Just Ordered Cox HD DVR

[Shawn95GT]

Cox offered absolutely zero incentive to sign up other than the $10/off my total TV/Internet bill that they've always offered.

$70/mo for the base Digital Cable package + the HD pack, with the DVR.. on 1 TV. No contract.

VaVaVoom never looked like such a good deal until today.

On the plus side I ordered it tonight and I'm going over to pick up the hardware tomorrow for the free self-install. I should be time-shifting InHD tomorrow afternoon.

The Voom box isn't going anywhere until it becomes a glorified doorstop.

 

[jagouar]

Do you absolutely have to have the movie channels?

I just signed up for cox as well but I was allowed to sub to "extended basic" (analog) and still get all the HD channels (sans the movie ones). but my total bill after $15 rental for the hd-dvr is $54/month.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Do you absolutely have to have the movie channels?

I just signed up for cox as well but I was allowed to sub to "extended basic" (analog) and still get all the HD channels (sans the movie ones). but my total bill after $15 rental for the hd-dvr is $54/month.

Do you get the Discovery tier? My plan is based on the $45 plan + the DVR etc.

Cox Digital Cable (choice of one tier)
$45.95**
Includes:

* Discovery Tier: 5 Discovery Networks - Discovery Times, Home & Leisure, Military, Kids, Science. In addition EWTN, BYUTV, NASA, MCTV, Cox Real Estate Channel, Noggin.
* Music Choice - 45 Channels of Digital Music
* Cox Digital Pay-Per-View - over 22 channels to select from
* Interactive Program Guide

Choose One of the Following Tiers:

* Movie Tier: Encore Western, Encore Mystery, Encore True Stories, Encore Love Stories, Encore Action, Encore, Sundance, FLIX, and Independent Film Channel.
* Variety Tier: Hallmark, Lifetime Movie Network, National Geographic, DIY, Fine Living, Nicktoons TV, Nickelodeon Gas, MTV Hits, VH1 Classics, VH1 Mega Hits, VH1 Country, Great American Country, Fuse, BET Jazz, Game Show Network, Encore WAM!, BBC America, Toon Disney, Soap Net, Oxygen, Biography, History International
* Sport & Info Tier: ESPNews, ESPN Classic, Fox Soccer Channel, NBA TV, Outdoor Life Network, Fox College Sports Atlantic, Fox College Sports Central, Fox College Sports Pacific, Fuel, Weatherscan Local, Bloomberg, G4-Video Game Television
* Paquete Latino: Galavision, KPDF-Azteca, KDRX-Telemundo, TV Chile, De Pelicula, De Pelicula Clasico, CineLatino, History en Espanol, Discovery en Espanol, Toon Disney en Espanol, Boomerang en Espanol, Sorpresa, MTV Espanol, VH-Uno, Bandamax, VideoRolo, mun2, ¡Mas! Notas, ESPN Deportes, Fox Sports en Espanol, CNN en Espanol, Canal Sur, EWTN Espanol

I pretty much have to get the variety tier to get Lifetime / Toon Disney. I'm probably going to get HBO as well later on if I like the service.

So you're getting 1-129 + the 700's?

http://www.cox.com/phoenix/digitalcable/lineup.asp

Shawn

 

[RPacion]

Shawn, please let us know what you think of the Cox HD PQ. I assume you will still have Voom connected, so you can do A-B comparisons on some of the common channels?

 

[Shawn95GT]

Shawn, please let us know what you think of the Cox HD PQ. I assume you will still have Voom connected, so you can do A-B comparisons on some of the common channels?

I sure do. I can even have 'em both connected by Component on the same TV.
I'll have a look at it tomorrow night.

 

[jagouar]

Just so you know on my system cox is better across the board than voom PQ wise....

http://cox.com/texas/includes/systems/sys-brya-reb.asp

and those are the channels I get.... the new development is i cna get all the HD my local offers (discoveryhd, inhd 1 and 2, espn, and my locals)

 

[Shawn95GT]

Just so you know on my system cox is better across the board than voom PQ wise....

http://cox.com/texas/includes/systems/sys-brya-reb.asp

and those are the channels I get.... the new development is i cna get all the HD my local offers (discoveryhd, inhd 1 and 2, espn, and my locals)

Which STB do you have? DVR?

 

[jimmykce1]

I got the Motorola 6412 DVR from my local Cox. So far its been awesome having it.

 

[kfried001]

Cox offered absolutely zero incentive to sign up other than the $10/off my total TV/Internet bill that they've always offered.

$70/mo for the base Digital Cable package + the HD pack, with the DVR.. on 1 TV. No contract.

VaVaVoom never looked like such a good deal until today.

On the plus side I ordered it tonight and I'm going over to pick up the hardware tomorrow for the free self-install. I should be time-shifting InHD tomorrow afternoon.

The Voom box isn't going anywhere until it becomes a glorified doorstop.

I have cox and the dual tuner dvr is nice. Nothing like the Tivo interface however. Inhd1 & 2 are stunning. They are supposed to add CinemaxHD since Vegas has it. That would give them all the premium channels.

 

[kfried001]

Just so you know on my system cox is better across the board than voom PQ wise....

http://cox.com/texas/includes/systems/sys-brya-reb.asp

and those are the channels I get.... the new development is i cna get all the HD my local offers (discoveryhd, inhd 1 and 2, espn, and my locals)

I have cox and the locals look like crap compared to OTA.

 

[Ronald_Jeremy]

I got the 6412 the week before last and I still have the Voom box hooked up.

The Cox HD PQ is the same as VOOM. The digital channels are ok. The analog channels (which for me are the ones in the basic and expanded package) suXors!!!!! It is GAWD aweful.

But the DVR capabilities and dual tuner make a big difference.

AND it is a little bit cheaper than VOOM. I have everything except for Playboy and I am at about $120/month. That includes 3mbps internet. Before, I was paying $60 for internet and basic cable(which I never watch but you are required to have! ) and then $100 for VAVAVoom.

But in the way of HD, I only have Folocal feed), inhd, inhd2, UHD, HBO, Starz, Sho, and ESPN. That is it. Fluckers can't tell me when they are going to add anything else HD.

 

[ksload]

i decided against the COX HD-DVR after I was told that I'd have to pay the following:

$9.95 for the HD "capability"
$9.95 for the DVR
$4.43 for the digital HD Tier
$5.95 for Discovery HD
$12.95 for the balance of the HD programming

That's alot

 

[Shawn95GT]

I just picked up the STB - It's an Explorer 8300 HD.

I laughed out loud when the CSR advised me to hook it to the TV via coax and tune the TV to Channel 4 (as she handed me the coax line).

 

[jagouar]

Motorola 6412 and for me (on a 106 inch AE700) I cant see any difference on HD locals... and even looks better on Discovery and ESPN than voom did.

And all my locals dont have any sub channels.

 

[jgantert]

Man you guys are lucky! The 6412 and 8300 boxes are so much better than the 8000 box I got stuck with (no others available) that has no DVI and SD/HD aren't active at the same time!

Oh well...

-John

 

[Shawn95GT]

I hooked it up after getting home from work tonight... and they couldn't send the activation signal because the techs hadn't done whatever they need to do on the back end to let me recieve digital cable.

I had to run after a perscription and when I got home the DVR box was showing the time so my CSR kept her promise and went ahead and sent the activation once the tech checked in having done the line prep.

My first impression of the service is..... this is no Voom. The guide is TERRIBLE. It looks like the old analog channel that would scroll the TV listings on analog cable, you control the scroll. The channels are scattered all over the place and all of the HD stuff is clumped together in the 700s.

The HD PQ is nice. I have yet to see any pixelization. My impression right now is that it's on par with Voom for PQ. Switching back and forth between the two netted no noticable difference in quality watcing the same show.

The DVR is pretty cool. My wife to be wants no part of learing how to operate it right now so I know I'm going to be getting phone calls for a while asking for help. I played witht he timeshifting briefly and setup a couple shows to automatically record - pretty cool.

The HD selection is pretty dismal. For my $70/mo I get the following HD channels that I can't get free OTA:

ESPNHD
INHD1
INHD2
DSCHD (Discovery HD)
UNVHD (Universal HD)

The STB is kind of annoying on a 16x9 TV. The HD channels look great but the guide is pillar boxed. All SD channels are pillar boxed. They have a 'zoom' feature that pretty much accomplishes the stretch like we had with the Voom box... only this is a global setting. If you set it to stretch, it stretches EVERYTHING - even the 1080i stuff .

I'm still getting to know it but the interface is pretty annoying.

Something funny happened - while I was talking to Cox to activate my STB, a local ex-Voom installer called to sell me a Voom alternative. Cox was even one of the options. I told him I had Cox on the other line activating my STB... he laughed and thanked me for my time.

 

[SpringsGuy]

I'm not with comcast but just switched to Adelphia and got hooked up today.. My HD-DVR is the Motorola BMC9012 broadband media center says MOXI on the front of the box.. Pretty freakin kool box i must say, poor installers had hell setting me up today because of my retarded installers voom sent me, turns out my line was spliced in 3 separate spots and i know it was my voom installers because brand new house and brand new wiring, well anyways guy got here at 930 am and his supervisor showed up to rewire my house at 1145 and they made it out by 230 pm lol.. HD quality is pretty good, digital channels look ok, and analog is just horrible but i think i can play with my setup a lil and fix it somewhat... ANYONE ELSE GOT THIS BOX?? OH AND CANT turn the thing off or is it supposed to turn off???

 

[kfried001]

Shawn, please let us know what you think of the Cox HD PQ. I assume you will still have Voom connected, so you can do A-B comparisons on some of the common channels?

I am have both. PQ is great on Discovery HD, Inhd1 & 2, ESP, UHD. Marginal on the locals. Crappy on the SD unless hooked up through progressive.

 

[jagouar]

I did my A/B comparison and ESPN, DiscHD (the 2 that I could compare) both look better on COX (universal is coming soon).

The locals on COX look as good as OTA (all my locals are full bw so Im assuming cox is passing full bw as well because Id notice it).

InHD on my system looks as good as ucompressed CBS feed I get so it has to be close to full bw as well.

 

[Shawn95GT]

Day 2 and my new annoyance:

Audible hum at all times from the TV when the input that is connected to the 8300HD is selected (RCAs connected to the TV). The optical output doesn't seem to have the hum.

The guide sucks so bad it's pitiful. Even my fiance hates it - lol.

The 'digital' SD looks about the same if not worse than the analog SD. It kind of varies by channel. Vooms SD is/was nothing to party about but Cox digital cable has not been an improvement.

It isn't looking like the cool factor of the DVR is going to save it. I'm not even sure its worth paying for digital cable. $10 analog cable + OTA HD may be making a comeback at my place.