downgrade. Everything that is recorded from series manager is automatically set to ‘do not delete’ for some reason.

FF backs up too far when you switch to play.

Bah… what a bad decision by TW to attempt develop their own software. The only good thing about it is the on-screen call ID, but I would gladly trade that for my old passport software back.

Has anyone noticed any missing season passes since the update?

Grey's Anatomy apparently had a new episode on last week, and it didn't record. I looked in my series manager, and it is no longer there, and I don't think that I deleted it.

-jamie

Yes, I've lost some, and some that are still there are refusing to record and I've got to set them manually.

Used to be, with Passport, you could watch two events simultaneously using the "swap" button. You'd pause the action on one channel, swap to the other, watch for awhile, hit pause, then swap back to the first channel, take off pause and watch for awhile, go back to the other, etc. A nice, convenient way to watch two sporting events at once for example.

Now, with Navigator, every time you swap channels, the pause state is released. Not only that, if you've rewound a bit using the buffer, that buffer is reset and you're back to "live" every time you swap to that channel. You can still use the buffer to rewind back to the point where you swapped, of course, but since there's no digital timer on the yellow status bar (as Passport had), it's much more difficult to find the spot where you left off. And the rewind button, which dumps you back in the program stream a few seconds ahead of the last frame you see on rewind, is driving us crazy.

It's like the Navigator GUI was designed by a couple of kids with no idea about how a DVR is supposed to work. We've lost a ton of functionality that we had gotten used to, and TWC apparently doesn't care one whit since these problems have been endemic to Navigator for a couple of years now and they've made no effort to address them. Honestly, fixing the rewind button would take about 20 lines of code and a good programmer about half an hour. It's frustrating beyond belief.

Man, this new guide is really aggravating.

I keep my “picture size” on normal so 4:3 content isn’t stretched… it works fine most of the time, but sometimes it will “compress” the picture horizontally (so everything is skinnier than it should be… even the guide). It seems to happen when I change from a 16:9 channel to a 4:3… and only the 4:3 channels get compressed. The only way I have been able to fix it is to go into settings, change picture size to “stretch” and then go and change back to “normal.” Anyone else having this problem? Seems to happen randomly without me changing any other settings on the TV or the box..

i noticed this at my buddies house. it was annoying as hell to me. he didn't seem to be bothered by it until i pointed it out. BTW its a new 8300HDC

I hate the way that when you are in guide and press “fav” it actually changes the channel instead of just moving the guide along to your next favorite channel. .

i noticed this immediately on my 3250hd boxes. its really annoying. i use that feature alot. strange though. if I'm in the guide and push the "help" button on the remote it will forward the guide to channel 411 which is G4 up here. "help" has always been 411 station G4, but its odd that it will still move in the guide when pushing this button but not when pushing "fav"

I hate the way it doesn’t tell you how long until it deletes things on your box… passport would way “3 days remaining” etc.

Some of my “series record” settings appear to have gotten lost in the software downgrade. Everything that is recorded from series manager is automatically set to ‘do not delete’ for some reason.

FF backs up too far when you switch to play.

Bah… what a bad decision by TW to attempt develop their own software. The only good thing about it is the on-screen call ID, but I would gladly trade that for my old passport software back.

thank goodness i haven't had to deal with any of this yet. my 8300hd is still passport.
i had SARA for a while before TWc fully took over from adelphia. when i changed from SARA to Passport i really missed the hard drive meter that told how full the drive was and i hated the "3 days remaining" thing. but i got used to it and now i find it really useful.

thank goodness i haven't had to deal with any of this yet. my 8300hd is still passport.
i had SARA for a while before TWc fully took over from adelphia. when i changed from SARA to Passport i really missed the hard drive meter that told how full the drive was and i hated the "3 days remaining" thing. but i got used to it and now i find it really useful.

Perhaps you don't know this, but you can easily get into the diagnostic area with Passport and access a screen that tells you precisely how much disk space, in bytes, that you've used and have remaining. Much more useful, as I can do the calculations (5.5 GB/hr for HD and 2.5 GB/hr for SD recordings) and plan my recording schedules accordingly.

I'm waiting to see if there's something similar with Navigator. I can get into the diagnostic screens with hard drive information, but the footprint is not given in bytes, but in clusters, which mean nothing to me. Reason #128 how Navigator is inferior to the Passport software it is replacing.

Has anyone called and complained to TWC?

Answered my own question. One of my units was upgraded, and as far as I can tell, things I had recorded are still there and the external drive works

Is there a tutorial somewhere that tells you how to hook up an external drive? Do you have to buy a special kind or will any usb HD work?

Thanks.

Is there a tutorial somewhere that tells you how to hook up an external drive? Do you have to buy a special kind or will any usb HD work?

Thanks.

I haven't done it myself, but this thread seems to discuss it:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?p=5277957

--Tzvi

Is there a tutorial somewhere that tells you how to hook up an external drive? Do you have to buy a special kind or will any usb HD work?

Thanks.

It's pretty simple. Just get any SATA drive (I use an SE 500 GB from Western Digital), put it in an enclosure with an eSATA port (I use an Apricorn) and connect it to the eSATA port on the back of your SA8300 DVR. It will then recognize the drive, do a quick format for a few seconds, and you're ready to go. Or, that's how it worked with Passport; haven't been too many reports yet of how it all works with the version of Navigator that has replaced Passport systems. That first post in the expansion drive thread referenced has a list of successful combinations.

Is there a tutorial somewhere that tells you how to hook up an external drive? Do you have to buy a special kind or will any usb HD work?

Thanks.

It's pretty simple. Just get any SATA drive (I use an SE 500 GB from Western Digital), put it in an enclosure with an eSATA port (I use an Apricorn) and connect it to the eSATA port on the back of your SA8300 DVR. It will then recognize the drive, do a quick format for a few seconds, and you're ready to go. Or, that's how it worked with Passport; haven't been too many reports yet of how it all works with the version of Navigator that has replaced Passport systems. That first post in the expansion drive thread referenced has a list of successful combinations.

Xnappo's databases are pretty good.

chief17 search the data base for the enclosure/drive combo that is least problematic. IIRC the western digitals were the most successful. but there were some problems with drives over 500gb regardless of brand. enclosure does matter. some drives work good in certain enclosures but not others.

as archiguy said there haven't been very many posts concerning using Navigator with an external drive. but i think i read a couple in the navigator thread that said it works. of course a firmware update could easily screw that up.

i haven't followed the SATA threads for about 6 months so there may be more info there.
good luck and let us know what works for you.

Thanks for the info guys, I have read through some of that thread. I think I might just hold off for a little while until there is more info on how well this works with Navigator. I see that there were some issues of buffering live shows with the Passport.

Thanks for the info guys, I have read through some of that thread. I think I might just hold off for a little while until there is more info on how well this works with Navigator. I see that there were some issues of buffering live shows with the Passport.

The buffer issue with Passport was due to the fact that the software didn't create buffers on the expansion drive. With two buffers already existing on the internal drive, that might possibly lead to logic conflicts in the code. When the percentage of available space became larger on the internal drive due to the process of recording and deleting certain programs, then buffering, and by extension trick-play, would once again become available.

I'm still waiting on confirmation of expansion drives working with Navigator on boxes that used to run Passport. We seem to now have confirmation of expansion drive capability on the version of Navigator they install on boxes that used to run the SARA software. I have still not turned "off" my SA8300 with Passport and the expansion drive and they still have not 'gatored it, and it's been close to a month now since they 'gatored my other one. Coincidence? I hope not. ;)

I would say my time with the TW DVR is limited. The phone just rang and it was the recorded message saying it's coming.

Time to clean the stuff off of it.

I have still not turned "off" my SA8300 with Passport and the expansion drive and they still have not 'gatored it, and it's been close to a month now since they 'gatored my other one. Coincidence? I hope not. ;)

Hopefully you have it on a UPS..! :)

I would say my time with the TW DVR is limited. The phone just rang and it was the recorded message saying it's coming.

Time to clean the stuff off of it.

Yup, I got my call today as well. Our 8300HD is supposed to get "Navigatored" Tuesday night.

Maybe this will convince the wife to go back to DirecTV!

So if you don't "turn off" the DVR it won't run the software update?

I've got my DVR on a UPS that should run it for quite some time in case of a power failure. Failing that, there's always the generator. :)

I received a message from Tivo that they're eliminating all of the Showtime/TMC West Coast feed channels. Can we assume that they received a directive from TWC to do this?

Yup, I got my call today as well. Our 8300HD is supposed to get "Navigatored" Tuesday night.


Me too. :( I guess I'll be finding out soon about whether or not the software can be downloaded to a DVR in the "on" state. And if it does, whether my expansion drive and the couple dozen HD movies on it will get turned into a paperweight.

Went to bed last night with the DVR on.

Woke up to find it off and gator'ed this morning. Spent about 10 minutes with it . Don't like it.

I'll be returning it as soon as I can get everything on it watched.

I'm still waiting on confirmation of expansion drives working with Navigator on boxes that used to run Passport. We seem to now have confirmation of expansion drive capability on the version of Navigator they install on boxes that used to run the SARA software.

Both of my 8300HDs have been "upgraded" now, and I have external SATA drives on both of them. They seem to be fine. I haven't had extensive playback on them yet, but they both have older (one more that a year) shows on them. Good thing, we haven't seen Planet Earth yet, and those are the oldest shows I have on the box.

Quote:
Originally Posted by chief17
I hate the way that when you are in guide and press “fav” it actually changes the channel instead of just moving the guide along to your next favorite channel. .


i noticed this immediately on my 3250hd boxes. its really annoying. i use that feature alot. strange though. if I'm in the guide and push the "help" button on the remote it will forward the guide to channel 411 which is G4 up here. "help" has always been 411 station G4, but its odd that it will still move in the guide when pushing this button but not when pushing "fav"


woke up this morning to find my 8300hd navigatored.
i haven't tried the original remote with it to see if it behaves the same with "fav" as on your box or my 3250 boxes but i see no reason why it wont.

However, using my harmony 880 the guide will move through the favorites without tuning the channels. must be something different in the code that is sent from the harmony -vs- the original remote.

Both of my 8300HDs have been "upgraded" now, and I have external SATA drives on both of them. They seem to be fine. I haven't had extensive playback on them yet, but they both have older (one more that a year) shows on them. Good thing, we haven't seen Planet Earth yet, and those are the oldest shows I have on the box.

My second box with the external drive got 'gatored this morning and, like you, the external drive seems to be fine. I have had a couple spontaneous reboots; hope that doesn't happen in the middle of a scheduled recording but if it keeps up, odds are it eventually will.

Sh*t. My 8300HD box was Crapigatored last night (Arboretum area). I spent about 30 minutes playing with it over lunch, and can confirm that it is as horrible as advertised. There are a couple of things that I like (the space meter, and the fact that it will actually load a full week of the guide), but those are easily outweighed by the nuisances.

The worst thing about it is the changes to the fast forward speed on DVR playback. It seems much slower than before, to the point where I feel the need to go to the 3X speed just to get through a standard commercial break in a reasonable amount of time. And pulling up the DVR menu puts you in the middle of your stored shows instead of the last show you were watching, so you have to scroll up or down to get back into your show.

I could go on and on, but I think it's time for me to vote with my feet with TWC. I was hoping they would do updates to make this a painless transition, but no such luck. :mad:

I've been 'gatored too. I also live in the Arboretum area. I like the drive meter, but hate the new look.

So how long after they complete the upgrade will we have to wait until switched digital video is deployed and new HD channels begin showing up here in Charlotte?

Well they've got the SDV Test Channels up, channels 1500-1502. I can tune them in manually, but its said I dont subscribe darnit. Maybe they will finish testing swiftly :)

I came home yesterday only to discover that my 8300HD box had been "gatored". I gave it a spin and although I have some of the same complaints as others, I can probably get used to the change.

However, last night I watched American Idol (on Fox HD station 240) and found the broadcast almost unwatchable. When the contestants sang, just about all that came out of my TV was the singer's voice...no band, background singers, etc. It sounded terrible. I don't have a surround sound system but just use the TV's speaker(s). Is my problem due to the new software on my cable box? It sure seems like it since the sound has always been good before. I tried changing the audio settings in "gator" but it didn't make any difference.

Anybody else with a similar experience? Any thoughts?

However, last night I watched American Idol (on Fox HD station 240) and found the broadcast almost unwatchable. When the contestants sang, just about all that came out of my TV was the singer's voice...no band, background singers, etc. It sounded terrible. I don't have a surround sound system but just use the TV's speaker(s). Is my problem due to the new software on my cable box? It sure seems like it since the sound has always been good before. I tried changing the audio settings in "gator" but it didn't make any difference.

Anybody else with a similar experience? Any thoughts?

That's not a software issue as the box simply passes thru the audio stream according to whatever settings you've chosen. Since you're listening with TV speakers, there would be no reason to select the DD5.1 stream. You'd be better off with the 2-channel stereo track, I should think.

The sound was fine before the software change. I guess I need to know if anybody else watched the show and had similar issues. If so, Maybe it was a Fox, local Fox station, or TWC feed issue?

I came home yesterday only to discover that my 8300HD box had been "gatored". I gave it a spin and although I have some of the same complaints as others, I can probably get used to the change.

However, last night I watched American Idol (on Fox HD station 240) and found the broadcast almost unwatchable. When the contestants sang, just about all that came out of my TV was the singer's voice...no band, background singers, etc. It sounded terrible. I don't have a surround sound system but just use the TV's speaker(s). Is my problem due to the new software on my cable box? It sure seems like it since the sound has always been good before. I tried changing the audio settings in "gator" but it didn't make any difference.

Anybody else with a similar experience? Any thoughts?

Did you have this problem on any other show or any other channel?

no and it only occurred during the live broadcast portion. when the show aired snippets of the live performances at the end of the show, it was fine.

I have had a couple spontaneous reboots; hope that doesn't happen in the middle of a scheduled recording but if it keeps up, odds are it eventually will.

Yes, I had a reboot too on the second one migrated. So far I can deal with this, IF we get the newHD channels :)

Anyone have a list of remote shortcusts? I heard of one this morning - # key for a replacement to the "Video Source" button

no and it only occurred during the live broadcast portion. when the show aired snippets of the live performances at the end of the show, it was fine.

Well, then I wouldnt be placing the blame on the software upgrade. If the problem was Navigator-related, it would be happening on multiple channels at multiple times.

I suspect the issue was broadcast related, probably on Fox's end.

I suspect the issue was broadcast related, probably on Fox's end.


We can't alter the audio coming from network locally, so I suspect they had a mix issue there with AI. We have asked FOX that question, so standby.

The sound was fine before the software change. I guess I need to know if anybody else watched the show and had similar issues. If so, Maybe it was a Fox, local Fox station, or TWC feed issue?

Yes, I noticed this too. This is one of those shows that I schedule a backup recording on my Windows Media Center PC (using HDHomerun - cool product!).

The sound was the same on that recording - not enough volume for the band. It was a sound probelm for the broadcast, I can't blame that one on 'gator.

Thanks. That info makes me feel a lot better about things.

Yes, I had a reboot too on the second one migrated. So far I can deal with this, IF we get the newHD channels :)

Anyone have a list of remote shortcusts? I heard of one this morning - # key for a replacement to the "Video Source" button

It's greatly annoying, but if you're watching live TV and the box "goes to sleep", you'd just quickly hit the power button to turn it back on. The problem would arise if you were watching a live show, but paused or rewound so that you were somewhere back in the buffer. If the box turns itself off and you turn it back on, the buffer would be flushed, you'd be back to "live", and you would have lost whatever portion of your show that was in the buffer that you hadn't seen yet. That will chap a lot of folk's asses, I suspect.

What I'm trying to find out now is if these spontaneous reboots every 3 hours happen on all boxes that have been 'gatored or if it's just on boxes which have hooked up an expansion drive...?

Hey, thanks for the button shortcut. Besides the infuriating rewind button that dumps you back in the program stream ahead of where you think it's going to dump you out, I've also noticed the "7-second back up" (or "instant replay") button doesn't work properly anymore either. It just backs you up a second or two, not as functional. And the fastest FF and REW speeds are much slower than they were in Passport (which gave you a 4x speed). And the trick of holding down the FF or REW buttons to jump forward in 15 minute increments doesn't function with an expansion drive (but the buffers are back).

I had my first spontaneous reboot last night (since getting gatored a couple weeks ago). I don't have an expansion drive.

I used to go 6 months or more between reboots with the old software.

It's greatly annoying, but if you're watching live TV and the box "goes to sleep", you'd just quickly hit the power button to turn it back on.

What I'm trying to find out now is if these spontaneous reboots every 3 hours happen on all boxes that have been 'gatored or if it's just on boxes which have hooked up an expansion drive...?

.
the good stuff

i haven't had any reboots since my box was hit sometime Monday night. no external drive.

also, haven't had my box 'go to sleep'. it stays on all the time. just as i like it.

the guide is as fast as before and i haven't ran into any freezes in the software.

so far most of the differences with navigator i think i can live with..but it could be much better. perhaps i just haven't ran into the deal breaker yet.

now for the bad stuff

i did notice that all of my scheduled series that were inactive were deleted.
shows such as LIFE, Prison Break ect. that are not currently airing will have to be set up again when they return to broadcast.

some shows that i had already watched and deleted in passport somehow came back into the recorded list when navigatored.:confused:

House and Bones are in my series list but not showing up in my to be recorded list and if i forward in the guide to those shows they aren't highlighted red. the description says NEW so it should get them but i have my doubts. I'm waiting to see.

I too have been 'Gatored lately but don't have a ton of complaints. One or two minor gripes though:

1) Before, when you were watching a show and hit the guide button, you could then hit the red 'C' button to search. When you did, it would immediately open up a search for the same name show you were currently on. Example- I would tune to a MLB Baseball game, then open up the guide, hit the 'C' button and have an immediate list of Baseball games. That appears gone now.

2) When I did do a search today for MLB Baseball games, instead of getting one main item with all the games below it, I got a bunch of 'main items' with games below each one, in no particular order. I'm doubting I'm explaining this well, but bottom line is that the search seems weaker than before.

3) Slower FF and RW, like many others have mentioned before.

I came home yesterday only to discover that my 8300HD box had been "gatored". I gave it a spin and although I have some of the same complaints as others, I can probably get used to the change.

However, last night I watched American Idol (on Fox HD station 240) and found the broadcast almost unwatchable. When the contestants sang, just about all that came out of my TV was the singer's voice...no band, background singers, etc. It sounded terrible. I don't have a surround sound system but just use the TV's speaker(s). Is my problem due to the new software on my cable box? It sure seems like it since the sound has always been good before. I tried changing the audio settings in "gator" but it didn't make any difference.

Anybody else with a similar experience? Any thoughts?

My wife was watching it on the 8300HD on the DVR last night (that was 'gatored a couple of weeks ago). She didn't mention any problems. She definitely would have let me know if it was that bad.

We're in the Weddington area, on the Monroe head end, so OMMV.

If you've got a CRT or plasma set, watch out for this new software.

At the end of the show the DVR will just sit there waiting on you to make a selection on what to do with the show. The old software would eventually return to a channel.

If you pause a recording it will just sit there and never enter a screen saving mode.

If you've got a CRT or plasma set, watch out for this new software.

At the end of the show the DVR will just sit there waiting on you to make a selection on what to do with the show. The old software would eventually return to a channel.

If you pause a recording it will just sit there and never enter a screen saving mode.

The screen saver comes on after about 10 minutes in pause mode. But when it does come on, it only "protects" the 4x3 area of the screen. Anyone with an HD set with a 16x9 screen will find the sidebars outside the 4x3 "saved" area are the sides of the paused image "beneath". Plasma owners beware! (and a little griping to a senior TWC tech rep couldn't hurt)

There's really no excuse for the screen saver on an HD STB to not protect for a HD image. And again, this is something that an engineer could fix with a few lines of code. Was there just no quality control at all for the Navigator development? Did nobody even try testing it with an HDTV before they started rolling it out? Too many bad bugs with easy fixes. Pathetic.

i haven't had any reboots since my box was hit sometime Monday night. no external drive.

.

had my first reboot today at 11.30am. was watching a recorded show at the time. the reboot took about 1- 1.5 min. just a small annoyance.

I was "Gatorized" Monday overnight on both DVRs. Maybe there is something going on my end, but, since I've been "Gatorized", my computer is slow to log onto the Internet after a reboot. Is anyone else experiencing this?

BTW, I'm not too crazy about the new software either.

Bob.

We got gatored here in Concord Monday night. My box, which has rebooted a grand number of 3 times in 2 years with Passport, has now rebooted 3 times in 3 days. And I haven't even been watching as much TV this week. It seems like my box is getting confused by the simplest things and rebooting itself. I really hope TWC can make this worth our while and soon.

I was "Gatorized" Monday overnight on both DVRs. Maybe there is something going on my end, but, since I've been "Gatorized", my computer is slow to log onto the Internet after a reboot. Is anyone else experiencing this?

BTW, I'm not too crazy about the new software either.

Bob.

Actually, I noticed my Road Runner Turbo is now showing speeds near 10mb/s since my cable upgrade Monday night! Yeah, I know it had nothing to do with the cable upgrade, but rather, RR giving us all a little more for our $$$ as reported on News 14 today...

http://news14.com/content/business/595522/twc-ramps-up-internet-speeds/Default.aspx

Well, I found another nice thing about the gator software (still not going to keep it).

On the old software, if you canceled a show in progress it would sometimes resume recording a few minutes later.

I gave up hope of seeing any NBC programming tonight because of WCNC's over-hyper-weather-super-duper-doppler alert (which could have been covered with a crawl so we could have still watched the shows).

So I stopped each of the shows as they began to record (when I still had hope) and the DVR never started recording again.

What's getting really frustrating about WCNC (and WSOC) is that the storms actually moved out of the viewing area and they kept up the the BS. Hand off to the Triad already. I've got to hand it to WBTV, they put on a crawl and and kept with the programing.

I know TV is not important, and lives are. But I just get so frustrated when they stay on for hours and hours. Its even worse when the storm is way up in North Wilkesboro and its all clear here in Charlotte. Heck if the storm is in your area then you've probably lost reception/power anyway.

Road Runner Turbo is now showing speeds near 10mb/s since my cable upgrade Monday night!

You betcha! I measured this yesterday and I thought the speedtest was wrong.... I'm getting close to 10mb as well! Smokin!

On the other hand, I have a buddy on FIOS that is getting 15mb - up and down .. grrrr

http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2008/04/07/symmetrical-15meg-speeds-rock.aspx

You betcha! I measured this yesterday and I thought the speedtest was wrong.... I'm getting close to 10mb as well! Smokin!

On the other hand, I have a buddy on FIOS that is getting 15mb - up and down .. grrrr

http://blogs.technet.com/keithcombs/archive/2008/04/07/symmetrical-15meg-speeds-rock.aspx

I haven't noticed any improvement in my residential Road Runner speed. In fact, in the last week, it's slowed down to painful levels at times. How do you tell the speed anyway? Every time I look at those little internet connection icons in the lower right-hand corner of my WinXP screen, the one that looks like two overlapping monitors always says:
Local Area Connection
Speed 100.0 Mbps
Status: Connected

It's never said anything different.

The one that looks like a monitor with radio or sound waves emanating from its right side always says:
Wireless (my network name I guess. never figured out how to change it or secure it)
Speed: 24 Mbps (then it briefly jumped to 56 or so, after I reloaded this page, then back to 24...?)
Signal Strength: Very good (usually)
Status: Connected

As far as I can remember, they've always said the same thing, more or less, no matter how fast or slowly my web pages are to load. What am I missing here, what's going on?

I just downloaded 64 megs in 1 minute and 10 seconds. Damn close to 1 meg per second. Here is the link to a speed test.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Charlotte/customer/cablemodemsupport/speedtest.html

I just downloaded 64 megs in 1 minute and 10 seconds. Damn close to 1 meg per second. Here is the link to a speed test.

http://www.timewarnercable.com/Charlotte/customer/cablemodemsupport/speedtest.html

Those speed tests only show you the speed to the RoadRunner network.

www.dslreports.com has various tools to help you determine your actual internet speed rather than your local speed.

with new software, Is anyone else having problems with the box holding settings, I prefer only 1080i, when I chnge to that it keeps resetting (rebooting???) to all output formats.

with new software, Is anyone else having problems with the box holding settings, I prefer only 1080i, when I chnge to that it keeps resetting (rebooting???) to all output formats.

i prefer my TV to do the scaling so i keep mine on all formats so i don't have any personal experience with that problem.
however, i think i remember lots of people in the navigator thread having that issue. perhaps search that thread.

I like the speed tests here:

http://www.speedtest.net/

Easier to pick a nearby location.

With this new navigator i can no longer skip 15/30min intervals through shows i've saved(4hr race/golf). And everyone already knows the 3x FF is slow.

Anyone know if you can skip large intervals still? Or how to start at a certain point.

With this new navigator i can no longer skip 15/30min intervals through shows i've saved(4hr race/golf). And everyone already knows the 3x FF is slow.

Anyone know if you can skip large intervals still? Or how to start at a certain point.

While the on-line "manual" for Navigator (available from the TWC web site) still lists that function as working like Passport (i.e. hit the FF or REW button and then hit the arrow key), what we ended up with is a clunky version of it that jumps 15 minute chunks if you hold the FF or REW button down for a couple of seconds. It's astonishing that even their on-line documentation is wrong and nobody's cared enough to correct it. The way it needs to be corrected of course, is to make it work like the docs say, and the relatively elegant way Passport worked. Oh, and note that there is no 15 minute jump feature at all if you have an expansion drive hooked up - another bug.

You should refer to the Navigator threads in the HDTV Recording Forum for more information. All these issues, headaches, and bugs have been documented there. It's worse than you think.

had my first reboot today at 11.30am. was watching a recorded show at the time. the reboot took about 1- 1.5 min. just a small annoyance.

last night i had 5 reboots.
i was catching up on some recorded shows while others were recording. every new recorded show i started watching caused the box to reboot about 10 seconds into the recording. 5 shows 5 reboots all at 10 seconds into the recording.
pretty weird. I've read about multiple reboots in the navigator thread but nobody mentioned the circumstances it occurred. is everyone who gets the multiple reboots seeing them during recorded shows? or are they random?
the second time starting the program didn't cause reboots.
normally this wouldn't piss me off to much but because i was recording at the same time, i lost parts of the shows.

Arggg...

Box must have rebooted last night, it missed the first 18 minutes of house.

Last night I was all set to record two shows that come on at the same time. The box was on but I wasn't home so the TV was off. It recorded one show but not the other. Passport used to record both, does Navigator still have this feature?

I'm experiencing very bad audio and video breakups tonight on all digital channels. Anyone else experiencing the same? :mad:

Passport used to record both, does Navigator still have this feature?

yes it still records 2 shows at once.
its possible you had some sort of recording conflict.
i have a problem where the recording either starts late or ends early most of the time...but not always. so my fix was to change the start and stop times on a couple of recordings. this apparently caused a conflict that navigator didn't tell me about . the result was that one show didn't record. so now I'm back to either missing the very beginning of a show or missing the very end. really frigging sucks.

I'm experiencing very bad audio and video breakups tonight on all digital channels. Anyone else experiencing the same? :mad:

i didn't notice anything last night on the HD channels i was watching.

I am unable to find WBTV (CBS) with my QAM tuner. I am able to get NBC 220, ABC 235, and FOX 240 just fine, but no such luck with CBS. I read on an earlier post that it had moved to 114, but I get something else on that channel? I know that it used to be 225, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore? What is the new channel number?

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Nevermind...I rescanned and it found it....weird....channel 225

My WBTV has moved a couple times recently and I've had to rescan to find it again. I'm not sure why just that one channel has been shuffled.

Has anyone seen the new "interactive" channels yet? I seem to be able to tune in channels 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, and 85. They include CNNT, MTV, Comedy Central and the Wx Channel. They are not listed on the guide.

Tells you to push SEL for more info. This is on a 8300 HDDVR (no cable card).

Has anyone seen the new "interactive" channels yet? I seem to be able to tune in channels 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, and 85. They include CNNT, MTV, Comedy Central and the Wx Channel. They are not listed on the guide.

Tells you to push SEL for more info. This is on a 8300 HDDVR (no cable card).

just checked on one of my 3250hd's (cant check the 8300, kid is playing xbox on that set). i can tune those channels too. mine says push "SEL for enhanced". same thing i get when i tune a non HD channel that is also available in HD. however, when i push SEL i get nothing but a black box with no options. on my friends 8300HDC box the "SEL for enhanced" simply gives him the option to tune the HD version of the channel. on my 8300hd i have never had any options when pushing SEL for enhanced.

so, what is supposed to be "interactive" about these channels?

I can get these too. Disney is also there. I have an 8300HD. When I hit select there are options. For example on the Weather channel I can choose from several options like local forecast and it will start playing just the local forecast. Might end up being nice especially for instant weather.

Has anyone seen the new "interactive" channels yet? I seem to be able to tune in channels 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, and 85. They include CNNT, MTV, Comedy Central and the Wx Channel. They are not listed on the guide.

How about some new non-interactive HD channels? I've never understood cable companies obsession with interactive tv. When most people watch television they want to be entertained. If they want interaction they get on the internet(myspace, avsforum, etc.)

Does anyone have a box still running Passport? I don't think that TWC will add any new HD channels until everyone is converted to Navigator.

I messed with those interactive channels this morning, channels 80-85. There is CNN, MTV, ESPN, Weather, etc. When you tune into those channels this morning, after hitting the SEL button, you get a 'quick clips' button with choices pertaining to that specific channel. Example- CNN has new stories you can click on, ESPN has sports clips, etc. However when you click on those stories you get an error leading me to believe that the stories aren't there yet.

Once this is live, I guess its a nifty little toy to fiddle with, but I would probably never use it regularly except possibly the Weather channel for a quick forecast.

Ok, I'm back :) I started this thread years ago but around 6 months ago I left for Directv and all their wonderful HD channels. I just switched back to TWC. The problem? Yes, they have tons of hd channels but they don't look so hot. The picture is noticably softer. I mean, my hd channels with D* looked like twc's sd channcels. It was very apparent when I switched back. Also, all their channels have extreme pixelation with movement on the screen and are just way overcompressed.

I'm watching on the Pioneer Elite Pro150FD plasma. Now, this plasma has a mode which lets you show the picture without messing it up with additional sharpness, etc so to some D* Hd might look ok if their tv's are using edge enhancement, etc. But the pioneer elite shows every flaw, sharpness issues, etc and TWC soundly beats D*.

I changed to D* for all those HD channels and it was a mistake so be patient and wait for the additional channels from TWC. You'll be glad when switched digital arrives. I've been waiting for years as well for the new HD channels and hopefully they'll be coming soon. Don't make the mistake I did :)

Ok, I'm back :) I started this thread years ago but around 6 months ago I left for Directv and all their wonderful HD channels. I just switched back to TWC. The problem? Yes, they have tons of hd channels but they don't look so hot. The picture is noticably softer. I mean, my hd channels with D* looked like twc's sd channcels. It was very apparent when I switched back. Also, all their channels have extreme pixelation with movement on the screen and are just way overcompressed.

I'm watching on the Pioneer Elite Pro150FD plasma. Now, this plasma has a mode which lets you show the picture without messing it up with additional sharpness, etc so to some D* Hd might look ok if their tv's are using edge enhancement, etc. But the pioneer elite shows every flaw, sharpness issues, etc and TWC soundly beats D*.

I changed to D* for all those HD channels and it was a mistake so be patient and wait for the additional channels from TWC. You'll be glad when switched digital arrives. I've been waiting for years as well for the new HD channels and hopefully they'll be coming soon. Don't make the mistake I did :)

Which STB were you using? Did you have an old school dish or one of the new 5-LNB based dishes?

The new dishes have gooobs of bandwidth (they're using 2GHz between the dish and receivers) to play with.

But if the network isn't sending a good signal ... then you'd have that problem no matter what.

The number of HD channels doesn't impress me at all. There's so much SD content out there right now it's going to be ages before that really even matters.

just checked on one of my 3250hd's (cant check the 8300, kid is playing xbox on that set). i can tune those channels too. mine says push "SEL for enhanced". same thing i get when i tune a non HD channel that is also available in HD. however, when i push SEL i get nothing but a black box with no options. on my friends 8300HDC box the "SEL for enhanced" simply gives him the option to tune the HD version of the channel. on my 8300hd i have never had any options when pushing SEL for enhanced.

so, what is supposed to be "interactive" about these channels?


when i checked my 8300 there were options. dont know when this occured because i know for sure the first week after navigatoring there were no options. there still arent any options on neither of my 3250hd's. the whole screen goes black and in the upper left hand corner is a box outlined in blue but there are no options no matter what channel i'm on.

Which STB were you using? Did you have an old school dish or one of the new 5-LNB based dishes?

The new dishes have gooobs of bandwidth (they're using 2GHz between the dish and receivers) to play with.

But if the network isn't sending a good signal ... then you'd have that problem no matter what.

The number of HD channels doesn't impress me at all. There's so much SD content out there right now it's going to be ages before that really even matters.

I had the newest hd dvr (hd21 I believe?) and yes the newest elliptical hd dish. TWC is sharper on every channel and I'm glad I switched back.

Ok, I'm back :) I started this thread years ago but around 6 months ago I left for Directv and all their wonderful HD channels. I just switched back to TWC. The problem? Yes, they have tons of hd channels but they don't look so hot. The picture is noticably softer. I mean, my hd channels with D* looked like twc's sd channcels. It was very apparent when I switched back. Also, all their channels have extreme pixelation with movement on the screen and are just way overcompressed.

I actually had the opposite experience. When I moved last August I left DirecTV just before the new satellite was activated and I thought overall that DirecTV had a better quality picture.

Unfortunately the DirecTV dish has a low WAF at our new house so TWC it is.

Local networks might be better on TWC, but have you tuned to the National Geographic HD channel? Every time the camera pans, not only do I see mpeg blocks, but the colors actually change to pink, green, etc.

I'm looking forward to SDV as well, but hope that TWC doesn't take this "opportunity" and squander it by putting too many HD channels on one QAM.

Does anyone use TWC Digital Phone? If so, how do you like it? Is it reliable?

...Unfortunately the DirecTV dish has a low WAF at our new house so TWC it is...Does anyone use TWC Digital Phone? If so, how do you like it? Is it reliable?

I gave wifey her own receiver and tivo..that helped me..:)

But..are you willing to trust in cable for your 911 service?:eek:

But..are you willing to trust in cable for your 911 service?:eek:

In my neck of Charlotte, TWC is more reliable than the DeathStar.

I gave wifey her own receiver and tivo..that helped me..:)

But..are you willing to trust in cable for your 911 service?:eek:

In Theory it should be better than using other VoIP services - MSOs tend to use a combination Cable Modem / Digital Telephone Adapter so they have dedicated interent bandwidth (for those who've used vonage and had loss of call clarity because someone @ the house is running a file sharing service etc...)

911 is actually more reliable on a Cable Telephone than other VOIP solutions becuase:

1) It's generally switched into the phone network at the local headend and not at some national data hub

2) The Cable Company has you registered to a specific address and it is *illegal* to use the equipment at other locations (this doesn't actually stop people from doing it, but TECHNICALLY if you use your Cable Modem, Box etc at someone else's address it is Cable Thieft :eek: )

However to be completely fair and honest I switched from Land Line, to cell phone only, to Vonage to Charter Telephone and back to Vonage...

So I recommend thinking about it, doing the research and making sure you've got good answers to the following questions:


1) How often does your cable modem go out?

Telephone uses a specialized modem, so if you're already having problems with broadband internet, chances are you'll have problems with telephone

2) What features are *must have* for you and does your cable co offer them?

I got used to Vonage, I like having a web portal where I can see all my incoming and outgoing call information and I can listen to my voicemail online from anywhere. I love receiving email notification of voicemail (comes in handly when you're away from home) - these where not features I could get with Charter's phone service (TW may be different...) Vonage also features a "forward when unavailible" setting that automatically forwards the call to a back up number should you not have a broadband connection. - For some reason certain cable companies don't want to acknowledge that modems go down and feel you shouldn't need such a feature - personally I love it.


3) Is your number portable?

For most people this isn't a problem, however again, I switched from Vonage and didn't have a number in the same rate exchange as my physical location so when I went from Vonage to Charter I lost my number... fortunately going from Charter back to Vonage I did not!

4) Is the price worth it?

Run the numbers, on average figure $6 to $12 in taxes and fees above and beyound the listed price. Chances are if you're migrating there's a package deal or special... ESPECIALLY with cable telephone (they are pushing hard to get those bundles out)




VOIP tends to be hands down cheaper than traditional phone lines, it can be very portable (especially Skype and Vonage) Cable Telephone has the advantage of dedicated bandwidth, but so far lacks alot of the features other VOIP carriers push

There's also talk about some MSOs who ignore calls for network neutrality and actually reduce the priority / choke the bandwidth for third party data services such as Vonage. However - just like the over compression of HDs to get more channels, most carriers who do this are quickly feeling the backlash and others are not following suit.

James makes some excellent points..As part of anyone's research in choosing phone service.. go back to 1989 and Hurricane Hugo. The least affected service was landline due to underground lines.Cable here was decimated. Cellular sites ran out of backup battery power and generator fuel.Plus heavy traffic led to congestion.Tho that has largely been addressed, some cell sites still are linked by aerial fiber.

In the 15 years I've lived at this address.. I've had 1 telco outage that lasted less than 2 hours. I Still have hum in the video here that TWC can't seem to fix, and BellLouse DSL goes out occasionally. And, here at home, on a regular basis..I miss and /or can't make cell calls via AllSmell.

But Hey, To each his own.

I have TWC phone service and haven't had any problems at all. Call clarity is the same as land line and I have had virtually 0 service interruptions...

I whole heartedly agree RE the comparison of picture quality between DTV and TWC, cable wins hands down...

I see that DTV DVR owners can now go to a website (http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/epg/theGuide.jsp) and tell their DVRs to record. When will TWC customers be able to do this? Anyone have any news on this?

In the 15 years I've lived at this address.. I've had 1 telco outage that lasted less than 2 hours. I Still have hum in the video here that TWC can't seem to fix, and BellLouse DSL goes out occasionally. And, here at home, on a regular basis..I miss and /or can't make cell calls via AllSmell.


When I lived uptown my TWC cable/internet was out for a week straight on one occasion.

I've lived at my current address for nine months and my bellsouth/at&t service was out for 12 hours just last week. No dial tone or anything.

I was in high school in Greensboro during Hugo and we didn't get hit nearly as bad as Charleston and Charlotte. :)

Is anyone else experiencing frozen channels?

I thought that it was my tivo, but it happens on a directly connected tv as well.

I didn't try all channels, but 29, 30, & 31 are all frozen for me.

I whole heartedly agree RE the comparison of picture quality between DTV and TWC, cable wins hands down...

Wow. Considering how much TWC and the SA STB's filter the picture, DTV must really suck. The SA8300 is only reputed to be able to deliver about 1300 lines of resolution and TWC is doing their own rate-shaping on top of that. I figure at least of third of the available data has been filtered out as a hour of HD MPEG 2 recorded material that should run 9 GB/hr (from one of Bob's stations' digital transmitter) instead only takes up about 5.5 GB/hr on the 8300. Guess DTV must still be doing HD-lite. How do they get away with it?

Best picture is going to be with an ATSC receiver over the air. No filtering at all. Right Bob? ;)

Is anyone else experiencing frozen channels?

I thought that it was my tivo, but it happens on a directly connected tv as well.

I didn't try all channels, but 29, 30, & 31 are all frozen for me.

I called them, and they were aware of the problem. It is resolved now

Best picture is going to be with an ATSC receiver over the air. No filtering at all. Right Bob? ;)

Yep.. tho TWC will say they aren't "modifying" the signal in any way.;)

I am constantly amazed with those of you that go buy a new HDTV with built in tuner..and then hook it to cable or satellite, and don't even use the internal digital tuner.. Go spend the less than $100 bucks for an antenna in the attic and you'll have a back up for when catv/satellite goes out..

I had our research girl use an antenna and compare OTA with her unnamed but small just south of Charlotte in SC cable system, she was amazed at the difference, and how much better OTA was.

Yep.. tho TWC will say they aren't "modifying" the signal in any way.;)

I am constantly amazed with those of you that go buy a new HDTV with built in tuner..and then hook it to cable or satellite, and don't even use the internal digital tuner.. Go spend the less than $100 bucks for an antenna in the attic and you'll have a back up for when catv/satellite goes out..

I had our research girl use an antenna and compare OTA with her unnamed but small just south of Charlotte in SC cable system, she was amazed at the difference, and how much better OTA was.


Do you ever envision channels mandating within their contracts a minimum bandwidth requirement so that the carriers do not butcher the picture? Or, will we be left complaining to the carriers?

Yes, D* was that bad :) TWC looks like BluRay compared to the HD I was receiving with D* YIKES

Just wondering if anyone noticed anything odd last night on Fox - on our TV guide based boxes here it appears that they had listed the two hour "So you Think you can Dance" as a 1 hr episode of Bones and a 1 hour Episode of House. This was not good as people with DVRs didn't record it and there are alot of upset "So you think you can Dance" watchers out there now.

I was hoping to find out if the scheduling error was with Fox (in which case everyone should have had the wrong data) or with Tv Guide (in which case non-TV guide boxes had good listings)

Thanks in Advance!

Has anyone else had issues with the video stream not shrinking when you go the the guide or the recorded programs list? For the past three days my 8300HDC has not been shrinking the video to the designated area in the upper right hand corner of the guide for example and instead simply overlays the guide on the full screen video playing.

This is highly annoying. I presume that a reset of the box would fix the issue, but I shouldn't have to live through several minutes of rebooting my box to fix something that shouldn't happen to begin with.

Is TWC pushing any updates to their new crapware out or are they still on the first version of it?

I have not had this issue but my friend has had exactly the opposite problem where the shrunken video does not return to full screen after exiting the guide. I'm pretty sure a reboot did not help.

I have not had this issue but my friend has had exactly the opposite problem where the shrunken video does not return to full screen after exiting the guide. I'm pretty sure a reboot did not help.

Actually, I have had that issue as well but luckily that hasn't happened but a couple of times. I would much rather have the problem I currently have than the one you described.

I have not had this issue but my friend has had exactly the opposite problem where the shrunken video does not return to full screen after exiting the guide. I'm pretty sure a reboot did not help.

this is a known issue with the ODN boxes (cable card). at least in the navigator thread it is.
a temporary fix is to hit the PIP button. a more permanent fix is to not use HDMI. use component instead.

Does anyone know if TWC has any plans to add any of the new HD Channels that are showing up on the satellite systems?

I've got an odd thing happening with my new Navigatored SA8300. I actually have two of them, one with an expansion drive hooked up. This issue is with the other one, the one I use solely for time-shifting. If I turn it to the "off" position at night, the next day when I turn it on, I have no picture or sound. But if I change channels I get the banner, I can display the program guide and my programming list; just no picture or sound. If I then do a hard reboot (pulling the plug and plugging it back in), then it goes through the reboot process and everything comes back just fine. Anybody else seeing this? Any idea what's going on?

Has anyone else had issues with the video stream not shrinking when you go the the guide or the recorded programs list?

Mine actually started doing this a few days ago. I can't say for sure, but it was right around the time when the box put up a "please wait" message for about 30 seconds, so I'm assuming it was update related.

I decided to reboot the box last night when I knew I had a few minutes, and it appears to have corrected the issue.

Mine actually started doing this a few days ago. I can't say for sure, but it was right around the time when the box put up a "please wait" message for about 30 seconds, so I'm assuming it was update related.

I decided to reboot the box last night when I knew I had a few minutes, and it appears to have corrected the issue.

Actually, my 8300HDC locked up last night so I had to pull the plug and do a hard reset on it. When it came back up it corrected my issue as well. I have my box connected via HDMI...mentioning that since that was cited as a possible initiator of an opposite problem.

I really hope TWC fixes these issues sooner rather than later. I feel like I'm beta testing software for them...except that I'm paying to do it!

Actually, my 8300HDC locked up last night so I had to pull the plug and do a hard reset on it. When it came back up it corrected my issue as well. I have my box connected via HDMI...mentioning that since that was cited as a possible initiator of an opposite problem.

I really hope TWC fixes these issues sooner rather than later. I feel like I'm beta testing software for them...except that I'm paying to do it!

Get used to it. I've felt that way since I got my first HD box from them back in 2002!

I just checked the guide for tonight and the new Discovery series, When We Left Earth, will not be on DIscovery HD channel 280. Its only on the standerd channel 35. This is really disapointing, any clue why this is? Is the TW Discovery HD different than every other Discovery HD channel? Maybe its the HD showcase or something like that. Either way, I'm very disapointed about this, gotta love cable.

TWC in Charlotte does not carry Discovery Channel HD. They carry Discovery HD Theater. I'm not at home to check now but the guide probably mis-identifies it as Discovery HD just like it mis-identifies MHD as MTV HD (which it is not). HD Theater will probably show this in a few weeks I would hope, but that means we all have to wait to see this in HD like it was meant to be seen. That is the point of this show; the first HD digital transfer of film footage from the NASA archive. I e-mailed TWC earlier this week about this situation and guess what? No reply at all not even the standard we're working on it e-mail. Guess they just don't care. Thought it was sort of funny that the Observer TV section had this on the cover today and TWC doesn't carry the channel. Hope everyone with satellite enjoys this because those of us with cable don't get to.

I have not had this issue but my friend has had exactly the opposite problem where the shrunken video does not return to full screen after exiting the guide. I'm pretty sure a reboot did not help.

I have had that same issue since we got the downgraded to the new software a couple months ago. Sometimes the guide will "shrink" when changing channels... and when you you turn off the guide, the picture will be "shrunk" too. I am using component, not hdmi, and a reboot does not prevent the problem from happening again. I have to go into settings a mess around with the aspect ratio to fix it. It seems to happen when switching from a 16:9 channel to a 4:3 channel... but not every time.

Navigator sucks.

I'm hooking up an external harddrive on wednesday and was wondering if there is a diagnostic screen that will show the HDD space remaining?

TWC in Charlotte does not carry Discovery Channel HD. They carry Discovery HD Theater. I'm not at home to check now but the guide probably mis-identifies it as Discovery HD just like it mis-identifies MHD as MTV HD (which it is not). HD Theater will probably show this in a few weeks I would hope, but that means we all have to wait to see this in HD like it was meant to be seen. That is the point of this show; the first HD digital transfer of film footage from the NASA archive. I e-mailed TWC earlier this week about this situation and guess what? No reply at all not even the standard we're working on it e-mail. Guess they just don't care. Thought it was sort of funny that the Observer TV section had this on the cover today and TWC doesn't carry the channel. Hope everyone with satellite enjoys this because those of us with cable don't get to.

Looks like they made the changes. What was Discovery HD is now HD Theater and what once was MTV HD is now MHD.

I'm hooking up an external harddrive on wednesday and was wondering if there is a diagnostic screen that will show the HDD space remaining?

The "list" will show the percentage of free space remaining on the total of both drives. That's a very blunt instrument, because we don't know whether that's taking into account the drive "overhead". For instance, can you record all the way up to 100%, or is it chock full at 93% because of the buffers and operating system overhead?

You can get into the diagnostic screens, but while Passport would give you the drive footprint used and available down to the single gigabyte, Navigator gives you that information in "sector" size, which means nothing to me since we don't know how much data is written to clusters. Basically, it's worthless. Yet another downgrade in customer capability with Navigator.

Thanks for the info. I went into diagnostic by holding select and pressing channel down. I went through 9 different screens but couldn't find anything helpful on dvr capacity. The external drive is arriving tomorrow (I bought the 1TB Apricorn dvd expander per the external drive list at avs). I'll post back and let you know. Right now I'm at around 72% full so hopefully after I install the new drive that should drop to hardly any space used. We'll see tomorrow :) Oh, Archiguy do I need to format the drive with my computer or anything first? From what I've read I just hook it up and the dvr formats it and I'm good to go?

Thanks for the info. I went into diagnostic by holding select and pressing channel down. I went through 9 different screens but couldn't find anything helpful on dvr capacity. The external drive is arriving tomorrow (I bought the 1TB Apricorn dvd expander per the external drive list at avs). I'll post back and let you know. Right now I'm at around 72% full so hopefully after I install the new drive that should drop to hardly any space used. We'll see tomorrow :) Oh, Archiguy do I need to format the drive with my computer or anything first? From what I've read I just hook it up and the dvr formats it and I'm good to go?

After you attach the external drive, I would like to know if it increases the capacity 1 TB or, if it over-rides the internal HDD and limits capacity to 1 TB.

Thanks,

Bob.

After you attach the external drive, I would like to know if it increases the capacity 1 TB or, if it over-rides the internal HDD and limits capacity to 1 TB.

Thanks,

Bob.

with passport and sara it was a combined total of the 2 drives.
recordings were always sent to the drive with the most free space.
so with a 1TB external it could take quite a while before recordings were sent to the internal drive.
i would guess that navigator works the same way ,however, it would be nice to get some confirmation.

Thanks for the info. I went into diagnostic by holding select and pressing channel down. I went through 9 different screens but couldn't find anything helpful on dvr capacity. The external drive is arriving tomorrow (I bought the 1TB Apricorn dvd expander per the external drive list at avs). I'll post back and let you know. Right now I'm at around 72% full so hopefully after I install the new drive that should drop to hardly any space used. We'll see tomorrow :) Oh, Archiguy do I need to format the drive with my computer or anything first? From what I've read I just hook it up and the dvr formats it and I'm good to go?

Just plug it in with an eSATA cable; the DVR does the rest including a very quick format. You should probably unplug your DVR, hook up the expansion drive and plug it the enclosure's power supply, then plug in your DVR and let it go thru the cold boot process. I'm not sure how Navigator will react to a "hot" hookup of an expansion drive if the DVR is already on, booted, and running. Don't think you can hurt anything, though, by trying it different ways if unsuccessful at first.

Ok, installed the Apricorn harddrive and rebooted the system. Before the install I had 82% used on the drive. After attaching the 1TB harddrive the list shows only 10% used :) Everything seems to be working so it's so far, so good!

Ok, installed the Apricorn harddrive and rebooted the system. Before the install I had 82% used on the drive. After attaching the 1TB harddrive the list shows only 10% used :) Everything seems to be working so it's so far, so good!

If you don't mind - dial up channel 4. Hit pause and let it sit for 1 minute.

See if you can FF or rewind through that buffer.

I just paused it on channel 4 for 2 minutes and had no problems fast forwarding or rewinding afterward.

I just paused it on channel 4 for 2 minutes and had no problems fast forwarding or rewinding afterward.

Well, there is good news after all. Looks like they fixed the trick-play problem when an external drive is attached!

Thanks for testing that.

NO prob. I'll post back if I run into any problems but so far it's working like it should. fingers crossed ;)

I am able to get most of the channels via firewire except the HD Channels in the 200s. I'm able to get a few channels in the 200s but not them all. Anyone know if those are available or if they are 5C encrypted?

Thanks

I am able to get most of the channels via firewire except the HD Channels in the 200s. I'm able to get a few channels in the 200s but not them all. Anyone know if those are available or if they are 5C encrypted?

Thanks

I was able to successfully tune in HDNet, HDNet Movies, HDTheatre and MHD as well as the locals via FireWire to my Mac Pro. My problem was that the 4300HDC wouldn't accept channel change or power commands.

Interestingly enough, all of the channels above were labeled as copy freely. I did find a program on WBTV that was set to copy once.

Well, there is good news after all. Looks like they fixed the trick-play problem when an external drive is attached!

Thanks for testing that.

I verified this about a month back and noted it here and in the related threads in the HDTV Recorders forum. Also noted that although the buffers have returned with expansion drives, the 15 minute jump ahead or back feature (accessed in Navigator by holding down the FF or REW buttons for a couple of seconds) is gone with exp. drives, both for "live" play using the buffer and recorded shows. It's there in non-exp-drive DVR's (I have one of those too). Weird bug, that. Makes it take forever to move "quickly" through a program.

I am able to get most of the channels via firewire except the HD Channels in the 200s. I'm able to get a few channels in the 200s but not them all. Anyone know if those are available or if they are 5C encrypted?

What STB are you using? I can't get a solid firewire lock to my D-VHS deck on any channels with my SA8300HD DVR (or the SA3250 STB I used to have), and haven't since about August 2006. Navigator didn't help that situation. Near as I could tell from the Passport diagostics, TWC Charlotte isn't even bothering to turn the 5C flags on anymore. Why should they, if they've functionally crippled firewire? I have a Macbook, but have never tried it with that device, only my D-VHS deck. Ironically, D-VHS is the only "approved" device for firewire transfer from a cable company STB; computers, including Macs, were supposed to be verboten.

Hi Charlotte...I have composite thru a terrific Yamaha RXZ9. I am getting a new HDTV and wonder if I will be better off going from the Cable Box direct to HDTV with HDMI. I think they amp is doing some processing of the video but don't know how much. I already have the Composite Cables in place (20') and don't want to do the HDMI if there won't be any appreciable increase in resolution.

Thanks for your comments!!

Hi Charlotte...I have composite thru a terrific Yamaha RXZ9. I am getting a new HDTV and wonder if I will be better off going from the Cable Box direct to HDTV with HDMI. I think they amp is doing some processing of the video but don't know how much. I already have the Composite Cables in place (20') and don't want to do the HDMI if there won't be any appreciable increase in resolution.

Thanks for your comments!!

The receiver will just pass through the video through it's HDMI switching inputs. You won't see any difference if you connect HDMI directly to your HDTV (which, I'm assuming, is a fixed-pixel device and not a CRT - if it's CRT, you're better off with component connections). I would only use HDMI for video and run digital audio through toslink or coaxial cable directly to the receiver.

Well, I e-mailed TWC asking for any information on when the Charlotte market may receive a refreshed HD line-up (since that is happening in other markets like Albany for example) and I have yet to hear a response back (now three days and counting).

I have come to the conclusion that TWC simply does not care. 8-( All I want is Discovery Channel HD (HD Theater is ok sometimes, but I honestly could care less about auto auctions in 1080i...I'd much rather have Dirty Jobs in HD).

I have come to the conclusion that TWC simply does not care.

In other news, Francisco Franco is still dead! :D

I have question about receiving dd5.1 while connected via hdmi cable. After an updrade from my old Hitach RPTV (using dvi) I took the plunge and purachased a plasma, but now I'm having audio issues. It appears that I can not receive dd5.1 while connected hdmi and I'm wondering if I'm over looking something in the SA8300 menu. I know if connect via component. it would solve this, but i have the tv mounted with the wires in the wall and I want to avoid the cost fishing wires again

There's an audio selection under the devices menu that let's you choose HDMI as the audio output. You have this selected, correct? I'm assuming your running the box to an hdmi receiver and then out to the tv...

What STB are you using? I can't get a solid firewire lock to my D-VHS deck on any channels with my SA8300HD DVR (or the SA3250 STB I used to have), and haven't since about August 2006. Navigator didn't help that situation. Near as I could tell from the Passport diagostics, TWC Charlotte isn't even bothering to turn the 5C flags on anymore. Why should they, if they've functionally crippled firewire? I have a Macbook, but have never tried it with that device, only my D-VHS deck. Ironically, D-VHS is the only "approved" device for firewire transfer from a cable company STB; computers, including Macs, were supposed to be verboten.

Drop by and pick up a 4300HDC and test it out. I found it to be pretty good - but the software I have wouldn't change the channels. Maybe your D-VHS deck will have better luck.

Actually, I'm running the HDMI from the box directlty to the tv and I have the optical cable from the box to the receiver. This is the exact same set up from my old system, the only difference was a dvi cable with a HDMI adapter and composite audio to the tv. I never had any problems with the setup. I just purchased a hdmi receiver (I think video only) yesterday so I did not connect it. Is it mandatory to run hdmi through the receiver to get dd5.1?

Well, I e-mailed TWC asking for any information on when the Charlotte market may receive a refreshed HD line-up (since that is happening in other markets like Albany for example) and I have yet to hear a response back (now three days and counting).

I have come to the conclusion that TWC simply does not care. 8-( All I want is Discovery Channel HD (HD Theater is ok sometimes, but I honestly could care less about auto auctions in 1080i...I'd much rather have Dirty Jobs in HD).

I'm pretty sure that most of the markets TWC is expanding the HD lineups use SARA rather than Passport like we have here in Charlotte. SARA is compatible with switched digital video whereas the version of Passport we have is not.

Once Navigator is rolled out to everyone, TWC can implement switched digital video here in Charlotte.

My guess is that we will start seeing new HD channels in late July or August.

Drop by and pick up a 4300HDC and test it out. I found it to be pretty good - but the software I have wouldn't change the channels. Maybe your D-VHS deck will have better luck.

My oh my...! Now you have my attention. So, there's a new HD receiver offered by TWC, to replace the venerable SA3250HD, that has IEEE 1394 firewire ports that actually work???

Be still my beating heart. I'm looking into this.... question is, can I find anyone at TWC who can actually discuss firewire coherently? Wonder if Ron Wright is still there?

My oh my...! Now you have my attention. So, there's a new HD receiver offered by TWC, to replace the venerable SA3250HD, that has IEEE 1394 firewire ports that actually work???

Be still my beating heart. I'm looking into this.... question is, can I find anyone at TWC who can actually discuss firewire coherently? Wonder if Ron Wright is still there?

Don't ask. They're no help. Go by Northlake mall (or other joint) and tell them you want the HD cable box without DVR with Firewire. Poof out hands a 4300HDC. They can't give out the 3250 anymore because of the CableCARD thingy issue.

If you're burning the midnight oil tonight (Sunday 6/22 - 12:30a - 5a), you'll notice WBTV is off the air. It's a planned thing.

If you're burning the midnight oil tonight (Sunday 6/22 - 12:30a - 5a), you'll notice WBTV is off the air. It's a planned thing.


Ya'll git that electrical thingy fixed?? :)

Please invest in the equipment necessary to interject weather updates into an HD broadcast before the olympics. My wife was watching some of the olympic trials this weekend and WCNC kept interjecting into the broadcast taking the HD screen down to SD not to mention filling 40% of the screen up with weather data. Please, please buy the equipment. Better yet don't break into the broadcast at all. Use the bandwidth sucking weather sub-channel to announce weather related items. Why do they have a weather sub-channel at all if they don't use it! I have to admit I do use the FOX sub-channnel to check the radar. In my opinion it's the best use of bandwidth.

Bob-->I'd say they got the electrical thingy-mah-bob fixed. I never heard WBT-AM/FM go off the air. I know they switched to the transmitter site, but never heard it. I did hear WLNK blip for the switch.

jcb-->It doesn't do any good to complain here about what CNC does. I'm shocked they didn't come on the air and step on programming. They've got an expensive RADAR system to finish paying off. Call the station and complain to them.

Well, I've got problems now after hooking up the external harddrive. Every day when I turn on my system now I get no picture from the box and have to reboot it to get it to work. I'm running the box to an Integra dtc9.8 prepro and out to the pioneer elite pro150FD plasma. My components are hdmi1.3 so everything should be working but it's not.

When I checked the display on the box, it always boots up at 480i no matter if I choose to not have the box display 480i or 480p and I believe that's why there's no hdmi handhake. Any help would be appreciated as I've tried everything from changing the power on sequence to tv first, then audio, then box and chancging the order all different ways :(

I noticed that there are duplicate channels in the 600's. I think there are two more CNNs.


Is this part of SDV?

Well, I've got problems now after hooking up the external harddrive. Every day when I turn on my system now I get no picture from the box and have to reboot it to get it to work. I'm running the box to an Integra dtc9.8 prepro and out to the pioneer elite pro150FD plasma. My components are hdmi1.3 so everything should be working but it's not.

When I checked the display on the box, it always boots up at 480i no matter if I choose to not have the box display 480i or 480p and I believe that's why there's no hdmi handhake. Any help would be appreciated as I've tried everything from changing the power on sequence to tv first, then audio, then box and chancging the order all different ways :(

I don't know much about HDMI, and certainly wouldn't depend on it to transmit digital audio when routing that data to a receiver thru toslink or coaxial is practically bulletproof, but it sounds like your inability to get picture & sound is similar to mine, i.e. your "return" signal strength is too low (the "send" signal strength is likely fine). It probably has nothing to do with your expansion drive. I have one DVR with an expansion drive that works fine and an older one without an expansion drive that has been having lots of problems for the last month. Have now had two separate service calls out here and the second guy said he's going to bring out an in-house amplifier to boost the signal up. I want to try that before I trade out the box. These problems are hardly ever with the box, which is also practically bulletproof.

Again, this has become an issue for a lot of people because of Navigator. Passport was much better at dealing with marginal signal strength, I'm told. One more example of how TWC has screwed so many of us because of their insistence on pushing this ill-considered software platform.

Thanks archiguy, I will call TWC back out to check the signal strength as my analog is very snowy as well.

I think there are two more CNNs.

Does that then make them "right" ?? :D

Does that then make them "right" ?? :D

2 wrongs dont make a right.:D

Here's what I just posted in the 8300 sata thread:

Well, the TWC had an 8300HD on his truck so now I have it hooked up and everything is working perfectly and much faster at that I didn't erase all the programs on my external drive before I hooked it up to the new box so do I need to hook it to the computer and erase any data on it? The previously recorded programs aren't showing up in the new list but it seems like I reached %5 full pretty quick after setting two hd programs to record.

Also, I checked the diagnostic screen and couldn't find anything showing my full dvr plus external capacity. When I booted the box up it recognized the external drive but didn't format it (because the old box already did?) So far so good as it boots up to 1080i or 720p (not 480i like the newer box).

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I noticed that there are duplicate channels in the 600's. I think there are two more CNNs.


Is this part of SDV?
The duplicates in the 600s are just that, duplicates. They have been there for months (possibly years). I remember TWC promoted them as a quick place to find your favorite channels. (Or at least what TWC thinks your favorites should be.)

--Tzvi

Well, I signed up for Time Warner a few weeks back, got it hooked up on Saturday, and am going to return the equipment and get my account shut down tomorrow. The reason? The "power bundle" advertising. They make it sound like you're paying $30 for a package of the next to the slowest Internet access, basic cable, and digital phone. It turns out on the webpage you have to click on a link to another page that explains that you're paying $30 PER SERVICE, so you pay $90 a month. I switched from DSL to save money, and instead am out $95 for the installation fee, and I'm out another $90 because they told me on the phone that they charge for the entire month, even though I'll have had it less than a week. Maybe the CSR was wrong, but I am not happy about this situation.

Did you really think you were getting all that for $30 a month?

removed

Ok guys, it's been 3 yrs, but I'm back with TWC. Dish Network has been great, but my bill has slowly crept up to unacceptable levels with no willingness on their part to compromise. So, back to TWC. I have the HD DVR coming tomorrow; what model are they handing out now? Is the HDMI port active? External Hard Drive support? Any sign of NFL network in the near future? Anything else you think I should be aware of? Thanks in advance for the replies!

James

Ok guys, it's been 3 yrs, but I'm back with TWC. Dish Network has been great, but my bill has slowly crept up to unacceptable levels with no willingness on their part to compromise. So, back to TWC. I have the HD DVR coming tomorrow; what model are they handing out now? Is the HDMI port active? External Hard Drive support? Any sign of NFL network in the near future? Anything else you think I should be aware of? Thanks in advance for the replies!

James

You'll get the Cisco 8300HDC cable box. Yes, HDMI is on. Yes, external drive support is on.

Thankfully, nothing in the near future for the NFL network.

Thanks ke4pym!
Is the external hard drive support just SATA? Not sure what you mean by the "thankfully" part when saying nothing on the horizon, I kinda like that channel. Has there been any increase in recording space with this model? Thanks again!

James

Thanks ke4pym!
Is the external hard drive support just SATA? Not sure what you mean by the "thankfully" part when saying nothing on the horizon, I kinda like that channel. Has there been any increase in recording space with this model? Thanks again!

James

You'll need an eSATA connection - read back a few posts, someone in here just got a big drive. The drive inside the 8300HDC is 160GB.

I don't want NFL TV unless TWC puts it in the sports tier so only those who want to pay for it get it.

Effective today, WCCB-DT is passing CBN's 700 Club in HD daily at 12 Noon.

I don't want NFL TV unless TWC puts it in the sports tier so only those who want to pay for it get it.

Agreed. There is simply not enough content on that network to justify the outrageous carriage demands the NFL is asking. I don't want to see my bill go up a couple of bucks to pay for it, but I'm certainly happy for those that do as long as it's on a sports tier I can otherwise ignore.

And the bigger question is: don't we already have enough NFL games during the fall? Good gravy, I'm a big gridiron fan and a Panther PSL holder, but enough is enough. The shear, unmitigated greed of the NFL seems to hold no bounds. That 8-game package should have stayed on ESPN and/or TNT as it's been for years. Now I hear they're trying to get it on ESPN Classic, which is already carried by everybody, and then they can jack up the rate for that channel and hope nobody notices. :rolleyes:

Effective today, WCCB-DT is passing CBN's 700 Club in HD daily at 12 Noon.

I'm not sure that qualifies as "good news". ;)

I'm not sure that qualifies as "good news". ;)

It is to CBN, who pays us to air the program. :)

It is to CBN, who pays us to air the program. :)

Ha! Now, that's more in the spirit of 'The 700 Club'. It's all about the Franklins, baby. :D

TWC in Kansas City has just implemented switched digital video(SDV) and a bunch of new HD channels. TWC is also doing the same thing in San Diego and Wisconsin.

What's this got to do with Charlotte you ask? Well all 3 of those markets used Passport like us and were recently switched to Navigator. If I'm not mistaken they were all a month or two ahead of us, so using their timeline we should get new HD channels in July or August.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2008/07/time-warner-sor.html

TWC in Kansas City has just implemented switched digital video(SDV) and a bunch of new HD channels. TWC is also doing the same thing in San Diego and Wisconsin.

What's this got to do with Charlotte you ask? Well all 3 of those markets used Passport like us and were recently switched to Navigator. If I'm not mistaken they were all a month or two ahead of us, so using their timeline we should get new HD channels in July or August.

http://blogs.kansascity.com/tvbarn/2008/07/time-warner-sor.html

Since each TWC "affiliate" (never know what to call the local group) is essentially independent in terms of programming and other machinations, I'm not sure that would have any relevance here. There is still no word, no word at all, not even the breath of a rumor, about when they'll implement SDV here in Charlotte. They keep the decision makers well insulated from the public; we can't even find out who they are, much less ask them questions in a way that would compel them to answer! (And for this they're granted a local monopoly and the huge profits that come with it.) But we always seem to be one of the last TWC "outlets" (another stab at it) anywhere in the country to get any new HD channels. And that's ridiculous.

Since each TWC "affiliate" (never know what to call the local group) is essentially independent in terms of programming and other machinations, I'm not sure that would have any relevance here. There is still no word, no word at all, not even the breath of a rumor, about when they'll implement SDV here in Charlotte. They keep the decision makers well insulated from the public; we can't even find out who they are, much less ask them questions in a way that would compel them to answer! (And for this they're granted a local monopoly and the huge profits that come with it.) But we always seem to be one of the last TWC "outlets" (another stab at it) anywhere in the country to get any new HD channels. And that's ridiculous.

In my recent issues with TWC's RoadRunner (problems lasting 9+ months) I ended up speaking with the Technical Operations VP for Charlotte. When he was explaining to me that they had built a new hub for my area of Charlotte and they were getting ready to go live on it (which happened last week, apparently) I specifically asked if the hub was to support SDV. And he said yes. There are already a couple of SDV test channels on-line as pointed out by another poster a couple pages back. So, it is coming.

I'm all for more efficient use of the network. But TWC should just drop it and start running Fiber To the Home. Verizon is laughing to the bank with their FTTH roll out.

And great. More HD channels. Yippie. More upscaled junk. I can hardly wait!

And great. More HD channels. Yippie. More upscaled junk. I can hardly wait!
For the most part I agree with that statement. But I don't think it is too much to ask to have channels like The Discovery Channel and The Science Channel in HD.

Please invest in the equipment necessary to interject weather updates into an HD broadcast before the olympics. My wife was watching some of the olympic trials this weekend and WCNC kept interjecting into the broadcast taking the HD screen down to SD not to mention filling 40% of the screen up with weather data. Please, please buy the equipment. Better yet don't break into the broadcast at all. Use the bandwidth sucking weather sub-channel to announce weather related items. Why do they have a weather sub-channel at all if they don't use it! I have to admit I do use the FOX sub-channnel to check the radar. In my opinion it's the best use of bandwidth.

Seconded. Incredibly annoying all through the F1 race yesterday. The constant breakup made the bloody broadcast almost unwatchable but I am assuming that was unintentional and therefore am more than willing to let it go. However, the repeated intentional interruption to tell me that there are thunderstorms in the area (no, really? you mean ther are t-storms in the south in June?) is infuriating. Either buy the equipment to do the job properly or leave it be.

Someone pointed out a few weeks back that some channels labeled SDV had appeared at around channel 1500-1502. Today while playing around, I noticed some new channels at 1503-1508. They were labeled HBOW, HBO2W, Boom, FOX Business, and FOX Reality. They came up on the screen as unavailable press A to try again. Could these be the first SDV channels coming soon? These seem to be the kind of channels that would be good candidates as has been previously mentioned, alternate time zones and less popular channels.
I also noticed some channels listed as test 1, test 2, test 3 etc. in the 1420s and 1430s.
Anybody have any idea what these channels are?

Someone pointed out a few weeks back that some channels labeled SDV had appeared at around channel 1500-1502. Today while playing around, I noticed some new channels at 1503-1508. They were labeled HBOW, HBO2W, Boom, FOX Business, and FOX Reality. They came up on the screen as unavailable press A to try again. Could these be the first SDV channels coming soon? These seem to be the kind of channels that would be good candidates as has been previously mentioned, alternate time zones and less popular channels.
I also noticed some channels listed as test 1, test 2, test 3 etc. in the 1420s and 1430s.
Anybody have any idea what these channels are?

I just fiddled with these channels....those test channels actually go all the way to 1440. That's almost 20 channels there in the test area. Curious.

I just had to visit the main office to straighten out a billing issue. Unreal how this company operates. If I ever go postal someplace it will surely be over TWC and in a final bit of irony, the whole thing would be reported by Channel 14.:D

Seconded. Incredibly annoying all through the F1 race yesterday. The constant breakup made the bloody broadcast almost unwatchable but I am assuming that was unintentional and therefore am more than willing to let it go. However, the repeated intentional interruption to tell me that there are thunderstorms in the area (no, really? you mean ther are t-storms in the south in June?) is infuriating. Either buy the equipment to do the job properly or leave it be.

I had the same breakups while watching the F1 race. Why is that happening? I would rather watch a snowy picture from yester-year than deal with breakups and audio drop outs.

I just had to visit the main office to straighten out a billing issue. Unreal how this company operates. If I ever go postal someplace it will surely be over TWC and in a final bit of irony, the whole thing would be reported by Channel 14.:D

..and then they'd call your widow wanting the HD-DVR back to boot.. :D

Hell just froze over...I got a response from someone who could say something about HD deployment in Charlotte. From the VP of Programming and Product Development for TWC Carolina:

"We realize how incredibly important HD programming has become to our customers. Over the next several months, our Charlotte operation will be deploying a new technology called Switched Digital Video that will allow us to utilize bandwidth much more efficiently. Translation – within the next couple months we’ll be able to launch 15 or so new HD channels including Discovery Channel, ABC Family, Animal Planet, CNN, Lifetime, History Chanel, Learning Channel and more."

So there you go, ~15 new HD channels in the next couple of months. Long overdue IMO.

Hell just froze over...I got a response from someone who could say something about HD deployment in Charlotte. From the VP of Programming and Product Development for TWC Carolina:

"We realize how incredibly important HD programming has become to our customers. Over the next several months, our Charlotte operation will be deploying a new technology called Switched Digital Video that will allow us to utilize bandwidth much more efficiently. Translation – within the next couple months we’ll be able to launch 15 or so new HD channels including Discovery Channel, ABC Family, Animal Planet, CNN, Lifetime, History Chanel, Learning Channel and more."

So there you go, ~15 new HD channels in the next couple of months. Long overdue IMO.

Call me crazy, but if they're going to finally add a new group of HD channels, I'd prefer it to include Cinemax-HD & Starz-HD (all the theatrical movies that don't make their way to HBO or Showtime HD) in the first wave, along with USA-HD ('Burn Notice' in HD), FX-HD ('Damages', 'The Shield', and 'Rescue Me' in HD), AMC-HD ('Mad Men' & 'Breaking Bad' in HD), and, most importantly, SciFi-HD ('BSG' in HD!!!!).

Really, how many of us are salivating over HD versions of ABC Family, Animal Planet, Lifetime, and the rest he listed? Anybody?? C'mon, TWC, give us the good stuff... we've had to endure Navigator for the last couple of months (and it killed one of my DVR's); we deserve a break.

So, who was the guy you talked to and what's his number/address?

Really, how many of us are salivating over HD versions of ABC Family, Animal Planet, Lifetime, and the rest he listed? Anybody?? C'mon, TWC, give us the good stuff... we've had to endure Navigator for the last couple of months (and it killed one of my DVR's); we deserve a break.


Amen to that. It's about time we got some perks for the ridiculous premium we pay for this service. :mad:

Hell just froze over...I got a response from someone who could say something about HD deployment in Charlotte. From the VP of Programming and Product Development for TWC Carolina:

"We realize how incredibly important HD programming has become to our customers. Over the next several months, our Charlotte operation will be deploying a new technology called Switched Digital Video that will allow us to utilize bandwidth much more efficiently. Translation – within the next couple months we’ll be able to launch 15 or so new HD channels including Discovery Channel, ABC Family, Animal Planet, CNN, Lifetime, History Chanel, Learning Channel and more."

So there you go, ~15 new HD channels in the next couple of months. Long overdue IMO.

The listing of actual channels is something new, so I hope that means something.

However, I have seen that exact quote including 'over the next several months..." about SDV for at least 8-9 months, including a talk or two from CSRs.

I pray this isnt just more of TWC saying what we want to hear.

I went to my parents' house the other day to try an experiment. I took over my 20" inch vizio with a built-in hd tuner. None of the HD channels that we get were tunable there, and they live next door. Same cable post, in fact!

Admittedly, we have a digital cable box as well as the standard cable. Should they be able to get the same QAM channels that we get? CBS, for example.

I thought I would post here as a first step, sanity-check sort of thing.

Thanks,

-jamie

I went to my parents' house the other day to try an experiment. I took over my 20" inch vizio with a built-in hd tuner. None of the HD channels that we get were tunable there, and they live next door. Same cable post, in fact!

Admittedly, we have a digital cable box as well as the standard cable. Should they be able to get the same QAM channels that we get? CBS, for example.

I thought I would post here as a first step, sanity-check sort of thing.

Thanks,

-jamie

If the channels are unencrypted and you're getting them without a box at your place, it should be the same on the other, especially if they are off the same post.

the only thing I could think of would be maybe if the TV didn't have time to do a full channel sweep and acted like they where not there.

If the channels are unencrypted and you're getting them without a box at your place, it should be the same on the other, especially if they are off the same post.

the only thing I could think of would be maybe if the TV didn't have time to do a full channel sweep and acted like they where not there.

I used a tv that had already scanned. Went there, they didn't show. Came back, and there they were.

I guess that I will try it again, the give twc a call...

thanks

I used a tv that had already scanned. Went there, they didn't show. Came back, and there they were.

I guess that I will try it again, the give twc a call...

thanks

I assume they don't have digital cable which requires a better signal than analog cable does, HD channels need an even stronger signal. If they have had cable for many years, the "cable" from the road is not only old but of a much lower quality than is being used today.

I assume they don't have digital cable which requires a better signal than analog cable does, HD channels need an even stronger signal. If they have had cable for many years, the "cable" from the road is not only old but of a much lower quality than is being used today.

Correct, they have only extended basic. They do have roadrunner though.

A couple of years ago the run from the post to the house was replaced due to a failed wire, and i *thought* that they said that they used a better quality cable (the guy made fun of what was used previously)

I was surfing the tivocommunity forums, and saw a question from someone who's cable company is dumping analog altogether, and started wondering about this in our area.

I did some searches, and was unable to come up with an answer.

My big fear would be that I would lose the use of my few tivos.

Does anyone have an information on this? Is it planned? If so, when?

Hopefully someone can alleviate my fears :D

I was surfing the tivocommunity forums, and saw a question from someone who's cable company is dumping analog altogether, and started wondering about this in our area.

I did some searches, and was unable to come up with an answer.

My big fear would be that I would lose the use of my few tivos.

Does anyone have an information on this? Is it planned? If so, when?

Hopefully someone can alleviate my fears :D

Um, isn't that the little thing the government is doing in Feb 2009? No offense, but have you been living under a rock? :)

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitaltv.html

I was surfing the tivocommunity forums, and saw a question from someone who's cable company is dumping analog altogether, and started wondering about this in our area.

I did some searches, and was unable to come up with an answer.

My big fear would be that I would lose the use of my few tivos.

Does anyone have an information on this? Is it planned? If so, when?

Hopefully someone can alleviate my fears :D

Most Major MSOs are planning on keeping some analog for 3 years *after* the mandated digital conversion - Charter (the 3rd largest Cable Co in the US) is on that list, so I would be *VERY* suprised if #1 and #2 (Comcast and Time Warner) where not.

I'd say you're pretty safe in the Charlotte markets given the Stations out of Charlotte are running the FCC cable commercials saying if you're on cable you're ok (for now).


There's the good news.

However you'll see alot of expanded basic channels start to slide over to either an Expanded basic digital tier (which will require either a cable card or a cable box) - again, most MSOs are likely to only keep thier most basic services on analog, then migrate them to unencrypted digital.




That being said, the next question is usually "What can we do about it?"

1) if you're using a TIVO Series II you should be able to control a cable box using either a RF Blaster or a serial connection

2) If you're using a TIVO Series III or HD you have digital tuning ability and you can add cable cards to be able to get encrypted channels.

The biggest difference (from the cable company's prospective) is the HD has to have 2 cable cards if you want to use both tuners.

The HD can use a single "M Card" - which are the newer multi-stream cards. (it does still have 2 slots in case your MSO doesn't have M Cards)

If you're using the oldest TIVO series, you probably should still be able to control a box using an IR blaster


If you're not planning on going beyound Basic service - I'd go ahead and invest in a couple of digital converters (generic ones being sold through walmart, circut city, best buy etc) - you should be able to hit http://dtv.gov to get information about these boxes and a voucher for $40 off the purchase of one (I believe everyone qualifies for 2 of these if they apply for them)

again, these are Digital Converters, but they won't have any decryption ability, so for that you'll need something with a cable card slot like a TIVO Series III or TIVO HD.

Most Major MSOs are planning on keeping some analog for 3 years *after* the mandated digital conversion - Charter and Time Warner (two of the top 5 in the nation) both being on that list.

There's the good news.

However you'll see alot of expanded basic channels start to slide over to either an Expanded basic digital tier (which will require either a cable card or a cable box) - again, most MSOs are likely to only keep thier most basic services on analog, then migrate them to unencrypted digital.




That being said, the next question is usually "What can we do about it?"

1) if you're using a TIVO Series II you should be able to control a cable box using either a RF Blaster or a serial connection

2) If you're using a TIVO Series III or HD you have digital tuning ability and you can add cable cards to be able to get encrypted channels.

The biggest difference (from the cable company's prospective) is the HD has to have 2 cable cards if you want to use both tuners.

The HD can use a single "M Card" - which are the newer multi-stream cards. (it does still have 2 slots in case your MSO doesn't have M Cards)

If you're using the oldest TIVO series, you probably should still be able to control a box using an IR blaster

My problem with this is that I would have to pay for about 6 more cable boxes, something that my wife would DEFINITELY not go for.

Thanks...

My problem with this is that I would have to pay for about 6 more cable boxes, something that my wife would DEFINITELY not go for.

Thanks...

You'll probably want to look into upgrading to Series III / HD over the next 3 years then. - I know that's not too helpfull there, as I know how much Tivo owners have invested in their boxes.

The HD is cheaper than the SIII, but I know alot of TIVO fans aren't thrilled with the changes in subscription services - I have a customer here who had to threaten legal action because they tried to end her "lifetime subscription" when she upgraded to a Series III.

Generally cable cards still carry rental fees, but it's usually $1.50 per card, which I think* (not 100% sure so don't quote me on that one) is a manditory pricing cap by the FCC.

(another reason to go with the HD - half as many cards)

My problem with this is that I would have to pay for about 6 more cable boxes, something that my wife would DEFINITELY not go for.

Thanks...

Info from Time Warner's Carolinas website:

What does DTV mean for cable customers?
Relax. Time Warner Cable has you covered! As long as your televisions are connected to Time Warner Cable service, you’ll continue to enjoy all your favorite channels and shows after the Digital Transition (DTV).

Since you are a Basic Cable customer, our Digital Cable service is NOT required for the Digital Transition, but now may be a good time to think about upgrading. Click here to learn more.

I assume they don't have digital cable which requires a better signal than analog cable does, HD channels need an even stronger signal. If they have had cable for many years, the "cable" from the road is not only old but of a much lower quality than is being used today.

Not so much Stronger but better tuned - In the analog days stronger was better... so many MSOs... (particularly PRESTIEGE) used cheap RG59 cable and pushed it down as hot as possible to make up for it.

My parents where totally hosed when they went digital as no one changed out the RG59 used in the house (installed by Prestiege back in 1988...)

I'm noticing as more of our channels go digital we are getting more calls - and some tuners has a lower signal fault tolerance than others. So if the QAM tuner in that TV has a low fault tolerance it won't pull channels unless the signal is spot on... it cannot be too strong or too weak.

We have this issue up here in Charter Territory with our boxes - the standard Motos have a higher fault tolerance than the Digeo Moxi boxes... so moxi will not lock onto a channel (or having pixelation and tilling) before a standard box will.

TIVO boxes also suffer from this - their tuners are more demanding than the average cable box.

This can be good in a way, it makes MSOs clean up their systems, but at the same time, most people want to plug it in and see it work and if the average tech sees that HIS box doesn't have a problem, he's going to assume it's YOUR equipment.

Info from Time Warner's Carolinas website:

What does DTV mean for cable customers?
Relax. Time Warner Cable has you covered! As long as your televisions are connected to Time Warner Cable service, you’ll continue to enjoy all your favorite channels and shows after the Digital Transition (DTV).

Since you are a Basic Cable customer, our Digital Cable service is NOT required for the Digital Transition, but now may be a good time to think about upgrading. Click here to learn more.

Yeah, that's the standard marketing talk... I don't like it because it implies that we are going to keep analog around indefinitely and I know that most MSOs are planning on doing away with it after 3 years or so...

I say "or so" because right now it's 3 years... that's the promise to the FCC. What happens then depends on how much of an uproar happens before that deadline.

Um, isn't that the little thing the government is doing in Feb 2009? No offense, but have you been living under a rock? :)

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/digitaltv.html

No, it isn't. That site specifically excludes cable from the equation.

what the cable company has been telling people is that they don't have to worry about it if they have cable.

The listing of actual channels is something new, so I hope that means something.

However, I have seen that exact quote including 'over the next several months..." about SDV for at least 8-9 months, including a talk or two from CSRs.

I pray this isnt just more of TWC saying what we want to hear.


Here is the SDV breakdown:25 high definition (HD) and some 100 standard definition (SD) streams into service groups of 800 tuners sized at eight quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) channels.

Let's run those numbers. Total programming bandwidth mentioned equals 750 Mbps (25 HD x 15 Mbps + 100 SD x 3.75 Mbps). SDV narrowcast bandwidth amounts to 300 Mbps (8 QAMs x 37.5 Mbps). That translates into 2.5 times (750/300) as much programming.

Not a bad look into the future.

Not a bad look into the future.


While it is a neat technology, SDV is a hack. A real look into the future is FTTH. And until that becomes a reality, we're going to have to put up with said hacks.

At first, when Verizon started to roll out FiOS, its investors were very unhappy at the short term loss. Now, they're rolling on the empty fiber spools to the bank.

Not a bad look into the future.

I'd settle for the bad power supply full of hum feeding my house getting replaced. :)

While it is a neat technology, SDV is a hack. A real look into the future is FTTH. And until that becomes a reality, we're going to have to put up with said hacks.

At first, when Verizon started to roll out FiOS, its investors were very unhappy at the short term loss. Now, they're rolling on the empty fiber spools to the bank.

Sure for areas where Verizon built aerial plant, the underground portions will take 5-7 years to break even..Thats part of the problem around Meck. Alot of back lot underground and aerial areas and the cost to build those areas with new pole's to set for the aerial and directional bore for the underground is very costly..$ When they do come to this area they pick and choose cost efficent areas to start and than slowly spread out, so don't hold your breath too long...:)

I'd settle for the bad power supply full of hum feeding my house getting replaced. :)

Thats been awhile..:confused: I will stop by your place to day to see whats up with that.

(sorry, the original context was gone)
original question was here:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showpost.php?p=14295936&postcount=4458

If the channels are unencrypted and you're getting them without a box at your place, it should be the same on the other, especially if they are off the same post.

the only thing I could think of would be maybe if the TV didn't have time to do a full channel sweep and acted like they where not there.

Ah, this saga continues. So, I called TWC for my parents, to find out if they would should be able to pick these channels up. The response was "you can never receive any HD channels through us without a box".

They suggested that I contact the tv manufacturer to figure it out :p

The default answer of CSRs at TWC (and most places in general) is that if they don't know the answer, then the company doesn't support it.

I will just ask the tech when he comes to install their digital phone.

Ah, this saga continues. So, I called TWC for my parents, to find out if they would should be able to pick these channels up. The response was "you can never receive any HD channels through us without a box".

They suggested that I contact the tv manufacturer to figure it out :p

The default answer of CSRs at TWC (and most places in general) is that if they don't know the answer, then the company doesn't support it.

I will just ask the tech when he comes to install their digital phone.

Typical Call Center / CSR reply -

Logically (again, I'm not in that system, but I do similar work here in hickory) if you can pick it up from a QAM tuner at your house then one of two things is going on

1) The channels are unencrypted and you're picking them up - which is to be expected

2) The Channels are not encrypted and something is decrypting them for you... which unless it's something we're running and authorizing - is bad.

Of course if #2 where the case, you'd be picking up more than just local Digitals and HDs - I've only seen a few cases of this - back when we had an issue with not encrypting the QAMs that carried our VOD streams - our VOD vender never thought about it and at the time no equipment would tune to anything not on our virtual channel map...

So all the sudden people with QAM tuners are calling us up asking what the heck was up with QAM channels 109 - 112... they were picking up all the local VOD sessions, watching whatever box users wehere ordering.

At the best they got cartoons and movies at random, sometimes running in FF or REW... at worst they got random XX.5 content from Adult purchases!!!
(which is where I started getting the complaints!)

Fortunately most systems figured out pretty quick to encrypt anything they don't want out in the public.

In the Hickory area Charter systems, Clear QAM users should be able to pick up the Charlotte HDs that we have as well as the Greensborro / Winston - Salem market ones (North Wilkes is part of that DMA) the Digital PBS channels and the Music Choice (as well as the PPV previews channels)

The only things that I am getting are the local HDs (there was awhile where I was getting discover theater-- which I do pay for-- but they nixed that)

The CSR didn't even know what QAM was, which is when I said nevermind...

Has anyone else noticed that the volume level on WBTV's standard definition channel is BOOMING AND SOMEWHAT DISTORTED over the past few days?
Every time I go to that channel, I have to turn the volume level down by almost half from all the other channels. Also, I have noticed that their HD feed is blacking out from time to time over the last week or so. Is it just me???

Has anyone else noticed that the volume level on WBTV's standard definition channel is BOOMING AND SOMEWHAT DISTORTED over the past few days?
Every time I go to that channel, I have to turn the volume level down by almost half from all the other channels. Also, I have noticed that their HD feed is blacking out from time to time over the last week or so. Is it just me???

I've also noticed the volume booming all week, up to and including right now.

Haven't watched anything on CBS Hi-Def this week so don't know about that.

My Tv only gets the 18.X channels.. :>(

I've also noticed the volume booming all week, up to and including right now.

Haven't watched anything on CBS Hi-Def this week so don't know about that.

I've noticed similar occurrences as well along with the super load commercials. I'm pulling for U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo's bill in congress that will limit the excessively load commercials.

I noticed watching the Panthers Huddle tonight that they had upgraded the PantherVision control room to HD. The broadcast tonight had new graphics and was 16x9, but it was broadcast 4x3. Is the Huddle going HD as well? I'm not sure if PantherVision is at all related to the production of the Huddle.

Any luck this year with the pre-season non-national broadcast games being in HD?

I noticed watching the Panthers Huddle tonight that they had upgraded the PantherVision control room to HD. The broadcast tonight had new graphics and was 16x9, but it was broadcast 4x3. Is the Huddle going HD as well? I'm not sure if PantherVision is at all related to the production of the Huddle.

Any luck this year with the pre-season non-national broadcast games being in HD?

It was definetely moved and upgraded, we relocated our equipment as well. I don't know exactly what they have in there as of yet, Bob would know; an ex co worker of his was working the Panther-Vision last time I was there.

Plus they spent alot of money on the new end zone display boards.

I noticed watching the Panthers Huddle tonight that they had upgraded the PantherVision control room to HD. The broadcast tonight had new graphics and was 16x9, but it was broadcast 4x3. Is the Huddle going HD as well? I'm not sure if PantherVision is at all related to the production of the Huddle.

Any luck this year with the pre-season non-national broadcast games being in HD?

It's my understanding the control room is SD widescreen, not HD.

And No, the non-network preseason games will NOT be in HD, that decision was made by the Panthers management.

http://www.timewarnersolutions.com/cable/DVR.asp

Any idea if/when TimeWarner will roll out this PVR box in Charlotte?

All this link does for me is take me to the wisconsin division...

All this link does for me is take me to the wisconsin division...

Probably because that post is almost 6 years old.

Probably because that post is almost 6 years old.

:eek: DUH- I must have clicked on the wrong link, went to the first page of the thread rather than the last. Sorry...

(and I was actually hoping that there would be a new one!)

Posts from 8/2 on have been lost.

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/

I don't know if this is known but USA HD is on channel 1501 and Universal HD is also on 1502 in addition to channel 291. I don't know if USA HD is on just for the olympics but there it is.

I don't know if this is known but USA HD is on channel 1501 and Universal HD is also on 1502 in addition to channel 291. I don't know if USA HD is on just for the olympics but there it is.

It is. USA-HD will vanish at the end of the Olympics, so get your 'Burn Notice' in HD fix on Thursday for the last time.

I still don't understand why, if they have the bandwidth to add them temporarily, why they don't have the bandwidth to add them permanently.

I just ran a scan on 2 new small plasma TV's and low and behold there was USA HD and Universal HD, U see from the info here that they are going to disappear so you've answered my question as to why they're there. :confused:

Hey TWC if you're reading this give me back my Discovery HD, I'd rather have it than HD Theatre. :mad:

Just got a letter in the mail stating SDV is coming in september. I've got cablecard on my tv in the bedroom and TWC is stating I'll be losing a bunch of channels when this takes place.

Just got a letter in the mail stating SDV is coming in september. I've got cablecard on my tv in the bedroom and TWC is stating I'll be losing a bunch of channels when this takes place.

I'm a little out of the loop here, what the heck is SDV and why does seem like I'm not going to like it :confused:

I'm a little out of the loop here, what the heck is SDV and why does seem like I'm not going to like it :confused:

SDV = Switched Digital Video

I'm not going to go into the specifics(see link below), but it will allow TWC to add more HD channels.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=357703

The downside is that CableCard devices will not be able to tune channels that are switched. dvdguru did not mention the channels, but I bet that the sports tier, international tier and other lesser viewed channels will be included.

There is something called a tuning resolver which should allow TiVo Series 3 and TiVoHD devices to tune the SDV channels later this year. Once I can get my hands on a tuning resolver I will be buying two TiVoHDs and gladly return my SA 8300 Navigator to the nearest TWC office that will take it.

One sec, I'll get the letter and try to post them. It's ALOT of channels :(

Ok, here we go:

Hispanic Tier Channels (not typing all those out but it's 15 channels

Premium-west coast feeds:
acition max west, cinemax west, flix west, hbo west, hbo 2 west, hbo family west, hbo signature west, moremax west, showcase west, showtime too west, showtime west, sundance west, thriller max west

sports package channels:
espn game plan, mlb extra innings, nhl center ice, nba league pass, nba preview channel

sports tier channels:
cbs college sports network, fox soccer channel, fox college sports atlantic, fox coll spts central, fox college spts pacific, fuel, game show network, nhl network, tennis channel, outdoor channel, nba tv

Other channels:
tv one, boomerang, current tv, ovation, bbc america, gospel music, ewtn, bloomberg tv, american life tv, ten blue, ten clips, in demand ppv events 1, in demand ppv events 2

WHEW! Glad I know how to type :)

You didn't give us the most important information: which are the new HD channels for which we've been waiting in the wilderness lo these many years...? SDV was supposed to even the HD playing field with satellite. Personally, I don't watch much SD anything.

And, the QAM's they're on please. Since I'm adding my own QAM at home,
want to keep track of that. :)