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Thread: Flow AVS Up & Running

  1. #1
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    Default Flow AVS Up & Running

    My Flow AVS was installed this morning,... I was expecting the guys to come and just swap out my 4 cable boxes for the new HD Boxes, but it was not as simple...

    Turns out my whole house had to be rewired to facilitate the AVS system With the avs system each TV has to have a direct feed from the Flow Box, Splitters cannot be used.. The internet modem also has to have a direct line from the Flow box, so by the time the guys ripped out old wiring and ran new wiring about 2 hours had passed.

    They explained that the AVS HD boxes piggy back off the modem, which is why the boxes are so small..

    New Flow HD Box....



    I'm not sure of the name of the box, it's branded Flow HD Moca Hybrid IP... It has Cable in, HDMI out, 2 USB Ports, Ethernet port and AV out.. it has no cable out, so if you have a TV without HDMI or AV input this box aint gonna work... It also has a SIM card slot that has a SIM card installed in it.. if the SIM card is removed the box won't work..



    The Channel guide is totally new and now fully interactive, it features DVR recording and play from beginning feature. Whatever is recorded can be watched from any box in the house.



    The new modem now has wifi built in.. and it's much bigger than most Arris modems I've seen. They also upgraded me from 12MB to 20MB.. it's free until August.. doubt I'm gonna keep the 20MB thou...



    Now onto the part that matters most... Picture quality, I'm pleased to say that I definitely see a difference in the HD quality, I'm now getting a much cleaner and clearer picture, text are also much much sharper, not that the old HD wasn't satisfactory, but now it pops a tad bit more and looks good on all my four HDTVS (46"-48"-55"-65") I don't see a favorite feature on the remote, but the Box does have the Option to see only HD Channels, Regular Channels or Radio Stations, so I guess that will have to substitute. I'm hoping I can program one of the custom buttons on the remote to favorite.. In any-case gonna program my Harmony remote to do all that..



    I must say I never knew the day would come so soon when we could affordably get HD cable in our homes, I only bought one HD box and the rest of TV's got left in the dark.. I have Rokus on two, but I watch allot of cable as well so this addition is very welcomed.

    That's about it... good job Flow...

    Last edited by GPRS Internet; Mar 22, 2015 at 12:04 PM.

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    Also I'm selling my Pace HD Box.. So if anybody is on the Old system and wants HD you can grab this... just make me an offer and it's yours..

    Last edited by GPRS Internet; Mar 21, 2015 at 12:56 AM.

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    Great review Sir, definitely explains a lot. I will go and check it out at a Flow office to see it in person.

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    Found the Cable box........
    http://www.evolutionbb.com/cable/HD-...ubpage493.html



    I was hoping I could stick a USB key or External Drive in the Box and extend the DVR Storage, But no luck.. guess all of that is handled via Flow in the Cloud..
    Last edited by GPRS Internet; Mar 21, 2015 at 08:05 AM.
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    Nice review. Here are a couple of questions when you have the time:
    1.Can you now confirm they are offering 1080i and no occasional freezing or pixilation issues.
    2.I’m curious what is the SIM card for, I normally associate SIM with cell phones, surprise this is even in there.
    3.What s the USB port for, is it some service port?
    4.Let us know if you were successful sorting out the favorites feature, big oversight if not included on the remote
    5.Trying to figure out how to get audio out to my stereo, stereo only use rca in connection
    6.Finally, is there a noticeable delay when moving from one channel to another as happens now with the old system?
    Last edited by DarkAngel; Mar 21, 2015 at 05:45 PM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by DarkAngel View Post
    Nice review. Here are a couple of questions when you have the time:
    1.Can you now confirm they are offering 1080i and no occasional freezing or pixilation issues.
    I have 52 HD Channels now, about 95% of them are 1080i.. a few are 720p, but they still look good.
    I only get pixelation on Cars.tv HD.. the image from time to time breaks up slightly, then returns, nothing too major...
    All other Channels work fine, no freezing or pixelation...

    I only see freezing when I hit watch from beginning.. it will freeze a few times then it normalizes.. I figure it freezes when it's buffering.



    Quote Originally Posted by DarkAngel View Post
    2.I’m curious what is the SIM card for, I normally associate SIM with cell phones, surprise this is even in there.
    The Cable box manual calls it a smart card slot, if you remove the sim card the box does not work, you get a 'Card Removed' error..
    I figure this is how Flow can talk to the box, when they Plugged in the box before the cable was attached to it the box found a new firmware update and updated itself, so I guess it has something to do with the SIM card..



    Quote Originally Posted by DarkAngel View Post
    3.What s the USB port for, is it some service port?
    The manual says it's to support future accessories. I plugged a flash drive and external hard-drive in it and nothing happened..

    Quote Originally Posted by DarkAngel View Post
    4.Let us know if you were successful sorting out the favorites feature, big oversight if not included on the remote
    Was not able to program a favorites button on the remote, but as I mentioned you can go in the menu and create favorite lists, the box comes per-programmed with 3.. HD-TV-Radio. You can then access these via a TV/Music button on the remote.

    I'm using a Harmony remote so I programed it to work with the box and it has a Favorites section.



    Quote Originally Posted by DarkAngel View Post
    5.Trying to figure out how to get audio out to my stereo, stereo only use rca in connection
    Well, it does have AV out.. I guess you could use the audio and go into your stereo.. I Take audio out from my TV thou so I can get audio from anything that goes into the TV.. if you take audio out from the Cable box, you'll only have audio from the Cable and not any other devices you may have connected.

    Quote Originally Posted by DarkAngel View Post
    6.Finally, is there a noticeable delay when moving from one channel to another as happens now with the old system?
    About the same as the old system.. it has about a 3 second lag..
    Last edited by GPRS Internet; Mar 22, 2015 at 09:01 AM.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GPRS Internet View Post
    I have 52 HD Channels now, about 95% of them or 1080i.. a few are 720p, but they still look good.
    I only get pixelation on Cars.tv HD.. the image from time to time breaks up slightly, then returns, nothing too major...
    All other Channels work fine, no freezing or pixelation...


    I would attribute the pixelation to biterate and not resolution. If you download a 720p movie you will see no pixelation.
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    Quote Originally Posted by pezz View Post
    I would attribute the pixelation to biterate and not resolution. If you download a 720p movie you will see no pixelation.
    Conversion issues can cause pixelation as well.. Lots of my downloaded movies have pixelation...

    Pixelation tends to happen with fast moving scenes. If the conversion is done at a high conversion rate then it will be fine.

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    Quote Originally Posted by GPRS Internet View Post
    Conversion issues can cause pixelation as well.. Lots of my downloaded movies have pixelation...

    Pixelation tends to happen with fast moving scenes. If the conversion is done at a high conversion rate then it will be fine.
    But what you just described here, are biterate problems.
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    Quote Originally Posted by pezz View Post
    But what you just described here, are biterate problems.
    Just responding to what you said about a 720p download.

    Any pixelation or freezing via cable is bitrate related and in some cases bad conversion from the source..

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