Quote:
Originally Posted by
klambert 
We had our install, switching from DirecTV, so it was an install from scratch not just receiver upgrades. We were the third AnyRoom in this region. We had a tech with a good knowledge of the product who did the actual setup; the tech's supervisor who was an expert on the product and was there to make sure it went well and very willing to share technical info with me since he had not much else to do; and some regional manager who was learning about it. The install took a couple of hours, but quite a bit of that was waiting for everything to sync and push firmware and all that.
They were very particular and very cautious, after getting the filters and such set up, they redid all the ends on the cables. On the boxes, they first setting up the DVR and got it fully functional with firmware pushes and all that and then moving on to the slave receiver. I was told this was because the slave receivers can have issues if they go live for the first time and there's no moca network or the DVR is still updating. (Though I've since done some moving stuff around and randomly unplugged things and they come up without fail within 2 or 3 minutes.)
We had wanted a drop set up in another room for a planned shifting around of our house in a couple of months so we could just unplug and move the slave STB, but the supervisor explained they disconnect all but the live drops because there have been problems with interference on the MOCA lines. They also rootled around in the basement and traced all the cable lines they were using to make sure they weren't going near anything that might cause interference. So for the person that asked about moving stuff around, if the drop isn't live, they may disconnect it at installation, but otherwise, it should all work.
We were told that cost in this market is $19.95, but that includes one DVR and one secondary receiver. Additional receivers are $7.95. We haven't gotten a bill yet, and I don't trust comcast very much, so who knows if that's accurate.
In terms of the AnyRoom, it works as advertised. It's very fast, you wouldn't know the hard drive wasn't local.
The one issue we have is that the DVR keeps reverting the 4:3 setting to 480i stretch. The box turns off at the same point, so it might be some kind of reset by the headend, but it's very annoying to have to do the entire power off / menu thing.
What city are you located in?
Wow .... I wish I had that kind of install expertise when they installed AnyRoom in my 12 year old house in Beaverton, OR that already had Comcast Triple Play HD DVR service for many years. So far it has taken them 4 visits to get it working plus they are coming back tomorrow to fix the phone/internet modem wiring because my alarm system no longer can communicate with the Alarm Monitoring company. I did not realize that my alarm was not being able to call out until the alarm company called me a week later after they ran their regular weekly test.
The experience was sadly comical. I actually felt sorry for techs the way the dispatchers kept pushing them. For instance, after the first visit (just one tech) the terminal unit was not even communicating with the host and so the supv told the tech (after consulting with her by phone) to tell me to wait 24 hours to see it it would work later. He also hooked up the terminal unit first and tried to get an IP address for it before even installing the host DVR. Turns out the filter was placed in the wrong location plus the wiring to the host was not a direct home run (it had an old splitter in the attic that the stupid home builder placed in the walls which I had warned the tech about). After waiting 48 hrs the units were still not communicating, so two other techs came out and they went up into the attic but could not find the splitter, it so they just went with it "as-is" after they finally got communication between the units by moving the filter around. However, the filter got placed ahead of my "unamplified" takeoff for my own separate internet modem (because their supv told them to move my modem feed onto the 8-way amp). However, the next morning my high speed interent could not renew it's IP address. The next tech that came out said the earlier crew should have run a new home run to the host and he then repositioned the location of the filter to at least keep the DVR Host and Terminal units communicating plus get my internet working again. However, he did not have time to run the new wiring. So, I ordered and paid for new wiring to the host DVR unit along with new wiring to move my telephone modem from the garage into the same room as the host DVR. This way I could scrap my old separate Motorola SB5100 and use the Comcast combo telephone/internet modem that I already was paying $5.00 monthly for anyway. The first question the new wiring tech asked was if I had an alarm system before running the new wires and moving the modem, but their dispatcher was pushing hard again to move on to the next job, so I guess he forgot about the alarm wiring.
Thus I wait for another visit tomorrow.
Each different tech they sent out seemed to have more experience than the previous one and each would complain about the previous ones not doing the job right the first time, so it seems that there may some internal frustration or friction going on among the Comcast personnel in my area. I know they are heavily advertising for jobs at Comcast in my area, so they may be stretched thin.
I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and hope that tomorrow is the last visit for a while .... not that they were not good guys ... they were all very polite and courteous.
My one complaint is that a Comcast recorded survey phones about an hour or two after each visit to take an automated customer satisfaction survey. I my case I did not complete the survey after the first visit (just hung up) but gave them high marks for the subsequent visits for which I wish to now retract because my troubles did not show up until the next day or next week (in the case of the alarm wiring).
