TVSquad

There's good news and bad news on the Comcast TiVo front. The good news, as you may have heard, is that Comcast is finally letting users sign up to receive TiVo software for $3/month over the cost of the cable company's regular PVR unit. The bad news is that while you'll get some of the same features a regular TiVo unit sports, you don't get everything.

There's no TiVoToGo, no Amazon Unbox, and no Real Rhapsody. And it's not like any of the features are likely to come in the near future. That's because Comcast's Motorola set-top-boxes don't have a way to connect to the internet or your home network. Therefore, there's no easy way to move videos from your set top box to a PC for archiving, and there's no way to download or stream internet content. There's also no eSATA support for adding an external hard drive.

On the other hand, since Comcast offers TiVo service on top of its existing platform, you do get a few things with a Comcast TiVo that are unavailable on standalone TiVo boxes. For example, you can watch video on demand programs. And, well, that might be about it. Well, that and you don't have to pay $250+ up front to get a set top box.

[via EngadgetHD]

Now that Comcast is making TiVo software available to the general public (and by general public, I mean a handful of people in Massachusetts), blogger Steve Garfield decided to sign up. And lucky for us, he's documented his ordeal so you know what to expect.

OK, that's not fair. Odds are that thanks to the guinea pigs early adopters like Garfield, Comcast will have some time to work out the kinks by the time it makes TiVo software more widely available.

But right now, getting TiVo service on your Comcast box isn't exactly what I'd call easy. Garfield says first he got an email letting him know that service was available, but he couldn't find any way to sign up online. After calling Comcast support and chatting with a rep online, he was still getting nowhere until an executive called him out of the blue to confirm an appointment Garfield hadn't actually made. He was told that they would be installing a new box, and he would be able to keep his old box until he watched his recorded programs. This was just flat out wrong. What Comcast actually did was download new software to his Comcast box to provide TiVo service. No recordings were deleted.

Long story short, Garfield's service is working. And thanks to his noble sacrifice, there's a good chance that if you're in a supported area, Comcast agents might actually have a clue what you're talking about when you call to request TiVo service.

[via Tivo Blog]