After moving to TV a couple of months ago we signed up for Comcast after years of using satellite (Both Dish and DirecTV). During this period we have experienced two unexplained outages of several hours each time. The first system we had was their standard home house DVR which died after 5 weeks (hard drive crashed and sound board shorted out). We called Comcast and they sent a technician out to replace the defective unit and advised us that he would have to install an older outdated box since that was all they had available. I asked him about installing the X1 system since I had been told when we signed up for service we would be able to record 3 shows and watch 1 prerecorded show simultaneously which turned out to be untrue. He agreed to install the X1 system which initially looked like a great improvement. I was billed $39.95 for this service all which I decided to pay since they upgraded my system.
The first thing we discovered with the X1 system is that there is a programming glitch which will sometimes cut off the last of a recording if the show runs longer than the normal 60 minutes. I know you can manually setup a recording to add minutes to the end but this issue happens even though the guide show the program to run long per the network schedule. Comcast is aware of this problem (for how long they would not admit) and says they are working on a fix. In the meantime you need to check every recording unless you want to end up missing the last couple of minutes of your favorite shows.
Last week the newest cable box went out (HDMI connections no longer recognized) and we were again scheduled to have a technician come out to replace their defective box. Much to my surprise they informed me that I would again be required to pay $39.95 for the service call. This time I questioned the charge and was told I would need to talk with the service technician's dept to get the fee waived which was a waste of time. I was offered a maintenance contract for $3.95 a month which would cover the equipment and wiring in the future but they refused to waive the service fee. I even told them I would take the box to their local office and pick up a new one and install it myself to which they replied that the local offices do not "support the X1 systems".
Although I scheduled a time for the technician to come to our home the end of this week (their earliest available appointment) and swap out the defective box I was not happy with the service they have provided to date. For this reason I decided to drop Comcast completely and go back to satellite service which will be installed tomorrow (only 24 hours after signing up for service).
I tell this story in order to inform both new and existing customers that there are still some bugs in the X1 system that have not been resolved. Perhaps they will be corrected in the near future, however, based on what little information I could find online the problem has been known about by Comcast for at least 6 months to date. Good luck should you decide to sign up.
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