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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
My time warner technician just left (4th guy to come by). He confirmed that Timewarner no longer supports the cablecard required for Tivo 3. Not supporting is a bit vague. They did install them earlier this week but won’t provide the HD channels through them. This due to bandwith issues. The way he explained is that Timewarner basically de-activates channels in neighborhood when noone there is watching them. Only when one user switches to that channel will they turn it on. They apply this mostly to lesser viewed channels (thus saving bandwith).
I am extremely pissed however as no one at timewarner warned me about this. I’m an earlier adapter and bought the Tivo at a $1000 buck and have since also added a terrabite external drive. Now I’m basically looking at a worthless piece of equipment (oh wait I can look at pictures on Picasa).
I also have a hard time believing Tivo is going to take this without action. Timewarner is the second largest cable provider so there must be thousands of Tivo 3 owners that are left without service.
mvanier,
Take a look at this post. I think the technician is talking about SDV which will be supported shortly…
http://www.tivoblog.com/archives/2008/10/04/where-oh-where-is-my-sdv-switched-digital-video-dongle/
Yeah, he’s absolutely talking about Switched Digital Video (SDV) – there is no such thing as a CableCARD that doesn’t work in TiVo. There are only two kinds of CableCARDs – S-Card and M-Card. The description of the way channels only get sent when someone tunes them is precisely how SDV works, and the Tuning Adapter will allow TiVo to work with SDV.