Rant: The Comcast HD DVR Is Simply, Terribly Awful

I usually don’t like to just post a pointer to another blog, but in this case, I have to.

John Battelle, clearly in an emotional moment, posted this evisceration of the Comcast HD DVR today versus his Tivo experience.

I had a chance to meet John briefly, as he came to speak at eBay about a year ago on the future of search & media. While we don’t agree on everything going on in the industry, it’s nice to see that John & I are two kindred spirits when it comes to love of the Tivo.

When you think about it, the DVR problem isn’t very complex anymore, really. How hard would it be to just copy the Tivo? However, interestingly, it seems like every DVR maker now tries to “improve” on the Tivo experience, and in the process, manages to display to the whole world how little they understand about the design nuances that make the Tivo experience wonderful.

I am in a very small audience of people who have actually deferred adopting HDTV until I can find a Tivo solution that makes sense for my household. We’re incredibly dependent on our two DirecTivos, and with DirecTV’s suicidal abandonment of Tivo, I’m left waiting for either the Tivo Series 3 to come down in price, or for the Comcast/Tivo solution to prove itself viable.

Anyway, read John’s rant. It brightened my whole day.