Time Warner pricing

[gparris]

I have had 2 TWC DVRs and had them since a year ago. Before that, I had a DirecTivo on top of a TWC DVR to compare side by side before I moved into an apartment during new house construction.
Yes, there are some features like easier show/movie finding I do miss on the DirecTivo, but the thumbs up and down feature drove me crazy.:eek:

But it is the picture-in-picture feature the TWC DVR has that the Tivo does not have, especially when it comes in handy, I really like, beside that fact all you do with a TWC DVR when you get one from a kiosk or TWC office-is plug the power cord and ONE cable from the wall in, then use it upon a very quick reboot.
But the things I do not miss about my DirecTivo I did experience is:

No dual cables from a dish to connect, no telephone jack to have handy for the periodic updates, and no wondering if the hard drive  crashes will you have to go back to a store an beg for an exchange or wait for it to be fixed (like I had to under a warranty I paid for) and have no TV service at all , unless you go again and buy another one (then I had 2 DirecTivos for awhile until I moved and the thing got fixed).

So TWC's DVR is not a bad product. The HD version will eliminate 2 boxes without shelling out a thousand bucks for HD Tivo.

Quite unlike summerfun, I HAVE had both DVR "worlds" of DVR usage. It is a preference to have a DVR to begin with and another perference to own which kind of DVR.
I have experienced both DVRs from all angles and still stick with this DVR version. I can't wait for the HD DVR to come out!:wave:

[borghe]

things you will miss with TWC:

finding shows to watch. Time Warner gives you no search ability whatsoever

space. TWC SD comes with 40 hours and TWC HD comes with 20 hours. Neither box can be upgraded. DirecTivo comes with 35 hours but can be taken to 512 hours, and HD DirecTivo comes with 30 hours and can be taken to 77 hours.

speed. TWC is noticeably slower than DirecTivo (which is already extremely slow)

things you might miss:

season pass flexibility and prioritization. if you have a lot of season passes, managing them with the TWC unit comes in a distant second.

wishlist recording/searching. want to record that movie with such and such in it but you just can't remember the name? Or you looked up the name and want to record it the minute it's on? TWC can't do it.

suggestions. you either love it or don't care. I can't see how thumbs up/down bothers someone. you just turn off suggestion recording.

just some things off the top of my head..

I personally would not give up Tivo unless I was extremely disappointed with the service from the provider DirecTV..  basically DirecTV would have to fall substantially behind TWC for me to switch with their existing DVR. If TWC had a DVR with Wishlists, searching, and beter season pass management options and gave some way to increase storage space (TWC HD DVR is only about 16-20 hours HD)  would consider switching, but until then, TWC would have to have triple the HD channels or something (and don't get started with local channels. I get and record them all).

Anyway, it sounds like DVR is secondary to the service for you, which is cool. I just wanted to chime in on the differences between Tivo and TWC DVR. TWC will get the job done, but it ain't even in the same ballpark as a Tivo. If you are a long time Tivo user, you will instantly notice the difference.. and I don't mean that in a good way.

[beckkl]

Well, I picked up a SD TW PVR over lunch, and have been messing around with it for the last few hours...  my thoughts:


Pros:
The two tuner functionality is AWESOME.  Whatever problems the TW box has with prioritization will be minimized, hopefully.

Another feature I like is the adjustment the playback makes during FF & REW.  It seems to fit my reaction time a bit better than Tivo's.

I like how you can keep watching the show when you are messing around in the menus.

Space.  It is a hair more than my 40hr(26hr) tivo.  I'm aware that
you can upgrade the TiVo, but I haven't gotten around to that for years, and never will.

Speed.  It is so nice to reprioritize shows without the huge lag.

Cons:
The interface.  Not quite as slick... no groups for programs, no indication of what is going to be deleted...  that sucks.

Searching.  Granted, you can still search by the first letter, but you have to page down for long periods of time until you find the show you want.  At first I was annoyed, but then I realized how very little I actually search for programs.  My girlfriend and I have our staple programs, and rarely deviate.  We maybe add a new show every couple of weeks.  I can handle the delay.


Overall, I am impressed (and surprised)...  but I may be taking it out on TiVo since they pulled the whole cell-phone company routine when I tried to cancel today.  I figure I'll keep this for a while and see what my feelings are like in a week.  If I don't like it, I can always bring it back and reactivate my TiVo.  I must say though, it is no where near as bad as the members of TivoCommunity would have you believe

[summerfun]

Originally posted by beckkl
no indication of what is going to be deleted...  that sucks.

I am glad you like it, I have been very happy.

As for your quote above, you will be told what it to be deleted. A warning sign comes up next to programs when they are getting old. You have a choice to change the priority. Keep it longer or keep it forever.

There is no question that searching for a program is the weakest part of this. However, that has nothing to do with the DVR, that is just the digital search you get with TWC.

[summerfun]

Originally posted by borghe
finding shows to watch. Time Warner gives you no search ability whatsoever

I agree that the TWC search is very weak, but it does exist.

space. TWC SD comes with 40 hours and TWC HD comes with 20 hours. Neither box can be upgraded. DirecTivo comes with 35 hours but can be taken to 512 hours, and HD DirecTivo comes with 30 hours and can be taken to 77 hours.

At last post, the HD DVR will have 40 hours, but that really is of no consequence, I have never come close to that kind of storage. This is not designed to be a long term storage device, it is supposed to record your TV shows and movies so you can watch them later that week and then delete them

speed. TWC is noticeably slower than DirecTivo (which is already extremely slow)

Not exactly sure what you mean about speed. The system responds as fast as my fingers can hit the remote.

season pass flexibility and prioritization. if you have a lot of season passes, managing them with the TWC unit comes in a distant second.

The TWC priority list is as simple as could be. All season passes are listed in a column and you move them up or down the column as you set the priority.

wishlist recording/searching. want to record that movie with such and such in it but you just can't remember the name? Or you looked up the name and want to record it the minute it's on? TWC can't do it.

No question, TWC does not look up people in a movie. I wish that it did. Once you find a movie however, it will record it the minute it's on.

[beckkl]

You are quite correct, I found the hour glass letting me know how long a program will keep before deletion.  One question though, and I think I may know the answer , does the DVR know that it shouldn't record an episode of the show if is still on the Hard drive?  It recorded repeat episodes of West Wing today.  That is a feature that will quickly become a pain in the arse...

[summerfun]

When you set up your recording, you can say if you want "new and repeats" or just "new"

[borghe]

the units in beta with employees right now are 20 hour units. SA only has spec'ed out on there site 10 and 20 hour units. Also, the only way you could realease a 40 hour HD DVR is to release it with two 160GB drives as no single drive solution would give you 40 hours (biggest drive right now is 300GB which be 37.5 hours)

as for speed, particularly I am referring to changing channels. Everyone I have ever come across agrees (even TWC customers) that the DVR changes channels painfully slow.. most times taking up to multiple seconds.

searching I also forgot to mention that not only can't you search by title, but also searching by actor or director is also gone.

just clarifying.

Still, DVR is "mostly" secondary to the service you want. If you are really unhappy with so-and-so's service, a killer DVR likely isn't enough to keep you with them. Same if you are extremely happy with someone's service, someone else having a DVR that is 100 times better likely isn't enough to get you to change.

Hope you enjoy it.

[beckkl]

How does it classify something as new?  For instance, what if I want reruns of West Wing on Bravo, but not if the episode is already on the box..  "New" on Tivo means that the episode has never aired before....  I assume the TW box treats it the same?

[beckkl]

Thanks...

I do wish I could have kept TiVo, but I don't know what else I could do, save spending 1K on a HDTivo....  oh well.  Maybe I can return to greener pastures in the future.

One thing though, the 20 hrs on the HD TW box, that is assuming you are only recording HD content, right?  I would imagine that most of my content will still be SD...

[Doug Mohr]

Originally posted by beckkl
Yah, but the fact that I need a DVR complicates things...  Right now my bill is $42 pluss the $13 I pay for TiVo.  With the digital package it is $43 + $8 box +$5 for PVR.  Roughly the same amount.  Granted I am still in the same boat as I was before.  I figure I am trading the nice Tivo interface for the cruddy TW one, but at lease I can record 2 shows at once, and get a tad more recording time...

Hopefully the TW HD DVR will make everything better

Move to a MyHD Card, a good antenna and you will have as much HD contenet recording as disk space.

Doug

[beckkl]

Uh huh.  I nominate you to explain how to use it to my girlfriend. :p

[Doug Mohr]

Originally posted by beckkl
Uh huh.  I nominate you to explain how to use it to my girlfriend. :p

:bang:

I took a while to teach the wife. I started with the home automation. She hated it, until we stayed in a hotel and she had to get up to turn off the lights instead of using the remote, now she loves it.

I use MyHTPC as the front end for the entertainment system. She can use the remote to start MyHTPC (power button on remote), use the arrows to select "Play Music", "Play Movie", "Watch TV". It makes it quite easy.

Besides, If your girlfriend can't figure out how to use it, it may be a good reason to move on  (Just Kidding)

Doug

[summerfun]

Originally posted by beckkl
How does it classify something as new?  For instance, what if I want reruns of West Wing on Bravo, but not if the episode is already on the box..  "New" on Tivo means that the episode has never aired before....  I assume the TW box treats it the same?

TWC puts a New or Rerun flag on it's program guide. The DVR will use that flag to set your recording.

I have noticed that not all shows have the flag, so I don't bother. Besides, I may not have seen a show the first time and want to see the rerun.

I have found it best to let it record all episodes, new and rerun. Then if I have already seen it, with a click of a button, I delete it and it is gone. No big deal.

If it is a show that is being rerun endlessly on other networks like Simpsons and you only want to watch the main network, you can set it to only record that one channel, or only that one night or only a certain hour. You will need to play around a little to find out what works best for the shows you like. Each show can be set up differently.

[summerfun]

Originally posted by borghe
the units in beta with employees right now are 20 hour units.

I know Mhz40 said he was testing a 20 hour unit, but someone else on this board that a 40 hour was going to be released. Maybe they made a mistake.

as for speed, particularly I am referring to changing channels. Everyone I have ever come across agrees (even TWC customers) that the DVR changes channels painfully slow. most times taking up to multiple seconds.

Never had that problem. My DVR and my HD box both are fast in channel changes. Admittedly they are both slower than the analog signal I have going directly to my non digital TV sets, but not by much.

searching I also forgot to mention that not only can't you search by title, but also searching by actor or director is also gone.

As I said before, the TIVO has a much better search, but you can search with TWC by first letter of the title and by program type.