DVR hookup with Comcast (UGH!)

[klk3100]

Hello,
This Comcast conversion is getting the best of me. Until they made up their minds to have their cable signal NEED an in home converter to get the digital channels my life has been miserable! I got 2 DTAs from comcast (I already had a converter box for my HD TV).

Originally I wired the wall cable to my DVR then the out from the DVR to the HD Converter box to my HD TV. I was able to watch a show and record another. No problem.

Now comes the problem, with the "conversion" my DVR can no longer "understand" the cable without going through a converter. It needs its own converter. PLUS that DTA needs its own cable feed, so I installed a splitter. Now I have the wall connection going to a splitter with one output going to the HD converter box to the TV and the other output going to my DVR. The problem I have now is that my DVR must be tuned to channel 3 inorder to get the data from the DTA and I needed to use the RF blaster to "read" the channel guide from the DTA in order for the DVR to automatically record a show for me. Otherwise I would have to manually record every show (which is a pain in the you know what!) As of yesterday I was unable to get the guide to register into my DVR. I am so fed up!!!!

Am I the only one having this problem? I really do not want to have to "rent" one of their DVRs.

Isn't there a governmental agency that is supposed to help us out? Perhaps if we all bombarded them something might get done.

The "Technical Support" (and I use the term loosely) from Comcast is useless. Their solution is for me to pay for a service call so their installers can help me out.

This should not have been THAT difficult.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks.........
Karen

 

[klk3100]

Here I am responding to my own problem to let others know what I found out. It seems that the Comcast boxes (DTAs or digital conversion boxes) do NOT output the TV Guide that most DVR/VCR/TiVOs require in order to do their automatic recording. So when they tell you you can record one show while watching another they are 'technically' correct because you have to MANUALLY set up the recording. Yes, you have to be present at the correct time and switch over to the recorder and set up to channel xx and press the record button then switch back over to your other show.

Also, the recorder must have its own DTA or converter box separate from the one for the tv.

Progress, huh?

 

[captaincharisma]

stop complaining and just get a Tivo

 

[soundguruman]

Hello,
This Comcast conversion is getting the best of me. Until they made up their minds to have their cable signal NEED an in home converter to get the digital channels my life has been miserable! I got 2 DTAs from comcast (I already had a converter box for my HD TV).

Originally I wired the wall cable to my DVR then the out from the DVR to the HD Converter box to my HD TV. I was able to watch a show and record another. No problem.

Now comes the problem, with the "conversion" my DVR can no longer "understand" the cable without going through a converter. It needs its own converter. PLUS that DTA needs its own cable feed, so I installed a splitter. Now I have the wall connection going to a splitter with one output going to the HD converter box to the TV and the other output going to my DVR. The problem I have now is that my DVR must be tuned to channel 3 inorder to get the data from the DTA and I needed to use the RF blaster to "read" the channel guide from the DTA in order for the DVR to automatically record a show for me. Otherwise I would have to manually record every show (which is a pain in the you know what!) As of yesterday I was unable to get the guide to register into my DVR. I am so fed up!!!!

Am I the only one having this problem? I really do not want to have to "rent" one of their DVRs.

Isn't there a governmental agency that is supposed to help us out? Perhaps if we all bombarded them something might get done.

The "Technical Support" (and I use the term loosely) from Comcast is useless. Their solution is for me to pay for a service call so their installers can help me out.

This should not have been THAT difficult.

Can anyone help me?

Thanks.........
Karen

You should realize by now that Comcast created this system to prevent you from using your own equipment. Typical.

 

[klk3100]

stop complaining and just get a Tivo

Well, that wasn't very nice!

You need to get a NEWer TiVo - one that will accept the Comcast card that you rent/or buy (not sure which) that essentially makes the TiVo a Comcast converter box, plus you then need to also pay the monthly TiVo charge. Which would probably be more than the Comcast DVR rental, so that really isn't a viable solution.

And yes, I could do lots of things that would cost me more money, but my main point was to inform people of the issue. For right now I have the cable connected directly to my DVR. Until the 'official' switchover, I have full functionality of my DVR. When the switchover occurs I (hopefully) can record from channels up to 35.

 

[mxidis88]

I am having essentially the same issue with the computer tv tuner in my office that runs on windows media center. I used to be able to use the guide on the media center to record live tv, but now the media center channel must be set to 3 at all times in order to receive a signal from Comcast's DTA box. And instead of using my awesome Windows Media Center Remote, I have to use Comcast's dinky little $2 remote to change the channels. If comcast really cared about its customers, they would have but a DTA box on the main cable line going to the residence, instead of requiring each television to carry one of THEIR STUPID UP(down)GRADE boxes. I'm considering switching to satellite very seriously...