After a recent move, I was faced with my worst fear – being unable to have Directv. Our apartment did not have a “clear view of the southern sky,” so all satellite companies were out the window. Comcast was the only cable company available in the area and I was nervous about what was ahead. After researching all of the options available with Comcast, we decided to get the HD receiver with DVR service for our LCD television in the living room. After getting over losing Directv and Sunday Ticket in our new place, I decided to give Comcast a legitimate shot.
The installation was scheduled only two business days after calling Comcast, which was very timely considering some companies’ time lines. The installer arrived around 5pm, within the 3-6pm period they have reserved. After checking out the rooms that would get service (two cable receivers and an Internet connection), the young man went to the truck to get all the equipment. He was gone around 25-30 minutes before returning with the HD DVR for the living room. Over the course of the next two hours, yes two hours, he installed everything, but was out at the truck far more than in the house. I was frustrated with the overall efficiency of the installation, especially that the wireless Internet was not set-up properly because “the service was temporary down for an hour or so.
After having the HD DVR through Comcast for a few weeks now, there are some definite positives and negatives. The HD package is pretty similar to any other service provider. There are a number of HD channels, including ABC, NBC, CBS, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT and National Geographic among others. The picture on these channels is absolutely stunning. This is with standard, run-of-the-mill cables. We have an Olevia 37″ LCD TV for informational purposes. The picture is crystal clear within normal view distance with solid blacks and vibrant colors. You do have to switch between standard 1080i and stretched versions if you are watching a standard or HD channel. That is a bit annoying if you are channel-surfing.
The DVR service, however, is far less impressive. After being used to the very simple and sensible Directv set-up, Comcast DVR seemed to be set-up by a five-year-old. To find programs to record you must search through the guide to select the show itself. The other option is finding it through an alphabetical or time-line type search. Either way is a pain when establishing all your favorite shows. Instead of spelling out the show title, giving you what you’re looking for quickly, you search alphabetically from the beginning of the letter. For example, Everybody Loves Raymond would take awhile by starting at the beginning of the letter E, going all the way to E-V. With the other method, you would need to find the next episode of “Raymond” on a channel and set your recording options from there. That is also tedious if the show is once a week and at least a couple days away. Another frustrating thing about the DVR system is the scrolling menus. Instead an endpoint at the top and bottom of a menu, Comcast has the menu continue in either direction. The most recent recording will show again after the oldest one in DVR mode. The menus are definitely not the highlight of the Comcast HD DVR receiver.
The overall response time of the HD DVR system is rather slow. There are pauses, where you would expect an instant change. In addition, the visuals for live pause and other DVR features are very archaic. It literally looks like something from Atari or Original Nintendo. It functions fine, except for the delay, but the graphics are well-behind the HD picture of the programming. The HD picture-in-picture is high-quality, although the location options are less-than-ideal. Instead of being in the actual corner of the screen, the four locations are closer to the center, commonly blocking a person’s face or other center point of the primary show you are viewing.
Overall, Comcast has a viable product in the HD DVR receiver. It isn’t as user-friendly as Directv’s set-up, but it also costs a little less. The picture and viewing quality are excellent, but some of the options, as stated above, are lacking. I will survive with Comcast and not feel very short-changed in my programming. Football fans, like myself, know that Sunday Ticket and Superfan are not available without Directv. That will be a disappointment, which Comcast cannot help. Cable always has the advantage over satellite in terms of signal strength. A Satellite will struggle with bad weather, while a cable signal handles the weather well.
