DVR Chatter

So I'm still confused about using a TIVO box with Comcast cable. I'm becoming more and more unhappy with the Comcast DVR.  So, I go to my nearby Bestbuy, say, and buy the latest/greatest TIVO box. I bring it home, and then what ?   I pay an extra fee to Comcast, I'm sure. But does the TIVO guide update via the comcast cable ?  Do I only pay the additional fee to Comcast or do I also have to subscribe to TIVO ?  Is it gonna be all that costly to do this ?  Or should I just finally have the dish and dish supplied box put in ? 

I have no probs with Comcast internet service in our area. No complaints. Actually, no complaints about the cable TV signal either.   But the DVR !!   ARRRRRRGH !!
Yesterday while watching the 49er game, they driving down to a possible score, and for no reason known to me, my DVR shuts off and starts the reset process. By the time the channels show on the TV, the 49ers had already scored and off  course it wasn't buffered due to the shutdown.  ARRRRRRRGH !! It ISN'T OFTEN you get to see a 49er team score !!  LOL

I understand the Tivo/Comcast scenario.  Probably be forever til we actually get the option.

I was more wondering about the Tivo/Tivo option. So I would continue to pay Comcast for the signal. Plug the signal into Tivo box. So the  Tivo guide would update through the cable signal I guess ?  Just generally curious, I'll look at it all to get specifics. Just thought someone here might already have the Tivo/Tivo option.
So the cable card go into the Tivo box ?

TIVO updates through the phone line or wireless usb adapter if you have wireless internet in the house. You pay TIVO $12.95 a month for the TIVO service (firmware updates guide updates, etc). You need two cable cards to be able to record two channels at the same time. The first one is free the second is around two dollars a month. Some areas you can pick them up yourself and have them activated, others require an installer to come out. I tried to activate mine over the phone but there is some sort of problem with it. The tech is coming out Thursday to see what the problem is. Hope that helps you.

Last edited by loub555 (12-24-2007 3:01:03 PM)

loub555 wrote:

TIVO updates through the phone line or wireless usb adapter if you have wireless internet in the house.

You can also hardwire the Tivo to your router using cat5 cable.  Its noticably faster than wireless.
Hardwiring requires an ethernet-to-usb adapter (to attach the cat cable to the back of the Tivo), like the Linksys 200m (about $29)
Doing the hardwire method makes transferring shows from one Tivo to another, or to the PC, a quite a bit faster.

How well does it work, compared to the non-TiVo Motorola version?

I've thought all along that most of the problems were buried deep within the Motorola firmware, primarily because of the fact that we also had them with the Microsoft guide s/w in Seattle.  So I share your concern.

kennymedium wrote:

Had Comcast/TiVo installed beginning of February and I'm already on my second box first one had a "fatal error." It is absolutely slow. But, I'm overlooking it for the moment. Do any of you know if Comcast/TiVo users can utilize the "online scheduling" functionality available to regular TiVo users through the TiVo website, via another route like logging into your TiVo from a computer on your home network?

That may confirm Wareagle's thoughts above. The problems are in the firmware of  Comcast Moto Boxes,
not neccessarily the guide software.

Wareagle wrote:

Yeah, I've done too much serious realtime software work not to be able to recognize a crappy fundamental OS design.

As for the question about using the "real" TiVo functions, such as online scheduling -- no.

I was reading a  bit about slingbox which it said will work with the Comcast DVR. It even showed a screen shot of the software and had a picture (not that it means anything) of the dvr remote. I thought I read that you could  actually access your DVR box via the slingbox.