A submission on Digg this past week pointed to an article from NewTeeVee titled Dear Comcast, Why Is My DVR So Dumb? The main point of the article was to complain about the fact that Comcast's DVR software appears to not be able to discern new television episodes from repeats.
What the article fails to cover, though, is the myriad of excruciatingly annoying issues from which the DVR and its software suffer (or more importantly, from which the user suffers). So here's a list of issues I've seen, after having used the Comcast DVR for over a year:
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Recording the same episode over and over again
This is the issue covered in the article mentioned above, but Comcast's explanation is that they are at the mercy of their EPG data provider. Maybe so, but nothing stops them from implementing checks in their actual DVR software to see if an episode has been recorded previously. Funnily (or sadly?) enough, I've seen the same exact issue covered in the article, where episodes of Project Runway are recorded over and over again, whether they are new or not, and whether or not they've previously been recorded, watched and subsequently deleted. I smell some scapegoating going on here. -
Blowing away custom recording preferences
Sometimes, when I want to make sure the DVR is going to record the right shows at the right priority level for the coming week, I spend a good ten minutes or so going through and telling the software not to record certain shows so that others will record instead. If I see shows that I know are repeats (see previous issue), I'll tell it not to record those as well. However, I've noticed that the DVR software, seemingly on a whim (or perhaps more realistically whenever it updates its guide data) loses those custom preferences and goes back to recording all the crap it decided it should record based on the default settings (and its bizarre quirks). This is really annoying when it happens, because it's basically time lost on my part. -
Fast-forwarding and rewinding woes
It only takes about a couple days of using the Comcast DVR to realize that of the five fast-forward and rewind levels supported, the first level doesn't work worth a darn, ever. It will fast-forward or rewind for a second or so, and then it just gets stuck. So basically there are four supported levels, meaning an extra button click on the remote every single time you want to fast-forward or rewind. -
General unresponsiveness
This ranks right up there with the most annoying problems with the DVR and its software. Often times, when you hit the "OK" button on the remote control, the DVR will take its time processing whatever it is you asked it to do, but it gives no visual indication whatsoever that it is doing anything at all! Because of this, I often find myself hitting the up or down arrows in an attempt to find out if the DVR is actually doing work, or if it simply didn't get my remote control command at all and is sitting idle. There is no excuse for this in software, and hourglasses and rotating thingy-mo-bobbers are a dime-a-dozen in the UI world -- get with the program! -
Crashes and resets
The DVR and its software crashes and resets randomly. In general, I would say this is totally unacceptable in a production device, but I suppose I could allow for one crash a year, maybe. Unfortunately, in the past year I've had my DVR crash and/or reset more times than I can count on one hand (and no, this isn't isolated to a single DVR). Hey Comcast, ever heard of QA? -
Certain channels take several minutes to load
When I sit down to watch television, I don't load a disc into a tray before doing so, so I don't expect my DVR to make me wait for channels to load as if I was playing Final Fantasy or something. Comcast, if your infrastructure can't handle all the channels you offer, how about offering me a choice of channels I care about and discounting me the price of all the channels of which I opt-out? -
Recordings go off the reservation, never to be seen or heard from again
I've covered this issue before, but numerous times I've had recordings that either go black halfway through, that force me to delete them halfway through, or even that ask me if I want to delete them as soon as I start watching them. This is unacceptable. If a show fails to record completely, at least show some decency and make it disappear altogether, rather than teasing me with bits and pieces of it. -
On Demand, much like a broken clock, is only right about twice a day
I can honestly say that a majority of the time I've spent using the On Demand feature of my Comcast DVR has ended with some sort of error message either indicating that the service was not available at the time, or even providing me with some obscure error code that I'm recommended to share with my friendly, local Comcast support representative. On Demand is great in concept; it's just a shame Comcast has implemented it so poorly. -
Remote control command queuing
This one could almost fit in the "general unresponsiveness" category, but it's so frustrating that I felt it deserves a category of its own. Whenever the Comcast DVR goes out to lunch (which, again, it does more than a couple of spoiled BFFs), it continues to queue up any remote control commands you send its way. At first, this usually consists of normal commands you were planning to send. Shortly thereafter, it usually consists of angry and random button presses to vent frustration that the DVR is no longer paying attention to your commands. It then ends in a blaze of random, unpredictable glory as every single button stroke plays out before you and you realize you are now set up to record all episodes of The Golden Girls and your latest Breaking Bad episode is no more.
To see if I've missed anything important, I'd have to go over and actually use my DVR. As you might have guessed, I'm not really in the mood to do so at the moment. If you've had similar issues or know of others, please share them here. After all, misery loves company.
Oh, and if you're a "Comcast executive" and you decide that, again, you would like to help me with my problems, please don't bother. That $50 reimbursement you gave last time was way more than enough to cover the endless pain I've endured as a Comcast DVR user.
Oh, and you won't have to worry about hearing too many more complaints from me about Comcast's DVR or television service, because I'll be parting ways with both in the very near future.
Comments
"No one else has this problem" and "It must be your DVR" both sound very familiar ;)
I've seen the same issue, albeit very rarely. It seems to have happened only recently, as I recall seeing lots of TBDs in my scheduled recordings. I don't remember ever seeing that beyond about a month or so ago.
Sorry to hear you're having issues, too.
Well, at least it helps to know I'm not alone. I appreciate your comments here.
My first Comcast DVR was wiped clean one day, and I had it replaced. The same thing then eventually happened to the second unit, but I figured this was to be expected now, so I kept that one, despite the disappointment. Last night, it failed again. This time, I can see my recordings listed, but they will not play--none of them. I get a black screen and see the progress bar, but nothing I do gets the recordings to start. The recording times for 30-minute shows also show 31 minutes now for some reason. I'm guessing fried hard drive, but who knows?
With the amount of money I pay Comcast for their service, this is such a frustrating thing to deal with. As usual, nobody at Comcast has any answers for these problems, either. I feel sorry for the poor people who are trying to make a living answering for this mess. How long does it take for a new technology to settle in and get reliable, anyway?
I've had problems with all but a few of those issues you mention. By far (for me) the most annoying is #1 - Recording the same episode over and over again. I'll come back after a week or so and see 15 episodes of South Park filling the DVR ... I said "New Episodes ONLY!!!"
Not only will I have episodes from 1998, but I'll also have maybe 4 or 5 copies of the single "new" episode that I wanted in the first place! >:-@
Add this (high-priced) BS from Comcast ON TOP of their BitTorrent seed-busting BS ... and it becomes no wonder why Comcast's customers are leaving in DROVES for stuff like FiOS and DirecTV.
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Dont forget about how it loses it's guide data constantly. It takes mine 3 days to fully load and then withing 1 day it starts erasing everything over a week out and it all to be announced. I have had 5 different dvrs from them now and thye claim no one else has this problem.
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