ReplayTV 5500 vs. Scientific Atlanta 8300HD

From IckyWiki

This is where I'm going to store my observations comparing these two DVRs. . -epe

Contents 1 Background 2 Streaming 3 Extraction 4 Watching while Recording 5 Watching Recordings 6 Skipping Ahead/Back 7 HD/Digital Recording 8 Number of Tuners 9 Program Guide 10 Scheduling 11 Device Info 11.1 8300HD from TWC Rochester 12 Boot Up Time 13 Screen Saver

Background

• Have had a Replay 3060 since...forever
• Have had a Replay 5500 series for a year or two
• Just got the 8300HD from Time Warner Cable (Rochester/Fingerlakes) as a stopgap, waiting for better technology (specifically, something that lets you extract video for editing and burning to DVD)
• Eagerly anticipating the Tivo series 3 with CableCard support

Up until now we only used the Replays to record analog cable, mostly because I don't want to control a cable or satellite box using IR. It sucks. I've done it. I missed a lot of recordings. Since I want to record HD and digital content, it seems as if the only hope is to use a provider DVR, or to wait for CableCard devices. So far, my biggest peeve with provider DVRs is, no way to extract digital data for editing and DVD burning (as I'm used to with Replay). Thus, my biggest hope is for a standalone box with a method of extracting at least non-flagged programs, with CableCard support.

We're not there yet (maybe 2nd half of 2006), but for an extra $5-$10 a month, I figured, why not at least be able to watch HD and record stuff I wasn't planning to save long term. No contract, and I can always give back the box in a few months.

Streaming

Replay has a huge advantage here, having the ethernet port built in and 3rd party tools like DVArchive. It's so easy to get hooked on being able to watch video stored on the Replay from any PC on your LAN, even without having to wait to download the files there. Also, the ability to set up DVArchive on a PC or server and treat it like a virtual Replay is great. You could pull video off the Replay, edit commercials, and put on your server and let DVArchive serve it to the network...and the Replay connected to your TV could play the stream as if it were another Replay on the network (you can't copy new material back to the Replay but streaming to it is nearly as good).

Extraction

I understand the copyright issues. But fair use is quickly disappearing, unless you feel like 'saving to VCR'. My VCR is covered in dust and we only use it as a TV tuner when all the DVR's are recording stuff, and we want to watch something else (very seldom). I suppose we could hook up the 8300 to the 5500 and redigitize there, if needed, introducing analog-to-digital degradation. Very hard to swallow.

I don't even mind if they restrict access to *some* video that has a copy-never or copy-once flag on it. I just want to be able to take the less restricted stuff, edit commercials, author menus, and burn to DVD. Is that so much to ask? Replay 5500 and DVArchive have spoiled me that way.

We've also been using the Replay as a video digitizing device, by hooking up our old Laserdisc player to it and recording content to the Replay, then extracting the video from the Replay via DVArchive, editing, authoring, and burning a DVD. For the most part we buy DVDs as they come out, but there are Laserdiscs for which there's very little hope of their being released to DVD any day soon...like the Bloom County Christmas classic 'Opus n Bill: A Wish for Wings that Work', and others. This is just a personal backup method, hedging against Laserdisc rot.

Watching while Recording

On the 8300, I've found that if you want to start watching something that's currently recording, it doesn't have an option for watching from beginning the way the Replay did. So, you have to start at the recording point and scan backwards. Not only that, but when the recording is complete, it jumps to the live or next recording show, rather than continuing with the recorded show.

My theory on this is, on the Replay, if you watch a recording show you're watching the recorded stream. Thus whatever happens to live TV, you just keep watching the recorded stream. Maybe on the 8300, you're watching the live buffer, so when the recording ends, the live buffer dumps, leaving you watching live TV (or whatever it's currently recording). I don't like this.

Note: I think they released a patch to fix both these issues later, as it now has a 'watch from beginning' option and doesn't seem to do that jump to live anymore.

peepe 16:40, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Watching Recordings

Replay was so good about always keeping track of where I left off, when I paused a recording and came back to it later, even after turning it off, rebooting, leaving it overnight, whatever.

The 8300 seems to forget most of the time, and if I go back to List and play a recording I paused earlier, it simply starts from the beginning. ARGH.

On Replay, when you touch the Info (Display?) button while playing a recorded show, it shows the show info along with how far you are into playing the show, without interrupting the show. On the 8300, it just shows info on the DVR Channel (not very useful). I'm also not sure yet how to get the 8300 to show EXACTLY how far you are currently into a playback, short of fast forwarding or reversing. The status bar is next to useless, especially for a very long program. I want to know exactly how many minutes and seconds in again, especially if I'm going to have to scan forward to that point again.

If I start watching a recording on the 8300, I've noticed that if I go back to the recordings list and select it again, it goes straight back to the recording rather than showing the options menu for the recording. This is a little bit annoying; you have to switch to another recording or channel and then switch back to the list of recordings, and hit enter on the recording again, in order to get the options.

Skipping Ahead/Back

The Replay's 30 second skip ahead, 7 second skip back, and X minute skips backward or forward is very easy to get used to and hard to give up on another machine. Especially since, when using skip forward through commercials, although the 5500 does not skip whole commercials, on the last 'skip' before a program comes back from commercial, it usually stops on the commercial boundary rather than the full 30 seconds.

The 8300 does have a skip back 8 seconds, but forward requires scanning. Blech.

HD/Digital Recording

Of course, the one big advantage the 8300 has is that it records the cable signal directly, rather than having to mpeg encode everything. Thus, better quality recorded and live video, for the most part, even on non-HD channels. Also, of course, the ability to view and record HD is very nice. Your best output on the Replay was upconverted 480P; the 8300 does up to 1080i and can be set to pass through the native resolution of the show (or channel?)

Number of Tuners

The 8300 has 2; the Replay has 1.

Thus:

• On Replay, you can record one show and watch either the recording show, or a previously recorded show
• On the 8300, you can record two shows at once and watch either recording show, or a previously recorded show

Program Guide

On the Replay you had complete control over which channels appear in the program guide. If there's a way to do this on the 8300, I would be thrilled to know it.

Also, the ReplayTV EPG seems to consistently get about 11 days ahead of current, while the TWC is only 7.

Scheduling

On Replay, you can type in search keywords to find shows, and can even set up a theme recording on a show that isn't currently in the program guide. In the 8300 you, tediously, have to list shows either by program guide, title, or type, find the show you want, and set up the recording from there. In other words, if the show's not in the guide, you can't set it up to record the show in the future, in case it *does* ever appear.

Device Info

8300HD from TWC Rochester

To view this, you hold pause until the light blinks then page up.

• PTV OS: OS, Home Server Edition 1.4
• Flash: 1.87.23.1
• App(s): compass v0.4.0b14, SARA v1.87.23.1

Heh. It lists IP as 0.0.0.0 for 'Ethernet' but there's no ethernet port available. Hmmm.

This section needs updating, since I know they've updated since I last posted this.

peepe 16:42, 21 November 2006 (UTC)

Boot Up Time

If the 5500 has to reboot, it doesn't take more than a minute. When the 8300 gets unplugged or otherwise has to reboot, it takes at least 8 FULL MINUTES to reboot, before the clock comes on and you can start watching TV.

8300HD from Optimum TV (Cablevision) Long Island reboots faster than a ReplayTV 5000

Screen Saver

If you leave the Replay in pause mode for more than a few minutes, it puts up a screen saver (black with moving 'R'). The 8300 does not, so if you leave it in pause and leave the room, it leaves the picture up on your tv (on our plasma, even with the 'orbiting' screen saver it has, this causes burn-in).

Note: this might have been fixed. I need to check this.

peepe 16:43, 21 November 2006 (UTC)