Marc's 2nd Blog

Very Cool.

Sept. 8, 2004, 11:42AM

New DVR is something to see
By MIKE MCDANIEL
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

Having a night on the town could be a whole lot easier now that Houston's largest cable supplier has entered the DVR market.

Time Warner Cable, which has 730,000 subscribers in the metro area, quietly began offering a digital video recorder earlier this month. Made possible by a "system overlay" created by Scientific-Atlanta, the device, called the Explorer 8000, rivals and in some ways exceeds such stand-alone and satellite DVRs as those made by TiVo and Replay.

About the size of a high-end VCR, Time Warner's DVR provides 80 gigabytes of memory, capable of storing 35-50 hours of programming, depending on how graphics- and video-saturated the programs are (sports events take more space than a soap opera, for example). The DVR is a two-tuner device, meaning you can record two programs — and play back a third — simultaneously. The two tuners also make picture-in-picture display possible.

Like other DVRs, Time Warner's box allows viewers to pause live television for up to an hour — enough time to order a pizza, jump in the shower, call Mom and pay for the pizza — then resume the show where you left off.

Unlike other DVRs, Time Warner's is not an additional box for your television; it takes the place of the cable set-top box you already have. The box also does not require hookup to a phone jack.

I've been tinkering with the device for almost a month, and it works flawlessly. It's a significant upgrade of the digital set-top box I had, and, to me, well worth the $6.95 monthly fee. It's $9.95 a month if you are not a digital service subscriber. The majority of Time Warner customers in Houston get digital service.

That's cheaper than the $12.95 monthly fee for a TiVo programming guide, which comes on top of $99 you pay for the TiVo box. But note: The TiVo device offers subscribers the ability to program the device using a Web site. And TiVo's monthly fee drops to $4.99 if you are a DirecTV subscriber.

Considering the customer service Time Warner can provide, though, the cable company's DVR appears to be highly competitive.

"We're anticipating that most people will want to take advantage of this product," said spokesman Carrie Milbank.

Houston is the last of Time Warner's big-city markets to get the service, Milbank admitted.

"We could have launched something before that was just as good as the competition, but we decided to upgrade our plant and invest in that," she said. "The result is a DVR that's one of the most advanced products on the market."

The Time Warner DVR comes with a remote control that's superior to the one Time Warner supplied with its other boxes. It has a faster response time and can do more.

Channel-changing, for example, is instantaneous, whereas the previous remote took a couple of seconds. Like the old remote, the new one has a "Last" button, which tunes to the previous channel you were watching. With the DVR, that now happens instantaneously.

Hit the "Guide" key and immediately receive titles for 90 minutes of programming, not 30 minutes as with the old remote. Scroll down to a title you like, hit "Info" and you get complete program details.

At any time, press the red button and the DVR will immediately begin recording whatever's on your TV screen.

Hit the "Pause" button and the DVR pauses whatever's playing. Hit "Play" to start watching again. Press "Live" and you immediately jump ahead to real-time TV.

The device keeps track of all programs you wish to record, how you wish to record them, and when you recorded them. If Seinfeld is a favorite, you can order the DVR to record one or all episodes of the show. If you don't think you'll be watching those saved recordings in the two-week window the DVR automatically provides, you can change settings and extend the wait.

Press the green "List" button, and all the programs you've recorded are listed in chronological order. Select the show you want to watch and it immediately comes on. You now can watch it as easily as you watch a DVD or tape, using the remote's forward, rewind, pause and stop buttons. Press the forward or rewind key once, twice or three times to change speeds. An on-screen tracking device shows how much program is left.

Once you watch a recording, you can keep it, erase it or tell your VCR to make a copy of it.

The picture-in-picture buttons are simple to use. Hit "PIP" and a second channel appears in the upper left of the screen. Hit the "+" and "—" keys to change the channel. Hit "swap" and the little picture changes places with the big picture you were watching. Hit "move" and you can move the smaller picture to a different quadrant on your screen.

If you're a digital cable subscriber, it's only a matter of swapping out boxes and initializing the DVR. Time Warner will install it for $19.95 or subscribers can do it for free.

Researchers estimate that 11 million people will be DVR subscribers by the end of 2005.
HoustonChronicle.com - Time Warner's DVR is something to see