Comcast DVR "Performance" vs. TiVo HD

The TivoHD is not intended for channel surfers. It is intended for those that watch primarily recorded programming.

The Tivo menus and guide responsiveness is not very good in the 8.1.x software on the TivoHD. It is much better in the 8.3.x release on the Series3, but the TivoHD doesn't have that yet.

On the other hand, remote responsiveness with PVR functions is far superior on Tivos. There is never any remote lag when doing fast forward, rewind, instant replay, 30s skip, etc. As a result, commercial skipping tends to work much better on Tivos.

 

And you won't loose all your guide data if there is a hiccup on the cable line, like you will with the 64xx/34xx series boxes!!

 

Tivo menus and channel changes will seem very slow when going from the Comcast HD DVR boxes, but after a week or so we have adjusted very well to it.

We also find that we don't watch much live TV any more, primarily going through the 50+ shows sitting in Tivo Suggestions before resorting to seeing "what's on TV".

The Tivo does not have the annoying problem that the Comcast box has where the remote commands get queued up and the box becomes unresponsive for 30 seconds then does all of the commands you've been pressing at once.

Finally, the Tivo does not have the annoying Comcast bug where it doesn't record a show claiming "full" when it has plenty of available space to make the recording.

 

I didn't find the TiVo to seem slow in any area compared to my Comcast box. But perhaps performance varies. I had difficulty navigating the menus on the Comcast box (for example to get to the annoying mail they send you advertising a big wrestling event). I would have to predict how many button pushes would get me to where I need and hope to get it right. Then I'd watch the box catch up.

The TiVo doesn't get back logged with commands like the Comcast box did (boy I hated that). I had a 6412 (I think) dual tuner HD Motorola box. I didn't find it to be particularly fast ever.

 

I couldn't have put it any better, I agree 100% with those comments.

Diane

 

Tivo's live guide is also way better than the Comcast DVR's guide. Specifically I used to have Moto DVR with iGuide software, and Comcast would periodically put up a line of ads blocking the bottom row of the guide, so the whole guide is just 4 lines tall. And since when it scrolls it scrolls a whole page, and the blocked channel is always blocked even if you scroll up or down a page, so it's very difficult to actually see the blocked channel. It's pretty frustrating when channel surfing. In Tivo's guide, every time you scroll a page, it puts the last line from the previous page on the top line of the new page (if you scroll down), and vise versa if you scroll up, so it's always easy to find your place when you're scrolling through the guide.

 

Tivo is far superior IMO to comcast dvr's. But like others have said its not meant to channel surf, that will seem slow. One feature I wish Tivo has that the comcast dvr had was to hit the up and down buttons to scroll through whats on other channels without changing the channel, and hit select if you want to change it. that would make surfing much easier on the tivo, but alas it doesn't exist.

 

It would also be nice if there was a Tivo guide option that actually showed the Live TV feed in a window so you can see the program that's on while you are browsing the guide.

This is the big thing we miss from the Comcast guide.