Comcast DVR annoyances (or why I switched to DirecTV)

Monday, February 13th 2006 was a sad day for me. My 10 year old Kenwood THX Ultra pre-amp died. I've been on the search for a replacement ever since, but that's fodder for another blog post.
 
During the weekend my girlfriend's parents were having problems using the Motorola HD DVR (Digital Video Recorder) that Comcast offers. I was pretty much fed up at this point with the thing. Or things rather as we have two.
 
First off, one of the DVRs hasn't worked properly almost since we first got it. It tends to lock up at around 4:00 am every day and needs to be reset.
 
Then there are the frequent audio drop outs in recorded media.
 
And the crappy interface oh and let's not forget that the Tivo 30 second fast forward hack isn't available.
 
Anyhow, as I was already having to make significant changes to my home theater (out with the old Dolby Pro Logic and in with DTS, Dolby Digital and all of the modern digital 7.1 goodness) I decided to give Comcast and their roody pooh DVRs the heav-ho.
 
I had wanted to switch to Verizon's FiOS fiber TV service (we already have the FiOS 5 meg/2meg internet service and it's awesome), but it isn't available in our area and even worse, they seem to be deploying the same crappy Motorola HD DVR!
 
My girlfriend had had good experiences with DirecTV satellite TV before, so I decided to go with them. They are currently offering $200 off of the Tivo HD DVR that holds 20 hours of HD material or 200 hours of regular TV. So I went with that (even though you have to make a two year commitment) and the regular channel package.

About the only disadvantages of the Tivo DVR over the lame Comcast Motorola one are, first, the requirement to be hooked up to a phone line to get programming updates and second, the lack of coax digital audio output, but it does have an optical digital audio input.
 
Installation was also free and we got two free satellite boxes (no HD or DVR there though).
 
Oh and did I mention that I'm paying less per month for the package and Tivo service than I was for Comcast?
 
And now I get the familiar "boop boop" sound back too...it's sad how I've been seriously missing that with the Comcast DVR.
 
Interestingly, Scott Hanselman blogged about his experiences with his Comcast HD DVR the same day that my preamp died (coincidence? you decide). He seems to be fine with sticking it out with the Motorola.
 
One note to Scott, you can get HDMI to DVI cables from BlueJeansCable.com or from Outlawaudio.com.