Frauenfelder on S-A Explorer 8000

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Frauenfelder on S-A Explorer 8000

Mark Frauenfelder, founder and contributor to the weblog BoingBoing.net does not like the Scientific-Atlanta 8000.

So many other things suck about the user interface that I can't list them all. But the main UI problems include lack of keyword scheduling, way-too-slow fast-forwarding, no alpha character entry, and the inability to see how many hours of programming are available on the hard drive.

This last flaw hit home when the machine suddenly stopped recording shows. I tried everything I could to get it to work, including rebooting the system and calling Time Warner Cable customer service. They told me that they'd have to replace the unit, which would take five days.

Five days later a service technician came with a new box. I asked him if this problem was common, because Google returns a lot of pages from people who think the Explorer 8000 is a piece of junk. He said the system is fine as long as you didn't store too many shows on it. If you fill up the hard drive, the system freezes up, and there's no way a user can undo it. But how do you know when the disk is close to being full if there's no gage to tell you? The service tech's answer: "don't keep very many shows on the hard drive." That pretty much defeats the purpose of a DVR, doesn't it?

He also warned me not to put anything on top of it, as it was notorious for overheating and seizing up. I told him I was considering TiVo, but he insisted the Explorer 8000 was better than TiVo. How so, I asked? "We will give you a new one if it breaks," he said.

Anyone else have any stories, good or bad, about their S-A 8000?

Boing Boing: I hate this digital video recorder: Scientific-Atlanta Explorer 8000

by Gen Kanai August 16, 2004 in Product Reviews

Comments

I don't have one of those S-A 8000's, but I can say that the service guy was right about one thing. Getting a free replacement is nice when the thing dies. My original TiVo died last year. We had bought a new one not long before the old one died, but still. $200 for the lifetime subscription, and $700 for the TiVo out the window.

The new one was purchased with the $250 lifetime subscription. We won't be buying the lifetime subscriptions again. Over all, I'm not all that sure how "cost effective" it is. We did "save" money over the monthly subscription fee, but not all that much.

Posted by: Dave M. at Aug 17, 2004 3:19:11 AM

I have an SA 8000 from Time Warner in NYC, and while I can confirm that it clearly has problems, it seems workable (and it's definitely cheaper than a TiVo would be). It's definitely less stable when close to full, although most of the time that just manifests itself as non-responsiveness in the menus and an occasional random reboot. I've only lost data once, and that was a week or so after I got the box (a year or so ago?), and the replacement box hasn't had *that* problem. (The aforementioned reboot problem tends to lose a few minutes of whatever it is currently recording, but doesn't affect the stored data.)

Posted by: Russell S. at Aug 17, 2004 6:05:50 AM

I thought the most interesting part was the fact that the installer told his wife it was a "real TiVo." This is more likely a mistake than a lie, but I wonder if the installers are told that they are installing TiVos.

TiVo's trademark seems to be threatened by dilution these days, and it's entirely possible that the installer was under the impression that if you can pause live TV and record shows without a video tape you've got a TiVo.

Since it's so hard to explain DVRs to people in general, it would be even harder to explain the difference between TiVo and the competition.

Posted by: George Hotelling at Aug 17, 2004 6:35:17 AM

That's what S-A gets for not hiring me for Quality Assurance!!! ;)

I live right around the corner from the S-A offices in Atlanta and sent my resume in to them for a software QA position but never got a response. :) I think I may have posted too late.

Posted by: Scott at Aug 17, 2004 9:41:49 AM

I have one of the S-A 8000's and it's OK. The only problem I've had with mine is that it doesn't like to FF too much and will randomly stop when I try to speed through commercials. It's a minor quirk that I've learned to tolerate because I hate calling Time Warner customer service.

Posted by: Andrea at Aug 17, 2004 9:57:40 AM

six months ago I had one and it was almost unusable. It didn't have any type of display to tell you if the hard drive was full etc. Pretty much the same concerns listed above. It was so bad I returned it and created my own PVR with SAge TV and a PC.

But, Last week I broke in brought one home after TWC had a promotion. Suprisingly most of the problems were gone. It had a automatic delete for recordings when it the hard drive nearing full. Better yet a guage that displays how full the hard drive is at that moment. And it also had better scheduler for scheduling for programs.

I'm assuming SA pushed out a new version of the software. But, don't get me wrong it's still not anywhere near as good as tivo or SAGETV. As soon as the TWC promotion is done I'm taking it back.

Posted by: Jason T. at Aug 17, 2004 12:31:45 PM

I have to tell you, I have a 8000 and I hate it. It's the DVR provided by Cox cable here in Virgina and I signed up for it after years of Tivo service because it was cheaper and integrated into the cable box. This meant all the issues with the IR blaster not changing the channel would be gone and I could record Six Feet Under without having to cross my fingers. Best of all, it has dual tuners.
But it is crap, a pale comparison to Tivo. The UI is more like programing a late 80's VCR and the response time has caused me to completely retrain my remote control expectations to be at all useful. One of my biggest issues is while watching a show that you are also recording; if the show ends before you finish watching (IE: you paused to answer the phone) the player stops, dumps you to live tv and you have to fish the show out of the list start it over and FF to where you left off. That pisses me off to no end.
So why haven't I gone back to Tivo? Dual tuners, I'm hooked. If it weren't for those damned trees I'd have dropped cable all together and picked up a dual tuner DirecTivo. But as it is, I can't give up recording a premium movie and watching live tv.

Posted by: Chris Cook at Aug 18, 2004 12:39:41 PM

The SA-8000 is a terrible PVR. Mine would freeze, erase all my season pass entries, and sometimes would even erase my hard drive. I went through 4 of the boxes with Time Warner Cable before I broke down and just bought an external DVR and traded the box in for a standard cable box.

The box I ended up with was a ReplayTV which Circuit City was clearing out old models of, so I got 80 hours for a hundred bucks with commercial skip.

I wanted Tivo, but Tivo has this nasty habit of forcing you to have a phone line even to set the box up, and everyone I know only has cell phones. But the nice thing about Replay is that I can copy files from the box to my PC, something I could never do with my Tivo from years-back, or the SA-8000.

Posted by: Benjamin at Aug 18, 2004 3:45:33 PM

I have had an SA 8000HD, from Cox Oklahoma City, for over a month and it has been just fine. I had a TiVo for four years and will be the first to say that the 8000HD's user interface is primitive by TiVo's standards. Nevertheless, the 8000HD records and plays back HD programming, has two tuners, and costs only ten bucks a month -- not $1,000 up front one has to pay for the HD TiVo. Frankly, despite the HD DirecTiVo's clear superiority over the 8000HD, it seems to me that for those of us who are already cable subscribers, HD TiVo isn't cost effective yet.

Posted by: Grey Satterfield at Aug 19, 2004 9:25:19 AM

Yeah, the cost is definitely a problem with the HD DirecTivo. I'm not sure if it will come down anytime soon either because the supply seems short.

That said, my wife asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said, "Well, instead of just my birthday, how about for my birthday, christmas, valentine's day, st patrick's day, father's day, our anniversary, my next birthday, the next christmas, the next valentine's day...."

Posted by: Scott at Aug 19, 2004 1:11:05 PM

I have an 8000 in NYC, with TW. I've had to replace boxes a number of times, but I've learned to live with it since the box has dual tuners. It's interesting - I got one of the very first ones off the line here in NYC last year, and it was great (for what it was); never crashed or slowed down. Since then, I've had to slow down my input of commands on the remote control for fear the box would freeze.

Now, I've never really used a Tivo, but I had a Replay 5040 box, and another friend ditched her Tivo box for a SA8K, so there must be something right about the thing. I'm not sure what would be worth giving up dual tuners for, since the 8000 does record what you tell it to and integrated dual tuners allows me to use one remote for PiP, On Demand, my DVD box, TV set, and whatever else I want. Yeah, the UI isn't perfect, and I can't program it from the internet, but I'd be pissed if I had to move somewhere where I couldn't have a SA8000 with my cable (and I'm a cable guy; I need my local news channels).

Posted by: Dave at Aug 20, 2004 6:00:34 PM

It's garbage. I've had one via Time Warner in Austin for a few months. I think the introductory rate was $6.95/month, but after the first six months (which I'm past now) it's 10 or 12. I had used a Tivo before from a previous roommate. The user interface doesn't compare -- the 8000 can't do anything, it's like it is designed by a retarded 3rd grader.

I'm also on my 3rd box. One was a storm-related surge that killed it, and the other was premature hard drive death. Upon exchanging it for a replacement when the hard drive died, they told me to not put anything on top of it at all so that the hard drive would not die again! My current box is actually a goner too -- the cable functionality works fine, but it has stopped recording shows I tell it to record. It seems to think it's recording them - the red light still comes on when Law & Order is on...but the list of recorded programs is forever empty.

I marvel at how baseline PVR functionality is totally missing from this unit. When the drive fills up to the point that there is less free than the show it is about to tape, it will tape it anyway..and then abort partway through. It's common for me to come back to find like three or four 1-4 minute Law & Orders (it seems to realize it's not going to make it and bail early, leaving the tiny fragment of the show still around). When it fills up like that, it doesn't delete the oldest program...it's just full and stays that way!

The current snafu with it not recording programs pissed me off such that I went to Best Buy today and picked up a Tivo2 40GB ($199 and a $100 mail in...hard to keep passing up the superior product!).

Posted by: Corbett at Aug 20, 2004 9:53:42 PM

I think my box is the pinnacle of home entertainment. It performs when I ask it too. The menu is simple but easy to use and understand. Everything a lazy couch potatoe could ask for, well everything but the internet. Oh and allowing me to copy over shows to my computer would be nice...

Posted by: Mr Freq at Aug 24, 2004 11:01:00 PM

I can second the notion that it overheats and seizes up; I disregarded the note "don't put anything on top of the SA 8000" in the installation manual, and thought that my machine had broken. Taking my DVD player off of it and letting it cool down restored functionality.

Posted by: Joe at Aug 27, 2004 4:18:40 PM

Well, my second SA-8k just lost DVR capability tonight. I was looking online for the process by which to format the drive back to factory default, but apparently this is not possible. For the money TWC-San Diego charges I guess it is worth the trouble, but maybe I am just saying that because I work a few blocks from the location where I get to dump the box and pick up a new one every few months. If anyone figures out how to reformat without the useless cable service techs, let me know.

MJ
caffeine92109@yahoo.com

Posted by: MJ Leonard at Sep 5, 2004 12:02:23 AM

i am trying to put an 8000hd in my fathers house, but it sucks, i think that its fatal flaw, if the installer is not jerking me around, is that the hd8000 suposedly only outputs in componant video, not s video or rf, so you can watch hd channels as you are supposed to be able to but when you get to regular ntsc channels they are output over the componant video and will not display right. the TW guy said that the 8000hd box only outputs over the componant video and not s video or RF, even though it has the connectors on the back of the box,???? this box is a P O S and i am going to get the old one back until they make one thats NOT a P O S. after reading other posts i am convinced that it
IS A POS.

Posted by: IAN SCHNEIDER at Sep 5, 2004 7:48:57 AM

you can see your avalible space left on your dvr to go to ch. 611 ( this should work for any city ) and go down to dvr avfs and it will tell you how much you have left. It's a pain in the butt to get to but it works.

Posted by: matt at Sep 6, 2004 12:55:17 PM

Time Warner just installed an S-A 8300 at my home last night. I've only had a few hours to play with it, but it seems that many of the concerns above have been addressed. There is a progress-bar style display to tell you how much space is available. It has the ability to record once, or all occurrences of a program (can even separate reruns from original airings). Allows for easy copying to a VCR. And the best part: it has two tuners, allowing me to watch one program live while recording another, or record two programs while watching a third recorded program.

The interface is fast, clean, and relatively intuitive. I had been nervous after reading these forums, and was leaning toward a separate TiVo box. For now, I'm happy with this device.

Posted by: Reid Sorenson at Sep 8, 2004 7:06:13 AM

I do not know what happened between yesterday and today. I am guessing that Time Warner NY sent out a software update. Whatever it was this device is more than fine with me. Before changing the channels would have a long slow delay. No longer. It is now nearly as fast as my old Cable tuner.

Posted by: Brian at Sep 9, 2004 7:32:07 PM

I used to have a philips DirecTivo (with dual tunners) that thing was great, everything the SA-8000 SHOULD be. Too bad I moved and I can only get cable here.

Posted by: Pete from NY at Oct 1, 2004 4:06:36 PM

I've also got the cox SA-8000. The only good thing about it is it integrates cable and PVR. The rest is *crap*.

1) As mentioned, scheduling is a joke. It seems that Cox just transferred the VCRplus information into the schedule, because the system is incapable of recording a show on a day at a time. You either get a show at a time on any day, or that show on any day at any time on any channel. The channel information is quite lame. Compared to Tivo and Dish, it's pathetic. Also, the channel information is unreliable the more days out you go. I've tried to record some specials 10-14 days out, only to find that what was recorded was not what i expected. The search feature is only capable of searching on a 'day', so if you're looking for a week or two worth of shows, forget it.

2) The 50 hours Cox said we'd be able to record is really 25 hours.

3) No 30 second fast forward. The fast forward is pretty lame. Even if you stop a prereorded show, you are limited by the fast forward/reverse if you're try ing to find something in a show.

4) Fastforwarding/fastreversing can get the video and audio signals out of sync.

5) If you are schedule to record a show on a regular basis, you can't cancel a show without canceling the entire run. I record Rescue me, and it's repeated at the same time slot a couple of times a week and I really want to record only the new shows (see my comment about a show on a day at a time slot). However, I have to wait until the repeats record and then delete them.

6) The response time going through the menus is quite slow compared to Tivo.

7) Definitely can't record two shows simulataneously. Maybe I can get an upgrade to an SA-8300.

8) No good hacking information. The damn box has USB and 1394 but no way to use them.

Posted by: H1ghlander at Oct 2, 2004 5:10:32 AM

I picked up an 8000HD DVR from Time Warner in Northwest Ohio a couple days ago as an alternative to my TIVO and to be able to record HD, two channels at once, etc. I had been using one of the PIONEER HD boxes with my Sony XBR and a DVI cable with good success (HDTV channels take like 5 seconds to change and analog video looks washed out thru DVI but I could handle it).

I got the new DVR hooked up but couldn't get any video from the 8000HD thru DVI or S-Video, just sound thru the red and white cables. It wouldn't even pass the basic channels thru the RF output to my TV's tuner. The only thing I didn't try was the component video output since my two inputs on the TV are being used.

I called service and they called back after 55 minutes. NO CLUE WHATSOEVER what DVI is and they said they could send a tech out to look at it TEN DAYS LATER!!!!! What a joke!

Assuming I had a bad box I swapped it the next day. Same story. I placed SEVEN CALLS to Time Warner during the day. NOT A SINGLE PERSON COULD TELL ME:

1. What DVI or Firewire were.
2. What outputs were active on the EXPLORER 8000HD.

I requested to speak to a tech the last three calls and was told they could only call me back. Did they? NO!!

So I assume at this point that the 8000HD cannot output anything but component video.

After reading this and other forums about problems with this box and Time Warner's inability to answer any techinical questions I will be returning this box for good and going back to the PIONEER HD box. I pay Time Warner over $1200/yr (including Road Runner) and I expect better service.

Posted by: Paul MacDonald at Oct 5, 2004 8:52:16 PM

I was using a SA 8000 which was fine for a few months untill it started pixalating and then freezing up requiring constant reboots.
I exchanged it with TW for a new 8300 which was fine for a while too. It has started to randomly not record programs although they show as recording but disappear at completion of the record cycle. You also can not switch to a show being recorded without it shutting off the record going black screen and wiping it off.
TW service is a pain-- taking the box back for exchange is the only reasonable thing to do. At least I don't own the beasts.

Posted by: j brennan at Oct 10, 2004 6:54:57 AM

Using this was my first experience of using anything like TiVo or DVR. When my GF showed me it the first time I immediately didn't like the unresponsiveness of the menu system. But after a while the thing grew on me and now I'm hooked. Yes Dual channel recording is great!

There are a couple things that drive me nuts. (I agreee with Pete on most his comments).
1) The awkwardness of the menu system
2) When you go to record a series, it asks if you want to save just the shows in this time slot, it decided to just record everything. It drives me nuts having to delete multiple recordings!
3) The thing can only save 25 hours of TV! That's definately not enough if I'm recording a couple series. (I usually record a few shows then watch them all at once).

Posted by: Marc at Oct 25, 2004 8:23:00 AM

We've just started with Comcast in Arlington with an SA 8000HD, and agree that, esp. compared with the smooth functionality of the DISH-TV setup we had in a previous house, this box is primitive and glitchy.
Apart from the extreme annoyance of the Neanderthal search (or non-search) function, the biggest problem so far seems to be the sound going out of sync - this most noticeably happens after some fast forwarding or rewinding during commercials in a recording. I have seen other posts complaining about sync problems, but most do not pinpoint the instances when it occurs. Has anyone else noticed this problem specifically tied to fast forwarding?
Other problems -- are they common -- some pixiliation (not a lot, just enough to be annoying on playback of HD PVR recordings.
We had our first total freeze/reboot this morning. Is this something we can expect more of?
Our first impulse, since this is a new machine, is that the machine may be bad, and we should call Comcast for a replacement box. On reading some of these posts, I'm beginning to think these are common problems with the box, and will not be cured by a replacement.
Anyone have any thoughts, comments, experiences to share?

Posted by: Steve at Oct 31, 2004 7:28:53 AM

Hi,

We have an 8300 here in Maine and it sucks. The thing runs hotter than the surface of the sun and has random lockups. When it crashes, you get a waveform thingy on the display and it takes 2 minutes to come back from the dead. Yes its faster but it crashes, fails to retain programs that were recorded, fails to record in the first place and is generally unreliable. WRONG MOVE S.A. Try again knuckle-heads!

Posted by: Steve at Nov 5, 2004 7:10:24 PM

i just got the SA-8300 and am wondering if anyone has any info on connecting the device to your LAN.?? like you can with a TiVO series 2...

Posted by: mickey at Nov 11, 2004 6:09:22 PM

The SA-8300 is a sweet machine and will be even sweeter after replacing the current OS first quarter 2005.

Posted by: Steve at Dec 22, 2004 5:13:40 PM

I have used a SA 8000 briefly and am now using a SA 8300 HD. Each has had (and continues to have) major problems that are tied to the software and a fundamentally flawed vision of what end users/consumers want in such a device.

The good thing is that I don't own it. The bad thing is that none of the alternatives I examined are a whole lot more useful at the moment and are plainly obsolete in design and not well suited for use with cable TV.

When someone gets a mature technology with the features people want there will be a rush to buy them. Until then I am glad that I have the option to simply return this thing at any time.

I am waiting to see what Cablecard implementations become available in '05. Potentially, the open source project MythTV may become the "thing to have". Even Snapstream and Media PC 2005 show some promise if the hardware will catch up with the reality of cable TV.

Posted by: Richard at Dec 23, 2004 10:41:57 AM

Like many, I'm ticked about the 8000HD only having component out active, but I wasn't sure if everyone reading here knew that the PIP window sends audio/video out over the RF cable, and video out over the composite output. It's less than ideal, but it does give you some way of getting video off the PVR into a capture card or an older TV without component inputs.

Posted by: Paul F Kaliciak at Jan 2, 2005 1:45:29 PM

I had gotten a Explorer 8000 from TW in December. I had it for a week before I took it back. Every time I paused or tried to record it would just freeze up and eventually reboot. A complete pile of garbage. I thought that the box might threaten Tivo etc but no where close till they fix their crap. I've used Ultimate TV with direct tv before, dual tuners and all. That is heads a above the SA8000. I am currently thinking of ReplayTV for cable.

Posted by: Greg at Jan 2, 2005 5:26:27 PM

My Scientific Atlanta hd dvr from TW lasted about 2 weeks and the hard drive busticated............the tech told me I can not have anything on top of it or underneath it so i now have a new box floating in mid air.....it's a piece of ----

Posted by: boot at Jan 13, 2005 8:55:10 PM

I just got my new SA 8000HD and was thrilled about it until I read all the bad press here. I got here from a Google search looking for a way to copy my recorded Sd and HD programs to DVD but it does not look like the SA 8000HD is a good alternative from here. Am I correct in that assumtion? If so, then what is the best solution available? Certainly someone should see a great marketing opportunity here...... Right???

Gary in San Diego

Posted by: Gary in San Diego at Jan 14, 2005 8:10:32 PM

Well, I have had had it for about one week and it's great. No not good as Tivo, but the SD8000 does fall into one of my favorite categories....FREE! Any problems.. I give it back and get another one... a new model comes out .. I swap it out and get another one. I spilled water into it (old HD box.. long story). .. I swap it out. Yeah it's a bit slow changing channels but who cares... it was FREE!

Okay now to address the components and non- widescreen HD TVs. I myself have a Sony 54" HDTV NON-widescreen and I like it just the way it is... since most (90%+) channels are not widescreen. When I first plugged in, yeah every freaking channel was widescreen... stupid gray and black bars made my TV look like a 32" The manual SUCKS buttmunch BUT there is a solution. I was able to make it go full screen on regular DTV channels and widescreen on HD channels. It only took me 3 hours to figure it out, but for you guys, it'll be 5 mins.

Remember these instructions are only if you have a 4:3 aspect ratio HDTV and NOT A regular widescreen tv.

1. Check what type of HD tv you got... I have one that is capable of 480p,720p and oh yes 1080i
2. On your remote press the SETTINGS button, then the yellow triangle A button, scroll down to ASPECT RATIO, then right arrow it and set it to STANDARD (4:3) and hit the SELECT button, then right arrow again, and set it to LETTER BOX 16:9 picture and hit the select button. Then press the yellow triagle to accept
3. Then left arrow it again back to PREFERENCES, and scroll down to OUTPUT FORMATS. Right arrow again and scroll through the video formats. You definitely want to select the 480p setting cause that will bring the regular channels back to FULL screen... and also I selected the 1080i and that will be for the HD. Some HDTVs don't have 1080i and only have 720p so make sure you select the one that matches your set. Make sure the little dot are next to the correct output formats. When done hit the yellow triangle to accept.

Now all your DTV channels are in full screen and the HD channels will come in widescreen... it takes a couple of seconds for the HD box to change over output formats, BUT remember this... it is outputting in components and not the S cable. How cool is that. It took me 3 freaking hours to set it up but when I accidently stumbled upon it I was so happy. I too was about to take this box back because I couldn't deal with the black bars on the top, bottom, left and right on regular channels but now I don't have too and my DTV channels come in clearer then before. The manual just plain sucks. Hope this helps everyone

Taurus574

Posted by: taurus574 at Jan 17, 2005 7:47:16 PM

Anyone having trouble with the 8000HD and running the video thru an amplifier? I have a Yamaha RX-V1400 HT amp with component video switching and I only get a black screen when the component output of the 8000HD is sent to the amp. The previous cable box -the Explorer 3250HD - worked fine and I’m using the same cables to the same type of connectors (and they are all correctly inserted). The only solution so far has been to use another set of component inputs on the TV and skip by the amp for video. Makes it a pain to switch between various components DVD, DVD-R, cable, etc. and defeats a huge benefit of that particular amp - a single video out connector to the TV. Suggestions?

Posted by: r_beagle at Feb 5, 2005 12:43:17 PM

explorer 8000 suks.. i can get it to come in in 480p on my 1080i mits. hdtv. But when i switch it to 1080i it goes blue screen and i have to reboot to get anything to work again. any one else have this issue.. no response from my great cable compano

Posted by: mark b at Feb 9, 2005 2:36:11 PM

Is there any way to get the Explorer 8000 I bought to work without going through time warner. I already pay for 2 boxes through them. I want to add 1 on my own.

Posted by: Joe at Feb 15, 2005 7:02:01 PM

I have the Explorer 8000 through Time Warner. I just bought a 16:9 HDTV, and I need to figure out a way to get HD channels in widescreen format, and non-HD in "simulated HD" (not sure what it's actually called, but basically blowing up the picture to fill the screen and get rid of the grey bands on either side of the picture)

The day I bought the TV, I hooked it up to my existing (non-HD) version of the same cable box, and it worked fine. All channels filled the screen, although they were not HD. The next day, I swapped out the box for the HD box, and I lost a third of my screen size on 90% of available programming.

The TW techs tell me that the s-video and other outputs, except for the component outputs, are all "probably" disabled on the box - but they did said that it was possible I could get one with a DVI connection that worked. I don't get it - Why would they disable the s-video? If that worked, I could at least switch back and forth easily?

Is there another solution?

Posted by: Loud at Feb 25, 2005 1:56:16 PM

When you go into Settings > More Settings, there's a menu entry for Aspect Ratio I think it's called. I just fiddled with it today. My 8000HD now switches to stretch mode for 4:3 programming, and back to regular HD mode for HD programming.

My tv kinda flips out and shows garbage for a second or two when switching from 4:3 to 16:9 programming or vice versa, but other than that, it's better than those ugly gray bars -- even if the picture gets a bit distorted.

Posted by: Jim at Mar 1, 2005 12:50:23 PM

This might be appreciated by someone who gets an 'unrecoverable disk' or 'unrecoverable write' error on an SA Explorer 8000

Formatting the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 Hard Drive:

First of all you WILL lose all previously recorded shows.

Turn off the TV from the remote – only the clock on the DVR should be showing.

From the remote control:

1. Press and hold the Pause button ( || ) until the green LED on the DVR flashes.
2. Press the Page - (Page minus) button once
3. Press the ‘List’ button three times.

When the list button is pressed each time, you will see the display on the DVR display Hdd1, Hdd2, etc.
then finally after pressing it 3 times you will see hddf – which means the hard drive is formatting.

Wait for the clock to come back on and you are good to go.

Posted by: Onemagic at Mar 6, 2005 4:36:37 PM

All your comments have been very helpful. My friend and I each got the SA 8000 from TWC the other day, for our HD sets. (He has a Samsung DLP, as crisp and lifelike as you'll ever see!) but when we swapped our regular HD cable box for the SA8000, the picture in both his set and mine were degraded. Unsharp. HD now looks merely good instead of fantastic. Obvious Lost sharpness. I haven't heard of anyone else with this problem. Any suggestions? Thanks.

Posted by: Skymanbob at Mar 11, 2005 11:34:03 AM

I have the EXPLORER 8000HD. In order to stop mine from freezing up they added an amplifier to mine. I tried to change the 1080i today and the screen went blue. I got so PO'ed that i started touching all the button and as I touched both volume buttons at the same time and the top channel button it came back on but it is now all in black and white. It said (sd) at one time as it rebooted and then the (hd) stayed on in the place the clock should be in.

I have had so much problems with the HD boxes. I have just a regular DVR box upstairs (no HD) and it is working great. I had the HD (no DVR) box until this past friday I got the HD DVR and it kept freezing up. The reg. HD box froze up while watching "on demands" of any kind. We didnt dare try to rewind or fast forward. I HATE IT!! Direct TV/TIVO is looking better everyday. I pay TW 175.00 a month and it has been a huge headache for 1 year now.

TW tech will be out , AGAIN, on Wed.

Posted by: gwen at Mar 13, 2005 9:01:54 PM

I have a new problem -- my drive seems to be working in that when watching live TV I can go back and review what is in the 'cache', but it won't allow me to access any of my saved shows. Just goes black, sits there for a while, and reboots. (This happens repeatedly.)

Is there a disk checking feature in the diagnostic mode that I can use to determine the problem? I *really* don't want to lose some of the stuff on my drive.

Any ideas?

Posted by: FB at Mar 15, 2005 8:12:42 PM

Can the hard drives be increased to two 400 G and then be formated by the box? Has it been done.

With comcast?

Posted by: Peter at Mar 20, 2005 9:53:29 AM

I've had 2 8300HD boxes erase all of my shows and give an HDDF error
on the LCD and make loud hard drive banging noises. Only real thing
in common (and it could be a coincidence) is that I left them on the
DVR channel overnight with a movie paused when it happened.
Overheating? Bad batch of drives? Don't really know. They were on top of the TV with nothing on them so if they overheated it's a serious design flaw.

Cablevision, NJ
SARA 1.87.14.1

Posted by: Alec at Apr 18, 2005 2:50:20 PM

I think almost all of the problems listed here (except overheating disk problems) are resolved by looking at this thread:

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=453804&perpage=20&highlight=tips&pagenumber=1

or by user guides:

www.timewarnercable.com/MediaLibraryRoot/FAQ/documents/exp8000hd_dvr.pdf

www.cox.com/support/digitalcable/dvr/pdf/SA_DVR_740246revD.pdf

Time Warner gave me no instructions with my 8000hd - just for the remote.

Posted by: moto at Apr 23, 2005 1:37:45 PM

If we hate this box so much, lets just hack it, such as use that 'unused' firewire port off the back and take a look see whats on that hard drive and see if we can pull some of those recordings off there.
anyone with me??

Posted by: JASON at May 1, 2005 9:48:00 PM

My former 8000 from cox froze up after 8 months of trouble free use. Probably my fault since its in a case with all of my other electronics. I took it to cox cable in Sterling Va and they just replaced it for free and my new one works fine. The blue B button shows how much recording space is left. The only problem I have is how few High Def channels we currently have. If they put sci fi in High def I would be perfectly happy.

Posted by: John at Aug 15, 2005 9:11:27 PM

just got my Exp.8000HD from Time War. here in the SanFern. Valley in SoCal and let me tell you, after being a 9 year Dish/E* cust, this unit rocks !!!

Coming from a 921 that's plauged with problems, and a 811 that's plain Jane... this unit is way cool.

As soon as they hooked it up, it already snaggeg 1.5 weeks of programming (not even a chance with Dish or Sat) and I started to INSTANTLY rec. HDnet and INHD2 right away !!! Damn, try doing that reliably on a Dish box.

4 days into it, an I've got 31hrs of all HD recordings so far. Now it's time to dump or sell my E* account to someone because I'm "grandfather" in before 2000 so I get all the local East cost feeds also.

One nice thing about cable... NO MPEG COMPRESSION !!! or ARTIFACTING !!! Dish/ Charlie Ergen, you guys suck now, and you think going to MPEG-4 next year will help?

Yea right(lol) and force EVERYONE to buy all new equip. I've played that game already 4 times in the past with you.

Hello Digi Cable !!

Posted by: JasonA at Nov 5, 2005 12:49:35 AM

My husband loves his TiVo as do I. Can you do something about that sound--so when I want to read in bed, and he wants to TiVo, that sound doesn't drive me wild.

Posted by: Alina Wheeler at Dec 2, 2005 4:09:51 PM

My husband loves his TiVo as do I. Can you do something about that sound--so when I want to read in bed, and he wants to TiVo, that sound doesn't drive me wild.

Posted by: Alina Wheeler at Dec 2, 2005 4:10:25 PM

"I think we all agree that the DVR functions of the 8300 is well behind TIVO, Replay, PC apps etc. Has anyone ever heard whether SA has any plans to improve the feature set?" -- quote from someone off another blog

I too agree that the 8300 stinks if you're used to the ease of TiVo -- is there any way to search through a list of all the shows aired over a cetain period of time (i.e. 1 week) instead of just the shows aired on a certain day. It is a pain in the rear to find the show I want if I don't know exactly when it is!!!

On TiVo, if i know a single word in the title of the show, I can figure out when the show airs!!! On my 8300, I have to know either the exact name and date the show airs, or the time and channel it airs on!

The ability to record two channels at the same time is cool, BUT it's so dificult to tell it to record my shows that I'll probably never even use it because I won't record that much!

Also, what's up with the un-useable USB port? On my TiVo, IT DID SOMETHING!!!!

Posted by: Eric at Mar 23, 2006 8:20:21 PM

Any other secret commands that anyone is aware of? Diagnostic menu's or resets?

Posted by: jim at Oct 23, 2006 5:34:29 PM

I love my TiVo but can't afford the HD TiVo to go with my new HDTV, so I find myself with this SA 8300 piece of crap. One of the worst parts are those ugly grey bars on the sides of standard 4:3 aspect ratio. Does anyone know how to make them black? it's distracting as hell.

Posted by: Dave at Dec 14, 2006 3:53:02 PM

SA 8300 is it impossible to change the grey to black??

Posted by: zimNYC at Jan 14, 2007 3:18:24 PM

Has anyone found a way to transfer recorded shows off the SA 8300 to a PC?, I'm with Bright house (time warner) in hernando FL, its a reg 8300 with a SATA on the back and a USB on the front, Oh and I connected a USB keyboard to the front usb and it works! so its not completely disabled. Plz give all the info you can

Posted by: Larry Of CoMp87 at Mar 23, 2007 7:44:07 PM

Time Warner Akron, Ohio. I got a 8000HD yesterday, took it home and hooked it up. It worked OK, except the channels changed very slow. About an hour later, I was watching the local HD news on FOX8 and all of the sudden the 8000HD just shut off. The front panel said boot, then HAL2 then some strange symbols, it kept doing this for several minutes before it completely died. Tried unplugging it and nothing happens. The front panel is out, but I hear the hard drive truning. Now I have to wait a week for someone to come out for a service call. I only hope I get a 8300HD instead. I can't believe that they are giving out used DVRs! The date on the bottom says 8/28/04 when it was made. How can Time Warner get away with giving out crap? This is the second 8000Hd I've had, the first one didn't even boot at all!

Posted by: nick at Aug 8, 2007 11:40:57 PM

I am so upset with this SA8000 thing. Can I even call it an electronic device?!? Well, I have only had this P.O.S. for a month, and already I've gotten the "Unrecoverable Write Error" message. How does this happen so soon after getting it? It has had nothing on top of it or around it. It even has it's own shelf for fuck's sake!!! This morning, it was mking this horrible clicking sound from it's hard drive and after that, all of my shows were gone and I can't even get into my recorded menu. And this whole business with not keeping the hard drive full of shows? Mine was less than 50% full when it crashed. I'm so frustrated with this machine, and am not looking foward to calling Cox Support and having them ask me stupid questions like if I've tried unplugging it for 20 seconds and then plugging it back in! All I want is a machine that will last longer than a month, is that too hard?!?

Posted by: Alicia at Jan 14, 2008 7:03:37 PM

Frauenfelder on S-A Explorer 8000

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