the one the fucker brought out the other day (after I waited over a week) doesn't have it.

[Edited on September 21, 2007 at 9:21 AM. Reason : mad not cool]

9/21/2007 9:12:01 AM

yes they do

9/21/2007 9:14:38 AM

did you ask for an HD box or just a Digital Box?

9/21/2007 9:15:41 AM

HD box. they brought out an explorer 8000 hd. pisses my shit off that i'm paying to have a fucking analog connection, no matter how good of an analog connection it is from the box to my TV. (component cables)

9/21/2007 9:21:13 AM

They do, but unless you have a really good reason to use HDMI, I would recommend sticking with component. The HDMI port on this thing is extremely flaky and I have all sorts of video sync issues between it and my A/V receiver. The video quality between the 2 will be more or less indistinguishable and you'll have far fewer headaches.

9/21/2007 9:22:25 AM

I was going to call today and get the HD package. I do not have a box at all at this point.

Can I just go to the TWC office and pick one up?

[Edited on September 21, 2007 at 9:23 AM. Reason : ?]

9/21/2007 9:23:01 AM

they told me i had to wait for a guy to come out and hook it up because they "didn't have any boxes at the office", which i thought was BS. Then they charged me 20 bucks for the guy to come out.

I'm going down there this afternoon and complaining.

and my surround sound system is buzzing when I hook up with regular cables. I wanted to use the HDMI sound with optical out to my receiver to see if that helped any.

9/21/2007 9:30:10 AM

Damn that sucks. :-(

I want some HD ESPN tomorrow.

9/21/2007 9:37:59 AM

This reminds me, I need to pay my cable bill in SC, haven't been there in a few months..oops.

9/21/2007 9:39:56 AM

^^^Eh? Why do you need an HDMI cable to run optical from your TWC box to your receiver? You can run optical straight from the TWC box to your receiver, while using component for video. Also, HDMI passes video and audio so if you're going to use optical anyway, what's the point?

[Edited on September 21, 2007 at 9:42 AM. Reason : :]

9/21/2007 9:41:48 AM

i have the new version, explorer 8300hdc and the picture is great, but i just cant get used to the new options/menu type stuff after using the old version

9/21/2007 10:22:33 AM

^^yeah i didn't word that very clearly.

I want the HDMI to take the volume and sound to my TV, and use the optical out from my TV to my surround sound. That way the sound stays digital. (I still want sound available in my TV too.)

9/21/2007 10:40:53 AM

oh, and I want a better picture too.

9/21/2007 10:42:20 AM

^^ that's how i have mine setup. it's like an explorer 8500 or something. with suddenlink tho :/

9/21/2007 11:07:43 AM

^^^ Most TVs don't pass through the full surround sound signal though, either a digital stereo signal only, or a stereo signal masquerading as a surround sound signal.

So you get really nice digital stereo sound.

You'd be better off running the optical directly to the surround sound from the cable, then running red/white from the cable box to the TV for TV sound.

9/21/2007 1:14:52 PM

yes, they do have them, and they are flaky as fuck

9/21/2007 3:50:12 PM

Quote :

"Can I just go to the TWC office and pick one up?"

yeah...that's what I did cuz I didn't feel like waiting

My HD box has HDMI and it works great

9/21/2007 4:07:12 PM

mine didn't like hdmi @ first but its ok now ... i think the pic looked better over component though

9/21/2007 4:48:24 PM

^^ I called TWC this afternoon and they said to get the HD DVR I would have to get someone to drop it off. No way I could pick it up. I even explained that I do not want them installing it and he said they guy would just leave it with me.

Anyone else get that response?

9/21/2007 9:19:06 PM

I have the explorer 8300 with the hdmi port with twc...they brought me the 8000 without the hdmi when they frist set it up, I was able to go exchange it for the one I wanted at the time warner office...but I am in wilson.

9/22/2007 2:32:56 PM

^^ I got the same thing

Also, I'm using HDMI for video and audio without any problems on a SA 8300HD....the problem I hear most often is there is no HDMI option on the audio out setting. That option is only added to the list if you're actively viewing through the HDMI port...then you can toggle it on.

My current problem is I can't remove the grey bars from non-hd channels, anyone been able to do this with their 8300HD? The holding of Info/Guide while it's off no longer brings up the initial setup menu where I've been able to change it before.

9/22/2007 4:12:36 PM

^^^ i think they do that to prevent people from easily getting the HD DVRs just because it can store more shows. They say they require a technician to visit the home so they can verify you have an HDTV..

9/22/2007 6:31:44 PM

they gave me one early cause i was getting the tv for xmas

but if you ask me... for hd content it isn't nearly big enough hence my 500gig external sata drive

9/22/2007 7:16:15 PM

^Amen, just ordered a drive and case for mine today

9/22/2007 7:22:33 PM

Do you have to do anything besides just plugging in to the hdmi port for it to work? Mine never worked so I just used the component outs instead.. I've got the 8300 I'm pretty sure

9/22/2007 11:58:25 PM

^Nope, it just worked...make sure the TV s on first in some cases. You can still access channel 999 to view all diagnostic information and see if it's enabled.

Also, on the front of the box in the upper right it should say what model you have, keep in mind there is a 8300HD and a 8300HDC, I can't vouch for the HDC's HDMI port being active, maybe someone else here can.

9/23/2007 6:09:22 AM

I'll check it out next time I'm down at the condo.. I can't remember off the top of my head which model it is.

9/23/2007 11:35:04 AM

Quote :

"yes, they do have them, and they are flaky as fuck"

ditto. the SA 8300HD sucked balls for us. the HDMI port worked (sort of), but it skewed the picture to one side and it would randomly go fuzzy and shit. and i know its not the cable or the TV cause i hooked them up to my hdmi dvd player and it looked great. which only left the cable box as a solution.

after that, i hooked it up via component and it worked great for like 2 weeks. then it would just freeze up while recording, missed scheduled shows it was supposed to record, and one time we turned it on and everything was black & white.

after a week of that bullshit, we called TWC and the woman said "oh you have the 8300...yeah we've had a lot of trouble with those." the guy who brought out another box (gave us the old SA8000HD) said he had 10 more 8300HD's to replace that afternoon.

9/23/2007 12:04:18 PM

i have 8300hd and hdmi

picture quality is better than component

9/23/2007 3:09:32 PM

i have 8300hd over hdmi

has been working great, no problems at all

9/23/2007 3:32:23 PM

unless you're looking under a microscope - you wont notice a difference with 1080i with HDMI vs component- if you do you're being way too anal about it.

its not like there are 1080p broadcasts available anyways.

BUT

given the audio could be an inherent problem with the HD box itself. I would plug another source in to it to see if you get the humming sound again

9/23/2007 10:16:52 PM

i notice a huge difference in my HD channels compared to my friend's tv down here. we have the exact same tv and he is using HDMI and I have component cables until they bring me a box with HDMI output.

9/24/2007 9:30:06 AM

I think most people having problems with the HDMI version of the box can probably chalk that up to the SA8300 HD being a piece of crap in general. Compound the inherent lack of quality with the fact that TWC will take a box you just told them is defective and immediately give it to someone else. I saw them do this to someone while I was at the Cary office getting some shit straight with them.

[Edited on September 24, 2007 at 10:51 AM. Reason : ]

9/24/2007 10:51:09 AM

anyone know how to get rid of the grey sidebars? no i don't like the zoom function...

9/25/2007 10:32:30 PM

i dunno what it is that does this, so it might be just me. when i hit the "video source" button while in remote's "cable" mode it will cycle the screen from normal -> stretch -> zoom. where the stretching is all horizontal, no vertical. try that

9/25/2007 10:54:35 PM

on mine, you just keep pressing the "#"/pound button to cycle through the different views, then exit when you find what you like

9/25/2007 11:59:06 PM

Quote :

"anyone know how to get rid of the grey sidebars? no i don't like the zoom function..."

You can zoom it, stretch wide....then tell your tv to render it as normal 4x3, it'll take care of the bars but it's annoying to switch between HD and 4x3 like that. I asked about the old info/guide buttons but no response yet, used to be able to hold them (~5-10seconds) while it's powered off and it'll launch setup where you can change the bar color. On my box it's disabled, but might possibly still work on your 8300.

9/26/2007 5:18:17 AM