I’m a member of a Yahoo group devoted to the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 personal video recorder. It’s been enlightening, to say the least, to read about the experiences of others who are stuck with this woeful piece of consumer electronics gear. Now, a software engineer who is also a part of that group has started MyPVRSucks.com:
When I upgraded my TV to an HD compatible set, I decided to get a Rogers Cablevision HD set-top box – and decided to get the PVR model at the same time. I envisioned a beautiful utopia where I could simply click the “Record” button while viewing the guide, and all my shows would be recorded in HD digital splendor, for my viewing enjoyment.
I picked the PVR up at my local Rogers store. Easy. As the transaction completed, the sales lady told me “Remember to power it off every night. You have to turn it off.” This is slightly alarming, but, what the heck… and I head for home with my nice new PVR.
Unfortunately, everything was not quite as smooth as I had hoped.
Because…
The Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 HD sucks!
The Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300 HD sucks too!
And here’s why…
After having used a TiVo for nearly five years and spending the last month with Microsoft’s new Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, I have to agree. I use the SA box because it is the only way I can record HDTV. But the software is dreadful. For instance, if you sit down to watch a show that is currently being recorded, you have to manually (and slowly) reverse your way through the current recording to get to the beginning. If you’re 20 minutes into a show, that can take two minutes. There is no way to start at the beginning. As you’re watching, the progress bar (which appears when you hit the Play button) doesn’t show you any indication of how much time has elapsed or how much remains. It’s a graphical display only.
Oh, and here’s my favorite: When the currently recording program reaches the end, the recorder automatically dumps you out of the program you’re watching and to whatever happens to be on live TV at that moment. To get back to where you were, you have to visit the list of recorded programs again, start at the beginning, and then fast-forward through the program. How lame is that?
Let’s not discuss the video artifacts, the sound that drops out mysteriously, or the dancing green bars that took over the screen for about five minutes during last night’s episode of Lost.
Judy and I have learned to resist the urge to watch a program on the Cox/SA box until it’s done recording. We’re also using the Media Center PC to record as much as possible, reserving the Cox box strictly for HD programming and for times when the single tuner in the MCE machine is otherwise busy.
Thanks to the mysterious software engineer who started MyPVRSucks.com, at least I know I’m not alone.
Update: For a more detailed look at the 8300HD and its alternatives, see TiVo versus MCE versus my cable company.
Ed Bott 
What… are you guys new?! Either you have the 1st generation of the 8300HD or you haven’t played around enough yet. I think that both may apply to your sitches.
First, When “rewinding” or “fast forwarding”, start the action by pressing the REW or FF button, THEN… press the navigator button in the direction you are going; (for REW, press the LEFT key… for FF, press the RIGHT key. Navigator keys are the four arrows that are around the “select” key). By doing this, you advance in 15 minute increments all the way to the beginning or end of the current window.
As far as artifacts, I have seen NONE from any 1080i programming. NOW, that being said… not saying that you haven’t already considered this but, when viewing ANY OTHER FORMAT than 1080i, (including 720p), you are going to see the “flaw” in that programming due to your wonderful new HDTV’s incredibly HUGE resolution! For example, before HD came along, would you not see a difference between a VHS tape connected up to a RF jack as opposed to a composite input? A difference between that same VCR connected to a composite input as opposed to a DVD connected to a component input? Of course you did! Respectively, all of the above mentioned inputs are showing you more information per input than the latter. Your screen didn’t change resolution, your inputs DID!
Same here, except that we now have a few formats to “play” with. 480i is what you were used to prior to HD. 480p is the SAME resolution, just progressive, (each screen is an entire screen sent to your monitor, not half-and-half like 480i). 720p, even better… but 1080i tops us out on the list. It looks GREAT! Your monitor can reproduce 1080 individual lines, horizontally. Your SD or 480i programming is sending less than HALF of the information your monitor wants! Of COURSE it’s going to show you the flaws in the 480i programming.
If you want to view 480i programming that’s recorded on your 8300HD PVR, might I suggest you connect up a S-video cable to your monitor, switch the monitor over to your s-video line and make any picture adjustments there. I have noticed that my Samsung 32″ doesn’t allow you to adjust screen size at all from a COMPONENT source. However, It will from a S-video source, and what’s more, it will actually make it look BETTER than the source due to an upscaling circuit built into the Monitor. I don’t watch 480i programming much any more, but when it’s necessary, we just flip over to the S-video input and it looks good! NOT as good as 1080i mind you, but it makes the best of the programming coming in. G4tech tv is currently NOT in 1080i… yet. Thanks to Ted Turner 😦
Hope this helps you… some. You just gotta play a bit and look at some other posts before you give up on the 8300HD. Mine looks and performs GREAT!
And no… I do not work for any cable company or Scientific Atlanta… I am the Lighting Crew Chief for Who Wants to Be a Millionaire at Disney’s MGM Studios.
Just wanted to help!
BK
Brian,
You have a very cool job!
Sorry, but the keyboard shortcuts you describe don’t work on an 8300HD running the SARA software. They only work on a box running the Passport software, which must be what you have.
The glitches I’ve been seeing are most assuredly in 1080i programming. “Lost” has been the worst in this regard. I haven’t watched last night’s episode to see if it’s still happening. There are many other reports of this. It is digital noise and occasionally complete audio drop-out. The signal also sometimes drops and begins playing a horrible screechy tone over the recorded audio. I’ve done enough experimenting to be 100% sure it’s the DVR.
For now I’ll keep the HD box, but we use it much less than we would if it actually worked the way it’s supposed to.
I have just been previewing the 8300 PVR box. As a former CATV company employee I would say to the first gentlemans post have a service call with your CATV provider booked to your home. The drop outs and arifacts are probably due to some miss behaving main line CATV equipment or possibly poor wiring in your home. Not likely to be the box at all. I am impressed with the boxes features and quality. How are you folks connecting your box? I first tried a high end Component cable. Then I tried the HDMI interface with a convertor to the DVI interface on my TV. The HDMI/DVI interface affording a superior quality picture.
hi fellows
just got my dvr its a sa8300hd…i wanna connect it to a centerstage cs2 video porcessor…i tried the componenet wires and set thall of the resloutions sinc ei could see the,mmm..but guess what…so far i have only been able to use this thing with the svideo cable.,..i m gonna try doing another hd to sd switch and reset my centerstage so that my pj is on and see if it works like that…
has anyone uysed it this way…if so email me pl;ease
thanks
Sorry BK,
I just subscribed to TWC in Houston about a month ago, got a brand gleaming new Explorer 8300HD – and am experiencing ALL the same problems as the orignal poster is.
The intersting/frustrating thing about it is that when I was subscribing to Bright House Networks cable in Orlando before I moved to Houston, the Explorer 8300HD I was using there worked BEAUTIFULLY! It had NONE of those problems. I don’t know anyhting about SARA or Passport, but I do know that the program guide on my current box is ugly and clunky looking compared to the one on the box I had in Orlando.
I hate it! I’m trying to see if Scientific-Atlanta will let me install whatever software the Orlando box had on my current box…
I just bought a shiny new x-box(Im 13, by the way) Is there any way to connect it to the Explorer 8000? I know there is an input in the back, but i cant make my machine play it… Does it have to be on a certian channel, or will it work anywhere? I tried the video sourse, and flipping through the channels, help please!!!
also, can it play in picture in picture so my sister can watch her shows? thanks-Adam
Adam, you should post this question at the Yahoo Group for Explorer 8000/8300 owners. Click here to visit that group. I think at 13 you’re allowed to join.
Best of luck.
If you want to see just how bad these things are (atleast interface wise), try Dish Networks DVR.
Some things that really stink about 8300..
guide does not show if program is new or even what year it was released.
DVR does not remember where you left off watching a show when you power off.
DVR does not let you start watching from the beginning of a recording when it’s still recording..
guide is not full screen in HD mode.. looks squished.
The dish DVR could hold 100 hours of regular programming rather then the 40 on the 8300…
I did not have HD with dish, but had the dual tuner boxes for 2 room coverage with 1 box. So point 4 might be the same. Have to try. Dish can do these first 3!
I had found it a problem also when I was watching a show I was recording and it shut off when the real time was finished. I found (a pain in the ass) that if you ff or rew back and forth for a few seconds before the end of the show it will not shut off from where you are. It will stay where it is if you are in the rw or ff mode.
It’s almost two years later and they (Rogers in my case) still have not updated the software. It sure would be nice if someone with web expertise could start a petition or something that could be taken to Rogers and any other cable outlet that is using this inferior software.
Could threats that everyone was going to move to Bell ExpressVU or some other supplier force them to fix this?
I have just gone through my second 8300 HD. It works great for awhile, as HD programming comes in HD in full screen format and non HD programming reverts to a smaller screen resolution.
After a while, all channels and programming go full screen and the picture distorts slightly (not horribly) and the credits no longer always fit on the screen.
I realize this is not a very technical explanation, but hope the description of the problem is enough to get a response whether this happens to anyone else.
I am on my third 8300.
Time-Warner has supplied this box, but their “technical support” is simply “remote reboot” followed by “replace the box”.
They have no clue how or why it quits working, but they can sure replace them in record time.
My performance has been as follows:
10 days ago: New house, new cable, new box, new everything. Everything works fine.
3 days later: Digital features of 8300 are gone. No channels above 75, no menu, no guide, nothing else. (Road Runner still going strong.)
TW comes out and replaces the box. Again, new box, still in the plastic. Works fine.
3 days later, back to no digital features. TW replaces the box. Works fine.
Last night, back to broken.
Tomorrow, they’re going to replace it again.
I have asked TW repeatedly why it would keep doing this; they don’t even act interested.
Is there any known troubleshooting process that I can try?
I can’t keep taking the day off work to sit at home waiting for them to come out.