Set Top Box #3

So when I spoke to the customer service supervisor yesterday, he said that he believed that my problems are being caused by a bad connection somewhere and he scheduled a service call for Sunday morning.

The tech came by Sunday morning as scheduled. Turns out it was the same guy who previously visited to give me a new box. He dismissed the idea that a bad connection was the cause of my problem (and I agree with him that it's a stupid theory) and instead gave me another new box. He was very helpful and gave me the name and number of his boss if I need help in the future.

We'll see if this fixes my problems.

In any case, we now have three theories from Verizon as to what the root of my problems is:

Theory #1 from the tech that came out today is that many of the the set-top boxes are bad and I had bad luck in getting two bad ones in a row.

Theory #2 from the tech support person that called me Saturday morning is that the software is somehow flawed and can be fixed remotely.

Theory #3 from the supervisor I spoke with yesterday is that there's a bad connection somewhere in the house.

And then there's my theory...

The stupid DVR software does not let you specify a specific episode to record. So when a show you want to record is on several times per day, you have to record all showings. Now, most of the shows I record are for my kids and they are on several times per day. So I've got about a dozen shows and most of these shows are on several times per day. I only save the latest episode of each show, so the DVR records the same show over and over again every day. This can't be good for the hard drive, which must get fragmented after all of this.

I'll bet if they let me record a show once per day, that'd solve these problems.