johnjay
12-24-2007, 05:17 PM
Comcast set me up with a Comcast Tivo a few weeks ago, and I wanted to share my experience with the product thus far. I know the Comcast Tivo just came out, but I have not read any honest reviews and I hope my thoughts will be helpful to people. (Does anybody else have this thing in their home?!?)
Before I talk about the Comcast Tivo, it needs to be known that the existing Comcast DVR is the worst consumer product I have ever used. The product freezes, resets for unknown reasons, the remote can be unresponsive for up to a minute and video can be lost at anytime. My wife and I have an agreement when it comes to the Comcast DVR freezing. The one who pressed the remote last has to take the walk of shame to the entertainment center, unplug the thing and plug it back in. The fact that Comcast even calls the thing a DVR is, in my opinion, false advertising.
With that said, the Comcast Tivo seems to truly function as a DVR. For the short time I have had the Comcast Tivo, I have not had to unplug the box and plug it back in again. And, as a result, the wife gets the remote a lot less.
The main reason I have a Comcast DVR is on demand, and to order the occasional pay per view event or movie. The Comcast Tivo deals with on demand much, much better than the Comcast DVR. The on demand shows are organized in a two column layout, making it much easier to see what is available. In the search, the on demand shows will show up with regular tv shows, a definite plus.
The Comcast Tivo does not have the silly advertisements on the main Tivo screen. Yay. I really, really hope that it stays that way.
On my Tivo HD, I do not go to the todo list very often, but I appreciate that the Comcast Tivo organizes the todo list items by day. And, they have separated the history. The Find Programs option from the main menu on the Tivo HD is a complete mess. The Comcast Tivo also has a Find Programs option, and the layout is much more intuitive. Overall, the Tivo screens feel a lot more organized.
One thing that popped out immediately, the Comcast Tivo screens are not in HD. My Comcast Tivo runs on a high end plasma hd tv and the screens look awful. On my Xbox 360, the dashboard menus are slick and razor sharp. The Comcast Tivo is a brand new product, and I think that this was a huge oversight.
The guide navigation is really, really slow. I thought the Tivo HD guide was somewhat slow, but the Comcast Tivo seems to be at least 10 to 20 times slower. When I hit fast forward on the Tivo HD, the guide fills in within a half second second. The Comcast Tivo takes 5 to 10 seconds. I do not know if its me, but it feels like it has become even slower over the past week or so.
If I want to record a show, the operation can take 30 seconds and even up to several minutes. I am really shocked by this because the Tivo HD and the Comcast DVR allow me to set up a recording rather quickly. Also, setting up a season pass or a wishlist seems to take as long as setting up a single recording.
The above two things may be very slow on the surface. The Comcast DVR may do these things faster, but you have to factor in the number of times the Comcast DVR freezes. Also, Comcast Tivo gives you season pass, wishlists and search so you do not have to go spelunking through the Guide as much. If you take these two things into consideration, the Comcast Tivo is faster in the long run.
The remote responsiveness does not feel right throughout the entire Comcast Tivo. I have to be very ginger with the remote. The Comcast Tivo seems to freeze for seconds at a time. (The same problem exists in the Comcast DVR, so Motorola must have put a hex on the box.) When it decides to unfreeze, the buttons you pressed during the freeze were remembered and Comcast Tivo processes them. This is my biggest gripe with the product. Here are some examples:
The letter search can freeze the screen for 30 seconds to a minute. In order to see on demand shows in letter search, you have to enter at least 3 letters and the freezing makes the task difficult at times. I tend to accidentally exit the screen when I am doing the letter search.
When I am watching a show and a commercial comes on, I hit the fast forward button. The video and play status bar can take a half second to a second to respond. I have seen this behavior off and on, but it has happened enough for me to notice. If I press the fast forward button twice, for a split second I am not sure if the box did not get the second fast forward press or not.
Also, the fast forward can get stuck sometimes. I have had this happen three times already. If I am fast forwarding, the Comcast Tivo does its freeze thing and it will not respond to the play key. When this happens, the delay can be 1 to 2 seconds. The video fast forwards until the Tivo unfreezes. Fortunately, I have not had this happen very often.
Since I am on the subject of fast forward, the Tivo HD will jump back a few seconds when I go from fast forward back to play. The Comcast Tivo does this, but the jump back seems to go back too far or not far enough. It could be that I need to get used to it, but I find it tough to predict where I will
end up after pressing play.
The wishlists do not play nice with premium content. I set up a wishlist for movies, and it picks up movies on premium channels, such as HBO, even if you do not pay for the channel. For example, "Love Stinks" is running on show time. The wishlist picked up the movie and scheduled the recording. The movie shows up in the todo list as if it will be recorded, but it does not record. If the wishlist schedules multiple movies for a time slot and you try to record something else for that time slot, you have to manage the conflicts. If I go to settings and remove premium channels from my channel list, the wishlist will not record them. But, I feel that I should not have to mico manage the wishlist stuff.
Finally, I was unable to set up a season pass for NFL Football. I can do this on the Tivo HD, but the Comcast Tivo just does not give me the option. I can only make a one off recording of NFL games just fine.
I know I have listed a lot of negatives, but I am really happy with the Comcast Tivo. And, if and when some of the things I listed here have been ironed out, the Comcast Tivo has the potential to be Tivo's best products. Although, given Comcast's history with their own DVR, I am skeptical that any of the Comcast Tivo's problems will be fixed anytime soon, if ever. Even with the problems, if you already have an existing Comcast DVR, the Comcast Tivo upgrade is a no brainer.
Before I talk about the Comcast Tivo, it needs to be known that the existing Comcast DVR is the worst consumer product I have ever used. The product freezes, resets for unknown reasons, the remote can be unresponsive for up to a minute and video can be lost at anytime. My wife and I have an agreement when it comes to the Comcast DVR freezing. The one who pressed the remote last has to take the walk of shame to the entertainment center, unplug the thing and plug it back in. The fact that Comcast even calls the thing a DVR is, in my opinion, false advertising.
With that said, the Comcast Tivo seems to truly function as a DVR. For the short time I have had the Comcast Tivo, I have not had to unplug the box and plug it back in again. And, as a result, the wife gets the remote a lot less.
The main reason I have a Comcast DVR is on demand, and to order the occasional pay per view event or movie. The Comcast Tivo deals with on demand much, much better than the Comcast DVR. The on demand shows are organized in a two column layout, making it much easier to see what is available. In the search, the on demand shows will show up with regular tv shows, a definite plus.
The Comcast Tivo does not have the silly advertisements on the main Tivo screen. Yay. I really, really hope that it stays that way.
On my Tivo HD, I do not go to the todo list very often, but I appreciate that the Comcast Tivo organizes the todo list items by day. And, they have separated the history. The Find Programs option from the main menu on the Tivo HD is a complete mess. The Comcast Tivo also has a Find Programs option, and the layout is much more intuitive. Overall, the Tivo screens feel a lot more organized.
One thing that popped out immediately, the Comcast Tivo screens are not in HD. My Comcast Tivo runs on a high end plasma hd tv and the screens look awful. On my Xbox 360, the dashboard menus are slick and razor sharp. The Comcast Tivo is a brand new product, and I think that this was a huge oversight.
The guide navigation is really, really slow. I thought the Tivo HD guide was somewhat slow, but the Comcast Tivo seems to be at least 10 to 20 times slower. When I hit fast forward on the Tivo HD, the guide fills in within a half second second. The Comcast Tivo takes 5 to 10 seconds. I do not know if its me, but it feels like it has become even slower over the past week or so.
If I want to record a show, the operation can take 30 seconds and even up to several minutes. I am really shocked by this because the Tivo HD and the Comcast DVR allow me to set up a recording rather quickly. Also, setting up a season pass or a wishlist seems to take as long as setting up a single recording.
The above two things may be very slow on the surface. The Comcast DVR may do these things faster, but you have to factor in the number of times the Comcast DVR freezes. Also, Comcast Tivo gives you season pass, wishlists and search so you do not have to go spelunking through the Guide as much. If you take these two things into consideration, the Comcast Tivo is faster in the long run.
The remote responsiveness does not feel right throughout the entire Comcast Tivo. I have to be very ginger with the remote. The Comcast Tivo seems to freeze for seconds at a time. (The same problem exists in the Comcast DVR, so Motorola must have put a hex on the box.) When it decides to unfreeze, the buttons you pressed during the freeze were remembered and Comcast Tivo processes them. This is my biggest gripe with the product. Here are some examples:
The letter search can freeze the screen for 30 seconds to a minute. In order to see on demand shows in letter search, you have to enter at least 3 letters and the freezing makes the task difficult at times. I tend to accidentally exit the screen when I am doing the letter search.
When I am watching a show and a commercial comes on, I hit the fast forward button. The video and play status bar can take a half second to a second to respond. I have seen this behavior off and on, but it has happened enough for me to notice. If I press the fast forward button twice, for a split second I am not sure if the box did not get the second fast forward press or not.
Also, the fast forward can get stuck sometimes. I have had this happen three times already. If I am fast forwarding, the Comcast Tivo does its freeze thing and it will not respond to the play key. When this happens, the delay can be 1 to 2 seconds. The video fast forwards until the Tivo unfreezes. Fortunately, I have not had this happen very often.
Since I am on the subject of fast forward, the Tivo HD will jump back a few seconds when I go from fast forward back to play. The Comcast Tivo does this, but the jump back seems to go back too far or not far enough. It could be that I need to get used to it, but I find it tough to predict where I will
end up after pressing play.
The wishlists do not play nice with premium content. I set up a wishlist for movies, and it picks up movies on premium channels, such as HBO, even if you do not pay for the channel. For example, "Love Stinks" is running on show time. The wishlist picked up the movie and scheduled the recording. The movie shows up in the todo list as if it will be recorded, but it does not record. If the wishlist schedules multiple movies for a time slot and you try to record something else for that time slot, you have to manage the conflicts. If I go to settings and remove premium channels from my channel list, the wishlist will not record them. But, I feel that I should not have to mico manage the wishlist stuff.
Finally, I was unable to set up a season pass for NFL Football. I can do this on the Tivo HD, but the Comcast Tivo just does not give me the option. I can only make a one off recording of NFL games just fine.
I know I have listed a lot of negatives, but I am really happy with the Comcast Tivo. And, if and when some of the things I listed here have been ironed out, the Comcast Tivo has the potential to be Tivo's best products. Although, given Comcast's history with their own DVR, I am skeptical that any of the Comcast Tivo's problems will be fixed anytime soon, if ever. Even with the problems, if you already have an existing Comcast DVR, the Comcast Tivo upgrade is a no brainer.