datsunrobbie's profile

Contributor

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81 Messages

Monday, August 2nd, 2021 7:26 PM

Closed

x1 box will not boot during outage, cannot watch programs stored in DVR

X1 TV Box Comparison - DVR vs. Non-DVR - Xfinity Support

  • Your X1 DVR can record approximately 150 total hours of HD programming on the hard drive, and 150 hours of Cloud DVR storage per X1 DVR.

Last night I had a service interruption that knocked out both cable and internet, so I figured I would just watch some of the programs that I have stored in the DVR, but the box would not boot. Is this normal operation for the box? If so, what is the point of having a hard drive in the box, or a box at all if the Xfinity stream app provides the same functionality as the set-top box? Is it purely for generating revenue for Comcast?

Problem Solver

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555 Messages

4 years ago

The latter generations of boxes require an active internet connection to Comcast servers in order to boot. If there is an outage or a service interruption, you will not be able to use the box.  In such a scenario, you can use your cell phone to access the xfinity Stream app.  As such, one is never intended to replace the other. 

Expert

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24.6K Messages

4 years ago

since your service was down you could have used your smart phone/tablet and watched via other wifi or cell data. up to 150 hours is available (per paid DVR on account) in the cloud.

Official Employee

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1.1K Messages

4 years ago

Hello @datsunrobbie, thank you for reaching out to us for help with your DVR concerns. We understand the importance of knowing how this service works, and we will be glad to explain things in a bit more detail. 

As mentioned in this thread, when you are in a complete interruption the X1 equipment may have limited functionality or be unable to boot. However, if you have a hotspot or other means of connection, you will still have access to Cloud Storage and any saved recordings. There are definitely benefits to having separate storage options when saving your recordings. Being able to access your Cloud storage while outside of the home or on Wi-Fi enabled devices is a major benefit to this service. While having physical storage also has its own benefits. For example, in the event of a move/relocation, your cloud storage would be deleted, but anything saved to the physical DVR would remain the same. 

 

Having these separate options is beneficial because it gives customers the opportunity to choose how they want their data to be saved and accessed. Whether it be on a physical device that they will have for the life of the equipment or a Cloud save for something they want to watch on the go.

Visitor

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1 Message

4 years ago

This is poor design. If the recording is on the physical device in your home, then there is no need to have an internet connection to watch it. Xfinity needs to simply allow booting the DVR without an internet connection. When the internet is down, watching on your mobile devices is a challenge at best since most use WIFI and the internet is down, so there is no WIFI.

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