Years ago, I worked with John Montgomery at Ziff-Davis’s PC Computing. Now, he’s a mucky-muck at Microsoft. And he has a very entertaining blog, in a geeky sort of way. I liked his comparo on the new Comcast DVR. I’m still deciding whether I like the Cox/Scientific Atlanta combo. The HD is awesome, the DVR software is, well, frustrating. Most importantly, it is in imminent danger of failing the WA (Wife Acceptance) test.
The Media Center PC continues to impress. It is on the verge of moving into the den, to take over standard-definition TV recording duties from the Tivo. Although I would be much happier if I could get a Media Center Extender instead.
Ed Bott 
So go and buy one. 🙂
Easier said than done! I have now placed three orders and canceled two after waiting a week for a product that went from “in stock” when I ordered it to “back ordered” after the order was placed.
I’ve got an order in now for a Linksys Media Center Extender from Newegg.com. It should be here in a couple of days. We’ll see…
Do you have a local Comcast office? If so, you should be able to walk in with your box and just swap it.
Nope, I’m a Cox customer. The box is working exactly as it’s supposed to. Unfortunately, that’s not great.
The good news is the Linksys box is working just fine. Not HD, but it turns out that’s not the most important thing after all.
Greetings… I’ve had TiVo on two TVs for 3 years, and I am a big TiVo fan. This week, I got the Comcast HDTV service with dual tuner DVR on one TV. I gotta tell you, the Comcast DVR system/software is awful. Yes, the HD picture is great and dual tuners are very nice, but that’s where the features end. User-friendliness is zero compared to TiVo’s intuitive controls. I’m almost tempted to switch back to TiVo and wait for Comcast to work something out with TiVo (wasn’t this partnership supposed to happen by now?). If TiVo would market a HD box, then maybe this would be a better option for Comcast customers.