Sacramento, CA - SureWest - Page 9

Obviously includes when they were Roseville Telephone, as they changed their name in 2003, since they expanded into other markets.

I too am anxiously awaiting the DVR. I am wondering if the initial date I'd been given is close to accurate, which was Thanksgiving... next week.

It should be released pretty soon now - we've had a few to play with and they work pretty well. A lot better than the current Tivos as they are nice and responsive like the 130 is. And if it means anything, these HD DVRs are NOT made by Amino; that is all.

Not Amino? oh you taunt us! sold by Amino? you tease! Not the central system we had grown to love the idea of? how much physical space do they take up? I need to make room for it.

I wish they had a waiting list for the DVR. The only reason I knew about fiber in my area were the trucks and webpage. I can't rely on them letting me know when the DVRs are available. I can watch here -- probably my best bet.

That is a bold statement! I have never met any DVR that works better than a TiVo, from an overall user experience / feature point of view. Having said that, I hope you're right and the new HD-capable DVRs will finally allow me to retire my aging Series1 TiVo!

It sounds like he is comparing just the responsiveness... which. well.. on my DirectTivo is still pretty dang fast. Only when modifying my season passes do I encounter a pause. Maybe sometimes the re-draws between menus could be sped up. However the main thing you work with, the Now Playing list.. is dang fast.. and really.. thats all I use anymore.

I am ready to be disapointed when I lose my Tivo user interface. Hopefully low expectations will set me up to not be *as* disappointed..

Got some good news today. I can't wait!!!!

Thank you for your inquiry.

Surewest is indeed planning on release a brand new HD DVR in there very
near future. However, a firm launch date for the new DVR has not been
officially announced yet, but I do have some news which serves as pretty
good indicators that we are very rapidly approaching a launch date.

First and foremost, the reports are in and our beta tester are
absolutely thrilled about the new DVR. With all the strongly positive
feedback, we can probably rule out any delays on the product development
side of the house. With all the positive feedback I would not be
surprised if the hardware and software teams have given the go ahead for
production of the new DVRs and if they are not already rolling off of
the manufacturing lines.

The second bit of good news comes directly from our CEO, Steve Oldham,
who recently disclosed to the Sacramento Bee, "A soft launch of the new
DVRs could happen by Thanksgiving." This of course is one of the most
positive signs yet and is inline with what the company has stated in the
past about hoping that we would have this new product rolled out in
time for the holiday season.

At this time I have not been given any details that can be released
regarding whether or not the new DVR will be available this week or not.

I wish I could offer you a firm and precise date, but I will personally
follow-up to this email as soon as anything firm and official is
announced and I am given the go ahead to release this information.

Please rest assured that Surewest is very excited about the new DVRs and
we are eagerly looking forward to making these new DVRs available to our
customers. There is a lot of demand for a more robust DVR and we can't
wait to make these available to our customer as soon as possible.

Thank you for your time, patience, and enthusiasm.


Thanks,
XXXXX
Surewest Communications

I just got the same message. I also just noticed that we have two new channels today... CNN HD on Channel 648 and TBS HD on Channel 655.

I wonder what is meant by a "soft launch". Are they going to make them available but not advertise that they are available? If the "soft launch" is on Thanksgiving, that is only a few days away. Are they going to have an office open on Thanksgiving Day to distribute them?

You guys promise to let us others know when its out right? I want to be part of the soft launch -- but don't know how to get on "list" that you guys managed.

I'll second ehubbard, keep us in the loop I think I'll start calling tomorrow morning and inquiring about the DVRs.

Blehhh...just spoke with one of their customer service reps, and they won't have any new info till next week.

So much for a pre-Thanksgiving launch.

I was referring to the SW provided Tivos - obviously it's not a greatest solution with the IR transmitter. Kind of sucks that it adds significant latency even to the most basic operations like channel changing. I am aware of the DirectTV Tivos as my in-laws have one and I have played with it a bit. Regardless, ours is either comparable speed wise or maybe a little faster. All operations on it are pretty responsive and I can't wait to see it replace Tivos on our service.

If you want to know who it's from, search Google for "iptv dvr" and go from there. There really aren't many IPTV HD DVR manufacturers out there.

I have to be careful what I say here... I have been a longtime AVSFORUM lurker so I have no problem giving info as long as I don't overstep my bounds.

I'm not going to lie and say the DVR blows Tivo out of the water because it doesn't. Right now it is no frills and to the point DVR which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The DVR functionality does integrate seamlessly right into the current Minerva GUI. The email that was posted seemed to imply the DVR is close to "going gold" which sounds about right.

bigRoN -

Thanks bigRon for the info. any info is better then none. I'm hearing that the launch date could be the 27th. I think tivo is great. We had the HD tivo when we had comcast. Tivo is reference for all other DVR's. If Surewest HD DVR comes close, I'll be happy.

Just throwing out some possible links found per above statement.
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/10/24/3041329.htm
http://www.iptv-industry.com/ar/18s.htm
http://www.tvover.net/2007/10/25/ADB...h+America.aspx

Minerva Networks shows up in the article.

Minerva Networks press release: http://www.minervanetworks.com/ (mentions ADB, Motorola, and Cisco/Scientific-Atlanta STB's)

ADB Set-Top-Box: http://www.adbglobal.com/?q=node/188

A lot of features on that ADB won't work with surewests deployment. I'd love to stream music from the PCs in my house.. but with surewest putting the IPTV on a separate network within the house..hurumph.. also it doesn't seem like we'll be able to play things recorded on a TV separate from the viewing TV.. unless we put a DVR on that TV as well...

still... better then no DVR at all! And the sooner I get it -- the sooner I can cancel my directTV subscription.

Just because I'm anxious, I called SureWest to see if they had the DVRs available yet. I inquired about the "soft launch" and they said that they are not available yet and the "soft launch" will occur later this week, possibly Thursday or Friday. They still did not know what the pricing will be for the box either. I am just posting this here so other people who might be as anxious as I won't have to call... today at least.

Thanks Ron. I was gonna call today, but I guess it would've been in vain. Guess we have to wait a little longer...

Thanks bigRon. I was about to call myself as well. Been waiting for 6 months so what is a few more weeks or months. :-)

Much obliged Ron. I've set my outlook reminder for Thursday morning.

I thought I'd forward on an email I got from Rick in Communications at SureWest:

I just received a letter today from Surewest with the price changes as of 1/08. The cost for the HD DVR is $9.99 and $9.99 for additional HD DVR per month.

Hmm.. the fact that they mention additional DVRs somewhat implies that a single DVR cannot be shared by multiple STBs.

Grrr.

I am hoping to have TWO of the DVRs, as it would allow for more than 2 shows to be recorded and twice the storage capacity. In the past, I've had situation where due to scheduling conflicts, I needed to, at least for a short time, record 3 or more shows at a time... networks often alter the schedule to require people to watch only their stuff or at least not watch some show entirely... like shows starting 5 minutes early or late.

bigRon,
Any chance they let slip if it's the ADB box I found above or if it's someting else?

That ADB box looks like something from the 80s.

The DVR works with their other non-DVR set-top boxes.. like this bugger:

http://www.adbglobal.com/?q=node/344

Unsure if Surewest would swap out your amino boxes though...

After looking at the ADB stuff, I really hope that is NOT the product that we will be receiving. It looks inferior to Amino. I'd rather have Scientific Atlanta's IPN603MCG. SureWest already does business with Cisco for other network infrastructure. It would also help those that have come from a cable infrastructure home by running output to the other boxes via coax. I personally would rather use Ethernet, but I have better than normal wiring in my house (my big project in July).

dang.. just called... they said check again on December 3rd. I asked for a waiting list so I didn't have to keep calling them back and he said no. I asked if I should just call every day and ask -- they didn't seem to appreciate my comment and said just call back on the 3rd.

Yeah, calling in everyday to check isn't going to help things. I will say this - you shouldn't have to call in anymore after the 3rd, thankfully.............................

Interesting.... Do you have any 'guesses' how the multi-room viewing will play out?

oh.. and should I go buy an HDMI cable this weekend?

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