US Cable Support > Mediacom > [IA] DVR/HD Box Question

[IA] DVR/HD Box Question

Stop by your local office and see if they have this:
»www.pace.com/universal/support/p···x-aspen/
It's got a 250GB HDD, and is about half the physical size. Your current DVR has a 160GB HDD. If they have the above ask them to hold one and then you'll need to drive home, get your old DVR and take it down to the office and swap it, which they should do for you. Does the display work in your current box?

as far as I know the display works fine.

reply to wth
also I forgot to ask, will it cost more to get that 250GB HDD pace DVR box?

reply to EddieT
Good luck...just be careful if you end up with one of the really small Pace boxes that has to be used in conjunction with an external, eSATA, drive. The first DVR I had was one of those, and I had a lot of trouble with it. Of course, part of the trouble was the fact that the specific Pace box I was given had a SATA port that wouldn't allow for the cable to properly seat into it so it would come loose, this caused my DVR to stop working a good bit and then have to be reformatted. A second tech after my initial install told me the box I was first given was a specific Pace box that they shouldn't use with the eSATA due to the port not allowing the cable to seat correctly. However, another friend of mine got a Pace with the external drive, and has had trouble as well.

So if the box is very small I just need to make sure it comes with the external eSATA?

Yes, a really small Pace box will most likely come with an eSATA external HDD.....The box I had that used and external drive was a Pace DC700X. The people at the office will know to include a drive, or should, anyway.

I also intended my comment as kind of a warning that they have been known to be problematic. Although, I have been told that the only way to get a larger capacity is to accept a box with an external drive. The external drive I had with the Pace was a 500GB WD Mybook AV, and the Motorola DVR I had to get after they took it back was a Motorola with only 160GB, although it worked better. I ultimately ended up going with TiVo after this.

I like to go with a tvio as well, but there not cheap.

If at all possible try to get a Motorola DCT. DO NOT get Pace DCTs with external hard drives! They are junk! After the recent firmware update there have been many problems.

- it is really hard to get the DCT and the HDD paired
- if you get an older version of the HDD (not the glossy black one) it will not work
- random channels will go to black screen after the HDD is connected
- some DCTs will start re-booting for no reason many times a day

We have had numerous trouble calls and a simple DCT swap should not take 90 minutes! Yup it's that bad.

Get a real DCT, get a Motorola DVR.

PS Pace equipment is the cheapest junk you can buy and sadly a lot of cable cos are buying it since they only care about the bottom line and not customer satisfaction.
--
I speak for myself, not my employer.

reply to EddieT
I have the same model, I'm, a firm believer in style. Has the looks of a a chunk of led, and style of a brick.

reply to Anonymous

reply to EddieT
I would invite you to check TiVo's prices again, if you haven't in a while. I have one that records up to 75hours of HD and it was only $149.99 plus tax back in March. I have enjoyed it so far, I haven't really missed having access to InDemand as much as I thought I might. The really expensive TiVo's are the Premiere XL4's, with 4 tuners and 300 hours of recording of HD, those are $399. You may still be able to find some of the old TiVo Premieres at best buy for $99 or maybe $79, but they only have 40 hours of HD, still not too bad. They have also dropped their monthly service to 14.99 per month although you still need to rent a cable card from Mediacom for 1.99 per month. This is still more than what you pay Mediacom, but I feel it has been worth it for really great DVR functions.

reply to EddieT
Would it kill the industry just to sell the box and just charge a upgrade fee here and there?

So if I understand right the small black pace boxes are buggy? And I think I had Motoraola but that wasn't good either. I only really want a smaller box as the big pace silver box is just a huge monster.