Yank's Blog

I’ve been a loyal (and relatively satisfied) Comcast user for a very long time. Despite the various frustrations over the years (like when my bill almost doubled over 3 months with no notice, or when their shady sales/support guy promised me things that he couldn’t deliver) I have not really come that close to switching. Now I’m really thinking there has to be a better way.

Truth be told, I’m not in a very flexible position to start. The HOA at my complex enforces very strict rules about satellite dishes. Since my unit is on the 1st floor, I’m not allowed to mount a visible dish on my patio. I’m free to put a short pole in a cement filled bucket, and mount an angled dish, but it has to sit below my patio wall (so noone sees it). As you might guess, that idea pretty much blows goats.

I’ve also got the added complication that I use on of my computers as a TV/DVR. Using El Gato’s EyeTV Hybrid (USB) and EyeTV 500 (firewire) I have been getting all of the usual cable channels, plus any broadcast HD channels provided. Any of the cable HD (ESPN, TNT, USA, etc) is encrypted, so those have been absent from my computer, but I was still happy. That is until now.

Comcast recently began running ads about how they were dramatically improving services in my area: adding more channels, improving picture quality, and also beefing up the internet speeds. This is totally separate from the recent Analog to Digital switch that has been all over the news, which really only impacts people with older TVs. What they don’t mention in these ads is that with the change you will not be able to receive more than half of your channels unless you have set-top boxes for every TV in your home (regardless of age or functionality).

I’ve got three HDTVs in my home, all about three years old or less, and each with a built-in digital tuner (so it can find all of the digital channels without a box). Add on the DVR setup on my computer and that makes four.

It's crap-tastic...I mean Comcastic

The Living Room TV has a Comcast HD-DVR, the man cave has a TiVo HD (with CableCard), and the bedroom has no box. I would think that with the built-in digital tuner on the bedroom TV, I would be fine. WRONG.

Comcast has encrypted their channels so you need one of their boxes (or CableCards) no matter what. Comcast is basically saying “get another comcast box and your service won’t be shitty.”  Sure they are offering a free, mini box (called a Digital Transport Adapter  or DTA) but those give you a half-assed level of service that will probably prompt many people to add another expensive full-service box (thus shoving other device makers out and further lining Comcast’s pockets).

This sucks on a variety of levels.

1. Forcing users to put a separate tuner box between the cable and the TV essentially prohibits them from using recording devices.  Comcast will argue that they can still work, but it’s a horrible experience.The recorder only gets whatever single channel the tuner wants to pass along, so say good-bye to watching one thing while recording another.  You can also say good-bye to the TiVo program guide.  And unless you are pretty savvy, you’d better make sure that anytime you want to record a show while away you set the tuner channel before you go.
2. My computer setup is totally crippled, for many of the same reasons referenced in #1.
3. I get to replace my nice Sony remote with a delightfully shitty Comcast one.

My desire to keep the computer based TV/DVR going has left me feeling locked into cable, but I guess now that my computer setup is so totally compromised I may finally be ready to look into something new.

UPDATE: It gets worse. I completely forgot about the older TiVo that we have in the living room. Given the limited space offered by the crappy Comcast HD DVR, we kept the older TiVo for SD content (mostly reruns of CSI, SVU, etc). This way we can use the Comcast box exclusively for HD content. Looks like that won’t work anymore. WOOHOO