Cloud storage is the way of the future, it seems. But right now, there are some bugs to work out and devices that don’t quite work as planned. Todd just had Cablevision installed last week, and he has a new kind of DVR, called DVR+, that has no hard drive and stores his recorded programs remotely. Pro: No large hard drive that will inevitably fail inside the set-top box. Con: This new type of DVR is slow and crappy.

I just signed up for Cablevision’s new non-ultimate triple play (Regular io TV, unlimited voice, HD DVR, and top speed internet w/ boost – $79.90/mo) since AT&T Uverse was charging so much. Installation was last week.

It looks like Cablevision is rolling out a new DVR service called DVR+. Instead of providing a hard drive for local storage, they are “upgrading” by using their servers as a central storage point for both the list of shows you’ve recorded as well as the actual media. All well and good – should make for a cheaper set-top box. Oh, wait…it’s still the same price for us though.

As a Cablevision customer from several years ago, I was a big fan of using their website to program my DVR. Part of this new DVR+ “upgrade” is continuing that service….in about 4 months once they make it ready.

Yes – they force a cheaper box on you, charge the same price as the older one, and basically take away some of the basic services they have had for ages. Wonderful “upgrade”. Oh, and did I mention that bringing up my list of recorded shows takes almost a full 5 minutes? I might have to go back to AT&T.

We just might have to call this the DVR Shrink Ray.

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