banditws6
Shrinking Time and Distance
join:2001-08-18
Naples, FL
 ·Comcast
edit:
May 11th, @01:39PM
| reply to Karl Bode
Re: Useless anyways!
Seriously, if not for the price tag, I would replace my SA 8300HD with a TiVo Series 3 for software reasons alone. In my Comcast market, our 8300s are powered by SARA software, which goes to a fair amount of effort to degrade the user experience significantly. To wit:
•There's no ability to record something that airs in the future if it doesn't appear on the schedule (i.e., no recording by title).
•The device only has a week's worth of listings at any one time (could be Comcast's fault).
•The "record all episodes" functionality isn't intelligent. Even if a show you've set to record stops airing, it will continue recording whatever airs in its place until you manually delete the "all episodes" program. The guide knows the show isn't on anymore, but the scheduled recordings list doesn't.
•No ability to search listings for a show. You get a standard grid, or a cumbersome "browse by title" feature (in which you have to page through a week's worth of shows -- across all channels -- in alphabetical order). "Browse by title" also misses some programs that the grid view finds, so you can't trust it anyway.
•No "suggestions" (a TiVo hallmark that I've enjoyed quite a bit on my TiVo Series 2 -- it records programs it thinks you will like, based on other recordings you've programmed and ratings you've given).
The 8300HD is a flat-out excellent piece of hardware that's hampered by archaic software. At least Comcast will (should?) eventually offer TiVo software to us according to their recent deal with TiVo, but since they concentrate on their Motorola markets first, we'll likely be waiting for years.
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"I'll follow the law until it's just stupid." -Ted Nugent |
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fcisler
Premium
join:2004-06-14
Riverhead, NY
| Yes...I have come across these issues, and they are annoying....
-You can manually schedule for as far in advance as you want...although no replacement for further scheduling.
-Also brings in the first point - they SHOULD provide you with more than a weeks worth of programming. It's easily doable...but why they don't is beyond me.
-YES! Very annoying. And then - if you hit stop and try and erase - it tells you it will stop all FUTURE recordings!
The rest of those points I have to agree on. Except the suggestions. I know what I like, and don't want anything to "suggest" something i want...but YMMV.
Either way...i'm satisfied with the 8300HD. My favorite part is that when it dies (i'm on 8+ as of right now) - i bring it back to cablevision and swap it out on the spot. |
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smcallah
join:2004-08-05
Home
| reply to banditws6
said by banditws6  :•There's no ability to record something that airs in the future if it doesn't appear on the schedule (i.e., no recording by title). TiVo has the same limitation, really.
TiVo doesn't have a list of every show ever just sitting on its hard drive. If it is a new show that has never been on before, or hasn't been on in a while, it will have to be on in the next 12 days for you to be able to record it. I don't believe SARA software can get a 12 day guide, so that does limit "future" shows quite a bit.
Now, you can use TiVo wishlists to catch something that hasn't aired yet that TiVo does not yet know about.
But TiVo can't see shows that don't appear on the schedule either, unless you already had a Season Pass setup for it if it was on in the past. |
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