Comments on: Cable TV (really) does want to offer multi-room DVRs

By: Ohion on a mission

Ohion on a mission — Thu, 15 Apr 2010 13:51:17 +0000

Are any other areas using Entone Hydras or Amulets like here in Ohio? The Hydra offers 3 tv hookups in one receiver and dvr service to the same 3 tvs. Entone appears to have a good box but I am understanding there has been issues with them.
What is a good Coax HPNA Network Adapter that is currently being used?

By: Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress

Tamara Chuang, a.k.a. The Gadgetress — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:28:56 +0000

Hi Harper — Broadcom’s an Orange County company so I write about it more than others, as I’m expected to do since I work for the O.C. Register. Broadcom is “sampling” the chips to manufacturers so it’s not like they’re not in the game.
I also write for consumers first, not necessarily investors. Who makes the chips inside doesn’t always interest readers; rather, I prefer to write about what the devices can ultimately do.

By: harper stephens

harper stephens — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 19:12:01 +0000

Why do you concentrate on BRCM when they aren’t even selling Moca chips yet? You barely mentinon Entropic, but they have the only two companies that are rolling Moca out, Verizon and DirecTV. Strange to concentrate on BRCM that seems to be all talk while glossing over the company that has won the designs and actually shipping mass product.

By: [Blocked by CFC] Rich

[Blocked by CFC] Rich — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 01:59:14 +0000

Time Warner only sees profit. They insist I rent their garbage set top control box, at $6 per month, per set. I’ve got 4 televisions, so that’s more than $275 per year in tuner box rent alone. These boxes can’t cost them more than $30 each to make, but TW won’t tell us their exact cost, nor can I purchase such a box myself – they won’t activate it. Even though I can buy the same make//model tuner box on e-Bay for $80, new, TW says it is a bootleg tuner, and they refuse to discuss it with me. The FCC told the cable companies two years ago they could sell these boxes, so why don’t they?

By: Don

Don — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 22:01:49 +0000

We moved from Tivo to Moxi after my friend’s recommendation. I am very happy with Moxi, especially we don’t have to pay monthly DVR fees.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:50:50 +0000

I’m going with the Ceton Cablecard Quad-Tuner. It enables Media Center PCs to play or record up to four live channels of HDTV at once, and stream live HD channels or recordings to multiple HDTVs throughout the home. I’m done dealing with my cable provider’s set top box with its slow UI.

By: Martha

Martha — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:04:37 +0000

I see it as a way to increase their income and bottom line.

By: Martha

Martha — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 20:04:08 +0000

Wish we could but no FIOS in our area. TIVO was fantastic (we had DirecTivo before the HD channels) but we could not use it in our new place, had the crappy DVR from Comcast, could not get a new one when Time Warner took over, now we are back with DirecTV but using their DVR. We just didn’t want to buy a new TIVO because we have every conceivable device hooked up, lol, and were holding out for cable to support the cable card – which the never did, of course! Between the AppleTV, the PS 3, the Wii, and the DVR I think we’re out of inputs.

By: BoogerBoy

BoogerBoy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:50:20 +0000

Frankly, I don’t trust the cable companies (Cox especially) nor Inouye’s opinion.

I wear an eye patch even though I don’t need one. It’s great to conquer their ships and take their booty. Who needs them? I sail the seas alone.

Arrrrrgh!

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 19:28:07 +0000

The multi-room DVR alone makes Uverse a much better option than cable. I’d never go back to a oneTV-DVR set-up.

By: jack

jack — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:58:32 +0000

Just get TIVO, I have two high def tivos and they are the best, I also have FIOS but no longer use their DVR. I used to have Tme Warner and their DVR was junk. Go with FIOS if you can and get a High Def Tivo, you won’t regret it.

By: Freddy

Freddy — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 18:57:09 +0000

Cable sux. Go with Dish network. 300gb on their DVR’s plus you can plug in an additional drive via usb.

By: LGT

LGT — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:55:53 +0000

Biggest problem is the lackluster size of the HDDs in boxes. A 1TB drive costs under $100, yet Cox and others offer boxes with measly 160GB drives. Pathetic if you ask me.

What good is a multi-room DVR going to be if I’m still stuck with paltry storage?

They need to open up their eSATA ports already.

By: Steve

Steve — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:22:08 +0000

2 months back I moved from my cox cable HD/DVR box to Moxi 3 Tuner HD + 2 mate (boxes that connect to main HD DVR mothership through MoCA). You just need to pay for the hardware ($999) but the DVR service is free (need to pay $1.99 to cox for cablecard)
You can add storage, control DVR from the internet and much more!!

By: rich486

rich486 — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:06:29 +0000

How about a cable box that always responds immediately to user input? Too many times the box seems to have more important things to do then actually respond to the remote.

How about out-of-band controls? I would like to control the box from a computer instead of covering up the program playing on the TV with channel information.

I would like to see a soft reboot to unscramble the cable brain instead of the shutdown and restart that stops the current recording.