So What's The Bottom Line on Comcast / TiVo?

[Tivaxion]

So I am finally ready to take the HD plunge, am a devoted Tivo guy, and live in comcast territory. All I seem to read are nighmares about the comcast/tivo motorola box setup, and it isn't even available where I live yet. Should I wait for it, or just go ahead and get the TiVo HD DVR and put a comcast card or two in it?

I'm especially concerned about speed. I've read the comcast box with TiVo software is reeeaaally slow. Is the TiVo HD box with comcast card any faster?

I've never used on demand much, but I bet I would if it were easy. In my current setup (TiVo Series 1 plugged into a comcast motorola box) it is damn near impossible and very clunky, so I never even try.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Tivaxion]

Also, am I just an idiot? Is there no forum specifically about the TiVO HD DVR?

[ThAbtO]

You will find it under 'Series3.'

[miricle]

So I am finally ready to take the HD plunge, am a devoted Tivo guy, and live in comcast territory. All I seem to read are nighmares about the comcast/tivo motorola box setup, and it isn't even available where I live yet. Should I wait for it, or just go ahead and get the TiVo HD DVR and put a comcast card or two in it?

I'm especially concerned about speed. I've read the comcast box with TiVo software is reeeaaally slow. Is the TiVo HD box with comcast card any faster?

I've never used on demand much, but I bet I would if it were easy. In my current setup (TiVo Series 1 plugged into a comcast motorola box) it is damn near impossible and very clunky, so I never even try.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

I have the Comcast Tivo. Its not as bad as people have made it out to be, but I'm only holding on to it until Series 4/tru2way Tivo becomes a reality.

[Naugahide]

So I am finally ready to take the HD plunge, am a devoted Tivo guy, and live in comcast territory. All I seem to read are nighmares about the comcast/tivo motorola box setup, and it isn't even available where I live yet. Should I wait for it, or just go ahead and get the TiVo HD DVR and put a comcast card or two in it?

I'm especially concerned about speed. I've read the comcast box with TiVo software is reeeaaally slow. Is the TiVo HD box with comcast card any faster?

I've never used on demand much, but I bet I would if it were easy. In my current setup (TiVo Series 1 plugged into a comcast motorola box) it is damn near impossible and very clunky, so I never even try.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Yes, the comcast box is damn slow, and always will be, because it seems to need to talk upstream to servers at comcast to perform many of its functions. Its hardware is also flaky compared to TiVo. Search for my posts for the details, but I had four of them in my house before giving up.

The Tivo S3 can run with a single "M-card" and this is free with any digital package.

I don't use on-demand at all, and one cannot if one only has the TiVo box. If on-demand is important to you, I'd recommend getting a comcast non-dvr box for just the on-demand and the tivo for dvr. This presumes you have two HDMI inputs available on your TV, which may or may not be a problem.

Also one can use the "amazon unbox" feature on tivo to download movies to the tivo, but this requires good internet bandwidth, and the movies are not hd.

Bottom line: the comcast hardware and software are poor, IMHO. I certainly wouldn't wait for them.

[NCARalph]

It kind of works but is very slow, buggy and wierdly designed. It crashes every 2 to 3 weeks, the search features were designed by a non-human as near as I can tell, scheduled recordings randomly get dropped, and so on.

For a science fair project it's pretty good, the problem is that too many people think that because they pay for it, it should actually work. Once you get over that, you won't be too angry.

[dotorg]

I just dropped mine yesterday -- I was set up on the first day that the Tivo stuff was available in the metro Boston area. Since that day I had 14 boxes go crazy-8's on me. Every time I lost things I hadn't seen, every time I had to set back up all my season passes. Apparently on Monday they had some major glitch that wiped out a big swath of the Tivo-upgraded units. The support guy I was talking to said he'd handled four in the hour before me and had gotten an e-mail from corporate telling them to note on the account to ship the units back to corporate for investigation. You can't even call this junk "beta".

A day after getting set back up on the standard software I bought two Tivo HD units... the Motorola/Gemstar software is horrid and the Comcast Tivo stuff is even worse.

[Tivaxion]

Thanks all -- I went with the TiVo HD and a M-card. Working nicely.

[NCARalph]

We just got our Tivo HD with external storage and an MCard and returned the Comcast box. I must say, the installer did a very good job, although apparently he had some problems getting the office to actually set the card up correctly.

A real Tivo unit is far better than the Comcast mess, everything works, it's fast, you get access to Amazon unbox, and soon Netflix! I expected all that, but what surprised me is that the HD image is noticeably better and it's easier to set it up to better control how the image is displayed when it's letter boxed, etc.

Overall we're very pleased with the switch. It will take about 3 years to pay for compared to Comcast monthly fees, but I expect we'll be a lot happier in the meantime.

[Naugahide]

Overall we're very pleased with the switch. It will take about 3 years to pay for compared to Comcast monthly fees, but I expect we'll be a lot happier in the meantime.Yes, I'm sure you'll be happier, but will point out it's not an apples-to-apples comparison because of the much larger recording capacity. Right now, Comcast box comes with its 120GB drive, and no path to upgrade, whereas TiVo comes with 180GB drive + 500GB upgrade path without hacking and 1TB with hacking. To me, the large external storage makes it an entirely different experience.

[lkupersmith]

Yes, I'm sure you'll be happier, but will point out it's not an apples-to-apples comparison because of the much larger recording capacity. Right now, Comcast box comes with its 120GB drive, and no path to upgrade, whereas TiVo comes with 180GB drive + 500GB upgrade path without hacking and 1TB with hacking. To me, the large external storage makes it an entirely different experience.

Not to nitpick, but both my Comcast boxes have 160GB drives. Still nothing compared to the external storage option on the real, better functioning, TiVos.

[bareyb]

The Tivo S3 can run with a single "M-card" and this is free with any digital package.

I don't use on-demand at all, and one cannot if one only has the TiVo box. If on-demand is important to you, I'd recommend getting a comcast non-dvr box for just the on-demand and the tivo for dvr. This presumes you have two HDMI inputs available on your TV, which may or may not be a problem.
.

PPV and "On Demand" don't work? Can you elaborate? PPV is the only reason I currently have a Comcast (Moto) Box at all. I was considering the new Comcast TiVo but only for PPV and ON Demand. This is not a true two-way device?

I also wanted to clarify for folks that the original series 3 needs TWO cable cards to work. including M cards. The TiVo HD can run with a single M card.

[lkupersmith]

PPV and "On Demand" don't work? Can you elaborate? PPV is the only reason I currently have a Comcast (Moto) Box at all. I was considering the new Comcast TiVo but only for PPV and ON Demand. This is not a true two-way device?

I also wanted to clarify for folks that the original series 3 needs TWO cable cards to work. including M cards. The TiVo HD can run with a single M card.

PPV and OnDemand work on the Comcast TiVo box. They are not available on a true TiVo box.

[jeffw_00]

Thanks from another lurker - I was thinking of taking the plunge but I think I'll just keep my regular COMCAST PVR (along with my Series-1 HDR-312, god bless it!)