Cybertoad's Blog

So back in late November Kenny decided to switch to AT&T U-verse since it was finally available in our area. A month later we switched back to Comcast. I know, sounds crazy, right? After all the U-verse hoopla and knowing many satisfied friends who rave about their U-verse, we were simply underwhelmed with the service and we really missed our TiVo.

I will comment here that U-verse was not bad at all, it offers some awesome features – we simply felt that Comcast + TiVo was a slightly better service for *us* and our viewing habits. Our decision was also partially based on the unsatisfactory signal we received while with AT&T. Friends who love their U-verse do not report the bad digital reception we were constantly having so this is probably a factor of where we live.

In other words, your mileage may vary.

So, reasons why we switched from AT&T U-verse back to Comcast:

1) Why can’t you warn me before you switch channels to record? Tivo always gave me the courtesy and a 1-minute warning. You rudely switch without a word.

2) When you are recording and all your tuners are busy, why can’t you just default to the channel you are most recently recording instead of giving me the stupid blue screen then making me click through to the recordings menu? TiVo was kind enough to simply switch to the channel it was recording.

3) Tout your DVR abilities then don’t let me pause live TV on the 2nd TV in the bedroom? Tease.

4) Who designed that remote? It is not intuitive or ergonomic. Buttons are in weird places and it’s not easy to learn or use in a dark room. The TiVo remote felt comfortable and I could operate it without having to look at it each every time.

5) Pixelated and frozen images. Really? I thought I would never say this but Comcast had less reception issues than you. When 90% of our recordings have pixels and/or frozen images somewhere in them, that is not good.

6) No ability to prioritize recordings? Again, really? So you think you know what to record in case there are conflicts better than I do? Do you really understand how important Dr. Who is to us? I didn’t think so – TiVo did.

7) No suggested recordings. At least my TiVo tried to get to know me and offered suggestions for those days when there was nothing on TV to watch. It also saved me from setting a season pass to Super Nanny by simply giving it two thumbs up. I could satisfy my guilty pleasures without the guilt. You don’t care enough about me to offer this.

No deleted folder? Just another handy feature TiVo has that you don’t. Oh, and related to this, despite all the buttons are your badly-designed remote, you don’t have a simple 1-touch erase button like TiVo’s remote does.

What are your experiences with either?