Question Digital Video Recorder?

[punkncat]

Does anyone use their own DVR with Xfinity/Comcast?

We swapped plans back a couple of months ago for a faster tier of internet service. We modified our TV package at the time and are SUPPOSED to have 20 hours of recording and up to six simultaneous recordings. On Thursday (the 22nd) my wife was updating to record some different shows and started getting this "scheduling conflict" on some of the shows, seemingly rando. Worked fine the day before.

Of course, I had to jump through the hoops to get a human on the chat and they did some stuff remotely and say the DVR is working properly. We still cannot set up all that is wanted for a recording. They put me in a call you back status to do some checking on their end. I got a call from an actual human and we went back and forth trying some things which did not resolve the issue. The end state being that the rep/tech told me that my current plan only allows for two recordings to be scheduled at the same time. Even if that were the case, we have single recordings set that show the same message and we are well within our space limitation. The tech said I have to pay some $10 upcharge for the six recording thing that is supposed to be standard with the X1 package.

It really seems like ever since changing this plan they are constantly looking for some other way to get in my pocket. I went online to my account and screen clipped where it told me I WAS paying for the 6 recordings and got the excuse that our terms are subject to nonsense.

With all that said, I think rather than fight them about this that I am going to look for one of the listed compatible consumer purchasable tuner box. They offer a listing of devices that will work right on the site. Alongside that would like to get a DVR that I can set up for a schedule of recordings. I have not tried to use a capture card or whatnot in years, and definitely since all the RIAA stuff about copyright, so I don't even know if the signal allows said.

 

[Eximo]

I think your plan would still prevent even a third party DVR from being able to do the six streams. They wouldn't list them as compatible if they couldn't control them to prevent over use.

Most inexpensive TV Tuners will only be able to interpret clear QAM digital signals. So only the free stuff that Comcast will put out.
(Which is a surprising number of channels, if you have the physical connection you can sometimes get the free cable signals that are already on the wire as long as someone in the local neighborhood pays for service)
If you have a cable box connected to the Tuner, you could then record whatever permanently, but you would still have to have it tuned to the correct signal. So more like it would have to be a live watcher rather than you being able to record simultaneous broadcasts.

At least the last time I did it, which was quite some time ago. Too many disadvantages and I didn't record all that much TV anyway so I pulled the plug a few years after analog was shut off. Even the various channel guides moved to subscription services.

Comes a point where you just have to say if having broadcast TV is worth all the hassle and cost.

 

[punkncat]

I appreciate those insights.

My thing is internet and it helps for work. My wife's thing are TV shows and she follows along probably a dozen of them at various times. I did not really consider the issue recording multiple channels as I know what you mean about the source input.

We have a local Xfinity location so I am going to head up there to discuss with a human being.