The 6412... a good HD PVR gone wrong.

[madpoet]

Well, I got my 6412 dual tuner PVR installed this morning from Cox. It's... quirky. First let me say that dual tuners are cool. It even keeps a seperate buffer for both tuners. The problem is that using FF, RW, or Stop causes extreme pixelation and will drive you to an insane rage of unwatchable picture. Or something like that. The Cox guide program isn't bad, although it' slow to navigate. Other than the pixelation (which Cox swears they are aware of and are working on) this thing has... drumroll... 120gb drive. Which, after all the OS software and stuff, gives youa whopping TWELVE hours of HD recording. Well bowl me over with a stick. TWELVE whole hours you say?

Now for the pluses.. dual tuner again is way cool. FIREWIRE! I can freely copy off my local network stuff, and the premium content (HBO and Showtime) are both set for Copy Once so that I can also back those up to a 5c compliant device (my JVC 40k deck). Voom, that is exactly how you should do it. Not putting in the firewire port is just pure chicken. Unless the pixelation clears this thing will be going back to Cox. But it's good to at least see an HD PVR in action.

 

[vurbano]

What does this have to do with Voom?

 

[Kentstater72]

My cable company is going to offer the 6412 also, I may try to use this while waiting for Voom to roll out their PVR.
How much is Cox charging for this?

 

[madpoet]

Well, they gave me all sorts of deals and discounts over the first six months, but essentially you have to pay for digital cable ($9.95 on top of the standard for me) plus a PVR fee of $4.99. So about $15/month more than non-digital cable. That's for one box.

 

[techweb]

My cable company is going to offer the 6412 also, I may try to use this while waiting for Voom to roll out their PVR.
How much is Cox charging for this?

I'm a long-time Voom supporter, but I was itching for an HD DVR, so I decided to try out my local cable company's special offer to get the DVR (only about $25 more a month than I was paying for cable modem alone for basic cable + digital + HD + HD DVR). They supplied the 6208, but the the 6412 should be available shortly. The 6208 works well enough, but the SD encoder could stand some improvement. The special deal runs for six months, so hopefully we'll know by then if Voom will survive and the cost of the DVR.

 

[Augurr]

12 hours? The local commercials that Cox is running around here are stating 60 hours of recording time. That's a big difference!!! Hmmmm ... false advertising anyone or are they offering more than 1 DVR model?

 

[madpoet]

Well, it is 60 hours of SD recording . Sadly that's only about 12 hours of HD recording.

 

[squicken]

Someone mentioned Cox, so I have to jump in. They're a joke company. They went around buying up all these small cable companies in Texas. Sure, they pass along the national rate hikes. Did they upgrade the equipment? No. Do they offer more services? No. Is the line capacity the same as it was in 1980? Yes. When it comes to Cox offering better products, I say wish in wish in one hand and sh!t in another, and see what you end up with.

 

[freecalendar]

new guy here.

I Just got my dvr boc from cox tuesday and i have to say i love it. I have the dvr box in my room and the regular HD box in the living room.

As far as VOOM goes, I watch VOOM ALL day at work and its pretty nice as long as it isnt cloudy outside. The voom techs tell us that they havent really got it set up right in Baton Rouge yet but once they do i might jump on it

bye

 

[rollerfink]

What's the picture quality like on your analog channels through the 6412?

Comcast in my area currently offers the 6208 but should have the 6412 in a month or two. I'm seriously considering switching but I'm worried about poor PQ.

At this point I may stay for a bit and hope for a Voom DVR announcement. Or any day now I may just get tired of waiting for the DVR and give comcast a call.

 

[madpoet]

The analog is ok, but not great. I think Voom has sharper analog.

 

[JWK]

new guy here.

I Just got my dvr boc from cox tuesday and i have to say i love it. I have the dvr box in my room and the regular HD box in the living room.

As far as VOOM goes, I watch VOOM ALL day at work and its pretty nice as long as it isnt cloudy outside. The voom techs tell us that they havent really got it set up right in Baton Rouge yet but once they do i might jump on it

bye

What are they saying they haven't gotten set up properly in Baton Rouge?

Just curious -- I've had Voom here in Baton Rouge for a while now, and since they finally got the locals right, have been pretty happy.

 

[jimmykce1]

Cox in my area doesn't have the following in HD like Voom:

ABC, NBC, Fox, TNT, WB, UPN

 

[madpoet]

Erm... except for TNT, the rest of those are all OTA stations. You can get them with or without Voom.