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Bright House - refusing to provide cable cards

129K views 378 replies 130 participants last post by  ahwman 
#1 ·
I just called Bright House and they said they will only provide cable cards for TV's, not boxes. This is Manatee County. Anyone been able to get an install scheduled?
 
#152 ·
Duke said:
What's the advantage of the M-Card over the S-Card - one monthly card fee instead of two?
In theory, slightly better performance.

Less expensive.

50% less chance that the cable company will screw up installing two cards instead of one.

Newer technology (some might not consider this an advantage)
 
#154 ·
When you placed your order with BH for the cable cards, did you have the option of going with the Single Stream card or the Mulit-Stream card?

Here BH only offers the SSCC...

An boy are they, the folks at BH, dead set against trying to assist the consumer with aquiring the cable cards period...
 
#155 ·
seattlewendell said:
Do you really need cable cards "installed"? i have a cable card in one of my TV's. The Comcast guy showed up. "installed" the card. Got on his cell and read the numbers that appeared on the screen to someone on the phone. 30 seconds later he was walking out the door and my TV was on. Wasn't that the whole point of cable card, that you don't need the cable company to install it?
Point is that the cable company feels that a tech should be on site to "pair" the card...

I think it is more to the point that the rep for the cable company does not know HOW to send a "hit" to your Tivo...

I just spent 90 minutes on the phone with Tivo, whom indicated that the EMM count for the cards was too low...

In my case, for card #1 the EMM count was 6... for card #2 the EMM count was at 12...

Val said that the EMM count per card should be no less than 30...

During our "threeway call" with BH.. the first gal had no clue what a TIVO was...

At that point I asked to speak with a "manager"... since this gal wasn't gonna be of much help.... :rolleyes:

After a manager came on, she was able to send a hit, which increased the EMM for the cards from 14, to 16 respectively...

Val/Tivo gal told BH that the EMM count had to be at least 30...

After several "being placed on hold" the lady at BH, at this point was just guessing,

had me reset the Tivo, removing the cards, before reseting...

A bad situation went from bad to worse...

After the reboot, inserted card #1, she sent a hit, the EMM count was no more than 4.... :confused:
Card #2 was slightly better at 6

Getting no where fast with this, I suggested a tech be dispatched... While on hold with BH, I confured with Val, an she agreed that this should have been able to be done via phone... Again, the lack of knowledge on BH part is the problem...

I had asked to be connected with central dispatch to have a "hit" sent out... Was told that was not possible, ain't gonna happen... :( :confused: :confused:

So, in the end, you might go to the Cable card menu and check what your EMM count is, an hopefully have better success in getting that count up, if the count is not at least 30 or better...

Good Luck, ;)
 
#156 ·
Just as a point of reference, I've had my Series3 on BH in the Tampa Bay area for 9 months now. Here's my count:

Card1 ECM = 1594 EMM = 0
Card2 ECM = 1899 EMM = 4


Duke
 
#158 ·
TomRaz said:
I was just about ready to purchase a Tivo HD but based on the nightmares with BH I guess I will wait a while :eek:
Well as they say "your mileage may vary". I had absolutely no problem getting them to set up a truck roll to install my 2 CC's. The two installers who showed up (seems like a bit of a waste) were actually third party contractors. I asked them politely to follow the directions provided by TiVo w/ the Series3 precisely, which they did. They knew the number to call to get the cards paired and pinged. In my case at least it all went smoothly. What part of Florida are you in?
 
#159 ·
Dr_Diablo said:
So, in the end, you might go to the Cable card menu and check what your EMM count is, an hopefully have better success in getting that count up, if the count is not at least 30 or better...
Sorry, I think this is a red herring. This MIGHT be the case in some instances, but not as a general rule.
 
#161 ·
I've owned six DirecTV TiVo-based DVR's (four SD, two HD) over the years. When I moved into a new home a couple months ago, I decided to skip the HUGE headache of getting yet another DirecTV dish installed (fourth home in four years). I've previously had AWFUL experiences with DirecTV's (contract) installers. Add to that DirecTV's lack of some key HD locals in my market and their insistence that I spend ANOTHER $600 to replace my less-than-two-year-old HD DVR's to get the few locals the have with their inferior (non-Tivo) MPEG-4 replacement and I was done with them.

I'd been a (satisfied) Bright House High-Speed Internet customer for several years. So, after reading several reviews, I decided to give Bright House and their Scientific Atlanta Explorer 8300HD a shot. Wow. I new TiVo was good, but talk about a night and day difference (I know I'm preaching to the choir). My wife complained about the Bright House DVR almost daily. So, I finally broke down and bought a new TiVo HD last Friday (the Friday before Labor Day). When I brought it home, I didn't tell her what I'd done. I just hooked it up. She said "what could you possibly add to the TV now?!?" Instead of responding, I just turned the TV on and pressed the TiVo button on the remote. She actually hugged the TV and said "my long lost friend is back!!!!!".

Now that I had the all-important wife-approval, I began the HD installation process. All I had so far was the analog channels. At least it was TiVo. I called Bright House. Amazingly, they knew about the TiVo HD's and even knew that I needed two CableCards. They scheduled someone to come out "between 9 and 1" on Wednesday (five days later).

On Wednesday, the Bright House installer showed up at about 10:00. He had four CableCards with him. This was the same guy that had installed my DVR's a couple months back. He'd been "ok" on the previous visit, but not great. Everything except the TV remote codes worked when he left and it only took me about 10 minutes to clean up the mess of cable trimmings he left in my yard and garage. This visit didn't start as promisingly. He said "this is my first CableCard install". That proved obvious pretty quickly. Despite handing him the installation guide that came with the TiVo, he was pretty much befuddled. Over the course of the next two hours, he called the Bright House office at least half a dozen times and talked to a multitude of confused people. The one he talked to most of that time also said that he had never installed a CableCard before. By the time the installer left, he'd tried all four cards, gotten one to work, but never two. He finally gave up and left telling me to call Bright House and schedule a "trouble" appointment. At that point I was back to analog only on the TiVo.

So I called Bright House to schedule a second appointment. This one was for Saturday morning between 10 and noon (eight days after my purchase). This guy showed up at 11:50. He brought seven CableCards. He said that he brought every CableCard in the office. How scary is that? He actually appeared to know what he was doing. He wound up trying three cards to get two working ones, but he clearly had a handle on how the process worked from a practical standpoint. An hour later, he had everything working.

The bottom line is that the process was MUCH harder than it needed to be, and took far too much time and too much involvement on my part, BUT, the end result was worth it. My wife is ecstatic and it is working perfectly so far. Well worth the money and time. In the end, this was about what I expected. Mi\y wife is already asking when I'm going to replace the other Bright House DVR's with TiVo's.
 
#162 ·
I just got my cablecards installed and setup on my Series 3 today. Took about 20 minutes, but no major problems -- installer was very friendly and patient. I also got a regular Digital Set Top Box (about $1/mo extra) to access VOD stuff, etc.

Anyhow, I notice that my box shows versions of many of the channels below 70. For example, The Weather Channel on 63 is crystal-clear digital on my Set Top Box.

Now on my Series 3 w/Cablecards, the TiVo is using the old analog signal for that channel. I get lousy analog signals so the higher the channel, the grainier the picture. (The Weather Channel on 63 looks horrible.)

Is there a way to get the Cablecards to map to a digital frequency for those channels (just like the STB)? I am afraid to call BrightHouse with the fear or "I told you so" attitudes about the cable cards and that I should just get a BH DVR.

Any ideas? :confused:
 
#163 ·
EpcotEric said:
Is there a way to get the Cablecards to map to a digital frequency for those channels (just like the STB)? I am afraid to call BrightHouse with the fear or "I told you so" attitudes about the cable cards and that I should just get a BH DVR.
Yes, if BH uses ADS. If so, they need to flag your account as digital--enabled (or whatever flag they use for ADS (analog-digital simulcast). In some systems, you can "trick" the account by adding an HDTV converter on the account and then removing it.

However, I would certainly hope that someone at BH would know if ADS is used, and, if so, how to flag your account as digital. (Once that flag is set, the proper mapping info should be provided to the CableCARD(s).)
 
#165 ·
Aiken said:
I just had to point out that this thread is now one year old.
Yes, and the sad part is that even after a year for BH to get in step with adapting the Tivo unit into the program, they are still seriously lacking qualified installers whom have a working understanding of how to get the cable cards paired...

To this day, BH claims their DVR is superior to the Tivo... yeah right
 
#166 ·
I bought the new TiVo two days ago. I live in Bakersfield, and Bright House sent an installer out yesterday to install two S type cable cards, and neither he nor another installer he called could get them to work. I get no channels at all with the cards in the TiVo, but I can get all the analog channels with the cards out. Now today on the phone they tell me they are working on it, and to check back in a month or two. I guess the only thing I can do now is return the TiVo, which I really don't want to do.
 
#167 ·
drcomp said:
I bought the new TiVo two days ago. I live in Bakersfield, and Bright House sent an installer out yesterday to install two S type cable cards, and neither he nor another installer he called could get them to work. I get no channels at all with the cards in the TiVo, but I can get all the analog channels with the cards out. Now today on the phone they tell me they are working on it, and to check back in a month or two. I guess the only thing I can do now is return the TiVo, which I really don't want to do.
The important thing is not the installer, but who they talk to on the phone.

Don't take BS like "check back in a month or two".
 
#169 ·
drcomp said:
I bought the new TiVo two days ago. I live in Bakersfield, and Bright House sent an installer out yesterday to install two S type cable cards, and neither he nor another installer he called could get them to work. I get no channels at all with the cards in the TiVo, but I can get all the analog channels with the cards out. Now today on the phone they tell me they are working on it, and to check back in a month or two. I guess the only thing I can do now is return the TiVo, which I really don't want to do.
Hey let me know what happens.. I am in the same boat as you with Brighthouse.... they are a bunch of idiots! I'm seriously considering lodging a complaint with the FCC... Bakersfield is a huge city.. they're not some small little cable company.
 
#170 ·
jfh3 said:
Yes, if BH uses ADS. If so, they need to flag your account as digital--enabled (or whatever flag they use for ADS (analog-digital simulcast). In some systems, you can "trick" the account by adding an HDTV converter on the account and then removing it.

However, I would certainly hope that someone at BH would know if ADS is used, and, if so, how to flag your account as digital. (Once that flag is set, the proper mapping info should be provided to the CableCARD(s).)
Well I called Brighthouse and told them that my cablecards are not receiving the ADS. The guy on the phone "re-hit" my cablecards and had me reboot the TiVo, resulting in nothing new. So he scheduled a tech run.

Tech came out and had no idea what a cablecard even was. So he left and told me a supervisor would call the next day. The \supervisor called the next day and said that ADS is not available with cablecards. He said they no longer "upgrade" or "update" cablecards and that cablecards are not capable of receiving analog-digital simulcasts. I didn't call back.

Anybody in Tampa Bay have this problem also or found a way to resolve it?
 
#172 ·
windracer said:
I'm not seeing the problem you're describing with the analog channels on my S3 (I'm in North Pinellas). The Weather Channel (63) is pretty clear, more clear than it was on my old S2. According to the Diagnostics screen it's definitely analog (457250KHz).
However that channel is now simulcast in digital on my Brighthouse Set Top Box, as are MANY of the lower-end analog channels. My Set top Box gets these channels crystal-clear vs. my S3. Oh well. Guess I'll just wait for FIOS to rollout in Pinellas in the next year or two. :rolleyes:
 
#174 ·
EpcotEric said:
However that channel is now simulcast in digital on my Brighthouse Set Top Box, as are MANY of the lower-end analog channels. My Set top Box gets these channels crystal-clear vs. my S3.....
That's because the BHN STB cross-maps the analog channels to their digital equivalents. So when I tune to, say, channel 9, the set top box actually tunes to digital channel 609 (even though the channel indicator shows 9 on the STB).

When you select channel 9 on TiVo, it tunes to analog channel 9. It is not cross-mapping to 609 - wish it did.

Duke
 
#175 ·
Duke said:
That's because the BHN STB cross-maps the analog channels to their digital equivalents. So when I tune to, say, channel 9, the set top box actually tunes to digital channel 609 (even though the channel indicator shows 9 on the STB).

When you select channel 9 on TiVo, it tunes to analog channel 9. It is not cross-mapping to 609 - wish it did.
The CableCARD should be doing the same thing - if not, your cable company most likely doesn't have your account set up properly (e.g. listed as digital).

It's possible that they don't use ADS, but I doubt it. Maybe BHN is different, but when you use cablecards, channel assignments should be mapped to to the digital versions.
 
#176 ·
Did I see a posting about multi-stream cards being available in Tampa? When I called last week they said no. The guy came today but was only able to get 1 single stream card in, (he said the other 2 he brought with him don't work) and he couldn't even get the one he did put in activated.... Does anyone have any suggestions...the guy is supposed to come back tonight before 8, but I am not holding my breath.
 
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