Cox Cable Cards

[Pafrican]

Having the dropped channels again. Oddly, there are no errors on the cable card menus when I go digging around those. Restarts aren't working.

Guess it's time to call Cox in the morning.

[BrianAZ]

Having the dropped channels again. Oddly, there are no errors on the cable card menus when I go digging around those. Restarts aren't working.

Guess it's time to call Cox in the morning.

Curious what they say. When I called, the woman refused to try anything, saying nothing they could do from the office would fix it and she had to schedule a truck roll two days later. When the guy swapped to another MCard, it was fine. I wonder if he just called in and gave them the hostid of the original card if it would have been "fixed" then or if the card actually became "broken".

[aztivo]

Any idea which channels? SciFi HD would be most welcome. We must be losing more analog to do it if they aren't going SDV, they have seemed pretty maxed out on bandwidth.

If I had to guess, I believe we follow San Diego, I think it will be TLC,Vs,CNN,HGTV,TBS,National Geographic. You can go here and see what they have been getting http://www.cox.com/sandiego/digitalcable/hdtv/programming.asp

[5cats]

Curious what they say. When I called, the woman refused to try anything, saying nothing they could do from the office would fix it and she had to schedule a truck roll two days later. When the guy swapped to another MCard, it was fine. I wonder if he just called in and gave them the hostid of the original card if it would have been "fixed" then or if the card actually became "broken".

My THD has been online for two weeks today with Cox San Diego, and we've had four instances of dropped channels. I can confirm the CC menu reset technique (thanks to whomever for that).

I had a service tech out two days ago, who also confirmed the CC menu reset technique as widely distributed to the techs within the last two weeks.

The tech also confirmed that only SA cards were available in the area, so I wait for a fix.

Significantly, this tech also mentioned that the CSRs often don't do things quite right, but if you need to call up, ask for the technical help desk and ask them to send a few EMMs, or "hits" to the card to set its programming. You can actually see the hit count in the CC menu -- top screen (CA data or similar). This is what he demonstrated for me, and got my machine up (again) with all the programming I'm subscribed to.

Asking for EMMs or "hits" might get you some traction next time.

Cheers,
-jd.

[smb56]

Just got off the phone with Cox Middle Ga. marketing people and we have 3 new HD channels that no one who has a cable card will be upgraded to. The new SDV that they are going to won't be supporting the cable cards according to the local marketing people here. Spending over $250 per month with a cable company that won't support their best customers is bull. I let them know that maybe I need to lobby the local county into allowing a competitive cable company in. No matter what anyone ever tells you, competition makes us all stronger and better. Look at what TiVo did to the DVR market as an example, still leading the way with innovations.

smb56

[ajwees41]

Just got off the phone with Cox Middle Ga. marketing people and we have 3 new HD channels that no one who has a cable card will be upgraded to. The new SDV that they are going to won't be supporting the cable cards according to the local marketing people here. Spending over $250 per month with a cable company that won't support their best customers is bull. I let them know that maybe I need to lobby the local county into allowing a competitive cable company in. No matter what anyone ever tells you, competition makes us all stronger and better. Look at what TiVo did to the DVR market as an example, still leading the way with innovations.

smb56

It's not Cox's fault, but Tivo's. How do consider your a good customer if you have a tivo?

[Shawn95GT]

As it sits right now they can't give you an SDV channel if they wanted to. We're all in the same boat waiting for the SDV dongle. It isn't a marketing thing, it's a technical limitation.

The cable companies must be having a hard time deploying HD boxes if the new HD content is SDV worthy. You want the stuff no-one is watching on SDV.

[smb56]

I consider myself a good customer using a TiVo because Cox DVR's are awful at best. One of the things I pride myself on is buying off of good judgement and getting a Cox DVR is not good judgement. Let's see, rent a Yugo or buy a Camry. Doesn't make much sense to me to rent a Yugo when I can get a Camry that will run circles around it and I don't constantly have to take it back and lose whatever I have on there. Not much when you consider it won't record but 15 hours to begin with.

smb56

[moyekj]

Just got off the phone with Cox Middle Ga. marketing people and we have 3 new HD channels that no one who has a cable card will be upgraded to. The new SDV that they are going to won't be supporting the cable cards according to the local marketing people here. Spending over $250 per month with a cable company that won't support their best customers is bull. I let them know that maybe I need to lobby the local county into allowing a competitive cable company in. No matter what anyone ever tells you, competition makes us all stronger and better. Look at what TiVo did to the DVR market as an example, still leading the way with innovations.

smb56 As has been stated many times before, SDV is becoming a necessity for cable companies already starved on bandwidth to stay competitive with D*. Cox is making matters worse by resolving to keep all analog channels for a long time as well as preventing CableCard customers from getting new channels even in areas where SDV rollout is scheduled but not yet rolled out - that seems to be a corporate directive as well. As an illustration I posted this in this thread a rough example of how much bandwidth is needed just for analog & HD channels alone:
Well Cox corporate has pretty lofty, bandwidth hogging directives. They have stated that company wide they will keep analog versions of all channels at least until 2012 (http://cox.com/support/cable/transition_main.asp). They also want to have sufficient bandwidth to accommodate up to 50 HD channels by end of 2007 and 100 HD channels by end of 2009 (http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6470803.html). So that's about 420MHz (70*6MHz) for analog channels and about 300MHz (~50 QAMs for 100 HD channels=50*6MHz) just for HD channels. So that's 720MHz already used up just for analog & HD channels alone. Then of course there's all the SD digital channels, PPV, VOD, telephone, data, etc. and you can easily see that 860MHz is clearly not enough - hence the need for SDV.
Of course it's doubtful if all Cox areas will actually live up to these expectations (in fact I doubt all areas can even accomodate 50 HD channels today without SDV), but clearly the need for SDV is there if they actually do intend to. Other bandwidth saving measures could be implemented by Cox other than SDV such as increasing compression and packing in more channels per QAM at the expense of image quality, but I for one don't want to see them go that route and end up with HD Lite. I already suspect that will happen to some degree despite SDV.

[Pafrican]

Curious what they say. When I called, the woman refused to try anything, saying nothing they could do from the office would fix it and she had to schedule a truck roll two days later. When the guy swapped to another MCard, it was fine. I wonder if he just called in and gave them the hostid of the original card if it would have been "fixed" then or if the card actually became "broken".

Well, the guy sent some hits. So far still no non-basic channels. The CA menu still looks okay (and it registered the EMMs/hits) but the host ID screen gives me the "to start service call Cox..." message. The phone tech confirmed the host-id on the tivo screen and what he shows match. Trying a restart after waiting a bit post-hits to see if it helps anything.

Yeah, restart did nothing. Tech is coming out tomorrow. Freakin wonderful.

[esb1981]

Has anyone had problems where Cox changes the channel frequency locations and the cablecard does not update with the correct frequency? In other words, ESPN HD is supposed to be on 711, but it is showing up on 703 because they moved the frequency. I lost 2 HD channels this morning and had 4 others move to the wrong location. Anyone seen this?

[jcaudle]

I have a S3 Tivo and a Tivo HD. The S3 retains channels fine using 2 Scientific Atlanta SCards. The HD loses all digital channels and all HD channels every few days. It has a Scientific Atlanta M-card. I have returned the Tivo to Costco 3 times, and Cox Fairfax has replaced the M card at least 3 times and nothing seems to fix it. Is this problem ony unique to the HD Tivo? Would using 2 S cards in the HD unit fix it? Like I said, my Tivo S3 never does this.

Also, are any of you here in Fairfax, Va paying 2 gateway fees for S3 boxes that use 2 cable cards? I call customer service at Cox about it, they sometimes give an adjustment, and the next month there the extra gateway charge is again.

[Pafrican]

Well the tech is still here. The new m-card did a firmware update (first time that is happened for me during an install) but still not working. Diagnostics are giving a menu of "not tuned, wrong card state" or something along those lines (for all channels, haven't seen that problem) and the cable card menu screens are saying to call cox to start service. He did call with the cable card numbers and what not. He did a guided setup for whatever reason and thats where we are at now.

I think one of the bigger issues with the techs is their impatience. I understand they have a job to do and have to get on to the next house but just be patient please.

The magic answer to everything is to take the card out. (Heavy sarcasm.) Upon completion of guided setup, the non local channels did still not come in. Instead of going through cable card menus or what not. So yeah, he's taken the card out. Gonna try another card apparently. UGH!!!

He's gone to an s-card now. Okay, well two S-cards are working (and working very quickly as well). Now we'll see how billing works out. I'm sure I'll be charged for two but I hope not. It's not my fault their s-cards suck. So just charge me for one card please Cox.

[Dan Theman]

Tivo HD, 9.2a, SA M-Card, Cox San Diego.

I lose channels every few days, in the past, a reboot has solved the problem.

Last night I lost every channel except for the HD versions of local broadcast channels (706, 707, 708, etc). Curiously, the SD versions of those channels (6, 7, 8, etc) did not work.

I checked the cablecard diagnostics screen and the sub-expire time was the previous day and one of the other screens said to call cox to start service. A restart did not fix it this time, it still had the same problem.

I called Cox, got a totally clueless tech (had no idea what a Tivo was!) and finally convinced her to send the cablecard activation stuff. Still had no effect, so I scheduled a service call. I asked her to add a note to the service call to say it was a Tivo HD and request an M-card. She said they don't have M-Cards. I told here I know for a fact they do and there is one in my box now, so just please add the note.

On a whim, I unplugged the Tivo for 10 minutes and then plugged it back in. After it started up it was still having the same problem. I called cox again, got another (less clueless - he knew what a Tivo was) tech and got him to send the CC activation again. 10 seconds later and the CC diag screen shows EMMs being received and the sub expire time moved to next month. All of the channels are back and I am happy for now.

Looks like the "cold reboot" fixed it enough that they could reactivate the cablecard...

I can't wait for 9.3 to get released and hopefully fix this extremely annoying problem (and hopefully also my other "not recording because of power loss" error that occurs even though there was no power loss)

[tagpats]

have you tried the menu reset technique that has been described in recent posts? i just did it again last night. you only have to tune to 1 analog channel. i confirmed this because i was tivoing something on an hd channel on tuner 2. when the channels came back my recording stopped for a moment, but everything was back up and running. hopefully this will remain fool proof each time i lose channels. the 2 minutes it takes to get them back sure beats a reboot or calling customer service all night. give it a try, if you haven't already.


Tivo HD, 9.2a, SA M-Card, Cox San Diego.

I lose channels every few days, in the past, a reboot has solved the problem.

Last night I lost every channel except for the HD versions of local broadcast channels (706, 707, 708, etc). Curiously, the SD versions of those channels (6, 7, 8, etc) did not work.

I checked the cablecard diagnostics screen and the sub-expire time was the previous day and one of the other screens said to call cox to start service. A restart did not fix it this time, it still had the same problem.

I called Cox, got a totally clueless tech (had no idea what a Tivo was!) and finally convinced her to send the cablecard activation stuff. Still had no effect, so I scheduled a service call. I asked her to add a note to the service call to say it was a Tivo HD and request an M-card. She said they don't have M-Cards. I told here I know for a fact they do and there is one in my box now, so just please add the note.

On a whim, I unplugged the Tivo for 10 minutes and then plugged it back in. After it started up it was still having the same problem. I called cox again, got another (less clueless - he knew what a Tivo was) tech and got him to send the CC activation again. 10 seconds later and the CC diag screen shows EMMs being received and the sub expire time moved to next month. All of the channels are back and I am happy for now.

Looks like the "cold reboot" fixed it enough that they could reactivate the cablecard...

I can't wait for 9.3 to get released and hopefully fix this extremely annoying problem (and hopefully also my other "not recording because of power loss" error that occurs even though there was no power loss)

[BrianAZ]

have you tried the menu reset technique that has been described in recent posts? i just did it again last night. you only have to tune to 1 analog channel. i confirmed this because i was tivoing something on an hd channel on tuner 2. when the channels came back my recording stopped for a moment, but everything was back up and running. hopefully this will remain fool proof each time i lose channels. the 2 minutes it takes to get them back sure beats a reboot or calling customer service all night. give it a try, if you haven't already.

Is there any way to validate for sure which channels are analog? I think my cable co sends the SD rather than analog. Is it possible for me to trick my Tivo into thinking I have an antenna of some sort?

[Supermurph]

I received this email below from Cox today. So, it looks like we'll get to see for real if Cox in Phoenix is going to SDV for the new HD channels:

Seven more HD channels coming in March!
Marching toward our goal of 80 HD channels by the end of 2008, we're adding seven more HD channels to the line-up on March 18. Joining the 22 HD channels already offered by Cox Digital Cable will be:

TBS HD on channel 716
Science Channel HD on channel 720
Discovery HD on channel 723
Golf Channel HD/Versus HD on channel 744
Food Network HD on channel 746
Animal Planet HD on channel 757
History Channel HD on channel 762

In addition, Discovery HD Theater will move to channel 714. Customers must subscribe to the Sports & Information tier to receive Golf Channel HD/Versus HD. Order Cox Digital Cable with an HD receiver to get HD right now, or visit Cox.com/Arizona for more information!

[moyekj]

I received this email below from Cox today. So, it looks like we'll get to see for real if Cox in Phoenix is going to SDV for the new HD channels:

Seven more HD channels coming in March!
Marching toward our goal of 80 HD channels by the end of 2008, we're adding seven more HD channels to the line-up on March 18. Joining the 22 HD channels already offered by Cox Digital Cable will be:

TBS HD on channel 716
Science Channel HD on channel 720
Discovery HD on channel 723
Golf Channel HD/Versus HD on channel 744
Food Network HD on channel 746
Animal Planet HD on channel 757
History Channel HD on channel 762
All these were added in Cox Orange County market a while back and even though SDV is not yet rolled out here these channels are not available to CableCard customers since they are being reserved for future SDV deployment. Most of the big Cox markets are adopting this corporate driven policy.
Compared to the very vocal Florida BHN group it seems Cox customers are taking this policy in stride.

[sirgolf82]

My TiVo HD's hard drive recently died, and a replacement is on the way. When it arrives, will I need to have a truck roll in order to pair the new cards, or is Cox (Phoenix) knowledgeable enough to handle this over the phone?

[tagpats]

If you go into Configure CableCard and then Diagnostics, you'll see the signal of the channel you are tuned to under Modulation.



Is there any way to validate for sure which channels are analog? I think my cable co sends the SD rather than analog. Is it possible for me to trick my Tivo into thinking I have an antenna of some sort?

[jsd2]

Any new HD and digital stations that will be added in the future that are not local channels will not be available to cable card customers. Even if the system is not SDV capable yet it will be and Cox does not want to give a customer something and then take it away (even though it is free material).

There are many people on these forums I see bashing a company for issues with THEIR own bought product and fail to see why. Cox did not mandate the use of cable cards the FCC did. The cards are not made by Cox they are made by SA or Mot. If they go bad they go bad, that is not a fault of Cox. Cable cards are a limited technology at best in certain devices. Last I heard both Sony and Mitsubishi stopped putting cable card slots in their newer tvs because they were spending more money on upgrades and tech support than warranted for sub par technology.

I have 2 tvs that have had cable cards, I have tried the Tivo out and returned it; the point being that with the overpriced equipment that is being sold the cable card technology doesn't work properly to full potential and is not reliable yet. I will stick with my rental fee for now so I can enjoy all my HD stations, VOD, guide, PPV, and mosaic channels.

This all doesn't matter much since in the next two to three years we will all be buying boxes from our local electronic store and putting cable cards in them that work two way to view channels and the cable company will no longer rent boxes to us.

[esb1981]

Jsd2, I do not disagree that the cablecards are a poor technology. But just because Cox did not mandate cablecards does not mean that Cox should not be held responsible for ensuring that they work properly. The FCC mandate states that cable companies must provide cards, ensure that they work properly and are compatible with a customer's certified cable card device. The Tivo is such a certified device. So shouldn't this mean that Cox, by law, must be held accountable for making sure these things work properly?? We know they didn't want to do it, but sometimes you have to do things that you don't want to do.

This mandate was created to stimulate competition and remove the cable companies' monopoly over cable boxes. Yes, Tivo made a mistake by relying on cablecard technology, and they are paying for it by losing customers -- and I may be one of them. But Cox still has a responsibility to make an effort to get these devices working and provide the proper support.

[jsd2]

Cox should be held responsible if it is something they can fix. Last I checked Cox does not make any cable cards. So if a card goes bad it is not their fault. I have read many threads that say people have gone through several cards till finding one that works. Who would be at fault? The cable company that sends the same firmware to the card or the maker of the card? The company cannot just go out and buy a different brand of card because they want to that would take a tremendous upgrade on the entire backoffice.

I am quick to blame the cable company on many things myself but when stepping back and looking at the bigger picture they seem to be the one trying to make things work the most. How many updates did the Tivo need to make it work right to begin with when it first hit the shelves? How long did it take them to even admit it was a firmware issue? All this time the cable company is trying to make a device that was mandated, that is not up to current technology, on a product that hit the market that did not even work properly for what 6-9months before patch 8.1.7b and even then there were still issues?

[Dan Theman]

have you tried the menu reset technique that has been described in recent posts? i just did it again last night. you only have to tune to 1 analog channel.

I don't think that I get any analog channels.

[jonginear]

JSD2-
The overarching point to the cablecards and the cable companies is that they never wanted to make cable cards work in the first place. It's really that simple! I didn't want to do the dishes as a kid so I did them badly in the hopes that my parents would eventually give up and not make me do them. The cable companies(especially Cox) are acting like children.

Cox is responsible for meeting the FCC mandate. If they took this responsibility seriously they would be working with other cable providers to develop a technology that was not so stupidly complicated, antiquated, and worthless.

[tagpats]

sorry about that. some have said there is a pbs channel in the 90s that might be analog. you've probably checked your whole line-up, but just another thought.

maybe you can get the company to send some in analog format until the "fix" happens since the reboots are no longer working for you. i'm no techy and have no idea how any of that works, but i do receive a mix of analog and digital signals depending on channel.

initially i was no pleased that what i thought were all digital channels were actually analog, but it is helping me out now.

I don't think that I get any analog channels.

[Big Rick]

All these were added in Cox Orange County market a while back and even though SDV is not yet rolled out here these channels are not available to CableCard customers since they are being reserved for future SDV deployment.

They showed up in San Diego last month and they *ARE* available to CableCard customers although I did lose my channels 704<-->720 (exclusive) for a few days when the new (higher range) channels showed up.

[ajwees41]

JSD2-
The overarching point to the cablecards and the cable companies is that they never wanted to make cable cards work in the first place. It's really that simple! I didn't want to do the dishes as a kid so I did them badly in the hopes that my parents would eventually give up and not make me do them. The cable companies(especially Cox) are acting like children.

Cox is responsible for meeting the FCC mandate. If they took this responsibility seriously they would be working with other cable providers to develop a technology that was not so stupidly complicated, antiquated, and worthless.

It's the FCC's fault for the cablecard mandate not Cox's if they were smart they pressure Tivo to come out with a 2way capable box from the start.

[bacevedo]

I just ordered a Tivo HD to go to OTA only (cancelling DirecTV), but I was curious what it costs for those in Arizona (Phoenix market) to get the cablecards. I may subscribe during college football season to see the games on ESPN and Fox Sports.

What packages do you have to get? Do you have to pay for the HD acess even if you don't rent one of their boxes - it seems that they are tied together? Do you have to get Digital cable, or can you just get the basic or expanded package and use the cablecards to get those channels? Or do you even need the cable cards for the analog channels?

Thanks,
Bryan

[jsd2]

JSD2-
The overarching point to the cablecards and the cable companies is that they never wanted to make cable cards work in the first place. It's really that simple! I didn't want to do the dishes as a kid so I did them badly in the hopes that my parents would eventually give up and not make me do them. The cable companies(especially Cox) are acting like children.

Cox is responsible for meeting the FCC mandate. If they took this responsibility seriously they would be working with other cable providers to develop a technology that was not so stupidly complicated, antiquated, and worthless.

You are right cable cards were not enthusiastically looked on by the cable companies when first coming out because there were no 2way devices out yet. They were very limited and still are on what they can do. No PPV and no VOD both big money makers. The rental fee for a box isn't that big of a income draw anyway. Soon we will be able to buy boxes from anywhere, stick a card in them and work.

BUT! Who do you think loses the most on this happening? The cable companies? NOPE! Companies that supply the mass orders of boxes like SA and Motorola. How much is a DVR box $600 or more(at $15/month rental fee it takes 40months to recoup the amount of that box)? Cable card maybe $100?

The point is the same people that make the cable cards are the same ones that will be losing GUARANTEED money from these cable companies when everything becomes universal AND the cable companies will not be spending millions on buying and maintaining equipment.

Motorola is already using boxes with M cards in them and they work great-DCH3416. These boxes are completely 2way so the technology does exist. Check out http://www.ncta.com/IssueBrief.aspx?contentId=4272

You are absolutely right about the other cable companies making a way to get this technology out to all that works easier. That is why they are working on Tru2way now. The problem comes with equipment, platforms, and the big one COST. I would rather have the solution come later and cheaper and work than have it now with limited content, reception issues, tons of updates or just plain loss of service.....oh wait a minute.

[moyekj]

They showed up in San Diego last month and they *ARE* available to CableCard customers although I did lose my channels 704<-->720 (exclusive) for a few days when the new (higher range) channels showed up. There are *NOT* available to CableCard customers in Orange County. San Diego is a different market. It is somewhat surprising that in San Diego they didn't limit them however since Cox corporate policy seems to be driving holding back new channel additions from CableCard customers in preparation for SDV rollout. I've seen reports from other Cox markets in this forum complaining about new channels being denied to CableCard customers as well so I know it's not just Orange County, Phoenix and Virginia.

[Shawn95GT]

I just ordered a Tivo HD to go to OTA only (cancelling DirecTV), but I was curious what it costs for those in Arizona (Phoenix market) to get the cablecards. I may subscribe during college football season to see the games on ESPN and Fox Sports.

What packages do you have to get? Do you have to pay for the HD acess even if you don't rent one of their boxes - it seems that they are tied together? Do you have to get Digital cable, or can you just get the basic or expanded package and use the cablecards to get those channels? Or do you even need the cable cards for the analog channels?

Thanks,
Bryan
They don't have an HD package. You just subscribe to digital cable and the HS is along for the ride. Make sure you ask for it though or you won't get it. The install fees for cablecards suck. It's the only reason I only have cablecards in one of my 3 tivos that could take 'em.

Shawn

[jebbbz]

I just ordered a Tivo HD to go to OTA only (cancelling DirecTV), but I was curious what it costs for those in Arizona (Phoenix market) to get the cablecards. I may subscribe during college football season to see the games on ESPN and Fox Sports.


Depending on which customer service rep you talk to installation is either $15.00, $35.00, $50.00, or $65.00 and you may "need" two singlestream SCards (one for each tuner in your Tivo) because multistream MCards do not exist at all or at least are not available in Phoenix. The monthly rental for cablecards is $2.00 per month unless you get one of the mythological MCards in which case it will be $2.00 or $4.00 per month, depending on the CSR you talk to. In fact, you probably won't know what it costs until your bill arrives. In fact you won't even know then because you may get Cox to change the charge by griping about how confusing it all is and how the installer didn't know squat about installing cablecards so you basically did it yourself by reading the instructions Tivo gives you.

I am still at the "waiting-for-the-bill" stage. And I got the mythical MCard. And my installers had (a little) experience with Tivos and were OK guys.

[I love HD]

I also have the problem with dropped channels. For a while if I rebooted the Tivo the channels came back but now that doesn't work. So could someone explain the process for resetting the cable card. Channel 94 is a PBS channel that I can access for an analog signal.

Thanks for the help.

[jebbbz]

I also have the problem with dropped channels. For a while if I rebooted the Tivo the channels came back but now that doesn't work. So could someone explain the process for resetting the cable card. Channel 94 is a PBS channel that I can access for an analog signal.

Thanks for the help.

Per "Tico" [my comments in square brackets]:

====

1. Tune the box to a non-digital cable channel (i.e. analog cable, or antenna channel) [i.e., 94]

2. Navigate to one of the CableCARD MMI screens (Messages & Settings > Account & System Information > CableCARD Decoders > CableCARD 1 > CableCARD Menu > [pick the first one]). This should fail (the best symptom of this problem), and say "Failed to load CableCARD///...".

3. Use CLEAR to exit out of that screen

4. Wait for about two minutes [or so] (on the CableCARD Menu screen), and the TiVo box will eventually reset the card after the failure from step 2.

a. You can tell when the box resets the card because this screen will add text above the menu items. First, it will say "Card 1 not in normal operation" then "Your Cable Provider has not supplied any information for this card."

b. They agree that this looks pretty ugly, as they don't clear the menu items while the cards resetting, nor the text after it's reset, but it does indicate that the card's been reset.

5. The card should now be back in normal operation.

====

This worked for me for a few weeks but eventually I had to call for a new card. Someone else said they unplugged their Tivo for ten minutes and then called their cableco to send authorization hits and they got their unit working without a new cable card. Good luck.

[RogueScot]

Here's an interesting new wrinkle in the SDV channels I don't get. I had a Cox tech out to replace my cable card. I had some weird ghost lines on my screen. They were even on the Tivo menus. Tivo replaced the box for this problem before. But, it appears it was an improperly grounded cable. I digress. While he was here and because he seemed knowledgeable, I told him I was missing some HD channels and having a problem with the screen going black sometimes. I also have a problem where my resolution changes whenever there is a white flash on a program. He ended up replacing the cablecard. Still no HGTVHD, FoodHD, or TravelHD. He thought it was because they weren't authorized. I asked if he had an Cox HD box in his truck. Perhaps we could hook it up and see if the channels worked. He did and hooked it up and got it turned on. Those three channels didn't work. He called in and they "authorized" the channels. He disconnected the HD box and reconnected my HD Tivo. All three channels were there and worked great. He disconected the cable to reinstall a splitter and when he reconnected the Tivo, the channels were gone again. He called in again the they said, "Did you say it was a Tivo? They don't get those channels." The tech then told me that these were SDV channels. I don't know, but they worked for a while. I live in Oklahoma City. I saw some previous posts about us not having SDV.

[BrianAZ]

I just ordered a Tivo HD to go to OTA only (cancelling DirecTV), but I was curious what it costs for those in Arizona (Phoenix market) to get the cablecards. I may subscribe during college football season to see the games on ESPN and Fox Sports.

What packages do you have to get? Do you have to pay for the HD acess even if you don't rent one of their boxes - it seems that they are tied together? Do you have to get Digital cable, or can you just get the basic or expanded package and use the cablecards to get those channels? Or do you even need the cable cards for the analog channels?

Thanks,
Bryan

Hey Bryan,

I'm also in Chandler and was thinking of getting an OTA antenna. Would you let me know which one you end up with and how it works? Are you doing and inside/outside antenna?

thx

[Mikeyis4dcats]

I have Cox and Motorola cards. I have been missing TLCHD, DSCHD, and ESPNHD for over a week. Cox says that they adjusted the frequencies, and that if I reset my TV to factory defaults (they always forget Tivo) that the cards would retune and work. I could tell she would be no help with Tivo, but I rebooted and still no dice. I tried the tips above but I don't get any kind of failure message under the CableCard menu.

Any ideas?

[aztivo]

Hey Bryan,

I'm also in Chandler and was thinking of getting an OTA antenna. Would you let me know which one you end up with and how it works? Are you doing and inside/outside antenna?

thx

Brian
I am also in Chandler and have an antenna in my attic this gives me all the locals in HD as well. so any antenna will work

[saibari]

All these were added in Cox Orange County market a while back and even though SDV is not yet rolled out here these channels are not available to CableCard customers since they are being reserved for future SDV deployment. Most of the big Cox markets are adopting this corporate driven policy.
Compared to the very vocal Florida BHN group it seems Cox customers are taking this policy in stride.

Well, I for one plan on demanding a discount on my subscription fee. Why should I pay the same as others when I'm not receiving all the channels they are?

[saibari]

...There are many people on these forums I see bashing a company for issues with THEIR own bought product and fail to see why. Cox did not mandate the use of cable cards the FCC did. The cards are not made by Cox they are made by SA or Mot. If they go bad they go bad, that is not a fault of Cox. Cable cards are a limited technology at best in certain devices. Last I heard both Sony and Mitsubishi stopped putting cable card slots in their newer tvs because they were spending more money on upgrades and tech support than warranted for sub par technology....

Here's the thing--I am paying Cox and TiVo for a service. The service is not being delivered reliably. They are both to be held responsible. As for Scientific Atlanta--I don't pay them or buy anything directly from them. It's Cox and TiVo that should deal with them. For example, if I go to a restaurant and the meal is sub-par, I hold the restaurant responsible. If they turn around and say it's not their fault because their food supplier provided them with sub-par goods--that's not my problem, it's theirs because I'm paying them and not the food supplier for my meal.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting more and more steamed about this. I've wasted countless hours on the phone with TiVo and Cox, researching the problem online (because neither seemed to know what the problem was and acted like they'd never heard of it before so I had to find my own solution), and waiting around for Cox to come out and switch out the cable cards! They're coming out again on Monday for my 4th new card!

I started out with 2 s-cards and had the awful audio/video synch problem, switched to an Mcard when my research determined that was the fix, and now I'm going to get my 3rd M-card (which I was initially told was not available in Phoenix!) because of the dropped channel problem. Today, for the first time, re-booting did not bring the channels back. I'm ready to scream! :mad:

[ElPuerco]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting more and more steamed about this.

Ditto. My 3rd CC is now not responding to a reboot, and after a couple hours of research it looks like I don't have any analog channels to tune to to try the magical "solution" proposed earlier.

I dread the thought of calling Cox. TiVo can't fix it and will point a finger at Cox. Cox won't know what they're doing, will point the finger at TiVo, and will try to sell me on their DVR. And in 2-4 days I'll have my 4th CC which will last maybe a month. Why even bother?

I'm mad at Cox AND TiVo. Neither one is trying to help me, as a customer. They seem a lot more interested in making each other look bad.

[BrianAZ]

Brian
I am also in Chandler and have an antenna in my attic this gives me all the locals in HD as well. so any antenna will work

Do you think I need to put one in my attic or could I get away with a set-top?

[OC7]

Do you think I need to put one in my attic or could I get away with a set-top?

I also live in Chandler. I use a Zenith Silver Sensor OTA indoor antenna (its shaped like an airplane) and it works great. I get good reception on the local digital channels (including HD) just by pointing the antenna at South Mountain. The antenna is sitting in my living room behind my HDTV.

[Shawn95GT]

My mother is using a Silver Sensor Out in East Mesa (about 1 mile from where the 202 meets the 60). She lives in a brick house. The TV reception glitches now and then but it works surprisingly well.

One of these days I'll talk her into a rooftop antenna.

We're all going to have to consider something different as most of the channels are going back to VHF after the digital transition :mad:.

[BrianAZ]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I never would have guessed so many folks were local to me.

It looks like their new model (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000B58VNM/sr=8-1/qid=1204405938/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me=&qid=1204405938&sr=8-1&seller=)handles VHF as well.

[hddude55]

I just spoke to a "second level" CSR at Phoenix Cox and he said he read an internal memo yesterday stating that SA has a software fix they are testing and when testing is complete -- hopefully in about two weeks -- there will be a massive software hit done to all cable cards. It's about time this problem had a concerted effort at a solution. However, I think we heard this same story about a possible fix several weeks ago from some other posters so maybe it's just B.S. and the issue is still a mystery.

All of this scrambling around swapping cards, adjusting signals up/down, running new cable, etc. is nuts. BTW I am now a proud member of the elite club who can no longer get all of my channels back by rebooting. I am going to try two M cards in my series3 next week, but I really don't believe that will be anything more than another two or three week "reprieve" until a true software solution is developed by SA.

TiVo was recently rated one of the Top 10 technological developments of the past -- I believe -- decade. If that's true, cable cards must be one of the Bottom Ten.

[Roderigo]

I am now a proud member of the elite club who can no longer get all of my channels back by rebooting.

I'm guessing that if rebooting isn't bringing the channels back, there's something else going wrong.

I just looked on Tivo's website, and it looks like they have updated their cablecard troubleshooting w/ some pictures of SA Mcards. Maybe that can help figure out what's going wrong.

http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/LaunchContent.aspx?CID=f8f40dc6-5fb6-4ed8-ac41-d8cd0d5c0824

Kinda sounds like the cable company may need to send another hit to your card.

[hddude55]

I'm guessing that if rebooting isn't bringing the channels back, there's something else going wrong.

I just looked on Tivo's website, and it looks like they have updated their cablecard troubleshooting w/ some pictures of SA Mcards. Maybe that can help figure out what's going wrong.

http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/LaunchContent.aspx?CID=f8f40dc6-5fb6-4ed8-ac41-d8cd0d5c0824

Kinda sounds like the cable company may need to send another hit to your card. The issue at least in the Phoenix market is not so simple to resolve. Did you see in my post the fact that SA has acknowledged there is an underlying software bug they are trying to fix. I did have the cards hit today when the tech was here and it didn't help. That's why I'm getting new cards again on Monday. I think I am just experiencing the same downward spiral others have described whereby the easy fixes eventually stop working and the only "fix" is new cards, realizing it is likely the same trouble sequence will recur. I don't know if you are in the Phoenix market but it is obvious from this lengthy thread that Phoenix area customers have been really hammered by these issues, and they accelerated when the massive Cox infrastructure "upgrades" began here a few months ago.

[ElPuerco]

I broke down and got the Cox DVR. I feel dirty.

The Cox tech welcomed my return of the CC and said I was making the "right choice." Ick. After I chewed him out a bit, he told me that internally they are hearing the CC issue will be fixed by SA and TiVo (note how Cox isn't at all to blame in this) in about 45 days.

Until I can see this alleged fix in play and working for a while, my TiVo HD is sitting in my closet. I've lost alot of trust in TiVo over this (and Cox, too, though I had little trust in them to begin with).

[BrianAZ]

The issue at least in the Phoenix market is not so simple to resolve. Did you see in my post the fact that SA has acknowledged there is an underlying software bug they are trying to fix. I did have the cards hit today when the tech was here and it didn't help. That's why I'm getting new cards again on Monday. I think I am just experiencing the same downward spiral others have described whereby the easy fixes eventually stop working and the only "fix" is new cards, realizing it is likely the same trouble sequence will recur. I don't know if you are in the Phoenix market but it is obvious from this lengthy thread that Phoenix area customers have been really hammered by these issues, and they accelerated when the massive Cox infrastructure "upgrades" began here a few months ago.

I am in the Phoenix market and can vouch for the "downward spiral". I'm on my second MCard after reboots finally would not fix the first one. When I've spoken to CSRs, they indicated that they have not had any success in fixing the cards remotely and only a swap to a new card resolves the issue.

I hope the rumors of a SA fix are true. I'm ready to pull the trigger on a couple more TivoHDs but have been holding out to see if this gets fixed as well as the MRV speed improving. Until those happen, it's not worth it to me to buy more Tivos.

[BrianAZ]

I broke down and got the Cox DVR. I feel dirty.

The Cox tech welcomed my return of the CC and said I was making the "right choice." Ick. After I chewed him out a bit, he told me that internally they are hearing the CC issue will be fixed by SA and TiVo (note how Cox isn't at all to blame in this) in about 45 days.

Until I can see this alleged fix in play and working for a while, my TiVo HD is sitting in my closet. I've lost alot of trust in TiVo over this (and Cox, too, though I had little trust in them to begin with).

I considered this... but in the end, I really am only rebooting my Tivo once a week or so and the MCard seems to last about a month or 45 days before needing to be swapped. For me, that is still a better option than the Cox DVR. The situation has, however, caused me to hold off on buying additional TivoHDs.

[tagpats]

I agree. Cox has given me an HD DVR to use free of service until the CableCard issue is resolved. I have it hooked up on another input, but only plan to use it if I can't get my channels back. So far, the menu reset has worked for me each time, so I haven't had to deal with Cox tech support or rely on their boxes.



I considered this... but in the end, I really am only rebooting my Tivo once a week or so and the MCard seems to last about a month or 45 days before needing to be swapped. For me, that is still a better option than the Cox DVR. The situation has, however, caused me to hold off on buying additional TivoHDs.

[Pafrican]

So now I'm having an issue with one of my s-cards. It looks like it's not paired/binded. I change to an HD channel like 721 (mojo) or 740 (a&E) and the picture shows up for one second then goes to the cablecard screen of "to start service call..." According to the tivo faq and help guides, this looks like an issue of the card not being paired. Oddly enough however, is that when I go to 733 (ESPN) there is no issue and the non-hd cable channels (23+) seem to have no problem also. It's just some of the HD channels.

How does one go about getting a cox hd-dvr for free until they have a fix for these issues? I'd almost be okay going that route temporarily. Though I'm very close to just selling the TivoHD w/ Lifetime service on ebay. This issue is driving me nuts.

[tagpats]

I just went into one of their customer service centers and explained that I'm having a CableCard issue that Cox is working on with Scientific Atlanta. I told them that my channels come and go unpredictably and I can't always get them back right away when I lose them.

The Cox staffer member offered me 3 free months of service, which I'm sure I can extend if need be. Just be warned that their billing system is less than perfect and I had to contact them the first month when they charged me for the service. The representative at billing said she would mark her calender for the day of the month that my bill comes out to credit me back after they charge for month 2 and then again in month 3.

Maybe there is a way to make sure you are set up at the outset for free service, but in my case I had to follow-up to get the credit back.

I just can't stand the Cox DVR, so totally bailing on Tivo is not really an option for me yet. Although if I wasn't able to get back my channels predictably, I would probably bag Tivo until I was sure a fix was up and running.

So now I'm having an issue with one of my s-cards. It looks like it's not paired/binded. I change to an HD channel like 721 (mojo) or 740 (a&E) and the picture shows up for one second then goes to the cablecard screen of "to start service call..." According to the tivo faq and help guides, this looks like an issue of the card not being paired. Oddly enough however, is that when I go to 733 (ESPN) there is no issue and the non-hd cable channels (23+) seem to have no problem also. It's just some of the HD channels.

How does one go about getting a cox hd-dvr for free until they have a fix for these issues? I'd almost be okay going that route temporarily. Though I'm very close to just selling the TivoHD w/ Lifetime service on ebay. This issue is driving me nuts.

[wierdo]

I have 2 tvs that have had cable cards, I have tried the Tivo out and returned it; the point being that with the overpriced equipment that is being sold the cable card technology doesn't work properly to full potential and is not reliable yet. I will stick with my rental fee for now so I can enjoy all my HD stations, guide, PPV, and mosaic channels.

Gee, until Cox decided they didn't want to give me new HD channels and took away the "zone" mosaic channels, I had all of those things with my S3 and two S-Cards.

[jebbbz]

So now I'm having an issue with one of my s-cards. It looks like it's not paired/binded. ... Oddly enough however, is that when I go to 733 (ESPN) there is no issue and the non-hd cable channels (23+) seem to have no problem also. It's just some of the HD channels.


You might call Cox to see if your cards need "balancing." It sounds like one of yours has lost authorization for a bunch of channels, but not all, while the other works fine. I gather that some cable companies (in some places) keep track of authorizations on a per card basis rather than a per device basis. If the card is receiving some channels but not all it may have an incorrect list of authorized channels. Maybe mentioning "balancing" to a tech person will result in some useful action.

[BrianAZ]

The Cox staffer member offered me 3 free months of service, which I'm sure I can extend if need be. Just be warned that their billing system is less than perfect and I had to contact them the first month when they charged me for the service. The representative at billing said she would mark her calender for the day of the month that my bill comes out to credit me back after they charge for month 2 and then again in month 3.

Maybe there is a way to make sure you are set up at the outset for free service, but in my case I had to follow-up to get the credit back.



This is my experience as well. Since I can't view my hockey package on my Tivo until the Tuning Resolver comes out, they gave me free DVR until the end of the season. The tech Atlanta sent out to my house spent (I kid you not) 15 minutes on the phone trying to convince them that I was supposed to be getting this for free. The lady on the other end kept telling him something didn't sound right and he finally had to get a supervisor to do it (mind you BOTH of these people worked for Cox).

When I got my next bill, there were all kinds of new charges (it was ridiculous.. they charged me for the DVR, extra outlet fees, a 2nd hockey package, etc). I was working with Executive Relations (after I sent a complaint to the corporate office and our local Az-President) and I still had these issues.

When I called the woman, she fixed it.. resulting in $150 credit for me. She promised the next month would be ok, but on my current bill it shows that they removed the wrong hockey package (early bird.. leaving me with the regular one which is like $8 more a month). I'm still trying to get that resolved.

I can't believe they don't have some sort of 0-cost item codes in their system for supervisors. What a screwy system.

[jcaudle]

its just like them charging 2 digital gateways for the 2 cards in the S3. At least my S3 doesn't lose channels like my HD with the Mcard.

[strojo]

I'm in Connecticut with 2 Tivo's--one HD, one Series 3. Both of them are missing HD channels AND receiving the wrong signal on other channels (for example, I'm watching the CW on what should be Starz). I've got Motorola S-cards in both units. I've tried rebooting, resetting everything and having them send pairing requests. NONE of that has had any effect.

Anyone else on the east coast (or elswehere) having this problem with the Motorola cards?

[esb1981]

I'm in Connecticut with 2 Tivo's--one HD, one Series 3. Both of them are missing HD channels AND receiving the wrong signal on other channels (for example, I'm watching the CW on what should be Starz). I've got Motorola S-cards in both units. I've tried rebooting, resetting everything and having them send pairing requests. NONE of that has had any effect.

Anyone else on the east coast (or elswehere) having this problem with the Motorola cards?

Strojo, I am having the EXACT same problem and I am in Connecticut. Cox apparently moved a bunch of channels and did not update the mapping on the cablecards. And I have no idea how to get them to fix it. I had a tech out last week, who was a contractor, and the guy said he was sure it was some kind of internal Cox problem, and the contractor company has since been trying to get in touch with Cox to figure out what's going on.

[strojo]

Strojo, I am having the EXACT same problem and I am in Connecticut. Cox apparently moved a bunch of channels and did not update the mapping on the cablecards. And I have no idea how to get them to fix it. I had a tech out last week, who was a contractor, and the guy said he was sure it was some kind of internal Cox problem, and the contractor company has since been trying to get in touch with Cox to figure out what's going on.


We're living the same life, because I had a contractor out three weeks ago who said it was on the "head end" and there was nothing he could do about it here. UGH.

I have them scheduled to come out on Friday and will insist that they change out all four cards. The repairing thing has been tried more than 6 times without success.

[j53186]

Cox and Scientific Atlanta are in concert with a highly orchestrated denial tactic. Cox's "Live Support" online is THE way to communicate as you can save the communications to a Word file. These are today's (3/4/08) conversations with various agents. Looks as though I'm going to have to notify them each time their cards lock up and I have to restart the system if I want credit. This is unbelievable. Will report back after tomorrows service call. Enjoy the read!

3/4/2008

Original Cox “Live Support” Communication:
I have two Tivo HD DVRs and have been experiencing ongoing problems with the CableCards for 3+ months. The cards are currently out in both DVRs. On Sunday, 3/2, your customer service acknowledged there is a problem and scheduled a service technician to "replace the cards" yet again. The tech arrives 3/3 with no cards. He was “not sure when Cox will receive more cards but will contact us when they have more so we can schedule another service call.” Are you kidding? What is the status / timeframe for a CORRECTION for this incompatibility between your Scientific-Atlanta CableCards and Tivo receivers? When will you have CableCards? I am one unhappy customer!


Cox:
Dear xxxx:

Thank you for your inquiry.

We regret to hear of the problems you have encountered and apologize for any inconvenience.

A technician is scheduled to arrive at your home sometime between the hours of 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. today.

Please reply to this message if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Karen
E-Care Specialist
Cox Communications – Arizona



Customer’s Response:
Karen,

You're not addressing my questions. What is the status / timeframe for a CORRECTION for this incompatibility between your Scientific-Atlanta CableCards and Tivo receivers? If you do not have answers please escalate this up the chain to someone who does. I would also appreciate a 90 day cable service credit for the months of problems we have endured. Thank you.


Cox:
Dear xxxx:

Thank you for your response.

Regretfully, we do not have any specific timeframe at this time. The issue you are inquiring of is directly related to the Scientific Atlanta equipment. For assistance with this issue, please contact Scientific Atlanta directly.

You may do so at:

http://www.scientificatlanta.com/contactus/index.htm

Thank you again for contacting us using our online service options. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Sue
E-Care Specialist
Cox Communications
www.cox.com



Customer’s Response:
Sue,

Cox already tried running me through this maze in early February. I contacted Scientific Atlanta on 2/1. Their response of 2/2 is below:

[Ticket#: 20367884] Multistream CableCard / Tivo Issues – 2/2/08
Sciatl Support [webstarsupport@sciatl.com]

There are no confirmed issues with the cable card and Tivos.



Thank you,
Steven A
SciAtl Support



Cox:
Dear xxxx:

Thank you for your response.

As you were informed, we are unaware of any confirmed issues with CableCARDs and Tivo equipment. We are unable to provide any information regarding this issue. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you.

As previously stated, we have scheduled a technician to arrive at your home sometime between the hours of 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. for assistance with your service.

Thank you again for contacting us using our online service options.

Sincerely,

Alex
E-Care Specialist
Cox Communications – Arizona


Customer’s Response:
Alex,

It would seem no one from Cox followed up to advise you would be sending out another technician today between 1-3, so there will not be anyone available for you. Our next available appointment to have you replace the CableCards (again) will be today, 3-6 pm. Please advise. Oh, and you've yet to address the 90 day credit issue. ???


Cox:
Dear xxxx:

Thank you for your response.

We regret to inform you that we do not have any openings between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m. today.

If you would like to reschedule the appointment for tomorrow, please let us know.

Sincerely,

Karen
E-Care Specialist
Cox Communications – Arizona


Customer’s Response:
Karen,

And the appointment times you have available are...?


Cox:
Dear xxxx:

Thank you for your response.

At this time, we have appointments available for tomorrow, 03/05/08, between 1pm to 3pm and from 3pm to 5pm. Would you like to reschedule to any one of these appointments?

Thank you again for contacting us using our online service options.

Sincerely,

Alex
E-Care Specialist
Cox Communications – Arizona



Customer’s Response:
Alex,

Our next available appointment for you to replace our CableCards (again) is, 3/5/08, 3-5 pm. Will the service tech have CableCards this time?


Cox:
Dear xxxx:

Thank you for your response.

Please note that the technician will be visiting your home in order to repair your service. We have added notes for your service repair appointment advising the technician to take CableCARDs in the event that the technician determines that they will need to be replaced.

Thank you again for contacting us using our online service options.

Sincerely,

Alex
E-Care Specialist
Cox Communications – Arizona



Customer’s Response:
Alex,

Thank you for your response.

So, there's a note in the file to bring CableCards this time. Great idea! Hey, how about my 90 day service credit???


Cox:
Dear xxxx:

Thank you for your response.

Our records do not indicate an issue of an ongoing problem with the service you are reporting. We do see a service appointment for a CableCARD issue on 01/29/08. Your service appointment was completed on 01/30/08.

We have applied a credit in the amount of $7.09 for this issue during this time.

Thank you again for contacting us using our online service options. Please let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Sincerely,

Sue
E-Care Specialist
Cox Communications
www.cox.com

[jcaudle]

As far as cable cards and channel loss, it only happens with my Tivo HD, which has an SA M-Card in it. I have never tried 2 SA S-Cards in it because the rats would then charge me 2 gateway fees as well as the cable card rental fees. I am doing that with my Tivo S3 and I never have any problem. I have to use the S3 to record any digital or HD channels since I can count on it to be working. The HD is used only for network HD and analog recordings. What a pain. I have had 4 tivo HD boxes from costco and 3 or 4 M cards. None of this has fixed the problem.

[strojo]

Cox came out today (I live in Connecticut) and thankfully, they had actually fixed the problem of the missing & mixed up channels before they got here. I wasn't here (my wife was), but the guys who came said that they actually went out and bought a Tivo (there's an idea) to see if they could fix the problem.

We'll see how long the channels stick.

[tagpats]

I've been successful using the Menu reset technique to bring my channels back without a reboot, but had a little glitch happen tonight. My channels went out and I followed the steps to reset the card. I've had success doing this 4 times in a row over the past several weeks, but this time it didn't work. The channels remained black and when I started changing channels to see if any were active the Tivo just rebooted itself. Fortunately, the channels all came back after the reboot, but don't know if this means my luck is about to run out.

[nocturne1]

Well, SDV is truly on the way to Orange County.....

Finally got some announcement from Cox about SDV and Cablecards. Basically, they are saying that SDV is going live on 4/8, and a digital STB will be required to see the following channels:

- Pay per view channels
- Paquete Latino Tier
- Foreign Language Channels - TV-5, ART, RAE, ZEE TV, The Filipino Channel, TV Japan, TV Asia, and CTI Zhong Tian
- The following digital cable channels - CCTV-9, California Channel, CMT Pure Country, CSPAN2, CSPAN3, Fine Living, Fit TV, Fox Reality, Fuel, FUSE, Game Show Network, G4TechTV, HRTV, Jewelry TV, Leased Access (109), Shop NBC, TVG, and WeatherScan Local.

It also states that new channels added to Digital and HD may not be available to cablecard customers. They are offering a digital or HD receiver for $1.99 a month for the first year (normally $5.25/mo). This offer is only good through 6/30/08.

No mention of any tuning resolver, although I doubt that they'd ever put it in a mass-mailer like this anyways.

[moyekj]

Well, SDV is truly on the way to Orange County.....

Finally got some announcement from Cox about SDV and Cablecards. Basically, they are saying that SDV is going live on 4/8, and a digital STB will be required to see the following channels:

- Pay per view channels
- Paquete Latino Tier
- Foreign Language Channels - TV-5, ART, RAE, ZEE TV, The Filipino Channel, TV Japan, TV Asia, and CTI Zhong Tian
- The following digital cable channels - CCTV-9, California Channel, CMT Pure Country, CSPAN2, CSPAN3, Fine Living, Fit TV, Fox Reality, Fuel, FUSE, Game Show Network, G4TechTV, HRTV, Jewelry TV, Leased Access (109), Shop NBC, TVG, and WeatherScan Local.

It also states that new channels added to Digital and HD may not be available to cablecard customers. They are offering a digital or HD receiver for $1.99 a month for the first year (normally $5.25/mo). This offer is only good through 6/30/08.

No mention of any tuning resolver, although I doubt that they'd ever put it in a mass-mailer like this anyways. They failed to list the 9 HD channels already not available to us even before SDV deployment... However, I'm very glad to see that the other channels being selected for SDV are the less popular ones, which makes sense to maximize the efficacy of SDV anyway. Also good to see PPV in that bundle.

[JcarD]

Today Cox came and swapped out my cable cards in my Series 3. The tech said that this week in Phoenix they were told that the cable card failures are due to delayed firmware upgrades from TIVO that take 3-4 weeks to complete once the CCs are installed. That's why the cards must be changed every few weeks. Don't know if I'm buying the explanation but that's what he said.

[hddude55]

Today Cox came and swapped out my cable cards in my Series 3. The tech said that this week in Phoenix they were told that the cable card failures are due to delayed firmware upgrades from TIVO that take 3-4 weeks to complete once the CCs are installed. That's why the cards must be changed every few weeks. Don't know if I'm buying the explanation but that's what he said.
That explanation sounds a bit incomplete, but it certainly is true that the "new" cards do seem to work for a few weeks. I'm also in the Phoenix area and the stories I've been told have been numerous, the most recent story being two weeks ago. I talked to a "second level" Cox Phoenix supervisor and he said he had read a tech advisory the day before stating that SA was working on a software fix that would hopefully be available in a few weeks and likely then would be beamed to all installed cards.

FYI I have a series3 and am now on my second set of two multi-stream cards, as of yesterday. For those of you with the newer, multi-steam card capable TiVo HD models you probably wonder why I am using multi-stream cards in a series3 when the series3 was designed to use two single-stream cards only. The reason is some people have theorized that the software problem with SA cards is more prevalent as it applies to single-stream cards. My experience and the experience of others as reported here suggest that theory may be hogwash.

The tech yesterday suggested doing what some others here have done: Ask COx to provide a free or cheap HD DVR service for two or three months until a fix can be implemented. If no fix happens within a reasonable amount of time, then I suppose I can consider other choices like dumping the TiVo on Ebay.

[TheNumberSix]

I had a chance to chat with a Senior Cox Technician at a social event a few weeks ago. I mentioned to him how nice my CableCards were working. (I have an S3 with 2 S-Cards and I've never had any problems at all.) He suggested that for best performance, I should make sure that both S-Cards are running the 1.49.3 firmware. There were known issues relating to the .2 firmware. (Dropped channels, specifically)

I checked my TiVo and one card had the .3 and the other had the .2 firmware. They sent a firmware upgrade to my card, but it wouldn't upgrade.

I asked them to get me a new S-Card with .49.3 on it and they did.

So far it's been two months with no problems. I've been very happy with the service.

[JimRI]

I'm having the same channel mapping issues here in RI. I noticed it when I was trying to record "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" on Starz HD last night. I woke up this morning and neither had recorded. I went to the Starz HD channel and it was black (channel 723). I then flipped around and found that it was on channel 746, which it supposed to be TLC HD. Cinemax HD is supposed to be on channel 722, but it's now on 745 (which was Discovery HD). Now TLC HD is on 722 where Cinemax HD used to be. The only channel that I cannot find is Discovery HD...which is a huge bummer. Strojo, you said that Cox fixed the problem before they got to your house. So, will a phone call into Cox resolve this? esb1981, any luck with your problems? Being in RI, I too am using 2 single-stream Motorola cards.

[Pafrican]

So I called Cox about the issue I was having with a few of my HD channels (mojo, tnt, NOT espn) where the picture shows for a second then it gives me the cablecard screen to call Cox. The tech said, "it's an going going issue and we are looking into it. for both cable boxes and cable cards." I wanted to know how long it's been going on (mine has been a week i think... don't remember when first posted it). He said a few hours but for some a few days. Wanted to know how I can get it fixed and if we could make sure the card was paired properly. "We are working on it, and it will be fixed when we are done." Wow smart ass, thanks. Is there any estimate on when it will be fixed? "It will be fixed once we are done working on it." Will I be credited on my bill for the outage. "Sure, you can get a few cents off your bill. Call billing when the issue is resolved."

Quite the customer service we receive with Cox. It's been two weeks though and with the two s-cards I haven't had any mass channel dropping out. so that's good.

[esb1981]

JimRI, my issues have been fixed as well. Unfortunately I can't say what they did to fix it. My feeling all along was that after Cox re-mapped some channels the head-end was not properly sending the new channel information to the cablecards. It took working with the lead tech for over a month before it got fixed, and unfortunately I'm not sure what they did. I knew the channels were mapped wrong because when I would check Tivo diagnostics on a missing channel it would give me one frequency (i.e., 465 MHz), but if I asked someone else who has a Motorola box what the frequency is on their diagnostics, they would tell me something else, like 851 MHz.

[tagpats]

I lost my channels again and they have gone from going out about every 5or 6 days to every 2 or 3. The menu reset did not work because although my channels are out, the card did not fail when I accessed the menu, so I could not reset it.

Does anyone know a way to make it fail so that it will reset itself?

I tried rebooting and it won't work either. So now I'm left with calling customer service to repair or requesting another M card and seeing if that does any good.



I've been successful using the Menu reset technique to bring my channels back without a reboot, but had a little glitch happen tonight. My channels went out and I followed the steps to reset the card. I've had success doing this 4 times in a row over the past several weeks, but this time it didn't work. The channels remained black and when I started changing channels to see if any were active the Tivo just rebooted itself. Fortunately, the channels all came back after the reboot, but don't know if this means my luck is about to run out.

[BrianAZ]

I read that someone had success with requesting that Cox "send a hit" to the cards. Every time I've called, they tell me there's nothing they can do but send a truck.. won't even try. Best of luck to you.

[tagpats]

Thanks. I'll give them a call to see what I can do. BrianAZ, Are you using the Cox DVR now full-time or are you bouncing back and forth depending on how your CableCard is cooperating? How many times have you had to swap out your card?

[BrianAZ]

Thanks. I'll give them a call to see what I can do. BrianAZ, Are you using the Cox DVR now full-time or are you bouncing back and forth depending on how your CableCard is cooperating? How many times have you had to swap out your card?

I had to swap out once so far... about a month after they installed the MCard. It's been maybe 2 1/2 weeks since then and I'm rebooting probably once every 7-10 days. I use the free CoxDVR to watch/record NHL Center Ice. I may use it the next time I have to swap the card, but since you still get the network stations and I have a 500GB eSATA drive, I think I will end up watching a bunch of recorded content for a day or so until they can get out here.

[Rolow]

I lost my channels again and they have gone from going out about every 5or 6 days to every 2 or 3. The menu reset did not work because although my channels are out, the card did not fail when I accessed the menu, so I could not reset it.

Does anyone know a way to make it fail so that it will reset itself?

I tried rebooting and it won't work either. So now I'm left with calling customer service to repair or requesting another M card and seeing if that does any good.
When you do the reset you go to > SA CableCard CA Screen then clear out even thou it does not fail and do the same thing down the list
>SA CableCARD/host id clear out
>SA CableCARD ip service clear out
>SA CableCARD davic clear out
go thru them all then back to the top > SA CableCard CA Screen and it will FAIL

I'v had that work once then the second time it did not work so I did a hard reboot then a call to cox and it came back with a hit. The third time the above worked for me again. So if it keep on schedule Ill need to call cox net time i loose channels. I don't mind calling If it means i don't have to wait for a truck roll.

P.S. I wish we had HDnet here in Phoenix. I want to see the shuttle launch tonight.

[tagpats]

Appreciate the feedback.

I had to swap out once so far... about a month after they installed the MCard. It's been maybe 2 1/2 weeks since then and I'm rebooting probably once every 7-10 days. I use the free CoxDVR to watch/record NHL Center Ice. I may use it the next time I have to swap the card, but since you still get the network stations and I have a 500GB eSATA drive, I think I will end up watching a bunch of recorded content for a day or so until they can get out here.

[tagpats]

Thanks for the tip. I'll give it a try.


When you do the reset you go to > SA CableCard CA Screen then clear out even thou it does not fail and do the same thing down the list
>SA CableCARD/host id clear out
>SA CableCARD ip service clear out
>SA CableCARD davic clear out
go thru them all then back to the top > SA CableCard CA Screen and it will FAIL

I'v had that work once then the second time it did not work so I did a hard reboot then a call to cox and it came back with a hit. The third time the above worked for me again. So if it keep on schedule Ill need to call cox net time i loose channels. I don't mind calling If it means i don't have to wait for a truck roll.

P.S. I wish we had HDnet here in Phoenix. I want to see the shuttle launch tonight.

[Kershek]

Wow, this is a long thread :) I saw the TiVoHD on sale at woot.com the other day and jumped on it before they sold out, and then I started reading this thread and was surprised to see all the problems with the cablecards here in Phoenix (east Mesa). Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake in my purchase...

Anyways, I called Cox to come out and install the m-card and they said it was a $99 service charge to do that.

$99?? Is that really true? I read back a few pages and saw how it could be much cheaper. Is it really as simple as calling back and finding another sales person?

In a related question, should I leave the TiVoHD in the box and wait to see these problems resolve? I currently use their DVR for HD and a second digital box connected to a Series 2 TiVo and have no channel problems. I really want to use the TiVoHD, of course, but I'm worried I will be much worse off.

[tagpats]

Until recently, I've been a firm believer in a broken Tivo is still better than a Cox DVR, but I finally relented and reconnected the Cox DVR and turned off the HD Tivo until the tech gets here in a few days.

You may get lucky, but I suspect you'll be playing the same game we all are in trying to get channels back after they drop out on you.

I'm trying one more M card in the hope that a fix is on the horizon, but if that does not work or hold up, I will be talking with Tivo about suspending my account until a legit fix has happened. Unless Cox let's me ride with this free DVR indefinitely, I'm not going to pay Tivo and Cox. I would hope that Tivo will let me withhold payment until the fix happens, but who knows.

If you don't care about the 1 year cost for service, just roll the dice. But if that upfront service cost or monthly fee is going to stretch your cable budget, then I would follow this thread for good news and keep it in the box.

So, are you using a splitter to connect your Cox coaxial to your Cox HD DVR and the Cox set-top box? Is it split again to give you 2 tuners on your Series 2 Tivo or do you just use 1 input since you've got the other two on the HD DVR?

I wasn't sure if using a splitter would degrade the signal and the HD picture because I was contemplating getting an HD set top box so that I could view all the Switched Digital HD channels that have been rolled out that the CableCard won't let me access.


Wow, this is a long thread :) I saw the TiVoHD on sale at woot.com the other day and jumped on it before they sold out, and then I started reading this thread and was surprised to see all the problems with the cablecards here in Phoenix (east Mesa). Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake in my purchase...

Anyways, I called Cox to come out and install the m-card and they said it was a $99 service charge to do that.

$99?? Is that really true? I read back a few pages and saw how it could be much cheaper. Is it really as simple as calling back and finding another sales person?

In a related question, should I leave the TiVoHD in the box and wait to see these problems resolve? I currently use their DVR for HD and a second digital box connected to a Series 2 TiVo and have no channel problems. I really want to use the TiVoHD, of course, but I'm worried I will be much worse off.

[jebbbz]

Wow, this is a long thread :) ...

Anyways, I called Cox to come out and install the m-card and they said it was a $99 service charge to do that.

$99?? Is that really true? I read back a few pages and saw how it could be much cheaper. Is it really as simple as calling back and finding another sales person?


Maybe. I was quoted $15.00, $35.00, $50.00 and $65.00. Two customer service reps, Nate on January 23 and Doug on January 24, quoted me $50.00 ($35.00 for a truck roll and $15.00 to install a single cablecard) but I won't know what the charge really is until the bill arrives and I argue with their billing department for a break. Some CSRs seem to think the installation and monthly charges are the same for one MCard as for two SCards.

Do you already have digital cable? They may be adding installation charges somewhat haphazardly.

Update: Tracked down the bill (I am on auto-pay) and Nate and Doug were right: $50.00 total and I am only being billed for a single cabelcard, $2.00/month.

[Kershek]

So, are you using a splitter to connect your Cox coaxial to your Cox HD DVR and the Cox set-top box? Is it split again to give you 2 tuners on your Series 2 Tivo or do you just use 1 input since you've got the other two on the HD DVR?

I wasn't sure if using a splitter would degrade the signal and the HD picture because I was contemplating getting an HD set top box so that I could view all the Switched Digital HD channels that have been rolled out that the CableCard won't let me access.
Thanks for the response. Yes, I'm using a splitter that a Cox tech gave me to split the incoming signal between the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR and the digital cable box connected to the TiVo Series 2. The HD picture is great, so I don't think it's degrading the signal. Perhaps my signal strength is really good to begin with.

I used to have the TiVo downstream from the HD DVR, but I got sick of the HD DVR changing channels in the middle of TiVo shows :) So I gave it its own digital cable box and covered the front of the cable box with cloth so it doesn't change channels when I aim it at the HD DVR.

I was considering going with the TiVo HD and seeing if I had problems, but keeping the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR until I was confident the TiVo HD was performing properly; that way I had a backout. But the cost for TiVo and the Cox DVR would continue to build as I wait.

[Kershek]

Maybe. I was quoted $15.00, $35.00, $50.00 and $65.00. Two customer service reps, Nate on January 23 and Doug on January 24, quoted me $50.00 ($35.00 for a truck roll and $15.00 to install a single cablecard) but I won't know what the charge really is until the bill arrives and I argue with their billing department for a break. Some CSRs seem to think the installation and monthly charges are the same for one MCard as for two SCards.

Do yoa already have digital cable? They may be adding installation charges somewhat haphazardly.
Yes, I already have digital cable and HD service.

Those prices are so different from each other I wonder if they even know what they are supposed to charge, or if they are just charging what they think they can get away with at the time.

I was also thinking perhaps if I told them to come out to take back their HD DVR (which wouldn't be a service fee) and tied that to a cableCARD installation, would I not get a service fee at all? But then again, if the TiVo HD doesn't work, then I'm out of service.

[tagpats]

Thanks for the info. I just picked up a splitter and it works perfectly. I don't notice any signal degradation at all. You're thinking about doing exactly what I'm doing, which is having the Tivo Hd and the Cox DVR hooked up on two different inputs and bouncing back and forth. As along as I can keep the DVR for free, I'll probably keep it this way, but having to double dip and pay for both I'm not too keen on for the long run.

Just a heads up that I've seen mention of this loss of channel problme on the Tivo website going back to November of 2007. Doesn't give me a lot of confidence that the problem will be resolved as quickly as we hope.

In terms of install price. I was billed $39.99 because they thought they were installing 2 S cards. Turns out they had M cards and credited me back the $19.99. Don't know why the price differs by region, but Northern Virginia is $20 to install. If you look at their website, you can find a detailed list of charges for every service. CableCard installation is listed on it. It's a set price, so shouldn't be so variable. Find that on their web site and challenge them if they try to jack the price. Good luck.


Thanks for the response. Yes, I'm using a splitter that a Cox tech gave me to split the incoming signal between the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR and the digital cable box connected to the TiVo Series 2. The HD picture is great, so I don't think it's degrading the signal. Perhaps my signal strength is really good to begin with.

I used to have the TiVo downstream from the HD DVR, but I got sick of the HD DVR changing channels in the middle of TiVo shows :) So I gave it its own digital cable box and covered the front of the cable box with cloth so it doesn't change channels when I aim it at the HD DVR.

I was considering going with the TiVo HD and seeing if I had problems, but keeping the Scientific Atlanta HD DVR until I was confident the TiVo HD was performing properly; that way I had a backout. But the cost for TiVo and the Cox DVR would continue to build as I wait.

[jebbbz]

Those prices are so different from each other I wonder if they even know what they are supposed to charge, or if they are just charging what they think they can get away with at the time.


Well, I think it is service reps who almost never get asked about cablecards. There aren't many of us who ask for them (We few, we happy few...). The CSR who said $15.00 was forgetting the truck roll. The one who said $35.00 was quoting the truck roll but forgetting the tech would actully do something once he got here. And the one who said $65.00 was assuming a single MCard was the same cost to install as two SCards, so $15.00+$15.00+$35.00=$65.00.

Demand they do it for $50.00 and tell them Nate (and Doug) sent you.

[hddude55]

....

In a related question, should I leave the TiVoHD in the box and wait to see these problems resolve? I currently use their DVR for HD and a second digital box connected to a Series 2 TiVo and have no channel problems. I really want to use the TiVoHD, of course, but I'm worried I will be much worse off. I live nearby in Gilbert. This would be a no-brainer if I was in your shoes. The TiVo would be returned to the seller for a refund.

[Bodie]

I'm having the same channel mapping issues here in RI. I noticed it when I was trying to record "Planet Terror" and "Death Proof" on Starz HD last night. I woke up this morning and neither had recorded. I went to the Starz HD channel and it was black (channel 723). I then flipped around and found that it was on channel 746, which it supposed to be TLC HD. Cinemax HD is supposed to be on channel 722, but it's now on 745 (which was Discovery HD). Now TLC HD is on 722 where Cinemax HD used to be. The only channel that I cannot find is Discovery HD...which is a huge bummer. Strojo, you said that Cox fixed the problem before they got to your house. So, will a phone call into Cox resolve this? esb1981, any luck with your problems? Being in RI, I too am using 2 single-stream Motorola cards.



Jim,

I've been "missing" DSCHD, TLCHD and TRVHD for a week (I hear NESNHD may be out too, I haven't checked it though). A tech came out and managed to hose-up one card completely (in the TV not the TiVo) and a supervisor will be out tomorrow. I'll post any results.

[Kershek]

I live nearby in Gilbert. This would be a no-brainer if I was in your shoes. The TiVo would be returned to the seller for a refund.
Unfortunately, I got it from woot, so there's no returning it. However, based on all the great feedback in this thread, I have decided to take a different approach. I still want to see how the TiVo will do, but I no longer have the confidence that it will perform well until they fix the cableCARD issue. So, I will proceed with caution by keeping my existing home system intact and hooking up the TiVo (which arrives today) to another system and then judge its reliability before dropping the Cox DVR. That will mean a little more cost for me (TiVo monthly charge and Cox DVR rental), but I guess that's the price I pay for early adopting. Though by now I thought waiting a year before adopting would have been enough time to get the bugs out :(

Tomorrow, Cox will roll their truck out and install the CableCARDS. I will use the instructions provided here to try to get a smooth installation and will report my progress.

[JimRI]

Jim,

I've been "missing" DSCHD, TLCHD and TRVHD for a week (I hear NESNHD may be out too, I haven't checked it though). A tech came out and managed to hose-up one card completely (in the TV not the TiVo) and a supervisor will be out tomorrow. I'll post any results.

Hey Bodie,

Another forum member in RI, Gil, is having the same exact problem. So far, I am only having problems with 5 HD channels:
722 (Cinemax HD/ now TLC HD)
723 (Starz HD/ now black)
725 (NESN HD/now black)
745 (Discovery HD/ now Cinemax HD)
746 (TLC HD/ now Starz HD)

This morning, I called the Cox field supervisor that Gil was dealing with and he said that another TiVo user in Cranston is having the same problems on the same channels. He went on to say that Cox made some frequency changes on a few channels last week and that it is most likely the root of the problems. So basically, it's a Cox headend problem, not a cable card/TiVo problem. At the time I called him, he was compiling a list of customers with the same issues so that he could send an e-mail to the higher-ups who control the channel maps. Hopefully, this will all get resolved soon. Keep us posted.:)

[mimyc]

QUOTE=Kershek
"Unfortunately, I got it from woot, so there's no returning it."

Same here, mine also arrived today and I'm planning on an install next week. I am also planning on redundancy. I'm brand new to HDTV so don't feel a need to "maintain" my current standard, so I'll just be running two Tivos for a while, the S2 in the bedroom will be my safety net while we see how the HD performs.

I'll update with any info that might be found useful. In Mesa, AZ for the record, so this could be a fun ride.

[hddude55]

QUOTE=Kershek
"Unfortunately, I got it from woot, so there's no returning it."

Same here, mine also arrived today and I'm planning on an install next week. I am also planning on redundancy. I'm brand new to HDTV so don't feel a need to "maintain" my current standard, so I'll just be running two Tivos for a while, the S2 in the bedroom will be my safety net while we see how the HD performs.

I'll update with any info that might be found useful. In Mesa, AZ for the record, so this could be a fun ride. You've got that right. I'm next door in Gilbert and now have two multi-stream cards in my "old" series3 model designed to run with two single stream cards. Others thought the single stream cards were more prone to channel drops.

Not. This week, I have had to reboot twice to get back lost channels from Cable Card 1. I'm not going to even call Cox again for a few weeks to give them time to implement a solution, which supposedly is being developed.

[Kershek]

Successful install!

I have to say that the wealth of information here is great. I was armed with lots of printouts and information and, although I didn't need them in this instance, I was expecting the worst and was glad I was prepared all the same.

I'm in East Mesa. The Cox installer came out and was very courteous and said he had done several cableCARD installs in the past. This was a good sign. Surprisingly enough, he said that TVs are more of a pain to get working than the TiVos. He was armed with two M-cards and was ready to go.

I told him I had the TiVoHD's software all updated and he looked relieved, as he said some people just pull it out of the box when he gets there, which makes for a long on-site call. After plugging in the card, it went through a firmware update, which took 15-20 minutes. Then he called in the serial number. I had the TiVo look for channels, but it took another 10-15 minutes for that to happen. Based on other posts I've read, I knew to be patient and not muck around with the system, so we chatted a bit.

I asked him about SDV and he said he knew what it was, but that it wasn't planned on being implemented just yet. He guessed it would be at least a year before SDV was in this area. He said they (the techs) would expect to know about it a good amount in advance. He said that SDV helps bandwidth-strained areas and we have a good amount of open bandwidth in the infrastructure right now. He also said we're getting 7 new HD channels this Sunday, March 16th, and that the cableCARD should pick it up fine.

I told him I got the TiVoHD from woot.com and told him about the site. He was interested enough that he wrote the name of the site down. I asked him when he thought Sci Fi HD would be in the area and he said he didn't know, but he was looking forward to it as well. He came across to me like a fellow techie, which was cool.

After the channels came in, I tried tuning a few with no difficulty. At that point, I was satisfied that we were good to go. I had it go through guide setup and he went on his way, less than an hour after he arrived. He gave me his card and said he would be in the area tomorrow if I run across any problems. I have to say this was the nicest Cox guy I've talked to, as I've had lots of issues with them in the past.

I'm going to keep the TiVoHD in the computer room for a week or two to make sure it doesn't lose channels or do anything else that it shouldn't.

Hey mimyc, here's hoping your install was as smooth as mine!

[Bodie]

Hey Bodie,

Another forum member in RI, Gil, is having the same exact problem. So far, I am only having problems with 5 HD channels:
722 (Cinemax HD/ now TLC HD)
723 (Starz HD/ now black)
725 (NESN HD/now black)
745 (Discovery HD/ now Cinemax HD)
746 (TLC HD/ now Starz HD)



Yeah, I posted on the other thread he started. I have the same channel mixup, now on three cards. The sup that was out today chenged out the one in the TV and said it was a bad card. He didn't even try to swap the ones in the Tivo since I'd talked to him and knew it was a head-end issue. Problem was, he was supposed to be there at 2 and actually showed up just after one. My wife called since she didn't know anything about it and I talked to him on the phone. He was just pulling away by the time I got here.

Um, Hellooooooo, if swapping the card in the TV fixed the problem (regardless of the cause), wouldn't you want to do that in the Tivo as well rather than leave a customer missing channels until they can fix whatever is wrong on the other end. I can see if it was ALL cable cards, but two of mine were fine before he got here (one after a re-hit) and a third is now OK too...

[OneEyedBartender]

Hi Guys,

This thread is quite long so I didnt get to read through it all, but i have 2 single stream cards from Cox in Phx and on any non-HD channel the show automically fast forwards the picture but not the sound. It does this multiple times an episode and the only way to fix it is to hit the go back 8 second button.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

[navman]

Not any help but I have had the exact same symptoms in Gilbert.

[esb1981]

Every time I lose power for any length of time, both of my Motorola cablecards become unpaired. And then every time, I call Cox customer service, they say they are pairing them, send a signal and it fails to pair the cards. Every time, they send a tech out, I have to take time off work, the tech comes, calls his dispatch who sends a signal out that PAIRS THE CARDS. Why, oh why, can't they pair the cards when I call them? Why do I have to keep having a tech come out, wasting my time? Why is it that other people can get cards paired with Cox phone tech support?

[Kershek]

I recommend putting a UPS on the TiVo so it doesn't lose power.

[esb1981]

Thanks. Do you think the problem is the loss of power or the power surge? Because a few times of lost power briefly and have no problem.

[Shawn95GT]

He also said we're getting 7 new HD channels this Sunday, March 16th, and that the cableCARD should pick it up fine.
So, can you see the channels? They showed up in my guide but i can't tune 'em :mad:. Hurray SDV :down::down::down:

714 Is supposed to be Discover HD Theater - black screen
720 SCIHD (Sci-fi? discovey science?) I don't know what it is, but all I get is black screen
723 - DSCHD (Discovery HD) - I'm getting picture but the guide doesn't match the progamming, It might be HDTheater.
744 GOLFVS - black screen - 'channel not available'
746 FOODHD - black screen
757 APLHD (no idea what this is) - black screen
752 HSTRYHD - black screen

I'm gonna re-boot and see if it fixes anything...

[craigo]

So, can you see the channels? They showed up in my guide but i can't tune 'em :mad:. Hurray SDV :down::down::down:
I'm gonna re-boot and see if it fixes anything...

According to the paper last week, the new channels aren't supposed to go "live" until Tuesday.

[Shawn95GT]

Reboot solved nothing.

My guess right now is that either they are SDV or Tivo updated the lineup before Cox switched the channels on.

This is for Cox Metro Phoenix:

714 (not working) - Discovery HD Theater
720 (not working) - Science Channel HD
723 (Showing discovery HD Theater) - Discovery Channel HD
744 (not working) VSHD / Golf Channel HD
746 (not working) - Food Network HD
757 (not working) - Animal Planet HD
762 (not working) - The history Channel HD

[Shawn95GT]

According to the paper last week, the new channels aren't supposed to go "live" until Tuesday.

you're right I umped the gun when they showed up in the lineup. Says March 18 here:

http://www.cox.com/arizona/cable_hd.asp

[Kershek]

No, I can't change to the channels, either, and the channels that "moved" according to TiVo are still in their old spaces.

I wouldn't blame SDV if the Cox guy who told me it's not being rolled out until at least next year is correct.

Let's hope they come in on March 18th.

[Shawn95GT]

Well, there is something up or we'd have been able to tune TBSHD by now.

I hope we do get the new channels, but I'm not optimistic.

[Kershek]

I checked my Cox HD DVR and it also doesn't have the new channels. I think TiVo jumped the gun on the channel lineup change.

[Rolow]

Turned on my tivo to day in Peoria to see the updated channel guide. So I came here to check up on what the deal was. I was assuming it was SDV. Then I noticed the link to the fact the channels would not go live till Mach 18th. So i gave cox a call and told the CSR I had a cable card and was wondering if I would have acsses to the new HD channels. He put me on hold when he came back on the line he said yes I will be able to get all 7 HD channels with my CC. I'll cross my fingers and hope.

[Kershek]

Thanks for calling with the verification, Rolow.

[eochs]

I just don't believe anybody at Cox that would actually answer a phone... Historically the CSR's do not have the knowledge that they should regarding these matters... That being said, my fingers are crossed as well that the channels actually show up tomorrow...

[BrianAZ]

Hi Guys,

This thread is quite long so I didnt get to read through it all, but i have 2 single stream cards from Cox in Phx and on any non-HD channel the show automically fast forwards the picture but not the sound. It does this multiple times an episode and the only way to fix it is to hit the go back 8 second button.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!!

Not any help but I have had the exact same symptoms in Gilbert.

I had this issue with my TivoHD. The solution (for me) was to move to a single MCard. Beware though, it has it's own problem. You will lose most of your channels about once a week or so and eventually need to swap out the card with a new one (I'm on my second swap in 2 months). For me, this is a much better issue in terms of how it impacts me. When the channels are not down, they are working perfectly.

[Pafrican]

In regards to the new HD channels:

I called yesterday to get one of my s-cards paired properly (some HD channels, not ESPNHD though, were giving me one second of picture and then cablecard screen). It was never paired properly (wrong HostID) and after the phone tech fixed it I asked about the new HD channels. She said (and I know they don't always know) that I'll probably just need to call to have a fresh hit sent to the cards to open up those channels once they go live (so tomorrow).

That's good news.

[DonnoC]

Hello Everyone -

Brand new Tivo S3 owner (Tivo HD) in Fairfax, VA, just had Cox out today to "install" the Cable Card. I got a single card with a dual tuner, I gather from this thread it is called an "M" card.

It seems to be working okay for me, but it's only been a matter of hours. The biggest gripe I have so far is that there are now 13 channels I do not have access to via the CableCARD that I did via the Cox DVR. Those are 708, 711, 718, 722, 723, 724, 725, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, and 732. I'm told these are "Switched Digital Channels" and are therefore not available on the CableCARD.

Has anyone else been told this about these channels? Some of them I'm most upset about, Discovery HD (727), and History HD (728). I'm hopeful that eventually these will be available.

[Kershek]

Sorry to hear that, DonnoC. There is an SDV FAQ that is sticked in this forum. Take a look at it and it will answer all your SDV questions, including how you will be able to eventually see those channels with your TiVo.

Here's the direct link:
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=357703

[PWF]

I just got off the phone with Cox in Phoenix. When I said I wanted a cable card, he said they don't sell them any more. I love the different answers you get when talking to sales. After I mentioned they have to by law, then he started telling me about how I will not get all the new channels they are adding. I told him about SDV, and he said I guess you know more about this that I do. I have to wonder if these guys get any training whatsoever. So he quoted me $50 for the install and $4.99 a month. $50 to plug a card in a slot......

Ah well, I should be up and running Wednesday.

[Bodie]

$50 to plug a card in a slot......

... and to read some numbers into the phone. ;)

[KanuK]

COX Cleveland charges $2.00/month per card and $20 per card for installation. I subscribe to basic cable + digital cable + HBO ($40/month).

[jonginear]

I tried to get the 8 new HD channels this morning and got the "channel not available"message on a blank screen. I restarted my series 3 with 2 S cards with same result. Discouraged, I went to find a phone to call Cox and by the time I got back to the TV with phone in hand (5 min) I was receiving one of the channels. I proceeded to try them all and they were all slow to tune in the first time, but eventually I got them all except for the Golf channel. I went to my other Series 3 and tried the channels without the restart and as before it took a while the first time each channel was tuned in but they all worked except for the golf channel. Looks like we got lucky in Phoenix with the addition of new channels and cable cards not being blocked because of the coming SDV changeover.

[Kershek]

Well, I got the new channels on the Cox DVR but they aren't coming in on the TiVoHD with 1 M-card. I made a service call and they said they would send a hit to the card. I will have to check tonight when I get home.

[Shawn95GT]

Mine are working. The only channel didn't tune in was the Golf one but they all tuned slow. I didn't wait to see if the VSGOLF came up. I'll try later on. It could be that there is nothing on too - lol.

[Kershek]

Hmm, maybe I shouldn't have had them send a hit to the card.... I guess that's what I get for being proactive :)

[Supermurph]

Mine are working. The only channel didn't tune in was the Golf one but they all tuned slow. I didn't wait to see if the VSGOLF came up. I'll try later on. It could be that there is nothing on too - lol.

I'm also Cox in Phx with a single M-card. I got home tonight and still had the black screen, but restarted my Tivo and then got all of the new HD channels except Golf/Vs like a few others. I'm pretty sure Golf/Vs is part of the sports tier so you shouldn't get it unless you pay for the tier. I don't pay for it so it looks like I'm set. Nice!

[Kershek]

I restarted as well, and all the channels came in. It did take at least 5 seconds to tune in at first, and then it was normal.

[Lupin]

Well, my digital channels just went out on me. Im going to call when jericho gets done recording to get them to send a hit to see if it works after that. First time since Saturday its done this. Hopefully this isnt a sign of the things to come.

[BrianAZ]

Still no problems more than a week after this balancing business. Encouraging. Takes a supervisor of some sort to do it, but if you are having problems, the baseline CSRs seem to understand what it means to "balance my account" and know who to connect you with.

I've been waiting for my reboots to stop working again so I could give this a try and guess what... IT WORKS. When the tech came out, he called in and requested:


Hits to all equipment in the house
Rebalancing of the account


Maybe 2 minutes after he made his request, everything popped back on without swapping the card! I have no idea what either of these actually do (sounds like some sort of reset) but it worked. I've been corresponding with a woman in Cox's Executive Relations dept on the issue and I've relayed my story to her in hopes that they can add this to their CSR knowledgebase so they will try it when folks call in versus saying they can't do anything and they have to roll a truck (which involves us waiting a couple days).

Thanks again for your information. This problem is a lot easier to tolerate if I know I can make a quick phonecall to fix it when a reboot will not.

:up::up::up:

[PWF]

Ok, my system is up and running. The cable tech was a contractor, but he seemed to know what he was doing and had installed to a TiVo or two before. I'm getting all the HD channels, including the new ones. I didn't bother looking for the golf channel though. I also sent back my old cable box. So now I have 1 HD TiVo in the living room, and a series 2 in the guest room.

Now if they would just finish the upgrades in my neiborhood. My services have been up and down since 8:30 this morning. Thank God the service didn't interrupt during the cable card firmware update. :)

[imreolajos]

Hi all!

I don't know if it has been discussed at length before, frankly, I don't have time to read through the 30+ pages of this thread, but this seems to be the appropriate place to share my experience, knowledge (and frustration) with all of you.

My setup: TiVo HD (installed on Christmas 2007) with latest firmware version, Scientific Atlanta (SA) Multi-stream card (aka. M-Card) with latest firmware version, Cox as cable provider.

My problem: About once every week or every other week all the digital channels (100+, incl. HD) on my TiVo black out. I can tune to them, but there's nothing on them. Ongoing and future recordings are obviously affected, but nothing else. This has been going on ever since I got my TiVo HD (3+ months and counting).

The solution: NONE at this time. Initially, TiVo has been pointing fingers at SA, SA has been pointing fingers at TiVo, Cox has been pointing fingers at both of them and I've been pointing my finger at all three of them (and guess which finger). Sometimes pulling out and pushing back the M-Card helps. Most of the time rebooting the TiVo helped. A few times that didn't help, either, but a call to Cox asking them to "hit" my card has resolved it, no reboot needed.

The bottom line: This is purely a software/firmware issue between TiVo and SA. One of the most helpful (!) Cox CSRs even read a memo to me that they got from SA acknowledging this fact and informing Cox that SA and TiVo are working on the problem. One very helpful CSR at TiVo also acknowledged this fact to me, went through a couple of CableCard diagnostic screens with me and then declared "Hmm, I never saw that before" and assured me the info she gathered will be relayed to TiVo software engineers who are actually aware of this issue and are working on a solution.

What to do: Wait and keep complaining to SA, TiVo and Cox so they can raise the priority of the issue. Cox in my area (Las Vegas/Henderson) told me that they received several complaints from the area, but all they can advise me is to wait for software upgrades. Swapping M-Cards, TiVo boxes, etc. doesn't fully resolve the problem, at best it delays it. Of course, that doesn't really help me, since the blackout can happen even in the middle of a recording...

Frankly, I am surprised that neither TiVo nor SA released an emergency software update to fix this HUGE problem which leads me to believe that either a) they don't care because not enough people are affected by it, or b) they have no solution, yet. As an embedded software engineer myself I can fully appreciate the complexity of the situation (issues with interoperability between devices made by two different companies; complex protocol to support encryption, QAM and who knows what else; new hardware and new software probably not well-tested, etc.), but as a customer I've been frustrated as hell.

Anyway, there you have it. It's out of my system and now I feel better...

[tagpats]

Your problem is identical to mine and many that have posted here. I've gone through 2 M Cards with the same result -- black screen loss of channels at random. My latest service call resulted in 2 S Cards being used because they were out of M Cards, so I was told. In any event, I'm not complaining because it's working again and I have not had an outage in almost a week. I have also noticed that the channels tune more quickly when I move from channel to channel than they did with the M Cards.

I realize that I'm likely to end up with the same or even new problems with the S Cards, but I was having to rely on the Cox DVR when I couldn't get my channels back with the M Card, so at least I'm using my Tivo again.

Would be great if someone was able to get a hold of that internal memo and post it on a thread like this so that we'd have some ammunition when Cox tells us one thing and Tivo tells us another.


Hi all!

I don't know if it has been discussed at length before, frankly, I don't have time to read through the 30+ pages of this thread, but this seems to be the appropriate place to share my experience, knowledge (and frustration) with all of you.

My setup: TiVo HD (installed on Christmas 2007) with latest firmware version, Scientific Atlanta (SA) Multi-stream card (aka. M-Card) with latest firmware version, Cox as cable provider.

My problem: About once every week or every other week all the digital channels (100+, incl. HD) on my TiVo black out. I can tune to them, but there's nothing on them. Ongoing and future recordings are obviously affected, but nothing else. This has been going on ever since I got my TiVo HD (3+ months and counting).

The solution: NONE at this time. Initially, TiVo has been pointing fingers at SA, SA has been pointing fingers at TiVo, Cox has been pointing fingers at both of them and I've been pointing my finger at all three of them (and guess which finger). Sometimes pulling out and pushing back the M-Card helps. Most of the time rebooting the TiVo helped. A few times that didn't help, either, but a call to Cox asking them to "hit" my card has resolved it, no reboot needed.

The bottom line: This is purely a software/firmware issue between TiVo and SA. One of the most helpful (!) Cox CSRs even read a memo to me that they got from SA acknowledging this fact and informing Cox that SA and TiVo are working on the problem. One very helpful CSR at TiVo also acknowledged this fact to me, went through a couple of CableCard diagnostic screens with me and then declared "Hmm, I never saw that before" and assured me the info she gathered will be relayed to TiVo software engineers who are actually aware of this issue and are working on a solution.

What to do: Wait and keep complaining to SA, TiVo and Cox so they can raise the priority of the issue. Cox in my area (Las Vegas/Henderson) told me that they received several complaints from the area, but all they can advise me is to wait for software upgrades. Swapping M-Cards, TiVo boxes, etc. doesn't fully resolve the problem, at best it delays it. Of course, that doesn't really help me, since the blackout can happen even in the middle of a recording...

Frankly, I am surprised that neither TiVo nor SA released an emergency software update to fix this HUGE problem which leads me to believe that either a) they don't care because not enough people are affected by it, or b) they have no solution, yet. As an embedded software engineer myself I can fully appreciate the complexity of the situation (issues with interoperability between devices made by two different companies; complex protocol to support encryption, QAM and who knows what else; new hardware and new software probably not well-tested, etc.), but as a customer I've been frustrated as hell.

Anyway, there you have it. It's out of my system and now I feel better...

[lrhorer]

Brand new Tivo S3 owner (Tivo HD) in Fairfax, VA, just had Cox out today to "install" the Cable Card. I got a single card with a dual tuner, I gather from this thread it is called an "M" card.
CableCards do not have tuners in them, no matter what the type. There are two types of CableCards, denoted as S-cards and M-cards. S-cards can decode only a single stream of data. M-cards can decode up to 6 simultaneous data streams. The S3 TiVo will work with M-cards, but the multi-stream feature is not enabled, so in order to record two channels simultaneously, one must have two cards with the S-3, regardless of whether they are S-cards or M-cards. The TiVo HD, by contrast, supports dual streams, so it ony requires a single M-card to record two channels simultaneously.

Both the S3 and TiVo HD are unidirectional hosts, and as such are not compatible with 2-way protocols such as SDV.

I'm told these are "Switched Digital Channels" and are therefore not available on the CableCARD.
No, they are not available on any unidirectional host, nor on any bidirectional host not campatible with your CATV provider's system.

I'm hopeful that eventually these will be available.'Not very likely, I'm afraid, although it's possible if enough people write in then your provider might be persuaded to move them from an SDV QAM to a linear QAM. Otherwise there may be no relief for the situation. TiVo has stated publicly they are working with several CATV equipment manufacturers to come up with a kludge which will resolve the situation for regularly scheduled programs, but which manufacturers, if any, will come through with a solution is an open question. So is the question of when it will happen. If the equipment manufacturer who supplies the equipment to your CATV provider decides to do nothing, then you are stuck. There are rumors both Motorola and Scientific Atlanta (Cisco) are working on a solution, but at this point they are just that: rumors.

[Kershek]

Now this is weird. I came home today and noticed the TiVoHD had an "emergency message" that was scrolling across the screen. It said it was from the cable company and listed counties. Of course, now I can't remember what the emergency message was for. I hit clear to clear the message and found I couldn't tune any channels. It was in the process of recording two suggestions, but I noticed they were both at 0:00, had a black screen, and didn't appear to be recording at all.

After a reboot of the TiVoHD, it came back up normally. Has anyone seen this before?

[wierdo]

Now this is weird. I came home today and noticed the TiVoHD had an "emergency message" that was scrolling across the screen. It said it was from the cable company and listed counties. Of course, now I can't remember what the emergency message was for. I hit clear to clear the message and found I couldn't tune any channels. It was in the process of recording two suggestions, but I noticed they were both at 0:00, had a black screen, and didn't appear to be recording at all.

After a reboot of the TiVoHD, it came back up normally. Has anyone seen this before?
The cable company sent an EAS alert, which forces CableCARD-using TiVos to tune to the alert channel. Next time, turn off the TiVo when you're done with it and your recordings will not be interrupted.

[Kershek]

But if you turn the TiVo off, it won't record...

[jonginear]

When you get the EAS message all you need to do is push the CLEAR button on your TiVo remote to get the picture back to normal.

[Pafrican]

Oh Cox you have got to be kidding me. March madness on 705 isn't in HD? I expected the simulcast games to be in SD but 705??? Are you kidding me? It better just be the preshow thats in SD and not the games.

[Bodie]

Turn off the Tivo??? Good luck with that.

[wierdo]

But if you turn the TiVo off, it won't record...
Don't unplug it, put it in standby, which is where mine lives every minute that I'm not watching it, precisely to prevent EAS issues.

[Shawn95GT]

I've seen plenty of emergency alerts on my S3, heck I saw two yesterday! I have yet to have it affect the Tivos ability to record. It is probably the type of alerts Cox Phoenix is sending out but hardly anything requiring a work-around. Last night it was recording on both tuners with the alert up.

[BrianAZ]

I've seen plenty of emergency alerts on my S3, heck I saw two yesterday! I have yet to have it affect the Tivos ability to record. It is probably the type of alerts Cox Phoenix is sending out but hardly anything requiring a work-around. Last night it was recording on both tuners with the alert up.

On my TivoHD it just scrolls along the top and I hit clear to make it go away. Can't say for sure it's never impacted a recording, but I've never noticed any impact other than the annoying message.

[wierdo]

I've seen plenty of emergency alerts on my S3, heck I saw two yesterday! I have yet to have it affect the Tivos ability to record. It is probably the type of alerts Cox Phoenix is sending out but hardly anything requiring a work-around. Last night it was recording on both tuners with the alert up.
Are you talking about crawls sent by the station you were viewing, or EAS activations by Cox themselves? Every time Cox Tulsa would run a test, I'd end up with an aborted recording. In 9.2, TiVo fixed it so there is just a gap during the EAS alert.

Obviously, putting the TiVo into standby won't do anything for a graphic crawl on whatever station you're viewing. It will prevent the TiVo from being forced to change channels in the middle of the recording.

[Pafrican]

Often when I wake up I'll notice a EAS alert banner but I don't think its ever affected my recordings. Though maybe it would I just don't record things at 4am.

[JimRI]

Cox came out and replaced my cards today...all fixed! I was told by the field supervisor that whenever they change the mapping frequencies at the head-end, they will most likely have to swap out the single-stream cable cards in order to correct the problem. However, when the m-cards become available in this area, the mapping issues shouldn't be a problem. Since we in RI are using the first gen single stream motorola cards, Cox has limited remote control over them. That's why they have to come to your house, swap out the cards and reset them back at their shop. With the new m-cards, they will have much more remote control/communication. He made it sound like the new m-cards will be available pretty soon. He also verified the Cox/TiVo partnership that will soon launch in RI/Conn. http://www.tvpredictions.com/tivo030508.htm He said that they will be using the m-cards in those boxes.

[mimyc]

Okay, the installer left 30 minutes ago. (East Mesa, Tivo HD, HDMI)

No new information to relay from the install, but some personal experiences to share.

After the install was done and I'd ooh'd and aah'd for a couple minutes at seeing the stitches on Jeff Corwin's pants, I forced a connection with Tivo to try and get the season passes I put in this morning at tivo.com. Immediately after starting that connection and backing out to TC, boom, black screens.

Restart fixed it, but this can't be a coincidence.

I'm sure we are dealing with multiple issues here, but I'm thinking Tivo connecting to home base is definitely one of our triggers. This would explain why people "wake up" to find the black screen in a lot of cases.

Reading these threads have left a lot of gray area for me on who is responsible for fixing this, but at least this particular issue is definitely a Tivo problem.

If anyone speaking with Tivo would like to pass this along (or give me a contact) I'd appreciate it.

[Bodie]

Cox came out and replaced my cards today...all fixed! I was told by the field supervisor that whenever they change the mapping frequencies at the head-end, they will most likely have to swap out the single-stream cable cards in order to correct the problem. However, when the m-cards become available in this area, the mapping issues shouldn't be a problem. Since we in RI are using the first gen single stream motorola cards, Cox has limited remote control over them. That's why they have to come to your house, swap out the cards and reset them back at their shop. With the new m-cards, they will have much more remote control/communication. He made it sound like the new m-cards will be available pretty soon. He also verified the Cox/TiVo partnership that will soon launch in RI/Conn. http://www.tvpredictions.com/tivo030508.htm He said that they will be using the m-cards in those boxes.


I just set up an appt for Sat morn... Hopefully they will let us know when M cards are available and will come and replace them at no cost since it gives them more control.

Anyone else notice that CineMax is available right now, or is this just a benefit of screwed up cards?

[emsman1]

Was told by COX it's a free preview weekend.

I don't understand the lack of communication in that company between the techs, contractors, and phone support people. The 3 different techs at my house and number of phone support people all had different stories.

I just set up an appt for Sat morn... Hopefully they will let us know when M cards are available and will come and replace them at no cost since it gives them more control.

Anyone else notice that CineMax is available right now, or is this just a benefit of screwed up cards?

[Pafrican]

Is anybody having issues with 705, 85 & 86. I'm getting 5 fine. But when I go to any of the others, it gives me black screen and the "searching for signal on: cable in. See messages&setting..."

All my other channels, HD and non-hd are coming in fine. Other channels near 85/86 are coming in. 706, 703. It's just those channels for whatever reason.

Well just checked the other cable card and all channels are coming in fine. So one my s-cards is not getting those three channels, for whatever reason. Reeboot didn't do anything.

[Kershek]

What's the best way to find out when there are free preview weekends for premium stations?

[jfranklin]

What's the best way to find out when there are free preview weekends for premium stations?

As simple as it may sound, just read your monthly statement. Down the right side of the page any information about changes in service, or previews of premium stations will show there.

[SoonerBuckley]

Is anybody having issues with 705, 85 & 86. I'm getting 5 fine. But when I go to any of the others, it gives me black screen and the "searching for signal on: cable in. See messages&setting..."

All my other channels, HD and non-hd are coming in fine. Other channels near 85/86 are coming in. 706, 703. It's just those channels for whatever reason.

Well just checked the other cable card and all channels are coming in fine. So one my s-cards is not getting those three channels, for whatever reason. Reeboot didn't do anything.

Are these newer HD Channels? I know that Cox is moving newer HD channels to switched digital video channels which the TiVo does currently not support. Check out the following link: http://tivosupport2.instancy.com/LaunchContent.aspx?CID=cbecf1b9-88de-4b74-82c1-754c3260112a

I know that a couple of my CC channels were not coming in when the tech left (yeah, I work for Cox and I still had to pay to have a tech come out), and took a little while to come in. From experience I can say you may have to give those channels some time.

[SoonerBuckley]

As simple as it may sound, just read your monthly statement. Down the right side of the page any information about changes in service, or previews of premium stations will show there.

That would be too easy.

[Bodie]

As simple as it may sound, just read your monthly statement. Down the right side of the page any information about changes in service, or previews of premium stations will show there.

No wonder I didn't know, since we have Easy Pay, the wife scans it for incorrect charges and then files it. I rarely see it...

[Zonie65]

Just adding myself to the Phoenix Cox market. Got the single M-Card to fix the audio synch issues on 2 SA S-cards. Channels started dropping about 3 weeks later. Today, all channels above 18 are out and rebooting doesn't work. Guess it's time for a truck roll.

[Zonie65]

Strange....

Called the CSR for a truck roll. He did a Unpair / Pair signal and it's all back. Question is..for how long. Thought that hitting it with that signal wouldn't work.

[BrianAZ]

Just adding myself to the Phoenix Cox market. Got the single M-Card to fix the audio synch issues on 2 SA S-cards. Channels started dropping about 3 weeks later. Today, all channels above 18 are out and rebooting doesn't work. Guess it's time for a truck roll.

Strange....

Called the CSR for a truck roll. He did a Unpair / Pair signal and it's all back. Question is..for how long. Thought that hitting it with that signal wouldn't work.

See my post (http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6093026#post6093026).

[jsisley]

OK. I just called Cox and this is what I found out: The change to switched digital could take place later on this year. At that point, new cablecards would be needed in order to still get all of the HD channels. You'd have to make sure that the new cablecards are compatible with the Tivo. :confused: There is no word as of yet as to what kind of cards would be used once the change to switched digital occurs. The cards get their signal because a cable is plugged into the back of the Tivo box. I was quoted $55.95 to install the two cards.

This worries me, because I don't want to spend the $$$ to get the Tivo only to find out that I will no longer be able to use it later on this year. :(

There is also no word on Cox offering the Tivo service for additional $$ on their DVR. Cox confirmed that the contract had been signed, but nothing has been said regarding doing this in the Omaha market. :mad:

Any thoughts?

[BrianAZ]

OK. I just called Cox and this is what I found out: The change to switched digital could take place later on this year. At that point, new cablecards would be needed in order to still get all of the HD channels. You'd have to make sure that the new cablecards are compatible with the Tivo. :confused: There is no word as of yet as to what kind of cards would be used once the change to switched digital occurs. The cards get their signal because a cable is plugged into the back of the Tivo box. I was quoted $55.95 to install the two cards. Any thoughts?


This is the first I've heard of new cablecards being required. I think you've spoken with an ignorant rep. My understanding is that either the Tivo needs to be able to communicate back with the Cable Co and the way this is going to be achieved is with a device which will plug into the Tivo via USB (search these forums for "Tuning Resolver").

[Bodie]

I just set up an appt for Sat morn... Hopefully they will let us know when M cards are available and will come and replace them at no cost since it gives them more control.

After initially showing up with no cards to do a 2-card swap, the tech came back and swapped out the two remaining cards and everything is working again (until they remap again).

[Kershek]

I don't mean to spread confusion, but I've read on these forums two different ways they were going to solve the SDV problem - one is a USB dongle and the other is an updated CableCARD that is two-way. From what I gathered, the dongle is the "quick fix" due this summer, while the CableCARD replacement isn't expected to be available until later.

[jsisley]

I don't mean to spread confusion, but I've read on these forums two different ways they were going to solve the SDV problem - one is a USB dongle and the other is an updated CableCARD that is two-way. From what I gathered, the dongle is the "quick fix" due this summer, while the CableCARD replacement isn't expected to be available until later.

Who would provide the USB dongle - is this something you could purchase from Tivo or would you have to rent it from the cable provider? They may not have even thought that far ahead yet...

[Kershek]

Pure speculation, but if it's required to access channels and it's a federal regulation to provide channel access, I would guess it's the cable provider's responsibility.

[jsisley]

Pure speculation, but if it's required to access channels and it's a federal regulation to provide channel access, I would guess it's the cable provider's responsibility.

I would also think that if Cox wanted to be nasty about it, they could say that they do not support non-Cox boxes once the changeover is made. Then we'd all be out. The tech did say something to me about new TV's that are coming out toward the end of this year and they would have to do something for that, but he didn't know what.

[ajwees41]

I don't mean to spread confusion, but I've read on these forums two different ways they were going to solve the SDV problem - one is a USB dongle and the other is an updated CableCARD that is two-way. From what I gathered, the dongle is the "quick fix" due this summer, while the CableCARD replacement isn't expected to be available until later.

The current card can do 2way it's the tivo that can't, so they are doing the tuning reslover. no new cards.

[HabuBugs]

Hi all!

I don't know if it has been discussed at length before, frankly, I don't have time to read through the 30+ pages of this thread, but this seems to be the appropriate place to share my experience, knowledge (and frustration) with all of you.

My setup: TiVo HD (installed on Christmas 2007) with latest firmware version, Scientific Atlanta (SA) Multi-stream card (aka. M-Card) with latest firmware version, Cox as cable provider.

My problem: About once every week or every other week all the digital channels (100+, incl. HD) on my TiVo black out. I can tune to them, but there's nothing on them. Ongoing and future recordings are obviously affected, but nothing else. This has been going on ever since I got my TiVo HD (3+ months and counting).

The solution: NONE at this time. Initially, TiVo has been pointing fingers at SA, SA has been pointing fingers at TiVo, Cox has been pointing fingers at both of them and I've been pointing my finger at all three of them (and guess which finger). Sometimes pulling out and pushing back the M-Card helps. Most of the time rebooting the TiVo helped. A few times that didn't help, either, but a call to Cox asking them to "hit" my card has resolved it, no reboot needed.

The bottom line: This is purely a software/firmware issue between TiVo and SA. One of the most helpful (!) Cox CSRs even read a memo to me that they got from SA acknowledging this fact and informing Cox that SA and TiVo are working on the problem. One very helpful CSR at TiVo also acknowledged this fact to me, went through a couple of CableCard diagnostic screens with me and then declared "Hmm, I never saw that before" and assured me the info she gathered will be relayed to TiVo software engineers who are actually aware of this issue and are working on a solution.

What to do: Wait and keep complaining to SA, TiVo and Cox so they can raise the priority of the issue. Cox in my area (Las Vegas/Henderson) told me that they received several complaints from the area, but all they can advise me is to wait for software upgrades. Swapping M-Cards, TiVo boxes, etc. doesn't fully resolve the problem, at best it delays it. Of course, that doesn't really help me, since the blackout can happen even in the middle of a recording...

Frankly, I am surprised that neither TiVo nor SA released an emergency software update to fix this HUGE problem which leads me to believe that either a) they don't care because not enough people are affected by it, or b) they have no solution, yet. As an embedded software engineer myself I can fully appreciate the complexity of the situation (issues with interoperability between devices made by two different companies; complex protocol to support encryption, QAM and who knows what else; new hardware and new software probably not well-tested, etc.), but as a customer I've been frustrated as hell.

Anyway, there you have it. It's out of my system and now I feel better...

I've owned my Tivo HD for about 3-4 weeks. I just started noticing this same problem a couple weeks ago. Seems to happen every 3-4 days. The Cox CSR I spoke with last said it seems to happen mostly with the Multistream cards. So, I'm considering asking Cox to replace the multistream card with two single stream cards. The part I'm not sure about is... will the single stream cards work with the SDV adapter once it is available? Also, does anyone have the memo (betewwn Cox and SA) that describes this problem?

[AZrob]

I've owned my Tivo HD for about 3-4 weeks. I just started noticing this same problem a couple weeks ago. Seems to happen every 3-4 days. The Cox CSR I spoke with last said it seems to happen mostly with the Multistream cards. So, I'm considering asking Cox to replace the multistream card with two single stream cards. The part I'm not sure about is... will the single stream cards work with the SDV adapter once it is available? Also, does anyone have the memo (betewwn Cox and SA) that describes this problem?

Here is the announcement from the Tivo website:

http://forums.tivo.com/pe/action/forums/displaypost?postID=10372477

[nick58b]

Adding my experience to the thread. Lost most of my channels again today, I'll be making my fourth call to Cox to get new cards. M-cards work for a few weeks and a few reboots, then most channels over 22 are gone, as with HD channels over 712.

I'm in the Santa Barbara, CA market. Problem started with a pair of single cards (only lost two channels), then I went through two m-cards. The only good thing about calling now is that since Cox is so familiar with the problem, it doesn't take them long to fix it.

[tagpats]

I had the same experience with the M Card, but have had good luck with the S Cards for a couple of weeks now. Not sure how long my luck with hold out, but figure it was worth the experiment. The Dongle for SDV should work regardless of which type of card you have.



I've owned my Tivo HD for about 3-4 weeks. I just started noticing this same problem a couple weeks ago. Seems to happen every 3-4 days. The Cox CSR I spoke with last said it seems to happen mostly with the Multistream cards. So, I'm considering asking Cox to replace the multistream card with two single stream cards. The part I'm not sure about is... will the single stream cards work with the SDV adapter once it is available? Also, does anyone have the memo (betewwn Cox and SA) that describes this problem?

[BrianAZ]

Adding my experience to the thread. Lost most of my channels again today, I'll be making my fourth call to Cox to get new cards. M-cards work for a few weeks and a few reboots, then most channels over 22 are gone, as with HD channels over 712.

I'm in the Santa Barbara, CA market. Problem started with a pair of single cards (only lost two channels), then I went through two m-cards. The only good thing about calling now is that since Cox is so familiar with the problem, it doesn't take them long to fix it.

I was in your position where reboot would not fix it and this (http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6093026#post6093026) did. I'm still having to reboot about once a week, but at least I'm not having to wait a couple days for a truck roll when they stop working.

[Pafrican]

So for the first time since I had them installed (probably a month ago or a little bit longer) I had channel dropout on one of my S-cards. The reboot fixed it. We'll see how quickly it repeats. But not bad considering having two cards (you would think twice the possibility of failure) I didn't have any dropout (besides the incorrect pairing issue from before) until now.

Hopefully things will run ok for a bit as I really hate having techs come out.

[hddude55]

Well, I got ten days of the latest cards before one lost its channels. I once again tried the channel restore "temporary fix" whereby you wait two minutes for the message telling you the card has failed and then it resets itself. However, even though the error messages disappear, the channels never seem to come back without a reboot. Does anyone have "idiot proof" instructions for the temporary fix since I must be doing something wrong?

BTW, I don't seem to be seeing as many posts from Phoenix-area customers. Does that mean you have stopped reporting your recurring problems with disappearing channels, or has the problem gone away? (The last I heard TiVo and SA were working on a fix but seemed to be stumped.) BTW I currently have two multi-stream cards in my series3 but have had the same problems using two single-stream cards. I know some people believe the problem is isolated to either single stream or multi-stream cards but my experience suggests the problem occurs with either type of card. The common denominator is the Scientific Atlanta brand name. I believe I have had the cards swapped out six times since the problem emerged in Fall 2007. :down:

[Kershek]

Last night was the first time I got the black channel problem on my TiVoHD. A reboot fixed it.

[rcobourn]

Well, I got ten days of the latest cards before one lost its channels. I once again tried the channel restore "temporary fix" whereby you wait two minutes for the message telling you the card has failed and then it resets itself. However, even though the error messages disappear, the channels never seem to come back without a reboot. Does anyone have "idiot proof" instructions for the temporary fix since I must be doing something wrong?

BTW, I don't seem to be seeing as many posts from Phoenix-area customers. Does that mean you have stopped reporting your recurring problems with disappearing channels, or has the problem gone away? (The last I heard TiVo and SA were working on a fix but seemed to be stumped.) BTW I currently have two multi-stream cards in my series3 but have had the same problems using two single-stream cards. I know some people believe the problem is isolated to either single stream or multi-stream cards but my experience suggests the problem occurs with either type of card. The common denominator is the Scientific Atlanta brand name. I believe I have had the cards swapped out six times since the problem emerged in Fall 2007. :down:

After at least a week of no problems since I last had Cox do a hit on my cards, I lost card 2 again last night. Interestingly, it's the first time I sort of "saw" it happen. Watching a recording of the Phoenix Suns game (3.5 hours total) the picture pixelated and dropped out at the 2:31 mark, with nothing recorded after that. Fortunately (or not) the Suns were already blown out at that point, so I wasn't too upset about losing the rest of the recording. I was wondering why the green recording progress bar ended at 2:31 despite the fact that the 3.5 hours was well past. A reboot got the channels back.

[craigo]

BTW, I don't seem to be seeing as many posts from Phoenix-area customers. Does that mean you have stopped reporting your recurring problems with disappearing channels, or has the problem gone away?

Problem still exists on my S3 here in Phoenix. Both Scards and Mcards have their issues....Cox guy is here right now since the channels wouldn't come back after a reboot. I'm going back to the Scards to see if the FF of the audio/video on SD channels have been fixed.

[nick58b]

I was in your position where reboot would not fix it and this (http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6093026#post6093026) did. I'm still having to reboot about once a week, but at least I'm not having to wait a couple days for a truck roll when they stop working.

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately, the Cox rep I talked to sent the hits and rebalanced the account, but my channels are still gone, even after a reboot.

To top it off, he claims Cox has stopped sending out new cablecards for this problem, and that I have to wait for Tivo to fix the issue.

[jebbbz]

...
BTW, I don't seem to be seeing as many posts from Phoenix-area customers. Does that mean you have stopped reporting your recurring problems with disappearing channels, or has the problem gone away? ... I believe I have had the cards swapped out six times since the problem emerged in Fall 2007. :down:

I got my TivoHD in late January, cablecard a few days later. My loss-of-channels developed about two weeks later and by about February 22 reboots weren't working. I got a new MCard installed on February 25 and had one loss-of-channels about a week to ten days later, which the menu trick fixed. No problems since then. Just waiting on a firmware fix.

The cable guy left me a 50' length of RG6 to replace some RG59 in my attic and after the early March channel problem I got around to replacing the old RG59. I also upgraded the last of my splitters and removed an old RS signal amplifier I had installed years ago. Other than that everything is the same hardware-wise. Maybe a cleaner signal will help delay onset of the problem.

Of course, now that I have posted about being problem-free for three weeks I expect the channels to disappear today, probably even as I post...

[Shawn95GT]

Phoenix here - the problems are few and far between on my S3 with two s-cards. My 2nd S3 and TivoHD don't have cablecards.

[hddude55]

Thanks for the tip, unfortunately, the Cox rep I talked to sent the hits and rebalanced the account, but my channels are still gone, even after a reboot.

To top it off, he claims Cox has stopped sending out new cablecards for this problem, and that I have to wait for Tivo to fix the issue. I see you live in Santa Barbara. I can't imagine that Cox has stopped sending cards especially since there are so many different repairmen to get the directive.

P.S. I used to live in Santa Barbara and miss the town but not the cost of housing. I have a much older cousin who owns a home on Birnam Wood Golf Club in Montecito. I'm thinking I need to get in his will.

[jkovach]

I'm in the Phoenix area - have had the HD TiVo for 2 months now, and each month on the anniversary of my install, I lose my premium and tier channels. When this happens, I've noted that the Sub Exp Time on the 2nd page of the CA Screen has elapsed. Each time, I've called Cox and they've sent hits to the Cablecard. Tonight it didn't work, so I rebooted and they sent another set of hits. That worked, and now the Sub Exp Time is on Apr 27th, so I'm good for another month...

Anyways, it appears to me as though something on Cox's end is not automatically sending the required signals each month to update the Sub Exp Time on the cablecards.

Jeff

[h00ligan]

Something interesting (to me at least) is that most people here talk about losing premium or HD channels. I lose sci-fi, comedy central, other analog channels.

The techs have been here 3 times to balance the signal issues - the signal is 'perfect' now - and i am on my 3rd set of M cards in 2 tivo hds.

It's dishearteneing as I just spoke with TiVo and they basically told me i could cancel my contract, they aren't particularly far into resolving this issue.

[ajwees41]

Something interesting (to me at least) is that most people here talk about losing premium or HD channels. I lose sci-fi, comedy central, other analog channels.

The techs have been here 3 times to balance the signal issues - the signal is 'perfect' now - and i am on my 3rd set of M cards in 2 tivo hds.

It's dishearteneing as I just spoke with TiVo and they basically told me i could cancel my contract, they aren't particularly far into resolving this issue.

what area are you in? Cox is brodcasting analog in digital in certain parts of there service area. It might a problem with your tivo.

[hddude55]

I spoke to a TiVo CSR today who claimed he mostly works on series3 and Tivo HD cable card issues. As of today the issue is being worked on, but there is no projected timeline for a fix. Bummer.

As for the Beta 9.3 release that someone in this forum said he was testing, this CSR stated emphatically that the 9.3 Beta release being tested does not address the missing channels bug. They are having a tough time fixing what seems to be a problem only encountered by some users in selected markets. He said the Phoenix area seems to be especially hard hit by the bug, which he believes can be traced to a software update that SA sent to all cards at the end of Oct 2007. That date does seem to be the time period when my series3 problems began.

I also asked him about comments posted by a TiVo employee in the TiVo.com website's tech forum to the effect that only multi-stream cards were affected. He said that is wrong and that the eventual software fix will be applied to both types of cards. That sounds good since I have had card failures with both single and multi-stream cards.

All in all, I found the discussion to be discouraging. It has been at least four or five months since the problem became widely reported and it doesn't sound like a remedy is even close.

P.S. He did mention that if we lose channels we should have Cox verify that our cards are set to our specific area codes. For example, he said if the card is programmed for Scottsdale and one lives in Phoenix, the card can lose channels over time. I realize that sounds a bit lame -- and he didn't suggest that's the reason for all of these lost channel problems -- but I do intend to check with Cox, just on the off chance it is an issue causing my current card in slot 1 to lose channels every couple days.

[jhershauer]

He said the Phoenix area seems to be especially hard hit by the bug, which he believes can be traced to a software update that SA sent to all cards at the end of Oct 2007. That date does seem to be the time period when my series3 problems began.


That fits our scenario as well. Everything was fine on both of our Tivo HDs, then the firmware was updated on the card for one of our boxes around October and that box started having the disappearing channels problem. Our other Tivo HD never had a problem until about a month ago when we had a power outage and the firmware was updated on the cablecard when it booted back up. Now it does the magic disappearing channel trick as well. I should have written down the firmware version on it when it was working properly. With all of the problems, it seems strange that SA can't just "roll back" the firmware update that seems to be the source of the issue.

[tagpats]

I've had good luck with my 2 S Cards for almost 3 weeks. That is the longest time I've gone without a loss of channels with either an M or an S Card.

Having said that, in light of the continuing problems getting a permanent solution to the problem, I'll be taking Tivo up on their offer to cancel my service if it happens again. As lousy as the Cox DVR is, it works and it gives me all of my channels, all of the time, including SDV channels that I can't get now.

The dongle was supposed to be available in the second quarter of this year and I haven't heard any indications that it will be hitting the shelves any time soon so there will be even more channels released this year that I won't be able to get.


I spoke to a TiVo CSR today who claimed he mostly works on series3 and Tivo HD cable card issues. As of today the issue is being worked on, but there is no projected timeline for a fix. Bummer.

As for the Beta 9.3 release that someone in this forum said he was testing, this CSR stated emphatically that the 9.3 Beta release being tested does not address the missing channels bug. They are having a tough time fixing what seems to be a problem only encountered by some users in selected markets. He said the Phoenix area seems to be especially hard hit by the bug, which he believes can be traced to a software update that SA sent to all cards at the end of Oct 2007. That date does seem to be the time period when my series3 problems began.

I also asked him about comments posted by a TiVo employee in the TiVo.com website's tech forum to the effect that only multi-stream cards were affected. He said that is wrong and that the eventual software fix will be applied to both types of cards. That sounds good since I have had card failures with both single and multi-stream cards.

All in all, I found the discussion to be discouraging. It has been at least four or five months since the problem became widely reported and it doesn't sound like a remedy is even close.

P.S. He did mention that if we lose channels we should have Cox verify that our cards are set to our specific area codes. For example, he said if the card is programmed for Scottsdale and one lives in Phoenix, the card can lose channels over time. I realize that sounds a bit lame -- and he didn't suggest that's the reason for all of these lost channel problems -- but I do intend to check with Cox, just on the off chance it is an issue causing my current card in slot 1 to lose channels every couple days.

[wierdo]

Can someone in Tulsa check to see if they are also receiving the HD channels which had heretofore been unavailable to (most) CableCARD users? I started getting them sometime between yesterday morning and a few minutes ago.

[ToyD]

Can someone in Tulsa check to see if they are also receiving the HD channels which had heretofore been unavailable to (most) CableCARD users? I started getting them sometime between yesterday morning and a few minutes ago.

I live in the OKC area and can now also get the HD channels I could not before. I specifically checked HGTV HD and FOOD HD and I can't remember the 3rd at the moment. I dunno what changed, but yay.

[wierdo]

I live in the OKC area and can now also get the HD channels I could not before. I specifically checked HGTV HD and FOOD HD and I can't remember the 3rd at the moment. I dunno what changed, but yay.
Excellent. If they're also working in OKC (a separate system) it must not be a fluke.

[rtmcmjr]

My question as a consumer is why do we have to put up with this? We paid good money to Cox and Tivo both. It's bull, I really don't see this as Cox Issue anymore. I did at first, but with all my Tivo "Gray Screens", reboots and such. The problem is Tivo hardware talking to the Cable cards. Tivo has made a faulty box with this HD Box, it's that simple. They have rushed it out the door. I'd be perfectly happy with single thread coax connection recording Hi Def. I've wasted to much time on this and I'm rather upset. I really feel stroked by Tivo and that they don't care. No wonder the company is suffering so much financially anymore.

I hate to see it because their DVR software is brilliant, but I can't waste my time any longer debugging their project.

Read this http://www.silverknight.com/TiVo_HD_Owners_Consider_Class.htm

====== here is my post from another thread here ..
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=389837

I have Cox in Phoenix with a Scientific Atlanta Multi-Stream card and I'm telling you this has been the worst decision ever.

I am giving Tivo one more chance to help me on Monday 07-Apr-08 and if they cannot help me I'm done with my HD Tivo. Then the I'm sure a fight will ensue over how I get my money back from Tivo. It has not been right since receiving it in January.

Background:
I have been a Tivo customer since the very early days of Tivo and have multiple boxes of almost every model. I love my Tivo.

This past January I upgrade my main family room to HDTV with Bose Surround sound and all the bells and whistles. I spoke to the people at Tivo and purchased a brand new Tivo HD DVR. Long story short it has been a complete disaster!

I have had Cox at my house 3 times now switching out Scientific Atlanta cards. It's dead again tonight. I have a multi-stream card and it's got all the right codes showing authorization of the card. The cable company can talk to the card, but I get nothing but free TV. All the encrypted channels have quit working. Cox blames Tivo, Tivo blames Cox ... nobody wants to really fix the problem.

After all the hours of research I've done (and I'm a super techie that loves this stuff) I don't believe it is Cox. I believe Tivo has a faulty product and it's not up to snuff. All anyone can do is point fingers at the other company.

But the bottom line is that for me the consumer I cannot trust my Tivo to record anything. We were all set to record the Martin Luther King special tonight and now we cannot record it or watch it on the main TV because the Tivo box is just giving me "gray" screen on the all the encrypted channels. I might as well forget about recording anything while gone on vacation, my HD Tivo cannot make it through a week without problems requiring a reboot. It's bull and I feel totally ripped off as the consumer.

Like I said, because I love the Tivo software I am giving them 1 more chance tomorrow and that's it, then I'll be forced to deal with the Cox HD DVR. Basically I have no choice, it sucks but that is the reality here in Ahwatukee (i.e. Cox cable in Phoenix).

[aztivo]

well I have been watching my S3 for about 45 min. now and have had no pixelation (2 SA Single stream cards) So I check system settings and I am running 9.3.Y3-01-2-648. I am still running 9.2 on my THD and just yesterday had to do a reboot twice.. Could this be a fix?

[tagpats]

i don't know who is in the wrong, but i've made the same decision. if my channels drop out again, i'm dumping my hd tivo and living with the junkie cox dvr. not much choice. worst case scenario, i walk away and still have to pay for 8 months of tivo service, but i suspect they'll help me out since i have a series 2 tivo in the bedroom. that better keep working or my wife will leave me. shouldn't be this hard.



My question as a consumer is why do we have to put up with this? We paid good money to Cox and Tivo both. It's bull, I really don't see this as Cox Issue anymore. I did at first, but with all my Tivo "Gray Screens", reboots and such. The problem is Tivo hardware talking to the Cable cards. Tivo has made a faulty box with this HD Box, it's that simple. They have rushed it out the door. I'd be perfectly happy with single thread coax connection recording Hi Def. I've wasted to much time on this and I'm rather upset. I really feel stroked by Tivo and that they don't care. No wonder the company is suffering so much financially anymore.

I hate to see it because their DVR software is brilliant, but I can't waste my time any longer debugging their project.

Read this http://www.silverknight.com/TiVo_HD_Owners_Consider_Class.htm

====== here is my post from another thread here ..
http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=389837

I have Cox in Phoenix with a Scientific Atlanta Multi-Stream card and I'm telling you this has been the worst decision ever.

I am giving Tivo one more chance to help me on Monday 07-Apr-08 and if they cannot help me I'm done with my HD Tivo. Then the I'm sure a fight will ensue over how I get my money back from Tivo. It has not been right since receiving it in January.

Background:
I have been a Tivo customer since the very early days of Tivo and have multiple boxes of almost every model. I love my Tivo.

This past January I upgrade my main family room to HDTV with Bose Surround sound and all the bells and whistles. I spoke to the people at Tivo and purchased a brand new Tivo HD DVR. Long story short it has been a complete disaster!

I have had Cox at my house 3 times now switching out Scientific Atlanta cards. It's dead again tonight. I have a multi-stream card and it's got all the right codes showing authorization of the card. The cable company can talk to the card, but I get nothing but free TV. All the encrypted channels have quit working. Cox blames Tivo, Tivo blames Cox ... nobody wants to really fix the problem.

After all the hours of research I've done (and I'm a super techie that loves this stuff) I don't believe it is Cox. I believe Tivo has a faulty product and it's not up to snuff. All anyone can do is point fingers at the other company.

But the bottom line is that for me the consumer I cannot trust my Tivo to record anything. We were all set to record the Martin Luther King special tonight and now we cannot record it or watch it on the main TV because the Tivo box is just giving me "gray" screen on the all the encrypted channels. I might as well forget about recording anything while gone on vacation, my HD Tivo cannot make it through a week without problems requiring a reboot. It's bull and I feel totally ripped off as the consumer.

Like I said, because I love the Tivo software I am giving them 1 more chance tomorrow and that's it, then I'll be forced to deal with the Cox HD DVR. Basically I have no choice, it sucks but that is the reality here in Ahwatukee (i.e. Cox cable in Phoenix).

[DrDatabase]

I just noticed today that I'm receiving about 6 new HD channels on my Tivo HD. They've been on the program guide for months but today they actually work. :)

History channel, CNN, NFLHD, Food, Discovery and Golf.

Anybody else in OC notice the change?

[Breadfan]

I just noticed today that I'm receiving about 6 new HD channels on my Tivo HD. They've been on the program guide for months but today they actually work. :)

History channel, CNN, NFLHD, Food, Discovery and Golf.

Anybody else in OC notice the change?

They added those channels here in Arkansas about 1.5 months ago but cable card subscribers don't get them. I contacted them about it and they said they would discuss it at the next meeting but they had no plans at this time to change anything.

[moyekj]

I just noticed today that I'm receiving about 6 new HD channels on my Tivo HD. They've been on the program guide for months but today they actually work. :)

History channel, CNN, NFLHD, Food, Discovery and Golf.

Anybody else in OC notice the change? Wow, you're right! Actually there are 8 channels that were previously not available to CableCard customers that all of a sudden now do work:
CNNHD, DSCHD, GOLFVS, NFLHD, TLCHD, FOODHP, HGTVD, HSTRYHD.
Perhaps in light of the BrightHouse Networks fiasco Cox OC changed their policy on blocking out CableCard customers in preparation for SDV.

[Breadfan]

:(

I found out that Cox in Tulsa and Oklahoma city has done the same thing and added the new channels for cable card customers but not here in Fort Smith, AR.

Did you guys have to rescan for channels or did they just start working?

[moyekj]

:(

I found out that Cox in Tulsa and Oklahoma city has done the same thing and added the new channels for cable card customers but not here in Fort Smith, AR.

Did you guys have to rescan for channels or did they just start working? No rescan, they just started working. The CableCard channel map must have been updated. Before when I would tune to those channels and check diagnostics page the associated CableCard would report an error and there was no frequency or any other data for that CableCard. Now the frequency and all the other usual data is there.

[jcaudle]

The HD is a POS...its been months now, and Tivo can't seem to fix the channel loss problem. I had to return my S3 after a year because it wanted to randomly reboot, but that fixed the problems. (I kept my SA single stream cards).

The HD I have had since late Sept 2007 and its been an unreliable POS. Tivo should have worked out the issues with Cox, and Scientific Atlanta by now. When my prepaid is done in Dec I am junking the HD box and going to a cable DVR. Bad though it is in many ways, it at least records what you tell it to. And channels are available.

[weeds]

This is a post from a Hampton Roads Cox Rep., Norfolk, Va. Cox, AVS forums.On Thursday morning, April 10, the CableCARD Channel Lineup will change to include channels launched since November 15.

In the future, as SDV is implemented, some channels will likely be removed from the CableCARD lineup such as select digital channels with low viewership. Digital simulcast channels will be replaced with an analog version.

[hddude55]

My question as a consumer is why do we have to put up with this? We paid good money to Cox and Tivo both. It's bull, I really don't see this as Cox Issue anymore. I did at first, but with all my Tivo "Gray Screens", reboots and such. The problem is Tivo hardware talking to the Cable cards. .... About a week ago I called TiVo just to see what was known about a fix for the disappearing channels issue. (I believe I am on my sixth set of cable cards in five months for my series3, so obviously I have been communicating a lot with Cox-Phoenix...and the current cablecard1 is already losing channels almost every other day requiring reboots.) I was told by the TiVo CSR last week to leave my cell phone number so he could have someone call me back with a status report. A week later and they haven't bothered to call back, as if they know anything anyway.

TiVo HD is a frickin joke and should be the final nail in the coffin of this arrogant company. They are a lot like Apple in terms of devoted fans and corporate arrogance, but Apple never produced a product that was crap like these HD TiVos.

[jfranklin]

This is a post from a Hampton Roads Cox Rep., Norfolk, Va. Cox, AVS forums. "On Thursday morning, April 10, the CableCARD Channel Lineup will change to include channels launched since November 15.

In the future, as SDV is implemented, some channels will likely be removed from the CableCARD lineup such as select digital channels with low viewership. Digital simulcast channels will be replaced with an analog version."

I just checked my internal email and can verify that information was sent to technical support. It would explain some of the people in OKC and Tulsa seeing the channels last week. Seems the change over date is a due date and changes should be done by that date if not sooner.

I've been requesting this internally ever since the original decision was made to not deliver these channels to customers with CableCARDs. I suppose enough people made their voices heard to change the policy.

[Testpattern]

I just checked my internal email and can verify that information was sent to technical support. It would explain some of the people in OKC and Tulsa seeing the channels last week. Seems the change over date is a due date and changes should be done by that date if not sooner.

Are the channels made available to the OKC area listed somewhere? I'd like to perform a sanity check just to see where we're currently at with respect to channels received.

Thanks,

[yroca]

Guys - I finally called TiVo technical support about the constant every 2-3 days dropping of channels and having to reboot, or call Cox. The CSR acknowledged that it is an Scientific Atlanta problem, and "escalated" my ticket. I was sort of waiting around figuring everyone else was calling in, but I think that was the problem. While TiVo is aware of it, I don't think they understand the vast number of people this issue is affecting.

The CSR said the best way to get this issue escalated is for more people to call in, so I encourage you call in just to report the issue. We need to flood the call center in order to get some attention on this issue. I was on hold for 2 minutes and my call lasted less than 5 minutes. Please guys, call in to get your issue logged in their system.

Here is the contact information below:
TiVo-Manufactured DVR Technical Support
Phone number: 877-367-8486
Hours of operation:
Monday - Sunday
7:00 AM - 8:00 PM Pacific

[jfranklin]

Are the channels made available to the OKC area listed somewhere? I'd like to perform a sanity check just to see where we're currently at with respect to channels received.

Thanks,

http://www.cox.com/oklahoma/digitalcable/okc2.asp#hdtv

That should be marked with the more recent channels as 'NEW'. At least that's how it showed up for me.

Are you guys back in one peice after the ice storms? My call center took calls for your area durring that, sounded like a total mess.

[wierdo]

I just checked my internal email and can verify that information was sent to technical support. It would explain some of the people in OKC and Tulsa seeing the channels last week. Seems the change over date is a due date and changes should be done by that date if not sooner.

I've been requesting this internally ever since the original decision was made to not deliver these channels to customers with CableCARDs. I suppose enough people made their voices heard to change the policy.
Excellent. Thanks for putting a good word in for us. Hopefully the SDV dongle won't end up being vaporware, so we can put the unpleasantness related to SDV behind us. :)

Even if it does take longer than expected to appear and Cox gets around to widely deploying SDV, I'm much happier getting the channels while I can and losing them when it's a technical requirement, rather than being shafted for months in advance by some administrative decision.

[Testpattern]

http://www.cox.com/oklahoma/digitalcable/okc2.asp#hdtv

That should be marked with the more recent channels as 'NEW'. At least that's how it showed up for me.

Are you guys back in one peice after the ice storms? My call center took calls for your area durring that, sounded like a total mess.

Thanks for the feedback.

Ice storm fallout still presents problems around here. I'm currently waiting to have more trees removed as a result of the damage. Not seen one like this before... maybe global warming will keep these from happening down the road... :)

Thanks again...

[24k Kate]

Well...As of 9am April 10th, the missing Cox HD channels (Discovery, TLC, HGTV, Food, Animal and a bunch of others) here in Norfolk, VA have reappeared. I wonder if they will still be there tonight....

[jfranklin]

Thanks for the feedback.

Ice storm fallout still presents problems around here. I'm currently waiting to have more trees removed as a result of the damage. Not seen one like this before... maybe global warming will keep these from happening down the road... :)

Thanks again...

Something good should come from global warming. I know my summer time electric bill isn't liking it too much. With all the weird weather around lately I'm worried about this years hurricane season here. My area good off without much of an issue when Isabel came through in 2003, and we're over due for a rough one.



Even if it does take longer than expected to appear and Cox gets around to widely deploying SDV, I'm much happier getting the channels while I can and losing them when it's a technical requirement, rather than being shafted for months in advance by some administrative decision.

That's what I kept telling the supervisors and anyone else that would listen.

[ScottEllsworth]

In OC, many of the missing channels showed up during the nine hours my new TiVo was functioning. Pretty darn cool - HistHD!

From what the cable guy was saying, it looks like they were actually supposed to light up on the 15th.

Scott

[miadlor]

Cox officially added those chans and at this point "now" going to update cable cards with future HD channels when they are available.

[Breadfan]

Cox still hasn't added them in Fort Smith, Arkansas.

[moyekj]

Cox officially added those chans and at this point "now" going to update cable cards with future HD channels when they are available. Until SDV deploys in your area and they start taking some away...

[Rolow]

I'm in the Phoenix area - have had the HD TiVo for 2 months now, and each month on the anniversary of my install, I lose my premium and tier channels. When this happens, I've noted that the Sub Exp Time on the 2nd page of the CA Screen has elapsed. Each time, I've called Cox and they've sent hits to the Cablecard. Tonight it didn't work, so I rebooted and they sent another set of hits. That worked, and now the Sub Exp Time is on Apr 27th, so I'm good for another month...

Anyways, it appears to me as though something on Cox's end is not automatically sending the required signals each month to update the Sub Exp Time on the cablecards.

Jeff
So after this post I took note of my SUB Expire Time April 13th. Sure enought I got up this morning and the fix would not work. So I did a hard reboot and called cox to have them send a hit and all my channels came back immediately.
I had to do the same thing last month but never noticed the sub expire time in the menu before. So at least now I know when I going to have to call cox my ne SUB Expire Time is May 13th. I have not had to have my CC replace since December 29th I can live with the calls to cox csr but having to set aside 4 hours for a truck roll is ridicules.

[lofar]

I have been considering buying a Tivo HD for quite a while now and ditching the cox DVR's that I have now but reading some of this thread has me worried a little bit. Are these problems related to only the Tivo Series 3 or are they also on the series 2 HD models?

I'd also like to add a comment on the whole Cox DVR thing, since I've had two for about two years now. Many have said they want to ditch their tivo and go cox dvr, well let me tell you it may not be a better decision. I have gone through about six or more Cox, Scientific Atlanta DVR's. They all have the same problems. They will periodically erase all scheduled recordings for no reason. HD recordings very often play back with choppy/broken sound to the point where it's not even watchable. Other times, erased recordings will come back from the dead and play in place of another recording that you recently recorded. It will also randomly split up your recordings, usually I end up having recordings that are about 55 minutes long and then a second recording that is 5 minutes long with the rest of the show. So while with the Cox DVR you may get all your channels good luck getting it to reliably record and play back anything. Cox gives me the same run-around bull they give you having me switch out the cable boxes every time and then blaming the problem on my inside wiring, I wouldn't be surprised if they started blaming it on sunspots.

I think all the Tivo problems, and all the Cox DVR problems lie in the piece of crap Scientific Atlanta junk equipment they keep using. Cox needs to dump Scientific Atlanta.

Anyways, so I'm on the edge here wondering if I should purchase two tivo HD or just stick with my crappy cox equipment. Sounds like neither one of them is a good choice.

[ajwees41]

lofar good luck finding a Series 2HD there are Series 3 or Tivo HD.

[lofar]

Sorry that's what I meant.. the Tivo HD.. I was under the impression that the Tivo HD is really just a series 2 with HD added. Trying to sort out my confusion between Tivo HD and the series 3 which has HD as well.

[Shawn95GT]

FWIW, My Series 3 with two S cards has been relatively flawless since the install. I've had my S3 that has cablecards runing pretty much since Tivo brought the S3 to market. I've had to restart due to a cablecard acting up 3-4 times ever.

It seems that the Tivo HDs have the bulk of the problems.

[SDRR]

My Tivo HD with a SA M-card is having similar issues. (I'm with Cox in San Diego)

I've been losing all channels BUT the local HD channels every couple of days and I had to reboot to get them back.

But I just got update 9.3a, and now even a reboot won't get them back. I don't get the usual "Acquiring Channel Lineup" screen.

I'm going to ask Cox to reset them...

Anyone have this sort of problem with 9.3a?

[hddude55]

My Tivo HD with a SA M-card is having similar issues. (I'm with Cox in San Diego)

I've been losing all channels BUT the local HD channels every couple of days and I had to reboot to get them back.

But I just got update 9.3a, and now even a reboot won't get them back. I don't get the usual "Acquiring Channel Lineup" screen.

I'm going to ask Cox to reset them...

Anyone have this sort of problem with 9.3a? Oh man, this is sick! I had the same experience today and I too received 9.3 witihin the last day. It was bad enough having to reboot every couple days to get my channels back, but now for the first time a reboot won't work. Maybe there is something about the 9.3 "upgrade" that means we will now have to have Cox roll a truck every time we lose channels. Swell.

It's about time to put this series3 piece of crap on Ebay, and I don't care if it's SA's fault or Cox's fault or TiVo's fault. This problem should have been researched and solved months ago.

[craigo]

Oh man, this is sick! I had the same experience today and I too received 9.3 witihin the last day. It was bad enough having to reboot every couple days to get my channels back, but now for the first time a reboot won't work. Maybe there is something about the 9.3 "upgrade" that means we will now have to have Cox roll a truck every time we lose channels. Swell.

It's about time to put this series3 piece of crap on Ebay, and I don't care if it's SA's fault or Cox's fault or TiVo's fault. This problem should have been researched and solved months ago.

I finally had enough of the dropped channels issues and went back to the S-cards for my S3. So far, I've only seen 2 SD channels that I watch every once in a while, FF every couple of minutes. It's really not a big deal since most of my viewing is on HD channels. No more dropped channels. I am almost, once again, a happy Tivo owner. :D

[hddude55]

I finally had enough of the dropped channels issues and went back to the S-cards for my S3. So far, I've only seen 2 SD channels that I watch every once in a while, FF every couple of minutes. It's really not a big deal since most of my viewing is on HD channels. No more dropped channels. I am almost, once again, a happy Tivo owner. :D
Do you even have 9.3? Until you have 9.3 for a few weeks I wouldn't feel too safe. It appears something about 9.3 has taken a bad problem and made it into an unbearable one, unless you think rolling a Cox truck every week is realistic. I shouldn't be surprised that this has happened. 9.3 was rolled out before the missing channels problem was even fully understood, much less resolved.

[craigo]

Do you even have 9.3? Until you have 9.3 for a few weeks I wouldn't feel too safe. It appears something about 9.3 has taken a bad problem and made it into an unbearable one, unless you think rolling a Cox truck every week is realistic. I shouldn't be surprised that this has happened. 9.3 was rolled out before the missing channels problem was even fully understood, much less resolved.

Yes, I have 9.3. I've never experienced dropped channels with the Scards. The only issue I've had with them is the FF every couple of minutes on certain SD channels. I switched over to the Mcard and the FF problems went away, but of course, the dropped channels started happening. After a few months, I just got sick and tired of rebooting or having Cox come out. Now, back with the Scards and it really isn't that bad. No dropped channels and only a few SD channels FF/Skip. Still not ideal, but I'll take it for now.

YMMV

[hddude55]

Yes, I have 9.3. I've never experienced dropped channels with the Scards. The only issue I've had with them is the FF every couple of minutes on certain SD channels. I switched over to the Mcard and the FF problems went away, but of course, the dropped channels started happening. After a few months, I just got sick and tired of rebooting or having Cox come out. Now, back with the Scards and it really isn't that bad. No dropped channels and only a few SD channels FF/Skip. Still not ideal, but I'll take it for now.

YMMV OK I'll try to have the cablecard1 replaced today with an Scard, assuming the tech has one on the truck -- and that's a huge assumption. However, I have had Scards and Mcards and had the problem has occurred before with either combination, but maybe the latest Scards have newer programming. Its worth a try anyway. Thanks.

[terrab]

I'm new to this thread but I am done with Tivo not resolving their issues but still having no problem charging me every month. I have a series 3 with a M-stream card and I am in the Phoenix area. Tivo is worthless. I have to reboot at least once a day. I have tried the single stream cards and they just cause everything to be audio/video desynched. The M-stream card at least gets me content but only for a limited time. Cox blames Tivo and Tivo blames Cox. According to Tivo they "may" be putting out a dongle of some sort to resovle the issue, but i think that is a lot of crap.

I don't see Tivo fixing this issue any time soon and I will be switching over to Cox DVR instead. I really think that we need to get a class action suit going against tivo. They sell a product that does not perform as advertised and do nothing to resolve it. I am several months in to trying to resolve this and there is no fix in sight.

[Shawn95GT]

Well... it's hard to chase down a problem that isn't 100% repeatable in a lab.

I have the same S3 with 2 SA s-cards working great.

This really makes it look like a Cox config problem to me. I'm on the same system, same hardware, and mine works.

When I was installed the installers bailed saying the channels will come in time as the cards update... and they did. Then they crapped out. I put in a trouble ticket and 'magically' it fixed itself over night. I'm convinced they did something on the back end to fix it. I canceled the truck roll and it's been fine since.

I have a friend at work going though the same loss of channels / grey screen problems with cable cards in his TV.

Common denominator? Cox. Think abut it - they have nothing to lose and everything to gain if we give up on cable cards.

[JayBird]

I had cable cards installed in my TiVo HD and my TV on Saturday.

See this post (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=6205663#post6205663) for details of the experience.

[dtplink]

Just went through a surprise firmware upgrade. I have a multistream card (Cox, San Diego) and don't see any change to my service and have not received any notification about what changed. Anyone have any clues?

Since the upgrade to TiVo 9.3a I have had strange behavior with recorded programs being difficult to start. I have had to restart the recorder to get normal operation back. It may be coincidence that it happened that it started right after the 9.3 upgrade.

[menos]

http://www.cox.com/Oklahoma/hdtv/hdchannels.asp

6 more HD channels in the OKC and Tulsa markets launching on May 20th.

Wooohooo for Sci-Fi HD!!!!!!

[5cats]

I have had to restart the recorder to get normal operation back. It may be coincidence that it happened that it started right after the 9.3 upgrade.Yeah, that's no coincidence. Hopefully TiVo will release yet-another-update to help us out.
-jd.

[Rolow]

Since the upgrade to TiVo 9.3a I have had strange behavior with recorded programs being difficult to start. I have had to restart the recorder to get normal operation back. It may be coincidence that it happened that it started right after the 9.3 upgrade.
Does it start to play? I mean theres a picture then it freezes with no sound? I'm having the same problem and I thought it was a bad hard drive.

[dtplink]

I find that the playback is quirky. It starts to play back for a second and then stops. Switch to a different show and the same thing happens. Switch to live TV and the same thing happens. Reboot and everything is normal. Of course I still have a "black background" problem when I switch from listening to music served from my PC and want to watch a recording or live TV. Again, I have to reboot to get back to normal. I had begun to suspect that the problem was because of changing from one mode (AV2) when using the X-Box to TiVo (HDMI1) might have caused the problem. Haven't pinned it down yet.

[TobyG]

Cox in the Baton Rouge area has also let the new HD channels through on the cable cards. Awesome to finally get DiscoveryHD.

[barrettd]

http://www.cox.com/Oklahoma/hdtv/hdchannels.asp

6 more HD channels in the OKC and Tulsa markets launching on May 20th.

Wooohooo for Sci-Fi HD!!!!!!

Hopefully they won't delay these being released to our cablecards like the fiasco with the last round of HD channels.

Also, I'd much rather have F/X HD than any news/weather channels. Glad to see Bravo, though.

[thezonie]

So my Series 3 that I'd bought the week they came out went belly-up last week. TiVo has been great, over-nighting me a replacement system (yeah, it was a refurb, and yeah, the front had a nice dent in it) so now the only issue is that I need to get my 2 Cox (Phoenix) CableCARDs paired with my new box.

So I put the first card in the first slot of the new unit (just like the tech did over a year and a half ago), got to the screen with the two IDs, and called Cox up, hoping to get someone who would understand my situation and help me with what I needed. (Riiight.) :rolleyes:

I explained my situation (that I had received a new TiVo to replace my old one and that I had put the new cards in the old box and just needed the new box to be paired with the cards) but the CSR insisted that it would require a tech to come out and "install" the cards in my TiVo, and that it would cost me $68. :mad:

I basically explained that I understood what was involved in "installing" the cards, and all I needed was to give them the IDs of the card and box so that they could be paired and I could get all my channels back. The CSR didn't seem to fully understand the situation and insisted that I needed to schedule a tech to come out. I told her that I didn't want to pay $68 for a guy to come to my house, look at my TV, make a phone call, and read the numbers on the screen to someone to complete the "installation", and could I talk to a manager.

A manager wasn't available at the time, so I asked that they call me back. Well, when they did I wasn't home (it was way more than the 2 hours that the CSR said it would take for me to get the call) but the message I got was the standard "If you have a TiVo then a tech needs to install the cards".

I guess my question is if anyone else has gone through this process with successful results, or am I just wasting my time trying to find someone reasonable to help me out? I've decided that if the only way to get my service back is to pay the $68 then I'm just going to cancel HBO and Starz. (The Sopranos is finished, anyway.) :)

[hddude55]

So my Series 3 that I'd bought the week they came out went belly-up last week. TiVo has been great, over-nighting me a replacement system (yeah, it was a refurb, and yeah, the front had a nice dent in it) so now the only issue is that I need to get my 2 Cox (Phoenix) CableCARDs paired with my new box.

So I put the first card in the first slot of the new unit (just like the tech did over a year and a half ago), got to the screen with the two IDs, and called Cox up, hoping to get someone who would understand my situation and help me with what I needed. (Riiight.) :rolleyes:

I explained my situation (that I had received a new TiVo to replace my old one and that I had put the new cards in the old box and just needed the new box to be paired with the cards) but the CSR insisted that it would require a tech to come out and "install" the cards in my TiVo, and that it would cost me $68. :mad:

I basically explained that I understood what was involved in "installing" the cards, and all I needed was to give them the IDs of the card and box so that they could be paired and I could get all my channels back. The CSR didn't seem to fully understand the situation and insisted that I needed to schedule a tech to come out. I told her that I didn't want to pay $68 for a guy to come to my house, look at my TV, make a phone call, and read the numbers on the screen to someone to complete the "installation", and could I talk to a manager.

A manager wasn't available at the time, so I asked that they call me back. Well, when they did I wasn't home (it was way more than the 2 hours that the CSR said it would take for me to get the call) but the message I got was the standard "If you have a TiVo then a tech needs to install the cards".

I guess my question is if anyone else has gone through this process with successful results, or am I just wasting my time trying to find someone reasonable to help me out? I've decided that if the only way to get my service back is to pay the $68 then I'm just going to cancel HBO and Starz. (The Sopranos is finished, anyway.) :) OK, you almost had me for a second. This must be a belated April Fool's Day joke. I'm sure you know you can't install cards and even if you could, the cards you have are paired to the old TiVo so even a reasonable Cox tech can't reinstall them in a new TiVo. Can I roll my eyes now, too, you kidder? Look at the bright side. If you are in AZ, there is a great chance the new cards will fail soon and the truck roll to replace them will be free.

[milo99]

Cox No.VA still hasn't let the new HD channels through.

JFranklin - do you know if this is a Cox nationwide thing (that internal email you saw) or just your market?

[gonealoha]

$8.95? Cox in san diego only charges $2.00 per month for each cable card.

[thezonie]

Cox Phoenix CableCARDs are $2 each as well.

[thezonie]

OK, you almost had me for a second. This must be a belated April Fool's Day joke. I'm sure you know you can't install cards and even if you could, the cards you have are paired to the old TiVo so even a reasonable Cox tech can't reinstall them in a new TiVo. Can I roll my eyes now, too, you kidder? Look at the bright side. If you are in AZ, there is a great chance the new cards will fail soon and the truck roll to replace them will be free.

Thankfully when I called Cox this afternoon to try and talk to someone reasonable I was connected with an extremely helpful CSR that spent 10 minutes re-pairing my CableCARDs. So now all is back to normal. :D

[jebbbz]

I am a Cox customer in Phoenix. While I have experienced loss of channels occasionally since getting my TiVo HD in late January the problem seems to have changed since I got upgraded to 9.3 a few weeks ago. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this.

Early on I rebooted to fix the problem but then I learned of the menu "trick" which would do the trick faster. Like others, eventually it seemed the menu fix failed and then rebooting failed and after a month I got new a new MCard installed. The old menu trick worked OK until mid-April after the 9.3 upgrade. Since then, the menu trick works differently and much faster.

Before, I would navigate to the CC menu, pick a menu item and wait for the loading-failed message, then back up to the CC main menu and wait two or three minutes for the two other error messages to appear at the top of the screen. Then I could go back to watching TV. Now, when I hit "Clear" to back up from the menu selection that gave me the loading- failed message I immediately get a warning message about the Cablecard not working (no information from cableco or some such thing) and I can return to watching and recording immediately, although sometimes I have to wait for the acquiring-channel-info pinwheel to finish. Start to finish is a minute or so rather than three or four for the old menu trick or five or six for a reboot.

[jfranklin]

Cox No.VA still hasn't let the new HD channels through.

JFranklin - do you know if this is a Cox nationwide thing (that internal email you saw) or just your market?

Should be all markets. Was supposed to be official a few weeks ago as I remember. I'll have to check Wednesday and see what NoVa is doing. They like to do everything their own way, so might need to get someone to talk to them.

[AZrob]

I am a Cox customer in Phoenix. While I have experienced loss of channels occasionally since getting my TiVo HD in late January the problem seems to have changed since I got upgraded to 9.3 a few weeks ago. I was wondering if anyone else had noticed this.

Early on I rebooted to fix the problem but then I learned of the menu "trick" which would do the trick faster. Like others, eventually it seemed the menu fix failed and then rebooting failed and after a month I got new a new MCard installed. The old menu trick worked OK until mid-April after the 9.3 upgrade. Since then, the menu trick works differently and much faster.

Before, I would navigate to the CC menu, pick a menu item and wait for the loading-failed message, then back up to the CC main menu and wait two or three minutes for the two other error messages to appear at the top of the screen. Then I could go back to watching TV. Now, when I hit "Clear" to back up from the menu selection that gave me the loading- failed message I immediately get a warning message about the Cablecard not working (no information from cableco or some such thing) and I can return to watching and recording immediately, although sometimes I have to wait for the acquiring-channel-info pinwheel to finish. Start to finish is a minute or so rather than three or four for the old menu trick or five or six for a reboot.

I have been following the M-card loss-of-encrypted channels problems since late December, experiencing an outage about once every 3 days. Since I upgraded to 9.3 two weeks ago, I have not caught one instance of this occurring. And this is with me checking every morning to see if I have all of my channels.

Having said this, I can't say that the problem is 100% fixed, because there is the possibility that the fix has come in the form of an immediate resetting of the CC when the loss occurs, instead of preventing the loss in the first place. That would mean, as I think Tivo has stated somewhere, that if the loss occurs in the middle of a program, that although the station will come back, the recording will not restart. Hence, you would not get the rest of the program.

But I haven't found any example yet where this occurred. Since only a third of my programs are from encrypted channels, it's possible that any outages by chance did not occur during those recordings...but it could still happen.

Anyone else care to share their post-9.3 upgrade experiences in this regard?

Oh, and I also want to say that I have not experience the video blackout (also referred to as the Gray Screen of Death or GSOD) since the upgrade. But it was only happening about once a month before that anyway.

Rob

[sniperlv]

Cox in Phoenix is getting ready to roll out VOD so they say. Will the Cable Cards in the HD Tivo be able to use the VOD?

[Shawn95GT]

Cox in Phoenix is getting ready to roll out VOD so they say. Will the Cable Cards in the HD Tivo be able to use the VOD?
Nope...

Cox just did aback end upgrade overnight here - All services (phone / TV / Internet) were down last night.

[jebbbz]

I have been following the M-card loss-of-encrypted channels problems since late December...

Having said this, I can't say that the problem is 100% fixed, because there is the possibility that the fix has come in the form of an immediate resetting of the CC when the loss occurs, instead of preventing the loss in the first place...

Rob

What you say about automatic resetting might be true and it may have happened more times than I have noticed, say, at night. The times I have noticed I have watched the problem develop, with the picture I am watching freezing and when I check other encrypted channels them being black as is the original picture. I then head to the CC menu to fix things.

[Rolow]

Having said this, I can't say that the problem is 100% fixed, because there is the possibility that the fix has come in the form of an immediate resetting of the CC when the loss occurs, instead of preventing the loss in the first place. That would mean, as I think Tivo has stated somewhere, that if the loss occurs in the middle of a program, that although the station will come back, the recording will not restart. Hence, you would not get the rest of the program.

Anyone else care to share their post-9.3 upgrade experiences in this regard?

Oh, and I also want to say that I have not experience the video blackout (also referred to as the Gray Screen of Death or GSOD) since the upgrade. But it was only happening about once a month before that anyway.

Rob

My Tivo HD has stopped recording on two separate occasions since 9.3 Both time i found the problem with in a half hour. I had to manually start the recordings again. The fist time i restarted the tivo before i checked the channels. the second time I checked the channels before doing anything and they where all fine.

[milo99]

Should be all markets. Was supposed to be official a few weeks ago as I remember. I'll have to check Wednesday and see what NoVa is doing. They like to do everything their own way, so might need to get someone to talk to them.

interesting. I emailed, and called asking about this. The people i spoke with had no idea. they gave me the standard lines about SDV. When i told them that other COX markets were doing this (letting HD channels through), they said they don't know anything about it, but they are examining what their customers want. I politely told them, their cable card customers want the HD channels. I'm sure there are other channels that are in lower demand.

So while i was on the phone with them, i asked them about something else- the whole deal with my basic and expanded channels coming through in analog insted of digital (another chaffe of mine, since i'm supposed to be paying for 100% digital cable). The phone tech couldn't tell me why, so they sent over a tech. The guy's english wasn't great, but it seems he understood the situation, and if i understood his english, basically told me that channels 2-102 are broadcast in both analog and digital, and the digital is on SDV.

wow. that ain't cool.

[moyekj]

The guy's english wasn't great, but it seems he understood the situation, and if i understood his english, basically told me that channels 2-102 are broadcast in both analog and digital, and the digital is on SDV.

wow. that ain't cool. Yes, that's my understanding of what's likely to happen in Cox, Orange County area once SDV deploys as well - all digital simulcast channels will go SDV and the CableCard channel maps will revert back to analog channels for sub-100 channels.
While obviously it's not a good thing for CableCard users it does make sense to put those channels in the SDV pool since there still is a large customer base that doesn't subscribe to digital video services. In a way it could be a good thing since it may mean less HD channels going SDV in the short term. I would expect this will happen in most/all Cox markets where SDV is deployed.

[jfranklin]

The guy's english wasn't great, but it seems he understood the situation, and if i understood his english, basically told me that channels 2-102 are broadcast in both analog and digital, and the digital is on SDV.

wow. that ain't cool.

Not all of them, but a large chunk of them are SDV if my list is current (says it was updated 04/22/08, so I assume it is). Per the list, though, none of the HD channels are SDV in your area, and per a lead here that change is supposed to be all markets.

Odd that no one knew what you were talking about in relation to that as my call center IS the call center you would have talked to. NoVa no longer has a technical call center as I understand it. Just billing/sales/ect.

Definitly call back in, and keep doing so until you get a resolution. I will continue to look into it from this end. At least make certian that it is supposed to be all markets, and that the SDV channel list I have is up to date.

[milo99]

Not all of them, but a large chunk of them are SDV if my list is current (says it was updated 04/22/08, so I assume it is). Per the list, though, none of the HD channels are SDV in your area, and per a lead here that change is supposed to be all markets.

Odd that no one knew what you were talking about in relation to that as my call center IS the call center you would have talked to. NoVa no longer has a technical call center as I understand it. Just billing/sales/ect.

Definitly call back in, and keep doing so until you get a resolution. I will continue to look into it from this end. At least make certian that it is supposed to be all markets, and that the SDV channel list I have is up to date.

I can tell you that these are the HD channels i get:
703
704
705
706
707
709
710
712
714
715
716
717
719
720
721

These show up on my program guide, have all the info as any normal station, but when I tune, i get a "Channel not available" tivo message:
708
711
718
722-734

So when I call (703) 378-8422 and ask for technical support, it gets routed to you guys? that's odd...

[jfranklin]

I can tell you that these are the HD channels i get:

...

These show up on my program guide, have all the info as any normal station, but when I tune, i get a "Channel not available" tivo message:
708
711
718
722-734

So when I call (703) 378-8422 and ask for technical support, it gets routed to you guys? that's odd...

The channels that you aren't getting do seem to be the ones added since November `07. I asked the guy I go to for NoVa issues and he confirmed that it should be all areas, and that the list I was looking at for SDV channels should be up to date. If it weren't for you getting 712 and a few others I'd just say that you don't have expanded, but if you didn't those wouldn't come in either. Might need to be repaired (though that shouldn't be needed). I've got my guy here looking for an answer from NoVa MTC, but they are a little slow to respond to us at times, so it might be a few days before I hear something. In the mean time, if you want, PM me with your address and I'll take a look at your account to be sure that everything is on their right, or call back in and have someone check the balancing on your account.

And yes, NoVa and Roanoke technical calls come to Hampton Roads. Have been for a little while now.

[sooka]

I can tell you that these are the HD channels i get:
703
704
705
706
707
709
710
712
714
715
716
717
719
720
721

These show up on my program guide, have all the info as any normal station, but when I tune, i get a "Channel not available" tivo message:
708
711
718
722-734

So when I call (703) 378-8422 and ask for technical support, it gets routed to you guys? that's odd...

Live in Burke/Fairfax area with Cox, and these channels that you say you can/t get are on SDV. My TV that takes cable cards also can't tune these channels. From what I understand, all HD channels that were added after the initial SDV push were put on SDV and will be unavailable to TIVO users and anyone else with a cablecard device. The ones you can tune to in the 700s were prior to the SDV push in the Cox Northern Virginia area.

[milo99]

The channels that you aren't getting do seem to be the ones added since November `07. I asked the guy I go to for NoVa issues and he confirmed that it should be all areas, and that the list I was looking at for SDV channels should be up to date. If it weren't for you getting 712 and a few others I'd just say that you don't have expanded, but if you didn't those wouldn't come in either. Might need to be repaired (though that shouldn't be needed). I've got my guy here looking for an answer from NoVa MTC, but they are a little slow to respond to us at times, so it might be a few days before I hear something. In the mean time, if you want, PM me with your address and I'll take a look at your account to be sure that everything is on their right, or call back in and have someone check the balancing on your account.

And yes, NoVa and Roanoke technical calls come to Hampton Roads. Have been for a little while now.

Right now i have the discovery, movie, variety and sports tiers so yea, i should be getting all of those HDs. i'm not subscribed to premium movie channel so i haven't bothered trying to find those. I'll PM you my info. Thanks!

[fishnose]

I have Cox service in Northern Virginia (Vienna/Oakton area) and some emails from "customer service" (sarcasm absolutely intended) told me that despite my subscription with digital tiers (sports, movie, variety, discovery):

(1) no reception would be provided on the "newly added" HD channels (i.e., added November 2007 or after and currently placed at channel numbers 708, 711, 718, 722-734)) unless I used the Cox boxes

and

(2) no decision on dongles to avoid the UDCP issues (cable card issues) with SDV although they are aware that others are implementing them.