Comments on: Dear Comcast and/or Motorola and/or Microsoft

By: Tymas

Tymas — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 18:53:32 +0000

Well, as far as I can tell, most of you people want *magic* to happen, but you have to remember that this is TECHNOLOGY, and just waving your fingers at it or praying to God, to make it *work*, just isnt going to get it. Remember the old saying “Garbage in, equals garbage out!” you get out of it what you put in it, and all the bitching ranting and raving about your OWN screwups/faults ain’t gonna fix anything. The last comment is great, you are NOT gonna be able to find a “RETAIL” outlet that will let you swap your box, id10-t manual should be issued to this person… sheesh. Call your Comcast rep and tell them your prob, don’t be nice, they are idiots in the office, remember, they are only paid like $8/hr to answer your call, and no NO technical knowledge whatsoever, they are *supposed* to read a script off the screen and try to get you to answer that… Most of the call centers people are too stupid (lazy is another term) to do the job right. So, give your technicians a break, they bust their asses to try and fix what “handy men” fuck up by putting in cheap ass splitters and running their own lines (inducing TONS of noise for EVERYBODY) So, if you don’t like it, get Dish or DirecTV, they’d be happy to come out and drill holes in your house, and run wires all over the place, or just stop yer bitching!

By: Dave Metcalf

Dave Metcalf — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I love the high def.
But it has to be able to record a program instead of a time slot. I only missed the second half of Family Guy last week. If I missed the last four minutes of a good game, there would be pitchforks and torches.
Just keep repeating…
I love the high def…
I love the high def…
I love the high def…

By: curly

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

Having no tv at all makes you dependable on others… but saves you a lot of frustration too… ;)

By: Shane

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

I hate Comcast with the fire of 1,000 suns. My high-speed internet at home has been up and down for the past 4 weeks. I have had 2 technicians out to fix the problem. One of them blamed it on another technician and said that the problem would be fixed within 48 hours.

It wasn’t.

The other technician said my cable box was wired wrong. It is acting up more now than it was before.

Now, if I want to use the internet, I have to unplug my modem, wait 60 seconds, re-plug, wait for it to re-authenticate and hope that it actually works (it usually does for about 2 hours, then craps out again).

My HD channels are also extremely pixelated. I keep threatening to quit them, but really can’t because I have no other viable option. Dish is way too expensive because of the high speed internet.

I HATE COMCAST. I told the customer service representative I was on the phone with the other night that he worked for the antichrist. He laughed and said, “yeah, but I get free cable.”

By: Dave Schafer

Dave Schafer — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I feel your pain.

I got 8 minutes of “Lost” last week. The box apprently shutdown on it’s own deleting all recording info, as well. Yay!

The iTunes store got my money the next day.

I also cannot get series recordings to stick.

By: gb

gb — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I concur about the general crappiness of said hd-dvr. From hanging up every now and then (followed up by a burst of all the pent-up commands my remote has sent in the meantime, somehow ending up asking me if I want to be reminded of an episode of the Golden Girls) to not recording episodes of a scheduled show because the day was changed to just general freakouts (in which the fast forward / play controls take on a mind of their own, and I end up having to hard reset the box). And that’s just software…

I started wondering who was lighting up a bong, or if I had a leak somewhere, when I realised it was the damn box’s cheap hard drive (which I swear has the volume of a megaphone and the recording space of a thimble). And seriously… what’s the deal with “you’ll need about 2 feet of open space above your box here… it doesn’t have any fans, so you can’t put anything remotely close to it, or it may go nuts” (or so my comcastic installer told me, despite the fact it freaks out anyway)?

And somewhat related… why am I paying so much extra for so few HD channels?

By: Collin

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

I use the good old trusty VHS method. It is hard to describe but basically this device uses reels of magnetic tape that store images and sound. It’s crazy really, but it works. Sure it may have distortion the more you use the same magical magnetic tapes, but once you get that bad boy rolling you’re gauranteed to see up to 6 hours of what was recorded.

Actually, I keep hearing more complaints then anything else about DVR solutions. The one from my cable company has irritating slow menus and video sometimes looks pixelated. That’s reason enough to avoid buying one for the time being. Besides, I am sure to be able to use my XBOX Media Center to record all my shows with the version that follows 360. But will it open my garage door?

By: Will Merydith

Will Merydith — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

I think the answer to your problems is – watch less tv.

By: Nathan Henderson

Nathan Henderson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Remember, TiVo is coming to Comcast in 2006 If only us Time Warner Cable subscribers were so lucky! I guess there's always the fabled CableCard TiVo.

By: Beth

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

I’m stuck with Cox, and the Scientific American box we have is just as buggy. I’m thinking of switching to Tivo, since aside from having to purchase my own box, the service costs the same.

By: Peter Goodman

Peter Goodman — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

you should not have made dinner plans

By: Devon Shaw

Devon Shaw — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Odd. I’ve had Comcast for going on five years now in Ravenna and Des Moines, and had maybe a total of 10 minutes of downtime, usually around 3 in the morning. I can’t vouch for their digital cable one way or another (I don’t have it), but the internet has been superb.

As for the lack of recording… someone needs to design a plugin for Front Row that allows the recording of HDTV content, and then we can dump those shitty boxes for good.

By: Don

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

I have a DVD-R … I just don’t use it, also preferring the magic magnetic devices that load in a VHS machine. My favorite is when the news or President of the US or some such comes in for a few minutes to talk unexpectedly and then everyone misses the end of their stuff.

I watched the end of that game, it really wasn’t that good anyway — unless of course you are from Washington …

By: Patrick Johnson

Patrick Johnson — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

One Word, TiVO.

Im pretty sure this can record tv shows etc. for playback, and I suggest geting one ;)

By: Dustin Diaz

Dustin Diaz — Tue, 30 Nov -0001 00:00:00 +0000

Not so “comcastic” now is it ;)
I’m with Pat. Go Tivo!