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Comcast DVR doing partial recordings

Discussion in 'Digital TV - United States & Canada' started by Par5zn2, Jan 14, 2005.

  1. Par5zn2

    Par5zn2 Guest

    I'm new to this forum, so hope I'm posting in the proper place.
    I've had Comcast DVR in the SF Bay Area(Concord/Clayton) for 3 weeks. This is a new feature for our local Comcast cable. Love the feature but they've had to give me 3 DVR boxes. Everything seems to be working properly now except that about 1/4 of the recordings are partial recordings. These DVR recordings can be analog or HDTV. They can occur at times when I'm not around so I know it's not me causing them. It can be an hour recording that turns out to be 51 minutes or a 2 hour recording that turns ou to be 45 minutes. I had this issue with the last 2 boxes.
    Anyone have this problem?
     
  2. charlie-w

    charlie-w Guest

    I've had my Comcast PVR for about 2 weeks, and have had the same problem (among others!) It seems to happen to one show in particular- it's on Saturday and Sunday morning, for 30 minutes, and the last 4 recordings have only been 16, 17 or 18 minutes. I've had other 30 minute recordings that have gone 40 minutes instead.

    I like having 2 tuners, but this box has a LOT more problems than the single-tuner box it replaced!

    -Charlie
     
  3. Par5zn2

    Par5zn2 Guest

    Where are you located?
     
  4. charlie-w

    charlie-w Guest

    I'm outside Philadelphia.
     
  5. iluvtech

    iluvtech Member

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    Hey Guys,

    I had similar behavior, it turned out I had setup 2 programs on the 'series recordings' that conflicted with each other.

    It was Letterman at 11.35 for 60 mins, and some other show starting at midnight, because I setup the midnight show first it got priority on my recordings and cut off Lettermans lateshow early. You can set priorities for which show should get recorded in the MY DVR section, check that something like this isnt going on.

     
  6. Par5zn2

    Par5zn2 Guest

    I've had the partial recordings when there was no conflict, like 2 am in the morning. Comcast says Motorola is coming out with a patch that they'll download when it arrives. But I'll believe that one when it happens!
     
  7. charlie-w

    charlie-w Guest

    My partial recordings have occured when there's only 1 show scheduled, and I don't quite understand iluvtech's message about the Letterman recordings- the whole purpose of the Dual Tuner DVR is so you CAN do exactly what you were trying to do!

    I've been calling Comcast weekly about the problem, and the fix is always coming "by next week". I've been getting that line for the last 3 weeks now!

    Everyone that's having problems should call and demand a credit for the cost of the DVR for the month until they get this fixed!
     
  8. jdmba

    jdmba Member

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    I have the same problem, and have been thru 4 boxes. The saturday afternoon lineup (MutantX and Andromeda) ALWAYS cut off in the middle, and do not pick back up.

    I hope an update shows up at some point soon.
     
  9. charlie-w

    charlie-w Guest

    Since the last time I wrote, Comcast finally sent the updated software to my box. I know because I was watching TV when they did it. The box restarted, and I saw "dwl" and a moving circle on the display for about 10 minutes, and they it powered back up. Since then, I haven't had a problem with freezing or partial records.

    Whenever I called customer service (and I called every week from the beginning of January until last week) they knew exactly what I was talking about, and told me the upgrade was coming "this week".

    So if I were you, I'd try calling and see if they've sent the new software to the boxes in your area yet.
     
  10. jdmba

    jdmba Member

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    Charlie,

    That's great news. Can you please let me know the firmware version shown under Setup->Cable Box->Setup, that they just pushed to you?

    Thanks!
     
  11. charlie-w

    charlie-w Guest

    I just checked- the firmware is 09.15 and the S/W Ver. is 71.44-1203, if that means anything. Hope this helps! BTW, I went thru 2 different boxes, and both had the same problems, so I'm not surprised you've gone thru 4. Good Luck.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: Mar 8, 2005
  12. jdmba

    jdmba Member

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    I received the following response to my request that they get around to deploying the new revision in Los Angeles. The majority of the response had NOTHING to do with my question (which centered on this thread ... partial recordings) but I think their first real sentence is enough ...

    "Thank you for contacting us regarding your Comcast cable service.

    This Spring we will launch the firmware version 9.15. Most of the issues that occur is not the box issue but what was the root cause of the problem was the new TV guide version A23.

    HDTV customers have informed us that their converter box is not responding to the remote and that the box queues up the commands and then rapidly completes all queued commands 15-45 seconds later.

    This issue exists on most of our HDTV capable boxes (DCT 5100, DCT 6200, and DCT 6412; NOT on DCT 6208) and is connected to the "Reclaim" process. The Reclaim process is the purging and upgrading of Guide information, and it occurs approximately every 15 minutes.

    A software patch is under development to fix this issue and we anticipate that it will be deployed by a Spring timeframe. "
     
  13. charlie-w

    charlie-w Guest

    Who writes this crap? Apparently the same people who translate instruction manuals from Japanese to English.
    "In order for the enjoyment of Comcast DVR, happily waiting for the deployment of best software revision 9.15 please. In the 2005 timeframe."

    Gee, thanks!
     

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