Ditto!!

"Having said that, it is worth noting that, aesthetics aside, the Rogers PVR is reliable and functional. It does what it says it does -- provides a system to record shows, in HD, according to an advance or repeatable schedule. I've had mine for at least two years and it is something of a workhorse."


I have been with them for about 3 months i can honestly say they do not live up to that statement. Coming from a BELL 9200 to the rogers HD PVR, was just terrible. I wont list the long list of differences but bottom line i have to baby sit the rogers box. I have seen my shows in the to be recorded list in the middle of its record time slot not recording. The guide is terrible the search function is a joke

I've had a Rogers HD PVR for several years now.

The single biggest issue is the guide/IPG. You can't really separate the two since the guide data is what is used for scheduled recordings and if it gets messed up, as it seems to do a lot, then the recording get messed up.

And to beat the dead horse one more time, the IPG is truly awful.

There are definitely better options out there than the 8300 PVR. That being said, Rogers could fix most of the issues by:

- Switching to the "high-res" interface
- Switching IPG providers
- Bumping the firmware to the current levels

I don't really care *SO* much about the look of the interface. It can be as ugly as it wants as long as it works.

But in this case the interface is ugly *AND* the device doesn't function like a PVR should. I second the notion of 'babysitting' recordings...I shouldn't have to make sure that Lost, Lost (5.1), Lost (HD) and Lost (HD, 5.1) are all set to tape.

Ah well...there's bound to be a change sometime soon.

TIVO is available in Canada.

Not HD Tivo.

SD Tivo is, and looks horrible on my 46" Panasonic. 1080P

Having said that, it is worth noting that, aesthetics aside, the Rogers PVR is reliable and functional. ....

From what I've read, I'm not so sure about the overall reliability of the Scientific America 83000 unit, and in one week, I'm on my second one as the first one had a defective HDMI port.

Anyways, I really miss a lot of the functionality the Tivo had and didn't mind the monthly fee for what I was getting. To me, it was a lot more the a pretty interface.

Also, its not Tivo's fault for not having HD (http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2008/09/11/tech-tivo.html) in Canada. In speaking with them directly, they want to come into this market badly with Tivo HD.

I take great pleasure in owning and using nicely designed products. The Rogers PVR experience isn't anywhere close to being a pleasurable experience for me.

Once you get used to having a PVR, I can't watch TV without it and the Rogers PVR is better than nothing, but I think we all should demand more from Rogers.

If we organized a collective "mass email to Rogers customer service day" specifically about the guide, do you think they'd take any notice? Maybe seeing a huge spike in emails over a short period of time would get some attention.

My free rental on my Rogers HD boxes expire in April 2009. If the Program Guide hasn't been improved by then I'm switching to Bell (perish the thought). Having to scroll through all these useless channels and having my kids exposed to 50 channels of Blocked porn Titles is ridiculous.

This is a decision of Rogers to put up with an 80's style interface. The world is moving on. My cell phone has better menus than a $600 HD PVR. Come on Rogers!! Get with the program!

My free rental on my Rogers HD boxes expire in April 2009. If the Program Guide hasn't been improved by then I'm switching to Bell (perish the thought). Having to scroll through all these useless channels and having my kids exposed to 50 channels of Blocked porn Titles is ridiculous.

This is a decision of Rogers to put up with an 80's style interface. The world is moving on. My cell phone has better menus than a $600 HD PVR. Come on Rogers!! Get with the program!
This post gets my vote for the BEST POST OF THE YEAR...and I don't even have a PVR!

+1

When my house closes in july, im in the same boat... No changes and back to bell i go.

I have set my guide to block the xrated titles. All my family sees is the channel. I just switched from bell. I switched because I got tired of all the bad weather outages, having to trim trees and bushes, and wiping the snow off in the middle of snow storms.

Please tell us how? I've set my parental controls to block anything R and above. It still shows the titles in the guide. I don't subscribe to any of that but it still shows up. At least with some of the subscription content it's up in the high numbers where my kids don't venture, but when I scroll through PPV movies they are interspersed with family-oriented content. I prefer PPV to VoD because I can record to watch later (sorry, but 24 hour viewing doesn't cut it). With HD-PPV there are two channels side by side and one is 24-hour porn; the other turns after dark (used to be only after dark for both of them).

It's become obvious to me that this is where Rogers is making lots of money, but by showving it in my face like that it's very much like spam.

Anyhow, sorry for the rant. How did you turn it off?

Please tell us how?Settings/Block Titles

For Parental Controls ...

... go to rogers.com; select the help/support tab at the top; select "cable tv" on the left; select "everyday basics" at the bottom of the screen

Here's the link:
http://www.rogershelp.com/DigitalCable-Ontario/category.php?id=10F-V

One of the tips is: To hide blocked program titles and descriptions in the on-screen program guide

At least on the SA3250 you can do this. The Pace HD boxes didn't have this ability. Anyway, it would be great for Rogers to address this issue. I suppose they have concluded that the poor customer experience is worth it for the chance to sell some channels that appear in the guide but have not been subscribed to. Personally it has had the exact opposite effect. After years of being a loyal Rogers subscriber it's pushing me over the edge. I guess that if one day TIVO HD was available in Canada that would cause me to stay with Rogers. However, if nothing changes I'll be gone. I just can't bear the thought of going to Bell. That alone may kill me.

The silly thing is even blocking doesnt block all listings
Certain channels show up as xxxx but read descriptions and entire title + all the graphic details are still there

OK, I've got the titles hidden now, thanks for the help. The problem I had before was I set parental controls for R, and expected anything at R or above to be affected. Silly me. You've got to do R, NC-17 and 18+ all together.

As most of you, I wish there was a chance to easily distinguish the channels one subscribes to. My way is to rely on the programming choices from channels in my favourites list.

If I could identify the subscribed, free preview channels in the IPG I might be tempted to increase my channel subscriptions and this won't happen by constant exposure to all that is available.

It is just too frustrating to notice an interesting program on some channel then get the NOT SUBSRCIBED TO message.

I have MANY beefs regarding the software after just 2 days of using the 8300HD on ROGERS. Too bad I hate BEV so much that I wouldn't switch to them if they were the last TV providers on earth.

The main ones are:

1) WHY IS THE GUIDE IN 4:3 aspect and not 16:9 like my TV??
(a) because of this I can only see 1 hour ahead on the page without scrolling) and titles are cut off on the edge of the guide
(b) the font they use is not clean and smooth and reminds me of my monitor from my first PC back in 1985! Give me a nice high resolution menu!!

2) Does not indicate if a show is NEW or REPEAT as my old Motorola Box did on ACI. Don't know what I am recording and have to record everything then delete?? What is this 2004 technology?

3) Where is the TIME??? I have never seen a guide that didn't show you the current time??

4) There are too many steps to record a show. My old box had a one touch record button. Very easy and I can set up all my shows in 30 seconds... no triangles needed.

5) There is no 30-second skip feature? This IS a PVR isn't it? Isn't the point of having a PVR is to skip commercials? Why not make it easier?

6) For some reason my 60 minute recording of Sesame Street on PBSHD turned into 2 recordings of 50 and 10 minutes. And on top of that the 50 minute segment was THE GOLF CHANNEL!!! The second segment gave my twins 10 minutes of Sesame Street... thanks.

7) The information associated with each show is much more brief and sometimes missing all together compared to my previous PVR on ACI (Motorola DCT 6416)

8) Why does the guide allow you to go back in time 2 hours? Annoying when I scroll forward into the future and then have to scroll backwards carefully far to get back to the current time (which I don't know unless I look at my watch because there is no time displayed on the guide... see #3)

I use Zap2it and a spreadsheet to schedule my programs. I use the IPG only to set the recordings, and I use only the "One episode" option to avoid the Inconsistent Program Title issues. Also see:
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=18287 Inconsistent Program Titles
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=17749 Tips & Tricks for SA8300HD
http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=17719 Tips For SA STBs