New York, NY - TWC - Page 82

Thanks DjPill. Is the same true for the pioneer box?

I believe DVI works on the 3510HD Pioneer.

Noticed something weird on my 8000HD this morning. I was checking the upcoming recordings list and noticed that NFL Primetime (on ESPN - 28 from 7:30p to 8:30p on Sunday) wasn't scheduled to record, despite the fact that it is clearly listed in the repeating recordings list. I checked to make sure the IPG data went out to Sunday, which it did, b/c other Sunday night recordings appeared in the scheduled recording list.

Anyone else have this problem where for some reason the 8000HD chooses not to record something that it's supposed to?

LOL Check this BS out.

I just got off the phone with Time Warner bitching about my pixelation issues with the 8000HD again. Told them the tech was here three weeks ago and did jack... problems still haven't been fixed.

The CSR actually had the nerve to say "Well sir... all the DVR issues have been fixed... i cant believe you are still having problems."

So they are sending out another tech tomorrow morning to check out my box again.

Lets see what happens. LOL

Do the non-HD DVR boxes from TW have the pixelation/recording problems mentioned on this thread?
I am asking bc I need two DVR boxes and I am wondering if I should get one 8000HD for the primary TV and a non-HD DVR for the other one until to ensure that critical programs are recorded.

thanks

Do the non-HD DVR boxes from TW have the pixelation/recording problems mentioned on this thread?
I am asking bc I need two DVR boxes and I am wondering if I should get one 8000HD for the primary TV and a non-HD DVR for the other one until to ensure that critical programs are recorded.

thanks

Do the non-HD DVR boxes from TW have the pixelation/recording problems mentioned on this thread?
I am asking bc I need two DVR boxes and I am wondering if I should get one 8000HD for the primary TV and a non-HD DVR for the other one until to ensure that critical programs are recorded.

thanks

Not only do I have the same problem with the SA8000HD, but I also had an appointment for this past Friday and they no-showed on me. Unfortunately, I was not home (my wife was) and I could not check up with them. I will call today and complain.

Luckily, I did not give back my pioneer hd box, so at least I have a working box. I had to completely shut down the SA8000HD box because even after it would reboot, it would have problems on both HD and SD channels. It would either go blank or the audio would completely drop. The bummer for me is that I no longer have a DVR which I really do use quite often for taping of all my favorite news programs.

I tried to split the cable signal and drive both boxes, but this seemed to create problems for the pioneer box. It seems that the 3.5 DB loss from a splitter really impacts the signal.

Not sure what to do at this point. I had an SA8000 before I got the HD version. It worked fine on a split signal (one to the SA8000 and one to the Pioneer box for HD stuff). I watched the Pioneer most time and then would switch the TV to the SA8000 for DVR playback. I should have stuck with this setup.

BTW, the SA8000HD box worked quite well for a few weeks before it started to flake out.

/JMB

I have the Pioneer box working with the DVI out (DVI out to HDMI input on Pioneer 4340 plasma).

I just talked to TWC and they said that the HD tier will be free for the first month to all NYCTWC HD subscribers. Not that I won't get it, but it will be nice to try it out for free and just make sure i have it as soon as it comes out.

I had an appointment on Friday pm to have my SA8000HD box swapped out (disk error message when pressing info button) for a new one. In the 8 days waiting for the appointment I have cold restarted the box about four times to fix the problem.

Tech turns up with a SA8000SD box.

Haven't phone to complain yet but jesus this makes me mad. Tech suggested I swap box out myself at 23rd Street office.

Does anyone have a thesaurus handy to find synonyms for "incompetent"?

Has anyone been experiencing any problems with DiscoveryHD lately? For the past day or two, I have been getting occasional freezes/block patterns that last about second and go away. The picture is otherwise as good as usual. I do not have this problem on any other HD channels. I am hoping it is the channel and not my setup, as I recently moved my TV and am running it from a new cable jack. I am using the Pioneer HD box, if that makes any difference. Thanks!

Paid to have my 8000HD brought around last Tuesday and hope not to encounter your problems. To keep S-video access I've connected my ancient SA3100HD back up. Took some tinkering to find a spot for it near my Zektor component switch that uses 1-foot input cables. Heat buildup, I learned with older SA converters, can really mess up performance. So I've positioned the 8000HD with nothing blocking its bottom or top vents, and moved the 3100HD from beneath it so there's nothing heating it from below. -- John

I've had the same problem. I'm virtually sure it's the channel.

The 8000HD boxes on pixelate (word?) on HD channels. SD recording is find. YMMV.

Drew

Mike Scott's HD recorder thread outlines a technique for estimating bit rates for various channels/programs with an 8000HD. And this linked post within the thread outlines a sampling of how channels are allocated to frequenies at San Diego's TWC. The poster indicates he mapped, using his converter diagnostics, up to 12 channels there for one cable frequency. There's a channel/frequency Excel spreadsheet at the San Diego forum (link provided), plus a link to a Scientific Atlanta paper outlining how its latest hardware can "groom" signals to squeeze them into available bandwidth.

NYC's system may well differ. Previous reports say TWC here employs rate shaping with Terayon and other gear (Cisco) as well as statistical multiplexing. But interested tinkerers might map NY's channel lineup to frequencies. Last I checked with my 3100HD diagnostics, mapping the HDTV frequencies wasn't possible. But noticed at that time that the many foreign-language channels here seem to have the same cable frequency as the English equivalent channel; did in one case, anyway. So perhaps the video is shared, but only the audio, needing little bandwidth, is changed.

Anyway, as TWC continues upgrades, such as shedding more analog channels, besides adding more HDTV I hope they find new sources for better-fidelity SD programming. Last week's golf match via USA and ABC (Sunday), for example, was exceptionally poor image quality IMO, even on 707 yesterday. If the signal was being uplinked anywhere in a clearer, higher-bit-rate format, some means of passing that fidelity along to TWC customers should be found. -- John

I had a rescheduled TW service call this past Saturday morning to swap out my- constantly frozen, always need hard re booting, slow channel changing if it changes at all-- SA 8000 HD DVR. The appointment was set up and reconfirmed as: to check everything out, if all was ok with everyhting else, then swap out the box.

The TW Techy arrived, to my surprise, on time, (not surprised that he was on time, but that he actually showed up this time). Naturally, (you've got to be kidding me) he didn't have a replacement box with him. He had a DVR but not an HD DVR.

He checked everything out. Determined that everything was ok except the hard drive on my box. He wanted to reschedule a swap outdon't go there-- not even considered. I demanded (nicely) that he go and get one. He (nicely) went back to his facility and retrieved a new one.

About an hour later I was hooked up- all is fine. This unit appears to be functioning correctly. Much quicker. No freezes. Nothing to complain about.

I'm sorry I let it go on this long. I should have changed the box at the first sign of problems. I've always done that (with complete success) in the past, with all of my previous HD set top boxes. I guess the reason I hung on to this one for so long with all of the problems was because of the 30 or so hours of SD recordings and the 6 or so hours of the HD recordings that I was planning on watching.

No more. First sign of this box being "possessed" - swap.

I will try and look at this optimistically- my hard drive is not half full with great recordings, it's 100% empty with room for great new recordings.




Larry

Actually, I just noticed this for the first time last night. Specifically this week, a number of my scheduled recordings have stopped automatically highlighting as future recordings even though they're clearly listed in the repeated recordings list, although many other recordings are still automatically showing up.

A reboot did not fix this.

I reselected them manually and they're now scheduled, but not sure what to do.

I even tried changing some of the options for some of the ones that were showing up, and when I swapped it from something like "record only at 8AM" to "record all", all showings of the program came back, but then if it switched it back to the way it originally worked, it didn't show up at all.

Oh, I also tried deleting one and recreating it and everything was fine; but the prospect of recreating a large portion of my scheduled recordings was not very enticing.

Seems like the last "patch" must've broken the scheduled recordings functionality! (This is preferable to skips in the audio/video, but not much!)

anthonymoody,

Just got of the phone with TWC, and after some digging they stated the 8300HD should be available "in the next couple of months", so we *may* see it before year-end. They also mentioned receiving many complaints about the HD DVR and "coding problems" being responsible.

/Carl

How about this.
Everyone that visits this thread, calls TWC and threatens to consider purchasing the upcoming HD tier, ONLY IF they provide us with the 8300HD first.
Someone at TWCNYC might pay attention. Why pay so much money for sub-par service?

my 8000hd just started an odd thing where I have to hit the 'select' button to make the box switch to a channel. I used to only have to enter the channel # and the box would switch to the channel. Someone else mentioned this recently; is there a fix for this?

Thanks

Drew

it comes and goes. I started manually checking for the new channels and after a while I had to hit the enter button as well. But then it went away. Does anyone know what numbers the new channels will be on?

I just did a scan with my LG-LST3100 and found the following new channels:

86.1 HD-NET
86.2 ??? (early Harrison Ford film on right now)
93.1 INHD
93.2 INHD2

No sign of ESPN-HD yet.

TNT-HD which is on 87-2 has no sounds.

There is also an additional SD channel Thirteen World (105-4) which I haven't seen on the TWC guide.

I noticed it also!!! I also noticed that you can also hit the black button on the bottom in the center to also take you to the channel.

It seems to take longer to change also....

BR

ESPN-HD here also, finally. it only took 3/4 of the college football season.

See they've tossed in an 'extra' NBC weather channel slated for Nov. 15. If that's OTA, too, hope it doesn't diminish the bit rates for other programming; wouldn't think so. With direct fiber feeds TWC could, theoretically, sidestep diminished OTA bit rates from multicasting if stations cooperated.

Looking forward to seeing how the image quality of the PGA final golf championship starting at noon on ESPN-HD stacks up to USA's exceptionally bad Thurs-Sat live golf fidelity last week. The feed was so bad even ABC's Sunday 720p upconvert couldn't improve things.

Pressing the 8000HD R.C. black button tunes a channel? Tapped it once while surfing the new H/DTV channels this morning and nothing happened. 13World (715) appears and tunes like the others on my S. Manhattan lineup. -- John

That is awesome news.
who did you call?
I would like to call too to complain.
I rather not call the 1-800-OK-CABLE number since the people answering those calls are truly idiots.

New channels now available:

721 INHD
722 INHD2
723 HDNET Movies -- subscription needed
724 HDNET
725 ESPNHD -- subscription needed

I checked at 7:00AM this morning before work and I had all 5 channels, none said subscription required. I'm on Staten Island.