more re: Netflix and the sinking cost of home electronics

[passatdoc]

I called Cox cable and told them I didn't want the DVR box. Made too much heat even when off, so it was burning a lot of electricity even in idle mode. I had attached the cable directly to the set and got good HD over-the-air channels, but no HD cable channels.The sales rep convinced me to try one of their HD tuner boxes, which are small, light, and do not burn a lot of power in idle mode.

 

They shipped me the new HD tuner and gave me 10 days to return the DVR box.....there are several stores nearby (one sells appliances, the other is a Mail Boxes Etc store with a contract to accept returned cable boxes). Well, the HD tuner never activated and the tech on the phone said it was a defective tuner. So on Saturday I returned BOTH boxes to the appliance store that has a Cox desk/service center in the back of the store.

 

At this point, I was prepared to just keep the cable plugged into the tv and forget about boxes. However, I learned that my service costs $54 (basic 98 channels plus about 60 HD channels, many of which are the same programming as the basic 98 but in HD, e.g. Animal Planet and Animal Planet HD). However, I was surprised to learn that the tuner rental was only $7.50/month. I think they reduced it from $15/month, or maybe $15/month was for a DVR box with the recording function activated (my box had a deactivated recorder). I have a feeling they lowered their tuner rental prices, because they now face competition from ATT (offers a bundled cable/internet/phone service) and satellite dish companies like DirectTV.

 

Cox offered to ship me a second tuner and it should arrive today. The tech on the phone said there was a possibility I had something wrong with my cable, but since it works perfectly when plugged directly into the tv, he said more likely the tuner box was defective. If this second box doesn't activate easily, it will require a visit from a service technician. I don't know whether that is free or if they charge, but the main issue would be finding time to be home for a service call, unless it was a Saturday. I don't need HD <span style="text-decoration: underline;">that </span>much.

 

[retropia]

Before we had DirecTV with HD, we had Time Warner. Their DVR boxes were reasonable at $7 a month, but boy, were they cheaply made. They had no cooling fan inside, and the hard drive inside would fail due to heat at fairly regular intervals. They replaced the DVR at no additional charge to us, but of course we lost whatever shows were recorded on the DVR.

So far, the DirecTV HD box/DVR seems to be more durable, but we're recording shows on a standalone Western Digital external hard drive (connected to the DirecTV box), as I'm hoping that will survive the longest.

 

[whirlcool]

I won't go into the complex story, but DirecTV gave us a DVR box for free and two years worth of the DVR programming for free. I told them to ship it to me and they said they couldn't because "some codes have to be entered that only our techs know."
So the guy came out and found out that my dish was wrong and so was the house television wiring. So he installed an entire new system.
The next month I received my bill. They charged me $139.95 for the install. I told them that I wouldn't have accepted the box had I known I had to pay that much. They wouldn't budge. They said either pay it or terminate service.
Well, at least I didn't have to pay the $189.95 for the DVR box!

 

[mark_wpduet]

directv

You have to watch them! I use the directv visa rewards card for EVERYTHING and pay it off each month. I accumulate so many points that I get about 50 dollars off my Directv bill each month. That's why I use the card. I had to call them a couple of times because my points didn't get submitted.

And

Speaking of electronics. I just bought this Panasonic Blu-ray player. As weird as this sounds, the thing I like MOST about it is the Youtube app on it that actually allows you to log into your Youtube acct and access your favorites AND playlists. What's cool to me about the playlist is that I can go to youtube and add as many vids as I want to a playlist and start watching via the blu ray player and it doesn't limit the amount of vids in your playlist like some youtube blu ray apps do. It's wireless and it hasn't dropped signal and I've noticed no buffering. I actually fell asleep in the bedroom watching a playlist and woke up seven hours later and the playlist was still playing. I think I put like 100 vids on there or something. Watching a youtube video full screen wasn't as bad as I thought. The quality was decent, depending on the video.

 

[mattl]

<blockquote>
So far, the DirecTV HD box/DVR seems to be more durable, but we're recording shows on a standalone Western Digital external hard drive (connected to the DirecTV box), as I'm hoping that will survive the longest.

 

</blockquote>
It's really a crap shoot.  I have HR20 boxes humming along with original drives and others where I popped a new hard drive in.  You are aware that if the box fails even with an external drive all is lost -right?

 

all my HR2x units are owned so I just open them and pop a new drive in if it's too small or failing, I've only came across one box with a good HD but a failing unit, unfortunate it had my 2T drive in it and all my planned summer viewing was lost, and not due to an hd failure.

 

[retropia]

Yes, I know that DirecTV says that the external hard drive is somehow tied to the main DVR/HD box. I'm hoping that since we're using the external to actually do the recording, it will put less stress on the DVR/HD box and make it last longer.

We're actually on our third DirecTV DVR on the primary TV, and none have failed. We started with a TIVO; that one went to a bedroom TV when we got the first HD DVR. That one never completely failed but over time it started acting up, so we replaced it with a new one about a year ago.

I've replaced hard drives in computers before but have never attempted replacing one in a DVR. How do you load the original software onto a new drive in the DVR?

 

[mattl]

You don't.  The unit will simply format the drive and you are good to go.   The firmware is on flash memory built into the unit.  Also, it's moderately easy to move the content of one drive to a larger drive and save the content -as long as it goes back into the same machine.  Also helps if you notice your hard drive going if you get to it early enough you can save your recordings.