Tikkabik

I've coveted my friends' TiVo systems but I haven't made the commitment -- part of it is simply the cost involved: It's another relatively expensive piece of home entertainment gear (even their current rebate plan calls for you to initially lay out $200).

Comcast has simplified this by offering a DVR box for a nominal fee and adding a monthly charge instead, and they just started the service in our region this month. Bonnie picked one of the new boxes up from the local Comcast office yesterday, and if the woman who helped her is to be believed, we're the first family in our town to have one of these systems.

The advantage with the Comcast solution is that the box is totally integrated with Comcast's cable television service. Comcast's DVR is a Motorola-made box that's basically an upgrade of the same system they sell to customers looking for HDTV. The only real difference is the addition of internal hard drive storage for recording shows, and a new "DVR" menu that pops up on the screen. The user interface is moderately different from the last Moto box we had, and I think the response is a bit better too. The custom remote is very different, also.

The service is still pretty bare-bones -- you can do simple searches for programs or movies you wish to record, and you can "instant replay" live video while you're watching, which is a really nifty feature. You can't do "season passes" yet, though -- in other words, you can't tell the box "Record '24' every time it's on," and you can't do some of the more sophisticated searches you can do with TiVo, like "find me movies directed by Steven Spielberg." It's also absent of any home networking or online programming features. Some of this could potentially be done in the form of firmware upgrades, and I'm sure Comcast will offer new boxes in the future with new capabilities too.

I'm not sure if this is a limitation of TiVo, too, but you're basically locked out when you're recording a program or movie -- it tunes the box to the station you wish to record, and if you attempt to switch, it pops up a warning on the screen telling you that it'll stop recording if you change the channel. Beats having to futz around with a VCR on a timer, though.

Bottom line, though, I'm not locked into a contract to use the new box, so if I don't like it, I can always downgrade and go pick up a TiVo. So we're still experimenting with it, but it looks like it's a handy new addition for a TV addicted family looking to maximize their time.