I just did a piece over at Deadspin about the worst thing that has ever happened to me in my life: Comcast changed the controls on my DVR, so now when I'm fast forwarding through something I'm recording, it "auto-corrects" and jumps back to where it thinks I really wanted to start playing the program again. I didn't even realize this was something that was supposed to be happening when the change kicked in a few months ago. I thought my DVR was just broken. So I did what I normally do when something breaks: complain a lot, then pretend it isn't broken until someone else will deal with it. Well this time they fucked with the wrong part of my life and I couldn't take it sitting down, so I did the one other thing I know how to do: complain a lot in writing. I used my words, you might say.
Anyway, go read the piece over there if you're into that sort of thing. The comments are pretty great too. Here's one useful one I got:
"You should stop smoking, that is a much bigger issue than you are making this DVR thing out to be."
Here's another:
"Since when did Andy Rooney begin write for Deadspin?"
Hehe, Because of complaining.
A lot of people who commented mentioned they use other services like DirecTV or TiVo that have had this thing for a while, which was helpful for anyone who didn't read me say the exact same thing in the story they were commenting on. The point is, they're used to it. They've evolved to the circumstances of their environment and have made the best of it. That's nice, but there are extremophilic organisms that have adapted to sub-zero, or near boiling temperatures at the bottom of the sea. That doesn't mean I want to go over to their place to watch the game.
The other thing I didn't have space to mention in the story is that the opposite thing happens when you're rewinding now -- it nudges you forward. I think it's possible to start off rewinding and press play quickly, then end up having somehow fast forwarded. That's some wormhole shit. It's like watching a football game scripted by the producers of Lost. (No one steal that idea.)
If you're having a problem with this, you might consider calling the Comcast customer service line. They should be able to help. Tell them I said thanks in advance.
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6 comments:
smoking and football go together hand in hand.
I'm gonna have to double check on that one. BRB.
I hate this feature, if that's what you want to call it.
If only they had made it a setting that you could turn off in the DVR settings...it is an awful feature that I'm sure is driven by old people who were a little slow to the draw when hitting play.
Definitely the olds. Or to trick us into watching commercials any way they can.
Just another note - most comcast remotes can be programmed to add a 30 second skip feature that I use more often that the fast forward button. Just search for it to learn how to program it on your remote.
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