TiVo "features" showing up in Comcast's DVR - (not Comcast TiVo)

they may well have cross liscensed a bunch of TiVo stuff or just received from help on adding the features into their code. they did pay TiVo a lot of money for R&D after all.


I am in the camp of not wanting a 15 second delay on keep/delete. I have seldom had an issue with it popping up when I did not want it but like being able to quickly delete and move on when done watching something.

 

I'd vote for the 15 second delay. I've been struck by this numerous times.

 

The iGuide Search is nothing like a TiVo Search. You have to know the exact way the title is spelled. It won't find anything else like TiVo does. Lame.

 

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So you would have to wait 15 seconds to delete? That seems like an incredible PITA to wait every time you finish watching a recording, as versus the 2% of the time you meant to hit the 8-sec flashback key.

 

The latest MOXI update gave us a good implementation: at the end of the show the keep/delete window shows up, but if you hit the rewind or 'jump back' button the DVR will respond.
No waiting, no loss of functionality, no needing to re-start the show.
I like it

 

On ReplayTV I believe the 'flashback' key works on the keep/delete screen, and does exactly what you would expect.

ReplayTV has a few nice UI features like that..

 

There's one way that would minimize the annoyance. (And for all I know its already implemented this way)

1) If the recording reaches the end pause (and display the normal pause indicator) and wait 15 seconds to display the keep/delete screen.
2) Unless the user presses a button (at a minimum: left, guide, live tv, now playing, menu, clear) that would exit the recording, in which case display immediately.

So you only get the delay if you sit there and wait, but indicating you want to do something else would trigger it immediately.

 

The iGuide Search results in a list of programs in alphabetical order much as TiVo's list does. However iGuide offers no keyboard shortcuts to access that list, only allowing sequential access by first selecting a letter or number.

Motorola's DVR's with iGuide provide an EPG and menu's which are different but in some ways more accessible than TiVo's. I especially liked the capability of entering all the menu's while not inturrupting an ongoing program, whether 'live' or recorded, which continues to be displayed in a relatively large PIP. Of course a user can choose to pause a playing program before entering menus.

Moto's DVR really fell down with its imprecise trick play, much like operating TiVo with a BAL of .18. I wonder if Moto's shortcoming isn't somehow hardware based as MSTV s/w on Moto exhibited similiar issues. We'll find out when Moto's TiVo s/w is released.

Another huge shortcoming of Comcast's Moto hi-def DVR is its inability to output standard-def images derived from hi-def sources with a full 480 lines of vertical resolution. Instead such pictures must be zoomed to fill a 16x9 screen thus losing 25% of their potential standard-def resolution. As the ability to record memorable programs on standard DVDs is paramount for me, this was the dealbreaker which caused me to return the Moto. (The recent $2 monthly rental increase didn't help either. Comcast's Moto DVR now costs $14 for the first one and over $19 monthly for each additional one.)

For both price and features HDTiVo can't be beat and the first 'M' Cable Card from Comcast is free!

 

Try searching by Actor in the iGuide. I'll wait.

 

"Every li'l bit helps!"

Apparently Comcast has enabled keyboard search shortcuts for Title Searches but still doesn't offer other search parameters. Still it's an improvement.

If only Comcast's Moto outputted a full height standard-def downrezz I could have lived with it. But it doesn't.

I'm not optomistic about how Comcast's TiVoMoto will compare with HDTiVo but apparently it won't be long before we know.

If only TiVo offered (as options) a decent uncluttered Grid Guide and the ability to go into menus while a program (even as audio only) continued to play!