Comcast TiVo DVR - Page 98

I haven't found it yet all I have found is if you use right on the 4 direction arrow, you move show by show, if you use the >> (fast forward) you move 2 hours. While on the guide you can press the enter key (bottom right) and it will let you select a day and time for the guide, which is useful, but I still want the skip 24hr feature I had with iGuide.

I'm sure I don't have that name exactly right (or probably even close...), but it's the thing where the cable companies, in order to save bandwidth on their HD channels, only switch them on when someone wants them. Currently, the TiVO boxes cannot handle that, but there was a news release by TiVO a month or so ago saying there would be something or other available first quarter '08 that you could hook up to the TiVO so it could be able to do the switching thing (I'm sure there will be someone with the exact terminology that will respond to this).

It is SDV, Switched Digital Video:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Switched_digital_video

It's sort of cable's equivalent of IPTV.

There was on the directv hd tivo's

I belive you had to pull up the guide and then hit info.

I understood that it was because the guide didn't accurately indicate if shows were new or repeats.

I'm pretty sure that was not it, John. Rather, TiVo has patented the software feature of keeping track of episodes recorded over the last 30 days, and not re-recording an episode if it is on that list. Therefore, iGuide could not provide such a software feature.

I sure hope that is improved before a massive rollout.

The Motorola DVR only has a wimpy 16 MB of flash memory though, so perhaps it's 'out of space' when it comes to downloading all of that guide data. Why don't they partition off some of that hard drive for an improved guide/os experience? Or use the DOCSIS modem to communicate more intensive descriptions from the server in real time. Even if they provision the box at a lower 3 mbps instead of the standard 6 or 8 mbps HSI speeds, it should be quick enough to pull some text data!

It was my understanding that the with the TiVo software, the guide data was to be stored on the hard drive... guess not!

Most DVRs tend not to. I'm not sure why. It would be nice not to lose it if the power goes out longer than the UPS can cover. It can't possibly be that large if it resides in memory.

Dolby digital = no TiVo sounds ? So it sounds like an issue with the coax output not doing dolby at all.

DOCSIS modem is active in the Moto boxes to allow faster download of the guide. If you power-cycle the box, then there is about a 15 minute wait before the box becomes "active" again with full guide listings.

15 minute wait, wow. It's nearly that long for my regular I-Guide to download. Wonder what speed they provisioned the DOCSIS modem at. Maybe the economy 768k/384k tier?

I had the TiVo software installed on two DCH-3416s yesterday. So far (being at work) I haven't had much time to test them but here's some initial bugs.

Already noted by others... I can't get Dolby 5.1 sound output through the Optical output. No matter how I set the Audio settings, the sound is Pro-Logic. If I restart the box using the command from the settings menu, as soon as the unit turns back on I have DD5.1 for about 10 seconds, then as the boot up messages start displaying on the front panel the sound cuts out and when it's back on, it is only Pro-Logic again.

Season Passes... I've been able to set season passes on about 6 shows so far. On another 4, it won't work. I press the Options button on the Season Pass line and the checkmark goes on for a second, then dissapears and the Options screen never appears. This happened when trying to set a pass after doing Find shows for Boston Legal on 805, Las Vegas on 807 and a couple others. Also after finding these shows that won't allow a season pass, if I click on Show Other episodes, I get a list of totally unrelated shows. On shows that created the season pass, clicking on show other episodes works as expected. The same thing happens on both my boxes and I tried restarting both. Is anyone else seeing this?

BTW, to confirm, neither the TiVo or Comcast 30 second skips work, but this doesn't surprise me as I seem to remember from using TiVo years ago that it was either the Skip to Tick Mark, or 30 Second Skip that could be enabled - not both. Correct me if that's changed.

I also can't find an easy way to jump ahead 24 hours in the guide. I'd really like to have that back.

Guide doesn't show if a show is a rerun or new. I really want that back. I know that Season Passes will only record new shows if that was my preference, but I want to see that information in the guide. If I'm browsing through listings I may not necessarily remember the description of a previously played episode.

That's it for now but later tonight I should get more of a chance to test things out.

I'm not positive but I think in that time it pretty much downloads the software again (or at least a good part of it), not just the guide. It's for designs like this that I'm glad I have my A/V components plugged into a UPS.

One more small bug I forgot about... TiVo sounds ding correctly until I tried moving down past the last item on the screen. At that time the TiVo error sound sounded as it should, but from then on, along with every TiVo ding, the error sound played right behind it. Only restarting put the sounds back correctly.

Easy fix for me - turned off the sounds.

If it matters, I'm using optical output with one box going to a Denon AVR-3801 and the other to some Panasonic A/V receiver (don't remember the model).

Called Comcast today to upgrade my cable TV package. Just for the heck of it, I asked the rep about the TiVo rollout coming to my area (Indianapolis). I fully expected her to not know what I was even talking about, but much to my surprise, she quickly spouted "late summer" without even hesitating. It's still a ways away for me, but it's sooner than I was expecting. Maybe by then, they will have worked out some of these minor issues and bugs that some of you are reporting.

For those with the sound issue. Is it outputting as PCM and your AVR is formating to PL, or is it a DD bitstream that is actualy 2.0 PL?

I just checked my optical output to my AVR and it's PCM Digital

I'm also tweaked by when I hit "Guide" and it shows information for the wrong station not the station I'm on. These issues need to be fixed asap. I'm not going to pay for this service if it's not working.

The IPG for Motorola starts to show program information after 15 to 20 minutes after a powercycle and then takes another 24 hours to fully populate.

re: Green Screen

I got a green screen yesterday, which is the equivalent of the MS "blue screen of death". Much to my surprise I got a terrific Comcast rep, who walked me through the resurrection process... it took an hour, but he was great.

In some areas, with the regular Motorola DVRs, it could take several days to fully populate the guide, i.e., a full two weeks worth of data. The updates are controlled at the head-end level.

The Flash memory is used to store the firmware and software. There is 128M of regular RAM. Of that, it seems as if only about 5M is used to hold the guide data (MENU/MENU/SETUP/CABLE BOX SETUP/CONFIGURATION, then press the FAV key. The DB Status Report page gives the memory used). The rest is for program use, video buffering, MPEG decoding tables, etc...

Oh I didn't realize that was the memory in bytes.

I have
Mem: S 1061912/5089280, L 74788/153600, Total 5242880

And when you get to the TSID Report page, it correctly displays all of the frequencies that VOD programming comes on. I double checked the frequency assignments with my QAM tuner, and confirmed that what this page is showing is correct.
VCN/Freq 579000 Freq TSID/Error: 1256 TSID
VCN/Freq 585000 Freq TSID/Error: 1257 TSID
VCN/Freq 591000 Freq TSID/Error: 1258 TSID
VCN/Freq 597000 Freq TSID/Error: 1259 TSID
TBF Frequency: 591000
TBF Modulation Mode: QAM 256

I can confirm that for the first minute after you change the channel, if you press the Guide or Info buttons, the box thinks you're still on the previous channel.

Some of these bugs are so obvious, it makes you wonder what the beta testers were doing.

I'm sure they were testing. There are many instances that bugs are simply not fixed, particularly if it's deemed low priority for initial release. Don't blame testers. There's a lot more to it than that

That's a really good point. Rule-of-thumb: Everything LOOKS easier from the outside.

Yeah I guess we all have to keep in mind that this is the very first version of Comcast Tivo. I'm sure there will be enhancements.

Look how pretty the Verizon Fios IMG guide is. But then I dare you to read all the problems people are having with it. They are starting to roll out a maintenance release a few months after the initial version to address things.

Comcast/Tivo will likely be the same way. Look pretty, but riddled with bugs. Once a few maintenance releases go by it should get better (at least one would hope).

I finally got the Comcast Tivo upgrade. It only took 3 different tech visits, 4 different cable boxes, and a 9 hour Tivo download. I can't say I had a great experience with Comcast while trying to get the Tivo upgrade.

Installation:
The first told me I had an older box so I was going to have to have someone come out and upgrade the box which they were going to charge me $39.99 for the upgrade of the box and the tech to come out but have the 3rd tech visit they said they would not charge for the visit.

The first thing the first tech said to me was do you know how to use Tivo because I don't. He explained that they only got a 5 minute briefing on how to set the box up. I later found out that when he called the office to turn on the box and turn on Tivo, they did it the wrong way and the old DVR box that was still on my account took the Tivo upgrade instead of the new box. (Still waiting for Comcast to fix my old DVR box or give me a new one that doesn't download the Tivo upgrade.)

I called Comcast a few hours after the first tech left my house because both boxes were not working. They sent out an on call tech that same night. He was at my house from 8:00pm to 11:30pm trying to get both boxes working. He got the Tivo box downloading the upgrade but he said the Docsis modem is not working so the download is going over RF and will take about 9 hour and that I had to leave it on the setup screen so I would know when to reboot the cable box when it was done. He also swapped out the old DVR box for a new one and said it would fix the problem. 10 minutes after the tech left, old DVR box started downloading the Tivo upgrade after the tech said it was a new box and would start the download. This left me without a guide, menu, info, or on demand. I called Comcast and they setup another service call but it would be in 2 days on a work day so I had to take another day off from work to wait for Comcast.

The third tech came to my house and replaced the box. He said he checked everything and the people he spoke to on the phone checked everything and they all assumed me this box would not take the Tivo download and I would be all set. I asked him to wait 10 minutes just to make sure. He said no that he had to leave. 5 minutes after he left, it started the Tivo upgrade. Now the box does not work and just says 0 on the display with no picture or sound. I have another appointment for tomorrow (5 days after the last appointment).

Also, none of the techs that came to my house gave me the new Tivo remote. They all said they would put in a request for one meaning that they didn't have them. All the techs also said the same thing about only having a 5 minute briefing on the Tivo installs. They also said I was the unlucky one because they have 2 main techs that deal with Tivo and the were both on xmas vacation. (Why they scheduled a Tivo install with both the Tivo techs on vacation is beyond me.)

Comcast Tivo:
I have noticed a few bugs/concerns with the software while using the Comcast Tivo software over the past week.

1. No support for Dolby Digital like the old software had (even though they have a menu option for this under Audio in the setup section). I have noticed if I restart/power cycle the unit while on a HD channel, I will have Dolby Digital until the Welcome screen comes up and they it goes back to Dolby Prologic

2. I few times I got the green screen. I have noticed if I wait a minute and hit guide the normal screen comes back up.

3. If I change the channel and hit guide, it still has the old channel I was on selected.

4. Seems like after using the unit for a few hours, the season pass menu does not work. I will try and start a season pass on a new show and the menu will not come up if I hit options. It just puts a checkmark in the corner and then acts like it added the season pass. (I have noticed the guide will say the name of the show but say No information for the description of the show when the season pass stops working.)

5. Very sluggish when hitting Guide or paging in the Guide.

6. No day skip in the guide. Hard to skip a few days ahead to record a show.

7. No 30 second skip like the old software had

8. No slow motion like the old DVR software had

9. Only one setting for Dolby compression which is on or off. The old software had 3 different levels which was nice.

Out of curiosity what town are you in?


As you should've been told on the phone when setting up call & if you read some other posts on here the policy is that they are supposed to mail you the remote. On occasion tech may have one to give customer but don't count on it. The silver DVR remote does everything except for 3 functions of the Tivo remote & if you already had the 30 sec. skip programmed you're down to 2 things. Yes for those wondering, the 30 skip code is the same as the 'skip to tick' code.


This is one of the other functions of the Tivo remote. But if you want to program it in the EFC code is 028.
The last function is the 'Delete' button, EFC for that is 034. Pretty much the only other button missing from the silver remote is the letter 'D', which the EFC is already listed a few places. Everything else is there, albeit maybe a slightly different name.

As noted on other pages of the forum, optical (which I have) works for dolby digital while coax digital does not work.

This is a problem with the HDMI connection and the Moto boxes, not the Tivo software, once again, as talked about above

I have no problems with Season Pass. I've set it up for 6 programs and all have recorded fine until the Writers' Strike. Once you get the checkmark, you should get "Please Wait" for 30 seconds.

This is a known problem and in various posts prior

Ditto

Discussed above

Sorry to be a jerk but it seems like we are repeating the same problems/discussions every few pages. Please read previous posts (I know there is alot) and then bring any new information. Seriously, with what seemed to have happened on your install, I'd talk to jonwww.

Perhaps we should just start a new one like "Comcast TIVO - Initial Experiences" or something so folks can just discuss the actual install and initial experience.