Announcement
Last week, Scientific-Atlanta (SA) announced at CES the commercial availability of its Explorer 8300 MR-DVR set-top. Time Warner Cable, is now initiating the deployment of Multi-Room™ DVR set-tops in its Minneapolis division. Scientific-Atlanta’s Multi-Room DVR builds on its very popular DVR device first commercially deployed in August 2002.

http://www.digitalhomecanada.com/reference/sciatl/SA8300.jpg



Award
In addition, the digital video recorder was awarded the “Best Integrated Home Entertainment” award at the fourth annual Storage Visions Conference in Las Vegas, NV. The MR-DVR solution was recognized by the award’s sponsors, Storage Visions and Engage Capital, for advancing “the state of the art in storage technologies utilized in consumer electronics.” Judges selected the MR-DVR because of its contribution to fulfilling the vision of a digitally-connected universe of products and services.

When in Canada
New readers to Digital Home Canada should realize that commercial availability is great but it doesn't mean Rogers and/or Videotron will have these units for you in the next month.

First of all the companies may decide NOT to offer them. If they do offer them then these units take time to program, test and deploy.

Realistically, even if they are going to offer them, be prepared to wait awhile!

More Details
PDF Outling Features of SA 8300 Series (http://www.sciatl.com/customers/Source/7004920.pdf)

This I might buy...if it ever gets here.

However, I am curious, do the current set-top boxes we have (excluding the 8000/8300 series) meet the criteria for multi-room use? (are they 'Rev 3 or higher')

Also, out of curiosity, I've looked around, but sometimes I'm not all that great at searching for things...given that HD's have a much higher failure rate than any other device in a PVR, if the box was out of warranty, has anyone figured out if we can replace the drive ourselves with another of the same type?

And finally, the most important question, has SA fixed the numerous bugs inherant in the 8000 series. Heh. :)

I suspect these will have newer firmware that possibly fixes some annoying bugs in the existing boxes. When those fixes trickle back to older boxes who knows? We certainly havent seen any 8300 fixes back-fixed in the 8000 boxes to my knowledge.

Does anybody have an insight as to when Rogers will be able to provide the MR DVR to its customers?

I emailed Rogers today and asked if they would be offering the MR DVR and the [/sarcasm on] ever helpful customer service rep [/sarcasm off] gave me a link to the digital cable page and told to keep checking back to see if it appeared on the page in the future.

Thanks, great help

I think you're expecting too much of a CSR. That's kind like asking a person at the Toronto Star circulation department if tomorrow's newspaper will have a story on the chocolate milk fiasco.

This is the reason why I won't upgrade to the 8300hd. This will be a killer ap, as long as I can use my 3200 in conjunction with the Multi-Room. I can't think of anything else that I'd want except for a secondary HD to archive content which I'd be all over like a hockey player on a dollar bill. Can't wait till Rogers offers one of these babies.

I am confused on how the multiroom will be connected. The pdf file states that it can be used with existing cable wiring in the home but does this mean:

1) the multiroom will find any SA box that is already connected in your house and utilize it ?

2) you have to take the output(s) of the multiroom and connect it to the SA box in each room.

number 1 would be easy, number 2 means you have to rewire your whole house unless you put it where the main cable comes in and after the splitter !!
:confused:

Well all I know is that if it is #1, it's the single greatest home entertainment invention since...the hdpvr!!

The Documentation on Scientific Atlanta's website says that the recevier unit can be any set top box which is at least a "STB 2000 revision 3". So in effect any of the 3000 series boxes will work. The hardware is compatible, However a software upgrade may be required.

Cheers,

Lanshark

I emailed Rogers today and asked if they would be offering the MR DVR and the [/sarcasm on] ever helpful customer service rep [/sarcasm off] gave me a link to the digital cable page and told to keep checking back to see if it appeared on the page in the future.

Thanks, great help

I also sent an email a few days ago. The CSR responded that the 8300 multi-room needs to go through testing before being deployed.

At least she didn't give a standard line on checking the web page! My guess would be November 2005..who's taking odds..hehe.

The Documentation on Scientific Atlanta's website says that the recevier unit can be any set top box which is at least a "STB 2000 revision 3". So in effect any of the 3000 series boxes will work. The hardware is compatible, However a software upgrade may be required.

Cheers,

Lanshark

does that mean if you own any 8000 series (HD or non-Hd) you wouldn't be able to use this in conjunction with the MR PVR?

If that is the case then that is too bad because the way I look at it by having the extra PVR that gives you the additional HD space as well.

If it is the case - why?

Hi all,

Sci Atl website (within the eExplorer section) says that the MR DVR will NOT work with other 8000 series, despite the fact that a new MR PVR channel will need to be created (similar to the current channel 950 for PVR playback).

I really can't wait to hear more about this....

Sci Atl website (within the eExplorer section) says that the MR DVR will NOT work with other 8000 series
Does it say that specifically? I read this:

If I have an Explorer 8000 in my house already, can I connect it to the MR-DVR network?
No, that is not currently supported. The Explorer 8000 can record and playback anything you schedule on it, but it cannot share it’s recordings with the other settops.

It's pretty vague in that it says that the 8000 cannot share it's recordings (for obvious reasons) but it doesn't say that it can't access the 8300HD-MR's recordings, and to be honest, I see absolutely NO reason it shouldn't be able to, unless of course SciAtl is an evil corporation desperate for cash...

...

...oh wait. Darn.

http://www.globetechnology.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050324.gtdvrrevmar24/BNStory/TechReviews/

Nice New feature: First run recordings (no repeats)

Let's hope they fixed shortcomings of 8000, 8300.

Anyone have a status update on where Rogers is with the 8300MR? Do they plan to offer it? Is it under trials?

I really could use an HD version of this box. My current HD PVR is dedicated to the home theater where we have a 100" projection screen and tend to only use for special events. Would be nice to watch recorded shows from the bedroom Set Top Box.

Ray

You could rent an additional HD DVR in the meantime at incremental cost to your other STB (unless it's purchased) in which case you're looking at the "normal" $27/mo (which may be coming down soon...rumours in another thread)

I am very interested in the multi-room feature. I have an 8300HD and 2 digital boxes (3200 and 3100). I would really like to watch my taped shows on my other TVs.

Any idea on how long it will take until we see this feature?

It's very difficult to get this type of advance information. You could try e-mailing Rogers to see if they're even considering it.

It's very difficult to get this type of advance information. You could try e-mailing Rogers to see if they're even considering it.
It seems as though the new firmware deals specificall with the MR models since it added a bunch of MR stuff to the non-PVR boxes. So perhaps they're preparing at the least to sell them. Not that I expect them to tell us. The jerks. :)