DVRs, Comcast TiVo makes it into the wild
By Donald Melanson 
posted Oct 22nd 2007 10:43AM
posted Oct 22nd 2007 10:43AM
Not that it comes as a huge surprise, but it looks like those Comcast TiVos have now started to make their way into the homes of a select few New Englanders, as evidenced by the shot above courtesy of Dave Zatz. As Dave points out, however, there are still plenty of unanswered questions, including any word on a price for the service, any indication of a time frame for deployment, and any firm word as to exactly what hardware it'll work on. In the meantime, those looking for a taste of things to come can find plenty of more pics by hitting up the read link below, including a few shots of the Comcast-branded hardware.
Ohhhh man, I can't wait for this to be available!
I wonder how long it will take Comcast before they decide that they need to "monetize" the Tivo service and begin putting ads on the screen, as they did with their own guide. It's a good development, though, and hopefully it'll get rolled out quickly.
No doubt this is in the plans: but if you look at how TiVo does this on their own boxes, it's mostly in the form of a menu item at the bottom of the main screen every once in a while, or the occasional "press Thumbs-up to record" during a promo for a program, which is far less intrusive than removing a line from the program guide, which TiVo doesn't do.
Well, people with existing TIVO boxes are getting hammered. Comcast has disabled the serial ports on the boxes with this new upgrade. Guess what, when the serial box gets disabled, your existing box is useless. What other choice do you have to upgrade to the "new" more expensive service? When some people called to complain, they were told that Comcast Corporate did this on purpose, etc. Everyone is complaining now so Comcast says it was a "mistake" but it still isn't fixed. I pay Comcast thousands a year in communications bills... it takes a lot for me to switch, but this treatment is not excusable. I'm calling Verizon to see if FIOS is available and that my current TIVO will work with it. Anyone had that work for them? (Someone told me that they live in MD and Comcast disabled their serial port two years ago!)