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newsmark
join:2009-04-07
Irving, TX

newsmark to Joe Siegler

Member

to Joe Siegler

Re: [TWC] Dallas/Ft Worth Metro Vol II -- Time Warner

Hi, everyone. I've been reading for a while but I haven't posted in ages.

Does anyone use a Tivo with a cablecard and the Tuning Adaptor?

I had a TiVo (actually 2 of them) in the pre-HD days and loved them. Once I went HD, I went with 2 of Time Warner's HD-DVRs. But I've about had it with shows that don't record for no apparent reason, boxes that stop responding to remote commands for minutes at a time, illogical menus, counter-intuitive remotes and boxes that time out on HD/DSV channels, all for the low, low price of $40/month (for both boxes) ON TOP of the charge for digital cable, digital plus, etc.

So... to anyone who uses a TiVo with Cablecard and DTA on Time Warner...
1. Does it work overall?
2. Does the tuning adaptor work well 99% of the time?

I realize I'd be giving up On Demand capability (speaking of illogical menus), but the TiVo would give me easy Netflix or Amazon service.

MeInDallas
join:2001-08-17
Dallas, TX

MeInDallas

Member

I just went "Tivo free" as of January. Had been a long time customer and user of Tivo since back to 2001. Tivo's actually used to be really great. If you can get a used Tivo HD (TCD652160) model off Ebay then it should work really good for you, but the new Premiere models are horrible. The software is so sloppy and buggy. This past year I spent loads of money on Tivo's only to end up selling them all on Ebay at a loss.

The bad thing about Tivo is they are more concerned about all the little apps or bloatware that comes on the Tivo, like Netflix and Hulu, and they arent concerned with the basic reliability of the unit. Everytime an issue comes about, they always without fail, blame the cable company, even though you have narrowed it down to the Tivo unit. Their response always seems to be "Oh it cant be the Tivo" and it gets old so fast. Even after the cable company comes out and tests everything and even goes as far as to replace all the wiring in your house.

The one major bug I had such as issue with here in the Dallas area, was that there is some sort of conflict with the Tivo software and the cable card and tuning adapter. If you ever go to the Tivocommunity website we call it the "lost channel syndrome". What happens is you will be watching TV or recording shows or both, and all of a sudden you with get a frozen screen or a "splash" of pixelation across the screen, and then it goes blank. At that point you cant tune any channels and you get a message on the Tivo that you need to contact the cable company because the channel is not authorized, or it just says "channel not found" on all the channels. The only way to fix it is to just reboot the Tivo which takes about 8 minutes. You usually end up with a bunch of partial recordings. Now this can happen every few hours, or as soon as every 5 minutes. It gets extremely annoying when trying to watch primetime TV and youre missing all your shows. Since January of 2012 Tivo acted like they had no clue why this was happening and they sent me new boxes several times, and then after a few months they just started blaming the cable over and over, and then left me out to dry. Finally around October Tivo announces they know about the issue and admits there is a problem and they are "looking into it" but theres still no fix for it. The 4 tuner Tivo's, run far far away from them and dont ever look back. One thing I hate about Tivo is they only release major updates like 2 or 3 times a year if youre lucky. Its not like a Windows PC and you get updates all the time.

Needless to say I got so sick of it and cancelled all my Tivos the end of the year. Back in November I had heard about the Ceton 4 tuner cards and built my first HTPC. Now this is what Tivo wishes it was, and is everything Tivo always wanted to be. These things work like a dream here in the Dallas area, and I never miss any of my shows, and everything records exactly like it should. You know what the best thing about building an HTPC with a Ceton card? No monthly subscription fees NONE! They work like a dream with the cable card and tuning adapter as well. Also Ceton is soon to be coming out with a new 6 tuner card. When, I dont know but it is being talked about and its in the beta stages. I really do love my HTPC with the Ceton card and the picture quality is just amazing.

I used to be such a huge fan of Tivo, but now when I hear their name or see someone talk about them, I really seriously want to go throw up after all I went thru with them. It is really a horror story, and if you live in the Dallas area, and are on Time Warner cable, all I can tell you is stay away stay away and run the other way as fast as you can. Now if you ask me about Ceton, I'll sit here and sing like a canary all day long the most beautiful music you ever heard.

I'm sure someone will come in behind me and say the exact opposite, because Tivo fans are hardcore and they hate to hear someone knock their boxes, but when I see someone about to bite the Tivo bullet, and get sucked in and about to go thru the worst horror of their lives, I really have to speak up. All I can say is run the other way and look at other options.
MeInDallas

MeInDallas to newsmark

Member

to newsmark
Oh and you can get Netflix on an HTPC

PamelaTS
Digital Chick
join:2004-04-20
Dallas, TX
Asus RT-AC66
HTC 5G Hub

PamelaTS to newsmark

Member

to newsmark
said by newsmark:

Hi, everyone. I've been reading for a while but I haven't posted in ages.

Does anyone use a Tivo with a cablecard and the Tuning Adaptor?

I had a TiVo (actually 2 of them) in the pre-HD days and loved them. Once I went HD, I went with 2 of Time Warner's HD-DVRs. But I've about had it with shows that don't record for no apparent reason, boxes that stop responding to remote commands for minutes at a time, illogical menus, counter-intuitive remotes and boxes that time out on HD/DSV channels, all for the low, low price of $40/month (for both boxes) ON TOP of the charge for digital cable, digital plus, etc.

So... to anyone who uses a TiVo with Cablecard and DTA on Time Warner...
1. Does it work overall?
2. Does the tuning adaptor work well 99% of the time?

I realize I'd be giving up On Demand capability (speaking of illogical menus), but the TiVo would give me easy Netflix or Amazon service.

Luv my TiVo Premiere's have two of them the latest 20.2.2 added more HD menu's (Season Pass Manager, History, To Do) Additions to Now Playing List include the (other TiVo Premieres list now in HD) Streaming Copy protected programs that can't be transferred.

I had a lot of tuning adapter failures, it took 7 months to get a stable signal to the Tuning Adapter and 4 devices (tuning adapters) failed. Two months stable I added the second, the tuning adapter they shipped was DOA out of the box, the one on the truck that rolled was DOA. They rushed another out while tech was here and it worked.

The only issue is occasionally switched channels don't record because they turned it off and TiVo thinks it's still on. This happens on channels that I essentially watch all the time so the tuner is already there (parked so to speak). TiVo thinking it's still tuned because a signal wasn't properly passed to it that they turned it off records nothing. This doesn't happen often but it does, and yes it is frustrating when it does. Usually on MSNBC so that program will repeat just have to change the channel and change it back.

I have two and luv them $2.50 for a cable card v what they charge for a box. Keeping my TiVo's (1 lifetime the other is a multi discounted monthly)

Pick up the Premiere at Best Buy and get the 4 year ex-warranty it's twice TiVo's and price per year lower in cost.

I have never had a TiVo box fail my first experience with TiVo was with DirecTV many years ago. When I switched to the DirecTV HD DVR it was a mess at first. It finally became a stable device the Premiere's are already stable and getting better.

BTW Yes they do 3D I have a few videos I downloaded off my DirecTV DVR's in 3D and they stream to my TiVo's just fine it's TWC and the tuning adapters that have the issue with 3D. They (TWC) want to rape you for their box lease to deliver 3D
newsmark
join:2009-04-07
Irving, TX

newsmark

Member

Thanks, MeinDallas and PamelaTS. I'm going to put some more thought into this before I make a change.

It seems the bigger problem is with Time Warner. Their equipment sucks, but their system doesn't play well with others.

I ran into the same sort of problem in the pre-HD days.

MeInDallas
join:2001-08-17
Dallas, TX

MeInDallas

Member

said by newsmark:

Thanks, MeinDallas and PamelaTS. I'm going to put some more thought into this before I make a change.

It seems the bigger problem is with Time Warner. Their equipment sucks, but their system doesn't play well with others.

I ran into the same sort of problem in the pre-HD days.

Have you tried one of these DCX3510M models yet? They are a bit hard to find, but I know the office over here in Mesquite on Gross Road has a huge stack of them. The main office over on Chenault off Buckner Blvd has them in the back, but you have to ask them to go get you one, and if you get one of the nicer ladies they will go do it. I've got 2 of them now and they run much better than the older models. It's a lot smaller as well, and has an external power supply like a laptop, and also has a 500GB hard drive. It has 640MB of memory as well which surprised me. I think they run a lot better, and I've used every model Time Warner has out there now. You might get lucky and get a new one. When I picked these up they hadnt been used before. Thats one thing I never understood about TWC. They always keep the good new stuff on the side and keep handing out the old boxes unless you ask for one of the new ones.