Tivo HD XL with Comcast in Bay Area. Good or bad???

jbrasure · 10-03-2009, 06:44 PM

Hey Folks,

I'm moving into a new house soon, and I'm trying to make decisions about what television service to get. I'm considering getting Comcast HD with a couple of Tivo HD XL boxes.

I had a similar setup a couple of years ago, but I eventually switched to DirecTV because of these problems with Comcast:

* Frequent audio stutters while watching Jeopardy on channel 7 HD
* Occasional pixelating on HD channels
* Poor compression of newly added HD channels (like SciFi HD)
* Concern about what would happen when Comcast switched to SDV

So what do you think? Do the problems above still exist, or is everything peachy now? Is there anything I should be concerned about with this combination of hardware, Comcast, and location? I'm moving to Belmont (near San Mateo) if that influences your answer.

Thanks!

retired_guy · 10-03-2009, 09:41 PM

One of my friends here in Saratoga converted from DirecTV to a HD and is happy that he did so. My experiences with two HDs and a S3 and Comcast have been good, although I do think that they overcompress some of the new channels as you indicated. Other problems you've seen are probably more related to the signal quality (too strong or too weak) feeding the TiVo and typically can be easily fixed by Comcast or yourself if you see them. So far, no SDV in Saratoga but TiVo should support it if it comes.

By the way, I'd suggest buying two HDs and upgrading them yourself to 1TB. Much cheaper, although if you're queasy about opening the box, then go with the XL models.

steinercat · 10-03-2009, 10:55 PM

I lived in Foster City (right beside Belmont) till last year.

Never had problems with Comcast. Internet or CATV.

I work in Vegas now, and can't wait to move back to the Bay Area, and as far away from Cox as possible.

Spenner · 10-05-2009, 01:36 PM

Remember that Comcast isn't your only choice - there's also Astound (used to be called RCN, URL is http://www.astound.net/). I have no problems with Astound and my Tivo HD. Both Comcast and Astound offer decent deals for bundle TV/Internet/Phone prices. The channel lineups are slightly different (i.e. some channels are in different price tiers).

atlynch · 10-05-2009, 01:52 PM

I switched from DirectTV to Comcast in 2007 when DTV dropped TiVo. I have two Tivo HD's upgraded with 1TB internals. I am about to add a third. I will probably pull my old 500GB MyDVR expander out of mothballs for that one, at least until the warrantee expires. I am quite satisfied. I recently had to exchange a cablecard, but that is the only problem I've had.

Cheers,
Drew