OT - xfinity Comcast X1
- Thread starter Crimedog2
- Start date
I know I have had issues with the cable box in general when my internet is having issues, but I do not believe the DVR is a straight streaming situation, as I never noticed a dip in video quality, or buffering, etc. like I would when doing other video streaming.
Comcast Enhances X1 Digital Movies With Bonus Content
Special features are no longer limited to your DVD player: Comcast partnered with four Hollywood studios to launch "enhanced movie extras" on Xfinity X1.
Customers can now access bonus content with the digital purchase of participating titles. That includes interactive attractions such as games, 360-degree maps, and set tours, as well as photo galleries and clips that contextually update as the movie plays.
more here: http://www.pcmag.com/news/350419/comcast-enhances-x1-digital-movies-with-bonus-content
Special features are no longer limited to your DVD player: Comcast partnered with four Hollywood studios to launch "enhanced movie extras" on Xfinity X1.
Customers can now access bonus content with the digital purchase of participating titles. That includes interactive attractions such as games, 360-degree maps, and set tours, as well as photo galleries and clips that contextually update as the movie plays.
more here: http://www.pcmag.com/news/350419/comcast-enhances-x1-digital-movies-with-bonus-content
Quick note for you Tivo+Mini people... and those considering. Each Mini needs a tuner from your Tivo. So if you have a 6 tuner Roamio and a Mini come on.. it grabs a tuner. If the user does not hit the Tivo button on the Mini when they are finished watching TV.. it keeps that tuner occupied.
I downloaded a free app called DVR Commander for Tivo to be a remote for the Tivo Mini upstairs. So I can just use my phone to press the Tivo button upstairs and free the tuner that mini was using.
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X1 pluses,
more tuners so you can record more than 2 shows at once.
i asked, but never got a definitive response on the cloud vs internal storage thing.
got the feeling it could be different in different areas.
negatives for me,
X1 dvr has no frame by frame ability, as the remote uses the same key for both pause and play. (how stupid).
no ability to set a manual recording. (say you want to record channel 1004 from 2 PM till 4 PM, instead of a whole show).
i had multiple dvrs before cable ever integrated them into the boxes.
they were pre HD, but functioned far superior to cable dvrs on general functions.
even my 1980 beta vcr worked much better on pause than any cable dvr.
trying to get a cable dvr to pause where you want it to, is beyond ridiculous.
more tuners so you can record more than 2 shows at once.
i asked, but never got a definitive response on the cloud vs internal storage thing.
got the feeling it could be different in different areas.
negatives for me,
X1 dvr has no frame by frame ability, as the remote uses the same key for both pause and play. (how stupid).
no ability to set a manual recording. (say you want to record channel 1004 from 2 PM till 4 PM, instead of a whole show).
i had multiple dvrs before cable ever integrated them into the boxes.
they were pre HD, but functioned far superior to cable dvrs on general functions.
even my 1980 beta vcr worked much better on pause than any cable dvr.
trying to get a cable dvr to pause where you want it to, is beyond ridiculous.
The answer is right in your post. The problem you have is streaming from the cloud vs local storage. You might see a similar problem using, say, Netflix.
It depends on the package. I don't have an HD fee with my package and the DVR is included. So I just pay $10 a month for an additional box. In my case to get the equivalent to what I have now I need one TiVo Bolt+ and a bolt mini with an upfront cost of $1200 with lifetime plan. At my current $10 a month rental fee it is a 10 year break even period. Even just getting the Bolt and one mini with liftime it would still take 7 year two months to break even. Any other plan would cost me more a month. That is only if the box doesn't crap out on you because it only has a 1 year warranty. I don't see how it is a no brainer for every one.
I also would be hesitant to make any purchase right now with regulations changing and company being forced to open up their hardware. Comcast is suppose to release shortly an roku app that would run x1 software and completely eliminate the rental fee. With a Roku stick costing $50 that would be a no brainer.
The X1 uses 30 watts. The old boxes used 25 watts. So it an additions 5 watts. The average current rate in NJ is $.1616 per kWh. So each month you are looking at a monthly 3.7 kWh increase or an approximately $0.60 a month increase.
In Little Rock, the Comcast service phone number is 501-375-5755. I haven't used Comcast in 7 years now but I called them multiple times every week and I cannot forget their damn service number.
I wouldn't have Comcast as my provider if the bastards paid me for the use!
remember, Tivo gets most of it's revenue from the cable industry, so what incentive or how free they are to compete head to head against the cable industry is questionable.
and why would any competitors arise, when the cable industry has closed their system, and locked everybody out.
prior to cable having DVRs in the box, i had multiple DVRs, all with ZERO monthly fees, which i purchased used for about $120 each. and that was when the tech was still new.
using all other tech inventions price drops as a guide, much nicer DVRs would be going for $90 new today in an open market.
if you think cable is giving you a deal on a DVR, they aren't.
what they are charging you for boxes and DVRs is nothing short of robbery.
if the industry didn't literally own the legislators and regulators, what they are doing would not be legal.
the FCC just tried to force them to unlock the boxes and DVRs so people who wished could just get their own. (as they previously had for decades).
the GOP stopped the the FCC in their tracks from doing so.
It about to get worse with Trump putting in a verizon lawyer to head up the FCC. The guy has fought against every consumer protection out there. Once again corporations win and consumers will just have to take it.
Actually they had made progress and it was to be voted on but was delayed. Obama was a supporter of it.
If it's Comcast, you're gonna get screwed.
If it's Comcast, you're gonna need service on weekends.
If it's Comcast, you're gonna pay more than what you thought.
If it's Comcast, you're gonna learn to hate it in a short time.
big telecom owns many on the left side of the isle as well, but it was the GOP, both the GOP side of the FCC and the legislature, that killed unlocking the box.
the GOP commissioners on the FCC are basically big telecom lackeys, whose job it is to serve big telecom's interests, not the citizenry's. (and pretty much the same with most GOP legislators and many Dems as well.
can you get me unbanned from the support forums? I was banned for no reason other than asking for answers to Comcast completely removing a channel with no warning whatsoever.
The mods over there are worse than the Nazis
This is not correct. There is your X1 box storage and your X1 web cloud. For instance, your web cloud fills up quicker than your X1 box. Just recently learned this because my sibling tried to watch a recording online but he said it wasn't there. Our DVR did have it correctly recorded but our cloud was full so it was only accessible from tv.
Regarding if internet is out can you still watch tv, depends on reason for outage. If your internet service is out because of a storm or something, if Comcast is your cable provider it will likely be out as well.
Any DVR recording on your X1 can be downloaded and viewed on the XFINITY TV app on a tablet or smart phone. For example I regularly record episodes of Walking Dead, download the next morning before leaving for work, and then watch it on the train.
I agree with your internet / TV answer. If there is a cable damage in your neighborhood, all bets are off. But let's say your modem is having a problem, you can still watch your regular cable tv through X1, but you won't be able to access services that are delivered over IP, like Netflix or apps.
Can't help with that but if you are having a real service problem I have a special card/number I can give you with no wait or hold time.
I've honestly never had a problem with Comcast product. The internet and cable have always been top notch since they bought Patriot media when that was a thing. I just had that one issue with the forums. I can only look at them now signed out and can't comment but whatever. X1 is pretty sweet. The new app is amazing For the phone. I've been watching RU basketball games on tv with NFL or Devils on the phone
the only issue I have had with Comcast is the ******* cost...way too expensive and one time I had a rude cow who refused to try to lower my bill even when I threatened cancellation, called again a few days later and another customer service guy gave me a bundled deal
my brother and mother just upgraded to X1 boxes and I will be going to trade my clunky old big one for the X1 box tomorrow...the voice thing is great and Comcast finally moves out of the early 90s and into 2016 with the menu screen and remote
my brother and mother just upgraded to X1 boxes and I will be going to trade my clunky old big one for the X1 box tomorrow...the voice thing is great and Comcast finally moves out of the early 90s and into 2016 with the menu screen and remote
They are the worst company on the planet. I finally am taking the first step to get out of jail by switching my email from Comcast to gmail. Unfortunately, all three of my first choices for a gmail account names were taken (ihatecomcast, comcastsucks, and comcastistheworst). $$$$
was looking forward to X1, because of the multi channel recording abiilty. (watching on line not a huge deal to me).
opted out of X1 once i tried it, because it didn't have frame by frame advance, and didn't allow for manual recording. (both important to me).
why eliminate frame by frame advance and manual recording options????
on the whole, Comcast's product is ok.
the big problem with Comcast isn't the product.
it's a really really slimy company, from top down.
Unless I'm missing something, one of the negatives for me has been not being able to jump to the previous/last channel and have that be actively recording so that I can catch what I missed while on a second channel, and vice versa. With FIOS, as long as you're between two channels, both are being recorded actively until you break the chain. My wife really likes to do that and hates that if she goes back to the last channel during a commercial break on the current channel, she can't rewind that one and get caught up. It's a convenient feature if you can handle trying to watch two different programs at the same time. For me, it's useful when toggling between two sporting events that are on at the same time.
The 1996 Telecommunications Act was supposed to unlock the box through U.S. Code › Title 47 › Chapter 5 › Subchapter V-A › Part III › § 549 Competitive availability of navigation devices
That was authored and passed by a GOP controlled House lead by Newt Gingrich and signed into law by Clinton. That is why I have a cable car in my Tivo. I have no cable box. But ultimately, that cable card decides what I have a right to see... what I pay to see.. what Comcast is willing to offer me.
Yes, the industry has been slow-walking this thing forever. Ultimately I think the bigger issue is net neutrality.. but whole Obama and other politicians on both sides talk a good game on net neutrality, none of them are willing to truly fight for it. Instead they author bills that provide nothing but a title that seems to support net neutrality.
IPTV is the answer and that will require real net neutrality to succeed. But we need to open competition in providing the fat pipe (fiber hopefully) to homes. But just look at New Jersey... they make this deal with Verizon to lay fiber everywhere in New Jersey and Verizon does just enough to "satisfy" the technical requirements that bad public lawyers allowed to be put in the contract. They make more money on cell towers so they put their people on that instead.
Its both sides.. big media owns both parties.
didn't know FIOS, or anyone, had that. what a great feature.
one of Comcast's big failings for a long time has been inferior box/dvr technology.
but i guess when the system is closed, no need to keep up.
while "market competition" makes for a great sound bite, it doesn't work well for cable tv and internet providers. (especially when said providers also own and sell content as well).
nor does it work best for other utilities like natural gas and electricity.
natural gas, electricity, and wired cable/internet, all require an elaborate infrastructure that goes to every house/business in the geographic area it serves.
building, upgrading, maintaining, said infrastructure is a fixed cost, regardless of number of customers.
the number of potential customers in said geographic area is always fixed as well, so you can't ever grow the pie. you can only divide the pie more and more ways.
if you had 10 wired cable/internet companies to chose from in your area, each would need their own infrastructure covering the entire area, but said infrastructure would be averaging only having 1/10th of the market as a customer.
utilities that require an infrastructure to every building work much better as a regulated monopoly.
proper regulation would also blow up the forced bundling, which is what drives cable prices through the roof.
best solution is for a regulated entity to, and only to, build/maintain the infrastructure itself, but not sell cable or internet to the customer.
then allow any number of entrants leased access to said infrastructure, to sell video/data services to the customer.
regardless, when you have a "must have" utility, you can't have a monopoly/duopoly situation where the providers operate on a maxing revenues/profits agenda.
imagine the price, if the electric company was allowed to operate on a maxing profits agenda by an unregulated monopoly.
none of this is rocket science. the only reason cable/internet isn't price regulated, is that the big players not only own both sides of the isle, but the media itself as well.