# Optimum's Multiroom "cloud" DVR (Cablevision)



## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

My mom had this system installed last week, and I'm pretty impressed with it.

She's got a disk-less Samsung box at each of her 3 TVs, with the ability to record up to 91 hours of HD and play back any recording at any location. She also has 15 recording tuners at her disposal!

DVRs can be programmed and managed at the box, or via PC, iOS or Android apps. All prefs and favorite lists are stored in the cloud.

Live TV can only be paused for up to 15 minutes. There's no live buffer, tho, ATM.

Trickplay isn't as hair-trigger responsive as a local DVR, but it's pretty darned good, considering she's essentially watching everything "on demand". For DIRECTV users, there is a "replay" button, but no "slip/skip" button. You have to use FF to advance through commercials.

Pricing is very reasonable, IMHO. There's a flat $12.95/month charge for the cloud DVR, no matter how many TVs, and a $7/box monthly charge. She got a two year lock-in for $140/month total for two phone lines, 50/25 internet and their Silver programming package, which includes HBO and SHO.

This represents an interesting paradigm shift away from the traditional DVR or server/client model. "Thin" clients in the home connected to (presumably fault-tolerant) cloud storage with no recording conflicts and the ability to completely manage the service from her smart phone. Pretty cool, IMO

Here's a link to the user guide. At that time, the system offered 10 tuners and 75 hours of HD.


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## bcab17 (Jan 22, 2008)

Steve, I'm currently deciding between the triple play bundles offered by Cablevision/Optimum and Verizon FiOS. The one issue that has me most concerned about Optimum is their cloud DVR. I assume that without a HD in the DVR, all the recordings are streamed...similar to Netflix.

I have read in another thread that the cloud DVR has some latency issues (sometimes some fairly severe lag), as well as a "frame-skipping" type rewind and fast forward...also like Netflix. Is this true?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

There are some latency issues, but otherwise, I'm very happy with the service. It took me about a month to get used to FF and RW. It doesn't autocorrect FFX3 nearly enough, IMO. What I do is FFX3 then stop it with RWx2 and hit PLAY when I see the spot I want. Works great, after a bit of practice. It sounds complicated, but I typically get through a 3-4-minute commercial block in about 20 seconds. What they really need is a stackable 30 second skip, like DIRECTV and TiVO. Then latency would be a non-issue.

As far as "frame-skipping" FF and RW, it looks similar to DIRECTV MRV, IIRC. :shrug:

15 recording tuners means I never have a recording conflict. I can also watch any LIVE TV channel on a mobile device when at home, so when we're watching a movie, e.g., I can keep an eye on the Yankee game on my iPad. You can schedule recordings and manage your playlist and TDL on your PC or mobile devices.

Their "on demand" is second to none. HD versions of network shows are available the next morning, and they typically go back 4-8 episodes, depending on the show.

Internet in my area (lower Westchester) is as reliable as FiOS (I've had both). Here's what I'm getting, ATM. 50/25 service:










Cablevision has no commitement or ETF, so you can try it first and then switch to FiOS if you don't like it.


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## bcab17 (Jan 22, 2008)

Thanks Steve. So when you fast forward through a commercial block, you can see the commercials going by (smoothly...quickly, of course) or is it more of a jerky frame skipping?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

bcab17 said:


> Thanks Steve. So when you fast forward through a commercial block, you can see the commercials going by (smoothly...quickly, of course) or is it more of a jerky frame skipping?


It's not MPEG-2 FF, if that's what you mean. It's MPEG-4 FF, which is based on key frames. Similar to DIRECTV (and TiVO, I would imagine). MPEG-4 FF is a like a very fast slide-show, IMO.


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## bcab17 (Jan 22, 2008)

I stopped by a local Optimum store, and they were able to do a quick demonstrate of one of their Samsung boxes with cloud DVR service. The rewind and fast forward did not look too bad...certainly not a deal breaker. They do seem to have a few quirky things...like channel organization (the primary HBO and SHO channels are in the 80's, but all the other HBO's and SHO's are in the 300's), and I can see that their UI will take some time to get used to.

Have you had any issues with the inability to rewind live TV? You miss a play during a game, can't hear important dialogue in a movie, or want to replay something for another family member who's in the next room...that sounds like a tough give-up for me.

What about the room to room functionality of the boxes? I assume you can you pause a recorded show on one box, and continue watching it in another room, but can you do the same with a live TV program?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

bcab17 said:


> I stopped by a local Optimum store, and they were able to do a quick demonstrate of one of their Samsung boxes with cloud DVR service. The rewind and fast forward did not look too bad...certainly not a deal breaker. They do seem to have a few quirky things...like channel organization (the primary HBO and SHO channels are in the 80's, but all the other HBO's and SHO's are in the 300's), and I can see that their UI will take some time to get used to.
> 
> Have you had any issues with the inability to rewind live TV? You miss a play during a game, can't hear important dialogue in a movie, or want to replay something for another family member who's in the next room...that sounds like a tough give-up for me.
> 
> What about the room to room functionality of the boxes? I assume you can you pause a recorded show on one box, and continue watching it in another room, but can you do the same with a live TV program?


Ya. There's currently no live TV rewind buffer on the diskless Samsung boxes, but you can pause LIVE TV for up to 15 minutes. It's only for that box, tho. You can't resume in another room.

I like their Tru2Way UI a lot, BTW. Navigation is very easy and intuitive, IMO.


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## bcab17 (Jan 22, 2008)

Steve said:


> Ya. There's currently no live TV rewind buffer on the diskless Samsung boxes, but you can pause LIVE TV for up to 15 minutes. It's only for that box, tho. You can't resume in another room.
> 
> I like their Tru2Way UI a lot, BTW. Navigation is very easy and intuitive, IMO.


Would a "no live TV rewind buffer" work around be to record simply record every show as you're watching it?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

bcab17 said:


> Would a "no live TV rewind buffer" work around be to record simply record every show as you're watching it?


You could do that. In fact, when you go to the list to watch a recording in progress, it asks you if you want to start watching from the current time, or from the beginning.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

The Mrs. and I just finished watching 3 recorded shows on our 65" 1080p plasma, and I have to say, the cloud DVR's MPEG-4 PQ is superb.


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## obeythelaw2004 (Mar 14, 2012)

I came across this thread because I am seriously considering go with Optimum's triple play with the multi room cloud dvr. I currently have FIOS but the triple play will be expiring in a few months. I can save about $100 a month if I switch the first year and another $70 a month the second year with Optimum's 2 year price guarantee. It looks like you have been using the dvr for a while now. Do you still like it? My biggest concern is that the dvr actually record when scheduled. Have you noticed any major issues or problems?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

It's only been 6 months for me, but I may have missed one recording in all that time. i'm very happy with the service overall, but the cloud DVR has it's quirks. E.g., every now and then I'll start playing black a recording and only see a black screen. The fix for that is to hit the stop button and then select "restart". 

There's also trickplay lag. There's no 30SKIP available, and you can't "stack" 7-second rewinds; you have to hit them one at a time. Add to that, there's not nearly enough auto-correct for my reflexes. As a result, to skip past commercials, I use FFX3 and then I stop it with RWX2, because I normally overshoot with FF and wind up in the show. When in RW, I look for the "ratings bug" and hit PLAY. Took me a while to get the hang of it, but it works just fine.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

Steve, I was told by a customer (former) from optimum that there was no way to rewind live TV, is that correct?


Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

peds48 said:


> Steve, I was told by a customer (former) from optimum that there was no way to rewind live TV, is that correct?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk


Correct. At this time, you can only pause live TV, for up to 15 minutes.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

Steve said:


> Correct. At this time, you can only pause live TV, for up to 15 minutes.


wow, that stinks... That is definitely a show stopper for me

Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Being able to pause live TV for a phone call or nature break is better than nothing. :shrug:

The big advantage with this set-up is being able to remotely manage my recordings and to do list from my mobile device or PC, and not having to worry about SL limits and disk failures. Even user prefs and favorites are stored in the cloud. Plus, I can stream any live TV channel to my iPad, so I can watch a game at the same tme I'm watching another show with the Mrs. on the big screen. I call it PIL, "picture in lap".


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

Steve said:


> Being able to pause live TV for a phone call or nature break is better than nothing. :shrug:
> 
> The big advantage with this set-up is being able to remotely manage my recordings and to do list from my mobile device or PC, and not having to worry about SL limits and disk failures. Even user prefs and favorites are stored in the cloud. Plus, I can stream any live TV channel to my iPad, so I can watch a game at the same tme I'm watching another show with the Mrs. on the big screen. I call it PIL, "picture in lap".


You can do that with TiVo (through the website or iOS/Android apps), and still have automatic constant buffering of live TV (30 minute buffer). TiVo even allows you to transfer a Season pass (and/or recordings) from one DVR to another. We have 2 TiVo Roamio Pros and 5 Minis on FiOS TV and pay Verizon a total of $55 more than we paid them for phone and broadband alone (we pay about $140/month for the top programming package with all premiums, 75/75 broadband and voice). Personally, I think it is only a matter of time until the cloud DVR operators start selling advertisers the option to disable the ablity to skip their commercials.


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

What would be so different with the cloud that they could not do it with the current batch of DVRs?


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Diana C said:


> Personally, I think it is only a matter of time until the cloud DVR operators start selling advertisers the option to disable the ablity to skip their commercials.


Bite your tongue! 



peds48 said:


> What would be so different with the cloud that they could not do it with the current batch of DVRs?


Agree. It's not a threat limited to cloud DVR playback by any means.

Commercial skipping is very important to me and would be the differentiator if I had a choice of MSOs and one didn't offer it. If I sit in front of a TV 3 hours a day, commercial skipping affords me the ability to watch about 5 more 1-hr shows per week. :up:


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## Diana C (Mar 30, 2007)

peds48 said:


> What would be so different with the cloud that they could not do it with the current batch of DVRs?
> 
> Sent from my iPhone 6 using Tapatalk


None at all...that's why we own TiVos (although I think a cloud based offering is more likely to emulate the Hulu model of un-skippable ads).


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