Boston: Comcast’s TiVo boxes already having trouble?
- January 22nd, 2008
- 5 Comments
Comcast is busy installing TiVo-equipped boxes here in the Boston area today. I’ve been waiting patiently since 11:30. It’s now a little after 1:30 and this screen’s been up for the past hour with no end in sight. Come on, TiVo! You can do it, buddy!
For those of you in this area that are planning to switch, here’s the skinny. The box is one of the newer Motorola boxes, either the 3416 or the 3412. It’s not an actual TiVo box (that’s not new information, just reiterating). If you already have a DVR box, the tech might call you about 45 minutes before he’s supposed to show up and start the updating process. The software is downloaded to the box over the cable lines.
So can you just call in and get the software pushed out to your existing DVR box? No, you have to have a technician come to your house. You also can’t go into a nearby store and pick up a TiVo-equipped box. Everything must be done via a technician’s visit. But basically all they have to do is initiate the new software to be downloaded to the box and then show up to make sure everything’s gone through okay.
However, we’ve hit several snags already today. First, the tech that brought the box to my house called it in to get the software pushed and the tech on the other end of the phone told him that the box can’t be hooked up first because the system will think it’s a regular DVR box and block the update. Weird. So he had to go down to the truck, get a different box, call in the update, and then hook it up to the cable and power.
After that’s done, it takes about 45 minutes to download the TiVo software. So the tech had to wait around in my living room. I would have offered for him to watch some TV but, well, you know. Then after all was said and done, the TV turned on, with a cable signal, but no TiVo at first. Now we’re at this welcome screen after randomly flipping the box on and off and the tech’s back on hold for another Comcast over-the-phone technician.
I’ll keep everyone posted.
UPDATE: It works. Here’s a first look video.
Aakar (Who am I?)
7 months ago
We had the Tivo update installed this past Saturday at our apartment. What a pain it was. We had 4 boxes that needed the software update, 3 of which went through the “Welcome Starting Up” snag that you are seeing. The technician said that our signal was quite low and was causing issues with the update. After he pulled out our wall-sockets in all the rooms and figured out the issue it took another few hours before the “Welcome Starting Up” screen proceeded to the Tivo screen. I’ll be honest, so far the pain wasn’t worth it. The box in my bedroom has needed to be restarted three times and the boot up process for the Tivo has taken anywhere between 10 minutes to an hour. The tech also had to ask his rep to push out the update three times to 2 of our boxes. And 1 of our box isn’t allowing us to purchase anything from On Demand.
Painful…. oh so painful.
Doug Aamoth (Who am I?)
7 months ago
Oh great. The tech that’s here now keeps saying how great my signal is and it’s still not working, despite being rebooted several times already. I’ll tell him that the “Welcome! Starting up…” message was on your box for a few hours. Thanks for the info. Maybe I’ll hold off upgrading the other box in the bedroom.
Aakar (Who am I?)
7 months ago
It is nice to able to look at the Tivo branded OS as opposed to the Comcast version. But as I stated above, I’ve been noticing issues with mine ever since I upgraded the Motorola boxes. One of the most annoying issues is that every now and then, when switching channels the Motorola box will automatically cause my screen to go green, I assume it’s having an issue switching from HD to non-HD or vice-versa. I haven’t found a solution for it except to restart the box and hope to only be forced to wait 5-10 minutes for the boot-up process as opposed to an hour or more.
All the waiting we did for Comcast to roll-out this upgrade seems to be for nothing. They haven’t solved issues relating to the install process or post-install process. I’d like to think that the issues I’ve seen are only hurting a small amount of the population, but knowing Comcast I highly doubt that, that is the case. I personally think they should have just given people having issues a new box with the software pre-installed. Obviously they would have to allow us the ability to some-how move our recorded programs from the old box to the new box, but it would have been less of a hassle I think.
yoshi (Who am I?)
7 months ago
I recently acquired a Tivo Series 3 box after abandoning DirecTv after 12 years. I received a phone call from the Comcast tech stating he wouldn’t come out to my house until my Tivo had downloaded all the updates (which it had by this time and it took several days to get all of them - much like installing Windows 2000 and going through Microsofts patch installations). And when he did came out to install the Cablecards into the tivo and spending several hours on the phone with “activation” - they wouldn’t work. According to him “they go bad” and we have to go back to the office to pick up “fresh” ones. He left me to ponder how what is essentially a PC Card can someone rot on a shelf - he went back to the office and picked up two “fresh” cards. He installed them and the Tivo went through another update process and everything worked within minutes.
It was an extraordinarily odd experience. But the Tivo has been working flawlessly since then.
Dharmesh Shah (Who am I?)
6 months ago
I had my Motorola box “upgraded” (I use the term loosely) for TiVo. Like you, they couldn’t really upgrade the box — they had to replace it.
I got the green screen occasionally — and only a forced power-off would fix it (didn’t know how to restart the thing. Holding down the power switch for a few seconds didn’t work either).
The last time this happened (a few days ago), the Motorola box just refuses to start (cycles between the “888″ and a small blinking dot on the front LCD panel).
So, I’m now TiVo less and TV-less. Very frustrating. Sat on hold with Comcast for an hour and never through to a tech.