[mythtv-users] Re: Comcast being coy?

Chris Ribe chrisribe at gmail.com
Tue Oct 11 20:57:36 UTC 2005


I'm pleased to report that I found a Moto DCT6200 waiting for me when I
arrived home from work today.

The install guy was confused enough that he called me, but I just told him
that I was going to hook it up to a computer and he was fine with that.

I am also pleased to report that I get ESPNHD, TNTHD, and DiscoveryHD even
though I am only paying for basic cable (OTA channels only).

Now I just need to wait another week for my firewire cable to show up in the
mail...

On 10/7/05, Patrick Watson <patrick at patrickwatson.org> wrote:
>
> 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
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