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Official Comcast CableCard Thread!

3M views 9K replies 2K participants last post by  laria 
#1 ·
There seems to already be a lot of CableCard talk on many threads so in an attempt to keep them consolidated by company here is an official thread for Comcast, I just made this thread since I am a Comcast customer, if others want to make official threads for their cable companies go for it! Making one thread for each cable company should ease everyones diging through 100 different threads for cablecard info.

Some relevant info that I have read about comcast so far is the following:
-If you explain to Comcast that both cable cards are for one device people have been successful in no additional monthly charge, one user reported getting good success with calling comcasts 800 number and speaking with a cable card department
-Others have had good luck with going to their local comcast office and getting cable cards directly from them, this saves the installation fee and is quicker

Myself...I called Comcast and got the same spiel as most others have heard, free card for the first one and additional charge for the second of 5.95 (may not be exact, I didn't write it down) and installation charges for both the install of both the first and second cable cards of 20something bucks and 15something bucks. I realize now that I left out some details about my device that may have lead on to these extra charges, I am out of town now but plan on hitting my local Comcast office on Saturday and just trying to get them to give me the cards and I will do the install, or I will call back and try and speak to someone who understands and get the second (additional outlet) monthly charge dropped as well as the installation costs. BTW I live in the Chicago area since some people have experienced different things with the different areas of Comcast. Let me know your thoughts on my experience, what you have heard and try and keep comcast details on this thread so we can all have an easier time keeping up with what others have heard. Also post your region so we know which flavor of comcast you are dealing with.
-AJ
 
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#8,877 ·
Just purchased Tivo Roamio - tried to obtain CableCard from local Comcast office. They ran out of cablecards in the morning - so I have to wait a week to try again. Or next option is to schedule install technician for $35. I'm starting to have buyer's remorse about the Tivo Roamio, especially after scanning through these forums.... :(
Mine has been fine since I changed the roamio to only use 5 tuners (per forum posting). I am not happy about having to do that, but this will do for now.
 
#8,879 ·
I have 2 Roamio+ and a XL4, with 3 cablecards on Comcast in Central Mass. All were working well, but I have never received On Demand...when I try to tune it, I get a V53 error on all machines. I just found out recently that the Tivo's can know get On Demand, so I decided to call Comcast today to get them to activate it. They tried to reset/repair the cards a couple of times, and one time they told me to wait about an hour, and if it didn't work, to call them again. Nothing has worked so far, but all of my other channels are working fine (I don't have any premium movie channels).

They're supposed to call me tomorrow to work on the problem. They say that I should be receiving On Demand. Can anyone give me any info that I can use to get them moving in the right direction?

Rick
 
#8,881 ·
I can almost guarantee that it's a back office problem and not a cable card problem. No OnDemand experience but when they suggest swapping the cards don't let them leave until it fixes the problem.
Yea...I know it's a problem on their end. The woman I spoke to said that they would be calling me between 1 & 3 today...sounded kind of strange to me. If they send a tech out to my house I will not let him in. I have several thousand dollars worth of equipment in that cabinet, and no tech from Comcast is going to touch it, especially when there is no reason to. I can do anything on this end that their tech can do...
 
#8,882 ·
I have 2 Roamio+ and a XL4, with 3 cablecards on Comcast in Central Mass. All were working well, but I have never received On Demand...when I try to tune it, I get a V53 error on all machines. I just found out recently that the Tivo's can know get On Demand, so I decided to call Comcast today to get them to activate it. They tried to reset/repair the cards a couple of times, and one time they told me to wait about an hour, and if it didn't work, to call them again. Nothing has worked so far, but all of my other channels are working fine (I don't have any premium movie channels).
I have Comcast in SE Massachusetts.

Have you read the thread about the Comcast VOD billing code to get this working (link)? I would try calling the 877 cable card group number and see if they can sort it out for you. I moved a cable card from my S3 to a Roamio a couple of weeks ago and the CSR knew exactly what I was talking about when I asked about the VOD billing code.
 
#8,883 ·
I have 2 Roamio+ and a XL4, with 3 cablecards on Comcast in Central Mass. All were working well, but I have never received On Demand...when I try to tune it, I get a V53 error on all machines. I just found out recently that the Tivo's can know get On Demand, so I decided to call Comcast today to get them to activate it. They tried to reset/repair the cards a couple of times, and one time they told me to wait about an hour, and if it didn't work, to call them again. Nothing has worked so far, but all of my other channels are working fine (I don't have any premium movie channels).

They're supposed to call me tomorrow to work on the problem. They say that I should be receiving On Demand. Can anyone give me any info that I can use to get them moving in the right direction?

Rick
Use online chat and specifically ask them to add the "TiVo Premier Stand Alone" billing code under "bolt-ons". I just went through this last night and it fixed my issues with VOD not working.
 
#8,884 ·
OMG help! How are you guys reaching Comcast to activate your Cable Cards? I've been on hold for hours now on 3 different phones to three different Comcast phone numbers. I'm in Atlanta and tried the number displayed on the Tivo MMI screen- 404-266-2278. I also called the number I found earlier in this thread- 877-405-2298. I also called the number given to us at the Comcast office when we picked up our Cablecard which is 855-652-3446. I've been on hold now for several hours at all these numbers.

I'm at the MMI screen on my new Tivo Premiere. I'm ready to go and can't believe I can't get through to anybody. How did you guys do this? Is there a better number to try?

Thanks!

Kupe
 
#8,885 ·
I've used 877-405-2298 the three times I had to pair cable cards. When attempting to activate the new Roamio I got for Christmas I waited on hold for a long time on 12/31 and 1/1 before giving up. I called again on 1/2 and got through immediately.
 
#8,887 ·
I have Comcast in SE Massachusetts.

Have you read the thread about the Comcast VOD billing code to get this working (link)? I would try calling the 877 cable card group number and see if they can sort it out for you. I moved a cable card from my S3 to a Roamio a couple of weeks ago and the CSR knew exactly what I was talking about when I asked about the VOD billing code.
I'm not sure what happened, but mine is fine now. A tech called me the next morning, asked me what model Tivos I had, and had it up and running in a few minutes. I'm not sure what he did, but it was nice to talk to someone who seemed to know what they were doing! Strange...
 
#8,889 ·
My Series 3 started showing tiling/pixelation on most if not all channels, with the sound dropping out. Comcast suggested the cable cards needed to be replaced. I was dubious, as it would mean both cards had gone bad at the same time, right?

So I took their advice and picked up 2 new cards, installed them and went through the set-up sequence. Had some troubles and after a few phone calls finally found someone at Comcast who understood (he was a Tivo owner) and I had all channels working and find except for a handful of premium HD channels. He sent another signal and said check back in an hour, but just in case he set up a home tech visit.

Well, the next day all channels were gone and I was getting the cable card "call your cable company to authorize screen."

Today the tech is here and the signal is fine. He doesn't see any sense in replacing the cards as that's what I just did. He suspects it is the Tivo. He's going to set up a $1.99/month box thingy and see if the signal is okay with that.

So, my first question is: is this possible/likely, that Tivo develops a problem and can't process the cable card signal properly?
 
#8,895 ·
My Series 3 started showing tiling/pixelation on most if not all channels, with the sound dropping out. Comcast suggested the cable cards needed to be replaced. I was dubious, as it would mean both cards had gone bad at the same time, right?

So I took their advice and picked up 2 new cards, installed them and went through the set-up sequence. Had some troubles and after a few phone calls finally found someone at Comcast who understood (he was a Tivo owner) and I had all channels working and find except for a handful of premium HD channels. He sent another signal and said check back in an hour, but just in case he set up a home tech visit.

Well, the next day all channels were gone and I was getting the cable card "call your cable company to authorize screen."

Today the tech is here and the signal is fine. He doesn't see any sense in replacing the cards as that's what I just did. He suspects it is the Tivo. He's going to set up a $1.99/month box thingy and see if the signal is okay with that.

So, my first question is: is this possible/likely, that Tivo develops a problem and can't process the cable card signal properly?
Since it's a Series 2 or Series 3 platform unit, I ask the obligatory

"Are you sure your power supply isn't developing "capacitor plague"?"
 
#8,898 ·
I just replaced 20 caps that looked just like that, on my non-working Polaroid 37" flat screen, and it came right on again. Takes all of about 5 minutes to replace one like the one in your picture, if you have a soldering iron and a radio shack nearby. Lots cheaper than buying a new power supply, if that is the only bad one on the board.
 
#8,899 ·
I just replaced 20 caps that looked just like that, on my non-working Polaroid 37" flat screen, and it came right on again. Takes all of about 5 minutes to replace one like the one in your picture, if you have a soldering iron and a radio shack nearby. Lots cheaper than buying a new power supply, if that is the only bad one on the board.
I don't have a soldering iron and have never soldered before. But I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to give it a try--watched a video and it seemed doable.
 
#8,901 ·
I don't have a soldering iron and have never soldered before. But I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to give it a try--watched a video and it seemed doable.
Remember the first rule:

ALWAYS KNOW WHERE BOTH ENDS OF THE TIVO POWER CORD ARE AT ALL TIMES

There are several threads around here somewhere that deal with re-capping S3 platform power supplies, including lists of Digi-Key and Mouser part numbers to aid in replacement ordering.

As far as is known, the original S3 (the 648) has only one model power supply, whereas there are two models (neither of which is the 648 supply) which can be used in the HD (652) and HD XL (658), so be sure you know which supply you have.

Something labeled C301 on one board might be called C15 on another one, the important thing is to match the uF number and match or slightly exceed if necessary the V number.

That's microFarads of capacitance and the highest voltage across its leads to which the capacitor can safely be subjected.

If the original is rated at 16V, you can't use a 10V or a 6.3V, but if you can't find a 16 in stock anywhere, then a 25V at the same uF would be acceptable, although if the original is a 25, you can't use a 16.

They need to be rated at 105 degrees C (that's Celsius or Centigrade), not the 85 degrees at which general purpose electrolytic caps are rated, like all the ones in Radio Shack.

And they need to be what's called Low ESR.

(Low ESR caps are more expensive than regular ones, which has a lot to do with the shenanigans that got us into this "capacitor plague" mess in the first place.)

That means that electricity moving in and out of them encounters less "friction", which means that movement of electricity won't generate as much heat as it would in general purpose electrolytics with higher Equivalent Series Resistance.

Radio Shack has a thing that plugs into an electrical outlet and looks like a soldering iron with a squeeze bulb that's intended for removing solder, but you could probably use it to heat up the two things to be joined so that they melt the solder, which means you can use it for both phases of the re-capping job.

Use rosin core solder made out of lead and tin and nothing else. Use the size that's about as big around as half way between cooked and uncooked strands of spaghetti.

Observe polarity. There's a reason why electrolytic capacitors have one side marked with either a + or a - so that you know which lead is which.

I say side because there are also caps with end markings and one lead coming out of each end, but the kind you want has both leads coming out the bottom.

When you take out the old one, pay attention to which side went in which hole. You can see from the picture that the board is silk-screened with markings to indicate the - holes (which means by default the other hole is the + one).

And in addition to the #10 Torx screws holding the power supply ciruit board down to the chassis, there's a #8 that screws in from the outside into the top of the AC input jack.

Basically, the biggest cap on the board, rated at 200V, should be fine.

The ones in the size range of those 5 in the picture (the two things on the left are inductors--coils--and the striped thing on the right is a resistor) are the ones you should replace on GP (so that you don't have to replace them later), including the ones on the other side of the heat sink(s), the little ones that aren't as near the heat sink(s) are probably okay as well.
 
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