TWC Box vs 8300

[PWFD81]

I am wondering if any of you know if TWC has a digital box that works well?  What I mean is, I just made the jump to TWC for the HD-DVR.  $1000 for the DTV one just wasn't going to happen.  After seven years with DirecTV I have left for TWC.  The thing I am noticing with the standard digital cable box is 1-100 on the analogs is kinda sucky.  Although, with the new 8300HD-DVR the 1-100 analogs look much better.  Still analog but with less grain.  Is thers a better box or do they only have one standard digital box?

Thanks for any feedback you may have!

Tim

[Paul S.]

I'm pretty sure those are the 2 best boxes they have.

[PWFD81]

it would be nice to have a little better digital only box.  oh, well, it's just on a bedroom set.  The others look great with the 8300 DVR

[Mark Strube]

They do have a scientific atlanta standard digital (HD) box... try to ask for it! I understand it's a bit of a pain to get, but if you bug them enough they'll get you one.  

[gyoung]

What is the best SD DVR box that TWC has?  

I recently hooked up the SA 8000HD to a projector that I have hoping that I could run it in SD mode to watch the 500+ channels in digital. When I went with this setup I had two problems.

1. Every time I turned the box off I had to change it back to SD mode when I turned it back on.

2. The 500+ channels would default to black bars on the top and grey bars on the sides.  I went into the box's settings and the options for output and zoom were not available.

Is this normal?  I will probably just go back to a regular DVR box, but I don't know which model is best.

[Mark Strube]

Good question! I'm curious of that myself! Do they offer the 8300 in SD?

However, the 8300HD would hook up with no problems to an SD set, since the standard res outputs are always active, and then you'd be getting the larger hard drive and access to some extra HD channels on top of it!

[summerfun]

Good question! I'm curious of that myself! Do they offer the 8300 in SD?

YES, I have the 8300 SD DVR. They gave it to me when my 8000 SD DVR failed.

[gyoung]

YES, I have the 8300 SD DVR. They gave it to me when my 8000 SD DVR failed.

Does your TV handle the zooming or do you let the cable box do that?  I have a standard 800x600 projector that I have been using that takes S-Video inputs.  I was using it with the Explorer 8000 DVR.  I recently moved the Explorer 8000HD DVR from my HDTV to this projector and replaced it with the 8300HD DVR.

The 8000HD DVR in SD mode won't stay in that mode and I get the bars as I described above.  Am I doing something wrong in the setup with the 8000HD DVR and the projector?

Thanks,

[kevbeck122]

Is the Pioneer 1100 the only non DVR SD box offered?  Analogs generally look fine to me on that box (the 1100), except sometimes channel 12 will get really bad during prime time.

[summerfun]

Does your TV handle the zooming or do you let the cable box do that?

There is no Zooming with the 8300 SD DVR becasue it is SD and my SDTV is 4:3. There are no HD channels or 16:9 programs on an 8300 SD DVR so no need for zooming.

[gyoung]

Ok, so you have an 8300SD DVR and are not running the 8300HD DVR in SD mode, correct?

I was hoping to use a HD DVR to be able to still get the local channels digitally.

[Mark Strube]

Ok, so you have an 8300SD DVR and are not running the 8300HD DVR in SD mode, correct?

I was hoping to use a HD DVR to be able to still get the local channels digitally.

The 8300HD is ALWAYS outputting in both SD and HD modes. The S-video, composite, and coax are always active (SD) along with the HDMI and component (HD).

Even if I didn't have an HDTV, I'd still opt for an 8300HD for the bigger hard drive (the SD has 80gb, correct?) and to get the extra HD channels.

[summerfun]

Ok, so you have an 8300SD DVR and are not running the 8300HD DVR in SD mode, correct?

I was hoping to use a HD DVR to be able to still get the local channels digitally.

Correct, I have both, the 8300HD on my HDTV and the 8300SD on my SDTV. The local channels will be digital on BOTH the 8300SD and the 8300HD.

[gyoung]

I guess I'm still confused.  My projector outputs in 4:3, so I would want to use the SD output from the cable box.  When i tried this with the SA 8000HD DVR it put black bars on the top and grey bars on the side.  Did I have something configured incorrectly?  Shouldn't it fill the entire screen on the 500+ channels?  On all the other channels 1-499 it filled the entire screen.  Or am I just missing something?

[summerfun]

I guess I'm still confused.  My projector outputs in 4:3, so I would want to use the SD output from the cable box.  When i tried this with the SA 8000HD DVR it put black bars on the top and grey bars on the side.  Did I have something configured incorrectly?  Shouldn't it fill the entire screen on the 500+ channels?  On all the other channels 1-499 it filled the entire screen.  Or am I just missing something?

You're not missing anything. Just for a test, I just went down stairs and put my 8300HD onto my SDTV. The 1-499 channels worked just fine in 4:3 just like you would expect. 500+ HD channels had the bar because you are trying to display a 16:9 signal onto a 4:3 screen. None of the box settings could make this go away. I would guess because the is an HD box and they are assuming you are putting this onto an HDTV. The settings only effect the HD output, not the composite, or S-video outputs. The fact that you're getting HD channels on an SDTV is just a side benefit, but it is not the design and not supported.

Mark Strube mentioned the benefit of having the HD box on an SDTV for having a larger hard drive and the EXTRA HD channels. This is a valid point if that is important to you, but you will have to live with the bars on them. ABC,CBS, FOX, ESPN all have simulcast SD channels, so there would be no need to watch them in HD on an SDTV, only the EXTRA HD channels that are not being broadcast on an SD channel.

Of course, this is assuming that the HD box does in fact have a larger hard drive. When the first SD DVR came out it had 40GB and the HD DVR had 80GB, but I'm not sure what they are putting into these new 8300 boxes.