Comments on: My Personal Tivo DeathWatch Ends Today

By: JY

JY — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

The interface is atrocious once you’ve lived with TiVo for a while. Finding out what’s playing when is incredibly tedious. It sits on a Microsoft OS and the interface apparently uses the same thread as the tuner controller, so while it’s starting or stopping a recording your interface will hang for anywhere from 5 to 60 seconds. Oh, it’ll buffer all of your button presses though, so once it comes back you’ll watch 20 random presses and have no idea what you just did.

Dual tuners make up for a lot of grief, but I’m desperately hoping the talks between TiVo and Comcast come to something.

By: Rob H

Rob H — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have it now and did exactly what you did. I have the dtc 3416 and it works fine. The Tivo interface is better but the one for Comcast is not that bad. It does the job, I have HD on any shows that can get it and it looks great.

I actually have my Tivo and Comcast box both hooked up and even the digital channels look better on the Comcast box than Tivo box.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Tivo. I will take the download to the Comcast box as soon as it’s available but for now it’s fine and I have perfect HD viewing and recordings.

By: Diane

Diane — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

http://www.cnettv.com/9710-1_53-25635.html?tag=vid&autoplay=true#mgallery Problem solved!

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nope, I paid full price. $799, and worth every penny.

By: Jim Motter

Jim Motter — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Thanks for your quick reply. Tivo will still honor the $200 lifetime service switchover as long as you complete the transfer by the end of January. They do not require the unit to be purchased from Tivo, so any lower priced source (eBay or Dell) could work.

Have you found any REALLY low-priced sources for the Series 3?

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Jim: Nope, but I did just buy a Series 3 Tivo. Bye bye Comcast DVR. :)

By: Jim Motter

Jim Motter — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Have you found any information on how to wire an HD setup to utilize both an existing Tivo Series 2 box and the Comcast HD dvr at the same time?

By: Sarah

Sarah — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I’m a nerd at this technical stuff. How do I tape 2 shows while watching another channel..Everytime I tape something and go to change it tells me I have to delete. HELP PLEASE

By: JT Diver

JT Diver — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I switched from Tivo to Comcast recently and besides other mentions above one thing I find particularly annoying is how I can’t watch the screen in slowmo, frame-by-frame without the time bar appearing. I record almost every PGA Tour event and often watch the player swings in slow motion… however the damn time bar is in the way layering over where the club strikes the ball. Likewise trying to go frame-by-frame during a pitch in MLB games – ie the Boston Red Sox NESN games on the INHD channel – doesn’t work as well as on Tivo. And with no 15-minute skip for 4 hour programs and the fact the only PGA event ever broadcast in HD was one tournament – The Masters in High Definition (NBC) – hasn’t improved my golf recording experience. But overall watching “regular” shows like 24, Entourage, SportsCenter, etc. in HD is worth it. Hopefully Comcast will figure these things out in time.

By: Alexis GallisÃ¡

Alexis GallisÃ¡ — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Nice thing about this box is the DVI output. It may not make a difference to some but I like to hook up all 3 different video outputs (SVideo, Component and DVI) into my Mitsubishi 52inch DLP just to see the difference.

Programming for Comcast seems to be vary from place to place. My friends have Discovery and TNT and I don’t. Instead I get INHD which seems to switch between their own programming and which ever baseball game they feel like playing (RedSox or Yankees).

One thing, sometimes Comcast tries to charge you 10$ a month for HDTV access. I never told them I wanted HD and I get all the channels I pay for in HD (Starz, Showtime, HBO, Skinimax and ESPN) without paying the extra 10$. I do have the PVR so not sure if this makes a difference.

By: Jason Santa Maria

Jason Santa Maria — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I have that Comcast box. Definitely no 30-second commercial skip. I hadn’t used anything like Tivo before I got it, so it was a wonderful upgrade for me; from VCR to DVR. It sounds like it will probably be a small step down for you, as the Comcast box is pretty basic on features. And don’t be fooled by that panel of ports (USB) in the front… they are currently just for show and considered a “future feature”.

By: Marty Stake

Marty Stake — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

lots of remote hacky stuff including:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_6412

How To Add 30-Second Skip

Press and hold the “Setup” button until the “Cable” button blinks twice.
Type in the code 994. The “Cable” button will blink twice.
Press (do not hold) the “Setup” button.
Type in the code 00173.
Press whatever button you want to map the 30-second skip command to.

By: Mike D.

Mike D. — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lynda: No fast-forward snapback feature? That is disappointing indeed. Crap, I really think I’m going to hate this thing, being such an interface snob.

Tom: I read that the 30-second skip was only for the non-Microsoft version of the box. I think everyone in Seattle gets the Microsoft version. Go figure.

Casey: Cool, I hope the Mac Firewire trick works with my version of the box. There is no indication that it doesn’t, as far as I can tell.

Stephen: Yeah, I’ve been waiting for decent DirecTV HD Tivo service for the last couple of years ago. It’s just not worth it though. My monthly DirecTV bill is already about $65 total, including HBO and Tivo. HD would add on another $10.99 and it wouldn’t even give me all my locals in HD!!! Totally unacceptable! Plus, I’m out $800 or so for an HD box that is already a few months ago from complete obsolescence. The Comcast deal gave me all of that, with MUCH less hardware, for $39.95 a month for the first year. Gotta switch with those numbers.

By: Rick Martinez

Rick Martinez — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I use it. I cherish it. I love it. Well, the HD anyways. Interface is alright. Sometimes it gets extremely laggy and if you hit the remote buttons 100 times like I do in these types of situations, you’ll get an insanely crazy cable box. On-Demand isn’t working for me on this box yet though it worked on another box in the home. Supposedly I need to install some type of device on my box to allow On-Demand to work properly.

I really like the fact you can record two shows at the same time (Everybody Loves Raymond galore) or watch live TV on a different channel while another show records. I also like the huge amount of space it has. I was out of town for a week and a half and there was still a bit of free space left with all my recordings. Though I do miss the pretty TiVo interface (which did lag as well, just not as much), I think the Comcast DVR is worth it for a very cheap and simple solution to HD+DVR.

Good luck, and enjoy it. :)

By: stephen o'grady

stephen o'grady — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

you know that DirecTV offers an HD Tivo, right? they retail for the unholy sum of $800+, but can be had on eBay for $400-600.