Xfinity Smart Resume not working

It's not working on programs recorded in the last few days.  Stuff pulled from the DVR from two weeks ago does have the feature.

Anyone know if CC knows?

UPDATE Sunday 11/24 @ 1:55pm:

Well, as of 11pm Saturday evening Smart Resume was not working. But, today it may be.

I always record the Seahawks games just in case I have to be out. The game was on Fox and when I decided to watch the recording, just so I could review the game again after it was over, the commercials are now marked and Smart Resume appears to be working again.

I have more scheduled to record later today and will check those to see if commercials are marked, if so we can say Comcast fixed whatever caused the problem.

BUT, one odd thing I have noticed:

While Smart Resume has marked the commercials in the recording of the game, when I exit after going thru 1 hour and 15 minutes (with over 2 hours left) the recordings list doesn't show the recording as having been watched at all. Normally you see it showing some portion of the recording has been watched, i.e. the progress bar.

It's showing nothing at all. When you select the recording to watch again, it does show the correct info and resumes where I left it. I've exited and opened the Xfinity menu/Recordings multiple times over the last 15 minutes and it's always the same.

When I play other recordings made prior to today, the progress bar is present.

When I marked another program to record from NBC (just to see if it does something similar), as soon as that program appeared under the recordings list, the progress bar now appears on the game recording. 

So maybe there's some issues with the DVR service causing various problems.

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@eraym wrote:

I had no problems with Smart Resume thru Tuesday or Wednesday of this week, but I know that for Thursday, Friday and Saturday it has not worked at all. None of the recordings from ABC, NBC,  CBS, or Fox have any commercial breaks marked at all.

 

Anyone have any ideas as to what has happened?

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are these primetime shows? (or SNL)? play one of the prime time shows without the smart resume on the progress thermometer. then press the OK button. lower left does it say DVR or "cloud icon" DVR?

These were 100% prime time only shows I was talking about where it stopped working several days ago, except for the football game where it worked. I have to wait until this evening to see what it does with prime time shows now where I know it's been working in the past.

As for DVR vs Cloud DVR, Comcast says they ONLY have Cloud DVR now, nothing is stored on the DVR itself as they don't even put HDDs in the DVRs any longer. Not sure why they have the "Sync DVR" if that is the case though, and the DVR Service itself doesn't work at all unless your are talking to the cloud. But it does only show the "DVR" icon on shows from that time period and the football game today.

But I also returned my DVR (which I just swapped out 1 month ago & Smart Resume has worked OK on all network shows recorded until this started this week) yesterday for a replacement and the replacement did not mark commercials during prime time last night when I asked it to record a new episode of 48 Hours on CBS just to see what happened. The replacement DVR did mark the commercials thru a 3.5 hour football game recorded today on Fox just fine and it also shows the "DVR" icon.

I did some experimenting though on my 2 TVs to check a  couple things. I opened the football recording on one and it showed "DVR" with the commercial breaks marked. I left it on and went to the other TV and opened it again to see what would happen. It played it, but said "Cloud DVR", but still with the commercial breaks marked. Then I repeated the same thing with a prime time ABC show from Thursday evening. One showed "DVR" and the other "Cloud DVR", but neither one had any commercial breaks marked at all. This does raise a question of what really is "DVR" vs "Cloud DVR" recordings. Especially when they claim they don't record anything directly on the DVR and don't even put HDDs in the DVRs any longer- I've been told that by probably 10 Comcast techs.

But I doubt, no matter if there is or is not DVR vs Cloud DVR recordings, that it makes any difference. I have checked on my TVs at home (one with the DVR itself & one with a companion box) AND on my cell thru the streaming app, and they all shows exactly the same thing. And that is there was no Smart Resume marked commercials for any of the recordings during those days. And as I said, tonight I'll find out if it's working on regular prime time shows that it has worked on before.

You can still get DVRs.  Even if you don't get one in your initial install you can swap boxes, possibly with an extra $10/month DVR fee.

https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/x1-hub-vs-companion-box

But I'm confused by your secondary box showing a cloud recording when you have a DVR copy.  All X1 equipment should communicate with your in-home DVR and play from it.

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@eraym wrote:

These were 100% prime time only shows I was talking about where it stopped working several days ago, except for the football game where it worked. I have to wait until this evening to see what it does with prime time shows now where I know it's been working in the past.

 

As for DVR vs Cloud DVR, Comcast says they ONLY have Cloud DVR now, nothing is stored on the DVR itself as they don't even put HDDs in the DVRs any longer. Not sure why they have the "Sync DVR" if that is the case though, and the DVR Service itself doesn't work at all unless your are talking to the cloud. But it does only show the "DVR" icon on shows from that time period and the football game today.

But I also returned my DVR (which I just swapped out 1 month ago & Smart Resume has worked OK on all network shows recorded until this started this week) yesterday for a replacement and the replacement did not mark commercials during prime time last night when I asked it to record a new episode of 48 Hours on CBS just to see what happened. The replacement DVR did mark the commercials thru a 3.5 hour football game recorded today on Fox just fine and it also shows the "DVR" icon.

 

I did some experimenting though on my 2 TVs to check a  couple things. I opened the football recording on one and it showed "DVR" with the commercial breaks marked. I left it on and went to the other TV and opened it again to see what would happen. It played it, but said "Cloud DVR", but still with the commercial breaks marked. Then I repeated the same thing with a prime time ABC show from Thursday evening. One showed "DVR" and the other "Cloud DVR", but neither one had any commercial breaks marked at all. This does raise a question of what really is "DVR" vs "Cloud DVR" recordings. Especially when they claim they don't record anything directly on the DVR and don't even put HDDs in the DVRs any longer- I've been told that by probably 10 Comcast techs.

 

But I doubt, no matter if there is or is not DVR vs Cloud DVR recordings, that it makes any difference. I have checked on my TVs at home (one with the DVR itself & one with a companion box) AND on my cell thru the streaming app, and they all shows exactly the same thing. And that is there was no Smart Resume marked commercials for any of the recordings during those days. And as I said, tonight I'll find out if it's working on regular prime time shows that it has worked on before.

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do you have a physical DVR (has a clock if rectangular on the front) or a single green LED at the bottom middle if an xg1v4 (4k DVR)? if so play a recording from that unit. has progress bars? cloud copies of recordings will not have progress bar.

I don't want this to diverge too much from the original issue and question about Smart Resume. As an update for what happened Sunday evening, here's the results.

I scheduled recordings on ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, and CW.

-Fox and CW recordings all had the commercial breaks marked and Smart Resume worked.

-ABC, NBC, and CBS had NO commercial breaks marked at all and therefore Smart Resume did not work.

So there is still a problem with 3 of the 5 major networks and Smart Resume.

As to any confusion on what devices I have, I do have an actual DVR on one TV and a companion box on another TV. There's no problems with the DVR or companion boxes. These are Comcast supplied devices, I have not purchased anything from a 3rd party. When I say DVR I am talking about the actual DVR box itself and when I say "DVR" or "Cloud DVR" I am talking about what the recording shows in the lower left, just above the recording progress bar, when you press the select or OK button.

Regardless of the TV I check (which also means the DVR or companion box), I get EXACTLY the same results.

Smart Resume worked on all 5 of the major networks thru Tuesday or Wednesday of this last week - NO PROBLEMS AT ALL!

Then by Thursday at least, Smart Resume stopped working. As of tonight's testing (Sunday evening) on all 5 networks during prime time, only Fox and CW work with Smart Resume. ABC, NBC, and CBS do not work at all with Smart Resume. 

All the other questions that may come up from this discussion surrounding "DVR" or "Cloud DVR", whether all recordings are only cloud recordings, etc., are all interesting issues and questions, but I'd like to leave those for other posts later. I would like to keep this post focused just on the Smart Resume issue. Thanks

Examples of no smart resume programs:

SNL 

Stephen Colbert

all Bravo

all HGTV

AMA on ABC had SR feature working

So far it seems pretty "hit or miss."

Apologies all. I have an inquiry in with our Smart Resume team on this. I will update as soon as I have some information to share. Thanks for your patience. 

Below is a link to some general information and FAQs on the Smart Resume feature. 

 https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/dvr-smart-resume

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@LeeSoFL wrote:

Examples of no smart resume programs:

SNL 

Stephen Colbert

all Bravo

all HGTV

 

AMA on ABC had SR feature working

 

So far it seems pretty "hit or miss."

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my SNL had full and complete smart resume marks. if available or can be restored from deleted recordings, check to see if it says DVR/'cloud' DVR. 

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@LeeSoFL wrote:

All the programs that generally had SR and do not now, were DVR and not Cloud based.

 

There are two xg1-v4 here, and for those shows, it's not an available feature on either box.

 

Friends who live about 10 miles away are experiencing the same issue.

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when you press the Xfinity button >> settings (gear) >> preferences >> general do you see smart resume for recordings setting? is it set to 'on'?

All the programs that generally had SR and do not now, were DVR and not Cloud based.

There are two xg1-v4 here, and for those shows, it's not an available feature on either box.

Friends who live about 10 miles away are experiencing the same issue.

Yes, the feature is on.  I toggled it off, then on again. 

Last night's AMA show had the skip in it, but other shows (recorded last night) on Bravo, HGTV, CBS etc didn't have it being available.

YES!!!! It is network tv DURING prime time! I affected ALL recordings btween 11/21 and 11/24.

Your crack team of off shore CSR's seemed to know little in regards to SMART RESUME feature so is rolling out a truck to view the problem. Not sure what the point of having a tecnition show up is ...

NOTE SEVERAL ARE EXPERIENCING THE FAILED SERVICE THE HIGH NUMBER OF REPORTS WOULD INDICATE A SYSTEM WIDE PROBLEM ..... XFINITY SHOULD TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THIS FAILED SERVICE!!!

Respectfully,

Hal

I too have experienced the same problem!! If there is a solution (instead of a how to) I would like to see a link in this forum for acknowledgement of the problem AND a solution.