I had a four day HD installation marathon.
The intial appointment was Monday, 12/2, 830-1030am. At 1115, two installers showed up with a Motorola 5100. No component cables. No optical cable. Fortunately, I had both on hand...
The installers hooked up the 5100 using my cables, tuned in PBSHD, and said, "Isn't that awesome?!" Little did the installers know that the 5100 was outputting the channels in 480i only! The firmware upgrade wasn't available in Detroit yet and the 5100 wasn't yet set up to out put HD signals. The installers thought the PBSHD in 480i was the best PQ available.
They were shocked when I showed them how to change the 480i to 1080i output. PBSHD THEN looked incredible.
At the time, my HBOHD station had a "One Moment Please" message. The installers said it should come on within 24 hours and if it didn't I should call 888-COMCAST. They left.
Tuesday afternoon, no HBOHD. I called Comcast and they "hit" the box with another signal. This action fried the 5100 completely. After the Comcast hit, the box was unable to tune ANY channels, no HD, no digital, no analog....no tv at all. The Comcast dispatcher said he'd send out a technician on Wednesday to service the 5100. I specifically told the dispatcher to instruct the installer to bring a new 5100 to swap out the fried box.
Wednesday afternoon. Technician comes out as scheduled to fix my cable issues. He looks at my 5100 and agrees its fried and needs to be replaced. But guess what? HE DID NOT BRING A NEW 5100 WITH HIM. He said he wasn't told to have a new 5100 on hand, so a new appointment would need to be scheduled. A screaming match with a supervisor at 888-COMCAST ensued. They agreed to send out a new tech, a "trained" HD tech on Thursday with a new 5100.
Thursday night. TWO Comcast techs arrive, each has a new 5100. They remove the first, fried 5100 and hook up a new one. They radio dispatch to send a "hit" signal. After the hit, the second box gets fried just like the first one. The techs are confounded. They check the cable signal and verify a strong feed. They hook up the third box and radio for a "hit" signal. THAT box gets fried too. If you are keep score at home, we are now up to 5 techs and 3 boxes in 4 days...
After the two techs confab, they call a THIRD tech that's in the area. The third tech shows up with ANOTHER 5100 (6 techs/4 boxes). The three techs hook up the third box, call for the "hit" signal, and....it works. This box had the firmware upgrade already loaded in. After some testing, the three techs headed out and I had HD cable.
It still works as of last night. Sheeeeeeeesh.