We’ve had the Olevia 37″ LCD TV and Comcast HD DVR settop box for nearly three weeks now and I think its time to put down my thoughts. Short story: Love the sharper HD channels (plus the bigger picture on the rest) and the settop box’s dual tuners, hate with a passion the Comcast onscreen guide and am fairly unhappy with the pair losing the HDCP authorization handshake.
Once again I find myself quite unhappy at purchasing a big ticket item from Fry’s due to their completely crappy customer service. On January 2 I had another reason to stop by the store so I also tried to get an answer on whether this HDCP issue is just “the way it is” or if there’s something incorrectly setup or configured. No one in the TV or service departments had a clue and said my only option was a service call, which I did; their ancient software required that I fill out a form with information they already have in the computer and then wait 15 minutes for it to be input.
The service counter rep said I would get a call by the next day to schedule the visit since Fry’s uses a third party provider but when no call came by Thursday I called back and was told no, the scheduling call isn’t due for three days and, in fact, the ticket hadn’t even been assigned to a service company yet. Monday lunchtime arrived with no call so I called Fry’s again and was told that the ticket still wasn’t assigned.
The service counter rep, same one who took my report six days before, called me back after speaking with the central office to investigate. Fry’s, he said, does not actually have a company in this area to service this TV but since less than 30 days have passed from my purchase my only options are to return the set or live with the problem.
The $50 two year extended warranty I purchase includes in-home service so I asked that someone bring the new set here and retrieve the old one. Not surprisingly the rep claimed that product exchanges within the 30 days do not qualify for in-home service and the charge for home delivery is $40.
After I pointed out several times that Fry’s had sold me a service contract the company could not honor (smells illegal to me, which I explained would have me calling the Better Business Bureau and the Santa Clara County Consumer Protection Unit, eh?) he conferred with his manager and they agreed to make the delivery the next morning at no cost. Of course the new set has exactly the same issue. What a huge pain when all I wanted was to speak with a qualified tech to see if I could make a change to correct this or not. But that’s Fry’s for you and something I really need to keep in mind for future non-trivial purchases.
There’s also a problem on the Comcast side: two HD channels, Universal HD and MTV HD, won’t show because the box thinks I’m not authorized. Phone support couldn’t fix it and a visit from a service tech was no better; I don’t quite understand how this can be a box-level issue but that’s the explanation. I have to bring the box in for an exchange since the tech didn’t have the right one in his truck–the second gen DVRs only have DVI and component output but I need to use HDMI since the DVD player occupies the TV’s component jacks.
Replacing the box would cost me the already-recorded shows so I still haven’t turned it in. It will also mean all my series subscriptions and other scheduled recordings, plus my channel favorites list got blown away when phone support tried to fix the problem. Another pain in the backside.
Given that the settop box, like my beloved old TiVo, is a computer I have to wonder why neither Comcast nor TiVo offers a backup feature. Not for recorded shows but just for all the settings. How much space and bandwidth could it use? After all, we’re just talking about a few K of highly compressible text per box and the customer convenience factor would be huge. Even better would be to send a delta update after each change or newly scheduled recording.
On the bright side, at the Consumer Electronics Show this week Comcast and TiVo demonstrated the fruits of the partership they touted last year to bring TiVo’s software to Comcast DVR boxes. This will go a long way to making me happy because the current Comcast onscreen guide/DVR software really bites. Neither the phone support rep, the tech who visited me nor the press releases from either company offer any date when I can get this, and I hope the fee won’t be more than $4-5/month since the DVR already costs $10/month, but you can be sure I’m chomping at the bit.
Also good was the FCC’s decision turning down a request by Comcast to continue to require its subscribers use its own television set-top boxes rather than meet a July 1 deadline for cable operators and consumer electronics companies to use compatible technology for television delivery when building such boxes. This means that when a customer subscribes to a particular service, they may request an external cable card which can be inserted into the box to receive service. For once some support for consumers.
Scorecard
- Fry’s: F
- Comcast: C+, possibly moving up to a B+/A- if the TiVo service comes soon
- Olevia: C
BillSaysThis 