For Christmas I received a TiVo Series2 DT 80 hour from Cam plus a $199 gift card for one year of prepaid service. Activated the box the day I got it and added a $100 to make it a 3 year prepaid subscription (current special going on). I had the “lovely” Microsoft-based guide (all of Comcast served WA does) on a Motorola 6412. Here are some of the daily annoyances that I was able to reproduce on different Motorola 6412s in different locations throughout the western Washington area. I think Comcast, Microsoft and Motorola completely dropped the ball on this. It just feels like there is absolutely no usability studies done on this product (I bet like all big companies they were pointing the finger at each other for that cost and responsibility).

Before I begin, it is nice that the Motorola 6412 is a dual tuner HD DVR just like the Series3 but alas most of the channels I watch are 2 and 99, viewable without a cable box, the only two shows that requires my digital cable box are The Sopranos & Real Time with Bill Maher on HBO. Not to mention that my TV is not a HDTV set so there were no further advantages to me.

Annoying problem #1 - The remote communication.
This is probably the biggest issue of all with all 6412s I’ve seen. Getting the remote to talk to the unit is extremely difficult. With an absolute clear line of sight to the unit, no obstruction what-so-ever about 12-14 feet away imagine the following:

1. Commercial starts
2. You hit fast forward twice to buzz through the commercial only to find out that it only caught one of your fast forward presses so your buzzing along at 1x which is basically 1.5x speed of normal playback (not very fast).
3. You hit FF again… no go hit it again and bam were at 2x. Yes!!
4. Commercial break is over. You hit play. Oh crud, it didn’t catch my play. You hit play again. Nope. (3 minutes in to the program). Finally it plays.
5. You start hitting rewind to go back to the end of the break. You this time go back at 1x speed.
6. You start hitting play about 10 seconds before you actually want to start playing and bam we are good to go.

This is daily event, tried on many units with the same model remote. Had two Comcast techs out who stood in front of the TV with no problem. Yet 12 feet away and it doesn’t work (but the tech doesn’t want to try that).

Annoying problem #2 - The RR / FF functionality.
On the TiVo, you press FF twice to get to FF 2x and decide to slow down back to FF 1x, you hit the RR button to go back a step. Not on Microsoft’s powered Motorola box. You hit RR and it starts in RR 1x. Yup rewinding. Umm… yeah not what I wanted. If you want to get back to FF 1x you have to hit FF 3 times (to go from FF 2x -> FF 3x -> FF 4x -> FF 1x) or hit play and FF again. But with problem #1… good luck. Better luck at rolling the dice in Las Vegas then at that adventure.

Annoying problem #3 - The pause function.
Combined with #1, this one is a blast as well. The phone rings. You want to pause “Live TV”. Well first #1 comes into play. 6-7 seconds transpire (phone is between its 2nd and 3rd ring) and it gets the pause. Now it takes the box another 3-4 seconds to pause. First it will keep playing, pause, plays another second (seriously) and then FINALLY pauses.

Annoying problem #4 - It’s “Record a Series” function (Seasons Pass on TiVo).
A great example. Boston Legal on ABC at 10pm every Tuesday. Seems easy enough. So in October I select to record the series. It records all the episodes until one week there was a special (ABC and its specials) and suddenly the week after no more recordings. Further more they then had a special airing of a new episode on a Sunday night. Didn’t record that one either. Oh and their settings that determine to record old (repeats) and new episodes is like russian roulette as well. Another prime example is that I told it to record “The Simpsons” every Sunday night on Fox. I tell it record new episodes only but what does the DVR do? The local FOX station airs reruns of the Simpsons 2x a night M-Sat… lovely. I get 12 episodes of already seen episodes.

This is why I dislike my Comcast DVR service so very much. The HD tuners really don’t affect me at this point and if it ever does I’ll purchase a Series3 TiVo. Having had the last 7 days to play with my TiVo (I was stuck at home with the flu) and using features such as scheduling recordings via the website, creating wish lists based on actors/actresses/directors I like and it starting to pick up on our (Cam’s as well) viewing habits and recording similar programs… I can’t believe I didn’t get this sooner.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 1st, 2007 at 3:12 am and is filed under life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.