How can I program my Xfinity / Comcast DVR remotely?

You're in luck. Since I am personally addicted to Turner Classic Movies and since there's no way to access their video stream through a service like Netflix or Apple TV, I'm stuck with Comcast cable. Since I like to time-shift programming, I too have a DVR from them. I've also dabbled with the Xfinity system because I am often away from home when a particular program comes on, or, more likely, I'm asleep when a favorite film comes on.

The old school way of working with your DVR is through the remote control and the on-screen interface, but I have to say that I find it very tedious, particularly entering program names, actors, directors, etc. That's why Xfinity.TV is so awesome: you can not only see what's on, but you can search the upcoming program directory and set up a recording event directly from the Web browser.

To connect your DVR and cable box with the Xfinity service, I recommend you use their online help. I found it very straightforward, intuitive and it worked the first time!

Once you have it set up, go to the Xfinity.TV site and make sure you're logged in by checking on the top right to see it indicates your name.

For this demonstration, I'm going to show you how I set up a recurring DVR recording to capture the new HBO series Game of Thrones. It'd work the same for any series you cared to choose or, of course, for a one-time event like a movie.

On that page, look on the top right for the search box:

I typed in the search "game of thrones" and here's what it displayed:

Lots of occurences of each episode, but if you look closely, some are in HD while others aren't, and they're different times / different channels too.

The first episode is called "Winter is Coming" and I definitely want to get that in high-def (HD) since I have an HDTV system, so I click on the last of the matches shown above. Now it gives me more detail on that particular event and includes both "Record" and "Record Series" buttons:

Since it's the first episode of a series, I click on "Record Series"...

If you like the defaults, this is great, but I like to tweak it just a bit: sometimes things start a minute or two early, for example. Click on the different pop-up menus and you can fine tune it to be exactly as you want, as I have done here:

Looks good? Click on "Record Series" and...

If you have everything set up, that's all you need to do, as you can see it then sends the programming information directly to your DVR! In fact, it doesn't report "success!" at all.

To check that it's all set up with your show (or "Game of Thrones" in this instance), Go to "TV Listings" --> "DVR Manager":

It should show up as a recurring scheduled event:

Got it? Great. Now, where's my remote so I can dive into Game of Thrones?

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