Comcast Enthusiast (Or XFINITY as they are now calling it): 2008

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Issue with Channel 845 on the Comcast TIVO Box Fixed

The issue that I have been experiencing with my Comcast / TIVO box skipping channel 845 and going to channel 245 appears to be fixed. I called Comcast back in August about the issue and was told that they would be sending out an update to the Guide software on August 26th that would fix the issue. August 26th came and went and the issue was not corrected.

I kind of forgot about the issue for a while until last week when my OnDemand and TIVO stopped working. I got on the phone with Comcast again and while my box was rebooting I mentioned the channel 845 issue. The support guy I was talking to was one of the TIVO support guys and I always like talking to them as they seem to be a bit more knowledgeable. He told me that he had not heard about the issue but would ask around and give me a call back the following evening.

I never got a call the following evening and again I kind of forgot about the issue until this week when I was scrolling through my HD channels and the channel 845 issue has disappeared. At this point I am not sure if the support guy did something to fix it or there was another guide software update sent that fixed. At this point I don't really care, I am just glad it is fixed.

Friday, September 26, 2008

More on Comcast Bandwidth Limits

A few months back there were some press releases that Comcast was going to start limiting the monthly bandwidth of their users to 250 GB per month. This week Comcast sent out an email to all of their customers informing them that the limits will be implemented on October 1, 2008. The contents of that email is below:

Dear Comcast High-Speed Internet Customer,
We appreciate your business and strive to provide you with the best online experience possible. One of the ways we do this is through our Acceptable Use Policy (AUP). The AUP outlines acceptable use of our service as well as steps we take to protect our customers from things that can negatively impact their experience online. This policy has been in place for many years and we update it periodically to keep it current with our customers' use of our service.On October 1, 2008, we will post an updated AUP that will go into effect at that time.In the updated AUP, we clarify that monthly data (or bandwidth) usage of more than 250 Gigabytes (GB) is the specific threshold that defines excessive use of our service. We have an excessive use policy because a fraction of one percent of our customers use such a disproportionate amount of bandwidth every month that they may degrade the online experience of other customers.250 GB/month is an extremely large amount of bandwidth and it's very likely that your monthly data usage doesn't even come close to that amount. In fact, the threshold is approximately 100 times greater than the typical or median residential customer usage, which is 2 to 3 GB/month. To put it in perspective, to reach 250 GB of data usage in one month a customer would have to do any one of the following:* Send more than 50 million plain text emails (at 5 KB/email);* Download 62,500 songs (at 4 MB/song); or* Download 125 standard definition movies (at 2 GB/movie).And online gamers should know that even the heaviest multi- or single-player gaming activity would not typically come close to this threshold over the course of a month.In addition to modifying the excessive use policy, the updated AUP contains other clarifications of terms concerning reporting violations, newsgroups, and network management. To read some helpful FAQs, please visit http://help.comcast.net/content/faq/Frequently-Asked-Questions-about-Excessive-Use.Thank you again for choosing Comcast as your high-speed Internet provider.

Interestingly this week Comcast also sent out an email regarding a new feature called FanCast where you can watch TV shows from most of the major networks as well as movies. In their listing I noticed many of the shows that started recently such as Heros and The Office. Most of the movies they had available were pretty obscure and seem to have commercials every 15 minutes or so so I can't really see myself watching them. It does seem contrary to their new bandwidth limits to offer all of these new TV shows and movies.

I got another email from Comcast this week offering an upgrade in Internet Speed to 16 Mbps for and extra $10 month. I wonder if this service is what they will offer the high bandwidth users when they exceed the 250 GB threshold. The link to the offer is here. It says nothing about bandwidth limits but I would assume if you are paying more they will also raise the limits.

Tuesday, September 2, 2008

Comcast Limits Monthly Bandwidth Usage

There have been rumors floating around for a while that Comcast has been sending letters to high bandwidth usage customers warning them that if they do no curb their usage their accounts will be suspended. The problem is these customers had no idea how much usage was too much and no way to track how much bandwidth they are using.

This week Comcast announced here that as of October 1, 2008 they will be amending their acceptable usage policy to establish a maximum monthly usage threshold for all users. They are setting this threshold at 250 Gigabytes per month. As they point out in the article 250 Gigs is quite a bit of bandwidth and their average customer uses around 2 -3 Gigs per month. It is estimated that the limits will only affect 0.1% of Comcast's customers. As the Comcast announcement points out at 4MB per song the thresholds will allow you to download 62,500 songs. I assume the customers that are most affected are the ones downloading lots of movies.

Some have surmised that Comcast is putting the threshold in place because if customers are downloading movies for free then they are not buying them though the Comcast OnDemand service. While I guess that is possible I think it is more likely they are trying to prevent a few users to slow down the network for everyone.

I think this is a trend that we will be seeing not only with our ISPs but also with our workplaces. I work as a software consultant and one of my clients has recently implemented software that will allow them to (among other things) track employees who are using the most bandwidth. With more software applications moving to the web companies can't afford to have their networks slowed down by users streaming music or videos on their lunch break.

It seems like the plan is for Comcast to allow customers one month over 250 Gig and then they may send the a letter warning them to curb their usage but it does not really say what will happen if they don't. I don't think Comcast is going to risk losing a customer like me who purchases cable, Internet and phone. Overall I am not too concerned about the new limits, I don't download lots of movies so I am pretty sure I am well below the threshold. The few thousand customers that are affected are probably downloading movies illegally anyway so Comcast is probably glad to get rid of them as customers.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Issue with Channel 845 on the Comcast TIVO Box

A few weeks ago when Comcast added a few new High Definition channels I started noticing an issue when scrolling through the HD channels. When scrolling through the HD channels using the up arrow button on the remote or cable box when it should be going to channel 845 (which is Weatherscan) it jumps down to channel 245 (which is the non HD version of Weatherscan).

The workaround is to just use the numbers to enter the next number (846) or the guide to navigate to the next number. It is not really a huge issue but it does get a bit annoying if you forget and suddenly find yourself in the 200s and forgot what channel you were last on.

I tried rebooting the box hoping that would fix the issue but it didn't. I was out for lunch with a friend the other day who also has Comcast/Tivo and asked him about the issue and he said he had noticed the same thing. That made me feel a little better as hopefully it was something Comcast is aware of and is working on.

Tonight I decided to call Comcast support and report the issue and see if there was anything they could tell me. After a short wait I was connected to a rep and reported the problem. The rep told me that this is a known issue and is something they are working with Tivo on to get fixed. She also told me that they will be releasing a fix for the Guide software on August 26th that they hope will resolve the issue. So I guess we will wait and see.

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Thursday, July 3, 2008

DCT700

Over the past few months we have been having some problems with the TV in our bedroom. Intermittently the signal was dropping and it wasn't the normal pixelization that you sometimes see on the digital boxes. This isn't my High Def TV where I have the DVR installed. It is just a basic 27" Panasonic tube that I have owned for over 10 years. I was really hoping it was the TV that was going as I would love to get an LCD for the bedroom but I just couldn't justify it if the TV was still working fine.

So I figured the problem was most likely with the box so I popped over to the local Comcast office to get a replacement box. I was a little surprised when the tech brought out one of these:

It is another Motorola box: model number DCT700. What surprised me about it is the size. It is 5-1/2 inches wide 6-1/2 inches long and under 2 inches high. The specs say that it has the same features as the larger basic digital boxes. The obvious difference is there is no readout on the front for channel or time which has taken us a little getting used to as we used our cable box as a clock in the morning. I also noticed that the box emits a high frequency buzz. I can hear it but my wife cannot so maybe it is just me.

Overall though I am pretty happy with it. The size allows us to save some space on the shelf and I am not having the signal dropping problems that I was having with the old box. So I guess I am stuck with my 27" tube for a few more years.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Comcast Drops Pivot

I got a letter in the mail a couple weeks ago that Comcast will be discontinuing the Pivot / Sprint Cell phone plan effective June 25, 2008.

I was a bit disappointed with this news as one of the reasons I signed up with the service was to bundle my cell phone service with my cable bill. One less bill was really appealing, but the main reason I signed up was the price was about $10 cheaper per month that what I was paying with Verizon.

Current Pivot customers have the choice to continue their service with Sprint for the same price or drop the service without incurring any early termination fees. As an extra incentive to stay with Sprint they are offering one month of free service if you do stay with them.

I did a little research on the current cost and features of plans in my area (New England) and decided to stick with Sprint. For the basic family plan that I am using Verizon appears to be about $10 more than Sprint. Cingular is the same price but does offer rollover minutes but friends that have the service in my area report spotty service. The free month helps and I am not in any rush to buy new cell phones after having my current phones for 6 months.

So overall I am not real happy with the switch but based on the issues I had with Pivot billing and my conversations with billing support I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Free McAfee Anti Virus

Many people may not be aware that if you you use Comcast for your Internet they give you McAfee Security Suite for free. Buying off the shelf will cost you $120. Buying Anti virus software every couple years can be pretty expensive and then you have to keep renewing in order to get the latest virus definitions. This is a pretty nice feature for Comcast to offer although it probably saves them money in the long run as I assume they get less calls from people whose Internet has stopped working because they got a virus.

Not sure exactly what the licensing rules are if you own multiple PCs but I was able to install the software on my desktop and laptop without an issue.

As far as how good McAfee is compared to other antivirus software I am not sure that there is a consensus. I did a quick google search for "best antivirus software" and came up with numerous best of lists. Most had Mcafee on their lists none at the top though, every list had their own idea of what was the best. From my personal experience I have also used Norton, which seemed to slow my PC down quite a bit. It also installed some software that I was never able to uninstall.

In the two years that I have been using McAfee I haven't had any problems. For the price it really can't be beat.

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Comcast HDTV Service

I first signed up for Comcast's High Definition service back in 2002. I can remember my first few months with the new HD box the reception was really bad. The picture would get really pixelated or would just go black once in a while. This lasted for a few months until it slowly disappeared. I assumed they were just working out the kinks, that is the price you pay for being an early adopter. When the picture did come in and I had people over they were really blown away by the picture. This was back when not too many people had HD so it was still pretty new for most people. Back then I think I only had 3 or 4 channels. One of the channels would only broadcast scenes of flowers blowing in the breeze. Nice channel to show people what HD is all about but a pretty useless channel otherwise. I think they have done away with that channel or at least have some better programming now, it might have been the PBS channel.

Over the years Comcast has done a pretty good job of adding a few new channels a year. In my area (New England) there are 35 available HD channels. I currently get 30 based on the package I subscribe to. I think it is a pretty good deal based on what you pay. Comcast has raised the price of their HD package over the years but I think only by a few dollars. I think they are currently charging $8.99 for the service. These are the Channels available in my area:

PBS
CBS
ABC
NBC
WMUR
National Geographic
Discovery Channel
Fox
MTV
TBS
HGTV
TNT
USA
A & E
WSBK
HD Theater
CNN
Weatherscan
Golf / Versus
ESPN
ESPN2
NESN
Comcast Sports Network New England
NFLHD
Food Network
WLVI
Sci Fi
Animal Planet
Cinemax
HBO
History Channel
Starz
Showtime
INHD

Comcast also makes much of their High Definition content available OnDemand thus their claim they offer the most hours of HD programming. Note that they don't say the most channels just the most programming as they are including all of their On demand stuff. Direct TV appears to have the most channels at over 90 according to their website. Though most of the channels I wouldn't have much interest in anyway. The other option in my area is Verizon FIOS which appears to have around 25 HD channels. Overall I am pretty happy with the amount I pay for the programs I get from Comcast. As long as Comcast stays competitive price-wise and keeps adding new channels every year I don't see myself switching to Verizon or Satellite anytime soon.

Monday, February 11, 2008

TIVO on Mororola motorola dch3416

This weekend I had a friend over who also recently had Comcast TIVO installed. We were comparing our experiences, we have had similar experiences and basically came to the conclusion that the box is still pretty buggy but that is the price we pay for being early adopters.

Then he noticed my cable box and noted that it was different than his, he still has the old Motorola DCT6412. I had assumed everyone who was getting TIVO through Comcast was getting a new box but apparently this is not so. So I asked my wife about the install as I was at work when it was installed. My wife's reply was "Oh yeah, they tried to get it going on the old box but it wasn't working so they brought this one in". So it looks like if they can't get TIVO working on your existing box they just install it on the motorola dch3416. For those interested the motorola dch3416 looks like this

In my opinion it is a better looking box than the DCT6412. You can find the specs on the box here. I didn't really have time to compare all of the differences between the DCT6412 and the DCH3416 but one spec did stand out to me. The DCT6412 has a 120GB hard drive and the DCH3416 has a 160GB hard drive so at the very least I shoud have a bit more recording capacity. Intersted to see what model other TIVO users have been given

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Comcast Personal Web Pages

I have have been using Comcast's Personal Web Page service for around 3 years now. Initially I used it for hosting some personal family albums and other hobby websites. When I first started using PWP Comcast gave you 25 megabyres of space per accound and since Comcast allows you to have 5 accounts that is over 100 megabytes of space which was plenty for what I was using it for. They also offered some really basic web page builder tools and ftp tools. The tools weren't really that great but I wasn't really bothered by that as I have my own HTML editor and FTP tool.

In the summer of 2007 Comcast announced that they were upgrading their Personal Web Page service and giving users a gigabyte of space and some additional features like blogging. At the time I was considering turning one of my webpages into a blog so I held off and waited until the upgrade happened.

Before the upgrade happened Comcast sent me an email informing me that my webpage would be inaccessable between 12am and 7am. Unfortunately after the upgrade access to my webpages were intermittenet at best for weeks. For a few days I also could not use my 3rd party FTP tools to upload any files to my account. They also changed the shortcut you were able to use to access webpages. You used to be able to access a webpage bu using the url :

home.comcast.net/~username
or
username.home.comcast.net

After the upgrade typing in the url username.home.comcast.net would redirect to username.home.comcast.net/~username on most browsers but I was told by some people that used aol that they were no longer able to access my webpage, I assume because AOL was preventing a redirect.

I also looked briefly at the new blogging software they provided and it was extremely basic. Not even a tenth of the features that free blogs like blogspot provide. Another issue I has was all of the entries in my guestbook disspapeared. Luckily I somehow found a way to aceess them and was able to save them but haven't been able to get back into them since.

Calling Comcast support didn't seem to help as most of the techs aren't familiar with PWP and are only able to tell you if they are up or down. The only area that I was able to find any information was in the comcast help forums. There were may people there posting with problem some much worse than the problems I was having. But at least it was a place to go to see that I wasn't the only one having issues. Seems like Comcast may have contracted the upgrade out and is was messed up royally. There are still to this day people posting messages in the forum that have been having issues since the upgrade. Some pretty unhappy people in there.

I ended up moving some of my webpages off comcast PWP and onto blogspot and hadn't looked back at the features until recently when I noticed that the new features like blogging were no longer available and the feature set had rolled back to the way it was before the upgrade. I am not sure if this is something affecting just my account or if it was everyone. I also noticed recently that the urls for accessing pages is intermittently changing. Sometimes username.home.comcast.net works, sometimes it doesn't. The new result of this is the pictuures that I have hosted on comcast are sometimes unavailable.

In summary I think Comcast PWP are good for basic web pages that only a few people will be accessing. If you are concerened about downtime don't use them. There are plenty of free blogs or cheap webhosting products that you can get if you are hosting professional websites that you plan to make money off or run a business from. Interested in hearing what others experiences have been with Comcast PWP.

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

The Slowskys

Usually when companies go overboard with their advertising campaigns it drives me a crazy. But I find the Comcast commercials featuring the Slowskys really funny. If you haven't seen the commercials they feature two turtles who of course like everything slow so they have DSL rather than Comcast High Speed Internet. Not sure why I find them so funny but it probably has to do with the sarcasm.

I did a quick google search on the Slowskys and found that Comcast has a website for the SLowskys. Seems like they have a bit of a cult following, On the website you can watch a couple of their commercials and there is a store where you can but t-shirts and mugs with the catch phrases from their commercials. Gotta get me a "You Push It" T-Shirt. There is also some odd random widgets on there to keep you busy on the website for hours. Someone definitely took some time putting the website together. Their advertising budget has to be huge.

Oddly you can't view all of their commercials from the website but a simple Youtube search on the Slowskys and they are all there. Looking forward to seeing if they have a new commercial for the Superbowl this weekend.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

More on Comcast's new Tivo box

So now that I have had a little more time to use my Comcast TIVO box I figured I would post some more observations. I am still pretty happy with the box but it seems it isn't without its problems.

Last week we noticed that we couldn't get into any of our OnDemand content. At first we thought it may just be temporarily down as this happens sometimes, but when we couldn't get into OnDemand for a few days I decided to call Comcast. I have had some pretty good experiences with Comcast Support so I don't usually hesitate to call. Interestingly I was transferred to their TIVO support line so I thought maybe I would get some insider info. First off the woman I spoke with sounded more like a phone sex operator than the normal support geek so we were stating out on the right foot. She wanted to know what I thought of the box and I explained some of the issues we have been having, unfortunately she didn't have any solutions. Eventually she got around to having me unplug my box to solve the OnDemand issue. The good news is it solved the issue. This seems to be the cable version of rebooting a computer which solves 99% of all problems. I will warn you though, if you plan on unplugging your box give yourself at least 10 minutes for it to start back up. The start up process has some type of a diagnostic process that takes forever to get through. But it did seem to solve the issue.

We did have another problem with the box today. While watching programs on any channel I was getting intermittent cutouts of the video and audio every minute or so. After a about 30 minutes of this the box locked up and then rebooted itself. When it came back up everything was fine. But all I was thinking was I hoe this doesn't happen next weekend during the Superbowl. Pretty cool that the box realized that it was having an issue and rebooted itself but unfortunately I had to wait through the 10 minute diagnostic process again.

My wife is a little frustrated with the quirks on the new Tivo box and wants the old Comcast DVR back. I think we are going to stick with it though and see if they can get the bugs worked out.

Monday, January 21, 2008

Comcast OnDemand

I rarely go to the movies anymore since buying a High Definition Television and Surround Sound. I just can't justify paying $10 to see a movie in a noisy theatre with a sticky floor when I can watch a movie in the comfort of my home. I usually get free dvd rentals using credit card points and we watch most new releases on DVD. There are some movies that we really aren't that interested in or aren't sure if I will like. This is where OnDemand comes in handy.

I hear a lot of people complaining about the "useless" Comcast OnDemand service. I actually like OnDemand and watch the free content quite a bit. There are literally hundreds of free movies that you can watch for free. Most of them are not new releases but I always seem to find some classic that I have somehow missed watching.

If you subscribe to a premium channel like HBO you also get a few new releases a month to watch for free as well. These are usually the movies that we didn't want to spend our free rental on. If we don't like the movie nothing is lost. HBO also lets you watch old episodes of their series like Sopranos and Sex and the City.

The pay OnDemand movies are pretty competitive price-wise with video rentals. The only disadvantage I see that they have is the lack of special features and content that comes on dvds. I don't usually watch the special content so it doesn't really matter to me. I think I recently saw a commercial that they are including special content with the latest Harry Potter movie so it is probably something they are starting to include. The biggest advantage I see with OnDemand is not having to leave the house to rent and return the movies.

New OnDemand movie releases are $3.99 and New releases in High Definition are $5.99. I have watched a couple of the pay OnDemand movies but have never paid for them. Every few months we seem to find free OnDemand coupons in our local paper, so we use those whenever we get them. We also have a book of free coupons that we got when a Comcast rep came to our door taking a survey of what Comcast services we have.

I have yet to watch any of their High Definition movies OnDemand but plan to soon as I am interested how the quality compares to the standard definition movies. Unfortunately the only network show you can watch in High Definition is CSI. CBS is the only network that is currently providing shows OnDemand in my area. I seem to remember a while back the other networks were offering content as well but they don't seem to be available anymore. I think I also remember they were charging $1/per episode which seems pretty reasonable to me. Obviously it wasn't profitable though since they discontinued it. Too bad.

Overall I think OnDemand is a pretty valuable service, they seem to be continually adding content which means there is always something new to watch.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Comcast Pivot Cell Phone Service

A few months ago I noticed that Comcast was offering cell phone service called Pivot (partnered with Sprint). A nice feature was the ability to just add the service to our existing Comcast bill. Our old cell phone plan was through Verizon Wireless which at the time did not offer the all in one bill option so we switched our home phone service to Comcast Digital voice a year or so ago, further consolidating our bills.

So last year when our contract was up with Verizon we went into our local Sprint store to sign up with the Comcast Pivot Service. With Verizon we were paying around $85/month for two phones. The family plan that Pivot was offering at the time was $59/month. So it was pretty much a no-brainer for us to sign up for the service. You can see the pricing for the plans using the link below.

http://www.comcast.com/corporate/wireless/plans.html

We did have to buy new cell phones. They had a pretty good selection on the phones. We ended up getting the Sanyo Katana II. I think this is a $90 phone but with rebates and promotions we ended up paying just $30 for both phones. We had a little problem with the rebate but a quick phone call to Sprint resolved that.

The service so far has been really good. There used to be a few areas near us where calls would drop but we haven't noticed this with the Sprint Network. The only issue we have had is with billing. The first couple bills we received had an additional charge for equipment protection and we were also being charged for text messages. For both bills I called Comcast and the charges were taken off and I was told they won't be on my next bill, but they were. I am hoping that it gets resolved when my next bill comes.

Update 2/5/2008:
3rd bill with Comcast Pivot andd still getting random additional charges. Unfortunately nobody I have spoken to at Comcast can tell me why these charges keep appearing. Getting a little frustrated.

Pivot also offers a really cool multimedia plan which we did not sign up for. Some of the features included in the mutimedia plan are:

Access to Comcast Email on your phone
Radio Channels
Internet Access
GPS Driving Directions

At some point in the future we will probably upgrade to the multimedia plan. The cost for upgrading would cost is an additional $40/month which is not really worth it for us right now. Although email access and GPS directions are pretty intriguing.

Comcast and Tivo

Comcast has been talking about offering Tivo service on their DVR boxes for couple years. As I understand there were some issues to work through but in late 2007 they started rolling the new service out in a few states. It was supposed to be offered my state so I was pretty excited to get it but when I called Comcast early this year they told me it was not available yet in my town.
I did find a Comcast webpage where you can enter your zip code and it will tell you if it is available in your town, if it is not available in your town you can enter your email address and they will email you when it is available. You can get to the webpage through the link below.

http://www.comcast.com/tivo/

So a few weeks ago when it became available Comcast emailed me and I called and made an appointment to have it installed. I was under the impression that the Tivo software could just be uploaded to our existing box with no need for a tech to come out to our house. The rep told me that since I had an older box I would need a new one. The charge for Tivo is an additional $3/month on top of the charge for the old DVR service.

I was not home when the tech came to do the install but it seems that the install was not that easy. It was the first time this tech was installing the new Tivo box and he was at my house for a couple hours. As I understand he was downstairs for a while doing something, not sure exactly what though. Some friends that have had recent installed have had similar experiences. I guess that is the price you pay for being an early adopter.

So now that we have had the box for a week and have had a chance to use it for a bit I have to say that I am pretty impressed. My biggest complaint with the old DVR box was the intermittent lockups that would happen when changing channels. I am glad to say that I haven't seen this happen with the new box. The new Tivo interface is nice, much easier to navigate than the old box. The Season Pass is also a great feature on the Tivo box that didn't really work well on the old DVR box. You also get a new remote with the Tivo box. It is smaller than the old remote but is taking us a little bit to get used to.

There are few minor annoyances that I have noticed:

If you tell the box to make suggestions based on your recordings sometimes when you are watching a show it will pop up a box asking to change the channel to record a suggestion. If your turn suggestions off for your recordings this won't happen so that is a sufficient work-around for us.

If you are watching a show and you go into the guide to get info about another program it automatically changes the channel from the program you were watching to the show you are getting info on. The old box allowed you get info on other programs without changing channels. There may be a work-around for this as well I just haven't figured it out yet.

We have a High Definition TV but we bought it in 2002 so it is not a wide screen format. When we watch non HD shows they take up the whole screen, HD shows have black bars on the top and bottom. The front of the new Tivo box has a button to switch modes from 480i, 480p, 720p or 1080i. When the rep set up the box he just left it at the default 480i. I didn't notice it until we were watching the football game in HD and the pic looked like crap. That is when I noticed the button, switched it to 1080i and the picture looked great. The issue is when I watch non HD shows in 1080i mode I can no longer watch them full screen, I get black bars all around the picture. It is pretty easy to just push the button to switch it back but it is pretty annoying since I didn't have to do this with the old box.

Overall I am pretty happy with the service. I haven't used at much as I would like to given the writers strike and not too many new shows worth recording. But with Lost and Jericho starting soon I will have more of an opportunity to use it more.