Today Comcast installed three (3) xfinity X1 DVR units (500 GB; cloud based) at my home because for whatever reason the Gray units won't work at the apartment correctly. The TV Guide takes up to 2 weeks to download completely (10 - 14 day) for every channel. The hope was the X1 would solve the issue and it did!!! The guide has not worked since 2009 on any of our DVR units. This is the really great good news and to have the guide available is so cool and wonderful.
What is the bad and ugly? The X1 has certain shortages compared to the grey DVR boxes:
- The dual HDMI ports do not work. The grey DVR box had an HDMI port and it worked fine on my Sony HDTV. I even got the 3D wroking and would watch 3D several times a week. The installer couldn't get any of the HDMI ports working and he tried 4 different boxes (for a total of 8 HDMI ports). He installed using a composite cable instead of HDMI.
- I can not get the 3D channels or OnDemand working. We have two 3D HDTV and both report they are getting a 2D signal and not a 3D signal. This makes since give I believe 3D requires HDMI cables and ports, which the X1 (dual HDMI port) units doesn't seem to support. QUESTION: Why have 2 HDMI ports if they don't work? LOL! OK, try this question: How did these units get shipped when the HDMI ports didn't work? (Don't forget "we" tried 4 different X1 units.)
- On the Grey DVR remotes, I was able to program the volume buttons to work on the DVR and not the HDTV, which is the way I prefer. Why? Well, it shouldn't matter, but if you really want to know why . . . I have two TV units and the second one is a Dell U3011, which doesn't have its own set of speakers. Instead the sound goes through an external unit that uses a manual volume knob. Thus using the DVR is the best choice and remember it worked with the grey DVR. :-) As of today no one can tell me how to program the XR2 remote / X1 DVR to do the same as the Grey remote.
- Another Grey DVR remote issue: The Grey remote can have a 30 second skip button and the instructions for setting it up is on the Comcast website. I can't find any instructions or anyone who can tell me how to do this with the XR2 remote / X1 DVR.
I hope someone from Comcast will be able to help me with these issues and/or find someone in development who can add these features (3 & 4) and fix the HDMI / 3D (1 & 2).