DVR News Blog

I’m not ashamed to admit this, I am a HUGE Pittsburgh Steelers fan.  Not a fair weather fan, but a real fan.  Have been for over 20 years.

So when they made it to the Super Bowl in 2006 I was excited.  I recorded the game on my Comcast DVR, you know, incase I would want to watch it over, and over, and over…..you get the picture.   So I set it to NEVER expire so I would always have it on the DVR. 

 Well guess what.  I went to watch the game.  I went to my DVR list and its still on the list, but when I hit PLAY, no show.  Got some sort of weird message like “program not found.”  SO it’s just gone.  Tried the trusty reboot to see if it was a fluke, but nothing.  Sad thing is, the program is probably still there.  I called Comcast, but as I suspected they basically said “oh well sucks for you”  They did offer to send someone out which I took them up on, just because I was pissed about the my show being deleted from the list. 

He showed up, but what was he going to do?  So my Super Bowl is just gone.  This NEVER happened when I had Tivo. 

I know from my previous TiVo versions that their guide show 14 days of upcoming programing.  Do I was really bothered that the Comcast DVR only show a week.  But something really funny is happening now.

I was searching for a program that I knew was on in 6 days, but it was not showing up.  I as I moved forward in the guide, I realized that I only had 3 days of programs.  As I moved to day4, then 5, etc, the new data loaded, but it was not getting it automatically.  What gives?  This has been happening frequently.  I even tried a reboot, no dice.  3 days of a guide is of no use.  It even effects the prgrams that I already have set.  It won’t show them in the “to record” list until they show up in the guide.  So you can only see 3 days of what is ’set to be recorded’ too.

Sounds like a bug, but good luck getting someone to admit that. 

I’ve been using the Comcast DVR from Aptiv (Passport Echo) on a Scientific Atlantic 8300 HD box for about a year.  When I got the box they never told me how much space it has.  It can record both regular and HD shows, but how are you supposed to know how many you can have saved before they start deleting themselves?  The last time the Comcast technician was here there was some way he got into a diagnostic mode, but I didn’t see exactly how he did it.  I wonder if that shows the how much space is available?

In any case, at least the recording quality has been good so far.  This is no TiVo recorder, but Tivo hadn’t released the Series 3 when I got this box.  Now that the series 3 has been out for a while I may have to give it a try.

Why does the Comcast DVR always turn on to channel CN8?

Here is Pennsylvania (and some other states) Comcast Network CN8 is a Philadephia based network that has news and sports highlights along with some basic programming.  Everytime, I turn on the DVR it’s tuned to the CN8 channel.  I had assumed that this was some sort of setting on the Comcast DVR box.  After a call to Comcast tech support I was told that this was a setting, but that it was hard coded into the DVR and that it could not be changed.

It’s some sort of policy decision.  I wonder if it has something to do with the fact that the host of the show “It’s Your Call,” Lynn Doyle is the wife of Michael Doyle the
President of Comcast Cable Eastern Division.

Anyway it’s completely annoying.  With the other DVRs that I’ve used, they are turn on the last channel watched.   

Back at the begining of 2006 I was in great spririts.  The Pittsburgh Steelers were heading to the Superbowl after a number of years and thought what a great time to get a High Definition TV.  Just in time for the game! 

I ran out and and bought a Sony XBR, only to find out that Tivo didn’t support HD at the time.  With much reluctance I gave up my Tivo for the Comcast High Definition DVR.  It’s a Scientific Atlantic 8300 HD, so I went ahead and picked ont up at the Comcast store and set it all up.     

I started with a Tivo series 1 back in 2000, then I moved on to the Series 2, and then the Seriers 2 with DVD Burner from Humax.  So this, took some getting used to, but I thought I’ll make the best of it.  After a year using this box, I decided that I had to write about my experiences.  The Comcast DVR is made by Aptiv with the name Passport Echo.  Well sadly, I was right, this is NO Tivo.  The Series 3 wasn’t out at the time, so if you wanted to record High Definition you didn’t have much choice.  

I started DVRNews.Net where I can post the pros and cons to all the DVRs that I have tried over the years and chronicle my experince with Tivo (series 1 & 2), Passport Echo, Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition and now the new Tivo series 3.  I have high hopes for the series 3!

So, I got my first DVR back in 2000 and it launched me into a whole new world.  I got a Sony SVR-2000 which was basically a Tivo series1 made by Sony.  The minute I booted up I was hooked.  Since then, I’ve tried Tivo series2, Tivo with DVD burner, Microsoft Windows Media Center edition and the DVR from my cable company, Comcast. 

 What have I discovered??  DVRs are not all the same.  No even close.  So I thought I would create this Blog as a place to cheer my favorites, lement my disappointments and generally just talk about DVRs. 

 This really isn’t a technical forum, there are a bunch of Tivo, DVR forums for the how to stuff, I just want to talk about what I like, what I don’t like and any news out of the industry. 

I’m still playing around with the look and color scheme so hang in there! 

Thanks

Tony