Slashdot Mirror
Time Warner Cable Runs Out of HD DVRs
jalvear writes "According to TV NewsChannel 9 in Syracuse, NY, Time Warner Cable said that they have run out of HD digital video recorder (DVR) boxes. Apparently, there's a shortage of HD DVRs because the company that makes the boxes have been 'overwhelmed by requests for them.' Seems like almost everyone has bought an HDTV during the holidays and wants to watch the Super Bowl in HD format."
My my....
Nothing like a little monopoly that cant deliver a product...
Oh wait, we already have those in other markets !
But - in all honesty - once the others get the product out - they have the brains to license it, or the product is software, so there are (practicly) no costs of replicating it.
Guess what consumers:
they wont just increase production.
They will add a minor feature, call it version 2.0, and charge you more for it.
Wow cable companies doing a piss poor job of taking care of consumer needs. I'm Shocked
Fortunately it's possible to receive HD cable programming without one of their HD boxes ... Oh, wait, you can't...
"Seems like almost everyone has bought an HDTV during the holidays"
Last thing someone with a HDTV wants is 480p content. The barren 2007 release schedule probably is playing a role too.
Why! why for the love of HDTV?
Just go download the commercials on your fav torrent site or youtube. Don't waste your life watching the filler.
Grump
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
It might be, but I think most of these type of stories are created for publicity or an advertising stunt. Will like to read others comments.
With Regards, V Raimond
A considerable amount of commentary concerning the format war between Blue Ray and HD-DVD is based on the notion that standard definition is "good enough," for most owners of HDTV's, thus neither format will achieve deep penetration in the short term. However, this run on HD-DVR shows a clear demand for HD content. Comcast offers rental for their HD-DVR for a modest price, and no contract, and customers are snapping these units up. ON DEMAND had HD movies that can be viewed at the customers leisure, much of this content is at no additional charge. It has been posited that the format war is irrelevant due to people downloading HD content over the intertubes; however, the cable companies may make this argument irrelevant with the ON DEMAND feature, and the growing HD content. People want HD content, but are not willing to get hosed in the process by greedy corporations trying to win an unnecessary format war.
Many people (including me) got an HD-DVR not because they have an HD TV set at home (I don't). The disk in those HD-DVRs are the largest ones (160 or 120GB) and they work just fine on standard definition TV sets. The disk space is the only reason why I and many others went with an HD-DVR. I was about to replace my other old Explorer 8000 with an 8300HD this weekend. I sure hope I will be able to get one.
Actually NFL footbal was revitalized for me by HD broadcast, and the large screen format. I had not watched football for years because it just was not very much fun to watch on a 32 inch fuzzy square picture. I bought a external HD antenna for my 52" HDTV, and was wowed by the over the air broadcasts for free, especially the NFL broadcasts. The technology that the networks are employing to exploit the format is just amazing. I was blown away by it, I bought an HD 720p projector about 6 weeks ago, and I am just stunned by HD on a 106 inch bright, high contrast, colorful HD wonder. I can't wait until I can afford a true 1080P projector.
is everyone but me ignorant? this says they are out of DVR boxes. DVR > but not = HD Box.
Just because they are out of DVR's does not mean they dont have Non-DVR HD boxes.
I guess people want them in hi-def this year.
"You're everywhere. You're omnivorous."
So it's a toss up between craven theft and indifference, and their general inability to figure out what the fuck they are doing on any given day. As a TW customer in NC I can attest that there are two divisions inside TW that fight neck and neck for supremacy in the company. One is the We Don't Give a Shit division and the other is the We Don't Have a Fucking Clue division.
Wow, I just picked up one of these last week for a relative who got an Aquos 43". Glad I got it when I did. I wondered when the area Time Warner storefront said they were completely sold out of HDMI cables, the demand for which they said the manufacturer couldn't keep up with, either. Reason? They were selling decent 8' HDMI cables for $19.95. Not bad considering Radio Shack and Best Buy and Circuit City and ALL of them don't carry any for less than $60. Friggin price fixers. The problem is that the picture quality on TW (compared to other HD sources) looks like ARSE. Their system just doesn't have the bandwidth per channel necessary. But their cable modem service has been spectacular; at least here in Houston.
It doesn't sound like people want to watch football. If they company is having a shortage of HD PVRs, it's because the people with HD sets want to record their shows in HD, or skip commercials. If you just want to watch HD source material, just get an HD cable box. It sounds like they have those available.
the box TO AVOID is the infamous hr20.
;) thank god that dvd's have no more protection in them and I can rip to disc and view that way on my linux based HTPC..
its a truly crappy piece of engineering (often called a POS or POC on the dbstalk forums...).
I had one for 2-3 days. cancelled my DTV service when that box lost 2 shows in 2 days! come on - go back to tivo - at least they know how to make embedded software for dvrs.
but noooooo! directtv had to go it on their own. they outsourced the development (I suspect) or even worse, they did it in-house and had insufficient talent to really pull it off. its been in 'debug mode' (poor users!) for the last 3 or 4 months now. sigh...
one more tidbit that people SHOULD know. I had recorded some shows on my hd-dvr from directv that I didn't get a chance to watch yet. in the 2 or 3 days that I had it, a few shows did save (but a few got 'keep or delete' bugged!) to disk. now, I was on the phone with the CSR rep telling them about how bad this box was and how I wanted to cancel and revert back to my SD programming and directivo box - the csr rep asked if he should just go ahead and send the disconnect signal to the receiver. I said 'sure'.
guess what happened? you can guess, I think - the saved shows were now ALL YOUR SHOWS ARE BELONG TO THEM! really. the shows that I had not watched but did record were not locked up tight and unless I repaid the bill (or some other tech issue like the sat dish couldn't get signal and couldn't authenticate) then your shows - even hundreds of hours of saved data - are all hidden and made unplayable!
un-be-fucking-lievable!
the csr rep acted surprised. of course he KNEW that your data goes bye-bye if they remotely disconnect you.
people should be aware of this! suppose you spend a year or two saving music concerts you like on your tivo-like box and then find that some tech issue (or maybe your dish fell over in the wind and its another week before they can come out and install again) has disabled your content!
that really pushed me over the edge. so many bugs in their design and implementation and to top it all off - they lock up your data if things aren't 'to their liking'.
never on my SD tivo box (dual tuner direct-tivo) would they be able to remotely disable the ability to view shows I already saved!
they should seriously be sued over this. no consumer is prepared (I bet) to accept this as a TOS. its in the fine print, I think; but when the shit hits the fan and enough wives lose their 'american idol' (grin) shows - there will maybe be a revolt against this really low-down practice.
the more I look at how HD is being rolled out (all the protection and dumbing down of equipment if hdmi isn't 'happy') - the more I want to just AVOID the whole mess.
in the time being, to get my 'content fix' I have joined netflix. I did buy a nice lcd HD tv a few months ago and its hungry for content that is better than off the air satellite or cable (both of which are VERY compressed and look ugly on an HD set). the good news is that dvd's will see a new come-back, I think! the poor quality of SD signal forces people with HD sets to look for cleaner more watchable content. and dvd's do look GREAT on the HD sets.
so for now, until the cable and sat companies get their HD act together, my new set will be netflixing
at any rate, DO realize that the sat companies want you to sign a 2yr contract if you go HD with them. don't do it! just say no! else, well, all YOUR bits are going to belong to them...
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Not only are they out of boxes, but in my area atleast (RDU, NC) they sent out a firmware upgrade the other day and it fried my box. Called tech and they even admitted this was a problem.
so, we're out of boxes AND we're frying them with updates... awesome service.
where the hell is my FTTH service so I can kick TW to the curb????
If so, there's a ton of consumers out there that are going to be very frustrated. I've never dealt with a shoddier product than the Scientific Atlanta PVR that I had through Rogers Cable a couple years ago. It was a HUGE pain in the ass to use.
Charter has a waiting list for HD DVRs and it's a long one. They are also in a dispute with CBS over the HD broadcast so we get no HD Superbowl.... I hate Charter.
I can throw a one hundred thousand pound walrus right through a brick wall.
My local cable carrier can't spell HDTV (or Internet for that matter). I went with DirecTV for a couple other reasons but I haven't even subscribed to their HDTV offerings yet. One reason is they were having HD DVR shortages for a while last year.
Follow this thread at Lumenlab and build your own HD antenna! I live ~45 miles as the crow flies from the nearest transmitter. With an antenna I built based on some of the ideas there I can receive 3 HD channels out of 4 possible offerings. I can pick up FOX, NBC and CBS. I built the antenna with stuff I had lying around. I used 2x4s, coat hangers and fencing. Free HD.
And before anyone asks, yes it's ugly. I stuck mine in the attic to hide it. I might be able to put it on a mast and pick up the 4th channel which is ABC but my wife and neighbors would frown.
I live in a fairly mountainous area of the US so I was pleasantly surprised to pick up 3 of 4 channels. Give it a shot this weekend and I think you'll be pleasantly surprised. Cable and DirecTV's over compressed offerings can't come close to the visual quality of an OTA signal.
You've got an easy breezy wind at your back...most of the time.
Well they still had them on the 10th(as I just got one from TW on the 10th), and they can still get the regular HD boxes right?
An armed society is a polite Society
My DVR+DVD recorder (panasonic, very good one) cant handle HD content. My only peeve.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
When I ordered Sky HD here last summer I had to wait a month for an install. According to the person I ordered it off (I was already sold on it anyway) response had been strong and not tailed off, and there was a shortaqge of the recordable HD receiver boxes. I initially had some qualms as I really bought the TV for HD gaming but I think it is worth it. Hopefully more content to follow soon, but I also work with a lot of broadcast equipment companies and the demand for HD technology is really snowballing so I'm fairly sure this will go much more mainstream over the next year.
I worked for Comcast for over two years. Running out of DVR boxes was fairly common. Motorola who provides the boxes wouldn't keep up with the demand. Is the cable company at fault if they run out of equipment because they're using it to fill their customers' needs?
Don't get me wrong, there are lots of reasons I don't like Comcast, but this isn't one of them.
this is the only option short of buying a new set many users have. Over the air ? How many people do you know who actually do that and have HDTVs? I can't recall the last time I saw one let alone met anyone using over the air TV.
The Satellite service I have offers a DVR with HD Ability for a rate far cheaper than anything I can get from TIVO and if it breaks they will replace it. Also, since my TV isn't capable of receiving/interpeting HD on its own this single device covers both my needs (that and it can service another TV in my house via a RF remote is great too)
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I'm a recent Adelphia to TWC transfer. Adn I can tell you that it's not exactly HDTV demand that pushing these units.
Under Adelphia, it was roughly $5 for a standard digital box, and $10 for a HD DVR. last month, I get a rate adjustment that raised the Standard box by $3 and dropped the HD DVR by $2. That's right, the HD DVR is now the same price as the cheap SD box with no DVR. So basicially, if you already had DVR service, you might as well replace all of your SD units with the HD DVR's because you're paying the same price anyway for the SD units, and you can get the free HD channels as well. (even without an HDTV, the HD local channels are much clearer than their analog equivelant)
I'm sure I'm not the only person from the Adelphia changeover that noticed this.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
OTA is still the best way to get HD content. Most cable and satellite providers only go to 1080i. Fox Sports broadcasts in 720p, and yes, you can see a difference. And, most importantly, you get the full bitrate from Fox and CBS: the affiliates are not allowed to broadcast less that what the network provides. This in contrast to the cable and DBS providers, who are notorious "bit shavers". If you are lucky you can get away with an indoor antenna; I had to go really old school and place an antenna on my roof but the signals are great. Of course, some networks *cough*NBC*cough*cough insist on multicasting crap secondary channels which results in insufficient bandwidth and awful breakup with a fast moving picture.
never on my SD tivo box (dual tuner direct-tivo) would they be able to remotely disable the ability to view shows I already saved!
.. they maybe don't WANT to delete a show off your box against your wishes, but they sure as hell are able to.
so many things have happened that I would never have believed before (patriot act, DMCA etc)
tivo can adjust your programming on the fly.
if the broadcast flag every gets tossed into the FCC's ring- you can be damn sure that some content owner will sue, and force the 'flag' applied retroactively to tivo content.
REALIZE THIS: Tivo has the ability to program wise do anything to that box they want to
they also keep track of EVERY TIME YOU PUSH A BUTTON
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
I've got my HD DVR box from Time Warner. For one, I can never live without DVR again. The amount of TV I do watch actually has gone down, because if I feel like watching a show I just pull it up from the list.
The HD DVR is beautiful. I've got "They Live" and a couple other movies stored in HD (nothing like a 20 minute fight scene in HD).
There are two drawbacks, one of which is Time Warner's problem, the other isn't.
For one, the unit freezes up about once a day. This happens quite a bit when I'm watching 480 content and switch to 720 or 1080 by changing the channel, or if I hit play on some HD content I have on the hard drive I tried setting the box to only output 720p (which is what my flatscreen converts it to anyway), but it will still lock up. It takes about 2 minutes to reboot itself. Annoying.
The other drawback is there just isn't a lot of HD content, and the HD content you do see spoils you. Battlestar Galactica shows every Saturday from the previous season in HD, and boy does it look better than SD Galactica. Prime time shows are usually in HD (except scrubs for some reason), but reruns on most other channels (even HD channels) are in SD (with the exception of TNT, which is the HD Law and Order). Not really Time Warner's fault, but annoying.
Overwhelmed by all those stupid consumers who are going to plug their super HD DVR into their standard defintion television sets.
If you live in or near a major city, you might be able to pick up over-the-air HDTV with just a set of rabbit ears.
However, there is one important thing that you need to know, especially if you live close to the transmitter towers: you will probably need to rotate your antenna to pick up all the available stations. But if you just want the Super Bowl, find a list of what channels your local stations broadcast their digital signal on, and work on just getting that one station.
Digital TV with an antenna is nothing like analog TV with an antenna. You either get a perfect picture, or you get nothing. Or you could be right on the edge and it blinks in and out. The main enemy of a good signal is multipath interference, more commonly known as "ghosting" on analog TV.
Yes, you may have to go set up a rooftop antenna, and you m ay need to re-align it if the wind rotates it. So try rabbit ears or an in-attic antenna first. And right now most HDTV is on UHF, so make sure you get a good UHF antenna. VHF 7-13 seems to come in wonderfully with no problems, and VHF 2-6 is looking like it may get abandoned because it sucks for digital.
And beware of using amplifiers. Amplifiers, especially with an already strong signal, can make your reception worse. If you must use one, keep it as close to the antenna as possible, and make sure it's actually getting power.
#naabhaprzrag, #sverubfr-000, #agi-fcbafberq, negvpyr[pynff*=' negvpyr-ary-'] { qvfcynl: abar !vzcbegnag; }
I realize that the symptoms of shortage are widespread, but I think this particular story is just for Syracuse. Their "Your Stories" segment is just that: stories or complaints that people call in that NewsChannel 9 investigates and reports on.
I just returned mine 2 weeks ago, works great and all but I cancelled cable and got Netflix. Much happier too by the way. The only reason I cancelled cable was when Time Warner became the provider here in DFW instead of Comcast my internet went down for over a week, and all their support lines were busy signals. I work from home about 90% of the time and can't really live like that. And when their excuse/remedy is "Well I'm sorry" I had to get Speakeasy. Took 3 months to install speakeasy though, ugh. But the cable internet worked well enough till it was installed.
Headline the week after the Super Bowl: "Time Warner Cable runs out of storage space for returned HD DVRs".
I've been told that a surprising number of people buy a big-screen HDTV, watch the game, and return it the day after. People like them are the reason the rest of us get sacked with restocking fees.
Even I bought one, but I don't give a crap about broadcast TV or cable TV or sports.
I got sick and tired of the space my TV was taking up, gave the TV and the entertainment center to a friend,
and bought the best flatscreen TV I could find based on how it worked as a sVGA monitor. It happens to also have a HDTV tuner, HDMI inputs, etc., and I'm really happy with the way it works with my NTSC dvr box and cable tuner. (I have cable mainly as a side-effect of my internet connection.)
What I found amusing was that the TV's that can work as PC monitors, are converging in price with the larger PC monitors.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
FTA:
Just remember - if the world didn't suck, we would all fall off.
With the most recent software update for the DirecTV HR20 HDDVR many people are seeing improvements in reliability and performance. Just for the sake of counterpoint, my HR20 has been running very well for the past 5 months.
"0101100101? It's just jibberish. *looks in mirror, gasps* 1010011010@!? AHHHHHH!!"
Are the ads being made for HD? Because my box (from TWC) scales HD down to SD and I'd rather cap at the highest resolution available to me, keeping in mind, that's 704x470 for the regular CBS and 704x360 for the widescreen version.
-uso.
What you hear in the ear, preach from the rooftop Matthew 10.27b
This isn't news. It happens every year now at this time. It's a mix of people getting new TVs for Christmas and then those that didn't get one before the Super Bowl. Every year Time Warner here (in Raleigh, NC) is on TV saying they are out of HD boxes.
I watched the Bears Packer (oops SeaHawks) game at home on my 30 in or so HDTV CRT set. It was very good quality. Then I watched the Bears Saints game at a friend's house on his 50 inch DLP HD set with comcast cable and it was just terrible quality. The grass would go from muddle to perfect to shimmer even with no movement of the camera. And when there was any movement, it was all a blurred mess. At half time I left saying the snow was getting bad but really I went to my parents' where they have a 36 in LCD HD set with comcast cable and an old antenna in the attic. Switching from the cable to the antenna was the difference, it is true comcast recompresses their HD signals and it is very noticeable.
It was very bad during the World Cup too. At my parents they had a 27 in HD LCD back then and there were times when watching over cable the ball would be kicked through the air it would disappear! It would sort of flicker from spot to spot across the screen at approximately 2 Hz. When watching the same game over the air on the same set this did not occur.
The antenna at my old house cost me under $20 (it was a deal). The house I own now came with an antenna. Just buy and install it, drop the cable subscription, and use the money you save to buy DVDs. Heck analog is still broadcast, the last VCR I bought was less than $13 (Walmart) more than a year ago, so you can use tapes for now if you must.
My condo assn had DTV in the dues, so I got the 2-tuner TiVo, and all was well. 2 years in the power supply went out & I went to get another DTivo. Well, this was right after the switch to DTV Crap DVR. I was still SD at the time, and was curious if Tivo was really that much better than the generic ones, so I picked up Crap DVR SD 2-tuner at Bestbuy.
WOW! Talk about a nightmare! The interface was slow & many of the subtle features of Tivo were gone. (ever notice on Tivo when you're fast forwarding then press play, it'll rewind a few seconds cause it knows you've bypassed the part you want? Other DVRs dont have that feature).
So I returned Crap DVR and was able to track down one of the last DTivos in retail stores.
I am attempting to switch from TWC to DISH to get better HD now that they have most of our locals (Raleigh, NC area). I ordered it in Dec. Twice now they have called and had to reschedule the installation. Each time they push it out another 2 weeks. The reason I have been given is they are out of HD equipment. I am giving them one more chance to get it right. We'll see if they finally show up this Monday.
I got my Explorer 8300HD a long time ago. You can find out when this stuff comes out more quickly by going to AVS Form (www.avsforum.com).
wow, the number of people bashing hdtv that follow on with the statement "but i dont have an hdtv yet" is mind blowing. are you the same folks that tell people to shut the hell up because they don't know what they are talking about when said people post Apple comments but don't have the latest iThinkThisMakesMeACoolAndInterestingPerson product? lame, very lame.
"SD is good enough for me!", "there's no content", "hdtv is too expensive", "cable is too expensive"... blah blah blah. or is it bah bah bah?
1. SD may be good enough for you. that's great. but for others, it's not. doesn't exactly invalidate the concept of hdtv does it?
2. there's plenty of content (always room for more though). that damn wiki list posted earlier was by no means all inclusive. What you mean to say, is "there's no content i want to watch". fair enough. again, that doesn't mean the rest of us don't want to watch. a common misconception is that, because abc/nbc/cbs only rehash their regular shows, all channels do the same. DiscoveryHD is not a mirror of what's on Discovery... Mostly original content, shot in HD for their exclusive use. I just recorded an HD converted showing of "A Clockwork Orange" on UHD or INHD the other day. it looks way better than my DVD copy. I swear some of you have not had cable in 10 years and think that there have been no changes...
3. It can be expensive. However, a lot of the same people saying "65 inch TV's are stupid, i just need a small tv" are apparently forgetting that the small tv they need won't cost as nearly much as said 65 inch behemoth. try shopping around.
4. I get a package deal here (n. tx) 6MB internet + digital cable + 1 premium channel + HD DVR for $75/ month. I don't think you will find a better deal short of just not getting service. however, i had to research and i had to ASK. They won't hand you a deal on a plate. and i'm sorry, if all i had to watch were the free OTA channels, i wouldn't bother. in fact we just got cable again after a year off where we did nothing but netflix.
whatever. this kneejerk reaction by people who don't have an HDTV and/or don't have cable/dish sounds like luddism(sp?) or sour grapes to me. if you don't want or need it, or can't afford or don't want to pay for it, that's great. just try dropping the holier than thou 'tude.
Time Warner Cable Runs Out of crappy HD DVRs. I have tried Time Warner's DVR. I settled on Tivo. Compared to Tivo, Time Warner's DVR is a doorstop.
My wife and I tried three different TWC DVR models. The Time Warner units would freeze up at least once per day (and usually 4 or more times per day), most of the time they would record garbage if I were foolish enough to set them to record two channels at once, and the sound would frequently be out of sync with the picture by 2 seconds or more (on a recorded show). The only good news was that the frequency of these issues was dropping as we swapped out units. The worst failing, however, is that it had no real find capability for shows. I mean, the whole purpose of recording a show is to time shift when you watch it. And yes, I know you can page through the listing and select future shows to record. But that isn't search. With my Tivo unit, I can not only search for shows based on actor, theme, title, rating, time, or channel, I can do so up to 6 weeks into the future, and I can set the Tivo to record shows automatically regardless of how far in the future they are based on my search criteria.
Time Warner has a long way to go compared to what Tivo offers today.
The NSA: The only part of the US government that actually listens.
And then, when consumers complain, Cable companies will then have to switch out all that MPEG2 hardware for MPEG4, just like the Satellite companies did, and its just going to be bloody hell on you folks.
I'm sure that the fact that they break constantly can't help. I'm on number 3 in 2 years. Over 7 service calls in 3 years. 3 cable modems. If Time Warner didn't have a monopoly it would be trivial to beat them at their game. I mean just reduce your service calls per household by 1 every year and you'd probably save millions.
this was [OLD] over a year ago
nevermind that their boxes are utter crap
Or the simple reason I got two...
SD DVR: 40GB
HD DVR: 160GB with SATA connector and instructions for hooking up your own HD.
Even if you're actually only watching SD programming on your second box, you get four times the capacity from the HD version plus the inputs to hook up your own SATA drive.
Curiously, when I got my second box last summer, I was told that they were under orders to only give out one per household. I had to fake alarm that my [non-existant] second HD TV would be useless unless I changed to DirectTV and even then they were reluctant to hand over the second box.
The now defunct ReplayTV had a bug in the commercial skip software, that could make it get confused as to whether it was on a commercial, or on content. This lead the the unofficial 'Content Advance' feature. For many of us that still have Replays, it is very popular during the Superbowl.
Bright House Networks here in Central Florida just disabled the VCR Commander on our cable boxes in an effort to force subscribers of their Digital Cable services to upgrade to their premium DVR.
Details here if you care: http://www.awtrey.com/brighthouse-extortion/
I am really, really angry about this change. I know many of you will swear by the DVR's you know and love, but I like the freedom to share VCR tapes with friends and to watch recorded shows wherever we want in the house. My wife really likes Oprah and a couple of soaps and can watch them wherever she wants. If we only have a DVR and I am home, then I get to watch them too. *shudder*
Brighthouse Stinks...
DaGoodBoy
My God! It's full of Voids!
the S-Bowl should always be referred to as "The Big Game" or 'the game between Chicago and Indianapolis".
One good thing about Time Warners HD PVR (8300) is that it has a eSATA connector on the back. I just hooked up a 400GB external HD. It went from 38% full with only 8 shows recorded (mix of SD & HD) to 11%. You just have to power cycle the PVR a couple of time to get it to format and use the new external drive. Now if only trying to schedule future programs to record didn't suck compaired to MythTV or MCE.
Time Warner told me that the eSATA wasn't active and couldn't be used but I decided to try it any way.
My Hello World is 512 bytes. But it's also a valid Fat12 boot sector, Fat12 file reader, and Pmode routine.
I haven't upgraded to HD on my satellite connection, but I did buy an OTA (over the air) USDTV box from WalMart two years ago along with a DLP front projector. At that time I paid about $1300 for the setup. Now you can get a DLP front projector for even less. I am unsure where the market is for freestanding OTA tuners, but I can tell you that I've definitely gotten my money's worth out of the OTA box (paid $200 for it). Plenty of HD being broadcast (hell I'm in JACKSON freakin' Mississippi and we're almost totally HD OTA now. Planning on getting a HD-DVD to go with my Xbox360 and using my Netflix account for the software (HDDVD's). It won't be too long before the satellite and cable providers (I use SD Directv DVR) won't be able to charge a premium for the HD service because it will be the defacto STANDARD. For anybody thinking of upgrading their old SD viewing habits and wanting a truly LARGE FORMAT (80 plus inches) there is no better value than a DLP FRONT PROJECTION UNIT. The only caveat is LIGHT CONTROL in the room it's used for. Screens are optional. My unit does fine projecting straight onto the wall. I've got TWO YEARS of experience with this HD technology. When I first bought this stuff two years ago a forty inch plasma was still THREE GRAND. They're half that now, but even at half price you're still pegged into a DINKY 40 INCH SCREEN. Enjoy.
This ain't no upwardly mobile freeway This is the road to hell
Scientific Atlanta has always had issues with demand. Not a big surprise here. It appears it's only that Time Warner market having issues as Comcast in Minneapolis (use to be Time Warner but still uses SA equipment for 1/2 of the area) and Time Warner in Wisconsin still have plenty in stuck.
Honestly, out of all of the /. crowd, you think there's at least two dozen people that read the story?
You must be new here....
Actually, as of July 2007, the cable companies will not be allowed to place new integrated boxes into service; however, they can continue to re-use their existing inventory as long as they want. I suspect that Time Warner's HD DVR order is being delayed because of the orders from cable systems who have chosen to "stock up" in advance of the deadline to avoid rolling out non-integrated boxes as long as possible.
I just want to be able to watch FOX http://www.timewarnercable.com/northwest/moscowkay u.html
The reason why this story probably hit was the fact that the two rival news companies in Syracuse (I live there) are Channel 9 (An ABC station) and Channel 10 (who is owned by Time Warrner). This, I assume, is a weird way to discredit 10 and get more viewers and sponsors; while I belive this is a very poor way to do it. I dunno. Perhaps this rivaly goes a bit on the weird side.
For those who seek perfection there can be no rest on this side of the grave.
This happens to Time Warner every year. It recently happened to me at Cablevision. What's the point?
I used to have service from Time Warner Syracuse and it was a disaster getting an HD DVR anytime of year from them. Shouldn't the article be renamed: Cable Companies have shitty customer service?
Disagreeing with me does not mean you get to mod me troll.
This is why defective-by-design standards win... marketers know how to make the buzzcuts and fat blue-collar sports neanderthals whose necks look like packs of hot-dogs, drool and waste their money on an irrational purchase just because they want to see the contours of black football player ass more clearly.
I don't believe the SD directivo can be remotely disabled unless it phones in.
;( so unless someone like 'dvd jon' figures a way to get premium cable/sat content into your home-made 'tivo', the HD stuff will stay locked up if it came from cable or sat.
there are hacks to stop it from phoning in ("zipper mod").
with HD, it gets listings and other data from the sat. I don't believe the older hdvr2 directivos could transmit if you removed the phone line.
all this mess finally pushed over over the edge and I've been spending some time building a HTPC. I want control BACK again! I want to be able to record any audio and save it. and same with at least any SD content and free-air HD content. next top is qam (there is some clear-qam on my cable jack. on some channels...). there are hdtv atsc/qam tuners out there - maybe that's the next stop for me. but nothing is going to give me hbo (etc) in HD in the clear
again, anamorphic encodings (squished wide in a 4:3 window that gets expanded on playback) get me by as a very close 2nd to true HDTV. so while HBO won't be in the clear for home save-to-disk stuff, at least regular dvd's in anamorphic mode help fill the gap. a little bit.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Completely correct. What the hell? This was nearly a daily occurrence in Houston. Even so, who CARES?
You're nothing; like me.
If you're talking about the Super Bowl, it's going to be on a broadcast network anyhow. So you can either hook up an HD antenna to your TV, or if you have *drumroll* Basic Cable, you can just plug it straight into the TV without a cable box or cable card (as long as your TV supports QAM). The law requires cable companies to provide the OTA HD channels unencrypted.
P0rn DVD companies have rallied around this standard. I heard its competitor wont sell reproduction machines to the p0rn industry beacuse it wants to stay classy. I guess the competitor blu it, pardon the pun, and will wither away.
Interestingly, Sony makes an HD DVR, but it is in "limited" production. The Sony HDD 250/500 will accept a CableCard, the technology that the cable companies have been forced to eat, and are supporting...not so well. The concept is you buy your own box, and stuff the cablecard in. Now, this does not work for Satellite providers, but does very well off the air, as I get my HDTV (benefits...for a $75 dollar investment, free HD and no HD Lite issues) Oddly, Sony does not list the box in the catalog, but you can occasionally find it in the sony clearance centers if you know where to look, and you will frequently see it in big box stores, providing an HD signal to the SXRD sets. The staff will advise you it is not for sale. (Feel free to demo 720p vs. 1080i via the resolution button on the front of the unit...scares the sales staff when you get to 480 p/i). No one else makes a standalone HD DVR box which can hook to cable, and even they don't officially sell it except as "remanufactured". What gives here ? Worse, no one else is pushing. Here's a market waiting to be served..... Oh, I forgot...all the content providers made the equipment makers bow down in fealty, and any HD DVR should be sold at the highest possible price to a captive audience. A friend in NYC has told me Time Warner cable disabled his 30 second skip button on his box. Silly me...I thought a legal product with a demand would find willing sellers...but the entertaiment business is not capitalism, as much as monopoly. So, following the model of the old telephone company, rent the equipment in perpetuity, so that wall phone eventually costs $5,000.00. My HD DVR cost $300 reman, and was listed at $700.00 new. Even at the $700.00 price, it pays back quickly....but you are not given that choice. Wonder Why ? LG made a box, and stopped. Sony made a box, and stopped. Who is having coffee with who ?
You aren't actually missing anything with ST:TOS Remastered. No one has bought the HD version yet; they're all just buying the SD version with the new effects, cleaned up colors, etc. The HD episodes are huge and apparently local affiliates syndicating it don't have or can't afford to expend the disc space for them yet. Or just don't care enough about Star Trek. Some actual HD versions have been released on XBox Live from what I've heard, but they switch back and forth between widescreen for the new effects shots and pillarbox for the existing footage.
They won't be able to give them away. I live in Nebraska and we're "beta testing" the new software.. Alpha is more like it. It sucks in so many ways. Google "time warner DVR software sucks" for a list of the bugs. It's just amazing that they would ask us to give up something that worked very well for this absolute crap. I dumped them 2 days ago and got Dish Network installed.. and I've never been happier. Call me a jerk, but I thanked them when I turned my box in: "without your 'wonderful' software upgrade, I would have never discovered just how wonderful Dish Network is.."
Sooner or later the box won't be that important...
Cable isn't only just good just for channels, there's broadband too. Streaming TV seems to have more variety of content and you don't have to pay extra on top of service to view them. Of course anything comparable to HD content is currently rare, but over time should be achievable.
Now if only someone could figure out how to make VLC record on a pre-determined schedule...