After months of negotiations, analysis and deep reflection, my household finally joined the Comcast family yesterday (somewhere around 3:30 Pacific Time). I have already noted several things I don't like about this. One is Customer Service - I had to call both DirecTV and Comcast several times today to finalize items - it was dramatically easier to talk to a real person at DirecTV (and I used to think that was a pain) compared to Comcast. A second is their DVR - I am already missing my DirecTV TiVo. The Comcast DVR has most of the same flaws as the non TiVo DirecTV DVR <sigh>. The Comcast Sales guy kept telling me that I did not really need a DVR, what with their On Demand service. I got 2 DVRs anyway (we had three with DirecTV) and so far I am really glad I did. The On Demand is nice in some ways, but kind of a pain to access, and very spotty in its coverage. For any show that I really want to have archived and available to watch, I think I will need to record it myself (and my daughter has already informed me she is not going to tolerate having to wait however many days the On Demand takes to put up the most recent episode of True Bloods). There also is kind of an annoying delay for most button presses on the remote control. So far, I have not figured out how to get repeated recordings of manually scheduled recordings (essential for my recording of TDS/CR, which I like to record on the early morning next day repeat, currently from 6:30 to 7:30 am). I have to believe there is a way to do this, but so far, no joy. And it was a small disappointment to notice that I will no longer be able to record the current season of Damages (but I think I will be able to still watch the Dan Patrick Show, so that is good).
All of the bad is trumped by two main advantages: 1) My window to the southern exposure for the satellite has now grown so small that I can not get clear picture on about half the channels on DirecTV (so, it was nice to be able to catch up with viewable episodes of The Closer ON Demand last night). It doesn't do me much good to be able to jump between two receivers, or to schedule daily recordings of the TDS/CR morning repeats, if I can't see a clear picture. 2) For at least the next two years, we are saving significant money. Even more than I had originally thought, since my AT&T internet service, discounted on a 2 year introductory deal, just matured into its regular pricing. All in, for the next two years we will be saving about $65.00/month (internet, telephone and television), while getting more channels and faster internet. Not to mention the $300+ I will save this year not getting the NFL package (minor bummer, but they do have a form of the Red Zone channel, so I think I will survive, though I will miss some Rams games). So, whenever I find myself cursing the inferior DVR or clunky On Demand, I will just remind myself that I am saving almost $1100/year - that should make me feel better. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
