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Post by Hankster on Sept 22, 2004 13:21:03 GMT -5
Skaggs,
They did not supply me with no type of HDMI cable.
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Post by Skaggs on Sept 22, 2004 13:25:59 GMT -5
Can you buy a cable that has HDMI on one end and DVI on the other, or do you need a converter for the one end. I already have a DVI cable. There are many places to buy such a cable. Here's one: www.pacificcable.com/Picture_Page.asp?DataName=HDMIDVI-2I also found one on eBay for $20. |
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Post by Sregnar35 on Sept 22, 2004 13:33:40 GMT -5
Alright cool, if anyone can confirm that the HDMI on the 8300HD works, please post here.
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Post by OldMatador on Sept 22, 2004 14:00:47 GMT -5
I'm still concerned with picture cropping. Is picture cropping still occuring in HD?
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Post by Hankster on Sept 22, 2004 14:19:59 GMT -5
Skaggs,
If you need a HDMI to DVI cable might I suggest you try Towne TV on Carmen Rd. They carry Monster, Audioquest and IXOS cables. I've been dealing with the guys there for 10yrs.
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Post by Hankster on Sept 22, 2004 14:25:49 GMT -5
I'm still concerned with picture cropping. Is picture cropping still occuring in HD? On ESPN the side boxes that say HD are still cut off. I don't know what causes this. My display has its overscan set to 3% on all sides. I think the cropping is ESPN. I have no other cropping problems when I'm viewing HD. |
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Post by Sregnar35 on Sept 22, 2004 14:33:35 GMT -5
If you want to see how bad channels view, bring up an hd channel and look at the edges, make a mental note of the cutoff, then press guide and when you get the small screen on the guide menu, you can see how big the pic should be. My tv does this on every channel, hd or not hd, stretched or not stretched, EVERY CHANNEL, it sucks!
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Post by OldMatador on Sept 23, 2004 8:48:16 GMT -5
On ESPN the side boxes that say HD are still cut off. I don't know what causes this. My display has its overscan set to 3% on all sides. I think the cropping is ESPN. I have no other cropping problems when I'm viewing HD. It's most definitely not ESPN, and it's not my TV. I was at Best Buy in Albany the other day, and they had PTI on. The HD bars were clearly visible and had the HD in full view on each side. The box is cropping pictures on HD and non-HD channels, and it's a problem that needs to be addressed by the firmware in the box. It's gotta be a problem with 1080i, because when I change the box to output 480i, the 4:3 aspect ratio is correct. |
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Post by Sregnar35 on Sept 23, 2004 10:45:26 GMT -5
OldMatador is exactly right, I've seen the overstretch on different tv's and different TWC boxes, in different houses and they all overstretch.
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Post by Skaggs on Sept 23, 2004 12:16:44 GMT -5
I ordered a HDMI cable yesterday on eBay for $25. Once I have it, I'd like to go pick up the 8300HD DVR at the Rotterdam TWC.
However, I have a dilemma...I have to watch all the programs stored on the 8000HD DVR first. I don't know if I'll ever catch up.
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Post by Sregnar35 on Sept 23, 2004 12:19:24 GMT -5
So can you confirm that the HDMI will work on the new 8300HD, because if so I'll go buy HDMI to DVI adapter and get the new box
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Post by hurnik on Sept 23, 2004 19:08:09 GMT -5
Any chance we can get TW Albany to switch from the crappy SARA software to the very awesome Pioneer PACE software? From what I can tell on the AVSforums, the Pioneer software is about 90% feature parity with Tivo vs. SARA's 10%. I envy the people that send the screenshots of what the Pioneer software can do that the SARA cannot (and yes, they both run on the SA boxes). I own two Series 2 Tivo's and I can assure you that SARA is nothing "like" a Tivo (got that stupid TW flyer that claimed it's like a Tivo). Ha! --Kevin As reported by cdp1276 at RochesterHDTV.com: I had my meeting with TWC today concerning the 8300 DVR. I will try and log a summary of the current issues here for everyone's knowledge. 1) There is a guide issue that causes programs scheduled to record to NOT record and be missed as well as future days guide data not present. For that matter some scheduled all episodes of new episodes on this channel programs just disappear without you deleting them from the queue. Corporate TWC has raised this issue for resolution above SA and has the highest priority. 2) Box crashes are being looked into and they have my logs and information of what I was doing to cause it (same issue as mark r reported as well). In fact all box crashes are reported on a monthly basis to SA and if they fall below a certain level SA pays TWC a rebate. This forces these types of issues to also get high attention. 3.) My box blacking out on HD channels (rarely) might be a cable issue TWC says. I'm not accepting that but if it happens again, I will try a TWC approved cable. If it then happens with their cable they will further investigate with SA, but she also told me it could be my brand new Sony Plasma DVI connection. They recently had one with the non DVR box where a customer had one DVI Pin on a Panasonic plasma that wasn't soldered to the board. 4.) The Maxter DiamondMax Plus 9 SATA-150 160GB drive is the main one being looked at to be the first approved. The SATA port on the back is active and is 100% SATA compliant she says. She will get me more information on the roll-out of external drives soon. 5.) I had bookmark issues (stopping a recorded show to resume watching from that point later) not resuming where you stopped but rather at the beginning. I was told this is working and you have only one bookmark currently. So if you have multiple people in the house that stop two playbacks of shows it will only keep that point of the most recent. This is suppose to be improved soon as they deploy the multi-room version. Also as note if your box reboots, it loses the bookmarked location. 6.) I raised the volume issue and it was reported that this is the programming channel, not the box or TWC. If someone has specific data on this I would be happy to let them know for you. I think that is about all for now... |
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Post by Skaggs on Sept 24, 2004 16:22:04 GMT -5
I picked up my 8300HD DVR this afternoon at Rotterdam TWC, in anticipation of receiving my HDMI cable tomorrow. Here's some photos of the front & back: NOTE: bigger photos can be seen on the cable box user guides page.    |
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Post by Craig H on Sept 26, 2004 8:40:22 GMT -5
Initial impressions (now that we have service back after 36 hrs off!):
1) The HD picture seems much sharper!
2) The pass-through function is very useful.
3) Having the box power-on to the last viewed station is a help.
A significant upgrade over the 8000 - get one as soon as you can!
CH
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Post by Skaggs on Sept 26, 2004 15:38:56 GMT -5
Got my HDMI to DVI cable Saturday and hooked it up to my HDTV and 8300HD DVR this afternoon. (I have a Toshiba 57H83 HDTV) However...black screen on my HDTV. So, I called TWC and spoke to a female CSR who had no clue.  I asked her if the HDMI port was enabled on the 8300HD DVR's and she said, "Hold on..." and put me on hold for a few minutes. When she came back on the line, she said, "The DVI port is not active yet." I said, "I don't have a DVI port. I was talking about the HDMI port on the 8300." She said, "Hold on..." As she was about to put me on hold, I said, "Can I speak to someone else instead of using you as the middle man?" Again, she said "Hold on..." and put me on hold. A few minutes later, a person by the name of Brian was on the line explaining that the HDMI port is not active yet. He went on to say that it may work with some TV's but not all of them. He said the only box they have the DVI port active is the 3250, and there are still some "bugs" with the DVI port on that box. Brian said that the port will be active "soon".  |
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I asked her if the HDMI port was enabled on the 8300HD DVR's and she said, "Hold on..." and put me on hold for a few minutes.