http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercu...y/10921084.htm
Comcast working to squash DVR bugs
By Therese Poletti
Mercury News
Comcast's roll-out of its digital video recorder service has hit another snag, with Silicon Valley subscribers complaining the TiVo-like devices freeze while recording their favorite television shows.
The company has broadcast a software fix directly to the buggy DVRs. While some Comcast customers are satisfied their DVRs now work properly, others say the problems continue.
``I haven't personally seen any dramatic improvement,'' said Anthony Layzell, a semi-retired computer executive in Los Gatos. ``I haven't missed any recordings in the last two weeks, but we are still getting freezes.''
``If I have a complaint with Comcast, it's that they are just not upfront with it,'' he added. ``They don't tell people. Particularly in the valley, we understand this stuff.''
Andrew Johnson, a Bay Area spokesman for Philadelphia-based Comcast, said the company had fixed the software bug. In the wee hours of the morning Friday, Comcast broadcast a software patch directly to local customers' DVRs. Johnson said about 1 percent of its newly delivered DVRs suffered from the glitch.
``Our service call volumes have literally almost ceased as of Friday when we pushed out the updates to the customers,'' Johnson said. ``If there are a handful of folks still having an issue, it was not with that box.'' He recommend that customers still experiencing problems call Comcast to have their DVR box swapped out for a new one.
Comcast won't say how many digital video recorders it delivered to its 1.6 million Bay Area subscribers since launching the service in December.
The software problem is the latest setback for the digital set-top box service. After announcing the availability of the DVR in December, Comcast angered some customers when it was forced to acknowledge that they had to wait up to three weeks for a set-top box.
Frozen images
Once installed, some DVRs stopped recording in mid-show, freezing the image on the screen, according to customers. Some subscribers also reported audio problems with the DVRs.
``I have a lot of experience dealing with software and technical problems, so my approach is probably going to be different,'' said Comcast subscriber Steve Jay, a retired Cisco software engineer who lives in San Jose. ``I'm willing to do something, go through menus, whatever, to try and solve the problem. But a lot of people don't have a technical background. I don't know what they would do.''
What San Jose resident Mary Bolsana did was trade her malfunctioning Comcast DVR for a TiVo, a rival machine made by the San Jose company of the same name.
``We tried really hard to work with Comcast to get it fixed,'' she said. ``They are a great company, but they really dropped the ball on this one.''
She said that a Comcast contract technician installed the wrong kind of set-top box.
One Comcast technician said that before the company issued the software fix, 40 percent of the company's service calls were about problems with the new DVR box.
Strong demand
The technician, who asked not to be named to protect his job, said Comcast was so overwhelmed by demand for the DVR service that it dispatched technicians who were not fully trained.
David Clark, a network engineer in San Jose, said he was initially pleased with the service and recommended it to his parents.
``My mom had them come on a Thursday, and she called me and said, `The Comcast installer is here and he doesn't know what he is doing,' '' said Clark, who went over to his parents' house to help the installer.
Problems with the installation and digital service continued and his parents quit Comcast. Clark said his own DVR then began freezing up and experiencing audio problems.
Said Johnson, the Comcast spokesman: ``We trained all our employees on the DVR. I'm not sure if that employee was a new employee, if we are talking about a single instance in the San Jose Mercury News. . . . Certainly some of those have had more experience than the others.''
Comcast's DVR was developed by Motorola. The Motorola box, called the DCT 6412, is being used nationally by Comcast and other cable television providers. In an online cable TV discussion forum, several people in the Philadelphia and New Jersey area described similar problems with the same DVR.
``Where the chatter has come up is in the Bay Area,'' said Motorola spokeswoman Mari Silbey. ``This is not something I'm familiar with outside of the Bay Area.''
Some local Comcast subscribers say the service has improved as a result of the software fix.
``It seems like they have worked out their issues,'' said Bob Hein of San Jose. ``Yesterday's programs recorded fine and it recorded again today. The freezing issue seems to have stopped.''
Said Duane Legins, an electronics salesman in Dublin, ``Everything that I have recorded in the past couple of days is fine. My programs used to freeze a couple of times an hour. None of that has happened in the past few days.''
Legins said he is still annoyed with an earlier snafu with the service. Before leaving for a business trip, he set his Comcast DVR to record the Super Bowl while he was away.
``It didn't record for me,'' said Legins.
``I lost the one thing that I wanted to record, because I am an Eagles fan.''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mercury News Staff Writer Sam Diaz contributed to this report.
Contact Therese Poletti at [email protected] or at (415) 477-2510.
Comcast working to squash DVR bugs
By Therese Poletti
Mercury News
Comcast's roll-out of its digital video recorder service has hit another snag, with Silicon Valley subscribers complaining the TiVo-like devices freeze while recording their favorite television shows.
The company has broadcast a software fix directly to the buggy DVRs. While some Comcast customers are satisfied their DVRs now work properly, others say the problems continue.
``I haven't personally seen any dramatic improvement,'' said Anthony Layzell, a semi-retired computer executive in Los Gatos. ``I haven't missed any recordings in the last two weeks, but we are still getting freezes.''
``If I have a complaint with Comcast, it's that they are just not upfront with it,'' he added. ``They don't tell people. Particularly in the valley, we understand this stuff.''
Andrew Johnson, a Bay Area spokesman for Philadelphia-based Comcast, said the company had fixed the software bug. In the wee hours of the morning Friday, Comcast broadcast a software patch directly to local customers' DVRs. Johnson said about 1 percent of its newly delivered DVRs suffered from the glitch.
``Our service call volumes have literally almost ceased as of Friday when we pushed out the updates to the customers,'' Johnson said. ``If there are a handful of folks still having an issue, it was not with that box.'' He recommend that customers still experiencing problems call Comcast to have their DVR box swapped out for a new one.
Comcast won't say how many digital video recorders it delivered to its 1.6 million Bay Area subscribers since launching the service in December.
The software problem is the latest setback for the digital set-top box service. After announcing the availability of the DVR in December, Comcast angered some customers when it was forced to acknowledge that they had to wait up to three weeks for a set-top box.
Frozen images
Once installed, some DVRs stopped recording in mid-show, freezing the image on the screen, according to customers. Some subscribers also reported audio problems with the DVRs.
``I have a lot of experience dealing with software and technical problems, so my approach is probably going to be different,'' said Comcast subscriber Steve Jay, a retired Cisco software engineer who lives in San Jose. ``I'm willing to do something, go through menus, whatever, to try and solve the problem. But a lot of people don't have a technical background. I don't know what they would do.''
What San Jose resident Mary Bolsana did was trade her malfunctioning Comcast DVR for a TiVo, a rival machine made by the San Jose company of the same name.
``We tried really hard to work with Comcast to get it fixed,'' she said. ``They are a great company, but they really dropped the ball on this one.''
She said that a Comcast contract technician installed the wrong kind of set-top box.
One Comcast technician said that before the company issued the software fix, 40 percent of the company's service calls were about problems with the new DVR box.
Strong demand
The technician, who asked not to be named to protect his job, said Comcast was so overwhelmed by demand for the DVR service that it dispatched technicians who were not fully trained.
David Clark, a network engineer in San Jose, said he was initially pleased with the service and recommended it to his parents.
``My mom had them come on a Thursday, and she called me and said, `The Comcast installer is here and he doesn't know what he is doing,' '' said Clark, who went over to his parents' house to help the installer.
Problems with the installation and digital service continued and his parents quit Comcast. Clark said his own DVR then began freezing up and experiencing audio problems.
Said Johnson, the Comcast spokesman: ``We trained all our employees on the DVR. I'm not sure if that employee was a new employee, if we are talking about a single instance in the San Jose Mercury News. . . . Certainly some of those have had more experience than the others.''
Comcast's DVR was developed by Motorola. The Motorola box, called the DCT 6412, is being used nationally by Comcast and other cable television providers. In an online cable TV discussion forum, several people in the Philadelphia and New Jersey area described similar problems with the same DVR.
``Where the chatter has come up is in the Bay Area,'' said Motorola spokeswoman Mari Silbey. ``This is not something I'm familiar with outside of the Bay Area.''
Some local Comcast subscribers say the service has improved as a result of the software fix.
``It seems like they have worked out their issues,'' said Bob Hein of San Jose. ``Yesterday's programs recorded fine and it recorded again today. The freezing issue seems to have stopped.''
Said Duane Legins, an electronics salesman in Dublin, ``Everything that I have recorded in the past couple of days is fine. My programs used to freeze a couple of times an hour. None of that has happened in the past few days.''
Legins said he is still annoyed with an earlier snafu with the service. Before leaving for a business trip, he set his Comcast DVR to record the Super Bowl while he was away.
``It didn't record for me,'' said Legins.
``I lost the one thing that I wanted to record, because I am an Eagles fan.''
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mercury News Staff Writer Sam Diaz contributed to this report.
Contact Therese Poletti at [email protected] or at (415) 477-2510.
