May 6th, 2008
Catching up on my DVR recorded TV shows this weekend and I spotted some more Star Trek references on a CBS show. Any chance CBS/Paramount moved the new Trek movie date from Xmas 2008 to May 2009 so they could exploit their TV series for additional exposure and try to make Trek more hip? Geek is as good as gold these days you know.
The April 11th episode of NUMB3RS had the following Trekkie conversation.
Megan Reeves : Look at you guys. This is kind of like when Captain Kirk used to beam down and would leave Bones and Chekov in charge.
Dr. Larry Fleinhardt: No actually the chain of command went Commander Spock to Lt. Cmdr. Scott to Lt. Sulu then once during season two it actually went to Assistant Chief Engineer DeSalle.
Or is it simply all us math and/or science geeks must also be sci-fi geeks and vise versa?
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April 28th, 2008
I have gone through three Comcast Cable DVRs since I have first had them and last night mine started acting up again! Last night’s problem had something to do with the hard drive or the software. I could watch TV, but god forbid I should try to pause or rewind. When I did that all I got was a black screen. From the black screen of nothingness I couldn’t get back to my show either. I had to go to another channel and back again to get anything.
But that wasn’t the only issue, I could not view any of the programs I had recorded to the DVR. They acted the same way. Hit play and all I got was a black screen nothing else, no picture. I was a bit distraught as I have the complete season of Heroes on there to watch and the last four episodes of the Terminator. Both shows I could probably get on DVD sometime soon, but why when I had them already?
Thank the fates that a complete shut down (unplugging and waiting 5-10 minutes) then rebooting seemed to do the trick. Although the box did not seem to want to come back from its complete shut down. It turned on, blinked and went right back off. Third time was a charm and I got a connection. First I tried to pause and it seemed okay, then I went to my recorded programs picked one that was recording while this whole problem was going on and I had picture and sound (at least for the first couple of minutes, I still need to fully test to be sure).
I have had quite a few issues with this box like the sound mysteriously disappearing for no reason. The picture freezes quite often. We get the lovely square digital pixels in the middle of the screen like there is a bad connection somewhere. With the first box we had the guy come out several times he finally put in some type of signal booster, although I don’t think it has truly helped us. That box completely died a long time ago.
Shows don’t always record. Setting a series up is easy enough as long as you want to tape every single show every time it is repeated. I have to manually set recordings for a every week because I can’t tell the DVR to record a show every Thursday at 10 pm only. I have to set it up to record all (because the guide doesn’t tell the system that the only NEW show is Thursday at 10pm and that all the others are repeats throughout the week). Having it record all shows screws with other shows I have series recordings for so I can’t make this easy on myself. The old Comcast software used to let you choose to record this show on the same day/time every week. I wish they would bring that back.
There is still an issue with no sound when you turn the box on. You have to go to the DVR and hit play then go back to whatever show you wanted to watch just so you can hear it. This was an issue early on that was only half way fixed. Either that or it came back.
Biggest problem I have with them is the fact that the DVR even with the problems wasn’t a bad deal, price wise, to begin with. I think I started out paying $10 a month for my box. Each (I have two – even though they kept trying to tell me I was not allowed to have two. That’s why the other one is still a single tuner as I am afraid to take it in an have them refuse to give me another one). Then the prices went up to $11 bucks a month, still cheaper than the Tivo service. Then they rose again and I saw that I had two different prices on my bills for the two different boxes (I really need to find out why) but they jumped to $12 and $16. Now I see by the latest Comcast Cable bill on my table the costs have gone up again to $12 and $18! Okay, now I am seriously going to be looking into a Tivo the Comcast prices have now exceeded the Tivo service fees and in my book the Tivo (an actual Tivo and not this non-working Tivo software crap from Comcast that I have been reading about online) is a much better product and service.
I can’t live without my DVR but no one says it has to be a buggy piece of crap from Comcast just because they are a monopoly and I don’t have any other cable options. Yes there is always Fios, DirectTV or Dish Network as alternatives (and some of these are cheaper and offer more channels too), but I have invested far too much time and money with Comcast to let them ignore me. If you are sick of the ever increasing prices, lack of services and failing equipment please do like me and call them about it. Their number is easy enough 1-800-COMCAST.
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April 27th, 2008
Comcast needs to do some re-organizing of their channel line up. That way they can give us some channels we want. Some of the newer ones out there like the Chiller Channel and some long awaited ones like Boomerang. (The Chiller Channel is so much better than that Fear Net onDemand crap we have now and we should have had Boomerang added to the Comcast line up years ago.
Just a few years ago (if even that long) Comcast removed what they considered duplicate or redundant channels such as all the East Coast line ups for the premium channels. Which really were redundant as it offered different programs at different times therefore giving us even more viewing options. Well if Comcast wants to stand by their decision to remove duplicate channels they got some work ahead of them.
Their On Demand service is on channel one, but there are at least 22 other channels that point back to Channel 1. That list doesn’t even include the seven channels that are all pay per view. I thought that the OnDemand service replaced the old pay per view system. Didn’t it?
Comcast’s onDemand menu is not that hard to navigate so why so many channels all pointing back to the same place? Plus once you click on one of the other channels like say the movies on demand channel 315, it takes you to that section only. You cannot get to the OD main menu from the one. You have to exit and re-enter the On Demand menu all over again. Which can be a pain depending on how long it takes the menus and content to load. Personally, I never access those subsections because of this draw back and only go to Channel 1 so I have all my options available to me at one time.
I am tired of hearing Comcast say they don’t have enough channels in their system when they are wasting so many channels on their own crap. I haven’t even mentioned the duplicate channels they are using for the high def channels. The premium stations like HBO, Showtime, Cinemax and Starz all have HD channels in their group of channels but Comcast also list them down in the HD channels too. Why? Clean up the channels and give us more content please.
The HD channels that can be removed are:
215 HBO HD
219 MAX HD
223 SHO HD
227 Starz HD
Because they are already in the channel listings as:
300 HBO HD
319 Cinemax HD
339 Showtime HD
369 Starz HD
As for all the duplicates of Channel 1 they are:
151 Movies OD
166 Fear Net onDemand
228 HD on Demand
238 HD on Demand
297 Local on Demand
298 Free Movies on Demand
299 HBO on Demand
315 Movies on Demand
366 Movies on Demand
390 HERE! On Demand
487 HD on Demand
488 Free HD OD Movies
490 HD Premium Channels on Demand
491 HD Music on Demand
499 Movies on Demand
740 Exercise OD
886 Entertainment OD
888 Searchlight OD
891 Searchlight OD
892 Searchlight OD
893 Searchlight OD
I will leave the duplicate Spanish channels out of my griping as they are needed, especially in areas with a high Spanish speaking population like ours. But why, oh why, all the channels pointing back to the same place? If you really want to offer us better service and give us more options then add a few channels to the line up and stop pointing everything back to your on demand service.
If you are sick of paying the high, high prices for Comcast Cable then do something about it. Pick up the phone and give them a call and tell them you want more channels, better programming and less channels going to OD content! Their phone number is 1-800-COMCAST. Go ahead and give them a call.
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