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Official Sezmi DMR-1000 Topic

post #1 of 91
1/5/11 at 2:08pm
Thread Starter 
I was surprised upon searching these forums to find very little information on the Sezmi DMR-1000 DVR. So i am starting a new owners thread.

I just received my Sezmi DMR-1000 from Best Buy last week. I had to order it online as the product is not yet stocked in stores in the San Francisco area. I decided to go for it despite some reservations, mainly because of the now-permament $149 lower price of entry.

I have been using a Dish DTVPal DVR to record OTA for a couple of years now. But i was attracted to the name-based recording functionality of the Sezmi DVR. Which allows you to do things like series based recording and dedupping of episodes that i sorely miss on the Dish. And the Tivo-like favorites functionality that learns your tastes and continually records.

I jumped in even after learning that Sezmi is canceling their cable channel access. For me, their DVR software and program guide is worth $4.99 a month.

I am also hoping that for the month fee i will get frequent software updates, but i haven't had the product long enough to find out yet. I have already put in one feature enhancement request, the addition of numeric codes to allow direct channel access via a universal remote. Such as my Logitech Harmony. And more importantly, the IR blaster of my Google TV to allow its "What's On" program guide to navigate channels.

My only other gripes so far are a bit of lag in response to menu navigation. And fan noise from the DVR. It is noticeably audible in a quiet room, and even at times during quiet programming.

Any one else have any Sezmi DMR-1000 DVR experiences to share?

b
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post #2 of 91
1/5/11 at 9:28pm
I have had my Sezmi unit for a little over a month now. I ended up winning one in their November Twitter contest. I have a few months left on my satellite contract, and I am hoping to eventually replace my satellite dvr with the Sezmi box.

My unit is in my bedroom, and I connected it to my wireless network with a wireless gaming adapter. It was fairly painless setting it up, but then I am a little tech savvy. I don't think my parents could have done it, though.

For the most part, I think it's a pretty solid unit. I get great reception with my outdoor antenna, except on a couple of low power digital channels in my area. I live 38 miles from the antenna farm, so using Sezmi's indoor antenna is really not feasible in my case. One thing that has taken some getting used to is their program guide. I am familiar with using a grid style EPG, and Sezmi's guide does not seem to be as user-friendly.

I agree that a remote with actual channel numbers would be appreciated. I do have one nagging issue with the unit, however. I have an intermittent problem where (mostly during live tv, but I have noticed it in a couple of recordings, as well) the audio and video freeze for a split second, and then it is as if the unit has been set to fast forward for another split second until it catches back up to the live signal. There is no pixellation or picture blackouts, as if I had a weak signal. It almost seems like the hard drive is occasionally being tasked too hard, like you can sometimes see in old, worn out computers that seem to have a hard time opening programs in a timely fashion. I have talked to tech support a few times over the last month or so, and just yesterday I was told to expect a call in a day or two from their level 2 tech support. Hopefully, they will have a solution that will solve the problem.

So far, I am only out $10 for two months of service, so I am willing to give them a bit more time to see if they can fix the issue. Now, if I had actually paid for the unit, I would be a lot more vocal about either getting a fix, a replacement, or a refund.

I don't mean this to sound as if the unit has more problems than things it does right. Most of the time, it does a good job at what it does. And, if this one problem with my unit can be resolved, I will have no problem with continuing to give them a measly $5/month for an OTA dvr with name based recording.
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post #3 of 91
1/12/11 at 4:57pm
I was a member of the sezmi beta testers here in Los Angeles a year or so ago. I didn't like it and sent it back. The compression was horrible and the lack of channels made it fairly useless. Also the lack of numbers on the remote drove the wife insane. I'm sorry to hear that most of these issues were never rectified. OTA DVR service with premium channels would be huge if they could get it right.
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post #4 of 91
1/16/11 at 8:09am
Quote:


OTA DVR service with premium channels would be huge if they could get it right.

That will never happen, it makes too much sense.
Beside 80% of Americans have no idea what OTA (Over the Air) even means no matter which way you say it thanks to the NCTA & the CEA that refuses to educate consumers through retail outlets.
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post #5 of 91
1/27/11 at 9:15pm
I have two boxes set up.

Does anyone know what the channel list order scheme is? I would prefer numeric ordering. Currently one gets 11.1, 11.2 and 11.3 not listed together. I think the current ordering is very confusing.

How about power down or turning the box off to save power. The box seems to run continuously. Is there any way to turn it off (without unplugging it) or power it down?

thanks
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post #6 of 91
2/4/11 at 1:30pm
Has anyone cracked open their Sezmi yet to see what hardware is inside? Or, has anyone hacked it to install Boxee, XMBC, or the like?

I received my Sezmi as part of their pilot/beta program in SoCal, then I moved to an area outside of their coverage. Now this box is just a paperweight even though it works perfectly. Now I use W7MC with an OTA antenna but I would like to pull out the HDD or use it as a secondary box for multi-room viewing.

Any ideas?

-d
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post #7 of 91
2/23/11 at 8:26pm
I'm a TiVo HD owner and TWC subscriber who has been thinking of cutting the cord for awhile now. Only issue has been spotty hd ota reception for abc and fox. Just read about sezmi yesterday and went to best buy today after work. After being impressed with the snappy and intuitive UI on display I bought one on a lark to give it a test drive. If the antenna does a better job with fox and abc I might keep it.

Havent gotten to play with it yet as its loading an update now, but yeah the fan is load. Not a deal breaker though. Just seems like my kuro will finally have some competition in the ambient buzzing department.

Just from playing with it in the store though, it really sours me on TiVo and their lack of software/UI development. The fact this startup comes out of the gate with a nice intuitive HD interface and TiVo is still lagging is embarrassing for them.

Not sure if sezmi will reach enough subscriber critical mass to sustain themselves, but hopefully TiVo can snap up their software and/or developers if they shutter bc I have a feeling I'm going to prefer the semi user experience.

I'll post back with my update later tonight ...
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post #8 of 91
2/25/11 at 10:34am
I have been a sezmi user for about 6 months now, got it as soon as they did the $150 price drop and have always been a $4.99 subscriber. My wife and I do enjoy it... as it was much more practical than building a PC for DVR functionality. The phone support is a plus, they always answer quickly and are generally helpful. I even had them do an external antenna install, no cost to me (hardware+labor). I will say that there are still system bugs. You can not put the system in standby/off because it will never turn back on unless you unplug the unit. It is the loudest thing in my A/V component shelf. System responsiveness is sluggish when navigating the menus. Regarding signal reception, the tuner does OK. Not as good as using my TV's built in tuner. ABC was the largest reception issue for the longest time, but I can say that sezmi's "database" updates have improved this a lot. I still get audio drops and video pauses, but I believe this is related to the software rather than signal strength. I always report the bugs I encounter to sezmi support, and so far the ABC reception is the only one that has really been rectified.

A couple things I think the sezmi should be capable of, since it is a networked box: Playback of media files, more streaming services, if you have multiple sezmis - streaming of recordings from box to box i.e. multi-room DVR.
This thing is already joined to my network, it would be great if it could use DLNA or shares to playback my pictures, mp3, videos, etc. So it has YouTube and some Cnet podcasts.. OK, but how about some other streaming sites. It seems like it would make a lot of sense to allow multiple sezmi's on the same LAN to be able to stream content to each other.

I hope sezmi can stick around, because I do like their product and would like to be able to see it be matured more. I hated paying the cable bill and sezmi let me drop it and keep my wife happy with a multi-tuner DVR.
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post #9 of 91
2/25/11 at 11:40am
Thanks for the feedback, MentatGom. I've now had a few days to play with the Sezmi and am more pleased than displeased.

Really like how the setup the menu/guide/UI. It takes some getting used to (especially that horrific remote - I'll program it into my Harmony if/when I decide to keep it which should help), but they really put some thought into it and didn't just ape the same-old Tivo/DVR setup.

I actually haven't found remote/menu responsiveness to be a problem now that I moved it on top of my Tivo and it's line-of-sight.

I do have minor video/audio stutter issues, but like you said it's more device playback as if I rewind it comes back fine. I find it's more when you're watching a playback and bring up the small info menu,, it chokes a bit.

And ABC got a bit sketchy last night but nothing unbearable.

Overall, I'm liking it more than my Tivo for OTA.

The only big drawback is boy this thing is loud. I'm going to see how bad it sound when I'm watching a Bluray and things are quiet, because if I can handle that I should be ok. Heck, I've handled my Kuro's buzz so this should be nothing.

Nice to know their support is responsive too. I see they are active on FB and Twitter, so if I have any problems I'll probably Tweet them as it looks like they are pretty responsive in that department.
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post #10 of 91
3/1/11 at 4:07pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MentatGom View Post

The phone support is a plus, they always answer quickly and are generally helpful. I even had them do an external antenna install, no cost to me (hardware+labor).

They paid for the entire install? How did you pull that off? I've had the system for about a month and for the most part my wife and I are pleased. However, our local CBS and PBS stations are underpowered and cut out quite a bit. I'm still trying to decided if I want to keep it and pony up the cash to have a rooftop antenna installed or just look for another alternative.
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post #11 of 91
3/3/11 at 11:57pm
There was a note in the manual (and on the website) that if you encountered poor reception you could call customer support and request an external antenna be setup free of charge. The catch, if you will, was agreeing to a one year commitment to the service. I called, complained about reception and asked to schedule an install. I got a date and two techs came out with a choice of antennas and they took about 2 hours to install and set it up. I didn't pay a cent aside from my continued $4.99 a month... and now with the benefit of being able to distribute the signal to three rooms in my home. If needed they offered to add an antenna amp as well.
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post #12 of 91
3/10/11 at 10:44am
Does anyone in the Houston area want a Sezmi unit? If you look at the second post in this thread, you will see what issues I had with it. Before I ended my service, I had been told that my intermittent stuttering issues would eventually be solved via software updates. Rather than continue to wait for a resolution, I ended up getting a used Tivo HD, which I like much better, even with the increased monthly fee.

Since then, the unit has been gathering dust in my house. It's entirely possible that the stuttering issue has been resolved, but since I don't use it anymore, I don't see the need to start up the service again to check. In any case, this was a free unit I won in a contest, and if someone in the area could use it and wants to give it a go, they can have it. I still have the original box and all the accessories.

If you are interested and are in the Houston area, just drop me a PM. My wife will thank you for helping to reduce the clutter.
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post #13 of 91
3/10/11 at 3:41pm
I just helped my Dad get his Sezmi working last weekend. We played around with it a fair bit, and both my wife and I feel that it's not as nice to use as our Tivo Premiere (we use the 'Classic' or 'SD' Tivo menus). My Dad feels the same - he is a former Tivo user, though not for some time. We all agree though, that you'd probably get used to it eventually, and speed of the menu operation seems fine, something we can't always say for our Tivo. And the picture quality looks fine.

The only glitch we ended up with was that the Sezmi is completely missing channel 22 (real frequency 25). There's no logical reason for this, being that's it's in the same location and stronger than the other stations which are coming in perfectly. We suspect it may be a database issue, as the channel doesn't show in Sezmi's channel list, and Dad's address also comes up as invalid when we try to enter it on Sezmi's site. We haven't checked yet to see if the TV can pickup the channel. We'll try that next time I am there, in about a week.

The lack of numbers on the remote does make it frustrating trying to go quickly to a channel, and I will agree with the odd ordering of the channel list. It's not in order numerically (either by frequency or virtual channel), and the sub-channels are split from the main channels, very strange. I couldn't find a way to change this. Also, there's really no signal strength meter, very strange omission for an OTA only device. I don't consider a description of 'good', 'great', etc, to be a good indicator of signal strength!

But you cannot argue about the price! And, the bootup time - power off to a usable state - is HALF the time it takes for our Tivo Premiere. Also, the Sezmi scans for channels about five to ten times faster than our Tivo. It's not that the Sezmi is lightning fast though, the Tivo is just ridiculously slow.
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post #14 of 91
3/11/11 at 3:19pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Aaron Gilbert View Post

I just helped my Dad get his Sezmi working last weekend. We played around with it a fair bit, and both my wife and I feel that it's not as nice to use as our Tivo Premiere (we use the 'Classic' or 'SD' Tivo menus). My Dad feels the same - he is a former Tivo user, though not for some time. We all agree though, that you'd probably get used to it eventually, and speed of the menu operation seems fine, something we can't always say for our Tivo. And the picture quality looks fine.

The only glitch we ended up with was that the Sezmi is completely missing channel 22 (real frequency 25). There's no logical reason for this, being that's it's in the same location and stronger than the other stations which are coming in perfectly. We suspect it may be a database issue, as the channel doesn't show in Sezmi's channel list, and Dad's address also comes up as invalid when we try to enter it on Sezmi's site. We haven't checked yet to see if the TV can pickup the channel. We'll try that next time I am there, in about a week.

The lack of numbers on the remote does make it frustrating trying to go quickly to a channel, and I will agree with the odd ordering of the channel list. It's not in order numerically (either by frequency or virtual channel), and the sub-channels are split from the main channels, very strange. I couldn't find a way to change this. Also, there's really no signal strength meter, very strange omission for an OTA only device. I don't consider a description of 'good', 'great', etc, to be a good indicator of signal strength!

But you cannot argue about the price! And, the bootup time - power off to a usable state - is HALF the time it takes for our Tivo Premiere. Also, the Sezmi scans for channels about five to ten times faster than our Tivo. It's not that the Sezmi is lightning fast though, the Tivo is just ridiculously slow.

I haven't even noticed no numbers on the remote. Helps that I barely ever watch live TV.

I'm really on the fence between sticking with my Tivo HD or going with Sezmi. Since I've been practicing not watching cable, I find I'm mostly watching things on my Roku and there are only a few shows a week I bother to watch on DVR.

I agree it was a bit odd that the signals were just GREAT! and didn't have a number, but they come in which is better than what I was getting with some stations before.
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post #15 of 91
3/16/11 at 5:45am
I was a Sezmi subscriber for 6 months.But my comments are not from a happy customer, so be forewarned. I finally gave it up after they dropped the cable channels. Economics or not, a company should not promote access to 23 cable channels (I am in the LA market) as one of your main selling points and then yank it away,just because they found out they could not afford to do it. The 1400 hour DVR is nice, but the "smart DVR" feature is not. Never did really record similar shows, only categories of shows. So that if I recorded The Mentalist regularly, all of a sudden, CSI and Hawaii Five-O episodes start filling up the DVR space. All crime shows yes, but they are still too different to be classified together. And since I did not watch them, I had to go and delete them all of the time. Another issue as mentioned by others is the inferior picture quality. I only use a 19 inch TV (unlike almost everyone else here) but my point is, if the picture quality was as inferior to broadcast tv as my Sezmi was, I can only imagine what it must be like on a bigger screen.

You can forget about the "smart antenna" that looks like a stereo speaker. Totally useless and inferior compared to the Radio Shack indoor antenna that I already owned. Reception over all was decidedly inferior to my present TiVO Premiere, so that I ended up being able to watch half an episode of a show. Did not happen too often but was annoying, nevertheless.

PLEASE, PLEASE Sezmi, listen to those that want a number pad on their remote. My channel list was horribly miscategorized and I ended up looking at the "By Time" listing all of the time.

I could go on, but I should have bought a TiVO in the first place, even with the $19.95 vs the $4.95 per month for Sezmi.
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post #16 of 91
3/16/11 at 4:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by ercjncpr View Post

...
PLEASE, PLEASE Sezmi, listen to those that want a number pad on their remote. My channel list was horribly miscategorized and I ended up looking at the "By Time" listing all of the time.

I could go on, but I should have bought a TiVO in the first place, even with the $19.95 vs the $4.95 per month for Sezmi.

Glad to know it wasn't just us regarding the miscategorization of the channel list. Honestly, what decade is this, again? How hard is it to put the list in some kind of understandable order? I don't care if it's by actual frequency or virtual channel, just in some kind of order! Though, every other OTA tuner device uses virtual - so that makes most sense.

While I fully agree that the Tivo is a much more polished, flexible, and feature rich option, it's hard to argue the price difference. A Tivo Premiere with lifetime is by far the cheapest Tivo if you're planning to keep it more than 2-3 years. And that will set you back $700 unless you already own another Tivo. It will take you NINE YEARS to make back the extra cost of the Tivo over the Sezmi. Now for us, since we were paying $47 per month for Dish Network, the Tivo is still paying for itself in about 16 months, so that's how we look at it. Plus, the addition of Netflix and the much nicer interface was worth the small extra cost per month. Although at the time we got the Tivo, we didn't really have any experience with the Sezmi interface. But we were heavy Netflix users with no other Netflix capable device, so that ruled out the Sezmi anyway.

Assuming both devices can last for five years, here's a quick and dirty breakdown:

Sezmi: $149 + ($5 x 60 months) = 449 = $7.48 per month

Tivo Premiere: $299 + $399 lifetime service = $698 = $11.63 per month


The Sezmi gets cheaper per month the longer you have it, but slowly. The lifetime Premiere price per month drops much more quickly. Now Tivo with $19.95 per month - that makes no sense at all. For only $5 more I can have 100 or so channels from Dish Network with a DVR and HD. Even if we got the Tivo for free, $19.95 per month would be more expensive than our lifetime unit after only 35 months.
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post #17 of 91
8/25/11 at 1:57pm
I've been running cable-free for a few months now and swapped out my Tivo HD with OTA for Sezmi (Sezmi native antenna was better) and I'm pretty happy.

Granted, I'm not watching much TV at all, but that's kind of who this is for.

There definite minor stutter issues with live TV but nothing outrageous. Besides, I DVR everything and that generally has excellent playback. (We'll see if I change my tune when I start watching live football next month. )

Overall, I'm happy with this $5/mo OTA DVR.
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post #18 of 91
8/27/11 at 5:59pm
Tombonneau, I take it that software updates have not fixed the stuttering problem on your unit? I wonder if the folks I gave my unit to several months ago are still using it, and if it still has a problem with stuttering during live tv.
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post #19 of 91
8/30/11 at 10:30pm
Mloot,

We've been using the Sezmi we got from you since April - have it hooked up to standard def. tv. We have the occasional problem with stuttering, but it's no big deal. Love being able to record untold numbers of kids shows from the 3 channels they watch - have yet to run out of space even if we don't delete stuff for a while.

We invested in a second Sezmi unit about 2 weeks ago - have it hooked up to the HDTV in the living room. Beautiful picture quality - much better than our cable was.

Have a reception issue with the second unit, as it is in the NW-most room of the house and the signal farm is far to the SW. Have a second, fairly decent antenna connected to the tuner, but have problems with PBS, CBS, and ABC local channels coming in. Considering the purchase of an external antenna to hopefully fix that problem.

Alltogther, the Sezmi, along with the Roku, is a decent replacement for the cable - saving us approximately $70 monthly.

Thank you again for the original unit!
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post #20 of 91
8/31/11 at 12:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sbuntyn View Post

Mloot,

We've been using the Sezmi we got from you since April - have it hooked up to standard def. tv. We have the occasional problem with stuttering, but it's no big deal. Love being able to record untold numbers of kids shows from the 3 channels they watch - have yet to run out of space even if we don't delete stuff for a while.

We invested in a second Sezmi unit about 2 weeks ago - have it hooked up to the HDTV in the living room. Beautiful picture quality - much better than our cable was.

Have a reception issue with the second unit, as it is in the NW-most room of the house and the signal farm is far to the SW. Have a second, fairly decent antenna connected to the tuner, but have problems with PBS, CBS, and ABC local channels coming in. Considering the purchase of an external antenna to hopefully fix that problem.

Alltogther, the Sezmi, along with the Roku, is a decent replacement for the cable - saving us approximately $70 monthly.

Thank you again for the original unit!

Welcome to the forum. I considered Sezmi but went with the Channel Master antenna DVR instead. The hard drive is smaller but there's no monthly fee, I've been very happy with it. I also have a couple of Rokus, Google TV and a PS3 for streaming so I've got more than enough to watch. That said, have you contacted Sezmi about the reception problem you are having with the second unit? I seem to recall a couple of people saying that Sezmi actually came out and installed an external antenna for free when their Sezmi antennas weren't doing the job. Good luck.
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post #21 of 91
8/31/11 at 4:34am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sbuntyn View Post

Mloot,

We've been using the Sezmi we got from you since April - have it hooked up to standard def. tv. We have the occasional problem with stuttering, but it's no big deal. Love being able to record untold numbers of kids shows from the 3 channels they watch - have yet to run out of space even if we don't delete stuff for a while.

We invested in a second Sezmi unit about 2 weeks ago - have it hooked up to the HDTV in the living room. Beautiful picture quality - much better than our cable was.

Have a reception issue with the second unit, as it is in the NW-most room of the house and the signal farm is far to the SW. Have a second, fairly decent antenna connected to the tuner, but have problems with PBS, CBS, and ABC local channels coming in. Considering the purchase of an external antenna to hopefully fix that problem.

Alltogther, the Sezmi, along with the Roku, is a decent replacement for the cable - saving us approximately $70 monthly.

Thank you again for the original unit!

Not a problem. I'm glad to know it's working better for you than it did for me. Regarding your issues with PBS, CBS, and ABC, those three channels are all on VHF frequencies, and are harder to reliably pick up with an indoor antenna than the rest of our local UHF stations. I can get almost all of our UHF stations with an indoor UHF antenna in my south-facing window, but I can only get decent reception on those three stations with my outdoor antenna.

Buckeye911's suggestion is a good one. I believe MentatGom, earlier in this thread, mentioned that Sezmi had installed an outdoor antenna for him. Sezmi may be willing to do the same for you, and if they do not, you haven't lost anything by asking.
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post #22 of 91
8/31/11 at 5:54pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mloot View Post

Tombonneau, I take it that software updates have not fixed the stuttering problem on your unit? I wonder if the folks I gave my unit to several months ago are still using it, and if it still has a problem with stuttering during live tv.

I haven't really noticed much of a difference from when I got the unit to now. Mind you, the stutters for me are very minor and might not be as pronounced as the other problems I've read some people have.

To me, it is along the lines of how your cable signal has occasional artifact breakup of local stations. It's probably more frequent but less annoying than that.

I actually watched a preseason football game last weekend and had no problems.

FYI, worth noting here that Tivo is now running a promo with the Premiere for $99 unit and only $9.99/mo if you are only going OTA and aren't using cable. Interesting as it now is cheaper hardware than Sezmi though double the monthly price (still a small fee though).
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post #23 of 91
9/1/11 at 2:10pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by tombonneau View Post

FYI, worth noting here that Tivo is now running a promo with the Premiere for $99 unit and only $9.99/mo if you are only going OTA and aren't using cable. Interesting as it now is cheaper hardware than Sezmi though double the monthly price (still a small fee though).

I don't know about anyone else that may be offering it, but with Solid Signal, you have to buy an antenna from them, also. I think you can buy any old, cheap antenna to qualify, though, even indoor.

It should also be noted that the $9.99/mo. subscription price is only for a year. After that, it's back to the standard one (you knew they were gonna get you somehow).
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post #24 of 91
9/1/11 at 2:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rammitinski View Post

I don't know about anyone else that may be offering it, but with Solid Signal, you have to buy an antenna from them, also. I think you can buy any old, cheap antenna to qualify, though, even indoor.

It should also be noted that the $9.99/mo. subscription price is only for a year. After that, it's back to the standard one (you knew they were gonna get you somehow).

Ah, didn't realize the $9.99 was a teaser rate. Thanks. Non-starter for me then.

Though when I called to cancel it sounded like their retention team has some legit drawer pricing options at their disposal. I'm at $12.95 and they waived a month while I tried to find someone to transfer the account to; I might call again and see what I can negotiate before finally canceling.
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post #25 of 91
9/1/11 at 4:19pm
Has anyone opened up the DVR to see what hardware is inside?
Why does the antenna connect to the intermediate box which looks like its only function is to adapt antenna leads to LAN?
Does this DVR have 1,2,3 OTA tuners and can you record 2 shows off the tuners while downloading a third while playing back something off the drive?

More technical details would be appreciated.
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post #26 of 91
9/23/11 at 6:37pm
received an email from customer support that Sezmi is discontinuing their consumer service; programming guide and recording service will end as of Sept 26th; we can still view recorded programs and "rent" movies for no charge until Nov 1.
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post #27 of 91
9/23/11 at 7:59pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by twarren View Post

received an email from customer support that Sezmi is discontinuing their consumer service; programming guide and recording service will end as of Sept 26th; we can still view recorded programs and "rent" movies for no charge until Nov 1.

From their website @ sezmi . com /support/news
We regret to inform you that Sezmi is discontinuing its consumer service. As of Monday, September 26, 2011, you will no longer be able to view or record broadcast TV programming through your Sezmi System. However, you will still be able to view movies and shows you have already saved to your Sezmi media recorder. To help ease the transition, you may also rent movies and shows if available at no charge from Sezmi's On Demand catalog through November 1, 2011.

Why do you have to discontinue your consumer service?
Sezmi has changed its business focus to providing our product and technology platform to service providers, internationally and in the U.S., who are interested in providing broadband video services to their customers. As a result, we are no longer supporting our direct-to-consumer service.

What does this mean for me?
You will no longer be billed for Sezmi service. As of September 26th, you will no longer be able to utilize the programming guide and your digital media recorder will no longer operate as a recorder. You will be able to view movies and shows you have already saved to your recorder and YouTube access will not be affected. Between now and November 1st, you may rent any movies or shows at no charge to you. After November 1, Sezmi's On Demand catalog will no longer be available but you will be able to use your Sezmi system to view all programming you have saved to the media recorder.

Thank you for having allowed us to serve you
We sincerely appreciate the enthusiasm and loyalty our customers have shown. Sezmi was launched to provide customers a new video entertainment choice that provides a premium video experience at a more affordable price. With our new company focus, we will continue to develop our video solutions and provide them to service providers who will be in a better position to offer the Service to much broader customer base.


I love my Sezmi, I save a lot of time fastforwarding through commercials and time-shifting programs. I will really miss it not working....Which is in 3 days - not much notice at all to find a replacement.


Question: Has anyone hacked a Sezmi? It would be nice to be able to load the Electronic Program Guide from a file and continue to use it for viewing live programs.

If not, what do you recommend as a replacement? I want to be able to watch OTA TV, record at least one show while watching a different live HDTV channel (2 tuners), and pay a minimal amount per month for the service. I am willing to buy or lease a box to do this. I bought the Sezmi because the service was only $4.95/month, not $20 like TiVo.

I am sure a lot of other people will have the same concerns, so lets work on a solution!

Thanks.
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post #28 of 91
9/23/11 at 8:01pm
Just read the news on Twitter. Knew they'd stopped promoting consumer-based service, but was hoping they'd keep it alive for a little while longer. Well, time to dust off my TiVo HD. Glad I didn't cancel it yet. Gonna call up support to "cancel" TiVo and see if I can't squeeze a Premiere unit out of them.
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post #29 of 91
9/23/11 at 8:03pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrStyle View Post

From their website @ sezmi . com /support/news
We regret to inform you that Sezmi is discontinuing its consumer service. As of Monday, September 26, 2011, you will no longer be able to view or record broadcast TV programming through your Sezmi System. However, you will still be able to view movies and shows you have already saved to your Sezmi media recorder. To help ease the transition, you may also rent movies and shows if available at no charge from Sezmi's On Demand catalog through November 1, 2011.

Why do you have to discontinue your consumer service?
Sezmi has changed its business focus to providing our product and technology platform to service providers, internationally and in the U.S., who are interested in providing broadband video services to their customers. As a result, we are no longer supporting our direct-to-consumer service.

What does this mean for me?
You will no longer be billed for Sezmi service. As of September 26th, you will no longer be able to utilize the programming guide and your digital media recorder will no longer operate as a recorder. You will be able to view movies and shows you have already saved to your recorder and YouTube access will not be affected. Between now and November 1st, you may rent any movies or shows at no charge to you. After November 1, Sezmi's On Demand catalog will no longer be available but you will be able to use your Sezmi system to view all programming you have saved to the media recorder.

Thank you for having allowed us to serve you
We sincerely appreciate the enthusiasm and loyalty our customers have shown. Sezmi was launched to provide customers a new video entertainment choice that provides a premium video experience at a more affordable price. With our new company focus, we will continue to develop our video solutions and provide them to service providers who will be in a better position to offer the Service to much broader customer base.


I love my Sezmi, I save a lot of time fastforwarding through commercials and time-shifting programs. I will really miss it not working....Which is in 3 days - not much notice at all to find a replacement.


Question: Has anyone hacked a Sezmi? It would be nice to be able to load the Electronic Program Guide from a file and continue to use it for viewing live programs.

If not, what do you recommend as a replacement? I want to be able to watch OTA TV, record at least one show while watching a different live HDTV channel (2 tuners), and pay a minimal amount per month for the service. I am willing to buy or lease a box to do this. I bought the Sezmi because the service was only $4.95/month, not $20 like TiVo.

I am sure a lot of other people will have the same concerns, so lets work on a solution!

Thanks.

I'm grandfathered into my $12.95 Tivo plan and I'm sure I can get them down to $9.99 when I call to cancel, but yeah $20 is crazy.

Check out Tivo's website or the tivocommunity.com forum for a deal where you can only pay $9.99 for OTA only on your Tivo. I think it jumps to $20 at then end of that, but if you call and threaten to cancel I'm sure you can get it extended. Or maybe a year from now there will be a legit OTA DVR solution.
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post #30 of 91
9/23/11 at 10:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by MrStyle View Post

From their website @ sezmi . com /support/news
We regret to inform you that Sezmi is discontinuing its consumer service. As of Monday, September 26, 2011, you will no longer be able to view or record broadcast TV programming through your Sezmi System. However, you will still be able to view movies and shows you have already saved to your Sezmi media recorder. To help ease the transition, you may also rent movies and shows if available at no charge from Sezmi's On Demand catalog through November 1, 2011.

Why do you have to discontinue your consumer service?
Sezmi has changed its business focus to providing our product and technology platform to service providers, internationally and in the U.S., who are interested in providing broadband video services to their customers. As a result, we are no longer supporting our direct-to-consumer service.

What does this mean for me?
You will no longer be billed for Sezmi service. As of September 26th, you will no longer be able to utilize the programming guide and your digital media recorder will no longer operate as a recorder. You will be able to view movies and shows you have already saved to your recorder and YouTube access will not be affected. Between now and November 1st, you may rent any movies or shows at no charge to you. After November 1, Sezmi's On Demand catalog will no longer be available but you will be able to use your Sezmi system to view all programming you have saved to the media recorder.

Thank you for having allowed us to serve you
We sincerely appreciate the enthusiasm and loyalty our customers have shown. Sezmi was launched to provide customers a new video entertainment choice that provides a premium video experience at a more affordable price. With our new company focus, we will continue to develop our video solutions and provide them to service providers who will be in a better position to offer the Service to much broader customer base.


I love my Sezmi, I save a lot of time fastforwarding through commercials and time-shifting programs. I will really miss it not working....Which is in 3 days - not much notice at all to find a replacement.


Question: Has anyone hacked a Sezmi? It would be nice to be able to load the Electronic Program Guide from a file and continue to use it for viewing live programs.

If not, what do you recommend as a replacement? I want to be able to watch OTA TV, record at least one show while watching a different live HDTV channel (2 tuners), and pay a minimal amount per month for the service. I am willing to buy or lease a box to do this. I bought the Sezmi because the service was only $4.95/month, not $20 like TiVo.

I am sure a lot of other people will have the same concerns, so lets work on a solution!

Thanks.

I've been using the Channel Master CM-7000PAL, it has two tuners and no monthly fees. It's been very solid for me over the past year.
http://www.channelmasterstore.com/HD...cm-7000pal.htm
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