Comcast DVR - A Disappointment

I’m on my second Comcast DVR (digital video recorder) and, sadly, I’m probably about to go swap it for a third.

Most of my Saturday mornings are spent checking out the week’s recordings and watching a few things… usually Battlestar Galactica if I had missed it during the week. Well, this past Saturday morning when I turned on the dvr everything seemed normal. However, when I went to “My Recordings” the display showed “0% Full” and “No listings Available” (which was also shown under the Scheduled Recordings menu).

DVR’s are pretty simple devices. They’re just stream-lined computers built for a very specific purpose which happens to be recording a streaming video source onto a hard drive. Nothing new here, especially since all of the components that make up a DVR have been around for years and years. So what’s the problem?

Before we moved to our current house, we used DirecTv for our television enjoyment. It wasn’t long before I felt the need to get highly recommended TiVo. My experience with the TiVo was never less than satisfaction. Everything from installation, upgrading, to using the device was simple and intuitive. TiVo was one of the first broad attempts at delivering the DVR experience, and they did it well.

Fast forward four years into the future…four years. Maybe now you can understand why I’m so puzzled as to why Comcast and Motorola continue to hand out such crap to their customers. Who would recommend a product that has to be replaced 3 times within 2 years?

I briefly considered just reconfiguring the dvr and hoping it was a one time occurrence. However, the next day the dvr locked up on when I tried to do something as simple as changing the sample. Looks like it’s time to go back to the Comcast office and roll the dice once again.

Update: 6-14-2008
I’ve swapped out my defective DVR for a “new” one. So far so good… if something goes wrong, I’ll post another update here.

Just as a reminder, when you swap out your box, you have to call Comcast to get it activated on your account. Otherwise, you may notice that some of you channels/features aren’t available. When you call, be sure and have you account information handy (phone #, address, name on account) as well as the serial # of the new DVR (this can be found on the receipt or the bottom of the DVR). Call 1-888-270-6445.

I love these commercials…