# TiVo Premiere to add Xfinity on Demand



## innocentfreak

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2011-05/tivo-premiere-to-access-xfinity-on-demand/

TiVo Press release

It looks like it will be in select markets according to Dave Zatz's post.

It appears this is replacing the original plan to roll out the TiVo UI on Cisco and Motorola hardware. http://www.multichannel.com/


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## andyf

You know this is coming over your network and not cable, right? Similar to the iPad app? We all know what a great experience the Netflix streaming is like.


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## innocentfreak

Yeah, and my Netflix streaming works great not that it matters since I don't have Comcast.


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## socrplyr

andyf said:


> You know this is coming over your network and not cable, right? Similar to the iPad app? We all know what a great experience the Netflix streaming is like.


Do you know this for a fact or are you just talking?


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## MrSkippy53

andyf said:


> You know this is coming over your network and not cable, right? Similar to the iPad app? We all know what a great experience the Netflix streaming is like.


Other than not having a search function within the TiVo Netflix app I have no problems streaming Netflix. And for searching Netflix one can use the find programs function.


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## jaredmwright

This is great news! I live in the San Francisco Bay Area and have Comcast, so I look forward to this added feature. I have been missing out on all of the Comcast VOD since I really hate their interface and have not wanted to add an additional set top box to my setup. I also have DirectTV and it will be nice to have VOD from both providers to fill in gaps or catch up on content. Hopefully this will roll out this year. Unfortunately, TiVo has been slow to roll out any features to our Premiere units, Hulu being delayed significantly and the boxes still running slow and the HD interface being unfinished.


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## dswallow

Finally a real reason to upgrade from Series 3 units to the Premiere.

Well, you know, when it's a shipping feature. In my area. Which probably means 2014. Or later. *sigh* But it's the thought that counts, right?


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## socrplyr

While it is nice to see this coming, it will be a long wait. At least according to the press release. Early NEXT Year...


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## jrtroo

So, where all that matters is "what about me", I must say this is way more intriguing than Hulu Plus. I already have Comcast, and with this I can see TiVo moving more boxes. 

Hulu Plus is a nice feature, but where is the revenue to TiVo? Would it really add subscriptions?


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## davezatz

andyf said:


> You know this is coming over your network and not cable, right? Similar to the iPad app? We all know what a great experience the Netflix streaming is like.


That's _not_ how the previous implementations work...

(And my Netflix streaming is great on every device other than TiVo.)


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## drjlb

Wait. They're giving out free Premiere boxes?
"Comcast will install TiVo Premiere set-top boxes with its cable service at no additional charge for its customers when the service is available in those markets."


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## slowbiscuit

No, they'll give you a Premier and charge you the regular HD DVR rental fee.

Given Tivo's track record lately, does anyone really think this will see the light of day next year? This Seachange VOD stuff was announced, what, a year and a half ago?


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## davezatz

slowbiscuit said:


> Given Tivo's track record lately, does anyone really think this will see the light of day next year? This Seachange VOD stuff was announced, what, a year and a half ago?


RCN has been doing it...
http://www.rcn.com/dc-metro/digital-cable-tv/tivo-premiere



> Access RCN ON DEMAND (over 10,000 hours of ON DEMAND content)


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## drjlb

slowbiscuit said:


> No, they'll give you a Premier and charge you the regular HD DVR rental fee.
> 
> Given Tivo's track record lately, does anyone really think this will see the light of day next year? This Seachange VOD stuff was announced, what, a year and a half ago?


I'll take a free Premiere in place of their normal DVR any day. It would also be nice not to be tied to TiVo's crazy monthly pricing schemes.


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## jrtroo

drjlb said:


> TiVo's crazy monthly pricing schemes.


TiVo may have several pricing scenarios, but Comcast's are way closer to be in the realm of "schemes."


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## bschuler2007

Ho-Hum.. Further proof that if Tivo/Cable Co. can make a buck.. that development gets fast tracked, everything else.. nada.

Can't Tivo work on multiple things at once? Please Tivo, can we have one free development (more HD screens,better mp3 player) for every 10 cable company developments?


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## innocentfreak

bschuler2007 said:


> Ho-Hum.. Further proof that if Tivo/Cable Co. can make a buck.. that development gets fast tracked, everything else.. nada.
> 
> Can't Tivo work on multiple things at once? Please Tivo, can we have one free development (more HD screens,better mp3 player) for every 10 cable company developments?


If next year is your idea of being fast tracked, I would be curious to see what your idea of slow is.


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## aindik

I will get a Premiere if and when this feature goes live in Philadelphia. This will be way better than what I do now, which is hook up a laptop to the TV and access programming on the XFinity web site.

People interpreted the statement as saying you can rent a Premiere from Comcast, for their then-prevailing DVR rental fee? I didn't get that at all. What I got was that they'd _install_ one at no additional charge.


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## atmuscarella

So will non-Comcast customers be able to access shows on xfinity on their Tivos, like non-Comcast customers can access shows on Xfinity via a web browser on a computer? 

Thanks,


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## aindik

atmuscarella said:


> So will non-Comcast customers be able to access shows on xfinity on their Tivos, like non-Comcast customers can access shows on Xfinity via a web browser on a computer?
> 
> Thanks,


If you're not a Comcast subscriber, I think all you can do on XFinityTV.com is click links to shows streaming elsewhere (like on Hulu or on the network's web site). You can't access Comcast's own video on demand lineup.

I can't imagine they'll try to replicate that on a TiVo.


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## [email protected]

Darn.

When I was having problems getting my TiVo HD repaired (which took three exchanges), TiVo said they'd upgrade that third exchange to a Premiere. But when the unit arrived what was in the box was yet another TiVo HD. As this one worked, though, I decided to not make an issue of it; who knows how many more swaps would have been needed to get everything working smoothly? And while a Premiere would have been nice, there was no compelling reason to upgrade, especially since if I did upgrade to a Premiere I'd want to use it as my primary unit. This would mean swapping the storage extender to that box (and finding temporary storage space for around 1TB of stored programming while moving the extender between TiVos). All in all, it just didn't seem worth it. But being able to access Xfinity on-demand programming would be a definite bonus.

This might be just enough to keep me tied to Comcast+TiVo for a while longer.


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## aadam101

Will these boxes have Amazon and Netflix on them?


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## MrSkippy53

innocentfreak said:


> If next year is your idea of being fast tracked, I would be curious to see what your idea of slow is.


LoL


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## Davelnlr_

innocentfreak said:


> If next year is your idea of being fast tracked, I would be curious to see what your idea of slow is.


Slow is the DirecTv Tivo...


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## mattack

aadam101 said:


> Will these boxes have Amazon and Netflix on them?


If it's *customer purchased*, yes. If it's actually rented from the cable company in lieu of their regular cable box, I think not. Current rules PREVENT them from allowing outside-cable-company video on cable company boxes.

My question, as I've never used cable VOD -- how many of the network shows can you get, and how long in the past does the VOD archive last?

I know, it's not going to be years (I literally *do* record shows and then watch them over a year later -- which can be bad like when my hard drive died and I lost at least a full season of Cold Case which will likely never be on DVD due to music rights issues)... But if I can save disk space and/or deal with programming conflicts by using VOD, that's actually a reason to get a Premiere. (Will it get me to get one as soon as it comes out? No.. but if the 4 tuner box that was asked about in the survey comes out and has this -- that would be something to make me upgrade, at least if lifetime subscriptions are still available at the time.)


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## rainwater

andyf said:


> You know this is coming over your network and not cable, right? Similar to the iPad app? We all know what a great experience the Netflix streaming is like.


Most likely only the initial communication occurs over the network (the 2-way part of the cablecard spec that never saw fruition). The rest would most likely work just as a regular cable provided box works.


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## astrohip

socrplyr said:


> While it is nice to see this coming, it will be a long wait. At least according to the press release. * Early NEXT Year.*..


This is a joke. Next year? At the speed with which this niche of the industry (on demand, streaming type of viewing) is moving, anything half a year away is already outdated. Get it out NOW, and provide some reason for people to buy (use?) these products. In half a year or more, we'll have the next greatest thing, and this will be about as useful as Amazon on Demand is (was).

I'm continually amazed out how slow TiVo rolls out their own internal advancements.


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## MikeAndrews

slowbiscuit said:


> No, they'll give you a Premier and charge you the regular HD DVR rental fee.
> ...


Which is a better deal then my current one with Comcast where they charge me TWO HD DVR rental fees to use two CableCARDs in the Tivo I OWN.


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## MrSkippy53

netringer said:


> Which is a better deal then my current one with Comcast where they charge me TWO HD DVR rental fees to use two CableCARDs in the Tivo I OWN.


Dude call comcast. They can't charge u for a HD DVR fee if you own a TiVo. They should charge ~$10 for HD service (that covers all boxes in your house) and ~$1.50 for the cable card.


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## aaronwt

davezatz said:


> That's _not_ how the previous implementations work...
> 
> (And my Netflix streaming is great on every device other than TiVo.)


I was using Netflix on my Premiere last night since there were issues with Netflix on the Boxee Box. It certainly reminded my how great the picture quality is coming from my TiVos. SInce the TiVo outputs at the native resolution of 720P, and then is running through my Algolith Flea and then my DVDO DUO. The picture is noticeably better than what comes from my 360, PS3, Boxee Box, or LG BD player. Since those devices don't have native resolution output and all have inferior quality.

I just might have to start using my Premieres more for my Netflix streaming than my Boxee Boxes. The picture was so much better than all of my other Netflix devices.

I'll have to tell my brother about this Comcast deal. He is also missing recordings with his crappy Comcast DVR, but he did not want to buy a TiVo outright. If he can rent a TiVo instead of the crappy Comcast DVR he will go for it since he would also have access to VOD. Without the VOD he would not go for it.


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## smark

Really? I find the video quality of my Roku/360/PS3 to be greater than that of Tivo.


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## MichaelK

dswallow said:


> Finally a real reason to upgrade from Series 3 units to the Premiere.
> 
> Well, you know, when it's a shipping feature. In my area. Which probably means 2014. Or later. *sigh* But it's the thought that counts, right?


ditto

wonder who gets it first...


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## MichaelK

socrplyr said:


> While it is nice to see this coming, it will be a long wait. At least according to the press release. Early NEXT Year...


oh- missed that timeframe bit.

so is this comcast tivo or directv tivo time? If it's comcast tivo i think we're supposed to add 3 years. If it's directv tivo i think only 2.


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## innocentfreak

One thing, which I posted in the other thread in the Premiere forum, is I don't think TiVo wants to announce these when they do. They somewhat have to though. Since most of the info is available via public filings which are referenced on some of the sites discussing the news, I am guessing TiVo just issues a press release once the filings are filed. If they could wait to issue the announcement, my guess is they would. Now technically I guess they could wait until it is closer before saying anything, but people would still be discussing the news though just without input from TiVo.


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## aadam101

If they say it is coming early next year, nobody should be holding their breath. I suspect this thread will still be alive and well in 2013 with people complaining that it's not here yet.

This isn't the first Comcast/Tivo announcement and I suspect it won't be the last.


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## ZeoTiVo

innocentfreak said:


> but people would still be discussing the news though just without input from TiVo.


you mean like all the speculation here


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## Videodrome

i wonder if tivo actually thinks this is a reason to buy a premiere ? because its funny they might .


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## aindik

This is a pretty smart move for Comcast. Frankly, the biggest reason I still have Comcast and haven't switched to DirecTV is all the money I spent on my TiVoHDs with lifetime service. They know, or should know, that once you have a TiVo, you're sticking with cable for a few years. Not just because you love it, but also because you spent a fair amount of money on it.


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## KungFuCow

Lets add some more half baked features to try to make a dollar instead of fixing the crap thats broken. No one will even notice.....


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## MichaelK

aindik said:


> This is a pretty smart move for Comcast. Frankly, the biggest reason I still have Comcast and haven't switched to DirecTV is all the money I spent on my TiVoHDs with lifetime service. They know, or should know, that once you have a TiVo, you're sticking with cable for a few years. Not just because you love it, but also because you spent a fair amount of money on it.


Dont think cable is intelligent enough to see any of that.

if they were smart they would do anything in their power to make something like cablecard work. But they killed cablecard. Imagine every single tv sold with a CABLEcard slot. Not a Directvcard, not a dishcard, not a fioscard. Every tv sold would be set up for cable and ready to go- no need for external boxes or anything. talk about lock in.

instead everyone rents a box from their provider so cable is no different then satellite or fios/uverse. Want to change providers- just call and have them give you new rental boxes and give the old ones back.

they could have totally manipulated the system to their benefit but they never did.


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## aaronwt

smark said:


> Really? I find the video quality of my Roku/360/PS3 to be greater than that of Tivo.


In my main setup the TiVo is outputing Netflix at it's native resolution, so my devices can do the scaling and noise reduction.

If you compare the TiVo scaling to the PS3/360 then those will be better.. In my setup my DVDO DUO and ALgolith Flea create a much better picture than what the PS3/360 or Roku is capable of.


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## [email protected]

aindik said:


> This is a pretty smart move for Comcast. Frankly, the biggest reason I still have Comcast and haven't switched to DirecTV is all the money I spent on my TiVoHDs with lifetime service. They know, or should know, that once you have a TiVo, you're sticking with cable for a few years. Not just because you love it, but also because you spent a fair amount of money on it.


By that logic, I'd never have "retired" my DirecTiVo HR-250 (which cost me
about as much as both my TiVo HDs plus lifetime service on one of them).


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## aindik

[email protected] said:


> By that logic, I'd never have "retired" my DirecTiVo HR-250 (which cost me
> about as much as both my TiVo HDs plus lifetime service on one of them).


I didn't say "never." I said "for a few years."


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## shwru980r

[email protected] said:


> By that logic, I'd never have "retired" my DirecTiVo HR-250 (which cost me
> about as much as both my TiVo HDs plus lifetime service on one of them).


Isn't the HR-250 shut out of all the HD channels on Direct TV? The Tivo HD is only shut out of video on demand on Cable.


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## spikedavis

I'm not clear from the press release-will this be a featured updated for all Tivo Premieres or is this a feature SPECIFIC to a Comcast-branded Tivo? 

What I'm getting at is I don't want to replace my current Tivo Premiere.


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## [email protected]

shwru980r said:


> Isn't the HR-250 shut out of all the HD channels on Direct TV? The Tivo HD is only shut out of video on demand on Cable.


At the time I switched to Comcast most of the DirecTV HD channels were still being transmitted in a format (MPEG2?) that the HR-250 could handle, but any new HD channels were going to be in a new format (MPEG4?). It was known that this would change over time as DirecTV migrated all HD channels to the new format. I would assume that this has happened by now, but I don't have first-hand experience to verify that.


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## innocentfreak

spikedavis said:


> I'm not clear from the press release-will this be a featured updated for all Tivo Premieres or is this a feature SPECIFIC to a Comcast-branded Tivo?
> 
> What I'm getting at is I don't want to replace my current Tivo Premiere.


These are the existing Premieres.


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## aindik

innocentfreak said:


> These are the existing Premieres.


What we know is that these are Premieres that are "bought at retail." We don't really know that they include Premieres that have already been bought at retail, or only Premieres bought at retail after this feature rolls out.

We don't know, but I think we can safely assume that if they use the word "Premiere" to describe it, then it's this current model out now. They are not likely to come out with a different box with different features and still call it a Premiere.

Also, the marketing screenshots for the Premiere, before it came out, had a Comcast On Demand icon on them.


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## innocentfreak

aindik said:


> What we know is that these are Premieres that are "bought at retail." We don't really know that they include Premieres that have already been bought at retail, or only Premieres bought at retail after this feature rolls out.
> 
> We don't know, but I think we can safely assume that if they use the word "Premiere" to describe it, then it's this current model out now. They are not likely to come out with a different box with different features and still call it a Premiere.
> 
> Also, the marketing screenshots for the Premiere, before it came out, had a Comcast On Demand icon on it.


TiVoDesign replied to someone asking if they would need to buy a new Premiere to use this and she said no.


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## spikedavis

innocentfreak said:


> TiVoDesign replied to someone asking if they would need to buy a new Premiere to use this and she said no.


I'm assuming it's basically the iPad app functionality...but on the Tivo. Works for me! Roll it out!


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## mattack

Videodrome said:


> i wonder if tivo actually thinks this is a reason to buy a premiere ? because its funny they might .


You haven't seen *tons* of people, even on this obviously Tivo-fan-centric forum, who keep a cable box around and pay the fee *just* to use On Demand?

and think about the teeming millions who wouldn't even _consider_ losing On Demand?

(I've never used it, but this intrigues even me, if it would help alleviate disk space and/or conflict issues.. and yes, I have huge disks in my Tivos, but it's still an issue, esp if I start recording HD shows..)


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## Videodrome

mattack said:


> You haven't seen *tons* of people, even on this obviously Tivo-fan-centric forum, who keep a cable box around and pay the fee *just* to use On Demand?
> 
> and think about the teeming millions who wouldn't even _consider_ losing On Demand?
> 
> (I've never used it, but this intrigues even me, if it would help alleviate disk space and/or conflict issues.. and yes, I have huge disks in my Tivos, but it's still an issue, esp if I start recording HD shows..)


I see it this way, i have entire seasons on my tivos. There is no need to use on-demand, with netflix even less reason. Besides Comcast on-demand is so tedious to use, so i just avoid it.


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## jrtroo

I had a comcast box for a while, and on demand has a couple of features that I ended up missing, just a little bit, when I replaced it for P.

First, it does have some different content- my kids loved the oragami and crafts.

Second, it has back episodes. So, around mid-season I watched season 1 of modern family, and so I made a season pass. But I missed the first 10 episodes, and need to wait for them to re-air. On demand would have them.

If this combined functionality would have been their earlier, I would have purchased the P to go with my HD unit months earlier. And, I may well have just paid monthly/annual service instead of going all out with lifetime.


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## innocentfreak

jrtroo said:


> Second, it has back episodes. So, around mid-season I watched season 1 of modern family, and so I made a season pass. But I missed the first 10 episodes, and need to wait for them to re-air. On demand would have them.


Are you sure? I haven't checked clicker.com, but it was rare for me to ever see more than a couple episodes of a show on demand.


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## MichaelK

Videodrome said:


> ... Besides Comcast on-demand is so tedious to use, so i just avoid it.


it will be very interesting if it's integrated into the main tivo search like netflix, amazon, and blockbuster.

If it is then it totally rocks. It certainly is possible with the xnfinity apps on other platforms.- no reason tivo couldn't integrate their own xfinity app (and maybe why it's taking so long?)

If it is some kind of stand alone walled garden along the lines of comcast's normal cable box app (like cable was pushing for OCAP tivo's or whatever the next generation of cablecard was supposed to be)- then it will have little use. Not NO use in my mind. But little use. A few times a year there's an add or something that comes by for an item on VOD that I think it would be nice to have VOD for those instances. although i can't think of one just yet....


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## shwru980r

I would think this would cut into Netflix subscriptions on Tivo since there is no extra charge for On Demand and many people don't like the Tivo Netflix interface.


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## caddyroger

One question If you have comcast cable now and a premiere will my premiere work or are they retro fitting the premiere for comcast use or this going to be another box like the svd adapter


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## mattack

Videodrome said:


> I see it this way, i have entire seasons on my tivos. There is no need to use on-demand, with netflix even less reason. Besides Comcast on-demand is so tedious to use, so i just avoid it.


I have entire seasons on my Tivos too (and err, lost entire seasons when one of my drives went bad -- I'm still hoping to resurrect it via a new controller card from an eBay purchase.. but that seems unlikely to work).. but again, I would use this to *augment* those other things, and deal with conflicts/clipped episodes -- at least for SOME shows. I mean, if it's already there and you're already a subscriber, why not?


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## cybah

Folks, remember that Comcast is the largest cable operator in the US. If Tivo f's this up in anyway, Tivo will be a thing of the past. You mess up a deal with the nation's largest cable operator and you're toast.

I'd like to give Tivo and Comcast the benefit of the doubt. Comcast knows the value of teaming up with Tivo, not only do they get a customer base for PPV (yes folks, this would include the PPV as OnDemand and PPV are the same system), but now have a partnership for a hardware vendor that isn't their own.

One of the main issues of the Comcast Tivo was the hardware. (The Comcast DVR that is "upgraded" to Tivo Software, but is not Tivo-branded Hardware (It was a Cisco or a Pioneer running Tivo Software)). My roommate is an ex tech and he said the boxes would crash, or be pushed down updates that made it restart or just totally kill a box. And we had one, and in my opinion it just seemed like it just 'wasn't there yet'.

One could speculate that due to that, Comcast decided to let Tivo do what they do best, which is be in 'charge' of the hardware and software updates. Comcast gets a hands off approach to managing millions of users, but at the same time allowing them to offer a HD "MediaBox" solution to their customers that they pretty much don't have to support. Tivo gets the benefit of offering compatibility with Comcast, along with new customers (from the marketing cross promotion between Comcast and Tivo) to push more marketing too (sad but true).

The press releases also said "co-marketing" so one would believe that since Comcast is all about PR and Marketing, this thing is a go. I doubt Comcast will allow Tivo to drag their heels on this. The issues with Cox or Charter or another cable provider could just be this, the cable provider. We know RCN has had this system working for some time (allowing OnDemand), so the software builds are there. These are straight out of the box Tivos that RCN is using (a friend in Somerville, MA has RCN and a Premiere), so no hardware changes will need to be done. Its just up to Tivo to update the code to work with Comcast.

Someone had mentioned this is essentially the iPad app on the Tivo, and it isn't coming thru the coax, its coming via your cable modem. So what? Like many others have said, NetFlix and Amazon stream awesome, so the addition of the "Xfinity App" being added is great. Now My Showcases Bar will include options from my cable operator. I don't really care how it gets to my Tivo, I just want it to work.

And folks, even *IF* its not coming off the coax.. who cares? I would hope that if it is an App that Comcast streamlines it for its network. We all know Comcast does IP Network Shaping, so I'd hope Comcast would prioritize traffic to/from this App. AND for the sheer fact that the source of the VOD would be somewhere on the Comcast network. (Hopefully in a regional data center, although my roommate says OnDemand is all outsourced). In short, you would get far better performance than you would Netflix and Amazon. (No more "buffering.." messages like you do with Netflix sometimes). IPTV is the wave of the future anyways...

I think Tivo was 'testing' the waters, so to speak, with RCN. RCN has a much smaller footprint that Comcast, or even Cox or TWC for that matter. Its easier to 'test' a product on a smaller network to get the kinks out, than it is to roll it out on a much larger scale and have to pick up the pieces later (i.e. ComcastTivo).

And folks, the press release does clarify this one item, as this post appears at the bottom.

_Maureen Zeljak, TiVo says:
May 9, 2011 at 5:16 pm

Hi All, We are glad to see the excitement and anticipation for the feature! Looks like there are a few questions regarding the announcement, and I would like to help clarify.

The availability of Xfinity On Demand is for retail TiVo Premiere units, including units you may already own. Consumers would not obtain TiVo Premiere from Comcast.

Comcast and TiVo will announce more on timing and market availability as we get closer to availability._

So it WILL be available to current Premiere devices. So the tendency for this to just be an 'app' is more apparently, but again, who cares. I just want the functionality, don't really care how it gets to me.

I'm in boston, so I hope we're up right in line after SF to get the 'update' that will allow me to get VOD. I'm so excited!!


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## tomhorsley

cybah said:


> I'd like to give Tivo and Comcast the benefit of the doubt.


Sounds like someone is suffering from acute malignant optimism .


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## ZeoTiVo

cybah said:


> Folks, remember that Comcast is the largest cable operator in the US. If Tivo f's this up in anyway, Tivo will be a thing of the past. You mess up a deal with the nation's largest cable operator and you're toast.


did not TiVo and Comcast already f up the down load software into Comcast hardware deal?


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## hybucket

cybah said:


> Folks, remember that Comcast is the largest cable operator in the US. If Tivo f's this up in anyway, Tivo will be a thing of the past. You mess up a deal with the nation's largest cable operator and you're toast.
> 
> I'd like to give Tivo and Comcast the benefit of the doubt. Comcast knows the value of teaming up with Tivo, not only do they get a customer base for PPV (yes folks, this would include the PPV as OnDemand and PPV are the same system), but now have a partnership for a hardware vendor that isn't their own.
> 
> One of the main issues of the Comcast Tivo was the hardware. (The Comcast DVR that is "upgraded" to Tivo Software, but is not Tivo-branded Hardware (It was a Cisco or a Pioneer running Tivo Software)). My roommate is an ex tech and he said the boxes would crash, or be pushed down updates that made it restart or just totally kill a box. And we had one, and in my opinion it just seemed like it just 'wasn't there yet'.
> 
> One could speculate that due to that, Comcast decided to let Tivo do what they do best, which is be in 'charge' of the hardware and software updates. Comcast gets a hands off approach to managing millions of users, but at the same time allowing them to offer a HD "MediaBox" solution to their customers that they pretty much don't have to support. Tivo gets the benefit of offering compatibility with Comcast, along with new customers (from the marketing cross promotion between Comcast and Tivo) to push more marketing too (sad but true).
> 
> The press releases also said "co-marketing" so one would believe that since Comcast is all about PR and Marketing, this thing is a go. I doubt Comcast will allow Tivo to drag their heels on this. The issues with Cox or Charter or another cable provider could just be this, the cable provider. We know RCN has had this system working for some time (allowing OnDemand), so the software builds are there. These are straight out of the box Tivos that RCN is using (a friend in Somerville, MA has RCN and a Premiere), so no hardware changes will need to be done. Its just up to Tivo to update the code to work with Comcast.
> 
> Someone had mentioned this is essentially the iPad app on the Tivo, and it isn't coming thru the coax, its coming via your cable modem. So what? Like many others have said, NetFlix and Amazon stream awesome, so the addition of the "Xfinity App" being added is great. Now My Showcases Bar will include options from my cable operator. I don't really care how it gets to my Tivo, I just want it to work.
> 
> And folks, even *IF* its not coming off the coax.. who cares? I would hope that if it is an App that Comcast streamlines it for its network. We all know Comcast does IP Network Shaping, so I'd hope Comcast would prioritize traffic to/from this App. AND for the sheer fact that the source of the VOD would be somewhere on the Comcast network. (Hopefully in a regional data center, although my roommate says OnDemand is all outsourced). In short, you would get far better performance than you would Netflix and Amazon. (No more "buffering.." messages like you do with Netflix sometimes). IPTV is the wave of the future anyways...
> 
> I think Tivo was 'testing' the waters, so to speak, with RCN. RCN has a much smaller footprint that Comcast, or even Cox or TWC for that matter. Its easier to 'test' a product on a smaller network to get the kinks out, than it is to roll it out on a much larger scale and have to pick up the pieces later (i.e. ComcastTivo).
> 
> And folks, the press release does clarify this one item, as this post appears at the bottom.
> 
> _Maureen Zeljak, TiVo says:
> May 9, 2011 at 5:16 pm
> 
> Hi All, We are glad to see the excitement and anticipation for the feature! Looks like there are a few questions regarding the announcement, and I would like to help clarify.
> 
> The availability of Xfinity On Demand is for retail TiVo Premiere units, including units you may already own. Consumers would not obtain TiVo Premiere from Comcast.
> 
> Comcast and TiVo will announce more on timing and market availability as we get closer to availability._
> 
> So it WILL be available to current Premiere devices. So the tendency for this to just be an 'app' is more apparently, but again, who cares. I just want the functionality, don't really care how it gets to me.
> 
> I'm in boston, so I hope we're up right in line after SF to get the 'update' that will allow me to get VOD. I'm so excited!!


Also in Boston, where they rolled out the TiVO-on-the-Comcast-Box software a couple of years ago. That was a bust. I have a friend who has it, and it's a disaster and I can't imagine why he keeps it on his Motorola box.
IT's been 3 months since the announcement of On Demand on the Premiere. I have a TiVO HD and would upgrade if this ever came to be, and actually worked. But no further announcements have been made. I don't understand why either company would announce these "upgrades," and then take forever to implement them. Why can't they just do like Apple does, and when it's ready to roll, do an announcement. Just askin' and wonderin'.....


----------



## aadam101

hybucket said:


> Also in Boston, where they rolled out the TiVO-on-the-Comcast-Box software a couple of years ago. That was a bust. I have a friend who has it, and it's a disaster and I can't imagine why he keeps it on his Motorola box.
> IT's been 3 months since the announcement of On Demand on the Premiere. I have a TiVO HD and would upgrade if this ever came to be, and actually worked. But no further announcements have been made. I don't understand why either company would announce these "upgrades," and then take forever to implement them. Why can't they just do like Apple does, and when it's ready to roll, do an announcement. Just askin' and wonderin'.....


What makes the Boston Tivo such a disaster? I like it. It doesn't have all the features of a real Tivo but it does have On Demand.

Tivo is not Apple. Tivo must show stock holders that they are doing something.....even if that something never happens or takes forever. The people running the company are a bunch of dummies.


----------



## hybucket

aadam101 said:


> What makes the Boston Tivo such a disaster? I like it. It doesn't have all the features of a real Tivo but it does have On Demand.
> 
> Tivo is not Apple. Tivo must show stock holders that they are doing something.....even if that something never happens or takes forever. The people running the company are a bunch of dummies.


Again, I'm not speaking from personal experience, as I have a TiVO HD. However, my friend tells me that the TiVO features work only intermittently, the unit does not do well with Season Passes, reboots every couple of days, sometimes more, and Comcast tells him it's because of the TiVO interface.
Also, the guide it uses is not the TiVO guide. If I was stuck using a Moto box (which I have on the Cape and it is a piece of...you know...), I would have the TiVO downloaded to it (altho I'm not sure they are still doing that, and I'm not there often enough to play with it).


----------



## adrien23

I have Time Warner Cable. Will Xfinity on Demand be available only to Comcast customers or will it be rolled out to other cable customers?

In reading the articles, it wasn't entirely clear if this would be a Comcast-customers only deal or be available eventually to everyone. I would hope because it's now called Xfinity on Demand (not Comcast on Demand anymore), it could be a universal On Demand feature for all TiVo Premiere users.


----------



## jrtroo

Did you read the press release? Comcast now simply brands their cable service as xfinity. It would be cool if they had other deals, but there are none mentioned in the PR. 

Due to TWC practices of disparaging any non-twc device, I would expect them to be the last company to add this to work with TiVo unless forced to.


----------



## gtrogue

adrien23 said:


> I have Time Warner Cable. Will Xfinity on Demand be available only to Comcast customers or will it be rolled out to other cable customers?
> 
> In reading the articles, it wasn't entirely clear if this would be a Comcast-customers only deal or be available eventually to everyone. I would hope because it's now called Xfinity on Demand (not Comcast on Demand anymore), it could be a universal On Demand feature for all TiVo Premiere users.


As mentioned before Xfinity is just a new name for Comcast's service. Only the name changed, nothing else.

This is an infrastructure change for Comcast. This isn't a streaming internet service like Netflix it is simple a way to authenticate & authorize the content so it can be viewed on the Tivo.

Current VOD using a cable providers' STB uses two way communication over the coax to authenticate On Demand purchases (free or pay).
The new system that Comcast will use will authenticate over the network (internet) but still deliver the show the normal way over the coax.

Time Warner would have to make the same changes to support VOD.


----------



## Risuli

Any update on Xfinity on Tivo, like is anyone getting this yet? Or is this gonna be like Comcast announcing Tivo UI on their boxes and then never really implementing it other than one small test area?


----------



## Endymion_

If you poke around comcast's site a bit you can find a well-hidden mention of the TiVo Premiere, sorry I've no link handy but I have seen it linked on this forum previously. (Long-time lurker, just made my account.)

Anyway, from the wording of that very brief comcast FAQ article, it would appear that what is happening is that Comcast will simply be providing a TiVo Premiere in lieu of their standard cable boxes. If this is the case, then it would seem that no TiVo Premiere _owner_, that is, a person who has purchased a TiVo Premiere already, will have access to Comcast/XFinity VOD.

I'll look around to see if I can dig up the url, but once I spotted it, I went ahead and ordered a second Premiere because I did not want to wait any longer only to have to lease another comcast box. Would love to be proven wrong about this, btw.


----------



## hybucket

Endymion_ said:


> If you poke around comcast's site a bit you can find a well-hidden mention of the TiVo Premiere, sorry I've no link handy but I have seen it linked on this forum previously. (Long-time lurker, just made my account.)
> 
> Anyway, from the wording of that very brief comcast FAQ article, it would appear that what is happening is that Comcast will simply be providing a TiVo Premiere in lieu of their standard cable boxes. If this is the case, then it would seem that no TiVo Premiere _owner_, that is, a person who has purchased a TiVo Premiere already, will have access to Comcast/XFinity VOD.
> 
> I'll look around to see if I can dig up the url, but once I spotted it, I went ahead and ordered a second Premiere because I did not want to wait any longer only to have to lease another comcast box. Would love to be proven wrong about this, btw.


The original posting on the TiVO blog was back in May. From the way I read it (apparently, I am not permitted to post URLs), it is unclear whether On Demand would suddenly appear on TiVO Premiere boxes already in use, or whether Comcast would have to come to your house (more $ for Comcast, of course) and install it. But there has been, to my knowledge, no further talk on this. I'm inclined to think it will go the way of the TiVO software on the Comcast DVR, a bigger egg than could ever be laid. If anyone has further info that is different, I'll be glad to apologize for my negativity.


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## generaltso

Endymion_ said:


> Would love to be proven wrong about this, btw.


Well then, you're in luck. The press release is pretty clear that they're planning to provide Xfinity On Demand for TiVo Premiere boxes bought at retail. In fact, it even states that in the title of the press release.

From the press release:
"_they have entered into an agreement to enable access to Comcast's robust library of Xfinity TV On Demand content on TiVo Premiere set-top boxes* sold at retail*._"


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## ItsRounder

So if you already have Comcast and a Premiere you're out of luck?


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## generaltso

ItsRounder said:


> So if you already have Comcast and a Premiere you're out of luck?


Why would you think that? You already have a Premiere that was *"sold at retail"*.


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## hybucket

generaltso said:


> Well then, you're in luck. The press release is pretty clear that they're planning to provide Xfinity On Demand for TiVo Premiere boxes bought at retail. In fact, it even states that in the title of the press release.
> 
> From the press release:
> "_they have entered into an agreement to enable access to Comcast's robust library of Xfinity TV On Demand content on TiVo Premiere set-top boxes* sold at retail*._"


WOuld love to go "Wow, thanks!;" However, the PR I found on the TiVO sight says, "*Comcast will install TiVo Premiere set-top boxes with its cable service at no additional charge* for its customers when the service is available in those markets." Altho I did miss the "no additional charge" part, that quote seems to indicate that the service will not be available on existing boxes. And the title of the PR I quote from says, "TiVo and Comcast Team Up to Offer Xfinity On Demand Library to TiVo® Premiere Users," which is, at the least, vague. In any case, I would get a Premiere in a minute if it 1) becomes available in my market (Boston), and 2) if it works better than the TiVO software on the Comcast DVR.


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## hummingbird_206

Wow, access to Comcast/Xfinity On Demand would be great! The more I read the more I want this new box.


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## hybucket

generaltso said:


> Why would you think that? You already have a Premiere that was *"sold at retail"*.


Obviously, we were looking at two different PRs - the one I saw on the TiVO site *did not* have the "sold at retail" line in it, period. That is the one I based my posting on.
However, going further down the page was this posting...I apologize.

_Maureen Zeljak, TiVo says:
May 9, 2011 at 5:16 pm

Hi All, We are glad to see the excitement and anticipation for the feature! Looks like there are a few questions regarding the announcement, and I would like to help clarify.

The availability of Xfinity On Demand is for retail TiVo Premiere units, including units you may already own. Consumers would not obtain TiVo Premiere from Comcast.

Comcast and TiVo will announce more on timing and market availability as we get closer to availability._


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## generaltso

hybucket said:


> WOuld love to go "Wow, thanks!;" However, the PR I found on the TiVO sight says, "*Comcast will install TiVo Premiere set-top boxes with its cable service at no additional charge* for its customers when the service is available in those markets."


I think it's two different things, both of which are in the same press release. The first thing is that Comcast will offer On Demand to the TiVo Premiere platform. The second thing is that (once On Demand is available) Comcast will rent a TiVo Premiere box to customers if desired. My take is that it doesn't matter if you own the Premiere or rent one from Comcast. The hardware will be the same.


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## generaltso

hybucket said:


> Obviously, we were looking at two different PRs - the one I saw on the TiVO site *did not* have the "sold at retail" line in it, period. That is the one I based my posting on.


A link to the press release is in the first post of this thread.

http://investor.tivo.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=106292&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=1561261&highlight=


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## aadam101

hybucket said:


> I'm inclined to think it will go the way of the TiVO software on the Comcast DVR, a bigger egg than could ever be laid.


They already did that and it failed. They released a Motorola DVR with Tivo software in one test market. My mom has one. It's a Tivo with OnDemand but no networking features whatsoever.

Personally, I'd rather have Netflix than OnDemand.


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## Beryl

That is a very good move for both companies. I hope it becomes available on existing Premiere boxes and we are not force to once again upgrade.


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## Endymion_

generaltso said:


> Well then, you're in luck. The press release is pretty clear that they're planning to provide Xfinity On Demand for TiVo Premiere boxes bought at retail. In fact, it even states that in the title of the press release.
> 
> From the press release:
> "_they have entered into an agreement to enable access to Comcast's robust library of Xfinity TV On Demand content on TiVo Premiere set-top boxes* sold at retail*._"


Well see, the TiVo Premiere faq item that I saw at comcast's site, as brief as it was, was very clear and rather opposite to your bolded copy from the press release. I wouldn't have taken big stock on the comcast faq if I hadn't seen it for myself (which is why I can't blame you for wanting to stick with the *earlier* press release) or if it hadn't been posted _since_ the press release. (Which it was.)

I guess I'd better go scour this forum to find the url before any more doubting Thomases come along.


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## Endymion_

Jumpin jehosephat, can't post links with only 2 posts.


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## hybucket

aadam101 said:


> They already did that and it failed. They released a Motorola DVR with Tivo software in one test market. My mom has one. It's a Tivo with OnDemand but no networking features whatsoever.
> 
> Personally, I'd rather have Netflix than OnDemand.


A friend of mine here in Boston has the TiVO software on his DVR, and it is quirky at best, and he has to reboot every couple of days for one thing or another. The only reason he uses it at all is because he hates the Motorola DVR interface.
As for Netflix vs. OnDemand, Netflix is far better for movies and older TV shows. I would like the OnDemand if for nothing else than the ability to watch BBCA shows in HD. Unbelievable that Comcast has YET to get the BBCA HD feed, and yet they show BBCA shows in HD from On Demand. What's the story with that?? No one at Comcast seems to have the answer.


----------



## hummingbird_206

hybucket said:


> A friend of mine here in Boston has the TiVO software on his DVR, and it is quirky at best, and he has to reboot every couple of days for one thing or another. The only reason he uses it at all is because he hates the Motorola DVR interface.
> As for Netflix vs. OnDemand, Netflix is far better for movies and older TV shows. I would like the OnDemand if for nothing else than the ability to watch BBCA shows in HD. Unbelievable that Comcast has YET to get the BBCA HD feed, and yet they show BBCA shows in HD from On Demand. What's the story with that?? No one at Comcast seems to have the answer.


I'm able to watch Netflix through my S3's no problem, though I know that's not the case for all TiVo owners, so to me it's the On Demand service that I'm missing.

As for BBCA in HD, my most recent bill from Comcast says that BBCA HD will be added to my lineup starting Sept 20. I'm in the Seattle area.


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## hummingbird_206

Endymion_ said:


> Jumpin jehosephat, can't post links with only 2 posts.


I think it's at 5 you can, so you're almost there!


----------



## hybucket

hummingbird_206 said:


> I think it's at 5 you can, so you're almost there!


 I've been posting since 2004, and I couldn't post a link earlier today.

As for BBCA, I think I should move to Seattle.


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## hummingbird_206

hybucket said:


> I've been posting since 2004, and I couldn't post a link earlier today.
> 
> As for BBCA, I think I should move to Seattle.


Link test. Working for me. Wonder if something is hosed in your account? There is a min number of posts required to be able to post links, but at 300+ you're well past that.


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## hybucket

hummingbird_206 said:


> Link test. Working for me. Wonder if something is hosed in your account? There is a min number of posts required to be able to post links, but at 300+ you're well past that.


I may have figured out what happened. I just tested it, and it works fine for a regular link. THe link I tried posting before was shortened, and maybe that's a no-no (and it was again deleted this time by asterisks).


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## Endymion_

hummingbird_206 said:


> I think it's at 5 you can, so you're almost there!


You're right, it is 5, but it seems to be bad form to spam up the place with posts just so I can... well, post?


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## hummingbird_206

Endymion_ said:


> You're right, it is 5, but it seems to be bad form to spam up the place with posts just so I can... well, post?


I see no problem with it.


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## Endymion_

Why the hell not, if the system can be gamed.


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## Endymion_

Okay so here we go. Click here and you will find comcast's TiVo information page, which as you can see shows several screens of TiVo Premiere displaying comcast on demand. From this page you can see links to other items, including a faq list, a demo, a manual, etc. etc. etc. If you look at the PDF files showing the "tip card" and the manual you will first see that the TiVo remote you know and love has "comcast" branded on it, somehow I doubt that the TiVo Premiere itself will be spared this similar branding but the reason that I point it out is to show that this is a product made specifically for comcast. Also, you will see TiVo screenshots that look decidedly _like_ the Premiere, but _incredibly_ *comcastic* as well, sadly. In other words it appears the TiVo interface and guide has been crapped out in favour of Comcast's. This means something has been reprogrammed. We have absolutely no information anywhere that I can see that this programming is not required for comcast's VOD, i.e. that you need _their_ TiVo Premiere.

A lot of the stuff in all of these links simply wasn't there when I first came across this page, a month or two ago, however one bit that is still there now has not changed. Also linked from the above is this FAQ which I mentioned. Near the bottom you see tell that you do not deal with the TiVo company when using this TiVo Premiere, all of your billing and account information is with comcast. If that weren't depressing enough just hit the link that says "Already have a Tivo? Activate Online Scheduler now." Fine print at the bottom of this page states "*Comcast TiVo Online Scheduler is not compatible with retail TiVo devices.* Comcast Digital Cable with TiVo service available in limited geographic areas."

So in light of seeing where the implementation appears to be heading, I'd like to see something more substantial than the press release before I get too excited about the prospects of using comcast's VOD on my retail TiVo Premieres. If there's a plus side to this (and if I'm right about my suspicion), it also appears that a lot of the better features of the TiVo Premiere have been removed. I see no netflix, pandora, youtube etc. in the screenshot images they provide, so I'd guess that is being removed for the "comcastic" box. If they actually DO update our TiVo Premieres to allow us to capture comcast's VOD, there's no way in hell that TiVo would allow the removal of those features, and if we never get comcast VOD directly to retail Premiere units, at least we still have those features that the comcastic box lacks.


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## rainwater

I'm pretty sure those screenshots are just showing the TiVo interface that was available in a few markets on existing boxes (and pretty much bombed out). I don't see what that has to do with the Premiere.


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## Endymion_

They look a lot more like the Premiere's screens, albeit with a different guide, than the older retail TiVos. I'll admit I haven't seen previous TiVo models that comcast may have had, but what I see there looked similar to other photos I had seen of the Virgin TiVo guide. _(Edit: Actually I guess you are right, just looked for a copyright date on the manual and it shows 2009 so this is for an older box.)_ Also, the wording of the press release reminds me of another bit that I came up against with comcast recently which is even more food for thought here.

I've got telephone service with comcast, and in order to use that I need their EMTA cable modem. There are EMTAs that you can purchase yourself, but if you are going to use an EMTA for telephone service _with comcast_, you absolutely need to purchase _their EMTA_. When I finally had enough of paying their leasing fee for the EMTA, I had to look high and low to find one to purchase, and it turned out best buy was the only store "authorized" to sell the proper EMTA modems I needed. Now bear in mind, this was "at retail," but it was still a modem made for comcast, packaged by comcast, to their specifications.


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## aadam101

Those are not the Premiere screens. Those pages have nothing to do with the Premiere. Those pages are for the Motorola DVR with Comcast software. They were available only in the Boston market and they have canceled that plan.

Let's take a look back at history. Tivo/Comcast announced a partnership in 2005 to bring the Motorola DVR with Tivo software to market. It took them *3 years* to do it. The box wasn't released until 2008 and even then was a huge failure for both companies.

I don't know why anyone is getting excited over this new partnership. I have no reason to believe that any Comcast/Tivo product will surface anytime in the near future. Tivo doesn't do business this way. They announce their products YEARS in advance. They have done this over and over again.


----------



## hummingbird_206

aadam101 said:


> Those are not the Premiere screens. Those pages have nothing to do with the Premiere. Those pages are for the Motorola DVR with Comcast software. They were available only in the Boston market and they have canceled that plan.
> 
> Let's take a look back at history. Tivo/Comcast announced a partnership in 2005 to bring the Motorola DVR with Tivo software to market. It took them *3 years* to do it. The box wasn't released until 2008 and even then was a huge failure for both companies.
> 
> I don't know why anyone is getting excited over this new partnership. I have no reason to believe that any Comcast/Tivo product will surface anytime in the near future. Tivo doesn't do business this way. They announce their products YEARS in advance. They have done this over and over again.


I happen to be a gullible optimist when it comes to something I want. And I really want the Premiere Elite to have Xfinity On Demand capability.


----------



## aadam101

hummingbird_206 said:


> I happen to be a gullible optimist when it comes to something I want. And I really want the Premiere Elite to have Xfinity On Demand capability.


It could happen. I imagine this is much easier to implement than the first deal was. Hopefully, Tivo has some Comcast resources.


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## hummingbird_206

aadam101 said:


> It could happen. I imagine this is much easier to implement than the first deal was. Hopefully, Tivo has some Comcast resources.


Thank you for indulging me!


----------



## MichaelK

Hopefully we see the pig fly soon....


----------



## jfalkingham

I think the failure was with the hardware, 16 hours of HD recording with no upgrade possibility? It killed it for me.

We used the Motorola boxes with TiVo the day they came out, we had no complaints. They were a TiVo that gave us video on-demand, and a much better online scheduler than TiVo had at the time. The space became an issue and we had to move to a stand alone box, but we never had an issue with reboots, service, missed recordings, sluggish performance, etc. It was a completely painless process to install.

I wrote up my experience with it when I switched from DIRECTV to Comcast:

http://www.servicesolution.com/blog/2009/10/07/directv-comcast-tivo/

I also posted a youtube video showing the online scheduler and comparing to the TiVo provided online scheduler (at the time)

[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKMo3_ks_G0[/media]
(fun starts at 1:40)

I'm hoping they put the 'xfinity' ondemand app on the TiVo Premiere soon, which will probably be the same thing on the computer or the iPad, which is NOT a replica of their OnDemand service, a lot of stuff missing. I can say on a recent cablecard self install, Comcast provided detailed instructions for the TiVo premiere install.


----------



## hummingbird_206

jfalkingham said:


> I think the failure was with the hardware, 16 hours of HD recording with no upgrade possibility? It killed it for me.


What hardware are you referring to with this comment?


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## jfalkingham

hummingbird_206 said:


> What hardware are you referring to with this comment?


The motorola dcx boxes. Their limited recording capacity and no upgrade potential really crippled use, that was the only 'fail' we could find with it.


----------



## jayfest

I have Comcast in South Jersey. Until recently, on the OD channels, I would get a "Channel not available" notice from my Premiere. But in the past few weeks, I have started to see on those channels a half-screen-size box with the verbal blurb I used to see in that corner on the OD channels, but no actual listings. So it looks like they could be getting ready to start offering me Comcast OD.


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## hybucket

jayfest said:


> I have Comcast in South Jersey. Until recently, on the OD channels, I would get a "Channel not available" notice from my Premiere. But in the past few weeks, I have started to see on those channels a half-screen-size box with the verbal blurb I used to see in that corner on the OD channels, but no actual listings. So it looks like they could be getting ready to start offering me Comcast OD.


Don't bet the ranch (Negative? Me? Don't be silly).


----------



## morac

jayfest said:


> I have Comcast in South Jersey. Until recently, on the OD channels, I would get a "Channel not available" notice from my Premiere. But in the past few weeks, I have started to see on those channels a half-screen-size box with the verbal blurb I used to see in that corner on the OD channels, but no actual listings. So it looks like they could be getting ready to start offering me Comcast OD.


There are no On Demand "channels". Those channels are simply links into the On Demand menus so they aren't channels in the sense of the word. The Comcast Central channels (the ones that display multiple channels) are channels with the audio for the different channels on different audio sub-channels. Maybe that's what you are seeing.

In any case, South Jersey isn't the initial test market for Comcast On Demand for TiVo. That would be the San Francisco Bay Area and that's not supposed to be working until next year according to the press release.

All that said, the Cherry Hill system has been used to test things in the past, the most recent being SDV (which Comcast abandoned).


----------



## jayfest

I know they are not regular channels that have their own programming. I just mentioned that in Voorhees, NJ, I used to get "Channel not available" on my Premiere on channels 199 and 315, for example, but now I get a guy talking in one corner of the screen about all the stuff Comcast has On Demand, and that on my other TVs which still use a Comcast cable box, 199 and 315 are channels where I get the same guy talking in one corner, but I also get the On Demand listings. In Atlantic City, NJ on my Premiere, 199 and 315 still give me "Channel not available". I'm not exactly holding my breath waiting for OD to appear on my Premieres, but maybe somebody in San Francisco got these screens beforehand and can report on how long afterward the actual OD appeared.


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## Endymion_

aadam101 said:


> Those are not the Premiere screens. Those pages have nothing to do with the Premiere.


Well, they do have _something_ to do with the Premiere.



> In selected areas of New England, TV fans can now choose between a stand-alone TiVo® Premiere or Premiere XL with a cableCARD and a Comcast DVR with TiVo® Service.


So as you can see, with this wording, they are referring to both the Premiere and the older motorola boxes which were updated with TiVo's software. One certainly came long before the other. However with the mention of the Premiere and the Premiere XL, it has been updated since then to include just that. How this relates to the May press release remains to be seen.

As for why anybody is excited about it, well it would be nice to have access to the VOD obviously, and the May press release did specifically state that _TiVo Premiere_ boxes would support this, not any other, unnamed, unannounced or unreleased box. The TiVo Premiere is with us right now, after all. My only sinking feeling is that it may be exclusive to TiVo Premiere boxes that comcast provides, but _that_ will obviously only come to light after it happens.


----------



## Peter Miller

Has there been any new news on this topic?


----------



## nrc

Peter Miller said:


> Has there been any new news on this topic?


It was mentioned as being in field trials and launching early next year in the last investor conference call in November.


----------



## muerte33

If this is going to happen, I would not mind upgrading my TIVO HD units to TIVO Elites or Premiers.
This is the one thing I miss with Tivo is access to OnDemand.
Having to use a PC (or their box), is very inconvient.
I saw this recently:
http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2012-02/comcast-on-demand-tivo-integration-weeks-away/


----------



## Joe01880

muerte33 said:


> If this is going to happen, I would not mind upgrading my TIVO HD units to TIVO Elites or Premiers.
> This is the one thing I miss with Tivo is access to OnDemand.
> Having to use a PC (or their box), is very inconvient.
> I saw this recently:
> http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2012-02/comcast-on-demand-tivo-integration-weeks-away/


From a competitive look maybe that will kick Verizon in the pants and encourage integration of TiVo to FiOS On Demand as well.


----------



## davezatz

TiVo's Xfinity promo page is live:
http://www3.tivo.com/products/source/cable/tivo-comcast/index.html?WT.mc_id=products_comcast


----------



## Corran Horn

This'd push me over the edge on buying a Premiere. To me, it represents enough of a differentiation from my current Series3 for my use-case.


----------



## dswallow

Corran Horn said:


> This'd push me over the edge on buying a Premiere. To me, it represents enough of a differentiation from my current Series3 for my use-case.


Ditto. Once that becomes available, I contemplate I'd buy a Premiere Elite, get lifetime on it, and decommission one or two of my Series 3 units.


----------



## mxhonda

"TiVo's Xfinity promo page is live:"



That's GREAT!


----------



## ghuido

Let's be clear this has been my missing link with TIVO And Comcast ... can't wait for it. Already signed up to be notified.


----------



## rv65

If it is like RCN's implementation, then you are required to have comcast internet, in order for this to work.


----------



## rainwater

rv65 said:


> If it is like RCN's implementation, then you are required to have comcast internet, in order for this to work.


Yes, I would think that would be a given as far as a requirement.


----------



## mazman

Pardon my stupidity, but why can't this work on a Series 3?


----------



## MichaelK

rv65 said:


> If it is like RCN's implementation, then you are required to have comcast internet, in order for this to work.


how many people have a premiere (which almost can't function without a broadband connection) and comcast cable without comcast broadband?


----------



## MichaelK

mazman said:


> Pardon my stupidity, but why can't this work on a Series 3?


most likely because tivo abandoned the S3's when the premiers came out.


----------



## lpwcomp

MichaelK said:


> how many people have a premiere (which almost can't function without a broadband connection) and comcast cable without comcast broadband?


At least one - me. I have DSL and am not interested in switching. I doubt if I am alone in that either.


----------



## lpwcomp

MichaelK said:


> most likely because tivo abandoned the S3's when the premiers came out.


Exactly. It's not that it _can't_ be done, just that it _won't_ be done.


----------



## MichaelK

lpwcomp said:


> At least one - me. I have DSL and am not interested in switching. I doubt if I am alone in that either.


I dont think you are alone, I think there are about another nine of you in the whole US. LOL.

Joking aside and serious question- why do you get DSL and not buy bundle from comcast?

Is DSL that much cheaper in your then the upcharge to add comcast internet to your tv package?

In my neck of the woods there's just no combination that can beat comcast's triple play. But i realize comcast pricing various all over. (My local comcast system competes directly with FIOS for much of it's footprint so that may be why my pricing and service is so good on comcast.)


----------



## lpwcomp

I cancelled my voice line last year, so no need for triple play. I've had more problems with cable than I've ever had with phone line. I'm actually on u-verse internet currently at a reduced rate anyway so converting is not at option at this time anyway. I've been thinking about totally cancelling cable and going to OTA. Need more reasons?

I wasn't going to bring this up but unless there is some technical reason for it, requiring cable internet to get On Demand may be a violation of F_*T*_C regulations.


----------



## jayfest

lpwcomp said:


> I cancelled my voice line last year, so no need for triple play. I've had more problems with cable than I've ever had with phone line. I'm actually on u-verse internet currently at a reduced rate anyway so converting is not at option at this time anyway. I've been thinking about totally cancelling cable and going to OTA. Need more reasons?
> 
> I wasn't going to bring this up but unless there is some technical reason for it, requiring cable internet to get On Demand may be a violation of F_*T*_C regulations.


I cancelled my landline phone a while back and then Comcast made me an offer such that it was cheaper for me to have the Triple Play, including a new landline phone, than it was for me not to have the phone. So now I have a landline phone again.

I wouldn't be at all surprised if there were, in fact, technical reasons why the S3 DVRs can't handle the XOD. There certainly are enough other features already that the S3 can't handle technically. Is anybody really suggesting that no new features should be added to the DVR unless they can be backward compatible to the S3s? There'd be a lot missing if TiVo followed that strategy.


----------



## ghuido

lpwcomp said:


> At least one - me. I have DSL and am not interested in switching. I doubt if I am alone in that either.


Me two. FIOS is more reliable internet connection where I live. I have Comcast for TV.

Hope it is not a requirement but we shall see.


----------



## jrtroo

MichaelK said:


> most likely because tivo abandoned the S3's when the premiers came out.


Not quite- all old units still get guide data.

Abandoning would have been what Moxi was considering before backtracking.

You are only talking about adding new features, which TiVo reps have noted many times are not available to older units due to the lack of hardware support for the software used in their current generation units. I imagine it would be like using an old slot 1 celeron to run handbrake- perhaps it could do it - but would not be a worthwhile experience.


----------



## jonbig

I do. Probably will shift back to Comcast for broadband soon, but still on DSL for now.


----------



## CharlesH

The only technical reason I can think of for them to require their Internet service for the uplink is quality-of-service guarantees. On their own network, they can prioritize the uplink traffic to get the desired consistent response time. If it travels any part of the way off their network, then they cannot make any guarantees. Sort of like their phone service using dedicated routing on their network.

Other issues like security could be dealt with via VPN technology.


----------



## timatkn

MichaelK said:


> I dont think you are alone, I think there are about another nine of you in the whole US. LOL.
> 
> Joking aside and serious question- why do you get DSL and not buy bundle from comcast?
> 
> Is DSL that much cheaper in your then the upcharge to add comcast internet to your tv package?
> 
> In my neck of the woods there's just no combination that can beat comcast's triple play. But i realize comcast pricing various all over. (My local comcast system competes directly with FIOS for much of it's footprint so that may be why my pricing and service is so good on comcast.)


In my neighborhood, cable lines are ancient and overloaded. DSL just upgraded to fiber optic and can match advertised cable speeds up to 20 mbs and you actually get the speed you pay for instead of paying for 8 mbs and only getting 1-2 mbs. Unless I want to use the Internet in the middle of the night. Now I pay for 12 and almost always get 10-11 mbs speeds. All at a cheaper price too.

I would guess that this is less common, but tryin to explain why a few of us wouldn't take the cable broadband.

T


----------



## lpwcomp

Yeah. I've gotten along this long w/o OD. If it requires cable internet, I'll continue to survive w/o it.


----------



## Beryl

Glad to read this is coming. My triple play special ends in 5 months and I'll have a decision to make. Dump phone & TV and go OTA & Internet streaming or just downgrade a bit.


----------



## buscuitboy

I just want to clarify & understand something regarding this future "Comcast TiVo" with OnDemand. Will it be Comcast OnDemand on a commercially available TiVo (Premiere) that you buy in a store or online? Or will it be a Comcast issued Premiere box from a local office (that ultimately won't have Netflix or Hulu capability)? 

I'm hoping the former. I recently got a Premiere from Best Buy. While I'm not a regular OnDemad user in the first place, I would still love to see this on my current retail Premiere unit. I always just chalked it up as a lost cause & the many features of TiVo that I use (Netflix, Pandora, pyTivo, MRV, etc.) outweigh having the OnDemand service instead, but I'll take IT ALL if possible.

If this becomes available in my area, I might even be more willing to swallow & pay the ridiculous $9.95 "digital outlet" fee Comcast is slapping me with each month for each cable card in my TiVo HDs ($30/month). My local office is refunding most of it each month, but its a pain to have to go through the nonsense. I would probably also just sell my Series 3 (lifetime) and get another Premiere since it requires 2 cable cards.


----------



## bradleys

Yes, this is for retail TiVo Premiers.

Looks like you need both Comcast Xfinity cable and Internet to get the service.


----------



## ghuido

bradleys said:


> Yes, this is for retail TiVo Premiers.
> 
> Looks like you need both Comcast Xfinity cable and Internet to get the service.


Actually there is no confirmation yet that you will require to have Comcast Internet Service as well.

Some form of High Speed Internet will be required plus existing comcast CAble ACcount. Don't know if it might be similar to their online xfinity site where you just need a user id and password to access Online VOD Content.


----------



## ghuido

APRIL !!!

http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2012-03/comcast-launches-tivo-xfinity-on-demand-in-april/


----------



## jadziedzic

ghuido said:


> Actually there is no confirmation yet that you will require to have Comcast Internet Service as well.


According to this post (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=8984537#post8984537) by Dave Zatz, access to OnDemand will not require Internet from Comcast.


----------



## davezatz

ghuido said:


> APRIL !!!
> 
> http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2012-03/comcast-launches-tivo-xfinity-on-demand-in-april/


*EARLY* April. Assuming the schedule holds.


----------



## aindik

To me that says it'll be available in April in San Francisco. When it's available anywhere else is anyone's guess.


----------



## aadam101

aindik said:


> To me that says it'll be available in April in San Francisco. When it's available anywhere else is anyone's guess.


We have seen this before. The Motorola/Comcast/Tivo never left New England. I'm not getting my hopes up.


----------



## tomm1079

davezatz said:


> *EARLY* April. Assuming the schedule holds.


early april everywhere or in SF?


----------



## ghuido

Man, we are a pessimistic bunch ...


----------



## mattack

buscuitboy said:


> I just want to clarify & understand something regarding this future "Comcast TiVo" with OnDemand. Will it be Comcast OnDemand on a commercially available TiVo (Premiere) that you buy in a store or online? Or will it be a Comcast issued Premiere box from a local office (that ultimately won't have Netflix or Hulu capability)?
> 
> I'm hoping the later.


Umm, you really mean "the former", based upon the rest of what you said.. (and not "the latter", as another correction).


----------



## seattlewendell

ghuido said:


> Man, we are a pessimistic bunch ...


With good reason. Tivo always over promises and under delivers. They announced that they were bringing back a DirecTivo in 2008, It released this year. 4 years! And before someone jumps in and says it's DirecTV fault....Tivo is the only company that takes this long between announcing products and release. The Comcast box, the DirecTv box, Hulu, Netflix, everything they do takes years to release after the announcement. Tivo is the common denominator in all of these instances. It can't always be the other companies fault. Rant over...


----------



## buscuitboy

yea, I meant "the former" (changed it). Sorry about that. I'm glad this is possibly on the horizon as I JUST got a Premiere from Best Buy about a month ago. I love the unit so far, but having OnDemand access on it would be the icing on the cake. I always just chalked up that it would never come. In my opinion, having the other TiVo features (Netflix, OTA, Hulu, Pandora, etc.) outweighed the OnDemand lineup & option for me anyways. I actually have a Comcast digital box hooked up on the same TV to access it, but quite honestly rarely do. 

And that article was promising until they got to the part that said San Fran will be "the first market to receive access". That there alone tells me the rest of the country MIGHT get it by the end of 2012. More likely sometime in 2013. I'm personally gonna shoot for the end of 2013 though. This way I don't get my hopes up to high and if it comes earlier, then great  Oh well.


----------



## emkorial

ghuido said:


> APRIL !!!
> 
> http://www.zatznotfunny.com/2012-03/comcast-launches-tivo-xfinity-on-demand-in-april/


April for one market.

Which mans those of us not living in san francisco should expect it sometime around the year 3000


----------



## jmpage2

I agree, there is no reason to get excited about this unless you are in the preview market. Hopefully they will make good this time and get this rolled out nation wide in weeks/months instead of years but I'm not holding my breath.


----------



## Beryl

Although implementation is in both companies' best interest, I'm not holding my breath for TiVo. I predict Xfinity to offer streaming on other devices like Ruku and Apple TV. 

They added streaming to their iPad app to retain their customer base not just to be nice or innovative. If only they'd add Airplay...


----------



## rainwater

Beryl said:


> Although implementation is in both companies' best interest, I'm not holding my breath for TiVo. I predict Xfinity to offer streaming on other devices like Ruku and Apple TV.


Well, it is coming to Xbox soon so it isn't much of a prediction


----------



## nrc

seattlewendell said:


> The Comcast box, the DirecTv box, Hulu, Netflix, everything they do takes years to release after the announcement. Tivo is the common denominator in all of these instances. It can't always be the other companies fault. Rant over...


Meanwhile TiVo delivered RCN, Virgin Mobile and a raft of other MSO boxes in much shorter time frames. It's really about how motivated the partner is.


----------



## rainwater

nrc said:


> Meanwhile TiVo delivered RCN, Virgin Mobile and a raft of other MSO boxes in much shorter time frames. It's really about how motivated the partner is.


When they use their own hardware and software it tends to be much easier. Porting to legacy Comcast hardware was never a good idea to begin with. The Xfinity app is unlikely to be that complicated given cooperation with Comcast, so I don't see it being a major issue to implement.


----------



## aadam101

rainwater said:


> When they use their own hardware and software it tends to be much easier. Porting to legacy Comcast hardware was never a good idea to begin with. The Xfinity app is unlikely to be that complicated given cooperation with Comcast, so I don't see it being a major issue to implement.


Maybe it isn't a major issue but this thread is 10 months old already. Just because it is an easy thing to do doesn't mean that Tivo and Comcast are going to do it quickly or correctly.


----------



## nrc

rainwater said:


> When they use their own hardware and software it tends to be much easier. Porting to legacy Comcast hardware was never a good idea to begin with. The Xfinity app is unlikely to be that complicated given cooperation with Comcast, so I don't see it being a major issue to implement.


The Virgin deal used Motorola hardware. The Comcast hardware wasn't the problem, it was delivering the software over Comcast middleware and installing it remotely.

It's really about whether the partner wants to actually deliver a product, or just wants to keep TiVo's lawyers at bay and never actually deliver.


----------



## CoxInPHX

Wasn't Virgin UK Cisco hardware and now Samsung also?

http://www.gizmolovers.com/2011/09/...-cisco-for-samsung-as-tivo-hardware-supplier/


----------



## nrc

CoxInPHX said:


> Wasn't Virgin UK Cisco hardware and now Samsung also?
> 
> http://www.gizmolovers.com/2011/09/...-cisco-for-samsung-as-tivo-hardware-supplier/


Yes, sorry, that's correct. In any case, the point remains.


----------



## MichaelK

aadam101 said:


> Maybe it isn't a major issue but this thread is 10 months old already. Just because it is an easy thing to do doesn't mean that Tivo and Comcast are going to do it quickly or correctly.


the cynic in me thinks they've been working on it for many more months than that already. If I recall there were screen shots floating around before the premiere was released that had comcast icons.


----------



## seattlewendell

MichaelK said:


> the cynic in me thinks they've been working on it for many more months than that already. If I recall there were screen shots floating around before the premiere was released that had comcast icons.


You are correct


----------



## seattlewendell

nrc said:


> Meanwhile TiVo delivered RCN, Virgin Mobile and a raft of other MSO boxes in much shorter time frames. It's really about how motivated the partner is.


What do you consider short? It is not short by industry standards. It is only short by Tivo standard. If Apple, Samsung, Motorola, or Google moved at Tivo speed they would be out of business.


----------



## jmpage2

Exactly! I was actually about to make the same comment. Apple built their SDK and offered it to developers months before the iPhone iOS version shipped that supported apps, and as a result apps were available at launch or shortly thereafter, not months later.

Admittedly Comcast is a big monolithic company that moves slowly as well, but you would think that TiVo could get more apps on their platform and at a quicker pace if someone who knew what they were doing was running things there.

At the end of the day all you need is an apps link in TiVo home, which then gives you things like Xfinity, Amazon VOD, Hulu, etc, and then leave it up to each vender to update the apps whenever they can.

The way TiVo does it seems completely ass-backwards to me.


----------



## gothaggis

So Xbox added Comcast Infinity On Demand and HBOGo today - however Comcast has disallowed HBOGo authentication saying they want people to use their app oly - their policy is to not allow HBOGo on set top boxes - but phones and tablets are ok. Stupid. But it gets "better". 

I haven't been able to get the Xfinity On Demand app to work - it tells me that I must have Comcast Internet and TV for it to work - which I do. After a bit of research, I came across other people having the same issue - our commonality? We all have cable cards and Tivos!!!

Furious with Comcast.


----------



## rbro

I can't get Xbox/Xfinity app to work..I"m getting server not available errors......


----------



## rbro

OK, got it working....picture quality is pretty lousy for HD content I'm looking at. I don't know if that will improve with newer versions of the software or what the cause is, but it's not even as good as Netflix HD streaming quality to my eyes anyway......


----------



## jmpage2

The cause for the lousy picture quality is insufficient bandwidth.


----------



## rbro

jmpage2 said:


> The cause for the lousy picture quality is insufficient bandwidth.


Xfinity App streaming to the iPad looks great, Netflix streaming on the Xbox -> TV looks great. Same connection, same bandwidth......


----------



## gothaggis

rbro said:


> I can't get Xbox/Xfinity app to work..I"m getting server not available errors......


do you have a cable card? if so, do you also have a cable box?

FAQ states:

Q: Do I need the Comcast set top box connected to the TV along with the Xbox 360?
A: No, the Xbox 360 running our XFINITY TV App essentially acts as an additional cable box for your existing cable service, but you must subscribe to XFINITY TV with On Demand, which means that you will have a Comcast set top box or Cable Card connected to at least one TV in your home.

however if you call comcast, they will tell you that the xbox service is not compatible with cablecards

UGHHHHHH


----------



## rbro

I have a Tivo Premiere with a cable card and also a comcast dvr box upstairs. I can use the Xfinity app on my Xbox, but the quality is not that great.



gothaggis said:


> do you have a cable card? if so, do you also have a cable box?
> 
> FAQ states:
> 
> Q: Do I need the Comcast set top box connected to the TV along with the Xbox 360?
> A: No, the Xbox 360 running our XFINITY TV App essentially acts as an additional cable box for your existing cable service, but you must subscribe to XFINITY TV with On Demand, which means that you will have a Comcast set top box or Cable Card connected to at least one TV in your home.
> 
> however if you call comcast, they will tell you that the xbox service is not compatible with cablecards
> 
> UGHHHHHH


----------



## rainwater

rbro said:


> Xfinity App streaming to the iPad looks great, Netflix streaming on the Xbox -> TV looks great. Same connection, same bandwidth......


It wouldn't take much for it to look good on a iPad at such a small resolution.


----------



## rbro

rainwater said:


> It wouldn't take much for it to look good on a iPad at such a small resolution.


True, but Netflix on the Xbox and the Tivo is much better picture quality than Xfinity app on the Xbox, so I don't think it's a bandwidth issue.


----------



## aaronwt

rbro said:


> True, but Netflix on the Xbox and the Tivo is much better picture quality than Xfinity app on the Xbox, so I don't think it's a bandwidth issue.


What resolution are they using? With the FiOS IP HD channels on the 360, they are only 720P and look much worse than their 1080i counterparts on FiOS.


----------



## rbro

aaronwt said:


> What resolution are they using? With the FiOS IP HD channels on the 360, they are only 720P and look much worse than their 1080i counterparts on FiOS.


Not sure, I _think_ Netflix goes as high as 1080p on the Xbox, but there's nothing on the Xfinity app to indicate resolution other than an HD symbol......


----------



## rainwater

rbro said:


> Not sure, I _think_ Netflix goes as high as 1080p on the Xbox, but there's nothing on the Xfinity app to indicate resolution other than an HD symbol......


The latest Xbox dashboard update restricts all content to 720p besides content from their own video marketplace.


----------



## gothaggis

this is what they are telling people:

"f you are a Cablecard/Tivo user, please call XBOX dedicated support line at 1-877-599-1846 for further assistance."

however when you call that number,all they will tell you is that it doesn't work with cablecards


----------



## rainwater

gothaggis said:


> this is what they are telling people:
> 
> "f you are a Cablecard/Tivo user, please call XBOX dedicated support line at 1-877-599-1846 for further assistance."
> 
> however when you call that number,all they will tell you is that it doesn't work with cablecards


Why would you call Comcast about an app on the Tivo that isn't available yet?


----------



## aindik

rainwater said:


> Why would you call Comcast about an app on the Tivo that isn't available yet?


They're now talking about the app on the XBox 360. Why they're doing that in this thread, I have no idea.


----------



## ghuido

Well it is April. Let's see what happens now deployment wise.


----------



## cherry ghost

San Fran will be first


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/186984033698324481


----------



## lpwcomp

Official TiVo XFINITY On Demand page. Includes a form to signup to be notified when it becomes available in your area.

Looks like Comcast internet will _*not*_ be required.


----------



## ghuido

Based on that twitter message. I believe we will have to wait till the formal Spring Update comes out. The one with the netflix update as well.


----------



## emkorial

cherry ghost said:


> San Fran will be first
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/186984033698324481


And probably the last. There's no technological barrier to releasing this to everyone. Comcasts network isn't doing anything different, and Tivo's in SF are no different than Tivo's sold anywhere else, so an update for them would work for everyone. There's zero reason to have a "test market", unless you have no plans to ever move out of it.

The whole thing screams "this is just a red herring so Comcast can show the FCC they are "working with other set top box providers" to get the FCC off their back and it's never going beyond SF and will be dead in a few years". The optimist in me want's to be wrong, but the realist in me can't ignore what we're seeing.

Artificial lmitations placed on feature rollouts are never a good sign. Limiting the rollout to SF for no reason does not bode well for anyone not living in SF.


----------



## MichaelK

emkorial said:


> And probably the last. There's no technological barrier to releasing this to everyone. Comcasts network isn't doing anything different, and Tivo's in SF are no different than Tivo's sold anywhere else, so an update for them would work for everyone. There's zero reason to have a "test market", unless you have no plans to ever move out of it.
> 
> The whole thing screams "this is just a red herring so Comcast can show the FCC they are "working with other set top box providers" to get the FCC off their back and it's never going beyond SF and will be dead in a few years". The optimist in me want's to be wrong, but the realist in me can't ignore what we're seeing.
> 
> Artificial lmitations placed on feature rollouts are never a good sign. Limiting the rollout to SF for no reason does not bode well for anyone not living in SF.


be careful your tin foil hat doesn't cut the circulation off to your face.

kidding aside- maybe you want to give them a few weeks or a month after they turn on San Francisco before you get all riled up that it's a conspiracy?

it's entirely possible that you are correct (certainly wouldn't be the first thing Tivo announced that never showed up, nor would it be the first thing that comcast and tivo tried that never got past the trial market) but it's also entirely possible that you are getting all riled up over nothing.

I'll reserve judgement for at least a little while.


----------



## aadam101

emkorial said:


> And probably the last. There's no technological barrier to releasing this to everyone. Comcasts network isn't doing anything different, and Tivo's in SF are no different than Tivo's sold anywhere else, so an update for them would work for everyone. There's zero reason to have a "test market", unless you have no plans to ever move out of it.
> 
> The whole thing screams "this is just a red herring so Comcast can show the FCC they are "working with other set top box providers" to get the FCC off their back and it's never going beyond SF and will be dead in a few years". The optimist in me want's to be wrong, but the realist in me can't ignore what we're seeing.
> 
> Artificial lmitations placed on feature rollouts are never a good sign. Limiting the rollout to SF for no reason does not bode well for anyone not living in SF.


I disagree. Tivo is not known for their reliability and there may be hundreds of bugs that they are unaware of. Comcast is smart to test this out in one market first.


----------



## lpwcomp

emkorial said:


> And probably the last. There's no technological barrier to releasing this to everyone._* Comcasts network isn't doing anything different*_,...


And you know this how?


----------



## aadam101

lpwcomp said:


> And you know this how?


I don't know anything about cable systems but I do know that Comcast built their empire by buying up smaller cable systems. I would think they are working with lots of different equipment among markets.

We already know that Comcast isn't the same across the board. We constantly hear from posters stating that Comcast does one thing in one market and a completely different thing in another.

That's why I like FIOS. It's all the same everywhere.


----------



## weldon

emkorial said:


> And probably the last. There's no technological barrier to releasing this to everyone. Comcasts network isn't doing anything different


Having worked in cable some years ago, that doesn't sound at all true to me. Those networks have grown by acquisition and there is different equipment from different vendors in different head ends in different markets. I'm sure there's equipment that has to be installed and configured in the head end and the ops team that manages those systems are regionalized and very conservative about introducing new equipment into running systems.


----------



## davezatz

emkorial said:


> And probably the last. There's no technological barrier to releasing this to everyone.


You're underestimating the engineering. This isn't IP like Xfinity on Xbox, it's IP communication with QAM video. Which does require technological work in each Comcast market. The San Francisco region happens to be one of Comcast's largest markets and the fact that TiVo is physically present probably doesn't hurt. I'm hopeful we'll see other markets come online later this year. But who knows...


----------



## champsf

emkorial said:


> There's zero reason to have a "test market", unless you have no plans to ever move out of it.


Coming from a technology company completely different, I can assure you that there is reasons for having test markets. 2 reasons....

1) Rolling out updates to so many users can cause issues on a server level. By having it released to test markets they can assure when they roll it out to the world (slowly), it wont have an extreme effect on all users or their system.

2) Customer complaints and a support level. Could you imagine the volume of support calls they would receive, both Comcast and TiVo if there were problems? If there were issues, and they have to roll back the release for some reason it would affect a higher volume of people.

Consider San Francisco the Guinea Pigs. If its broken we get the frustration of dealing with the problems rather than the rest of the world.


----------



## tomhorsley

champsf said:


> If its broken we get the frustration of dealing with the problems rather than the rest of the world.


"If" its broken? .


----------



## mattack

aadam101 said:


> Tivo is not known for their reliability


Really?

What specifically are you talking about?

For their primary purpose, actually recording shows that people want to record, they are definitely more reliable than other DVRs.

I even say this as someone who has a dead S3, but I don't think that's a counterexample to what I say above. Mine was hacked, and if I had never opened it, who knows, maybe it would have lasted longer.

But for "recording shows", they "just work". I wish there were others that worked as well (especially more tuners/cheaper).


----------



## aadam101

mattack said:


> Really?
> 
> What specifically are you talking about?
> 
> For their primary purpose, actually recording shows that people want to record, they are definitely more reliable than other DVRs.
> 
> I even say this as someone who has a dead S3, but I don't think that's a counterexample to what I say above. Mine was hacked, and if I had never opened it, who knows, maybe it would have lasted longer.
> 
> But for "recording shows", they "just work". I wish there were others that worked as well (especially more tuners/cheaper).


That's all well and good but we are not talking about recording shows. We are talking about offering Video On Demand. There have been lots of issues with the Amazon and Netflix apps over the years.....some that still exist and nobody bothers to fix them.

Many of the Tivo software releases have been plagued with bugs. The Premiere is a perfect example. It was released before it was ready and it took Tivo a long time to work out the issues. My Premieres still aren't perfect but they are a lot better than they were when I got them.


----------



## lpwcomp

aadam101 said:


> I don't know anything about cable systems but I do know that Comcast built their empire by buying up smaller cable systems. I would think they are working with lots of different equipment among markets.
> 
> We already know that Comcast isn't the same across the board. We constantly hear from posters stating that Comcast does one thing in one market and a completely different thing in another.
> 
> That's why I like FIOS. It's all the same everywhere.


Why did you quote me rather than emkorial? _*I*_ agree with _*you*_ (at least on this particular point).


----------



## jmr50

emkorial said:


> And probably the last. There's no technological barrier to releasing this to everyone. Comcasts network isn't doing anything different, and Tivo's in SF are no different than Tivo's sold anywhere else, so an update for them would work for everyone. There's zero reason to have a "test market", unless you have no plans to ever move out of it.


That's complete and utter ******** fearmongering.

Verizon rolled out IMG 1.9 to a single market to get field experience. They did multiple releases to that market before expanding to others in a staged rollout. That's how large service providers roll out new things that change the user experience and expectations.


----------



## kpeters59

If anybody cares, (Like TiVo!) I'm a Tivo dealer and the BIGGEST obstacle I have switching clients from a Comcast DVR (if you can really call it that...) is VOD. This is what I'm waiting on for many clients. Including former Tivo users. 

I'm in the Houston market...(Hint, Hint)

Happy Easter!

-KP


----------



## LisaJaco

kpeters59 said:


> If anybody cares, (Like TiVo!) I'm a Tivo dealer and the BIGGEST obstacle I have switching clients from a Comcast DVR (if you can really call it that...) is VOD. This is what I'm waiting on for many clients. Including former Tivo users.
> 
> I'm in the Houston market...(Hint, Hint)
> 
> Happy Easter!
> 
> -KP


Consider me one of those clients. I am/was a former TiVo user, in fact, I still have a dead unit sitting here with a lifetime subscription, but I'm using the Comcast DVR because there's no TiVo VOD as of yet. I keep coming back to check this board to see when it's happening because the second it does, i'm switching back!


----------



## jonbig

jmr50 said:


> That's complete and utter ******** fearmongering.
> 
> Verizon rolled out IMG 1.9 to a single market to get field experience. They did multiple releases to that market before expanding to others in a staged rollout. That's how large service providers roll out new things that change the user experience and expectations.


Quite so. The purpose of a limited roll out is this:

To avoid having Comcast customer service being overwhelmed.

Any roll out of software like this has a potential to reveal unexpected problems. By having a limited roll out, Comcast can concentrate its training of customer service reps to those who will serve the roll out area, and reduce the likely-hood that there are any issues that would turn rolling out to their entire customer base into a disaster.


----------



## emkorial

champsf said:


> Coming from a technology company completely different, I can assure you that there is reasons for having test markets. 2 reasons....
> 
> 1) Rolling out updates to so many users can cause issues on a server level. By having it released to test markets they can assure when they roll it out to the world (slowly), it wont have an extreme effect on all users or their system.
> 
> 2) Customer complaints and a support level. Could you imagine the volume of support calls they would receive, both Comcast and TiVo if there were problems? If there were issues, and they have to roll back the release for some reason it would affect a higher volume of people.
> 
> Consider San Francisco the Guinea Pigs. If its broken we get the frustration of dealing with the problems rather than the rest of the world.


I meant in this specific case.

Comcast isn't changing anything on their end. The aren't going to be sending one signal to every non Tivo user and a special "Tivo signal" to people with Tivo's. It's all the same to them.

The change is on the Tivo side, and I'd be willing to bet Tivo has some test units to test one. And every Tivo is the same. A premier in SF is identical to a premiere in NYC which is identical to a premier in Miami. It if works, it works everywhere, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work anywhere.

*Maybe* I'd buy that there will be billing issues integrating between Comcast and Tivo that they want time to work out, but that's about it. I sure hope I'm wrong, I would gladly upgrade both of my Tivo HD's to Premiers if I could get On Demand, but looking at it objectively, and given the history of collaborative efforts between the two companies, I don't see it.

Another huge red flag is that there is ZERO indication on timing for the next "test" market. Just "in the future". No company operates that way at Comcasts or Tivos level. No benchmarks at all around timing? Not even a YEAR it will be available outside SF?

Hopefully I'll be eating crow on this one, but I don;t see it happening.


----------



## lpwcomp

emkorial said:


> I meant in this specific case.
> 
> Comcast isn't changing anything on their end. The aren't going to be sending one signal to every non Tivo user and a special "Tivo signal" to people with Tivo's. It's all the same to them.


Comcast most certainly is changing something on their end. Their STBs, including their DVRs are two-way devices. A TiVo, even with cable card, is not. That's why for a TiVo, the control has to be through the net.


----------



## ghuido

Well I guess it is official ...

http://blog.tivo.com/2012/04/xfinity-on-demand-from-comcast-tivo-premiere/

http://twitter.com/#!/tivodesign

Now could someone please post a Picture of what it looks like or a review .... not that I am begging or anything.


----------



## davezatz

ghuido said:


> Now could someone please post a Picture of what it looks like or a review .... not that I am begging or anything.


Yeah, I'm waiting to blog the launch until after I've seen some feedback from "real" users...


----------



## tomm1079

davezatz said:


> Yeah, I'm waiting to blog the launch until after I've seen some feedback from "real" users...


you are a real user!

post away


----------



## davezatz

tomm1079 said:


> you are a real user!
> 
> post away


I may be a real user, but I live in the wrong market to experience it first hand. It's probably kinder of me to wait for forum reviews then to impose upon my friends by accessing Bay Area TiVos via Slingbox. Not to mention that latency is a killer for this kind of task.


----------



## beejay

emkorial said:


> Hopefully I'll be eating crow on this one, but I don;t see it happening.


I'd sure take that $10,000 bet.


----------



## ghuido

davezatz said:


> I may be a real user, but I live in the wrong market to experience it first hand. It's probably kinder of me to wait for forum reviews then to impose upon my friends by accessing Bay Area TiVos via Slingbox. Not to mention that latency is a killer for this kind of task.


You just want to make us beg, admit it.


----------



## kerz

I'm a real user! Pics: https://plus.google.com/photos/118350228124353464961/albums/5730015166045498785

Feedback:
Sort of seems like a HME app, but it can't be, because it feels fast, and doesn't take two years to load. It does take 5-10 seconds sometimes when going from the HD UI to the VOD menu, but once loaded seems fairly snappy navigating the menus.

Fonts in places are kinda strange, as if it's falling back to some sort of crappy linux font, rather than the nicer anti-aliased TiVo ones ("Press INFO for options" and show titles on the detail screen for example).

Has a saved shows folder for things you've watched. Programs you've watched icon is the same as the 'going away soon' icon it seems, other than being a half shade of yellow different.

Fast forwarding is locked (at least on the one show I tried). I haven't had a Comcast box in a long time, but I don't remember this being the case there. Sucky.

No different channels for the various sub-groups of On Demand, just one main screen linking to them all. A bit messy, but nice to not have to hunt around.

Video quality seems pretty good, a bit of macroblocking at times. Better than streaming Netflix most of the time.

UI feels like a strange cross between HD and SD. Has the new show detail screen, but something seems off. TiVo guy looks stretched maybe?

Let me know if you have questions.


----------



## ldhurley

Netflix picture quality plus ease of use on my Samsung TV app and my Panasonic Blu Ray app are so superior than through TIVO. There is no comparison plus since you can only add to instant que through another source in order to view on TIVO the TIVO application is worthless.


----------



## takeshi

emkorial said:


> The change is on the Tivo side, and I'd be willing to bet Tivo has some test units to test one. And every Tivo is the same. A premier in SF is identical to a premiere in NYC which is identical to a premier in Miami. It if works, it works everywhere, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work anywhere.


Not necessarily. Again, you're oversimplifying and assuming. Everything seems simple when you're blissfully unaware of the details involved. Upon initial setup, my Tivo had constant reboot issues which turned out to be related to Comcast's network specifically in my area. While my issue may not be germane to this particular discussion there are always small details to iron out which, again, is the whole point of test rollouts. Just because you can't imagine any potential issues doesn't mean that they do not exist.



lpwcomp said:


> Why did you quote me rather than emkorial? _*I*_ agree with _*you*_ (at least on this particular point).


Quoting isn't just used for disagreement. It's also used to build on a former comment (as in this case).


----------



## davezatz

emkorial said:


> Comcast isn't changing anything on their end.


Wrong.


----------



## davezatz

kerz said:


> I'm a real user! Pics: https://plus.google.com/photos/118350228124353464961/albums/5730015166045498785


Awesome, thank you! Post is up.  Wish I was a Comcast subscriber...


----------



## ghuido

Here are my questions

1.) Did you need a reboot or was it just there?
2.) What Software Version is your TIVO Reporting now?
3.) How does the pay per view work? Does it show you the price?
4.) For the paid premium items (HBO/Showtime)? does it show unathorized if you don't have it?
5.) The screenshots show Dolby 5.1? Is it pumping out the audio at that level?


----------



## kerz

ghuido said:


> Here are my questions
> 
> 1.) Did you need a reboot or was it just there?


Called in a few times, then rebooted. Following that I got an N33 error for about a minute, so I fiddled with switching from NPL to Live, finally went a way. After that, it was in the list.



> 2.) What Software Version is your TIVO Reporting now?


20.2.0a-01-2-758



> 3.) How does the pay per view work? Does it show you the price?
> 4.) For the paid premium items (HBO/Showtime)? does it show unathorized if you don't have it?
> 5.) The screenshots show Dolby 5.1? Is it pumping out the audio at that level?


I didn't play enough with it to answer these well. I was able to play something off HBO, so it does work if you have the channel. There's a picture in the album of what it looks like when you're not authorized to play something.


----------



## morac

kerz said:


> Fast forwarding is locked (at least on the one show I tried). I haven't had a Comcast box in a long time, but I don't remember this being the case there. Sucky.


Fox prevents fast-forwarding of all their VOD content. It's the same on my Comcast box. It's annoying, but since Fox shows contain the original broadcast (ads and all) it's understandable why they do that.


----------



## rhettf

kerz said:


> Called in a few times, then rebooted. Following that I got an N33 error for about a minute, so I fiddled with switching from NPL to Live, finally went a way. After that, it was in the list.


Sounds like when Hulu Plus came out. I had to reboot twice in a row when it didn't say reboot needed to make it display. I guess I am going to try a couple reboots in a row when I get home.

Also what part of the bay are you located in?

I am in Oakland.

Also to people wondering how big the rollout marketing might be:

It seems to be as far down south as Fremont. I know Marin seems to be included too but its a big county and might not included North Marin. So its pretty big.

Everyone I have spoke to about this was super exited to hear they could get xfinity ondemand via Tivo plus hulu/netflix and one is already buying my premiere thats about to be replaced with an Elite. I really hope people start coming back to TiVo since its now cheaper in the bay to own one and you don't lose features!


----------



## kerz

I live in Mountain View.


----------



## ghuido

Let's just say the rest of us TIVO Comcast Folks outside of your area are a little Jealous right now. "Little" might be an understatement.

If you can confirm Picture Quality that would be great. If it is through QAM you should have very good stuff. Original broadcast HD content I would think.


----------



## kerz

Picture quality seemed good. I've streamed a lot of stuff from Hulu/Netflix/MLB, and it was at least on par with the best I've seen of those. I'll need to watch more HD stuff and see how it holds up.


----------



## ghuido

interesting since Hulu/Netflix Content is delivered over IP but the Comcast VoD is delivered over QAM. Figure it would be close or better.


----------



## DogsOfWarandPeac

I'm in San Jose and just forced a connection and a reboot and the new Xfinity option showed up for me. Picture quality is pretty good, sound is fine. But it's not full 16x9 for the menus or the content. It's hard to see from the pics that were posted because the bars on the left and right are black, as is the tv, and it's dark in the pics. I happen to have my tv set to show gray bars rather than black so it was more noticeable.

When I launched a few HD programs the bars on the left and right stayed. I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug.


----------



## rhettf

ghuido said:


> Let's just say the rest of us TIVO Comcast Folks outside of your area are a little Jealous right now. "Little" might be an understatement.
> 
> If you can confirm Picture Quality that would be great. If it is through QAM you should have very good stuff. Original broadcast HD content I would think.


Unfortunately Comcast compresses the ondemand channel single a little bit more than there traditional channels. While I find it better than most streaming you can still get macro blocking on fast scenes.


----------



## rhettf

DogsOfWarandPeac said:


> I'm in San Jose and just forced a connection and a reboot and the new Xfinity option showed up for me. Picture quality is pretty good, sound is fine. But it's not full 16x9 for the menus or the content. It's hard to see from the pics that were posted because the bars on the left and right are black, as is the tv, and it's dark in the pics. I happen to have my tv set to show gray bars rather than black so it was more noticeable.
> 
> When I launched a few HD programs the bars on the left and right stayed. I'm not sure if this is a feature or a bug.


did you box says pending restart after the connection?


----------



## DogsOfWarandPeac

rhettf said:


> did you box says pending restart after the connection?


It did not. I restarted just for good measure.


----------



## rhettf

DogsOfWarandPeac said:


> But it's not full 16x9 for the menus or the content. It's hard to see from the pics that were posted because the bars on the left and right are black, as is the tv, and it's dark in the pics. I happen to have my tv set to show gray bars rather than black so it was more noticeable.


The single shouldn't be different then what the comcast PVR receives. This leads me to wonder if that has to do with the comcast box slightly overscaning the picture to hide the CC line and blemishes.


----------



## DogsOfWarandPeac

I took pics but as I'm a newbie I haven't reached the threshold to be able to post a URL. I'll try to remedy that.


----------



## ghuido

DogsOfWarandPeac said:


> I took pics but as I'm a newbie I haven't reached the threshold to be able to post a URL. I'll try to remedy that.


We may forgive you posting 7 more times in this Post just to see the pics.


----------



## kerz

One annoying thing, my iPad's TiVo app now has an annoying Xfinity turd in it. It's really out of place, and sort of hovers all over the place, depending on what screen you're on. Yuck. https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/...lbums/5730015166045498785/5730024690924027346 has an example of it.


----------



## bwellingx

rhettf said:


> Sounds like when Hulu Plus came out. I had to reboot twice in a row when it didn't say reboot needed to make it display. I guess I am going to try a couple reboots in a row when I get home.
> 
> Also what part of the bay are you located in?
> 
> I am in Oakland.
> 
> Also to people wondering how big the rollout marketing might be:
> 
> It seems to be as far down south as Fremont. I know Marin seems to be included too but its a big county and might not included North Marin. So its pretty big.
> 
> Everyone I have spoke to about this was super exited to hear they could get xfinity ondemand via Tivo plus hulu/netflix and one is already buying my premiere thats about to be replaced with an Elite. I really hope people start coming back to TiVo since its now cheaper in the bay to own one and you don't lose features!


I'm in Fremont (94555), and it's not here yet. According to Tivo's web site:

Unfortunately XFINITY® On Demand on TiVo Premiere DVRs is not available in the area you entered. Sign up to be informed when it becomes available, or try another ZIP code

Has anyone else here seen anything?


----------



## kerz

Also, I'm seeing the black bars mentioned here on the right and left side for HD content.


----------



## jaredmwright

I am located in the East Bay, Oakley specifically, zip code 94561 and the Xfinity onDemand showed up tonight after rebooting. I have been unable to access anything and am receiving an error code telling me to go to this link:

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2275#V301

Is anyone else having this issue? Seems like a connectivity issue, although my network connectivity is working fine.


----------



## btwyx

I'm also in Mountain View, and I just got it. I forced a connection and rebooted, now its there.

Pity I'm not home to play with it, just through the slingbox.


----------



## DogsOfWarandPeac

ghuido said:


> We may forgive you posting 7 more times in this Post just to see the pics.


Hopefully the few extra posts will be worth the payoff.


----------



## DogsOfWarandPeac

ghuido said:


> We may forgive you posting 7 more times in this Post just to see the pics.


Also, if anyone wants to see some particular content or menu I'm happy to take a picture of it.

I used a Nikon D5100 on a tripod to try to eliminate the camera and operator from detracting as much as possible.


----------



## DogsOfWarandPeac

And finally, here you go. Let me know if anyone has any questions.


http://imgur.com/g0L4A


----------



## morac

DogsOfWarandPeac said:


> And finally, here you go. Let me know if anyone has any questions.
> 
> 
> http://imgur.com/g0L4A


What's with the gray bars on the sides? Were those SD versions? HD programs shouldn't have gray bars on the side. They don't on my cable box, which makes me think that's a bug (if it isn't SD).


----------



## DogsOfWarandPeac

morac said:


> What's with the gray bars on the sides? Were those SD versions? HD programs shouldn't have gray bars on the side. They don't on my cable box, which makes me think that's a bug (if it isn't SD).


I use the HD menus on the Premiere and only played HD content. I got a few pics of the banner with the title in it that claims HD for each program. I tried to get content from different networks and they all come in at the same sub-16x9.

I suppose I could change the bars to be black, but they'd still be there and it would still bug me.


----------



## mazman

Has anyone in the Tri-Valley area (Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon) received the update?


----------



## LisaJaco

Does anyone know if TiVo OnDemand mirrors exactly everything that is available on the Comcast box? Or are there shows missing? 

Thank you.


----------



## CharlesH

LisaJaco said:


> Does anyone know if TiVo OnDemand mirrors exactly everything that is available on the Comcast box? Or are there shows missing?


The set-top box has some "interactive" features that are not on the TiVo, but all of the On Demand stuff, including the pay and "naughty" and local content, seems to be there. For pay content, you can set a passcode just like on the set-top box, or block "Adult" content. The "VCR" features (TiVo trick-play) seem as responsive as on the set-top box. Very usable.

I also noticed the narrow bars on the side when showing HD (16x9) content. The picture is definitely wider than the 4x3 content, but not the full width of the screen. Strange.

The Comcast On Demand content shows up on the normal TiVo search as an "Xfinity" icon, like the "Netflix" icon. It is listed as another video provider, along with Hulu-Plus, Netflix, etc.

The "Help" videos are clearly designed for the set-top box. I suspect that their On Demand system is pretty much oblivious to the fact that a TiVo is being using rather than their box, other than the control commands coming in over the Internet rather than up the cable.

I am in Milpitas, BTW. I did not have to reboot beyond the one automatic new-software-version reboot. It came with the daily schedule call-in.

This seems to be another "stealth" feature. How are average TiVo users not on this forum supposed to know about it?


----------



## Dubbadown

jaredmwright said:


> I am located in the East Bay, Oakley specifically, zip code 94561 and the Xfinity onDemand showed up tonight after rebooting. I have been unable to access anything and am receiving an error code telling me to go to this link:
> 
> http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2275#V301
> 
> Is anyone else having this issue? Seems like a connectivity issue, although my network connectivity is working fine.


I am having this issue too. I received the update last night on both my Premieres and can access the XOD menus but when it comes to playing something, I get about a second of it playing then it just pauses and is stuck there. And for a few of the shows I get the V301 error message. Everything else for my Tivo and Network is working fine so I don't know what it could be. I guess a call to Customer Service is in order.


----------



## wwu123

morac said:


> Fox prevents fast-forwarding of all their VOD content. It's the same on my Comcast box. It's annoying, but since Fox shows contain the original broadcast (ads and all) it's understandable why they do that.


Fast-forward worked for me on both an HBO show (no ads) and a FX series show (with ads) that I tried so far.

The menus are pretty quick (faster than the Comcast box I have only for VOD) and the streaming also starts quickly. It was unexpected to get this Comcast VOD, so I'm pleasantly surprised!


----------



## morac

wwu123 said:


> Fast-forward worked for me on both an HBO show (no ads) and a FX series show (with ads) that I tried so far.


Like I posted, Fox blocks fast-forwarding of their content, but not all content providers do so. HBO doesn't. I'm surprised about FX since that is owned by Fox, but maybe it's a different division.


----------



## rhettf

morac said:


> Like I posted, Fox blocks fast-forwarding of their content, but not all content providers do so. HBO doesn't. I'm surprised about FX since that is owned by Fox, but maybe it's a different division.


Your correct in that its a different division:

FX is considered Cable not Broadcast. Most items that are onDemand that were available via broadcast channels (FOX, NBC, CBS, ABC) are onDemand with limited Trick Play.

Since FX is on Cable they don't even have to censor their material (legally they could broadcast shows like HBO does but don't since christian families will say there child might stop on the channel while flipping though) and the licensing deals allow you to fast forward since the show already airs 5 times a week a week on cable and you have already paid to watch it in your Bill. FOX has to sell ads for broadcast content.


----------



## gconnery

When I check my location on the Tivo page using my zip code (94952):

http://www3.tivo.com/products/source/cable/tivo-comcast/index.html

It says what I'd expect:

"Congratulations! XFINITY® On Demand will become available over the next few weeks on TiVo Premiere DVRs in your ZIP code."

However, despite forced connections 3 or more times and as many reboots, my Elite hasn't received the update yet. Guess I just have to wait...


----------



## pacifent

Hello folks,
I am a comcast employee and want to advise you that the only cities in the first phase of the vod launch in the bay area are Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Milpitas, 
Monterey, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, and Sunnyvale....others will be added later this month!


----------



## rbro

pacifent said:


> Hello folks,
> I am a comcast employee and want to advise you that the only cities in the first phase of the vod launch in the bay area are Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Milpitas,
> Monterey, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, and Sunnyvale....others will be added later this month!


When will you get to Marin County, specifically Novato?


----------



## pacifent

Unfortunately, all other cities are to be announced later...I live in Fairfield and I am anxiously awaiting word of when MY family can get it....and I WORK for the company! I'll keep this thread posted as I get word.....


----------



## rbro

pacifent said:


> Unfortunately, all other cities are to be announced later...I live in Fairfield and I am anxiously awaiting word of when MY family can get it....and I WORK for the company! I'll keep this thread posted as I get word.....


But safe to say some time this month? Or within the next few months at least?


----------



## pacifent

Hopefully...I'm in the same boat...North Bay is always the last to get anything unfortunately.....


----------



## TZR916

CharlesH said:


> ...all of the On Demand stuff, including the pay and "naughty" and local content, seems to be there...


Is there PPV new release movies? How much are they for HD?


----------



## lpwcomp

pacifent said:


> Hopefully...I'm in the same boat...North Bay is always the last to get anything unfortunately.....


Those of us not in the bay area are all broken up about your situation.


----------



## pacifent

lpwcomp said:


> Those of us not in the bay area are all broken up about your situation.


I know, I know


----------



## Innerloop

pacifent said:


> Hello folks,
> I am a comcast employee and want to advise you that the only cities in the first phase of the vod launch in the bay area are Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Milpitas,
> Monterey, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, and Sunnyvale....others will be added later this month!


Why such a slow roll-out? Is there some fear that a deluge of activity from Tivo users will somehow swamp the system? Aren't Tivo customers like 2% of the total?

I was excited to be in the initial roll-out here, only to find out, I'm not (quite)!


----------



## gconnery

Appreciate the heads up. Otherwise I would have been rebooting my Tivo's somewhat pointlessly every so often. Perfectly happy to wait a few weeks.


----------



## rick123

Yes, I am in southern NH and am also curious as to why the staggered rollout? Is it a technical reason or is it just being careful to make sure it actually works or something else?


----------



## slowbiscuit

It's all up to Comcast because Tivo chose to get the VOD via QAM (like the Comcast STBs do). If they had gone with the Xbox VOD model with delivery over IP, they could've rolled it out nationwide. Comcast apparently has to enable it in every market/headend, so who knows when a given area will get it. They're saying some time this year, but it's Comcast so could be 2013 before you get it.

The other problem with this way is that it ties up a tuner every time you watch VOD, which can be problematic if your Tivo often records on both tuners. That wouldn't be an issue with IP VOD.


----------



## rhettf

slowbiscuit said:


> It's all up to Comcast because Tivo chose to get the VOD via QAM (like the Comcast STBs do). If they had gone with the Xbox VOD model with delivery over IP, they could've rolled it out nationwide. Comcast apparently has to enable it in every market/headend, so who knows when a given area will get it. They're saying some time this year, but it's Comcast so could be 2013 before you get it.
> 
> The other problem with this way is that it ties up a tuner every time you watch VOD, which can be problematic if your Tivo often records on both tuners. That wouldn't be an issue with IP VOD.


There is a big problem with the Xbox 360 IP onDemand:

To use the service you have to subscribe to both Xfinity internet and TV on the SAME account.

I have business class and thats a separate department at xfinity. Unfortunately you can't have resident xfinity and business xfinity at the same address. This had never been a problem until now.

When the annouced that it didn't count against the residential caps I got worried, since it meant they had to update your modem to allow the traffic! They can't update my modem since it isnt on the exact same account as my TV subscription! The worst of it is there are bandwidth caps on business class so they whole we need to connect to your modem so it doesn't count towards your cap doesn't even apply to me!

I am sure a good number of TiVo subscribers don't bundle there TV & internet.

QAM = higher image quality and less strain on your available bandwidth.

The issues of tuners has always been on comcast boxes as well, at least now you could get an elite and record 3 things while watching onDemand if you wanted.

I also have heard the xbox 360 onDemand pic quality is sub par. One person said the HD stream looked as good as a mid quality netflix stream. Personally I don't know that its true but happy we will get the full stream via QAM.


----------



## lessd

slowbiscuit said:


> It's all up to Comcast because Tivo chose to get the VOD via QAM (like the Comcast STBs do). If they had gone with the Xbox VOD model with delivery over IP, they could've rolled it out nationwide. Comcast apparently has to enable it in every market/headend, so who knows when a given area will get it. They're saying some time this year, but it's Comcast so could be 2013 before you get it.
> 
> The other problem with this way is that it ties up a tuner every time you watch VOD, which can be problematic if your Tivo often records on both tuners. That wouldn't be an issue with IP VOD.


My Comcast system does not now use tuning adapters on their system for TiVos, will the OD on TiVo require a tuning adapter ?


----------



## Blacknotice

pacifent said:


> Hello folks,
> I am a comcast employee and want to advise you that the only cities in the first phase of the vod launch in the bay area are Cupertino, Los Altos, Los Gatos, Milpitas,
> Monterey, Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Jose, Santa Clara, Saratoga, and Sunnyvale....others will be added later this month!


 So San Francisco is on the later end of that?


----------



## lpwcomp

lessd said:


> My Comcast system does not now use tuning adapters on their system for TiVos, will the OD on TiVo require a tuning adapter ?


No.


----------



## fjork_duf

kerz said:


> Also, I'm seeing the black bars mentioned here on the right and left side for HD content.


Black bars here too on the content. Anyone solve this issue yet?


----------



## jonbig

Dubbadown said:


> I am having this issue too. I received the update last night on both my Premieres and can access the XOD menus but when it comes to playing something, I get about a second of it playing then it just pauses and is stuck there. And for a few of the shows I get the V301 error message. Everything else for my Tivo and Network is working fine so I don't know what it could be. I guess a call to Customer Service is in order.


Did you get any resolution to this? I'm having the same trouble and the Comcast support person wasn't able to resolve it online.


----------



## smarthur

I live in San Jose, CA 95110. The Xfinity On Demand icon appeared Saturday afternoon 4-14, I can see the folders and program listings but when I go to play a show I get a gray screen saying to contact my cable provider to activate service. 

I contacted Comcast they "sent a signal to the cable card." But it does not fix the issue. I've also done a reboot twice. I know my area is the first market to get this new feature and I'm sure there will be hiccups. I just hope they get resolved quickly.

I'll update my post when it starts working.

UPDATE:

After visiting Tivo's support page for Xfinity On Demand I figured out that my Cable Card was not paired.

Calling Comcast and giving them the Host ID and Data ID from the gray trouble screen allowed them to pair my cable card.

I'm now seeing the On Demand video.


----------



## rhettf

fjork_duf said:


> Black bars here too on the content. Anyone solve this issue yet?


Its not an issue, its how the content is stored on Comcast VOD servers. The comcast PVR puts out a overscaned image. On Tivo your actually seeing the completely picture, and by hitting wide zoom (so its proportional) you will have it working just like the Comcast PVR.

Another Solution is a iScan Duo. I have a iScan Duo which actually replaces the gray bar by using the CMS system to lay down a blacker than black video single where the pillars are on screen.

iScan Duo = video quality nirvana http://www.dvdo.com/iScanDuo.aspx


----------



## CharlesH

rhettf said:


> Its not an issue, its how the content is stored on Comcast VOD servers. The comcast PVR puts out a overscaned image. On Tivo your actually seeing the completely picture, and by hitting wide zoom (so its proportional) you will have it working just like the Comcast PVR.


Does "zoom" mean anything with HD (16x9) content? I thought zoom only worked on SD (4x3) content.


----------



## morac

CharlesH said:


> Does "zoom" mean anything with HD (16x9) content? I thought zoom only worked on SD (4x3) content.


Zoom only works on content "opposite" of what the output is set to. By that I mean that HD content will only "zoom" when outputting 480i/p and SD content will only "zoom" for HD content.


----------



## shwru980r

morac said:


> Zoom only works on content "opposite" of what the output is set to. By that I mean that HD content will only "zoom" when outputting 480i/p and SD content will only "zoom" for HD content.


On my Tivo HD, it seems like I can zoom SD content when I have the aspect ratio on the Tivo set to 16:9 and I can zoom HD content when I have the aspect ratio set to 4:3. I keep the output set to 1080i fixed all the time.


----------



## morac

shwru980r said:


> On my Tivo HD, it seems like I can zoom SD content when I have the aspect ratio on the Tivo set to 16:9 and I can zoom HD content when I have the aspect ratio set to 4:3. I keep the output set to 1080i fixed all the time.


That's probably more accurate than what I posted, though technically SD is 4:3 and HD is 16:9.


----------



## CharlesH

shwru980r said:


> On my Tivo HD, it seems like I can zoom SD content when I have the aspect ratio on the Tivo set to 16:9 and I can zoom HD content when I have the aspect ratio set to 4:3. I keep the output set to 1080i fixed all the time.


Which means that when you get an OnDemand show with that funky HD with the narrow side bars (not the wide ones you see for SD content), that you won't be able to do the overscan that the Comcast DVR does to fill a 16:9 screen, since you cannot zoom HD content when using 16:9 aspect ratio.


----------



## jonbig

jonbig said:


> Did you get any resolution to this? I'm having the same trouble and the Comcast support person wasn't able to resolve it online.


So I got lucky and they had an appointment slot yesterday to send a tech to my house. 1.5 hours, replaced cable connectors and 2 new cablecards later we finally got On Demand working.

My best guess is that my cable card was not programmed right, and after the second swap, the last in-office tech contacted managed to set it up right.

But I'm going to need another truck roll, since now about a dozen of my channels (which have lower signal strength according to the TiVo) go flaky and pixelate in the evenings...


----------



## Dubbadown

jonbig said:


> So I got lucky and they had an appointment slot yesterday to send a tech to my house. 1.5 hours, replaced cable connectors and 2 new cablecards later we finally got On Demand working.
> 
> My best guess is that my cable card was not programmed right, and after the second swap, the last in-office tech contacted managed to set it up right.
> 
> But I'm going to need another truck roll, since now about a dozen of my channels (which have lower signal strength according to the TiVo) go flaky and pixelate in the evenings...


Sorry, I just saw your posts. Yeah I was able to get my issue resolved with a call to Comcast. Like you said, when the cablecards were installed and paired they weren't set up for OnDemand so they were able to rezap them and reprogram them over the system and they started working.

I had some issues the other day when my Tivo spontaneously rebooted back to back times when I was trying to show off my On Demand, but other than that, its been working like a charm.


----------



## bareyb

I'm in Cupertino and Xfinity On Demand IS showing up under my VOD menu. Problem is, all I can download are a bunch of "Welcome to Xfiinity On Demand" videos. When will I get to see the ACTUAL on demand content? 

Is anyone else seeing ONLY welcome videos? Is there something else I need to do here? It's been like this for about 4 days now...


----------



## shwru980r

CharlesH said:


> Which means that when you get an OnDemand show with that funky HD with the narrow side bars (not the wide ones you see for SD content), that you won't be able to do the overscan that the Comcast DVR does to fill a 16:9 screen, since you cannot zoom HD content when using 16:9 aspect ratio.


To get rid of side bars on HD content, I set the aspect ratio on the Tivo to 4:3 and zoom the picture.


----------



## rbiro

smarthur said:


> UPDATE:
> 
> After visiting Tivo's support page for Xfinity On Demand I figured out that my Cable Card was not paired.
> 
> Calling Comcast and giving them the Host ID and Data ID from the gray trouble screen allowed them to pair my cable card.
> 
> I'm now seeing the On Demand video.


Thanks for the update.
I've had this problem for a week and nobody at either Comcast or TiVo could point me in the correct direction.

The troubleshooting page on TiVo's website can be found here:
TROUBLESHOOTING : XFINITY On Demand for TiVo Premiere

Here is a link to TiVo's support document showing how to tell if the card is paired or not:
Motorola M-Card: Checking Pairing and Copy Protection


----------



## Mikef5

I'm in the Milpitas Calif. area and I finally got my cable card for my Tivo Premiere on Tuesday and I've been playing around with it for a couple of days.
I do get Comcast's On-Demand and it actually works. It's not setup like a normal Comcast box but it is useable and it is integrated into the Tivo search results.
So you can now search Netflix, Amazon Video, Hulu Plus, normal tv and Comcast's On Demand and view them from this new interface.
This is the Tivo/Comcast interface that should have been adopted by Comcast along time ago, instead of that wonky software interface they tried on the East coast.

Is it perfect, no, but it is useable and does, for now, what I want it to do.
The HD menu on the Tivo is really slow and takes a while to get use to it but looks very nice and if you need a speedier interface you can use the SD menu.
The Comcast On Demand interface is pretty spartan and takes a while to get use to it but you can finally get On Demand without having to have another box just for getting On Demand.

I'm sure, as I use it more, I'll find things that need to be improved or needs to be added but for an initial roll out of the integration of Tivo and Comcast's On Demand it's a good start and has, for now, kept me from going elsewhere.
I just hope they both continue to work on this and don't just make it work but make it work better.

Laters,
Mikef5


----------



## rhettf

CharlesH said:


> Does "zoom" mean anything with HD (16x9) content? I thought zoom only worked on SD (4x3) content.


Sorry I meant using your TV's. I have normal, stretch, and proportional zoom on my Sony KDL800


----------



## jaredmwright

Saw this at the local Best Buy in Pittsburg, CA (East Bay Area). I imagine it won't take long to roll out if they are already promoting it in stores. Hopefully soon for the rest of us.


----------



## TiVoMargret

XFINITY On Demand should now be available throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. If you aren't seeing it on your TiVo Premiere yet, try these steps:

1. Select "Connect to the TiVo Service now" from Settings > Network
2. Once it completes, make the connection a second time
3. Once that completes, if you are using the "HD Menus" go to TiVo Central and press THUMBS DOWN - THUMBS UP - PLAY - PLAY on the remote control


----------



## rhettf

Does that included people who activated there TiVo after April 9th as well? 

The help docs on tivo.com said I wouldn't get it till the rollout in the bay area is complete.

Edit - I check the site and the stipulation is gone! About to try the steps above (second connection in process)

2nd Edit - It WORKS THANK YOU!


----------



## jaredmwright

Worked exactly as described, connected two times and used the remote commands and I have onDemand on TiVo. I still can't believe it! I tested 3D as well and can report success. This is a huge win and I hope TiVo keeps innovating to bring more features to our boxes.


----------



## mazman

Working in San Ramon, Zip Code 94582!

Beware, however, if you don't have any premium channels and have not had you cable cards paired, you'll be spending some time on the phone with Comcast getting that set up.


----------



## sbiller

https://twitter.com/#!/tivodesign/status/195251372629823488


----------



## rhettf

Has anyone been able to select it under source on the iphone or ipad? not showing up there for me and on 1.9.1


----------



## Blacknotice

Thank you so much TiVoMargret. Thank you. Works like a charm


----------



## Johncv

TiVoMargret said:


> XFINITY On Demand should now be available throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. If you aren't seeing it on your TiVo Premiere yet, try these steps:
> 
> 1. Select "Connect to the TiVo Service now" from Settings > Network
> 2. Once it completes, make the connection a second time
> 3. Once that completes, if you are using the "HD Menus" go to TiVo Central and press THUMBS DOWN - THUMBS UP - PLAY - PLAY on the remote control


TiVoMargret,

TiVo sign the same deal with Cox when is Cox going to do anything?


----------



## jmpage2

Ha, let's get all of the rest of the Comcast users outside of San Francisco up and running before worrying over other providers.


----------



## rhettf

Johncv said:


> TiVoMargret,
> 
> TiVo sign the same deal with Cox when is Cox going to do anything?


Start a thread, find out how much interest is out there.


----------



## bareyb

TiVoMargret said:


> XFINITY On Demand should now be available throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. If you aren't seeing it on your TiVo Premiere yet, try these steps:
> 
> 1. Select "Connect to the TiVo Service now" from Settings > Network
> 2. Once it completes, make the connection a second time
> 3. Once that completes, if you are using the "HD Menus" go to TiVo Central and press THUMBS DOWN - THUMBS UP - PLAY - PLAY on the remote control





bareyb said:


> I'm in Cupertino and Xfinity On Demand IS showing up under my VOD menu. Problem is, all I can download are a bunch of "Welcome to Xfiinity On Demand" videos. When will I get to see the ACTUAL on demand content?
> 
> Is anyone else seeing ONLY welcome videos? Is there something else I need to do here? It's been like this for about 4 days now...


Still no love here. I even went online with Comcast Support. They were no help at all. I did the above that TiVo Margaret suggested and STILL, all I'm seeing is ONE FOLDER that says "About On Demand" with some short introduction videos to the service...

ANYONE ELSE SEEING ONLY THE "ABOUT ON DEMAND" FOLDER?


----------



## minimeh

TiVoMargret said:


> XFINITY On Demand should now be available throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. If you aren't seeing it on your TiVo Premiere yet, try these steps:
> 
> 1. Select "Connect to the TiVo Service now" from Settings > Network
> 2. Once it completes, make the connection a second time
> 3. Once that completes, if you are using the "HD Menus" go to TiVo Central and press THUMBS DOWN - THUMBS UP - PLAY - PLAY on the remote control


Huh, I can't believe I didn't think of that! 

Now on board with on-demand in San Francisco.


----------



## Innerloop

Works for me now up in Marin County! Honestly the navigation is faster & clearer on the Tivo than it is on the actual Comcast boxes, so this is a big win. Wouldn't mind seeing it re-worked in HD and whatnot, but at least this setup is fast, if not pretty.

Honestly Comcast could organize their OnDemand a lot better, its pretty disorganized in general. But that's hardly Tivo's fault. Glad to see everything seems to be there.

As a bonus, I'm in an area with no BBC-HD, but now I can see BBC shows in HD via on-demand! Also HBO-3D, is that a carried channel in some areas? Another cool offering now open to us via OnDemand!


----------



## bigtruck

TiVoMargret said:


> XFINITY On Demand should now be available throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. If you aren't seeing it on your TiVo Premiere yet, try these steps:
> 
> 1. Select "Connect to the TiVo Service now" from Settings > Network
> 2. Once it completes, make the connection a second time
> 3. Once that completes, if you are using the "HD Menus" go to TiVo Central and press THUMBS DOWN - THUMBS UP - PLAY - PLAY on the remote control


Thanks, That made it work, My zip is 94122


----------



## jrtroo

Innerloop said:


> Honestly Comcast could organize their OnDemand a lot better, its pretty disorganized in general. But that's hardly Tivo's fault. Glad to see everything seems to be there.


Hopefully they can learn a little bit about organizing from TiVo. Comcast's haphazard menus and functions drove me nuts for the month I tried their DVR.

Still, anxiously awaiting a Chicagoland rollout.


----------



## tomm1079

jrtroo said:


> Hopefully they can learn a little bit about organizing from TiVo. Comcast's haphazard menus and functions drove me nuts for the month I tried their DVR.
> 
> Still, anxiously awaiting a Chicagoland rollout.


+1 for chicagoland

(west suburbs)


----------



## bareyb

Still screwed in Cupertino. Still only have the "About On Demand" folder with the intro videos.


----------



## bareyb

This is all I get. It works perfectly and downloads the videos shown in the pic, but I have no way to get to the actual On Demand stuff. Any suggestions?


----------



## jrtroo

TiVoMargret responded to you directly to contact her through email in another thread. Sounds like a good place to start!


----------



## bwellingx

I'm not sure if anyone cares (or has the power to fix this), but tivo.com/comcast still says this for my zip code (94555, in Fremont, CA), even though On Demand was live as of last night:

Unfortunately XFINITY® On Demand on TiVo Premiere DVRs is not available in the area you entered. Sign up to be informed when it becomes available, or try another ZIP code.


----------



## bareyb

jrtroo said:


> TiVoMargret responded to you directly to contact her through email in another thread. Sounds like a good place to start!


Oh oops... I'll go check it out. Thanks.


----------



## bareyb

Okay. I think we are getting closer now!   

My buddy smark has been working on this for me and now I have the a whole new set of folders starting with "Top Picks". So we are definitely heading in the right direction. 

One major problem though... I can't seem to find the "PPV" folder (which is the only one I need). Where do you go to get the PPV's?


----------



## TZR916

TZR916 said:


> Is there PPV new release movies? How much are they for HD?


Anyone?

Are there new release ppv movies (not adult, not sports)? Are they HD? How much are they charging?


----------



## bareyb

TZR916 said:


> Anyone?
> 
> Are there new release ppv movies (not adult, not sports)? Are they HD? How much are they charging?


Yes. They have "New Releases" as well as "Same Day as Theaters". I just checked, and it's $5.99 for new release, HD Movie. The same Movie in SD is $4.99. So basically, it's the same pricing as they have on the Comcast Boxes.


----------



## TZR916

bareyb said:


> Yes. They have "New Releases" as well as "Same Day as Theaters". I just checked, and it's $5.99 for new release, HD Movie. The same Movie in SD is $4.99. So basically, it's the same pricing as they have on the Comcast Boxes.


Cool thanks


----------



## btwyx

TiVoMargret said:


> XFINITY On Demand should now be available throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. If you aren't seeing it on your TiVo Premiere yet, try these steps:
> 
> 1. Select "Connect to the TiVo Service now" from Settings > Network
> 2. Once it completes, make the connection a second time
> 3. Once that completes, if you are using the "HD Menus" go to TiVo Central and press THUMBS DOWN - THUMBS UP - PLAY - PLAY on the remote control


I tried that, its still not showing up on one of my Premiers.


----------



## jeffcox65

Just in case anybody is still having trouble with this, I can tell you my story of (eventual) triumph.

The XFINITY menu popped up on my TiVo this morning. I tried it out and the menus came up just fine, but content was redirecting my TiVo to the grey cablecard screen.

I got on this very forum and found the TiVo/Cablecard pairing hotline: 866-986-8486

The very friendly guy there walked me through the process of discovering that my CableCard did indeed need to be paired.

So I called the Comcast Cablecard specific pairing hotline at 877-405-2298. That guy took my cablecard information and paired up my cablecard within 10 minutes.

After that my TiVo was able to browse through content, but when I tried to play any content it would play for about two seconds and then stop.

Not wanting to call COMCAST again I called the TiVo 866 number again. The very friendly guy checked my configuration and told me that I had a known issue and that I had to talk to COMCAST again, BUT instead of having me call 1-800-COMCAST he transfered me to a special 2nd Level Support Team within COMCAST. He was not allowed to give me the number or I would post it here (which is probably why he wasn't allowed to give me the number).

When he transfered me the number rang literally for about 5 minutes. At least 3 minutes. I almost got discouraged but I figured it was ringing someplace and I would just hang on. Finally somebody answered. I had to explain that I *didn't* have a trouble ticket open yet, that I was transfered directly from TiVo, that yes TiVo Premiere boxes supported On Demand in a Trial area -- and he finally took me seriously. He took down my information and told me he'd call me back in 15 minutes.

15 minutes later he verified that yes there was a rollout of this service and he'd get onto fixing the problem, hopefully within an hour.

I had to leave for work, but I got a call at work about 4 hours later saying he believed he fixed my account to resolve the issue, could I try it out?

When I got home it was fixed. I've been able to access all kinds of On Demand television shows and movies without a problem.

Fixing my problem required the two special numbers above and patience, but everybody I talked to was helpful and courteous and effective.


----------



## falcon26

While watching Grimm it has black bars on both sides. No matter what format I use its their. It was in HD but still had the black bars like it was running in SD. I hope this is just a bug and it gets fixed soon...


----------



## Johncv

falcon26 said:


> While watching Grimm it has black bars on both sides. No matter what format I use its their. It was in HD but still had the black bars like it was running in SD. I hope this is just a bug and it gets fixed soon...


What does this have to do with On Demand? Were you viewing Grimm On Demand? I know Cox offer Prime Time On Demand.


----------



## jrtroo

Wheir is it?

Read through the forums. It appears that there is not much we can do about the bars other than temporarily use the TV's re-sizing menu as that is the same data it sends to its own boxes which then zoom in (and losing picture).


----------



## btwyx

btwyx said:


> I tried that, its still not showing up on one of my Premiers.


I online chatted to a tech, he couldn't fix it, he's escalating it to level 2. Hopefully, it gets fixed in the next few days.


----------



## Shogun82

This is great news! I wonder how long it will take to spread (Xfinity on demand) through the states..?


----------



## slowbiscuit

LOL, who knows - it's a pairing of Tivo and Comcast, about the two slowest rollout companies around.


----------



## suprstrpj

I sent Margret from Tivo (@tivodesign on twitter) pics of the issue that I'm seeing with HD programming and black bars. 

This photo is the broadcast version of New Girl on Fox that shows the complete picture: i.imgur.com/x5veI.jpg

This photo is the Tivo Xfinity On-Demand version of the same scene that shows the sides cut off, as you can tell by the #newgirl text on the side of the screen is cut off and there is picture missing: i.imgur.com/QNTmX.jpg

This is happening with every HD program I watch on demand and otherwise it works great and the picture quality is waaaay better than the Xbox Live app picture quality over ip.


----------



## jaredmwright

I am noticing the same problem, which complicates watching 3D content since those black edges are duplicated when watching side by side 3D content and causing distortion in the picture. It seems to work fine with top and bottom 3D content. Hopefully this is a configuration issue that can be addressed and is not a limitation of the TiVo Xfinity OnDemand implementation since that would be very unfortunate. When watching an HD show or movie, it is awkward not having the screen filled and seeing black bars on the side.


----------



## rainwater

suprstrpj said:


> This photo is the Tivo Xfinity On-Demand version of the same scene that shows the sides cut off, as you can tell by the #newgirl text on the side of the screen is cut off and there is picture missing: i.imgur.com/QNTmX.jpg


What about a comcast cable box? Does it do the same (cut off part of the picture)? It could be using overscan to hide the bars, but I would imagine it is cropping the picture just the same. If that is the case, I don't see how TiVo could fix it. Of course, the real question is why in the world does Comcast crop the picture like that.


----------



## suprstrpj

It does not happen with our comcast box in the bedroom, the picture on that is complete and not cropped. My photo in the text you quoted shows that the picture is cropped on both sides which should not happen if it was just an overscan issue.


----------



## rhettf

suprstrpj said:


> It does not happen with our comcast box in the bedroom, the picture on that is complete and not cropped. My photo in the text you quoted shows that the picture is cropped on both sides which should not happen if it was just an overscan issue.


thanks for letting us now, I had some emails with (@tivodesign) margret and she had me run some test, different video settings. None of them worked and she said she sent my findings to engineering.


----------



## morac

suprstrpj said:


> It does not happen with our comcast box in the bedroom, the picture on that is complete and not cropped. My photo in the text you quoted shows that the picture is cropped on both sides which should not happen if it was just an overscan issue.


I'm curious if you change the TiVo settings to show gray bars instead of black, are the bars still black or change to gray. If they change to gray, then I would think the problem would be with the TiVo software, where it's misinterpreting the video resolution. If they stay black, then I would think the black bars are part of the video signal, though I doubt Comcast would send a different signal to TiVo and cable boxes.


----------



## minimeh

morac said:


> I'm curious if you change the TiVo settings to show gray bars instead of black, are the bars still black or change to gray. If they change to gray, then I would think the problem would be with the TiVo software, where it's misinterpreting the video resolution. If they stay black, then I would think the black bars are part of the video signal, though I doubt Comcast would send a different signal to TiVo and cable boxes.


From a post in another thread:



thomperman said:


> I tried the settings below as requested and none of them solve the problem.
> 
> 720p only - Full Aspect Correction
> 1080i only - Full Aspect Correction
> 1080i + 1080p - Full Aspect Correction
> 720p + 1080i + 1080p - Full Aspect Correction
> 720p + 1080i + 1080p - Panel Aspect Correction
> 
> *I also tried changing the black bars to grey, and they show up grey on the HD OnDemand shows*, so it appears to be a Tivo Issue.


----------



## morac

TiVo software problem it is then. That or Comcast is sending some non-standard resolution for VOD, but even then the TiVo software should be able to handle it since it's been update to work with Comcast VOD.


----------



## aadam101

A Boston area tech told me Xfinity On Demand will be live in Boston on June 6.


----------



## cybah

aadam101 said:


> A Boston area tech told me Xfinity On Demand will be live in Boston on June 6.


I'm in boston and just got another premiere. I can't wait...!!


----------



## jmpage2

Two metros down, only another 200+ or so to go.


----------



## inaka

suprstrpj said:


> I sent Margret from Tivo (@tivodesign on twitter) pics of the issue that I'm seeing with HD programming and black bars.
> 
> This photo is the broadcast version of New Girl on Fox that shows the complete picture: i.imgur.com/x5veI.jpg
> 
> This photo is the Tivo Xfinity On-Demand version of the same scene that shows the sides cut off, as you can tell by the #newgirl text on the side of the screen is cut off and there is picture missing: i.imgur.com/QNTmX.jpg
> 
> This is happening with every HD program I watch on demand and otherwise it works great and the picture quality is waaaay better than the Xbox Live app picture quality over ip.


Have you tried changing the aspect ratio of your TV and not the box?
For example, using 16:9 full, etc.
I know my display has two different 16:9 settings. One is true and one is full or something. Setup for no overscan, etc.

Unlikely, but worth a shot.


----------



## generaltso

Do you suppose Boston just means Boston? Is it ridiculous to hope they might mean New England?


----------



## aadam101

generaltso said:


> Do you suppose Boston just means Boston? Is it ridiculous to hope they might mean New England?


I assume it means New England just like the Motorola/Comcast/Tivo.

One of the reps also told me that the Motorola/Comcast/Tivo boxes were being taken out of service and needed to be returned by August. I spent 4 and a half hours trying to get a cable card paired today and talked to 8 different reps. Most had no clue what they were talking about so take that with a grain of salt. My mom is returning hers anyway so it doesn't matter either way.

I am so thankful to have Verizon FIOS.


----------



## jmpage2

generaltso said:


> Do you suppose Boston just means Boston? Is it ridiculous to hope they might mean New England?


Why don't you ask the people in LA/San-Diego if the "Bay Area" included a roll out in that area.


----------



## muggle

jeffcox65 said:


> After that my TiVo was able to browse through content, but when I tried to play any content it would play for about two seconds and then stop.


Thanks, this information may help me. I'm having the same problem with my new Premiere. This is exactly what's happening to me. I went through 40 minutes on the phone with three different Comcast folks who couldn't solve the problem. The last guy was the most helpful but he told me there was nothing he could do, that I had to wait until May 10th when Comcast would be sending out a mass authorization to all eligible Tivo's. It's May 10th and it's still broken. I'll wait until tomorrow, then if it still isn't working I'll waste more of my time trying to find someone who knows how to fix it. What a waste. Not really a successful product launch I'd say. They might have to delay launching in other areas if they can't figure out how to get the Bay Area working.


----------



## generaltso

jmpage2 said:


> Why don't you ask the people in LA/San-Diego if the "Bay Area" included a roll out in that area.


Okay. Is anyone from one of those areas (or someplace else a fair distance from SF) that can comment on the availability? How far out from SF does it reach?


----------



## aadam101

jmpage2 said:


> Why don't you ask the people in LA/San-Diego if the "Bay Area" included a roll out in that area.


I don't think that is a very good indication of what they will do in Boston. I don't even know how far the Motorola/Comcast/Tivo spread. I know at least one person in NH had one but I have never heard anyone from another New England state mention it besides Massachusetts.


----------



## suprstrpj

inaka said:


> Have you tried changing the aspect ratio of your TV and not the box?
> For example, using 16:9 full, etc.
> I know my display has two different 16:9 settings. One is true and one is full or something. Setup for no overscan, etc.
> 
> Unlikely, but worth a shot.


Believe me, I've tried everything to get those bars off including aspect ratio on the tv and the tivo. No dice.


----------



## muggle

jeffcox65 said:


> Just in case anybody is still having trouble with this, I can tell you my story of (eventual) triumph.
> 
> The XFINITY menu popped up on my TiVo this morning. I tried it out and the menus came up just fine, but content was redirecting my TiVo to the grey cablecard screen.
> 
> I got on this very forum and found the TiVo/Cablecard pairing hotline: 866-986-8486
> 
> The very friendly guy there walked me through the process of discovering that my CableCard did indeed need to be paired.
> 
> So I called the Comcast Cablecard specific pairing hotline at 877-405-2298. That guy took my cablecard information and paired up my cablecard within 10 minutes.
> 
> After that my TiVo was able to browse through content, but when I tried to play any content it would play for about two seconds and then stop.
> 
> Not wanting to call COMCAST again I called the TiVo 866 number again. The very friendly guy checked my configuration and told me that I had a known issue and that I had to talk to COMCAST again, BUT instead of having me call 1-800-COMCAST he transfered me to a special 2nd Level Support Team within COMCAST. He was not allowed to give me the number or I would post it here (which is probably why he wasn't allowed to give me the number).
> 
> When he transfered me the number rang literally for about 5 minutes. At least 3 minutes. I almost got discouraged but I figured it was ringing someplace and I would just hang on. Finally somebody answered. I had to explain that I *didn't* have a trouble ticket open yet, that I was transfered directly from TiVo, that yes TiVo Premiere boxes supported On Demand in a Trial area -- and he finally took me seriously. He took down my information and told me he'd call me back in 15 minutes.
> 
> 15 minutes later he verified that yes there was a rollout of this service and he'd get onto fixing the problem, hopefully within an hour.
> 
> I had to leave for work, but I got a call at work about 4 hours later saying he believed he fixed my account to resolve the issue, could I try it out?
> 
> When I got home it was fixed. I've been able to access all kinds of On Demand television shows and movies without a problem.
> 
> Fixing my problem required the two special numbers above and patience, but everybody I talked to was helpful and courteous and effective.


Thanks for your tip about the second level support at Comcast. I was eventually able to get my Xfinity OnDemand working. I had the problem where I could go into the Xfinity menus and select a show and start to play it but after a second or two it would freeze.

After many reps at Comcast yesterday were unable to find the problem I called Tivo today. The support guy at Tivo didn't know about the "special" number you mentioned but I told him you had gotten transferred to it and he searched on his system and found a phone number. It was a national network support line that wasn't supposed to talk to customers directly but the guy there did help me after hearing my story. He found that my cable card was set for a host type (server) that did not support OnDemand so he fixed that but it still wasn't working. He emailed my local Comcast network engineers and they told him that I was missing some billing information on my account. I called to the regular Comcast number and billing support told me everything looked fine and sent me once again to cable tech support and because of the clue from the national network tech about the billing information not being correct he looked closely and saw that my subscription information had not been backed up to the cable card. He wasn't sure if that was the problem but it was the only thing he could see that hadn't been done. He had to do a special "hit" to the card to back up the subscription data to it and then my OnDemand started working. This was not the regular hit that they do to add channels or add the Tivo Premiere tier to your cable card (which must be on it too for OnDemand to work, but they added this for me early on), this was a special "hit" that backed up the subscription information to the card. I hope this helps someone. I wasted hours getting this to work but I'm happy now it's finally working.


----------



## justinw

aadam101 said:


> I don't think that is a very good indication of what they will do in Boston. I don't even know how far the Motorola/Comcast/Tivo spread. I know at least one person in NH had one but I have never heard anyone from another New England state mention it besides Massachusetts.


I live in Connecticut, about 2 hours Southwest of Boston. We had the moto TiVo available in our area. So I am hoping when they say Boston they mean New England area or at least the markets that had an option for a moto TiVo.


----------



## cybah

Well I've had a support person confirm that yes, the OnDemand App is coming to TiVos in Boston. 

I had to call for a cable card issue and once i said I had a TiVo, she's like "oh we got a memo stating that the OnDemand is coming to Tivo in your area". She couldnt remember the date or the exact wording but it was "soon". The tech is coming on thursday so I'll ask the tech then.

Honestly, I think the rollout will initially be anyone who is ex-ContientialCableVision/MediaOne/AT&TBB in Eastern MA & Southern NH. It might start initially as Boston and the immediate suburbs (Somerville, Cambridge,Newton.Brookline,Roxbury,Dochester,etc), then roll out from there. 

But I can't see why the rest of New England wouldn't follow. Comcast tends to roll out things this way here in New England (a staggered, radiating from Boston). It really depends on how your cable system for your town is setup..

Comcast see's New England as one business unit so I can't see why eventually it would be region wide.


----------



## Johncv

justinw said:


> I live in Connecticut, about 2 hours Southwest of Boston. We had the moto TiVo available in our area. So I am hoping when they say Boston they mean New England area or at least the markets that had an option for a moto TiVo.


That mean you will buy a TiVo?


----------



## aadam101

cybah said:


> Well I've had a support person confirm that yes, the OnDemand App is coming to TiVos in Boston.
> 
> I had to call for a cable card issue and once i said I had a TiVo, she's like "oh we got a memo stating that the OnDemand is coming to Tivo in your area". She couldnt remember the date or the exact wording but it was "soon". The tech is coming on thursday so I'll ask the tech then.
> 
> Honestly, I think the rollout will initially be anyone who is ex-ContientialCableVision/MediaOne/AT&TBB in Eastern MA & Southern NH. It might start initially as Boston and the immediate suburbs (Somerville, Cambridge,Newton.Brookline,Roxbury,Dochester,etc), then roll out from there.
> 
> But I can't see why the rest of New England wouldn't follow. Comcast tends to roll out things this way here in New England (a staggered, radiating from Boston). It really depends on how your cable system for your town is setup..
> 
> Comcast see's New England as one business unit so I can't see why eventually it would be region wide.


I also spoke with a rep trying to make sense of the memo. She didn't understand it all. She thought Comcast was going to be providing the Premiere. She also thought the Premiere was just recently released. She was also very confused about the current Motorola/Comcast/Tivo that my mom has. I had to educate her and explain to her what was what.

She also seemed pretty certain that the Motorola/Comcast/Tivo's are being taken out of service in August.....but like I said, she was confused. If this is true, I wonder if they will offer existing customers anything. I may advise my mom to just hold onto it until August.


----------



## nrnoble

Sorry but I have only skimmed this thread, so far.

I have Comcast and a TiVo Premiere. Looking for some insight as to why its limited to just a few Comcast locations. Its the Internet, so its not like each location needs to upgrade their equipment to support it, especially when it is supported on other devices such as iPhone\iPad.

Thanks


----------



## MichaelK

nrnoble said:


> Sorry but I have only skimmed this thread, so far.
> 
> I have Comcast and a TiVo Premiere. Looking for some insight as to why its limited to just a few Comcast locations. Its the Internet, so its not like each location needs to upgrade their equipment to support it, especially when it is supported on other devices such as iPhone\iPad.
> 
> Thanks


Its NOT the internet- the content is sent over a QAM channel just like the normal cable programming.Ipads, expoxes, pcs etc get internet streams- the TiVo does not.
So each head end does in fact have to be updated so that it has the ability to talk to the tivos connected to it and let them know which channel to look for the show on.


----------



## CharlesH

MichaelK said:


> Its' NOT the internet- the content is sent over a QAM channel just like the "normal" cable programming.Ipads, expoxes, pc's etc get internet streams- the TiVo does not.
> So each head end does in fact have to be updated so that it has the ability to talk to the tivo's connected to it and let them know which channel to look for the show on.


Only the OnDemand control stream from the TiVo goes over the Internet. As MichaelK says, the actual content comes over a QAM channel just like OnDemand on Comcast set-top boxes.


----------



## nrnoble

Thanks. I know understand how they have designed it to work with TiVos and their own cable boxes. This however begs the question: why not just go with an ip streaming since they already are streaming xfinity to other devices (PC\iPad\iPhone\etc)?

I also have HBO, and the only way for me to get HBO GO on my TV from comcast is to get xFinity (or get rent their cable box) because they block HBO GO on devices such as RoKu. I can stream both xfinity and HBO GO to my PC, iPhone, & iPad, but not to my TiVo or Roku.


----------



## aadam101

nrnoble said:


> Thanks. I know understand how they have designed it to work with TiVos and their own cable boxes. This however begs the question: why not just go with an ip streaming since they already are streaming xfinity to other devices (PC\iPad\iPhone\etc)?
> 
> I also have HBO, and the only way for me to get HBO GO on my TV from comcast is to get xFinity (or get rent their cable box) because they block HBO GO on devices such as RoKu. I can stream both xfinity and HBO GO to my PC, iPhone, & iPad, but not to my TiVo or Roku.


Tivo doesn't have built in wifi and their wireless adapters are mediocre at best. QAM simply offers a better video experience than many people will have using the internet. I have seen a lot of complaints about video quality on Xbox so I think they made the right choice.


----------



## morac

aadam101 said:


> Tivo doesn't have built in wifi and their wireless adapters are mediocre at best. QAM simply offers a better video experience than many people will have using the internet. I have seen a lot of complaints about video quality on Xbox so I think they made the right choice.


Plus this way you don't have to worry about going over Comcast's cap.


----------



## aadam101

morac said:


> Plus this way you don't have to worry about going over Comcast's cap.


Do you have to worry about it on Xbox 360? I was under the impression they were not counting Xfinity bandwidth towards the cap.


----------



## morac

aadam101 said:


> Do you have to worry about it on Xbox 360? I was under the impression they were not counting Xfinity bandwidth towards the cap.


You don't, but that may be why Comcast is keep the streaming quality so low. Also who knows how much Microsoft is paying Comcast for this privilege.


----------



## lpwcomp

I for one don't want them utilizing my u-verse and LAN bandwidth to deliver content that can be delivered over cable.


----------



## NorthAlabama

nrnoble said:


> why not just go with an ip streaming since they already are streaming xfinity to other devices (PC\iPad\iPhone\etc)?


i know most/all of this has already been touched on in this forum, but here are a few quick reasons:

first, internet usage caps. i have comcast tv, but my isp is u-verse. even though i'm nowhere near my caps, and i haven't heard of u-verse enforcing caps in my area, there's no need to start running up my monthly max.

next, network slowness. if you're streaming hd, anything else on your network slows to a snails pace, at least it does with my 12 Mbps purchased pkg.

last, quality. you'll rarely match the quality with streaming vs qam channel.​
i've used on demand both ways, and taking the isp out of the loop was the better service for me (of course, your mileage may vary).


----------



## nrnoble

Thanks, it does makes sense now that others have provided more info. Where I live, I get 20-25mbit typical speeds, but other subscribers might have slower packages or simply can't get the speeds reqiuired for HD. 

Overall, I can get everything I want, just have to use 3 devices. What I can't get on TiVo (#1 choice), I use Roku XS (#2 choice). And what I can't get on RoKu, I use a Mac Mini that is a dedicated HTPC (#3 choice), thus I can watch HBO GO and xFinity on the Mac Mini. The Mini runs Plex for streaming ripped DVDs.

I do have a Xbox 360, but I don't have it configured for TV\Movie watching.


----------



## MACCTVO

I have it from a good source in Comcast that they will support VOD via TIVO Premiere in the BOS area quite soon. Also, customers that currently have the Comcast/TIVO/Motorola service (never got out of the BOS area) will receive a free TIVO Premiere as a swapout with their current service. They will then "own" that box and pay a monthly fee for a cablecard. I don't know when the general TIVO rollout will be, but he hinted at "August" as the Motorola/TIVO swapout.


----------



## inaka

So is the Bay Area rollout for Comcast On-Demand via Tivo working flawlessly, or are there still any issues?

I live in the Bay Area and have a Series 3, but I'm looking to upgrade if the on-demand is now working correctly for most/all.


----------



## DogsOfWarandPeac

inaka said:


> So is the Bay Area rollout for Comcast On-Demand via Tivo working flawlessly, or are there still any issues?


Still works great for me. Though the ever-present bars on either side of the content are still annoying. They really should fix that.


----------



## inaka

Thanks, DogsOfWarandPeac.
I may have to upgrade the 'ol Series 3...


----------



## davidmin

It looks like Comcast is making changes to its bandwidth cap.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57436489-93/comcast-ditches-250gb-data-cap-tests-tiered-pricing/

I'm going to switch to Comcast so I can get on-demand with my Premier, despite the cap, though I am still going to use Netflix streaming.


----------



## lpwcomp

davidmin said:


> It looks like Comcast is making changes to its bandwidth cap.
> 
> http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57436489-93/comcast-ditches-250gb-data-cap-tests-tiered-pricing/
> 
> I'm going to switch to Comcast so I can get on-demand with my Premier, despite the cap, though I am still going to use Netflix streaming.


Unless the bay area people who actually already have it say otherwise, based on the available information I am going to continue to assume that _*Comcast*_ internet is not required.


----------



## 241705

That is correct. The OnDemand comes through the TV cable like any other program. The internet up-link may be used for some communication but that's it.


----------



## benjosevilla

I upgraded to Tivo Premier this week to take advantage of xFinity on Demand. After the usual pairing and waiting 24-72 hours, the xFinity logo was there and I can get the list of movies. Once you select a movie, the screen blanks out then an error message appears. After 2 calls to Comcast support, signals sent and again wait, they finally sent out a tech to my house. The tech that came was new to Tivo but a veteran Comcast tech. He made a few calls to his buddies and a final call to central. 

Here is the key, Comcast needs to set the MCard to "one-way" and not "two-way" This fixed my issue, now I can watch Xfinity OnDemand.


----------



## aadam101

benjosevilla said:


> I upgraded to Tivo Premier this week to take advantage of xFinity on Demand. After the usual pairing and waiting 24-72 hours, the xFinity logo was there and I can get the list of movies. Once you select a movie, the screen blanks out then an error message appears. After 2 calls to Comcast support, signals sent and again wait, they finally sent out a tech to my house. The tech that came was new to Tivo but a veteran Comcast tech. He made a few calls to his buddies and a final call to central.
> 
> Here is the key, Comcast needs to set the MCard to "one-way" and not "two-way" This fixed my issue, now I can watch Xfinity OnDemand.


That's interesting. My card was set to "one way" and we couldn't figure out why.


----------



## weldon

aadam101 said:


> That's interesting. My card was set to "one way" and we couldn't figure out why.


That's an easy one. Your TiVo is a one-way cable device.

http://support.tivo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/137


----------



## minimeh

lpwcomp said:


> Unless the bay area people who actually already have it say otherwise, based on the available information I am going to continue to assume that _*Comcast*_ internet is not required.


I'm in San Francisco using Webpass as my ISP and can confirm that Comcast internet is not required for on-demand.


----------



## davidmin

lpwcomp said:


> Unless the bay area people who actually already have it say otherwise, based on the available information I am going to continue to assume that _*Comcast*_ internet is not required.


True, but having one cable company (Astound) for broadband and one for TV (Comcast) sounds like a recipe for disaster. They're hard enough to deal with in conventional situations.


----------



## NorthAlabama

davidmin said:


> having one cable company (Astound) for broadband and one for TV (Comcast) sounds like a recipe for disaster


acutally, i kind of like it, as it allows me to keep each provider in check, and all my eggs are not in one basket.

my cost is substantially lower each month, and the competition for business allows me to maintain viable options when dealing with service interruptions or billing disputes with one or the other.

i even have a third service provider for my home phone, and a fourth for wireless, and have never been more satisfied with the level of service i currently receive from all four providers. but if that ever changes, i'm lucky enough to have options from other carriers who would love to pick up my business. competition is wonderful.


----------



## kilcher

Just curious how it's working for those who have it. For me there's a huge difference between watching TiVo and watching on demand on the Comcast box. Is it more like watching TiVo or more like watching on demand on the Comcast box?


----------



## inaka

Well, I pulled the trigger.

My upgraded S3 with lifetime has been working perfectly since the day I bought it, but being in the Bay Area and having the On Demand option, I ordered a Premiere XL4 w/lifetime.

Should arrive soon, and I'm eager to check out Comcast's on-demand via the Tivo box.
Thanks for the info in this thread.


----------



## bareyb

inaka said:


> Well, I pulled the trigger.
> 
> My upgraded S3 with lifetime has been working perfectly since the day I bought it, but being in the Bay Area and having the On Demand option, I ordered a Premiere XL4 w/lifetime.
> 
> Should arrive soon, and I'm eager to check out Comcast's on-demand via the Tivo box.
> Thanks for the info in this thread.


Congrats inaka. I just pulled the Trigger myself a couple of months ago. I LOVE IT. The four tuners are beyond awesome. :up:


----------



## inaka

bareyb said:


> Congrats inaka. I just pulled the Trigger myself a couple of months ago. I LOVE IT. The four tuners are beyond awesome. :up:


Thanks, bareyb.

I honestly didn't even know Tivo made a 4-tuner option since my S3 had been working fine and I never felt the need to keep up with latest info. Now I just have to wait for it to arrive.

Luckily (or may unluckily?) I was able to get a Cablecard from Comcast so I have that here ready for a self-install. In the past it always required a truck roll and no joke, with my S3 they had to come out 6 times to pair ir correctly. Hopefully those kinks are all worked out. Looking forward to it!


----------



## bareyb

inaka said:


> Thanks, bareyb.
> 
> I honestly didn't even know Tivo made a 4-tuner option since my S3 had been working fine and I never felt the need to keep up with latest info. Now I just have to wait for it to arrive.
> 
> Luckily (or may unluckily?) I was able to get a Cablecard from Comcast so I have that here ready for a self-install. In the past it always required a truck roll and no joke, with my S3 they had to come out 6 times to pair ir correctly. Hopefully those kinks are all worked out. Looking forward to it!


I hope so too. In my case, it did require ramping up the Phone calls to higher levels techs, but eventually they got it working and it didn't require a truck roll. I still have my S3 and have since moved it into the Bedroom.


----------



## inaka

Yeah, the only thing I'll miss is the clock and TV show display of the S3, but I'll live. 

Thanks to this thread, I'll be sure to tell the tech on the phone to have the MCard set to "one-way" and not "two-way" so hopefully that'll make things go smoothly. *knocks on wood*


----------



## bareyb

inaka said:


> Yeah, the only thing I'll miss is the clock and TV show display of the S3, but I'll live.
> 
> Thanks to this thread, I'll be sure to tell the tech on the phone to have the MCard set to "one-way" and not "two-way" so hopefully that'll make things go smoothly. *knocks on wood*


Same here. I do miss the OLED. That was cool and you will likely never see anything like that again on a TiVo. Now you just get a series of colored rings. I got used to it pretty fast though and the other advantages have more than made up for it. 

One nice thing about this new box is the MRV. It's super fast now and there are a couple of other minor GUI enhancements too (I still prefer the SD Menus myself). Overall I've been really happy with it. We used to have two TiVos in the living room to catch all of our shows, and now it's all on one box. So no having to change inputs on the TV constantly. We ended up putting our trusty S3 into our bedroom and it's been really nice having TiVo in there. I'm watching some Sports on it as we speak (it's nice and quiet in here).


----------



## ajwees41

inaka said:


> Yeah, the only thing I'll miss is the clock and TV show display of the S3, but I'll live.
> 
> Thanks to this thread, I'll be sure to tell the tech on the phone to have the MCard set to "one-way" and not "two-way" so hopefully that'll make things go smoothly. *knocks on wood*


the cards are 2 way they is no setting them one way or two way it's the hardware which is one way that is why ondemand and other 2 way services do not work.


----------



## inaka

ajwees41 said:


> the cards are 2 way they is no setting them one way or two way it's the hardware which is one way that is why ondemand and other 2 way services do not work.


I'm talking about what was covered in post #350 of this thread.

I'm not saying I need to change this setting, I'm saying I'll notify the Comcast tech when activating the TiVo to ensure its set to one way on Comcast's end.


----------



## aadam101

Can someone explain the difference between a "one way" and a "two way" device? Apparently, it doesn't mean what I thought it did.


----------



## ajwees41

inaka said:


> I'm talking about what was covered in post #350 of this thread.
> 
> I'm not saying I need to change this setting, I'm saying I'll notify the Comcast tech when activating the TiVo to ensure its set to one way on Comcast's end.


there is no setting that needs to be set on comcast or any cable system.


----------



## ajwees41

aadam101 said:


> Can someone explain the difference between a "one way" and a "two way" device? Apparently, it doesn't mean what I thought it did.


one way devices cable card tv, tivo's all models, pc tuners that take cable cards.

two way devices truway, cable boxes


----------



## inaka

ajwees41 said:


> there is no setting that needs to be set on comcast or any cable system.


I'm going by post #350 as I said to ensure that Comcasts on demand works properly with the TiVo Preimere.


----------



## shaown

ajwees41 said:


> there is no setting that needs to be set on comcast or any cable system.


Definitely NOT true. On Suddenlink, they often code cable cards indicating they are somehow two way capable - apparently many of the cable cards are used in cable boxes that can respond back to the head end (even though the cable card itself can't since its a one way device). So if they setup a cable card used in a Tivo that way, their system fails to complete the authorization cause it waits forever for the Cable box to ping them back. A common problem - a process/software issue in the call center / head end. I would not be surprised if Comcast has the same options/issues.


----------



## inaka

ajwees41 said:


> the cards are 2 way they is no setting them one way or two way it's the hardware which is one way *that is why ondemand and other 2 way services do not work.*


Yeah, I figured ajwees41 was making a mistake and using old info, especially after reading the bold part above. No big deal, tivo with ondemand is new and not available everywhere so it's natural to make that error. It was just a bit ironic with this being the Tivo with ondemand thread and all.

My Premiere XL4 arrives Friday.
Can't wait to test this stuff out.


----------



## innocentfreak

They announced earlier tonight that Boston starts next week.


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/205764112926507012


> Yeah Boston! MT @ stevegarfield Breaking: Available next week for Boston area Comcast @TiVo customers, XFINITY VOD http://bit.ly/JEaxLz


----------



## sbiller

innocentfreak said:


> They announced earlier tonight that Boston starts next week.
> 
> 
> __ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/205764112926507012


Anyone else as surprised as me that Comcast is launching in a second market so quickly?


----------



## morac

sbiller said:


> Anyone else as surprised as me that Comcast is launching in a second market so quickly?


I wouldn't really call this quickly. At the rate of one city/region per month, it will takes years to reach everyone.


----------



## aadam101

morac said:


> I wouldn't really call this quickly. At the rate of one city/region per month, it will takes years to reach everyone.


I think it is quick for COmcast. The last Comcast/Tivo rollout was 4 years ago and never made it past New England. The fact that this is already expanding is a very good sign.


----------



## morac

aadam101 said:


> I think it is quick for COmcast. The last Comcast/Tivo rollout was 4 years ago and never made it past New England. The fact that this is already expanding is a very good sign.


That was a completely different animal and involved trying to put the TiVo software on a Motorola cable box, which was never designed to handle it. This is a lot less complicated. The hardest part (and the only part that involves an effort on Comcast's end) is adding the Internet to local headend communication (i.e. backend channel). Everything else, namely the TiVo software and Comcast VOD delivery system is already in place.


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## aadam101

morac said:


> That was a completely different animal and involved trying to put the TiVo software on a Motorola cable box, which was never designed to handle it. This is a lot less complicated. The hardest part (and the only part that involves an effort on Comcast's end) is adding the Internet to local headend communication (i.e. backend channel). Everything else, namely the TiVo software and Comcast VOD delivery system is already in place.


I realize that. I just think that is part of why people have low expectations for this project. The announcement for that old project was made in 2005 and took three years for the product to launch. The history of these two companies has moved VERY slowly. When compared to that this new roll out is happening at lightning speed.


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## slowbiscuit

morac said:


> I wouldn't really call this quickly. At the rate of one city/region per month, it will takes years to reach everyone.


:up:


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## aadam101

It's not really one city per month though. New England and the San Francisco Bay areas are pretty large chunks of space and highly populated. My guess is that there are lots of tech people living in these areas and those are people who tend to own Tivo's.


----------



## sbiller

Here's my guess based on Nielsen DMA...

Here's my guess as to the Comcast roll-out schedule if its based on market size.

#1. San Fran (1.73M Comcast Households)
#2. Boston (~1.7M (est) Comcast Households)
#3. Washington, DC (1.66M Comcast Households)
#4. Seattle (1.3M Comcast Households) 
#5. Atlanta (1.37M Comcast Households)
#6. Detroit (1.16M Comcast Households) 
#7. Miami (1.1M Comcast Households)
#8. Houston (.838M Comcast Households)


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## bareyb

I'm watching Countdown to UFC with the Comcast On Demand. Pretty nice. I was able to lose the "black box" borders simply by hitting "Zoom" on my TV's remote. Works like a charm and you don't miss a thing.


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## Johncv

Sort of a dumb question, what happens if this take off and sell more TiVos? Could this force the cable companies like Comcast and Cox and (Hell freezes over) Time-Waner to offer TiVo DVR instead of SA or Moto crap DVR?


----------



## bareyb

Johncv said:


> Sort of a dumb question, what happens if this take off and sell more TiVo's? Could this force the cable companies like Comcast and Cox and (Hell freezes over) Time-Waner to offer TiVo DVR instead of SA or Moto crap DVR?


I think your "when hell freezes over" is pretty apt. I just don't see them ever offering a competitor's DVR when they go so far out of their way to force us to use their own pieces of crap. There's just too much money to be made, and too many uneducated people out there who think "as long as it fast forwards and pauses, it's good enough for me". 

ETA: This article from the OP kind of touches on what the big providers are doing with regard to TiVo integration.


----------



## ajwees41

sbiller said:


> Anyone else as surprised as me that Comcast is launching in a second market so quickly?


any one in a comcast area know how long it took from the announcement of the tivo on motorola to actual launch?


----------



## aadam101

ajwees41 said:


> any one in a comcast area know how long it took from the announcement of the tivo on motorola to actual launch?


The Motorola/Comcast/Tivo was announced in Mid 2005 if I recall. It launched in August(?) 2008.


----------



## inaka

Got my Premiere XL4 at around 2:30pm yesterday, to replace my S3.

The initial setup took a long time, as I think there was a software update in there somewhere. (The menus are kind of frustrating as it just says "Downloading..." for over an hour with no sign of how long it will take, etc.) I was worried the box froze up.

That said, after the setup, this thing is pretty amazing.
Setting up the cablecard was simple! I was expecting a nightmare, but it was easy. I had the cablecard I picked up at the Comcast office a few days ago, and I called to activate it. Within 5 mins it was up and running. 

And within about an hour I saw the On Demand menu!
Oddly enough, if I switched the Premiere to the SD menus, I saw the On Demand right away. When using the HD menus, it took a few hours for it to show up.

Just doing a brief test, I do have small black bars on the left/right sides when viewing On Demand content, and even the main On Demand menus. Not a huge deal, at all, but it is a bit odd.

On a completely side note, the HD menus of the Premiere XL4 seem really slow and a bit buggy. I had a lockup once in the menus, and never had that with the S3. But I know during the initial loading/indexing stage performance of the tivo box can take a hit. I just hope it isn't this way all the time. 

But the upgrade process could not have been easier!
Thanks to all in this thread for their info! :up:


----------



## aindik

sbiller said:


> Here's my guess based on Nielsen DMA...
> 
> Here's my guess as to the Comcast roll-out schedule if its based on market size.
> 
> #1. San Fran (1.73M Comcast Households)
> #2. Boston (~1.7M (est) Comcast Households)
> #3. Washington, DC (1.66M Comcast Households)
> #4. Seattle (1.3M Comcast Households)
> #5. Atlanta (1.37M Comcast Households)
> #6. Detroit (1.16M Comcast Households)
> #7. Miami (1.1M Comcast Households)
> #8. Houston (.838M Comcast Households)


You are missing Comcast's home market. We have to have more Comcast subs than Houston, right?


----------



## jrtroo

Are all of these markets fully digital? If not, I would conjecture that they are not set up for a first pass for this product.

Back when the plan was for Comcast w/ Tivo software boxes, Chicagoland, which is fully digital, was on the short list for release after Boston.


----------



## jrtroo

Johncv said:


> Sort of a dumb question, what happens if this take off and sell more TiVos? Could this force the cable companies like Comcast and Cox and (Hell freezes over) Time-Waner to offer TiVo DVR instead of SA or Moto crap DVR?




Actually, this is from the initial press release (emphasis added):

Under the agreement, Comcast will make its Xfinity TV On Demand service accessible on TiVo Premiere set-top boxes in many of its largest markets, with the first expected to be the San Francisco Bay Area with a plan for additional markets to follow. In each of those markets Comcast and TiVo plan to partner on promotion of this new service in retail and other sales channels. _Comcast will install TiVo Premiere set-top boxes with its cable service at no additional charge_ for its customers when the service is available in those markets.

Not sure what it means exactly, but sounds close to an offering of a retail box from/through Comcast.


----------



## MichaelK

aindik said:


> You are missing Comcast's home market. We have to have more Comcast subs than Houston, right?


I'm also surprised no NY and LA DMA's.

Living in the NY one I realize it happens to be devided up pretty well with other players- but those 2 are the largest DMA's so unless comcast has a tiny percentage they would still be a bunch of subs.

I guess maybe they dominate other areas?

Anyway my take would be it more has something to do with hardware at the particular headends in the area. (just really a guess though to be honest)

Seems Boston/New England is goto place for new initiatives so my guess is that the region wasnt as cobbled together as others and so has consistent headend hardware and so its easier to upgrade that region rather than scattered headends at different times in other regions.


----------



## aindik

MichaelK said:


> I'm also surprised no NY and LA DMA's.
> 
> Living in the NY one I realize it happens to be devided up pretty well with other players- but those 2 are the largest DMA's so unless comcast has a tiny percentage they would still be a bunch of subs.
> 
> I guess maybe they dominate other areas?


Almost every neighborhood in the entire Philly area has Comcast as the default cable company. In almost every neighborhood, it's the only "cable" option (if you don't count FIOS as cable).

In NY, Comcast is only in New Jersey. Most of the rest of the area is Time Warner Cable or Cablevision.


----------



## jfalkingham

aindik said:


> You are missing Comcast's home market. We have to have more Comcast subs than Houston, right?


You would like to think so, but they seem to pick the Boston market more than others for soft launches. TiVo on moto boxes (i still have one), anyroom dvr, blast internet (100mbps now?), home security (along with houston), etc. no idea why, but it might have to do with fios markets. Verizon (before walking away from northern new england) used Epping nh as well as kelly, tx to launch fios internet. Since then Comcast has gone into overdrive here with services/features.

Who knows for sure, but brian roberts spends a majority of the summer on marthas vineyard, good excuse to keep the latest and greatest around here.


----------



## aindik

jfalkingham said:


> You would like to think so, but they seem to pick the Boston market more than others for soft launches. TiVo on moto boxes (i still have one), anyroom dvr, blast internet (100mbps now?), home security (along with houston), etc. no idea why, but it might have to do with fios markets. Verizon (before walking away from northern new england) used Epping nh as well as kelly, tx to launch fios internet. Since then Comcast has gone into overdrive here with services/features.
> 
> Who knows for sure, but brian roberts spends a majority of the summer on marthas vineyard, good excuse to keep the latest and greatest around here.


I understand if Boston is a bigger Comcast market than Philly, but I can't imagine Philly doesn't make the top 10.


----------



## lpwcomp

aindik said:


> Almost every neighborhood in the entire Philly area has Comcast as the default cable company. In almost every neighborhood, it's the only "cable" option (if you don't count FIOS as cable).


If it is Verizon FIOS, it may not be "cable" but it is an alternative not available in most markets. And they support CableCARD devices like say, TiVo.


----------



## Torgo

aindik said:


> I understand if Boston is a bigger Comcast market than Philly, but I can't imagine Philly doesn't make the top 10.


Philly is #4, behind NY, LA, Chicago
http://www.tvb.org/media/file/TVB_Market_Profiles_Nielsen_Household_DMA_RANKS.pdf
I don't think #1-3 are Comcast cities, so I'd say Philly should have been first, not San Francisco


----------



## jrtroo

Market is different than the City itself. Chicago suburbs are Comcast while the city is RCN.


----------



## aindik

Torgo said:


> Philly is #4, behind NY, LA, Chicago
> http://www.tvb.org/media/file/TVB_Market_Profiles_Nielsen_Household_DMA_RANKS.pdf
> I don't think #1-3 are Comcast cities, so I'd say Philly should have been first, not San Francisco


I meant size in terms of number of Comcast subscribers. Not number of TV households.


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## sbiller

aindik said:


> Almost every neighborhood in the entire Philly area has Comcast as the default cable company. In almost every neighborhood, it's the only "cable" option (if you don't count FIOS as cable).
> 
> In NY, Comcast is only in New Jersey. Most of the rest of the area is Time Warner Cable or Cablevision.


Agreed. I think I'm missing Philadelphia.

http://www.comcastspotlight.com/markets/philadelphia/312/market-info

Philadelphia...
#4 Television Market in the Nation
2.1 Million Cable Subscribers
Cable penetration in Philadelphia is at 80.7% vs the US average of 61.7%


----------



## aindik

sbiller said:


> Agreed. I think I'm missing Philadelphia.
> 
> http://www.comcastspotlight.com/markets/philadelphia/312/market-info
> 
> Philadelphia...
> #4 Television Market in the Nation
> 2.1 Million Cable Subscribers
> Cable penetration in Philadelphia is at 80.7% vs the US average of 61.7%


Cable still has a monopoly on local sports in Philadelphia. You can't see the local broadcasts of the Flyers, the 76ers or (with occasional exception) the Phillies unless you have cable, because Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia isn't available on DirecTV or Dish Network. It is available on FIOS, I believe, and on cable companies other than Comcast. But not on satellite.

Comcast is supposed to be negotiating with DirecTV about that after the FCC ruled that the loophole they were using to refuse to do so no longer existed. But after two years, nothing has happened.


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## jmpage2

I would ask if it's coming to Denver suburbs, but seeing as the Denver area seems to be dead last on virtually every deployment from wireless to broadband I will not be holding my breath for 2012.


----------



## sbiller




----------



## sbiller

source: http://comcast.com/tivo


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## sideshot

has any one in Boston received on demand yet?


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## Johncv

jrtroo said:


> Actually, this is from the initial press release (emphasis added):
> 
> Under the agreement, Comcast will make its Xfinity TV On Demand service accessible on TiVo Premiere set-top boxes in many of its largest markets, with the first expected to be the San Francisco Bay Area with a plan for additional markets to follow. In each of those markets Comcast and TiVo plan to partner on promotion of this new service in retail and other sales channels. _Comcast will install TiVo Premiere set-top boxes with its cable service at no additional charge_ for its customers when the service is available in those markets.
> 
> Not sure what it means exactly, but sounds close to an offering of a retail box from/through Comcast.


That the way I read it also, but it could also, mean that if YOU buy a TiVo box Comcast will come out and install everything at no charge to you. Comcast could even officer three months of movie service just so they no longer have to deal with a cable box.

Cisco must be terrify that this may cause Comcast to start using TiVo boxes which may explain why they are now suing TiVo.

There another trend on that here: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=488154


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## jfalkingham

sideshot said:


> has any one in Boston received on demand yet?


Not yet, but there is a new shiny billboard ad on 93 this week like the one in the bay area. Every rumor states 6/6, i heard this myself when calling the xfinity help line, we'll see.


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## BP-isMe

I saw the Billboard on Rte. 93 in Boston too. That prompted me to check here.

Brad


----------



## sbiller

BP-isMe said:


> I saw the Billboard on Rte. 93 in Boston too. That prompted me to check here.
> 
> Brad


Can someone post a picture of the billboard on Rte. 93?


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## jfalkingham

I wont be down there until next week. Anyone close to 93 south xway, just as you leave the tunnel, there is the tivo billboard. Have your camera ready.


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## dcci

Can anyone tell me if it's possible to receive Xfinity On Demand (assuming successful CableCard pairing, etc.) on a TiVo Premiere WITHOUT having a paid TiVo service subscription?

I wish to use a Windows Media Center as my primary TV set top box/DVR (with a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime), but of course, you can't get Xfinity VOD with that set up. But Xfinity VOD is a wife requirement, so I'm considering getting a basic TiVo Premiere for $100, and a CableCard, and using the TiVo only for access to Xfinity VOD. But I don't want the monthly fee for the TiVo service, which I won't be using. Will that work?


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## shadowplay0918

No, you would need a Tivo service subscription to access Xfinity On Demand.

You could always buy an Xbox for $200 (used for less) and purchase a yearly subscription for Xbox Live Gold for $40ish (if you look around) as a cheaper option to access Xfinity On Demand.


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## Minollo

I didn't see it in the menu yesterday evening; but I haven't checked today yet...


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## GoEagles

dcci said:


> Can anyone tell me if it's possible to receive Xfinity On Demand (assuming successful CableCard pairing, etc.) on a TiVo Premiere WITHOUT having a paid TiVo service subscription?
> 
> I wish to use a Windows Media Center as my primary TV set top box/DVR (with a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime), but of course, you can't get Xfinity VOD with that set up. But Xfinity VOD is a wife requirement, so I'm considering getting a basic TiVo Premiere for $100, and a CableCard, and using the TiVo only for access to Xfinity VOD. But I don't want the monthly fee for the TiVo service, which I won't be using. Will that work?


Probably not.


----------



## ajwees41

dcci said:


> Can anyone tell me if it's possible to receive Xfinity On Demand (assuming successful CableCard pairing, etc.) on a TiVo Premiere WITHOUT having a paid TiVo service subscription?
> 
> I wish to use a Windows Media Center as my primary TV set top box/DVR (with a Silicon Dust HDHomeRun Prime), but of course, you can't get Xfinity VOD with that set up. But Xfinity VOD is a wife requirement, so I'm considering getting a basic TiVo Premiere for $100, and a CableCard, and using the TiVo only for access to Xfinity VOD. But I don't want the monthly fee for the TiVo service, which I won't be using. Will that work?


isn't it a menu option in the tivo menu? do you even get menus on a non subed tivo?


----------



## drebbe

Now that Xfinity OnDemand on Tivo has rolled out to San Fran and Boston, any info/rumors on which market(s) are next?


----------



## mattack

So I played with an Elite with On Demand for the first time last night... I thought that Find Program results would show On Demand stuff too.. it didn't. (We searched for Big Bang Theory, which IS on On Demand) Is On Demand stuff really only findable via the On Demand menu (which I realize does show up at the bottom of whatever they're calling Now Playing now)?

Though we did realize that apparently you CAN FF it, if you let it buffer a bit. So at least for the Big Bang Theory episode, there was basically just a 2 Broke Girls promo before it.. which apparently we could have skipped by pausing a bit then FFing.. (yes, I'd actually do that.)

I realize with 4 tuners, I'm probably even less likely to use On Demand.. though I can see the usefulness of it in some situations. (Heck, 4 tuners also lets you pad more shows, but also might be a way to deal with clipping issues.. by seeing the missed part via On Demand.)


----------



## innocentfreak

I wonder if the shows showing up in Find will come later much like they did with Hulu?


----------



## Minollo

As others have mentioned in this thread, I was able to easily enable the on demand icon and navigate the on demand content now that it's available also in the Boston area; but when I tried playing back content, I would only get 1-2 seconds of video, and then the playback would freeze.
I had to go through several levels of interaction with support folks, first Comcast, then Tivo, then Comcast again; a Comcast technician was dispatched, he spent 90 minutes on the phone with his support guy, and eventually they figured out the problem; he wasn't able to articulate the solution (from what I understood, a higher level support guy was working with the support person he was on the phone with, and that guy just mentioned he enabled some option in the cablecard and asked us to power cycle the Tivo), but now everything works fine - with the exception of the narrow black vertical bars when playing HD on demand (as mentioned by the others here).
Interesting to not that the Comcast technician had *no* clue about Tivo supporting OnDemand in the Boston area until this morning when he read his work order; and that Comcast is moving apparently without a clear set of instructions about what it takes to make cablecards in Tivo work with OnDemand properly; I wonder what will happen when more people and not just early adopters will start using the service...


----------



## lpwcomp

Minollo said:


> As others have mentioned in this thread, I was able to easily enable the on demand icon and navigate the on demand content now that it's available also in the Boston area; but when I tried playing back content, I would only get 1-2 seconds of video, and then the playback would freeze.
> I had to go through several levels of interaction with support folks, first Comcast, then Tivo, then Comcast again; a Comcast technician was dispatched, he spent 90 minutes on the phone with his support guy, and eventually they figured out the problem; he wasn't able to articulate the solution (from what I understood, a higher level support guy was working with the support person he was on the phone with, and that guy just mentioned he enabled some option in the cablecard and asked us to power cycle the Tivo), but now everything works fine - with the exception of the narrow black vertical bars when playing HD on demand (as mentioned by the others here).
> Interesting to not that the Comcast technician had *no* clue about Tivo supporting OnDemand in the Boston area until this morning when he read his work order; and that Comcast is moving apparently without a clear set of instructions about what it takes to make cablecards in Tivo work with OnDemand properly; I wonder what will happen when more people and not just early adopters will start using the service...


Have you read this post and taken the appropriate action?


----------



## CharlesH

shadowplay0918 said:


> You could always buy an Xbox for $200 (used for less) and purchase a yearly subscription for Xbox Live Gold for $40ish (if you look around) as a cheaper option to access Xfinity On Demand.


As I understand it, the Xbox app gives you the equivalent of the Xfinity Internet OnDemand functionality, as you would get on your PC at xfinity.com. This is different from the set-top version of OnDemand, which what TiVo is giving. I understand that more is offered on the set-top version than the Internet version.


----------



## aadam101

Minollo said:


> As others have mentioned in this thread, I was able to easily enable the on demand icon and navigate the on demand content now that it's available also in the Boston area; but when I tried playing back content, I would only get 1-2 seconds of video, and then the playback would freeze.
> I had to go through several levels of interaction with support folks, first Comcast, then Tivo, then Comcast again; a Comcast technician was dispatched, he spent 90 minutes on the phone with his support guy, and eventually they figured out the problem; he wasn't able to articulate the solution (from what I understood, a higher level support guy was working with the support person he was on the phone with, and that guy just mentioned he enabled some option in the cablecard and asked us to power cycle the Tivo), but now everything works fine - with the exception of the narrow black vertical bars when playing HD on demand (as mentioned by the others here).
> Interesting to not that the Comcast technician had *no* clue about Tivo supporting OnDemand in the Boston area until this morning when he read his work order; and that Comcast is moving apparently without a clear set of instructions about what it takes to make cablecards in Tivo work with OnDemand properly; I wonder what will happen when more people and not just early adopters will start using the service...


I am having the same exact problem. I wasn't able to get past the first tier of support. The guy did open a ticket and promise to call me back in a few hours. He never called back......


----------



## shadowplay0918

CharlesH said:


> As I understand it, the Xbox app gives you the equivalent of the Xfinity Internet OnDemand functionality, as you would get on your PC at xfinity.com. This is different from the set-top version of OnDemand, which what TiVo is giving. I understand that more is offered on the set-top version than the Internet version.


I had not heard that, thought the Xfinity app was the same (I picked one up for the HBO GO app)....


----------



## Minollo

lpwcomp said:


> Have you read this post and taken the appropriate action?


No, I didn't see that post earlier; I did contact Tivo support on Friday, but they weren't very helpful, other that identifying that the problem was definitely with Comcast... I'll send an email to Margret; maybe they can use the experience Comcast had with me to apply it to others...


----------



## Minollo

aadam101 said:


> I am having the same exact problem. I wasn't able to get past the first tier of support. The guy did open a ticket and promise to call me back in a few hours. He never called back......


I didn't get anywhere calling them on the phone - and I did try a few times, talking to 2-3 different people. Only the technician who visited me this afternoon was able to actually connect with some higher support level; even then, they had to go through several attempts before finally succeeding - and I'm not positive they really understood what they did in the end to fix it...


----------



## aadam101

Minollo said:


> I didn't get anywhere calling them on the phone - and I did try a few times, talking to 2-3 different people. Only the technician who visited me this afternoon was able to actually connect with some higher support level; even then, they had to go through several attempts before finally succeeding - and I'm not positive they really understood what they did in the end to fix it...


I had much better luck with the online chat. Not sure if those reps have more training. I asked the guy to ask the ATS team to add the "AO" code to my account and he had it up and running in less than 5 minutes. This might be the very first time I've ever had a good Comcast experience.


----------



## Minollo

aadam101 said:


> I had much better luck with the online chat. Not sure if those reps have more training. I asked the guy to ask the ATS team to add the "AO" code to my account and he had it up and running in less than 5 minutes. This might be the very first time I've ever had a good Comcast experience.


Good to know for future reference.
BTW, yesterday evening I noticed a different problem; an example: I can navigate through the XFinity OnDemand icon to the HD TV series Battlestar Galactica, and watch Episode One without problems. But if I try to do Find, search for Battlestar Galactica, select the same Episode One (HD) offered by XFinity VOD (btw, nice that it appears in the search result!), when I try playing it, I get a CL-14 error from XFinity (Service Error). I tried with other shows (for example, the movie Ghostbusters), and I see the same behavior; it looks like I can see VOD without problems if I access the content from the XFinity ondemand app, but if I try to access the show directly from a search result, that error comes up. Do you see the same?
I did email Margret at Tivo about this.


----------



## mwysocki

I got the on demand last week but it was not working. It would freeze up in seconds of starting a show. Then sometime would give a 8001 error. I did some searching and found a link to a form to fill out for Comcast to grant on demand access to my cable card. I did it for one card but then a day later they both worked with no more issues.

You can find the link in the Tivo support section under this topic.

TROUBLESHOOTING : XFINITY On Demand for TiVo Premiere


----------



## Larry in TN

Has Comcast/Xfinity said how/when this feature will be rolled out in additional markets?


----------



## jrm01

Larry in TN said:


> Has Comcast/Xfinity said how/when this feature will be rolled out in additional markets?


Slowly and poorly.


----------



## beejay

jrm01 said:


> Slowly and poorly.


I suspect that was not the terminology they used...

But being from a relatively small Comcast market, I'd be interested to know if they said eventually all markets would be converted or if some just wouldn't be worth it.


----------



## morac

Larry in TN said:


> Has Comcast/Xfinity said how/when this feature will be rolled out in additional markets?


The only thing that's been said (though not in so many words), is that it probably won't be fully deployed by the end of the year.

It's likely to be in one of the following areas as these are Comcast's major market areas and usually get updates first: Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Harrisburg (Pa.), Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, state of New Jersey, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Seattle, Washington D.C. or western New England. Boston and San Fransisco are also on this list, but they already have the update.

Anyone want to start a bragging rights wager as to the next city/area? My guess would be Philadelphia. That or Chicago.


----------



## jrtroo

http://pr.tivo.com/easyir/customrel.do?easyirid=CA934452BA6418EF&version=live&prid=753154&releasejsp=custom_150

Here are two relative parts (emphasis added):

For the first time, Comcast customers *in select markets* will be able to use a TiVo Premiere box to enjoy a fully integrated offering of On Demand programs, along with linear television and a range of broadband services, all accessible through TiVo's user interface and intuitive search capabilities.

Under the agreement, Comcast will make its Xfinity TV On Demand service accessible on TiVo Premiere set-top boxes *in many of its largest markets*, with the first expected to be the San Francisco Bay Area with a plan for additional markets to follow.

No mention of a full, nation-wide rollout. Not saying it won't happen, it was just never mentioned or promised.


----------



## drebbe

"There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact." - Mark Twain

Given the history of the Comcast/TiVo partnership it is significant that they actually released something to a major market. Maybe even more importantly the first roll-out went well enough that they released to a second major market. Now here's where the conjecture begins...

There have been issues and it seems a fix for at least one of the problems (that we know about) is coming soon. If you were in Comcast/TiVo's position you'd probably wait to roll out to a new market until you are sure your fixes are working. I'd be surprised to see another market announced before the black bar (and possibly other issues) are addressed.

As to which market is next, you'd guess a larger market where Comcast has previously rolled out its new technologies suggesting those metro areas have reasonably modern cable infrastructure. SF and Boston certainly meet those criteria. Chicago and Denver would be reasonable guesses for example, they had the Tru2way trials and both are good sized. I'm sure there are others. 

But yes the caveats placed in its PR are probably real. No promise of a national roll-out ever, and no promise on the timing. 

"But the others wait in Casablanca... and wait.. and wait... and wait..."


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## MichaelK

curious- are SF and "boston" all moto areas? Anyone with Cisco hardware get it yet?


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## leiff

I also get frozen image after 2 seconds using on demand. Called comcast multiple times. Called there pairing center as well as tech support. They want to send a tech out. Is there any point to this? Am I ineligable for ondemand. It says here http://support.tivo.com/app/answers...or TiVo Premiere/session/L3NpZC9HWGpHTGtfaw==

that on demand is only for Tivos activated before April 9, 2012. I installed mine 3 days ago. BTW the cable card pairing phone # on this tivo support link is wrong. It should read 1-877 405-2298.


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## lpwcomp

leiff said:


> I also get frozen image after 2 seconds using on demand. Called comcast multiple times. Called there pairing center as well as tech support. They want to send a tech out. Is there any point to this? Am I ineligable for ondemand. It says here http://support.tivo.com/app/answers...or TiVo Premiere/session/L3NpZC9HWGpHTGtfaw==
> 
> that on demand is only for Tivos activated before April 9, 2012. I installed mine 3 days ago. BTW the cable card pairing phone # on this tivo support link is wrong. It should read 1-877 405-2298.


I assume you are referring to this:



> IMPORTANT: _*For a limited time*_, only existing TiVo Premiere DVRs installed prior to April 9th 2012 in eligible markets will have access to the XFINITY On Demand feature. _*TiVo Premiere DVRs in eligible markets installed after April 9th 2012 will receive the feature when it is fully launched over the coming weeks*_. It is possible to see the application, but it may not be fully functional. You will receive a notification on your TiVo box when the full functionality of the feature is available.


Someone from TiVo will have to clarify what "fully launched" means.


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## aadam101

lpwcomp said:


> I assume you are referring to this:
> 
> Someone from TiVo will have to clarify what "fully launched" means.


Where did you get that quote? My Tivo was installed in May and Xfinity OnDemand works just fine.


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## aadam101

leiff said:


> I also get frozen image after 2 seconds using on demand. Called comcast multiple times. Called there pairing center as well as tech support. They want to send a tech out. Is there any point to this? Am I ineligable for ondemand. It says here http://support.tivo.com/app/answers...or TiVo Premiere/session/L3NpZC9HWGpHTGtfaw==
> 
> that on demand is only for Tivos activated before April 9, 2012. I installed mine 3 days ago. BTW the cable card pairing phone # on this tivo support link is wrong. It should read 1-877 405-2298.


You have to ask them to add a Tivo AO code to your account.


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## leiff

yeah, I asked about that as I saw that mentioned earlier in this thread. I was told it reffered to a second access card and didn't apply to me. Then I was transferred to someone else and she said it looked like the cable card still showed up as a non premier card since I had had it pulled from my S3 so she said she changed something and it should work. Network update and reboot later: same problem. Called comcast 5 times today and Tivo once. They said they couldn't help.


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## lpwcomp

aadam101 said:


> Where did you get that quote? My Tivo was installed in May and Xfinity OnDemand works just fine.


From the page pointed to by the link in the post I quoted. More specifically here.


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## leiff

baed on your advise I called comcast a 7'th time to refer to the AO code thing. Unfortunantly I callrd the cable pairing # and they said I needed basic tech support so I was transferred. This time the tech support wasn't so quick to recommend a truck roll. He put me on hold to investigate and then said he needed to have another department call me back in about 15 minutes. waiting now...


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## aadam101

leiff said:


> baed on your advise I called comcast a 7'th time to refer to the AO code thing. Unfortunantly I callrd the cable pairing # and they said I needed basic tech support so I was transferred. This time the tech support wasn't so quick to recommend a truck roll. He put me on hold to investigate and then said he needed to have another department call me back in about 15 minutes. waiting now...


Try chat. I added my AO code via chat and it was very simple. I needed a truck roll for the initial pairing because after 5 hours on the phone with various Comcast reps they couldn't figure it out. They were however, kind enough to charge me for the truck roll......


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## aadam101

lpwcomp said:


> From the page pointed to by the link in the post I quoted. More specifically here.


Interesting. It doesn't seem to be true. My Tivo was installed and activated on May 7.


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## leiff

tried chat they said they saw all troubleshooting had been done over phone already and all they could do was schedual truck roll. Mentioning AO code did not help. Then I tried calling in again. Rep said he was trying some kind of special flash to cable card. Now all my channels went out except SD local. He said to give them 10 minutes to come back. 10 minutes later I call comcast back and am told I need to wait 4 hrs. for channels to come back, not 10 minutes. So now I'm waiting for 4 hrs. to see if the channels come back which I doubt they will because I've never seen anything have to take that long before. At that time I'll have no choice but to initiate truck roll. They better not charge me. I'm at the outside of my 14 day return policy for this XL4 from E-expo and you can bet I'm returning this Tivo if I can't get On-demand working. 
I'm using one of my 2 m cards that I took out from my S3 Tivo. Maybe I'll try the other one before I call truck roll.

(EDIT) Affter waiting 4 hrs no surprise still no channels. Called and asked Tivo about this and they said wait time for channels is max 1 hr., not four. Called Comcast back and re-read all the cable card info and 10 minutes later got my channels back. Still same freeze issue for On-Demand. Scheduling truck roll now..


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## leiff

Comcast tech couldn't figure out what the problem was. Then they swapped for the other cable card in my old S3 and everything including on-demand now works. It seems I could have tried this myself but when I called yesterday to ask if I should try this I was told there was no point. So if your swapping an old S3 with 2 cards make sure to try both your cards if the first one doesn't work! The installer didn't want to take my extra Cable card for some reason and I don't know if I'm being billed for it. Wondering if I should call to take it off my account but then I'll have to mail it back to comcast which will be a headache. Right now on my bill I see one cable card charge for $1.50 but that could just mean the first card is free? Seems I'll be selling my S3. Wonder if I should include extra cable card with sale?


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## ajwees41

leiff said:


> Comcast tech couldn't figure out what the problem was. Then they swapped for the other cable card in my old S3 and everything including on-demand now works. It seems I could have tried this myself but when I called yesterday to ask if I should try this I was told there was no point. So if your swapping an old S3 with 2 cards make sure to try both your cards if the first one doesn't work! The installer didn't want to take my extra Cable card for some reason and I don't know if I'm being billed for it. Wondering if I should call to take it off my account but then I'll have to mail it back to comcast which will be a headache. Right now on my bill I see one cable card charge for $1.50 but that could just mean the first card is free? Seems I'll be selling my S3. Wonder if I should include extra cable card with sale?


cable cards need to be rented you should send the cable card back.


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## drebbe

Tom Rogers (CEO of TiVO) at this morning's NASDAQ OMX Investor conference made the following comment about the Xfinity OnDemand service on TiVo

"We've started -- in the last couple of months rolled out in San Francisco, 
last week we started rolling out in Boston. They are going to roll us out 
throughout their 15 largest markets."

I didn't see anything about timing, but nice to see a clearer statement on the size of the rollout.


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## MichaelK

Ok- so then who's got a list of the 15 largest comcast markets?


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## sbiller

MichaelK said:


> Ok- so then who's got a list of the 15 largest comcast markets?


I've never seen a solid list published but we could probably get pretty close by studying this --> http://www.comcastspotlight.com/markets


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## morac

MichaelK said:


> Ok- so then who's got a list of the 15 largest comcast markets?


Comcast's major markets are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Harrisburg (Pa.), Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, state of New Jersey, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Washington D.C. and western New England.

That's more than 15, but it's probably safe to say the 15 are in that list though.


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## d_anders

Comcast is in Minneapolis/St. Paul city markets, and they are larger than a number of ones noted below. Not sure where on the list they fall....



morac said:


> Comcast's major markets are: Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Harrisburg (Pa.), Hartford, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Miami, Nashville, state of New Jersey, Oakland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Francisco, San Jose, Seattle, Washington D.C. and western New England.
> 
> That's more than 15, but it's probably safe to say the 15 are in that list though.


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## jmpage2

It's mentioned in another thread but it has gone live in the Comcast Denver suburbs system.

We tried it out and it's pretty good, although puzzling that it's an SD interface. Also, we observed that with film based content the 3:2 pulldown judder (I'm guessing it's some kind of telecine issue) is pretty horrible, very noticeable on any camera pans, etc.


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## d_anders

Thanks for the link! By clicking on the Mpls/St Paul market, I was able to click on market overview page and the get the below information. Minneapolis and St. Paul are noted as their #15 market....



sbiller said:


> I've never seen a solid list published but we could probably get pretty close by studying this --> http://www.comcastspotlight.com/markets


Market Info
Market Cable Facts
DMA: Minneapolis-St. Paul
DMA Rank: 15
System: Comcast Spotlight
DMA TV HH: 1,721,940
DMA Cable TV HH: 908,720
DMA Cable Penetration: 52.8%
Interconnect DMA Cable TV HH: 829,930
Interconnect TSA Cable TV HH: 842,930
13 County Metro Cable Pen (CBSA): 54.5%
7-County Metro Cable Penetration: 56.6%
Comcast Spotlight Penetration: 91.3% coverage of the markets wired cable television households.
DMA Digital Cable Penetration: 44.7% 
DMA ADS Penetration: 28.7%


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## ghuido

Just got it in the NorthEast, Greater Philadelphia Market Area.


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## rfryar

d_anders said:


> Thanks for the link! By clicking on the Mpls/St Paul market, I was able to click on market overview page and the get the below information. Minneapolis and St. Paul are noted as their #15 market....


You should already be getting the ondemand. I am in the SE metro and have had it for about three weeks now. Works great.

Rick


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