Count Your Blessings in Milwaukee

[Stanley Kritzik]

I have a vacation place in the Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado area, and, beginning in March and into this July, I added HD and two Comcast DVR cable boxes -- actually made by Motorola.  They are two-tuner DVRs with a few HD channels.  So, here's my experience:

1. We are in a condo building, and I assume there are some mossy old splitters buried in the walls, 'cause whenever I ask for a box to be activated, the Comcast operative says the box is "not responding".  Even so, the box is eventually activated, after four or five tries.

2.  Our two boxes are similar, but one has DVI output and the other has HDMI output.

3.  The HDMI output contains no audio, so the audio has to be shipped over separately, anyway, just like the DVI output.

4.  One of the boxes missed a channel on its guide -- went from 5 to 7 -- and from #7 on, for the next 4 channels, the programming info. is shifted.  Comcast has tried to reset the box to no avail, and the next time I'm out there, it's another box swap, I guess.

5.  Unlike my Milwaukee Tivo from D*, which has a "Standby" setting, the Comcast box must be left "on", if one wants the record function to work.  If you mistakenly turn the box "off". requested recordings will not happen.

6.  Telephone support is out of Denver, and the CSR's know the bare minimum, to be charitable.

7.  A service appointment can be scheduled, but they are a week behind.  That's rough for me, as I'm out there only a week at a time.

8.  Often, when calling Comcast, pressing "2" for technical assistance results in a "hang up" by the voice system -- and, that's over and over again.

As I say, count your blessings.

Stan

[jkane]

Can you get a dish on your condo, or maybe have a southerly facing window?  You might consider buying an extra directtv box and adding it to your account.  I've heard dtv has problems with that due to phone requirements, but I know Dish works in two places at the same time.  I keep a dish at my weekend place and used to carry a reciever back and forth until I picked up a freebie from a firend.  Now it's only $5 a month to have that extra one ready to go when we get there.  I just never hook it up to the phone at the cottage.

[Stanley Kritzik]

That's a good suggestion, and we're on our way, to a degree.

I'm kind of a committee of one for our condo association to explore some alternatives.  We don't want 20 or 30 dishes on our buildings, so an apartment-type dish installation might be our choice.  I'm waiting for Fall, by which time, D* will have their new equipment announced, and then we can evaluate all contenders.

There are a few special items:

     One is that we're in snow country, and the issue of rain/snow fade needs to be considered.

    Another is that we would not have Denver's OTA channels, as we're 150 miles from Denver, so we'd have to rely on the satellite provider to get all of them for us, including the HD Denver channels.  The inclusiveness and PQ would need to be evaluated.

     The third is that there are a few REAL local Aspen channels -- county and city government, etc., that are on the cable system, and I don't know if the likes of Dish or D* would have any way of getting them.

We will see.

Stan Kritzik

[jkane]

We have snow country here too!     Denver is closer to 119 degrees too.  So you should have less problems with snow and rain fade.

[Stanley Kritzik]

We have snow country here too!     Denver is closer to 119 degrees too.  So you should have less problems with snow and rain fade.

That's true.  Denver is on a line with Rome, Italy so far as latitude is concerned.

On the subject of apartment-type installs, so far, my experience with DirecTV has been weak, and with Dish, it's been zero.  One would think they'd be all over apartment owners and condo. association managers -- TW in Milwaukee certainly is -- but I have had a devil of a time making any headway in the Aspen area, and, despite owning apartments in metro Milwaukee, I've never been contacted by a "master dish" installer/reseller.  I thought these guys wanted subscribers, but there is no marketing push, and I wonder why they pass up maybe 1/3 of the market by being so passive.  Does anyone have any insight?

TIA,

Stan