Thank You
ComTech3 of Atlanta

Since December I have:
had 4 charter technicians in my home;
had new cable ran into the home (have line signal strength of 94);
had TiVo replace the device twice (on third unit);
had charter replace cable cards (on fifth set of cards)

Just using logic here, I think it’s safe to assume that the issues I am having:
are not field tech related;
are not “cable into my home” related;
are not TiVo device related;
are not cable card related

Rather, the issue MUST be PAIRING RELATED.

When I call charter customer support (escalated to a supervisor), they ask me for the SERIAL NUMBER of the cable cards (I have two) there is only ONE serial number on the back of each card.

They then tell me that they have “hit” the card (sent “reauthorizations”, “another hit”, you name it…)

Yet the TiVo device itself (in the cable card menu, conditional access) shows that the cards are NOT paired…

All that to ask, what is it that charter should be pairing TO?
Or put another way, charter should be pairing what WITH what in their system?

The cable card (charter) “serial number” with the (TiVo) “host id”?
The cable card (charter) “serial number” with the (TiVo) “unit address”?

The cable card (TiVo) “cable card id” with the (TiVo) “host id”?
The cable card (TiVo) “cable card id” with the (TiVo) “unit address”?

* The charter cable card “serial number” and the TiVo indicated “cable card id” are NOT the same. and the “host id” and “unit address” are not the same. and then of course there is the TIVO SERVICE # (I can find no TiVo serial number for the device) which is different than the host id and unit address.

The folks at TIVO say that there is nothing they can do (and I buy that…I really do)

The folks at CHARTER don’t seem to KNOW what to do (even though some agents have been extremely helpful, they really do seem to be totally (intentionally?) clueless and to have had no training whatsoever with either cable cards or TiVo.

ANY SUGGESTIONS?
I’m open to ANYTHING at this point… even PAID SUPPORT!
Ttherwise, I have an 800 doorstop.

feel free to contact me:
mike@radioio.com
904-626-6964

PS – If nothing more, does anyone have any idea how to file a formal complaint with Charter? The FCC? Or both? (again, my personal opinion is that TiVO and the TiVO Customer are the victims here. Because I am JUST the fellow to do it.

Any hope for the future. I’d hate to use the new TivoHD as a door stop.

That’s where I am now. TW reps keep going “I didn’t think cablecards worked with Tivo?” Well, they do. Cable companies need to train their reps, educate them. Train your field techs, too. “I’ve never installed a cablecard… !” Wah. Get some training. It’s your job.

I have owned a series 3 tivo for almost a year now. And it has worked pretty flawlessly! Congrats to tivo for getting tivotogo working now as well.

We recently moved from one county to another in Colorado (Comcast). And the cableCARDS timed out. So we had them reactivated. Then the stopped working. So they sent a tech out that removed our two previous cards (guessing they were S-cards) and put in one m-card. It didn’t work. So we had a tech come out and put in another m-card and magically they both worked–by luck, as this tech knew nothing about S3.

so for five days, both cards worked, all channels. Then we get an error saying card #2 ’s pairing is off. So I go through the cableCARD config menu, guided set up, etc. and I notice a weak signal.

I look at the wiring from the wall to the tivo, and the tech has a three way splitter (one for tivo, one for comcast on demand, one for HSI) a 3 ft cable to a connect that connects to a one foot cable, that connects to the splitter that connected to a 6 inch cable that connectes to a connector that connects to cable that goes through the wall into the basement that connects to a 6 way splitter that goes to the cable service main line…

follow?

SO… time to reduce the signal loss. First thing I notice is that the three way splitters outputs have different signal losses: 2 at 3.5db and 1 at 7.5db. Of course, the most sensitive of the three devices, my S3 is on the 7.5. So i change that and put it on the 3.5db. then I remove all those short cables and connectors, so that the wire in the wall that goes to the basement goes directly into the splitter. Then I venture to the basement and remove the splitter, since we have just one TV and one tivo for now, and replace it with a connector.

I go back to cablecard diagnostics, and now the signal strength is 95 to 100, whereas before it was about 70.

cablecard 1 gets all the channels
cablecard 2 gets 1 through 21, and 22 sort of. when i try to go to hbo 550, it says to call comcast and have to activate these channels.

I call comcast and have them ‘hit’ the card which they say should take care of any issues, including pairing. However, it does not. Even more annoyingly, when i try to watch “live tv” on hbo 550, I get a black screen. If I record the channel, and then go to “Now playing” and choose the channel that I have recording, I have a picture–

From what I have read, I need to call comcast and confirm that all their number match up, data, unitid, etc.

does this sound right

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

Both units worked fine for a few months. But since February, I’ve had NOTHING BUT PROBLEMS! Tivo has replaced one unit or the other three times. Charter keeps sending techs out (because they won’t let me install it myself — you know, look up the numbers on the screen and call them in for activation — waaaay too technical for us consumers to do!). Anyway, the techs they are sending out have either never touched a cable card in their lives (so I end up showing them what to do) or they keep calling in the numbers, telling the office to “hit it again” while they’re telling me that the Scientific Atlanta cable cards just don’t seem to work and that everyone has problems where I live (in the mountains of Southern California).

At the moment, I have no working S3 unit. Luckily, we kept our DirecTV Tivo unit (a real Tivo unit) so we have TV, just not HD. Charter can’t seem to get it together, or call me back. Tivo has been great, but at this point I’m asking them to let me move my Lifetime Service back to a Series 1 or Series 2 unit! I took them up on their offer to move the Lifetime Service to the S3 unit, and now I don’t have a working unit!

I’ve spent HOURS AND HOURS AND HOURS on the phone with Charter (an awful experience) and Tivo (a much better experience) and haven’t really accomplished anything except increasing my stress level, losing sleep and giving up valuable time for nothing.

So, yesterday I called DirecTV and asked about their HD stuff. (I can’t take it any more!) You’ll love this. They offered to give me their HD DVR at no cost (except $21 shipping/handling) and they would send a tech out between 8-12 today to install it. Tech didn’t show. It’s now 4:45 p.m. The installation company says they couldn’t reach him on his Nextel push-to-talk phone because there’s no signal here in the mountains. We’ve rescheduled for tomorrow, so I get to sit around all day another day. DirecTV said I can try their HD unit and if I don’t like it, no harm no foul.

Meanwhile, I called Tivo again to tell them I’d given up on Charter (who have been completely out of communication with me despite many calls — including from last week’s tech, who was great, who said she’d have the manager call me). Anyway, Bobby with Tivo listened to my sad story and said he’d call me back AND HE DID! And when he called back, he said “Give us a few days. Our people want to talk to Charter’s people and see if we can get this resolved.” He said if that doesn’t work, they’ll talk to me about moving my Lifetime Service to another unit. I’ll probably buy a couple of Series 2 units if I end up doing that, because all I have is Series 1, and I actually gave one of them away after I got the S3 units.

It actually made me feel better, though, to see that I’m not alone in this struggle. Best of luck to you all!

I went to the TWC store and traded in my Scientific Atlanta HD box for two cable cards without any problems and no questions asked. The cards came with instructions on what information to get after the cards were installed and a phone number to call into for activation.

My cable was already working and from previous phone calls to TWC I can tell you that they consider thier customers to be competent and encourage people to come into thier closest store for equipment upgrades and exchanges instead of waiting days for a service person to make a house call.

When I called the TWC activation phone number I followed the setup instructions for the cable installer that came with my Tivo. The TWC representative was professional and patient with me while I fumbled around to locate the second cable card’s data that he needed.

The only annoyance was that(as it states on the cable card instructin sheet) it takes 24 hours for the cards to be activated after the information is called in, but it wasn’t any worse than a child endures while waiting to open Christmas presents.

Good luck with your setup and have a good day.

During the install, it walks you through the cablecard activation. It displays a screen of information including “host, node, etc” after each cable card. It also clearly says “the following information is for your cable installer”. But my installer blew it off as unnecessary. He said the cable cards were activated so he didn’t need this info. But we couldn’t get the 2nd cable card to work. He left and came back saying he has to use that information (that he previously dismissed) to pair the 2 cards. This is something they’re not used to b/c they don’t do a lot of 2-cable-card-installs. The process involves calling the main office with the info on the screen and the pairing is done from there.

I’ve gotten a lot of different information regarding which channels I’ll get in HD if I use the cable cards. The truth is that my particular region only gets the 4 networks in HD. That’s all. 30 miles south and 30 miles north, they get 16 HD channels. But I know it’s not b/c of the cable card (as I was previously told) b/c they gave me the channel lineup and it clearly states that our market only gets the 4 networks. Oh well, 30 of my 33 wishlists are on these 4 channels so I’m getting a lot more HD through comcast than I was through directv. And the real Tivo is way better than the bastardized DirecTivo was anyway. Though, I have to admit, I’m using my leftover DirecTV contract to continue to get the cable channels in HD (ESPN and SHOH mostly) too. So, now I have 4 Tivo tuners and 6 very heavily used HD channels (and a few not so used HD as well).

Based on all the misinformation I got from Comcast, I was skeptical but I’m very pleased now that I have it. When Comcast in my area gets more HD, I’ll pay the cancellation fee to DirecTV and never look back. Until then, having both is a pretty good solution.

When I talked to the CSR guy, he tried to sell me off the S3 — sounded like he was reading from a script when he said he’d tried the S3 himself (uh-huh…).

Anyway, I’m still doing research and I’m anticipating a fair degree of frustration before I get the S3 operating correctly with the Comcast cablecards, HD subscription channels, etc etc.

Should be interesting.

–PS

Anyway, I started by calling 1-800-comcast to make sure my market has cablecard support. The guy told me they could only give me 1. I suggested he ask someone else and he said he’s positive. So, I called a local comcast office directly. They said no problem. The first card is free and the 2nd costs $1.50/mo. Big whup. But then the girl said that with the cable cards, I’d be missing out on some features.
1) the onscreen guide (no thanks! next?)
2) PPV and ondemand (I’ve seen it and it’s a joke. Next?)
3) I’d get locals in HD but nothing else. No ESPNH, SHOH, HBOH, etc.

WTF? It’s the oppposite problem with my HD DirecTivo. I live in the mountains and can’t get line of sight to use the offair antenae. But if I got the non-dvr receiver I’d get the entire HD package including locals. But the DVR box only decodes overair HD locals. Strangely, it gets the rest of the package. Sounds like stupid DRM politics getting in the way but whatever. I’m anxious to get a decent HD content solution and nobody seems willing or able to provide it.

Meanwhile, I got on a three-way with Dana (Tivo rep) yesterday and the TWC people. She says that one of her customers was a cableguy who bought a Series 3, and he said that the installation problems with the CableCards was solved by someone at TWC changing things at the “head end”. I’m currently waiting for a call from another technical guy at TWC.

Suggestions, anyone?