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SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt to CH101

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to CH101

Re: [X1] Xfinity X1 now available to New Customers in Philly!

said by CH101:

How are the X1 HD boxes? Thinking of upgrading my DVR to an X1 DVR, but I also have a few HD boxes. I assume they also have to be upgraded? Also am I correct in thinking there is not any Anyroom DVR?

CH-
The X1 DVR is quick, fast - and I love it.

I also have 2 HD boxes with it. As others mentioned - it's a bit sluggish - the guide will hang up - it'll take a few seconds to populate - and also, the box doesn't always turn on. I've had to hit the power button on the front a few times. It's almost as if the boxes don't have the memory to handle the software.

Hopefully revisions will make it better....
SpHeRe31459
Premium Member
join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

said by SeattleMatt:

said by CH101:

How are the X1 HD boxes? Thinking of upgrading my DVR to an X1 DVR, but I also have a few HD boxes. I assume they also have to be upgraded? Also am I correct in thinking there is not any Anyroom DVR?

CH-
The X1 DVR is quick, fast - and I love it.

I also have 2 HD boxes with it. As others mentioned - it's a bit sluggish - the guide will hang up - it'll take a few seconds to populate - and also, the box doesn't always turn on. I've had to hit the power button on the front a few times. It's almost as if the boxes don't have the memory to handle the software.

Hopefully revisions will make it better....

What are those two HD boxes? Are they client boxes for the X1 (which would make them XI3's) »www.lightreading.com/set ··· 40135759

or do they have their own tuners?

telcodad
MVM
join:2011-09-16
Lincroft, NJ

telcodad

MVM

SeattleMatt See Profile will have to confirm this, but I believe the companion box currently being used with the X1 is the Pace RNG150N.

See: »Re: [X1] Xfinity TV on X1 Platform and X1 Remote Control App!
S10driver35
join:2009-09-29
New Castle, DE

S10driver35

Member

said by telcodad:

SeattleMatt See Profile will have to confirm this, but I believe the companion box currently being used with the X1 is the Pace RNG150N.

See: »Re: [X1] Xfinity TV on X1 Platform and X1 Remote Control App!

I have 2 of the Pace RNG150N along with my X1 DVR.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf to telcodad

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to telcodad
Really looking forward to Xfinity 3.5, the new generation.

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt to S10driver35

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to S10driver35
S10 is correct.

The HD boxes are Pace RNG150N's
SpHeRe31459
Premium Member
join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

2 edits

SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

said by SeattleMatt:

S10 is correct.

The HD boxes are Pace RNG150N's

Interesting.... the X1 still can't be an AnyRoom DVR to those boxes though, correct?

I was under the impression the X1 is not AnyRoom enabled currently, and that was part of the whole reason for existence of the new breed of tuner-less XI3 platform boxes that are coming soon that act as client devices to the main X1 DVR.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

I know there are some customer with the SA8300HD multiroom DVR model that is able to use the Anyroom feature, and I've been told the Cisco RNG200N also supports Anyroom.
SpHeRe31459
Premium Member
join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

said by Mike Wolf:

I know there are some customer with the SA8300HD multiroom DVR model that is able to use the Anyroom feature, and I've been told the Cisco RNG200N also supports Anyroom.

Well right, but that's existing "legacy" platform (i.e. not based on the new X1 platform) AnyRoom. Just like in Motorola areas you get the Motorola DCX 3400/3500 series as the DVR and Motorola RNG150N's as the clients.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

anyroom dvr is anyroom dvr whether on the X1 platform or on the current DVR's out.
SpHeRe31459
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join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

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SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

said by Mike Wolf:

anyroom dvr is anyroom dvr whether on the X1 platform or on the current DVR's out.

You seem to misunderstand, I'm interested in the X1's ability to do AnyRoom, and the expected time frame for having it working. I already know the older tech does AnyRoom...

For me the X1 platform needs to get more bugs worked out and I also need multi-room DVR support before I'll consider it.

So far every X1 install I've seen just throws in what are effectively classic cable boxes, so I gather things haven't changed recently about the X1 doing AnyRoom and/or the X13 IP clients haven't been released into the wild yet.

The one thing that gave me pause to wonder was that the other boxes that are given out are MoCA enabled (RNG150N) so I wondered if Comcast had hacked together the functionality to have the old platform (iGuide) boxes able to access the recordings on the X1.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

Most likely the X13 IP boxes aren't gonna be rolled out until after the X1 deployment is completed nationwide and the X1 software is rolled out on the high end Motorola/SA/Cisco systems.

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

1 edit

1 recommendation

SeattleMatt to SpHeRe31459

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to SpHeRe31459
Sphere-
The X1 does NOT currently do Anyroom DVR - but, it is in the plans. I've heard mentions of April-May timeframe - but can't put much water into that. That is why they swapped out my other HD boxes w/ the X1's.

I had ARD, but found we really didn't watch too many recordings on the other boxes - so, I sucked it up in losing that capability for the time being just to have a guide that's as beautiful as the 1 I had with FIOS.

The more I use the X1 DVR - the more I fall in love. The "last" feature is great - it's not just the last channel - but you're previous 10 (including On Demand selections).

Another thing, I rarely used the "apps" with FIOS - but the ones on the X1 are far superior. The Pandora app has great graphics, and the sound quality is excellent.

Mike Wolf
join:2009-05-24
Tuckerton, NJ

Mike Wolf

Member

Still no Netflix though
SpHeRe31459
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join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

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SpHeRe31459 to SeattleMatt

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to SeattleMatt
said by SeattleMatt:

Sphere-
The X1 does NOT currently do Anyroom DVR - but, it is in the plans. I've heard mentions of April-May timeframe - but can't put much water into that. That is why they swapped out my other HD boxes w/ the X1's.

Now you're confusing me, did you get multiple X1 DVRs? I thought you said the other two boxes are Pace RNG150Ns?
Do these Pace RNG150Ns run the X1 guide software? or just iGuide like the rest of the various boxes with the name RNG150N (Motorola and Cisco also make boxes Comcast calls RNG150N).

The problem here is specificity, Comcast calls both their hardware reference platform for the next generation of DVR "X1" and the underlying guide software that is basically Tru2Way middleware also "X1". So we need to come up with a way to be specific, i.e. "X1 DVR" versus "X1 Guide Software". Since eventually the guide software will be on all newer boxes from multiple vendors Cisco/Pace/Motorola, but they won't be the X1 DVR (which has 6 tuners (only 3 active currently), etc.)

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

SeattleMatt

Premium Member

Sphere-
Sorry. I have ONE X1 DVR.

The 2 Pace RNG 150N HD boxes DO also have the X1 software loaded on them.

So - I have the X1 software on all 3 boxes.
SpHeRe31459
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join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

SpHeRe31459

Premium Member

said by SeattleMatt:

Sphere-
Sorry. I have ONE X1 DVR.

The 2 Pace RNG 150N HD boxes DO also have the X1 software loaded on them.

So - I have the X1 software on all 3 boxes.

Gotcha. All the talk and press releases, etc. have only been about the DVR and/or the XI3 IP client boxes, so I hadn't seen anything about any standard boxes (i.e. not a DVR and not a tunerless client) coming with the X1 guide.

So I just figured in true Comcast half-assed form, they obviously gave you the X1 DVR, but since the Pace RNG150N is never mentioned in any materials I assumed they didn't have any other boxes that were X1 guide software ready so you were stuck with the iGuide on any other boxes in the house.

cypherstream
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join:2004-12-02
Reading, PA

cypherstream to SeattleMatt

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How does X1 perform on a Pace RNG150N?

The X1 has intel CE4100 graphics right? So is the broadcom based box just as fluid as the intel based?

SeattleMatt
Streaming Tech Director
Premium Member
join:2001-12-28
Seattle, WA

1 edit

SeattleMatt

Premium Member

Cypher-
It's a bit slow to be honest. See my post a little earlier. Takes awhile for remote commands to get recognized and the guide to pop up.

However - on the X1 DVR - just put on the Pandora app for an extended time.

The "screensaver" feature is UNREAL. In addition to fading in and out w/ beautiful pictures - it also pops up random traffic, weather, sports, and news info across the screen - almost like a rotating app mosaic.

Bravo Comcast - FIOS never had that.

**EDIT** - apparently it's called Xfinity Dayview - a buddy of mine that works in Product Mgmt let me know.
SpHeRe31459
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join:2002-10-09
Sacramento, CA

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SpHeRe31459 to cypherstream

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said by cypherstream:

How does X1 perform on a Pace RNG150N?

The RNG150N seems to be using a rather basic Broadcom SoC, though details are sparse. The Pace XI3 and XG5 that are forthcoming use what appear to be much more robust dual-core Broadcom chips.
»www.multichannel.com/cab ··· s/141048

As an aside, I'm little surprised that both Motorola and Broadcom are still using MIPS as their CPU architecture for modern cable SoC given the ubiquity in other common media rich consumer embedded devices (Tablets, Smart Phones), processing power and graphics feature sets of ARM processors these days.