How bad is the Comcast DVR?

Since we moved into our new condo, we now have Comcast TV service. In general, this is a good thing. We now get the local channels in HD (still not available in Seattle with DirecTV), and the price is good, as our condo association has a base Comcast package to the building.

The only piece that doesn’t work is the DVR. We have a Motorola DCT 3412, dual tuner and it has some issues. Searching the web indicates that we aren’t the only ones suffering here.

The worst one is that the thing crashes 2-3 times a day, it seems to be when you are watching a show and another show stops recording, so typically just after the hour.

The UI for this thing is Ok, but a bunch of the default options are just wrong, which makes setting up shows a pain. Also, the combination of series options makes for a confusing setup. Tivo this aint.

Here’s another UI issue. Sometimes when fast-forwarding, the UI doesn’t respond to buttons for 20-30 seconds. You’d have thought the software would be in a mode that is expecting a button to be pressed (after all, I’m not going to be fast-forwarding forever), and should delay any time consuming tasks that may reduce response time. This responsiveness is a lot worse after a crash, which just compounds the frustration.

The good news is that this machine is Microsoft Enhanced, I can only guess how bad the regular system is…

This entry was posted on Mon, 02 Oct 2006 09:05:10 GMT . You can follow any any response to this entry through the Atom feed. You can leave a comment or a trackback from your own site.
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  1. Anon 4 months later:

    Heh,

    I would guess that you work at MSFT (I’m right huh?) and have some misguided loyalty. I work there as well and have witnessed a definite organizational decline in the past several years. To me it is extremely likely that poor quality Microsoft software could be to blame for these problems. Within the walls of the MSFT campus, chaos and poor QA are the themes of the day – I am constantly amazed that they can still produce any products with their organizational difficulties… but then again, when’s the last time they made a product release deadline?

    But the point is, you’re right, this DVR is inexcusable… I think its a shared blame between comcast and msft – msft for not being able to deliver top shelf software anymore, comcast for letting them sell it to them.

    Sincerely, DontWannaGetFired

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