The Take the First Step household has two Digital Video Recorders: a Toshiba SD-H400 Tivo and a Scientific Atlanta 8300HD.

At the time, the 8300HD was our only option for an HD DVR. And if we had never used a Tivo, then we might have been impressed with the 8300HD. But we have, and we aren’t. Because the 8300HD user interface is lame.

The 8300HD UI allows you to watch one show while viewing your recorded programs, limiting the list of recorded programs to only 5 lines. The combination of a 5 line display, no folders and temperamental scrolling makes the selection of a show to watch a real adventure. And the recording logic isn’t smart enough to avoid recording multiple instances of the same episode.

All in all, I would have to say that the best feature of the 8300HD is that it is rented not owned. Because we are replacing it with a Series 3 Tivo as soon as I’m confident that Cablevision is supporting cable cards.