Time Warner Won’t Support The Series 3 TiVo?
Update 08/04/2006 @ 8:57 PM EST: Time Warner Cable Raleigh, NC has apologized for providing misinformation!
Update 07/31 @ 9:22PM EST: TWC has contacted a user on TiVoCommunity.com to let him know that TWC will provide CableCARDs for the Series3 TiVo.
According to a complaint on consumerfury.com, Time Warner in Raleigh, NC has said that they won’t support installing a CableCARD in the Series3 TiVo. Nor will they allow TiVo to access their network (not sure how they would prevent this).
Dear G***** C*****, TRACKING NUMBER: 88187 Inquiry: Just to confirm, you are saying that when the Series 3 Tivo’s are released, you will not be providing cablecards for Tivo Series 3 owners? Submitted: by gc****@**********.com
Response:Time Warner Cable of Raleigh does not provide support for or allow TIVO devices on our cable network. Time Warner Cable provides DVR service and equipment for customers that would like to record programs and watch them later. Cable Cards will only be installed on Cable ready, Cable Card slot available television sets. This policy is subject to change at the discretion of Time Warner Cable of Raleigh.
If this is true there are going to be a lot of people who are going to be pissed off. I’m not even sure if Time Warner can do this since the whole CableCARD thing was a government mandate.
If you want to find out what your local Time Warner has to say about this you can contact them using this page. If they tell you that they won’t support the Series3 TiVo then you can file a complaint with the FCC.
I plan on calling my cable company (Adelphia) tomorrow. I will let everybody know what they have to say. If you get a chance, you might want call your cable company. I’m interested to hear what Comcast and other cable companies have to say.
Update: 07/27 @ 11:16 PM: Looks like TWC in Los Angeles is saying the same thing…
Update: 07/26 @ 9:58 PM: The consumerfury.com complaint has been updated. Apparently the individual who posted the complaint contacted the Raleigh Telecommunication Commission about the problem. The RTC replied back essentially saying that TW is under no obligation to support a CableCARD install in a Series 3 TiVo. Check out the complaint for more information and additional followup.
I’m especially concerned about this because my cable provider (Adelphia) is about to switch over to TW in the near future. Has anybody else contacted their cable provider to find out what they have to say?
July 25th, 2006 at 11:01 pm |
As you mentioned I’m not sure if they have the legal right to do this as I thought that CableCARD was a congressional mandate.
Though it is possible they can use the fact that the Series3 is classified as a “Set Top Box” by CableLABS as a loophole. AFAIK it is the only CableLABS certified device with this designation.
If they are able to pull this off it won’t leave much recourse for consumers, as in practically all cases consumers only have a single choice for a cable provider, you can’t exactly go to satellite since the Series3 won’t work with satellite at all. This is why lack of competition is a bad thing.
July 26th, 2006 at 2:17 am |
My understanding is that they do not have the right to say this. They must provide CableCARDs for any approved host device - and the S3 is such a device. If anyone has such a problem I’m sure TiVo would love to know about it so they can go after the cable company with a big stick.
July 26th, 2006 at 10:11 am |
[...] Time Warner Cable, Raleigh refuses to provide CableCARD for TiVo. (TiVo Blog) [...]
July 26th, 2006 at 10:49 am |
Complaining to the FCC won’t work. They refuse to take complaints on this issue if you call them. You have to go to the local franchise authority. They are the only ones who have enforcement power over this.
July 26th, 2006 at 10:59 am |
How do you find out who your “local franchise” authority is?
July 26th, 2006 at 11:29 am |
This is exactly what TiVo was talking about when they sent the FCC and the cable companies the letter.
This is obviously a local Cable Co that doesn’t know what they are talking about, by the time the series 3 is release lets hope all these cable co’s get their act together.
July 27th, 2006 at 7:56 am |
The local franchise authority is the state now. They just passed a law removing the requirement to get approval from local municipal goverments for this stuff in NC. Great timing huh?
July 27th, 2006 at 9:55 am |
Someone should define the language “will not support” and “install”. Does Time Warner expect to prevent a customer from removing a CableCard from an approved television and inserting it into a S3 Tivo? What does a CableCard install involve? Does it have a MAC address that must be added to the network before it is acknowledged? And will Windows Vista Media Center’s that support the CableCard also be refused? If Time Warner or any other cable company refuses to support a CableCard device, they will only succeed in driving customers away to other services. This is an especially dumb move, when more and more prime time shows are available for download through legitimate and illegitimate services such as iTunes and torrents. Place/time shifting is here to stay, if you try to limit consumer choices, the anwers are only a few searches and clicks away.
July 27th, 2006 at 10:46 am |
I was wondering the same thing. Will Vista have the same problem? According to the install instructions, it looks as though there is some type of address that the cable company needs to get off the CableCARD.
July 27th, 2006 at 2:34 pm |
I have a contact in the TWC executive offices. His response was that TWC’s policy is to provide CableCards for any verified UDCP and that they’ll straighten things out in Raleigh. There is, however, apparently some controversy as to whether the Tivo Series 3 has been fully validated.
July 27th, 2006 at 5:49 pm |
Talkstr8t - The Series3 is on Cable Labs list of validated devices. The model is the TCD648250A and TCD648250B - it looks like they did the A, made some changes, and redid the B and that’s the one in field trials. See Page 11: http://www.cablelabs.com/udcp/downloads/OC_PNP.pdf
July 27th, 2006 at 11:14 pm |
[...] MegaZone: Talkstr8t - The Series3 is on… [...]
September 13th, 2006 at 4:59 pm |
It seems that this issue is not resolved. I recently called my local TWC Customer Support only to find that they told me the exact same thing. They will install the CableCard only into a cable box or a TV. Tivos were NOT supported. I live in the Dallas area. TWC recently took over from Comcast.
While this is probably just a miscommunication, they had better get it straightened out before the gifting season ends and people start trying to set their new techno gadgests up.
September 14th, 2006 at 1:18 am |
box464 - You can try telling them they’re required to install CableCARD in any approved host device, and that the TiVo Series3 is on the list. The model number is TCD648250B and that’s on there.
If they still refuse, call TiVo. TiVo has said that people with trouble call them and TiVo will work with the user to get the cards installed.
You can also point them to http://www.tivo.com/cablecard
September 16th, 2006 at 12:32 am |
I’m a subcontractor for Cox in Las Vegas, and I tried to install 2 cable cards into a Series 3 today - couldn’t get either one to authenticate, and after about 2 hours of troubleshooting my superviser told me we aren’t supposed to touch any tivo’s, and CCs can only be installed on TVs.
I’ve been installing cable for 3 years, not a really long time, but I know what I’m doing. I do TV, internet, telephony, everything.. and these cable cards are really the biggest PITA for us installers. If I’m installing one for the day I take 5, and I’m lucky if one out of five works. I really have no idea why it’s such a challenge to get them to work - as it seems like it’s just hit or miss.
January 15th, 2007 at 3:45 pm |
I had two CC’s intalled by Comcast in late December and had one of the cards refuse to register, but one of the them worked almost immediately. The second CC was brought in my another tech in about a week and it worked almost immediately. Both techs said that the TiVo installed much easier than into a TV and neither one of them had actually seen or worked on a TiVo S3 box before. I’m loving the picture quality and am very happy with my S3 purchase as well as Comcast’s customer service. Side note: they did try to charge me twice for the installation, but one call got that cleared up.
April 26th, 2007 at 5:10 pm |
I recently had this exchange with Time Warner in North Dallas, TX:
My email to them:
“I called today to request a cable card for a Tivo Series3 I am planning to buy.
The associate on the phone says you will not provide those to me because you have a similar product. I thought the FCC required that cable cards
be available for the Tivo boxes.
Please explain.”
Their answer:
“Thank you for contacting us with your concern. We do apologize for the misunderstanding, however the cable cards are to be provided for use of your digital television. We will not install the cable cards into Tivo services. We do offer a Digital Video Recorder, therefore, not needing a cable card.”
I sent all this to Tivo in hopes they will get onto Time Warner — but who knows how long that will take. I’ve started to look into FCC filings. But we all know how “fast” the government fixes things.
April 26th, 2007 at 6:34 pm |
Kim,
That is 100% bullshit. They are required to provide CableCARDs for *any* approve host device - and the Series3 is approved. They cannot refuse to provide them.
The simplest thing to do is to call and just say you need to have two CableCARDs installed, and not mention the TiVo. Most of the time they presume it is for a TV anyway. If they ask, then lie and say you have two new CC TVs. When the installer gets there they generally don’t care.
But if you want to avoid the fibs, call TiVo and they should call your cable company with you on the line and straighten them out. There are many threads at TiVoCommunity.com about this kind of thing.
December 27th, 2007 at 6:27 am |
TIME WARNER CABLE CARDS WON’T SUPPORT NEW HD CHANNELS OR ON-DEMAND/PPV!!!
Good news: yes they have to schedule an appointment to stick them in the slot and authenticate
Bad news: some HD channels won’t work and no future channels work.
The latest on Time Warner Cable:
I got a new TIVO SERIES 3 for Christmas after owning and using the dual tuner series 2 with nothing but great things to say using my existing Time Warner Cable but once I got HD I wanted to upgrade.
The series 3 says you “may need” the cable cards. In the case of Time Warner - yes you must have them if you want to tune anything above channel 99 before 2009 when analog goes away. The first indication was when there were NO IR or SERIAL connections to the cable box to change channels - there is no choice.
So while contemplating to go back to the Series 2 or stick it out on 3 - I called Time Warner to find out how to get these “cable cards” and they basically warned me that the existing On Demand and PPV would no longer be available (which I don’t use so I won’t miss it) BUT they warned me that some HD channels would not work and NO FUTURE HD CHANNELS WOULD WORK! I didn’t understand why after having them explain it to me 3 times but it had to do with using a 2 way signal and saving bandwidth which still doesn’t make sense but that is their story. Then my window for TWC is 9am - 7pm!
I’m going to stick it out because I think there will be more to come between these two big kids in the sandbox.
December 27th, 2007 at 5:08 pm |
TiVoCrust - That’s all well known, actually. The TiVo Series3 and TiVo HD - actually *all* unidirectional CableCARD products - cannot utilize VOD/PPV or SDV channels. (SDV is Switched Digital Video.) Some cable operators, notably TWC, use SDV for new channels, usually HD channels, to alleviate bandwidth issues.
There is already a solution in the works. A device called a Tuning Resolver will be available in early 2008. It will connect to the USB port of the CableCARD device, including the TiVos, and communicate with the cable head-end to allow the device to tune SDV channels.
Currently it is only planned to support SDV channels and *not* VOD/PPV, but that may change in the future. Once the hardware is available, supporting other features is really a matter of software support and backing from the cable operators.