Is there no one that can make a responsive cable box?

[Martin]

well, is there?

 

[Mojoed]

I don't think it's so much the cable box these days, rather the network latency/decryption that takes place whenever you change channels.

Edit: Although modern cable boxes do seem marginally faster than older models.

 

[funkymatt]

they like to cut corners wherever possible, i bet the bare minimum amount of ram was added to these boxes.

 

[StageLeft]

Believe me, every single day mine steals my FVCKING SOUL.

I already spoke of this in the past and will again in the future. And my feelings are every bit as strong as they were when I created this thread.

 

[Mojoed]

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Believe me, every single day mine steals my FVCKING SOUL.

I already spoke of this in the past and will again in the future. And my feelings are every bit as strong as they were when I created this thread.

This should cheer you up Skoorbie! :beer:

 

[Mahaguru]

Very true. Channel surfing is impractical now because of slow channel changing. Just when TV's had gotten fast enough to change channels really fast, digital cable boxes come along and take it back a decade. All the TV I had in the 80's and early 90's had a slow startup time and channel changing was slow. But the newer TV I had in 96 or so was super fast, almost instant.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: Mojoed

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Believe me, every single day mine steals my FVCKING SOUL.

I already spoke of this in the past and will again in the future. And my feelings are every bit as strong as they were when I created this thread.

This should cheer you up Skoorbie! :beer:

ok i literally chuckled out loud at that.

Very true. Channel surfing is impractical now because of slow channel changing. Just when TV's had gotten fast enough to change channels really fast, digital cable boxes come along and take it back a decade. All the TV I had in the 80's and early 90's had a slow startup time and channel changing was slow. But the newer TV I had in 96 or so was super fast, almost instant.

I only channel surf on my basement tv that gets a few channels and only because it has no guide. Otherwise I've not done it in years, only a damned fool or self-hater would do it, it takes fvcking seconds to switch.

As I mentioned, too, when I had dish it was quicker. I have been at somebody's house recently and their satellite is good, too, so latency is not the problem here. It's the Hitler-loving damned terrorists who are creating these boxes. I fail to believe there is a technical reason or significant financial reason (like a faster box would cost $30k/piece) these boxes MAKE ME WANT TO BREAK FIST ON THEM. Some of the bugs on my one are so un furiating I can't even get into it right now, I can't.

But here is one. MOTHERFVCKER when I press pause I want you to pause the show. If you are going to take a full second to pause I think you ought to be stabbed but at least it would be consistent with your slowness. HOWEVER, how dare you pause after that one second, then one second later actually start playing again about another second of video and only after that do you pause. HOW is this even possible? There is on way this was not deliberately put in the code to do this to piss off users. I demand to see the code because it's there in the pissoffuser() method.

It would not surprise me if the dev team at scientific atlanta actually scours the net to find posts like mine and they're like "Yep, Dave, I told you that pause-tease would be a winner, look at this guy he's absolutely up the wall, great one this time, maybe even better than the way that sometimes I'll have the number that was entered in the remote show up on the screen but then before showing up the next one I'll make the first one inexplicably disappear, just randomly not related to how the user has been entering numbers or anything. So he presses enter and instead of going to channel 514 he ends up at 54."

And that is a real bug, too, that disappearing numbers one. Assuming it's not deliberate to piss off users it has nothing to do with speed, just sh*t QA. Again, labor camps are appropriate.

 

[SonicIce]

:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup:

 

[CRXican]

yep, I hate mine

 

[TheVrolok]

I wish.

 

[rudeguy]

Moxi

 

[guyver01]

here's a hint...

with over 1,000 channels..

there is STILL NOTHING GOOD ON at 2am on a Sunday!

:|

 

[Martin]

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Mojoed

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Believe me, every single day mine steals my FVCKING SOUL.

I already spoke of this in the past and will again in the future. And my feelings are every bit as strong as they were when I created this thread.

This should cheer you up Skoorbie! :beer:

ok i literally chuckled out loud at that.

Very true. Channel surfing is impractical now because of slow channel changing. Just when TV's had gotten fast enough to change channels really fast, digital cable boxes come along and take it back a decade. All the TV I had in the 80's and early 90's had a slow startup time and channel changing was slow. But the newer TV I had in 96 or so was super fast, almost instant.

I only channel surf on my basement tv that gets a few channels and only because it has no guide. Otherwise I've not done it in years, only a damned fool or self-hater would do it, it takes fvcking seconds to switch.

As I mentioned, too, when I had dish it was quicker. I have been at somebody's house recently and their satellite is good, too, so latency is not the problem here. It's the Hitler-loving damned terrorists who are creating these boxes. I fail to believe there is a technical reason or significant financial reason (like a faster box would cost $30k/piece) these boxes MAKE ME WANT TO BREAK FIST ON THEM. Some of the bugs on my one are so un furiating I can't even get into it right now, I can't.

But here is one. MOTHERFVCKER when I press pause I want you to pause the show. If you are going to take a full second to pause I think you ought to be stabbed but at least it would be consistent with your slowness. HOWEVER, how dare you pause after that one second, then one second later actually start playing again about another second of video and only after that do you pause. HOW is this even possible? There is on way this was not deliberately put in the code to do this to piss off users. I demand to see the code because it's there in the pissoffuser() method.

It would not surprise me if the dev team at scientific atlanta actually scours the net to find posts like mine and they're like "Yep, Dave, I told you that pause-tease would be a winner, look at this guy he's absolutely up the wall, great one this time, maybe even better than the way that sometimes I'll have the number that was entered in the remote show up on the screen but then before showing up the next one I'll make the first one inexplicably disappear, just randomly not related to how the user has been entering numbers or anything. So he presses enter and instead of going to channel 514 he ends up at 54."

And that is a real bug, too, that disappearing numbers one. Assuming it's not deliberate to piss off users it has nothing to do with speed, just sh*t QA. Again, labor camps are appropriate.

There has got to be a market opportunity for a company to make a cable box with fewer features, that is easier to use, looks well-designed and is REALLY FAST.

 

[lupi]

my previous motorola box went bad so i swapped it out for another, on this one when checking stoarage space t doesn't give a recorded/free by the hour anymore, just as a %.

I guess that's to keep you from realizing how absurd it is that they are still only doing 20-30 hours of SD video on them.

 

[Sahakiel]

Originally posted by: Martin

Originally posted by: Skoorb

Originally posted by: Mojoed

Originally posted by: Skoorb
Believe me, every single day mine steals my FVCKING SOUL.

I already spoke of this in the past and will again in the future. And my feelings are every bit as strong as they were when I created this thread.

This should cheer you up Skoorbie! :beer:

ok i literally chuckled out loud at that.

Very true. Channel surfing is impractical now because of slow channel changing. Just when TV's had gotten fast enough to change channels really fast, digital cable boxes come along and take it back a decade. All the TV I had in the 80's and early 90's had a slow startup time and channel changing was slow. But the newer TV I had in 96 or so was super fast, almost instant.

I only channel surf on my basement tv that gets a few channels and only because it has no guide. Otherwise I've not done it in years, only a damned fool or self-hater would do it, it takes fvcking seconds to switch.

As I mentioned, too, when I had dish it was quicker. I have been at somebody's house recently and their satellite is good, too, so latency is not the problem here. It's the Hitler-loving damned terrorists who are creating these boxes. I fail to believe there is a technical reason or significant financial reason (like a faster box would cost $30k/piece) these boxes MAKE ME WANT TO BREAK FIST ON THEM. Some of the bugs on my one are so un furiating I can't even get into it right now, I can't.

But here is one. MOTHERFVCKER when I press pause I want you to pause the show. If you are going to take a full second to pause I think you ought to be stabbed but at least it would be consistent with your slowness. HOWEVER, how dare you pause after that one second, then one second later actually start playing again about another second of video and only after that do you pause. HOW is this even possible? There is on way this was not deliberately put in the code to do this to piss off users. I demand to see the code because it's there in the pissoffuser() method.

It would not surprise me if the dev team at scientific atlanta actually scours the net to find posts like mine and they're like "Yep, Dave, I told you that pause-tease would be a winner, look at this guy he's absolutely up the wall, great one this time, maybe even better than the way that sometimes I'll have the number that was entered in the remote show up on the screen but then before showing up the next one I'll make the first one inexplicably disappear, just randomly not related to how the user has been entering numbers or anything. So he presses enter and instead of going to channel 514 he ends up at 54."

And that is a real bug, too, that disappearing numbers one. Assuming it's not deliberate to piss off users it has nothing to do with speed, just sh*t QA. Again, labor camps are appropriate.

There has got to be a market opportunity for a company to make a cable box with fewer features, that is easier to use, looks well-designed and is REALLY FAST.

Not possible. Cable companies technically own the encryption.

 

[TruePaige]

Originally posted by: guyver01
here's a hint...

with over 1,000 channels..

there is STILL NOTHING GOOD ON at 2am on a Sunday!

:|

Right now I'm watching Goodfellas though.

 

[mrSHEiK124]

My cable box displays a Java logo when it starts up. It's a piece of shit and it takes more than 2 seconds to change a fucking channel, especially if it's switching from 720p to 1080i. Any cable box with Java or Flash = shit, they need to write some decent code and put something decently powerful. I can has Snapdragon cable box plz?

 

[Locut0s]

Simple cost benefit analysis. Gotta maximize those profits. They use the slowest processor possible that still gets the job done. Unlike in computers where customers demand speed most people demand features over navigation speed in cable boxes. People are clueless that it's a computer in there or that it would even be possible to make the thing go any faster. Most of their customers want HD, PVR functionality, on demand video content, pay per view etc etc... these are the things that sell cable boxes. Speed? I agree for you and me it's important but most people wouldn't even know what you are talking about.

 

[geno]

Originally posted by: Locut0s
Simple cost benefit analysis. Gotta maximize those profits. They use the slowest processor possible that still gets the job done.

So what you're saying is : I should overclock my cable box. Sweet.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

Originally posted by: geno

Originally posted by: Locut0s
Simple cost benefit analysis. Gotta maximize those profits. They use the slowest processor possible that still gets the job done.

So what you're saying is : I should overclock my cable box. Sweet.

ha good luck with that! these things shit the bed at stock speed.

 

[techs]

I was just going to post how f*d up my new Cisco DVR box is. It's the RNG 200 and according to every link I have seen, and on the Cisco site, its SUPPOSED to have a 160 gb hard drive which is double the 80 gb drive on my old Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300hdc (Cisco bought Scientific Atlanta)

Guess what? It records the same amount. When I got the Scientific Atlanta I maxed it out on HD and it was slighly over 20 hours. The RNG 200 also does slightly over 20 hours.

WTF? Double the hard drive size and get the same recording time (and the quality appears to be exactly the same).

Here's my guess. Comcrap told Cisco we want to save 2 dollars. Put 80 gb drives in them.

Oh, and btw. The first box RNG 200 was defective. And the Indian "tech support" person told me it's perfectly normal to watch hd thru the box, and use a splitter to watch 2-99 thru the tv's tuner. In fact, there is nothing wrong with the box, that's the way its supposed to work. But if I really feel the need to get another box my local office opens at 12. Yes, 12.
I guess I should have asked whether that's am or pm.


Does anyone know of any good forums to discuss this Cisco RNG 200? AVS forum has nothing on it.
RNG? I guess no one figured it could stand for Really Not Good.

 

[pray4mojo]

Anyone also notice the remote has about 50 buttons that you never use? All I need is about 10 of them.

 

[seemingly random]

Originally posted by: guyver01
here's a hint...

with over 1,000 channels..

there is STILL NOTHING GOOD ON at 2am on a Sunday!

:|

This is another reason to get a dvr. Or toss the tv and go internet only, like I did.

 

[ebaycj]

Tivo HD's (with a dual tuner m-card) are pretty responsive.

 

[StageLeft]

Originally posted by: ebaycj
Tivo HD's (with a dual tuner m-card) are pretty responsive.

Must be because if it sucks you can demand the store take it back.

I would wrap mine in a blanket with the heat on until something internal died (or run it over with a car) and I could return it, but they'd just give me another POS so there's no point.