This guy seems to be having problems with HD service on Time Warner digital cable.
But from reading his post, and having my own experiences with Time Warner and HD, I think his problems fall under the category of “user error.”
When I wanted an HD box from Time Warner, I took my digital cable box to their local walk-in service/store location and asked for the HD box. They said, “do you have an HDTV?” Of course I said “yes.” They then took my old box and gave me a new one.
When I heard that the 8000HD (the DVR HD box) was becoming available, I called up TW and asked about it. They said it would be here in a few weeks (this was back in May or so). I actually heard about a week later at work that one of my co-workers had just picked up their HD DVR box for their living room. So naturally I went home on my lunch break, grabbed my box, and proceeded to the TW store to get it replaced. Keep in mind, the DirecTV Tivo box that everyone raves about costs $1000 and you have to pay extra for both the DVR subscription and an HD subscription. My box was free, as long as I pay the $5/month DVR subscription fee. There is no charge for HD content on Time Warner Cable.
I had absolutely no problems with my box. Now, it’s not perfect. It doesn’t always pick the right setting in regards to adapting 4:3 programs to my widescreen monitor. It also occasionally picks the wrong setting for 480p/1080i/pass-through mode. But most of the time it works fine – and changing that setting requires exactly two buttons on the remote (the “settings” button, which defaults to that option, and “right” to change the setting to where I want it).
The guy that I linked to above had the following problems:
1) No DVI output. This one I can’t really address since I haven’t used it myself. From what I’ve read, DVI is not enabled on the 8000HD boxes, for whatever reason. Some say it will be enabled in the future.
2) He complains “Time Warner has disabled the DVI output, the RF output and the S-Video output on the box.” That’s simply not the case. I’ve used the S-Video output on my box without any trouble. Of course, it helps if you read the manual or look at the Quick Setup card they give you. It very clearly states that you have to use the “Setup wizard” to correctly configure the outputs that you want enabled.
3) He says “The only way to get HD cable is with an RGB component video pigtail cable.” Anyone who knows anything about modern A/V equipment knows that virtually every HD monitor has Y/Pb/Pr component inputs. That is NOT RGB. I’m willing to bet his does as well. Y/Pb/Pr is what every progressive scan DVD player uses, the Xbox uses, and just in general IS the HDTV connectivity standard. Why he uses some obscure “RCA/RGB to D-Sub 15” cable is beyond me. And he wonders why his picture doesn’t look right.
4) He complains about his inability to control the volume output when using the Digital Audio connection. Of course, if he’d read the manual (or looked in the Settings menu) he’d see that there’s an option for “Fixed” or “Variable” digital audio output. Guess which one his is set to. Furthermore, who the heck wants to control their digital audio volume at the source? That’s what your receiver is for. That’s why “Fixed” is the default option, because that’s what everyone wants anyway.
5) He says “What's all of that digital noise, why does the picture stop and start? What are all of those artifacts?” Perhaps it has something to do with the horrendous cabling he opted to use? Maybe if he’d used the component video cables that TWC PROVIDES he wouldn’t have such a bad picture. As for the picture starting and stopping… that’s something I’ve never seen.
6) “Why does the box use gray letterboxing for 4:3?” Perhaps because he set the “letterboxing” option in the Settings menu to “grey?”
7) “If I thought that switching a digital cable channel was painful, just add the aspect radio adjustment for an extra two seconds to make the channel switch weigh in at an impressive 3.5 seconds per.” If he knew anything about digital cable, he’d know that a standard digital or HD digital box has no delay. The delay comes because of the DVR functionality, as it buffers its 1-hour recording cache. Every DVR setup I’ve seen has this slight delay. You tend to get used to it. Though it is something I’d hope they would improve in the future… there are limitations to how fast the hard drive can adapt.
“HDTV is not ready for prime time and it is certainly not something you need to rush out to buy. In fairness, I have seen other HD installs that look "right." But, TW cable does not fully control its bandwidth. The quality of your service depends on where you are and how many people share your feed. Remember, DVD's are not HD, most television is not HD. Without a true source of HD content shot in HD for HD, the viewer experience is truly sub-optimal.”
This is completely contrary to my experience. In my area (NY capital district), there are about 15 HD channels. Perhaps he doesn’t know about the 1800 range of channels (all HD). In my area they include HBO, Showtime, three for the four major local stations (the fourth has a “Coming soon” message – though I haven’t looked lately to see if it’s changed), and several others. I also thoroughly enjoy HD content in my Xbox games and on HD shows that I download and stream to the Xbox Media Center app on my modded Xbox. In addition to that, Progressive Scan for DVDs certainly looks very, very good.
Clearly, improvements need to be made to smooth the transition for first-time users. But this guy knows full well he’s venturing into newly charted territory… and what’s more, the convergence of two very new technologies (DVR and HD) and some hiccups are to be expected. The thing is, most of his problems could be solved by reading the manual and following the instructions provided with the hardware. And I think it’s unfortunate when he tries to give TWC and Scientific Atlanta a bad rap when, from what I’ve seen, they’ve done the best job at making these technologies accessible to the public. $1000 for a box is a pretty steep price tag for DirecTV. And Comcast charges for HD content. Their Motorola cable boxes are garbage with a laughable interface.
Voom is an interesting concept that I’ve not seen personally. But like DirecTV, it seems like too steep of a price and commitment for little return (*most* of the HD content they offer is also available on TWC).