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- siouxmoux, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I have one those Motorola 3412 Dual Turner DVRs from comcast. And with the reason Firmware Upgrade. Its still the response time is very show and sluggish performance in the DVR functions. I am waiting for ATT to roll out their new U-verse IPTV Service in San Jose ca. Right now its available in San Ramon, Cupertino and Saratoga ca. But before I jump to U-verse IPTV. ATT need to Increase Bandwidth So they can Deliver more the one HDTV streams and faster Net access speeds. 6mps?? Come on now att. Comcast and just flip a switch and offer speeds of 16mps down 2mps up.
- WolfwoodX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@ crlake
You loose for attempting to be politically correct and failing to read beyond the opening sentence. - brix, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's amazing how little folks appear to know about cable service. Granted, I was in the same boat a few years ago, so I can understand the confusion.
First off, from working in tech support myself (not in the cable industry), any call/chat that starts off with "this product is junk" just puts the tech into "oh no, it's going to be one of *those* customers" mode. In this case, the tech is absolutely right -- You are coming in with an attitude that you know more than the rep. From this chat log, it's clear that you don't.
The Comcast tech is far more accurate in his assessment of the situation than you are here. First off, you can't buy a DVR "brand new directly from Scientific Atlanta" as you say you would be doing. Scientific Atlanta does not sell their boxes retail. Nor does any cable company in the United States that I am aware of sell either SA or Motorola boxes retail. The US model is to lease the settop to the subscriber.
About the only way you are going to get your hands on a SA 8300HD is to buy it on eBay. The boxes here come from two sources -- Many are, yes, stolen from cable companies. In fact, if the seller is from the US, it's a near certainty that the box is stolen. The only other source would be a Canadian who purchased the box through Videotron or Rogers cable.
Next, the tech is, of course, correct that you cannot use a Scientific Atlanta DVR if you currently have a Motorola DVR. You say "these things are industrial (sic) standards." Where have you been? If there were already standards around this, then you wouldn't need CableCARDs (search arstechnica.com for a good primer).
After years of folks jacking into their neighbors analog service and adding an after market descrambler to pick up premium content (HBO, etc), everyone in the business got smart when it came to digital cable. Cable companies and the networks both demanded more robust encryption on digital cable. Scientific Atlanta's encryption is called PowerKey. Motorola's is MediaCipher. *This* is the reason you need a settop box (or CableCARD) to watch anything encrypted, which usually includes most channels other than those which use the airwaves to broadcast in the first place (your local channels).
So just based on the encryption side, there's no way to swap out settops.
But even once you get past that with CableCARD, you still couldn't swap out the boxes -- The software that runs on both the Scientific Atlanta and Motorola DVRs actually gets loaded by the cable company for their network. Comcast uses TV Guide's iGuide for most of their customers, while Scientific Atlanta has their own guide called SARA. iGuide, of course, gets the guide information you see on the screen from TV Guide. Comcast has a system in place to get the data from TV Guide and deliver it on to the Motorola system. If they were using SARA in your area, they would get their data from Tribune.
There are other factors involved as well, such as software updates to the settops, VOD, PPV, how channel frequency information gets delivered to the settop, etc.
To switch from a Motorola headend to a Scientific Atlanta headend for a cable company is a large undertaking and costs big bucks. It's a rare thing to see a switch.
There are other factors on the horizon that might make it possible to switch (e.g. OCAP), but these are still a ways off, and all of them require large investments from the cable companies. They are making these investments, but it won't happen overnight.
As for fixing your existing problems -- Keep having Comcast send techs to your house to troubleshoot. Some of the problems may be in the software -- Comcast may need to update their Motorola code. Again, this has to be done at the headend for all customers in your area. The more they hear about problems, though, the more likely they are to push updates out that might fix them, or push on Motorola to fix the problems. Keep on them. - crlake, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The tech guy “Jeff” is a f*cking moron. He could offered NO other solutions than standard Comcast line of bull-crap. He has a customer with a situation of 4 different Motorola Boxes with Green Screen lock-ups, over a year period. At that point, I can't believe he didn't offer you the most obvious solution of "cable cards" and TIVO, or Windows/Linux based DVR. Duh. He didn’t even offer an apology for his rude ass behavior. This guy is in technical support?
"Stolen Motorola boxes", please... Nobody is buying that! Is that the best excuse “Jeff” could come up with? That statement was next to lame. Verizon's Fios IP Services is using very the SAME Motorola boxes, but with the original IU in them. Are they’re boxes stolen? Thanks again “Jeff”, for proving once again that the general public knows far more then Comcast Tech Support, when it comes to basic technology.
Comcast know that box is a piece of crap; I wish they would just admit it. They have got to be losing money every time they replace a cable box 3 and 4 times per customer? How is this benefiting them? - crlake, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1@WolfwoodX
FYI -- straight people get AIDS too. Once the (HIV) virus gets into your blood stream, it lowers your defenses, even against the common cold. After the incubation period, the disease will kill you, no matter what color you are, how much money you have, how young you are, your sexual preference, or how you contracted it.
Because the disease doesn’t discriminate against people, like we do. - Satchel, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0God I hate chatting with those customer service agents that Comcast has. They are the worst. Its basically a live equivalent of navigating through a touch-tone telephone support system, since all the responses are completely canned and there is no insight or caring involved.
Please, TiVo! Drop the price on the Series3 already so I can get rid of my Motorola! - mriswyth, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I don't understand this story. If the box is such a hassle/pain, why don't you just get rid of it. There are numerous other options like Dish, Tivo3, and countless good PC Based DVR Systems.
I love my Comcast DVR. I didn't have to put out tons of money to buy the unit, so if there are any problems (which there have been) I just return it and they give me another one. If and when upgrades come along I don't have to own old equipment.
I understand it isn't for everybody though, so if you don't like it make your opinion known with your business. - WolfwoodX, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1Our DTR800 Humax TiVo had full blown AIDS (probably got it from the gay shows it kept recording). We kept trying to get it to changes its ways, but it just wouldn’t listen. After the dreaded KidZone epidemic spread, the poor thing just didn’t stand a chance. It struggled for a few months, but there was no cure in sight. It became too painful to watch our TiVo suffer like that and we decided to pull the plug. The life support team tried to convince us otherwise, and even offered to cut the expenses in half, but the thought of seeing it in agony was too much to bear. We buried it in the family closet where all of our other deceased gadgets lay. After a day or two of weeping, we where blessed with a Scientific Atlanta DVR from the cable company. It doesn’t replace poor ole TiVo, but it dose record 2 HD shows at once. Maybe some day we will meet TiVo again.. if the cable company gods ever allow such a thing.
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