Hi, I am about to order an HD package for my new 47" TV from Comcast, and want to get the DVR option. Yeah, I know TiVo is better, but I want to try the low-cost option first and see if I can live with it.

My question is: are there choices of boxes from Comcast, and if so, what is better? I want to be armed with some knowledge before I talk to someone clueless at Comcast.

Thanks!

I have been a Comcast customer on and off for 6 years and have had 3 different DVR's from them.

My personal recommendation is....

Do you have a southern view for a sat dish?

They have better DVR's anyway, especially DishTV's.

Maybe it's too easy to bash Comcast, but after helping my parents with installing a Comcast HD box, I would agree that one should seriously consider satellite options if one can. :)

Comcast was the absolute worst company I've had to deal with in a long time.
First, my parents had to wait 2 weeks for a service guy to come out.
Then, the guy didn't check the other comcast connections in the house after "fixing" the HD setup and left. It turned out they weren't working.
(Granted, one could argue that my parents should have checked before the guy left, but really, it seems like a natural thing to do while at a customer's house would be to check the rest of the comcast boxes.)

Thanks guys, but that is not helpful for me! As a high-speed internet subscriber, it is much more economical for me to stick to cable for now, rather than switch to Dish. I don't want to make this a Comcast bashing thread. So please, if anyone has any words of wisdom on what to get staying with the Comcast offering, I would appreciate it.

It's easy to bash cable companies, unfortunately, since they make themselves such large, easy targets for it. But anyway...

Most likely if you want to get their DVR option, you won't really have a choice. You might be able to choose a Pace DVR box instead depending on location, but generally, they'll give you hardware corresponding with the headend equipment - i.e., some model of Moto box, or some model of SA box. Like the Model T - "any color, so long as it's black". I don't have high expectations, but give it a try and see what works for you.

You should request the the DVR that has the HDMI port as those are/were the newest ones (As of about 3 months ago anway) and are in short supply.

In our area at 8 dollars per month it is hard to justify the purchase of a stand alone DVR for HD content. That I know of there is no way to pick a model. What is on the truck when they come out is what you get. Depending on the installer you might be able to choose one from his truck stock if he/she has different models.

In our area at 8 dollars per month it is hard to justify the purchase of a stand alone DVR for HD content.

Unfortunately, it seems that most of the people using cableco DVRs for more than just occasional recording start running into all sorts of crazy problems. If you record a lot of TV (everything I watch these days is recorded), getting a DVR for yourself rather than taking what your cableco offers isn't really as silly an idea as you seem to think, especially if you care about reliability or features, or being able to keep your recordings if you leave your current cable provider.

Thanks guys, but that is not helpful for me! As a high-speedinternet subscriber, it is much more economical for me to stick to cable for now, rather than switch to Dish. I don't want to make this a Comcast bashing thread. So please, if anyone has any words of wisdom on what to get staying with the Comcast offering, I would appreciate it.

Have you compared prices?

Comcast charges around an extra $15 for internet non-packaged.
The sat's have better SQ, PQ, and much more HD and better HD PQ.
Plus, both Sat's have higher customer satisfaction rates and better DVR's.

"Another Comcast bashing thread". That's kind of insulting to those of us who deal with the company and are trying to get the service we pay for.