The scoop: Comcast isn't pushing its high-capacity DVRs

You just need to head into a Comcast location, bring your old box, and be specific that you'd like to trade it out for the newer model. They're black, and they bear model number DCX3400.

Without having to pay a fee - other than the monthly $15.95 rental fee for the box, which you already pay if you have HDDVR service - you can swap out your old DVR box, which may have as few as 20 gigabytes of space on it, for a newer version with more than 250 gigabytes.

An hour of HD programming can take up to 3 gigabytes of memory.

I took my old box into a nearby Comcast location recently to swap it out for a newer one, but I was told at first that none were in stock. After I pressed the issue, the woman behind the counter begrudgingly produced a newer model from a cabinet behind her.

"Because we have a limited number of them right now, they are only supposed to give them to people who ask for them," said Comcast spokeswoman Kelle Maslyn said by e-mail. "Most people are very happy with the regular DVR, and we don't want to give them something they don't need and not have those boxes available for people like you."

Oddly, Comcast blocks customers from expanding the memory in their DVR boxes with external hard drives. Cox, DirecTV and Dish Network all let you expand the space available.

The only answer Maslyn gave me about Comcast's blocking policy was:

"We are always looking for ways to further meet our customers' needs, and this is one product feature we look at," Maslyn said. "We look at DVRs complementary to On Demand and vice versa."

Access Tucson Telethon pulls in $3K in donations

Access Tucson staged a four-hour telethon on Dec. 15, hauling in $3,000 in donations, said the organization's executive director, Lisa Horner. She said the telethon is part of ongoing efforts to raise at least $5,000, but she has no idea how much its budget shortfall will be next year, because the city has yet to set a funding level.

Earlier this year, the city cut Access Tucson's budget to $300,000, less than half the level of the year before. Now the city is considering eliminating Access Tucson funding entirely.

"We are very encouraged by the support generated from the telethon and the incredible donations made to the online auction," Horner said by e-mail. "The community response has been remarkable and certainly indicates a real interest in preserving this valuable public resource."

Contact reporter Phil Villarreal, who covers local media for the Star, at 573-4130 or pvillarreal@azstarnet.com