Is 3250HD Best TWC HD box??

[George99]

My Pioneer 3500HD was starting to freeze at times, so I took it to local TWC office in Cedarburg and TWC swapped my Pioneer 3500HD for a SA HD3250  But I'm not pleased with  the HD3250 for these reasons.

1. SD picture quality not as good. Blacks crushed. HD is okay.

2. SD picture is noisy with component connectors, not as bad with
     s-video connector.

3. Cannot adjust amount of time the menu is on screen. It was adjustable
     with 3500.

4. Cannot search "favorites" with menu on. When you hit favorites the
     menu disappears.

5.  Takes more time to lock on HD when switching channels.

6. Picture is sometimes blank when switching favorites. Must hit menu to get pix.

They didn't supply a manual but I downloaded one from SA site. They don't address these issues.

Can anyone tell me if TWC has a better box? (I don't want a HD recorder).

George

[kevbeck122]

Try the Pace DC551.. it's hard to find, but the best box IMO.

[Den Mayer]

I've been using a TWC SA-3250-HD in GBay for 2 plus years now

 CONNECTED via a DVI Cable to a 34" Sony CRT HDTV....

  Using the DVI video pass thru cable lets the SONY set do all the

  picture Processing work.....   Both Analog & HD picts are fine......

  For Pict and Pict, the RF cable Cable in port must also be used for Analog....

  The Pict is normally small enough I don't notice video degradation..

  NOTE:   The SA-3250-HD 'MUST' be menu programmed for all 6,

      or 5 of 6 processing Options to be active:    1080i, (720p?), 480p,

      480p wide, 480i, & 480i wide...  while using the DVI out port!

  I believe the Sony has better picture processing guts than the SA3250HD.

[George99]

Two additional problems have cropped up with this SA 3250HD box.

1. Box freezes (sometimes) when updating information for program search. Says its downloading, but this message stays on screen forever. Only way to fix it is to pull wall plug.

2.  When going from HD 1080i or 480i picture mode (i.e. changing channels) to 720p, the box (sometimes) goes to stretch mode and overscans the 720p picture. This is strange as I didn't think it was possible for HD to do this.. Its especially weird as the picture is stretched horizontally ( making people fatter) in the720p mode.  My TV is not the problem and has never exhibited this problem with Pioneer HD box. TV is 37 inch Aquos LCD 16 x 9 flat panel. In fact there is no stretch mode for HD with the Aquos TV.  True 720p is achieved by switching back and forth a few times until the box works right.

Are these problems typical with this box? What other HD boxes are available from TWC?

George

[Mark Strube]

When the guide "freezes" trying to load future days, does it literally freeze? Or are you able to exit the guide? If you're able to exit, this is a common issue, I usually just try again a little later and it loads just fine.

When the picture stretches out, try hitting the "SOURCE" button on your remote which switches zoom and stretch modes, and get it back to the "Normal" setting. If it says your TV type is 4:3, go into the settings and set it for 16:9.

[George99]

When the box freezes thats it. No other button or anything I can think of will bring it back to life. Must unplug it from wall to reset it.

Pressing the video source button on remote only switches box to bypass....... nothing else. There are no buttons on remote that will allow change to stretch or zoom.  The Pioneer box remote had them and more features.

The blacks are crushed so much on analog and digital channels that I need to set my brightness control to max in my Aquos hdtv.  Then when I switch to hd channel must readjust brightness.  Finally put analog on s-video to hdtv and now switch inputs to tv to select between hdtv and analog/digital. Picture is actually better with analog on s-video than component.

Sent a email to TWC describing the problems. Wonder if I will get a reply today.

George

[jkscherk]

Den Mayer,

How were you able to get the multiple resolutions via DVI?  Here in SE WI, it says that only 480i is available in the setup screen and TWC told me that the DVI output isn't even active.

[Den Mayer]

I just retried the SA-3250-HD 6 mode set up menu for my SONY 34HS510

     here in GBay, WI. with a DVI CAble installed.

    Buy/install a DVI Cable (pretty sure this is REQD to set up 6 mode 3250-HD?)
      Running both a Component & DVI Cable will not work......

   Power up HDTV only!

  Press simutaneously INFO & GUIDE buttons on 3250-HD remote or box.

  Press yellow A triangular button

  Press blue square button

  Press blue square 16:9 button

  Press yellow A triangular button (gets advanced 6 option)

      activate your 5 of 6 resolutions OR 6 of 6 options via the green dot

   Close menu 3250-HD menu via the EXIT buttion


     Power up SA-3250-HD...........     Watch HDTV via DVI Cable....

  Since I believe that my Sony HDTV processes a TV signal better
    than the SA-3250-HD,  I use the DVI Cable to force Sony Processing.