Atlanta, GA - Comcast - Page 28

I had the DVR installed today. It was a smooth install it lasted 15 minutes even thugh the Tech told it was his 1st one ever. I am ok with the DVR I know it's no TIVO, but it does the job. The only things I will like improve is the fast forward and rewind speeds and the fact that it does not have a 30 or 15 seconds skip ahead....

Does anybody knows if the 15 second skip ahead will be added later or there will be improvements with a later firmware?????? I AM CURIOUS!

Hi everyone,

Still no VOD here on my 6208. When you press Menu, and the small menu box comes up in the top left hand portion of the screen, how many options do you have? I have three TV listings, DVR, and Main Menu.

On the main menu, there's no mention of VOD, does anyone have a VOD option on their main menu? An if you do, is it in the left or right column and between which two buttons is it?

And finally on the Guide screen, there's are a bunch of icons on the bottom of the screen, in between the down arrow icon, and the movie camera icon, I have a movie ticket/clock icon which represents PPV channels in the 400s, is this a VOD button on your 6208? Comcast seems to be saying mine should be a VOD icon, and not a PPV icon.

If anyone with a 6208 in Atlanta could answer any of these questions, I would greatly appreciate it. I have a repair appointment for Monday afternoon, if nothing else I suppose they can switch out the box. The only indication on my current 6208 that VOD even exists is the Guide listing for channel 1.

Thanks in advance,

Thomas

Thomas-

I just had mine installed this afternoon and the options after selecting the Menu button are: TV Listings, On Demand, DVR, Main Menu in that order, top to bottom. After pressing the Guide button, there is an icon labeled, "OND" between the up arrow and camera icons.

Sounds like you don't have VOD but you can have mine since I never requested it and have no intention of using it.

-Skip

You ought to check it out. There is some decent freebie stuff out there, and if you have HBO then you can see episodes of things like Curb Your Enthusiasm, Deadwood and Sopranos if you missed them the first time.

Only reason I would do VOD if they offer movies in HD. Of course, Comcast wouldn't be smart enough to do that!

Ditto what Darkhound said, plus with the 6208 there is no need to worry about missing an episode of the Sopranos since I can record it and watch it later in HD!

-Skip

Actually, I believe that you can expect that to happen at some point in the not too distant future. There has been some testing elsewhere, though the prices I heard ($6.95 I believe) were a little high for my tastes.

That's true, but there is some other freebie stuff that is interesting, at least to me.

Must be a lot of interest in the DVR because I can't get an appointment 'til next Thursday. Yeah, that's 11 days out. I'm confident that I can switch out the component cables myself, but that's beside the point. When I called this morning, they said I also had to pay a $100 deposit for the box. Is this normal? $29.50 install fee and $100 deposit have to be paid to the installer. For those of you that have already had the box installed, am I getting scammed?

They did not mention the $100 deposit when I made my appointment for June 5th. Wwhen I got my box swapped out for HDTV I didn't have to pay a deposit either. your being scammed

I'm getting my box on Wednesday with no install and no deposit charge. Installers are delivering the 6208 and swapping it for the 5100 and I'll hook it up. I was promised no charge whatsoever. Maybe it's because I've been such a PITA with them in the past.

The $100 deposit is based on your credit rating.

I thought the $100 deposit was to make sure that no one tries to sell the receiver on Ebay or the HT Marketplace!

Just got the 6208 installed. It works as advertised but having been a replayTV user for many years, the DVR features left me completely disappointed (as expected). It's amazing that they used such bad software knowing that it would get compared to Tivo and ReplayTV software.

Whatever, at least we can record HD now, e.g, Jay Leno in HD!!

The guide is still downloading and so far it only has half a day. I hope we get at least two weeks of channel guide.

The install was a breeze. Put the box on top of the 5100 and moved all the cables up, DVI, optical, components, etc. The override menu was already setup correctly to 16:9 and 480i override.

The firmware is 07.07 and it has firewire and usb connectors but I haven't tested any of those. DVI works but just like before, I can't tell any difference in PQ between the component outputs and the DVI on my Sony XBR800, they both look excellent.

The DVR pauses live TV but it stutters when coming out of pause. The stuttering is pretty consistent.

The software doesn't have 30 second skip, idiots, still thinking like a VCR. You have to fast forward holding the button. It's going to be hard to get used to that after so many years of "quantum skipping" with the replay. If you don't have replay or tivo you won't miss the skip though.

The remote is very cool with OnDemand and MyDVR buttons to shortcut to specific menus. I have to add those and the transport buttons to the MX500.

The remote IR codes are the same as before and I didn't have to adjust the replaytTV's IR blaster at all. It just worked as it did before.

The box took about 20 minutes to download its stuff and come back on and another 10 to download (I hope the first part of) the program guide.

The hard disk is louder than the replay's hard disk but I guess we're used to that noise already.

The replacement/install couldn't have been any easier.

The recording features are pretty brain dead. Find a show and record based on channel and time, again, like a stupid VCR not like replayTV which records based on show name, which allows it to adjust the time and length based on the info coming in on the guide. A very nice feature for things like Golf Central, which is normally a half hour show at 7:30 but sometimes goes an hour long later or earlier. I don't think that's going to be a big deal though.

Is it worth the extra $5? Only because it's the only choice. If we could get a ReplayTV or Tivo that recorded HD from cable, I'd get those in a heartbeat because of better software.

Ok.. lets remember.

This is COMCAST CABLE.

It seems like the cable companies aren't even trying to be innovative anymore.

Luis, thanks for the info. My install is scheduled for Friday. Since I have not previously owned any DVR, I probably won't be as upset as some folks about the clunky interface, but hopefully this is a stopgap until the Moxi units become available. Just having the ability to finally timeshift HD makes it easily worth the extra cost for me.

As a current Series 2 TiVo user, I think I'll wait at least until the fall to upgrade my 5100 to a 6208 (or whatever else Comcast offers at that time). My reasoning is that the main HD shows that I'd want to record (ER & Third Watch) have had their season finales already. Although the picture quality I get from the TiVo on my 40" Toshiba is pretty bad, I can accept it for the convenience it offers me.

Glad I'm not the only one who couldn't find a way to record on the 6208 by program name. Glad I'm not the only one to notice the stuttering when starting a paused program. I haven't spoken with or seen any comments praising the software in this product. Thanks, Luis.

Darkhound: While the 6208 HD-DVR is definitely at the bottom of the list for functionality (the 6412 will have two tuners and 120GB harddrive) at least it is here and functioning. I think Comcast thinks its VOD is innovative while the HD-DVR is just competitive. Certainly they are not innovative or competitive on the HD channels they show, but who knows what the impacts will be when all content providers significantly increase their bandwidth for HD.


Rich N.

Well.. I understand this. The reason I am going with it is for the fact that I personally can't force myself to pay $900+ for the DirectTV TiVo. After buying a Z2, screen, and about to build a HTPC, it just isn't in my budget.

I think this device is a great quick fix, and an absolute wonder for those who don't have TiVo.

(About to run home in an hour or so to receive the 6208.)

Now only if Comcast could get the rest of the broadcast networks on HD, I would have a great summer watching Smallville repeats in HD!

I agree it's very nice to finally be able to timeshift HD but let me tell you, it gets old pretty darn quickly. I was laughing almost all the time I was setting it up to record Jay Leno ... and I had to use my replayTV's guide to find Beavers and SuperSpeedway in INHD2 because the guide in the 6208 doesn't go that far in the future (unlike replay's two weeks worth of info).

It seems to me that nobody in the chain of command sat down to use this box before releasing it. There are serious usability issues ... little ones but a bunch of them.

The only chance for good DVR HD quality software is a CableCARD tivo or replaytv:

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=ca...gle.com&rnum=1


http://groups.google.com/groups?q=ca...eep.net&rnum=2


Until then ...

Found this news today and thought I would share.

http://att.com.com/Comcast+tunes+int...3-5217056.html

I too am not as happy with the 6208 as I could be, but I think a change to Microsoft Foundation will solve all my problems. The big issue with the Motorola box is the software. From what I have read, the real issue is that any company that produces DVR software was either too slow to adapt to the cable boxes or wanted too much money and/or control over the business (i.e. Tivo). Yes the cable companies are slow to adapt and I am as frustrated as the next person, but in the end I think cable will win out and has always been the better choice for me. I have yet to see any of the Satellite companies show HD locals without an antenna feed and special configurations in the DVR. Tivo has yet to produce any box that is able to take a direct cable feed without having to use IR blasters and requiring two cables boxes to record different digital signals. Lastly, when the 6412 is available and utilizes good software, such as Microsoft Foundation, I will have to rent the DVR from my cable company for a long time before buying another companies DVR is feasible. A $900 Tivo would take 7.5 years to pay off at 10.00 per month. However, I will be interested to see what kind of CableCARD boxes will be offered by this time next year. I would love to have video archiving ability, a network of DVR functionality, and centralized audio storage. If these items are put in CableCARD ready systems, I would do a cost benefit analysis.

I don't know about archiving (except short term of course) but doesn't the proposed Moxi offer the whole house networking? I think the UI should also be much improved. I really hate the TV Guide interface with ads plastered all over the place.

I saw a lot of information on Moxi last year, but have not heard much lately. However, what I saw looked great! Moxi is where I first saw whole house networking and was immediately hooked on the idea, especially since the underlying OS was Linux. The downsides are that you have to purchase equipment, would need to subscribe to a guide system over the internet, and it would not interact with the cable company in any way, i.e. VOD and PPV. On the upside, you would be able to purchase PPV over the internet in a later version and could expect less advertisements since you are paying for the hardware and information.

Since I have not heard much about Moxi in the last six months, I would guess they have either folded, or are regrouping to work with either cable or satellite. If anyone knows more about the status of Moxi, I would appreciate you posting the information.

As for archiving, this has been a lunch table topic for several of us. Though no definite information has been leaked, we speculate the first versions will allow you to move (not copy) the file to another data store and the moved version will be keyed based on the hardware. This would allow users to store files for a longer time, but would prevent us from viewing it on any other box. Then as DVR's become more popular, you will see companies test the parameters which will eventually lead to law suits and inevitably more defined and unrestricted fair-use rules. Like I said, this is pure speculation and there are no facts or rumors to support these ideas.

I found this:

"When it launched two years ago at CES, Moxi was a revolutionary concept. But now, after a change of ownership, it's just another HDTV DVR. The finalized Moxi-based box from Motorola, called "Broadband Media Center" (BMC9012), includes two HDTV tuners. It can simultaneously record two shows to its 80 gigabyte hard drive, which stores around 9 hours of HDTV content."

http://www.extremetech.com/print_art...=113979,00.asp

Hi all,

I'm sure it's primitive, but you can still search by title on the Comcast DVR 6208. Select the magnifying glass icon from the bottom of the guide screen.

By the way, as far as guide info goes, our box currently has 15 days of program information. Of course, if the box ever gets unplugged, it takes a while for the info come back.

Thomas

Thanks, I'll try that to search by title tonight.

By the way, I'm having a problem with freezing and breaking up when just watching. The picture freezes, goes black, comes on and immediately breaks up (pixels turn black) and then goes back to normal. I have 7.07. Just wondering if others have had this.

Rich N.

The freezing/breakup sounds more like a typical signal strength issue. I have seen this recently on my 5100 and have a service call along with my install of the 6208 on Friday. I don't know how you get to the diagnostics menu on the 6208 but when you get there, check out the Inband status screen after first tuning to one of the HD channels giving you problems before you power off to review the diagnostics.

Look at the SNR/AGC readings. If either is fair or poor or if you have high uncorrectable error counts, you could have a signal strength issue, which means it could be too high or too low. This can also be affected by such things as splitters, routing the cable through a power filter, etc. Stay on top of Comcast to get this right. When they make system changes in my area, my readings sometimes change and the HD channels are sensitive due to the bandwidth requirements.

there are reports on other forums that Comcast has an agreement to carry Discovery HD and WB stations...does anybody knows when and why Comcast Atlanta has not added them???? is it a bandwith issue???...and if it they should get rid of all of those useless analog channels......

"In the know" folks agree that DiscoveryHD is on the way, but no implementation date has been given. When it does it will be up to the local Comcast regions to actually start showing it, I guess based upon bandwidth availability.

We in Baltimore will NOT get WB since it is owned by Sinclair and Sinclair will not give its HD feeds to Comcast. I don't even know if the Baltimore WB is even broadcasting in HD. I know they own the Fox affiliate and it isn't doing WS now and I think that is also true for WB.

Rich N.

Hey everyone,

Comcast and/or Turner seem to be testing the first Turner HDTV Braves game on channel 755.

The logo on 755 says "Turner South". I guess that long ago
mentioned date of June 4th I had heard for the first HDTV Braves game may be correct after all.

I had originally thought the date was all wrong, since the game was
to be on Turner South on June 4th, and the only channel mentioned in
that original post on the message board of Yahoo group ahdtv was WTBS 20-1 OTA.

Not that I personally watch, or care about baseball, but more HDTV
progamming is good for everyone.

Thomas