Does the tivo series3 HD work for comcast in Houston?

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I don't move to Houston until August 29, but I just called Comcast to place my order and they said if I wanted HD service I had to use their DVR box. I told them that I just bought a tivo series 3 and I have no idea why it wouldn't work with their cable cards. Then I said "thanks, but i don't believe you, please add 2 cable cards to my order".

So then she sent me to tech support to ask the question. The representative I talked to said "no, it won't work" but when I requested she ask her supervisor, he answered that "yes, it will work except for on demand services".

Is that the correct answer? If not, I should bring this back before I open it.

And if it will work with their HD signals, will i still need their HD converter box for anything, or will I just need the tivo box and 2 cable cards for everything?

Thanks

 

Interesting. Thanks for the warning about SDV...do you see that coming to Houston in the near future?

Even if it does, it sounds like they'd be more likely to put the less watched multicultural or music channels on it. I'm willing to upgrade to a Series 4 in a year if that becomes a problem. I would just hate it if they switched next month and my new tivo was useless.

I managed to get a Series 3 off amazon for $599.99 with no shipping and no tax. It's not really worth it to me to return it and save $250.00 or so for a (slightly) worse box.

BTW, just as an aside, the reason I wanted a tivo box was because tivo rewinds just a few seconds after you were fastforwarding and press play. That little feature is worth hundreds of dollars to me. Do you know if the Comcast Houston boxes have that?

 

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I really appreciate the info man. I called Comcast again today and again the representative told me she was instructed to always say that tivo is not compatible with their services and I couldn't use a tivo box. I told her that they mustve told her that 1) to lessen competition, or 2) b/c it wasn't compatible with VOD/PPV.

Still, I decided to keep the tivo S3 (even though reading about the Tivo HD is making me a little annoyed I spent twice as much on it, I think the bigger HD and THX sound might make it worth it to me in the long run...especially when you consider it would cost $40 to send the thing back). BUT, I'm gonna go ahead and get one of Comcast's HD DVRs as well just in case they ever go to SDV and tivo still doesn't have a solution. My tivo might be useless then, though....I guess that's a risk I have to take.

Plus, it might be pretty cool to be able to record 4 HD shows at once (with the cable DVR and tivo)...especially on college football saturdays!