CNET reviews “free HD TiVo knockoff”

David Carnoy mourns the loss of his TiVo but says he simply had to replace it with the cable company’s HD-capable Scientific Atlanta 8300HD:

The long and short of it is, the 8300HD isn’t quite up to TiVo standards. But it does a decent job and offers significant feature upgrades over its predecessor, the 8000HD. The strides Scientific Atlanta has made in just eight months is impressive and should be of serious concern to TiVo. Yes, TiVo has cut a deal with Comcast to provide that cable giant with its boxes, and it’s also announced plans for a CableCard HD DVR. But with those products not due until late this year and early next year, respectively, the company’s left HD-enabled cable customers such as me no alternative but to look elsewhere.

My biggest quibble with the review is that it completely ignores the many reviews and how-to articles that have been written over the past few months by people who don’t work for CNET. Lots of good stuff at AVS Forums, and at the Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8000 Yahoo Group, and even (ahem) this site.