Cox Cable - whole Home DVR Cisco - Page 19

We HAD a pair of TRIO Boxes and they were a bunch of problems (See my earlier posts..)

A box that will lose all recordings AND settings with a reboot or power outage is NOT one I will trust all my hard programed in and recorded programs to.

Also the trio box loses a lot of features I liked in Passport.

Rich

Yeah, I liked Passport better too when I first got TRIO. But now that I have learned how to use TRIO, I'll never go back to Passport, or any other 4:3 aspect ratio guide. I've never lost a recording with TRIO. I had it fail to record a program the first week that I had it, but that turned out to be operator error. I especially like the multiple views of the guide information. I rarely use the standard grid anymore. One thing that REALLY needs improvement in TRIO is the diagnostic section.

OK Again learning curve...

New Cisco Box is acting funny, changing channels etc, it appears to lose vertical sync for a second or shows double pictures then locks in.

This will be the second box I have had them try, the first box was DOA..

New thing was I hooked a external hard drive and as they are coming today to replace it I removed the external drive, and found ALL recordings were no long playable..they were all on the other drive.

It is starting to look like this Cisco box is like Direct's, a OR system only one drive at a time.

I made a couple of recordings with the internal hard drive, then reconnected the external drive and had no problem with play back, then I made a new recording and checked it for play back.

Then I disconnected the external drive and rechecked the new recording made with the external drive hooked in and it played AOK.

It did ask me to reconnect the external drive after I turned it back on with it disconnected.

So I am unsure what is going on other that the system seems to either switch to the external drive under unknown conduction.

OR it is a case of using the drive with the most room.

At this time I am thinking I rather switch back to the old 8300HD than mess around with such flaky boxes.

Rich

OK UPDATE:

Cable guy came and found box was looking for all formats 480, 720, 1080 ETC.

Once set for 1080I only flashing stopped.

It was checking for the transmitted format and THEN selecting the best one.

Remove the choose removed the problem.

Rich

Latest update.

This morning the new box would ONLY receive one channel, History channel, I believe that was the last channel recorded.

I had to reboot it.

This got back full channels BUT it now lost the external hard drive!

Trying to play back a few shows I found some were not playable as they were on the external drive by it saying the show was unavailable as the external hard drive was unavailable, others were playable showing that last night it was recording on both drives.

I will try shutting down and turning off and then back one the external hard drive and see if it will see it.

Fun this is.....NOT.

Rich

FOLLOW UP:

Can not get it to see the external hard drive..so I am pulling it.
Edited by racprops - 11/14/12 at 3:26pm

I am in the New Orleans area, and was considering one of these whole home
DVRs. Glad I ran across this thread. I talked to one of the installers that was installing internet at my son's house, and he said there are still too many bugs, and would wait a few months. So my question in the interim, should I just get the standard DVRs? Thanks for any comments.

They seem OK and we have been using the old 8300 HD for years and have been very happy with them.

The new model Cisco with passport software does not seem to play nice with a external hard drive: it keeps losing it..

So for now I am going to get by with the 500 GB drive.

Rich

My 2 cents worth

A few months??? These problems have been going on for a year with no end in sight. Cox needs to reboot the whole package.

I waited a year before I got the WHDVR system, and they installed mine about a month ago. It's still full of bugs. We miss recordings, and sometimes the box freezes up and won't display a picture. We then go to the other box to watch shows and it can still pull them off the box with no picture. Other times the box will take 5-10 seconds to respond to a remote command. I had really thought by now they could have fixed this. I'm finally ready to try satellite, so I just have to figure out which one to try. We can't take any more of these problems.

There is an update coming in a few weeks. I wonder if there is an issue with your setup because I have had WHDVR over a year and don't have any of those issues you are talking about (boy scouts honor).

Cox has been out several times to fix the issue, but they claim the signal strength is fine, and all should be good. My friend with this system has also had the laggy remote and fast forward problems that I have, so I know it's not just my house. In any case though, Cox can't fix it whether it's a hardware problem or software. And it may still be both. But I'm sure there are still software bugs in this box, and like all bugs, not everyone may see the bug, but in my case I see them regularly. Is there any easy way to tell when we get a software update?

As a long time Cox customer and one that has had two of the older 8300 boxed running passport and whom has just returned ta pair of WHDVR and received one of the new Cisco boxes running the same software of Passport, I can say it is the boxes.

The new Cisco box IS twitchy.

And if it cannot run the old standard Passport correctly it is no wonder it cannot run the new software, which is why we got rid of the WHDVR system.(read above)

Personally I am trying to drop all pay for services, at lease Cable and satellite.

When push comes to shove my wife and I find that that 90% of our TV watching is the old TV networks with a couple of cable networks thrown in, show like Dexter and Burn Notice...

The main thing we use is the DVR service to allow us to record all our shows to watch when we want to. I can do this now with my computer as a DVR.

And now a days I can get those show in HD Free by Over the air broadcasting.

Now that computers can also receive and record them what do I need any of the major services for??

IF I kick out the cable service I can save around $150.00 a month.

So now i am looking at Netflicks and HULU which cost around $8.00 per month for my movies fixes.

My 2 cents worth.

Rich

It seems like there are lots of folks having issues with the Cisco Boxes. I had the WHDVR system installed in Oct, and was really dreading the problems I expected to have with it. So far, everything has worked as it should. There have been some learning issues with the new TRIO software, differences in the menus, etc., but nothing major. It has never missed a scheduled recording, but it has recorded a rerun (it is set to record first-run only). The guide wrongly lists occasional programs as new when they are not. I know Tucson finished the rewiring for the 1GHz system. Maybe areas that are having problems have not finished upgrading? I have no idea--I just wanted to demonstrate that some of us are getting good service from the system. Maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel....

Not without working there however I will say it will be this year.

I wonder if you are correct about the 1GHz issue. I am in Hampton Roads where we are on the upgraded network. Again I say I have had very few issues and those I had were due to a node issue. I know the next upgrade not only has bug fixes but has some GREAT new features.

I can't blame you. I went with DirecTV. It's not perfect, but a lot cheaper all considered. The WH features are very good but not perfect. Cox's WHDVR is bascially $2000 per year of nonstop crap. The techs do the best they can but.....

Trio is getting slow motion in a future update and other bug fixes.

That is 1.8 which is coming soon. I will check to see when we can release the changelog.

Me too. I live in Summerlin (Las Vegas) in a new community - presumably with new and good wiring from Cox. I have had consistent signal problems (which Cox finally figured out was due to the signal coming into our neighborhood). This was fixed for a while, went bad again, and then improved. What tipped me over the edge was the Whole Home DVR - which was unreliable (hangs and freezes, failed recordings, out-of-date program guide) requiring regular reboots. I went with DirecTV - their new WH DVR is much much better - fast, reliable, and records up to 5 HD programs at once, It has a 1TB hard drive so it has lots of room to store programs. It also seems to have a better quality HD picture. So far, it has been working perfectly. DirecTV has also been offering a very good price if you order for two years. The only downside is the (ugly) dish on the side of my house. I kept my Cox phone and Internet as they have been working fine. I had Dish for many years in California, and that was also reliable - though it was expensive (I bought their complete program option). DirecTV seems the better option now.

David

Any idea if this update is just for your area, or is it possibly going to roll out nationwide? I'm with Cox in Oklahoma City, OK.

Not 100% sure on the release schedule. I'm out on leave so I may not be able to update before it's out.

Thanks for the (really) quick reply! And that would actually be great if it hit that soon!

Another question that I just posed to Cox support via email:

I'm having an issue with my Cox remote controls. The issue is outlined in a Cox forum thread under TV Forums - named "Closed Captioning (CC) Button on Remote". In short, the "CC" button doesn't work. I just spoke with a rep who said he's going to "enter a ticket". He appeared unaware that there was a problem with this at all and indicated it might have been something that "broke" in a recent firmware update. But this particular forum was started in JUNE. Can you PLEASE provide some real information as to the status of this? On the 8642HDC and 4642 HDC cable boxes (I have one of each), it takes about 15 button pushes to turn on closed captioning, and then that many again to turn it off. Any ideas?

This probably won't help the majority of you that are having problems, but Cox rolled out the update to the Trio guide this morning in the Tucson area.

Closed captioning support has been poor. Hopefully some of the upcoming upgrades will simplify the process.

Disney, Cox Reach Carriage Renewal Deal

The Walt Disney Company and Cox Communications reached a long-term carriage deal that includes carriage of ESPN and its suite of digital and online services, the companies announced Thursday.

As part of the new multi-year agreement, authenticated Cox subscribers will receive immediate access to the WatchESPN digital service as well as WATCH Disney Channel, WATCH Disney XD and WATCH Disney Junior, which will launch next week.

(read more - Multichannel.com)

I called Cox tech about 3d programing..

During the call I was told that they are suppose to get NEW super boxes next years with 6 tuners and much better function, and the new boxes are to get HULU NetFix etc.

Just when I plan on pulling the plug...

Rich

(I will believe it when I see it.)

I know we have some amazing new things & the tuners sounds about right but not the other stuff.

Cox is not going to offer 3rd party services on their hardware that use their bandwidth but don't generate revenue for them. HBO Go? you have to have HBO to get it. ESPN3? You have to have to pay for the tier that ESPN is in. Netflix and Hulu Plus are big with the cord cutters and the enemy of Cox.

Hulu is an interesting one because they are also a partner. They power our cox.com/tv With the changes we are making On Demand will be expanded so much in the near future that it will replicate these external services like HBO Go & Hulu in regard to the amount of content.

So that maybe what the tech was talking about, extra features...like HULU.