Cablevision CableCard Info, Experiences...

[jmatero]

Just ordered Mine.. will be here next week and the Cablevision folks are coming the 23rd to hook up the cablecards. The rep told me FLAT OUT that they have no idea if they will even work as they just were told about this "mysterious series 3".

Lets keep this thread alive and post as we all get hooked up!

[stekson]

Similar experience. Lady was insistant upon cablecards can only be hooked up to TV's. I faxed over a bunch of TiVo literature for her cause customer service really was clueless. We'll see Sunday!

[jmatero]

Sixto, look forward to your report!!!! White Plains, NY here. I've got my fingers crossed... for BOTH of us!!!

[Sixto]

Sixto, look forward to your report!!!! White Plains, NY here. I've got my fingers crossed... for BOTH of us!!! Looking forward to it ... TiVo just confirmed shipping Thursday overnight from Texas via UPS ... the stars are aligning ...

[eric_mcgovern]

Looking forward to it ... TiVo just confirmed shipping Thursday overnight from Texas via UPS ... the stars are aligning ...

When did you order? I have received nothing on the shipping side...ordered at 7:18 am Pacific.

[drew2k]

Hey all you Cablevision folks! Would you mind posting your location and which branch of Cablevision you're dealing with? I want to see if Cablevision of Hauppauge (NY) comes up anywhere in this thread as that's who I'll be deailing with when I'm ready to take the plunge on the S3...

Thanks!

[nyjklein]

I'm on Cablevision of Hudson County (NJ). Called this morning and scheduled the Cablecard installs for Saturday. The CSR I spoke with had no problem cutting the service order for two cards, mentioned I was the second call she had taken today for a TiVo Series 3 install. Remarked on the $800 cost.

I ordered the S3 this morning with one day shipping. So I'm pretty hopeful it will delivered by Friday.

P.S. Wilt Hildenbrand, EVP of Engineering for Cablevision, posted on a the Cablevision Yahoo group that they're working on getting their CSRs and field staff up to speed.

[proudpapa]

I ordered mine today also. To bring the cards out (they have to "install" them) - even though they have not heard of the S3 - cost $60.00, monthly charge $13.98. Has anyone else been gouged that bad ?? I told the TIVO rep. and he said to report it to the FCC - they are only suppose to charge a "nominal" fee :mad: !

[Jason]

I ordered mine today also. To bring the cards out (they have to "install" them) - even though they have not heard of the S3 - cost $60.00, monthly charge $13.98. Has anyone else been gouged that bad ?? I told the TIVO rep. and he said to report it to the FCC - they are only suppose to charge a "nominal" fee :mad: !

I'm not a Cablevision subscriber, but my cable provider (Astound, part of Wave Broadband) told me today that each CC would run me $6.95/month, which is what they charge for their digital cable boxes. They also told me that the CC would not work with HD! :mad:

[krstone]

FWIW, the Cablevision web site states that CableCARDs cost $1.25/month. Link:

http://iotv.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/iotv.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=656&p_created=1087930849&p_sid=Reukaxhi&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ 9MTQmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3N lYXJjaF90ZXh0PWNhYmxlY2FyZA**&p_li=&p_topview=1

Ken

[nyjklein]

FWIW, the Cablevision web site states that CableCARDs cost $1.25/month. Link:

http://iotv.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/iotv.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=656&p_created=1087930849&p_sid=Reukaxhi&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ 9MTQmcF9wcm9kcz0mcF9jYXRzPSZwX3B2PSZwX2N2PSZwX3BhZ2U9MSZwX3N lYXJjaF90ZXh0PWNhYmxlY2FyZA**&p_li=&p_topview=1

Ken

That's what I'm paying for the one in my bedroom TV.

[ITGuy72]

I wonder if they'll try to hit you up for an additional premium outlet fee..waiting for reports also...

[juancho]

I currently own a Cablevision HD DVR that uses 2 cablecards. Can I simply insert these cards into the S3 or do I need to order new cards? Thank you.

[jfh3]

I currently own a Cablevision HD DVR that uses 2 cablecards. Can I simply insert these cards into the S3 or do I need to order new cards? Thank you.

You should be able to use the same cards, but Cablevision would have to reprovision them ("marry" them) to the Tivo.

[nyjklein]

I currently own a Cablevision HD DVR that uses 2 cablecards. Can I simply insert these cards into the S3 or do I need to order new cards? Thank you.

I'm not aware of ANY Cablevision DVR that uses Cablecards. What model do you have?

(BTW, the credit card like SmartCard that plugs into your Cablevision set top boxes or Scientific Atlanta DVRs is NOT a Cablecard).

[twassel]

I'm with Cablevision of Woodbury (Long Island, NY). I sent an e-mail inquiry to Cablevision regarding whether they support the S3. The response:

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tivo Series 3 cablecard


Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Pamela W) - 09/13/2006 10:35 PM Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your email. I understand your inquiry and would be happy to help you.
Currently we do not support the Tivo Series 3.

If you should have any other questions please visit us at [cablevision web site]

Thank you for choosing Cablevision.

Sincerely,

Pamela
Shared Services-Melville

I'm not sure one hand knows what the other is doing.

[Raj]

I ordered mine today also. To bring the cards out (they have to "install" them) - even though they have not heard of the S3 - cost $60.00, monthly charge $13.98. Has anyone else been gouged that bad ?? I told the TIVO rep. and he said to report it to the FCC - they are only suppose to charge a "nominal" fee :mad: !


Thanks, but this thread is related to Cablevision only.

[Raj]

I currently own a Cablevision HD DVR that uses 2 cablecards. Can I simply insert these cards into the S3 or do I need to order new cards? Thank you.


The cablevision DVR I have doesn't use CableCARDs.

Which one do you have?

[jmatero]

He's probably mistaking the "Credit-card-style" cable "card" that slides into the front of the 8300HD.

The Cablevision operator wouldn't take my order until I told her why I didn't want the 8300HD I have now...

so I told her why..... BOY did I.....

[Raj]

Oh yeah I have one of those too. That's not a CableCARD.

I'm holding off on Series 3 until all of these minor issues are ironed out.

What a shame though that the cable companies would try to stifle TiVo like this.

[jfh3]

I'm with Cablevision of Woodbury (Long Island, NY). I sent an e-mail inquiry to Cablevision regarding whether they support the S3. The response:

Subject
---------------------------------------------------------------
Tivo Series 3 cablecard


Discussion Thread
---------------------------------------------------------------
Response (Pamela W) - 09/13/2006 10:35 PM Dear Valued Customer,

Thank you for your email. I understand your inquiry and would be happy to help you.
Currently we do not support the Tivo Series 3.

If you should have any other questions please visit us at [cablevision web site]

Thank you for choosing Cablevision.

Sincerely,

Pamela
Shared Services-Melville

I'm not sure one hand knows what the other is doing.


See my post in the FAQ thread about this and send them a copy of that text.

[MikePeekskill]

Do you HAVE to schedule and install for the 2 cable cards for the Series 3? Are we not allowed to go into the retail store and pick them up, the way I did with the Cablevision DVR?

Mike

[classicsat]

Right now, depnding on the corporate or local policy, you may have to have a truck roll. If they are nice, or you speak to someone you really know, or they know you as a better customer, they might hand them to you over the counter.

[scottb4u]

I just made an appointment for Cablecard installation. All Cablecard appointments must be made through a supervisor who asks what equipment will be used.

They were briefed on Tuesday that a new Tivo requires Cablecards and to be ready for new appointments. The calls started that day and have not stopped since. It is the most Cablecards requested in CVC's history.

They will not allow you to pick up the Cablecards and are instructed to make appointments and notify us of the $46 charge for installation.

The nearest appointments are late next week! I will report later...

[jmatero]

As described above, Cablevision of Westchester requires an appointment... they charge $46 to deliver and install the 2 cards... and there is also a monthy fee. You can NOT pick them up at a retail cablevision office. It's their little way of getting some $$$ back for you not using THEIR DVR. ;)

[srothkin]

It's their little way of getting some $$$ back for you not using THEIR DVR. ;)

Maybe, maybe not. When I got my first 8300HD DVR (which was my 1st box -- previously I just didn't get HD or channels requiring a box), CableVision required a technician (who turned out to be a subcontractor) to come and install the box. The technician did have to call an operator at CableVision and read them some info that was displayed by the DVR when it connected to the head end. I suspect the same will need to be done for the cablecards.

Later when I traded the box for another one due to problems, they let me do the swap at the store/without a technician dispatch.

[jmatero]

I picked up my 8300HD DVR from Cablevision of Westchester.. my first cable box with them.. and they just handed the box to me. When I got home, I plugged it in and had to call them to pair it to the card.

[propermodulation]

The technician did have to call an operator at CableVision and read them some info that was displayed by the DVR when it connected to the head end. I suspect the same will need to be done for the cablecards.


Yea, I guess they don't trust their customers with the technical job of dialing the phone!!! :)

[NJChris]

Ok, so I called to have them install the cable cards (they would not let me install myself).

What a rip for installation, tho.

$45 for the first card and they want to charge $25 for the second, even tho I told him it's going into the same device.

Is this correct? What have other people been told??

I guess this is how they get around their "nominal fee" for cable cards.

[propermodulation]

NJChris. FIOSTV it just around the corner for you. Let them know that you will be out the door ASAP with service like that! I love competition!

[NJChris]

Have mine ... configuring now ... Cablevision comes Sunday.

What did they tell you about what they are charging you?

[Sixto]

$1.25/month per card and $46+ for install visit

[aabo]

Sixto,

Thank-you very much for that report. I have Cablevision coming later this week. this news is very encouraging. BTW, what area with Cablevision are you with?







100% Success with Cablevision!

1:43pm Cablevision arrived

1:50pm Started Guided Setup and followed directions printed on TiVo website. I used the directions in document # 01-04-16. Simple step-by-step. The cable guy never saw this unit before so I nicely asked that we just go thru this very slowly one step at a time according to the TiVo document with no shortcuts. He was fine.

1:56pm Cablecard 1 inserted ... had to wait 1-2 minutes .. data popped up on screen ... showed Cablecard ID # and Host ID #

2pm Installer called to activiate. He needed to give them the Smartcard #, Smartcard Serial #, Cablecard ID number, and Host ID #. We now waited.

2:15pm Was activated and then simply followed the directions to test the channels. Tested regular channels and encrypted channels. All looked great.

2:18pm Cablecard 2 inserted and data on screen (he was still on the phone from the first activation)

2:25pm Activated - tested - same as above - all channels on Cablecard 2 were great

2:28pm Clicked to finish guided setup ... this takes a long while ... you wait a long time for guided setup to end while "organizing" ... need to think of a few topics for the cable guy because you wait a while.

2:42pm Done. Finished. All seems to be working.

Cable guy just left smiling ... he thought the device was mighty cool.

Now I play ... hopefully no problems ...

Been playing with this unit (without the Cablecards) since Friday and everything I just quickly played with again seems to work. Live TV button bounce from tuner-to-tuner, guide is complete, all HD looks fine.

Until later ....

[NJChris]

Had my 2 Cable Cards installed today (Oakland area) -

It went fine. Took a while, but it worked out just great and I think it was his first Tivo CC install in the area.

Unfortunately, my Plasma went on the fritz 2 days ago and cant use it until it's fixed. :(

So I'm watching on my computer monitor through s-video.

:)

[mad6c]

Appointment made for Oct 2nd, Suffolk, Long Island.

[ronfl]

TiVo delivered today. At work now unable to concentrate...need to go home and play!

CableVision/Optimum in Central New Jersey (Monmouth County). Called today for install, coming out Sunday ($47). As soon as I said Tivo 3, I was transferred to a Sr. agent that knew exactly what to do.

Anticipating a smooth install...I hope.

[nyjklein]

I had a really bad experience with Cablevision of Hudson County last Saturday. I won't go into all the gory details but they spent close to three hours at my place most of the time arguing with the dispatch people about whether or not they would configure the cards at the headend, whether they "supported" the TiVo, whether the TiVo needed a "different" type of card that Cablevision didn't have and more time waiting for someone to show up with additional cards since the dispatch completely refused to configure the first two claiming they were assigned to someone else's account.

Eventually we got the first card partly working, I can tune the majority of channels, encrypted and not, but not all channels (still haven't got "CP Auth"). The second card they could not get to work at all.

I had to schedule a second install visit for this coming Saturday when a "Sr. Technician" is supposed to show up.

Very frustrating.

Jeff

[razor237]

I had my cards installed today ...took around 1hr 1/2 , had some tbls with two of the cards but finaly got two working :) . The tech was great , he never seen or heard of the S3 . Now i have both cards in and working ok, the whole install went great :D



-Mike


btw cablevision monmouth NJ - Jackson area

[matman125]

I had my Cable Cards installed today. The whole process took about an hour and a half. Was a minor issue with my S3 not recognizing the card initially, that was fixed by taking out and reinserting the card. The tech and dispatch where both great. They had never seen nor heard of the S3. I actuallly printed out Sixto's description of his install and followed his instructions. Everything went great. The tech and dispatched both thanked me for helping them. They said it makes a big difference if the customer knows what is going on. So if you are here in this forum, you probably know what's going on, print out SIXTO's post, give it to the tech along with the tivo instructions. It will help. I am on Long Island in Suffolk County. Cablevision of woodbury.

[scottb4u]

Morris County Cablevision installed today. Everything went perfectly. It took about 20 minutes. The installed cards were recognized immediately.

Make sure they are the latest and most updated cards--and you can get both working even before they are "zapped".

Go to a digital station after setup and it will say "station blocked" in the grey screen. That means they are working and waiting for an authorization.

Ignore any 161-X error messages and proceed with the install.

Now, if it could just tell me what station I'm on in the front panel, I would be thrilled!

[wbradney]

Cablevision is scheduled for today and they called yesterday to confirm. The plan is to use the directions from the TiVo web-site (reference #01-04-16).

Been using the box continually (without cablecards) since Friday with only issue being a cable signal strength issue (described in another thread).

Right now all is well in preparation for the cablecard installation. Have run guided setup a few times to practice and all seems fine.

The box is very usable as you wait for the cablecards. You run guided setup and state that you don't have cablecards. It loads the analog channel list. You then run a channel scan. For me it found 400 digital channels. I do not have an antenna, just the one cable connection. You then go into Settings/Channels and run the signal strength meter and you manually click thru every digital channel. This is the best way to find the unencrypted channels because it will only go thru the digital channels it found one-by-one. Right behind the on-screen strength meter you'll see a crisp picture of the channel if it's unencrypted. This takes 1-2 seconds so go slow (to allow it to tune the channel). If you see a nice picture then it's unencrypted, write down the funky channel number (ex: 84-2), and later add that channel to your "received channels" in the channel list.

You should then be able to watch all of your unencrypted digital Cablevision channels until your cablecards arrived.

I've been able to watch all of the networks in HD since Friday.

More details later ...

Did you get any sound when flipping through digital channels in the signal strength screen? I see just the picture, with no sound. Analog channels sound fine.

Also, how did you manually add channels to the guide?

[wbradney]

I'll add my progress with Cablevision in Morris County, NJ...

Unpacked my VIP S3 today (arrived yesterday, ordered last wednesday) and ran guided setup to check out eveything is functional.

Called Cablevision, asked for an appointment for install of 2 cablecards. CSR didn't ask what they were for and confirmed the visit fee of $46.95 and the monthly CC fee of $1.25 each. Appointment is for next Friday (could have been as early as Wednesday but Friday was better for me). On the whole the CSR was very courteous and professional.

I'll update after the install.

[Sixto]

Did you get any sound when flipping through digital channels in the signal strength screen? I see just the picture, with no sound. Analog channels sound fine.

Also, how did you manually add channels to the guide?You don't get any sound while using the signal strength screen. Just used it to find every digital channel that was unencrypted. You need to write down every unencrypted channel.

You then go into the channel list screen and check off every channel you want added to the guide (that you wrote down in the previous step).

You wipe this all away by running guided setup when you get the cable cards installed.

Still running great since the weekend.

[Norgoth]

Sixto, thanks for the helpful posts, but where can I find the reference on tivo.com with respect to the guided setup. I searched throughout the site but could not find the article you refer to.

Thanks and regards.

[jfh3]

Ignore any 161-X error messages and proceed with the install.

No, don't ignore any 161-X messages, just 161-4

[Sixto]

Sixto, thanks for the helpful posts, but where can I find the reference on tivo.com with respect to the guided setup. I searched throughout the site but could not find the article you refer to.

Thanks and regards.
The article is "Installing CableCARDs in a Series3 HD DVR"

You can go to support and search on "01-04-16"

Also here's the link:

http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv010416.htm?

[nyjklein]

For all those who've had success, did any of you note the manufacture date printed on the cablecards. Wondering if newer cards are more successful. The one's that they brought for my bad install were from April 2005.

[Sixto]

For all those who've had success, did any of you note the manufacture date printed on the cablecards. Wondering if newer cards are more successful. The one's that they brought for my bad install were from April 2005. Don't know. They were labeled SCM/NDS. Don't think I have the guts to actually remove either to look :) ... they've been rock solid.

[nyjklein]

Don't know. They were labeled SMC/NDS. Don't think I have the guts to actually remove either to look :) ... they've been rock solid.

That's interesting! Cablevision in Hudson County, NJ is using Scientific Atlanta Powerkey cablecards. I just assumed (I know, I know ASS) that all of Cablevsion in the NY Metro Area would use the same cards.

So, can others that have had success post what type of cards they have (if not the dates)?

Jeff

[JoN8282]

i called cablevision to set up this appointment last saturday, unfortunantly there was quite a wait, and this was the earliest appointment i could get that gelled with my work schedule. I am glad i waited, i got an excellent installer. The phone operator was familiar with the series 3 tivo, and asked me to confirm the model # for her. She did not even question the need for 2 cards for this device.

my cable card installer John from Cablevision (IO) just left. This was his second s3 tivo in as many days, he was extremely knowledgable about cable card technology, tivo, his companys policys, pricing, technical support, and was overall a great guy to talk to.

He immidiatly picked up the cable card installer instructions i left on the box, looked at it, and noted that he read and followed these exactly yesterday and could do it from memory. He then perfectly executed the installation. He did insert both cards before calling, but upon calling he requested that the first card be activated first, and clearly stated to the operator that this was very important.

It then took about 20 minutes for the entire thing to go through, while waiting, we discussed lots of things, including the fact that IO in my area is 100% digital on all channels including those under 100, and i will recieve the digital version via my cable cards no problem. He also noted that only the ethnic channels were using switched video, so i should have really no problem as far as that goes. He noticed this forum up on the computer, and asked how his company and the competition were doing, i let him know the basic jist of these posts, and he was pleased that so far there havent been any real issues noted with cablevision. I did mention the problem some people are having with having to "re-hit" the cards etc, he informed me that it is probably because the card installer did not wait to make sure "CP [copy protection] authorization was complete" - this took longer then anything else on my setup. All channels including prem. channels and hd were coming in clear for a solid 15 minutes before the CP auth was granted. He said if it didnt get granted, the cards would turn off next time they contacted home. I suspect this is the problem many people have been having.

once both cards recived this authorization, he took my sci atlanta dvr and the generous tip i provided, shook my hand and left.

EXCELLENT MARKS FOR CABLEVISION.

btw - as far as billing goes... $45 to install cards / $1.25 per month per card for card rental. I am in no mood to argue with that at this point. Cablevision office in Oakland, NJ. scientific atlanta cable cards - didnt get a good look at them, and dont plan on popping them out to look any further.

[brundlefly76]

Picked up the last Series 3 at Norwalk Best Buy, hidden on an upper shelf with no display.

Salesperson said they had just got them in yesterday.

BB website had indicated the store was out of stock but I checked in person anyway, lucked out.

Called Cablevision sales dept, and when I told them I wanted to schedule a Cablecard install, they knew exactly what I was talking about and routed me immediately to another person who scheduled it for 3 business days from today - outstanding.

We'll see what happens when they actually show up.

[rothsss]

Picked up the last Series 3 at Norwalk Best Buy, hidden on an upper shelf with no display.

Salesperson said they had just got them in yesterday.

BB website had indicated the store was out of stock but I checked in person anyway, lucked out.

Called Cablevision sales dept, and when I told them I wanted to schedule a Cablecard install, they knew exactly what I was talking about and routed me immediately to another person who scheduled it for 3 business days from today - outstanding.

We'll see what happens when they actually show up.

I hope Cablevision will send me the same guy that installs your Series 3. I am in Greenwich too. Install scheduled for Sep 30th.

[Norgoth]

JoN8282,

You should edit your post about the tip. These guys are not allowed to take tips and could get fired if someone from Cablevision can figure out who the installer is.

[drew2k]

JoN8282,

You should edit your post about the tip. These guys are not allowed to take tips and could get fired if someone from Cablevision can figure out who the installer is.Really??? I've never heard that ... is this a new policy?

I recall tipping the two installers who first set up my cable modem in the fall of 2000 - I was one of the first in my area to have it installed and they were here for quite a while, ran a new line, etc.

I thought they deserved a tip, so I gave them one.

[ginolee]

My installer came today a couple hours ago to install my two cable cards.

This was his first Tivo Series 3 install, so I was a little nervous.

He inserted the first cable card into slot #1. We waited about 5 minutes but nothing happened.

He then inserted the 2nd cable card into slot #2. After about 2 minutes, the MMI screen came. So then it occurred to us that the first cable might be defective.

He had brought a spare cable card, so he inserted that one into slot #1.

He called up the provisioning department and gave them both sets of cable card information to provision. cable card #2 activated after a couple minutes and I was able to verify a couple channels, including a regular HD channel and an encrypted HD channel (HBO).

We were wondering why cable card #1 wasn't activating and then he realized that he had given the card information from the initial defective card.

He called up provisioning and gave them the correct card information, but it still wasn't working. So I took out the working cable card in slot #2 (since it was hot-swappable) to make sure that wasn't interfering with activation. I think the activation then worked for the card in slot #1. We were able to check 3-4 representative channels including an encrypted channel.


When I put card #2 back in its slot, it wasn't working, so I restarted my Tivo.

I think it took about 5-10 minutes for both cards to "boot up" properly. Then both cards were working.

One thing that helped activation was checking the 'CableCard CP Screen' occasionally while waiting for activation.
Two entries seem most relevant:
Auth Status: CP Auth Received
PowerKey status: Ready

I think CP stands for 'copy protection'.

If Auth Status shows something 'not authorized' then the card hasn't been activated.

I think my software engineering background helped to assist my installer with the process. In particular I made two suggestions that were helpful:
1) once 1 card was activated, I took out that one activated card.
2) Once both cards were activated separately, but both together weren't working, I restarted my Tivo.

I think the entire process took about 1hr 15 minutes. I would guess perfect execution and verification would have probably taken about 30-45 minutes.

Hope this helps. So far, I *love* my new TiVo ! :).

[aabo]

Ginolee,

I'm not sure that is the case. I also had my install today and it appears that a lot of the scientific atlanta cards that cablevision uses have outdated firmware. It took about 20 minutes for each of my cards to be recognized while they downloaded new firmware. The tivo does not tell you the cards are doing this unless you go out of the CC decoder screen. I learned this the hard way. After about 20 minutes of firmware downloading the cards where able to be activated without any problems.




My installer came today a couple hours ago to install my two cable cards.

This was his first Tivo Series 3 install, so I was a little nervous.

He inserted the first cable card into slot #1. We waited about 5 minutes but nothing happened.

He then inserted the 2nd cable card into slot #2. After about 2 minutes, the MMI screen came. So then it occurred to us that the first cable might be defective.

He had brought a spare cable card, so he inserted that one into slot #1.

He called up the provisioning department and gave them both sets of cable card information to provision. cable card #2 activated after a couple minutes and I was able to verify a couple channels, including a regular HD channel and an encrypted HD channel (HBO).

We were wondering why cable card #1 wasn't activating and then he realized that he had given the card information from the initial defective card.

He called up provisioning and gave them the correct card information, but it still wasn't working. So I took out the working cable card in slot #2 (since it was hot-swappable) to make sure that wasn't interfering with activation. I think the activation then worked for the card in slot #1. We were able to check 3-4 representative channels including an encrypted channel.


When I put card #2 back in its slot, it wasn't working, so I restarted my Tivo.

I think it took about 5-10 minutes for both cards to "boot up" properly. Then both cards were working.

One thing that helped activation was checking the 'CableCard CP Screen' occasionally while waiting for activation.
Two entries seem most relevant:
Auth Status: CP Auth Received
PowerKey status: Ready

I think CP stands for 'copy protection'.

If Auth Status shows something 'not authorized' then the card hasn't been activated.

I think my software engineering background helped to assist my installer with the process. In particular I made two suggestions that were helpful:
1) once 1 card was activated, I took out that one activated card.
2) Once both cards were activated separately, but both together weren't working, I restarted my Tivo.

I think the entire process took about 1hr 15 minutes. I would guess perfect execution and verification would have probably taken about 30-45 minutes.

Hope this helps. So far, I *love* my new TiVo ! :).

[jmkirk]

Fairfield County, CT

I had Cablevision here yesterday for my install. Unfortuantely I was at work, and left the wife here for the install. All seemed fine when I arrived home, although after surfing I found both cards cannot pick up the encrypted (HBO, etc) channels.

Based on what I read earlier in the thread, I checked the CC menu for CP and both are waiting for CP auth.

Cards are both Scientific Atlanta PowerKey

Customer support was not able to do anything remotely. Truck roll #2 on Monday - yeah.

Will definitely have a sit-down with my wife to go over channel checking procedures.

At least I was able to watch Ohio State in HD.

[krstone]

With the Tivo Series 3 and Cablecards, is there any problem getting the sports packages (such as MLB Extra Innings)?
thanks
Ken

[keng]

All's well! Cable guy just left. He actually went to the Tivo website before he came - to learn how to install the cards since it was his first. It was amusing to listen to his conversation with the person who was activating the card. "You're putting into a what?"

[roylevitt]

just had two cards installed in my series 3... it was a breeze. Works perfect and not a single problem!!!

Thank Norwalk Cablevision.

[nyjklein]

I had a really bad experience with Cablevision of Hudson County last Saturday.

Very frustrating.

Jeff

:) Well, my second experience went MUCH better. The Sr Technician they sent had already done an S3 install. Dispatch was very helpful and nice. She also had some instructions now on how to complete the configuration properly. It still took a bit of time to finish. But both cards are fully functional. Both have CP Auth Received. And both can decode all channels.

:up: Thanks to Cablevision for turning this around quickly. :up:

Jeff

[juancho]

I hope Cablevision will send me the same guy that installs your Series 3. I am in Greenwich too. Install scheduled for Sep 30th.


I am also located in Greenwich. Scheduled for installation on tuesday. Will post results.

[pan4life]

I live in Brooklyn, NY, my 2 cablecard installation went fairly well on Saturday, one of the 2 cards they first tried were defective, and then the cards did a firmware update for about 20 minutes. They called in the info and it took about 20 minutes to activate, smooth sailing after that, love my S3 tivo!

[bremmma]

"No Application PresentPrepare to Download"

This comes up on a black screen with a grey border that says This screen is displayed on behalf of your cable provider. the only option is Press CLEAR to Exit. Other than that, nothing appears to be happening.

I'm working with Cablevision in Morris County. Any ideas how I can get this install working?

I've heard people saying it takes up to 20 mins for the Cablecard to recognize properly. Anyone know whats goin on here?

[mllacey]

I Live in Matawan, NJ and my cablecard install also went smoothly but the cablecards will not Authorize.

I've worked with a Tech and his supervisor but they both were clueless and say the problem is with the Tivo.

The problem is that I can get some but not all of my Premium. channels but all premium. HD channels come in loud and clear.

They report they un-paried the cards from the Host-ID then re-paired the card to the Host-id but still missing channels.

So for now I can record via both cards as long as I don't attempt to record any SD Premium Channels.


Series 2
Series 2 Dual Tuner
Series 3 (w/Weaknees 750GB on order)

[jmkirk]

mllacey - I have the exact same problem.

Cablevision tech is at my home in CT now. Will let you know what, if anything, they do to correct.

Other installs in my area have gone in without incident.

My wife reports he is currently looking at the splice in the basement. Update - that went nowhere.

Now on the phone with home-base, trying to get the cards authorized.

[propermodulation]

I am in northern NJ (Cablevision Ramapo).

Got the cable cards installed. No problems or questions. The installer had not seen a Tivo but was VERY helpful. I even gave him the CC instructions from Tivo. He said he will copy it and hand it out to the other installers.

Any way I checked Network HD channels - working, HBO HD - working, checked CMAX HD working, checked out some of the HBO SD channels - all working. So the installer left. Then I re-ran the guided setup and started going thru the channels in more detail and I am finding I am missing a few SD premium channels. (The Cable Co screen comes up with their number to authorize).

I called up tech supporr and they updated the firmware on the CC over the wire. That took half an hour. They said they would call me back, but of course no call was received. Still missing a smattering of channels. I need to call them again.

Any ideas on why SOME channels are missing and SOME are there????

[mllacey]

I tried contacting the number listed on the screen but they report they do not support Tivo's and Transferred me directly to the Tivo Support 800 Number.

What disturbs me that I've spoken with four different "CableCard" specialist at Cablevison and none of them seem to know more that what I know.

[propermodulation]

I tried contacting the number listed on the screen but they report they do not support Tivo's and Transferred me directly to the Tivo Support 800 Number.

What disturbs me that I've spoken with four different "CableCard" specialist at Cablevison and none of them seem to know more that what I know.

The number listed is the Cable Company, so they won't "support" Tivo's. The screen is actually passed thru from the CableCard.

[mllacey]

The number listed is the Cable Company, so they won't "support" Tivo's. The screen is actually passed thru from the CableCard.


I understand that Cablevision does not provide "Support" for my Tivo but I expected them to at least provide the necessary support to Activate the Cablecard when called upon. Also note that when the Cablecard is not Authorized fully you will get the "Call to activate" message.

[Norgoth]

Here is my running commentary of my install by Cablevision this afternoon. All in all I had a positive experience:

" Ok, this is his first install of a tivo. Unfortunately, he was not informed by his office that this is a tivo install. I gave him all my printed material so he can read up before starting. He did take a few minutes to read it. I will keep a running update going.

> > > > First update: So far so good. He read the directions and seems to be
knowledgeable about what he needs to do. We are activating the first
card now with Cablevision via a phone call.

> > > Second update: Still waiting on Cablevision to respond that first card
is activated. My installer said that it takes extra time because
Cablevision has to call Tivo and Sharp(my LCD manufacturer) to bind
eveverything together. Is this true? I remain skeptical on that issue.

> > Third update: Cable Card 1 activated and encrypted channels checked.
Everything is working fine. Installed card #2 and cable guy is on the phone waiting for activation of that card. All the activiation people seem to know exactly what is going on and handle their jobs professionally. I am not sure why the first
activation person wanted the model of my tv though. Seems like an odd question.

> Fourth update: Still waiting on card #2 activation. Cablevision on
the phone said she is waiting on something. My cable guy is a bit
concerned because he has another job to get to before 2pm.
Interestingly, this card displayed that it was getting a firmware
update, while the first card did not say anything like that. So far
things are smooth but a bit time consuming. The tivo went through a few screens while doing the firmware update. At one point it brought me to the beginning of guided setup where you input your zip code. I
just let it sit and it went back to the cable card information screen on its own.

Fifth update: Still waiting on card #2 activation. I believe they
are redoing the activation because the tivo is going through the
screens again as I described above. This wait cannot be good for
Cablevisions bottom line. They need to streamline this.

Just as I was about to post this, the Cablevision activation person
confirmed activation. I went through the channels with my cable guy
and it is all working great. I gave him all my printed material for
tivo installs so that he would have it for future reference."

All in all, the install went well. Btw, my cable guy is an
enthusiastic cable employee. He says they get great benefits and are
paid fairly well. He stated that Cablevision is a great company to
work for.

[propermodulation]

I understand that Cablevision does not provide "Support" for my Tivo but I expected them to at least provide the necessary support to Activate the Cablecard when called upon. Also note that when the Cablecard is not Authorized fully you will get the "Call to activate" message.

You are correct, but it's about playing the game. When you talk to Cablevision talk about getting the Cablecard to work and NOT about getting the Tivo to work.

i.e. Hi Mr. Cable telephone support guy, I am having a problem with my newly installed Cablecard. The Cablecard show the following error. . .

[propermodulation]

> > > Second update: Still waiting on Cablevision to respond that first card
is activated. My installer said that it takes extra time because
Cablevision has to call Tivo and Sharp(my LCD manufacturer) to bind
eveverything together. Is this true? I remain skeptical on that issue.


This is complete BS. I can't even believe he said it to you. It's scary out there!

p.s. any idea of what brand of Cablecard they gave you?

[mllacey]

Has anyone out there come across a FAQ for Troubleshooting cablecard problems ?
We really need to know the "right" questions to ask so we don't get the run around when our cablecards are not working as expected .

[MikePeekskill]

Hi:

I had the Cablevision guy over last week and again on Saturday. One of the cablecards is fine. All channels. The second doesn't work -- "Waiting for Auth" blah blah blah.

The second guy comes and swaps out the 2nd card and it seems to connect and get authorization. However all channels (except broadcast) are pixelated.

What was funny was initially cablecard 2 didn't work. He changed the card, got authorization, and suddenly cablecard 1 stopped working, but cablecard 2 was working fine.

Any ideas on this one before I call the tech back in?

Thanks.

[jmkirk]

I'd call Cablevision again and schedule another visit. In the meantime you can try to work with them on the phone to re-authorize.

I am now on third tech visit for CableCards.

My second intaller was unable to fix my auth problem yesterday. He is back today with new cards, and has been working on it for two hours. At least he has not given up yet.

I sincerely hope he gets the right combination of cards / support from the home-office to get it done.

Not looking forward to breaking in a new tech.

[drew2k]

For everyone needing a second (or further) truck-roll to repair and/or replace the Cable Card due to problems from the initial installation: Is Cablevison charging you for the follow-up visit?

[jmkirk]

No charge on follow-up.

I was told only the first truck-roll would be charged since the original CC hardware or install was flawed.

-> Update after third truck- roll.

New cards were installed (second set) and wife reports all channels working. Will check later tonight and repost if problem.

[norkusmark]

I'm in the process of having a cablevision (monmouth NJ) install my cablecards. The cards activated without a problem, but I'm only receiving the 2 analog channels. We're still trying to figure it out....make sure they follow the tivo directions to the T.

[Kshacknj]

The Phone Call:
Me: I simply asked to order 2 cable cards from cablevision.
Cablevision: They went on, saying you wont be able to do on demand etc
Me: I dont care, just have someone give me two cards
Cablevision: Ok fine, what TV is this going in
Me: Its not a TV its a box (a Tivo Box)
Cablevision: Is it a scientific atlantic or sony cable box
Me: No its a Tivo Box
Cablevision: We do not support any other boxes other than scientific atlantic boxes or sony cable boxes
Me: Im not asking for support im asking for two cable cards.
Cablevision: Ok hold on let me switch you to someone higher up
Me: Waiting on hold listening to porno type of music, bored out of my mind
Cablevision: Ok I talked to someone next to me and they herd of this Tivo, we will have someone come Tuesday.
Me: Ok thanks

Tuesday:
Cablevision Guy: Ok wheres the TV that this cable card is going In?
Me: Its not a TV its a Box, a Tivo Box
Cablevision Guy: looks at the one page instructions on how to install the cablecard and says "You are about to make the biggest mistake of your life right here"
Me: What do you mean?
Cablevision Guy: These cable cards have a 95% failure rate, we have all kinds of issues with them
Me: Ok well put it in anyways, if it doesn't work in 30 days ill return it no big deal, not the end of the world, I'll still keep the crappy scientific atlantic hd3000 for a month just in case.
Cablevision guy: I guarantee you will have me back here trying to fix these cards
Me: Ok well put them in and ill find that out for myself.
CableVision Guy takes the old scientific atlantic box out (in a very mean way) and scraps my new wood TV stand with the bottom of the box.
Me: Watch the F**** out you just F*****ed up my furniture which I just bought last month.
Cablevision Guy: That wasn't me
Me: I just saw you do it!! Why are messing with the Scientific Atlantic Box when I need 2 cable cards in the Tivo which was on the floor.
Cablevision Guy: Im sorry, im testing your digital signal str with this meter.
Me:Ok well how does it look?
Cablevision Guy: Not good, not good at all. Let me see where your cable comes in.
I show him where it comes in
Cablevision Guy: your cable is split 2 times before it hits the box. For cable cards to work correctly it can only be split once before it hits the tivo.
Me: ok fine make it one then.
Cablevision Guy looks like he didn't want to hear that and makes it one split before it hits the tivo
Cablevision Guy: For this to work you cant have the scientific atlantic box + tivo on at the same time.
ME: Ok fine ill just unhook the scientific atlantic box from the cable and watch the old dvr stuff on it and turn it in when im done.
Cablevision guy looked like he didn't want to hear that either and looks frustrated trying to figure out how to set the tivo up
I look at the instrutions and basically told him what to do step by step since he couldn't figure it out (even tho its simple as mudd).
We get everything installed and he calls in to cablevision to give them information of the cards + tivo Mac addresses etc and starts to leave. On his way out he says
Cablevision Guy: The channels will start working in about 1 hour. It takes awhile for this to work.
I wanted him to stay just to make sure it worked, but the other part of me wanted him to leave because he was useless and screwed up my furniture so I let him go

After Cablevision left:
I waited about 1 hour and noticed I had all the channels showing up except for the HD Premium channels Like HBO HD, Showtime HD etc... but all the regular HD channels where shoing up like ABC HD, NBC HD etc. So I decided to wait another hour or so to see if I get them. I waited another hour and same thing... So I waited one more hour just to see.. Again same issue, so I call cablevision because I figured it was on there end.

The Last Phone call:
Called support waited for 15 mins till I talked to someone and listened to more fantastic porno music while waiting.
Cablevision Tech: Hello how can I help you
Me: I just had a cablevision guy come today to install 2 cablecards and im receiving all of my channels except for the premium HD channels from like HBO HD, Showtime HD etc.
Cablevision Tech: ok hold on let me look up your records..... Ok found it, what kind of TV do you have?
Me: I have a sony TV, but the cards are in the tivo box.
Cablevision Tech: Ok np, whats the model number of your TV.
Im getting angry because I didn't feel like dealing with this again
Me: This has nothing to do with the TV it has to do with the cablecards you guys installed today into my Tivo.
Cablevision Tech: Ok well, what ill do it send some information to the cards to fix it.
Me: ok sounds great.
Cablevision Tech: You must turn off your box and turn it back on.
Im looking at the Tivo remote to turn it off and apparently there is no turn off for the tivo box, it just turns the tv off that I can see
I then look at the actual Tivo box and theres no on or off button
Me: I don't see a on or off button anywhere on my tivo remote or box.
Cablevision Tech:Theres one on there, there has to be.
Me: I can reset it or unplug it, but theres no on or off for the actual Tivo.
Cablevision Tech: I have one right here in front of me, theres a on/off button right on the scientific atlantic box.
Im getting even more angry
Me: Can I ask you a quick question?
Cablevision Tech: Sure
Me: Im talking about the two cable cards I just had installed today in my Tivo Box. Why the hell are you talking about my scientific atlantic box? Have you ever herd of anyone installing two cable cards into a scientific atlantic box? I bet not.
Cablevision Tech: We do not support Tivo boxes.
Me: Im not asking for support for the Tivo Box, im asking for suport for the cable cards which you installed today.
Cablevision Tech is starting to have a major attitude with me
Cablevision Tech: I have to send you to someone else, you and I aren't seeing eye to eye.
Me: ok fine, give me someone with a brain please.
Cablevision Tech puts me on hold
As im on hold loving the music again, I notice that 100% of my channels are working
Cablevision Tech: ok all of the other techs are busy can we call you back.

Me: well actually whatever you did fixed my problem
Cablevision Tech: ohh good I didn't think it would work, but all I did was send the cards its information again.

Cablevision Tech: Do you have any other issues?
Me: Nope thanks.
Cablevision Tech: Please wait after your call to provide a survey on how our service was.
Me: ok ill wait.
I Hang up the phone before the survey



Well after the issues with cablevision, I must say I cant wait till Verizons FIOs comes out! So far im happy with TiVO but im still having an issue where the guide data from Tivo doesn't come for channels 50-70ish.

[razor237]

that sucks you had to go through that .... my install went great, i had a tech who was nice and knew about the cable cards & worked w/them b4. my install was the 1st tivo he ever did but we went thru the steps and everything was ok .

I think you just had a tech who couldnt be bothered with having to do somthing that might take a little work to get working or was having a bad day


mike

[wardude]

I had the cablevision guy try toinstall cablecards to for 3 hours, he had 6 cards with him but it did not work. Does anybody in Morris NJ system have success story with CC? If you do can you indicate the tech's name from the green slip they leave behind - near top left "tech#" field.

[brundlefly76]

I hope Cablevision will send me the same guy that installs your Series 3. I am in Greenwich too. Install scheduled for Sep 30th.

My installers just left. Installing the cards and having them autoupdate and start tuning channels was automatic, but the firmware upgrade took about 15 minutes per card - HAVE THEM INSERT THEM AT THE SAME TIME.

The BIG problem is Cablevision's phone activation service which the installers will call to marry your account to the cards and enable pay channels - the woman they called needed to call another person on HER end, and she couldnt get through after 40 MINUTES ON HOLD. It was ridiculous because they had two employees sitting here doing nothing for 40 minutes after 10 minutes of actual work.

Eventually the installers packed up and left and told me they would call back to ask me to test the premium channels after they got confirmation from the activation service that the cards were activated.

I give the installers a B+ and the Cablevision cablecard activation service an F. There wasnt much confusion regarding my install, just delay.

[propermodulation]

So, I still have the same problem. I get all the HD premium channels but I am missing some of the SD premium channels.

Well one more call to cablevision. Same old . . . same old . . . take the cards out . . . unplug the tivo . . . start it all back up . . . same problem . . .

Then I was put on hold and after a few moments the line mysteriously went dead. I KNOW that the person at the other end just did not want to deal with it and hung up on me. So I have to start from square one once again!!!!

[mllacey]

Just got finish working a Cablevision tech and all channels & both cards are working on my S3.

Here's what was done:

1. The Tech checked my levels on the Coax at the Tivo and saw it at a -11db and reported that the Cablecard have been known to have problems with low signal levels when attempting to authorize Cablecards.

2. The Tech checked the levels at the Main Splitter in my house and also found low levels.

3. The Tech then checked the levels at the pole and found they good. He then replaced the connectors and the levels went from a -11db to 0db (I think that what he said).

4. The Tech called the Operations Center and they were able to authorized both Cablecards within 5 minutes of each other with no issues.

The Tech reports that he is seeing problems with Cablecard Authorization when the Signal is too low.

[verdugan]

P.S. Wilt Hildenbrand, EVP of Engineering for Cablevision, posted on a the Cablevision Yahoo group that they're working on getting their CSRs and field staff up to speed.

Wilt totally rocks!!! :up: I am no longer living in a Cablevision area, but when I did, I use to read the Cablevision Yahoo group. He was very helpful. Time and time again he got personally involved to solve customers' problems when they were getting stonewalled by CSRs. He also gave us plenty of information of what was coming. He was always up front.

If you have Cablevision, I highly encourage you to join that group. DISCLAIMER: I have no ties to Cablevision or Yahoo groups.

[wbradney]

Cablevision guy(s) just left. It took 2.5 hours, two techs, one supervisor and 4 cablecards to get a working setup.

First guy had no interest in looking at the instructions provided by TiVo (his first S3 install). He checked the signal strength, replaced a few splices to get a strong signal at the S3 and then put the first card in Slot 1 (he was about to put it in
Slot 2 before I stopped him -- why didn't TiVo make the top slot #1? -- I bet everyone goes for the top slot first).

First card was recognized as inserted but immediately threw error 161-1. First guy calls second guy (who has installed an S3 before) who tells him it's a dead card. Took it out and put another card in slot 1 - this time get a screen saying "No Application PresentPrepare to Download". I tell the guy I'd read that the cards download new firmware. It stays like that for about 30 minutes. He calls the second guy again and he says it's probably another dead card (reckons that the success rate on cards is about 40%, and half of those need another truck roll within a week).

First guy only brought two cards with him (they're all the warehouse had in stock that morning). Second guy says he has two spare cards and he'll be over shortly.

Second guy arrives with third guy (a supervisor) and two new cards. Neither new guy wants to know about the TiVo instructions. Both cards go in together and both are recognized and give out card info for authorization (although one card throws up 161-4 error first.

First guy writes down the numbers on the screen. Then they realize that the they need the numbers on the back of the cards (if they'd read the instructions they'd have known that). They take the cards out and write down the numbers, and put them both back in (thankfully in the same slots they came from) in quick succession. The TiVo menus are going crazy with cards being inserted and removed, but ultimately they're both recognized without any errors.

Guys 2 & 3 leave.

First guy calls home for authorization. Waits 20 minutes on hold. Gives numbers for card 1. Waits 10 minutes on hold. Gives numbers for card 2. Waits 10 minutes on hold. Authorization complete.

When I press Clear to get out of the gray & black screen, nothing happens. The S3 seems to have stopped responding to the remote, although it does "Boing" when I hit the TiVo button, so it's not completely locked. We decide to power-cycle.

When the TiVo comes back up I'm back at the CableCard screen. Test the channels on both cards and I seem to be getting all the channels. Looks good.

Sign the form, Guy 1 leaves.

So after a sticky start, I have everything working.

[KaGe]

Hi everyone ... so I just moved to CT and a bought two new Series 3's ... substituting for the DirecTivo's I was used to having at my old place. I have Best Buy coming to install my new plasma and Cablevision coming to install cablecards in both TiVo's (they'll have to use the same LCD TV until the plasma's set up) so I think I'm in for a complete nightmare tomorrow.

Anyway, here's my question ... when I signed up for cable last week, I didn't order any premium channels ... HBO, etc. ... planning to order them later once I got everything set up. Will it be more difficult for them to add the premium channels later with my cablecards? Should I add the programming tonight before the installers get here in the morning?

Thanks!

[jfh3]

Anyway, here's my question ... when I signed up for cable last week, I didn't order any premium channels ... HBO, etc. ... planning to order them later once I got everything set up. Will it be more difficult for them to add the premium channels later with my cablecards? Should I add the programming tonight before the installers get here in the morning?

I would.

[norkusmark]

Ok, so the first 3 hour visit from Cablevision (monmouth NJ) resulted in two analog channels working. Todays 3 hour visit resulted in some improvement. After installing 2 new Cablecards, I get quite a few digital channels inclusing some network tv, some HD network tv and a whole bunch of regular cable channels... Still now CBS, regular or HD and also missing a whole lot more. They didn't try more than the two new required cablecards unfortunately, but both cards are giving the identicle channels which leads me to believe that its a card provisioning issue, and not the cards themselves. Has anyone experienced this yet? Any solutions. A supervisor is supposed to come next week. Oh, and I tried to call customer service to see if they could reprogram the cards since the techs are just pushing the same buttons on my remote that I would... no luck... I think you need to get to the "addressability" dept which I know takes the techs 30 minutes on hold to do...how effecient is cablevision? I will say, that all employees have been very professional.

[ITGuy72]

Has anyone got their bill since getting 2x Cablecards installed? Curious to know if they are tacking on the premium outlet fee if all you have is one S3 with 2 Cablecards.

[rothsss]

Had 4 cable cards installed yesterday in my 2 tivos. The installer told me that not all channels would be available right away. A day later, 3 out of the 4 cable cards are missing channels, like the food channel (29) and HD HBO (750). I called Cablevision and Cablevision insists that they cannot diagnose and fix the problem remotely. I had to make a service appointment. Bummer. My wife is mad because she cannot watch the food channel.

[ThomC]

Had my install yesterday morning. I had already run guided setup and had been playing with the S3 all week, so I knew what channels were coming in without the Cablecard installed. After the 2 Hr install I had serious doubts, as I had less channels and error messages on the CP screen of the cablecard. The installer gave me the line that it might take a couple of hours for things to start working. He left but nothing improved in the next couple of hours. I called for them to come back because of this.

When the tech got back, he mentioned that there is someone at the main office named Connie who really knows her s**t, when it comes to cablecard. Unfortunately we first had to go through several other layers of not-so-smart home office types who wanted to have me call Tivo since "this is clearly a Tivo problem". Once I explained that my canceling my IO account made it their problem, the tech was able to get through to "CONNIE!!!"

Well long story short(er), after about 20 minutes of us doing nothing on site, (except staying on hold on the phone), Connie told me to restart and run guided setup. Everything now worked!!!!!!

So the moral of the story is make sure your installer calls Connie.

Other little notes:
I have the same CC#1 eject button not working problem as others have reported here. If I was not able to make the cards work with Connie, this might have been more problematic. Fortunately the tech was a nice guy and saw that this was a separate issue.

When running guided setup, for my system I had to answer that I receive CH 1 as a preview channel, (even though I don't), in order for me to get the correct channel lineup info.

Now that install is done, I could not be happier with the S3!!!

[jfh3]

Now that install is done, I could not be happier with the S3!!!

Yeah, but sounds like you are happier with Connie ... ;)

[MikePeekskill]

Still in cablecard hell with Cablevision. Three cablecards later, and still getting that error message pop up on the screen (black and gray screen, white text) everytime I go to a premium channel. One card works fine and always has. The second one keeps freaking out, and three techs have come to the house. One guy said, "You may have to call to have them rebind that card." Any advice? Thanks.

[Will68]

If your Cablevision tech was able to activate/bind the cards but you only get the TiVo supplied channel banner with no picture when testing channels read this!

Here's the nightmare list of what was tried to get my S3 working this past weekend:

3 visits from Cablevision of Woodbury

Over 10 hours total of Cablevision techs onsite

8 CableCARDs tried (4 pairs) with calls by tech to office for activation/binding

The 3rd tech replaced cables and installed an outside ground (not needed but nice)

At least 12 TiVo restarts (half by pulling the plug)

3 or 4 repeats of the guided setup

3 calls to TiVo VIP support (worse that a complete waste of time, you'll see why) :mad:


OK now here's the deal,

I had setup my TiVo to watch analog cable for about a week while I waited for the Tech to come and install the cards. According to the manual this is fine and even a time saver when it comes time to install the cards (WRONG).

The Cablevision techs came one after another. Saturday rolled into Sunday as they went through the actions listed above. In my case the cards would always bind but could not tune in channels (except a couple of analogs starting with 14).

During this fiasco the Cablevision tech said other installers had more success with S3s that had never been setup for analog first, I was sceptical about this. The person at the dispatch office also told him that some other S3 problems like this where resolved by doing a full "Clear and delete everything" on the TiVo. Unfortunately I was on the other line with TiVo VIP support when he told me this and they said "there is no way that would help". Bottom line is TiVo support was dead wrong! Three wasted hours later the end solution was this:


Did a "Clear and deleted everything" on the S3 while both ACTIVATED CableCards were in the unit. Success!!! :D



The last process takes over an hour so the tech left to catch-up on some other calls. When he called to say he was on the way back, what would have been a 4th visit, I told him the good news.

Cablevision was great about this :)

TiVo was terrible!!! :mad:

TiVo gave me some bad advice and made no reasonable effort to help with the CableCARD issue saying so long as the card is recognized in the S3 their job is done and everything else is up to the cable provider.

In the end it was not a CableCARD issue it was a TiVo issue since absolutely nothing was changed with the last set of cards. It was the clearing of the TiVo that finally resolved the problem.

Shame on TiVo!!! :mad: They seem to be strong-arming the cable providers to do all the work since the FCC mandated that all CableCARD devices must be supported.

You can almost here them laughing as they pocket your $800 for the S3 plus ever increasing service fees for a device they will not even help you to get working.

In the end I do like my S3 but with this lack of support I will NOT be recommending TiVo to friends and family anymore. That's after being a loyal TiVo customer for six years (this is my 3rd TiVo).

Good luck all

[mllacey]

Still in cablecard hell with Cablevision. Three cablecards later, and still getting that error message pop up on the screen (black and gray screen, white text) everytime I go to a premium channel. One card works fine and always has. The second one keeps freaking out, and three techs have come to the house. One guy said, "You may have to call to have them rebind that card." Any advice? Thanks.
MikePeekskill,

I had the same problem it it turned out to be a low signal problem but only on Channel 2. As per the Cable Tech, the CableCard uses channel 2 for it's datastream.
After they got my signal levels up and re-paired the cards the problem was cleared.

[jjsdfs]

Will68,
Did you also do a guided setup after "clear and delete?

I also was up on analog, the ccs were installed and I got all 0-99 channels ( aka analog), but after doing the prescribed guided setup I could only get a few random channels ( eg 702 showtime hd!). When checking signal strength, I could see all channels in bakc of the 90+ strength bar meter, but not when in regular viewing mode.
After dismissing a lousy Tivo first tier rep, i got a supervisor who seems eager to help, but I had to resched my call to this evening.
Also, I have a line amp in due to condo's weak signal. Does that influence the Tivo channel setting process? It impaired setup on the SA 8300 from TWC, was taken out of line, then reinstalled for the Tivos???

[Will68]

Will68,
Did you also do a guided setup after "clear and delete?

I also was up on analog, the ccs were installed and I got all 0-99 channels ( aka analog), but after doing the prescribed guided setup I could only get a few random channels ( eg 702 showtime hd!). When checking signal strength, I could see all channels in bakc of the 90+ strength bar meter, but not when in regular viewing mode.
After dismissing a lousy Tivo first tier rep, i got a supervisor who seems eager to help, but I had to resched my call to this evening.
Also, I have a line amp in due to condo's weak signal. Does that influence the Tivo channel setting process? It impaired setup on the SA 8300 from TWC, was taken out of line, then reinstalled for the Tivos???
Hey JJS,

I had to do a guided setup after clearing the S3, however, it sounds like our issues are different. The only channels I was able to see where pure analog like 14 and a few others (ever the low channels are digital in Cablevision of Woodbury).

In my case there was no difference between the channels I could see in the test mode (within the CableCARD screens) or when flipping through channels with live tv.

It may still be worth trying a "clear and delete everything" then another guided setup while the activated cards are installed but your problem may be an incomplete setup of your cards or something else entirely.

Good luck.

Please post your results

[jjsdfs]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I will update all after my 8PM PT call with the TIvo Supervisor.

I remain concerned about the splitter plus amplifier I have in line due to weak signals in the condo complex. Cableco tech says I may need a rewire! Ugh! Strange though, because the TW SA 8300 works fine?

[IceStorm]

My initial installation (last Wednesday) with Cablevision went fine, with the installation taking about an hour from start to finish, including a signal level check in the basement (not at my wall outlet). The cable tech worked for Cablevision (not a contractor) and commented that my condo complex wiring was rather thin (probably RG-59 instead of RG-6). Nevertheless, the TiVo worked fine.

Four days later, early on Saturday morning, I unplugged the TiVo to move it. This meant I both removed power from the unit and the cable line, so there was absolutely nothing powering the cards. Ever since moving the TiVo, I've lost any channels that require CP Auth - BBC World, Logo, most SD HBO, SD Starz, and SD Encore. They tune, they show for about three seconds, then the Cablecard shows me the Host ID screen. I still have all my HD channels, though, as well as CN, Comedy Central, and G4, so it's not a total loss...

My suspicion is that the cards weren't bound correctly as the person on the other end of the phone with the tech kept asking for my TV model number information. I'm kicking myself now for letting the tech give her that information.

Unfortunately, I haven't been able to verify the bindings because Cablevision's Tier 1 can't talk to Tier 2, and Tier 2 can't check my bindings. It took three calls to Tier 1 on Sunday to find out that Tier 2 doesn't work on the weekends, then it took Tier 2 all day Monday to call, only to repeat for a fourth time that I don't have two TVs, I have one TiVo...

[Will68]

Thanks for the quick reply!

I will update all after my 8PM PT call with the TIvo Supervisor.

I remain concerned about the splitter plus amplifier I have in line due to weak signals in the condo complex. Cableco tech says I may need a rewire! Ugh! Strange though, because the TW SA 8300 works fine?
Hey JJS,

Sorry I forgot to mention I also have an amplifier, mine is by Motorola, and a high quality 4 way splitter (Over 1000 MHz) which works fine for me. I also have a SA8300 which works fine off the splitter.

I did try bypassing everything and going straight into the S3 during the troubleshooting process but it didn't make a difference.

Also, all three techs tested my signal strength and found it to be perfect even with the splitter and bypassing just the booster. They replaced some cables, cable ends outside (with waterproof ends) and installed a ground but these stepped, although appreciated, didn't help.

If it's possible for you to bypass everything and go straight into the S3 it's worth a shot.

I believe if you have a weak signal coming in the cable company should rewire with no cast to you.

Will

[mad6c]

Had my install yesterday, cablevision of Hauppauge, all seems to be working fine. Installer brought two CableCards, one was bad so he had to have another one dropped off. I was a little concerned because the installer said this was his first Series 3 install but in the end everything worked out.

[Will68]

Had my install yesterday, cablevision of Hauppauge, all seems to be working fine. Installer brought two CableCards, one was bad so he had to have another one dropped off. I was a little concerned because the installer said this was his first Series 3 install but in the end everything worked out.
Mad6c,

Was your S3 previously setup for analog cable or was it a fresh install?

[bremmma]

I figured I'd chime in with my own experiences, maybe it can help someone...

After going through about 5 or 6 bad cards total, Card1 and Card2 both showed HostIDs. However, neither card would tune to all my channels - I could only get analog channels and a few scattered cable channels like MTV and Comedy Central, but no premiums and no network channels.

The tech tried a bunch of fixes which didn't work. We unauthorized and reauthorized the cards. Finally, when the tech called the Cablecard activation hotline the woman on the phone told us to redo the guided setup. I didnt think this would make a difference, but apparantly it has. We decided to do a Clear & Delete Everything (it took like an hour - tech went to another appt and came back) and when TiVo booted back up, after guided setup, all channels worked fine.

(Note: I had set up the TiVo using analog only for about a week before the cable cards were installed. Maybe this is why I needed the Clear & Delete before the channels would work)

My suggestions for others w/ install problems: first make sure your cable cards work (make sure you have a host ID). If not, you probably have bad cards. Second, I suggest you try and repeat the guided setup after intalling new cablecards if all the channels won't come in. That seems to have done the trick for me.

Now, I have all premium, HD, etc, etc working fine. :) I'm keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way. BTW- this install was in Morris County.

[hallm409]

I've searched through this thread, and I see a few people from towns in Fairfield County (CT) posting about their experiences, but I can't tell which Cablevision providers they were using in some cases. My town is serviced by Cablevision of Norwalk. I think I saw one mention of them in this thread. Has anyone else had any experiences with the Series 3/CableCard install specifically with Cablevision of Norwalk? I've had a number of problems with their service in the past so I wasn't optimistic.

The only thing holding me back right now from ordering a Series 3 is that I don't have any time to deal with multiple visits or the headache of trying to get the CableCard set up working. I feel terrible about missing the baseball playoffs and the NFL season without HD, though, so if it has a decent likelihood of working I would go ahead and get one.

Thanks!

[Will68]

I figured I'd chime in with my own experiences, maybe it can help someone...

After going through about 5 or 6 bad cards total, Card1 and Card2 both showed HostIDs. However, neither card would tune to all my channels - I could only get analog channels and a few scattered cable channels like MTV and Comedy Central, but no premiums and no network channels.

The tech tried a bunch of fixes which didn't work. We unauthorized and reauthorized the cards. Finally, when the tech called the Cablecard activation hotline the woman on the phone told us to redo the guided setup. I didnt think this would make a difference, but apparantly it has. We decided to do a Clear & Delete Everything (it took like an hour - tech went to another appt and came back) and when TiVo booted back up, after guided setup, all channels worked fine.

(Note: I had set up the TiVo using analog only for about a week before the cable cards were installed. Maybe this is why I needed the Clear & Delete before the channels would work)

My suggestions for others w/ install problems: first make sure your cable cards work (make sure you have a host ID). If not, you probably have bad cards. Second, I suggest you try and repeat the guided setup after intalling new cablecards if all the channels won't come in. That seems to have done the trick for me.

Now, I have all premium, HD, etc, etc working fine. :) I'm keeping my fingers crossed it stays that way. BTW- this install was in Morris County.
Bremmma,

Doing the "Clear and delete everything" followed by a guided setup was the same fix for me. See my post earlier in this thread (#105):

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4439579&&#post4439579

Also, in my case I tried just doing the guided setup over a few time without clearing the TiVo and that didn't help at all.

I think you where fortunate in choosing to do the full clear and delete right away.

I suspect this will be the fix for many TiVo S3s when the CableCARDS will activate/bind but not tune in channels.

Were a set of activated cards in your TiVo when you cleared and reset it???

Will

[jjwolfe]

Had my install on Monday (Cablevision Oakland NJ). The tech had never done a TiVo before, but he had lots of experience with Cablecards. He had 2 brand new Scientific Atlanta cards manufactured in April 2006. We put the first card in and had the info screen within 15 seconds. We then waited over 30 minutes for the Cablevision home office. After that wait we needed to be transfered to some expert in the Long Island office. This women really knew her stuff. She was very familiar with the S3 TiVo. Within 5 minutes the first card was up and running. Total time for the first card was just over 1 hour. The process was repeated for the second card which took about another 15-20 minutes. With the exception of the hold time the overall experience was good.

Everything was working fine until that evening when I stared to lose the picture on one of the tuners. Using the CP diag screen I was able to determine that is was related to Cablecard 2. I noticed there was a message about "no ECM's " under the decryption status. I restarted the unit numerous time hoping this would fix the problem, but it didn't.

I plan to call Cablevision this evening to start the repair process. I hope I'm not changing Cablecards for the next month. :(

[rothsss]

Had my install on Monday (Cablevision Oakland NJ). The tech had never done a TiVo before, but he had lots of experience with Cablecards. He had 2 brand new Scientific Atlanta cards manufactured in April 2006. We put the first card in and had the info screen within 15 seconds. We then waited over 30 minutes for the Cablevision home office. After that wait we needed to be transfered to some expert in the Long Island office. This women really knew her stuff. She was very familiar with the S3 TiVo. Within 5 minutes the first card was up and running. Total time for the first card was just over 1 hour. The process was repeated for the second card which took about another 15-20 minutes. With the exception of the hold time the overall experience was good.

Everything was working fine until that evening when I stared to lose the picture on one of the tuners. Using the CP diag screen I was able to determine that is was related to Cablecard 2. I noticed there was a message about "no ECM's " under the decryption status. I restarted the unit numerous time hoping this would fix the problem, but it didn't.

I plan to call Cablevision this evening to start the repair process. I hope I'm not changing Cablecards for the next month. :(

Same problem here. Scheduled a service appointment for Saturday. Cablevision is unwilling to work with me remotely.

[budgreen]

Cablevision of NJ (Oakland) sent a guy out today with 4 cards. Spent over 2 hours of my day waiting and watching this back and forth nonsense with HQ. No card would bind and got a signed work order that stated "could not complete". About two hours later, I received a call from a supervisor to reschedule the appointment with a CableCARD "expert". This appointment is for tomorrow (another 3 hour block taken out of my day). We'll see what happens.

[mad6c]

I was using the TiVo OTA only before the install. After the tech left I re-ran the guided setup. I was very impressed it changed all the channels on my season passes to reflect the cablevision HD channels, so 5-1 changed to 705, etc. Saved me some time.

[jjsdfs]

Thanks for the timely post Will68. I continue to struggle. Now I am awaiting 3rd TWC San Diego visit after 4 cable cards and numerous contacts with Tivo supervisor who seems to care but is out of options. Can't get the CP screen to get by "waiting for CP Auth". We DID take the amp out of line just in case, but hopefully it can be put in now that I know you are runnig OK.
Tivo remains confident it is cards, but FOUR bad ones!? Interestingly, TWC seems to share that view. CP installer said his 2 new ones yesterday may not have the latest firmware, so he suggested new tach with "fresh" cards! What a mess!!
I have insisted the Tivo super ( 25 minute wait on the supervisor line twice now) extend my RMA time option which she agreed to.

[jacksonian]

I had a perfect CC install experience. Everything went fine, we were done in about 20 minutes and most of that time was correcting the work order that the original CSR had put in incorrectly.

Even one of the cards was still paired to someone's Sony TV when we put it in, and we couldn't do them one at a time either because she couldn't authorize the cards until the work order was finished, and she couldn't finish the work order until both cards were in. But it all worked correctly.

Sorry you guys are having some nightmares. I'd be pulling my hair out.

[dbtom]

I used to think that Cablevision was ripping us off with the $40 CableCard install fee. Reading all these stories, I doubt they are making money on the installs or that one would be able to do a self install. Just a thought.

[jacksonian]

TWC only charged me $22 for the install of both cards. I think that's fair.

[IceStorm]

Cablevision sent a tech to check my cards. He didn't come with replacement cards. He said 70 to 80 of every 100 they get don't work and that they warn people away from the cards.

He told me to call and have my cards checked. Hello? I can't. No one will give me the number to talk to Tier 2 or Tier 3...

The tech was clueless. The only problem I have is CP Auth. The cards tune every channel just fine, they just cut off channels that require CP Authorization after a few seconds.

This has to be fixed by October 14th or the TiVo goes back. I have little confidence it will be at this point. Is there any magic word I have to use in order to get to someone who can diagnose CP Auth problems?

[P2H]

I got my Tivo about 10 days ago.

Cablevision of Hudson County came to my house to install my cards. I was at work and my roommate (who has no experience with Tivo), watched him install.

I got home and the Tivo appeared to work. All the channels would tune in, but I wouldn't get the banner showing channels #23-77. According to my Tivo, they simply didn't exist. I did have my "regular" channels and HDTV channels. I also had the same banner problem with 736, or ESPNHD. It simply didn't exist to the Tivo, yet the video and audio were fine. The Tivo would record those channels manually, but doesn't display shows for me to record.

I also have the "CP Authorization" problem. I had Cablevision come out to my home last Monday, and again I explained over the phone to the techs what was wrong. The cable guy was clueless, and again - I wasn't there - so they just thought I was having a video problem. He re-snipped the heads of my cable and left.

I called Cablevision again, and even used this thread as a guide. I asked if the firmware was updated on my cards. They said they would look into this and call me back. That was about 24 hours ago.

This morning I did a full reset of my Tivo before going to work (also something suggested in the thread). I will get home today and re-run the Guided Setup and see how that works.

My Tivo works fine, but every once in a while the channel cuts out and I get the black screen. In my setup I can see that the cards need to be authorized. I call Cablevision to explain this, and they are clueless.

[norkusmark]

Update:
Visit 1 : 3 hours, only 2 analog channels
Visit 2 : 3 hours, maybe 40% of digital channels

Visit 3 : An hour prior to visit 3, I do an inventory of working channels on each card.. after awhile channels become very inconsistent, they work, then they don't work, makes no sense. Then card 1 give an auth failed message and some message saying to contact my retailer... I restart Tivo, both cards reauth and all channels work perfectly... its not like its the first time that I restarted the Tivo. When the techs arrived, I ask if they had the cards reprovisioned while they were on their way and they say "no". I showed them that all channels work and thanked them for their good luck.

[verdugan]

This has to be fixed by October 14th or the TiVo goes back. I have little confidence it will be at this point. Is there any magic word I have to use in order to get to someone who can diagnose CP Auth problems?

Go to the cablevision yahoo group. A high ranking Cablevision excec hangs out there. Ask for help politely, and more often than not, he will personally get involved. Good luck.

[IceStorm]

Go to the cablevision yahoo group. A high ranking Cablevision excec hangs out there. Ask for help politely, and more often than not, he will personally get involved. Good luck.Well, they replaced both my cards and now CP Auth works. The tech refused to let me power off my Series 3 and unplug the cable line to verify that a total power loss to the cards kills off CP Auth ability, and the old cards couldn't be reused since supposedly they go into a "limbo" state. They don't want to troubleshoot the root cause, they're just interested in getting it working long enough for me to sign the paperwork.

I suspect that there's something wrong with the rev of software they're using on the CableCARDs or the head end system is screwing up.

I'll see if I can find the Cablevision Yahoo group... is it cablevision_digital?

I'm plenty polite to people who want to help me. I can't stand people who say "I can't" or "Call TiVo".

[verdugan]

I'll see if I can find the Cablevision Yahoo group... is it cablevision_digital?


That's the one. The cablevision's exec I was talking about is Wilt Hildenbrand. I just checked the board, and I can already see postings about S3 and cablecards. Good luck.

http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/cablevision_digital/

[rothsss]

The CableVision tech just left after a 2 hour visit. He removed all CableCards and installed them again one by one. Everything is working fine now. I eventually can stop monitoring the forums and go on with my life.

[bdlucas]

Did a little searching, couldn't find an answer to this question.

I understand that since CC 1.0 is one-way, you can't order pay-per-view using the S3 Tivo to order the PPV.

But what I'm wondering is this: since you can order PPV over the phone on CableVision, does this mean you could get PPV on an S3 Tivo with CableVision by ordering it over the phone?

[ctsshack]

Well, I setup a TiVo Series3 with cablevision and it went surprising well. Installer was a little nervous about it as he had problems with some TV's with cablecard and hadn't done a TiVO 3. We were up and running with both cards in less than 20 minutes. We just followed the instrustions to the exact letter and everything worked well. The biggest problem was the guide information not showing up right and after reading the post and knowing what my brother went through on his. I just redid the guide setup and told the system I didn't know what cable system I was on and then everything worked great.

[DCIFRTHS]

Wilt totally rocks!!! :up: I am no longer living in a Cablevision area, but when I did, I use to read the Cablevision Yahoo group. He was very helpful. Time and time again he got personally involved to solve customers' problems when they were getting stonewalled by CSRs. He also gave us plenty of information of what was coming. He was always up front.

If you have Cablevision, I highly encourage you to join that group. DISCLAIMER: I have no ties to Cablevision or Yahoo groups.

Yes. Wilt is an awesome guy, and gets things done when it seems that no one else can. He is a big asset to Cablevision.

[blacknoi]

I just bought my s3 this past friday and have it working with analog cable.

My cablecard install appointment is Saturday.

Is it in my best interest to clear all settings and have the tivo box at the setup prompt for the installer for best results?

EDIT: I'm morris county Cablevision.



Oh yea, my area with a cablebox gets all digital channels (analog channels are simulcast in digital w/their box). Will the tivo show the analog feed or the digital version?

[PatMcNJ]

My install is this Friday. I am a little nervous (Cablevision Monmouth NJ)

Question: Can someone tell me about using a splitter? With a splitter, I can hook up thru the HD cable box, so I can get IO? I rarely use IO, I am more concerned about some stations not working at first, so at least I could still get them thru the box, until the Tivo was working perfectly. Also, husband LIKES the stupid Cablevision remote, and does not use Tivo anyway........ (he is crazy)

I need to figure out how I want the system wired up. I have a splitter now, one to HD cable box, one to Series 2 Tivo. Right now, I use the HDMI to the plasma thru the cable box (via HDI). Series 2 set up direct to TV thru a different set of jacks (only picks up SD), like the DVD player. I think I want a splitter now to go to HD box, and then to one input location, and the other side to go to Tivo series 3. I would switch the HDMI to the Series 3, use the other inputs for the box (I want to use 2nd HDMI for DVD).

I went crazy figuring it all out when plasma TV was installed on the wall in July. Great tip I got was running extra sets of input jacks....... even if you do not need them right away. (We do NOT want to take the TV off the wall!)

[IceStorm]

With a splitter, I can hook up thru the HD cable box, so I can get IO?Yes, and Cablevision provides whatever splitters and coax you need. In my basement Cablevision has a splitter that splits the signal to two different cables that run up to my condo unit. One of those legs goes to an SA 4200HD. The other leg goes to a second splitter that feeds the TiVo and my SA 8300HD (haven't gotten rid of the 8300HD just yet).

[seredyns]

I just bought my s3 this past friday and have it working with analog cable.

My cablecard install appointment is Saturday.

Is it in my best interest to clear all settings and have the tivo box at the setup prompt for the installer for best results?

EDIT: I'm morris county Cablevision.



Oh yea, my area with a cablebox gets all digital channels (analog channels are simulcast in digital w/their box). Will the tivo show the analog feed or the digital version?

Yes - It's in your best interest to do a "clear and delete everything". I had the Tivo set up for a week using the analog channels only. When the installer came we worked for hours and I was only getting a couple of analog channels. The digitals would not come in. I read in this thread to try the clear and delete and then after that the majority of channels were working. I am still having issues with the premium channels like HBO and the Sport Pack but all other channels and the HD channels are working good. I think this is an authorization issue with the cards. Allow one full hour for the clear and delete.

[mllacey]

Anyone seeing the Authroization drop on thier Cablecards late night? Ive found the simplest fix is a reset of the Tivo.

Could this be a Tivo Problem or a Cablevision problem?

[mad6c]

I don't remember if it was yesterday or Sunday but the CableCard screen popped up while I was watching a recorded program, like the card was just re-inserted. I cleared the screen and everything appeared to be working correctly afterwards. Anyone have a similar issue?

So far in over a week of use I have only noticed it once.

Mike

[Royster]

Anyone seeing the Authroization drop on thier Cablecards late night? Ive found the simplest fix is a reset of the Tivo.

Could this be a Tivo Problem or a Cablevision problem?

I may have seen that last night between 10 and 11pm.

http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=321242

[kvnobrien]

I'm in Morris county, NJ and the Cablevision techs have said to me that they have not had a successful Tivo Series 3 install with both cards yet.

I currently have one card working and get all the channels for my service. I just had the second set of techs come to my house to try and get the second card card to work in the top slot. When they put in the second card the error 161-4 pops up. We waited about 5 minutes and nothing happens. So they go through the other 2 cards and the same thing occurs.

Any suggestions on what i should try next? If I clear the 161-4 message, it just comes back again.

I called Tivo and they said the SMC cablecard maybe receiving a firmware update. The Cablevision tech laughed and said, "From where?"

From what I've read it seems like there is a firmware update and they didn't wait long enough for the second card to finish and may have damaged the card by taking it out.

Anyone from morris county cablevision have the same problems? Any suggestions?

[mllacey]

Anyone seeing the Authroization drop on thier Cablecards late night? Ive found the simplest fix is a reset of the Tivo.

Could this be a Tivo Problem or a Cablevision problem?

Well this happen again this morning (Approx 0430 EST). This time while I was watching "Kidnapped" I got the Gray Screen indicating that Cable Card 2 was having a problem.

This time I checked the Signal strength and everything looked good, just no Pic on any of the Prem channels on Cable Card2.

One observation I thought Id note, this problem has happened both times just before the Tivo start to record that "Tivo Programming".

Could this be a coincidence?

[propermodulation]

I'm in Morris county, NJ and the Cablevision techs have said to me that they have not had a successful Tivo Series 3 install with both cards yet.

I currently have one card working and get all the channels for my service. I just had the second set of techs come to my house to try and get the second card card to work in the top slot. When they put in the second card the error 161-4 pops up. We waited about 5 minutes and nothing happens. So they go through the other 2 cards and the same thing occurs.

Any suggestions on what i should try next? If I clear the 161-4 message, it just comes back again.

I called Tivo and they said the SMC cablecard maybe receiving a firmware update. The Cablevision tech laughed and said, "From where?"

From what I've read it seems like there is a firmware update and they didn't wait long enough for the second card to finish and may have damaged the card by taking it out.

Anyone from morris county cablevision have the same problems? Any suggestions?

From Tivo, "If you see error 161-4 during installation, you can ignore it. If you see Error 161-2, it means that the card is damaged and needs to be replaced."

See: http://customersupport.tivo.com/knowbase/root/public/tv010416.htm

[PatMcNJ]

The biggest problem was the guide information not showing up right and after reading the post and knowing what my brother went through on his. I just redid the guide setup and told the system I didn't know what cable system I was on and then everything worked great.

I also am missing channels 23-77, from the guide and my channel lineup. I can GET them, just no guide info, etc. I will try and reboot, and also re - run guide setup. Right now, it says it cannot do that until after 2am scheduled update or something.

Install went quickly, all channels work on each card. It was the cable guys first Tivo series 3, and he was happy to finally get his hands on one. It was only an hour that he was here. Cablevision Monmouth County, NJ.

[pnrmurph]

I had a similar problem. When I ran the guided setup I said no, channel 1 is not a Preview channel. After that I was mssing guide data for a bunch of channels like you. I re-ran the guided setup and said I don't know what's on channel 1, let me choose another station. It then went to whatever ShopNBC is on and I said, yes that is on that channel. After that I had all the proper guide data.

[rbeauch]

My cable installer just left. My S3 is working, I'm recieving all channels. The install took about 45 minutes, most of which is on hold with the dispatcher. No problems! I'm so happy to see the SA8300hd go. I love my S3!

[PatMcNJ]

YES, thanks to this board things are looking up. Fellow Cablevision users, there does seem to be some sort of little glitch with the stations and the Tivo guide. I rebooted (still had the missing stations, but would allow me to start over). When it asked what was on channel 1, I said ask me about another channel. (Originally I said it was not a preview channel-- so I was looking to try something different!). Then is asked about MSNBC. Then when it asked my cable co, I said I did not know. THEN it went thru and I got all the channels, even a few I dont get (sports things). I just went and took those off my list.

So, if you are missing those stations, mess around with this and run the setup, and you will likely fix it yourself.

Everything looks fine, and I am still running my Series 2 next to it, so family can finish watching stuff on there. I also kept my HD cable box, running on component inputs for now. Everthing is on a different set of input jacks. Husband likes the cable remote, so far refuses to learn how Tivo works..... Cable guy replaced my splitter and a cable that he said was not such great quality...

Go Cablevision!

[blacknoi]

I just wanted to tell my experience from today:

I've been using my S3 all week with analog only (plus watching unencrypted qam locals w/o guide data as well).

Cablevision installer came at about 830 (my appt was anywhere from 8-11).

He said he hadn't done a tivo before but talked to other installers the day before who had. He said they actually are having BETTER success with tivo's w/cablecard than with tv's installing cablecards.

I showed him the instructions for the cablecard installer. He USED them and went step by step. No problems!

The longest part was for him to call his dispatch to register the cablecards (one at a time of course). Then his dispatch had to call the cablevision main office in Long Island NY...

It was about an hour from start to finish and everything is working great.

I redid the guide setup when it asked if I wanted to, said "yes i have channel 1 as the sneak preview channel" ...based on comments made earlier in this thread (despite me not having that channel) and everything was all good.

So you don't necessairily have to reset your tivo back to factory defaults to get the cablecard to work if you follow their instructions.

The installer, John was very nice and seemed very knowledgeable.

Hope this helps some people out.

[PatMcNJ]

Just another note, my cable guy was EXCITED to do his first Tivo install...... I had to run out and drive a kid to school, and he said he was worried he would not get a chance to do it (he called before arriving and got no answer). Great attitude! He also had a person lined up who was knowledable to take his call to the office; who then of course had to call Long Island NY. I said, why dont they just have you call Long Island directly, and he laughed........ he seemed to agree that there was really no reason for him to be there to do the install (but I got my new splitter and wire, and he also couldf have checked my signal strength if I had a problem I guess).

Best part, he would love a Series 3 himself, but said they get the one from Cablevision free, so it's hard to turn that down.

Series 3 working perfectly, I love recording 2 shows at once...... and in high def, I'm in heaven.

[seredyns]

My series 3 is finally working properly today. The Cablevision techs were out for the third time today. They replaced the cable from the pole to the house to get the levels up. They also needed to re-authorize the cards. Now I am getting all channels and the Tivo is working flawless. A big thumbs up to Cablevision for sticking with this and making it work. I am very happy with both the Tivo and Cablevision.

[Loquitur]

I'm having problems with my cablecard install which was doomed to fail from the start since the tech put the cable, which was a new run, into the antenna input rather than the cable input. Then he called in the numbers one card at a time and left. I investigated the next morning since there were no channels and nothing was happening and discovered the error. In preparing for the second tech, I took the cards out and did a clear and delete. I wanted to start over but the tech said the cablecards were already married and already addressed to my gear even though the cable was in the wrong input and that it should work. Both cable cards seemed to vest in that I got the channels on both cards but it took a long time for all the channels to come in and for the information on the CP screen and diagnostic screen to fill in. Info was dribbling onto the cablecard menu screens for 8 hours and then I went to bed and it filled in by morning except that the CP Authorization never cleared. So they will be back on Tuesday for the 3rd visit and promised me they would unbind the cards from my account and start over completely from scratch. I'm also having them bring extra cards.

I do have a question. How long should it take for the CP Authorization to clear? Is it necessary that the CP Authorization clear on the first card before anything is done on the second card? I also would like to know if my cards were especially slow. A tech could never realistically have hung around long enough for all the channels to come in and the cablecard information to reflect on the menus with this first set of cards.
Susan

[PatMcNJ]

It should not take very long..... For me, I went thru the first few menus, until I got to the screen that had the cable cards. He stuck in the first card, and in about 3 minutes, the info was there and he called it in. He had to call the local office, who then called Long Island. Even with being on hold, the first card was in and working in about 15 minutes. We checked the stations, and at first all were not there, but within a few more minutes, they were, and we moved on to card #2. I let the guy leave once all stations were showing on each card, that took anbout an hour. I then continued with the Tivo installation. I fooled around with the Tivo on my own for awhile after that. I had the initial problem with some missing stations off the Tivo menu, but I got that working ok.

[Loquitur]

>.......it should not take very long..... For me, I went thru the first few menus, >until I got to the screen that had the cable cards. He stuck in the first card, and >in about 3 minutes, the info was there and he called it in...I let the guy leave >once all stations were showing on each card, that took anbout an hour.


Thanks, Pat. That's very helpful. I'm from the Wappingers Falls Cablevision which is in Dutchess County and I don't think the techs that came to my house have done any Series 3 Tivo's yet. They have had the attitude that some cablecards take 24 hours to fully activate so they call in the info that pops up on the CC menu as to host ID and card # and leave shortly thereafter with instructions for me to call back if the channels don't all come in. Now I know to insist that they stay and use different cards if the CP Authorization doesn't clear within a reasonable period. I'm running out of time to get this going since my DirecTv subscription will end on October 19th.

> I then continued with the Tivo installation. I fooled around with the Tivo on >my own for awhile after that. I had the initial problem with some missing >stations off the Tivo menu, but I got that working ok.

I was fortunate that the Tivo menu showed all the channels. Actually, by the next morning, everything seemed fine with the powerkey status ready and EMM and ECM counts in except the CP Authorization was never received. So the encrypted channels would flash for a minute and then disappear. The tech said that when he comes on Tuesday he will be able to call "Jodie" who is supposed to be a cable card expert. So, I'm hoping to get it going. I must admit, though, that I'm frustrated since I already have a dual tuner HD DVR with the DirecTv 10-250, which I have never had one days trouble with. For a few more HD channels and a slightly better picture quality, I may decide its not worth the hassle if it doesn't start working after the third attempt.

Susan

[mikatc]

Your experience sounds similar to mine, but I never got the encrypted channels to work. I hope you have better luck.

[PatMcNJ]

While it might not be workable, I wish Cablevision could have one or two really knowledgeble people lined up to take the Series 3 install calls. I assume the "important" person in their procedure is the one in Long Island NY who actually binds the cable cards (Person #3)? My cableguy (Person #1) had a person in the local office (Person #2) standing by (I mean when he called, he asked for this guy by name), who in turn was knowledgible enough to get a compentent person in L.I. on the phone (Person #3). My #1 local cable guy stayed on the phone with his office (# 2) who stayed connected to # 3 in Long Island while the channels came up available. It may have even been a 3-way phone call, I am not sure. Person #3 in Long Island put #2 on hold in between card 1 and card 2; when installer #1 called for 2nd card, he again asked for #2 by name. This also seemed wise, same team did each card. My cable guy said he discussed it with #2 the day before, thats why he wanted to go thru #2. This seemed like a great idea, planning ahead like that.

I was lucky, it was the cableguys first Series 3 install. And the cable cards both worked. He did not need the one spare he brought along.

[seredyns]

I'm having problems with my cablecard install which was doomed to fail from the start since the tech put the cable, which was a new run, into the antenna input rather than the cable input. Then he called in the numbers one card at a time and left. I investigated the next morning since there were no channels and nothing was happening and discovered the error. In preparing for the second tech, I took the cards out and did a clear and delete. I wanted to start over but the tech said the cablecards were already married and already addressed to my gear even though the cable was in the wrong input and that it should work. Both cable cards seemed to vest in that I got the channels on both cards but it took a long time for all the channels to come in and for the information on the CP screen and diagnostic screen to fill in. Info was dribbling onto the cablecard menu screens for 8 hours and then I went to bed and it filled in by morning except that the CP Authorization never cleared. So they will be back on Tuesday for the 3rd visit and promised me they would unbind the cards from my account and start over completely from scratch. I'm also having them bring extra cards.

I do have a question. How long should it take for the CP Authorization to clear? Is it necessary that the CP Authorization clear on the first card before anything is done on the second card? I also would like to know if my cards were especially slow. A tech could never realistically have hung around long enough for all the channels to come in and the cablecard information to reflect on the menus with this first set of cards.
Susan


Don't know what affects there may be on the Tivo because they used the antenna port. You may want to consider running a "clear and delete everything" before the next visit and start from scratch again.

In my case I was having a similar issue where I had all the channels except the premium ones. The picture would flash for a second and then I would get the grey cablecard screen saying not authorized. After several sets of cable cards they managed to get the cards authorized but then the next day I was back to not authorized. I believe my issue may have been low levels. They actually ended up replacing the entire run from the pole to my house. After that the tech. said the levels were perfect at the tivo end. They re-binded the cards one more time and that was it. Everything has been fine since. Stick with it because it is possible to get these things working properly. Good luck.

[Loquitur]

[QUOTE=PatMcNJ]While it might not be workable, I wish Cablevision could have one or two really knowledgeble people lined up to take the Series 3 install calls. I assume the "important" person in their procedure is the one in Long Island NY who actually binds the cable cards (Person #3)?




I think it will get to that down the road out of necessity. It's interesting that my tech called Connecticut to bind the cards.

Susan

[Loquitur]

Don't know what affects there may be on the Tivo because they used the antenna port. You may want to consider running a "clear and delete everything" before the next visit and start from scratch again.

In my case I was having a similar issue where I had all the channels except the premium ones. The picture would flash for a second and then I would get the grey cablecard screen saying not authorized. After several sets of cable cards they managed to get the cards authorized but then the next day I was back to not authorized. I believe my issue may have been low levels. They actually ended up replacing the entire run from the pole to my house. After that the tech. said the levels were perfect at the tivo end. They re-binded the cards one more time and that was it. Everything has been fine since. Stick with it because it is possible to get these things working properly. Good luck.


Glad you got it going and I'm hopeful about the visit tomorrow. I will be sure they check the signal level but it shoud be good since its a new run and the pole is right outside my house. A clear and delete and rebind of the cards is the plan with the "cable card expert" Jodie on call.
Susan

[Loquitur]

Your experience sounds similar to mine, but I never got the encrypted channels to work. I hope you have better luck.


Thanks for the good wishes. I'll report back after the visit Tuesday.

Susan

[seredyns]

Glad you got it going and I'm hopeful about the visit tomorrow. I will be sure they check the signal level but it shoud be good since its a new run and the pole is right outside my house. A clear and delete and rebind of the cards is the plan with the "cable card expert" Jodie on call.
Susan

Make sure you allow for a least a full hour for the clear and delete. It really takes that long. I know because I ended up doing it twice!

[resanders]

I live in Morris County, NJ and had a Senior Tech at my house yesterday... this was the fourth visit from Cablevision overall. I have two S3 units and on one unit I get all channels except local Ch. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 & 13 (although when I watch these channels I only watch the HD channels) but it would be nice to hav everything working. On my second unit, I have about 60% of the channels with the same problem with local Ch. 2, etc. All cards are properly activated and on my second, set cablecard 2 has a "Call Cablevision to view copy-protected channels" (or something like that) and my first set I think the cards are fine. I will try to go through selecting the channel line-up again and select Ch. 1 even though I don't get it to see if that does anything like give me more info. on channels that just say "regular" but I'm not sure if this will allow me to see more channels. The CV Sr. tech said it could be the TiVo unit is looking for the local Ch. 2 on the wrong frequency and escalated my problem to a TiVo rep so I'm waiting for that call. One other question... will the 'Clear and Delete' function work to free up more channels?

[norm428]

Had my cablecards installed on Saturday - Cablevision of Woodbury, Long Island. After reading about Sixto's successful experience, I had printed out Ref #01-04-16 in anticipation of their arrival. When the guy came, he had a copy of the same print out! It was his first Tivo install, but he had done some homework before hand. It seems Cablevision is very aware of the Series 3. He brought 2 brand new cablecards, because he was told that there were problems with some of the refurbished cards and he wanted to make sure that everything went as smothly as possible. A second guy showed up to check out the install, because he hadn't seen one either. We agreed to follow the instructions EXACTLY.

1st card - Had a little trouble getting the card in. He was afraid of breaking something. I told him I appreciated that, but just shove it in! Finally got it in, and the screen came up with the CableCard ID# and Host ID#. He had written down both cablecard smartcard ID #'s and Serial #'s. When he called in for authorization, he made sure to tell the guy on the other end, that there were 2 seperates installs and they needed to be done one at a time. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT!! He made sure to keep the guy on the line for both installs. It took almost 30 minutes to get the verification. They were very busy and were on hold the whole time. Anyway, tested all the channels - SUCCESS! Now it was time for card #2

2nd card - Installer inserted the 2nd card, than told the guy on the line to activate the 2nd card. We were put on hold and realized the screen with the Cablecard and host ID #'s didn't come up. We waited 20 minutes and were told it was activated. We made sure he stayed on the line while we tested it and of course, it didn't work. Cable guy took out the card and put it back in - this time the screen came up. The 2nd Host ID# was NOT the same as the 1st one. This surprised everyone. Make sure you get the 2nd Host ID #. He called in to re-authorize with the new Host ID#. After another 25 minute wait, we were told it was done. We tested card #2 - SUCCESS! We retested card 1 and everything was working as hoped. Picture was GREAT!!! Cableguys left happy and I'm VERY HAPPY!

Moral to the Story - FOLLOW THE DIRECTIONS EXACTLY!! It probably doesn't hurt to request NEW cards if possible. The only real problem was the waiting time getting authorization over the phone, but with some patience, you'll get through it.

[wolverines]

Wow. It's hard to believe but my cable card installer was spot on a year ago. I had a card installed into my panny plasma exactly 1 year ago and told the guy I was holding out for a Series 3 (he said I should just go with the HD box). He was great, but it took forever to get the cablecard working on the TV. It seems that the standards are a bit "loose" so every TV basically becomes a custom install (one reason they won't let customers do self install). He suspected any Tivo relying on the cards would have lots of problems too.

Given the experiences of everyone here I'm not running out to get an S3. I'll hold out hope for the headend DVR from Cablevision. That's got some promise if it can pass copyright muster. I like my 3 S2's but the programming is becomming a mess (what's on what, etc.).

Also, someone earlier in the thread asked but I didn't see the answer. Cablevision of Oakland charges $1.25/mo for the card. Then, if you have any premium channels or digital cable it's an additional mirroring fee per outlet beyond the first outlet. So if you have a digital box somewhere in your home that's outlet #1. The S3 with 2 cards would then be outlet #'s 2 and 3. I think the mirroring fee is ~$4 or $5/mo so I'd expect most of you guys with S3's to see an extra $10/mo from cablevision.

[blacknoi]

Also, someone earlier in the thread asked but I didn't see the answer. Cablevision of Oakland charges $1.25/mo for the card. Then, if you have any premium channels or digital cable it's an additional mirroring fee per outlet beyond the first outlet. So if you have a digital box somewhere in your home that's outlet #1. The S3 with 2 cards would then be outlet #'s 2 and 3. I think the mirroring fee is ~$4 or $5/mo so I'd expect most of you guys with S3's to see an extra $10/mo from cablevision.

I'd like to clear this up.

If you have one outlet (one box or one cable card) you pay the rental fee (5.74 or so for a box, 1.25 for a cable card). With 2 or more, you'll also pay a 1.50 "additional outlet fee" but only ONCE, regardless of how many more you have.

So, for example, if you rent 1 cable box and 2 cable cards it would be:

5.75 box rental
1.25 cable card rental
1.25 cable card rental
1.50 additional outlet fee

This is in NJ. I think NY might have a 5- additional outlet fee, but again, only once.

[norm428]

Glad it went well ... still rock solid here ... HD, dual buffers, photo's/mp3's, new remote ...

Lovin it ... bouncing between 2 HD games (one on each buffer), while watching an HD Letterman ... sweet ... a disk upgrade in the future ... and then hopefully MRV/TTG ... and the rumored Amazon Unbox would be nirvana ...

Your post was a tremendous help. I couldn't be happier. Now, what is the Amazon Unbox?????

[blacknoi]

Your post was a tremendous help. I couldn't be happier. Now, what is the Amazon Unbox?????


its DRM hell:

http://www.boingboing.net/2006/09/15/amazon_unbox_to_cust.html

[Sixto]

Your post was a tremendous help. I couldn't be happier. Now, what is the Amazon Unbox?????At the end of September there were several articles with rumor that TiVo was talking to Amazon about enabling the TiVo for downloaded movies/DVD's.

http://www.engadget.com/2006/09/22/amazon-working-with-tivo-for-unbox-integration/

[Brighton Line]

I'd like to clear this up.

If you have one outlet (one box or one cable card) you pay the rental fee (5.74 or so for a box, 1.25 for a cable card). With 2 or more, you'll also pay a 1.50 "additional outlet fee" but only ONCE, regardless of how many more you have.


Cablevision of NYC charges a $5 monthly fee for "Premium Programming on Additional Outlets" on top of the $5.50 Digital or Analog Cable Box per month and whatever you are paying for Premium Channels (individual or package) . Digital Cable Card is $1.25 a month.
So for me it is $5.50 X2 + $5 Premium Programming + $9.99 DVR (SA8300HD) then my premimum programming (Silver Package $67.95) with tax it comes into to $99.58 a month.


Now is the $5 for Additional outlets charged if you just have two cablecards?

I would get rid of one cable box at $5.50 but do I loose the $5 Premium charge with two cable cards and a box?

[lightrunner]

I live in Morris County, NJ and had a Senior Tech at my house yesterday... this was the fourth visit from Cablevision overall. I have two S3 units and on one unit I get all channels except local Ch. 2, 4, 5, 7, 9 & 13 (although when I watch these channels I only watch the HD channels) but it would be nice to hav everything working. On my second unit, I have about 60% of the channels with the same problem with local Ch. 2, etc. All cards are properly activated and on my second, set cablecard 2 has a "Call Cablevision to view copy-protected channels" (or something like that) and my first set I think the cards are fine. I will try to go through selecting the channel line-up again and select Ch. 1 even though I don't get it to see if that does anything like give me more info. on channels that just say "regular" but I'm not sure if this will allow me to see more channels. The CV Sr. tech said it could be the TiVo unit is looking for the local Ch. 2 on the wrong frequency and escalated my problem to a TiVo rep so I'm waiting for that call. One other question... will the 'Clear and Delete' function work to free up more channels?

resanders, when you went through the guided setup did you get to the portion where it said what channel do you receive on channell "x" (this could be channel 1 or 12 etc..)? If you did what channel did you select?
You might want to go through it again and this time select 'Another Channel' option until you get the proper matching channel. I chose channel 12 for NJ12.

[ITGuy72]

Now is the $5 for Additional outlets charged if you just have two cablecards?
I asked the same Q a while ago, can someone chime in who has received their bill?

[blacknoi]

Cablevision of NYC charges a $5 monthly fee for "Premium Programming on Additional Outlets" on top of the $5.50 Digital or Analog Cable Box per month and whatever you are paying for Premium Channels (individual or package) . Digital Cable Card is $1.25 a month.
So for me it is $5.50 X2 + $5 Premium Programming + $9.99 DVR (SA8300HD) then my premimum programming (Silver Package $67.95) with tax it comes into to $99.58 a month.


Now is the $5 for Additional outlets charged if you just have two cablecards?

I would get rid of one cable box at $5.50 but do I loose the $5 Premium charge with two cable cards and a box?


Go ask on : http://www.dslreports.com/forum/ool

They are awesome over there w/cablevision questions of all kinds.

[kvnobrien]

The fourth visit and still no luck. They replaced my coax cable run today, and I had one card working but not all the channels(and no HD). They tried a few more cards today with no success. This stinks.

[Loquitur]

Hi!

I'm happy to report that I'm up and running perfectly. When the tech came this afternoon he was prepared with 2 new cable cards and the telephone number of Jodie Berg who is supposedly a cable card expert. They set up a conference call with Ed Hiliar who was assigned to my case by Wilt Hildebrand, a cablevision engineer who offered to help on the Yahoo cablevision group. The three of them were on the phone the whole time and it went very smoothly though it did take some time. He didn't attempt to retry the cable cards that were activated in the wrong port, which I was very happy about. The first cable card went in, the host ID screen popped up and then it went into a firmware upgrade. This took about 15 minutes. Inever got the 161-4 error. It was another 5 minutes or so until the CP Authorization was received and then the channels started coming in from the test channels menu. It was about 15 minutes before the encrypted channels appeared and I think from one end of the conversation that they had to give the card several "hits". Then the second card went exactly the same way - firmware upgrade, CP Authorization and channels slowly coming in with the encrypted channels last. This went slightly faster than the lst card but not much. Then I reran guided setup, checked off the premium channels that I receive and they all showed up in the TIVO menu. The tech was here about an hour and a half. So, barring anything unexpected, I'm ready to go.

Just as an aside, I bought a UPS for the TIVO. I don't know about these cable cards but the first ones that I had didn't refresh very well when I unplugged the TIVO. The power key readiness status was lost and it took overnite for it to come back,w hich I expect would cause a lot of trouble for scheduled recordings. Its something I probably should have bought a long time ago but wasn't sufficiently motivated to do so.

I'm very thankful for these boards and the other online resources such as Cablevision Digital yahoo group and AVS forum. I don't think there is any way my project of changing from HD DirecTv to HD cable would have been successful otherwise.

Susan

[Loquitur]

> The fourth visit and still no luck. They replaced my coax cable run today, and >I had one card working but not all the channels(and no HD). They tried a few >more cards today with no success. This stinks.[/QUOTE]

I sent you a PM

Susan

[wolverines]

Originally Posted by blacknoi
I'd like to clear this up.

If you have one outlet (one box or one cable card) you pay the rental fee (5.74 or so for a box, 1.25 for a cable card). With 2 or more, you'll also pay a 1.50 "additional outlet fee" but only ONCE, regardless of how many more you have.

So, for example, if you rent 1 cable box and 2 cable cards it would be:

5.75 box rental
1.25 cable card rental
1.25 cable card rental
1.50 additional outlet fee

This is in NJ. I think NY might have a 5- additional outlet fee, but again, only once.

You were right on the outlet fee. For some reason I thought it was $5 per outlet. I know the CSR told me the additional outlet fee was per outlet (so you would pay for each card), but I cannot confirm that as I've only got 1 box and a cable card.

[resanders]

resanders, when you went through the guided setup did you get to the portion where it said what channel do you receive on channell "x" (this could be channel 1 or 12 etc..)? If you did what channel did you select?
You might want to go through it again and this time select 'Another Channel' option until you get the proper matching channel. I chose channel 12 for NJ12.
lightrunner, I figured out why the guide info. wasn't coming in... I selected "show another channel" instead of "I don't get ch. 1" and MSNBC came back, I confirmed it, reconnected to TiVo and then I saw all the guide info. As far as the missing channel problem... I was referred to Wilt Hildenbrand (CV Exec) who had Ed Hellyer contact me... a tech (5th visit overall) will be coming out on the 28th to begin the validation process from scratch so I have to run the 'Clear & Delete' option before they come. That stinks as I'll lose all of my program info. buy HEY it's TiVo so it should pretty easy to set up again. I'll keep you posted. Any issues with your S3?

[Loquitur]

QUOTE...... I was referred to Wilt Hildenbrand (CV Exec) who had Ed Hellyer contact me... a tech (5th visit overall) will be coming out on the 28th to begin the validation process from scratch so I have to run the 'Clear & Delete' option before they come. That stinks as I'll lose all of my program info. buy HEY it's TiVo so it should pretty easy to set up again.



Wilt and Ed are the same guys who helped my tech with my install and it went really well. The Clear and Delete didn't cause me many issues. Rerunning the guided setup after the cards are working properly is easy and goes fast and I just set the Tivo to record what I wanted for the first night as single episodes and waited until the next day to do the season passes so the full guide could load. It was a minor inconvenience and worth the effort. Best of luck!

Susan

[krstone]

Friendly CV tech arrived knowledgeable and prepared. Had my 2 CC's and some extra's in the truck if needed (which they weren't: tech said 1 in 10 CC's are bad). Went through the install with only issue being the long delay on the telephone to get authorization. After 1-1/2 hrs (most of that spent on hold) I now have two working tuners, HD picture and no complaints. (Except for the plamsa intereference issue with the remote, but that's another topic).

Ken in CT

[dbenrosen]

Install this morning was unbelievably smooth. Both cards worked immediately with all of my channels, including premium, coming in. Longest time was being on hold, but even that was under 30 minutes. Entire process was done in under an hour, with HD looking great.

I have Cablevision of Rockland. This was the tech's second Series 3 install.

[suzook]

just had a cv tech come this morning to install 2 cablecards. everything went smooth. what took the most time was being on hold with dispatch(about 30 mins). the tech was here for about 45 mins total, was friendly and knowledgeable.
btw, i forgot how much i have missed tivo. i had cv dvr since they first offered it( 2 yrs ago). the pic quality on the tivo is just as good, or maybe better( i cant tell the difference to be honest). so another happy s3 tivo owner on cv.

[vette1998]

can you order PPV directly on the S3 or do you still need a cable box to order movies ?
are the on demand features for cablevision available on the S3 ?

[suzook]

can you order PPV directly on the S3 or do you still need a cable box to order movies ?
are the on demand features for cablevision available on the S3 ?

from what i have heard, you can call an order payperview. but i know for a fact on demand does not work. this isnt a problem for me, i never use on demand, and ppv maybe once or twice a year. if you could live without these, and arnt happy with the sa dvr, you will love the tivo

[nascarfan]

I am in Cablevision Raritn Area of New Jersey. I am in Somerset County. MY Tivo 3 has been running with no cards waiting for my tech to show,which he did today. Sam said that he had done many installs. He brought 4 cards and said it is never the Tivo,it is always the cards. Many are no good. He also said new cards will be out soon that will be more interactive. Anyway the install went smooth except the fact that two of the cards were bad. We never rebooted the system.Just went through card installs. All channels good and NASCAR looks fantastic. Sams first focus was the signal level,which was -3db. He said 0 db is a minimum. He installed a amplifier at my drop end and then installed then installed the cards. Sam was + + + ! Kudos. Asked me to choose all ones on my customer survey! I will.

[mad6c]

I've had this happen now about 3 or 4 times. I try to watch TV and the picture is just a black screen, the tivo is not buffering. Usually just changing the channel one up and then one down brings the picture back but today I had to restart the tivo to get service restored. It appeared that it was having trouble with only encrypted channels. I could tune ABCHD (707) but not HBOHD (750) or FOXHD (705). Anyone else having a similar issue?

Mike

[mbernste]

I'm on the Cablevision of Raritan system (Piscataway, Bridgewater, Edison, etc) and I had my cable cards installed on Saturday. This was the second Series 3 the installer did. He was professional, very knowledgeable, and very customer focused. He said my signal levels were at the cusp of an acceptable range but he went ahead anyway. He had 3 cards just in case something went wrong (good sign of being well prepared). He took two cards out and wrote down their serial numbers. He inserted the first card, after 20 seconds or so, the gray screen came up with the host ID. He called in to dispatch and the guy he spoke with knew his stuff (dispatch confirmed he only had 1 card in and it was in the bottom slot, which shows good TiVo training). The card was activated and all the channels were up and running. I had a signal level of 92 out of 100. The second card went just as smoothly as the first. Afterwards he did that "whole house" test on my SA 4200 HD box and said he'll contact the engineering guys to boost up my signal. From start to finish, the entire install was under an hour. He seemed about as amazed as I was as to how smooth the install went. He was also quite impressed with the Series 3.

I made sure Wilt knew how smoothly the install went.

[jcraven49]

:( Anyone have any experience with a self install on the S3 for Comcast cablecards. My unit just sets there with the message "Please wait ... acquiring channel information". I dread a call to Comcast because they will have no clue. It was hard enough to get them to give the cards.

[dubluv]

Oh yeah I have one of those too. That's not a CableCARD.

I'm holding off on Series 3 until all of these minor issues are ironed out.

What a shame though that the cable companies would try to stifle TiVo like this.


well, considering they make very little on the cc, i can understand why the cable providers arent pushing cc's. fwiw, i had a cc installed on my sharp aquos back in Jan, 2005. it took 3 separate visits just to get the analog channels to show up. (the cable needed to be split, with one going to the analog side, and the other to the cc port.) cablevision of woodbury made two more trips to my home with two other annoying problems that kept recurring. eventually, i gave up, and brought the card back. hopefully you series 3 folks will have better luck than i did. sadly, it dont look good for you based on my experiences to date. the final tech said i needed to update the firmware on my tv. upon calling sharpusa, they told me it would cost around $250, and they would not guarantee it would work. i was also told sharp was abandoning cc on their new line of tv's.

[nyjklein]

well, considering they make very little on the cc, i can understand why the cable providers arent pushing cc's. fwiw, i had a cc installed on my sharp aquos back in Jan, 2005. it took 3 separate visits just to get the analog channels to show up. (the cable needed to be split, with one going to the analog side, and the other to the cc port.) cablevision of woodbury made two more trips to my home with two other annoying problems that kept recurring. eventually, i gave up, and brought the card back. hopefully you series 3 folks will have better luck than i did. sadly, it dont look good for you based on my experiences to date. the final tech said i needed to update the firmware on my tv. upon calling sharpusa, they told me it would cost around $250, and they would not guarantee it would work. i was also told sharp was abandoning cc on their new line of tv's.

Well, Sharp lied to you on both counts. First, I'd think that your set was still under warranty so if it required a firmware upgrade to resolve a problem, it should have been performed for free. I also have a Sharp Aquos LCD and got my Cablevision cablecard in May 2005. While it took some effort and about three visits by Cablevision, we did get it working and it's stil working. Also, Sharp has not abandoned Cablecards. All of their new models come in CC equiped versions (just look for the DCR symbol).

[dbenrosen]

I've had this happen now about 3 or 4 times. I try to watch TV and the picture is just a black screen, the tivo is not buffering. Usually just changing the channel one up and then one down brings the picture back but today I had to restart the tivo to get service restored. It appeared that it was having trouble with only encrypted channels. I could tune ABCHD (707) but not HBOHD (750) or FOXHD (705). Anyone else having a similar issue?

Mike

I've had a similar problem happen twice, but the only thing that brings the stations back is a TiVo reboot. All the digital cables are grey screens and it is both tuners/CableCards.

The second time I checked the CableCard diagnostic screens and both cards had the Auth status as CP Failure. I called Cablevision, who had me reboot. Check the CableCard diagnostic screens the next time this happens.

They said they would replace my cards if the problem persists.

[paladin732]

cablevision came today and installed unit

They even took it out of the box and hooked it up for no additional charge (my family is inept and can not do this themselves, and I am in college, so I can't be home)

I had them check all the channels, everything works (including premium)

Was there a little over an hour

[shaown]

Looks like some folks from Greenwich, CT tried it, how was your experience?
-Shaown

[dbenrosen]

Cablevision is coming back out today to replace my CableCards, which failed again yesterday. It would be so much easier for everyone if they would allow me to pick them up and install them myself instead of having to wait for them to come out and do it, particularly if this problem persists.

[NancySue]

How do you access the directions from the TiVo web-site (reference #01-04-16).

I can't seem to access it... been on the web site. I have a mac. which may not be able to access it.

I had cablevision yesterday, they installed two cards and i dont get 702 705 707 709 in HD... and their are boarders on the right and left of the screen....
I do get 704 711 and 713 in HD in hd,, and it seems like it is coming in on 04 also.. in hd...
I've done everyting people mentioned on the board.. so cablevision is coming back today...the Tivo customer support said maybe i need a new tivo..


Anyone have this problem???


Nancy

[DCIFRTHS]

How do you access the directions from the TiVo web-site (reference #01-04-16).

I can't seem to access it... been on the web site. I have a mac. which may not be able to access it.

I had cablevision yesterday, they installed two cards and i dont get 702 705 707 709 in HD... and their are boarders on the right and left of the screen....
I do get 704 711 and 713 in HD in hd,, and it seems like it is coming in on 04 also.. in hd...
I've done everyting people mentioned on the board.. so cablevision is coming back today...the Tivo customer support said maybe i need a new tivo..


Anyone have this problem???


Nancy

If you are accessing the support page on tivo.com, it appears to be down at the moment.

I have Cablevision, and I am not having the problems you describe. Cablevision did the install, and didn't verify that the HD channels were working before they left? That's bad. Tune to channel 713, and see if you get a full screen picture. This is PBS, and it's always broadcasting an HD show.

What TV do you have, and what resolutions does it support? Is it a Plasma or LCD flat screen? What output do you have the S3 set to?

What do you see on screen when you tune in 702, 705, 707 and 709? Do you get the correct channel, but not in HD? Some HD channels will give you borders if the show is not broadcast in HD. What shows did you try to verify this with?

What physical connection do you have running to the TV? An HDMI or component cables?

Have Cablevision verify that the signal is good at the TiVo. They use a meter to check this, and they won't know for sure unless they use it. Don't just let them tell you the TiVo is no good unless they can verify this.

Have you received any messages from the S3 regarding the CableCARDs? If so, what did they say?

[paladin732]

Cablecard#1 has failed, so they are coming to replace it tuesday

[beady]

I purchased my Series 3 on Friday. My local Best Buy had one even though the website said there were none in stock. I was able to use a reward zone 12% off coupon so I was very happy.

I have Family Cable with Cablevision of Haupauge. I have a Cablecard in my TV at home. I had to have my TV repaired and when I did the Host ID changed. I was still able to get the 700 channels and since I do not get any premium channels I did not bother to get the tech to come out just to phone in my new host id. I removed the card from the TV, plugged it into the Tivo and ran setup. I ignored the Host ID error message and I'm still able to get all the 700 channels that I'm entitled to. It's only acting as a single tuner right now but that's fine. I'll get another Cablecard eventually.

[resanders]

lightrunner, I figured out why the guide info. wasn't coming in... I selected "show another channel" instead of "I don't get ch. 1" and MSNBC came back, I confirmed it, reconnected to TiVo and then I saw all the guide info. As far as the missing channel problem... I was referred to Wilt Hildenbrand (CV Exec) who had Ed Hellyer contact me... a tech (5th visit overall) will be coming out on the 28th to begin the validation process from scratch so I have to run the 'Clear & Delete' option before they come. That stinks as I'll lose all of my program info. buy HEY it's TiVo so it should pretty easy to set up again. I'll keep you posted. Any issues with your S3?


I ran the clear & delete function which erases all programming (season pass, wish lists & thumbs up / thumbs down preferences) and now every channel is coming in!! When I go into each cablecard configuration, binding screen says "To view copy protected programs..." so I'm having CV tech come out tomorrow and I think all they have to do is re-bind the cards... one at a time. Let's hope this works!

[dbenrosen]

CV was at my house for over 2 hours on Friday to replace my CableCards. During part of this process my wife was working with the tech. From my car on the phone I got them to reboot the TiVo, which neither the Tech nor the cablevision personnel he was speaking with on the phone thought to do. They did have him unplug the TV, which was totally useless because the CableCards are in the TiVo.

After installing the new Cards (he went through at least 6 until he found two that worked), I still wasn't getting 704 & 705 (NBCHD and FOXHD) on both tuners. They were just grey screens. All other digital, premium and HD channels were working.

After about an hour speaking to someone out in Long Island, they were able to get those channels to work. All the changes over the last hour took place from the CV headquarters. Other than check channels and settings, we didn't change anything with the TiVo.

The tech claimed that only 3% of all the CableCards work. I've heard this number before and find it very hard to believe. For example, the two cards I currently have in the TiVo could have been deemed "not working" when I didn't get the two stations, but they are working now. The changes were with the service, not the cards.

I also asked if they had any other company's CableCards instead of SA, but the tech said no.

[NancySue]

If you are accessing the support page on tivo.com, it appears to be down at the moment.

I have Cablevision, and I am not having the problems you describe. Cablevision did the install, and didn't verify that the HD channels were working before they left? That's bad. Tune to channel 713, and see if you get a full screen picture. This is PBS, and it's always broadcasting an HD show.

What TV do you have, and what resolutions does it support? Is it a Plasma or LCD flat screen? What output do you have the S3 set to?

What do you see on screen when you tune in 702, 705, 707 and 709? Do you get the correct channel, but not in HD? Some HD channels will give you borders if the show is not broadcast in HD. What shows did you try to verify this with?

What physical connection do you have running to the TV? An HDMI or component cables?

Have Cablevision verify that the signal is good at the TiVo. They use a meter to check this, and they won't know for sure unless they use it. Don't just let them tell you the TiVo is no good unless they can verify this.

Have you received any messages from the S3 regarding the CableCARDs? If so, what did they say?

I found the instructions on the Tivo site... I have a Maxent Tv Plasma 52 Inch, It has 16;9 or 4:3. I have video out put set to Native. I get the correct channel when i tune into the 702 704 705 707 709 711 712 713. but not the HD. I get grey or black boarders. I was verifing it with the NFL football game at the time the cable man was here. Now i'm not getting 23 24 25 on the hdmi but i am getting it on the rca cables on an av1 output.

I did get hd on 707 this morning. it stopped getting it about 5 minutes before the end of the show.
Cablevision said to go to 100 and if a channel is in yellow it is being broadcast in HD. only 707 was in yellow and I was getting it in HD.. up to 5 minutes before the end. Not the commercials but the tv show.
( so. maybe the signal coming in is correct to only give me one channel.. I will have to wait to see if other channels are in yellow later today to test the other channels at that time.)
I have a HDMI cable running the TV.
Although not a full screen . it has a black boarder 704 appears to be a hd clear picture whereas the other 702 705 etc are not .. Right now only 713 is a full screen however it is not yellow on 100 according to cablevision meaning it is not broadcasting in hd...
I get a full screen picture on 713.
They did not verify with a meter. They are coming today and i will make sure they do that.
There is no error message coming from the s3 regarding the cable cards. says installed.
___________

cable men came, said not their problem. they said they sent a signal into my box for the last 3 hours before they came, and when they got to me I was receiving all the channels. They said the resolution is not their problem. They put in the green, red white yellow cable and the resolution on that imput is better than the hdmi imput. Which is very unusal. Shouldn't the hdmi be better????
They said that the broadcast is coming in with a black border and their box has a way to expand the picture and fill the screen. My Tivo s3 aspect of panel zoom and full do not change the picture at all.
They said my signal is good. said 94 on the tivo signal strength area. and they tested it independtly also.

[srothkin]

I'd like to clear this up.

If you have one outlet (one box or one cable card) you pay the rental fee (5.74 or so for a box, 1.25 for a cable card). With 2 or more, you'll also pay a 1.50 "additional outlet fee" but only ONCE, regardless of how many more you have.

1.25 cable card rental
1.25 cable card rental
1.50 additional outlet fee


The additional outlet fee seems like double-dipping. They're charging twice for a single piece of equipment (the 2nd cable card). Is this even legal? I thought the FCC rules were that the cable company is not allowed to charge you extra for running more than one TV (they can only charge you for the hardware you rent)?

[dbenrosen]

CV is coming again tomorrow to replace one of the CableCards. It lasted two days before I was back to missing all digital stations. The other card was still working, but I'm not expecting that to last too much longer. This is very frustrating and is making me consider returning the S3.

Has anyone been able to get this rectified in a reasonable amount of time. Repeatedly wasting 3 hour chunks of my time waiting for them to come for the same problem is not good.

Note: I've had my Series 1 for 6 years and LOVE it and have raved about TiVo to anyone and everyone. I wouldn't even bother getting the cable DVR because I heard so many frustrating things about it.

This process is very frustrating.

[resanders]

CV is coming again tomorrow to replace one of the CableCards. It lasted two days before I was back to missing all digital stations. The other card was still working, but I'm not expecting that to last too much longer. This is very frustrating and is making me consider returning the S3.

Has anyone been able to get this rectified in a reasonable amount of time. Repeatedly wasting 3 hour chunks of my time waiting for them to come for the same problem is not good.

Note: I've had my Series 1 for 6 years and LOVE it and have raved about TiVo to anyone and everyone. I wouldn't even bother getting the cable DVR because I heard so many frustrating things about it.

This process is very frustrating.
I couldn't agree more... I'm resanders and have a few posts in here. I had CV techs over today for a FULL and very frustrating 8 hour day!!!! To make a long story short, they said it's now out of their hands ("we've done all we could about binding the cable cards, etc.") and have a call into one of their TiVo contacts to call me directly... something about looking at the logs on the tivo unit so we'll see where this takes me... going crazy!! I love TiVo but they shouldn't have dumped this product on the cable companies laps without somehow partnering with them or on some kind of better communication/educating level. I'm afraid now it's just going to go back and forth between cables cos. and tivo.... "not our problem... etc."

[krstone]

I love TiVo but they shouldn't have dumped this product on the cable companies laps without somehow partnering with them or on some kind of better communication/educating level. I'm afraid now it's just going to go back and forth between cables cos. and tivo.... "not our problem... etc."

You make a great point. Tivo needs to be part of the process of getting the cable cards, cable companies and their own product to play well together. As you said, Tivo should not dump this cutting edge technology on the market and figuratively tell the cable cos to "make it work".

FWIW, my own experience with Cablevison and S3 cablecard installation was very positive. The tech and the person who he called to authorize the cards were both friendly and experienced with a Tivo S3 install process. I am up and running with no problems.

ken in CT

[resanders]

You make a great point. Tivo needs to be part of the process of getting the cable cards, cable companies and their own product to play well together. As you said, Tivo should not dump this cutting edge technology on the market and figuratively tell the cable cos to "make it work".

FWIW, my own experience with Cablevison and S3 cablecard installation was very positive. The tech and the person who he called to authorize the cards were both friendly and experienced with a Tivo S3 install process. I am up and running with no problems.

ken in CT

I'm glad you had a good experience. The latest with mine is that on my one S3 unit, I pulled out both cards, ran the clear & delete function and then put each card in one at a time (starting with CC1) and that brought ALL channels in although I get both the "to view copy protected..." and "waiting for validation" messages. I think that is what the CV tech was doing yesterday and he made a comment that this should probably be standard procedure. I talked to him this morning and said I don't want to even touch that box now since I'm afraid I would lose everything again -- even though he said the cards are unbound and might lose the channels in 30 days... we'll see. The second S3 box has only one card in it which is validated and brings in all the channels... he said CC slot 2 has a bent pin and he needs to re-schedule a new cablecard to be put back in... hopefully it will work, if not... I hope TiVo can give me a replacement box?? So, all in all I feel a little better especially getting all channels in on both cablecards on S3 #1 but the cards are not bound... will keep you posted.

[DCIFRTHS]

I'm glad you had a good experience. The latest with mine is that on my one S3 unit, I pulled out both cards, ran the clear & delete function and then put each card in one at a time (starting with CC1) and that brought ALL channels in although I get both the "to view copy protected..." and "waiting for validation" messages. I think that is what the CV tech was doing yesterday and he made a comment that this should probably be standard procedure. I talked to him this morning and said I don't want to even touch that box now since I'm afraid I would lose everything again -- even though he said the cards are unbound and might lose the channels in 30 days... we'll see. The second S3 box has only one card in it which is validated and brings in all the channels... he said CC slot 2 has a bent pin and he needs to re-schedule a new cablecard to be put back in... hopefully it will work, if not... I hope TiVo can give me a replacement box?? So, all in all I feel a little better especially getting all channels in on both cablecards on S3 #1 but the cards are not bound... will keep you posted.

When my cards weren't bound, I lost all (grey screen) programing that was flagged as copy protected content. This is fixable over the phone. You give them the serial number of the CableCARD, the Host ID, and from wat I remember, the CableCARD number that appears on screen in the TiVo's CableCARD/Host ID Screen.

When you call, ask to speak to a CableCARD specialist because you need the need that cards authorized for copy protection.

[dbenrosen]

FWIW, my own experience with Cablevison and S3 cablecard installation was very positive. The tech and the person who he called to authorize the cards were both friendly and experienced with a Tivo S3 install process. I am up and running with no problems.

ken in CT

My initial experience was great (see post much earlier in this thread). How long have you been up and running. Mine worked fine for 5 days.

Today I spent another 3.5 hours with the tech at my house. First we replaced the one card that had failed this time. But it wouldn't authorize even after CV said it was. I wouldn't let the tech leave until I had all of my channels working, and it is a good thing. After a little while, I lost the authorization on the first card that had been working. After a more tries, they finally connected me to the main desk, where there suggested we do the install of the cards as if the TiVo was new. We took out both cards, rebooted the TiVo, installed card 1. Waited for that to get working. Then installed card 2. And they are both working. I expect this to last for about 2 days, which is what I have been seeing the over the past week or so.

During the process of waiting for this to work, I was ready to tell the tech to forget it and I would just return the TiVo (I'm still in my 30-day window). But since I had taken half the day off of work already I figured I'd get it working.

If it happens again, the TiVo is going back. No matter how bad the SA DVR is (I've never had it because it isn't a TiVo), I can't imagine it could be more frustrating or a bigger waste of my time than I've had so far.

[DCIFRTHS]

My initial experience was great (see post much earlier in this thread). How long have you been up and running. Mine worked fine for 5 days.

Today I spent another 3.5 hours with the tech at my house. First we replaced the one card that had failed this time. But it wouldn't authorize even after CV said it was. I wouldn't let the tech leave until I had all of my channels working, and it is a good thing. After a little while, I lost the authorization on the first card that had been working. After a more tries, they finally connected me to the main desk, where there suggested we do the install of the cards as if the TiVo was new. We took out both cards, rebooted the TiVo, installed card 1. Waited for that to get working. Then installed card 2. And they are both working. I expect this to last for about 2 days, which is what I have been seeing the over the past week or so.

During the process of waiting for this to work, I was ready to tell the tech to forget it and I would just return the TiVo (I'm still in my 30-day window). But since I had taken half the day off of work already I figured I'd get it working.

If it happens again, the TiVo is going back. No matter how bad the SA DVR is (I've never had it because it isn't a TiVo), I can't imagine it could be more frustrating or a bigger waste of my time than I've had so far.


When Cablevision did my install the tech brought about 7 cards with him. One of them had a dent in it. I told him not to use that particular card. He said he brought so many cards because they frequently didn't work, and in many cases, switching out the card fixed the issue. I wonder if the recycling of the cards, especially cards that have corrupted firmware, are just bad cards that Cablevision is not bothering to replace because of the cost vs. demand issue :confused:

[dbenrosen]

The "new" card failed again last night when I checked around 8pm. Same CP Failure on the Auth Status page as always. I restarted the TiVo and everything came back. Did TiVo slip in a Windows OS when we weren't looking :eek:

I'm now beginning to believe this isn't totally the fault of the CableCards. I can't imagine this kind of failure rate on a device. I now think it might be the interaction between the CableCard and the TiVo.

Another interesting new thing happened yesterday while the tech was at my house and I was showing him that the initial card wasn't working. It happened to be recording a program on that tuner, but with the cablecard not authorized it was recording nothing. To get it to change the channel on that tuner, I needed to stop the recording. When I did that and changed the channel, everything came back. It was the first time I had seen that particularly behavior.

[propermodulation]

I can't imagine it could be more frustrating or a bigger waste of my time than I've had so far.

I'm on my 3rd SA DVR in less than 1 year. I'm sorry about your problems with the S3, but the SA will not be any better from what I have seen.

[resanders]

When my cards weren't bound, I lost all (grey screen) programing that was flagged as copy protected content. This is fixable over the phone. You give them the serial number of the CableCARD, the Host ID, and from wat I remember, the CableCARD number that appears on screen in the TiVo's CableCARD/Host ID Screen.

When you call, ask to speak to a CableCARD specialist because you need the need that cards authorized for copy protection.

I could try that but I wonder why I'm getting ALL channels on both cards (unbound) and the TiVo unit seems to be working just fine... not sure what it will do after the 30 days but I'm willing to "experiment" and let it run its course to see what happens. In the meantime, CV tech contacted their TiVo specialist who is supposed to call me... hopefully won't take too long. I'm also bummed about my other unit where the CV tech said one of the slots (#1) is not working with the bent pin (I looked in the slot and couldn't tell where the bent pin was but the card looked like it had a slight dent). I tried it last night by carefully and slowly inserting it and it took and said "connected" but I got that 161-1 error. I get every channel on that one cablecard (which is bound) but of course can't record another program at the same time or watch another show while one is recording. The saga continues...

[resanders]

can you order PPV directly on the S3 or do you still need a cable box to order movies ?
are the on demand features for cablevision available on the S3 ?

I believe you have to call CV to order it and then tune to the channel. That's what one of the techs told me.

[DCIFRTHS]

I believe you have to call CV to order it and then tune to the channel. That's what one of the techs told me.

CableCARD devices are one way devices. They can't send the necessary information to the cable company information to order a Pay-Per-View event/movie. As the previous posted stated, you should be able to call in the request, and then tune to the channel, but this will only work if the show you order is not sent on a switched digital channel. Best bet is to call Cablevision and ask them if this will work.

[DCIFRTHS]

I could try that but I wonder why I'm getting ALL channels on both cards (unbound) and the TiVo unit seems to be working just fine... not sure what it will do after the 30 days but I'm willing to "experiment" and let it run its course to see what happens. In the meantime, CV tech contacted their TiVo specialist who is supposed to call me... hopefully won't take too long. I'm also bummed about my other unit where the CV tech said one of the slots (#1) is not working with the bent pin (I looked in the slot and couldn't tell where the bent pin was but the card looked like it had a slight dent). I tried it last night by carefully and slowly inserting it and it took and said "connected" but I got that 161-1 error. I get every channel on that one cablecard (which is bound) but of course can't record another program at the same time or watch another show while one is recording. The saga continues...


A particular show, not the channel itself, is flagged as copy protected, so the channel may work fine for all shows except the one that has the flag on. For example, you could get all the shows on ShowtimeHD, but then Weeds airs, and the flag is set - BAM - grey screen.

What I have described is based on my personal situation with Cablevision and the S3. The names of the shows have been changed to hide the fact that I sometimes watch some really bad shows ;)

Is the S3 CableCARD/Host ID Screen showing the card(s) as Authorization Received ?

[shaown]

Ok, Cablevision called with a good price, so I setup an install for Fri 11/10 in Greenwich, and ordered the Series 3 from here. Fingers crossed!
Any special advice for Greenwich? I asked em to bring a few extra cards.
I already have Optimum Online and am currently using satellite.
Plan to hookup
1 Series 3 / 1 Series 2 off same line as Cable modem (hmmm that coudl be too much huh?)
1 Bedroom TV with no box, already has cable run
1 Kitchen TV with no box, already has cable run
1 Living Room Tivo with Cable Co DVR (has no RUN!)
-Shaown

[Bunny]

I am in Morris county, NJ. Had an install last Saturday. After some initial problems and 3 techs in my living room everything seemed to work. Lost all my channels on one tuner after 5 days. Did a clear and delete and now lost all channels (with the exception of 14, 21 and 22 as far as I can see) on BOTH tuners. Called with CV but rep was clueless. Also have a SA8300 which now lost premium channels and some non-premium HD channels (INHD, INHD2, TNT, UHD, and some others). Not sure if I lost these at the same time as I lost all channels on TIVO or if they messed up trying to hit my CCs. Cablecard configuration states: to view copy protected programs, call ... with CC ID and Host ID or something to that effect. If the CCs were bound correctly, would a clear and delete everything require the CCs to be bound again? Any other clues?

[resanders]

A particular show, not the channel itself, is flagged as copy protected, so the channel may work fine for all shows except the one that has the flag on. For example, you could get all the shows on ShowtimeHD, but then Weeds airs, and the flag is set - BAM - grey screen.

What I have described is based on my personal situation with Cablevision and the S3. The names of the shows have been changed to hide the fact that I sometimes watch some really bad shows ;)

Is the S3 CableCARD/Host ID Screen showing the card(s) as Authorization Received ?

It's showing as authorized on my 1 unit with one card inserted but not authorized on my other unit where both cards are inserted.

[N1NCZ]

Cablevision in Milford, CT

3 Install vists:

11/3 - HD & HD Preimums work thought all was OK except for some binding issues on non HD preimums. Tech was here for 2 1/2 hours (mostly long wait to get cards configured) Tech said waiting for cp was OK - thought strange - later found it was
11/5 - Back to fix no Preimums unless HD, Left with one cc working, one not & a referal for supervisor. Tech also changes connector ends & tries replacing a few cables. (short wait for configured but he was told it was on this end)
11/6 - Call from Supervisor he tries to get cards reset, I do full clear & delete - lose non HD preimums vist scheduled for tomorrow
11/7 - Back to replace on non working card and ...., finally got both of them up and running had to remove / reinsert / rerun guided setup many times here againfor about 2 1/2 hours

4 different cc's to get 2 to work, all had to be upgraded. Glad I had time to be home for this.

I love the features of the S3 will see how long it stays working with the cc's!

I give the Cablevision Installers an A, the Cablevison staff for loading the card info a C+ (only this high caues the final guy today was great), while the SA cards really stink.

[resanders]

It's showing as authorized on my 1 unit with one card inserted but not authorized on my other unit where both cards are inserted.

Latest and not so great: I called TiVo and arranged for an exchange (I'll send it out today) for a new S3 unit on the one in the family room that has a bent pin in CC slot 1 so when I get that new unit, hopefully CV techs will have better luck with a fresh box. My other S3 in the living room is the one I don't want CV techs to touch since I get all channels on both cards and everything seems fine although the cards are "not bound" and CV tech stated the cards could reset in 30 - 35 days but I just want to leave it to see what happens... education for me and the techs.

[beady]

My other S3 in the living room is the one I don't want CV techs to touch since I get all channels on both cards and everything seems fine although the cards are "not bound" and CV tech stated the cards could reset in 30 - 35 days but I just want to leave it to see what happens... education for me and the techs.

My guess is that it is probably still going to work.

I had an unbound CableCard in my TV for the last 4 months and did not have a problem getting the locals and ESPN, SNY, OnDemand, and all the other HD channels in the Family package. I don't have any premium channels like HBO so I'm not sure if they require the card to be bound. I then moved that card to my TIVO and I get those same channels without calling CV. When I 1st installed the card I got the error message about the card not being bound. I flipped to a different channel and then back and it worked. I have not seen the error screen since the 1st day.

[sd2528]

I just had my CC install yesterday from Cablevision in Hudson County NJ. In and out in under 1 hour. Both cards work. All the premium channels work. No problems so far.

[resanders]

My guess is that it is probably still going to work.

I had an unbound CableCard in my TV for the last 4 months and did not have a problem getting the locals and ESPN, SNY, OnDemand, and all the other HD channels in the Family package. I don't have any premium channels like HBO so I'm not sure if they require the card to be bound. I then moved that card to my TIVO and I get those same channels without calling CV. When I 1st installed the card I got the error message about the card not being bound. I flipped to a different channel and then back and it worked. I have not seen the error screen since the 1st day.

That's good to know. But, actually the Playboy channel doesn't come in so I could probably just cancel that channel... not really a must have.

[beady]

That's good to know. But, actually the Playboy channel doesn't come in so I could probably just cancel that channel... not really a must have.

I would imagine that Playboy is considered a premium channel and requires authentication which means the card has to be bound to the host.

[tomfitz]

Just had my install done in Greenwich, CT. Angel was the guy from Cablevision who installed and everything went off without any hitches.

[jerryk55]

Hi - I'm experiencing the same problem. THe cablecards in slot 2 are failing. I just had Cablevision out to my house this morning to swap out a card which was failing with CP Failure. When the tech left everything was working. And now this evening I get CP Failure on the same slot again. I'm considering returning the box to Circuit City since its only been 3 weeks at this point (as of tomorrow). Did you resolve your issue?

[midnightgirl]

Well bought my tivo last sunday. Took several calls before I could get them to send anyone out at all. But finally I did get an appt.

Tonight I had an Insight Communication installer out. He had never installed cards in a Tivo before but was very helpful. We got to the point where he was to call and activate the cards and when he got on the phone with them, he mentioned he was installing into a Tivo. The guy on the other end basically said right away we don't work with Tivos. I'm sorry it doesn't work. And I can't activate it.

So, the installer radio'd his boss who said yes there was a memo and we don't work with tivo. You must not have been there that day. I asked if I could speak to him and I asked him if we could not please just try and if it didn't work, that would be ok. He said I'm sorry ma'am even if I wanted to I have no authority over the people who would authorize it and they won't do it. He suggested I get the cable pvr but I told him I did not want to do that. I liked tivo and I was willing to pay to rent the cards, I just wanted to use my own equipment. He apologized but again the tivo was not compatible with their cards.

So after begging them to call them back and say its a tv and being told no, the installer left with his cards. After not really attempting anything.

So, after years of waiting for Tivo and deciding to go with cable even though I'd prefer Dish Network so i could keep my tivo...having less hd channels but keeping Tivo features...I was going to give in and get dish's pvr.

I called Tivo - to assure that the receiver was cancelled. I got a nice rep named Jeremy. I explained what happened. He asked what cable company I had and put me on hold. Then he came back and said we're going to call your cable company with you o nthe phone if that is ok. I said sure.

My cable rep got on the phone and Jeremy said Hi I'm jeremy from Tivo, and sue is a customer of ours. You are familiar with Tivo aren't you? she said yes. We explained the situation that happened with the rep who just left... and she said can you hold while I talk with my supervisor. Then she gets back on the phone and apologizes and says I'd like to set up another service call and send another rep out there for you to install the cards.

So this saturday we'll try again.

[DCIFRTHS]

... My cable rep got on the phone and Jeremy said Hi I'm jeremy from Tivo, and sue is a customer of ours. You are familiar with Tivo aren't you? she said yes. We explained the situation that happened with the rep who just left... and she said can you hold while I talk with my supervisor. Then she gets back on the phone and apologizes and says I'd like to set up another service call and send another rep out there for you to install the cards.

So this saturday we'll try again.

Don't take no for an answer. The S3 is certified by CableLabs. Give them the model number of the TiVo, and they can verify it. If they still won't do it, contact the FCC.

[resanders]

I would imagine that Playboy is considered a premium channel and requires authentication which means the card has to be bound to the host.

You're correct. OK, got the new S3 today to exchange with the one with the bent pin in slot 1 and CV tech is coming over Sunday am and says this time it will definitely work... he is finding out that when the box is plugged in for the first time, DO NOT connect the RF cable but just the network otherwise the box will start pulling in the data and that somehow is gumming up the works. I hope to FINALLY have everything working on Sunday... will keep you posted.

[kevingam06]

OK so I have waited for a week to get my cablecards installed into my Tivo S3. Firt appointment on Friday, cablevision never showed up. Called and rescheduled for yesterday and tech came, installed cards and got error code 161-1. He called buddies, but, noone could figure this out. He didn't seem like he was too up on this technology because he said this was his third install of the day (all of which failed). Anyway they are coming back Wednesday to try again, does anyone have any suggestions as to what I should tell them?

Any idea what error code 161-1 means?

Thanks in advance for your assistance.

[TheMatrix6]

Had 2 Cablecards installed on 11-11-2006 with no problems. Tech was here less then 1 hour. (Cablevision of Woodbury) Bought it from Tivo store at $680.00. Transferred lifetime from series one with no problem by calling VIP phone number.

[trekkerj]

I am a Cablevision customer and have had the S3 for about 3 weeks. It has worked fine, until today. One of the tuners does not show any digital channels. I just get a black screen, nothing else. Rebooting does not fix the problem. I have a tech coming, hoping it's just a bad card. Has this happened to anyone else? I am wondering what I do in the meantime. How does the tivo know to use the working tuner?

[jerryk55]

I am a Cablevision customer and have had the S3 for about 3 weeks. It has worked fine, until today. One of the tuners does not show any digital channels. I just get a black screen, nothing else. Rebooting does not fix the problem. I have a tech coming, hoping it's just a bad card. Has this happened to anyone else? I am wondering what I do in the meantime. How does the tivo know to use the working tuner?

I, too am a Cablevision customer, and I had my Cablecard installs on Halloween, so that's just under 3 weeks. After a week I started having problems such as seen above, and called Cablevision to have the cards "reset" or some hogwash from the office; these "resets" were accompanied by their request to reboot the TiVo. I now know that the resets were meaningless, and the reboots were the reason the CP Failures I was experiencing were being resolved. Anyhow, this past Thursday I had one of the Cablecards swapped out - the problem was consistently happening in slot 2 only. When the tech left, the card had received CP Authorization, but about 8 hours later I got CP Failure again. I hadn't rebooted after the new card was installed, so I did so at that point. And now the card has been working fine for the last 3 days. I'm keeping my fingers crossed because I really want this baby to work - I don't want to have to return it to Circuit City and then go back to the Cablevision SA 8300.

Anyhow, getting back to the questions in the quoted post above - try checking the Cablecard Menus for the CP Status to get more information. Also, assuming you are not trying to record one show at a time, one way to get the TiVo to use the tuner for the Cablecard that is still working successfully is to manually tune the TiVo to the channel for which you have an upcoming scheduled recording prior to the start of the show. This is imperical, however I believe the TiVo will use the tuner already tuned to a channel to record rather than trying to change the channel of the other tuner. Makes sense. Of course, if you are not going to be home, and you want to record more than one program in sequence on different channels, its pot luck insofar as attempting to guess the Cablecard to be used, I suppose.

[resanders]

You're correct. OK, got the new S3 today to exchange with the one with the bent pin in slot 1 and CV tech is coming over Sunday am and says this time it will definitely work... he is finding out that when the box is plugged in for the first time, DO NOT connect the RF cable but just the network otherwise the box will start pulling in the data and that somehow is gumming up the works. I hope to FINALLY have everything working on Sunday... will keep you posted.

:D Great news!! CV tech came by on Sun. morning (11/19) and got everything up and running in under an hour! Great job, Cablevision!! Thanks to Jim O., Mark C., Ed H. & Wilt H. for all your efforts and making it happen!!

[njspeed]

CV came out for their first attempt to install two CC's today. Neither worked! I was less than thrilled, I would have accepted one not to work, but neither sucked.

The tech was great, but neither card would give him the host ID details.

They are coming back tomorrow to make another attempt on the install.
North Brunswick, NJ area.

[DCIFRTHS]

CV came out for their first attempt to install two CC's today. Neither worked! I was less than thrilled, I would have accepted one not to work, but neither sucked.

The tech was great, but neither card would give him the host ID details.

They are coming back tomorrow to make another attempt on the install.
North Brunswick, NJ area.

Did they do anything besides sticking the cards in the TiVo? For example, check signal levels, splitters etc. Also, how many cards did they bring with them?

[njspeed]

No the 1st tech did not check spillters, cables or strength. Although I knew from before that my signal is good. The tech didn't even put them in the Tivo, I did.

I really don't know why they require a 'truck roll' for these installs if the home owner is willing to install them. I can just as easy push the cards in and call a number to give them the HostID.

Update on the 2nd attempt:
A different tech came out on Friday, but this time brought 4 CC's with him. The first two didn't load, thankfully both of the 2nd ones did. Long story short, numerous calls by the onsite tech to other installers and multiple central office support techs, and 3 hrs both cards were working. At one point we would only get channels <20 and their equiv HD 7xx channels, but not pay channels.

I think the key to the install is
1) install the CC's
2) record the HostIDs, if they don't appear right away give them a minute and go back to the HostID screen
3) onsite tech should call central office to bind cards
4) shut down the tivo for a few minutes, and do not just do a restart
5) turn on tivo and you should see a big blue screen that says "Acquiring Channel info" with a big rotating wheel
6) Each CC should have a "CP Auth succeed" or something like that on the CP status CC screen
7) Run Guided Setup

[ajfajf1]

CableCard install went well, once we (me and the installer) saw that the CCs were doing a firmware update. I called TiVo tech support. The CSR said it could take 1-2 hours for the update to complete.
The installer left, going me his cell phone number. Update only took 15 minutes, called the installer and he came right back. He called Cox with the CC Host ID #'s and all was well.

[njspeed]

Ah yes, "firmware update". I had a central office tech tell me my TV (!) might need a firmware update if it was older than 2006 to work properly with the CCs. I promptly reminded him that the TV had NOTHING to do with the CC install in a Tivo. I quickly proved him wrong by connecting a basic TV to the RCA outputs of the Tivo and we still weren't getting the channels btwn 20 and 700.

It was later determine he should have told us that the cards might go through a firmware update, which of course made sense.

Ajfajf1, did you see a popup on the screen saying "firmware update complete" or something like that? He mentioned we should, but never did.

[sd2528]

What's up?

Forgive me for not reading through the entire thread, but is anyone else having intermittent "cable" outages? Sometimes it's one tuner, sometimes it's both. Usually they are short (less than an hour) and they always fix themselves. I've had about 3 in the last two weeks.

If this is a know problem with CV or the S3, or this has been discussed before can you point me in the right direction? I saw people talking about similar experiences above but no definitive answer.

Thanks.

[ajfajf1]

Ajfajf1, did you see a popup on the screen saying "firmware update complete" or something like that? He mentioned we should, but never did.

Just a bright blue screen with that spinning icon saying it was getting updated channel information, and then a few minutes later the screen with the CC's ID information.

[Jboink]

My S3 arrived Thursday, I called cablevision of Piscataway, they set up an appointment for today Sunday from 2-5. I was a little surprised about it being a Sunday. At 1:50 PM the Cablevision tech called me to say he'd be over in 10 minutes. I asked him how many cards he had and he said oh Im bringing 4 cards dont worry about it. He got there at 2 PM tested my signal strength which I crossed my fingers on being that I live in a condo. Signal strength was good, and he proceeded right down the cards serial numbers and inserted the first one in cable card slot 1. I brought up to him about the fact that we need to do one card at a time and he agreed. The cable card screen automatically popped up and he navigated the menu to see the card id. He then called his dispatch center and was on hold for about 10-15 minutes,They told him to insert both cards and when he did that my Tivo wasnt seeing either card. At this point I was a bit concerned, he took out both cards and tried his second set of cards, same thing, first card read fine then second card booted the info from the first. I said lets try it one at a time, we removed both cards, inserted the first card got the info and had the guy on the phone, who was not the first guy he talked to, program or bind the card to my machine. We tested the channels and they all worked fine. We then inserted the second card and had to back all the way to the the main tivo screen and navigate through the menus for it to see the card. It wouldnt see the card before we backed all the way out. We got the info for the second card and the guy on the phone binded it and all the channels were there. At this point I was feeling pretty good, the tech packed up his gear and I signed off on the job. About 40 minutes after he left my tivo rebooted by itself and it said that my cable company was updating the cards this would take 40 minutes and I couldnt watch or record live tv. I was a little pissed because I was in the middle of a football game. I called a friend who has a S3 and has cablevision as well, I explained what was going on and he said he didnt have this problem. About 15 minutes later Tivo rebooted and everything has been working fine so far........keeping my fingers crossed though

[bmtndog]

Can somebody with Cablevision, an S3, and NDS cableCARDs document what the cablecard configuration screens show on a working installation?

My copy protection screen is saying "waiting for validation" and there are no numbers in later fields. My CV tech says that doesn't mean anything that the cards are in fact validated. I'm suspicious.

So, any information about a working NDS-based installation would be very helpful -- software revisions, status screen contents, etc...

Thanks so much!

[cwolfey]

This is what my screens say:


Host/Cable Card Binding:

Cable Card ID:
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-x
Host ID:
xxx-xxx-xxx-xxx-x
have been validated

If you need more information,
you are welcome to call
customer service
at 1-888-705-7171


Copy Protection:

Current Status:
Waiting for CCI exchange
Current CCI value: 00

CableCARD ID (hex)
xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx
HOST ID (hex)
xx xx xx xx xx

Validated CableCARD ID (hex)
xx xx xx xx xx xx xx xx
Validated HOST ID (hex)
xx xx xx xx xx
Validation EMM since boot: None

[propermodulation]

So I suddenly lost a bunch of channels on BOTH cable cards. I got the "call 1-888-705-7171" message when going to SD HBO and CM. Strangely the HD versions of those channels work fine. So I called up cablevision and the first line support person did not even know what a Tivo was (where do they get these people?) so I was bumped along to second level support. They resent the authorization to the cable cards but no dice. So it looks like I am in for another visit from the tech.

Any ideas out there?

[propermodulation]

My copy protection screen is saying "waiting for validation" and there are no numbers in later fields. My CV tech says that doesn't mean anything that the cards are in fact validated. I'm suspicious.


My CC's were working with the "waiting for validation" message for quite a while. But my suspicions have not gone away.

[trekkerj]

Both my cards say "Error during CCI exchange". What does this mean? Every 3 weeks or so, I lose a tuner and have to remove the cards and replace them one at a time to get them both back. Is this a problem with the cards?

[ADG]

Cablevision of Raritan / Piscataway will be here today to install my new S3. Keeping my fingers crossed and will post back with results.

[ADG]

Nice guy. After an hour and a half and 4 bad cards he had to go to the Warehouse for more. Keep you posted :(

[drew2k]

I'm still on the fence about picking up an S3, but one question I've always had is about the cards themselves ... Isn't there a way for Cablevision to verify the cards in the warehouse before rolling them out on a truck? Has anyone ever asked an installer about doing that?

Seems like it would save a lot of time and frustration for both the installer and the consumer if they showed up KNOWING they had two working cards, rather than playing Russian roulette with four or six cards, just hoping two of them will work.

[ADG]

Not only will they not do that, but when the installer called to set up one of the cards today he was told by the office that the card in question was assigned to another customer and had been returned because it was bad. Think about that - a bad card that was returned by a customer was put back in circulation.

BTW - to continue my orignal posts, there were no more cards at the warehouse and we rescheduled the appointment. Sigh.

[mbernste]

Cablevision of Raritan / Piscataway will be here today to install my new S3. Keeping my fingers crossed and will post back with results.
Not that this helps much, but I live in Piscataway. Cablevision came out about 1.5 months ago. The guy I had (Fitz) was excellent. He had a total of 3 cards (just in case). He put in the first card, called the office, had it activated and all the channels came up. Same deal with card 2. I was only his second TiVo cable card install and he was shocked how smoothly it went. His first install took him 3 hours, so I guess it is hit or miss. I guess what I am saying is be optimistic! These things actually do work on the Raritan system. :D

My original report: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4508141#post4508141

[chart]

So I suddenly lost a bunch of channels on BOTH cable cards. I got the "call 1-888-705-7171" message when going to SD HBO and CM. Strangely the HD versions of those channels work fine. So I called up cablevision and the first line support person did not even know what a Tivo was (where do they get these people?) so I was bumped along to second level support. They resent the authorization to the cable cards but no dice. So it looks like I am in for another visit from the tech.

Any ideas out there?


I have the same issue with HBO. I live in Hoboken. SD HBO says "Call xxx-xxx-xxx" but HD HBO works and some of the spanish HBO channels work. Very strange.

[ADG]

Not that this helps much, but I live in Piscataway. Cablevision came out about 1.5 months ago. The guy I had (Fitz) was excellent. He had a total of 3 cards (just in case). He put in the first card, called the office, had it activated and all the channels came up. Same deal with card 2. I was only his second TiVo cable card install and he was shocked how smoothly it went. His first install took him 3 hours, so I guess it is hit or miss. I guess what I am saying is be optimistic! These things actually do work on the Raritan system. :D

My original report: http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4508141#post4508141
The guy who came out yesterday was very nice - unfortunately, the cards were not. They will be back tomorrow - I'm sure things will work out eventually. BTW, I also live in Piscataway.

[dreamseason]

I'm in Edison, NJ and I just received my S3 Tivo from Costco today.

I'll be calling to schedule a Cablevision appointment tomorrow, but it's not very assuring to hear about all the card problems in the area. :rolleyes:

[chart]

The guy who came out yesterday was very nice - unfortunately, the cards were not. They will be back tomorrow - I'm sure things will work out eventually. BTW, I also live in Piscataway.

Also my channel 730 (INHD2) does not come in but 701 (INHD) does
INHD2 is also mis-labeled as CABINSN. ( in Hoboken NJ)

[Royster]

I'll be calling to schedule a Cablevision appointment tomorrow, but it's not very assuring to hear about all the card problems in the area. :rolleyes:

Do you realize that you are much likely to hear from people having problems than people who do not?

For example, I've had a Cablevision cablecard in my Sony DVR for almost 18 months and two in my S3 for about 3 months with very few problems.

[ADG]

In and out in half an hour. He only had two cards with him, but both worked!!! So far ;)

[dreamseason]

Do you realize that you are much likely to hear from people having problems than people who do not?

For example, I've had a Cablevision cablecard in my Sony DVR for almost 18 months and two in my S3 for about 3 months with very few problems.

I got an Xbox 360 at launch, so I'm a little sensitive when it comes to early adopter issues. I really do hope it goes smoothly for my install, but several people (very local to me) have posted in this thread before their scheduled appointment (and subsequent problems) so that was the cause of my worries.

Then again, what do you mean by "very few problems"?? :D

As it turns out, I'll have to wait until late next week before rescheduling my Cablevision appointment since I have decided to return the Costco box to get in on the Dell deal posted earlier tonight.

[Royster]

Then again, what do you mean by "very few problems"?? :D

Probably three or four times that I noticed a cablecard became unsynced with the cable head and dropped picture for a few seconds before it synced up again. I used to get 161-4 errors on one cablecard intermittantly which I had to fix by powering the Sony down and then uo again, but Cablevision swapped it our for another and the replacement has worked just find. I count a few minutes of downtime in 18 months because of Cablecard issues. Not "problem free", but not any major issue.