Just got Comcast DVR service installed...

[MaxDSP]

Loving it already, scheduled 24, The Sopranos, The Shield, The Loop, Family Guy, and Dirty Jobs :beer:

1) The box is connected to a regualr analog set thats liek 10 years old, but I can still view HDTV broadcasts on the channels. These channels look amazingly clear as opposed to their grainy cable broadcast. While I know this is not real HD, why is my TV still able to display the video?

2) How do I cancel a recording for a show thats playing now? I accidentally pressed the Rec button while watching an HD channel and no matter what, the recording wouldn't stop until the show was over and I couldnt change the channel. I had to swap to the other tuner and let the recording finish before I could regain control over it.

3) Why doesn't the menu/guide come up when watching HD channels? I was watching Discovery HD and pressed buttons to watch another channel, but nothing would change the channel, except pressing Channel Up or Channel Down until I got to a non-HD broadcast and THEN pressing the numbers to the channel I wanted.

 

[jpeyton]

1) Do DVDs look better than regular TV on your analog set? Same thing.

2) Go to the guide and press record again on the program already scheduled to record. It should give you the option to cancel.

3) Not sure. The guide works for me on all channels. But the boxes are a little quirky sometimes; sometimes the guide function won't work for a few minutes. If this problem persists I'd call Comcast for a tech to come out and fix it.

 

[Alkaline5]

1) The box is set to automatically convert all output to 480i right now. If you ever get an HDTV you'll want to go into the setup menu and change it to 720p or 1080i.

2) Pressing the STOP button should do it, but there are some bugs. If my unit automatically powers itself on to record an assigned program, then it won't output ANY sound until the show is done recording or until I manually turn the power off and back on.

3) Sounds like another bug. The guide should work exactly the same for all channels.

 

[MaxDSP]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
1) Do DVDs look better than regular TV on your analog set? Same thing.

2) Go to the guide and press record again on the program already scheduled to record. It should give you the option to cancel.

3) Not sure. The guide works for me on all channels. But the boxes are a little quirky sometimes; sometimes the guide function won't work for a few minutes. If this problem persists I'd call Comcast for a tech to come out and fix it.

I couldn't do that because of issue#3. It was recording an HD-channel, so the guide wouldn't come up which would have enabled me to cancel the recording.

 

[keeleysam]

3. The video is being downscaled, before the overlay is put on.

 

[daveymark]

some tips:

google how to hack your remote to enable the 30 second skip button. you can also hack it to program macros and other fun stuff. for instance, I need to swith to a different input to hook up the xbox 360, so instead of pressing multiple buttons to select the right input, I just press one.

if you need closed captioning on your hd channels, you have to enter the DVR setup menu by holding the menu button while you press power (the unit should already be on)

to stop recording on hd channel, press the stop button. however, if the menu/guide does not come up, then you might have a different problem. it doesn't make sens that the record window would come up and not the menu guide. Does the channel information box come up?>

there is also a whole thread dedicated to your dvr in avsforum. might want to give it a read if you have any problems and ask your question there

 

[FP]

Text

That page will show you how to reprogram your remote for useful features.

I just got Comcast DVR about 2 months ago and started having nothing but problems with it. It would freeze every morning at 4:20 and in the afternoon around 4:38. The unit had to be hard power cycled to get it to come back. Seems a lot of people have the same problem at the same times. Turns out the problem is with adding minutes to the front or back of a recording. Basically, don't do it. The Motorola box is very buggy.

Also, the guide is utter crap compared to Tivo. Almost all of the cable shows I record list every as NEW so I end up with a ton of extra crap recorded. My season passes basically record every episode, which sucks because I have to remember to watch things before too many repeats occur, otherwise the real "new" episode gets deleted.

The two tuners, lower price and lack of needing a phont line make up for it though.

 

[dr150]

Do these Comcast DVRs make noise or are they silent?........

 

[Wag]

Program in the 30sec skip from that Wikipedia page. That really makes it usefull.

And yes, they make noise with the harddrive constantly running. It's just a matter of how much. Mine is quite loud and I keep debating when I'll exchange it.

 

[jonnyjack]

let's hope when the tivo software comes out on those motorola boxes it'll be better.

 

[MaxDSP]

reading up quite a bit right now, but how come the display for CC doesn't work? Does Comcast use CC1 for Analog or something else? I have it enabled in the menu options for the box, however the TV itself doesn't support CC. Does this matter, because I thought the box overlayed the captions on the video stream so it wouldn't matter whether the TV supports it or now?

 

[RossMAN]

Originally posted by: jonnyjack
let's hope when the tivo software comes out on those motorola boxes it'll be better.

Likewise. Having an HD dual tuner DVR is sweet but the GUI sucks compared to TiVo.

 

[MaxDSP]

just discovered another issue...turning on my room humidifier causes 2 bands of slight snow/static on all the channels. Kinda sucks but guess I'll have to live with it, can't really put the humidifier anywhere else. It's about 4-5 feet away on the floor from the box.