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March 01, 2007
That's Comcastic!
 |
| A few months ago I switched from DSL to a cable modem
for Internet access. I'm not an early adopter of technology. When I buy some "newish" electronic
device it's been on the market for a while (and should have most
of the bugs worked out). I learned to avoid early technology releases
from my brother who championed Betamax after a high dollar purchase
in
the
1980's. That didn't work out too well. So, I was enjoying my Motorola DCT6412 DVR from Comcast when things began to go terribly wrong. First, I lost the sci-fi channel. That seemed like a personal attack. Then I lost the rest of the higher cable channels (History, Science, TV Japan, you know, the good ones). It was just on one of the tuners, but that meant you couldn't schedule recordings. Then the sound went out, but would come back if you changed the channel........and then go out again. Using all of my electronic engineer and blogger skills I started researching the DVR. The list of common Motorola 6412 bugs is lengthy, and I've listed some classics below. I also ran across some forums and blogs where Comcast customers were livid with this product. On one Bay Area site every time a new bug was reported somebody would chime in "That's just Comcastic!"(it wasn't a positive exclamation). I'd have to agree, it has been a Comcastic experience. On the up-side I recently swapped out my DVR at the Comcast office and the replacement seems to be working pretty well. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed. |
| Some interesting problems Comcast
DVR users have reported. Problem: When turning the box on, it may not display a picture or sound. Changing channels has no effect Cause: The problem may be caused by a bug with scheduled recordings. The problem may occur when the box has shut itself off following a scheduled recording. Remedies: Don't turn off the box Play a recorded program for a moment, then return to live programming Reboot the box (unplug power for a minute) Problem: Box turns off by itself Cause: Viewing began after box had turned itself on for a scheduled recording. Recording concluded. Remedy: None (Never turn DVR off) Problem: The box may stop responding to the remote while watching live TV or a recorded program Note: The show will play back fine without stutter. When you press fast-forward or rewind, the box will ignore you. This goes on for maybe 30-60secs. Then, the box will respond to all the buttons you have pressed. Cause: Unknown Remedy: A DVR Authorization and Factory Full Reset may help. Problem: Box locks up between 4:20 and 4:50 AM or PM Cause: This was caused by i-guide purge and rebuild of data. Blogger Note: Can you say "stoner programmer"? Remedies: Delete all of your series recordings from the Series Priority List, then recreate them. Use DVR HDD RESET to wipe everything and start from scratch. |
Posted by Lon at March 1, 2007 07:30 PM