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View Full Version : Need comcast vs. SA tivo recommendation


blhirsch
03-27-2006, 04:56 PM
Ok, I'm posting this here because I'm most familiar with this forum, and I, personally, have two direcTivos. I trust the knowledge of the folks around here, so I hope you'll indulge me this slightly off-topic question. A search didn't quite give me enough information to piece together any real answer, but this is probably due to my general lack of knowledge with the options and services I'm asking about.

So, caveats and explanations aside, the recommendation I need is for a friend who has a regular SA tivo and is contemplating moving over to Comcast DVR.

She has: Gigantic (80+ inches? More?) HD projection television. SA series 1 Sony tivo that I upgraded to 160 hours for her. Not hacked. Single tuner. No HD (duh). Lifetime sub. Works seemingly ok, but she complains of issues where the Tivo records what it SAYS, say, is ER but is really some other show. My suspicion is that it is the channel that the tv was tuned to before the recording and the Tivo had trouble changing the channel on the Comcast cable box. Can't confirm, but I think it's the cable box/Comcast. The tech she brought out to look at the problem (she has a very complicated home theater system and computer that runs the whole setup) says it was her tivo. It's definitely an old tivo and was almost unusable in its original form with 30 hours.

At any rate, she's contemplating a Comcast DVR. I have ZERO experience with these. I have friends who are happy with it but these people did not come from Tivo. My only experience with Comcast was trying to operate my mother in law's Comcast On-Demand and being flummoxed by the complete illogicality of the menu layout and navigation. So counter-intuitive that I thought there must be some joke.

So--she's reluctant to give up her lifetime sub, but likes the idea of a $10 fee for the service. Plus she would like to solve the issues she perceives she's having with her current setup. And while I shudder at the thought of throwing her to the lions to navigate her way around anything Comcast-branded, I also suspect that she'd finally get to watch HD. It's a cryin' shame they're not watching HD on that television. And since "do" the football season at their place, it certainly wouldn't be a tragedy if I got her in HD.

We're in the Philadelphia area, so if that affects what kind of DVR service she'd get or what box she'd end up with, there's that.

Anybody willing to weigh in or tell me where I should go to find more information in order to give her a solid recommendation either way?

scimini
03-27-2006, 05:27 PM
I recently dumped DirecTV over there inability to provide HD. So I can provide some feedbackand answer as many questions as I can, as a former Tivo user migrated to the comcast Motorola DVR.

If you never used Tivo the DVR would not be that bad, but if you like things like the WishList and the ease of use in TIVO you will hate the Comcast DVR. Is it usable, yes, just not as intutive as Tivo.

I am in Detroit and the box is the Motorola DCT6412 dual tuner HD & SD DVR.

EDIT: Here is a link to a ton of info and PDFs on the DCT6412
http://www.dvrchatter.com/viewtopic.php?id=467

goony
03-27-2006, 07:56 PM
I am in Detroit and the box is the Motorola DCT6412 dual tuner HD & SD DVR.http://www.dvrchatter.com/viewtopic.php?id=467You may need to know more than the hardware model number.

I dunno if it applies to the Motorola box you cited, but with some cableco DVRs (Motorola? Scientific Atlanta?) the cableco can choose what user software they want to run on it - thus, a cableco customer in Detroit may have a totally different user interface than someone in another city with the same hardware box... one person praising their box, the other cursing it and it's not an apples-to-apples comparison.

scimini
03-28-2006, 10:03 AM
That may be true, I only have had Comcast for less than a week.

goony
03-29-2006, 02:00 AM
You may need to know more than the hardware model number.
Read though this topic (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=292931) - various flavors of software for the 6412 are mentioned, along with comments.

cwerdna
03-29-2006, 06:13 AM
Yup. We almost always need the software make and version in addition to the box.

http://www.wematter.com/comcast-dvr.htm under the Motorola section has some links to the iGuide manuals and screenshots along w/these links:
# (New Posts) Comcast 6412 w/ iGuide Discussion of AVS Forum http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=464986
# (New Posts) Comcast 6412 / MSTV Thread Microsoft software, only in Washington state. http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=467203

I stumbled across this ancient thread:
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=455705&highlight=comcast

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorola_6412 mentions that DCT6412s can also have Passport Echo software http://replayguide.sourceforge.net/dct6412/DCT6412_Passport.html.

So, it looks like there's at least MSTV, iGuide and Passport Echo available for the DCT-6412. http://broadband.motorola.com/dvr/interactive_guide.asp seems to confirm this.