Well, the guy from Comcast installed the very new DVR. I'm the third customer he installed it to and I might be his first to uninstall it. Why? Because there was a catch to the cheap $9.95 a month for a DVR and new box. Apparently, I have to pay $100 to lease the box off of them. WHAT?! The woman when I called on Wednesday said free installation and you will be charged for $9.95 a month. OK when can I get someone to hook it up? Wrong. She never told me about the $100 lease fee. So all in all, my fresh smelled new piece of hardware is going bye-bye. I will not pay $100 bucks so "Just in case anything happens to the new system." Someone will come out tomorrow, latest Monday to replace it back to digital cable.
But, from my lovely enjoyment of using this fresh new hardware, it's OK. It's duel tuning which means you can record something and watch another simultaneously. It also has Season pass like TiVo that records a series [like The Sopranos] and recognizes it if it's a repeat or first run. Neat. You can change the colors of the menu from all different kinds of blue. Really, there is about seven blue colors all looking the same damn blue and then you have burgundy, black onyx, purple royal and sage. It has PIP [Picture in Picture] but somehow it isn't working for me.
The cons:
The setup to the TV from the box is quite weird. There is no Cable out so they had to hook it up via A/V jacks, which is dumb. I have to switch to Input 2 every time to watch TV and that's bothering. The remote is confusing and doesn't have a setting where you press "Power on" everything comes on like my digital box does. So it's hard to switch from changing channels and volume without changing the TV. There is a ticking noise coming from the hard drive. At first I thought it was water dripping from the gutter outside. It's loud and can be annoying at times. There isn't a 30 second skip for commercials and the fast forward isn't fast. It's more like slow forward.
The pros:
It's a DVR so you can record anything at any time. The playback [from just random testing] is the same quality as what you see on the screen. The menu is a lot cleaner compared to the digital box. It provides more information and quicker. I've seen the guide reach up to the 12th. The little TV on the right top corner of the screen is pretty neat. To pause live TV is just a cool thing. Take a potty break, come back and not miss any of the race [haha had to add that] and hit play is one cool thing.
This can be a pro but also a con. HD channels. Pro that I have it. Con that I can't see it from a 14:2 ratio. You can tell what you are watching is stretched [like Channel 7 on HD] and what cuts it off on the sides. [INHD1 & 2]
That's all I can think of right now until I get back from work. I'm recording the banquet tonight so at least I won't miss that. TiVo will be here soon. Like over the holidays and before February for NASCAR.
