Joining the Hi-Tech DVR World Finally!

I finally got around to joining the hi-tech world of DVR. I've been meaning to do this for a while but was waiting for a system that would record in HD. So I called Oceanic last week to check out their equipment cuz I think I remember reading somewhere that the popular Tivo didn't have HD recording capability yet or that it was super expensive. Oceanic said they indeed had HD-DVR and I was stoked! This is the box they gave me - The Explorer 8300HD Digital Video Recorder.

So I went down to Ala Moana Sears to exchange my current box for the HD-DVR one. When I got there, it was insanity. There were literally approximately 60-70 people there waiting. I pulled my number and got J07. The current number being served was 82. So I was thinking, not bad...just another 25 numbers then it's my turn. As the counter people started yelling out 01, 02, 03, etc. I noticed that they were saying "I-01", "I-02", "I-03". And I had J-07! So instead of 25 in front of me, there were 125! Crazy! But since I was already there and had my box in my hand, I didn't want to come back so I decided to wait it out, playing soccer on my cell phone. About 50 minutes later, my number finally gets called and I exchange my box. Apparently, a lot of people were there because the earthquake messed up their systems. If I had just went last week, I would've had less than a 10 minute wait. Oh well.

So I get home and install the box and hook it up to my TV. Right away, I test out the pause, rewind, FF capabilities. Cool! Then I set it to record a couple of HD programs like Sportscenter (which looks awesome in HD, btw) overnight as I slept. I woke up this morning and played it back. Worked like a charm! Another nice thing about getting a new box is that you get all the pay channels for free for a few days. So I programmed my box this morning to record a few movies on HDHBO and HDSHO like Ocean's Twelve and The Longest Yard. Might as well get em while they're free, right? Ooh yeah, one more thing...I can use PIP (picture in picture) now! Aw-right! The next step for me now is to upgrade my connection to my TV to HDMI. That should make a big difference. Anyone have any suggestions on HDMI cable? Splurge the big bucks for name brands or are generic just the same?

Anyways, I'm totally in love with this new box. It's gonna cost me $9.95 additional per month but it's so worth it. Now I can pre-program it to record all of my favorite shows and I removed my VCR which I now don't need. Plus, I get the first month free for signing up. Here are the shows I plan on recording now that I have this DVR. These include shows that I don't normally watch cuz of lack of time or not being home but always meant to watch and now can at my convenience:

Amazing Race, Heroes, Lost, Survivor, Saturday Night Live, MadTV