Comcast HD DVR and Thoughts On What To Do Next. . .
I have been away from the forum a while since I have been traveling. I am upset to see Voom go, especially after buying a new 60" Sony.
I just sold my Mitsu big screen last week and upgraded my set.
Just a few thoughts on some of the postings I have seen and comments about what I am planning to do next. The majority of my clients are in the consumer electronics industry and we have had several discussions in regards to where the HD technology is going and what to do next.
I currently still have Voom, (2) DirecTV Tivo SD's, and (2) Comcast HD dual tuner DVR's. I love the Comcast HD-DVR capability, but it is very limited on space. If you record a few movies, forget the space for your favorite TV shows. I have traveled a lot lately, and often miss shows due to the lack of hard drive space, thus the 2 DVR's. Anyone that has a Tivo knows how great it is to record something and watch it maybe a month later. It is always nice to have that option.
The Comcast Guide is no where near the quality of Tivo's. It is however getting better. The DVR is very basic and limited, but does allow name based recording and season passes. It often records the wrong type of episode (new vs. reruns) due to flags in the show information not accurately representing a new or old version of the show. Sometimes guide overlaps cause recording issues such as with Lost and Alias. I have to set Lost to record for two hours, and not record Alias, in order to avoid a 1 minute overlap. This has caused missed recordings of Alias on a few occasions. I often check the recording schedule a week to two weeks in advance for accuracy. Needless to say, Tivo and Comcast are now entering a joint partnership which will make things better. Legacy Tivo boxes are currently being retrofitted with Comcast cable cards.
The only reason I have kept the DirecTV Tivo's is because the analog channels, below 100 channels, SD picture quality is HORRIBLE. If you watch TNT, USA, or SciFi, you will be disgusted by the poor picture quality. I cannot watch Enterprise on UPN either because it is so grainy and noisy. The analog to digital conversion for cable is their biggest weakness. Comcast does plan to rebroadcast those channels in digital quality by the summer. In the meantime, I split the cable feed and went to the HD-DVR and directly to the TV to avoid the analog to digital conversion issue. If I cancel D*, I will probably get a Tivo to record those analog channels, and get better picture quality. I know it is still not great, but better than what I get now. By the way, this is the case for all cable companies using a digital box on analog channels. Please note that ABC, Fox, and CBS are already being rebroadcasted digitally in SD, and have great PQ in my area. Anything in digital format is comparable or better to that of DirecTV. By the way, even with cable you still get audio or picture dropouts on rare occasions. My other huge issue with Comcast is their billing. My advice is to watch your bill like a hawk. I have had their service since January, and thus far I have had to call them every month to complain. By the way you can get $100 of the bill if you sign up at Brandsmart, and I think Best Buy has the same deal. There is also a DishOut promotion which gives you $25 a month off of your cable bill with a copy of your Voom bill.
Now for some of the positives. . . I love having an HD-DVR. Once you use one you will be hooked. What is in HD looks great. It is very convenient and easy to use. There are more HD movie channels that D* or E*. In my area, I have HBOHD, STARZHD, MAXHD, and ShowtimeHD. I do miss having as many channels as Voom though. I also like having a 30 second commercial skip. This is a remote control hack that you have to do in order to enable this feature. If anybody needs it, please let me know. I also like that I am not buying any equipment, signing any contracts, or need to drill any more holes or install dishes. I was also informed that Comcast would be adding about four more HD channels by the summer. I heard that TNTHD will be one of those channels. "On Demand" should be available by the summer as well. It is unclear whether we will get any HD "On Demand" upon launch. As I understand it, the plan is that we will have that feature in HD.
I am still talking to Dish. I have not been convinced yet to do anything with them as of this time. My parents have Dish and are not very happy. I also do not want to install two satellites to get all of their offerings. The positive is they are not requiring any long term commitments, however you do need to make an investment if you want to have an HD-DVR. I am still not convinced in having to make investments in equipment, with such few HD channels being offered. I do know from experience, that their HD is superior to D* at this time. I would say Comcast's HD is better than that of Dish.
In regards to DirecTV, they may have some viable HD programming this summer. As of right now, their HD quality is a very poor. It is more like HD-lite. Their one true strength is the NFL Sunday Ticket in HD. This is the only real thing that appeals to me. They launch their new satellite this summer and it will be interesting to see what they will offer. Also if the will deliver HD they way it was meant to be delivered. They should also begin offering the Ucentric Home Solution, which Voom was planning to do. Ucentric focused more on DirecTV than Voom with this offering. We should also begin seeing some new DVR's from DirecTV this year with MPEG 4 encoding. The downside for D* right now is poor HD quality, a contract commitment, and out of pocket expense for equipment. Their new satellite may be the difference in HD, however, it seems that D* and E* are focusing more on offering HD locals than expanding the HD offering.
In regards to the HD Tivo, I wanted to make sure that everyone has heard of the MPEG4 conversions being done by D*. In order to save bandwidth and maintain PQ and AQ, this conversion will being over the summer. If you do spend $1,000 on the HD Tivo, it will eventually be obsolete. This box is not upgradeable to MPEG4, and no upgrade path has been offered as of this time. Tivo's agreement is also ending with DirecTV soon, and DirecTV will begin selling MPEG4, non-Tivo boxes. If you do buy the HD Tivo, it is not sure how much life the product will have. All new HD offerings will be in MPEG4. The HD Tivo users will be able to see the current HD line-up for 6 months to a year. Any new channels will not be visible on these boxes. I obtained this information through online research, and discussions with with both DirecTV and Tivo. This is why I held off on buying and HD Tivo myself, as well as the HD PQ issues.
I have decided to avoid any commitments until I see what HD offering and PQ these providers will have. As I obtain any new information, I will pass it along to the forum. In the meantime, make the most of your time with Voom and enjoy the experience while it lasts.
