Cass,

I just got Time Warner, and man is this cable company assworthy. I cannot believe how awful I thought Comcast was and then ta-da, I have TW.

My DVR function is working okay but it is a pale pale comparison to Tivo.

What is wrong with your DVR?

I cannot believe how awful I thought Comcast was and then ta-da, I have TW.

My last support phone with them - which accused them of misleading and giving false information when asked - included that exact sentiment. That this was a terrible experience and how really unhappy I was with them "and I've just finished dealing with Comcast. How can you even make Comcast look better?"

What is wrong with your DVR?

Borked. It shows me a listing of recorded shows but they are all black and I have to get to the guide to watch anything. Same if I try to pause or skip back. The shows are taking up some space but I have no idea if they exist or not.

Tech call tomorrow.

Here's the great part. All that time and I said I'd rebooted when we started. Was asked again after taking forever to get my phone number corrected. Confirmed that, yes, I'd rebooted. And the only thing that was said after that was that they'd have a tech come out. I wouldn't have minded if that had taken the five minutes it should have but what the fuck was happening that whole time?

Mostly I am cranky that I missed an amazing race yesterday that I had on but too low to hear while unpacking so I didn't bother my mom who was helping. If I'd realized it wasn't going to work, it'd have been turned up just a touch so I could glance from the kitchen. I was here. It was on. I just totally assumed that I was recording it and thus would be able to watch it later.

Okay, let me give you a suggestion:

instead of rebooting, turn off your DVR. Turn off your tv. Wait about 5-10 minutes, then turn on your DVR. Wait a bit, then turn on your TV.

Tell me if that helps.

Giving that a shot. Will report back.

Tech thread - so much more actual tech support than the people I pay...

I can also help you troubleshoot Verizon landlines.

Okay, so my little sister gave me her Nano to replace my stolen Shuffle, and I've only ever used Shuffles, so help me understand if this is how a Nano works.

Unlike a Shuffle, a Nano just holds all its music as music, not in any order. It organizes it on the device; you don't have to do anything in iTunes.

There is a Sync music feature. One option is to sync the entire library, but this is a stupid feature unless your entire library is under 8 GB. The other option is to sync selected Playlists, and I think that is what I want to do to replicate the Shuffle experience as closely as possible.

So if I create a playlist called Suki in my iTunes and dump all the songs that I want to have on Suki (my Nano) and select the "Sync playlists" option and select Suki, what will happen is that when I connect Suki, it will compare the music that it has on itself with the music that is in the Suki playlist and, well, sync. If I have added music to the playlist, it will add it to the device. If I have removed music from the playlist, it will delete it from the device. If any of the files have been updated with new ID3 information, that information will also be synced to the device. Is that right?

And I can also create other playlists in iTunes (like, say, "Electronica" or "Chill" or other themes) and select only those playlists to Sync with Suki so that I can edit those playlists in iTunes and every time I connect the device, Suki will match it all up (and even if I have somehow added a song to one of THOSE playlists that I did not add to Suki, intended to be a list of all songs on the device, it will add it to the device because it is Syncing).

Is that right? This is sort of confusing but kind of exciting.

I don't understand people who don't put all their music on their iPod (I know, ND, I know--Hec, you too), so I can't help you off the top of my head.

Time Warner--they are consistently crap support with just my cable and internet connection--they're one reason I'd never go VOIP only. I am not going to trust them with two important chunks of my connectivity to the world. The one is bad enough. The idea of their DVR strikes a chill in my heart.

That sounds about right, P-C. For both my iPhone and my Nano I have only some playlists synched to them. For the iPhone it's all purchased music and everything 3 stars and up ("smart playlists") and for the Nano it's my running playlist and my top rated songs.

My music won't even fit on the iTunes Match service.

Yeah, I suppose if I actually used iTunes as my primary music listening program and rated songs and everything, it would be better, but I can make playlists manually! I will choose my favorites with my choices!