[mythtv-users] Re: Comcast being coy?

[Patrick Watson]

Brad Benson wrote:
> On 10/7/05, *Marc Infield* <marc at infielddesign.com 
> <mailto:marc at infielddesign.com>> wrote:
>
>     I was also impressed that they only charge $5 more for their DVR, are
>     they any good? I hope not, by the time you add up what I have
>     invested in parts for all my Myth learning it would end being DVR
>     rentals for about 10 years. :)
>
>
> No, the Comcast HD-DVR is crap.  My sister has one and the storage 
> space is severely lacking.  I don't recall off hand how many hours it 
> can store, but it's not much more than 10, if that.  Also, they seem 
> to have a serious bug in them.  If the DVR is powered off and it is 
> scheduled to record a show it will actually begin the recording, but 
> not display to the user that it is powered on and working.  If you 
> then hit the power button while it is recording it will turn on and 
> display video so you can watch TV on the second tuner.  However, the 
> second tuner is MUTED.  I have yet to find a way to get it to unmute 
> other than turning off the DVR (which kills whatever recording was in 
> progress) and then turning it back on.  Also, it clearly has two 
> tuners since you can record and watch at the same time, but I also 
> haven't yet been able to get it to record two shows at once.  If 
> there's two tuners in there I see no reason why it shouldn't be able 
> to record two shows if I'm not using either of the tuners to watch TV.
I agree that the Comcast DVR isn't the best of them, but it really isn't 
all that bad once you figure out its quirks. To help with your sister's 
problems I'll share my experiences.
First, there are several versions of their HDTV DVR out there that look 
almost identical from the outside. The three I know of are, in order 
from oldest to newest: 80GB single tuner, 80GB dual tuner, 120GB dual 
tuner. They'll upgrade your box (or at least they did for me) without 
any hassle if you ask. The 120GB dual tuner device hasn't given me any 
trouble about recording two shows at once.
Second, you must realize that the different encodings use different bit 
rates and thus take up different amounts of room. You probably already 
knew this, but just in case: HDTV uses the most space followed by SDTV 
analog. SDTV digital takes up the least space. I get a heck of a lot of 
SDTV storage, analog or digital. I'm not sure how many hours of HD the 
120GB will hold.
The mute-on-wakeup problem plagued me for a very long time. However, I 
eventually realized that it isn't the DVR's fault, it's the universal 
remote that is causing problems. You see, Motorola designed the DVR to 
be polite when hooked up to non-TV sound systems, which people quite 
often can forget to turn off. It mutes itself to prevent you from being 
startled out of your mind when a show starts up in the middle of the 
night or something. Anyway, by default Comcast sets up your remote to 
control the TV's volume no matter if the rest of the remote is on Cable, 
TV, or Aux. To unmute the cable box, you have to disable this so that 
you can control all the volumes separately. After unmuting, I usually 
switch it back to TV controls all mode.

To enter independent volume mode:
1. Press cable (the cable button blinks once)
2. Press and hold setup until the cable button blinks twice
3. press 9, press 9 press 3, press VOL-. The cable button will blink 4 times
4. You can now control the cable box audio when in cable mode and the TV 
audio in TV mode.


To enter "global mode" (TV volume is always controlled):
1. Press TV (the TV button blinks once)
2. Press and hold setup until the TV button blinks twice
3. press 9, press 9 press 3, press the TV button. The TV button will 
blink twice.
4. Any time you press the volume buttons it will now control the TV volume.

I made myself a tiny little label and taped it to the back of the remote 
so I don't forget how to do it. Also, there's a timeout between each of 
the steps above; I think its three seconds.

The problems I have with the DVR is that it seems to forget to record 
shows in a series sometimes. It also sometimes has trouble telling if a 
show is "first run" or a repeat. Some shows it doesn't even identify as 
a series. For example, The HDTV version of the Simpsons never records as 
a series; I have to do it manually. The muting problem really stinks, 
but I can work around it.

Patrick