Any of you guys switch from Dish Network to Comcast recently?

[tspangle]

I wish I'd seen this thread earlier. We switched from the Hopper to the X1 a few weeks ago. I just called Dish today to get them to come out and re-connect us. The X1 is a decent system, and if you aren't a heavy DVR user, you will probably be OK with it. It does have a few advantages over Dish. As mentioned, the picture quality is a bit better, though it's hardly night-and-day. The user interface is nicer-looking and more "modern". There is more On-demand selection. But there were too many things we didn't like about it, hence the switch back to Dish. For one, the hard drive is tiny, maybe a quarter the size of the one in the Hopper. For another, you can't create folders to sort your recorded shows into. Also, there is no way to record a show at the same time every day, your options are to record all of them, or only the new ones. You can set a timed recording, but those are one-time only, there's no way to make them recurring. We also found ourselves missing Prime Time Anytime and Autohop a lot more than we thought we would. And, as good as Comcast's On-demand selection is, it has a serious negative: you can't fast-forward when you are watching it. So if you want to use On-demand to catch the end of a show you missed part of, you have no choice but to let it play until it reaches the spot you want. One other minor thing is that you can't turn the boxes off. You can set a timer to turn them off after a period of inactivity, but pressing the power button on the remote just turns the TV off and on, the boxes (and their annoyingly bright blue lights) stay on.

Oh, one other thing. I was watching a recorded show last week when we lost connection for a few minutes. Not only could I not go back to the guide or change channels (as you'd expect), I couldn't even pause or stop the show I was watching. The box kept throwing up the same error message no matter which button I pushed. That was pretty frustrating.

OK, one *more* other thing. Comcast customer service. That's all.

 

[FearTheVoices]

Thanks, most all of those hopper features I don't use so hopefully that is better. Even though we do have a ton of recording saved on our hopper, no one ever watched them! I could delete probably 95% of the recordings on mine right now because they have been watched already or will never be watched.


The picture quality was my main intention of switching. But you mentioned another one also, the hoppers UI is really looking stale and the X1 is much more modern. I have waited long enough for this dish carbon theme or whatever it's going to be called to come out.

I also had a re-jogging of my memory today of how bad Comcast customer service is. I called both billing and sales agents on two separate calls. The billing agent had no idea what I was talking about, she thought I was trying to receive two separate bills one for Internet and one for cable !?!? Eventually I hung up on her because she did not understand that I wanted to upgrade to there cable. The sales rep was even more of a moron. She had no idea what an X1 cable box was and gave me a price of $79.99 to upgrade. So I ask does that include cable and Internet? She says yes. I then ask how many channels does that include, she says I don't know. After asking her to look it up she comes back 10 minutes later and says she can't find the information on how many channels are in the package lol.

So I called a 3rd time and went to the disconnection group since they always are smarter and seem to know what they are talking about. I mentioned to the guy in that department what happened and he just started laughing as in he knows how bad they are. Then he gave me the deal above.

 

[andy_horton]

Here in northwestern Georgia, I loved the X1. One problem, there was an open ticket on channels that would randomly pixelate or just go out. The ticket is still open as far as I know, and the problem has not been resolved. I have 2 tech's phone numbers and have had 7 techs out to verify the problem is not on my end. Two streets over they have the same problem. THE ISSUE HAS NOT BEEN RESOLVED. Crappy customer service. Even living 25-30 miles away OTA is better reception and more reliable, surrounded by hills and mountains. Do your homework on Comcast!!!!

 

[Rey]

I recently switched to comcast from Dish. Picture quality is as good if not better. I went with a Roamio Pro and mini to get a similar setup compared to the 2 hoppers with sling I had. Don't miss dish and since I already had internet with them, combining both services is saving me money.

I've heard good things about the X1 too.

 

[Troch77]

I recently switched to comcast from Dish. Picture quality is as good if not better. I went with a Roamio Pro and mini to get a similar setup compared to the 2 hoppers with sling I had. Don't miss dish and since I already had internet with them, combining both services is saving me money.

I've heard good things about the X1 too.

Those Roamios and Minis are awesome.

 

[FearTheVoices]

Just got the X1 a couple hours ago and install it downstairs in my finish basement to test out with an old 60" DLP fr0m 2007.

First impressions

- X1 UI - meh, not as impressed as the glances of it I had at friends houses here and there. I definitely don't like the guide as it seems half the size of the hoppers resulting in less channels being on screen to view on one page. Settings, apps and alike are all really lacking. The channels are spread everywhere. Why have channel 4 as SD, and channel 704 as HD? Just make the standard 4 SD or HD like the hopper does. Selecting auto tune to HD doesn't help because if you select channel 4 it auto tunes to channel 704 and then your stuck in that part of the guide the next time you pull it up. Same with the premium channels, there is about 5 channels in a row of HD HBO, Showtime etc .. But all the other associated HBO, showtime Channels are hundreds of channels away, makes no sense.

X1 Remote - hate it, buttons spread around the curser making you reach all around constantly. Lights feature at night is nice though. Voice search great! Didn't think I would consider using it until I did.

Picture Quality - hard to tell due to the tv. I am going to bring it upstairs in a couple hours for Monday Night Football and see how it looks on my plasma. I would say it looked similar to dish on the downstairs tv, maybe 10-15% better quality.

Overall I dont think I will stick with it regardless of what the picture quality ends up being like on my main tv. Lack of apps, odd remote, scattered channel lineup and a guide I am not impressed with rules in favor. Most likely going to return it in the morning back to Comcast.

 

[Rey]

I agree the guide is a cluster f#&%. That's why I spent hours on the roamio organizing it by unchecking all the SD duplicates and even some HD duplicates. Then I arranged the channels by alphabetical order. Now it's easy to navigate through the guide. It was a pain but worth the effort.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[Bruce]

Overall I dont think I will stick with it regardless of what the picture quality ends up being like on my main tv. Lack of apps, odd remote, scattered channel lineup and a guide I am not impressed with rules in favor. Most likely going to return it in the morning back to Comcast.

What apps are you looking for?

I have never cared if my DVR has any, that is what my Roku is for.

As far as Channel line up goes, all my HD channels are in the 1000 here and they match what the locals are, for example Fox 2 is 1002 and if you hit 02 (sd version) it will go to the HD channel automatically (turn that feature on in your menu).

Also, you have a 30 return policy, give it some time, the X1 in it's first week will get a bunch of updates, maybe after that you will like it better.

Anything new takes some time getting used to.

 

[Rey]

That varies by area. My HD channels were all over the place. Thankfully my Roamio made it way better.

 

[Bruce]

That varies by area. My HD channels were all over the place. Thankfully my Roamio made it way better.

I think in the menu of the X1 you can just select HD Channels to show up in the guide, will check when I get home.

 

[andy_horton]

I think in the menu of the X1 you can just select HD Channels to show up in the guide, will check when I get home.

You can select just the HD channels by pushing guide button twice and then choosing HD only

 

[andy_horton]

Back to the ops question, I'll elaborate a little more. Just got Comcast back with Cinemax and showtime for a dollar a month and digital preferred. Also got the X1 with a second box for the bedroom and love the setup. Had to get it due to not getting locals reliable. 59.99+4.95 protection plan +7.99 any room fee. 73.00 before tax. Internet thru windstream. May be cheaper to bundle with Comcast. Also have Netflix. But I watch a lot of TV. Enjoy your X1

 

[FearTheVoices]

Ended up returning it all the day after, never even bothering trying it on my main TV. I pretty much new within 20-30 minutes of playing around with it that i was not going to like the X1. Anyway, i returned it and told them i was returning the X1 and possibly shutting off internet unless there are any deals out here for my account(which i have had internet only for 7yrs from Comcast) Anyway, i think they thought i was a new customer for some reason since i got the deal on the cable/internet package. So i ended up keeping the blast internet for $59.99 for a year. $10 cheaper than i was paying before and i am getting 150mbps vs 25mbps on my old plan

 

[Claude Greiner]

I bet Dish not having any NY RSN hurts them more then Directv not having Pac 12.

Absolutely. The Yankees are a big deal to people.

As a dealer I have seen it first hand in New York.

I have seen a few complaints about pac12, but it's not as asked for as the big10 network.

 

[dishfan82]

I have internet only with them and it's been reliable. As far as their X1 goes, my friend has it and I agree with others that the guide format is too small . Not having shows separated into folders, small storage space is a deal breaker for me. I also have a co worker that just got the X1 and he said the voice remote sucks . He used it and it took 8 times before it would change to the channel he wanted .

 

[ces1948]

There was some talk that Comcast was going to offer cloud based storage for dvr recordings. Don't know if that ever happened or is going to happen.

 

[klang]

There was some talk that Comcast was going to offer cloud based storage for dvr recordings. Don't know if that ever happened or is going to happen.

It's out in select markets: http://customer.xfinity.com/help-and-support/cable-tv/x1-dvr-cloud-technology-general-faqs/

The initial implementation doesn't increase the storage available as it still stores the recording on the hard drive.

 

[rogerpl]

Okay, my Fairpoint internet speed tonight is 3 megs, I'm paying for 15. So I have to look at switching to Comcast and might drop dish and go for a triple play from them. No OTA is a bummer but can you watch differnt programming recorded and/or live across several tv locations at the same time as I can with a Hopper and Joeys. I'm sure I have other questions or thoughts but I'll start with this one.

 

[Skytrooper]

20 pounds of X1 stuff due to arrive today. The double play savings were too much for me to ignore. Dang, just heard knock at door. Stuff is here. Will report back when installed.

 

[Skytrooper]

First impression

1.Waiting til 2 pm after my soap operas to install.
2.Only one of my cats can sit on box at a time, it's smaller.
3.Remote lacks control buttons for my Blu Ray and Audio Receiver.
4.No phone line input for caller ID.
5.No component outputs, I use baluns thru cat 5 for my patio TV.

Other than my two lines of humor, the other three lines are important to me.