I'm having a problem with my Comcast dual tuner HD DVR and since I've seen other threads on here bemoaning the truly hideousness of Comcast's service, I thought maybe someone could help me out.

I have a motorolla Comcast Box which is hooked up via HDMI to my Samsung LCD HDTV. When I set my "season passes" (God I miss Tivo) for shows, I set them for the HD affiliates of the networks they're on( 246ABC for example). I make sure that it is set for "record on this channel only" and for the first week or so everything works fine. Without fail, however, and for reasons passing understanding, about a week later all of the scheduled HD recordings are now set for the regular channels (6ABC) and thus are not Hi-Def. I'll go into my series priority manager to see the settings, and everything is the same, even the "record on this channel only" option, only now it will say 6ABC at the top instead of 246.

I've tried everything I can think of and before I go calling Comcast so I can dedicate two hours of my life on hold only to talk to a 17-year-old single mom who herself has a 13 inch black-and-white set and doesn't know what "HDMI" means, I was hoping someone here could help me out. Thanks in advance.


Doc

I've never used a Cable DVR, so maybe this is a dumb question.

Is it even possible to unmark all the SD channels as "not received" like you can in a TiVo or DirecTiVo? It shouldn't record anything on those channels then.

Not a dumb question at all! That was the first thing I went looking for in the settings menu. Unfortunately, since the channel set up is supplied directly through the line (unlike tivo where you have to use either a home network of phone line to download program info) you can't just cancel out individual channels (that I know of). I tried putting a lock on them through the parental menu, but it then blocks out their HD affiliates as well. So I'm pretty much screwed, huh?



Doc

I have the same kind of cable DVR and mine thankfully does not do this with HD recordings. But it DOES do it with digital channels where the analog equivolent is there, too.

I try to record Battlestar and South Park on the digital simulcast channels, but the DVR always changes it to the analogs which don't look as good.

In that case:

1) Set manual recordings for the channels you want, they shouldn't jump then. Certainly not the best option.
2) Bypass the phonecall and just return the box to their office stating you want a new one. I would expect a faster swapout would occur over going the phonecall route. Along with that, hopefully the Comcast TiVo software update isn't too far off.

Other than that, I got nothin'.

I just find it funny that someone named "MacGyver" needs help fixing a gadget. Don't you have any twine and paperclips lying around?

That's what I've been doing, going the manual route... but it's a pain in the ass, and it negates one of the primary luxaries of a DVR. It sounds like I may have to end up swapping it out. This will be the 4th DVR in as many months, by the by. 1st for this particular problem though. Comcast doesn't actually get new boxes. They "fix" the problem ones and give you the "fixed" ones when you bring your previous one back. I don't think they've gotten a new box since the things came out.




Nope, I've used them all to fashion a noose for the president of Comcast, Philadelphia.



Doc

Simplest thing to do is exchange the box. I've had the Motorola DVR with HiDEF and I didn't have that problem.

I've got the exact same setup as you (Samsung LCD TV, Comcast dual tuner DVR connected by HDMI), and the only time my box recorded the SD instead of the HD version was when I used "Find program" to record. This is where you select the first five characters to search for programs on a list. I selected "H E R O E" to record Heroes, and it automatically selected the SD version of the program.

Since then, I just choose series recrod based on browsing the guide, and choose the program from the HD channel range.

I've had this problem (and also where it refuses to record a "season pass" for My Name is Earl, I have to set it manually every week).

For other problems with our DVR, the most common suggestion we get from Comcast is to pull the power for a minute, then plug it back in and let it reboot. My guess is that it forces the box to download an updated BIOS from the home office, and truthfully, it has helped fix some problems.

Could it be that your passes are being reset because your hard drive is to full?

Well I set all of my passes from browsing the guide, so it's not the "find program" problem... I've unplugged and rebooted it several times, and without fail, a week later, problem's back. My hard drive is never more than 60% full, so I don't think it could be that (although HD programs do eat an obscene amount of memory). It looks like I'll just have to exchange the box and threaten the attendant with death should the problem recurr. Thanks everybody for your help and suggestions, I'm much obliged!


Doc

Oh dear. This would mean my DirecTV days might be numbered. My DirecTivo is the only thing keeping me from jumping for an HD feed instead of watching OTA broadcasts.