Slashdot Mirror
Comcast Disables VCR Scheduling In New Guide
An anonymous reader writes "Comcast has quietly launched a new on-screen guide for its cable boxes. What they're not advertising is that they've removed the ability to schedule VCR-compatible channel flipping any time more than a few hours in advance for people who don't buy the $20/month DVR service. What this means is that VCR owners are now forced to pay for Comcast's $20/month DVR service or else start their recordings manually. For us techies there might be a way around this, but ordinary VCR enthusiasts and owners of other recorders are left in the dust. Anyone know a good antitrust lawyer?" Raise your hand if you regularly use a VCR these days, too.
Both of them.
I'm a part-time VCR enthusiast and a card-carrying member of the Classic Video Equipment Club of America, you insensitive clod!
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
I didn't know you had a Slashdot account! Tell me more!
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/2008/01/26/28-not-having-a-tv
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
a vee-cee-what?
I still use a VCR, and I will until it starts eating tapes. (It's not that I'm some sort of zealot, it's just...well...it still works. Why fix what isn't broken?)
Course, it serves one, and only one, purpose: recording Jeopardy OTA from my DTV box. Which is, incidentally, the only reason I even need the DTV converter in the first place.
Funny story, my VCR is not year 2010 compliant, so I actually have to use a year with the same template as this year to get it working. (My VCR thinks that (as of this post) it's 11 Apr, 1999.) More useless trivia, it doesn't know about years preceeding 1990 either.
I'm pretty sure that getting you to open your wallet was Comcast's goal in the first place.
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
If you don't buy their time service, the clock will only flash 12:00 If you don't buy their "video out" service, you will only be able to use the RF modulator to your set.
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
Interesting how they do this at the same time they are dropping Analog signals from the network. (at least in my area)
We work for the corporations now, so stop deluding yourself into thinking that "your wallet" has any power whatsoever.
Your wallet also contains a voter registration card.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Sure sentence somewhere there. But not able +.
Seriously, put the mobile down, and keep your hands on the steering wheel and eyes on the road when you're driving.
What are you talking about?
This is Slashdot. Everything is a conspiracy.
"Kittens give Morbo gas!"
Yes, free markets are the answer to everything. Look at how much better the world is now that the free markets 'equalized' the excesses of the sub-prime mortgages where lenders were lending money to every one and their dog, especially after they repealed the law seperating the investment banks from the regular banks. 'Let the markets go free' they cried 'They will self regulate, because the bankers don't want to go broke!'. Hmmmm.... they had a point. I have yet to hear of a banker, who as an individual, when broke! Maybe a stupid one did, but I suspect most walked away with a tidy little sum.
-- Many men would appreciate a woman's mind more if they could fondle it
Presumably you'd rather be sculpting or reading Proust instead... ;-)