Comcast Drops Microsoft

Frosty Piss writes "Comcast plans to drop Microsoft's television software and on-screen program guide from its digital cable boxes. The cable company will replace the Microsoft technology with GuideWorks software — Comcast is a part owner of GuideWorks. Comcast has been the lone cable company in the US using Microsoft technology for set-top boxes, and only in the state of Washington, Microsoft's back yard." The Microsoft offering has a solid presence in Latin America. The company is no longer trying very hard to market it here at home.

Linux?

Guideworks sounds better than MS... ...but does it run Linux? If not, what?

Good riddance

I had no idea MS was to blame for that god awful cable box software. I thought that was Motorola's doing.

Nevertheless, good riddance ... nuff said

Re:Good riddance

Not sure why the parent is Flamebait.

The previous software was cheesy but it had lots of options to customise how you used it. It didn't look pretty but it did a decent job.

I remember when Comcast were advertising that they were changing to the MS software. They claimed it would perform better and would have many great new features. It performs considerably worse, has no new features, and several features of the previous software were not available.

The MS software is really poor. Performance is terrible, navigation is a pain, options that should exist don't and it never does what you think it should.

I'm glad they are changing to something else, it *has* to be better than the MS guide.

So that explains it

Recently signed up for Comcast. I wondered why the on screen guide, and the On Demand features were so clumsy to navigate (and just plain ugly to boot) - now I know why.

Before everyone cheers.....

...I've heard that the COMCAST software sucks. It's more or less an out of the frying pan into the fire situation. And to be honest, given their incredibly lousy customer service, what makes you think they're going to develop reliable software? Or software that will allow you to do anything -more- useful than the Microsoft offering? A quick google search showed as much (if not more) complaining about Guideworks on -current- comcast boxes versus the Microsoft software.

Guideworks blows

Looking at the Guideworks website, it looks like the same crap that was part of the reason I dropped Comcast months ago. This really isn't a big deal as the Microsoft switch affects a relatively small portion of people compared to how many Comcast serves. The thing is, Guideworks software is a pile of crap, the UI is absolutely horrible, and I had mandatory updates to it remove useful functionality and even lose some of the shows I had saved on the box's hard drive. But really, the user interface is as bad as it gets. It's unresponsive, randomly locking up for seconds and sometimes even a full minute on end, and then all of a sudden all the buttons you pressed during the lockup (thinking maybe you just didn't press that remote button hard enough...) queue up and are executed immediately causing even more problems.

Comcast was supposedly talking to Tivo about replacing their Comcast/Guideworks software with the much loved Tivo software. Where is that?

Re:Guideworks blows

It's not the software's problem, I'm a Comcast customer living in WA. Everybody around here complains about the box (including those making the MS software themselves) and nobody is expecting things to get better with the switch because most of the problems are with the firmware of the box, not the software.
That's why your complaints about the box with the Guideworks software are exactly my complaints about the box with the MS software, same locking up, same queuing up of the button presses, same everything.

So that's why it failed so often

It seemed to have no ability to look forward more than a day or two, failed to understand that when you search for shows, you might be interested in others with the same title, and fried out way too often.

This great news (dumping MSFT on my cable box), combined with the planned rollout of 400 Mbps cable modem service for the same price as I pay today, is fantastic!

Bringing it in

This probably has less to do with Microsoft's guide sucking as it has to do with Comcast already having an on-screen guide software suite. For something so critical, one would think that Comcast would have been 100% behind the home-grown option.

The Chemo Is Working

Now if we can just get MS software out of our ATMs and voting machines, the country might be safe to watch TV in again.

Good thing?

I was gonna say this is a good thing, but I dislike comcast so much that I actually wish more problems on them so I vote NAY.

hate hate hate hate

Microsoft has television software?

I wonder what it shows when it's late and between channels...

Enhanced for your pleasure

This guy's take on MS-on-Comcast is right on. It's been nothing short of godawful.

http://wilshipley.com/blog/2006/03/this-post-is-mi crosoft-enhanced-tm.html [wilshipley.com]

This is bad news for Washington Comcast Customers

Hey, I can hate on Microsoft with the best of them, but having been on a DirecTiVo and having to switch to Comcast, I can tell you that the Microsoft product was at least usable. I was fearing that I'd end up with the home grown OSD when we switched, having seen it at relatives in other states. I was relieved to see the Microsoft label when we turned on the new STB. Teh suck is now I'm in a place that can get DirecTV, but they've ditched TiVo so that's not a much better option. I guess it's time to start reading books. :(

Hmmmm

Does that mean my On-Demand may actually work when they change it over? heh... yeah right...

opportunity for improvement

Well, I hope the transition to the new software enables comcast to not make the same mistakes as most other digital set top boxes. Let's see if I can remember all my complaints.

- widescreen support somewhere between zero and none
- menu tree overly deep and wide, with a bad bad case of feature creep
- distracting ad banners in every corner of the screen
- video-on-demand jerky and unresponsive to ff/rew/pause buttons
- huge fonts means you can only see listings for 1 hour and 5 channels on the screen at once
- huge overscan margins which is not required for LCD or plasmas anyway
- horrible play-skool color choices for the buttons, lists, menus, overlays.
- cheesy 3-D looking buttons that look like windows 3.1 or motif 1.0 at best
- showing channel number and station ID in pop-up or overlays instead of spending $5 to display it in LED's on the front of the box
- button only remotes--how about a jog/shuttle scroll wheel like VCR's used to have
- remotes with 60 buttons of which you only use 8 most of the time
- the 1/4 size live picture when you pull up the menus or the guide is cute, except for those rare occasions when you're trying to read the menus or the guide
- the box that supports DD5.1 or component video costs way more than it should...you can get the same outputs on a $30 DVD player at wal-mart, why should it cost so much more on a STB
- how about an open protocol so i can access the cable feed from myth tv directly instead of having to use an IR emitter or cable card
- maybe not charge so much for PPV movies since they're $1/day to rent at Kroger
- when you do the triple-play, how about not sending me two or three boxes, how about just one box with a telephone jack, an ethernet port, and component video jacks?
- why do you have to have some guy come out to "install" this thing when I can connect cables together just fine myself
- how about HD actually being the same bandwidth as what I can get for FREE from rabbit ears instead of compressing the living daylights out of it
- set top box can't actually set on top anymore if you have a flat panel TV, how about some brackets or let it look decent mounted in a vertical position
- record button should be able to start my VCR (or should have 10 years ago) like directv receivers can, not just change the channel
- even if the STB was flawless and seamless to use, the actual content is crap. i swear i spend more time using the cable modem to view stuff on youtube than i do watching TV.

As someone who lives in Washington...

I have to say, I didn't mind Microsoft's software at all. It was pretty easy to use, and it seemed far better than the TV Guide software that my out of state friends who have Comcast use. So I'm hoping this switch is an actual improvement, because I was actually quite happy with my current software.

But you know, down with M$!!! rah rah rah...

You are attempting to change the channel

Cancel or Allow?

That's funny...

...I'm anxiously awaiting CableCards so I can dump the sh*tty Comcast guide and replace it with my Windows Media Center guide on the MCPC connected to my HDTV.

AT&T

While AT&T is not a cable company, their uverse TV system is using Microsoft's Software here "at home". It is not to shabby really, and I do like it more then the Comcast box I just kicked out of the house.

Ballmer says Comcast violates 235 patents

He won't say exactly what patents they are, but they probably include things like "Method and apparatus for sitting on your couch eating cheesy poofs while watching television" and "Method and apparatus for displaying television programs which contain blocks of programming separated by commercials."

Did they really drop it?

Yesterday my Comcast provided cable modem died. I stopped by the local office after work and exchanged it for a new one.

It did not just plug-and-play with my router, I had to plug it directly into a computer first and run their configuration. So, I plugged it into my powerbook. I expected trouble when the Comcast website came up telling me I would have to download some software, but when I clicked the button, the file it downloaded was actually a mac file--wow.

After unpacking the install program a warning message popped up telling me I needed to use Internet explorer to continue the configuration. It then installed IE 5.something, which promptly froze up and died.

Bring Back UltimateTV, Microsoft!

Microsoft clearly can make good set-top box software. Their UltimateTV product was very nice. I had it with DirecTV. When I first got it, it was a little behind Tivo in some features, and ahead in others. First update, a few months after I got it, put it ahead of Tivo on most features, and next year's update made it even better than that.

Then Microsoft shut down the UTV group, transfering the people off to, I think, the XBox group, apparently planning to someday integrate games and set-top boxes.

The only problem UTV had was that the interface was a little slow. But they overcame much of that with good interface design. E.g., the buttons on a page might have been slower than the equivalent on my current Comcast box, but the UTV interface only required a couple button presses to accomplish the task, whereas the Comcast box requires about 5 times as many. Two slow buttons are a lot faster than 10 moderately responsive buttons!

How about 3rd-party boxes?

I've got a brilliant idea: let us choose which boxes we want. Here's a better one: Let us choose which software we want as well. I'm sure they'd gain a lot of goodwill and credit amongst customers if they allowed us to use MythTV with a cable card and 2-way communication with said cable card.

There's still ads though no doubt.

I canceled our Comcast about 8 or 9 months ago because they started putting ads in the guide menu. Let me know when they discontinue this behavior and I might consider getting cable again.

Or perhaps someone could make an adblock addon for these cableboxes?

Guideworks is terrible

The Guideworks software is terrible enough. The problems that TFA mentions of unresponsiveness doesn't just affect the Microsoft boxes. It happens just as frequently using Guideworks. I can't think of a time where my set top box from Comcast ever operated how it was supposed to. It constantly freezes, forgets to record things, or locks up when it is recording. Had my set top replaced 3 times, and it still does it.

Ouch

Did Microsoft get hurt?

Whatever happened to Liberate?

This is a bit off topic, but the discussion about Comcast and Microsoft reminded me of liberate. [liberate.com]

Liberate made set-top-box software that competed with Microsoft but they seem to have fallen on hard times. When I interviewed there back in 2001 it looked like they had a chance of actually competing.

Today their web site is basically an e-tombstone.

Anybody out there know what led to their demise?

-S

Guide gone, but MS isn't out of the TV business

As TFA notes, MS certainly isn't getting out of the TV and STB business, only the relatively trivial software that just shows you guides and changes the channel for you. Their software is being used by a disturbingly high number of IPTV installations, so the chances that MS software will be ruining your (wired) TV experience is only going up.

IGUIDE is worse

People who think that the Microsoft Foundation software is far worse than the IGUIDE software must be doing a pretty careful job of picking which features to assess. I've used both, and although each has many negatives I'd say that overall the Microsoft system is slightly better. (And neither comes anywhere close to TIVO.) Also, keep in mind that some of the problems customarily attributed to the software by civilians are actually Motorola 6412 firmware problems. (Although I have heard it claimed that Microsoft contributes to its problems by having its software be somewhat incompatible with the latest version of the firmware.) One caveat: I haven't used the latest version of the IGUIDE software, which reportedly fixes several annoying bugs, but which some Comcast systems inexplicable refuse to roll out.

Which is the Lesser Evil?

This is sort of like trying to decide who to root for in an Alien vs. Predator duel. My preference is to toss them both into the Thunderdome and then nuke it from orbit.

>The cable company will replace the Microsoft technology with GuideWorks software -- Comcast is a part owner of GuideWorks.

The issue is not that Comcast is particularly unhappy with Microsoft. It is more that they are going with software they own a piece of. In my experience, that usually turns out badly.

AT&T

I am not sure the article is correct Comcast being the only MS customer. Recently a friend of mine had AT&T's cable installed and it does use Motorola chip with MS software. It worked and looked great.

Uh? Doesn't Charter and AT&T use Microsoft???

I've got a charter set top box that is powered by Microsoft and doesn't AT&T also use Microsoft's IPTV product?

It's Comcastic

Dear Comcast Marketing:

The other day, my son finished his homework and sat down for his favorite show: Heros. The show had started 20 minutes ago, so flicked on the TV, saw the start of a key scene (live), reach for the remote and hit the DVR button to start from the beginning, and BOOM - the box decided to reboot. He was in a complete panic, because he knew he just missed that key scene forever. My daughter noticed his frustration, and yelled out "It's Comcastic," which is what we always say when there's a reboot.

The next day my daughter saw a Comcast ad, and said, "Geez, dad, why are they so excited about the Comcastic thing?" I was confused, and asked her what she meant... she said "I mean, Comcastic means broken, right?"

Sincerely,
The future generation

Comast Boxes Remarkable Sluggish and Laggy

The boxes they were using in Texas before the time warner buy out were bad. After Time Warner switched over to their software they became unusable. Pushing the fast forward button on the remote usually resulted in the system becoming stuck for 5 to 10 minutes as it zipped forward an hour or two through the program. We finally had to kick them to the curb, it was just unwatchable.

Never used extensively

Microsoft TV was never used extensively on Comcast anyway. The i-Guide software (Guideworks) is indeed pretty bad, as is the Microsoft software. Consensus seems to be that the Microsoft software was slower and buggier, while i-Guide was harder to use, had fewer features, and was more annoying.

One more reason to use Dish Network. Their software has crappy UI, but it's stable (at least on my 625 DVR), has all the features you could want, and responds quickly.

why is South America different

Does anyone know why Microsoft is doing well in South America but not in North America? What's the difference between the two markets?

What software is the rest of the country using?

The article says that the MS software was only used in Washington. So, what software is running these boxes everywhere else in the country? I've been using the horrid Comcast guide (and their horrid DVR) since about 2004, and never really even thought about the fact that it wasn't something horrible they created...

Is GuideWorks what I've got as the guide now?

Comcast Needs Help

I'm not sure what article everyone else is reading, but I doubt if MSFT cares about this. Comcast just became our local cable provider (I'm not living in Washington) and DirectTV and DSL sales have spiked. It has to be the worst cable company I have ever seen.

Verizon also uses the MS trash

Verizon FiOS TV also uses the same MS guide and is also planning to drop it soon for their own guide. They had to hire developers to fix the lousey bloatware from Redmond!

Re:BSOD jokes

BSODs are virtually obsolete on Microsoft products.

Not sure what you mean when you call them "obsolete", but they still keep happening, Mr. Ballmer.

-jcr

Re:Clues spotted at Comcast?

Doesn't look like it was "mission critical". It looks more like one of several Comcast experiments in this kind of technology for which Washington was the testbed. The competition appears to have done better in the experiments.

Re:BSOD jokes

Shortcomings! What shortcomings?

Re:Clues spotted at Comcast?

Mission crticial? It's a set-top box for christ sake. This is all about reducing complexity for them, so they only support one thing, and have one feature-set to worry about upgrading.

Re:Clues spotted at Comcast?

Perhaps if you cared more about customers than promoting your anti-Microsoft agenda, you'd realize that the Comcast software is, without reservations, worse in every way that the Microsoft software. This is a bad thing for consumers all around. Comcast will now have one less input on how the system might be improved for consumers. You may consider the evil of Microsoft absolute, but Comcast is even more evil when it comes to "serving" their customers.

Re:BSOD jokes

Yea right, thing of the past. I just took my wife to the Martina McBride concert this past weekend as a Mother's day present and the main 10ftx10ft display directly behind her BSOD'd for about 10 seconds in the middle of a song before they could cut the feed to it. Don't kid yourself and pretend that current Microsoft products don't BSOD. They may not do it as much.

Re:BSOD jokes

I continually got BSOD's for a while because apparently Windows XP didn't get along so well with my SATA controller's drivers until Intel issued a patch. Actually, it was pretty random between getting a BSOD or the damn thing instantly powering off. Choose your poison, but none of this has happened for me when running Linux, and the only thing while running Linux that has caused instability for me has been video drivers.

Re:Comcast fee reduction?

Immediately after my comment gets modded down I get this Slashdot notice:

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Way to give yourself away as a lousy moderator, dude.