Digital Transition Questions Unlimited?

In the Chicagoland area Comcast is transitioning to Digital. Well for a company this large you would think it would be going easier than it is.
1) The DTA Boxes: it took me 8+ hours to have a simple question answered and I had to escalate it to a supervisor. The question: "Does the port on the back act as a pass thru port?" I was told everything from yes, to know, and transferred from here to who knows where and back before the supervisor I asked for stated that no it is not a pass thru port. In other words we have gone back to the 1970's cable television when you had to set your VCR (or now DVD/DVR) to channel 3 (or 4), oh ya and make sure the box is on that channel you want recorded. UGH!!! Considering the box is on ALL the time you would think it was a pass thru port, well it should work that way.

2) I have seen it posted here about TiVo not working. Well it should if you have digital tuner TiVo such as the TiVo HD or TiVo HD XL I have been told by TiVo those are ClearQam compatible/ready. Those should pick up channels just as your TV Does. However TiVo will be dependent upon Comcast to give them the correct information about programming. An example would be Windows Media Center in Windows 7, well in this area it is only finding 39 channels a few Analog and few ClearQAM. WMA I believe is dependent on what Comcast tells them. Is WMC dependent on Comcast updating MS?? Which leads to the next question/comment.

3) On my PC I have Windows Media Center and WinTV 7 which came with my Hauppauge TV Tuner Card I had to get a new card because the one HP put in was only Analog or OTA Digital capable. Here is the conflict: on WinTV I get the Travel Channel, Food Network, Animal Planet Lifetime and other Extended Basic Cable (digital or analog) channels we are suppose to get. WinTV is picking up the same amount of channels that my LG Flat Panel TV does. Why the difference? I believe WMC is driven by the Guide not the signals available, as stated above. Even if you know the ClearQAM channel and manually add it WMC refuses to tune it in. An example is Food Network which appears on 86-2 in WinTV, but does not show in WMC; but if you add it manually it still will not tune it in. Why will it not tune in channels you know are there??

4) I have an LG 37" LCD Flat Panel that is not quite two years old yet. Now that Comcast has started the transition to Digital I am having problems with the TV getting caught in a On/Off loop. Asked peeps at Best Buy they have never heard of this, and LG is almost impossible to get any information on their website. Example: channel 86-3 all of a sudden caused the TV to shut off just as the picture would tune in TV would turn off then power cycle back on but do it again and again...... So it gets caught in a loop. From what I can find out there is no Firmware update for the TV, and I have been told that Comcast is sending a nonstandard signal to cause this. What is causing this, it happens on more than one channel and it is almost impossible to get it out of the On/Off loop. You have to channel down then go to Edit Channels and manually (and VERY quickly) delete the channel; then of course if it deletes on the first try then you gotta get the TV out of the loop again. Why does this happen at all??

All of the above I believe lays at the feet of Comcast and their poor digital transition practices. Trust me when I say I get the profit motive, because much of what they do I would do as a company head. Financially it makes sense. However this transition is totally a mess and they really should be sending Daily/Weekly Channel Schedule updates to all who provide them such as MS and others. They should also be testing there signals on various TV's. LG is a hugely popular and reliable brand, it is the only brand of cell phone I will own. If anyone can answer the above questions great. Otherwise Comcast if you see this get it together; and take note I DO NOT WANT A BOX because I do not want On Demand, I get that thru TiVo/Amazon or Netflix. Not to mention that the Motorola boxes you use SUCK, and the DVR I will not even mention what I think of that function on a Moto box. Give Moto the boot like Apple did. On extended Basic there is no point to having a box if you have equipment that can translate a ClearQAM signal.

NICK