The Rhythm house just got a new HD television, and switching out the DVR has brought in complications that we’re not sure how to solve.
Our service is Comcast digital. In order to get HD programming, we had to switch the Comcast-supplied DVR to an HD-ready Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC. So far so good, but there’s a fly in the ointment: priorities.
On the original DVR, you could go to series manager and easily adjust the recording priorities, so that in case of conflict the background fluff lost out to things we definitely want to see. Not so with the new DVR. After two conversations with support (to make sure I’m not an idiot, though nothing is for certain), the only way to set priorities is to reprogram each series every time something is added.
So, what the heck to do? Tivo? We thought about it, even think the extra $100 a year might be worth it. But … but … what’s this about the basic Tivo box not being able to record two digital signals at once? We need a four hundred dollar box for that? Does Tivo even do priorities, or was this some miracle feature of our old box?
Any thoughts? Scientific Atlanta hacks? Insight into Tivo programming?
I switched cable companies due to a ‘better deal’ for a short while this past summer, and their DVR made it essentially impossible to do multiple series recordings because you couldn’t do ANY priority, and not only that…if there was a conflict with 3 series recordings on at one time, you had to CANCEL one of the entire series recordings…not that episode, the whole series. The menus were also insanely complex to maneuver, and you couldn’t cancel a single instance of a series recording (for instance, if you’d seen that episode before).
Perhaps it’s the same box I had, just explained a bit differently.
After a week, I called, canceled, and reordered my old cable company. When I canceled, the representative was concerned about poor service, etc. I simply said, nope, your DVR stinks. She thought it odd that it was such a big deal, but the DVR is essentially how I watch all my TV, so it was a flat out dealbreaker.
So, I feel your pain. I’d rather shell out the money for Tivo, or build my own DVR than use that piece of crap DVR for one minute.
With TiVo, everything you want to record (on a regular basis) is in a list. When there’s a conflict, it will record the one higher up on the list. It’s that easy. For one time recordings, if there is a conflict it’ll tell you what it conflicts with and give you a few options including record the newly selected program, record the previosly selected program or if they only overlap, you can clip one of them.
Sounds similar to how our old box worked … can you highlight a show on the list and raise/lower its priority?
Like Jman, and I daresay 99% of anyone who has a DVR, I can’t remember the last time I watched ‘live’ television. Those “it will change the way you watch TV” commercials definitely qualify for the most accurate marketing statement in history award.
I can’t believe we may have to choose between DVR and HD viewing. Ugly scene.
Friday must be DVR Day on the Dope. ** Joey P** accurately answered your other questions, so I’ll just touch on this bit. This unit can record two channels at once, and can be purchased for $250 from Amazon. The Eleison household just upgraded to this unit from an ancient series 1 Tivo.
If you’re planning on recording a lot of high-definition content, you’ll probably want to add another disk at some point. There’s an e-Sata connector for doing so, but it’s a hidden cost you might consider.
The Scientific Atlanta has no way of setting priorities. It does, however, have two tuners so you can record two shows in the same time slot simultaneously. It will complain if you try to program a third show, and will give you the option of canceling one of the recordings.
Yup…that Scientific Atlanta box was the piece of crap I canceled my cable over…the box I had before, and now after (Motorola) is just like Tivo - full list of series in priority order, automatically takes the higher priority if there’s a conflict, and it has two tuners too.
Honestly, the way the SA box works, what’s the point of having a DVR? If you have to cancel a series recording every time there’s a conflict, you can have at most a handful of series, and nothing can be a show that has multiple time slots. I have a lot of shows that air 2-3 times a day, and one or two of the time slots they conflict with a higher priority series, which is just fine…my high priority series gets recorded, and I catch the lower one when its on later in a different time slot.
With the SA box, I couldn’t have that lower priority series set to record at ALL, unless I set individual recordings. What’s the point? (Plus the menus were HORRIBLE to navigate… no info when browsing your recordings…you had to individually select each show to see what episode it was. Three button presses to delete a recording…it took 15 minutes to clear off stuff if you’d already seen it.)
BTW, Terminus Est - LGR! Got to beat the Big Green on the ice, and I’m gearing up for the hoops tourney (Cornell '01).