Charter DVR

[RobbieNelson]

I'm having a Charter DVR installed tomorrow. I'll let you know how I like it. Three months for 9.99(9.99/month thereafter), free install and no contract. I couldn't pass it up.

Davis, You'll have to come over and give me your oppinions.... and you can show off the new "little one." My wife would love to see her. So, you'll have to load up the mini-van and come on over sometime soon. :)

[Davis Silver Sti]

I'm having a Charter DVR installed tomorrow. I'll let you know how I like it. Three months for 9.99(9.99/month thereafter), free install and no contract. I couldn't pass it up.

Davis, You'll have to come over and give me your oppinions.... and you can show off the new "little one." My wife would love to see her. So, you'll have to load up the mini-van and come on over sometime soon. :)

Cool!

Sounds like more and more cable companies are getting into this DVR thing, which is good. It will probably be alot like TIVO. Would be interesting what the video compression will be compared to Tivo. (can't remember Tivo's compression off the top of me head)

You got a good deal on the DVR!! wonder how many hrs it holds? FYI, my Tivo has about a 30 hr HD...I've rarely only hit the max capacity. Some people have 60-120 hrHD's...for some reason I don't know why. My 30 hrs is enough to hold plenty of kids programs, WRC, F1 and all the wifey programs. (days of our lives etc..)

Are you going to have your DVR thru your big TV?? If you do, you may want to look for a line doubler as the video complression may not be good enough to have a decent quality picture. My DirectTivo is on a 27' TV and it does fine.

Later on I plan on getting the DirecTV Tivo Hi-Def which can output true 720p/great picture quality which would be necessary in the HT room for the 106 inch screen :D

Nevertheless, I know you are going to like the DVR...your wife will actually REALLY like it. I've told you before, my wife is NOT a tech person, but after 10 mins with the TIVO she was crazy for it.

Yea, will have to get the family together here sometime. Kids would love to play around.

Cheers,

[RobbieNelson]

wonder how many hrs it holds?

80GB HD 30-50Hrs depending on analog of digital channel

Are you going to have your DVR thru your big TV??

No, we do most broadcast TV watching on the living room 27" set. That's where the DVR will be... for now anyway. :twisted:

[Feedman]

Wow....I may have to look into that. Sounds like a nice unit. I want to come over and take a gander.

Would be nice to see a 1080i Dvr unit come out....(holds breath) 8)

[wv^clipse]

i thought about charter dvr.. but the bastids!.. i got crappy cable service here.. i dont know if its interior lines, thier crap or what..

never the less.. this is what i've been looking into..

http://www.mythtv.org/modules.php?name=MythInfo

[RobbieNelson]

Review:

Quality of picture: I'm highly impressed. On my 27" TV I'm honestly not sure if I could tell the difference.

Usability: The interface is very easy to use but I think it caters to the non-technical peeps. You can't have it record all show staring Ali Landry... sup-wit-dat? Pause, play, 3-speed FF and Rew, all work great. It starts recording any show you tune to and temporaraly stores it so you can rewind to the place you started watching.

Gripes:

You can't set it to record JUST the latest episode of a show. The minimum on recording the latest episodes is to save 2 episodes. That is DUMB! I want to curse the Charter programing hacks up and down because of that!

In recording the latest TWO episodes it can tell if ones a replay. Example... I have two copies of the Hockenheimring race on it right now. One from the morning showing and one from the night showing. DUMB!

Gripe bound to come from true race fans: It seems that it only looks at the "guide" when recording the "latest episode". The guide lists most races on SPEED as "Auto Racing". Wanna record the latest TWO episodes of SPEED World Touring GT, you'll get it untill the USAR Hooters Pro Cup race comes on at 2AM and records over it. So I have to set the minimun latest Auto Races to FIVE just so the thing dosen't record over the races I care about.

I estimate those couple of gripes cut the record time of the box in HALF. I've already filled it up. :?

If they take care of those few but terrible problems, it'd be a very good system.

[Davis Silver Sti]

Review:

Quality of picture: I'm highly impressed. On my 27" TV I'm honestly not sure if I could tell the difference.

Usability: The interface is very easy to use but I think it caters to the non-technical peeps. You can't have it record all show staring Ali Landry... sup-wit-dat? Pause, play, 3-speed FF and Rew, all work great. It starts recording any show you tune to and temporaraly stores it so you can rewind to the place you started watching.

Gripes:

You can't set it to record JUST the latest episode of a show. The minimum on recording the latest episodes is to save 2 episodes. That is DUMB! I want to curse the Charter programing hacks up and down because of that!

In recording the latest TWO episodes it can tell if ones a replay. Example... I have two copies of the Hockenheimring race on it right now. One from the morning showing and one from the night showing. DUMB!

Gripe bound to come from true race fans: It seems that it only looks at the "guide" when recording the "latest episode". The guide lists most races on SPEED as "Auto Racing". Wanna record the latest TWO episodes of SPEED World Touring GT, you'll get it untill the USAR Hooters Pro Cup race comes on at 2AM and records over it. So I have to set the minimun latest Auto Races to FIVE just so the thing dosen't record over the races I care about.

I estimate those couple of gripes cut the record time of the box in HALF. I've already filled it up. :?

If they take care of those few but terrible problems, it'd be a very good system.

My Tivo seems to be rather simliar to yours.

"Season Pass" on TIVO is the ability to auto record any show you want that you told it to in the beginning of the season or whenever. Indeed it does use the TV guide for that programming info. SPEED TV (and SpeedVision before) has long had "Auto Racing" in the guide to describe many various types of auto racing...F1, WRC, hoosier dirt track etc..
Just a few months ago the guide changed and it will now display "F1 Racing or FIA F1". So it can now do a true season pass and I do not have to manually set it.
Believe it or not, its not Speed's fault, nort Tivo/charter, nor FOX...its an independent 3rd party company that sets up the guides. (bunch of info and rants on the net bout it) From what I've read its some big deal to try to change it. Oh well...

Hint: See if you can do a Wish List. This is a way you can have the DVR to record programs that have key words that you have entered.

Example, I put: WRC, FIA, Rally, ICE racing, GT touring (for the Speed series) in my wishlist and it will auto-record anything that comes up with that in the guide title AND show description which is the important part.

However, it still isn't perfect with WRC. I still go in and manually check and see that it will record (to do list) so I do not miss a single pebble of gravel on WRC weekends.

Cliff notes for the non DVR guys:

Get a DVR. If you are a sports fan, racing fan, cartoon fan, reality show fan, mini-series fan or watch TV a little you will not be disappointed. Actually Discovery channel and TLC has a ton of great shows that seem to come on later at night or during the work hours. DVR makes it possible to watch YOUR shows whenever you want.

Sorry to make a short story long :lol:

[C_Note]

Charter called me while I was in Raleigh, asking if they could give me a 3 month trial for free. They'll be here Thursday to install.

[RobbieNelson]

Review:

Gripes:

You can't set it to record JUST the latest episode of a show. The minimum on recording the latest episodes is to save 2 episodes. That is DUMB! I want to curse the Charter programing hacks up and down because of that!


This has been fixed with the latest firmware. I can now save just the latest episode... just one(1). I'm all smiles! :D

[C_Note]

I haven't had a chance to use mine, yet, since Erica has the dang thing booked up every night...

[kmfdmk]

You guys need to start ripping TV to TiVo/DVR, compress it and burn it to a VOB file and then make DVD's outta it. NOW THAT is the pentultimate in home theatre. Especially if you start out with HDTV digi quality.

[Davis Silver Sti]

You guys need to start ripping TV to TiVo/DVR, compress it and burn it to a VOB file and then make DVD's outta it. NOW THAT is the pentultimate in home theatre. Especially if you start out with HDTV digi quality.

I agree, that would be the killer setup. What are you using to rip the program off Tivo and burn to DVD? VOB file? I'm not familiar with that one.

[kmfdmk]

http://dvd.box.sk/

*points* Everything you'd ever want or need is there.

I'm sure it's possible to rip to DVR convert the video to a DVD compatible format and then burn it down to DVD+/-R. I don't have cable or satellite nor a TiVo or DVR however I know it would be possible. But it'd be best to have a fast machine with 1GB+ ram.

Personally I'd simply setup a PC Tuner card (Not sure if they have HDTV PC Tuner cards yet) and rip the video / audio via the S-Video inputs.