Scentific Atlanta 8000HD Review

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
I am writing this review as a kind of therapeutic outlet because, of course, it's that time again for me to complain about my Scientific Atlanta box. I found some other reviews on the net of this, pretty much all negative but perhaps somebody will stumble upon this from Google and by God's grace do what they can to avoid ever having to use one of these.

I use this box with Time Warner cable. It remains the standout most awful technical experience of my life, and is like a bad dream that will not end. I've had the box for almost two years. I remain absolutely convinced that Scientific Atlanta knew about how terrible the software on this box was but let it out of the factory anyway. One of my dear hopes of the current recession is that the company would completely go bankrupt and everybody who has ever worked for Scientific Atlanta never finds work again.

The good:
1) Reliably records shows when I tell it to. Seems to have a decent bit of room, including of HD programming.
2) Can record two shows at once. In fact can record two shows at once AND allow watching of a pre-recorded show all at the same time

The horrific:
1) Comedically long boot-up times if you ever have to unplug it. This is rare, but really it's like loading up the flight systems to a space shuttle on a 286
2) When playing back HD-recorded content the sound/audio will often lose sync. On average I'd say this happens about once per hour-long show but sometimes 2-3 times. It can be resynced by hitting RWD for a split second then playing
3) Lag time for every single button push. EVERYTHING is in slow-motion, from bringing up a menu to scrolling in it to changing channels, everything is very very lagged. Always without fail. Slow, guaranteed. This is absolutely and by far the most annoying thing about this box because it's omnipresent.
4) When pressing pause I'd say 1/3rd of the time the show will pause (after the lag, of course), but then a second later it will play 2 more seconds of show and THEN pause as if it was first doing a test-pause. I find this personally infuriating at a cellular level.
5) If it's been a while since you played a recorded show, when you do choose one from the menu and play it there is a 30% chance or so that the screen will go black and nothing will happen. Ever. Until you change channels and THEN try and play your show again. Like the intermittent pausing-restart, it seems like sometimes it just needs to think about things first before playing your show.
6) Rarely, but also enraging in the extreme, when you type in your channels (lag for every single numeric entry)--say you want channel 1011, occasionally when you plug in the 1 and it pops up on the screen and then the 0, the 1 will magically disappear, so then you end up with a 0 at the first. So, you have to cancel out and start again. This one is rare and so unbelievable I almost wonder if I had a nightmare about it but I'm pretty sure it's real.
 
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GregGreen

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2000
1,682
3
81
I have the 8300HDC and while it is a terrible box, I think they have fixed #2, #4, and #6. I would totally ditch the thing if you could either get a different box or get tuning adapters for all the SDV channels. You can't do either of those things and that makes the box's shortcomings even more infuriating.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
Isn't this box 5+ years old? I did a quick search and found a review from September 2004. Beg your cable company for a newer box.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/product-reviews/scientific-atlanta-explorer-8000-review/
I think it is kind of old although I only got it two years ago but unless a replacement would solve #3, the biggest problem of them all, it wouldn't really be worth it! If they would only give me a new one by having this one destroyed I would wrap it in a blanket or something but I'm not sure they have any better ones.
 

GregGreen

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2000
1,682
3
81
In my area, the cable company moved from the 8000HD to the 8300HD, which has minor hardware differences. Then, they moved from the 8300HD to the 8300HDC -- the only difference being the use of a cable card. This is the only box they offer now, the 8300HDC. LAME.
 

Dari

Lifer
Oct 25, 2002
17,133
38
91
I remember getting all these SA boxes 4 years ago. They don't have anything newer?
 

GregGreen

Golden Member
Dec 5, 2000
1,682
3
81
I so wish I could bludgeon it. If only Time Warner would give me tuning adapters (or even admit they exist) so that I could start building an HTPC to record SDV HD channels...
 

CubanlB

Senior member
Oct 24, 2003
562
0
76
It could be worse, you could have a Pace box, or a dreaded Cisco cable box... I shudder thinking about them...

And yes, the 8300hdc is a piece of GARBAGE!!!!
Or at least it was about 1-2 years ago.

Just be glad you only have to deal with your own cable box issues. Many an installation technician has cursed the name Scientific Atlanta... Many.
 

prism

Senior member
Oct 23, 2004
967
0
0
I did some customer service from Time Warner while I was in college. I definitely feel for you, as they are perfectly content with handing out outdated equipment while not having proper information to provide adequate customer support for it.

However, you should be able to swap your box out at a local office for a newer model without much hassle.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
I returned this at lunch and when asked if there was anything wrong with it told the lady it was infuriatingly slow. She gave me a 8240HDC. I asked if they have 8300 series, too, and she said "this is the same as the 8300". She didn't seem like she wanted to get into (or perhaps knew how to) the differences between an 8240 and 8300 as obviously they are not the same thing, so I didn't press it.

I'll see how this is later on. It has HDMI but the component I was using for the 8000HD looked pretty good anyway to be honest.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
I have the 8300 and hate it just as much.
LOL. Do you know what the sick thing here is? Half of me WANTS the 8240 to suck just as much because then I can still live in a world of simplicity where Scientific Atlanta can do nothing good and it deserves every bit of wrath I wish upon it.

That said, I will be fair in my findings of the 8240 as much as is humanly possible in light of the inhumane treatment the 8000 subjected me to.
 

ultimatebob

Lifer
Jul 1, 2001
25,134
2,449
126
Yeah... I have an 8300HD, and it sucks. The first two had dead hard drives within six months of each other, and the third one randomly locks up and takes forever to restart.
 

manimal

Lifer
Mar 30, 2007
13,559
8
0
The last 8300hd I had had a weird bug that would make everyone blue and would advance the time an hour at 6 pm then back to the right time at 11 pm. Basically the wife and I would time travel during must see tv time.....
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
First impressions of the 8240HDC are positive. Has the same overall software as the 8000 but is a good bit faster. It's still not as snappy as I believe it should be but the delay on button presses is about half of what it was on the 8000. I think i can live with this speed. I have not used it long enough to see if there are other bugs.

Of great note is that since putting it in I have a ton more channels. Earlier this year I cut back our cable to a minimum with only a few HD channels and a filter was installed outside to limit us back to what we are paying for. Last night I found I can access many more channels. I remember as a kid sometimes our cable company would give everyone extra channels at certain times of the year, so I wonder if something like that is going on here and I just didn't notice until yesterday, but on a tv downstairs hooked up with no box at all I'm still limited to my original channels. Is it possible that this box is pulling the signal down in a manner different than the 8000 such that it is bypassing the filter? Obviously, I am not watching this since I'm not paying for them, it was merely an observation.
 

StageLeft

No Lifer
Sep 29, 2000
70,150
5
0
Well, believe it or not (I'm sure you do), the 8240HDC has at least two of the bugs of the 8000HD. Often when I start a recorded show it just sits black and I have to go to another channel, then back to it before it will run. Also, it still sometimes (although for a shorter period of time since the unit is quicker) sputters when I pause it just like the 8000 did. Still much better overall since it's not dog slow.
 

fstime

Diamond Member
Jan 18, 2004
4,382
5
81
OP, why not go tivo?

You're probably paying around $7/box with your cable company.

You can get a tivo box for similar cost if you decide to pay for 1,2, or 3 years of service. It's normally $12/month but discounted if you pay for more than a year.
 

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
16,240
7
76
The sad thing about STB is that there is no reason they cannot be designed better but two issues always seem to crop up.

Cost - the cable companies want them at rock bottom prices so they often skimp on things like faster processors and more memory . Using last years processors and technology to save money.

Security - the cable companies and movie industry are so paranoid about theft that they spend more time on security than they do on functionality. If you saw some of the data sheets for the chips these boxes use you would be amazed. For example one of the SA boxes uses a broadcom processor. The processor data sheet is about 400 pages, of that 218 pages is all about security. In the chips API there is 168 items, 92 are security related.