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
4 comments:
I don't believe it is appropriate to use TIVO in connection with the Motorola DCH3416 for two reasons:
1) I believe TIVO is a registered tradmark, just like Coca Cola, so the proper description would be DVR not TIVO.
2) The current software Comcast provides for the DCH3416 is very primative when compared to the software TIVO provides and for me clumsier to use, and I used to do computer programming. I am thinking of turning in my rented DCH3416 and buying a remanufactured TIVO HDTV Series 3 dual tuner currently on sale at TIVO.com for $199 each, which even allows attachment of a hard drive and straight forward attachment and network storage on a PC or Mac. Since the DCH3416 is not just out of the factory, but months old I am suspecting if support for all the output ports on the DCH3416 happens with Comcast it will be a long time coming. (I did read online that use of Fireware Hard Drives is supported, but I haven't tried that given other software limitations.)
You might want to visit a friend who uses TIVO. Its only real downside is the processor in the Series 3, according to my oldest son, is slower, but at my age so am I.
To the previous anonymous commenter,
This is the actual TIVO software that Comcast is licensing and installing on their boxes. Not to be confused with the old DVR software that I agree is primitive. While you do not get all of the features you would get if you bought an actual TIVO box it is above and beyond the standard Comcast DVR software. The great thing is you don't have to pay for the box, just the monthly fee.
The HD boxes on the TIVO webpage start at $300 and then you need to pay the monthly fee on top of that. I would much rather just pay the Comcast monthly fee for my box and if it breaks or something better comes along, I just call them and they bring me a new one at no cost.
I have been using the comcast TIVO box for over a year now and besides the initial bugginess it has been great.
If you want to learn more I read my previous posts on the subject.
I had the same thing happen. The techs couldn't get Tivo working properly on the old box, so, they gave me a DCH3416. These boxes apparently already have the Tivo software installed "in shop" rather than installing the Tivo software at the home.
I would like to add an external hard drive to it... if you come across anything like that, let me know :)
the problem I have with my 3416 is that the fast forward and reverse do not always work. I can be moving through a movie or show fine and suddenly it will jump to the end of the show. It will alway happen at the same place and happens regardless of speed of tracking through the file. It seems to lose the index or something.
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