Cox just switched my 2 old HD DVRs to their newer Cisco Explorer 8642HDC. While there are definite advantages (broadband, more HD channels, more disk space) the trio software has definite bugs and problems. The installer found that one of the 2 DVRs stayed stuck on "cnfg" and after an hour of efforts ended up leaving it that way. He said that he had just installed 4 others of these DVRs and 2 of these 8642HDCs did the same thing. That is a 50% failure rate! Hours later the programmers apparently found the problem and updated my software (I got a call from support to see if the update had made a difference) and my bad DVR came alive.
I've only had the new DVRs for 2 days and already found a slew of unnecessary annoyances or problems.Maybe others have found them too and can help me resolve them. I emailed Cox support but did not hear back from them.
1. The guide info screens does not include the 1-5 star ratings] for movies (*****). This really bugs my wife because she grew accustomed to using it to avoid recording movies that have 1 star ratings that then turn out to be a waste of both time and HDD space. The older DVRs (Passport software) had it and so do Cox's competitors. I'm sure the Tribune provider is just not providing that data - but they should be asked to! I think this is essential and a deal breaker for me.
2. The cc button on the black remote does not work. This necessitates going through setting's multiple screens to turn cc on and off. Seems like a programming bug that should be easily fixed.
3. In the guide screen, the remote's "page+" and "page-" buttons are reversed. The + button takes you to lower numbered channels while - does the reverse. A minor problem but seems illogical and easy to fix.
4. The text in the Trio HD guide screens is fuzzy (letters appear fragmented) and difficult to read despite my high resolution HD Samsung and Sony 32" tv sets. The older DVR were connected with HDMI. These new ones are connected with component cables. Don't know if that matters.
5. The trio software will not allow the user to delete a recorded program while it is being viewed. This is unnecessarily annoying and was not the case in the previous dvrs.
(I will not even mention the long absent 30 sec skip ahead button!)
I've also heard from other users of missed scheduled recordings and the like with these 8642HDC/Trio sets which I have not yet encountered in the 2 days I have the DVRs but that would be even more serious.
I sent an email to Cox with these concerns but never heard back.
Looking for advice. Thank you.